Frisk (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
gainedlove) wrote2016-05-29 08:48 pm
gainedlove) wrote2016-05-29 08:48 pm
OOC: Mask or Menace App
〈 PLAYER INFO 〉
NAME: CaityCat
AGE: 27
JOURNAL:caitycat
IM / EMAIL: decend.to.darkness@gmail.com
PLURK:![[plurk.com profile]](https://plurk.com/favicon.ico)
Gryphcat
RETURNING: No
〈 CHARACTER INFO 〉
CHARACTER NAME: Frisk
CHARACTER AGE: 9
SERIES: Undertale
CHRONOLOGY: Post-Pacifist
CLASS: Hero with an Anti-Hero/potential Villain/giant frigging question mark for a brainghost buddy
HOUSING: I'm open to anything and everything!Dear god please put this child with someone responsible
BACKGROUND:
A long time ago, two races ruled over Earth:
HUMANS and MONSTERS.
One day, war broke out between the two races.
After a long battle, the humans were victorious.
They sealed the monsters underground with a magic spell.
The story of Undertale begins millennia ago, when the race of monsters still walked freely on the surface. For a long time, there was peace between the kingdons of monsters and humans, but eventually tensions began to rise. You see, the nature of monsters and humans are very different. Where humans have physical bodies, with incredibly strong souls that can even persist outside of their bodies, monsters are made of dust and magic, with far weaker souls. Their magic comes naturally to them, but it is not nearly enough of an edge should a fight break out.
But monsters do have one advantage: should a monster absorb a human's soul, they would become a terrifying and powerful being, one that could cut swaths through both races should they choose. A human could as well, but a monster's soul cannot persist past their death. The only exception is the soul of a boss monster, and even their souls only last for a few moments before breaking apart. And this is what the humans feared.
To call the fighting a war would be disingenuous--it was a slaughter. Countless monsters were dusted, and not even a single human soul was absorbed in retaliation. In the end, all of monsterkind was forced underground beneath a mountain, and the human mages created a Barrier around them. It's power was such that no single soul could leave once they had entered. The only way through would be the combined soul of a human and a monster...and if seven human souls could somehow be gathered, their powers combined would shatter it entirely.
Asgore and Toriel, the king and queen of monsters, led their people through the caverns in which they now lived, travelling as far away from the entrance as they could. Even with the barrier erected, monsters feared that humans could come to try and finish them off. At the cavern's end, they finally stopped and began to build a new city, "Home".
...Asgore isn't very good at names.
Many years later...
MT. EBOTT
201X
Legends say that those who climb the mountain never return.
Some time in the two-thousand-tens of this world, a young child named Chara runs away from home for reasons that are not clearly known. What is known are a few things: they bring no supplies with them, they carry a deep grudge against humanity, and they climb a mountain upon which people are said to disappear.
Not a hopeful picture painted for this child's past.
Finding a massive hole, Chara falls down into the Underground where they are found by Asriel, the son of Asgore and Toriel, the king and queen of monsters. Worried for them, he takes the human child home where they are cared for and loved, eventually even treated as the king and queen's own flesh and blood. Chara bonds very closely with their new family, and especially their brother, sharing with him pieces of their so-painful past...even admitting to him their reasons for climbing Mt. Ebott.
Finding hope in this small child, the spirits of monsterkind are raised immensely, and a journey is made to move back out of the Ruins, spreading across the rest of the Underground. A new capital is even created, New Home, which remains right at the entrance to the Barrier that monsters fled from so long ago. The people have hope; hope for change and freedom that all rests on this child's shoulders.
A child that knows that human souls are needed to free monsters from their imprisonment. Souls like their own. Chara holds little value on their own life--such has already been proven. But they are only one life, when it is seven that are required for everyone to go free. Even if they died and their soul was taken by a monster, it would only allow that one person to pass through the Barrier. What can they do?
One day, when playing, Chara and Asriel try to make a pie for their father, but misread the instructions and use buttercups instead of cups of butter, not realizing how poisonous the innocent looking flowers are. Asgore is sick, but recovers, and while Asriel is terribly upset, Chara seems to laugh it off.
They've come up with a plan. There's no way it could fail.
Chara convinces Asriel to help them gather up enough buttercups to poison themself with, faking an illness though with they beg to see the surface again. Of course, there is nothing the king and queen can do, and Chara knows this. But Asriel needs an excuse to take Chara to the surface after they die and he absorbs their soul. Grieving, but not wanting Chara's sacrifice to be in vain, Asriel does as they both had planned, and flees through the barrier with his sibling's body.
Neither of them realized that Chara would be more than a soul after death, however. Both Asriel and Chara share control over his body, and it is Chara who walks them to the village, Chara who sets their body down upon a bed of golden flowers, the very same kind they had asked to see one last time. But when the humans of their village emerge and retaliate, assuming that the horrible beast Asriel has become had murdered Chara, Asriel is the one that takes control. Chara had meant for him to kill six humans, and take their souls back to break the Barrier once and for all. But he cannot. He can't harm innocent people, and weathers blow after blow until he is forced to run away again. He takes Chara's body back, and in the throne room of New Home he collapses into dust.
The whole kingdom grieves their loss, but none moreso than Toriel and Asgore. Out of pain and anger, Asgore declares a war against humanity, and decrees that any humans who fell down must be killed so their souls can be collected. With their power, eventually they could shatter the Barrier and reclaim the surface from humans. Toriel was horrified and furious with this; to kill innocents in revenge for a murder they had no part in was horrifying and abhorrent. She could not abide with this, and left with Chara's remains, fleeing to Home and the Ruins. There, in the clearing where Chara first fell so many years ago, she buries her child and plants flowers over their grave--golden flowers, whose seeds clung to them during that brief trip to the surface.
Many, many years pass. Six children fall. A young woman rises in the ranks of the royal guard. A brilliant man is erased by his own hubris. A royal scientist is chosen, and an experiment goes wrong. Asriel wakes up again in a body that is not his, and lacking a soul. Time loops to his will, again and again and again.
The eighth child falls on a grave, and with Frisk's arrival we can begin to talk about the plot of Undertale itself.
But first, we need to talk aboutparallel universes the meta.
Name the fallen human.
Undertale is a game about many things. Friendship, the nature of narrative, morality...but it is also a game about games. And even more specifically, it is a game about how we play games. The player is told to name the fallen human, and we assume we are simply naming the character we have control of. The game does not tell us otherwise, and the name is what appears in the menus, so that must be what it is. You play through, killing or sparing and only picking up a few real hints of something strange going on at the very beginning should you reload to spare Toriel after killing her. It is the endings of the major routes that give us the real stingers; with Neutral the nature of SAVE and RESET, with Pacifist the reveal of Frisk's name, and in No Mercy Chara holds you responsible for all the murders you have committed.
It is accepted that Chara's spirit lingers and directs Frisk in the No Mercy run. But where are they in the other runs? What about the aborted No Mercys where you spare someone before reaching the end? Does Chara simply vanish?
Here is a better question: who is the narrator of Undertale? In a game as heavily steeped in meta awareness and the deconstruction of gaming tropes, it is certainly odd to assume that the narration is simply as it would be in any other game. After all, the constructs of EXP, LV, and SAVE are all explained in-universe. So who is talking to you this whole time, who so knowledgeable about the Underground and the monsters residing there?
It's Chara.
Though it is never stated outright, there are a great many hints throughout the game that point to Chara's presence guiding Frisk through the game. We'll begin with a particular quirk of certain battles, Serious Mode. Normally in battles, even boss battles like Undyne and Mettaton where Frisk is unquestionably fighting for their life, the narration keeps its irreverent and playful tone. It mentions Undyne suplexing a boulder, teases you that you'll burn if things continue in this manner. Even the names for certain items are amusingly shortened: ButtsPie, SpidrDont, Leg. Hero, even Mandanna. But when Serious Mode kicks in, the jokes stop. Pie, SpdrDonut, L. Hero, Bandanna. The narration is often little more than * ..., incredibly somber when it is not, and conveys in aching clarity just how upsetting things are. Tellingly, this only happens in four specific instances.
Toriel's fight, Asgore's fight, Asriel's fight, and the entirety of the No Mercy route. In other words, on Neutral and Pacifist routes this is ONLY ever triggered when you fight Chara's family.
And even in the No Mercy route, there is a sign of a similar reaction. As you near the end of the game in New Home, you can inspect a photograph in the children's room. Whereas in Neutral and Pacifist you get a comment about everyone smiling in the photo, in No Mercy you get * ..., with the red text shorthand signaling an intense emotion on Chara's part. Even after slaughtering everyone in the Underground, this picture gives them pause.
Another piece of evidence found in New Home is the beds in this same room. The bed on the left is described alternately as * (It's a twin sized bed.) and * His bed., whereas the bed on the right receives these descriptions: * (What a comfortable bed.) * (If you laid down here, you might not ever get up.) and * My bed. A pretty morbid comment, and in a vacuum it could be chalked up to the quirky writing of the game.
But the narration has another interesting quirk: it is not all-knowing, and learns about things right alongside Frisk.
In Home, at the very beginning of the game, You can inspect a plant in Toriel's home. At first, the narration supplies * You have seen this plant before, but do not know it's name. Once Frisk reads a book in Toriel's room and learns about water sausages, it changes to * Oh! * It's a "water sausage". A little odd for the narrator to be confused so early on in the game, isn't it? Especially by something that is so very common, considering they were easily able to recognize the rare 'golden flowers' that broke your fall when you first woke up.
