#princes dead before the story began dead always creating living corpses with their games and grinding them up... one is dug up one is washe

[rozecrest]

love this line... the hollow thunk when his head hits the ground. princes hollow corpses rotten and buzzing. death has been here!

[yandere-wishes]

Dr.Frankenstein

💀Yandere Idia Shroud x Reader

💀Summary: Idia wants to prove the world wrong. To show that there is more to life than good and bad, villains and heroes. But somewhere along the way, he falls in love with what he is trying to prove. 

💀Warnings: Dead reader, delusional tendencies, gore,

💀Edited by my beloved Peri!! @tealyjade-libran

💀 Alternative title: Dr. Frankenstein falls in love with his monster. 

Idia had known, from an all too young age that his heart was fashioned to be enraptured with misery and sympathy.  

Once before, a few thousand eons ago, Idia had been a meager child, boyish, shy and happy with life. Sitting on his mother's lap, as her thinner than bone fingers ignited themselves on his scorching hair. He'd listen as her sunken lips recited story after story from forgotten books and dead myths. content, long ago he had known the feeling of contentment. 

And yet said feeling had died so long before Idia even comprehended the narrative behind death. His joy at hearing tales about daring heroes and bewildering gods ran dry all too soon. He'd grown numb to the stories of good and evil, the same formula used over and over and over again. Good won, good prevailed; evil lost, evil vanished. It lacked logic and sense. The probability behind mindless heroes saving the day each and every time was astronomical. It couldn't happen. Yet the history of their world and his darling mother's tongue told a different tale. 

-Not only could it be done, but rather it had been done on endless occasions.-

There had, however, been one story that stood out amongst the rotten batch. An anecdote that lacked morals and didn't defy a single law of nature. One would never think that a god born would find solace in a tale of a simple human trying to play god. The only story that sunk deep into his arteries like fragile needles, swimming through his blood before pricking manically at his heart. The only story mama told with faint nostalgia and a distant voice. The spiel of a scientist, whose mind was both his greatest ally and worst foe. A man who looked at the heavens with neither admiration nor hope. A mortal who wasn't satisfied with what good and bad had to offer. Dr. Frankenstein, whose one true desire was to do what gods did, to prove that he too could accomplish what the heavens claimed a miracle. 

It was then and there among the pitch black of his parent's room that the oldest -no the only- son of the Shroud family proclaimed in a hoarse voice that cracked at each interval. That he too would be like Victor Frankenstein. That he too would live in a world of his own, a world with no room for good and evil. A world free of wretched stories that filled the minds of jovial children. And on that day, fate had the gall to listen to the claims of a brainless brat. 

Even after countless millennia, Idia Shroud had not changed, he'd only grown into the role he forged for himself some centuries ago. 

Yet nobody ever said it would be so hard to suffer the pain of a once maddening genius. The stories made it seem easy, made Frankenstein’s pain into pretty poetry that held only a fraction of the weight. Idia came to question time and time again, what it really was he was trying to suffer for. Why did he bestow upon himself the endless torment of alienation from a world that he too longed to be a part of?

Victor Frankenstein had something to prove, he longed to be a god in the most unclassic way. All the frenetic doctor wished was to shout at all mankind and the heavens above that he was the greatest. For in his suffrage he had discovered the antidote to what sets men apart from gods. That he, the overlooked boy, the forgotten pupil had -with solely his intellect- created life. 

-Idia too desired to do just that. To scream at this fairy tale world that he, the cursed heir, the villain, the monster, was superior to every prince and hero in existence.-

Somewhere along the line, in the space between todays and tomorrows, he'd somehow lost the method behind the madness he had come to cage himself within. He lost purpose, lost hope, forgot why he'd declared to earth and Olympus that he too would be a genius akin to Dr. Frankenstein. 

Idia didn't know what spark had flared his senses, what made him realize what it was he lacked from the hopeless doctor. He liked to think it had been the moment glacial fingers rinsed in fair blood and washed away gold and been stripped from his pale clammy hands. Phantom kisses had waltzed away from his burning cheek to float back into the spiral from which they had risen. 

The dead marching back to the land of the deceased.

Leaving him to crawl back into the dark pits of his self-made hell.

Only this time, he'd understand why Frankenstein had dedicated his life to seclusion. Why he'd taken gulps of anguish, rather than air. 

It was so painfully obvious, sitting in front of him on a golden throne this whole time. How in Hades' name had he been so blind? How had he forgotten?

Although admittedly his chagrin of forgetting far outweighed his elation of finally remembering. Frankenstein hadn't suffered for not, he had suffered to build, to create. His isolation wasn't of choice but rather out of necessity. 

-The monster-

 The Monster was Frankenstein's raison d'être, The final fruit of his endless labors. He had risked everything to build him and that's exactly what Idia would do too. 

Victor Frankenstein had his monster. 

Idia Shroud would have his monster.

//

It was on a dreary night that Idia beheld the accomplishment of his toils. anxiety burned through his fragile body, amounting ever so quickly to agony. Thoughts of do's and don't's flooded his body, pilling on top of each other like corpses after a genocide.

