#at least there's still that mt ebott theory!

[kogetaikid]

Welp, just read the Undertale Yellow wiki. I guess my theory of Clover having a dysfunctional family wasn't too far off.

[originalwindycity]

(I haven't really been paying much attention to Deltarune theories for the past couple of years, so it's fully possible plenty of other people have already talked about this already

If that's the case, whoops oh well sdflkjghsd)

I was just reading back through the dialogue leading up to the (main route) Spamton NEO fight, and suddenly it felt like a lot of stuff clicked together for me, so I wanted to share that train of thought here!

1. Spamton NEO pre-fight dialogue

In the cutscene leading up to the fight, as a continuation of his talking about freedom, Spamton says this to Kris:

* THAT'S RIGHT. * YOU. * I NEED YOU. * TO BE BIG. * WITH ME. * VERY VERY BIG * SO BIG WE'LL STAND UP TALL AND SEE PAST THE DARK * STAND UP WITH OUR HEADS IN THE CLOUDS AND LOOK INTO * H E A V E N * I * JUST NEED * THAT LITTLE, * [[SOUL]] * Y O U HAVE

(Text from the Deltarune Dialogue Dump)

Whatever exactly Spamton means by "being big", we do know these things about it:

He associates it with freedom for some reason.

He needs Kris' SOUL in order to become big.

There is some association with heaven.

All of these points can connect to other things, but I think the best first step would be actually to step away from Deltarune for a moment, to take a look at some things from Undertale...

2. Undertale

Here's a fun fact: We never actually see what it looks like when a monster absorbs a human SOUL (or vice versa)!

We see Flowey when he has six human SOULs, but Flowey himself is SOULless aside from that. (And additionally, it's possible that that entire fight takes place in a sort of temporary Dark World—it's too much of a tangent to explain here but if people want I could talk about it separately—so that could also be affecting his appearance.)

We also see him with six human SOULs plus the SOULs of nearly every monster in the Underground in the True Pacifist Route, but again, that's a separate situation, and at that point it seems like he can basically just look like whatever he wants.

Asgore never absorbs any of the human SOULs, Toriel's SOUL breaks too quickly if you kill her, and every time Asgore dies, regardless of who killed him, Flowey ends up destroying his SOUL anyway.

So we just, never get to see what it looks like when that happens!

All we have to go off of is the above signs, describing a "strange creature", which is evidently "very unsettling" to look at.

Interesting, at least I think so, but what does it have to do with Spamton, or really any of Deltarune? All this is supposed to be about monsters and humans, right? What does that have to do with darkners and lightners?

Well,

3. Dark World/Underground parallels

The Dark World/darkners in Deltarune seem to have some things in common with the Underground/monsters in Undertale:

Chapter 2 establishes that lightners have substantially stronger wills (which Queen equates to having more determination) than darkners do, mirroring humans in Undertale having more determination than monsters.

(Actually, according to Toby in the Undertale 6th Anniversary stream, originally, one idea that was considered was "having everybody be humans in the Light World, and only become monsters in the Dark World, but for a lot of reasons [they] didn't do that."

If they had kept with that idea of everyone being humans in the Light World, lightners having stronger wills than darkners would have lined up even more with Undertale!)

On top of that, humans in Undertale enter the Underground by falling into it from Mt. Ebott, and at the other end of the Underground is New Home: the capital of the Underground, featuring the throne room, which is almost directly next to the Barrier.

Similarly, in Deltarune:

Kris and Susie are depicted as falling down a long ways when entering a Dark World. (Chapter 2 has them jumping down intentionally rather than the floor disappearing beneath them, but it's still portrayed as though the Dark World is in some sense downwards compared to the Light World.)

At the other end of each Dark World we've seen (all three of them), we see a castle (or, in the case of Chapter 2, Queen's mansion), right next to a Dark Fountain.

Destroying a Dark Fountain sends Kris and Susie back to the Light World, which feels similar to (yet of course still distinct from) the fact that destroying the Barrier allows everyone to leave the Underground and go back to the surface.

Heck, we can even see some similarities when we compare Asriel breaking the Barrier (he floats up and all the SOULs fly out of him) to Kris sealing a Dark Fountain (their SOUL comes out of them, flying up towards the Fountain)!

So there is definitely plenty of precedent to the idea that lightners and darkners in Deltarune might follow similar rules to humans and monsters in Undertale, even if we might lack the evidence necessary to prove conclusively that a given thing in particular is definitely the same between the two games.

4. What would taking Kris' SOUL mean for Spamton?

Taking into account the seeming parallels between the Dark World and the Underground, it suddenly makes sense what exactly Spamton wants Kris' SOUL for?

No wonder he's talking so much about freedom when wanting to take Kris' SOUL—for him, taking a lightner's SOUL would mean freedom. It would mean he could leave the Dark World, leave behind all the misfortune and abandonment he'd had to deal with.

The first character in Deltarune who wants to take Kris' SOUL wants to do it for the same reason as the monsters in Undertale want to take Frisk's SOUL: to become free from his situation.

......And yet,

5. That can't be all, right?

That only explains the connection between Spamton getting Kris' SOUL and gaining his freedom. What about the other two things?

Sure, lightners are big from the perspective of darkners when in the Light World, but the implication is that together they'd be like massive, not just lightner-sized? What's with that?

And what's with the heaven connection? The word comes up like four or five times in relation to Spamton, with it coming up in a non-idiomatic context two other times in the entire game so far (the description of the Heal Prayer spell describing it as "heavenly light", and the legend from Chapter 1 saying that the three heroes would "seal the fountains and banish the ANGEL'S HEAVEN.").

Well, uh, I do have one thing which seems to fit the description.

Something massive, rising up out of a Dark Fountain, and very possibly linked to the "ANGEL'S HEAVEN" mentioned in the legend in Chapter 1:

(Tying back to the Undertale bit as well, again, we don't know what it would look like for a monster to absorb a human SOUL, but the depictions of Titans in this cutscene would, at least in my opinion, definitely qualify as "strange creatures", and in the right contexts I could definitely see them as being quite unsettling.)

I will admit though, it does seem a bit farfetched to me that a lightner SOUL and a darkner SOUL could combine into something so big and powerful, but on the other hand, back in Undertale, the equivalent of just 7 human SOULs was enough to effectively become a god, so maybe it's not quite so farfetched after all?

Anyway, just an idea. I found it interesting at least, and I hope you did too!!

[starlightshore]

Wait wait wait, can we go back to what you said in that one ask about Chara's hometown and it leading the other children to their deaths? Implying some sort of horrible practice? I wanna hear your thoughts on that.

/cw discussion of canon typical violence and suicide and death.

also preferably i want this to be my last post on the topic because talking about child death this much and esp of suicide is draining and painful for me, thanks.

basically, it's something we can reason with logic and also the rule of simplicity.

there is only one child’s chair in toriel’s home. one twin bed. the house is only set up and accommodates children.

* (A box of kids' shoes in a disparity of sizes.)

the other fallen humans’ items fit frisk and are children themed for the most part.

* Where oh where could that  child be...?* I've been looking all over  for them...* ... * Hee hee hee.* THAT'S not true.* She'll find another kid, and  instantly forget about you.* You'll NEVER see her again.  -Flowey though the echo flowers (a rare event that sometimes happens in waterfall if you backtrack in a certain way?) outright has flowey suggest all the previous humans were children.

thematically it makes the most sense for toriel to adopt other children as that’s kinda her whole thing she’s got going on.

you could still technically argue that flowey wasn’t around for the other children and toriel could rearrange the house to suit the needs of the current fallen human but like. i feel that's pure speculation and missing the point ain’t it?

With how Undertale is written, things are hardly ever directly stated -you have to go by what works with the limited amount of words and time you have to deliver the feelings of the story -and not get caught up in the details of delivering it as facts.

Asriel’s dialogue:

* Everyone knows the legend, right...? * "Travellers who climb Mt. Ebott are said  to disappear." * Frisk. * Why would you ever climb a mountain  like that? * Was it foolishness? * Was it fate? * Or was it... * Because you...? * Well. * Only you know the answer, don't you...? * I know why Chara climbed the mountain. * It wasn't for a very happy reason. * Frisk. * I'll be honest with  you. *Chara hated humanity. * Why they did, they  never talked about  it. * But they felt very  strongly about  that.

Asriel’s words imply three main reasons: foolishness, fate and suicide. we can infer that these are likely reasons for all the fallen children but we can never know as they’re dead and can’t be asked.

