#literally the surface of all the more important roads i went on were pure ice.

[nothingbutalgae]

Bro, you know the roads are bad here when my tires start spinning and I have to prevent my car from fish-tailing every time I would start moving at a light.

[popatochisssp]

how do u hc each pair of bros relationships? have they ever fought, seriously, before? does anything like feeling overprotected or condescended to happen?

Hoo boy, lots of thoughts on this, I hashed all this out a long time ago, how I personally see/characterize the relationships, and there’s a lot of it so it’s going straight under a cut!

Undertale Bros

They’rebest bros, of course!

Sans is a little like that parent who’s got fifty thousandpictures and stories about his awesome honor roll athlete kid who’s just so talented…!

Papyrus may be the kid in this situation, but it’s also a ‘who’sparenting who?’ scenario. He’s the kind of ‘kid’ that’s been more mature thanhis scatterbrained semi-irresponsible parent for awhile now and he helps himkeep his shit together and on track.

Oneof their favorite things to do is prank the absolute hell out of each other andthey’ve had a prank war that’s been steadily escalating for at least a coupleyears—Sans literally bends time and space these days just to screw withPapyrus, but Sans doesn’t get off easy just because Papyrus doesn’t have all thesame abilities.

They’re actually just about even because Papyrus is willing toput in a lot more effort to set up a prank, and then a few contingency pranksfor the ones he thinks Sans might see through so he’s guaranteed at least onesuccess.

In spite of all that theyscrew with each other, though, and even fondly talk shit about their brother to anyonewho stands still long enough to listen, they both love their sibling to bitsand would happily do anything to keep them happy.

…But therein comes the darker sideof their relationship— they lie to each other and keep secrets a lot.

Papyrus often acts a little younger and more naïve than he really is when Sansis around to hear him, and it’s common knowledge that Sans never tells anybodyanything if it’s important, and that includes Papyrus.

It’s purely intentionedon both sides, with Sans wanting to spare his little brother from dark orpainful topics that might damage his optimism and Papyrus knowing a lot morethan Sans thinks and not letting on about it because he doesn’t want to stressSans out when he knows he’s already dealing with a lot of heavy stuff (even ifhe isn’t sure of all the details).

They’d both probably be a little hurt tofind out what they’re keeping from each other, but their primary concern isloving and supporting one another and it’s not like they wouldn’t understandwhere the lies were coming from: it wouldn’t be anything a serious talk and ahug-it-out session couldn’t fix.

At the end of the day, they’re brothers and there’snothing more important to them than family.

Underswap Bros

They’re alsothe best of bros!

Sky is basically a soccer mom whose kid turned out tobe a nonathletic book nerd: he doesn’t always get Paps and it’s a mystery tohim why he’d rather stay inside and read than go be sporty and social withfriends.

Sky actually tried to encourage that a little more when Paps was akid, signing him up for activities and arranging playdates so something mightstick, but he figured out pretty fast that it wasn’t working and just made Papsfeel awkward and upset so he stopped pushing so hard.

There was pretty much immediateimprovement in their relationship when Sky changed tracks and startedsupporting Paps’ nerdier interests in spite of not always understanding theappeal.

Paps recognizes that he and his brother are very different people andreally appreciates that effort Sky went through to make their home a safe spacefor him to figure out his passions and his selfhood at his own (admittedlyslow) pace, so he’s got a lot of appreciation and respect for Sky that carriedon into adulthood.

After everything, Sky sees that Paps is still a littleawkward and introverted, but for the most part he’s become a confident, well-roundedskeleton that Sky is so proud to call his brother!

They communicate prettyopenly, habitual from Sky instituting a (metaphorical) open door policy whentheir relationship was more parental than fraternal, so whenever there’s anissue or something to be talked out, it usually actually gets addressed sooneror later.

Their preferred activities don’t have too much overlap but Papssometimes likes to follow after Sky when he’s off doing something to hang outand watch and generally just be his cheerleader—he’s got a really cool bigbrother and it makes him feel happy to return some of the support he got fromhim growing up.

At home, Sky is vigilant against Paps destroying his body whilehe’s reading or working on his own writing and gives him space to work, but also checks inevery couple hours to see if he needs some water or a food, and while he’s atit, turn on another light and sit up straight, your posture is abominable! Papstends to roll his eyes and says, “thanks mom,” but the reminders are reallyhelpful, actually.

