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afterartist · 3 months ago

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HELICALTALE MAIN CAST LINEUP!!

(Not ll of the characters but the most important ones to the plot)

‘And now: AU Infodump

BUT BEFORE ANYTHING!!

I will be answering any questions (within reason) any of you have about the au, even if it’s about some random side character only three people have ever heard of before

I live world building and any chance to expand on this world are treasured

I’ll probably answer with fun little doodles as well lol

So ask away :D!!

Basic AU overview:

Helicaltale is NOT a classic based Timeline.

The AU is set in a world where Mt Ebott was destroyed during the war, leaving a desert crater in its place, no protection for the Monsters to retreat and nowhere to seal them underground. In response, the Human mages put a spell on Monster kind, ‘Helios’ Curse’, forcing them to be unable to touch sunlight or else they’d burn (think Vampires or Minecraft Mobs)

The main story takes place 87 years after the war ended and 29 years after friendly communications between the two races begun, with the Monsters settled in a camp like city, made of tents and canvas buildings, around the oasis that formed in the desert that was now known as Ebott crater. Humans and Monsters have achieved peace between the races, regular trading routes and communications set up between the two cities.

Now all that was left was for both Humans and Monsters to find a way to break Helios’ Curse for good.

(None of them can touch Sunlight (minus the humans) but the ones more lightly dressed (Gaster, Alphys, Asgore) all live in the city, with proper buildings not at risk of being blown over at any second so can afford to not be covered up 100% of the time)

Locations:

Ebott City-

The capital city of the country, Ebott is a massive human settlement, overshadowing old ruins left by the war. It’s currently the main base of conferences between human and monster relations.

The Oasis-

The Monster settlement, made from tents and interconnecting canvas sheets, from above it looks like a colourful cluster of a campground, large sheets stretched over the streets. From within it’s only lit by lamps and magic, the sky completely blocked out by tarps and canvas to avoid accidentally getting burned by sunlight, to those not familiar with the city it’s a labyrinth, others, its home.

(A major inspiration for the Oasis is the Kowloon walled city, for those interested in a more accurate visual of the Oasis)

The Great Fence-

While the name conveys grandeur, the fence is a simple chain link fence acting as the border around the entire Oasis, topped with barbed wire and adorned with tarps, it’s designed to protect the residents against wild animals like Coyotes and be a barrier against sandstorms more than it is to keep people out, one of the most regular jobs for the Royal guard other than being general peace keepers is to uphold the fence, often sending patrols out after heavy storms to keep everything in order.

Central Oasis-

A mix between Newhome and Waterfall, it’s the main hub of the town, the Royal family living there along with the majority of schools and recreational areas, most Water based monsters (ie: Shyren, Aaron ect ect) also live in this area, a large lake of water being the centerpiece of the city.

Lights district-

To the west side of the city is the main shopping hub, while much more open than the majority of the Oasis, many stores foregoing walls on their tents entirely, its full of stores and restaurants, the most well known being Grillby’s and Muffets joint restaurant, many visitors to the Oasis come for the night life of the lights district, the monsters that live in that area making the camp around them as flashy and attractive as possible, neon lights and dancing flames lighting up the darkness of the district, the Celebrities Mettaton and Nabstablook have also been alluded to frequent the region and perform for onlookers.

Sandbank-

The Snowden equivalent of the AU, having gotten its name due to its position at the east side of the city, being the least protected by the walls of the crater, Sandbank often gets the brunt of the sandstorms that hit the desert, leading many of the Royal Guards live in this area in case of an emergency during the storms.

Southside (the Black Market)-

Technically not its official name, the Southside of the Oasis is whispered about in the dark of night, rumours telling of an illegal market place and shady monsters working in the south, many a monster wandering in and never coming out. While most likely just old wives tales, its best you keep your distance, just in case.

(Yeah I made the Black Market an actual real marketplace because that will never not be funny to me)

Hotlands-

The north most section of the Oasis is best known as Hotlands, given the name as it’s the highest section of city but also the most shielded by the crater walls, leaving it boiling without any wind to seep out the heat’. There’s been speculation that Hotlands actually sits over an underground chamber of magma, adding to the blistering temperature.

