I agree with your theory, but the problem here is that it’s not confirmed who were the two people Gaster was talking to. Personally I’m torn between the idea that the two people are Papyrus and Sans, or Asgore and Toriel (since Gaster was likely the Royal Scientist when both of them were still together/Toriel was still Queen). However, I’ve seen theories that the two people could be Sans and Alphys (which I don’t think so since Alphys only worked as a scientist much later, and one of the first projects she did was put Mettaton’s SOUL into his robot form), or two people we don’t know at all. There’s theories that there could be three people named W.D., since there are three different Windings font. They might have been siblings, and maybe Gaster was talking to the other two. Or it could just be two of his followers that we see as grey NPCs or that we don’t see at all.
I guess the thing he was talking about could have been erased? Or at least the memory of him creating that thing was erased? The thing is, we don’t even know what he was talking about. The most we know is that whatever it is absorbs light, like a black hole. “PHOTON READINGS NEGATIVE.” Photon readings are used to detect light reflecting off a surface. It’s impossible for photon readings to be negative unless the object absorbs light completely. We have no idea what he was observing.
Bleh, my knowledge on Physics suck. the wiki page on photons can explain more I guess. TwT I’m sorry I don’t know much about photons.
But yeah, we don’t know much about what he was talking about, and thus we don’t know if the memory of it was erased or not. My personal headcanon was that he was talking about something in the Core, or something seen in the machine in Sans’ secret lab. But this isn’t confirmed.
As for the first part of your ask, it really does seem that Sans doesn’t know how intelligent Papyrus actually is, and Papyrus might be lying to Sans in order to keep it hidden. (The whole thing about Papyrus pretending not to know about the lab in front of Sans, and also the fact that Papyrus knows Sans likes space-related things and science even though he says “SANS DOESN’T TELL ANYONE ANYTHING”.)
(When the call includes Sans)
I don’t know why he does this, though. But if it’s true that Papyrus keeps secrets from even Sans, and acts naive in front of Sans, it’s not surprising that Sans would think Papyrus is just a naive goof, and feel the need to be overprotective over Papyrus.
Again, we don’t know what Papyrus’ relationship with Gaster was. We don’t even know if he knew Gaster. D:
It’s possible he might have known Gaster, or is related to Gaster in some way, due to his new line in the update that implies he can use Gaster Blasters, or at least some form of the Blasters (maybe his own version of the Blasters, not Gaster’s, who knows?) and that he tried to “solve” the horoscope.
Horoscope symbols are found in lowercase Windings, which is used by one of the hidden characters.
However, all these are only speculations. It doesn’t confirms anything at all and only implies things. So we don’t know for sure is Papyrus even knows who Gaster is.
But, personally, I believe that Papyrus DOES know who Gaster is, and actually remembers Gaster. I’m still torn between many headcanons about his relationship with Gaster though. Was Gaster part of the family? Was he a father or a brother to Papyrus and Sans? Did he create the skelebros? Was he just their boss? Or, is Papyrus a replacement of Gaster after he was erased from existence?
But nevertheless, I believe that Papyrus and Gaster might have shared intelligence (or even the same body, going by the headcanon that he IS Gaster). And Papyrus has a fear of being wiped from existence as well because of this. I mean, it would definitely explain why his description on Genocide Run is
Papyrus is the only character to
speak without an asterisk
Papyrus’s dialogue shakes on a
consistent basis when no one else’s does
Papyrus is described as “forgettable,”
something only mentioned elsewhere in context with Goner Kid and Gaster
Papyrus seems to be able to see
what the player is looking at when he calls them (”THAT BAG OF DOG FOOD LOOKS FAMILIAR…”)
Papyrus seems to know that MTT has
eyes before MTT becomes MTT Ex
Papyrus has a total of 2184 lines
in the game—more than any other character, and almost as much as the narrator
of the game, which is at 2418 lines. The next closest character is Undyne, with
1268 total lines.
Similar wording is used to
describe Papyrus as it is to describe Gaster. (It’s rude to talk about someone
who’s listening)
Papyrus’s theme, “Nyeh heh
heh/Bonetrousle,” is used in all of the trailers of the game
Papyrus and Sans break the 4th
wall in the stream greenlight trailer, which shocks Toriel
Papyrus flies/breaks the laws of
physics casually and seemingly on a regular basis
Papyrus is one of the few
characters that refers to gameplay mechanics (“PRESS [C] ON THE KEYBOARD FOR
DATING HUD!” “HOLD UP LONGER TO JUMP HIGHER, JEEZ!”)
Papyrus says himself that he knows
nothing about his hands because he always keeps his gloves on.
There is nothing, nothing known about his past before his
showing up to Snowdin. By the end of the game and after some research, you can
basically know more about Gaster and Sans than you do about Papyrus, despite
him having the most dialogue in the game besides the narrator.
Papyrus has such control over his
magic in his fight, that he can make his attacks do zero damage because he
refuses to kill the human.
You are healed to full HP right
before the Papyrus fight, as well as immediately after if you are captured.
Papyrus doesn’t seem to realize
that Frisk is a kid, despite Frisk wearing a striped shirt, which is a common
indicator for childhood in monster society. (is he unfamiliar with common
monster culture, for some reason?)
Sans reads Papyrus bed time stories on a regular basis, but Papyrus himself never seems to sleep
The Undertale Q&A that Toby Fox did for Undertale’s anniversary revolves around Papyrus
His defense raises in the spare phase of his fight, unlike every other monster. He seems to be able to manipulate his own stats.
