#anyway still waiting for that papyrus fight i might get

[socksandbuttons]

my husband genooooo

[imtrashraccoon]

Guess who's back

Lolita anon ‼️ (*｀▽´*)

An ask for the UT!, US! And UF! Papyri and sanses!

(Since some of the skelies dont have a scarf or bandana thing uhhh, its winter for their part of the ask so they are wearing one since scarfs are required </3)

They were getting ready when S/O walked up to them, gesturing to the scarf saying that they want to do it for them

When they're done they pull back and...

The scarf is tied into a bow

Before they can react they just hear "because you're a gift" and they walk away with a squeaking guinea pig

It isnt until later they realize that was a distraction of the fact they bought a guinea pig

Its named kitty now even though it is not a cat

(＃ﾟДﾟ) its 4 AM here though so i need to sleep, bye bye !!! (*´∀`)♪

I always enjoy writing your requests! I must apologize that it took me this long since I was doing the Don't Imagine requests, but it's here now. (Side note: I have a couple of those that still need finishing but I took a small break from writing this week.) I hope you like this.

Undertale: Classic (Sans) & Vanilla (Papyrus)

Classic

He was about to head out to pick up Frisk from school and wouldn't have even put a scarf on if his brother hadn't insisted on it. The cold goes right through him after all... He's a little taken aback when you offer to tie it but he lets you since he likes seeing you happy. Although, the bow is a little...childish. He's not a babybones, okay? He'll wait to untie it until he's out of sight so he doesn't hurt your feelings.

The mild flirting does get him to blush a little. Shucks, he's not sure how to react to that except to make a pun about his presence. He definitely can't untie the bow now, not with how sincere you were. He leaves none the wiser with a bit of a spring in his step.

It's only an hour later that he remembers the guinea pig and realizes that you purposely distracted him. He's still impressed by the pun but he's also not sure why you did it. He doesn't care if you've collected another pet, so long as it's properly looked after anyways. If anything, he just got another nap buddy. Do guinea pigs even take naps? Eh, he'll ask you about it later.

Vanilla

He was on his way to meet Undyne for a "training" session (really just a glorified snow fight) and had started putting on his winter gear when you offered to help. He explains that unlike his brother, he doesn't need assistance with this sort of thing but humours your odd request with a smile. He's a little taken aback when you decide to tie his scarf into a bow but can't deny that he actually likes it. He almost wishes he'd worn his scarf like this as a babybones.

He blushes a little and manages a quiet "nyeheheh", although it takes him a second to realize that you weren't just flirting and also made a clever pun. He's rather impressed that you managed to trick him like that and he'll be thinking of a way to get you back for the rest of the day. He might get a little more flustered than he normally would when Undyne inevitably asks why his scarf is tied the way it is.

He noticed the guinea pig immediately but didn't get a chance to ask about it in the moment. He'll be sure to ask you about it later and will be overjoyed at your name choice. He's also curious about how you care for a guinea pig and wonders if it would be lonely by itself. Maybe you should get it a friend?

Underfell: Crimson (Sans) & Scar (Papyrus)

Crimson

He's of the opinion that he doesn't need a scarf and that he looks silly with one anyways. He's only stepping out for some fresh air and even if the weather does turn, he's been through worse. He only relents when you start to pout and mutters under his breath about how he really should start saying no to you. Unfortunately for you, he absolutely hates the bow and protests that you're going to ruin his reputation. He tears it off immediately and storms out, although it's obvious that he's more embarrassed than angry.

He's blushing but more from embarrassment than your flirting attempt. He'll cool off by the time he gets back but it gives him plenty of time to think of a way to embarrass you in return so you better watch out.

Fortunately, the distraction was very effective and he's completely surprised when he eventually does find out about the guinea pig. He's a little weirded out by it but ultimately deems it not his problem. You've been good about looking after your bunnies so it'll probably be fine. Just, keep it away from him? He's not keen on rodents, even if it's a lot cuter than most are.

Scar

He was about to go check on the goats since one is about to give birth any day now when you offered to help him with his scarf. At first, he didn't understand what you were asking since he knows perfectly well how to tie one. When you still insist on helping him, he gets suspicious but bends down enough so you can reach. He almost laughs when you tie it in a bow and gives you a bit of a patronizing pat on the head. He explains that he's too old for that now but he appreciates your efforts to make him feel special. He unties the bow afterwards and leaves with a smile.

It's only when he's inside the barn that he allows his composure to break. Why do you have to be so cute?! It was a corny attempt at flirting but it still left his soul fluttering. He'll eventually think of a way to respond that is equally as clever.

He noticed the guinea pig but was too focused on remaining in control of his emotions to say anything. He'll casually bring it up later on, possibly catching you by surprise, and make sure you're aware of how much work it can be to look after it. You do know that they're social animals and should have a companion so it won't be lonely, right? And don't even think about putting it in the same enclosure as your bunnies or he'll lecture you about that too.

Underswap: Dell (Sans) & Saffron (Papyrus)

Dell

He was off to work when you stopped him and asked to tie his scarf. He starts to say no but you immediately put on puppy eyes and he can't bear the thought of making you upset. He's a grown skeleton and doesn't normally like being fussed over like this. He blushes at how close you're standing and can't bring himself to look at you directly. The bow really doesn't help him calm down either.

He was already blue in the face but your attempt at flirting only made it worse. He doesn't know how to respond and bashfully rubs the back of his skull. At least he now knows you were being clever and not infantilizing him, intentionally or not. He's pleased as punch while driving to work afterwards and only unties the bow when he arrives.

He was much too flustered to even register that you were holding a guinea pig and only remembered when he got home in the evening. He's ecstatic about the new addition to the household and finds their name rather amusing. He's curious about the differences between a guinea pig and a rabbit so you better be prepared to answer a lot of questions.

Saffron

He only wanted to step outside for a smoke break when you ambushed him and insisted that he wear a scarf. At first, he attempts to weasel his way out of it and makes a few puns to distract you. Unfortunately, you're equally as stubborn and physically loop it around his vertebrae. He relents after that but not without commenting that he's not a babybones anymore. He's actually stunned when you tie the scarf into a bow and stands there silently as you leave.

Once he gets over the shock, he's secretly very impressed. You got him good and he's not so sure he can top that. He ends up playing with the ends of the scarf instead of doing what he originally planned to. You're too good to him and he finds his soul swelling with joy afterwards.

He definitely saw the guinea pig but was too distracted to dwell on it. He'll hide his surprise when you eventually tell him about it but he doesn't mind the new addition. The name gets him to snicker a little and he can't help but ask why you're like this. He's not complaining though; you make his life better just by being in it. He'll pay close attention to how you care for it so you don't have to worry if you aren't able to for whatever reason.

[twentydaysofdrabbles]

The Concierge’s Day Off - ...And... (Part 32)

True to Sans’ word, the food is good. Better than good, even. Though by habit, you test it for poisons. 

Touch lips, stop. Touch tongue, stop. Chew, stop. Swallow, stop.

No tingling or numbing sensations outside that of heat and spice. No sense of wrongness, or the heavy taste of magic. 

Safe. And delicious.

“good, right?” Sans rumbles at you, halfway through his spaghetti. “boss knows what he’s doin’.” Though his crimson eye lights gleam at you, like he knew what you were doing. You suppose monsters might not have much use for poison, but among humans it’s exceedingly popular.

You nod in response, a soft sound of satisfaction coming from your throat as you take another bite. 

The peace doesn’t last very long, however. You’re only maybe halfway through your lasagna when someone comes in through the door. You flick your attention to them, your face still forward, your eyes to the side slightly so you can look at them out of your peripheral vision. 

Purpose. Intent. On a mission. No weapons in hand, one on hip. Smartly dressed, fedora hat. Monster. 

Sans is unbothered, not even looking at the newcomer. 

Not hostile. 

You don’t relax, but you certainly don’t gear up for a fight. 

“Sans,” they say, a little out of breath as they come up to the table. Ah, a more masculine voice. ‘He’ perhaps, until you find out otherwise. “We got ‘em.”

The skeleton monster grins wider at the news. He leans back in his seat, waves the...underling away. “Be there in a moment,” he drawls, licking across his teeth in a familiar gesture, with a familiar look. “Just let me finish my dinner first.”

You had continued to eat as if nothing had happened, patting at your lip with your napkin. “If you need to go, please don’t let me stop you.” You’re almost done with your meal anyway.

Rather than run off, Sans just leers at you. As he does, you place that familiar look - bloodlust. He polishes off the rest of his spaghetti, pats his teeth clean with his napkin, and purrs, “oh sweetheart, it’s going to be dinner and a show.”

You can only guess what this ‘show’ is. If it’s connected to the information he had bought and the phone call...

Well. You’d never wish a long, painful death on anyone.

Inclining your head, you take a sip of water. “I see.” 

Sans seems to wait for you to say something more. He waits but a moment more before he asks, “wanna go see a show, sweetheart?”

A pause. You could benefit a lot from going with him - inner operations, at the very least interrogation techniques. At the cost of watching someone you know die. 

Well, it’s not as if you were overly familiar with the Lieutenant; even if you did some contract work for her a long time ago. 

The Manager would like to know any intelligence you can bring back.

So you nod, taking another sip of water. “I would enjoy that, Mister Sans.”

Sans groans playfully, slouching in his seat. “i’ll get ya ta drop the ‘mister’ in public soon, sweetcheeks.”

A smile threatens to tip your lips up. “You may try, Mister Sans.”

“SANS, STOP ANNOYING THE CONCIERGE.”

The almost smile on your face drops immediately and you look up with dead eyes towards the towering skeleton chef. “Mister Papyrus.”

“CONCIERGE,” he tips his head at you, then gestures at your clean plate. “I HOPE YOU ENJOYED YOUR MEAL.”

“I did. It was delicious, thank you.” You incline your head in kind. 

“hey, not gonna ask me if i enjoyed my meal?” 

Papyrus growls and turns his blood red pips for eye lights on his brother, his sockets narrowed dangerously. “I DON’T CARE IF YOU LIKED IT OR NOT, AS LONG AS YOU FINISHED IT. NOW, WHAT’S THIS ABOUT A ‘SHOW’?” 

Sans shrugs, downing the rest of his drink. “wanna come with?”

“YOU’RE NOT ANSWERING THE QUESTION, BONEHEAD.”

As much as you’re enjoying their banter, you’re not sure anyone else in the restaurant is. Particularly since Papyrus is so very, very loud. 

“what, you feelin’ like a third wheel?”

“MY GOOD FOR NOTHING BROTHER, YOU WILL EXPLAIN THIS ‘SHOW’ TO ME RIGHT THIS MOMENT OR--”

“you don’t have ta worry ‘bout stealin’ the spotlight. ‘m sure sweetheart only has eyes fer me.”

“SANS--”

“gotta give ya props though, sweetheart’s a right catch.”

“STOP--”

“welp, this situation is theatre-iorating quickly.”

A low growl precedes the summoning of a big, red bone, big as a club and no doubt as lethal. It smashes on the table between you and Sans, and by perhaps the precision of a man who knows how to use his weapon of choice, the bone doesn’t even come close to grazing your legs. Sans’, on the other hand, have to move swiftly out of the way before Papyrus shatters them just like he did the table.

“I WILL END YOU.”

“if ya wanted an encore, ya should’ve just said.”

A truly disgusted scream can be heard from outside the restaurant.

[mythicaldemigoddess-of-deltarune]

Undertale Theory: Sans, Papyrus and Gaster Appear In Blooky’s Home

 while playing a new save on the new offline account that I had tried to make the Mii look like a Mii-Frisk and even gave it the name “Frisk”...

I still plan for that to be a type of “AU” where there was only one Reset, and the first name I had used to name the fallen human was Frisk, and then after I had showed mercy and spared Goat Mom Toriel...

I Reset the Timeline, and got to change the name to Chara.

so anyway before I had ended up fighting and befriending Undyne,

I went to Blooky’s home, and I had Frisk lay down on the ground around 4:38 Am to 5:59 Am in Real Life Time.

but when I was waiting for the time to become 5:59 Am, and yeah I did get up early and I did get a nice sleep and well of course at some point I did wake up and decided to play more of that new save...

anyway while looking at the galaxy that Frisk and Blooky was laying on,

I started to notice that Sans looks like he was in there, but really big and his looking to his right, then I notice what looked to be a monster soul to his right, but it turns out when I looked again, it actually kind of looked like Gaster, you know the name you can’t use for the fallen human unless you spell it backwards.

and to the left of Sans, looks like a younger version of Papyrus but with tiny dot like “eyes” but he didn’t look like he had a mouth.

plus that Papyrus might of been around Monster Kid and Frisk��s age.

I just notice it on December 4, 2022.

I guess if you keep Frisk from moving for that long and just look really closely, you start to notice stuff.

I dub that Sans in that galaxy or space, as Titan-Sans, you know because in Deltarune there are suppose to be Titans....

he seems to be bigger than most alternate versions of Sans....

and either my eyes and mind were playing tricks on me, or Sans, Papyrus and Gaster really did appear as huge hidden images in Blooky’s house.

well I did find that possible secret message in that crossword where Sans is possibly the one who is saying “I see someone better go diet.”

sure some of the letters aren’t all close together, but you need to look very carefully in order to find them to see the words.

it’s either Sans doing that whole telling us we need to go on a diet, or it’s Gaster picking on us from across time and space.

this might be more than just a theory though, about the whole finding huge hidden images of Gaster, Sans and Papyrus in Blooky’s home but only can find them if we decide to do the whole family tradition of Blooky’s.

 plus it could turn out that the Papyrus in that hidden image, could be the version from Deltarune, and that could go double for the Sans in the hidden image.

Gaster is a mystery, but I guess he could  be the version that is from deltarune or could be the one from undertale or from the timeline that came before both undertale and deltarune, which could take place in the Hard Mode...

I’m not really sure if my eyes were playing tricks on me or if I really did see those three being in huge hidden images and being like with space or galaxy or universe bodies, I know for a few moments Sans seem like he looked a little bit like Steven Universe, which I guess maybe because some those little star dots or whatever kind of made a design that looked a little like his hair...

I will leave myself signed in, while I go watch Sonic Underground.

if there was a Undertale/Deltarune Crossover AU version of that cartoon,

 Ralsei and Asriel would be the Sonic and Manic...

as to who would be the Sonia, I would say it would be Chara.

also maybe it’s possible that the Sans, Papyrus and Gaster I thought I saw at Napstablook’s home, could turn out to be Omnipotent and are technically very powerful to the point that not even Ink-Sans or Error-Sans can rewrite or destroy them, and not everyone has to agree about the theory.

but if by chance there has been others who have started to notice this on the Nintendo Switch when playing Undertale, either by their official online or offline accounts (I don’t mind playing both, I mean not at the same time, but you know what I mean...)

maybe there will be others who will bring it up, that they have started to notice Sans, Papyrus and Gaster show up in that little galaxy that appears when Frisk hangs out with Blooky by doing that family tradition.

don’t know if it was always there or if it only appears if you stay still long enough....

also yes I had made Frisk lay down on the floor around 4:38 Am to 5:59 Am,

because I was full of Determination to try to see that through, cause it was something I want to do...

yeah, I was weird enough to try that, I mean we do wait for Toriel most of the time in the room she left us in, and I wouldn’t be surprised if we waited for her in there until the next day in real world time, she still wouldn’t be back yet, even if we do move around while waiting, take a break for a sandwich and even bathroom breaks, and she still isn’t back yet even after the dog takes her phone...

well it is possible she wont just come back, even if you wait until the next day.

the Toriel from the Hard Mode Timeline, could be a Darkner and and Flowey from the Hard Mode might be a Darkner, or not.

Flowey doesn’t seem to follow us in Hard Mode, and the Demo version of Undertale that has Flowey, he might just be a Flower that has nothing to do with Asriel and isn’t him, and just was a normal flower that was injected with determination by Gaster, and not Alphys like it is in the full game timeline. 

there seem to be already a tag with “Omnipotent Sans”, so I chose it for this post as well...

in another theory I have thanks to those possible hidden images of Sans, Papyrus and Gaster at Blooky’s home if you decide to do that family tradition wit them.

the bodies that Sans, Papyrus and even Gaster use, are just Avatar and Vessel bodies that are using that are connected to their higher dimensional selves.

so in other words, they are like Washu, Tokimi and Tsunami from Tenchi Muyo.

Gaster somehow lost his full connection to his magical organic body vessel.

he can only connect back to it sometimes, and even when the Player is able to find that gray door and find Gaster when he is once more connected to his vessel, but it doesn’t stay that way for long and he becomes disconnected from his vessel once more and is send back to where he is trapped in.

if Gaster can only connect to the Undertale World sometimes, then he could possibly make a new vessel body that looks like him, and send it to deltarune.

 maybe Gaster, Sans and Papyrus wouldn’t be like Washu, Tokimi and Tsunami.

but if they were, Sans would be the Washu, Papyrus would be Tsunami, and lastly Gaster would be Tokimi.

that show is for mature audiences only, so it isn’t for little kids...and for good reason, and I know that Tenchi Muyo GXP ain’t for little kids either.

maybe I will watch more of that after I watch some episodes of Sonic Underground.

is it weird to think that if there was a crossover between Hazbin Hotel and Helluva Boss with Tenchi Muyo, and Washu is in her older form that is her true form....and she is hit on by Stolas’s Dad King Paimon or Charlie’s Dad Lucifer Morningstar....

it be funny if she replies “but boy, your only a child.”

lol, some might get what that means, I mean besides it being a reference to that song from the Mamma Mia Movie.

if Asmodeous and Fizzarolli were to hit on her when she is in her true adult form, well the version of her that is a Goddess.

she might tell those two the same thing that she would tell Stolas and Charlie’s Dads if they hit on her, by telling them “but boy, your only a child.”

even if Paimon, Lucifer, Asmodeous and Fizzarolli are fully grown, but she would be WAY older than them.

and well if anyone has watched most of the episodes of Tenchi Muyo, might know why Washu decided to take a different form from her true adult form.

if you think about who would win a fight, Ryoko or Vaggie, who would you think would win in that fight...?

or if there was a fight between Ayeka and Charlie, who would win...?

or like there is a fight between Razzle & Dazzle Vs Ayeka’s Guardians.

and while that is happening, Angel Dust is running off with Tenchi (still held captured), and by the time Ryoko, Vaggie, Ayeka and Charlie notice, Angel is a few yards away while holding Tenchi bridle style but still wrapped up in webs.

and then the chase starts where Angel while still holding Tenchi, is running from Vaggie, Charlie, Ryoko and Ayeka with their respective bodyguards/guardians.

of course it wouldn’t be canon, but it would be interesting.

but anyway, it’s okay that not everyone ends up seeing what looks like a huge hidden images of Sans, Papyrus and Gaster in Napstablook’s home when we decide to lay on the floor and be like garbage with them.

 I’m not sure if many notice that or if it was my eyes playing tricks on me, I mean I do know I did find that whole “I see someone better go on diet.” in that crossword puzzle, and you would have to look very carefully for those words because they wont be close together, well maybe not all of them.

anyway I am also going to see that whole thing I finally notice at Blooky’s, that had to do with Sans, Papyrus and Gaster as Fan Headcanon as well.

maybe not everyone will end up seeing them, and it might just be me.

but it be nice to know that I wasn’t the only one that started to see Sans in there, as well as the possibility that Papyrus and Gaster in there as well.

but the odds of someone else noticing it are possibly 1 to 100 of happening.

if it took me and some other fans to notice the secret message in that crossword puzzle, so of course it’s gonna take a while for other fans to really look at the space or galaxy that appears in Blooky’s home when you decided to have Frisk participate in Napstablook’s family traditions.

anyway still gonna be signed on, but be back in a hour or so to check out more art and stuff, after I watch some Sonic Underground, Tenchi Muyo GXP and some other stuff....maybe I’ll watch a movie as well.

I think once I do reach Asgore’s castle, I will wait to fight him (even if I hope Toriel appears if the plan works) on December 31, 2022.

which means I want to break the barrier on Christmas, and after I do beat the game and get the happy ending in that one offline account that has a picture of a Mii-Frisk and even has the name “Frisk” in there, I will not Reset that world a second time, and let those versions of the characters live a happy life.

but I can still play Undertale on the other one and reset all I want, it’s just that one will be off limits after I get the True Pacifist Ending, I could play deltarune as well on that one that has that Mii-Frisk, so that’s good.

I hope it snows for Christmas, it be nice if it did...       

[dinofelissnow1985]

Of Birds and Butterflies

by DinofelisSnow1985

Chapter 10

Not long after, Blue got home.

In the qiet of the house he was able to pick up the faintest vibration of a purr. It came from Red's room.

Blue got up the stairs and carefully opened Red's door.

Sans knelt in front of the bed, gently petting Red's skull and recounting stories from his past. Blue picked up the name 'Gaster' a few times. He remembered his own Gaster. In his world the Gaster-thing went a little different from Sans'.

When the door creaked a little in its hinges Red abruptly froze, going stiff as a board, stopping breathing and Eye Lights going out.

Sans was quick to reassure the vulnerable monster. He never ceased his gentle petting and murmured in a soothing tone. "It's okay, it's just Blue. We won't let anyone get close enough to hurt you. Breathe, Red. Slowly. In... and out... in... and out. That's it. You doing great, little Cherry."

Red paused again. Now for a different reason.

Slowly he moved his Eye Lights towards Sans and stared at him for several seconds.

"Where does tha' come from?"

He was absolutely not blushing his namesake.

Sans grinned a little sheepish. "What? Don't like the nickname? I can come up with something else if you want."

Blue took pity on Red and finally came over to the bed. "SANS, STOP FLUSTERING RED," he scolded. "HE CAN'T EITHER FLEE NOR FIGHT BACK. THAT'S UNFAIR. AT LEAST WAIT UNTIL HE IS BACK ON HIS FEET AGAIN BEFORE YOU START FLIRTING IN EARNEST."

Sans, gremlin that he was, just grinned unashamed. "But he's so cute when flustered."

Red spluttered and was unable to make any kind of response, before he eventually stuttered, "k-kay, cha-change a topic. Please."

Blue redirected his attention to Red. "I AM SORRY, RED. OF COURSE WE CAN TALK ABOUT SOMETHING DIFFERENT. WHAT DO YOU WANT TO TALK ABOUT?"

Red took a few breaths to calm down and force the blush from his face.

"Da asshat 'ere," Red nodded towards Sans as good as was possible with his neckbrace, "tol' me 'bout dis world an' 'ow dey got outta Underground an' sh-... stuff. Ya both know mah story an' 'bout mah Underground, but i dun know shi-uhh... a-an'thin' 'bout da 'verse ya come from, Blue."

Blue beamed. He noticed how hard Red tried to not curse. He really apprecciated that. Then he took a moment to think about how to start.

"WELL, MY WORLD IS CALLED UNDERSWAP. YOU MIGHT HAVE NOTICED THAT MY MAGNIFICENT PERSONALITY RESEMBLES CLOSELY THAT OF THIS WORLD'S PAPYRUS." Red hummed to confirm he noticed and to show that he was listening. "SO, IN UNDERSWAP CERTAIN... 'ROLES' ARE... WELL... SWAPPED.

LIKE FOR EXAMPLE ME AND MY BROTHER, FLOWEY AND TEMMIE, UNDYNE AND ALPHYS, THE KING AND QUEEN, ETC. WE DON'T HAVE METTATON, BUT NAPSTATON, HE IS A FAMOUS DJ. FURTHER ARE FRISK AND CHARA SWAPPED, BRATTY AND CATTY WITH THE BUNNY LADIES, AS WELL AS MK AND ASRIEL, AND GASTER AND THE RIVERPERSON. AND BP AND THE NICE CREAM GUY.

SOME THINGS ARE NOT SWAPPED YET DIFFERENT, LIKE I DIDN'T MASTER THE ART OF SPAGHETTI COOKING, BUT ASSEMBLING TACOS. MY BROTHER DOESN'T DRINK A CONDIMENT, HE CONSUMES HONEY. AND HE SMOKES WHEN STRESSED OUT. WE ARE TWINS, WITH ME BEING THE FIRSTBORN AND, UNLIKE SANS, I AM NOT THE JUDGE OF MY WORLD. ALSO OUR SNOWDIN UNIT DOES NOT CONSIST OF DOGS, BUT CATS. WHEN I GOT HERE MONSTERKIND WAS STILL UNDERGROUND."

Red let all that information slowly sink in. "Ya say ya Gaster is swapped wi' da Riverguy? Does tha' mean in ya world da Riverguy fell in th' Core?"

"WELL, NOT QUITE. THAT IS ANOTHER THING THAT WENT DIFFERENT. GASTER IS MINE AND PAPPY'S FATHER AND ONCE WAS THE ROYAL SCIENTIST. WHEN WE STILL WERE PRETTY YOUNG OUR GASTER HAD AN ACCIDENT WHILE DOING SOME MAINTENANCE AT THE CORE. I AM NOT THAT GOOD WITH SCIENCEY STUFF AND WAS WAY TOO YOUNG TO UNDERSTAND ANY OF THAT ANYWAYS. HOWEVER, OUR FATHER DIDN'T FALL INTO THE CORE BUT STILL WAS EFFECTED BY IT. HE SLOWLY LOST HIS MEMORIES AND AT SOME POINT HE EVEN DIDN'T REMEMBER US. SINCE HE COULDN'T BE A SCIENTIST ANYMORE HE BECAME THE RIVERPERSON. OVER TIME HIS ACTUAL NAME BECAME FORGOTTEN BY THE OTHER MONSTERS AND PAPPY AND I MAY STILL REMEMBER HIM, BUT IT HURTS TO THINK TOO MUCH ABOUT HIM.