Sky also likes pulling Paps into the kitchen to taste-testall kinds of pastry experiments he’s working on—Sky’s a decent, albeit budding baker—and Paps’ sweet tooth means henever says no. If a connoisseur of Muffet’s thinks it’s good, Sky knows itis. If it’s bad, well, Paps will usually be a jerk about it and choke andpretend to die and Sky is free to dump the leftover icing on his annoyinglittle brother’s skull before starting over.

They have a pretty goodrelationship.

Underfell Bros

Their relationship is fiercely loving…but it’s alsoextremely tense.

They would die for each other in a heartbeat and are ready tothrow down bones and blasters at anybody who has an aggressive word or threatto their sibling, but when it comes to just being brothers to each other theydon’t really… know how anymore?

Jasper’s given up so much of himself for Pyre’ssake: his childhood, his independence, and even his ego. He spent the firstdecade or so of his conscious life killing and risking his own safety to makesure his little brother survived to adulthood, and then the next decade-plushas been getting pushed aside, treated like dirt, and ordered around like apersonal minion.

Jasper knows it’s performative, Pyre acting like theirrelationship is convenience instead of real, familial affection to at leastsort of reduce the number of monsters who might want to take advantage—it wasJasper’s idea in the first place!— but literal years of it builds up and noteven knowing it’s fake makes it feel any better to be talked down to by thebrother he sacrificed his whole life for every time they’re out in public.

Atthe same time, it’s not like Pyre hasn’t given up just as much: when he took onthe role Jasper and their lives demanded of him, he was forced to give up hisidealism, any semblance of a social life, and any expression of softer emotion.He used to have so much hope for people but it’s been squashed out of him byseeing first-hand how nasty and unredeemable they can really be; seeingmonsters fire bullets at two children because they were weak and probablycouldn’t fight back and it was practically free EXP.

Jasper spent so longdefying expectations in defense of his brother and lashing out far moresavagely than a child should’ve been able to… When Pyre was finallyold enough to fight he threw himself into training and becoming stronger. He had to, he couldn’t leave protecting them both on only Jasper’s shoulders, itwouldn’t be fair.

When he turned out to be an incredibly tough and sturdyskeleton unlike his physically weak brother and Jasper first suggested theiract, Pyre agreed without hesitation. He crafted the perfect intimidatingpersona, The Powerful and Merciless Papyrus who dusts monsters with terrifyingprecision and cares for no one—not even his own brother!

For the most part, itworked: Pyre’s reputation and Jasper’s deference to him made most monstershesitate to mess with either of them, to the point that they’ve both been ableto go whole days without being attacked and tested. It’s the safest outcome forthem…but stars, it’s hard on Pyre.

He’s so isolated, by necessity but he’sbeing crushed under the weight of all his responsibilities and with absolutelyno emotional support from anyone. Fierce soldiers don’t have feelings or friends, that’s too much of a weakness and he can’t even lean on Jasper at homewhen they’re alone because of the rift between them, unplanned bleed-over fromtheir con for the public.

Pyre is stressed and lonely, Jasper’s bitter and tired, and neither of them is happy.

There’s a lot of misunderstandingsbetween them as they frequently take something the other said in an unintendedway or read more into something than there really was, and it leads to a lot ofrepressed anger and resentment that they’re both trying desperately not todirect at each other.

Their situation has been toxic for awhile and they’reboth suffering for it, neither knowing how to admit to the other that they’restruggling and just want this relationship to be easier.

Honestly, they need somekind of counseling to relearn how to communicate with each other and a safespace to do it in and the Surface world is probably their best shot. In spite of how bad of a time they’re both having, they’re still equallystubborn so it’ll take a really serious breakdown or a very forceful push fromsomebody on the outside of the relationship to get them to see some kind of therapy as necessary enoughto agree to it.

After learning some better talking strategies to use with eachother and hashing most of their stuff out, they try to find things to dotogether to emotionally reconnect at their therapist’s suggestion. It’s been solong since they’ve just been brothers and they’re not sure anymore whatinterests they have in common.

They try out a couple things and eventuallydiscover they both really love road-trips. Every couple of weeks they’ll hop inthe car and go see some kind of natural attraction or tourist trap while justspending casual, brotherly time together along the way, taking turns driving,sharing crappy motel rooms, and buying snacks at gas stations that they thenbicker about (Jasper doesn’t need to buy such sugary, salty, greasy junk, they have water and trail mix, it’s right there!).

It’s probably the closest they’vefelt to each other since Pyre was five.

Swapfell Bros

Very loving and considerably more functional than the other‘fell brothers… but not really healthy either.

