#On the other side of that: Flowey has mentioned he's pretty much seen EVERYTHING

[illdothehotvoice]

Thinking so much about Flowey and Papyrus right now ouuuuugh

[eevee-haze]

Aight so It's... not news to literally anyone that I like Ink sans a lot as a concept, and his birthday is today, so I figured what better way to celebrate his birthday than to make a brand new AU (or at least post the info for it)! Or I guess three since I'm working on Swap and Fell variants for it as well.

One of my main questions about the Underground was "how do they handle seismic activity" which was how this AU started forming. It's probably not at all scientifically accurate in the least, but oh well. I call it Rifttale. Cause the earthquakes cause literal rifts in the mountain lmao. I'll put the rest under a read more since this'll get long.

The idea of Rifttale is that Mt Ebott is located on a fault line, and all the hollowing out the monsters had to do made the mountain extremely unstable, and that problem only increased the more the underground's population grew. It's pretty dangerous underground in Rifttale what with the constant threat of cave in due to poor structural integrity and the fact that they don't really have much to work with to make their homes and businesses quake resistant. A fair portion of houses get rubble rained down on them and something always needs fixing.

All four sections of the underground remain, but the layout and placement are different. (And probably larger scale) For example, Snowdin is located near the top of the mountain since snow from the peak falls in through the cracks left in the roof of the cavern, and Hotland is at the very bottom of the mountain, where lava has surged up from the seismic activity. Both Waterfall and New Home are around the mid section, but are separated by a thick wall of rubble that followed a quake that happened maybe days before Frisk fell.

Sans

The man of many jobs adds two more responsibilities to the list rather begrudgingly in this AU. As one of the only Monsters capable of gravity manipulation and teleportation in Snowdin, he and his brother are tasked with being emergency responders in case of an earthquake as well as assisting with any initial construction steps in order to make bridges across newly formed gaps. Sans often gets called to other regions for his services too, but he really doesn't appreciate it.

Frankly he's convinced the mountain's going to crush them before they get the final soul they need, which is part of why he agrees to keep Frisk safe so easily. He doubts anything will change about their predicament with or without them. A No-Mercy route in Rifttale would see him saying things like "Couldn't have waited for the mountain to get us?" Or "I think I would have preferred a cave-in."

Something Rift!Sans doesn't really tell people is that he's blind in his right eye. When he and Papyrus were little, he shielded Papyrus from falling rocks during a quake, and one of them got him good just above his right eye. Most of the injury healed but it left a nasty crack in his socket which prevented him from actually being able to see. He can light the socket, and does so strangers don't needlessly worry about him, but it can't light up all the way like his left does.

Papyrus

Ah yes the sunshine boy. Personality wise he's not that different in this AU. He still wants to be in the guard and he's still confident and friendly, but sometimes he gets a little subdued and worried about Sans since Rift!Sans is much more obvious about his emotional/mental struggles. Another notable part is that he's being kept out of the guard mostly because he's more useful in the emergency unit. He's strong and capable enough to be a guard, but he's too soft, so they gave him a job that was helpful while playing to his strengths.... though like a silly he doesn't see the admirers he has and still hopes to become a guardsman one day.

Frisk & Chara

These two are interesting in this AU. Chara was around 13-14 when they died and spent years underground with the Dreemurrs before their death. They have a strong distaste for their own kind for several reasons, among which being the way they were treated (that led them to run away in the first place) and the fact that they forced such nice creatures into what is essentially a death trap.

They're a bit of a gremlin, but they're certainly not all bad like they consider themself to be.

Frisk on the other hand is a quiet child of roughly nine years. Adventurous and curious, but also blind. They hadn't seen the hole when they were exploring and ended up falling down. They rely on Chara to lead them around the more treacherous parts of the underground since they can't see it. (Chara is able to touch Frisk and tends to tug them by the wrist when guiding them.) Chara starts off really unhappy about guiding them, and depending on the route will even refuse to do so, not that it matters in a No-Mercy route. That's because in the No-Mercy route the Player is more of an active component. Frisk physically can't fight back on their own, and Chara would never help them do so. Essentially the Player is just an entity used by us creators to manipulate Frisk into a No-Mercy route since it wouldn't happen otherwise.

Asriel & Flowey

Personality wise the two really aren't all that different. Asriel is the slightest bit more skittish thanks to his timid nature and the uncertainty that comes with the constant tremors, and Flowey is the slightest bit more bearable. He still doesn't have much in the way of emotions, but it's pretty obvious their situation is bleak without him making it worse (As such, while he has tried No-Mercy in the past, most of his runs were seeing what effects smaller changes had. The volatile environment made it interesting regardless).

Though he's notably far more annoyed about losing his save and reload powers in Rifttale because he'd been in the middle of trying something when Frisk fell.

On the more technical side, Flowey doesn't tend to get around much when there aren't bridges over the chasms. While he can cross them himself, its a pain if they're too awfully wide. This means that the severe quakes tended to impede him a lot.

Toriel & Asgore

As a result of the meddling Flowey was doing, Toriel reclaimed her place as Queen and has been talking things over with her husband about everything that happened. Stuck in the ruins she hadn't gotten the news that Asgore amended his statement later on to say that they would only take the souls of humans that fell if they were hostile or after they died of natural causes. None of the children who fell were killed by monsters. (Many died in partial cave-ins or from falling into lava or the like, though so a quick death from a monster likely would have been preferable.)

Toriel still thinks that going out and just collecting the remaining souls they need would be faster, but Asgore argued a few points on that such as doing so likely angering the humans and giving them a further negative bias as well as the fact that whoever went to get the souls may well die like their children did.

They're still working things out but it's better than how it was before.

Toriel still spends a lot of her time in the ruins, but now its more out of a sense of duty since most of the children fell into the ruins first. She actually guides Frisk up until they meet Sans where she passes escorting them to him since he is more capable of ensuring their safety, and she needs to hurry ahead to make preparations for their stay and inform Asgore.

Alphys

Predictably not much different personality wise. She's actually one of the safer monsters since she never leaves her lab and it's reinforced to withstand rockfalls to some degree, not to mention the basement level with the true lab in it (though its hot as heck down there cause of the magma nearby.) Her primary goal is more geared toward keeping the underground as stable as possible so that they can hopefully last until they get the last soul. That's not to say the amalgamates don't exist, they do, but she's at least been looking busy as sort of an excuse why she hasn't answered back any of the letters. No time for mail when she's trying to save people, after all.

Undyne

Captain of the Royal guard, still. The guard does still exist, it's just less numerous and has more focus on recruiting strong members. After all they exist in case a hostile human arrives instead. So naturally Undyne is even more of a badass than normal, and she's ready in the event of a No-Mercy run. Even in a pacifist playthrough she's a bit wary of Frisk, notably not wanting to leave Alphys alone with them in case they were hiding their true intentions. This means she's the one who ends up escorting the human through the first little bit of Hotland after Waterfall, whereupon Mettaton would take over.

Mettaton

Considering a Human-killing robot was no longer needed, he was created with maneuverability in mind. The idea was that he could help others when needed, much like the emergency rescue portion of the guard, but Mettaton much preferred to focus on his career of course. He’s part of the reason Sans keeps being called to help out in other regions which gets him a healthy amount of resentment from the older skeleton.

Gaster

No major story involvement, but he does have plot importance. Gaster was the Skelebro’s father, and while he made them artificially, he did care about them a lot. Not much about him still remains and very few remember any details about him since he was quite a reclusive skeleton. He was close friends with the Riverperson however, so that’s who ended up essentially raising the two skeletons after Gaster fell into the Core. They provided for them despite being gone a lot.

Misc. Details

Children that stayed for an extended period were often called the “New Hope” a term coined when Chara first became a part of the Dreemurr family

Not all children opted to stay with the royal family, hence their belongings being stored in different regions

There were hostile humans that fell as well, but most met their fate in the lava and their souls were burnt up before they could be retrieved.

Frisk had fairly negligent parents. They weren’t outright abusive, but they really didn’t pay much attention to them.

Portions of the Waterfall part of the Underground have large nets bridging the gaps to catch the garbage that falls down that way nothing gets wasted falling into the chasms.

The Delta Rune on Sans’s coat is a reflective sticker. They told him he needed to wear something reflective for visibility’s sake and because he wasn’t willing to mess up his jacket, nor go without it, he cheated the system.

Papyrus wears a battle body just like normal, but he hot-glued some of the reflective material from human clothing that ended up falling down onto it so that he could both look cool and follow rules

Despite being a very neat and cleanly skeleton, Papyrus often ends up dirty as a consequence of his job. Because of that he takes care to meticulously clean both himself and the house before they go to bed.

[agentravensong]

Why Frisk, Chara, & Kris Being Non-Binary Is More Than Just a Headcanon

An UnderTale/DeltaRune Analysis

Since DeltaRune came out, I’ve been sucked right back into the Undertale fandom. Unfortunately, while I’ve seen tons of great fanart and interesting theories relating to the game, it seems the introduction of a third playable human character who isn’t explicitly male or female has also somewhat re-sparked the debate about whether the genders of Frisk, Chara, and now Kris are up to the player’s interpretation. 

On one side, you have people saying to just respect everyone’s headcanons about these characters, down to deciding their pronouns. On the other, you have people saying the three characters being non-binary is part of their thematic purpose in the games, on top of being positive canon representation for a rarely recognized group.

I fall into the latter camp, and this post will explain why. (WARNING: long and text-heavy post)

NOTE: This post was written in late 2018. Since then, I have made an updated version with additional points in Google Docs, which I then used as the script for a YouTube video. As such, this post should be considered an incomplete, though still sound, version of my argument. If you have the time, rather than continuing to read this post, please click the above link(s) to read the Google Doc and/or watch the video for a full understanding of the topic.

If you find yourself repeatedly coming back to this post for whatever reason, remember that my ask box is always open! I’d be more than happy to clarify my position :D

A quick definition to start us off: if a person is “non-binary”, it means that a person doesn’t see their gender as being exclusively male or female. Many non-binary people prefer to be referred to by the pronouns “they/them/theirs” instead of “he/him/his” or “she/her/hers”, since “they” is already a gender neutral pronoun.

 Also, just in case someone doesn’t understand this, a person’s gender identity is not necessarily related to who they are romantically or sexually interested in.

This post will be split into six sections of unequal length, with the focus progressing from literally interpreting the text to Toby’s intentions and the outside impact of having these characters be non-binary.

1. The basics: All 3 characters are referred to exclusively by gender-neutral pronouns in the games.

Let’s go character by character, shall we?

FRISK

It’s admittedly hard to find examples for this, since most of the time people are talking about Frisk in-game, they’ll be talking directly to them in second person. However, while looking through screenshots provided by the UnderTale Text Project, I found these:

Thank you, Alphys!

EDIT: Hey look, a more obvious example I somehow forgot about!

CHARA

All of the following quotes come from the character Chara was supposedly closest to in the entire Underground, Asriel. As you read, think about this: if Chara’s preferred pronouns were anything other than they/them, why would Asriel not use their correct pronouns here?

“Chara hated humanity. Why they did, they never talked about it. But they felt very strongly about that.”

