Y’know I never got far with this and not sure I ever will. But I like the ideas I had. Maybe I’ll write it in long form sometime, maybe not, but hey, might as well ramble to the internet, right?
The idea of TangleFell was an swapped-fell AU where monster souls could form a soul-bond with another, giving some amount of telepathy between the two monsters. These were not easily severed once made… for better or worse. There was some exception where parents and children would have temporary soul bonds that naturally withered as the children grew, but otherwise required two people to be extremely close, whether romantically or platonically.
Being Undertale, of course I started with Sans and Papyrus lol. At first glance, Chain/Sans was meant to look like he was in charge, dragging his brother Papyrus/Lock(jaw) by a leash and collar with Papyrus physically unable to speak out against it due to his jaw being wired shut… But they had a soul bond and Lock was the one calling the shots, mentally manipulating, abusing, and sometimes outright controlling his brother remotely. Chain is the more physically powerful one and is, in fact, captain of the Royal guard!!! Also they were raised by the Snowdin dogs and sometimes this shows up in them being a bit dog-like hehe.
Then I made the rest and oh boy.
The ruins… actually look pretty nice. Monsters generally don’t want to kill you and it’s full of plants (and artificial lights) thanks to exiled king Asgore. He’d try to be nice to Frisk, try to raise them, but, well…
He had a soul bond with Toriel. And Toriel has lost her damned mind. Much like with the brothers, she haunts him sometimes. Enough that, inevitably, he ends up attacking Frisk and forcing them out.
The “Flowey” of this world is Temmie… who is actually Chara. Specifically, Chara ended up as a ghost Mad-Dummy style, but with determination! Though given that magic attacks can still hit ghosts, it hasn’t helped them much except against Frisk, on occasion.
The Temmie village is replaced with Flowey village! And I think these lil guys are my FAVORITES. So you see…
Undyne, the Royal scientist using the hydroelectric power produced in waterfall, naturally experimented with determination and started using the old flowers from the queen’s gardens. Unlike in Undertale where one came to life, the Flowey came to life en masse and, gradually, started piecing themselves back together into having a sort of hive-mind/soul, each having pieces that grew soul bonds with all the other Flowey. This means the Flowey are actually very nice and childish, but dear god they are scatter brained… usually. They managed to rub enough collective brain cells together to escape en masse as well. Which you’d think would be bad given the setting, but they also know if any other are attacked. Yeah, you attack one and have a whole fucking Flowey swarm pop up around you. Monsters learned fast to leave the harmless little weirdos alone. They really like the soil in “Flowey Village” and also visiting Asgore in the ruins. He also loves them. One likes to stay in his house with him in a pot: Buttercup! He was one of the earliest to awaken. Also, instead of Tem-Speak, well… “We Flowey Can shapeshift and emote really well :D”
Undyne, as stated, is the total scientist. She considers Toriel something of a mom, and Toriel funds the science for her own gain. The fact that Undyne does surveillance only helps in Toriel’s very paranoid eyes~ She’s just as enthusiastic as in canon, though in this AU she’s kinda an electric eel mermaid (but still fishy up top? Bleh) like in that she has an eel tail and if she wants to move about on land, she often uses a robo-Walker that she powers with her own electricity! But typically she instead relies on security systems and her possessed robot propaganda machine, Napster (who is also secretly a rebel but she doesn’t know that). Bread and circuses and all that, right?
Alphys USED to be part of the Royal guard, but she started a rebellion in Hotland and intend to overthrow the queen. Unfortunately for Frisk/you, the easiest way to do that is absorbing a human soul. Tough luck kid. This means she’s at odds with her old best friend: Sans… who also hates Toriel by now, but both he and Chain are deathly terrified of her, so they work under her. Alphys is pretty, uh… well not based on a real raptor, but on the Jurassic park versions, long legs and will chase your ass down.
And… Toriel. Well, long story short, it started somewhat Undertale-like, but Asgore’s rage spilled into her and she was too clever by half in starting war against humans and preparing monsters for it. She got paranoid, got some LOVE, and just went progressively more insane. Give her one soul and she’ll leave, but in this AU, other monsters got the fallen human souls first and got the fuck out of dodge.
Finally… Frisk! They start with a bit of LOVE because they got attacked by a monster on the surface. Yeah, some escaped. Yep, it’s bad. But the sheer power of their DETERMINATION melted it. People saw that Frisk “got control” of one and chucked them down to be eaten and, hopefully, usurp control of a monster and help them with the overpowered Super beings coming from this cave. They wanted no part of this.
So… yeah. Might say stuff about plot later, but there ya go.