#stringalink rambles

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a while ago, i had a fairly vivid dream about papyrus being in deltarune. part of it was from his perspective. he was trapped somewhere, and had a hand circled around a bar. it was dark enough that you could only see what was directly in front of him, which was just the bright colors of his glove against the total black of the void

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as a papyrus enjoyer, i need more arrogant swap sans interpretations. like, the type of arrogance that ranges from endearing to honest-to-god annoying. being a good person and being insufferable does not have to be mutually exclusive

sure, he eventually learns when to tone it down and redirect that energy, but it would be funny if he just... never drops it completely

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sometimes i forget papyrus is my favorite character and then i am reminded of deltarune chapter 5 and suddenly nothing is okay

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as much as i adore the star and bad sanses, there is literally no multiverse where they with their canon personalities would ever happen. ever.

ink and dream's goals are fundamentally different. they wouldn't work together the way they're depicted as the stars. if they do come to an understanding (which is unlikely unless one or the other changes their ways entirely) they would not be close buddies. allies? maybe? when it benefits them?

then there is the dubious morality of letting blue, the mortal, either die on the battlefield, or (going with the "blue is immortal too" route) watch his family die first. not to mention that dream's aura would cause immense problems in the long run. no sane sans or papyrus from any pacifist timeline would put themselves into that type of situation.

and nightmare may use killer as a lackey, but dust and horror? i'm sorry, what are they even doing there? nightmare has no use for them. not that they would ever join him in the first place. they wouldn't. not even under threat. they'd rather die.

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the thought process that went behind this skelebros comic of mine...

though it was merely a joke two pages and four panels long, i considered a bunch of tiny details while i was making it, and i thought sharing that would be fun for those interested in knowing.

this doubles as a character analysis for sans, papyrus, and their dynamic as well!

and so, here it is, in approx. [1,200 words]:

Colors

this is the most obvious one, but i used colors to reflect the mood and the subsequent shift in it. bright and lively colors for the first three panels, which then turn into something darker and less saturated in the last one.

i picked purple for the tablecloth because it's a neutral color that looked good in all the backgrounds, but also because red + blue = purple. heh.

my color choice was not only based on that, however. some have already pointed it out to me, but i like to choose bright colors for my pieces in general, sometimes bordering on an eye-bleeding degree (i've really had people tell me those words in the past, especially for some of my older artwork). the reasoning behind it isn't as intentional, but: it's because i find it hard to work otherwise. my eyes have difficulty adjusting to dark, low-contrast colors, which affected my art while i was developing my style throughout the years, haha. it's interesting how something like that works.

Dialogue

Speech Bubbles

the dialogue boxes, too, change according to the mood. i used round and/or curved shapes for the first page, then switched to simple rectangles in the second.

originally, i had them all be rectangles to be most accurate to the undertale style, but found it too stiff.

Text

when speaking in the game, papyrus usually uses 1-5 words for each line of his dialogue box, depending on the length of the sentence. i like to try and make it so that reading each speech bubble is like reading actual dialogue from the game. so, it has those same choppy sentences.

^ it's a little difficult to balance this, because undertale characters don't actually say much; i've noticed that their characterizations are neatly compressed in as little words as possible, so each line always has to count, or else it would feel a little drawn out.

the first panel has papyrus' text all skewed to capture his energy! contrasted with sans' lack of it.

Speech Quirk

part of the humor was, of course, meant to be tied to the fact that papyrus completely drops his speech quirk mid-sentence in a, "yes, the spaghetti was THAT bad," way. along with that, i was thinking about the theory that characters who fully capitalize their speech are "acting," or otherwise putting on a persona in front of other people. (if anyone wants my thoughts on that, i could perhaps make a separate post finding proof and either agreeing or debunking it. either way, it's a fun idea.) if this were true, that would mean that normally capitalized sentences would be the "default," or at least a more genuine way of speaking. this would fit papyrus' character nicely, with the way he never shows his true self, going so far as to repeatedly lie to even sans and undyne. so for him to drop it for something as silly as this, even if its in front of sans only, to me, really sells the idea of, "YES. the spaghetti was THAT BAD," which i find really funny.