In Snowdin, you can inspect a series of snow poffs over which the narrator become increasingly sarcastic and somewhat impatient--until the very last one, where we receive this: * Eh? *There's 30 G inside this... what is this? They're clearly confused, and almost upset that the check paid off! And later on, in Waterfall, using * Check before and after you start singing with Shyren receives different responses as well: * Tone deaf. She's too ashamed to sing her deadly song. becomes * A talented singer, with a little help.
There's even a rather cute incident with the Monster Candy. Inspecting the item will give you the response of * "Monster Candy" - Heals 10 HP *Has a distinct, non-licorice flavor. And when you eat it? * You ate the Monster Candy. * ...tastes like licorice.
And beyond these moments, there is other evidence, too. Memories that Frisk has no way of accessing, or knowing about at all. When they die, the voice they hear is Asgore at Chara's deathbed, begging them to hang on and stay determined. When they fall from the bridge Undyne cuts out from under you in Waterfall, you hear Asriel discovering Chara when they first fell into the Underground, helping them up and guiding them back to his home. And at the end of the Pacifist route, after Frisk has saved their friend's souls by reminding them of the memories they have both shared, whose memories are the ones that bring him back, remind him of who he is?
Chara's.
The narrator knows and says things that one would expect Chara to as well. When Frisk tells jokes to Woshua, the content is drawn from Chara, whether sub-consciously or because Frisk was told these jokes before. * You tell a joke about a kid who ate pie with their bare hands. * You tell a joke about two kids who played in a muddy flower garden. * You tell a joke about a kid who slept in the soil. In the final fight of the Pacifist run, Asriel becomes "The Absolute God of Hyperdeath", and the narrator is excited. They know every attack, and the text has an energy to it that isn't seen anywhere else. Sounds about right for a kid that's seeing their brother's original character (donut steal) come to life in his full glory, doesn't it?
And the final clincher, what could be considered the 'big reveal' for those who dig into the narrative and pay attention, is the infamous set of mirror lines: * Still just you, Frisk. versus It's me, Chara. This line from the No Mercy run is one of the big scares of this particular route, in large part because of the change in how the speaker phrases things. They aren't speaking in second-person, referring to someone else's actions and feelings as is done on all the other routes. No, in this run, where the actions are largely ascribed to Chara's will, where they are explicitly taking over? The narrator refers to themself.
The narrator is Chara. They woke up when Frisk landed on the bed of golden flowers, became attached to Frisk's soul. They are the one following Frisk, offering help and information in what limited ways they can. They even help in small ways, sometimes taking over for brief moments to point something out (* It's a history book. * Here's a random page... versus * It's an encyclopedia of subterranean plants. You open to the middle...) or stop you from doing something you shouldn't, like giving Gyftrot a second gift of 35 G. * Hey now. * You aren't made of money. They share Frisk's senses, commenting on the sights, smells, tastes, and even sharing Frisk's pain. They clearly have some insight to Frisk's thoughts (* The size of the pie intimidates you too much for you to eat it.), and at times Chara is even addressed by Frisk (* You laugh, and keep laughing. * It's SO funny, you can't stop. * Tears run down your face. * ... what? * You didn't do that?). Frisk and Chara are aware of each other, and working together towards Frisk's goal.
And what is that goal?
* It's you!
A Pacifist run.
How to achieve this, is thus. Frisk wakes in the Ruins, starts walking and meets a 'friendly' little flower named Flowey. (Spoilers: he is not actually friendly.) After a dicey encounter and a ring of bullet hell death, Frisk is saved by the arrival of Toriel, who chases Flowey away and leads Frisk through the Ruins to Home. There she does her best to provide for the child, giving them a room of their own, making a nice pie to celebrate their arrival, and starting to try and teach them some interesting snail facts. But inevitably Frisk asks how to go home and leave, and in her distress Toriel attempts to destroy the exit to the Ruins, fearing that if they leave Asgore will kill them to claim their soul and destroy humanity.
After an upsetting battle, Toriel is spared and allows Frisk to leave, but asks that they do not return. Frisk is mocked by Flowey again, and heads on to Snowdin. Here they are first frightened, but then greeted by Sans the skeleton. He has little interest in capturing Frisk despite being a sentry on the lookout for humans, but knows that his brother Papyrus would like nothing better. Papyrus is thankfully a kind and gentle soul, not realizing just WHY a human must be captured, and so Sans asks Frisk to humor his brother and go through the several puzzles to help cheer him up from what seems to be a bit of a slump for the poor skeleton. Frisk agrees, solving and charming their way through several problems, and eventually arrives in the town of Snowdin itself. After spending a bit of time around town, they move onward and confront Papyrus. In a battle notable for being literally impossible to die in, Frisk eventually wears Papyrus out and convinces him to let them pass to see Asgore, who he describes as "a big fuzzy pushover", and even goes back to cement their friendship with a very cute date-hangout.
Also Sans takes them to Grillby's. Japes are had.
Journeying on to Waterfall, Frisk happens to overhear a meeting between Undyne, the captain of the Royal Guard, and Papyrus. He tries to convince Undyne to not go after Frisk, but she isn't convinced. Papyrus, bless his non-existent heart, tries to throw Undyne off the scent again with some misinformation, but it doesn't work and Frisk has several close encounters with her before a final confrontation at the border between Waterfall and Hotland. Running for their life, the chase is only brought to a halt when Undyne collapses from the heat. Frisk brings her some water from a nearby cooler, and the guard captain reluctantly stalks away, accepting her 'defeat'. Upon Papyrus's suggestion, Frisk heads back to Waterfall to try and befriend Undyne. It's rather confusing, and involves more than a little bit of Papyrus knowing Undyne and her competitive nature a bit too well, but in the end a house is burned down and a friendship is forged.
Then, onward to Hotland--properly, this time. Frisk finds a lab, and inside is the Royal Scientist. Alphys admits to watching Frisk's journey through her many cameras hidden across the Underground, and offers to help them get to the castle and the Barrier. She even knows a quick short-cut right to the castle! The only problem is...Mettaton. An entertainment robot she built and tried to re-purpose for hunting down humans, her attempts to remove the additions have unfortunately only made him even more bloodthirsty. Cue a hilarious string of shenanigans involving quiz shows, conveyor belts and lasers, cakes that need human souls (or human soul substitute), more awkward texts than you can shake a stick at, way too many hot air vents, and a whole lot of bombs. Frisk finally gets through Hotland to the MTT Resort, but is pulled aside for a moment by Sans to have a little talk. Or maybe some veiled threats? I mean it's not like he's dangerous or anything, ha ha ha, right guys?
Yeah.
In any case, from there Frisk goes on to make their way through the Core, and here is where Alphys starts to have some trouble. Until now her information for where Frisk needs to go had been accurate, but now her maps are all wrong--something has shuffled the Core up completely, and she can't make heads or tails of it. Turns out, it's Mettaton himself behind it; the whole killer robot thing was a farce, designed to let Alphys gain Frisk's trust and friendship and convince them to stay in the Underground and not try to cross the Barrier. But Mettaton had grown tired of the charade, and decided to use the opportunity for his own ends. He's always dreamed of becoming a star on the Surface, and his ticket through the Barrier has walked right into his hands.
A little ironic, that the 'killer robot' farce winds up real, but what're you gonna do, right?
The fight is broadcast across the whole Underground, of course. And Frisk's dodging and posing and use of MTT Brand items ensure those rating skyrocket. There's a tearful moment with a mysterious and ghostly caller, and Mettaton realizes that he can't leave the Underground without a star to look up to. (Narcissist.) Afterward, Alphys attempts to cheer Frisk on before they leave...but in the end she can't keep up yet another lie. She tells Frisk the truth of what they need to go home. A monster's soul. Asgore's soul. She apologizes, and runs away.
Down a long elevator, and into New Home. When Frisk reaches a house disturbingly similar to Toriel's own, the monsters inside tell Frisk the story of the prince and his sibling who fell so long ago. How they were loved, adored. How they fell ill, and could not recover. How the prince took their soul and carried their body to the Surface. How he was fatally injured, and retreated home only to collapse into dust. How Asgore cried out for vengeance, and swore to destroy the Barrier and erase humanity.
Aren't you excited?
Aren't you happy?
You're going to be free.
But before Frisk reaches Asgore, in a long golden corridor, Sans is waiting. He's been watching Frisk throughout their whole journey, from the moment they left the door to the Ruins. Every fight, every battle, he's been watching them and their progress. Watching to see if they gain any EXP. Any LV, any LOVE.
What's EXP? It's an acronym. It stands for Execution Points. A way to quantify the pain you have inflicted on others. When you gain enough EXP, your LOVE increases.
LOVE, too, is an acronym. It stands for Level of Violence. A way of measuring your capacity to hurt others, and distance yourself from your pain.
But Frisk...they never gained any LOVE. Not a single point of EXP. Anyone they encountered, they did their best to make friends with. And if they could not, they ran away with a smile. They never gained LOVE, but they did gain love.
Sans wishes Frisk good luck, and onward they go.
Asgore...is caught off-guard to say the least. He's dismayed to see Frisk here, though he knew they were coming. Despite his war-like stance, the cries from the public...he does not want power. He is a man that made terrible, terrible mistakes in his grief, and now sees no way to back out of it. He must give his people hope, and to do so...he must accept the blood that stains his hands.
Four times, he gives Frisk a chance to run away.
