#so here's our Asriel and Frisk to give them

[sajdd]

how chapter 4 revealed the true horror of deltarune and why it's more unsettling than undertale's genocide route

so back when chapter 2 came out and people had just discovered the weird route, i did not agree with the sentiment that the weird route was worse than geno route. as horrible as forcing noelle into "killing" others was, i didnt think it was somehow worse than watching the struggle of the entire monster race trying to face what was essentially an unkillable eldritch god (the player)

but how kris conducted themselves in chapter 4, ESPECIALLY the weird route has really changed my opinion. the darkest part of this story is not the "murders" or the manipulation or any of that. it's kris' loss of autonomy.

In undertale, it is well established that frisk and the player are two seperate beings, just like in deltarune. but what sets frisk and kris apart is that frisk doesn't seem to mind being controlled, and later down the line ends up taking actions of their own to further the player's wishes

whether its the pacifist route - refusing to die to asriel's attacks, or the genocide route - walking towards sans in the judgement hall and then slashing him for the second time to get the kill. all this without the player's input

frisk is their own person who shows their personality quirks here and there, but they are ultimately a blank slate who is willing to go along with whatever the player wants

kris is not that at all.

kris defies the player in many different ways, from small actions of defiance that twist the player's command into something literal or comedic, showing distaste towards our choices, to stopping themselves from speaking/acting by resorting to self-harm in various ways.

they want to be their own person, but they can't. and they are already scared, but they become downright terrified when the player decides to got down the weird route and involve their friend noelle.

they are fighting SO hard to not hurt her here anymore. they took their few moments of freedom away from the player to warn and comfort noelle, and now it's all falling apart right in front of them and there is nothing they can do about it.

they are shaking and cannot do anything as they watch noelle dig her own grave. they can only watch. they cannot move, cant shout cant scream. cant do anything but obey.

and the worst part is that this is no longer the darkworld. this is real life to them. kris can no longer give the comfort of the terrible things happening being just a dream, or just a prank.

the darkworld was a magical fantasy setting where you could technically claim nothing too terrible is happening. the darkners they're killing? theyre just inanimate objects in the real world. using snowgrave on berdly? he's not dead, just got a cold and recovered later in hospital just fine.

but here? this is reality.

noelle was already shaken enough by what she perceived to be a fake world. what on earth will the realisation that all of this was reality do to her? especially now that we as the player are gaining the ability to influence not just kris, but noelle too.

how far do you think she will go now that this has expanded beyond the dark world? just how far do you think a girl can be pushed by someone she considered a friend?

and by god, how much guilt and horror must kris feel. knowing they do not want this, but watching their words, their actions, their body being used to hurt those they care about. and there is nothing they can do but watch.

this is a story of a child being forced to hurt their friend, as they watch from behind the prison that is their own body. and the worst part is that noone seems to notice. noone knows.

noone is coming to save them.

[delta-experiment]

Hey all! It's been a long time!

Delta Experiment first went on indefinite hiatus when Chapter 2 of Deltarune released. Now, Chapters 3 and 4 of Deltarune are out! That's crazy to think about!

I still think about Delta Experiment a lot. (Maybe too much...)

While I was playing through Chapters 3 and 4, it struck me just how many things Delta Experiment correctly predicted (and just how many things I got wrong.) Comparing and contrasting the plans I had made to the finished product has been a very, very interesting experience.

The problem is, I can't really talk about it, because those chapters of Delta Experiment were never released...

So, in honor of Deltarune's newest release (and for the sake of my sanity), I've decided to share the plans of what the future chapters of Delta Experiment were going to be!

I plan on first giving the bare-bones premises of each chapter, and then individually going through one by one and expanding on how certain events and character arcs were going to play out. As I go through, I may also add commentary on how they compare or contrast with the actual release of Deltarune (don't worry, any spoilers would be properly tagged!)

Without any further delay, here's the (very, VERY) simplified outline. Keep in mind, all of these plans were made with only Chapter 1 to go off of!

CHAPTER 3: OUR NEWEST FAMILY MEMBER

In which:

Frisk and "Chris" investigate the skeletons, uncovering the relationships between them (and the fact that Sans, Papyrus and Gaster originally came from another world)

Sans teaches Frisk the ability to sense chroma.

Sans "befriends" your mother.

Asriel and Papyrus bond over their struggles with "Chris" and Gaster, resolving to be patient and grow closer as a family.

Sans receives a phone call from his alternate self.

The Cyan Flower blooms.

CHAPTER 4: BY ANY OTHER NAME

In which:

"Chris," Frisk and Asriel go to church, learning about the human Saints, the history of the Human-Monster war, the legend of the Angel and the Dark Knight.

"Chris" sleepwalks and trashes the house, blaming it on Asriel and getting them grounded.

"Chris", distraught, sneaks out to meet Asgore and thank him properly for helping them while they were living in the alley.

Asgore, sensing they need advice, tells them the story of him and Toriel's relationship, and how it was a lack of honesty that ultimately destroyed it.

"Chris" decides that they're going to try to be more honest from now on, beginning with their identity. Their true name is Chara.

Chara returns to Toriel, explains the situation, and takes the blame for ruining the house.

Asgore still holds a secret.

The Blue Flower blooms.

CHAPTER 5: BALL GAME

In which:

Human exchange students from the city come to Hometown for an annual ball game. The human kids are mean to the monsters, and the monsters form their own team with Jockington as the leader.

Chara's hatred of humans leads to them assaulting one of the other players, getting taken off of the team.

Noelle bravely scores her first-ever goal. Carol doesn't get to see it.

The monsters lose the game, but they proved themselves to be equals through their perseverance.

The Purple Flower blooms.

CHAPTER 6: TOWN HOLIDAY

In which:

Carol sets up the town carnival.

Chara and Asriel help Noelle to win her bake sale competition by selling more gingerbread than little Muffet's spider cookies.

Noelle, grateful, gives Chara a hug. This surprises them.

Meanwhile, Frisk meets a mysterious monster girl from the city who is in town for the carnival. She wins a deck of cards in a game, but ends up dropping them, so Frisk tries to return them to her.

Frisk follows the girl up the mountain, where they accidentally fall down a hole and end up in the Dark World. They experience the carnival from the perspective of the objects, and become good friends.

Frisk learns the girl's name is "Suzy".

They leave the Dark World, and Suzy leaves, asking them not to forget their friendship. They leave the Jack card with Frisk for assurance.

Suzy has seen too much. She is made to forget.

Chara, Asriel and Frisk reminisce about how they used to be enemies, but are now good friends.

The Green Flower blooms.

Chara lets it slip that their full name is "Chara Knightmer." With that knowledge, Gaster places a phone call...

CHAPTER 7: THE TRIAL

In which:

Chara's biological parents come to bring them home. However, there are some pressing concerns regarding their home life, their life in Hometown, and the jurisdiction of the law.

A trial is held to determine whether Chara will stay in Hometown. Carol will preside.

The Yellow Flower blooms.

CHAPTER 8: AN ENDING

In which:

Your actions have consequences.

CHAPTER 8: ANOTHER ENDING

In which:

The experiment is complete.

[kcatghost]

saw a post on twitter that was speculating the deltarune chapter 5 secret boss based on what we know already and it reminded me that im working on a video that goes into deltarunes role as "undertales parallel" story, so i thought id share a few of my thoughts here specifically regarding what i think ralsei is, how he connects to asriel but more accurately how he directly parallels flowey.

(original post here) https://x.com/theguyestlame/status/1942213255146983650?s=46

Basically, I believe chapter 5s secret boss to be an homage to flowey because of his connections to ralsei.

So, ralsei is very obviously supposed to evoke asriel. his appearance alone but also his name literally being a scramble of asriel- again really obvious stuff i shouldnt have to bring up.

however, ralsei actually has a lot more in common with flowey in the way that hes the complete opposite of everything flowey was meant to be.

flowey is asriel incarnated as a soulless inanimate object with a hint of determination mixed in, and after living a thousand lives and witnessing timeline after timeline he became jaded and bored, having already seen everything this world had to offer and couldnt afford to care anymore. that is until frisk appears (and the player) with a stronger amount of determination that meant he had no choice but to watch from afar- no longer the protagonist of the story

floweys mantra "kill or be killed" stems from his own experiences and presumed lack of ability to feel empathy, and this is the first thing he tells us as a complete juxtaposition to the games established design philosophy of "fight or spare". he is aware of the rules of the world he lives in, of saving and loading and coming back after death, and hes also aware of the games mechanics which is why hes able to try to and steer us onto the same path he went down (not expecting us to eventually take it further than him)

so, what does this have to do with ralsei?

like flowey, ralsei is our gateway into understanding how this game works. in an opposite yet extremely similar way, ralsei teaches us the opposite of this games philosophy "your choices dont matter", telling us how to fight AND spare.

ralsei is the first darkner to talk to us, like flowey is the first monster we meet in undertale. instead of attacking us or trying to trick us, he talks to us in a friendly manner. Ralsei even tells us the exact same explanation for what our soul is, almost word for word.

Ralsei of course shares a similar connection to asriel that flowey does, being that both are distinctly different characters made within the mould of asriel. i wont get too much into what i think ralsei is right now (as i said before, video in the works) but i dont think hes the same as in "ASRIEL IS DEAD AND A DARKNER NOW" but rather just that the two of them are meant to represent asriel for a similar purpose, and show the 2 sides of the same fate. Ralsei is all too aware of the rules of the world he lives in, and like flowey it plagues his mind, but unlike flowey ralsei takes the complete opposite approach. ralsei believes his thoughts and actions dont matter, because thats what the rules of the game are because of the prophecy, but he still makes an effort to try and change it for the better.

where flowey is endlessly bitter and cruel, ralsei is kind and deeply cares for his friends, and the prophecy scares him to death. flowey made the choice to kill and kill and keep resetting until he exhausted all options and ended up knowing too much, but in his own words, ralsei didnt ask to know the prophecy.

a big theme of deltarune is how storys are changed through interpretation, and i believe this to be the explanation for what ralsei is.

hes not an asriel parallel, but a flowey parallel, and i think ch5 will give us a lot more to work with considering its location and forshadowed connection to asgore, as well as the pattern of secret bosses from 3-4.

3-4-5 were meant to release together, right? ch3 is about kris, ch4 is about susie, it only makes sense for ch5 to be about ralsei.

that and chekhovs fucking nuclear bomb is literally sitting in the middle of asgores shop like come on

+ ralseis design features a blacked out heart, as though its missing.

thank you for coming to my ralsei talk

[toastling]

*kicks down the deltadoor*

We are "The Angel" of Undertale and Deltarune lore and we always have been.

I think I've cracked it. I have a new unified Deltarune theory and I am discarding one of the foundational, day one, linchpin theories of the fandom in favor of it.

Ever since the end of Chapter 1, it has been the prevailing view that the SOUL inside of Kris is not their own, but *us*, the player, just as it was in Undertale. That Kris is not at all in control of their actions, and they are only free to be themselves when their SOUL is out - which is to say, when we can no longer control them - and hence we are the true villain of Deltarune.

And given how little we knew in Chapter 1, and even in Chapter 2, this made sense. It makes sense that this theory has persisted for so long. It fit the implications of Chapter 1's shock ending, but it raised so many uncomfortable questions in Chapter 2's ending that I have only seen the fandom really address one specific way: a blanket "Kris is Chara" theory. This is because the first time we see Kris do something substantial without their SOUL inside them, they go and open up a Fountain in their living room and end up inviting The Knight into their home and nearly get Toriel killed.

But why? Why would Kris do that? And more than that, if we're the SOUL and not Kris, and we're somehow the real villains here because Kris isn't in control when we are, what does it say about Kris that left to their own devices, they would try to kill what little family and friends they have left the *second* we're not able to stop them anymore? That certainly would paint Kris as not just troubled or struggling, but very much evil in the same way Chara was.

But here's the thing. We've seen this story before. This was Undertale's big twist. The player character was never us, it was Frisk. The person we named is known canonically, outside of us, as Chara, a self-proclaimed demon who comes when its name is called. The person Asriel, as Flowey, tries to force us into being is Chara, not Frisk. We're only the villain in Undertale if we do as Chara would have, if we trigger Genocide, if we kill. Because Chara is taking refuge in Frisk's SOUL and has from the very first second they fell into the underground, but they only manage to take control of Frisk and do the evil they want if *we* help them and give them power.

Toby is not going to repeat the same story and the same twist the exact same way twice in a row. No. Everything in Deltarune is an inversion, a mirror, of what we thought we knew in Undertale. Depending on the timeline and how things play out, perhaps it will be more chronologically correct to say it's the other way around. But either way, if this mirror trend continues, then I think the role of us, the player, and how we relate to the story, is also going to be turned on its head.

Which is to say, we're not the ones giving Chara or whatever evil is at play power to dominate Kris' soul, not this time around. We're the only ones able to let Kris *resist* that power, which already has full control over them whenever we aren't there.

I think what we the player are in Deltarune is much more potent and important than the only way in for some eldritch evil of ambiguous origin. I think that might be the case in Snowgrave, or as it is canonically known to the dev team, "the weird route", and that the fact we are choosing to go out of our way to do what this evil wanted in the first place is precisely why this route is supposed to be "weird" because it's weird we'd want to be so evil, but we're intended to be something much greater than that this time around. We're supposed to be the answer to Toriel's prayers for her child. We're supposed to be the manifestation of everything the people of Hometown pray to and worship every Sunday. We're supposed to be The Angel.

The Angel is said to be a bringer of either salvation or destruction. Through the choices we make as players, isn't that a pretty good description of us? There is a lot of angel imagery around Noelle, but that herring is as red as Rudolph's nose, if you ask me. Since when has Toby ever been so obvious and unsubtle about something like that? She might play The Angel in church plays, but The Angel is and was always meant to be us. And we're there for one very specific reason.

Because Kris isn't in control of Kris anymore. Because when they were children, Kris and Catti summoned a demon. Because whatever they managed to call forth, it has taken hold of Kris with an iron grip and is behind everything that has happened since Dess went missing.

We aren't making Kris hurt their friends and family, they only do that when we're not around. We're not the ones creating Fountains and Dark Worlds, Kris only does that when they've vacated their SOUL from their body. I think we are the only way in which Kris can still be themselves and make any positive choices or do any amount of healing at all, because we are the response to all those candles lit and prayers sent up by Toriel. Because we are Kris' guardian angel.

Something very dark is happening in Hometown and it all started with the disappearance of Dess Holiday. I don't think Kris did anything to her directly, but I think whatever dark power they inadvertently invited into this world as a kid is. I think that darkness is hiding in the Shelter. I think Dess in an act of teenage rebellion stole the codes to and entered the shelter of her own volition out of curiosity or recklessness the same way Frisk climbed Mt. Ebott, which is why the Holiday passcode was hidden in her guitar. I think the darkness hiding in that shelter pushed her out of the equation entirely and turned her into The Knight, a body without a will or a SOUL in which it could do its work. And maybe the reason it took Dess was because it couldn't completely take Kris. Not until their family fell apart - something that happened potentially in response to Asgore's failure to solve Dess' disappearance and the stress that put on him, his career, and his family.

