#gaster sweep!!!!

[florabakeryspinger]

Fanart for @asepriterico

[mimi--writes]

Deltarune Survey Results!

Around a month after the release of Chapters 3 and 4, I made a survey asking questions related to how people felt about the Chapters and the game in general. Here are the results! 

For transparency's sake, this survey was posted onto the r/Deltarune, r/Undertale, and r/Waterfalldump subreddits, along with on this tumblr account, and the Deltarune Unofficial Discord Server. I did NOT post this server in any character or ship specific fangroups, and while this account does have some Tenna-posting, I don't really have much of a following here, so I wouldn't say that particularly influenced the vote.

If you can't see the images, the text underneath has everything important described!

By the way, if you're like me and like seeing data like this, please consider taking this survey about favorite ships.

Keep in mind that, considering the nature of this survey, there are many spoilers abound.

Anyways, on with the results!

Q: Did you enjoy Chapters 3 and 4?

Surprisingly, everyone answered yes to this one. I know I posted this in the Deltarune tag and to the Deltarune subreddit, but I really thought there'd be at least one person who said no for the hell of it, or who just really didn't like the new chapters.

Q: On a scale of 1-10, rate Chapters 3/4.

Unsurprisingly, Chapter 4 was rated higher than Chapter 3, but they were both ultimately rated very highly.

Chapter 4 had an average rating of 9.19/10.

Chapter 3 had an average rating of 8.05/10.

I kind of regret not polling on Chapters 2 and 1 for this, but then again, I feel like the general consensus on those is already pretty clear.

Q: What is your favorite Chapter?

Chapter 4 won this by a lot. Seriously, 55.9%. Over HALF of respondents liked this one Chapter the most. I was kind of doubtful, but honestly, from what I've seen, and from other polls, it checks out.

Chapters 3 and 2 were next up, with 3 beating out 2 by less than 4 percentages points.

And last is Chapter 1... it's so tiny on the graph you can barely see it, but there were people who answered it. Barely.

Q: Has your opinion of Deltarune changed after playing Chapters 3 and 4?

Most people (83.4%) said they now like Deltarune more. A good amount (15%) said their opinion is unchanged. And there were a few people (I think 1.6%?) who said they like it less now.

Yeah, that's about what I expected.

Q: Who is your favorite character?

Okay, so Susie really dominated this one (almost twice as much as Kris, the second highest option), and almost a third of the vote, which is all crazy. I'm honestly kind of surprised by how low Spamton is, though, as well as Tenna beating Ralsei.

Here's the proper ranking:

Susie

Kris

Tenna

Ralsei

Spamton

Noelle

Gerson

"I can't Choose/Tie"

Lancer

Soul/Jevil (Tied)

Queen

Rouxls Kaard/Dess (Tied)

Berdly/Gaster (Tied)

Battatt/Seam/Jackenstein/Vessel (Tied)

Gaster tying with Berdly is crazy, lol.

I have a lot of thoughts on this one in general, but I do honestly think these results have a good chance of being accurate. For reference, the ao3 statistics for fics after the chapters realeased went Kris > Susie > Tenna > Noelle > Ralsei (though it's worth keeping in mind ao3 has its own skews in userbase); while polls I've seen usually end up with Susie winning (there was this one about the taker's favorite fun gang member that had 90k votes and ended up with Susie as the clear winner but I can't find it T_T)

Q: Did your favorite character change after playing Chapters 3 and 4?

'No' just barely won. 50.4% compared to 49.6%. Checks out.

Q:Who is your favorite secret boss?

I'm gonna be honest, I... really thought Spamton NEO would sweep this. He's always been an insanely popular character, and even now, he gets a lot of discussion due to his interactions with Tenna. But, uh, the results make it clear that didn't happen. The ranking was as follows:

Gerson (38.2%)

Knight (28.7%)

Spamton NEO (22.8%)

Jevil (7.9%)

ERAM (..2.3%)

Now, I know the Knight is not a conventional secret boss, but 1. It is secretly able to be won, as you back to go back to your save file after completion to beat it, and 2. Many people do consider it to be the secret boss. Because of the arguments over this, I did put ERAM in (Forgive my silliness in calling him 'John Mantle', my defense is that I thought it would be funny), but... ERAM lost. By a lot. And honestly, I'm not surprised. I saw a lot of complaints about the Sword Route while looking online.

Q: Did You do the Chapter 3 and 4 Secret Bosses?

The first image asks for the amount of people who did the Chapter 3 Secret Boss AND whether or not they did the Sword Route, while the second simply asks for how many people did the Chapter 3 Secret BOSS. Here are the rankings:

For Chapter 3:

Yes, AND I did the Sword Route.

No, and I didn't do the Sword Route.

No, but I did the Sword Route.

Yes, but I didn't do the Sword Route.

For Chapter 4:

Yes

No

73.5% of people fought (and won against) the Knight. 77.8% of people did the Sword Route. 81.5% of people fought Gerson.

Q: Have you played the Weird Route in Chapters 3 and 4?

It was kind of surprising to see how many people haven't done Snowgrave… from the way people talk about it online I really thought it would sweep. Ranking was as follows:

Yes (barely)

No, I have never done the Weird Route.

No, but I have done the Chapter 2 Weird Route.

The majority of players have NOT completed a Weird Route all the way through Chapters 3 and 4 (59.9%).

The interesting thing to me was the "No, but I have done the Chapter 2 Weird Route" option. It's the least popular, but it kind of swings the vote, if that makes sense. the majority of takers HAVE done a Weird Route through Chapter 2, they simply didn't complete it all the way through Chapter 3 and 4. Which makes sense, considering completing the route through those Chapters would require replaying the entire chapters for a single changed cutscene, which many people (including myself) simply aren't willing to do.

That being said, I kind of wish I included a question for how many people watched the Weird Route, since I feel like the answers would be much different.

Q: How has your opinion of [X Character] changed since Chapters 3 and 4?

Now this one was interesting. Very, very interesting.

This graph is different from the others in that, instead of using a google provided graph, I made it myself, simply because I felt that this was the best way to present the data.

Here's how it works. On the survey, for each of the characters listed, I asked how the taker's opinion of them changed after playing chapters 3 and 4. Either their opinion increased, decreased, or didn't change.

I decided to simplify everything into one graph, with a y-axis ranging from -1 to 1, where a negative change in opinion counted for -1, a positive answer counted for 1, and a neutral answer counted for 0. An answer close to 1 implies almost everyone likes this character more, while an answer closer to -1 implies the opposite.

And here's the ranking:

Gerson

Susie

Ralsei

Kris

Noelle

Dess

Asgore

Spamton

Toriel

Sans

Characters in red had a negative shift in opinion after the new Chapters. Characters in green have a score higher than .5. Bolded and italicized green means a score higher than .9.

Gerson and Susie were surprisingly close for the top spot, with a 0.015 difference in their scores. The reason I find this surprising is because Gerson barely had any screentime before these new Chapters, while Susie was already a main character.

Interestingly, a good chunk of people liked Kris less (around 12.1% of takers). Of course, Kris was still overall more liked by a long shot, but I still thought that was worth noting, since that number is much higher than it is for others in the green).

I think sans and Toriel being less well-liked makes sense, considering all the discussion and controversy I've seen pertaining to the Chapter 4 ending.

Q: Select the theories you believe in.

The following theories are believed by over 50% of the community (In order of most to least believed):

Dess Knight

Flower King Dark World

Noelle will return as a party member

Susie will break the prophecy

Deltarune will have multiple endings

sans is from Deltarune

We will inhabit Noelle at some point

Ralsei will learn an offensive spell (Exactly 50%)

I honestly wasn't particularly surprised to see any of these, except for the 3.9% of people who still believe in Kris Knight. I don't get how you can still believe in Kris Knight.

Anyways, that's pretty much it for this survey! I wanted to give a mention to the person who brought up Triple Trucies theory in here, because it's really cool in my opinion, and actually does seem to hold weight!

Triple Trucies Theory - the idea that the "triple trucies" gag from ch2 was foreshadowing that: Kris is working with Carol+Knight faction (represented by Queen) Kris is working with Gamer faction (SOUL+Gaster) (represented by Berdly) Kris is working with the Fun Gang (represented by Noelle) And the fact that they didn't get a choice in the truce with Queen or Berdly, but agreed to Noelle's represents that they don't WANT to be working with the Carol/Knight or Gamer factions, but are forced to by circumstances beyond their control. And likewise they DO want to help the Fun Gang.

I really do hope you liked seeing these results. I know I did, and once again, please do consider filling out my survey on ships so I can get higher sample size. If you'd like to take a more in-depth look at the results, check out the spreadsheet here.

[bearloonz]

1. if you could pick any hometown location for a dark world what would it be. it can be as stupid and indulgent as u want

2. any ships you like? any ships you dislike?

3. what is one theory that youd really really want to be true ?

4. any character interactions youd love to see?

I think the diner could be a really cute dark world. I’m thinking like old retro themed dark world with ppl on roller skates and shit. Malt shop themed dark world.

2. I’m more neutral on suselle than the average person tbh I’m not huge on gushy teenage romance it does make me roll my eyes a little but in an endearing way. I’ve seen ppl talk about how they might not be as perfect for each other as they’re being introduced and with many things in deltarune that feel over-simplified on purpose to kind of make you question it, I’d be curious to see if we ever see any cracks in the fandom perception of suselle yuri sweep. (I think a lot abt how Noelle’s current perception of Susie and the appeal of her does partially come from the things that Susie does as a Barrier. Though they have been forming a more genuine bond which is sweet . Just makes you think!!)

other than that I can’t really think of any ships I’m incredibly invested in or dislike entirely? I do have kind of an ick for krusie especially I guess I just like it better to interpret them as friends. Normalize blushing when your friend grabs your knife by the blade because what. Why.

3. Would it be cringe of me to say I don’t invest myself in a lot of theories. I feel like a lot of conversations about deltarune theories are either way too smart for me or overreaching so hard that i lose my suspension of disbelief. That being said I hope everyone who thinks Dess and Gaster are besties in the dark are right that would be funny.

wait no I do have one. I really want it to be real that Susie isn’t actually the girl in the prophecy. I think that would do So much for her character in an interesting way and I want to see how she’d react to that. Seeing how much she hypes up how important being part of the prophecy is to her Feels like them setting her up for disappointment for her. Also anyone else think it’s kind of transgender. You’re not the girl but they don’t get to decide that actually. Make your own story. I feel like trans girl susie should be a more popular hc in general.

4. Nicecream + pizzapants interaction in chapter 5 I beg of you. Other than that idk I feel like we get so many good interactions already…

[ktdragonborn]

Another Spencer. (Chapter 4)

Carlton Lassiter X Female Reader (Shawn's Sister)

Summary: You finally moved back to California after almost 15 years away. When your mom and dad separated, your dad got Shawn and your mom took you. (Don't ask me why it's just what they agreed on). But now you're back! And you never expected to meet such a dashing Detective that would sweep you off your feet.

Characters: You, Carlton, Shawn and Gus, Juilet, Henry Spencer (dad), Madeleine Spencer (mom), Chief Karan Vick, mention of many other characters.

Warnings: None as of now! There will be smut and other graphic scenes as the story progresses.

~This story follows the show Psych. Plots from episodes are mentioned and some chapters will have you added to them. I do not own any characters from the TV Psych, just a big fan of the show and a bigger fan of our boy Lassie. I couldn't ever find something that hit my craving for Lassiter so here I am. This will also be a very long story. Very long. I'm starting it towards the end of Season 2 and plan on writing it throughout the whole show, skipping some episodes but in the end, it'll be very long.~

Please let me know what you think in the comments! Let me know if you wanna be added to the tag list too!

Spoilers for Gus and Shawn of the Dead!

Chapter 3

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

You walked into the museum with Gus and Shawn. You hadn’t been here in such a long time, so much has changed. You followed the two men aimlessly and bumped into Shawn when he stopped walking. “Here it is!” he exclaimed and pointed to the giant T-Rex skull on display.

“This is the one you guys found?”

“Sure is!” Shawn beamed and you smiled, admiring the giant skull. 

“Paleo-sluth Shawn Spencer?” Gus questioned and you looked over to the plaque describing the T-Rex. It had a picture of Shawn but nothing of note for Gus. Well except for tiny letters that said “picture by Bruton Gaster”. 

“I know,” Shawn sighed.

“I dug that thing up too.”

“Gus, I know. I was appalled myself at first- sickened really. But then I noticed, look, they didn’t totally forget you.”

“Where?” Gus questioned and you started to laugh when you looked where Shawn was pointing. 

“At least they got your name right,” you joked and Gus glared at you. 

“Well, when I gave them the info I was driving through a tunnel.”

“I want a new plaque, Shawn,” Gus started and looked at your brother, “I want it tomorrow. I want my name in big yellow letters that blink.” Shawn lifted his hands above his head and flashed his fingers to symbolize the lights. You rolled your eyes and laughed, turning to see a woman approaching you. “And why won’t you tell me what this museum case is about?” You heard Gus ask and the female started talking. 

“Gentleman, and ma’am. Thank you for coming. Mr. Spencer,” the woman said and shook your brother's hand, “very good to see you again. And you must be Mr. Gastor.”

“Guster, Burton Guster,” Gus said sternly and shook the lady’s hand. 

“Mr. Guster,” she nodded in understanding. “And you?” she offered, looking at you and shaking your hand. 

“(Y/n) (L/n). I’m Shawn’s sister.”

“Nice to meet you,” she responded and gave you a soft smile. 

“I was just giving Gasty and my sister here all the specifics,” your brother interjected. You frowned because you and Gus knew nothing about the case. 

“Yes, well the exhibit just opened yesterday without a hitch. Then the alarm went off at 3:00 AM.”

“I was here at 5:00 AM,” Shawn said, smiling at you and Gus. You mentally checked that with Carlton’s story, knowing he had to deal with your brother in the early hours.

“You were not.”

“I was, I was working.”

“Doing what?” Gus frowned. 

“It was that private case I told you and (Y/n). Look, I don’t think we should bore Ms. Bridgewell here with the complexities of our cases.” Gus and Shawn started to argue about chasing a cheating boyfriend and you looked at who you now knew at Ms. Bridgewell. 

“I’m sorry about them, this arguing is a theme. They’re like an old married couple,” you laughed and she laughed too, giving you an understanding smile.

“I’m sure you’ve grown up with it?”

“Oh, it was constant when we were kids.”

“Anyway,” Shawn started, “Shall we continue?”

“Of course,” Ms. Bridgewell said and began to walk away, leading you to the exhibit. You noticed right away how Gus was on edge when you entered the mummy room. You stopped and looked at him. 

“Still won’t break the seal?”

“I am not getting haunted today, (Y/n),” Gus shook his head and stood his ground. 

“Shawn,” you called out to your brother as he was too engrossed with Bridgewell to see his best friend. You watched Shawn and Bridgewell turn to look at you and Gus. 

“Come on dude, I thought this was over in the sixth grade.”

“What’s wrong?” Ms. Bridgewell asked, very concerned about Guster.

“He won’t break the plane of the mummy room,” Shawn explained. “He’s afraid of being cursed.”

“He’s not that far off,” Ms. Bridgewell agreed. 

“Please don’t coddle him.”

“Fact: all those guys that unearthed Tut’s tomb- cursed. They’re all dead now.”

“Gus, of course they are, that was ages ago now,” you countered and he turned his nose up at you. “I’m gonna support you Gus but just have better sources to back you up.”

