Cruel, Cruel World (Negativetale Danmaged)
Alright so, this is kinda hard for me to talk about it, but this was supposed to be one of my biggest projects. I really am a fan of negativetale, and always thought the au was really underrated despite having an entire coming depicting one of the routes being done, and, at least in my opinion, having a very interesting way to depict it's concept that, at first can seem like something you'd see in an underfell take, but it's so different that, i practically fell in love with it And with this project, i really just wanted to try and bring the au back to today's fandom, wanting to of course update some of the concepts from the original au, while also trying to keep most of the aspects that made the original au my favorite. But oh well, the thing ended up getting kinda mixed opinions, as i even got called out for being "unintentionally transphobic" for uh, making mettaton a girl ig?
But nonetheless, let me skip all of this babbling and go on to explain about the au itself. So, the original negativetale is about how the monsters have violence ingrained into their species, and have since being enthusiasts on it after Asgore made up a rule about wanting only the strongest monsters to prevail in the underground before he would be able to free them and break out another war against humanity. And in Cruel, Cruel World, i going with a similar idea, by basically simplifying it to "What if the monsters were as evil as the legends told?", and with that, i went on to conceptualize the world, as Cruel World focuses on taking all of the good traits of the characters, and spinning them into making them eiter monstruous or actual bastards instead of the goofy people they were in original undertale.
To better explain what i mean, why don't i get in detail about the characters?
Frisk: I don't have anything to say about them, they are just as emotionless as the og frisk lol
Flowey: Had gone through the similar process as the original Flowey, but instead of becoming a bastard like the original Flowey because of having no soul, he immediately grew depressed and truly emotionless after noticing the situation he was in. He doesn't do much, doesn't say anything, and kinda just stands around looking down, with a dead stare stamped on his eyes.
Napstablook: Here, instead of being depressed by the fact his life has become kinda miserable, he instead became irritated to the point where he lashes out his own problems on others, gaining more of a smug kind of personality as he began to pester around with some of the weaker monsters he can find, using the advantage of being immortal as a ghost in his own favor to be even more of a pest to the people around him
Toriel: She's one of the characters i decided to not turn into an actual asshole, but actually make her unintentionally evil. Basically, instead of her being mother like and accepting, she's very terrified of everything and everyone, including Frisk, as she would actually reactivate the puzzles in the ruins in order to slow you down from getting to her house after she ends up discovering a human fell down. And her appearence in the ruins would end in a fight where she believes she's getting cornered so Frisk can kill her, thus quickly fighting back as the fight can only have 2 outcomes, frisk can either manage to explain that they mean no harm, or do nothing and leave her scared enough to try and throw an all out attack on them, leading to such attack missing frisk, hitting the roof of the basement and sending it down, covering up Toriel in debri, killing her in the process.
Sans: Sans has the same mentality as the original sans, being very nihilistic, but using it as a way to just not take life seriously anymore. But, instead of being the chill guy that he is in undertale, sans here uses that reason to just be a straight up unempathetic ignorant, he doesn't care about anyone and will actively try to drag people down with his crude and tasteless humor. He doesn't like frisk at first, and will even try to beat them up to kill them the first time they meet, but becomes later on some kind of "friend" to them, not one that can be trusted, but at least one that won't kill you if given the chance. Frisk cannot kill him directly in any of the routes, despite fighting you in the Pacifist route, but it would be revealed that Paps killed him moments after he left you when your fight with him ended.
Papyrus: Also dubbed as Mr. Papyrus instead of The Great Papyrus, is a megalomaniac criminal who decided to take on the crime scene after he was expelled from the Royal Guard for being too much of an annoyance to the other members. He terrorizes the citizens of Desertown (The snowdin replacement) and believes the entirety of the Royal Guard are a bunch of cowards for not being able to handle him and his evil schemes (Something he uses to fuel his ego even further). He doesn't necessarily likes sans, and in facts gets easily irritated by the way he acts, being also the reason for why sans is missing an eye and has a crack on his head. If not prevented, Sans will end up taking the chance for when Papyrus gets tired during your fight with him to get him out of guard and kill him up on the spot, but if prevented, Papyrus will be able to dodge Sans attack and immediately scold Sans away, saying he will deal with you later, allowing you to continue.
Undyne: She's the result of one of Alphys' most successful attempts at making a "super soldier", having been heavily experimented on after volutaring herself to the "UNDYING Project", which lead to her being mutated into an almost mindless beast, being now put as the head of the Royal Guard with the only goal in her mind being to serve and follow Asgore's orders at all costs. She's basically a gigantic animal, she doesn't have much of a consciousness anymore and will go to any length to try and kill Frisk. She can either end up dying by being thrown in the lava in hotland if Frisk decide to cut the rope bridge where she's standing, or can be spared by simply continuing to run away and hide inside Alphys' lab
Alphys: She's the "Actual" head of the Royal Guard, and also the left hand of Asgore, having the entirety of hotland in her palm for her to control. She's cold, remorseless and only cares about the progress she makes in her own projects, having a strange fascination in studies related to DNA mutation and cyborg related projects, explaing why she went on to create the Undyne we see now. She can either be killed by allowing Mettaton to grab her and explode both of them, or can be saved by fully destroying Mettaton after Frisk's fight with them, reaching the expected results of Frisk's partnership with her, and thus, having her allow her to get out of the core and continue on your journey.