WHEN HE... FORGOT ABOUT US MUFFET TOOK PAPPY AND ME IN AND RAISED US AS HERS. SHE IS SWAPPED WITH GRILLBY IN MY WORLD, BY THE WAY."

"How did'ja get here?"

"WELL, WHEN WE GREW UP PAPPY TURNED OUT AS SMART AND SCIENCEY AS OUR FATHER AND BEGAN TO DIG AROUND IN HIS OLD WORK FILES. HE MADE OUR BASEMENT INTO A LABORATORY WHEN WE ACQUIRED OUR HOUSE SINCE MUFFET'S PLACE BECAME TOO SMALL FOR THE THREE OF US. HE BUILT THE MACHINE, BUT NEVER GOT IT TO WORK.

THEN CHARA FELL INTO THE UNDERGROUND AND WENT THROUGH SEVERAL RESETS. PAPPY STILL WORKED ON THE MACHINE AND ONE DAY WE GOT INTO A FIGHT OVER THAT THING. PAPPY WAS POSSESSED BY THE IDEA TO FIND A WAY OUT OF THE UNDERGROUND WHEN HE MANAGED TO GET THE MACHINE TO FUNCTION. HE DIDN'T SEE ANYTHING ELSE AND THAT MADE ME ANGRY, HE WASN'T EVEN LISTENING TO ME ANYMORE.

I WRESTLED THE WRENCH OUT OF HIS HANDS AND WIELDED IT WHILE I GAVE PAPPY A PIECE OF MY MIND. THE WRENCH SLIPPED THROUGH MY FINGERS AND ACCIDENTALLY HIT THE MACHINE. IT MADE SOME WEIRD NOISES BUT SINCE NOTHING ELSE HAPPENED WE DIDN'T THINK MUCH OF IT. THE NEXT DAY THE HUMAN RESETTED.

WHEN I WOKE UP I WAS IN SANS' LAB. AT FIRST I THOUGHT IT WAS PAPPY'S, BUT THEN I SAW A FRAMED PICTURE OF SANS AND HIS PAPYRUS, AND KNEW SOMETHING WAS WRONG.

I UNKNOWINGLY HAD SET OFF SANS' SECURITY SYSTEM AND SUDDENLY HE POPPED UP RIGHT AT THE DOOR." Blue snickered before continuing. "WHEN HE SAW ME HIS EYE SOCKETS BECAME AS BIG AS DINNER PLATES. THAT LOOK OF UTTER DISBELIEF WAS HILARIOUS, LOOKING BACK NOW."

Red snorted. "Pfft, heh, wish i coulda seen dat!"

Blue grinned. "IT WAS, INDEED, A SIGHT TO BE SEEN. I WISH I'D HAD A CAMERA BACK THEN, BUT MY OLD CELLPHONE DIDN'T HAVE THAT FUNCTION ANYWAYS.

HOWEVER, TO MAKE VERY HECTIC AND CONFUSING THINGS SHORT, SANS AND PAPYRUS GAVE ME THEIR GUEST BEDROOM, PAPYRUS GAVE ME THE NICKNAME 'BLUE' AND SANS TRIED TO GET THE MACHINE TO FUNCTION TO SEND ME BACK HOME.

AS WE TOLD YOU SOME TIME BACK, HE ONLY MANAGED TO GET A READING ON MY WORLD. HE FOUND DUE TO MY MAGICAL SIGNATURE, IF I UNDERSTOOD THIS CORRECTLY." He shot Sans a questioning look, who just smiled his gentle, lazy smile and nodded confirming.

"THE RESETS IN MY UNIVERSE CONTINUED ON UNTIL TWO YEARS BACK. ACCORDING TO THE READINGS MONSTERKIND GOT TO THE SURFACE AND THERE HADN'T BEEN ANY MORE RESETS EVER SINCE.

WHILE WE FOLLOWED THE HAPPENINGS IN MY WORLD, WE ALSO DISCOVERED COUNTLESS OTHER UNIVERSES AND SANS STUDIED THEM, TELLING ME WHEN HE FOUND ONE THAT SEEMED PARTICULARLY INTERESTING.

OVER TIME WE FELL IN LOVE WITH EACH OTHER AND A FEW WEEKS AFTER PAP MOVED OUT I WENT INTO HEAT AND... WELL... SAPHY HAPPENED.

AND ABOUT TWO YEARS LATER I GOT PREGNANT WITH OUR LITTLE BIRD. BUT THEN I GOT HIT BY THAT CAR, LOST OUR LITTLE BIRD AND AM UNABLE TO CARRY A SOULING, BUT WE TOLD YOU THIS ALREADY."

Red hummed an affirmative again. "How lon' had it been since ya came here?" he asked.

Blue thought about it. "I THINK IT MUST HAVE BEEN... SOMETHING AROUND EIGHT YEARS BY NOW?" He looked at Sans for confirmation. Sans nodded slowly. "It's been seven years and ten months to be precise, give and take a few days.

Saphy's birthday is only a month away. She surely wants to invite her friends, meaning our house will be swarmed by literally a horde of little monsters. Plus some humans. Luckily you should be back on your feet by then, Red," Sans chuckled.

Red grinned. "Sounds like madness. Will be fun."

Then he yawned long and felt sleepiness seep into his bones. "Nap time, i guess. Wake me when it's time fer mah meds or dinner."

With that Red fell asleep, while Sans and Blue quietly shared some memories and began to make first plans on saphy's birthday.

[480pfootage]

SWSH Characters as Undertale and Deltarune songs

It's very long as I also added a reasoning on why i chose the song but-

I'll be making a youtube video with the songs n also sum small illustrations later probably...

Sonia - Lost Girl or Ferris Wheel Both songs are pretty similar and do play right after each other in the game, but idk they both fit Sonia. A feeling of waiting for someone to come back or to get noticed. Maybe wanting your childhood back to when everything was okay could be like how Leon and her just got further apart from each other as Leon continued being the champion. I know that Sonia is a more upbeat person but eh.

Leon - Song That Might Play When You Fight Sans Alright Toby Fox did work on his battle tower song so- Anyways- The song reminds me of when you’re battling Leon in the champion battle. There’s a sense of “oh shit I gotta win this” but still being playful and trying to give a show of not being phased (and also being cool for the fans watching in the stadium). Also the leitmotif of Papyrus being added in is just mwah. I could pull a lot of connections with Hop and Papyrus so just the connection between them in the song is yeah.

Rose - Wrong Enemy !?

This picture. Just this picture. You silly little fuck, Rose. (Also just wanted to add how Rose gives me Asgore vibes but he will never be as cool or as divorced as him).

Oleana - Attack of the Killer Queen Reminds me of the big battle you have with her to intercept Leon and Rose’s meeting. A sense of urgency and a sense to just make sure the player doesn’t get to interrupt them. Also it gives me of a slowly ticking bomb of Oleana exploding her anger onto u.

Victor - Alphys?? I’m not very sure for Victor tbh. I see him as someone who is shy, doesn’t speak much (haha silent protag), but none of the songs really convey that so he’ll have to be stuck with Alphys. Both him and Gloria are the protags so.. Nothing really canon about them and their pokespe vers…. scary.

Gloria - She’s Playing Piano  I like to imagine her happily (and aggressively) playing piano from inside her home and it can be heard all throughout Postwick

Hop - Field of Hopes and Dreams He is literally a field of hopes and dreams (that you crush). Upbeat sorta song n really gives that hopeful feeling Hop had before going thru character development (and also the admiration for Leon). I almost chose “Bird That Carries You Over a Disproportionately Small Gap” as an analogy for his journey but this song fits more.

Marnie - Spider Dance??? I'm so sorry I couldn't think of one with her. Spider Dance reminds me of battling Marnie n I guess her goal of being champion throughout the game. The little note stairs at the beginning of the song really fit her I think.

Bede - Smart Race or It’s Pronounced Rules Are you telling me this guy doesn’t remind you of Berdley. Especially during Berdley’s “Bluebird of Misfortune” part. With Bede being an orphan and all and also getting abandoned by Rose, he probably just wants validation and to do things right. But also “It’s Pronounced Rules” because the regal vibe just fits him during his snobbish asshole phase

Milo - You Can Always Come Home I would’ve picked “Home” for him, but idk this version speaks out more to me. It just sounds more homely?? Plus the new leitmotifs from Deltarune also add really nicely to it (not to mention I headcannon Milo to be able to play guitar n the little squeaks the guitar gives in this one rlly makes me think of him playing it to his wooloos)

Nessa - Mysterious Place Gives a very watery feel. We don’t know much about Nessa and she’s usually calm (only losing her cool when losing a battle but quickly recovering) so I think it fits. I would’ve chosen “Waterfall” but I don’t really think Undyne’s(?) or the Ruin’s leitmotifs fit her.

Kabu - Uwa!! So HEATS!!♫  I’m very on the nose with this one aren’t I. It just gives very old man vibes okay I’m sorry. Just him sitting in a hot spring with a lil towel on his head and this funky little tune playing. 

Bea - Stronger Monsters The song gives a very fighting game vibe and also the determination Bea has to become stronger. Also I feel like it could go over a training montage of her or somethin (with Machamp definitely in it).

Allister - Darkness Falls The chimes(?) give off a very Allister vibe. The song plays if you choose to give up after dying in Deltarune n I think that really tells of the trauma Al went thru to get his little ahoge ghost powers, though he didn’t give up in the end. Also just want to mention “Ghouliday” for him. Yeah. Don’t ask.

Opal - Oh! Dungeon Chaotic. Scary. @pechadream has inspired me to think of Opal as somewhat like Mettaton. The quizzes, puzzles, and dramatism that these two give are just…….. Yeah. The intensity of this song reminds me of Opal, very pink.

Melony - A Town Called Hometown Melony’s a mom so the feeling of homeliness is just really apparent with her. I like the little sprinkly noises in the song since it reminds me of snow and Melony is an ice type leader n all. Plus the leitmotifs of “Don’t Forget” during the “Don’t forget, I’m with you in the dark..” part in the song just- it’s just Melony and Gordie’s relationship okay- All the unconditionally love even with them arguing, yeah.

Gordie - Dogbass or Death by Glamour Gordie is a very eccentric guy, very cool guy also. Seen by how he backflips n does all those cool gymnastic tricks I think it fits in like a cool entrance song or something lol. Also I can see Gordie just jamming out to the little tune before striking a pose at the end. Death by Glamour is also something I can see Gordie jamming to. He is stirking poses any chance he gets, he is so cool. (also imagining him being dramatic to the song’s drops n stuff are just mwah).

Piers - Susie Includes a guitar, very rock and cool. Could’ve picked Vs. Susie but that has too many instrumentals and would’ve made it “too much work” for Piers. Sounds like a cool hero swooping in to save the day (post-game?)

Raihan - My Castle Town Okay this is probably not accurate at all but it’s my post I get to do what I want. I can see Raihan listening to this as he reads his books n studies about battling and history up in Hammerlocke castle. It’s not really the “battle side” of him and more of him just being him when he’s alone and not having to put up his persona. Also I just really love this song (I was top 1% of Toby Fox’s listeners because of this song on Spotify lol).

[hard--mode]

Here's the notes for everything that would happen up until the end of the story.... as far as I had it figured out. You'll notice things are a lot less fleshed out the later things go. That's a big reason why this never got finished. the longer I tried to keep the thing running, the more I realized I never had any idea what I wanted to actually DO with this story which made it pretty hard for me to keep up. it's hard to write a story you're trying to take seriously if all you really have are jokes, it turns out.

I haven't reread any of this or edited it at all so who knows what kind of notes I might have written in between things haha

P: so as i was saying about undyne-

C: who’s undyne?

Everyone freezes. Chara just walked right up to papyrus without being noticed. Paps freaks out for a sec before he pulls sans into a huddle. Chara frowns and tries to peek around.

~Montage of papyrus’s excitement and harder puzzles, death montage

~Junior jumble: its sudoku now

Chara’s doing puzzles and sees flowey spying. They shout him over

C: HEY! still following me, loser? Don’t you have anything better to do? (but they smile)

F: somebody’s gotta make sure you don’t get killed too much out here

Flowey pops up closer to them

C: nah, I’m fine! I’ve got that reset power!

F: not for long considering how much you use it (mumbles. Rolls eyes??) (some depiction of chara dying a lot in the bg)

C: by the way…. In the ruins you were telling me to use it… care to tell me more about it since you seem to know so much?

F: I-... uh… well you already know the most of it. It just resets you back to your last SAVE point like nothing happened. Only beings with a powerful SOUL can use it, so monsters with their weak souls can’t.

Chara stops their puzzle work and sits to even the heights: Can flowers?

F: what the heck are you-... oh, no no no. I’m different.

C: so you have the power too.

F: No! I mean-, i used to before you came around. Yeah.

C: so you’ve done resets. (urging him on)

F: yep.

Chara waits a while: ...thats all you have to say?

F: yep

Travel scenes from here on out depict chara and flowey together

Gauntlet:

Flowey remarks that he doesn't remember a save point being before it. Chara goes along and gets paps’ bit. He does to activate it

C: wait this isn't for real right? U can't be srs!!!

P: yeah I am, this is hard mode!

Just show chara repeatedly spawning at the save and running back in with flowey watching them

Then cut to the end chara on the other side of it panting and exhausted, papyrus shocked but also beaming

P: wow you did it!! I'm so proud of u human! I didn’t think you would actually be able to get through it--- I mean- drat! Foiled again! I'll get u one of these times!

Papyrus runs off and Chara watches him with a look of wonder in their eyes.

F: don’t get too excited. his pride is cheap, he’s proud of everyone and every thing

Chara grumbles and marches forward: whatever. I don’t hear you saying you’re proud of me, so why do I have to listen to what you have to say

F: You know, you’re gonna have to fight him soon. Didn’t sans say so? What are you going to do then, die over and over until you give up or are you going to try to murder him just like you did with Toriel? :)

C: I am not! I’m gonna talk him out of it and go right past him like everyone else. Who knows! Maybe he won’t even fight me because he’s that cool. Even if he does, he’s probably a wimp anyways.

F: I wouldn’t be so sure! I bet you don’t stand a chance.

C: shut up! Quit following me if you’re gonna be this useless.

Paps fight

As papyrus carries their body to the shed to rest. Opens on their vision returning and they see their hands hanging toward the ground.

C: why didn’t you kill me? You’re stronger than everyone else, you could easily do it. Why dont you finish me off so everyone can leave or whatever it is you need me to do? Why did you hold back?

P: OH! YOU’RE AWAKE!

C: you held back…

P: OF COURSE i DID! I COULD NEVER KILL YOU, YOU’RE MY-- I HOPE I’M NOT BEING TOO FORWARD, BUT I LIKE TO THINK OF YOU AS MY FRIEND! AND EVEN THOUGH WE DO NEED YOUR SOUL, YOU DESERVE A FIGHTING CHANCE TO DO… WHATEVER IT IS YOU’RE TRYING TO DO.

Chara is too shocked and confused by the sentiment: I don’t… I don’t understand?

P: WHAT’S SO HARD TO UNDERSTAND ABOUT A FRIEND NOT KILLING YOU? HUMANS ARE SO STRANGE ...OH! I SEE NOW! THE REASON WHY YOU CARRY YOUR KNIFE LIKE THAT. IT’S BECAUSE YOU’RE MORE AFRAID OF US MONSTERS THAN WE COULD EVER BE OF YOU!

He sets them down in the shed on the dog bed.

P: I’M SORRY, HUMAN! I WOULD HAVE GIVEN YOU MORE WARNING IF I HAD KNOWN HOW YOU FELT.

C: then… does that mean you’re going to let me go?

P: ABSOLUTELY NOT! I ALREADY CALLED UNDYNE TO MEET ME SO SHE CAN TAKE YOU! AND YOU NEED TO REST NOW AFTER ALL THAT!

C: !! I-I don’t know who Undyne is, but I can’t do that. I’m in a hurry to get out of here.

P: HMM… IF YOU’RE IN A HURRY THEN… NO, NO YOU CAN’T! WE NEED YOUR SOUL, I CAN’T JUST LET YOU LEAVE. UNDYNE’S REALLY COOL TOO, YOU’LL LIKE HER!

C: No, I have to go.

P: AGH, WELL… I SUPPOSE IF YOU CAN GET PAST ME BEFORE I CAN CATCH YOU, THERE’S NOTHING I CAN DO. BUT I WON’T GO EASY ON YOU!

Cut to chara walking toward waterfall, papyrus calling after them to come back and hang out sometime. They keep walking and mutter to themself: Sorry, but I’ll get out of here before that ever happens.

WATERFALL

They see monster kid and side eye sans as they charge in, hurriedly.

Chara keeps flowey around and asks him to read the words for him. FLowey says it’s not important at all to anything they’re doing. It’s just monster history junk that means nothing if chara’s trying to leave. Chara’s like shut up cmon help me out maybe there's clues. FLowey reads some history stuff in waterfall treating it like shit they already know

F: why do you care about all this garbage anyway?

C: I dunno, I guess it just sounds familiar. Like a story I heard a long time ago.

Chara stops suddenly and checks their phone. Flowey asks what’s up

C: i thought it rang… you didn’t hear-

The phone starts ringing. Papyrus is cheerfully on the other end and they walk and talk.

He tells them about how he heard so many horrible things about humans and the surface but chara was much nicer than he ever expected. Chara asks where he heard that and he says a flower told him. Chara covers the receiver and looks around for flowey, suspicions of him raised.

Montage w monster kid and umbrella

Chara falls from undyne’s spear attack and wakes up in the trash with flowey over them.

F: hey, wake up. I can tell you’re not dead so hurry up and get moving.

Chara’s kind of bummed: she killed me four times back there. And it wasn’t even a fight. I couldn’t talk her down or… i couldn’t even talk to her, I could barely see her.

F: what, are you giving up or something? You know she can kill you as much as she wants and you aren’t gonna die.

C: I know that! I know this is just like a game where you can keep on going but… it hurts. And it’s exhausting.

F: what will you do then? Sit here in this trash and do nothing?

C: *sigh* no. I’m just feeling down in the dumps.

They smile and get up.

As they’re walking out, they hear a click and someone to tell them to “hold it”

Mad dummys behind them and she just has a gun. Pointed directly at chara. She starts on her thing about the cousin and then blook saves the day.

Chara meets up with blook again. They go to where the snail races used to be. It’s all busted and unused

C: what’s this supposed to be…?

B: oh…. this used to be a snail farm…. And this was a race course…. For snails…. But a long time ago people started to call the races “insensitive” so we had to close them…. Sorry you can’t have any fun racing snails…

C: why was it insensitive…?

B: ...i’d… rather not talk about it………..

Timeskip

C: hey flowey! What’s up with this place and snails?

F:...i wouldnt know.

montage

After waterfall where undyne says how many souls they have

C: flowey… if they have 6 human souls, that means 6 others fell down and died here, so…

F: what?

C: i just- i mean you were the first one i met-

F: no, no, no, ive never killed anyone. You’re the only human i’ve seen since i woke up

Chara relaxes: ok. So you dont know anything about them.

F: no. i heard some things from toriel, not much. It’s too late to try asking her, but she’s seen all of them. She was there at the beginning even.

C: the beginning?

F: you know…. When humans started falling down here and monsters started killing them.

Chara goes silent in thought: wait… how… long has this been going on? How old is toriel?

F: dunno

Chara after having a rough time: it’s hard, but no matter what happens i can just keep trying. I’ll make it out of this! You believe in me right, flowey?

F: no i think you should give up.

Page/chapter ends there. Next is chara going up to fight undyne.

Open on a riff on the “long ago” cutscene that chara cuts off by saying they already know this story

Undyne screams SHUT UP!!! I’m doing my HEROIC MONOLOGUE!! Whatever, I bet you haven’t heard the part about the King and Queen’s human child who died of illness and their other son who was killed by the humans when he tried to return their body to the surface?!

C: No I think I heard that one too? Why are you telling me all this anyways??

U: because this is an UNSKIPPABLE CUTSCENE!! NYAAAGGGHHHH!!!!!

Chara’s getting their ass beat and on low hp: I’ll die in a hit or two. But that’s fine because I’ll just start this over. I’ll start from… where was the last save point…

A vision of them with flowey. Their eyes go red and the flashback cuts in between shots of them running from undyne

F: I think you should give up

Ch: what… give up?? I thought you were on my side with all the telling me to keep going and-and the hanging out with me?!

F: as if you had any other choice but to keep going! We both know you don’t.

C: so you’ve just been following this whole time waiting for me to give up and die, huh?! Why, are you trying to steal my soul just like everybody else?!?

F: it doesn’t matter how hard you try, you’re going to die! And die and die and die! You can reset as much as you want, it won’t change that! So what if I am waiting for you to give up? You’re the last thing keeping monsters trapped down here. If you give up, you’ll give everyone what they want!

C: I thought you wanted to help me?! I thought you were my friend!

F: I would never be friends with a human! You’re all nothing but killing machines!

C: I haven’t killed anyone!

F: You killed Toriel! No number of resets can change what you did! You’re a horrible, disgusting human just like all the others and everyone would be happier if you were dead!

Flowey could say something about dying down here is better than their inevitable death on the surface. Their death would at least be worth something. Mean something

Chara escapes the fight, undyne collapses, and they walk away. they tell themselves they won’t give up. They don’t need help, especially not from that dumb flower. They’ll live to spite him and everyone else who tries to kill them

Chara goes in and meets alphys and overall is p meh abt it bc bad mood. Alphys helping them through the underground makes them talk to themselves about how they dont need flowey, they can do this themself. Friends are no good.

hotland is as normal. probably figure out some indication of things not right. make the game seem broken bc they arent supposed to get so far like this

Chara meets with sans at mtt resort for food reluctantly. Lets him say his piece. After he’s done threatening to kill them chara says to his face that they really don’t like him.

Need some hubbub about them having to kill asgore to get out. Theyll be like yeah I know that (somehow)... oh but I need a plan… how will i come up with a plan..

Flowey finally appears to chara again just before they get to new home and tries to talk them out of leaving. Disparaging the surface and telling them they could live happily down here. Chara says no, it’s too hard because people are constantly hunting them down and being the last soul, no ones going to stop that. He says that he’s sorry for the way he was before

Chara smiles back, and then looks away: What you said before… about.. My inevitable death on the surface…

F: that was… don’t worry about that.

C: are you afraid of it?

F: well- yeah, it’s a dangerous place. Everyone knows that.

C: I’ve died a lot more times down here than I ever did up there.

A beat

C: you go back and forth a lot between talking about how I should stay down here because it’s better… but also if I die down here… everyone gets to go free… to the horrible, awful surface.

F: uh,, did I say all that…? I may have contradicted myself a little… I guess… in the end I just wanted an excuse for you to stay around. I really don’t want you to die.

C: so you did see me as a friend after all?

F: well…you reminded me of someone who was my friend. I wish we could have been friends.

C: Do you think… If I reset back to the beginning and did this again, if I said the right things… we could have been?

F: No… You could be as nice to me or as mean to me as you want. No matter how many times you reset, some things never change.

C: ...Did you ever… have to reset because you killed someone?

F: ……….once… and then I never reset ever again. The power to reset… makes you do bad things. It’s wrong. I had to stop because i knew… I’d make someone really upset if I kept messing around.

C: well, in that case… I guess I’ll just have to get the rest of the way out of here without any resets!

Flowey smiles: I dunno, keep one or two under your belt. You’re a pretty big klutz.

C: Thanks for helping me out of here, flowey. Even if you just did it because you were begged.

Can you imagine a more paranoid flowey who is less interested in attacking you and regaining the reset ability, but is pleased af that you have the reset ability because that means you can't die, and instead he spends the entire game trying to convince you that humanity is hopeless. That there is nothing on the surface world returning to. That it's safer, down here.

he's part of the reason why things are so much harder

he's the one that starts the rumors about the dangers of teh surface world

there's a definite sense of paranoia all across the board

When they approach new home, flowey appears one last time and grabs chara by the hand, telling them not to go. They can live in the underground, they’ve made a lot of friends here. Chara says that they have to go, they’ll find a way to get out without killing asgore. Flowey says that he tried to stop them, this is as far as he’ll go. This is goodbye. They bid their farewells and chara goes along, but flowey secretly follows them, much less detectable than ever before. It’s revealed when he’s hiding with the flowers.

Chara walks up to new home, regarding it as a vaguely familiar sight. They walk down the many halls knowing exactly where to go. The monsters speak as they go through the motions. They find a cookbook in the kitchen with a page for snail pie missing. Chara mumbles about already knowing the story and that they should all shut up. They walk more quickly to stay ahead of them. Then one mentions the snail pie and chara stops dead in their tracks. No that’s not how it happened- they stop, and take back off.

They are stopped by sans in the judgement hall, glaring at him.

S: well I had a whole speech to give ya, but you look like you’re in a hurry. You’re a weird kid, but you’re fine. The king’s up ahead.