“Talk all you want, but the side of facts and logic wins.”

“Facts and logic are in the corner of the guy who thinks he’s gonna get his face melted off?”

“I’m not hearing it, Shawn,” Gus said and turned away from the three of you. You sighed and started to walk over to Gus. 

“Well you wanted to check the cameras, right?” Ms. Bridgewell asked and Shawn let out a defeated sigh. 

“Will you set foot in the security camera room?” Shawn asked and Gus stepped back and moved his hands in a sort of “lead the way” motion. You chuckled slightly and Shawn walked over to you two. You started following Gus and Ms. Bridgewell led you to the security room. 

“Here it is, you have access to all the cameras currently, but the footage from the night of the disappearance has already been moved to discs which we don’t have a way to actively watch here.”

“It's alright, we have the copies of the footage at our office,” you offered and Gus sat down in the chair. Bridgewell excused herself and the two men started looking at the cameras. 

“This system is better than I thought,” Shawn started to say. “If you make it out of one room you get picked up in the next one immediately.”

“Yeah,” Gus agreed and frowned at the screens. You hoisted yourself up on the desk and turned so you could see the monitors.

“I’m gonna try to beat the system,” Shawn said and stood up, beginning to walk out of the room. 

“All I gotta do is sit here? Fine.”

“We’ll communicate on the phone so give me a call,” Shawn bumped Gus’s shoulder as he left the room and Gus was quick to stop him. 

“No. You call me, or have (Y/n) do it.”

“I can’t do it,” you defended, “I need to keep my phone available for possible client calls.”

“Well this is my work phone,” Gus countered at you and looked back at Shawn. “I’m not paying for those minutes.”

“Gus, it’s usage minutes. It doesn’t matter which one of us makes the call.”

“Just call me,” Gus said sternly and Shawn sighed and left the room. You laughed and then Shawn walked back into the room. 

“I’m sorry I just can’t get over this, it’s a monthly plan-” Shawn started and you cut him off.

“We’ll talk about it later,” you laughed and turned your attention to the screens. You and Gus spent about all day watching and finding Shawn on the screens. You were both able to spot him easily. Your phone started ringing quickly after Gus’ died. You expected it to be Shawn but it wasn’t. It was your mom. You were shocked, you thought she was still out of the country. “I gotta take this Gus, I’ll meet up with you guys later, okay?”

“Sure thing, (Y/n). See you later.” You walked out of the room and bumped into Shawn. 

“Where are you going?” 

“I gotta take this phone call, I told Gus I’d meet up with you guys later. It's late too, meet tomorrow at Psych?”

“Who’s calling?” Shawn asked and tried to look at your phone.

“It’s dad,” you lied quickly. “I’m sure he just wants to grab a bite to eat or something. Keep me updated with everything,” you said and kissed your brother on the cheek. Be safe.”

“You too, sis. See you tomorrow.”

You walked out of the museum and answered your phone on the last ring. “Hello?”

“(Y/n), what took so long?”

“Sorry, mom. I was with Shawn and Gus. I had to go outside before I could answer.”

“Why is that?”

“Mom, it's been so long since you and Shawn talked. I didn’t want it to be through me,” you explained and got into your car. 

“You always were the cautious one, Penguin.” You rolled your eyes at the nickname. Your mom had a thing for birds apparently, Shawn was Goose and you were Penguin.

“Shawn and I have been great recently and I don’t wanna ruin that. I’m choosing to stay out of any situation that could hinder our relationship.”

“How are you and your dad?”

“We’re good too. He’s been very happy to have me back in town. We’re trying to figure out weekly or bi-weekly family dinners with Shawn and Gus,” you kept talking to your mom as you started driving your car, heading to your house.

“And how is Guster?”

“He’s a pharmaceutical salesman now, and he’s quite good at him. He and Shawn run a small business together but I’ll let them tell you more about that.”

“Their friendship has always been one I admired,” you could hear your mom smiling over the phone, she did love her kids, all three of you. 

“Where are you calling from Mom? I didn’t expect to hear from you until you were back in the States.”

“I am back in the States,” she said and you felt your heart drop.

“Well, Mom, why didn’t you email me or something and let me know you were coming back home? I told you I’d meet you in Colorado for a catch-up.”

“Well, Penguin, I didn’t want to interrupt your life in California. I knew you would be popular not only with your brother and father but with others in the area. How’s your love life?”

“Mom!”

“I’m kidding Penguin, I’m kidding. I mean I know I’m right but you can tell me all about it when I see you on Saturday.”

“What?”

“Yeah, I’m coming to California. Your father didn’t tell you?”

“I’m guessing he assumed you would tell me. You and I have a different relationship than the one you have with Shawn.”

“Well your father and I were planning to get dinner on Saturday night with you and your brother,” your mom explained and you sighed deeply. “What’s wrong?”

“I can’t do dinner, unfortunately. I can get breakfast on Sunday though.”

“Why can’t you do Saturday?”

“Well, going back to my love life, I have a date on Saturday night. Normally I would move it but it’s with a detective and you of all people know how crazy their schedules can be.”

“How exciting!” Your mom exclaimed. 

“Yeah, apparently it's in the Spencer blood to fall in love with a detective.”

“You’re in love??”

“No- Mom! I was making a joke because Shawn has the hots for a different detective. Don’t you dare tell him I told you that!”

“I won’t Penguin, the secret is safe with me.”

“Why are you coming to California anyway?”

“For work, I’m doing psych evals on current and new personnel in law enforcement.”

“For how long?” 

“A couple of weeks, I’ll be going around the state but home base will be in Santa Barbara.”

“At least we’ll have plenty of time to catch up,” you said and you pulled into your driveway, parking your car and turning it off. 

“Well, I look forward to seeing you, Penguin.”

“Me too, mom. I’ll see you soon. Love you.”

“And I love you,” your mom said and you smiled as you hung up the phone call. You had decided to let your dad tell Shawn that your mom was coming into town. Especially since you weren’t gonna be able to make it to the Saturday night dinner. 

~Your worst inhibitions~

You waited for a phone call all Sunday. Trying your best to not worry about Shawn and Gus. It was odd that neither of them had called you yet. You finally decided just to go to Psych and see if they were there. When you walked in, you saw Gus sitting at his desk and Shawn was writing on the clear whiteboard they had. “What the hell guys?” you asked as you walked into the room. They both looked happy to see you as if nothing had happened. 

“(Y/n)!” Shawn exclaimed and held his arms out to you for a hug. 

“No, you don’t get a hug. I expected to hear from you guys, letting me know where to meet you!”

“Oh yeah, Gus’s phone died and I dropped mine.”

“Gus, you don’t have a personal phone?��

“No. My work phone is all I have.”

“Ridiculous,” you mumbled and sat on Shawn’s desk. “Well, tell me what I missed.”

“We found the security guard, dead in a fridge at the musem.”

“Lassiter exhumed a body,” Gus added and your jaw dropped. 

“He did what?” “He exhumed the body of that Wyles guy. Something to do with an inconclusive autopsy.”

“Okay…”

“Oh, and the security guard was strangled to death. But they couldn’t get fingerprints off of his neck because the hands were wrapped in cloth,” Shawn explained.

“And Juliet told us that the fibers weren’t from here. In fact, they were from another country, and they were old.”

“So the mummy actually killed someone?”

“That’s the leading theory we’ve got right now. And now we’re working backward.”

“Show me what you’ve got,” you said and Shawn explained everything that happened involving the mummy. After he explained that the mummy did not have any incidents at the other museums, it was clear that this museum was the problem. 

“We have to go back to the museum,” Shawn mumbled and started to gather his belongings. 

~Gonna Psych you out in the end~

“This is as close as I get to the museum, Shawn,” Gus said and planted his feet on the ground. 

“Wow, this place really messed you two up,” you mumbled and looked at Gus. Right as Shawn was about to take some steps forward a man in a wheelchair came out from behind the boxes in the loading bay. He was frowning at all of you and you had to try your best not to frown back at him. 

“My name is Shawn Spencer, I’m working with Sophie and the museum. These are my partners, Paddy Simcox and Tiny Dancer,” you and Gus both looked at Shawn before turning your attention to the man in front of you. He looked confused at your names and Shawn continued to talk to the man. “We’re wondering if you have any documentation on the arrival of the rock’em sock’em mummy.”

“Rahmentottem,” You corrected.

“Or any instances of things exploding for no apparent reason?” Gus added to the question and your brows furrowed. 

“I don’t know nothing, and I don’t think you guys should be in here,” the man said, his snark clearing dripping from his tone. Gus started to leave and you stopped him before he could get very far. 

“Maybe I should tell Sophie that you’re not being very helpful,” Shawn threatened and the man gave up more information. 

“Listen, all I have security access for is this room.”

“Well, then let us know what happens here, man!” Shawn exclaimed, his voice coming out whiney. 

“Fine,” the man gives in a little bit, very obviously annoyed with your presence. “The thing shows up, a museum rep comes and does an inspection, and then we put it out on the floor,” the man explained and Shawn spun around and discovered something.

“Dude,” he said and hit Gus’s arm. “It's a tripod, I told you that was a tripod,” he said and started jogging towards the tripod he had spotted in the grass. Gus started off after Shawn and you sighed in defeat. You muttered a thank you to the man and ran after your brother. You noticed at this point someone in a bright orange jacket running away from Shawn and Gus. You decided to run around the shrubbery, running to a parking lot. You spotted a car right next to the grass where the person in orange would have been going towards. You walked up to it and leaned against the car, smirking as the person in orange ran to the car but stopped when they saw you. Gus and Shawn ran up, close behind the person in orange. 

“I’m sorry!” she looked at you and looked back at your brother and Gus. Gus gave you a look of bewilderment, wondering how you got here so fast. “I know I promised not to shoot there anymore and I know you guys said you’d call the cops, but I only need one more night for my project to be done.”

“Your project?” Gus questioned. 

“My film project! Aren’t you guys with the…”

“Yes we are,” Shawn finished her sentence. 

“With who?”

“Whoever you think we are.”

“The museum?”

“Yes. Exactly. And you’re a film student?”

“Yes, working on the night cycle,” she said and she smiled a bit, “It's my thesis. It's just the lifecycle of a wildflower at the top of the hill.”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” Shawn interrupted her, “the name of your film is Night Cycle?”

“What’s wrong with that?” Gus asked.

“Well, it's kind of boring. Unless it’s about a motorcycle that comes to life at night and solves crime and does sweet wheelies.”

“I’d watch that,” you added and nodded with Shawn.

“Listen, the girl said to try and get back on topic. “I already told the other guy that you can hardly see the museum in the background.” You stood up straight and stared at her. 

“You have footage of the museum?”

“Yeah, but it won’t infringe on anyone's copyright, I can guarantee it.” You looked at Shawn and he looked at you with a knowing look. 

“Do you have stuff from Tuesday night?” Shawn asked.

“Yeah, but not on me,” she and you looked at Shawn and Gus, all nodding. 

“We need to see that footage.”

~I know, you know~

You all sat around the computer screen as the girl pulled up all her footage. She pulled her hair out of her hat and Shawn and Gus immediately started to pay closer attention to her. You rolled your eyes and your phone started ringing. You looked at it and saw it was Carlton. You stood up and walked into the hallway, leaning against the doorframe so you could still hear and see what Shawn and Gus were looking at. “Hello?” you answered casually, even though you were excited he was calling.

“Hi, (Y/n). It's Carlton.”

“What a welcome surprise.”

“I know, sorry to call you at such a random hour.”

“Not a problem, Detective. Is everything okay?”

“Yeah, I just wanted to know if you’d be available for breakfast tomorrow,” you smiled and thought about your day tomorrow. 

“I can, but it’d have to be pretty early. My first client tomorrow comes in at 9 AM.”

“I can make that work,” Carlton sounded happy over the phone. You smiled when suddenly Gus came charging into you, pushing you out of the way. You gasped at the impact and frowned at him. You glazed back at the computer and saw it. The mummy walking out of the museum. 

“I’m sorry Carlton, I have to go,” you said, your words leaving you slowly. “I’ll call you back in a little bit,” you said and hung up the phone before Carlton even had a chance to say goodbye. 

“Gus?” Shawn asked as you walked back to your brother. 

“He just ran past me. I can’t believe it,” you said astonished. The girl flipped to the next picture and you noticed the taillights of the van were on. “Shawn look,” you pointed. 

“Good spot, (Y/n),” your brother said and the girl moved to the next frame. The van was gone. 

“Dude, he took that van!”

“A 3,000-year-old mummy knows how to drive?” You asked sarcastically. 

“We know how he got away now,” Shawn countered and you shrugged. 

“Great, now we've got a mummy on the loose,” Gus sighed. “We need to call the police.”

“Not yet,” Shawn said and looked at the pictures as the girl cycled through them. “I know that van.”

“You know where it is?” Gus asked. 

“Unless it's moved in the last two hours, I do,” Shawn said and ran out of the room, you and Gus quickly followed. 

When you guys got back to the museum, the van was there. You were in the back of Gus’s blueberry and Shawn didn’t move his seat up for you to get out. You let out an exasperated sigh but soon the men got back in the car. You saw the van take off and Gus started turning the vehicle around. After the third time of him backing up and pulling forward you sighed. “What is this? Austin Powers?!?”

“Dude, they’re not even gonna be in California by the time you're done!” Shawn exclaimed. Shawn and Gus started arguing. Finally, Gus figured it out and you all took off after the van. It was driving down a county road, one you had never been down before. Suddenly the van made a crazy sharp turn and almost flipped. 

“Holy crap,” you whispered and Gus slowed down, parking where the van went off the road. You looked out the windshield and saw the van was crashed into a tree. 

“Come on,” Shawn said and started to get out of the car.

“I’m not going out there!” Gus exclaimed and you started to slip into the passenger seat so you could get out of the car. 

“Gus, whoever’s down there hit  a tree, they're incapacitated, they’re not moving.”

“They might need help, Gus,” you offered. Your voice was small, not expecting this night to go this way at all. 

“Alright fine,” Gus huffed and looked at Shawn. “I’m bringing my bat,” Gus said and went to his trunk to get the bat he had. You checked the car for a flashlight and found two. You and Shawn both took a flashlight as you three slowly approached the van. Your heart was pounding, and your steps were light. You shined your flashlight on the driver’s side mirror, hoping to blind any assailant that may be in there. “Guys…I think…” Gus started and trailed off. “I think this may be the most terrifying moment of my life.”

“You’re confronting it head-on. So proud of you, buddy,” Shawn whispered and stopped when he heard rustling from beyond the car. He shined his flashlight out there but you couldn’t see anything. “I think I just saw someone running away in the woods…”

“The door is cracked,” you whispered and pointed at it. 

“I don’t think anyone is here,” Shawn said and the two men approached the door more rapidly. 

“How sure are you?”

“Farily to pretty damn,” Shawn said and Gus sighed, spinning in a 360 to check his surroundings. You approached the driver's door and shined your flashlight in the window. You screamed and Gus turned around to find himself face to face with a mummy. You grabbed Gus and shoved your face into his chest. 

“Shawn?” Gus trailed off and out of the corner of his eye, he could see his best friend high tailing it back to the car. He frowned and put his arm around you. He walked you back to the car and you all got the situation. 

“That was a real mummy,” you mumbled and wrapped your arms around yourself. 

