Papyrus (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
spaghettimonster) wrote2017-12-16 01:32 am
spaghettimonster) wrote2017-12-16 01:32 am
Entry tags:
SoE (StE reboot) Application
OOC INFORMATION
Name: Swirl
Are you over 15? Yep!
Contact: PM this journal or catch me on discord or plurk
Current characters in the game: N/A
IC INFORMATION
PREINCARNATION
Name: Papyrus
Canon: Undertale
Age: Unspecified, but seems to be in his young 20s
Species: Monster (skeleton)
Appearance: A costumed humanoid skeleton, whose skeletal features move enough for him to make expressions. About 6' / 185cm tall, and his left eyesocket is a little smaller than the right. And, as the game's graphics are cartoonish and distorted, let's say he's much closer to human proportions than the linked art suggests.
History:
Undertale is set in an alternate, future version of earth, one where a race of monsters was sealed into a mountain untold generations ago. Nearly every monster in the game was born in the caves, never seeing the sky or sun, trapped behind a magic barrier that they're helpless to break on their own. And so their hopes, culture, and technology are all largely based on humankind. New technology and cultural trends are based on what monsters scavenge from the debris trickling down from the surface through underground rivers, customized for monster priorities and the functions that magic can add. Their biggest hope for freedom is the slim possibility of capturing humans and absorbing their souls, becoming powerful enough to pass through the barrier - or break it entirely. With so much dependent on waiting and adapting, it makes for a people who tend towards forced positivity and passivity.
The first human to rediscover monsters fell in the caves in 201X, and lived with them for a while as an adopted child. They died within a few years, in an incident that also led to the prince's death, breaking the hearts and hopes of monsters who'd seen the adoptive siblings as a symbol for a new coexistant future. After their deaths, the king declared war on humankind in retaliation, and the queen abandoned the kingdom in disgust with their warmongering, locking herself in the abandoned capital in the Ruins.
The exact year of the game is unspecified; it's been at least years since the first human fell, likely decades and plausibly a century or more. Long enough passed that few monsters recognize a human standing in front of them, or expect to see the sun in their lifetimes. It's even been long enough that people close to the king, like the Captain of the Royal Guard or the Royal Scientist, don't recognize the disappeared queen. They've had time to scavenge technology from trash flowing down a river, developing their own to where cell phones and computers are common in most of the kingdom, and even isolated and remote corners of the caves have telegrams and fax machines.
Whatever the year, Papyrus is a skeleton living in the small town of Snowdin, a region just past the Ruins that is - despite being underground, without sunlight - somehow covered in snow and pine trees. He's the second person the latest human meets outside the Ruins, and the first who seems to be onboard with the war against humanity - in that, at the very least, he's quick to reprimand his brother for not taking their sentry work seriously enough, loud and enthusiastic about how he wants to capture a human to gain some prestige, and ready with some practiced 'threatening' speeches to unleash at the first human he meets.
Papyrus eventually got work as a sentry and pushed Sans to do the same, ending with station points neighboring each other at the edge of the forest before the locked door to the Ruins. Somehow this resulted in Sans - and all the dogs of the Royal Guard - working out of a professional-looking, wooden station, nearly identical save for personal touches, while Papyrus built himself a station out of cardboard and rotini. It was off-kilter like so many of his creations, not quite serving its usual function, but not falling apart. Presumably new sentries comission them from some carpenter, using trees from the forest and incorporating personal touches in the base design, to set wherever they're stationed on the path... and Papyrus opted to experiment and show off with his own. The use of cardboard, rather than the wood he's perfectly proficient in building with, is little more than a slow-burning setup for a pun.
But he wasn't satisfied with a mere sentry position, and went to the head of the Royal Guard a year or two ago in pursuit of a promotion. As it was midnight, Undyne slammed the door in his face and went back to sleep... But Papyrus stayed put through the night, and she was impressed enough with his persistence to give a shot at training him. He proved skilled with combatitive magic, strong enough to spar with Undyne - who was trained by the king, the strongest monster in the underground - to the point that she sweats that the memory of it. And he demonstrated no willingness to kill anyone, making him rather unsuitable for the job of killing intruding humans or going to war. Rather than disappoint him by saying so, Undyne switched their training to daily status reports and cooking lessons.
Over the next several months, "cooking lessons" quickly became excuses to hang out together and make a rambunctious mess of things, with adventures in cleaning up splattered melted popsicles and burning her house down at least once - Undyne didn't know how to cook, either. Papyrus showed up to their meetings like clockwork, to the point that some people of Snowdin began passing messages to him to reach her to get to the king, rather than go to New Home to talk to the king themselves. His brother picked up a few more sentry jobs during this time, slacking off and barely working at any of them, while Undyne continued her friendship and not-quite-courtship of the elusive royal scientist... and Papyrus befriended a secretive flower who avoided being around other people, but showed up to give Papyrus advice and encouragement, flattery and predictions of things to come.
A few weeks before the human's arrival, both skeletons and Undyne (and many other acquaintances) went to a costume party that would change the course of Papyrus' life. The costume he and Sans made for him to wear - cosplay of a fairly obscure and classic comicbook hero - struck a chord in Papyrus. He called it his "battle body," and wore it every day, day in and day out, for weeks to come. Even showering in it, rather than take it off to wash it, from what Sans says. He's still wearing it on the day Sans finds a human.
Papyrus started his introductions to the human in high spirits. Finally, he could capture a human and wrap up the king's search for a seventh soul, proving himself to Undyne once and for all. He offered them all manner of cordiality along the way - helpful speeches about what they could expect ahead, various puzzles designed to delay but not significantly impede them, even "refreshments" in the form of frozen spaghetti (and optionally dog food, if they were captured).
But as the human progressed, his hopes proved largely in vain. The hints of dust on their hands and clothing, already there from when they exited the ruins, became more pronounced as the human proceeded: striking down members of the Royal Guard, random monsters traveling along the road, and even the rebellious teenagers living in the woods... and while Papyrus wouldn't let a little murder stand between him and sharing some traditional hospitality (not even when the traditions of puzzles and threatening speeches were a very old-fashioned, out-of-date hospitality hardly used by monsters these days), the human didn't work with him. They were silent and unresponsive about the brothers' banter, frequently walking forward before Papyrus could describe the puzzles, spoiling the whole experience.