Four times, they refuse.
There is no MERCY, this time. Asgore will not accept it. Frisk begs, pleads with Asgore, telling him they don't want to fight...but in the end, they must. And the king of all monsters, the strongest in the Underground, is brought to his knees by a single human child. With only a little strength remaining, he tells Frisk to take his soul and leave the Underground, to be happy on the surface. They have a future, and he cannot bring himself to take it from them.
They refuse, granting him the mercy he would not accept in battle. Weeping, Asgore assures Frisk that he will care for them, keep them safe and happy...that they could be a family.
But someone else has other plans.
Flowey kills Asgore with a well-placed ring of bullets, destroys his soul...and takes the six human souls that Asgore had revealed before the fight began.
To say the fight is difficult is an understatement. Flowey taunts and mocks Frisk with each death, but they don't give up. They weave and dodge, and call out desperately for help...and the human souls answer. Rebelling against Flowey, in the end they fight back and reduce him to his former self, and Frisk is once again given an option. It's no question what they choose, of course. Hadn't that been the point the whole time? To grant mercy, no matter what? To prove the world isn't kill or be killed?
Flowey runs away.
What happens next is...unclear. Frisk leaves to somewhere, and some months later, they receive a call from Sans. It seems that Toriel had left the Ruins, and when she discovered that Asgore was dead took over once again as the queen of the Underground. She declared that any humans to fall from now on would be treated as friend, not enemies, and disbanded the Royal Guard. Except for the new captain, of course. Papyrus takes his job of watering flowers very seriously. Alphys is working on trying to break the Barrier by other means, and Undyne does her best to help. The other six souls have vanished, and the monsters assure Frisk that they are doing just fine. So take care of yourself, alright, kid?
They LOAD, and return.
Heading back, out of the castle and away from the Barrier, Frisk receives a call from Undyne as soon as they've left the zone of interference from the Core. It seems she has a letter that needs to be delivered to Alphys, and she wants Frisk to do it. Of course Frisk agrees, but Undyne, it seems, forgot to sign her name on her love letter, and now Alphys assumes that Frisk was the one that wrote it. (I'm sorry, did you assume that there wasn't going to be another dating sequence in this game?) Alphys fumbles her way through giving Frisk a pity date, Undyne shows up expecting Alphys to be expecting her, and there's a lot of awkward confessions all around.
Also anime is real. There is no other option YOU DON'T GO BREAKING THIS FISH'S HEART OKAY.
On Papyrus's very nervous suggestion, Frisk goes to check up on Alphys after the date, and they find a note. They also find a door to an elevator that did not open before. Alphys says that she must face some hard secrets of her past, and warns that she might not return. Frisk follows, and discovers...something rather sinister. A lab beneath the public one, one filled with horrifying amalgamates and ominous notes of Alphys's real work. She tried to use Determination from human souls to make the souls of dying monsters last long enough to be gathered and used like humans souls can be...but they recovered, melted, formed together into twisted monstrosities. It's the shame of her failure that Alphys fears, something so intense that she worried she would choose to never be seen again...
There are other secrets to be found. When the time came, Alphys would need a container to hold the souls, something that could use both human and monster souls. What happens when something without a soul gains the will to live...? At first, none of the flowers Alphys tried to use worked...but there was one. The first golden flower to bloom...one that resided in the king's garden, carefully tended. It did not remain where it was left for very long. But there's something else there, that Frisk discovers. Some old VHS tapes, accidental snapshots of a time long ago...hints of a suicidal plan that reveal the truth of Chara's 'illness'.
And when they go to the elevator that will take them out of the lab, up to New Home, someone calls them. A voice they have never heard before. It calls them Chara, congratulates them for putting everything into place. "See you soon."
The elevator rockets upward, and Frisk is flung out. The way back is jammed shut by vines.
They move forward. There was never any other option.
Again Frisk confronts Asgore, but this time the fight is interrupted. Toriel arrives, then Undyne, then Alphys and Papyrus and Sans...they all come to help protect the human they've come to care so much about. The reunion is bittersweet, hilarious, heartwarming...but how did Papyrus know to call everyone? Simple!
A little flower told him.
Flowey appears, stealing the human souls and capturing the monsters. He laughs, taunting Frisk that he'll never let them have their happy ending, that the whole world is just a game. Their friends do what they can to protect Frisk from his attacks, but it's not enough--Flowey is done playing this time. He uses his power to absorb the soul of every monster in the Underground, and with that power he's able to take on his true form.
Asriel Dreemurr.
The fight that follows is intense, and Frisk is pushed to their limit. With * Hope they shield themself from the damage of Asriel's relentless attacks. They * Dream and restore their heath through sheer Determination. But again, he's only been toying with them. Suddenly they're pinned, can't move their body. All they can do is struggle...but even in the wake of a barrage of comets and stars, they refuse to die. But to what purpose? Frisk's SAVE is blocked from them; is there nothing they can do?
They can't SAVE the game...but maybe...something else? They can feel something resonating inside Asriel. Frisk reaches out...one by one, six Lost Souls are called back. All of them reminded of their love for Frisk, the things that the human helped them see. Love and compassion and warmth that buoys the human, pushes them forward. But there's still one more person to be saved...Frisk reaches out to Asriel, and through Chara the memories of his old life are triggered. He remembers how to love, how to care...he remembers why he wanted so desperately for Frisk to stay. The horrific form melts away, and Asriel apologizes for all the horrible things he's done. He's filled with regret, and knows there's nothing he can do to make up for it.
But still...there is one thing within his power. Something that needed power equal to seven human souls...the Barrier. In a final surge of power, Asriel destroys the Barrier once and for all, finally achieving that goal from so very long ago. He restores the souls back to every monster, and releases the human souls to pass on once more. He tells Frisk that he has to go--without the power of those souls, he'll turn back into a flower and stop being able to feel love again. Asking that they go with the people that love them, he leaves...
And Frisk wakes up in Toriel's arms. The other monsters do not remember anything after Flowey stole their souls, but are all overjoyed to see that Frisk is alright. Some heartwarming and amusing banter is had, and after a chance to go back and speak with all the friends Frisk has made...they all head out to the surface. The sunset is breathtaking, and all of them prepare to go and greet humanity--this time, as friends. Toriel offers to take care of Frisk, just as she had tried to back at the beginning of this journey. Together everyone head out to their new future...
But this isn't the end. There is something that Frisk cannot control, and never could. They want this ending, but the Player has a power beyond them or Chara. True Reset. If you restart the game after a Pacifist ending, Flowey appears and begs you to reconsider, to leave the timeline be and let Frisk have their happy ending. But why would you stop? There are so many different endings to see, so many secrets to be uncovered. Of course the Player will want to see more.
And Frisk has little choice but to go through all over again.
It's important to note that while the Player is a major influence in the actions of both Frisk and Chara through the course of the game, it's not exactly the 1-1 direct control that the gameplay implies. From the perspective of the kids, the Player's choices and actions are for the most part a subconscious urge and pull in one direction or another, using the dual natures of the two to achieve endings that left to their own devices neither kid would ever want or seek out. The only time that the Player completely 'takes over' so to speak is when they initiate a True Reset after a Pacifist or No Mercy run. It also isn't one single Player at the reins of their various timelines, but rather that the circumstances of Frisk and Chara's mental state are hooked into in order to facilitate the runs of various Players.
So, what does this mean for their timelines? Their perception of events?
Let Frisk be happy.
Let Frisk live their life.
The RESETS do not start easy. Frisk barely makes it through the first few times in the Underground, only saved when they freeze up by Chara's interference. Dust is on their hands, the result of confusion and fear and Chara's own simmering resentment. Frisk goes back over and over, desperate to try and get through without hurting anyone, to do things right...it takes ten tries before Frisk is able to make Toriel back down, five more before they can keep themself from freezing up against Undyne. Slowly, Frisk grows more confident and nimble, and Chara starts to warm up a little to their crazy ideas. Maybe they can get through without hurting anyone. A dustless journey.
On the twenty-sixth try, they discover Alphys's real lab. The amalgamates, the story of Chara's failure...and the revelation of just who Flowey really is. Frisk goes on to see Asgore, and for the first time there's someone there to help. Toriel, Undyne, Alphys, Papyrus, Sans...they all come to help keep Frisk safe, but it's all played into Flowey's hands. He takes the SOULS of the humans, of the whole Underground, and the unspoken ultimatum is laid down.
The battle is harsh, unforgiving. Frisk may have Chara on their side, but what is their Determination against a god? They hope, they dream, they struggle, cry out...and this time, again, their friends answer. And when Chara reaches out to Asriel...nothing is truly healed, but Frisk's love for them all is enough of a balm for the wound. The Barrier comes down, and the monsters are all finally free--Frisk has the happy ending they had been looking for. Leaving hand in hand with Toriel, they move on to their future...
And wake up on the bed of flowers once again. Chara is furious, but they know neither of them RESET this time. Flowey has forgotten entirely; it's like the slate is wiped clean. But this time Frisk knows what they need to do. Again they set out on their adventure, determined to make things right.
The Barrier is broken. The happy ending lasts for a week this time.
Again, and again, and again. Something beyond them both RESETS every time, and the stress wears on both Frisk and Chara. Chara is convinced that this is punishment for their misdeeds, but Frisk is certain if they try hard enough they can keep things from being set back all over again. Trying to find some further clue, Frisk starts LOADING mundane encounters over and over, hoping to find someone that notices, that might have the answer they're looking for. And Sans does, though what he has to offer isn't...much help. Or comforting at all. The machine, the two photos...they have to fix this. They have to set things right and make sure everyone can stay happy on the Surface.