Inside the lights were just barely surviving, every few minutes they would flicker breathing in a final breath before a short death, only to be revived minutes later, spilling their artificial glow throughout the chamber. The room itself reeked of rotting flesh and something so sickly sweet, it almost made the dorm leader of the nearly deceased heave. 

Idia's eyes remain static, seemingly stitched to the thing on the metal slab of a table. The body lays limp like a porcelain doll. No, not a doll, Idia thinks, like the monster, Frankenstein’s monster before it arose from its deathly slumber. 

Outside A flash of lightning crackles through the night sky, rough sparks of electricity flow through the murky air. They jolt and dance before dying in the night's void. 

After it, the world falls still, trapped behind the iron bars of an endless minute. The once meek god feels a surge dance through his core. The levity of his dreams prancing about. He's close, all so close. A breath away and it will be done. A minute away and all the world will see that there's never been any need for good and evil. Morals are merely prejudice beaten into every living thing, a simple way to keep mortals in their place and gods ruling above them. 

The bloody needle in his hand slips through his leather-covered fingers, chimes as it hits the blood soaked ground. Idia's mind races through the odds and ends of everything. Through the fairy tale that is his life. He wonders, would they be proud of him? Would His darling dead brother whose soul now rests in a metal body, shut down and laid to rest in a forgotten corner, advocate what he's about to do? Would his mother's sickly lingula sing praise to him, retell the glory of her son's endeavors to the children of the accursed isle? Probably not, it's a bitter thought, but as true as they come. What parent or brother on this damn earth would be proud of their monster trying to fabricate an abomination? Who, in the millennia to come would look back on him and declare with pride that Idia Shroud had been a genius, one who stood above the heroes and villains and gods? Who would ever call him something better than a hero, better than a villain, better than a god? 

In hindsight, Idia likes to think he always knew what he was doing. Always knew that he wanted the world to remember him as the one who broke the rhythm that the universe had been dancing to for endless years. To show this story-obsessed world, that good, and evil were merely perceptions of broken minds. Ideologies fabricated to justify meaningless actions. 

Good could be bad.

Evil could be nice. 

But science prevailed over all else.

Idia's knees quivered as he bends down by the table, his pale blue lips hovered above his creation's stitched-up forehead. He knew it was wrong, so, so wrong. But it couldn't be helped. For some ungodly reason, as the days ticked by and he began to sew together the bag of mismatched limbs. Idia had, in some way, come to love his creation. He wouldn't call it love per se. But he did long to hold his fragile creation in his arms. To kiss their reddened lips as their torn tongue invaded his mouth. 

In the dead of night as he laid beside his still dead lover, no monster, not lover, not yet. He began to wonder, had Frankenstein fallen in love with his abomination somewhere along the road? Had fate once again played its silly little games and twisted their paths to forever meet? Did Victor Frankinstine ever wish to kiss his creation, to have them kiss him?

It may have been wrong. The storybook-bound people of this world may even call it evil. But it wouldn't be that way for long. Idia's fingers curled into his palm, the shards of his bitten-off nails dug deeper into his flesh. His chest tightened with a foreign sensation. A feeling that made cold sweat run down his thin neck. 

Using what little strength he had left, Idia pushed himself off the ground and wobbled over to his mainframe machine. He braced himself on the heavy machinery trying to regain a semblance of his balance. He could do this, he had to do this. 

His bony finger coiled around the silver leaver, the patched of rust bite into his skin. He held the power to defy everything. To make a new world. His golden pupils land on his fingers for a second. a faint memory of his mother slither back into his mind. It's murky and foggy but he remembers the way her boney fingers use to trail down his hair and arms and legs. How she traced ghosts and blood splatters on his chubby wrists, as she retold the story of the mad scientist. Comically enough she had been the reason why Idia had fabricated this self-induced prophecy and now he'd grown to be her spitting image. A carbon copy of the person who fueled his obsession with defying the laws of good and evil. 

The leaver budged forward, clicking in protest as Idia pulled it lower and lower. Outside thunder boomed through the air, louder and louder. Maybe the ancient gods knew what he was doing. Maybe this storm was their warning to him. Yelling and shrinking to get him to stop. Threatening him to give up this game he had played for so long. 

No.

Not this time. 

Idia had operated by the book, he'd done everything like Victor Frankenstein. No ancient deity or prized warrior would be able to stop him. The gods' threats were the last part of his plan, all he needed was the lightning, the stray string of electricity. Then you would come alive. You'd be his to hold, to love, to cherish. To show to the whole damn mindless world. 

A crackle shot through the air, twisting itself around the rod connected to the device and to an extension, you as well. It slated around the iron, like a wild tiger trapped in a cage. Squawking and fighting to free itself as it slid downwards. The moment it came in contact with the larger body of the machine, it roared, a deafening white noise that reverberated off the stone walls. It pierced Idia's ears, causing a thin line of blood to drool down the side of his head. The apparatus buzzed to life, bright lights filled the chamber and the wires attached to your corpse began to stir. 

