#I think with all the time Gaster spent in the void

[howlsofbloodhounds]

I know I usually suggest Killer songs, but Surface Pressure is a perfect Color song and that needed to be said

Yes definitely.

Color needs more love 🙏 my beautiful butch wife. He’s literally just a girl.

Off topic, but Honestly I’d imagine that all the time spent in the Void with no one but Gaster and souls screaming in his head definitely led to an erosion of his identity if not fragmentation. Did he even know who or what he was by the time he got out—Sans, or Color.

Who was Color—Sans with a different name, just something being puppetted and pulled around by fragments of the souls, some strange mix of both. The only connections he has to his past identity and life don’t even know who he is.

He must’ve felt like a shell, looking for some type of purpose or meaning—maybe he didn’t even know if the voices of the souls were real, or if he was just hallucinating or “wandering off” again (maybe believing the voices he heard in the Void were just something he lonely mind made up to fight against its isolation and loneliness as well as his own guilt—and now he struggles to hear the souls and their thoughts without feeling like he’s “crazy” or back in the Void—having to become extremely self aware and build that self awareness over time to even begin to notice the effects and influence the souls had on him, just to be able to tell himself apart from what they want, and to be able to even understand what they want.

Not even noticing if he was missing any time or memories (especially if it’s rare), often not realizing until after something happens that those thoughts, actions, or feelings weren’t his—as if he is experiencing “made” actions and thoughts.

Anyway yeah Color makes me think. His internal experience of self and reality must’ve been very confusing and distressing for a long while—which would explain why he and the souls eventually start developing a collective identity around “Color” and who he is, growing and developing strict moral rules and boundaries over time—especially when experiencing things with various Killers and Nightmare—to cling on to some sense of stability, structure, safety and purpose.

[ossiethegreat]

color being tragic

-

I loveeee drawing him crash out in the void.

I think he’d have a lot of resentment towards Gaster at first, because I’m assuming he’d have regained his memories of him as soon as he stepped foot into the void,, and the only things he remembers is him really just not being there as a father, and now he’s being forced to stay with the guy that abandoned him in his eyes 😭

then again the new souls kinda force him to forgive Gaster because of the kindness/integrity he has… as much as he wants to dislike Gaster for what he was, he can’t because it’s hard to hold grudges when he’s always filled with kindness.

anyway I need to sleep idek if anything I’m saying makes sense

Othertale belongs to superyoumna

[noelle-holi-gay]

Dess, who is trapped in the Void, becoming a big sister figure to the Discarded Vessel.

"Okay, uh, this is…Dess Holiday, void log, Year Three, March 16." Dess sighed, holding her phone up to her mouth as it recorded her voice. "I'm really fucking mad right now, and Gaster says to record these when I'm mad to vent the energy, and even though I'm still pretty sure that man is not a licensed therapist, I don't have much else to do. So here I am."

She groaned, pausing for a second, to lean back against the strange, soft, shifting wall of her makeshift bedroom. Well, it was less of a bedroom and more of a sad little box of condensed metaphysical void-matter floating in the middle of endless black nothingness, but it was hers, dammit, and she was at least thankful for the relative privacy.

"Chara's really getting on my fucking nerves again, the little shit. They remind me of Kris, but if Kris was, like, way more fucking annoying. Gaster says it's the trauma but I don't give a shit what it is, to be perfectly honest. It's taking all the restraint I have not to kick their ass so hard they become alive again and then die again, except for good this time, cause they fucking—they stained my goddamn jacket with some of Gaster's weird fucking experiment goop, and—I don't know how to get this shit out!"

She turned away from her phone for a second to glare at her varsity jacket, which was hanging on a creepy gnarled hook on her wall. The fabric was stained with something sticky and green all over one side.

"I spent like an hour trying to get it off with some paper towels, but whatever the fuck this stuff is, it refuses to come out." She grimaced. "I tried to ask Gaster about it, but he just said, 'Oh, you probably should not touch that', which, like—wow, thanks, man. So fucking helpful. Like, Angel, this is—this is like, literally a third of my wardrobe, and now it's ruined. I'm so fucking mad. I wanna grab that scrawny little smiling piece of shit and unkill them and then kill them again. I think I already said that, but, like, fuck! Ugh! It'd be different if—"

The door to her room cracked open, and Dess glanced over to see a pale figure standing in the doorway.

Dess stopped the recording. "Oh, uh, hey, Vess. What's up?" She frowned. "And, uh, close the door, by the way. You'll let in the nothingness."

The vessel reached behind itself and closed the door. 'Sorry,' it signed.

"No, uh, you're good, dude. It was mostly a joke. Cause there's nothing out there. You know? Nevermind. What's up?"

Dess stuffed her phone back into her pants pocket. The Vessel was pretty new around here, relatively, and Dess was still getting used to its strange demeanor. It seemed nice enough, though, and Dess felt pretty bad for it, considering what happened when Gaster tried to connect to the player. Because the connection had gotten all screwed up, now the vessel was trapped in here, too; and Dess knew how much that sucked.

'I am very sorry about your jacket,' the vessel signed. 'I know it brought you joy.'

"Uh—well, yeah, I guess it did." Dess shrugged. "But what can you do? Chara's a bitch like that."

The vessel seemed to pause for a moment before moving its hands again. 'Do you hate Chara now?'

"That—" Dess blinked. "Uh. I mean, I'm mad at them, but…well, I don't know if I, like, hate them hate them. Like, they're just a kid, you know? Kids are stupid."

'I am not sure I understand,' said the vessel. 'How can you be mad at someone without hating them?'

"Uh…right. I'm guessing that bit of info wasn't exactly bundled into the whole, like, gift of mind thing, then, huh?"

'The gift of mind grants me the capacity to think and learn,' explained the vessel. 'It does not grant me any a priori understanding of the world.'

"Right. Well, uh. Yeah, you can be mad at someone without hating them." Dess patted the ground next to her. "Why don't you sit?"

'Because I see no distinct reason to do so.'

Dess couldn't help rolling her eyes. "No, I mean, I want you to come sit next to me while I explain this."

The vessel stalled for a second, then walked over and sat itself down next to Dess.

"So, I'm kind of mad at everyone all the time," Dess said. "It's, like, my default state. I was always mad at my mom back home, because she wouldn't let me do the things I wanted to do. But she was my family, and I still loved her, even when I was mad at her. And like—I had this friend, Kris, who was basically a younger sibling to me. And, god, they would do the stupidest crap—a lot like Chara. And I got so mad. I'd chase them around the house with my bat trying to beat the crap out of them, sometimes, with how mad I got. But I never hated them. I could never hate Kris. Does that make sense?"

'I think so,' the vessel signed. 'And this…Kris. They are the same human who received my host in error?'

"Oh, uh, yeah. Yeah, they are." Dess looked off to the side. "I hope they're okay. They were—they were strong, a strong kid, but they were also kind of a loner, and I just—I hope this whole 'player' thing won't hurt them too bad."

The vessel tilted its head to the side. 'They are like your jacket to you?'

"What? No." Dess laughed. "Look, I'm mad about what happened to my jacket, but at the end of the day, it's just a piece of fabric. Kris was my friend. Here—this can be a good example. So, Chara messed up my jacket, and I'm mad at them. Right? But I don't hate them."

'Right,' the vessel followed.

"But if someone were to hurt Kris?" Dess's eyes narrowed. "Then I would hate that person."

'I believe I understand.' The vessel paused for a moment in thought. 'And this distinction…it lies between objects that bring you joy, and people that bring you joy?'

"Well…yeah. I care a lot more about my friends and family than the stuff I own, and I'm more upset when they're hurt."

'May I ask one more question?'

"Yeah. Course."

'To which category do I belong?'

Dess blinked at the vessel for a second, then smiled. "You're a person, Vess. You're a friend. And if someone hurt you, I'd hate them, too."

'I see.' The vessel turned away from her a little. 'Thank you. For the explanation.'