I think the darkness took Dess to create an opening for its real target, Kris. I think that's why The Knight, at the end of the secret boss version if you manage to beat it, literally *knights* Kris. Because they were always the intended vessel. But they're only able to influence them when their SOUL is no longer present, when they are empty, when we aren't there to protect them.

Kris was supposed to be The Knight, but isn't. Dess is the Knight, but only as a matter of convenience. If the darkness can overtake Kris, they're a much better vessel for what they have planned. Kris is sturdier than any monster, after all. Humans don't have magic, but their bodies have more physical matter and a much stronger SOUL. That strength might be why Kris lasted so long until their family fell apart, but it might also be why they are the ideal Knight. But a Knight for who? Who or what is this evil force?

Maybe it's Gaster. Maybe it's Chara. Or, maybe Chara *is* Gaster. If Gaster shattered across time and space, then his pieces could be anywhere. He's a monster, so if he dies, Gaster's soul won't persist outside his body. But he didn't die, he fell into his creation and shattered, so his soul isn't gone. But what happens to pieces of a shattered soul? Maybe they turn into new, albeit incomplete, people. Maybe Sans and Papyrus are not children of Gaster in a literal sense, but rather pieces of Gaster's soul, embodying a limited number of aspects of who he once was. Sans is the observational intellect and easygoing or lazy attitude, whereas Papyrus is the bright-eyed childlike wonder and naivety and joy. If the Gaster followers are holding pieces of Gaster but not themselves those pieces, maybe that's why they're grey and removed from reality. But maybe Sans and Papyrus aren't the only embodied fragments. Maybe Chara, too, is a piece of Gaster - Gaster's curiosity, cruelty, and darkness. A monster turned demon manifest.

That's a whole separate theory, but is at least a possible answer as to who or what it is that has control over Kris and the Knight. Perhaps these shadow crystals and the shadow mantle are more pieces of Gaster, the former being small enough to not form their own entities, whereas the latter could exist in certain circumstances, such as in a video game inside of a Dark World. We've seen how the literal dead can come back to a limited extent in a Dark World, so why not somebody who technically no longer exists? Who has fallen somewhere dark and darker and yet darker still?

Regardless of the true nature of this evil, Kris is not in control of their actions when their SOUL is out of their body. They are not in control of their actions when we're not there to watch and, not make choices for them, but allow them the power to completely overrule and resist the darkness. We're not a decider, we're a facilitator. A protector. We keep the darkness at bay so Kris' light can shine. It's not as if we type in the choices we select from - those are presented to us. But by who? The game? Abstract, the usual answer, and possible - but what if they're presented by Kris? Kris is the one making these decisions, plotting these outcomes, we just give them the power to say yes and act on their desires. Because right now, they can't do that on their own.

This is why the weird route is so out of the way and difficult to trigger, why it isn't predicated on choices presented to us in dialogue in the same way as Kris' are, not until we've actually started down the route already. We have to create an opening for the darkness to start asking us before we're fully in league with it. And at that point, if we're Kris' guardian angel, if we are The Angel, then we have chosen to fall and become a demon. We have ignored the prayers for salvation and chosen the path of destruction.

So what then of Noelle the red-nosed herring? I think if the Knight really is Dess - which it is very, very likely to be at this point - then the prophecy Susie saw, the one Ralsei tried to hide, was about Noelle falling in league with the Knight, with her sister, and the only way laid out by the prophecy to save the world is that Noelle must die. This leans in to Noelle's Angel allegory even more by positioning her as The Angel choosing destruction over salvation, but is just another layer of obfuscation - she's not the real Angel. That's why Gerson was so adamant on drilling into Susie in Chapter 4 that the prophecy doesn't need to be unavoidable if people don't want to to be, that Susie has choice and agency. Susie can change Noelle's fate, because Noelle isn't actually the Angel. We are. And Susie can't intervene with us like she can another character in her world.

I think this theory fits Toby's sense of not only world building, and story telling, but also humor, much better than anything else I've seen so far, as well. Think about it. The major world religion featured in Deltarune in which Toriel and the rest of Hometown are true believers in and go to church every Sunday to worship and praise and pray to as characters in a video game is actually us, the player of said video game. Who else would video game characters pray to as a god - or an Angel, as the case may be - than the player? The one who can choose to save their world or throw it into chaos on a whim?

Undertale really was just a test run. This is what Toby's been building to all along. This is my grand unified theory of Deltarune.

[twinroomies]

Godamnit, I've been busted! Did Akane tell you who I am, or do you have some sort of 4th wall powers? /j

All jokes aside though, thanks for having me!

Fun fact: I actually have a reason for the name Cara. Well, kinda. It's mostly because of Kris and Frisk being almost anagrams except for one letter. The car pun was completely unintentional, but man, ngl, THAT SHITS CRAZY, I LOVE THAT /pos

Also, with every ask I send, Cara gets another bar of extra-dark chocolate in the fridge. (No, I will not explain where I get them.)

~Chocolate Anon.🍫

I don't think Chara's gonna eat the random chocolate, they're untrusting of suspiciously appearing cocoa products, but it's the thought that counts! Also, I'm sure Asriel will do something silly with them eventually. As for how I know who you are: ya'll, I also read Twin Runes! HOW QUICKLY WE FORGET OUR FAVORITE DETECTIVE (Ignore the person who asked about them like less than 24 hours ago)!

Ye. That's me. I'm the Kris. Moss. I've done a few other silly little things around Twin Runes as well, but it all started with my fandub, where I'd draw custom little parts for the comic to give it a bit more movement and life! Oh, uh, I guess while we're here, now's a good of time to mention it as any, it's been in the FAQ a while but I figure it's good to have it as a note out here as well:

PSA: YOU HAVE TO ASK TO DUB TWIN ROOMIES

Now, you might wonder to yourself "Why the change from Twin Runes to Twin Roomies", and the answer is simple! New artist, new rules, really just how it is. Akane gets a LOT of requests to voice Twin Runes, so many that it'd be really hard to keep up with directly communicating with that many people about permissions and such. No such issue here, and as someone who's been doing voiceover for a while now themselves it's always been etiquette to ask permission if not outright given, and I'd like to reserve the right to say no. Now, am I GOING to say no? Probably not, but if you're offended by the idea of having to ask the person who's script and art you're using as the foundation of your adaptation for permission to make such an adaptation? I don't want you adapting my stuff! I'm not hard to reach, worst comes to worst you can use the very inbox this ask was submitted in and as long as you use an account I can reply to you privately to tell you "go ahead"! I might even just end up, gee, I dunno... putting your video at the end of one of these posts because it's super cool and I LOVE the way it turned out?

The Dubsoul team did a FANTASTIC JOB with this video, and because they reached out they had access to EVERYTHING I HAD. That's the original foley, that's the music track in the background, the FX seperated, the subtitles both on the video and as a .srt file, etc.! ANYWAYS! TLDR; It's my stuff, you gotta ask, don't be the next Kyotosomo or I'll suplex you, okay? Thanks, Chocolate Anon, and sorry your post got hijacked a bit!

[shimmershy]

I want to put your Frisk, Chara, and Asriel in a snowglobe and shake them around /pos

They're so cute and canon it's insane

Also.... I see that lyric from the crane wives, I love them too (it's always Chara fans who like the crane wives for some reason)

Any songs you'd say suit Chara specifically?

Thank you very much!! That's a huge compliment! :]

The Crane Wives are one of my absolute favorite music groups. I got to go to one of their concerts with a friend this year and it was probably the best day of my life to be honest.

Hard question for me to answer because any song can be Characore if I think about it enough, especially The Crane Wives songs because their vibe is already pretty Characore tbh. BUT Canary in a Coal Mine and Strangler Fig in particular fit them really well. The actual meanings of the songs don't fit probably but taking the line "You built your kingdom around me", "I gave you everything I had and now I want it back" from Strangler Fig and deriving the rest of the meaning of the song from that makes me think it's very fitting for them. Plus vibes.

Canary in a Coal Mine is just my favorite song by them, I love it so so much. It always makes me think of Chara. "You and I are friends of empty graves, black air, and black black lungs" HELLO. "And when you break the surface without me, please don't return me to the dark of all the memories". It's just Their Song in my mind.

Back to the Ground. "Our hearts lay still and cold, under ice and frozen soil. I can't stay here anymore, so remember when I go. To give me back, give me back to the ground." Vibes.

Never Love an Anchor. NEVER LOVE AN ANCHOR. This one's so them it's painful. Obviously not related to any kind of romantic love for them. But like. "A ship could never love an anchor, so I did the only thing I could, cut the rope that set you sailing from my harbor". UAGH. " You'll never see the reasons I had for keeping my claws away when they were close enough to hurt you.." Them feeling so out of place with how much the Dreemurrs cared about them, feeling like they're not deserving of so much love because it's so different from what they're used to. They'll mess it up because they're a demon. Etc! I cannot explain this coherently but surely you understand.

The Garden. Less fitting probably but the vibes are there.

I could probably talk about this all day to be honest, I love making connections with song lyrics, but. I will stop here. Maybe some day I'll be able to make all the animatics to songs I want to make because it would be much easier to show it visually.

[moonfang256]

Is Chara with us in Deltarune?

First of all, let's take a step back in time, to Undertale’s world.

When Chara and Asriel died, the prince turned into dust, but his human friend's body was left behind. Because of this, fragments of their soul remained embedded in it and somehow Chara was still conscious, pretty aware of what was happening around them.

After a while, Toriel took their body and buried it where the flowers from the beginning of the game were, where it seemed they would have their eternal rest, but that wasn’t the case...

Everything changed one day when we, the players, burst in with our determination and we called them. Such action caused Chara to awaken and what was left of their being (which was scattered among the flowers) combined with our soul.

While it’s mentioned in “Entry Seven” from the True Lab that humans can’t absorb the souls from other humans, there’s nothing that says that a human soul can’t fuse with another. In other words: Chara attached themselves to the player as a human amalgamate and from there they accompanied us on our adventure with Frisk through the whole underground.

You could say they became a kind of narrator-guide for the player and Frisk, kind of like what Navi is for Link in “The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time”. They were in charge of giving us advice, choices, guide, and even in the neutral and pacifist routes, they helped us to stop Asriel as a way to make amends for their past actions.

(Note: They’re also the ones who heal us when Flowey attacks us.)

Once we finish the game in Pacifist and let Frisk go, if we go back in we’ve a chat with Flowey, but he doesn't just talk to us, but to Chara as well. He has understood that Chara, Frisk and us are all different entities, that Chara merged with our soul and somehow Frisk became our vessel.

Throughout the game he confused Frisk and us with Chara because in our soul he detected the fragments of Chara's soul. He basically thought we were all Chara or at least a reincarnation of them, when in reality we aren’t.

Flowey recognized his mistakes and speaks to us one last time to ask us to leave things as they are. He doesn’t want us to become like them, so he asks us to move on.

After that, we appear again at the menu screen with some creepy music playing in the background, right? What happens here is we aren’t really alone.

Even though there’s no one in sight, Chara is still there, waiting to see what we’ll do next.

If we leave and don’t intervene in the game anymore, our soul stays behind and they’ll be satisfied, showing us from time to time how everyone is doing on the surface through Frisk I think (like what happens if Frisk stays with Toriel or the Alarm Clock dialogues.)

Things should have ended there, but something else happened...

---------

We players became obsessed with finding things about Gaster and he contacted us, asking us to be part of his new experiment to create a new future. We accepted without questioning the doctor's intentions, but Chara realized the situation and got to work.

Before continuing, we must clarify that Chara and Gaster seems to don’t get along due to something that happened in the past.

Evidence of this is how Chara acts when we’re in the True Lab.

They try to act strong, but probably inside they’re just as confused and disturbed as we are in this place.

There’s also Gaster calling them a “demon” in the “demon texts codes”, in version “1.05A” (he doesn't even bother to respect their pronouns.)

Back to what concerns us: Chara, realizing we were being dragged into this, decided to look for the closest thing to a Frisk in Deltarune, to prevent Gaster from putting us in the vessel we created and try to do something to us. This is the reason I think we ended inside Kris.

Now in this new world, they, like us, follow the same roles we had in Undertale, with the exception that Kris is fulfilling Frisk’s role of being our vessel and now we’ve more allies.

In addition, Kris intervenes more than Frisk when suggesting choices to the player or do some actions, so Chara may have some small conflicts with them that can be resolved over time.

Another thing to clarify is Chara isn’t possessing Kris, since their remains are still fused with us, unless there’s evidence they can control Kris with our soul while we aren’t in the game, which would explain anything related with the birdcage.

The conclusion of this theory is: Chara (the one from the pacifist, non-genocide route) became our friend and wants to help us and the Fun Gang to get out from this situation we’re in (though things might be different regarding the Snowgrave route).

They’ve always been there for us no matter what and they’re probably the ones singing “Don’t forget”, basically telling us:

"You’re not alone in this, I’m with you”.

[reverssentiment]

What are the salient features of Asriel, post-canon, that keep us from "saving" him from life alone in the Underground?

He's soulless (a practical problem),

he'll soon return to being a flower (a practical problem) and would prefer that you think of him like this rather than Flowey (a personal and interpersonal problem), and

he's decided to stay and tend the grave of the fallen child (and this is not really a problem at all; rather, a decision, which the boundary conditions of Undertale require us to respect).

There is a lot of UT post-canon fic out there which treats all these as practical problems. Frisk can just get a soul from somewhere, throw Alphys technobabble or soul arcanobabble at the body issue; get Flowey in therapy; and... also get Flowey in therapy for that last one, because his decision isn't really legitimate, in save-the-goat stories. It's self-harm. Which, personally, is both understandable and missing the point of one of the game's core themes: no matter how many times you restart the story, there are things you can't do; you are not getting a 100% Complete Perfect Pacifist where even Asriel is saved, and it's okay to be wistful about it, but you still need to put down the controller eventually. Getting him to the surface happens a lot in fic, because we all want the goldenest ending, but it could never happen in canon and we just have to live with it. It's thematically potent and I'd lose a lot of respect for Undertale's commitment to its story if you could circumvent it.

(Incidentally, this feels to me like it stems from the same ideas as making "* I have places to be" the wrong answer, a giving-in to Frisk's self-sacrificing, self-disregarding nature which must be corrected. Sometimes, you have to let people live and make their own decisions, outside the boundaries of the story's frame. Your perspective only goes so far.)

...now, fluffier, more sympathetically-traumatized Asriel, on the other hand...!

Ralsei's woes in Deltarune are very visibly the same kind of isolation as what Asriel's dealing with at the end of Undertale, but a) it's worse (a whole lifetime of waiting in a very deliberately empty, lifeless, three-screen-long kingdom) and b) he's stuck there for purely practical reasons. Darkners can't enter the Light World without becoming objects. He never made a decision to be here.