As it became clear that the human was systematically hunting monsters down, traveling back and forth until they'd killed everyone they could, the residents of Snowdin evacuated. Most fled forward to Waterfall, gathering all the family they could find, leaving notes and decoys behind them. Papyrus stayed behind with grim purpose, confronting the human with a lecture about their actions. He no longer boasted he was about to capture them, but told them in broad strokes about their off-putting tendencies and the dangers of their actions. He continued to talk as they approached, encouraging them that they could stop and that he would help them to if they liked, then stood silent and still with his arms open for a hug.
They didn't strike, but stood down, showing mercy for the first time. He babbled gladness and pride in them, relief that things hadn't resolved through a fight, and offered his friendship and guidance on their road ahead. The human took him up on the offer to hang out, visiting Papyrus' house long enough to hear the skeleton admit he could have ended things very differently if he'd used his "special attack" to blast them... and to receive his phone number, for advice on the path ahead.
They then continued their journey to confront the king and leave the underground. But, where they'd previously gone around hunting down every monster they could, they took a new approach - where they could retreat, they'd do so, and kill only when retreat didn't seem to be an option. Even Undyne, Captain of the Royal Guard, had to chase them to keep fighting as they ran down the paths to Hotland, exhausting her in the process.
With that bridge crossed, Papyrus went to take care of the friend he already had - Undyne. She'd collapsed from the heat of running in a hundred pounds of armor through a volcano, and needed help to get back to her house. But, as she hated being coddled or taken care of, Papyrus opted to stand outside her house in case she needed anything, his phone at the ready if the human called for more advice. They called occasionally, until they passed through the Core to where their phone signal didn't carry... and proceeded to kill the king and disappear from the underground.
After Undyne recovered, and the monsters of the underground kingdom realized that the human was gone, she stepped into the power vaccuum left by the king's death. She reaffirmed their committment to waging war on humankind, what with this new swath of deaths to avenge, and drastically increased the membership and training for the royal guard. And while Papyrus wasn't among the new guards, he got a promotion of sorts - appointment to the "Most Important Royal Position," a meaningless title, with no responsibilities, meant to soothe his pride. It didn't work, but he took it without complaint to Undyne's face. He wanted to stay friends with her, and it was harder now; with her ruling and so fixated on vengeance, they didn't have private cookout lessons or hang-out times for her to ramble about how great her crush Alphys was. His mysterious flower friend, too, didn't come around to hang out anymore. So when Sans found a way to leave the human a voicemail, Papyrus was feeling freshly lonely again. He jumped on the phone call to encourage the human to come back and visit him - even with the acknowledgement they'd be facing certain death to do so.
REINCARNATION
Name: Russell Scordato
Age: 26
Appearance: Humanized, of Italian ancestry, looking something like the iconed artwork (from here). Tends to go around in costumes, but these are a little less the 'battle body' he wears in the game, and more related to his favorite shows or plays at any given time.
History: Russell's from Moss Manor, born of an Italian-American businessman and a well-off English woman whose family goes back generations in the greater Mossgate area. His parents met passionately as young adults, quickly marrying and having two kids before the relationship began fading, and they had Russell during a last ditch effort to make things work, about a decade later than his siblings. His parents finally separated in his childhood, when his older siblings were about to leave for their own adulthoods, leaving him with just his mother and extended family. Fortunately her branch of the family has enough money that she never really needed to work, and her part time work with the primary school sufficed for filling the gaps and giving her a sense of contributing to the community.
Effectively an only child for much of his life, Russell had plenty of positive emotional encouragement from his mother but not nearly as much practical life advice. He passed but didn't excel at the more academic parts of schooling, managing Cs in most classes despite his distraction and flights of fancy. Eventually his second cousin Rosemary introduced him to the theatrical arts of props, costumes, and acting. Between the culture of learning to fake confidence, the ways of faking to tell an entertaining story, and the accolades the actors of major characters received, finally his interest was hooked and gave him some degree of focus. Russell put his energy into imitating the people around him, being mentored by an older classmate, and pouring his extracurricular time into exploring the different aspects of putting on a show.
He went away to university, split between school in England and a couple semesters in America (staying with his father a while), and encountered a series of disappointments. The relationship with his father didn't spark much familial closeness. His auditions with major groups (like Broadway) didn't pan out, even with a bit of help from family connections... and he finally encountered the rest of the saying: “Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery that mediocrity can pay to greatness.”
Somewhat disillusioned and freshly insecure, he finished his schooling and decided to learn from life and more nuanced observation. These days he bounces from one part-time job to another every few months, and works with the Mossgate theatre group in some capacity with every show. He's been living in Mossgate a couple of years, in an apartment with a varying number of roommates, and he's just beginning to notice some new strangenesses in his life.
First Echo: During the most recent guided tour, Russell decided to go do something he never did in childhood - explore the tunnels under the cliffs daring the fear of tons of stone overhead. He expected to be frightened and to use the sense of fear as inspiration in future acting ventures... But instead, Russell echoed memories of looking up at glittering stone filling his field of vision, feeling as familiar and mundane a sight he finds seeing the sky. Something about the genuine, water-carved caves is similar to the narrow tunnels of Waterfall, a regular sight in his treks back and forth from Undyne's house.
Russell visited the tunnels under the cliffs for the first time since university, nostalgic for the way schoolmates goaded each other into terrifying explorations. He didn't rediscover that old terror, or get hopelessly lost by sneaking off alone... but found a strange familiarity with the the stone looked overhead. A bone-deep fearless comfort, even as the tour guide talked about cave-ins.
PERSONALITY
Pre-Incarnation Personality:
Papyrus is theatrical, loud and prone to stage-whispering, with occasional odd hints like he's aware of himself as a character in a recurring story - given his brother knows about the timeloops, and Papyrus is sort-of friends with the time travelers, he might know a little bit about that. He plans monologues, practices standing around reciting lines, and could even repeat his whole rambling spiel from his battle if the human escaped being captured. He plays with expectations and subverting them, with one of his first impressions being a terrible and childish-looking sentry station... actually made from cardboard and pasta screws, a surprising feat of engineering that was ultimately the setup for a slowburning pun about 'cardboardhydrates'.
