#but nah too similar to mtt i feel

[skelesharky]

ooo you want to be their dadmom so bad oo [older tenna concept for their body i didn't bother reworking out cause it'd look odd otherwise btw fsjkfsd]

[that1nkyone]

Prize for exp0001 : “Real”

Heya! This is @exp0001-goopsart‘s runner-up prize for the Spectrum Fanart Contest! They requested a few different themes, but I decided to go for Angst involving Sans and Frisk. And, well, this happened.

This short wound up being... kind of sad/dark with a hopeful ending. I decided to try something new with the kind of friendship Sans and Frisk have. This setting involves constant resetting and a pretty apathetic Frisk. At least, at first.

I hope you like it, dude. If it’s not quite what you like, let me know and we can sort something out. : )

Thank you so much!

(Rated T - Features character death, fixed by resets and some dark humour courtesy of Sans.)

When you had your first journey through the Underground, you had done it wrong.

You’d defeated Toriel. But only because you thought there was no other way past her.

You’d killed any monster that had killed you, before. Because death was scary, and you didn’t want to have to go through it any more than you had to.

You never killed Papyrus. He never killed you, after all. You knew what to expect from him.

Asgore was the final mistake. Except - well, you weren’t the one who killed him. Someone else had done that, and you hadn’t been able to stop it.

But perhaps you were going about it all wrong.

When you spoke to Sans in the golden hall for the first time, you gained a new meaning behind your kills. And you thought it made sense.

But now, you’ve reached the end.

And the only way forward was out. Back to the surface, back up into the world you’d left.

You bite your lip.

And you start again.

You realize you don’t have to kill Toriel, this time. That wasn’t necessary.

Things are still very similar. And even though it’s your third time through the Underground, you learn a few new things. But you become more familiar with others.

Sans, for instance. You talk to him, more. You didn’t have to. In fact, the first time around, you pointedly ignored him the entire time. He creeped you out.

He even weirder up close. He seems to appear out of nowhere. And he also seems to know about Flowey. You don’t trust him all that much. And his jokes are awful.

When he treats you for dinner at the MTT Resort, you’re given more reason to avoid him. “Dead where you stand?” That wasn’t the tone of someone you could trust.

At the end of it all, you wind up at the exit to the Surface, once more.

You start again.

You try something new, this time.

There’s gotta be something new. Something you’ve missed. You get tired of having to die so easily, so you decide that you’ll be a bit stronger. More Execution Points means more LV. And more LV, as grim as it was, meant less dying on your part.

And that means you need to kill more monsters than necessary.

Sans is even creepier, this time. It bothers you in a way that’s more irritating than actually scary. He gives you another threat. That you’re going to have a ‘bad time,’ or whatever that means.

But you keep hearing a faint whisper at the back of your mind. You heard it in the Ruins, and you hear it now. When your body steps forward outside of your own volition, you freeze up.

You don’t kill Papyrus.

Sans thanks you for it. He’s back to his usual cheerful personality - or whatever the heck kind of personality he has.

You stop at Waterfall.

This isn’t what you want, you decide. You want more control than this.

You start again.

You order fries when you sit with Sans at Grillby’s, this time. You don’t really care about the ketchup that spills out - but you stop eating after five fries.

“a new record.” Sans says. “don’t think i’ve ever seen you eat that many.”

You feel a chill. When you turn to look at the skeleton, he’s facing away from you - watching Lesser Dog munch away at a small pile of bones.

Sans looks back at you, and you relax.

“… notice something new every time, huh?” He says.

You feel nauseated from the ketchup.

Sans doesn’t remember, you figure out. He knows. Oh, he definitely knows. But he doesn’t remember.

He’s the only one that knows, you think. But you eye Papyrus with some suspicion - sometimes he mentions deja vu.

You try not to kill many people this time. You want enough strength to keep you from dying, but not enough for that voice to come back.

You decide to take out the dog guard. You’ve always been afraid of dogs. They chased you a lot, when you were younger. And these ones have swords, and axes.

