I've been thinking about Underswap and how the characters are swapped, but in the end everything stays the same.
I mean, as a player, you will still find a psychotic being playing nice, a goat monster that will guide you through the ruins, a lazy skeleton will greet you on the bridge with a bad joke, will be chased by a warrior in violent armor from good hearted and you will have a real clumsy scientist... In other words, you play the same game, only with the characters reversed.
While I love Underswap, but as a game, I particularly find it kind of boring (because every time I've seen a representation of the game, the characters follow the same script as Undertale).
So imagine if they didn't change places, just change their personality (but still keep something of the original character)!
Flowey with Temmie's personality. Imagine, he is still an evil flower, but he thinks the human is cute! Imagine a being with reset power but can be manipulated by a few cereal flakes.
Toriel with the personality of Asgore. She is kind but hesitant. She guides you through the ruins, but acts nervous and like she doesn't want you there. She takes care of the monsters in the ruins and is secretly trying to steal her soul.
Asgore is protective, worried about her safety and what she had to go through to get to him, but don't be afraid of children, you're safe now! He will try to keep you in his house and in the Underground.... and he won't take no for an answer!
Sans is the cheerful and cheerful sentry in Snowdin's forest. He is the joker, demanding and positive, big brother who motivates his younger brother to be a royal guard (so he will gain popularity and everyone will see how cool his brother is).
Papyrus is the lazy, unmotivated younger brother who hates jokes or puns. He doesn't want to be a real real guard, but he doesn't want to let his brother down.
Undyne is the shy, gurgling and loyal leader of the royal guard. She spends most of her time cooped up at home and only goes out to dig through the trash looking for anime. She controls the Royal Guard via social media.
Alphys is the noisy, geek and very excited real scientist. She lives touring the Underground, getting into everything and pushing her greatest invention, the robot Mettaton, to be a show business star.
Mettaton is the shy, whining and dramatic robot that Alphys created. They tends to get left in the corners of Underground when Alphys isn't trying to get them to sing, dance or act.
Napstablook is the noisy, talented and confident ghost who lives in Walterfall. They usually go to the ruins to train their singing and one day surprise the world with their talent and brilliance.
Muffet is the silent and very greedy spider monster. Her spiders speak for her.
Grillby is the chatty owner of Snowdin's bar. He speaks for customers.
I had an AU idea a while ago that I just updated and wanted to share. Then I realized I could combine it with two other ideas I haven’t looked at in a while and this has suddenly become a much bigger project than anticipated. I still have some kinks to work out, and need to update the other ideas, but this bit is ready to post now and the rest will (hopefully) be coming soon.
So.
The original concept for this AU was to use everyone’s Underswap personalities but keep them in their original Undertale positions. This means that I’d have things like an Anxious and Nerdy (Royal Scientist) Undyne trying to be Captain of the Royal Guard, so I’d have to come up with a reason why someone with a nervous personality would even want to be Royal Guard at all, let alone end up as Captain, among other weirdness. Some things fell into place fairly easily, especially Undyne and Alphys for some reason, and Grillby and Muffet worked oddly well as a flamboyant barista and a speakeasy owner tucked away in the CORE somewhere. However, I struggled with most of them, either being too similar to their swap partners for their positions to distinguish them, too similar to their Undertale or Underswap counterparts, or I couldn't find a way to make their new personality make sense with their original position.
My new premise worked much better for the odd ones, let me keep a lot of what I'd already worked out, and was honestly much easier to explain and justify as being its own AU.
I Inverted the characters.
To make these new characters the inverse of the original characters, I took a few core tenets of their Undertale personalities and found an antonym that is similar to, but still different from, their Underswap personalities, making sure they were still unique while also giving me some wiggle room to play with. I laid out all three of the loose and simplified descriptions I was working with before each character section, so hopefully that’ll make more sense once we actually start getting into it.
Thus, Inverse Undertale or InverTale.
((Not to be confused with Inverted Fate, as it’s their personalities that are inverted, not their fate. I actually don’t know much about Inverted Fate, the only commonality is in name.))
I also shifted the layout of the Underground a little, just cuz. :3
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So! First things first, the new setup of the Underground! ‘Cause some of these places are important for backstories.
The Hollow Shrine {The Ruins} used to be the temperate city of Homefront {Home} until the magma that used to fill the cavern of Mt Ebott’s dormant volcano could be contained and the rest of their prison could be deemed habitable. Now, it has frozen over with ice, as it is the farthest one can get from the Underground’s main heat source. While the Ruins represented Fall, the Shrine represents Winter; a place frozen in time, dead and abandoned, unable to move on from an idealized past. There is no snow, no softness, just sharp and brittle memories devoid of warmth and life. The Hollow Shrine also somewhat represents pre-dawn darkness, the coldest time of day after cooling all night and before the sun can begin to warm the land again. The forgotten time of day, when even night owls sleep.