It's not something we can technobabble our way out of right now, but we're only in Chapter 2, right? We can save him, in a way we can't save Asriel: the deadlock we can't resolve has been removed; we don't really have to think about his preferences any more, because the preferences that kept us from helping him and left him stuck in the Underground I mean Dark World are just gone.

His issues are also much more obvious from the get-go, and seem designed to be something we talk him out of – not Asriel's decision to stay by his lost friend's grave, with a weight of meaning and feeling behind it, but hero worship, subservience, religious dedication to the Prophecy and self-image issues, all clear and visible dysfunctions. Giving Asriel therapy has left the realm of fanfiction and wish fulfillment and become part of canon... and the real disagreements we had with UT!Asriel over what he was and meant and deserved have become simple roadblocks for DR!Asriel whoops I mean Ralsei, things we have to help him through. Practical problems where the solution is friendship speech + therapy.

To make a slightly heavy-handed comparison, Ralsei saying we exist to serve Lightners and gratefully referring to himself as Kris's lackey is Anthy saying I'm the Rose Bride because I like it. It's the kind of reason we're inclined to reflexively overrule without working to deal with it at its root. Ralsei is Asriel, minus the irreconcilable and bittersweet parts, someone whose objections to being helped have either been removed or simplified down until we can feel good about disabusing him of them. He's our wish fulfillment in the way that candy on trees might be Susie's and a city of shining lights might be Noelle's and Giant Arcade Consoles might be Berdly's: an Asriel you can help, who you can make go to therapy and deal with the problems that keep him from caring for himself; who'll shut up, comply and let himself be saved.

...so the fact that Kris – whose personal issues are opaque, complex, and frustrating; who appears to be actively hiding parts of their life and motives from us; who clearly doesn't want our help or an improved social life at the expense of their agency – finds him so distasteful might not just be because he's a parody of their brother or Secretly Evil or whatever. If Ralsei is "the kid they're supposed to be" it's not just his fluff and horns!

[utmvarchive]

Underplayer: a summary

...

In one reiteration of the Alpha Timeline, an outsider hijacked the script... code... like others have. Only, they did not do it to assign someone else as their vessel. They created and recolored a duplicate of Frisk, even putting a piece of their own SOUL into the custom vessel simply called "PLAYER" and taking Frisk's power to Reset.

One of the side-effects of PLAYER's more brazen interference with this reality was that their LV was impossibly high– an infinite string of nines– despite never harming anyone else, even in other timelines.

They were going through all this trouble because they wanted what they'd call a "perfect ending."

One where his highness Asriel could stay. One where their highness Chara could be here with them. One where they and Frisk could exist separately and they could break the Barrier together... and PLAYER could live with them all as well. One where they could come clean, restoring Flowey's and Sans' memories from other "worldlines" with other "players" to add upon what they knew about Resets.

Corroborating the claims and inferences of others, their engagement with our world works like a game– with a preset avatar, preset boundaries and preset rules to navigate... unless they too know how to write scripts of their own.

...

...I think I knew for a long time. I'd second-guessed myself, and I continued to as long as I could justify my doubts. But now, it will only obstruct my investigation to keep looking for what else could give this impression excuses alternative explanations...

...

Their presence alone made this universe a reiteration, but even so, the world... what they called the worldline... would eject them whenever the scripted circumstance for the Barrier's breakage played out, or whenever they made any other significant deviations, sending them to another worldline.

PLAYER tried different things. Cooperating with Frisk. Resetting. Guiding them to the happy ending. Stopping Frisk from falling and taking their place. Stopping Frisk and trying again to give Asriel a SOUL. But there were still hard limits on where and when they could stay before being disconnected, even after removing the other vessel from the picture.

Sans began to suspect the reason for PLAYER's LV was because of the toll it took on themself, or perhaps their LOVE really stood for love. Either way, it never returned to zero because they were sent to other worldlines rather than back in time whenever they thought a Reset had been forced. So after their talk, they thought they'd try one more time to break the Barrier.

They identified Dr. Gaster as the one rejecting their presence after their Determination finally overrode his efforts, so when another player connected to Frisk next Reset and attempted a merciless game, PLAYER took matters into their own hands as soon as they found their way back. They took over when Chara would have offered a total Reset, and used it to send the other player to another universe entirely. After which, Frisk was able to differentiate their own choices from the player's again, so with some gentle coaxing from PLAYER, they Reset one more time to undo the other's violence.

...So PLAYER was finally able to go back to worldlines they were forced out of and arrange the ending they wanted, in which the heirs could be revived and Frisk could be independent. They could even duplicate their custom vessel.

They just... couldn't stay.

His highness Asriel did not want freedom from the mountain to cost any more sacrifices, but for PLAYER, this meant the perfect ending they wanted could not include them. They ultimately decided to withdraw awareness of their involvement, reintroduce themself to his highness as a magician and leave after breaking the Barrier one more time.

...

So even direct intervention does not guarantee that they'll get what they want. They too have guidelines to follow.

...

[random-autie-fangirl]

I'm gonna say it...the idea that Chara really hates killing monsters or is actively trying to get you to stop at the beginning still makes no sense and is just as out of character as saying they're the one making us kill everyone or that Chara's the one who proposes killing everyone first. It's like fanon that overcorrects and just jumps from one side to the other. I'll see "canon vs fanon" memes for Chara, and be like both of these are equally wrong, what is the defence squad even going on about anymore?

Even before they start taking an active interest in the murder run (which happens at the end of the ruins/beginning of snowdin), they're still...fine with it. They make creepy jokes sometimes and they constantly "alert" Frisk to monsters when they've already... "cleared out" the ruins. (I really think that in-universe is just Chara playing a prank).

Between that and some of my readings of the lines that remain the same on both routes, it almost feels like Chara is...just making fun of Frisk, a little. Poking them in the side and giving them a bit of grief over it (telling them that murder is cringe behaviour, if you will)...but not exactly complaining. Or doing anything about it all, really.

And yet ...I very much think that they could, because apart from them literally saying "since when you were in control", it seems that the choices and narration may somehow be linked together, such as Frisk seeing Flowey for the first time.

They won't get any narration when they first fall or when inspecting the flowers in the first room and consequently when Flowey tries to drag them into a battle, Frisk doesn't have any options yet and they don't have Chara's name on the screen (even the fake fight in Undyne's house has our options menu) and this happens once again in the Omega Flowey fight, Frisk's narration (mostly) disappears and so do their options, along with the memories of Chara that Frisk usually hears when they're dying.

And, of course, there are one or two times when the narrator seems to take direct control of Frisk, think of the "you aren't made of money" moment where you're suddenly stopped from giving too much money over to gyftrot (which then makes it really funny that the Narrator doesn't stop Frisk from killing people) or once when instead of saying "you" (Frisk) opened to the middle of a book, the narrator says "here's a random page" and opens up "randomly" to the page that shows humans in the worst light possible. "fearful of further human attacks..." and consider the difference between "you couldn't think of any conversation topics" vs "but there was nothing to say" one is Frisk's choice, the other is just the narrator's opinion. I don't think Frisk is the one who decides not to say anything then.

And then there's the fact that the Spare option disappears near the end of the murder run, and even before that, there weren't any acting options against Sans and Mettaton, and considering that there's a completely useless act option given in Mettaton's pacineutral fight with the narrator practically saying they have no idea what to do "burn/this is probably what you'll do if things continue in this manner", it makes sense that is at least giving suggestions for acting options, and if they can make options appear, why shouldn't they be able to make options disappear? And I am fairly sure it's supposed to work the same as Chara and Asriel's body sharing in which control is only dependent on how much willpower someone has and how much they want to move, not Level of Violence or anything else.

And to me, that's always been the main point of narrachara, to take it at face value when Chara boasts that they were always in control, that they could take over whenever they pleased, that the only reason Frisk has a choice at all is because they want to see the result, they are inordinately powerful...and inordinately apathetic. They willingly take a complete backseat just to see what a human would do if given the choice and to pretend that they deeply care what happens to their royal subjects feels antithetical to the very idea of narrator Chara. Narrachara is passive, yes, but they are passive by choice. Unwilling not unable to take control.

And then you have to remember that when the change comes, when Chara actively starts helping and almost pulling Frisk along the murder run is at the beginning of Snowdin...when they hear what became of Asriel. Given just how much they attack Asriel by the end and the general need to punish others for their sins, that could be it. Seeing Asriel's fall from grace and him acting as if he's above consequences is what truly gives Chara the motivation to fully destroy the world. Ironic, isn't it? That they destroy everything because they can't face the consequences of their actions.

I also think that given some of what Chara says in the demo handbook, that if they do have a secret opinion that they won't do anything about (and seemingly don't want to tell Frisk about), then I'm not sure it's wanting to SAVE the monsters. Maybe I could talk about it later but in the handbook, Chara tells you that LV just means LOVE and EXP just stands for Ex. Points. They tell you that statistics determine everything you are and that you're basically nothing without them. Chara seems almost averse to telling Frisk that the monsters will die if you win by fighting, and instead always calls it "beat" and "defeat".

I know that two of those are most likely just a way to hide twists but this is Undertale and it's always been true here that a doylist explanation doesn't negate a watsonian one, right? And Ralsei has his own handbook where it both tells you about the mechanics and serves as a tiny window into his character so why can't it be the same here? It sorta seems like Chara...is almost trying to trick Frisk into killing things while not directly telling them to do so. At least Flowey's not a damn coward about his murderous intentions! There are two options here, I think, for what Chara might be trying to do.

One is given that Chara is implied to be Gaster’s assistant scientist in Deltarune and because they so often tend to call things "interesting” or “curious”, It's easy to imagine it as a kind of…test or experiment. They want to know what a human would do if given the choice, and whether a human will always do evil so they set up the fight and spare buttons as a secret test of character. But in this case, it makes sense that Chara also wants to prove themself right. That humanity is true evil like they always said, that Frisk will indeed kill everyone if given the opportunity (and no judgement) so they might have considered that telling Frisk what LOVE and EXP fully mean would be too much handholding or that it would unnecessarily skew the results. Chara gives the opportunity to do evil as a way to root out the wicked.

The second idea is…well, why would Chara know a war had started while they died? If they woke up, still hating humans, still wanting souls to break the barrier, it would make sense that the fastest way to get Frisk killed is for them to attack and be killed in self-defence. Flawless logic, I know. (Flawless logic for a child desensitized to violence. We know their solution to the last problem was murder…why not this one? I doubt Chara would have wanted Frisk to kill everyone, just enough to get attacked in retaliation, plus it's not like a few froggits are important in the grand scheme, right?). In this case, you can see Chara’s wishy-washyness as possibly them not wanting to admit that this is what they're doing (the same kind of cowardliness that stops them killing anything themself until almost the very end of the geno run despite actively encouraging and profiting off Frisk's murders) and thinking that it wouldn't take much of anything at all to convince a human to kill, after all, violence is in their nature, isn't it? In this case, them acting non-judgemental and trying to give Frisk the choice to do anything (while withholding some important information) is not a test, but a trap. Sometimes demons give an opportunity to sin, simply because they want to see the sinner suffer for it.

[idiotic-b-gilson]

The Prank Theory: Or, Why Toby won't make an explicit announcement that Kris' pronouns are they/them despite that obviously being canon.

Disclaimer: people who use they/them for Kris are NOT the butt of the joke here. Although calling it a prank might be a little misleading to begin with, you'll see why.

I know for a fact, judging from my dashboard, that I am not alone in being mad at people misgendering the humans of Undertale and Deltarune (although, I will admit I used to be part of the problem up until quite recently). And we all wish for Toby to just go out and publicly announce that Kris, Frisk, and Chara use they/them only, that Mad Mew Mew is canonically transfem, etc., just to stop all the misgendering. It would certainly be nice and very helpful for the LGBTQ community. However, after giving it some thought, I've come to the conclusion that it most likely cannot happen, and the reason why is the Prank Theory. Treat it as an explanation, but not an excuse.

I came up with Prank Theory over something that's completely unrelated to the above, funnily enough. You see, I have this headcanon that Asriel Dreemurr is not cisgender. I'm not entirely sure what his gender is, but he's not cis male for sure. And I've seen a variety of different takes on this concept. For example, AUs like (Ask) Fallen Royalty by @starlightshore present Asriel as having transitioned in a more feminine direction ((A)FR specifically describes her gender as feminine nonbinary). Others still write Asriel (chiefly the Deltarune one) as transgender male (I've mostly seen that take in NSFW fanfics on AO3, which is a shame cuz it has great potential beyond that. Please tell me where I can find more). Other others still, like my beloved mutual @sukifoof, have proposed that Asriel might be agender. And, let me be clear about something: those are all great ideas, and I love them. But I started to wonder, which of these ideas is the closest to canon? Like, if we also factor in authorial intent, which of these options would fit under it, and which ones wouldn't? That was when I came up with Prank Theory, as a way to kind of imagine at least one aspect of said authorial intent.

Spoiler alert, according to Prank Theory any kind of transfeminine Asriel is incompatible with canon, but again I want to make it clear that that doesn't mean I think they're "wrong" or "bad" or anything like that, and I want to reiterate my endorsement of writing Asriel this way. Besides, my theory could be completely wrong, so...

So, after all that stuff, what does the Prank Theory actually say? Well, in summary: Undertale and Deltarune are some of the most "woke" video games ever made, but conservatives and reactionaries don't seem to have realized that yet, funnily enough. Now, calling it a prank is a wee bit misleading, since it implies that tricking right-wingers into loving a video game with a very progressive setting and message was at least part of what Toby intended. And I don't believe that's the case. He simply makes video games he wants to make, and they just happen to reflect his views on the world, and these views just happen to fly over the heads of some people.

This in and of itself would probably not make it a huge problem for Toby to put in one of his newsletters, or even in an X (as in, former Twitter) post, a correction regarding the genders of his characters. However it does start to become a problem when you factor in that the UTDR community has hundreds of thousands of people in it (although as of the March 2024 it might be a rather liberal estimate), and many of them would be quite pissed off if the video game they like had "suddenly" "gone woke" (ignorant of the fact that both it, and its main creator have been openly "woke" the whole time). And that is a problem in the current environment, because it means that Toby, as well as other people on the UTDR dev team, would be at a significant risk of hate and harassment, which in the Year of Our Lord 2024 could lead to Angel knows what.

On a more cynical capitalist (and much more speculative) level, attracting political controversy this way could sour Toby's relationship with big video game companies which have (as far as I know) played an important part in why Toby's got basically unlimited resources to work on the game of his fever dreams. They saw the widespread, universal acclaim that UT, DR1 and DR2 received, and drew the conclusion that DR3-4 (and the future chapters) will also get a similar reception, and they will get great returns no matter how much money they pour into it. This belief could be shaken if Toby attracted the ire of his transphobic fans by correcting their misgendering of his characters, and thus limiting the reach Chapters 3 and 4 would otherwise have (but again, this is pure speculation, I'm not an economist, nor do I know how much companies like Nintendo have actually invested in Deltarune. So I could be, like, way off).