Sans stacks hot dogs on your head when you pass his sentry station in Hotland, this time around. You get thirty, stacked completely vertically and you’re not sure how he does it.

The moment you move, it all comes crashing down.

“perfectly good waste of ‘dog, if you ask me.” He says.

You start over.

You meet Sans again in the Judgement Hall. You’ve lost count how many times it’s been, but he’s always had something a little different to say.

You’re not sure what’s different this time. But after Sans finishes his spiel, like usual, you ask him to wait, before he can vanish.

You tell Sans that you don’t want to go back up to the Surface.

Sans’ smile doesn’t fade, and he doesn’t budge.

Then, he steps forward. He’s the one that approaches you, now.

“why not?” He asks.

You don’t tell him this time. You don’t tell him the next two times, either. But finally, you again tell Sans that you don’t want to go to the surface, and he approaches you again.

“… you gonna explain yourself?” He asks, this time.

You tell him that nobody needs you, up there.

Sans looks at you. He glances out the window.

“sounds messy.” He says, still grinning.

You feel a pang of frustration. That wasn’t the response you wanted.

You start again.

You try not to kill anyone, this time.

‘Try’ being the key word. A couple of times, the fear of dying outweighed your vow of pacifism. But you find a small comfort in the fact that they’d be back again, next time.

The Snowdin dogs are back. You’re not scared of them, anymore. But your stomach twists, when you meet up with them. You’re not sure why.

When you see Sans’ hot dog stand in Hotland, you march past him without speaking.You glance over your shoulder when you’re about to turn onto a new path - and he’s gone, again.

You look back at the new path. Then back at the stand.

Sans is sitting on the snowy roof of his sentry station, munching on a Hot Cat.

You look away. Then back.

He’s gone again.

You look away. Your face is stubbornly set into a frown.

Then, you look back.

He’s standing in front of the Sentry Station with a small, white dog sitting atop his head and panting happily.

“what’s up, dog?” He asks.

A laugh bursts from your clenched jaws.

He looks at you, and you decide that you’re still upset. You turn and walk away down the path at last.

You start again.

Nobody’s dead, this time. You’ve become too familiar with monsters and their problems to worry about it. The only white powder in Snowdin Woods is just snow.

You take your time. You hide behind the lamp, as usual. You hear Sans’ awful jokes for the umpteenth time.

But when Papyrus goes on his merry way, you stay behind.

You sit down on the path - only a thin layer of snow covering it. Sans glances over at you, blinking.

“no hurry to get goin’?” He looks away. “guess my brother’s gonna be disappointed.”

You tell him that Papyrus won’t have to wait too long.

Sans approaches. He doesn’t sit with you, but he stands at your side.

You tell him again that you don’t want to go to the surface, because nobody needs you there.

You tell him that you’ve never really felt at home. You tell him that at least around here, you knew what was going to happen.

Everything up there changes so fast. You either have a roof over your head, or you don’t. You have food, or you don’t. People are nice, or they aren’t.

Down here, you know what to expect from the same people.

Down here, you feel safer. You know what’s coming, and you’ve tried new things to spice it up a little - but you’ve found comfort here. You know everybody. You know what to do to make things pleasant enough here. You can control how bad it gets.

You don’t want to go to the surface, you tell Sans. You have no idea what’ll happen if you do.

Sans doesn’t say anything for a long time. But he sits down next to you.

“yeah.” He says. “i guess it’d be pretty freaky, not knowin’ what to expect.”

At first, you feel relieved that he gets it. And then, a pang starts to well up in your chest. And you start to feel ill.

You tell him that as long as things are like this, you’ll be fine.

“cool.” He says. “you ready to go? i’ll meet you up ahead, like usual.”

You don’t move.

You feel sick.

“… you hungry or something, kiddo?” The skeleton leans into your field of vision. “… nah, you must’ve eaten some greens back there, ‘cause your face sure looks it.”

You clench your jaw.

And then you’re sick.