OTHER alternative: chara realizes something’s wrong and runs back to get everyone, probably threatening to kill asgore to convince them to come quickly. Sans is avoided due to the mob approaching behind them “I heard the word that you’re on your way to kill the king.” c: are you here to stop me? “Nah. But you’d better have a good plan to back yourself up, kid. King’s up ahead”

They run up to asgore, no nonsense. Some time is taken to progress things. As they leave the throne room, flowey watches from the flowers, chara looks back to confirm he’s there.

Asgore draws up the souls, the fight is about to engage, before he can smash “MERCY” chara yells: ASRIEL. Get the souls.

Everything stops. Flowey is behind them, stunned and confused. Chara turns and asks him what he’s waiting for. Hurry up and take the souls before everyone else gets here. Nearly every last monster is coming, if he can become godlike and absorb them, it will be enough strength to break the barrier.

Flowey is confused, how do they know that? Chara tells him he did it before. Doesn’t he remember? Doesn’t he remember them?

Either flowey does it and something happens, or flowey waits too long and chaos erupts which gets them killed, and then chara and flowey have to meet up and workshop.

Final fight:

He probably says some shit about frisk and how he cant lose frisk again, chara must insist that theyre not frisk. When they say their name is chara, he hesitates for only a moment. Finally, when chara’s pinned and about to seriously die…

C: you remember it now too, don’t you? It took me a while, I couldn’t remember a thing until i started hearing your name around. You’re an all powerful god now, you should be able to remember it all better than me

A: shut up.

C: would frisk want us to fight like this?! Would frisk want you to kill your own sibling?!

A: c-.... You’re… you’re really chara?

He lets them go

They reach the conclusion that frisk messed with everything and put them here with no memories so they could do something frisk could never do. Frisk thinks they deserve to live, no matter how much the two may disagree. They have to play along. Asriel is a god and can use his powers to break the barrier and bring EVERYONE back to life so they can live together happily.

go to final fight and everyones already there, things are very confused, flowey takes the souls and things glitch out (screen phases between bosses) and chara realizes this isnt how things are supposed to be, tells asriel theyre sorry for their baggage but he doesnt understand bc he isnt theirs, and then they gotta find frisk somehow

OR... they realize things in the speech and don't go to fight asgore bc theyre finding flowey... they feign fighting asgore and then suddenly tell flowey to take the souls("Asriel! get the souls!" and thats the first time they call him by name)...? i like that a bit better. they start going on about crazy shit that makes roided out flowey kind of lose it at them which leads to them apologizing to their own asriel but then realizing they need to find frisk

but HOW do they find frisk

The end shows chara asriel and frisk hugging eachother, all alive and well. Then the two are “processing…” and remember that oh, theyve done some dark messed up stuff.

[septic-skele]

US - Taking A Toll

Summary: You know that the others are planning a surprise for you and want to appease your curiosity. Blue is the only thing standing in your way. Fortunately, your plan to get past him might work out even better than you'd hoped. (Swap Sans x Reader)

A/N: Is the setup slightly lazy? Yes. Did I write this just as an excuse for a cute schmoopy kissing scene? Also yes :D

_______________

“Forgive me, human—er, Y/N,” Blue begins as he motions apologetically at the gate behind him. “But I’m afraid it’s my job to make sure you don’t pass this point! By the order of the Royal Guard.”

It is by the order of the former king and queen, actually. You’re well aware that Asgore and Toriel have been planning some kind of surprise over the past few weeks; the furtive smiles and low voices have been piquing your curiosity more and more along the way. Now all that stands between you and a peek beforehand is Sans: dashing royal guardsman, one of your most charming friends, and without a doubt the biggest crush you’ve harbored in years.

The anticipation of something special ahead—and even more so your plan to get past him—have you feeling almost sick with butterflies.

You can’t make the excuse that you’ve come unprepared. With every step to reach this point, you’ve told yourself that you’re ready. Papyrus has assured you as well. He swears to you that Blue reciprocates your feelings. In more private conversations, there’s never any end to you and all of the appreciative things Sans has to say.

“He just can’t admit it to you,” he explains ruefully. “Please, pal, just pass him the sugar now or I’ll have to listen to him spiral until he’s literally blue in the face and I’ve got a dozen cavities.”

Pap wouldn’t lie about something like this just to embarrass you. Those are not the kind of pranks he would ever play—especially not when pertaining to his brother’s soul and safety.

There’s no better time than the present. “What about a toll?” you question, mentally hailing a small victory when your voice doesn’t squeak or shake.

“I’m sorry?”

“Is there some kind of toll I could pay to win you over?” You allow a short, breathless laugh. “So I don’t have to fight you again?”

“What—? No, no, this isn’t that kind of checkpoint,” he stammers with a shrug of flustered confusion. Belatedly he adds, “Although I’m sure if it were Papy standing here, he would find some way to make it more profitable. Old instinct, you know; find gold wherever you can, pawning, scavenging. I’m afraid I might have trained that into him years ago. In the Underground every little bit helped, so we’d—”

You’ve always thought his tangents were sweet and interesting; you love to learn more about his history, but if you try to wait through the entire thing you’ll lose the remnants of your courage. As you snatch him by the armor, he can’t help but yelp, cheekbones glowing cyan in an instant. Your sweaty hands slip as you draw him close.

“W-What are you—Y/N—?” His eyelights are huge in his sockets, uncertain, hypnotizingly bright.

“I…I didn’t really mean gold, Sans, but…just let me pay you anyway, okay?” Past You, Pre-Feelings You, might have thrown up at uttering such a line. Now you’re here, it’s out and you’ve already forgotten the rest of the incredibly cheesy dialogue Papyrus had you rehearse, so you opt to skip to the important part.

It’s an odd experience, kissing someone’s teeth; trying it out on another human sounds less than desirable, but with your fingers hooked into his breastplate you can feel the rise and fall of Sans’ ribs quicken. Is that a good thing? The warmth of the magic flushing his face is pleasant and tingly against yours.

After a few beats time restarts and his mandible quivers. Gloved hands shift to cradle your face as he tilts his head, nipping softly at your cheek and then the corner of your mouth.

You had imagined his bite might sting, might even leave a mark. Blue approaches so many things with fierce enthusiasm, not the tenderness he displays now, but there’s still clear intent in his actions that affirms all of your hopes. You can breathe in relief.

After stealing a kiss your original intention was to pull away, duck past toward the surprise party and leave Sans star-struck, reeling over what had happened. Kiss and run until another day when the two of you were braver and readier to talk about it in detail.

Deep down, even Past You knew that was a lie. Whatever surprise the others have in store, it probably won’t hold a candle to Sans’ smile as he briefly breaks away. He shakes his head, exhales shakily, and lets out a laugh of utter delight before leaning in to meet you again. One hand traces the curves of your jaw, neck and shoulder, as if marveling at the shape of you, while the other nests gently in your hair.

No more talking necessary.

[mortimer-writes-sometimes]

Hmm a sansby prompt? If you want something slightly more angst filled, maybe have Grillby be the knight in shining armor after someone won’t take no for an answer from Sans? Or maybe just some cute fluff, like cuddling while watching a movie :3

As I like to say in these situations- why not both?

Keep You Safe

Word count: 2667 Summary: When someone won’t take no for an answer, Grillby steps in. Warnings: Sexual assault SERIOUSLY, MIND THE WARNINGS

Sans always hated it when there weren’t any available seats at the bar. It was great that Grillby’s was getting good business these days, but it also meant he’d have to wait a bit to talk to his favorite fire monster, and he couldn’t even watch him while he worked very well. The skeleton caught Grillby’s eye as he came in and gave him a little wave and a wink before making his way towards one of the booths closest to the bar. Grillby gave him a nod and got back to mixing the line of drinks he was working on. Sans couldn’t help but notice that Grillby looked nervous. The skeleton frowned a bit and kept a careful eye on him, praying that a stool at the bar would open up soon so he could help. He was watching the bartender so intently that he barely noticed when another monster came and sat next to him in the booth.

“Well hi there,” the monster said with a toothy grin. Like, really toothy. Because she was a shark monster. She was probably wearing more makeup than clothes, and the look she gave Sans was positively predatory. The skeleton could already see where this was going.

“Lemme stop you right there.” Sans scooted sideways in the booth, putting a bit more distance between himself and the stranger. God, this lady reeked of perfume. “I appreciate it, but I’m not really looking for any’body’ to hand out with right now, heh.”

Sans knew he was hilarious, but he still thought she laughed too hard at that. Instead of backing off, she inched closer to him. “C’mon, cutie, don’t be that way! Besides, you didn’t need to look. I found you first~!”

“Unfortunately,” Sans grumbled. He moved over again, finding his shoulder against the wall. “Really, lady, not interested tonight.”

“You know, you’re really hot, for a guy with no skin.” The shark monster moved in closer, turning towards Sans and putting one hand on the wall next to his head. “Don’t be so cold. Why don’t you let me buy you a drink?”

With the shark monster leaning over him, it occurred to Sans just how bad this was. He’d teleport out, but he couldn’t focus on a location with this monster’s damn perfume giving him a headache. He was well and truly trapped, hidden by unsuspecting crowds of monsters and a secluded booth. “Answer’s no,” he tried, “Back off.”

She laughed at him again, suddenly slipping a hand under Sans’s shirt. He slapped it away, but she just grabbed his wrist and pinned it to the table, moving in again to rub his ribcage. “You really are just bones and magic, aren’t you? There are so many places I could get inside you, hehe~. Come on skeleton, let me show you some real fun~.”

Sans froze as her hand started to wander downward. This couldn’t be happening. Fuck, no, fuck fuck fuck fuck-

WHOOSH! BANG!

The monster over Sans went still as the bar went silent, eyes wide. There was a dark char mark on the wall above the booth’s table. A few inches to the left, and it would have hit her square in the back. She withdrew her hand and looked behind her, eyes widening further as she paled.

Grillby was standing in front of the booth, and he looked pissed. His fire was burning higher and hotter than Sans had ever seen, the heat radiating off him as his entire body crackled. The glare he fixed the shark monster was murderous, and to make things more frightening, he’d summoned an arc of fireballs over his head, ready for a fight. “Get. Your hands. Off him,” he snarled darkly. His usually warm voice had taken on a dark, steely edge that Sans had never heard from him before. In that moment, the skeleton was fully convinced that Grillby was capable of killing.

The shark monster was quick to comply, scrambling away from Sans and stumbling over themselves as they hastily stood from the booth. “Right! I’ll- um- I’ll be g-going the- ah!”

Grillby grabbed her by her neck, dragging her forward. The shark monster cried out as her moist skin steamed, drying out and threatening to blister. The fire monster paid that no mind. “Oh? And where do you think you’re going?” he asked threateningly. “We’re not done here. I think you and I need to have a little c h a t.” He raised his hand, the fireballs moving in closer. The monster whimpered at their heat, struggling as the grip on her neck tightened.

Ding! You’re blue now!

The shark monster was suddenly pulled down, out of Grillby’s grasp. As soon as she was free, she made a break for the door, terrified. The bartender moved like he was going to pursue her, but a wall of blue bones appeared in front of him, making him stop. Grillby stepped back, glancing towards the booth.

Sans had his hand up, both pupils gone and shaken. “H-hey, Grillbz? Why don’t we just calm down a sec? I’m okay, see? Nothin’ happened, s’all good.”

The fire monster paused, looking back at the door. After a moment, his gaze dropped and the fireballs he summoned disappeared in wisps of smoke. His hands were shaking. He turned back to the booth and walked towards Sans.

“Did she hurt you?” Grillby mumbled, hesitating by the table. All at once, the calm, caring Grillby that Sans knew had come back, eyes full of fearful concern. “I’m so sorry, Sans, I-i didn’t see her come in. I should’ve been keeping a better eye out, I know this booth can be secluded and-”

Sans’s pupils slowly lit up again as he relaxed. “Nah, Grillbz, I’m fine,” he reassured. He let out a shaky sigh as he finally relaxed. “Not gonna lie, that was pretty intense. Never thought I’d ever get to see you so ‘fired’ u- whoa!”

Grillby suddenly pulled Sans out of his seat, wrapping his arms around him and burying his face in Sans’s hoodie. The monster was shaking all over. He was angry, but when he’d seen Sans cornered, he’d been so scared. The skeleton had insisted he wasn’t hurt, but Grillby found himself summoning small flames of green magic anyway, letting them dance over Sans as they checked for any injury.

Sans huffed fondly, the last of the tension leaving his bones as he returned the embrace. Grillby’s natural scent of smoke was much better than sickeningly sweet perfume. “I’m okay, Grillby, I promise. Maybe we should go somewhere quiet to chill for a sec?”

“Agreed,” Grillby mumbled into his jacket. He pulled back slightly, then suddenly picked Sans up.

Sans squeaked, then laughed. “I can walk, y’know.”

“I know,” was all Grillby said as he carried Sans back into the kitchen, bringing him to the small table in the back corner. Instead of setting him down, Grillby sat in one of the chairs and kept Sans in his lap, never releasing him from that warm, protective embrace. Safe and secluded, he let his guard down a bit, one hand coming up to cup Sans’s cheekbones. “I’m sorry. That- that was unlike me. I just…”

“Hey, I get it.” Sans brought his hand up to cover Grillby’s. “You don’t need to be apologizing. I should be thanking you. If you hadn’t come over she probably would’ve… she…” The full reality of what had nearly happened started to sink in and Sans started trembling. “She probably would’ve… fuck, what the fuck…” Tears started to fill Sans’s eyes as the last of the adrenaline drained from him. “Holy shit, I almost got raped. I almost got raped. What the fuck?”

Grillby pulled Sans close again, rubbing his back soothingly as the skeleton gripped his shirt. “I’ve got you, breathe,” he mumbled gently. There was the breakdown he’d been anticipating. “It’s okay if you need to cry, I’ve got you. We’re alone. You’re safe now.”

That was exactly what Sans needed to hear. He sobbed quietly into Grillby’s shirt, trembling as he tried to process what exactly just happened. What nearly happened. What could have happened, if Grillby hadn’t swooped in and put the fear of whatever God might be out there into that scummy pervert. He slowly became aware that Grillby was humming, the low vibrations soothing in Sans’s skull. The skeleton sniffled and wiped at his eyes. Deep breaths. He was safe. Deep breaths.

“I’m going to close early,” Grillby mumbled gently. “Will you be alright if I leave you here a moment?”

Sans nodded. “Yeah, I-i think I’m good. I’m just gonna go home.”

“No.” Grillby pulled away, meeting Sans’s eyes. “You are in no condition to be using your shortcuts, and I’m not going to let you walk in case that- ...in case it isn’t safe, this time of night. Go ahead and text Papyrus. You’re going to be staying with me this evening. I-if that’s alright,” he amended quickly. The last thing he wanted to do to Sans was force him into something, especially after what had transpired that evening.

Sans didn’t feel forced at all, though. He gave Grillby a weak smile. “That… that sounds nice. Yeah. I wouldn’t mind that. You go close up, I’ll text Papyrus.”

Relief filled the bartender and he stood, careful not to drop Sans as he transferred the skeleton to the chair. “I’ll be right back,” he assured as he straightened up. With that, he walked back out to his restaurant to herd customers out.

Sans had never seen the inside of Grillby’s apartment before. He knew the bartender lived in an apartment above the restaurant, and that the stairs lead directly into the kitchen, but that was about it. It was a little smaller than Sans had anticipated. Most of the space was taken up by the living room, with a cozy-looking couch piled with pillows and a bookshelf that looked ready to collapse under the sheer number of books that had been stacked on it. A small kitchenette was tucked into the corner of the apartment, and it looked like there was only one bedroom and a bathroom down the short hallway. It took Sans no time at all to make himself comfortable on the couch, kicking off his pink slippers and nesting into the cushy throw pillows.

Grillby gave the skeleton a fond smile, taking the comforter off the back of the couch and draping it over Sans’s shoulders. “Would you like me to turn on the television? I don’t have much in the way of movies, but my niece brought me a copy of a human show that I find to be fairly interesting. I mostly watch for the music.”

“Heh, so long as there are jokes in it, I’m down,” Sans replied with a shrug. He would probably fall asleep part of the way through it, but some background noise wouldn’t hurt.

Grillby kneeled next to the television and pulled out a small booklet, flipping through it to find the first disk. “Here we are,” he mumbled to himself as he found the one he wanted, getting everything set up before taking the remote and sitting on the opposite end of the couch. The disk loaded and a colorful title lit up the screen.

Sans tilted his head, mildly interested. “‘Steven Universe’, huh? No offense, but I never pegged you as a guy that’d be into cartoons.”

“It’s an occasional indulgence,” Grillby mumbled with a shrug. Was he blushing?

Sans snickered. “It’s nothing to be embarrassed about, Grillbz. If you like it then it must be a good show. Let’s see what it’s about.”

Grillby smiled a bit, then hit play, relaxing back into the pillows. “I think you’ll like this one. Humans have such interesting concepts of magic…”

Four episodes later, Sans was hooked, watching the screen intently. He had to get himself one of those novelty backpacks. As he watched the protagonists fight evil breakfast foods, he turned to tell Grillby a joke, only to find himself meeting the bartender’s eyes. Grillby blushed and quickly looked back at the screen, but it was too late. He was caught staring.

Sans just chuckled. “Uh, can I help you with somethin’?”

“Sorry,” Grillby huffed, adjusting his glasses. At some point he’d undone his tie, letting it hang loose around his neck. He’d slipped off his shoes and pulled his knees up, hugging a pillow as he sat curled up on the couch. There was something about seeing Grillby this way that made Sans’s soul feel light. It just felt so… domestic, sitting there and watching one of the bartender’s favorite shows together. Grillby cleared his throat, breaking Sans from his thoughts as he continued. “I’m… still worried about you. Are you certain you’re alright?”

“Yeah,” Sans replied automatically, but that didn’t seem to reassure the fire monster at all.

“Sans,” Grillby sighed, reaching for the remote and pausing the show, “Please, be honest with me. Are you sure you’re okay?”

Sans took a deep breath and thought about it. After a long moment, he finally answered. “Okay, maybe not,” Sans admitted, “But I’m doing better. This,” he said as he gestured around himself, “Is helping. Like, a lot. I think this is exactly what I needed.”

Grillby nodded a bit, satisfied. “Well, is there anything more I can do for you?”

“I’m good.” Sans shrugged a bit, then took another look at Grillby. The bartender was great at reading Sans, but sometimes he forgot how good Sans had gotten at reading him in return. Grillby was tense, shoulders hitched up slightly as he hugged the pillow like it was going to run away. “Is there something I can do for you?” Sans asked, voice gentling as he did. “That scared the soul out of you, too, didn’t it?”

Grillby looked away again, feeling guilty. “I’m not the one that got harassed, Sans.”

“Nah, just the one who watched his best friend get sexually assaulted,” Sans pointed out. “We were both ‘rattled’, heh. Lemme help you out, too. Somethin’ I can do for ya?”

“Well,” Grillby mumbled, “Can I… is it alright if I hold you again?”

That hadn’t been what Sans was expecting, but he was more than up for it. “Sure. You’re gonna have to let that pillow breathe first, though.”

Grillby chuckled and let the pillow drop to the floor, lowering his knees and shifting so he was reclining at an angle before opening his arms to Sans. Sans crawled over and settled himself in the bartender’s lap, arms wrapped around his torso and head resting on his chest. Grillby pressed play on the remote, starting the show again before letting his arms fall gently over Sans’s back as he held him close. Sans felt the warmth envelope him and sighed, content. “Hey, Grillbz?”

“Hm?” Grillby looked down at him with a tilt of his head. Sans’s soul melted a bit under the gently, caring gaze. God, this monster was going to be the death of him.

“Thank you,” Sans mumbled.

Grillby gave him a small smile, bringing one hand up to briefly cup the back of Sans’s skull. “You’re welcome. So long as I’m here, I’m going to keep you safe. You mean the world to me, Sans.”

And oh, if that didn’t make Sans feel like the luckiest monster alive.

They settled into a comfortable silence, watching the cartoon play on. As the night wore on, Sans found himself starting to doze in Grillby’s arms, yawning as he fought to keep his eye sockets open. “Hey, Grillbz?” he mumbled, “Maybe we should…” He trailed off as he looked up, smiling. Grillby’s head rested against the back of the couch, the fire monster fast asleep. Sans levitated the remote to himself, determined not to wake Grillby as he turned the TV off before cuddling closer and closing his eyes. Who needed beds, anyway?

Grillby was the warmest pillow he could ask for.

I hope you enjoyed this one! If you did like it, why not reblog/leave a comment to let me know your favorite part? As always, thank you for reading!

[songfell-ut]

Merry Xmas toooo

Hey @venelona remember when I was talking about that Beauty & the Beast thing in your server

Well, I copied myself, ‘cause Sans is still not good at following through on getting a human soul, and a stray bit of paper drives the plot once more.

This is nowhere near finished because it’s me. I’ll polish it up and put it on AO3 once my other gift is done for tomorrow (she said famous-last-words-ly). 

Prepare yourself for a shock: I wrote something long. Indents, meh. Warning, Sans is stupid.

Today was not a good day: it was cold, he had to get married, and now there was a human in his garden.

           This was problematic for many reasons. For one thing, as the literal lord of all he surveyed, Sans always found it hard to get any alone time, much less a chance to nap. He’d started coming outside each night after dinner to doze off for a few precious minutes, at least until the wind whistled through his sockets one time too many or his brother started yelling at him over the wall. On this particular evening, though, after his chat with Toriel, his sole aim was to avoid seeing anyone; luckily, he’d already forbidden the others from coming into the garden, and he was prepared to stay out here forever if he had to, weather and Papyrus be damned.

Sans was not prepared to take a shortcut to his favorite bench by the nightshades and sit down, only to catch sight of someone hunched behind a bush at the end of the row. The skeleton scrambled to his feet in sudden panic, readying his magic to defend himself. Who or what the hell was that? No one should be here—this was his place! Had Toriel told him all that crap to trick him into going out alone, then sent someone after him? But how?

His instinct was to attack first, but for all Sans knew, this was some kind of trap; instead, he watched and listened, waiting for the thing to make its move. His soul thrummed like a harpstring, ready to summon bones to skewer the intruder, or teleport away—

But nothing happened. As the seconds ticked by, Sans gradually realized that the small, dark-clothed figure wasn’t crouched to spring at him or lying in wait, just bending down to examine the flowers. He couldn’t sense any malicious intent whatsoever; in fact, it didn’t seem to know he was there, or that he was coming closer for a better look.

Well, no wonder: it was wearing a cloak with a deep hood that blocked its peripheral vision, and it was facing into the wind, where it couldn’t hear or smell anyone sneaking up from behind. That meant the intruder was either very confident or really fucking stupid.

Maybe it was just Monster Kid or one of the others screwing with him? After all, no matter how often Sans told them to stay the hell out of his garden, and no matter how strongly his subjects were compelled to obey him, he kept finding rocks, bits of bone, and other junk the little bastards had tossed over the wall. Things had gotten better since Papyrus started patrolling the outer courtyard, happy to combine his favorite pastimes of keeping things tidy and beating the shit out of people, but…

           But no, this wasn’t a kid who’d found a loophole in his orders, or an adult monster strong enough to defy him. Sans took a couple of quick shortcuts at different angles to appraise the intruder, confirming that it wasn’t sized or shaped like anyone he knew; it also failed to react when he stepped through an arch of greenery just a few feet away. No shift of attention, no magic gathering to attack or defend itself—who could possibly be that dumb? None of the surviving monsters would ever dream of dropping their guard like this, not even the kids!

The wind shifted, and Sans’ nasal ridge twitched as an unfamiliar stench hit him. He recognized the scent of leather from its clothes, but there were strong hints of…some kind of hair, and…bodily fluids? There was something missing, too, so basic that it took Sans a minute to pinpoint it: the trespasser had no magic whatsoever.

That was the most confusing thing of all. No matter how fishy or perfumed or otherwise gross they might be, everyone had that dry, slightly spicy smell. Had someone dressed up an animal and released it into the garden as a prank? A thrill of fear raced through him again—did Toriel’s curse include female animals? It’d be just like her to dump that on him and then make sure he ran into a bear or a deer or something!

           Suddenly, the intruder sighed heavily, straightened up, and shook its hood off. To Sans’ shock, it wasn’t an animal or a monster: the thing standing in his garden was a human. It turned its back to the wind, squinting down at the white-stoned path and up at the surrounding wall, the smooth black marble shining rose-gold in the twilight.

           What the hell was a human doing here? At least it was a male; Sans relaxed a little, then shook himself and edged forward.

Humans were legendary for their cruelty and cunning, but this particular specimen didn’t seem very dangerous. Beneath its dusty travel clothes and heavy cloak, it was almost as short at Sans, with a wrinkly face and gray streaks in its hair. Did all humans get like that after only…what, fifty years? Granted, Sans was just twenty-five, a baby by monster standards, but he wouldn’t be this twitchy or feeble when he reached the human’s age. And he wouldn’t be dumb enough to wander into someone else’s territory after sundown!

           The man had started walking again, still oblivious to Sans’ presence, and paused at a fork in the path. Sans silently willed him to turn right, and he’d been obeyed by everyone he knew for so long that it was a surprise to see the human go left instead. The skeleton watched in irritation, then disbelief, as his uninvited guest sat down on a low wall and pulled a map out of his pocket.

