#I liked the idea of Asgore being more involved in the decision

[aeris-blue]

The Doctor’s Charges 1 Year Anniversary

I was really wanting to write a bunch of unused scenes and post them in varying times today but it looks like it might just be this one!

Gaster’s skull smacked his head a bit harder against his desk than he had intended to in a display of his frustration. This wasn’t working. Nothing was working. Numbers weren’t coming out their proper shapes, equations weren’t following their own formulas, and his obnoxious chair kept waging complaints every time he moved. He let out a hefty sigh as he tapped the desk absentmindedly with a pencil.

What was the matter with him? Work was all that mattered to him: it’s what made him Gaster after all! Nothing was more important or crucial then his work so why was he thinking about sloppily written WingDings? Why was he wishing he’d have delved deeper in that notebook? Why was he so fixated on the children’s fascination with him?

It was just because they were skeletons. He hadn’t seen any in so long it had to be some sort of innate habitual survival instinct. The pencil fell from his grip to the floor clattering about in a pathetic demand for attention but he neglected it. Not like he was getting anything done today anyways.

Maybe he should just go home regardless of whatever heckling rhymes he’d get from his assistant. He pulled the documents he’d taken from the desk out of his drawer and set them on top. They had all been filled out quickly, and efficiently, thinking the questions would deter him or that there would be some huge disqualification so he could say at least he tried.

There was nothing of the sort.

His fingers fidgeted with a paperclip, he was unsure of where it came from but twisting it between his fingers was grounding and thus soothing. Maybe it wasn’t something instinctual? Pity. It had to be pity. Being torn apart from your only remaining family wasn’t a pleasant idea. The loneliness. Knowing there was someone out there in the world concerned for your well being but knowing you couldn’t see them. He rubbed his soul as familiarity settled in it.

Sans wouldn’t get adopted. No one would take a child prone to sickness when they had such a thin line between life and death. The child was walking along the edge of a knife trying very desperately not to step too heavily. Of course it would take an outside presence to push him atop it and Papyrus certainly wasn’t going to allow that. The pair needed each other and the idea of a family being separated didn’t settle well with him.

He’d claimed a family, in title alone, but had never… well, they weren’t anything like him. Now his ‘family’ was just a collection of loose threads with the vague memory of once being attached to one another. Stars, he missed the days when it was whole but those were far behind him.

There was work to be done.

Just as he was about to slip the application back into the drawer the door slid open. When he recognized the sheer mass of the shadow that cut across his dimly lit room he shoved the folder in as quickly as he could manage.

“I saw that,” came a voice as strong as thunder rolling across a dampened valley.

‘I wasn’t expecting you Your Majesty,’ Gaster signed precisely as he rose to his feet.

“None of that pomp and procedure Gaster, you know full well why I am here.” His expression was stern, focused, fitting of a boss monster but try as he might Gaster couldn’t figure out what had brought him here. As the King crossed to his desk Gaster squared his shoulders preparing to improvise whatever it was he’d apparently forgotten.

A twinkle danced across Asgore’s eye as a repressed smile bloomed like a golden flower across his face, “What decision have you met with the children?”

His soul twitched in frustration, Asgore knew full well he’d managed to work him up for nothing. ‘It’s a terrible idea, even separated they’d be better off with someone else.’

Asgore nibbled on the inside of his lip, “Are you sure?”

‘I’m certain Asgore,’ he sulked back into his chair, ‘I’m not warm, or soft, nothing about me is anything a child desires, and I can barely take care of myself.’

“When is the last time you ate?”

Gaster’s sockets narrowed as his thoughts grew distant trying desperately to recall what he had eaten last. With a knowing sigh Asgore produced a packet of crackers from his inventory, “It isn’t much but it’s something.”

‘Thank you,’ he signed before he placed the wrapper on the desk, maybe he’d remember them there.

“So you are not going to adopt them?”

‘It would be detrimental to their development if I did.’

The king’s shoulders dropped in mild disappointment. He had unquestioningly been hoping for the sound of children’s feet about the throne room praying desperately his moody desolate friend could experience the joy that he had lost. Perhaps he merely wished to live vicariously feeling it was something he no longer deserved to have.

Of course that was untrue. Asgore had been an excellent father and he would be again if the need ever arose. It was Gaster’s own foolish pursuit of knowledge that-- He sighed suddenly feeling as if the room were pressurized.

‘I can’t stop thinking about them,’ the phrase was extruded from his hands. He swallowed as best as he could, ‘I wish them well. I hope everything works out but you know as well as I do how terrible of a monster I am.’

“WingDings,” Asgore said firmly, “you’re not terrible.”

‘I can’t be a parent Asgore, what life could I give them without kindness?’ His fingers scratched across his misshapen ribs, ‘even if we can pretend that a few good deeds here and there mean I’m capable I can’t help them. Skinned knees, scraped shins, I can’t fill their heads with delusions of magic kisses that make the pain go away.’

He’d never experienced it first hand. The caring touch of a parent trying to soothe the pain away from their child. Watching Toriel though, he’d seen it, he’d see what wonderful things a parent could do with green magic. Utilizing that healing touch all of monsterdom were supposed to possess they could spark imagination and wonderment in their offspring.

‘If they came to me with night terrors I’d send them to their beds telling them exactly how preposterous it is to worry about such things!’

“You never said that to Grillby.”

‘If another child was antagonizing them I’d tell them to fight back!’

“Inadvisable,” Asgore combed his beard with his claws, “but not altogether terrible.”

‘What about my LV poisoning?’

“What of mine?”

‘I just can’t Asgore!’ He slammed his hand down on the counter startling both himself and the boss monster. Softly his hands curled in on themselves from the lingering pulse of his overly dramatic action. ‘What of my fate?’

Asgore put his paws on Gaster’s shoulders, “I’ve told you all along that was a lie from a monster who wanted nothing more than to hurt you.”

“Gaster. What do you think of the boys?”

The weight of the boss monster’s paws on his shoulders grounded him more than any drink could, ‘Sans is a clever child. Smart, cunning, well aware of his condition but unaccepting of it. The world has attempted to wear him down, make him weary, but he stands in direct defiance. He aims to find life.’

‘Papyrus… is life. He is spontaneous and loud and in constant motion. I find him harder to get a reading on but I know that he loves his brother. And I know there is that same desire for knowledge that his brother has just maybe in a different direction.’

His eye lights pointed up to Asgore’s, ‘that’s why they need each other.’ His fingers twitched, ‘I’d thought about… adopting just Sans?’ Even just repeating the thought made his soul still, ‘Papyrus has a better chance at being adopted,’ he rationalized, ‘but I know they’d be devastated without the other.’ And most importantly he knew most monsters just wouldn’t understand.

Skeletons were just different monsters. They were quirky by nature, inquisitive to a fault, not to mention, in his experience, a little difficult to interpret. His fingers drummed against the desk as he forced himself to still a rattle. ‘I. I just want them to be happy Asgore. I want them to be able to be kids like I didn’t get to.’

“That’s really all it takes Gaster,” he smiled plainly his magic hung in the air as close to sunlight as one could hope down here, “and I think having someone else to care for than yourself might just do you some good.”

‘But--’

“No, I think we’re done with that, let me see the documents,” he extended his paws and within moments they were holding the manilla envelope. Asgore thumbed through them his muzzle tilted a bit to one side. “Were you nervous?”

Gaster clicked his teeth, ‘That bad?’

“Well,” he hummed, “I’m not certain how well the manager will be able to read WingDings.”

Gaster peered over the writing. Whoops.

“Do you have white out? I’ll help you fix this up in no time!”

[capricioussun]

🤍 and 🏡?

🏡: Do you have any thoughts on monster life “behind the scenes”, like how they produce their food, any traditions they might have (in regards to things like religions or celebrations), etc.?

I do!! Though to be honest it varies a lot from story to story, AU to AU, idea to idea. Some ideas that appeal to me the most would be magic greenhouses, their belief system involving “the angel”, birthday adjacent celebrations, and other holidays!

The idea of magic greenhouses existing has appealed to me from the get go, the idea that they’ve created an entire system around how to continue producing food while trapped in the underground intrigues me greatly! It actually ties into my headcanons about the CORE, and about how magic is generated and produced to help them sustain life underground, I like to imagine it’s a pretty complex system and that there are “different types of magic” that function differently from each other and serve a multitude of purposes!

As for holidays, I’d like to think that monsters have a number of their own celebrations, ranging from something similar to birthdays that celebrate when a monster is old enough to stop wearing stripes, to holidays that held over from when they were still on the surface, to new holidays adopted while underground (an example that jump to mind would be “Angel’s Day”, which would fall on the anniversary Chara fell into the underground).

As for religion, I actually like to imagine they’d held sort of Greek Mythology style beliefs back when they’d been on the surface, and would send prayers to the stars when they needed help or guidance. It wasn’t really a strict religion, so much as just common belief, but after being trapped underground and everything that followed involving the first human and Asgore’s decision, “the angel” became a more well rounded “religious” icon monsters believed would come and save them. It tied in well with the left over beliefs of “the heavens and stars”, and was possibly even influence by surface beliefs that were prevalent before being trapped.

🤍: What kind of monster would you be?

I actually have a monstersona! Their name is Source Code, they’re a feline-ish skeleton monster, though realistically, I’d probably just be some funky little animal thing that’s really fuzzy and has. Moss or something.

A fast little doodle bc I don’t know if I’ve ever actually posted anything w/ them here! I continue to test my limitations my hand is angry lol

Prompt

[ramblings-of-a-mad-cat]

As an Undertale fan, what are your thoughts on Chara?

(Rubbing hands together) I have. A lot to say about this.

Chara is such a fascinating and sympathetic figure in the story. In some ways, I even hesitate to call them a character (even though I know their name is a play on the word) because they are only ever alluded to in the story and have no spoken lines, barring a very psychedelic scene at the end of No-Mercy that may or may not have even been them, it was rather ambiguous. Their presence is definitely felt throughout the story, however. You can see them, just as you see Asriel, in the other characters. The haunted look in the eyes of their parents. Not to mention, the plot could not have happened in the way it did without Chara’s fall. I’ve said before that the story begins and ends with Asriel, and it does...but the same could be said of Chara. 

Good or Evil?

The main question people have when it comes to this character is how involved they are with the events that occur, and what was their true nature? Were they a disturbed, evil child? Hell bent on slaughtering humanity and later the monsters? Were they just using Asriel? Or...was Chara a victim? An innocent child who wanted to do the right thing and died to save the society that rescued them? There’s no arguing that Chara was a saint - Asriel himself admits by the end of Pacifist that they were not the greatest person. But there’s a difference between being a snarky, traumatized hero, and being a hateful, wicked villain. I would say from the start that I question the validity of calling any child “evil.” On the other hand, Asriel did some pretty messed up things as Flowey, and it’s universally accepted that whoever was driving the No-Mercy Route, be it Frisk or Chara, was making evil decisions. There are also those who would point to you, the player, for making those choices...but for the sake of the fourth wall, I’m not to discount those interpretations. I want to talk about the characters, not the “anomaly.” 

Here’s the thing. If Chara is responsible for the No-Mercy Route, if we follow the theory that they possessed Frisk, and that by the end they were in complete control - which is supported by a lot of the end-game red text - well, then to be entirely fair, we also have to credit them for the Pacifist Ending. If Chara was somehow reincarnated in Frisk, then that was true in every timeline, surely. We can’t condemn Chara and make them shoulder the blame for No-Mercy, while also declining to give them credit for the golden ending. Hell, Asriel has canonically taken the No-Mercy Route several times, by his own admission - I swear, everyone forgets that. If we don’t demonize Asriel for this, it seems wrong to do the same thing to Chara, even if No-Mercy was entirely their fault. 

“I should have laughed it off, like you did.” 

There is also some evidence that perhaps Chara wasn’t a very nice kid even before the Undertale story begins. People have suggested that they intentionally tried to kill Asgore, for example, with the Buttercup incident. However, I think people are forgetting that that was a joint effort. Asriel and Chara were both involved in making that pie, and we have no way of knowing which of them made the mistake. Yes, Chara did laugh about it later, but it’s not unheard of for people to laugh in horrifying situations, simply to cope with it. Sirius Black from Harry Potter was said to laugh when he was arrested for facilitating the murder of his best friends. Spoiler alert, he was innocent. Chara is a kid, and Asgore didn’t actually die. I don’t think we should assume that they intended to do this, or that they took pleasure from his pain. 

The day Asriel died.

Chara’s gambit, the one that ultimately got Asriel killed and reborn as Flowey, is pretty ambiguous. First and foremost, we cannot blame Chara for what happened to Asriel. They wanted to fight back against the humans. Asriel resisted doing this. It seems very clear that whatever else was going on, Chara did not plan for Asriel to die, and they tried to stop it from happening. Otherwise, there are hints that they wanted this confrontation to happen, and that maybe that was why they took their body with them to the surface. Here’s the thing - killing humans was already part of the plan. It wasn’t like they were tricking Asriel into that - both of them knew they’d have to claim some human souls to break the barrier. Chara may have calculated that the humans would assume Asriel killed them and attack as a result - but that would simply be triggering the altercation that they and Asriel had planned on creating anyway. 

The “Charrator” Theory

After this happened, Asriel was reborn as Flowey...and Chara is hinted to have became Frisk’s unseen companion. Perhaps Frisk’s fall disturbed their rest, since Frisk did land on top of the golden flowerbed that Chara is implied to have been buried under. There’s a major theory that the narrator of all the game’s text is actually Chara’s spirit. It would explain how the narration knows things that Frisk would have no way of knowing, like when you can “check” monsters in battle. Plus, the somewhat snarky sense of humor in the narration, yet still overall hopeful personality...well, it lines up a lot without how Chara was suggested to behave. There are other moments too, like how shocked the narrator seems when Asriel calls Frisk, addressing them as Chara. Or how the narrator falls silent when Asriel breaks down during the end of his fight. They also push Frisk to save him. Not to mention this is hinted far more in the No-Mercy path. It’s made blatant with lines like “The date I came here.” and “Still has that sweater.” and even “My bed.” So, yeah, I tend to subscribe to this theory a lot. 

What happened to Chara? 

My belief is that Chara was confused and traumatized and not at all sure what happened when they were first reborn in Frisk - either because they were haunting them, or because they were reincarnated. Hell, that might have been why Frisk climbed Mt. Ebbot. - In a way very similar to how Flowey was confused and scared when he first resurrected. I believe Frisk’s actions help Chara rediscover who they are. If Asriel can be forgiven for having to re-learn things like compassion after something as traumatizing as being murdered, can’t Chara be given the same patience? They died twice. Can’t it be assumed that they might need the same rehabilitation? I believe Chara learns from Frisk’s choices. One theory I’ve seen that I really like, is that they felt embittered toward Asriel for completely screwing the plan, by refusing to fight back. Hence Flowey asking “No hard feelings about back then, right?” Hence why Chara, after being on the No-Mercy Route for that long, might feel so much contempt for him that they slash him half a dozen times like we see. By completing Pacifist, Frisk teaches Chara what Asriel already knew - that any situation can be resolved peacefully, and thus refusing to fight back was the right choice. At which point, Chara is able to properly move on and rest. Having grown to the point of understanding that their hatred of humanity was not healthy. 

