Aefenglom Application

[spaghettimonster]

Player Information
Name: Swirl
Age: 32
Contact: swirlingflight
Other Characters: N/A

Character Information
Name: PAPYRUS
Canon: Undertale
Canon Point: After the game's events, in a neutral ending (exiled queen Toriel / empress Undyne)
Age: Unspecified, but he seems to be in his early-mid 20s. Papyrus is young enough that people close to him sometimes treat him as a kid - and know he's still figuring out what to do with his life - but he's old enough that he could be voted king.
History: Wiki entry here. The wiki's a little oddly organized, so I'm writing myself a chronological reference with notes here.

Personality: Papyrus is introduced as a "human-hunting fanatic," desperate to capture the last human needed to free monsterkind, so he'll be promoted into the Royal Guard... and gain the prestige and popularity he's craving. He goes through the motions pretty intensely, without much sincerity in it; the truth, quickly revealed, is that he's mostly interested in the popularity he thinks would result.

To this end he follows ancient monster traditions, building inconvenient puzzles blockading the road into town, practicing threatening monologues to unleash at a moment's notice, and even coordinating a prank with his brother to trick a human about what his 'blue magic' entails, letting him catch them off-balance in his fight... And yet, Papyrus sabotages himself every step of the way, between building a lopsided 'sentry station' as a slow setup for a pun instead of any real professional purpose, deactivating his most effective obstacles, and spending his entire fight with the human applying beauty products and exploring his emotions aloud. Once he has the option to capture the human he imprisons them temporarily in an escapable shed, and no matter how rudely or aggressively the human comes at him, he ultimately offers them mercy and friendship.

It soon makes sense; joining the Royal Guard is one dream he's held for some time, but his real motivating factor is popularity as a way of getting friends. The entire speech he offers during his fight is pre-planned (he repeats it, word for word, even when the human returns to challenge him), and he continues his theme of lying and misleading by going to his boss, attempting to talk her into sparing the human, and then lying to her face that he'll help her capture the human - in order to better guide the human to safety and potential friendship with Undyne, too.

He can't seem to decide whether he wants to be liked for himself, or to change himself to be what others want, so he does a loud and awkward mix of both that leaves him pretty lonely. At the game's start he has only one person he calls a friend... And she's also his boss, and as loud and awkward in her own way as he is. His room's full of gaudy and childish things, from action figures to a flame-pattened carpet to a racecar bed, and he's willing to go around in the same costume every day for weeks on end... And yet sometimes he comedically panics at people saying they dislike things he likes, rushing to pretend he shares their opinion for the sake of their approval.

Either way, he refuses to insult himself or feel bad for himself, except only briefly in the worst sorts of situations. When others insult him, he willfully interprets every insult thrown his way as reflecting the speaker's insecurities instead of reflecting on himself. By and large he talks himself up with pep talks and calling himself THE GREAT PAPYRUS, and encourages others to do the same. It's a clear intentional effort to be more positive than he naturally is, given his frequent dips into sarcasm and frustration. He outright says so, mentioning that he strives to be comforting and pleasant.

It's an ongoing effort; his brother Sans gets plenty of questions, open complaints, and even criticism about the actions and life choices Papyrus considers unhealthy or unproductive. Friends like Undyne and the human get their own share of snark and awkward bluntness from him, too. And now that he's been spending time with Toriel, emulating her approach to interacting with people and potential humans, he might be a little quicker with a judgmental observation or two.

The bottom line of Papyrus is that he believes in friendship and peoples' potential, and puts a lot of effort into being kind, pleasant, and comforting, even though sometimes he's too self-absorbed to be very successful with any of these things. Something about his effort comes across as sincere enough to brighten the people around him, maybe not so much that they all appreciate him, but enough so his absence would worsen their lives.

Abilities & Skills:
💀 Dramatic Monologues

Papyrus is quick to ramble ominous and theatrical turns of phrase, fills silence with his own words, and practices speeches for various conversational needs

💀 Housework / Cleanliness

He handles the cleaning for his and Sans' shared home, as he's much more fond of organized things... and repulsed by grease

💀 Handyman / Artstic

In a baffling and eclectic range of skills, Papyrus does everything from painting a long thin stone bridge to look wooden, laying out mechanical/electrical puzzles in frozen ground, building a snow skeleton (with some human musculature, but not in the part necessary for support), and raising his sink to be about 6' tall and still functional - with enough space to fit a doorway underneath

💀 Astonishingly terrible chef

When it comes to cooking, Papyrus seems to have met cookbooks and waved at them as their instructions passed him by. He gets creative and artistic with his food, but where it sort of works in his engineering, with food it leads to things like seasoning pasta in an oaken cask for an indefinite period of time - making for an "indescribable" taste. This may have improved thanks to lessons from Toriel

💀 Magical Insomnia

Papyrus functions on little-to-no sleep, going by how he gets baffled and outraged by the notion that other people waste eight whole hours sleeping every night, only mentions "snoozing" - as if he gets by on catnaps, and has reportedly never slept during times Undyne stayed at his house

💀 Precise Control

Although Papyrus won't be keeping his magic, the practiced skill of controlling himself remains, from learning to wield his magic skillfully enough to spell words with bones in the middle of a long string of attacks, and stopping attacks at the point that knocks someone out without death or lasting injury. This might help him rein in his new instincts - or might cause him extra problems, as he tries to control himself in a way that doesn't work for monsters

