#Not even proper Handplates

[sysig]

Skelefam

Unfortunately, as much as I love this mod - I mean, it’s beautiful! Just look at it! - it does have a game-crashing bug D: For some reason skeletons can’t get jobs, it crashes the game lol, so as much as I’d love to have Gaster in the Science career, he is a stay-at-home parent! That’s fine, nannies suck in TS2 lol. There’s also only a few clothing options but I’m gonna try some poking around to at least expand upon what’s there already :D

I ended up using the stretchSkeleton cheat - hehe, skeleton - to make Papyrus a bit taller and Sans a bit smaller. It’s only really noticeable in their ankles, and their animations are a bit misaligned, but other than that it’s very cute! :D Sans is also chubby but it’s kinda hard to tell :0

Sans, stop breaking the fourth wall!

Look how little he is compared to his brother hehe

Also, and I did not edit or plan this - they naturally started falling into their relationship dynamics! Gaster and Sans have a much lower Short Term Relationship here than Gaster and Papyrus haha

Would that I could! I was still testing at this point and yup, it crashed. Sadge

Well even if I can’t get the jobs, I can still cheat-unlock the Career Awards! Scientist behaviour lol

Look at their delicate little haaands

Did you know that Gaster sucks? He does!

Oh what are skeletons not your type? Don’t be rude

Sans even rejected him when Gaster offered to dance together! I love them

Gaster’s POV - he was listening to Sans tell a joke and next in the queue Papyrus wanted to show off to him. So accurate haha

Papyrus’ POV, of course he’s friends with both of them, sweet boy

And Sans’, look at how much more he thinks of his brother over Gaster! What more could I ask for honestly

Only concerned with Gaster seeing lol, Papyrus is way closer! He doesn’t count haha

Racecar bed babyyyy

Retextured the outfit for Papyrus, so now they’re much easier to tell apart! :D

Crossover babies ♪ One of the Todds walked by and I just now realized I also gave them a red/blue twin aesthetic haha

And that’s all he’ll want and care about from now on :)

Hehe. He gets it!

Papyrus is bad at making friends! Sans there in the background passively ++ing with Todd lol, he’s a natural

[the-worms-world]

ok so loke what if it is not a skeleton at all running the experiments. Oh my god i just had so many fucking ideas you do not even KNOW.

Ok so heres the sequence of events. lilgaster (ittybitty) survives the war. barely. is taken in by asgore and toriel. EvilBadguyScientist sees tinygaster wandering around sometimes, unattended. Not often, but sometimes all the same. barely ANYONE knows of this kid and eith all the hustle and bustle of keeping the underground running, who is really gonna notice one less weird little kid running around?

And besides. Yknow. Science, and all that stuff. They're a bit less smart than handplategrowngaster was/is, and as the royal scientist, they've made a lot of soul theory progress!! Haven't made the core, but there's a semi-funtional system up and running... most of the time.

they have been assigned to try to find alternate ways to break the barrier! They believe that just maybe. Monster souls could be manipulated or might just hold the key to figure out how *exactly* the barrier works. Problem is, How TheFuck Do You Go About Adking for Someone To Be MaybeTortured for a CHANCE at figuring out how the barrier works??? and god knows asgore would forbid it, too, but this is the most promising step for a mystery they have sunk *quite* a lot of time and energy and resources into and it effects *everyone.* So, logically... take it private. Keep it secret. Under lock and key. And all you need now is something to test on...

And there's that little kid again, ~~young and malleable.~~ all alone and unknown and looks so, so alone. (He's not alone. Unbeknown to EvilBadGuy. He's under the king and queen's care, but with how withdrawn he is, barely anyone has met him.) And they think.... It's just one kid. Alone, all the time, they never seem to have any friends, so nobody would really *hurt* from the loss of the kid... so the distorted, hard-to-understand kid's soul turns blue and he flies away, away, stolen inti the darkness.

Asgore and Toriel's first kid can't be found anywhere. Their hearts break for the first of many times down here. There's a mourning period, and most assume the kid must have fallen down waterfall or met some other unfortunate, accidental fate.

Kid acquired! Schemes: InMotion. Just one probably won't be enough, so... well, research has shown under proper circumstances, removed monster tissues- if given a bit of SOUL from the monster the tissues were taken from- are probably able to grow by themselves. ...

Better them than me, the scientist reflects, watching the laser shoot down, and the screaming of the kid- they need to stop referring to it as a kid, now on- and the laser seem to blend together, an awful unharmonized chorus. Two arms, the scientist figures they might as well, you know?

Chipping the soul away is *significantly* harder and much more... hands-on. The- It passes out fairly early on. It is probably for the better- that screaming would of been incredibly distracting.

Three tubes are prepared. It goes into the first one- and is surely won't survive outside of stasis, it's HOPE has withered in concerningly drastic amounts during the week it has been here. The first of the plate and infused soulchip go onto the second tube, and then the other in the third. Now it's just a waiting game- for the first of the array's wounds to stop bleeding, so to speak, and the second and third to grow.

BAM! everything then on is a p much direct continuation of handplates, with them being labeled ???0-W, ???1-S, and ???2-P. Gaster is naturally the most miserable out of the three, and somehow hovers with even less HOPE than Sans does. He was always a quiet kid, weighted down by the things he witnessed and survived, then a brief respite of warmtj and love by the Dreemurr family, then back into misery. He almost died... kind of a lot, compared to the other two. It seems to perk up at the unnatural skeleton lifeforms, but only by so much.

Someone mentioned that I hadn’t drawn Gaster in one of the hospital gowns yet. Not as much fun from the other side, is it!

Not sure who’d be doing this to him though. The brothers would never! And without a brother to support him through it, I’m not sure he’d survive…

[index] [patreon]

[dragonasheswrites-blog]

Subject One Reports

Subject One was asleep in his cage after Lights Out when he was disturbed by a strange monster.  It isn’t Doctor or Brother.  He isn’t sure what it is, but it’s asking questions he doesn’t know how to answer.  Is Outside really so different?

A semi-realistic take on Handplates by Zarla.

Click here to read on Archive of Our Own, or read more below the cut.

This was very heavily inspired by Zarla’s “Handplates” comics.  As I was reading Handplates, I found it interesting that the skeleton brothers are so very well-adjusted.  Humans, at least, learn from those around us: without outside influences, people in a Handplates-style situation would take much more after their captor than the skelebros do.  There’s an interesting comic of Gaster teaching slang to Sans, but this was written before that was posted.

The brothers know there true names here, but that’s more because I wanted to make it easier to keep the boys separated.

I am well aware that there are tons of differences between this and Handplates proper.  It isn’t intended to be in any way canon to that universe, merely an alternative and a tribute.

“H-hello?”

Sans lifted his head off his brother’s shoulder.  That...didn’t sound like Doctor.  He carefully extracted himself from his brother’s hold and crept closer to the bars that lined the entrance of his cage.

There was a light at the end of the hallway, moving back and forth in a rhythmic scanning pattern.  It was strange; there wasn’t any light source in that location that Sans could remember.

“Hello?” the voice called again.  It sounded high, hesitant, like Papyrus’s when he asked awkward moral questions.

The light began moving, swaying back and forth as it came closer.  Sans watched the floating light curiously.  It wasn’t demanding anything, wasn’t causing him any pain, but something told him to hide. He shrugged off the impulse.  Where would he hide?  Even if there was someplace to hide in the cage (and experience told him there wasn’t), how would he hide a sleeping Papyrus as well?

The light stopped right in front of the bars to his cage.  “O-oh!  Hello!” the voice said.

Sans just stared.  He wasn’t sure what that word meant.  He’d heard Doctor say it sometimes when he spoke into the communication box, but he didn’t see any communication box near the light.  He couldn’t see anything besides the light at all, actually.  It was just a floating rectangle of bright white facing the cage.

“O-oh!  S-sorry.”  The rectangle was flipped down towards the ground.  In the ambient light, Sans made out the shape of a new monster standing behind the rectangle.  It was a little taller than he was, though shorter than Doctor.  It wasn’t skeleton-shaped, but thicker, like monsters in some of the picture books he had let them see when they were smaller.  The monster was Justice-colored and wearing a bone-colored coat, like Doctor usually wore.

“A-are you okay?” the voice asked.

Finally, a question he could answer.  “My status is satisfactory,” he said.

“U-um, what?”

Sans repeated himself, his browbone wrinkling in confusion.

“O-okay, that’s, um, a strange way to put it.”

“Why?”

“M-most people s-say something like, ‘I’m fine’ or ‘I’m hurt’ or something like that.”

“That seems inefficient.”

The strange monster blinked.  “Um, I...I guess?  Maybe?  So...who are you?”

“I am Sans the skeleton.”

“N-nice to meet you, S-Sans!  I’m A-Alphys.”

Sans wasn’t entirely sure what to do with this information.

“A-are you sure you’re okay?”

“I am not sure where your confusion lies?”

“You really d-don’t act like a-anyone else I’ve e-ever met.”

“That seems logical.  Doctor always says I am deficient.”

The Alphys made a face that looked disappointed to Sans.  He felt his soul sink.  The first monster from Outside he’d ever met, and he’d disappointed it.  He cleared his nonexistent throat.  “My brother is a great improvement over me, if you would prefer to speak with him instead?”

