the scientists, the anomaly, the machines, and the true lab.
there are a lot of mysteries surrounding the true lab and the nature of timelines. in fact, it’s hard to make sense of anything to do with anyone in undertale who has been confirmed or implied to be a scientist. there are secrets that frisk is never privy to – all we can do is try to scrape together the small bits of information scattered throughout the game. this post is an attempt to do just that.
for those who know about the previous royal scientist named gaster, it seems that “our” might refer to sans and gaster. however, there is not enough information to assure this. on the other hand, there is another scientist that sans appears to be familiar with: alphys.
aside from the lack of in-game evidence, there are a few reasons as to why it is unlikely that “our” includes gaster.
gaster disappeared long before flowey was created and started messing with the timeline, thus he could not have been there to study flowey as the anomaly
if gaster and sans were studying the anomaly when the other fallen humans used their powers, they surely would have realized the timeline manipulations stopped after a human’s soul was acquired
since all the lab entries are written by alphys, she is the one who concludes that determination is what gives human souls “the resolve to change fate”
in the pacifist ending, alphys seemed to be familiar enough with sans that she could predict what he was going to say before he even said it.
alphys’ reaction to knowing sans is even more curious and sans just brushes it off in typical sans style. does that not suggest that they’ve been up to something unbeknownst to everyone else?
there is also another ending that implies alphys may be familiar with sans – the alphys ruler ending. if genocide is aborted at the very last moment by not meeting the kill quota before fighting mettaton, then alphys will become ruler of the underground. but she is not alone.
sans is with her in this ending, and she knows him well enough to call him “a good guy.” in contrast, she does not seem to know enough about papyrus to mourn for him, as he is not mentioned in the list of people she misses.
God… I miss everyone.
Now that they’re gone, it…
It feels so clear what I should have done.
What I should have said.
Undyne… Asgore…
Mettaton…
At least Sans is still here.
in sans’ hidden workshop, there are blueprints, possibly in wingdings, related to the broken “strange machine”.
entry number 5 in the true lab mentions “the blueprints”. these are the only two instances of the word “blueprints” in the entire game in regards to machinery. (the only other instance of “blueprint” is used in the ruins for one of the first puzzles.)
if alphys was operating her own invention, it is unlikely that she would be “using the blueprints”. considering she likely inherited this lab from her predecessor gaster, the blueprints could very well be something of his that was left behind. if this is true, then perhaps both sets of blueprints were left behind by gaster, especially since sans’ blueprints are written in either weird symbols or bad handwriting. the symbols could be the wingdings font that is connected to gaster. hidden entry number seventeen, which is only accessible through debug, is presumed to have been written by gaster and is written completely in wingdings.
if it’s bad handwriting, perhaps it is alphys’ writing as frisk has no trouble reading sans’ handwriting on the sticky notes in the living room or on the note in his bedroom. on the other hand, alphys seems to have hard-to-read writing, given her note in the lab.
another example is found earlier in game. when papyrus uses the colored tile puzzle, he mentions it was created by dr. alphys. if papyrus leaves without turning on the puzzle (either because he’s asked to repeat the instructions too many times or because chara refuses to play along), there is a note on the ground.
it’s unlikely this is written by papyrus, considering all his notes are legible. since this was a puzzle created by dr. alphys, it makes sense that the instructions would be written by her as well.
if sans’ blueprints are written in wingdings or in alphys’ handwriting, these blueprints would be another connection for sans and alphys.
the “it” alphys extracted from human souls using the blueprints is determination.
the DT extraction machine can be found later, the same machine that looks strikingly similar to photoshop flowey. it seems odd to think that alphys would need blueprints just to figure out how to work the machine. it makes more sense that she’d have used the blueprints in order to build it.
could sans’ blueprints also relate to determination or using the power of souls? could sans’ machine have something to do with alphys? sans’ strange machine and the dt extraction machine are the only objects with blueprints, implying there is some sort of connection.
sans has the ability to teleport anywhere in the underground, it seems. it also appears evident that he knew alphys quite well. he is able to tell exactly what frisk has killed and whether they ran away from monsters “with a smile”. there are many instances where sans is implied to have been watching frisk throughout their entire journey (such as during shyren’s battle if papyrus is killed), perhaps in a similar way to how flowey watches frisk at all times. if he can teleport everywhere, easily watching anything, and knows alphys very well, it’s hard to imagine that he had no idea about the amalgamates in the true lab. he could have even been involved in some way.
calling papyrus outside of alphys’ lab provokes papyrus’ confusion about the word “laboratory”. sans’ reaction to the possibility of dogs inside could suggest that he knows about endogeny.
there is another hint that sans may know about the amalgamates and that he may have even helped care for them: a phone call with papyrus inside alphys’ lab that was added in the game’s january patch (game v1.001). to have this conversation, undyne must not be befriended yet.
the fact that these lines of dialogue were added in a patch seem to imply that they’re important. for some reason, sans had this bag of dog food in his possession at some point. the empty dog food bowl in the true lab suggests that alphys feeds dog food to endogeny and possibly the other amalgamates. if sans had the same bag of dog food, he may have been doing alphys a favour as it’s unlikely that he was really eating the dog food himself. it is another instance of sans hiding his connection to alphys, the other time being in the true pacifist ending.
another small hint that sans may have been in the true lab is found in his fridge – the bag of chips.
while frisk is not able to explore all of the underground, the true lab is the only known location where chips can be bought. this may be more than a coincidence when coupled with the rest of the evidence.
those close to sans, including papyrus, have a habit of calling him lazy. exasperated, papyrus claims that “ALL YOU DO IS SIT AND BOONDOGGLE,” while undyne notes in a phone call that sans tends to do the bare minimum to get by (he’s always “slacking off” and “his results are JUST good enough to not fire him”). contrary to this generally accepted belief, sans himself states that he is quite the opposite of lazy.
sans mentions this to frisk if papyrus is called “uncool” in grillby’s. he does not elaborate further, but what he says hints that he is busy with secret work – perhaps working on those reports in search of the anomaly, unbeknownst even to those closest to him.
sans and alphys clearly know each other, and how they know each other is kept a secret from papyrus and likely everyone else. both have hidden labs with blueprints and machines. sans also possibly helps take care of the amalgamates, or at least knows of their existence. considering all this, it is very likely that sans and alphys worked together on these reports about the anomaly.
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