The once still carcass began to jerk violently, its head and arms and feet shaking, twisting in inelegant gruesome movements. Its torso would lift from the table only to crash down once more, with a force that surely fractured a few bones. Amid the madness, the mouth of the monster began to open, popping the loose stitches around the edge of her lips. Its long tongue darted out like a snake. And though it was mostly hushed by the hissing of the loose electric bolts and the harsh rain that had started to pour outside. Idia swore he heard her whisper his name.

The fire-haired boy ran across the room, tumbling to the side of the metal table. His large arms wrapped around your tiny ones. His eyes bore into yours. Watching as your inconsistent eyes stared into his. Your face was soft and tender, painted in an innocence only worn by young children. You were his now, his perfect creation. Something began to build inside of him, a forgotten feeling. 

Contentment; this was contentment, something he hadn't felt for a long long time. 

What are gods if not humans who possess a secret no one else could obtain? With you by his side, in his arms, Idia could finally, finally triumph overall. He had made life, he had defied all else, surely now everyone could see he was superior to all else in this make-believe world. 

But the moment ended all too soon. Your eyes began to dull over, darkening with every blink until they shut permanently once more. The thumping of your borrowed heart began to slacken. Pounding slower and slower until it stilled. The patched up body came next, falling limp, dead again, floating back to the yonder of the grave. Out of his grasp, out of his life.

The world didn't stand still this time, instead, it scrambled forward at aching speed. No sooner had you taken your first breath had you taken your very last. You'd left without ever saying "hello".

Maybe in the midst of all the chaos, glorious altering chaos, he screamed, maybe he cried. Maybe it finally dawned on him why Dr. Frankenstein was merely a myth. A fable told to accursed children. Because Victor Frankenstein wasn't good or evil. He neither harbored joy nor malice. He wished only to be the best. And for so long Idia had wished the same. Searched for the same purpose in his meaningless life. 

What is a scientist if not a harbinger of grief and pain? 

Someone who devotes their life and loin, riddle and reason, in search of true purpose amongst the forces of the universe. What's a scientist if not a god in their own right. 

Had he been a god just now, Idia was left to ponder. For two glorious, astonishing, baffling moments Idia had been better than any god in existence. He had prevailed where every hero had failed. He had accomplished what villains went mad trying to achieve. He had been victorious.

Yes, Idia Shroud had fulfilled his dream. 

If only for a couple of inert moments. 

Gods were merely that, humans who had created something from the very soil they too were made of. 

And he too had done it. 

But alas in the end, maybe the legends and the myths had been true, credible good always won and evil did always vanish. Barring you had been so young, so new, you didn't even comprehend good or evil, you hadn't been alive long enough to understand what those two defining forces even were. The world didn't yet know if you were even good or evil. But it matters all so very little because you were his creation, his monstrosity, his, and Idia Shroud had always been and would always be evil, a villain in his own right. Just another gear in the predominant forces of the universe.

He'd been a fool to think he could defy the structured narrative this world had come to accept as law. 

Although, no narrative could ever change how much he had loved you, dead or alive. It wouldn't change how he had almost, almost, became Dr.Frankenstein. 

Although at the final page just before he closed the book. In the back of his mind, Idia was sure he had become the doomed doctor. 

For he too had both fallen in love with his creation and driven himself mad over it.  

[bladekindeyewear]

HS^2 bloggin’ Patreon Commentary Catchup 2020-03-29

I know I’ve been sitting on half-a-dozen asks, but I’m gonna sit on those a little longer because after I’m done catching up on ALL the commentary I’ve missed I’ll probably be a little exhausted.

First the commentary on Chapter 5: YOUR 3Y3S H4V3 B33N CLOS3D.  I skimmed this before, just so I could leave a comment about what I’d been told about the suicide feeling / Jaspers funeral when she was “eight” being way too late on the timeline.  They still haven’t made any corrections to that HS^2 page.  Hm.  Are they just feeling the general vibe and tags to help the fandom guide things?  I’m wondering if anyone came to any of them specifically with that, since Patreon commentary doesn’t seem to cut it.  (Which I might be grateful for, from another point of view, because why would they favor paid methods.)

Sketches and Commentary: Chapter 5, "YOUR 3Y3S H4V3 B33N CLOS3D"

Starting commentary on why they played with the medium by opting for a Longpage with that update.  Unsurprising and understandable~

Ooh, they included the commission/sketch instructions for the image they asked from Xam.

I don't know what we did to deserve Xamag.

Yeah few people dispute Xamag’s awesomeness.~

Much of this conversation was written before they launched HS^2′s first chapter, huh?

With the "primary" version of its original protagonist dead in a wallet,

Did... did Terezi or someone else put John’s body in his wallet after he died?  I forget.  *checks back*

(Meat 35) That’s definitely a fair question. But I have one that’s much more important for her to answer. Terezi, are you seriously just going to leave the body here? “TEREZI: HUH?” Of course not. Terezi’s a practical girl, after all. She digs the wallet out of her blood-stained pants, and captchas the corpse. She holds it close to her heart, like a secret. Like John’s stupid last words: a confession whispered for her and no one else.And then she starts walking home.

(Meat 36) Terezi’s jaw tightens. She’s not ready to hear any words that remind her of those few hours with John. Her hand goes to her pocket, where she’s keeping the wallet. She traces the contours of it with her thumb and forces a smile.

