#but papyrus DOES still have enough to have the reset powers when flowey and any red-souled humans aren't around

[maddieandangel]

Thinking about this AU again

This isn't canon to it, since Flowey's dead long before 'Scrapyrus' comes into existence, but the interactions between these two are still fun to think about!

[ut-scatteredextension]

On a scale of 1-10 how DETERMINED are you?

Gonna answer this one ooc so I can go into more detail!

So, I'll rank Frisk (though they aren't relevant anymore) and Trace at a 10! They're the red-SOULed humans and the player-controlled characters. And logically, when they were a kid living with the Dreemurrs, Chara probably would have been here too? But maybe they didn't actually know they had RESET powers?

The Amalgamates I'll maybe put at a 5? They feel like a good marker for a midpoint. I guess realistically they probably would have more than that, but regardless, they don't get control over the timeline (maybe they don't have the focus required to perform a RESET? Or maybe each individual Amalgamate's level of Determination is too similar to those of the others that they all cancel each other out. Either way, if the Amalgamates are the most Determined beings in the Underground, then time just proceeds as normal). Do they remember RESETs? If so, I don't think anyone around them would notice. ...That could be interesting though, actually, so I'm gonna say Yes. ...Maybe. I think it would be neat if they could react to the player's/Trace's past actions (e.g. act fearful around you if you killed a lot of monsters on a past run, even if your current playthrough has been entirely Pacifist), but I haven't given much thought to how that would impact Papyrus since I'm only just considering the idea now dgshshf.

Undyne, then, would be at 4, as the monster with the most Determination in the Underground (not counting the Amalgamates), and probably at or very close to the limit a monster can have before their body starts to break down.

Flowey was somewhere around a 9? Far more than anyone else in the Underground, but not enough to rival a red-SOULed human without getting extra Determination from absorbing other human SOULs.

Papyrus, as Scraps, is somewhere around a 7 or 8! As I've mentioned in the tags of a past art post, he does have less Determination than Flowey did! Mainly because more of it was available when Flowey was created. But, since Flowey was killed by Frisk before they left, Paps still has enough Determination to control the timeline, at least until Trace falls into the Underground. As a skeleton monster, he had... Maybe slightly above average amounts of Determination for a monster? Somewhere around a 2 or 3?

By the start of Scattered Extension's "game", Chara's Determination level is... Around a 6? Maybe a 7? They do remember reset timelines perfectly, but they don't have any control over it anymore. Prior to Papyrus being revived, though, their Determination was higher—at least a 7, but maybe not quite an 8?

[autisticsupervillain]

It's Fictional Throwdown Friday!

This Week's Fighters...

Frisk vs William Afton

Conditions:

Composite William Afton.

Scenario:

Frisk's new family takes them out to eat at Freddy Fazbear's Pizza, but then William Afton lures them into the back room....

Analysis: Frisk

Long ago there lived two races, monsters and humans. The two races coexisted peacefully, for a time, until war inevitably broke out. The humans overpowered the monsters and sealed them away within Mt. Ebott.

Years later, a small child would fall into Mt. Ebott, swiftly finding themselves trapped within the caverns of the Underground. Miraculously, despite the hostility and mistrust that the monsters showed towards them, the fallen child chose peace. Over time, they would befriend the denizens of the Underground, eventually finding a way to break the barrier and peacefully reunite humans and monsters. This child's name... was Frisk.

Of course, Frisk did not accomplish this feat alone. Next to their compassion, their most powerful asset was undoubtedly their DETERMINATION. This emotion is, in fact, a supernatural substance largely unique to humankind. With the immense amounts Frisk has their disposal, they are able to utilize supernatural powers and perform blatantly superhuman feats.

Frisk's most prominent ability is their power to SAVE and LOAD. By filling themselves with DETERMINATION, Frisk can SAVE all the progress they've made on their journey thus far, allowing them to later LOAD back to that point at will. This ability activates automatically upon death and can even allow Frisk to come back from having their soul destroyed. There is a common misconception about it though.

SAVEing and LOADing does not create multiple timelines. Yes, Sans refers to timelines in the plural when discussing Frisk's abilities, but he does not mean that in the sense of there being a multiverse. What he means is that every time you reset or LOAD, you're effectively erasing the timeline up until the point you reset at. Sort of like rewinding time. The timeline that was just erased is seperate from the timeline you're now in, but they do not co-exist. This is consistent with how SAVE and LOAD is discussed throughout the rest of the game. As such, no reality desroying feats in Undertale are multiversal in scale, but more on that later.

Regardless, Frisk's DETERMINATION is still so immense that they can outright override the powers of other DETERMINATION users, such as Flowey, and their own SAVE and LOAD powers require multiple human souls to be overridden themselves. Frisk is also shown to be have their memories remain unaffected by the timeline alterations of both themselves and others, even with their SAVE and LOAD powers otherwise being overridden.

Their DETERMINATION has even been shown to grant them superhuman strength, speed, and durability, which, within the shown limits of their powers, scales proportionally to whoever they are fighting. Even at their most basic level, Frisk is capable of surviving some pretty intense things. They can walk around in Hotland unaffected, despite it being hot enough to completely vaporize a paper cup, can survive Undyne's oven exploding in their face unharmed, completely no-sold an electric shock that visibly hurt Papyrus, and walked through the CORE unaffected despite it being filled with Ozone, among others. These feats do scale to their attack potency, as they can contend evenly with monsters who can hurt them even without any killing intent.

Furthermore, Frisk's durability also scales to their soul, as monsters attack on both a physical and spiritual level. This is backed up by the fact that armors that increase the durability of Frisk's soul are items logically wouldn't increase their physical durability in any way, such as ribbons, bandanas, and aprons.

What's move impressive about Frisk however, is what they can do when their DETERMINATION is pushed to its absolute limits. When at their peak, Frisk can contend with universe busting god-like beings, such as Omega Flowey and Asriel Dreemurr. Omega Flowey opens their fight by destroying the entire timeline/save file and Asriel openly boasts that he intends to destroy the world once he starts actually getting serious. (This is backed up by the fight descriptor saying "the world is ending" during the Asriel fight, as well as Asriel having infinite stats under the Check menu.) Furthermore, Frisk can dodge incredibly fast projectiles, ranging from the sound of a dog barking to the beams of light fired by Knight Knight.

Frisk is even capable of harming Omega Flowey, albiet barely. It definitely appears that Frisk is not as strong as they are durable in this mode, as despite tanking attacks from Asriel, they cannot harm him.

In this amplified state, Frisk gains a few more useful abilities. At this point, they are capable of willing their soul back together upon its destruction, simply refusing to die. Furthermore, they can interact with the souls that Omega Flowey and Asriel have absorbed, turning them against their masters. They can even turn their own hopes and dreams into physical objects which they can absorb to heal themselves.

Having said all of that, Frisk's options are incredibly limited without DETERMINATION. They do carry a variety of weapons on them, yes, but those are widely an assortment of sticks and knives, weapons with pitiful range for the tier they're in. The best they have is the empty gun (which they can will into firing actual bullets) and the earpiece provided by Alphys, which can turn into a jetpack and allow them to shoot small lasers from their soul. The fact that they can simply RESET to try as many times as they have to also puts many of their greatest skill feats into question. Yes, they can outlast Undyne and Papyrus and Toriel, and even beat Asgore without any killing intent, but they had infinite tries to do so.

Their compassion is also a double edged sword. Integral to their greatest achievements, yes, but it also means that they will not fight unless it is absolutely necessary. The only times they ever threw a punch was when Asgore and Omega Flowey outright forced them to do so. Frisk is lucky, then, that they are such a gifted diplomat, able to reverse monsterkind's negative view on humans over the span of seemingly no longer than a day (though we are never given an actual timeframe for Undertale's events).

Amd even if Frisk is unwilling to fight for whatever reason, than the Player controlling them certainly will be. While Frisk's true personality shines through in the Pacifist Ending, they can be forced to murder all that they've come to love should the Player choose it.

Frisk isn't a fighter by choice, but their unending DETERMINATION ensures that they will overcome virtually any challenge that comes their way. In whatever Route the Player chooses from them to walk.

Analysis: Afton

Imagine it is your child's birthday. They've just turned twelve and you want to do something special for them, so you take them to their favorite place in the entire world: Freddy Fazbear's Pizza. A place for kids and grown ups alike, where they can eat all the pizza they want and watch all their favorite characters dance and sing on stage.

But then you lose track of them for a minute. A stranger lures them into some forgotten backroom, and you never see them again. Imagine never knowing what happened to them, where they went, whether they're even alive. Imagine all the pain of a family broken family, the Agony of a dead child whose body is never found, multiplied by ever Fazbear and Fredbear and Sister Location that's ever been built since the 80s. Decades of disappearances, a mountain of broken lives, and hundreds of children who never got to have a childhood.

William Afton is the physical embodiment of that Agony. Metaphorically and eventually, very literally.

William Afton was once a humble restaurant owner and gadgeteer genius who co-founded Fredbear's Family Diner alongside his best friend Henry Emily. The franchise found modest success in the early 1980s in the state of Hurricane, Utah, but it all came crashing down when William's oldest son, Michael, inadvertently murdered his youngest son, (presumably named) Evan. It's... debatable how William reacted to this. Some say his actions thereafter were inspired by desperate grief. Others say he was driven by nothing but pure scientific curiosity. Regardless, William found himself... inspired by his youngest child's death... and the Fazbear franchise chain would never be the same after that...

William would vow to "put (his son) back together" and begin studying the supernatural substance known as Remnant. Think of it as a mixture of your soul and the memories people had of you when you were alive. William even went so far as to believe Remnant could be used to achive immortality. To the end of studying this substance, William would invent his new Funtime line of sentient animatronics and loan them out to locations all over the country, secretly programming them to abduct and murder children when no one was around so he could study the Remnant they produced. Tellingly, when his own daughter was killed by his creations, William left her soul to haunt his animatronics, leaving her behind to be tortured by his employees with "controlled shocks". If William ever did have a sympathetic motive, it was swiftly slipping in his quest for immortality.

Law enforcement would catch up to William once he started to do the dirty work himself, but he was able to hide the evidence and bodies well enough that he couldn't be convicted, so the ghosts of his victims would do the job for them. William would his in his old Spring Bonnie suit to escape his pursuers, the same outfit that he used to lure children away, which would then crush him to death within its spring lock mechanisms. From there, William would return as the undead monstrosity Springtrap, always coming back to slaughter children anew.

Even when he was alive, William Afton was a living nightmare. He was smart enough to build sentient child killing robots in the 1980s and cunning enough to get away with his crimes and escape legal retribution. Even when he was alive, William could rip the possessed Fazbear animatronics apart with his bare hands and the Springlock suit he's now stuck in has shown to be bullet proof.

Moreover, William has spent years studying the ethereal substance of Remnant in order to understand its effects. With it, he could create illusion disks, devices that could allow him to create hallucinations. In life, he was able to use the device to make a girl hallucinate the death of her pet dog in a video game she's playing and in death, William can freely use his Remnant to create the illusory Phantom Animatronics, which are even powerful enough to tamper with machinery. Some of his illusions are so powerful that they've successfully tricked children into growing old and dying within his laboratory because they were convinced there was no escape, unaware that they weren't in their own homes anymore and that they weren't kids anymore. This is revealed to be the actual premise for the main gameplay of FNAF 4 as revealed in the Tales of the Pizzaplex books. The Twisted Eyes continuity, meanwhile, establishes that simple exposure to Remnant can allow a person to see the dead and even regenerate from getting their head caved in.

The Fazbear Frights continuity goes into more detail about how Remnant works and details the specific type of Remnant Afton uses. More specifically, Agony. The type of Remnant that a being made of Remnant operates on is dependent on the emotions associated with them. As an unrepentant child killer, the sheer amount of evil, death, and pain Afton spread on his life has turned him into something no longer even resembling a human being. He's become a physical embodiment of Agony, a being made of pure human suffering.

Agony in particular is the most powerful type of Remnant out there, making Afton one of those most powerful supernatural beings in existence. Lesser forms of Remnant are powerful enough to create storms that span for miles, with Agony having flat out reality warping effects. William created so much Agony when he was alive that the memory of his atrocities created Agony avatars of himself. The Spring Bonnie creature from Into The Pit, for instance, lurks in a time traveling ball pit that serves as a portal to the afterlife and is capable of replacing its prey in the real world with no one the wiser. Another manifestation was capable of feeding off a man's hatred to... make.... him.... pregnant.... with a little baby Springtrap... that proceeded to rip him apart from the inside out.

...A-hem! While these entities are established to independent of William, they were passively created by his Agony, so he should be capable of using their same powers. Agony beings have been shown to bring inanimate objects to life, gradually transmute people into trash or bubble gum without them noticing, drive people to suicide, and even swap souls to steal a person's body. William himself has been shown to steal people's souls with a touch, escape being trapped in a nightmare within his own rotting body after months of torment from a vengeful spirit, and absorb all of the beings his Agony created into himself to become a giant 14 ft tall mecha Kaiju that would rampage across the city.

Fazbear Frights gets fucking insane guys, you have no idea....

That isn't that insane when you consider Agony is fueled by Zero Point Energy. A single light bulb of which can boil ever ocean on Earth. So, yes, William Afton is a continent buster.

But that's not even discussing the most powerful iteration of Afton... FNAF World.

Within FNAF World, Purple Guy goes on a quest with all other FNAF Characters to kill Scott Cawtheon, Animdude himself, the creator of the entire FNAF Multiverse. FNAF has 4 different continues in total, including the mainline games, the Silver Eyes, Fazbear Frights, and the Movie, equating to four alternate realities Scott has created. Tellingly, William's most powerful attack, Slasher, hits hard enough to nearly obliterate Animdude in one hit.

With William's FNAF World moveset, he csn bolster his speed, transmute enemies into weaker enemies, and summon mechanical helpers, Chips and Bytes, to aide him in combat. These mechanical critters can protect Afton with forcefields, land instant kill attacks, and protect William from attacks that enduce instant death, among many others.

But, ultimately, William's most powerful tool is his willpower. He Always Comes Back, regardless of what his thrown at him. William has escaped being trapped inside of never ending nightmares by Golden Freddy and Andrew, survived Fazbear Frights burning down on top of him, and beat Ultimate Custom Night. As a being made of Agony, William will always return. He's achieved his goal of immortality and now seeks nothing more than to cause death and chaos.

William started out as the Man Behind the Slaughter, but now he's graduated into something far worse.

Throwdown Theme:

Throwdown Breakdown:

They always come back, but only one can come back from this fight.

Stats are honestly pretty even here. Both of these characters can manipulate time to such a degree that speed is essentially meaningless, with Frisk in particular being able to fight even after the timeline itself is erased. Both can fight against people who can destroy timelines and universes at their best, so that evens out too.

The real question is who can get past the other's unkillability.

Given that Frisk can rewind time to before they died and can regenerate all the way down to their soul being destroyed, Afton doesn't have many ways of actually killing them. Sure, Afton can eat souls, but so can all monsters in Undertale and none of them could keep Frisk down permanently. It's just a deeper level of regeneration than Afton can handle. So, can Afton permanently incapacitate them?

Well, that depends. If Frisk themselves gets stuck, then either the Player or Post Genocide Route Chara could take over for them, taking control of their bodies. They are, after all, tied to Frisk. Chara is their narrator, following them on their journey and feeding on their stats, while the Player is literally the audience that Frisk is the protagonist for, determining all of Frisk's actions. You can't have one without the other, they're physically tried to Frisk. So, what we're really asking is can Afton's tricks incapacitate them as well.

Transmutation likely wouldn't work. It should be able to effect Frisk's DETERMINATION, as it stems from their soul and Afton's transmutation absolutely can effect and nullify the powers of souls and ghosts. But it wouldn't likely be able to effect the Player. William's fourth wall fuckery simply doesn't extend that far. He can kill the author of his story, but not the people playing his video game. How would that work? He's a Player Character in FNAF World himself. So nothing is stop the Player themselves from resetting the game to try again and then they loop until William tries something else.

This is similarly why trapping Frisk in an illusion wouldn't work either. Frisk and Chara may be fooled, but the Player as a being that transcends their reality would not be. William cannot manipulate the senses of a being that views him as fiction, it's a power that comes from the mainline games where Afton has no fourth wall breaking feats of any kind.

This is combined with the fact that William likely wouldn't resort to these powers at first against what he initially perceives as an ordinary child. Every time Frisk resets, time rewinds and Afton loses all his memories of the fight up until that point. As Frisk continues to adapt to Afton's tricks, Afton starts from scratch with each fight.

So, lets reverse the question. Can Frisk do anything to keep Afton down for the count?

Afton's immortality comes from his soul. He's escaped being sealed away before, but by all rights, destroying his soul will kill him. So his immortality is a degree weaker than Frisk's.