Frisk is filled with Determination.
PERSONALITY:
The first thing anyone notices about Frisk is their kind nature. They are the sort of person that greets everyone with a smile, and will do their best to cheer up anyone that looks upset or hurt. Even in the face of someone lashing out at them, they will try their best to find common ground and make friends with them. This does often get them into painful situations, but it doesn't stop them from trying. No matter how much vitriol or harm is flung their way, Frisk comes back with a patient smile and a friendly hand held out. They trust in others and believe the best of any situation, striving over and over to find the happiest outcome for everyone.
Frisk is an inquisitive child, getting into things and trying to figure out just what is going on. From asking various shop keepers about their lives and troubles to searching around what is clearly a science lab out of a horror movie because gosh darn it there are answers down here, Frisk will go searching for whatever they can find. Within canon this is mainly fueled by a desire to see the timeline stabilized and brought to a happy ending, but even before they realized the problem of resets they were poking around and trying to figure out just what was going on in the Underground.
Nice as they are, that doesn't mean that Frisk is without an attitude. Excessive flirting aside, on multiple occasions Frisk back-sasses people or cracks jokes at odd times, especially during their fight with Mettaton with how they ham it up for the audience to boost the show's ratings. They have a mischievous streak and an odd sense of humor, but they never mean any harm by it. If anyone is ever hurt by their jokes they are quick to apologize and try to make them feel better, but they are sensitive enough that it doesn't happen often.
Frisk constantly strives to do the right thing, helping others and never fighting back even when someone has killed them multiple times before. Even when it would be reasonable to fight back they refuse, not wanting to hurt a single soul no matter the cost to themselves. Only in two fights have they ever of their own will truly used aggressive force against their attacker--once against Asgore, to weaken him enough that he ceases fighting, and the second against Flowey who has taken the six human souls and locked Frisk in a fight they cannot escape from. And both times, at the end Frisk takes the option for MERCY. To gain a single EXP or LV is horrifying to them, no matter what reason might be behind it. They know for a fact that a smile or warm hug can thaw any heart, given enough effort and care.
And then there is the key part of Frisk that drives the whole story forward: determination. A will to see their mark put on reality, once Frisk has set their mind to something they will stubbornly work to see it made true, even if it takes a hundred attempts. This is what kept them from backing down in the face of immense danger, what lets them face down god-like beings and refuse to take an eye for an eye, and most of all what bolsters them and keeps them from falling into a pit of despair despite being set back to zero over and over and over. Until everyone is happy, until the story has a happy ending that sticks, Frisk will not give up no matter what the cost to themselves.
But even below that iron will there is something else, something that pushes them to reach out to people as they do. While not directly explained, it is very much implied that Frisk felt alone and abandoned before they decided to climb Mt. Ebott due to emotional and physical neglect. Hints of this lonely little child can be seen in how quickly they latch onto Toriel as a mother figure, how they try so hard to make friends with everyone they meet despite these people having tried to kill Frisk multiple times, and rather poignantly with the 'Abandoned Quiche' item hidden in one area. When dropped, Frisk specifically says that they 'promise they will be right back', when no other item in the game has any description for how Frisk leaves it behind. Frisk is desperate to have a place to belong, and very likely fell down the hole into the Underground because they felt they had no place left.
Fortunately for everyone, they have found their Home, and it is definitely one worth fighting for.
POWER:
CHARA - Chara is the first human child that fell into the Underground, who was adopted by the royal family and became a symbol of hope for all monsterkind. More reserved and wary than Frisk, Chara can be difficult to get along with. Their sense of humor is somewhat warped, and they get a certain amount of enjoyment out of tricking and teasing other people. Acting as the narrator and commenting on the things Frisk inspects, they are shown to be sarcastic and sassy, commenting on ridiculous things as if anyone should have expected that, wow, what are you, stupid?
They're rude, defensive, prickly...but they have a caring heart at the core of everything. They died poisoning themself with buttercups so that they and Asriel could cross the Barrier together, and gather the other six souls needed to break the Barrier and free monsterkind. But in this, too, they are shown to be vindictive, wanting to demolish the entire village they had fled from for the hurts that only a few had caused. Chara comes from a background of abuse, and it shows in how they "laugh off" a cooking mistake that landed Asgore sick in bed for weeks, how they tease and mock Asriel for crying. The world is out to hurt you, so hurt it first before it can get any ideas.
After their death and burial, there had seemed to be nothing left of them. Without a soul, Chara's consciousness had somehow lingered on for reasons that are not entirely clear. They fell into a sort of sleep, unaware of anything until Frisk falls into the Underground and lands on the flowers that make up Chara's grave. The Player names them and they wake up, becoming attached to Frisk's soul and guiding the other child through the Underground as best they can.
The two now share the body, with Frisk having main control but occasionally allowing Chara to take over. They often share control in certain ways, usually through fidgeting their hands as a way to physically interact while still sharing a body. In times of extreme duress there seems to be some bleedover of memories and emotions (Asgore's voice when Frisk dies, the memories of Asriel finding Chara when Frisk falls off the bridge in Waterfall), but for the most part the two children remain as separate personalities. Chara generally only takes over in times of great stress or when they see a threat that Frisk does not recognize, and will act to keep Frisk safe (generally to get out of the way of danger, since they aren't terribly interested in upsetting Frisk by hurting people). When Chara takes over, Frisk's eyes change from a dark but clear blue to the same eerie bright red that Chara's eyes were in life.
In function they are two minds sharing one soul in one body. A telepath will find two minds to contend with, though neither child is particularly adept at fighting intrusions like that. In fact, the 'hooks' of code that the Player uses to guide them are still in place, and should anyone actually discover those it would be fairly easy to manipulate them on the same subconscious level. Anyone with an ability to communicate with the dead or sense spirits will know Chara is lurking in Frisk's body, and even see a ghostly image of them laid over Frisk's body (which disappears when Chara takes full control) if they have the ability to see ghosts. Telepaths and spiritual mediums both will be able to hear Chara speaking to Frisk. Chara cannot be unseated from Frisk's body completely without killing Frisk in the process; Frisk's soul and what remains of Chara's essence have become entirely intertwined, and neither can exist without the other any longer. Still, Frisk remains the 'dominant' of the pair on a spiritual level, and still 'owns' their soul.
INVENTORY - Frisk has access to a pocket dimension that can store up to eight individual items, none of which weigh more than 5 pounds or cannot fit into an area of about one cubic foot each. Any item placed within will be stored as if frozen in time--food will not spoil, and watches and other electronics will not operate. However, living beings cannot be stored this way. Their inventory will be empty upon arrival, leaving them only with the items that Frisk had equipped before being imPorted (namely the Heart Locket and Worn Dagger, which are now completely mundane items).
BOSS MONSTER - Frisk has lost INVENTORY and their silly hammerspace, and instead gained BOSS MONSTER! This power allows them to transform from a human into a boss monster, with all the abilities and weaknesses that come with it! In this form Frisk has access to fire magic (though they will need to learn how to control it), and a very, VERY limited amount of healing magic; they won't be doing more than fixing minor cuts and bruises for a while. (They could, in theory, even learn how to turn normal food into monster food with their magic, but without a monster around to teach them how the point is pretty much moot.)
However, this power boost comes at the cost of their toughness--monsters are essentially tissue paper against a foe with true intentions of harm. Not only are all monsters made of dust and magic, and therefore lack the solid physicality that humans possess, but their defenses drop drastically based on the emotions of their attacker. Frisk could be killed by a human child with a sturdy stick in a single hit if the child held enough malice towards them. As such, this is a very dangerous form to remain in on the battlefield. Thankfully, Frisk isn't like most monsters and will actually attempt to dodge attacks coming at them.
CHARA still operates exactly the same in this form, but neither Frisk nor Chara can use SAVE while transformed, as a monster does not possess nearly enough Determination to make it work.
SAVE - The main ability to which Determination is tied, the power of SAVE gives Frisk the ability to rewind time to a set point either upon their death or when they concentrate hard enough on wanting it, exactly how loading a save file or resetting a game functions. While in Undertale this is essentially unlimited in scope (save for only one SAVE FILE being able to be used per soul), upon arrival this ability will be severely altered. The first change is that they cannot LOAD to any point further back than five minutes; however, they can choose freely whatever point within those five minutes to return to, rather than having a single set SAVE POINT. This ability must also be consciously triggered, so it will no longer pull them back upon death. They also have lost the secondary ability of going back to their RESET POINT back home in the Ruins. Any other characters that have time-rewind/manipulation powers can remember through Frisk's LOAD if their players so choose, but otherwise Frisk is the only one aware of the altered timelines.
〈 CHARACTER SAMPLES 〉
COMMUNITY POST (VOICE) SAMPLE:
[The feed opens up to a small child looking somewhat worried, but their expression brightens as soon as they notice that the video is running.]
Um, hello! I was, um. I was tryin' 'ta make some stew an' stuff, 'cuz Mom made it alla th' time an' I really like it an' I wanted to share with my roommates! But, um...
[That nervous look spells nothing but trouble.]
I, um...I think I messed it up.
