#with alphys doing the dt experiments because asgore wants to find a way out and asgore well

[technicolorxsn]

thinking abt asgore again

[aikoiya]

Curse Shoulder Spirits: When Frisk finally arrives, do Undyne + Alphys + Sans + Asgore become better or worse (with their Spirits haunting them)?… Will Sans actually try to keep Toriel’s Protection Promise?… Does Mettaton still want to destroy Frisk, despite knowing that if he does, Frisk will become Mettaton’s personal Shoulder Spirit? 👻👻👻

Well... Undyne & Sans I see being very stubborn & resistant. Most likely getting worse in different ways rather than better. Probably thinking that they're lying.

Alphys, I see getting worse in a very different way, but also kinda better depending on your perspective. For her, she'd get worse in a feels guilty & hates herself way. We could say that part of the reason she became so depressed in the first place was having to see a miserable little 5-6 year old girl with mousy brown hair in adorable pigtails either weeping in a corner, screaming in pain, or just quietly sitting curled up in a ball of depression against a wall.

It'd very much be like an abused child trying to keep out quiet & not make problems for her abuser in hopes of being spared. As a result, I think that Alphys would be unable to experiment on Kindra's soul or body. So Sans would have to. However, Alphys would also be unable to stop him from doing so due to her cowardice. Kindra's thing's heart would break every time Alphys would dissect another human or extract DT from another soul. This would eventually lead to Alphys having to leave that stuff to Sans. However, she would be able to bring herself to inject DT into the fallen down monsters because she really, genuinely believes that she was helping them. Which would just further crush her when they started melting together. Kindra screaming in fear & sadness would not help either.

I see it going either way with Mettaton. Though, I think that it's more likely for him to try to find a way to unbind his Clarice from Undyne & to him, then try to convince Alphys to try & research a way to create a body for Clarice the way she created one for him. Doesn't mean it would work as I don't actually see ghost monsters as actual ghosts, more so monsters who heavily resemble ghosts as otherwise would indicate that they'd once been alive & human.

I feel the same way about skeleton monsters because if they were true skeletons then they wouldn't immediately crumble to dust after being killed, they'd simply fall inert, the bones still there.

In this way, ghost monsters are innately different from actual ghosts. However, I do believe that ghost monsters are keyed into, let's say... the same wavelength as actual ghosts.

Either way, it depends on you whether Alphys would make a change & try to befriend the girl. If she does, it'd take a long time but it's possible. Like, no matter what, I see her remaining a coward & being unable to tell anyone else about it because, at first, she's convinced that they'd call her crazy.

Asgore, however, I see becoming both better & worse too. And much like Alphys, he worse due to the guilt. However, I also see him being better because he's got a better relationship with her from the get-go. Now, the ones that were actively killed were, in order, Patience, Justice, Integrity, Bravery, & Perseverence & all of them were at least 12-13 at the times of their deaths. And, like I said before, at the time period when Patience was alive, that was considered being an adult.

Likewise, before the monsters were sealed, they too would likely have believed the same. As such, depending on whether this changed over time like it did with humans, the monsters might not have even considered them kids.

The only one that could've conceivably been seen as one was Kindness & that wasn't intentional. So, it's likely that both Asgore & Patience simply viewed that as a terrible tragedy. That doesn't excuse the fact that Asgore did not change the law or that Patience didn't try as hard as she should've to convince him to repeal it, but it goes a long way to explaining why they were able to let it keep happening.

In this way, I can see Patience getting uncomfortable with the fact that someone she considered a child had died. Asgore as well.

[kaissauce]

Undertale characters are already so cool and funky and although aus are cool and all it loses it's spark when people only focus on sans (he's a cool character i get it but so is literally all the other main characters). here's a bunch of stuff i wrote down about them characters because idk there's so much that can be explored with the base game instead of jumping to aus

sans: a character who very clearly just wants to vibe and no way shape or form wants to be in the spotlight or the main character. casually threatens the player to show that he's more than meets the eye but also does not want to fight but is capable of doing so. has weird powers and apparently pranking people across time and space is the norm for him (according to papyrus). absolute troll. likes astronomy and science stuff. his right eye glows light blue and yellow for a few frames in very specific moments during the fight (the beginning, when he slams you into the walls during the last attack but eventually it stops glowing even when he's still slamming the soul around, and when he teleports you to the middle when you try to go to the fight button when he's still awake.) has a key to a lab with a machine which could also belong to papyrus ( twitter post suggests two people tried to fix that machine the two people could either be sans and papyrus or sans and alphys) what's the machine for? most popular headcanon is time machine presumably connected to gaster

Papyrus: an enigma, literally nothing about his past is revealed. Has weird powers that he uses so casually. barely fazed by dying and continues to believe the human. he does not kill the human and will always end the battle once the human gets to 1 hp, flat out gives the choice for the human to skip the fight after a few tries. barely sleeps, has nightmares. hates hotland, indifferent to echo flowers, online friends with alphys, knows things that did not happen yet (mettaton having eyes, the phone turning into a jetpack). why does he never take off his gloves this detail is forgotten by so many people. CHECK in the genocide route his description is "Forgettable" that could mean multiple things and none of them are good. his stats change in other routes unlike other people who have stat changes that happen because of specific scenarios: undyne's stats are different during the hangout fight, asgore's stats lower after smelling toriel's pie. Has connections to the River person, Flowey, and the Annoying Dog (pretty peculiar people). Keeps secrets, like he's MUCH better at keeping secrets then Sans. also a troll but isn't as big of a troll as sans. appears to be naive and is much more mysterious than sans and also more subtle at being mysterious. presumably also can use gaster blasters

Asgore: the king of the underground with a tragic life and carries the hopes of his subjects and the guilt from all the people he's hurt. Shows signs of knowing about resets (talking after being killed the player tells him that he's killed them and he nods sadly in response). wait that'd be really sad if he could remember previous timelines because then he'd know that he dies in every outcome except for true pacifist. most definitely did not want to kill those children but had to for monsterkind, he probably wasn't even the one to kill most of the fallen children because their stuff is in places where they presumably died. Took a long time to get a new royal scentist after Gaster was lost to his creation. Tries to get back on good terms with Toriel. he's old as friiickkk. he's horrible at naming things i find that really funny that he mashed his name and toriel's name to get asriel. first person besides alphys to meet flowey, dude i will die with the headcanon that asgore named flowey. HIS TRIDENT CAN BREAK THE MERCY BUTTON MAYBE EVEN THE OTHER BUTTONS

Undyne: The captain of the royal guard. She's missing an eye with no canon explanation. She was trained by the king of the underground and looks up to Gerson aka "The Hammer of Justice". Met Alphys at the dump and watches anime with her. Intimidating at first but she can be a really goofy person or very threatening. Tried to get Papyrus into cooking instead of wanting to join the royal guard because she knows he's against killing and he'll probably die when facing a human even though she knows he's tough. Plays piano. cheats death, basically does the impossible it's no big deal

Alphys: The Royal scientist after Gaster. Created a body for Mettaton, lied and claimed she made a robot with a soul (which alphys never revealed to anyone, the player only finds this out by getting the mystery key and the lab entries in the true lab). Experimented with DT and human souls. Knows that souls can't be artificially created. Knows about alternate realities and probably also studied timeline shenanigans (maybe sans and alphys studied that stuff together, maybe even more than just timeline shenanigans since sans is hinted to bring dog food for the amalgamates). Created Flowey. LITERALLY MANIPULATES THE GAME CODE TO TROLL THE PLAYER

Mettaton: ok how often did he forget that he's supposed to be playing as a robot with an artificial soul. like come on he had to slip up at least once. does he continue with that facade on the surface???? like i thought alphys wanted to be honest and she just never said mettaton is just a ghost?? also need me more ghost family interactions that's always fun. ALSO HIS ENDING COME ONNN THERE'S SO MUCH POTENTIAL THERE WHY ISN'T THERE MORE FICS ON IT IN FACT THERE SHOULD BE MORE FICS ON THE NEUTRAL ENDINGS IN GENERAL like i've already read some fanfics that touch on his ending and they're SO COOL but also mEssed and sad

ok im getting sleepy and this post is getting long so this next one's gonna be short

Gaster: probably actually broke people's ps4s when they typed in his name because the code to simulate a crash on a computer actually crashes the game on the console and causes a fatal error. dude gaster what the heck

[popatochisssp]

Undergloom: AU Concept

What if...

Premise

This is a ‘verse where monsters aren’t made of hope--it’s something that they have to get the same way humans do, through positive circumstances and sturdy social support networks.

So...being trapped Underground with no real chance of escape was, in a hilarious bit of understatement, kind of a huge bummer.

In Undergloom, the loss of the Royal Family’s children was pretty much it for monsterkind’s hope.

The Dreemurrs never split—lacking innate internal hope, Asgore was never overcome by anger and never declared war on all of humanity, simply succumbing to his grief. Toriel did the same and so they never argued over war, collecting souls, and falling humans.

Meanwhile, without a goal and the promise of impending freedom to inspire them, monsters have largely given up. Physically, most are very weak and lethargic, on the verge of Falling Down—and Falling Down is a depressingly common occurrence. Monsters are all relatively uninterested in any humans that fall or pass through, making no attempt to capture them. Any Encounters are half-hearted at best.

Not being hunted and killed for their souls, all the humans who have fallen (the six souls Asgore would’ve otherwise collected) are still alive and have made a small community for themselves in the abandoned Ruins. They gradually congregated there upon realizing that there was no way to escape the Underground without killing one of two very sad and polite (if distant) Boss Monsters. Their eventual plan is to wait for seven humans, the amount needed to break the Barrier, clumsily learning what magic they can from disinterested monsters in the meantime. They’re all an assortment of ages now, and mages of varying skill-level, just biding their time until the Seventh Human falls and they can all be free.

Major Characters

Asgore and Toriel: They never officially separated after the death of their children, but the loss caused an emotional rift between them. While they remain married, the passion has gone entirely from their relationship and they stay together mostly as a formality, to best co-rule their kingdom. They perform their duties separately, coming together only for public appearances--or when Asgore is tending to the Golden Flowers and Toriel ghosts in to pick one, leaving just as silently as she came.

Flowey: Doesn’t exist. Asriel’s dust was spread on the Golden Flowers in the palace, but no DT experiments were ever done, so his later incarnation never came to be. He and his adopted sibling Chara are both resting in peace.

Alphys: Without the guilt caused by the DT experiments, the Royal Scientist is actually one of the most hopeful monsters in the Underground. She’s been very inspired by the (ultra-shoujo/shounen) anime she’s found in The Dump and keeps trying to create things that improve the quality of life for monsterkind—if they’re all trapped and can’t get out, they should at least all try to be happy and not give up, shouldn’t they? It’s…it’s hard to believe that sometimes, her hope isn’t unfaltering, but she wants to keep trying anyway. It’s what Mew-Mew would do! She…thinks…?

Undyne: The Captain of the Royal Guard is bitter and frustrated with the whole situation. She thinks that they should be (should’ve been) collecting human souls from the beginning, to break the Barrier—or at least they should’ve harvested one for somebody to absorb and go through to get more! But everybody’s such a bunch of weak sad-sacks that they won’t act, doing nothing at all about the tiny tribe of humans just about everybody knows is living it up in the Ruins. …but she doubts herself too, because it seems like she’s the only one who thinks that way. That’s what bums her out the most, wondering if maybe she’s a bad person for feeling the way she does, but at least… At least all the passion pouring out of a certain (very cute) Royal Scientist makes her feel better, on her worst days.

Mettaton: A discouraged celebrity, once very excited when Alphys built him a new body, thinking that he was finally going to be able to achieve his dreams of stardom, but..well. An Underground of very depressed monsters makes for a pretty cold fish of an audience. He still has a viewership because there’s nothing else on... but his performances just aren’t very passionate these days, getting more and more lackluster by the episode. He wants to inspire monsters to rise up and reach their dreams, but he just doesn’t know how to do that when he’s not even sure he believes in his own dreams anymore...

Papyrus: Another monster who has a little more hope left than most, doing his best to stay optimistic in the face of a really bad situation. He...may be in a little bit of denial, actually? He maintains that somehow, monsterkind is going to be free again! He just! Doesn’t know how! But it’ll definitely happen, just you wait, they’re totally not all going to die down here without ever getting to experience all the neat stuff on the Surface!!! He pretty much has selective hearing about anything related to that kind of hopelessness, tuning it out and not responding to it, mostly because he knows if he dwells on it too long, he’s going to have an existential crisis/breakdown of uncomfortable proportions and noooobody wants to see that mess, hahaha… In the meantime, he’s thrown himself into human studies and analysis, full-on Little Mermaid style because it gives him something good to focus on, and hope that life on the Surface will be good, once they get up there! He’s actually very close friends with Alphys because of their shared interest (though he’s not sure how sold he is on those cartoons…). He’s also trying to befriend Undyne, because she’s Captain of the Guard and seems really cool! And maybe if he could be friends with her, and cheer her up, maybe she could help him spread that cheer a little bit…? Or! Maybe he just makes a cool new friend and at least one person around here a tiny bit happier, which is also good!

Sans: A guy under no illusions that their situation is anything but terrible. He’s very weak and very tired, even for the Supremely Bummed Out monsters he lives amongst. His nihilist sense of humor and his brother are pretty much the only things keeping him from Falling Down at this point—that, and the humans in the Ruins. He’s met a few of them, indirectly, through his knock-knock routine, and he knows that there’s six of them in there now; knows that with just one more, maybe…maybe…? …He tries not to hope too hard, there’s a lot of random chance and timing involved, and humans just aren’t as sturdy as, say, a Boss Monster. Something—illness, injury, old age—could happen to any one of the humans at any time before a Seventh Human can fall… but he still checks on the door every couple of days, thinking that impossible, “maybe…”

Frisk: The long-awaited Seventh Human! They’re greeted after their fall by the six humans who preceded them, and are summarily tutored about Encounters and souls and The General Situation. After that, their quest is to go through the Underground, learning and mastering their magic so that they’ll be able to help break the Barrier. They’re escorted by the other mages, but are mostly on their own, as they want Frisk to learn and strengthen their abilities by themselves. Frisk is pretty safe in Encounters, since monsters aren’t really enthusiastic enough to hurt them, even on accident—but maybe, depending on what they say and do, they could reignite the hopes and dreams of monsterkind…?