"Yeah." Dess moved over and bumped them lightly in the shoulder. "Anytime."

[glamoureddreamer]

Don’t go

Undertale (Fatal Error x Reaper)

Warnings: being left(not breaking up though), mention of near death (please let me know if I’ve missed anything)

Guys I swear this was supposed to be a smut fic but I think it’s just great on it’s own lmao so there might be a part 2. I feel like Fatal isn’t written about enough

I hope you all enjoy I hope you all have a great day! Remember to take care of yourselves!

“Geno..?”

The skeleton turns to face Reaper, who stared back at him with shock. Reaper’s soul was caught in his throat and he felt as if he was about to cry.

The skeleton could remember who he was, what they were, and their life together. However he was someone else now, Geno and Reaper's life together hardly mattered.

“Don’t call me that.” His voice was nearly glitched beyond recognition from the last time Reaper had heard it. He was just happy he had found his lost lover.

“My name is Fatal Error.”

Reaper sets his scythe on the ground and takes a few steps forward, making Fatal hesitant.

“Well…Fatal,” The name on his tongue felt foreign, he faintly wondered what happened to Geno to make him like this but he pushed it aside for he just wanted to hold him again.

“Your soul is-“

Fatal immediately summons a glitched gaster blaster, to protect his soul.

“You’re here for my soul?” Fatal sounded almost offended by the idea.

“What? No, I-“

“Don’t lie to me Reaper.” Fatal hissed out his name, despite the circumstances Reaper's soul leaped with joy that he knew his name. It meant a part of Geno was still there, there was hope.

“I know who you are, I know what you do. You are not, taking my soul.”

Reaper took a deep breath. “If you know me as much as you say you do, then you know I’m not here for your soul.

Fatal’s expression turned into one of shock before turning into one of anger. The gaster blaster started to glow with his magic.

Fatal scoffs, “I clearly don’t know you Reaper. Since you made a promise and broke it. Leaving me.. all alone in the void of the save screen.”

Geno was still in there.

“Gen-Fatal.. I.. it was not my intention to do you harm, to leave.” Reaper was much closer now, making it easier to understand the glitch.

Thankfully he didn’t seem defensive anymore just hesitant. Reaper could work with that, he could be patient.

“It doesn’t matter if you wanted to or not- you did anyway. I mean- do you know what it was fucking like?! Of course you don’t you had the ability to walk around any universe you wanted to while I was stuck in the save screen! It’s not even that which bothers me! What bothers me is you told me you’d come back but you didn’t and then Error came and tried to kill me turning me into…into this freak!”

Reaper and Fatal were within five feet of each other, Reaper could now see the pale tears leaking down his face. He felt guilt eating away at his soul.

“Fatal I’m sorry. If I could take it back I would, I never meant to hurt you. I loved you with all of my soul, my being. You were my everything. It killed me when you left, I spent countless days searching for you. Asking anyone if they’d see you.”

Fatal’s breath hitches and his expression soften. Reaper was in arms reach of him now and decides to take a leap of faith. He reaches out his hands and gently grabs his face before leaning in and pecking Fatal’s teeth.

Fatal’s eyes widen as Reaper melts into the kiss. When he pulls away Fatal was struggling not to break down and it showed. Reaper tilted his head down and set his skull against Fatal’s, he held him tighter.

“Please. Forgive me, my love. I am here now and I am not going anywhere.”

And his walls broke.

Fatal started to cry which was just a mess of broken glitches and incoherent words. Fatal shoved his face into Reaper's neck and clutched his robe preventing him from going anywhere like his life depended on it.

“Love, deep breathes it’s okay.” Reaper rubbed his back gently as he whispered words of comfort to him.

“Don’t leave.” Fatal managed to get out through his glitches and sobs.

“I won’t Fatal. Never again. I promise I love you.”

[theundertalenebulartheory]

The Nebular Theory (AO3) Plot Semi-But-Not-Really Spoilers Below the Cut - Clarifying Points for the First Two Chapters

I have been having a blast reading some of the super neat comments people have been leaving on the fic I’ve been writing over on AO3

But I have seen some people commenting about their confusion and I’m worried that in my attempt not to give away too much, I may have said too little. Ideally more about this should be given in small snippets at the beginning of the upcoming chapters (like in the Chapter Summary section that I am definitely using incorrectly) but in the meantime… here’s a couple of semi-spoilerish clarifying points pertinent to the first two chapters:

The Star is a separate entity from “Gaster”

Both The Star and “Gaster” were in the Void together

The Connecting Thread that Sans and Papyrus used to summon The Star WAS actually and legitimately connected to The Star

The moment where it talks about something tugging (I think the word I used in Ch2 was “twang” like a guitar string being plucked and buzzing on the frets) right after The Star was summoned from the Void is the moment where The Star transfers their line of connection to “Gaster,” which sacrifices their own ability to be easily pulled out of The Void. Like having one of those Coast Guard Floaty Save-Yo-Dumbass Donuts tossed to you and then you giving it to someone else instead, which forces you to let go of whatever it was you were holding onto originally.

Part of the reason I really liked the idea of teasing the reader with this information up front was twofold:

A major plot point is The Star getting Yote into The Void, which makes everyone forget them. I could have waited until we’d spent some time in the story, building up the character development, and Then dropped that Veil of Forgetfulness over the characters left behind so only the readers remember and can see the gaping hole left behind in their wake. But why not have the reader discover alongside the story character who it was that they forgot? Discover, as they realize Exactly who was lost and Exactly what it means to have them metaphorically sink below the waves, what it means for them to have given their only Line of Connection away to “Gaster” so that the soggy lump could finally escape the Void where he’d been trapped.

While I mostly want to tell a fun story… like… Memento Mori and all that. Right? I … hate getting the rug pulled out from under me. I hate “and then they died” shock value. But showing the funeral pyre up front let’s the reader know that, when this Moment arrives, that it was planned from the start. That all the sweet and beautiful moments that happened to them happened with death on the horizon. (I say death very loosely and mostly poetically but not very literally. I DID promise a happy ending. There IS a reason MC spent so long working with Pap to help inspire him to build The Machine. Consider it Chekhov’s Blueprint if you will lol) And I hope that, in some ways, it makes all the sweet moments sweeter and the hard moments less bitter. Less bitter because… they made it, right? Death still waits on the horizon, but wait he must. And while he waits, we triumph. We feast. We laugh and we love and those moments matter. Death (again, used very loosely) will Sit, damnit, and he will WAIT and we will Have our moments while he does.

Author has shown you Chekhov’s Gun, but author has also shown you Chekhov’s Defibrillator. Shit’s going to go down. But we have the med kit on standby. Death can reap, but we never gave him permission to harvest. And while we’re at it, we’re taking this sad, soggy old man with us. That��s right. We’re taking him right out of your basket and putting him in ours. Just because we can.

Neener Neener.

[viky2318]

While waiting for the next chapter, Smiling man's story!!!!

Minor spoiler ahead. nothing crucial tho (I think).

They originally were the same being, two sides of the same coin. They were from Deltarune, and there, they were called Seam. Seam was the Royal magician, a good friend of our dear Jevil. After the events of Deltarune ch. 1, Seam decided to understand what was going on in his friend’s mind and visited him. He understood very little from their chat, but it was clear that there was something else controlling their world. something different from Lightners and Darkners. He started doing research and, in a terrible accident while doing some experiments to reach this other dimension, the man got to another world.

Undertale.

