HI HI
Can you list out your favorite Undertale AUs for Chans? What specific scenes do you have for each AU that makes their dynamics interesting? 👀
I love this ask 😍!! I initially fell in love with Underfell so that influenced a lot of my taste in AUs. None of my favs actually have canonical Sans and Chara shipping but i basically bend the story to my will because i just love the world + designs and wanna put chara and sans someway somehow interacting in it.
Here's my top 5 🖐️
Top 1 UNDERFELL
- I've drawn fell chans so many times already it's hard to pick what kind of story i want for them. I first drew a humantale-underfell fusion where sans and chara meet somewhere in the castle halls and bicker a lot. In my head i also fused Caretaker au with it so the two of them act like co-workers guarding the fortress and sacred rooms. And again, they bicker, a lot, which is cute.
- second instance of Fell adjacent plotline I've drawn is for Chanstober day 2, where the setting is slightly more aligned with canon underfell, the one with chara having a timid (?) nervous (?) personality. The scene is that chara is amidst sneaking out the Dreemurr castle, all the while sans is there catching the act. Not sure how the rest of that scene would unfold. I just think sans wouldn't be too unforgiving with chara, he's only curious and is seeking a way to pass time. These two will form an unlikely friendship or something where sans will become a protector to chara, and chara will learn to be unafraid of monster kind and learn to trust.
- the current recent art i made for underfell chans is also from Chanstober. Here, the cast is canon-adjacent Chara and Fell!Sans. A hurt/ (no?) comfort scenario. I was really drawn to showcasing Chara's stubbornness to admit vulnerability in front of Fell Sans. Scenes like that are very dear to me, characters so used to masking pain/hurt coupled with someone that sees through the facade and can easily read the other because they know they are very similar with each other 🫶❤️ top tier chans content
Top 2 KILLER or DUSTALE SANS x CHARA
- I often group Killer, Dust and even Horrortale Sans together when it comes to shipping with Chara, or just thinking of scenarios where they are interacting, not necessarily in positive terms. How I define my "romances" aren't really romantic. I usually like things dramatic, tragic or intense. And that's pretty much my school of thought when daydreaming about Killer or Dust being antagonistic around Chara.
- the fight scenes they'd have 😍 cool and hot
- reminder that i always picture sans and chara same age (mostly as entities that have been around for a long time, with lots and lots of issues & baggage to settle or make worse)
- the arguments they'd have 😍 so much fire, lying, manipulation, withholding of truth, denial and tension 😍😍😍
- I've drawn Dust (& Killer) Sans x Chara many times. The first one was this, the scene i came up with is dustsans pressing ghost!chara's buttons by inserting asriel in the conversation, a lowkey threat that he's capable of hurting anyone significant to chara anytime he wants, just highlighting the fact that chara no longer holds power in this timeline. He's just so full of vengeance, i love it. Chara will be equally full of spite, but more of a resolute, unbending type, trying to brave the tides but ultimately they both will have a breaking point (which will be a great opportunity to add unconventional intimacy☝️!!!)
Top 3 HUMANTALE
- you can tell i love this au, I've drawn it a bunch too, just recently I've cooked up punk newyorker accent sans x british chara, it's great. It's those bad boy x old money pairings. In my head the plotline will involve crime and detective work, I don't know why, I'm going to blame that one comment that said it gave off "British TV series" which I happily agree on. I know Twin Peaks isn't British but I'm adding that vibe in the mix.
- Sans and Chara encountering strange unexplainable phenomena while solving a cold case. Very noice 👌✨
Top 4 THE SHIFTY ONES AND THE SWAPS
- I love me a Storyshift Chara and Classic Sans interaction 🥰 ala Bad Time TrioDuo. No further explanations needed. There's many fics about these two already. All of them v good.
- adding Fell into the shifts and swaps tho 🥵 the designs are always so peak, so hot 🤤 I'm a sucker for uniformed sanses, okay? But adding chans into the mix... 🧐? It's very challenging because, yes, Chara is usually present in these AUs but I've never really vibed with how it's written. The challenge is in rewriting Chara's role in these AUs. Usually i am just tempted to insert my own version of chara, the one not from these AUs because it gives me free reign on the chans moments.
- the main things that interest me in shifts and swaps AUs (FellSwap Gold) are the Human-Monster dilemma, basically the war and political aspects that are essentially inviting me to think about battle scenarios, war room meetings, strategizing, constant vigilance and two-faced-ness. It's great, i eat those up. I love a cutthroat political climate mixed with the brutality and savagery of war. That is a flavor of chans i wanna see. It just brings the extra 'oomf' in showcasing the level of intelligence and tenacity that Sans and Chara are capable of. I'm always drawn to militant, disciplined characters. It would be so great seeing them obsess over each other the same way they are obsessed with perfection and victory (think of it as a nod to Wuthering Heights).
- now that I'm talking about this, it's making me want to bump up the ranking to top 2 or 3, I'm just so into fantasy military stories rn.
- Ward of the Royal family Chara and high ranking soldier of the Royal Guard Sans 💯🫶✨✨ I'm so down for that story. The level of unrest monster kind would have over Chara, especially Sans now that they are close to laying siege over the human front. Love that. Chara for me would be unwavering in the "Humans are the enemy propaganda" and would constantly feel the need to prove this level of hatred around the military body that interact with Toriel and Asriel. Overall it's just too good of a story 💯🏆✨
Top 5 NIGHTMARE or ERROR or DREAMTALE or BIRDTALE SANS x CHARA
- I'm partial in finding Error!Sans to be hot as well as winged!Sans to put it simply. Nightmare i wasn't keen on until reading STORYVERSE where his dialogue was very charmingly dark and twisted! And eloquent too! Love that for him 🥰
- again they make it to Top 5 because I am in love with their designs and character and want to ship them with Chara, again, ship as in put them in scenarios where they are first enemies or strangers then adding close proximity into the mix until they form some kind of bond. It's a formula in getting me interested at this point so, that's that on that ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
- akshually☝️🤓 now might be a good time to reintroduce my rev. harem au!! 🤡
- okay, what is the harem au? I'll give you the short description of it being "Gaster Experiment capturing AU Sanses and Charas and dumping them in enclosures Hunger Games-style to observe the outcome of their encounters." Think of it as a testing facility hosting battle royales that is also televised for an audience residing in a "Goner World full of Gaster worshippers". Calling it "harem au" is probably misleading at this point but hey, that's what my brain is calling it. Forgive me if you're sick of evil mastermind Gasters, I'm making him silly and witty and unapologetically sinister at least!
- the sanses in this plotline will feature Error, Nightmare and Birdtale Sans (and many more!) while I'm not too sure about what to do with Chara, yet again. There's the option of featuring the corresponding AU Chara for every AU Sans brought in the 'fight-pit' (but I'm not very in love with that idea). Option B is bringing in only one or two, or three Charas, maybe Gaster brought these three in as a new way to spice up the Experiment and Fight simulations, idk, this isn't my most fleshed out idea.
So there you have it!
My list of AUs that I like and specific ideas I have for Sans and Chara to meet and interact (and possibly form a relationship of some kind). Most of them I'm envisioning an endgame of co-dependency with various degrees of mutual destruction !! Yeyy 😆🥰