Potential Outcomes

No Mercy - Frisk kills all the monsters they can on the way to the Barrier. Once it’s broken, one of the mages (randomly decided each run) will turn on them. They may only be a child, but based on what they’ve just done, they’re dangerous and only bound to get more dangerous as they get older—it had to end here. The last thing Frisk hears is the mages arguing over the morality of it before everything ends… and they have the chance to RESET.

Neutral -  Frisk only kills a few monsters, or doesn’t kill anyone but does not restore everyone’s hope (major characters). When they get to the Barrier, they find that their magic alone isn’t strong enough to help break it…but the other six mages and any befriended monsters will comfort them and assure them that they can just…live down here a little bit longer. They can try again in a couple years, when their magic is stronger, it’s okay, Frisk! That’s fine, they guess, but maybe…maybe they can do better if they RESET?

True Pacifist -  Frisk kills no one and befriends/inspires all main characters. All the monsters show up to cheer them on while they and the mages attempt to break the Barrier. When Frisk’s magic alone isn’t strong enough, the monsters lend their magic too, and all together it’s enough to shatter the Barrier and let monsters and mages finally go free!

Getting the Good Ending

Asgore and Toriel have to be convinced to split--they realize that they don’t fit together anymore, at least not romantically, and after everything that’s happened, it’s time for them to move on from one another and let go of the past.

Alphys and Undyne have to be brought together-- Alphys’ resolve to reach for better things is validated by Undyne’s admiration of her, and Alphys’ belief that she’s not a bad person restores Undyne’s confidence.

Mettaton needs an enthusiastic audience for once. A cheering crowd (even just of one) is enough to make him perform better, which improves his ratings and viewership, which makes him perform better, and so on in a feedback loop of glitz and glamour until he can believe in his dreams and the Underground’s again!

Papyrus is easy-- he just needs to be told of the humans’ quest to break the Barrier. He knew it! He knew monsters were going to be free one day, somehow! And here’s the proof, a band of mages on their way to make it happen as they spoke! Take that, existential nihilist dread, optimism was right!!!

Sans is both the hardest and the easiest-- he needs you to inspire everybody else first, but then it’ll just happen on its own. When he sees all of monsterkind rallying together, having hope for once...it really makes him believe in that ‘maybe,’ more than he ever could before. Ah, hell...he’ll be rootin’ for you, too, kid!

Aesthetic Notes

Mostly muted, washed out colors and plenty of monochrome, big The Neopets Gray Paint Brush vibes.

Monster magic is mostly shades of gray: the default is white but pretty much only children too young to understand everyone’s predicament remain white. The more hopeless a monster has gotten at their worst, the darker and grayer their magic gets. It’s easier for magic to darken than to lighten, so it will take many years of living on the Surface for monster to see their magic work its way back to white, and some may never recover completely--but they can always get just a little bit better! Even if it takes time!

Asgore and Toriel: Very neat and well put together, but overwhelmingly dour--the vibe you’d expect off a very proper and serious Victorian couple. Perfectly respectable black clothing (for mourning), with little to no ostentation. Crowns are pewter instead of gold. Asgore’s hair has faded from gold to more of a dishwater blond, and his beard shows several streaks of gray. Toriel wears Chara’s locket and plucks a fresh Golden Flower every day to place behind her ear, in remembrance of her children.

Alphys: Some of the brightest colors in the Underground--but in comparison to monochrome, even the soft pink and blue pastels she favors look bright. She wears a lot of cute dresses under her lab-coat (sometimes Lolita style), and always has some kind of ribbon tied in her crest or onto her tail-- it makes her feel cute and pretty and she likes the ego boost it gives her.

Undyne: Droopy fins, scales lacking in luster. She wears her hair down, long and loose about her face, but generally has the same fashion and body type as her canon self. Her appearance is one of those things she hasn’t given up on just yet!

Mettaton: A very Apple tech-esque look, clean white and sleek minimalist lines, basically an iPad on wheels. It’s pretty, but...also kinda boring. His Ex form is a lot more fun, still a little bit of a JJ Abrams look, but with a splash of Daft Punk--the Ex form can do rainbow lights and in comparison, it’s mind-blowingly, eye-searingly flashy...and suits him so much more.

Papyrus: No battle body, and not so much of a Strapping Young Lad--he’s a little slimmer in the chest and shoulders, and dresses like the sweet Boy Next Door he is. His magic is a pearly color, almost white but with a faint tinge of gray.

Sans: Not overly different-looking, favors soft and comfy clothes, anything that’s easy to pull on and cozy enough to sleep in. Extra Rounde™, precisely one notch up from however chubby-looking you normally imagine your Sanses to be. Deep shadows beneath his eye-sockets, and eye-lights that match the color of his magic--ash gray.

Not a major character but I had a cool idea for him so

Grillby: Mostly the same, but his flame burns low and rounded, more like a match or a candle wick than a freely flickering fire.

If you made it this far through all of that, thank you for listening to my idea! That’s all I got. :3

-

ETA some other stuff, since I’ve been asked some other stuff! XD

More about Grillby

Muffet and Napstablook

The mages’ powers

Burgerpants and Nice Cream Bunny

More about Frisk and Toriel

Various Skelebros Stuff: I, II, III, IV, V, VI, VII

Monsters’ reception on the Surface

[undertalethingies]

Judge and Jury

Set after a pacifist neutral ending. (Only Asgore is dead)

Not long after the queen returned, she called a meeting of all Asgore’s old employees. It made sense to, right? Gotta figure out who’s assigned to do what and who’s got tasks they weren’t supposed to chat about and all that jazz.

Sans very nearly didn’t come. But Tori knew he worked as a sentry, so if he didn’t show, she’d notice, and he really didn’t want them finally actually meeting to be marred by her disappointment at his work ethic.

...Or that was what he’d tell other people, if they asked. Truth was, Sans’ sense of duty ran a lot deeper than he let most people pick up on. He’d always cared deeply about the kingdom and the people in it. It was why he’d been chosen as Judge, actually. Because he had both the compassion to choose mercy when it was right and the resolve to fight when necessary.

He still didn’t know whether he’d made the right decision with the human, even though he knew both Asgore and Toriel would approve, if he explained.

Not that he could explain anything to Asgore, now. 

...Dammit, he missed the big guy. And the human would still have kept going even if Sans had fought them, sure. They had too much DT to do otherwise, but it didn’t stop him from feeling like even more of a useless shit than usual.

Anyway, the meeting. He went.

Looking around, he could see that not everyone had. Two of the Hotland guards had skipped, along with the Temmies. The latter might be for the best, in all honesty. Even Sans, who was probably the most informed monster in the Underground even before Asgore kicked it, had never been made aware what exactly the Tems did. The few cryptic hints they’d given him over the years had only made him want to know less.

The attendees included all of the Snowdin Guard (including him and Papyrus, the sentries), Undyne, two guards from hotland who he didn’t know all that well, Alphys, and a couple monsters from New home who served in administrative capacities.

Toriel made a speech about how, while she would be dismantling the Royal Guard, she had plans to keep many of them on the payroll as a police force, which shouldn’t be too big a change from their previous duties. (While the Royal Guard ostensibly existed to capture humans, they fell far too rarely for an entire force dedicated solely to capturing them to make sense, so they also acted as a disciplinary force)

Sans made plans to talk with Undyne about letting Papyrus into the new force, since he doubted she’d realize that this removed any reason to keep him off. (Papyrus was pretty much the ideal cop, in Sans’ opinion. Hard to be a criminal when he was so freakin’ nice)

Undyne would be remaining the Captain, apparently. Despite her actions in attempting to capture the human, she’d been acting for the good of her people, and so long as she didn’t let “the ends justify the means” act as an excuse for cruelty again, Tori had no issue with her.

Or that’s what she said, at least. Sans suspected that it was more because Tori didn’t know anyone well enough to appoint a captain who’d be better than Undyne, so she just didn’t bother.

Then she went through the administrators, having them explain their roles and their duties. She didn’t immediately change much there, probably wanting to get a feel for how the kingdom had changed in her absence first, which seemed reasonable.

She had a brief discussion with Alphys as well, and he got the sense that there was definitely more of that to come later. Toriel seemed like the type to expect regular reports from her Royal Scientist, and Sans wondered how long she’d be able to keep the DT experiments a secret with actual oversight.

Then came the part he’d been dreading, where Toriel turned to him.

“Forgive me, old friend, but I do not actually know all of the jobs you worked for Asgore?” There was nothing but polite curiosity in her tone, and he knew she probably wasn’t expecting him to say much more than “sentry”. He’d hinted a few times that his real role is a bit more than that, which was probably the only reason she was asking at all, but he knew she’d probably never guess his real role in her wildest dreams.

“eh, fair. i kinda do a lot,” he was being deliberately vague, unable to resist delaying this revelation for just a few extra moments. Alphys met his gaze, and he could tell she understood.

“Yes, but what, precisely?” Toriel asked, getting that glint in her eye he recognized from every parent he’d ever spoken to. Say what you will about people with kids, but they knew when you dodged a question. 

“well, i’m a sentry in snowdin, waterfall, and hotland,” He was, indeed, a sentry in all of those places. It wasn’t like he was lying, just… omitting a detail. Next to him, Papyrus narrowed his eyes slightly, because Papyrus could smell Sans fudging the truth from miles away at this point. He didn’t say anything, though, since he knew it was rude to talk out of turn in a meeting like this. (Sans had briefed him, beforehand, on the social niceties that would be involved)

Toriel just looked mildly startled, presumably thinking of the commute between regions, since he’d never really talked to her about his shortcuts. (He’d never really talked to anyone about his shortcuts, just used them and let them draw their own conclusions)

“You manned three stations? That seems like quite a lot,” Heh, she had no idea. 

“eh, i manage,” He could see from Tori’s face that she doubted that, but she was polite and didn't say so. 

“S-Sans,” Oh, great. Alphys was glaring at him the way she did when he was being an idiot, and he supposed that he kinda deserved it. No way Tori wasn’t gonna ask who the Judge was at some point, y’know? It wasn’t really a role the kingdom could do without.

“I-if. If you d-don’t tell her, she’ll, she’ll find it in the r-records and then it’ll b-be awkward,” Sans looked to the side.

“i mean, bold of you to assume i wouldn’t just doctor ‘em if i wanted it to be a secret,” Several people in the room looked mildly alarmed, and he wasn’t sure why. He was only implying he had the means to easily edit some of the most highly secured documents in the kingdom, after all. Lol. 

“Sans,” Alphys hissed. He knew she was being serious because she didn’t stutter on his name at all, and she only tended to forget to when she was totally pissed. Apparently this actually mattered to her, then. Or maybe she just didn’t want him to get caught in a lie the way she had been, which was a nice sentiment, if misplaced.

“yeah, ok. so i’m not just a sentry,” He admitted. Toriel’s eyebrows drew together into a slightly concerned expression.

“Sans, exactly how many jobs do you work?”

“well, if the sentries are all separate, that’s three. then there’s the semi illegal hotdog stand, but i do that at the hotland station, so i’m not really sure if it counts as its own thing. i also do comedy gigs at mettaton’s hotel sometimes, and then there’s, uh, the one alph was talking about,” His expression slid into something vaguely sheepish and he rubbed at the back of his skull with a gloved hand. He really didn’t want to talk about this, necessary as it may be.

“And what job would that be, Sans?” Toriel asked politely. She was being nice about it, but he could tell she was getting a bit annoyed at his evasion.

Sans placed his hands in his lap, looking her straight in the eye with a serious expression. He kept his tone serious, too, so she’d know he was telling the truth.

“I’m the Judge.” He ended his sentence with a period, even though he knew it wasn’t strictly proper. He’d always liked the finalty a period conveys.

Toriel’s eyes widened, along with Undyne’s. Sans had been pretty surprised when Asgore had said he didn’t want to disclose Sans’ identity to the Captain, but the late King had explained that, while he trusted her unconditionally, he knew Sans wanted to keep his role on the downlow, and Undyne wasn’t exactly chosen for her skills at subtlety.

Sans didn’t see even a speck of surprise in his brother’s expression, which filled him with pride. He’d never outright told Pap about his job, but he’d always been more perceptive than he let on, and Sans had been pretty sure he’d known. This basically confirmed it.

“You never mentioned that,” Says Tori, looking like she felt a bit betrayed but was trying to hide it.

“nothing personal, tor. i just, uh, strongly dislike talking about it,” Sans said, attempting to reassure her. It was the truth. Sans had always loathed people who used high status positions like Judge to get extra privileges or whatever, and he disliked the fear the Judge was regarded with even more. (He’d known the old Judge, and he’d seen the way the guy got treated by those around him. It wasn’t anything he wanted for himself)

Toriel looked mollified by his admission, meanwhile Undyne was still gaping like a fish because she knew both his stats and the things he’d done during his tenure as Judge, and was probably having difficulty reconciling the two seemingly conflicting accounts in her mind.

“I see. Well, we will certainly need to discuss this later, but perhaps it might be better to do so in private,” Wonderful. At least then he’d only be revealing the extremely personal information that had to do with his job to one person, rather than literally everyone employed by Asgore.

On that note, he was pretty sure that the news of him being the Judge would be all over the underground within hours of this meeting’s conclusion, so that was fun.

Man could he not wait for the reset.

[invertedfate]

Random Ask Dump - Anniversary Edition (50+ REALLY OLD ASKS!)

