Aefenglom Application - Round 2, the remix

[spaghettimonster]

Player Information
Name: Swirl
Age: 34
Contact: PM this journal, find me in the game discord, etc
Other Characters: N/A

Character Information
Name: PAPYRUS
Canon: Undertale
Canon Point: Post-true pacifist ending, as far as the winter alarm clock content!
Age: Unspecified in canon, strikes me as early-mid 20s; young enough people tend to shelter him, still figuring out his life, and yet old enough he could be voted king.
History: Wiki entry here, plus a tl;dr of my notes on this timeline

Personality: Papyrus is first described by his brother as a "human-hunting fanatic," desperate to capture to the last human needed to free monsterkind. It's clear his motivations are a little less for the sake of breaking the barrier, and a little more for a promotion - and mostly the prestige and popularity he hopes will follow.

Since his goal is more about getting friends than seeking vengeance or freedom, he doesn't do approach this whole human-hunting thing very sensibly. He follows ancient and frankly outdated monster traditions in building various puzzles to "block" the way into town, without making them very difficult to pass. He practices monologues to unleash at a moment's notice, a theatrical show of baffling and threatening any human he might discover. He even coordinates a prank with his brother, with Sans offering a seemingly helpful hint about blue magic - one of Papyrus' battle techniques - only for Papyrus to use that technique as a fakeout.

In some ways, he doesn't even pretend to be taking the sentry position or human-hunting seriously. He builds a lopsided sentry station with cardboard and pasta screws as slow setup for a pun instead of building anything professional looking, he deactivates his most effective obstacles for the sake of making things fair, and he spends his entire fight giving a rehearsed monologue about his worries - possibly while applying beauty products. Once he has the option to capture the human he imprisons them temporarily in an easily escapable shed, and no matter how rudely or aggressively the human comes at him, he ultimately offers them mercy and friendship. He goes through a whole rigmarole of lying to his boss - even while trying to befriend her officially - in order to protect the human from her, but doesn't lie effectively enough to keep them from fighting each other.

Papyrus can't quite decide whether he wants to be liked for himself, or wants to be liked even if it takes lying, so he does a loud awkward mix of both that leaves him with few friends. At the game's start he has only one or two people he'd call friends - one is his boss, as loud and awkward in her own way as he is, and one's a flower whose name he might not even know. His room's full of gaudy and childish things, from action figures to a flame-patterned carpet to a racecar bed, and he goes around wearing the costume every day for weeks or months on end... 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. He builds puzzles all along the path to show off to the human, calls them "terrible" the moment he's finished with his boss fight, and yet continues building puzzles on the surface (at least for special occasions).

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, once he feels secure enough in their friendship not to get anxious for their approval. But 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

💀 Baffling chef

When it comes to cooking, Papyrus is less the sort to rely on cookbooks, and more the sort to get artistic and creative with it. Sometimes it leads to incidents like the pasta soaked in an oaken cask for an "indescribable" and largely inedible taste. Other times it leads to perfectly presentable, edible, and tasty food... with added bones for skeletal garnish. With time, practice, and exposure to better culinary instructors, by the time of the winter party, his food is fine - if bone-filled

💀 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 with learning the new magic he'll gain as a Witch, or it might give him a lot of false confidence in his ability to rein himself in.

💀 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 pep talks 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. Not at all a necromantic construct, he's skeleton-shaped and will 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. Fortunately for him, the magic of Geardagas is fortifying in a way that lets Undertale monsters survive a little better!

☠ 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

☠ Teleportation

And this one wasn't included in the previous app because I outright didn't catch it before! It's very easily missed, but Papyrus does seem to demonstrate teleportation of the variety Sans uses)on one occasion. The clip in the link is of when Papyrus enters a seemingly locked room by turning the room (fully) black, then bringing the lights back up with the same sound effect that accompanies Sans's teleportation. It's done significantly slower than Sans's use, likely out of lack of practice - teleportation is a tool for lazy skeletons who don't walk places, except when dealing with locked doors.

Inventory/Companions:
💀 Current Clothing

His "battle body" (the costume he wears in the game that's meant to resemble armor, or perhaps an old comic book hero), possibly still worn all this time, possibly dug out for the special occasion of inviting so many friends over.

💀 Cellphone

Monster cellphone inspired by human technology, without calls and texting thanks to being reliant on the underground's internet, but with a camera for taking excellent skeleton selfies, plus a small magic hammerspace. It runs on batteries powered by magic electricity, so it'll take some adapting to make it work off of witch magic - maybe Alphys can consult.

💀 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 yellowed bones - though not of any particular species.

💀 Sunglasses

Stylish AND functional, now that he's got months of life on the surface under his belt!

💀 Dog residue

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

Choice: Witch
Reason: Not too many months ago, in another timeline, Papyrus got to struggle with the transformations and instincts of a turnskin. I'm taking the burnout and change in direction to explore a new direction with the skeleton: the mania and energy that can come with being a witch. Perhaps even literal burnout, if he doesn't keep on top of his spending energy (through productivity or pranks alike) or finding a bond or three to help stabilize him.
Samples:
💀 The daily life of the semi-functional skeleton household
💀 TDM top level