The Blithe Gardens {Snowdin} represent Spring, rather than Snowdin’s Winter; hope for new growth and all things green and young and alive. The Blithe Woods {Snowdin Forrest} stand between the sealed off Hollow Shrine and the settlement of Blithe Garden {Snowdin Town} itself. The Blithe Gardens are filled with gently glowing crystals that represent dawn, as the world is just starting to light up.
Greenyard {Waterfall} is pronounced similar to Vineyard and represents Summer and a general celebration of all forms of life in their prime. Greenyard houses most of the population of the Underground and produces about a third of the Underground’s food. Greenyard represents mid-day, from late morning to early evening, when the most people are awake and doing things.
Between Greenyard and Harvestead is the Vail Labs, with a public facing area {Hotland Lab} that leads back to an extensive system of labs for the Royal Scientist’s personal use {True Lab}. Some lived there, others hid their less savory projects out of the public eye, some left it completely open to the public or at least their assistants, and a few barely used them at all.
Beneath Vail Labs is the AXIS {CORE} Facility that is split into two main sections; the AXIS labs that house the science team’s more energy intensive experiments, so they could be closer to the other main section, the AXIS powerplant. Slightly off-set from the AXIS facility itself, mostly under Greenyard, is the Molten Reservoir where all of the previously mentioned magma had been sequestered, leaving the rest of the Underground in a livable, temperate state, as well as allowing them to use it as a near limitless power source. To extend the time of day metaphor, this magma is as close to a sun as they could achieve in a cave.
Harvestead {Hotland} produces most of the food for the Underground, representing the Harvest Season of Autumn rather than Hotland’s oppressive Summer, and many monsters who live in Greenyard or Homefree travel here to work. The name is a portmanteau of “harvest” and “homestead” and sounds like “harvested”. Harvestead also represents evening, just as the sun is about to set, the last useful hours of the day.
Homefree {New Home} is the capital city of the Monster Kingdom and is the largest single settlement in the Underground; Greenyard may house more monsters in total, but they live in multiple, smaller settlements scattered across the whole area, while Homefree’s population is more concentrated. Homefree is also fairly far from the Underground’s main heat source, but it’s more of a winter wonderland than an icy palace; the Land of Soft Snow and Warm Fireplaces. Asgore’s Castle is located at the far end of Homefree, between it and the Barrier. Homefree represents going home after a long day of work; spending time with loved ones and resting peacefully after sunset.
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~ Character Overviews ~
If Undertale Gaster was a mysterious but forgotten genius, and Underswap Gaster was an eccentric but sociable father, then Inverted Gaster is a friendly but broken scientist.
Gaster created two clones of himself, intending to use them as lab rats and eventually turn them into weapons if they managed to survive that long, but when they awoke he realized they weren’t just empty shells and he couldn’t bring himself to follow through (a la Mercy Plates). He lied about their origin, spinning the story that he was actually trying to solve the population issue via cloning, but since the method he used wouldn’t work on a large scale he had to shelve the idea for now, then just raised the clones as his sons.
At 10 years old, both Sans and Papyrus had expressed a desire to become stronger for various reasons, and Gaster decided they were old enough to understand, so he revealed their original purpose to them, emphasized that he loved them as his sons no matter how they came into his life, and asked if they wanted to try some of the lighter, less invasive experiments he’d initially planned for them. He wouldn’t force them into it, that would defeat the whole purpose of sparing them in the first place, but it would grant them the power they said they wanted. Plus, he did still kinda want some of the data he would’ve gotten from those tests. They were hesitant but agreed to try it out with the promise that they could back out at any time, and Gaster was very careful to explain everything to them in detail, get their consent on each part of every experiment before doing it, and constantly reaffirm their consent throughout the process. He even submitted to a few himself, run by Sans and Papyrus, but he had to be careful which ones he chose since he wasn’t young enough to bounce back like they could.
At some point, Gaster had some kind of accident that damaged his mind/soul (the monster equivalent of brain damage); his memory is now faulty at best and the science that he used to know inside and out now eludes him. He often spaces out for minutes at a time (he’s described it as “mental static” like his skull is filled with TV snow), forgets what he’s doing in the middle of doing it, and rambles about things that will only make sense to someone who is extremely familiar with the subject matter and familiar with how Gaster processes information now, but the routine of cooking and cleaning for his sons helps keep him mostly stable.