That’s another thing, we never find out why Chara hated humanity so strongly. The same way we never find out why Frisk climbed Mt. Ebbot. It’s left to mystery. There are plenty of reasons it could be true. It could be as simple as them being infuriated at what humanity did to the monsters. Or maybe it suggests something worse, like abuse or neglect. Chara tripped, so we know it wasn’t a suicide attempt, but...I mean, what were they planning? The actual fall was an accident, but were they going to jump anyway? That’s the thing. Chara is jaded. They recognize the evil in the world and it makes them pessimistic. They hate humanity and thus they hate them-self, most likely. Ever notice how Chara’s plan to break the barrier results in their human body dying, and them living on as a Monster instead? Maybe it was coincidental, but I can’t imagine they minded. Still, they were willing to die to bring freedom to the Monsters, and they seemed to live in harmony with them for...well, it had to be at least a couple of years. 

TL;DR: I’m a Chara fan. A major fan, actually. I find them fascinating and I don’t blame them at all for what happens in No-Mercy. I also love the Charrator Theory. Any head-canon is valid, but I really don’t vibe with the idea that Chara is a “demon” child. 

[chorusnihili]

I'd love to hear more about the development of your Gaster! :D

BACKSTORY ASK MEME 1. How did you first come up with your muse’s backstory, if you did at all? Continued from here Also asked by @alagaster 

So I left off with the question of just how Gaster's soul ended up in pieces.

I’m actually going to detour at the moment and say that it was around that point that I had decided to make the blog.  I had a vague beginning and an ending, and usually that’s not enough for me to want to start, but I was excited, I had a lot of fun, so I went for it.

Honestly, one of the first things I need to have before I even think of making a blog is a good url.  Urls are super important to me, and generally, whether or not I think of a good one is a key factor in whether or not I actually make the blog.

But in this case, I was too eager to start and I actually just threw together chorusnihil so I could get started on the pages.  The thought process remained the same--the chorus is from Greek plays, the group of characters that narrate the actions occurring in the play.  nihil is Latin for nothing--and I later changed it to nihili, which is Genitive, to roughly make the “chorus of nothing” or “nothing’s chorus,” a reference to the fact that the guy wiped himself out of history, and so there’s no protagonist to narrate.  This was supposed to be a temporary URL, but I got attached to it, for reasons I’ll get to later.  

(And really, isn’t a roleplay blog a modern chorus in it’s own way?)

Also there’s the phonetic pun-- CORE-us, anyone?

So I threw together a lot of the basic bios.  Most of the stat pages are really bland, most of the guts of the story comes from the hidden details, most of which were added on later.  

Something that came up around this point was Gaster’s relationship to Asgore.  A lot of fanon pictures them as really close.  A lot of fanon also portrays Gaster as Gaster as desperately wanting to retake the surface, which...as mentioned previously, my Gaster just, wasn’t into.  

So it sort of put Gaster in between Asgore and Toriel--he wasn’t happy about the decision to go to war with humanity, but he wasn’t going to abandon everyone, even if he did become really reclusive.  

I thought about the idea of the human souls, and I knew that Gaster would immediately hate the idea of working with them.  And that was convenient, too, since it allowed me to further separate Gaster and Alphys’s work.  At first, it was just a heavy disagreement.  The idea that Gaster killed Asgore accidentally came a great deal later, but it honestly served to be a rather critical piece of the story. 

The design of the DT Extractor and Sans and Papyrus were also very vague concepts at this point. 

Revisiting the idea of his fall.  We know from the canon dialogue that he fell into his own invention and that he was scatted across space and time.  

The CORE is the common culprit and it was what I had chosen, too.  But how?  How could an energy source... do that? 

So the idea occurred to me that maybe--maybe that was exactly as it was designed to do.  After all, even in the real world, we have power plants that operate by ripping apart molecules.  So... magic.  Why not magic?  A machine that derives power out of ripping apart magical energy.

And monsters are made out of magical energy.  

Falling into that sounds like a very grisly fate, indeed.      

The idea of how he got erased from reality isn’t one I really have solidified.  G has a couple of theories, and I’m willing to roll with either of them, but, really?  I’m not super interested in making a hard reason for it.  Namely to adapt to other versions of fanon other muns might have. 

Essentially, the theories say that the CORE destroying him released so much energy that it tore a hole in the Determination that pushes the timeline forward, thus allowing the Void to enter and merge with his soul.  

From there, either, 

A., his Determination very briefly was larger than that of the Timeline, and he himself invoked a Reset, but given that he was outside of the timeline at the moment, it was corrupted and only erased certain parts rather than fully resetting.   I think that this was the original theory that I used in the original RP.  

B., the Void acted as a corrective force trying to correct the hole in the timeline.  In doing so, it erased Gaster from the reality, thus replacing the existing timeline with a new one in which certain things never happened.  

C., something involving the power of Rewrite that Gaster has from the duality of Determination and Void.

D., something else entirely.  

And so we had the scattered Unbound Gaster. 

Which, funfact, the name Unbound Gaster for the form was supposed to be temporary, as well.  It’s a reference to Unbound Hoopa for Pokemon.  (Which is why Provoked Form Gaster isn’t called Unbound Form!)

Within the original RP that I developed most of this lore, Refused Gaster didn’t exist.  In fact, that roleplay ended with Gaster’s permanent death--and being permanently forgotten to the world.  A choice he intentionally made because the damage he did to the timeline by falling into the CORE was still present and only getting worse, and the only way to fix it was to allow his Soul to come together and pass on properly, thus allowing the damage to mend.

It was sad.  I cried.  I got emotional.  

I got attached to a traumatic asshole character I literally had for four days.  

Somewhere in here, I began to think about the origins of Gaster.  Like, way way way in the past.  Some people have Gaster being actively involved in the war, but it didn’t work for my portrayal, of having him be so afraid of humans and the surface.  So for it to work out, I had him really young for the war, really young when everyone got driven underground.  

I killed off his parents because ......

Frankly I didn’t want to design them :|

There’s a lot of varying opinions and interpretations about skeleton monsters, and it’s a section of the fandom I’ve decided to stray away from for now.  

But I didn’t want the loss to be traumatic.  Gaster’s been through a lot already, and I have personal vendettas against characters who solely consist of trauma after trauma.  

So I decided to make the loss very distant--he’s aware he probably had parents, or maybe he came to be some other way--but he doesn’t remember them, there’s no tragic “my parents were killed in front of me,” it’s simply something he didn’t have, and something he never needed given the nature of monsters to be kind and caring.  

...

But it felt like it was missing something.

So I started to toy around with this idea of a mentor, one who played the role of a father-figure, one who would plant the seeds to give Gaster the appreciation of science and knowledge.  Someone who could take this lost and terrified boy and start to turn him into the intelligent and steady doctor we end up with.  

Then came the problem of how he and this mentor would actually meet; Gaster’s scar proved to be a convenient excuse, plus it gave me a backstory for that, as well.  A few humans attacked him and delivered the injury, and Gaster’s mentor found the wounded boy and took care of him.  

The mentor is meant to be a vague entity, and you can view this in action in this memory.  (Only partially because I didn’t want to name them.)  Unfortunately, as per the nature of characters created post hoc, their fate was already sealed.  I made the choice to cut their influence on Gaster’s life short.  

(If they were around longer, who knows?  Maybe they could have prevented some of the stupider things Gaster has done.  Maybe they could have changed fate.  But...  as we’ll get to, everything happened exactly as it had to.)  

Again, I made it a very distant loss.  It’s a rather simple conclusion that not every monster would be happy vacating the surface--Gaster’s mentor had lived there their entire life.  It was their home, they were not leaving, even upon threat of death.  And so it was a bittersweet parting, but one with closure, and Gaster said his farewells and departed to the Underground.  

Honestly, what I find really shocking about this character is just how intensely he wants to do good.  I mean, I’m no stranger to good characters, but few of my characters push it as far as Gaster does, and how quickly that feeling came to me, considering he started in the original roleplay as a ruthless asshole bastard more than willing to fuck over and torture a bunch of children just for a chance at being whole again.  

Most of Gaster’s early life in the Underground found in this post was written on the spot as I wrote that post, so it came really late.  

I still find it hilarious that he used to work in therapy.  You’re well aware you need therapy you fucking bastard.  Quit denying it.  

So, revisiting the idea of Gaster and Asgore.  I do like the idea of them being close, and Gaster even calls Asgore his best friend.  The declaration of war put a huge strain on the relationship.  

I originally thought about the idea of him accidentally killing Asgore for shits n giggles.  At my heart I am indeed an angst gremlin, so I was just thinking about what an alternate timeline where that happened might be like.  After all, Gaster’s angry, Asgore’s full of guilt, with the way monster magic works, it wouldn’t be too far of a stretch to think that it could happen.  

But the more I thought about it, the more it fit eerily well.  The guilt gave Gaster a reason to create Sans (and later Papyrus) as part of his belief in Karma (creating a life to replace the life he took) and to look into Alphys’s research into Determination enough to create the blueprints for the DT Extractor; both of these things were things that I couldn’t otherwise really fit into his storyline.  

And finally...

His declining mental state and despair over the concept of the DT Extractor was what led to him being distracted enough to make such a critical mistake and fall into the CORE.  

And given that the timeline changes when he falls, I realized that...  I could have this happen, and the current timeline be unaffected.  

Now, given that I said that I wanted to avoid more trauma in Gaster’s life, this decision might seem contradictory.  But, it also served a very important point--Asgore returning to life, that mistake being fixed upon his fall gave Gaster something to hold onto.  Something that made his fate not as awful as it otherwise would have been.  A small piece of solace in hell.  

Plus, Gaster’s guilt at the incident caused him to resign as Royal Scientist, further allowing him and Alphys to have their separate stories. 

And pretty much everything snapped together at that point.  Really, strangely well.  I joked before on this blog if I’m really the one writing it.

If Gaster had not killed Asgore, he would have never created Sans and Papyrus, he would have never created the DT Extractor blueprints; if he did not create the blueprints, he would have never been distracted enough to fall into the CORE, if he never fell into the CORE, the blueprints would have never ended up with Alphys, she could have never created Flowey, and if Flowey was never created, he could have never used the souls to break the barrier and the True Pacifist ending would have never come to pass.  

It all happened exactly as it had to.

It feels oddly poetic, given the way Undertale works.  

In some ways, it’s cruel.  Gaster regularly struggles with the idea that for his people to be happy, he had to literally be wiped out of existence.  But in other ways, it’s a comfort--for at least he knows that his suffering wasn’t for nothing.  That there was a purpose--that even if he had to be erased, he played a vital role in ensuring his people found victory. 

Oh.  One final note...  In finalizing this story, you may notice that Gaster follows a classic pattern.  We have a hero, who’s mostly good, but through his own flaws makes a tragic mistake and seals his own grim fate.

It’s called a tragedy and they’re common in Greek plays.

What was that about a chorus again?

I think that’s just about every important point I could cover.  That being said, if you couldn’t tell, this is a very fascinating topic to me, so if you have any further questions or need any clarifications, feel free to send them in.  

[undertalethingies]

Judge and Jury

Set after a pacifist neutral ending. (Only Asgore is dead)

Not long after the queen returned, she called a meeting of all Asgore’s old employees. It made sense to, right? Gotta figure out who’s assigned to do what and who’s got tasks they weren’t supposed to chat about and all that jazz.

Sans very nearly didn’t come. But Tori knew he worked as a sentry, so if he didn’t show, she’d notice, and he really didn’t want them finally actually meeting to be marred by her disappointment at his work ethic.

...Or that was what he’d tell other people, if they asked. Truth was, Sans’ sense of duty ran a lot deeper than he let most people pick up on. He’d always cared deeply about the kingdom and the people in it. It was why he’d been chosen as Judge, actually. Because he had both the compassion to choose mercy when it was right and the resolve to fight when necessary.

He still didn’t know whether he’d made the right decision with the human, even though he knew both Asgore and Toriel would approve, if he explained.

Not that he could explain anything to Asgore, now. 

...Dammit, he missed the big guy. And the human would still have kept going even if Sans had fought them, sure. They had too much DT to do otherwise, but it didn’t stop him from feeling like even more of a useless shit than usual.

Anyway, the meeting. He went.

Looking around, he could see that not everyone had. Two of the Hotland guards had skipped, along with the Temmies. The latter might be for the best, in all honesty. Even Sans, who was probably the most informed monster in the Underground even before Asgore kicked it, had never been made aware what exactly the Tems did. The few cryptic hints they’d given him over the years had only made him want to know less.

The attendees included all of the Snowdin Guard (including him and Papyrus, the sentries), Undyne, two guards from hotland who he didn’t know all that well, Alphys, and a couple monsters from New home who served in administrative capacities.

Toriel made a speech about how, while she would be dismantling the Royal Guard, she had plans to keep many of them on the payroll as a police force, which shouldn’t be too big a change from their previous duties. (While the Royal Guard ostensibly existed to capture humans, they fell far too rarely for an entire force dedicated solely to capturing them to make sense, so they also acted as a disciplinary force)

Sans made plans to talk with Undyne about letting Papyrus into the new force, since he doubted she’d realize that this removed any reason to keep him off. (Papyrus was pretty much the ideal cop, in Sans’ opinion. Hard to be a criminal when he was so freakin’ nice)

Undyne would be remaining the Captain, apparently. Despite her actions in attempting to capture the human, she’d been acting for the good of her people, and so long as she didn’t let “the ends justify the means” act as an excuse for cruelty again, Tori had no issue with her.

Or that’s what she said, at least. Sans suspected that it was more because Tori didn’t know anyone well enough to appoint a captain who’d be better than Undyne, so she just didn’t bother.

Then she went through the administrators, having them explain their roles and their duties. She didn’t immediately change much there, probably wanting to get a feel for how the kingdom had changed in her absence first, which seemed reasonable.

She had a brief discussion with Alphys as well, and he got the sense that there was definitely more of that to come later. Toriel seemed like the type to expect regular reports from her Royal Scientist, and Sans wondered how long she’d be able to keep the DT experiments a secret with actual oversight.

Then came the part he’d been dreading, where Toriel turned to him.

“Forgive me, old friend, but I do not actually know all of the jobs you worked for Asgore?” There was nothing but polite curiosity in her tone, and he knew she probably wasn’t expecting him to say much more than “sentry”. He’d hinted a few times that his real role is a bit more than that, which was probably the only reason she was asking at all, but he knew she’d probably never guess his real role in her wildest dreams.

“eh, fair. i kinda do a lot,” he was being deliberately vague, unable to resist delaying this revelation for just a few extra moments. Alphys met his gaze, and he could tell she understood.

“Yes, but what, precisely?” Toriel asked, getting that glint in her eye he recognized from every parent he’d ever spoken to. Say what you will about people with kids, but they knew when you dodged a question. 

