Okay okay I wanna talk about how I’m going to portray Sans vs. how I’m going to portray GenoSans, because I feel like I should cover this a little. Do note it’s been a long time since I’ve roleplayed Sans, and there’s a lot about my old blog I hate now (amazing what a couple of years does). So uh, here’s a bunch of things under the cut.
As it seems to be with many other Sans-es, Sans has been through quite a few RESETs by now and, as a result, he has become numb to the world around him. To put it bluntly, he doesn’t care about what has happened, what is happening, nor what will happen. He stopped caring a long time ago. He’s a shell of who he once was --- he still retains his humor most of all, but he had a lot more energy once. He once cared deeply about the world around him. He wanted to make an everlasting difference in the Underground and he was motivated to do so.
Where his motivation came from at first was being an assistant scientist. So in saying that, Sans’ knowledge on RESETs and timelines derive from his once-passionate study of science under W.D. Gaster --- which is either a familial connection, or simply close friends. It became common knowledge that Determination was the key to altering time, but Monsters usually did not naturally have such a thing and it was a human factor that needed to be exploited. Sans knows the properties of Determination but obviously does not have that himself. It’s then he helped try and recreate it as a liquid substance viable for injecting into monsters so they can persist like humans do, but the project was ended prematurely and his studies in the True Lab were halted. That is when his priorities shifted and his younger brother, Papyrus, became the most important person in his life. Sometime during his leave from the True Lab and supporting Papyrus, Gaster fell into the CORE and was erased from the timeline completely.
However, Sans still knows of Gaster. Not completely by memory, only the most integral memories cling to Gaster’s being and even then that’s not where Sans learned his name. He returned to the True Lab and discovered the Wingdings entry, and found an affinity for reading the symbol language (as well as speaking it).
Back on topic, it’s only when the humans start falling and coming through the Underground that he started to lose his motivation. The timelines started to stop and reverse, move forward again until the human finally gives up and in turn, leaves their SOUL vulnerable. This is about the time where Asgore was gathering human SOULs to try and break through the barrier as a god, and Sans helped orchestrate the deaths of some of the kids --- particularly the Bravery SOUL, in which he stopped himself and got the SOUL to Asgore safely. The items that the human carried with them were stashed away and given to the shopkeeper in Snowdin without a given source.
It’s only when Frisk falls down that his entire self takes a huge plummet and he loses all motivation he once had. Here, he becomes apathetic and uncaring about Frisk’s situation, even though he had promised to Toriel that he would watch over them. He also loses the ability to care about the state of his room, or what he eats and drinks, because he knows everything will end up RESETing again, as it has happened with the other SOULs until they gave up.
The key thing is that Sans did still care, to some extent, before a Genocide run --- it is only after each Genocide (in which there have been many) that he slowly becomes numb to what happens next; after many runs of the same thing over and over again, and remembering to some extent that it has happened before, Sans learned to stop caring completely. The more numb to the murder of everyone, the better he could cope with the next fight, the next RESET. This system he’s set in place for himself works, but it carries through to the next run through that the human does, and he’s either forced to watch them be friends as though it never happened, or forced to see them die by their hand again with no will to stop them until the very end.
Despite all this, however, there is one thing I like to elaborate on when I roleplay him; that laid-back, humorous and joking side of him. It’s a huge part of who he is, and yet only a small part of what lies beneath. Sans, as a character, is mysterious and incredibly closed off.
Sans once had energy and motivation and poured it into scientific research under W.D. Gaster’s guidance. He studied the reason behind timelines jumping back and forth and learned that it was caused by Determination.
He started the Determination project a long time ago but it was all scrapped in favor for other methods. This meant Alphys would’ve started from scratch.
Sans was not responsible for Gaster’s disappearance, but he knows who Gaster is in fragments of memories and the mysterious ability to read Wingdings font. He still knows the True Lab exists but he doesn’t visit --- nor does he talk to Alphys about much of any previous research.