“We’ll drop you off at the office, (Y/n),” Gus said and you whispered a ‘thank you’. You needed to get to your house anyway and prepare for tomorrow. It was Monday after all. 

The drive to the office was quiet. Shawn had told Gus that once you were dropped off they needed to go to the police department right away. “Thanks, guys,” you said and got out of the car and walked towards yours.

“We’ll call you tomorrow, (Y/n),” Shawn said and gave you a smile. You nodded and waved at the two men and hopped into your car. Speaking of tomorrow, you needed to call Lassiter back. Before you called him, you looked at your schedule for tomorrow and noticed you had about a three-hour lunch, mainly because you didn’t have any clients booked for that time, but that would be a better time for you and Carlton to meet. You dialed his number and it rang for a while before he finally picked up. 

“Lassiter,” his voice was stern and tired, you could tell he had been working all day. 

“Hi Carlton, it’s me.”

“Oh, (Y/n). Sorry, I didn’t look who was calling before I answered.”

“No need to apologize I’m sure you’re busy. Sorry about hanging up on you so fast, something happened that needed my full attention.”

“Not a problem, I know you have your own life.”

“Well, I was just calling to ask if you’d rather get lunch tomorrow. It’ll give us more time than breakfast. I’m available from noon to three.”

“I can do that,” he agreed and you smiled. “I may not be able to enjoy the full three hours, even with this late shift I’ll have a lot to work on regarding this case.”

“I’m just glad I can get some time with you,” you smiled and you heard Carlton laugh. 

“Yeah, I can’t promise that my schedule with always be this forgiving.”

“Trust me, I know. I’m counting myself lucky already. My dad and mom were always struggling to find good date nights.”

“Well I-” you heard Carlton start and then you heard his name called. You could hear voices but you couldn’t tell what they were saying. “Yeah, I’ll be right there,” Carlton said and turned his attention back to you. “(Y/n), I’m sorry.”

“Go save the world, hero, I’ll call you tomorrow and figure out where we can meet up,” you said and Carlton laughed. 

“I look forward to it, see you tomorrow, (Y/n).”

“Have a good night, Carlton,” you said and hung up the phone. You took a deep breath and started your car. Tonight may have been scary but you have a bright tomorrow to look forward to.

Chapter 5.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Taglist:

.@capitanostella

[savi-our]

Chapters: 6/? Fandom: Undertale (Video Game) Rating: Mature Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence Relationships: Sans (Undertale)/Reader, Papyrus (Undertale)/Reader, W. D. Gaster/Reader Words: 29,010

AU’s - Undertale, Underfell, Underswap, Swapfell, Horrortale and perhaps more ;)

Relationships - Various x Reader, Reverse Harem Trope

☕ I know I'm late but chapter 6 is up and ready! Its a bit inner monologue heavy but I hope you'll forgive me for that. Hope you enjoy!☕

Summary:

An unfortunate accident one dark winter night sweeps you off your feet and leads you into a chance encounter with a house full of skeletons! They’re charming, witty and punny all around, but for reasons only known to you - you escape their friendliness intending to never step foot near the woods, or the skeletons, again… or that was the plan at least. What you couldn't have expected was that they're rather stubborn, and for some reason very intent on befriending you? No matter how much you avoid them or how many excuses you provide - they just keep popping up?! Why you?! Why now? And why are there so many?!

Will you be able to ward off your new skeleton suitors and keep your age old secrets, or will you succumb to their wily charms and submit yourself to their affections despite your unnatural circumstances? Will you be able to come to terms with befriending them or will you abandon it all, leaving them and all they are in the dark…

A tale as old as time, in which the reader goes through all 5 stages of grief trying to avoid the skeletons, with very little success and a ridiculous amount of shenanigans.

[amcoffey]

A Panicked Scene in the Void

Undertale Sans x Reader

Summary:

Sans couldn't remember why he was visiting Gaster in the Void. He can't help but feel like something was missing? Or maybe that someone was... (Undertale created by and owned by Toby Fox who would probably be disappointed that i'm contributing to the mischaracterization of his creations. Anyways.)

Word Count: 5,367

Tags: Angst and fluff, inaccurate science, memory loss (but recovered), isekai, Gaster is here and he's evil and a mad scientist, oooo spooky

He had been in the Void for hours.

Or at least, he thought so. Maybe it had only been 20 minutes? Sans never could tell when he was in here.

Besides, how could he keep track of time when Gaster was in front of him discussing the most fascinating topics.

“Even in this limited environment, with no tools, no funding,” Gaster made a sweeping gesture to the Void around him. “Any good scientist can learn plenty with very few resources. And there is always more to learn.” 

He was the epitome of his doctor title. With the black coat and white turtleneck, he looked poised, sophisticated. His head was held high and his hands behind his back. 

“I have often wondered if such other worlds exist.” Gaster continued as he brought a hand to his chin in thought. “To be honest I had planned to study universes after the CORE was complete.” 

“universes, plural? you mean like alternate dimensions?” 

The doctor snapped his fingers. The sound echoes across the empty space. “Exactly!” 

Sans has heard most of, if not all of this, before. But hearing it all again only intrigued him more. Everything he heard from the doctor always felt fresh to him. 

But maybe that was because the Void did weird things to his memory. Outside of the it, Sans usually had no problems with his memory. But inside was a different story. Comes with the territory. The Void, by nature, being this indeterminate in between space, is confusing. 

As a result, his memory always got a bit scrambled. Sans was reminded of this when he looked down and saw his bare arms. 

“wait,” He looked behind him and spun around in distress before he turned back to Gaster. “where’s my jacket?” 

“You set it down somewhere.” Gaster was quick to answer. He turned his head, a half attempt to look for the item, before giving up entirely. “Do not worry, it will show back up before you leave. We still have much to discuss.” 

The Void didn’t have the same effect on Gaster that it did on Sans. Years of being trapped there had caused him to be immune. If he says Sans simply set his jacket down, he was probably right. 

But something about his statement didn’t sit right.

“Sans,” Gaster interrupted the skeleton’s thoughts, bringing him back to reality. “Are you paying attention?”

“uh, yea.” The scientist in front of him looked skeptical but continued his lecture. He walked on, his voice monotone but intense. To anyone else, Gaster’s voice and the subject matter would have lulled them to sleep. Not Sans. Whatever thoughts Sans had about his jacket vanished almost entirely as he walked on, reengaged in the topic.

The mystery man played into the skeleton’s love of science. Sometimes it was difficult to keep up with the conversation, but Sans managed just fine. He could have spent hours in there talking to the man. He probably already had. He could barely remember entering the void, or why he did so in the first place. 

Sans stopped walking.

wait, why am i here?

“I would love to discuss more with you but I believe it is time for you to retire.” Gaster said as he looked to the skeleton in sympathy. “I can tell the Void has taken a toll on you. You need a break.”

As if on cue, Sans yawned. Exhaustion suddenly seeped into his bones and soul. 

“yea you’re probably right.” His usual easy smile was strained, eye bags were heavier. “lost track of time.”

“A very easy thing to do.” Gaster nodded and gestured with his hand. Sans looked behind him, where a door materialized. 

“And look! Here’s your jacket.” The scientist approached his side, Sans’ signature blue hoodie delicately draped over his arm. 

“oh thanks.” His earlier confusion returned as he set his eyes on the clothing. 

Questions ran through his mind.

you never take your jacket off. why did you take it off this time?

But within seconds, an answer unconsciously popped into his head.

because they thought it was a good idea.

He was frozen in place. Confusion clouded in his skull.

they? who are they?

“Do come again sometime, I so enjoy our chats.” Gaster urged as he unceremoniously dumped the coat into Sans' arms. 

“uh right… yea..” Sans noncommittally said as he tried to fight the feeling that something was wrong, that something was missing. 

what could possibly be missing? He tried to think as he pulled his hoodie back on. 

That’s when he felt it. Something snagged on the fabric of his sleeve as he pushed his arm through it.

"You know Sans, the next time you're here we must discuss the science behind monster's magic." Gaster fought to keep Sans' attention as the skeleton's eyes fell to a particular object. A beaded bracelet that hung loosely on his right wrist. 

Something was definitely wrong. Where did that bracelet come from?

"But of course, we can go over all this and more next time." Gaster babbled as he pushed the skeleton towards the door. "I look forward to your next visit." But Sans didn’t respond. His eyes were locked on the bracelet.

The beads were blue and purple, alternating, leading to several letter beads in the center that spelled out a name. 

why does this name sound so familiar?

“Sans, it’s time to go.” Gaster demanded and if he wasn’t so engrossed in the bracelet Sans would have heard the sharp edge to the man’s voice. 

But he was too distracted by the memory of another’s voice.

“There! In case we get separated."

His head reeled. Who was that? It was a memory of someone he had long forgotten? 

no… not long forgotten. He realized he had only forgotten them recently. 

“Sans please, I can’t have you stay for any longer. You could damage your psyche.” Gaster’s urging went ignored as more memories flooded into Sans��� head. 

He was standing outside the door in Waterfall. A person stood tall next to him, looking at the door in amazement.

“I can’t believe we’re going to see Gaster. He is the biggest mystery of the whole game!”

“yea yea,”

“Do you know how hard it is to get this door to appear? You have to have either really dumb luck or hack into the game’s files.” The person tilted their head in confusion. “I wonder why I’ve been able to find it? This has been here every reset.” 

“alright ya fanatic, time to focus.” Sans tugged on the figure’s wrist. He could feel the plastic beads of their bracelet under his phalanges. “you have to stay with me the whole time we're in there. the void can really mess with you. if we split up, we will forget each other.”

The figure narrowed their eyes. "Really?" They asked skeptically. 

"yes."

"You’ve been my favorite character for nearly a decade. You think I’m forgetting you now?” 

“it's possible." Sans felt his smile strain. "which one of us has actually been in there?" 

The figure sighed. "You." They answered. 

"exactly." He let out a tight breath. "just... stick to me ok?"

The air hung heavy, suffocating the two of them. The skeleton's nerves seemed to get to the figure. Finally they nodded.

“Don't worry, I’ll stay close.” They reassured him. "Thank you for taking me to see him."

"eh it's no biggie." Sans shrugged, failing to hide the hesitancy in his voice. "you might be right, he could know something. i just.. hate being in there. i hate what it does to my head." A shiver ran down his spine and he jolted.

The figure's eyes lit up. “Oh, I have an idea. What if I take your coat?”

Sans looked up at them in confusion. “my… coat?” 

“Yea! You never take it off. So if you lose me, you’ll know something is wrong. Better yet here,” They pulled their wrist out of Sans’ hand and slipped the beaded bracelet off. Before he could say anything, they grabbed his hand and put the bracelet on him. It had alternating blue and purple beads, surrounding beaded letters that spelled out the human's name. 

“There! In case we get separated.” He looked up and saw their beaming smile. “Let's get in there. The sooner we go in, the sooner we can leave.” 

...

Something was wrong 

Something was very wrong.

It all came flooding back to him. He arrived here with someone.

“Sans,” Gaster’s voice was hard. “You really must leave. It's time for you to go.” The mystery man reached forward to open the door. This was no longer a suggestion, it was an order.

One that the skeleton wasn't going to follow.

Sans shoots a hand of his own out and wraps it around the scientist’s arm. 

“Sans, what on earth?” Gaster tried to wrench his arm out of the skeleton's grasp. But he didn’t budge. Instead he turned to look at the man, no lights in his eyes. 

Deep inside his soul, Sans wanted to believe that the man in front of him, the doctor he found himself admiring, wouldn't lie to him. But that small part died with the knowledge that he already had.

“where. are. they?” 

“What.. ever do you mean?” Gaster inquired. But there wasn't enough confusion in his voice to convince anyone.

“i came here with someone.” Sans spoke slowly, his voice dangerously low. His glare burned. “and they seem to have vanished.” 

“Y-You came alone, I don’t know what you mean-“ 

“bullshit!” At that, the skeleton’s left eye burst out a light, strobing blue and yellow. “there was a human with me. we wanted to know if you could get them home!” It all came flooding back to him. 

How could he forget them? It seemed like such an impossible feat as his memory came back.

It couldn't have been more than a month ago when a human who fell into the Underground. But it wasn't Frisk.

Sans was nothing but confused when he first met them. And he kept observing, it became clear they knew more than they were letting on. 

He thought back to that fateful conversation, when they told him the truth. That they were from a reality where this was all a video game. 

They were really scared to tell him, they said they didn’t know how he was going to react. By this point they had a few completed runs under their belt. Each and every time they broke the barrier, the timeline reset. Without them even trying. And despite their attempts to move on, and go home, for some reason they kept falling back into the Underground. Right back where they started.

And every time there was a reset, he remembered the sheer amount of joy he’d feel when he saw them. How his soul would flutter at the sight of their smile, how he always felt at home in their presence.

And it chilled him that they were no where to be found.

Sans snapped his fingers and a series of bones circled the scientist. His head snapped around as he observed the threat in front of him.

“tell me where they are right now!" Sans demanded. "where is (y/n)?!” 

It felt like the world slowed down. Gaster's previous look of confusion and fear melted into a blank stare of indifference. Before he closed his eyes, tsked, then raised his hands in surrender.

"You got your memory back rather fast. I suppose if I don't drop the act now I will be wasting both of our time."

Sans narrowed his eyes. "why did you lie to me?"

"I had a suspicion you were soft on them." The scientist shrugged. "I couldn't have you interfere with my plans."

"what plans?"

"What a marvelous question! For another time," Gaster sneered. His air of intellectual superiority was so thick you could practically choke on it. Sans despised how calm his enemy was."Come now, you really must leave. It's for your own good."

"yea, that ain't happenin'." The bones that hung dangerously in the air moved closer to their target. "tell me where you stored them. now." In response, Gaster scoffed.

"You must know threats won't work on me right? You are embarrassing yourself right now." Without him even lifting a hand, dark tendrils shot out from the ground and grabbed the floating bones. Sans jumped out of the way just in time as his own attacks were thrown at him. The bones stabbed into the ground before the evaporated.

"Ready to give up?" Sans' never ending grin grew.

"not a chance." And before either of them could blink, Sans teleported.

"Sans!" Gaster's dangerous voice echoed as he whipped around, trying to lay eyes on the skeleton.

Said skeleton had teleported farther into the Void, and away from the exit. He was far enough away from the scientist that he was out of sight.

For now.

"They're just a human!" Gaster's voice echoed ominously throughout the space. "They were never going to offer much while alive anyways. They can't even keep the barrier open." His words were daggers into Sans' soul but he couldn't care.

focus. i need to find (y/n). how do i even do that? He was quick to suppress the panic that was rising in his soul as he ran. where could they even be? the void is infinite, and there isn't a soul in sight besides me and him... wait that's it! soul! Halting to a stop, his pink slippers skid across the ground.

focus. relax. He closed his eyes and slowed his breath. A rush of magic flew from his own soul, throughout his bones. When he felt it pool in his fingertips, he reached out and tried to feel.

He had held their soul once. It wasn't a color he had seen before and they had let him hold it.

He could still remember how it felt, how heavy and alive it was.

Blue magic encased his hand. He gently surveyed his surroundings. All he had to do was find the closest human soul to him.

It couldn't be that hard. There was only one human soul in the whole of the Void.

And, to his massive relief, he was right. He almost jumped for joy, he had found them!

But when he opened his eyes, his own soul plummeted.

He could see the outline of the human's soul.

But it was beneath the ground.