[...] Here we both are. It’s a beautiful day. You’ve got your dead boyfriend in your wallet. And we’ve already managed to strike such a nice metatextual rapport. So hear me out. [...]  I ease the throttle back a bit, just enough so that I’m not whispering directly into her ear when she slips the wallet out of her pocket. She clutches it so hard in her palm that she’s digging dents into the leather, and bites her lip.

God damnit, that was an important fucking thing for me to forget.  I hope she preserved his corpse in a better way than just “wallet”.  And why the FUCK did Dirk think it was so important to bring him???? That’s not good, is it.

Back to the commentary, going to how the Dirk crew’s conversations especially cover the meta question of why continue the story at all...

This is actually a similar question to one explored by a series that shares a lot of Homestuck's creative DNA, Steven Universe.

Oh god damnit, what timing, huh?  And then they go on about what constitutes a happy ending and what’s supposed to happen after, how work might not be done, et cetera.  Hopefully these authors take a page from how SU:F finished, because Steven Universe managed to pull it back to uplifting pretty well.

These are two dangerous women, confined together long enough to learn all of each others' weaknesses, and sharp-edged enough to exploit them.

True enough.

Dirk, unfortunately, cucks the audience from seeing the scene's "true resolution." What an asshole. I've never been madder at this guy than I am right now. I bet he didn't even provide a warranty.

Pff.

On to the next commentary:

Sketches and Commentary: Catnapped, Part Three

Catnapped is some of the most fun I’ve had while writing, because Jasprose is just so goddamn fun. Cats don’t plan, they live in the moment. She’s always existing in that moment of pushing a glass off the table.

We can all agree with that I think.

Plenty they talk about here, but I’ll just quote part of anything about characterization... 

First, I actually really appreciate getting a lot at Jane's genuine sympathy for Dirk here. There was quite a bit of mutual fondness and care between the two of them – but, at the same time, they enabled each others' worst tendencies.

Hm!

Swifer remains the closest thing to a "straight man" this story has. (Not in the sexuality way. In the comedy way.)

Yep.

There was no universe where we left this story without Jasprose saying "owo what's this". You know it, I know it.

Jesus Christ, I didn’t catch that.

God, Problem Sleuth just has the worst commuting luck. He should put some of his rug money into a permanent locksmith. Checking back in with these scenes is always a delight. It probably took PS like two hundred off-screen panels to get to this point. Miserable.

Wait, that’s right, Catnapped 28 is shown before DDD 12, but AFTER Dad is shown marching up handcuffed in Catnapped 26.  And yet in DDD 12, Dad and DD come fetch PS from out of his office, when the handcuffed thing hasn’t happened yet in DDD.  You can’t DO that, authors!  It only makes RELEASE ORDER sense, not any sort of OTHER sense?  What about when people come to catch up or read this later!  Come on, that’s sloppy.  Unless they’re going to leave PS behind to stay trapped in his office MORE, which I wouldn’t put past them.  (But, wouldn’t make sense since the bullethole from C28 is already there in DDD12.)  Andrew knew more of how to be responsible telling an out-of-time-sync story, believe it or not.

Commentary ends with a few sketches, like Jasprose doing a The Mask impression, appropriately.

Sketches and Commentary: Chapter 6, "A Conversation Regarding Relevance"

Oh, it’s Jade time.

On alt!Callie’s starting Space rant:

I wanted to impress on everyone just how vast it is, and also to remind the audience that alt!callie has them at the same mercy that Dirk does. She can force us to listen to her pontificate endlessly if she so chooses. She’s slightly less insufferable than Dirk, if only perhaps because her text isn’t orange. 

Yep, mostly.

So here she is. Jade. We find out that not only is she conscious inside her own head, she is also incredibly chatty. And not too thrilled with her current situation. I know most of the audience isn’t either, considering the fact that Jade having no agency has basically become a meme at this point. 

NEVER. AGAIN. PLZ.

As Callie told us in the beginning of the chapter, it isn’t natural for people to behave like narrative devices. Even within her own thematic framework, Callie has a habit of defaulting to behaving like a person after all. 

Even alt!Callie still became a story nerd, not just original Callie -- she just became a different, more insufferable type of story nerd.

Plenty more discussion I don’t need to touch on...  keep in mind I’m omitting large parts of this in most cases, again, to respect the paywall.

A remark on Dave and Karkat being two emotionally-constipated early-twenties Bernie Bros, which... I mean.  Fair.

She definitely does love them, and she wanted to be with them, but also...Jade has a lot of other prospects. She’s actually the one character who seems to be enjoying her time on Earth c. Hitting up interspecies raves and getting around. We just haven’t seen any of that because none of those other people she boned are main characters. 

Maybe that’s why alt!Callie was so blind and dismissive of it?  Offscreen experience being less in the Light, therefore less relevant to her, even though that’s the exact attitude she’s ostensibly at war with?

Anyway Jade’s consciousness is huge.

Yep.

It’s been a while since we’ve had any sort of serious meta talk about classpects. Mostly because there’s really no use for classpects outside of the game, unless, for instance, you go around referring to everyone as the Prince or the Witch because you are a dramatic alien in a hood. It does make sense that a Witch’s powers would be more useful than a Sylph’s to a Muse. 

