#so upset i don't live in that region. could've gone to lycée louis-le-grand and been like. you know the marquis de sade went to school here

[outlying-hyppocrate]

grégoire's physical and personal traits as jean-sébastien sanson. the "pre-experiment" version of grégoire will be referred to using variants of his legal name.

jean-sébastien sanson (1872-1885; being declared legally dead following his abduction), known to his loved ones as j.-s. or jeannot, was a well-liked child with many friends. he was especially close to his mother, sidonie sanson (née poirier de la tailleuse; 1854-1891), and his two younger brothers, pierre-marie (1877-1914) and aurélien (1878-1902) sanson. his father (1843-1890), however, resented him deeply, as is shown in the previous pages. this was due to an uncanny resemblance between him at birth and sanson's first son, grégoire sanson (1870), who did not survive the birthing process.

jean-sébastien was born and raised in saint-maurice, in what is currently called val-de-marne, france. he lived with his family on their own bit of land, helping out with menial tasks around the house. he enjoyed working at the farm nearby to help his family, though a secret dream of his was to attend a grande école and become a physician like his father (who, of course, did not actually go to a grande école, and repeatedly performed botched, amateuristic operations). this was mostly to gain his approval, as jeannot was, invariably, a people-pleaser. due to facing neglect from sanson, he frequently tried to fish for his affection and that of others as he grew older. naturally, it worked, which made jeannot very pleased. it gave him a sort of satisfaction to please others, which is why he was always very compliant throughout the course of his life. in elementary school and collège, he was always lauded by his teachers for listening so carefully and being generally clever. he became somewhat popular among his classmates for his intelligence, gaining him the friendship of many boys, notably henri-charles-bastien de laplace (1871-1899). henri, being an older boy, served as a father figure for jeannot during their years at school together.

his popularity was not only because of his appealing to others and his mind, but also his compelling features. jeannot had long, wavy honey-blonde hair, which, as he preferred not to have it cut, was kept scraped underneath his cap during school hours. his large brown eyes were flecked golden, and his face was angular with high cheekbones; one of them sporting a small mole. his nose was thin and straight, his lips thin with a pointed cupid's bow, often smiling pleasantly. his body, though strangely tall, was not awkward by any standards due to his constant farm-work. in elementary, he was usually mistaken for a collégien, and in collège, he was usually mistaken for a teacher or a lycéen who'd lost his way. due to looking older, he was often approached by women in their twenties wishing to be propositioned, which he was, as he had frequently stated, not old enough to do so.

a few things jeannot enjoyed in his free time were reading through his father's medical journals, whittling wood, helping his mother with her sewing as she was a seamstress, memorizing poetry, and, of course, his school assignments. his favorite foods consisted of apples and blanquette de veau. he was not so fond of chickens, as they scared him, and so avoided them while at the farm. most of all, he loved and looked up to his father, who, despite everything, never loved him as much in return.

here's a bit on grégoire. i wasn't sure what to make of this at first but. well. this is everything. putting under the cut because reasons.

90173, more commonly known as grégoire, is the product of a failed experiment created by the scientist louis sanson in val-de-marne, france. (for simplicity, this page will use the name grégoire and he/him pronouns in reference to the experiment going forth.)

grégoire was previously human, having been born jean-sébastien sanson on the twenty-second of february in 1872, and the oldest son of three. however, in 1885, grégoire was reported missing on his thirteenth birthday. to no-one else's knowledge, he had been abducted by someone claiming to be a family member. (this person was later revealed to be his father, louis-auguste-donatien sanson.) sanson then proceeded to try a number of unethical and illegal experiments on the boy, including the oral administration of various poisons, multiple vivisections, and experimental surgery. sanson's goal in this was to recreate his firstborn son, grégoire sanson, who had died at birth, in an attempt to see what "could have been". when grégoire did not comply, his actions would result in torture methods such as forced starvation and corporal punishment.

these experiments took place between 1885 and 1888. as a result, grégoire's body was severely disfigured; dirty, misshapen, emaciated, and barely holding itself together; translucent skin lavish with septic wounds and infected vivisection scars. thankfully, on the eighth of january of the latter year, sanson's laboratory was discovered inside of an abandoned hospital, leading to his death by guillotine on the next day. grégoire, who was presumed to be some sort of dead animal based on his physiognomy, was buried in the ground outside of the hospital. he stayed so for many years, expecting death, but it never came.