Characters:

The Dreemurrs:

Frisk- (Any Pronouns)

Frisk is an 11 year old kid, a runaway from one of Ebott City’s Orphanages, known for its less than legal treatment of the children. Having joined Chara as the eldest helped them both escape, Frisk followed Chara into the desert, looking for shelter from CPS.

During the trek however Frisk falls sick with an illness, most common in Monsters but able to infect anyone with strong magic, called Icarus syndrome.

With Icarus syndrome being effectively Hyperthermia of the soul, any physical treatment is ineffective, needing a particular medication to have any hope of survival, leaving the crater as not just refuge but possibly their only chance of survival.

Chara- (They/Them)

Chara is 16 and the orchestrator of the escape from the Orphanage with Frisk, after having been in contact online with a kid from the Monster camp that offered assistance. During the escape Frisk fell ill, forcing Chara to locate and purchase the rare medicine. Ending up in the Monster equivalent of the black market, Chara found a monster begrudgingly willing to help, trading a magical glass eye, a prosthetic their grandfather made for both humans and monsters during the war, for a small vial of medicine. The trader warning them to keep out of the black market before dropping the two kids off safely at the center of the Oasis.

Asriel- (He/Him)

Asriel is the firstborn son of the Dreemurrs and heir to the Royal throne, at 16 he made contact and became friends with a kid online, the other telling him of the danger they and their sibling were in at the Orphanage. Quickly offering up his home, knowing both his parents had fostered and cared for many children in the past and wouldn’t turn away two more. Upon meeting them in the Oasis he makes fast friends with both Frisk and Chara, practically adopting them as siblings on the spot.

Toriel- (She/Her)

Queen of the Oasis at 143 years old, Toriel has seen her fair share of bloodshed and peacetime, giving her the knowledge to recognise that protecting young children is the best way to ensure their future, guiding them to Mercy and pragmatic solutions instead of Fighting. One of the first things she did after Monsters had finally settled into the Oasis being starting up a school, becoming the primary teacher for a good few years before other parents eventually began to join her staff. Though, with the two new children her son had brought to her doorstep, she’s begun to realise it’s not just the children of Monster kind that need protection.

Asgore- (He/Him)

King of the Oasis and 146 years old, Asgore grew up at the front lines of the war, the heinous acts shaping him into the pacifist he is today. Currently away from the Oasis, Asgore has turned his sights on communications with the Humans, staying at the city while conferences with the city leaders on trade routes and transportation commence. He is also overseeing the Monster half of the Science team, working closely with the Royal Advisor and Scientists Gaster in developing a cure to Helios’ Curse. He remains in frequent contact with the Oasis, making the trip back every weekend to see his now growing family and make sure Toriel isn’t overwhelmed with responsibilities.

The Fonts:

Dr. Gaster- (He/Him)

At 140, Gaster has spent his life developing weapons for war (the Gaster Blaster being his pride and joy) and perseverance for Monster Kind, having a massive distaste for all Humans and most Monsters. The sudden change from war efforts to restoration efforts throwing his life in disarray. Jumping at the chance to use Human equipment on government funded experiments, Gaster didn’t hesitate to leave his sons Sans and Papyrus (9 and 4 at the time) back at the Oasis to move to the city and begin work. He’s had a hand in creating many inventions helping Monster kind (both helping with the medicine for Icarus Syndrome and a magic Sunscreen that can briefly minimise the effects of the sun) and the head of the Selene Project, the project to break the curse.

Sans- (He/Him)

28 and thriving, Sans has made a name for himself as both the comedic slacker of the Royal guard and the savvy businessman as one of the Black Markets best traders. Having been forced to raise both himself and Papyrus from a young age, Sans became intwined with the black market at the age of 12, after Papyrus caught Icarus Syndrome and receiving no help from Gaster off in the city, Sans was forced to find his own way of getting medication. At the age of 12 he found his way into the black market, ending up trading his right eye, and subsequently some of his shortcut abilities with an underground doctor in exchange for the medicine, to this day he hasn’t told anyone what happened to his eye. From then on he found himself going back and getting into trading as a way of making money as a side job while both he and Papyrus worked to get into the Royal guard, quickly becoming infamous in the criminal world of the Oasis, though he had a rule that no kids were to ever be found trading in the market. A rule that quickly got broken when a young human kid stumbled into his shop, begging for help, offering a magic glass eye as payment. Unable to send the kid off without help (or turn down the irony of selling the meds for an eye) he made the trade before guiding the kid and their sibling to the Oasis center.

