#asgore and toriel are here too

[jmbringitonworld]

How I Married Your Father

AO3 link for those who prefer to read fics there

This silly idea came to my friend and I, and we imagined some scenes for it. And when it comes to silly ideas, well... I just can't seem to resist writing them out. I also can't seem to resist injecting fluff into everything I write. How did this get so long?? @a-snowpoff this is all your fault.

Is any of this funny? You tell me ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

______________________________

It all started with a ring.

Well, technically it all started when I met Papyrus, but the trouble really began with the ring.

See, Papyrus and I had been good friends for a while - to the point I was comfortable with letting him stay in the spare room at my place, when he moved out to give his brother and sister-in-law some space and privacy. We’d hung out together a few times, and had even gotten to know each other’s friends.

We’d also occasionally gift each other things we’d seen and thought the other would like. Just little things, like oven mitts, a new apron, plates with interesting flame patterns, cool action figures, bones of varying sizes… you know, just knick-knacks and such. Nothing too fancy.

And then one day Papyrus gave me a ring.

It was a sparkly piece of jewellery, very well-made and clearly quite pricey, and I was very reluctant to accept it. But Papyrus looked so excited, so hopeful, and even a little nervous (as he did with anything he gifted me to be honest)… I just didn’t have the heart to refuse. No one with a heart would’ve been able to deny him.

“DO YOU LIKE MY PRESENT??” he asked me, bones vibrating ever so slightly as he looked to be on the verge of bouncing on his feet.

I didn’t need to force the smile that spread so wide across my face that my cheeks started hurting.

“Yes.” I tried the ring on each of my fingers. It fit my ring finger perfectly. “I love it! Thank you Paps.”

The smile he gave me in return was more brilliant than any precious gem.

I had no idea what that ring would come to mean.

And neither did Papyrus, as it turned out.

—

“WHAT???”

Papyrus’s eye sockets widened in shock as he stared at Alphys, his friend, gifted scientist, and expert on humans (probably).

The shorter monster shuffled her feet nervously under his incredulous gaze, and reflexively scooted a little closer to her wife.

“O-oh, you d-didn’t know that humans give their partner a ring to p-propose? Uh, propose marriage that is.”

Papyrus shook his head.

“NO!! I HAD NO IDEA!! MY DATING GUIDEBOOK DIDN���T MENTION ANYTHING ABOUT MARRIAGE!!! IT ONLY SAID THAT GIVING YOUR PARTNER A RING WAS THE NEXT IMPORTANT STEP TO ADVANCE YOUR ROMANTIC RELATIONSHIP!!”

He took out a badly chewed up book from… somewhere… and proceeded to riffle through what remained of its pages.

Sans eyed the book with a raised browbone. “uh, paps? it looks like something took a bite or ten outta your book.”

The younger skeleton monster glared at the book in remembered offence.

“IT’S THAT MISCREANT MUTT!!” He stomped his foot, scarf flailing through the air from the force of his agitation. “IT KEEPS CHEWING THROUGH MY THINGS!! NOT CONTENT TO STEAL MY SPECIAL ATTACKS, IT TRIED TO EAT MY DATING GUIDEBOOK!! AND MY HANGOUT GUIDEBOOK!! AND EVEN MY COOKBOOKS!! ALL FIFTY SEVEN OF THEM!!!”

Asgore frowned in concern. “Do you think it has a toothache from eating so many bones?”

Papyrus stomped his foot harder. “WELL I HAVE A SKULLACHE FROM IT VANDALISING MY BELONGINGS!!”

Toriel gave him a pacifying smile. “There, there. Books can be replaced; your health cannot. Do not lose your skull over this!”

The former queen giggled at her own joke and Sans’s grin widened. Papyrus looked to be on the verge of exploding, both figuratively and literally, with the way his bones rattled. Luckily, Undyne interjected before the situation could devolve further.

“Ngahhh!! Forget about nerd books and hungry dogs! What about the proposal?! Did your human say yes?!”

Papyrus paused and considered his friend’s question for a moment.

“HMMM…” He gasped. “SHE DID! SHE DEFINITELY SAID YES!”

Undyne leaned forward eagerly, eyes flitting between Papyrus and Alphys.

“So! Does that mean Papyrus and his human are married?!”

Everyone’s gaze focused on Alphys, awaiting her deduction. The current Royal Scientist shrunk under the weight of their expectation. She looked a little panicked, but with one glance at her wife’s toothy grin and shining eyes, she bolstered her courage and blurted out, “I-I guess so”.

Cheers and whoops rang out, as everyone congratulated Papyrus on his marriage. Only Sans looked hesitant. His murmured “maybe we should ask frisk about this” was lost amongst the jubilation.

—

From then on, Papyrus became even more… affectionate? Attentive? Dare I say, almost doting towards me. Not that he was cold before, quite the opposite. He was always a kind and caring friend; thoughtful, warm-hearted, enthusiastic and ever-supportive, truly the best pal a girl could ask for honestly.

But he was noticeably more intense in his efforts to be the best friend to me he could be.

And, in all honesty, it was getting me increasingly flustered.

Every day, Papyrus would wake me up in the morning with breakfast in bed, and we’d chat about our respective plans for the day as we ate. Afterwards, as I would get ready, Papyrus would pack the elaborate lunch he’d somehow found the time to prepare for me, and then send me off with a hug as big and warm as his heart (his metaphorical heart; I still had no idea whether or not skeleton monsters had literal hearts).

The way he’d rub his nasal bone against my nose as he held me close sent all sorts of butterflies fluttering around inside me. But I’d guessed it was simply a sign of affection between monsters. Papyrus was always very demonstrative with his feelings after all. He never left me in any doubt that I was important to him.

It was one of the many things I loved about him.

And there sure was a lot to love.

It was no surprise that my feelings for Papyrus had turned romantic fairly early on in our relationship.

He was so honest and upfront about himself, so earnest in his efforts and steadfast in his ambitions, and always wearing his heart on his sleeve (so to speak), that you knew very quickly what kind of man- er, monster he was. There was never any hint of artifice with him and he didn’t have a single malicious bone in his skeletal body.

I knew that I could trust him, completely, that I could always rely on him and that he would never let me down.

And he never did. He was my anchor in every storm that came my way.

More than that, he always strived to be his best self in a way that I couldn’t help but admire. He even encouraged me, time and again, to be my best self.

He made me want to do better, want to be better.

He made me believe I could.

“Which is exactly why you should be honest with him about how you feel about him!” Frisk argued, over tea and cakes one afternoon.

I bit my lip and looked away from her determined gaze. “But what if he doesn’t feel the same way about me?”

“But what if he does?” Frisk shot back.

I stared into my cup as if it held the answers I sought. Frisk sighed and reached over to place her hand atop mine, arresting my gaze when I looked up.

“Look, even if Papy doesn’t like you like that - which I doubt, I’m sure that guy is just as crazy about you as you are about him,” she insisted, voice full of conviction.

I blinked, wondering how she could be so confident, as if there wasn’t a doubt in her mind as to the truth of her words. It must’ve been because she was Papyrus’s second ever friend and his sister-in-law.

Frisk continued on, with the kind of determination that could move mountains, or break barriers. “But even if he isn’t, doesn’t he deserve your honesty?”

I wilted, forced to acknowledge her point. “You’re right. Paps is always honest with me, and I owe it to him to be honest with him in return.”

Frisk gave me a pleased smile. She turned the hand she was holding in hers and gave it an encouraging squeeze. I squeezed back, trying not to let my doubts overtake me, even as the fear of possible rejection was making my heart pound in my ears.

“I just-… Everything’s been going so well between us and I’m afraid of messing it all up! What if I ruin our friendship?!”

—

“I LOVE MY WONDERFUL WIFE! WE ARE SO HAPPY TOGETHER! NYEH HEH HEH!!” Papyrus’s cheerful voice boomed throughout the room.

Undyne guffawed and thumped him on the back with enough force to almost send him to his knees. “That’s great, Papyrus! I’m so happy to hear you’ve found your special someone, too! Now everyone’s happy! Man, we oughta celebrate or something.”

Alphys perked up and clapped her hands in delight. “Ooh! That’s a great idea! M-Maybe we can all go on a group holiday together? Like a c-couples’ retreat? It’s n-not like I had one in mind already or anything, eheheh…”

Papyrus’s face lit up, his eye sockets sparkling. “THAT SOUNDS SPECTACULAR!! AND FUN!” He pumped a fist into the air. “I CAN’T WAIT TO SHOW EVERYONE WHAT A GREAT COUPLE THE GREAT PAPYRUS AND HIS GREAT WIFE MAKE!! NYEH HEH HEH HEH HEH HEH!!”

Sans took one look at his brother’s ecstatic grin and his friends’ equally excited faces, and gulped down the rest of his ketchup.

“oh boy, this’ll be… interestin’.”

—

One of the first things I’d learned about Papyrus was that he loved to cook. He hadn’t always been very good at it according to his friends and family, but since coming to the surface, he’d made every effort to improve his skills. And his efforts had eventually paid off, as I could whole-heartedly attest to.

I’m not sure exactly when or how it started - it felt like a lifetime ago - but at some point I’d offered to cook dinner with him and it quickly became a daily routine for us.

It was as I was stirring the tomatoes into the sauce, that I finally mustered up enough courage to broach the topic of my less-than-platonic feelings for him.

I cleared my throat nervously. “Um, Papyrus? There’s, uh, something I wanted to… share with you. Or let you know. Or, ugh.” I rubbed my temple, annoyed at myself and my poor attempts to get the right words out. “I just wanted to tell you something.”

He looked up from the gently simmering pot of spaghetti and tilted his skull my way. His smile was bright and encouraging, and he seemed completely unphased by my fumbled words. “I’M ALL EARS.”

I glanced at the sides of his skull and the complete lack of any ears, and tried to bite back a grin. It was as successful as my attempt at a confession. However, it managed to lift my spirits and calm my nerves enough for my next words to come out more easily.

“Papyrus, I…” I took a deep breath, cleared all thoughts from my head and ploughed on. “I like you!”

Papyrus didn’t even hesitate as he gave me a beaming smile and told me, “I LIKE YOU TOO!”

I couldn’t help but return his smile, as I tried to clarify what I’d meant. “No, I mean romantically. I-, I’m in love with you Papyrus.”

Papyrus’s smile didn’t budge an inch, though his chest did puff out a bit. “WELL I WOULD SURE HOPE MY WIFE WOULD FEEL THAT WAY! ALSO! I AM GLAD TO HEAR THAT YOU DO! ALSO ALSO!! I AM IN LOVE WITH YOU TOO!! NYEH HEH!”

I stared at him. “...What?”

He stared back. “WHAT?”

—

Finding out that Papyrus not only loved me back but was, in fact, fully convinced that he and I were married (which, how? How did he get such an idea?) was not the only shocking news I found out that evening.

I also learned that all of his friends also believed that the two of us were married (how? How??).

And then Papyrus cheerfully informed me that his friends had planned a group holiday for all of us to go on. As couples. Married couples (how did it come to this!? What deity did I accidentally insult to curse me like this??).

The rest of the night passed by in a blur, as my mind reeled from the barrage of bombshells Papyrus had so enthusiastically dropped on me.

The only thought which managed to stick out amongst the jumbled mess of my mind, was that I needed to correct Papyrus. And his friends. Somehow.

—

My first chance came when Alphys caught me as I was heading out the next day.

After her usual polite, if stuttering greeting, she handed me an envelope.

“Here are yours and Papyrus’s tickets for the hotel we’ll be staying in. Don’t worry, I booked a nice room for you two to sh-share.”

I opened my mouth, not sure of what, exactly, I was going to say, but knowing that I needed to say something.

However Alphys kept talking, excitement hurrying her speech. “I’m really looking forward to getting to know you even better on the trip! I-I hope we can all be really good friends. A-Anyway, I need to go and hand out the rest of the tickets. See you on the day we head out!” She then turned around and proceeded to power walk away, waving to me over her shoulder, as her final words rushed out, “Please don’t be late because this place has a no refunds policy okay bye!”

As I remained rooted to the spot, staring dumbly after her rapidly retreating figure, I realised that my mouth was still open. I closed it with a resounding *clack*.

Well that could’ve gone better.

—

Things continued along the same vein, going decidedly not better.

All Papyrus could talk about was the upcoming group holiday and how excited he was for it.

All I could think about was how in the hell I was supposed to break it to him and everyone else that he and I were not actually married.

“What do I do?!” I’m not ashamed to admit that I was practically whining to Frisk at this point, but who could blame me?

Frisk just shrugged at me. “Dunno,” she mumbled around the straw in her mouth, and took another slurp of her milkshake.

I buried my head in my hands.

Frisk seemed to take pity on me and threw her free arm around my shoulders.

“Hey, c’mon, it’s not that bad.”

I looked up from my hands to shoot her an incredulous look. She winked at me, lips turning up suggestively as she leaned in closer to me.

“You get to share a bed with Papyrus,” she purred, as if the thought hadn’t been stuck in my head since Alphys’s visit. I could feel my cheeks burn at the insinuation in her words and tone. “You love him. And you know that he loves you too. Enough to be happy at the belief that you’re married.” My face felt like it was on fire. “So what’s the problem? Isn’t this something you were hoping for?”

She wiggled her eyebrows at me, ever the flirt-master. I shoved my hand in her face and pushed her away, unable to look her in the eye. Frisk went along with the motion, laughing airily at me.