“When Chara and I combined our souls together, the control over our body was actually split between us. They were the one who picked up their own empty body. And then, when we got to the village, they were the one who wanted... to use our full power.”

I’ve seen some people take Flowey’s mentions of Toriel in his New Home Genocide monologue to be confirmation that Chara goes by “she/her”, since he doesn’t refer to Toriel by name... even though Chara wouldn’t have been awake at that time, and when Flowey DOES talk about Chara in this monologue, it’s in second person, since he believes YOU are his old best friend. This misconception isn’t common, especially these days, but I figured it was worth addressing.

KRIS

Out of the three humans, I think Kris is the one who people are most likely to associate with a specific gender based on their name. But despite the theory videos and such you may have seen where people referred to Kris as “he”, this is not reflected anywhere in-game.

(Got these screenshots of DeltaRune’s code from this tumblr post) 

The lines in the first photo are what Susie says when she’s trying to break Kris and Ralsei out of prison, and you have the option to suggest to her which way to go. The second example. according to Kris’ page on the DeltaRune fandom wiki, is said by Ralsei earlier in the game, if you do not run to complete the clock puzzle to open the door right after reuniting with Susie. Unlike the first example, it is clear in this case that Kris is the only one being referred to. 

I remember seeing someone somewhere argue that Susie and Ralsei don’t know Kris well enough to know their “proper” pronouns. When it comes to Ralsei, I can see that argument... but did you notice that he knows both Kris and Susie’s names without asking? It seems he knows more than he lets on... and while Susie certainly wasn’t friends with Kris before this, the fact that they’re in the same class is enough for me to think she would have heard Kris be referred to by their preferred pronouns at least in passing by this point.

And that’s it. Frisk, Chara, and Kris are never referred to by other pronouns... with, admittedly, one exception:

Why does Chara use “it” for themself here? If I had to guess, it’s likely a combination of them being a ghost of their former self without a soul of their own (Flowey’s shown us how much your personality and sense of self is tied to having a SOUL) and the corruption from the Genocide run (remember that gaining LOVE affects a person’s mentality). They see themself as a demon, no longer a person. Whether that’s literally true to any extent or just how they feel after everything they’ve been through doesn’t really matter, I just wanted to cover this point before anyone else could bring it up. It’s not like it makes them not non-binary or anything.

To be clear, not all non-binary people go exclusively by they/them pronouns. Some prefer to go by masculine or feminine pronouns for their own reasons; some go by “neo-pronouns”, ones invented specifically for those who identify as non-binary; and some people go by more than one set of pronouns. However, in the case of Frisk, Chara, and Kris specifically, the fact that they only go by they/them pronouns makes them non-binary, and using any other pronouns for them would be incorrect (even if you have them go by they/them AND he/him or she/her).

Really, that should be enough to prove that the three humans being non-binary is canon. After all, you never have any of the other major characters in Undertale or DeltaRune explicitly state “I’m a girl” or “I’m a boy”. We know their genders because of the pronouns everyone refers to them by. Sure you’ll see gender-bends of those characters, but no one ever claims that those are on the same level of validity when it comes to canon as the actual canon.

But I know that isn’t enough for the people who came into this post disagreeing with the premise, so let’s actually get to countering some of their arguments, shall we? The main argument, of course, is that the humans’ are all meant for the Player to at least partially craft identifies for, including deciding which pronouns they use. But first...

2. Small Fish First: Other characters who are obviously not meant to be self-inserts use gender neutral pronouns.

...I want to cover the easier to counter idea that they/them pronouns are meant to just be, for lack of a better term, “placeholders”; the pronouns you use when you don’t know a person’s gender, rather than being valid permanent pronouns on their own.

If this were true in the case of Undertale and DeltaRune, you’d expect the humans to be the only ones referred to by these pronouns. They’re the ones whose identities are left ambiguous so the Player can project onto them, right?

But that couldn’t be father from the truth. In fact, the majority of the monsters you encounter in both games are referred to with gender-neutral pronouns (they/them and/or it), if any pronouns at all.

Now one might say, “But none of those monsters are really meant to be individual characters.” I get why you’d think that. But you’re forgetting at least one person...

Yup, Napstablook, despite what many fans have assumed from what I’ve seen, does not go by he/him pronouns, but they/them. And it’s not just in the narration either. Undyne does too in certain phone calls with Papyrus. ...Then again, she barely knows Napsta, and we see in DeltaRune that she defaults to they/them when talking about people whose gender she doesn’t know (specifically in that game, Alphys). 

But that isn’t my last example. One of the few people who was ever close to Napsta was Mettaton (before he became a celebrity). And what does Mettaton say after Blooky calls in to his final show?

What this proves is that Toby recognizes they/them pronouns as valid for an individual in his work, which I hope makes buying that he purposefully made all three humans canonically non-binary easier for skeptics to swallow (we’ll get back to whether he DID purposefully do that later).

But I’ll acknowledge that there IS a difference between the three humans and the other characters in the games who use they/them, due to their relationship with you as the Player. So with that tangent out of the way, time to diffuse the “everyone can have their own headcanons about the kids’ genders” argument.

3. Thematic Context: All 3 humans have moments of asserting their agency, and part of the game’s subtext is how they each relate to the Player, rather than them all being blank slates.

Again, we’ll go character by character.

FRISK

This section is, admittedly, the one with the least evidence compared to the rest. But here’s what we have, and it’s pretty obvious:

After this moment, as was shown earlier, the other monsters know Frisk’s name and will refer to Frisk in the third person with they/them pronouns. Now, consider this: If Frisk used other pronouns, wouldn’t they have corrected the monsters here? Sure Frisk don’t talk without being prompting much throughout most of the game, but considering how they just shared their name, something equally as personal as their pronouns, I don’t think it would feel too out of place here.

Alternatively, if Frisk’s gender was up to the Player’s interpretation, the Player could have been given a prompt to correct the other characters with the “proper” pronouns for Frisk. You could argue it would be pointless this late into the game, but couldn’t that logic apply to the reveal of Frisk’s name as well? In this case, the lack of such a moment speaks more to me than having such a moment would.

Now, I totally get why people would project onto Frisk up to this point in the narrative, including assigning them different pronouns. It wouldn’t be a plot twist otherwise. Even their design seems to lend to that, with the unrealistic bright yellow skin Legos and emojis have to make them more race-neutral, and their emotionless, unchanging facial expression (though it’s worth considering that most of the other character’s overworld sprites don’t change expression much either; I’m pretty sure Alphys’ overworld sprite keeps her dopey smile even when she’s talking about the depths of her depression and failure at the end of the True Lab section). And this actually works to UnderTale’s benefit through most of the game, making the connections you forge with the monsters feel more personal.

The significance of this moment is that it asks the Player to be willing to change their perspective. Throughout the True Pacifist run, you help Frisk to change the mindsets of the characters you come across; this is most obvious with Undyne, who has been raised to see all humans as the enemy, but comes to admit that at least “some humans are OK, I guess” after befriending you. Along the way, you learn that there’s more to these monsters than first impressions may suggest (again, Undyne being a great example). Now, the game is asking you to look deeper one more time, and presenting you with the challenge you’ve posed to all the other major characters: are you willing to recognize Frisk’s autonomy; to understand there is more to this person than you first saw?

EDIT: Hey, remember that screenshot from earlier where Flowey asks you to “let Frisk live their life”? He’s literally asking you to let Frisk be free and truly themself, rather than resetting and taking control of them again. So there’s some more food for thought.

CHARA

While you are the one who names Chara (the reason for which will be considered in the fourth section of this post), consider these points:

1. If the purpose of Chara’s entire character was meant to be just a reflection of you as the Player, then why give them a “true name” at all?

2. Chara’s backstory is integral to the setup of UnderTale’s plot, and provides a good amount of hints at their original personality, easily making them less of a “blank slate” for the Player to project onto than Frisk.

3. Chara makes a clear distinction between the Player and themself in their monologues at the end of the Genocide route. In case you forgot, here are some reminders.

First meeting:

“Your power awakened me from death.”

“My ‘human soul’, my ‘Determination’; they were not mine, but YOURS.”

“With your guidance, I realized the purpose of my reincarnation.”

“Together, we eradicated the enemy and became strong.”

If you agree to ERASE the world: “You are a great partner.”

In the abyss:

“Interesting. You want to go back.”

“You want to go back to the world you destroyed.”

“It was you who pushed everything to its edge. It was you who lead the world to its destruction.”

“But you cannot accept that. You think you are above consequences.”

“Perhaps, we can reach a compromise. You still have something I want.”

“Then, it is agreed. You will give me your SOUL.”

Second meeting:

“You and I are not the same, are we?”

“This SOUL resonates with a strange feeling... You are wracked with a perverted sentimentality. ...I cannot understand these feelings any longer.”

“I feel obligated to suggest: should you choose to create this world once more, another path would be better suited.”

To say there is no connection between Chara and the Player would be unfair. I mean, if they hated humans their whole life, why do they end up taking out that rage on the monsters, the ones who were actually kind to them, in the Genocide run? Like Chara says themself, you guide them, teaching them definitively that “in this world, it’s kill or be killed”; and the influence you have on them is much more obvious if you subscribe to the Narrator Chara theory (but that’s a whole other can of worms).

Like with Frisk, Chara presents the Player a challenge, but in a more subtle way: can you recognize that YOU are at fault, rather than blaming your actions on a damaged kid who learns from your example and never got the chance to grow beyond their mistakes? And part of meeting that challenge is recognizing that Chara is, or at least used to be, their own whole person.

KRIS

Now we get to the really fun part. DeltaRune as a whole seems to be delving even deeper and more explicitly into the relationship between the playable character as an unwilling vessel and the actual Player than Undertale did. Outside of the prevalent message that “Your choices don’t matter” (which I’m guessing will end up more like the “kill or be killed” of this game rather than DR’s intended final moral), the main evidence towards this is how the game starts.

1. A red soul appears on screen when the unknown speaker (presumably Gaster) asks you if they’ve successfully connected with you. The soul is what you control throughout this sequence. The implication? The SOUL in this game is a manifestation of you as the Player. In fact, considering some of the Chara quotes I mentioned earlier, this could be true of UnderTale as well.

2. You spend time making a vessel, only for it to be discarded, because “No one can choose who they are in this world.” This lack of choice is actually foreshadowed when you choose which legs you prefer, since all but the last choice are the same. The game is pointing out right away how superficial these choices are.

3. The speakers says “Your name is...” and Toriel seemingly finishes the statement by calling out “KRIS!”

The message of points 2 and 3 combined is pretty obvious to me: we don’t get an empty vessel to put ourself and our ideas into in DeltaRune. Kris is NOT an empty vessel; they have an already established backstory and personality, which we get multiple hints at (mostly when going around town at the end of the demo).

The fact that you have to go through this creation process on every new file, even after beating the game, suggests it’s more than just a framing device, but directly tied to the game’s narrative and/or themes in some way. So, let’s keep this scene in mind as we look at Kris’ defining moment at the end of Chapter 1.