When he realized he couldn’t cast the same magic spells he knew, he decided to search another way out through technology. He gave himself a fake name and went working for the King of that other kingdom, quickly showing everybody how able he was. in no time, W.D. Gaster was the new Royal scientist. in his time inside of the Undertale universe, he became more serious and a little more formal towards other people, still searching for this mysterious entity controlling his and everyone’s life (he quickly understood that place wasn’t what he was searching for). he learned how magic worked in there, discovered how his knowledge from home could blend in the laws of physics, chemistry and magic of this new place. He ended up kinda enjoying that place, so different yet so similar to the world where he was from. He made some new friends there, mainly two silly skeletons. He cared for them almost as much as he cared for Jevil and his old world, without realizing they cared for him as much as they cared for each other (which was a lot). One day, he found a way to communicate with people from other worlds, creating the Windows (the “window thingies” Sam, Smiling Man and Jevil have). This left him speak again with Jevil… and find out about the Multiverse. an Infinite amount of other worlds, other people… It made him go insane at the beginning seeing all this but not being able to interact with it. He didn't like being a spectator. He ended up almost isolating himself from his newfound family and his old friend, trying to find a way to travel through the worlds.

He accidentally fell in the CORE.

The extreme heat of the machine melted his body, and the collision with the center of it sent him into the Void. He remained there, not having a way to leave, studying that darkness and the other worlds around him through the Windows. He discovered everyone in Undertale forgot about him the moment he fell in his machine. The sight of his beloved friends perfectly fine without him was hurting him deeply.

Then Sam came.

A young, scared human without a single memory of their past. The only thing they had was a name and an unstable ability. Gaster took them under his wing, getting softer and softer the more he spent time with that poor soul. He gave them a magic artifact to help them control their wonderful ability, something that wasn’t magic but that looked as beautiful. the human started wanting more for their life. Gaster didn’t know how to help them with this. the human broke. Then they left him. deeply scarred by the loss of the one he almost considered his child, the man went mad. Part of him wanted his family back, someone to talk to, but couldn’t bring himself to speak again with Jevil. let alone trying to communicate with his old friends in Undertale. The other side knew he couldn't. He had to restart all over again. He remained in the void, observing his child discovering millions of worlds. He saw them wanting to create. blaming others for their inability to do something impossible. He saw them using a miserable soulless being to kill others. Again, he was split in two. He wanted to not see all of this, to love their child. it was HIS fault if they became like that. but he also knew that Sam was becoming a menace and had to be stopped. There was so much contrast in his mind, so much confusion, so much doubt that the Void took over. his mind literally got split in two. his older self, Seam, the one that sees the world as it is and has no will to do anything about its horrors unless Sam is in the middle, and Gaster, his most recent self, who has hard times accepting that his only child did horrid things and will love them no matter what, trying to keep everyone safe and at the same time being too scared to act.

[riot-control-camp]

FINALLY PLAYING DELTARUNE

liveblog will be here in sporadic bits and pieces. spoilers!!

1. ooooh okay i definitely see why people think gaster is the guy in the “create a vessel”/CONTACT thing and why it seems like there’s two people there. typing quirks are everything in toby fox games, and the only people who i know of in undertale canon who talk in all caps are mettaton, papyrus, and gaster, and gaster has shaky text. (note: i know i’m so so late to this game, and all this is obvious by now most likely, but still! typing out all my thoughts as they go.) whoever it is in this sequence i would die for that formal little guy. he is truly excellent and just wants us to make somebody! 

2. the SECOND person, however. who the fuck hurt them. why are they so bitter. “no one can choose who they are in this world.” drink some juice and calm down a little??? i get that you’re in a weird little void but????? gaster’s first choice when getting in contact with the player for the first time in who knows how long he’s spent in this dimension is to let them create something, and connect because of it. this person is defensive and a little harsh. why?? have they not been in this in-between space as long as gaster has, and are therefore slightly less resigned? but then why are they the ones enforcing the rules of how “this world” works? also, are they referring to the in-between place or deltarune when talking about where we can choose who we are? 

3. i’m going to be trying to take note of the game window’s titles? just bc it seems like they could be important. CONTACT is in all caps bc!! speaker talks in all caps. then we have “The Beginning”  4. ah.. so kris is Depressed. lovely. i will not be projecting onto them at all and This Is Fine

5. okay ACAB but also HI UNDYNE!!!  6. EVERYONE IS HERE!!! THE TOWN MUSIC ABSOLUTELY FUCKS

legit just going to reblog this post over and over. mutuals, i am SO SORRY for the spam :( 

[askcharaandfriends]

Obviously you can't punish the kids but it just seems like everyone except Asgore is actively trying to ensure all the bad things they did are forgotten. Chara, Gaster, and Asriel just want things to go back to normal rather than actually try to atone.

Mia: 🤷‍♀️ I didn't write afac. Maybe it is a bit of an oversight. But honestly. Change takes time. Atonement takes time. We haven't actually had that much time with revived Chara and azzy yet. They haven't really had the opportunity to prove themselves yet beyond just living their lives as good as they can. I don't feel like they're trying to sweep it under the rug. Just that they're trying to move forward, and to do that, they can't keep dwelling on their mistakes. It's different from when Chara erased their identity and became Callalied- lying to even themselves.

Gaster. This man is reduced to a puddle when he thinks too long about the bad stuff he did.(figuratively, the other gaster whas literal) He spent decades (?) In the void. Suffering every horror his imagination could conjure and more. One of the things he regrets most is not being there for his sons. And, I figure, the best way he can atone for that is to be there for his sons now. Which he is.

I'm not really sure what more should be done by any of these people to make up for what they did. Maybe they can never truly make up for it. We may yet see them do great deeds to atone. Or we may not. Life goes on. I think they try their best with what they have to work with, and it's enough for me.

[theninjamouse]

Ocean on Fire Phantom of the Opera AU Master List (To be added to as I see fit)

Strap in, this is gonna get long. Big thanks to @thaylepo for indulging me and sending many brilliant ideas. 

This is a basic rundown and ideas that would happen at some point in the story. Obviously some things could change or be added but I’ve just got to get this down before I go nuts

Shore and Grillby were childhood friends.

Shore is the child of a wealthy business man, taught from childhood that the arts are to be treasured and appreciated

However, while she may learn instruments and dance and music, she is to take over the family business, not run away to star in the opera like she wants

Grillby's father (he has parents in this au) was a famous violinist who often was called by Shore's father to perform for parties. He wound up teaching Shore fundamentals of music

Little Grillby was a shy flame. Always trailed along behind his father, clutching his tailcoats

Shore saw the tiny elemental and decided instantly: I'm going to be his BEST FRIEND

Queue stuttering, hesitant Grillby being dragged around the manor, getting into all sorts of trouble and adventures. He's a lot more hardy than Shore is, so he rather often found himself acting as a sort of guard dog. He was utterly distraught when Shore fell and broke her arm. Shore teased him about crying because she couldn’t stand to see him so upset

They also learn music together from Grillby's father. First time Shore hears Grillby sing, she grabs his face and screams with delight until the poor little guy is fully bright blue with blushing

Then Grillby's father dies. A family friend takes Grillby away to one of the opera houses to work. Grillby and Shore are 13 and 10 at this point and have spent the last 6 years together. Shore makes Grillby promise to keep singing, to keep the spark of his father alive through music. He promises

They both wait until they are out of sight of the other to cry

Grillby cries every night for the first 3 months in the opera house. As a monster, he is bullied by many of the other students. He mourns his father's passing and he misses Shore to a near unbearable level. The only comfort he has is when he sings quietly to himself in those few moments when he is alone doing his chores

Then he hears a voice, a soft and gentle voice that asks him why such a bright flame weeps. He runs away in fear and hides in his bed

But the voice asks him again and again. 'Why does such a bright flame weep?' Slowly, over the course of a year, Grillby tells the voice his story

The voice says he is the Phantom of the opera house. Grillby thinks he sounds rather young to be a Phantom

The Phantom replies that Grillby is rather young to have such a lovely voice. He offers to teach Grillby. The fire monster agrees upon hearing the Phantom's beautiful and haunting voice

After all, he did promise

15 years pass. Shore has taken over her family business and is finally able to offer herself as a patron to an opera house that has shown remarkable growth over the years, becoming well known in the arts circles

Partially thanks to the star of the show, a humanoid robot named Mettaton. Most of the monsters we know work the show behind the scenes, so having a monster in the lead is a new leap in gaining treatment that is more fair for monster kind as performers

But Mettaton is also a diva. The day Shore arrives with new managers, he throws his tantrum and quits after a rather suspicious accident.