I didn’t need to say anything. My expression spoke loud and clear to her. She’d clearly picked up her husband’s ability to read people - it was one of the things that made her such an effective ambassador for monsters. That and her unwavering determination (also perhaps her terrifying talent at flirting everyone into submission).

I grumbled, wishing my blush would die down. “M-Maybe... But not now! I’m still getting used to the idea that Paps likes me back!”

“He loves you back, you mean,” Frisk interjected. My blush returned with a vengeance.

“Y-yeah, that.” I exhaled in frustrated embarrassment. “I just don’t know if I’m ready to-... to share a b-bed with him yet.”

Frisk raised an eyebrow at me, crossing her arms.

“This is Papyrus we’re talking about. Has he ever given you any reason to believe he wouldn’t respect your wishes? That he wouldn’t do everything in his power to make sure you’re comfortable?” She didn’t give me any time to reply, but she didn’t need to. The answer was obvious. “You’re the one who told me about how you trust him completely, and that he’d never once let you down. So stop worrying about this. Just have fun on this trip and enjoy yourself. You can think about how to clear up this marriage misunderstanding later.”

Her words made sense. I would be fine. Papyrus would make sure of it, as he always did. I might be a little flustered - or a lot flustered - but we would be together, and in love, and that would be enough. It would be more than enough.

I slowly started to relax, beginning to get excited about the prospect of a holiday with the one I loved and our group of friends.

And then Frisk leaned in close again to whisper into my ear, “Don’t forget to pack some sexy lingerie. You have a ‘husband’ to sweep off his feet now.”

There was no way I would be fine.

—

When the time finally came to leave for the trip our friends had planned, Papyrus was a ball of excitement, practically bouncing off the walls, whereas I was a ball of nerves, bouncing off the walls for very different reasons.

“CAREFUL BELOVED!” Papyrus reached out towards me just in time to stop me from crashing into the doorframe.

I looked up at him, trying to shake away the turbulent thoughts infesting my head.

“Sorry Paps. And thanks. I’m just a little, uh, distracted. Excited for the trip and all, haha…!”

I gave him my best attempt at a reassuring smile.

Papyrus looked unconvinced.

He frowned down at me, concern etched into his features. He gently grasped my hands in his own gloved ones, and gazed deeply into my eyes.

“MY LOVE, I KNOW THAT I HAVE NOT ALWAYS BEEN THE MOST… PERCEPTIVE MONSTER.” He frowned, some distant memory playing in his mind’s eye, before he refocused his gaze on me. “HOWEVER! I COULD NEVER FAIL TO NOTICE THAT YOU - MY ONE AND ONLY LOVE, THE GREATEST JOY IN MY LIFE, MY DEAREST WIFE - ARE NOT AS EXCITED ABOUT THIS SUPER FUN LOVEY-DOVEY COUPLES’ VACATION AS I’D HOPED YOU WOULD BE.”

Guilt started to bubble in the pit of my stomach at the way his expression fell at that.

But before I could try to reassure him, or offer him what would ultimately be empty words of assurance, he cut me off.

“IF SOMETHING IS BOTHERING YOU, THEN PLEASE TELL ME.” He gave my hands a squeeze. The gesture shot straight to my heart like Cupid’s arrow. “I PROMISE THAT I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, AM A GREAT LISTENER!! I AM ALSO VERY PATIENT! AND VERY WISE! AND VERY UNDERSTANDING! AS WELL AS VERY COOL!”

A fierce affection for this amazing monster filled me to my core. I wanted to kiss him at this moment.

“I know, Paps. You are all that and more. So much more.”

Papyrus’s proud expression was so familiar and so dear to me. I really wanted to kiss him.

“NYEH HEH HEH! THANK YOU BELOVED! I AM HAPPY YOU RECOGNISE THAT!” Then his face softened a little, a gentleness entering his voice. “AND I HOPE YOU ALSO RECOGNISE HOW MUCH I LOVE YOU. AND HOW MUCH I WANT YOU TO BE HAPPY, EVEN IF IT MEANS WE DON’T GO ON SUPER FUN LOVEY-DOVEY COUPLES’ VACATIONS WITH OUR FRIENDS.”

He leaned forward and pressed his forehead to mine. I could see tiny glimmers of light deep within his dark eye sockets.

“BEING WITH YOU IS MORE FUN THAN ANYTHING. EVEN MORE THAN COOKING! EVEN MORE THAN CREATING TRAPS AND PUZZLES! BUT IT IS ONLY FUN IF YOU ARE ALSO HAVING FUN.”

That was it. I couldn’t take it anymore.

Before Papyrus could say another word, I tilted my head to finally give him the kiss I’d been longing for.

Papyrus made a small sound of surprise, before leaning into the kiss, reciprocating my affection with all the passion and zeal I’d come to expect from him, and then some. It took my breath away.

As the both of us lost ourselves in our first (but definitely not last!) kiss, I resolved myself to push away all of my concerns. They were pointless and would only get in the way of an enjoyable holiday with the monster I loved and the friends we both cherished.

I just needed to keep up a positive mental attitude, just like Papyrus always maintained.

—

That positive mental attitude managed to see me through the whole of the first day, which, just as Papyrus had promised, was full of fun. I had such a great time that I forgot all of my previous worries.

Which then promptly came crashing back down on me when Papyrus and I entered our shared bedroom that night, and I beheld our one bed.

Papyrus, ever the gentleman (gentlemonster?), offered to let me use the adjoining bathroom first to get ready, which I gladly accepted.

Afterwards, as I sunk into the large and luxuriously comfy sheets of the king-sized bed, I could feel my pulse speed up.

When I heard the bathroom door open, I glanced over to see Papyrus step out, dressed in simple pyjamas with little pasta patterns.

I could feel my face heat up and my ears start to ring as the tall skeleton monster made his way towards the bed I was lying in.

He came to a stop right in front of me.

I held my breath, a mixture of anticipation and nerves flooding my system.

This was it.

Anything could happen.

—

“So? What happened?” Frisk leaned forward, eager and impatient for me to spill the beans on my first night with Papyrus.

“He tucked me into bed and read me a bedtime story.”

“Wait what?”

“You heard me.” I slumped in my seat and fought back a yawn. “He then spent the rest of the night doing prep work for his cooking. I don’t know if he slept at all, ‘cause when I woke up the next morning, he’d moved on to making models of me out of papier mâché. Incredibly detailed and life-like models. He said he wanted to ‘capture his wonderful wife’s incredible cuteness’. If it were anyone else I’d be creeped out, but with Paps I think it’s kinda sweet.”

Frisk visibly deflated. She sat back and crossed her arms, head tilting in consideration.

“That does sound like him. Very… Papyrus. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised.” She heaved a big sigh. “Looks like Sansy and I need to tell Papy to up his game.”

That sure woke me up.

“No thank you! I think Papyrus has plenty of game as is!”

“Well then it’s up to you to make the first move,” she said as she poked me on the forehead. “After all, Papy is the one who proposed. Even though it was Alphys who said that it meant you two were married.”

I shot up in my seat, eyes wide. “Wait you knew all about this!?”

Frisk gave a casual nod of her head. “Sans told me.” I threw my hands in the air in frustration. “Why didn’t you say anything?! Tell them the truth?!”

Frisk merely shrugged her shoulders, uncaring in the face of my annoyance. “Not my place to interfere. They didn’t ask me, so I didn’t say anything.”

Which… fair, I guessed. It was technically my problem to fix. Besides, Frisk had always been very hands-off when it came to others’ affairs, only intervening before things got really serious.

I deflated, my brief ire draining out of me.

Frisk patted my head in what would’ve been sympathy, if not for the amused smirk making its way across her face.

“And besides,” her smirk widened, showing her teeth, “it was so funny seeing you all blushy and flustered!”

“Now I see why Sans married you! You’re both trolls!”

Frisk just laughed in my face.

—

Later that day, in an attempt to make it up to me, Frisk gathered the whole group together, so that I could make an announcement and finally clear up the misunderstanding. She’d even whispered to me that Sans had told Papyrus that humans weren’t legally married until they’d had a wedding, to ease that particular burden from my shoulders. And because Sans wanted to let his younger brother down gently. The rest, though, was up to me.

It was a daunting task, but I couldn’t let this situation go on any longer.

I nervously cleared my throat, trying desperately to steel my nerves in the face of so many expectant eyes. Frisk and Sans gave me thumbs up and smiled at me in encouragement. Papyrus stood by my side, and I took comfort from his steady presence.

“So uhhh… I’d like to clear up a little… misunderstanding.” I paused to take a fortifying breath. “See, Papyrus and I… we’re not… married.”

Silence.

Until-

“Wait what?!” Undyne slammed her hands down onto the table. “Don’t tell me you two got a divorce!”

What.

I could feel my jaw drop.

Alphys looked to be on the verge of tears as she wrung her hands. “B-But you two seemed so happy together!”

Papyrus stepped closer to me and threw an arm around my shoulders. “WE ARE HAPPY TOGETHER!!” He drew me close to his side and thumped a fist against his chest. “AND I PROMISE TO MAKE SURE THAT WE WILL ALWAYS BE HAPPY TOGETHER!! NYEH!!”

Toriel clapped a hand to her chest and heaved a huge sigh. “Oh that’s such a relief! I’m so glad that you two are happily married.”

Asgore beamed at us. “Yes! And may your marriage be long and full of joy!”

I could only stare dumbfounded at everyone. How did things like this keep happening to me?

I looked towards Frisk and Sans. The couple exchanged glances, before shrugging and giving me thumbs up.

I turned to Papyrus, who seemed almost as confused as I was by this unexpected turn of events. But as always, he had clearly taken it in his stride and was now puffing up under everyone’s unanimous support and offering everyone his thanks.

I looked down at my feet for a moment, before sighing in defeat.

If you can’t beat them, join them.

“...Thanks guys.”

I guess I just had to accept the fact that I was married now.

I glanced towards Papyrus’s big, bright smile, happiness shining in his face. He noticed my gaze and turned his skull towards me, his smile getting impossibly bigger and brighter. I couldn’t help my own smile forming in response.

Maybe this wasn’t such a bad thing after all. At least I was married to someone I truly loved and who loved me in return. And honestly, who could ask for more?

As I leaned into my “husband”’s side, I felt my worries fade away.

Yeah, being married to Papyrus was definitely my happy ending.

—

“And that, kids, is how I married your father,” I ended my story and smiled at my children’s cheers. Even Papyrus cheered along with them.

My eldest then looked at me, head tilted in curiosity. “So… did you and Dad ever get married for real?”

I chuckled. “Yep. Eventually.” I shared a fond look with Papyrus at the memory of our wedding.

My youngest frowned, brows furrowed cutely in thought. I wanted to reach over and smooth away the adorable crease. “But did Dad ever actually propose to you?”

I paused. Now that I thought about it… He never did. I blinked in surprise.

Papyrus seemed to have come to the same realisation.

He leapt to his feat, before dramatically kneeling in front of me. He clasped my hands in both of his and gazed into my eyes with the most serious look I’d ever seen on his face.

“DARLING WIFE! LOVE OF MY LIFE! YOU ARE MORE PRECIOUS TO ME THAN ALL THE STARS IN THE SKY. MY SOUL SHINES ONLY FOR YOU. WILL YOU MARRY ME?”

I could feel warmth spread across my cheeks and blossom in my chest.

“Papyrus, we’re already married,” I reminded him, not bothering to fight back my smile at his loving words.

My husband just grinned at me.

“IS THAT A YES?”

I giggled.

“Yes. Always yes.”

[juniemunie]

Broskis ts!underswap is so fun. every single part of it is *chefs kiss*

I went in completely blind and honestly i think it was the best move i could have made

i love how its just swapped roles but not personalities so it leads to stuff like this its so creative

Anyways have some more self insert sansnomaly (and chara)

[justali-anne]

Undertale special interest kicking in... I swear I'm never getting tired of these guys...

I can imagine them sometimes meeting up Post-Pacifist for game nights. Like... board games, card games, video games... I have a few headcanons about it.

Card/Board games:

Let's address the elephant in the room: Monopoly is banned. Just straight up banned. They played once... Never again. Let's just say by the end of the night there were magic spears wedged deeply into Toriel's new wallpaper... and the wall... and the brick of the house... And the window was shattered. Yeah, Monopoly, it's banned, it's banned.

Papyrus has no poker face whatsoever. Meanwhile, Sans and Frisk have VERY impressive poker faces, and they're both aware of it. Once, they formed some sort of secret alliance and they dominated poker night. It was Frisk's first time playing, too!

I imagine Frisk would just be a natural at all games, hands down. Well, kind of. They don't always win, but they learn very quickly. Jack of all trades, I suppose.

Undyne has this habit of flipping boards (a classic) and shooting magic spears whenever she loses at a game or just gets EXTREMELY passionate about it. Although, if Alphys or Papyrus are the ones that beat her, she'll grit her teeth and act happy for them, just to make them happy.

Unfortunately, Papyrus picked up on Undyne's bad habit and bones started scattering the walls. Toriel had to ban magic bullets in the house after one of them almost gave Frisk a concussion.

Asgore is pretty good at card games, actually! I like to imagine he sometimes spends time with old friends of his, like Gerson and stuff, and they would have tea and play games while they chat, so he's had a lot of practice.

Toriel, on the other hand, hasn't played any board games or cards in AGES thanks to her isolation in the Ruins. She's not terrible, but she's not particularly GOOD at them either.

