#snowdin npcs

[dwaginator]

Welcome dudes

I'll finish this later rr (edited

[nosebleed-inglishera]

Snowdin npcs batch 1!

click for better quality

[pigeons-paintbrush]

"we have to save asriel" "there must be a way to get everyone to live" "put flowey in that flower pot until we can get him his body back"

WHERE ARE ALL MY FELLOW SNOWMAN SAVERS??? WHO AMONG YOU CAN SAY THEY WERE DISTRAUGHT THAT THEY COULDNT GO BACK AND TALK TO HIM AFTER GOING TO THE SURFACE???

We made it, man. I got you up there. See? I didn't eat it. It's the same piece you gave me. Even when I was dying, I kept you safe.

The barrier is broken. I held it up as high as I could, so it could bear witness to monsterkind's first sunset.

Can you hear me? You travelled the whole underground. You made it up there. You're free.

Please know I kept this promise.

[axmoth]

You want to see Lost tale npcs?? OF COURSE YOU DO!!

Fun fact: While doing research for Garf i found out that sloths can be green! How delightful!

Small tidbits for each charecter below the cut

Lin/Library lizard: got the library from his grandmother and moved to snowdin after her death. They are the sole owner of the library.

Looxie/Library loox: they like a good challenge and so try to make the crosswords tricky just for them. They also are lins self imposed assistant, Despite the fact lin doesn't pay them. Or the fact that they even work there, nobody seems to mind however.

Garfiell/Lady garf: Found one of those 'Looking for hire' in the newspaper, And decided to try her luck, only she and one other person showed up for it so she got the job, she enjoys fun games and is notably lax about most things.

S.L/Scarf lady: Wanted to be more independent and have extra money beyond there allowance they really want to write a book one day, there the ones who mostly make the comics for the news, but would one day like to make a storybook. They are also the older sister to Mk.

[teammelodies]

Prematurely prepping an itch page for my Astrea mod Made this for the cover image

You'll all see for yourselves when the mod is done and the page is up But I put more effort into making it look nice than I thought I would be. And that's filling me with motivation to keep going and finish it so i can get it out to everyone Added a screenshot feature just to get screenshots for the page too. Gamemaker has a function specifically for that which is pretty cool I'm also recording footage as I go for a trailer that i'll post when i'm done too

[madamrynodm]

More Undertale at work, this is an older one when the lab didn't have much going on

[thesecondsanctuary]

he sees it though

[fwugradiation01]

I noticed Frisk is the same, do they swap with anyone from Underswap?

I thought it would be best to keep Frisk as the player character (since Hiroyuki Itoh just talked about how Frisk is the stand-in for the player and whatnot). Plus Tem and I just had a really cool idea for Chara that wouldn't work if we swapped Frisk and Chara (first idea) So we're swapping Chara and Asriel!

-Mod Toby (FwugR)

[mandarixn]

Snowdin NPS redisigh 🎊

🌟a small update of some snowdin npc 🧊

their first appearance was on November 5 2022, but today something clicked in me and I realized that things won't go like this

I present to you the new and final design of these npc

((๑✧ꈊ✧๑))

(I like them so much eheheh)

npc also needs to be given due attention ❤️‍🩹

LifeTale NPS Snowdin

Snowdin Forest

Faun

Snowman

NPS in Snowdin

Child-rabbit

Bon-bon and Cinnamon

Mouse with a scarf

Joker Nakarat

[twilightofthesandwiches]

I wonder if it'll be revealed in a future chapter how the castle town fountain came to be. Assuming a lightner made it while in the light world, like all the other fountains, it'd be expected that there'd be darkners from the school supplies or even just dust bunnies, but instead it was almost completely empty, so what if it was opened from the other side, where the darkness comes from? The area in the beginning of chapter 3 reminded me of the ???? area in chapter 1, except it lacked the oozing darkness found in ????

I assume we're gonna find out what's up with it eventually, because it just raises... so many questions. Like you said, it definitely does not operate like a normal Dark Fountain. In Chapter 2, Ralsei describes it as a Fountain of "Pure Darkness" and explains that this why any Darkner can stay there without turning to Stone. Presumably that's also why it's not themed after a School Supply Closet, and why Ralsei himself is immune to petrification. It's what a Dark World would be if it was created without any further influence from the Light World........