(Bonus:)

After dropping the kids off, Sans makes an attempt to use the prosthetic eye, yet upon fitting it into his socket, the magic activated and bonded with his soul, causing the eye to become fused with his being, immovable. Along with the eye he’s suddenly able to see things he, by all means, should NOT be able to see, including text bubbles from the creators (similar to error sans)

He also finds, magically in his pocket, a small golden key, only figuring out its use after stumbling across a door in the middle of nowhere, upon using the key on the door he finds himself in an entirely different AU, door closing and disappearing behind him.

This is what leads him to discover the Multiverse and travel between AUs (inconveniently ending up in Nightmares Castle more times than he’d care to count)

Papyrus- (He/Him)

The Great Papyrus, second in command of the Royal guard at the younge age of 23 (you may applaud now)

Having grown up with just himself and Sans, Papyrus always wanted to become something great to make his brother proud, despite Sans’ insistence that he’s already proud of him. When he was 13, while Sans was out getting food, Papyrus had been targeted and hunted down by a group of bullies from the Southside of town, the group of teens taking turns in beating him up, eventually escalating to the point where one of them pulled a mirror from their pocket and used it to reflect a beam of sun directly onto his face, leaving a permanent scar,

He was saved however, when a teen he recognised from the Oasis center came charging out from one of the nearby tents, picking up handfuls of sand and hurtling it at the other kids before beating them up with her fists alone. Once over, the girl had turned, helped Papyrus up and took him to see her grandfather, the current head of the Royal Guard, a job she loudly proclaimed she was going to have one day,

Ever since then he attempted and eventually got into the Royal guard, along with Sans and the teen, Undyne.

Gersons:

Undyne- (She/Her)

29, Captain of the Royal Guard, Wife of the best woman around, living the high life! Having been raised by her grandfather Gerson for longer than she could remember, she’s always looked up to the Royal Guard, no matter how her Grandfather told her it wasn’t all glory. She’d been sneaking out and training with one of the Royal Guards for 8 years by the time she was 19, stumbling across a fight, six of her classmates beating down on a young skeleton. She’d jumped to defense before she’d even registered it, helping the kid up and getting him patched up where eventually the kids brother, Sans, one of Alphys’ friends found them and thanked her profusely.

The three became fast friends, practically siblings, both of them there at her and Alphys’ wedding and her promotion to Captain of the Royal guard.

Alphys- (She/They)

27 and already one of the best Scientists in the whole country. Alphys’ having grown up in Hotlands would have never dared to dream she’d be working with a whole team of like minded scientists, especially not in the human city, though not being able to see her Wife as often was a dampener. Dr. Gaster was also a bit, overzealous, with the project, it was only a matter of time before the madman created some temporal superflux that blew up half the block, even if she wouldn’t be anywhere near as prestigious without his guidance, despite Sans’ reservations for letting them near him.

(I will be adding more to this AU btw, it’s in my top 3 faves lmao)

Bonus:

Animation I’ve done for Helical Sans to explain how his AU hopping works

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afterartist · 2 years ago

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‘wait, wait, wait- you’ve been using it without having any idea what this does?’ Rivper’s eyelights fizzled out, near silent pop as his magic rushed into a churning pit where his stomach would be.

Helical shifted uneasily, glancing at the now softly swaying key dangling from the brim of his hat, orange gems glimmering softly.

‘well, i suppose… i never really thought about it, came with the eye,’ his hand waved non committedly around his right eye socket, the cracked glass of the prothetic eye light, a matching shade of orange. The panicked whine that escaped Rivper’s throat was, under most circumstances, quite impressive, currently though, Helical new better then to push the Sans that had survived multiple encounters with Nightmares gang, even earning a few G during said encounters. Helical himself had met the gang a few times, though he’d never been payed for his hospitality, escaping, barely, with his life being the most compensation he’d ever received from the cutthroat group.

