We're Still Here - notes / plotting

[spaghettimonster]

Regains to date:
- Bone magic (can generate up to 8 bones / day, to a max of... was it 60? can reuse them until they're damaged)


robbies
Premise
A horror/psychological horror game set in a town called Santa Rosita, California, in what is obstinately 1961. American suburban gothic.

Characters awaken in an unfamiliar house, memories and personalities intact, but everything else gone - belongings, powers, even bodies if they weren't mundane humans.

It's a perfect little American town with perfect little nuclear families and the NPCs in power will :) make sure :) of that. :)


Undertale

Skeleton brothers are coming from the same timeline, neutral ending - exiled queen, Empress Toriel, Papyrus also spared. The one where the bros halfway move into the ruins with Toriel, bringing books and games, being her friend, and giving her breaks from being on watch for humans to protect. Linked post has my default assumptions on that timeline, the general headcanons of the past, and so on.

NAME:

Knochenmus
From German Knochen "bone" and Mus "sauce".
It probably referred to someone who worked in the butcher trade.

Pronunciation
- The K is hard!
- First syllable emphasis
KNO-hen-moose

COOKING WITH GELATIN

Horrible things to inflict on Sans:
- Simple hot dog and pickle gelatin

- Cold hot dog pie

- Cherry catsup gelatin salad

- Jellied bouillon with frankfurters

- Various vintage hot dog recipes

Terrible compromise meals:
- Spaghetti-o and hot dog jello gelatin mold

Things that I myself might want to eat:
- Cherry marshmallow on sweet oat crust

APPEARANCE

THE CAR

a red 1960 Lincoln Continental, an absurdly long convertible car with ample trunk space

chosen (by me) in part for the size and the prevalence of ads from the time period, in part because it's absurdly long -which probably wouldn't help him with learning to drive it well

HOUSE RENOVATION

he's got to run afoul of the HHA at least once

chat with housemate(s) about what sorts of redesigning they'd like to pull
shed construction?

hot rod flame decals, somewhere

how difficult would it be to make an illegal extra basement, the ground's not frozen and mostly stone, which means easier to dig in but also easier to collapse

SECRET PLOTTING

don't forget to reach out to the mods about Papyrus and Sans pulling that prank, when the time is right

BACKGROUND / HEADCANONS

Okay borrowing heavily from the Balance notes since we're using roughly the same notions, though downplaying the details of the retcon and scientist lore

BACKSTORY HEADCANONS GALORE

Sans and Papyrus, brothers, something like 7 years apart...? bit less than 10, more than 5.

Grew up together in apartment/house in New Home, half-raised in the lab their dad worked in, with a daycare situation when each was respectively a babybones, and plenty of take the kids to work days going forward. Puzzles in the kiddie corner, puzzles in the breakroom... even puzzles in the workplace, because traditions.

Sans had a knack for science, and an easy in what with their dad, so he did a more apprenticeship thing earlier than usual even for monsters' whimsical scheduling expectations. Learned to teleport as part of his quantum physics studies, and in the process of learning it had some fun hiccups like flickering in place and teleporting literally into part of Papyrus' bedroom's wall.

Their dad genuinely loves his kids! But. Is just Too Into Science, and Papyrus... doesn't have the same knack for it, especially not the theoretical and experimental that Sans and dad share. Engineering and respect for puzzles, sure, but not the same spark. So between that disconnect and the age difference, dad didn't connect with Papyrus the same way.

Growing up with people so much more interested in the theoretical and research-focused science, with some personal quirks like lack of volume control making friendship with fellow kids difficult, left Papyrus feeling disconnected, lonely and craving acknowledgement. Hence, skills favoring the tangible and the showy, between engineering, handyman skills, art, and combat.

(Puzzles and parental manners are linked in his mind, and he has plenty of reasons for those Advanced Puzzles books and the misc handyman skills)

"but yeah, i think that's where i'm feeling it for this take on Papyrus. A skeledad who did care but was Into Science in ways Papyrus didn't share, so Sans got more attentive attention. Not neglected, but oscillating between IT'S FINE I DON'T WANT TO, I'M STAYING IN MY ROOM DOING COOL THINGS and whatnot

Sans possibly overcompensating in looking out for his bro, having noticed the difference, and making up for it in other ways. Continuing to do so after, because even though they don't talk about certain things, there's caring there - maybe especially, if they lost whoever they had before."