But that still raises, well, the question you asked, how is a 'Pure' Grand Fountain created? And how long has this Alternative Universe of Pure Darkness been hiding in the school? How has no one noticed it before Susie and Kris came along?

Assuming it's a Dark World created from inside another Dark World might be a decent guess as to why it's Darkness is more 'pure'.... but we've actually seen a Dark Fountain been created inside an existing Dark World in Chapter 4, and that didn't seem to make another Castle Town... instead, it created a Titan.

I've considered the possibility that the Grand Fountain of Castle Town is a Fountain of 'Pure Darkness' because it wasn't opened by a Lightner, or by anyone at all. It's some sort of naturally-formed spontaneous Fountain, created through a manipulation of chance by the will of the Prophecy itself, for the sake of pulling the Chosen Heroes into the Dark World.

That might at least answer why this Alternative Imagination of Pure Darkness and Dream Magic wasn't discovered earlier. And it might also explain why Ralsei, a Darkner created from that same Fountain, was born with Perfect Knowledge of the Prophecy, and why Castle Town is much heavier on the Delta Rune symbol-spam than any other Dark World we've seen.... including the Literal Church.

But since the concept of a Dark Fountain naturally-occurring or created by any process except a Lightner Stabbing the Magic Out of the Ground has not yet been established by the narrative… this is still a VERY speculative idea…

And yeah, I also noticed how much the parts of TV World that exist 'outside the studio' are very similar to ?????.

But also, like you said, there are some distinctive differences between the two. Stuff like the oozing darkness and the strange eye symbols…

...Which are also features of the Titans.

So I think maybe this 'Dark Fountain inside a Dark World' idea does have some merit...

But that still doesn't really explain the connection to TV World... My first thought upon starting Chapter 3 is that this might be a general Dark World representation of the concept of dust or neglect or emptiness... According to NPC dialogue, that part of TV World is known as the 'Couch Cliffs'

So they seem to represent Tenna's total lack of an audience, maybe?

But also other NPC dialogue in TV World mentions how there used to be a 'Great Wilderness' in this Dark World that seems to correspond to other features of the Dreemurrs' house.

The purple cliffs are the aforementioned 'Couch Cliffs', the frozen waste would be the fridge, the watery basin is the sink and the metal desert is the oven.

(They also correspond to, and are put in the order of, the four main Zones in Undertale; the Ruins, Snowdin, Waterfall and Hotland. Made even more obvious by Shuttah's use of the phrase 'once upon a time'. For the sake of not diving into a SECOND huge-ass rabbit-hole of speculation I am going to just assume this is just a cute reference)

So this seems to be the explanation to why TV World is even a world of TV in the first place, rather than a landscape based on all the different elements in the house. It used to be a much more diverse and wild world based on the Dreemurr's living room and kitchen in general... but Tenna's studio syphoned away all the Darkners and all life of that world, leaving behind just his artificial paradise and the strange wasteland beyond.

So... what would that say about the wilderness outside of Castle Town? Did that used to be an actual Supply Closed Dark World until Castle Town was built 'atop it' in a similar manner? And if so... what DID Castle Town take from the original Dark World considering it's all but empty when we first see it?

And that's not even getting into the fact that Shuttah's last piece of exposition about the Couch Cliffs and TV World's past ends like this.

Which... my first thought when reading it was that this is another Divorce Thing. The Darkners who left because they refused to sign Tenna's contracts are actually Asgore's things that left the house when he did, the Flower King shop is 'the Far Land' and this will probably get a follow-up in Chapter 5.

But... with Shuttah's grammar suddenly breaking down at the end there... and the fact that they're found just next to one of the rooms needed to complete the Egg Quest of this Chapter...

...It's actually quite possible that whatever is up with both ???? and the Castle Cliffs is related to the Man.

We've got a lot of questions, a lot of potentially interesting threads, And yet nothing to truly explain it in a satisfying manner. But considering how important Castle Town is to the Main Plot, and considering the whole deal with the Grand Fountain also inherently involves Ralsei.... I feel pretty confident that we'll get some answers eventually.