In the middle of the night, Kris is wrestling with themself in bed until they fall out. Their walk is very stilted and jerkish, reminiscent of a zombie, or someone possessed.

Kris opens and closes their hand a few times before digging into their body and pulling out their soul, their eyes blank. (Notice how this doesn’t seem to actually leave a hole in their chest or anything? Almost as if the soul was never a part of them in the first place...)

They go to the wagon and harshly YEET the soul into the cage (the flavor text for which mentions it has already seen a few crashes... has something like this happened to Kris before?).

Kris walks back to the middle of the room, as if to purposefully stand in the center of the DeltaRune symbol on the floor, then pulls out a knife from seemingly nowhere, and turns to the camera with a red glow in their eyes.

Now, I totally get why most people will immediately assume that Kris has been possessed by a post-Genocide Chara here. I’m pretty sure the visual similarities between this scene and the one that plays if you choose to stay with Toriel in a soulless pacifist run in UT are intentional.

But remember how we mentioned the red SOUL, at least in DeltaRune, is a manifestation of the Player? This is actually reinforced in this scene, because you’re able to move the SOUL back and forth within the cage.

We’ve been controlling Kris via that SOUL the whole way through the game, and now? Kris is done with us. THIS is their prime moment of agency in Chapter 1 - reclaiming ownership of their own body - and I doubt that it will be their last.

There’s a ton of other stuff I could mention about Kris, like how:

* they had their own save file, which you overwrite at the first save point

* multiple NPCs in the town will comment on Kris seeming more talkative or looking off today, because YOU’RE making them interact with people

* Kris’ ability to play the piano is worse than normal with you controlling them, according to the hospital receptionist

* the narration says Kris feels bitter if you throw away the one possession in their inventory, the Ball of Junk (”bitter” isn’t the emotion one would feel if they did this of their own free will)

or all the hints at Kris’ true personality as an introverted, codependent prankster. But that could be a post in itself. My point is that, if Frisk and Chara’s individualism from the Player was subtle in UnderTale, this is pretty straightforward, if you know where to look.

And if these three humans are all their own characters, then shouldn’t we consider what seemingly little we DO know for sure about them as canon? We all take their names to be canon, so why not their pronouns?

That’s the bulk of the argument done. But when discussing canon, there is one thing that always has to be considered:

4. Can We Know The Creator (Toby Fox)’s Intentions?

Well, not really.

Some may bring up the one tweet where Toby suggested to name the fallen human (Chara) “your own name” as evidence that you ARE meant to project yourself into these characters. 

However, I think you could just as easily argue that doing this ADDS to the impact of when Frisk, the character you physically control, confirms themself to be their own person with their own name, rather than a mold for you to pour yourself into. 

And though Chara does make it clear that they themself as a character are separate from you, the whole Genocide ending monologue does hit harder when the person reprimanding you for their sins, who describes themself as “the feeling you get when your stats increase”, shares your name.

While putting this post together, I came across this interview Toby did about Undertale back in September 2015, and took particular note of this section:

While this technically doesn’t confirm or deny anything either way, how hard would it have been for Toby to say, “Well the protagonist is meant to have their gender be up to the player’s interpretation”? I doubt he would have gotten more backlash for that then he would have for definitively saying that Frisk is MEANT to be non-binary (though I doubt that would have stopped people from making them male or female anyway).

Then again, the article does start with the interviewer saying this:

“I told Toby Fox to skip questions he didn’t find interesting, and boy did he take me at my word.”

So maybe he just didn’t have anything worthwhile to mention.

I can’t say with certainty that Frisk and Chara’s genders were never meant to be up to the Player’s choice, even after what I mentioned in section 2 (and I doubt Toby would want to make a statement on it at this point). Same with Kris, for now.

However, if the rest of DeltaRune ends up going in the direction I suggested in the previous section, I honestly would not be surprised if there’s a moment where Kris confirms they are nonbinary, as a show of agency and individualism akin to Frisk telling Asriel their real name. I wouldn’t really call it a “theory”, and it’s hard to speculate what the other chapters of the game will at all be like based on what relatively little we have... but I wouldn’t have mentioned it here if I didn’t think it had any validity.

5. Why Does This Matter?

Outside of the previously mentioned stuff relating to the games’ themes/messages about choice, agency, and individualism, there’s one big reason: representation.

How many games can you think of where there are any explicitly non-binary characters? How many where that character is a major one, who doesn’t get treated as particularity different from the others just on the basis of the pronouns they use? And how many of those games are even close to the popularity of Undertale in its hayday? Even expanding these questions to media other than just video games won’t net many more results.

For people who are striving for representation, seeing posts like “Just let people have their headcanons :)” can come across as the OP not understanding how much that representation means. Even worse, coming back to the point I made in section 2 of this post, it could be seen as the OP denying that being non-binary is just as real and concrete as being male or female (a problem which more mainstream representation of non-binary people would help solve!).

But don’t just take it from me. After all, as a binary cis girl myself (”cis” meaning not trans), I can’t speak generally for all the trans and non-binary Undertale and Deltarune fans out there. So allow me to link some posts which provide their perspectives:

This first post is from before DeltaRune was released, and mainly focuses on Frisk, but goes in-depth on the topic (and the OP provided me some feedback on my post, so if they see this, thanks!)

I came across this post just while scrolling through the DeltaRune tag about why this stuff matters to non-binary fans.

This post is specifically about how using they/them pronouns for the kids is preferable whether or not it’s literally canon.

Here’s another post from the same person covering some common counter-arguments.

And if the other posts are too long for you to bother reading after going through mine, this one sums up the point in one sentence.

I know some people flinch at the mere mention of the word “representation”. I know that some will argue you shouldn’t need to see representation of a group you belong to in a piece of media in order to be able to relate to the characters and/or feel validated yourself - because I’ve seen people make this argument. But, I mean, I certainly find it easier to relate to characters that I share traits with; that’s just how humans work. It’s probably the main reason why people assign different genders to Frisk, Chara, and Kris in the first place! Besides, who does it hurt to include more diverse characters?

Oh right, there’s the idea that “forcing” creators to include representation is bad for creativity or whatever. Well good thing that’s not what this is about! As far as I know, no one is telling Toby he has to ADD new characters to fulfill a quota; the characters in question (Frisk, Chara, & Kris) already exist in his work. The point of this post is to show that the three of them were MEANT to be non-binary from the start (assuming I provided enough proof to convince you), so people won’t continue to erase that representation. By making them binary cis boys or girls, you’re only taking away from the original text (and giving people more to “complain” about).

Honestly, what does one even have to gain story-wise from assigning different genders to the human kids? I can’t remember a time I saw where making them strictly boys or girls added anything to their characterization or opened up different story possibilities (I’m sure you could could up with a theoretical example, but compared to the endless fanworks that DON’T do that, they hardly make a dent). Speaking beyond just Frisk, Chara, and Kris, characters being non-binary shouldn't affect how you ship them. You can give such characters more overtly masculine or feminine designs/appearances, but still have them be non-binary and go by they/them pronouns (most people don’t naturally look androgynous after all). In a work with voice acting, casting someone with a more masculine or feminine voice to play a non-binary character shouldn’t stop you from portraying the character as non-binary either - just refer to them with the right pronouns! 

And if people who find your work continuously misgender your non-binary characters or ask what their “real” gender is, don’t let them get to you. You don’t need to respond to every such comment, but when you DO respond, clearly state that these characters are non-binary, politely correct the people who refer to those characters by the wrong pronouns, and, if worst comes to worst, block the people who won’t respect that. Before you (using “you” for the rest of this paragraph to refer specifically to my fellow binary cis peeps) can even think to argue “that sounds like too much work” or “it’s not worth the potential controversy”, remember that non-binary people in real life have to deal with this crap far more often than we do, and for them, it’s personal. If they can handle it, why can’t you?

Yes, Frisk, Chara, and Kris are fictional characters, not real people. But more representation of non-binary people in media helps others learn to understand and respect them, both in fiction and in real life. Honestly, it’s beyond time for people to accept that “they/them” aren’t “placeholder pronouns”, and the genders of people who use them aren’t up for others to judge. It’s just who they are, and really, how hard is that to respect?

If nothing else will convince you, think of it this way: if you’re not in the group being affected by a discussion like this, and you don’t care about the people in that group, keeping yourself out of the conversation saves everyone time and energy, without hurting anyone.

6. Conclusion

So, to briefly summarize this essay-length post’s main points:

1. Frisk, Chara, and Kris all go solely by “they/them” in their respective games, so having them go by any other pronouns is technically diverting from canon to the same extent that gender-bending any other character would be, NOT a valid interpretation of the original text. 

2. There are other individual characters in these two games, such as Napstablook, who are referred to by they/them pronouns, even by those who were close to them.

3. The three humans are all shown to be more than just blank slates for the Player to project themself onto, making the stuff which IS definitively said about them (specifically, their names and pronouns) canon parts of their characterization unless directly proven otherwise.

4. We can’t assume Toby’s intentions, but even if he didn’t initially make Frisk, Chara, and Kris gender neutral for the sake of giving non-binary people representation, many people have taken it as that. Thus, seeing others say that the humans’ genders are up for interpretation is interpreted as those people not respecting non-binary identities as valid on their own.

The one other point I can think people might bring up would be the idea that kids as young as Chara or Frisk wouldn’t identify as non-binary because they wouldn’t understand the concept. To that argument, I’d suggest looking up videos about people who realized they were transgender as kids. In general, if there are concepts in this post you didn’t quite get or agree with, research is your friend!

Speaking of which, as this post I came across in the DeltaRune tag yesterday pointed out, fun fact: “non-binary” is an umbrella term that still leaves some slight room for personal interpretation when it comes to the humans’ genders! To use myself as an example, I personally headcanon Chara as firmly agender, Kris as a a demi-boy (someone who only partially sees themself as male), and Frisk as genderfluid (meaning that their sense of gender regularly changes). However, despite the nuances in their gender identities, I only have them go by they/them pronouns, their canon ones, in my fanworks. Doing otherwise not only goes against canon, but can be considered misgendering, and thus should be avoided.

This doesn’t mean that you can’t make up ANYTHING about what Chara, Frisk, and Kris are like either. People have plenty of headcanons about the backstories and other quirks of characters like Sans, Undyne, Mettaton - basically the whole cast of both games - and there’s nothing stopping you from doing that for the human kids. I certainly have my own ideas of what Chara and Frisk’s lives were like before they fell into the Underground. The difference is that those are speculating on things not outright said in canon. But Frisk, Chara, and Kris going by they/them pronouns IS canon, and should be respected as such.

At the end of the day, neither I nor anyone else (not even Toby) can outright stop people from having their opinions about these fictional characters. But since I had some free time this weekend, I figured I could take a stand for something I care about relating to a fandom I’ve emerged myself in for the past few years. My main hope in making this post is that you’ll understand why certain people disagree with the seemingly righteous stance of “It’s all up to interpretation, just let people do what they want!”. And if you knew nothing about non-binary identities before, hopefully this was educational for you!

If you have any remaining questions or suggestions relating to this post, feel free to reblog with your feedback or send me an ask. Until then, this is Agent Raven, signing off.