💀 Belief In The Papyrus That Believes In You

As gets explored in at least one path of the game, Papyrus holds the bone-deep conviction that "anybody can be a better person if they try," as well as the certainty that they can do that even more if they have support. Rather like he constantly gives himself peptalks and encouragement in calling himself great and refusing to give up, he's willing to be a source of encouragement and support for anyone - even a serial killer

☠ Skeleton Monster

As with all monsters from Undertale, Papyrus is really made of magic and dust - there's very little physical matter composing monsters. He would normally be a skeleton so long as he lives, and the parts of his body resemble humanoid bones to all mundane senses

☠ Vulnerable to intent

Between their mostly immaterial bodies and relatively fragile souls, monsters are as vulnerable to the intent behind a blow as much as the force of it, if not more so. A sincere attack meant to harm can prove lethal, even coming from a child wielding a flimsy notebook, while a blow with the same force from someone playing around is rough-housing. I assume that the magic of Geardagas will endow Undertale monsters with a little extra durability, as the setting's magic replaces part of their own nature?

☠ Monster magic

Being made of magic, monsters readily use magic so easily that it's everything from their primary resort in combat, an aid to day to day life, and a form of expression for them. It's normal for monsters to use their magic for things like cooking, powering electronics, and punching holes in cards... as well as devising attack patterns to play and show off with each other, with the expectation that monsters who don't want to be hit will either block the attacks or leave. Most monsters' projectiles are shaped in ways that reflect themselves, which mostly results in bones and skulls for the skeletons

☠ White / Blue projectiles (bones, mostly)

Papyrus' main attacks center around bone-shaped projectiles, where the white bones hit as you'd expect a levitating bone to, while the blue bones only damage creatures in intentional motion - automatic movement like breathing is fine. The white bones can block other projectiles, get tossed around to damage objects in the environment, and persist for months at a time minimum - his friend has a kitchen drawer full of bones from times he's gifted them to her. Plus, in what seems like a joke (or a reference to Deltarune), Papyrus also summons a skateboard, a pair of sunglasses, and other unspecified "non-bone attacks"

☠ Blue Soul Magic

A gravity / momentum manipulation that can fling people around in the air, or weight them down to force them into a platformer-style jumping puzzle. Papyrus seems to use this on himself for a few gravity-defying stunts, like sliding around without walking, double-jumping in the air, and leaping unnaturally far from standing

☠ Healing Magic

This is easily missed, but if a player enters Papyrus' fight arena at less than full health while Papyrus is waiting to fight them, they're healed back to full health. This doesn't happen anywhere else in the game, and given Papyrus says he wants to defeat the human fairly (between turning off the most effective trap, intentionally using nearly harmless attacks until the human makes it clear whether they're willing to fight, and knocking them out rather than killing them), it seems like he intentionally heals the human back to full health for a better battle. Toriel's also seen healing the human directly back to full health from a distance, so Papyrus doing the same is the simplest explanation

☠ Gaster Blasters

And this is extrapolation, as Papyrus never demonstrates using the same attacks that Sans does... but Papyrus spends his battle applying beauty products and talking to himself, if he fights at all. Sans and Papyrus otherwise share their basic abilities (aside from whatever causes the purple KR effect in Sans' fight), and if Papyrus faces and survives a particularly murderous human, he admits in their hangout that he could have "blasted" them to end the fight quickly. That comment was added to Undertale in a revision, making its inclusion a very intentional clarification

Inventory/Companions:
💀 Current Clothing

Something a little more welcoming to humans than his "battle body" (the costume he wears in the game that's meant to resemble armor, or perhaps an old comic book hero). A sportier outfit, like the one he might wear on a date or to encourage a friend's friend to exercise. Cool, in a way that defies or transcends modern human fashion sense.

💀 Cellphone

One with some excellent skeleton selfies and a small magic hammerspace. It runs on batteries powered by magic electricity, so it probably won't last long unless they find a way to charge it with witch magic. If that won't function, I'll understand

💀 Spare Bones

The bones Papyrus makes or summons with magic last a long time after being made, maybe indefinitely unless he specifically makes them a shorter duration. These were tucked into pockets somewhere and are now just bones - though not of any particular species - and maybe a witch could find something interesting to do with them

💀 Sunglasses

Purely for style, since there wasn't a sun underground

💀 Dog residue

A few tennis balls that have seen some use, particularly with teeth and drool

Choice: Monster (Turnskin)
Reason: He's already a monster, but it'll be challenging for him to be a monstrous monster.

Papyrus won't enjoy being judged negatively by the locals for anything, but especially not something he can't stop. It'll be more personally uncomfortable for a dedicated nonkiller like himself to gain the fearful and aggressive instincts that a turnskin gets, as he's a lot more self-controlled than his yelling and stomping imply - his grip on his magic and intentions is strong enough that he can stop his magic mid-attack to precisely knock someone out without killing them, a trick no other character in Undertale demonstrates.

Plus, turnskin gives me the excuse to connect to all the dog references and connections he has in canon, with everything from playing fetch like a dog, chasing a neighborhood rabbit kid the same way some of the dogs do, claiming he loves to be pet, temporarily imprisoning a captured human in a shed with dog supplies, the way multiple dogs steal bones from his house, and his opinion of that one dog in particular.

Samples:
💀 TDM top level and a fair few tags out.
💀 Papyrus texting random strangers