           That had to be the stupidest thing Sans had ever seen. Did human maps of the area include HAUNTED CASTLE ON FORBIDDEN MOUNTAIN? He doubted it. Besides, there was a village at the foot of the mountain, straight down through the forest; even if he couldn’t find the main path, all this moron had to do was walk downhill, back the…way he’d…

Wait. How had he even gotten in here?

           Quick as thought, Sans zipped over to the massive iron gates that stood between the castle and the outside world. Sure enough, the ivy growing between the bars had been disturbed at one end where the man had squeezed through. Sans extended one bony finger very, very slowly toward the gate, and as his phalange approached the nearest bar, the air filled with a warning hum, his bones prickling with alarm till he stepped away.

The barrier was still working, then. What had the King said before they dusted him? Anything could get in, but nothing could get out…except a monster in possession of a human soul. But there were no—

           The skeleton monster’s sockets widened again, this time in excitement. He grinned hugely, then took a shortcut back to the human, who was trying to fold up the map. Just in case, Sans peered at the human’s chest, gauging how much effort this would take.

           His elation immediately vanished, disgust welling up in its place. Of all the humans who could’ve wandered up here, it had to be one with a pathetically weak, almost sickly little soul—and why did it have to be green? Fucking Kindness! Talk about shitty luck!

           Not that he was going to pass up the opportunity, of course. Absorbing any human soul, no matter how crappy, would give him power greater than every other monster who’d ever lived, combined. He could finally pass through the gates, descend on the human village like a force of nature, grab as many souls as he wanted, and come back here to destroy the ga—no, he’d wreck the whole fucking castle! The others would finally be free, too, though he wouldn’t be stupid enough to share any souls with them. Maybe Pap could have a few, just enough to fulfill his dream of tearing Undyne to pieces, and to help eliminate Toriel; then they’d be untouchable in a world where “kill or be killed” was the only rule!

Sans was jerked back to the present by the human making a horribly wet noise and pulling a square of cloth from his pocket. Why was this disgusting sack of flesh even here, anyway? As far as Sans knew, no one had come near the castle for decades; even the local wildlife stayed far away. Yet here he was, an ordinary-looking human who had come all the way up the mountain in the approaching dark.

The man had finally sensed something wrong and was looking around uneasily. “Hello?” he called. Sans stayed where he was, silent and contemptuous; sure enough, the human’s gaze swept right past him. “Odd,” he murmured, lowering the map and folding it in half.

           Sans knew he should go ahead and kill the guy now, but the wind chose that moment to pick back up, rustling through the flowers and nearly yanking the map out of the human’s hands; the man swore and fumbled at the stiff parchment, fighting to keep hold of it.

The skeleton chuckled, almost pityingly. As lord of the castle, he decided he could be magnanimous and let this moron finish putting the map away. Besides, it was funny as hell to watch him lose to a piece of paper.

           Eventually, the man gave up and tried instead to stuff the half-folded map into his pocket, pulling a few things out to make room. Enough of this, thought Sans, his amusement fading. The skeleton took a few steps forward, letting his magic swell to a darkly feverish pitch and drift off him like red smoke. He was probably scary enough as it was, but anything worth doing was worth overdoing, especially when it’d make the human’s reaction that much funnier.

           Besides, this idiot had trespassed on Sans’ land and his solitude at exactly the wrong time. A quick, clean death was too good for him, but it couldn’t be helped: Sans had to get his soul out in one piece and reach the village before daybreak. Ha, maybe he’d put his hood up and pretend to be the Reaper the humans feared so much—wasn’t that why they had exterminated every single skeleton monster but him and Pap? He’d give the fuckers something to be afraid of!

It was time, all right. The human had finally sensed someone at his back, and began to turn around. “Excuse me, I—”

           Another gust of wind suddenly came howling through the garden and tore the map out of the human’s grip. It landed with a thk and skidded along the white-stoned path; with it went a couple of envelopes he’d set on his lap, and another, much smaller piece of paper, which blew straight into the nearest flowerbed.

           The human’s demeanor changed in an instant from annoyance to panic. “No!” He flailed at the air, then stumbled over the wall, charging through the flowers. “Come back here!” he yelled, as if the wind or the paper could understand him.

           Sans froze, feeling his magic go still as the blossoms answered—or, rather, echoed: “Come back here!” What the hell was the guy doing tromping around like that? Those were echo flowers, not daisies! One of them was worth twenty of this dumbfuck!

The wind was still blowing, but after a few clumsy grabs, the human threw himself full-length onto the ground, trapping the paper amongst the squished flowers. He sighed gustily – ha – and stood up, smiling. “There you are,” he murmured, his voice clear as the wind dropped to a light breeze.

The skeleton couldn’t see what the human was looking at so fondly. In his irate curiosity, he hesitated another moment too long: “Hm,” the man said to himself. “Yes, that’ll do.” He crouched again, grabbed a blossom at random, and plucked it clean out of the ground.

           “What the fuck?”

           Sans’ roar shattered the air like a rock through a stained-glass window. He was too angry to enjoy the human’s shriek of terror, or his attempt to turn and run; the skeleton jerked his hand up and sideways, yanking the man off his feet and hurling him onto the path. “Who the fuck d’you think you are?” snarled Sans. His magic flared up again as he advanced, staining the footpath red. “Huh?”

           The human was trembling violently, staring up at him. “Are you deaf or somethin’?” the monster demanded. He grabbed the man by the collar, hauling him to his feet. “Answer me, or I’ll rip yer fuckin’ head off!”

           The human gulped. “I…” He squeezed his eyes shut, sweat rolling off his face. “P-P-Please forgive me, my lord! I-I was being pursued by bandits, and they didn’t stop until I reached this place! I needed shelter, someone to point the way home—” He peeked up at Sans again, almost hiccuping in fear. “I-If you’ll permit me to leave, I swear I’ll never trouble you again!”

           Sans glanced up at a nearby lantern hanging on an iron post, and it obligingly lit itself. “That’s for damn sure,” said the skeleton. His wrath faded a little as his prisoner gaped at him in the clearer light. Now he understood the expression “bug-eyed,” not to mention “slack-jawed”; it was one of the funniest things he’d ever seen. Still… “You expect me to believe ya just wandered in here outta nowhere?” Sans jerked his head at the castle looming behind him, though the moon hadn’t risen to provide a properly spooky silhouette. “Didja think you could sneak in, grab somethin’, an’ get out before anybody noticed? ‘Cause I fuckin’ noticed!” He stabbed a finger at the echo flower in the human’s hand. “That shit doesn’t grow just anywhere!”

           The man blinked stupidly at the flower, as if surprised to see it. His eyes darted back and forth, his other hand sneaking toward his pocket. “I…I can explain, my l—”

           “Uh-uh.” Sans waggled his finger, and the human cried out as his hand was yanked straight over his head, the little slip of paper fluttering to the ground. Ignoring his protests, Sans made a couple more gestures to open the man’s coat and run a thread of magic through the pockets, then the lining. He frowned as he found several coins, letters, a comb, a pipe…but no weapons.

Huh. If the human hadn’t been going for a knife or something, then what the hell was he doing? Was he just trying to put the paper away? How goddamn stupid could he—

           “Please!” the man almost shrieked, and Sans was startled into releasing him. He watched the human stumble back, dropping the echo flower in his haste to run after the slip of paper again. Luckily for him, it blew against the corner of another bench, where he could easily stoop to retrieve it. The map lay nearby, but the human didn’t even look at it; he sighed in relief, and started to turn around.

           Sans was directly in front of him, grinning at his strangled squeak. “Whatcha got there?” The skeleton didn’t wait for an answer, just reached for it.

           “No!” To his astonishment, the man flailed at him, backing away till his shins hit the bench. “I-It’s nothing!” the human babbled. “Nothing at all! Just a picture that I didn’t want to lose! You can leave it!”

           Later, Sans would try to blame himself for not being more careful. But he had every right to be curious, and no reason to be thinking of Toriel right then; it was only natural for him to use his magic to grab the paper and hold it up to see what was so fucking important. So, he did.

           The human was right: it was a delicate ink drawing. Sans felt the smirk slide right off his face, and he took the picture in both hands, peering so intently that he didn’t even notice the man grabbing his sleeve. “Who’s this?” the skeleton inquired, trying to sound careless. “Yer wife?”

           “My daughter!” The guy was actually jumping to try to grab it, like a frantic kid. “As I said, it’s worth nothing to you! Please give it back!”

Sans absently pushed the human off with his elbow, raising the paper to the light. “Knock it off,” he grunted as the man came right back.

The human’s sheeplike face contorted. “Has milord never seen a woman before? Give it ba—”

Skeletal fingers shot out and locked around his throat. To Sans’ surprise, when he glared down at the human, the man glared right back, even as he clawed at Sans’ radius. “Why d’you want it so bad? Is she dead or somethin’?” the monster asked in sudden hope.

The human’s eyes bulged wider, and he struggled to speak until Sans loosened his grip. After a bit of coughing and puffing, the man rasped, “How dare you? She’s my child, you wretched beast!” He dashed Sans’ hopes with a jerky shake of the head. “I’ve been away from her for over a month, and I was only hours from home when I was attacked! That’s all I’ve had of her! If I’m going to die at your hand, the very least you can do is let me see it one more time!”

           Sans’ jaw clenched so hard that his single golden tooth creaked under the pressure. He shut his sockets, aware that he had to think very carefully before he spoke. “I got some questions for ya,” he snarled. “Tell me the truth, an’ you might leave in one piece.” He opened his sockets, his ruby eyelights pulsing across the human’s face. “Got it?”

           The wind shrieked past them again, but Sans held both the human and the slip of paper steady. The man stared at him in clear distrust; Sans wasn’t sure if he was being brave, or stupid, or what, but he wasn’t cowering anymore. As a slight token of respect, the skeleton opened his hand, letting the human jerk away. “Yes, milord,” the latter whispered, massaging his throat. “Whatever you wish.”

           Sans snorted, and snuck another glance at the portrait. “What’s your family name? What were you doin’ away from home fer so long?”

           The man’s brow wrinkled further. “My name is Proust, milord. I’m a merchant, so I travel frequently. I’ve been investigating a business opportunity in the capital.”

           A merchant? That was hard to believe. The coins in the human’s pockets consisted solely of pennies and a few silver pieces that Sans didn’t recognize; Proust was dressed fairly well, but on closer inspection, the fur trim of his cloak was patchy, while his leather coat was shiny with age. Either he was a cheapskate, or he hadn’t made any real money in a long time. “How’d it go?” Sans asked sardonically.

           “Poorly, milord,” the man snapped. “I promised Frisk I’d bring her something from the city, but then I could barely afford to pay my way home.” He looked down at the echo flower, which lay on the stones between them. “She likes gardening, so…”

           Sans knew he should make another fuss about the theft, but he had a bigger problem. “‘Frisk’?” he repeated. “Is that a nickname or somethin’?”

           “No,” Proust said stiffly. “What else would my lord care to know?”

           Sans gave him another glare, and though the man flinched, he didn’t look away. “Heh,” the skeleton murmured. “She your only kid?”

           “Yes, my lord. My wife died in childbirth. Frisk…” His voice caught. “She’s all I have left.”

The monster grimaced. He almost would’ve preferred an aggressive human to a sappy one. “How old is she?” The paper trembled. It wasn’t the wind: his hands were shaking. “Did you leave her home alone, or with ‘er husband, or…?”

           The human eyed him in rightful suspicion. “She’s twenty-two, my lord. We live with my brother’s family. She’s unwed—I’ve had several offers for her hand, but she refused them all.”

“Why?” Sans asked bluntly.

Proust blinked a few times. “She didn’t love them. She didn’t even like most of them, and the one she might have accepted left because my brother wouldn’t give her a dowry. Why do you—”

“A dowry?” Sans repeated. “The hell is that?”

This was obviously a sensitive question: the human’s face turned a weird color, and something pulsed near his eyebrow—a vein? Was that what it was called? Sans turned his head in disgust, studying the portrait again. If she had veins, he couldn’t see any.

The human cleared his throat. “It’s a gift of money or other goods that a woman brings to a marriage. Many young women in our social class have a difficult time finding a husband without one, and…”

“An’ you don’t have enough cash to sell her off?” Sans waved a hand as Proust swelled with rage again. “Never mind. Whatever stupid shit humans get up to, I don’ care.” He was quiet for a moment. “Just seems pathetic that you’ve gotta pay someone to take ‘er.”

“Was milord listening?” the human demanded. “I’ve had six other gentlemen ask to marry her, and four were willing to forego any dowry at all! She was good enough!”

It was Sans’ turn to twitch. “Why? What’s so great about ‘er?”

Proust made a noise like an angry frog. “May I humbly entreat milord to explain his gracious interest in my family?”

           Sans toyed with the idea of telling him the truth, and shrugged. “Just curious. So, I’m guessin’ you wanna see her again?”

           “Yes, milord, absolutely,” the man said in a rush. “I’d do anything—you have no idea how much she means to me!” He looked longingly at the paper in Sans’ hand, still held up to the lamplight. “She drew that herself,” he added.

           Sans started. “Really?” he asked before he could stop himself.

           “Yes, indeed,” the human said proudly.

           The skeleton scowled at the picture. It was a perfect rendition of a young woman seated at a table, wearing an old-fashioned gown; her dark hair was twisted up into a bun, showing a small earring, a pearl necklace, and a graceful curve of neck and shoulder. Now that Proust mentioned it, she did seem to be drawing herself in the mirror, one hand holding a pencil and the other steadying the paper, her head tilted to look up at Sans.

           For a moment, he was so angry that he couldn’t breathe. This was bullshit! Why should he pass up his chance at unlimited power because of a girl who probably wasn’t even that pretty in real life? He should just rip the stupid picture in half, rip the human in half, grab his shitty green soul, and get things started!

           But the longer he stared at the paper, the less he wanted to rip it in half, kill the human, become godlike, etc. etc. It just seemed…boring? Unnecessary?

Tch. This was all Toriel’s fault! She’d called him to her room that evening in an absolute fit of laughter and told him exactly what was going to happen, and the old bitch knew he’d come down here afterward and—

           And he couldn’t stay mad about it. Instead, something weird was happening behind his sternum, a sticky kind of warmth spreading like an infection through his ribcage and down his limbs. No matter how hard he tried to dwell on being jerked around, or why it had to be some squishy human with a dumb father and a weird name, Sans couldn’t look away from the portrait, caught by the girl’s clear, bright eyes. No one had ever smiled at him like that…

           He came down here every night to get away from everyone, but what if…what if he had someone he didn’t want to get away from? Unbidden, a thought crept up: what would the garden look like with this human in it, helping water the flowers or sitting with him to watch the sun set? What would it be like to always have someone to talk to about stuff bothering him, help with all the day-to-day crap of running the household…smile at him, keep him warm at night—

Shit! Had Toriel laughed at him because she knew he’d actually want this to happen?

           “Hello?” Proust was asking. “Milord? Is something wrong?”

           Sans shook himself. “Fine, she can draw. Does she know how ta do anything?” That’d be a perfect excuse to forget about her. If he wanted to keep something cute and useless around, he could just put a collar on one of the kids and make it do tricks!

           The human actually laughed at him. “We went to stay with my brother, milord, when Frisk was fourteen years old. He was a widower, so she took it upon herself to be the lady of the house. Within a few months, she was managing his servants, balancing his accounts, organizing his social affairs—clear up till he remarried last year.” His narrow chest puffed out. “It’s a large part of the reason she’s been sought after. Any man would be lucky to have her.”

           The monster’s hands were trembling again, a strange sensation burning him from the inside out. “Is—” It was a childish question, but he couldn’t help it: “Is she nice?”

           Proust looked at him strangely. “Yes, milord. She is.” He flinched as Sans’ grip on the drawing tightened. “Forgive me,” the man quavered, “but why do you—”

“Gimme your hand,” growled the skeleton. He gestured, keeping the paper suspended in midair as he lowered his own hands. “Take the glove off.”

           Proust swallowed once or twice, then obeyed. Sans didn’t hide his distaste as he took hold of Proust’s wrist, the human’s pulse twitching against his thumb. For a second, he didn’t know if he could go through with it; then he glanced at the portrait, and said, “Don’t move.” Before he could lose his nerve, the monster lifted a skull-shaped pendant from beneath his shirt, positioned the human’s finger between its tiny jaws, and willed them to snap shut.

           Proust yelped as the pendant latched onto his finger. “What in God’s name is that thing?” he cried, trying to shake it off.

“Magic,” Sans said pleasantly. The poor skull didn’t seem to like it any more than the human did: its jaws sprang right back open, and he could’ve sworn he saw it make a face at him.

Proust was staring at his hand in disbelief, searching for signs of any blood or puncture wounds—nothing. “What…?”

“Here’s what’s gonna happen.” Sans tucked the pendant back under his shirt. “There’s a spot over by the gates where you can sleep. No one’s allowed in here, so you oughta be safe till morning. When you leave, jus’ head straight down the mountain. Pretty much any of the paths will take you to Ebott. I’d send ya there now, but my magic can’t get through the barrier on the gate.” He sighed. “Need ta pull some strings to get you back out at all.”

           The human was torn between intense relief and distrust. “Thank you, my lord. May I—”

           “Nope. Just be happy that’s all I did.” Sans indicated the man’s finger as Proust pulled his glove back on. “I’ll even let ya bring ‘er the flower. Nice, eh?”

           The man swallowed hard. “Yes, milord. I thank you from the bottom of my heart. But…may I please ask why?”

The shadows seemed to creep in, darkening the lamplight. The human shrank back as the skeleton’s grin broadened. “Wanna hear somethin’ funny?” Sans reached up to run a finger along the portrait’s bottom edge. “I’m the boss around here, but there’s a lady hangin’ around I can’t get rid of, and she knows stuff. Guess what she told me ‘fore I came out here. Go on, guess!”

Proust looked nearly sick. “I…I don’t know, my lord. What did she—”

“She said, ‘Congratulations!’ An’ I said, ‘On what?’ And she said, ‘On your upcoming marriage!’ So a’course, I said, ‘The fuck are you talkin’ about?’ An’ she said I was gonna meet my wife real soon.”

It was subtle, but Proust’s eyes flicked to Sans’ pelvis. The skeleton’s amusement vanished. Just like a human—didn’t he know how magic worked? “Yeah, my wife,” he growled. “Funny part is, she was right.” The monster took Frisk’s drawing in one hand and tapped the side of his skull with it. “Wanna know who Toriel said it’d be?”

The man didn’t move, except to make a noise vaguely resembling “Who?”

Sans chuckled. “The first woman I saw once I left the room.”

A beat of silence. Sans was wondering if he’d have to spell it out when Proust howled, “No!” and made a credible attempt to tackle Sans and grab his daughter’s picture. “You can’t—”

The skeleton sent him sprawling with one push. “Sorry, Dad,” he drawled. “I left the room, an’ I saw ‘er. That’s that.” He laughed harshly at the man’s expression. “What? She’s gonna get her own damn castle, lotsa nice stuff—I won’t even make you pay for ‘er!”

“You—” Sans watched, bemused, as the human sprang to his feet, fists clenched. “Tear me limb from limb if you want, but I am not giving my daughter to a thing like you!”

“Yeah, about that.” The skeleton raised a finger. “Y’know that little nibble ya got just now? ’s a great trick. Lemme show you how it works.” Hmm…what to do? Better not get carried away, or the guy would have a nervous breakdown before he could get his daughter up here. “Grab the echo flower and say, ‘I’m a stupid doo-doo butt.’”

Before Proust could protest, his body turned, stooped, and picked up the blue flower. He brought it to his lips, and said, very solemnly, “I’m a stupid doo-doo butt.” Then his head jerked up. “What in the—”

Sans hooted with laughter, fighting the urge to slap his future father-in-law on the back and accidentally break his spine. “See? When I say you’re gonna do somethin’, you don’t have a choice, do ya?” He sobered in an instant. “So, yer gonna go home an’ fetch ‘er for me. Got it?”

“It doesn’t matter what you’ve done to me,” Proust said defiantly. “You said it yourself. Once I pass your gates, your magic won’t have any effect.”

“Good thing it ain’t my magic, then. It’s yours.” He got a blank stare, and sighed in exasperation. This was getting old: it was chilly out here, and he had a lot of planning to do. “I don’ have time fer a whole magic lesson. What it boils down to is, yer a part’a this place now. The magic’s with you wherever you go. Even when ya get back home—”

Proust chose that moment to make a break for it. Sans watched him race toward the gates, then reappeared directly in front of the bars, forcing the human to stop short. “Listen,” he said coldly, forestalling Proust’s attempt to cover his ears. “Three days from now, you’re gonna bring Frisk here. Yer gonna tell ‘er whatever you need to make ‘er stay. Then you’re gonna shut up and leave, and you won’t come back.”

The human’s face was crumpling in a way that suggested something wet was about to happen. “You can’t be serious, milord! Please spare her! Kill me instead!”

“Oh, for fuck’s sake, quit bein’ dramatic!” Sans jerked his thumb at the castle. “Like I said, she’s gonna have everythin’ a lady could ever want. Almost everyone’s dead now, so there’s a bunch of neat stuff left. Hell, we got a whole room with nothin’ but jewelry in it.”

For some reason, this didn’t seem to reassure the human. “Frisk does not want things, and even if she could be bought off like that, a wonderful young woman like her has no business being entrapped by a loathsome abomination like y—”

“Shut your fucking mouth. Right. Fucking. Now.”

Proust’s teeth clicked shut as the air around Sans roiled with crimson magic. “Just for that,” the skeleton hissed. He stepped forward, jabbing the human’s shoulder with one pointed phalange, almost a claw. “Just for that, you’re not allowed ta make stuff up about her goin’ to school or marryin’ a human or somethin’. You’re gonna tell the truth: you fucked up an’ trespassed on my property, and you only get to live ‘cause you had somethin’ worth tradin’.” Another poke. “Let ‘er know that you’ve got three days from now—” Sans glanced at the rising moon. “—an’ if you’re not here by then, she gets ta watch her dad rot from the inside out.”

Another long moment of silence passed as the human stared up at Sans, hopelessness dawning as he searched in vain for any sign of mercy. There was no telling what he would have said if another sound hadn’t made them both jump: “SANS!” It came from over the marble wall, advancing rapidly. “YOU HAVE HAD EXACTLY AS MUCH LEISURE AS YOU DESERVE, LORD BROTHER! I HOPE YOUR TIME HAS BEEN RESTFUL, BECAUSE YOU HAVE FIFTEEN MISCREANTS TO DISCIPLINE AND A JAM SHORTAGE TO ADDRESS BEFORE YOU CAN RETIRE FOR THE NIGHT.” A stiff click-click of heeled boots. “I WILL BE WAITING IN YOUR SITTING ROOM. YOU ARE HUMBLY REQUESTED TO BE THERE WITHIN TEN MINUTES OR ELSE FACE SEVERE CONSEQUENCES!”

Sans mumbled a long stream of curse words as Papyrus’ footsteps strutted away. That reminded him of something. “Don’t even think about killin’ yerself or breakin’ a leg or somethin’ ta get out of this,” the skeleton said, still facing the garden wall. “I’ll say it one more time: go home, get ‘er packed up, an’ bring her back here on time. No tricks, no cute little loopholes, nothin’. Don’t bring anybody else with you, or I’ll kill ‘em. Got it?”

The human shuddered. “How—” His voice cracked. “How can you do this? You don’t have to do this! This is your castle, your land—surely there are enough women of your own kind to choose from? You don’t have to steal my daughter!”

The skeleton shifted to look at him. “Nope,” he said, and made to step around the human.

“Wait!” Proust fell to his knees, fists clasped in supplication. “One thing, my lord, I beg of you! Please don’t harm her!”

Sans could’ve cheerfully punted the man across the garden. “The fuck?” the monster snarled down at him. “Why the hell would I hurt my own wife? What am I, a goddamn human?”

There was no answer, only a ragged sob. “Good night,” the skeleton muttered. Proust tried to say something else, but Sans paid him no mind: he had things to do, and to look forward to.

~

           Her father was hiding something.

           That seemed impossible, and not just because he was a terrible liar: almost the moment he stumbled over the threshold of her uncle’s house in a filthy, sobbing heap, he had started babbling about a monster stealing his Frisk. Once he’d been cleaned up, fed, and tucked into bed, he’d stayed awake long enough to relate a horrible, fantastical tale of stumbling across the castle from local legend and running afoul of its hideous master. And they’d believed it, because…well, she loved her father, but he had the most wretched luck imaginable.

           At least her aunt had been asleep when all the commotion started, so there was nothing to stop Uncle Raph from assuring his brother that they would look into the matter as quickly and thoroughly as possible. Servants were dispatched to fetch books from the library and summon the nearest mage from his cottage outside the village; by the time Aunt Kay woke up, her maid could report to her that her brother-in-law had come home bearing a “geas,” a type of curse far too powerful for humans to break, and would lose his daughter in less than three days.

           Frisk had to give her aunt credit: she said all the correct things about being so very sorry and hoping that there was a way to save her poor niece from having to live with literal monsters, possibly for the rest of her life! And when it became apparent that there was nothing anyone could do, she was the first to embrace Frisk – as much as she could around her enormous belly, of course – and assure her that if any young woman could handle such a bizarre fate, it was her. She’d packed a bag of sentimental items for Frisk to take with her in case she got homesick, with only the slightest hint of glee at having sole dominion over the house now.