[Frisk turns the camera around, and it shows an utter mess of a stovetop. They used all the right ingredients, yes, but the pot is far too small to cook that much food in, leaving the contents to boil over. The stove is on FAR too hot, as can be seen by the flames coming out from under the pot, and...oh lord, is that smoke?]
Does anybody know how t' fix it?
[About that time the smoke alarm finally goes off, and someone (presumably one of the adults in the house) can he heard shouting from off-screen. Frisk yelps, fumbles the camera, and the feed cuts out.]
LOGS POST (PROSE) SAMPLE:
Test Drive Thread
FINAL NOTES:
None!
NAME: CaityCat
AGE: 27
JOURNAL:
caitycatIM / EMAIL: decend.to.darkness@gmail.com
PLURK:
RETURNING: No
〈 CHARACTER INFO 〉
CHARACTER NAME: Frisk
CHARACTER AGE: 9
SERIES: Undertale
CHRONOLOGY: Post-Pacifist
CLASS: Hero with an Anti-Hero/potential Villain/giant frigging question mark for a brainghost buddy
HOUSING: I'm open to anything and everything!
BACKGROUND:
HUMANS and MONSTERS.
One day, war broke out between the two races.
After a long battle, the humans were victorious.
They sealed the monsters underground with a magic spell.
The story of Undertale begins millennia ago, when the race of monsters still walked freely on the surface. For a long time, there was peace between the kingdons of monsters and humans, but eventually tensions began to rise. You see, the nature of monsters and humans are very different. Where humans have physical bodies, with incredibly strong souls that can even persist outside of their bodies, monsters are made of dust and magic, with far weaker souls. Their magic comes naturally to them, but it is not nearly enough of an edge should a fight break out.
But monsters do have one advantage: should a monster absorb a human's soul, they would become a terrifying and powerful being, one that could cut swaths through both races should they choose. A human could as well, but a monster's soul cannot persist past their death. The only exception is the soul of a boss monster, and even their souls only last for a few moments before breaking apart. And this is what the humans feared.
To call the fighting a war would be disingenuous--it was a slaughter. Countless monsters were dusted, and not even a single human soul was absorbed in retaliation. In the end, all of monsterkind was forced underground beneath a mountain, and the human mages created a Barrier around them. It's power was such that no single soul could leave once they had entered. The only way through would be the combined soul of a human and a monster...and if seven human souls could somehow be gathered, their powers combined would shatter it entirely.
Asgore and Toriel, the king and queen of monsters, led their people through the caverns in which they now lived, travelling as far away from the entrance as they could. Even with the barrier erected, monsters feared that humans could come to try and finish them off. At the cavern's end, they finally stopped and began to build a new city, "Home".
...Asgore isn't very good at names.
MT. EBOTT
201X
Legends say that those who climb the mountain never return.
Some time in the two-thousand-tens of this world, a young child named Chara runs away from home for reasons that are not clearly known. What is known are a few things: they bring no supplies with them, they carry a deep grudge against humanity, and they climb a mountain upon which people are said to disappear.
Not a hopeful picture painted for this child's past.
Finding a massive hole, Chara falls down into the Underground where they are found by Asriel, the son of Asgore and Toriel, the king and queen of monsters. Worried for them, he takes the human child home where they are cared for and loved, eventually even treated as the king and queen's own flesh and blood. Chara bonds very closely with their new family, and especially their brother, sharing with him pieces of their so-painful past...even admitting to him their reasons for climbing Mt. Ebott.
Finding hope in this small child, the spirits of monsterkind are raised immensely, and a journey is made to move back out of the Ruins, spreading across the rest of the Underground. A new capital is even created, New Home, which remains right at the entrance to the Barrier that monsters fled from so long ago. The people have hope; hope for change and freedom that all rests on this child's shoulders.
A child that knows that human souls are needed to free monsters from their imprisonment. Souls like their own. Chara holds little value on their own life--such has already been proven. But they are only one life, when it is seven that are required for everyone to go free. Even if they died and their soul was taken by a monster, it would only allow that one person to pass through the Barrier. What can they do?
One day, when playing, Chara and Asriel try to make a pie for their father, but misread the instructions and use buttercups instead of cups of butter, not realizing how poisonous the innocent looking flowers are. Asgore is sick, but recovers, and while Asriel is terribly upset, Chara seems to laugh it off.
They've come up with a plan. There's no way it could fail.
Chara convinces Asriel to help them gather up enough buttercups to poison themself with, faking an illness though with they beg to see the surface again. Of course, there is nothing the king and queen can do, and Chara knows this. But Asriel needs an excuse to take Chara to the surface after they die and he absorbs their soul. Grieving, but not wanting Chara's sacrifice to be in vain, Asriel does as they both had planned, and flees through the barrier with his sibling's body.
Neither of them realized that Chara would be more than a soul after death, however. Both Asriel and Chara share control over his body, and it is Chara who walks them to the village, Chara who sets their body down upon a bed of golden flowers, the very same kind they had asked to see one last time. But when the humans of their village emerge and retaliate, assuming that the horrible beast Asriel has become had murdered Chara, Asriel is the one that takes control. Chara had meant for him to kill six humans, and take their souls back to break the Barrier once and for all. But he cannot. He can't harm innocent people, and weathers blow after blow until he is forced to run away again. He takes Chara's body back, and in the throne room of New Home he collapses into dust.
The whole kingdom grieves their loss, but none moreso than Toriel and Asgore. Out of pain and anger, Asgore declares a war against humanity, and decrees that any humans who fell down must be killed so their souls can be collected. With their power, eventually they could shatter the Barrier and reclaim the surface from humans. Toriel was horrified and furious with this; to kill innocents in revenge for a murder they had no part in was horrifying and abhorrent. She could not abide with this, and left with Chara's remains, fleeing to Home and the Ruins. There, in the clearing where Chara first fell so many years ago, she buries her child and plants flowers over their grave--golden flowers, whose seeds clung to them during that brief trip to the surface.
Many, many years pass. Six children fall. A young woman rises in the ranks of the royal guard. A brilliant man is erased by his own hubris. A royal scientist is chosen, and an experiment goes wrong. Asriel wakes up again in a body that is not his, and lacking a soul. Time loops to his will, again and again and again.
The eighth child falls on a grave, and with Frisk's arrival we can begin to talk about the plot of Undertale itself.
But first, we need to talk about
Undertale is a game about many things. Friendship, the nature of narrative, morality...but it is also a game about games. And even more specifically, it is a game about how we play games. The player is told to name the fallen human, and we assume we are simply naming the character we have control of. The game does not tell us otherwise, and the name is what appears in the menus, so that must be what it is. You play through, killing or sparing and only picking up a few real hints of something strange going on at the very beginning should you reload to spare Toriel after killing her. It is the endings of the major routes that give us the real stingers; with Neutral the nature of SAVE and RESET, with Pacifist the reveal of Frisk's name, and in No Mercy Chara holds you responsible for all the murders you have committed.
It is accepted that Chara's spirit lingers and directs Frisk in the No Mercy run. But where are they in the other runs? What about the aborted No Mercys where you spare someone before reaching the end? Does Chara simply vanish?
Here is a better question: who is the narrator of Undertale? In a game as heavily steeped in meta awareness and the deconstruction of gaming tropes, it is certainly odd to assume that the narration is simply as it would be in any other game. After all, the constructs of EXP, LV, and SAVE are all explained in-universe. So who is talking to you this whole time, who so knowledgeable about the Underground and the monsters residing there?
It's Chara.
Though it is never stated outright, there are a great many hints throughout the game that point to Chara's presence guiding Frisk through the game. We'll begin with a particular quirk of certain battles, Serious Mode. Normally in battles, even boss battles like Undyne and Mettaton where Frisk is unquestionably fighting for their life, the narration keeps its irreverent and playful tone. It mentions Undyne suplexing a boulder, teases you that you'll burn if things continue in this manner. Even the names for certain items are amusingly shortened: ButtsPie, SpidrDont, Leg. Hero, even Mandanna. But when Serious Mode kicks in, the jokes stop. Pie, SpdrDonut, L. Hero, Bandanna. The narration is often little more than * ..., incredibly somber when it is not, and conveys in aching clarity just how upsetting things are. Tellingly, this only happens in four specific instances.
Toriel's fight, Asgore's fight, Asriel's fight, and the entirety of the No Mercy route. In other words, on Neutral and Pacifist routes this is ONLY ever triggered when you fight Chara's family.
And even in the No Mercy route, there is a sign of a similar reaction. As you near the end of the game in New Home, you can inspect a photograph in the children's room. Whereas in Neutral and Pacifist you get a comment about everyone smiling in the photo, in No Mercy you get * ..., with the red text shorthand signaling an intense emotion on Chara's part. Even after slaughtering everyone in the Underground, this picture gives them pause.
Another piece of evidence found in New Home is the beds in this same room. The bed on the left is described alternately as * (It's a twin sized bed.) and * His bed., whereas the bed on the right receives these descriptions: * (What a comfortable bed.) * (If you laid down here, you might not ever get up.) and * My bed. A pretty morbid comment, and in a vacuum it could be chalked up to the quirky writing of the game.
But the narration has another interesting quirk: it is not all-knowing, and learns about things right alongside Frisk.
In Home, at the very beginning of the game, You can inspect a plant in Toriel's home. At first, the narration supplies * You have seen this plant before, but do not know it's name. Once Frisk reads a book in Toriel's room and learns about water sausages, it changes to * Oh! * It's a "water sausage". A little odd for the narrator to be confused so early on in the game, isn't it? Especially by something that is so very common, considering they were easily able to recognize the rare 'golden flowers' that broke your fall when you first woke up.