And that is, in the end, why I believe Toby Fox will not make a statement regarding the canon gender of any UTDR character, at least not while Deltarune is still in development. After it's finished I think he might feel free enough to take that step. But we'll have to see.

Now, I don't know if I'm right. I feel pretty confident in my own theory, but there's a good chance I missed something. So, if I did, please lemme know. In the meantime, let's hope Toby will disprove my theory soon and set things right. And I'll see you around.

[autisticsupervillain]

FTF Shorts: Not Even Close!

A vs show where the longer analysis and set up is skipped in order to briefly explain why a certain fight is nowhere near close.

This Week's Fighters....

Aradia Megido vs Asriel Dreemurr!

Artwork by @velvetvessel-edits Their stuff is incredible. Please give them a follow.

Conditions:

Post canon Homestuck is completely ignored.

I was originally planning to only cover these characters at their peaks, but I figured I would have a lot more to talk about going over each of their forms in turn. That way this fight could represent in macrocosm why most Undertale vs Homestuck matchups are massive curbstomps in favor of one or the other, as across their various forms, these two hit a lot of similar points on the scaling chain for both franchises.

Ghost Aradia vs Flowey

Neither of these two have much in the way of direct onscreen feats and the number of times they do anything really combat applicable can be counted on one hand, so I'll have to rely on scaling.

Flowey should have no problem hurting a ghost, as all magic attacks are capable of directly harming and destroying souls. Neither should he have any problem using DETERMINATION to save scum to his heart's content, as Aradia by this point hasn't begun manifesting her connection to her Aspect in any really tangible way.

Those are the only positives I can give Flowey as by all other counts he is fucked.

Let's be generous by using low end Homestuck scaling against high end Undertale scaling. Flowey is capable of restraining Toriel when he catches her off guard and able to bully Frisk near the end of pacifist route. A version of Frisk who, by necessity, would've had to survive encounters with the strongest monsters in the Underground.

These would include monsters like Snowdrake, who can create winter storms when they fight you, and characters like Mettaton, who attacks with bolts of electricity. Electricity, for those of you unaware, can travel through material as fast as 99% light speed, depending on the circumstances. Meanwhile, to create a snowstorm of applicable magnitude, one would require energy equivalent to 15 Megatons of TNT.

As impressive as that is, Aradia can still match it. She should still be comparable to even the weakest of SBURB Players (I highly doubt Ghost Aradia was ever weaker than, say, Tavros) and even the weakest of those can still fight evenly alongside their Sprites. Kernelsprites, when completely unprototyped and in their most basic possible form, are capable of some truly ridiculous feats. Such as tanking the meteor trip that cratered Jade's Island, a feat that gets into similar Megaton ranges as the snowstorm.

Source:

Or being able to fly to Prospit and Derse in seconds from LOWAS. A feat that gets up to quintillions of times light speed.

Source:

So, even at our most generous, Aradia has a massive advantage in speed. So much so that Flowey wouldn't even be able to react to her attacks. If we're not being generous, then there are plenty of higher feats for Homestuck low tiers I can use to scale Aradia, such as regular Psionic batteries being able to push spaceships at near light speed or several Damaras being able to smash two planets together.

As powerful as DETERMINATION is, it isn't all that useful here because it doesn't help him kill Aradia at all. So while Flowey can retry as much as he pleases, his patience has limits and he'll give up eventually. He straight up tells you he could never get past Asgore before you came along and eventually gave up trying on his own. If Aradia keeps telekinetically ripping him from the Earth, he'll fold eventually.

Aradiabot vs Omega Flowey

Omega Flowey and Aradiabot both represent an utterly massive powerboost for both characters. In fact, I'd go so far as to say this is probably the fight at its most debatable, with Flowey in this stage being one of the High-Tiers of Undertale, where Aradiabot represents a Mid-Tier for Homestuck.

Omega Flowey is blatantly a universe buster, no matter how you split it. After singlehandedly erasing all of human and monsterkind, he completely destroys Frisk's Save File, the timeline that they had been resetting every time they died. He's even shown to manipulate seven other Saves all throughout the fight. His soul destroying attacks now manifest in a barrage of eldritch bullet hell, even dropping nukes on his enemies.

Aradiabot's scaling is a bit more complicated. Aradiabot, meanwhile, is depicted as one of the strongest members of the Beta Troll team. She's capable of effortlessly slapping around Equius like a ragdoll, is strong enough to brutally beat Vriska to death, and even after Vriska returns to life as a God-Tier, Aradiabot points out she could casually snap Vriska's neck, which Vriska doesn't even try and argue against.

Keep in mind, Aradiabot by this point had already seen Vriska use her Ancestral Awakening form in the fight with the Black King, the same form Vriska would then use to challenge Jack Noir. Despite Vriska thinking the form could match Jack and despite her own massive ego, Vriska doesn't even bring up that she could use it to beat Aradiabot, instead immediately conceding the point that Aradiabot could kill her whenever.

This makes sense. While Vriska was the main damage dealer during the Black King fight, this is because Aradiabot was primarily working support, using her abilities to make sure they aren't all immediately wiped out by the Vast Glub. This interpretation is further backed up by the fact that Gamzee had to open out with mind control abilities to comfortably subdue Equius, whereas Aradiabot could slap him around effortlessly. Gamzee did more damage to the Black King in a single attack than Vriska did all fight.

Why does all that matter? Bec Noir can destroy an entire universe and a universe in Homestuck contains infinite alternate timelines. Ancestral Awakening Vriska can fight Bec Noir. So, to simplify all that: Bec Noir >/= Ancestral Awakening Vriska =/< Aradiabot.

I'm not arguing by any means that Aradiabot is a one for one equal to Jack. She blatantly canonically isn't. But she does have enough going on to be around that same ballpark. 1/4 infinity is still infinity.

As such, the strength gap here is infinite, thus leading to much the same problem Flowey had before. It doesn't matter how many times you Reset if you genuinely can't win. Not helped by the fact that Aradia has begun using her Time abilities by this stage and Time players have been shown to inherently sense alterations to Time. (Dave immediately sensing John wasn't supposed to be there when he was Retconning shit and Aradiabot inherently knowing what actions are required to not doom the timeline) As such, Aradiabot would likely understand what Flowey is doing. While having attacks that directly attack the soul is useful, Aradiabot is just a soul in a tin can after all, Flowey would have to use that against the countless temporal duplicates Aradiabot will be constantly creating.

But, Flowey's reset abilities have improved as well. He could just stalemate by resetting anytime Aradiabot does anything, right? Well, no.

Flowey has to actively keep resetting her to keep her incapacitated. He's on a ticking clock until the Human Souls rebel against him and Aradia's ability to commune with the dead would only speed up that process. Exactly like what happened in the original fight.

God-Tier Aradia vs God of Hyperdeath Asriel

And the big one. Asriel is as high up the Undertale food chain as you can get without invoking the Player themselves. To the point where his very existence was ending the entire world. Including all of the FUN Values, which are suggested by Goner Kid to be alternate timelines.

Sadly, this still doesn't put him in spitting distance of Aradia. Infinite timelines are infinite and Aradia by this point is much stronger than Aradiabot. Not only is she capable of time stopping Bec Noir in place, but the author's commentary from Hussie indicates she could do so physically too if she wanted.

Beyond that, this is the same dynamic as with Omega Flowey. Asriel cannot actually hurt Aradia due to the strength gap and even if he could, time clones and God-Tier Immortality go "nuh uh". Meanwhile, Asriel is still weak to the souls within him rebelling against him and Aradia is still perfectly capable of exploiting that. Especially as he's just now coming to grips with having emotions again after so many years without as a result of those souls.

In other words, the massive stat gap and Aradia's own hax keep Asriel from ever killing her while Asriel's canon weaknesses fit perfectly into Aradia's skillset, allowing her to recreate the scenarios where he was canonically defeated. Whether that's giving Flowey a fight he can't win or turning the Souls against him.

Asriel's DETERMINATION and ability to directly attack the soul might break the stat gap against other characters, and I could easily see him beating many of Homestuck's other stronger characters who don't have counters to what he's bringing to the table. But Aradia herself has everything she needs.

This Throwdown's Winner Is...

Aradia Megido!

[prpfz]

18+ only!! 21+ preferred!

hello everyone! so i’m here with a very haphazard and informal ad because i’m fresh off finishing chapters 3 and 4 of deltarune and the bug bit me HARD, so now i’m looking for some deltarune and undertale rps! some quick information about me: i’m 21+, nb (they/them), and an adv. lit to novella writer! i don't need you to match my exact writing length, but an equally passionate partner is always appreciated! just no one-liners please. i love chatting ooc, making friends, and gushing over our blorbos and plots! i’m a pretty slow writer myself, so no rush for replies, and i’m ghost friendly :) i also enjoy nsfw and smut when appropriate! i have extremely few limits and i’m generally drawn to mxm pairings, but i’m willing to try my hand at mxnb and other types of pairings, esp given the ships i listed below haha. please be okay with darker/dead dove themes! while we can write something lighter, my writing preferences and the game’s own themes make it very VERY hard for me to conceptualize more vanilla/fluffy plots lmfao

ANYWAY, after the way chapters 3 and 4 absolutely recontextualized everything we thought about ralsei, i’m really hungry for some kralsei or kris/ralsei rps! i feel like ralsei’s character has SO much more potential after what was revealed in these chapters, and i’d love to explore that! we can do something canon-compliant continuing after chapter 4, maybe focusing on a hypothetical version of the festival and the mess of feelings that would come from that mixed with the ambiguity of kris’ background actions (iykyk)? alternatively for a darker idea, i’ve been really obsessed with this idea of a version of the weird route where instead of the player fixating on noelle, they fixate on ralsei, and so the weird route is mostly focused on the player manipulating ralsei via kris and making him dependent on them, all the while kris struggles against them and tries to assert ralsei’s individuality and personhood. idk i just think there’s a lot of potential to this idea now that we know how ralsei perceives himself! we could also do a complete au separate from the canon setting, like, maybe an undertale-esque au where kris is king asgore and queen toriel’s adopted child and ralsei is, idk, their court magician or smth? i’m very open to au ideas and prompts!

if you wanna try out something spicier, i’m also not opposed to trying out kris/asriel for that sweet dead dove brocon lmao. i feel like there’s a lot of implications about kris feeling abandoned by asriel after he went off to college, and there’s a lot of potential that could be explored if he, say, comes home earlier, doubly so if we mix it with the canon plotline of the dark world and have him get involved. i actually think it would be crazy fun to have this sort of kris/asriel/ralsei love triangle if we lean into ralsei looking somewhat similar to asriel, and asriel feeling like he’s being replaced, even though ralsei is very much his own person and not that similar to asriel. I’M ALSO SUPER OKAY WITH A KRIS/RALSEI/SUSIE OT3!!! chapter 3 KILLED me with how much it teased at that throuple and i’d love to write them all together as well! anyway, these are all just a bunch of ideas floating around in my mind, but i’m open to any and all suggestions really. i have no preference for which character to play, so i can do whomever!

on the other hand, for undertale plots, i’m also super up for frisk/asriel or chara/asriel! now i haven’t played undertale in a hot minute, but i’m starting a replay soon thanks to deltarune and everything with ralsei is just reminding me of how much i loved asriel’s entire story and his tragedy 🥺 i’d love to use one of the classic fandom prompts and try out our hand at an asriel lives au! i have this idea where (ignoring deltarune’s soul lore) frisk breaks their soul in half and gives one piece to asriel, but due to the shame and guilt of his actions asriel doesn’t reveal himself to his family and the other monsters yet, and remains in hiding, but maybe he and frisk need to stay in close proximity due to sharing a soul, so frisk has to sneak out to meet him in secrecy, and they struggle to keep this up for years? we can also delve deeper into the optics of monsters adjusting to life on the surface, but that’s secondary to the asriel thing.

alternatively, with chara/asriel, there’s this really good fan animation on youtube by jqr which involves the idea of chara and flowey actually sticking together during the genocide route and ultimately escaping together to cause mayhem on the surface. i’d love to explore an aftermath for this sort of scenario - maybe after harvesting enough human souls on the surface, asriel regains his old form and becomes horrified at the actions they took, but sunk cost fallacy is too strong, so he latches even harder to chara? toxic codependency abound! we can also add another layer of drama by having frisk trying to gain control of their body again after being taken over by chara or smth. just some ideas! as above, i’m okay with playing any of these characters, though i’m sliiightly leaning towards frisk/chara. side-note, while i’m not sure what the general consensus is nowadays, i believe that frisk/chara’s gender is a little more open to interpretation than kris? so while i default to they/them for their characters, i’m not opposed to trying out other pronouns for them if that's your preference :)

i mostly communicate and rp on discord, but sometimes i also use gdocs! if anything on this post catches your eye, like the post and i’ll contact you in a dm! thanks for reading!! 🙏♥️

give a like and anon will get back to you

[doverpf]

18+ only!! 21+ preferred!

hello everyone! so i’m here with a very haphazard and informal ad because i’m fresh off finishing chapters 3 and 4 of deltarune and the bug bit me HARD, so now i’m looking for some deltarune and undertale rps! some quick information about me: i’m 21+, nb (they/them), and an adv. lit to novella writer! i don't need you to match my exact writing length, but an equally passionate partner is always appreciated! just no one-liners please. i love chatting ooc, making friends, and gushing about our plots and blorbos! i’m also a pretty slow writer myself, so no rush for replies, and i’m ghost friendly :) i also enjoy nsfw and smut when appropriate! i have extremely few limits and i’m generally drawn to mxm pairings, but i’m willing to try my hand at mxnb and other types of pairings, esp given the ships i listed below haha. please be okay with darker/dead dove themes! while we can write something lighter, my writing preferences and the game’s own themes make it very VERY hard for me to conceptualize more vanilla/fluffy plots lmfao

ANYWAY, after the way chapters 3 and 4 absolutely recontextualized everything we thought about ralsei, i’m really hungry for some kralsei or kris/ralsei rps! i feel like ralsei’s character has SO much more potential after what was revealed in these chapters, and i’d love to explore that! we can do something canon-compliant continuing after chapter 4, maybe focusing on a hypothetical version of the festival and the mess of feelings that would come from that mixed with the ambiguity of kris’ background actions (iykyk)? alternatively for a darker idea, i’ve been really obsessed with this idea of a version of the weird route where instead of the player fixating on noelle, they fixate on ralsei, and so the weird route is mostly focused on the player manipulating ralsei via kris and making him dependent on them, all the while kris struggles against them and tries to assert ralsei’s individuality and personhood. idk i just think there’s a lot of potential to this idea now that we know how ralsei perceives himself! we could also do a complete au separate from the canon setting, like, maybe an undertale-esque au where kris is king asgore and queen toriel’s adopted child and ralsei is, idk, their court magician or smth? i’m very open to au ideas and prompts!

