THE GREAT PAPYRUS

Pumpkin Hollow - inbox

Mon, 05 Jan 2026 23:14:36 GMT

INBOX
SENDING STONE / LETTER / ACTIONFEEL FREE TO CALL OR VISIT ANY TIME!
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Pumpkin Hollow - thread tracking

Sun, 19 Oct 2025 12:09:28 GMT

💀 THREAD TRACKING

TDM #12, Fall
- Visiting the docks (Zivia Birnbaum and Captain Royal Dominguez)
- Festivals and Potlucks (Mettaton)
- Haunted House (Dr. James Harvey)
- Rebuilding Efforts * (Lorelei)
- Rebuilding Efforts * (Artemy)
- Rebuilding Efforts (Leon)

What did your character do this month?: Papyrus arrived sometime mid-month (time is soup), and got to work rebuilding houses, being eaten by a house, eating various festival foods, and exploring in some forests! So far he's run into Mettaton around town...

TMA October Fearfest
- THE STRANGER (Felix, sorta)
- THE STRANGER ("Namu" - Marik)
- THE WEB (Mettaton)
- THE FLESH * (Kabru)
- THE DARK * (Wilson)
- THE BURIED (Cassandra de Rolo)

What did your character do this month?: Earlier on, he enjoyed the festivals, met a few people in the course of working his job, taking a break from his job, and being eaten/kidnapped by a house from his job! Zivia broke the news that she's been here over a year, Mettaton broke the news it's been a couple months and also they didn't disappear at the same time. Lorelei and Artemy both enlisted the skeleton's help in various repair work, while Leon took to Papyrus's carpentry tutelage. During the housenapping, Dr. Harvey tried to help them escape the house, and probably didn't even inflict surprise therapy on Papyrus.

Later on, Halloween Event :) Papyrus came to in the Stranger's territory, confused first by fake-Sans figures and later by his own identity confusion. He sought info from library books, then sought the train to safety only to get waylaid into the woods, finally stumbling his way through the dark into caves far less friendly than those underground... Cassandra at least insisted the surface world hadn't been a dream.

November
- Sending stone after revival and returning home, a day and change's delay after October's end (Mettaton)
- Spa day! (Mettaton)

(I forgot to write an activity summary, so: probably a lot of emotional recovery, some physical recovery stymied by a demanding job he's kinda regretting, and the start of looking into Other Job Options.)

TDM #13, Winter
- Winter Market and career prospects * (Batter)
- Winter Market and reunion (~~Namu~~ - Marik)
- Kesapasa (Ashley)
- Heinrich Unheimlich and professional advice (Dr. Harvey)
- Heinrich Unheimlich and stabbing advice (Artemy)

Givingstide, December
- Gift exchange and chatting (Cassandra)
- Gift exchange and chatting (Fever)
- Givingstide and cultural differences (Zack Fair)

- Calloway's Emporium (and a familiar Jogboy shirt) Calloway

Papyrus continued his laborer work, but put most of his spare time into craft and reading. Specifically, making a couple artistic gifts for people like Mettaton and Cassandra, a few artworks for his own enjoyment, and then frequenting the library to begin learning all about agriculture.

(Years underground did not prepare one for the variety of effects weather and sunlight can have on plants, after all.)

Kadath, January
- Ballroom masquerade - dance (Cassandra)
- Garden flowers (Zivia)
- Banquet feast - red meat (Leon)
- Bedroom balcony - exploring (Sephiroth)
- Banquet feast - red apples (Capochin)
- Ballroom masquerade (Mettaton)

What did your character do this month?: Papyrus struggled with a persistent haunted stuffed rabbit and sought help about it, met a few new faces around the market place, found his own used shirt in a store, and generally had an entertaining but nightmarish time in the nightmare castle.
He also continued looking into what sorts of things need doing around the island that he'd find both fulfilling and challenging, and concluded he'd like to take up something agricultural come spring. Assignment specifics to be determined, for now he's studying up on soil, planting schedules, livestock care, and the like while it's still cold out.

Merrymeet, February
- Surprise hug and congratulations? (Radar O'Reilly)
- Surprise collision and spilled tea * (Erik Lehnsherr)
- Gazebo mischief possibilities (Gwen Stacey)
- Invigorating green: offers to spar, albeit more with weapons and dodging than with magic (Aloy)

In continuing Kadath threads, Papyrus attended a few dances in the ballroom (with Cassandra and Mettaton and a mix of threatening energies to the crowd each time), tried climbing up the building as a search for a way out but ended up exploring with Sephiroth instead, tried getting edible food from the dining room but met with failure in both Leon and Capochin's presences, and sought an escape from the mesmerizing garden with Zivia.
In Feburary itself, Papyrus attended Merrymeet, applauding particularly loudly at court members he recognized, and mostly got up to daintily tasting food and having some fun tea-influenced experiences. More updates on this with next AC!
Offscreen, he continued learning the ins and outs of all sorts of agricultural things, and has probably been up to some handwaved training on some of the existing farms.

TDM #14, Spring
- Swift Social and sunglasses (Marik)
- Swift Social and skeletons (Vespertine)
- Swift Social and problem solving (Artemy)
- Swift Social and diving (Purple Imposter)
- Swift Social and surviving blood loss (Susie Dyneaux)
- Swift Social and Shrimp Town (Jax)
- Swift Social and TV Time? (Tenna)

- Raising the dead at the dragon dig? (Gozer)

By Order of the King, March
Senate room
- Whether they're outside the barrier (Jon & Cassandra)
- What is the barrier? Could Papyrus make a new one??? (Ethan)
- Work and laziness?? (Hector)
- Failing to just say it, but it's not culinary (Simon)
- No reason to believe the words, but also - falling short?? (Shen Qingqiu)
- Of puzzles and world domination...? (Marik)
- Dahlia murders Artemy
- Stabbed with a knife? (Azimar)
- Dropping in on a pressure plate game (Alex & Mettaton)

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Pumpkin Hollow application

Thu, 04 Sep 2025 10:51:43 GMT

( Read more... )

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Crossing - names, memories, and other things to note

Sun, 06 Apr 2025 22:01:11 GMT

CROSSING DEVELOPMENTS

Arrived while they were in the Desert

Wraiths are Aware of him: Ventured outside the light in the initial tour / explanations of their circumstances

Woke without his name - soon started a list of name suggestions and rules for giving suggestions

NAME SUGGESTIONS (updated: 5/1)

THE GREAT SKELETON

Watson - (Dankovsky)

Yamabuki - (Yashiro)

Anatomical Model - (Sakuya)

Second-In-Command - (Hanako)

Spicy Bones - (Sunny)

MEMORIES LOST

"Papyrus," any nicknames derived from his name, and any other names he might ever have had, are all very specifically redacted from his recollection. He remembers himself, he remembers other people and their names, but his own name is just gone.

are

CONTEXT

Route: Pacifist (post-completed genocide / bargain), with humoring over the puzzles, a hangout rather than a date, plenty of monologues at the human over the phone.

Ending: Frisk doesn't move in with Toriel, Papyrus becomes ambassador. ~12 weeks of time on the surface, involving a number of startled / alarmed reactions to Suddenly, Skeleton, to the information spreading and things growing a little more political about it all. How much he was still effectively mascot vs involved in the decisions, unclear!

Death: The human killed him. To Papyrus's knowledge, he was the first (and hopefully only) one killed.

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CROSSING INBOX

Thu, 03 Apr 2025 05:37:43 GMT

INBOX
NETWORK (un: CoolSkeleton95) / LETTER / ACTIONFEEL FREE TO CALL OR VISIT ANY TIME!
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Application - Crossing

Mon, 10 Mar 2025 01:49:47 GMT

🕱 PLAYER INFO 🕱

NAME: Swirl
OVER 18?: Yeah, very much so
CURRENT PLAYER?: Nope!
PREFERRED CONTACT: DM this account, swirlingflight, or pinging me on the game's discord

🕱 CHARACTER INFO 🕱

CHARACTER NAME: "The Great ~~Papyrus~~"
CANON: Undertale
CANON POINT: Post-canon AU based on the derailed happy ending of a "true pacifist" ending after the player did a "genocide" run. I'm going with the version of this ending featuring a photo of all the main characters, with X's drawn over all the monsters but not the human. The implication seems to be that the kid went on a killing spree, possibly related to the bargain where they sold their soul to restore the broken world. I'm not specifying the cause here - that's for any potential players of the human in the future! - but I am specifying that it came as a surprise to Papyrus and happened about 12 weeks after the end of Undertale, after he had been working as ambassador to humankind.

HISTORY: Undertale.fandom.com, which is unfortunately currently the best wiki available for him. (Fandom.com, ugh.)

SUITABILITY: Is it really a game about death if there aren't any skeletons in it? He's providing important welcome mascot services for everyone that emerges from the River on this trip!

More seriously, Papyrus is a character who hides his fears about the threat of death behind avoidance, joking, and scolding. When murdered in canon he responds in one of two ways: catching his own skull as it detaches (so as to make a Yorick joke before he dissolves), or spending his last moments reassuring his killer that he knows they can be a better person (even if they don't think they can). He doesn't want to die, he avoids actively acknowledging the ways he or the human are in danger, and he'll briefly admit to having been scared if he's spared... but in the moment of his death, it doesn't seem like he's especially worried about it. If he has any expectation of an afterlife, he never hints at it.

And his avoidance of passive thinking goes further - he's always seeking something to do. There's multiple jokes in the game saying that he barely sleeps, and instead fills days and nights alike with everything from puzzle-building, reading, artistic projects, playing with toys, and messing around online. He claims that he practices monologues for various scenarios, and at a few points demonstrates word for word repetitions of lines - and not just in the videogame way, but with different expressions if he's said them before. And as the only boss who will knock the human out instead of killing them, one can go through his fight multiple times - there's a whole different speech for each time, but the lines he says before his attacks are the exact same.

...He's not one for solitary deep reflection on his circumstances, when he could instead focus on tasks and projects to fill his days, is what I'm saying. This lingering existence after death with little to do is going to be strange for him. Initially, it's a surprising almost-relief, that death didn't finish him off. To his knowledge, he has the chance to reunite with people (hopefully a long time off)!!!

But these days of seemingly varying length, with no food to prepare or consume, no need for sleep and no ability to dream, without much for entertainment sources but imagination and the conversations they have with each other... Long term, that's going to be challenging for him. The change of scenery with each Crossing will at least provide new things to investigate each time, but he'll be clinging to the other people for trying to address his restlessness and boredom.