           Her father had come home with a cold brewing, because of course he had; knowing she was going to leave and having so little warning had caused chaos among the servants, and Frisk was too busy making arrangements to do more than check in on her father every few hours. He spent most of his time either asleep or staring at the beautiful blue flower he’d brought her.

           That was the last bit of proof anyone needed to believe his story. Echo flowers only grew in intensely magical surroundings, and there was so little magic left nowadays that they were thought to be extinct. But here it was, a thick-stemmed, six-petaled blossom that repeated anything spoken nearby. Frisk would’ve been more excited about it under different circumstances, but…well, maybe her new employer would let her have a few of her own.

           The whole thing was strange, all the more so because of the way her father had told that part when they were gathered to listen to his story. He’d said he was bound to do what the creature commanded him, which was to bring his daughter up to the castle within three days’ time. The most logical supposition was that Frisk was going to get eaten, but her father had hastened to assure them that the beast seemed angry at the very idea of hurting Frisk. He just wanted…

           There was that little hitch in his voice when he said the beast wanted Frisk to perform all the functions of a housekeeper, and that she would be well rewarded—why hadn’t he just said “The monster needs a housekeeper”? And why had he clutched his chest like that afterward? Was the geas hurting him for saying the wrong thing?

           Frisk had kept herself too busy to think about it very hard, to believe that she was really going to be thrown out of another home and into the clutches of monsters from myth and legend; on some level, she could convince herself that her father had exaggerated or made some kind of mistake, and it wasn’t going to be so bad. But now, nearing sunset on the third day after her father’s misadventure, they were most of the way up the mountain, and fear was starting to creep through her veins like frost. Her father could be naïve, even simple-minded, but he wasn’t crazy. She really was going to be left alone in a strange place full of strange creatures, expected to take care of them, answering to a walking, talking skeleton—this couldn’t be happening!

A couple of the younger manservants had insisted on accompanying them part of the way. The mage had warned them that they could only get so close to the castle before the horses refused to go any further; sure enough, about a mile from the castle gates, the men had to help them dismount before the animals grew frightened enough to turn and bolt. Frisk gave each man a quick hug – at least her aunt wasn’t there to scold her – and they reluctantly headed back down the mountain to wait with the terrified horses, ready to escort her father home.

           The latter was growing more and more agitated as they approached the castle on foot. He could barely speak with his throat raw from coughing, but the way he kept glancing at her, clearing his throat and sighing heavily— “What is it, Father?” Frisk finally asked.

           “I…” He swallowed. “I haven’t been entirely truthful, dear.” She stiffened, shifting her bundle to her other shoulder as he coughed into his handkerchief. “The creature didn’t order me to say the exact words in just the right order, and I didn’t want to humiliate you in front of everyone by telling the full story—”

           “What story?” The lump in her throat grew heavier as the trees started thinning out, the ground sloping sharply upward. “Is it really true that I have to stay with the monsters and keep house for them?”

           “It’s true, love, but…” Another maddening pause. “Er. He is a skeleton, so I believe you’ll be spared…some things, but running the household is included in your role as—”

           The wind rose from nothing to a scream of frigid air, nearly throwing them to the ground. Frisk lowered her arm, and to her dismay… “We’re here,” her father croaked.

           In the dying light, a huge wall loomed over them, black marble framing a set of gates over thirty feet tall. The bars were nearly obscured by climbing ivy; despite her fear, Frisk found herself drifting closer in sheer curiosity, reaching to pull the ivy aside.

           “Frisk!” her father croaked. He was almost unrecognizable, pulling her back and giving her a little shake. “I…” She watched him struggle with himself, and lose. “Stay here, and be good,” he said jerkily. His lips formed a few frantic words, but she couldn’t catch them before he crushed her to him in a sudden, fierce embrace. “Be careful,” he whispered. “I love y—”

           The sun had disappeared over the horizen. Before she could hug him back, Frisk felt something coursing through her father’s body, forcing his arms to drop and his legs to carry him back a step. He struggled to get more words out, but it was too late—what had his last orders been? “Shut up and leave”? Charming, and succinct…and effective.

This was it. Frisk had had plenty of practice at smiling, and did her best. “Goodbye, Father,” she said helplessly. “I love you, too.” Then she turned and plunged through the ivy before he could hurt himself resisting any further.

           When she stepped free of the bars and brushed the leaves from her face, Frisk almost forgot her sorrow and despair in sheer wonder. Lamps on iron posts lit up a garden arranged in long, orderly, but breathtakingly lovely rows of bushes, flowerbeds, statuary—she’d never seen anything like it. Letting her bundle hang from one wrist, Frisk turned to look at the gates and the massive walls, wondering how big the grounds must be if this was just a private garden. Granted, it belonged to the lord of the castle, and he obviously cared enough to keep it in good order…

           And had terrorized her father into forcing her out of her home to come play housekeeper amongst total strangers for…how long? If the problem was just that monsters couldn’t cook or clean up after themselves, maybe she could stay long enough to teach them and then go back. Surely they didn’t expect her to do it all on her own forever, not when they had magic to help them do everything? But if they could do it with magic, then why bring her here at all?

           Frisk shook her head, scanning the garden for signs of life. She could hear a fountain burbling in the near distance, just out of sight; the wind was freezing, but carried the smell of flowers, helping calm the human down a little. It was enough to let her take a step forward, then a few more, wandering into the first stand of rosebushes and a patch of black irises. Their petals didn’t reflect light, but shone like velvet, tempting her to reach out—no, she thought hastily, snatching her hand away. Touching flowers without permission was what got her poor, well-meaning, hapless father into this mess!

           No one seemed to be coming to meet her, but then, it wasn’t completely dark yet. If she had a few minutes to herself, then Frisk figured she could spend it in peace and calm before she met her fate, whatever that might be, whatever her father had been trying to tell her… So the young woman stood up and set off down the path, taking her time examining the rows of irises, snapdragons, and several flowers that had no business blooming at this time of year.

She didn’t see a shadow step out from behind a lamppost. Nor did she notice when it hesitated, then vanished, reappearing behind another lamppost, and another, and another, till it was just a few steps away.

Frisk thought she felt someone watching her, but when she turned around, there was nothing there. Shivering, she drew her cloak tighter around her shoulders, squinting up at a faint outline against the darkening sky. The castle wasn’t exactly hard to find, but that didn’t mean she knew how to get there; the garden was so huge that she couldn’t tell which path led out of it. Maybe she should—

“h u m a n~”

Raw terror flooded her senses, and her brain screamed so many conflicting orders that nothing got through; Frisk could only stand stock-still, clutching her bundle till she summoned the courage to whirl around.

Nothing was there. Was her mind playing tricks on her? No, she couldn’t have imagined such an awful voice, deep and rough as—

A delicate tap, tap on her shoulder.

Frisk shrieked and twisted around, landing on her rear with an ungentle thmp. “What are you doing?” she yelled. “Who’s—”

The air went still, her lungs shriveling and her heart stopping at the sight of a skeleton – this must be the skeleton – looming over her. The smooth bone of its skull had a dull, velvety sheen like the iris’ petals, and dots of red hellfire glinted in its empty sockets. Its teeth – no, fangs – were bared in a cruel grin, hands buried in the pockets of its black coat; beneath it, the creature’s shirt was a surprisingly bright red—satin? The tidy, domestic corner of her mind wondered how expensive that had been, and how difficult it was to keep clean; as a matter of fact, the skeleton was more richly dressed than her father had been at the peak of his wealth, right down to a frankly garish gold tooth. This had to be the lord of the castle, beyond a doubt.

But his wealth was less important than the fact that a skeleton was staring down at her. It didn’t speak, or grab her, or do anything but stand there, its face unreadable. Surely it could talk, after the way it had cursed her father?

Anger surged through her, propelling her to her feet. “Greetings, my lord,” Frisk said coolly, stepping back to discreetly brush herself off and drop into a deep curtsey. One of them had to be civilized about this! “My name is Frisk. I am here by your command.”

The skeleton blinked, the bone of its sockets somehow closing just like a human’s eyelids. Frisk was almost too fascinated to be angry—almost. It silently shifted its weight. Was it a “he”? The monster was dressed like a male, and had sounded like it. Why wasn’t he saying anything else?

A light gust of wind flapped her hood against her neck. Shivering, she broke eye contact to hitch her bundle back over her shoulder and reach to pull the hood up. “I hope I’m not too late to—”

Quicker than she could blink, the creature was right in front of her, inches away. Frisk tried not to cringe as his bony fingers plucked the hood from her grasp, letting it drop against her back. “What…?” Stupidly, she reached up again, and the skeleton’s brows drew together. His fingers pushed her hand away and, to her shock, rose to brush her hair off her cheek.

That did it: she was willing to come here to save her father’s life, not to be scared out of her mind, stared down, kept freezing, and all but propositioned by the thing that had done this to them! Who did he think he was?! “I beg your pardon!” she snarled, and the skeleton’s sockets widened as she smacked his hand away. “You will not touch me without my permission, milord! And if I am not allowed to wear this—” Frisk waggled her hood. “—then you will please take me somewhere out of the wind!” She tried not to sniffle, and hoped he’d attribute it to the cold. Without thinking, she scratched her cheek, trying to erase the unwanted feeling of those smooth, warmish fingers on her skin. “Lead the way!”

To her alarm, the red light in his sockets vanished, as if she’d blown out a candle. “Yes, m’lady,” growled a voice from somewhere deep in its chest. Frisk gripped her bundle as the skeleton turned on its heel. “Come along.”

Frisk tried not to gulp too loud, and hoped it – he – couldn’t hear her heart pounding as she followed him across the garden. With the anger ebbing away, fear was reclaiming her, dulling the wind’s bite and the ache building in her feet from the walk here; her aunt had insisted she wear a respectable dress and heeled slippers to meet her new master, never mind how impractical they were for traveling, and Frisk could feel a blister forming.

The skeleton’s shoulders were hunched, his hands in his pockets as his boots scuffed the white stones. It was a distinctly un-noble posture, almost sullen. Was he really the lord of the castle? He wasn’t carrying himself with much confidence, and though she’d obviously irritated him, he hadn’t bothered to correct her. Maybe monsters were nicer than humans overall, no matter what the stories said; maybe, she thought as they exited the garden through a wicker gate and started across a courtyard, humans were entirely wrong about them. She might just be a—

“Dumbass!”

The skeleton stopped so fast that she nearly walked into him. A moment later, something flew across their path, followed closely by a small yellow body. “The ball’s a dumbass,” it said helpfully in passing, with the snide, high-pitched tone of a child almost breaking the rules.

Frisk’s escort made a low noise and suddenly whipped his hand up and around. She barely had time to process what was happening before the little monster was jerked into the air, flipping upside down and hanging in a scarlet cloud. “Ya think you’re smart?” the lord demanded, gesturing to silence the…child, she supposed. “Don’t answer that!”

The lizard-like monster didn’t have arms to gesture with, but kicked his feet and snapped his teeth more than expressively enough. “Knock it off,” the skeleton warned him.

The child obediently stopped kicking, and started mouthing obscenities instead. To Frisk’s dismay, the cloud of magic dropped him onto the ground head-first and, before he could recover, picked him back up; the lizard stuck his tongue out in defiance, at which the red cloud rose several feet higher before dropping him again. This time, when it picked him up—

“Stop it!” Frisk protested. They both glared at her, and she shook her head. “He’s just being a child! He’s not hurting anyone!”

The skeleton snorted. Frisk felt her face flushing again as the magic dropped the young monster once more; the child gave her one sneering glance before scuttling off. Then the lord turned to glare at Frisk, who was trembling with fear and rage. “I could say a lot of stuff right now, but you just got here,” he said with dangerous patience, “so I’m gonna cut you some slack.” He started walking again. “C’mon. Everyone should be in the Great Hall by now, ‘cept that little fucker, but that’s fine. He’ll hear it, too.”

Frisk wanted to ask what he meant, and object to his language, but she was tired, and cold, and sore, and hungry, and now keenly aware of what the monster could do to her if he chose. She followed him meekly across the courtyard and through several more winding paths, most too dimly lit to see more than the skeleton’s broad back; he wasn’t much taller than her, but he was powerfully built, even without his hellish magic. He didn’t look sullen anymore, just angry. Frisk wasn’t one for self-pity, but…what had she done to deserve this?

He eventually stopped in front of a door so small and unassuming that she went right in after him, blinking in the sudden light, expecting to see a kitchen or servants’ entrance; instead, when her vision cleared, it revealed a dazzling array of…red carpets, stairs, dozens of voices, thousands of candles—her senses were too overloaded to take it all in. This must be the Great Hall, she thought muzzily, barely aware that the skeleton had turned to watch her.

She did notice when he took her hand, fingers tightening as she reflexively pulled away. “This way,” he muttered.

Frisk couldn’t help scowling. For someone who had spent so much time and cruel effort getting her here, he didn’t seem at all happy to have her. At least his hand gave her something to focus on as he led her through the columns at the back of the room and into the center of the red carpet. As she’d thought when he touched her face in the garden – which she still resented – his bones were as warm as human fingers, with a strange consistency, smooth and slightly pliant. He was probably strong enough to crush her fingers like brittle leaves, but he held them just firmly enough that she couldn’t get away. How nice of him, she thought irritably.

Suddenly, the skeleton paused and turned to face the room. “Hey,” he said, almost conversationally. “Shut up.”

The human thought he was talking to her until the hall grew very quiet, making her ears itch. A tug on her hand turned her to face the same way he was, and her eyes widened.

The room was full of monsters—the ones she’d heard about as a child, and with whom she’d be living and working now. There were creatures made of ice, one built almost entirely out of razor-sharp teeth, several fire spirits, some with fur or scales, or both…there was another, much taller skeleton, and…

Hm. She was good at making quick estimates, and there were barely a hundred monsters in the hall. Surely this couldn’t be all of them?

“So,” said the lord. With his free hand, he dug beneath his shirt and pulled out a pendant shaped like a miniature skull, elongated like a deerhound and sporting far too many fangs for Frisk’s taste. The skeleton raised the pendant to eye level: in an instant, Frisk sensed a shift in the atmosphere from mild disdain to wary, almost fearful anticipation. “Here she is,” proclaimed the lord of the castle. “Meet…Frisk.”

No one reacted, except for a few scoffs and an extremely half-hearted “Hurrah” from the back of the hall, more insulting than no response at all. Frisk hoped she wasn’t expected to introduce herself, or say literally anything else.

Luckily, the skeleton was already speaking again. “So,” he intoned, and as one, the monsters flinched. “First off, no one’s allowed to hurt her—directly, indirectly, on purpose, sort of on purpose, tricking her into it, trickin’ someone else into it, I don’t fucking care. Humans are weaklings, remember? If any of you assholes so much as breathes on ‘er too hard, I’m gonna take you apart mote by mote and burn yer dust in front’a everyone.”

Judging by the monsters’ shocked faces and low murmurs, this was quite the threat. The skeleton lord’s hand was holding hers a little more tightly—was he shaking? At the front of the crowd, the other skeleton had uncrossed his arms and seemed ready to—

“Second!” Everyone twitched. “You do what she says, when she says, unless I tell you different.” He paused, as if weighing his options. “No lyin’ to her. If she wants ta know somethin’, you gotta give ‘er a good answer.”

More murmurs of surprise and resentment. Frisk could feel little pulses through her contact with the skeleton—his pendant was doing something magic-related as he spoke. With a start, she remembered her father’s description of the skull that bit him and inflicted the curse of obedience; this must be the same thing, in a way that let him use it on every monster at once.

Regardless of how he was doing it, Frisk wished she understood why. He clearly did want her here, but how terrible could things be for him to go to these lengths for her? The first tiny prickling of unease began skittering around the back of her mind. What had her father been trying to tell her? Something he’d been hiding that would have destroyed her reputation among her family and friends, with worse duties than arranging parties and checking whether the maids were stealing anything …and the monster being a skeleton was relevant. What could possibly—

Someone had asked a question. “No, not yet,” the skeleton said, to groans of disappointment. “Party’s tomorrow. We’ll hold off for tonight and let her get settled.”

A loud, rude snort made everyone turn to the back of the crowd. “Well, ain’t that sweet?” It was a tall, armor-clad figure holding a faintly glowing spear. The voice was female, but almost as rough as the skeleton’s. “I know if I was her, I’d want you to hold off for tonight!”

The monsters erupted into jeering laughter. Frisk’s face burned as the implication sank in, and she gave the skeleton a disbelieving glance as that sense of disquiet prodded her again. What kind of party was he talking about? Would he really go to this much trouble to procure a normal housekeeper, much less protect her like this and celebrate her coming?

To her bemusement, the skeleton seemed as embarrassed as she was, and several times angrier. “Fuck off, Undyne!” His magic pulsed again so strongly that Frisk’s palm tingled. The woman in armor made a faint sound and staggered back against the wall. “If you’ve got time to say stupid shit, maybe it’s time you—”

“That’s enough,” said someone above them.

Frisk felt the air in the room shift again; this time, it felt like a classroom where the teacher had walked in and just looked at everyone. Every monster in the Great Hall – even Undyne – sank to one knee; the skeleton’s hands dropped to his sides as Frisk turned to watch another monster descend the staircase. “Tori,” he mumbled.

The white-furred monster glared at him. She resembled a giant goat, but seemed far more predatory, perhaps because of her golden eyes; they reminded Frisk too much of her uncle’s captive hawks, which always looked ready to eat someone. “How strange,” the goat-woman murmured. “I could have sworn that we’ve met before and you know how to properly address me.” Like magic, she was now smiling brilliantly at Frisk. “Welcome to our humble abode, my dearest girl. May I be the first to congratulate you on your conquest of Sans’ affections?”

The human’s polite smile was fixed in place, the one she used at parties when trapped in conversation with people she wasn’t allowed to run away from. “You certainly may, Lady…?”

“Toriel, my child. I am the former Queen of this place, now a silly old lady enjoying my twilight years in retirement.” The goat monster inclined her head, and suddenly raised her voice. “Thank you all for coming. I believe dinner should be ready soon?”

That was the monsters’ cue to scatter, no compulsion necessary. “Well,” said Toriel as the room emptied. Her smile twisted in utter contempt. “You seem surprised, my dear. Was Sans incompetent enough to allow your father to lie about your purpose here?”

The skeleton – Sans – gritted his teeth. Frisk would’ve felt sorry for him if…no, wait, she wouldn’t, ever. “Well,” she said, echoing Toriel, “when my father told everyone at my uncle’s house what happened, he said the monsters wanted someone to ‘perform the functions of a housekeeper.’ He never came out and said I’d be marrying anyone.” Frisk gave Sans as poisonous a look as she could, and his sockets went blank. It was unnerving, but she was too angry to care. “On the way up here, he tried to talk more about it, but then he had to leave.”

Toriel cackled, raising the hairs on the back of Frisk’s neck. “Of course he didn’t tell the rest of your family you’d be sharing your bed with a skeleton! You’d be the laughingstock of the village—no, the whole country!”

“Tori,” muttered Sans. Somehow, his entire skull was turning a dull crimson; he’d shrunk in on himself, looking much smaller and curiously vulnerable. Good.

The goat monster must have agreed; she smirked, and fully turned her back on him. “I hope you can understand your father’s intentions, my dear child,” Toriel said. Frisk would have given anything to make her stop smiling. “Parents tell these little fibs every so often to protect their children’s feelings.” She patted Frisk’s shoulder with a soft, heavy white paw. “I’m sure you’ll understand once you start having them.”

Frisk’s skin crawled—whether it was Toriel’s touch or the thought of that with Sans, she couldn’t say. Probably both. “I wish he had given me some forewarning, Lady Toriel, but I understand his reasons. He was also very sick when he reached the village, and likely still is, so we didn’t have many chances to talk privately.”

“I am sorry to hear that,” Toriel murmured. “But it was to be expected after a night outside without food or drink, and then a walk down the mountain without provisions.”

“A what?” Frisk rounded on her would-be husband, who was sweating profusely. How the hell did—no, never mind. “You didn’t give him anything at all? And you made him sleep outside?” she demanded.

Sans’ eyes sparked red again. “He trespassed on my land and fucked up my garden! What was I s’posed ta do? Give ‘im a cookie and his own private room?”

“Anything but keep him outside like a dog!” Frisk was so angry that her eyes were filling with tears. She swiped them as discreetly as she could. “I am overtired, Lord Sans! May I be shown my room for the night? Or would you prefer I sleep in the garden?!”

“Fine!” he bellowed. For a horrible moment, Frisk thought he was really going to lock her outside—no, he was grabbing the pendant: “Panne! Lapis! Get your asses down here, now!”

“I’m afraid you have your work cut out for you, my child,” Toriel said kindly to Frisk, who was seething so hard that it took a moment to realize someone was speaking. “If you want any help, dear, you need only ask.”

“Thank you, Lady Toriel,” the human replied. “I’ve dealt with bullies before, but they usually don’t have magic on their side.”

Toriel cackled again as Sans’ eyes went blank. “Well said, my dearest Frisk! Very well said. Our lord is accustomed to getting what he wants, but a bit of reality may be what he needs.”

“Y’know what?” The skeleton’s voice was high and loud with indignation. “You’re right. Forget it. Fuckin’ forget about this whole thing! We’ll do the ceremony, make it so yer creepy-ass curse worked, an’ then she can go back to her dumbass family. How’s that sound?”

Frisk’s heart leapt…until Toriel gave a gentle sigh. “Yes, Lady Toriel?” the human asked warily.

“Yeah, what?” Sans snapped.

“Several things, children. For one, Sans, you already came crawling to me for help in getting Frisk’s father through the barrier—to be honest, I’m surprised we were able to do it at all. I absolutely do not have the resources left to move another human through the gates safely.”

Frisk could have cried, but as it turned out, that was the least of her problems: “And if you think you’ll be man and wife after a few words and a slice of cake, you’re sorely mistaken. A true marriage is built on time, trust, and communication.” Toriel nodded benignly. “And sex.”

“What?!” It came out in perfect tandem between the skeleton and human.

The goat monster didn’t bother to hide her glee. “I never said you’d find a wife in name only, you pathetic sack of bones! What are you thinking, trying to get rid of her? Why go to all the trouble of snaring such a lovely thing if you were just going to shoo her off? I’ve never seen you so excited, having your room prepared and planning what to eat for—”

“There they are,” Sans said sharply, looking and sounding ready for death as two rabbit monsters approached. “You! Get her fed, bath, sleep, whatever! I’m goin’ to bed, good night!”

Toriel’s grin was the most evil thing Frisk had ever seen. “Good night, my lord? It’s only—oh, dear. There he goes.” She examined the tips of her claws, and gave Frisk a look that made the human shudder. “Was it something I said?”

 ~

             “REALLY, BROTHER, I DON’T KNOW WHAT YOU EXPECTED.”

           Sans tried to think of something witty, but it was easier to bash his head against the wall some more. So—

           “WILL YOU KINDLY STOP THAT FOOLISH NOISE! IF IDIOCY COULD BE REMOVED THAT WAY, I WOULD GLADLY CRACK YOUR EXALTED SKULL OPEN. BUT NO, YOUR LORDSHIP’S STUPIDITY WOULD REMAIN INTACT NO MATTER WHAT MEASURES WERE TAKEN.”

           For the millionth time, Sans found himself reaching for his pendant, the key to the spell encompassing the castle and its grounds. All he had to do was concentrate on Papyrus and command him to shut up for ten goddamn minutes. His life would be easier, and quieter—

           —and complete shit, because Pap wouldn’t be his brother anymore. Sans rolled his skull sideways along his bedroom wall, glaring at the taller skeleton. “Get yer ass off my bed.”

           Papyrus snorted. “WHY? IT IS APPARENT THAT YOU WILL BE THE ONLY ONE USING IT FOR THE FORESEEABLE FUTURE.”

           “Oh, not you, too!” Sans grabbed a book at random from the shelf and chunked it at his brother, who easily caught it and tossed it to the floor. “What, you wanna be more like Undyne?”

           “PATHETIC AS SHE IS, IT WOULD STILL BE PREFERABLE TO OTHER PERSONS OF MY ACQUAINTANCE, BY WHICH I OF COURSE MEAN YOU BECAUSE YOU ARE TERRIBLE.” Papyrus did get up, though, and Sans tensed as his brother approached the mirror. “WHY DO YOU STILL KEEP THIS?” To Sans’ indignation, Pap took the ink drawing from where Sans had stuck it in the mirror’s frame, holding it up for a closer inspection. “SURELY, NOW THAT YOU HAVE CAPTURED THE HUMAN IT DEPICTS—”

           “Put it back,” Sans snapped.

           Papyrus tutted under his breath. “AS MY IDIOTIC LORD WISHES.” Unwilling to make a mess of any kind, the younger skeleton tucked the picture very gently back into the frame, smoothing down the creased edges. “IT WILL BE RUINED IF YOU DON’T STOP CARRYING IT EVERYWHERE.”

           “Yeah, I know,” the elder skeleton grumbled. He let the back of his skull thump into the wall again, earning another sharp look. “You can leave now.”