Chara hated humanity, and with how Asriel is bringing up after revealing Chara did it to die implies that’s a strong reason for why. Their village was so irredeemable to their eyes that it led them to both suicide and the want of revenge. for a child to go to extreme measures -well, that shit doesn’t just happen because of a slap on the wrist.

Out of all 8 children, I’d imagine at least a good amount of them left for a similar reason. That’s such a big focus of this game, with both alphys, asgore and chara canonically being suicidal i don’t think it’s an accident that Asriel implies the darker reason here. it’s a fundamental part of the messaging, it’s a tale of abuse and suffering. Of the cycles repeating -of you further or cutting off that cycle.

so like, its semi-canon. heavily implied i feel, that this town sucks. to give them a little credit, they were upset at seeing chara’s corpse. That they do care for children -once they’re dead it seems. :/

(And heck you could interpret the reason chara took their body to the town in the first place was to show off what the town did to them, which is a theory i like since it matches chara’s suicidal mindset and judgement of humanity. but yeah this is just character interpretation, not strictly fact)

[linktoo]

This is just . A thought.

The skeleton bros in Undertale are noticeably not From this world. They just "showed up one day"...

and Sans noticeably bleeds instead of turning to dust like monsters, potentially implying he's a lightener. Or different, at the very least.

If everyone's trapped underground and Frisk+Chara fell from Mt. Ebott, how the hell did these boys suddenly show up in Snowdin? There's a secret laboratory showing that Sans had some kind of background in science and his supernatural abilities seem connected to that.

His bedroom door noticeably is exactly the same as the teleportation doors to travel from place to place in the dark world.

Sans has alluded to the fact he comes from somewhere else, somewhere to "go back to". He misses living there. And now we see him in Deltarune, it seems like he originate in this town, and at one point, was forced to move and live in the underground. yeah. forced. His apathetic nature shows he no longer has hope that he'll ever see the surface anymore.

Deltarune right now could plausibly be a stealth prequel to Undertale [x]. It's a "prequel" in terms of chronological order for time events, not that they are set in the same universe. I feel like something horrible must have happened. Something that pushed Sans to urgently set an emergency route to save himself and Papyrus. He very obviously had access to some sort of power that lets him observe the video game-like universe.

In theory, it's similar to a Rick and Morty situation, in which their world is so irreversibly damaged they travel to an alternate universe to continue to exist in a relatively untouched world. A universe, though feels almost the same as their peaceful lives, has noticeable differences from the original world. It's not too much of a stretch to think Sans and Papyrus were forced to escape to another reality where there are similarities (Undyne, Alphys, Asgore, Toriel, etc existing in this reality too) BUT there was something that was particularly different (different events happen, Sans and Papyrus don’t exist in this universe, Mettaton was able to transition into a new body, they are all trapped underground). It still beats whatever their living conditions were like before.

I need to know how aware is Papyrus of is his old vs new life. What could possibly have happened at the end of Deltarune to drive them to Undertale's underground?

[shadowcrystal]

The “Delta Rune”

The Delta Rune is the most prolific symbol in both Undertale and Deltarune, being important enough to warrant naming a game after it. Yet despite that, we still don’t know what it represents. This theory will try and explain what it represents in Deltarune specifically, based on the knowledge we have from Undertale, and Chapter 1 and 2 from Deltarune.

Spoiler warning for Undertale and Chapters 1 and 2 of Deltarune (including the alternate route in Chapter 2)

Warning: Long Post under the cut.

Part 1: The Delta Rune in Undertale

In Undertale, the Delta Rune is described by Gerson as the emblem of the Kingdom of Monsters.

This fits with the fact that we see it on both Toriel and Asgore’s outfits, as well as in various places throughout the kingdom. However, that’s not all there is to it, as Gerson explains.

We know that written history includes the monsters being sealed beneath Mt. Ebott. So for the emblem to predate written history would mean that it originated before the monsters were trapped underground. We can assume that in Undertale’s universe it was the symbol of the kingdom of monsters before the monsters were sealed. But the angel from the prophecy being represented in the Delta Rune is a bit more contentious.

We don’t know much about the prophecy, so while it could predate the symbol, it’s unlikely. Given that we know that the Delta Rune originates from before the monsters being trapped underground, it containing a figure from a prophecy relating to the monsters being trapped doesn’t seem likely.

So what does the angel represent then? Well, there’s no real clear answers presented in Undertale. But despite the prophecy likely not being originally related to the Delta Rune, I do want to touch on it regardless.

The angel. The one who has seen the surface. They will return. And the underground will go empty.

Gerson says that while some see the angel as a bringer of freedom, others view it as an “angel of death” - a harbinger of destruction. In terms of Undertale, it is likely that the angel from the prophecy is either Asriel or Chara.

In the True Pacifist route, Asriel absorbs every soul in the Underground (except Napstablook). It can therefore be said that the Underground did go empty, and Asriel even mirrors the symbol in his “Angel of Death” form.

Meanwhile in Genocide, by killing every monster, the Underground goes empty. The wording of “will return” can only refer to Chara, but Chara does not directly cause the Underground to go empty. However, it is worth noting that the prophecy does not say directly that the angel will cause the Underground to go empty, so Chara is the most likely candidate for the prophecy.

The identity of the angel in the prophecy in Undertale is not directly relevant to this theory, but I wanted to include it anyway as a tangent to provide my theory. Anyway, moving on to:

Part 2: The Delta Rune in Deltarune

Despite the game’s name, the Delta Rune does not appear that often in Deltarune. In fact, to my knowledge, it only appears in two areas. However, it is possible that I have missed some, so please tell me if I’ve missed any.

In Hometown, the Delta Rune appears in three locations.

On the mat in Kris and Asriel’s room.

At the front of Kris and Toriel’s house. (Note: although the triangles are inverted here, it is probably insignificant and is either a mistake, because it is stylised, or done to make it fit better on the house)

At the top of the Church

Father Alvin also makes reference to the religion of the Church worshipping “The Angel”. From this we can surmise that, at least in Hometown, the Delta Rune is a religious symbol. Toriel also regularly and dedicatedly goes to Church, so it makes sense that she would show her worship at home, similarly to the way many Christians decorate their houses with crosses.

The other area that the Delta Rune appears is Castle Town. It appears a LOT in Castle Town.

Twice in the entrance to Ralsei’s castle.

On all the doors in this room. (These aren’t explicitly the Delta Rune, see: the closed door having a heart rather than a circle, but the use of it every else in Castle Town makes me think it’s probably meant to be the Delta Rune)

In the room with the dummy.

On the Great Door.

And significantly, in Kris’ room in the Dark World.

While this could be (and probably is) just to match Kris and Asriel’s room in the Light World, the colours of the triangles are significant. They match the colours of Kris, Susie, and Ralsei, the three heroes of legend. The direction of the arrows even matches that Kris and Susie are Lightners, with the triangles pointing upwards. Ralsei, being a Darkner, has his triangle pointing downwards.

This makes perfect sense. After all, the legend of the three heroes, is also:

In the Dark World, then, we can assume that the Delta Rune represents the legend of the three heroes preventing the Roaring and banishing the Angel’s Heaven by sealing Dark Fountains. Assuming, of course, that Ralsei is a reliable narrator. But that’s a subject for a different time.

So, if the triangles represent the three heroes, then what does the angel represent? Is it the Angel from the religion we see in the Light World? It’s possible, but I have a different theory.

Part 3: The Angel

Look back again to this image. 

If the triangles depict the colours of the three heroes, then it isn’t too much of a reach to assume that the angel is also similarly colour-coded. And the angel in this image is white. Is there a character with a white colour theming in the Dark World who also has a lot of Angel motifs?

Noelle certainly fits the view, with her costume even having angel wings. While this could just be fitting with Noelle’s Christmas theming, as angels are a common Christmas decoration for atop trees, it might not be only that.

So then, if Noelle is the Angel, then what is the “Angel’s Heaven” that needs to be banished. Well, Noelle describes the Dark World as being better than the real world, a world where everything can be fixed with magic. It is only Ralsei’s intervention that causes the Lightners to seal the fountain. Noelle is the first to bring up that she is happier in the Dark World. In other words, the Dark World is Noelle’s paradise. Or, her Heaven.

So is the Angel’s Heaven just the Dark World? It is a possibility. We do know that the heroes sealing the fountains is in the prophecy, so “banishing the angel’s heaven” could just be other wording for “sealing the fountains”. But is Noelle that important of a character. After all, it seems Chapter 3 won’t have her in the Dark World again. So is she that important, or was her story finished in Chapter 2?