Afton obviously can't be handled in a pacifistic way because... well... unrepentant child murderer. But I do think Frisk has the means to kill him. Frisk has the means to interact with souls, not only those absorbed by other people, but their Yellow Mode can flat out damage people's souls with their bullets. Chara used the power Frisk themself gave them to completely erase the timeline and leave nothing behind, souls included. Frisk has the means to destroy William's soul to keep him from coming back.

Sure, Frisk may be unwilling to kill someone in such a permanent way (even in pacifist, they're willing to fight Asgore and Flowey in self defense, even if not kill them), but the Player and potentially Post-Genocide Chara have no such compunctions and they can take control at any time.

Sorry Willy Boy. You aren't coming back this time.

This Throwdown's Winner is...

Frisk!

[tsukihimeyfan]

Undertale Headcanons (mostly about Sans)

6 years have passed since the release of Undertale, and there’s still so much we don’t know, especially in regards to Sans. I didn’t write much for Undertale’s anniversary last year, mostly just reblogged other people’s gorgeous fanart, but I’ve been mulling everything over and I wanted to write a bit about everything we know, everything we don’t, and my takes on how those threads connect, in honor of Undertale’s 6th anniversary and the release of Deltarune Chapter 2. Here we go!

What we know:

1) Sans was most likely some kind of scientist, as evidenced by his workshop, his quantum physics books, and this statement:

Key word “our”,  meaning he was most likely involved in obtaining those reports somehow.

2) Sans was somehow involved with Gaster, the previous Royal Scientist who built the Core and who “shattered across time and space”. The biggest evidence to support this is of course his use of the infamous “gaster blasters”

Most likely, he worked alongside Gaster while studying the timelines, and he is the other person Sans is referring to when he said “our reports”. The only other possibility would be Alphys but she, unlike Sans, never once insinuates that she has any knowledge of alternate timelines or the power to RESET. She also mentions that you seem familiar if you RESET after befriending her,

Unlike Sans, who keeps whether or not he experienced any déjà-vu hidden (probably out of a sense of self preservation)

3) Sans has dealt with Flowey’s RESET BS before, and probably remembers enough to know he’s dangerous. If you reset enough times after battling Asgore, eventually Flowey will tell you this little gem:

so Sans has confronted and killed Flowey for his timeline shenanigans several times. Also, during a normal playthrough Sans tries to warn you about Flowey

I know he later says that “someone must be using an echo flower to play a trick on [Papyrus]”, but am I supposed to believe that while telling his brother about the flower giving him “encouragement, advice, predictions”, Papyrus never once mentioned that this flower was golden?? No, Papyrus being Papyrus he probably told Sans ALL about his little golden flower friend. So why be so cryptic about it? Why warn you at all? I believe Sans remembers or has figured out enough to know that the flower is dangerous, that it has hurt Papyrus before, so he tells you to keep an eye out for it, and he does so in such a way that, were Flowey to overhear your conversation (which little Mr follows-you-everywhere-you-go totally could), he’d be unlikely to suspect that Sans knows anything.

4) Sans dealt with RESET shenanigans for far, FAR too long - I made a post a while ago about exactly this, but the TL;DR of the matter is that Sans has had to deal with at the BARE MINIMUM around 70 years worth of RESETs. And that’s being extremely generous, with the more likely number being over 130 years. 

5) As a result of the aforementioned exposure to time hijinks, he’s most likely struggling with at the very least dysthymia, if not actual Major Depressive Disorder - It’s never explicitly stated, but the signs are all there, some better hidden than others. If you call Undyne at the Snowed Inn she tells you that she usually doesn’t sleep over at Papyrus’ house because Sans gets up constantly during the night, repeatedly waking her up.

This could of course have been done on purpose as a prank to make her lose sleep, but it seems a little too mean-spirited for him. Usually his pranks are completely harmless, like whoopee cushions or leaving a red ring around your eye or telling you he’s selling fried snow (without ever actually letting you waste money by buying it). Taking the fact that he naps constantly during the day into account, as well as this statement by Papyrus:

then we already have 2 of 5 criteria from the DSM-5 (the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders created by the American Psychiatric Association) required to diagnose Major Depressive Disorder: fatigue/loss of energy and insomnia. Other criteria exhibited by Sans include:

Constant hopelessness

Not feeling interest or joy from things he normally would (aka anhedonia)

and Altered appetite (if we take what he says at face value, it seems like he is eating more than ever, since he says goes to Grillby’s to eat every 30min or something like that, but we never see him actually eat anything even after ordering, and some conversations with Grillby’s patrons seem to indicate maybe he actually has a decreased appetite, and is hiding it by feeding his meals to the Dogi when no one is looking)

There’s also this dialogue for the Ugly Fish, which directly contradicts what Sans said previously about his eating habits.

The game doesn’t give us direct proof for any of the rest of the symptoms, like thoughts of death or excessive feelings of guilt/worthlessness, but it is quite possible that someone in his position would struggle with those things as well, and in any case what we do have evidence for is enough to make me fairly certain that he’s dealing with a disorder on the depressive spectrum. Also, we may not have a time frame for his symptoms but as stated before he’s been facing Flowey’s bs for literal decades, so he’s probably had these issues for quite a while, and it’s undoubtedly affecting his life since he can’t bring himself to put more than the least possible effort into anything.

6) Even with everything I’ve already explained, despite finding life so pointless that he’s pretty much given up on finding happiness or in doing his best at anything for himself, the poor guy still does his best to provide and care for Papyrus. He’s basically his hype-man, he defends him from anyone who insults him, he supports him in every endeavor (both emotionally and financially), he makes sure that he has every luxury they can afford (even if he doesn’t buy any for himself), he does his best to spare him from harsh truths, and so much more. It’s part of why I love him so much; despite the world continuously trying to stomp out his empathy, he still cares deeply about his loved ones and will go to great lengths to help them.

This includes Toriel (besides making and keeping his infamous promise to her for as long as he could, he also supports her however he can in every neutral ending)

(and some of you still wonder why Soriel is a thing)

Also Alphys (he seemingly helps feed the amalgamates and he supports her wholeheartedly during the Queen Alphys neutral ending)

That’s pretty much everything we know with any degree of certainty about Sans. Time to head into...

Headcanon territory (continued under the cut)

1) How much does he remember? - I’d say Sans must remember SOMETHING of the previous timelines. Many people argue that because Sans always seems to talk about his knowledge of your actions in relation to things he can observe, like your expression, he remembers nothing. Others argue that his level of intuition is so uncanny that he MUST remember everything. However, I believe that the actual truth is somewhere in the middle. We know that other monsters have at least a sense of deja-vu, 

so Sans must likewise remember at least that much. Perhaps his knowledge of timelines, LOADs and RESETs or his experiments with Gaster allow him to dig up more memories than others could (or at least actually pay attention to what those feelings of deja-vu are telling him without dismissing them as most of the others do), which would explain how he’s able to tell exactly how many times in a row he’s killed you and give you a warning when you’ve killed Papyrus in a previous timeline.

2) So why keep quiet about his deja-vu? Why not be like his brother and make it clear that he has vague memories of you? It’s as I said at the beginning of this post - self preservation.

We’ve established that Sans is most likely aware of the threat Flowey poses, that he knows of timeline shenanigans, that he can keep track of events between LOADs/RESETs and that he’s very smart (and even used to be a scientist of some sort). A person like that could probably infer that the reason Flowey&Frisk RESET so much is because they “have to see what happens”. So what can he do, with his very limited power, to reduce the amount of RESETs as much as possible?

Simple - he gives them as little variation as possible so that they’d have no reason to RESET anymore. He hides his knowledge so that the anomaly can’t go “oh look! this dude remembers, so he could have a different reaction every single time! How fun! =)”

We know Flowey at least found great joy in the changes brought about by the presence of someone who actually remembered. So much so that he was willing to do nearly anything to stop you from leaving

In light of that, of course Sans would keep anything he knows as under wraps as possible. This is why I’m very reluctant to believe he only “figures out stuff from your expression”.

3) How much of a threat is Sans to a Pacifist Frisk? - many people speculate that Sans would be useless in a fight against an opponent with no EXP, since they believe his KARMA will not work at all against such an enemy, leaving him with only his natural 1ATK to work with. I, however, don’t think that’s true.

Sans’ KR can do a maximum of 40HP of poison/drain-damage, plus 30HP of damage per second of contact with his attacks (due to his invincibility cancel) at LV19, so clearly the HP lost is not exactly equal to your LV. If we say that KARMA is a form of retribution for your crimes, as it appears to be,

then we can assume that KR does more and more damage the more EXP/LV you’ve earned, yes. However, I don’t think KR would do NO damage at LV1, and I don’t believe that Sans’ most powerful weapon, the invincibility frame cancellation, would disappear.

After all, LV is a quantification of your capacity to hurt others. You start at LV1, not LV0, since even at LV1 you’re perfectly capable of killing people. You can even be LV1 after having killed a monster (specifically a whimsun). And that’s not even taking into account how complicated and hard to dodge his attack patterns are.

Therefore, little LV1 Frisk with their miserable 20HP would near dead after only half a second of contact with his attacks (which would deal 15HP of damage), AND I bet they’d have to deal with at least 1-2HP of extra drain/poison damage every turn.

So yeah, if he chose to fight Frisk as soon as they came out of the Ruins, Sans would most likely still be one of the hardest battles in the game.

4) Does Sans care for Frisk? - I’ve seen a lot of debate about whether Sans ultimately feels anything for Frisk or not (in Pacifist timelines of course, he undoubtedly hates you if you kill Papyrus and he judges you harshly if you’ve killed people),

particularly because even if you’ve got 0 EXP, even if you’ve gone to Grillby’s with him and bought his hotdogs and had fun together, this still happens

So he realizes you’re the anomaly, and therefore a threat, no matter the run. However, I think he says this because, at this point, even if you’re LV1, you could still turn around and kill people. You could even completely decimate the population of Hotland and the Core, Genocide style. So this is most likely both a warning and a *cough* “kind” suggestion to behave. 

However, I think Sans does eventually change his mind, and it’s probably at this moment:

at this point, you’ve gone through the entire underground without killing anyone. There’s literally no reason to kill anyone anymore, since there are no encounters in New Home (unless you go back and hunt the few monsters remaining in the Core, though I’m not sure if spawns still happen there after Mettaton. I couldn’t find anything clear) so he’s probably pretty confident that you’re a pacifist. I believe at this point he allows himself to trust you

Look at that: he tells you you’re loved, and that he believes what’s in your heart will most likely be the right thing for everyone. It’s actually very sweet of him...which makes going back to kill people at this point even more screwed up and heartbreaking imo.

Then there’s this little tidbit from Asriel while he’s holding everyone’s souls, which I feel is the biggest piece of evidence:

After all, Asriel doesn’t strike me as a very good liar. Even as Flowey the whole “friendliness pellets” thing was sus af in hindsight. And what reason could he have to lie at this point? If Sans didn’t love Frisk, all Asriel had to do was not mention him by name, just like he didn’t mention Asgore. In my opinion, this is proof positive that Sans must have at least some positive feelings for Frisk (this makes the soulless pacifist endings even more horrifying now that I think about it omg Toby why must you hurt me in this way)

5) Why doesn’t Sans stop you from killing Papyrus during a Genocide run? - I’ve seen people call Sans cold or uncaring because he only ever intervenes in the worst case scenario, but we’ve already established that Papyrus is one of the few things Sans can still bring himself to care deeply about. So, why doesn’t he stop at least Papyrus from confronting a blood(or dust in this case)-thirsty psychopath?

I have 2 theories about this (though they are non-exclusive, in fact they most likely both impacted equally on his choices). The first is that Sans, who canonically can teleport together with other people, helped warn the Snowdin residents of the incoming threat, and he was assisting in the evacuation efforts when Papyrus backtracked to confront the human, leaving him alone for long enough to kill him.

The second is that Sans knows from experience that there’s just... no point.

(look at his anguished expression in that last image, jeez)

As we’ve said, Sans has been dealing with this time problem for a very long time. Since we know for sure Sans can tell when Papyrus has been killed in an alternate timeline, I’m certain that at first he did try to protect him, before deciding that it’s both hopeless and too painful.

I imagine it went a little like this: near the beginning of Flowey’s loops, Sans did his absolute best to protect him without Flowey realizing what he was doing, and likely succeeded. Sadly, the only thing Flowey would’ve had to do was to LOAD his save file and find a way to circumvent Sans’ interference. Then do that again. And again. And again, for every one of the hundreds of times Papyrus was killed. Eventually, Sans must have realized that not only was there absolutely nothing he could do to stop it, but that trying would just lead to him probably witnessing Papyrus’ death himself, helpless to save him, making it doubly painful.

He probably tried to tell people a few times, to ask for help, but that likely stopped pretty quick. Telling anyone would just cause them mental and emotional pain without being able to change anything, so he probably decided to spare them from the knowledge and just...bear with it.

After a while, broken, beaten, and terribly alone, he likely just... gave up on trying to change anything or even putting more than the bare minimum amount of effort into anything. After all if it all was gonna reset without warning, why bother?

Why do his best at his job(s)?

Why bother trying to build anything?

Before a Determined being, nothing lasts and nothing matters.

6) If all that is true, why does he try to stop you at the end during Genocide? - I’ve seen people argue that Sans fights you for revenge or to save himself from dying once the world ends, but I have to strongly disagree. If it was petty revenge, he would just kill you every single time you kill Papyrus after all. It’s also very unlikely to be self-preservation, since as we’ve said he’s most likely suffering from depression: he has no hopes for his own future, no ambitions, no will to accomplish anything except maybe see Papyrus happy. Why would he suddenly sprout a desperate desire to survive out of nowhere, enough to drive him to fight a literally unwinnable battle, possibly hundreds of times? I find that hard to believe.

The most likely answer is that, if you destroy the world... Papyrus would never come back, and neither would any of his friends. Every time you kill them, he at least has the dubious comfort of knowing you’ll probably bring them back during your next run, but not this time. If you win this time, you’ll take the timeline with you, and he’ll never see them again (huh... that sounds a bit familiar:)

So he fights.

Despite knowing he can’t beat you.

Despite realizing his only hope is that you get tired and give up

Despite coming to the fight with the knowledge of every single previous failed attempt

Despite having to exert himself to the bone

He fights, and clings desperately to the slim chance that you’ll try to be better

He doesn’t mean not to come back to the Underground at all. After all, that’d mean that Sans would be stuck in a world where his brother and most of his friends are dead forever. Most likely, he wants you to not come back to this Sans, to this timeline. He wants you to RESET, and to make better choices next time. He wants another chance for Papyrus to be happy, even if it’s for a short while.

I feel like his very last words, revealing the only thing at the forefront of his mind during his last moments, is what’s most telling of the truth:

As with everything else he does, it’s all for Papyrus

In conclusion (TL;DR), Sans might not be an epic hero fighting for the good of the entire world like Undyne, but he’s a deeply hurt individual struggling basically alone to survive a horrifyingly bleak situation, who despite simultaneously coping with a serious mental disorder as a result is STILL a fundamentally kind person, who does his best to spare his loved ones from the worst outcome, is always willing to help his friends and family to the best of his ability, and who, despite his best efforts to the contrary, still cares so much, to the point of even giving the benefit of the doubt and coming to care for the same anomaly that might doom him.

That’s the core of who Sans is, and that’s why I love him so, so much. It makes me hope that the True Pacifist ending really is the “True Ending”, and that somewhere, he has finally found peace, relief, and a future free of suffering together with his loved ones.

(*Note: this art was made by greenbudbowl on Deviantart)

[thechekhov]

So glad you decided to play Undertale! I think it would really suit you so I’m so happy you got into it! Could I have your thoughts about the game? I would LOVE to hear them. I’m ALL for long essays and rants, that’s my jam, but even just a small review from you would make me ecstatic!

Alright alright alright alright. 

I am ecstatic that someone asked because I have a lot to say AS ALWAYS. 

I’m gonna try to keep this readable, I swear. Will add pictures in between to keep things interesting. 

However, due to the length this will SURELY achieve, AND due to spoilers (and yes, laugh at me all you want, the game has been out for 5 years) I’ll put this under a cut. Read at your own (f)risk.

Metagaming - the game plays YOU

When I first started Undertale, I ‘knew’ these things:

there’s a stabby one with a knife, their name is chara

there’s a flower everyone hates

something something sans something something

and the last, and perhaps most important thing

you can spare your enemies to avoid killing them

The thing is. The THING IS. 

I did not realize how pervasive this strategy was. My thought at first was ‘okay, so I don’t have to kill EVERYONE.’

I had no idea that the reality was that I didn’t have to kill anyone.

I’m sure many others have already said this, but Undertale kind of changes the way you think about other games. It forces to you examine simply fighting your way through the RPG by introducing completely non-murder-y ways to resolve issues. This conversation-based combat style is not the first of its kind, I’m sure, but it’s also incredibly well done. It ties into the story, it ties into your decisions.