He's an odd duck in an already odd and very limited world, who insists on 'working hard' whether he's accomplishing anything - because it's better to be busy and hope than be unhappy with plenty of time to dwell on it. After all, he lives with his brother - a public jokester in a private depressed slump who leaves dirty laundry around their house and has a hideous bedroom and spends too much money eating out. One of them, Papyrus insists, has to take responsibility.
So, partly in reaction to his brother and partly so he doesn't fall into a depressed slump himself, Papyrus fills his days with busywork. Whether that hard work is actually work, or messing around on the internet, or playing with action figures in his room, the important thing is not getting stuck in unhappy thoughts. He handles the housework, keeping things clean and pets fed. He sees to paperwork like filling out taxes, keeps abreast of recently proposed legislation, and fills his bookshelves with texts on puzzle design... Which he has plenty of time to read, given that he barely sleeps. He takes initiative to maintain and devise puzzles along the road, in an era when many monsters consider puzzles unnecessary chores. And he still has the spare energy to run around playing with children - be they humans or small rabbits - in the snow.
He's simultaneously insecure and overconfident, with a core of genuine confidence that lets him dress absurdly - knowing that he's cool regardless of what anyone else says - and refuse to dwell in self-doubt. His overconfidence partly comes from his excellent physical condition, as Papyrus is one of the sturdiest monsters that the human encounters - tough enough that Undyne sweats at the memory of sparring with him. He's aware of his own abilities, alert enough to his and others' stamina to stop mid-attack before going too far... but he can overestimate himself, or underestimate the human's willingness to kill him. Where Sans would break the usual pattern of battle dynamics with with a surprise attack on the world-destroying from the start, Papyrus begins with a sincere offer of mercy - and the expectation that he could survive at least one hit, giving them the chance to stand down before he retaliates with blasters. Either they accept the hug and befriend him, or they kill him so quickly that he expresses surprise as he dies.
Friendship is his to-go solution for a lot of problems. People who feel alone and try to do everything on their own can mess up and ultimately give up, as his brother has. People who believe they have people to ask for help, be they family or friends, have an easier time hoping and keeping going. He's enough of an inspiration on the people around him that the people of Snowdin would all be more depressed in his absence, and he's the fourth most likely person to rule the underground if the king disappeared.
Reliable is a fairly fitting descriptor; Papyrus always has his phone on him, ready to pick upnearly any call within two rings. He never skips a day of work, and always shows up to meetings on time - or hours early. Even unofficial duties, like retrieving his brother from the bar, are something so regular that locals could almost set their clocks by it and they notice his absence. At the start of the game, he's been wearing the same costume every day for weeks, supposedly even wearing it in the shower - to wash it and avoid the need to ever remove it.
But there's odd gaps in his reliability. He takes care of the house - except for the most fundamental thing, paying the bills. He puts hours into devising puzzles that could stop a human, but gets so excited about some that he messes them up, and outright sabotages his own efforts on others so as to not hurt the human too badly.
And some of the gaps are reliable weirdness. Papyrus is the sort of skeleton who decides he wants more space in the kitchen, to store bones. And so he redesigns the sink to be taller than he is, making a storage space underneath it... instead of just building a cabinet. Since he and his brother can use gravity/momentum magic, they could just float to use the sink anyway, and so it's not completely dysfunctional - just strange and whimsical. (And admittedly, in some universes, the space under the sink leads to a secret chamber with a shrine in it - a path which would be trickier to maneuver in a cabinet.) Without a second thought, he'll stand outside a house all day or night to be available if the occupants want him, but considers it weird and creepy and illegal to go inside without permission.
He connects dots in odd ways, sometimes struggles to connect them conventionally, and outright tries to avoid thinking about conclusions he dislikes. Newspaper puzzles like crosswords and junior jumble bewilder him, but he regularly sets up puns - wistfully wishing for the same success joining the Royal Guard as some of the dogs, only to complain it's all a 'pupularity contest'. He takes the process for making good beer - aging it in an oaken cask - and applies it to pasta noodles, making a dish that looks great but tastes indescribably terrible. Having once heard from Flowey that Alphys 'likes' muscular people like Asgore and Undyne, and wanting to befriend her, he tries "impressing" her with a pictures of him with his (taped-on) muscular biceps. And, while Undyne was still pretending she would someday promote him into the Royal Guard, he came to the conclusion that what he needed to do was impress her by capturing a human without any input from her.
At least some of his weirdness is intentional, deliberately playing with expectations and subversions when he has an idea what to expect. While hanging out with the human, he repeatedly seems to start one thing, then veers off to do something else. He leads them on a speedy tour through town before bringing them back where they started to hang out at his house. He reads through a manual on how to hang out, reading aloud as though it's the first time he's seen it - for the benefit of the human who hasn't read it, to put them on an 'equal' footing - then shows the costume and gift he already prepared for a hangout. He offers his phone number so they can call for help any time, and then gives very little helpful information.
And, while he didn't get the chance to do any of these things against the more murderous human of his timeline... he and his brother coordinate a prank on the human. Sans helpfully tells them about his brother's "blue attack" and gives advice how to avoid blue bones. And Papyrus unleashes such bones as his first real attack at them, an elaborate barrage of blue bones that go harmlessly by if the human follows Sans' advice. But at the end of the display Papyrus uses his other blue attack - blue soul magic - before laughing triumphantly at them for thinking it was just the bones. He shows a couple of times that he's able to fling his attacks as quickly as his brother, but holds back for the sake of reciting a speech about his conflicted feelings (which he could repeat, word for word, if the human came back for a rematch after being captured), since he doesn't want to kill them and would rather they offer him friendship. He could even manipulate Undyne into giving friendship with a (non-murderous) human a chance, getting them in her door under the protection of good manners and then pushing her with a challenge to her pride.
