So I was considering the narachara theory… What if monsters literally speak in those weird blip noises we hear and Chara’s just translating for us? It could explain why your ACT choices in situations are so limited - Chara’s providing the different options they’re willing translate through you to reply.
(Also, this suggests Chara made a deliberate choice to give Sans and Papyrus funny voices when translating them to try and communicate their weird accents which i just find hilarious ;D )
Let’s say that Chara learnt this language after spending years with Asriel and the royal family, or they fell at a stage in their life where they just grew up hearing it from a young age the way some bilingual people do, or since they fell the language which humans used to learn because monsters were on the surface was soon forgotten to time.
Okay, fanfiction ideas because I’ve thought this out way too much:
Frisk rids themselves of Chara completely somehow gaining control again during a genocide run, then they reset only to find that they can’t understand a thing anyone’s saying. To make matters worse, they can’t talk their way out of fights. How can you be a pacifist if you can’t reason with people? How can they befriend Papyrus? Or Undyne?
They try and go to Sans for help. Two problems. One, he completely hates them right now (for good reason) and Frisk can’t even say the monster equivalent of sorry anymore. Two, even he has no idea what tongue the kid’s babbling in and Frisk has to go through this tedious game of charades for everything. And Sans has a bit of fun when guessing what they’re trying to say sometimes heheh which drives Frisk mad.
Alphys loosely knows some Japaneese from anime and by extension she’d pick out a few words here and there of human English. But she hates dubbed anime, subtitles are better so she’s not much help.
Fortunately (well, also unfortantely depending on how you think about it) Mettaton and Flowey do speak rudimentary human English (fun fact: they’re the only ones who actually have actual spoken voices in the game). Flowey knows it from his time with Chara when they were kids. Mettaton knows it because he’s obsessed with all things human, his robotics can identify the language patterns and it’s his goal to one day perform on the surface (gotta know how to play to the audience darling~).
I this run would really interesting actually because it explores that balance that’s been disrupted. Frisk needs their dark side. Chara plays just as much a role in fulfilling this story as Frisk does - both in pacifist and genocide routes.
[Of course, this concept only really works when this isn’t an ASL Frisk story. That or monsters have their own version of sign language *cough*wingdings*cough*]
Even better: what if this was set in a universe where Chara never intervened at all?
~
Frisk doesn’t understand what the hell the strange flower is saying. But they don’t like the way the thing is smiling at them. That’s when it suddenly tugs out their soul. “Huh?” They struggle and start panicking.
Flowey’s lost his patience. What’s the point of toying with something that can’t appreciate they’re being messed with? He goes in for the kill (Frisk has no idea what’s happening but they get the feeling it’s dangerous) when out of nowhere a freaking fire-casting goat beast chases him off.
Are they supposed to feel horrified or relieved?
She’s taller and stronger than the other one and had no hesitation in setting the flower of fire. Guess that makes higher up in the food chain down here. Plus, Frisk realises, more dangerous than smiling sunflower over there.
And alpha goat predator just claimed this weak human prey that’s currently wetting themself feckless as their own by force. Perfect.
Frisk’s terrified. Is the goat thing going to eat them? She can’t calm them down because they have no idea what that tall goat lady is babbling and they run for their life. Monsters encounter them and they use FLEE or whack them with a stick to get out of their way. She catches up with them and Frisk faints.
They wake up in a bed, the goat thing staying guard in the room outside. She’s acting, well, nice? They think? It’s still up for debate whether she’s just captured them and plans to cook Frisk up and eat them later. Whatever the case the pie thing she left for them wasn’t poisoned so there’s that. Tasted quite nice actually. Frisk could detect… cinnamon? Butterscotch maybe?