if you wanna try out something spicier, i’m also not opposed to trying out kris/asriel for that sweet dead dove brocon lmao. i feel like there’s a lot of implications about kris feeling abandoned by asriel after he went off to college, and there’s a lot of potential that could be explored if he, say, comes home earlier, doubly so if we mix it with the canon plotline of the dark world and have him get involved. i actually think it would be crazy fun to have this sort of kris/asriel/ralsei love triangle if we lean into ralsei looking somewhat similar to asriel, and asriel feeling like he’s being replaced, even though ralsei is very much his own person and not that similar to asriel. I’M ALSO SUPER OKAY WITH A KRIS/RALSEI/SUSIE OT3!!! chapter 3 KILLED me with how much it teased at that throuple and i’d love to write them all together as well! anyway, these are all just a bunch of ideas floating around in my mind, but i’m open to any and all suggestions really. i have no preference for which character to play, so i can do whomever!

on the other hand, for undertale plots, i’m also super up for frisk/asriel or chara/asriel! now i haven’t played undertale in a hot minute, but i’m starting a replay soon thanks to deltarune and everything with ralsei is just reminding me of how much i loved asriel’s entire story and his tragedy 🥺 i’d love to use one of the classic fandom prompts and try out our hand at an asriel lives au! i have this idea where (ignoring deltarune’s soul lore) frisk breaks their soul in half and gives one piece to asriel, but due to the shame and guilt of his actions asriel doesn’t reveal himself to his family and the other monsters yet, and remains in hiding, but maybe he and frisk need to stay in close proximity due to sharing a soul, so frisk has to sneak out to meet him in secrecy, and they struggle to keep this up for years? we can also delve deeper into the optics of monsters adjusting to life on the surface, but that’s secondary to the asriel thing.

alternatively, with chara/asriel, there’s this really good fan animation on youtube by jqr which involves the idea of chara and flowey actually sticking together during the genocide route and ultimately escaping together to cause mayhem on the surface. i’d love to explore an aftermath for this sort of scenario - maybe after harvesting enough human souls on the surface, asriel regains his old form and becomes horrified at the actions they took, but sunk cost fallacy is too strong, so he latches even harder to chara? toxic codependency abound! we can also add another layer of drama by having frisk trying to gain control of their body again after being taken over by chara or smth. just some ideas! as above, i’m okay with playing any of these characters, though i’m sliiightly leaning towards frisk/chara. side-note, while i’m not sure what the general consensus is nowadays, i believe that frisk/chara’s gender is a little more open to interpretation than kris? so while i default to they/them for their characters, i’m not opposed to trying out other pronouns for them if that's your preference :)

i mostly communicate and rp on discord, but sometimes i also use gdocs! if anything on this post catches your eye, like the post and i’ll contact you in a dm! thanks for reading!! 🙏♥️

if interested, please like this post for the user to reach out. ♡

[theveryconfusedartistsart-blog]

So since Asriel is coming home for the weekend (and for the festival, he's not gonna miss that) at like the last chapter of Deltarune, it's quite likely that he's coming back just as the game reaches it's climax, that he'll just be coming out of the bus to see a dark world take over the town or the Angel's heaven come to fruition or something and just drops all his bags down in shock...

But actually imagine that Asriel decides to bring his new friend/crush Frisk over because they wanted to see the festival and Az wanted to show them around, basically giving our beloved kiddo an express ticket to actually be involved in the main plot

Maybe they will both get to enjoy the festival a bit before everything goes to shit, maybe they have to make their way through the last dark world (in the background, presumably), maybe Asriel finds Dess again and so Frisk gets to meet her (given the theories that Dess is trapped in the bunker and the last chapter will see us exploring it)

(Also if I am right, and Chara is both the angel and the very definitely final boss of Deltarune, it would be a shame for Asriel to not show up for the final leg of the fight or at least right after it's won.)

You ever try to show your crush around your hometown only for your dead sibling to come back to life in a terrifying angel form, trying to destroy all of humanity (or something similar) to create a "perfect world", because they're still somehow absolutely convinced that they're the One True Saviour and "the future of humans and monsters" (blah blah blah, insert typical Chara bullshit here)? Because that's whats happening to Asriel lol

This is such a cool idea!!

I already really love the idea of Asriel coming back home with Frisk and showing them off to everyone as his romantic partner, introducing them to Kris, and then hopefully getting to save Dess too.

Oh, and having everyone meet/and/or fight Chara like that? It would be intense, especially if Kris and Asriel is dealing with them (and I wonder how Frisk could help???)

[blanken-tale]

Chapter One: Remembering

Sooo this is my first chapter of Anom's back story and I want to put it here for you all to read. ENJOY! I am sorry if the fight scenes are short!

[IN THIS VERSION THE CHARA NAMED ANOM AND THE FRISK NAMED ALY GO BY HE/THEY. BOTH ARE MALES, THIS IS MY INTERPRETATION OF THESE TWO AND GOES BY THE SEMI CANON. DO NOT FIGHT ME ABOUT THIS]

…

My world was… gone. How to explain it… it's filled with dust head to toe, the only ones left from it? Me and Frisk. The 8th fallen human and the 1st fallen which on its own is ironic knowing I’m gonna be stuck with them forever. But even if our timeline or world is gone I’ve met people through the broken timelines to make up for it. Therapy Frisk who is fused with SwapShift Frisk or Snore was it? And Potara Chara. Sometimes called Po-Chara. Another Asriel or as I call him, Azzy and more Sans, my dislike for him is still there because he’s so annoying. These people are like my family.

Right now I’m sitting in my workshop looking at the core schematics. Why? I had this theory that a reset button from Therapy Frisk brought back my timeline and reset it bringing it back and we can all go pacifist… I haven’t told them as I know they would get mad and want to [SAVE] me again. Didn't want to worry about them again even after the stuff with Gaster, so I’m just sitting here still figuring stuff out, eyes wandered towards the reset button in the soul jar chained up by DETERMINATION, I hated that button with all my being seeing that… we-wanted to stab it or break it in some aspect, knowing that Frisk can just throw this world into a loop nonstop. I hated that. 

Eyes glaring at it, A sigh was let out sigh as A voice called from below and rolled the blueprint up and shoved it into the drawer then locked it, walking towards the door on the floor as well, this room is in the attic, the Skele-bros let me set this up above my room. Opening the door and entering my room, Therapy Frisk wanted me to share a room with my Frisk and denied I did and left my room leaning over the railing to see everyone down there. 

* “Anom!”. Therapy yelled, well her actual name is Frisk. I just call her ‘Therapy’ or ‘Giggle Freak’ as a nickname. Why? She likes helping people in the form of therapy and she always giggles when having fun.. I rolled my eyes.

“I was busy,”. I replied sternly. 

* “Were you ever busy?”. My Frisk, or Aly emerged from his room. Everyone else calls him that. Anom and Aly make ‘Anomaly’, that was Maf’s explanation. I flipped them off in annoyance, my middle in their face then I jumped off the railing, my back facing the direction and landed on the couch. It was always fun to do that. Mettaton’s show was on as always with boring stuff and always found it boring because he’d either do talk shows or the news. Whatever news there was… Hearing his voice did annoy me but seeing him on the screen… was just a stupid reminder. One that I always hate. Glaring at the screen just watching his robot body spin around just doing the usual antics, trying to show the world what he can do and the entertainment monsterkind can provide. I’ll give credit though, it’s better than what the human world provides and at the same time it's nice to see him collaborate with the human world to bring some comfortability so he’s not doing a monster only show.

My eyes darted from the screen filled with small anger and avoiding, trying to ignore the noise and his stupid voice and the show theme song trying to block out. I didn’t want to see his face, hear his voice… my hands clenched tightly. Nails digging into my palm to the point I couldn’t stand it and got up to leave, walked towards the front door.

“Hey Anom! Where are you going?”. Po-Chara asked.

“To run an errand,”. I replied and left the house slamming the door and feeling the snow crush beneath my feet. I did kinda feel bad for slamming the door like that, Po-Chara isn’t being an ass towards me, I’m just pissed at myself right now and I lied, there was no errand to do at all. J ust needed to get away from everyone. 

“Hey Anom!”. A voice ranged out from behind. I turned around and it was… Po-Chara.

“What is it?”. I asked. 

“Are… you ok?”. She asked. I was silent for a moment.

“Yea, why wouldn’t I be?”. I spoke, trying to laugh it off. Seems that didn’t sit well with her. Of course she’d be suspicious of it.

“You seem… a little… off or upset. Sorry for asking”. She asked, concern on her face. 

“I’ll be fine alright… I’m just going to do some errands and then go on a walk for some mind clearing”. I lied again, hoping she’d just take it and leave. But still it didn’t sit with her, she gave me that  sibling worried expression. Of course. I know she means well but right now I don’t want to talk and at the same time I don’t want to hurt her feelings, adding that she is that determined to help her family. 

The silence was thick and awkward, just staring. I want her to leave so I can do my own stuff. Eventually she got the hint and hung her head down slightly. Now I feel sorta bad… 

 “Chara… it’s I’m not mad at you or anything alright so don’t feel guilty”. I spoke. 

“If you’re sure…”. She spoke then gave me a smile trying to cheer herself up, then walked back home disappearing into Sans and Papyrus’s old house. Me on the other hand kept moving and entered the Papyrus fight area. Great fucking memories huh. Looked down to see Papyrus’s head laying on the snowy ground, speaking but no sound came out. Up to my imagination. Probably saying: “Anyone can be a good person if they try!”. Laughed it off in my head sarcastically. Possibly sadistic. Am I though? How did I end up like this… how…? 

Arrived at the Waterfall, and walked past Sans’s hotdog stand, always empty. Past the high grass where Undyne always stood peering down looking for Frisk or any humans that walked past and of course take their souls. the lilypad bridge and into the echo flower field, hearing  the words being repeated non-stop. This spot always gives me some clarity but at the same time it was hell. Why? Nonstop hearing mine and Asriel’s old conversations which made me wanna rip my hair off or crack my neck, letting death welcome me. There’s many things I want to hear or see but the echo flowers aren’t one of them. Sure they are beautiful but they are more beautiful when a peep doesn’t come from them. 

 what I wanted to go to more was the statue. Why? I guess I just needed a quiet spot to clear my hand and… at the same time wanted to listen to… a familiar song. I’m that fucked huh 

Stopped at the statue standing in front of it, the water still raining from above and the umbrella was in hand. Took a deep breath and my hands slightly shook as I reached inside, feeling the box, cold and metallic. As my hand moved around I felt the crank and rewinded it, I heard it start… his them along with the rain hitting the umbrella. Another deep breath was taken and I sat down next to it and laid my head on it, feeling the hard rocky surface. My eyes staring down as guilt washed over me. I’m really sorry… Azzy. Wish I could go back and stop my stupid idea from happening or maybe ask mom for help when we made the pie… and when dad got sick… wished it didn’t inspire me to… eat the buttercups. Fuck. It’s a shame those flowers are beautiful but deadly. Heh… it was hell during those times, constantly puking and pan filling 

Stopped myself as the feelings started to wash over me, the memories flashing past like photos speeding past. Even… our death… then memories of Toriel started to flood too… her sitting at my bed as I lay there in pain and Asgore saying the words: “Stay Determined Chara”. He always says that Maybe it was best to… sleep it off and that’s what I decided to do. closing my eyes… letting everything fade back and trying to ignore the memories filling my mind. Hearing the music box beside me, I didn’t want to drown it out at all. . .

. . .

[SAVEPOINT-FLOWER BED TIME-O0:00 AU-UNDERFELL]

[. . .]

[SAVEPOINT-LOADED]

...

* Hey, Chara wake up 

* Charaaaa* . . .

* Chara?. . . * CHARA! WAKE UP!

...

I let out a huge gasp as my eyes shot awake feeling the sunlight hit my face and my headshot with the pain, a groan emitting from my mouth. Last thing I remembered was ripping Frisk’s soul out and someone pulling me into the void and hearing Asriel’s voice... Sitting up I looked around to see the all too familiar flower bed beneath me and the pillars, great I’m back here again and groaned mentally. Got up and wiped the dust off me and walked through the hallway with that familiar door and saw the small green grass patch that always has a light shining on it, and the all too familiar flower, lookin at him though… he looks beat up, scratches and ripped petals shaking in fear and his face black with a frown I emerged from the doorway and suddenly something wizzes by my face nearly grazing my cheek. What the fuck! My eyes widen in shock, still haven’t gotten used to that even if I watched Frisk interact with the talking weed twice and get surrounded by the [FRIENDLINESS PELLETS] plus mom coming in to save them.

Finally when we both made eye contact and he finally got a good look at my face it was like he saw a ghost, his flower body started shaking slightly, his expression filled with shock.

* “C-Chara?!” He shouted out.

“One and only”. I replied and carefully walked towards the shaking flower, every step slow.

* “Y-you can’t be real! You died!... unless it’s an illusion and you’re not Chara!”. His scared tone got offensive as 5 friendliness pellets appeared behind him, I put my hands up in defense. 

“Woah woah! Azzy!... calm down it's me Chara!”. I shouted out as an attempt to defuse this potential fight. 

* “How do I know this isn’t a trick and you’re a human pretending to be them!”. He shouted out and honestly that was the stupidest thing he could’ve ever mustered out but at the same time… don’t blame him. I would think that too if there was a new goat monster and he wore the same stuff as him. I’d lose it and that fast. 

“Asriel. How would a human know about a child that died 100+ years ago and what they look like?”. I asked, pinching the bridge of my nose. It seems the gears were finally turning in that plant brain of his.

* “I-it’s really you!”. He exclaimed not wanting to let this slip by. 

“One and only,”. I repeated. 

* “How are you alive?!”. He asked but there was a small smile on face or a relieved face. 

“Complicated… but how are you alive?”. I asked, not that I don’t want to answer, I just can’t find a way to answer him.

* “I don’t know, I just woke up as a flower”. He explained. Wait… does he not remember what happened before in the last reset? Where… he got killed and why does he look beat up? The gears started turning in my head, then a voice was heard coming from ahead

* “Hello? Is anyone there?” the voice asked.

Flowey in an instant used his vines, grabbed me and threw me into the shadows and made the ‘shush’ motion and burrowed before I could say anything. A tall goat woman emerged, her eyes yellow and twitchy with heavy eye bags that were red… took a while to register that… it was mom… her normal purple robe black and torn and she’s wearing sweatpants? Had a maniac look in her eyes mixed with a tired look… and also paranoid. Her eyes scanned the room before taking a deep breath. I wanted to run to her and hug her tightly but something was telling me not to move like she was gonna do something or kill me… or worse but was just something off about her that didn't sit right with me. But she wouldn’t kill me right? I’m her first human child. Has she snapped that much because of… me? I stared at her yellow eyes analyzing every corner, her hands slightly shaking and muttering to herself. It was hard to make out what the fuck she was saying but it’s probably something about the Ruins or dad. She never liked dad ever since I… but she’s not a saint at all. I loved my parents… and when I found out they split up… it broke me. They promised each other no matter what they’d stay together and here they are. Mom in the Ruins and dad at New home. Both alone in their own way.