Going through OLD AND CRUSTY ASKS to try and chip away at the inbox. HERE WE GOOOO...

That’s an interesting idea, and I could run it by Cake, but I think it would honestly be a LOT to track from a programming perspective. Especially ‘cause killing Sans is gonna result in a “bad ending,” so to speak.

An attempt was made by Undyne to have all three hang out at the same time. Papyrus was SUPER EAGER. ...but one thing led to another and there were many messy explosions of chemicals and lots of smoke. Alphys had to step in before things got out of hand. It was all very daunting for her. Pap and Undyne are VERY LOUD, VERY AMBITIOUS PEOPLE.

I actually have some ideas of some side comics I may do at some point! :o It’s just that right now there’s a lot going on.

I need to poke Carni about that at some point. He’s just been very busy with other projects!

Clearly he’s standing on the “out to lunch” sign.

I wanna say that it’s very possible in theory. :o It probably affects them differently since monsters’ emotional state affects their magic and their physical state.

I do like little easter eggs like that, though I’m not sure where I’d fit it in atm just ‘cause I already showed Pap’s room, haha.

I made the chase theme for Mad Dummy as well as Mad Mew Mew’s battle theme. @pinewsun​ made the battle theme for Mad Dummy, and @thomasthepencil​ made the Season Dude battle theme and MD’s overworld theme. :o

That’s a really fascinating conundrum! You’re absolutely right- if IF was a standalone game, then from a writing standpoint, having more subtle implications would make sense! The reason I chose a different approach for IF is because it’s set after Flowey’s already known to be evil and I like to give different POVs rather than stick to just Frisk’s.

That’s an interesting thing, actually- both fights lean heavily on the fourth wall. Both are treated as climaxes for their given routes. It’s funny because Asriel’s fight is a lot more straightforward and less meta by comparison.

I agree! The thing with Papyrus is that he’s extremely powerful- he just doesn’t want to kill. But it’s a deliberate choice not to kill- he’s able to force his attacks to do next to no damage. He’s also pretty darn crafty, as he made the Gauntlet himself. It really is just a case of Undyne’s personal biases and concern for him.

That was a deliberate choice. :O Papyrus is very influential toward Frisk. He is best skeleboi.

Papybot loves you, anon! He just wants to feed you WHOLESOME SPAGHETTI!!!

It is possible to whistle through teeth. ...alternatively, magic. As for the music, Undertale implies that the music is heard! Maybe it’s just... a thing that exists in this world. Or it’s just meant to be a silly meta joke. I try to keep it somewhat ambiguous other than occasional nods to it. Chara’s pants are lighter because I just... felt like it, I guess? Haha. I wanted their feet and pants to stand out more from each other, so they have khaki pants. As for the Undyne fight being animated, well, this ask is old by now, but Sparks was the one who was down for it.

Well, the teaser’s been out for a long time now, but that’s the idea! It’s also why this has been in production for so long. The Determinator has some really over the top attacks (that weren’t even shown in the teaser), and Sparks animated in Photoshop. That’s how hardcore he is.

Shhhhh. Don’t give me ideas. I’m already slacking on Tem Village. :P

Sometimes I do have slumps and burnouts (see Antipode’s lengthy hiatus), but breaks lead to me being refreshed and coming back with even more enthusiasm than before!

Oh, there are a lot of these throughout the comic. For instance...

Flowey appears in a few background shots in the Ruins!

When Sans says “or maybe...” he looks at the empty flower pot. This was one of the earliest bits of foreshadowing about who created Flowey, and nobody noticed it at the time!

The MTT vending machines initially look like this but have helpful items.

And then they look like this, with an angry face and pose- Mad Dummy has possessed them!

As of Part 38, it’s been revealed that he did first meet Asgore as “Santa.” As for whether or not he knows the truth, time will tell. :o

Oh, these are excellent suggestions for calls! I’ll try to keep these in mind.

So, I believe Glyde uses the Mysterious Door motif. Jerry uses the motif in its battle theme- I believe it’s a mix of original motif and Wrong Number song?

Sans is a master of power napping. He probably gets a decent amount of sleep, though.

There are a lot of ways to interpret Pap’s lack of sleep! In IF, he can get by without it, but he also has a lot of reasons to avoid sleeping. Some reasons include productivity but also due to a looooot of heavy baggage. More on that later.

I think sleep can definitely make monsters healthier. Rest = better mental health as well as physical health, and with how important mental and emotional help is for monsters, that’s very important!

They just really like socks. Socks are warm. Socks are slinky. And googly eyes are the best. So they took on the form of a really eccentric sock puppet and sock collector. Scandalous.

It also has Alphys’ motif, as the two are the leaders of the royal guard!

I would say the lack of Asgore as an influence has left Undyne slightly less grounded? Like, she had Toriel and Gerson in her life, but her relationship with Toriel is... definitely not quite as close? Like, Toriel by that point kept people at an arm’s length due to losing multiple children (including one from old age). So, while they were on friendly terms until the aftermath of the DT experiments and the tapes’ release, it was more like mutual respect and a sorta professional relationship with Undyne admiring Toriel and wanting to spare her from more heartache.

That is a really interesting idea. While that didn’t happen, I do need to maybe revisit the grumpy dog at some point or another. He’s still a lil’ salty.

I think in terms of layout it won’t change much, but there will be new/different content for sure. :O

Mad Dummy’s base design is mostly original, but she has a wig + headband from DIO from Jojo Part 3! Fun fact: While MTT has Kamina shades, Papyrus’ goggles are loosely based on Simon from Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann in terms of color. :O

So basically, when Asriel defeated Frisk, he had the power over the timeline to reset it as he pleased- in theory. However, that power was overwhelming for him, and due his lack of understanding OF said power and one last ditch attempt at resisting from Chara, things went wrong.

There is a track that takes some inspiration from Rage Awakened. It’s not released, and it’s not exact, but it won’t be released for a WHILE. Like until the part comes out.

I think it’s just the fact that tacos are so random. Like, my biggest beef in that regard was that OG Underswap had a lot of arbitrary replacements for things in UT and not all of them made sense. Like, if Sans was to make a foreign food, ramen would’ve made more sense due to Alphys being weeb trash, haha.

Okay, so the rough timeline iiiis... Falling: - Cyan - Green - Orange - Blue - Purple - Yellow Dying: - Cyan - Orange - Blue - Purple - Yellow - Green

You know, it’s funny because this ask is super old, but that’s basically sorta what happened. :O It became a beach-themed resort.

Never forget MTT fangirl Temmie’s pool escapades.

I think Forgespring for me because I had to make the tileset myself (it took a few months, I think?), but Aquarius was definitely in the works for a while. But once I had the tileset from Fours, the rooms were very easy to design!

That woulda been pretty rad! Maybe I can find another spot for it one day, haha.

I think for Dohj, I’d have to check with Fours, but I’m certainly not opposed at some point? Right now, the following chars can take questions: - Frisk - Papyrus - Sans - Undyne - Alphys - Napstablook - Mettaton - Asgore - Chara - Flowey

Cyan appears in Part 45! :O No answer about orange for now, tho.

I do have vague ideas for Tem village. I just haven’t had time to go back and do it.

Stay tuned and you may find out! :O

Hmmmm... I had a lot of fun with MTT SPIRAL and the Determinator, tbh. They were both very time consuming, but I love how they came out! Also, buff Jerry.

Turnabout Storm. :)

It’s a really awesome fan crossover that works way better than it should. :P

None taken! We know that with headcanons, everyone is gonna have their own interpretations. These are just the voices we liked for Fireglobe Production, but everyone has their right to their favored interpretations!

Yeah, Knight Knight is one of the coolest CORE mercs in the original game. It was fun to repurpose them for Inverted Fate as royal guards. :o It made room for unique encounters in the CORE in the form of them robots- as Undyne would rather use machines than other monsters to do her work.

Personally, I see it as an Asriel motif, but I also acknowledge that at one point it WAS gonna be an Asgore motif. Toby has a habit of just using whatever music works for a scene (see sans. at the snail farm.)

I do have a few ideas, though I won’t say for what yet. :o

He’s likely made blueprints for that train. :P

It probably would just have different flavor text/progression!

So basically, I treat the starting motif for BAaTH/Power of NEO is just a “true hero” motif.

MTT is definitely major in IF! As for whether or not he’ll have a hangout, time will tell. There’s definitely more to resolve with him, though.

I’m gonna remake at least a few of the older tracks, including Regret. My goal is just to bring the OST to a similar standard of quality.

So, animated parts coming up: Part 47, Part 49, Part 50. There may be some other parts, but we’re gonna wanna scale things back for a little bit for the sake of all our sanities.

I go with both. ;)

Honestly, probably fairly similar to the bully fight in the Ruins- which is why I ultimately decided not to do one. Both fill similar archetypes, though I think if I did do a battle, I woulda still had Flowey interrupt at the end and scare them off.

It’s a very emotional scene. Far more tragic than her geno death, IMO.

Well, the main goal in that regard is the remasters (Part 9 is in progress). Otherwise, I do think these hiatuses are good for working ahead. I’ve still gotta do more work, though, because my buffer this time around is a lot smaller from the trial-hiatus buffer. Alas!

Honestly, the website is the best thing to happen to IF. It’s allowed us to do so much with the comic’s presentation that would be impossible with imgur. NORIX IS THE BEST...

[tally-kiza]

Undyne Headcanons

UNDERTALE

- After Undyne’s parents died when she was young, she became determined to get justice for al monsters who had to die without seeing the surface. She went to Asgore to fight him so she could get into the Royal Guard, but instead Asgore trained her. It wasn’t long before she felt like a daughter to him. It warmed his broken heart. Many years passed before he finally let Undyne into the Guard. As the king expected, she quickly climbed up the ranks into captain.

- Undyne and Papyrus’s friendship is full of sarcasm and weird jokes (like that time in canon where they joked about spider-ducks); a typical offbeat humor. They also get into weird competitions with each other, like who can drink 8 glasses of milk fastest, and who can leave the biggest splatter by smashing tomatoes. Watching their chaos is... an experience.

- Undyne is her students' favorite teacher. Most consider her gym class awesome. Obstacle courses, extreme dodgeball, bench pressing the students. The kiddos, humans and monsters alike, have a blast. (Even thought she's not so good at the whole grading thing.)

- Even on the surface, where Undyne has proper recipes, she's still a terrible cook. At least her house isn't always on fire, though. Unfortunately, Alphys is also a terrible cook. She can only manage noodles and take-out. After a few months of this awful diet, they both agreed to take cooking lessons. It went swimmingly!! ...Yeah, they got kicked out after 3 classes. Undyne only barely managed to reign in her chaotic nature enough to learn how to make a salad and boil water with burning her house down.

- Owns a bunch of giant swords on the surface --- Swears like a sailor --- Hated nerdy stuff as a kid, but now is super supportive about it --- Blushes and gets a dreamy look on her face every time Alphys is mentioned; Even when they’ve been married for 20 years lol

UNDERSWAP

- She’s timid when Chara first meets them, but by the end of their journey, her passionate side really shines through. It just takes a bit for her to come out of her shell. But once she’s herself, it’s very clear how passionate and exuberant Undyne can be! Mostly about science, anime, and Alphys lol.

- Met Alphys at the dump. Undyne was looking for spare parts for her experiments when she spotted Alphys. The dino was staring at the waterfalls, contemplating her decision to be captain of the guard. Alphys never really wanted to hurt humans but she did want to free everyone, so it was a difficult decision for her. Noticing the other’s sadness, Undyne nervously introduced herself to snap Alph out of her reverie. They quickly became fast friends (and fell in love huehuehue)

- Experiments tend to go a little haywire when she’s really excited (and by haywire, i mean... explosion-inducing.) There are permanent burn marks on the walls of her lab. She doesn’t bother to clean them off anymore, not when they appear so often.

- Even more affected by the amalgamates than UT Alphys. Undyne truly thought she had saved everyone; she was so proud! But when she saw what the aftermath, she was devastated. The scientist never thought about her reputation, only how horribly she ruined them, how much pain she caused for them and their families. It was unbearable, knowing she was causing so much suffering. So Undyne hid them, not because she was worried of how people would think of her, but to prevent their families from seeing how devastated their loved ones had become. Chara reminded her, though, that she was just causing more suffering by making those families never know what had occurred.

- Undyne has been friends with Papyrus since they were kids. Shortly before he graduated, she got him an apprenticeship with the royal scientist. And even when he quit, they stayed friends, and often cook up explode-y experiments together. Both of them are still horrible cooks. ‘Dyne also has him join her to watch anime together. Pap isn’t as invested as she is, but he likes it well enough.

- Meme illiterate --- Loves side scroller games --- Can’t cook to save her life --- Plays piano for Chara when they first meet --- Met Napstablook at their cousin’s human fan club meeting. NTT felt guilty when they started distancing themself from her after they got famous, but the more time went on, the more awkward it would be if they returned, so they just.. never did... sorry...

UNDERFELL

- Papyrus is Undyne’s second-in-command and best friend. Neither of them will ever admit it, but they wouldn’t trade each other’s friendship for the world. And more so, they’re just chaotic goofballs a lot of the time. Normally Pap can calm Undyne’s hectic nature, but once she convinces him to join her mischievous plans, they are an unstoppable force of nature.

- Oddly enough, for being so chaotic and destructive, Undyne avoids fighting people as much as possible. She’ll always choose verbally de-escalating a confrontation over physically fighting any day of the week. Not because she’s a weak fighter, (no, if anything Undyne’s the strongest opponent you could ever face, second to Sans) but because she wants to minimize the bloodshed. The captain hates seeing her race at each other’s throats; it’s heartbreaking. So when it comes to monsters, she will always choose the most peaceful option until she has no other choice.