Mal did his best raising Rus buthis bro had a lot of issues with anxiety and self-esteem (some inborn, a lot relatedto their shitty, violent environment) and Mal was at a loss for how to properlydeal with it.

He tried to boost Rus’ ego the same way he does his own, withlots of complimenting and boasting, but it was obvious from the beginning thatit wasn’t working and actually made it worse by putting pressure andexpectations on Rus that he felt he was never going to live up to.

It reallywasn’t his fault but Mal blames himself for not being a good enough parentalfigure and sometime around Rus’ preteen years he sat him down and said theequivalent of, “Look, I know it’s terrible down here and I know you hate havingto live like this and do these things, so just follow me and do what I tell you and we’ll getthrough this, I’ll take care of everything,” and Rus agreed in a heartbeat.

Malgets to be in charge all the time, which satisfies his general need to be incontrol of a situation, and he knows that calling the shots helps Rus relax alittle and that’s a balm for him, feeling like he’s being a better big brothernow than he was before.

Rus, meanwhile, got some space to breathe and not havethe weight of all these decisions and expectations on his shoulders, and he’sso grateful to Mal for taking that burden from him. If Mal is going to take onanything resembling a real responsibility in their lives, he’s happy to obeyorders and run errands when it means he can more or less sit around and donothing the rest of the time.

It works fine as far as they’re both concernedbut… it’s not perfect.

Mal is under a lot of pressure all the time, keepingtrack and taking care of everything going on in his life and his brother’s—he’s basically a single helicopter mom, except his ‘child’ is his grownskeleton of a brother that he’s…honestly, probably still doing laundry and making Adult PhoneCalls for.

At least Rus can generally get food for himself and bring in anincome, but it’s still a lot that’s on Mal’s plate and as satisfied as handlingit all makes him feel, it’s exhausting and stressful and that takes a toll.

OnRus’ end, there’s a lot of guilt that he tries not to think about because hedoes see that Mal is getting worn down sometimes and he knows his role in thematter but he’s not really sure what to do about it. He feels like a burden a lot and just…tries really hard to do the things Mal tells him to, to make things a little easier on his overworked big bro.

They could go on as they are for a very long time, it’s a moresustainable situation than it seems, but really they could both benefit fromsome therapy as well for their codependence issues, maybe even a trialseparation— nothing severe, just baby steps like maybe Rus getting his ownplace close by, or taking some adulting classes to learn more life-skills.

Outside of that, though, they have a very sarcasm/sass-driven relationship and trade barbs with the full understanding that they’re affectionate, they almost never actually fight. They pulled together where the Underfell bros added distance and misunderstandings are few and far between for them.

At any given time, both Mal and Rus are able to accurately predict what their brother is going to do in response to something down to the nuance and they’re scary accurate about it, but why wouldn’t they be? They’ve been attached at the metaphorical hip for most of their lives and there’s really not much they can’t guess about each other.

They’re good bros, but could be better.

Horrortale Bros:

These guys are a weird example of healthy codependence: they’reboth very reliant on each other, but in a symbiotic way instead of unequal ortoxic.

Surviving underground through the famine and the reign of Queen Undynepushed them closer than they’d ever been— they were good and loving brothersprior but with separate lives and their own stuff going on— but with so much atstake and no one they could unequivocally rely on but each other, they really hadto close ranks and learn how to work together in the most efficient wayspossible so they could survive.

It worked very well and together they’re awell-oiled machine, operating together almost like they’re one skeleton when itcomes to cohabitating or things that need to get done. They both know andcompensate for each other’s weaknesses: Papy keeps track of anything that Slatemight not be able to retain, and Slate is Papy’s rock, providing all the stability and emotional support/reassurance that Papy could ever need.

They’re very opencommunicators (can’t have secrets when you could starve to death at any moment), so any real grievances orstruggles they have are aired and dealt with quickly and their relationship stays healthyand positive.

They both feel like they’d probably be okay functioning withoutthe other if they had to, but they don’t really want to. After everything thathappened, it just makes them really happy to see their brother healthy and alive, especially once they finally get up to the surface, so they like to spend a lot of time together and just sort of…bask in thefeeling of how totally okay things are now.

They watch a lot of cooking showstogether on TV and send each other cool recipes they want to try. Papy’s the better chef, but has some, uh…kitchen-related triggers, so Slate’s been taking over for the parts that he can’t do. In return, Papy tries to keep an eye-socket out for any cool rocks he finds in his garden or while out for a jog that Slate can add to his collection.

They’re both doing a lot better now!