In Snowdin, you can inspect a series of snow poffs over which the narrator become increasingly sarcastic and somewhat impatient--until the very last one, where we receive this: * Eh? *There's 30 G inside this... what is this? They're clearly confused, and almost upset that the check paid off! And later on, in Waterfall, using * Check before and after you start singing with Shyren receives different responses as well: * Tone deaf. She's too ashamed to sing her deadly song. becomes * A talented singer, with a little help.
There's even a rather cute incident with the Monster Candy. Inspecting the item will give you the response of * "Monster Candy" - Heals 10 HP *Has a distinct, non-licorice flavor. And when you eat it? * You ate the Monster Candy. * ...tastes like licorice.
And beyond these moments, there is other evidence, too. Memories that Frisk has no way of accessing, or knowing about at all. When they die, the voice they hear is Asgore at Chara's deathbed, begging them to hang on and stay determined. When they fall from the bridge Undyne cuts out from under you in Waterfall, you hear Asriel discovering Chara when they first fell into the Underground, helping them up and guiding them back to his home. And at the end of the Pacifist route, after Frisk has saved their friend's souls by reminding them of the memories they have both shared, whose memories are the ones that bring him back, remind him of who he is?
Chara's.
The narrator knows and says things that one would expect Chara to as well. When Frisk tells jokes to Woshua, the content is drawn from Chara, whether sub-consciously or because Frisk was told these jokes before. * You tell a joke about a kid who ate pie with their bare hands. * You tell a joke about two kids who played in a muddy flower garden. * You tell a joke about a kid who slept in the soil. In the final fight of the Pacifist run, Asriel becomes "The Absolute God of Hyperdeath", and the narrator is excited. They know every attack, and the text has an energy to it that isn't seen anywhere else. Sounds about right for a kid that's seeing their brother's original character (donut steal) come to life in his full glory, doesn't it?
And the final clincher, what could be considered the 'big reveal' for those who dig into the narrative and pay attention, is the infamous set of mirror lines: * Still just you, Frisk. versus It's me, Chara. This line from the No Mercy run is one of the big scares of this particular route, in large part because of the change in how the speaker phrases things. They aren't speaking in second-person, referring to someone else's actions and feelings as is done on all the other routes. No, in this run, where the actions are largely ascribed to Chara's will, where they are explicitly taking over? The narrator refers to themself.
The narrator is Chara. They woke up when Frisk landed on the bed of golden flowers, became attached to Frisk's soul. They are the one following Frisk, offering help and information in what limited ways they can. They even help in small ways, sometimes taking over for brief moments to point something out (* It's a history book. * Here's a random page... versus * It's an encyclopedia of subterranean plants. You open to the middle...) or stop you from doing something you shouldn't, like giving Gyftrot a second gift of 35 G. * Hey now. * You aren't made of money. They share Frisk's senses, commenting on the sights, smells, tastes, and even sharing Frisk's pain. They clearly have some insight to Frisk's thoughts (* The size of the pie intimidates you too much for you to eat it.), and at times Chara is even addressed by Frisk (* You laugh, and keep laughing. * It's SO funny, you can't stop. * Tears run down your face. * ... what? * You didn't do that?). Frisk and Chara are aware of each other, and working together towards Frisk's goal.
And what is that goal?
A Pacifist run.
How to achieve this, is thus. Frisk wakes in the Ruins, starts walking and meets a 'friendly' little flower named Flowey. (Spoilers: he is not actually friendly.) After a dicey encounter and a ring of bullet hell death, Frisk is saved by the arrival of Toriel, who chases Flowey away and leads Frisk through the Ruins to Home. There she does her best to provide for the child, giving them a room of their own, making a nice pie to celebrate their arrival, and starting to try and teach them some interesting snail facts. But inevitably Frisk asks how to go home and leave, and in her distress Toriel attempts to destroy the exit to the Ruins, fearing that if they leave Asgore will kill them to claim their soul and destroy humanity.
After an upsetting battle, Toriel is spared and allows Frisk to leave, but asks that they do not return. Frisk is mocked by Flowey again, and heads on to Snowdin. Here they are first frightened, but then greeted by Sans the skeleton. He has little interest in capturing Frisk despite being a sentry on the lookout for humans, but knows that his brother Papyrus would like nothing better. Papyrus is thankfully a kind and gentle soul, not realizing just WHY a human must be captured, and so Sans asks Frisk to humor his brother and go through the several puzzles to help cheer him up from what seems to be a bit of a slump for the poor skeleton. Frisk agrees, solving and charming their way through several problems, and eventually arrives in the town of Snowdin itself. After spending a bit of time around town, they move onward and confront Papyrus. In a battle notable for being literally impossible to die in, Frisk eventually wears Papyrus out and convinces him to let them pass to see Asgore, who he describes as "a big fuzzy pushover", and even goes back to cement their friendship with a very cute date-hangout.
Also Sans takes them to Grillby's. Japes are had.
Journeying on to Waterfall, Frisk happens to overhear a meeting between Undyne, the captain of the Royal Guard, and Papyrus. He tries to convince Undyne to not go after Frisk, but she isn't convinced. Papyrus, bless his non-existent heart, tries to throw Undyne off the scent again with some misinformation, but it doesn't work and Frisk has several close encounters with her before a final confrontation at the border between Waterfall and Hotland. Running for their life, the chase is only brought to a halt when Undyne collapses from the heat. Frisk brings her some water from a nearby cooler, and the guard captain reluctantly stalks away, accepting her 'defeat'. Upon Papyrus's suggestion, Frisk heads back to Waterfall to try and befriend Undyne. It's rather confusing, and involves more than a little bit of Papyrus knowing Undyne and her competitive nature a bit too well, but in the end a house is burned down and a friendship is forged.
Then, onward to Hotland--properly, this time. Frisk finds a lab, and inside is the Royal Scientist. Alphys admits to watching Frisk's journey through her many cameras hidden across the Underground, and offers to help them get to the castle and the Barrier. She even knows a quick short-cut right to the castle! The only problem is...Mettaton. An entertainment robot she built and tried to re-purpose for hunting down humans, her attempts to remove the additions have unfortunately only made him even more bloodthirsty. Cue a hilarious string of shenanigans involving quiz shows, conveyor belts and lasers, cakes that need human souls (or human soul substitute), more awkward texts than you can shake a stick at, way too many hot air vents, and a whole lot of bombs. Frisk finally gets through Hotland to the MTT Resort, but is pulled aside for a moment by Sans to have a little talk. Or maybe some veiled threats? I mean it's not like he's dangerous or anything, ha ha ha, right guys?
Yeah.
In any case, from there Frisk goes on to make their way through the Core, and here is where Alphys starts to have some trouble. Until now her information for where Frisk needs to go had been accurate, but now her maps are all wrong--something has shuffled the Core up completely, and she can't make heads or tails of it. Turns out, it's Mettaton himself behind it; the whole killer robot thing was a farce, designed to let Alphys gain Frisk's trust and friendship and convince them to stay in the Underground and not try to cross the Barrier. But Mettaton had grown tired of the charade, and decided to use the opportunity for his own ends. He's always dreamed of becoming a star on the Surface, and his ticket through the Barrier has walked right into his hands.
A little ironic, that the 'killer robot' farce winds up real, but what're you gonna do, right?
The fight is broadcast across the whole Underground, of course. And Frisk's dodging and posing and use of MTT Brand items ensure those rating skyrocket. There's a tearful moment with a mysterious and ghostly caller, and Mettaton realizes that he can't leave the Underground without a star to look up to. (Narcissist.) Afterward, Alphys attempts to cheer Frisk on before they leave...but in the end she can't keep up yet another lie. She tells Frisk the truth of what they need to go home. A monster's soul. Asgore's soul. She apologizes, and runs away.
Down a long elevator, and into New Home. When Frisk reaches a house disturbingly similar to Toriel's own, the monsters inside tell Frisk the story of the prince and his sibling who fell so long ago. How they were loved, adored. How they fell ill, and could not recover. How the prince took their soul and carried their body to the Surface. How he was fatally injured, and retreated home only to collapse into dust. How Asgore cried out for vengeance, and swore to destroy the Barrier and erase humanity.
Aren't you excited?
Aren't you happy?
You're going to be free.
But before Frisk reaches Asgore, in a long golden corridor, Sans is waiting. He's been watching Frisk throughout their whole journey, from the moment they left the door to the Ruins. Every fight, every battle, he's been watching them and their progress. Watching to see if they gain any EXP. Any LV, any LOVE.
What's EXP? It's an acronym. It stands for Execution Points. A way to quantify the pain you have inflicted on others. When you gain enough EXP, your LOVE increases.
LOVE, too, is an acronym. It stands for Level of Violence. A way of measuring your capacity to hurt others, and distance yourself from your pain.
But Frisk...they never gained any LOVE. Not a single point of EXP. Anyone they encountered, they did their best to make friends with. And if they could not, they ran away with a smile. They never gained LOVE, but they did gain love.
Sans wishes Frisk good luck, and onward they go.
Asgore...is caught off-guard to say the least. He's dismayed to see Frisk here, though he knew they were coming. Despite his war-like stance, the cries from the public...he does not want power. He is a man that made terrible, terrible mistakes in his grief, and now sees no way to back out of it. He must give his people hope, and to do so...he must accept the blood that stains his hands.