"Sans, please. Be reasonable here." Sans held in a gasp. His voice was closer than before. The skeleton had to work fast.

gaster shouldn't have yapped to me about 'the nature of the void' if he didn't want me doing this. While it was true that Sans didn't reside in the Void, and didn't hold as much power as the scientist did, he knew he could get his human out from below his feet. Quickly, Sans summoned an army of bones and stabbed them into the ground. The force of which actually caused cracks on the surface. Bits of the void chipped.

With a rough circle cut into the ground, Sans reached down and felt the human's soul once more.

c'mon! Sweat beads trailing down his skull as Sans pulled up, holding onto his magic as best he could. He was so concentrated, on trying to loosen the ground enough to pull the human out, that he didn't notice the rising ground until it knocked him off his feet. He looked up in awe at what he pulled up. It was a giant pillar, had to have been at least 8 ft tall. The walls of it was jagged and sharp. It almost looked like it was made of obsidian.

is (y/n).. in there?

It was enough of a spectacle, he almost forget about the doctor.

Almost.

“This is a once in a lifetime opportunity Sans. If anyone understands that, it has to be you.” Sans was startled as he jumped back to his feet. The scientist however was not looking at him. His attention was locked onto the pillar as he stared with adoration. “Please humor me. How often do we get concrete proof of our theories?” 

The skeleton narrowed his eyes. He didn't say anything. 

“I knew this was all a game, it had to be! No other explanation could remotely explain what I had observed but never had I any proof. Until,” Gaster spared a glance over his shoulder to the skeleton. His eyes were wide with excitement, his smile too big. He looked unhinged. 

“Until you gave them to me.” Sans froze, a new found rage taking form within him.

“we didn’t come here so that you could have a new play thing,” He seethed. “we came to see if you could get 'em home.” 

“Of course you did. How noble,” The scientist rolled his eyes. “But I'll make this simple for you: I can’t.”

“can’t? or won’t?!”

“Can’t." Gaster turned to face the skeleton. "They're as stuck in this reality, as I am stuck in this Void.” Sans felt his soul drop.

fuck... this was our best bet. It was a struggle to not show his disappointment on his face. Gaster held an awfully smug smile, it made Sans consider is he could dust a monster who was already dead.

He was certainly willing to try.

The scientist walked past the skeleton and towards the jagged structure.

"Do you know what this is?" He asked, fondness in his voice. He didn't wait for Sans to answer. “This is pure black matter. Essence of the Void around us.” Gaster stated as he tapped his knuckles against the structure. As he did, all of the jagged edges suddenly slid into place, smoothing out until what stood before them was a cylindrical tube.

“Did you know you've been here for 6 hours already?" The news stunned Sans. He knew it had been a long time since they arrived but 6 hours?! "The Void doesn't just alter your memory, time moves slower here than it does out there. And inside this chamber,” His smile held so much pride. It was unnatural. “I discovered time isn't just slow. It's completely frozen.” 

With a swish of his hand, some of the matter moved away to reveal a window inside. 

And for the first time in 6 hours, Sans finally laid eyes on them. 

“Impressive is it not?” Sans couldn’t move. He couldn’t look at the scientist. He couldn't rip his eyes away from the human trapped inside the tube.

"are... are they aliv-?" He couldn't get the words out. They were perfectly still, but their eyes were open. Their mouth was too, as if to call out to someone ahead. Their hand was reached out in desperation, a snapshot of action. 

“Technically. But that depends on how you define 'alive.'" The doctor laughed. And he was the only one. "The material of this chamber has penetrated their body and stopped all its functions. Their heart is not even beating right now. It doesn’t need to. They are perfectly captured in time. Isn't it extraordinary?!” 

they aren't moving. they aren't blinking, or breathing. His eye sight was getting fuzzy. He couldn't focus on the human but he couldn't look away. His bones shook but he wasn't cold.

“I’ll stay close.” Their voice echoed in his mind. “The sooner we go in, the sooner we can leave.” 

It was him that they were calling out for. In the seconds before they were captured. 

His eyes focused on their outstretched hand.

did i.. let go of them?

They had tried to keep their promise to him, they had tried to stay close.

But then... Gaster intervened.

He must have summoned the Void, had them swallowed up into this test tube the moment he let go.

And with them out of his sight, within seconds Sans forgot they even existed.

“w-why?” He asked, finally finding his voice. His head whipped around to Gaster. “why did you capture them?” 

“Why else?! They come from a different dimension Sans!” He answered as if it was so obvious. 

“they just want to go home.” 

“Do you think they're built the same as Frisk? Do different realities affect anatomy?” Gaster acted as if he didn’t hear Sans. He probably didn’t. “Can you even imagine the information they have stored in that little head of theirs?” Gaster gazed affectionately at them, running a hand along the surface of the tube. The void matter rippled in response. 

“Undertale is my favorite game.” They had told him back when they finally confessed everything. “But I don’t know how I got here or how to leave.”

He had asked if they even wanted to leave. They just smiled sadly.

"I don't belong here. It'll be easy on everyone if I leave." 

they had to have known that wasn't a real answer... right?

The world started to spin for Sans. They had been so busy trying to find answers that he never told them how much he wanted them to stay. He wanted to help them so much, he would have moved heaven and Earth if it meant something for them. That's why he brought them here.

But all he had done was hand this monster a new test subject. 

“Can you imagine the data we will collect from them?" Said monster was still rattling off all the questions he couldn't wait to answer. "We will start with rigorous interrogating, while they are still alive and coherent. They won't last very long in here after all. Perhaps I will be able to extend their life span if I just-"

“let them go.” Sans' low growl interrupted. He had heard enough. “now.”

Gaster sighed in disappointment. “I was really hoping you would see my vision.” The doctor sounded inconvenienced. 

“and i was hoping you would help my friend.” Sans glared. His eye sockets two black holes. “good to know we’re both disappointed.” 

The scientist fought to keep a neutral expression. “You cannot possibly imagine what their existence means to me.” Gaster stated as he moved in front of the tube, blocking the skeleton’s view. “The advancements in science, in our understanding of this world. Sans, with their soul, I might be able to come back to life!” He sounded almost like he was begging.

“i won't let that happen.”

Gaster's eyes sharpened as he ground his teeth. "Oh please, you can't be this sentimental, you're better than that Sans. Science can't accommodate your feelings in order to advance, they don't even belong here!"

Sans let out a humorless laugh. "they belong here more than you do by a long shot!" The amount of love that held for everyone in the Underground was staggering. He had seen it time and time again."there is no way in hell i am letting you lay a fucking hand on them!"

“And I'm not letting you leave here with them! They are the key to everything!” The scientist howled. “I am not giving up on my dreams!” Sans’ eyes darted to what little he could see of (Y/n) behind Gaster.

“neither am i.” In that moment he knew that he was never going to let them go. Not now, not ever. And with those words Sans felt his left eye come to life again as he summoned a blaster. Without warning, a blast shot through the air aimed to Gaster. A wave of his hands was all he needed to pull walls of dark matter from the ground and used them to block the attacks. 

More blasts aimed for Gaster's feet missed as he successfully dodged attacks. He whipped around just in time to see a secret blaster that was summoned behind him. With a grunt, and considerable amount of effort, he raised a wall tall enough to block him from the onslaught. When he turned back, he found the skeleton, out of breath. 

“That cannot be the best you’ve got.” He sneered. The skeleton sighed. With closed eyes and a smile on his face he shrugged and shook his head. 

“haven’t had to attack in a while. it's been a few months since i've needed to.” With (Y/n) around, it guaranteed no genocide runs. He really had been spoiled by their presence. “but in my defense, i just needed you to get out of the way.” Gaster’s eyes widened as he look at where he stood. He was barely a few inches to the right of the tube where the human was. But it was just enough.

“Stop!” Gaster shouted as Sans used his magic to once again grab a hold of their soul. He used all his force to pull them out of the dense chamber. Their hand popped out first, following by their head. Immediately, a gasp was heard.

"No please!" The scientist desperately tried to reach for his subject but Sans was stronger and managed to pull the human completely out of the tube and out of the way.

But once their body was finally out he suddenly found he was using too much force.

"oh shit-" He wasn't able to correct in time before the human flew into him, collapsing into his arms and knocking them both to the ground.

For a second, Sans wasn't sure if they were even alive. Maybe spending hours in that chamber stopped their heart for good. But those fears were put aside as the human started to cough in his arms, gulping for air.

“oh thank god." He couldn't help but sigh out as he hugged the human closer. "thank god."

“S-Sans?” They choked out. "What happ-"

“No!” Gaster cried out, causing all attention to go to him. Dark magic swirled around him and his eyes looked emptier than normal. “I will not let you get away!” Horrible cracking sounds echoed throughout the Void and from his feet, massive tendrils rose up around Gaster. Cracks formed on the surface of the ground and quickly reached across the distance to the skeleton and human duo. Several tendrils shot up around them, looming menacingly. (Y/n)'s eyes darted around, trying to comprehend what was happening as they and Sans were being trapped in.

“we gotta go.” Sans was on his feet in an instant, pulling the human up with him.

“Sans!” He heard Gaster call out as the two weaved through the obstacles, running towards the door. Sans couldn't believe it was still there. 

“I cannot let you leave Sans!” The human's whole body shook next to him as they ran. He could feel the shivers running through the arm that stayed in his hand.

don't let go, don't let go, don't let go. He held on so tight.

“just get to the door.” He instructed. Both to the human and to himself.

“Another opportunity like this will never come!” Gaster screamed out in desperation. The pair raced ahead, hopping over chasms that tried to swallow them whole and tendrils that dove for them.

"Sans look!" (Y/n) called out. They were still a few feet from the door when they saw it vanish into thin air.

“fuck.” The two slid to a halt. “we gotta do this the hard way huh? stay close kid.” Sans spun around and pushed the human behind him. 

“What’s the hard wa- Sans look out!” The skeleton turned to find another attack flanking him on his right. A giant wall barrelled towards them, breaking up the ground beneath it. He didn't have enough time to summon anything to defend them. Suddenly, the human scooped him up in their arms and jumped out of the way. They both crashed to the ground with Sans taking the brunt of the fall.

“Oh crap!” (Y/n) swore as clambered off of him. They hovered over him, examining any damage. “Are you ok?”  

“never better.” Sans groaned, clearly not meaning it as he rubbed his head.

"Sans!" Gaster called, sounding too close for comfort. The skeleton in question sat up. He could see the man, looking disheveled and angry. “If you leave now Sans, you can never come back!” 

“good!” Sans shouted back, his left eye blazing. "you better pray i never see you again!" He could feel the rush of magic in his bones as he quickly pulled the human into his arms. “hold on tight kid.”

With all the concentration he could muster he tried to imagine home. 

One second they were in the void, Gaster's desperate calls cutting through the air. 

Then they teleported.

And the next second, they were crashed into water. 

It took them both by surprise, but it didn’t take long to recover. The human quickly got them both to shore, lifting Sans onto the land first, before hoisting themself up. The two collapsed on land, giving themselves ample time to cough and breathe. 

Sans stayed laid on his back as he breathed, staring up. From the sound of rushing water, to the cool tones of the rocky walls, it didn’t take a rocket scientist to tell him he landed them somewhere in Waterfall. With the amount of magic he used fighting and defending, he was just happy he got them out of there. Even if his accuracy left something to be desired.

Sans let out a sigh as he turned to his human companion.

They kept coughing as they stayed laying down.

"are you ok?" They didn't answer, they just kept panting and coughing.

Sans sat up with urgency. "hey, (y/n)? it's ok, breathe. ya gotta sit up kid." He pulled them up so they sat at the edge of the water. "just keep breathing."

“What happened in there?" (Y/n) choked out in between breaths.

"breath first, questions later."

"I am breathing." They wheezed out.

"less yappin', more breathin'."

This made them laugh. Which made their cough worse.

It took a few seconds before they could breath without a vicious cough attack.

"Now can you please explain what was happening? Why were you fighting Gaster?” At the mention of the mystery man, Sans took their face into his hands and started to examine it. 

"he didn't hurt you did he? if he values his after life he better fucking not have."

"Sans I'm fine-"

“how many skeletons do you see?” They narrowed their eyes. 

“Just the one… I don’t feel hurt.”

"do you feel any-"

"Saaaaaaaans."

"sorry i.." Sans sighed in relief and placed his skull against their head. "i'm just glad you're ok."

"Why wouldn't I be? What even happened in there?" Sans lifted his head and looked into their eyes. 

"what do you remember?" They made a face. 

“Well, we walked in, he said he was expecting us, told us to come in… And then he was attacking you.”  

Sans’ expression hardened. “he’s... not gonna help us." He saw their face drop and it sent a wave of hurt into his soul.

"Oh..." He could see all the thoughts going through their head even if they didn't say anything. Gaster understood their situation better than anyone. He was their best chance at getting home.

But now, Sans could see all of their hope drain from their soul. But before he could make any attempt to comfort them, they shook their head and put on a smile.

"That's ok. We knew it was going to be a long shot anyways." It was almost too much for him to bear. Seeing them have to put on a happy face and pretend it's ok. He considered what he should do carefully. Should he pull them into a hug and tell them to let it out? Should he tell them everything was gonna be ok?

Was everything going to be ok?

Before he could decide, (Y/n) stood up.

"We should head back home and change out of these wet clothes." His hands didn't leave theirs as they pulled him up.

"yea." He finally agreed. "let's head back."

Together, hand in hand, the two walked back to the frigid land of Snowdin. Sans looked up to the human. They both were quiet, absorbing the events that just happened. 

"hey kid?"

"Yea? What's up?"

"i don't want you to go back home."

AN: Sometimes you have to write cringe one-shots to get anywhere in this thing called life.

Low key this is part of an idea for a bigger story i have been trying to flesh out. But it's not developing as fast, or as well, as i would like so don't expect the full thing anytime soon. If ever.

I loved this scene too much though that i couldn't keep it to myself.

[random-autie-fangirl]

For @casiashipz 's Friskriel week: Day 6-Wedding

"...And there! ...You look beautiful, hero! Now...I do believe you have a blushing groom to sweep off his feet..."

Getting ready for the big day, with help from Chara cause I feel like I've been a bit too mean to them this week. Post pacifist is literally my Chara redemption timeline after all!

It's fun to imagine Flowey having like a big ol humanoid (goat monsteroid?) plant golem form for things like this, so he can dress up too!

Also, it's Halloween! I have this headcanon that during Halloween, any ghosts or lingering spirits become like... visible and audible and free to move! This means Chara can properly attend, neither having to hang over Frisk's shoulder constantly or to skip their brother's wedding entirely!

...And Gaster also gets to attend, being the one member of the skelefam Frisk only gets to see once a year

[snowmeow03]

I actually wrote an (almost) complete (still lack of specific level design and some of the encounters) Arknights Integrated Strategy dlc of dt8 called Determination's Loom of Fate but since no one online actually knows about it (I still haven't posted this au's full setting), I can never post it

actually I wonder if there is really anyone interested in both Arknights and handplates...?

since this is fandom of au of handplates I really think perhaps it's more Arknights than handplates (the plot still based on dt8 through), I've tried my best to make this Integrated Strategy's setting sounds playable and like an actual dlc

I don't even have any pictures to put since I can't draw things in Arknights' style

I'll just put Gaster's setting as a boss here for anyone who sees this as some random fandom thingy (what am I saying)(He shall be not very difficult since he only appears in a sort-of story mission)

Gaster, Old Memories

Attack Type: Arts, Ranged

Attack Range: Global

Skills:

Past-Normal attacks do not target Asgore, Toriel or Alphys. Attack drastically decreases upon defeating any allied Boss unit.