When he doesn't know what to expect, or his own expectations are dashed in ways he doesn't like, he usually loses that momentum. You can't spell passive aggressive without several letters from Papyrus' name, and he goes quickly from stammering hesitation to smiling through complaints - when dealing with anyone who he doesn't want to offend (Sans, being family, gets more overt complaints and sticky notes). In his first few disappointments over the human's indifference to puzzles, Papyrus umms and offers corrections - this must be culture shock, he tells them, but they should do this. When Undyne tells him things he really doesn't want to hear, like her plan to take the human herself, her love for greasy food, or his promotion to the Most Important Position, he hesitates and protests briefly before going along with it... and complains behind her back, sometimes even acting to sabotage her for her own good. When there's no more tricks for him to use, he goes along with what others insist on, whether that's being king and providing hope to the people as best he can, or smiling under a dystopian celebrity who disappears people, or pretending happiness at a meaningless title as his friend leaves him behind in her search for vengeance.
Ultimately, Papyrus is a guy who offers a hug to a serial killer because they must be in terrible lonely pain to lash out like that. He's the sort to take a 00 jersey and revise it to a slightly off-kilter C00L DUDE jersey, because even if you're starting from 00 you can make it into anything with a little creativity and effort. He's loose on the details of how to make many of the things he wants in life happen, but he's very good at talking himself up and bolstering his own self confidence, and happy to share that optimism and confidence with others.
Any differences?:
Russell is a medium-sized fish in a very large pond, a human with no exceptional talents. Without the unusual sleepless energy of Papyrus, he's never had the edge of extra time to practice things from monologues to research to magical training. He's dealt with more physical bullying, generally losing in fights, and sometimes got pushed around physically and socially in a way Papyrus didn't.
He's never known the limited circumstances of growing up trapped in a cave, where people look up to a monarch to save them through the murder and harvesting of human souls. He's never compared the fundamental helplessness of knowing they can't free themselves to the mere uncertainty of not knowing what to do to change his life. So he never gained the self surety of focusing on what he can do, never developed the discipline to stick to a routine and keep going. He's grown up with an extended family rooted in the area and family connections easing his way through a lot of things - financial security and putting words in the right ears can do a lot. As connections don't grant easy success with everything, he's even more discouraged when he does encounter failure - because it's all the more clearly his own failure. Russell is more prone to giving up when things don't work out than Papyrus, and more frequently gets caught up in whims of the moment and skips out on plans or routines.
He's also never known the deja vu from being trapped in a time loop with time travelers who variously befriend or murder him, or been influenced by a secretive flower giving flattery and advice and predictions. The closest he gets is from his astrology afficionado mother, between her placating airy optimism and predictions she echoes from her favorite celebrity psychic. But her guesses aren't any more accurate than random guesses, and his limited teenage rebellion was directed at her ungrounded positivity.
But humans have more hope of controlling their success, more celebrities providing entertainment and inspiration alike. Even the monarchs of his homeland are more involved in the duty of providing an example than in setting law. Russell's pursuing a path more suited to goals of fame and popularity, and he's never been gently dissuaded with "cooking lessons." His fashion priorities are more connected to human aesthetics, too. While he's still whimsical about wearing costumes out and about - especially for method acting - and he changes his style to go with whoever or whatever he's emulating... but you wouldn't catch him dead in the same outfit for the entirety of the day, much less multiple days in a row.
Abilities:
ROLEPLAY SAMPLES
3rd person/action, Preinrecarnated character:
1st person/network, Original Character:
ANYTHING ELSE?
Name: Swirl
Are you over 15? Yep!
Contact: PM this journal or catch me on discord or plurk
Current characters in the game: N/A
IC INFORMATION
PREINCARNATION
Name: Papyrus
Canon: Undertale
Age: Unspecified, but seems to be in his young 20s
Species: Monster (skeleton)
Appearance: A costumed humanoid skeleton, whose skeletal features move enough for him to make expressions. About 6' / 185cm tall, and his left eyesocket is a little smaller than the right. And, as the game's graphics are cartoonish and distorted, let's say he's much closer to human proportions than the linked art suggests.
History:
Undertale is set in an alternate, future version of earth, one where a race of monsters was sealed into a mountain untold generations ago. Nearly every monster in the game was born in the caves, never seeing the sky or sun, trapped behind a magic barrier that they're helpless to break on their own. And so their hopes, culture, and technology are all largely based on humankind. New technology and cultural trends are based on what monsters scavenge from the debris trickling down from the surface through underground rivers, customized for monster priorities and the functions that magic can add. Their biggest hope for freedom is the slim possibility of capturing humans and absorbing their souls, becoming powerful enough to pass through the barrier - or break it entirely. With so much dependent on waiting and adapting, it makes for a people who tend towards forced positivity and passivity.
The first human to rediscover monsters fell in the caves in 201X, and lived with them for a while as an adopted child. They died within a few years, in an incident that also led to the prince's death, breaking the hearts and hopes of monsters who'd seen the adoptive siblings as a symbol for a new coexistant future. After their deaths, the king declared war on humankind in retaliation, and the queen abandoned the kingdom in disgust with their warmongering, locking herself in the abandoned capital in the Ruins.
The exact year of the game is unspecified; it's been at least years since the first human fell, likely decades and plausibly a century or more. Long enough passed that few monsters recognize a human standing in front of them, or expect to see the sun in their lifetimes. It's even been long enough that people close to the king, like the Captain of the Royal Guard or the Royal Scientist, don't recognize the disappeared queen. They've had time to scavenge technology from trash flowing down a river, developing their own to where cell phones and computers are common in most of the kingdom, and even isolated and remote corners of the caves have telegrams and fax machines.
Whatever the year, Papyrus is a skeleton living in the small town of Snowdin, a region just past the Ruins that is - despite being underground, without sunlight - somehow covered in snow and pine trees. He's the second person the latest human meets outside the Ruins, and the first who seems to be onboard with the war against humanity - in that, at the very least, he's quick to reprimand his brother for not taking their sentry work seriously enough, loud and enthusiastic about how he wants to capture a human to gain some prestige, and ready with some practiced 'threatening' speeches to unleash at the first human he meets.