It ties into your decisions SO MUCH that it changes everything else in the outcome.

Undertale is a game well known for breaking the 4th wall. However, it does so in a strangely eerie, heart-wrenchingly real way. It teaches us that there are other solutions to conflicts - and it really... it really TEACHES us, you know?

Which is funny because to be honest, it took me a while to get the lesson.

(You may already be fully aware of this but yes, my first True Neutral Route was extremely organic. I legitimately had no idea that there was even more than one ending. I was just stumbling about er... killing. Out of habit.)

The beauty of this is that the game drives home that point even more effectively because I was fully unaware of my own bias. I had assumed that some enemies would require killing - DESPITE TORIEL SPECIFICALLY TELLING ME TO TALK TO THEM, and the entire Ruins tutorial being about Mercy. I killed the Dummy on accident (granted, it was due to me pressing the key too fast a few times) and didn’t think much of Toriel’s disapproval. I killed a few monsters because I saw my level was low and decided to automatically grind a little bit. 

By the time I got to Toriel, I was still not comfortable with the mechanic. I knew I could Spare her somehow - after all, she was a kind monster, and clearly an important character - but the Spare option didn’t yield promising results the first few times I chose it. I ran out of patience and decided that maybe... maybe it was like pokemon! 

Maybe I had to get her health down to a certain level before she would allow me to pass through.

Funny thing though.... you know what happens if you attack Toriel one too many times? Even if she has most of her health left? 

Yeah uh... it activates that one-hit-KO thing from No Mercy Route.

So of course, what happened? I hit her one too many times... and killed her! And of course, immediately panicked and reset. 

I got back to my previous save, Spared Toriel PROPERLY this time, and walked out of the ruins only to be confronted with my own reliance on the magical ‘redo’ button which was... apparently... not that magical.

Because it WASN’T a clean redo. Flowey apparently remembered. 

The idea that the game would KNOW about my previous attempts beyond the save file snapped me out of my casual Undertale playthrough. I realized that something was up - this game was not going to be like the others.

I think it was from this point on that I tried to be more careful, but again - I still hadn’t quite gotten the memo about not killing. I took down a few monsters around Snowdin. And when I got to Papyrus, I grew frustrated about not being able to beat him (I ended up losing several times and coming back to try again) and went off to grind SOME MORE because I figured that could raise my HP and increase my chances of holding off long enough to Spare him. 

(The incredible thing about this game is that actually, raising your level gives you only a slight advantage. You can be level 1 and carrying no items, and as long as you’re relatively proficient at dodging the bullet hell style projectiles you will have no issues.) 

Anyway, the point is that I realized I could spare the big monsters and did so readily - but I didn’t bother to spare many of the smaller ones. 

I figured it didn’t matter. 

And then I successfully evaded Undyne, gave her a cup of water, etc... and then went to her house to meet Papyrus, fully expecting her to befriend me anyway. 

And you know what happened?

“She said she won’t hang out with a murderer.“

I think that probably hit me the hardest at that point in the game. 

I had a bit ‘....oh’ moment at that point because I realized that the game would punish me for killing even the ‘not-important’ civilians of the Underground. It wasn’t about just sparing the ‘boss monsters’. My actions had consequences beyond just the ‘elite’ characters that we all tend to focus on.

Because yes, it made sense. It wasn’t about just Undyne - why WOULD she randomly be my friend after I killed tons of living beings?

From there on, I spared everyone, but didn’t reset. I decided to see how it would unravel.

The thing I want to talk about, which is a little difficult, is that...

It took me that long to learn that kindness was the answer. And that, in itself, ends up being a metaphor. 

It’s difficult to be kind if you have not been show how to be.

It’s difficult to change the way you behave (in a game or out of it) if all you know is using other methods.

It was hard enough to spare Toriel before I realized I had to just be very patient and trust that her attacks wouldn’t hit - though at first I thought she would just kill me! 

It was hard to avoid Papyrus’ attacks and I had to die several times before I successfully got through it. 

It was near impossible to fight Undyne because I legitimately had no idea Fleeing was an option. I struggled for ages at her stage, and I had to ask for help to understand what I could do.

And that’s actually honestly very true to life as well.

Being kind takes risk. Being kind takes effort. And sometimes, being kind means asking others HOW to be kind. 

When you choose to be kind, you risk being hurt, and you risk being trapped (Toriel). When you choose to be kind, you need to expand a lot more energy to succeed (Papyrus). When you choose to be kind, you need to sometimes reach out to others to show you how to properly do it (Undyne).

The rest of the playthrough probably went about as you expect. I completed the game, didn’t kill any Boss Monsters, fought to the end and... got that really unsatisfying Neutral Ending which felt strangely bittersweet. 

And of course, after I was done, I was prompted to go back and do a proper Pacifist Run. Which I did. I learned about the background of Determination, about Chara and Asriel... and about how everything came to be the way it was.

The thing that gets me the most about this game is how it serves as a direct parallel to how we use videogames. In fact, Undertale is a videogame... about videogames. 

Chara appears to be a direct metaphor for the people that use videogames to escape - to cope with whatever happened to them in The Overworld. Bad family life, or bad relationships or whatever we suffer - escapism through games is not, in itself, a new theme. 

Chara arrived in Undertale by dropping themself down a hole in the mountain, perhaps even seeking to end their life. They dropped into a world which offered them comfort and companionship, a new family and a new life - but in the end, their nature was destructive because their means to finding a solution inadvertently used other people as fodder. Asgore, Asriel - they used everyone else to complete their plans. It wasn’t about forming connections - it was about Completing the Quest. 

I wonder - did Chara even HAVE access to a MERCY option? 

Was their world one without the option of sparing someone? Did they only have the choice of acting - and was Mercy in the hands of whoever attacked them? I wonder how difficult it might have been for them. I wonder how that, in itself, shaped their perception of the world. 

I wonder if that’s why, during the No Mercy run, people recognize you as Chara? If they come back and attach themselves to your resonating DETERMINATION?

If this is true, was MERCY perhaps created later, brought into existence once Asriel himself made the choice to NOT fight, to turn back and flee, even after being attacked by humans in the Overworld? 

(It would be a nice parallel to Asgore DESTROYING the Mercy option when you enter the fight with him...)

...

In the end, I think Undertale is about many things, including video games. 

But it’s also hurting - and being hurt. 

It’s about how trauma can shape us, how we deal with feeling grief, and loss, and depression - and not being able to feel anything.

It’s about how we focus on goals and use DETERMINATION to keep going - even when whatever it is that’s driving us no longer has any SOUL. 

It’s about how our action have consequences, but they also carry the weight of a choice, and how powerful those choices are, and how powerless we feel when we aren’t given a choice - not to fight back, nor show mercy. 

I think that’s probably the reason this game resonated with so many people. It really brings something we love about videogames to the forefront - that ability to fight back, to have full and total control of our own lives...

And it also shows us how having that endless loop of repetitive grinding and fighting with zero consequences can lead to an incredible hollowness and make us numb to how we interact with real-life people. 

Anyway. 

Good game. 

[a-snow-decahedron]

A Flower's Guide for Happy Endings - Chapter One

Spanish version: coming soon

Summary:

Flowey witnesses the aftermath of the human's journey across the Underground, and tries to make sense of his life now that he's not in control of the timeline. Will it last? Or will he take desperate measures?

Words: 3892

Read on AO3: Link here!

Flowey was still processing the last moments of his life as he left the human's side and watched them cross the Barrier, leaving the Underground behind. The child had chosen to give him mercy, time and time again. The nonsense of this action was so overwhelming, he fled. He didn't pay attention to his surroundings as he moved through the hallways of the King's Castle in New Home. He just kept going, emerging at times to look at a certain turn or wait for the right time to move his roots to another surface. It was almost a matter of reflexes to him. After so many resets, he felt like he could wander across the Underground with his eyes closed and he would know exactly where he was. Environments were something he wasn't able to change, at least not by himself. He didn't find the idea appealing, either. People were much more interesting to interact with... Until they weren't.

There was a wide range of things that could happen at any time in the Underground, and he had done pretty much everything. Some things never changed, though. The Amalgamates were never freed; it was more likely for Alphys to give up than for the truth inside the Lab to come out. Toriel never left the Ruins, no matter what you told her, or what happened outside the closed doors. Asgore never let him see the human souls, no matter how much he insisted. All his efforts were futile in a way, as none of it amounted to anything significant. All could be undone by his will, but not even those things he did held much meaning after a while. It was like watching the same simulation over and over again.

Flowey usually spent about a month or two at most messing around before resetting. In this timeline he had settled for waiting and not being an intervention as much as possible, until new days came by. It was incredibly boring, sadly. So he decided to do meaningless things to pass the time. Nothing much, not like pestering some Moldsmals ever achieved anything. He didn't kill, since that usually meant trouble, and the whole point of this was seeing a world without him. He also watched people he knew. Toriel carried on with her day; sometimes she fell asleep on her reading chair, with one too many cups of wine. Flowey may have given her some water one time, without a reason, simply to make an insignificant difference. Papyrus, a skeleton in Snowdin he had encountered after spying on the Royal Guard, was also an interesting monster to visit. He always had a remark or an anecdote for every place. He was full of such nonsense and contradictions, Flowey always got a laugh or two from his conversations. It was impossible not to play some tricks on him. Every once in a while he dropped predictions in their conversations, which the skeleton seemed to take very seriously at times.

And just when the timeline was starting to get too monotonous, he heard a loud noise on the Ruins, shortly after he had left checking on the flowers. That place.... it always reminded him of his sibling. Golden Flowers were their favorite. That day, at the Ruins, life took an unexpected turn: a human had fallen down, and with them, his control. Needless to say, he freaked out. Not only was this child a fallen human, they were just so much like them— but they couldn't be, could they? In the end. Flowey did what he knew best: got to know this human, acted nice, and then tested their reaction when he betrayed them. The stupid kid fell for his tricks, but Toriel stopped his movements, and took the child with her. The soulless monster, frustrated, tried to go back to his save point, yet he failed: another force was overwriting his mark in spacetime. From then, he decided to follow the human. and see what they did. Soon enough, he found out that the human was the one in control of the timeline, using it to get their way. Through the Ruins, the Snowdin cold, the dark Waterfall and the steaming Hotland, Flowey followed them, catching glimpses of their journey.

What came after the human spared King Asgore was a blur. His determination flowed in a chaotic way when he tried to reminisce about his attempt to take the human souls. It felt so good to have something within that wasn't just willpower fuel. He felt so good, so intense, so alive. That human kid was about to face his true power, to see what he was capable of doing. He had never met someone that could remember overwritten timelines like him, and he wasn't wasting his chance to make the most of it. But human souls are determined and that includes the six within him. They turned against him, and took him back to zero in moments. And then... well. He simply couldn't understand. His control was lost again. The human just needed one blow to finish him off, but they refused and crossed the Barrier. Why not even try? Why not give him the same pain? Why does it matter if he lives or not, anyways?

He was back in Snowdin town by the time his inner monologue had gone full circle, all caused by the human who’d come and gone in what felt like a mere blink. By the time he got to the town it was early night, the time many monsters had dinner. Snowdin had a system of streetlights that was usually too high for non-flying monsters to reach. They were powered by the CORE, and to tell apart day and night, they had set a gradual energy-saving mode that reduced the amount of lights during the night, synchronized with the time on the Surface. The lights were said to resemble stars. Real stars were prettier, but it did the job well enough for the thousands of monsters that had never seen the Surface.

Flowey was standing on a residential street, still muttering to himself, looking at the houses' windows filled with light and the smell of homemade food. He wasn't quick enough to hide after hearing a muffled voice and a door being bumped open. A yellow striped kid, holding a bag of trash with their mouth and on their way to the trashcan, gasped at Flowey and dropped the bag on the snow.

"The talking flower's real?!" They opened their eyes wide, like they had seen the surface. As Flowey tried to curl underground to leave, the monster child spoke. "Yo, don't leave! Papyrus told me about you!"

At the mention of the name, the soulless flower hesitated, then turned around "Howdy! I'm Flowey the flower.” He forced a grin. "And just what has he told you?" he asked, slightly squinting.

"Well..." The kid stared at a point beyond Flowey, thinking of their answer. "We just met today! I mean, I've seen him before, but we never, like, talked. I was on my way back to Snowdin after I left the human in Water— yo, did you hear a human showed up in town today? It's crazy!" They hopped excitedly, shaking their tail happily.

Flowey raised a brow and waved with one of the roots he pulled from the ground, signaling the kid to keep talking. He supposed hearing some gossip was good enough for now, until he figured out what to do now, or found a way to gain his control of the timeline again.

"I didn't know they were human at first, but man, they were so nice! I showed them some caverns in Waterfall on our way. I was so excited to see Undyne fight bad guys! But it turns out they, uhm, were the bad guy Undyne was going after?" They trailed off, looking for a way to follow their story. "She told me that the human was bad, that i could get hurt. And she tried to attack them! But they saved me so they can’t be bad! I had to show her! Yo I dunno what came over me, it felt like my heart was pounding out of my chest. But I told her, s-she would not. I was really scared, but I think it worked! And then I... left them to go home because my parents would worry if I was out late", they mumbled the last part, feeling their rush of energy decrease.

Flowey shot them an impatient glance. "Ok, got you. But when does Papyrus show up in all this?"

"Oh yeah! Right! We met when I was on my way to Snowdin. He said some things about using friendship for his duties as a future royal guardsman, and then we talked about Undyne. He said she is training him to be part of the guard- it sounds so cool! I wanna be just like him one day!" They hopped on one foot. "Then... I asked him about the friend stuff he said, and he told me he didn't have many friends, but Undyne was really close. And then he spoke of a talking flower, that had like, prediction powers. He said you gave encouragement, advice and stuff. I didn't think you were real, but man, was I wrong."

"Is that it?" Flowey raised a brow, getting tired of the kid's chatter. Maybe someone else would have liked talkative friends, but he had enough for that day, and frankly he just wanted to get healed. All the talking was making him dizzy.

"Yeah! It has to be you, right? Man, if we become friends I would break my friend-making record. Three people in one day! Yo this is so great." Their tail moved from side to side.

Flowey yawned, feigning sleepiness "Hey kid, it's nice talking, but don't you have anything better to do?" He pointed to the trashbag with his body.

"Oh right! I forgot. Thanks dude!" they said, picking up the bag with their teeth and walking to the trashcan on the sidewalk.

"Yeah, you don't want to get in trouble, right? I don't think your parents are very happy you went too far into Waterfall on your own with some stranger."

Flowey shrank a bit to appear smaller as the child walked towards him. "Before you leave, I need something. Do it for your new friend, wontcha? Can you get me a snack? I got in a friendly fight and my HP isn't the best right now. I could use some help." He pulled the most innocent smile he could, which was always convincing.

"Ok! Be right back, yo!" They dashed to their house and came out a minute later, pulling two cinnamon bunnies from their inventory and almost dropping them on the floor.

Flowey picked them up with his roots and saved them on his own inventory with a poof. "Thanks, kid!"

"Yeah, no problem Flowey!" They paused and then added "Yo, I forgot to tell you my name, it's M—" Before they had finished their sentence, the flower was gone, like it was never there.

As Flowey moved under the snow, he didn't notice the recent footsteps or the furry monster that made them as they made their way towards the Riverperson place.

Flowey emerged at the side of the skeleton brothers’ house, careful not to be seen. He took a cinnamon bunny, took a bite, and then tried to rest. Sleeping as a flower wasn't easy. It wasn't like laying down in a bed. He technically didn't need to sleep, as long as he had energy from the lights around him or food. As a plant, the most he could do was fold his petals on his face, and find a place where the wind wouldn't bother him and nobody would step on him by accident. Despite this, if he wanted to recover from his injuries, he needed to rest in order to restore his HP.

Flowey was making himself comfortable —as much as he could in a town like Snowdin—, when he heard a door shut strongly on the second floor of the house. It seemed people were at home. He moved closer to eavesdrop on them, but it wasn't necessary, as the speakers were loud enough on their own.

"So... I'm staying here tonight, right? Until I fix my house."

"YOU'RE ALWAYS WELCOME TO STAY HERE, BUT YES, WE'LL FIGURE OUT WHAT TO DO ABOUT THE HOUSE TOMORROW!"

"When do you think the human's coming back? Do you think they'll stay at the inn?

"IT'S WHAT I EXPECT, BUT MAYBE THEY WENT TO NEW HOME AND FOUND SOMEWHERE ELSE TO SLEEP? THEY HAVEN'T CALLED SINCE THEY GOT TO THE CORE."

"They better not be hanging outside late or they'll get in trouble with me."

"WHAT IF THE HUMAN'S NOCTURNAL?”

"Who knows? Not ME at least. Anime says all kinds of things that don't make sense when you put them together, like in some of them, some humans have cat ears, but in others that's not possible. At least they should have something cooler, like fins!"