Aaaand that’s all the classpect mention we’re gonna get isn’t it? ;P

(Yes I know, the author told us to dial it back.  They ARE going ahead and prepping to answer some outstanding questions, though.)

Honestly, the Jade Situation is a tough one. To be sure, she has been sacrificed to the plot again and again, something that probably began as a coincidence and then later grew into a theme. Space players are destined to be huge, cosmic forces in the universe. Big movers. [...] But usually when we hear the story of big, god-like beings, we don’t think about the personalities behind them. What was it like for god to create the universe? Was he lonely? Did he regret it? Did he wish he could live in it instead? 

And Jade WAS too powerful not to sideline, by a certain point in the plot.  And before that, maybe trapped in a bit of a character arc where she had to get over some notions to step into the action.

I actually think Jade could have been okay with this. With being A Force For The Narrative. [...] But then Callie makes it personal.

Agreed.  If alt!Callie hadn’t been so shitty about it in general, they could have worked things out more meaningfully; but the immense resolve and effort it took to dominate Caliborn in her origin timeline has tainted her perception ALMOST as bad as Dirk’s.  Much of HS^2 is probably going to involve her gradually learning how to get over that in the background, the balance she needs to take ala the Ultimate Riddle’s lesson.

(Tangentially... it was said that it would have been nearly impossible to make alt!Callie dominate, even across ALL timelines.  What if alt!Callie had her timeline’s origin explained in HS^2 by a Third Scratch at this late date with the likes of Davebot running around to do it???  That would probably make me fucking mad.)

Back to the commentary.

Admittedly these last few chapters have definitely been “girls beating the crap out of each other” heavy, and I hope that’s okay.

PFFFFF

Callie and Jade aren’t really sure who makes a decision on what is considered “just” or “heroic”. Plot twist, it’s us. We do. But also the alpha timeline does.

Hmm.

More gorgeous Xam art. Initially we were going to make it more ambiguous whether or not she actually ate the peanut butter, but we decided to have it be a decisive moment of triumph.

Really?  Well, you could have made it visually clearer that the candy dropped.  A lot of people visually missed that.  This is a consequence of the back-and-forth artist-isnt-the-author art-commissioning going on, in part... Andrew was MUCH better at conveying what he wanted to convey BETWEEN panels than this crew, like comic book panels and their composition together; you can see that when comparing Homestuck proper’s sprite animation to that of fan adventures that used sprites, for instance.  These guys are at something of a disadvantage due to their disconnect.

Commentary on the Commentary

This commentary uses "she/her" to talk about the alternate Calliope possessing Jade, while the "other" Callie (remember them?) uses they/them. This other Calliope, presumably, has a much different relationship with her gender – and her brother – than the Callie we saw discussing the subject with Roxy and John. One of my favorite things about this update (I can say that, because I'm a second person who didn't write it) was that subtle hint about how different her Caliborn must have been to allow her to predominate in the first place. I'd be really interested in fan works exploring more about her (and his) past.

Hhhhmmmmmmm.

Not sure what else to say to that, but it does make me hmmm.

Sketches and Commentary: Diamonds, Dames, and Dads, Part 1

Probably not much plot-relevant here...

Oh pff.

They had full drawings of them going in for the kiss on standby.  They couldn’t resist making them.

Real talk, I have been looking forward to writing this story the most out of any other part of HS^2. Finally I get to combine my passions. Cheesy noir bullshit and old men making eyes at each other. 

Pfffffff.  Yes.

...the next three or four pages of this writing go on to describe how sexy this is and these characters and setting are.  I can’t fault a word of any of it.

The dream team is assembled. Nothing can possibly go wrong. 

Wow, I caught up on all this commentary quick.  See you next time.

[ardenttheories]

Admittedly that was less “twenty minutes” and more “several hours” but regardless, I am here to provide a Homestuck/Undertale AU!

Also this got kind of long: It includes short character descriptions and powers, goes into a “pre-game” lore, and then picks up as if telling the story the “player” would play through if it were a game. At the end I also included little facts of the plot (specifically about Roxy, who acts a bit like Gaster), and a fun “No-Mercy run” twist of events. 

John: A prince of the human realm. He was once great friends with Jane, before his family was struck down, and war ravaged the world. He disappeared soon after, and though it has never been confirmed, it is widely assumed that he was slaughtered alongside his parents. 

Jade: The Royal Scientist of the Underground. She is a serious woman, when she wants to be, but tends to flip between tireless workaholic and outright shenanigan-fuelled silliness. She suffers occasional bouts of narcolepsy, but finds visions in her dreams that fuelled her projects, or encourage her to begin new ones. She is a plant-based monster (think Shyren, but with hair of thick vines, moss-based skin, and a long, thick lab coat). Her signature move in a fight is to resize the SOUL, making it harder for the player to escape her thorn-covered vines. 