- When it comes to humans, though... ohohoho Undyne is merciless. She doesn’t even give the human the chance to run away. Frisk can’t beat her, all they can do is survive as long as possible. That is, until Pap shows up and distracts undyne while Frisk escapes. (Pap loves protecting helpless creatures, and Frisk was just too cute of a kid to let Undyne slaughter them). From there it proceeded like in canon UT: the human and Pap ran away to Hotland until Undyne passed out from the heat. Frisk stopped and gave her some water before the fish lady was revived, glared at them, and stomped back home.

- From there on, Frisk befriends her the same way as UT, except Papyrus doesn’t insist on hanging out with Undyne. In fact, he urges the human not to, but Frisk decides to go back and talk with her anyway. Pap tags along only to protect frisk! Definitely not to make up with Undyne. The hang out progressed as normal (just with ‘Dyne being a little more destructive and ranting about Paps’ betrayal for a bit), and she and Pap call up Frisk often with their usual snarky banter.

- Probably sets her house on fire on purpose. Why wait for the fire to come to her, when she can get one leg up on the fire!! Oh no... now she’s literally trying to fistfight her burning house. Can someone get a fire extinguisher!? Additionally, everything she cooks ends up on fire. Boils water? Fire. Makes a salad? Fire. Looks at a box of cereal? Fire. She’s like a Sim.

- Always gives the guard dogs pets --- Swears all the time and super crass. She doesn’t even censor herself around Frisk --- Wears her hair in a bun to prevent enemies from grabbing it during battle --- Has a very obvious crush on Alphys. Always gets shy and blushy when she talks about her. Pap teases her about it constantly

SWAPFELL

- Met Papyrus when he applied for an apprenticeship with the other Royal Scientist. The two of them quickly became fast friends: science-y, anime-loving nerds. But when Undyne started the DT experiments, Pap left. He could not in good faith sit back and watch her play god with people’s souls. They had a huge argument before he stormed out and they haven’t talked since.

- Over the course of Chara’s journey, as they have phone calls with Papyrus, and eventually Undyne, the two of them slowly begin talking things out. And by the end of the true pacifist route Pap and ‘Dyne have reconciliated and are friends again. It’s truly heartwarming!

- Rumors claim that Undyne is some kind of horrible mad scientist. Screams and shrieks are often heard emanating from the lab, surely awful and painful experiments are going on. But nobody dares go near the lab to investigate, fearing their lives... but NOPE! it’s just Undyne’s shocked wails at dramatic plot twists in her animes, and the sadness of particularly brutal scenes. Chara was terrified they met her, believing all those rumors. imagine their relief when they found out she’s just a nerd.

- Has the same motivations as US Undyne when it comes to the amalgamates, but SF ‘Dyne also hid them to try and fix them. Do more research, more experiments, anything to undo what happened! But none of it worked, so she just gave up...

- She is very curt when you first meet her, but it’s not long before that stony exterior melts away to reveal Undyne’s true form: a chaotic and excitable nerd with access to highly dangerous chemicals and explosives! ‘Dyne’s not crazy, she’s just really passionate and reckless about the things she loves.

- Loves how strong Alphys is. It’s the coolest! (But they both think they’re each the protector in their relationship lol) --- Created NTT to kill humans, but they just ignored her after she made their body, and left to pursue music instead. How rude! --- Adores vocaloid songs! Her favorite is “Paradichlorobenzene.” She even learned to play it on her piano! --- Addicted to coffee. She is VERY hyper at times. --- Tends to prefer darker animes but she secretly loves Mew Mew Kissy Cutie. No one can find out. Or else.

[swappingswap]

character positions

this is what the characters do, or how they operate in the story, along with personalities. some of these are subject to change, along with designs! this is an ongoing au after all. 

sans: papyrus swap. his goal is to join the royal guard, but not really for himself. it’s more to prove himself to his little brother, who has been in the royal guard for years. instead of puzzles, sans sets up traps around snowdin for chara to trigger. also, he is not innocent, nor does he pretend to be. he’s a dumbass bastard and he fully knows it. he is nice, but if you make him angry, he will spit in your food when you’re not looking and then serve it to you. he is also a terrible cook. if he offers a friendship meal, run. your stomach will not survive it.

papyrus: sans swap. he’s been in the royal guard for so long that it no longer phases him, so he’s grown lazy about it. he loves his job, but it doesn’t have all the glamour that it used to have. he also likes to eat healthy, balanced meals, and is an amazing cook. however, his job keeps him so busy that he doesn’t have the time to cook. 

alphys: undyne swap. big and scary, but only really when she’s in the mecha. however, while chasing chara into hotland, she trips, and instead of dehydrating, she falls into a panic attack, which chara nervously helps her through, confusing alphys. she definitely fits into the jock archetype. she isn’t in the royal guard, but she is a hometown hero for waterfall. think vigilante for alphys. despite everyone clamoring for her, she excludes herself from any social interactions as she’s made mistakes in the past that cause her to believe she doesn’t deserve any of the attention. nervous out of mecha, confident in mecha. 

undyne: alphys swap. undyne is the royal scientist, though she generally enjoys thinking up things to destroy humanity or at the very least cause harm to them. once chara falls into the underground and undyne has sights on them, she begins to make passive aggressive comments on her account on the undernet about them. she’s very stuck up at first, but as chara progresses and undyne sees that they aren’t that bad, she slowly softens and starts to help, especially after chara meets and begins to deal with the eccentric nature of napstabot. she enjoys mech anime and kaiju movies, and helped alphys make her armor. 

temmie: flowey swap. temmie does go by she/her, though asriel goes by he/him and maybe even they/them. originally, before being taxidermied, temmie was the original royal pet. she was there around the time that frisk fell and when asriel died, his dust falling on top of her. a few days later, she died as well. undyne, instead of using buttercups, decided to use the taxidermied temmie in her dt experiments, causing temmie to ‘come to life’ and become a vessel for asriel. asriel/temmie is angry because frisk was an angel, and didn’t desrve what happened to them. there are also multiple other temmies, all in queen toriels throne room. 

flowey: temmie swap. generally kept as common pets. they bounce up and down and speak basic english. you’ll see one in almost every shop and home. however, some versions, like echo, aster or golden are not generally kept as pets for a very simple reason: they have a tendency to, on some occasions, predict the future. 

toriel: asgore swap. instead of demanding the death of humans, she demands that the humans be brought to her for her to raise. however, monsters have a tendency to over estimate their magic in battle or over estimate how much humans can take, or they’re just plain terrified of humans and kill them in a moment of terror. toriel weeps over the fallen souls that are brought to her, and instead of keeping them in capsules near the barrier, she keeps them in capsules close to her so that she can watch over them and make sure that they’re safe and secure at all times. when chara gets to toris fight, shes fighting chara because she’s admittedly terrified of going up to the surface, and she doesn’t want chara to leave just yet. what would the humans think of them coming up with a teenager? probably horrible things. 

asgore: toriel swap. he lives in the ruins. gardening every inch and making rounds to make sure every flower has been watered. that’s how he finds chara and temmie. generally, he rushes humans out of the ruins, trying to convince himself that they’re evil and bad. however, every time he grows attached, and cries when the human leaves. he grew especially attached to chara.

chara: frisk swap. chara falls into the underground because they’re angry at the human world and all of the hate inside of it. they’re a severely misguided kid with a tendency to lash out at those around them and to think the worst of everyone they meet, always assuming they have an ulterior motive or that they’re evil in some way, like they think they are. their journey is about coming to peace with themselves and the world around them, and learning that not everyone is bad or out to get them and that people can and do care about them. they learn that they can be soft and trust others and that freeing the monsters would be a good thing, because even if their is evil on the surface, there’s good, too, and freeing the monsters would add to the good of the world.

frisk: chara swap. frisk is the first human to fall and befriends asriel. they become best friends, but somehow, frisk manages to actually confuse buttercups with edible food, eating them and accidentally poisoning themself. frisk is a pacifist at heart, and believes that everyone is good.

mettablook: napstablook swap. he maintains the small snail farm while also being a struggling fashion designer. his wish is to create fashion for everyone of all shapes and sizes, though it’s hard with  low amount of money, so he works many jobs around the underground, even helping asgore with his plants. the different areas of the underground also serve as inspiration for him. 

napstabot: mettaton swap. the body made by undyne was perfect in many aspects except one, its low energy combined with his own low energy. to combat this, undyne made a special charger for him, giving his body and his soul an extra pep. he makes sick beats and seems super happy and charged up, but it’s all thanks to the charger. he can also only be out for short periods of time before his charger starts running out of juice and he has to leave or else he’ll ruin his star reputation. in battle, you would win by knocking his charger off. 

grillby: muffet swap. he still doesn’t talk very much, instead preferring to play an exciting game of charades to communicate. around the underground, he owns many food carts, all ran by his fellow flames. they sell the same foods as in the game. 

muffet: grillby swap. she runs a cafe in snowdin that papyrus frequents. it’s cozy and warm, and sells tons of sweets, pastries, and warm drinks. she does not do tabs, however, and if you try to open one you will be banned from her cafe. 

[skeletorific]

Hey! I read your dissertation on Underfell and Swapfell and I was wondering how Flowey/Temmie fits into the mix. Are they still violent like their regular tale counterparts? I feel like I haven't seen as much about them in terms of their accepted characterizations.

I know i said no new asks but mmmmmf this is juicy

Underfell

Alright, so the general au concept has it that Flowey is pretty much the only person willing to ally with Frisk right out the gate. What this looks like is gonna vary from person to person, but here’s how I see Flowey in this AU.

Undertale Flowey clearly developed a proclivity towards violence, but I’d argue that’s symptomatic of his boredom more than anything else. He mentions going through various resets, and only after a lot of variations of doing nice things, like saving people and befriending them, did he decide to start mixing it up by killing people off. Its the joint privilege/curse of the RESET power. Ebott is a peaceful world filled with people simply living their lives, and in that context, after you’ve figured out what everyone’s deal is, not much is stimulating beyond “how fucked up can I make this”. In many ways, Undertale Flowey’s experience of the world is meant to act in parallel to the Players. At first, you just want to figure everyone out, find out how to get a good ending, while only later do you start abusing the resets to wipe out their memories of whatever fucked up thing you did.

I’d compare Underfell Flowey’s experience more closely with something like Dark Souls.

By the time whatever was left of Asriel woke up in Flowey, the world of Underfell had already become grimmer, more violent. I imagine that he ended up using dozens upon dozens of resets just to figure out a way to get out of the lab without getting crushed by one of Alphys’ Amalgamates or other lab defenses. And that was within the relatively isolated confines of the Lab. Once he finally figured out how to get out and hit the save point outside of her Lab, there was any number of unknowns that he has to confront.

Think about how you end up playing a really challenging videogame. Yes, technically resets are a privilege that keeps you from dying totally. But its not a privilege in the same way it is in Undertale. When you play Dark Souls, you’re not using your time to fuck around and try attacking the few non-hostile NPCs you find, abusing the lack of consequences. Instead, you try to make it through dying as few times as possible, using the knowledge gained in your last life to make it a bit further this time. Flowey is still technically powerful, yes, but he’s hanging on by a thread. He hasn’t become the delusional little god-prince we see in Undertale because he simply hasn’t had the space to become bored. When Frisk falls, he’s hiding out in the Ruins because the Ruins is an easier place to lose yourself in. He clings to Frisk because they are one of the few people who won’t attack a stranger on sight, and agrees to help them because he just wants out of this mountain.

To be clear, this wouldn’t necessarily make Flowey a good person. He’s still SOULless and still lacks the empathy and deeper emotions that Undertale Flowey lacked. In the early stages, I imagine he very much encourages Frisk to attack assailants, even offering advice on their weakpoints that he’s managed to pick up. Because in his mind, survival at all costs is the ultimate good. Death, while less final for him and Frisk than it is for most people, is still a scary setback, and especially since Frisk’s Determination has taken the RESET ability from him, he’s terrified of being killed off. However, much like for the other residents of Underfell, the child’s compassion is contagious for Flowey. While it takes some time, he eventually does his best to aid Frisk in their quest to save everyone, and even commends them for it closer to the end. In a Genocide run, however, he likely will still aid them, albeit showing great trepidation at killing Asgore and Toriel (who despite everything are still his parents). Ultimately he’ll serve as a sort of compass for the Player’s own choices.

Swapfell

Theeeeeeeere was a reason I didn’t include Temmie in my original post. The swaps as regard Asriel are…..confused. To say the least. The most common swap is with Monster Kid, but I’ve frankly always found this confusing. Like, the goat family has just a random lizard kid as their first child, and in the meantime another goat kid is wandering around? I’ve seen some versions try to explain this as MK and Frisk both being adopted, but Asriel was a biological child that was born later. Ultimately though I find this whole crisscross to be more confusion than its worth.

So, my tendency for the swap in this case is cheating a bit, but bear with me. Chara is the Player Character. Frisk is the first Fallen Human. Asriel….is still the Prince. But the swap for Asriel isn’t so much his location in the world. Instead, its in his role. In my head, the Temmie character that serves as the antagonist in Underswap and the ally in Swapfell, holds not Asriel’s memories….but Frisk’s. Meanwhile, Asriel takes on the role of Chara in Undertale. He appears to you at the end of a genocide route in Underswap to congratulate you on finally making him understand. That the only way to save his people…is to free them from this existence. He also takes on the role of narrator throughout your journey.

So, with that in mind, Temmie then houses the excess DT and basic memories of Frisk. Differentiating them from Flowey is a tricky issue, especially as Frisk didn’t really have a set personality. However, I tend to view Frisk, regardless of universe, as a person very susceptible to emotions and primarily oriented around relationships. This becomes trickier without their SOUL, but in contrast to Flowey’s playful spite, I imagine Temmie as more openly belligerent, but also more deeply compassionate with the player in the Photoshop fight. 