They moved to Blithe Garden, since they couldn’t live in the Vail Lab anymore, but Gaster doesn’t leave the house often, as he can be easily overwhelmed now and most of the residents avoid him anyways. Thankfully, he was never a terribly social person to begin with, so he doesn’t mind being alone most of the time. He is very kind and helpful, though, and can fix just about anything on instinct, so long as he doesn’t think about it too hard and psyche himself out, because he doesn’t consciously understand what he’s doing or why it works. People have learned to present him with something that’s broken and then distracted with conversation while his hands kind of do their own thing subconsciously. He knows they do this on purpose and appreciates being able to feel useful, even if it is a little manipulative; he considers the fixed item a fair trade for giving him a little company and listening to him ramble. He sits on his porch with a book or some small project to “advertise” that he’s “open for business” whenever he feels up to socializing.
Everyone knows what happened to Gaster but nobody talks about it, especially anywhere Sans or Papyrus might hear. The two are very protective of their disabled father.
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For lack of anywhere better to put this...
Gaster had a habit of picking up bits of magic abilities wherever he could; so long as he understood the principal behind how the magic was being manipulated, he could copy it, albeit a much weaker version. He taught Sans and Papyrus as many as he could through normal training, but some were enhanced by the experiments as well. While they may have different strengths and weaknesses, Gaster, Sans, and Papyrus can all use:
White Bone Constructs (obviously)
Both Cyan and Orange Constructs
Blue Soul Mode
Gaster Blasters (modified Yellow magic)
Green Shields and Green Healing Constructs
“Extra” Helping Hands (modified green magic) (this might require some explanation, but I’ll do that later. Maybe.)
Some Elemental Magic (though it’s too weak to be useful in combat)
From the experiments, Gaster can’t, but both Sans and Papyrus can...
... Use “gravity magic”.
Basically an upgraded Blue Soul Mode, which can only be used on things with a soul.
They can now manipulate/levitate inanimate objects that have no connection to a soul.
... Shapeshift into a Blaster Beast form.
The Blaster Beast form is slightly bigger than their base, humanoid form (about 1.5X); however, they can keep the Blaster Beast form closer to their original, humanoid size with conscious effort.
With conscious effort, they can shift only certain parts of their bodies, like a tail for balance or digitigrade legs for speed. Sometimes this happens unconsciously, like claws/fangs getting longer and/or sharper when angry.
... Apply a poison-like status effect to their attacks called KR (Karma/Karmic Retribution).
It basically multiplies how many times an attack counts as having hit a target, despite only connecting with the target once.
The target’s LV determines how many times the hit is multiplied by.
They usually don’t bother activating it unless they know, or at least suspect, that the target has more than 1 LV, since it doesn’t start multiplying until 2 LV.
This has no additional effect on inanimate objects.
... Create invisible/mostly invisible platforms.
As demonstrated by Papyrus air-walking over Frisk after their fight in Undertale.
Some of San’s attacks use non-damaging platforms during his fight in Undertale.
Gaster managed to sort of copy this using Green Shields, though he can’t hold them for long.
... Use “shortcuts”.
“Taking a Shortcut” is shorthand for opening a gate (which must be anchored in advance), traveling through the nexus, and exiting another gate.
The Nexus is a pocket dimension connecting all established gates.
When they “set an Anchor” or “Anchor a gate”, they are linking a location to the nexus, thus creating a gate.
A Gate is any portal into, or out of, the nexus.
Sans and Papyrus can use each other’s gates since they are all connected to the same nexus.
They have trained to be able to go in and out fast enough that a passenger wouldn’t necessarily notice, likely thinking they just blinked for a little too long and opened their eyes in a new location.
... “See” a warning of an incoming attack.
What they are actually doing is sensing the magic as it condenses into a physical form, including the monster’s intended target area for the attack.
This is a mild form of precognition, similar to a “spidey-sense” or danger intuition.
Gaster can do this a little bit but he doesn’t get nearly as much warning as Sans or Papyrus, and he has to be concentrating, while it’s more automatic for the boys.
I may add abilities or modify these, but this is what I have for now.
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If Undertale Sans was lazy and apathetic, and Underswap Sans was energetic and childlike, then Inverted Sans is enthusiastic and ambitious.
Sans is just as depressed in this universe as any other but hides it behind a cheerful smile; always ready with a joke and encouraging word, though he doesn’t think he deserves the same in return. He regularly forces himself past his limits, exhausting himself partially so he'll just pass out into dreamless unconsciousness every night to avoid his near constant nightmares. He is diligently thorough and loyal to those close to him, a circle he keeps surprisingly small; he can be very charming when he wants to be and gives the impression that he’s closer to others than he actually is, often to make it easier to get things from them, be it favors, items, or information. He keeps the focus on the other person rather than himself, and they don’t realize how little they actually know about Sans until it’s pointed out.