You wake up on the couch in Sans and Papyrus’ house. The cushions are firm and littered with spare change. The kitchen is bustling with Papyrus’ efforts to cook up something for his new house guest.

Sans is sitting on the arm of the sofa, flicking endlessly through the four channels of the television.

“that’s a first.” He says, without looking back at you. “i think.”

You’re both quiet for a while, the only noise being the clattering of pots and pans and the buzzing of four different tones of static.

You tell Sans you’re a bad person.

The skeleton shrugs.

Things change a little, this time.

You call Undyne and Papyrus a lot. You try to listen to what they have to say. You try to really understand what kind of people they are.

You call Toriel, too. No responses, of course. But you wonder if she’s thinking of you. And you wonder if she’s baking anything.

You talk to Alphys, even knowing what’s coming. But you think you understand her a little better, now. Or you understand her more than you’d like.

You talk to Sans every time you see him. He doesn’t offer you food, this time. Just a bucket.

You kick it, giggling. Sans shrugs.

“Bit of gallows humour there, kiddo.” He says. He’s grinning, anyway.

It’s when Flowey has them all in his thorny vines that you realize that they’re real to you.

You’re not sure when they stopped. You’re not sure when they started being real, again, either. You just know that they haven’t been for a very long time. And that makes you sad.

“Don’t you get it? This is all just a GAME.”

And you feel ill. You look at Flowey, beaming at you with your friends in his grasp.

You look up at Sans.

His eye sockets are dark.

You wonder if this is new to him. That if over the many, many combined resets, courtesy of you and Flowey, he was ever held captive like this.

All of your friends, you realize, have long stopped being real to Flowey.

You realize that you want them to stay real to you.

You’re standing there at the top of Mt Ebott, next to Toriel. You’re both watching the sunset. You’re shaking a little. You don’t know if it’s because you’re tired or if you’re frightened, but you decide that you’re not feeling that scared.

You quietly tell Toriel that you have places to be. And the forgotten queen of the Underground gives you a smile of understanding (though perhaps you can see some flicker of disappointment).

She follows after the entourage that have hurried down the mountain. But you stand there a few moments longer.

Then, you look to your left.

Sans is standing there. You figured he’d be.

You try to read him a little. But you’ve never really managed to do that so well, in all the time you’ve known him.

But when you tell him that you’re not resetting this time, you can already tell he doesn’t believe you.

He watches the sunset anyway, looking a little more relaxed than usual. You wonder if he ever saw this in a past reset of Flowey’s. Probably not, you realize. Not enough SOULs.

“… she’s gorgeous, huh?” He says, gesturing to the sunset. “really lights up my life.”

You snort.

“hey, thanks for getting us this far.” He says. and he sounds like he means it. “could honestly get used to this.”

He starts walking down the mountain, too. You follow behind him, fiddling with your sweater as you look at the sun, again.

You know that it’s all unknown from here on out. Moreso now that you have a group of monsters to represent.

You’re scared. And you know that perhaps, in a way, you’ve ruined any chance of really being friends with Sans. But you decide that you don’t need to convince him of anything. You don’t have to tell him you’ve changed, so you can feel better.

You just have to try to do the right thing from here on out.

“hey, kid?”

You look down at Sans, who’s looking up at you. His hands are still in his pockets, but the stare he gives you isn’t accusatory.

“you comin’, or what?” He asks, gesturing with his shoulder.

You draw in a breath.

And you decide to keep going.

[lefthanded-sans]

You said: "I think that Sans telling Frisk he believes they can do the right thing [...] convince Frisk to pursue a Pacifist Route[...] I feel Sans [is being pragmatic]." While true: it is pragmatic, it also discounts the one major influence in Sans' life: Papyrus, whom he thinks the world of. I think Sans is probably trying to mirror the mindset of the person who affected him the most. "ST... STILL! I BELIEVE IN YOU! YOU CAN DO A LITTLE BIT BETTER, EVEN IF YOU DON'T THINK SO. I... I PROMISE"

Continuing from this conversation.