"OR BONES! HMM, BUT WE CAN ONLY GUESS. PERHAPS THEY ARE NOCTURNAL, I HEARD HUMANS HAVE SOMETHING CALLED TIMEZONES. MY BROTHER TOLD ME ABOUT IT WHEN WE WERE TALKING ABOUT THE SUN..."

At that point Flowey stopped listening. Those two went over several topics, and whenever they didn't know something, they made it up with their theories. It was amusing in the first dozen resets, but by now Flowey had exhausted all possible topics with each of them...

Suddenly, he heard something that was new to him.

"SO UNDYNE, I SEE YOU ARE CARRYING A LETTER? IS IT FOR SOMEONE SPECIAL?" Papyrus inquired, teasingly.

A letter? Flowey had seen many letters. Several had been addressed to Dr. Alphys. He wondered why the fish monster would have one too.

"WHAT? Well, I don't want it to get damaged in case I burn down the house on accident again— BUT NOT FOR ANY SPECIAL REASON, it's just a silly thing I keep with me."

"WHO IS IT ADDRESSED TO, THEN?"

"Uh...."

"WILL YOU LET ME READ IT?"

"Absolutely NOT! It's personal!"

"SO IS IT FOR ALPHYS..." A pause. "YOU DID NOT DENY IT. SO WHY DON'T YOU JUST CALL HER, DELIVER IT, AND SEE HER REACTION?" There was the sound of a phone being unlocked. "I'LL DO THE PHONE CALL!"

"Papyrus, no! I need to rewrite it, it's not done yet! Give me the phone, darn it!" There was another pause. "Ok, thanks. Besides, she's probably busy fixing Mettaton right now. Did you see his new body? And BEFORE you make any remark on how hot or handsome he is, DON'T." Nyeh-heh-heh’s were heard in response. "Anyways, she must be busy, and I don't think I can just show her this letter. I'm afraid things could go wrong— I wouldn't know what to do!"

"FINE, BUT IF YOU EVER NEED ADVICE, LISTEN TO ME. YOU NEED THAT KIND OF BRAVERY IN YOUR LIFE" A clicking noise like a wink was heard.

"NGAAAH- shut up!" She lowered her voice. "Hey, if you don't mind, can you leave while I change my clothes?"

"OF COURSE, I STILL HAVE SOME OF YOUR CLOTHES FROM THE LAST TIME YOUR HOUSE BURNT DOWN. I'LL GIVE YOU PRIVACY."

"Thank you, now GET OUT." The door was closed. Strong pacing could be heard for a few minutes, before the window opened with a harsh movement and small shreds of paper were dropped one by one, “I really can't do it,”she muttered “It's too much. I'll make a better one soon. That will be the one.”

The humidity of the snow would soon leak into the remains of the letter and erase its message, never to be read by anyone. Well, not anyone who was meant to read it anyways. Flowey leaned closer and used a root to pick up a part of the letter. It took him five endearment terms and three uses of the verb love to know it was an excessively corny confession directed at the Royal Scientist.

It seemed almost atypical for the fish monster. However, Flowey knew better. During some of his runs he had experimented with the Royal Guard, testing their strengths and weaknesses. Undyne was a particularly difficult monster to deal with. Once you became her enemy, she would strike you down no matter what. Her green soul magic forced any monster under its effect to stay still and only use its own magic bullets as protection. Flowey, being soulless, was not affected by this kind of magic, but that still didn't make fleeing much easier. He had killed her the first time they faced each other, after dying to her several times. That had been the first timeline he decided to kill, throwing bullets at some of the weakest known monsters. Undyne had been furious, and decided to find the culprit and bring them to justice. When Flowey did manage to kill her, though, she resisted. With her last breaths, she kept on fighting, refusing to die. Her last words were dedicated to every monster in the Underground she swore to protect, and as she melted, she regretted never "telling it to Alphys". He had figured out what it was by other sources. The letter was just further confirmation.

No other monster had shown such determination to keep going, and those words rang in Flowey's head. Somehow, the possibility of making someone be honest about their feelings towards something —or someone else— made him particularly curious. He had tried to help her, more than once, but no attempt had been successful. He kept trying for a few more runs. Undyne's resilience reminded him of his own sibling. He thought that maybe staying determined and reaching, helping, and fixing things would... do something. Perhaps he had to be more like them, more like Chara. But he was hopeless now. Nothing he did ever lasted, nothing he did made him feel right.

"Hurts, doesn't it? Some things never change. She writes letters but she will never do anything with them." He dropped the letter and went back to rest for what was left of the night, hoping to restore his HP.

* * *

The "Riverperson'' was never just one monster. There were three of them. Their family had been passionate about sailing for decades; some said they had the reputation even before the war, and ever since monsters found a stream that connected all areas, the River family had dedicated itself to provide quick travel to everyone in the Underground. When it was nighttime, and most monsters outside were nocturnal creatures, only one of them was around. They gazed at the Snowdin port. All three siblings had great intuition, and that night, they agreed, was bound to be interesting.

"Greetings. Would it be possible to make use of your service tonight?" a soft voice asked.

The river monster turned to face the source of the voice and saw a tall white furry monster. They resembled most inhabitants of the small town, with a thick layer of fur covering their features. But something about their presence radiated a sense of grace. A good River monster made no distinction among their travelers, so they simply pointed to the empty space on their boat.

"Tri li li, where would you like to go?"

"Take me to Hotland, please,” the monster said calmly

The Riverperson took off with their only passenger for that ride.

It was late, but despite the time, a few nocturnal monsters could always be found wandering the streets, among the low-glowing lights. The sight of the new monster immediately sparked rumors, catching the attention of the few awake. From the forest, a Whimsun flew, carrying news from the Ruins. The great door deep in Snowdin forest had been opened, and its caretaker was making their way to the capital. Young monsters were perplexed by the story, but older, wiser ones knew this meant great incoming change for the whole kingdom. Nobody knew for certain what had become of Queen Toriel after the deaths of her children, but it seemed that the words carried by the small flying monster could be the solution to the century old mystery. Soon enough, word was spread in the snowy town among the elders. They were careful and cautious, not to make quick assumptions, but staying alert.

The ride across the cave system had not been long, but it certainly felt like eternity, even for a monster with such a long life as Toriel. She was worried sick, wondering whether the human child had been harmed. As she set foot on Hotland, and waved the Riverperson farewell, the feeling of unease only increased. She did not know where the child had gone. All the monsters she had spoken to had little to no information, seeing as they weren't awake during the day, and therefore hadn't seen anything worth noting. However, as Toriel walked through the dry roads, she noticed flyers, all related to a human kid that had been spotted in Hotland, as a guest on the Underground's greatest celebrity's shows. She walked faster, hoping to reach New Home soon. Time felt so slow, each step lasting a small eternity in her anxious mind.

By the time she had reached the castle, the artificial lights were starting to get brighter. She was determined to reach her destination. She could not allow Asgore to take another soul, and she was going to stop him herself if she had to. She would not let another child be hurt by him. Her steps covered longer distances, as she walked across the familiar hallways. Her breathing was fast, and her paws felt heated with anxiety, small fire bullets dancing around her fingers. She paid no mind to the monsters that walked around her, except to ask about the king once: a tall catlike monster indicated that the king was last seen at the throne room last evening, but was not seen leaving the place ever since. As she approached the throne room, an odd feeling made her magic shiver. There was no sight of the King.

She walked in, careful not to step on the golden flowers that decorated the room. In a way, both of them had remembered their children using those flowers. She shook the thought out of her mind, and she went across the room to a smaller entrance. That room had a single orifice at the ceiling, letting the first rays of the morning sun go through. No sign of the King, either.

She feared the worst.

She prepared her fire attacks.

She breathed deeply.

She stepped into the room that led to the Barrier.

She dropped her attacks, which disappeared in an instant.

Before her was a crown, and an armor covered in a purple cape. Dust on the floor, and an ear-ringing silence. A gardening knife was a few feet away.

This was the day the Underground's King had perished.

This was the day a human made it out of the monsters' world alive.

This was the day things would change forever for their kind.

The Queen took the crown. Her expression was solemn, and she braced herself to make the announcement known to everyone in the Underground.

"King Asgore has died."

[the-river-person]

Greatness

With a resounding crash the wooden barrel lid he was using as a target was shattered as the bones hit it straight on. Undyne cheered enthusiastically from where she sat and watched from the gate. Though Papyrus still came daily to her house for his training, things had changed here too. He’d long passed spaghetti and moved on to other dishes. Almost all of what Undyne made was fairly inedible anyway, but neither of them really minded much, even if the house ended up on fire while they were trying to make a pie. Neither one was entirely sure how fire had gotten involved this time, given that they were attempting a recipe for a frozen custard pie, but the house was definitely blazing merrily and the light of the dancing flames was reflected off the smooth black volcanic stone that was plentiful in Waterfall’s many caves and tunnels. It still burned now, because they hadn’t bothered to try and put it out, and had instead switched to the more aggressive part of his training. Combat. There was no question now that Papyrus was ready for the guard, and Undyne was quickly running out of further challenges or tests to give him before she’d be forced into a decision. Both were aware of the reason for the delay. Nobody was really certain what was to become of the Royal Guard. It was an organization that had served the Royal Family for generations, and had only recently turned all its efforts and focus onto humans. But Undyne’s entire career had been within that final stretch where the humans were the focus, and she was the oldest member of the guard despite her young age. None of the others still in the guard had joined till after her, and when Gerson had passed on the reigns it was her they followed diligently. Sure it wasn’t impossible to return the guard to its normal functions of protecting the Royal Family and acting as peacekeepers of the Underground. But would they be needed? Or wanted? It would be the decision of the King and Queen, who were still on uncertain terms. There were a lot of things that were still being figured out. Until they knew the fate of the Guard, Undyne would wait. Papyrus knew it was to prevent him from getting his hopes up, and he appreciated that, but still he wanted so badly to be a part of it all. Of course there were still some things the Guard would be needed for. Though the Human stayed with the Queen and wandered with her wherever she went, many Monsters still feared them. Papyrus himself had seen entire classes at the new school suddenly go empty as Monsters made various mumbled excuses to slip away even as the Queen sadly watched them from the corner of her eye. All because of the little Human who sat quietly in the corner, watching passively as everything moved forward. He understood their fear, of course he did. Even the smallest of human children, with enough Determination, was powerful enough to spell the end of the Underground a thousand times over. But they’d stopped, hadn’t they? They’d chosen a different path, a path of mercy. It was sad that Sans had been the one to confront the Human so many times. Flowey had described how Sans had been the last one left, the only one who dared to stop the Human before they went too far. And then again, and again, until they simply did things that way because it was how they’d always done it. Why Sans had to fight, he didn’t know, but Papyrus felt sure that those days were over. Whatever the reasons, things had changed, and change of this kind wasn’t easily wiped away, not even with a Reset. Still that didn’t seem to be enough for most Monsters. They wanted justice for past deeds, justice for all the pain humans had caused them, not just this one little one, though they’d certainly done more than any other. And they wanted the source of their fear to go away. To stop scaring them. A quarter of an hour later he’d left Undyne and was thoughtfully trudging through the dark and damp tunnels of Waterfall. A sound reached him, the sound of something digging in the dark, of the rustle of leaves, of very soft muttering. “FLOWEY,” he said out loud. The flower had never managed to sneak up on him properly just yet, that he knew of anyway. “I KNOW IT’S YOU. YOU CAN COME OUT NOW.” “Drat. I was hoping I had you that time,” said the little golden flower as it popped out of the shadows to his left with a bright and cheerful smile. “Do you think you could let me win, just the once?” Striking a dramatic pose, Papyrus wagged his finger admonishingly at the flower. “NYEHEHEH! YOU KNOW BETTER THAN THAT. EVERYTHING THE GREAT PAPYRUS DOES WILL BE DONE TO THE HIGHEST STANDARDS! IF YOU WISH TO DEFEAT ME, YOU WILL HAVE TO SIMPLY TRY HARDER! BUT DON’T WORRY...” He smiled down at his little friend. “I BELIEVE IN YOU.” The expression on the face of the flower was not the one he was expecting. He’d hoped for gratitude or laughter, or even just the usual perpetual cheer that Flowey presented. But instead he only found irritation. “How do you always do that?” snarled Flowey. “Every single time you stayed true. No matter how many resets or details, no matter how bad things got, no matter how many times your attacks beat the human down, no matter how murderous they became before they reached you. You never once let loose. No death, nothing. You just forgive and forgive and forgive even when it hurts you! But you’re one of the strongest Monsters here! Nearly strong enough to be a Boss Monster even! Why do you keep believing in people who can’t change? Who don’t want to be better?” By the time Flowey had managed to get everything out, he was shouting, his little face screwed up in frustration. For a long moment, Papyrus said nothing, waiting, and the flower started to look regretful of the outburst, as if he’d remembered that his friend wouldn’t just forget anymore. “BECAUSE I CHOOSE TO.” Flowey’s face jerked back up to stare at him, and Papyrus’s gaze was unflinching as he gazed back. This outburst must have been building for a long time, he should give the best answer he could. “I KNOW WHAT THE WORLD IS LIKE, WHAT PEOPLE, MONSTERS AND HUMANS ALIKE, HAVE DONE AND ARE STILL WILLING TO DO. BUT I KNOW WHAT THE WORLD COULD BE LIKE. WE COULD BE KINDER, WE COULD BE BETTER. I CAN’T CHANGE THE WORLD BY MYSELF. I TRIED FOR A WHILE, AND PEOPLE JUST WROTE ME OFF AS NAIVE, FORGETTABLE, AND BLIND TO THE WAY THINGS ARE. SO WHEN SANS AND I MOVED TO SNOWDIN I MADE A DIFFERENT PROMISE. I CAN’T CHANGE THE WORLD, BUT I CAN CHANGE ME, AND THAT’S A GOOD START. I’LL BE THE BEST PAPYRUS, THE GREATEST PAPYRUS, I CAN BE.” He had the flower’s attention now. It was clear that in all the Resets, in all the time Flowey had known him that he couldn’t remember much of, he had never told him this part of the story. Flowey gazed at him in fascination, hanging on every word like it was pure gold. “EVEN THE WORST PERSON, SOMEONE WHO HAS FALLEN SO FAR THAT THEY FEEL LIKE THEY’RE SEPARATED FROM EVERYTHING, TRAPPED BY THEIR OWN CHOICES, BY THE PERSON THEY MADE THEMSELVES INTO, CAN STILL CHANGE. EXECUTION POINTS, LEVELS OF VIOLENCE... THEY DON’T MAKE YOU EVIL, THEY’RE JUST NUMBERS, RECORDS OF THINGS YOU’VE ALREADY DONE. THEY MIGHT MEAN TERRIBLE AWFUL THINGS, EVEN EVIL THINGS, BUT THEY DON’T MAKE YOU EVIL. THAT’S A DECISION YOU MAKE YOURSELF EVERY MOMENT OF EVERY DAY. JUST LIKE SOMEONE CAN DECIDE TO BE GOOD.” It was odd how often the flower’s expression changed. Sometimes Papyrus thought it was almost like looking at someone who tried on different masks for different feelings, someone who didn’t want to show their real face underneath all the fakeness on top. Flowey was looking not just taken aback, but almost appalled. Not all of the flower’s history was a mystery to him, Sans had never been the most trusting, but even before the Resets had been revealed to everyone, the smaller skeleton had showed a certain level of distrust, or almost fury towards Flowey. When something had happened and Sans locked himself away for days on end, and Papyrus had stumbled upon the Resets through his growing Determination to help, it was Flowey he’d looked for. Though Flowey had only spoken of the Human and of Resetting time and of Sans, there was enough to know that there was more to the story. And Sans had only confirmed that by acting so frightened about where Papyrus had gotten the information. Whatever Flowey had done, whatever he was, it wasn’t good or kind. He could imagine the little bright smile staying just as happy and cheerful even as all the Monsters in the Underground perished one by one. But that horrified expression, something he’d said had certainly struck a chord, and not one that Flowey liked. “I WOULD NOT BE THE GREAT ANYTHING IF, WHEN A PERSON WHO WAS SO TRAPPED BY THEMSELVES CAME ALONG, AND I DIDN’T OFFER THEM THE CHANCE THEY MIGHT HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR TO CHANGE. WHAT IF THAT WAS THE ONLY OPPORTUNITY? IF I GAVE IN AND SIMPLY FOUGHT THEM OFF OR RAN...THEY WOULDN’T HAVE THAT CHANCE ANYMORE. IF I KILLED THEM, I WOULDN’T BE THE ME I CHOSE, I’D BE SOME OTHER PAPYRUS I DON’T WANT TO BE, SOME LESS GREAT AND NOT AS WONDERFUL PAPYRUS. STILL AMAZING, BUT LESS SO BECAUSE HE WOULDN’T BE ME. SO I WOULD WANT TO KEEP TRYING, EVEN TO THE VERY LAST MOMENT, TO MY DEATH. I COULD BE THE ONLY ONE WHO OFFERS THEM THAT CHOICE TO CHANGE. I DON’T REMEMBER MORE THAN DARK DREAMS AND BITS AND PIECES OF MEMORIES, NOT LIKE SANS REMEMBERS THOSE TIMES, BUT I BELIEVE THAT THOSE MES WOULD WANT TO BE THE GREATEST PAPYRUS AS WELL.” One of his greatest monologues yet. Even if it was a bit of an uncomfortable subject to go on about. For his part, Flowey looked as if he’d swallowed something very unpleasant. “It’s just a choice? That’s all? You don’t even do it because it makes you feel good? Because you feel important?” It was a good point. There had always been the impulse to push himself forward, into the center of attention. To be loved and adored by everyone and recognized for being such a great person. But still... “I...” he said slowly, thinking it through as he spoke. “I DON’T THINK IT’S WRONG TO ENJOY DOING GOOD THINGS, OR TO FEEL IMPORTANT IF YOU DID SOMETHING GREAT. SOMETIMES YOU CAN EVEN DO GOOD THINGS FOR OTHERS BECAUSE IT’S LIKE DOING SOMETHING GOOD FOR YOU TOO AT THE SAME TIME. YOU’RE CHOOSING TO PRACTICE DOING THE RIGHT THING, AND THE THINGS YOU DO STILL HELP PEOPLE. AND IF YOU CAN LEARN TO DO GOOD THINGS FOR LOTS OF DIFFERENT REASONS BECAUSE YOU PRACTICED SO HARD AT IT, THAT’S GREAT TOO! SOME OF THEM MIGHT BE ABOUT FEELING GOOD, AND OTHER TIMES IT MIGHT BE BECAUSE ITS JUST THE RIGHT THING TO DO. ONE DAY, IF YOU PRACTICE ENOUGH, YOU CAN BE STRONG ENOUGH TO TRY AND DO GOOD EVEN WHEN YOU GET HURT BECAUSE OF IT. BUT IT’S OKAY IF YOU DON’T.” He smiled, his eyelights twinkling in their sockets. “EVEN SMALL GOOD THINGS ARE STILL GOOD. GREATNESS ISN’T ABOUT THE SIZE OF IT, YOU CAN BE GREAT BECAUSE OF YOUR CHOICES, EVEN WHEN NOBODY NOTICES A THING.” Flowey said nothing at all. His expression had returned to something more neutral, but it was clear that something had provoked a reaction, a response. Knowing it was getting late, Papyrus resumed his walking, and Flowey burrowed into the earth, popping out here and there ahead of him, but never quite looking at him, or speaking. It was only when they’d reached the first hints of snow that he spoke up, his voice very quiet. “And what about after? What does the person do after? Even if they change, how are people supposed to forgive the things they did? Or trust them ever again? Why should they? Maybe the person has changed, but it doesn’t fix the stuff they did. Right?” Today was a day for hard questions, wasn’t it? “I DON’T KNOW FOR SURE. I COULD FORGIVE SOMEONE IF I KNEW THEY WERE TRULY CHANGING. BUT OTHERS MIGHT NOT BE ABLE TO, OR DON’T WANT TO. I DON’T THINK THAT’S WRONG OF THEM, BECAUSE THEY WERE HURT. SOME MIGHT FORGIVE, BUT NOT TRUST, BECAUSE THEY CAN’T ACCEPT THE RISK OF GETTING HURT AGAIN. I THINK THAT’S OKAY TOO.” He stared off at the distant cavernous ceiling above the peaks and valleys of Snowdin Forest, and the trails of smoke that drifted lazily from the chimneys of the town. “I DON’T THINK PEOPLE HAVE TO FORGIVE, OR EVEN TRUST. IT MIGHT BE NICE IF THEY DID, BUT IT’S HARD TO BE THE BEST YOU IF YOU KEEP EXPECTING THEM TO BE JUST LIKE YOU. THEY MIGHT BE STRONG IN A DIFFERENT WAY, LIKE BEING DETERMINED NO MATTER WHAT, OR SUPLEXING BOULDERS, OR-” “Alright! Alright! I get it!” Flowey butt in hastily, cutting him off just as he was beginning his list. Without another word the flower dove into the earth and did not resurface again. Papyrus shrugged. Hopefully the little flower had gotten what he wanted, and it had been nice to talk about these sorts of things to someone other than Sans for once. He waved cheerily to the River Person as the boat sailed by on the river. “Tra la la,” remarked the hooded figure happily, returning his wave. “The Angel is coming.” And then he was gone. “WOWEE,” said Papyrus to himself. “TODAY HAS BEEN A VERY ODD DAY.”