“O-oh, there’s another one?”

“Yes.  We are subjects one and two.  I am subject one, my brother is subject two.  Doctor made us as tools to assess the strength of the barrier, and ideally to break it in the near future.”

The monster’s eyes widened.  “Y-you’re gonna b-break the barrier?  Really?”

“If trials follow Doctor’s hypotheses, then yes.”

The Alphys looked down the hallway, nervous.  It shifted the rectangle of light so the hallway it came from was illuminated, but there was no movement.  After a moment, the Alphys’s attention returned to Sans.  “Who is, um, ‘d-doctor?’  Which doctor do you m-mean?”

He cocked his head to the side.  “I apologize for my deficiency, but I do not understand your question.  Doctor is…” words failed Sans. He tried to recall descriptive words, but it had been so long since he’d seen the books on colors and shapes that his memory was a little fuzzy.  He didn’t need to remember which color was ‘yellow’ or ‘red’ when there was much more important information Doctor gave him.  “Doctor is...long?  Up?”  He stretched his hands towards the ceiling, trying to convey meaning through gesture.

“Y-you mean, tall?  He’s tall?”

‘Tall’ sounded right to Sans.  “Likely.  He is also, um, brittle?  Not sturdy?”  He brought his hands together, palms facing each other.

“Thin, you mean?”

“Perhaps?”

“Skinny, maybe?  Is that the word you’re looking for?  Not fat?”

“I...am unfamiliar with those words.”

“O-oh.  Sorry.  Um...do you know wh-what kind of m-monster he is?”

“Naturally, he is a skeleton monster.  A real monster, not like Papyrus and I.  Oh, are you well?”

The Alphys had taken a step away from the bars and had a hand over its mouth.  Sans wasn’t sure what that was meant to accomplish, but when it started shaking its head a moment later he assumed the gesture denoted distress.  “Y-you mean Dr. G-Gaster.  Dr. Gaster m-made you.”

“I am unfamiliar with those words?”

“O-oh my, it m-makes so much sense.  Y-you even talk l-like him.”

He frowned.  Of course he spoke like Doctor; Doctor was the only real monster he’d ever come into contact with.

“A-and what d-do you mean, that you and P-Papyrus aren’t m-monsters?  Aren’t you a-alive?”

“We are alive.  We are tools, not monsters.”  Sans wasn’t sure why that comment caused tears to trickle down the sides of the monster’s face.  “Are you in pain?  I am unsure why you are crying.”

“O-oh, sorry, no.  I-I’m f-”

The lab lights came on in a single blinding wave, not the gradual process Sans was used to.  The Alphys hissed and covered its eyes.  Perhaps it was afraid of light?  Or did it know what the lights meant?

The tap-tap-tap of Doctor’s shoes came down the hallway moments later, much faster and heavier than Sans was used to.  There was a scrabble as the Alphys attempted to find some hiding place in the hallway, but Sans knew from previous escape attempts that it was no use.  One end of the hallway led to the main labs: the experiment rooms, isolation chambers, recovery rooms, and the door Doctor used to access Outside.  The other end terminated at a storage room.

There was no way out.

“What do we have here?”  a familiar voice asked.

Sans wasn’t sure whether Doctor was referring to Sans or the Alphys, so he remained silent.  He did stand at attention next to the bars, though, in case he was needed.

“Subject One, report.”

“The Alphys came down the hallway with a light,” Sans said.  “It inquired about my health, and I provided a status update.  It then requested an analysis of you.  I provided one as best as I could with my deficiency of language.”

“And what was your analysis, Subject One?”

“We concluded that you are tall and thin.  Or skinny.”

Doctor made that strange noise he made when he was pleased, so Sans relaxed a little.  He was unsure what had pleased Doctor, but sometimes the monster showed emotions he didn’t understand.  It was part of being a real monster, he’d been told over and over again.

Doctor looked back down the hallway.  “Little Alphys.  An intern in our mechanical department.  Aberner’s daughter, correct?”

“U-um, y-yes?”  Sans heard the Alphys’s voice echo a little, but couldn’t see it.

“Whatever are you doing all the way down here?”

“I-I was curious-”

“I am certain your father has warned you about such things around my lab.”

“W-well, yes, b-but-”

“And you elected to disregard him.  I see.  Subject One, wake Subject Two.  I have a valuable lesson for you both.”

Sans scrambled over to his brother.  Papyrus was half-awake already, his sleep disturbed by the light and sound, so getting him upright and presentable was an easy task.  Both held out their hands without a fight when Doctor opened the door.  The control cuffs were relatively new, implemented after Sans had tried to escape one time too many while Doctor’s back was turned, and he already hated them with a passion.

“Follow me,” Doctor said.

Sans did as he was ordered, but kept glancing at the strange monster.  Doctor had the Alphys caught in blue magic.  Escape was impossible.

He felt...disappointment?  Regret?  It was the same way he felt when he failed one of Doctor’s logic tests, like he should have been able to do something but his deficiencies were too great.  Had he failed some test from the Alphys?  He thought back over their conversation. Perhaps he should have been better at using his descriptive words?

Doctor led them to the examination room and closed the doors. “Stand against the wall and watch,” he ordered.  He held the Alphys down with some difficulty, despite the blue magic, but eventually wrenched both its arms and its legs to the table.  Sans hadn’t noticed before, but the Alphys had a tail; this Doctor had to tape down, as the examination table didn’t have a restraint for such an appendage. Another length of tape went over its mouth to silence its cries.

Finally, the Alphys was restrained and quiet.  “Watch carefully,” Doctor said.  “This is what happens when you fail to obey.”

Both watched.  Sans could feel Papyrus shifting in confusion, but didn’t dare say anything.  He’d explain what happened with the Alphys once they were returned to their cage.

The procedure Doctor used on the Alphys was not very scientifically sound.  There were far too many unmitigated risks, from what Sans could see.  Perhaps Sans’s deficiencies were preventing him from understanding the procedure, but it looked to him like Doctor merely intended to harm the Alphys instead of using it to better understand anything.

The Alphys began wailing pitifully halfway through the procedure, and Sans’s soul beat in sympathy.  Papyrus shuffled closer, apparently affected by the sound as well, and Sans carefully adjusted his hands in his control cuffs so that the back of his hand brushed against the back of his brother’s.  It was the most he dared.

“One point of health left,” Doctor said, finally.  “You have been a very bad little girl, Alphys.  The question now stands: should I let you go, or should I take care of you like the rat you are?”

The Alphys made muffled, distressed sounds.  Sans could only guess that it wanted to be released.  That’s what he would want, anyways.

“Oh?  You wish to contribute your body to science?  A noble endeavor, my dear, but I am afraid I have nothing to learn from you. You see, I performed as many experiments as I dared on monsters before creating my tools.  It is...frowned upon Outside to experiment on the living, you see.  The ignorant fools fail to understand my higher purpose.”  Doctor walked slowly around the table.  “In short, Alphys, you are useless.  Well?  Anything to say?”

The Alphys was crying again.

“Very well.”  A single bone appeared in Doctor’s hand, which he used to give the Alphys a single firm tap on the head.  Immediately it stiffened, sobbed once, then dissolved into a cloud of grey-white dust.

Doctor retrieved his communication box and pushed some buttons. After a moment, he spoke.  “Hello.  Yes.  Doctor Aberner, correct?  I regret to inform you that your daughter, Alphys, snuck into my private lab while I was away.  I found her playing with some very dangerous tools.  ...No.  I made my way back to the lab as soon as I was alerted of a foreign presence, but I fear my appearance must have startled her. I could retrieve nothing but dust...and her clothing, of course, if you wish it.

“Oh, naturally, I will return it to you.  My condolences to your family.  I only wish she had not gotten involved in such things.  Do you know how she could have come to be down here?  No, I understand. The investigation can wait, of course, until you have a chance to mourn.  I am certain the security team has tapes; there is no need to trouble you or your family unless some kind of foul play shows up.

“Very well.  No, I fear I am still in shock myself; I have not had the opportunity to collect it.  No, you may not come down here.  I am blocking off this lab until further notice; I would hate to have a repeat of this...tragedy.  Yes, you may meet me in the first floor lobby.  It may take me some time to collect myself, but I shall meet you there as soon as possible.”

He pushed another button on the communication box, then looked over the brothers.  “A real monster lost her life today because she was not obedient to the orders she was given.  Do not think for one moment that either of you are any better than she was.  Do you understand?”

“Yes,” they said in unison.

“Subject One, since you gave me a clear analysis of the situation, I will grant you a reward.  What is your request?”

Sans could feel his brother’s eyes on his face, making it hard to think.  He wasn’t used to this...choice.  It was confusing.  What was the right answer?  What was the wrong one?  What would happen if he failed this test?

“I request information on shapes and colors,” he said, finally, “So that I may be less deficient in those areas.”

Doctor’s eyes widened, and Sans sensed that he’d taken the monster by surprise.  It was a heady feeling, like he’d gained some kind of hold.  It only lasted a moment.  “I...well.  Very well.  I shall compile the information for you and will provide it to you in the near future.  I shall be busy over the next few days, however.  Both of you, come with me; I must give you food rations to last until I am next able to come down here.”