Sans definitely loves Papyrus, and Papyrus certainly affects his life. There is also some parallel between what Papyrus says about believing in the human and what Sans says about believing in the human. You’ve already provided the Papyrus quote from the Genocide Route. Earlier in the conversation, you’ve also brought up a mirror parallel quote from Sans:

so long as you do what’s in your heart… i believe you can do the right thing.

I wouldn’t mind adding to this other times where Sans says he is rooting for Frisk. Rooting for the human is fairly akin to supporting the human and believing they will do the right thing.

So, at the MTT Resort, Sans says:

take care of yourself, kid. ’cause someone really cares about you.

And when Frisk rescues him as a Lost Soul, he says:

nah, i’m rootin for ya, kid.

These moments could show a parallel in mentality between Sans and Papyrus. I see what you mean, and I think it’s a wonderful and sentimental connection for the Skelebros. I always did love the beauty of their brotherhood. As for me, I personally still don’t feel as though Sans imitating Papyrus’ mindset is his main motivation handling the human.

Looking further at the context of the first Sans quote, it doesn’t appear as though Sans’ commentary is about believing in the human akin to how Papyrus believes in the human. I’m going to pull out the quote again, but this time, add some of the text that comes before and after it:

well, if i were you, i would have thrown in the towel by now. but you didn’t get this far by giving up, did you? that’s right. you have something called “determination.” so as long as you hold on… so as long as you do what’s in your heart… i believe you can do the right thing. alright. we’re all counting on you, kid. good luck.

The context of this quote brings up both Determination and everyone in the underground counting on the human child. We’re not sure how much other monsters in the underground understand Determination, but it does appear to be a recent discovery. Alphys is the one who gives Determination its name during her experiments in the True Lab. We know Alphys told Undyne about Determination, but Undyne’s comments about determination during her Encounter with Frisk suggest this monster doesn’t have a deep, scientific understanding of what Determination can do. The Captain of the Royal Guard doesn’t know all of Determination’s nuances. All she really sees is that Frisk is hard to kill and has diligent spirit. But since Determination is a recent scientific discovery, and I doubt that Alphys would have published her findings about Determination, I think it’s safe to assume that not every monster in the underground understands what it can do.

Sans talking about reports of an anomalous timespace continuum, however, hit the center of why Determination is so powerful. Determination is what allows the human to SAVE and return to previous points in time. Determination is what gives Frisk the ability to time travel. Sans mentioning here that the human has “something called ‘determination’” shows that he has the deeper understanding of what this power can do. And because the human has this power, Sans understands that “we’re all counting on you” - that the fate of every monster in the underground relies on Frisk. Sans is suggesting the human follow their heart and do the right thing based upon a larger existential concern.

That’s far more of a broad existential concern than how we see Papyrus interacting with Frisk. At least from what we can tell, Papyrus believes in Frisk based upon grounds of his natural goodwill and desire to be friends with the human. His speech in the Genocide Route about helping the human become a better person seems to be based upon his concern about the human themselves, rather than something broad about the entire underground:

IT FEELS… LIKE YOUR LIFE IS GOING DOWN A DANGEROUS PATH. HOWEVER! I, PAPYRUS, SEE GREAT POTENTIAL WITHIN YOU! EVERYONE CAN BE A GREAT PERSON IF THEY TRY! 

And then again:

HUMAN! I THINK YOU ARE IN NEED OF GUIDANCE! SOMEONE NEEDS TO KEEP YOU ON THE STRAIGHT AND NARROW! BUT WORRY NOT! I, PAPYRUS… WILL GLADLY BE YOUR FRIEND AND TUTOR! I WILL TURN YOUR LIFE RIGHT AROUND!!!

Papyrus believes in the human and wants to help the human for more narrow, personal reasons. Papyrus has problems fighting the human in his Pacifist/Neutral Encounter because the lonely skeleton desiring popularity doesn’t want a friend to slip by him. Papyrus wants to be in the Royal Guard to receive attention, friendship, and fulfillment, rather than necessarily doing this huge service to the entire underground. It’s a little bit of a different motivation for Papyrus saying he believes in the human than when Sans, as a “judge”, says he believes the human can follow their heart and do the right thing.