(Part of the difficulty of writing a history for Papyrus is that much of his background is unspecified to an odd degree, despite being the character with the most lines besides the narrator. Things like where he and his brother moved from, whether they have any old friends or other family, none of it is ever explicitly mentioned. There's multiple popular headcanons, usually involving the mystery of a disappeared scientist with a font name, but at this time I'm not deciding on most of those details.Most of Papyrus' history is based in the several years since their move to Snowdin, where they rented a large house on the edge of the village and "asserted themselves" on the quiet rural town by being noisy, entertaining nuisances. Both of the brothers ultimately did some reinvention in the move; Sans brought along the mysterious broken machine and locked it in the basement, as he was giving up on the goal of fixing it and focusing on the small joys of life - like good food and friendship. His brother went about pranking people and visiting the bar regularly through the day, somehow paying the rent despite being unemployed, and Papyrus went into a teenage rebellion of sorts, becoming more orderly and hardworking in response to Sans opting to take things easy. Papyrus split his extensive time and energy between doing the housework, running around chasing children in the street, and building puzzles along the road - with equally regular trips to the bar to pull his brother back home (or, later, back to work). They became Characters in an otherwise slow and quiet town, known by their neighbors but not especially close to any of them.
The few details of headcanon I do want to establish right now are based on how Papyrus repeatedly expresses a belief that people can become better people if they try. He tells the human that he tries very hard to be comforting and pleasant... and the original concept for his character was a fedora-clad brony with 'no redeeming qualities'. Papyrus was a more off-putting person in childhood, easily irritated and disinterested in others, not physically bullied but friendless. He spent much of his time in his room with solitary hobbies like reading and playing with action figures, and struggled to break out of it until moving to Snowdin allowed him to reinvent himself with a fresh reputation.)
Papyrus eventually got work as a sentry and pushed Sans to do the same, ending with station points neighboring each other at the edge of the forest before the locked door to the Ruins. Somehow this resulted in Sans - and all the dogs of the Royal Guard - working out of a professional-looking, wooden station, nearly identical save for personal touches, while Papyrus built himself a station out of cardboard and rotini. It was off-kilter like so many of his creations, not quite serving its usual function, but not falling apart. Presumably new sentries comission them from some carpenter, using trees from the forest and incorporating personal touches in the base design, to set wherever they're stationed on the path... and Papyrus opted to experiment and show off with his own. The use of cardboard, rather than the wood he's perfectly proficient in building with, is little more than a slow-burning setup for a pun.
But he wasn't satisfied with a mere sentry position, and went to the head of the Royal Guard a year or two ago in pursuit of a promotion. As it was midnight, Undyne slammed the door in his face and went back to sleep... But Papyrus stayed put through the night, and she was impressed enough with his persistence to give a shot at training him. He proved skilled with combatitive magic, strong enough to spar with Undyne - who was trained by the king, the strongest monster in the underground - to the point that she sweats that the memory of it. And he demonstrated no willingness to kill anyone, making him rather unsuitable for the job of killing intruding humans or going to war. Rather than disappoint him by saying so, Undyne switched their training to daily status reports and cooking lessons.
Over the next several months, "cooking lessons" quickly became excuses to hang out together and make a rambunctious mess of things, with adventures in cleaning up splattered melted popsicles and burning her house down at least once - Undyne didn't know how to cook, either. Papyrus showed up to their meetings like clockwork, to the point that some people of Snowdin began passing messages to him to reach her to get to the king, rather than go to New Home to talk to the king themselves. His brother picked up a few more sentry jobs during this time, slacking off and barely working at any of them, while Undyne continued her friendship and not-quite-courtship of the elusive royal scientist... and Papyrus befriended a secretive flower who avoided being around other people, but showed up to give Papyrus advice and encouragement, flattery and predictions of things to come.
A few weeks before the human's arrival, both skeletons and Undyne (and many other acquaintances) went to a costume party that would change the course of Papyrus' life. The costume he and Sans made for him to wear - cosplay of a fairly obscure and classic comicbook hero - struck a chord in Papyrus. He called it his "battle body," and wore it every day, day in and day out, for weeks to come. Even showering in it, rather than take it off to wash it, from what Sans says. He's still wearing it on the day Sans finds a human.
Papyrus started his introductions to the human in high spirits. Finally, he could capture a human and wrap up the king's search for a seventh soul, proving himself to Undyne once and for all. He offered them all manner of cordiality along the way - helpful speeches about what they could expect ahead, various puzzles designed to delay but not significantly impede them, even "refreshments" in the form of frozen spaghetti (and optionally dog food, if they were captured).
But as the human progressed, his hopes proved largely in vain. The hints of dust on their hands and clothing, already there from when they exited the ruins, became more pronounced as the human proceeded: striking down members of the Royal Guard, random monsters traveling along the road, and even the rebellious teenagers living in the woods... and while Papyrus wouldn't let a little murder stand between him and sharing some traditional hospitality (not even when the traditions of puzzles and threatening speeches were a very old-fashioned, out-of-date hospitality hardly used by monsters these days), the human didn't work with him. They were silent and unresponsive about the brothers' banter, frequently walking forward before Papyrus could describe the puzzles, spoiling the whole experience.
As it became clear that the human was systematically hunting monsters down, traveling back and forth until they'd killed everyone they could, the residents of Snowdin evacuated. Most fled forward to Waterfall, gathering all the family they could find, leaving notes and decoys behind them. Papyrus stayed behind with grim purpose, confronting the human with a lecture about their actions. He no longer boasted he was about to capture them, but told them in broad strokes about their off-putting tendencies and the dangers of their actions. He continued to talk as they approached, encouraging them that they could stop and that he would help them to if they liked, then stood silent and still with his arms open for a hug.
They didn't strike, but stood down, showing mercy for the first time. He babbled gladness and pride in them, relief that things hadn't resolved through a fight, and offered his friendship and guidance on their road ahead. The human took him up on the offer to hang out, visiting Papyrus' house long enough to hear the skeleton admit he could have ended things very differently if he'd used his "special attack" to blast them... and to receive his phone number, for advice on the path ahead.