“well, i’m a sentry in snowdin, waterfall, and hotland,” He was, indeed, a sentry in all of those places. It wasn’t like he was lying, just… omitting a detail. Next to him, Papyrus narrowed his eyes slightly, because Papyrus could smell Sans fudging the truth from miles away at this point. He didn’t say anything, though, since he knew it was rude to talk out of turn in a meeting like this. (Sans had briefed him, beforehand, on the social niceties that would be involved)

Toriel just looked mildly startled, presumably thinking of the commute between regions, since he’d never really talked to her about his shortcuts. (He’d never really talked to anyone about his shortcuts, just used them and let them draw their own conclusions)

“You manned three stations? That seems like quite a lot,” Heh, she had no idea. 

“eh, i manage,” He could see from Tori’s face that she doubted that, but she was polite and didn't say so. 

“S-Sans,” Oh, great. Alphys was glaring at him the way she did when he was being an idiot, and he supposed that he kinda deserved it. No way Tori wasn’t gonna ask who the Judge was at some point, y’know? It wasn’t really a role the kingdom could do without.

“I-if. If you d-don’t tell her, she’ll, she’ll find it in the r-records and then it’ll b-be awkward,” Sans looked to the side.

“i mean, bold of you to assume i wouldn’t just doctor ‘em if i wanted it to be a secret,” Several people in the room looked mildly alarmed, and he wasn’t sure why. He was only implying he had the means to easily edit some of the most highly secured documents in the kingdom, after all. Lol. 

“Sans,” Alphys hissed. He knew she was being serious because she didn’t stutter on his name at all, and she only tended to forget to when she was totally pissed. Apparently this actually mattered to her, then. Or maybe she just didn’t want him to get caught in a lie the way she had been, which was a nice sentiment, if misplaced.

“yeah, ok. so i’m not just a sentry,” He admitted. Toriel’s eyebrows drew together into a slightly concerned expression.

“Sans, exactly how many jobs do you work?”

“well, if the sentries are all separate, that’s three. then there’s the semi illegal hotdog stand, but i do that at the hotland station, so i’m not really sure if it counts as its own thing. i also do comedy gigs at mettaton’s hotel sometimes, and then there’s, uh, the one alph was talking about,” His expression slid into something vaguely sheepish and he rubbed at the back of his skull with a gloved hand. He really didn’t want to talk about this, necessary as it may be.

“And what job would that be, Sans?” Toriel asked politely. She was being nice about it, but he could tell she was getting a bit annoyed at his evasion.

Sans placed his hands in his lap, looking her straight in the eye with a serious expression. He kept his tone serious, too, so she’d know he was telling the truth.

“I’m the Judge.” He ended his sentence with a period, even though he knew it wasn’t strictly proper. He’d always liked the finalty a period conveys.

Toriel’s eyes widened, along with Undyne’s. Sans had been pretty surprised when Asgore had said he didn’t want to disclose Sans’ identity to the Captain, but the late King had explained that, while he trusted her unconditionally, he knew Sans wanted to keep his role on the downlow, and Undyne wasn’t exactly chosen for her skills at subtlety.

Sans didn’t see even a speck of surprise in his brother’s expression, which filled him with pride. He’d never outright told Pap about his job, but he’d always been more perceptive than he let on, and Sans had been pretty sure he’d known. This basically confirmed it.

“You never mentioned that,” Says Tori, looking like she felt a bit betrayed but was trying to hide it.

“nothing personal, tor. i just, uh, strongly dislike talking about it,” Sans said, attempting to reassure her. It was the truth. Sans had always loathed people who used high status positions like Judge to get extra privileges or whatever, and he disliked the fear the Judge was regarded with even more. (He’d known the old Judge, and he’d seen the way the guy got treated by those around him. It wasn’t anything he wanted for himself)

Toriel looked mollified by his admission, meanwhile Undyne was still gaping like a fish because she knew both his stats and the things he’d done during his tenure as Judge, and was probably having difficulty reconciling the two seemingly conflicting accounts in her mind.

“I see. Well, we will certainly need to discuss this later, but perhaps it might be better to do so in private,” Wonderful. At least then he’d only be revealing the extremely personal information that had to do with his job to one person, rather than literally everyone employed by Asgore.

On that note, he was pretty sure that the news of him being the Judge would be all over the underground within hours of this meeting’s conclusion, so that was fun.

Man could he not wait for the reset.

[kryptsune]

🌼Good morning everyone and a happy Tuesday to you all! I had a lot of people ask me about my Outertale on Discord. That beat out pretty much all the other options on the poll so here we go! This is one of the larger ones because I had a lot of fun putting some of my favorite sci-fi concepts into this. I am a huge SG1 fan so you can definitely see that reflected. I admittedly am the fantasy genre girl so any ideas are welcome! I just liked the idea that the monsters in this were more than just typical monsters. DO NOT REPOST MY WORK WITHOUT MY PERMISSION IT IS NOT FOR YOUR USE. IF YOU LIKE MY WORK PLEASE REBLOG INSTEAD! It helps me so much! It makes such a difference.💙If you want more of these just let me know! It’s the only way I can gauge interest! Outertale Alternate “Nicknames” Info:  Sans: Nova- Nova is the trickster though he is mostly associated with that of Loki. Loki is described specifically as “Playful, malicious ( ok maybe not that one), helpful, and nihilistic.” He helps others in a kind of goofy over the top way. He just doesn’t take much seriously. Nova is one of the youngest. He acts very childish at times coming to question how long he has been among the pantheon. Some argue his many centuries gave him a nihilistic outlook on life or that he is too young to understand the true ways of the world. Not to say that Nova can’t be serious but he is pretty laid back. It’s one of the reasons unlike the others he doesn’t really keep his cultural ties in his design. He should have more Norse in it but nah… varsity jackets are cozy right? I mean he is wearing star shorts for star’s sake. When asked about his job he mentions, “Hey, there kiddo. Nice of ya to drop by. Been up to? Heh well got a “new” job which is pretty cool. Not as cool as Pollux but I help arrange stars. Ya know, like the ones you see in the sky you can make pictures out of? I think you humans call em… constellations. One time I made this giant whoopee cushion one. Then I lost ma job. Got a second chance though. Andromeda’s constantly watchin me. hehe no harm done though.” Both Pollux and Nova refer to each other as brothers but it is unclear if they are biologically related. Their abilities and strengths are nearly opposite and their mythos even more so. Papyrus: Pollux- The presumed older brother of Nova. Pollux is associated with Egyptology specifically wisdom. Pollux tends to be the opposite of Nova in that he takes his job very seriously. Once on earth, he was known as Thoth gracing humanity with a mechanical and architectural knowledge that astounded the world. His mind and intellect put him at the forefront of innovation making him one of Capricorn’s best and most trusted advisors. He enjoys testing the mental prowess of others using puzzles and riddles of his own design. Unlike canon Pap, Pollux cares more about balance in life. Something his younger brother seems to lack. Not all work and not all play. He is kind, helpful, and willing to give advice to anyone that is looking for it. To the little human Frisk, he is a good mentor and teacher. (Pollux has made it his pastime to create a series of challenges to prove a humans worth. If they pass then they are able to speak/ see them. No one has managed to prove themselves.) Undyne: Andromeda- Andromeda is not different from canon Undyne as she embodies the Mayan mythology. She is most closely associated with the feathered serpent Quetzalcóatl. A deity of wind and rain. Also known as life-giver. Though Andromeda tends to harken back to her more aggressive roots she has a deep respect for the King and acts as his guard. Just like Pollux she too acts as an advisor, though more on matters of security than strategy or mechanics. Such a position is where she first met Elara and to this day the two are inseparable sharing their very different cultures. Her favorite kind of anime to watch are mech-based. Alphys: Elara- Very similar to canon Alphys just as this version of Undyne is. Alphys is based on Sukuna-Biko-Na (少名毘古那) or the Shinto god of medicine and rain. Elara is still very much a scientist and one that has a unique fascination with living things. Everything from the planets, to humans, animals, and plant life. She particularly enjoys spending time in her private greenhouse creating and taking care of all of the plant life. Before the monsters were forced to leave their place among the humans she was able to collect all the DNA of the plants and animals on the planet. They are stored in a kind of ark in which to preserve them if anything threatens their existence. Elara is very traditional in her work as her medicines are derived from her magic as well as herbal substances. She is very curious however as she is not allowed to interact with the progress of humanity but rather watches from afar. This is where her love of anime takes hold. Her favorites are ones like Sailor Moon or any type of magical girl anime. She will sit with Andromeda and watch them for hours. Her demeanor is very shy at first but once she opens up she will be a friend for life. Asgore: Capricorn- The head of the cosmic pantheon he is the King as he is in the original. He is associated with Celtic mythos though he has taken on many pantheon roles in his lifetime. Ambisagrus, a god of thunder and lightning, Ancestor God, Sky God, God of Wind, Rain & Hail is what he is based on. One such role is that of Zeus whose main symbol is that of lightning and thunder. Just like the Zeus of mythology Capricorn is constantly debating his involvement with humanity. Whether that be to stop their technological advances or aiding in their lives. A large portion of his time was spent with his subjects not so much his wife Aurora who is the jealous type. Capricorn is not a ruthless leader but he does know that sometimes hard decisions must be made. Just like UT Asgore, he is kind and benevolent, however, he has a temper if you make him angry enough. His magical abilities lean more toward lighting then fire but he has that ability as well. He tasked Elara to watch over human development should a problem arise. Toriel: Aurora- The Queen to Capricorn she is known to be easily jealous. It would explain why Zeus wife Hera also shares these traits. Her Gaelic deity tie is that of Arianrhod a goddess of the moon and stars. She creates life from the stars she creates sometimes causing them to take a form of their own. They are almost like living constellations. Some say that the Queen made such life to combat her own loneliness which her Son and Husband spent time away. In addition to the stars, she is also known for being a loving mother and caregiver. In her time on earth, she used to watch over and protect children and their families. Aurora though previously jealous of her simple in the universe has come to accept and embrace it. She is kind but rather overprotective. Anyone that forsakes life will feel her wrath. Muffet: Umbra- Umbra is associated with Hindu mythology as a goddess of wealth and prosperity. Though earthly riches do not concern Umbra she still has a taste for the fine silks and gold that she once had on earth. A little about the goddess that she represents: Lakshmi’s name comes from the Sanskrit word ​laksya, meaning an aim or goal. She is the goddess of wealth and prosperity, both material and spiritual. Unlike UT Muffet, Umbra also focuses on spiritual wealth. Peace of mind. She is ever the optimist even when things do not turn out to go her way. In times of need, she is called those in the struggles of self-worth trying to bring them into a different understanding. There have been many a time when Umbra calms Capricorns quick and rash judgments, much to Aurora’s displeasure. Just as with the rest of the pantheon she is kind and helpful even with her yearning to return to the people she so loved before they were forced to the outskirts of the galaxy. Grillby: Helio- Helio derived from the sun is my OT Grillby. He out of all the characters could care less about either being a deity or an observer. He is known to be at a middle ground. He would rather live his days running a social establishment but during his time on earth, he was known for his magic. Originally he was the right hand of Capricorn being depicted as a war deity for his fiery nature. He was the general of grand armies. His armor is something he hung up long ago but if called into court he will wear it once again. Its design is very reminiscent of Roman centurions. Though depictions of him are curious since his name back then was referred to as Merlin. He was best known for his magic and alchemy and the concoctions he made during a period of time far lacking in imagination. Just like Nova, Helio tended to interfere far too often in the affairs of man though noble in purpose. He tends to be outcast among the pantheon for his past conduct but he is content in his lab mixing crazy concoctions. Everything from love potions to disguises. His forte is all about alchemy and magic. Asriel: Azicree (Azi)- Azicree or Azi for short is the Crown Prince. By monster standards Azi is still very young, however, he has lived for far longer than any human can fathom. His mother used to shelter him until he begged for his father to let him prove himself. He still acts like a child always curious and desiring some form of exploration. Much to Capricorns dismay Azi enjoys spending time with Nova and the two become pranksters in general. He tends to not do as he is told, which is why they are in this mess in the first place. His reckless behavior had him appearing to a human that begged for his salvation. The matters of life and death are ones that are not to be messed with. Those that do find their souls being tainted for all eternity turning them into something other than just a monster. 9X is an example of such tampering. Azi does learn his lesson and begins to try and shape up to be a worthy successor to his father if such a thing ever did come to pass. He studies off of all those he knows especially Pollux who is more than happy to share such knowledge. His associations are nonexistent since he was born after the times of gods. His abilities seem to be mimic based. He is able to learn about abilities and use them at will. It is rare that monsters have children and as such Azi is the little prodigy child even though there are many times he just wants to be a kid. He makes friends with Frisk very quickly and learns a lot from the human visitor. Gaster: 9X (I can’t even)- 9x (can be pronounced NYX or Nine-X) is the Gaster of this universe. He is Capricorns pantheon counterpart. In essence the Hades to his Zeus. He is the monster that everyone thinks about when darkness takes hold. He is the one that associates with apocalyptic events such as Ragnarok. He is however not evil by any stretch of the imagination. He would be better suited to be called a god of chaos. He tends to reject the laws placed upon the rest of the pantheon regardless of repercussions. It’s speculated that both Pollux and Nova were a part of him and crafted into the monsters that are known today. Nova being his more devious side which Pollux is more his intellect and drive. He has been locked away for a very long time in a prison aptly named Tartarus. His abilities are space and time-oriented very similar to Nova which makes him difficult to imprison. He, of course, has been in his cell for quite some time and it is unclear if he actually has had a change of heart or using it as a manipulation tactic. The only one he speaks with on occasion is Azi wanting to learn more about this planet they all used to call home. It is information that the others tend to not speak of. His father more so as he is afraid it will instill a yearning in his son. 9X’s genius is on par with his godly abilities such as creating artificial intelligence. Something that is not considered life. He uses Azi as a template for this new program… FLOWEY- F- Friendly L- Life-like O- Operating system W- With E- Earthbound Y- Yearning  F.L.O.W.E.Y was created by 9x and Nova with Azi as a template. He is a charismatic AI who was originally created as a helper as well as to teach the Prince about their planet of origin. Unfortunately, Flowey does not have the same reservations about disobeying his father as Azi does. Even going so far as to integrate with key and vital systems in The Capital. Flowey is not evil he just is driven to be the best help he can without regards to any type of consequences. He also feels abandoned by Nova as he was not only his creator but also his closest friend. It was why he was made. To be a companion and friend.  He helps Frisk meet and learns more about their existence. He acts like a companion. However, when Frisk becomes friends with Azi Flowey’s AI goes haywire. He begins to feel emotions he is not technically allowed to such as jealousy. This causes him to try and eliminate those threatening him which in this case would be all the monsters. Eventually, Azi attempts to program himself into the interface changing its initial programming. Some of Flowey’s previous versions:    Blookie: Nebula Riverperson: Omni Gerson: Quasar The Ursas: Ursa Major/Minor Greater Dog/ Lesser Dog: Canis Major/Minor  Character Origin/Mythos: Sans- Norse (Trickster)
Papyrus- Egyptian Undyne- Mayan Alphys- Japanese (shinto) Asgore- Celtic Toriel- Celtic Muffet- Hindu
Grillby- Medieval (Merlin) Asriel- Celtic through lineage Gaster- Greek/Roman Blookie- Western Guard dogs- Constellations (Native American) Riverperson- Greek (Charon) Gerson- Chinese (Divination/ wisdom) Background and Context: A long time ago there lived beings of great power. They could bend space and time with a simple thought and bring life to their creations. These were the gods. Ones of great benevolence but also great and terrifying power. Humanity, a primitive race just starting to understand life itself, became their focus. At first, their interaction was very rare only occasionally appearing to help but as time went on those interactions became more drastic. Their assistance and knowledge were seen as godlike to these humans. They would bring gifts and offerings to their new deities in hopes that they would look favorably upon them. That they would impart their wisdom and magic if they were pleased. In time this became more and more of a tradition. A religion built upon pleasing these deities so that their lives would be far improved but this became a conundrum for the beings. Some remained benevolent and helpful while others become greedy and wrathful. The power began to go to their minds corrupting their souls. These instances were written down in variation by the humans making up grandiose stories of fiery chariots and jealous gods. Thus mythology came into being for humanity. A way to explain the things in which they did not understand. As with each religion and deity, the monsters each became associated with a specific culture or mythos. Some being pinnacles of their pantheon and others being lesser deities molded to suit a specific task. These monsters rarely interacted with ones of their own kind but as power shifted some of them took on roles of others. One monster could have been the god of war in Greek mythos but end up also as the god of thunder in Norse. There were no limitations to their influence. One such “deity” was that of the trickster. A monster that tended to be rather childish in his ambitions jumping from pantheon to pantheon looking to lighten up his other “deities” stern demeanors. The monsters began to pull away leaving their presences in name only and occasional help but this was short-lived. It caused problems, war, destruction, and feuding powers sadly began to use their civilizations as almost pawns. Their meddling almost destroyed that which they wanted to originally protect. Absolute power corrupts absolutely. The “gods” faded from existence only being remembered in myths and legends. The great prophecy of the Norse. The architectural marvels of the Egyptians. Now they reside in the furthest reaches of the galaxy. They spread out among the stars but a group of them resided in a Capital of sorts. A station at the edge of the Universe. One which no human could ever reach. The Humans Impressions: When the monsters left the humans to their own devices they worship continued long after. Eventually the magic and the miracles that had once been performed faded into history. The monsters were all but forgotten unless mentioned in mythology or scary stories. The humans never harbored any animosity toward them since they no longer believed in their existence in any form. They only understand what their ancestors depicted them as. The monsters as well don’t really have anything against humans either. All in all, they just go about their jobs and enjoy the universe, helping from time to time discreetly if need be but never showing their faces. Main Plot Synop: The plot to Outertale is very simple as it is more based around the world than it is the actual plot. It is very similar to that of the regular UT timeline with some notable differences. Once the humans reach an age of technological advancement they begin to spread out and search the stars. Some of them encounter monsters which they mistake for aliens (hilarious enough. I mean Jerry looks like an alien.) They begin to build colonies living more and more outside the reach of their own galaxy. Humans, however, tend to turn on their own creating factions within the space colonies. Some more prosperous than others. Frisk’s colony was one such beast being cut off from the other colonies as a drifter. Unfortunately, Frisk’s family was nearly non-existent and being stuck on a space colony was little to be desired. After seeing a streak of fire slamming into the outskirts of the colony. Frisk decides to investigate. They have always been the curious type disobeying orders and questioning everything. The colonies outer and more dangerous regions became their playground finding old pieces of technology. Eventually, they stumble upon a crashed ship. One that It seems too damaged to be used but it’s nothing like they have ever seen before. Everyone else on the colony considers it to be cursed.  The strange runic language is confusing but Frisk finds that there is one lone computer onboard that seems to still function. It flickers with a bright yellow light showing an almost pixelated Flower with a =) face on the screen. Over the next few days, Frisk returns to decipher the runes with the help of their new friend which they find out is called Flowey. It is a project that the curious human enjoys and for once it is nice to have a friend. Eventually, the runes are deciphered claiming some sort of teleportation capability. Once Frisk is close enough the system fires up on its own sending the human straight to the monster Capital on the farthest reaches of the universe. A place that no human has ever been.  The rest of the story is an exploration of this new environment. Frisk befriends the monsters who don’t attack first. They actually mostly want to engage with the human showing off their ability a little bit. A part of them misses the previous worship. Nova seems to take a particular interest in this new human especially when they befriend Azi. They work to help shut Flowey down only for Azi to impart his knowledge on the interface helping it understand. Frisk has nothing to return to so they stay with the monster and become Azi’s human tutor so that one day maybe the monsters can return and live side by side the humans once again. Both Azi and Frisk are almost like siblings coined the star children.