Shore only has eyes for the fire elemental standing frozen with the rest of the crew. She suggests letting him take the lead role. Promising that she knows he can sing.

Grillby is so quiet most assumed he couldn't even talk so naturally protests break out and Shore maybe uses her power as a patron to insist. 'He promised me,' is all she says, looking right at him

So he sings and everyone is stunned at the strength and grace of his voice. The managers instantly whisk him away to prepare for the show

After the show, Shore goes to his new dressing room and they fall into each other's arms. They speak of times past, of the loneliness of being apart. But when Shore says that she wants to take him out to celebrate, he hesitates. The Phantom will not be happy if he leaves, he knows this

But he agrees and she leaves to let him change

Enter in The Phantom. Showing himself for the first time, a figure in black wearing a simple white mask over his face. White hands punched through the palms. Grillby is enchanted, dazed and follows The Phantom into the tunnels under the opera house

*Music of the Night noises*

Grillby has a bit of a Crisis because he genuinely cares about Phantom and they became very close friends as much as teacher and student but this is kind of odd?? A little frightening?

Phantom sees this, backpedals real hard but hides it and sends Grillby back upstairs before falling into bed and screaming into his pillow

When Shore finds Grillby vaguely wandering back into the theater, she goes, uh??? What happened?? Were you kidnapped? I kind of stayed up all night looking for you??

Grillby, still a little in shock because what the heck just happened "Kind of?"

Now that won't STAND

Shore starts digging to find out everything she can about this opera ghost, keeping a close eye on Grillby. There is no gaslighting here folks like in versions of the story that to this day drive me crazy

As Shore digs, accidents start happening. Loose floorboards, unlatched equipment, a falling sandbag or two. Shore catches on pretty quickly what’s happening when she catches just a flash of shadow more than once right before or after these little ‘incidents’ 

Finally plants herself down in the middle of the stage and calls for the Phantom to show his face. It takes a while then she sees a shadow just barely move. He’s up in the rafters, crouched like some kind of bat

“What is your freaking deal?” 

“Why are you trying to take what’s mine?” 

“Yours? He belongs to himself you dingbat”

That makes him laugh for reasons Shore doesn’t get

Conversation happens, a lot of dodging questions, shifting blame. Phantom is oddly charming. For being an attempted murdering/kidnapping jerk

“Are you the one who keeps trying to kill me? The sandbag dropped on my head, the broken trapdoor, the spiders in my hat??”

“Oh my God, I’m not responsible for every little thing that goes wrong in this place. It’s an old building, accidents do happen. 

“The sandbag was me though.”

Grillby materializes just to smack him in the head for that

And so it goes, Grillby and Shore trying to reconnect, Grillby trying to maintain a level of friendship (and maybe more?) with Phantom and Phantom attempting various levels of accidents to get Shore to leave the theater

Until one day he finds Shore on the stage. She’s singing to an empty theater. She’s not...good exactly but...rather unpracticed. He’s startled enough that he stops his evil giggling and untwisting of the hidden trapdoor in the stage to listen. 

He comes up silently, creeping on the edges just out of sight. When he speaks, Shore shrieks and nearly falls off the stage anyway. Her blushing does a weird thing to his Soul. Like a sort of flip flopping squeeze. 

“Well, if you’re going to think yourself worthy of my Flame, you’d better have a voice to match. Let me hear you sing again.”  

Many ‘threat’ filled lessons later-

“Hmm. Maybe there’s hope for you after all” 

“Maybe there’s more to you than a creepy stalker personality.” 

Past the Point of No Return scene happens at some point. I don’t make the rules

Also Phantom and Shore have a sword fight that maybe starts out as anger fueled but rather quickly changes to a pent up Feelings kind of deal

Grillby’s concern is quick to fade and he watches the two idiots dance around each other, wondering why exactly they don’t see how much they actually do like each other. 

It’s also at this moment he realizes fully that he loves them both

“Well shoot, I love these two morons and they love each other but won’t admit it. This is going to be very ‘fun’ to sort out”

Eventually, Shore asks for Phantom’s name. 

“My name...died with the person I was long ago.” 

“Maybe it’s time you reclaim it.” 

His name is Wing Dings Gaster and for countless years he was held by the Void. He doesn’t fully remember how he escaped, nor what he looked like before. All he knows is that his face is broken with terrible cracks and skeletal in only the vaguest sense with a body that ebbs and flows with darkness. When he first stumbled back into the light after the darkness of the Void, people screamed and ran from him. Or worse, they chased him, calling him an omen of death. So he retreated down below the theater and resigned himself to always be a watcher and made a mask to cover his face. 

He was alone for years until he heard young Grillby crying in a corner and sat as close as he dared. It took a while for him to gain the courage to speak to the elemental

Given the fluid nature of his body, it’s easy for him to change his voice to sing. It’s the only part of himself that he can see as holding any worth. 

Grillby was his only source of socialization and he’s terrified of losing him, which makes Phantom a tad bit clingy with some pretty severe separation anxiety 

Phantom is a sad, sad boy who needs a lot of hugs and therapy

Shore is kind to him despite it all (and despite the irritation at the ‘death threats’) 

Phantom finally admits that she was never in any actual danger because he might be a messed up guy but he’s not a murderer. He might have even nudged her out of the way with blue magic a few times to make sure she wasn’t hurt.

Eventually Phantom realizes he no longer wants her to leave. He wants to stand with her and Grillby. He wants to be a better monster but he doesn’t know how to do that so kind of retreats into his lair 

Grillby and Shore have to track him down. And queue the heart to heart, the great Crying Session, the Unmasking or whatever you wanna call it

And they all live an OT3 happy ending, the end

[howlsofbloodhounds]

What do you think of how the epic sanses feel about each other gaster's, i bet delta would reluctantly talk about his gaster while epic would just talk very casually about his gaster same with color

I actually feel Color would talk rather fondly of his Gaster, if casually. They were coworkers before Gaster fell and then Color joined him in the Void, so they don’t have that familial relationship, but they spent so much time alone together I wouldnt be suprised if there’s just this very instinctive familiarity. They’re like the less controlling, toxic, codependent version of Killer and Something New Chara.

I’d contribute a lot of Color’s continual survival and health to Gaster actually. It seems pretty obvious to me that Color didn’t handle being trapped and forgotten as well as Gaster did, who had his time to come to terms with everything and was just likely more glad to not be alone anymore. I think Gaster represents a very dark period in Color’s life that he would never want to return to again, but Gaster is also the reason he survived that dark place at all.

Epic, if I remember correctly, had a father son relationship with his Gaster, right. Which is one of the things he and Cross have in common; abusive terrible Gaster’s as fathers. I haven’t completely read all of Epictale, but from what I can tell of Epic, he seems unlikely to discuss his Gaster in a way that shows what he truly thinks or feels about him. He seems more likely to filter all of it through his memey, silly persona.

And as for Delta, he seemed willing to fight his Gaster right off the bat. I’m not completely sure what their relationship could’ve been like, but I wouldn’t be too suprised if he didn’t have much of a positive relationship with his Gaster either. He’d probably just not talk about his Gaster.

[ossiethegreat]

color spending quality time with his dad 💗 and killer is also there ig.