[thatdragonsdrabbles]

The Start, The Middle, and now

TorielTale, The Finale

[Oh boy lemme tell ya.]

[Alphys is terrified of this growing problem, but also intrigued by this human being carted around by an army of monsters. How they can be so cool in the face of such strangeness? She still wants to get to know them, and to make them think she's cool too. Mettaton's game show means she can stand “on stage” alone with them without having to worry about a sea of goats! And the audience is full, which makes Mettaton happy! But the stakes are kind of lowered when you have Alphys giving answers... and fifty other monsters giving you the stink eye for even suggesting you'll hurt the child for getting a wrong answer. He leaves soon after embarrassing the Royal Scientist, who upgrades your phone as normal. Toriel is a little offended by her comment on how ancient it is.]

[Overall, the Toriel Troupe isn't hindered in Hotland, but they don't exactly like it. Frisk just wants to play on the neat jumpy pads, but they have to find a way to sneak out of like five Toriels' grips or they'll just pass them along in a train over all of the dangerous bits. Never mind that there's invisible walkways specifically so no one falls in. Toriel 17 mentions a bad feeling when she looks into the Core... but shrugs it off. She can't remember a reason to feel that way. Alphys has to activate some traps really fast to cut most of the Troupe off from each other. Frisk humors her advice, although they've already solved the puzzles. And, well, MTT's game shows are far less exciting when several Toriels go to take Frisk away the moment anything looks too dangerous, which is literally everything.]

[Someone's been spreading rumors about some rowdy goats and a spider-hating child... Muffet provides more of an issue than the Troupe expected, but Frisk honestly has fun playing with the spider's chomp-y pet. After all of the hand-holding, the webs feel like freedom. Toriel (the first) and Toriel (the second) threaten to burn the place down, destruction of property be damned, but others convince them by way of Frisk's smile. Toriels 6-9, 11 and 12 sit down to have a chat over spider cider, where it's revealed that all of the spiders from the Ruins were able to hitch rides out of there. Muffet is pleased. The Troupe is aghast. Frisk is surprised they never noticed. Toriel 10 was talking to Toriel 61, coordinating the Toriel parade and the shifts of Frisk-watching.]

[There aren't enough accommodations in the MTT Resort for all of them, but they're just passing through anyway. The place is new to the Troupe, as Mettaton wasn't present before Toriel went to the Ruins. The CORE is still winding, though much less treacherous because the Toriels literally take up every free space in the halls. No monster wants to mess with them. No one, except Mettaton. Surprise! Alphys isn't able to stop him from trapping Frisk, and she panics outside the door while 200 Toriels side-eye her. Unfortunately, the door is fireproof. So Frisk actually has to FIGHT again. Or rather, they have to get him to stop fighting. Because could you imagine the disappointment in their two-hundred mothers' eyes if they destroyed him? Plus, Frisk thought the game shows were pretty cool. They can't sign up for the next one if he's out of commission.]

[The Troupe can't help but reminisce, when they reach New Home proper. It's been so long since they've seen it. But they let Toriel (the first) tell Frisk about the royal family's tragedy, out of respect. It's not a happy tale. Frisk can't take the time to hug them all, but they can at least hug the first. The rest feel comforted anyway.]

[Sans didn't take Frisk and all of their moms out for dinner, but he can't just let them walk through New Home uninterrupted. That elevator can't hold them all, so the first ten take it with Frisk while the rest march up the stairs. So Sans greets Frisk, and Toriel... and Toriel... and Toriel... They make him stop after the eighth one, because they all knew he would've continued otherwise. He can't help but wonder aloud, if they hadn't had so much love and support and goats in their life, if the kid's choices would've been different? Would they have kept this compassion? Or... would they have gotten curious? Toriel 659 asks what he means, but he waves it off with that familiar grin. “Goat gettem, kid.”]

[Frisk: *two thumbs-up*]

[There is absolutely no contest once they reach the throne room. Asgore turns around, sees an army of his wife, and faints. The Toriels look at him in disdain, but because they're decent people they carry him over to a chair (not the throne) so he isn't just passed out on the floor. Frisk kind of wants to wait until they can have that cup of tea Asgore offered. But they wouldn't want to torture the king with the Toriel Thousand. Plus, they have to check out that barrier. It's... large. Powerful. Menacing. And they want to break it down.]

[Toriel 37 says that's impossible. Toriel 531 says it's not impossible, but the method would be unspeakable. Toriel 999 doesn't want Frisk to get any closer. Toriel 668 calls out, saying she found “them.” The silence that follows is tense.]

[“Howdy!”]

[No one catches which Toriel falls, but everyone hears the little cheerful voice that pops up at Frisk's feet. This flower, the one that had been too wary of the army to show himself before, finally decides enough is enough. With the SOUL of one Toriel, he is now able to grab the SOULs of the six other humans, and transform into a horrific creature neither monster nor human. And he has an easy time sweeping out huge swathes of Toriels, tightly packed as they are. Their sole focus is on getting to Frisk wrapped in his vines, but his SAVEs and LOADs and ruthless attacks take no prisoners. So many boss monster SOULs to consume, so little time!]

[Guess numbers don't always mean everything, huh?]

[However, Frisk struggles with all of their might, and eventually, finds help from the other beings trapped by Flowey. He can't keep them contained forever. Too focused on consuming boss SOULs left and right, Flowey forgets momentarily that the human ones are far more powerful through willpower alone—and they help Frisk tear the photoshopped villain apart. Left with only a flower, and a pathetic one at that, Frisk looks at all the dust settling all across the room, anguish flooding their heart...]

[And they forgive Flowey.]

[And then they RESET.]

[You thought this was over? Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha you truly are an IDIOT]

[TorielTale.exe has crashed]

[spectroamer]

A chance to be there: Chapter 4: Sour medicine

Frisk was waiting for Sans and Papyrus to come back for a while now. She knew that it would take Papyrus some time to find out what was bothering Sans, but she didn’t expect to wait for this long. At least, she had Aliza to keep her distracted. Aliza was never bored, always having something to entertain herself with. Still, even with Aliza, Frisk's thoughts would always come back to the skeletons after a while. Luckily for her, she didn’t have to wait for much longer. After some time, she heard the door knob slowly turn. Frisk quickly got up, with Aliza in her hands and went to the door. As she expected, the two brothers were on the other side. Both Sans and Papyrus knew that they were being late when they saw Frisk's neutral face. Sans was first to greet her, but she was still unsatisfied by the amount of time she waited.

“What took you so long?”

“WELL, YOU DID SAY THAT WE SHOULD TAKE SOME TIME TO CATCH UP.”

Frisk sighed, because she didn’t want Papyrus to mention their conversation. “Paps, I told you not to talk about that.”

Sans told Frisk that it didn’t matter, since he guessed that it was her who told Papyrus to invite him. She was slightly surprised, but she had to admit that she should have seen that coming. The two of them shared an unusual moment of silence, before Papyrus went into the living room. He knew that the two of them needed some privacy to talk things out.

“So, are you now ready to talk about what happened last night?”

Sans chuckled. “Do I have a choice?”

Frisk was silent for a second before she said “No, not really.”

Sans looked down on his necklace and then back at her. He breathed in and out, getting all of his courage so that he could say what happened. He slowly started explaining the dream, step by step, making sure that Frisk understands what happened, but while leaving out some details that he thought was better for her to not know. Frisk found all of it hard to take in, but she was determined to stay strong, or at least act like it, so that Sans doesn’t stop talking. She wasn’t sure if he knew how she felt, but she did. She felt ashamed, horrified and disgusted with what happened because of her ignorance in the dream. Frisk had her doubt, but she was pretty confident that she was right. Still, to make sure, she asked him the only question she cared about.

“Are you sure that it was just a nightmare?”

His answer mortified her.

“I… I don’t know.”

Sans saw the look on her face. He wanted to make her feel better, but all he could do was to say that he was sorry. Frisk didn’t know how to respond. Sans carefully took Aliza in his arm and hugged Frisk with the other. While Papyrus was in the other room, he still heard enough to confirm his fears that Sans didn’t tell him everything. Sans didn’t talk much about science stuff before, but Papyrus heard from him about the timelines long ago. He still didn’t now much, but what he did know is that time could be brought back again and again. It seemed to him that a situation like that has maybe happened a few years ago. Or after. He wasn’t sure anymore. Papyrus didn’t like seeing his brother in a state like this, especially when Frisk can’t help him much.

After a long time of silence between the two, Frisk was finally able to speak up.

“So that might have actually happened?”

Sans knew that there was no sugarcoating this conversation. “It is possible”

Frisk looked at Aliza, who was still in Sans' hands. “Sans? Do you think she will remember anything?”

Sans didn’t even think about Aliza's part of the situation, so the question was only another new problem for him to worry about. “She might. It wouldn’t be a surprise, counting the fact that out of all humans and monsters, we are her parents.”

“I think we both know that no one should have to remember resets.”

“I know Frisk, but if she does remember it, there will be nothing that we could do about except accepting it.”

Frisk sighed. “You’re right. We'll just have to be careful in the future.”

“Yeah, don’t expect me being in cars anytime soon.”

Frisk looked at him with a worried expression. “I think you should talk to someone else as well about all of this.”

“What, you want me to go to a psychiatrist or something?”

Frisk noticed that he already knew what she meant and that he isn’t going to like it.

“No, I meant someone who has had more… similar experiences.”

Sans really didn’t like this idea.

“Are you seriously suggesting that we should bring Flowey here?”

“Well he does remember more timelines than both of us.”

“What if he doesn’t remember the last one?”

“Then we will simply leave, but I do believe that he could help us.”

“The only thing he'll do is enjoy the fact that we are desperate enough to ask him for help.”

Frisk was not planning on giving up. She knew that Sans needed someone to talk with about that timeline, and Flowey was the only one who could help in the right way, even if Sans doesn’t want him around.

“If you don’t want to go, that's fine, I will go myself.”

Sans' eyes became completely dark as he responded in a flat voice.

“Not a chance.”

Frisk was caught off guard, but that still didn’t stop her.

“Then come with me. We both know he changed. It will be good for you.”

Sans finally gave up.

“Ugh, fine, but if he tries anything, I’ll blast him right there where he stands.”

Frisk was thankful that Sans finally agreed. When Papyrus noticed that the tension in the room they were in quieted down, he peaked through the door, to see them leaned on each other, finally at least slightly peaceful. Papyrus wanted to go back to his home, but Frisk had one more favor to ask of him. She begged Papyrus to watch over Aliza while she and Sans go to Flowey. Papyrus gladly accepted. Both Frisk and Sans changed their clothes into something more appropriate for the underground. Sans offered to go through a shortcut, which Frisk accepted. In a matter of seconds, they found themselves in the first room of the underground. As the walked in the next one, they found Flowey, looking at them, like he was waiting. For all they knew, he probably did. Their assumption was confirmed when Flowey spoke.

“I was wondering when you would show up.”

Since Frisk knew that Sans didn’t like this, she decided that she will do the talking.

“So you knew that we were coming?”

“To be honest, I thought that you would take longer to get here.”

He was not honest.

“Do you know why we came here?”