[sudoscience]

New In Town: Background Info

Click here for a version with working hyperlinks.

Although it's never explicitly stated by the games, I'm going to assume the story is set in the US, or at least a country like it. The existence of monsters likely altered the course of several events in human history, so it's possible things are actually radically different. For the purposes of this story, I'll assume most things are still the same unless stated otherwise, (e.g. the American Revolution was still in 1776, and World War II was still in the early-middle of the 20th Century.).

Let's also just go ahead and say the story takes place in 201X for now.

[For the record, I pronounce 201X as "twenty-ex-teen". I guess you could say it "two-oh-one-ex", but why would you? I also assume it refers to the whole decade, so, for example, when I say "the early part of 201X", that could mean anywhere between 1 January 2010 and 31 December 2014.]

Navigation:

Humans and Monsters (Current headcanon)

Humans and Monsters (Old) (Preserved for posterity)

Footnotes

Master Post

Humans and Monsters

Humans and monsters have always coexisted relatively peacefully, at least as well as humans and humans. There have been some smaller wars over land and resources, but nothing like the war in Undertale (hereinafter "The War").

Someone still remembers that other universe, though. The universe where monsters freely used magic. The universe where a monster could absorb a human SOUL. The universe where the monsters were sealed underground and later systematically slaughtered by a human child. Perhaps that someone is W. D. Gaster. Perhaps it is Chara. I haven't decided yet. Until that time comes, I'll call that person Individual 1.

Individual 1 remembers the world of Undertale, but the version they remember is the one in which the genocide route takes place. After that world is destroyed, Individual 1 uses their DETERMINATION to bring the world back. They restore the world to long before The War takes place. Individual 1 convinces the King of All Monsters (who is probably someone other than Asgore) to strictly curtail the use of magic. It is Individual 1's belief that the only way to prevent The War from occurring is if humans never learn that monsters can absorb their souls. This is why we don't see evidence of magic in Deltarune.1

Sometime in 1965, a man in Twin Falls (Bill Hammond) learns of the monsters' hidden power. He attempts to alert the government, but it's years before anyone in power takes him seriously. Most people view him as a crackpot; he's this universe's Alex Jones. However, he begins to gain a following among the commoners, who take to calling themselves the Arcane Enforcement Unit. Hate crimes against monsters become more frequent, and the government establishes the Directorate of Inter-Species Relations to combat this.

Hammond's influence grows, and he runs for president multiple times, though he rarely gets more than 2% of the vote. In 1996, his campaign performs surprisingly well, but he is assassinated. His following was strongest in Twin Falls, and it once again becomes a hot spot for anti-monster sentiment, only this time it extends to humans who are considered "monster sympathizers", including Kris's birth parents and eventually Rudy, who is born around this time.

Paul and Judy Harper are DISR employees in Twin Falls. In 2003, the year Asriel is born,2 the DISR begins a joint operation with DHS and FBI to infiltrate the AEU, which is now suspected as a terrorist organization. The Harpers are assigned to the team, Operation Golden Flower, as undercover agents in 2005. In 2007, Judy becomes pregnant. Later that year, their cover is nearly blown. In order to keep their child safe, they begin making arrangements with some old friends of theirs, the Dreemurr family in Hometown. Their son is born in December,​3 and adopted by the Dreemurrs immediately. A few months later, Paul and Judy are killed; their death is not publicized classified in order to avoid jeopardizing the operation.

In the early part of 201X, an AEU supporter named Noah Trey Ullman is elected mayor of Twin Falls. This is when things really start to go south. Ullman incites violence against monsters and monster sympathizers. They usually stay out of the majority monster neighborhoods, but they tend to target monsters who are known to affiliate with humans. This is what prompts Rudy to move to Hometown.

Humans and Monsters (OLD)

Humans and monsters have always coexisted, but there's always been a lot of tension between them. For most of their history, they've lived more or less independently of each other. As humans began to industrialize, they began to expand and encroach on monster territory.1 Interactions with monsters became more frequent, as did altercations. While there hasn't been an outright war between humans and monsters, there have been frequent skirmishes, akin to the US and the Native Americans. There was a period where humans sought to make use of magic, primarily by employing the monsters. The monsters were often subjected to inhumane conditions, and uprisings, while infrequent, were not unheard of.

Knowing that a monster with one or more human souls could become a being of great power, this practice was eventually outlawed. Humans became reluctant to hire monsters at all, and most monsters eventually relocated to their own settlements. These are similar to Indian reservations, with the distinction that they are not considered sovereign. In order to keep things under control, the government created the Directorate of Inter-species Relations in the mid-19th Century. Under the pretense of fairness, the DISR banned the use of magic about 100 years ago;2 this would theoretically allow more monsters to be hired, so long as they weren't being exploited for their magical abilities. In practice, because magic is so central to a monster's existence, this drastically changed the monsters' way of life. Initially, smaller acts of magic were allowed, but as more monsters moved into settlements, their interactions with humans became less frequent, and the humans became more fearful, having only the legends and rumors to inform them rather than their own experiences. Eventually, all magic was banned, and the Arcane Enforcement Unit was created in 1956 to enforce said ban.

Of course, some monsters remained in the human cities. They felt they still had ties there, and refused to move. They are largely relegated to their own neighborhoods, and the AEU does its best to "gently encourage" them to relocate. Other than the AEU, very few humans interact with monsters.3

What happened five years ago?

There was a change in leadership at the AEU, and they became much more aggressive in their policing.

[I think this was a separate subsection because I originally planned on writing more, but now it seems pretty silly to have a subsection with just one sentence.]

Footnotes

Notes for New Info

There are several reasons I decided to scrap the old backstory, but this was probably the main one. I really liked the theory that Deltarune takes place after the Genocide Route, and I wanted to expand on that. I'm no longer sure I buy that theory, but I still think it's a cool idea. ↑

As noted in the "Headcanon for Existing Characters", I originally planned for Asriel to have started college early, which would further demonstrate how exceptional he is, and also factor into the resentment Kris wishes they didn't have of him. This is also his first semester of college, which is why Kris is so worried he'll have changed. I think I'll keep him a freshman, but increase the age gap between them. When Asriel gets back from college, he'll have just turned 19, while Kris will be turning 14 very soon. I'm assuming he's returning for Thanksgiving Break (and also that Thanksgiving still exists in this world), and this is the first time he's been back home since he left for college. ↑

Yes, Kris's full name is Krismas (no, not really). Their birthday is 22 December, and Asriel's is 15 September (unless there's an official birthday listed somewhere, in which case it's that). I hope it's okay if I write that Kris is biologically male, even though they identify as non-binary. Since I've already changed their pronouns in the main story, this is probably the only time it will ever be mentioned, unless maybe they go swimming or something. I got the idea from @caretaker-au and how they represent Chara as male non-binary (is that the right way to say that?); I know some people find that blog to be problematic, but I think that was more to do with them drawing porn of Chara and Asriel, not because they drew Chara as biologically male. (For the record, I was not aware of that when I started following them, especially since Tumblr banned porn a year before I even bought Undertale.) ↑

Notes for Old Info

Another reason I dropped this: I'm pretty sure this was inspired by @wolven0ne-universe's "Long Road" AU. Actually, there's a lot that was inspired by Long Road, even in the new backstory: the decision to have multiple OCs, the way magic supposedly works, humans exploting monsters for their magic, a shadowy organization that abducts monsters because of their magical abilities, etc. Some of this is attributable to the fact that I never read fanfics prior to playing Undertale, so some of these were "inspired" by Long Road simply by virtue of it being, like, the second fanfic I ever read, ever. (The first was "Flowey is Not A Good Life Coach".) Anyway, my point here is that I dropped this backstory in part because I didn't want it to be too similar to Long Road, not because I suddenly stopped liking Long Road. ↑

Here's an additional reason I changed the backstory: I wasn't sure if this was a believable timeline. I feel like it's plausible that human society would forget that monster magic involves a lot more than just a monster's ability to abosrb a human soul in just 100 years, but that doesn't seem like nearly enough time for monster society to forget that monsters can use magic. Plus, if monsters and humans have coexisted for all of human history, and monsters have been using magic for like 99% of said history, that seems like it could have created a lot of ripple effects that I would spend way too much time thinking about. Like, what if the existence of magic resulted in the first Industrial Revolution happening in the 15th Century? What would Earth look like in 201X if that were the case? I just didn't want to deal with all of that. ↑

Other than wanting to believe that Deltarune takes place after the Genocide Route, the next most important factor in my decision to scrap this backstory is that it's just really dark. The story has enough potentially depressing shit that I didn't need to add a monster Trail of Tears on top of it all. Plus, I was worried it might come across as racially insensitive. ↑

[huds-hub]

I updated the rules page. Mainly added info about what “multiverse-friendly” means to me, better organization, and general clarity. The whole thing is under the cut. Please take a gander!

RP-related stuff:

The Basics:

No godmodding!

Muse does not equal mun.

I mainly RP with Undertale/Deltarune characters, their (popular) AUs, and OCs based on them, but am multiverse-friendly within those constraints. If you have a story idea involving my character but don't know if I'll like it, feel free to send me a message about it. Want to do a "what-if" scenario of Undy meeting Alphys as teenagers? How about misadventures with the Fun Gang? I'm game!

Despite being multiverse-friendly, there may be some character developments from RPs that I want to incorporate in my main verse Undyne's canon. A section listing them on my About Muse page will be added soon.

Timelines are messy and weird. Even though Undyne is a teen and lives pre-game, characters don't need to be aged down. Hell, I have AUs of teen Undyne existing in Deltarune the same age as Kris. Because why not.

Human characters, beware! This fish doesn't care for humanity. It's not gonna end nice.

Triggers:

Themes pertaining to r*pe and s*lf-h*rm are a HARD NO for me. Please notify me beforehand if the theme of s*icide will appear in our RP.

CONTENT WARNINGS YOU SHOULD BE AWARE OF: please block #cw entomophagous (the eating of insects), #cw eye trauma, #cw body horror, #cw blood, and #cw depression (because NPC Asgore suffers from it) if those topics bother you. It is not nor will be very graphic or frequent, but block them just in case. I don't want to ruin anybody's day. :( I’ll keep this section updated if more sensitive topics come up.

Whether you RP with me or are just a “spectator,” please shoot me a message if you want me to tag any triggers. No questions asked. I won't judge you.

Shipping:

I portray Undyne as being exclusively attracted to females. If shipping occurs, it will be will female or feminine-aligned characters that are within the same age range as her.

DO NOT LEWFF MY MUSE. The Undyne this blog depicts is AGED-DOWN from her canon age and is under 18 years old. Though she may experience attraction, I will not write sexual RPs involving teen Undyne.