Additionally, and relatedly - Papyrus tends to come up with new dream and goals to shape his life around from time to time. All through his introduction in Undertale, that dream was to join the Royal Guard, to gain the popularity and prestige that would surely come with it!! He boasts and threatens all along the road to town, as the human faces the various obstacles he's built in the way. But if he's spared in his boss fight, he stops loudly emphasizing that dream, instead rapidly announcing his intent to switch goals to being the human's friend and helping them out of the underground. After an entertaining hangout/date, he offers details about the underground and the people in it, and schemes ways into getting the human to befriend a couple other influential monsters.

In the various "neutral" endings he survives to see, he's generally changed course to a new life unrelated to the royal guard - being an agent/enforcer of the new ruler of the underground, or being an almost-figurehead ruler himself, learning to be a "great mom," or putting his own life goals on hold to help keep a friend from making a drastic and final decision in her grief. And by the end of the happiest ending, he's brought it up at least once more just to lampshade it and joke about what a terrible ending they've gotten, otherwise is content to reinvent himself the moment they reach the surface (ambassador or mascot, depending on what the human chooses for themself).

He's one for loudly proclaiming a dream is what drives him, but also for suddenly changing that dream to something else that better suits his circumstances. In the pursuit of it he might make abrupt changes in how he dresses and interacts with people, and then again switch goals with little mention of that past one when another takes hold.

Likewise, he doesn't mention a thing about where he lived or what he did before he and his brother "just showed up one day" in Snowdin. Nothing about what he might have done as a job or for study or for passing his time, nothing about where they grew up or what other friends or family they had before. Every other major character in Undertale, including Sans, offers at least an anecdote or hint about their past - not Papyrus. The thoughts he shares are largely on the present and his hopes for the future. The most commentary on the past he does is in the various neutral endings of the game where the human killed some of the other major characters - he'll comment on them and their absence (never using the words 'killed' or 'dead' but some roundabout sentiment like 'destroy' or 'on vacation'), before asking the human if they can bring those people back. Seems like whoever he knew before the brothers moved to Snowdin is even further removed from his day-to-day life than those we kill through the game.

(I'm honestly still holding out to see whether they're secretly from a destroyed Deltarune world, as a couple easter egg comments might imply... but even if that turns out to be the case, the update schedule of Deltarune so far means we probably wouldn't find that out until years after The Crossing ends anyway.)

So, for suitability: There's things he clings to, but also a lot of things he's very willing to let go of and change focus on. He'll be reluctant to outright give up pieces of himself or the people he was close to, but almost certainly prefer the 'choice' of what to give up over the risks of losing far more by going without the Ferryman's help, especially since he doesn't have his magic anymore. I'm interested to explore how he'll change through the combination of losing memories and interactions with the other characters in the game. What new dreams will he come up with and try shaping himself and his interactions with others around?

FIRST TOLL: The skeleton's first toll is having gone by the name "Papyrus," any nicknames derived directly from it, or any other name he might have ever had - which is to say, his name is redacted from his otherwise intact memories of the past and sense of self. The Great... [redacted]..?

Even if someone shows up who can remind him of it, it won't spark recollection and he'll always quickly forget it again. (At best, he might manage a mnemonic that it starts with P by comparing himself and his shorter brother Sans to salt and pepper shakers.) He may even struggle to recognize nicknames and other suggested names as referring to himself, though I'll wait to decide that based partly on how annoying calling him 'the skeleton' in narration is.

My thinking is, he's a character who introduces himself as The Great Papyrus in English and goes by 'ore-sama' in Japanese, posing with an invisible wind to flutter his capelet, typing and talking in all-caps, and taking selfies with excessive fake muscles and extra pairs of sunglasses. He's big on the value of believing in himself, loudly, and telling others to believe in themselves too. Losing that cornerstone of self will be unsettling on an ongoing basis for him, leaving him to stumble in introductions, search for nicknames that he'll be able to recognize in a crisis, and otherwise wonder what other pieces might be more subtly missing.

SAMPLES:
- Arrival and rescue with Nagito, including bickering about many worlds theory, erratic attempts to get along, and an ongoing rundown about the afterlife
- Pepper punnery and the state of sleep in this afterlife, with Sunny
- A mutual scare with Arche, including discussion of the undead and where skeletons come from, and unanswered questions about wraiths and missing memories

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Silent Spring - IC Inbox

Tue, 02 Jan 2024 04:01:53 GMT

image source

For all your IC inbox needs, be it calls, letters, or just threads off the comm!

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Current Game(s)

Tue, 02 Jan 2024 03:51:22 GMT

🎃 Pumpkin Hollow 🎃

🎃 Pumpkin Hollow application

🎃 Thread Tracking

🎃 PH Inbox

🕱 The Crossing 🕱

🕱 Crossing Application

🕱 Info / Permissions (general)

🕱 Crossing Updates: Names, Memories, etc

🕱 IC Inbox

( Thread history )

🕱 Crossing Navigation 🕱

🕱

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Silent Spring application

Thu, 14 Dec 2023 06:06:42 GMT

( Read more... )

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Canyon Thread Tracking

Fri, 10 Feb 2023 17:58:03 GMT

May 2021
TDM #1

June 1st
Sans, waking in the ruins

Sayori, did she die too?

Robotnik, meeting eyes in the (first) meeting power failure

Kavinsky, nightmares

Early June:

Sans, slipping out before the (second) meeting

Mayor Karst, tunnel collapse?

Sayori, roommates?

Kavinsky, vending machines

Mysterio, phone shopping

Roman, appearance on Dylan's talk show

Mista, appearance on Dylan's talk show

June 5-7, Job fair
Robotnik, on manufacturing and machinery

June 9
Sans, phone call and maize maze

Late June
Transformations

Kavinsky, this party is too familiar

Sans, wordless reunion

Late June - Early July
- post -

Robotnik, rebooting, discussion of changes / repairs

Sans, charging

Mid July

Sans, religion experiment

Early August

Mysterio, glitching memory projections

Robotnik, bodily repairs while rusting

Sans, void goddening (1)

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Austice: thread tracking

Mon, 14 Nov 2022 04:57:12 GMT

Oct 7 TDM top level: (top level)

- Hiiro, freight car
- Ala, passenger car, rooftop investigation
- Haruhi, passenger car
- Mayoi, surprise passenger car

- Kokichi, layover
- Peridot, layover
- Mion, layover
- Shinjiro, layover

- Hiyori, foggy night surprise
- Ryu, foggy night surprise (handwaved 2nd meeting)
- Claudia, library surprise
- Barnaby, foggy night surprise
- Sans, breaking and entering welcome surprise

Oct 16 Mini-Event, Hellhounds: (top level)

- Sans, pre-event stargazing attempt
- Ala, early event fighting
- Rinne, post-event healing
- Jiro, post-event BELL THEFT

[Investigation] BELL THEFT

Oct 25 Network post: (top level)

- Barnaby, question of memories
- Kotetsu, More Skeletons
- Sans, in-person question of memories, who's Asgore?

Oct 31 Info-share meeting in the plaza

- V, introduction, breaking and entering
- Sans, introduction, unhelpful brother
- Sans, introduction, ex-humans...??
- Papyrus, introduction, skill set - Rinne clothes commission, Ala train repair
- Jiro & others, Bell Theft report, Pit Trap Planning
- Barnaby, what if different universe rather than memory problems?
- Sans, hearing people yell about skeletons

11/4 Pit Trap Entrance

- Sans, text, come to the pit trap
- Judai, pit trap healing

11/4: CAMPING TRIP: (top level)

- Ala, field walk, mudball dare
- Sans, field walk, grabby lazy bones
- Jiro, lookout, question of healing
- Kuja, Bell Toll
- Judai, Bell Toll

11/12 or so

[Investigation: decorative bone & note sacrifice]

11/14 Info-share Meeting #2

- Barnaby, Undyne in the fog?
- Kuja & others, Fog experiment announcement
- Judai, pit #2
- Hiiro, results of coffin trades?
- Sans, reacting after the Jiro vs T&B fight leaves the church
- Rinne, apparently died??? don't drink poison

11/17 Fog Experiment

[Investigation: fog experiment, soul smoothie, Kuja statue]
Statue in the church art show

Early December

- Hiiro, path shoveling
- Lalli, path shoveling
- Matoba, monster's rock sculptures
- Yuri, train investigation
[Investigation: train supplies] - Kuja, re: learning white magic

Public Notice Board

- Tsukasa, re: got a blood phone? feelings about it?

12/19 Network post

- Aoi, re: Gyftmas

January Event / TDM: (top level)

- Sans, death
- Hiyori, magic?
- Hiiro, re: Rinne's revival (and Sans's death)
- Kaname, re: Rinne's death (and Sans's)
- Sans, revival
- Marcus, supportive hug giving
- Ala, supportive hug giving

Early-mid January Kuja Troubles

- Kuja re: regen and flickering souls

Mid January, Never Have I Ever party

- Forget his mother's birthday...?
- Been kissed on the lips...?
- Been in a car...?
- Attended classes at school...?
- Called himself a knight...?
- Tripped over a couch in a shortcut...?

Jan 25 Infoshare Meeting

- The bell is easy enough to take down without ringing
- They didn't steal the bell, just borrowed it a little
- Uh, warden trees...? Skeleton?!
- Souls as power source...?

- TEXT

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Austice: IC Inbox

Sat, 15 Oct 2022 17:04:19 GMT

INBOX
network / phone-call / phone-text / letter / action

(Papyrus will be registering for the network, but will also share his own phone's number with acquaintances)FEEL FREE TO CALL OR VISIT ANY TIME!
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Austice: Application

Thu, 13 Oct 2022 18:24:33 GMT

PLAYER

Name: Swirl
Preferred pronoun(s): they/them
Contact: PM this account, swirlingflight

CHARACTER

Name: Papyrus
Canon: Undertale
Canon point: Neutral ending: Royal Guardener Papyrus
Age: Unspecified in canon, but he's not one of the teenagers - I usually go with low-to-mid 20s. He feels like somebody on the fifth or sixth year of undergrad, on his fifth or sixth attempted major, you know?

Summary: Papyrus is one of the backbones of Undertale, being the character with the most lines, the boss of the second region, and the first of the friends the player needs to 'date' to bring about the happier endings of the game. He's introduced as the loud, human-hunting brother of jokester Sans, giving monologues of dramatic threats in between bantering and bickering with his brother, slowing the player with the array of puzzles and traps he's built along the road... And this is largely a persona, one he drops after his boss fight - when he gives up on capturing the human as his avenue to popularity - and switches gears to one of fostering friendship.