After Gaster’s accident, Sans took several part-time jobs since no one would hire a 16 year old full time, including a Sentry Post in Blithe Woods. He dropped all of them as soon as he was fully accepted into the Royal Guard at 18, though he isn’t opposed to doing odd jobs around town when not actively on duty. What he makes as a Guard is slightly less than his other jobs combined, but it’s also just one job to keep track of, unpredictable as it may be, so it evens out. He now uses his charms to make sure people trust him enough to divulge things they might not have told law enforcement about otherwise, from their own secrets to snitching on others.
Sans doesn’t actively remember resets, only getting the same “déjà vu” feeling as everyone else, but since he is aware that resets are a thing, he knows that feeling means timeline shenanigans are afoot. Sans keeps his abilities and true potential close to his chest; everyone knows he’s quick on his feet and has deep wells of magic to draw from, but most don’t know how weak his defenses are, that he’s basically a glass cannon and one solid hit could take him out; most people don’t know Sans can turn into a Blaster Beast, but he did reveal it to the Blithe Woods Pack to help gain their trust, to prove he belonged with them on the Royal Guard’s (unofficial) K9 Unit, but asked them to not tell anyone else, even Undyne; all of the Guards know about the Gaster Blasters but most of the general public does not, keeping them as an ace up his sleeve to surprise an opponent; no one but Papyrus and Gaster know about the “special abilities” like KR and shortcuts.
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If Undertale Papyrus was eager to please and sincere, and Underswap Papyrus was laid-back and crafty, then Inverted Papyrus is wary and secretive.
Despite being twins, and being physically bigger than Sans, Papyrus tends to take on a younger brother role, happy enough to follow Sans around and support his ambitions rather than commit to a goal of his own. He doesn’t like to engage in something unless he knows for sure it’ll work out and be worth the cost or effort; he says it's for efficiency, to reduce waste, because he can't admit that failure feels worse than not trying at all.
After Gaster’s accident, Papyrus didn’t get a stable job like Sans did, instead doing odd jobs around town, patching a roof here and fixing a microwave there. Usually he’d be given a meal to take home or some other item for his trouble, sometimes money if it was a more intensive task, but mostly he was trying to generate good will in a new community, favors he could call in later for him or his family. He never said this outright, of course, but most adults caught on to the pattern quickly enough. When Sans became a full Royal Guard, he dropped his various jobs and Papyrus managed to sweet-talk his way into taking over Sans’ Sentry Post in Blithe Woods to make up for the lost income, sort of switching the roles of who has a stable job and who is doing odd-jobs between other responsibilities.
Papyrus doesn’t actively remember resets, only getting the same “déjà vu” feeling as everyone else, but since he is aware that resets are a thing, he knows that feeling means timeline shenanigans are afoot. While Papyrus has most of the same abilities as Sans, he doesn’t train them as much, fearing he might be exposed for having them at all, so he doesn’t have quite as much fire power or precision as Sans but he does have higher defensive stats and plenty of stamina to make up for it, tending to outlast his opponents rather than overwhelm them quickly. Papyrus pretends he’s weaker than Sans anyways, that he has fewer “special abilities” or tricks up his sleeve, even though they are about equal when taking their different strengths into account; if Papyrus can endure through Sans' initial attacks, he's basically won.
Sans generally keeps his true potential hidden so he’ll be underestimated and can surprise an opponent; however, Papyrus hates telling anyone anything substantial about himself, ever. Even more than most people, Papyrus is terrified of rejection, which is probably related to his fear of failure, but if they don’t know the Real Papyrus they can’t reject the Real Papyrus, only the mask he allows them to see. He can tailor that mask to be whoever would appeal to the person he’s interacting with at the time so that, on the off chance that he is rejected, it won’t hurt as much because it was just a mask.
Sans keeps secrets for a practical reason. Papyrus keeps secrets like his life depends on it.
When Sans revealed his Blaster Beast form to the Pack, they asked if Papyrus or Gaster could do it, too, and Sans answered truthfully without thinking; Gaster can’t but Papyrus can. Sans immediately realized his mistake and begged them to not let Pap know they knew; if he found out Sans spilled one of his secrets, Pap would never forgive him. The truth does come out eventually, of course, and Papyrus is mad at Sans, but being warmly accepted by the Pack does take the sting out of it. A bit.
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If Undertale Undyne was confident and boisterous, and Underswap Undyne was nerdy and shy, then Inverted Undyne is nervous and reserved.