           Pap’s boots tapped impatiently on the stone floor. Several rolled-up rugs were stacked at the other end of the room, but Sans had made several excuses to leave them there, unable to admit his fear of picking something she didn’t like. Of course, now he would kill for that to be his biggest problem. “WILL YOU BE ALL RIGHT, BROTHER? SHALL I BRING THE MANUAL? THE SECTION ON WOOING A KIDNAPPED BRIDE IS PITIFULLY SHORT, BUT—”

           “I’m good, bro,” lied Sans. “Go to bed.”

           It wasn’t a command, and they both knew it. “I DIDN’T GET A CLOSE LOOK AT MY NEW SISTER,” Papyrus remarked. His gloved finger tapped the edge of the portrait. “IS THIS ACCURATE?”

           “No,” Sans said sharply. “Don’t touch it.”

           “HMPH!” Only Pap could make that a complete sentence. “I SEE. THE ARTIST SEEMS SKILLED ENOUGH, BUT IT MUST BE ANOTHER HUMAN LIE. IT IS A SHAME, BECAUSE THE FEMALE IN THIS PICTURE IS NOT NEARLY AS HIDEOUS AS MOST OF HER—”

           “Get the fuck outta my room!”

           Eventually, Papyrus complied, leaving Sans with only his stupid, stupid thoughts for company. There weren’t enough permutations of “fuuuuck” to express what he was feeling, so he settled on staring at the windows and letting his head hit the wall some more.

           He hadn’t lied to Papyrus. The picture wasn’t accurate: it didn’t show that her eyes were gray, or the way her nose scrunched when she was mad, or how her cheeks turned pink when he touched them. Looking at it always made him want to hold her, but it didn’t have her light, sweet scent or feel so damn soft that he forgot he wasn’t supposed to touch—

           Fuuuuuck. She was here, but this was still bullshit! He’d felt a twinge in the spell framework and realized that someone was trying to get around one of his orders – probably by a lie through omission – but how was he supposed to know it was Proust? He never expected that whinging, craven little shit would avoid telling Frisk she was going to be married. She hadn’t had time to get used to the idea, weigh the pros and cons, maybe move past him threatening to kill her daddy as leverage…

           Oh, who the hell was he kidding? Even if Sans had gone about this as honorably as he could, and even if she’d had a year to think it over, she never would have accepted him on her own. No matter what anyone said, he was still a monster, and she was still…

           His mind veered off yet again to when he’d followed her through the garden. He’d been so thrilled that she was really here, but so terrified that the ideal he’d built up from one picture would fall short of reality; maybe he’d made an ass of himself, getting everyone to clean stuff up and get things out and plan it all down to the second for someone who’d drawn herself to look better than she really was. Maybe her dad was just being a dad and he’d actually spoiled her rotten, letting her take the credit for some actual housekeeper’s work. Maybe she wasn’t really that nice. Maybe this was a mistake.

           So, faced with possible perfection, what did he do? He snuck up close enough to smell her, weirded her out, and then tried to play it off as a joke, which scared her even worse. And…

           No, the picture wasn’t accurate. He’d been so stunned that he just stood there like a complete moron, not apologizing or helping her up or introducing himself, because she was so beautiful that he forgot to breathe. Of course she got scared and mad at him, and he didn’t know how to handle it because he didn’t know how to handle anything, so he just acted like himself, and—

           He was going to kill Toriel if it was the last goddamn thing he did!

           The wind was howling again. Sans wondered if it was keeping Frisk awake, assuming she could sleep at all after discovering she was going to marry him.

He looked at his bed, which had never had anyone but him in it, thank you, Papyrus—he’d enjoyed modest success in his sex life before that stupid fucking day with Asgore, but ever since, he found that being able to make people do anything he wanted was a massive turnoff. It felt creepy and pathetic and, well, wrong, even if he didn’t actually order anyone into the sack, or to do anything in it.

           Now that he was going to have an actual wife – who thought he was a bully, hated and feared him – would that be any better? Maybe if he courted her well enough, let her see that he’d loved her before they ever even met, refrained from using magic to change her mind…

           If that was the best he could do, then no, it wouldn’t be any better. Sans gave himself one last bang on the wall, kicked his boots off, and climbed onto the bed. “G’night,” he said out loud, and closed his sockets to wait for morning.

[lunarreaper-ut]

A Favored Memory

Happy Birthday Fracture!!! Fracture has had a rough life since the loss of her AU, so I thought I would draw one of her favorite memories for her birthday! That’s right lovelies, Papyrus was a babybones in Fracture’s AU! I’m going to be writing out this memory under the cut!

Frisk was traveling through waterfall, Papyrus practically clinging to her leg as he went on about his favorite parts of waterfall. She had to admit, she’d never seen a place as beautiful as this. She slowed her pace as a field of blue, glowing flowers came into view. Papyrus let go of her leg to run out into the flowers, and Fracture reached out.

“Papyrus, wait! You shouldn’t run off!” She called out. A chuckle came from behind her.

“Don’t worry about it. He likes the echo flowers. This field doesn’t have any drop offs, so he won’t fall.” Sans’ voice was low as he came to stand beside her. She looked up at the skeleton, his eyes were watching Papyrus like a hawk despite his words. 

“Echo flowers?” Frisk looked towards the blue flowers, her curiosity piqued. 

“Yeah. You say somethin’ to them and they’ll repeat it. Paps likes makin’ em act like bad guys so he can pretend to fight them.” Sans explained. Frisk knelt by one of he peculiar flowers, leaning close.

“Hello?” She spoke to the flower.

“Hello?” It echoed. Frisk was surprised, and she looked at Sans, a sparkle in her eye at the new discovery. He laughed as she began to say more things to the flower, clearly amused. 

“Alright, we should get a move on.” Sans said, looking over the field before calling for Papyrus. Frisk looked disappointed.

“Already? I was having fun...” She had a slight pout on her lips and Sans chuckled at her.

“Sorry Starshine, there’s some monsters we just don’t want to run into, especially out here. Not everyone is as welcoming as I am.” He said. Frisk looked at him with a smirk.

“Because you were so welcoming when we first met.” She teased. Sans’ smile dropped and he looked away, rubbing the back of his neck.

“Ah well... that was a misunderstanding.” He murmured. Frisk laughed and stood up, looking out at Papyrus in the field. He seemed to be still talking to the flowers. Sans frowned and called out to him again, before Frisk lightly waved at Sans.

“I’ll go get him, don’t worry. No drop offs, right?” She asked as she walked into the field.

“No drop offs. Be careful anyways.” Sans said, looking down the path ahead. Frisk walked up to the giggling child, and seeing him distracted, chose to sneak up to the little skeleton. Once she got close, she scooped him up, Papyrus squealing in delight. 

“Gotcha!” She giggled as she pulled Papyrus close to her chest. He clung to her happily, laughing.

“No, I got you! You fell into my trap!” Papyrus said triumphantly. Frisk feigned surprise, gasping.

“Oh no! I did, didn’t I? It seems the Great Papyrus has bested the human again!” She said, causing both of them to giggle. Frisk began to walk back towards Sans, Papyrus in her arms. “But you should know better to listen when Sans calls for you...” Frisk lightly scolded the child. As she was about to continue, she was cut off by Sans’ voice.

“Frisk!” He yelled out, immediately drawing her attention. Before she could think to ask what was wrong, a spear landed into the ground next to her with a dull thunk. She instinctively clutched Papyrus closer to her, turning to look behind her only to see a mass of black armor barreling towards them. 

Frisk was frozen, her eyes wide with fear. She didn’t even hear Sans calling to her anymore, but Papyrus’ voice came through clearly.

“Look! It’s the Captain! She’s so cool!” He pointed towards the suit of armor charging towards them. His eye sockets were practically sparkling with excitement at seeing his hero. Frisk wished she could share the enthusiasm. Suddenly, Frisk felt herself being lifted into the air, and she yelped in surprise.

“What are you doing idiot?! Move!” Sans’ voice reached her ears again and she looked up to at him as he bolted down the path. 

“SAAANNSS! DROP THAT HUMAN!!” A loud, angry shout echoed over the sounds of rushing water. More spears were launched towards them, with Sans effortlessly dodging them as he ran. Papyrus was laughing his little head off, clearly enjoying seeing his idol in action, and yet oblivious to the fact that he was also part of the action. 

Frisk was terrified, clutching the young skeleton close to her to keep him from falling, and also trying to lean closer to the elder skeleton who held her tightly in his arms. She might have been shaking, since Sans looked down at her and offered a strained, yet reassuring smile.

“S’alright! I can outrun that hunk of metal any day!” He said before ducking down to avoid another spear. He ignored the angered shouts of their assailant as he ran down twisting and turning paths. Suddenly, Sans ducked into a narrow crack in the wall of the cavern, the space being just big enough for the three to stand slightly squished against each other.

Frisk lightly hushed Papyrus as the sound of thundering metal footsteps came closer. Sans’ grip on Frisk became tighter, and he seemed to be contemplating something as he looked out at the exit of the crack. The footsteps were loud now, slower as it seemed their pursuer was walking now.

The sight of black armor in front of the entrance caused both Frisk and Sans to tense up, Sans seeming to pull Frisk ever closer. The Captain paused, seeming to look around before she took off her helmet and yelled in frustration.

“NGAAAAAHHHH! DAMMIT SANS!!” She screamed as she threw her helmet on the ground. Frisk saw vibrant red hair, and the blue scales of a fish monster, along with her wicked teeth. Frisk wasn’t sure if she was breathing anymore.

The monster yelled out once more in frustration, stomping off back the way she came, grumbling all the way. 

As they heard her retreat, Sans and Frisk both let out heavy sighs of relief. Sans carefully made his way out of the crack in the wall before setting her down. Papyrus raised his arms up and cheered.

“That was so cool! Can we do that again, Brother? Can we? Can we?!” He looked up at Sans from Frisk’s arms. The two adults looked at each other and couldn’t help the smiles growing on their faces. Frisk began to laugh lightly as Sans chuckled.

“Maybe some other time, yeah Papyrus?” Sans said.

[owlheartt]

Star Sanses Extended Chapter 3: Error

Here is chapter 1 on AO3

“YOU CAN’T-” Undyne began, her face furrowing together in a sort of pure anger that felt very unlike her.

“PLEASE, WAIT FOR EVERYTHING TO CALM DOWN. MY FRIENDS AND I CAN EXPLAIN IN A BIT, BUT I CAN’T STAY HERE TALKING TO YOU.” Papyrus said, trying to be patient and not show how unnerved he was. It occurred to him that talking to Alphys might help her some, and he used blue magic to carefully grab her SOUL. Then, with full concentration, moved the blue bones and Undyne herself to the blubbering Alphys in the corner who had stayed where Papyrus had asked her to.

Behind him, he could hear a sound almost like a soft gust of wind. Turning around, he found Mettaton’s body collapsed on the floor. There were bones sticking out of his middle, solid ones. His arms looked burnt, like he had been hit with a Gaster Blaster and deflected it using them. Dream and Ink didn’t have blasters or bones, Dream had told him earlier. Therefore, Papyrus could assume Error had done this. Papyrus looked at the black boned skeleton. He had a scratchy grin scrawled across his face, and his expression was comically like a cartoon villain’s.

“Drreeaamyyy boyyy!” Error said, taunting. His voice was glitching in such a way that it sounded like an old radio’s version of nails on chalkboard. Dream threw a mourning glance at Mettaton’s crumpled body, which felt mildly excessive since he had only run out of battery.

“Error! Please! Leave this timeline alone!” Dream begged, stringing another arrow. He didn’t sound exactly desperate, more like he didn’t want to deal with any of these shenanigans.

“Pretty please?” Ink called from the ceiling, blinking his eye sockets and grinning.

“Can it squid!” Error said, his voice no longer sounding so ear-grating.

“FRIEND…” Papyrus trailed off, struggling to find the right thing to say. He wasn’t following what was happening. He wasn’t done training with Dream. He had just plunged into his first Alternate Universe and came face to face with a troubled skeleton he didn’t know that looked horribly like his brother. He just met Alphys for the first time and she was rude and terrified. He just met a grieving Undyne. The Underground felt like it had been flipped upside down and things were moving too quickly.

“Friend?” Error said, laughing. The glitching in his voice made his giggles sound halting. “We’re not friends, you idiot. In fact, I will be your downfall,” Error reached his hands up to his eye sockets, his fingers snagging on something Papyrus couldn’t quite see. Then he pulled them away, dragging brilliant blue strings that matched the permanent tears streaming down his face. He appeared braced to move, and then Dream grabbed his forearm. Error’s expression of glee turned to shock, then the errors and glitches riddling his body multiplied until it was hard to see any bit of him. Dream drew back, looking relieved.

“So. Now you’ve met Error,” Dream said, sighing. “I’m ready to go home, how about you?” He gave Papyrus a tired grin, and his slump showed he was just about ready to drop on the spot. Papyrus nodded, and shot solid bones to cut Ink loose. He reached out his SOUL magic to catch his falling friend, but he missed. Somehow. It was almost like there wasn’t a SOUL there for Papyrus to catch. Ink hit the ground and rolled, coming to a full stop splat on the ground like a puddle.

“Thanks!!” Ink said, grinning. “Ooone moment!” He danced forward (yes, danced) and scooped his brush off the floor. He then splashed bright blue ink all over Error that solidified into chains.

“Ink, the SOUL.” Dream said patiently. Ink looked at him blankly for a moment, his expression mirroring Papyrus’s feelings, then a little light bulb went off on his eye light. He splashed a pool of ink on the floor, just like he had when he made the shortcut, but this time all he stuck was his hand in. Then he pulled out a Determined human SOUL, just like that.

“WHERE’D THAT COME FROM?! DO WE NEED TO RETURN IT?!” Papyrus said, alarmed.

“No, no.” Dream said, walking over to Ink and reaching a hand out. “This SOUL belongs to this timeline. Error took it so that the timeline couldn’t RESET.” Papyrus opened his mouth to ask a question, but Undyne interrupted him.

“Who the hell are you guys?! Let me go and we can have a real fight!!” She yelled from the other side of the room, where Papyrus had left her.

“RIGHT, SORRY FRIEND,” Papyrus said, reaching out a hand to dissipate the bones.

“Paper, wait.” Dream said. Papyrus turned to him questioningly, but before he could ask Dream continued. “I’m going to show you something, alright? Come here.” Papyrus strode over and crouched to see the brilliant red SOUL Dream was holding.

“WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO WITH IT?” Papyrus said tentatively.

“RESET the timeline. Do you know about RESETs?” Dream said. Papyrus felt his SOUL drop past his ribcage. The word felt… familiar. It did not feel good. But for whatever reason, he couldn’t place it.

“I’M… NOT SURE. I THINK I DO, BUT YOU BETTER EXPLAIN IT ANYWAYS.” Papyrus said. Dream nodded, his expression saying that he was thankful Papyrus was honest.

“Determined human SOULs have the power to manipulate time itself. They can SAVE, LOAD, and RESET. SAVING is when they place a bookmark of sorts in time itself. They can LOAD and come back to the savepoint. RESETTING is when they go back to the beginning, typically when the human first fell into the Underground.” Dream explained. Pieces were beginning to come together in Papyrus’s skull.

“SO WE CAN BRING THIS TIMELINE BACK TO BEFORE OTHER ME… LEFT.” Papyrus said, exited.

“Exactly!” Ink said, jumping up to sling his arm around the crouching skeleton.

“WHAT ABOUT ERROR?” Papyrus said, looking towards the skeleton, still glitch-ridden.

“Eh, he’ll be out for a while. We could take him with us for lunch though, he might like that!!” Ink rambled. “Do you have any chocolate?”

“I BELIEVE SO, WHY?”

“We are not bringing Error for lunch.” Dream said firmly, nervously glancing at Error. “Ink, please take him back to his anti-void.” Ink pouted before making another shortcut and dragging himself and Error through.

“MAYBE HE JUST NEEDS A FRIEND,” Papyrus said ponderingly. Dream barked a dry laugh.

“Ink’s his friend. If either of the idiots can remember it.” He said.

“THEN WHY DO THEY FIGHT? AND WHY CAN’T WE BRING HIM FOR LUNCH?” Papyrus said. If Error was a friend, then why did he act the way he did? Error needed to take some friendship classes.

“You know how Ink forgets everything if he isn’t looking right at it?” After Papyrus nodded, Dream continued. “Error’s the same way. He can even do it staring right at you.”

“I WONDER WHAT IT’S LIKE TO NOT REMEMBER YOUR LIFE.” Papyrus said.

“I don’t know, and honestly? I’m too concerned already to find out. Now, I’m going to RESET then teleport us straight to your place. Don’t worry, we’ll come out right outside of your door.” Dream said, closing his eyes in concentration. Papyrus refrained from saying anything in case he broke Dream’s concentration. A small blip, then two glowing buttons appeared in front of the human SOUL. One said LOAD and the other RESET. Dream brought a hand up and brushed a finger along RESET. A white flash, tinged with gold and red, then they were in Snowdin.

Snowdin looked just the same as he had left it. Nothing was changed, nothing at all. It didn’t feel different like that red timeline. It felt so bizarre, having just gone on this adventure, and home was the exact same. What was he going to tell Sans? The truth, obviously, but where to start? Papyrus’s fantastic mind had barely been able to keep up with it all. But it was lunch time. He could pause and think over lunch. Surely, nothing would happen over lunch.

“Come on, unless you’d like to eat elsewhere?” Dream asked. Papyrus straightened, realizing he was still crouched.

“NO, PLEASE! COME IN. I WAS SIMPLY ENJOYING BEING BACK AT MY FANTABULOUS HOME.” Papyrus said, striding forward to the door. He heard Dream mutter something to himself that sounded a bit like “is… real word?” before his boots thumped in the snow behind Papyrus. Papyrus swung open the door, ready for food (and his brother). Sans was, in fact, inside, and right in front of the door.

“hey bro,” Sans’s eye lights were out, which made Papyrus pause. Sans’s eye lights didn’t go out often.

“SANS, IS THERE SOMETHING WRONG?” Papyrus said, concerned.

“nah, nothin’. but uh, did ya’ know we got some visitors?” He said, turning his skull slightly to the couch that had a broom thrown behind it.

“AH, MY APOLOGIES DEAR BROTHER! THAT’S MY NEW FRIEND. HE WAS SUPPOSED TO COME WITH ME, BUT I GUESS HE GOT EXCITED.” Papyrus said.

“... friend? as in singular?” Sans said, his eye lights flickered back on, but he still looked concerned.

“WELL I HAVE A SECOND ONE HERE, SAY HELLO DREAM!! THIS IS MY BROTHER SANS.” Papyrus said, only after realizing Dream knew this.

“then uh, why’s he got a buddy?” Sans said, waddling towards the couch. Well, he was really walking, but Papyrus liked to call it waddling. He did look like a penguin. Papyrus followed, with Dream in tow, only to find that Error had been plopped on the couch with Ink.

“Heyyy buddy friend pal!” Ink said excitedly. “What’s for lunch?”

“I thought I was clear, Error is not having lunch with us.” Dream interrupted, stepping in front of Papyrus and his brother.

“Aww come on, why not??” Ink whined. Dream began lecturing him as Sans sidled up to Papyrus.

“hey bro, i’m glad you're making friends don’t get me wrong, but could ya’ have picked… better ones?” Sans said, raising an eyebrow bone (honestly I don’t feel like googling the terminology just shhhh).

“THESE REALLY ARE GOOD FRIENDS! WELL, ERROR ISN’T, BUT I’M SURE WE CAN HELP HIM!!” Papyrus said, trying to be reasonable and look at it from Sans’s perspective. “THEY’RE VERY IMPORTANT, I CAN EXPLAIN OVER LUNCH.”

“aight, guess that brings us back to lunch, huh? whatcha want? i can make it today, so you can keep hangin’ out with your buddies.” Sans said.

“MAC AND CHEESE, PERHAPS?” Papyrus offered. Sans nodded, and was beginning to walk into the kitchen when there was a shout.

“SQUIIIIIIIIID!!!” Error shouted, his voice escalating and glitching hard. Ink paused, looking at the mad skeleton.

“Uhh… yea?” He said, an eye light flipping pale green.

“Why the hell am I here?!?” Error said, glaring at his ‘friend.’ It did not look like they were friends.

“Oh- I thought you might like lunch!” Ink said cherrily, throwing his hands up.

“You are perfectly welcome to leave,” Dream said in a voice that would’ve been icy had it been used by anyone else. Dream himself was so warm though that it was impossible for his words to have the same edge.

“Fucking hell squid, how many times do I have to tell you to leave me alone?!” Error growled, standing up. As much as he was pretending to not be listening to Dream, he seemed about to accept his offer.

“I HAVE CHOCOLATE.” Papyrus said, remembering what Ink had asked him. Error whipped around and stared straight at Papyrus, locking eye sockets. He glared for a moment, and Papyrus got worried that Ink had remembered something wrong (again). Then, Error sat back down.

“Fine, I guess I can stay for lunch.” He said, scoffing, pointedly not looking at Ink. Sans grabbed Papyrus’s arm, yanking him into the kitchen.

“papyrus, where did these guys come from?” Sans said, keeping his voice low enough that the others couldn’t hear.

“THAT’S… HARD TO ANSWER. ELSEWHERE, I SUPPOSE. MAYBE HERE. THEY ARE ABLE TO EXPLAIN BETTER.” Papyrus said. It felt like he was telling a lie, or avoiding the truth. Even though he just couldn’t find the right words. He hoped Dream would clear everything up. Sans just sighed.

“that’s aight. go back to the living room, i don’t want your glitchy buddy tearing up the couch,” Sans said. Seeing Papyrus’s look, he added, “i’ll get the chocolate for him, don’t worry. and i won’t burn anything.” Sans relaxed his expression, the previously strained smile looking a bit more natural. As Sans turned to the cupboards to search for food, Papyrus walked back out to the living room.

“MY CARING BROTHER IS TAKING CARE OF LUNCH, IT WILL HOPEFULLY BE READY SOON.” Papyrus said. Error scoffed again, turning to look at the door in what appeared to be longing. “ERROR, I DON’T BELIEVE I INTRODUCED MYSELF TO YOU EARLIER.”

“You did.” He said dryly.

“I- I DID? REALLY?” Papyrus said.

“I’ve got no clue if you did or didn’t, but I know who you are and I’m sure golden there told you who I am.” Without moving his head, Error drifted his eye lights back over to Papyrus. They were mismatched, Papyrus realized. Dream huffed.

“Don’t bother Paper. Error’s a prick.” Dream walked over to Ink, shoved him closer to Error, then sat down at the very edge of the couch.

“He’s not a prick per say…” Ink said in a wheedling voice.

“Sure, go ahead and talk about me as if I’m not in the room.” Error said, his eye lights gliding back to the door.

“I APOLOGIZE FRIEND. LOOK, I RECOGNISE THAT YOU DON’T WANT TO INTRODUCE YOURSELF, BUT I WOULD.” Papyrus stuck out a hand. Error glared at it. “GREETINGS! I AM PAPER. I BELIEVE I’M FROM UNDERTALE.”

“I’m Error. I’m an outcode. Leave me alone.”

“I call Error’s AU Errortale!! There are others from his timeline out there I think…” Ink said, trailing off into thought that would surely be forgotten.

“They don’t fucking matter.” Error grumbled, looking slightly uncomfortable.

“Would you lighten up on your language?!” Dream said, snapping a little. He had squeezed his eyes shut.

“Fuck shit damn,” Error said, and Papyrus could see a little smirk appear on his face. Error was proving to have… a difficult personality.

“keep the cuss words down in m’house please!” Sans called from the kitchen. Papyrus winced, realizing that this was Sans’s first impression of his new friends.

“HOW ABOUT THIS- DREAM AND I CAN FIND A BOARD GAME WE CAN PLAY WHILE WE WAIT FOR FOOD!” Papyrus threw a glance at Dream. His eye lights had reopened and he stood up. Error rolled his eye lights and Ink just looked passively happy. Papyrus walked behind the couch to a tired bookcase. It had puzzles, games, and cards that he and his brother played with when their free time lined up. Or when the snow outside was too much to go anywhere. While Papyrus and Dream pursued the games, Ink blathered to Error in the background.

“What about this one?” Dream said, pulling out a tan box titled “Munchkins” with cartoon humans on the front. Undyne had given it to him a few months ago, he and Sans had played it once.

“AH, ALRIGHT. FRIENDS! WE’RE PLAYING MUNCHKINS.” Papyrus said, walking back over to the couch and sitting down uncomfortable in front of the TV. Ink slipped to the ground happily, and Error made a big show of getting up and sitting back down, dragging a pillow Sans had left from the night before to the floor with him. Dream plopped down between Papyrus and Ink. It was game time, and Papyrus was ready to be competitive.

[mythicaldemigoddess-of-deltarune]

PAPER TRAIL FAN ART: Coralie The Tomboy Princess

--------------

Credit for Paper Trail goes to Lynxgriffin

Credit for Undertale & Deltarune goes to Toby Fox

-------------------------

first I want to say that even though I really did want to go on a type of hiatus where I wait until a few months to post some stuff on here, and until then I can just check out other stuff by other people on here and heart their work, and even send asks to their tumblrs.

but while reading Paper Trail AU Comic,

and well I’m still in the middle of reading it

and I plan to read and fave all of the pages in one day.

but I guess I will still make sure to take a break when needed, you know like get some food and do some other stuff too.