Even though I’m multiverse-friendly, I am not multship-friendly. In other words, if Undy's in a romantic relationship in one RP, I won't have her start a relationship in other RPs. No big reason why. I'm just forgetful. LOL

OOC blog-related stuff:

This blog is drama-free. That means no hate or vagueposts about other RPers past or present. I don't hold enmity toward people who choose to not reply to me. Let's save the drama for the RP, shall we? :3

Anyone can follow, ask teen Undyne questions, or OOC message me!  However, I will only RP in threads with designated RP blogs.

Please don't reblog RP threads that do not involve you. Likes are okay.

I generally reply to RP threads in order, but for a variety of reasons (forgetfulness, writer’s block, brain not Englishing properly, etc…) I may answer some slower than others.

If I don’t reply to RP threads, please don’t spam me with messages. One PM reminding me should be enough.

I have the right to discontinue RP threads that I don’t enjoy, turn down storylines, and block people. And so do you! I won’t guilt-trip you about your decision, so please do the same to me.

Porn blogs that follow this blog will be banned on sight.

Have fun! If you made it this far, send me a message saying “I’ll tackle ya!” so I know you read this page.

Happy RPing!

[underdilemma]

TudeTale

I’ve had a variant of SwapTale bouncing around my head for a while, so I figure I’d finally share it. I’m calling my interpretation TudeTale, since it refers to attitudes and applies to every character. Like SwapTale, personalities are switched, but their roles and stats haven’t. I recognize that other people may have similar ideas, but this is my official and complete interpretation. I plan on writing ficlets for this - maybe a whole out story - but there are future projects of TudeTale in the works

Sans - In this AU, he wears a turtle neck, rolled up khakis, bunny slippers, a lab coat that’s seen better days, and sometimes glasses (when he needs to do extra hard thinking). He has an incredibly excitable personality. He used his passion to get multiple online degrees and is the official scientist and engineer of Snowdin. He’s a jack of all trades - he invents, he studies souls, he’s presently working on an inter-dimensional transporter, he helps his brother with his puzzles, he’s working on a hotdog recipe so he works stands throughout the underground, and he’s the official judge of the Underground. Asgore assigned this little-skeleton-that-could the role of judge because, well, he’s an excellent judge of character. He’s never actually had to judge any humans or monsters (thankfully) but he keeps himself in shape just in case. He trains with his brother and often beats him when they spar - though his endurance never seems to improve. He can summon blasters, but can’t keep them up for long. He can also teleport, but is very limited. He loves making friends and going to Grillby’s after a long day. He was very sick when he was younger due to his HP and dedicates a good portion of his research coming up with magic enhancing technology. If he ever meets a human, he’ll gladly accept their help in his studies and will only result to fighting them if they kill Papyrus. His HP is still low as he staunchly refuses to gain LV, so he is prone to illness. He takes frequent naps to keep his energy up. He has a good relationship with his brother and has Undernet chats with Explizard92. He goes by WithoutHumerus. 

Papyrus - He has two main outfits. He either wears the jeans he’s owned for fifteen years and a sweater Sans made him with sneakers, or his official royal guard uniform (spiky shoulders and all), though he rarely wears the helmet (and almost never knows where it is). He didn’t get much attention growing up because everyone was more concerned with his brother, but so was he. He went to bed worried he’d wake up next to a pile of dust. He’s still a little traumatized and doesn’t like sleeping because of that. Whenever he does sleep, it’s due to complete exhaustion. He ended up joining the royal guard so he’d have a steady source of income. It felt like the natural thing to do, but he doesn’t have much passion for it. He really does enjoy making puzzles though and he cooks for Sans everyday, hoping to give him something slightly more nutritious that his greasy comfort food. Nutrition is also why he helps Sans with his hotdog recipe - as a co-creator and focus group. He sometimes feels lonely, and is sometimes mad at his brother for their circumstances, but loves him with all his heart. That’s why he always let’s Sans win when they spar - the look of joy and exuberance is always worth it. His stats are very good and he has the ability to summon blasters, but he doesn’t like the memories they bring up. He can’t teleport, but he casually defies the laws of physics and gravity without breaking a sweat. His job requires him to capture a human if need be, but he has too big a heart to actually take them out. Thankfully his captain doesn’t really mind. He rarely goes onto the Undernet, unless he’s having a really bad night, and goes buy Skeledone420. He has a minor obsession with MTT and watches clips of it whenever he can.

Alphys - She does have a stutter, but it only comes out when she’s uncomfortable - which she rarely is. She wears goggles on her head and a singed lab coat. Her scales are often ashen with smoke or gunpowder, but she doesn’t really notice. She’s too occupied with her work as the official Royal Scientist. She ascended to the position when her superior mysteriously blew up. She swears she didn’t do it, because she totally didn’t, but few believe her. Asgore promoted her in hopes her explosions would actually kill a human. She watches Mew Mew Kissy Cutie mostly for the action scenes and, when she’s off the clock, works on making weapon replicas. She works in pyrotechnics and has traps set out throughout the underground - along with cameras to record any explosions. She knows about the True Lab and goes down there to take care of the Amalgamates, but she doesn’t know much about their creation and doesn’t see much use in them. Her username on Undernet is Explizard92 and often chats with WithoutHumerus and FishUponAStar. Late at night, when she can’t sleep, she tinkers with her explosives, she’ll sometimes chat with Skeledone420. She has no idea who he is but really wants to meet him IRL. Although, her true bae is Undyne. She loves how strong she is and how she can talk about anything, and wants to date her but doesn’t want to risk their friendship. 

Undyne - Captain of the royal guard that is rarely caught out of her armor. She wears fluffy pajamas to sleep, but since an accident when she was younger, she  wears her armor any time she’s out of the house. She wears an eye patch because she lost an eye in a sparing match where she wasn’t wearing her helmet (her mother warned her a million times). Her mom was the previous Captain and Undyne easily slipped into the decision, despite not being very assertive. She leads the guard with a quiet courage however, and is deceptively strong, although she’s a bit clumsy. She loves sparring with Papyrus and never regrets letting him into the guard despite the protests of other members. She thinks highly of him and his brother, and envies their familial relationship. She is a composer and writes pieces on the piano and takes pride in her cooking. These are the only two fields in which she wields any confidence. She wants to be liked and included, but feels isolated by her position. A primary pleasure in her life is messaging with Explizard92. They’re friends IRL and occasionally go into the dump to look for things for Alphys to blow up. She’s romantically interested in Alphys, but doesn’t see why the Royal Scientist would be interested in a “dumb soldier” like her. She doesn’t have great self-esteem and has never killed a human. She wants to thought to prove her worth as Captain.

Asgore - King of the Underground, he wears a stately uniform and cape and carries around a ceremonial trident. He guards six sealed human souls and is ultimately responsible for killing humans before they pass through the barrier. He’s never killed a human, however. One soul belongs to his late child, two were the result of the Royal Scientist’s traps (one from Alphys), and the other three were mysterious deliveries. He’s gotten many souls in the post (from who he never knows), but has only ever successfully sealed three of the souls in containment units. The other souls had perished in transport. He enjoys gardening and making tea, and playing Santa during the holidays. He loves children and loathes the aspect of his position that require him to make tough decisions. He misses his wife, but can never forgive her for what she did. He enjoys a good pun. 

Toriel - She wears the acolyte uniform of the ruins and her useless tiara. She was banished to the ruins after being blamed for the death of her children. She’s been trapped behind the door for years and blames her husband for not finding a way out of the Underground. Whenever a child falls into the ruins, she takes them home, feeds them a good meal, gives them a big hug, and then kills them, sending their soul to the King. Since she’s sent almost a dozen souls, her husband must be procrastinating - or the souls perished in the mail since all she has is cardboard boxes and no proper containment units. She doesn’t want to kill the humans, but she does it for her people even if they don’t know the role she plays. Some humans have escaped from her through the ruin door, and she considers that a failure - though, she’s not heartbroken that she doesn’t have to commit murder. Her ideal night involves practicing knock knock jokes, eating snail pie, and tuning the traps of the ruins. On the best nights, she gets to hug a human as they fall asleep and can forget what she’ll have to do to them in the morning. 

Grillby - He wears a full on suit and tie every night, thinking appearances are very important. His fire magic is incredibly hot, so he wears fire resistant gloves to keep his friends and merchandise safe. Occasionally, if he gets too emotional, the fire on his head with spout up and burn the roof of his bar. His food is popular, but incredibly expensive - he has to keep up repairs after all. Everyone has to pay, except for Sans. He’s an ill skeleton and has already spent so much money on medical expenses from his past. He’d burn in hell if he made that boy pay. Papyrus will only talk to him when he needs a light. 

Muffet - She wears her “little miss Muffet sat on a tuffet” outfit, but has a watch on every wrist. She is quiet, only ever speaking to her spider army in whispers, and is desperate to spread her treats with the Underground. Everyone is so repulsed by the concept of spiders that she can’t even give them away for free. However, she is a wonderful listener. If people weren’t so afraid of her, she’d have a hundred friends... or if her location were more ideal. Her ideal night involves taking care of her family.

Chara - They wear a two striped shirt that was passed down from Asriel. Adopted Prinxe of the Dreemur family. They are quiet, sweet, and flirt with everyone jokingly. Died when Toriel suggested they try cooking and Asriel brought them buttercups. They’re ideal night is cuddling with their family. This character is up to major interpretation as they are strongly based on the player’s perception, but they retain their ability to make friends.

Frisk - Wears overalls and a long sleeved shirt. They fell randomly after a hiking accident (their family on the surface is actively looking for them, but to no avail). Once they see the Underground, they know they want to save it. They successfully escape from Toriel in most time lines and easily skirts past the avoidant monsters of the underground (they put up a fight but never mean it). They know their death could rescue the underground, but they don’t want to die, so they spend their journey trying to think of substitutes for another human soul. They realize by the end that there is only one option, but Asgore can’t bring himself to do it. Their ideal night involves saving the world! (Either IRL or in their dreams). This character is up to major interpretation as they are strongly based on the player’s perception, but they retain their ability to think outside the box.

Asriel - Something was always wrong with the goat Prince. He never had a good sense of empathy. He’s very excitable and doesn’t always think things through, so he appears callous and often hurts those around him out of indifference. He brought Chara buttercups because he read that they would make them sick - he didn’t think they’d die or anything. He absorbed their soul to rain fire on the human world and see what would happen. He did not expect them to kill him so quickly, or that he would die in the flower field, or that he would lose his soul. His ideal night involves coming up with a prank to pull.

Flowey - Turns out losing his soul improved his sense of humanity. He experienced destruction and has a new outlook on life, one where he enjoys watching the underground as if it were a fish bowl full of pets he desperately wants to keep alive. Although he’s been around for a long time, he has not become ambivalent. He looks for different ways to improve monsters lives with each reset. He’s a sweet flower who remembers his parents and sibling fondly. If he had a second chance with a soul, he’d live life to the fullest. Right now he’s anonymous, and his only friend is Papyrus, someone who desperately needs a cheering up. His ideal night is spying on his parents or speaking with Papyrus - anything that reminds him of the life he used to have. 

Mettaton - He has an overly eccentric robot body made by Alphys that he often wears a trench coat over. She insists he occupy the “pretty” model, but he does prefer the old model. He’s pretty quiet and shy, but was encouraged by his cousin and ghost family to share his talent with the Underground. He brought his music to Alphys and she absolutely adored it - and was excited by the prospect of making an entire robotic suit. She agreed to make it free of charge so long as he’d be willing to use it in case of emergency to help the underground. He stays with her so she can keep his body in tune. Also, being a ghost in a robot body around other ghosts makes Mettaton highly uncomfortable. He mostly makes music videos and some vlog like shows, and he acts in shows written by his cousin. He prefers to play piano and sing over any other instruments - though he has branched out into electronica. He writes letters to his cousin and stays off the Undernet.

Napstablook - A ghost that always sports a top hat. He is happy and confident and loves being a showman throughout the underground. He runs a popular snail racing ring and plays MTTs music with a spin of his own remix. He encouraged his cousin to pursue his passion and proudly sits on the side lines while sending letters of support. For all of his positive energy, Mettaton convinced Alphys to make him a robot body, but he turned it down - he’s comfortable with himself just the way he is and if anyone doesn’t like it, they can suck it. He writes scripts for his cousin now and again but never visits him. He’s got too much going on in Waterfall. 

Gaster - The former royal scientist who narrowly escaped a fatal explosion (he forgot to put the tamping sand in) with a quick inter dimensional shortcut. Unfortunately, he was a smidge late and ended up scattering across space time. He now resides as a gooey black glop with a cracked skeleton face and disembodied hands in the void between realities. He’s presently trying to collect all of his scattered remains and, once he does, he’s going to return to his original dimension to reunite with his assistant and his family. In this universe, he is the skelebros father. Before his untimely death, he lived in Snowdin with his sons. He made them from human remains - as all skeleton monsters are reanimated. Sans came first and the process was highly flawed, so he came out as undercooked with low stats and chronic magic deficiencies. Gaster perfected the method with Papyrus, creating a fully realized skeleton monster. He spent the majority of the boys’ childhood working and raising money for Sans’s healthcare. He acknowledges his neglecting of Papyrus and that is one of the greatest regrets of his existence. Should he return, he would focus on amending his relationship with his youngest. He’s been called spacey and often hums and sings while he works. He tends to speak in riddles and is one of two monsters who can understand the secret skeleton language of WingDings. 

Riverperson - The guide of the river wears a hooded raincoat. They move their boat by uncertain means and aren’t much for conversation. If you can get them talking, they speak solely in the ancient skeleton language of WingDings - though rumors say they can speak in hieroglyphics. They’re never around for long and many hypothesize that he is a skeleton, but no one can see into the void of the hood. 

Gerson - This turtle has no volume control and wears a camouflage safari outfit. He yells and screams and seems to have lost his mind after the war as all he can really say is his name. In moments of lucidity, he will tell stories of his time in the war, his time as a scholar, and how he’s gained his collection of wares, but those moments are few and far between. 

Tems - Every Tem has a story. They live relatively simply and joyous lives, but they treat everything with a seriousness that rivals a veteran. Proud Parent Tem? Raising that egg is backbreaking and they have to work fifteen jobs to support it. Shop Tem? Not only is coleg incredibly expensive, but they have to walk fifty miles to and from the campus everyday in order to get their education. Hoives? Chronic and tortured life and you know nothing about their struggles. Bob? DO YOU KNOW HOW HARD IT IS TO BE A TEM NAMED-

Nice Cream Guy - Boy is he tired of the same gig for his entire life. It’s the only product people are interested in and he’s trapped in his vendor position. He regrets everything. 

Burgerpants - No one is happier to work at the Mettaton resort and Burgerpants. Best fifteen years of his life. 

[unrepentantgeek]

Undertale AU backstories

Does anyone else think about how/why things are different in Undertale AUs that aren’t just a different setting or just different circumstances? Because I can’t help but wonder about the possible reasons for the differences if that timeline isn’t just LIKE that.