His motivations between both these personas, his underlying motivation, is one of wanting to be important - to be memorable and to matter, rather than be forgettable or irrelevant. He usually approaches this as wanting to be Important, from that first impression of wanting to join the royal guard, to seeking other positions of influence in the underground. In most of the neutral endings, he's close to the rulership of the underground as an assistant or figurehead; in the endings where he isn't, it's because he's dead, or helping Undyne through her grief and depression, or helping exiled queen Toriel protect future humans, or because he's following Flowey's plan to prevent the final battle of king vs human. Even in the happiest 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 past inspiring this motivation, no one in the game mentions a word of it - 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. Papyrus 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.

Powers/abilities: Skeleton #2 here with a similarly long power list:

intention

only

(1a) repeatedly sliding around

(1b) without walking

(2) double-jumping in the air

(3) leaping unnaturally far from a standing position

had I only used my special attack, you surely would have been blasted to...

during the prank of Frisk walking in the dark.

potential

turns to watch the human go by underground

lot

Inventory: Ceremonial Royal Guard armor, t-shirt and shorts underneath, cell phone (with hammerspace inventory now reduced to 5 slots), a spare decorative bone, some gold (currency)

OTHER

Sentimental item: A blue teacup in the shape of a fish. It belongs to Undyne, Papyrus's ex-boss and now-friend, and had been gifted to her by the (now-deceased) King Asgore. In Undyne Papyrus found a friend as willing to be loud and enthusiastically herself as he tries/pretends to be, someone who appreciates his company in a way few do. He values her happiness enough to scheme on her behalf, manipulating her into actions he's sure are best for her (namely, attempting friendship with the human and confessing to her crush).

Gemstone: A piece of snowflake obsidian, black and white, carved into a simple, small skull. It has a crack extending up from one eye socket, and a chunk of the other cheekbone missing from the mouth to the eye.

Lost memory #1: Papyrus will forget Flowey's existence. 'Flowey the flower' had control of the timeline before Frisk fell, and in his many time loops he got to know the rest of the monsters very well - including what buttons to push to get various reactions out of them. In the timeline that game's beginning interrupts, Flowey had secretly befriended Papyrus, giving him predictions of the future and advice on what to do about it. This friendship had been going on for weeks, if not months or longer - the specific timeframe isn't clear - but the relevant things are that some of Papyrus's hopes and fears at the game's start were tweaked by the flower's input, some of his actions in the game were based on the flower's advice, and Flowey had been the first seemingly effortless friend Papyrus ever made. Without that, his tendencies towards overconfidence and insecurity will both be exaggerated - he'll know he's succeeded at making friends and other dreams, but he won't be able to replicate the ease he had with some of it, and the apparent increased difficult will feel like he's reverting to old habits.

Lost memory #2: Some of the details about the magic barrier. He'll remember that the barrier traps monsters inside, that human souls are more powerful than monster souls, and that it would take the power of about seven human souls to destroy the barrier. He won't remember that it takes the power of a human soul and a monster soul to exit the barrier, or that passage is based solely on soul power. Without those details, he'll think that the human could have left without incident just by asking Asgore to let them pass. And with his altered memory, he'll be under the impression that he and Sans had the ability to go through at any time, and simply weren't using it for some reason - which will leave him more frustrated with Sans's tendencies towards laziness.

Altered memory: Papyrus's childhood / background. Instead of growing up wherever and however he did in canon - never specified - he's now solidly under the impression that he's a reanimated human skeleton. It's uncommon knowledge in Undertale that ghosts are capable of not just briefly possessing objects, but of becoming them - binding their souls to the objects and bringing them to life, by experiencing strong enough emotions to fill the bodies with their magic. Papyrus won't believe that he's outright an ex-ghost, but he will believe that something similar happened - that someone, maybe the king or the previous royal scientist, used a lot of spiritual power to bring two skeletons to life. The memories of his creation and immediate aftermath will be muddled, being the equivalent to childhood's learning process. He'll remember that Sans is older than him and was already used to being a person, that Papyrus was disoriented and distressed by Hotland's steam vents, and that he honed his blue magic to feel more confident navigating the area. His clearest memories are primarily based when the skeletons moved to Snowdin, including the events actually mentioned / portrayed in the game. This altered background will give Papyrus a stronger sense of kinship with the humans in the game, a fun potential hook with the necromancers and anyone horrified by necromancy, and mutual bewilderment with his brother's conflicting memories.

Sample: TDM top level

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Canyon: skeleton house

Wed, 10 Nov 2021 19:39:12 GMT

Thanks to a little mind-control incident with a leech and cookies dusted with powdered bone from Papyrus's own skull, the skeletons became the happy(?) owners of a comfortable house on the east side of Santa Benedicto. During that haze of mind control they did a little renovation (with a few random neighbors and the real estate happily lending a hand), improving the roofing and wiring and various other touches.

The leech is long gone, but they've continued to do renovations. This post is for keeping track of some of the various things the brothers have done to their increasingly disastrously decorated home.

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Navigation: Recent games (2021 - 2024)

Sat, 31 Jul 2021 07:24:39 GMT

CANYON

Application

Changes

IC Inbox

WIP Tracker

HMD

Navigation

background source

AUSTICE

Application
-
IC Inbox
-
Thread Tracker

Silent Spring

IC Inbox
-
Application
-
TDM#1 top level
-
Info
-
HMD

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Canyon: Inbox

Sat, 31 Jul 2021 06:34:23 GMT

INBOX call / text / letter / action FEEL FREE TO CALL OR VISIT ANY TIME! code credit

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Aefenglom Info - 2!

Tue, 01 Jun 2021 16:58:12 GMT

The bare bones:
2021 Application
2021 Inbox

Housing situation:
May 2021: in the Barracks

Magic
- as the Light cantrip
- Phylax summoning (a small blue jay)
[More coming soon to a space near you]

Specified belongings:
- Battle body (costume outfit as his world sprite)
- Cell phone
- A few spare bone attacks (yellowed with age, as if giftable)
- Sunglasses
- Dog residue (used tennis balls, w/ toothmarks and drool)

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Aefenglom IC Inbox - 2!

Tue, 01 Jun 2021 16:43:19 GMT

Residence: TBD

Watch display name: CoolestSkeleton95

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Canyon: Changes log

Thu, 27 May 2021 06:36:16 GMT

(concept art placeholders)

PAPYRUS

Mechanical

PHYSICAL CHANGES

MENTAL CHANGES

⇁ METAL INSTEAD OF BONES =(

All of Papyrus's body, from head to toes, has been completely replaced with machinery. He's still very much a skeleton-style robot.

⇁ REFLECTIVE, SOMETIMES GLOWING EYE SOCKETS

Thanks to the machinery developing in the back of his eyesockets to improve his vision, Papyrus's eyesockets now reflect light in the style of tapetum lucidum, and sometimes glow with black light.

⇁ TEMPLE PORTS

Further thanks to the circuitry slowly filling up his skull, Papyrus has ports in his temples for cables to connect into (like USB). They're usually covered with casings he's painstakingly painted to resemble the surrounding skull, but light doesn't quite reflect the same, and he sometimes removes the cases for use.

⇁ WIRE HAIR

Along the top and back of his head, wires that could connect to various devices have grown out in a way resembling hair.

~~⇁ NO LOWER JAW~~

~~Papyrus's lower jaw is gone, so his mouth no longer moves when he talks. His cheekbones and eyesockets still shift to indicate when he's smiling or frowning.~~

⇁ PHYSICAL CHANGE

⇁ MECHANICAL APTITUDE (MODERATE)

An increasing aptitude for machinery, as the transformation continues spreading through his body and he studies up on the engineering and programming of it. He's now able to make modifications to his own body, and to repair or build increasingly complicated devices.

⇁ INCLINED TO FOLLOW INSTRUCTIONS (WEAK)

While it hasn't begun interfering with his willingness to make decisions, Papyrus has become more responsive to what others tell him to do. When given a direct instruction (whether an order or something more conversational), Papyrus tends to begin doing it, and rationalize it as his choice as he goes.

⇁ INDIFFERENCE TO PRIVACY (MEDIUM)

Whether his own privacy or others', Papyrus is becoming more and more accustomed to the perpetual flow of information, and expects people to be able to access information as they want it. Unless he's specifically decided something is private (secure and encrypted) or knows that something's intended to be, he's increasingly inclined to share it or snoop. The idea of recording and sharing conversations, of putting up surveillance cameras, or hacking others' devices is less and less troubling to him. Ask him about the tracker he installed in his brother's phone without permission.

⇁ AUTOMATED MANNERISMS

As much as Papyrus previously practiced reciting speeches and cool poses, scripting out some of his day-to-day behavior, now he can do so even more effectively - and does. There's an uncanny sameness to some of his gestures and mannerisms, as he runs a file for the motion or expression rather than physically acting it out himself. He's a robot, it's fine.

⇁ MENTAL CHANGE

POWERS

LIMITATIONS

⇁ ELECTROMAGNETIC RECEIVER

Papyrus now perceives a much wider range of radiation, between noticing when x-rays or microwaves are in use, hearing bits of radio chatter and phone calls, and even hearing stars. (The sun does not have anything useful to say, just a distant wailing, but it's better than creepy echo flower whispers.) This is a very wide-spectrum and randomly shifting perception, rather than one that lets him intentionally perceive things... yet.

⇁ INTERCHANGEABLE PARTS

As his torso and limbs are largely metal and circuitry, the machine parts can be customized or replaced - provided he has the parts and time to ensure the connections all match up. For Spirituals and others with the ability to sense such things, detached parts that haven't been replaced still have some essence of Papyrus to them. Once replaced, that connection fades.

⇁ LINK WITH TECHNOLOGY

Through direct connection via cable, he can plug into devices and use them with his mind rather than touching the screen/keyboard etc. He can download files, or upload those already stored on him (the ability to reformat his own memories and so forth is a separate power). Through tactile contact, Papyrus can absorb small amounts of electrical charge - moreso, and uncontrollably so, when he's starving.

⇁ VISION ENHANCEMENT SUITE - APPROVAL

The mechanical changes have crept up into Papyrus's eyesockets, improving his visual perception options in a fun range of ways.