"dad probably understood sans better... then sans had to make sure papyrus got attention from him"

Establishing the pattern of Sans checking on his brother's emotional wellbeing, and conscripting random strangers to help him cheer Papyrus up

plurk 1, plurk 2

Cutesy kid stuff:

(1) Papyrus claims that one of his favorite books is "Peek-a-boo with Fluffy Bunny"
and (2) Sans claims "Papyrus gets kind of cranky without his bedtime story"

I like to think that those anecdotes are connected, and that was one of the books that Sans would read to Papyrus - or maybe, Papyrus would read to Sans when he was first learning to read

So you get the visual of little Papyrus and still a kid/teen Sans, big bro supporting little bro in the crook of his arm, as little Papyrus painstakingly reads the story out

(Can't fall asleep before the story is over, that's rude.)

Papyrus getting kind of cranky without his bedtime story is partly about the familiar pattern of it, and partly because he can't have a bedtime story if Sans isn't home yet, so story time is partly ritual time to try to nap, but partly an assurance his brother is there and they're spending some time together

Important stuff to a little skeleton if older bro is doing like, science apprenticeship or whatever the heck, and not spending as much time playing with him

YMMV on it being a tradition of sorts into adult time, less about reading a children's book and more just about spending a little time chatting about the day before bed. The better to be sure Sans isn't off at Grillby's or making other terrible life choices before sleep.

Science Disaster / Gaster stuff

When Papyrus was 11-12, [The Retcon].


A couple of hidden quotes in Undertale imply that the royal scientist before Alphys was Wingdings Gaster, a person so retconned from the game that you can't even try to input his name in the starting menu - the game force quits if you try. There's a sprite named "Mystery Man," as though his name can't be entered, which is a black and white sprite that could be seen as a slighly melty skeleton.

There's a couple of NPCs who seem detached from reality - only showing up at slim, random chances - who can mention his name, and there's a phonecall intended for him that cuts off abruptly. When Alphys describes the CORE, the technological achievement from before her time that provides electricity to the underground, she cuts herself off similarly abruptly.

We're told that Gaster went too far with his research, and "fell into his creation." The hidden entry 17, starting "darker darker yet darker," implies a scientist intrigued by the results of an experiment and eager to push the boundary further, asking "what do you two think?" at the end of the entry. In the genocide run, Sans expresses familiarity with people who feel if they CAN do a thing then they HAVE to. In his neutral/pacifist date in the MTT Resort, he wonders whether the human REALLY needs to do what they have to, to get out, whether just sticking around and enjoying the company and food wouldn't be enough.


All in all, seems like Gaster was a skeleton, possibly the brothers' father, who experimented in dangerous ways in search of a way out of the underground... going too far, getting erased from reality and conscious memory for most people. With memory of Gaster gone, most of the people who knew Sans or Papyrus through him also largely forgot them. It's why they're described as "appearing one day" in Snowdin, as though out of nowhere, in contrast to how monsters from the city of New Home occasionally visit in a touristy way with a known origin. It's why Papyrus's description in the genocide fight is Forgettable, why Sans knows Alphys but she stammers rather than explaining how. It's why the lost souls seem to have a short conversation, Papyrus boasting his plans, Sans shooting them down for being futile, Papyrus remembering there's nobody to impress anymore and trailing off.

Working from that assumption, we've talked about what the personality traits of the adult skeletons we know imply of their childhood, and worked backward - with a lot of inspiration from others' creations through the Undertale fandom - to create a childhood that leads the characters we know.

But for WSH's purposes, this is all very much extrapolation not in keeping with the tone of the game.

We're skipping the weirder stuff of a reality resetting to erase a guy's presence, leaving two sons without an origin, and just focusing on the family dynamic created.

Ultimately, Gaster is unimportant to the story of Undertale. It's a story about a young goat who died and turned a flower, and the human who finally saves him long enough for him to save the underground the way he'd always wanted to... if a century or more later than intended. But the mystery surrounding him and the apparent connection to the popular funny brothers has intrigued fans for years, and likely will until/unless Deltarune answers some of our questions.


For our purposes, this means that their dad disappeared at some point. leaving young 20s Sans to finish raising almost teen Papyrus.

Between confusion and grief, he didn't handle the extra responsibility that well. Between confusion and grief, Papyrus didn't handle the change in dynamics very well.

Life in Snowdin:

The skelebros only moved to Snowdin a "few years" prior to the game, quickly "asserting themselves" with loud shenanigans in the street, bar visits like clockwork and the slow spread of additional puzzles along the road.