Four times, he gives Frisk a chance to run away.
Four times, they refuse.
There is no MERCY, this time. Asgore will not accept it. Frisk begs, pleads with Asgore, telling him they don't want to fight...but in the end, they must. And the king of all monsters, the strongest in the Underground, is brought to his knees by a single human child. With only a little strength remaining, he tells Frisk to take his soul and leave the Underground, to be happy on the surface. They have a future, and he cannot bring himself to take it from them.
They refuse, granting him the mercy he would not accept in battle. Weeping, Asgore assures Frisk that he will care for them, keep them safe and happy...that they could be a family.
But someone else has other plans.
Flowey kills Asgore with a well-placed ring of bullets, destroys his soul...and takes the six human souls that Asgore had revealed before the fight began.
To say the fight is difficult is an understatement. Flowey taunts and mocks Frisk with each death, but they don't give up. They weave and dodge, and call out desperately for help...and the human souls answer. Rebelling against Flowey, in the end they fight back and reduce him to his former self, and Frisk is once again given an option. It's no question what they choose, of course. Hadn't that been the point the whole time? To grant mercy, no matter what? To prove the world isn't kill or be killed?
Flowey runs away.
What happens next is...unclear. Frisk leaves to somewhere, and some months later, they receive a call from Sans. It seems that Toriel had left the Ruins, and when she discovered that Asgore was dead took over once again as the queen of the Underground. She declared that any humans to fall from now on would be treated as friend, not enemies, and disbanded the Royal Guard. Except for the new captain, of course. Papyrus takes his job of watering flowers very seriously. Alphys is working on trying to break the Barrier by other means, and Undyne does her best to help. The other six souls have vanished, and the monsters assure Frisk that they are doing just fine. So take care of yourself, alright, kid?
They LOAD, and return.
Heading back, out of the castle and away from the Barrier, Frisk receives a call from Undyne as soon as they've left the zone of interference from the Core. It seems she has a letter that needs to be delivered to Alphys, and she wants Frisk to do it. Of course Frisk agrees, but Undyne, it seems, forgot to sign her name on her love letter, and now Alphys assumes that Frisk was the one that wrote it. (I'm sorry, did you assume that there wasn't going to be another dating sequence in this game?) Alphys fumbles her way through giving Frisk a pity date, Undyne shows up expecting Alphys to be expecting her, and there's a lot of awkward confessions all around.
Also anime is real. There is no other option YOU DON'T GO BREAKING THIS FISH'S HEART OKAY.
On Papyrus's very nervous suggestion, Frisk goes to check up on Alphys after the date, and they find a note. They also find a door to an elevator that did not open before. Alphys says that she must face some hard secrets of her past, and warns that she might not return. Frisk follows, and discovers...something rather sinister. A lab beneath the public one, one filled with horrifying amalgamates and ominous notes of Alphys's real work. She tried to use Determination from human souls to make the souls of dying monsters last long enough to be gathered and used like humans souls can be...but they recovered, melted, formed together into twisted monstrosities. It's the shame of her failure that Alphys fears, something so intense that she worried she would choose to never be seen again...
There are other secrets to be found. When the time came, Alphys would need a container to hold the souls, something that could use both human and monster souls. What happens when something without a soul gains the will to live...? At first, none of the flowers Alphys tried to use worked...but there was one. The first golden flower to bloom...one that resided in the king's garden, carefully tended. It did not remain where it was left for very long. But there's something else there, that Frisk discovers. Some old VHS tapes, accidental snapshots of a time long ago...hints of a suicidal plan that reveal the truth of Chara's 'illness'.
And when they go to the elevator that will take them out of the lab, up to New Home, someone calls them. A voice they have never heard before. It calls them Chara, congratulates them for putting everything into place. "See you soon."
The elevator rockets upward, and Frisk is flung out. The way back is jammed shut by vines.
They move forward. There was never any other option.
Again Frisk confronts Asgore, but this time the fight is interrupted. Toriel arrives, then Undyne, then Alphys and Papyrus and Sans...they all come to help protect the human they've come to care so much about. The reunion is bittersweet, hilarious, heartwarming...but how did Papyrus know to call everyone? Simple!
A little flower told him.
Flowey appears, stealing the human souls and capturing the monsters. He laughs, taunting Frisk that he'll never let them have their happy ending, that the whole world is just a game. Their friends do what they can to protect Frisk from his attacks, but it's not enough--Flowey is done playing this time. He uses his power to absorb the soul of every monster in the Underground, and with that power he's able to take on his true form.
Asriel Dreemurr.
The fight that follows is intense, and Frisk is pushed to their limit. With * Hope they shield themself from the damage of Asriel's relentless attacks. They * Dream and restore their heath through sheer Determination. But again, he's only been toying with them. Suddenly they're pinned, can't move their body. All they can do is struggle...but even in the wake of a barrage of comets and stars, they refuse to die. But to what purpose? Frisk's SAVE is blocked from them; is there nothing they can do?
They can't SAVE the game...but maybe...something else? They can feel something resonating inside Asriel. Frisk reaches out...one by one, six Lost Souls are called back. All of them reminded of their love for Frisk, the things that the human helped them see. Love and compassion and warmth that buoys the human, pushes them forward. But there's still one more person to be saved...Frisk reaches out to Asriel, and through Chara the memories of his old life are triggered. He remembers how to love, how to care...he remembers why he wanted so desperately for Frisk to stay. The horrific form melts away, and Asriel apologizes for all the horrible things he's done. He's filled with regret, and knows there's nothing he can do to make up for it.
But still...there is one thing within his power. Something that needed power equal to seven human souls...the Barrier. In a final surge of power, Asriel destroys the Barrier once and for all, finally achieving that goal from so very long ago. He restores the souls back to every monster, and releases the human souls to pass on once more. He tells Frisk that he has to go--without the power of those souls, he'll turn back into a flower and stop being able to feel love again. Asking that they go with the people that love them, he leaves...
And Frisk wakes up in Toriel's arms. The other monsters do not remember anything after Flowey stole their souls, but are all overjoyed to see that Frisk is alright. Some heartwarming and amusing banter is had, and after a chance to go back and speak with all the friends Frisk has made...they all head out to the surface. The sunset is breathtaking, and all of them prepare to go and greet humanity--this time, as friends. Toriel offers to take care of Frisk, just as she had tried to back at the beginning of this journey. Together everyone head out to their new future...
But this isn't the end. There is something that Frisk cannot control, and never could. They want this ending, but the Player has a power beyond them or Chara. True Reset. If you restart the game after a Pacifist ending, Flowey appears and begs you to reconsider, to leave the timeline be and let Frisk have their happy ending. But why would you stop? There are so many different endings to see, so many secrets to be uncovered. Of course the Player will want to see more.
And Frisk has little choice but to go through all over again.
It's important to note that while the Player is a major influence in the actions of both Frisk and Chara through the course of the game, it's not exactly the 1-1 direct control that the gameplay implies. From the perspective of the kids, the Player's choices and actions are for the most part a subconscious urge and pull in one direction or another, using the dual natures of the two to achieve endings that left to their own devices neither kid would ever want or seek out. The only time that the Player completely 'takes over' so to speak is when they initiate a True Reset after a Pacifist or No Mercy run. It also isn't one single Player at the reins of their various timelines, but rather that the circumstances of Frisk and Chara's mental state are hooked into in order to facilitate the runs of various Players.
So, what does this mean for their timelines? Their perception of events?
Let Frisk live their life.
The RESETS do not start easy. Frisk barely makes it through the first few times in the Underground, only saved when they freeze up by Chara's interference. Dust is on their hands, the result of confusion and fear and Chara's own simmering resentment. Frisk goes back over and over, desperate to try and get through without hurting anyone, to do things right...it takes ten tries before Frisk is able to make Toriel back down, five more before they can keep themself from freezing up against Undyne. Slowly, Frisk grows more confident and nimble, and Chara starts to warm up a little to their crazy ideas. Maybe they can get through without hurting anyone. A dustless journey.
On the twenty-sixth try, they discover Alphys's real lab. The amalgamates, the story of Chara's failure...and the revelation of just who Flowey really is. Frisk goes on to see Asgore, and for the first time there's someone there to help. Toriel, Undyne, Alphys, Papyrus, Sans...they all come to help keep Frisk safe, but it's all played into Flowey's hands. He takes the SOULS of the humans, of the whole Underground, and the unspoken ultimatum is laid down.
The battle is harsh, unforgiving. Frisk may have Chara on their side, but what is their Determination against a god? They hope, they dream, they struggle, cry out...and this time, again, their friends answer. And when Chara reaches out to Asriel...nothing is truly healed, but Frisk's love for them all is enough of a balm for the wound. The Barrier comes down, and the monsters are all finally free--Frisk has the happy ending they had been looking for. Leaving hand in hand with Toriel, they move on to their future...
And wake up on the bed of flowers once again. Chara is furious, but they know neither of them RESET this time. Flowey has forgotten entirely; it's like the slate is wiped clean. But this time Frisk knows what they need to do. Again they set out on their adventure, determined to make things right.
The Barrier is broken. The happy ending lasts for a week this time.
Again, and again, and again. Something beyond them both RESETS every time, and the stress wears on both Frisk and Chara. Chara is convinced that this is punishment for their misdeeds, but Frisk is certain if they try hard enough they can keep things from being set back all over again. Trying to find some further clue, Frisk starts LOADING mundane encounters over and over, hoping to find someone that notices, that might have the answer they're looking for. And Sans does, though what he has to offer isn't...much help. Or comforting at all. The machine, the two photos...they have to fix this. They have to set things right and make sure everyone can stay happy on the Surface.