Both brothers were laden down: Papyrus with water bottles, Sans with food ration bars.  It was hard to hold onto so many of them with the control cuffs on, but they didn’t dare drop anything.

“You must ration them carefully.  If you eat and drink all your supplies in one day, you may die before I am able to return.  Do you understand?”

“Yes,” they replied.

“Very well.  Back to your cage, now.  I shall clean up this...mess.”

The brothers followed.  Doctor grabbed a few books - treats he usually reserved for the recovery room - from his desk as they passed, and placed them on the single table in the brothers’ cage, along with the magic-fuelled lantern he gave them when he disappeared for long periods of time.

“Do not destroy these,” he said.  “I shall return as soon as I am able.  Until then...well.  Do try not to kill each other.”

He left, footsteps tap-tap-tap-ing back down the hallway, and the lab went dark.

Sans sat, still and quiet, for a long moment.  He felt very conflicted about what had just happened.  It had been interesting to talk with a monster from Outside, and he regretted not using the opportunity to ask more questions.  On the other hand...the Alphys had apparently been disobeying someone.  Doctor said that the Alphys had been warned not to come down to the lab, which made sense; being in the lab usually meant being hurt.  Doctor was the only one who could move through the lab without pain, but that was because he was the one performing experiments.

The Alphys...didn’t perform experiments at all.  It had asked strange questions, using words Sans didn’t know or could barely remember.  Did all monsters in Outside talk like that?  It was hard to imagine such a place.

“BROTHER,” Papyrus said, finally.  “I AM HUNGRY.”

Sans made his way over to the table on memory, then felt around for the lamp.  A brief flare of magic ignited the lamp and allowed them to see their supplies.

“I think we should only eat our usual rations,” Sans said.  “We do not want to run out of food before Doctor comes back.”

“THAT IS UNACCEPTABLE!  I AM HUNGRY NOW!”

He looked over their rations, counting the food bars.  “We can each eat one now,” he concluded.  “We will eat one ration bar for the lights-on meal and the lights-off meal.  Two ration bars for each of us every day will last us...four days.  If Doctor does not return within three days, we will go down to one ration bar each day.  Is that acceptable?”

“WELL…”

“If you have a better ration plan, please present it.”

“NO, THAT IS ACCEPTABLE.”

Sans smiled and passed a ration bar to his brother.  They ate in silence, thinking.

“BROTHER, WHAT WAS THAT CREATURE?  WAS IT A MONSTER, OR ANOTHER TOOL?”

“It was a monster from Outside.  It called itself the Alphys.”

“THE ALPHYS?  I HAVE NEVER HEARD OF SUCH A THING.  WAS IT LIKE THE FLUFFY BUNNY?”

“I...am unsure?  It did not look like the Fluffy Bunny.”

“YOU ARE CORRECT.”  There was a pause as Papyrus disposed of their food ration wrappers.  “WHY DID YOU REQUEST INFORMATION ON SHAPES AND COLORS?”

“The Alphys spoke of those things like they were ordinary.  It appeared distressed that I was unable to find the right descriptive words.  I wish to correct that deficiency.”

“IN CASE WE CAN GO TO OUTSIDE SOMEDAY?”

Sans looked around.  He was pretty sure Doctor wasn’t listening, but he couldn’t be too careful.  “...Yes.  It is bad enough that I am the deficient tool; I do not want to be deficient in language.”

Papyrus hummed.  “WILL YOU LET ME SEE THE INFORMATION AS WELL?”

“Of course!  You will probably remember it better than I will.”

 “THIS IS TRUE.  NOW, CAN WE GO TO BED?”

“Yes.  Have good dreams, Papyrus.”

“HAVE GOOD DREAMS, SANS.”

The light went out.

[demo-dragon]

No time for goodbye (HSOE GENOCIDE RUN ONE-SHOT)

Description: Okay, this one-shot is my version of Mercyplate genocide run on my fanfiction Handplates: Soul of Endurance. Now I pick the title No time for goodbye based on the lyrics that I was listening to called Get out alive by Three days Grace. Also, Gaster is not erased since he decided to give up on his projects and raise the skelebros, including Averie as a proper family. Oh, one more thing the human who is doing the genocide run is up to your interpretation. 

Word count: 616

Handplates and Handplates!Gaster belongs to @zarla-s Handplates: Soul of Endurance and Averie belongs to me

Undertale and character belongs to Toby Fox

Title based on the verse belongs to Three days Grace

The magical land known as the Underground was once filled with hopes and dreams, was now a land filled with extinction and despair. Many innocent monsters were dying due to one Determined human, and that human is too curious to know what would happen if they complete their fourth murder run. Dr. Gaster was still grieving for the loss of his sons, Sans and Papyrus both died at the hands of the human, and Averie suffering as well, but in her way, as she clutches the red scarf that her brother wore and the blue jacket torn with slash marks by some knife.

The woman turns away, wanting to leave this cold silence of death as the dust blows through the wind, and she knows what must be done to end this extermination. She even promised herself many years back that she would never retake a human life, but that promise had to be broken for everyone who is still left in the underground. “Gaster…I want you to go and protect any survivors by guiding them to the LAB in Hotlands,” she spoke in a monotone voice. “I-I will try to stop the human by meeting them at the judgment hall.” The former royal scientist looked at her in shock as his one good eye turned purple. He didn’t like what she was planning to do, and he knew this would be the last time they’d see each other. “A-Averie, please,” Gaster implored. “D-don’t do this, I beg of you I-I can’t lose you too!” He was rattling, and tears fell from his boney cheeks as he could already picture what would happen to her if she ever did meet the human in the judgment hall…blood nothing but blood.

“...I’m…I’m sorry, Doc.” Averie turned her head with sorrow in her eyes and a sad smile. “But they left me no choice.” As she walked away, Gaster called out to her again, “AVERIE S-STOP!” he screamed as he ran towards his former student. “I REFUSE TO LET YOU GET YOURSELF KILLED. LET ME DO THIS, PLEASE!” The new Royal Scientist sighs and looks at the old skeleton placing her hands on his shoulder. "I can't let you do that, Gaster," she expressed his concern. “I’m sorry I hope you understand that I must do this to-”

“I.DON’T.CARE!” Gaster screeched as he fell on his knees. “YOU ARE THE ONLY THING I HAVE LEFT!” The poor skeleton sobs as he can’t bear to lose her too. “So please don’t leave me.” He cried as the grief and heartache were too much for him. Averie got down on her knees and hugged him tightly while letting her mentor cry as this was the last time she’ll be here alive. “There’s no time for goodbye, f-father,” The young woman murmured as she and Gaster picked themselves up from the snowy ground. “So I must go and put a stop to this endless killing.” Gaster was speechless on what Averie just called him; she fully accepted him as her father despite everything he had done in the past, and she was willing to forgive him.

“I-I understand, Averie” He sighs in defeat. “Just promise me that you’ll come back alive” Averie stayed quiet, then she spoke up, “You know I can’t keep any promises, but I’ll try” She gave him a reassuring smile to slightly boost his hopes. “I’ll see you again, father.” Just like that, Averie walked away as this would be the final moment for everyone in the underground as she kept walking; the woman filled her SOUL with ENDURANCE, knowing time was running out and judgment was near for the determined human to face their punishment.

[galaxy-otter]

Self Insert Handplates BittyBones Story- ACT TWO- Tiny Skulls

(POV CHANGE) Your POV-

It had been a day. Your nervousness kept growing until you found the mouse trap on your porch. You mentally squealed and picked up the box, running inside like a drunken schoolgirl. You practically slammed the box on the table and ripped it open with so much force the box almost flew out of your hand. You set up the mouse trap the best you could, but there were no promises it would stay that way. It was about 8pm at that point, and BOY were you tired! You put a few things at the bottom, like peanut butter and half of a Slim Jim. Why the Slim Jim? It was the only other thing you could think of. You quietly opened the door and slid the mouse trap inside, putting it in the corner of the room. You closed the door again and walked out of that room and into your room. You practically jumped onto your bed, embracing the warm blankets. You were out like a light, forgetting the mouse problem. Were they even mice?

(POV CHANGE) Brother's POV

The brothers woke one by one and looked around. They were starving, surviving on a lone bag of chips, which barely had anything in it to begin with.

"HELLO BROTHER."

"hey, bro."

They were starting to get used to this, but the smell that hit their nonexistent noses were not normal.

"do you smell that."

"YEA."

They both got up and walked out of their makeshift shelter, which was a shoe box. They scanned the room until they spotted a box with another soft fabric over it. 2-p walked over to it, noticing a platform leading up to the top of the box. Did that person put his here? Surely they did, who else would do it? Before 1-s could stop him, 2-p was already walking up the platform and onto the box. "be careful, bro." 2-p nodded and opened the lid to the metal box thing. What was inside was some kind of meat stick and a peanut butter glob. 2-p tilted his head and tried to reach for it, but his foot slipped, causing him to fall into the box. His brother's panicked voice was muffled due to the box and the start of a panic attack. 2-p curled in on himself, sobbing, trying to make himself smaller and smaller.