War-Increases damage taken for a period after entering the map.

Karma-Locks onto the allied unit with the highest current HP. Deals high Physical damage to the target and chains to the nearest other allied unit. The same unit cannot be targeted twice per skill activation. Deals increased damage to Sans and Papyrus, but this skill will not defeat them.

Void: When HP first drops below 50%, enters Invulnerability (excluding this skill's effect) and releases one instance of True Damage sweep across the entire map (left to right), affecting all units including himself. Invulnerability ends after this.

Remnant: When HP reaches 0, activates the 'Determination' effect on the map and remains on the field for a duration. During this phase:

Does not move.

Ceases normal attacks.

'Karma' targets randomly.

'Karma' activation interval greatly reduced and affects all units.

Can be blocked.

Effect: Determination

Forces all allied Boss units to Retreat.

Applies a True Damage over time effect to all units on the map. Damage dealt is percentage-based, increases over time, and cannot defeat units.

I'm not familiar with the expression in global so I make ai translated it, sorry if there's any confusion

[mech-pilot]

ok wait completing my incidental quartet of utdr thoughts: i keep forgetting gaster is an undertale character technically. his presence is fine and i think it's greatly improved by deltarune. in general i don't really care for the like sheer amount of like Constant Presence he has in every theory and idea but like i do think he's very tastefully used rn and very interesting. sans in general is like underrated as an actual Character and not just funny skeleton. again characters with actual writing sweep

[quizlythenerd]

negative epictale rant below cut

“epictale sans fans are crazy”

yugo it’s not my fault i have autism and happened to get super attached to the most written character in your story

i’d love epic even if he weren’t a sans. i love him because he had so much potential as a character that you refuse to acknowledge because your own hatred blinds you from what could have been, not because he’s a sans. i would still love him if he were some other character. i would still love him if he were an oc. don’t blame your fandom for liking the most actually written out character in epictale. don’t attack fans for loving the amount of potential a character had to be good. you only hate that people like him because he’s a sans. it’s not fair on the fandom to gatekeep the epictale story and then wonder why nobody focuses on the other characters.

maybe don’t have the main antagonist take up the most screen time if you want people to root for the actual main character. maybe give your main character more than like three fucking scenes in the comic.

rauggghrrrrrr is it bad to say i think gester/epic!gaster is getting the bête noire treatment

he’s the main villain but is unreasonably overpowered and originally got bodied by an 11 year old and then came back and he’s the second most written character in the story

he’s the main villain but is also weirdly glazed in the way of he’s done so many things wrong but it’s literally never fully addressed or explained? he’s a weirdly one dimensional character as are all the other characters of epictale but he doesn’t even have like, ANYTHING to him

he’s just the overpowered royal scientist that wants to destroy all of humankind and will murder everyone that gets in his way. the most nuanced thing about him is the fact that he does [or at least did] care about monsters at some point. not the skelebros though. also he got freaky with moopey at one point

haha isn’t it so funny that gester is so abusive/neglectful to only the skelebros but so kind to everyone else ISNT IT SO FUNNY GUYS HAHAHAHA THIS IS ME LAUGHING BECAUSE ITS FUNNY

kicking screaming crying rn

i hate that epic is supposed to only be a joke character because he literally has the potential to be the best of the characters but because he’s a sans his potential gets squandered

a lot of the topics that can be covered by his character are very important to me and a lot of them get sweeped under the rug in favour of being the jokester that is cross’ best friend

ik im making myself angry but GRBFBRGHRRRR it’s not talked about and i wanna talk about it !!! i could write a multi-part video series covering my distaste for epictale

epic is my favorite character but epictale does not have to be my favorite au as a result of it

is it so bad for a little goober to have opinions on topic that’s important to themmm RAUGHHH

anyways

[jmbringitonworld]

A Good Father 7

AO3 link for people who prefer to read fics there

First Chapter >>>

Previous Chapter >>>

I won't bother with a lengthy AN here, because no one reads my work on Tumblr. I just keep reposting my fics here out of habit.

__________________________________

As soon as the school building came into view, Asgore shot through the doors and tore down the halls towards the headmaster’s office. WingDings had to run to keep up with him, despite his long legs.

When the pair reached their destination, Asgore burst through the doors without pausing to knock.

His eyes immediately started darting around the room, flitting over each of its occupants. He distantly took note of the owl monster practically falling asleep at his desk, the stressed-looking blue bird monster who appeared to be engaged in a heated argument with a clearly furious Papyrus, and a quietly seething Sans, who was glaring daggers at a young fish monster.

Asgore’s breath caught in his throat when his gaze finally landed on the only human in the room.

Frisk stood in between the two Gaster children, huddled close to Sans, as if seeking comfort from his presence. Her head was bowed low, and her back was hunched over; her posture making clear her desire to curl herself into a ball. Her hands were gripping something, cradling it protectively to her chest.

Without a second thought, Asgore rushed to his daughter’s side, arms and Soul already reaching out for her, his magic washing over her and Checking her for any injuries.

At this, Frisk’s head shot up, eyes immediately snapping towards her father.

Asgore almost stumbled upon catching sight of the miserable look on his child’s face, the wet tear streaks, and the red blotches marring her youthful visage. His Soul squeezed painfully.

He opened his mouth to question his daughter on her sorry state, but Frisk beat him to it.

“Daddyyyyyy!!” Her desperate cry was punctuated by a fresh round of tears, as the young child took her father’s arrival as her cue to express her upset to her fullest abilities.

Asgore wasted no time in sweeping his daughter up into his arms. He tried to pull her close, but Frisk pushed back against his chest and lifted her hands up to her father’s face, showing him the object she’d been holding.

“Daddy look!”

It was her little red headband. However, one of its horns had broken off, and was now limply hanging off the side, barely holding on by only a thread. Asgore’s heart sank at seeing his daughter’s most prized possession so badly damaged.

“Oh no! What happened?” he asked.

At his question, one of Frisk’s hands shot out, pointing towards the fish monster.

“She broke it!” Frisk cried out in an indignant whine. “The mean girl broke my horns!”

The ‘mean girl’ in question instantly bristled. She crossed her arms defensively and gave the other girl her most fearsome glare through her messy, red bangs, though the effect was marred by the sulky pout on her lips.

“I’m not mean! I’m Undyne, and I’m gonna be a hero!” she announced with all the confidence of a young child. “And heroes always beat up bad guys!”

Papyrus instantly leapt to his friend’s defence. “FRISK IS NOT A BAD GUY!! OR A BAD GIRL!! SHE’S NOT A BAD ANYTHING!!”

“and heroes,” Sans added, intense stare still fixed unerringly on the fish monster, “don’t make little kids cry.”

Undyne flinched at his words. Her fire seemed to extinguish, the ten-year-old skeleton monster’s words having clearly hit a sore spot for her. She averted her gaze, frowning down at the floor in lieu of having to look at anyone else.

“I didn’t mean to break her stupid headband,” she grumbled, the slightest trace of remorse leaking into her voice. “I was trying to break her! But her dumb loser friends got in my way. If it wasn’t for the nerd brothers, the human’s Soul would be mine, and we’d all be free!”

The resulting explosion of noise from the others in the room - particularly Papyrus - was lost to the ringing in Asgore’s ears.

Red filled his vision.

This monster had tried to hurt his daughter.

This monster had tried to kill his only living child.

His magic began heating up in response to his rising temper.

For one terrible moment, rage filled his Soul.

He needed to protect his child. He needed to get rid of this threat to his precious daughter. He needed to eliminate this abhorrent, intolerable danger, before it took away the most important thing in his life.

He’d already lost so much. He could not bear to lose anyone else. He would do anything to prevent that.

His Soul was already tainted by violence, his hands already stained by blood.

What more was a little Dust?

Thankfully, that terrible moment was ended by a swift and powerful whack to his head.

“Yowch!” Asgore clutched his aching head, hands massaging over the spot where he’d been struck. His watery eyes went to the culprit.

WingDings twirled a large bone in his hands, looking entirely unrepentant. He raised a browbone at his friend. “YOU WERE SPIRALLING, ASGORE.”

His senses now returning to him, Asgore realised where his previous train of thoughts had been leading him.

Immediately, he was flooded with guilt.

He couldn’t believe that he had considered, even for a moment, hurting- no, killing a child. While it was unfortunately true - much to his everlasting shame - that he’d killed innocent human children before, that was only for the sake of his people! As king, he’d felt like he had no choice. But this… this was inexcusable.

He really was a miserable creature.

He was utterly irredeemable.

He should just-

“Oowww!!”

Yet another blow to the head put an end to his internal self-condemnation.

WingDings gave the king a sharp look. “YOU WERE SPIRALLING AGAIN.” He lifted up his bone club threateningly. “STOP THAT.”

Asgore cowered away from his friend, hands held up in a gesture of surrender. “Alright, alright. I understand. I will stop,” he promised. “And, uh… Thank you, old friend.”

A weak, but no less grateful smile rose to his lips. He truly was thankful to have a friend he could trust, to pull him back from his darker moments. Even if said friend’s methods were a little… extreme. They were certainly effective, at least.

Wings eyed him suspiciously, weighing the truth of the goat monster’s words. Seeming to accept Asgore’s sincerity, he relaxed. He casually tossed his bone club over his shoulder, letting it dematerialise in his shadow.

“YOU ARE WELCOME, ASGORE.” He smirked. “I AM ALWAYS HAPPY TO KNOCK SOME SENSE INTO YOU.”

Asgore gave a nervous chuckle, before shaking off the lingering sting in his skull.

When WingDings stepped forward, the king wordlessly backed away to allow his friend to kneel down beside Frisk, as he took out a pack of wet wipes from his Inventory.

The scientist then set about cleaning up the little girl’s face, with all the speed and efficiency of a single parent to two messy children. Frisk patiently endured the action without fuss, and when Wings was done, he waved off Asgore’s thanks, and moved on to his own children, who bore his efforts with far less grace than their human friend did.

Asgore gave the skeleton family a fond look, before turning back to Frisk. Taking his daughter into his arms once more, the king asked her to explain what had happened.

The little human eagerly launched into an explanation of the events of that morning, accompanied by the other children all chiming in to give their input on the unfortunate series of events. Everyone had something to say, and they all kept interrupting each other, and frequently went off on tangents, often devolving into petty insults and childish name-calling. Keeping the conversation on topic was no easy task.

It was more than a little difficult to put together what everyone was saying, but Asgore thought that he’d gotten the gist of what had occurred.

From what he’d understood, it had all started during the morning break, when all the children had been let out onto the playground.

Frisk had been approached by the young fish monster - who was apparently in the same class as Sans, despite being a year older than him. The stranger had, suddenly and without provocation, launched into a fight with Frisk, out of what the older girl had claimed was a desire to take the human’s Soul to free monsterkind. And because “humans are the enemies of everyone’s hopes and dreams, so they should all die!” according to the child.

What happened next was difficult to ascertain from the children’s chaotic arguments, but it seemed that Frisk had managed to dodge the other kid’s attacks surprisingly well - especially for a five-year-old. Asgore couldn’t help the spark of fatherly pride that ignited in his Soul at hearing that. His daughter was truly talented.

But despite her impressive agility, Frisk’s poor headband had gotten caught in the onslaught and had been knocked to the ground, resulting in one of its horns breaking off.

That had then caused Frisk to break down in tears. 

“It was an accident,” the fish monster mumbled, looking genuinely contrite, her previous bluster and combativeness gone from her demeanour. “I didn’t mean to make her cry.”

Asgore could tell that she was being honest. The child had clearly not expected such a reaction from what she had believed to be nothing more than a heartless, “evil” human.

“I was gonna say sorry,” the child, Undyne, admitted, somewhat reluctantly. “But then he showed up!” A glare and a pointed finger were then aimed at Papyrus. “And he started attacking me!”

The skeleton monster in question immediately fired back with his own glare. “OF COURSE!! YOU HURT MY FRIEND!! YOU MADE FRISK CRY!!” Papyrus stomped his foot. The force of his anger caused his bones to rattle. “I HAD TO PROTECT MY FRIEND!! ‘CAUSE THAT’S WHAT GOOD FRIENDS DO!! AND I!! AM A GREAT FRIEND!!”

“The greatest,” Frisk agreed, nodding her head, a small smile playing on her lips for the first time that afternoon.

Asgore wasn’t sure how much of the skeleton child’s following boasting he should believe, but it was clear that Papyrus had fought bravely, managing to hold his own against the older monster, and meeting her energy spears head-on with his own bone attacks.

“He was pretty tough,” the fish monster conceded, grudging admiration shining in her eyes. Or at least, the one eye Asgore could see through the mess of red hair falling across the child’s face. “Heh, I never thought baby bones could be that strong.”

Papyrus visibly and audibly preened at her words.

“But his brother is way stronger!” The other child continued, causing Papyrus to deflate dramatically.

All eyes turned to Sans, who tensed and shrunk back underneath all the attention. He mumbled something too low for anyone to hear. It fell to the other children to explain, in their own ways, his part in the situation.

Apparently, at some point during the altercation, Sans had jumped in, completely out of the blue and seemingly from out of nowhere, in defence of his brother and his best friend. The two skeleton brothers had fought side by side, showing truly impressive coordination in their attacks, if the children were to be believed.

The poor fish monster had been completely out of her depth against her two opponents, and had been on the defensive the entire time. That explained her scuffed and dishevelled appearance. By comparison, Sans didn’t look to have a single scratch on him. Undyne had clearly gotten out of that fight the worst of them all.

Asgore didn’t miss the fiercely proud look in his best friend’s eye sockets. Indeed, WingDings hadn’t looked this proud even when he’d unveiled his newly-constructed CORE, though he was trying his best to not be too obvious about it. It wouldn’t do to encourage violence in the children, after all.

Especially not in the face of the deputy headmistress’s displeased scowl.

“Fighting is not allowed on school premises!” she screeched, blue feathers ruffling so badly, it left her glasses crooked atop her beak. “Not only could you have injured the other children, but you also made an absolute mess of the school grounds!”

The bird monster waved a wing towards the windows. A quick peek outside revealed a landscape littered with magical bullets that had yet to fade away. Tiny, glowing blue spears were stuck on various surfaces, and a near forest of bones of varying sizes jutted out from the ground.

Asgore blinked, taken aback by the destruction before his eyes. He shuddered to think of his tiny daughter amidst all that carnage. It was a miracle that she hadn’t been hit by a stray attack.

WingDings frowned as he observed the scene outside.

“THAT CERTAINLY IS… A LOT OF BONES,” he noted, mouth flattening into a thin line, his displeasure evident on his face. “AND ALL FOR JUST ONE OPPONENT.”

His stern gaze fell on his oldest son.

Sans cringed at his father’s accusing look. “hey, that girl’s the toughest in our class,” Undyne’s smug look was duly ignored, “we had to give it our all to protect frisk. we couldn’t take no chances.”

WingDings appeared unconvinced by his son’s words. “I KNOW WHAT YOU ARE CAPABLE OF, SANS.” He folded his arms, his frown deepening. “YOUR RESPONSE WAS EXCESSIVE. YOU DID NOT NEED TO LAUNCH SO MANY ATTACKS.”

Sans lowered his skull, but before he could say anything in response to his father’s scolding, Papyrus spoke up.