Frisk is filled with Determination.
PERSONALITY:
The first thing anyone notices about Frisk is their kind nature. They are the sort of person that greets everyone with a smile, and will do their best to cheer up anyone that looks upset or hurt. Even in the face of someone lashing out at them, they will try their best to find common ground and make friends with them. This does often get them into painful situations, but it doesn't stop them from trying. No matter how much vitriol or harm is flung their way, Frisk comes back with a patient smile and a friendly hand held out. They trust in others and believe the best of any situation, striving over and over to find the happiest outcome for everyone.
Frisk is an inquisitive child, getting into things and trying to figure out just what is going on. From asking various shop keepers about their lives and troubles to searching around what is clearly a science lab out of a horror movie because gosh darn it there are answers down here, Frisk will go searching for whatever they can find. Within canon this is mainly fueled by a desire to see the timeline stabilized and brought to a happy ending, but even before they realized the problem of resets they were poking around and trying to figure out just what was going on in the Underground.
Nice as they are, that doesn't mean that Frisk is without an attitude. Excessive flirting aside, on multiple occasions Frisk back-sasses people or cracks jokes at odd times, especially during their fight with Mettaton with how they ham it up for the audience to boost the show's ratings. They have a mischievous streak and an odd sense of humor, but they never mean any harm by it. If anyone is ever hurt by their jokes they are quick to apologize and try to make them feel better, but they are sensitive enough that it doesn't happen often.
Frisk constantly strives to do the right thing, helping others and never fighting back even when someone has killed them multiple times before. Even when it would be reasonable to fight back they refuse, not wanting to hurt a single soul no matter the cost to themselves. Only in two fights have they ever of their own will truly used aggressive force against their attacker--once against Asgore, to weaken him enough that he ceases fighting, and the second against Flowey who has taken the six human souls and locked Frisk in a fight they cannot escape from. And both times, at the end Frisk takes the option for MERCY. To gain a single EXP or LV is horrifying to them, no matter what reason might be behind it. They know for a fact that a smile or warm hug can thaw any heart, given enough effort and care.
And then there is the key part of Frisk that drives the whole story forward: determination. A will to see their mark put on reality, once Frisk has set their mind to something they will stubbornly work to see it made true, even if it takes a hundred attempts. This is what kept them from backing down in the face of immense danger, what lets them face down god-like beings and refuse to take an eye for an eye, and most of all what bolsters them and keeps them from falling into a pit of despair despite being set back to zero over and over and over. Until everyone is happy, until the story has a happy ending that sticks, Frisk will not give up no matter what the cost to themselves.
But even below that iron will there is something else, something that pushes them to reach out to people as they do. While not directly explained, it is very much implied that Frisk felt alone and abandoned before they decided to climb Mt. Ebott due to emotional and physical neglect. Hints of this lonely little child can be seen in how quickly they latch onto Toriel as a mother figure, how they try so hard to make friends with everyone they meet despite these people having tried to kill Frisk multiple times, and rather poignantly with the 'Abandoned Quiche' item hidden in one area. When dropped, Frisk specifically says that they 'promise they will be right back', when no other item in the game has any description for how Frisk leaves it behind. Frisk is desperate to have a place to belong, and very likely fell down the hole into the Underground because they felt they had no place left.
Fortunately for everyone, they have found their Home, and it is definitely one worth fighting for.
POWER:
CHARA - Chara is the first human child that fell into the Underground, who was adopted by the royal family and became a symbol of hope for all monsterkind. More reserved and wary than Frisk, Chara can be difficult to get along with. Their sense of humor is somewhat warped, and they get a certain amount of enjoyment out of tricking and teasing other people. Acting as the narrator and commenting on the things Frisk inspects, they are shown to be sarcastic and sassy, commenting on ridiculous things as if anyone should have expected that, wow, what are you, stupid?
They're rude, defensive, prickly...but they have a caring heart at the core of everything. They died poisoning themself with buttercups so that they and Asriel could cross the Barrier together, and gather the other six souls needed to break the Barrier and free monsterkind. But in this, too, they are shown to be vindictive, wanting to demolish the entire village they had fled from for the hurts that only a few had caused. Chara comes from a background of abuse, and it shows in how they "laugh off" a cooking mistake that landed Asgore sick in bed for weeks, how they tease and mock Asriel for crying. The world is out to hurt you, so hurt it first before it can get any ideas.
After their death and burial, there had seemed to be nothing left of them. Without a soul, Chara's consciousness had somehow lingered on for reasons that are not entirely clear. They fell into a sort of sleep, unaware of anything until Frisk falls into the Underground and lands on the flowers that make up Chara's grave. The Player names them and they wake up, becoming attached to Frisk's soul and guiding the other child through the Underground as best they can.
The two now share the body, with Frisk having main control but occasionally allowing Chara to take over. They often share control in certain ways, usually through fidgeting their hands as a way to physically interact while still sharing a body. In times of extreme duress there seems to be some bleedover of memories and emotions (Asgore's voice when Frisk dies, the memories of Asriel finding Chara when Frisk falls off the bridge in Waterfall), but for the most part the two children remain as separate personalities. Chara generally only takes over in times of great stress or when they see a threat that Frisk does not recognize, and will act to keep Frisk safe (generally to get out of the way of danger, since they aren't terribly interested in upsetting Frisk by hurting people). When Chara takes over, Frisk's eyes change from a dark but clear blue to the same eerie bright red that Chara's eyes were in life.
In function they are two minds sharing one soul in one body. A telepath will find two minds to contend with, though neither child is particularly adept at fighting intrusions like that. In fact, the 'hooks' of code that the Player uses to guide them are still in place, and should anyone actually discover those it would be fairly easy to manipulate them on the same subconscious level. Anyone with an ability to communicate with the dead or sense spirits will know Chara is lurking in Frisk's body, and even see a ghostly image of them laid over Frisk's body (which disappears when Chara takes full control) if they have the ability to see ghosts. Telepaths and spiritual mediums both will be able to hear Chara speaking to Frisk. Chara cannot be unseated from Frisk's body completely without killing Frisk in the process; Frisk's soul and what remains of Chara's essence have become entirely intertwined, and neither can exist without the other any longer. Still, Frisk remains the 'dominant' of the pair on a spiritual level, and still 'owns' their soul.
BOSS MONSTER - Frisk has lost INVENTORY and their silly hammerspace, and instead gained BOSS MONSTER! This power allows them to transform from a human into a boss monster, with all the abilities and weaknesses that come with it! In this form Frisk has access to fire magic (though they will need to learn how to control it), and a very, VERY limited amount of healing magic; they won't be doing more than fixing minor cuts and bruises for a while. (They could, in theory, even learn how to turn normal food into monster food with their magic, but without a monster around to teach them how the point is pretty much moot.)
However, this power boost comes at the cost of their toughness--monsters are essentially tissue paper against a foe with true intentions of harm. Not only are all monsters made of dust and magic, and therefore lack the solid physicality that humans possess, but their defenses drop drastically based on the emotions of their attacker. Frisk could be killed by a human child with a sturdy stick in a single hit if the child held enough malice towards them. As such, this is a very dangerous form to remain in on the battlefield. Thankfully, Frisk isn't like most monsters and will actually attempt to dodge attacks coming at them.
CHARA still operates exactly the same in this form, but neither Frisk nor Chara can use SAVE while transformed, as a monster does not possess nearly enough Determination to make it work.
SAVE - The main ability to which Determination is tied, the power of SAVE gives Frisk the ability to rewind time to a set point either upon their death or when they concentrate hard enough on wanting it, exactly how loading a save file or resetting a game functions. While in Undertale this is essentially unlimited in scope (save for only one SAVE FILE being able to be used per soul), upon arrival this ability will be severely altered. The first change is that they cannot LOAD to any point further back than five minutes; however, they can choose freely whatever point within those five minutes to return to, rather than having a single set SAVE POINT. This ability must also be consciously triggered, so it will no longer pull them back upon death. They also have lost the secondary ability of going back to their RESET POINT back home in the Ruins. Any other characters that have time-rewind/manipulation powers can remember through Frisk's LOAD if their players so choose, but otherwise Frisk is the only one aware of the altered timelines.
〈 CHARACTER SAMPLES 〉
COMMUNITY POST (VOICE) SAMPLE:
[The feed opens up to a small child looking somewhat worried, but their expression brightens as soon as they notice that the video is running.]
Um, hello! I was, um. I was tryin' 'ta make some stew an' stuff, 'cuz Mom made it alla th' time an' I really like it an' I wanted to share with my roommates! But, um...
[That nervous look spells nothing but trouble.]
I, um...I think I messed it up.
[Frisk turns the camera around, and it shows an utter mess of a stovetop. They used all the right ingredients, yes, but the pot is far too small to cook that much food in, leaving the contents to boil over. The stove is on FAR too hot, as can be seen by the flames coming out from under the pot, and...oh lord, is that smoke?]
Does anybody know how t' fix it?
[About that time the smoke alarm finally goes off, and someone (presumably one of the adults in the house) can he heard shouting from off-screen. Frisk yelps, fumbles the camera, and the feed cuts out.]
LOGS POST (PROSE) SAMPLE:
Test Drive Thread
FINAL NOTES:
None!