Like what about Underswap? Maybe Sans wanted to keep his brother happy so badly he leant into his immature side to cheer Papyrus up so intensely his interest in science took a backseat. Que a grateful, protective Papyrus who did everything he could to play to his strengths out of determination to look after and protect the big brother who did so much to make sure he was happy. Or maybe there was an accident, and Sans wasn’t the same after. Whether Gaster is still a scientist or not would probably be a pretty big factor in said differences. Regarding smaller things ‘classic’ Papyrus’ actual favorite food is the variant of oatmeal with dinosaur eggs right? So it’s far from far fetched that a more laid back Papyrus would be unrepentant about indulging his sweet tooth. Depending on what sort of sway you go for there are a various different ways that could play out, like Gaster and Gerson switching places. Maybe Undyne started out just trying to recreate the robots & weapons from anime & Alphys either decided to do her best to be like the warrior women in anime she crushed on or wanted to protect Undyne. Maybe an accident or a lack of whatever took Unyne’s eye led to Undyne or both her & Alphys growing up differently. Or maybe one or both of them wound up with different mentors. Maybe Asgore regretted his rash decision upon his childrens’ deaths before Toriel left in the normal timeline while Toriel was consumed by her anger & latched onto his plan instead of being disgusted by it. Maybe she brought up her “kill one and cross the barrier to get the rest of the souls” plan, only it took long enough for Asgore’s regret to set in or she kept holding out for an adult human. Or maybe whatever happened to Asriel in this timeline changed them long before Frisk came along. Muffet’s easy, she’s canonically deeply concerned over and protective of her kin. Maybe she’s in Snowdin to be closer to the kin trapped in the ruins and unable to simply go through cracks in the door due to the freezing temperatures? I don’t think there would be too much difference, but giving into that softer side could easily change her just enough to be more pleasant and someone I can easily imagine Papyrus enjoying being around. Grillby... well, maybe in ‘classic’ Undertale he was originally from Hotland. The lack of whatever had him living in Snowdin meant he never left. Personality wise... either said influence involved something bad happening and he’s more cheerful without that tragedy or horror to influence his life, or he put on a cheerful front instead

Then there’s Underfell. Maybe most of the time in non Fell timelines Asgore didn’t usually end up killing the humans himself, which left him in his normal senses to grieve the little humans alongside his own lost children & his damaged relationship with his wife. Or maybe in Underfell they weren’t usually children and things played out differently. Either way the result of the difference is a timeline where instead of guilt, grief and loneliness eating away at him Asgore is left vulnerable to the mental corruption that comes with LV, and since he’s the ruler of the Monster Kingdom the result is an angry, damaged Underground. Toriel? My best guess would be that she wound up with severe trauma from staying long enough to see the first death. Or a mix of trauma, LV, and guilt. Let’s start simply for the others. Undyne, fierce from the start, falls to this mindset easily. Rashly rushing into a fight and taking a ‘shoot first ask questions later’ mindset is already easy for her, add LV to the mix and you have a much harsher, angrier Undyne. To the point that maybe she either forgets the good intentions of her youth or ends up disgusted at what she’s become and guilt ridden. (I’ve seen a fic where Fell!Undyne is a traitor completely against the way the Fellverse Royal Guard operates, and ever since I’ve been intrigued by the idea of Fell!Undyne going in the opposite direction of the angrier, harsher persona most Fell iterations go for. Alphys is a gentle, anxious soul who just wants to help normally. Maybe LV messes her up too. Maybe rather than LV due to either desperation or orders she can’t ignore she takes her experiments farther & farther until she can’t handle it, until the only things left that could be the personal consequences were something cracking and warping in her or falling down. Muffet was already pretty ruthless and fierce, and protecting her kin would probably have been harder in this harsher environment. Or maybe something horrific happened to some of her kin? Grillby, a lot of people just write as angrier & harsher or indifferent, with his flames as purple. But what if it’s the opposite? With the background and personality many like giving Grillby it’s so easy to see him disliking the way the Underground slowly warps. Oh, maybe at first he’s like most Fellverse portrays him. But as he gets more discouraged by the way things are and more emotionally exhausted, he’s metaphorically and possibly magically drained until his flames run a much cooler red rather than any of the colors more natural for a fire monster. Sans & Papyrus, I’m going off the usual assumption that Gaster is their father. I don’t see Gaster changing too much no matter the timeline. Angrier and harsher, perhaps. But certainly not enough to be someone to treat his loved ones poorly. So maybe the problem there is that he gets absorbed in his experiments to the point he accidentally neglects his sons, or maybe depending on what the original home environment was he’s so busy he doesn’t notice their other parent either being too harsh or being outright abusive until it’s too late to salvage his boys’ mental and emotional state properly. Or maybe he’s even closer to how he normally is than you’d figure & Sans & Papyrus are bullied due to a home environment that should otherwise have left them to mostly grow as they did in ‘classic’ Undertale. The rest is at least alluded to in canon, as far as the Skeleton Brothers go: a harsher environment & harder personalities or higher stress due to said harsher environment result in turbulent squabbles that scar Papyrus & loses Sans a tooth. Being the dutiful big brother when Papyrus is more violent, competent & bossy he quietly accepts doing Papyrus’ bidding while still protecting him from the shadows. Maybe it’s that simple- or maybe Sans regrets hurting Papyrus so badly he sees being subservient in public as a way to make up for things. It could even simply their way of protecting each other in a world that would almost gladly see them dead. I see that in some of the Fellverse stuff that doesn’t fall into the ‘abusive Fell!Papyrus trope. (I’m a total sucker for the ‘Fell Papyrus isn’t abusive & they actually care just as much as the other iterations’ trope. I will absolutely do as much reaching as needed to keep my adorably loving and supportive familial relationship.)

Most of the other AUs are purely superficial differences or self explanatory, so that just leaves Echotale since I don’t know enough about the AU that has both a G!Sans and a G!Papyrus. There’s not much to speculate on for Echotale, since most stuff is going to be exactly the same or is literally just the basis of the AU. For one thing, maybe Frisk is older or younger when they go to Mount Ebbot? It’s also entirely possibly that this is ‘classic’ Undertale Frisk growing up in a different environment, which might involve descendents of mages or either military personnel or politicians high enough in status to be able to act on their paranoia the legends incite. (Of course the latter two would probably involve evidence or rumors indicating the legends are more than just legends.) Otherwise, the only other real difference i can see is Gaster being around. Maybe he never built the machine found in Sans’ basement/fell in the Core? (People say the former instead once in a while right?) Or maybe he simply didn’t fall in or was saved. Whether Sans keeps up with science in this timeline or still mostly leaves it behind is something I think best left up to personal interpretation.

[mightyjensblog]

What everyone gets wrong about Undertale.

Okay. So, this post is going to address a very, very common misconception. This misconception being something among BOTH fans and critics of Undertale. I'll address it below.

The game is famous for Preaching pacifism. And while it hardly started the concept. Its become something of a symbol of teaching it. But to me, Undertale is to a degree an UnBuilt trope for it. If you don't know what that means it's a term on TV tropes that describes when something is famed for starting several tropes. While nowadays it would come off as a deconstruction. Its an interesting thing to read about I highly recomend

Something that Undertale has been criticized for, and an idea a large part of the fandom seems to follow is the idea the game "Punishes you for defending yourself" with the genocide route. Or that the Game has a double standard, of the player being punished for killing in self defense against monsters trying to kill a child.

But While the Game teaches pacifism, it isn't nearly as black and white as that. There are several Neutral endings for if you only Kill specific Monsters in self defense. And a few of these are, at the absolute worst bittersweet. The biggest being the ending where Toriel returns and becomes queen of the Underground leading them to peace. It isn't a case of Pacifist or Genocide. This is something the fandom seems to perpetuate by portraying the Pacifist route as the Final Goal of the game and your job is to achieve it. That simply isn't the case, in fact some of the steps for getting the true Pacifist route require you to do things that don't even involve moral decisions. The Pacifist route is a Bonus.

And of course, the idea undertale has a double standard as we get consequences but not the monsters. This is incorrect, on the genocide route were given multiple chances to Reset and go back and the game won't punish you outside of say, flowey calling you out or something like that. And the monsters can still have consequences as well. They give them tragic backstories but Asriel dosent get a happy ending. And Asgore despite the fact he can barely be called "evil" and clearly didn't enjoy what he did isn't consequence free either, while he's free and still the king His Ex Toriel won't forgive him. Wich weirdly alot of fans are accusing her of being "Abusive" or a "Hypocritical coward" to Asgore. While I hate the people who make Asgore out to be some irredeemable tyrant as the next guy....That Still dosent mean that Toriel Is required to forgive him. And the game never tries to make it so it is. Some stories(Steven universe or recently kingdom hearts) have been criticized for either trying to use a tragic backstory, or say "well the charachter isn't really 'evil'" to justify there actions and place them above any sense of consequences. Undertale goes the opposite route, it gives Charachters like Flowey a tragic Past or charachters like Asgore who Geniunly can't quite be called "Evil". And then gives them consequences anyway.

So that is it. I feel like People, both critics and fans seem to make Undertales morality Alot more black and white then it is.

[p-alex]

it’s another one of those times where i read about certain people not cutting toriel some slack so i started thinking about why i like him more than her (and, on a broader level, what might cause that reaction in general), and the conclusion i’ve drawn goes like this:

toriel as a character is written in such a fashion that she’s frustrating if you don’t buy wholesale into her gimmick.

think about it like this: can you think of any moment during the game where toriel’s principles are questioned to any degree? the only instances of anyone even voicing something like discontent towards her that i can recall is her being rejected when she tries to propose peaceful human-monster relations after asgore dies and undyne going “oh my god!” during the “into the trash” bit in the postgame.

“wouldn’t that be enough?”, i hear you ask? no, not really, because the latter is an off-hand remark that she doesn’t even react to and the former... well, that’s gonna take a bit longer to explain.

see, the discussions about toriel’s decision to go into the ruins are really grating because 99 percent of the time, all parties involved, regardless who they side with, seem to think it’s the outcome of a binary choice. either toriel chooses to stick around in new home and talk asgore out of his rage or she goes to the ruins to stop the humans from getting killed.

i want to propose a third choice called “go to the ruins, wait for the heat to cool off and slowly work on convincing monsters that the war against humans is a Bad Idea”

“wouldn’t that take way too long?”, i hear you ask again, which i ask back: “how much time do you think toriel has at her disposal?” people seem to underestimate just how much time must’ve passed between them getting sealed in the mountain and being freed at the end of it. a total of eight humans fell down, seven of which during the timeframe that matters the most, and given that asriel got shot with arrows when he left through the barrier and society depicted in the end credits seems to mirror our own, it should be easy to assume that this whole thing took at least a few hundred years. the only ones implied to have lived throughout that entire timeframe are three in number, two of them don’t age and the last one’s a turtle, which are known to have long lifespans, so his lifespan’s probably absurd as well.

point being, time is hardly an issue. and there’s even more! as the mother of the child whose death caused this escalation in the first place, wouldn’t she have one hell of a trump card in arguments? wouldn’t anybody want to at least listen to a woman that, despite right in the middle of this disaster, is unwilling to let blood be paid with blood because no matter how heinous her son’s death was, the pain and anguish she felt was so great that she wouldn’t want anyone else to live with that burden?

then how come it feels like she never really tried to resolve this? the frustration comes in when you consider that toriel is refered to as the brain to asgore’s heart, yet all the smarts she could muster amounted to “locking up any human that falls into the mountain, only for them to slip through regardless despite her warnings”? it wouldn’t make sense for her to tell you less than the previous humans unless she somehow banks on reverse psychology by hoping that knowing less about how dangerous the underground beyond the ruins is would make you want to stay in the ruins more? and even within the ruins, she seems to have failed to communicate her point, since she just glares at that one froggit at the start to shoo him off and a later dialogue scene reveals that they’re terrified of her.

and to bring this back around to what she does in those neutral endings... why would she ever think anyone would listen to her then? i can buy that trying to bring up peaceful relations right after asriel‘s death is a dumb idea, and that she couldn’t handle the strain. but then asgore dies, right after a human shows up, and it’s then when she decides that they want to talk? did she not notice how much asgore was adored by his people? was all the time she spent talking with sans wasted on nothing but knock-knock jokes and asking him to keep an eye on you throughout your journey (while somehow missing that he’s so fickle that he outright admits to you that he would’ve killed you if she hadn’t)? she had a frighteningly large window of opportunity to do anything useful, but only decides to take action after it had passed?

which gets me all the way around to toriel being frustrating to think about. i don’t have any issue with believing that she wants the best for everyone and is, ultimately, a good person, but the way she seems to actively sabotage herself in the pursuit of her goals makes me wonder how anyone can consider her “smart” seeing how she rivals asgore in how boneheaded her decisions are in the long term. by comparison, asgore has tried to find a way past the barrier that wouldn’t require sacrificing humans (which failed spectacularly, but was, in fact, attempted) and was willing to die for a kid he’d known for five minutes just so someone could leave that place and do something about the issue at hand. but those shouldn’t be points that i’m giving to the guy predisposed to be your final roadblock. i should be looking at toriel and think to myself that she did what she could to ease the tension, but failed in face of all the pressure instead of as the anti-guts to asgore’s anti-griffith.

look, i don’t want to have issues with toriel’s character just for the sake of it. i’m not even going to pretend that i don’t have at least some bias for asgore despite how much of a fuckup he is. who knows, maybe i have missed something that would make me respect her more, and i really want to believe that i do. but despite having kept my eye on the fandom for so long now, i never felt like those issues i had were adressed to a satisfying degree. maybe the occasional piece of fanart that was willing to portray toriel’s approach as flawed at the very least, but those are few and far between.

either way, i figure i should just put this out there and hope for some interesting responses since this post is clearly way too long already and i still feel like i’m missing at least half my argument here.

[saveloadreset]

sorry. what's the proof that chara and gaster were alive at the same time? i've never seen anyone talk about this before. Nobody in the larger theory world and gaster fandom talks about when gaster was alive and when chara was alive being the same. but i'm no good at my own theories, i just follow other people's theories. And im used to theories outside of theory mainstream, like gaster having horns or sans being a dead human, being crap. so i was overly wary and hostile. plus was in a bad mood.

Oh man, I remember that horn theory, it was so bad! 

I understand your hesitance, but I think that this is a more grounded theory. I hope I’ll be able to convince you. For clarification, our anon is asking …

WHY I BELIEVE GASTER AND CHARA WERE CONTEMPORARIES

Part One: Gaster

The first thing we must do to build this theory is to try to figure out when exactly Gaster had his accident. We don’t know much, just that he had to have made the CORE sometime before he fell into his creation. It’s my thought that, because he built the CORE, he was likely present while the monsters colonized the rest of the underground after leaving what would become the RUINS.

My reasoning being; NEW HOME itself appears to be built on top of the CORE, and deeply reliant on the power its process generated to keep running smoothly. So I assume that, before the monsters colonized the Underground, Gaster was fine.

Part Two: Chara

Why does this imply that Chara knows Gaster? On a surface level, perhaps it would be easier to suggest that it does not. After all, the residence of HOME has evidence of one child living there, while NEW HOME has evidence of two.

As you can see, in HOME we have one chair for a child, and in NEW HOME we have two chairs for a child. This does imply quite strongly that only Asriel lived in HOME.

The beds in here seem to suggest the same. But, there’s something odd about this, actually. There’s something that exists in HOME that shouldn’t exist there, unless Chara had already fallen. 