Flowey's voice was a mocking one. “Let me guess: you remembered all of your mistakes and now you want me join you so you could feel better because I remember what happened.”

Frisk only nodded in response.

Flowey slightly tilted his head before he responded in his normal voice. “Sure, I’ll help ya. After all, it will be more interesting to talk to someone from the other side.”

While Flowey didn’t consider his joke any more cruel than all of the others he always said, Frisk apparently did, since she looked like she was struck by it. Sans instantly went into defense and stepped in front of Frisk.

“Watch your mouth weed. I don’t care about you as nearly as she does.”

Flowey didn’t care for his threats. “You’re right about that, but do you know who else is right?” He pointed a vine towards Frisk. “You might not care about me, but you do need me. You dreamed about the timeline. The dream could fade away any day and you could forget something just as important as last night, but me? I remember it all. Every word, every move. You need my experience.”

Sans groaned, realizing that Flowey is right. “Fine, you win, but if you make one mistake, that timeline will be the last one you live through.”

Flowey laughed in his iconic way and looked at Frisk. “There wasn’t something new like this ever since You got out of the underground. This will be interesting.” First Previous Next

[that1nkyone]

Prize for exp0001 : “Real”

Heya! This is @exp0001-goopsart‘s runner-up prize for the Spectrum Fanart Contest! They requested a few different themes, but I decided to go for Angst involving Sans and Frisk. And, well, this happened.

This short wound up being... kind of sad/dark with a hopeful ending. I decided to try something new with the kind of friendship Sans and Frisk have. This setting involves constant resetting and a pretty apathetic Frisk. At least, at first.

I hope you like it, dude. If it’s not quite what you like, let me know and we can sort something out. : )

Thank you so much!

(Rated T - Features character death, fixed by resets and some dark humour courtesy of Sans.)

When you had your first journey through the Underground, you had done it wrong.

You’d defeated Toriel. But only because you thought there was no other way past her.

You’d killed any monster that had killed you, before. Because death was scary, and you didn’t want to have to go through it any more than you had to.

You never killed Papyrus. He never killed you, after all. You knew what to expect from him.

Asgore was the final mistake. Except - well, you weren’t the one who killed him. Someone else had done that, and you hadn’t been able to stop it.

But perhaps you were going about it all wrong.

When you spoke to Sans in the golden hall for the first time, you gained a new meaning behind your kills. And you thought it made sense.

But now, you’ve reached the end.

And the only way forward was out. Back to the surface, back up into the world you’d left.

You bite your lip.

And you start again.

You realize you don’t have to kill Toriel, this time. That wasn’t necessary.

Things are still very similar. And even though it’s your third time through the Underground, you learn a few new things. But you become more familiar with others.

Sans, for instance. You talk to him, more. You didn’t have to. In fact, the first time around, you pointedly ignored him the entire time. He creeped you out.

He even weirder up close. He seems to appear out of nowhere. And he also seems to know about Flowey. You don’t trust him all that much. And his jokes are awful.

When he treats you for dinner at the MTT Resort, you’re given more reason to avoid him. “Dead where you stand?” That wasn’t the tone of someone you could trust.

At the end of it all, you wind up at the exit to the Surface, once more.

You start again.

You try something new, this time.

There’s gotta be something new. Something you’ve missed. You get tired of having to die so easily, so you decide that you’ll be a bit stronger. More Execution Points means more LV. And more LV, as grim as it was, meant less dying on your part.

And that means you need to kill more monsters than necessary.

Sans is even creepier, this time. It bothers you in a way that’s more irritating than actually scary. He gives you another threat. That you’re going to have a ‘bad time,’ or whatever that means.

But you keep hearing a faint whisper at the back of your mind. You heard it in the Ruins, and you hear it now. When your body steps forward outside of your own volition, you freeze up.

You don’t kill Papyrus.

Sans thanks you for it. He’s back to his usual cheerful personality - or whatever the heck kind of personality he has.

You stop at Waterfall.

This isn’t what you want, you decide. You want more control than this.

You start again.

You order fries when you sit with Sans at Grillby’s, this time. You don’t really care about the ketchup that spills out - but you stop eating after five fries.

“a new record.” Sans says. “don’t think i’ve ever seen you eat that many.”

You feel a chill. When you turn to look at the skeleton, he’s facing away from you - watching Lesser Dog munch away at a small pile of bones.

Sans looks back at you, and you relax.

“… notice something new every time, huh?” He says.

You feel nauseated from the ketchup.

Sans doesn’t remember, you figure out. He knows. Oh, he definitely knows. But he doesn’t remember.

He’s the only one that knows, you think. But you eye Papyrus with some suspicion - sometimes he mentions deja vu.

You try not to kill many people this time. You want enough strength to keep you from dying, but not enough for that voice to come back.

You decide to take out the dog guard. You’ve always been afraid of dogs. They chased you a lot, when you were younger. And these ones have swords, and axes.

Sans stacks hot dogs on your head when you pass his sentry station in Hotland, this time around. You get thirty, stacked completely vertically and you’re not sure how he does it.

The moment you move, it all comes crashing down.

“perfectly good waste of ‘dog, if you ask me.” He says.

You start over.

You meet Sans again in the Judgement Hall. You’ve lost count how many times it’s been, but he’s always had something a little different to say.

You’re not sure what’s different this time. But after Sans finishes his spiel, like usual, you ask him to wait, before he can vanish.

You tell Sans that you don’t want to go back up to the Surface.

Sans’ smile doesn’t fade, and he doesn’t budge.

Then, he steps forward. He’s the one that approaches you, now.

“why not?” He asks.

You don’t tell him this time. You don’t tell him the next two times, either. But finally, you again tell Sans that you don’t want to go to the surface, and he approaches you again.

“… you gonna explain yourself?” He asks, this time.

You tell him that nobody needs you, up there.

Sans looks at you. He glances out the window.

“sounds messy.” He says, still grinning.

You feel a pang of frustration. That wasn’t the response you wanted.

You start again.

You try not to kill anyone, this time.

‘Try’ being the key word. A couple of times, the fear of dying outweighed your vow of pacifism. But you find a small comfort in the fact that they’d be back again, next time.

The Snowdin dogs are back. You’re not scared of them, anymore. But your stomach twists, when you meet up with them. You’re not sure why.

When you see Sans’ hot dog stand in Hotland, you march past him without speaking.You glance over your shoulder when you’re about to turn onto a new path - and he’s gone, again.

You look back at the new path. Then back at the stand.

Sans is sitting on the snowy roof of his sentry station, munching on a Hot Cat.

You look away. Then back.

He’s gone again.

You look away. Your face is stubbornly set into a frown.

Then, you look back.

He’s standing in front of the Sentry Station with a small, white dog sitting atop his head and panting happily.

“what’s up, dog?” He asks.

A laugh bursts from your clenched jaws.

He looks at you, and you decide that you’re still upset. You turn and walk away down the path at last.

You start again.

Nobody’s dead, this time. You’ve become too familiar with monsters and their problems to worry about it. The only white powder in Snowdin Woods is just snow.

You take your time. You hide behind the lamp, as usual. You hear Sans’ awful jokes for the umpteenth time.

But when Papyrus goes on his merry way, you stay behind.

You sit down on the path - only a thin layer of snow covering it. Sans glances over at you, blinking.

“no hurry to get goin’?” He looks away. “guess my brother’s gonna be disappointed.”

You tell him that Papyrus won’t have to wait too long.

Sans approaches. He doesn’t sit with you, but he stands at your side.

You tell him again that you don’t want to go to the surface, because nobody needs you there.

You tell him that you’ve never really felt at home. You tell him that at least around here, you knew what was going to happen.

Everything up there changes so fast. You either have a roof over your head, or you don’t. You have food, or you don’t. People are nice, or they aren’t.

Down here, you know what to expect from the same people.

Down here, you feel safer. You know what’s coming, and you’ve tried new things to spice it up a little - but you’ve found comfort here. You know everybody. You know what to do to make things pleasant enough here. You can control how bad it gets.

You don’t want to go to the surface, you tell Sans. You have no idea what’ll happen if you do.

Sans doesn’t say anything for a long time. But he sits down next to you.

“yeah.” He says. “i guess it’d be pretty freaky, not knowin’ what to expect.”

At first, you feel relieved that he gets it. And then, a pang starts to well up in your chest. And you start to feel ill.

You tell him that as long as things are like this, you’ll be fine.

“cool.” He says. “you ready to go? i’ll meet you up ahead, like usual.”

You don’t move.

You feel sick.

“… you hungry or something, kiddo?” The skeleton leans into your field of vision. “… nah, you must’ve eaten some greens back there, ‘cause your face sure looks it.”

You clench your jaw.

And then you’re sick.

You wake up on the couch in Sans and Papyrus’ house. The cushions are firm and littered with spare change. The kitchen is bustling with Papyrus’ efforts to cook up something for his new house guest.

Sans is sitting on the arm of the sofa, flicking endlessly through the four channels of the television.

“that’s a first.” He says, without looking back at you. “i think.”

You’re both quiet for a while, the only noise being the clattering of pots and pans and the buzzing of four different tones of static.

You tell Sans you’re a bad person.

The skeleton shrugs.

Things change a little, this time.

You call Undyne and Papyrus a lot. You try to listen to what they have to say. You try to really understand what kind of people they are.

You call Toriel, too. No responses, of course. But you wonder if she’s thinking of you. And you wonder if she’s baking anything.

You talk to Alphys, even knowing what’s coming. But you think you understand her a little better, now. Or you understand her more than you’d like.

You talk to Sans every time you see him. He doesn’t offer you food, this time. Just a bucket.

You kick it, giggling. Sans shrugs.

“Bit of gallows humour there, kiddo.” He says. He’s grinning, anyway.

It’s when Flowey has them all in his thorny vines that you realize that they’re real to you.

You’re not sure when they stopped. You’re not sure when they started being real, again, either. You just know that they haven’t been for a very long time. And that makes you sad.

“Don’t you get it? This is all just a GAME.”

And you feel ill. You look at Flowey, beaming at you with your friends in his grasp.

You look up at Sans.

His eye sockets are dark.

You wonder if this is new to him. That if over the many, many combined resets, courtesy of you and Flowey, he was ever held captive like this.

All of your friends, you realize, have long stopped being real to Flowey.

You realize that you want them to stay real to you.

You’re standing there at the top of Mt Ebott, next to Toriel. You’re both watching the sunset. You’re shaking a little. You don’t know if it’s because you’re tired or if you’re frightened, but you decide that you’re not feeling that scared.

You quietly tell Toriel that you have places to be. And the forgotten queen of the Underground gives you a smile of understanding (though perhaps you can see some flicker of disappointment).

She follows after the entourage that have hurried down the mountain. But you stand there a few moments longer.

Then, you look to your left.

Sans is standing there. You figured he’d be.

You try to read him a little. But you’ve never really managed to do that so well, in all the time you’ve known him.

But when you tell him that you’re not resetting this time, you can already tell he doesn’t believe you.

He watches the sunset anyway, looking a little more relaxed than usual. You wonder if he ever saw this in a past reset of Flowey’s. Probably not, you realize. Not enough SOULs.