1-s scratched at the box, but got no response. The platform had fallen off due to the opening to the box shutting, so there was no way to get to his brother. 1-s fell to his knees, sobbing quite loudly. Loudly enough to catch the attention of a certain someone. He ran when he heard the door open. The person he had seen the first day walked over to the box and tapped it a few times lightly. The squeak of fear from his brother made him panic even more. The person picked up the box, making 1-s even whiter than before. They walked out of the room, box in hand, and all 1-s could do was sob uncontrollably.

(POV CHANGE) Your POV-

You walked into the kitchen with the mousetrap in hand. Setting the trap down on the table, you took the blanket off to... reveal...

A tiny...

skeleton...

Wait WHAT?!

The skeleton was shaking uncontrollably, bones rattling against the hard floor of the mouse trap. You gasped, practically in a Mom-Mode state, and tore the lid off of the trap. That wasn't a good idea, because the skeleton was now sobbing even harder, trying to curl in on himself more.

You sighed, trying to talk to him the best you could, "Uh, hey little guy. You ok?" You tried to say that it the softest but not babying way possible. It seemed to work a little bit, because he relaxed a little bit, still shaking. You didn't want to do this, but you had no other suggestions in that empty head of yours. You puffed up your chest and scooped up the skeleton, causing him to shriek in surprise. You jumped at the tiny voice, but got over it and sat down, leaning him against your chest. Immediately, he grabbed onto your red sweater and sobbed uncontrollably, making a wet spot on your clothes. You rubbed his skull and talk to him in a quite voice. After a little while, the sobs turned into small hiccups. You spoke again, "You ok now, little guy?" Surpisingly, he nodded and buried his face more into your sweater. You should apologize, so you did, "Uh, sorry for catching you in a mouse trap. Thought you were a mouse, heh." You laughed once and sighed.

The small voice on your chest could barely be heard when he spoke, "W-WHAT ARE YOU G-GOING TO DO TO M-ME?"

Your heart skipped a beat. What? "I'm not going to do anything, dear. There is no need to worry." When was the last time you've spoken with so much care and love? It felt like decades, but you were only 23.

After a few minutes, his breathing slowed, and you realised he fell asleep. On you. In the kitchen. You slowly got up and walked into your bedroom, flicking on the light. It was Tuesday, meaning you had work. You worked from home and sold merchandise on the internet. It was... interesting, to see the personalities of your customers. Some overly nice, some chill, some overly rude, and a lot of people who tried to pay you with exposure. It was tiring, but interesting at the same time. You placed the skeleton in a blanket ring and pulled a blanket over him. You didn't know if skeletons could get cold, but you didn't wanna have to find out the hard way. You turned and walked off, looking at the skeleton one last time before closing the door behind you. You walked down the barren hallway and locked eyes with the guest bedroom door. You wanted to see if that skeleton was the only one, so that's what you did. You opened the door, scanning the room for any movement. You caught a bit of green, the same green as the skeleton's gown, run into your closet. You glided your feet across the carpet before slowly opening your closet door. You poked your head into the closet and looked down. The skeleton on the floor was protecting his neck with his hands, trying to make himself as small as possible. You sighed, a soft but sad one, and knelt down.

You spoke in a soft voice, trying to sound as calm and collected as you could manage, "Hey, little dude."

You smiled, and he jerked his head towards you, "w-where's my brother?"

You tilted your head a little, "Pardon?"

He repeated himself, and you mentally face palmed. Of course! Why hadn't you noticed before! They were siblings! "Ah, he's in my room. If you like, I can take you there and you can see him."

He narrowed his eye sockets at you, "what's the catch?"

You put your arms in a 'x' position, "No catch, promise."

After a few seconds, he reluctantly nodded, and you asked if you could carry him. He seemed frightened, but shakely nodded. You smiled and picked him up, slowly, as not to startle the little guy. You walked down the hallway and opened the door to your messy bedroom. He frantically scanned the bedroom until his eyes caught his brother, still fast asleep on your bed. You placed him on your bed and he ran towards his brother, putting his hands on the other one's side. The taller one shifted and cracked open an eye socket. He shot up and wrapped his brother in a hug. You couldn't make out any words, but they were mumbling to each other. They were now both crying, which made you a bit nervous. You could handle you own breakdowns, sure. But ANOTHER person's breakdown was another story. So you just sat there. Watching them cry in each other's embrace. You broke the tension, "Um, so, this may be a bad time, but may I ask HOW you got into my house?"

The taller one walked over to you, tears still streaming down his face, and put his hands on your thigh. His hands were so small that you squealed in your head. "WE ARE UNSURE ABOUT HOW WE GOT INTO YOUR HOME, BIG PERSON. HE WOKE UP HERE A FEW DAYS AGO..." Oh, so THAT'S where that noise was coming from. That's why the vase broke!

"So it was YOU who broke my vase?" You tilted your head in confusion. The tall one started to shake. "W-WE THOUGHT IT WAS S-SOME K-KIND OF T-T-TEST. WE DIDN'T KNOW WHAT DO WITH IT." The smaller one just stood there, frozen in place while the taller one cried against your thigh.

You... are at a loss of what to do here... You currently have two emotionally unstable tiny skeletons. One is sobbing against you while the other one is trying to comfort the crying one. You sigh and puff out your chest... metaphorically. You place your finger on the taller one's skull and rub in small circles. The small one is watching you with fear and utter distrust while the taller one stops sobbing, replacing them with small hiccups. "I'm not mad, dude. Actually, I've been meaning to get rid of that vase for a while." you place a finger on your chin, "Thanks for getting rid of it for me." You laugh and give them a thumbs up with your free hand.

"R...REALLY?" You nod, and he sighs, trying to hide his relieve as much as possible. You smile, how many times will they make you smile?

You look towards the door and you get an idea, "Hey, how about breakfast? It's still around breakfast time, so we should be good. I have some eggs left, or I can make some toast. How do you like your eggs? Oh wait, I'm rambling again... sorry guys."

"IT'S OKAY, BIG PERSON. SO, WHAT'S BREAKFAST?"

You blinked, confusion welling up inside you. "What?" He repeated himself, and you got more confused. "You guys... don't know what breakfast is?" The taller one shook his head, and the small one just shrugged, sitting on the bed. "Well, I can fix that! We should go right now and eat the biggest breakfast ever!!" You waved your hands in the air as you spoke. You paused for a moment. Wait... you didn't know these guys's names! "Oh! By the way, what are your guys's names?"

The tall one tilted his head, "WHAT'S A... NAME?"

How many times are you going to be confused by this tiny skeleton? "Uh... it's what you're called. For example," You pointed a finger at your chest, "My name is Y/N."

"Y/N?"

"Yep!"

"THEN, MY NAME IS 2-P, AND MY BROTHER IS 1-S." The skeleton, 2-P, didn't seem phased by the lack of a proper name.

"Uh, dude? I don't think those are proper names."

"WHY NOT?"

"Well, I don't know, actually. I've just never heard of names like those?" You shrugged your shoulders. Confusion fills your eyes as you wait for a response.

2-P pauses for a moment, mouth agape, before words formed in his mouth. "WHAT KIND OF NAMES ARE 'PROPER?'"

You tap your chin, trying to think of a few names. You've heard that skeletons are mostly named after fonts, so you go for those. "Well, Comic Sans, for example, or Bubblegum, or maybe Ariel. Like those!" You clasp your hands together, proud of yourself for coming up with a name.

He nods to make notice that he's listening, "WHAT WOULD OUR NAMES BE, THEN?"

You think, then shrug your shoulders, I'm not sure actually. I haven't know you guys enough to tell you guys that."

He nods, again, and rests his head on your thigh, yawning. You smile, even more than you were before, which you thought was impossible. 1-S was already out like a light, and soon after, so was his brother.

Act Two is out! Let me know what you guys think!

[confuzzledcomet]

I was sketching and decided to do some random stuff surrounding my AU, Undersurge!

This next information will be directly ripped from my notes taken on my phone, it may be changed as the AU develops-

• Idk if the human would really fight against the monsters in this au as the monsters have no reason to fight them and are busy fighting the Umbri

_______

• Maybe you fight the Umbri but you still have the choice to resolve things peacefully(pacifist)

----------

However that leads to conficts as the villagers don't agree with your method (due to these having killed many of them)

• Umbre (plural- umbri) (based off word "Umbra" defined as "the fully shaded inner region of a shadow cast by an opaque object, especially the area on the earth or moon experiencing the total phase of an eclipse")

• The barrier is held up by the magic of the Umbri who were planted by the humans who created the barrier to further ensure their safety against monsters

• The Umbri do not awaken right away, but soon into the construction of the underground when people are settling into their preferred places(the ruins may be finished, IDK yet I need to go back and read some UT stuff again-). Signs of this still remain as you can see the starts of some structures- not many though.

• Most live in tents, easy to construct and take down if needed after years of doing so

(Below section of debated notes by Gaster ↓)

Notes on the Umbri (as those ancient carvings seem to call them):

-Umbri attacks are unpredictable

-They don't seem to attack large groups often, but may do so on occasion (Maybe provoked? Perhaps there's a trigger?)

-The masks and markings seem to deter them as well

-It is recommended have proper attire and company if you leave your base

• Gaster is killed by an Umbre tho

----------

• Their markings are like- permanent mud masks made from the soil the Umbri rose from mixed with their monster magic-- that was a weird way to explain huh . ,.