We know that Noelle is strong. Queen explicitly chooses her, over Berdly, to open another Dark Fountain, and makes reference to it being because of her strength. In the Snowgrave route, she has a spell that is immediately fatal to a Lightner, beings who we are explicitly told are stronger than Darkners. She also is able to permeate the high defences of Spamton NEO with her magic. So there is no question that Noelle is, or has the potential to be, strong. She is the strongest character we have seen so far. It is possible that I’m drawing more significance from this fact than exists.

But, there is proof Noelle will return.

As far as I know, you cannot keep the Thorn RIng after completing the Snowgrave route, as you have to equip it to Noelle for the route to continue. So the only situation in which the player would be able to have the Thorn Ring here is if they abort the Snowgrave route immediately after obtaining it. I have not tried this, but it seems possible, at least. And, a Pure Crystal is not an item obtainable in Chapter 1 or 2. So for the Twisted Sword to be craftable at all, Noelle would almost have to return. Unless the only way to obtain it is to abort a route part-way through, which seems very strange to demand from players in order to obtain an item, Noelle will return as a party member. Probably not in Chapter 3, but at some point.

There is also the small point that Noelle is the only other party member that has appeared, meaning that all four playable characters that we’ve seen are represented on the Delta Rune. However, it seems more likely that we’ll get more playable characters in future chapters, so this is probably not significant.

My theory then, is that if Noelle is indeed the Angel, she must have a significant role to play in the story and will return.

Oh, and one more thing. Remember the prophecy from Undertale? It presented an idea of an Angel who can be interpreted as either benevolent, or a harbinger of destruction. Doesn’t this fit Noelle’s role in the two routes of Chapter 2? In a normal playthrough, Noelle is a good, kind person who refuses to help Queen, leading to the fountain being sealed. The Dark World then goes empty by everyone being moved to Castle Town. In the Snowgrave route, Noelle leads the Dark World to go empty by freezing all the Darkners, mirroring a genocide run. She certainly fits the “angel of death” motif here.

This reflection of Undertale’s prophecy in Noelle’s role in Chapter 2 may not mean anything, but I thought it was interesting regardless.

TL;DR:

In Deltarune, the three triangles represent the three heroes from the prophecy, being Kris, Susie, and Ralsei. The Angel represents Noelle who will in some way be returning in a prominent role in later chapters. Undertale’s idea of an Angel who is either benevolent or malevolent is mirrored in the two routes of Chapter 2.

[mamaito]

It's been 6 years but who cares, here's my theory that I've kept to myself about Chara (Us) and Frisk being the same person. Also regarding the person who greets you at the end of the genocide route who's wearing your face is someone else.

I don't know if someone else has made something similar since I never checked the tags..

Chara is referred to as you because my interpretation is that Chara/Frisk are nothing more than vessels for the player.

--

Memories

- First off, if Frisk was supposed to be someone else who happened to fall down Mt. Ebott, why would a random person be dreaming of memories that isn't theirs? Flowey cannot do that, nor does he have the power to share personal memories with someone he never met. When you fall down the waterfall after being chased by Undyne, weren't you dreaming about when you two first met? When you lose, you hear Asgore's voice telling you not to give up. Those are things only you would know, not Frisk.

Resemblance

- Highly unbelievable that someone just happen to fall down after all these years even if people out here say it may be when it's off closed to outsiders, Flowey/Asriel would not mistake you as someone else. He had assumptions but during the Genocide Route, he was proven right. He went out of his way to check if your body was still there, otherwise why would he be so elated and confident to tell you everything? In the Pacifist route, he never checked because he never needed to.

The heart is the same color, why is it the same if these are two different people? It makes sense why Toriel wants to take care of you that much, you resemble the human child she used to take care of. It can be brushed as her motherly instincts to care for children after what Asgore did but I believe there's more to that. Take note that it's been centuries, so she could've brushed you as another human or can't believe her child came back to life.

Walking Corpse

- When you check the coffin, your body isn't there. In the Pacifist route nor Neutral do you even open it. In the Genocide route, only then is your coffin open and with no body. If Chara (You) really were possessing Frisk then the body should still be there, even some remains at least. It couldn't be Flowey, he went ahead and checked during the Genocide route. Toriel took the body and buried it where you were found, that's too much of a coincidence.

Frisk's complexion is pale, it's very yellow, like a decomposing body. Did you know that when your skin turns yellow it's caused by old or damaged red cells in the body? It's also itchy, didn't you drink a cup of buttercup to die in the past though? Buttercups are known for being itchy, with a burning sensation. Frisk always has eyes closed, further proving my assumption.

Frisk also cannot emote, neither can Flowey but with the difference is that he's a flower while you're human. Frisk smiled once, that was during the genocide route...

Brought Back To Life By Determination

- Flowey was born by Alphys injecting a flower with Determination, he woke up surrounded by yellow flowers. Frisk woke up surrounded by the same yellow flowers, whenever you save it's always followed by Determination. With this info it'd make sense that you were brought back to life by an unknown influence unbeknownst to you when you start the game. Flowey also mentions this during the Genocide route, Flowey was alive way before you did so why now? Would it not make sense for the two of you to be revived at the same time? Or is there someone who wanted to use you for?

The Real You

- Frisk is the revived Chara (You) who lost previous memories. With nothing to go by, Frisk just goes wherever others takes them till you accept a new persona, that persona is called 'Frisk' as you're much nicer compared to the past. After one last reunion with Asriel, he accepts that the person he's staring at is no longer the you he remembers in his childhood. Asriel says the person he loves is no more and he must move on, that's because you're now a different person. He is aware that you were an awful human being but Asriel still wanted to be with you. In the Pacifist Route, you get to live as 'Frisk'.

In the Genocide Route, you relive as you were in the past, each time you kill, you start remembering who you actually are. Scheming, manipulative, and psychopathic. The one who Flowey admires and looks up to, most of his persona came from you.

Sans also mentions of a second chance when determining your innocence after the death of his brother. Does that not make sense for Frisk to be resembling a second chance to redeem yourself?

Third Party

- Flowey mentions a third party who watches everything unfold, but it can't be Sans, he is heavily injured. Sans followed you till you reached the castle, he's waiting in the judgement hall to judge you for who you are.

After killing Flowey you'll be greeted by what seems to be you. Some say it's just Chara but I disagree, the person talks too much of an observant to simply be yourself talking. It's confirmed that Gaster's listening since his followers says so, it would make sense that he's watching you as well.

Since the release of Deltarune and Gaster's influence there, especially the scene where you're making your vessel, says a lot about who you actually are in Undertale. In tweets, he speaks as though he made the world for you.

[flare-dragon]

Deltarune Thoughts (feat. Chapter 2)

A few assorted thoughts/notes:

-Save points don’t exist in the light world, only in the dark world -Ralsei could be based on Kris’ memories/impressions of Asriel

More complex thoughts:

What if Kris did create the dark fountain of Chapter 2? The usual evidence against it is “When could they have done it? They had no time to disappear and make it during gameplay” but I propose one other possible time: Between Chapter 1 and 2. We see the knife at the end of Ch. 1 and think “Oh no! What’s Kris gonna do?” and then it’s revealed we were baited, with Toriel showing us that Kris ate the whole pie and left the knife in the tin. Our thoughts are pretty much “Oh, that Toby Fox! Baiting us with the knife!”, but what if...it wasn’t a bait, and it connects to Ch. 2′s ending, of Kris using the knife to create a new fountain?

The only major points against it would be: -Kris would have to break and enter the Librarby without leaving a trace -No monster would have to have noticed the weirdness coming from the Computer Lab door for most of the day/raised no fuss over seeing it The second one’s not a big issue; the door’s closed when Susie and Kris find it and we only know of Noelle and Berdly going there, who both wind up in the dark world The first one’s a little less easy, but considering Kris was willing to slash Toriel’s tires (likely to keep Susie at home, but that’s just thoughts), I could see them at being willing to try.

I guess the next thought would be “Why? Are they actually The Knight?”, but that’s a different thought~

What if, like how Ch. 1′s dark world seemed tailored to Susie and the playroom, and Ch. 2′s dark world tailored to Noelle and the computer lab, the secret bosses are based off of Kris?

Admittedly a thought I’m still working on, but there were points on how Queen seemed to almost represent Noelle’s image of her mother, overbearing and a little domineering but trying to do what she believes is best for her daughter (and even trying to make sure all the personalised rooms were personalised to what the characters wanted).