Low light vision in the style of tapetum lucidum, intensifying the available light and reflecting a little of it to increase the light available.
Thermal optics aka infrared vision, measures the contrast of heat signatures and translates to a visual depiction with hot things (like fires, active computers, or many animals) as bright, but cool things (like flora, inactive objects) as dark. Requires no visual light, not impeded by dust, smoke, fog, etc.
UV-A light aka black light, emitting a light from his eyesockets that reveals fluorescence (good for cleaning stains, bad for being far more aware of far more stains than one wants to know about).
Image magnification, minor telescopic function within allows him to zoom in to see at a greater distance.

⇁ MEMORY UPLOAD - APPROVAL

Thanks to the circuitry growing in his skull & chest and some experiments with downloading things, Papyrus has learned to upload bits of memories to other devices. It can be simple screenshots of what he's looking at (enhanced by his new vision), as well as things like (somewhat mediocre quality) audio/video files of his memories. They can include senses of smell/taste/touch, but these would probably take being Mechanical to parse.
Being a person before a machine, his files are formatted somewhat differently than normal computer files, and take a little reformatting to upload. If he's careful enough about it, he can share simple files. If he isn't meticulous enough about the formatting, they come with meta tags hinting at his thoughts and emotions during the memories.
(I will probably set it so older memories are lower quality / more distorted, and only memories since being a robot are fairly accurate)

⇁ SPAGHETTI CODE BOTS - APPROVAL

Remember when Papyrus started shedding bits of code and emotion into his digital files and projects? As he continues treating programming like magic, he's accidentally created all the parts he needs to summon an AI into being. Specifically, AI based on himself, with only partial memories of his life, skills, and priorities, emphasizing the things he was using and thinking on while trying to code. Focusing on repairing the car in the driveway and thinking of driving school practice lends the ability to take over the car and drive it. Frequent texting and loitering online leaves some knowledge of how to use a phone and access the internet. The longer the AI runs autonomously, the more sense of personality it develops, and the more distinct it might become. These are smaller AI, with primary / initial focuses on the specific tasks he was focused on when they formed. With his usual devices, Papyrus has access to their whole code, and can absorb them back into his own programming (like they're memories of dreams), rather than leaving to run rampant in his phone / drones / car / etc. They're software, and vulnerable to everything software is - including viruses and deletion.

⇁ WIFI CAPABILITY - APPROVAL

Thanks to absorbing his phone on revival, Papyrus finally has that power he dreaded - continuous network connectivity. As long as he's in range of a network, he'll be unconsciously connecting to it; great for his ability to fact-check on the fly and multitask watching his favorite shows, terrible for keeping a digital low profile.

⇁ AUDIO MANIPULATION PACKAGE - APPROVAL

Papyrus's voice now solely comes from the speakers in his body, giving it that recorded and digital quality. This also comes with the ability to play other audio, including the ability to apply voice filters as he speaks. With a large enough sample of a given person's voice, he could even talk with their voice - though it would be obviously generated unless he puts a lot of effort into modulating the tones (doable with time and prepwork, not so much on the fly).

⇁ ROBOTIC STRENGTH- APPROVAL

Since his full robotic transformation, Papyrus has been upgrading the capacity and durability of his limbs and torso. He can now lift and push far heavier weights than before (800lb lifting? looking at olympic weight lifters, but open to specific number suggestions), open cans and battery packages with his hands, and other obnoxious Terminator-type robotic feats.

⇁ POWER - APPROVAL

⇁ GHOST IN THE SHELL

Upon death, a Mechanical type's brainwaves will be transmitted to nearby electronics. People interacting with those electronics may see or hear an "imprint" of the character, influenced heavily by the moment of their death. They might pick up the phone to hear an agonized screech, or see the character's face flickering between TV channels. The technological type retains some awareness of their surroundings during this time, but most of it will be dedicated to sapping energy from the electronics they're connected to in order to revive. Once fully-healed, they will form a new body using components from the electronics, destroying them while rebuilding themselves. Any fleshy parts the character might have will melt out of the tech and reform, as if it only needed to be squeezed out of the wires all along.

⇁ FUNCTION BETTER NEAR TECH

Papyrus has an easier time functioning in the city and densely populated areas with man-made things than in places with fewer signals bouncing around, since the multitude becomes a white noise he can more easily tune out, while the sparser signals draw his attention in distracting ways.

⇁ HACKABLE BODYPARTS

There's handwavey software involved in making his mechanical body work, leaving him at risk for viruses that lock up, shut down, or otherwise take control of different body parts - especially before he learns coding enough to protect himself.

⇁ LIMITED EMOTIONAL PROCESSING

Downloading data to himself takes the same memory used for his feelings - the more digital stuff he takes in, the less processing power left for having emotions. His emotions can be rebooted by overwhelming him with emotions, whether through something traumatic/wonderful happening or an outside force (such as a Spiritual) inducing emotions - and resets like these may corrupt or delete the saved data.

⇁ VISION ENHANCEMENT SUITE LIMITATIONS

Most of these are not mutually compatible, especially starting out - increased information requires increased processing, which also ties into other existing limitations of memory use. Maybe later upgrades will change that.

Low light vision: his eyesockets are now reflective in the same manner as various animals, which isn't great for being sneaky around lights, and makes taking selfies more difficult.
Thermal optics: because of the processing required, this vision comes in a lower resolution than his usual vision.
UV-A light: only functions at short range, is visible to everyone, and since bones are weakly fluorescent his skull glows faintly when using this. Not even slightly a stealthy thing.
Image magnification: It is a very limited amount of zoom, since the parts allowing it must fit within his eyesockets. Additionally, zooming in means limiting one's field of vision.

⇁ MEMORY RESIDUE

The thing about needing to clean up the files before upload, lest they have fragments of Papyrus feelings, is a problem that can build up. He's learned to do this by treating digital programming like magic, like a power fueled by a mix of intent and emotion. With magic, the skeletons sometimes created static constructs - like bones to give as gifts - as well as semi-autonomous attacks like blasters that they directed in combat. Programming as if by magic synchronizes well with his Link With Technology, letting him direct machines more intuitively, but comes at the cost of the residual emotions and memories he uploads by accident.
The greater length of time and the more intent focus or purpose he puts into time connected with a machine, the more it builds up a digital ghost of him in that moment, with fragments of memories, emotions, and context. Which means, his phone is getting increasingly haunted with a digital ghost of an AI of himself for the next couple months. (I assume anything to do with building potential AI of these fragments would take another power, after all. If there's any existing AI dangers out there, have fun with the hook?)

⇁ WIFI CAPABILITY

He's always consciously connecting to nearby available networks - favored ones first, but whatever is closest and strongest if a favored one isn't in reach. It would take active, continuous effort not to do so, which would leave him vulnerable to other hazards (cybersecurity and physical alike).

⇁ LIMITATION

(concept art placeholders)

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Canyon Application

Sat, 15 May 2021 10:14:59 GMT

PLAYER INFORMATION

✘ Name: Swirl
✘ Age: 34
✘ Contact: PM or swirlingflight
✘ Character(s) currently in game: n/a
✘ Favorite horror tropes/events: Identity confusion, body swaps, transformation, mind alterations (especially altering key things that change a character's values or perception and exploring the consequences of those changes)
✘ Limits/Triggers: Images of realistic bloody self-harm, especially wrists. Untagged rape/noncon, suicidal thoughts, or depictions of suicide. Unavoidable caretaking of alcoholics.
✘ Invited by: Mel

CHARACTER INFORMATION

✘ Name: Papyrus
✘ Canon: Undertale
✘ Canon Point: Post-death in the genocide run =)

✘ Age: Unspecified in canon, estimated young-to-mid 20s - he's not a kid or teen, implied to be a younger adult. Let's go with 24.
✘ History: The Wiki is here but some of the details seem off. I wrote up a reference here (including the headcanons we're looking to use in the background)
✘ Personality:
[These sections are written as if Papyrus is compelled to ramble, so he keeps slipping and admitting/implying things, but isn't compelled to tell the absolute truth of what he thinks.]

You're assigned a group project. What role do you end up taking?

You have the chance to anonymously send a letter to someone who's wronged you in the past. What does it say?

Someone you admire very much has just done something you find reprehensible. How do you deal with the situation?

If you could achieve all your goals right now, what would your life look like?

Someone tells you all your flaws. What did they tell you, and are they right or wrong?

✘ Type: Mechanical
✘ Powers:
Power 1: ELECTROMAGNETIC RECEIVER, Papyrus now perceives a much wider range of radiation, between noticing when x-rays or microwaves are in use, hearing bits of radio chatter and phone calls, and even hearing stars. (The sun does not have anything useful to say, just a distant wailing, but it's better than creepy echo flower whispers.) Limitation, it's easier to function in the city and densely populated areas with man-made things than in places with fewer signals bouncing around, since the multitude becomes a white noise he can more easily tune out, while the sparser signals draw his attention in distracting ways.

Power 2: INTERCHANGEABLE PARTS, his bones largely become metal and circuitry, machine parts that can be redesigned, improved, or replaced - if he can get the parts for it. Limitation, there's handwavey software involved in making them work, leaving him at risk for viruses that lock up, shut down, or otherwise take control of different body parts.

Power 3: LINK WITH TECHNOLOGY, the ability to plug into devices and use them with his mind rather than the screen/keyboard/etc, as well as downloading files. Limitation, storing data on himself takes the same memory used for his feelings - the more digital stuff he takes in, the less processing power left for having emotions. His emotions can be rebooted by overwhelming him with emotions, whether through something traumatic/wonderful happening or an outside force (such as a Spiritual) inducing emotions - and resets like these may corrupt or delete the saved data.

✘ Inventory:
- Cell phone (hammerspace inaccessible),
- "Battle body" costume, as in his usual sprite costume
- C00L DuDE outfit worn underneath, as would've been revealed in the hangout if he wasn't murdered,
- Various beauty products: Bone Cologne, marinara sauce, MTT-Brand Bishie Cream, MTT-Brand Anime Powder, MTT-Brand Cute Juice, MTT-Brand Attraction Slime, MTT-Brand Beauty Yogurt

✘ Samples:
- meme thread: Sans and Papyrus in another day of their semi-dysfunctional skeleton household
- TDM thread: Nightmare transformation with Kavinsky

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Geno run history w/ headcanons

Sat, 15 May 2021 10:12:55 GMT

Worldbuilding: where/when is Undertale?

Undertale takes place in an Earth-like world, similar enough to ours for jukeboxes and televisions and anime and cars... but one where humans and monsters coexisted in the distant past. In that past, during the age of spears and swords, they went to war - reportedly due to human fear of what monsters might do if they absorbed human souls. The war ended with very few surviving monsters, and human mages trapping them behind a barrier in the caves under Mount Ebott.

