#unfortunately monarch doesn't know what current gets up to while they're apart

[monotone-artist]

the sillies

[id: two images of digital drawings of some rain world slugcat ocs. the first image features the scrapper and the hideaway. scrapper is a brown slugcat with a dewlap and round ears, and a darker face, tail, and a heart-shaped marking on his chest. he has scarred hands and is wearing green goggles with red lenses atop his head. the hideaway is a dark red slugpup with a lighter torso, face, and tail, and a heart-shaped marking on her chest. she has a large cut in her right ear.

in the first image, there are a few drawings of the hideaway: one of her on all fours, leaning very far backward with a scrunched up face; sitting on her haunches and gazing at nowhere, looking haunted; and standing up with her arms outstretched, her face bright and happy. the last drawing is of the scrapper walking along, glancing back over their shoulder. the hideaway is perched on their back and is also glancing backward.

in the second image are colorless sketches of the scrapper and the hideaway, as well as the current and the monarch. the current is a lanky slugcat with several antenna on his body, and the monarch is a scarred slugcat with a torn ear and frills on her cheeks and underside. there are sketches of: an upper body of the monarch winking and doing a thumbs up with an uncannily realistic human hand; scrapper intensely examining the hideaway's cut ear, gently holding her head in their hands, looking worried; and current laying on the ground, his head in one hand and looking grumpy, while the monarch is flopped over his back and is peering at him innocently. end id]

[undead-tale]

Little Known Fact

There was an original version of Undead Tale I wrote back in 2017 or even late 2016 (the dates are fuzzy at best).

It was completely different in tone, writing, character designs, plot... it was basically a different story but with a similar starting point.

I felt like drawing the Sans design from that version, now called "Classic", compared to the final design, or the "True" design, as I consider the current version of Undead Tale the true, final version.

Here is the drawing, and below that will be a list of all the changes and descriptions of the differences behind a read more as to keep the post nice to see if someone just wants to look at the art (the stuff below the read more goes very in depth, be warned, it's long).

Let's start from the beginning with what changed:

Both stories start with an outbreak stemming from the lab, however,

Classic does not have the backstory of a corrupted reset corrupting the amalgamates and determinations properties. The origins in Classic were never explored.

In the True version, the origins were explored, and the reason why the world is the way it is is also explored through Before the Reset.

In Classic, Undyne fights a massive amalgamate thing in the Lab in the very beginning of the story instead of slowly easing into the events of the outbreak, which True did.

Chara was never present in Classic, and also there was no controlling force of the corrupted.

Corrupted is a term only in True, Classic doesn't have a term to refer to the infected monsters.

Both stories have Frisk fall after the initial outbreak, but Frisk in Classic falls way earlier than Frisk in True (as far as I can see, the timeline of Classic, unfortunately, is not very clear)

Classic explores the surface and humanity above during the events of the Underground. In True, the surface is only seen when Frisk falls and after monster kind escapes. Humanity in True wiped itself out with a war where the details aren't known, and won't be explored, as it's not important. In Classic, there is an outbreak similar to the Underground on the surface which causes an apocalypse.

Both stories have Sans lose an eye, though, as seen in the image, the eye is swapped. Beyond that, there are differences in the two Sans.

Classic Sans is a silently hopeful character, different from normal Sans compared to True, who is basically normal Sans but with some darker tendencies and visions of past timelines (called moments in the story).

Classic Sans lost most if not all magic ability when he was struck by Undyne, resorting to using physical weapons such as pipes or any blunt weapon.

True Sans retains most magic ability, such as teleportation, time stopping, and bones, he just can't use them as often. He does lose Gaster Blasters however, as they would take too much magical energy for him to muster normally.

Classic's outfit has a fluffy hood and a zipped up, torn hoodie, compared to True, who is normal Sans with bandages wrapped around the left side of his skull.

Classic only lost his eye, True had the whole left side of his skull horribly mangled and fractured, which is why the bandage size of both is different.

Classic only has the bandage, True also has the device strapped to his ribs that connects with his soul to amplify the healing process.

True Sans has what are called "moments", where he'll freeze up as he sees a vision of a past timeline, either consisting of the Judgement Hall or of Snowdin which get worse until reaching a turning point in the story near the halfway point. Classic has no such things.