After there was no response from me or Asriel for the past few minutes, she turned around and entered the room. Flowey sprouted up from the ground and I stepped out of the shadow and looked at him with a “What the fuck” look. He responded with an awkward smile and I returned that shitty smile with an unamused face and my arms crossed, my eyes glaring at me

“Asriel, what the fuck was that?”. I asked. 

* “As you can tell… mom hasn’t been the same since you died”. He spoke. 

“It looks like she hasn’t slept,”. I commented. 

* “Y-Yea…”. He said. * “All the monsters here… are scared of her… hah…”. 

“What do you mean?”. I asked.

* “It's hard to explain… just know you should be weary and not let your emotions of reuniting cloud your judgement”. He said and that is the most reasonable thing he’s said. 

“Asriel, did she do something wrong? I asked. He said nothing. “Did our mom do something wrong?”. Pushing him more on this, but he was reluctant and at this point I just let out a sigh. He’ll tell me when he wants or feels ready to.

“Cmon, we’re leaving”. I ripped him from the ground and his vines subconsciously wrapped around my arm, my hands reached down and grabbed a handful of dirt and rubbed it all over my face so Mom wouldn’t have a heart attack. If I ever ran into her, I kinda don’t want to deal with it. I left the grass patch and into the entrance of the [RUINS] which look… different. Instead of a purple color it's maroon color with cracks and a cobwebs plus the feeling of emptiness, seeing the leaves on the floor and the [SAVEPOINT] floating above it, a shame I can’t access it but wouldn’t hurt to try so my hand moved towards it and when I made hand contact the save menu popped up.

* [THE SHADOW OF THE RUINS LOOMS ABOVE, FILLING YOU WITH DETERMINATION.] 

That part I read to myself because I am my own narrator and I remembered I used to read to Frisk a lot during our time down here. Fun memories huh? Even remembered the first time it popped up. I just knew I had to read it out loud,

[RUINS ENTRANCE LV-?? TIME-2:54] 

[SAVE]  [RETURN]

I looked at it, guess I can’t save and I assume it just autosaves as it goes and I don't know what level I’m at but then again all the [DETERMINATION] Frisk gained and it automatically went to me and I have their soul so maybe I could…

[MENU] -> [STATS]

“CHARA”

LV - ?? HP - 99/99

ATK- 38  EXP: 9999

DEF- 4   NEXT: N/A

WEAPONS: NONE

ARMOR: NONE

GOLD: 0  KILLS:0

Yep, still Frisk’s stats but under my name… wonder if I can set it all to 0 so I don’t gotta deal with Sans, kinda like a clean slate and wouldn’t hurt to attempt that, my eyes scanned through the menu and feeling like Azzy is reading with me, he always wanted to help others so it didn’t hurt I guess but it was like he wanted to keep it discreet and failing at the same time. Then my eyes found the [TRANSFER] button but it was to transfer all my data and [DETERMINATION] to another user with the same soul so I just sighed in frustration.

Issue: there is no [SAVE] button, the [PROGRESS] I had so far even though it was small couldn’t well… be logged in for a [SAVEFILE] and it didn’t [HEAL] me at all though I don’t have any wounds to heal. So… this is it. Unable to use this but to only check on the stats Frisk had. Laughable. I’m handicapped in this situation but could he [SAVE], [RESET] and [LOAD]?  

And I’m screwed if Sans sees past me and decides to [FIGHT], cause “I have high EXP and LV” plus I have no dust on me. Make a passing comment about it or throw verbal punches at me. Maybe eating the flowers isn't so bad… I closed the [MENU] and walked up the stairs to the dark maroon colored ruins and entered, to the first puzzle, the one mom showed Frisk. I kinda remembered the way and stepped on the path Toriel always showed and then hit the switch on the wall which the path opened.

 Entering this room, it was the switch puzzle mom also told Frisk to do while she watched and gave some input. Basically being a helicopter mom. I don’t blame her though… I did the first puzzle, flipped the switch and the spikes sunk into the ground, did the other one with the answer clearly being the 1st puzzle and the spikes on this one sunk into the ground also. This did bring back memories… I hated it but I kept pushing through, first two switch puzzles completed and then walked into the training dummy room. Mom always wanted Frisk to talk to it, ya know make some silly conversation and show [MERCY]. I’m sure she’d talk to it a lot as… she was lonely… sometimes I wondered what it was like for her, spending everyday alone, talking to the same monsters, doing the same things over and over like baking, reading, snail hunting and talking to Sans. Did she like it? Did she hate it? Did she like… tending to my grave…? 

I looked at the dummy, it looked to be damaged, loose stitching, and loose stuffing. Even missing an eye. I approach it and the world turns black with the damaged dummy standing in front of me with the chat. 

* [YOU ENCOUNTERED THE DUMMY]

I was in a fight… the usual [FIGHT, [ACT], [ITEMS and [MERCY] buttons were in front of me. Like I was… Frisk’s place… Great. I remember to play [MERCY] you have to talk to the dummy. When Frisk punched or attacked it, it basically fell apart. How strong was that kid jesus.  

[ACT] -> [TALK]

“Sup Dummy!”. I spoke, trying to make conversation. There was no response.

[MERCY] -> [SPARE]

I got 0 [EXP] and 0 gold… broke bitch, but it’s whatever. I just hope his super sensitive cousin doesn’t get butthurt and attacks me. Looked towards the entrance to the next room and… mom was standing there softly smiling at me. 

* “Very good, my child”. She said, Thanks… mom. I softly smiled back. Left the room and entered the next one and then.

A froggit approached me. I looked at it, which was obviously the poor thing was scared shitless. And it looked red, why the fuck as it red? Asriel was ready to attack it to scare it away. Slowly walked over to it and started giving it a slight pat on the head, all fear it had melted away and it stopped being red. Weird… I gave it a small smile and it ran off. Didn’t get any gold. Fucking sucks! Normally mom would give it a glare and it ran off.

The spike puzzle room appeared. I had the path mom alway took memorized I think. It was just 4 x 14 rows. I was about to take a step forward when I saw mom again… she grabbed my hand and started leading the way. Even though it was an illusion, it felt real. I was silent looking up at her and holding back tears, but… it’s not really mom. Fuck that hurt like hell. When we reached the end we entered the long hallway.It was stupid, she made us run through it because she wanted to test our independence. I don’t think she’s ok or all there. 

* “I am sorry for this my child, but I must go do something”. She spoke and then started to run off. As usual, I ran after her, just trying to catch up after her. Asriel was probably looking at me confused the whole entire time. Didn’t care. Just continue until you reach the pillar and she’s normally… there… she wasn’t there. Fuck me and my hopes. I let out a heavy sigh.

Entering into the next room with a Froggit and a [SAVEPOINT]. Great. I was hesitant to try to see if I can [SAVE] with this one. Looking at the Froggit, this was probably the one preaching [MERCY] which yea all monsters deserve that. Weird thing though, before I died I could never understand Froggits. Mom tried teaching me monster language and Froggit language because well they just say “Ribbit” like normal frogs. Then after I died and Frisk sorta revived me instantly I could understand them and translate for him. And now since the [DETERMINATION] gathered fully revived me, I can still understand froggits. 

My favorite part was the candy! Monster candy to be exact. Why is it my favorite part? Cause I get to bully Frisk about it and go “You made a mistake dumbass!”. Hey when you’re a ghost bound to a child gotta make the best of it. Somewhat. I just ran into the monster candy room and looked at the bowl. I'm sure mom always refills the candy, so I grabbed 2 pieces and left the rest for the other monsters or humans if they ever fall down. Left the room, the Froggit was still there and of course my good old friend [SAVEPOINT]. I Just walked past the room and 

At this point what bothered me was how different the ruins looked, the monsters were scared, hiding in corners or shadows of the ruins and their eyes staring at me in fear despite the color change and the emptiness filling the area at every turn. What did mom do to these guys? Just scared shitless, did she hurt them? Why though… She's the kindest monster ever! Despite her mind not all there she’d always teach mercy no matter what. Believing that [ACT]ing is the way. So… what’s the difference here? From the first time I saw her, just manic. Not even a sane brain cell in that head and it was weird I can tell from her eyes. Asriel looked at me and could tell something was off but he didn’t want to press it further. That look in her eyes was… so many questions filled my head. Was that even my mom? 

Then there were the small cracks, this was a nice puzzle and supposed to fall on purpose and that is what I did, and the hole in the ground where I fell just grew back? With magic? There were leaves but not the red color I’m used to. Just the usual fall leaf colors. then walked through the other doorway. Next was the rock puzzle, a small and simple one to be honest. All you had to do was push it onto the switch and the spikes blocking the way. I pushed it and there was a click! noise signalling the spikes gone. And…

I walked into my favorite puzzle! The cracks that also have an underground path every time you fall, I hate it. You’re basically a blind bat walking through and then you fall and then you walk back up. And it repeats and repeats and I am gonna lose it, I looked at Asriel to see if he had any answers or at least a cheat way around it. His response was a flower shrug with his leaves. I rolled my eyes in response and I'm gonna hate this so much. Walked towards the left side and took one step, but it didn't give out so I’m fine. Then I had an as I walked forward, So I gave Asriel a look again.

“Hey Azzy, wanna take a quick peek under the floor and give me the direction of the path with your vines?”. I asked. 

* “Hmm I don’t know, Chara”. He started. * “W-what if I lead you in the wrong direction?”. That is true but that’s a risk I’m willing to take so I gave him a nod and his flower head extended from my arm then pushed his head through the weak cracks of the ground, then one of the vines started making a path, showing where to walk. I followed it, my hand touching the cold wall as I turned, and then sprinted to the entrance even though it was a short distance. Asriel’s extended neck retracted back and he looked at me with annoyance, basically telling me “I am never doing this again”. On our way we went. Another rock puzzle, I remembered one of them gave Frisk an attitude but after he talked to them they just let him push them. So let’s go to rock Number One! Walked over and pushed it to which there was no response and. It hit the switch. Click! Walked over to Number Two, did the same and like Number One there was no response. Last but not least Number Three and when I was about to push it to the switch. 

* “Hey! Don’t you know it’s fucking rude to push?!”. The third rock shouted and even cussed at me. That’s new. 

“Uh… Sorry there, I’m just trying to leave this place and stuff”. I spoke, trying to brush it off.]

* “I don’t give a shit!”. They shouted again. I glared at it and stomped my foot on the rock.

“Listen here. I don’t give a shit if it’s fucking rude or not I am leaving do you don’t got to deal with my ass”. My eyes glaring at the rock, I could even feel it get somewhat scared but I didn’t care. Just kicked and watched it slide across the ground hitting the switch. Click! The spikes blocking the way were gone. Asriel looked at me in concern, I just took a deep breath and continued on the way. Ahead was another [SAVEPOINT] with the table that had cheese on in and on the left side there was a mouse hole. The mouse that will never fucking come, it’s probably dead but I ain’t telling Mom, Asriel or even Frisk that. My hand moved to touch it but I stopped. Do I even want to? I don’t care. Pressed the glowing stare. 

* [WAITING FOR THE MOUSE TO GET THE CHEESE FILLS YOU WITH DETERMINATION.] 

[RUINS ENTRANCE LV-?? TIME-2:54] 

[SAVE]  [RETURN]

Still can’t [SAVE], I am really handicapped in [SAVEFILE]. I let out a heavy sigh and Asriel just gave me a sympathetic look for support, I just gave him a small smile as thanks. He was always there for me huh, I kept moving forward just wondering what’s next for me as I arrived to see… Napstablook laying on the red leaves, of course. He looked dirty, all scratched  up. I didn’t want to wake him up but it was the obvious choice so I did. Walked over to him slowly and attempted to push him out of the way cause let’s be honest, he’s blocking away. The moment I attempted, he floated up, his face pissed and kinda looking like those scary ghosts for halloween decorations. 

* “Hey! What's the deal?! Can’t a ghost sleep peacefully?”. He asked angrily. 

“Sorry there ghost pal, I was wondering if we can get by you?”. I asked, being polite I can be. 

* “Chara… do you think [TALKING] will work? In this world it's KILL OR BE KILLED”. Asriel whispered. I rolled my eyes. I’m not going through another genocide run… not again.  

* You want to get past me?! As if I let you!”. Then the world turned black, white lines appeared shaping a box then the words:

[AN ANGRY NAPSTABLOOK BLOCKS THE WAY!]

Fucking end me. I looked up at Napstablook, he was Red, literally red. What the fuck? Why was this ghost with low self esteem fucking red. I mean I don’t hate the guy, I just wonder.

* “Inconsiderate people ruin a good sleep!”. He shouted then his usual attacks appeared. Tears started falling from the sky, I basically ran around trying to dodge all of them but then got hit with some taking 12 DMG which wasn’t fun, then it was my turn and I pressed [ACT] -> [CHEER] trying to brighten his mood. 

* You think that’s all it takes?”. He shouted back, then his tear attack happened but chased after me as I dodged. Asriel was holding on to my arm for dear life and I took 20 DMG, this was not looking up for me and I just wanted to hit [FLEE] so badly but couldn’t, as I kept running around and then it was my turn again. I pressed [CHEER] again and that grumpy face started to lighten up. On the somewhat good side, he wasn’t red anymore which saved some part of my sanity.

* “Do you think… I’m cool?”. He asked and I nodded. Then his usual IM NOT FEELING UP TO IT attack happened and I rolled my eyes. I never hated Blooky and I never cared for him either, it was 50/50, I just found him amusing in some aspects and slightly annoying. But like I said, I never hated him. I pressed [CHEER] then [MERCY] -> [SPARE].

[YOU SPARED NAPSTABLOOK! GAINED O EXP] 

Then the world turned normal and he was floating in front of me. His face cheered up and that ghost top hat appeared making him look dapper, but then he took one good look at me. 

* “I always come here to get away from the crazy people and the royal guard”. He spoke, then he looked at me a little closer, like he was analyzing my facial features closely. I didn’t know how to react. * “Hey… you’re Chara Dreemurr, how are you alive? The king poisoned you y'know”. My eyes widened at this revelation and I was confused. Dad. . . poisoned me. . . but I chose to poison myself for my stupid plan! This was all confusing. Why would my own dad poison me?

“I-I’m flattered you know about me but… how did you know? I mean I chose to eat the flowers”. I asked. 

* “Crazy goat woman told me as she vented,”. He bluntly told me. Mom… I hope she doesn’t recognize me… He disappeared and I said goodbye to him and we looked at the small room ahead of me which was the spider bakery or whatever it was called though it’d be good to buy some just for my sake in case I fight… Muffet. She isn’t easy to sway with a conversation like all the other monsters, it’s like she needs money in order to convince her. A pain in the ass I know. Entered into the room and there were 2 cobwebs, small and big. If I remember clearly the small one was 7G and the big one was 18G, though I don’t remember what else sold besides spider donuts and which one sold them… My memory. I just stared at them and looked at the sign. Asriel rolled his eyes and I scoffed. 