“… she’s gorgeous, huh?” He says, gesturing to the sunset. “really lights up my life.”

You snort.

“hey, thanks for getting us this far.” He says. and he sounds like he means it. “could honestly get used to this.”

He starts walking down the mountain, too. You follow behind him, fiddling with your sweater as you look at the sun, again.

You know that it’s all unknown from here on out. Moreso now that you have a group of monsters to represent.

You’re scared. And you know that perhaps, in a way, you’ve ruined any chance of really being friends with Sans. But you decide that you don’t need to convince him of anything. You don’t have to tell him you’ve changed, so you can feel better.

You just have to try to do the right thing from here on out.

“hey, kid?”

You look down at Sans, who’s looking up at you. His hands are still in his pockets, but the stare he gives you isn’t accusatory.

“you comin’, or what?” He asks, gesturing with his shoulder.

You draw in a breath.

And you decide to keep going.

[funsizedkola]

Activation

Summary: The power to bring great change does not always guarantee the ability to last long. And sometimes, it pays to be prepared.

Charcters: Frisk (Reader), Chara

Warnings: Mentions of death and violence.

This is my entry for @bonelynomore‘s 500 Followers Celebration Contest! It’s an idea I’ve had for a while now. Not really original since I’ve found out about one or two other works that considered this, but I decided to give my own take nonetheless. :D

There’s a difference between death from a monster and death from a human. Both are unpleasant in their own ways, but at least the pain is felt in a different way. When you’re HP goes down to zero, you feel your entire self shatter and disappear from reality itself, to another place that you’re not sure is entirely real or a figment of your imagination before you hear the words of a grieved king begging you to continue.

While you had sought death when you fell down, you did not think that you would go through it multiple times.

Nor did you expect to have been able to get used to the feeling. It’s funny how you’ve become more confident in facing perilous situations when the power to turn back time is in your grasp.You’d be lying if you said you weren’t tempted to take it to the next level, to really go back and see how the story can change.

After all, the real person in control is you, no longer the flower who was humbled into letting you take the reigns of deciding the fate of Monsterkind after finally remembering what it’s like to have a soul of your own.

But no matter what suggestions were whispered in your ear, no matter what actions you found yourself carrying out like a marionette crafted for destruction, knowing what taking a life is like from both perspectives pushed you into retelling the story once again, to face your fears of going back to the Surface and tread on unfamiliar territory once again.

It was difficult to ignore the RESET button with every threat and obstacle that would appear in the way of the happy ending that you worked for. It was a worry that you couldn’t talk to many people about. And the ease you thought you had about the many times your soul shattered eventually came back to haunt you in the form of nightmares, along with the memories of what you were once compelled to do. How could you explain this to your adoptive mother or father who have seen and lived through too much than they would of wished for?

You tried looking for Flowey whenever you felt the need to go back to the mountain and just take comfort in the familiar territory of the hidden kingdom, but the only golden flowers you’ve found were the silent blossoms that adorned the throne room of your father and the grave of the first child him and the previous queen had accepted from outside their race. If he really ever wished to see you again, no doubt he would question whether you had better things to do.

In the end the person you could most confide in was Sans, and even then you knew there were lines you had to carefully avoid crossing. He always smiled, but as you learned from even in your first venture to the king, that didn’t always mean that he was happy. Still, the times you ended up venting your fears and reoccurring memories that frightened you even back when it was from a timeline of assumed peace seemed to help him accept you as what you forgot what you always were and may always be. A kid. And while he hardly revealed much about himself aside from a look at a secret lab harboring pictures and confusing blueprints and a covered up machine, you felt that in his own way he has opened up to you.

But then again sometimes you can’t always been sure when it comes to that enigma of a comedian. But you were fine with that.

Because that’s something you’re learning to live with. The fact that not everything will be okay through and through, and that not everyone is willing to to like who you are or what they perceive you to be.

After all! With friends like these-

“-shooter has been apprehended and taken into custody, but the real worry-”

-who needs-

“-condition is critical despite efforts to save the life of-”

-enemies.

…

…

…

“I-It’s gonna be alright Frisk. W-We’ll take c-c-care of you! N… No matter what. T-Things will turn out okay… hopefully…”

…

…

…

Here’s the thing about experiencing death at the hands of a human. It in no way feels pleasant or surreal. There’s no magic, no real connection to the soul until you’ve bleed enough. It hurts too much and also feels so cold when you’re feeling more of the ground you’ve fallen upon and the bullet that pierced into you’re chest, feeling more strain from your physical heart rather than the soul that will soon shatter and disappear out of sight from the many eyes looking upon you’re body as yours slowly close in slumber, like they once had long ago when you’ve intentionally fallen down the mountain.

It feels worse than any previous death you’ve ever gone through.

Whiteness.

What once was pitch black had subtly shifted into shades of grey before soon enough light had surrounded you. It was… different than you expected. You were used to the black void that would engulf you whenever you were on your way to the other side, but perhaps… this is what awaits you when you can no longer prolong your lifespan.

Not really what you’re used to… But it’s not bad.

… Wait.

Mom. Undyne. Papyrus. What happened to-

*They are fine.

…

You know that voice.

* … Greetings.

You could feel them. Like you had before when you were young, but somehow you were even more aware of their presence. How you felt that they were behind you. Turning around, your shoulders tensed in case you had to be ready. If you had to stand defiant against those red eyes that once has been covered in black matter that would drip down their rosy cheeks.

Those eyes met yours… with a shimmer to them.

* You. Idiot.

* Chara…

* Admittedly, you went pretty far this run. You turned, what, eighteen this year? Ready to go to college and everything, right?

* It’s… really you.

* Maybe you can say I Told You So with how you only needed to rely on SAVES and LOADS, but that doesn’t change the fact that YOU STILL-

* [ACT] Hug

They stiffened in your arms, frozen as tears soon dropped onto your shoulder, a show that they are currently not the demon that had been ready to erase the world. It didn’t take long for them to hug you back. The last time you two were face to face, you both had the appearances of children no older than eight that nonetheless had at least one point held what seemed to be the weight of the world in your hands.

But now their outward age seemed to mirror yours, a reflection on how a decade passed since that fateful day that spanned multiple timelines.

* How come I can see you again…?

A choked attempt to speak was muffled in your shoulder before they took a deep breath before stepping back a few steps. Their eyes had a hard look to them that reminded you of one your mother gave you a few times.

* Because you are now nearly like me.

It took you a couple of seconds… but it soon dawned on you. At your realization they looked away, their bangs now shadowing their expression.

The only reply needed to confirm this was a slow nod.

… It finally happened. You couldn’t reach the LOAD button in time. The chance to escape death was no longer there. And now you’re on the other side of the door that can no longer stay unlocked for you to return to your life. Hands tightened on Chara’s arms as the will to stay upright wavered. Staggering, you stumbled forth until your head rested against their chest, overcome with shock. Their grasp on you adjusted until it felt like they were shielding you, arms around a no longer physical body.

* ……… And everyone else?

* …. They are alive. They apprehended the one who shot you.

Trembling now as reality continued sinking in, you felt yourself being lowered until the both of you were on your knees, what is seemingly the ground beneath you feeling like suspended air that sent more of a chill across your entire being.

* The doctors tried saving you… but your body failed before they could do anything.

Your family is alive. They are not in danger. They’re safe. Over and over again you chanted that to yourself, as if that would be enough to satisfy you. But the memory of your final death had you drawing in haggard breaths as you remembered the last eyes you looked at being the frantic look of that man who just needed to walk up to you with a concealed gun behind their back in a matter of seconds before pulling the trigger.

Tears of your own dampened Chara’s sweater as you began to giggle hysterically. After all you went through, it just took one act, not even a FIGHT, to prevent you from relying on your determination soon enough.

* Going against humans is not like FIGHTing monsters. The connection to your soul is not as strong. Not as aware. And thus all the more deadly. If he decided to target someone else maybe you would of had the time to LOAD. But since he went for you…

As usual they were telling the truth in a matter of fact way of speaking, even if the edge to their voice betrayed their true thoughts. Taking a deep breath to attempt to calm yourself, you sat down as you pulled away a bit. Shoulders slumped, you just stared at your knees that were covered by denim and brightly colored patches of fabric that had been sewn onto them. You remembered when you decided to add them onto your jeans on a whim when tears appeared from the result of rambunctious adventures with your family.

*…. I didn’t know how far I would be able to go… or that if the end would arrive at all…

Silence is all that could follow after that. It was eerie the lack of noise that surround the two humans who at points in time were so crucial to the history and futures of monsters and humans alike. Strangely enough, if you concentrated enough you could hear the sound of… beeping… Brow furrowing, your head tilted as if to crane your ear towards the noise.

* Alphys and Sans made sure to contain your soul before it shattered. That’s why you have not fully crossed over yet.

Eyes widening, you snapped your neck up to look back at your once deemed partner. A cross between frustration and relief showed through their frown and creased brow.

* On one hand I can see why they would not want to give up on you. But on the other hand I don’t see how they can fix you.

As if their words were clearing the fog, you could feel yourself suspended in the air, yet surrounded by something… solid. Something that felt… secure. Is this how those previous children that were killed felt when their souls were contained in those glass containers? You gave a wry smile as you gave a small shake of your head. And you thought you were supposed to be the determined one. It didn’t last though as you took thought to this situation.

The body your soul was in could no longer be used. So as far as you can see, the only option is to either stay in the hands of your well meaning friends or…

* How is it like?

* …?

* Being dead.

At that question they raised an eyebrow before pursing their lips and shrugging.

* Honestly I am not entirely sure yet. I did not… let myself fully pass on. At first I was too tied to my own grave to even go beyond the Barrier until you came around. After that…

* … Were you waiting for me?

* No! I just- You couldn’t- There was-

Pinching the bridge of their nose, they took a moment to collect themselves. You bit back the urge to laugh a bit at how flustered they looked until a wavering look pierced you again.

* I wanted to see if you were right. In continuing what you claimed was the Best Ending for everyone. If you and everyone else would be… better off without me.

* … You and Asriel could of joined us. I wouldn’t of minded.

The sigh they gave showed they believed otherwise.

* You know that even as Flowey he wouldn’t be able to face mother and father again with how you have proven us wrong. And someone had to look after him. He’s hopeless on his own.

So they gave him company… that was a relief. At least they had their best friend. You quietly gave your thanks before receiving a look of ‘Of course, what else would I have done???’ That made you laugh for a short moment before feeling solemn again.

Here sat two fallen humans that had their souls slip from the realm of the living, with neither having yet to pass on to the true end of death. It was comforting that you were not alone. Were you ready to see if the both of you can make that leap to follow those six children that had accepted peace when the Barrier was destroyed?

That… you were not certain of yet.

* How much did you see outside the Underground?

* … Parts of it.

* I guessed as much. You want me to tell you all about it?

For the first time since you were reunited with them, they smiled with more of a glimmer to their eyes.

* Why not. We have all the time we could need for now.

It was hard to tell how much time had passed. What little you could feel on the surroundings of where your soul is being kept didn’t even have the sound of a ticking clock. But you felt like you would be going nowhere for the time being, so you relaxed some more and told Chara as much as you could remember.