Sometimes, certain members of the group would try to break Sans' calmness, because while everyone had gotten annoyed at one point or another during game nights, Sans never did. Long story short, nope, he's just too chill. He's just happy to be here.

Once, Alphys bought a Mew Mew Kissy Cutie board game for game night, and she was so excited to show everyone the ropes (and dominate the night for once). She only won one game. And then she had an identity crisis afterwards!

Snacks! They do a rotation on who gets to be in charge of the food! Undyne and Papyrus are NO LONGER in this rotation after they brought in flaming spaghetti and almost set the couch on fire. Even then, you could only really trust Frisk, Toriel and Asgore with the snacks, since Alphys doesn't cook (she brings in store-bought cupcakes, it's the thought that counts), and Sans always forgets or is just too lazy to get snacks, so he orders pizza.

Video games:

They meet up to play stuff like Smash Bros, Mario Kart and Mario Party, but when they play online multiplayer games, like Minecraft, Terraria etc. they just stay home and go on a Zoom call or something. It's a lot less stressful for the introverts of the group (mainly Alphys, but I suppose Toriel could qualify [Undyne and Papyrus are absolutely extroverts; Sans and Frisk are moreso ambiverts, I think]) because they don't have to go out to do it! Yay!

They do all the things typical friends do when they're playing online games! They troll, they tease, they laugh, they help each other out, they TRY to work as a team (emphasis on TRY)...

One of the games I'd like to see them play is Human Fall Flat (I have that game and I play it with my sister :]). I want to see some RAGE. I'm sure Papyrus would love doing the puzzles, but at the same time, I'm sure the others not cooperating or knowing what's going on would tick him off. Yessss... Let Papyrus rage.

Sometimes Alphys and/or Sans would trail off into some scientific conversation or tangent, and after a minute or so, the others would start yelling over them, "NERD!!! NERDS! NERRDDD!!!" Alphys would get flustered, and Sans would desperately try to keep his composure and try not to burst out laughing.

Undyne and Papyrus have the extraordinary ability to make even the calmest, simplest games intense. ESPECIALLY Undyne, oh my goooood. Though I guess she could use the extra stimulation, she will NOT settle for a game with a slow pace. So much for Animal Crossing.

In addition, the gang can get VERY competitive at Mario Kart and stuff. Undyne is obviously the most competitive, but I think Papyrus and Alphys would want to try and impress her. Frisk and Sans? Nah, they're chilling. They don't care, they're just here to watch the chaos. Yeah... There's a reason why Asgore and Toriel don't often play games with these guys. Though they would watch and look upon them fondly. I dunno, it just seems cute.

[martlet-my-beloved]

If martlet was in the ruins....

Couldnt she just fly through the hole in the ceiling(?) and go fetch 7 human souls or something?

Maybe rob a graveyard i dunno

I always imagined that the barrier looks less like, well, a barrier and more like a giant piss-off force field around the area

So even though monsters lived in the ruins for so long, no one bothered to climb/dig their way out the other end. Or if they did, they found out the barrier was still there the hard way

So yeah, martlet never bothered to try flying out from that way. You'd need a monster and human soul to get out after all.

After frisk fell though....

Barrier's made of anti-monster magic. Y'know, to stop monsters from like trying to bash their way out through brute force I guess. Most monsters begin to feel physically weak as they near the barrier, which makes flying out with a human child on your back just that much harder

First - Previous - Next - Masterpost

[lynxgriffin]

Mightier Than The Sword

Gerson had one regret, but now Alvin has many. A fancomic about my thoughts and theories and who -and what- the Knight is!

While not directly connected, I'd say this one is in the same vein as the Deal With The Devil series! Hope you enjoy!

Alt text for this comic under the read more:

Page 1

Panel 1 - Wide shot of the interior of the Boom household. Several monsters are gathered in a clean-looking hall, dressed in somber clothing and talking quietly in small groups. The monsters include QC, Cat Mom, Toriel, Asgore and Mayor Holiday. Father Alvin stands waiting at a door in the hall as his sister, a red-headed turtle monster in a pink dress, exits through the door and speaks to him. “Alvin…he’s ready for you.”

Panel 2 - Mid shot as Alvin prepares to enter the room. Ms. Boom steps out of the way, and puts a reassuring hand on his shoulder. Both of them look somber. 

Panel 3 - Alvin enters the room, mostly dark and lit by a few candles on a nearby desk. Gerson Boom is lying on a bed ahead of him, watching him enter. Alvin closes the door behind him and says, “Father, I’m here.”

Panel 4 - Alvin approaches his father, lying in bed. The bedroom has a few amenities, including a footstool set off to the side, a large rug bearing the delta rune, and a massive bookcase filling the entire back wall. A few books and papers litter the ground. Alvin bows his head, and says, “The hammer is ready for…for afterwards.”

Gerson just smiles, and responds, “Wa ha, is it? Well, it’ll do fine, I suppose.”

Panel 5 - Closer shot of Gerson extending his right hand towards Alvin. He’s smiling still, content with where he is. “Come here, son.”

Page 2

Panel 1 - Closeup as Alvin takes his father’s hand in his own, and clasps it tight. “Whatever you need…I’m here,” he says from offscreen.

Panel 2 - Alvin kneels by his father’s bedside, still clasping his hands. Gerson says, “Of course you are. Wa ha…you’re such a good and kind man, Alvin.”

Panel 3 - Closeup on Alvin as he just holds on to his father’s hand. Tears prick at the corners of his eyes. 

Panel 4 - Focus on Gerson as he holds up a hand to conspiratorially whisper to Alvin. “And I know I can trust you with a secret, right?”

Panel 5 - Closeup on Alvin as he looks back up, face earnest. “...Of course.”

Panel 6 - Gerson holds up one finger as he speaks to Alvin. “I told your sister I had no regrets, but that was a BIT of a fib! I’m afraid I have one regret…”

Panel 7 - Side view of Alvin as he learns closer, his face now worried. “Father?...”

Page 3

Panel 1 - Focus on Gerson as he leans back on his pillow, looking up at the ceiling. “I wish I had started earlier. Writing stories, I mean. Seein’ you an’ your sister’s eyes light up whenever I read you a new chapter…and then seeing all that joy from so many young folks after those stories were published!” he says, looking wistful.

Panel 2 - Alvin watches on sadly as Gerson continues, “It was the greatest feeling in the world, Alvin. It’s what life’s all about, y’know. Helping the young folks grow.”

Panel 3 - Gerson closes his eyes and looks back towards the ceiling again, still wistful. “So, I wish I’d started writing stories sooner.”

Panel 4 - Closeup on Alvin as he bows his head, still holding Gerson’s hand. “I truly do cherish those times you read to us, father…” he says.

Panel 5 - Closeup on Gerson as he closes his mind with happy memories. “Me too, Alvin. It’s a shame…I’ve still got so many tales to tell! But–”

Panel 6 - Gerson is interrupted by a round of hacking coughs. His time is fast approaching.

Panel 7 - Gerson settles back in to his bed and says, “The Angel’s given me SO many good, happy years. Doesn’t seem fair to ask for more.”

Panel 8 - Closeup on Alvin as he continues to hold his father’s hand tight. “This doesn’t seem fair, either…” he says, tears still pricking at his eyes.

Page 4

Panel 1 -  Insert closeup of Gerson as he smiles at his son. “That’s life, Alvin!” He doesn’t seem bothered by his imminent passing.

Panel 2 - Side view as Gerson leans in closer to Alvin again, hand raised, back to sharing his secrets. “But, knowin’ my secret…there’s something I’d like to ask of you.”

Alvin faces his father with seriousness. “Anything,” he replies.

Panel 3 - Closeup on Gerson, as he looks hopefully at Alvin. “You have a good heart, Alvin. I want you to know this joy, too.”

Panel 4 - Gerson continues in the next panel: “Please try writin’ stories of your own, alright?” Closeup on Alvin as he looks shocked and a bit worried by the request.

Panel 5 - Mid shot as Alvin holds up a hand to Gerson in protest. He says, “Father, I…I have no talent for writing fiction. Not like YOU.”

Panel 6 - Closeup on Gerson as he refutes his son: “Hogwash! I know you can.”

Panel 7 - Wide shot as Alvin stands up, and looks around the room. “No, I…”

In the foreground, there’s Gerson’s desk, currently showing some lit candles, some paper, an inkwell, a notebook, and his favorite fountain pen.

Page 5

Panel 1 - Closeup as Alvin grabs two objects off of the desk: the small notebook and the fountain pen. Offscreen, he says, “If you just…”

Panel 2 - Back at Gerson’s bedside, Alvin pulls up the footstool and puts the pen and notebook in front of him, intending to use it. He faces his father, and says, “Tell me your ideas, I could write them down, and–”

Gerson interrupts him: “‘Fraid it doesn’t work that way, Alvin!”

Panel 3 - Gerson holds up both of his hands and smiles as he explains: “My tales are between my soul and the pen. You’ll need to make your own.”

Panel 4 - Gerson watches as Alvin, tears in his eyes, looks down at the notebook and pen in hand. “I–I cannot…” Alvin starts, looking despondent.

Panel 5 - Side view of Alvin as tears continue to stream from his eyes. He says, “Not without you!” In the background, in grayscale, there is a scene from Alvin’s memory: Gerson reading a book to his two children by the fire. Gerson looks happy, and both kids are enraptured, with Alvin clinging to a cat doll that looks like Seam.

Panel 6 - Closeup on Gerson, his face now more worried and pleading towards Alvin. Gerson says, “Y-you can… It’s all I ask…”

Panel 7 - Gerson turns away as he’s again interrupted by a round of terrible sounding coughs. Alvin stands holding the notebook and pen in the foreground.

Page 6

Panel 1 - Horror comes over Alvin’s face as his father continues to cough loudly, clutching his chest. He realizes that his father might be close to death now.

Panel 2 - Wider overhead shot as Alvin turns away from Gerson, looking frantically around the room. “No! Not yet!--” he says desperately. Gerson is still racked with coughs.

Panel 3 - Closeup as Alvin grabs the candles from the desk–

Panel 4 - And then pulls a book from the bookshelf, with the delta rune on the front –

Panel 5 - And then finally pulls out what appears to be a beaded rosary, with the delta rune made of beads at the end of it.

Panel 6 - Wider shot as Alvin places the objects in front of him, candles to the side, holy book in front of him. Gerson can only lay there as he does so, trying to catch his breath.

Panel 7 - Front view of Alvin as he clasps his hands together in front of his face, the rosary threaded between his fingers. He closes his eyes and bows his head in prayer. “Angel…Angel above! Please, heed your servant’s prayer!”

Page 7

Panel 1 - Closeup on Alvin as he continues to pray, the candles glowing around him. He keeps his eyes shut even as tears well in them. “I know you call back my father’s soul, but please! Please refrain!”

Panel 2 - Gerson desperately reaches a hand out towards his son, shaking, but unable to reach him. In the foreground, the fountain pen sits on the footstool between them. “A-Alvin…” Gerson’s voice is shaky now.

Panel 3 - Aerial shot as Alvin prays over the book, and Gerson is still confined to the bed, only able to watch. “This world still NEEDS his gifts!” Alvin says. “I pray to you, don’t take them from us now!” The shadows around Alvin start to grow strange, not matching the candlelight.

Panel 4 - Gerson continues to hold out a hand, now not looking well. “No…”

Panel 5 - Closeup on the candles as they spark to life, now glowing stronger.

Panel 6 - A strange bright glow begins to emanate from Gerson. Behind him, the books in the bookcase all rattle and shift as if in a localized earthquake. The colors of the room grow brighter and stranger.

Panel 7 - Still reaching out a desperate hand, Gerson lets out a soft breath. His soul, an upside-down white heart, comes up from his body. On the footstool in the foreground, the fountain pen also begins to levitate, as if by magic.

Page 8

Panel 1 - Front shot of Alvin as he continues to pray desperately, his head bowed and hands together. “Grant us the love shown between his soul and the pen!” Behind him, the colors have grown stark and bright, and a shadow resembling the angel looms behind Alvin.

Panel 2 - Alvin looks up to discover something amazing and terrible: Gerson’s soul has been drawn to the fountain pen, and begins to flow down into it.

Panel 3 - Closeup as Gerson’s soul is completely absorbed into the pen, hovering high over the bed.

Panel 4 - The candles turn strange blue and pink colors, and the books in the bookcase shake and rattle relentlessly.

Panel 5 - Extreme closeup on Alvin’s eyes as he sees this miracle; the light of his father’s soul reflected in his eyes.

Panel 6 - Closeup as the pen suddenly drops, and clatters back on to the footstool.

Panel 7 - Wide aerial shot as the room very suddenly goes completely dark and silent, the bright colors and lights now gone. Alvin stands up and backs away from the bed, still clutching the rosary, his face filled with horror. Gerson now lies unmoving in his bed, having passed away.

Page 9

Panel 1 - The same shot as the first panel of the first page, with the other monsters waiting in the hallway. No one says anything as Alvin emerges from the bedroom, leaning on the door for support, his head bowed. Everyone in the room knows that Gerson has just passed, although they don’t know the rest.

Panel 2 - An establishing shot of the forest and mountains surrounding Hometown…the skies are a dark, gloomy gray.

Panel 3 - Above shot of Gerson’s newly dug grave. At the bottom of a small pit lies Gerson’s hammer, covered in his dust. Politics Bear stands over the grave, holding a shovel. 

Panel 4 - Closeup as the shovel begins to dump dirt over the fresh grave.