• The masks and mud markings (should I give those a name- meh I'm lazy) were both ideas credited to Gaster and have been around for a long while

• Seeing the monster face to face seems to trigger the Umbri more likely to attack, thus why they began wearing masks

• People die = Gaster makes discoveries = a little less people die

• Asgore is their "Leader"

The core is not a factor in this au, I don't know if it'll even exist as I don't really see a point- (or how they'd get to building all that when they're so behind on everything else)

• Umbri turn back into soil when they die

• Asgore never does the whole "declare war against humanity" thing and doesn't try to kill human children that fall- so him and Toriel are still together in this AU~

Gerson is one of the few you hear still call him King

• Chara lived to see the second human to fall, they help Alphys with experiments and provide DT. Asriel never absorbs their soul, he dies right in front of them and they destroy the Umbre that killed him. Chara is DETERMINED to bring Asriel back, they collect his dust (which has mixed bits of the Umbre Chara just killed's remains). In their work with Alphys they decide it couldn't hurt to test the DT on the dust. This is how what I'm just now dubbing "Umbrey" is made. Though, like the first, it took a while to emerge. Chara and Al came back to a broken glass scattered across the floor, what remained of the jar that held the dust. They do not know of Asriel's fate.

• Chara's cause of death is unknown. They were found not far from the base. (Maybe someone did it- I'm not sure yet really-)

• Often when someone dies- either someone was there to confirm the death or they just come upon dust and have to figure out who it was (they hold rollcall in the mornings, just in case- kinda morbid oop)

• Names in case of multiversal shenanigans (only Sans and Paps for now though-)

It's a little rocky of a period mourning the death of their children but they get through it together

• Alphys and Undyne are both busy with their respective work (though Al doesn't really get much done, despite her efforts in research). Though they would like to pursue a relationship if possible, Alphys isn't too sure about it. She doesn't want to get attached and lose someone again.

• Alphys, Sans, and Chara are good friends due to working together in the lab. Though Sans doesn't come around as much due to having a different job(Patrol). The three had friendship necklaces Chara found at the dump(they were out in a group searching for supplies). They were originally gonna give one to Asriel but since it was made for three people they decided to give them to Sans and Alphys instead. Eventually they do make their own matching necklaces with Asriel(cause he wants one too)

• Toriel applys markings to new children (monster and human) when needed.

• Chara is a vengeful ghost with lingering anger from getting killed and intensified feelings on Arsriel's death. They want to kill Umbri cause they're what killed Asy and they don't think positively of humans as they are the reason monsters are trapped underground with these things. Chara still lingers and may be able to recover from their hate towards the world~

* Sans - Splotch / Splot / Splotchy / Spot

• Asgore and Toriel are 100+

* Papyrus - Blemish / Blem / Blemy

• The day I made this note page will be Splotch's birthday since I don't know the exact date I first drew him- July 16

Alphys is 31, Undyne is 30

Sans is 26, Papyrus is 18

When Gaster died Sans was 14 (So Pap would be 6-)

??? Maybe

• Asgore and Toriel take Sans & Pap in after Gaster dies

I might change the timeline or the ages completely--

(So they are basically their adopted children cause I love that concept after seeing Handplates/Mercyplates stuff-)

(That makes the fallen humans, Asriel, Sans, and Pap sorta related by adoption in this au then, huh-)

______

That's all- If anyone even bothered to read this mess lol

[shadowofthelamp]

WLOD twix

@queenofthewigglers submitted:

Okay so I took some inspiration from Zarla’s Handplates for this but this is kinda how I imagine they would handle the twix situation in that au. She wouldnt even have a proper earth name just something irken that Dib wouldn’t be able to understand. He probably just calls her abomination. She would be a bargaining chip for Dib to get Zim to conply. They both get experimented on Zim worse as he wants to protect his smeet. I drew Zim missing an arm because he lost one in the episode

________

Shadow: Oh man, that’s terrible, but… yeah, pretty much how things would go, I’d imagine. Ouch. And I remember those comics! Never played undertale but knew enough about it just from tumblr to get them, and I’ve always liked playing around with ‘experimenting’ themes. Thank you!

[kittysukagasterfics]

Mood Improver

Note: Thank you everyone for all the notes on the last fic. Hopefully you’ll enjoy just as much! Anyway, onto the fic!

Handplates belongs to: @zarla-s

Summary: The Human seems to be feeling mischievous today. Will that help them fix Gaster’s mood?

    “EEK! H-HUMAN, NOHOHO! NO TICKLES!! EHEHEHE!!!”

     Subject 2 laughed and shrieked as the Human and Subject 1 tag-teamed him with tickles. It had started as a normal day in the cells for the Human. They were trying to read one of the books they had ‘borrowed’ from Gaster but Subject 2 had other plans. He had wanted to pet them again and the Human let him, even though they weren’t getting much reading done. Not that they minded of course. What the both of them didn’t know is that the Human was being used as a distraction.

     Subject 1 had sneaked up on his brother and tackled him to the ground, tickling him. The Human was surprised at first but then they found the whole thing adorable soon after. They found it so adorable that they decided to join in as well.

    “EHEHEHEHE!! BROTHER, NOHO! STOHOP!”

    “grrrrr, what if i ask the human to join?”

    “DOHON’T YOU DAHAHARE!!”

     The Human didn’t need to be asked because they started to tickle Subject 2 as well. They scribbled their small, nimble fingers along his sides, making the small skeleton laugh loudly and trying to get away. His laughter was contagious though, causing the Human and Subject 1 to start laughing along with him. After a few more minutes of this, they both finally stopped tickling the poor babybones who took a moment to catch his breath.

    “heh, it’s fun to mess with ya, bro.”

    “IT’S NOT FUNNY, BROTHER!!”

     While the brothers were bickering, the Human had sneaked behind Subject 1 and started to tickle him. This made the tiny skeleton start to giggle hysterically. They pulled him into their lap, wiggling their fingers wherever they got a reaction from. The Human began to tease and coo at Subject 1 like how a parent would with their child. Meanwhile, Subject 2 was watching from the side to ensure that they were being gentle with his brother.

    “BE CAREFUL WITH HIM, HUMAN! HE’S VERY FRAGILE.”

    “nohoho i’m nahahat!”

     The Human didn’t tickle Subject 1 for as long as they did his brother and they eventually stopped after only a couple of minutes. They had learn what each of the brothers’ limits were from spending so much time with them in the LAB. Even though Gaster thought of the brothers as just ‘things’, the Human thought of the two as their own children. They would often dream of being on the Surface living with Gaster and helping to raise the brothers. But of course, they would wake up in the cells of the LAB from a fantasy that may never happen. A person could dream, though.

     Their fantasies were interrupted by the cell being opened and Gaster telling them to hurry up. He was once again letting them out of the cells so he could take more notes on the brothers and the Human. Subjects 1 & 2 would usually play one of the games they made up while the Human either played along with them or just hung around Gaster trying to talk to him.

     Today though, he seemed a bit agitated and about something. Gaster would be more harsh in how he acted or spoke. He was also extremely impatient with both the brothers and the Human, snapping at them at a moment’s notice.

    “Can’t you three be quiet for one minute?!”

     The brothers looked up from their tickle fight with the Human, shocked expression very clear on their faces.

    “*You ask Gaster if everything’s alright.” ‘*He gives you an irritated sigh...’

    “I’m fine, Human. Mind your own business.”

     The Human gave a small sigh at Gaster’s mood until they felt small arms wrap around their midsection. Looking down, they saw the brothers were shaking with fear and even heard small sobs coming from Subject 1. This changed the Human’s attitude from unhappy to annoyed. Just because Gaster was in a bad mood doesn’t mean he had to take it out on them and especially the brothers. Suddenly, an idea popped into the Human’s head.

     Giving a quiet evil giggle, they brought the brothers into a huddle whispering their plan to them. They had calmed down a bit as the plan was explained to them. The skelebros giggled quietly as the Human nonchalantly walked up behind Gaster and begin to gently massage his shoulders. He jumped a little once they made contact.

    “Human!? What are you...?”

    “*You tell Gaster that he seems tense and you know a way to help him...relax.”

     Gaster’s shoulders became less tense as he let out a relaxed sigh. It had been a stressful day for him. He'd been feeling pressure from all the Underground to find a way to break the barrier lately. He hadn’t had any proper rest in a while, either. And now, Gaster lost his temper at the Subjects and the Human. Well, at least the Human didn’t seem too upset with him.

    “Thank you, Human. This feels really-gah!”

    “*You jab your fingers into Gaster’s sides.” ‘*He immediately tries to smack your hands away.’

    “H-Human!! Kn...Knohohck it off!”

    “*You tease him by saying it’s the cure for his bad mood.”

     They continued to tickle him wherever they could, causing Gaster to fight against them as he tried not to laugh. The brothers found it hilarious though, laughing quietly to themselves. After a few minutes of struggling and choking down laughter, Gaster finally mustered up the strength to pry the Human’s hands off of him. He took a couple of deep breaths to compose himself before turning to glare at the Human.

    “What on earth was that for, Human?”