[forgettable-au]

Wait, so everyone just left the underground? Why doesn't anyone stay there anymore? They have perfect access to the surface.

Idk ask Toby

At the end of the game he implies EVERYONE left

The prophecy did say "and the underground will go empty"

Also if you talk to all the monsters after the pacifist ending, the MTT hotel receptionist says they won't take any more guests. Ever.

Visiting the library will get you "Welcome to the library. This is the last day we'll be open"

Ice wolf says they no longer have to throw ice (Which might be very bad for the CORE's refrigeration system)

The snowdin inn shut down, the little rabbit kid didn't want to move but it's implied they all move out together

So many of the npc's at the end are like "Oh, I guess we're all leaving", except Gyftrot, they're happy everyone is leaving and it seems like they want to stay?? But I wonder how long you can stay there with NO ONE around

The credits also imply everyone left

I guess...the snowman stayed? But I think that's because they can't move....maybe the goverment will help move them, they did that for the mushroom (mushroom dance, mushroom dance)

And Flowey stayed....but we know because of the Christmas alarm clock dialogue that eventually he did go to the surface!

Idkkk

I'm just going along with Toby implying the underground would go empty and that everyone really wanted to leave

[starlightshore]

On the one hand, only one person has a bond with them, and their whole in game schtick is dependent on the body of water, So its going to feel like a Pinky and The Brain and Elmyra situation to the outside observer. On the other hand, uncomfortable growth is a running theme, and after introductions they would have fun chemistry with the party and serve as proof of existence/individuality for Winnifred, I think? on your third hand, learning to let go is important for Mg. “I have eaten my cake and must break reality to have it too” and having them as like, a pen pal would also be nice. On your final hand that mostly exists for symmetry, you are the god of your au, the audience will have a blast even if you suddenly add in Optimus Prime to give advice and flirt. Indulge and everyone else will have fun. People don’t usually add much to the party, so seeing it will be fun and relatively unique if you choose to do it. To quote that sackboy meme: “get jiggy with it.” Ok sorry have a good day! Sorry for any mistakes I’m half awake.

anon i love the way you think you seem super chill and cool. thank you for such a kind and thoughtful ask! B)

And yeaaa the Pinky and The Brain And Elmyra vibe is real, to me its like how people put a ton of focus on Grillby from Undertale. (Although you could make the argument at least Grillby was a pillar of the Snowdin community and obvs is at friendly w/ Sans, a main char)

I 100% Shelly can work well with different themes if I want to pull the strings in different directions I could! i personally love the idea of Loop (And by extension Siffrin) having friends outside the party because!!!! its so important!!! for them to do that!

Loop especially because statically it had been at least a year of time loops (my headcanon was that it was like, idk, 3 years?) and that's A LOT of time spent with their family. like, i love my family, but i can't imagine spending that much time w/ them that closely ya know? it'd be healthier for Loop to learn that hey, you can form bonds with people outside ur family circle buddy.

Like, literally, their whole world was the family for so long!!!! but also just inventing OCs feels a lil unnatural to me (ok, that's a lie, i've done it before for Fallen Royalty) so choosing my favorite NPC to be relevant is a good compromise. Although, the pick has more weight to it than that.

Siffrin only has an acquaintanceship with Shelly, there was no chance of a real friendship because of the World Ending + Loops just not allowing for something to grow. BUT I think the activity and the downtime separated from their situation would have been SUPER helpful, mentally. That's kinda what Shelly represents to me. The freedom to learn an activity that's NEW and unassociated from everything else.