I did do another fan art of a dark world Asriel, that has red clothes on.

I think I will post that version another time, maybe...

unlike Ralsei,

Coralie doesn’t have a heart pattern on the front of her robe

but instead has the Delta Rune symbol on it instead.

The Meaning of the Name Coralie,  Is Maiden.

I also decided to have the tags for this to have Coralie be a Deltarune OC,instead of a Paper Trail OC....well technically she is, but she is just a Fanon OC and I’m not sure if there will be a Red version of Ralsei or not. but who knows if there will be a Red Ralsei or not.

the “Dead Name” of Coralie, would have to be a  Anagram of Asriel,

but Coralie had long threw away her Anagram-Asriel name.

I also want to mention that  the name Asriel,

can be both a boy and girl name,

most names are gender neutral.

turns out Asriel is both a Boy & Girl Name.

as for how Coralie looks without her hat,

I would say a Younger Version of Toriel but with longer hair.

I do suspect that Undertale Toriel might not be as innocent of a goat mom as we are made to believe.

and I believe that she does know about the Resets

as well as the theory that she and Sans have been working together,

that she has been killing the humans that came to the underground

and sending their souls to her ex-husband...

and all the lost items of the humans that came before Frisk,

were given to Sans from Undertale-Toriel, to hide around the underground outside the ruins, the only two that were missing

were the red ribbon and knife,

which the only reason why Undertale-Toriel might not of picked up the knife is because it was made of plastic.

I think that the Monsters in Undertale, might be allergic to plastic.

so it makes sense why she left that alone, but could of made a plan to try to get it later by getting gloves.

but she couldn’t find the red ribbon.

not a lot of fans have to agree about this theory about Undertale-Toriel.

but I believe King Asgore is innocent from the deaths of the human children that fell in the underground.

I don’t believe any of the human children made it past Toriel,

and were all killed by her when they tried to leave to go out of the ruins.

this would keep happening, even to the point where Sans came into the picture and she trusted him to take the human souls to her Ex.

Sans most likely left that out of his story to Frisk, on how he met Toriel.       

leaving out parts about Toriel giving him containers that contain the human souls.

even if Deltarune-Toriel can be a bad mom at times,

 like not noticing that Kris is unhappy or how their side of the room looks that might give some clues that something is wrong.

or that her own son might of cheated at the video games they played together with Kris, most likely giving them the knockoff game controller.  if you check under Asriel’s bed you will find out that it will say that there is a knockoff game controller with the normal controller.

Deltarune-Asriel could of at first been a jerk to Kris,

but over time started to act like a caring older brother to them.

I can’t help but view Toriel from Undertale AU,

as suspicious, after realizing that she has known about the Resets the whole time, and that is why when the Player/Frisk gets ready to leave in a Pacifist Timeline, she asks us not to come back.

and that if we choose not to go live with her, as her adoptive child.

she will make another hint that she knows whats going on.

Toriel in a Pacifist Timeline, knows whats going on

and the reason why she doesn’t show up unless it’s a True Pacifist Run

where we befriend everyone, is the only time she does stop the fight between Frisk and Asgore.

she doesn’t do so in the Genocide or Neutral Timelines,

only in the True Pacifist Timelines.

almost like she knew...not everyone has to agree with this,

but if the Canon Toriel is secretly behind the deaths of the humans that came before Frisk showed up, then it would make sense that she hides this out of guilt.

she grew guilty and even went as far as to place the full blame on her husband.

it is possible that Canon-Toriel from Undertale is really a Clone of the Original Toriel, who left Asgore after he declared war on humanity.

but how could Toriel have seen Asgore commit into the act of killing the humans, if she had never returned until stopping Asgore and Frisk’s fight in the pacifist timeline...?

the answer is that Asgore never took the life of any of the humans,

even if Toriel did mention that if Frisk/Player left the ruins,

Asgore would kill them, but Asgore never killed any of the humans.

at least that is my theory, I believe the true culprit was always the caretaker of the ruins aka Toriel, also known by Papyrus as Asgore’s Clone.

in the Fanon AU of Undertale, Toriel could be innocent of such crimes.

but in Fan Headcanon, I believe Toriel of Undertale is the true culprit of the humans who lost their lives.

so if this theory is true, the best version of Undertale-Toriel

would be the ones in the Fanon Undertale AU.

it’s really fine that not many agree about the theory.

anyway I want this to be the last drawing I post until in a few months.

I do plan to post this at the other place I post fan art at too.

if Coralie had a home,

it could be in the Dark World in Asriel’s Dorm at College.

so if Asriel does come home to see his family,

he might end up bringing the Dark World that Coralie lives in with him, as well as Coralie.

of course Coralie is a Fan OC,

this is still suppose to be a Paper Trail AU Fan Art.

  if Coralie was truly all alone in the Dark World she was born in,

with no other Darkeners but her around,

then it might of been a very lonely life for her.

I think Coralie would be a inch shorter than Ralsei.

I’m not 100% sure if there will be a Red Version of Ralsei,

but if there was one and it was going to be another boy,

who might be called “Strawberry” I think it would be interesting.

I don’t think I ever seen a Red one, but if there was one,

maybe they work with Knight...?

but not of their free will.

I also want to say that I don’t mean to seem to break my promise about not post anything until in a few months, but I wanted to draw this fan art

even if it is of a noncanon character that I named Coralie.

I just wanted to draw a Red version of Ralsei.

anyway once again Coralie is not canon, so please do not misinterpret.

I think I will sign off for a bit,

and then go back to reading Paper Trail once I sign back in.

I’m just gonna go watch the Resident Evil Village Walkthrough,

and also eat some food too.

so I’m just gonna hope that this time for sure will be the last post until a few months....and I will just check out other stuff on tumblr.

if I’m not back in a few hours, I will back tomorrow.

so see ya later and stay safe everyone.  

[zirkkun]

I can't sleep so I'm gonna ramble for a minute here about. uh. 2020 i guess lol everyone else is so might as well jump on the bandwagon.

Be aware this is really really fucking long so it's a commitment to read it lmao sorry i just cannot sleep and i guess i had more on my mind about this year than i thought. I also did not proofread this at all. I just started writing and didn't look back lol

This year was... Weird for me. It started out with me feeling my best in January, comfortable and positive as I did my nth playthrough of DBH with friends and finally having enough alts of my boy Alfonse in FEH to have a team of Just him to fight with. (Priorities, right?) February hit, and things were still going good. I met Ray Chase and had him sign a print I did of Roy and Alfonse in some casual outfits for a scrapped au I wrote years ago. (And I gave him one 😊). Hell, like, covid was just coming around when me and my friends went to the con that weekend and a breakout of it hit the city just south of where the con was like a week before, but I was genuinely so excited for it that like I was like "Yeah, if i die, i die. Whatever happens happens." God, at this point, the Alfonse gc I was in was still alive and I still didn't talk to anyone in the group outside of that gc. Lowkey miss it tbh. But oh well. Things move on.

But that con was like... Stressful. I usually have fair amounts of stress at cons, being around so many people, I fear theft, unwanted contact, y'know, the standard; but my friend group was so filled with tension that it was absolutely painful. We'd been split most of the weekend, and if the two groups came together, it was hell, because it just caused unwanted arguments. I felt really bad cause I didn't want them to be upset, yknow? But i also wanted to hang out with my friends all at once. So i swapped between the groups a bit over the weekend. And blew WAY more money than I should have and lowkey it kind of fucked me over for the rest of the year cause I haven't had a job all year outside of, like, a local church job that pays at a rare max of $100 a month ;w;

I'd been struggling in school the previous semester already, about halfway through having just stopped going to classes altogether, yet still somehow managed to pass everything with B's and A's. The next semester rolled around, and I thought at first the distraction and inability to do anything was because of the con, and as it persisted after, I thought it was just post-con depression. But, as it turned out, no, it's just been my biggest relapse of depression since the end of high school, and frankly, it's only gotten worse since. I can't sleep rn because I'm between not wanting to do anything because I have a lack of emotions and motivation and not feeling deserving of sleep lol. I checked out of school on February 28th, however, I was convinced I was merely demotivated by my surroundings -- at this point, I was studying Japanese, and one of my friends at the time was a (although probably unintentionally) complete braggart about how much he was studying and how he was improving... not to mention he was textbook example of "This is an Actual Weeaboo, don't Fucking Do this." (One of many reasons i said friend at the time lol) it was just... So draining being around him, and I had to see him in class every day of the week. I barely scraped together assignments last-minute and never studied under the idea of "What does it matter if I'm not putting in my 100%?" So I checked out, with plans of transferring for the following semester.

Well, then March hit. Y'all know how March went down lmao.

I pretty much locked myself in my room at all times during March, going between Animal Crossing and BOTW (which actually racked up like 200ish hours i think according to the nintendo year in review i had lmao). I started making a bit closer online friends at this point, notably @levitumbling who decided to take me in as his channel designer for YouTube and I've been ever since! But. Of course. My first task? A Sans meme. My payment? One Switch copy of Undertale because he considered it a disgrace that I'd never played the game before.

Now, let me tell you. I was fuckin scared to play this game. I held onto it for weeks between the fear of "My friend bought me this and i should play this" and "I told myself I'd never touch this game with a 20 mile pole because of how much it's been shoved down my throat over the years." So, one day, I don't remember when, early April, I said, fuck it, I'll play it for a little bit, just enough to say "hey i played it for a bit!" and then never go back.

The only thing that stopped me from beating the whole thing in one sitting was it was the crack of dawn when I passed out, extremely tired and extremely frustrated by the fact I couldn't beat Muffet. Yes, I got that far in one sitting I intended to play for 15 minutes tops.

Now. Let me fuckin tell you. About my first playthrough of Undertale. I haven't gone into a game knowing ABSOLUTELY NOTHING about it like... I think ever. Usually I know what style of game it is, the genre, the main plot premise. I knew nothing other than the existence of Sans (and, as it turned out, I'd heard some of the soundtrack pieces before, notably Bonetrousle I heard this cover of it in a radio livestream a while back and never really looked it up, but was always excited when the radio looped back around to it being on; and I'd heard Dating Start! because that's Alpharad's go-to sponsorship ost lmao.) But anyway. I was completely in the dark. Do yall mind if i just go through some highlights of my favorite memories? This is supposed to be a summary of the year but I mean, I think this made a big enough impact on me to really like. Discuss it a bit.

I watched the whole opening cutscene, started a new game under my old screenname, "Yoru," since in naming the "Fallen Child," I assumed they were dead. Well, I was a little surprised to just be that child, alive, two seconds later, but whatever, I rolled with it.

I genuinely trusted Flowey right away. Like no shit. He told me run into the "friendliness pellets" and I didn't even fucking question it. And when Toriel came in? And she said to follow her? I straight up was like "Why the hell should I trust you?? That guy just tried to kill me what says you wont?" I followed only because the game made me but i was Wary the whole time. It took me a LONG time to warm up to Toriel.

Now. Let me tell you how stupid I am as well. The game says over and over right, "Don't fight. Spare. Have Mercy when names are Yellow." Well, I took this literally. I didn't understand the Act mechanic most of the time, and when something didn't work I just said, fuck it, and fought them. If their name didn't turn yellow, I just fought them. "They don't want Mercy if their name isn't yellow, right?" After a while, I'd started getting bored of fighting and would just run away, but like, I came to a point where I was like "I have a really low level, I'm really going to regret this later on if I don't grind for a while."

I don't know when I stopped but. I think I was only one or two kills away from a genocide run accidentally my first playthrough, based on how I think I was LV 3 and looking at genocide playthroughs, you're LV 3 or 4 when you fight Toriel. Like. Holy fuck. I can't imagine what I would have thought of this game if that happened lmao.

Speaking of Toriel, still didn't trust her, at all. When we got to Home, and after I did Every Single different phrase she says when you go downstairs before you talk to her reading about snails; I did not Hesitate to ask "cool uh when the fuck can I leave?" When we got to the Ruins exit I was like, ah, here it is. The betrayal from her I was expecting, where she tries to kill me. Well, nothing on the Act menu worked, right? So... I fought and killed her. I didn't really care, actually. I just kept going.

Then meeting Sans and Papyrus happened. I lost my fucking shit at this part, mostly when they were talking, because every time Sans made a pun it would zoom in on him and do a rimshot. The puns were not funny and I was definitely on Pap's side of "oh my GOD shut up." But that fucking zoom in and rimshot was just so fourth wall breaking and unexpected. Fuck, it still gets me. Anyway. Game continues. I again lose my shit at (insane spinning in random directions) "OH MY GOD! IS THAT A HUMAN?" "uh, i think that's a rock." "OH. WAIT! WHAT'S THAT IN FRONT OF THE ROCK?? (IS IT A HUMAN??)" "(yes.)" "OH MY GOD!!!" and still think these two moments in the game are Peak comedy. Oh, and let me tell you, I did not like either of these two at this point. Sans I was like, okay, hes kind of a dumbass in a funny way, but Papyrus is a dumbass in a way that just annoys me. Genuinely the archetype that misses social cues and therefore has miscommunication usually just annoys me to no end. (Mostly for the miscommunication. It's my least favorite trope and makes me unreasonably angry.) But yeah. Wasn't really a fan. But out of everyone so far? Definitely found Sans to be the most tolerable. But that's about all I thought of him lmao.

Getting to Snowdin, with the Papyrus battle, remember how I said I didn't like Papyrus? And yes, this was something I genuinely thought at one point, I genuinely hated Papyrus, imagine that. What a wild world that is. But anyway. You know how his Act menu has the "Flirt" option? I, for no reason, gunned it for the Flirt option, even though I did not want to. Then when he was like "WE'LL GO ON A DATE! LATER!!" i was like yea sure okay lmao. Again, couldn't figure out the Act menu to turn his name yellow, so I fought him, and he was one or two attacks from dying (miraculously) when he ended the battle. I spared him here cause, well, he spared me, it was only fair. Then this guy again is like "ILL BE AT MY HOUSE WHEN YOU WANT TO GO ON THAT DATE!" and i was like haha funny but still turned around to go on the date. Like why? I have no idea. I think I was more like "haha hes probably not gonna be there and its just cause i picked that option and lo and behold there was an actual fucking date. Oh my god. I have never in my life been on a video game date where one party was convinced I was infatuated with them and im here on the other side of the screen like "oh my god make this end i can't stand being around you.???" But still. The date was. Really fucking funny. I wish I could experience it for the first time again like holy shit. There are few playthroughs I did after this where I didn't go on the Pap date, even if I just spedrun through it.

So then you get to Waterfall and Sans is there like "hey wanna go to grillbys" and i was like sure why not so we go there and my choices were fries & ketchup (so i did not get the legendary scene where he chugged a bottle of ketchup, but i sure did my second playthrough, and let me tell you, i was disgusted). But like. This whole experience at grillby's like, the whoopee cushion, him using a comb on his bald ass skull, him just fuckin unapologetically scratching his ass for no reason?? Bro i was like "why the fuck is this guy part of the Tumblr Sexymen™ group ??? He's so ????? Gross???????" and like i still have this question tbh lmao. But like. Okay so he asks you "what do you think of my bro?" And my genuine answer was "uncool" and he was like "hey man sarcasm isnt funny" and can i just mention how like inheritly manipulative sans actually is like fuck he does things like this where he throws your answer the other way a few times and Every time it actually swayed me the other way. Because right here I went. "Oh. Maybe Papyrus is better than I thought." Like holy fuck maybe i should be more aware if something like that can sway my opinion so easily LMAO.

Anyway waterfall i genuinely was very bored of the whole time. I spent like a genuine 20 minutes figuring out the puzzle where you have to talk to a wall and I actually didn't realize you could move the telescope around. What helped me solve it is my friend's advice before I played it. "Inspect everything. Even talk to walls. Trust me." And literally thats how I solved it. But pretty much everything in Waterfall otherwise bored me. I did think it was pretty though, and did enjoy reading the lore, but when it started talking about monster biology my one fear had been realized: oh god, oh fuck. My original species for my own series also has physical Souls and die by turning to dust because they're made entirely of magic. God fuck. My luck, it has to be something popular, so now everyone's gonna think I'm a ripoff. But, at the same time, I do think it helped me understand monster biology (and it helped me come up with the ULR biology) better, because I've put in a lot of thought to existence of a species that exists only by magic and a Soul (which, mine only actually have half a Soul, as a full Soul makes a being immortal, which was also similar to the boss monsters in a way). It definitely made a lot more sense for like, the skeletons n stuff for me, because like my characters are wholly shapeshifters but usually take human form, and while they have "organs" in the places humans would have them, they don't operate. They're just placeholders, because they just live with their Soul. So I've always thought the same with UT monsters, since the skelebros can live without organs, that means so do the rest of the monsters, even if they have animal-like appearances.

Off topic lmao. Back to UT. So, the Undyne fight was kind of the turning point for me. She was pissing me off so much during this whole game and like I was like "if theres another fucking part where I have to run away from her im going to scream." Well, once again, her name wasn't yellow, so I wasn't going to spare her... and, actively, I made the decision to kill her, because I didn't want to deal with her still chasing me later on in the game. It took me a long time to beat her, and when I did, I texted my friend (@cheshiregrinnbuttoneyes ) in excitment like "YES I FINALLY KILLED UNDYNE" and she texted back like "YOU DID WHAT?????" and i was like "i.... Killed Undyne????" she replies, "YOU DONT HAVE TO OMFG WHY" and im like "I DIDN'T HAVE TO?? THERE'S OTHER OPTIONS?????" and shes like "YES OMFG THAT'S LITERALLY THE PREMISE OF THE GAME" and im "WHAT."

So then. I get that call from Papyrus like. "HEY! YOU ME AND UNDYNE SHOULD HANG OUT SOMETIME!"

oh my god the guilt i felt.

alphys on undernet being like "omfg i forgot to watch undyne fight the human. ah ill ask her about it later she never loses <3"

bro. i nearly fuckin cried. i was like. Not to mention I'd gotten the crush question right for Mettaton's quiz in answering Undyne (bc i was like "plz be gay plz be gay") so it fucking cut like a knife what I'd done.

I don't remember when I let myself get passed it. But I do know that the whole story arc between Alphys and Mettaton went way over my head. Like, i know im probs the minority on this, but I adore Alphys, I have since I first met her in game, and like, when Mettaton was like "ALPHYS HAS BEEN LYING TO YOU!" i just went "...nah."

Also, I didnt like mettaton at this point, cause I thought he was being really obnoxious, and then the turn around to betray Alphys really kinda pissed me off.

But like.

Oh my god.

Remember how I said I swapped my opinion on Pap earlier bc of Sans's comment? Yeah that was a pretty fast turnaround, but it still took me a few times.

But the second i saw mettaton ex

I was like

"HIM. HE. HE'S THE ONE I LOVE."

Like, full turnaround from Undyne, I actively refused to kill him. All times I thought he was an asshole? Forgotten. Me thinking he's a selfish prick? Gone. Nada. Nothing. Pure adoration. Suddenly every flaw he had was pushed aside purely from how hot I thought he was. Also, fuckin, im really glad i played this when no one in my house was awake, because I still didn't understand the Act mechanic here, and every time you attack mettaton he has this like moan he does and im like oh my god. stop. omfg.

At the end, too, when there was the calls and everything, when he had his big turnaround, I was just so happy for him I genuinely cried. Also, I had to do his battle probably the most out of everyone's in the game (not including genocide), so when it came around to his battle during the (glitchless) speedruns i did, i was more invested in how fast I could rack up points, cause you need 10k rating points to pass, and I actually did get that before he lost his legs, but apparently he needed to lose those too before you passed lol. Unfortunate.

Anyway after Alphys talked to you and everything, i genuinely went to see if Mettaton was still there, but he wasn't :( so i just went to New Home. I was very ill prepared for the fight against Asgore and the only reason I struggled with it so much was because my only healing items were like. Something that healed like 10 or 12 hp and the snowman piece. I was LV 9 when i finished the game, so like, my HP was pretty high, but i didnt have the G to buy items, so i was pretty much fucked. Yes. I had to eat the snowman to win.

Oh speaking of terrifying shit though. Photoshop flowey? My god. I haven't been afraid of a video game boss so much since I was a little kid. It was like 3 am and i was not prepared for him to just delete my save file and then kill me on repeat, glitching and breaking everything as he pleased. Bruh i was genuinely scared. Like, not even just, "oh yikes :(" or something. Like, crying scared. Lmao im an emotional bitch by nature.

I of course had to restart from the beginning again to get the True Pacifist ending. I was very careful to never touch the Fight button literally ever. And, it actually took me a while to reset, because I hate erasing my original save files, yknow? But, well, as it turned out? While technically New Game+ by naming, resetting doesn't erase everything you did. It wasn't a new file. I was a little confused at first to be honest. Toriel saying things were familiar, remembering things I said, Papyrus and Undyne both recognizing me, like. It was unnerving.

When I got to the end, i had to look up how to get Alphys's date (since my friend told me the way to unlock TP was to go on all the dates, but Alphys's was definitely designed in mind of you turning around from New Home and going back to talk to people rather than a new reset. So after unlocking it, getting through Alphys's date (i still remember being like, verbally, "omg alphys you look so nice??" When she came out with the dress on and then had a thought to myself like... since when do i care about what people look like? since when do i compliment people? At that point, while I didn't consider myself to be a rude person, I definitely wasn't exactly all that concerned about others for anything. Sure, I cared about others' lives, but I tended to be a bit more judgemental internally, and just. Didn't really give a fuck about what people did in the most negative sense possible, unless it involved me. Yet, it rolled off my tongue like it was something id say normally to anyone. I really wonder if this is the true turning point for me this year.)

Getting to the end, with everyone cheering me on. Hoo boy. This was the start of many tears to come. Papyrus's "DO WHAT I WOULD DO! BELIEVE IN YOU!!" sticks with me the most. I wasn't surprised by Flowey's actions, but what fucking threw me for a loop was like. When Flowey was revealed as Asriel, I was genuinely jaw-drop shocked. I was like. Holy fuck. I thought he was dead. What the hell. To this day, though, i still think Hopes and Dreams hits me the hardest out of all the boss battle themes. It doesn't super bother me, bc like, difference in opinion is whatever, but like. Whenever I see Megalovania at the top of someone's ost list for Undertale I'm just... Why? Maybe it's because I'd overheard it meme'd to much before I played the game, but like, i dunno, it's not a bad song, but it's not the most emotional provoking piece for me, so it's pretty far down my list. Hopes and Dreams will still remain my #1.

I really did feel determined during this battle. I really felt a lot of emotion. I felt excited. I felt frightened. I felt ambitious. Asriel's battle is probably still the hardest for me, and yes, I'm counting genocide this time. I can't grasp his magic patterns at all, and I more so played it as a "okay, how much damage can i take? Whats his next move?" As i healed every other turn. It took me a very long time to beat him (though no 11 hours like Sans, this was more like, 2 or 3 max) and when I got to the part with the Lost Souls, most of the characters just said their "we hate you" piece and i was like "nope you're controlled" right.

But then there's Sans's "just give up. i did."

I genuinely had to stop. I set down my controller and just sat for a minute. I'd mentioned before how much I've been struggling with depression for years now, and it's at the worst it's been since high school. Maybe you'd think when I saw that, I was like "sure, maybe I should give up." But... It's really the "i did." that hit me like a rock to the stomach. While I do know a couple other people with depression, the most discussion we have with it is "haha i wanna die" kinda jokes yknow? Nothing really serious. And, well, I've always been the type to lean to fictional characters for support more than real people, since I've just been so disconnected from a lot of friends growing up and was too scared to talk about anything with my family.

So seeing someone else say "just give up. i did." hit me so fucking hard that I just started crying. I had already been in a real sappy mood cause the whole scene was so emotional as it was, even if merely the cliche of friendship will save all, y'know what? Its a good ass fuckin trope and makes me emotional lmao.

So, naturally, I was more hyperaware of Sans's implied depression from here onward. The conversations with everyone post-battle left me crying. God, so did the hug with Asriel. I was just fucking bawling.

Oh god. I didn't even mention. "Despite everything, it's still you." Another line that just hit me and I had to pause.

So admist my crying mess, I was telling my friend I'd beat Undertale again. He asks me "so... you gonna play the genocide route?" And I already had from the beginning. I always want to play every available route in a game. I see no point in paying for something and then not playing it all. I'd consider myself a completionist who doesn't ever actually finish anything lmao.

I definitely put my emotions aside for genocide. The absolute hardest kill for me was Papyrus, though. And i was absolutely fucking heartbroken when he said he still believed me as his last words. But I forced it aside. I didn't want to reset. I wanted to beat it to have it under my belt that I had. I was pretty sure the Sans battle would be here, since I hadn't heard Megalovania in the game yet, and I was aware of how hard the battle was, despite never seeing it.

Undyne's battle I'm more emotional about in retrospect than I was at the time. At the time, I didn't care, didn't like the theme much, and the dings gave me a headache. Undyne isn't exactly my favorite character (though definitely not my least favorite, that role is given to Frisk with Toriel not close behind ahdhsb im sorry), so I really wasn't concerned about it. Not to mention, I don't know why, but all of the battles I struggled with EXCEPT Undyne's I ended up liking the character more as a result. Maybe it was the dinging lmao.