[cowtale-utau]

How CowTale Came to Be

or How to Give Sans An Existential Crisis

(important-ish to note, Sans remembers resets in this. also this is hella long)

So as most of these stories go, it all starts when Frisk falls into the Underground. Everything proceeds as normal. Flowey is a jerk, Toriel is GoatMom™. Alphys loves anime. Mettaton wants to be a star. Sans is a hoodie and slipper wearing skeleton. Neutral runs happen. Chara asserts themselves and genocides happen. Frisk fights back and pacifist runs happen. Every time they make it past the barrier, Frisk resets before they can make it down the mountain. 

Then things get... weird. Things go way off script. For the most part it seems normal, except some weird changes in dialogue. But then as the end grows closer, things change drastically. Chara and Asriel are... resurrected? They have their own bodies now, formed around their souls that came from somewhere. No one really understands where the souls came from or how the bodies formed. It just kinda, happened. Flowey becomes his own entity, carries pieces of Asriel, but is his own being. He doesn’t seem to have a soul, yet it kinda seems like he could? Another thing that makes no sense, and is a point of concern for Sans and Frisk. Its all so strange and wrong, but everyone seems happy about so what can or should they do but carry on? In one final pacifist run, the barrier is broken and they leave the mountain. But the world isn’t how Frisk remembers. Everything is so... old. Like a western from afternoon television. Frisk explains this to Sans, they’re scared and they don’t know what happened. After some back and forth, they agree that Frisk should do one more reset. See if maybe this was all a strange fluke.

It wasn’t. Everything happens again. Strange and off, and they emerge to the same strange off world. Frisk is the only one who really understands what they’re missing, and Sans understands things are off, but has no first hand experience. But the things they had in the Undergound don’t fit here. This seems more like what they had decades ago. So they go to Asgore and Toriel together and try to explain as best they can. They leave out the resets, or that their children should still be dead. But they tell them something in the process of saving everyone and breaking the barrier time went weird. They seem to have come out about 150 years back from when Frisk went in. Frisk studied this time in school, the Old West, so they aren’t completely clueless, but this is definitely not their time. It’s decided to tell everyone that the world isn’t what they expected but they’re going to do their best to make it work regardless. Monster kind is strangely accepting of the things missing, generally chalking it up to magic science weirdness and moving on. 

So they settle. They build themselves a home around the mountain. Some choose to stay within it. Content now that they can come and go as they please. The first few humans they meet are not exactly kind, but not immediately hostile at least. The king and queen (separated still, but cooperating with one another for the good of monster kind) meet the local government. At first it seems like things will go bad, but then talk of gold happens. And the tone shifts. Monsters have gold? And a lot of it? Suddenly they’re talking to the nations government rather than just the local. And lines are set. The mountain and surrounding areas belong to the monsters. They’re welcome to venture out into the rest of the world, so long as the know that by doing so they take their lives into their own hands. You won’t be hunted by the government, and they’ll receive the same basic rights, but there will be no special protections. No one looking out for them. This is accepted as the best they’ll get. Things settle and it seems like life will be ok.

Then things get weird again. The core goes strange, and so does the machine in the basement. Readings become next to impossible to make sense of and power fluctuates wildly. And suddenly, there’s more of them. More monsters. Sort of? The same monsters? Just different. Again, something that shouldn’t be and makes no sense. Over the course of a year or so, they’d just occasionally pop up. No rhyme or reason. Base world Asgore and Toriel are called in to help sort out the mess, as alternate versions of everyone they knew start appearing. It isn’t consistent. One group might bring their human child, while another doesn’t. That bunch has a Grillby but no Muffet or vice versa. More royals? Why not, but apparently not all of them. The only ones who seem to come through every time are a given worlds Sans and Papyrus. Without fail, the skeletons show. The “base” versions of each monster was put in charge of “themselves”. Getting the assorted royals to work together took some time, but somehow they managed. Some monsters had an easier go of it then others, but being free and on the surface seemed to smooth a lot of ruffled feathers. It worked out. Sort of, and strangely. But it was working. 

Sans feels like he’s losing his mind. There’s at least a dozen versions of him and his brother. The world is all wrong. Nothing makes sense. This isn’t even how that machine was supposed to work, right? He can’t be sure of anything anymore. All he knows is he has too damn many copies of himself to wrangle. 

And then the weird ones show up. Dream isn’t too bad. The less said about Fresh the better. He’s grateful to have only passingly run into Error. “Enjoying the shit show” apparently, whatever that meant. He knows Nightmare was around at one point, but never actually came face to face with him. And then there was Ink. 

Ink wasn’t so bad as a person, he supposed. A bit off, but tolerable. Yet another nuisance that could come and go as he pleased apparently. But he seemed like he meant no harm. When asked he just said “Checking on the creator’s work.” That one sentence was all it took to send a chill down Sans’ spine. When pushed Ink explained. They hadn’t ever really left their own verse, technically. It wasn’t some strange reset-caused time warp. They’d been copied over. Original Sans and the Original Underground all still existed in their original world. They were all just copies. Same for everyone else. Their own worlds went on just the same, with them still in them. Carrying on as they were meant to. Everyone here had just been, copy/pasted over, barring of course himself and the others who existed outside the worlds. Tossed into a world together and then “flavored”. Flavored “Old Wild West” apparently. Because they weren’t interesting enough on their own? 

Why? And how? And what was the point? 

As for how, well the multiverse theory always stated, an infinite number of possibilities. Why not this one?

But why?

Bullshit wish fulfillment.

That was why. That was the point.

“Such is the whim of the creator.”

It would take a long damn time for Sans to come to terms with this. He eventually broke and confided in his brother. Papyrus being Papyrus told Sans it didn’t matter. So what if they weren’t real to someone else. They were real to themselves. They were real to each other. This was there life. And could they know if anyone ever really had control. Any version of any person in any world. How can you ever be entirely certain your life is your own to live? Your choices your own to make? You just have to accept that you can’t know, and then choose to live anyway. Keep moving forward. Keep living your life. Because if you just quit, if you just give up, then you’ve truly lost yourself. Don’t worry about it. Just live. 

So there you have it. The messy story of how one meddlesome creator wanted to make a world suited to their taste, and didn’t much care how or what the implications might mean. What does it matter? None of its real anyway right?

[happyhearthooligan]

Master List Nov Edition 2019

(2/2)

This half contains Classic Undertale headcanons, Multiple AU asks, other headcanons that didn’t quite fit the first half, and franstastic-ideas’ other posts

The first half contains AU-centric headcanons excluding Classic Undertale

franstastic-ideas - November Content (Continued)

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

Classic Undertale

Nov 1

Would Papyrus ever supplex Chara

Yandere Papyrus vs Yandere Asriel head cannons?

Do you think Papyrus would swear around Undyne?

Nov 2

What were Sans' initial thoughts on Undyne's potty mouth?

(1/2) Canonically, Sans tried to make a quiche.

(2/2) Wait he didn’t make a quiche he made a pie, my bad. 

How close was Asriel to his mother?

Nov 3

Why Flowey stayed in the ruins

Chara flirts with Papyrus through Frisk.

Why would Frisk ever want to do a Genocide run

If Sans and Frisk had a kid, what would they be like?

How would frisk react if she encounters a bitty sans

Sans tells Frisk that she'd be dead where she stood…

Why Gaster has holes in his hands

Would Papyrus try to emulate Undyne’s fighting style?

Papara/Frans reaction to a kitten sneeze

Gaster’s holes and pain

More about Vivaldi

What happens if the store is out of chocolate?

Nov 4

Does Papyrus knows the exact extent of Sans’ depression?

Papyrus and Asriel would turn the kitchen into a total disaster area

What do you think Papyrus’ costume was supposed to be?

How would the skellies react if Frisk/Chara gave a soft no?

Sans’s time as Gaster’s intern here was… an experience

What was everyone's reaction when hearing Sans’ kitten sneeze?

Did Asriel or Chara made the mistake of confusing “cups of butter”?

Yeah, that does sound kind of like Sans

Nov 5

Why does Sans no longer feel hopelessness

Does Flowey still believe that "It's Kill or Be Killed"?

About the kids that come from the Frans and Papara ships…

Does Asriel rely on Chara to make decisions for him?

Nov 6 - Do married papara still have butterflies in their stomachs?

Nov 14 - How’s Chara when being complimented by the boys?

Nov 15 - Skelebros when Frisk/Chara get their wisdom teeth out?

Nov 16

Sans has caused Flowey his "fair share of resets”…

Provide thee with thy Frister hcs frometh multiple AUs please?

How do you think everyone's skating level is?

Would Frisk or Chara try to lift up their bonefriend?

Dr. Gaster was actually never confirmed to be a skeleton.

Nov 17

Would you please tell us more about Henry?

Forgive me, Madame, for I, instead of reading…

How do the skeletons react if their girlfriends get hurt?

“Sans has a nightmare about Frisk marrying [Gaster]…”

What started Gaster's obsession for humans?

Nov 18 - Would Asriel ask Papyrus to be his best man?

Nov 19

Are the monsters genuinely unable to tell Chara and Frisk’s gender?

How would younger monsters react to Frisk/Chara wiping dust off?

Monsters might not overly familiar with humans' anatomy enough…

If Frisk never left the underground, married Sans, and had Vivaldi. 

What is Sans riding in the True Pacifist ending?

Nov 20

How would the monsters react to the modern human technology?

Married Frans Life hcs please?

UT Chara and Papyrus go on their first date

Nov 21

Where do you think the skeletons were living prior to Snowdin?

Where do you think Sans gets the money?

Does that mean Sans and Frisk will live in a mansion type house?

Nov 22

MK is uncertain if "that weird skeleton" is a kid or an adult…

Is Sans actually unable to open his jaw or just chooses not to

Nov 24

Is Frisk technically a princess?

What relationship did Asriel have with Sans early-on?

How did Frisk cross the barrier in the Neutral Run?

Do you think that Toriel will ever truly forgive Asgore?

King Asgore couldn’t really take the proclaim back

Press the attack key once and Flowey will be struck multiple times…

Nov 25

Do Toriel & Asgore punish Chara by not letting her have chocolate?

"Nobody can bully Asriel except for ME"

Nov 26

How much do you head cannon Sans owes Grillby on his tab?

Do you head cannon Chara or Asriel being the older sibling?

Is Frisk wearing a striped shirt a coincidence?

About how much is G worth in the human currency?

Nov 27

University AU Frans/Papara head cannons?

Asriel mentions that "a world without Chara" had no place for him…

You mentioned that Asriel had a "slight-older woman fetish”…

Nov 28

If Asriel and Chara were brought back to life…

How do you head cannon Toriel and Asgore got together?

Nov 30 - What do you head cannon everyone sounding like?

Multiple AU Headcanons

Nov 1

Would other Sanses have collections?

What does Frisk thinks these collections?

Nov 2

Who do you think are the closer skelebros? UT or US?

What do the Sanses/Papyri call their human?

Nov 3

What gifts do the skeletons love receiving from their human?

What does the Sanses feel about buttercup flowers?

Frans: If human monster relationships were forbidden

Papara: If human monster relationships were forbidden

Nov 4

What relationship do Sans and Chara have in the other AU's?

How do the other AU skelebros mess with each other?

Do any other Frans/Papara couples or rivals have a "Dere Type"?

Nov 5 - Do the skelebros know about any of the Pokemon games?

Nov 6 - US and SF Chara's personality

Nov 14 - What types of parents are the Frans and Paparas?

Nov 15

Chara would probably play with Asriel's ears…

Is there any rivalry between the Papyruses, and the Asriels?

Nov 17 - Who are Sans’ and Frisk’s other next-door neighbors?

Nov 19 - Throw me any head canons that comes first in mind please 

Nov 20 - How do the other Papyri feel about their respective Tobys?

Nov 24

How do the Frisks feel about chocolate?

If Chocolate was taken off the market, how would each Chara react?

Nov 25 - What made the Frisks/Charas fall in love with the boys? 

Nov 28 - How did the Sanses react to Frisk using them as a pillow?

Nov 29 - How would the Papyri respond to Chara's compliments?

Other Headcanons

Nov 3

One More Tale AU introduced

Horrotale skelies/humans reacting on each other’s sick days

What’s this 'One More Tale' AU I hear?

Nov 4 - How much of an appettite can a little bitty have?

Nov 6

How would G react to having the same iris color as Frisk?