Moving on from Sans, let's go into the other characters in general

Papyrus in Classic retains some confidence, however, he is much more broken and emotionally torn, acting out of character at points (pretty much everyone in Classic is out of character).

True Papyrus is very much like normal Papyrus, only taking things a bit more seriously and being more cautious and concerned for his friends, due to his circumstances.

Classic Papyrus has a kill count of normal monsters, True, however, does not.

Classic Papyrus and Snowdin in general are enemies of the Royal Guard, due to a plot point where Snowdin and the Royal Guard enter a conflict.

True Papyrus and Snowdin are very much allies and apart of the Royal Guard, Papyrus being ranked Lieutenant, commanding all Snowdin units.

Undyne in Classic acts very out of character with the little time she appeared in, she isn't as confident, she's a lot more cold, and attacks Sans with intent to kill.

True Undyne is like normal Undyne, and her attack against Sans was completely accidental, as she meant to attack another character named Fang for kidnapping Sans and Papyrus.

Papyrus and Undyne fight with the intent of killing one another in Classic. In True, Papyrus fights to slow Undyne down and let Sans and Frisk escapes, Undyne fights to get past him and capture/kill Frisk, attempting to pass him with every opportunity, not wanting to hurt him. In True, neither were fighting to kill.

Classic Undyne exiles herself out of shame after her battle with Papyrus in Snowdin. True Undyne remains the Captain of the Royal Guard throughout the entire story.

Classic Asgore is seen too little to really judge his character, same for Alphys. True is normal Asgore but affected by circumstances, again, same for Alphys.

Mettaton in Classic is missing, while Mettaton in True is similar to his normal self, albeit more cruel and harsh when Frisk meets him, becoming a minor antagonist before having a change of heart at the end of their fight in the CORE.

Mettaton's disappearance in Classic would've tied into a plot point, which I'll explore later on.

Classic Toriel allows monsters from Snowdin into the Ruins during the outbreak, accidentally bringing it to the Ruins. No such event happens in True.

Classic Toriel is the most in character of the cast, remaining mostly consistent with normal Toriel. True Toriel is normal Toriel until she leaves the Ruins, where circumstances and events change her.

Classic Flowey is infected very early on, True Flowey remains uninfected and even becomes the controller of the corrupted near the end. In True, he is very much normal Flowey.

Classic Frisk is more like fanon Frisk (meaning she's just a soft little pacifist who wouldn't harm a fly. Glad I didn't continue with this in True, because holy hell that would've been boring).

True Frisk is much more of her own character, she doesn't want to hurt anyone, but she won't hesitate to fight when she knows she's in danger, plus her backstory and her motivations, along with having to deal with the trauma's shes faced later on.

True Frisk also older, being 10 when she first falls and being around 13 at the end. Classic Frisk is around 8 when she falls, if I remember right.

Classic didn't go far enough into the plot for Classic Frisk to even leave the Ruins or have to face inner demons and trauma. True Frisk is very, very different.

Classic Chara doesn't even exist. True Chara is corrupted determination in it's purest form, and is a prominent antagonist, controlling the corrupted at one point.

There are characters exclusive to both version. In True, Fang, Ferno, and the entire gang Fang leads are exclusive to True.

In Classic, the exclusive characters are Artico, Stitch, Rycher (pronounced ri ker for some reason), Carly (Artico's daughter) and Ethan (Artico's son). These characters were a part of a spinoff story called "A New Monarch", which was establishing a new kingdom/rival for the Royal Guard. They would've been antagonists later on, similar to the Saviors from The Walking Dead, if memory serves me right.

Rycher and Stitch would've had been in a relationship later on.

Another exclusive character to Classic is Flynn, who is the third monster Frisk meets after Flowey and Toriel (he was an OC I made on Undertale Amino years ago, my account on which has since been deleted)

There is one more Classic exclusive character named Charlie. I go more in depth on him later.

There are more Classic exclusive characters, but they're not notable enough to go into here.