They then continued their journey to confront the king and leave the underground. But, where they'd previously gone around hunting down every monster they could, they took a new approach - where they could retreat, they'd do so, and kill only when retreat didn't seem to be an option. Even Undyne, Captain of the Royal Guard, had to chase them to keep fighting as they ran down the paths to Hotland, exhausting her in the process.
With that bridge crossed, Papyrus went to take care of the friend he already had - Undyne. She'd collapsed from the heat of running in a hundred pounds of armor through a volcano, and needed help to get back to her house. But, as she hated being coddled or taken care of, Papyrus opted to stand outside her house in case she needed anything, his phone at the ready if the human called for more advice. They called occasionally, until they passed through the Core to where their phone signal didn't carry... and proceeded to kill the king and disappear from the underground.
After Undyne recovered, and the monsters of the underground kingdom realized that the human was gone, she stepped into the power vaccuum left by the king's death. She reaffirmed their committment to waging war on humankind, what with this new swath of deaths to avenge, and drastically increased the membership and training for the royal guard. And while Papyrus wasn't among the new guards, he got a promotion of sorts - appointment to the "Most Important Royal Position," a meaningless title, with no responsibilities, meant to soothe his pride. It didn't work, but he took it without complaint to Undyne's face. He wanted to stay friends with her, and it was harder now; with her ruling and so fixated on vengeance, they didn't have private cookout lessons or hang-out times for her to ramble about how great her crush Alphys was. His mysterious flower friend, too, didn't come around to hang out anymore. So when Sans found a way to leave the human a voicemail, Papyrus was feeling freshly lonely again. He jumped on the phone call to encourage the human to come back and visit him - even with the acknowledgement they'd be facing certain death to do so.
REINCARNATION
Name: Russell Scordato
Age: 26
Appearance: Humanized, of Italian ancestry, looking something like the iconed artwork (from here). Tends to go around in costumes, but these are a little less the 'battle body' he wears in the game, and more related to his favorite shows or plays at any given time.
History: Russell's from Moss Manor, born of an Italian-American businessman and a well-off English woman whose family goes back generations in the greater Mossgate area. His parents met passionately as young adults, quickly marrying and having two kids before the relationship began fading, and they had Russell during a last ditch effort to make things work, about a decade later than his siblings. His parents finally separated in his childhood, when his older siblings were about to leave for their own adulthoods, leaving him with just his mother and extended family. Fortunately her branch of the family has enough money that she never really needed to work, and her part time work with the primary school sufficed for filling the gaps and giving her a sense of contributing to the community.
Effectively an only child for much of his life, Russell had plenty of positive emotional encouragement from his mother but not nearly as much practical life advice. He passed but didn't excel at the more academic parts of schooling, managing Cs in most classes despite his distraction and flights of fancy. Eventually his second cousin Rosemary introduced him to the theatrical arts of props, costumes, and acting. Between the culture of learning to fake confidence, the ways of faking to tell an entertaining story, and the accolades the actors of major characters received, finally his interest was hooked and gave him some degree of focus. Russell put his energy into imitating the people around him, being mentored by an older classmate, and pouring his extracurricular time into exploring the different aspects of putting on a show.
He went away to university, split between school in England and a couple semesters in America (staying with his father a while), and encountered a series of disappointments. The relationship with his father didn't spark much familial closeness. His auditions with major groups (like Broadway) didn't pan out, even with a bit of help from family connections... and he finally encountered the rest of the saying: “Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery that mediocrity can pay to greatness.”
Somewhat disillusioned and freshly insecure, he finished his schooling and decided to learn from life and more nuanced observation. These days he bounces from one part-time job to another every few months, and works with the Mossgate theatre group in some capacity with every show. He's been living in Mossgate a couple of years, in an apartment with a varying number of roommates, and he's just beginning to notice some new strangenesses in his life.
First Echo: During the most recent guided tour, Russell decided to go do something he never did in childhood - explore the tunnels under the cliffs daring the fear of tons of stone overhead. He expected to be frightened and to use the sense of fear as inspiration in future acting ventures... But instead, Russell echoed memories of looking up at glittering stone filling his field of vision, feeling as familiar and mundane a sight he finds seeing the sky. Something about the genuine, water-carved caves is similar to the narrow tunnels of Waterfall, a regular sight in his treks back and forth from Undyne's house.
PERSONALITY
Pre-Incarnation Personality:
Papyrus is theatrical, loud and prone to stage-whispering, with occasional odd hints like he's aware of himself as a character in a recurring story - given his brother knows about the timeloops, and Papyrus is sort-of friends with the time travelers, he might know a little bit about that. He plans monologues, practices standing around reciting lines, and could even repeat his whole rambling spiel from his battle if the human escaped being captured. He plays with expectations and subverting them, with one of his first impressions being a terrible and childish-looking sentry station... actually made from cardboard and pasta screws, a surprising feat of engineering that was ultimately the setup for a slowburning pun about 'cardboardhydrates'.
He's an odd duck in an already odd and very limited world, who insists on 'working hard' whether he's accomplishing anything - because it's better to be busy and hope than be unhappy with plenty of time to dwell on it. After all, he lives with his brother - a public jokester in a private depressed slump who leaves dirty laundry around their house and has a hideous bedroom and spends too much money eating out. One of them, Papyrus insists, has to take responsibility.
So, partly in reaction to his brother and partly so he doesn't fall into a depressed slump himself, Papyrus fills his days with busywork. Whether that hard work is actually work, or messing around on the internet, or playing with action figures in his room, the important thing is not getting stuck in unhappy thoughts. He handles the housework, keeping things clean and pets fed. He sees to paperwork like filling out taxes, keeps abreast of recently proposed legislation, and fills his bookshelves with texts on puzzle design... Which he has plenty of time to read, given that he barely sleeps. He takes initiative to maintain and devise puzzles along the road, in an era when many monsters consider puzzles unnecessary chores. And he still has the spare energy to run around playing with children - be they humans or small rabbits - in the snow.