Dave and Davesprite: Twins who appeared under mysterious circumstances in the Underground. Both have a tendency for hiding their fears behind jokes and quick wit, often striking the fear of the other when they are fearful themself. They are skittish, unsure, but cover it well; to most outsiders, they are simply a pair of rambunctious crows, frequently getting themselves in trouble and aiding those they can in between bouts of arguments. Though Dave has the more dominant personality, speaking for both of them and making most of their friends, Davesprite tends to stick in the minds of people more; he is the quieter of the brothers, yet the one who (accidentally) makes the most trouble. They are Crow monsters: Dave’s feathers are white and his eyes are red, whereas almost every part of Davesprite is a fluorescent orange; they have no beaks, but instead bird-like noses and wide eyes, the majority of their bodies covered in feathers besides a small portion of their faces; from their forearms and their knees down, they are covered in the scale-like skin of a bird’s legs, toes and fingers turning into claws; and both sport large, beautiful wings, though Davesprite is missing the right wing. Their special move is to turn the SOUL orange and split it in half; Dave attacks one side, and Davesprite attacks the other. Davesprite’s attacks damage Dave’s half of the SOUL; Dave’s attacks damage Davesprite’s half of the SOUL. 

Rose: A reclusive woman, hiding herself away in the furthest portion of the Underground. She has made her home in an oddly magical forest, covered in blue fungi and tar-like trees. She spends her days peering into her reflection in the only crystal-clear pond in the entire forest, searching for answers that play like movies on the bubbling surface of the water. She is a Cat monster (think the Snowdin shopkeeper, but... a cat) on her upperhalf, and a mass of tar-like tendrils on her lowerhalf. Her special move turns the SOUL crystal, requiring them to remember the pattern and order of her attacks that will then appear on screen invisible.  

Dirk: An amalgamate. He was made from the dust of several monsters, infused with determination in order to see if they could be revived. Unfortunately, there was not enough dust of each monster to keep individual shape, and the resulting Shambling Limbs melted together instead. As a result, he is incredibly deformed: arms hold his head in place above his body, disconnected from his neck; odd-coloured arms sprout from his body, acting as if they are separate entities, constantly in discord with one another; parts of him waver in and out of existence, turning to dust only to to shift back into place, solid once more; his lower half is a molten goop, legs unable to retain their shape and leaving him with a trail of barely formed dust; and his face is droopy and inconsistent, flickering between the faces of the monsters he is formed of - a Robot (Brobot), a Shadow (Hal), a Fire Elemental (Godtier) and a Mirage (Brain Ghost). His signature move is to make the SOUL fade in and out of existence (turn blue and orange).

Jake: An adventurer, bored of the Underground. He is a boisterous and joyful man, always seeking out anything that can retain his attention for a long period of time. He has scoured every inch of the Underground and uncovered all of its secrets (or so he thinks), and desires to escape into the Overworld simply for the thrill of more. He is a Greater Dog. His signature move is to cycle the SOUL through various colours every turn. 

Jane: A lonely princess who remembers the days before the Underground. She once had a brother, a father, and a loving court; now she has dirt, dust, and nothing to show for her title besides a tiara she’s long since forgotten. She locks herself in the Ruins in the hopes to avoid her future, and the masses of monsters out in the Underground expecting her to solve the conundrum of their entrapment. She is a Jackrabbit monster (think the Snowdin shopkeeper mixed with Toriel). Her signature move is to turn the SOUL light green, showering down volleys of white attacks with green attacks interspersed; the player has to collect these green attacks to refill their continuously depleting health. 

Roxy: The Royal Scientist prior to Jade. She disappeared under mysterious circumstances, leaving the lab and the amalgamate inside to her descendant. Very little is known about her, though it is assumed, at this point, that she must be dead. She is a Shadow monster. Her signature move turns the SOUL black, hiding it against the background and only blinking into existence every few seconds.

Plot:

Jane was the heiress to the throne in the Overworld. At that time, there was peace; her and her father kept close relations with the human King and Queen, to the point that she befriended their son, the prince. All was well, until one day, her father announced that he was going to marry. The woman he had found was a wicked Witch. She treated her population awfully, but presented such an image of terror that nobody dared to fight back. In time, she attempted to stretch her influence into the human realm, and initiated a bloody attack; she slaughtered her husband, and murdered the human King and Queen. The young human prince disappeared overnight. 

The humans would not bow down to her will, as the monsters had. Instead, a gruesome war took hold of the world; blood ran the rivers red, battles devastated villages and towns, and dust coated what were once well-inhabited homes. 

Between the brutality of her mother, and the overwhelming power of the vengeful humans, the monster population dwindled to near extinction. Jane was desperate to save her people. 

She opened the way to the Underground as an escape for monsters of all kinds, leaving the Witch to her pointless war with the humans. 

Before she descended with them, she fled back into her mother’s territory. It took her years, but she soon found the missing prince, deep in a slumber beneath the castle’s walls; aged years far above his own, he was frail and weak. With tender delicacy, his tender form clutched gently to her chest, she fled into the Underground with her only friend - and used his SOUL to obscure the entrance from ever being found. 

In the safety of the Underground, the monster population soon began to rise. New young replaced the dead, raised on the whispers of humans and terror and war. Time passed, and the rumours only gained friction, become more distorted from the truth the more they were repeated. Soon, Jane was only a whisper on the lips of the hopeful; the one who saved them, and the one who would set them free, once the humans and the Witch had slaughtered each other off the face of the Earth.