Undyne’s father, an aquatic reptilian named Vython, had been the Captain of the Royal Guard for a while, and Undyne was thrilled to follow in his footsteps, joining the Royal Guard herself as soon as she could. Everyone expected her to take over once Vython retired, as she was very obviously being groomed for the position. Just over a year before Frisk falls down, Captain Vython was killed by the 6th human to fall, one with a yellow soul and a loaded gun that managed to slip past Toriel, and Undyne was promoted to Captain way earlier than she’d expected, so she was dealing with both grieving the loss of her remaining parent and taking on a ton of responsibility she wasn’t ready for. The rest of the Guard had been very understanding and supportive, but she was slowly crumbling under the pressure. Undyne somewhat blames Toriel for Vython’s death but instead directs most of her anger towards humans in general rather than hating her Queen.
Both Vython and Nyad, Undyne’s mother, had been good friends with Gaster, so Undyne ended up spending a lot of time with Sans and Pap growing up and considers them her best friends, even though she’s about 4 years older than them. They kept Gaster’s experiments a secret from her, though, and they grew apart after Gaster’s accident since they moved away and had very little time to spare for anything beyond pure survival. Undyne had become a Royal Guard not long before that anyways, so she didn’t have much time either.
After being promoted to Captain, now only a few months before Frisk falls, Undyne bent the rules a bit and let Sans into the Guard a little early; she’d been trying to handle it on her own and wait for him to turn 19 to induct him, but she really needed his support and couldn’t wait any longer. Sans also benefitted, though, so she was able to outwardly spin it as a favor to him, though he was well aware of the real reason she’d let him in early. He didn’t mind, though, and was just happy he could reconnect with his old friend and be there for her, and take care of his family at the same time. Undyne also pulled some strings to let Papyrus take over Sans’ now vacant Sentry Post, citing that he didn’t even need training because he was already helping Sans and knew exactly what to do already.
When alone, Undyne is actually kinda quiet, more like Nyad, preferring to observe before committing to a course of action, very much looking before she leaps; a natural tactician. When she joined the Guard, Undyne had an ideal of what a Royal Guard should be like, outgoing and confident like Vython, so she projected that while on duty, only letting the mask fall around close friends and family. Upon promotion, she felt she had to fill Vython’s shoes and began to act even more like him, despite it going against her reserved nature, and keeping it up was exhausting her even faster than the responsibility was. She is eventually convinced that it’s ok to be her own kind of Captain, rather than a copy of the Captain that Vython was.
Undyne’s dad was Vython, an aquatic reptilian that could be compared to an anthropomorphized water dragon or sea serpent. He was bold, bright, and boisterous, very much like Undertale Undyne. His name is based on the Sea God Typhon, one of his sons named Python, and it sounds a little bit like a corrupted (Le)viathan.
Undyne’s mom was Nyad (naiad), a mostly pacifistic healer. Nyad is something like a mermaid or selkie, able to shapeshift her legs on land into a fish/seal tail in water, an ability Undyne inherited. She died when Undyne was fairly young, leading Vython to lean more on Gaster, who had recently become a father himself and leaned right back.
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If Undertale Alphys was anxious and awkward, and Underswap Alphys was arrogant and fierce, then Inverted Alphys is zealous and engaging.
Alphys’ passion for science is infectious and anyone who’s met her can’t help but share her excitement. She had a fairly normal childhood in Harvestead, even though she spent most of her time greedily soaking up every bit of knowledge anyone was willing to teach her rather than learning how socializing worked through experience with kids her age, so she has a hard time reading people and generally takes them at their word. Obviously, she knows people can and do lie, but she never expects them to so it always catches her off guard when they do. She became Gaster’s assistant fairly young and was given his title after his accident left him unable to perform his duties
Alphys tends to not care what anyone thinks of her, barreling full steam ahead despite warnings to take her time, but her hasty decision making has led to many positive results in record time. Unfortunately, her mad scientist streak leads to many of her exploits literally blowing up in her face, leaving a trail of carnage in her wake, though she somehow doesn’t seem to ever take any lasting damage. ((Depending on what I decide Gaster's accident was, I might have it be Alphys’ fault, though not on purpose.))
Alphys has trouble with “object permanence” and doesn’t really think about something unless it is constantly in her face. If an item is in a drawer where she can’t see it, she could completely forget that it existed in the first place, until she comes across it again. She doesn’t “forget” people, per se, she actually remembers a lot of random details about everyone she meets; she just doesn’t think about them, or think to contact them, without being prompted. Even her own family is not immune to this and she could go months without talking to them unless they contact her first. She tends to either bounce between a dozen or two projects haphazardly, or she hyper fixates on one project and the rest of the world may as well not exist. Once she loses the hyper fixation, it would be shelved in favor of the next; she might never think about that particular project again or she might come back to it years later and it would be like she’d never left it. ((I’m like this too, it kinda sucks honestly...))