Also I know it was a metaphor but "add in Optimus Prime to give advice and flirt" is so funny cause now i'm imagining what a plot derailment it'd be for Loop to fall for Shelly. Like everyone's like "who the fuck is this random fella kissing siffrin"

i only care about shipping when it's funny

(this is also a lie)

[nintendont2502]

god. i know its been said so many times already, but i fucking love how undertale handles the genocide route in terms of game design. its so,,

it doesn't want you to do it (or. it plays into the meta-narrative of not wanting you to do it - if this actually *was* something you're not meant to do, it just wouldnt be an option yk), and if you continue to go down that path, it's just going to make it as unpleasant as possible for you, because this *shouldnt* be fun. theres no fun character interactions and dialogue, no music, no puzzles, almost no challenge - the npcs have all fled (and the few who remain refuse to talk to you outside of the bare minimum), flowey's already solved all the puzzles for you (and the few in snowdin that he hasnt solved, frisk just walks through automatically), the music is slow and distorted, and all you can do is keep moving forward, refusing to interact with the world outside of grinding for more encounters (and with how much the encounter rate drops, *that* isnt even fun).

hell, even the smaller details like SAVE points having their unique flavour text replaced by a clinical countdown of how many kills you have left. jerry appearing in every single encounter just to make grinding for kills take even longer. undyne and sans (the only two real fights (and tbh real moments of gameplay)) in the entire run also being the hardest bosses in the game. there's almost no jokes after you enter snowdin, and thats only because papyrus was the only person who *wasnt* rightfully horrified by you. character moments are rushed or skipped over or ignored altogether (papyrus recognising you as a human instantly and... not really caring (and eventually just giving up on you entirely), mad dummy fusing with their body instantly, napstablooks entire waterfall section being empty) because youve proven that *you don't care*.

undertale is such a character driven game, so of course it's going to become hollow and empty and lifeless when you go out of your way to kill every character within it, yk? its so fucking good

[undertale-npcs]

Favorite Undertale NPCs Losers Round 2

"Who even are these characters?":

Wishing Siblings- These two heard from the echo flowers have the same wish, to leave the mountain and look at the real sky.

Library Lizard- Runs the Snowdin library. Annoyed at the misspelled sign.

[underyokai]

Snowdin reveal part 2: Npcs, town and food

After some time I can finally reveal more of Snowdin before moving on to Waterfall. I know that it's a bit late by a day but happy late easter anyways and let's get the reveals started!

We have first the npcs, with most of them having quite a lot of changes ( ♌︎□︎⧫︎♒︎ ♑︎□︎□︎♎︎ ♋︎■︎♎︎ ♌︎♋︎♎︎ ), I have forgotten to mention it on it but Monster kid here is mostly based of both the yokai Imori and a tiny bit Hōnengyo. If you don't know ( somehow but that's okay ) what Jerry is then to easily explain it, he's based of the stereotype of a weeboo ( Jerry here is not Japanese btw, but everyone hates him due to obvs reasons if you see the body pillow ).

👎︎♓︎⬧︎♑︎◆︎⬧︎⧫︎♓︎■︎♑︎📪︎ ⬥︎♒︎⍓︎ ♎︎♓︎♎︎ ⧫︎♒︎♏︎ ♍︎❒︎♏︎♋︎⧫︎□︎❒︎ ♍︎❒︎♏︎♋︎⧫︎♏︎ ⧫︎♒︎♋︎⧫︎ ♓︎■︎ ⧫︎♒︎♏︎ ♐︎♓︎❒︎⬧︎⧫︎ ◻︎●︎♋︎♍︎♏︎✍︎

Onto the town.

I have even included the sign when I designed this. But most of the buildings here are based of the ones that were built during the edo period, the reason to why there's a christmas tree in the middle of Snowdin is because they had heard about christmas from a movie ( it was from the human world ) that was thrown away and had fallen to the underground's trash piles, gotten found by Sans and played it at a the very few movie theaters in the underground and had become a small tradition since then to decorate a tree, putting gifts under it and ofc watch the movie and etc.

Here I thought it would be kind of fun to recreate the iconic scene with Sans and Frisk from my au to the best of my abilities ( this one and the others except for the npcs were drawn and painted on the same paper that's why the details sometimes looks simple lol ).

Now onto the food.

Let's start with the food Sans sells. They're based of the two different versions of okonomiyaki ( Osaka and Hiroshima ) but with small twists. I gave some of the food items here higher hp due to how filling some of them are, so here it's the more filling the food is to Frisk the more hp they get.

Instead of the iconic spaghetti Papyrus makes instead kitsune udon ( a traditional japanese dish ), even though he's not good at it, he still makes them with love.