Panel 5 - Another closeup of Gerson’s headstone, with bundles of fresh funerary flowers laid in front of it.

Panel 6 - Wide shot of Gerson’s funeral. Alvin stands over his father’s grave, reading last rites from one of his books. Lots of monsters are in attendance, including Alphys and Undyne, Napstablook, the Holiday and Dreemurr families, and more. A very young Kris, Noelle and Asriel are present, but Dess is not. Everyone is dressed in dark mourning attire.

Panel 7 - After the funeral, Toriel approaches Alvin and puts a hand on his shoulder. She says, “Beautifully said, Alvin. I know your father is watching proudly by the side of the Angel.” Alvin looks distant and mournful.

Panel 8 - A closeup of the fountain pen laying forgotten on the desk in Gerson’s room. Gerson is, perhaps, not actually with the Angel right now.

Panel 9 - Back at the funeral, Alvin bows his head, eyes closed. “You are too kind, Toriel,” he says.

Page 10

Panels 1-3 - We see the seasons pass through the changing of the trees…from the barren white trees of winter, to colorful pink blooms for spring, to the bright oranges and reds of fall.

Panel 4 - Sometime much later, Alvin again enters his father’s old room, alone.

Panel 5 - Much of Gerson’s room has remained untouched. The fountain pen still sits on his old writing desk in the foreground. Alvin steps inside, and carefully turns on the overhead light. “It’s been years,” he says.

Panel 6 - Alvin cautiously approaches the pen, which seems to loom large ahead of him. He hesitantly picks it up.

Panel 7 - Alvin places some blank pages on the writing desk. “Surely…”

Panel 8 - Alvin sits in front of the blank pages, still holding the pen cautiously. “Surely by now, I can do it.” He’s going to try writing.

Panel 9 - Closeup as Alvin dips the pen in the inkwell, and it comes away full of ink.

Panel 10 - Closeup as Alvin holds the pen over the blank page. The pen trembles slightly in his grip.

Panel 11 - Alvin tries to put pen to paper, but he’s still trembling. He looks down with great anxiety. “I…I…”

Panel 12 - Closeup on Alvin’s face as he looks more panicked, shaking and sweating. In the background, his memory of his father’s soul being absorbed into the pen plays back at him. This is still his fault.

Panel 13 - Closeup again as Alvin’s hand shakes uncontrollably, and the pen with it. Ink spots begin to dapple the blank page–

Page 11

Panel 1 - Alvin’s shaking hand accidentally knocks over the inkwell, and it spills black ink all over the blank page.

Panel 2 - Alvin picks up the ruined paper and folds it in half to try and stem the ink spillage. He quietly curses to himself. 

Panel 3 - Closeup as Alvin holds his head in his hand. It’s clear that this isn’t going to work. “I can’t…” 

Panel 4 - Closeup as Alvin puts the ink-stained paper back on the desk, and quickly grabs up the pen and inkwell.

Panel 5 - Taking the pen and inkwell, Alvin exits his father’s room again, head bowed and expression sad.

Panel 6 - Left behind, the folded paper slowly peels apart and unfolds…

Panel 7 - To reveal that the spilled ink has created a rorschach ink blot image of a titan. 

Page 12

Panel 1 - Wide shot as Alvin trudges down the streets of Hometown, alone. His head his bowed, and he’s still clutching the articles he took with him. It’s almost nighttime, and the sky is dark. “I cannot bear this kind of burden,” he says to himself.

Panel 2 - Shot from behind Alvin as he approaches the school building. It’s dark, and no students or teachers should be there. “Maybe you belong where you always have…”

Panel 3 - Now indoors, Alvin continues down the empty hallway towards a particular destination. “With the youth.”

Panel 4 - Alvin opens the door to the storage closet at the end of the hall. It opens with a soft creak. “Teaching. Telling stories,” Alvin continues to say to himself.

Panel 5 - Alvin places the fountain pen and inkwell on a small shelf in the storage closet. The closet is almost completely black. 

Panel 6 - The inkwell and pen are left on the shelf as Alvin closes the door behind him. His expression is mournful as he locks these reminders of his father away. “Inspiring someone better suited,” he says, hoping this is a suitable escape of his responsibility.

Page 13

Panel 1 - But in the storage closet, the objects are subject to something else already there: the grand Dark Fountain. The pen, ink and papers all fall into the darkness of the fountain–

Panel 2 - And start to change, the pen seemingly turning into liquid itself–

Panel 3 - As the pen falls deeper and deeper into the dark, the liquid begins to reshape into something new, something resembling a person–

Panel 4 - Until it lands on empty ground, now a person in knight’s armor, knelt over and holding his head in his hands.

Panel 5 - The Knight comes to, and starts to become more aware. He’s dressed in armor resembling the dark metallic sheen of the fountain pen, his mask resembling the pen tip. A bright deep red cape flows from his shoulders, and a single red-orange feather tops the helmet. “Where…am I?”

Panel 6 - The Knight again touches his helmet with both hands, as if not sure exactly what he is.

Panel 7 - Interior shot of the helmet, which reveals a figure much like Gerson…but much younger, more idealized-looking, with colors not matching his actual self. A Dark World interpretation. “WHY am I…?”

Panel 8 - A closeup of the Knight’s hand, slightly trembling.

Panel 9 - The Knight stares down at his own hands as realization begins to flood him, or at least something that looks like realization. “Wait. I see why. I KNOW.” he says.

 Page 14

Panel 1 - The Knight holds up his hand, and a sword appears in it in a flash of lights. The sword resembles the tip of a fountain pen, almost split neatly in two. “I serve the Lightners! That is my purpose!” Says the Knight. 

Panel 2 - The Knight draws the sword back with great fervor and determination. His thoughts echo around him in strong letters: “A purpose so bright, so clear…”

Panel 3 - In the final panel, the Knight drives the sword into the ground, causing an eruption of black ink-like material to spew from the ground…the creation of a new Dark Fountain. In the fountain itself, words reflect his purpose: “I EXIST TO GIVE THEM STORIES FOREVER.”

[haveyouseenthisskeleton]

Exhausted, Papyrus fell on his knees in the dust. It was covering everything in the room, from the floor to the ceiling. The main door was gone, like most of the windows. Thankfully, no monster tried to enter the balcony, too high. Papyrus crawled to pick up the door, still in one piece by some miracle, and put it in its place. The hinges were gone with a part of the wall, but he forced it to hold by nailing it with some planks that held the windows closed and was now on the floor.

He picked up his phone, hidden deep in his armor. His hands were still shaking with the adrenaline. Sans left about twenty messages, asking if he was fine, then warning him Frisk was gone, then asking him again if he was alright, more and more distressed as the hours went by.

Papyrus simply sent: "Alive. Frisk here." before walking to the kitchen to make sure the child was fine. Several bullets ricocheted against the closet door, but it faced the brunt efficiently. He cleared the chairs out of the way and opened the door, maybe too brutally.

Frisk screamed out of terror and threw themselves in the back of the cabinet. They curled up on themselves, hands on the head, sobbing uncontrollably. They were shaking as well.

Papyrus flinched. He saw himself at five years old, in the same position, as Sans was screaming and fighting for their lives in the living room. This was not a world to grow up. No child should ever be born in this hellish place. Bitter, he felt his soul squeezed painfully. It was his fault. He should have brought the child back to the Ruins. Frisk shouldn't have assisted to any of this.

The skeleton kneeled at their level. He never had been really talented to comfort people.

"Frisk? It's over, they're gone. You can come out."

He leaned a hand towards the human. Frisk kicked it away and tried to get as far as they could from him in the closet. Papyrus tried to stay neutral, but his face betrayed for a few seconds how much it hurt him. He didn't want Frisk to be scared of him. Not after everything they went through to protect them.

The skeleton looked around for a second and noticed a hole in the closet door. Small, but enough for a child to witness everything that happened outside. Frisk saw him slaughter attackers and end monsters on the floor without mercy. Papyrus felt guilty. He gave the child some space and sat in front of the closet, unsure what to do.

No Weakness, Chapter 3.

_______________________________________

Hello, hello!

I commissioned this masterpiece to @seirindono, a French (yeah, team French!) illustrator who works on a multi AU universe called The Missing Scarf, which is a banger. Really cool comic with lots of great characters that you really want to read. Go read it!

I wasn't sure on which fic I wanted a drawing at first, but since we already got one for Horrortale: Rotten Apple (thanks again Zeragii, love you), why not No Weakness?

It's a post-pacific Underfell fic where instead of breaking the Barrier, Sans refused Frisk to fight Asgore and brought them back in safety to Toriel. Now Papyrus, Undyne, Alphys, Mettaton, Toriel and Sans are hiding the child away, trying not to get killed.

The story however is about Undyne and Papyrus' friendship. After Papyrus surprises Undyne kissing Asgore, he is promoted to general of the Royal Guard. Except Papyrus knows something is really wrong here, since that role was obviously supposed to Undyne's. But the more he tries to understand, the more people try to dissuade him from learning more. All the hints lead to Asgore, but how to reach the monarch without getting himself killed, and by extension, those he cares the most about? Between his duty and his friendship, Papyrus will have to make a choice.

I asked for one of my favorite parts ever, which is the moment Frisk realizes how things really work in Underfell, after witnessing Papyrus committing carnage right after he got promoted to General. It's tradition :D

Anyway, if you want to read the story, it's right here. I'm on summer break right now, but new chapters are coming soon!

Thanks again to Seirindono for their amazing work, I love it so much <3 Really great artist, don't hesitate to commission them! They're really nice and pays great attention to details. It was really cool collaborating with you <3

Go send them some love!

[zarla-s]

Something I've been wondering - if I recall correctly, the brothers were aging Gaster before his fall, since a boss monster having children mean they give up their immortality.

In any of the Mercyplates, how'd he react to noticing he's aging? How'd he deal with it, no longer being immortal? How would the brothers deal with it? (And potentially even Asgore & Toriel if you're up for answering that too)

I've had this little exchange in my scripts file for ages and I never found a place to put it and also the more I thought about it the less sense it made BUT HERE IT IS ANYWAY (Gaster isn't signing on purpose)

Anyway, after he accepted that the things he'd made were actually monsters, he pretty quickly realized that he'd age as they grew, but considering he'd given up on everything except breaking the barrier at that point, he didn't really care. After getting to the surface, he still thinks about it without much emotion. On some level he'll always feel like being free isn't real and he'll wake up underground again at any moment. Dying of old age is just sort of an aspect of that.

Realizing he'll die before the goatparents is upsetting, but knowing that they're happy on the surface helps with that. He'd rather die before them than outlive them. On the whole he's very "guess i'll die ¯\_(ツ)_/¯" about it all. Dying before the brothers also doesn't bother him too much since he's sure they'll be better off without him anyway. All the signs of aging like sore joints and slowness and tremors and bad memory etc are very annoying to him though lol.

Papyrus handles it VERY badly and freaks out at any hints of him aging, and man when Gaster dies, hoo boy. Sans is pretty conflicted about it. Alphys is devastated. Asgore and Toriel are sad, but they don't really know him like they did before, so it's not as intense as it would be otherwise. They're used to outliving people. They're much more upset in Mercyplates scenarios though. :< They're familiar with the prospect of death when having children, even though they don't know WHY Gaster chose this since they don't know what he was actually trying to do. They try to empathize with him about how hard it is to face death after immortality while he just doesn't really care which confuses them, haha. Also worries them a little...

Even with both of them drawing on his SOUL's magic, I imagine that Gaster will live long enough to be around for a while even in Mercyplates scenarios. Long enough for the human to show up and do their thing at least, and for a while on the surface as well. He's got some life in him still. And who knows, maybe being reconstituted from the void did something to him that froze his aging again! Have to ask yourself which scenario appeals most to you, hehe.

[index] [patreon]

[carlyraejepsans]

I’m wording this ask so terribly sorry.

So you know sans like the back of your hand and can pinpoint inaccurate portrayals of him but is it like that for the other members of the main cast too? Are there any characters you don’t really get in that way?

the funny thing is, as much as people think of me as a sans understander, the other members of the cast being more self-contained and confined to the narrative makes them a lot easier to puzzle out and put into context. undyne, alphys, asgore, toriel and flowey specifically. their roles are so crucial and defined by undertale's story that they almost work like the gears of a well oiled machine. not only are they characters in and of themselves, but with their backgrounds being available to the player and not left to speculation, every aspect of their personality become integral to What Happens In The Story as well.

when you take sans, on the other hand, his character is still so shrouded in lore and mystery that i do NOT doubt i'm also getting a fair bit of him wrong. he's an unknowable motherfucker. i can study his voice, what we know of him, and draw patterns in his behavior all i want, but at the end of the day there's still a good chunk of context to his character that is necessarily left to speculation. of course, we do have a LOT of lore for his character, and what that lore says seems... pretty direct, at least in terms of character goals and personality (he lost some people/somewhere important to him, he tried so hard to go home, he failed. he knows about the anomaly and it basically caused an existential crisis, however his first instinct was still to empathize with it. he takes everything life throws at him in stride because he doesn't believe in a happy ending anymore. he'll hold onto anything that proves him wrong)

you know who doesn't give you anything at all though?