Characterization

Papyrus

there seems to be a misconception that papyrus is oblivious to his "flaws," when he actually shows the opposite. when writing dialogue for undertale characters, i try to find instances where they're already using similar phrasing. for this, i nicked the word "awful" straight from papyrus' dialogue about his own puzzles.

I HAVE FRIENDS!!! AND WHO KNEW THAT ALL I NEEDED TO MAKE THEM... WAS TO GIVE PEOPLE AWFUL PUZZLES AND THEN FIGHT THEM??

note that, from what i've found, the only other thing he refers to as "awful" in the game is hotland. three separate times, all during his phone calls. papyrus HATES hotland. so, it's safe to say that he's not using "awful" in a lighthearted way, or any other context, he genuinely thinks his puzzles are awful.

next, as mentioned in the qna, he doesn't even eat his own food. he supposedly cooks spaghetti because "EVERYBODY ELSE LOVES IT!!!" so his level of "delusion" regarding his own self-image is still to be argued, assuming he's not just... messing with people for his amusement, as he tends to do (not maliciously, obviously! he's not some secret mastermind, it's just that i rarely see people mention/consider the other aspects of his personality, like his sarcasm and (at times) rather dry humor). considering he admitted his puzzles were awful, papyrus likely wouldn't keep pretending his food is good after having eaten it, plainly expressing it afterwards.

of course, there's a chance he might be purposefully avoiding eating it, or is just playing it up so that others don't look too deeply, but that's kind of tinfoil hat territory. again, i don't consider canon papyrus as some kind of secret mastermind, even if he does hide a lot of things and is weirdly overlooked in general... almost as if he's meant to be.

as for the swearing, well, it's papyrus swearing. that always subverts expectations. no doubt, it stemmed from the early fandom developing idea that papyrus is innocent, which is silly. i think that, while he might consider swearing to be "above him," he'd do it on occasion. instances like these deserve a bit of swearing.

Sans

time and time again, sans has shown that he is willing to deceive, threaten (others), and blatantly lie to papyrus to protect his feelings. now, i don't mention this to hate on him or his character, but to emphasize that sans wouldn't ever want papyrus to feel negative emotions. even if sans is placed into a situation where he's forced to eat inedible food, that mouth is staying zipped and grinning. he isn't going to tell papyrus "it's bad" to his face if he thinks it'll crush him. in fact, he'd probably try to convince him that it's good, or (more likely) find some way to avoid the conversation or situation entirely. so, keeping this in mind, he'd only (reluctantly) agree after papyrus already voiced his own thoughts about it. it's not like he can lie about it now, so "...yeah" is as good a response as he's gonna give.

adding onto it, it's also worth noting that sans isn't actually eating the spaghetti. so, was he just pretending to react? stalling? it's sans, who really knows. he'd be able to get away with something like that. (papyrus would notice, but sans wouldn't notice he noticed.)

Skelebros

i've mentioned lying and deception a lot in this, which isn't wrong, because the characters of the game do lie to each other a surprising amount, but i don't want to make it seem like i think the skelebros' relationship is fake. bit strained, maybe? they clearly have some unspoken things between them that they both love to ignore, and that can't be healthy, so i wouldn't be surprised. their lack of communication may or may not contribute to things like undyne and papyrus' unresolved plot point (because no way sans doesn't know undyne is leading him on about joining the royal guard, right?). but, regardless, they love each other a ton. when sans calls papyrus "cool," he means it. when papyrus makes him spaghetti, it's with love and 100% of his effort. in the end, they're just goofy people.

Inspiration

this whole thing came to be because of this comic by PacketOfStaples. it never left my mind, so i came back to it and did something about it. my only regret is that it's not june.