Swapfell Temmie, like Underfell Flowey, is an ally to the player character rather than the primary antagonist. To mix in this idea of relationship and passions, I see Temmie as bonding more quickly to the player’s ideology (whether it be Pacifism or Genocide), and more inclined to tell them to run away rather than stand and fight. This can be both good and bad. SF!Temmie doesn’t try to insist on the player killing off a Froggit in the ruins, for instance, but when Alphys collapses outside Undyne’s lab, I imagine they beg the player to leave her to die. They are more cowardly, but are also more open about their care for the Player. SOULlessness seems to entail a lack of emotions, but as we see from Undertale Flowey, it doesn’t mean they are devoid of feeling or incapable of bonding. I imagine the ghost of who Frisk used to be still ways heavily on SF!Temmie, and as a result they’re a tenacious, but timid ally. 

[zaraegis]

Over 2k Words of Elaborate Undertale Headcanons

There are like, a lot of these, and getting them into words was kinda hard

that is why it took so long

also this is five pages in Word so longpost under cut

firstly: the Void and inventories-this is largely adopted from scrollingdown’s headcanons

there is a place, or nonplace, or metaphysical state of (non)existence, called the Void. the Void is not real. Like, that’s its defining feature; it’s where paradox flotsam and reset timelines and things that aren’t real go. The universe’s garbage bin and error handler and general catchall for things that need to exist for causality reasons but don’t. And where all sorts of various random nonsense are, because everything in the Void can change, and interact with other things in the Void, including itself, and twist and change or just not affect things it normally would.

That includes all the laws of physics and common sense.

The Void is where all the deleted/dummied out rooms are, along with the Gaster followers.

It’s also the location of inventories, and the ultimate source of all magic, which leaks into the world in lines and nodes and monster souls, and the souls of humans who’ve spent enough time around monsters or in areas charged enough with the kind of magic monster souls give off/have to gain magical ability.

Inventorying something is the process of using some DT and some magic/soul power to mess the metaphysical ‘tags’ of an object, dropping it into the Void. The DT is vitally important, as it forms into an 'anchor’, keeping the Voided item from changing properties and 'encoding’ a way of fixing the corrupted metaphysics and dropping the item back into reality at will, allowing the DT to be reused at any time.

The inventory-user 'claims’ a small bit of the Void with their DT, allowing for a certain number of inventory slots. The maximum size of an item that can fit in a slot, the number of identical items that can go into the same slot, and other inventory properties vary depending on the person.

The Box System is artificial inventories, which link to the soul of whoever is using the box to help them access their items.

Putting people in inventories is possible but requires a great deal of trust; the Annoying Dog suddenly being in Frisk’s inventory was probably a bad experience! Suddenly, there is a DOG in their SOUL VOID POCKET DIMENSION and it’s not even stasised it’s awake like a party member! And it stole Toriel’s phone and took it to the Void.

The Underground is less real than the Surface, allowing Frisk/Chara to SAVE and LOAD much easier and giving a lower threshold to the ability to use magic; post-pacifist Frisk probably went a few days unable to SAVE, not because of a lack of determination but rather because all their magic was tied up in keeping their inventory working, especially without Charrator helping them.

I had to include the Charrator pun it’s so amazingly bad.

The least real area in the Underground is Waterfall, which is kind of an eldritch location. There’s the giant plank structure nobody lives in, the Temmies which are reached by phasing through a wall and walking on air, all those deleted rooms and stuff, the echo flowers including the room full of them that creeps Papyrus out so much be pretends to be a voicemail, the alien geometries of the map (look up a map of Waterfall sometime; the Disproportionately Small Gap room connects two horizontally distant rooms…with a horizontally tiny room), the weird hydrology, Gerson who leans on the fourth wall all the time and has infinite cloudy glasses implied to have belonged to a fallen human, the weird puzzle rooms like the dog artifact, the dog that gets IN THE PLAYER’S INVENTORY WHAT THE HECK and gives you some kind of…inventory virus item?? where using it fills your inventory with more dog residue items and sometimes edible items that aren’t inventory virus items??

anyway…more weird Waterfall stuff…Gaster is here, for some reason, in a hallway that is usually not there-like you normally just, skip that hallway, walking from one end of it to the other without crossing the intervening space. The disappearing water is bizarre; nothing leaves the Underground so where is the water going?  The plaques about monster history are just scattered at basically random, what the heck, why are they not all clustered on a wall or in a museum? What’s with the random abandoned statue that looks a lot like a Boss Monster that’s supposed to be holding something and is surrounded by shattered statue bits? It sorta maybe looks like a memorial statue, like the one that was in the CORE that Mettaton got rid of, but it’s just abandoned in Waterfall? Three of the four ghost monsters we see are definitely from or currently living in Waterfall, and ghosts are really weird.

And, finally: What’s with the giant black abyss in the middle of Waterfall? It’s like someone punched a hole through it into the black edges of the Void.

Or maybe that’s exactly what they did.

Gaster’s followers mention a risk of Alphys going the same way he did-which would be a really odd risk if the CORE is the creation Gaster fell into, as Alphys doesn’t really have much to do with the CORE.

It’s more likely to be something inventory-box related; Alphys links Frisk’s phone to two separate box systems, and she works with DT.

So: Alphys invented the box system. Gaster nominated her for his successor, stole most of the credit for her work, and created Something based on the box system, and it punched a hole in spacetime in the middle of Waterfall and took a significant and semi-randomly-distributed chunk of Waterfall out. 

But why would he do that?

Maybe he was hiding something. Something big, and terrible, and he wanted people not in on his dark secret anyway to be unable to find out, and his attempts to erase it from the minds of others went horribly, horribly right.

In the True lab, there is a weird machine at one point. The weird machine has, as part of its design, what looks like a dark red SOUL-like the colour Frisk’s, and presumably Chara’s, flickers to during invincibility frames.

At no point does anyone in the game acknowledge that it looks like a SOUL.

It’s entirely possible that that SOUL is Chara’s, stolen by Gaster and used as part of the CORE-the part that intersects with the True Lab.

It’s not being used to break the barrier-probably for good reason; at the end of the Asriel fight, when he breaks the barrier, he notably says he’ll break it then let everyone go free, but lets all the souls go free as he breaks the barrier, as if doing so is a required part of the process.

Also, in the epilogue walkaround, all the coffins in Asgore’s basement tomb are open and empty. Chara was taken out of theirs to be buried in the Ruins, so that’s them accounted for; but it’s like all the other fallen humans got up after Asriel broke the barrier and walked away.

My headcanon for both those weirdnesses is that the Barrier was meant to be broken by willing human magicians working together-with all the human souls willing, and at least one alive. And it has a failsafe-smashing it open with only the souls of dead humans would result in it exploding or something and bringing down the cavern roof. So Asriel had to resurrect everyone and use their power to open the Barrier at the same time-and the Barrier would react noticeably and negatively different to the soul of a dead human, such as Chara.

Their SOUL was the only one checked against the Barrier after death, and it was assumed that the process of merging a single human soul with a single boss monster soul, and then the merged soul dying again and having the boss monster part of the soul disintegrate, damaged the soul somehow and made it unfit for breaking the Barrier with. So Gaster 'borrowed’ it for 'research’ and 'scanning’.

And just didn’t give it back, instead integrating it into the CORE.

A process which woke Chara up-and let them haunt anywhere the CORE’s light and power reached.

Gaster realized that he had an angry royal spirit haunting his power generation infrastructure, and this spirit might be able to figure out how to manifest properly and tell on him, or try to murder him. But he had a solution worked out. He’d toss their mind into the Void and make people forget all about them.

His machine was more unstable than he realized. It may have even dragged in beings from the world of Deltarune and given them bizarre powers; I’ve seen theories that the skelebros, or at least Sans, are from Deltarune, which would certainly explain why Sans has a concept of Hell.

Chara was partially forgotten. Most notably, their name was totally erased; nobody except for Flowey/Asriel, raised from the dead by a massive amount of determination (metaphysical inertia, stubbornness made substance, anchors in the Void) ever uses their name, and Frisk (who overpowers Flowey, DT-wise) can fill in the name-shaped hole in reality left behind. Asgore mostly remembers having only a son, and usually doesn’t mention his adopted child because usually he doesn’t consciously remember them. It takes many monsters working together to tell the story of the Royal Siblings in even a short format, since they have to overpower the memory effect.

Chara themself was slammed into unconsciousness and remained unconscious for, possibly, years.

Until Frisk lands on their grave, and a link between their souls is formed, waking Chara up.

(The technicians working on the CORE note that they’re using less of the CORE’s capacity than they have since Alphys became Royal Scientist. Chara feels better than they have since they were alive. And Frisk thinks that wow their ghost buddy narrator sure is draining like half their magic gain. Probably necessary to help with inventory management, SAVE point management, healing at SAVE points, and all those little illusionary head’s-up display and information box things.)

(Nobody except Undyne and Flowey remembers that there didn’t use to be a Waterfall Abyss. Undyne assumes that it’s no big deal, since nobody else cares about it. Flowey’s long since given up trying to make people remember anything about how weird Waterfall used to not be.)

(And the universe tossed a random related thing into the gap of why, exactly, Alphys was royal scientist.)

Incidentally some headcanons that aren’t part of that big headcanon tangle up above-

Mt Ebott isn’t the only place that monsters are sealed away. There might be monsters already living on the surface, from other barriers being broken; or maybe there’s a big road trip in the post-pacifist future of mage humans going around breaking barriers.

Different sealing locations have different monster demographics, different monster species, etc.

Most monster species have few members and little genetic diversity per sealed population, but they do have a lot of magic-based reproductive medical tech etc; using genetic data from members of one species to shuffle genetic data of a member of another species, asari-like, to allow for cross-species reproduction is a commonish thing, as is cross-species offspring carrying.

boss monsters are either a. the result of human-monster hybridization, or b. monsters that usually have litters of kids, not just one, but…big screwed up royalty family tree+terrible luck=toriel and asgore being the last two boss monsters in the Ebott Underground and then having a singleton child

also they’re all lop-eared as babies but most of them grow out of it, toriel and asgore are baby-faced

time on the inside of a barrier tends to pass differently from time outside of the barrier, usually slower (the barriers are meant as time capsules) but eventually the temporal gradient gets too much and it gets faster inside than outside

monsters still live in the underground post-pacifist; it only goes empty during Asriel’s boss fight. at first this is just, gotta get infrastructure and stuff set up, book hotels or whatever, logistics!! you can’t pack up and leave yet, citizens, it’s a whole day’s walk at a dog monster or human’s pace to the nearest town, there are logistics

and then it was like…the surface isn’t that much better, really? not that it’s bad more like the problems the Underground had were…mostly due to being sealed off, and it’s much better now there’s things like trade, and the option to move

and then there were also climate concerns and people going Actually I’ve Lived Here For 200 Years And I Don’t Want To Change or whatever (plus, also, Gyftrot)

and so the Underground became more sparsely populated but not empty. Some of the residents are humans, moved in from the Surface, as well.

all sealed monster populations are really good at things like recycling and so on. like they basically totally obsolete the local recycling plant in like two weeks and that was all setup time.

frisk is mascot not ambassador, asgore is not actually 100% right on what the word ambassador means in English since they’re keeping up on modern English based on what wound up in the trash and that includes phrases like “ambassador animal” so asgore, naturally, assumed the word had become something more like “mascot”

[northlandian]

Undertale Questions & Answers!

Proven with FACTS and Evidence from the game.

This is something I wrote a little over a year ago. Never got around to posting till now.

(Obviously, this was before the release of Deltarune and the Switch/PS updates so some info might be missing.)

(Also yes I’m aware that most of this is common knowledge by now, lol. Still wanted to put it out there.)

When did Chara fall into the Underground?

Well, we know from the calendar we see in New Home during both True Pacifist and Genocide routes that Chara fell down near the end of the year 201X.

In New Home, a calendar can be found that apparently is from the end of 201X. During a Genocide route, Chara comments on the date circled in the calendar, saying that it was the day they arrived.

The Mt. Ebott we see in the intro to the game is also from 201X, implying that the intro is showing Chara’s fall, not Frisk’s. This is supported at the end of the True Pacifist route when we are fighting Asriel. He believes that we are Chara (due to his phone call after the true lab: “Chara? Are you there?” etc…), even though we are not, however, they are there with us (they are proven to be the “narrator” as we see near the end of the Genocide route when they start talking about themselves. This possibility is explained by them at the very end of a Genocide as them being reawakened by our Determination). Since they are there with us, they can help us recall a memory from Asriel just as Frisk had been doing with his friends to save them - and it’s the memory of when Chara fell into the underground, identical to the intro.

This same year, a memorial fountain was built in the MTT hotel, however, the statue of Mettaton erected on it was only added a week before your arrival.

Okay, so when did Frisk fall into the underground?

The year can’t be definitively pinpointed, however, there is enough evidence to give us a good idea.

Between the time that Chara and Asriel died, and Frisk fell into the Underground, six more humans fell. We are told during a Neutral route the story of Asriel and Chara, their death caused by the humans, and Asgore’s pledge to kill every last human who falls into the underground in order to break the barrier (because seven human souls are needed to break a barrier made by seven human wizards). This is also why Toriel flees to the Ruins. We also know that Frisk is human #7 because Undyne tells us so and because we can see the number of souls collected thus far when we go to fight Asgore. Finally, this is supported by the number of filled coffins we see in the basement.

Papyrus was born between the time the sixth human fell and between the time that Frisk fell (since he’s never seen a human before, and since all humans made it to Asgore’s castle, they must have passed through Snowdin) - however his age is a mystery except for one lead - his UnderNet username, CoolSkeleton95. It is possible that that “95” stands for his birth year, meaning that he could have possibly been born in the year of 2095 - almost 100 years after Chara’s fall. It would also make sense for him be born in 2095 because there is an explanation for why Toriel and Asgore would still be alive after so many years - as Gerson tells us at the end of a pacifist route, boss monsters only age as their children age. But Toriel and Asgore’s only son, Asriel, had died, therefore they wouldn’t age (Gerson also makes sure to tell us that if their child was human, it wouldn’t affect their ageing, so Chara has no impact on that).