FUCKING. PAPYRUS.

i do NOT get that guy. honest to god. sure, i can analyze his voice all the same, his personality and actions within the story, but papyrus is just as much of a lore mystery as his brother. with papyrus though? we get NOTHING. nada! he has the most lines out of any character and they tell you nothing about him. worse than that, what little info we get about sans' life "before" has almost no repercussions on papyrus whatsoever. homesickness who? scientific background who? knowledge of the anomaly who? sure, he's surprisingly strong and really passionate about puzzle construction. you can read into those aspects, but it's not anything that ties into any of sans' deal. which makes no sense because they're brothers, they got here together! why isn't sans' obvious baggage over his past something that connects them? at this point the only thing that makes sense to me is him being an amnesiac. which ig could tie into the whole "don't forget" motif. idfk man.

but like. that being said i can still more or less track the way he behaves around the other characters, the way he relates to them, his conflicts within undertale's main story etc. that's normal story analysis and pattern recognition. he's just... a bit trickier to puzzle out than the rest of the cast. goddamn him.

[simonsoys]

Hello I’m here again with another question lol, I’ve just noticed an interesting contradiction in flowey’s statements that I hoped to know your perspective on since they always made sense

I think this made me a bit taken back since (back than) he had the ability to save and load and memorise attack patterns or even the element of surprise, but this made me pause since now I’m questioning who “everyone” is.. (sorry if this has been asked before.)

I think I always read this as Flowey being unable to kill Asgore while the Human Souls were exposed for the taking, enabling him to become Omega Flowey. But there's definitely room for me to be wrong.

I'm with you, that I think it seems unlikely Flowey *couldn't* have killed Asgore if he tried long enough. Similarly, I think the line Flowey has about Sans causing him his share of resets doesn't mean he was never able to beat him in the end.

There's two possibilities here:

1. Flowey *could* beat strong characters, but maybe if they're too tough he just gets bored and moves on. He doesn't have Frisk's determination to see it through.

Considering he's really NOT a bad person and is just trying to make sense of his trauma and current situation, it's possible he's not actually curious or sadistic enough to keep working at it. If he were getting frustrated, he'd convince himself that it wouldn't be any different than Papyrus or Toriel or Undyne-- as novel as it might be for a few minutes, he still won't feel anything.

He also seems like the type of kid to rage-quit easily lol

So even if he says he "never" could've beaten him, he definitely could have, if he had just cared a little more.

There's also the fact he's trying to rub it in your face that you're an idiot who sucks, so he could just be embellishing your necessity.

2. He *did* beat the strong characters, but without the human souls as a reward (they remain locked away/unobtainable until you come along), there's not much reason to continue the timeline.

He sees the characters die, but then nothing changes for him. He's still bored and feels empty. The timeline is just a little worse, and he still doesn't have "the answer" to his pain.

Regardless of which one is the real case, eventually he "gives up" anyway. After messing with the timelines long enough and getting bored, he seems to have just stopped. In his final timeline, he's just hanging around as a nobody in the background (except, apparently, to encourage Papyrus), not hurting anyone, until you show up.

Personally, I could go either way because it doesn't change his characterization significantly to me.

If anything, the distinction would just make Asgore seem more powerful. Perhaps against you, a human, he feels more guilt and is more vulnerable than he might've been against Flowey. I don't think we get to see enough from Asgore for me to make that analysis though.

[ppndos]

Why Papyrus is even in Undertale

And no, I'm not saying that he's not important. In fact, he's one of the most important plot devices. But why Papyrus ?

List of stuff Papyrus did for the plot :

Helped Frisk befriend Undyne

Gathered everyone in the Pacifist ending

Worldbuilding (phonecalls)

Characters' personalisation (phonecalls)

Told Frisk to go to the True Lab (phonecalls)

Basically the reason we were able to get the Pacifist ending

Quite a lot, but it all could be easily done by the others.

Befriending Undyne? Alphys. Being manipulated by Flowey? Monster kid. Info dumping on the phone? Sans.

Even among the main characters he seems a bit off.

Toriel is the caretaker of the ruins and former queen. Sans is the royal judge. Undyne is the capitan of the royal guard. Alphys is the royal scientist. Mettaton is the biggest star of the underground. Asgore is the king. Asriel (flowey) is the prince.

And Papyrus is… just some guy.

He could easily be a secondary character like Napstablook. Especially considering his lack of backstory, no character development and a skippable battle in which you can't even die.

But instead he has the biggest amount of words in the game, huge impact on the characters in all of the endings, very detaled hangout/date and a PERSONAL Q&A (also the entire Underale Q&A was centered around him).

What about Deltarune

Papyrus didn't show up in DR yet, but I can feel with my GUTS that he'll be important.

We all know that DR was in Toby's brain even before Undertale, and also we know that Bonetrousle was meant for DR.

Based on some theories about ch3, we can assume that the characters from UT actually might play some big roles in DR.

So… you can tell what I'm trying to say here, right? What if the reason why Papyrus is so important in the game AND in a lot of additional stuff is because he's going to play some role in DR and even have a character arc or be shown from unusual side.

And this “busy” is hunting me 24/7. Too suspicious.

[twinribbonz]

Warmth.

Crusade is Crossfell’s nickname.

More Cross x Crossfell mirror yaoi.

———————————————————————

A spark goes off, setting the wood ablaze with flames and warming the surrounding area. A raging blizzard is outside of the cave. The monochrome skeletons decided to make camp here for the night.

Cross finishes making a temporary bed of gathered materials. He shivers as he climbs onto it. Frosty breaths leave his mouth as he huddles down for warmth. His uniform usually did a solid job of keeping him warm, to the point where he overheated at times.

“I am freezing.” Cross curls up into a fetal position.

Crusade is leaning against the wall of the cave, arms crossed as he stares at the other. Rolling his eyelights at the complaint. “How is that my problem?”

A huff is all Cross could muster. It wasn’t worth arguing with the alternate him. He lets silence befall them.

A few minutes pass.

Crusade vaguely remembers something that he was told. It was mostly scientific nonsense that he didn’t care for. But something immediately bothered him as he dug deeper into the memory.

Monsters are meant to be hot. Due to something or other. The colder they are, the more likely they’d be to enter a fallen down state.

Cross is freezing currently. This makes Crusade quickly rise to his feet.

Removing the heavy duty cloak, he approaches the curled up Cross. Crusade drops it over him. It was better designed than that ridiculous uniform the other wears.

Cross feels a unexpected weight on him, “What are you doing-“ The sentence dies on his tongue. Crusade had joined him on the makeshift bed. Wrapping his arms around him, pulling the other flush against his chest.

The closeness is welcomed greatly. Crusade is much warmer than Cross is. Plus his cloak feels like a weighted blanket. An all too familiar warmth blossoms in his ribcage. His face heating up more as he shifts to be impossibly closer.

Crusade is much larger and bulkier than Cross. He has to be a boss monster akin to Lady Toriel and King Asgore.

The train of thought is halted suddenly. Something brushes against his back, causing Cross to squeak and looking over his shoulder.

Glancing down, “Calm down. It’s just my tail.” Crusade rolls his eyelights, a huff of amusement coming from him.

“You have an absurdly long tail.” Cross presses his face back into Crusade’s chest. His own tail much shorter in comparison.

The other feels stiff against him. His clawed phalanges ghost over Cross’ back for a moment. Before caving in, Crusade begins to soothe him with a gentle rub on his back.

This ignites a loud purr to come from Cross. Instantly, he melts in the arms of Crusade. A bright purple blush erupts across his cheekbones. He begins to mumble several apologies for showing a sign of weakness.

“Stars, just shut it,” Crusade continues to rub Cross’ back without pause. “….it’s adorable.” He admits. Cross relaxes after hearing that. Closing his eyes to get some sleep.

The duo decided not to speak what transpired last night when morning came.

[the-selfinsert]

Alright, I'm curious: Favorite Undertale character?

I've been wondering for a while about this, so I figured I should put it to science. So: here's a poll! (My favorite is Flowey, but that's just me.)

[pinkcottoncandyss]

After Yellow

What's it's story anyway?

After Yellow will not have a comic for some reasons;

I'm too lazy to do this

I have trouble thinking that nothing is good enough

To be quite honest, the comic is bad and poorly written.

There's no point in having a story made without knowing how put it into practice

But I don't want to leave my au without having it's story shared! I have a lot of affection for this, it took me a long time to write anyway.

Anyway, let's get started

What is the story of the AU?

Chara and Asriel's plan went very wrong, and while the prince returned underground, an adult with the soul of justice followed him wanting to "avenge the child" that Asriel carried in his arms.

The monsters were devastated, they lost both heirs to the throne on the same day! So his protections were down when the human attacked. Half of the population was killed, Asgore and Undyne were two of the thousands of victims. Toriel, seeing everything around her, laid down a new law; The next human to fall would be killed and their soul would be used to break the barrier. She no longer had compassion for humanity, her entire family was killed by a human! Anyway, when Frisk fell underground, he was the third human to get there.

Looking around, they had no idea where they was.

Frisk was playing in the forest when this happened and they didn't even see what they had done.

Anyway, on their way underground, they found Flowey. The flower desperately tried to feel something, but nothing worked. When he saw the human, he was initially with one foot behind, but realized it was just a... child.

Flowey decided to follow Frisk on their journey and help them get out of here. Heading to Snowding, the human met MK, also a child whose parents were victims of the massacre. They didn't remember what a human looked like, when it all happened, MK was just a baby, so they didn't realize that Frisk was one of them.

All the monsters would hide wherever the trio passed, all afraid of what the human was capable of. That's why Frisk at no point had the obligation to defend themselves against anyone. Anyway, MK guided Frisk to snowding, where Sans was. Sans was the first guinea pig with the determination experiments, and also the only one so far. He thought that what was the point of living in this place when some human could fall and kill his brother? But unfortunately, his body couldn't handle the determination within him. His bones are slowly melting and rotting from the inside out. Sans at this point can no longer walk without crutches. That's why, when he saw Frisk together with MK, he couldn't stop their journey.

The children continued walking until Watterfall, where Mad mew mew showed up! the leader of the royal guard and the second scariest woman in the entire underground (second only to the queen). She wasted no time and tried to kill the human, hunting the child with anger in her eyes. When MK tried to stop her, she told him that Frisk was a human and why she wanted to kill them. Even knowing this, MK didn't let her do anything to Frisk and helped them escape to Hotland. Unfortunately, having to stay behind.

Frisk continued their journey with only Flowey hidden in their backpack, their only company. They continued until they found a restaurant, where they met Muffet and Grillbys. Both best friends.

Grillbys helped Muffet get the spiders out of the ruins, their fire keeping them all warm until they reached Hotland, their home. They both started a restaurant together! It was a success! The food there was genuinely delicious.

Anyway, Frisk stopped for lunch there (they hadn't eaten anything since they fell underground, they was hungry). However, they was unable to eat their meal in peace, as the chief cook, Papyrus, attacked. She took that job because Mad Mew mew "didn't want weaklings in the royal guard" (her words) and kicked him out. Not letting him even want to be trained. Seeing Frisk there, a flame of hope lit up inside him! He could finally follow his dream! But of course, he couldn't kill Frisk and they both ended up becoming friends.

They both talked about various things. Papyrus mentioned a friend of his who hadn't left the house in months and even showed a photo of her to Frisk. He also gave the idea for the human to convince Toriel to repeal the law of kill humans. After a long conversation, Papyrus gave Frisk his number (even though they said that they didn't have a phone) and went to work.

Frisk and Flowey even tried to continue their journey, but some lasers blocked the way. The talking flower said there was a control panel in the lab that could make them deactivate, so they went there.

Frisk tried to open the door, but it was locked, they also tried to ring the doorbell, but no one answered. Flowey, already bored, picked up a rock and threw it at the window. The human reprimanded him, but still entered the laboratory.

when the lights came on, GOD WHAT A MESS! The laboratory stank worse than a dump, everything was overturned and spread across the floor.

Looking around, Frisk noticed that a woman was lying on the floor, it was the same woman that Papyrus had shown her. She was sleeping amidst stacks of paper and packets of snacks, her white coat was dirty yellow.

The human couldn't see everything so, against Flowey's pleas, they approached the woman and woke her up. Standing up startled, Alphys stared at Frisk for a moment before realizing what they were. The child assured her that everything was fine and that they would not hurt her. Frisk asked if she was friends with Papyrus, to which Alphys nodded and buried her face in her hands. After Undyne's death, she had entered a phase of mourning and depression. Even though Frisk was a child, they could see what was happening.

They both ended up talking, Alphys couldn't hold back her tears and even though that human didn't even know her, they helped her. At the end of the conversation, Alphys gave Frisk a cell phone and let them continue their journey.

A lot of things happened in the meantime, puzzles were solved, soldiers tried to kill Frisk, but managed to reach the palace. The queen was waiting in the garden, irritated by the human's insolence in appearing like this.

Frisk tried to talk to Toriel, but was almost hit by her scythe. The queen seemed in no mood to talk. The fight began, Frisk tried to act, talk and convince Toriel in every way, but she just ignored it. Eventually, she hit Frisk squarely, leaving them with just 1 HP. Flowey was about to intervene, but Frisk decided to just spare Toriel. And when she tried to make the last blow, she couldn't. She couldn't hurt a poor child, even a human one, they was still a child.

She fell to her knees, dropping the scythe. Toriel couldn't do that.

At the end of it all

I would like to say that I had the courage to make a sad ending, but I really couldn't

In the end, Frisk was adopted by Toriel. They and MK were officially siblings!

The law was changed, every human who fell would be a friend, not an enemy.

Mad mew mew was obviously angry with all of this, she didn't like the new terms, but she had to accept it

Alphys finally sought professional help and talked to Papyrus and MTT again

MTT got a robotic body too :D

Papyrus continues to work at the restaurant

Unfortunately, the barrier will never be broken. It takes 7 human souls to do this, something that will never happen.