Conclusion

good company makes for slightly less awful spaghetti

and, if i missed something, no... i didn't

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ok so... we all agree that there is in-multiverse discourse about sans variants having such prominence (for lack of a better term) in every single major event, right?

okay, got it

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outswapped is definitely my favorite underswap take ive seen so far!!!!

now im curious as to how outswap!papyrus would handle the judgement hall section

you gave me much to think about with this, so much so that i'll actually be saving the rest of the details for a later, more in-depth rant, haha.

the final corridor in undertale is meant to represent the culmination of your entire journey. the only reason why it happens at all is because it's how ut!sans gauges your condition before you reach the final stage. the entire time, sans is speaking to YOU, the player, not frisk. thanking you, reassuring you, guilting you. he makes you question if this is what you really want, if you will be satisfied with ending this way. (this, i believe, is also why he calls you and gives you updates even after you leave the underground. this happened because of you, see?) saying whatever he needs to say, because you are in control of the world he lives in, and he cannot do anything about it except perhaps make you reconsider.

in outswapped, papyrus serves a similar function.

papyrus, occupying the role of sans, would have been the one following you around the underground. (mainly because he wants to be your friend, but also because he's protecting you(???)) he would be there in the last corridor to informally "judge" (give advice, more like) you on your actions to help you improve as a person.

below the cut is [500+] words:

it's hard to tell how much papyrus really knows in canon, but at the very least, we know he has some meta awareness. for this, we will assume that he's garnered about the same amount of information as sans. taking into account his panoptic abilities, and it can still make sense that he would somehow know things he shouldn't, including your stats.

w-wowie... 14! is! uhh... quite a high number...! possibly talking about lv? if he can't read that stat, maybe he will instead somehow know the exact number of monsters you have killed all throughout the underground. it would put things into perspective, and emphasize that you've taken actual lives better than the small summary reading out an lv offers.

i imagine his "judgements" to be something along the lines of, hello, my friend! i have some pointers for you on how you can do a little better. number one: don't kill anyone... please? ok, good luck! so, not as harsh as sans, but still having the same weight.

ut!sans also says different things based on where you reload. translating this to outswapped, though papyrus cannot read your expressions in the same way, he does experience deja vu. from there, it wouldn't be too hard to connect the dots.

"if you could predict everything that will happen, wouldn't you use that power to become the best possible version of yourself?" could be a part of his version of the "kill only [sans]" neutral route dialogue.

and the "code word" he gives to time travelers will be his favorite food. also, papyrus likely would not mistake you as the same time traveler that came before you, because he did not have whatever instruments sans used to measure that sort of stuff, and thus lacks the same confirmation bias. though this depends on what i'll decide to go with in the end.

like ut!sans, he will not "interfere" on any pacifist or neutral routes. not because he thinks it's pointless, but because you can still go back and try again. he will call you in neutral endings out of genuine worry, but will still admit if things went bad because of you... and also, he might be a little scared that you won't reset and his world will be stuck like that forever.

it'll take... a lot of pushing and taunting to get him to fight you in no mercy. ha. but he'll reluctantly come to the same conclusion of if i don't fight you now, nothing will be left, so i'll give it my all, just this once. he'll beat some sense into you, and "teach you a lesson with the language you're most familiar with: VIOLENCE!!!"

there is a certain vibe to the final corridor and all the areas leading up to it that must be maintained. if ut!sans achieves that by giving you the feeling of serenity and acceptance of responsibility, then papyrus will use pure faith and integrity, if that makes sense.

overall, he refuses to give in to the inevitability of everything. there is still hope. he still wants to believe in you, if you'll let him.

extra detail: i think it would be funny if, when you get to the very end of the judgement hall, there will be a broken window and glass on the floor, implying that papyrus had run ahead, jumped through, and waited for you there.

...aand that's all i've got for now. hopefully i've covered all my bases for this curiosity.

thank you!