Relationships:
The two 4th wall
breaking characters (Flowey and the Annoying Dog) seem to have a special
interest in Papyrus
Annoying Dog:
Steals bone attacks on two
separate occasions (Papyrus fight and aborted Genocide hangout, in which the “special
attack” is hinted to be Gaster Blasters)
Steals bones in general on two
occasions (Under Papyrus’s sink and during the hangout with Undyne)
Eats Papyrus’s lasagna
Snuggles with Papyrus
Flowey:
Says Papyrus started a “Flowey Fan
Club”
Says Papyrus took a long time to
get boring on his repeated runs
Asks Papyrus to call Frisk before
the True lab, gather everyone together before the True Ending, and probably
leave a note in Alphys’ trash can
Flowey is the only one who knows
Papyrus’s favorite food, which is dinosaur oatmeal (no, it’s not spaghetti.
Papyrus has never eaten it.)
When Flowey attacks the group during the True Pacifist fight, he binds everyone with two vines, except Papyrus–who he binds with four.
Sans (overlooking the bounteous
brotherly goodness of the two):
Papyrus lies to him on a
consistent basis
This is to probably humor Sans
about his level of knowledge?
Papyrus still expects Sans to know
more about Papyrus than Papyrus does himself?
Papyrus acts negatively towards
Sans’s puns, but then turns around and makes the most (and arguably best) puns
in the game out of anyone
Personality:
Doesn’t outwardly acknowledge
criticism
According to Sans, he is
trash-talked a lot
May have self-worth issues
Extremely blasé about his own
death
Doesn’t seem to have friends,
despite working very hard to get them
He phrases things in really strange
ways. (”UNMANDATE IT SAFER”)
Papyrus staunchly refuses to
really hurt people, despite it being very likely that he could be just as hard
or harder of a fight than Sans
He has a strong and unshakeable
belief that people can change (does he know this from personal experience?)
He hates Grillby’s and Hotland
He is an amazing artist
He considers himself a great chef, even if he doesn’t necessarily eat what he cooks
Quotes:
“DEADLY SPIKES, PRECARIOUS
BRIDGES! TRULY THE PILLARS OF YOUTH!”
[when dying] “ALAS, POOR PAPYRUS.
[this is quoting Shakespeare while he’s dying]
WELL, AT LEAST I HAVE MY HEAD!”
“I WOULD NEVER TAKE A VACATION FOR
ANY REASON!”
Undyne: “Papyrus… doesn’t know how
to sleep??”
“I WANT TO MEET DEATH!”
“YOU CAN SEE YOUR REFLECTION IN A PUDDLE, BUT… DON’T LET A BODY OF WATER DETERMINE YOUR SELF WORTH!”
“IT’S MY LEAST FAVORITE
NIGHTMARE!” – referring to Hotland lasers and conveyors
“A MYSTERIOUS SCIENCE HOUSE. […] LABORADOR-Y?”
When talking about Alphys’s lab with Sans present.
“A LAB?? MY BROTHER WOULD LOVE THAT!” –when talking about Alphys’s lab without
Sans present.
“ICE CREAM? THANKS, BUT I LIVE IN SNOWDIN! THERE’S ICE
CREAM ALL OVER THE GROUND!” –when talking about ice cream when Sans is present.
“I TRIED TO CAPTURE YOU… WHERE’S
MY ICE CREAM.” –when talking about ice cream without Sans present.
“STOP LOOKING IN MY EMPTY MAIL
BOX. THAT’S MY EMPTINESS, NOT YOURS.”
“I AM A PRETTY BRUTAL KIND OF GUY.”
“HOTLAND! I KNOW IT LIKE THE BACK
OF MY HAND. WHICH, SINCE I’M ALWAYS WEARING GLOVES… I DON’T KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT!”
“WELL, IF YOU WANT TO GET SOMEONE TO OPEN UP, YOU SHOULD ENGAGE THEM IN COMBAT! HUM HUM HUM…” – before the Shyren encounter. This is one of the few times where Papyrus actually gives you something helpful, but how does he know?
A lot of this is stuff ive always thought about, and I have ALWAYS been kind of confused why people fixate on sans when papyrus is so. So much more. ….like why did it become a commonly accepted fandom concept that SANS is aware of timelines when he never indicates that? PAPYRUS does. PAPYRUS refferences other timelines.
Papyrus is. What. is your deal.
Dinosaur egg oatmeal isn’t even. Why would that be a thing to monsters? They don’t seem to have excavations. They have dinosaur LIKE monsters, but that would be grim. Everything in the game suggests most of the monsters you meet have never seen a human, so they were banished at minimum a hundred years ago, so there’s been no contact with human culture or discoveries since then.
And all the monster food you eat is bonkers! None of it is anything LIKE human branded groceries and food! Like, they also have spaghetti and top ramen and thats about it. So sure, maybe monsters also on their total own happened to make exactly the same kind of novelty instant oatmeal product, despite it being an incredibly niche food with kind of a wierd conceipt even irl.
or.
for some reason papyrus’ favorite food was already a distinctly human food.
Or to put this a different way ive just been staring into space for like half an hour now internaly screaming about how much stranger papyrus is even then I had already thought about.
no mercy bosses look so fun i wish i could nicely ask sans and undyne to fight me with all they got in pacifist route but instead its like those times irl when u feel ROWDY!! and u wanna RUFFLE FEATHERS!! AND GET MAD!! AND FUCK SOMEONE UP LIKE THE WILDASS BANSHEE THAT YOU ARE!!!!!! except you love everyone you know and everyone you know loves you and every relationship you have is built on gentleness and mutual understanding
I'm Still Kicking 