He's simultaneously insecure and overconfident, with a core of genuine confidence that lets him dress absurdly - knowing that he's cool regardless of what anyone else says - and refuse to dwell in self-doubt. His overconfidence partly comes from his excellent physical condition, as Papyrus is one of the sturdiest monsters that the human encounters - tough enough that Undyne sweats at the memory of sparring with him. He's aware of his own abilities, alert enough to his and others' stamina to stop mid-attack before going too far... but he can overestimate himself, or underestimate the human's willingness to kill him. Where Sans would break the usual pattern of battle dynamics with with a surprise attack on the world-destroying from the start, Papyrus begins with a sincere offer of mercy - and the expectation that he could survive at least one hit, giving them the chance to stand down before he retaliates with blasters. Either they accept the hug and befriend him, or they kill him so quickly that he expresses surprise as he dies.
Friendship is his to-go solution for a lot of problems. People who feel alone and try to do everything on their own can mess up and ultimately give up, as his brother has. People who believe they have people to ask for help, be they family or friends, have an easier time hoping and keeping going. He's enough of an inspiration on the people around him that the people of Snowdin would all be more depressed in his absence, and he's the fourth most likely person to rule the underground if the king disappeared.
Reliable is a fairly fitting descriptor; Papyrus always has his phone on him, ready to pick up
But there's odd gaps in his reliability. He takes care of the house - except for the most fundamental thing, paying the bills. He puts hours into devising puzzles that could stop a human, but gets so excited about some that he messes them up, and outright sabotages his own efforts on others so as to not hurt the human too badly.
And some of the gaps are reliable weirdness. Papyrus is the sort of skeleton who decides he wants more space in the kitchen, to store bones. And so he redesigns the sink to be taller than he is, making a storage space underneath it... instead of just building a cabinet. Since he and his brother can use gravity/momentum magic, they could just float to use the sink anyway, and so it's not completely dysfunctional - just strange and whimsical. (And admittedly, in some universes, the space under the sink leads to a secret chamber with a shrine in it - a path which would be trickier to maneuver in a cabinet.) Without a second thought, he'll stand outside a house all day or night to be available if the occupants want him, but considers it weird and creepy and illegal to go inside without permission.
He connects dots in odd ways, sometimes struggles to connect them conventionally, and outright tries to avoid thinking about conclusions he dislikes. Newspaper puzzles like crosswords and junior jumble bewilder him, but he regularly sets up puns - wistfully wishing for the same success joining the Royal Guard as some of the dogs, only to complain it's all a 'pupularity contest'. He takes the process for making good beer - aging it in an oaken cask - and applies it to pasta noodles, making a dish that looks great but tastes indescribably terrible. Having once heard from Flowey that Alphys 'likes' muscular people like Asgore and Undyne, and wanting to befriend her, he tries "impressing" her with a pictures of him with his (taped-on) muscular biceps. And, while Undyne was still pretending she would someday promote him into the Royal Guard, he came to the conclusion that what he needed to do was impress her by capturing a human without any input from her.
At least some of his weirdness is intentional, deliberately playing with expectations and subversions when he has an idea what to expect. While hanging out with the human, he repeatedly seems to start one thing, then veers off to do something else. He leads them on a speedy tour through town before bringing them back where they started to hang out at his house. He reads through a manual on how to hang out, reading aloud as though it's the first time he's seen it - for the benefit of the human who hasn't read it, to put them on an 'equal' footing - then shows the costume and gift he already prepared for a hangout. He offers his phone number so they can call for help any time, and then gives very little helpful information.
And, while he didn't get the chance to do any of these things against the more murderous human of his timeline... he and his brother coordinate a prank on the human. Sans helpfully tells them about his brother's "blue attack" and gives advice how to avoid blue bones. And Papyrus unleashes such bones as his first real attack at them, an elaborate barrage of blue bones that go harmlessly by if the human follows Sans' advice. But at the end of the display Papyrus uses his other blue attack - blue soul magic - before laughing triumphantly at them for thinking it was just the bones. He shows a couple of times that he's able to fling his attacks as quickly as his brother, but holds back for the sake of reciting a speech about his conflicted feelings (which he could repeat, word for word, if the human came back for a rematch after being captured), since he doesn't want to kill them and would rather they offer him friendship. He could even manipulate Undyne into giving friendship with a (non-murderous) human a chance, getting them in her door under the protection of good manners and then pushing her with a challenge to her pride.
When he doesn't know what to expect, or his own expectations are dashed in ways he doesn't like, he usually loses that momentum. You can't spell passive aggressive without several letters from Papyrus' name, and he goes quickly from stammering hesitation to smiling through complaints - when dealing with anyone who he doesn't want to offend (Sans, being family, gets more overt complaints and sticky notes). In his first few disappointments over the human's indifference to puzzles, Papyrus umms and offers corrections - this must be culture shock, he tells them, but they should do this. When Undyne tells him things he really doesn't want to hear, like her plan to take the human herself, her love for greasy food, or his promotion to the Most Important Position, he hesitates and protests briefly before going along with it... and complains behind her back, sometimes even acting to sabotage her for her own good. When there's no more tricks for him to use, he goes along with what others insist on, whether that's being king and providing hope to the people as best he can, or smiling under a dystopian celebrity who disappears people, or pretending happiness at a meaningless title as his friend leaves him behind in her search for vengeance.
Ultimately, Papyrus is a guy who offers a hug to a serial killer because they must be in terrible lonely pain to lash out like that. He's the sort to take a 00 jersey and revise it to a slightly off-kilter C00L DUDE jersey, because even if you're starting from 00 you can make it into anything with a little creativity and effort. He's loose on the details of how to make many of the things he wants in life happen, but he's very good at talking himself up and bolstering his own self confidence, and happy to share that optimism and confidence with others.
Any differences?:
Russell is a medium-sized fish in a very large pond, a human with no exceptional talents. Without the unusual sleepless energy of Papyrus, he's never had the edge of extra time to practice things from monologues to research to magical training. He's dealt with more physical bullying, generally losing in fights, and sometimes got pushed around physically and socially in a way Papyrus didn't.