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I also agree that outer should be a star sans. I've been some art w/ him tagging along occasionally, but he kinda gets the same treatment as fell in the bad senses. Like.... if he had to be stuck with a group, he'd be with the stars, but he isnt a /star/ himself. But I think he should be!!! It's like people are scared to add onto the ink/dream/swap trio... but 37 senses get added to nightmare's group everyday, so like.. why not? Agh!!

this is exactly what i was thinking!!! you're so right

i think it would be a good evolution for the fandom after all these years to add another real member to the stars. like, wasn't there a time where people were unsure if cross should be grouped with nightmare? but then the possible dynamics started to be explored more, and now i see a decent amount of content with him included

of course, there's always the worry of oversaturating the "cast", but it's always a coin toss whether or not cross is grouped with nightmare. i think it could be the same thing. same three core members, but spice it up a bit from time to time

there's a lot of value outer can add to the dynamic too. i wouldn't call the stars imbalanced, but this is what we're working with: an unfinished sans, a technically-not-a-sans-at-all, and a papyrus. even if you make blue "more sans than papyrus," it's just not comparable against the murdertt, who all stemmed from the same au. it looks a little weird to me, personally. there's a gap there that could still be filled, you know?

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outer is literally just sans in space. outertale is generally an aesthetic au, but it could be so much more. undertale sans is already canonically implied to like space. maybe he dreamt about science and stars and the vastness of the universe. that would make outer a sans who has had those dreams somewhat fulfilled. murdertt probably would have been a little jealous of him, back then. hell, even error likes the au, going so far as to avoid destroying it.

it would also be a good way to revitalize an old character. outer has been around a long time, but let's be real, he's the fandom's punching bag. outertale is just interesting enough to use for plot, but too boring and peaceful to brew conflict. to fix this? one could turn that mundanity into a strength and contrast it with other characters who have more stuff going on

i see people make dream the "mature" one a lot, but i like to interpret him as someone who only pretends to be. mentally, he's probably the youngest of the three. if not, he's the one with the least experience being a normal person. trapped for five hundred years, then stumbling around as a child, stuck on figuring things out on his own... even ink has him beat on socializing, because at least ink found his own family he was able to "grow up" in!

outer, on the other hand? normal older sibling, got nothing else better to do, has some untapped magic potential a lot of people don't utilize, is as decently well-adjusted as a sans could be... he could help keep them in check. he could be the sane one without being unnecessarily overbearing. he already has experience with papyrus, and that is experience that the other three would completely lack if you consider blue the younger brother.

but does outer even have a personal reason to join the stars? aren't they fine on their own? he's still a sans, how could someone as lazy as him do such a thing as fight if he's not pushed to the absolute brink?

i don't know about anyone else, but if my universe was at peace, discovered the multiverse, and learn that you and thousands of other universes are prime targets for imminent destruction... maybe i would actually do something about it if i knew i could.

we know undertale sans isn't really lazy. he's just largely given up on striving for anything big because he lost his original goal and purpose. he made papyrus into that goal and purpose for a time, but if in a post-pacifist outertale, papyrus doesn't "need" him anymore, why WOULDN'T he join?

it would be really sweet if his papyrus was the one who pushed outer to go out and find himself too. he's always been interested in science and weird stuff, doesn't he want to know what's out there? travel the multiverse? make new friends, fight old enemies, let himself go for once without worry?

adding outer would put less pressure on each of the three to be the one who has everything together, and the new responsibility and purpose would drive outer into becoming a better version of himself.

and that's what it's always been about: being the best version of yourself. there are sanses who act like papyruses, but i haven't seen many classic sanses who take initiative to actually BE themselves. remember, sans isn't lazy on default. it's a defense mechanism. he sees no reason to try. that's why he's so passive.

outer can keep the main traits, but he can also be used as a tool to explore the side of sans we never get to see. a sans who becomes a symbol of HOPE. a sans who acts before it's too late.

for nightmare's gang, the reason why they joined is because they were at rock bottom. there was nothing left to do. this "work" is all they have. it's what they resigned themselves into doing. even if they started enjoying it later on, there will always be that thought of, what would have happened if things were different?

so, seeing someone who is practically a past version of themselves getting along with the stars they claim to hate so much, fighting against them and calling them silly for thinking they're in the right... there is so much potential there.

(and all of this are just what first comes to mind. imagine all the things people could make him become if he's actually given the chance to be part of the team.)