“HEY!! MOST OF THOSE BONE ATTACKS ARE MINE!! NYEH HEH HEH!!”

Both his tone and demeanour were filled with pride, and devoid of any awareness of the present situation.

Sans shot his younger brother a look of panic, as their father shifted his stern gaze over to Papyrus.

“IS THAT SO?” The eldest Gaster’s voice was deceptively soft, incongruent with the hard look in his eye sockets.

Papyrus remained blissfully ignorant of the danger he was walking into.

“IT IS SO!” he bragged, hands on his hips and rib cage puffing out. “I LAUNCHED WAY MORE BONES THAN SANS DID!”

His older brother rushed to intervene, stepping in between Papyrus and WingDings, as if he could physically protect his younger brother from their father’s ire.

“nah, he’s exaggeratin’, dad!” he tried to insist.

But his efforts were immediately thwarted.

“I AM NOT!!” Papyrus glared at his older brother, who tried desperately to shush him. But the seven-year-old would not be silenced. “I FOUGHT THE MOST!! I ATTACKED THE HARDEST!! I PROTECTED THE BEST!!”

So determined was he to declare his greatness, that Papyrus completely failed to register the storm brewing in his father’s expression, nor the growing alarm in his brother’s.

Thankfully for the youngest Gaster, he was saved from whatever punishment his father was planning, by his human friend.

“He did protect the best!” Frisk beamed at her friend, whose face lit up in response. She looked between Dr. Gaster and her father. “Papy was so cool! He- He was like… like a.. a knight from my books! Yeah! Papy was just like those super cool knights who fight scary bad guys to protect the princess and save the kingdom!”

Papyrus’s eye sockets glittered, both literally and figuratively, as wonder filled his expression. “WOWIE!! ME!! A KNIGHT!! THAT’S SO COOL!!”

The young monster appeared genuinely enchanted by the idea, his gaze lost in images of knightly valour and fairy tale chivalry.

WingDings’s face softened. “WELL. IT IS TRUE THAT YOU ACTED ONLY TO PROTECT YOUR FRIEND.” He let out a sigh. The corners of his mouth lifted up in a fond smile. “I SUPPOSE I CANNOT FAULT YOU FOR YOUR ACTIONS.” His gaze sharpened. “THIS TIME.”

Sans exhaled in relief, his shoulders slumping. Crisis averted and scolding avoided. He offered Frisk a grateful smile. His friend blinked at him cluelessly, but returned his smile nonetheless.

Meanwhile, the deputy headmistress looked like she had some choice words to say to all that. However, she was distracted when she noticed that, at some point, the owl monster had apparently given up on staying awake. Her feathers ruffled as she tutted at her sleeping colleague.

Undyne gave Frisk a disgusted look. “You like books? What are you, a nerd?”

The human tilted her head to the side in curiosity. “What’s a… n-nerd?”

The fish monster curled her lip at the question. “A lame loser who likes reading books and doing boring nerd stuff.” She shot Sans a mocking sneer. “Sans is the biggest nerd I know!”

The skeleton in question returned her sneer with a glare.

“maybe if you actually did ‘boring nerd stuff’ for once, ya wouldn’t’ve had to repeat a grade.” He lowered his voice and flashed Undyne a condescending grin. “who’s the real loser, eh?”

The fish monster bristled in offence. She bared her sharp fangs at the other child in a vicious snarl.

But before she could do anything rash in front of four disapproving adults, she was interrupted by Frisk’s excited gasp.

“So being a nerd is a good thing?” Awe filled her expression, as she beamed up at her father. “Daddy, Daddy! Did you hear that? I’m a nerd! Like Sans! I won’t have to repeat a grade!”

Asgore wasn’t sure how to feel about that. The other child had clearly meant that as an insult. But, in Asgore’s opinion, nerds were undeniably cool, as WingDings had proved, time and time again.

In the end, the king decided to just be happy that his daughter was happy and smiling again. “That is indeed, uh… good!”

Frisk giggled, the sound drowning out Undyne’s disdainful scoff.

All of a sudden, the harsh clearing of a throat cut through the atmosphere.

“Excuse me! Can we please get back to the topic at hand!?” The deputy headmistress glared at everyone in the room, and gestured furiously at the outside devastation. “There is still the matter of the wilful destruction of school property and the reckless endangerment of your peers!”

The two fathers and four children all shrunk back as they remembered their present situation. No one was sure what to say in the face of the bird monster’s wrath.

The deputy headmistress glowered at them all, before turning her blazing eyes onto the owl monster sleeping at his desk.

“Headmaster!”

Her shout successfully awoke the headmaster, who shot up with a startled hoot.

“Y-Yes! I’m awake! I’m awake! I-” He cut himself off with a yawn. His feathers puffed out briefly, before settling down. He rubbed his face, his large, round eyes blinking dazedly around him. “Hm? Yes? What is it, Miss Berdette?”

The deputy headmistress scowled at him.

“We were discussing this morning’s incident.” At the owl’s blank stare, the blue bird monster huffed in exasperation. “The fight on the playground involving four children.”

The headmaster’s face lit up in recognition. “Ah yes! That. Yes, I remember now.”

He cleared his throat, and folded his wings atop his desk. His primary feathers linked together like entwining fingers. His huge eyes fell steadily on the children. There was a surprising weight to his gaze, for a monster who’d been fast asleep mere moments ago.

“I hope you children understand what a serious situation this is.” He waited for them to murmur their acknowledgement of his words, before continuing at the same measured pace. There was an almost hypnotic quality to his soft, mellow voice, and his large eyes were arresting. “Fighting is forbidden on school grounds. You all know this. Do you all understand why? Do you all realise how dangerous reckless fighting and throwing around uncontrolled bullets are? What if you’d gotten hurt? What if you’d hurt someone else?”

The gravity in the headmaster’s voice bore down on the children like a physical weight. They all bowed their heads in shame. Even Frisk, who hadn’t actually done anything, got caught up in the regretful mood, and wore a look of contrition on her face, for acts she hadn’t even done.

As one, the children all apologised to the headmaster, voices low, heads and spirits even lower.

The owl monster stared at them solemnly for a few moments, before nodding his head. “Very well. As long as you’re sorry.”

At that, the serious air immediately dissipated.

The deputy headmistress spluttered in outrage. “It is not ‘very well’! A mere ‘sorry’ will simply not suffice!”

The headmaster was unruffled by her protest. He smiled affably at his colleague. “Now, now, Berdie. Don’t get yourself worked up over every little issue. You’ll give yourself a migraine again.”

The blue feathers on the bird monster’s face took on a red hue, but she seemed to bite her tongue at whatever she wanted to say. She exhaled harshly, then squeezed her eyes shut, as she started massaging her temples.

The headmaster gave the children a kind smile. “Do you all promise to never get into another fight inside the school ever again?”

The kids all dutifully nodded their heads and voiced their collective compliance.

The owl monster clapped his wings in delight. “Wonderful! Then I guess we’re all done here. Off you go, then.” He gave the others a genial wave of his wing, his feathers fluttering with the motion. “Night, night!”

And then his head fell down onto his desk. Loud snores began escaping his beak.

The deputy headmistress sighed. Her gaze rested on the owl’s sleeping figure, a calm entering her expression that had been absent all afternoon. She shook her head gently, then turned back to the others.

“Well, you heard the headmaster. The matter has been settled.” She gestured to the door. “You may all leave now and go home. No point remaining here at this time.”

Asgore stepped forward, wringing his hands. “Um. I deeply apologise for the trouble the children have caused.” He bowed his head. “I will see to it that the playground is fully restored to its previous state.”

The bird monster chuckled and waved off the king’s offer. “No need, Mr. Dreemurr. The school has a repair team on hand for just such an occasion.” The corners of her beak turned up into a wry smile. “Roughhousing is to be expected between young monsters still getting used to their magic. This wouldn’t be the first time the playground has gotten destroyed by a fight that got out of hand.” A hint of humour leaked into her voice. “Believe me, excited, young puppies have done far more damage than any stray bones or spears could hope to do!”

Asgore still appeared hesitant about letting the matter go, but WingDings stepped in before his friend could push the issue.

“THANK YOU FOR YOUR KINDNESS AND UNDERSTANDING.” He grabbed hold of the king’s arm and began dragging him out of the room. He waved for the children to follow them. “WE WILL BE LEAVING THEN. GOOD DAY. AND GOOD LUCK.”

Without another word from anybody, the group exited the office. The door shut behind them with a resounding clack, cutting off the sound of the headmaster’s snores.

The group let out a collective sigh.

Undyne was the first to recover. She eyed the human with a conflicted look on her face, before her expression steeled itself with determination. She squared her shoulders and marched towards the human with resolute steps.

Instantly, the other monsters tensed.

Sans and Papyrus stepped in front of their friend, but the fish monster forcefully pushed past them without a word.

Frisk looked up as the older girl stopped in front of her.

Undyne was quietly impressed that the little human showed not even a hint of fear, despite their earlier fight, but she wasn’t about to admit that to the human’s face. No, instead the young fish monster had something else to say to the girl she’d attacked.

“Look, human,” she began gruffly, discomfort etched into her features, “I, uh… I didn’t mean to break your headband, or-... or make you cry. That-...” She let out a huff, and ran a hand through her messy hair, her frustration almost palpable. She then fixed Frisk with a dark glare, though it was clear her anger wasn’t truly aimed at the human. “Look, I’m sorry, okay?!”

She crossed her arms and glared even harder, silently daring the human to rub her apology in her face and humiliate her further. She tried to ignore the blush creeping up her cheeks. She’d never apologised to anyone before. Not willingly, at least.

Frisk quietly took in the older girl’s apology. She blinked. “Okay.”

Undyne looked away and kicked at the ground. “I don’t expect you to forgive me or anything. I don’t need-!”

“I forgive you,” Frisk stated plainly, no trace of hesitation in her voice.

Undyne spluttered. “W-What?” She stared incredulously at the human, not believing her ears.

“I said I forgive you,” Frisk repeated. Her gaze was steady, and her eyes were clear, and devoid of any falsehoods.

The fish monster blinked at the human, struggling to process the other girl’s words. After a few seconds, Undyne averted her gaze, scratching at the back of her head.

“Oh, uh, that’s… um…” Her voice was shaky and uncertain. “...Thanks…”

She went quiet.

Undyne hadn’t expected the human to forgive her so easily, not after what she’d done.

A slow smile rose to her lips.

This human kept managing to surprise her.

Maybe… just maybe… this kid wasn’t all that bad, after all…

“Hey, um. Undyne, right?” Frisk’s voice broke her out of her thoughts.

The fish monster looked back. She raised her eyebrow. “Yeah? What about it?”

Frisk gave her a bright, hopeful look. “Does this mean we can be friends now?”

Undyne gave a start. “What?! Us?! Friends?!” She let out a snort and then laughed mockingly in the other girl’s face. “Yeah, right! As if I would ever be friends with a human! Don’t be stupid, punk! Fuhuhuhu!!”

Frisk’s face fell into a disappointed pout.

The other monsters all bristled angrily, looking ready to fight her, but Papyrus beat them to it.

“YOU’RE JUST SCARED!” He pointed an accusing finger at Undyne. He tried to mimic the mocking look his older brother had given her earlier, when Sans had so easily managed to rile the girl up. “YOU KNOW SOMEONE WHO LOST TO ME (AND MY BROTHER) WOULD NEVER BE ABLE TO MAKE FRIENDS WITH SOMEONE AS COOL AS FRISK! YOU’RE JUST NOT UP TO THE CH-CHALLENGE!!”

He stumbled a bit on the last word, clearly still a little unfamiliar with it. But Undyne took no notice, her whole attention consumed by the younger monster’s taunt.

“WHAT!?” She seethed, looking more furious than ever. “I’m NOT scared!! And I’m up to any challenge!! Ngaaahhh!!”

She turned her blazing gaze on Frisk. Stepping closer, the older girl leaned into the human’s space to poke a finger at her chest.

“He thinks I can’t be friends with you!?”

She threw her head back in a laugh. “Fuhuhu! What a joke! I could make friends with a wimpy loser like you any day!”

She turned her head to shoot a glare at Papyrus and yell at him, “I’ll show you!”, before turning back to Frisk.

“Listen up, human.” She smirked at Frisk, her single visible eye lighting up with excitement at the prospect of a challenge. “We’re not just going to be friends. We’re going to be… BESTIES.”

Her grin widened, eye narrowing, as devious thoughts ran through her head. “I’ll make you like me so much, you won’t be able to think of anyone else!! Fuhuhuhu! It’s the perfect revenge!!”

Frisk stared blankly as the other girl laughed to herself. She wasn’t sure what was going on with Undyne, but the one thing that was clear to her was that the fish monster did want to be her friend after all.

Frisk’s face brightened, a wide smile forming on her lips.

She’d made another friend! And on her very first day of kindergarten!

The human startled slightly when Undyne reached forward and grasped both of her shoulders.

“You better prepare yourself, punk,” the older girl told her, eye narrowed at Frisk with a determined look on her face. “‘Cause starting tomorrow, we’re going to become closer than you can ever imagine!! Fuhuhu!!”

And after having had, quite literally, the last laugh, Undyne slapped Frisk roughly on the back, before departing with a wave and a, “see ya, dorks!” thrown over her shoulder.

Everyone stared after the fish girl, their faces a mix of different emotions.

Asgore furrowed his brows. He wasn’t sure what to make of that child. She wasn’t a bad monster, certainly, just a little… hot-headed. And more than a little brash. But beyond that, something about her was achingly familiar to him, though he couldn’t quite put his finger on what.

He left out a sigh.

At least the young girl was no longer interested in attacking his daughter. Speaking of…

The monster king looked down as he felt a tug on his hand.

His daughter’s brilliant smile met his gaze.

“Daddy, did you see that?! I made a new friend! And on my first day of school, too!”

Asgore gave his child a strained smile. “Indeed, Frisk. Isn’t that swell? Good for you, my dear!”

Frisk giggled, before turning her beaming smile on Papyrus. “Thank you, Papy! You’re the one who made Undyne wanna be my friend! You’re the greatest!”

Papyrus preened at his friend’s words. A prominent blush stained his bones, as a grin almost split his face in two. “NYEH HEH HEH HEH!! YOU’RE WELCOME, FRISK!! YET ANOTHER WIN FOR THE GREAT AND CLEVER PAPYRUS!!”

WingDings gazed warmly down at his youngest son, affection shining in his eye sockets. “YOU ARE DEFINITELY VERY CUNNING, PAPYRUS.” The edge of his mouth twisted upwards. “AND MANIPULATIVE. HEH. I AM IMPRESSED.”

While Papyrus was busy soaking up everyone’s praise, Sans hoped that no one had noticed him quietly sneaking away.

He took a shortcut and ended up in front of a certain fish monster.

Undyne let out an embarrassingly loud yelp at the skeleton monster’s sudden appearance.

“Wh-what do you want, nerd?”

Her attempt to act tough went ignored by Sans, as he stepped in closer. There was a dangerous edge to his grin.

“i just wanna make sure we’re on the same page.” He tilted his skull down, angling it so that a shadow fell across his face, making his eyelights stand out all the more. “make sure ya know where i’m standin’.”

His eyelights twinkled ominously. Undyne gulped against her will, but resisted the urge to back away.

“see, i’m not like my little bro and my best friend.” The skeleton monster’s voice lowered. “i don’t trust you. not at all. i’d say ‘not as far as i can throw you’, but…” his grin sharpened, “we both know i can throw you very far, heh heh heh.”