Color belongs to superyoumna

Killer belongs to rahafwabas

I think color would despise going back to the void cause it just reminds him of all the times he went batshit crazy in there. But ofc he has to visit his dad 💗💗

speaking of, I think in color’s past when he was a scientist n stuff, Gaster used to pay a lot of attention to sans and papyrus when they were his main focus, his main experiments, but then he shifted his focus to undyne when he apparently failed with sans. so he was neglectful to the both of them, and sans had to take care of papyrus obviously, until Gaster disappeared.

when color was dropped into the void, he was happy to see Gaster but also angry at him and confused and frustrated. he canonically attempted to get out of the void in a certain manner that almost killed him, and Gaster was “left to pick up the pieces.” I think after that, they became a little less tense with each other in mutual understanding of being trapped in a place with no exit. with the many years color spent in there, they eventually kind of patched things up and acted as family again, as it was kind of inevitable with that close proximity.

Anyway color visits him weekly because he still yearns for that fatherly love .. I think he was hesitant at first to bring Killer along because he wasn’t sure how he’d act towards a Gaster AU. I personally think killer doesn’t remember anything about his Gaster, much like how the rest of the canon undertale universe forgot about him. He also had many other things to worry about and Gaster was NOT his main concern 😭😭

Maybe he just stares at Gaster and gets some sort of nostalgia, but he doesn’t know where it comes from, and he doesn’t like how it feels so he tries to ignore it.

But ya I am very tired I eep ya 💔🙁💔😔😔🙁🙁

[pumpkins-s]

*toots world’s littlest horn* Hi hello it’s me.

So I promised chapter 25 of Not As Simple out today, for Undertale’s 5th anniversary....and truth be told, I worked my ass off trying to make that happen. I have...not had much sleep lately haha... But at the end of the day I had to accept my physical limitations, and recognize that even for this special day, it isn’t worth putting out a subpar, shortened, chapter lacking in quality.

So...I’ve reluctantly tabled that. 

Instead, what I would like to offer you, is a glimpse at the next chapter--a rough version of its first two scenes (subject to revisions in the final chapter, obviously) sitting at 2.5k words--and my solemnest promise that, god willing, I will be releasing the chapter in full either this weekend or the next. Basically, as soon as I can without costing the writing quality.

So, without further ado, please enjoy this preview--

“Daddy, help me—”

The recorder stops. Rewinds. Plays again.

“Daddy, help me—”

And again.

“Daddy, help me—”

And again.

Sans sighs as he steps back into the lab room, making his was over to Gaster. With a deft maneuver, he wrestles the recorder out of his mentor’s hand, cutting off another plaintive, shrill “Help me.” He places the recorder on the far end of the table Gaster is sitting at, just out of his reach, and plops into the chair next to him. Gaster doesn’t reach for the recorder—no doubt understanding it’s a futile effort after the last time Sans had confiscated it and spent the next hour swatting Gaster’s hand away from it every time he reached for it—but his eyes follow it all the same. And stay there.

There’s something shell-shocked and empty about him, ever since he’d heard Remnant’s voice over the radio. Ever since he’d stumbled closer, demanding to know what the fuck he’d just heard, and played it back—then played it once more.

Then he’d sat down heavily, eyes wide, and had said quietly “…That was a child. Sans, that was a child,” like it was the most earth-shattering, devastating revelation he could picture. Sans hadn’t known what to say—hadn’t ever really stopped to think about it until then, because Remnant is Remnant, and Sans knows something about being both a child and not one—and Gaster had gone uncharacteristically, unimaginably quiet.

He still is. He wanders around as if he’s in a daze, startling whenever Sans touches him, and answering slowly, with long pauses, when spoken to.

And that recording—that last sentence, especially. It seems whenever Sans makes the mistake of leaving Gaster alone for more than a few minutes, he comes back to the other monster listening to it over, and over, and over.

Needless to say, he’s gotten used to prying the recorder out of Gaster’s hands in the days since their successful venture into void-studying, as he juggles sifting through the mountain of data the experiment had given them, and trying to cajole Gaster into helping him. It’s the only way they manage to get anything done.

“Gaster,” Sans says, patiently, and Gaster makes a vague, acknowledging Mhmm noise, eyes still on the recorder. Sans waves it vaguely—feeling rather like he does when he holds a treat in front of Toby, or a really engrossing volume of manga in front of Alphys—and feels mildly put out when Gaster’s eyes track the recorder, as expected. He bites back a sigh, and tries again, actively taking the recorder out of sight and putting it in his pocket. “Gaster.”

Gaster startles, and finally looks him in the eye. “Yes, Sans, what is it?”

“Well—” Gaster’s gaze slips lower, to the jacket pocket Sans is currently hiding the recorder in, and Sans groans. “Gaster!”

Gaster blinks. “What?”

Sans frowns, feeling the genuine concern creep in underneath the thin layer of annoyance at Gaster’s constant distraction. “What is up with you?” he says softly. “All you seem to do is listen to that recording.”

“I just—” A complicated look passes over Gaster’s face. “I just—” He makes a frustrated noise at his inability to put his feelings into words, and makes a complicated hand gesture Sans assumes is supposed to convey his meaning. “I just can’t get the thought out of my head. A child, trapped in that place. After everything I’ve heard you say about it—after everything I’ve seen it do to you…”

Gaster trails off again, expression filled with some kind of morbid, fascinated horror, and Sans feels a pang of sympathy. Much as he’s more used to Remnant’s… Remnant-ness than Gaster, and to the void, he won’t deny the recording was certainly disturbing—or that it hasn’t stolen sleep from him the last few days, plagued by shapeless nightmares and dreams filled with those screams.

It seems neither of them can get it out of their head. It’s just that Sans is, perhaps, a little bit better at compartmentalizing.

Or…perhaps it’s something else.

“…Is it a voice you recognize?” he asks slowly, turning over an old thought—a thing he’d wondered, about who Remnant might have been before, and about Gaster’s human, the smartest of them all.

“No,” Gaster says firmly, dismissing the idea without hesitation. Sans senses no lie. “No, it’s not a voice I recognize.”

Sans hesitates, confused. “Then…”

Gaster makes a face.

“It’s not a voice I recognize—and that’s why it scares me so much.”

                                                         xxx

Sans runs a series of commands into the computer in front of him, overlaying the various maps their tech had drawn up of the void, trying to form a concrete, comprehensive image.

The computer hesitantly, choppily, acquiesces to his request—and forms a few samples based off their compiled maps. Sans stares at it, and then squints really hard. He squints some more—and then a little more, just to be safe.

“…Huh,” he says slowly.

It’d taken them a difficult, well-overworked couple of weeks to slog through sorting the mountain of data their little void-studying quest had given them, and things were finally starting to fall into a manageable enough line to take a proper look at and study. Except…Except—

“That can’t be right,” Sans says, and Gaster perks up from across the room, practically shoving himself back from the table he was working at, and sending himself, in his desk chair, rocketing over to Sans.

“What? What is it?” he asks excitedly, and Sans points a confused finger at his computer screen. Gaster also pauses, and then also squints. He takes his glasses off, polishes them thoroughly, replaces them, and then squints again.

“I don’t…What?” Gaster says eloquently.

Sans blinks. “We’re—we’re looking at the same thing, right? You’re seeing what I’m seeing?”

“If you are referring to the completely…illogical map of the void your computer has drawn up—then yes, my boy, we are.”

“Something must have gone wrong here,” Sans mutters, and types quickly, calling up the individual scans of the void.  Dozens of images flood the screen, and Sans tries to look at each of them and figure out what has caused the error. Eyeballing this is a little difficult given they’d used so many different mapping tools and scanners—and when some were designed to study greater ranges than others—but when looking at all the maps together on one screen, for the first time, Sans notices something he’d not stopped to think about before.

“It’s not just incorrectly measured averages of the scans or something,” he continues slowly. “Look at the individuals. There’s—they’re all familiar pieces, they’re places we know.”

“It’s the Underground,” Gaster says, shaking his head. “That—that can’t be right. We took a scan of the Underground? How’d I fuck up that badly—how’d you not catch it? That’s what you’re best at. ”

“Hey,” Sans says, with no real heat in the word, but then frowns. Too distracted with his shifting thoughts, the images on the screen, to argue with Gaster. “Hold on. Just let me…” He runs a few more commands into the computer, pulls up his composites again. “Maybe we’re looking at this wrong.”