The first human to venture into the caves was a child who fell (intentionally) in 201X, only to be rescued by the monsters' prince. Raised by the king and queen for a time, their adoption ushered in hopes of new peace between monsters and humans. When the human died in an unfortunate chain of events, the prince was killed by other humans, the king renewed his vow of war, the people took hope, and the queen fled the kingdom for disgust with them cheering the killing of people like her adopted child.

An unspecified number of years pass between those deaths and the start of the game, but it's long enough that only the oldest of monsters remember the queen anymore. Undyne, captain of the royal guard, was half-raised by King Asgore, but she never met the queen. A comment by Sans implies it's been a century, setting our headcanon date for the game at 211X. The monsters of the underground know little to nothing about human history, and monster technology is roughly modern to 202X standards, thanks to the mix of scavenged human garbage and magical enhancements they work with.

Skeleton backstories and headcanons

Papyrus and Sans have conspicuously unspecified personal histories. The rest of the main characters have anecdotes about their pasts, with friends or relatives who tell stories about them. The brothers don't. Sans seems to have been in science at some point, theoretical things like space and quantum physics and reports about the branching of timelines. Papyrus demonstrates an eclectic mix of practical engineering and artistic skills, now put to use for improving the Snowdin forest experience with art and puzzles. Neither offers any stories about gaining these skills, or mentions where they lived before moving to Snowdin a few years before the game's start.

Among other unexplained things in Undertale is an easter egg character referred to as Dr. W. D. Gaster, the previous royal scientist who "fell into his creation" and "shattered across time and space." On a meta level, he seems to be a joke about game construction, how a character can be unwritten from a story but the game play on. But among the hidden content is a secret lab entry in Wingdings font, and a black and white sprite that could be a melted skeleton. The theory goes, the font-named scientist was the skeleton brothers' father, and that he experimented with something that retconned himself from general memory - or time itself. A forgotten scientist dad gives a source for their more scientific and technological leanings, plus context to their otherwise mysterious unhappiness: Sans thinks it's useless to do anything, since time resets his actions without his remembering it - a lesson Flowey has confirmed - while Papyrus worries about being forgettable, and struggles for popularity or ways to feel he matters to people.

Whatever their origins, we know this about canon: a few years before the events of the game, Papyrus and Sans settled into the small town of Snowdin. They divvied up the housework and bills (Papyrus did the housework, Sans provided funds to pay rent through mysterious means), got jobs as sentries, and generally entertained the town with their banter and bothering. Papyrus strove to join the royal guard in hopes of gaining friends, pestering the head of the guard into personal training when she didn't accept him on the spot. He established himself online, semi-befriending other important people (like the current royal scientist, Alphys)... and met a talking flower.

This was Flowey, the flower with the memories (but not the compassion) of the dead prince and the ability to reset time to a given starting point. Traumatized by death and grief and his transformation, Flowey had been looping time - first in attempts to befriend everyone and help them with their problems, then various ways of hurting and playing with them. In this last timeloop of Flowey's, he mostly only spoke with Papyrus, sharing secrets, predictions, and advice... and pushing the skeleton towards making decisions he might not have made on his own. It's unclear how much Papyrus actually knows about Flowey's plans, and how much the flower manipulated him with lies, but it's clear Papyrus thinks of the flower as someone who has his back. This doesn't work out for him in this timeline, when the latest fallen human becomes the one with the time powers.

Game events

In our chosen timeline, the human that falls turns out to be a relentless killer - one who doesn't just kill everyone in their way, but actively hunts around for anyone they can murder. Seeing this approach, Flowey treats the human as a friend once they go to leave the ruins, and helpfully shuts down some of the puzzles to further simplify their path. He doesn't bother to get in touch with Papyrus again, but the skeletons are near the Ruins door in time to intercept the human anyway.

Sans and Papyrus go about bantering and monologuing at the human along the way through the Snowdin forest, even as the human continues killing along the way, accumulating dust on their decreasingly pink gloves. Papyrus complains with each ruined puzzle, a mix of frustration with their rudeness and almost lampshaded appeals to his brother for help. At his final puzzle, Papyrus baits the human with the idea of friendship, bragging about the great time he'll have with Undyne since they couldn't be bothered to enjoy the experience. He then rushes forward, pushing the residents of Snowdin to finish their evacuation.

(After all, when the people of Snowdin need word to get to someone official, they talk to a skeleton who'll talk to a fish - Papyrus or Sans talks to Undyne. Having weighed up the human early on, Sans has multiple opportunities to shortcut into town and warn the residents to pack up and get moving.)

Papyrus doesn't evacuate with the rest of the town. He waits at the edge of Snowdin and Waterfall for the human to confront him in the snow drift, where he has a speech ready. With a mix of scolding and encouragement, he tells the human that they can stop fighting, that he'll accept their friendship with open arms, and that he offers a hug. (If spared, he admits to being nervous, and can even admit he'd been prepared to blast them. In some versions of the game, he visibly braces for an attack, dropping his ATK and raising his DEF to try to take their first blow.)

Unfortunately for him, the human hits far harder than he anticipated - his body quickly crumbles under him. He takes the chance of his last words to reiterate his encouragement that they can do better - a final attempt to persuade them against killing anyone else - before his skull dissolves as well.

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True pacifist / winter clock content

Sun, 02 May 2021 20:58:36 GMT

History sections usually aren't done anymore, but sometimes wikis are incomplete, so I'm offering this as an outline of my assumptions and justifications (largely copied from previous draft):

Time is ambiguous in Undertale. Many main characters reference things that happened in the past, but not how long ago they happened. The human's journey through the underground might take place in as little as a day. And even the year the game takes place in isn't clearly specified.

Undertale does not take place in 201X (tl;dr it's 202X minimum, and I think more like 211X)

Undertale is a videogame taking place in an alternate Earth some time in the future, an unspecified number of years after 201X.

(201X is the year everyone thinks of because that's the time the game was released in, and the year mentioned in the opening video.)

At nearly the end of the game, though, we find out that the starting video depicts when the first fallen human climbed Mount Ebott and fell into a cave, only to be found by the prince of all monsters living within.

Toriel and Asgore both saved calendars from the year they met and adopted the first human child, kept in their respective homes in the Ruins and New Home, and both of those are "old" calendars dated 201X.

The kid lived with them and their son Asriel for an unspecified amount of time, at least long enough to knit Asgore a sweater, before an (intentional) incident with the young prince led to the deaths of the children, a declaration of war on humanity by the king, and the desertion by the queen.

By the start of the game, most monsters don't recognize a human by sight - even though all their hopes for freedom rest on finding and killing enough humans to break the magic barrier trapping them within the mountain's caves. Multiple NPCs gossip to the player that they heard there's a human in the underground, but never realize who they're talking to.

The captain of the Royal Guard, Undyne, does recognize a human when she sees one - but she has never fought one before, and is surprised by their resilience.

She trained with the king, Asgore, for years - since she was a young kid - but she's never met the disappeared queen before, and doesn't recognize Toriel from seeing her.

Likewise the Royal Scientist Alphys doesn't recognize Toriel by sight - meaning Toriel has been missing from the underground for at minimum enough years that two adults don't know what the disappeared queen looks like.

The shopkeeper in Snowdin, an adult in the settlement nearest to where Toriel's been living, says that the door to Ruins has been locked "for ages."

The only monsters outside the ruins who have stories about Toriel are Gerson and Asgore. The former so ancient that he was an adult warrior before the underground was ever sealed away, the latter is as functionally immortal as Toriel is.

And monster technology, based on whatever trash they've scavenged from the underground rivers, has provided them with enough supplies to have a functional underground internet, cell phones, and electric power.

So:

It's been somewhere between decades and centuries since the arrival of the first fallen human.

I assume a century, based on a comment Sans makes ("she just howls with laughter. like it's the best joke she's heard in a hundred years." He's an uncanny judge of details like that.)

It conveniently lets the numbers in Papyrus and Undyne's usernames potentially line up to the last two digits of the years they were respectively born, too.

Papyrus doesn't mention his childhood, and neither does Sans - and it's not clear why

Most of the main characters in Undertale have friends or family who tell at least one story of years before: we can hear a couple anecdotes of Toriel's time as queen, of Undyne's mischievous childhood, of Alphys leading kids into the dump to look for treasures, of Asgore's lessons on responsibility, and even Mettaton and Napstablook have stories from their past.

Papyrus and Sans don't.

No one seems to have known them before they moved to Snowdin, they don't tell any stories of their childhoods, and they don't even mention where they moved from.

Papyrus claims to know nothing about Waterfall and Hotland (other than that Hotland is terrible), which seems to point to New Home. But it's not conclusive.

There's a popular fan theory, based off (1) a note in Papyrus' concept art, (2) a comment Sans makes in some promotional material, (3) a name of a song in the soundtrack, (4) the appearance of a hidden nameless character, and (5) a comment made by another hidden character.

The theory goes: the previous, redacted Royal Scientist Doctor W.D. Gaster was Wingdings Gaster, a skeleton with a font name, and father to Papyrus and Sans. The theory further posits that Gaster experimented with time, fell in his creation, and was retroactively erased from widespread memory.

I've used this theory in previous games, where the head mods also played from the Undertale cast and approved of the theory, to explore the idea that Papyrus barely remembers his childhood due to losing the memories connected to one of the two main people in it.

I don't intend to use this headcanon extensively unless other castmates and mods approve. I'll have Papyrus largely evade the subject with vague answers and general Papyrus-strangeness.

What we actually know of before the game:
A good while before the start of the game, long enough ago to entrench themselves as parts of the town but recently enough to still be novelties, Papyrus and his brother Sans move together to the quiet border town of Snowdin.

They rent a house on the edge of town, with Sans paying the rent through mysterious means. Sans tinkers with a mysterious science box and blueprints in the basement, less and less often as he fails to accomplish anything with it, and eventually establishes himself as a regular at the local bar instead. Papyrus handles the bulk of the housework, regularly drags Sans out of the local bar, and becomes a sentry as the first step to joining the Royal Guard.

(The Royal Guard are the people tasked with protecting monsterkind from humans, to capture if not kill them, for the King to absorb their SOULs. They're respected for offering the hope of freedom to the underground, even if the Snowdin members are all dogs with no real impressive abilities.)