How scary it was to finally move forward without knowing what could happen next. How monsters and humans made history together with you in the center. Balancing being an ambassador and a kid that still had to turn in math homework on time and still managed to break records on flirting one friendship at a time. The joy you felt at seeing the dreams of your friends come true one by one (Mom being a teacher with Dad as the school’s gardener, Papyrus finally riding the convertible of his dreams, knowing that Sans was grinning like never before as you both looked at the stars, Alphys making breakthroughs in science with her supportive girlfriend becoming a police officer to be envied, and so much more) and how that made you feel more at peace with your decision.

It felt so good to finally talk about everything to someone, no walls needed to be put up for the sake of keeping secrets. The feeling that a weight had been lifted off your chest when you confessed about the nightmares and inner struggles of what kept haunting you. And Chara listened with hardly any fuss, aside from looks of guilt that they hide by looking away, the two of you having moved to sit side by side.

That isn’t to say that there weren’t tears. Sometimes you could not help but get choked up at how it finally is over. All you’ve done and paved the way for the sake of your friends and family has now reach the end for how much you can influence with your own two hands. It was hard to accept, yet so relieving, yet so guilt inducing at how much relief you felt.

* Normally I would be alright with this… But now you are reminding me too much of how big of a crybaby Asriel was.

You could only respond with a watery laugh as you wiped away the new set of tears you shed. By now the two of you were holding hands to help ground one another. Chara did not talk much about themselves, but you can figure out by now that it was hard for them too. They had their own burdens to bear as well with being the shell of a once alive human that is vulnerable to turn from a wandering ghost to a menacing demon with only the emotions of what is left of their soul to guide them.

* … I still don’t know if I want to go yet. I know I can try seeing what it would be like but…

* … Yeah… I still don’t know if I’m ready yet.

Another episode of silence proceeded as the two of you pondered over everything that had been said and done.

* Flowey still needs someone looking after him.

*Well I suddenly found myself with a lot of free time.

* You are still stuck in containment.

* I’ll find a way out. I’m DETERMINED to.

“N-Now Sans!”

You made a show of puffing out your chest which only made Chara roll their eyes.

* Well at least you are finally more like yourself.

* Give me a break, it takes a while to get used to the fact that I might as well be dead.

That silenced them before they nudged you.

* A bit of advice. Even I have trouble accepting it sometimes.

* Oh, great. Thanks for the heads up.

That sparked more chuckles that grew into full blown laughter. Oh how surreal it feels to know that it will never feel real again. You feel back onto the ground as you embraced this feeling of ironic humor as the laughter just grew louder and louder. Till you were on the verge of hysterics as the buzzing in your center tickled some more, like a physical hand trying to grab hold-

Gasping. You were gasping now. You were feeling death once again, but feeling life as well, the whiteness you’ve been staring that was above, at all angles, darkening back to that black, black setting that reminded you of when you died more times than you could remember as a child-

* Frisk?!

Chara, they’re still here, looking down at you in fear like before, causing you to feel scared as well, whywhywhywhy-

“-mon kid, c’mon, we’re rootin’ for you-”

A change went over their expression, one of utter shock and disbelief as they froze. They whipped their head to the side as if looking at something before turning back, eyes hard and showing hardening will that had you wondering if you ever looked like that before. Hands gripped on your shoulders as their drew in closer.

* Stay. Determined.

You were trembling once again, unsure of how you can do such a thing when like this. As if reading your thoughts, Chara’s expression softened.

* It will be fine. You know why Frisk?

Tear once again threatening to burst forth, you managed to hold onto their wrists in an attempt to calm yourself.

* W-Why?

A smile then overtook their expression, matching their rosy dimples and eyes that also were welling up with tears.

* Because it’s not over for you yet.

You then finally heard it. Voices. Pleads for you to come back. To turn around and return to them. Feeling tears drop onto your cheeks, the pull that tugged you away from this place felt more like a hand guiding you, like how one person would show you around a new world that you would call home.

And with that, you smiled as well.

* You better come back to us.

Because this moment…

* Because someone really cares about you too.

fills you with…

D E T E R M I N A T I O N

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

You weren’t sure that you were alive.

It felt a bit more like you were… tied to something. But it can’t be your body. It felt too stiff to be one. Too… cumbersome?

You try turning your head… Still feels weird.

When you finally open your eyes, you see gray. Gray with a shine to it. Lit up by fluorescent lights. Okay. This is certainly not the white void. But… was it normal to suddenly see a close up of the ceiling? Wait… your vision is backing away from it now.

Zoom in.

Zoom out.

Zoom in.

Zoom out.

What.

As if realization sunk in, you jerked into an immediate upright position. Posters. Motivational posters with bad puns on them. (Donut give up? Really?)

You look down. It looked like you wearing a plain shirt and pair of yoga pants over grey… arms… and legs…

It was too much. Swinging your suddenly strong (metallic, robotic, artificial) legs over the cot onto the floor, you froze before pushing yourself to stand before stumbling. Managing to reach what looked like an IV pole, you grabbed onto it before you could fall over. Before hearing a crunch and seeing that your fingers (plated, shiny, overpowered) have ended up bending it in your grasp. You could only look at it in numbed shock before sinking down onto the linoleum floor.

That was a good word. Numb. You felt numb all over.

* I guess Alphys did not have enough time to paint your new body.

A yelp echoed the empty room as you nearly let yourself collapse from all this insanity.

* Calm down. I’m still here. And you are still alive. Technically.

“W-What do you mean technically?”

* The only thing about this body that is you is your soul, which has managed to possess this vessel. Like Mettatton. They found a way for you to be corporeal.

“… They built me a robot body… an actual… robot… body…”

Something on your arm caught your eye. Bringing it up to your optics, you noticed an engraving on it.

Functional Relief Invulnerable Soul Keeper

“… FRISK.”

* Wonder how long it took them to get that acronym.

You noticed that you could hear distant footsteps and the drag of a tail that sounded a lot like a certain ex-Royal Scientist, along with the softened trail of someone wearing soft shoes that you could swear were slippers.

The fact that you could hear them from a farther distance despite the closed door that they were heading towards just added more and more questions that you will be able to ask. An airy laugh that had an electric echo to it escaped and you slumped once again on the floor, this time in acceptance. Because as far as life changing events go…

Creak

“… F-Frisk…?”

… this is one you can certainly live with.

Raising your head to meet the eyes of your family again, you gave your best bewildered smile while giving a wave.

“So… should I say thanks for giving me a hand, or for an entire body?”

[neko-shadow-archived]

So, a while back I posted a list, saying what main Undertale character would go in which Hogwarts House. And I figure I should explain my choices. Especially a few of them.

First off, let’s just get a small overview of what each house is like from the hat, shall we?

“You might belong in Gryffindor, Where dwell the brave at heart, Their daring, nerve, and chivalry Set Gryffindors apart;

You might belong in Hufflepuff, Where they are just and loyal, Those patient Hufflepuffs are true And unafraid of toil;

Or yet in wise old Ravenclaw, if you've a ready mind, Where those of wit and learning, Will always find their kind;

Or perhaps in Slytherin You'll make your real friends, Those cunning folks use any means To achieve their ends.”

I may deviate from this a little because of opinions, but still.

I will also point out that I headcanon Frisk as male and Chara as female. I will try to keep it to gender neutral pronouns with them, but if I end up calling Frisk ‘he’ and Chara ‘she’, well... that’s the reason why. I’ll also put this under a read more because it’s pretty long.

Frisk - Hufflepuff

It would be easy enough to put Frisk into Gryffindor. They is a brave kid after all, going through an entire Kingdom of Monsters. But, I decided on Hufflepuff... although I should probably state this is purely for the Pacifist!Frisk. Neutral!Frisk I would say probably is Gryffindor, and Genocide!Frisk... well, Genocide!Frisk is more or less Chara, in my opinion, so we’ll get to them when we get to them.

Basically, I put Frisk in Hufflepuff because one of the things I think is most telling about them, as opposed to the Gryffindor Neutral!Frisk, is that they is patient and willing to work hard. Neutral!Frisk does have shades of this too, but they will also kill, which is the easy way to take out some monsters. Pacifist!Frisk is willing to be patient and do what needs to be done to pacify the monster rather than kill it, and refuses to shift from this strategy unless they HAVE to, as in when they fight Asgore, who refuses to shift from his duty to his people, and Omega Flowey who... yeah. No talking them down. Flowey can’t feel guilt or anything at the point, after all.

Frisk will work hard and do what they feel needs to be done, pacifying monsters rather than fighting them, working hard to make friends with everyone, including Undyne, who showed absolutely no feelings towards them other than WANTING THEM DEAD. It takes a lot of bravery, to be sure, but I think it speaks more to hardwork and patience, both of which are Hufflepuff traits.

Toriel - Ravenclaw

It could be easy to put Toriel in Hufflepuff as well. As a motherly type, she is patient and works hard to be a good surrogate mother for Frisk, and before then, a good mother for Asriel and Chara. However... there is a reason I had put her in Ravenclaw. Ravenclaw is all about being smart and clever, and quick-witted, basically. This might be a little different from what is intended... but Toriel is indeed smart. She is clever enough to have figured out how to disarm the traps in the ruins, and likely how to arm them as well. Even if she was around before the war, and thus knows how they work from those times, she still remembered how to do it. Also, most notably, she says that she wants to be a teacher, and, in the epilogue, she indeed does open a school and become a teacher. She is clever, and wants to pass on that knowledge, valuing it highly. She even prepares a curriculum for Frisk, although it never gets used. You can say she belongs in other houses, but while she shows some points of Hufflepuff, I don’t think she shows much in the way of qualities for Gryffindor or Slytherin, and I think she shows more signs of Ravenclaw than Hufflepuff.

Sans - Ravenclaw

Before I start, this has nothing to do with the Soriel ship. I don’t actually like the ship. A mutual taste in bad jokes is a poor foundation for a relationship, in my opinion, and that’s pretty much what Sans and Toriel really have. A mutual taste in bad jokes.

Getting that out of the way... in my opinion, Sans is definitely a Ravenclaw. He’s lazy, which goes against him being a Hufflepuff, he’s not really shown to be too ambitious, which goes against him being a Slytherin... There aren’t really any signs of him being a Gryffindor, unless you count him being the last person to fight in a Genocide route... but considering that at that point, he’s figured out that if you finish your route, you’ll destroy the timeline... fighting you is more of a smart move rather than a brave one, considering it’s the only way to stop the destruction of everyone and everything in that timeline.

One thing that cannot be denied is that Sans is very intelligent. Even ignoring all the fanon stuff, he has a book on Quantum Physics (well, several of them... inside books of jokes. some of which are inside books on Quantum Physics), and is intelligent enough to watch you without you noticing throughout your journey, and judge you based on your actions. He is also clever enough to realize when you’ve already seen something or done something. Some of the other characters have shades of this, like Toriel saying you look like you’ve seen a ghost if you reset after killing her, and Flowey DEFINITELY knowing when you’ve been resetting... but Sans is a character who SHOULDN’T know for certain, but he does, based on Frisk’s reactions.