What about Frans cuddles, but with bitty Frisk instead?

How massive Muffet’s family is implied to be

Nov 8 - Webber from my Bittyverse fics

Nov 14

Any ideas/prompts for Storyshift Frans and Papara?

I wanna ask- would the tarantula lady a ginger?

Random au prompt? 

Tarantula lady has the ultimate hug power

How many monsters have not been revealed to us?

Nov 15 - Undertale, but with MORE SPIDERS!

Nov 17

Could you give us some flirts/puns exclusive to Attorneytale?

Shopkeeper Frisk vs traps, Adgore, and Omega Flowey

Nov 18

Mermaid Sans x normal Frisk living alone on an island?

In the Bitty Bones au, would Frisk ever adopt a Red sans?

Nov 19 - Random Prompt time plz

Nov 20

Bittybones Headcannons?

Can I ask for some love-dunce Frisk and shy Sans?

In the scenario where monsters were never trapped underground...

Nov 24 - “Nothing Tibia-fraid Of" Frans headcanons?

Nov 25

Do you think Narrator Chara laughs when Sans pranks Frisk?

Bitty Frisk: Mother Hen (Henri) vs Mother Goat (Toriel)?

Nov 26

*picks Classic Sans up then throws him into a Frisk pile*

Can we have frans/papara hcs for Cybertale?

Can I ask for Tainted Love headcanons?

Nov 30 - What about some Flowerfell headcanons?

Other types of posts

Nov 3 - Monster dream boyfriend

Nov 4

I can assure you that the most anon asks is not by one person

I wish there were a ukagaka of all your Frans and Papara AU's

*pokes then runs away*

Nov 5

Do you do headcannons on UT and AU characters in General?

This tumblr user now has a bucket over their head-

How do you feel about Charisk (Chara x Frisk)?

Nov 7 - I got my first ever paycheck today

Nov 9 - Masterlist plan of the past (link to it) 

Nov 11 - Why does Sword and Shield have a level cap for...

Nov 14

So how do I do taxes?

The difference between envy and jealousy

The more spiders in this family, the better!

Fun spider fact!

Another Spider Fact

Nov 16

But I have so many AUs already…

Moth Man or Jersey Devil?

Have you seen the whole of Gravity Falls?

Nov 18

Would it be alright if I wrote a fanfic about WT Swap Frans?

Favorite au from our lovely semisolidmind?

Papyrus is a nice guy

Nov 19

How would franstastic-ideas react to getting tickled ;3

How familiar are you with Warrior Cats?

Remind us of your nicknames please?

Nov 20

What job did the wonderful wonder of you get?

Do you know if there are any fics that are similar to Convergence?

Nov 21

Yandere Altertale fic thoughts

I’ve been looking at Pokémon Sword and Shield 

Nov 26 - How are so many of your head canons so damn cute?

Nov 28

I actually enjoy photography as well

Pokémon Sword and Shield’s Galar region is based off of the UK…

Nov 30

Webber, every time he sees my phone:

A random out-of-boredom-question...

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

Found out that all the links work when I'm looking at it on my own page, but if I open it up in a seperate page, they will all disappear if there are too many

[hoodie-lover]

My Multiverse Ask Event! #2

“Hey Dark Sans's you guys are some of the favorites among the fandom, how does it feel knowing people make plushies of you to cuddle?”

“Well I’m flattered we’re so popular, why plushies?” Killer asked, clearly weirded out by the statement. 

“Can I have some?” Cross asked, smiling and Error nodded, both of them receiving very judgmental looks from the rest. 

“What? I want to judge their quality.” Error said, crossing his arms. 

“Sure.” Dust said and Horror snickered. 

“Say anything more about the plushies and I will bring out all of your old artwork.” Cross said and Error gasped.

“You wouldn’t!” Error cried out, and Cross had a maniacal grin on his face. 

“Plushies!” He screamed and Horror sighed. 

“I was talking to Error. ChocolateLover420.” Horror said, and Cross charged at him. 

“I told you that wasn’t my Undernet username!” Cross said as Nightmare picked him up by his heel. 

“It’s Error’s.” Nightmare said, but the glitch was gone. 

“UT sans so how come at the genocide route you bleed not even papyrus does that how did you bleed PS im not a murderer i watched a video about the genocide route.” 

“I have no idea what you are talking about. And you are still a sicko for watching that. Seriously, who takes videos of that stuff?” Sans said, taking a sip of ketchup as he smirked. He was alone at his station so no one could pester him. 

“You WHAT?!” Flowey said as he popped up from the dirt, causing Sans to flip him off. 

“Rude.” Flowey scoffed as he grew taller and soon towered over Sans. 

“Tell me, do you bleed?” Flowey said, face morphing into an eldritch grin. 

“Don’t believe the people who tortured an alternate me.” Sans said, teleporting away. 

“So by now I am sure most of the Sans's have learned how Nightmare found Error. Was Error still mentally a child when they started fighting, and if so how do the "good guys" feel knowing they basically hit a kid?”

“Yes, we know.” Blue said, and he looked at the Dark Sanses. Dream was laying on the couch.

“Why did you have to remind me?” Dream said, crying as he put his face on the cushions.

“Dream, you don’t need to cry and beat yourself up everytime you hear about this.” Blue said, sighing as he comforted Dream.

“You cried too.” Dream said, and Blue sighed. 

“But I’ve moved on. You need to accept you did something bad, accept you’ve made it right, and accept that the people you wronged have forgiven you.” Blus said, and Dream gave a muffled response.

“When he fell asleep in the anti-void the voices,” Nightmare said, glaring at where he believed the voices to be loudest, and therefore the source, “possessed him and used his body as a puppet to destroy universes.” 

“I personally don’t remember any of it. Apparently they waged a prank war on Nightmare that they won.” Error said, showing his cleared search history as Cross spied on the computer. 

“We didn’t let him join us until he was well-trained enough to use his power without hurting himself. He was around 18 or 19 at the time mentally.” Killer said, digging through a box of old drawings as he hid from Error. 

“The people responsible have long disbanded and hid away the code and such that let them possess Error, so we shouldn’t have to worry about that.” Nightmare said, the room growing darker as a small wind blew in and his eye glowed a very bright cyan. ;

“Frisk when you fight monsters can you hear the music?”

“Yes. I do. And it’s quite catchy, especially Megalovania.” Frisk said, summoning the RESET button. 

“Maybe later I’ll listen to it.” They said, their eyes glowing a deep red. 

“Frisk would you have given your soul to Asgore to free the monsters if necessary?”

“Once, yes. But I was young and stupid, I couldn’t see the power I had. In fact, if it weren’t for my determination, I would have gladly surrendered myself to the Snowdin guard.” Frisk said, a dull grin on their face as they remembered their first trek through the Underground. 

KikiTheSapphireKitsune - Archive of Our Own - First

Anonymous - Archive of Our Own - Second

KikiTheSapphireKitsune - Archive of Our Own - Third

Megalovaniaintensifies - Archive of Our Own - Fourth and Fifth

Asks close on 12:50pm EST on Monday. I apologize to anyone who didn’t have their ask featured this chapter because I failed to specify EST time. You will be featured in the next chapter along with the new asks. (I’m new to this so please be understanding) I hope this is the last time I have to iron out some wrinkles.

Previous

[just-a-judgmental-frisk-here]

About ReplayTale

(Name for it is iffy could use help with it lmao)

Okay, so basically after going through 13 genocide runs one after an other, Frisk has kind of absorbed some monster magic. Specifically, the blue magic that Sans uses in his battle against the player *cough cough Frisk cough cough*

Due to the magic, Frisk's soul is not the one of DETERMINATION. It is the one of Integrity, the dark blue one.

As the actions of the past affect the future, Frisk then goes through an entire timeline without falling down, being a sort of apathic kid who only cares about peace in humanity. Their father was a judge, with a yellow soul, and taught them about Justice. Their mother had a Kind spirit, a green soul.

While Frisk may not know how to use their powers in this 'Surface timeline' but they can see what type of soul any given person has. Then...insecure Chara moves in the neighborhood, killing all Frisk's family.

Due to Frisk having the soul of Integrity, they set out for revenge because they didn't feel while anymore.

Chara's soul, which Frisk thought was weird as they had never seen a black soul before, wasn't even theirs. Dr. Gaster had handmade that specific soul for Chara to be his puppet.

In reality, Chara was an attention grabber. Always seemed to have it, or need it. Maybe it's because of Aserial ignoring her entirely, maybe not.

Frisk at this point had become the Judge. Not at court, but they would judge them anywhere. School, home, at the store. If they didn't seem peaceful to them, they would know it.

But, Gaster still had control of Chara. One look at Chara soul told Frisk that it wasn't natural. Frisk goes up to Chara, who's crying over Aserial, and puts their hand right where Chara's soul was. They absorbed all of the Gaster badness- right into their own soul.

Frisk felt that until all was peaceful, they world never be themselves again. As in not being the Judge of human souls. Good and bad.

Frisk, however, remembered the underground. So they reset the game, and make sure that they fall down. Which they do fall down.

Flowey is actually depressed. He refuses to try to kill you, no matter how much you insist. All he wants is to feel normal. But he can't. You feel his pain.

Toriel is more trusting of Frisk, and will let them out of the Ruins, with a trusted friend.

Who none other than Sans to be that buddy? He's kind of scatterbrained this timeline. He catches Frisk's attention as Sans is the judge of this world.

Papyrus is nowhere to be seen, as you learn from Sans. You hate seeing Sans like this, and the entire point of each timeline you run is to save each character that disappears.

Undyne and Alphys hate each other during Papyrus's disappearance, because they each blame the other for the disappearance.

Mettaton is a malfunctioning robot not of Alphys's creation but of Gaster's. If you find him, talk to him. If not able to, talk to Sans about it. You and him have shared nightmares every now and then.

Asgore and goat mom were never married. Never had kids. Ever.

You brought Flowey and Chara into this universe.

Speaking of that demon child...she's clingy af. Needs attention, and also when not possesed by Gaster, mainly speaks in poems.

Monster kid thinks that you are an adult, and does not follow you into Waterfall. Only way he'll follow you is if Chara is following you. (she always is)

Napstablook is kind of a secret shop keeper. If you bug him enough, he'll give you instructions on how to use the magic, that you have.

You don't care about home. All you care about is saving Papyrus (he's in the void Gaster stole him), making Sans happy, and making yourself feel whole again.

Speaking of Sans...his outfit is a cyan hoodie, reflecting his soul of Patience, dark blue shorts and grey/gray slippers. I can't draw shit, but I did draw Frisk and Chara.

(P.S. frisk is totally trying to hide their feelings for sans through the entire game)

And...thanks for listening to my Ted Talk. I am excited to see where this will go. I'll draw others later. I'm writing a book about it on Wattpad, so here it is!

Now time for my surprise attack!

@june-the-lonely @undertale @undertale-over-the-void @undertalethingems @undertaleheadcanons @undertale-shitposts @friskiing @friskd @friskdraws @friskdreemurr00 @friskdreemurr123 @friskdreemuurr @friskyfrisk55689 @punmastersansbones @partyofthree-au @papyrussuggestions @papyrusthegreatskelenton @asksansandfriskchibi @ask-glitch-and-squid @ask-dreamswap @ask-skull-quartet @askblueberrymuffin @charadreemurr @charadreemurrofficial @deeeepiyuuu @dreemurr-reborn @dreemurr-skelememer @flowey-answers @flowey-daily @floweytxt @floweyaskblog @napstabiook22 @notsafefromchara @napstamuse @napstablookoftheday @blookiisms @determination-from-undertale @determinationful @deltarune @deltarunedyke @deltarune--kris @absolutedream-undertaleart @aserialdreamer @aserial-murderer @asreeldreemurr @mercygivingfrisk @my-verte-bae @mettatoniic02 @mettamania @mettatonfantasies

If you read this far then congrats. Thank you very much. Feel free to contact me here on Tumblr. Tell me what you think of the idea and you get a free follow if I'm not following you already

[autisticsupervillain]

It's Fictional Throwdown Friday!

This Week's Fighters...

The Chosen Undead vs Frisk!

Conditions:

No Restrictions

Scenario:

The Chosen Undead ventures down into the Underground to use the seven human souls of legend as kindling to help restore the First Flame. Frisk, however, refuses to part with their soul.

Analysis: Frisk

Long ago there lived two races, monsters and humans. The two races coexisted peacefully, for a time, until war inevitably broke out. The humans overpowered the monsters and sealed them away within Mt. Ebott.

Years later, a small child would fall into Mt. Ebott, swiftly finding themselves trapped within the caverns of the Underground. Miraculously, despite the hostility and mistrust that the monsters showed towards them, the fallen child chose peace. Over time, they would befriend the denizens of the Underground, eventually finding a way to break the barrier and peacefully reunite humans and monsters. This child's name... was Frisk.

Of course, Frisk did not accomplish this feat alone. Next to their compassion, their most powerful asset was undoubtedly their DETERMINATION. This emotion is, in fact, a supernatural substance largely unique to humankind. With the immense amounts Frisk has their disposal, they are able to utilize supernatural powers and perform blatantly superhuman feats.

Frisk's most prominent ability is their power to SAVE and LOAD. By filling themselves with DETERMINATION, Frisk can SAVE all the progress they've made on their journey thus far, allowing them to later LOAD back to that point at will. This ability activates automatically upon death and can even allow Frisk to come back from having their soul destroyed. There is a common misconception about it though.

SAVEing and LOADing does not create multiple timelines. Yes, Sans refers to timelines in the plural when discussing Frisk's abilities, but he does not mean that in the sense of there being a multiverse. What he means is that every time you reset or LOAD, you're effectively erasing the timeline up until the point you reset at. Sort of like rewinding time. The timeline that was just erased is seperate from the timeline you're now in, but they do not co-exist. This is consistent with how SAVE and LOAD is discussed throughout the rest of the game. As such, no reality desroying feats in Undertale are multiversal in scale, but more on that later.

Regardless, Frisk's DETERMINATION is still so immense that they can outright override the powers of other DETERMINATION users, such as Flowey, and their own SAVE and LOAD powers require multiple human souls to be overridden themselves. Frisk is also shown to be have their memories remain unaffected by the timeline alterations of both themselves and others, even with their SAVE and LOAD powers otherwise being overridden.

Their DETERMINATION has even been shown to grant them superhuman strength, speed, and durability, which, within the shown limits of their powers, scales proportionally to whoever they are fighting. Even at their most basic level, Frisk is capable of surviving some pretty intense things. They can walk around in Hotland unaffected, despite it being hot enough to completely vaporize a paper cup, can survive Undyne's oven exploding in their face unharmed, completely no-sold an electric shock that visibly hurt Papyrus, and walked through the CORE unaffected despite it being filled with Ozone, among others. These feats do scale to their attack potency, as they can contend evenly with monsters who can hurt them even without any killing intent.

Furthermore, Frisk's durability also scales to their soul, as monsters attack on both a physical and spiritual level. This is backed up by the fact that armors that increase the durability of Frisk's soul are items logically wouldn't increase their physical durability in any way, such as ribbons, bandanas, and aprons.

What's move impressive about Frisk however, is what they can do when their DETERMINATION is pushed to its absolute limits. When at their peak, Frisk can contend with universe busting god-like beings, such as Omega Flowey and Asriel Dreemurr. Omega Flowey opens their fight by destroying the entire timeline/save file and Asriel openly boasts that he intends to destroy the world once he starts actually getting serious. (This is backed up by the fight descriptor saying "the world is ending" during the Asriel fight, as well as Asriel having infinite stats under the Check menu.) Furthermore, Frisk can dodge incredibly fast projectiles, ranging from the sound of a dog barking to the beams of light fired by Knight Knight.

Frisk is even capable of harming Omega Flowey, albiet barely. It definitely appears that Frisk is not as strong as they are durable in this mode, as despite tanking attacks from Asriel, they cannot harm him.

In this amplified state, Frisk gains a few more useful abilities. At this point, they are capable of willing their soul back together upon its destruction, simply refusing to die. Furthermore, they can interact with the souls that Omega Flowey and Asriel have absorbed, turning them against their masters. They can even turn their own hopes and dreams into physical objects which they can absorb to heal themselves.

Having said all of that, Frisk's options are incredibly limited without DETERMINATION. They do carry a variety of weapons on them, yes, but those are widely an assortment of sticks and knives, weapons with pitiful range for the tier they're in. The best they have is the empty gun (which they can will into firing actual bullets) and the earpiece provided by Alphys, which can turn into a jetpack and allow them to shoot small lasers from their soul. The fact that they can simply RESET to try as many times as they have to also puts many of their greatest skill feats into question. Yes, they can outlast Undyne and Papyrus and Toriel, and even beat Asgore without any killing intent, but they had infinite tries to do so.