Undyne tense, her spine straightening in response to the clear threat. She bared her fangs at the boy.

“Ya wanna go, punk!? Finish our fight, now that the grown-ups aren’t here to get in our way!? NGAAAHHHH!!”

Despite her bravado, the young girl knew that she was outmatched. She’d seen the guy move. There was no way she would be able to keep up with him, not given how exhausted and achy she still felt from their previous tussle.

Not that she’d let that stop her.

Magic started gathering in Undyne’s hand.

She’d give it her all, no matter who her opponent was. She would never give up or back down from a fight!

But Sans only smirked and let out a few chuckles.

“nah, i’m not here to fight. unlike you, i don’t go pickin’ fights with those weaker than me.”

Undyne snarled at the barbed insult and swiped her spear at Sans’s skull. She was itching to wipe that obnoxious grin off of his dumb face!

Sans easily dodged her jab.

“nah, what i’m here for is to make sure you understand one simple thing.”

Before Undyne could blink, Sans lifted his hand and sent out his magic.

Instantly, Undyne’s Soul turned blue and an unnatural gravity forced her to the ground before she could react.

She hissed at the impact, her earlier bruises stinging painfully.

She fought back against the offending magic enough to lift herself up on her elbows and raise her head to glare at her opponent.

A shiver ran down her spine as she stared directly into Sans’s eye sockets.

One of the skeleton’s sockets was empty, nothing but a dark, chilling void.

The other was alight with flashing yellow and light blue.

“If you try to hurt my brother or my friend…” Sans’s voice was different, an odd quality to his tone and words which made them sound… wrong somehow. “Then buddy… Well…”

The pressure surrounding Undyne’s Soul disappeared all of a sudden, as Sans’s eye sockets went completely dark.

“You’re gonna have a bad time.”

Then, without warning, the entire world seemed to blink, as if time and space had momentarily split apart.

Sans vanished without a trace.

Undyne scrambled to her feet, head swiveling around to see if the other monster was still around, ready to strike again. Her magical spear was held in front of her defensively.

Once she had assured herself that she was truly alone once more, Undyne let out a deep breath.

She brushed the dirt off her clothes, as she remarked to herself,

“Geez. That guy is such a weirdo.”

__________

When Sans arrived back with the group, he was relieved to find that his disappearance seemed to have gone unnoticed.

Until he caught his father’s eyelight.

WingDings stared quietly at his eldest son for a moment, before giving him a subtle nod of his head. Unmistakable approval glimmered in his eye sockets. There was a slight, proud edge to the shallow quirk at the corner of the older monster’s mouth.

Sans felt his Soul thrum with relief.

It appeared that he wasn’t about to get grounded after all.

He stealthily made his way to his father’s side, and was welcomed with a hand stroking his skull and familiar magic washing over his form. He couldn’t help closing his eyes to savour the pleasant sensation.

“what’d i miss?” he whispered.

Before his father could answer, Frisk’s voice rang out.

“Please, Daddy! Please, please, please!”

Papyrus added his own pleading. “PLEASE!! PLEASE LET ME BE A ROYAL KNIGHT, UNCLE FLUFFYBUN!! I PROMISE TO BE THE GREATEST KNIGHT EVER!! AND PROTECT THE PRINCESS SUPER DUPER FLUPER GOOD!!”

Sans bit back a snicker.

It seemed his little bro had gotten it into his skull to become a knight. He guessed that Papyrus had been more taken with the idea than Sans had initially expected, back in the headmaster’s office. And of course their human friend was in full support. It had been her who’d put the thought into Papyrus’s head to begin with, after all.

Poor Asgore looked overwhelmed by the children’s pleas. “But there is no such position of Royal Knight.”

Instead of being deterred, Papyrus looked even more adamant. “THEN I WILL BE THE VERY FIRST!! AS WELL AS THE GREATEST!! NYEH HEH HEH!!”

Frisk nodded her head excitedly. “Yeah! Papy can be the first Royal Knight! That’ll make him extra special!”

Papyrus looked completely starstruck by the idea. Sans could practically see the sparkles twinkling around his eye sockets.

Asgore stared helplessly down at the children, unsure what to do. In desperation, he glanced towards his dearest friend, silently beseeching him for assistance.

Wings gave him a considering look. His gaze moved to the children.

“HMMM.” He crossed his arms, and drummed his skeletal fingers against his humerus.

Sensing a new target, the children turned their pleading gazes on the eldest Gaster instead.

His fingers stilled.

“I SEE NO ISSUE WITH THEIR REQUEST, GOREY. I THINK PAPYRUS WILL MAKE A FINE KNIGHT.”

Asgore stared at him in disbelief.

Papyrus and Frisk cheered and rushed towards Wings.

Two pairs of arms encircled his legs. Two very different - but equally dear to his Soul - faces beamed up at him.

“YAY!! THANK YOU, DADDY!!”

“Yeah, thank you, Uncle Wingsy! I love you!”

“I LOVE YOU TOO, DADDY!!”

WingDings felt his Soul melt. He reached down to caress the children’s heads, taking extra care to not get any of Frisk’s hair tangled in between his phalanges.

“I LOVE YOU BOTH AS WELL.” He bent down to press a kiss to each of their foreheads. “YOU THREE,” his gaze flickered to Sans, before returning to the two kids in front of him, smiling up at him with such bright and earnest adoration, “ARE THE LIGHT INSIDE MY SOUL.”

Papyrus and Frisk hugged him harder, their tiny faces aglow with joy. Sans ducked his head, an embarrassed blush spreading across his skull. However, he couldn’t conceal his happy smile.

Asgore gazed at the four of them with tender eyes, his Soul feeling as fuzzy as he was. A contented sigh slipped past his lips.

When his daughter and her friend looked up at him with such naked hope on their faces, all the king could do was shrug his shoulders in defeat. He could never deny the children anything.

“Very well then, young ones.” He tried to inject some solemnity into his voice, to make it feel like a royal proclamation, for the kids’ benefit. “If it is truly your wish, then when Papyrus is older, he may become our very first Royal Knight, whose duty it is to safeguard and protect my daughter, Princess Frisk Dreemurr.”

Papyrus and Frisk both whooped in delight, fist bumping the air. They gave each other a high five, before running over to Asgore and launching themselves at him.

“THANK YOU, UNCLE FLUFFYBUN!!!”

“Thank you, Daddy!! You’re the best!!”

“AND THE FLUFFIEST!!”

The king chuckled, returning their hug with equal enthusiasm.

“You are welcome, young ones.” He held them close for a moment, before leaning away, to look them both in the eyes (sockets). “Just… Please… Promise me that you will not be reckless. Do not pick fights with anyone. And do your best to stay out of danger.”

Papyrus and Frisk were quick to agree.

“I PROMISE I WILL!! ERR, I WON’T!! ERRR-”

“Whatever you say, Daddy!”

“THAT’S RIGHT! WHAT SHE SAID! I MEAN, WHAT YOU SAID! I WILL DO AS YOU SAID, BECAUSE I’M SUCH A GOOD LISTENER!!”

Asgore gave them both a warm smile. He reached a hand to each of their heads to stroke them, sending them his most affectionate Intent through his magic.

“And Papyrus.” Said child stood straight at the king’s address. “If you ever change your mind-”

“I WON’T!” Papyrus interjected, a determined look on his face. “NEVER!! I WILL BECOME A KNIGHT!! I PROMISE!! WHEN I GROW UP, I’M GONNA BECOME THE. GREATEST. ROYAL. KNIGHT. EVER!!! NYEH HEH HEH HEH HEH!!!”

Asgore could see that the young monster had his mind set on achieving his dream, and would not be dissuaded any time soon. The old king let out a resigned sigh, fondness curling his lips upwards.

“Golly! I have no doubt that you will, Papyrus.”

Papyrus puffed out his rib cage, a proud grin stretching wide across his skull.

“NYEH HEH HEH! THAT’S RIGHT! I WILL BE A GREAT KNIGHT!” he declared, eye sockets sparkling as he imagined his future heroic deeds and noble exploits. “I’LL GO ON ADVENTURES! AND QUESTS! I’LL SOLVE PUZZLES! FIND TREASURES! FIGHT OFF BAD GUYS! AND SAVE THE PRINCESS (THAT’S FRISK)! AND THE KINGDOM! AND- AND- ERR…”

He paused, struggling to think of what other brave acts a great knight was expected to perform. 

He looked to Frisk for help.

The human furrowed her brow in thought, trying to recall what her story books had to say about a knight’s duties.

“Well… in my books, after the brave knight saves the kingdom,” she pursed her lips, “he marries the princess.”

Asgore gave a jolt, feeling his fur stand on end.

Papyrus didn’t look too pleased, either, about what his friend had told him. “BUT- BUT… I DON’T THINK I WANNA MARRY YOU, FRISK! I DON’T LIKE YOU LIKE THAT.”

Frisk nodded her head in agreement. “I don’t like you like that either, Papy. And I’m not gonna marry you.” Her gaze then landed on Sans. Her face was set with determination. “When I grow up, I’m gonna marry Sans.”

Colour exploded across Sans’s skull in the fiercest blush Frisk had ever seen. He made a strange choking sound, before grabbing the edge of his hood and forcefully yanking it down his skull. He pulled on the strings until only a glimpse of his teeth remained. His bones were rattling.

Frisk stared at her best friend with wide eyes.

His reaction captivated her. She’d never seen him like that before, so… flustered. It was funny. And cute. And utterly delightful.

Frisk decided that she wanted to see him like that more often.

Her father’s reaction was far less entertaining, however.

Asgore fluttered around her in a panic, giving her desperate, pleading looks.

“Please, Frisk,” he begged his daughter. “You are far too young to think of such things! Please forget about thoughts of marriage, and just enjoy being a child!”

Frisk gave him a confused frown. “But it’s fun to imagine what I’m gonna do when I grow up. And Uncle Wingsy says it’s smart to ‘plan for the future’.”

Asgore shot his Royal Scientist a betrayed look.

WingDings coughed nervously into his hand. He avoided his king’s gaze.

Asgore returned his attention to his daughter, hoping that a different tactic might prove more fruitful.

“But why do you want to marry Sans?” He wrung his hands, unable to keep them still. “It cannot be just because he gave you a nice present!”

Frisk looked offended at the suggestion. “‘Course not! It’s ‘cause I want a happily ever after.”

Asgore blinked. “What?”

Frisk sighed dramatically, as if her father was being deliberately slow.

“A happily ever after. Like in the stories you read to me.” At her father’s blank look, Frisk explained, with all the patience a five-year-old could muster. “At the end of the story, the heroes get married and live happily ever after. I want that too! And Sans always knows how to make me happy. So, when we get married,” another choking sound came from the vicinity of Sans’s hood, which went ignored by all, “he’ll know how to get us a happily ever after!”

Well, then.

Asgore’s shoulders slumped.

He couldn’t fault his daughter for her logic, as simplistic and childish as it was. It did make a certain kind of sense, he supposed. To a young child, at least.

“Also!” Frisk continued, blissfully ignorant of the dark cloud hanging over her father’s head. “When I marry Sans, Papy will be my brother, and I really, really, really want Papy as my brother. I know he’ll be the coolest brother ever!”

The smile her words brought to Papyrus’s face was a stark contrast to Asgore’s dour mien.

“WOWIE!!” The young skeleton monster clasped the sides of his skull, as a blush rose to his cheekbones. “YOU’RE RIGHT, FRISK!! WE CAN BE BROTHER AND SISTER!! NYEH HEH HEH!! I KNOW YOU’LL BE THE COOLEST SISTER EVER!!”

Their exchange finally managed to get Sans to peek his (still blushing) face out from within the confines of his hoodie.

Coherent speech remained beyond his reach, however, as he could only grunt in agreement.

“And, and!” Frisk could barely contain her excitement, as thoughts of her perfect future danced across her mind’s eye. “Uncle Wingsy will be my second daddy!” WingDings gave a start, his eye sockets widening. “We’ll be one big family! The best family ever!!”

Asgore couldn’t help but smile at that, albeit weakly. “Golly. That sounds neato.”

Frisk giggled, bouncing on the balls of her feet.

Asgore gave a deep sigh, resignation settling heavy on his Soul.

Oh well. At least his daughter was happy.

_____

The group decided to walk back to Asgore's Castle.

A lot had happened that day, and they’d all silently agreed that the walk back home would help them all process the events of the day.

The children had also begged their parents for a sleepover - none of them were eager to be separated from each other after their earlier fight with the fearsome Undyne. Both fathers had agreed without hesitation.

It hadn’t taken long for the day’s excitement - and her prior distress - to catch up to Frisk. When she’d started yawning, her father had offered to carry her, and she’d quickly fallen asleep in his arms.

Feeling rather exhausted himself after all that had happened, Asgore held Frisk close, letting her head rest on his shoulder, her peaceful face tucked into the crook of his neck. He had a large hand on her back, to make sure she wouldn’t slip. The king could feel his child’s Soul beneath his fingers, still as strong as ever.

The goat monster allowed his daughter’s warmth and the sound of her soft snores to wash over his tired Soul like a balm.

When he felt WingDings fall into step beside him, Asgore glanced over.

The skeleton monster was looking ahead of him, eyelights fixed on the forms of his two sons.

Papyrus was talking animatedly to Sans, slowly coaxing his older brother out of hood town.

Asgore fought back his instinctive frown at the sight of the monster who would one day steal his daughter away from him. He reminded himself that it wasn’t the child’s fault that Frisk’s hopes and dreams involved a future with Sans.

Asgore would just have to get used to the idea.

He grimaced.

That didn’t mean he had to like it, though.

The king’s ears perked up when his old friend finally chose to speak.

“I ADMIT THAT I MAY HAVE BEEN… WRONG,” Wings’s face twisted unpleasantly as he uttered that last word, “ABOUT FRISK EVENTUALLY CHANGING HER MIND ABOUT SANS, AND FORGETTING ALL ABOUT HER PLANS. I KNOW HER WELL ENOUGH TO RECOGNISE THAT THIS IS NOT SIMPLY A CHILDISH WHIM. THOUGH I SUPPOSE THAT THERE IS STILL A CHANCE THAT SHE MAY CHANGE HER MIND IN THE FUTURE.” He looked doubtful about that possibility, however.

Asgore wasn’t in the slightest bit happy about his friend’s admission.

His Soul instinctively reached out to his daughter’s, and wrapped it in his magic, his Intent both protective and possessive.

He would need to learn to let go in time.

But not today.

Not yet.

He would hold his little girl close for as long as he could.

“HOWEVER,” WingDings continued, “I WAS RIGHT THAT FRISK WOULD BE FINE.”

Asgore shot his friend an incredulous look.

WingDings smirked back at him.

“FRISK IS UNHARMED,” the old skeleton monster pointed out. “MY SONS DID A FINE JOB PROTECTING HER. GRANTED, HER HEADBAND DID GET DAMAGED. HOWEVER! THAT IS AN EASY FIX. I WILL HAVE IT REPAIRED BY TOMORROW MORNING. AND! BEST OF ALL! FRISK MADE A NEW… FRIEND.” A dark look flashed across his face, but it was gone before Asgore could be certain of what he’d seen. The scientist’s self-satisfied grin soon returned to his face. “ALL IN ALL... EVERYTHING TURNED OUT JUST FINE!”