Considering this timeframe of about 100 years, it also explains why the humans were chill with the monsters return, as we see them live out their lives on the surface in the Pacifist ending credits - they don’t really care about events that occurred over a century ago.

There’s a trophy found in Asgore’s home that states he and Toriel were the “#1 Nose Nuzzlers of ’98”, most likely 1998, as this obviously took place while they were still together, meaning before Chara’s death.

What all this means (if true) is that there are about 100 years between Chara’s fall and Frisk’s fall.

Why were the monsters banished to the Underground?

The whole “war broke out” thing is pretty vague, but there are hints throughout the game suggesting why they were really banished.

In Waterfall, there is a story about why the humans attacked. It explains that their one weakness is the strength of their soul, meaning that if a monster were to defeat a human, it can absorb its soul and become “a horrible beast with unfathomable power”. There is also a picture description. Later in Waterfall, there is also mention that no human has ever absorbed a monster soul before, however, nothing is said about the vice versa. This all points to that a monster has absorbed a human soul in the past, besides Asriel with Chara, since the glyphs are ancient. This is said to be why the humans attacked. The question is, which monster absorbed which humans soul, and there is no evidence to figure that one out, except for the fact that it was not Asgore (because we see him in the intro in what we can assume is his normal form). 

It is also clear from the intro that Asgore was alive during the war times, and so was someone who strongly resembled Frisk and Chara, yet as an adult.

The barrier requires the strength of 7 human souls to break because it was created with the power of 7 human wizards.

What are the other traits besides Determination?

Believe it or not, despite the very strong evidence that points towards 7 traits of Justice, Kindness, Patience, Perseverance, Integrity, Bravery, and Determination, it’s all still technically speculation.

When we reach the Throne Room, there is an option to go into a basement where we can find 7 coffins with 7 different soul colours on them - yellow, green, cyan, purple, blue, orange, and red. All coffins are filled except the red one, which we find out through the story told during the Neutral route and what Chara tells us in the Genocide route that it was Chara’s coffin before Toriel took their body with them to be buried in the Ruins. The colours on the coffins directly correspond with the colours and trait descriptions that show up on the flags in the ball game in Snowdin - yellow is Justice, green is Kindness, cyan is Patience, purple is Perseverance, blue is Integrity, and orange is Bravery. We can assume that these are the other traits.

Although these souls may have “traits” it is not wise to assume that these souls are limited to said trait - they might just be their strongest or most defining feature. For example, a human with a Kindness soul might not necessarily be impatient. 

We also know that each human soul did have a bit of Determination in it - it was extracted during the Determination experiments.

There is no proof to say that Determination is a more “rare” kind of soul - in fact, out of the eight humans that fell into the Underground, the majority had a Determination soul (2 of them - Frisk and Chara). It just happens to be very unique and powerful, but then again, we are not aware of the abilities of the other traits either.

It is unknown if these are the only traits, but the snowball game only outlines the six.

What’s the deal with the Determination experiments?

The Determination experiments were experiments and analyzations done on determination souls in order to break the barrier.

There is evidence to support that the DT experiments were not started by Alphys and that they were started by none other than Doctor W. D. Gaster, the previous royal scientist. By reading Mettaton’s diary entries, we find out that he used to be a ghost, and that he was friends with the monster Shyren. He writes about how her sister “fell down” recently, and then a few entries later writes about meeting Alphys at a human fan club meeting. In the true lab, we can actually see Shyren’s sister as one of the Amalgamates, meaning that she was used in the DT experiments. But here’s the thing - Mettaton was a ghost and did not even know Alphys when she fell down, and we’re told by Bratty and Catty that Alphys only became Royal Scientist after she showed Asgore her plans to make Mettaton a body. This means that Alphys was not the Royal Scientist at the time when Shreyn’s sister fell down and was being experimented on. So it had to be the previous Royal Scientist, which we are told by the Gaster Followers is Gaster. The only thing that contradicts this is the fact that Alphys straight up tells us that she was the one to start the experiments.

When we read from the lab entries, we find out that the plan was to unleash the power of the soul on the barrier in order to break it. This power cannot be created artificially, however (contrary to what we’re told by Alphys in-game), and must come from what once was living. The only things he had to work with were the monster souls and the human souls. The only problem with using a monster soul, however, is that besides boss monsters (the breed of Toriel, Asgore, and Asriel), monster souls disappear immediately after death. They had to figure out a way to make monster souls persist - and they did. It says, using the blueprints of his, they created the DT Extraction machine to extract “it” from the human souls. The substance that allows a soul to persist after death, a substance called “Determination”. The plan henceforth is to inject “Determination” into the bodies of monsters who had fallen down. The goal is that by using a vessel to support the human and monster souls, they will be able to either gather enough by keeping them alive or have enough strength within the souls to equate to a human soul, thus being able to break the barrier along with the other 6 human souls. They then need to find a vessel that will be able to absorb the human and monster souls at the same time to break the barrier when the time comes - but the catch is that humans can’t absorb human souls, and monsters can’t absorb monster souls. Therefore, he needs something that’s not human or monster. He decided to choose a flower that he believes is “special”, because it was the first one that grew, it was apparently from the outside world, and it grew right after Toriel left. They then question what will happen when something without a soul gains the will to live.

After this entry, which is entry 8, everything about the journals change. The writing style from here on out is different - less sophisticated, more panicked. It’s also in all lower case. It is my belief that this is where Alphys started taking over the DT experiments. She explains that things aren’t going well, and she’s anxious as to what to say to the families that want the bodies back to get the dust for the funerals. She also asks, “what do I do?”, further proof that she is now taking over, as she doesn’t know what she’s doing. Why she takes over here, or Gaster’s current presence in the experiments is a mystery. She then explains that the experiments on the vessel failed. After this, we can safely assume that it is definitely Alphys writing, as she talks about Mettaton and how he wants his body finished. She doesn’t know what to do, so she keeps injecting everything with “Determination”, until they open their eyes, and are alive again. It explains that they think the research is a dead end, but at least they got a happy ending out of it. They plan on sending the bodies back the following day, but then something goes wrong (“no, No, NO, NO, NO, NO”). This could be one of two things: one, the bodies of the monsters have now melted together to become the amalgamates, which does definitely happen at some point after this. This is also supported by Alphys’s entry 17, and by what she tells us when we find her, which is that monster bodies can’t handle “Determination” like human bodies, and that they melt into creatures because they can’t support it - we even see it happen to Undyne after her fight during a Genocide route; he body literally can’t handle her Determination. This is why monsters can’t be determined as well. The second thing is that Gaster has now disappeared, as evident by his journal 17. It reads in WingDings (said to be his “font”): “DARKER. DARKER. YET DARKER. THE DARKNESS KEEPS GROWING. THE SHADOWS CUTTING DEEPER. PHOTON READINGS NEGATIVE. THIS NEXT EXPERIMENT. SEEMS. VERY. VERY. INTERESTING. WHAT DO YOU TWO THINK?” These “two” leads me to my next point - entries 14 and 15, which take about the fallen monsters reawakening, the research being a bust, and how they were going to send the bodies back. These entries are written differently than both Gaster’s and Alphys’ because they use proper grammar, but they’re not as sophisticated as Gaster’s. It’s my belief that these two entries belong to the one other scientist, Sans. Although he does only speak in lower case letters, he does have a past unknown relationship with Alphys, as hinted at the end of a pacifist ending. He also has blueprints and an unknown machine in his secret lab, and he is known for loving physics and astronomy. An excuse for the proper grammar is that this is before Flowey’s reawakening, and before the time when Flowey would continuously reset. Since Sans was one of the only characters who is aware of the multiple timelines (as he eludes to during his Genocide battle with us), he could have become lazy and careless after all that time, hence why he didn’t bother with proper grammar when we speak to him. The only other lab entries after the entry 17’s discuss how the flower had gone missing, and how the families are still waiting on the bodies. Alphys then mentions how she spends all her time in the garbage dump, which we see in the Pacifist route is true, as that’s where she takes us on a date. 

We know that the DT experiments with the monsters still haunt Alphys until the time we meet her. During a True Pacifist route, she leaves the note before entering the true lab to discover “the truth”. She also eludes to it during a near-Genocide Neutral route end of game phone call with her. 

The DT experiments prove that all human souls can possess Determination since they’re extracted from the other human souls that are NOT Chara’s.

What is “Fun” Value?

Fun Value is an RNG between 1-100 the game rolls every time you start a new run. 

In theory, it looks like each number represents a different timeline, sort of similar to the “many worlds” theory (where there is an infinite number of universes for every choice and decision made). In each “timeline”, one little thing is different than the rest.

The known different occurrences to happen due to the fun value are as follows: 2-39 have a 100% chance of having a “Wrong Number Song” played to you in Snowdin; 40-45 have a 100% chance of Sans prank calling you in Snowdin; 46-50 have a 100% chance of Alphys calling you trying to order a pizza in Snowdin; 56-57 have a 100% chance of giving you nightmare mode puzzles in Snowdin; 61 has a 20% chance of having the NPC G Follower 1 show up in Hotland in front of elevator R1; 62 has a 50% chance of having the NPC G Follower 2 show up in Hotland in front of elevator L3; 63 has a 50% chance of having the NPC G Follower 3 show up in Hotland in front of elevator L2; 65 has a 50% chance of opening up a sound test room, which has a room with 4 different soundtracks, and it also includes the “Shadow Ghost Man”; 66 has a 100% chance of opening up the fake hallway but a 10% chance of giving the door that leads to “Mystery Man”; 80-89 have a 100% chance of having Clam Girl show up in Waterfall (if you speak to her at the right time, this somehow unlocks a part of Sans’s photo album in his basement if you were to get the key. Butterfly effect much?); and finally, 91-100 have a 100% chance to have “Goner Kid” show up in the moving platform room in Waterfall while Undyne is chasing you. The rest of the fun value numbers do not change anything specific.

Who is Doctor W. D. Gaster?

There is a very slim chance of encountering 1 of 3 NPC’s in the game that mentions a man named Doctor W. D. Gaster. And boy, with very little said, there is still so much to know about this guy.

The dialogue from the NPC’s, who are named G Followers 1, 2 and 3, explains that Gaster was the royal scientist before Alphys. Even though he was a slower worker than Alphys, he was brilliant, very difficult to replace, and he was responsible for creating the Core, the source of electricity for the entire Underground. But one day, he vanished without a trace; he fell into his creation and shattered across time and space. GF1 asks is Alphys will end up the same way, GF2 says he's literally holding a piece of him, and GF3 claims that he is listening.

The GF’s are found in Hotland, near the Core, outside elevators R1, L3, and L2.

As mentioned above, there is evidence to believe that Gaster is responsible for starting the DT experiments.

The “Mystery Man” sprite is believed to possibly be Gaster. If you touch him, his eyes widen and then he vanishes.

GF1 says that Gaster “fell into his creation”. This could either be the Core, or the DT extraction machine or possibly something else we don’t know of.

In the True Lab, there is no entry 17, and it can only be accessed by manipulating the game files. The entry is written in WingDings (Gaster’s “font”, which is also what the “W. D.” in his name supposedly stands for), which we can strongly assume means that Gaster wrote it.

There are many hints throughout the game and in the game files that suggest that Gaster is from a timeline that was lost. First of all, in order to even encounter the GF’s your “fun” value has to be very specific. Even to encounter the “Mystery Man”, you must roll a 66, and even then, you only have a 10% chance of even finding him. This can suggest that he was somehow erased from history. The quote from GF2 “he shattered across time and space” can also suggest that he is literally scattered throughout time, that only hints of him can come up in various timelines. Another hint is that if you are to try and name yourself “Gaster”, the game will literally either restart or crash, suggesting that it is not possible to be in any of the timelines whatsoever.

It is very hard to find a lead on how Gaster could have vanished from time by falling into one of his creations unless he created something else that we are unaware of.

It is possible he injected himself with Determination, which is why Mystery Man might appear a bit goopy (since monsters aren't capable of withstanding Determination), and why GF2 could possibly hold a piece of him.

It is claimed in the journals that there were blueprints used to create the DT extraction machine, however, if he really did write the journals, where he got these blueprints or if he created them is a mystery.

There is a possible link to Gaster with Sans. As speculated above, there is a chance that Sans was another scientist just like Alphys, at the time when Gaster was Royal Scientist, since he loves physics, and possibly wrote some of the journal entries. In the Genocide route when you fight him, he uses a weapon called a “Gaster Blaster”, another possible invention of theirs or Gaster’s. Sans also has a secret basement with a workshop, only accessible is you prove to him that you can go back to your save point. He then gives you a key to the basement (after pulling a prank on you across time and space, apparently). In it, you can find blueprints written in either an unknown language, or symbols (possibly WingDings), a broken machine, and a photo album. In the photo album, there’s a picture you can access only if you talk to the Clam Girl where it describes Sans standing with people, with the words “Don’t Forget” on it. These people could possibly be Gaster and Papyrus, or maybe Gaster and Alphys.

On Toby Fox’s twitter, he shared his original character designs for a few characters in the game. On Papyrus’s, it reads: “Has a brother named Comic Sans (aka just Sans), and a — named —”, with the —’s being blacked out. There is tons of speculation saying that it reads “Gaster”, and that he was their father, since Mystery Man resembles a skeleton, and since he also has his own font (WingDings) just like Sans and Papyrus.

There is another possible Gaster sprite, which looks like a ghostly sort of figure, who only appears once you approach him. If you attempt to talk to him, it reads *[redacted]* in wingdings. “Redacted” would imply that there was going to be a conversation there, but it was removed. If you exit the room he is found in, you end up in the sound test room, with four songs, one being “Gaster’s Theme”. If you choose to play Gaster’s Theme, you won’t be able to play any of the other songs. Once the song finishes, the game will crash.