He’s definitely not a Hufflepuff, he has the cunning of a Slytherin but that’s about it, and while he COULD be a Gryffindor, he definitely has more pointing towards Ravenclaw.

Papyrus - Slytherin

Ooooh boy, I can already see this one ruffling some feathers. Don’t get me wrong, Papyrus is definitely a brave one, including opting to try to convince you to abort a genocide route, and he’s definitely fairly clever. Despite you being the first human he’s ever come up against, he knows when to stop attacking so that he doesn’t kill you. And he definitely works hard. Despite the only other skeleton we have to compare him to, Sans, he’s tough. Even Undyne admits that he’s tough, although she also says she can’t make him a member of the Royal Guard.

However, that’s why I’ve made him a Slytherin. Practically EVERYTHING he does in the game is to be a Royal Guard. He mentions it all the time, it’s clearly the ambition that drives him, even if friendship does sometimes cause it to take a bad seat. He even says the pacifist ending is the worst possible ending because the Royal Guard is disbanded before he can join it. And he will even, at first, attempt to capture you rather than being friends with you, just so he can join the Royal Guard. Also, don’t forget he is pretty cunning. If need be, when you try to make friends with Undyne, when she tells you to leave her house, Papyrus, having jumped out of the window previously, comes back and says that Undyne simply isn’t capable of being friends with Frisk. Which results in Undyne actually making friends with Frisk. Which, considering most of the time Papyrus is, let’s be honest, less than intelligent, is a VERY clever and cunning move by Papyrus. So due to the ambition that guides almost all of his actions, and his surprising cunning, Papyrus is fairly clearly a Slytherin, in my opinion.

Undyne - Gryffindor

I’m betting everyone saw this one coming, though. Undyne is brave. Maybe not too chivalrous in her first two encounters, when she fights you for real, she gives you a shield to block her attacks. And even tells you how to block her attacks, telling you that if unless you face her head on, you won’t be able to beat her.

She’s also daring. Although most bosses share this trait, she won’t give up, not even if you bring her down to critical health, which is enough to make most monsters give in, allowing you to spare them. But not Undyne. In fact, she is so determined that she will keep on fighting even after her HP is depleted, tapping into her determination to continue fighting... albiet it being a futile last hurrah, her attacks gradually slowing and becoming more and more pathetic the more her body starts breaking down and melting. And in the Genocide Run, realizing that you’re not going to stop with just killing all monsters, she taps into her determination in another way, becoming the sturdiest boss in the game. That’s part of the point. Even after having been killed by you in one shot, she will STILL refuse to die, putting everything on the line, using determination, that, even if she wins, will most likely seal her painful death.

She prides herself on being a hero. And if you consider the side of Monsterkind, she probably is. The reason she doesn’t seem like a chivalrous hero with nerves of steel is because she’s your enemy. She does show signs of Hufflepuff, being a hard worker, but not so much signs of Slytherin or Ravenclaw. Thus, I doubt anyone is surprised that Undyne is a Gryffindor.

Alphys - Ravenclaw

Another fairly obvious one. While Mettaton isn’t exactly a real robot, being a monster’s soul in a metal body, Alphys is still incredibly intelligent, even if her experiments didn’t necessarily go as she planned. She was stepping into new territory with her experiments with Determination, after all. Not to mention creating Mettaton’s body, which can transform at the flick of a switch into either Mettaton’s dream body, or a body designed to kill humans... even if it is terrible at doing so, due to how powerful you’ve gotten by the time you encounter Mettaton Neo. She still created both of those bodies though, and is clever enough to lead a lot of monsters away from you, evacuating them.

Apart from that, she doesn’t show that many traits from other houses. Considering how long it took her to own up to her mistakes, eventually doing so because she couldn’t stand lying anymore rather than any sort of actual courage, she’s definitely not a fit for Gryffindor. Considering how little she does after her experiments were a failure, simply holing herself up in her lab and not doing that much work, she’s not a Hufflepuff. And while she does have SOME cunning, trying to manipulate events through Hotland and the Core to make herself seem better than she is, and like a hero who saved Frisk, she lacks any other Slytherin qualities.

Alphys is, very clearly, a Ravenclaw.

Mettaton - Slytherin

Maybe I should have put him after Muffet. Ah well.

Mettaton is clearly a Slytherin. Sharing the same sort of arrogance seen in a fair few Slytherins, while not explicitly a trait, does help a little. But let’s look at his other things.

He is a big star in the Underground, having even left Blooky, after saying that he wouldn’t, in order to follow his own dream... or his ambition. Even once achieving this, he didn’t stop there. He fights Frisk for three reasons:

He doesn’t believe that Frisk is strong enough to fight Asgore

He wants to be humanity’s hero, killing you, taking your soul and then stopping Asgore’s plan. While this is technically a heroic move... it’s also another showing of Mettaton’s ambitions, wanting to save humanity... which leads to

He wants to become a star in the human world, where he thinks millions of humans will watch him. Two of those three reasons tie into ambition. As for cunning... he did play along with Alphys’ plans, but at the end he turned it against her, making her seem like an unreliable guide through the Core, which definitely rattled Alphys and made her doubt herself, losing her newfound confidence. I’m not sure it really achieved anything of note for Mettaton spefically, but still.

Mettaton is also fairly hardworking and smart, as well as being brave, standing in front of Chara as the last obstacle before the final fight, but I think his ambition stands out much more than those. Hence why he’s in Slytherin.

Muffet - Slytherin

Muffet, again, I’ve classed as a Slytherin. A lot of this is simply guessing, since you see Muffet once, having a bake sale, and then have a fight against her... and that’s basically it. You can talk to her after your battle but you don’t get too much characterization for her, which is understandable. She wasn’t designed by Toby if I’m remembering right, she was the character of someone who backed enough money. In any case, this is mostly guesswork.

Muffet isn’t stupid, but she’s not very smart. She sells her goods for 9999g, and, while we do see someone actually did buy something from her, they bought it more out of being intimidated into it than anything else. And yet, during the fight, she literally THROWS a lot of doughnuts at you. So she prices them high, and then tosses them willy-nilly at you, wasting a fair amount of money, and a LOT of potential profits. So definitely not a Ravenclaw.

She stands in your way. But not out of bravery or any sense of justice or anything like that... even if you go through a Genocide run, the only reason she fights you is because someone told her you don’t like spiders. And that you kill them. And then, once the telegraph from the spiders in the Ruins arrives, telling her that you never hurt a single spider, she spares you, even if you killed everyone else you came across. Her fighting you was purely for vengeance for spiders she thought you had killed, and to get your soul to sell it to someone. I dunno if they ever specify WHO, but I think it is at least hinted at it being Mettaton? I doubt it’d be Flowey, at that point. But yeah, she only fights to get revenge for spiders she thought you had killed. So, not a Gryffindor.

She does work hard for her spiders, but she’s not really patient. charging WAY over the price that the spiders in the ruins charge for no reason other than... greed, I guess. Even if it is for a good cause. But if she were to have some patience and sold her things at a more reasonable price, she’d be able to raise the money easily. It would take longer, since that one guy buying one doughnut from her probably gave her more than enough money to get the spiders out of the ruins with the heated limo, but she’d get a lot more customers. I mean, lot at the bunch of monsters buying hot dogs from Sans, not necessarily because they’re any good, but they’re cheaper at least. And as mentioned, Hufflepuffs are ‘just’. Muffet fighting you isn’t ‘just’ at all, it’s only for revenge for dead spiders, and she stops immediately once she finds out you didn’t even hurt any spiders. So not a Hufflepuff.

Slytherin qualites, on the other hand... she has huge ambitions, charging a lot of money for baked goods in other to make lots of money. For a good cause, yes, but a good cause is still an ambition. And she is cunning, changing your soul’s type before fighting you towards her advantage. After all, the fight against her would be a LOT easier if you could move freely. Not to mention she uses some of that cunning to convince someone to buy a doughnut by staring at them and licking her lips, if I remember rightly. Intimidating them into doing so without saying a word. That’s pretty darn cunning in my book. And that’s why she’s a Slytherin.

Asgore - Hufflepuff

Asgore is another easy one to judge, based on his actions in the game. While some portray him as a remorseless child killer, he genuinely feels bad about doing it. He’s probably more scared of fighting you than you are of him, and unless you are at 1 HP, his attacks can’t kill you. So why does he fight you anyway?

Because of loyalty to his people. His loyalty to his people forces him to do one of the things he probably wants to do the least, as shown by him not simply taking the first human soul and going through the barrier to gather more quickly. His loyalty has forced him to kill (I think it was specified that Asgore killed all the children himself?) 6 children when it was the last thing he wanted to do. And it forces him to fight you, and while he cannot bring himself to fight you with all his might, he will still kill you and take your soul for his people.

He might have some traits of other houses, other than Slytherin, but I think the strength of his loyalty alone places him squarely in Hufflepuff.

Asriel - Hufflepuff

I should probably state that I’m counting Asriel as a different entity from Flowey. Flowey would straight-up be a Slytherin. Wanting to gain all the human souls for himself? Befriending and manipulating Papyrus for his own goals? Yeah, his main traits are ambition and cunning.

But Asriel is a different story. He is kind and gentle, despite being the final boss and very capable of killing you. But as soon as he feels the emotions he had been lacking as a soulless flower, he cannot fight you anymore, reverting back to a child and crying.

Most of me thinking he’s in Hufflepuff is based on his relationship with Chara, and Chara’s plan of killing themselves, having Asriel absorb their soul and go to the surface to collect enough souls to free everyone.

Asriel agreed to the plan, despite thinking it was a bad idea, and everytime he brought up a complaint, he was convinced back into it fairly easily. He was very loyal to Chara, but even when he got to the surface, he couldn’t kill anyone. This might be him being just. These humans were not the ones who fought them and sealed them underground. They had done nothing would. It would not be fair, it would not be just to kill them. I don’t know if that was his reasoning, but he still did not attack them.

Asriel is loyal and just. So he is a Hufflepuff.

Chara - Slytherin

This is basically based off the Chara at the end of the Genocide Run, and a little off before they died.

Let’s start with Chara before they died.

It certainly was an ambition plan they had, wasn’t it? Killing themselves by eating buttercups so Asriel could take their soul, and gain enough souls to free humanity. Being the saviour of an entire race, and likely a key hero in the ensuing war (remember that Chara had a very low opinion of humanity) is an very ambitious plan. And convincing their soft, gentle brother to go along with it may have taken a fair bit of cunning, since he would have had to convince Asriel not to mention the plan to Toriel or Asgore.

And they get even more ambitious after their death, wanting to destroy the entire timeline if you gain enough LV. And even if you don’t want to do that, they take control and do it anyway.

Chara also isn’t exactly a very pleasant person. Even Asriel admits to as such. There isn’t too much evidence of Chara being particularly brave, clever or loyal. Especially considering they will force you to kill Flowey while they are using Asriel’s face and voice. So all I have to go on is their ambition and cunning and since those are the properties of the Slytherin house....

So, there we are. Feel free to give me your thoughts on this.