Asgore gave Wings a long, hard stare, before he actually started to consider his friend’s words.

Frisk had managed to avoid being hurt when she’d been attacked. She’d evaded the other girl’s bullets for long enough for her friends to come to her aid. The Gaster children had then successfully kept his daughter safe during their entire fight, despite the damage wrought to their environment. And in the end, Frisk had even managed to befriend her attacker!

A smile slowly dawned across Asgore’s face.

His little girl had made a new friend on her very first day of school! That was marvellous! He was so proud of her.

Asgore felt his daughter shift slightly in his arms. A small hand reached out to grab hold of his beard, and tiny fingers tangled themselves in the long, golden strands. Frisk’s soft snores continued to echo in his ears.

Warmth curled in his Soul, a blissful contentment that made it glow, unseen in his chest.

Asgore hummed a quiet tune to himself.

WingDings was right.

Everything had turned out just fine.

______________________________________

TLDR from AO3: Undyne's in this fic now. Headmaster has name and lore, but they didn't matter to the story so were omitted. Deltarune and fangames won't be prominently referenced, because this is an Undertale fic. If no one motivates me to keep writing, then I'm going at my own pace and having fun with Fields of Mistria, until the urge to write ambushes me again.

[contradictory-yet-useful]

how is it that I only learned they added more to the sweep-stakes arg-style stuff today it’s been out for a month akhfjshfhjsnhfjs

oh you missed the Wing Gaster Nothing (sometimes Something) Email

that's a shame

^ the Wing Gaster Nothing Email for context

[cervcity43]

Virus!Dust Sans

Adding Attacks for This guy called VirusDust Sans even after 9-10 years of The undertale Fandom being out (i dont even know if this is an Au) (I created the pixel sprite btw)

Attacks for Virus!Dust:

1. Corrupt Bone Storm

Summons a wave of glitching, static-covered bones that phase in and out of existence. Some bones flicker and “teleport” mid-attack, making dodging unpredictable.

2. Digital Packet Blast

A modified Gaster Blaster launches bursts of binary code beams. These pulses spread virus “packets” on the battlefield — touching them slows the player down as if their input is lagging.

3. Deadly Overwrite

VirusDust rewinds time slightly, then replays a deadly previous attack in fast-forward. Dodging once isn’t enough — you have to survive it again, but glitchier and faster.

4. Virus Bones

Bones fall from above like raindrops but teleport when you get close. Each one leaves behind a red static "ghost" that damages you on contact.

5. Save Shatter

Sans pulls up a fake SAVE screen — then breaks it, sending shards across the screen like big daggers. There is a 1/6 chance that after the humans next death that VirusDust Corrupts your Controls while your gone, causing you to have reversed controls till your next death.

6. "Soulchain.exe"

VirusDust Sans hacks into your SOUL's code, forcibly linking it to corrupted bones via glowing red and green digital chains.

7. Firewall Barrage

A wall of red-hot digital flames sweeps across the screen in waves, resembling a firewall. It burns bones into ash mid-attack but also limits movement to trap the player in smaller dodging zones.

8. Glitchstep

VirusDust teleports multiple times per second, leaving corrupted “clones” that each attack independently for a short burst. The real one only attacks last — players have to figure out who’s fake and survive long enough.

Healing Ability: "Absorb Error"

VirusDust Sans absorbs glitched fragments of code left behind from previous attacks — healing himself while destabilizing the battlefield.

BackStory for VirusTale: (Credits to the Fandom on Virus sans)

In the early days of Virustale, it was just a clone of Undertale, created with the best intentions but flawed from the start. The code that comprised the Virustale universe was unstable, and the corruption began to seep in slowly, like a creeping darkness.

Over time, the corruption grew more insidious, transforming the code into a twisted, red mass. It wasn't content with merely altering the world—it started to manifest physically, erupting from the ground like ominous tendrils and pouring from the sky like torrential rain.

As the code tendrils spread, they ensnared all the characters of Virustale. One by one, they were caught and pulled into the malevolent code, their digital forms dissolving into chaos. Even Sans, who was known for his ability to dodge danger, couldn't evade the relentless grasp of the code.

Sans woke up in a nightmarish pile of shifting code, surrounded by the remnants of his friends. He clutched Papyrus's scarf and Frisk's heart locket in his bony hands, the last remnants of their existence. Grief and despair washed over him as he realized the depth of the destruction that had taken place.

In his moment of despair, Sans reluctantly put on Papyrus's scarf and Frisk's locket, symbols of the friendships he had lost. It was then that he encountered the enigmatic figure known as the Code Master, a being formed from the very essence of the corrupted code.

The Code Master revealed the grim truth to Sans—his friends no longer existed because their code had been deleted and overwritten by the insatiable corruption. Sans's own code began to glitch and distort as he struggled to comprehend the devastation.

As his code teetered on the edge of dissolution, Sans suddenly teleported away from the Code Master's presence. This uncontrolled teleportation scattered fragments of the code around him, leaving Sans in a state of disarray and confusion.

Determined to find a way to undo the destruction and save his friends, Virus!Sans embarked on his quest for revenge and redemption, with Papyrus's scarf and Frisk's locket as constant reminders of the friends he had lost and the code he had to fight to protect.

BackStory for VirusDust:

After 10 Mysterious resets from a Mysterious Human that no one in the underground has ever even seen, In the 11th reset Instead of Frisk Being Corrupted the code, Frisk Survives like sans did. Sans Wakes Up to find himself Back in the pile of code, but He doesnt seem to remember anything before the reset all quite much. He does remember that the reset happening though.

Sans is relieved that frisk survived that and tells frisk that they should probably reset already. frisk immediately goes to the save menu. But Frisk didnt know that the save file was corrupted, so Frisk Hit that button but nothing happen. a minute later though Everything corrupts even more. the skys go black. sirens arise. The world seems to be spinning. But another minute later, it reset. But Sans kept his corrupted code body after it happened, and sans was confused.

Sans went to check on the human at his station but couldnt find them. Sans also didnt feel tired at all. Papyrus Eventually sees him and is confused by his corrupted appearance. and he asks if he is ok. Sans says he is fine. Sans Corrupting finally stopped And This is when the Human fell down but... something was off.

After Sans corrupting stopped (when he turned into Virus sans again at this point) he doesnt control but randomly teleports to the ruins. Toriel does not see sans but stays in the home waiting for the next human. Sans see a human falling down, but this one was alot more corrupted. their appearance started corrupting sans even more. that human disabled his abilities. but the randomness of teleporting happens again when the human already disabled his abilities. he finds himself back in snowdin. But its very quiet. The code starts corrupting everything once again. But sans wasnt scared by it. he couldnt find anyone though. it seems that the code has not corrupt anyone. Thats went the human came behind him. Sans looks at them. and its frisk. but how? he didnt see them anywhere.

Frisk Had the most corrupted appearance out of anyone in the underground. Frisk was now being influenced by chara. Frisk decides to use their Determined Sword to slash sans. Sans now realizes he now has over 1 hp, but not just 2, not just 3, It was in the thousands.

That was way more than what sans expected. So sans parries all the attacks from frisk, and trying to escape to not hurt the human. he knows somethings off. But you know, frisk will not let sans escape. The whole battle thing happens But Frisk eventually Kills Sans. But Many Times actually. After the First Reset everything happens again. with Frisk resetting sans memory so he doesnt know. But after the 2539 Reset... It seems like Frisk forgot to Reset his memory. So Sans Now remembers the reset but only This reset. Sans Decides to visit undyne in waterfall but There is a Mysterious door that has never been there before. Sans opens the door and the mysterious figure is corrupted too but sans is intimidated by his appearance. But before sans could attack, The mysterious figure puts his corrupted Code hand on sans head, causing Sans to remember EVERY SINGLE RESET. Sans Rages at this and Waits for the human to fall down. He plans to kill all of his friends after they corrupt giving him more exp and determination than the human, so that he overpowers the human and this madness stops happening and everything goes back to normal. He also tries to find the causer of this, and battle him to death after killing the human and their save file.

So Thats what Happens. I think you know what happens next.

[cheatexp]

12, 20, 25 for NULL? :3c

hi there. questions here if anyone else wants to take a spin

12. What's a headcanon you have for this character?

to be honest i avoid having any headcanons for him at all, almost everything is as close to his canonical behaviour as i can get it.. however he does not actually have all those scars, those are just a physical representation of his general self destructive behaviour. i could go into more detail about this if i haven't here before but it would need a dedicated post for appropriate content warnings so for now i'll move on

then there's another thing i do that i guess looks like a headcanon. i think the rest of his skin is under those clothes. a lot of people make him totally invisible, and i mean i can't blame them since being invisible is pretty freakin' cool. but if you look at n.png it doesn't have All the skin, so, i mean, where's it gone? must be under the clothes, right? usually this only comes through when i put him in dresses so i should do that. more.

another interpretation of this that would also make sense is that it doesn't show up on ull.png but rather gets transferred over to n.png whenever he moves his clothes around. which would make more sense with how the cut-out is edited, but if i want to see how that'd look i'd have to draw it myself

i can understand why no one really thinks of it though. i don't think it's common for people to spend this much time thinking about skin

20. Which other character is the ideal best friend for this character, the amount of screentime they share doesn't matter?

to be honest i think it's sweep. my dark secret is that i don't really ship filesweep, i just think gotta sweep would be the best friend for him to have.

principal is in a position of authority over him and punishes him, green cunt is in a position of authority over him and punishes him. plus characters would freak him out. blue one is a good choice but they disagree on politics (to put it in a funny way). and then everyone else is a child. this leaves gotta sweep who actually is pretty good

it's a very consistent person who doesn't change a whole lot over long periods of time, and can keep itself grounded easily. it isn't bothered by loud volume, it probably can't feel pain, it doesn't have any reason to judge anyone. in its poster there's this feeling of outside-ness attributed to it, as it was hired the last day possible. so it's only barely part of the game-prison and that's just because it likes to keep things clean

to someone who is terrified, angry, loud, and paranoid, this is a pretty good rock to have

25. What was your first impression of this character? How about now?

to my knowledge i didn't like him at all at first. i had a vendetta against secrets. i hated gaster my whole life because i didn't think any of the evidence provided to me made sense. and then when he was considered "filename2" i just didn't see much going on there either and thought it was stupid. but i didn't even know about 99, so i guess that makes sense

over the years my hatred for convoluted secrets developed into a skillset that turns convoluted secrets into sensical series of events. i still hate them. this hatred just drives me to fix them up. and so when i truly returned to the understanding table it was kind of disappointing that a majority of people didn't even try. i guess because they just like "playing" the "game" or whatever. but you don't even know basic cryptography? you haven't spent years piecing together horrible arg stories that don't make sense until you spend 30 hours on just the plain information itself? you were told by your stupid developer himself that there is a secret in revenge of the crazy baby, where it is, and you didn't even look. you didn't even find the hidden image in the kickstarter promotional video...

they're all so stupid. null is 100% justified in getting so angry because they're all. so. stupid. they don't even know what morse actually is, there's no way they could put basic context clues together

so to answer the question i call this my enemies to lovers arc

[savi-our]

Chapters: 5/? Fandom: Undertale (Video Game) Rating: Mature Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence Relationships: Sans (Undertale)/Reader, Papyrus (Undertale)/Reader, W. D. Gaster/Reader Words: 23,282

AU’s - Undertale, Underfell, Underswap, Swapfell, Horrortale and perhaps more ;)

Relationships - Various x Reader, Reverse Harem Trope

☕ Heyy! So all the prologue chapters are done! Now we can actually get into the exciting stuff >:) Chapters will be slowing down from this point on because I dont have any prewritten ones but I will try and stick to a weekly updating schedule - or at the very least bi-weekly. Albeit inspiration might hit me at random and i might suprise post lol. In any case I hope you enjoy! Im really proud of what ive written up to this point and I have a LOT more planned! Stay tuned ;)☕

Summary:

An unfortunate accident one dark winter night sweeps you off your feet and leads you into a chance encounter with a house full of skeletons! They’re charming, witty and punny all around, but for reasons only known to you - you escape their friendliness intending to never step foot near the woods, or the skeletons, again… or that was the plan at least. What you couldn't have expected was that they're rather stubborn, and for some reason very intent on befriending you? No matter how much you avoid them or how many excuses you provide - they just keep popping up?! Why you?! Why now? And why are there so many?!

Will you be able to ward off your new skeleton suitors and keep your age old secrets, or will you succumb to their wily charms and submit yourself to their affections despite your unnatural circumstances? Will you be able to come to terms with befriending them or will you abandon it all, leaving them and all they are in the dark…

A tale as old as time, in which the reader goes through all 5 stages of grief trying to avoid the skeletons, with very little success and a ridiculous amount of shenanigans.

[theowlhousetf2undertalewehaveall]

Worlds Collide: Prologue

Odalia looked at the scroll of truth. The scroll contained a list of all the people that could stop her plans of total domination. The scroll read:

Gaston, Perry the Platypus, Mowey the Mower, Dr Robotnik, Heinz Doofenshmirtz, Donkey Kong, Lego Deadpool, Tangomangle 2, the last Riolu, Heavily Armed Waddle Dee, Senator Armstrong, Megamind, Waluigi, W. D. Gaster, Mine Turtle, Dr Fox, Wooper, Spider-Man, Silver, Morshu, Mettaton, the last Scope Primid, Gotta Sweep, Sody Pop, Colonel Sandurz, Melvin Sneedly, Saponza, Villager #4, Vengeful True Sun God, the octopus that was given boots before being sent to North Korea, Entrapta, Charles Calvin, the Shopkeeper Tem, M Bison, Wario, Chara, Beta Wooper, Mario, the Terrorist Corgi, Barry Steakfries, Sephiroth, Worf, the Temmienator, The Ice Climbers, Orcane, Master Wu’s pet chicken, The I Like Trains Kid, Serial Designation N, Derek Baum, Heavy Weapons Guy, Squidward, He-Man, Yzma, Jerma, Catra, Marquaad, The Daladas, Fox McCloud, Tom, Steve Irwin, Dan the Man, Wooly the Talking Sheep, Colonel Sanders, Ganondorf Suavemente, Robin, Pengu, Riggy Runkey, Alex Fierro, The last threepeater, Sans, Rex Dangervest, Dio, Count Dazzlewether, baby with a gun, King, Blue Shirt Guy, Ralsei, The totem Flareon, Killpuddle, Keith, Rouxls Kaard, Freya McCloud, Keith, Twice, The first Big Shot, Master Hand, Joker, Q, Big Jack Horner, Bill Cipher, Scary Larry, Lord Garmadon, Daisy Kaboom, Doom Guy, Monkey D. Luffy, Peely, Star-Lord, Dirk Dinkum, The sports master Matt, Om Nom, Woshua, Chris McLean, Victini, Luap, Paul Jr, Martin The Warrior, the orb, feesh, Shadow, Shadow the Hedgehog, Johnny 5, The totem Flareon’s umbreon mate, One-Shot Wren, Prisoner Bakon, Shadow Midas, Sam I Am, the annoying dog, Denki Kaminari, Leonidas, The Nug, Pomni, Disco Zombie, Ronin, Pepsiman, Thor, Deadpool, SpongeBob, Scratch, the last two red pandas, Mega Man, Henry Stickmin, Arthur Reed, Shrek, Micro Manager 95, the stranded cube fiend, Sonic, Brian the Barbarian, Wes, Browncoat, Tabuu, Ail-mint, and Boshi.