The Sans equivalent of a multiverse taxi pressed the palms of his hands into his sockets, groaning,

‘you’re a magical item merchant, you literally deal with magic items daily, if anyone were to grasp the concept of unbelievably dangerous artefacts it should be you.’

Helical shrugged, gaze falling to the wayside, slightly left of Rivper’s hip, as he avoided eye contact,

‘well, i don’t, but i do enjoy learning about any magical item i may or may not have gotten myself cursed and soul-bound with.’ He tried for a reassuring smile, the act quickly falling at the others shout.

‘you what??!’ Rivper’s hands moved in a motion betraying his desire to strangle the salesman,

‘no, no, one thing at a time.’ Taking a deep breath he steadied himself, letting his shoulders slump along with the resigned puff of air.

‘that,’ he flicked the key, sending it swaying once more, ‘is a trans-dimensional gateway skeleton key, a tsk for simplicity, and it’s not from our multiverse.’

Helical, who had been snickering at the skeleton pun, choked on air,

‘w-what? how the hell is this thing not from our multiverse? and if so; how did i end up with it, surely one of the star sanses, or heck, even nightmare’s lot, would have gotten to this before me.’

Rivper shifted awkwardly, feet digging into the damp grass, of Idletale’s Waterfall, below them as he rubbed the back of his neck self consciously,

‘t-the thing is, i don’t think the stars are aware of this, only people who get a key really know about them, apparently they’re supposed to be passed on by hand, but it’s not unheard of for them to simply disappear from one au and reappear in another. and, as to how they’re from a different multiverse,’ Rivper paused, trying to remember exactly what his predecessor had told him.

‘as you know, there are multiple universes, aus, but there are also multiverses, like, a multiverse like ours except all our personalities are swapped.’

Helical nodded along, dimly aware of the concept after overhearing a few AUs in the Omega Timeline discussing something along similar lines.

‘well, this one multiverse, never got told the name, only had seven aus in it, and even that was too much, it quickly got overcrowded and started collapsing in on itself. the ones in charge of that multiverse, uhh they were riverpeople by the way, not sanses, decided the only way to survive was to escape to a different multiverse.’

‘our multiverse, right?’ Helical butted in, not particularly liking where this story seemed to be heading.

Rivper nodded, he had temporarily forgotten that, despite his antics (read: habit of creating disasters) Helical was a sans, and a bloody smart one at that, so it shouldn’t be too surprising he was catching on.

‘exactly, seven aus, and a key for each, i’ve, uhh, never been exactly told what happened to the original key owners, and honestly, i’m not planning on going looking. the point is, all seven keys ended up in our multiverse somehow, and, with a surprising amount of sentience for keys, keep finding themselves keymasters.’

Helical’s face scrunched, confusion bright in his one real, teal, eyelight,

‘okay, while that does sound thoroughly confusing, and upsettingly morbid, i’m not really seeing the danger here, so far all i know is that this key allows me to travel between aus and that’s pretty much it.’

Rivper bit his knuckle, humming in thought to himself,

‘okay, i will admit, not the best explanation, uhmn, okay, so, yes,’ he stalled, struggling to unjumble the wire mesh of words bubbling in his throat.

‘these keys have the ability to rip holes through space time, like a sort of wormhole, except they can travel between universes, between multiverses if really pushed, but like any tool, can cause irreparable damage if used incorrectly. each of the seven keys is based on one of the seven human traits, yours is bravery,’ he paused, slipping something silver with a dark blue glean to it from his robe, ‘mine,’

He steamrolled over the gasp Helical let out at the information of Rivper owning his own key, ‘is integrity. this is why i can only use the key to a place i say i’m going to, no changing my mind halfway through, the reason i’m a great multiverse taxi is because i have to stay integral about my intentions, gotta stick to my rules, 5g and i’ll take you wherever you need no matter what no questions asked. thinking about it, i suppose it’s also why you can never know where your key will take you, you’ve got to brave about going somewhere you don’t know for it to work, overcome the fear of the unknown.’

