Yeah I’m late. I was too busy canoodling with Papyrus and eating spaghetti with a comically long pasta strand shared between us that took 10 days to reach towards the centre only for a dastardly white dog to swoop in and eat the middle of the spaghetti before our lips touched…
But wait, it’s already been a week since the anniversary!? It almost feels like it was yesterday (probably because the anniversary stream took place on the weekend, which was very fun btw but I had to cover my eyes for like 40% of it because I didn’t go through the pacifist route yet.)
But yeah no, I really did celebrate the anniversary with a big big plate of spaghetti with Papyrus! We also had a red velvet cake which was UNDERTALE coloured (yknow white and red) but I didn’t really bother taking a photo since the candle lit plate of spaghetti stole the show.

He ended up eating most of it while I ate the noodles that didn’t touch the sauce. My mother prepared it with meat so I couldn’t eat too much ^.^; My sister was happy to eat the rest, which was like, 1 sauce covered noodle that Papyrus was too full to finish.

Along with the celebratory plate of spaghetti, I followed through with starting a playthrough of UNDERTALE and finally beat the game myself!
Initially I wanted to wait until I could make a custom sprite mod for the fallen human— but as it predictably turns out, I am laughably bad at pixel art and the 3 minute attempt of trying to edit one sprite out of the dozens in the game files ended up in complete failure. So then I decided to play the game as is and use my imagination to pretend it’s my self insert playing the role as the human.
Technically my self insert can co-exist alongside FRISK and CHARA if she plays the role as ‘THE PLAYER’ but I wanted to have the dynamic between “normal guy” vs “messed up guy” that FRISK and CHARA initially had (in which the anniversary stream quickly debunked, 11 year old me would be so happy.)

some quick concept art I whipped up of my UT-sona. The clothes are definitely too detailed for an actual UT sprite (if we were to keep the proportions the same) so I’d probably simplify the JSK into a OP

It’s been a while since I’ve drawn something that wasn’t tracing an Irusatoya! I definetly think I’m a bit rusty when it comes to drawing actual art and I’m not completely satisfied with the finished result but well! Something is better than nothing, and its a miracle that I managed to complete the whole thing without flaking out on the 2nd reference even if it was simply copy pasted then modified.
If I were to make a PLAYER-sona (as in the SOUL controlling Frisk + Chara) I think she would have a red knitted sweater over her JSK and wear a locket in the shape of a save point. Did I ever bring up my distaste for heart motifs? I dislike them enough to specially order my shoes to not have heart shaped buckles hahaha. What I’m getting at is that my sona’s hitbox would probably be a star/save point shaped— whether its the shape of the actual soul or a cover-up to hide the actual heart is undecided! But I definitely lean towards it being fake for cool meta commentary or something.

Anyways! The gameplay itself was super super fun! Initially I planned to screenshot and caption my reactions as I went through the game, however I had an issue where attempting to interact with anything on my second monitor would close the game when its on full screen mode which started to get annoying after a while.. I decided to record my gameplay instead and say my commentary out loud which was much trickier than I anticipated! I gained a lot of respect for let’s play streamers who are able to balance entertaining commentary alongside gameplay as I certainly struggled with articulating my words and staying silent for long periods of time when I was focused.
I ended up compiling about 6 hours of gameplay footage in total, not including the recordings I have for my unfinished genocide playthrough which I’m strongly contemplating aborting in favour of a King Papyrus route and also because sans is too hard..  Maybe some day I’ll get around to editing down the footage and posting it on my blog! Maybe in another decade..
In my neutral playthrough of UNDERTALE, I’ve died a total of two times (once to omega flowey, once to………………….. Mettaton EX……..) and killed one monster (Toriel) granting a total of 5 LOVE. I ended up sparing Flowey in the end which prompted him to suggest a complete pacifist route.. that I promptly ignored only to be reminded again during a fresh save file to not kill anyone.

moments said before disaster

Sorry Flowey but I’m not like other players who do neutral → true pacifist → genocide, the 5 LOVE is making me prematurely evil.

Pacifist/Genocide buttons courtesy of GodzillaFightn on Deviantart

Okay, in all honesty I was just excited to see Chara since I used to be an avid Chara defender back in the day who insisted that Chara was only corrupted by the player’s influence. Nowadays I’ve gotten around to the concept of Chara “wasn’t the greatest person” Dreemur and was under the presumption that Chara only explicitly manifests during a Genocide playthrough.
Of course, this was all debunked by the time the 10th Anniversary stream came around, and although I would’ve been fine making amends that Chara is inherently bad, I am delighted to be proven wrong and kid me proven right. I didn’t see a majority of the changed dialogue for the 10th Anniversary Stream since I didn’t want to get spoiled (even though I’ve long already known what happens through many playthrough watches) but I tuned in just in time for when Toby brings up “There’s one more person that needs to be saved”. As tempting as it was to watch what is soon to come in its entirely, I am strict on trying to avoid pacifist spoilers and ironically continued my genocide playthrough on the other monitor while my sister watched the rest of the stream.