“How so?”

“Remnant told me the Void was the place between places.”

“Yes,” Gaster murmurs. “The connection between the Underground and the Barrier.”

Sans shakes his head. “No, no. That’s the problem. We’ve been thinking about it too literally.” He taps the screen. “This is the void.”

“Sans,” Gaster says patiently. “That’s the Underground.”

“No,” Sans says. “It’s the void.”

Gaster raises an eyebrow.

“We’ve been treating the void as this separate, physical other. Like a house—we’re in one room, and there’s another room between us and the door. That’s the void, right? Except that’s all wrong, Gaster the room is right here—under our feet, between our fingers, in our breath.”

The eyebrow climbs higher.

“Think of it like…a mirror,” Sans says, “When you look in a mirror, you see the room behind you, you see yourself—it’s the same, except it also isn’t, right?”

“Okay but…it is, that’s how mirrors works,” Gaster says patiently, and Sans groans, burying his face in his hands.

“Okay, but what if it wasn’t? What if there were things you could only see in the mirror? You can’t see them directly, but—but they were there the whole time.” Sans gestures in a hopeless way, not sure how else to explain himself. It all feels so clear, suddenly—and at the same time he feels so, so stupid for not understanding it sooner. “This entire time, with Remnant flittering in and out, I was assuming they were coming from somewhere else. I thought of the void as a discreet place—but I was completely misunderstanding what they meant. It’s the place between places, an echo.” He waves his hand around the room, between the two of them, “It’s here, it’s always been here, we just can’t see it. We can’t hear it.”

Gaster’s eyes widen.

“Imagine if…” Sans says slowly, “Imagine if you were standing in a room. You can see everything going on around you, you can hear it. But you can’t touch it, you can’t change it—not physically, at least. Not the way we think about. Imagine…” Sans swallows, and suddenly his heart feels heavy. “Imagine if you stood there, and screamed and screamed…and no one could see you. No one could hear you. You’re standing in a crowded room making as much noise as you can, and you’re there, you know you’re there, but you don’t exist. As far as the rest of the world is concerned…you don’t exist.”

He’s not even sure if he’s explaining anything useful anymore—drifting further and further from the point—but now all he can think of is Remnant, and all the tears they have cried and all the different ways they have died. Dead in form, dead in soul. Dead to the world. But still there.

They were nothing, they’d said to him, just something with too much power and not enough common sense to die.

Sans shivers.

“Christ…” Gaster mutters, face ashen. “So you’re saying that…child, that child is wandering the Underground, alone, completely alone, and no one can see them, except in the moments they find their way to you.”

Sans winces, thinks of roots beneath the earth, beneath the skin, and switches images on his computer. “Alone…might be the wrong word.”

Gaster squints at the screen, and frowns. “Which one is this?”

“It’s the readings of the magic surges in the void. The hotspots, the movements of power. It was going to be a way to find more shortcut spots, like the one in the labs that goes to the Core. See, that’s there.” Sans taps a small, dark spot on the map. “You can see it. There’s some kind of…concentration there, presumably that’s what’s opened the rift.”

“God,” Gaster hisses in a breath. “Look at the labs.”

On the map, within the loose, spiraling storm of energy in the vague shape of the Underground, swirling and moving in its currents, sits the bright star, the eye. Right where they sit, where they sleep, along the tunnels and basements where they and their family spend their days.

“Remnant,” Sans says softly.

“They’re here?”

Sans sighs. “They always have been.”

Gaster moves closer the monitor, snatches the mouse out of Sans’s hand and zooms in. “Now I’m still not completely sure we haven’t both lost it, but—and tell me if I am crazy—doesn’t it look like there’s a second, separate hotspot, right next to it?”

Sans frowns, leaning in. “…They did say they have a friend.”

“…Please tell me it’s not another child.”

“Shit, I don’t know Gaster,” Sans snaps, annoyance getting the better of him. It’s Gaster and the recording of Remnant all over again. “Why are you so convinced Remnant is a kid, anyways?”

Sans has never been able to make sense of Remnant, shies away from any kind of label for them, who or what they might be—have been, will become. They’re static, an empty hole—tiny and grief-stricken and not quite all there at the best of times. There’s the teeter-totter innocence, little feet on his own, but there’s the darkness, too, the precise and intelligent way they hold themself, speak.

Child, it feels too small, too easy. He knows what it’s like to have a young body, and an older mind. He knows what it’s like to exist outside of time. And Remnant, he suspects, has done it much longer than he.

“I just know,” Gaster murmurs. “I can hear it.”

“Gaster.”

“No adult screams for their father like that, Sans.”

“Time doesn’t work for them like it does for us,” Sans reminds him as gently as he knows how, because he doesn’t know how else to admit you’re right, but—but—but—“They’ve pretty much said as much. The void may echo the Underground, but how times moves for them…I’m not sure, I’m not sure it’s the same. And when they…tap in, when they parse that barrier and I can see them, it’s not…linear. They’re finding me from a different time, a different place. How can we be confident we’re not doing the same? What we heard could be years old, Gaster.”

It could be the future, he doesn’t say.

Gaster grumbles, but doesn’t argue any further.

“Anyways,” Sans says. “Remnant’s uh…friend? Not what I was talking about.” Slowly, he zooms out, and points upwards with a careful finger, and Gaster swears.

“I acknowledge it’s not very becoming of the Royal Scientist himself to keep asking his own assistant questions, but…Sans, if Remnant’s here, who is that?”

The second star beams bright, casting a wide, warping trail in its vortex. On the map, it stands in direct opposition to its twin—the one Sans is sure is Remnant, buried beneath the castle deep with all the rest of them and their ghosts—two centers of power staring out over the battlefield across the planes of the Underground.

The Royal Labs, and the Ruins.

Sans thinks of forces that have found him within the grip of the void, tangled him up in blood and vines. He thinks of roots, spreading deep, searching for a way out above the soil.

“Honestly,” he says. “I’d like to know that myself.”

[franstastic-ideas]

Oh oh I have an idea. How about traveling saleswoman Frisk but in the Cleaved au?

On the business side of things... Saleswoman Frisk would become so wealthy because of this mishap?? I like to think that Frisk actually wasn’t that well off when she first began, but thanks to the monsters she ends up sitting on a pile of gold.

Slaying monsters for their gold? No, the only killing going on here is how much stuff she’s selling to these skeletons. Stuff that some of them aren’t even really that interested in...? But the human lady selling the things is pretty, and it makes her happy when they buy stuff, so they keep doing it.

Of course, Frisk isn’t spending all her time with the skeletons trying to pawn things off and draining them of their gold.

In fact, after they’ve spent enough time around each other to be considered friends (and for some, like Papyrus, Gaster, and US!Sans, that’s as early as the first time they spoke to one another), Frisk actually tries to give some of her merchandise away out of generosity, but they’re rather insistent on paying her properly anyway.

She thinks it’s some kind of monster code of pride thing, but nah, it’s just because they like to take care of her.

Out of all the skeletons though, I think the one that buys the most stuff from her is definitely Gaster - he’s a human fanatic and a Frisk fanatic, so he’s gotta have it all.

But... he doesn’t exactly have any money on him at the moment. It definitely exists! He just... couldn’t take it with him to The Void. Once he gets this mess straightened out and he can access his bank account again, he promises he’s going to give her everything that's due and then some; but until then, he pays his debts with Frisk off with IOUs and hugs.

[gemraldkid]

It’s not entirely impossible...

An Underfell version of Glitchtale.

They say it can’t work because that would ruin the characters? Well, HA! I say. 

Sure, if all you do is coat everyone in red and give them edgy personalities, of course the story’s gonna fall apart. That’s why you have to make changes.

Here are a few of my ideas.