And last but not least the daifuku-bun. I gave it brown colors ( even tho I know that usually daifuku or mochi in general are white ) as a little homage to the cinnamonbun ( I did also have once ideas on the shop seller having different flavours of the daifuku-bun since they do come in that as well including chocolate but I was too tired and unmotivated to create them but this one lol )

I hope that you like them as much as I did when I created them. Feel free to ask me some questions if you have any!

[barksenji]

KNOCK KNOCK (DUSTTALE).

I've always wondered who Dust's first victim was. It would almost certainly be an accident—but who could it be? The logical answer is some background NPC, someone forgettable. And yet, there's an idea I've been turning over in my mind for a while now.

It’s hard to imagine Sans killing someone he can actually look in the eye. I don’t think he could (at least at first). But a voice feeding his paranoia?

It's a risky idea, but oh well. I'm cringe and I'm free.

If you guys want to read it on AO3, it's in my fanfic Déjà Vu: a Dusttale Dusttake.

The wind blew through the branches of the trees, making the leaves howl in their symphony. He felt the crunch of snow beneath his feet; his slippers weren’t enough to shield him from the cold, but he didn’t care.

He had forgotten the last time he talked to her. He didn’t have the energy anymore. He’d run out of jokes, and he hadn’t been that good at telling them anyway. If there was anything scarier than the resets, it was the fact that he was losing his sense of humor.

Eh, at least Papyrus would be happy about that.

Still, even with nothing to say, he kept visiting the place and would sit in front of the door. He didn’t do anything but watch: the snow, his hands, the trees. The images contradicted his memories. Each detail different from what he remembered.

He wondered if she knew he was there. She might have felt the door creak as he leaned on it. Or noticed his shaky breath when he heard too much. But she never said a word. Neither of them did.

Today, something changed.

"You ever been out to snowdin? Don't think I've seen you around."

There was no answer—not that he had expected one.

"...Heh. I used to think only pine trees made it out here. But wanna know a secret?" He tilted his skull up, gaze drifting through the trees like he was looking past them. "There's aspens too. Seen 'em with my own sockets."

He swore they weren’t there before, but then again, he swore a lot of things hadn’t been there before. He’d been trying to get comfortable with the fact that the world was changing.

Wasn’t that what he wanted? For things to change?

Then why did change give him the same feeling of unchanging permanence that he hated so much?

"Ever get that feelin' like someone's watchin' you? yeah... it's the aspens."

He gave a half-grin, like it wasn't a joke—or maybe it was.

"Always wondered why they look like they got eyes. Guess I still can't get to the root of it."

A soft laugh echoed from behind the door. It warmed his heart, but the feeling faded quickly. Why did she always show up only when he made a joke? Why did she fall silent when he tried to start a normal conversation?

Why was she always so... available to listen to him? Didn’t she have a life?

"That was a good one!" Her syrupy voice rang out, so sweet it almost stung. "I’ve got one too; want to hear it?"

"Sure."

"What did the rock say when it rolled into the tree?"

"What did it say?"

"Nothing, rocks don’t talk!" she burst into laughter.

Sans let out a small chuckle. It sounded more like a bark from between his clenched teeth. His smile didn’t reach his eyes, darkened by something he couldn’t put into words.

Toriel’s laughter faded into an awkward sound, ending on a nervous note.

"Are you okay?"

Sans sighed.

"Has the human fallen yet?"

The question slipped through his teeth before he could think it through. He couldn’t see Toriel’s face, but he could hear the way her breath caught, the silence afterward so intense it burned.

"What?! N-No. I don’t know what you’re talking about."

The lie hurt him. He didn’t count on the truth, but it still stung. No one was honest with him anymore.

Besides, she was terrible at lying.

"Have you ever talked to him? What did he tell you?"

Silence.

"Do you know his favorite color? Food? Name? Age? Anything?"

He wondered if it was truly human or not.

A long pause followed—longer than he would have liked. He could still sense her presence behind the door, motionless, as if weighing what truths she was willing to let slip through.

“He's a quiet kid. He doesn't talk much… if at all. But I’m sure he’ll open up.”

Sans muttered something under his breath.