Papyrus pushes Sans to take a similar job, if only so his brother will get out of the house to do something more productive than miring in a depressive rut and frequenting the bar... and eventually Papyrus decides that the best way to join the Royal Guard is to ask the head of it directly, and that he should go to her home in the middle of the night to ask. She slams the door on him because she's trying to sleep, he waits outside until she's finished sleeping. Rather than be sensibly creeped out by his loitering, she's impressed by the fortitude it displays, and agrees to train him.

The actual training period only lasts a short while, but it's long enough for Undyne and Papyrus to spar and let Undyne conclude that (1) Papyrus is very tough - in durability and magical prowess - and (2) he has absolutely no willingness to kill anyone, which is something of a liability for someone applying to join a military unit with the task of killing intruding humans.

Seeing no future for him in the guard, Undyne avoids letting him down by giving him the task of meeting daily with the report from the Snowdin sentries, and begins giving him cooking lessons in hopes he'll do something else. She doesn't admit her intentions to him, and he doesn't challenge her about it, but he does eventually begin searching for another way to impress her and get her approval.

Somewhere in this general time period, the royal scientist Alphys gives up on an experiment with a golden flower and returns it to the garden in the king's castle. The flower becomes sentient, imbued with the lingering memories of a monster whose remains were absorbed the flower originally grew, and gains the power to rewind time. After the flower attempts to recreate his previous life and fails to feel love for his parents, he discovers and uses that time travel power to enter an uncountable number of time loops in which he meets everyone in the underground, attempt to befriend and solve all their personal problems for them, and then - once bored enough - begin experimenting with hurting and killing them, in the style of someone playing god in a videogame.

By the loop that the game begins in, the flower's experimenting with something far more quiet and subdued. He hasn't revealed himself to many people. He appears to Papyrus, in private places where it's just the two of them, to encourage him with flattery, predictions, and advice, pushing him toward some agenda. (This may be where Papyrus gets the idea that capturing a human would be the way to convince Undyne to let him into the Royal Guard, and that's my default assumption.)

A few weeks before the start of the game, Papyrus, Sans, Undyne, and any number of other monsters attend a costume party in Waterfall. Sans helps Papyrus make a costume for it - his "battlebody" - which he proceeds to wear all the time up through nearly all the events of the game. (It's not styled after the Royal Guard armor, but seemingly based on a mix of comic book hero and videogame character.)

Events of the Game:
By the time of the game's start, Papyrus has added more puzzles to the road along Snowdin with which to baffle, delay, and entertain an approaching human, along with practicing speeches to impress and intimidate them... And he's worked out at least a couple entertaining routines with his brother - like an entire spiel around the crossword puzzle where Papyrus pretends to be surprised that Sans only put down a piece of paper as his puzzle. (Papyrus walks past that area to get to his sentry station every day, he knows Sans hasn't buried a complicated puzzle there, and going by the version of the comments in the genocide run - where Papyrus starts to say the same things, then trails off as the human interrupts him - at least some of that conversation is staged).

Then the human arrives. It throws Papyrus in a bit of a tizzy, in which he stammers and shouts and finally recovers enough to give part of his monologue, before storming off triumphantly. He focuses more on being a good host than effectively capturing the human - he escorts them from puzzle to puzzle, seeing how they fare and offering commentary along the way, even providing (terrible, frozen) spaghetti to eat along the way.

After the last of the puzzles, Papyrus rushes ahead to the edge of town, past his and Sans' house, to block the way - and provide a boss battle. He goes through a spiel about pitying them for being lonely in a way that drips of projection, beginning to offer them friendship, then revoking the offer for the sake of his ambitions (capture human, present to Undyne, ???, popularity).

He tests them with easily avoidable attacks until they make their intentions clear (attacking, flirting, insulting, or sparing him), and pranks them with a gotcha that he and Sans seem to have collaborated on; Papyrus throws a volley of blue attacks, easily avoided by following Sans' advice to just stay still - and then he pings their soul blue, subjecting them to a sudden gravitational pull toward colliding with a quick white bone. At this point, he spends the battle tossing volleys of bone patterns at them, applying beauty products to himself, and talking aloud about his ambitions and his hopes for friendship, mulling over what he wants to do.

The human gets tripped up and damaged enough that he defeats them, knocking them out and securing them in his shed - full of dog supplies. They escape, fight again, get captured again, and wake to the improved facilities - the dog food now has hot dogs sliced into it. When they withstand his attacks on the third round, he gives in to the power of friendship and offers to help them leave.

(Peculiarly, Papyrus recounts the same commentary through his fight each time they fight, as though the entire exploration of his worries about capturing a human was something he'd already considered and planned a monologue about.)

(This isn't just a failure of game design - he gives very different commentary at the start of each of the repeat fights. It seems like he's not planning on capturing them at all, but befriending them after putting on a show of reluctance, through which he shows them how to survive a difficult fight and befriend someone resistant to friendship. He later repeatedly and insistently tries to get the human to befriend Undyne, and he's still operating under some secret advice from Flowey, so it's entirely possible that's what he's doing.)

Either way, the human leaves to continue forward, and Papyrus leaves to go meet with Undyne with his daily report. He fails to convince her to not capture or kill the human, and agrees to cooperate with her - in order to subvert her orders and help the human continue.

The human, who overheard all this, turn backs to investigate what's going on. They head to meet Papyrus for their hangout session, finding him standing outside his house, where he greets them with a stammer and a claim that he's not feeling suspicious. After a lot of shenanigans, including a brief tour through town, a more detailed and self-driven tour of his house, and the hangout session itself... Papyrus encourages them to try also befriending Undyne (claiming the human is a little intense for him, and needs more friends), gives them his number, and heads to Undyne's house to wait. It's from there that he answers their calls with fun comments about Waterfall (mostly unhelpful and whimsical) and calls them with a suspicious question about their outfit on behalf of Undyne.

In this timeline, balancing friendship between enemies works out great - the human might mock Undyne by pouring some water near her, but does give her enough to let her get up and leave with her pride in tatters. Papyrus loiters outside her home, ready to facilitate another meeting on better terms - or at least one where Undyne's sense of guest rights and honor means she can't just try killing the kid again. With a hilariously flimsy excuse, Papyrus excuses himself and lurks outside the window to prompt them into trying to become friends... and after some hurdles and a heart-to-heart, the fish and human get along like a house on fire. Literally lighting her house on fire.

Undyne heads back to join Papyrus in Snowdin, where they hang out and banter, while the human continues forward with occasional calls back to them. Royal Scientist Alphys and her "malfunctioning robot" go through a whole routine of seemingly fighting about what to do with the human, whether to help them forward or kill them, and it all ends in a live broadcast of reveals, dancing, and tearful calls from fans.

That's not the end end, though. That takes a quiet ominous exchange with Sans, a fight with Asgore that goes lethal at the end, a surprise confrontation with a flower, and then turning time backwards to take Undyne's call - at Papyrus's goading and Flowey's initial idea - to befriend Alphys, face the mysteries of the true lab and Alphys's shame, and then face the real final boss: a dead kid. The power of friendship and the refusal of broken hearts triumphs, and Frisk wakes surrounded by friends ready to join them on the surface.

True Pacifist / Winter Clock content:
Some time in the first winter after the Barrier's breaking and monsters moving to the surface (or possibly a particularly snowy September), Papyrus invites the various main friends from that adventure over to his and Sans's house for a party. Toriel, Undyne, Alphys, Asgore, Mettaton, Napstablook, Mad Mew Mew, and Flowey find their way there - though Flowey largely stays out of sight.

Papyrus's decor included clothes supporting candelabra, MTT-Winter decorations, an enormous cobbled together tree... Even a welcoming puzzle in front of the house, a labyrinth of ice, snow, and musical instruments to "baffle and confound his friends with holiday cheer." It was enough for Asgore to get stuck in, and for most of them to circumvent by entering through the back door.

Festivities included putting presents under the tree, enjoying the de-boned food that Papyrus had decoratively stuck bones into, watching MTT-holiday specials, lighting the tree together, singing carols, and locking Toriel in the garage after she got roudily drunk off Mettaton's super strong alcoholic eggnog. At some point, Papyrus exchanged gave Flowey the gift of a ribbon bow to wear as a matching scarf. By the end of the event, the living room was a mess of confetti and spears and a detached robotic leg, and Sans was happily asleep on the couch.

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We're Still Here - CR Chart

Wed, 02 Dec 2020 07:20:58 GMT

	Sans Undertale Brother (canonical) ribticklers Undertale
Lazy and frequently unhelpful brother, but it's a huge relief that he's here too. Don't tell him that.
	Kiara ~~Sessyoin~~ Knochenmus Wife (assigned??) thotsandprayers Fate/Grand Order
Apparently, according to all these photos and paperwork and such, beloved married wife. This is news to everyone involved!

source code by manual, adjusted by me

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We're Still Here - IC Inbox

Sun, 29 Nov 2020 08:11:07 GMT

INBOX network radio / network text / home phone / letter / action FEEL FREE TO CALL OR VISIT ANY TIME! code credit

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We're Still Here - Application

Wed, 18 Nov 2020 08:55:26 GMT

PLAYER INFO.
NAME: Swirl
PREFERRED PRONOUNS: They/them
ARE YOU OVER 18? Yep
CONTACT: PM this journal or swirlingflight - and if there's a game server I'll join it, w/ permission for members to DM me
CURRENT CHARACTERS: n/a

CHARACTER INFO.
NAME: Papyrus "Knochenmus"
CANON: Undertale
CANON POINT: Neutral ending, exiled queen Toriel / empress Undyne, where Papyrus joins his brother Sans in befriending and frequently visiting the exiled queen
AGE: Unspecified in canon. I estimate he's in his early-mid 20s. Employed, still figuring out what he's doing with his life, young enough that family and acquaintances tend to shelter him, old enough to have some eclectic skills and be voted king.

GENDER: Cool Dude (he/him, presumably male)

HISTORY: Wiki entry here, with the neutral ending we're using here. I think it's missing some things, so I have an outline here - but it is not short.

APPEARANCE: Human!fanart here. Previously a skeleton monster prone to spine-revealing short clothing, Papyrus is now a human with dark curly hair (typically styled), about 6' tall, prone to wearing jackets and scarves. Skin and other fleshy bits get cold easily, and he's not a fan of the sensation.

ABILITIES:

💀 Dramatic Monologues

Quick with theatrical commentary, he boasts about how he practices speeches for various conversational needs.