Some of that would be related to how social media sites these days really try to show you stuff based on what they know of your searches and such (spooky), but the points on Queen and Noelle’s relationship to her mother leads to thoughts of Susie and her relationship with friendships. It’s unknown what kind of friendships she could have had in the past, but Kris and Lancer were her first friends that we know of. This world ler her be scary and frightening, and “the bad guy”, but she eventually started to veer towards kindness and good, things she really did want.

But one thing that differs so differently from the tales of either chapter are their secret bosses (or, I guess, ‘chaos bosses’?). They speak of darkness and freedom/lack thereof, Jevil believing himself free on his side of the door, and Spamton being willing to go as far as exploit Kris and try to steal their soul just to be free of his ‘strings’. Jevil is effectively playing and being played with, and Spamton wants so badly to be free and absolutely laments that the strings still tie him down to the darkness, with cutting them only leading to shutting down.

If there’s one thing shared between them and Kris, it’s freedom/lack thereof. We, the player/soul, seem to control their actions and life (at least, with the choices we ourselves are given), and Kris seems to resent it (though it’s...hard to say?), having times where they throw out their soul/us just to have their own agency. It’s...unknown if that’s an outside force or is Kris themself though.

Each of the bosses are still rooted in the worlds they come in, hence their theming (Jevil as a Joker card, Spamton as...well, spam), but it makes me wonder~

What if Kris, Asriel, Noelle, and Dess/December used to go to the dark world?

This one’s still half-baked and more crack than genuine theory, but we know that the four of them used to hang out when they were younger, when both Asriel and Dess were around. We’re told Asriel’s gone to college, but we’re given very little information on Dess, aside from the fact that she’s not at home with Noelle and their mum. It could be that Dess is just with Asriel at college or out travelling the world, but it’s also often theorised that something happened to her.

It’s often thought that the hill below town has something to do with it (there was one or two posts connecting it to Mt. Ebott, which was interesting), though there’s not a lot of connection yet (there’s bound to be. The idea there isn’t would be...strange). It could be that the four of them wandered here at one point, but only three returned (you could say Asgore was supposed to be watching them if you wanna use it as the reason he was kicked off of/left the police force)

Makes me wonder if their adventures were actually adventures into the dark world, which would even tie in to the previous point, the idea that the worlds are tailored to those experiencing it. The idea that the darkners had been abandoned by the lightners until The Knight came and gave them a new purpose. It could be the ‘lightners’ were just the four of them having adventures in the dark worlds until Dess disappeared, then they stopped.

Doesn’t explain why now, of all times, the fountains are being opened up again (though one thought is maybe Kris is trying to find Dess before Asriel comes back, but that’s even more out-there), but it’s an interesting thought~

[that-obsessed-fangirl]

Game... Discussion? Chara Discussion??

Some of you may already know my opinion about Chara through this post that I made a little while back. It still stands.

I thought back to how the game opens where, at first, it shows Mt. Ebott in the year 201X and a child, whom we now know as Chara, tripping on a root and falling into that hole.

I was wondering... We're tricked in the beginning of the game into believing that this human that's fallen is us, or at least the playable character, and in a way, we kinda name Chara since it's revealed that the playable character's true name is Frisk. That would plausibly mean, then, that the time Frisk falls in can't possibly be 201X and must be several years into the future since 201X is when Chara falls into the Underground.

If we were tricked, I guess you could also say Frisk was too. They might have been given these memories believing they were silly enough to trip into that whole in that year, so imagine in the end Frisk trying to scramble around on the Surface like Marty McFly looking for newspapers to check the ACTUAL year.

It was a funny thought, which some how led me to this reddit discussion.

I'm gonna refer back to this a lot bc this is a REALLY GOOD and really cool theory or headcanon about Chara and you as the player.

[judecopeart]

MIXTALE, the Undertale AU where everything is, well, mixed up ! Info under the cut because it’s long

     Ark, the great -nibling of Era, who fell down the hole in Mt. Ebott 50 years ago, follows in their grankle’s footsteps (quite literally) and takes a tumble of their own. There, they meet Undyne, a former soldier who has retired to a quiet life in the ruins, under the orders to bring any fallen humans to the capitol. But over the week or so that Ark stays with her, she can’t bring herself to send them off to have their soul reaped, and instead hands them a small spear and offers a small protection charm. With those in hand, Ark is told to find a way home, by any means necessary.      They travel to Snowdin, meeting a pair of ghosts along the snowy paths - an excited pink one named Mettablook (though he insists on just being called Mett), and a chill blue one named Napstablook. Mett is a human fanatic, and continuously tries to get Ark to tell him about human culture while they travel towards town. If he’s not talking about the stuff he finds at the dump, he’s going on and on about his favorite tv personality. Napstablook manages to tell Ark that they make lofi hip hop remixes in their spare time.      Once they get to town, they bump into Asgore, a friendly, kind shopkeeper, with a gaggle of kids behind him. The shopkeep and human head towards Muffet’s Bar and Grill, and Asgore tells Ark about monster history, and how they’ll have to have a monster’s soul by the end of their journey if they want to get past the barrier. Ark is adamant they’ll be fine, and they’ll find another way through.      After leaving Snowdin with Mett in tow, Ark gets their first encounter with Grillby in Waterfall - Grillby’s a hardened soldier with a bullheadedness and a DETERMINATION to stop the human. During a chase, a young goat child named Asriel distracts Grillby long enough for Ark and Mett to hide out on a snail farm, where they meet the owner, Toriel. She takes in the two for the night, and they have a big dinner with Tori, her son, and her wife, Muffet.      Moving through Waterfall, the duo narrowly misses more attacks from Grillby, and only manage to escape when his enchanted armor’s power starts to dwindle from having no cool down time, causing him to become more vulnerable to the moisture in the air. Ark and Mett, in an act of compassion, drag him through to Hotland where he can dry back out and let his armor’s magic recharge.      Now in Hotland, the pair enter a science lab, and get immediately accosted by a tall, boisterous....skeleton ? by the name of Gaster. They’re not all there, and they’re a little drippy, but they’ve heard all kinds of things about the human and they’re begging for the chance to study a human SOUL. Before they get the chance to start inspecting, a shorter skeleton named Sans pushes them out of the way and insists that the human meets his brother Papyrus and do a segment on his talk show to clear up some rumors.      Ark and Mett are confused, but don’t have much time to ask questions as Papyrus himself appears and drags them to another room that’s set up with a desk and some armchairs. Once cameras start to roll, it’s revealed to Ark that many of the monsters they’ve met have been mistaking them for a human from 20 years ago - one named Era. All kinds of crazy theories that Ark was Era’s spirit come to avenge the monsters or whatever have been all over the monster internet, and Papyrus wants them to be able to clear things up.      A picture of Era flashes on a screen behind them, and Ark recognizes them - it’s their great-Ankle who went missing when their grampy was still young. The monsters at home are shocked ! What are the odds 2 humans from the same family would fall down here ? It’s then that the story of the dearly missed Prince Monster Kid and the fallen human Era are told. Much like in canon, Era was taken in by the royal family, this time consisting of Alphys, her cousin Monster Kid, and her right hand guard Undyne. After Era fell gravely ill with a sickness their body couldn’t fight, Monster Kid and Era fused their souls and emerged into the above ground in order to look for a cure, or at least take Era back to their home town to see their loved ones one last time.      Unfortunately, the humans there thought Monster Kid had attacked Era and hurt them, and began to attack Monster Kid in turn. Injured fatally, Monster Kid picked up their siblings body and returned home, barely making it back to Alphys before they turned to dust. Alphys, with both the kids she loved now dead, woefully vowed to avenge their deaths and free monsters from the underground and the plight of humanity. She sent Undyne to the ruins to watch and wait, and so over the decades they have reaped 5 human SOULS.      Determined to make amends to Alphys, the whole of monster kind, and their own family’s lost history, Ark heads towards the castle with Mett, and now Papyrus. Along the way, the other monsters they meet offer help, charms, spells, and anything they can give, heartbroken to know that neither of Era’s families had gotten closure until now about their disappearance.      At the castle, the trio encounters Alphys, sitting and weeping in a flower bed of golden petals. She spoke lowly to someone they couldn’t see, and when she turned to greet them, there was nobody there. She wiped her eyes and gently hugged Ark, voice hoarse as she apologized, but she had a duty to her people.      They enter the next room, and it’s revealed... that Alphys won’t be the one being fought. It’ll, instead, be a teched out Flowey, the lost soul of Monster Kid, who’s powered by the other human souls. Once they claim Ark’s, they plan to blast the barrier to bits and lead the charge against the humans that caused so much damage.      During the fight, Ark keeps getting flashes of the past from the dead human’s memories - a ballet dance here, a cooking lesson there - and finally, memory upon memory that could only belong to the family member they never knew. They appealed to the child inside Flowey, the one who just missed their sibling and wished things could have changed. Ark’s soul glows bright, resonating with the ones surrounding Flowey... and when the flash clears, Monster Kid is standing there, instead. They’re sniffling, ashamed and depressed, and with the last of their power they decimate the barrier.      It won’t be long until they become a flower again, and they’re enveloped in a hug by Ark, Alphys and Papyrus joining not long after. As the Monster Kid leaves, other monsters swarm the entrance to the room, eager to step out into sunlight for the first time in centuries.      Alphys stays behind, hoping to help Monster Kid, and a few others stay to assist, but mostly monsters run out with glee. The main group linger, not wanting to leave their newfound friends behind until they were all ready to go. Ark heads in the direction Monster Kid went, and when they catch up, they promise that Monster Kid will never be alone and sad ever again. The human stays until Monster Kid becomes Flowey once again, before gently digging them up and carrying them all the way back to the castle, and soon, out to the above ground.