“What?”. I asked. 

* “Just pick a donut, Chara”. He said starting to get annoyed. I walked over to the small cobweb and a spider crawled and was holding a piece of paper, I grabbed it and opened it.

* [LEAVE 7G FOR A SPIDER DONUT] 

[2/8]

I paid for like 5 which is what I could get sadly. Broke bitch. Encountering all these monsters and not getting enough gold sucks. Left the spider bakery and went into the next room and was greeted by the sign telling me about the bakery plus the three Froggits. And then up ahead was another cracked floor puzzle with spikes blocking the way. End me. But there’s something I need to get, I walked to the bottom left crack and purposely fell onto the leaves and there was a faded red ribbon. I took it and held it in my hand. 

* [+5 DF]

* [A FADED RED RIBBON. IF YOU WEAR IT MONSTERS WOULD BE LESS LIKELY TO ATTACK BECAUSE OF HOW CUTE IT MAKES YOU LOOK.] 

Rolled my eyes. Asriel nudged me to wear it and I just tied it around my left arm. Stupid brother. Walked out the door  and fell into the top middle crack, flicking the switch. Click! Was heard from above. The last one left was the pillars… great, Just keep moving and you’ll see… mom. I don’t know what to do when I see her, do I hug her tightly? Pretend I'm not Chara Dreemurr, the first human child of Toriel and Asgore Dreemrr and brother of Asriel Dreemurr. I leaned against the wall. Fuck.I know the moment she sees or finds out I am her 1st child she’ll be happy but she’ll worry and be full on helicopter mom or she’d have a panic attack. And then add what Asriel said earlier of “being weary around her” like what did she do to scare everyone? I slouched slowly against the wall. 

* “What’s wrong, Chara?”. He asked.

“I don’t know what to say or do… when I see her”. I spoke. “Do I be me? Someone else?”. He was silent for a moment, thinking of an answer. 

* “Why not both… if ya don’t feel ready to tell her “Hey it’s me, Chara!” then don’t tell her”. He said and honestly that made a little more sense… who’d know a soulless flower who’s also my brother and a… reminder could think of that. 

“And what about her actions?”. I asked. He was silent again, hesitant. This is the second time I asked and still nothing. Sighed in frustration and left the room and into the pillar puzzle, the first one was done by who I presume is mom as her way of being kind. Entering puzzle one, the stone plaque on the wall which by the way I’ve been ignoring the entire time cause I know these puzzles. Mom taught them to me and Asriel. Even watched frisk go through it 2 times. Not to mention I made mental notes, well not on this puzzle. Hard to remember. But anyways the stone plaque on the wall has been faded or destroyed. I guess this mom is sick in the head? I don’t know, so time for the process of elimination. Walked to pillar A, flicked the blue switch which was sneaking for the first try, the spike blocking away sunk into the ground and I moved on to the next room, walked over to the first pillar where the blue switch was and hit it. Nothing happened. Walked to the other one with the yellow-ish green-ish switch and hit it. Nothing happened. Last but not least the red switch, and something happened! I progressed into the next room. Again it was the blue switch first. And again nothing happened. Hit the green switch and for the 3rd time the spikes sunk into the ground. Finally I’m done with these stupid puzzles! 

Walking into the hall, on my left was mom’s home and ahead was the toy knife I think and the view of the rest of the ruins. Didn’t want to go there… I am not killing everyone for a sick reason, this time I’m not doing a [GENOCIDE] run. Took the left. The small hallway leading to mom’s home. That small home that is just a walk away and the kind goat woman who spends days on end making pies and reading books. Entering outside of home, there was the same black tree with the leaves surrounding it bringing the familiarity of home. I remembered me and Asriel running around and the small activities we both did around the home.

There were me and Asriel running around the tree, playing our form of tag. Giggling and laughing. I was calling him goofy names and stuff, he’d just got mad, but not in an offended way. Just in a “I don’t really mean it” mad. I just made sure to keep distance so I can win or for mom to call us over for pie. I love her pie, but after a while we just stopped running and just leaned against the tree just to catch our breath but our eyes wandered to the entrance, our need for exploring the ruins no matter how small it was. We always like to run around.

* “Ya know Chara, dad says that when The Capital and New Home is finished. The play area is gonna be twice as huge!”. He said excitedly.

“Oh really? Kind Dad said that. Are you sure he’s just saying that so we don’t run into Snowdin Town before it’s finished”. I joked. Asriel rolled his eyes and smacked me across the head. “Hey!”. 

* “Mom was right! You really are a troublemaker”. He smirked. 

“Oh yea?”. I gently shoved him and got up to start running. “Humans are always the fastest runners!”. Asriel got up and started chasing after me.

* “If that’s true then why do you humans always get caught!”. He joked. We ran for a few minutes, we both heard mom’s voice calling us but we were having so much fun no matter how many times she repeated it and is slowly getting frustrated with us. As we got carried away, I bumped into someone, we looked up to see… mom… it’s really her! As our eyes made contact all I could see was the shocked and confused expression filling her eyes. Probably on how the fuck I made my way here without even interacting or running into her at all. It was just silence on both our ends, I was holding back every emotion I had, trying so hard not to bawl my eyes out because how much I miss her, she’s my mom after all and it’s been fucking years after all. I wanted to hug her so tightly, read books, bake pie and all of that stuff… 

On her end I assume, like said earlier. Probably confused as fuck and but there’s that mother feeling she’s probably getting. Asriel on the other hand, has his face in my sweater trying to seem like he’s part of the stripe design on my sweater. I just rolled my eyes. Fucking coward. A vine squeezed my arm tighter like he was telling me something, took me a while but then it hit me. That look in her eyes like she wanted to keep me here and never let me out of her sight. If I was… she’d like to do something to me… if I stepped out of line. Now I know what Asriel meant…

* “G-Greetings, my child…”. She started. * “How did you manage to get through the entirety o-of the Ruins and n-not get injured? And your face is dirty…”.  she reached out to clean my face and I stopped her but wait… I’m not injured? But I took damage from Napstablook and only healed once by eating a monster candy prior to fighting them and I can’t use [SAVEPOINTS] to heal my wounds. I was confused.

“I… guess I’m a really good dodger huh, and it’s fine ma’am”. I joked as a way to laugh it off.

* “I see… Well, I am Toriel. Caretaker of the Ruins. What is your name, my child?”. She asked. Took a deep breath.

“My name is… Rei”. I spoke. Thought of it on the spot and guess it makes sense. Asriel. But the letters are rearranged. I’m really talking to mom… harsh part? She doesn’t even know that I’m her human child and let’s also add the factor that I’m carrying Asriel Dreemurr. That look in her eyes increased more, analyzing my actions. I stepped back slightly, it was uncomfortable and unsettling… I didn’t know what to do or act around her. Silence just filled the tension between us.

* “Well… let’s go, my child. I have some pie or some kind of food for you humans t-to consume… I guess”. She spoke unsure on what to say or what to do and tried to break the tension. This was abrupt. * “And a room for you to rest in”. She gently grabbed my hand and walked me inside the home, opened the doors and we were inside. The house was still the same and still small as always, the small quiet home of the ruins and home of The Dreemurrs. Wasn’t much but it made it home. This brought back memories… fuck. There was the illusion of me and Asriel running through the house, racing each other for the first slice of pie knowing that mom has extra in the fridge but… we just wanted to secure the first slice.

* “I won’t let you beat me chara!”. Asriel shouted. “Oh yea?”. I asked and pinched his goat ears, he let out a whine as a response and mom walked out of the living room and looked at me, having that serious mom look and glare accompanied. 

* “Chara, release your brother’s ears this instant or do you want to be grounded?”. She asks. I groaned and as a retaliation I flicked his ears. Mom rolled her eyes and pointed me to my room. Hung my head low and walked to the room.

* “This room is meant for you my child, I hope you will enjoy it, sleep well”. She spoke. * “Now I must go to the kitchen to check on the food”. She ruffled my head and left me alone staring at the door. That door which leads into my old room I shared with Asriel… Flowey removed his head from my sleeve and looked at me. I sighed and grabbed the knob, turning it. Hearing the click! opening the red familiar room filled with stuff toys, shoes, closet, the lamp, that empty photo frame and all of the other toys me and Azzy had. 

Entering inside, I sat on the bed feeling the comfort and familiarity. I mean this whole room is familiar. Laid back and a heavy sigh was let out. Those times mom walked in to check on me and Asriel, giving us little kisses on the head, I knew she always felt bad for grounding me or my brother. Putting butterscotch pie on the table or floor when one of us slept in. Mom never wanted to wake us up unless it was to ask if we wanted to join her or dad’s errands. But I was kinda exhausted from wandering through the whole ruins and let out a yawn. Took off my shoes, unzipped my sweater and carefully threw it on the floor cause my dead brother who’s a flower is hugging the sleeve like he’s gonna die. Walked over to the lamp turning it off, walked back to the bed and nearly tripped over a toy. Cursed at myself. Laid down and pulled the covers over entering dreamland.

. . .

* Finally!

* I was so tired of being a flower!

* Howdy! 

* Chara, you there? 

* It’s me, your best friend! 

 ASRIEL DREEMURR

My eyes shot open to see Frisk standing in front of Asriel now in his god form, the black void lit up with rainbow colors fading into each other and the white lines forming a box. The words:

[It's the end]

[ACT -> [HOPE]. The damage was reduced as Frisk held on, fire balls started raining down and they dodged trying to avoid damage but that's inevitable because this is Frisk we are talking about and they take 5 DMG as some of the fireballs hit them,

[ACT] -> [HOPE]. They held onto it again and the damage was reduced, the fireballs started raining down again but that was cut short and the text:

[“THE TRUE FINAL BATTLE” WAS FINALLY BEGINNING]

 I wasn’t worried about… I looked at my own brother in front of me. Frisk continued to hold hope as stars started crashing down onto us, they leaped out of the way to avoid the smaller stars, then a huge star slowly crashed down.

[ASRIEL CHARGES “SHOCKER BREAKER”]

Frisk continued to hold on hope

* You know…

* I don’t care about this world anymore

Then these small red boxes appeared and Frisk was standing on them. 

“Watch out!”. I exclaimed and these lighting bolts started hitting the boxes and they took 15 DMG. It was a back and forth dodge as it was fast so they couldn’t just wait around. 

[ASRIEL CALLS ON “CHAOS SABER”]

Frisk still held on hope and the battle continued. Asriel calling on his attack and the 8th fallen human holding on hope after each attack and watching it decrease the damage, their HP dropping slowly after each turn and then they died… but it refused and there was that stupid look again, like they were fueled with [DETERMINATION]... I don’t know how they always do it, turn after turn dying and coming back. Determined and here I am standing here worried and slightly happy to see my brother… 

He got frustrated with us for still persisting and not going down without a fight so he used all his might to summon this goat like blaster and started sucking everything in, Frisk struggling to move and avoid the diamond objects, but they were determined to continue as their HP drops to 1. Then a flash of light and Asriel is still shocked to see them standing and that shock turns into frustration when the whole world becomes black and glitched, “Fraction of my real power” echoes throughout. Through the void he reappeared but... he looked different, big rainbow wings fading into each other and his body looked mechanical somewhat, his legs were gone, arms and head floating and in his chest was this circle thing with a heart. I looked at Frisk and they were unable to move, that determined facade crumbled and they were filled with fear or they were yelling at their body to move but couldn’t. They died, struggling but they managed to dodge and they died and came back due to being slow, they kept struggling and struggling, dying and dying, coming back. Asriel getting Frustrated. The words:

[NOTHING HAPPENED]

Repeated nonstop. I looked the goat god in the eyes, There was nothing I could do but there was an option… to save. Frisk looked at me and read my mind and throughout the struggle the [SAVE] button appeared replacing [ACT], I put my hand on their shoulder giving them the support and with the [DETERMINATION] they had… we pressed it, they pressed it, and went down the list, mom and dad, Undyne and Alphys, Sans and Papyrus, seeing their face’s light up… I couldn’t help but smile, they were getting their happy ending. Ya know Azzy… we did do it... make the monsters happy, but you deserve the happy ending too. My left hand on Frisk’s right shoulder and my right hand hovering over their hand we both pressed the save button, both of us determined to save everyone including him. 

* “Why are you doing this… j-just let me win!”. He screamed, launching a rainbow beam at us and our HP went down and everything went white.

. . .

My eyes shot open, feeling tears streaming down both sides of my cheek, and the darkness greeting me. Fuck. I was still in this room as I sat up wiping the tears from my face, my remaining emotions still boiling. Shit. That dream always makes me emotional… Can you blame me?... he was my brother… and seeing the damage I did to him. I looked down and spotted a plate of pie, it looked to be made out of meat?... That's odd. Eyes looked at Asriel clinging to my sweater asleep, I frowned slightly, was he… ever fine with what I did? Did he ever move on… or still clinging… Curled up a little, eyes staring down in my dark room with the dark red sheets. Emotions started boiling inside and fighting the urge to cry quietly. Don’t want to worry Asriel, Mom would care? I mean she heard me cry before in the middle of the night when I was thinking about… the surface… but would she care now?...  Just struggling in silence. 

Just took a deep breath and looked back at Asriel, oughta find you a pot. Walked over to him and gave him a small tap, him stirring awake, his scared face looking up at me but calmed down a little and just looked around to take in surroundings. 

* “Chara?”. He asked.

“We are leaving,”. I said sternly and looked around the room to find an old shoe so that means I needed to grab some dirt I put on my sweater, put that and the pie in my [ITEMS] and then leave with the boot in hand. Decided to explore the house, just being kinda snoopy and getting a feel for this place. See what mom is really like now and after… all of that… how Asriel died cause of me. Leaving the room, standing in the all too familiar hallway where me and Asriel ran back and forth being kids. Messing around and having fun and screaming. Sometimes even in the middle of the night. Mom yelled at us and made us go to bed. 

Walking right towards the hallway standing in front of her room, my hands shaking slightly, hesitant to open it. Memories slowly flooding back, I quickly grabbed the doorknob, turning and slightly opening the door. Greeted with the familiar blue bedroom but it was a dark red and slightly messy. The sock drawer sticking out with socks hanging out or on the floor, the trash can filled with snails and crumpled paper balls over filling it, the sheets on the bed are not clean. What happened to her?... Did my death affect her that much?... Her messy room, the wilted flowers at the top of the shelf. Asriel’s vines tighten around my arm as a form of comfort, silently saying “It wasn’t your fault”. But it was. I took a deep breath trying to compose myself, looking at the desk, her book of jokes were laying on it with a few jokes circled, reading the joke to myself. She always loved them huh.

