spaghettimonster | Pumpkin Hollow application

Player

Player Name: Swirl
Other Characters (if any): None at this time

Character

Character Name: PAPYRUS
Character Age: low 20s...? He's not a teen, but probably not much older than that
Canon: Undertale
Canon Point: True pacifist route, in the flash of light just before the final boss fight >:]
CRAU (if any): NA! Fresh slate direct from canon.
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History: Undertale wiki for Papyrus! I'm using the true pacifist route, so details from other things are illuminating about him but not immediately relevant.
A note of possible interest: the wiki doesn't say anything about his history before he and Sans moved to Snowdin, because nothing in Undertale clarifies. They might be regular monsters from New Home, the capital of the underground! They might be from secluded part of Hotland, and that's why Papyrus both hates it and doesn't know anything about it. They might be from a retconned version of the underground, with whatever happened to the previous royal scientist. Or, as a couple things in Undertale and Deltarune have been hinting, Sans Undertale might have originally been Sans Deltarune - which leaves this brother's history a mystery.
Papyrus conspicuously doesn't even give enigmatic hints about his past, instead talking about spending a lot of time in his room and his various dreams for the future. So far Papyrus Deltarune is Sir Not Appearing On Screen, so even if he is the same skeleton somehow, we're not likely to hear about it until after Pumpkin Hollow's wrapped up.
...so for now I'm proceeding under the assumption that Papyrus is from the Underground, whatever his brother's situation might be, and that either way he's a skeleton who prefers to focus on the present, possible future, and bits of the recent past. I'd be down to conspiracy theory with DR franchise-mates though!

Personality: For starters, linking my Crossing App since that has some relevant things re: Papyrus and how he'd cope with being dead.
BUT, that ~~Papyrus~~ skeleton was killed by a friend post-pacifist, and that app's intended for Crossing - a game with a focus on the characters moving on from their lives now that they are dead. From all I've seen, Pumpkin Hollow has a different focus, more about making a new life and helping others, with a significant aspect of horror and mysteries to unravel. So, this Papyrus won't need to accept his death or come to terms with it, per se. Dead? Who's dead! He's not dead, he's just... stepped away from the middle of a near-death experience and tiny betrayal from a flowery friend, to take a weird alternate reality trip to help some people in need, and maybe learn some valuable life lessons before going back underground to save the day! Downplaying the things he's worried about to all the more loudly crow the things he wants to believe are true is a tried and true strategy.

Or, to borrow heavily from another of my previous apps:
Papyrus is one of the backbones of Undertale, being the character with the most lines (besides the narrator), the boss of the second region of the underground, and the first character that the human must befriend (or 'date') to bring about the game's happier endings. He's introduced (by his jokester brother Sans) as a 'human-hunting fanatic', quickly shown to be loud, scolding, and prone to joking in turn. A clear personality unfolds as he gives the human monologues of dramatic threats and banter with his brother, in between presenting them with an array of puzzles and traps built along the road...

And this is largely a persona or mask, one he drops after his boss fight - giving up on capturing the human as his avenue to popularity, switching gears to one of fostering friendship. His motivation between these personas, his underlying motivation, is one of wanting to matter. To be memorable, to be important to people, rather than realize his fears of being forgettable or irrelevant.

Starting as the unofficial but effective civic leader of Snowdin, he focuses on what the human's doing in their journey through the underground. And in most of the endings where the human leaves the monsters behind, he seeks other positions of influence closer to whoever's ruling the underground - whether as a gardener to a queen, an empty title of importance to the empress, an agent to an entertaining tyrant, or something of a figurehead leader himself. In the endings where he isn't, it's because he's dead, or because he's prioritizing friendship over his own importance - helping a depressed Undyne keep going through her grief, or helping the exiled queen Toriel to protect other future humans. Or, in the pacifist route, he's focused on helping Flowey with his plan to prevent the final battle of king vs human, giving his flower friend time to steal souls (possibly a surprise to Papyrus, but possibly on purpose, out of the understanding it would help the soulless flower). Even in the happiest post-canon ending he's quick to run ahead of the others, seeking to make the first impression of the humans on monsterkind's behalf, and he volunteers to be ambassador if no one else claims the position.

If Papyrus has a personal history that's driven this motivation for importance, no one in Undertale mentions a word of it. In this game, he is a character of the present and near future, full of quirky comments and no childhood stories, quick to jump from dream to dream when the circumstances change and he sees a new way to gain the approval and standing he craves.

He doesn't restrict himself to the practical or even the plausible, either - his skin care products and exercise routines are only making him more moisturized and muscular in his own mind, and his thoughtlessness in knocking on a front door for training at midnight only paid off because Undyne was impressed by his tenacity in staying there until morning for the answer. He's self-absorbed in ways where he's quick to announce his own greatness, but eager to cheer others on and willing to give special and inconveniencing help - what he thinks is best, or interesting, rather than necessarily helpful. He's the greatest, but that's no reason for anyone else to think they can't be great too, and he'll energetically tell them so if he has to put on jogging gear and follow them around offering encouragements.

Initial Game Plan: Definitely Not Thinking that maybe his flower friend killed them! He's definitely only near death, and will be working this out sooner or later. But, since later might be a long while, he'll be looking for things here to invest all his busy energy and forever seeking relevance into.
RP Interests: I'll admit, I'm a sucker for the 'wtf, this is a walking skeleton, sir did you know you are dead/bones' reactions and for Papyrus to weather them in a variety of amused / patient / impatient ways. More generally, I enjoy chances for juxtaposing shenanigans with serious things! Deflecting from dread and horror with terrible puns and puzzles and bickering over inane things! Overall decent intentions that go awry in the ways that maybe only time travel can fix. I as a player also enjoy poking at the Mysteries of a game, but Papyrus as a rule only pokes so far before he goes silly/evasive so as to not look directly at the horrors, so that's easier if he's tagging along and helping someone else out rather than taking initiative himself.
Preferred Job: In the short term, he will definitely at least TRY fishing and/or farming, if the need for food is still high. Long term artisan is a better fit for existing skills, but reinventing himself with something new is also a possibility.
Papyrus watering flowers, including Flowey, who's annoyed by this.

Papyrus watering flowers, including Flowey, who's annoyed by this.

NSFW-friendly?: Possibly! In theory yes, but I'm more likely to chat about it than thread since it's easier to joke about the bone zone than write it. But we will see.