[determinationisnotcrash]

Gasterblastober Prompt 1: Bad Habit

A short, silly oneshot about a more instinct-driven GB!Sans on the surface. This is the same timeline as Breaking Through Fate, post-plot.

For Gasterblastober with the @gbpack-discord

Alphys held back a sigh of frustration, well aware that the stares of several passerbyers were on her as she walked her friend on a leash. It wasn’t her fault that he was still too mentally incompetent to walk himself! How did she agree to this, again…!?

***

“Greetings, Alphys! Mind if you supervise Sans for me? I’ll be stuck with Asriel at university from now until this time tomorrow for a group assignment, and Gaster’s busy helping set up for the school fair with Asgore.”

“H-hold on, are you allowed to stay there overnight?”

“If we weren’t, they shouldn’t have given us such a time-consuming task. I’ll pay you in that tape of the lost Japanese child cartoon I unearthed – that should be sufficient, yes?”

***

Right, that was why. Curse her obsession with anime! Curse Papyrus’ insistence that they were for little kids! And curse whoever decided not to publicly release the first movie of Pink Dark Boyyyyyyyy!

The Blaster beast jumped into air, coming back down with a bird in his jaws. His tail wagged as he set it down in front of Alphys. She gingerly accepted it. “Uh… thanks.” At least her best friend was more active lately, ever since what came to be known as the ‘Aura of Mt Ebott’.

Perhaps that was a part of his Blaster-like nature coming in… That was her initial speculation, but given the Gasterblaster beast Papyrus defeated in Wingdings’ old lab was a vicious, evil creature, on top of Gasterblasters in general being designed as weapons to destroy anything in Dr Gaster’s path, that theory held little water.

Perhaps the resolve Sans gained after witnessing the others’ valiant battle… the ‘benevolence’ provided by that, and the ‘malevolence’ of the beast cancelled each other out. What was left was… a giant hunched over puppy (or animal-like - she was never really the type to be knowledgeable about pets) skeleton. ‘Sans’ was still there, but his instincts got the better of him. Constantly. As she could see now, as he sniffed at another dog on the sidewalk.

The human owner of the dog seemed to be okay with it, at least, giggling in delight. “Aww, he’s such a cute big boofer! Is he yours?”

Alphys rubbed her neck, her face burning. “Y-yeah…” Telling the truth would make things more complicated than it should.

Abruptly, Sans’ body went rigid. What now…!? His body a white blur, the leash snapped, as he leapt onto the road… right into the path of an approaching car. “SANNNNNNS!” He was a little dumber and more frustrating, but Sans was still her friend! She couldn’t watch this…!

The godawful screech of tyres against the road and the crunch of metal ripped through her ears… When Alphys gathered the courage to open her eyes, the sight before her wasn’t what she expected at all. The car crashed directly into Sans, but the Blaster was still okay. In stark contrast, the vehicle was nothing more than crumpled metal on fire.

After tearing through the metal with his claws, the Blaster managed to fish out the hapless driver, the unconscious human clenched in his jaws. He sped into Alphys and the pet owner, shielding all of them from the resultant explosion with his toughened body. What would have spelled a messy end for the ones present instead simply became slight bruises.

Sans let out a guilty whine at the sight of the wreckage, tail curling around his legs. “I… did it again…” The skeleton brothers’ budget was already tight, but now…

Alphys gave him a comforting pat on the back, careful not to prick herself on his spines. “L-let’s try to count our blessings. At least no one’s dead!”

[officialunifytaleblog-blog]

Unifytale Prologue

Unifytale Created by @ania-da-pez and @cheerfulblossom Written by @rinni-rayne-fire --- Mt. Ebott, the cursed mountain, legend has it that those who climb the mountain will disappear and are never to be seen again. Some believe that the mountain devours anyone who travels on its path, others believe that they are taken to a different world where the Monsters reside. No one knows the truth because no one has ever come back after setting foot on the said mountain. But some people are still foolish and travel on the trail towards the mountain.

A child has climbed the mountain for reasons unknown. She has been careless when she stepped foot into a dark carven, due to her carelessness she fell into a dark bottomless pit, or at least her perception until her body collided with a bed of golden flowers. Pain shot through as she began to feel the effects of the impact. The child screamed and groaned in pain as she tried to get up.

“H-help! Help me please!” screamed the young child.

Footsteps echoed, they were rushed, it was obvious someone had heard the child’s screams. The child was surprised to see who had come, well, to be more specific, what had come to her aid.

“It sounds like it came from over here…”

A child, around her age, had come to answer her screams but there was something different about this child. The child was not human but they were monster. The structure of the monster child’s face resembled a Nubian goat, but they have paws instead of hooves, and they also stood upright. The monster child gasp as they looked at the fallen one, immediately rushing to their side.

“Oh! You’ve fallen down haven’t you… Are you okay? Here let me help you up”

The monster child had helped up and put an arm around his shoulder for support as they began walking bit by bit.

“If you don’t mind me asking, what’s your name?” asked the monster child

“Chara… my name is Chara…”

“That’s a nice name, my name is Asriel” replied the now smiling monster child whom is known as Asriel.

The two continued to walk around The Ruins, as from Asriel’s statement on the name of the place where Chara had fallen. A cfter what felt like hours of walking for the injured Chara they reached a small house at the end of the ruins. It gave off a warm aura and it really felt like home.

“Mom! Dad! Come quick!” screamed Asriel as they pass by a tree with its red leaves surrounding it.

Two sets of footsteps were heard and soon the door to the house was opened. There stood two more goat monsters similar to Asriel. One appeared to be female, she has a pair of visible fangs and long eyelashes, and her irises have a dark red tint, she was also wearing a dress that had a weird symbol on it for Chara’s opinion. The injured child assumed the other to be a male, a golden blond mane and beard, and two large curved horns. He wore a pink sweater with small white flower designs imprinted into the sweater. The two monsters gasped and rushed to aid Chara, sadly she couldn’t stay conscious anymore as black invade her vision.

A groan escaped Chara’s lips as she slowly woke up. Opening her eyes she saw it was slightly dark, she waited for her vision to adjust to the darkness and she began to look around. From Chara’s observation it seem like a bedroom, a child’s bedroom to be exact so she could only assume it was Asriel’s bedroom. She didn’t seem to feel pain anymore like she had earlier. Light seep through an opening door and soon light invaded the whole space as a light switch was turned on. She covered her eyes to protect it from the sudden brightness.

“You’re awake! Mom! Dad! Chara’s awake now!” Asriel said with a smile on his face

“Asriel please keep your voice down, it’s not good to scream near someone who just woke up, it might startle them” Asriel’s mother began to walk to Chara and sits down on the edge of the bed

“Greetings child, I am Toriel”

From that point on Chara stayed with Asriel’s family, over time the two children became close, treating each other as siblings. Soon enough she became a part of the family, Chara and Asriel would play until their hearts content within the Underground with a skeleton watching them under his friend’s request. But alas not all children are entertained for long. Slowly yet surely she began to feel bored of the routine she has. Asriel has also observed this, along with his parents. The parents didn’t know what to do, they knew that one day the children would get bored of the Underground but they didn’t think it would happen so soon to Chara. The said young child was now lying in bed, it was time for her to sleep. With a kiss goodnight on the forehead from Toriel she began to fall asleep.

Darkness surrounded her, she could feel everything around her, she was asleep right? Chara’s eyes look around to only find an endless horizon of darkness, thinking it will end she began to walk. She walked for some amount of time before she saw a yellow glow, with hope for light within the darkness she began to run. Chara ran to the light only for her to find two words within a box.