You can’t reach the object in HOME, at least not to look at it. There’s a box of shoes in the way. But you can still see it pretty clearly, the picture of a golden flower. Perfect mirror of the one in NEW HOME. The one that Chara drew with their own hands. 

Clearly these designs were made to mirror each other, but I’d gently remind everyone that the HOME design was created FIRST, in the demo. Toby always knew that flower was gonna be there. If you assume that the importance of the golden flowers were already known to him … and considering the odd weight those flowers are given, that seems likely … Then that art would HAVE to have come after Chara’s fall.

Could Toriel have come back and hung it up? Maybe, but it feels a little curious, as far as compulsions go, to take a keepsake from a lost child and hang it up in a room that they don’t appear to have slept it. It feels a little more believable to me to think that Chara drew this picture for Asriel, and that he hung it up on his wall, considering how important it is that Golden Flowers never even existed in the Underground before. They could only come from Chara’s imagination. 

I take this (among other hints I’ll get too later) to imply that Chara fell and spent some time in the RUINS, but maybe not a lot of time, and maybe they did not spend that time living with the Dreemurrs as their adopted child.

By itself this is piecemeal though. What really made me think of this theory were a few things we learned in Snowdin …

Let’s go back to history class … By which I mean, ‘books, lots and lots of books.’

Here’s what we find in Toriel’s house. Straightforward. Nothing here we didn’t know already. They were afraid of humans, so they retreated. Nothing weird about that. But again, I said Snowdin was what set my brain on fire. What did I learn there?

This appears to be a continuation of the original monster history!

… But why does it say part 4? Parts two and three do not exist, either in game or in the strings. Whatever events led into this, UNDERTALE is being very deliberately mum about it. Even asking the shopkeeper bunny will have her brush it off and jump ahead to when Snowdin was founded. It’s a mystery to everyone.

But we do know the result of Parts 2&3. ‘Fearing humans no longer.’

Monsters went from fearing the retribution of humans terribly to being comfortable leaving the comfort of the RUINS and their defensive door, running up and settling the very EDGE of the barrier. Something took away their fear of humans.

So. Let’s brainstorm. Did they suddenly find themselves unafraid of humans because now they could fight back? I don’t know, it feels like if they had discovered an anti-human superweapon back then, we would have encountered it over our adventures, pacifist or otherwise, and Mettaton is a VERY recent invention.

So. They don’t have tools to stop humans or deal with humans. And yet they don’t fear humans? What could cause this? If humans still have the same destructive power over them, and they can’t circumvent that, what gave them that comfort, that reassurance? Did they think that they could coexist with humans, somehow?

We KNOW that Asgore didn’t think that at first. Gerson makes it very clear that he and Asgore had a very clear idea of what humanity would do to them, given the chance. (Forgive me for not having screenshots of this! I gotta use the strings)

* Long ago, ASGORE and I agreed that escaping would be pointless…* Since once we left, humans would just kill us.* I felt a little betrayed when he eventually changed his mind.* But now, I think…* Maybe he was right to.* ‘Cause after all, even though we never escaped…* A human’s killing us anyway,  ain’t that right?

That’s a pretty radical shift in attitude! What could possible cause it? What changed that led Asgore to believe in …

… the future of humans and monsters?

You might think that it’s a little much for me to imagine that the monster history would deliberately include Chara’s story into their chapters. But here’s the thing . ..  in a way, they do. There are other chapters of monster history that are less commonly seen.

In the interest of full disclosure, these monster history chapters I am about to show you are NOT accessible from inside the game, and must be accessed through datamining. Therefore, their canon status IS debatable. However, most of the information contained herein is already included as canon in the game, from different sources. 

Monster History 5 - Absent

Monster History 6

* (It’s a book labelled Monster History Part 6.)* Unfortunately, monsters are not experienced with illness.* However, when monsters are about to expire of age, they lie down, immobile.* We call this state “Fallen Down.“* A person who has Fallen Down will soon perish.* In a way, this confusing situation was all too familiar.

Monster History 7

* (It’s a book labelled Monster History Part 7.)* When a human dies, its soul remains stable outside the body.* Meanwhile, a monster’s soul disappears near-instantly upon death.* This allows monsters to absorb the souls of humans…* While it is extremely difficult for humans to absorb a monster’s soul.* This is why they feared us.* Though monsters are weak, with enough human souls…* They could easily destroy all of mankind.

Monster History 8

* (It’s a book labelled Monster History Part 8.)* There is one exception to the aforementioned rules:* A certain type of monster, the “boss” monster.* Due to its life cycle, it possesses an incredibly strong soul for a monster.* This soul can remain stable after death, if only for a few moments.

I would give these ‘dead’ entries less credit, were they not almost identical to what we learn of humans and monsters and the story of Chara and Asriel later. It feels like most of the reason that these books do not exist in the world is that there were better ways for Toby to tell this story …

But told like this, if we assume that these entries are reliable to the canon, (and I acknowledge that is up for debate), then we actually have a fairly clear timeline, and can get a firm idea on what the progression of monster history was across these tomes.

1: Monsters retreat into the underground and settle HOME.2&3: Chara arrives.4: Monsters leave and settle the rest of the underground.5: Chara falls ill.6-8: Explanation of the behavior of (dead) human SOULs and SOULs in general.

For these reasons I believe that Chara first fell before the monsters moved out to colonize the rest of the Underground.  In fact, I think that Chara may have provided the impetus for that decision.

Conclusion

This is going to be the shortest of the segments, because all this is is about putting the conclusions from the other parts together. If we take the conclusion that A: Chara fell before colonization, and B: Gaster had time to build the core before his accident, then Chara and Gaster were DEFINITELY around at the same time.

What’s more, since Gaster was the royal scientist and Chara was deeply involved with the royal family, it would shock me immensely if the two were not aware of each other. 

[dementedn]

Funny how you didn't mention that Chara's plan to free the underground involved killing 6 other humans to get their souls. Which I'm assuming they didn't tell Asriel about, considering he didn't want to kill the humans that attacked them. Either that, or he went along with Chara's plan until he had to actually kill people, and then made the decision to not do that (which I would say was the right one, both morally and because the entire game is about how killing people is bad).

So, you know, possibly manipulating their brother into their dangerous plan that involved killing people, killing themselves and making their family and the entire underground that loved them go through all that grief, and then trying to force their brother to kill people. Oh, and being misanthropic to the point where they wanted to use their full power and kill all the humans attacking them, not just the 6 needed to break the barrier. Seems more and more like "not the greatest person", huh?

And if you want to make the argument that all of that would've been for "the greater good" of Chara's plan to free the underground, Asriel remarks that if they had killed those humans, there would've been another giant war between humans and monsters for sure; thus making Chara's plan a complete trainwreck of a bad idea.

Also, Asriel literally had no positive emotions or compassion while he was Flowey, so there was nothing inside of him to tell himself that what he was doing was wrong. This, compounded with his extreme depression, him blaming himself for Chara's and his own deaths, and the sheer boredom he felt after exhausting all of the good things he could do, is what drove him to kill people just to see what would happen; and eventually turned him into the awful Flowey you meet in the game. That doesn't really excuse his behaviour of course, and upon being able to feel emotions again, even Asriel himself says that there's no excuse for what he did, along with being extremely remorseful for his actions.

I do agree with you that the genocide route is actually 99% the player's fault, and then Chara just steps in at the end and initiates the fight against Sans; and then kills Sans, Asgore, and Flowey. I also agree that the genocide route is the worst thing the player can do, and therefore the player is the villain of the genocide route.

However, I wouldn't say that makes it incorrect to call Chara a villain. They kill Sans, Asgore, and Flowey, destroy the world, take your soul, ruin the true pacifist ending forever, and according to Sans, bring all other timelines to a stop, ruining all other endings, and possibly alternate universes as well (such as Deltarune? But we'll see how that plays out).

Genocide route Chara is a product of the player's actions, but if you want to hold Asriel and the player accountable for their actions, I suggest you do the same for Chara.

Still pisses me off that chara is still seen as the villain of undertale

There is no villain because

You Are the villain

You killed everyone in the genocide route... Chara was only finishing what you started

"But asriel said Chara wasn't the best person"

Yeah no shit ya dufus

Are you the best person?

The reason he says this is because up until that point he had been idolizing them, seeing them as one who could do no wrong

In fact asriel has done way worse things then Chara ever did

He killed everyone multiple times while he had the ability to reset as flowey

Chara only ends the killing game you started

Asriel steals the souls and tries to kill you

Twice

Now explain to me why he's the good goat boy?

And Chara is the genocidal maniac?

And Do not say

"he's misguided"

Yeah and so was chara

In fact

Chara tried to save everyone

After they realized the flowers were poisonous they came up with a plan to free the monsters with their own death

In the post genocidal pasifist

Chara appears

As if to say

"you cannot escape the consequences of your actions"

And who's to say the red xs on the photo... Isn't even Chara's kill marks

But rather... Yours

After all you did kill everyone the try before

And no one truly knew alphys' fate

And... It's kinda funny to be afraid of a marker line

In conclusion Chara is not a bad guy and I thought we were done with this back in 2017

God I'm not even in the fandom anymore

[nighttimepixels]

answering asks^^

anons & @jellyont okay, can i seriously hug all of you? <3 <3 i’m seriously all kinds of emotional and have been treasuring your messages. i’ve got one hell of an anxiety disorder, so it means the absolute world to me to know that you like my silly art and animations, and that you’d take the time out of your day to send me such sweet messages. even though sometimes i take a while to respond in these posts, i always try to reply to you all-! to me i only would ever want to try to answer you cuties, sweetness has nothing to do with it - except for how sweet all of you are. <3 <3 

gonna go be flustered for 20 years now no worries

ahhh thank you so much, sweet anon! <3 i’ve definitely been the biggest fan of that depiction of his relationship with the skelebros (though i also have a number of fics/other hc interpretations of him as dadster or otherwise that i enjoy too, heh). and as for him falling into the core, ohhh i’m so relieved to hear that. a lot of people seem to either veer on the side of Asgore being purely a cinnapapa victim of grievous circumstance (which i personally just don’t... agree with), or that he would simply just be one of the ones who’d forget. i ended up musing on the circumstances - as Royal Scientist, Gaster would certainly know Asgore, and i like the idea that they were friends... at one point. that terrible feeling when you lose a friend despite your efforts to reach out as they change under terrible circumstances into someone who it is just not healthy to be close to, no matter how much you care/cared for them... i thought that just applied so well. 

i’ve got some ideas for further art with him, both in the ‘origin’ circumstances and during/post void, so i may try and do those soon! <3 thank you for your kind words and interest ;v;<3

tumblr what the heck. i’ve checked it a few times now in the past day, and sometimes it seems to be marked, and others it isn’t...?? i’ll admit that i touch on some dark themes re the child’s soul and tough decisions, moral and ethical grey areas, but nothing... “nsfw” or outright censorable, i don’t think? 

sigh. thank you so much for the head’s up - hopefully it gets resolved, i’ve tried to mark it for review, so fingers crossed. agreed on tumblr really needing to get their algorithms sorted, spaghetti code inner machinations or not.

kasfk thank you, love ;//v//; <3 honestly, heh, i’m always working on something. animations and stills alike. and ahhh, favorite thing...? well... aside from the obvious skelebros and undertale i’d say interactions and shitposty shenanigans X) and also looping gifs, particular when i can spend the time to make the motions in it loop really naturally (like that Stretch gif i did of him smoking along the windowsill).

least favorite...? oh gods. anything to do with mech or vehicles, honestly, especially in pixel form... which, ironic, because the thing i’m ‘most’ working on currently involves precisely that. since you asked about both, here’s a tiny preview of it-

super tiny window bc super incomplete. 

... and i’m making multiple shots of it, no less. OTL|||

@letsallbecalmchaps yes i have! <3 it really was super cute :) and color palettes... oof, that’s definitely a hard one. you’re right, i don’t use ‘pure white’ for the skeletons - choosing palettes is something that... i think is definitely developed over time? and it’s something i’m still absolutely figuring out. my best recommendation is to try working with some of those ‘limited palette’ challenges to get a feel for how coloring and shades work when you only have 4-6 colors to work with (plus it’s a great exercise in silhouettes and the like). beyond that... for me, i’ve settled more on certain palettes based on the tone of colors and schemes that i like. for me, it tends to be a bit warmer, but muted (i don’t usually work in super-saturated colors). the skelebros present a challenge in that, as various colors really come into play for each au skelebro. so really - try experimenting! look at palettes you like, try experimenting, and check out tutorials online about choosing palettes and shading. (and tip on shading that i’m sure you’ve seen - try to stay away from shading with black, even in pixel art! shade in more or less saturated versions of the color you’re working with, and shift a small amount in one direction or the other on the color wheel/spectrum that you’re working with. play with it! it’s a lot of work to find what you like, but so rewarding when you do.)

ah, that’s @with-a-whisper! :) iiii have two potatos following me, actually, so i’m not sure who you’re referring too - though both of them are total sweethearts from when i’ve interacted with them! <3 i try to loop in different cuties when i can, heh. 

i believe you were referencing the Axe gif i did for tyranttortoise’s latest SSLL chapter - thank you so much-! <3 i’ve been experimenting with a few different things, i like the kind of ‘cutscene’-esque look that it ended up leaning towards, so i’m happy to hear that you liked it too! <3

@ate-wapakels69 pshhhh thick thighs and squishy tummies unite! <3 pretty sure that just makes you even more of a 69/10 love ;D and heck yes i know ace attorney, it’s one of my favorite game series! <3 sadly i’ve never played the original apollo justice games, and i’m still trying to get my hands on edgeworth’s investigations, but outside of that i’ve played most of them, including the layton crossover. i love those nerds so freakin much. <3 

you have bestowed your affections onto quite the lucky skeleton, and i’d say you have quite the lovely taste indeed. a glorious pair you shall make, drunken or otherwise. X) <3 <3

... not gonna lie, i’m pretty sure i legitimately squeaked when i got this message, @kissthethunder-!! and then blushed, way too much. for a very extended period of time. 

i mean, everyone, c’mon, let’s be real-

SUCH A CUTIE.

fellow sin-ster, you make my life happier, and are loved right back! keep being your fabulous self - you share so much joy and hilarious delight with your wonderful shenanigans and fantastic writing :)      

oh sweetheart, vent art is absolutely normal and weird in no way at all. every artist i know - and writer, and creator of any variety - has made vent art. creating is such an emotionally-involved experience, it’s only natural for someone to want to explore or express their feelings in their preferred craft(s) - and vent art is no different. if you want to post vent art, then by all means please do! it’s an unfortunate given that some people aren’t fans of it, but if that’s the case, they can either scroll by or choose to not follow. it’s easy to forget, but tumblr is a blogging platform. you’re not required to only post ‘professionally’, or otherwise. if you’re having troubles keeping up with what you feel your blog is demanding, then take a step back and take care of you. if you want to post that kind of art and are nervous to on your main blog/art blog, then you can always create a sideblog that you can have as a more personal one.

to answer the other part of your question more directly - yes, i absolutely draw vent art. sometimes it’s just... general content involving skelebros that i feel comfortable posting. that one you mention specifically was vent art, yes. 

it’s okay to not be okay.

i’ve drawn a number of things, some far rougher than others, to vent. i don’t post all of them, not by any means, sometimes it just doesn’t feel like something i want to share. 

but... hmm. if you’re feeling nervous about it, and alone ,then let me share one that i drew a month or so ago when i was hitting a really bad low. i’ll put it below a cut, as your question is the last one on this post (so anyone who doesn’t want to see it, know that there aren’t further asks below the cut - just an example of my own more personal vent art). 