Season 1:

First, Papyrus plays a role in Season 1. I can understand Sans wanting to protect his brother in the original, but UF Paps is (often depicted as) Captain of the Royal Guard for a reason. I see him being present for the fight in the barrier chamber. Plus, I don’t think Sans could keep the crisis a secret even if he tried. This Papyrus seems like the kind of guy who, if he isn’t told what’s happening, is going to find out anyway.

Second, how does Sans bring Gaster back? I may not be a huge expert, but UF sans doesn’t exactly seem like he would have as much of a scientific background as the original. Regardless, the way I see it playing out is that he’s a bit like Grunkle Stan in Gravity Falls. He isn’t really an expert with the machine, but he still spent years trying his best to understand and fix it.

Third, I see Gaster as having a personality reminiscent to that of Rick from Rick and Morty. After spending who knows how long in the void, he’s become a nihilist, although being freed has improved his mood a bit. He also has a pretty big ego. It doesn’t take much to convince him to help. His mindset is probably something along the lines of “Eh, might as well try a good ending. At least it’ll be interesting.”

I don’t really know much of how Hate would work in a world like this. I don’t how Chara would specifically act, nor do I know what to do with Asriel and Flowey.

Season 2:

First and foremost, only the base cast is full of Edgelords. Everyone else, A.K.A. the humans on the surface and Betty, stays the same. Why? Because it wouldn’t make sense, it’s easier manage, and it would be hilarious.

Second, Frisk is more involved with the politics. They work alongside Asgore for a lot of things and advise him often to make sure things go smoothly. Something tells me this man isn’t as patient as his OG counterpart.

Third and funniest, Betty has an extremely difficult time getting anything done. Picture this: she goes in, thinking she can easily spy on and deceive the monsters only to realize she’s a little out of her league. Remember, these monsters are battle-hardened warriors who have lived in a very dangerous society. Paranoia is probably a common trait shared among many of them. I can totally see Sans and Papyrus escorting Frisk everywhere they go - or at least Sans because Papyrus told him to - for protective reasons. Also, when they bring Betty to Gaster to research her soul trait (assuming she makes it that far), the man immediately thinks something is up. Perhaps he prefers to think he knows everything than to acknowledge that he might have missed something. Maybe he did research into forbidden spells. Or, maybe he just can’t believe that there’s still something new and exciting left to see in the world.

“I’ve cultivated my genius by researching souls for 800 years, kid. What’s more likely? That a trait that I’ve never heard of just whooshes into existence, or that someone’s trying to pull as fast one on me? Don’t bother answering; it’s the latter.” 

“No, I couldn’t have ‘missed it.’ Determination souls can only exist one at a time, and we found those didn’t we? Do you really think there’s something rarer than that? ‘Cause there isn’t.”

This isn’t necessarily how I think he would talk, it’s just an example. Although, I do like the idea of him answering his own questions. Also, he should definitely be very egotistical, which could first be demonstrated while explaining the core to Jessica.

“Electricity bi- Did you even listen to my conference? Do you even understand what this brilliant piece of technology can do?”

*Teleports the group the Core for a quick, spiteful tour of it’s chambers.

That’s pretty much all I’ve got for now. Although Toriel definitely shouldn’t be able to open a school in this version. Then how does Betty’s trait get revealed? I don’t know. Some other way. If Betty sucks in this world, who’s the antagonist? Jessica, maybe? She’s always had that potential. Or, it could just be a comedic what-if scenario meant to give Betty a hard time.

[askullandbones]

25, 34, 37, 40, 42 for the fanfiction asks, if that is okay?

Wow, thanks! I love answering these.

How do you begin writing fics? (e.g, starting at the end, starting during a sex scene, starting with the title)

It varies, but I either make a rough outline first, or in the case of my current fic I just start at the beginning and have a very loose list of key events I want to happen. I’ve never been able to start in the middle or end, my brain just doesn’t work that way.

Which program do you use to write fic?

My current method is using google docs, which I then save over onto a word document on my hard drive so I have it should anything happen to it online.

Share a paragraph that you are proud of from one of your fics.

Technically this isn’t a fic exactly, but a part of the RP with Baseball (who found this for me, I couldn’t find it so THANKS BASEBALL.) If you’ve ever read MAYEM you’ll probably know it, but it’s a moment that I think about a lot.

“Gaster grinned and did a corny little bow. ‘Thank you, thank you.’ The sun was beginning to rise on the horizon.

‘I’ll fucking conquer everything that gets in my way. I thought I had to do everything alone for a very long time. Before the boys, and you, but now I know I don’t.’ He smiled, ‘I’ll still fucking conquer anything, but it’s nice to have help doing it.’

‘I’ve lived through a war. I’ve lived through ripping out pieces of my soul. I’ve lived through raising two hellish little kids.’ Gaster smirked at that, ‘I’ve lived through being dusted and ripped into the void. I’ve lived fighting a demon. I’ve lived being ripped out again. I’ve lived having my soul clawed into shards.’

He looked at his double with an energy and ferocity he hadn’t had before. It was a spark that he hadn’t had the energy to maintain after the first crack. But now that crack was gone. His grin widened. ‘I’ve dragged you out of the void. I’ll drag you back home. Then I’ll go fucking demon hunting again.’

Life was… good.”

It’s not that this is written particularly well or anything, but it’s just... I dunno how to properly explain it. It’s Goop. This is him. He’s so headstrong and optimistic and fierce despite being put through literal hell. I don’t even know how he’s like this. How is he not a depressed, horrible mess? How did I make a character like this? How does he write himself so well?

It’s just one of those moments I’ve written where it’s difficult to think I’m writing him and he’s not just writing himself, alive inside my head.

Have you ever written fic on paper? (Can you show us?)

Fanfiction? No. When I was young I wrote all my stories on paper though because we didn’t own a computer. I used to have pages and pages and pages stapled together of elaborate stories in fantasy worlds where kids had things like dinosaur familiars bonded to them, and one was a story of a little girl born with magic in a world that hunted them down, so she had to live in the basement and hide all the time from inspections from the government.

Those are the only two I really remember, and sadly they all no longer exist. I wrote these for class a lot, middle school especially. We had a creative writing assignment once and I wrote like 50-some pages where everyone else wrote like... two, and after stumbling through giving a presentation mumbling under my breath (lol panic attack) my teacher pulled me aside after class and said something like;

“I read through this whole thing and it was incredible. You should never stop writing, you’ve really got a talent for it.”

It was the first time anyone had actually read my writing and gave me positive feedback for it, and it’s never left me. So... thanks middle school English teacher I no longer remember the name of! She was the only validation I ever got growing up.

What is the most ridiculous amount of research / time you spent on an aspect of your fic? (e.g, researching terminology, recovery from injuries, character heights, etc.)

God, fuckin’... probably anything I wrote for DC or Marvel. I forced myself to read so many Superman and Bucky comics so I could get a better handle of their character. The amount of garbage I had to slog through for that stuff, ugh. Comic writers really have no idea how to make a compelling plot like 90% of the time.

[imaginaryfriendcomic]

a long, meta PSA

Hello, my good readers! Firstly, I’m very glad to see we’re almost reaching 1k followers, and I’m still very determined to finish the next page - I’m nearly done with the whole layout!

Though what I want to talk about today is something I’ve been thinking for a while. As many of you may know, Imaginary Friend was technically going to be a comic adaptation of the original fanfiction I posted a long time ago. Now, I’m not saying I’m going to change the entire plot, yet there’s something in there that’s actually been bothering me, now that I think of it: and that’s about Gaster being a dad before the Void. Please read the whole post before commenting or sending asks!