💀 Puns

Despite the flanderization that Papyrus hates puns, he makes more wordplay - and more puns per word through the game than Sans does. But where his brother makes knock-knock jokes and obvious skeleton puns while posing like a stand-up comedian, Papyrus favors plays on words, from the painfully obvious (a "shocking" electrical maze experience), to the relatively subtle (complaining he's losing a "pupularity" contest against the dogs), to the downright ridiculous (using cardboard and pasta screws to build a terrible sentry station made of "cardboardhydrates"). Bone- and skeleton-related puns aggravate him, probably because he's heard them his entire life, and we only see him make any in retaliation against his brother.

💀 Housework / Cleanliness

Vacuuming, tidying, and other skills of keeping a clean and orderly house.

💀 Ecclectic handyman

Builds mechanical / electrical / magic puzzles in frozen ground, redesigns his kitchen sink to lift it several feet for a doorway underneath.

💀 Visual Arts

Paints a long thin stone bridge to appear to be made of wood, builds a snow skeleton (with top-heavy human musculature but a thin spine), and arranges the pieces of one puzzle to resemble his face.

☠ Questionable Cooking Skills

Perfectly befitting the era of gelatin experimentation, Papyrus defaults to more of an aesthetic approach to cooking than one focused on edibility. His spaghetti might look ordinary, but with things like seasoning pasta in an oaken cask for an indefinite period of time, it makes for an "indescribable" taste. This has likely improved somewhat with lessons from Toriel - the exiled queen teaching him to be a mom - but only so much.

💀 Sentry

Patrols a section of road to look for intruding humans, reporting any sightings (or lack thereof) to his boss in daily meetings.

💀 Amateur Legalese

Follows discussions of proposed changes to laws - though the Underground's somewhat incoherent infrastructure is probably less convoluted than Santa Rosita's legal system - and seemingly handles the household taxes.

💀 Mostly functional Insomnia

Rarely uses his bed, snoozes only on occasion, always picks up his phone within two rings, and expresses outrage at the thought of eight hours sleep. If it weren't for how strange many characters in Undertale are, I would attribute his sleeplessness to being an explanation for how strange he can be. But no, he's just like that.

💀 Deflection

Avoids unwanted criticism with obstinate positivity, passive aggression, and feigning ignorance of anything and everything.

💀 Optimism

Sincerely believes that "anybody can be a better person if they try," and that they can do so more easily with support, though he knows some refuse to try.

💀 Skeleton Monster

Undertale monsters are made mostly of magic and dust, with little truly physical matter composing them, though most are solid while they're alive. As a skeleton monster, Papyrus looks, sounds, and smells like bones. He claims to be cuddly and soft, but he also claims to smell like the moon.

☠ Vulnerability To Intent

Between their mostly immaterial bodies and relatively fragile souls, monsters are as vulnerable to the intent behind a blow as the force of it, if not more so. A sufficiently murderous child wielding a notebook might slay a monster in a single blow, while a child less aggressive might not in multiple blows with a frying pan.

💀 Monster Magic

Projectiles of various shapes used as primary resort in combat, an aid to day to day life, and a form of expression. Fire magic is used in lighting fireplaces and cooking, lightning magic is used in powering electronics, and so on. Monsters devise attack patterns to play and show off for each other, and their 'bullets' can block each others' attacks and cancel out for a harmless show of force. Sometimes they fade immediately after use, sometimes they persist as long as the creator lives.

💀 White & Blue Attacks

Mostly bone-shaped projectiles, where white bones hit as you'd expect a levitating bone to, while the blue bones only damage creatures actively moving - automatic movement like breathing is fine.

💀 Precise Control

Stops his magical attacks at just the point necessary to knock an opponent out without killing them, a skill almost no monsters in Undertale demonstrate. He also varies the sizes of the bones, arranges them to spell out words, and spams an entire field's worth of bones before letting the human levitate over them.

💀 Healing Magic

Following his claims of wanting to capture the human fairly, Papyrus heals Frisk just prior to their battle. If he successfully knocks them out and captures them, he heals their injuries again - they wake in the shed at full health. If they win, they're left to heal themselves.

(Both of these instances are offscreen, and the former is very easily missed, since most people heal and save before boss fights. Given that we do see Toriel heal from a distance, the simplest explanation is Papyrus can also heal.)

It also makes an interesting contrast with his brother: while Sans can seemingly poison a murderous enemy with the 'Karmic Retribution' lingering damage, Papyrus can seemingly heal.

💀 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

💀 Gaster Blasters (debatable, including for thoroughness)

This is extrapolated, as Papyrus never demonstrates using this attack, but the skeleton brothers largely have the same magic abilities. If Papyrus survives a particularly murderous human, he admits while hanging out that he could have "blasted" them to end the fight quickly, and in any other fight he spends it giving a speech and possibly applying beauty products.

Given that the "blasted" comment was added to Undertale in a revision, I see it as a very intentional clarification from the game's creator.

💀 Teleportation (debatable, including for thoroughness)

It's pretty well known that Sans Undertale can teleport, as he blatantly demonstrates a few times through the game, including here. When he teleports, the world goes blank black to obscure what he's doing from any onlookers, and a sound effect happens as the world comes back into sight. In an easily missed easter egg, Papyrus does the same thing, albeit more slowly.

I'm taking this to mean that both brothers know how to change their location in space, and Sans does so frequently to save himself the trouble of walking around, while Papyrus only uses it to get into places he normally couldn't reach - the room depicted here, Sans's room, is ordinarily locked.

It's also feasible that Sans is responsible for teleporting him into the room, as part of another collaborative prank.

💀 GUI Manipulation (very debatable, including for thoroughness)

Papyrus and Sans both demonstrate odd powers of perception and interacting with the 4th wall. Where Sans has uncanny insights into how much the human has killed, how many times they've fought, and the ability to attack in the menu itself, Papyrus watches the human slide by underground or through a phone call. He gives no explanation for how he does this, despite so awkwardly drawing attention to it then changing the subject.

I am not stretching this so far as to theorize that the brothers' banter in the Kickstarter and other trailers, where they seem to be aware of their world as a game, is canon. I do think they have some kind of meta knowledge about the workings of their world, even if it's the magic equivalent of quantum physics. They're not alone in this - Asgore interacts with the menu long enough to break part of it, while Flowey restricts the human to only one option, making an entirely different style of battle.

SUITABILITY:
Papyrus is a skeleton monster from the Kingdom of Monsters, a kingdom that's been sealed within a mountain for untold centuries - with mostly kindly people who've become desperate enough for freedom that their king murders any human that comes their way. Papyrus is briefly tempted to capture the human for fame and fortune, but opts for entertaining and befriending the human through threats and terrible puzzles. He spends his fight monologuing about that indecision and hope, rather than genuinely strive to capture them, and goes on to shelter them from his boss's murderous intentions... while skirting the line between outright betraying either of them.

Prior to the game's beginning, he befriended another time traveling stranger, a soulless flower that visits him with compliments, advice, and predictions. Through the game Papyrus has uncanny knowledge of some things, including the human's cellphone number and how best to befriend a few of the other monsters, likely thanks to the flower's guidance. And in the best possible ending, Papyrus admits that the little yellow flower had advised him on how to get them all there. If faced with another character who pushes him to believe in their advice over his own ideas, and encourages him to seek their approval, he would likely fall into the same pattern of credulity and playing along.

The game also has various 'neutral' endings, with neither the best nor worst outcomes, in which the different major characters take leadership in the wake of the king's death. In some, the captain of the royal guard takes the throne – by force if necessary – and she dedicates them to a renewed war preparation. In those, Papyrus either gets shunted to a position of meaningless importance, or quietly rebels by all but moving in with the queen who would avoid war at all costs. In another, the star celebrity takes ownership and reshapes the kingdom to one celebrating his glory constantly, and disappears anyone who speaks out too openly against him. Papyrus adapts to this by joining his brother in working for the celebrity as one of his agents, with a forced smile and resignation that terrible things just happen sometimes.

In the worst of the timelines, the human outright hunts down every single monster they can fight, in a mission that could lead to some kind of end of the world. They storm through Papyrus' entertaining threats and puzzles to his exasperation and increasing concern, and eventually he confronts them not with any illusion of trying to capture them, but to lecture them into changing their lifepath. He complains about the dust (the remnants of dead monsters) on their hands, encourages them to believe they can change for the better with his help, and stands waiting with his arm open for a hug. He's not one to hunt down a murderer to strike them down without warning, at least not without some drastic changes to his personality, but he can confront one to demand they change their ways.

Between a life of relative confinement and cultural desperation for freedom, the manipulations by a flower, life in a glitter-filled dystopia or a war-driven kingdom, and the examples of his own death, there's plenty to work with for how he might cope in Santa Rosita.

PERSONALITY.

● Your character has a chance to undo a terrible mistake, but in doing so, there could be unintended consequences for everyone they know. Is it worth the risk? Or should the dead stay dead?

In short, Papyrus will likely see the risk as worth it. Ordinarily he only has the power to make the best of his present circumstances, which he does with a gusto, but he's never really satisfied with his circumstances. In the best ending, he complains about how the human messed it up. In multiple other timelines, he encourages the human to do the seemingly impossible, whether it's coming back to visit him despite the danger they'd be in by returning, or finding some way to bring back his missing or deceased friends - a request that would require something like time travel. The idea of undoing a mistake, even with the risks of how things would change, is one he's pondered before.

If we include the fanon about disappeared Royal Scientist Wingdings Gaster - a character only mentioned in chance conversations or easter egg phone calls, hinted at in data-mining, and assumed to be a skeleton based on the font name and black and white sprite known as 'Mystery Man' - this question gets more direct and poignant. One common theory, thanks to some of Toby's original brainstorming for Papyrus, is that Gaster was the skeleton brothers' father, redacted and largely forgotten by the world after pushing an experiment too far. It gives a context to Papyrus's anxiety about being forgotten, as well as Sans's reluctance to put effort into anything. Sans does have an unexplained past in theoretical science, demonstrated in his familiarity with the idea of time looping and everyone forgetting things, as well as the mysterious broken machine and blueprints kept in the locked room. If Sans had been trying to rescue Gaster from whatever experiment he "fell into," and gave up when the task seemed impossible, Papyrus's scolding about laziness and not sleeping all night may have started with encouragements to keep trying different ways to get him back.