Although it wont have the same impact when I eventually watch the VOD, it’s honestly kind of meta that I missed out the experience of seeing the new dialogue because I was blinded by my genocide playthrough preventing me from doing a true pacifist before the stream date. I wish I had more insightful commentary regarding this, especially since UNDERTALE’s meta rp elements are one of my favourite aspects of the game! But well, I’m at a loss to say since I’m bad at writing down analytical thoughts on certain media (plus I’m always under the impression that someone else has said it better and more accurately than I could ever do) so the most I can muster is “whoa this is super super cool” and maybe daydream scenarios about it.

Reminiscing on all this is seriously making me consider wiping my file and doing a King Papyrus run.. killing two birds with one stone by preventing my game from getting corrupted by CHARA’s influence and I don’t have to fight sans! I’ve pretty much gotten close enough playing bad time simulator over and over as practice and was even able to get a clear in, so theoretically I’m capable of finishing my genocide run if I put my heart in it. If I were to incorporate this in a narrative stand-point, maybe Sans guilt trips me over killing Papyrus and calls me a freak for eating his dust but was willing to make a compromise to reset my run as long as I spare Papyrus. Based off the dialogue on various neutral run calls where Papyrus is alive, Sans is much friendlier to the player in comparison to a scenario where Papyrus is dead.
While I don’t see Sans as completely indifferent to the fate of monsterkind, the implication that he and Papyrus come from another ‘place’ suggests that he would be more willing to accept morally questionable actions if it meant ensuring his brother’s safety since they only have each other.

Although I’m usually not a fan of most UNDERTALE AUs since the fanbase tends to overshadow these interpretations over the character’s canon counterparts, I am quite tickled by the scenario that happens in Dusttale where Papyrus becomes some sort of tulpa that haunts Sans. Since it’s implied that he’s a manifestation born out of Sans’ guilt, I personally think the floating Papyrus head isn’t truly him but instead a hallucination and excuse created by Sans’ in order to justify killing, even if he knows deep down that Papyrus would never sincerely wish for the death of someone else.
I wish there was a scenario where the real Papyrus (just as body-less as his evil counterpart) jumps from timeline to timeline attempting to prevent Sans from following this destructive path but is thwarted by Sans ignoring his pleas in favour of the delusional hallucination of him. He eventually turns to possessing the human and attempts to hijack the narrative by attempting to convince the player to do good and comically sabotages the player’s playthrough by taking temporary manipulation of the controls and forcing the human to spare or walk into stores/buildings, preventing them from LV farming overworld areas and ruining their genocide playthrough. Maybe the human eventually gets fed up with his meddling and reluctantly agrees to team up with him to “defeat” the spirit that is fuelling Sans. Maybe theres a secret battle where Papyrus helps you fight the phantom by tossing healing bones in the fight box and grants you the abilities to hit ghost targets.
But anyways, what I’m getting at is that my sona’s genocide playthrough probably had a floating Papyrus head in her peripheral vision beckoning her to do good but disappearing at the last second when she tries to find where that distant trousel of bones is coming from. It’s starting to work since I’m fully set on wiping my file and starting fresh for a King Papyrus run before I do a true pacifist. Thank you Papyrus for believing in me…..

Tapping the sign furiously

Oops, getting carried away here and becoming the one thing that I swore to never become (an UNDERTALE AU writer) but attempting to subvert scenarios where people characterize Papyrus as evil or mean is too fun.. in my heart Papyrus is perpetually kind and remains merciful no matter what events or cruelty he goes through. Sans is definitely a huge factor in maintaining his innocence, however even in a scenario where Sans is gone and Papyrus is left alone to rule as king, he would still grant mercy towards humans that fall in the ruins and attempts to rehabilitate them into doing better, be it against their will since Papyrus is the only one in-game who’s capable of never killing the player, to the point that getting around the hard code that prevents you from being killed by him straight up crashes the game. I love the comments saying that even the game couldn’t handle a universe where Papyrus is grief-stricken from accidentally killing someone so it nukes itself to prevent it happening.

I think the takeaway from this year’s (very belated) UNDERTALE anniversary is that yeah. I finally see what makes the great Papyrus so great.
Did I end up reciprocating the love he shares with my Tomodachi Collection self insert? I would say so! However the relationship me and Papyrus have is purely platonic, maybe even besties vowed and married. Getting friend zoned by him was the biggest highlight in my neutral playthrough and I’m so so relieved that he’s more than willing to stay as friends.
It’s especially sweet that he agreed to going on a date just because he wanted to make us happy (since we’re the one’s that initiated it by flirting)  but eventually came around to admitting his heart really wasn’t reciprocating the romantic attraction and decided to stop the date only because he didn’t want to lead us on and hurt our feelings. I think he would be very happy to discover that I also feel the same way and that I would more than willing be his very first super best friend; more than friends less than lovers!
So in short, even though the Tomodachi Collection interpretation of me and Papyrus are happily married and in love, they love and cuddle in a bestie way, not a romantic way and I wouldn’t imagine it any other way………..
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..Now if Papyrus had a female pelvis on the otherhand and went “NYOHOHOHO”

Lori ✦

Currently Listening to:
Niǎo – Sonicbrat

Feeling:
Very tempted to procrastinate