... it’s very rough. but like i said, it’s vent art. it’s not always about being perfect, or polished, or ‘the best content’ - it’s okay to do things for yourself, to self-insert or not, and to make art not just for your perceived or desired audience.

what’s most important is for you to take care of you. it’s easy to overlook how much heart is poured into your art/stories, like you’re putting a little piece of yourself in every one. take time for you, to build yourself up, to work through the weight of the hardships you go through, to find inspiration, to just... be. 

hopefully me sharing a rough example of my own more outright vent art is... well, i hope you know that i’m here in solidarity with you. pursue art in all the ways you want to, and let yourself explore - for yourself, not just for others.

[dukeofriven]

Frisk on the Road to Damascus: A Pseudo-Essay on Converting to Undertale

So 664 days after it was released, and 382 days after I purchased it, I finally, finally, finally beat Undertale.

And... I loved it. Controversial opinion: it’s really good.

But it took me a while to love it. Let me explain, because I’m sure y’all are super interested in me doing so.

I had about five false starts playing Undertale, and all five of those false starts was how fucking irritating I found the sound of Flowey and Toriel’s dialogue. I have a hypersensitivity to sound, especially frequencies, and the sound of Flowey and Toriel’s dialogue is... not pleasant, especially at first aural blush. I got used to it when it when I finally powered through it, but if there were any major changes I would make to Undertale it would be better sound controls - being able to cut the audio down on the dialogue by even 25% would make a big difference to it on an accessibility ability level* ** It was Undertale that first ‘inspired’ me to get Tumblr Saviour - first because I didn’t want to be spoiled by a game I heard was good and wanted to play relatively unspoiled, and later because  I didn’t want to be reminded of the game I was having so much trouble with.

What was it that made me pick up Undertale long enough to get through it? As usual, it was podcasts (there’s a small paper to be written on how podcasts got me interested in pro wrestling, but that’s a whole other story.) The superlatively good Let Me Tell You About Homestuck podcast relaunched a little over a year back (shoutout to excellent co-hosts @yuri-librarian and @betgirl ), and when I found out I dived back in, and in the process rediscovered my love of Homestuck. Homestuck and I had a falling out during the gigapause and Homosuck - at the time it felt like the webcomic’s author was pissed at his own comic and actively self-sabotaging it, and even though I caught up with the comic before the ending I was still disgruntled with it and not willing to engage with it much.

But listening to LMTYAH re-ignited fandom joy within me - a euphoric Road-To-Damascus re-conversion I can only describe as ‘George Bailey coming back to existence at the end of It’s A Wonderful Life.' I gleefully snatched-up the pesterlogs and clutched them to my chest. I waved cheerfully at [S] Descend and [S] Cascade. “Merry Christmas you old mspaintadventures!” I shouted at the top of my lungs as I pelted through the snow to hug my beloved Beta Kid family again.***

You can’t discuss Homestuck anymore without discussing Undertale, which was so clearly fed by Homestuck, which was in turn fed by Undertale, because media is an incestuous slurry. Part of the issues with coming back to the Homestuck dialectic table is that you can’t ignore that big ol’ bowl of Undertale sitting between the roasted trans-media experiments and the mashed potatoes. If, every time that bowl gets passed around, you put your hands over your ears and and scram ‘LA LA LA LA LA I DON’T KNOW WHAT YOU’RE TALKING ABOUT’ then the other guests are going to look at you funny and your nearest neighbour is going to conclude that they’d rather sit through that pompous lecture by the vegan on the other side of them after all.

It’s not a great dining experience, is what I am trying to explain with this increasingly overcooked analogy. I wanted to eat with the rest of the guests - I wanted to watch @revolutionaryduelist’s video on Undertale themes and Homesick themes. I want to suck it up, be an adult, and eat like a goddamn grown-up.

So I grit my teeth, grabbed the bowl, and started shovelling large spoonfuls down my throat. I think this is how grown-ups eat right?

I didn’t like the taste at first. What brought me to Undertax more than anything was the idea of the pacifist run. The games that have this as a legit option are few and far between, and some of them (e.g. Dishonoured) get downright nasty about it. Undertake wasn’t nasty about being helpful, but it didn’t make it easy, either.

Some of you may  feel the need to note that ‘the pacifist route isn’t supposed to be easy,’ to which my response would be ‘shove it up your bum you git-gud wankeroos.’ There are two types of ‘hard’ in video games - one of challenge, and one of ability. The excellent puzzle game The Witness doesn’t greatly challenge ability (for sighted people, at least) - by and large almost all of its puzzles just involve drawing a line. The Witness is hard because the puzzle are so tortuously, mind-bindingly challenging. By contrast, a platform like VVVVVV doesn’t preset much mental challenge - it barely has anything like a puzzle that I can remember, but in terms of ability it requires lightening-fast reflexes and great timing (Somehow I beat that game -I still don’t know how).

Undertale is not a hard-challenge game, it is a hard-ability game, and I flat-out suck at its bullet hell mechanics. All my frustrations with the game were met at the bullet board - if I could make one other major change to the game it would be slightly improving the speed of the heart cursor. Time and time again I violently cursed because I had just missed getting out of the way of something with a cursor I found sluggish and unresponsive, as though my keyboard was laggy. A poor skill level coupled with what felt like hardware problems made for an increasingly difficult experience, one in which I felt like the game was almost taunting me: “oh, you want to be a good person, huh? Too bad - you lack the skills to be a good person. You’re not going to get through this without resorting to killing, you intrinsically violent, terrible person."

Staying alive through the confrontation with Undyne drained me, and by the time I was on my second iteration of Mettaton being a shitheel I just felt burned-out. The story still felt pretty flat, and wasn’t really drawing me in. The hardest decision I had had to make was at the very beginning of the game - Toriel’s home, and Toriel herself, were so lovely and sweet that I still resented the game for making me have to break her heart. I didn’t want to leave her house, I just wanted to stay and live a nice life with her in the Underground. But no - the game wanted me to have  heroic destiny and shit so fine, guess i’ll go back to the surface I don’t have much interest in seeing. Since leaving Toriel’s house all I had wanted to do was return to that tranquility and warmth, and instead I just got more monsters trying to kill me. The stuff with Papyrus had been very funny, but the game still wasn’t sinking its claws into me - it was a quirky but light RPG, funny, but not funny or deep enough for me to understand why a big bowl of it was sitting at the Homestuck dialectic table other that Toby Fox had worked on both things - which seemed like a weak reason to include it. (Remember the Homestuck dialectic table? That didn’t stop being a thing or anything)

So I walked away again and did other things over several weeks, possibly months. I finally came to terms with the fact that my vision is permanently damaged and got myself a Kindle so I could read again. I read a book on the Apollo programme and took another crack at Bleak House. I watched an episode or two of Lucha Underground, got caught up on The Adventure Zone, and went through every post ever posted on @revolutionaryduelist’s Tumblr. I fantasized about buying a new computer. I told myself to watch the Little Witch Academia TV series and forgot every single time - and so on.

And then I watched Car Boys.

Car Boys is one hell of a ride, no pun intended, a strange mishmash of video game fault testing and emergent meta narrative that ends up surprisingly emotional and affecting - and as the credits rolled I made the always unwise decision to wander down into the Youtube comments, where I discovered the fun ‘Car Boys is just like Homestuck’ argument which, natch, led me back to thinking about Homesick and Video Games - and, ultimately, Undertale.

“Fine,” I told myself, “I guess I’ll beat it, at least to finally have one thing in my over-glutted Steam Library I have actually seen-through to completion.”

So last night I booted up my Steam, made the conscious decision to stop trying to get my just-bought 360 controller to work with Sonic Adventures DX via wine (it keeps crashing), and booted up Undertale.

For a while it was just fine again. I don’t like Alphys, even after beating the game: she reminds me of a lot of shitty people I’ve known in my life, and the story uses her lack of self-confidence as sort of a moé defence - ah, look at how cute she is, isn’t that adorable, she feels bad about what she’s done - without ever actually examining that behaviour in any critical detail. Alphys being an adorkable anime fan and her relationship with Undyne are all great character traits - but it doesn’t make her a good person, and the game never truly calls her to the mat in much the same way that it sort of glosses over Asgore having condoned the murder of six other humans (but he comes into the story so late I find him less of a character and more of a symbol.) Alphys gets a whole ‘trip to the dump/romance role-play’ subplot after being revealed to have deliberately ordered a bunch of monsters to at least make a pretence of killing you in order to make herself look like a hero - and that's before you get to go into her basement and learn the really shitty shit she did with dying monsters' souls. I mean Jesus Christ Alphys how come nobody calls you on this!

But I’m getting ahead of myself. I helped Mettaton’s ratings, left him to be patched upped by Alphys, and made my way to the castle walls - and the writing started to get really good. I loved meeting with Sans and his talk about the true nature of EXP and LOVE, loved walking into the throne room for the first time, loved the moment when I realized Toriel was the Queen-in-Exile - coming upon the New House was genuinely moving… but then I reached Ashore, and it wouldn’t let me TALK to him, and I didn’t like having to fight him after a full pacifist run, and also he was really hard.

So I swallowed my pride a little and googled vague hints for ways to make the fight easier. I learned that yeah, I absolutely had to fight him, and then I went and ground Cloud Glasses back and forth to the Temmie Store to unlock the Temmie Armor and earn the cash to stock-up on my beloved Bisicles. So equipped, I went and fought Asgore for the final time, thus beating this game that everyone raved about for reasons I could not understand.

Then the game ended and suddenly started to get really, really, really good. Much like Homestuck in Act 6, Undertale’s starts pushing the boundaries of games themselves, using save files against you and deliberately crashing the game. Omega Flowey is a goddamn nightmare, a visual headache who rails against you and the concept of friendship, and while he was a frustrating fight for the first time I felt like this was less a reflection of my shitty skills and more a deliberate choice of the part of the game to show what monstrous power he wielded.

As I was sent back into the world, I was eager to go find Undyne. I had to look-up where she lived because I had totally forgotten that her house existed - in fact, I had forgotten Papyrus had ever said anything about meeting up at Undyne’s house, so I never befriended her in my original run. The moment Undertale moved from a game I was starting to enjoy to one I knew I loved was the moment Papyrus leapt out Undyne’s window - late in the process to fall in love with a game? Perhaps, but so it was.

Missing Undone the first time through felt so narratively satisfying to me that it wasn’t until writing this that it occurred to me that it was something that didn’t have to have been missed - the run-in with Undone hardly ends on a high-note: after a miserable shield-fight and a whole lot of fleeing you give her a cup of water and she slinks-off into the night. It wasn’t something that exactly screamed ‘She’s Ready For A Friendship Lesson.’ I kept expecting her to show back up somewhere in New Home Castle for Round 2: Redemption Boogaloo, but it never happened. Then Sans got Anubis on my ass, the King of All Monsters got murdered by a flower and my game crashed on purpose - sort of forgot about her no-show appearance.

So there we were: breaking windows, sipping tea, making the worst goddamn spaghetti it’s ever been my misfortune to make**** and having a wonderful time. Other than my general misgivings about Alphys being let-off way too lightly by the narrative*****, after that first reset Undertale was practically a perfect game for me. The ending made me feel mushy and sappy, the epilogue where you get to pace around and talk to just about everyone felt so unbelievably RIGHT - if you want to head out and make one last personal connection with everyone you’ve ever met, you can pretty-much do that. Ben Croshaw wrote quite elegantly that Undertale represents “the triumph of kindness, reminding people of who they were before tragedy twisted them.”****** That kindness is what makes the game so compelling - what makes reading-up on the Genocide route feel so legitimately horrific and transgressive. It’s going to stick in the back of my mind every time I am needlessly rude to someone, overly sarcastic, or just my usual ‘less kind than I wish I was’ self. Homestuck wallets just went on sale today and I immediately bought one and then felt bad for all the Tumblr posts I saw for worthy causes - I SHOULD GIVE UP ALL MY WORLDLY POSSESSIONS TO THE POOR AND GO PREACH THE GOSPEL OF ACTING WITH MERCY as Undertale teaches.

It’s the kindness that will stick with me - and dear God, reading about the Genocide routes makes me nauseated. I’m the guy who claims that this time his Mass Effect play through will be Renegade and then goes 100% paragon again except for being rude to Anderson (because screw that dill weed - oh, geeze, I have failed Undertale again.)

Anyways, long, convoluted, not-very-coherent opinion: Undertale is a good game. Sorry it took me so long to learn that.

*but if we’re going to talk about accessibility in video games we’ll be here all year: an especially big fuck you to all those games who don’t let you change the font size for all of us with really poor eyesight (which is to say essentially all games).

** And what is it with games being embarrassed to have their text dialogue scroll past without some kind of irritating sounds? Undertale at least uses the noise as a form of expanding character identity, but the world is littered with sprite JRPGs who think dialogue is best accompanied by a garbled, repeating beep.

*** Re-experiencing the comic multiple times gave me so many more insights I never used to have. Revisiting Act Six and Homosuck, especially through @betgirl‘s eyes, I found so much to love. Which there is some serious problems in it (The Dancestors and Abuser Gamzee), there’s so much more joy, depth, and thought then I remember. I don’t know if, at the time, with the broken pacing, it was possible to see the shape of the narrative arc that Andrew Hussie was trying to tell - the deconstruction of the nature of storytelling, video games, and the ‘Problem of Mario.’ It’s really good, you guys, and you do yourself a disservice if you have never read it.

**** Undyne is right, by the way: homemade pasta is unquestionably the best and super easy; its only major flaw is that it’s just time-consuming, especially if you’ve got to hand-crank an antique pasta machine to roll it out. KitchenAid sells a pasta roller attachment for their mixer for an amount that justifies a class uprising all on its own.

***** I’m not some weirdo going ALPHYS MUST BE PUNISHED but Alphys should really, you know, actually apologize for the shit she pulled. Yeah, she says ‘I got scared of my amagalgamtions and cowardly didn’t tell their families about it,’ but not being honest about it is the most insignificant issue here. Much more pressing and things like Experimenting On A Human Soul, Actually Making the Amalgams In The First Place, Setting Up A Bunch Of Death Traps So She Could Insert Herself Into Your Life As A Hero. I can forgive Alphys - I think she is a genuinely good person who made misguided and out-right foolish mistakes and should never have had the job she had (I hear Toriel fires her in one ending which fuck yeah Toriel, only one with sense.) Undertake doesn’t need to re-write a damn thing about Alphys - I would just like one more scene in which Alphys admits culpability for the original problem rather than just an aspect of the fallout.

****** And it should be stressed: Alphys deserves kindness (and a good therapist). I don’t want a kangaroo court or anything like that - my issue is with the narrative, not Alphys personally.

Asgore, though… dude kinda murdered six children? Do people talk about that, because they ought to.