Only one monster, a Scientist named Roxy, ventured to the supposed living of the princess - the Ruins. It was a well hidden, forgotten place, but Roxy was used to seeking well hidden, forgotten things; when she reached the Ruins, she found that access was forbidden to her - or, more accurately, to anyone. She knew the princess was still inside, and thus, she began to speak. 

It took time. A long, long time. But they both had plenty of it. 

A friendship bloomed between the two between the door of the Ruins, Jane inside, Roxy outside. Eventually, she was able to befriend Jane to a point that she was told, very quietly, one thing: the rumours were false. The catastrophe was at the hand of the Witch only, not the fault of the humans. Jane did not speak to her for days after that. 

When she did speak again, it was a request; for the scientist to look into Determination, the only thing - beyond Jane’s magic - keeping her human friend alive. She wanted to know if it was possible to reverse the effects of the Witch’s powers - because with the prince back, going into the Overworld may be a viable action. 

The scientist quickly took the extracted Determination slipped through the door, and the slowing-rotting corpse of Jane’s only friend. With both in hand, she dashed away and holed herself up in her lab, performing experiment after experiment in order to achieve the goal she had been set - in order to make the princess happy once more. 

Experimenting with monster dust and Determination led to terrible results. The Amalgamation she created could never disintegrate, but wanted to with all its hearts. She did her best to ensure that it - all of it - was happy, until it eventually accepted its fate, took on the name Dirk, and decided to be he instead. He helped her with her work, far more careful and calculating and risk-taking than she was willing to be, and together, they began to make progress. 

But something was missing. No matter what they did, it failed in the end. Frustration led the scientist to drastic measures, and one day, she vanished. 

The lab was given to another scientist. Though it took Jade some years to find and understand her predecessor’s notes, she eventually managed to piece together what she had found, believing it to be the only chance of escape from the Underground. She wasn’t sure why or what it all meant until she found a journal detailing the princess’ stories as told through a door in the Ruins, far, far away. Filled with the wonder of the Overworld, of the space and the possibilities and the endlessness, and the fury at the humans and their war, she threw herself into her work, desperate to see if what she had read was true. 

The Underground moved on. The monster population began to flourish. Two new monsters appeared out of nowhere, odd Crows that seemed to wreck havoc and give help in turn. Nobody could say for sure where they had come from, but whoever they were, Dave and Davesprite soon settled themselves into the normal world of the Underground until there was barely a seam to show their fit. 

Then, one day, a human appeared in the Underground. 

With no recollection of who they were or how they’d gotten there, they went into the Ruins, coming across the princess in her isolation. Though shocked, she in equal parts of eagerness and tentativeness gives them a quest; to go through the Underground, reach its furthest point, and uncover the resting-place of her human friend. Only then could the human leave, however they had arrived - with the monsters following in tow. 

The human leaves, and quickly comes across an odd, adventurous Greater Dog, whom excitedly shows them the ropes of adventuring (including a battle tutorial). Jake appears several times to encourage the human, sharing his fanciful tales and making a general nuisance of himself. He guides them towards the main town, whereupon they find two strange Crows. 

The Crows seem to both like and dislike the human, flipping back and forth about how they each seem to feel. They put up halfhearted attempts to “stop” the human’s progress, but ultimately just let them move on, recognising that they’re absolutely no harm to the anyone in the Town or the Underground as a whole. They follow the human on their journey, attempting to figure out an odd feeling in the back of their heads - a little annoyance that tells them there’s something the human should watch out for, or be wary of. 

They only realise what the feeling is when, part way through the journey towards the lab, they are cut off from the human. 

Jade, in her isolation, has become staunchly anti-human.  

Attempting to survive the lab and its surroundings is the only way for the human to survive. They trudge through dangerous death traps, complex puzzles that seem to hold no answer, tricky pathways that take them far, far out of their way before suddenly diverting back towards the lab. By the time they reach the lab itself, things seem to be getting easier, almost. 

Except then they are very much accosted by the Amalgamate. 

The only option is the run. The Amalgamate is very fast and very angry; tiring it out in battle, escaping from it, running as far as they can, and repeating is the only way for them to reach deep enough inside the lab that the scientist, in a turn of heart, can save them. She placates the enraged Amalgamate, gently encourages him to go back to his space within the lab, and greets the human.

She apologises for her behaviour - though they may not have seen it, she had set up all of the tricks and traps in order to kill them. She had been quickly surprised, however, by how determined the human was with solving all of her puzzles; rather than turn on tail, or march their way through guns-blazing, they had taken their time and stewed over her creations - and after so long without anyone to talk to besides Dirk, she had eventually found herself hoping the human would overcome her obstacles. 

Recognising that they mean no harm, and thoroughly embarrassed with her actions, she questions why they are there. Realising that they have been sent by Jane, she begins to apologise more fervently - before suddenly dashing off to her notes. She comes back and explains that she has been working to complete the work of her predecessor, trying to tie together almost incomprehensible notes into an idea that would help the Underground as a whole. It has been slow going, and she always felt like something was missing - but with the human there, she seems to realise what she has to do. 