The exception to this is Undyne, as Alphys had immediately fallen head-over-heels for the then Royal Guard. She already had plans to expand the surveillance network and easily fit in a few extra cameras near Undyne’s home that nobody would notice, watching her from afar. This was the first time Alphys had hesitated to approach someone, got nervous around them, or thought about them while they weren’t around. It was a new and exciting feeling and Alphys relished it.
But she didn’t approach.
In the meantime, Alphys found some of Gaster’s old research about Determination, human souls, and the beginnings of the experiments that would eventually result in Flowey and the Amalgamates. While ashamed and embarrassed at her failure, Alphys didn’t hide them and they returned to their now multiple families, though the Memory Heads were deemed a danger to themselves and others so they were kept in the Vail Lab. The Amalgamates tend to wander the Underground so everyone chips in to help take care of them and they see Alphys for regular checkups. They all seem to like Gaster for some reason (spoiler: they tend to processes thoughts the same way).
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If Undertale Asgore was provincially charming but willing to sacrifice his morality for the good of his people, and Underswap Asgore was fatherly and nurturing but ran from his responsibilities, than Inverted Asgore is a passionate motivational speaker but unwilling to compromise his moral code.
Asgore is a beloved King with a regal aura his subjects are drawn to, but he is also a skilled manipulator, using his silver tongue to convince his subjects to eagerly accept anything he may want them to do. It would be terrifying if he were any less committed to upholding his moral code. Asgore has a heart of gold and truly wants what’s best for his people, so they trust him to lead them well and make good decisions, therefore they generally don’t resist his manipulation even if they do recognize it as such.
These two traits, his desire to help his people and his strict adherence to his moral code, had never come into conflict until his children were killed by humans.
Chara had just died of an “unknown illness” and Asriel took their soul and passed through the Barrier before Asgore or Toriel could stop him, only to return mortally wounded and collapse into dust in their arms. Asgore shut down, the emotions too much for him, until he learned of Toriel’s plan to declare war on the humans and decree that any human who fell would be killed, their souls harvested to break the Barrier and then used to empower monsters to destroy humanity entirely. His moral code wouldn’t let him stand by while innocent humans suffered and died for the sins of the few who had attacked Asriel, but he also knew that his people needed something to hold onto now that Asriel and Chara, the hope for the future of humans and monsters, were gone. Asgore halted Toriel, certain they could find some kind of solution that didn’t involve another war; even if they survived, could they really consider it a victory if they lost themselves along the way? However, he was unable to present a satisfactory alternative, so she took matters into her own hands and left for the remains of Homefront, which she renamed Hollow Shrine before sealing the way behind her. If Asgore wasn’t willing to soil his hands with death then Toriel would do it herself.
Toriel had announced her plan to the whole Kingdom as she left, so everyone knew that, any time they saw her, it would be to deliver another human soul to King Asgore, harvested from a human by the Queen herself.
Asgore had mixed feelings about this development. While he had always been the face of the monster throne, and the driving force to accomplish their goals, Toriel was the brains, the tactician, the one to come up with the plans for Asgore to carry out. He was lost without her. As much as he hated her plan, he couldn’t bring himself to condemn it, wanting to present a united front for his people to rely on, to hide the cracks in their leadership.
He did what he could to keep everyone’s spirits up, to keep hope alive in his subjects, but they could all tell something inside him had broken; the light in his eyes was gone, and he was just going through the motions.
I may or may not have Carol and/or Rudy be assigned to take over day-to-day administrative stuff so Asgore can wallow in misery, taking over the role Toriel usually filled. They'd have to be Inverted too, though.
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If Undertale Toriel was protective and nurturing but avoidant, running from her duties, and Underswap Toriel was cold and merciless but dedicated to her cause, then Inverted Toriel is logical and steadfast but willing to sacrifice her morality for the good of her people.
While some would describe Queen Toriel as cold and calculating, she thought of herself as practical and efficient. She couldn’t excite a crowd with nothing but words like Asgore could, or inspire others with her mere presence, but she wanted the best for her people just as much as Asgore did, so she used her administrative and organizational skills behind the scenes to bring Asgore’s ideals to life. He would set the goals and she would find a way to make it reality. She may not have been as beloved as her husband, but she preferred to stay out of the spotlight anyways, to be the one they looked to for an actual plan and not just pretty words.
Toriel had never known true hatred before Chara and Asriel’s deaths, had never felt so strongly about anything in her entire life.
