What was your old au GlitchShift about?
WOW I have not thought about GlitchShift in literally forever?? But what a refreshing question! :D
Although be warned, it’s a bit of a long explanation to make any sense and I can’t exactly do that thing Ppl do when they want to collapse and hide long word counts on mobile!
So!! GS was pretty much me wanting an excuse for some Sans Angst and also a way to combine a theory of mine, haha. It started with the question, “what if the Fundamental Essential Laws of a universe began to break down due to too much bending, thanks to Frisk’s RESETs?”
Now, this would assume a number of things; that Frisk is an asshole, for one, who doesn’t mind murdering all of their one-time friends for the chance at discovering absolutely all there is to know about the Underground. Another assumption would be that Sans definitely, indubitably remembers RESETs.
So, what happens if a universe - in this instance the word universe referring to an AU - begins to breakdown with timespace going a bit wonky? Think of it as... well, Shiny Timelines appearing with more frequency before the inevitable hard reboot! (Sort of like shiny Pokemon, haha - something might be off, like dialogue, or the color of someone’s hair. Imagine seeing a white-haired Undyne, or red-scaled Alphys!)
So Frisk RESETs way more in an effort to see all the variations — and I’m imagining that physically, they’re at least 12. Who knows about mentally/emotionally after all their RESETing, that’s probably up to your own imagination! — which, while certainly brings up Variations, is also a Very Bad Idea; cue one too many RESET, and the universe reboots like an overworked computer! The result? Bye-bye Undertale AU variant, hello Underfell.
I think you can guess where I’m going with this!
So yeah, the cycle starts all over again; Frisk wants to find out EVERYTHING about their new universe, although in the original drafts for this entire AU it read like an attempted but ultimately failed Timeline Fixit Fanfic in that Frisk and Sans ultimately had to give redoing their lives a go lmao.
As an aside, Sans on his end is freaking out regardless because new universe?? No one he knows is the same, at all?? Sans Is Freaking Out??? A too nice guy, like any regular UT native in UF, Does Not Handle A Kill Or Be Killed Society Well. (Is this also a bad Bro au starting Papyrus as the natural bad bro considering Underfell’s typical rep? Well...)
So yeah: Sans remembers both Undertale and Underfell, and it seriously fucks with him lmao. It’s just his luck that the cycle begins again with Frisk by the time they appear; though since it’s been quite a few years by this point, Sans is certainly more than a fair bit agressive and active in Trying To Get Frisk To Stop!
(Though if he succeeded, there wouldn’t be anymore to say. =) )
So, Sans tries to Agressively Persuage Frisk to stop. Does it work? Not in the slightest! What’s a bit of death and pain to someone who can just go back along the timeline and try, try again? So the whole Shiny Timeline Incidents, UF version happens after a great deal of Timeline Murder on both sides here, to Frisk’s immense frustration. Sans c’mon it’s all in the name of science, Frisk probably says at some point. Kid what in the actual hell, Sans would reply if they did.
Anyways, anyways!! There’s plenty of fun details to be had on both and, but the obvious conclusion is this; Underswap can, will, and DOES eventually occur. And you know what, Sans decides fuck it. He misses Bro 1.0, he’s Tired[tm], and the role is a Sans in this Au is obvious, so he decides to quite clearly embrace his role here. It’s certainly not the worst coping mechanism, though probably still not the healthiest considering that a bunch of Denial going on!
But then Chara’s there instead of Frisk, and Chara’s an actual kid in the way Frisk hasn’t been for years.
That’s really as far as I ever got in planning GlitchShift, haha — it mostly boiled down to Timeline Shenanigans and Trauma, Trauma, Trauma!!
Anyways, Anon, thanks for the ask — sorry if the details of GlitchShift are a disappointment or anything, but it took me a hot second to remember which AU of mine this is and I ended up writing an entire textbook over it! 😅