“Continue?... Reset?...”

Curiosity began to fill her as her hand glided to the reset button, she had a hunch on what continue means so she pressed reset. Much to her surprise she was back at the ruins, feeling pain, she screamed for help and there came Asriel.

“Asriel thank gosh! Help me please!”

“H-how do you know my name?”

“W-what?”

Much to Chara’s dislike the events on the day she met Asriel happened once more. From there, everything was a series of Déjà vu, so to solve her curiosity once more, she reset and the same results were given to her. She kept resetting and resetting getting the same results causing her boredom to grow even more. She had lost count how many times she had reset, she kept getting bored so easily, nothing could really entertain her. She tried different things but to her dismay it just ended with her getting bored. Chara knew that she has lost count of how many times she had reset but she noticed that every reset it seems the skeleton that watched her and Asriel before had observed her even more every time her and Asriel spent time with him. She would see him watching from the distance, some would think he was only watching them due to his friend’s request, but Chara might just be mistaken on her theory.

Chara watched as Asriel walked in front of her in the snowy grounds of Snowdin as they walked home. She remembered something that was told to her in a previous reset, she began to smile and she once again reseted. The same things happened once again, like a regular routine for Chara but one day that routine broke. The two children had gone missing. No one has seen them. The King and Queen along with their loyal subjects, searched the whole underground and yet they only found Chara.

[noplotnostory]

Food for Thought

Monster SOULs and Possible Traits: Part Two

This Food for Thought will be covering my personal theories on what monsters might have which primary SOUL traits. This is operating under the assumption that monster SOULs both have distinct primary traits and that they would be the same primary traits that human SOULs have--which I am by no means certain of--and will only cover the few specific monsters I feel fairly confident in my assessment of (SOUL-trait-wise, at least). More facts and theories concerning monster SOULs and their possible traits--including whether or not they even have primary traits the way human SOULs do--can be found in Part One.

Toriel - Integrity

If there’s one thing the entire UnderTale Fandom can agree on, it’s that Sans is a fairly observant individual who tends to know more about what’s going on around him than pretty much anyone else Underground. So when he says that someone “has an integrity you just can’t say ‘no’ to”, it‘s probably fair to consider that a hint. Especially when everything about that "someone"s history and interactions feels very Integrity-based.

I’ve seen people identify Toriel’s primary SOUL trait as Perseverance, Patience or Kindness a few times, but I don’t really think any of those work. Not as her primary trait, at least.

The thing is, Toriel left Asgore because of her personal moral standards. That’s...pretty much Integrity in a nutshell. Now her history after that point and behavior in the Ruins clearly show an aptitude for Perseverance and Patience as well...but if either of those were her primary trait, it seems more likely that she would stay and try to fix Asgore’s mess from inside the capitol.

Like Perseverance and Patience, Toriel’s Kindness is an undeniable facet of her character, one that we even know was actively demonstrated before she left Asgore as well as after. Toriel is a nurturing, protective and loving individual whose pie is the strongest healing item in the entire game (implying an aptitude for green magic, if the creation of magic food follows similar rules to the creation of magic attacks). And she is a brutally practical and efficient woman who was known for making the difficult decisions for her people as Queen (even firing Alphys after leaving the Ruins and hearing what the Royal Scientist had done) and has a tendency to hold grudges against people who she feels have neglected or abused their station. Specifically her ex-husband who she berates not only for killing children, but being too cowardly or soft-hearted to expedite the process for the sake of their people.

That’s...not Kindness. It doesn’t necessarily make her cruel, but it indisputably displays the unwavering convictions that truly defines Integrity above all else.

Undyne - Kindness

Undyne is a Determined and Brave monster with a battle theme titled “Spear of Justice”. All of these are assets that have undoubtedly served her well as the Captain of the Royal Guard. But, above all else, she’s Kind.

First things first, Determination...is not a SOUL trait.

Click the link.

Read the thing.

Got it?

Ok, moving on.

Bravery is a necessity for Undyne’s line of work. As a member of the Royal Guard, Undyne was tasked with maintaining order in the monster kingdom, capturing humans for the use of their SOULs and--presumably--being prepared to wage war against humankind upon the removal of the barrier. When humans fell and caused panic throughout the Underground, it was Undyne’s duty to put her own life on the line to preserve those of civilian monsters.

Yet, in her armorless “faux battle” after allowing the Fallen Human to live and being left to bond with them by an eager Papyrus, she actually has more DEF than in her real, to-the-death (as far as she knew) battle. Now, if DEF stands for DEsire to Fight (I swear, I read that theory somewhere long before starting this blog, but I can’t find a link or fic anywhere and I’d love it if someone could tell me where I saw this from!) then Undyne is more interested in the “faux battle” than the real one. It’s only one DEF point, but other monsters in the game definitely lose those when they decide that they don’t want to fight anymore, and considering the fact that Undyne is bearing the fate of the entire Underground on her shoulders during the actual battle (regardless of if the Fallen Human is Pacifist, Neutral or Genocidal at that point), she has a lot of reason to fight to win. And in a Genocide Route, she is Determined enough to keep fighting after losing all her HP because all of monsterkind is counting on her and she refuses to let them down. But she has more DEF in the “faux battle”. Which means, regardless of how much she wants to win, regardless of how much she wants to keep everyone safe, regardless of how much she wants to eliminate this proficient threat who has murdered her best friend and subordinates, she does not want to fight as much as she does in the “faux battle”. Her heart’s just not in it as much as it would be for a spar between friends. She feels that she needs to protect and avenge, but the key word is “need”. Not “want”.

There’s another moment that probably isn’t the strongest evidence, but I personally feel like it fits, so I’m going to add it anyways: Jumping off the cliff to save Monster Kid lowers Undyne’s HP. If HP stands for HOPE and has to do with a SOUL’s positive emotions as well as it’s ability to sustain damage (I actually do have a link for this one! :D I found this definition in Chapter 7 of somnivagrantTraviatus’s Sweeter than Honey on AO3!), then witnessing the Fallen Human either attack or abandon an actual child dealt a serious emotional blow. Especially since Undyne had admired humans so much after watching anime with Alphys and really had to work hard to convince herself that humans were the depraved and unrepentant enemy of all monsterkind...and that just made it a little easier (Toby Fox has mentioned wanting her armor to be cracked as well, but since intent is such an important part of how monsters take damage, I’m inclined to believe that whatever might have damaged Undyne’s armor would not have impacted her HP the same way).

As for Justice, while a lot of Undyne’s actions as the Captain of the Royal Guard can be interpreted as both Justice and Kindness, whenever she displays a preference for one over the other, Kindness wins. She’s hesitant to kill the human in front of Monster Kid and while explaining the quirks of her magic and how to combat it makes sense for a friendly spar, it’s not a particularly effective way to execute a possibly deadly and time-sensitive threat to the kingdom.

Also, I feel the need to point out that the song “Spear of Justice” does not play in Genocide Route battles. Since the name of the song is a clear homage to her icon--Gerson, the Hammer of Justice--who she claims had fought against humans in the War that led to monsterkind’s imprisonment, one would think that such a tribute would be fitting for a life-or-death battle against a human who had systematically exterminated every monster they’ve come across since falling into the Underground. But apparently Undyne doesn’t. Whatever it was about Gerson and his reputation that inspired Undyne to join the Royal Guard, apparently that’s not what she was thinking about when going toe-to-toe with a genocidal human. It wasn’t about punishment or serving Justice. It was about saving everyone that was left. A community that she has loved and served and known all her life and she was willing to die to protect them.

That’s...actually why my posts regarding her are tagged “Undyne the Unpredictable”. There’s a certain fluidity that comes with Kindness. Much like Asgore is a “big fluffy pushover” who also happens to be impulsive enough to make a very poorly-thought-out proclamation of war in the throes of grief, Undyne is the sort of person to guard you with her life after a cooking session or use her spears to make you a shish kebab for being a possible threat to monsterkind. It all depends on how she perceives the situation and the people involved.

(And no, I’m not saying that Asgore’s primary trait is Kindness. I’m only saying that he is emotionally-driven. I don’t have a confident conclusion on what his primary trait would be.)

Gerson - Justice

The Hammer of Justice.

Yeah.

He’s probably the easiest monster to assign a primary SOUL trait to despite never fighting the Fallen Human in-game, but let’s go ahead and look at some supporting evidence.