“Have you ever seen him say a single word? Show any joy? Wear anything besides that stone-cold face?”

“Why are you talking like you know him?”

He laughed out loud; the sound was so sharp and brittle it unsettled him.

He knew him better than anyone.

He dared to say he knew him better than the back of his bony hand. he was the only person he knew well. How long had it been? Months? Years? He had spent more time with him than anyone else in this dump.

But he said nothing. He didn’t have to—Toriel spoke before he could.

That same old, worn-out monologue.

“Look, just… if a human comes through this door… could you please promise me something?” She paused, waiting for a response. Sans said nothing. “Watch over them and protect them, would you?”

Everything stopped for a moment—at least, for Sans. He didn’t even know why he got his hopes up anymore, expecting something different from the same old people.

"She knows what she’s doing." Oh, shut the fuck up.

“Why are you so hellbent on helping the kid?” Sans snapped. It came out low, broken, a growl wrapped in a whisper. He didn’t notice that he clenched his fists until he felt the sharp edges of his fingers pressing into his palms. “What’s he ever done for you?”

The sudden change in tone startled Toriel, but she replied with equal sharpness.

“Nothing. And he doesn’t have to. I don’t expect anything in return for my kindness.”

Bullshit.

Toriel continued, “You don’t know how much I’ve lost. You… you don’t even know what I have lost! You don’t know this child—”

“And you do, lady?”

The silence was deafening. The whisper of the leaves and the wind grew to an unbearable volume. The humming in the back of his mind became more noticeable with each passing second.

He didn’t know the true identity of the woman behind the door. He had trusted her because—why wouldn’t he? Only a few could match his awful sense of humor. But the more he heard her, the more it felt like she wanted him to let his guard down.

And she’d managed it—before he remembered everything. If he hadn’t made that promise, would he have acted in another way? Would it matter?

“He’s scared… like any kid would be. You always protect others; that’s what I admire about you. Can’t you do this one favor for me?”

His mouth went dry; his eyes scanned his hands like they had answers scrawled across them. He formed something in his mind, but as he was about to speak…

“Whatever it is you’re planning… please don’t do it.”

Sans looked up.

The trees, dressed in snow, stood tall and proud, hiding behind them the edges no man could ever reach. Between the leaves, beams of light filtered through and painted the snowy ground. Where was the light even coming from? Who knew.

An unreal sight for words just as damn unbelievable.

She knew everything. Now he was sure of it. Thousands of thoughts piled up in his head, seeping into reality like a bleeding wound in his skull. Yet he couldn’t put them into words: so many whys and hows, but all he managed to murmur was—

“How much do you know about what I’m planning?”

She stumbled over her words—was she surprised? There was a tone in her voice, the kind someone has when they’ve just been caught.

“I… I don’t know. You… please.”

There was a pause, then she went on.

“You’ve been… watching the Ruins more than usual, haven’t you? I know you’re there. I used to wait for a joke, but it never came. I thought maybe you just needed some quiet company.” Her domestic calm turned into something more severe—maybe even desperate. “But now you sound like you’re waiting for something. Like you know something. I can’t lose another child. I can’t.”

There was something so unnervingly real in her tone—the quiver in her voice, the way it almost sounded like a plea. She couldn’t lose another child—but how many times could he stand losing everything? Maybe he couldn’t anymore.

And then, like a reply to his thoughts, she spoke again.

“You think killing him will fix the pain? It won’t.”

That shouldn’t have shaken Sans the way it did.

“How the hell would you know?” This time, he didn’t even try to keep up the laid-back tone. Not that he was doing a good job keeping that mask on anyway.

“…What?” Toriel whispered.

“How would you know? What do you think you know about my pain?” Every word came with a shaky breath. Toriel could feel him staring daggers at her through the door.

“I’m… I’m talking about the pain of the underground. After what happened—”

“Don’t pretend with me, lady.”

Silence. Again. He wasn’t the kind of guy who hated the howl of the wind—it gave space for thought—but right now, he wasn’t thinking clearly.

“I've talked to him, y’know?” He let out a bitter chuckle, dark and dry like the crack of a whip.