Even without that fanon, Papyrus is open to the praise and encouragements and advice of a secretive flower, and follows recommendations for the sake of longer term gain. He pushes toward positions of importance and potential responsibility, starting with his bossing his brother around (mostly unsuccessfully), to getting close to the leadership of the underground in most endings he lives to see. He doesn't gain effective power, being anything from a figurehead and motivational king while his brother runs the kingdom, to a "Royal Guard" whose main job is gardening, to a "great mom" under the tutelage of an exiled queen, to ambassador of monsterkind to humanity.

● If your character had the option to permanently lose the ability to feel certain negative emotions like fear or grief, or permanently forget certain memories, would they take it? What if they will never know that something has been taken from them? Does loss only matter if it's known what's missing?

Temporarily losing things like fear, or doubt, or grief, Papyrus would almost certain try out. How can he become the best version of the Great Papyrus if he doesn't experiment with who he is and how he goes about things, or learn about ways he's accidentally holding himself back? Going through phases of interests and ways of making himself relevant to others is part of how he functions.

Permanently, though, is a different kind of commitment. It's hard to know which hardships or challenges are fundamental in shaping one's strengths, in shaping one towards who they want to be. Papyrus puts a lot of stock into people's power to choose to be better people and do better things, whether the threshold is as low as not murdering anyone, or as middling as cleaning up one's living space and getting a job to spend time out of house or bar. And a person can't choose to not be something that they can't conceive of being. Cutting out the negative emotions that make success challenging, also cuts out the power to choose to be better than those negative emotions.

There's also the question of, how could they possibly not know it was taken from them? Even if Papyrus no longer remembered his fears specifically, he would remember his past actions and notice the differences in them. If the loss was so extensive as to lose his memories tied to fear too, Even, others who have met him would remember his past behaviors, and could tell him about it. Unless - as with time travel or the fanonical redacted memories - it was removed from everyone simultaneously, the question just doesn't make sense. Permanently maiming himself without an inkling of understanding how it works, preferably with a test temporary period, he would not opt for.

● Could your character ever forgive themselves for something morally wrong that they've done? No matter how much time has passed? No matter how much penitence has been done? Is being sorry enough to be a good person?

Yes, to the point that I had difficulty extending this answer into 200+ words. Papyrus doesn't focus on whether one is a "good person," or even on the terrible things they have done, as much as whether they act on the ability to be a better person than they were. He is canonically the sort of person who would, as a dying decapitated head, continue to encourage his murderer that they can change their ways, that they can do better. While he and his brother have a bantering scolding dynamic where he exaggeratedly chastises Sans over many small infractions, Papyrus's usual emphasis is on learning from mistakes and the possibility to change for the better, no matter what.

The more challenging question is in whether he would believe he had done something terribly, truly wrong in the first place. Most of his bragging about his incredible aptitudes and accomplishments are exaggerated, somewhere between sarcasm and saying it for the sake of speaking it into reality. He tends to blame problems on others (like his brother) or rapidly dismiss them from his mind, refusing to dwell for long on fears or regrets except to use as a fuel and motivation for doing better going forward.

It seems likely that his attitude stems from feeling inadequate and forgettable - or perhaps has done something in his unspoken past so wrong that he can't handle acknowledging it for long - and now he deflects negativity even in his own self doubts, in order to avoid the sort of depressive slumps his brother goes through. (The skeletons share the power to make people blue, after all.)

If something happened to change his nature so he couldn't deflect anymore, that could damage his ability to believe the best of himself and others. In a mind control event where an obvious external compulsion made him act, he could blame anything on the compulsion and mostly shove it out of mind. But something more subtle, that skews his sense of morality further towards things he might consider in the right circumstances, that might haunt him. And something that damages his ability to believe in doing better, that could break him.

● Your character has a secret they have been sworn to, but revealing this secret could save the lives of countless others. Is it worth breaking the promise to save others, or is betrayal never justifiable?

Papyrus has varied standards on secrets, privacy, and betrayal. When it comes to his own secrets and privacy, Papyrus keeps many of them pinned up in a way that most people don't know there's secrets being kept. He comes across as a loud and over-the-top personality, very open about a great many of absurdities, with practiced speeches about various topics ranging from complaints about his brother, "insights" about his hometown, to his hopes for advancement and friendship. When people chance upon or pry into things he doesn't want to talk about, he either passive aggressively shames them for the intrusion, or deflects with his bizarreness, sometimes pretending he didn't hear what they said, sometimes outright changing the subject to something he hopes will distract them. It seems to be a long-established habit - Sans and Papyrus avoid talking about a lot of things, with patterns of exaggerated naivety or terrible jokes that satisfy Sans that all is well enough and allow Papyrus to believe he's avoided worrying his brother.

With questions of legality, promises, and contracts to others, he sticks to the letter of the agreement, searching for loopholes or appealing to the authorities when he doesn't like what he's supposed to do. As a sentry, he's supposed to report on and attempt to capture any humans that come through, which he does. He calls his boss to notify her of a human passing through Snowdin, he intimidates and entertains them with a variety of monologues and puzzles for them to experience before passing through, and he faces them in a typical monster battle. But it takes very little for him to give up on the attempt to capture - they need only walk through the area and get to the end of his fight, or fail so many times that he stops trying to capture them, for him to decide they're friends now. Even if they've demonstrably killed many people through the area, and will presumably go on to kill more.

He very deliberately and vocally tells himself, it's not really betrayal as long as he avoids certain sorts of actions. Having reported the human's presence, he then tells the human about having reported them, presumably so they can get disguised before moving forward. He calls his boss with suspiciously convenient timing as to interrupt her chase of the human, and even uses her sense of honor against her to manipulate her into hosting and befriending the human in turn. Over and over, if he thinks it's for the best - possibly because a flowery friend convinced him - Papyrus is perfectly willing to dip into the edge of betrayal, clinging to its boundaries by technicalities nobody would fall for.

● Has your character ever gotten joy out of hurting others, physically or mentally? If they have, does it scare them?

The answer to both halves of the first question is a yes, if to a degree less intense than I think the question is after.

Mentally is clear from his introduction, when Sans introduces him to us as a "human-hunting fanatic," an exaggeration that prepares us for Papyrus's monologues full of threats of capture and delivery to the king's castle. Papyrus doesn't bother to describe that fate either (death), as it distracts from his more immediate goals in confronting the human. As he tells Sans if the human doesn't play along, the human is "supposed to let me explain [the puzzles]. Then threaten and baffle them with dangerous japes." He's gone to some work to put on a display of danger, with spikes that could kill if one were impaled on them, electrical shocks and biting piranhas, swinging axes and canons and flamethrowers... mostly for show, a mix of intimidation and entertainment.

Physically, too, is clear by the time of his boss battle. Papyrus doesn't really hesitate to risk hurting someone physically - like many monsters, he expresses himself in magic-based combat, and he enjoys showing off cool moves. He sets up a prank with his brother, having Sans warn the human about one type of blue magic, and using it as a feint before hitting them with a different blue magic and laughing about it. His boss fight consists of his giving a rehearsed speech on his hopes and fears, possibly while applying multiple beauty products, and flinging bones and boasts on his turns. There's no hesitation about hurting the human, even when he's divided about befriending them, in part because he is not at risk of seriously injuring them. If they show up to his fight injured, they're healed before he flings the first attack. And if they fight poorly enough for him to win, he doesn't kill them. Unlike nearly every other monsters the human might fight, Papyrus is precise enough with his attacks - possibly due to Sans's poor health - to knock them precisely to 1hp left. Even Toriel, the ancient mother figure who wanted to adopt the human and deliberately aims her attacks away so as to not harm them, can accidentally murder them - and clasp her hands over her mouth in horror, for the short frames before the screen goes black from death. Papyrus can avoid killing and can heal, with which he can avoid the worst consequence of hurting others.

So the answer to the second question seems to be no, he is not afraid of his ability or willingness to (temporarily) hurt anybody mentally or physically. As long as the people involved are alive, he figures they can be better, whether that's better in the sense of choosing to be better people, or recovering from injuries or depression.

That said, he makes some odd comments, and the ambiguity of the skeleton brothers' pasts makes it tricky to know how seriously to take them. Without much prompting, Papyrus reassures the human in a phone call that he is "not a cruel person," but one who strives "to be comforting and pleasant." It's close enough to his advice to the murderer to be odd, especially since in another conversation he says "I don't remember murdering anyone... though I am a pretty brutal kind of guy." It's odder still that he specifies remember, when he's going to such lengths to avoid being forgettable. It could be these are just whimsical tryhard remarks, trying to get attention by saying alarming things out of the blue, or passive aggressive digs at the human for their murders. It could be that he suspects he's done something terrible, and his efforts to be The Great Papyrus now are an attempt to change from his past. Even without incorporating the mysteries of the retconned Royal Scientist, I headcanon that Papyrus was something of a shit as a teenager, and his current friendlier manchild demeanor is in most respects a vast improvement from it. I think the question of fearing his enjoyment of scaring people or fighting is tied to his feelings about forgiveness about doing something wrong - if he can fix things, if he is willing to try to fix things, that's the important part to him.

WRITING SAMPLES.

SAMPLES:
Network example, skeleton brother pranking and banter.
Log example, shenanigans between a new father and skeptical son.

NOTES.

QUESTIONS OR CONCERNS:

Followup re: headcanon

Mel asked about headcanons after I privately admitted to worries whether the background we'd plotted would be acceptable - being allowed in a game where it's thematically fitting didn't mean it would be here. This is a concern for me because we have little information about Papyrus and Sans's canonical childhoods, and Papyrus's few comments on the topic give a baffling sense of his expectations of how parenting works. Some of that is just that Papyrus is strange, but headcanon lets me take those comments and put them in a more coherent context - a disappeared father during his childhood, an older brother raising him through his teens. That's helpful if cr with other characters reaches a point where such things come up.

I can do without, the whole reason it's a question is because the skeletons are both notorious for deflecting questions they don't want to answer. I can work with the assumption that Papyrus will imitate the stereotypical parents cliches of Santa Rosita (mostly like the dads around town, with some more momly-methods as learned from Toriel), as that fits his tendency to pick up new ways of doing things and working to excel in new situations. But I find it more fun to be able to connect dots and fill out the gaps in characters, especially if other characters offer background info that mine cannot match. If possible, I would like to use a downplayed version of what we've discussed (disappeared science dad, young 20s Sans making ends meet while young teen Papyrus grows up), without making explicit any of the more bizarrely speculative details like retconned realities. If no, we've also discussed a fake backstory that the brothers are making up to tell any NPCs from Santa Rosita, and they could pretend it's a version of their actual backstory (it starts with being half-brothers, to explain the different surnames).

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