Yes, there are similarities in that both of the skeletons believe that inside the human is the potential to do good. And I do believe that Sans legitimately cares about the human, just like Papyrus does. But I also believe that it’s Frisk’s presence that helps Sans build up a sense of hope. The human, by going determinedly through the underground, gives Sans more reason to hope, and thus he finds himself rooting for them. I would say that Sans saying he believes in Frisk to do the right thing is because of the influence the human has had on the skeleton. In the True Pacifist Ending, the human touches every monster’s life when they meet in the underground and gives them something special. Frisk gives Alphys confidence, Frisk gives Papyrus friendship, and Frisk gives Sans motivation and hope and belief in the future. Sans rooting for the human is a result of Frisk’s positive impact on his life.

I also don’t feel as though, throughout the rest of the game, we don’t see Sans’ mental mindset or personal actions influenced by Papyrus’ own traits. Sans definitely loves Papyrus and thinks his brother is awesome, but we don’t see Sans actively trying to mimic his brother anywhere else. I suppose that is not surprising given that I usually don’t see older siblings trying to model themselves after their younger siblings, but even if we didn’t know that, there is not much evidence of Sans modeling himself after Papyrus. In fact, Papyrus is constantly berating Sans for not upholding his values… Papyrus harangues Sans for being lazy, turning their house into a mess, spending too much time at that door in the woods, not recalibrating his puzzles, sleeping on the job, and on and on and on. The two brothers live very different lives. Sans doesn’t appear to be trying to conform to Papyrus’ ideals. Sans isn’t doing anything obvious to be like Papyrus. He thinks his brother is awesome, but it doesn’t seem like Papyrus’ influence is changing Sans there.

The most we can say, beyond generically rooting for the human (as all the main cast does) is that both brothers like puns. But even in that area, Sans uses his puns to grate against Papyrus rather than be like Papyrus. And if Sans uses puns because he’s influenced by someone, I would put my bets on Toriel being that influence. Their entire friendship was started by telling bad, punny knock-knock jokes to one another!

Last, it’s to note that Sans meets the human before Papyrus meets the human. While Sans might predict Papyrus would be friendly toward the human, given as Papyrus is a friendly skeleton… Sans is the person who meets Frisk first. And even at his first meeting with Frisk, Sans makes it clear he’s uninterested in harming the human. Papyrus, however, is introduced as a human-hunting fanatic, someone who might not be dangerous, but who is still willing to engage in an Encounter with the underground’s latest arrival. Sans knows that Papyrus is going to want the human to go through puzzles and maybe fight and capture the human.... and that’s a little different than what ends up happening in the relationship between Papyrus and Frisk. Sans doesn’t seem to predict Papyrus will befriend the human rather than capture them to gain popularity. Papyrus believing in Frisk being a good person happens only later, notably after Sans makes it clear he’s not going to harm the human in the underground. 

Sans couldn’t have predicted Papyrus would act toward the human as a friend, meaning that Sans is the first of the two brothers to demonstrate a non-violent interaction with Frisk. Sans might have always known that Papyrus wouldn’t be dangerous even if he did fight the human, but it still means Sans might not have been modeling his brother. Presumably, a pacifistic model would not be prevalent in a world before the human... given as there would not have been much danger in the underground before this point. This means I don’t think Sans was following in his brother’s moral footsteps.

I’m never going to disagree that Papyrus is critical and extraordinarily important to Sans, that Sans loves his brother very much, and that Papyrus has hugely influenced Sans’ life. The relationship between the brothers is one of the purest things in an already pure and beautiful game. You and I just have different interpretations of why Sans isn’t going to touch a hair on the human’s head when they come to the underground! For me, it seems as though Sans isn’t being influenced by Papyrus here for how he treats the human.