He's never known the limited circumstances of growing up trapped in a cave, where people look up to a monarch to save them through the murder and harvesting of human souls. He's never compared the fundamental helplessness of knowing they can't free themselves to the mere uncertainty of not knowing what to do to change his life. So he never gained the self surety of focusing on what he can do, never developed the discipline to stick to a routine and keep going. He's grown up with an extended family rooted in the area and family connections easing his way through a lot of things - financial security and putting words in the right ears can do a lot. As connections don't grant easy success with everything, he's even more discouraged when he does encounter failure - because it's all the more clearly his own failure. Russell is more prone to giving up when things don't work out than Papyrus, and more frequently gets caught up in whims of the moment and skips out on plans or routines.
He's also never known the deja vu from being trapped in a time loop with time travelers who variously befriend or murder him, or been influenced by a secretive flower giving flattery and advice and predictions. The closest he gets is from his astrology afficionado mother, between her placating airy optimism and predictions she echoes from her favorite celebrity psychic. But her guesses aren't any more accurate than random guesses, and his limited teenage rebellion was directed at her ungrounded positivity.
But humans have more hope of controlling their success, more celebrities providing entertainment and inspiration alike. Even the monarchs of his homeland are more involved in the duty of providing an example than in setting law. Russell's pursuing a path more suited to goals of fame and popularity, and he's never been gently dissuaded with "cooking lessons." His fashion priorities are more connected to human aesthetics, too. While he's still whimsical about wearing costumes out and about - especially for method acting - and he changes his style to go with whoever or whatever he's emulating... but you wouldn't catch him dead in the same outfit for the entirety of the day, much less multiple days in a row.
Abilities:
- Artistic eclectic handyman [Skills]
Significant and sometimes baffling artistic and engineering skills. He's painted a long stone arch to resemble a wooden bridge, redesigned his sink to his height for extra storage space, built a top-heavy snowman with a very narrow base, and even laid out multiple puzzles - including an electrical maze - in the frozen ground outside Snowdin. - Cellphone [Equipment]
With calling, texting, picture-sending, and presumably the same kind of extra-dimensional storage that boxes and the human's phone can hold. Being a skeleton in fairly form-fitting attire, it's much more convenient to keep things like gift-wrapped bones tucked away in magical dimensional pockets than physical ones. - Is a monster [Powers]
Monsters come in many shapes and materials - ranging anywhere from animals to skeletons, inert snowmen to small airplanes - because their bodies are made more of magic rather than physical matter (rather like humans are made mostly of water). Much of their spiritual essence is tied into keeping their bodies intact, and their souls are much more fragile than the average humans' - prone to breaking apart on death. It means that monsters are vulnerable to the intentions of others - a person with a stronger soul, a cruel indifference to others, and the will to kill could injure or kill almost any monster with a simple whack of a notebook. Papyrus is unusually sturdy for a monster, and can spar with the best of them, but could still die with a single punch from an experienced murderer who truly wanted him dead. - Monster magic
It also gives them innate magical abilities, which they can use as much as their words to express their intent. For everything from making hats out of tears, cooking with fire, powering robots and cellphones with electricity, and even healing with encouraging words, their magic reflects a mix of who they are and what they intend. In the context of fighting, magic presents mostly as floating projectiles (called "bullets" regardless of their shapes) and abilities targeting body and soul. The projectiles are consistently color-coded; white are the basic solid projectiles that hurt on impact, blue hurt those trying to move, orange hurt only those not trying to move, and green pass through people harmlessly - sometimes healing. After they've been conjured, bullets become mundane and non-painful objects that last as long as the monster doesn't cancel them from existence (like spears embedded in tables, fireplaces that burn so long as their caster lives, or gifted bones cluttering up a kitchen drawer). And, as bullets cancel each other out on contact, monsters fight with magic as easily as with words, expressing themselves with patterns reflecting their thoughts and feelings, with nobody getting seriously hurt or killed as long as they protect themselves with their own magic. - White / Blue bones
Papyrus, being a skeleton, mostly has bone-shaped bullets with the usual powers of magic bullets (white that generally hurt on contact, blue that that pass painlessly through motionless people but hurt those in motion - automatic motions like breathing are fine)... and the special power of being bones (dogs in the neighborhood love to steal them). He has fine enough control to cancel them in middair to avoid killing anyone, and even arranges them to spell words in the middle of elaborate attack patterns. - Blue soul magic (gravity & momentum manipulation)
A power that targets the soul and so affects the whole body, changing the effect of gravity and momentum. Papyrus primarily uses it to reinforce the downward pull of gravity, initiating a platform game sequence for his fight - and briefly reducing the pull during his most impressive array of bones so the human can properly admire it without getting hurt - but the power is much the same as his brother's, able to pull them in any direction. He even uses the power on himself in a few ways, jumping more than twice a human's height into the air and double-jumping on air as he soars over their head, doing a flying leap through a window from a standstill, and spinning and sliding across snow as though being pulled sideways instead of down. He's only ever shown using this on one person at a time, usually himself. - Healing magic
Though not clearly shown on-screen, Papyrus can heal injuries, and does so for the human if they come to fight him while already injured - no one else is around to have done the healing. Relatedly, he recognizes exactly how much damage someone can take before they risk dying, has the precision with his magic to stop just at the point of unconsciousness, and can heal them to prevent any lasting harm afterwards. Unfortunately, healing injuries isn't the same as healing illness or a lack of exercise, and there's only so much he can do for his brother besides pushing him to be more active. - Gaster blasters
Although Papyrus never uses them in the game, his brother Sans uses a skull-shaped construct that shoots beams of magic, and they have very similar magic - even sharing attack patterns. Papyrus never fights the human seriously - he either spends half the fight applying beauty products to himself, or offers an open-armed gesture of mercy. But, if he survives a particularly murderous human, he implies that he has the same ability, mentioning that he could have "blasted" them to end the fight quickly.
ROLEPLAY SAMPLES
3rd person/action, Preinrecarnated character:
- Save Our Earth: Second Test Drive Meme: a ghostly-attired Russell ends up freaking out a kid in the ruins at night, and he pushes too hard for friendship (again) with one of his old schoolmates.
1st person/network, Original Character:
- Midnight Texting Meme, a skeleton Papyrus happily living on the surface, exchanging texts with family and friends
ANYTHING ELSE?