    “*You ask if he’s feeling better now.” ‘*He looks mad at first...but then he looks thoughtful...?’

    “You know what, Human, I believe I am feeling better than I was. But...”

    “*?”

    “But now let’s see if you can reap what you sow, Human.”

     And that was the Human’s cue to try and run. Keyword on ‘try’ as Gaster had summoned some of his magic hands and sent out two to grab and hold their wrists to keep them still. They gave a nervous laugh as he approached them with the rest of the hands..

(Few seconds later...)

    “I bet you’re regretting what you did, aren’t you?”

    “*You try to speak but Gaster’s magical hands tickle too much...”

    “Now I won’t have to waste my breath lecturing you anymore...”

     At least he’s in a better mood now, but now the Human has other problems to worry about.

Note: I hope you all enjoy reading this extra fluffy fic. Now that I’ve finished with this one, I can now work on requests. Thank you all for reading! Requests are always welcomed! Stay tuned for more.

[argentdandelion]

Handplates: If They’re Clones, Why Do They Have Different Personalities?

(From this Handplates comic)

In Zarla-s’s highly influential Undertale comic, Handplates, the royal scientist W.D. Gaster created his test subjects, 1-S (Sans) and 2-P (Papyrus) by cutting out tissue samples from his hands and growing them in big tubes.

Since the two were made from his tissue samples, they are logically his clones. Yet, they look too different from Gaster and each other to be proper clones. Indeed, Gaster's test subjects don’t even act that much like him.

Why?

It's actually plausible Gaster and his clones would behave differently. Different life experiences can make clones act very differently, so differences magnify over time. Gaster is also much older than Sans and Papyrus, so of course he'd act different.

What's more important is how Sans and Papyrus differ from each other. It didn’t take years for their behavior to change: they act differently even when first removed from the gestation tubes.

According to Gaster, Papyrus whined and cried constantly. When his limb detached, he froze, panicked, and screamed, starting to cry when Gaster got closer.1 In contrast, Sans was quiet and moved around and investigated his cell, apparently trying to find a way to escape. When he noticed Gaster, Sans was still quiet. He backed up against a wall as Gaster approached and then rattled his bones (which Zarla-s likens to a scared kitten poofing itself up).

Why do they act so different? It's for the same reason that, despite identical gestation, they have such different statures, body shapes and face shapes.

It's the fact Gaster is two people.

Gaster is Two People??!

Strictly speaking, he’s not. Rather, he may be a chimera.

Chimeras are made from two cell lines that work as a single, composite organism. Think of mules: if a horse's cells are red and a donkey's are blue, mule cells are purple. A horse-donkey chimera, however, has both blue and red cells.

Chimeric animals can behave in way that's intermediate to their components: chimeras of wild, jumpy Ryukyu mice and tame lab mice show a mix of behavioral traits. In humans, chimeras (formed my fraternal twins merging as embryos) is often undetectable at a glance, or shows only subtle visible signs.

Sans and Papyrus grew from bone pieces taken from Gaster's left and right hands, respectively. It's possible each hand was mostly made of one identical-looking cell line, and only when the samples had to form bodies largely of one line did phenotype differences show up.

Temperament

(Image composite from two comics. Credit to Zarla-s.)

“The two of them differ strikingly in temperament. One docile, one hostile.” (Gaster even uses the word “temperament”.)

If Gaster is a chimera, it would explain their basic behavioral differences, too.

Babies do not have personalities, exactly. Rather, they have "temperaments", genetically-determined precursors to personalities. For Gaster's clones, temperament differences showed up within just seven hours of decanting. Papyrus was very loud and constantly made noise, while Sans was quiet to the point Gaster figured he was incapable of speech. While both panic when Gaster gets closer and when their limbs detach, and also start crying during these events, only Sans is described as “wary”.

Similarly, the list of introverted and extroverted traits on Wikipedia matches up well with Sans' and Papyrus' behavior. It’s possible one of Gaster’s cell lines (or SOUL lines2?) increases the likelihood of introverted behavior, while another increases the likelihood of extroverted behavior. Combined, the two end up as a mix, though in Gaster introversion dominates.3

However, there’s a caveat: it’s impossible to know this for certain without seeing Gaster’s behavior in similar situations as a baby. Another caveat is their accelerated growth in the tubes: this affected how capable (i.e., they could walk) his clones were, and potentially their confidence in new situations.

To be fair, when Sans' arm falls off later he acts much like Papyrus, but Papyrus quickly re-attaches it. ↩︎

In some works, monsters reproduce using their SOULs. Yet, in Handplates, Gaster doesn’t use his SOUL: just bone pieces. (Though a strange inter-dimensional being claims they have pieces of his SOUL anyway.) This brings up some interesting questions, but the point is that, if monster behavior comes from their SOULs and they act like him, some aspect of SOULs might be inherited. ↩︎

Caveat: technically, very few people are pure extroverts or introverts. People are called those terms if they have mostly introverted or extroverted traits. ↩︎

[butterfleyequeen]

I was just thinking about how in the "classic" Undertale universe, Arial likely had a pretty decent relationship with Papa Gaster before shit hit the fan for them; and then I was thinking about AUs like Reapertale or Handplates, where--specifically in Reapertale--Gaster seems incredibly negligent and maybe even uninterested in having a proper father-daughter bond with Arial (not to mention in the case of Handplates, where she somehow discovers that Gaster made two more genetically engineered "offspring" in which he abused the shit out of) leading to her feeling apathetic towards him and his ultimate fate. And since Arial is one of the select few (if not the only) beings that remember Gaster, I can just picture her being like:

[whos-laughing-now-batim]

@nemo-draco I was hoping you would ask that.

For Bendy, I would think of him as being quite similar to Zarla’s interpretation of Sans in her Undertale AU called “Handplates” (I highly recommend reading her comics if you haven’t already); he may be a bit more nonchalant and indifferent to learning the basics of education (he honestly wouldn’t see the point of it at all initially), but Bendy is a surprisingly fast learner for a toon despite his claims of not caring much for any of it. Although there are moments when he does struggle (particularly with writing and grammar), he is able to work through those obstacles and not let them faze him too much. And I don’t know if or when Bendy would ever admit to this, but he absolutely LOVES math in this AU. He goes out of his way at times to say how much he doesn’t like dealing with numbers, but the dead giveaway is the ever-widening smile that spreads across nearly more than half of the little devil’s face when he can crunch them in his head faster than everyone else within the studio except for Grant Cohen, Joey Drew Studios’ shop/budget keeper.

Bendy can and will admit when he’s wrong at times, but that’s not to say that the Lil’ Devil Darling doesn’t have moments where he’d get into a very heated debate with folks if an answer he makes (that he firmly believes to be right) is pointed out to actually be wrong. It’d be on rare occasions that he’d win the argument and his answer would be proven right (much to Bendy’s satisfaction), but he’d be a bit grouchy/disgruntled during all those other times whenever he is proven to be in the wrong (being the stubborn demon that he is [I’ll admit, I was very much like this as a kid]). He’d get over it eventually though.

Alice Angel fares nearly as well as Bendy when it comes to her basic education, too. She’s pretty neutral to the concept of having one and doesn’t mind going with the flow of things regarding it. Though unlike Bendy, Alice excels greatly when it comes to writing and makes a habit of using proper grammar as much as humanly (or would it be “cartoonly”?) possible; but she hates math with a deep passion (at least, when it comes to the higher levels of it). She can understand why folks would need the basic mathematics, but the poor angel struggles to comprehend it most of the time. Regardless, Alice does her best to retain patience and self-control (even though it can be difficult at times for the angel to do so) and goes over her mistakes as many times as possible until she can understand what exactly she did wrong and fix it.

As siblings, Bendy likes to rub his mathematical expertise in Alice’s face whereas she’d irritate him by correcting his grammar (or lack thereof) and nagging about how he writes his words among other things (”You need to dot your ‘i’s, Bendy.”). But in the midst of all their teasing and jeering towards one another, they do try their best to help each other solve whatever problems they’re struggling with depending on the area in which they were falling short. They may not do it in the most ideal or most “loving” way possible, but it’s one of the few ways the two toons show their love for each other as brother and sister.

And then there’s Boris the Wolf.

While he’s likely to be the most introverted of the toons (and that’s saying a lot considering what his job is), Boris is really the most enthusiastic of the three at the thought of being taught how to read, write, and learn the other elements within a basic education. He has such a childlike eagerness to know as many things as the world can ever offer and is excited to quench the insatiable curiosities that dwell within his heart and mind. He is also the one toon who asks the most questions, doing whatever he can to find all the answers he can look for from his superiors (though he is very careful as to who he asks and avoids those who he finds are easily irritable towards him). I’d honestly say the wolf is very much like a little kindergartner or first-grader who asks odd yet rather deep and profound questions that folks usually seem to stop asking themselves by the time they are practically full-grown adults. The boy wants so badly to learn and experience new things that he simply can’t wait to get started.