Leaving the room and back towards the hallway, making my way past the door that says “Under construction”... it always bugs me due to it being a huge reminder. Then the iconic mirror looked at it. 

“It’s me!”. I said, giving a cheeky smile and laughing a little. Azzy rolled his eyes, hey it’s the most I can do in this odd situation. 

* “You’re still the same kind person huh?”. He asked and I looked at him confused. I wasn’t the best person at all, I got him killed, split up our parents, left scars on everyone. I, Chara Dreemurr, the 1st Fallen human and adoptive child of Asgore and Toriel Dreemurr broke a kingdom. My hand moved to my arm holding on to it, shit… why does this hurt.

“If only that was true,”. I joked. Then started walking the opposite way, past the staircase that led into the basement and entered into the living room where mom is, she is currently sitting reading a book, always the bookworm. I carefully walked up to her and she looked up from her book to look at me. I stared for a moment, just seeing the state she's in… it was always hard to talk to mom back then but I have to do this no matter how painful it is.

“Hey Ms. Toriel”. I awkwardly spoke.

* “Greetings my child, do you need something?”. She asked. Staring at her I took a deep breath, feeling awkward. 

“Uh… I’m starving… got any breakfast?”. I spoke, her face lit up.

* “Why yes I do, my child. Let me go get it”. She got up from the chair and walked to the kitchen, remembering Frisk exploring the house when he found fur in the drain, I guess she sheds? Don’t know. It was just always there, didn’t really mind. Though I had a feeling that if I entered that kitchen right now… I’d see something fucked up. But… I want chocolate so that’s what I did. I saw mom cutting a piece of whatever she made and felt sorta scared, like her eyes glaring at me or watching every move I make. Just made my way to the fridge, my hands grabbing the handle, shaking slightly and opening it. I felt my stomach drop when I saw the fridge… it… was a dead… froggit corpse on a plate. What the fuck?! What the fuck mom?!... I wanted to puke as it was slowly dusting away as each part was grabbed for whatever ingredient mom was making… I didn’t even want to look around for the chocolate as I slammed the fridge closed. 

* “Is everything alright, my child?”. She asked. I stood in fear, eyes staring at her. Worst part: she had that caring mom face with a smile plastered on, a sadistic mom smile. Those yellow eyes didn’t help, distant and yet psychotic. Asriel on the other end was shaking against my arm in fear. As a response I gave an awkward smile and backed away from the kitchen and sat at the big table, I felt uncomfortable. Getting fed a dead froggit instead of… pie. Guess that’s what she means by “some kind of food” and the timing was perfect, mom was walking towards me holding a plate of… cooked Froggit. She sat it in front of me, smelled like shit and looked at the steam rising from the cut in the body and saw the cooked organs. I gagged mentally. When it comes to mom, you can’t judge her cooking, she’d glare at you to hell or passively aggressively set the stove on fire. I was staring at it, unsure to see if it was edible. Flowey had the same expression as me but more disgusted in anything and I just looked at him like: “Do you wanna eat this?”. His response? A vine emerged and wacked me over the head. Silently winced as a response.  

* “Do you not like it?”. She asked, the tone was sorta creepy and I just wanted to sink into my chair. 

“I uh, like it! Can I take it with me to my room?”. That has to work, it worked before. She glared at me analyzing my every move, then that smile, that warm motherly smile. 

* “Sure go ahead, My child. Just do not make a mess in there… I just managed to get the energy to clean”. She spoke. I grabbed the plate and added it to my [ITEMS] and was about to leave when I stood in the doorway of the living room, looking down at the staircase leading into the basement. The fight with mom… the question of am I strong enough to enter into Snowdin. Turned around to see mom sitting at the chair and there was me and Asriel sitting by the fire listening to her read or scheming away to terrorize our parents. Kid things. Took a deep breath and walked towards her slowly walking towards her and staring at her, trying to gauge her expression. 

“Hey… Ms. Toriel,”. I spoke

* “Yes, my child? Is there something wrong?”. She asked, her calm facial expression is gonna gut me when she’s disappointed or scared.

“I want to leave” I uttered out, her calm expression changed, she was scared and wanted to change the subject or just change the conversation to the book she’s reading. Her yellow eyes quickly darted to the page she was just on. 

* “Uh… why not we both read an excerpt from this book”. And she started. 

“I want to leave the ruins,”. I sternly said. 

* “W-why do you want to leave my child? You have all you need here”. She spoke, her voice filling with concern, my face winced with regret, I hated this part, I took another deep breath trying to gain confidence. 

[YOU ARE FILLED… WITH CONFIDENCE]

For a moment though… I saw… memories flashing through her eyes, the deaths of the past children and everything… making her emotional. Fear filled her as she got up quickly, the book falling from her lap, like she wasn’t thinking straight. Was she even at all?... but just for that small moment it was like I saw my mom’s shell break and she wasn’t that crazy woman who killed monsters… she was… my mom, the kind lonely goat woman. trying her hardest to move on from me, Asriel and the 6 fallen humans, can’t fully sympathize with her though… Dad isn’t here.   

* “Forgive me my child, there is something I have to do… Please do not follow me”. Then she started walking towards the staircase and that led into the basement, without a second thought I ran after her and hopped down the railing and into the red dimly hallway. 

[YOU ARE FILLED WITH… DETERMINATION]

I ran, like I was reaching out, she stood ahead, couldn’t see her face but you could tell she was serious. Who knows what Frisk felt during this but I was determined. 

* “My child… please go back up. I must do this”. She spoke then continued through the hallway but I wasn’t deterred and continued to chase after her. Asriel was worried but all that was there to think of was getting to her or at least try to reason. Can she be reasoned? Running through the dark maroon hallway replacing the purple color I managed to catch up to her. 

* “So… you want to know how to… leave the Ruins… am I right?”. She paused. “At the end of this hall lies a one way exit of the Ruins and by my hands. I will destroy it now. Preventing the exit of any more humans that fall down here. Now please… my child… go upstairs so I may do this”. She started walking ahead, speed walking really fast which I always found weird. But if she does this… she’s dooming me down here… and any other human that falls down. I can’t let that fate befall me and any others. Chased after her again, trying to catch up again and Asriel holding on to my arm for dear life, the hallway was long as fuck and hated chasing after him. For the second time I caught up to her.

* “Every human that I have come across… always and I mean always. Over and over.. I’ve seen the same fate that befalls them”. She spoke again. “They come, they leave, and… they die. You must understand that if you choose to leave… they… Asgore will kill you. Understand this is my way of protecting you… until… my new ingredients are ready”. Walked a little then she stopped. “Please do not stop me”. She continues speed walking. I Turned the corner and ran into a big space and there mom was standing there guarding the door, her face looking conflicted and scared.

* “If you leave, like every child you fall into the hands of those outside the Ruins, so prove to me that you can take care of yourself or die by my hands". she sternly said. I gave her a stern look. The world faded to black, the white lines forming a box, Toriel standing in front of me, her hands to her side, Azzy was shaking, hiding his flower face in my shoulder. I had to do this. I stood tall and faced her as the usual options popped up, stared at them… couldn’t kill her…

[TORIEL BLOCKS THE WAY]

1 [ACT] -> [TALK]

“Toriel! Please… I don’t-”. She cut me off as she threw fireballs at me which caught me by surprise and my reaction time was late so I took 15 DMG, pain filling me for the first time, mentally cursing myself. Asriel’s eyes widened and he wanted to give me the healing friendliness pellets but I shook my head no, stood straight and looked her dead in the eyes and she didn’t say anything.I guess we’re gonna try the frisk route.

2 [MERCY] -> [SPARE]

She didn’t say anything and the 2nd wave of fireball attacks commenced, raining down above me, I dodged to the best of my ability, Asriel tried helping me as best as he could without mom seeing him or noticing, getting hit with the flames hurt like hell! But I’m not stopping. Not one bit. I’m determined as hell.

[TORIEL BLOCKS THE WAY]

3 [MERCY] -> [SPARE]

She said nothing again and sent fireballs my way again but this time they seemed slower but not that slow as they continue to keep coming at this point overwhelming and hard to focus but I gotta stay determined like Frisk. I closed my eyes and opened them to see an illusion of Frisk fighting mom for the first time… sparing her and staying, you guessed it. Determined. Even though I hate them, I can learn a thing or two from them. 

4 [MERCY] -> [SPARE]

* “... why… why won’t you fight!”. She asked, and more fireballs came my way and it seems like the speed is catching up. I used my arms to block the incoming flames and of course 20 DMG taken, my HP went down from 99 to 64. If I’m not too careful I can die… and I don’t know if that can trigger a reset. 

[ITEMS] -> [MONSTER CANDY]

She attacked again, her hand sweeping with fireballs coming in 6 rows.

5 [YOUR HP IS HEALED 10%]

* “Why are you doing this! Fight back”. She yelled. I am not going down like this! You hear me mom!. Her furry hand moved across fire sweeping the battle field, I leaped to the side dodging avoiding the upcoming flames, Asriel freaked when one of his petals caught on fire, I laughed a little but stopped as a flame flew by my face, scaring me but it grazing my cheek. Fuck. I took 20 DMG, leaving my HP at 54 and still questioning how a walking mute Toys R us mascot defeated my mom but whatever. I looked at her then at my options in front of me. 

[FIGHT] [ACT] [ITEMS] [MERCY]

And it was obvious which one I was going for because it’s been the same button I pressed 3 times and at this point the fight has to be over already… Looked up at her and my eyes widened, greeted with the sight of Toriel in the middle of dusting… a slash across her body, my hands froze just staring and unable to move. Why this now?... why. All this has been just a memory lane and I want no. Need this fight to be over. I took a deep breath to just get that image off my mind and pressed the button. 

6 [MERCY] -> [SPARE]

* “What are you doing? What do you hope to gain from this?”. She asked. Then huge flames appeared in waves, growing in size as they got closer and closer. I stood still but carefully adjusted my stance or posture as it just went past me and Asriel. I remember how much DMG Frisk took when they accidentally ran into it, poor kid. Well actually I don’t feel bad, in hindsight it was actually funny looking back at it

7 [MERCY] -> [SPARE]

* “Either attack or run, do whatever but make a choice! This won’t fare on what’s beyond the ruins and will get you killed”. She was right but also wrong, using mercy has created friendships, even if not everyone came back. Fireballs rain down from the sky again, but a bit more slower and at the same time keeping the same pace somehow, I moved to the side as an attempt to dodge, the flames shooting past my head either grazing my hair or face, and hoping it didn’t take a huge chunk of hair because the after battle I will start bawling. 

8 [MERCY] -> [SPARE]

* “What is it you are trying to prove?! You will die out there if you don’t fight back! Please my child!”. She pleaded, I looked at her hands… they were shaking… her eyes were just filled with fear, she was scared. I know she didn’t want me to run out and die out there but I’m gonna prove to her I can take care of myself!. Another fireball sweep but due to her shaking hands the aim was off and I couldn’t even leap to the side as they mostly went left and right of me. FUCK. Mentally cursing myself when a big flame appeared in my direction, I immediately fell to the floor, feeling the flame hover over my head. That scared me… I got up.

9 [MERCY] -> [SPARE]

* “Stop it! Don’t look at me like that…”. She spoke. Her attacks are getting way slower and start to avoid me… of course. Her fear… always scared. I didn’t dodge this time, just stood there staring her in the face, being determined I can be. I wasn’t gonna let her die. 

10 [MERCY] -> [SPARE]

* “Stop it!... Stop it please! I know you want to go home but please just go upstairs. I know we don't have much here but please… I will protect you”. She begged, flames rained and again they avoided me. The realization was slowly setting 

11 [MERCY] -> [SPARE]

* “You aren’t gonna give up?...”. She let out a sad chuckle “I can’t save a single child”. Her yellow eyes stare at me, like… she saw something or someone. But hurt flashed in her eyes. Not sure and probably won’t know. Just gotta stand my ground ya know. 

12 [MERCY] -> [SPARE]

She stopped attacking, her arms sticking out and hands with fireballs extinguished. She looked at me as realization settled in. Mom had a solemn expression on her face and her eyes fighting back tears, holding back everything. She gave in, what very little fight she had just diminished, inhaled and then exhaled. That semi-manic look faded away, revealing that mother look and I guess the walls finally broke.

* “I understand… Here is not a place for someone as a human, the RUINS do get quite small and you cannot grow up in a place like this… you’d be quite unhappy”. She took a deep breath. * “My expectations… My loneliness… my fear…, for you my child I will set them aside”. The black world we were both in faded away bringing the room of the basement. I just stayed silent, the damage of the battle wracking through my entire body, But it didn’t feel like hell. My HP is probably at at 

* “I fully understand now if you want to leave the RUINS and will not stop you… however when you leave… do not come back”. She spoke. I looked at her as she brought me into a hug, a tight hug, using her magic to heal the wounds. Fuck… I felt everything boil up like it was the first time in forever my mom hugged me and I started crying, tears streaming down my dirt face, smudging it away? I hugged her back tightly,missing this. She let out a soft chuckle in response and wrapped her arms tightly, just giving me that mother comfort. I sniffled and tried to sob softly. It failed.

* “Why are you crying, my child? We only met hours ago”. She spoke in an amused but caring way, her finger wiping the tears away along with dirt revealing part of my face that of course will be familiar to her. Let’s face it well… I have pink cheeks or maybe a natural blush. Don’t know the terms but they are faint…  

“I-I’m just… worried if you’ll still be here when or if I’ll see you again”. I spoke in between sobs and hugged her tightly, I don’t want to let her go at all… She laughed a little

* “My little goat, we will meet again”. My eyes widened in shock and she gave me a “mother knows” look. I just laughed in tears. I… haven’t been called that in like… years… or at all… my eyes just stared at that caring motherly expression plastered,her furry hand cupping my cheek and wiping the falling tears away, at the same time drying my stained cheek. * “I don’t know how you came back… but I fear that if you explain here you’re wasting time. When we see each other again, there will be a lot you will catch me up on”. She ruffled my head and chuckled softly.

“Alright mom,”. I spoke. She handed me a phone.

* “To call me when you’re in trouble or need help… with puzzles. Remember to be good, and goodbye, my child”. She smiled softly then returned home but not before turning to me one last time, I turned back to see that smile and watch my mother disappear. I smiled softly to myself… I won’t miss her at the same time… I won’t forget this. And how much I took this for granted… Turned back to face the door. God today was a whirlwind. Asriel looked at me to see if I was ok, I just gave him a reassuring nod, now it was time to proceeded through the door pushing it open, walking into the hallway and greeted by the dirt path, but not before digging some dirt out and putting it into the shoe then continued past that and greeted by the door leading into the next area.

“Are… you ready Asriel?”. I asked.

* “I gotta be, for my sibling!”. He said trying to be enthusiastic about it. I rolled my eyes. [YOU ARE FILLED… WITH DETERMINATION]

Me and Asriel proceeded through and we were greeted by a blinding white light…

_____________________

I still hope you all enjoy this chapter!