Bro you shoulda seen how prepared I was for Mettaton NEO's battle to be hard as fuck. I was like sitting upright, took deep breaths before hitting fight, then when he died in one shot i just kind of "wh...what." Still very disappointed lol but I guess that's kind of the point of the genocide route.

Then came the Sans fight. As I said, I spent 11 hours on this. I genuinely didn't pay attention to what he said after a while, but I do remember the first time I read it, I was fucking terrified. Usually, sarcasm, hatred, and sass is very hard to convey through pure text, especially when it's said in the same tone as his usual talking. But the absolute harshness, the coldness, and the lack of any fucks given Sans had at that point was so plainly transparent through everything he said that it fucking scared me. Toby Fox's writing here was fantastic. I can only dream of being able to write like that. Frankly, I love his writing in general. Actually, fuck it, I love all of the artistic takes of this game. This is gonna sound weird but... The "childishness" of it just is so good. Like, there's no rules. Every socially accepted rule of art, writing, character design, speech patterns, and even basic grammar are thrown aside. He didn't just think outside of the box, there literally was no box. I call it childish only because like, children also create with no rules. They have no rules to restrict their creativity. And seeing that embraced in Undertale in every form possible just blows me away.

Anyway. The battle. It. Was hard. Thats a given. I spent about two weeks playing it on and off, and it's probably the most healthily I've treated myself in recent memory, because when it became too much for me to handle, I set it down and took a break. I would retain what I memorized and use it for the next time I picked it up. Frankly, it came to a point where every time I opened up Undertale to play, it was more just cause I wanted to see him lmao. The guy hated my existence at this point and it's not like i disacknowledged that. But it just felt like every time i opened the game... Idk. I don't know what I felt. I can tell you for sure this isn't the time when Sans started slipping into my favorite character spot over Mettaton, that didn't come until the development of Act to Flirt's first demo, which was a month or so later lmao.

I was very excited when I beat Sans.

But then, after it was over, I felt very empty.

I didn't feel good about beating genocide. I still don't. I want to play the boss battles again, cause they were really fun, despite how hard they were, but I can't bring myself to.

When I got to Chara, and everything went to black, I just wiped my save and started fresh. I think this was the first time I used the name "Willo" for anything. I just picked a random name to use, and Willo was the first thing that came to mind.

I beat neutral again many times, trying to unlock as many secrets as I could. I accidentally spent like, way too long trying to get Sans's room, because I couldn't figure out how to do it... which is when I started speedrunning the game, because I was just so used to going through it all. I timed myself once, and I got somewhere around 1:20:00 ish, which puts me at the very bottom of the NG+ Glitchless runs by like 30 minutes, but hey, it's still not too bad all things considered.

I'd started working on Act to Flirt sometime in between the speedruns. I was playing Papyrus's date again, and I had this thought of. What if Undertale... but all boss fights are instead like Papyrus's date?? I pitched the idea to my friend who was like "thats definitely been done before lol" and immediately I almost shut down the idea. But then I still had that glimmer of hope that, maybe, since I haven't made it yet, people would like my game because it was by me. Besides, quarantine was getting to me. I needed some way to spend my time. So on May 6th to May 7th, I spent the whole 24 hour period making the first proof of concept for the game, which was UI setup and Flowey's tutorial date. I hadn't made any of the art yet, so it was a black background with Flowey's undertale sprite. I originally was going to make everything more visual novel like in the sense that, so like on Papyrus's date, you could make choices like "unwrap the present" "dont unwrap the present" or "you look great" "you look terrible" and getting the ending would involve pretty much just saying the right things at the right times. But this alone was... Yknow, already done before, and part of what makes Undertale so great is that it's, despite its many outside influences, very unique in its gameplay. So I decided to make the dates more like puzzle-solving RPG's, and frankly, since doing that, I dont know if I want to go back to making other visual novels lmao.

After making the first demo and releasing it, I hit a creative funk. I wanted to make the next demo right away, but I forced myself to stop (since i was working 16+ hour days to finish it in exactly a week. I didn't eat much and i slept very little during this time too. Dont do this lmao). I didn't know if the game would be received, and frankly, I'd had many failed projects in the past due to lack of support. I lost a lot of support in the past due to the dropped projects I kept starting and quitting because I had such a small audience, and that made me lose a lot of interest and motivation to work on them. So I posted the first demo and waited. I was very shocked to have a YouTuber with over a million subs play it that weekend. Dantekris I think was her channel name. She speaks Russian, and I never understood a word she said, but I've still watched her let's plays because I enjoy seeing her reactions. I hate that YouTube keeps deleting my responses on her videos, probably because they're long and in English so it's marked as spam on a comments section full of purely Russian comments yknow. But it makes me feel like such an ass ;w;

Mairusu is the next large YouTuber who played it and my god I love seeing when he uploads a new update for my game because I genuinely have no idea what to expect from him. I don't know what it is but he's just so absolutely funny to me. He also seems to be the most common breaker of my game though. Stop making your own bugs!! I try to testplay to find the bugs he gets and it's like.... what did you do.... how did you skip that whole date im so confused thats not supposed to happen..... He accidentally skipped all of Muffet's date because of this too and hers is supposed to be the hardest in the game right now so I'm very upset by it;; i dont know how it happened, it never happens for me.

But like. I was definitely struggling a bit with the direction I wanted to take AtF. I wanted there to be a core message, like with Undertale and many other of my favorite things. When there's a core theme to write about, it makes things a lot easier to compose than if you have a plot with no meaning to it. It ties it all together for a common purpose. But, as I started diving more into the fandom around this time, finding not only it being still alive but still enormous and filled with passion.

Passion. Hm. That's familiar. That's the trait I gave the player character, rather than determination. While it was intended for giggles "haha dating game u have passion wink wonk," it started becoming more than that. It started becoming a manifestation of what I really felt upon finally soaking myself into the deep end of this pool I'd once been too afraid to step into. Passion. Everyone here is so driven by their passion for this game, the characters, its story. Everyone is so inspired and creative. That's it. That's what I wanted Act to Flirt to be.

A game made for those who have already dived deep into Undertale. A game made for those who have the same level if passion I've wittnessed. A game that someone might stumble upon, merely wanting any Undertale content they can find, and a dating sim leaves them grasping at straws, only to find it's a game instead deeply rooted in how much they care about this world and its people. You have a Soul of Passion, because your passion for Undertale brought you to this game. That's what the core message is. Every ending is supposed to depict different kinds of empathy, and True Passion shows you truly cared the most you could for all of these characters. Sans is so blocked from it because, well, how can he really believe it? "if we're really friends, you won't come back," right? But here you are. Again and again.

And Heartbreak. Whose heart is really the one breaking here? Taking the Hopes and Dreams of every single character you've grown to care for and crushing it beneath your feet... who is the one suffering in the end?

I just... I'm very excited. I've written that game with the player as the main character. Not Willo. Not Frisk. Not anybody else. You, the player, are the main character. I've honestly done a lot of looking around in the DDLC code to make this game as 4th wall breaking as I can (without like. Disrupting it as a game experience like ddlc is, with monika deleting things and stuff). Just enough to leave the player unsettled and confused. Like. "Me? Are you talking to me?" Yes. You. Directly to you.

I started sketching out designs and ideas for ULR around July. I genuinely loved Underlust after finding out about it, even though it was posed to me as an insult about the contents of Act to Flirt. I was both like "uh... Act to Flirt is nothing like this. Maybe in reversed roles at best but..." and also "okay but this? This shit is good. Thank you." But finding out it was discontinued and wanting more, well, that's when I decided to make ULR. I presented the idea to my friends, who were like "please stop making aus," and then continued onward. I told myself I wasn't going to work on it though until after I finished Act to Flirt... Then after the next demo came out... Then it turned out I was working on it too much and it resulted in me rushing my release of the 3rd demo of AtF because I'd been so distracted I was going to miss my release deadline of the end of August, before school. I... Still kinda regret that a lot. It's still very buggy. Though I hope I got them all for the next demo...

But speaking of school .... ha... Remember when i said i was going to transfer to another school? Well, I did, and for the first few weeks it was fine! Then I started skipping assignments I didn't want to do. Then I started panicking about my low grades. Then I started getting behind on assignments. Then I stopped going to classes. Then I lost all motivation to work on anything at all. I just locked myself in my room and did next to nothing with the occasional drawing here and there, for weeks. It came to the point where I was like "I just have to get through this semester, then I'll drop out." But if I ever wanted to go back to school, having all F's on my last report card would not bode well for my acceptance. Which lead to more stress. I didn't want to fail, but I also didn't have any motivation to work. I would do one assignment here or there, feel good about myself, then realize I was still months behind on work and suddenly oh god oh fuck finals are next week. And my solution? I just. Fuckin dropped out. Oh my god. It was such a relief to just get that weight off my shoulders that I'd been carrying for months on end, preventing me to do anything I wanted to work on.

Well. Then my car tires died. So that's a thing. But good news! Between commissions and gifts, I have enough money to get them replaced! I don't think I've ever like... Been so excited about that before.

And, well. Now I'm here, pretty much. God, I just went through my entire year summary, and it feels like it was both forever long but also not long at all. I don't get it. 2021 still feels like a far off future, despite the fact I'm now 5 hours into it. Yes, I spent 4 hours writing this. Whoops. Oh well. I couldn't sleep anyway, so it's not that big of a deal.

All in all though... Despite being locked inside, away from my friends, unable to talk to anyone about the things i was enjoying, and living in fear of getting sick at all ever with anything, 2020 definitely fuckin changed me for the better. It was a hellhole of a year and I'd never do it again or wish it upon my worst enemy, but I came out a better person... I think. I hope.

It seems cliche to bring back but fuck it. Undertale? My friend insists its core message was that anyone can be a good person if they just try, which I mean, it definitely probably was intended that way. But that never was the message I felt while playing it.

What lesson I took from it was "things aren't always as they seem."

Flowey betrays you immediately, but then you find out he's just the remnants of a boy who died years ago and is still grieving over the loss of his best friend, whomst, despite how much he cares for them, recognizes they weren't good to him and he'd been manipulated and used by them.

Toriel is a kind and caring woman, a still grieving mother over the loss of her children, who seems to have kindness to no end, but is actually filled with such hatred and depression that she regularly gets drunk, swears, and still, without resilience, hates her ex husband.

Sans is a playful character who is full of puns, a gross atmosphere, and decided to break physics just because he can. He's the embodiment of a comic relief character. But at the same time, he's suffering, struggling, in constant pain and worry. He's lazy, but quick on his feet. He's harmless but will kill without hesitation if need be. He's both caring and the least caring of them all.

Papyrus is like... a self-centered asshole in a way, when you first meet him. He prides himself and everything he does. Yet still, he's actually quite open and accepting and loves everyone. He loves talking with and being with other people, even if maybe sometimes he has a different interpretation of social interaction from the "norm."

Undyne comes off as cruel and deadly, such even being emphasized in many points. But, deep down, she's extremely caring for those who are close to her, and her only cruelty is dealt to those who have wronged her in some way.

Alphys is a sweet and nervous wreck who comes off as helpful and lacking a filter due to her tendency to ramble. She seems to be merely anxious due to likely social anxiety... But you eventually find out that she's a liar who merely wants to create a world to be a better place, and by doing so, she pretends all the bads do not exist.

Mettaton comes off as an absolute self-centered asshole. Like. There's no way around that. He seemingly has no regard for other people with only full intentions of helping himself. But, deep down, he actually cares a lot for other people, especially his family and friends, and just tends to get caught up in things while he's in the moment.

Muffet seems to be greedy with how much money she begs people to give her for the spiders, but, as it turns out, she's flat broke and drops no G when you beat or kill her. She merely needs the money to help the spiders.

Asgore, too, is built up to be this ruthless killer throughout the whole game, and when you finally meet him, he's an incredibly sweet guy who's only filled with regret, and because of his past decisions, has decided to put aside his hopes for the sake of his people.

I...

Didn't see any of these characters for who they really were right away. Why would I? Few of these archetypes are explored much in a lot of fiction lately, or at least what I've been consuming; and is more focused around how someone can change their flaws into something positive... Not how to accept someone for who they are, despite the wrongs they may have committed or the lives they lead. Everyone's different. Everyone's grown up differently. Everyone has a reason for what they do.

And it took me playing this game to realize such a simple concept that I probably should have learned years ago.

That's why I really think 2020 changed me for the better. I made a realization that I should have had many years ago, and it's made me a lot more confident in expressing myself, accepting people for what they do, and seeing the brighter side to everything. I say that, sitting here filled with nothing and void of all emotion whatsoever... But it's a conscious thought i have. My emotions are so weird... They're either on full blast or I feel nothing at all. But yet I have... Thoughts of what i should feel? It's weird. Idk. This is why I'm getting therapy LMAO

But yea. 2020? Fuck you. But also thank you. But mostly fuck you and good riddance lmao

[nemesis-is-my-middle-name]

gimme thoughts on king of divorce asgore

the divorce man himself (give me a character meme)

Sexuality Headcanon: maybe demi pan? i do feel like he puts the kingdom first so any potential partners are gonna be weighed in terms of how it'll affect the kingdom, etc. but that's also less of an inherent sexuality and more of a product of Being King but yknow. what's the difference ultimately

Gender Headcanon: dad. gender is dad

A ship I have with said character: uhhhhh i dunno. asgore's more about like... family than romance ultimately??

i don't really ship it myself but i do feel like people kind of gloss over that in the pre-chara tapes in the true lab, toriel and asgore were like, very much a sweet couple, before their kids' death changed everything. so like... that but only in the past tense

A BROTP I have with said character: asgore & undyne is obvious but also asgore & papyrus is underutilized imho. like i know papyrus isn't a full royal guard member but asgore might still have like, evaluated him as undyne's trainee?? and i like thinking abt him trying to make sense of this inscrutable and fuckoff powerful skeleton who is also just like, excited to be a part of things, like all he's using his strength for is being a really good trainee. and i doubt papyrus would really treat the King of All Monsters much differently from any random potential friend, when you get down to it, like he respects asgore but it's not really in him to like, really watch his tone and be deferential and i think asgore would appreciate just being able to interact with someone like a person and not a king. and ALSO asgore would really like papyrus's resolve towards nonviolence & self-control, they'd probably bond over that, AND papyrus is such a genuinely cheerful and kind person and i think asgore needs more sunshine in his life. his whole family died give him a friend

A NOTP I have with said character: who do people ship asgore with idk i haven't kept up with the scene

A random headcanon: at first he tried to reason with the fallen humans, ask them – beg them to turn around, to just live their life in the underground, because he truly doesn't want to kill anyone and yes he made a promise to his people but it ultimately doesn't matter if they die today or tomorrow or in sixty years, the barrier has to wait for seven anyway. but they wouldn't ever turn around, because they want to go home, and home is through asgore. and eventually he just... gave up on reasoning with them.

when you tell asgore "he's killed you x times before" in the battle, and he just nods, that's not him really remembering resets. that's him looking at you and looking through you, because you're dead kid number seven-eight-nine, and in the heat of battle all the previous fights are blurring together. yes, he's killed you before. you're the first human to arrive after chara, and he's begging you to stop, to just turn around and have a happy life here. and you're number four and he recognizes the resolve in your eyes and he's tired of reasoning so he cuts you down without a word and later it's the worst and most horrifying thing he's ever done. and you're his first child and he's holding you as you die slowly of a mystery disease, and he's holding you as you turn to dust in the garden, and and and–

yes. he's killed you before. you always die. there is no other version of this story.

General Opinion over said character: ...yeah

[mushroommushy]

Enter Bunnix

Pharaoh

“What’s this? Nora Cesaire and Alix Kubdel sprinting full tilt towards the local university with baseball bats?”

- The episode still starts with Alya doing the Ladyblog live stream with her following the team for the day

- Ladybug is screaming for help as she desperately hangs off the helicopter as Bunnix and Chat chase her

- Ladybug drops her history notes

- It’s not the actual textbook, but a purse filled with actual notes

- Thankfully none of them had her name on them or school

- Alya was still super excited, stating this was the same subjects she was studying

- And wondering if Ladybug was in the same grade or school as her

- Alix was a bit nervous about Alya’s curiosity, as it may lead to her getting in trouble

- Especially if Hawkmoth were to see it and get closer to Ladybug’s identity

- Marinette was of course panicking and Tikki suggests going to the museum with Alya and being able to potentially get her notes back

- They managed to meet up with Alix when they entered the Louvre, who had an idea on why they were there

- Alix was getting her dad to show them around the Egyptian exhibit when Jalil walked past, looking pretty upset

- Mari and Alya noticed that and was slightly concerned, especially when they heard a few other guys jeering at him

- Alim wasn’t very amused with this

Alim: All three of you boys! Knock it off and leave my son alone!

- They thankfully left Jalil alone, but he was already gone, having went to the Kubdels apartment

Alim: Alix, sweetie. Please go check on your brother.

- Alix had quickly left Alya and Mari with her dad to go make sure her brother was alright

- Alya was a little bit surprised to learn that Alix has a brother but Mari already knew

- Alim smiled, stating that both siblings were very close with each other

- She found him in his room, forcing himself not to cry

Alix: Hey, it’s alright. Those dicks don’t know what they are talking about.

Jalil, with his head on his knees: They threw rocks at me. Said I wasn’t a real historian.

Alix: Exactly what I said. Dicks. They’re just jealous that they don’t get the same privileges you do!

- The butterfly was already sent out to akumatize him though, much to Alix’s panic as it landed in his pendent

- Alix desperately clung to her brother in an attempt to calm him down but it wasn’t enough and he was akumatized into Pharaoh

- Pharaoh was less of an ancient figure this time but more of an akumatized Jalil

- He still vaguely cared about Alix since she was just trying to help

- He didn’t try to hurt her, just looking at her for a moment before hugging her and leaving to hunt down his bullies

- She quickly transformed into Bunnix, rushing after him as time bubbles were thrown all over the area

- She had to stop herself from calling out her brothers name

- Marinette was still panicking and trying to find anything that looked like Ladybug on the papyrus to distract Alya when both were tackled down as yellow bubbles flew over them

Marinette: wHAT THE-

Bunnix: Sorry both of you, but you guys need to get out of here! It isn’t safe.

Alya, fangirling immediately: Bunnix!! Can I get an interview!?

Marinette: IS NOW REALLY THE TIME TO BE DOING THIS??

- Alya is recording already on the Ladyblog

- Adrien sees the livestream and immediately runs off to the Louvre to fight

- He was worried about how Alix would take fighting her brother though as that’s not the best thing for your mental health

- Bunnix is very much ready to kick Hawkmoth’s ass for taking advantage of her brother

- Also about the fact he fucked up the gods powers

- Alim is barely dodging time bubbles and since that’s her father, Bunnix took first priority in getting him to safety

Bunnix: Don’t worry, me and the team will save your son.

Alim: How did you know he’s my son?

Bunnix, sweating: Just a guess by how worried you look.

- Alim does think she looks awfully familiar to him but before he can get a better look she rushes off

- She really wanted to hug him, since she was terrified

- She’s a super hero but she’s still a 15 year old whose about to be forced to fight her brother

- Pharaoh isn’t focused on reviving anyone, as he mostly is after the people who made fun of him

- Bunnix is really reluctant on saving them and lets Pharaoh drag them around a little bit

- Ladybug bonked her on the head for that but honestly didn’t blame her

- When Chat arrived, Pharaoh had the bullies trapped in time bubbles and was throwing them around

- But he checked on Bunnix first

Chat Noir: Hey, do you wanna sit this one out? We completely understand if you don’t wanna fight him, since he’s your brother.

Bunnix: No, no it’s fine. I can handle it. Hopefully.

- Pharaoh eventually got bored of throwing his bullies around and threw them out of the area

- That’s when he started focusing on the hero’s

- He threw Ladybug around the exhibit like a rag doll for a little bit

- He was mostly interested in attacking Bunnix, much to her dismay

Pharaoh: With your abilities, I would be the best historian on Earth! Hand over your miraculous!

- Bunnix had run off momentarily to trigger the security gates, but that didn’t do much with his super strength being able to break them open

- He trapped them inside the Egyptian section and Chat had to use up his cataclysm to break out the bars

- Chat ran off for a little bit to detransform

- Pharaoh was already outside, gathering an army of mummies to attack them with

- Ladybug ended up getting stuck in another time bubble

- Bunnix may or may not have recorded it since she found it pretty damn funny

- Plagg was commenting on how Pharaoh should be worshipping Chat since most Egyptians saw cats as royalty

- Chat got back to Bunnix using her umbrella to break the bubble

Bunnix: I swear that I got cheated out of a weapon.

Chat: I mean, it’s a shield and a sword?

Bunnix: Never thought a yo-yo would be that good of a weapon to be honest. But proves me wrong I guess.

- Alya had to do a double take thinking that Ladybug was literally an ancient goddess after she saw it on the papyrus

- She wasn’t with Pharaoh she was back inside with Alim, still live streaming

- Bunnix already knew that it was just a past ladybug user since Marinette is not that old

Bunnix: Wow, you are immature for your age. *Gets bonked*

- Cue Chat snorting and casually flirting with both of them at once

- This is when Pharaoh ended up hearing them and used his shock waves

- Bunnix ended up huddled on the ground for a moment, ears flat against her head

- Chat’s ears were also flicking in annoyance but he wasn’t as bothered as she was at the noise

- Hawkmoth was already shouting quite loudly in Pharaoh’s ear to deafen them with his sound waves

- Pharaoh wasn’t very amused with this and snapped at him to shut up

- Ladybug didn’t really wanna make Bunnix attack her brother head on so she got her and Chat to distract the mummies

- The mummies didn’t really care about Bunnix however, as Pharaoh wanted her miraculous the most

- The repeated soundwaves were slowing her down a lot, making her disoriented and clumsy with the loud noises and ringing in her ears

- To her it sounded like multiple bangs going off all at the same time

- Luckily she stores her miraculous in a pocket so it’s harder for him to reach

- Both of her team mates had noticed this and told her to get back inside with burrow

Ladybug: Bunnix, get out of there now! This is too much for you!

- Thankfully for them she listened and hopped back inside the Louvre near Alim and Alya

- She was clearly distressed about this particular Akuma which was taken note of by Alya

- She still didn’t see much wrong with learning the identities of hero’s

- Seeing an upset child has triggered Alim’s parental instincts however, and he was trying his best to cheer her up while Ladybug and Chat continued fighting Pharaoh

- Alya was still live streaming, sitting next to Bunnix

- She really wanted to ask questions but since Bunnix didn’t seem to be feeling that well she didn’t prod

- But she did ask Bunnix if she knew where the Akuma was, to which she stated it was most likely in the pendent around his neck

- That’s when Alim realized that he had sent Alix after Jalil right before he was akumatized and panicked immediately and left to go to his apartment

- Alya of course followed after him since Alix is her friend and she wanted to make sure she wasn’t hurt

- Bunnix was cursing like a mad man because she couldn’t really be in two places at once and Alim didn’t want her to be left alone in case Pharaoh came back

- He was extremely worried when they got to the apartment and Alix wasn’t there

Alim, extremely worried: Alix?! Alix you can come out! It’s dad!

Alya, whose also trying to find her and recording: Alix? Are you here?

Bunnix, sweating: Maybe she’s a mummy?

- She wasn’t able to sneak away to detransform so she just has to make up some bullshit about why Alix might not be there

- Pharaoh still tossed Ladybug off the building

- Cue Alim and Bunnix swearing about Hawkmoth not getting the powers right

- Alim wasn’t expecting her to know that

Alim: Wait a minute- You know about this stuff?

Bunnix: …My power is time travel?

Alim: Fair.

- Ladybug jokingly being offended about being called an insect

- The bullies still have the nerve to insult an akuma and get thrown across Paris

- None of the hero’s really gave a shit because if your that dumb natural selection was coming for you anyways

Chat: Ok how can literally three piles of bandages shaped like humans pick up an entire car

- The screaming of the mummies sounded like they came from a horror movie and Bunnix hearing it even from that far was a big: Nope

- They almost got the pendent off of him but he used his sound waves again to blast them back

- Ladybug managed to dupe him by giving him the fake ladybug earrings and snatched his pendent

- Bunnix eventually had to leave the apartment to go detransform and went outside on the opposite side of the louvre, to pretend she was a mummy

- She ran to her brother as soon as possible, nearly crying from relief

- Alim soon joined them after coming outside

- They ended up taking it easy for the rest of the day, not leaving the apartment

- Alix’s ears were still ringing from all the soundwaves

- Jalil however, was a little suspicious

- He has mostly been in control when he was first akumatized as he was around Alix

- She had disappeared rather quickly not even chasing after him but Bunnix appearing very quickly

- He didn’t comment on it though, as he didn’t have enough proof to back it up

- On the other side of the city though, the bullies were cowering in terror as Nora stood over them, cracking her knuckles

- They came in the next day with broken noses and wrists

- But Jalil had caught the eye of a sculpture who went to his school, who had offered his condolences on being akumatized as he was one of the mummies, even giving him a small statue as a feel better gift

- Cue a mini crush starting up that will grow into a bigger one

- The Ladyblog had been commenting on Bunnix’s struggle with this Akuma

- But it was just left off with people assuming it was a hard Akuma since she was still pretty new and had less experience