Their compassion is also a double edged sword. Integral to their greatest achievements, yes, but it also means that they will not fight unless it is absolutely necessary. The only times they ever threw a punch was when Asgore and Omega Flowey outright forced them to do so. Frisk is lucky, then, that they are such a gifted diplomat, able to reverse monsterkind's negative view on humans over the span of seemingly no longer than a day (though we are never given an actual timeframe for Undertale's events).

Amd even if Frisk is unwilling to fight for whatever reason, than the Player controlling them certainly will be. While Frisk's true personality shines through in the Pacifist Ending, they can be forced to murder all that they've come to love should the Player choose it.

Frisk isn't a fighter, but their unending DETERMINATION ensures that they will overcome virtually any challenge that comes their way. In whatever Route the Player chooses from them to walk.

Analysis: The Chosen Undead

The world is ending. Not with a bang or a crunch, but with a shuddering, prolonged whimper. The heroes of the land have all either died or gone mad, and the inspirational legends behind them are all nothing but ancient history. Humanity would want nothing more than to roll over and die. Pity that that is the last tning they could do.

Humanity has been cursed with fragments of the all powerful Dark Soul, ensuring that all humans are naturally undead. This meant that they would eventually live long enough to eventually go Hollow, dying a slow and painful death in the throughs of madness as their humanity left them. Exploiting this fact, the Gods used this curse as propaganda to trick humans into sacrificing their fragments of the Dark Soul to fuel the First Flame, the Sun the lights the world and whose creation and existence fuels that concept of time itself. For the Gods feared the power of the Dark Soul and wanted to keep their reign in the Age of Light going for as long as possible.

One of the humans who bore the Dark Soul was the one who would become the Chosen Undead. Shipped up to an aslyum in the North to be contained when they went Hollow, the Chosen Undead was rescued by a giant raven and informed of their destiny. Dropped into the land of Lordran, the Chosen Undead would have to fight their way through the mad gods, fallen heroes, and treacherous monsters to save the world from the Age of Dark.

...Well, I say "save". More like "torturously prolong". It is Dark Souls, after all. There is no true happy endint to your grand quest, whether you ignite the flame to keep the cycle going or let it die to condemn humanity to darkness, Hollowness, and dispair. So what's the point, you may ask? To die. Over and over again, until you succeed. It is the struggle that makes the Undead's journey worth it.

And luckily, The Chosen Undead would find countless weapons and spells to aide them in their journey. The most prominent of which is the Dark Soul itself. By using bits of it as kindling at bonfires, The Chosen Undead can resurrect from the dead, over and over again to retry whatever fight is killing them. Though this process deprives them of all the souls that they've collected and slowly drives them closer to Hollowness, the humans of Dark Souls don't need souls to survive and The Chosen Undead can, to an extent, resist the effects of going Hollow through sheer determination. As long as they don't rage quit, the Chosen Undead can return as many times as they want and eventually win.

And with pockets as deep as theirs, one of their weaons is bound to give them a winning strategy once they learn all your tricks. The Greatsword of Artorius, whose cursed varients can kill ghosts, Gough's Greatbow, a massive bow with pillar sized arrows that csn shoot down dragons, and the Dark Hand, a mark that can warp space itself to create a shield and absorb people's souls, just to name a few.

And they're also a master of sorcery and magic. With spells such as the Homing Soulmass to directly target and home in on a foe's soul, to the Hidden Caster spell to turn themselves invisible. Or, they can just say "fuck magic" and use the Vow of Silence to keep people from casting spells entirely. Helpful for managing their limited magic supply. They can even use their magic to summon heroes from other realms to aide them in combat. Or they can go to other people's realms and invade their lands to steal their things. Try it and I'll shove a great sword up your ass before you finish praising the sun, Dave. And that's on top of being able to reflect damage, control minds, shoot fire balls, and throw sunlight at people. Sunlight that they are fast enough to dodge when being invaded by other Players, mind you.

And all that arsenal isn't being thrown around by a witless dolt either. They've managed to kill Seath the Scaleless, the immortal dragon who invented sorcery in the first place, before carving his ass into the beautiful Moonlight Greatsword. They've killed Nito, the God of Death, The Bed of Chaos, the mother of all demon kind, and Artorius, the greatest knight in history.

But, for all their unrelenting stubbornness, The Chosen Undead does have limits. They are just another cog in the endless cycle of the Ages of Light and Dark. The First Flame created the very concepts of Light and Dark. Energy and Time. Like a mythological big bang. The power that the Chosen Undead would need to power it is immense.... but not limitless. The First Flame will wain again in another thousand years and the cycle will begin anew. And while the Chosen Undead can resist the corruption of Hollowing, even they can eventually succumb. Depends on if you decide to rage quit.

And doesn't that just sum up the entire Dark Souls mythos? And endless cycle of death and suffering, until everything gives up.

Throwdown Theme:

Throwdown Breakdown:

Well, this is a fight with a lot of moving parts to it.

Frisk has the advantage of knowing about the Chosen Undead's immortality and resurrection, as their immortality rewinds time to back before they died, while the Undead's does not. But the Undead has the advantage of a much deeper arsenal. While Frisk's flight does mitigate that to a degree, the CU does still have ranged weapons that they can keep up with and is no stranger to flying enemies.

The Chosen Undead is more skilled. Even with the caveat that both can just keep coming back until they win, CU's competition is more impressive skillwise than anyone Frisk's fought. However, Frisk can resist the Chosen Undead absorbing their soul, as they did from Asriel when he tried Hyper Goner, and mind control likely wouldn't be able to override the control the Player has over Frisk. Unlike Chara or Kris, Frisk has no feats of being able to overcome the Player's control outright, so would not be able to do so when Chosen Undead orders them too.

Other massive advantages that the two hsve over each other would be adapted to as they die and come back. Chosen Undead would understand what a gun is after getting shot by one and Frisk can learn about and adapt to CU's invisibility. I don't think Frisk's pacifistic tendencies would get in the way here. This is going to be an Asgore or Flowey situation where Frisk has no choice but to fight, and even then, the Player can always force them.

They should also both be roughly equal in speed. Both of them can dodge beams of light and both have arguments for even infinite speed. After all, Chosen Undead can fight dragons, who existed in the Age if Dragons before the First Flame came to be and created time, while Frisk can fight even after Omega Flowey destroys the Save File/Timeline, moving even when time does not exist.

What this truly comes down to is a comparison between both of their sources of power. DETERMINATION vs The Dark Soul. The powers that make their versions of humanity different from our own. And that's where it all comes together.

We definitively know that the fragment of the Dark Soul is not limitless. It can sustain the First Flame for a lomg, long time.... but it cannot sustain it forever. On the other hand, we know DETERMINATION can grant an infinite amount of power. We know as much from Asriel's check stats. Check Stats that Toby Fox himself updated and tweaked to be more accurate. And Frisk can survive a barrage from this infinite power, even if they can't harm it.

That's the distinction here. Finiteness. The Chosen Undead will eventually run out of magic and weapons while Frisk can always keep creating Hopes and Dreams to feed off of. And if Frisk gives up, The Player can force them to keep going. If the Chosen Undead gives up, they go Hollow.

That's the ultimate distraction between the two stories. Dark Souls is about the inevitability of Death and Decay. You cannot save the world, you can only prolong its end. Undertale is all about moving on from pain. No matter how much suffering you go though, you will eventually have to leave it behind. Just so long as you're DETERMINED enough to start moving on.

This Throwdown's Winner is...

Frisk!

[smellslikejustice-archive]

kr-i replied to your post “So you have a Fell verse. Are there any other verses you're gonna add?...”

I'M BEYOND INTERESTED HMU BITCH

I mean if you so insist

Under a cut because my brain really went off.

Long story short, somewhere in the span of time before the game where Flowey is still in control, Sans disappears. No where to be found. Papyrus is panicking, Undyne has the whole royal guard sweeping the entire Underground for over two months, and it all comes up with zilch.

Search grows slower as the case goes cold, and Undyne just... starts keeping Papyrus company. Trying her best to keep his hopes up and making sure he doesn’t grow completely lonely... in vain, sadly.

Some more months pass, and during that time Undyne let Papyrus join the royal guard; if only to get him motivated to actually do stuff and distract him from the bad feelings. Did some good for him, at least- she assigned him to Waterfall so she could him out of trouble.

One day she catches him talking to Flowey, interrupts when she hears Flowey saying something not-so-nice, and causes the weed to run away. She interrogates Papyrus, gaining little information but telling him to be more wary. She knows damn well there isn’t a single “flower monster” in the Underground.

As it turns out, Papyrus listens to her- and that pisses Flowey off. So he throws a big fit and decides he’s gonna turn Waterfall into a dust wasteland to get back her. And he succeeds; up until the point where it’s time to kill her. He didn’t think there was anything special about her.

He knocks her to 0HP, only to cause her to go Undying; he’s a very talkative villain, and with all the pettiness and vitriol he has he manages to unintentionally call out her determination without a full genocide route.

This goes VERY poorly for him... because, as I’ve mentioned in past headcanons, Undyne the Undying is higher on the DT totem-pole than Flowey is. So when he dies in seconds, he STAYS dead. And eventually, when she realizes her power, she RESETs to bring back everyone else.

Flowey is even more pissed and confused, since as far as he knows he just woke up back at his original SAVE point and has to do everything again, so this time he goes for a full genocide route.

Second verse same as the first. He gets wrecked, and stays wrecked. She recalls the memories from the last encounter while in the form, but doesn’t want him to keep trying... so, she tries her best to hang on to some memories before forcing another RESET.

Doesn’t remember enough to think about it. Before she can act, another genocide route comes her way, another fight that leads to her going Undying, and another dead flower. She tries to remember harder.

RESETs. Slightly more precise memories, but she doesn’t act on them in time. Another genocide route, another fight, another dead flower.

This goes on for a bit, Undyne remembering more and more each time... before, eventually, she remembers enough to see what’s coming and stops Flowey as soon as he leaves the ruins. He still kills her, she still goes Undying, and she still RESETs for the sake of the citizens living in the Ruins... keeping the thoughts in her mind.

Eventually, Undyne remembers enough that she just... becomes Undying as soon as she ‘wakes up’ from the timeline rewind. Rushes straight to the Ruins, breaks down the door, and gives Flowey a fucking a heart attack when she finds him trying to kill Froggits and wipes him the hell out.

Still, he’d managed to kill SOME monsters, and she doesn’t feel right to let them stay dead when she has the power to reverse it... so, she does, and does the same thing with the same result next RESET.

However, this time she doesn’t kill Flowey instantly- instead, she tries to talk him out of it; letting him know she could just kill him and leave him dead at this point. Flowey, while an asshole, is an asshole that doesn’t wanna die- so begrudgingly, he accepts, and she RESETs once again.

She finds him outside her door a soon as she stepped out, and they talk. Not a very insightful conversation, filled mostly with insults and questions of how she’s determined that she clearly can’t answer, but in the very least one that leads to an agreement to stop his stupid tantrum.

She also questions him about Sans, but as it turns out he doesn’t know any more about where the bonehead went than she does. Well, shit.

This breaks off the awkward encounter, and Undyne is left alone... with her memories of every past RESET fully in-tact, full control over the timeline, and the ability to go Undying on a whim. And an urge to learn more about “determination”.

So, she goes to Alphys, and... well, spills literally everything she knows so far. Alphys is the smartest person she knows, so she assumes she’d be able to help her figure this nonsense out... as it turns out, she knows more about determination than Undyne expected her. Almost seems like she might’ve experimented with it or something...

Add some weeks worth of tests and experiments, and Undyne, instead of starting to melt away with time like other monsters fueled by determination, actually seems to be growing stronger and more stable. 

The reason for this, in theory, could have to do with the fact Undyne wasn’t “killed” like she was in past RESETs, and instead brought the power over through her memories (those memories being what drew out her determination) to the current timeline where she was alive and well. So, her DT doesn’t have to fight to keep her together because she wasn’t falling apart in the first place; instead, it just grows and grows without tax.

 With all this at her hand, she essentially “resigns” from being an active member of the royal guard- still officially the captain, but letting Papyrus take up the reigns as “vice captain” because he’s more than displayed that he can handle it. As it turns out, he’s super good at the job.

She’s taken to just staying at Papyrus’s place while he’s working, doing the very important job of sentry work while he lives his dream- while, in actuality, quietly honing her abilities in hopes that, one day, she might be able to use them to bring Sans back somehow... LOAD back to before he disappeared, maybe? Who knows what she could do with enough time.

Going into the current situation... she’s taken up the role of watching out for humans that come through Snowdin; watching them, but not really intent on doing any human hunting anymore- only there to make sure none with ill intent make their way to Papyrus. And keep watch on the ones that wouldn’t afterwards, just in case they change for the worst.

I can go on for a whole another hour about things like her genocide fight, but I’ll just leave it here for now. It’s a history post, and rough one at that, I’ll talk about things like mechanics later if people want that.

[cyraniadebergerac]

Starscream in Undertale

So, here’s a crossover fan comic idea or simply a fanfiction idea I’ve been having that I could never really do justice. Since I can’t find someone to request it from, I’ll just make a request post and hope somebody gets inspired or wants to do it.

OK. All of us Transformers fans know that Starscream in any universe basically runs off of determination and spite (with the determination at least being still an aspect of SG Starscream’s character). He’s also sometimes becomes immortal, whether because of a mutated spark, having a shard of the allspark or being brought back to life by other people. In the TFA verse, he literally would keep dying and coming back to life. Now what does sound like, Undertale fans? Isn’t that similar to the power of determination? Could Starscream have enough determination to literally affect himself outside of the magic-rich confines of the Underground where Flowey is the one with the most determination (potentially even causing actual reloads during his death montage in TFA)? If so, just what would he be like during or after a trip to the Underground?

(Note: I’ll be using TFA Starscream while outlining what I have for the idea right now since he’s been the one that has actually died and come back to life with some regularity. I also headcanon that he was still a scientist before the war like his G1 counterpart.)

The comic starts with Star falling down Mt. Ebot instead of Frisk (either while being chased by Megatron, the Autobots, or a TFA version of MECH that revived him with an allspark fragment post-series). He comes to, checks over himself, looks around, then tries to get out of the cave. He keeps bumping against the barrier though, prompting him to try several different ways of breaking through (killing himself and reloading about ten times). He only finally stops when Flowey comes and lassos him with his vines, complaining about dealing with so many reloads all at once. After they both calm down after a bit, Flowey ends up explaining some of the elements of the Underground and warns Star to stay away from the “smiley trashbag” if he knew what was good for him.  Toriel then comes out, causing Flowey to leave. Star decides to charm her to convince her that he’s no threat and not be watched by her. After she returns home, he finds Flowey and asks him more about the “smiley trashbag”.

We then cut to Sans dozing off at his sentry station, pondering the recent ripples from reloads that have been observed and guessing someone’s going to be coming here soon. He then notices a shadow over his head. He opens his eyes and is immediately grabbed by Starscream before being forcibly strapped into his cockpit. Sans considers shortcutting out of there now, but decides to see what happens during this timeline by this anomaly instead. Besides, the more the thing paid attention to him, the more his bro would be safe.

Star takes Sans to a deserted area of the Underground where no one is before finangling new restraints. Then he creates a save spot and alternates between asking Sans questions either in general or about what he knows about SAVES and RESTS and doing some tests, saving after each successful test, to see the difference between this monster and some of the others Star has gathered up to get a baseline from. Anytime an experiment results in death, Star simply reloads to bring the subject back to life. As he’s doing this, he also studies how it works and what are the possibilities of him being able to actively use in outside the Underground once he escapes. Meanwhile, Sans is also trying to gather data about Starscream, hoping that most of it sticks, and figuring out  how to get out of here now.

Papyrus is the first to notice that Sans is missing and sets off to find him along with others (possibly including Toriel). And after that, I’m not sure exactly how the story would go. Resets would definitely happen, though I think getting out of the Underground would be the last timeline ever. And if Chara does bound with him like with Frisk (which I’ll consider likely since they’re both determined and I’m counting a Transformer soul to be similar to a human soul), then I can’t see Star ever going full genocide. He values his independence and free will too much to sacrifice them like that simply for curiosity's sake. He’d likely abort such a run at the first sign that Chara’s trying to take control of his body, especially if it involved not doing Papyrus’s puzzles. Could you imagine how much he’d end up enjoying those? A part of me could imagine the inhabitants of the Underground rubbing off on him, especially Papyrus and his big heart with his insistence that anyone can change. Star would then figure out how the break the barrier and complete a true pacifist ending before destroying the old reset place and starting a new one at the barrier entrance so that now monsterkind will never be locked behind that barrier again, but its still there if anything goes wrong. Star’s not in a position to act as ambassador, so instead the monsters hide him among them while he acts as their protector against those who threaten them. He continually makes new reset points and save spots  when definite progress is made and as he figures out that he really does have more determination than most. Sequels and follow-ups could include run ins with MECH who have expanded their activities to monsters and how the Autobots are taking this turn of events as well as the usual healing that would be going on in other AUs post-pacifist route.