She gives the human a vial of Determination, the last part she has left, and opens up the other side of the lab, encouraging them to go onward. 

Nothing much happens (besides the reappearance of the Crows and the Greater Dog, who argue back and forth until Jake is forced to admit that he maybe isn’t as great of an adventurer as he thought since he’s never been past the lab, resulting in Dave and Davesprite feeling guilty and attempting to make him feel better - only to make it worse) until the human reaches the edge of the Dark Forest. There is a hush there suggesting that nothing living exists beyond the dark, nigh-dead grass, and as the monsters attempt to follow the human, they find that they instead walk into an invisible barrier. 

Left alone, the human must traverse the confusing twists and turns of the forest. Blue mushrooms light the way towards the centre of the forest, where they there find a tentacled Cat monster. She informs them that her name is Rose, and that she has been waiting for them for a very, very long time. She then says that it is quite lovely to be able to meet the prince in person - or, at least, his detached SOUL. 

She expositions that the previous Royal Scientist had, prior to her disappearance, founded the forest in an attempt to try and keep the prince alive, using the natural magic within it to turn into life force that would keep his body going. She then discovered that he was, in fact, only a body; his SOUL existed elsewhere, lost above in the Overworld when the Witch had snatched him away. Rose theorises that the Witch must have been using his SOUL in order to extend her own life and power, leaving the body to rot and wither away; and that Roxy had known this, and somehow “called” the SOUL to the Underground. 

What lies ahead is, essentially, his decaying body. The Determination the prince’s SOUL carries within him should be the factor that binds SOUL and body together once more.

Rose judges him before he moves on. Pleased with how he has been behaving in the Underground, she lets him move onward without much issue, merely informing him that she’ll see him on the other side. 

He marches on. As predicted, his SOUL enters his body and the Determination takes effect, bringing him back to life. A rumble shakes through the Underground almost as soon as the prince opens his eyes. 

With the aid of his newfound friends, John makes his way back to the Ruins. He has a tearful reunion with Jane, who exclaims gleefully that the barrier she’d used to hide them has been broken, and that ever since it has, she’s heard no sound of fighting. She hopes that peace exists in the Overworld. 

Of course, not all is that easy. The Witch is not yet dead, and furious to find that not only was her SOUL snatched back by its true owner, but also that an entire monster population existed outside of her reach. She immediately imprisons the monsters as Lost Souls, and begins a brutal battle with the prince, determined to take his SOUL and kill him once and for all. 

John defeats the Witch, who melts away after her furious Determination causes her body to disintegrate. The monsters cautiously step into the light, wary of what might be waiting them outside...

And find a peaceful world, grateful for the Witch’s demise and the return of their ancient prince. 

And some fun clarifications:

Roxy realised that she’d never be able to use determination on monsters. She also realised that she’d never be able to get a human into the Underground, being unable to leave to lure them in. Upon realising that John’s body no longer hosts his SOUL, and that the Witch likely still has it, she thrusts herself into her research, attempting to find a way to call out to his soul to return to his body. She eventually does; it’s a complex mixture of science and magic that results in the destruction of her own body, but allows her to pinpoint John’s soul, free it from the Witch, and essentially hook it back through the barrier and into the Underground. 

Determination courses through her as she realises that there’s nothing left of her form. Desperate to see it through to the end, and to give John’s SOUL the best chance of survival in the Underground, she manages to split her remnants in two; two parts of a Shadow forming two Crows imbued only with the desire to protect. Dave and Davesprite are the only monsters she’s successfully been able to create. She’s not entirely sure how she was able to do it, but it should be noted that Dave and Davesprite are much more material and much less magical than most other monsters. (It should also be noted that they will live nowhere near as long as Monsters do and are essentially living on borrowed time, but a much more extended borrowed time than, say, Undyne the Undying).  

That, of course, is the Pacifist route. It would be perfectly doable to slaughter every monster in the Underground, snatch up the determination, and then reach Jane, who sobs as she attempts to gain vengeance on her people, stating that humans must simply desire warfare and death and despair. In truth, it’s implied that the Witch still retains control over the SOUL. Having realised what Roxy was attempting to do, she destroys her control over the SOUL’s path and ensures that it follows her vicious whims and desires, slaughtering the monsters of the Underground in punishment of their defiance. Roxy still creates Dave and Davesprite from her remnants in his instance, but does so more to protect the Underground than to protect John. 

Dave and Davesprite will battle more fervently if they think that John actually poses any sort of harm to the Underground, and battle him twice; once when they first meet him, and once more after he’s regained his body. Once both are defeated, their bodies will fuse together, becoming a broken Amalgamate of Roxy who tries to fix her mistakes. This secondary phase to the battle doesn’t last long; the Crows were already existing on borrowed time, and Roxy had already lost her body once. She fades away with her regrets. 

Furthermore, in a No-Mercy run, Rose’s judgement would work much like Sans’ judgement. She will battle John in order to stop him from reaching his body, but doesn’t have anywhere near as much HP as any other monster. After she has exerted herself, John’s first hit will kill her immediately.