Sometimes when you ride with the River Man, he will tell you to “beware of the man who speaks in hands”. This can refer to the man who speaks wingdings because hand symbols represent some letters in wingdings. He can also tell you to beware of the man who came from the other world.

If your “fun” value is over 90, you can encounter “Goner Kid” in Waterfall. They ask you: “Have you ever thought about a world where everything is the same… except you don’t exist? Everything functions just fine without you… Ha ha… the thought terrifies me.” This can reference the fact that the world in the Underground is going on with no mention of Gaster, as he is possibly wiped from the timelines. He then says, if you’re still holding an umbrella: “An umbrella…? But it’s not raining.” This can be referencing one of Sans’s themes, “It’s Raining Somewhere Else”, which relates to the speculation of Sans’s ties to Gaster.

How did Flowey come to life?

The story of Asriel’s death is quite sad, but Flowey’s reawakening is almost sadder.

It is revealed at the end of a Pacifist route that Flowey is, in fact, Asriel Dreemurr, King Asgore and Queen Toriel’s son. Using the 6 human souls plus literally every soul in the Underground (to equate to the strength of another human soul), he transforms into Asriel, God of Hyperdeath. The souls of your friends become memory heads, and the only way to save them is by jogging their memories with things that happened throughout the game. Once this is done, you save Asriel from himself by replaying the memory of Chara’s fall. With this, he transforms back into himself and finds out that you’re not Chara, but your real name is Frisk. He then returns the souls, but not before breaking the barrier. The monsters leave and eventually, he transforms back into the soulless Flowey.

We find out in New Home during a neutral route that Chara was the first human to fall into the Underground. Asriel finds them and brings them back to the castle. They are raised as Asriel’s brother, and Asgore and Toriel’s child. But what we didn’t know, until Asriel tells us at the end of a Pacifist route, is that Chara hated humanity and that they wanted to free monsters. The way we are told it by monsters is that Chara got sick and died, but we find out in the True Lab tapes that Chara poisoned themselves in an attempt at suicide so that Asriel could absorb their soul, cross the barrier, and get 6 more souls to break it. The power to control Asriel’s body was split between them, so Chara was the one that carried their body across the barrier into their town, to lay on the golden flowers. When the humans saw Asriel holding Chara, they thought he killed them, so they started to attack. Knowing they were capable, Chara wanted to attack back, but Asriel didn’t want to kill them, so they were stuck, taking blow after blow. Finally, they took the body back, crossed back through the barrier into the Underground, and Asriel died, his dust spreading across the golden flowers in the garden. This is when Asgore pledged to kill every human who fell into the Underground, and Toriel, appealed by this, left him to the Ruins, taking Chara’s body with her to bury in the exact spot that we fell.

This is where things get interesting - Asriel’s dust spread across a golden flower; the exact golden flower chosen for the DT experiments. We are told this story by him in New Home during a Genocide route: after injecting the flower with Determination, he reawakens because he gained the will to live. Asriel was eventually found by Asgore but was surprised to see that he was feeling absolutely no emotion for his father. At first, he tries to kill himself, but at the last second decides he doesn’t want to (because he has the will to live aka his Determination) and ends up right back at his save point. This leads into a downward spiral of trying every single possible route - from Pacifist to Genocide. He did this up until we fell into the Underground because our Determination was stronger than his - proving that the person with the most Determination gets control over the timeline.

It is likely that Sans found out about this ability of his, since he knows about past timelines. This is why the line Flowey says at the end of a neutral route about Sans (“Don’t let him find out anything about you. He’s caused my fair share of resets”) makes sense. What Sans did to him is a mystery.

How was Chara Reawakened and Able to Take Over Frisk’s Body?

Unlike the rest of the fallen children, Chara had a Determination soul. Because of this, their reawakening was possible.

Chara tells you at the end of a Genocide route that they were only able to be reawakened with your human soul, and your Determination - otherwise, it would’ve been impossible.

The point that people miss regarding their reawakening is that fact that no matter which route you take - Neutral, Pacifist, or Genocide, Chara is reawakened. This is proven due to the fact that Chara is the second-person speaker in the game: the narrator. Every time you do an action, Chara is the one that describes it. This is proven by what the “narrator” says during a Genocide route; speaking directly as who they are in some instances. We can also tell Chara is there because of the memories that are recalled. Every time you die, Chara remembers Asgore’s voice talking to them right before they die (“Chara! You have to stay determined”). While in Waterfall, there is a point where Undyne knocks you down into the garbage dump, and you are sort of “knocked out” for a second. During that brief moment, Chara remembers the moment they fell into the Underground and met Asriel. Finally, during the fight with Asriel, the only way you’re able to save him is with the help of Chara, recalling Asriel’s favourite memories with them, which brings him back to his true form.

Chara only starts to take over your body once they see your intentions of eradicating everything from the Underground (their first “take over” is in Snowdin, when they refuse to stand behind the conveniently-shaped lamp. We don’t get control in that moment). The question is, why wouldn’t they try to stop us from killing everything in the Underground if they hated humanity but cared about monsters enough to sacrifice themselves for them? It’s possible that it was because, unlike all other traits, Determination is not limited to good or evil - it can be both. Since in a Genocide route we chose the latter, and Chara fed off our Determination and our human soul, that’s why they turned into a demonic destructive child.

What makes Determination so unique then if it’s not rare?

Determination can somewhat be considered an outlier from the other traits - it has qualities only it can have.

Determination souls are the only souls that can save, load, and reset. We know this because of when Flowey tells us during a Genocide route that before we came, HE was the one who had the most determination, that he had the power to “go back” to his save point in the garden. 

Determination is the only trait that can be used for both good and evil. Take the trait patience for example; it has one objective to itself, and that it to just be patient. If your patient, the soul is strong, and if you resist, the soul will grow weaker. However, as we see in the game, Determination can be used to offer hope and love, or create a Genocide and grow LV. It doesn’t matter if it’s good or bad, as long as you’re determined, the soul will be strong.

Determination can rewake a dead Determination soul, as we see with Chara. 

Determination can allow both a human soul and monster soul to persist death. We see this with both Frisk and Undyne, and we also can tell by what was found through the Determination experiments. 

Determination is one of the strongest traits, even going so far as to melt monster bodies that possess too much of it. We see this with the amalgamates, with Undyne, and we can read about it in Alphys’s journal entry 17. It’s treated more so as something physical than a trait like the others.

It is possible that a Determination soul is defined as a soul composed of an equal amount of the 6 other traits, creating physical Determination. This theory is based on the ball game in Snowdin, where we establish the six traits with the corresponding flag colours. However, should you get a red flag, it reads: “Bravery, Justice. Integrity. Kindness. Perseverance. Patience. Using these, you were able to win at ‘Ball Game’”. This can imply that these six traits create the “red”, which is the colour of our soul, which we assume is Determination.

Is there a difference between “Fallen Down” and DEATH?

Absolutely.

Whenever we kill a monster, it immediately turns to dust, and we get XP for killing it. However we read that there is another term used if we read Mettaton’s diary, and it’s called “Fallen Down”. He writes about his friend, Shyren, and how her sister had “fell down”, also explaining how she no longer has her sister to stand up for her. This sounds like it implies that she’s dead, however, when the True Lab journals describe the monster bodies that are “fallen down”, it describes them as comatose, and that they haven’t turned to dust yet. Therefore, “fallen down” means that they are in a coma, likely to never rewake, and dust = death.

[mynameisntburgerpants]

Underswap

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

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

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

Toriel/Asgore swap:

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

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

Napstablook/Mettaton swap:

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

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

Sans/Papyrus swap:

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

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

Nice Cream Guy/Burgerpants swap:

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

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

Grillby/Muffet swap:

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

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

Undyne/Alphys swap:

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

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

Asriel/Chara swap:

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

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

[smellslikefeathers]

Who is the Mystery Man?: Theories and Speculation

Sans and Papyrus are rather mysterious characters. That’s a huge part of their appeal, and why they’re so damned popular in the Undertale fandom, Sans in particular. But even more mysterious than either of them is Dr. W.D. Gaster, the former royal scientist.

But just who or what is Gaster? Most people seem to agree that this guy is Gaster:

This sprite’s file name is “spr_mysteryman_0″ in Undertale’s game files. He’s not given a specific name, so we don’t really know if he’s Gaster or not.

But supposing he was? Or, at the very least, he was a part of Gaster?

One of the gray Gaster followers you meet as a “Fun” event in Undertale informs you that when Gaster “vanished”, he was “shattered across time and space”. That same follower claims to be holding a piece of Gaster before disappearing himself into thin air.

Let us consider that we encounter different random events in the game according to your save file’s “fun” value, which is generated with each new game or reset. This includes every event related to Gaster, like the followers and Mystery Man’s door. You can encounter more than one random event per save file. Here at this link is a chart of “fun” value events by maxdefolsch from imgur. Three of the values are of the Gaster followers. One is for the sound test room, which has Gaster’s Theme. Another is Mystery Man’s hallway, with a very tiny chance of seeing his door and being able to enter his room. Values 91 through 100 allow you to meet Goner Kid, which arguably is related to Gaster based on their Follower-esque colors and the conversation you have with them.

Oh, and of course, there is the “Wrong Number Song”, where the caller asks for someone whose name starts with “G”. Sure, they could be asking for Grillby, or Gerson, or perhaps someone else... but why would they try and hide the name of whom they’re looking for unless it’s taboo?

After all... it’s rude to talk about someone who’s listening, according to one of the followers, and to Sans on the official Undertale blog. And you wouldn’t want to disappear because of it, like that one follower did.

My point is, Gaster’s presence is in 53 different “fun” values out of a possible 100. If we regard each “fun” value as a separate timeline, then Gaster’s existence is horribly split apart across 53 different timelines. If we DON’T count Goner Kid, and they’re a separate incident from Gaster entirely, that’s still 43 timelines left over.

Mystery Man is a tiny piece of Gaster, one who barely exists at all. Hell, you can even walk through him when you enter his room, as he possesses no collision physics. He only disappears into thin air when you try to interact with him, with this expression on his face:

(By the way, this is “spr_mysteryman_1″ in the game’s files.)

But, you’re probably wondering... if Mystery Man is only a part of Gaster, what part is he? My theory about this connects way back to Toby Fox’s other game of note, his Earthbound Halloween Hack. Yeah, we’re going there.

It’s no secret that Undertale was heavily inspired by Earthbound. Toby is a huge fan of the game, and he’d actually made multiple hacks of the game under the alias “Radiation”. His Halloween Hack, however, is his most famous one, and as MatPat from Game Theory pointed out (whether you love him or hate him), it’s easy to see that Toby took quite a few ideas from the Halloween Hack and put it into Undertale.

Allow me to name some examples (and don’t worry, there IS a point to this):

Behold, an Amalgamate.

A predecessor to Flowey in Dr. Andonuts’ Magicant.

Time travel, complete with time machine (which is what many speculate to be in Sans’ workshop).

And of course:

A mad scientist resembling Uboa from Yume Nikki, a.k.a. this weird thing:

And by the way, that last screenshot? That takes place before you fight Dr. Andonuts. But you don’t fight the swearing and angry Andonuts first, remember? No, what you fight is this:

You fight The Id. What is The Id? According to Wikipedia, a person’s id is one of the three parts of Sigmund Freud’s model of the human psyche. It is the part of the human mind that is “the source of our bodily needs, wants, desires, and impulses, particularly our sexual and aggressive drives”. The id is the part of the human mind that says “I WANT”, and if left unchecked will do absolutely anything to get it, even if it’s unrealistic, destructive, or immoral. If it means getting what it wants, it will destroy everything around it. This is not because the id is evil, but because it is our most primal self. Dr. Andonuts sees himself as a monster, and his personal desires as monstrous, hence his most primal self looking the way it does.

How does this tie to Gaster, though? Well... let’s have a look at this scene from the Genocide boss fight against Sans in Undertale:

Sans has dealt with someone in the past who has allowed their id to consume them and become a destructive force. Sans knows the player will destroy the timeline if he doesn’t stop them, and he knows this because he’s dealt with this exact same situation before. The timeline Sans was originally from was destroyed by this person. This person is none other than...

Our mystery man. The Id of Dr. W.D. Gaster.

But remember how I said that there were THREE parts to Sigmund Freud’s model of the human psyche? Let’s examine the other two parts for a moment:

The Ego is the mediator between The Id and reality, seeking to find ways to please the id and grant it its desires in a realistic, organized manner. The ego utilizes “judgment, tolerance, reality testing, control, planning, defense, synthesis of information, intellectual functioning, and memory” to make sense of the person’s thoughts and the world around them. If the id was a car engine, the ego would be the driver behind the wheel.

The Super-Ego is the third part of Freud’s model, and is a direct contradiction to the id. It represents a person’s conscience, borne from societal expectations, spiritual teachings, “cultural regulations”, and morals taught to the person as they were growing up.  The super-ego strives for perfection, and shames the id for their desires. The ego uses the super-ego as a guideline to try and keep the id in check, and to set personal standards for the person to live up to.

Now, with these in mind, let’s have a look at Sans and Papyrus, who are clearly tied to Gaster by the fact they likely both own Gaster Blasters:

Now... remember how much Sans values integrity? Integrity is defined as “the quality of being honest and having strong moral principles; moral uprightness”. This alone seems to make Sans a very Super-Ego sort of guy. Unfortunately, Sans isn’t pure Super-Ego; he gives into his desires of laziness, eating junk food, and basically being a slob. It’s up to Papyrus to snap him out of those things and keep him in check. In fact... doesn’t Papyrus seem to be a far more moral person than Sans? Hell, he even refuses to kill the human when its clear they’re genocidal.

Besides, let us also remember that Papyrus uses Blue magic just like Sans, which could mean he values integrity just as much as his brother.