He killed at least one of the six humans that fell from Mt. Ebott.
His motivation dropped when the six humans came through the Underground. It is when Frisk falls through and does multiple runs that he completely loses motivation and the ability to care about what happens next.
Despite all this, his main front is the laid-back, humorous and joking self.
Now, when it comes to GenoSans...
Geno is different in the way that he follows Sans, but only up to when the first Genocide run occurs. He is not a part of my canon verses, but it’s important to note that he exists in the RESET screen purely because he had the Determination to get in there... And in doing that, he only made it there with a ninth of his SOUL. The rest of his SOUL went forward to make the next Sans for the next timeline while he remained in the RESET screen with no way of getting out, thanks to his incredibly fragile state where his HP is almost down to 0 and he was already half turned into dust before he got to the screen.
The MOST IMPORTANT THING to remember about Geno is that where Sans fails to care, he deeply cares and will do anything to stop the Genocide runs from happening. He hasn’t lost all of his motivation and he remembers every single RESET because he can watch from the screen and see what happens. It has made him fall into despair, but he desperately hopes for a timeline where the Sans in the Underground will finally step up and help him end it once and for all.
And why does he hope so much? He literally injected himself with Determination. That Determination has carried him from the brink of losing motivation to the point he’ll do anything to get the RESETs to stop. In loverofpiggie’s comic, he’s watched over 500 Genocide runs occur, and every time he can, he tries to get a Sans to help him end it by finally killing Chara --- or, more appropriately (because I don’t see Chara as evil), the Player. And each time, it’s failed, but he persists because he says himself in the comic; Determination is a hell of a drug.
This has already altered so much of the original Sans because he’s DETERMINED. He’s willing to put in all this effort to stop the Genocides from happening, even if all seems hopeless. What he keeps is, of course, his laid-back and funny self...
But it’s important to know that he does not like either Frisk or Chara / the Player at ALL, not until towards the end of the comic where Frisk brings him into a True Pacifist ending and heals him with a slice of Cinnamon-Butterscotch Pie. He genuinely despises both of them because they caused all this pain and suffering, and he blames Frisk for losing control over their own body and being stuck in the RESET screen with him. Coming face-to-face with either of them will be both confronting and dangerous for the human, considering his exposure to an almost never-ending Genocide and constantly losing Papyrus with no way to stop it. It’s only after the ending he achieves in his timeline does he forgive Frisk.
It’s also important to mention that Geno has found a way to timeline hop and go into different timelines, but Sans hasn’t. The Determination in Geno and the motivation to actually do things is the reason he’s found an effective way to reach other timelines. Theoretically, in each timeline, he can alter the code just slightly to cover his right eye. (He has yet to put this into practice; he knows it works with timelines like his own, but not with timelines like Underfell or Underswap.)
Geno followed in Sans’ timeline up until the first Genocide run. He injected himself with Determination in hopes to surpass the human’s own and take over the timeline himself to achieve a peaceful and happy ending.
He cares more than a normal Sans would.
The reason he seems so hellbent on trying to kill the Player is because of his Determination. His Determination levels are abnormally high considering he injected himself with a pure form of it, and it has helped him persist for so long. It also creates more motivation --- and hence why he’s so determined to kill the Player.
He’s still got a good sense of humor and would happily sit back for a while, but at the same time, the Determination makes him restless.
Geno DOES NOT like Frisk or Chara / the Player before his True Pacifist ending. After the True Pacifist ending, he is more fond of Frisk and even Chara.
Thanks to his Determination levels, Geno has found a way to timeline hop. He’s spent many sleepless nights and days studying and formulating a way to jump from timeline to timeline, and it pays off. It allows him access to many different timelines, but more specifically, their own RESET screens. He can then access characters from the timeline by contacting them through that, or --- if he wants --- through their dreams.
This is just the tip of the iceberg, really, but it’s a basis on how I’ll portray both Sans-es. I still have a lot of fleshing out to do with both, but this is just some simple pointers.
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