Unlike Bendy and Alice though, Boris is more of a visual/memory-based learner. For example, if someone were to read a story to him and the toons while he’s sitting beside the reader, Boris is able to remember and recognize how the words appeared/sounded and would read the story aloud to himself successfully without struggling at all not long after listening to the reader and silently reading the words alongside him or her (apparently, my mom said I did stuff like that with books that were read to me when I was around 3-4 years old). This kind of learning would also, in a sense, explain how he’s able to learn how to do hands-on activities around the studio (like helping Wally Franks and Thomas Connor with working on repairs whether it be on the Ink pipes, faulty/malfunctioning technical appliances, etc.) easier and faster than Bendy and Alice can. Unfortunately for him, it initially took a while before folks figured that out.

Before that time, Boris had severe difficulty learning in almost any and all areas of education, and the poor wolf hated that about himself. He’d try so much and work so hard to show that he’s just as smart as the devil and the angel, but he’d miserably fail just about every time in doing so. The one subject he actually did splendidly in was writing, but it didn’t really help the guy at all if he couldn’t read nor understand what he had just written. And when he tried to read, he had very little success (reading aloud did help him a bit, but he still stuttered, stumbled, and mixed up his words from time to time if he didn’t have someone to help him) and tended to (unintentionally) interpret the clearest of written directions in strange ways (much like a certain young skeleton by the name of Papyrus in the Undertale Handplates AU). Sammy Lawrence had even verbally questioned once whether or not the “dumb old cartoon” was intent on sabotaging himself at every turn (emphasis on “once” [as Boris has proven time and time again before to the majority of studio members that he’s anything but dumb]).

The fact that things didn’t come as easily for him with as they do for Bendy and Alice resulted in Boris stressing out and overthinking to the point where he had bits of anxiety, a low self-confidence in his abilities, and some nervous emotional/mental breakdowns on occasion. He even stayed up late for unhealthily long periods of time trying to study or figure out the answers to some problems due to him stressing over it all so much. The toon wolf was lucky enough though to receive help from some of the crew (if they weren’t too busy at least) like Henry, Norman, Susie, and so on aside from his siblings (heck, even Joey would come and do his best to help him every so often). But despite their attempts at trying to find what learning method suited Boris, he still struggled all the same. However, fortunately for Boris and the others, it didn’t last as long as they feared it would, and they all finally found a method that actually worked for the wolf.

Boris holds a generally neutral perspective on math in contrast to Bendy and Alice, who are both on opposite ends of the spectrum regarding it (he does a fairly better job than Alice on the subject, but he’s nowhere near close to being as smart as Bendy math-wise), but he does have an overwhelming love and passion for reading books; to him, the intricately detailed and captivating tales, along with the occasional colorfully well-drawn illustrations, that reside within one’s pages is one of the outside world’s true treasures that he can’t help but admire. Whenever he isn’t playing his music, socializing with the studio crew, or hanging out with his fellow toon siblings, there’s rarely ever a moment where Boris would do anything else with his spare time other than immerse himself into the contents of yet another spellbinding book, no matter what type or genre it was. Whether they be tales spun out of fiction or nonfiction, read from pages of paper and ink or told from the mouths of his fellow man, they all essentially grant the cartoon wolf (in some way or another) a form of escape from the confines of Joey Drew Studios, a further understanding of what life in the outside world is like, the ability to see through perspectives other than his own, and the power to take on his own crazy, fantastical adventures, from fighting dragons to solving mysteries to sailing on pirate ships in search of gold, deep within the wonderful and mystical realm of dreams.

Still, that’s not to say that stories, and books in general, are successful at ridding Boris of all the unanswered questions that eat away at his brain. In fact, it only causes more and more questions to surface within him, particularly those shortly after Henry leaves for the war in regards to some changes that are being made deep within the lower levels of the studio when no one’s watching.

In other words, let’s just say that a certain search for answers to said questions may or may not play a significantly major role in what all Henry will witness upon returning to the studio for the first time ever in thirty years…

Hope this answers your question, buddy! 😉

[sisullasuohon]

Alkuperäinen

Käsilaatat master post

Käännöksessä esiintyvä kappale: Toto - Africa Niille joita kiinnostaa, leikkauksen alta löytyy linkki Käsilaatta-aiheiseen kappalelistaan suomalaisilla piiseillä.

Under the cut is some translator notes, an encouragement to listen to music for everyone learning any language, and... some music-related ”bonus content”.

I feel like it would’ve been too easy a joke to switch the song to something you can hear at any bar with karaoke at 3AM. I recognised the song immediately from the lyrics in the comic and I think it’s in the local Singstar games too, there’s no way you wouldn’t be able to sing it at karaoke here too. Karaoke is very popular in Finland, usually you can find it at bars where anyone anywhere at the bar can hear the one person singing, even in the toilets.

One way to make your language studies easier and more fun is to listen to songs that are in that language. People have very different ways to learn and not everyone learns by reading and writing, despite of some teachers relying only on that. With songs you can learn: - New vocabulary that is actually used by the target group of the song, not just the general tasteless language taught for beginners - To use words you already know in different phrases and word combinations that might have surprising new meanings, if the language is flexible with its word order you get to see plenty of that too. - Pronunciation (especially if you sing along) and where in the words you can draw out the vowels like a native, this is useful for when you have conversations and want to sound less like a robot. - Everything above is learned accompanied with a melody or a beat, this helps to remember them better. If you listen to songs digitally you also get to repeat everything even word-by-word as many times as you need.

Songs are also one window to the culture of the country they origin from. If you can find more info about why a certain song was written, how it was received and by what target groups, step by step you learn more about the society that speaks the language you’re on your way to master.

If you’re interested in learning Finnish through songs, one easy way to start is to listen to covers of songs you already know. You can probably find all Disney songs in Finnish on Youtube, children’s movies that are shown in theatres usually get proper covers on all their songs. TV cartoons are a hit or miss, it really depends on the budget of the translation if the songs are translated at all, but usually at least the intro is translated. There was a time when popular Finnish artists did covers of some popular foreign songs too, but unfortunately I can’t give any advice on how to find those. Outside of that, you can always just google your favourite Finnish songs and find the lyrics online, and many have already been translated to English as well. Of course, not all songs get translated by fans and first you’d even need to find an artist you like too, right? So...

So, to help with that or something, I made a list of songs that are related to the themes of Handplates over here. Please enjoy if stuff like this is up your alley. It’s in my general tumblr because I have no idea how to categorise this kind of stuff, the direction of translation is wrong for this blog anyway. While looking up for songs for this one, I think I found enough for one more batch that's more of a general Undertale theme. So if you liked this one look forward to that one too I guess.

[sparkkeyper]

Hypothetical Handplates scenario in which Sans realizes he can teach himself Common.

(Ugh, tumblr is making them blurry for some reason so I guess full-view if you want the not-blurry version??)

Convoluted explanation incoming. Handplates is an Undertale fancomic by @zarla-s and if you like Papyrus and Sans, go read it, is good stuff. So I guess this is an AU fancomic of an AU fancomic? I dunno, the idea wouldn’t leave my brain until I did something with it. So. Zarla did a Christmas doodle where Gaster gave the boys a box of ginger cookies that had the word COOKIES on the side in big letters, and because my job gives me way too much time to think about random stuff, I realized something.

In Handplates, Gaster taught the bros to read and write Wingdings but deliberately did not teach them monster Common (ie: English) so they can’t read his nametag or anything. Thing is, Wingdings is a 1:1 substitution cipher for English. Every Wingdings symbol exactly equals an English letter; it’s not a different language, just a different set of pictures. As somebody who has taught herself a fair number of substitution ciphers, there are a few things you look for when you’re trying to translate a code and you don’t have a key in front of you. Most notably, single-letter words (in English they will usually be A or I) or double letters next to each other. Like the OO in “COOKIES”.

Sans is smart. Gaster has fed them junk food before and odds are good Sans knows how to spell “COOKIES”. The word is on the box in huge letters and Gaster just said it out loud, so it is fresh in Sans’ mind. That double-O is a huge tip-off. He would put it together that the word on the front of the box matches what’s inside. Once you figure out a few of the letters, it becomes steadily easier to decode the rest.

I feel like Gaster exposes the boys to enough Common (the nametag, food wrappers, computer monitors, the books Sans sits on) that Sans could pick it up with a proper starting point. Papyrus probably not, because he had a hard enough time with Wingdings, but Sans is eager for any opportunity to undermine Gaster and I’m sure he’d jump at the chance. In this comic he elects not to tell Papyrus, though. He doesn’t know Gaster has cameras in the cell (or even what a camera is) but he’s figured out that Gaster can spy on them somehow, and the last time Gaster caught them learning something he didn’t like, Papyrus got the ever-loving hell beat out of him. So Sans keeps quiet about it for now. And thus starts the long-standing tradition of keeping important secrets from his brother.

On the technical side, it took me a freakin’ week to sketch and outline this whole thing. Coloring and shading only took me like a day. In the meantime Zarla actually kinda addressed the cookie comic, but this was almost done by then so oh well. I’m finding my poses and proportions turn out a LOT better when I’m doodling skeletons, like what, drawing basic anatomy will make you better at anatomy, you don’t say?? A lot of this was a self-challenge to see if I could imitate Zarla’s art style, and I referenced previous Handplates comics a lot for the backgrounds and Sans’ face. Full disclosure: Gaster’s pose up there is basically copied from Zarla’s original comic because I was rushing through to get on to the actual meat of the story. He’s just here for setup. I had fun trying to figure out how to do his Lost Soul head though. Also, I hate Papyrus’ face from the front. Also also, it was tricky trying to convey “mentally translating an unknown alphabet into a known one” when pretty much everyone who sees this comic is already familiar with the “unknown” one and not the “known” one, but I think I pulled it off. 