On why Papyrus is well enough liked - or at least tolerated - yet considers himself friendless and lonely:

"Sans goes to the bar and chats with people and occasionally pulls pranks, Papyrus scolds and stomps and puts puzzles in the pathway. As their neighbors go, Doggo specifically has a grudge against Sans, but most seem more fond of Sans than Papyrus."

"sans knows how to be chill so that probably helps a lot"

"Papyrus knows how to be C00L TM, but Sans knows how to be chill."

Papyrus brags, and spreads cheer and self confidence, but he's also a little offputting and not great at connecting to people. Gets uncomfortable when anyone (but Sans?) seems to care too attentively about him for long, like it's unfamiliar or something. Sabotages some tentative friendships by pushing them to also befriend others, or by being a little too agitated in not explaining where they moved from. He's already Sans' main anchor, can't dedicate that much attention to anyone else in particular.

Gets better at the deflection as he grows up, at least in terms of not bringing up as many things he wants to avoid, and being whimsical enough to almost always have a tangent to run away with.

Rehearsing for the human:

"do you think they really did rehearse some of it... like going through the forest talking to an imaginary human"

"Honestly? I really kind of do.
Evidence:
(1) Papyrus gets mad at Sans for not having a puzzle... except, Papyrus came that way to meet Sans by their sentry stations. He knows full well that there's nothing but a piece of paper there.
(2) Some of his introductions to his puzzles sound very rehearsed, in the sense of reading off familiar words and trailing off in confusion if, say, a murdery human walks through them before he's finished
(3) Papyrus outright talks about practicing monologues for things, and he repeats his battle speech verbatim if the human fights him multiple times, even after "capturing" them. And that's not videogame simplicity, the pre-game monologue is very different with each repeat fight."

"I am accepting this as canon, it's so ridiculous and good"

"(And like. They super coordinated on the blue attack prank. Sans goes out of his way to give helpful pointers about it, except he's only giving advice about the blue bones... And then Papyrus uses the blue bones as a long, boring distraction before using the real blue attack.)"

Flowey, quantum physics, deja vu, the human, the path to the true pacifist ending:

Sans does not REMEMBER the resets as fanon sometimes claims - his quantum physics research combined w/perceptiveness means he knows to pay attention to his deja vu, and he makes some notes on it

Papyrus is Flowey's favorite, possibly in part for his diligence in trying to be positive, possibly in part for his being kind of weird and thus less predictable than many others, and possibly... well. Papyrus is eager for a friend, and praise, and advice, and might do all manner of thing for them.

In some of the time loops, Papyrus comes up with the idea to make a Flowey Fan Club, forcing his brother to go along with (unspecified if he ever gets other people to also join, and unspecified are the activities or motivations for making this fanclub). I suspect that at least one of these is in a loop where Flowey admits to his backstory and Papyrus is overcome with sympathies.

In the game's main timeline, the timeloop that Frisk's arrival interrupts, Flowey has been laying low since the start, avoiding everyone but Papyrus (and maybe Alphys - she knows to be worried at the mention of a little yellow flower).

As Sans recounts, Flowey's been visiting Papyrus with a mix of flattery, praise, advice, and predictions - demonstrating that his knowledge and/or judgement is trustworthy, steering Papyrus into taking some path he wouldn't on his own.

Fact: You can befriend Papyrus and Undyne in your first playthrough, but befriending Alphys requires that Undyne give you a letter - and she doesn't, the first time through. You have to at least fight Asgore and Flowey and reload from your save before she'll demand you deliver the letter. She claims it was Papyrus' idea... But Flowey is the one with memories and an agenda.

Headcanon: Upon either reloading or reaching the right point in a reset, Flowey goes to Papyrus with advice for how New Friend Frisk could help Undyne AND Alphys at the same time. After all, the phone call to Frisk after the Alphys date instructing them to go meet up with Alphys, starts with an un-Papyrus "HOWDY" and follows into some conspicuously nervous comments. It makes the most sense that it was at Flowey's behest as part of their scheme to make Frisk make enough friends that Asgore wouldn't kill them (buying time for Flowey to steal a soul).

Further headcanon: Papyrus was in on the 'make the human make friends' plan, and maybe even the 'distract Asgore to go steal a soul' part, but not the 'steal ALL the souls' part.


Here, the plan with Flowey is irrelevant. The human kills too many for that to even be in the picture, and probably even kills Flowey.

Papyrus is disconnected from Undyne, now that she's furious and more murdery than ever, and goes along with Sans's rare initiative to connect with Toriel. Finds new goals and plans with them, and makes the most of it.