A prevalent retired hero to monsterkind, an apparent veteran of the War of Monsters and Humans and one of the major influences in Undyne’s life, Gerson doesn’t seem like the type to be excessively friendly with the species that trapped him and his people under Mt. Ebott. He claims to have distrusted Chara when the first Fallen Human was still alive and being raised by the royal family and was of the opinion that breaking the barrier and returning to the surface would result in the genocide of all monsters after how thoroughly humanity had defeated them.

Yet, he doesn’t appear to have any vendetta against the Fallen Human who explores the Underground in the events of UnderTale in any route other than Genocide. In Neutral and Pacifist Routes, he even shares information on monster iconography, gives tips on where to sell items, warns the Fallen Human that Undyne is looking for them and ends his conversations with a: “Be careful out there, kid!”

In the Genocide Route, Gerson claims that he was never a hero, but still attempts to stall the Fallen Human so that other monsters could evacuate. In a way, he warns the Fallen Human of Undyne in all routes, but in Genocide he is far more vague and acerbic about it, not mentioning her by name and sounding very certain that she would defeat the Fallen Human. He only laughs once in Genocide Route conversations, and the context implies that it’s not exactly a joyful or good-humored one, unlike in other routes.

I suppose other traits could be ascribed to these various instances and facts, but if you put it all together, it creates an image of someone who strives to protect others even in his old age, but makes a point of not mistreating or prejudging people who have not definitively earned his ire, regardless of past experiences with their species. Despite having every reason to be wary of humanity as a whole, he values Justice regardless of species.

[ebottswake]

Ebott’s Wake Character List Part One

These summaries will be as complete as I can make them without spoiling future chapters or stories.

Shop Class:

Elijah McGraw: Current owner and operator of the Dank Memehaus, a local hangout that services food, alcohol, and non-alcoholic beverages. The Dank Memehaus has gone through many names and iterations of its primary service, but it has been a fixture in Ebott’s Wake for about a century and it has been owned by the McGraws all this time. Currently it functions as a cybercafe in addition to its other functions. Elijah used to tend the bar himself before hiring Grillby, so he knows recipes and techniques for all of the common drinks and some of the less common ones, and he is also an excellent student of human nature because he has mastered the art and science of listening to other people. He’s also well versed in computer science, although he has little professional training or education in the field.

Hal Greene: The town’s best mechanic and craziest individual, bar none. Hal inherited the Greene Machine’s Garage, Gas Station, and Mini Golf from his father, Dave Greene, and has proven himself at least competent enough at the business side of things to keep them running, but his real expertise is in all things mechanical. Between his knowledge of metallurgy, metal casting, automotive mechanics, pyrotechnics and demolitions, he’s basically a one man Industrial Revolution. On top of all that, he was taught music theory and how to play multiple instruments at an early age. Hal is widely considered insane by the rest of the town (and most of the county) because he does not seem to possess any sense of personal or social self preservation. It is this preconceived notion that makes the “occasional” lucid conversations with him that much more terrifying.

Officer Steven Ward: A beat cop in the Ebott’s Wake Police Department, Officer Steve is the man who Diogenes was looking for; he cannot be bought. This trait would have gotten him stuck at the lowest ranks of the Police Department had monsters not appeared one October day, but as one point of contact between two races, he has become much more important than he or his employers ever expected. By the time the events of the original Ebott’s Wake story take place, he has managed to improve the performance and ethics of the department through a combination of Leading By Example and osmosis, so there’s that. The nature of his responsibilities has precluded him entering into the Ebott’s Wake Kludge Derby for the last few years, but he still tinkers with assorted designs in his limited spare time, most of them based on the “monowheel” drive system.

Josef “Joe” Stanton: Joe works at All Fine Labs, and has been trying to figure out how to integrate monster magic with human science since the moment he knew that it was an option. This finally starts paying off near the end of Ebott’s Wake, so the moral of the story is that good things come to those who never give up. Joe has degrees in electrical engineering and electronics, but the 2008 Great Recession caused the company he was working for to collapse in on itself, so he ended up getting certified as a locksmith and using that as a source of income for a few years. He actually got interested in picking locks and cracking safes after reading Richard Feynman’s biography as a youth, so it was a fairly painless career transition. Joe is widely considered an asshole, but that’s an oversimplification; he can be polite, but he has an extremely low tolerance for bullshit and people trying to bullshit him cause him to drop the pretense of fake kindness. This distinction is something only his friends would recognize, as he himself has completely embraced the title of “asshole” out of spite. Out of all members of Shop Class, he is the one most interested in the “race” part of the Kludge Derby more than the “inventing vehicles” part, although he enjoys that too, and he has a possibly unhealthy love for the Eurobeat musical genre. He’s also an avid motorcyclist.

Michael Van Garrett: Van Garrett is the Vice President of the Ebott’s Wake Librarby Board, does most of the heavy lifting around the place, and is widely (and correctly) considered the strongest man in Lost Eagle County thanks to a regimen of weight training and muscle building exercises he has followed since junior high. Between the size of his body and the size of his beard (not Duck Dynasty length, but pretty big) he presents an intimidating image that is largely at odds with his personality; Mike is a soft spoken intellectual type who is more than happy to answer questions and direct people to whatever books they might be looking for. He’s also very interested in folklore, both historical and the more modern counterpart of conspiracy theories; people don’t think of him in the same way they think of Quentin Forsythe, the town conspiracy nut, because Van Garrett does not shout it from the mountaintops.

Justin Carrow: Justin is the soldier who went to war, and came back home to a land he did not recognize, although Ebott’s Wake itself didn’t change that much until after the monsters showed up. Rather, Justin changed. Having to kill multiple human beings will do that to a person. It’s clear that he experiences some of the symptoms associated with PTSD, although the most obvious is executive dysfunction; for a long time, he had considerable difficulty holding down a regular job. This resulted in him becoming the town’s semi-official odd job guy; between all the practical skills he learned in the Army (computers, construction, welding, etc) and the stuff he learned as part of Shop Class, there’s very little he can’t do as an independent contractor. Justin is a decent marksman, but his real combat expertise is with grenades; he actually managed to send home an M32 MGL that he got from horse trading with a marine unit, a weapon that is definitely not something a civilian would normally be able to own. He is also an extremely fast runner, which is how he got so familiar with grenade launchers in the first place; a soldier with a grenade launcher is a high value target because of the damage they can do.

Byron Thorton: Byron is the unfortunately deceased former Ebott’s Wake Postmaster, who managed to warn the people of Ebott’s Wake when the local cult (The Guardians of the Legacy of the Magi) started getting up to no good. Not everyone could be saved, and certainly the effort cost Byron his life, but he did save a lot of lives in the process. Nobody knows how he learned what he knew. He was the only member of Shop Class to marry and have kids; in a bizarre twist of fate, both children ended up climbing Mt. Ebott and the Souls of Sam and Andrew Thorton were used by Alphys to create Flowey the Flower, and by Asriel Dreemurr to destroy the Barrier.

[askthelivingcore]

Hey Doc, I heard you are attending college? What exactly are you studying? Are you giving magic lessons too?

DOC

Me? Oh... It’s funny that you mention magic lessons. Teaching is the eventual goal.

You’ve probably noticed this yourself, but with the Barrier broken, ambient magic levels are starting to rise again on the surface. Not quite to pre-War levels, oh, no -- not that we have many accurate measurements from that time, instrumentation was far from being up to snuff. I mean, if you think about it -- the War was fought with sword, spear, bow, and spell. Dr. W.D. Gaster, at least from my memories, spent his formative years already sealed underground, and that was just a stone’s throw away from the beginning of the 1900s. The sheer amount of technological development since then has just been mind-boggling --

LG

Maddock, you’re wandering. Get back on topic. Magic, college, teaching.

DOC

Right, yes, ambient magic levels. I can explain what happened in more depth some other time, but in short, before the Barrier was erected, history tells that any Human with a bit of study and tutelage could pick up magic. It was never as natural or easy as it would be for a Monster, but it was possible. Humans tended to favor colorful magic, of kinds that resonated with the particular energies and core values of their SOUL.

But, you see, magic thrives in a community, and no purely Human settlement would ever generate an ambient magic level as high as one containing Monsters -- we rather live and breathe the stuff. Lower ambient magic makes it more difficult for Humans to use their own spellcraft -- again, lots of theory there, but I’ll skip it for now. Long story short -- Barrier goes up, Human magic begins to die out except in communities where mages banded together, and their survival rather depended on the good will of their neighbors.

That doesn’t mean Humans lost the capability for magic. They were just short on fuel, so to speak, and teachers who could tell them how to use it.