Bonus; Sans and Toriel are a Canon couple here

My notes

It's really not the best thing in the world and it could be much better, but I'm satisfied and that's what matters!

If anyone has any questions, feel free to ask me.

[the-afterparty-au]

[✨*ABOUT✨]

The Afterparty AU is briefly summarized as taking place in a party within the void, lasting forever after a genocide route that was never undone. After many months of nothing but wind, our first fallen human realized the world was not going to be reverted by the player, and they stayed true to their word of Erasure. Chara however, simply getting bored decides to play a game framed as a experiment & brings back all the monsters you failed to befriend in a Genocide route back for a encore. Allowing everyone to reside in the void, a space between files & between deltarune and UNDERTALE. The amount of monsters that are happy about this is uncertain, but all of them are certainly questioning literally everything that brought them here.  (Lightly Inspired by these fanworks so, Thanks to @garbagechocolate, @djsmell & @jazze-bee for accidentally inspiring me to make a whole AU)

By; Modphys (They/them) (Main Blog & Art Blog: @kates-cave & @ryzies-ralley)  Modtaton (He/they) (Main Blog + Art Blog: @spiltmilk34 & @spoiledcheese34 | Instagram ) Papymod (She/they/he) (Main Blog + Art Blog: @theartistthatcantraw & @fail3dexp3rim3nt) Also thanking this for the text boxes haha

[*TAGS]

#ModAlphys🍍 #ModMTT🦝 #ModPapy💀 - Content from specific Mods

#OutOfVoid - General out of character posts/Asks/Announcements Etc.

#PostsFortheVoid Reblogs of any Fanart or random posts I/we might reblog

#PostsOfTheVoid Extra Content asks lore etc. not relevant to the actual plot Or announcements

#TheAfterPartyAU In universe & Main Story posts

#AskAfterparty is any asks in character

#ModsQ&A, Any Asks directly for the mods + #ModsArt is any Art Directly from the mods (not counting story)

[📋*RULES 📋]

[*Current AU Status: Active]

- No SERIOUS NSFW media. Swearing and certain (Chara Frisk & Flowey are all children) jokes are allowed but actual sexually explicit content & HARD GORE is prohibited. Plus the mods are minors 

- Harassment towards me, Or anyone of Any group, will not be tolerated

- Repeat asks will probably be ignored, sorry.

- Please Be patient, This blog does not have a schedule & updates come out when they’re ready (aim for at least 2 weeks) 

- No Magic!Anon please, While this story is a bit aimless it’s still there, plus Keep Roleplaying limited maybe. Makes my life easier.

- Technically not a hard rule but If you’re asking & have an ask blog I recommend you add your @, Love seeing other AU/Blog’s Out there in the wild!! Doesn't matter the fandom either :D 

- Probably will close the ask box if it gets too full, might cap it at 20 0r 25.

* Have funnnnn. =)

[*⚠️ *WARNINGS ⚠️]

This AU is estimated to be 15+  

While I don't plan to include shipping, it might sneak its way in here, who knows.

Swearing in Asks Is allowed plus the mod swears. (Steer clear of slurs, even if you can reclaim them.)

Scarring, Blood, Death, themes of unreality trauma & gore is around, Everyone was brought back from the dead. Additional CW for mentions Genocide considering this au is after one. 

potential mentions (& possible depictions) of suicide & Self harm, Fratricide, Mind Control (Possible Manipulation), & Divorce.

While this aims to be (kind of) joke au, General CW for potential disturbing content is out there. 

Feel Free the DM With any warnings I missed & should include

[*ACT - ASK] - ASK BOX STATUS [OPEN]

*Chara - 💔 *Frisk - ♥️ *Toriel - 🔥 *Papyrus - 💀 *Mad Mewsy - 💢 *The Undying - 🦈 *Muffet - 🕷️ *Mettaton NEO -  👾 *Sans - 🦴 *Asgore - 🔱 *Flowey 🌻

 DNI LIST

Homophobes, Terfs, LGBTQIA+Phobic, Racists, Xenophobes, Pro shippers, Anti-Anti's, Misogynists', Cancel Culture & Cringe Culture, NSFW/18+Blogs, Abelists, Zoophiles, Anti Semitism, Hate speech, MAPS/Pedos, Discourse Blogs, AI supprters, Y’know the basic DNI criteria stuff  (Just don't be a dick man this feels dumb to make.)

[*LINKS – 📎]

Beginning - N/A

Arcs  - N/A

Character Sheets - N/A

Most Recent - N/A 

[acerikus]

G o d. All gekkos' outertale posting makes me wanna talk more in depth about the characterisation and plot issues in this game and why they bother me...

(readmore bc holy fuck this got long, it's probably like 5k words. It's also pretty much all salt, categorised by character)

Toriel

Why. Why is she like this. Kinda feels like the creator of the game hates her and if they don't, they have a weird way of showing it. She's treated as overdramatic and unjustified in her anger at asgore despite the fact that he DID declare war on humanity and he DID willingly let the people believe he was killing human children to harvest their souls. Even if he didn't do it for real in this game, she has every right to be angry and to not trust him, and it CERTAINLY doesn't make her undeserving to be a mother or whatever. Idk about you, but I don't think wanting kids to stay away from a man yelling about wanting to kill every child that crosses him makes you a bad parent, even if it turns out he didn't really hurt anyone y'know?

They also REALLY zoned in on 'mother' with her in a way that doesn't really make sense here. I could maybe see her feeling guilty for making a snap judgement but how would that call her motherhood into question?

Sans saying isolation messed with her makes no sense too!!!! The outerlands or whatever they called the ruins isn't sealed off in this game, other monsters seem way less intimidated by her in this game than in undertale (she has friends! She knows sans by name and goes to napstablook's shows and even has their phone number!), and we outright get told she takes the taxi to get her groceries... Meaning she headed off to the rest of the outpost and probably does that often enough.

All things considered, Toriel seems fairly well adjusted in outertale, at least by outertale standards. Kinda then makes it feel like everyone's just trying to convince her she's hysterical and that... Sucks.

Also the fact that they added an ending where you stay with her and framed it as a bad ending that doomed everyone is... Really mean? It sucked ass I'm sorry :/

Sans

... Why is he like this. This take on Sans is absolutely infuriating tbh. The only positive I really have here is that his puns are kinda good, I've seen fangames that fuck up this element massively and it was kinda fun to see his interactions in starton.

Okay, back to salt. His whole 'i became a sentry to help humans' thing is trash. He didn't care about that in ut! He didn't care about that at all! The only reason he looks out for frisk is because he made a promise to toriel, and he hates breaking promises. He didn't want to let down his friend.

...Huh. realising this is yet another case of Toriel disrespect somehow. Yet another thing they took from her, that they then just... Handed over to sans instead. :/

His lack of backstory. Look, I get wanting something silly, but they took almost everything that makes sans interesting away. Not hyperfocusing on sans like certain aus do is nice, but it feels like in a lot of situations in this game they overcompensated by a long shot.

No mysterious past/origins. We know he worked with alphys I guess but???? Honestly I have a LOT to rant about for that part so I'll leave it for twinkly's section. And yet despite all this, Sans inexplicably bleeds in tpe when not even undertale has that happen? Make up your mind!

His role in non Asriel chaotic also... Sucks ass. I'm in a pretty awesome corner of the fandom in terms of the people I follow and the takes I see as a result, so if I'm honest, when I saw all those posts about 2024 fanon sans being indifferent to his brother's murder, I kinda just figured they were vaguing about this game. You're telling me that sans of all people just shrugs off you killing everyone and complains a little bit before letting you pass?! He should know alphys already ran off. He should know the only person left to stop you is asgore, and that it's obvious he won't. Part of this could be connected to how frisk is written perhaps, and much like the twinkly situation, I'll have much more to say on that further down.

I understand the creator didn't wanna have a sans fight in their game - however, if that's the case... Maybe come up with a reason for him to NOT show up in the last corridor, then? Have him busy helping with evacuations or something, or already dead like in the first chaotic ending... This was just sloppy.

Papyrus

Honestly he wasn't... Terrible. The phonecalls were fun even if most were cheap references (though they can be fun in fangames sometimes so I'm not mad at this lol). Him being extremely talented at making spaghetti is just one symptom of one of this game's biggest flaws, however. I really don't like how nobody's really allowed to be bad at anything or have any real struggles in this game - especially when spaghetti in undertale is used to demonstrate his relationship with undyne and the similar wavelength they're on when humans aren't involved. She's the one who started teaching him to cook it, it's deeply intertwined with his desire to be a royal guard, and it's something they suck at together. Him just inexplicably being good at it is... Weird, and feels really disconnected from their friendship and her reluctance to let him in the guard yknow?

Also: his boss final phase. Having the dog NOT take his special attack away this time was really funny admittedly but... Idk? Not only is the fight really unfair for pacifist/neutral and those who aren't as good at the game (ut never gets this hard outside of geno), it feels way too on the nose in terms of insisting he's strong and has powerful attacks. Undertale didn't need to overcompensate to get across that papyrus is strong and disciplined and the way you have to infer that in undertale is way cooler. I might just be nitpicking with this point tbh but it's whatever. Letting myself be a hater for once.

And don't get me started on him getting together with Mettaton. It seemed to come out of absolutely nowhere, the idea that they were already friends in this was glossed over really quickly and no time was really put into developing the relationship save for papyrus commenting on finding him attractive every few minutes.

Gotta be honest, I've never been a fan of this ship nor understood its popularity. Papyrus very briefly mentions thinking he's attractive in undertale, but it doesn't really go anywhere and I'm not even sure mettaton knows he exists. It feels like it was just kinda added because it's a popular ship and that's it, not sure it really contributes much to either of their arcs. It was a light-hearted celebrity crush in canon and never really tried to be more.

Oh, oops. Had more to say here than I thought.

Undyne

Not much to say here... I think she was okay, there's nothing super bad with her. I do think the way gerson kinda downplays her/lacks faith in her in the chaotic route kinda sucks and I think choosing to make her non-undying chaotic bossfight harder sure was A Choice, but it's whatever. Undying was weirdly easy in a way that didn't do her much justice. Honestly they didn't do enough with her for me to have a wall of complaints and I can't tell if that's a good thing or not. Her relationship with alphys didn't really amount to much and her lack of understanding of human culture doesn't really hit as hard when she's just talking about random sci-fi things that we have no way of knowing are real or not in this game's idea of the 2600s ourselves, y'know? Her love of anime (that she mistakenly thinks is human history) is pretty absent here except to validate her relationship with alphys in a very shallow way.

The Ghost Family

Hoo boy... Was gonna make this the mettaton section, but I wanted to talk about napstablook at the same time, so I'm just gonna lump them all together.

What. What the hell was this plotline.

It feels like they tried to go for 'smalltime farmer chases passion for stardom after feeling unfulfilled at home' and as I've seen someone else say, 'shy business owner struggles to talk to their cousin outside of work'. This would've been fine tbh, but... There's a lot of things in the execution of this that kinda grossed me out if I'm honest. I don't think they were intentional, but I think it could've been thought through a lot better to avoid some unfortunate implications - or even lean into them in a respectful way.

Firstly, the ghost family intervention was pretty long, awkward, and didn't feel like it really added much - especially when most people playing would already know mettaton's backstory anyway (and his house is still accessible like in undertale!!!!! What was the point?)

Mettaton airing out his family issues on live TV feels very ooc - he keeps that stuff very close to his chest and I doubt he'd like it getting out. Him entertaining any of that out in the open seems... Weird.

Speaking of the intervention, his cousins' treatment of him was horrifying! Part of it seems intentional and it's nice that there's at least one part in the game where characters are allowed to have flaws and do bad things but... There's also elements that feel like you're meant to agree with them? Their insistence that mettaton just come home and everything they did in the past with constantly badgering him to come and help out on the farm were rightfully treated as something that hurt mettaton's feelings and that gave napstablook and the others pause. That's (mostly, we'll come back to it later) fine. He called them out for it and they reflected on it, cool. The way his ghost form was utilised makes me extremely uncomfortable, however.

Napstablook talks about hearing 'the real [mettaton]' in the recording, right to his face, 'the real mettaton' in this scenario alluding to his ghost form. Considering mettaton is a trans allegory, this feels... Kinda gross? In a similar vein, when passing mettaton's quiz barriers, one of the questions is 'what is mettaton's true identity' and you have the option to deadname him (using a name papyrus literally just made up in undertale rather than having any kind of creativity ofc) Alphys' reaction is simply to ask how you know that which... Doesn't feel great. The correct answer is 'mettaton' ofc thankfully, but everything around this particular plot point feels weird. Maybe don't do that w the most prevalent trans allegory character..?

And ofc, they keep insisting he just come home, go back to working on the farm, go back to his family... Idk, gives me vibes of someone abandoning their shitty transphobic family and then insisting they want to see 'the real [deadname] again' and for them to abandon their new life and just go back to the way things were before. Not good.

All of this would still be okay for the most part since the ghost family are painted as being unfair to mettaton... But in true pacifist, he goes back to helping out with the farm anyway and talks about how he thinks he was probably just being dramatic after all, and how 'blooky didn't do anything that bad'

... What?