Finally moving on from characters, we go onto the plot/setting

The basic plot of Classic goes like this (I won't do the same for True, as that is very, very long, and I'd like people to read it on AO3):

The outbreak begins, Asgore is escorted from the Capital as it falls. Sans and Papyrus fight back an attack from Snowdin, and set up defenses.

A plot point arises where the weather in Snowdin becomes harsh, to the point where monsters die outside the village or flee to the Ruins. One of the monsters is bit before hand, and brings the infection into the Ruins, infecting Flowey and beginning to spread there.

Members of the Snowdin Safe Zone steal from the Royal Guard, which causes the Guard to retaliate against Snowdin and assault the town, Sans and Papyrus fighting them back, killing many. This is the fight where Sans is almost killed by Undyne, who is then almost killed by Papyrus before he rushes to get Sans to the village.

Sans loses his eye, and Undyne exiles herself.

Frisk falls later on, almost get's killed by Flowey, but is saved and taken home by Toriel. This introduces the fact that Toriel's home is now full of monster survivors and that the rest of the Ruins has fallen.

Frisk takes time to heal, and meets Flynn.

In the Capital, within areas known as "Dark Zones" (pretty much ripping off Dying Light), new infected begin appearing simply known as "Them". This leads to the death of two monsters in a short story titled "Them". In True, these would be turned into the acolytes that appear at the end.

Sans and Papyrus receive a broadcast from MTT Resort begging for help, and decide to investigate. They then go to sleep on their way, and are split up, Sans being taken to the Capital while Papyrus is captured and brought to MTT Resort (don't ask, I don't remember why or how).

Sans wakes up in the Capital on a high up roof and encounters a character named Charlie, who brings him to his group in the city hall. He teaches Sans how to survive in the capital later on.

Papyrus wakes up in MTT Resort, hung in the lobby by a rope around his neck with infected all around. He is saved by a stranger on a walkie talkie who begins to tell him what happened. He then tells Papyrus about a mysterious monster who will kill him upon sight, and then tells Papyrus to flee. Papyrus does so and returns to Snowdin.

Stitch and Rycher are brought to the cavern where the new kingdom is by Artico, meeting all the other characters listed in the "A New Monarch" section.

On the surface, an outbreak occurs (somehow, I don't remember), and soldiers move in to the city near Mount Ebott, called Sanctuary City, to save a doctor. The doctor kills himself (ripping off State of Decay: Lifeline).

Scrapped plot lines include:

Disclaimer: The details are very fuzzy at best with this, unknown/forgotten at worst

Mettaton Madness: An event where a group of monsters from Waterfall would have to contend with an army of defective Mettaton drones in the CORE. I don't remember much else about this. Maybe Mettaton would be involved? I don't know.

A plotline on the surface where a city is burning down and being pelted by meteorites or missiles (I don't remember) and a group of survivors have to escape.

Papyrus would die at some point, due to being bit. Sans would put him down. This would happen after Frisk left the Ruins.

Snowdin would fall at some point.

Undyne would have her own story about finding herself or something, I don't know, but I know I wanted to do something with her at one point.

The New Monarch and the Royal Guard would get into some conflict, maybe.

More characters would die I think, and maybe Soriel would be canon? I genuinely don't know and I don't remember. Like I said, everything about this section is fuzzy, as I didn't take notes and I don't remember half of this story anymore.

That's pretty much it.

These two stories are very, very different. If you want to know just how the True version goes, please check out the link to it on AO3. It's long, and it's actually finished compared to Classic, which is not publicly available now, but I might change that in the future. Classic won't be expanded on, and I won't write anything for it ever again. I'm not sure if I'll abandon it entirely, as I could still draw the characters from it, but in all likely hood it'll be forgotten.

True is a much better and more well written story anyway. Classic was just edgy and ripped off so many other zombie stories, and even other Undertale AU's, since it was slightly inspired by Axetale (I saw one video of it, really glad I didn't take many elements from that dumpster fire of an AU) and other fanon edgy content.

Overall, I'm proud of what I've done with the True story and I'm ecstatic to have gotten it finished and released, having people actually read it is so much fun.

I just felt like going into how Undead Tale really started, and the origins it had as an edgy Undertale story I wrote in 2016 - 2017 that really doesn't hold up at all anymore.