What do you guys think? Any improvements to offer? Anyone want to take up the idea? Anyone else want to see the idea made? Please comment and reblog if so. At least like if you like the idea.

[mintkupocream]

In Pieces: Background Info and Ending

After completing over a hundred pages, I gave up completing *In Pieces, my Undertale fancomic set in a neutral ending.  People were curious how it was going to end, so I collected together my notes.  You can read them yourself under the cut:

Nature of Ghosts:

Ghosts are Monster progenitors.  Once upon a time, a single spot received a large amount of emotion, and that emotion took on a life of its own; a ghost.   This is why ghosts tend to be very single minded (Blooky is sad, MD is angry, MTT is ambitious) Upon becoming corporeal, they can have offspring, and these offspring became Monsters as we know them, having more diverse emotions as they're mixes of different ghosts

Nature of Boss Monsters:

Boss Monsters are the product of a Ghost becoming corporeal in the body of a living creature. This nature causes them to have an excess of Determination compared to other Monsters as well as a more solid form. They can utlize this in various ways.  When Toriel created the new Spider Queen, she was infusing the spiders with extra Determination.  It is the same concept as the Amalgamates, only done with purpose, finesse, and imbued emotion like with other transformations (emotion -> ghost, ghost -> monster).  Lack of study of Boss Monsters and no recorded history keeps Alphys from making this connection

Gaster's Experiments: (This flashback sequence was to be the next story arc) Gaster tried to solve the barrier issue by looking to the past.  He attempted to return Monsters to a pure emotional state like Ghosts originated from in hopes of transcending the barrier; this resulted in:   1. The Gaster Followers were regular Monsters with their Determination removed; not the desired effect   2. The Skelebros were brought from the past in attempt to pull something in from beyond the barrier.  Many Monsters were pulled in this way, but died on arrival; the skelebros survived because they were a variation of Boss Monsters, but lost enough determination in the transfer to be "downgraded" to regular Monsters.  This is really just an elaborate backstory to make Sans and Toriel have less of an age gap and not super important >>;;   3. The Void is discovered. An access key is created; hopes are exploration will lead to a way out, but it is fruitless   4. Gaster's daughter fools around in the lab one day ends up having her determination removed, resulting in Goner Kid   5. Snowdrake's Mother's job was keeping the CORE cool (a job replaced by ice wolf throwing those icecubes into the river in the game).  Despite a lovely friendship with Papyrus who brings her lunch and stuff, Gaster overworks her in his grief over his daughter's disappearance, causing her to Fall Down, and there being an explosion in the core, and Gaster being lost there   6. This has the side effect of Gaster succeeding in becoming pure energy.  When Alphys is sucked into the Void in the beginning of the story, she becomes a vessel for releasing this energy: the Gaster Blasters literally blast Gaster around.  I still had some kinks to work out on why that was linked to Justice and how Sans was accessing that, but basically remnants of power from his transfer

Goner Kid:  As noted, she was Gaster's daughter with her determination removed.  In this run, a very rare occurence happened: she managed to have a fun value that let her materilize in a different location, right when MTT was killed. MTT was not corporeal, but a Ghost inhabiting a machine with an excessive amount of magic, and the explosion allowed her to absorb this odd mix, causing her to have more access to the real world again.  She realizes that she needs much more determination to have any hope of becoming truly real again.  The True Lab is empty at beginning of the story because she basically ate all the amalgamates for their determination, but it still isn't enough.  She has 2 major targets that she hopes will give her the final boost she needs: Toriel, the last remaining Boss Monster, and MaDOS, who is also a Ghost in a magically infused machine, and whose destruction could potentially give another boost like MTT did

What Happened Next:

After Sans gives Toriel all the backstory from the Gaster experiments section, Toriel insists they let Undyne know.  After some conflict, Undyne believes them due to her dreams about Alphys.  Flowey then comes forward and tells them that Goner Kid intends to take over the Underground by absorbing the energy from Ghosts, which is a lie to further his own agenda of stealing GK's gathered Determination for himself.  At the same time, he has been telling MD that Undyne, who has more determination than a regular Monster, is actually GK's target.  He wants MD die, give GK the boost, and make GK a more whole vessal for Flowey to absorb and attain godhood, because he figured out how that all happened through observation.  

Undyne orders all ghosts to be put into protective custody (except for MD, whom she doesn't know is a ghost), and challenges GK to a duel, thinking she can just beat them into submission.  MD tags along hoping to protect Undyne, whom they no longer hate (possibly have developed feelings for?? this is the one sided crack ship I mentioned in the initial faq about the fic; I was very hesitant to add it even though I thought it would be interesting, because I was scared alphyne shippers would get angry somehow.  They at least respect her deeply at this point.  There's also a little side story about them going on a shopping trip in there somewhere).  Flowey tries to manipulate MD into fighting Undyne again, but they refuse due to the reasons just stated, and so Flowey kills them himself.  

Upon the explosion, GK does indeed gain the extra determination and physical presence and a heck of a lot of power.  Flowey is quickly overpowered and absorbed by her himself.  Sans, Toriel, and Undyne retreat to the Void using the key and meet up with Gaster, and put together the last few lose ends and come up with a plan, which is basically massive Gaster Blaster attack to separate the determination and Goner Kid again.  This is a success which has a heartfelt father/daughter reunion and they are at peace in the void together, basically.  

However, there is a by-product here: the excess Determination.  Toriel ends up possessing it due to her higher tolerance through her solid nature as a Boss Monster, and becomes officially The Most Determined Being in the Underground, which was in flux with the human gone.  With this power, she realizes a major decision is possible: she can make it so that their timeline is never reset again.  Undyne wants her to reset so that all her dead friends come back and argues against this possibility.  Sans tries to stay neutral.  Napstablook, who totally was taking part in the story the whole time (and also ended up having a cool lil robot flying saucer thing called Limewire that he used to help in the fight briefly), expresses that everyone that was left has matured and wants everyone to just go on; either way he's going to be sad, but at least he had made amends with his cousin, MD, and they had died doing something they believed in. Sans tries to stay neutral.

The plan was to show the outcomes of both choices.  The canon ending is locking the time line, breaking through the barrier with a combination of Gaster Blaster and Determination beam, which neutralizes it, and Sans and Toriel living out the rest of their days "not in pieces, but in peace"

[mynameisntburgerpants]

Underswap

send me an au and i’ll give you 5+ headcanons about it || accepting

I actually have a whole-ass text document about my own personal version of Underswap, making it more of a roleswap along the lines of my own personal swap AU (PLEASE ASK ME ABOUT THAT IF YOU’RE INTERESTED IN ME MAKING THAT A REALITY) than a personality swap. This is gonna be a long one, so I’m putting it under the cut.

First of all, instead of Chara swapping with Frisk and Asriel swapping with Monster Kid for some reason (WHICH DOESN'T EVEN MAKE SENSE CONSIDERING ASRIEL IS STILL ASGORE AND TORIEL'S SON), Asriel and Chara swap and Frisk stays where they are. I dunno what happens to Monster Kid, I guess they stay put too. Wouldn't make sense to swap 'em with Frisk. Maybe not even every single character would switch.

Toriel/Asgore swap:

Asgore was so ashamed of how Toriel received his idea for collecting the human souls necessary to break the barrier (that is, poorly) that he exiled himself to the Ruins, never to be seen again by monsterkind. Toriel finds herself, regrettably, taking Asgore's mantle on his promise, but she doesn't have it in her to do it and ends up just taking all the humans in under her wing--or would if any of them other than Frisk survived to get to her.

Asgore basically serves as the Goat Dad of the ruins, much like canon Toriel, but given his lack of self worth, he doesn't try to stop Frisk from leaving by sheer nature of the fact he thinks he couldn't if he tried. An optional sidequest before you leave the ruins allows you to engange in battle with him and subsequently spare/betray him (he is too strong to even hurt with your starting equipment and LV unless you betrayal kill him), which is required on the True Pacifist route--alternately, he stands in your way regardless in the No Mercy route, because no one else is left to stand in your way and he doesn't want the fact that he let you murder everyone outside weighing on his conscience.

Napstablook/Mettaton swap:

Napstablook owns a multimedia empire and a robot body thanks to Mettaton's help and encouragement. They're the underground's premier DJ and star, though they're genuinely kind and humble--not nearly as narcissistic as their cousin. Actually, Blooky ends up being one hell of a pushover even despite their confidence boost. Mettaton, still being a ghost, handles the PR side of things, but takes frequent breaks in the ruins.

Dr. Undyne designed Napstablook's robot body to be as shonen as possible--like, Kenshiro from Hokuto no Ken levels of ripped, which humorously juxtaposes their placid demeanor. Their battles are mainly rhythm game segments, given their affinity with music, but Undyne's Human Eradicatin' Weapons Systems frequently accidentally kick in to make things dangerous. Even when they just want to talk ;~;There could be a sidequest in which you help convince Undyne to build them a body that maybe isn't loaded with deadly weapons (good luck with that part) and an appearance more befitting their tastes and personality.

Sans/Papyrus swap:

Papyrus finds out through overhearing a conversation that he's just "too sweet/gentle" to be in the Royal Guard, but not being one to give up on his dreams so easily, he instead pushes for Sans to join the Guard, so Papyrus can live vicariously through him. Sans doesn't really care for it, but as long as his brother's happy, he is too. In trademark Sans style, despite him successfully making the cut for the royal guard, he doesn't really try. His puzzles are all extremely easy (if you can even call some of them puzzles) and his fighting ability is laughable at best, so he hires Papyrus to "help out." This serves a double purpose: so Sans doesn't have to do much, and Papyrus still gets to do what he loves, even if it isn't officially sanctioned by the highers-up.

If you try to kill Sans during your "fights" with him, he just conveniently avoids each attack and makes a snide remark--you have to betrayal kill him after having not tried to attack him for a few turns before you're able to spare him. Papyrus has some new tricks up his sleeve if you fight him as the judge of your sins, and he's a total damage sponge along the lines of Undyne the Undying.

Nice Cream Guy/Burgerpants swap:

Burgerpants runs a burger stand in Snowdin, but boy, he is not happy about it. But it pays rent, and nobody is hiring for the skill set he has, so he just begrudgingly does what he has to do to survive. Over the course of a Pacifist run, you help him get over himself depending on how well his burgers sell. The burger wrappers initially contain morbid observations about the world around him the first time you meet him, but he ditches the idea altogether because it's too much extra work, and just sells them plainly wrapped from then on.

Nice Cream Guy, meanwhile, works at the Nice Cream Parlor in Napstablook's resort. Mettaton gives him a hard time sometimes, but he genuinely seems to be happy, doing what he loves working for someone he looks up to. Napstablook actually treats him with respect compared to canon Mettaton with Burgerpants, and the place ends up being surprisingly successful. He hints at Burgerpants being immensely awkward around him but trying to make an approach nonetheless, and he finds it simply adorable.

Grillby/Muffet swap:

Grillby lives with his niece/daughter/other-younger-female-relative, Fuku Fire, in Hotland. He runs a moderately successful bar/nightclub where you would normally encounter Muffet in canon Undertale. He's trying to raise money to put Fuku through college. You have to pass through, but he mistakenly believes you're trying to get into the club despite obviously being underage and has a bouncer fight you off. Once the bouncer is talked down, Grillby realizes his mistake and opens up a limited shopfront for you, where you can buy non-alcoholic beverages that provide different buffs. If you kill the bouncer, he'll give you the alcoholic menu selection out of fear, with stronger buffs but debilitating side effects that affect your soul's movement in the Bullet Board. Frisk, being a child, is quite the lightweight. You don't encounter Grillby OR the bouncer on a No Mercy run, allowing you to loot the place for free, like the Snowdin shopkeeper.

Muffet's bakery in Snowdin is closed for business until after the Sans and Papyrus boss battle. During the hangout scene with Papyrus where he takes you there for the opening ceremony, Muffet is welcoming at first, but Papyrus tries to order something without having the money to pay the exorbitant price, and skele-daddles on outta there, leaving you to deal with Muffet's wrath. After calming her down, you get to see her friendlier side, convince her to charge more reasonable prices for her menu items, buy various Spider Pastries/Beverages, and talk to her about the situation of her kind. I said I don't like Underswap much at all, but I seriously dig the rollerskate café aesthetic that Muffet has going on in that AU, so that'll probably stay the same.

Undyne/Alphys swap:

Alphys built a mech suit that could change the face of the war against humanity, but unfortunately, operating it is such a complex measure that only she can figure out how to use it. Rather than letting her invention go to waste, Undyne promotes her to a high ranking position in the guard and, unable to find anyone else with Alphys's talents, offers to work as Royal Scientist in her stead, with her advice. You encounter her in a similar fashion to Undyne--she tries her hardest to block out her conscience in her attempts to kill you, but in a True Pacifist route, you manage to appeal to her conscience and eventually befriend her. The mech conveniently runs out of power during the final encounter, which is the only time you're able to kill/spare her. Else, it's impervious to all attacks. In the No Mercy Run, the mech switches to reserve power. The boss becomes straight up bullet hell, but as it expends more energy, it becomes more vulnerable to attack. Avoiding damage causes it to burn through energy faster than if you get hit, so you better Git Gud, as they say.

Undyne's favorite part of the scientific process? Blowing shit up, of course. Regardless, she turns out to actually be pretty good at the other parts, too. The lab is a complete mess when you first find it. Undyne was watching you on the screen, like canon Alphys, and came to root for you over time. She'd intermittently pipe in to taunt (or eventually cheer you on) over the cameras (with speakers attached) hidden throughout the Underground. In a True Pacifist route, you go down to the True Lab with her to find out about Alphys's DT experiments from before she was a member of the Royal Guard. She confronts Alphys about it, but ultimately she can't stay mad at her and they end up getting engaged anyway, because Undyne is more willing to look past Alphys's flaws than most of the fandom who assumes she created the Amalgamates deliberately out of malice, incompetence, or both.

Asriel/Chara swap:

Chara is Flowey instead of Asriel. Their soul ended up being bound to the being of a flower, and, given that they HAVE a soul, they still have the ability to feel emotions. This doesn't make them less mischievous, as they ARE detached from the consequences of their actions since they could previously just reset at any time. Initially, in a neutral route and most of a pacifist route, they decide they've had enough and try to kill you so they can go back to having their "fun" with the inhabitants of the underground (complete with an Omega Flowey sequence as per usual--if a lot more difficult because of the seventh human soul, but you can persevere through it). At the end of the pacifist route, they unlock the combined potential of seven human souls AND all the underground's monsters. You are physically incapable of hurting them as they can just load state back to before you hurt them. The only way to beat them is to bore them. Survive until they get bored of trying to kill you, and at that point you can try talking them into reforming, sacrificing their ultimate power to break the barrier and restore everyone back to their previous places. Unlike canon Undertale, since they still have their soul, they don't face the threat of turning back into a flower, but they do fear what might happen if anybody else saw them literally returning from the dead. You can choose to either humor them and let them stay behind with their thoughts, or talk them into coming with you to the surface, which affects how the Pacifist Ending turns out. They have a great deal trouble readjusting back to human society given their troubled past, but you managed to convince them to bear with you. Even after learning a valuable lesson about other sentient beings, they're a little uncomfortable with letting their guard down for fear of getting hurt again. Recovery doesn't happen overnight, after all.

Asriel's essence lived on in Chara's favorite bed of golden flowers, too. Frisk's sweater managed to pick it up, and, mistakenly thinking they were Chara, Asriel's consciousness latched on. Asriel serves as the game's narrator, much like the fan theory that Chara serves that end in the actual game. Whatever route you pick through the game shapes Asriel's character--he may not remember most of his life, but again, he has his personality. On a No Mercy route he initially pleads you to stop, questioning why you would hurt people like this, before eventually losing his childlike innocence and only narrating the bare essentials. He shows up at the end of the No Mercy route in his Hypergod form, as a being made of pure unfiltered LV, to directly call you out on your actions as the player, like Chara. Unlike Chara, you can't bargain to sell your soul to play the game again. He just locks you out of the game entirely, not wanting to watch those events unfold again. The only way to replay the game after a No Mercy route is to tamper with the game files yourself.Likewise, narrating a pacifist route, he's as chipper as ever--if having picked up a bit of snark from his time with Chara. He'll remark on situations that seem familiar for some reason you just can't place, and will try to reach out to Chara during the final Pacifist boss, before realizing they can't hear him. At the end of the pacifist route, you can choose to give up Frisk's soul to allow Asriel a second chance at life--again, affecting how the pacifist ending plays out. There would be some moral fuckery about whether it was the right thing to do, since that was Frisk's soul, not technically yours to give. It'd create an interesting parallel to the "you can't save everyone" narrative Toby had in mind, but on the other hand I also want it to be clear that Frisk is less a blank slate for the player to project onto, and more their own character that acts as an extension of the player's will--and giving the player that choice might run against that.