It takes me right back to Toriel's treatment. Napstablook, Maddie and lurksalot gave no real thought to mettaton's feelings, made it all about them and showed pretty much no support for his transition nor his career! Fuck those guys! It's funny - mettaton is pretty consistently a pompous asshole (affectionate) in undertale but here, I think all his feelings towards his family were COMPLETELY valid. Mettaton outertale didn't do anything wrong.

Lurksalot didn't feel like they contributed much to the story either, save to be yet another character treating mettaton like shit with zero consequences nor narrative judgement. They just made every ghost family event even more drawn out.

And then ofc!!!! Mettaton and Alphys' friendship is so bland in this game! They're two people who kinda know each other and she says some nice things about him in a letter in chaotic but that's about it. Their friendship and the subsequent conflict frisk's arrival brings to it in undertale is the heart of hotland and the core, but here it's just replaced with unnecessary, hard to watch, boring family drama. The two of them have no issues to work out. She doesn't ask too much of him. There's no funny quips and barely any chemistry at all. God forbid either of them have any real flaws.

One last thing: I'm glad maddie gets her mew mew body, it's nice. Wish it was an on-screen moment or something alluded to more though. Some of that time dragging out the family drama could've been used on that instead, y'know? Especially with napstablook getting the mew mew doll... Genuinely thought they were gonna show it to her when they first got hold of it, rather than dragging Frisk into their intervention. She should've gotten to be more mad, too. Kinda a big part of her identity.

Oh, and mettaton's no-asriel chaotic fight was bullshit. It was a nice spamton reference and the first phase was cool, but the second was utter bullshit and dragged out the fight way too long. Attacking him after snapping all the wires should've killed him im sorry. It's even more of a shame bc I genuinely really liked this game's mettaton neo fight - it was fun and creative and felt possible.

Holding myself back from adding any more to this bc I could go on and on, ugh.

Alphys

Alphys. For a game that tries to make her the star of it, it's actually kinda impressive how much they managed to take away from her and just how uninteresting she is in this game.

At the surface level she's awesome, powerful, and the star of the show. In my first playthrough I was actually pretty happy to see her thriving like this! The more routes I played and the more I thought about it though they just kinda... Declawed her. Took away all her flaws. Made her 'perfect' in a way that I don't think works at all.

The amalgamates never happened. None of her experiments went wrong. She never hid away from her mistakes, or lied to anyone (save for keeping Asgore's secret, which she has no negative feelings about), nor did she over engineer any situations to make herself seem cooler. She doesn't argue with Mettaton! She's confident and assertive! She's Asgore's right hand woman and next in line for the throne! And ofc, the badass final boss! What's not to love?

...But none of this is Alphys, is it?

Her anxiety isnt just because of the determination experiments, it's pretty clear she's always been a pretty shy and nervous person. In fact, based on her entries they were one of the things she was more confident in before it all went wrong. People are hard, but she knows science, y'know?

She doesn't get to be flawed or interesting - despite her presence, she's just a generic cool scientist who's suave with the ladies, I guess..?

She isn't particularly dorky, shes overly confident, she has zero issues to work through. Her relationship with undyne is perfect (derogatory) and her infodumping about anime just before the archive feels very forced, like they remembered last minute that she does that and thought it should be included somehow.

Depicting what she'd be like in a scenario where the determination experiments never happened is a fun and interesting idea! But deltarune demonstrates how to do that well, and I think they completely missed the mark. The way she talks, her body language, the way she acts around others in general... These things are universal constants and yet in outertale, she's basically a different person entirely.

Outertale alphys isn't allowed to lie (save to cover for asgore Secretly Being A Good Person), she isn't allowed to miscalculate, she isn't allowed to mis-speak or make mistakes or do anything she'd regret. She feels like an alphys written by someone who hates her in canon and thinks all her flaws make her terrible and unlikable. I doubt this is the case since I don't think a person like that would've given her such prevalence, but that's the level of love and attention I feel was given to her writing here. It makes me sad.

And, of course... The DT experiments and her fight.

... Why did she have vials of determination if all the humans are alive? Did she take it from them? If so, was this before or after they went into stasis? We know she's not been the royal scientist for long in relation to how long humans have been falling, so did ROMAN take the determination? How much of this did she even DO?

Why did she and sans even DO anything with determination? It... Doesn't really make sense.

Speaking of determination, why did she melt at the end of her fight? I'd assume she's injected herself with determination as one of the vials in her lab is mentioned to be partially used, but I'm pretty sure it's also like this on pacifist. Was that overlooked? Are we just meant to assume it's MORE depleted? Does she just have natural determination now because She's So Cool And Badass? This isn't even really a complaint about the fight, more just how poorly that part of her lab is handled lmao

But getting into her fight... Idk, it didn't really feel like her. A lot of it was just random bullshit that was hard for the sake of being hard, that didn't really seem to be tied to her identity very well at all. People complain a lot about the Zenith Martlet fight in undertale yellow but that's done far better than this, imo. It clearly reflects martlet's character, personality and canonical bullet patterns (we see Alphys' in ut tpe!), there's a genuine feeling of progression in the fight and the act you're given to help with the fight feels more effective - you can still damage her on her turn, so taking a turn to heal act doesn't feel like a waste. The Asriel acts though... They just don't last long enough to feel that worth it? Sure they're okay, but in general, you get a lot less time to breathe. Martlet's fight lets you retry from phase 2 if you die. Sans' in undertale gives you as many turns as you need to heal while he's sparing you. Alphys' fight just feels like it's made to feel un-fun and painful throughout in a way that just isn't worth it, and doesn't really feel like it fits her personality either, y'know? The fight was just a slog and like many others, I had zero motivation to finish it legit. I don't think it helps that the undyne and mettaton fights in this route are fairly easy and simple in comparison.

Tldr: they took away everything that makes alphys endearing, fun and interesting. This isn't alphys at all.

Asgore

A huge chunk of this essay accidentally got deleted, including my first attempt at writing this section. In it, I mentioned that the Asgore apologism went way too far.

This time though, I don't think I'd even call it that. Reflecting on it, it feels less like an attempt to defend him and more like a way to hate on and spite Toriel.

Seriously. So much of his character basically just feels like someone going 'fuck you toriel. I'm giving EVERYTHING to asgore.'

It's... Really weird?

Asgore having a way out of killing humans is an interesting concept! Outertale takes place 500 years in the future compared to undertale, so the idea that they have the resources and technology to do that is kinda cool and in theory, exploring this idea sounds really fun. In practice though, it feels like it was mostly done to make Toriel out to be an asshole for no reason and to laugh at her for ever assuming he would've really killed anyone (despite... Y'know. Telling everyone that's what he was doing.)

He just. Completely moved on from Toriel without a second thought seemingly, and doesn't even look that affected by seeing her turn up again - meanwhile SHE'S got crumpled up tea recipes in the trash and all the Sad Divorced Energy - it doesn't really fit either of them! Toriel wasn't really given a reason to miss him like that, and I think even if he DID fully move on, he'd be way happier to see her than that.

All his leading statements on how she must feel in LV1 pacifist sucked ass also, especially with the way she kinda just agreed that yeah, she feels like shit for not trusting that he'd suddenly do a 180 and not hurt anyone (AGAIN. AFTER HE CONTINUED TO LET EVERYONE BELIEVE THIS) and that she must feel unworthy of being a mother. She hadn't even said half of this in front of him yet! He put words in her mouth! That in itself would be fine (social blunders are pretty normal for asgore after all) but it... Wasn't treated like that. It was handled as if this was a sweet and compassionate thing for him to say which... Yikes.

And ofc he gets to adopt frisk, and monster kid, and get to have Asriel live with him! His fatherhood is never called to question in undertale, but ofc Toriel's motherhood has to be here. Hell, despite their divorced status, if you talk to gerson in tpe it's highly implied frisk asks if asgore would start aging again if he became their dad! Idk, all of this part just reeked of Toriel hate and nothing more. Asgore is just yet another character to get sanded down and de-clawed and it sucks. So much of what makes him interesting is his mistakes and flaws and how they impact him, y'know?

Twinkly

I wanna start this by saying I don't think his writing is too bad. It's not amazing by any means but by outertale standards, he's one of the better written characters. That being said, Flowey is my favourite character of all time so I'm still gonna be critical.

So they did save the goat. Save the goat aus really aren't my thing nowadays - I feel like so often people act like he's a separate person to Flowey entirely and act like the alarm clock app dialogue doesn't exist. Asriel didn't end the story as a doomed tragedy fated to fade away! Flowey ended the story as someone who finally got closure on the loss of his best friend, and can finally learn to move on, even if it takes him a while to adjust. I don't think he needs to be a goat again for that.

That being said, I know these kinda aus are a big wish fulfilment thing for a lot of the fandom that aren't even necessarily something people want to be canon as much as they just wanna explore the idea and see him truly happy, so I won't judge that element too harshly. People are allowed to have fun, and I think save the goat can be fine if it respects him as flowey rather than separating them.

I really like that they allow Asriel to be fucked up and an asshole rather than him soft rebooting into some Sweet Perfect Little Prince once he returns to his old form, like so many other save the goat takes. Even in lv0's ending he struggles to bite back insults and mean comments aimed at Monster Kid which is... Admittedly kinda refreshing! There's definitely some flowey (or I guess in this case, twinkly) behaviour that still comes through here and I'm glad. This carried over to chaotic, too. While his characterisation wasn't perfect, this at least felt like twinkly obtaining a few form and continuing to play with the world, rather than your standard Asriel take. I also really liked that he remembers and acknowledges chaotic if done before pacifist, that was neat and adds to his character (as far as this game goes) I think.

However, onto the biggest, glaring issue I have with him.

Why. Why does he exist.

No, seriously.

In its attempt to make the world perfect, a world that blatantly only exists so the creator could make a save the goat ending, mind, there's no reason for the goat to need to be saved at all. Nor for him to exist after dying back when Chara lived with the dreemurrs.

Asgore isn't killing humans, so the souls don't need to be absorbed by anyone. Frisk can just enter the archive and lend their power to destroy the forcefield themselves, so there's no ultimatum like there is in undertale - there's no implied tradeoff of Frisk's life for the freedom of monsters without twinkly's intervention. In undertale, flowey's messing around opened up an ending that would've otherwise been impossible, something that worked for everyone.

Without him existing at all here, frisk could've broken the barrier just fine. All it really added to pacifist was a couple extra boss fights and asgore being dead for two minutes. And him being saved I guess but again, there's no real story justification for him being here EXCEPT to pat yourself on the back for saving him.

Why was he created? In undertale it's pretty clear - they wanted a vessel to hold all the souls in for now during the true lab experiments. He exists because Alphys selected the first flower to ever grow in the garden and injected it with determination that she extracted from the human souls.

... But all the humans are... Alive and well in outertale? They don't need a vessel to contain their souls. They don't need to extract any determination from anyone. Again, why do they HAVE vials of determination? And why did she inject one into a flower?

AND THAT'S THE OTHER BIG THING. It's established she and sans injected a starling flower for... Whatever reason. SO WHY THE HELL IS TWINKLY A CARTOON STAR?!

This point makes absolutely no sense at all. He looks absolutely nothing like a starling flower nor does he behave like a flower at all, which is confusing if that's what he started as. Honestly, I think it would've made more sense to just keep him as Flowey if they were gonna include him at all, and just have his appearance reflect a starling flower instead of a golden flower.

This applies to his fight too. Mechanically I think it's AWESOME, but the visuals are... Just very very boring. A huge part of why his fight in the original is so good it's the bizarre and chaotic nature of it, the horror elements, and the way so much of flowey's trauma in terms of how he was created and the things he finds scary was put on blast for all to see. The combination of mechanical and organic elements, all the plants and insects... Idk, just going 'hmm he's a star. Let's have him go through a star life cycle' is boring, there's no visual appeal.

If his creation is so vague and wishy washy, this would've been a great opportunity to flesh it out more. How was he created? What kinds of technology and machinery did alphys use to put all this together? How did she (or roman????? unclear) get the determination? What does twinkly remember?

That leads me onto a tangentially related topic - his trauma. I... Don't think this was shown very well. He talks a bit about BEING traumatised from the lab, but telling isn't the same as showing and canon flowey is terrible at hiding it, whereas I'd just as easily believe outertale Asriel made it up for sympathy points. He never really projects, he doesn't force anyone else to experience anything like he did, nothing like that. He's just a cocky asshole who likes killing, and who eventually decides to start being nice.

This game constantly seemed to be speedrunning ways to get him from being twinkly to being Asriel as quickly as possible in almost every single route which... Huh???? It's weird. Would've been nice to let him be a star more rather than just Asriel...

(final amendment bc I lost a huge chunk of this essay originally and had to rewrite it, and I'm realising I didn't manage to fit this in this time... How does a single monster soul let him get his Asriel form again? Sure he's still treated as if soulless and it doesn't make him a good person, but if he was 'so tired of being a star', why hadn't he tried doing this sooner? It makes no sense...)

For a game that exists to give him a good ending, it's so ironic how little he needs to exist at all in this world. Just goes to show what it looks like when you go too far with 'fixing' things or removing stuff you seem 'too problematic' for the sake of being wholesome or whatever.

Chara

Speaking of which... Look I'm just gonna say it. This version of Chara sucks so bad.

Chara is one of my favourite characters - they're really interesting, morally grey, and a fascinating way for undertale as a game to interface with us as players.

They're a child who likely saw the worst of humanity, then found themselves in a home with family who genuinely loved them once they fell down and met the monsters. Their intense saviour complex made them feel like the best way to help their family was to sacrifice their own life to get enough souls to break them free (and once they realised they had control, get payback against the humans while they were at it). They could be mean-spirited and a prankster. They valued efficiency HIGHLY. Their favourite number was nine because it's the limit, the absolute, a way to stop hurting and to stop others hurting.