*SPOILERS FOR THE ORIGINAL STORY

TRIGGER WARNINGS - MENTIONS OF ABUSE AND NEGLECT

Even from the first 23 pages, you know that Gaster is drowning in his sorrows and regrets. He keeps saying how he failed at being the Royal Scientist, for not being able to free everyone, and at being a father to Sans and Papyrus. If anyone has gotten to the fanfiction already, it’s claimed that Gaster used to overwork himself and did not spend a lot of time with his sons, and that “he pushed them away.” I’ll be including some chapter pieces here to prove my points:

LIKE I SAID, I WAS THE ROYAL SCIENTIST. I MARRIED A BEAUTIFUL WOMAN AND HAD TWO CHILDREN. MY WIFE, UNFORTUNATELY, PASSED AWAY... THE ONLY GOOD THINGS I HAD IN MY LIFE THEN WERE SANS AND PAPYRUS. I HAVE DONE EVERYTHING TO GIVE THEM A GOOD LIFE, WHICH MADE ME WORK EVEN HARDER AFTER MY WIFE WAS GONE. BUT THEN  I STARTED BEING SO FOCUSED ON WORK THAT I DIDN'T REALLY GIVE THEM MUCH ATTENTION. I BARELY SPENT TIME WITH THEM. WHEN I WAS IN A BAD MOOD, I USUALLY TOLD THEM TO LEAVE ME ALONE... I WASN'T A GOOD FATHER.

(chapter 2)

He let his wife die; nothing he had done to cure her from her disease worked. He neglected Sans and Papyrus, barely spent time with them and... treated them like they were just a burden in his life, when they really weren't. He had failed at freeing monsters, he had broken everyone's trust. He had disappointed everyone. He had had one job, and he failed.

(chapter 7)

It’s even implied that Sans looked after Papyrus on his own, too, which is further confirmed in the sequel I made, You’re Home Now (which contains Grillby x Gaster, just warning you guys).

He was very proud of them, despite Sans being lazy... His elder child did a great job taking care of Papyrus when he was younger (...).

(chapter 1)

The little Sans was home (in their very, very old house, the one located in New Home), watching television with young Papyrus. It was already late, the babysitter hadn't been able to come over, leaving Sans the responsibility of taking care of himself and his little brother, which wasn't that bad. Despite being a kid, Sans was actually responsible enough for his father to trust him at this task, though Papyrus could give some hard work sometimes.

(You’re Home Now, chapter 2)

Maybe this hasn’t crossed in anyone’s minds - if they’ve already read the fic - and well, I’m unsure if I’m overthinking this since I didn’t get that much depth to the original story, but this is my work, after all. I wrote this more than 3 years ago, so I’m looking back at it with a more critical perspective. Thus, this aspect about Gaster’s parenting has been bothering me recently.

I’m aware that many children have gone through this; being forced to look after themselves, their siblings or even their own parents (the latter isn’t quite the case here but anyway), as the adults fail to do what they’re supposed to - of taking care of their family and providing them love, attention and everything else. The lack of any of these things has been normalized in many households, and most of the time kids don’t realize how harmful it might be to them, because their own feelings aren’t validated. Since they’re forced to take in the role of the responsible parent, the adult, they excuse and justify their parents’ misdeeds.

Surely, in the original Imaginary Friend, Gaster acknowledges he wasn’t the best dad, yet now that I come to read it again, it never feels like he’s truly called out for that. Alright, he’s already being punished by the loneliness and helplessness for decades inside the Void, and he does show genuine remorse for his actions. Regardless, I feel like I’ve made excuses for his failures at being a parent. I feel like I used the “but he didn’t mean to!” excuse that so many people adopt when we’re talking about abusive and neglectful parents. I used Frisk, a character who I headcanon to have been abused by their biological parents, to justify that Gaster wasn’t all that bad:

"Don't say that! I think they would be glad to see you again." Frisk assured him. "I mean, you deeply cared about them and did everything to offer them proper conditions and-"

YES, BUT... I HAVE NOT GIVEN THEM ENOUGH LOVE AND AFFECTION. He sighed sadly.

Frisk sighed too. They had a feeling that Sans and Papyrus didn't hate him. They just knew it, but Gaster didn't believe.

"But... they never gave up on you, right?" They asked.

(...)

"I would've really liked to have a father who would do everything to give me a good life."

Gaster, curious, looked at the child. WHAT DO YOU MEAN?

"Toriel is my mom now, and she's the best, but... I've never had a father that cared about me." Frisk admitted. "You know... before I fell into the Underground. My real parents weren't... great. They were very mean to me, specially my father."

(...)

I AM SORRY ABOUT YOUR PARENTS.

"It's okay. At least I found great friends and a fantastic mom." Frisk said, smiling, despite remembering their mean parents. "You are a way better father than my real one. You shouldn't say you're the worst."

Gaster didn't answer.

"You may have not spent much time with them, but I don't think Sans and Papyrus wouldn't be happy to see you." Frisk said.

BUT I MADE THEM FEEL LIKE THEY WERE ANNOYING ME... I SHOULD HAVE NEVER DONE THAT.

"I understand, but, just so you know... I think you already made it clear to them that you cared about them, which is why they were always there for you even if you distanced yourself."

(chapter 2)

Sans and Papyrus don’t hold grudges against their father, either, and yet, now that I realize it, the former presents the same “pushing away” behavior Gaster presumably adopted. In the very least, Sans is called out for it, but I never explicitly connected that to how his father treated them:

"SANS, DID YOU SLEEP WELL?" Papyrus asked.

"i'm okay, pap."

"BUT YOU LOOK AWFUL-"

"papyrus, i'm okay!" Sans interrupted, sounding annoyed.

Papyrus shrunk out of fear. He had never seen Sans in that state before. He knew something was up with him, but for some reason, he was afraid of asking Sans what was wrong. His brother sounded so grumpy, he felt like he would piss him off if he asked that at the time.

(chapter 6)

"DON'T YOU JUST LEAVE THE HOUSE LIKE THAT!" Papyrus said, somehow pissed, but concerned at the same time.

"l-leave me alone." Sans managed to escape, but Papyrus wouldn't let him go.

"I JUST WANT TO TALK TO YOU! PLEASE-"

Sans teleported himself, escaping Papyrus's grip. He groaned loudly.

"SANS, OH MY GOD! STOP RUNNING AWAY FROM ME!" Papyrus yelled.

Turned out that Sans didn't teleport far away. He arrived in the same street, a few meters ahead.

"WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS TO ME?!" Papyrus yelled.

"i don't want to talk, papyrus."

"BUT THAT DOESN'T MEAN YOU CAN JUST... TREAT ME LIKE GARBAGE!"

(chapter 9)

That’s NOT to say Gaster is evil. You could say that Gaster believes he was terrible because of his trauma from the Void. The dark dimension causes him to hallucinate things, alter his physical form and twist reality, and so that may be why Sans and Papyrus don’t hold anything against him. But the point is, I don’t feel like I’ve made that clear. And with Sans technically mirroring his past role model, I feel like the narrative swept Gaster’s bad parenting under the carpet.

This topic is very difficult to discuss, I’m very aware of that. I get that some abusers can make it different, they can change. However, that’s not what usually happens. What does happen is society underestimating and devaluating the effects of abuse on people, especially children and teenagers. Nobody tends to focus on the victims, and thus finds ways to justify the abuse. Like that, I feel like I contributed to that, too. That’s why I’m writing this post.

PLEASE NOTE: I’m very proud of having written Imaginary Friend, and I want to continue with the comic. However, I want to truly emphasize that there will be changes in the comic adaptation, and with this theme in mind, I’ll make sure I don’t unintentionally excuse bad parenting again. At the time I wrote the fic, I had no idea it might come off that way (which doesn’t mean I’m condemning myself for not noticing). I think a lot of other people haven’t had the same impression, either; yet now that I do, I want to change what this fic might have defended.

I’m very sorry for everyone who went through this situation in their childhoods, or might still be. It’s not your fault. Your parent(s)/guardian(s) should have been better, and that’ll never be on you. Maybe they “didn’t mean to”, but that doesn’t mean it’s not harmful. I wish you all the happiness and safety in the world. <3

Stay determined!