When Asgore shut down in shock and grief, she had nothing to direct her drive for action besides her own rage, so that is what she acted on, though she was stopped from declaring all-out war on the human race by Asgore and his morals. He couldn’t provide an alternative solution, but he swore he would die before letting her doom their people to losing themselves just to satisfy her thirst for vengeance; a thirst that would never be able to fill the hole in her heart left by the loss of their children anyways. Killing others wouldn’t make the pain go away. Part of Toriel knew Asgore was right, but another part knew that if she let this fire in her soul die, there would be nothing left to fuel her. She didn’t think she’d survive that.
So, if Asgore was unwilling to do what must be done, then Toriel would do it herself.
She announced to the entire Underground her plan to reside in the remains of Homefront, the only place known for a human to fall, and collect the necessary souls and deliver them to Asgore personally so no one else would have to face the danger of fighting a human. She didn’t say out loud that she was also protecting them from the trauma of being forced to take a life, though many picked up on the subtext anyways. She knew that most monsters, but especially Asgore, were too compassionate to collect the required souls themselves and she wanted to spare them that horrible choice by taking that sin upon herself; no one else would have to suffer. Despite his strict adherence to his moral code, Toriel was counting on Asgore being prudent enough to not let an already collected soul go to waste.
Toriel renamed Homefront to “Hollow Shrine”, as it had been frozen in time when they left it; a Shrine to the past, now Hollow and empty. She chose to isolate herself for a number of reasons, one of which was to preemptively punish herself for the murders she had sworn to commit. For each human that fell, she tried to make their end quick and painless, often convincing them to come to her home to rest before killing them in their sleep, collecting their soul, and taking a funeral march to the throne room to present it to Asgore. These were the only interactions they had with each other for a very long time.
Not all of the humans trusted Toriel enough to sleep, but only the last one, with a yellow soul and a loaded gun, managed to sneak past her into the rest of the Underground. This human was spotted by the Blithe Woods sentries and the Captain of the Royal Guard was called to fight them, arriving after the human had already killed several other monsters. The Captain was also mortally wounded before Toriel caught up to the human and finished the job.
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If Undertale Asriel was sweet and gentle, and Underswap Asriel was clumsy and energetic, than Inverted Asriel was spunky and spirited.
Asriel had inherited Asgore’s silver tongue, so both Toriel and Asgore did their best to instill in him a desire to use it for the good of all rather then selfish gain. It mostly worked, though Asriel was not immune to teenage rebellion, getting himself and others in trouble with increasing frequency. One day, he was playing around the outskirts of Homefront when he found an injured human, who introduced themself as Chara. Making a snap decision, Asriel tried to hide them from everyone, fearing they would reject Chara and hurt them even more than they already were, and quickly became very attached to his new friend. Luckily, he was adept at healing, though neither knew how to set a broken leg so they would walk with a limp for the rest of their life.
Chara likened their new position to a child hiding a kitten in their closet. Asriel didn’t find the comparison nearly as funny as Chara did.
Chara was discovered, of course, and Asgore and Toriel were torn between their desire to keep Asriel safe from humans and Asriel’s clear attachment that would inevitably leave him feeling bitter if they tried to separate the two, a betrayal he might never fully forgive them for. Hesitantly, they allowed Chara to stay and eventually grew to care for them as well. With this acceptance, Asriel and Chara became inseparable, though Chara encouraged Asriel’s rebellious streak a bit more than Asgore and Toriel would’ve liked and Asriel began neglecting his other friends as well.
At some point, Asriel and Chara decided to make a pie and mistook cups of butter for buttercups; Asriel was many things but a cook was not one of them, and the monsters had introduced Chara to so many strange foods that the idea of putting flowers in a pie seemed reasonable enough. Asgore got sick from the pie and, despite his recovery, this marked the beginning of the end, as Chara began to isolate themself and Asriel began to take his duties as Prince much more seriously, shocked out of his rebellion by seeing the consequences of careless actions. Then Chara got sick, only telling Asriel about their planned suicide when they were certain they couldn’t be saved, even by his advanced skills at healing. They begged him to end their pain, take their soul, and use it to free the monsters. It took a lot of convincing, but he eventually agreed to their plan and snuck them to the Barrier before dealing the final blow himself.
Absorbing Chara’s soul, Asriel walked through the Barrier with their body, unwilling to let them go just yet but knowing his parents would stop him if he lingered too long. In the dark of night, Asriel found the town Chara had originally come from, knowing things about it that he couldn’t have possibly known and figured it must be the fading embers of Chara’s consciousness, since they were of course dead and gone now. He came up to a house, intending to sneak in a window and kill everyone inside in their sleep, but paused as he witnessed a mother comforting her child that had awoken from a nightmare. Seeing this suddenly put into perspective what he was about to do, that these humans were just as much “people” as every monster in the Underground, and he was about to murder them in cold blood. He couldn’t bring himself to do it. Unfortunately, the mother and child spotted him as he stood frozen by their window, dead child in his arms, and all of them panicked. Asriel took off, unfortunately in the wrong direction, and the father of the family he’d scared pursued him with a hunting rifle. By the time Asriel realized his mistake, the father had caught up to him and shot him several times before Asriel managed to escape back up the mountain.