DOC

Then, a few months ago -- boosh! The Barrier breaks! Magic had already been slowly leaking out in the immediate area around Mt. Ebott -- Frisk told us that most humans believed the mountain haunted. More likely, humans with raw magical potential would wander close, accidentally manifest an effect, ascribe it to some unseen threat, and run away. 

DOC

Now that the Barrier is no longer holding it back and Monsters are likewise venturing out onto the surface, ambient magic levels are on the rise in an ever-expanding radius from the mountain epicenter. This means two things; one, a basic level of magic literacy is going to be needed in the general Human population to help prevent misunderstandings and incidents between them and Monsters. Teachers are going to be needed for that, and teachers to teach those teachers.

And, well, second... a lot of Humans are going to be finding out about their own capacity for magic. We’re... going to want to be able to teach them, and help people understand that the new colored bullets they’re seeing are normal, controllable, and not, in fact, demons. Or aliens. Or the government. It’s just magic.

DOC

..... But, to get back to your question. Yes, I’m in college. Just started my first undergraduate year. Ostensibly, I’m on an engineering bachelor’s degree program for now, just because it offers the most courses I’m interested in before going for my master’s in teaching. I don’t want to rely on W.D. Gaster’s fractured memories for everything, and there’s a lot I don’t know. Science has come a long way.

Of course, there’s still some room for electives, so I’m taking a smattering of anything I can. Music, literature, sign language, history and psychology courses next semester at least -- There’s so much to learn. It’s wonderful.

[passivechara]

there is at least one person out there who semi-seriously floated the theory that the reason frisk was on mt ebott was that they were fleeing an angry mob. why a mob? because they flirted with so many people that their village was like GET OUT YOU HEARTBREAKER.

it was either leave or get put in the pear wiggler to atone

(that’s still a meme right?)

[wings-of-life]

Chapter 24 - Schooling

“My head hurts.”

“come on, you know this stuff.”

I groaned and rested my head on my arms. Toriel chuckled and petted my head.

“Maybe it is time for a break. The tea will be ready soon anyway.”

“she can take a break as soon as she gives the right answer.”

“Mean!”

Now they were both chuckling. Toriel’s hand disappeared from my head and I heard her retreat towards the kitchen. The smell of freshly baked butterscotch cinnamon filled the living room as she took her signature pie out of the oven. With a sigh, I lifted my head and saw Sans patiently waiting for me to give the math problem another shot. Propping my head on my hand I looked back at the book in front of me. It was one of the math books from Toriel’s school, meant for twelve-year-olds.

I couldn’t deny that I still was embarrassed about the fact that most preteens could give me a run for my money when it came down to math. But then again, I had been lucky to have learned to read, write and the most basic of math before I had been kidnapped. Going to school was not an option if the government believed you to be dead.

Fortunately, the book in the library didn’t care about such trivial things so I wasn’t completely stupid according to academic levels. My reading and writing were what they should be, though I didn’t understand most of the grammar and spelling rules. History was my strong suit, though that had also been the easiest to learn about. History was just so interesting.

When Toriel had found out that I never had any proper schooling she had taken it upon herself to change that. Which I shouldn’t have been as surprised about as I had. She was both a principal and a teacher after all. She had been quick to assign Sans as my tutor for the beta subjects, which were my weak points. I just could never really make head or tails of the books covering them.

He as a surprisingly good teacher. He was patient and didn’t get frustrated when it took me forever to comprehend something I could tell made perfect sense to him. What was especially nice was how he almost always found a way to bring the real world into his teachings. Which meant that a lot of his lessons were outdoors. Seeing and experiencing helped me a lot to wrap my head around the theories and formulas written in the schoolbooks. It was just too bad that the more advanced math became the less real-world examples there were to help simplify it. Sure, there were plenty of examples of why it was important to understand it, but even story based questions were difficult on me.

“write out your train of thought.”

Sighing I started copying the problem into my notebook and tried to remember what method I needed to use to get to the solution. Taking his advice, I started to pen down ever one that came to mind. Abandoning them as soon as they stopped making sense for the problem. Sans didn’t say anything as I filled the page with nonsense, simply waiting to see if I would manage to figure it out on my own. Which I did. Though it wasn’t until after Toriel had already brought us all a cup of tea and a slice of pie. It had taken me way longer than it should’ve but I had managed, maybe.

“Is the answer twenty-three? Please, tell me it’s twenty-three?”

“it’s twenty-three.”

“Oh, thank all that’s good in this world.”

To my relieve, Toriel reached out and closed the book, signalling that now it was really break-time. Giving me another pet on the head before pulling her hand back.

“I’m proud of the process your making, my child. And you should be too.”

“Thanks, mum.”

“yeah kid, it won’t be long now before geometry will; shape your life.”

Sans gave me a wink while Toriel started laughing, I just gave him push unable to keep the grin off my face. It was a good thing Papyrus was on duty because the next half hour was filled with horrible puns until we were all laughing too hard to think of any new ones.

 The sun had set fully, the first stars popping up above us. I had never really watched a sunset this intently. But then again, I had never watched the sunset with monsters before. Papyrus especially had been very openly loving the shift of colours as the sky slowly darkened. Though I could tell Sans had greatly enjoyed the sight as well. Now that the sun had disappeared behind the horizon however it was time for what we were here for. Near the top of Mt. Ebott, the exit of the Underground close by. The lights of the town shining below us, dim enough to have no influence on the brightness of the stars shimmering above us. Sans was already busy setting up his telescope to give us an even better view of them and to help with the astronomy lesson.

“Hey Sans…”

“hmmm?”

“Why did the astronomer become an actor?”

Looking up from the telescope amused anticipation clear in his eye lights.

“i don’t know, why did the astronomer become an actor?”

“Because they had always wanted to visit the stars.”

He chuckled a little while Papyrus groaned.

“SANS! YOU HAVE A TERRIBLE INFLUENCE ON THE HUMAN!”

“aw, come on pap, her pun was just out of this world.”

“SANS!”

I laughed, both at the joke and at Papyrus’ exaggerated annoyance with his brother. I was starting to be able to read Papyrus’ tells between being really bothered by Sans’ puns and when he was just exaggerating.

“why did the astronaut return to earth?”

“I don’t know, why?”

“to give the aliens some space.”

Papyrus threw his hands up in the air in a fake fit while my eyes started to tear from laughing. Sans looked pleased with himself as I used my sleeve to wipe my eyes. As much as I hated that I started to cry whenever I was laughing too hard, he loved it. Occasionally he would pun until he had me laughing so hard that the tears were streaming down my face.

“I THOUGHT YOU HAD INVITED THE HUMAN ALONG TO TUTOR HER ABOUT THE STARS NOT FOR YOUR BLASTED PUNS!”

“you’re right bro. come on kiddo, let’s see if you can find polaris, also known as the north star.”

Wiping away the remaining tears I kneeled by the telescope and started searching. Astronomy wasn’t a mandatory school subject, but it was one that Sans had insisted on giving. Not that I minded, I had always loved stargazing. So, learning the locations and names of the stars and constellation fun. Difficult, but fun. Sans did all the teaching, while Papyrus simply took in the beauty of the stars.

“Sans?”

“hmmm?”

I looked over at Papyrus for a moment before lowering my voice a little.

“Why couldn’t I bring Molly along?”

Sans chuckled softly before taking the telescope from me and lowering his voice as well.

“in the underground, there was a white dog that would plague papyrus by stealing his bone attacks and stuff. i think molly reminds him a little too much of that ‘meddling canine’.”

I nodded and pulled the blanket Papyrus had thought to bring along for me a little tighter. It was nearing midnight and the temperature had dropped significantly. The days might feel like it was almost summer, the nights were a strong reminder that it was still just spring. Not that either of the skeletons seemed in the least bit bothered by the cold.

“Are you guys really not cold?”

“don’t worry, it takes more than this to chill us to the bone.”

“SANS! THIS IS NOT THE TIME FOR YOUR PUNS! LISTEN HERE HUMAN, I THE GREAT PAPYRUS, WILL EXPLAIN THIS TO YOU. WE SKELETONS AREN’T AS SENSITIVE TO CHANGES IN TEMPERATURE AS YOU HUMANS ARE. WE CAN SENSE THEM, BUT THEY DON’T AFFECT US MUCH AS WE HAVE NOTHING TO FREEZE OR OVERHEAT.”

“you might not have anything to freeze, but you are still the coolest there is bro.”

“BUT OF COURSE, I AM! NEYHEHEH!”

“You are guys truly are the best skeleton friends a girl could ask for, thank you.”

“for what?”

“Everything.”