”He tells me, ‘pull the trigger, funny guy. It’s the only punchline you got left.’ And you come here to talk to me about my pain?”

Toriel couldn’t see Sans’ face behind the door, but she could imagine it. She didn’t know him well, but he sounded off—his voice, usually so relaxed, now strained with something darker. He sounded like a completely different man.

Her brow furrowed, not in anger but in worry.

“Who are you— Did something happen? Maybe… with your brother? Is that why you come here more often?”

His face twisted with something he couldn’t even name. Yeah, something did happen to Papyrus—the same thing that was happening to everyone.

“Heh. Paps is fine.”

But she pressed on.

“That doesn’t really answer my question.”

Toriel could hear the rhythmic tapping of his foot in the snow, the snap of something that sounded like a… lighter?

“You wanna know what my fucking problem is? You’re not real. You’re made of pie crumbs and grief and ‘please don’t kill the human!’ That’s not a person. That’s a damn script. You know how many times I’ve been here?”

The crackle of a cigarette lighting up.

“You got a face? Behind that door-mask, you could be anyone. You could be him. You could be me.”

Before he could spiral further, Toriel stopped him. She opened her mouth to string together an answer to his rambling mess of words, but nothing came. Instead, she tried to comfort him.

“You sound… troubled. Deeply. Can you breathe with me? Just for a moment?”

Nothing. Just the tapping of his foot and a sigh.

“You always have a joke, remember? Tell me one. Remind me we’re still ourselves.”

A dry laugh—something slipping closer to a cough or a cry, she couldn’t tell.

“Lady, you’re not you anymore. And I sure as hell ain’t me. You think you can trick me every time I come up to this door. I just want to have one goddamn normal conversation, you get that? No promises, just—”

He was so painfully aware of what was happening to him it hurt. He knew he was slipping—his words felt so foreign he wasn’t even sure he was saying them. He was going off script. 

And there was nothing he could do. There never was. He just let it happen. The paranoia would take over and turn him into someone else. 

No. Maybe this was who he really was, behind the walls of code. 

“You’re not talking. Not really. Just replaying old recordings. Little cassette tapes. Little scripts. You’ve got your lines well memorized, huh?” 

“What you’re saying doesn’t make sense. I want to understand, but I can’t keep up with you like this.” 

And she said it in such a gentle tone that Sans almost didn’t lose his shit. 

Almost. 

How did it not make sense? He felt betrayed by his own language—by the absence of words, by the lack of terms to define whatever hell he’d been put through. Want to understand? Who said she didn’t understand already? Was she pretending to be clueless? 

"You know, sometimes..."

He paused, voice trailing off like he was thinking out loud, but not really expecting an answer.

"I think it'd be better to just walk away...I mean, if it’s all just a joke, why bother with the punchline, right?"

he shrugged, his tone a little colder.

"Guess that means... you and I don't need to talk anymore. So, forget it."

That didn't really make any sense, did it?

Sans tried to get up, the movement making the door creak. Toriel froze, a deep certainty settling in her chest. Somehow, she knew she wouldn’t be able to stop the human from leaving the ruins.

And something in her gut told her the man outside the door was going to make sure that kid didn't make it.

“Please, don’t hurt him! If you harm the human, what will become of me? Of us as monsters?! It’s not right... please.” 

Sans tensed. 

“I don’t care about the human. Just forget it.” 

“Your brother... what was his name? Papyrus! Right? You talked about him...” 

“Don’t bring Papyrus into this.” 

“Papyrus doesn’t want to lose you. He doesn’t want you to lose yourself, either. If he were here right now... would he want you to make this choice?” 

“He wants to be in the royal guard. He’d do the job himself.” 

“You told me he wouldn’t hurt a fly...” 

“I told you I don’t care. I’m not doing anything, buddy.” 

“I don’t believe you.” 

Sans could’ve walked away. Should’ve. Normally, he would have. But something kept him glued to that damn door. 

He was waiting to hear something. He wanted to run—but he felt there was stuff he needed to know. 

“Maybe it’s just my silly hope, but... Papyrus reminds me of the human sometimes. They’re both innocent in their own way. Don’t you think? I know you can’t see it now, but maybe... there’s room for both of them in this world.” 

