Sans AU One-Shots

Epic || if you knew.

Pairing: Epictale Sans x Reader
Prompt: Epic keeps a lot of secrets, and when his meme-y facade cracks and you see past the mask he's worn for years, suddenly isolation just doesn't fix his problems like it used to. But if you only knew, he wouldn't have to deal with it alone.
Type: angst, somebody please for the love of God hug him, free therapy
Length: 3.2k words
Background: I typically try to research AUs by looking into their canon, and after reading through as much of the Epictale comic as I could, I physically can't continue because it's too aggravating. The MC is Gaster, who is an unsympathetic villain that brutally kills monsters (including his sons & an innocent child) for the end goal of killing all of humanity (and supposedly to keep the epic comic alive since it was rebooted). He is the most deplorable villain ever, his motivations are ass, and he's the worst possible protagonist because he's so damn unlikable! He kills monsters while claiming it's for them, he has bullshit magical abilities that make it impossible to stop him even before he wipes the floor with his sons - who he murders after taking magical items he gave them (his eyes), powering him up further - and it's literally a power fantasy where the villain is the biggest piece of scum. He crushes Papyrus' skull under his boot just to make it clear that this is a darker version of Epictale this time around. He just yoinks Sans' magic eye with complete bullshit (a random floating arm out of thin ass air just grabs it. Just like that. There's no struggle to pin Sans down to take it, nothing Sans can do to try to stop it, zilch. It's as anti-climactic as it sounds and makes the story even more aggravating bc the villain gets to create magical BS abilities out of nowhere when it's convenient for the plot.) just because it was time for the fight to be over.
In case this tirade wasn't abundantly clear: I really don't like Epictale canon. I didn't even bother reading the original Epictale comic cuz it's no longer canon and I'm tired of this garbage AU. Protagonists have to be likable and there has to be actual stakes (so an OP villain blowing through all of the memorable characters you love like they're nothing gets old fast and feels downright disrespectful of those beloved characters), otherwise the story is predictable and I can guess exactly what's going to happen after the first fight. Ironic that Gaster wants to make the story more interesting this time around yet he makes it so bland and infuriating that it'll drive people away all the same.
And to the creator: immediately killing off a character (Epic Sans) just because you're pissy that he turned into a meme while simultaneously having him make memey jokes during his entire inclusion in the comic doesn't help make him a more grounded and serious character, all it shows is you want to punish him cuz 'he's a meme now'. Sans' entire point of inclusion is to be tortured and killed off first - yes he's tortured for 20 years, unable to sleep due to nightmares wherein he has to fight for his life and feels every inkling of pain the him in his dream experiences to the point he wants to die and tries to stab out the eye Gaster gave him (giving him his scar) but the eye will regenerate his entire body meaning he literally can't kill himself (i.e. his torture will never end). Yet Papyrus - who has the other magic eye - doesn't deal with any of this.
Notes: I've never read the source material/canon of an AU and felt less inspired to write than I did before I read it. If you're looking for a good 'Gaster turns evil and controls the other characters to complete some evil quest' plot, check out Underverse. We actually get to see his degeneration throughout the XTale story - where he goes from humble goals to corrupted with power and his thirst for perfection - and while it may not be perfect, it certainly does a better job of making it believable.

Ok, rant over. I wrote this one-shot for Epic because he deserves better and I have a thing for giving the boney boys therapy and happiness ✌️| Inspired by the song If You Only Knew and the surprising amount of traumatic baggage Epic is saddled with. 

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Epic leaned his head back against the door to his bedroom. His sockets might as well have been closed, the dim moonlight doing nothing to dampen the darkness pressing in around him. He didn't have lungs but it felt suffocating, like his head was being pushed underwater and no matter how hard he fought, he couldn't resurface. He hadn't been able to surface for air in years – 20 years, to be specific, not that it felt that short.