TL;DR- I imitated somebody else’s style to do an AU of an AU; I am not Zarla; Zarla is the creator of Handplates and also Gaster’s pose in the first panel; I like ciphers too much and also I gave the cookies icing because that is the only kind of ginger cookie I know.

[dragonasheswrites-blog]

A Caged Bird Sings

In a world where monster magic is based on dancing, W. D. Gaster is concerned with one of his experiments' refusal to perform. Good thing he's no stranger to using drastic measures to get what he wants.

Based on the Dancetale AU by tearsandstars and the Handplates series by zarla-s.

Click here to read on Archive of Our Own, or read more below the cut.

Gaster looked at the chil- at the subjects in the cell in front of him.  “File #645-2.  Subject P2 remains unconscious,” he dictated to his recorder.  “Falling seems more likely by the hour.  If he remains in this state tomorrow morning, I shall ask the intern upstairs if she needs further test subjects.”  He wondered if Alphys had made any progress with her Determination experiments, then pushed the thought aside.  As the Royal Scientist and Alphys’ supervisor, he’d been called in to clean up some of her early...failures.  Some things even he - hardened though he was - would prefer not to touch.

A shuffling sound brought his attention back to the cell where the subjects were confined.  S1 was glaring up at the scientist, the ungrateful brat.  This would have been so much easier if S1 and P2 lacked sentience, but all great achievements were marred by some failure.

“Do you even care?”  S1 asked, ignoring Lab Rule #34: only speak when spoken to.  S1 broke Rule #34 on a daily basis - so often that it was rarely worth punishing him for it anymore.

Humoring his experiment, Gaster replied, “Do I care about what?  Do not be vague; it’s inefficient.”

S1 made a strange noise.  “Do you care about Pap - about P2?  He’s dying here.  At least when you broke my eye, you let him heal me.”

“You are present.  You have permission to heal him.”

“You ba- you know that’s not possible!  He needs an antidote!  Healing him won’t remove whatever you poisoned him with!”

It wasn’t poison, strictly speaking, and S1 knew it.  Gaster pushed down the familiar irritation that arose whenever S1 wasted his intellectual potential with exaggeration...or worse, jokes.  How either trait had come about in a creature brewed in a lab with no outside contact was a mystery.  Gaster made a mental note to double-check his bookcases; the subjects had a strange habit of pilfering his reading materials when he wasn’t paying close enough attention.

"Please.”  When Gaster looked back, S1 was kneeling - kneeling? - by the bars of the cage, every bone in his small body hunched in defeat.  “Please...give him the antidote to...whatever you gave him.  I’ll help with the experiment instead.  Just...please save him.”

“You had the opportunity to help before.  You refused.”

“I know.  I-I’m sorry.  I won’t do it again.”

“And the next time you refuse to cooperate?  What then?”

“Damni- don’t pretend I’m stupid.  Logically, P...P2 is useful to your research.  You won’t let him die.”

“Then why bother asking?”

“Because he’s my brother.   Please, I’ll do anything for him.”

With a few taps of the keypad, Gaster deactivated the energy beams that guarded the cell door.  “Come.  Prove it.”

S1 followed, putting up less of a fuss than he had in weeks.  Gaster entered the lab, meticulously cleared of operating tables.  S1 moved to the center of the floor and stood there awkwardly, as if he was not sure how to prove his intentions when there were no experiments to be done.

“Ask for your...brother’s antidote,” Gaster said.”

“Please…”

“No.”

A summoned ethereal hand touched a panel, and music began to play.  It was a basic melody with an exaggerated rhythm, something that would fit many different kinds of dance, like a teacher would use to test the dance style of a young monster.

“Ask for your brother’s antidote,” Gaster repeated.

Gaster watched his creation carefully, seeing the realization of what was being asked of him fade into resentment...and, slowly, into desperation.  S1 had never danced much, even in the days before the increasing experimentation caused him to hate his creator.  Even with secret cameras, Gaster had only caught him dancing half a dozen times in the past year, and then, only at the request of P2.

The choppy recordings of the repurposed hidden cameras didn’t do justice to the young skeleton’s technique.  It was wild - far less refined than his own waltz, but smooth and surprisingly mesmerizing.  Gaster had expected a half-hearted performance, at least the first time he asked, but the abandon with which S1 threw himself into his impromptu performance showed a passion that overrode rebellion.  The frantic desire for his brother’s safety bled through, and Gaster - caught off guard - felt some long-dead part of his soul tug in sympathy to the beat.

It was easily quashed.  The simple tune faded into another, which was cut off with a spectral hand.  Gaster turned and walked from the room, not bothering to see if S1 was following.  As he expected, S1 was standing next to him by the time he opened the cell, still a bit winded from his dance and strangely compliant.

Gaster reached into a coat pocket and withdrew a syringe, which he administered to P2.  “He will wake within the hour,” he said, turning to leave.  He didn’t need to look to know S1 was glaring again in utter betrayal.

Still a bit unnerved by his minor attack of empathy, Gaster retreated to his office and began prepping for the next day’s experiments.  He turned his recorder back on to dictate while he worked.

“Addendum to File #645-2.  Experiment was a success.  Emotional manipulation works well on S1, especially with regards to P2’s health.  I shall attach copies of the performance from the lab cameras as soon as they are retrieved.  Note to self: find better cameras for improved data collection.  S1’s abilities with the magic of dance are powerful - moreso than I previously believed, especially given the damage to his eye.  Recommend further study…”

[sisullasuohon]

Alkuperäinen

Käsilaatat master post

Under the cut is another bunch of interesting words and translation choices involved in them.

See the previous batch of words of interest here (some scrolling required)

Puzzle Pulma - This is one of the important words I knew would show up eventually, so I’ve given it a lot of thought. I wanted to translate it as ’arvoitus’, that has meaning closer to a conundrum, losing the double-meaning of ’a problem’ that ’pulma’ has and is more mysterious overall. It would’ve covered puzzles based on speech as well. However, ’pulma’ has more potential when taken to word-plays and word combinations, and it’s the more common translation of ’puzzle’. I’ve seen the term ’puzzle game’ translated to ’pulmapeli’ before. Fun fact: ’jigsaw puzzle’ is ’palapeli’ in Finnish, literally ’piece game’.

Core Ydin - The Finnish word means a lot of things when compared to the English one, there’s a possibility it could be a problem in the future translations...

kid skidi - A loan word from English in Helsinki slang. There’s records of it being in use since the 50’s.

Come on/cmon Yritä nyt (just try)/Älä nyt (please don’t)/Liikettä niveliin (lit. movement to joints, meaning= let’s go)/No niin (a common filler phrase that is very context sensitive)/Tule (Come)/Tule jo (Come already)/Tulehan (Come, with an addition that makes it sound less an order, more a suggestion)/other phrases that fit the moment - This phrase is used in many different situations in English, and Finnish does not have an equivalent one. You can say ’kamoon’ in spoken Finnish in casual circumstances and be understood, but it always has a mocking tone to it. I pick what seems to me as the intention in the context and roll with it.

Okay/alright/ok in the lab: selvä/hei/ei hätää/ei se mitään/hyvä/kaikki hyvin/kyllä tämä tästä/oletko kunnossa/jooko/aivan joo/kuuletko/plenty of other phrases that fit the moment, or in rare cases omitted completely outside the lab: ok, okei, ookoo, okke, selvä - Another very context-sensitive word. ’Ok’ is a loan word that shows up only in spoken Finnish in casual scenarios so Gaster is very unlikely to use it in the lab. It’s been around a while but it’s still more of a ’hip’ word, older people only use it ironically (or say the drawn-out ’ookoo’ that wouldn’t sound right at all in half of these). In English it’s way more common and f.ex. ’the readings look ok’ is a proper thing for a scientist to say, but in Finnish it is way too casual, with that sentence it would get immediately specified with words such as ’normal’, ’what was expected’, or at least ’good’. Sometimes I wonder if I’m giving myself too many handicaps with stuff like these.

jeez jösses - Both of these words originate from the exact same name, so they are used similarly in a sentence. However there’s a tiny difference in tone (Finnish one slightly suggests something bad or significant has happened), so I reserve the right to translate it as something else if the situation calls for it.

Clever Nokkela - When casually reading the Handplates I did not notice how often it shows up. ’Nokkela’ as a word has a positive vibe to it, so Gaster sounds mean and sarcastic when he uses it the way he does.

Kindness Lempeys (gentleness) - This should actually be translated to something that’s also a synonym to friendliness, but saying that Gaster’s a friend for giving the cube does not sound ok at all. ’Lempeys’ is still weirdly sappy a word for them to learn from Gaster. ’Kiltti’(kind/nice person) was another option, but the way it needs to be bended in the sentence here and the translation going up on Sunday would’ve made it sound super awkward. I’d rather the bros talk like normal people would, with certain restrictions in their vocabulary (no words that Gaster would not use even accidentally, Sans shortens them but they are still all words learned from Gaster).