Mettaton: Mettaton was an attempt of Alphys at creating an AI to help her better administrate the Core, but the AI ended up going rogue after Alphys could not fully brainwash the monster soul she used to give consciousness to her AI. Mettaton would have to role of an annoyance because she's extremely interested on getting to know the human, leading to her eventual fight in the core's "core" (lol), where she would reveal that she had been building a robot body for herself in an attempt at leaving the "cage" that was the Core and going on to fulfill her dream, which was to be a television celebrity. Tho, because of the appearence she decided to take, having been taken out from the corny anime Mettaton had found in the internet, and the way she decide to run he first show, she's booed to the point she decides to go on with what her public wants, and give them the violence they so ask, almost killing herself in the process (the fight is basically that, her fighting Frisk because she wants to give the violence the audience wants). The thing can either end with Frisk destroying Mettaton fully and deactivating them, finishing up the contract they had signed with Alphys, or actually fake out their death so Alphys can attempt at grabbing the remainings of Mettaton's body, only go be grabbed by her and blown up by her, killing both Mettaton and Alphys in the process. Yeah, she doesn't really have a good ending either way lol
Asgore: The point of his character was that there isn't much known about him, just that he's the king of the monsters, wanting to lead an army of only the strongest for when he manages to break the barrier and start another war with the humankind. He's cold, silent, and the embodiment of pure cruelty. The only ending where he comes out alive would be the Neutral route, where, due to his fight being impossible, Frisk would have to give up their soul for him, and with that, he would absorb all of the 7 human souls and break out the barrier, causing a second war between the monsters and humans to break out.
Characters like Asriel and Chara would not have any actual role in the story, judging there would not be a fight against Asriel or an Omega Flowey, and neither would Chara revive at the end of a genocide run. The replacement however for the Asriel fight would be a fight with Asgore, which i will explain in the next sections.
The AU would have 3 routes, much like the original having a Pacifist, Neutral and Genocide fight
The Neutral route would consist of Frisk going crudely and letting most of the main cast characters die out by the unconventional means i've listed before, ending with Frisk not being able to win Asgore and having their soul taken away by him as another war of the monsters going against the humans would break. The Pacifist route would be based around Frisk impeding most of the main characters from dying, with the only exceptions being Sans and Mettaton, which would lead to the monsters helping Frisk out on their battle against Asgore in an attempt at overthrowing his government of a tyrant. This would lead to Asgore go on to absorb the six souls he had already acquired as a last effort of winning the fight, making the route truly end with a fight against a now version of Asgore with god like powers (His design would be something much more akin to Omega Flowey than Asriel, the same being applied to the way his fight would roll) The Genocide route would have Frisk killing out all of the monsters by themselves, and purposefully letting the main characters get killed, ending with a talk with Sans where he would thank you for taking care of everyone, saying that he despite being an asshole himself, knew the dangers that the monsters could bring if they continued with the way they were treating life, and most importantly, the mission they were trying to achieve. After the talk, Frisk would get on a last fight with Asgore, to which they would be able to defeat him and leave the underground, fully putting an end on the so said "evil" that lurked in the depths of the Mt. Ebbot.
And, i think that's all i needed to say primarily, now i feel like it would be cool if i put out some notes and fun facts:
Papyrus design is heavily inspired by the old concept of Papyrus from undertale, and also the character Dedan from the game OFF (at least, design wise) All of the scenarios would have their aspects reverted, as for an example snowdin instead of being a snowy forest, would be a hot desert called Desertown, and waterfall would be a bunch of tight caves surrounding a volcano rather than a bunch of flooded caves, called Magma Lakes. The reason Mettaton is actually female instead of male in Cruel World is because they are a Trans Woman. Ghosts are depicted as genderless in the original undertale, and they in fact only get the gender they feel most comfortable identifying as when they manage to succesfully fuse themselves with a body (Mad dummy being an example of that, as they went first by they/them, but started going by she after becoming Mad Mew Mew). With that being said, i believe the same happened with mettaton in og undertale, they were a genderless ghost but started identifying themselves as a man after they became the mettaton robot. So basically, same happens here, but mettaton transitioned into a woman instead of a men lol After i had somewhat finished with this AU, i was actually planning on updating my other Negativetale AUs to use Cruel World as their base, but judging i've lost the courage to continue Cruel World, the same came to be for the others. I don't know, i feel like stuff like Swapnegative and Negativefell could use well being based off Cruel World but, oh well. Uh, i guess that's it? Idk if i have much else to say Sorry for not having the courage to continue this, i really wished i could try and bring negativetale back with a fresh new coat of paint but, ig this au stuff doesn't really always work the way i'd expect, but that's alright.