And by doing geno, you can push this fixation on stats further. Max out all your stats. Gain power. Get stronger. Become invincible. Nobody can hurt any more if the world is gone. And ofc, they stand as the final arbiter of consequences for the player. Your punishment for killing everyone and for pushing them into believing it needs to be completed. Chara both IS is and is separate from us in a way that can't really be fully disentangled and it's really, really cool.

Anyway, enough gushing about undertale Chara. What's outertale Chara in comparison?

... Nothing.

They're nothing.

Outertale Chara narrates occasionally. They're a ghost that follows frisk around, but aren't confined to that, and have been actively wandering the underground since their death. They also still have a SOUL for some reason? This part doesn't really make sense at all.

Other than sacrificing themself and maybe wanting to take out a few humans after Asriel absorbs them, they don't do anything that could be considered bad ever. The most devious thing they ever do is snatch Asriel's diary to leave a silly comment in there when they first arrive at the outpost (sans does this with Toriel's phone in undertale tpe for comparison lmao). Despite what Asriel seems to believe, Chara is completely absent from the chaotic route - never getting corrupted, never caring about our stats, never wanting to hurt anyone, never even trying to make us face any consequences. They're just... Not here. For a character so prevalent in the murder based route of undertale this is fucking wild.

They all but vanish if you so much as say something slightly mean to someone, too! It's strange, makes no sense, and just like with sans, it feels like they overcompensated waaaaaaay too much for the people who insist they're evil. On top of that, if you do chaotic before lv0, they don't even remember chaotic happening! They'd may as well have just been a member of the ghost family who likes following Frisk around when they're especially nice. Like Asgore and alphys, they've been sanded down and de-clawed to be 'wholesome' and 'perfect', and it just results in a bland, boring character who loses anything that made them interesting, nuanced and fun.

'Chara wasn't the greatest person'... Why, though? They don't have enough substance in this game for that line to really have as much impact.

Frisk

I'm gonna be honest - I actually ADORED their frisk at first, and I think that's because I started with a neutral run and ended up drawing them a lot. They felt silly and mischievous and interesting, and this continued into chaotic. They seem pretty chill with what's going on but then take that even further by being hilariously affectionate with Asriel and still doing silly things like being up for picking up the electrodampening fluid or drinking directly out of the fountain. They felt like a funny little mini-kris (save for being okay with all the murder ofc).

Then uhhhhhhh... That's when I experienced the second chaotic ending, the one without Asriel, as well as lv0. I feel like they definitely DID try to lean on the Kris angle on purpose in terms of their feelings on being controlled and stuff but it???? Just doesn't work very well? There's no ambiguity to this version of frisk once you've seen all the routes. Just like EVERYONE ELSE, they're just a perfect little angel who would never do anything wrong and anything past lv0 is just the eeeeeevil player influence or whatever. Come on, we have deltarune for that kinda approach to control 😭 (though even then, Kris is a layered and interesting character who isn't goodness and innocence personalised, and that's why they're cool)

In undertale, we have no idea what frisk is like as a person. WOULD they spare everyone without our influence? Would they kill? Would they be a scared child lashing out in self defense? Would they run from everything, then give up and let themselves die permanently somewhere? We just don't know! We're not supposed to know! It feels like it went back to the very early fandom interpretation where frisk is Good And Sweet and Innocent while Chara is evil incarnate - except this time they're BOTH the former.

It's a contradiction too! Why in the Asriel chaotic route are they so down to follow him, and pet him, and hug him every chance they get if they don't like all the stuff we're making them so? The player has no influence over Twinkly. Every single thing he did, he chose to do, and yet even if the only time frisk has seen him was him destroying their mercy button and forcing them to kill for him, they seem to love him to pieces and go along with whatever he says happily. What.

I feel like they didn't know what to do with Frisk here at all and it shows.

Other characters

This has been ridiculously long, but to quickly go over non-major characters... They did very few things to make Roman seem interesting, the amount of stuff hes implied to have helped Asgore with just reduces even further any influence or impact alphys had, and (a smaller nitpick)... Why didn't he use times new roman as a font when we DID see him speak in the archive/on the signal stars? It's such a missed opportunity...

Burgerpants was fun... Kinda. Developing him like this feels like something that should've happened DURING the actual game rather than before it though because it made him feel like a whole other person entirely? The poisoned food was very funny though.

Why is Snowy now Stardrake when his dad hasn't changed at all and Crystal looks like any other snowdrake? That was bizarre.

I actually really liked the humans! Establishing them as actual characters was really fun, and I especially like justice. Justice, at least in my opinion, is probably the most interesting character in this whole game tbh - someone who tried to do good but ultimately caused more harm than good, while NOT downplaying it, showing the consequences directly, and showing them work to try to make things better. The way we don't grab their item like the others in the twinkly fight nor go through an area for them in the archive (and just talk to them instead) really adds to their intrigue - what are they like? Who did they know? Is there something they don't want us to see? How are they strong enough to not need us to grab their weapon at all to lend their help? I think it's get funny that the only character I'm fully praising is the clover-adjacent one. Justice outertale they could never make me hate you

(that being said... seeing the way this game is clearly just supposed to be a 'fix' for undertale does sour my thoughts on the humans a little. did they only do this bc they thought them NOT being full characters in ut was bad/a problem with it? 🥴 This applies to the additional monster kid story focus too).

Speaking of monster kid... Them being an orphan was clearly just a plot device to give asgore more kids and therefore feel like he won more than Toriel. Monster kid in undertale seems like they probably did have real and loving parents, and they have a sister too!!!! Would've been nice if they'd at least done something with their sister :(

This got... Way longer than I expected, so I'll stop here. But outertale definitely gave me an even bigger appreciation for other ut fangames. My gripes with deltatraveler section 3 feel much smaller in comparison now, if tsus misses the mark on Flowey later down the line they've at least already done most characters so much more justice, and it really puts into perspective all the heart and soul that went into kissy cutie, as well as its genuine love got the source material and characters.

Sorry outertale, you weren't for me. That being said, if anyone disagrees with any of this then that's fine! These are all just my opinions and feelings on it after going through all the routes and talking about it with friends. Media is always gonna resonate with different people in different ways and that's a good thing! If your perspective on any of this is different and if you had way more fun with it, I'm glad you did and I genuinely wish I could've felt the same. I feel like at the very least, making it has probably been a great learning experience for the devs and I really hope they carry on making games and improving their skills. Hope y'all are thriving and having fun regardless 💙

[lynxgriffin]

Eldritchrune - Dreemurr of Jokes

1 | 2 | 3

Story Setup Eldritchrune Masterpost

Toriel stops by Sans' shop for some goods, and for some more cheery distractions! Unfortunately, all this time later, it's still too difficult to escape reminders of what's been done.

It was fun finally getting to do some stuff with Sans in this universe! The last part for this trio of scenes will be up sometime next week!

Alt text for these pages is under the read more:

Page 1 Panel 1: Interior shot of a small store, with displays of goods, loose plywood, sacks of things. Two circular woven hangings bracket the door through which Toriel enters, a heavyset woman in a polka-dotted dress with a basket over her arm. Sans watches her enter, though we see only the back of his head. 

Panel 2: Toriel enters the shop and we see more displays, mostly food. There are large potted trees as well, and the shop’s counter, draped in patterned cloth and decorated with candles. Toriel: “Well, hello again. I was wondering if you had-” Sans, a jovial, bearded man dressed in loose robes and always smiling, waves a hand and cuts her off. “Hold on, you hear that?”

Panel 3: “...Hear what?” Toriel asks, nonplussed. Up close, her face is soft but distressed.

Panel 4: Sans leans over his slightly messy counter, still grinning. “I HERB that you needed some more cinnamon cloves, and look what I have here!” He offers a handful of herbs. Up close, the cuffs on his robe sleeves are patterned with little bones.  

Panel 5: “Just what I needed! How did you guess?” Toriel exclaims, reaching out with a real smile to accept the herbs. She and Sans are framed by other mysterious shop wares- jars of things, open sacks, rolled-up mats. Things you might find in an open-air desert market. 

Page 2 Panel 1: Sans: “Was just thinking it’d been awhile since I saw you making the neighborhood rounds with some of those pies of yours… Figured you were planning to start this month’s soon!” Sans gestures up at Toriel in explanation. 

Panel 2: Toriel smirks, setting down a handful of coins.  “And perhaps hoping that I would stop by your place first with them?” Sans: “I pride myself on my forward thinking, y’know.” His grin is conspiratorial as he leans towards her and he taps his temple with one finger. 

Panel 3: Toriel, eyes sad despite her smile: “All right. How about this: Tell me a good joke, and you have my word you will have the first and freshest one.”

Panel 4: Sans: “Just a good joke?” He raises an eyebrow. 

Panel 5: Toriel clutches her chest- we don’t see her eyes. “I find myself in desperate need of levity these days.” 

Panel 6: Sans waves his hand as if to keep her from feeling like she need say more, scratching his chin in thought with the other.  “Sure, I got one…” 

Page 3 Panel 1: Sans, with the smug grin of someone about to tell a terrible pun: “Why was the empire soldier happy to get demoted to horse groomer?” Toriel, with her hand on her chin in thought: “I do not know, why?” 

Panel 2: Sans shrugs widely like the answer is obvious. “Because he finally had STABLE employment!” 

Panel 3: Toriel laughs in genuine delight, although maybe a little harder than expected. 

Panel 4: Toriel: “Thank you, I needed that.” She smiles a relieved little smile. Sans: “No problem. So hey, aside from the pie… Can I maybe get an invite to those little get-togethers I see some folks around here doing once a month?” He steeples his fingertips together. 

Panel 5: San’s dialogue continues: “I’m so curious as to what goes on then!” We only see Toriel, though, shocked and dismayed. She’s thinking of the Ritual gatherings- townspeople gathered in their robes and animal masks- reindeer, fish, but most centrally, the goat masks she and Asgore wear. 

Panel 6: Toriel: “Unless you are completely enraptured by tedious talk of planting schedules and building repairs, I believe I can sate your curiosity by saying you would find them quite boring.” She waves a hand in front of her, dismissing the thought- her expression is once again drawn and weary. 

Page 4 Panel 1: Toriel turns to leave, waving goodbye. “You should look forward to your well-earned pie more!” 

Panel 2: Sans gives her a slightly skeptical look. “Alright.” is all he says. 

Panel 3: As she leaves, Toriel looks down and sees for the first time a small statue set by the door, surrounded by candles- it’s not a merchandise display, more like an altar. The statue is a horned figure holding a bowl filled with greenery- an offering of some type. The figure is rounded like a sitting child, and simple, with closed eyes and little other detail. 

Panel 4: Toriel’s dialogue over a close up shot of the figure: “What an interesting little figure you have. It does not look like it is for sale, is it?” The little horned one has three toes and four fingers on its stubby little arms and legs, and a detail on its forehead that could be a suggestion of hair, or it could be a symbol. The pillar candles surrounding it have been burned enough to have long wax drips pooled around them. 

Panel 5: Sans: “Nah, that’s just a holdover from my home country. Supposed to help keep demons out of your space.” He seems uninterested in this bit of lore, but Toriel, still facing away, is wide-eyed and shaken.

Panel 6: Toriel whirls back to him, sweating. “I-Is that so?” 

Panel 7: Sans’s expression intensifies, eyebrows dropping dramatically. “Sure thing. You know what happens when demons get in your grain stores?” 

Page 5 Panel 1: “They’re OATsolutely RYE-ined!” Sans holds his hands wide, like he’s waiting for the rimshot effect. It’s almost like his shop counter and back wall are suddenly a stage. 

Panel 2: Toriel hides a giggle behind her hand, relieved. 

Panel 3: “Is that something you have had to deal with previously?” she asks, stepping a little closer in her interest. Sans makes a slight gesture of dismissal. “Nah, I don’t really go in for that sort of stuff, honestly.”

Panel 4: Sans: “My brother, though… He’s all in on charms and wards and that sort of thing.” He gestures up, as if to point to wherever it is in the town that his brother might be now. 

Panel 5: “Keeping customs from your home country, I suppose?” Toriel asks, drawn again into the shop and closer to Sans. “Something like that,” he responds, leaning forward on his counter. On the wall next to him, there’s another woven wall hanging like the ones over the door.  Toriel: “Do you have any customs that have a reverse effect?” 

Panel 6: Sans looks as skeptical as one can while constantly grinning. “You mean like, if you want demons in your house?” 

Page 6 Panel 1: Toriel puts a hand up in denial. “N-No, that would obviously be undesirable! I meant more… just out of curiosity about your home.” 

Panel 2: Sans stares up at her, for a beat of silence. 

Panel 3: “Maybe? Again, this stuff isn’t my thing.” He leans back in his chair with his hands behind his head, nonchalant as can be. “And anyways, we left our country for a reason. Old customs aren’t relevant in this town, y’know?” 

Panel 4: Toriel once again turns to go, with a rueful smile. “Maybe not… but I cannot imagine letting go of your entire history.”

Panel 5: Sans shrugs and looks away. “There’s worse things to let go of, honestly.” 

Panel 6: Toriel, gritting her teeth, thinks of a happier time tucking Kris into bed. 

Panel 7: Close on Toriel’s expression, now more haggard and pained than it was when she came in. She clutches her chest tight.