He felt the beat of his soul rise in his chest. 

Usually, the forest felt vast—the towering trees gave the illusion that there was something beyond them. 

But in that moment, it felt like the pines were closing in. 

He tried to force himself to walk away. He couldn’t. 

“Don’t... Don’t compare them.” 

And she could tell, by the way his tone softened, that somehow—her words were reaching him. 

She should’ve never let her guard down.

“...I-I know you're a good monster. I know it in the way you talk about your family, your friends. I don’t know you very well; I don’t even know your name, but…”

Toriel’s voice had that same tired warmth. The kind that had comforted him before, back when the door was just a door, and he was just some guy who told jokes.

“If you lay a hand on that child,” she said—quieter now, voice shaking. “Then, Papyrus will look at you the way you look at the human.”

A beat.

“Like a stranger.”

He didn’t know what had happened.

He couldn’t grasp why those words twisted in his stomach. They felt like something rotten, eating away inside him. A creeping clarity so intense, it felt like staring straight into reality—and going blind.

Toriel hadn’t meant it the way it landed. She hadn’t. But she’d let her heart speak, and in doing so, she’d opened the one door she shouldn’t have.

Because deep down, she knew. She knew she couldn’t keep the kid there. Not forever. So maybe she thought if she appealed to the right part of him—Papyrus—he’d soften.

But he didn’t.

It wasn’t the words themselves. Not exactly.

It was the place they hit—deep, somewhere crooked and raw and twitching. Something hollow in him reacted before the rest of him could catch up. A gut-pull like nausea, like clarity too sharp to touch. Like having truth handed in shards of glass.

He didn't think.

Not with his mouth, not with his hands. He didn’t even look toward the door. He didn’t aim.

Just a low, mechanical whirr—and then the blast.

The sound jolted him upright like waking from a dream, or maybe falling into one. It echoed off stone, off his bones.

Then came the silence. A strange, unsettling quiet. The sound of rubble falling from the doorframe was his only company.

“You… in my most vulnerable moment…”

Toriel’s words played like the lines from an old script.

He wanted to look back, to see what he had done—but he couldn’t. He stayed still; everything felt more unreal than ever. He feared that if he looked back, he’d lock eyes with the human… smiling with that sick, knowing pleasure.

He threw a quick glance. Too quick to register much, but just long enough to realize he had fucked up.

No, this can’t be happening.

He finally mustered the courage to fully turn toward the door.

There was nothing.

Purple and white slumped under a crumbled corner of the marble doorframe. Dust stained the hem like dried blood.

In truth, nothing was different.

The person behind the door still had no face.

She never had, not really. Just a voice, warm and full of weight, like a blanket you couldn’t see but always felt. He remembers a silhouette, gentle and warm, beyond the ruins. They shared stories about snails, pie, and hope.

Now there was no voice. No warmth. Just rubble and cloth.

He stared, but it didn’t register.

Maybe he made her up. A coping mechanism. A soft edge in a world getting sharper by the day. Someone he could imagine as kind. Someone who said his brother’s name like it meant something.

Wasn’t that how this always worked?

People disappearing.

Becoming scenery.

Maybe the door was always empty, and he just filled it with a voice he wanted to hear.

She was gone now, and her absence was so striking that it felt as if she had never been real at all.

And if she wasn't real—if she never had been—then maybe this wasn’t murder. Maybe this wasn’t anything at all.

At least, that’s what he told himself.

Something sank deep in his ribs and lit a spark. The kind that shows, with sharp clarity, that something inside you has shifted forever. That this wasn’t your last step.

It was your first.

Addictive in its enlightenment. Sharp as a shot of vodka.

He staggered a step back.

And then another.

And then—he walked.

Just walked.

He walked away like it hadn’t happened. No limping guilt. No broken sob. Just a step, then another. Mechanical.

It didn’t feel like murder.

And that’s what scared him the most.

There was only one thing the kid had that he didn’t: LV.

Did it feel this way for him, too?

“Finally.”

A voice. Sickly sweet, syrupy smooth. It could’ve been mistaken for praise—like Sans had finally understood what she’d been trying to tell him.

“Yes. Finally.”