It didn’t take long for Asgore and Toriel to discover Chara was missing, frantically searching everywhere before finding a note Chara had written beforehand. It detailed their plan, emphasizing that this was their choice, and asking them to not blame Asriel for it; this was what they wanted. All the two parents could do was wait by the Barrier for Asriel to return. Unfortunately, after stumbling into their arms, Asriel only lasted just long enough to apologize before crumbling to dust.
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If Undertale Chara was mischievous and hated humanity, and Underswap Chara was kind and pacifistic, than Inverted Chara cared deeply for their loved ones and fuck everyone else.
Born a girl in an early American settlement, Charisma never quite fit the mold laid out for them by society. They would often daydream about daring adventures and fighting beasts, praised as a hero and adored by those they saved. Their parents punished them for such fanciful ideas, hoping to curb this bad habit before anyone else found out, but Chara just got better at hiding it. They were taught to read in the hopes that being more useful would attract a husband, but Chara got their hands on a fantasy novel and was instantly hooked, even if they lacked some vocabulary.
Then the townsfolk found out and the whole family was shunned until they could “get that girl back in her place. Rich people could afford such flights of fancy, but the common folk had to work for a living; how dare she think she was better than everyone else, that she was above her lot in life?”
Eventually, it got bad enough that Chara’s father decided enough was enough and, in a drunken rage, decided that the best way to “fix” the problem was to kill Chara and their mother, who he somewhat blamed for conceiving a “defective” daughter. Chara’s mother was instructing them on how to cook, one of their weaker skills, when their father came home and began beating them both. Chara eventually found themself kneeling over their mother’s lifeless body when their father lunged at them and the dropped chopping knife was suddenly in their hand, stabbing him in the face before they fled up Mount Ebott. As the sun finished setting, they climbed as high as they could, taking shelter in a cave for the night.
They never knew if their parents survived the incident, or if anyone even bother looking for them, because they fell down a hole by morning, the broken leg only the most recent of their injuries. This was Chara’s state when Asriel found them. As much as Asriel was immediately attached to them, Chara clung right back; he was the first person in years to look at them kindly, to not care that they were human, let alone a “defective” one. He also introduced them to the idea of using gender neutral pronouns and a tension in their chest they never realized was there finally released.
After inevitably being discovered, Chara was still anxious around anyone other than Asriel, who decided he wanted to stay with them more than his other friends. Chara felt guilty for unintentionally isolating him but it also felt really good knowing he picked them over everyone else. Despite Asriel’s best efforts, Chara’s broken leg had never healed right, so they had a permanent limp, but they did what they could to “earn their keep” with the skills their human parents had taught them. They were actually starting to feel pretty good about their lot in life...
... until the Buttercup Pie Incident.
Chara had been viscerally reminded that they were a human, and humans killed monsters; it was in their nature, they couldn’t help it. But they had to protect their new family, the only people who had ever cared about them, even if they had to protect them from Chara themself. There was one last gift they could give the monsters, though; their human soul, one of seven required to break the Barrier. So, Chara had to die. But how? Asriel was a prodigy with healing magic, he would heal whatever wound they could inflict on themself, but they also had to be in a position for Asriel to absorb their soul, so they couldn’t just throw themself in the magma or something. They would have to convince Asriel to either kill them himself or let them die while being close enough to absorb their soul, but what would make Asriel choose that? A mercy killing, Asriel would have to be convinced to put Chara out of their misery, even if it was self-inflicted. What kind of misery would be convincing enough?
Their mind turned back to the spark that started the wildfire in their life; buttercup poisoning, a poetic end.
Chara eventually won the race between the buttercup's poison and Asriel’s healing. He couldn’t heal them as they felt their body shutting down for good, and finally revealed their plan, begging him to not let their life, their pain, their death, be in vain.
They didn’t expect to be conscious once absorbed. They never quite regained their bearings, but thoughts and memories of the town they originally came from filtered through their consciousness and into Asriel’s mind, and when he bolted, it was towards Chara’s old house, running on their instinct. They faded as Asriel turned to dust, their body buried where they fell in the now frozen over Hollow Shrine.
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I’m still working on Frisk and Flowey, as well as most of the background characters and some random notes, but I’ll save that for another post. This one is long enough as it is.