Rehiding the key into his clothes, Rivper made eye contact with Helical,

‘however, no matter how cool they are, these keys only work with someone who has the same main soul trait of the keys, that’s why they usually find themselves aligned with a human, but,’ he paused, the risk of showing his soul weighing heavily, before sighing, drawing out the glowing culmination of his being, deep royal blue, pools of integrity dripping off the shaking soul, ‘i happen to have the soul trait of integrity.’

Helical’s gaze never left the soul, peacefully floating in Rivper’s grip dripping through his fingers unnaturally, his own hand moving to his chest where he knew the cracked and dimly flickering orange of his own Bravery adjacent soul lay.

‘it’s just as well, because, if anyone who didn’t share the soul trait with their tsk attempts to use the key, it would eat their soul whole and then everything else in their universe and, thusly, anything their universe touches.’

‘what?! are you telling me this whole time I’ve had a literal black hole waiting to happen attached to my hat like a decoration?!’ He shook Rivper’s shoulders in distress, the blue clad skeleton pushing his hands off with ease,

‘do you understand where my distress was coming from now?’

‘oh stars- and nightmare nearly used it-‘ Helical ignored Rivper at the memory of the negative skeleton, dark oily tentacles curled around his only escape, hand tightening around his throat as the king pondered the key curiously. If he hadn’t hit Nightmare with one of his platforms, effectively distracting him, he may very well be dead, deader then dead, and possibly have taken half the multiverse with him.

Rivper sighed, gripping Helical by the arms,

‘look, it’s- well, not okay, but you weren’t aware, and now you are, you’ll be more careful right? hey, we can even teach eachother about what we know of with the keys and any necessary safety protoco-‘

‘there you guys are, I thought we made it a rule not to wander off for more then five minutes.’

The two broke away from their conversation as a fatigued but content voice called out to them, belonging to a shorter skeleton. Barrier, stood at the end of the path, left hand gripped tightly around Idle’s right, betraying the fact that the taller of the two had probably been attempting to get himself into more trouble. Next to them stood Spoke and Climate, the two having a pleasant conversation from the looks of it, Spoke explaining the intricacies of echo flower tea while Climate nodded along sagely, likely not actually understanding anything the other said.

Rivper, despite himself, hadn’t noticed how long they’d been gone, having separated outside Gerson’s empty shop, the after-Genocidal quietness of Idle’s AU allowing for time to loose meaning relatively easily. Helical took the sudden interruption with stride,

‘ah, sorry bars,’’don’t call me that.‘i’ve spent the last twenty minutes trying to convince ripver to let me have a spin at his ferry.’

Helical was unsettlingly good at lying, something Rivper didn’t fancy looking deeply into,

‘and i’ve spent the last twenty minutes telling you over my cold dust. i’m not letting anyone take my pride and joy for a ‘spin’, least of all a sans that somehow causes more destruction then idle without even trying, and idle is a maniac that can summon a gun out of nowhere whenever he so pleases.’

Idle’s offended gasp at the, honestly quite just accusation, added the needed humour to break any remaining tension in the conversation, the six sanses quickly falling into familiar ease as they formulated their next plan, running out of supplies as they were it was looking likely that they’d have to send someone to the Omega Timeline to restock.

As the conversation drifted toward’s why it wasn’t a good idea to allow Idle alone in the AU unsupervised, Helical couldn’t help his thoughts lagging on one small problem.

If Helical and Rivper each had one, where were the other five keys.

______

A few people have asked about Helical’s key, and I actually have a lot of lore set up for it, so I thought I’d write a small one shot thingy explaining it, also revealing that Rivper also has a key!!

The key idea is completely mine, I don’t think anyone else has done this(??) sorry if someone has lol,

But I’m also leaving it as an open thing, as in, if you wanna give your AU one of the five keys go wild, free reign, as long as they share the soul trait with their tsk key they’re pretty much open for interpretation and you can use them however

Here’s a little sketch of Rivper and Helical’s Keys as an example:

But yeah, that’s it, hope this didn’t bore you lol

(Also the keys hold some more very important lore but no spoilers (; )

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