But what about Ego? Papyrus, for having a very passionate and driven personality, is very much Ego in the Freudian sense. He is far more organized than Sans is. Though he does get impatient, he’s a lot more tolerant than, say, Undyne. He calculates battle strategies and builds puzzles, making use of planning, defense, synthesis of information, and intellectual functioning. As for memory, there are many clues throughout Undertale that Papyrus remembers every single reset. He knew about Mettaton having “bishonen eyes” before Mettaton EX was revealed to the public. He predicted Asgore cutting a hedge in the shape of his smile. He makes a remark about the True Pacifist ending being “the worst possible ending” with a smile on his face, as if he knew there were other endings and knew they’d reached the best one. You could argue that Papyrus knows about some of this stuff through Flowey’s “predictions”, but Flowey himself has stated that Papyrus has never failed to surprise him somehow, so who knows?

So what does this all mean? Well... if I’m correct, Papyrus is physically all that is left of W.D. Gaster. Yup, you heard me. Papyrus is Gaster’s Ego and Super-Ego combined!

But wait, you ask, how on earth is that possible!?

Here’s where things get speculative: you know the DT extractor from the True Lab? The one Alphys built using blueprints, possibly from Sans’ workshop?

Take a look at that and tell me that doesn’t look like a Gaster Blaster. In other words, something Dr. Gaster would have built. I believe that, in the original timeline (the one that was destroyed), Gaster DID build the DT extractor, and was extracting human determination to experiment with.

We all know monsters melt when they have too much determination in their bodies, right? And yet, we know for a fact there is one monster who can alter reality to their whim: Sans, who can teleport at will.

It is with this in mind that it is entirely possible that Sans - who was Gaster’s lab assistant - was injected with just enough Determination to manipulate space-time so he could teleport short distances. And perhaps Gaster gave himself determination to grant himself power as well, and it worked. But as neat as the party tricks he and Sans could pull were, they weren’t enough to get past the Barrier.

How could they do that without melting? In your typical RPG, a skeleton monster is a member of the undead, once human but given life once more through the power of magic. What if skeleton monsters in Undertale can withstand more determination than most monsters because they used to be human? Wouldn’t they have more physical mass than most monsters because they were part of a human body?

After their initial failure, Gaster had reached the same conclusion as Alphys would: using monster soul power was the only way to break the Barrier. Perhaps, now that he and Sans had powerful determination, maybe their own souls would be strong enough to help?

Maybe Gaster began developing technology that could extract souls and contain them, provided the body they came from had enough determination. Gaster would inject himself with increasing amounts of determination until finally, he deemed himself able to use the soul extractor on himself. There would be just one problem: just as Alphys states in the game, it would require a great amount of power to extract a soul from a monster. Gaster would have a solution, however: Chara’s soul. Though he would dare not kill King Asgore’s child and harvest their soul, he could easily employ Chara to be a living battery for his soul removal technology. And that just might be what he did.

So, Gaster uses the soul removal tech on himself with Chara’s help. Somehow, he successfully removes his own soul from his body, but because he was so full of human determination, he did not die. He could never die, now reduced to a pile of undying goop.

However, something peculiar happened with his soul. Rather than crumble to dust, it immediately began to re-form into a new monster. a little baby skeleton. This was Papyrus. Canonly, a monster’s soul is what makes up their entire body, hence why they immediately crumble to dust when they die. And according to my theory/speculations/whatever, this is why Papyrus was born from Gaster’s soul.

So, Gaster now lacked a soul, AND his experiment was a colossal failure. His kindness, compassion, and morals now existed in a separate monster. He was now pure id without an ego or super-ego. He would pretty much go down the same path as Flowey, and end up destroying his and Sans’ timeline.

Woo... that took LITERAL HOURS to write. But these are just my own thoughts. Perhaps tomorrow I’ll talk a bit more about Papyrus.

[determineddaredevil-a]

Riskie blinks.

[ CHILDREN? ] they sign a bit hesitantly. [ DO NOT KNOW. IT IS JUST ME HERE. ]

The monster shifts. I wonder, briefly, how come we can understand him. I also wonder why I feel so strongly that he is a he.

“✌☟📪 💣✡ ✌🏱⚐☹⚐☝✋☜💧📬 ✋ 👎✋👎 ☠⚐❄ 🕈✌☠❄ ❄⚐ ✌🏱🏱☜✌☼ ☼🕆👎☜📬 ✋ 💧☟⚐🕆☹👎 ☟✌✞☜ ✌💧😐☜👎 ✋☞ ✡⚐🕆☼ 👍⚐💣🏱✌☠✋⚐☠ 🕈✌☠❄☜👎 ❄⚐ 👌☜ ☼☜✞☜✌☹☜👎📬“, he says. I cross my arms and try not to think that I am trying to shield myself. "✋ 💣☜✌☠ ☠⚐ ☟✌☼💣📪 👍☟✋☹👎☼☜☠📬 ❄⚐ ☜✋❄☟☜☼ ⚐☞ ✡⚐🕆📬 ✋☠ ☞✌👍❄📬📬📬 ✋ 🕈✌☠❄ ❄⚐ ☟☜☹🏱📬”a

There is a blink of light in his dark sockets. He looks at us. His broken mouth widens in a feeble smile, and he lowers himself a bit - maybe trying to seem less huge and intimidating. His hands shiver, grabbing his sides, and - suddenly he is trembling. Suddenly he is not so scary anymore, because it is hard to be scared of messy, shaking shapeless monsters who are probably on verge of crying.

“🏱☹☜✌💧☜📪 ☹☜❄ 💣☜ ☟☜☹🏱📬“, he says in a distorted, unearthly voice. “🏱☹☜✌💧☜📪“

Riskie looks at me. I shrug.

Don’t look at me like that, you know what I will say.

[ JUST WANTED TO MAKE SURE. ]

Okay, just do not hug him, please. You’ll never wash it off.

[ ...KILL JOY. ]

Riskie tentatively approaches the monster, and I follow them because I cannot do anything else. They reach out. The monster jerks away and stares at them, bewildered.

Riskie keeps holding their hand out.

The monster - or, well, W.D. Gaster, if that really is his name - pauses, then carefully takes Riskie’s hand into his. It cannot be too bad, because he makes another weak half-smile at them. The kid just grins back. It smells like static and broken batteries.

Then Riskie remembers that apparently, they cannot sign with one hand busy,  and they certainly do not feel like talking today, so they look at me.

I sigh. Okay. Do not make your puppy eyes at me. They do not work.

Oh, they really do! Riskie thinks triumphantly, handing me the reigns and readily fading into the background. I snort. Whatever.

“Um”, I say aloud, because I have to say something. Gaster waits, watching my face. “Greetings. I... did not expect to find you here. It is a strange place.”

Gaster nods solemnly. “✡☜💧📬 ✋❄ ✋💧📬 ❄☼🕆💧❄ 💣☜📪 ✡⚐🕆☠☝ ⚐☠☜📬📬📬 ✋❄ ✋💧 ☠⚐❄ ✌ 🏱☹✌👍☜ ✡⚐🕆🕯👎 🕈✌☠❄ ❄⚐ 💧❄✌✡ ✋☠📬“ He shakes his head, humming. His voice sounds vaguely like a tape being re-winded. “❄☟✌❄ ✋💧 🕈☟✡ ✋ ✌💣 ✌☞☼✌✋👎 ✋ 👍✌☠☠⚐❄ ✈🕆✋❄☜ 💣☜☜❄ ❄☟☜ ☠☜☜👎💧 ⚐☞ ✌ 💣☜💣👌☜☼ ⚐☞ ❄☟☜ ☼⚐✡✌☹ ☞✌💣✋☹✡📪 👌🕆❄ ✋ ☟⚐🏱☜ ✡⚐🕆 🕈✋☹☹ 🕆☠👎☜☼💧❄✌☠👎📬“

I breathe in, out. “So you have seen me. Figures. Can you sign? My ears are hurting already.”

Gaster averts his eyes and pulls his hand away from mine. [ MY APOLOGIES ], his hands sign carefully and slowly. He is much easier to understand than Riskie - they go two times faster than this on a good day. [ I DID NOT REALISE. I AM NOT USED TO COMPANY. UNFORTUNATELY, THAT COMES WITH BEING STUCK LIKE I AM. ]

I linger on that thought. “But the door is - right there. You can go out, and there’s Waterfall at the other side. Unless it does not open this way...”

Gaster shakes his head, quick enough for it to turn into a blur. [ NO, NO. IT DOES. IT WILL. FOR YOU. BUT NOT FOR ME. THAT IS MY CURSE. I AM TO STAY HERE, LEAST I DIE. ] His fingers twitch, and he has to collect himself before he goes on. [ YOU ARE... THE FIRST PERSON I TALK TO, IN WHAT FEELS LIKE AN ETERNITY. THIS ROOM IS MY TRAP. THERE IS NOTHING I CAN DO. NOTHING I CAN CHANGE. I CAN ONLY WAIT AND WATCH THE WORLD GO BY, UNALTERED BY MY ABSENCE. ]

Poor dude, Riskie mumbles in the back of my head. Most of the time they are riding shotgun they just sleep. Maybe we can help him out?

“You said you could help us”, I say, ignoring them. Not now. “What did you mean?”

Gaster sighs - like an engine shutting down.

[ YES. I DID. WHAT I MEAN IS... I SEE THAT THE LAST RESET WAS NOT VOLUNTARY. ]

I don’t know who is the one flinching right now, me or Riskie, but the flinch is violent anyway. “You know about Resets?”

[ I WATCH THEM. JUST LIKE I WATCH EVERYTHING ELSE. AND... ]

The monster in front of us appears deep in thought. There is an air of melancholy about him.

[ I AM DEEPLY INVESTED IN THIS WORLD ], he signs. [ EVEN IF MY INFLUENCE IS SHALLOW, I WANT TO SEE IT PLAY OUT. I WANT TO SEE EVERYONE HAPPY. AND I BELIEVE THE CURRENT OUTCOME CANNOT BE CALLED A HAPPY ENDING, DESPITE IT MEETING THE CRITERIA. ] I squint. [ HOWEVER, WHEN YOU HAVE ALL THE TIME IN THE WORLD, YOU LEARN... THINGS. YOU LOOK INTO THE FABRIC OF REALITY, AND YOU LEARN HOW TO EMBROIDER IT. ]

He puts up his palms, and... in between them, a golden light sparkles to life. I gawk. A perfect Save star, suspended in midair and glistening. Somehow it makes even that bleak room brighter.

“How?” I ask. Do you see that, Frisk? They do not answer. They must be sleeping already.

[ HUMANS DO NOT ALWAYS SAVE CONSCIOUSLY ], he signs, letting the star rest a few inches above the floor. [ THIS IS THE SAVE FILE FROM YOUR LAST NIGHT ON THE SURFACE BEFORE THE RESET. I TOOK IT AND KEPT IT SO I COULD RETURN IT TO YOU. ] He strokes it affectionately. [ YOU CAN USE IT. RETURN TO THE SURFACE. THIS RESET WILL BE ERASED FROM EXISTENCE. YOUR PROGRESS WILL BE RESTORED. THE MEMORIES. THE EXPERIENCES. THEY WILL ALL COME BACK. ]

I reach out to the star. I think I can see images shifting in its light. Smirking Toriel, laughing Asgore, Flowey with a content face, Undyne, Alphys, sunbathing - Riskie in clothes that fit them, with a family that loves them, happy and healthy and not thinking about death and guilt for once.

Then I stop.

“What is the price?” I ask.

Gaster smiles at me. [ I AM GLAD IT IS YOU I AM TALKING TO ], he says. [ NOT ONLY BECAUSE YOU SEEM MORE MATURE. I BELIEVE, IF YOU RESET, YOU WOULD PREFER YOUR PARTNER TO STAY IGNORANT - FOR THE SAKE OF THEIR PEACE OF MIND, OF COURSE. WELL. ] He sighs. [ MY PRICE IS SMALL. A SAVE FOR A SAVE, AND A DROP OF YOUR DETERMINATION. ]

“This is actually a lot to ask for”, I say.

[ IT IS JUST FOR OUR LITTLE SCHEME TO WORK ], he signs. [ I NEED A SAVE FILE TO REPLACE THE ONE THAT IS TAKEN, AND SOME DT TO SECURE IT THERE. OTHERWISE, IT WILL ALL FALL APART. ]

I shrug. “Let’s pretend I believed you. After all... I am trapped in here, too. It is not like I am in the right place to argue.”

Something rustles behind me. I turn around. The door is open, now.

[ YOU CAN LEAVE ANYTIME ], Gaster signs with a calm face. [ IT IS YOUR CHOICE, AND ONLY YOURS. ]

I hesitate. “Feels like a deal with the devil, but...” I could leave. The door is right there. Gaster makes no move to stop me as I slowly retreat to it. He looks forlorn but obedient.

I push the door open. He nods sadly. I set one foot forward.

Then I come back to his side, groaning.

“Fine. I... I think I cannot pass on this. But promise me you will wipe the memories of Frisk... and Flowey. He should forget what happened, too.” Forgive me, Frisk. But this is for the better. You will be happier, this way. Everyone will be. I am doing this for your own good. “What should I do?”

[ EASY ], Gaster signs. [ SIMPLY TAKE MY HAND. NOTHING MORE. ]

“Oh. I get it now. You have a thing for holding hands. How convenient”, I muse. Gaster laughs, and it is not a sound I like, but he is a monster, he has my leniency. “Okay. Here.”

We shake hands. Nothing happens. His hand feels weird. There is the sensation of a touch, but I cannot determine if it’s cold or warm, hard or soft. The abstract notion of a touch rather than the touch itself.

[ IT IS SECURED NOW ], he signs. [ YOU HAVE MADE THE RIGHT CHOICE. ]

“I hope I do. Now, what shall I...”

[ NOTHING MORE ], he signs again. [ NOW IT IS MY TURN. ]

Suddenly, his hands rush towards me-

.

...

... ...

... ... ...

Stay Determined.