User:Reversedragon/UTDR/deltashard1
undertale gaster route
but i think i might have liked it better if there was a messed up route to undertale that was instead about Gaster
if this were literally in the original undertale game I'd want this to be fully hidden to where you had to open your save and type in a value that wasn't normally there but could be found through the fun events maybe, like, you'd have to enter in something having to do with the memoryheads phone call and the wrong number scene like "wrongnumber=6666666" this could be hinted to you by the river person wondering some seemingly nonsensical thought like "which wrong number was it again?". elsewhere in completely separate 'fun' timelines coming from seemingly-unfinished objects kind of similar to "REDACTED" you see the cryptic dialogue box 'wrongnumber=' and a repeating '666666666666666666666666666666666666'
if the save file says "wrongnumber=6666666", Frisk enters the underground and there is no Flowey. the patch where Flowey is is empty, and Toriel does not appear. then you walk up the stairs, and walk into the room with the first puzzle, and there is a fucking Memoryhead in the middle of the room. it's not the nearly-cute True Lab map sprite - it's a disturbingly more-fully-rendered Memoryhead, just sitting there semi-animated into further terrible sploshy, oozing "poses". if you try to talk to the Memoryhead it just says a bunch of nasty static. but if you open your menu you see Frisk mysteriously has a phone, and if you select the phone you get actual dialogue. the Memoryhead says something strange like "THANK YOU FOR CALLING. BUT NOBODY CAME." and then, it just slides off the screen. this Memoryhead kind of replaces Flowey in this timeline, showing up periodically, possibly with new or different faces apparent on it each time almost echoing the way Flowey does different faces. here you begin to realize the subtle humor of Flowey being drawn in such a low-effort style but the Memoryhead being kind of over-rendered versus the usual overworld style in contrast to that. every time the Memoryhead appears you can select CELL to talk, the ITEM option to receive a Bad Memory, or the STAT option to learn stuff about the Memoryhead. it is implied this is kind of what it's doing in the True Lab encounter, invoking but misusing parts of the player's menu, so why not have that stuff actually happening on the menu itself.
as you go through the underground the places would be nearly the same but all the overworld characters would be different. at some point you meet each of the weird Gaster followers and you have to encounter them or do the right thing to make sure they do not disappear. if you want to do it wrong, you could instead make sure all of them disappear, which will interestingly result in something more like Undertale happening. ex. if Goner Kid disappears, Monster Kid will appear.
later you find out this item was used to repel Chara from the timeline. Chara always had an aversion to regular old dark chocolate [in my imagination], so creating a magical impossibly-dark chocolate served as basically a "garlic" that would surely keep them away. I guess if you choose to sabotage the Gaster route you have to go back and delete the Darker Chocolate from existence before it gets to Toriel's fridge, as one of your "kills". technically, the Darker Chocolate IS a Goner given how it only exists in this timeline and all. a kind of "Goner tool". while you are in the house you should also pick up the Unreal Knife. this thing has a deep aura of darkness in and around it. this was literally just Gaster's kitchen knife, because he was a bit of a show-off who could not have normal things.
if you try to use the Unreal Knife to hurt would-be Goners, it doesn't work, and simply passes through them. however, if you use the Unreal Knife on characters that would make it into Undertale, it is possible to kill them. they turn grey, hang in the air chopped in two as if they were in a vacuum, and then fade out of reality. it is not actually required to kill anybody with the Unreal Knife to help Gaster; this pretty much just exists for lore purposes to show what the Unreal Knife "is". as you go through the Underground, there are a few characters who wonder about the Real Knife and where it went. at first this sounds like just a reference to the original edgy rumors, but later you start to realize that it's because the Real Knife is an anti-Goner on this timeline. near the end you actually take the Unreal Knife and destroy the Real Knife.
the timeline of this story is a bit odd because it reads like Frisk went back in time through mysterious means and now exists in the time very shortly after Chara died, even though Frisk fell into the mountain at the same time. after that moment, time just got messed up and left them in a weird flashback world.
the 'leader' of this area is a large ceratopsian-style skeleton called Antiqua. Antiqua is a librarian who seems to protect their library area like some kind of book dragon or library sentry; other monsters, skeletons or not, seem to flock to this library as a place they feel safe.
at the library region you can choose to help Antiqua fight off a cascade of falling rocks. if you do nothing, Antiqua and several other skeleton monsters trying to help will be crushed. however, a little while later some of the dust of the fallen skeletons transforms into two medium-sized puppies. some of the monsters remaining at the library explain that the deal with undead monsters such as ghosts and skeletons is that when they die they spawn organic monsters and when organic monsters die they spawn undead monsters. this is not the only time monsters are born, but it is how monster dust returns to the ecosystem. much later, the two dogs go on to become part of Endogeny when they die. this means that specific Amalgamate could not exist on this timeline. if you save the skeletons it is a bit harder, you have to persuade them not to go into the rock slide even though they are worried, and then you have to persuade Antiqua to stop trying to get the rare stone or something they were trying to get in there, as well as not to stay in there to stop the rocks and protect the skeletons. Antiqua possibly gets mad because they think if they let you take over you will fail and the skeletons will all die. but should you succeed, all of them love you for it. as it turns out, the Unreal Knife is quite good at slashing apart the rocks, although to hit them you would need to press the button fast something like the yellow soul mode where the soul shoots at things.
Antiqua: skeletons are weird. it's like all of us are connected. we are all just these things articulated into one bigger thing. like... like... oh, you know...... a constellation, maybe?
1. there are bluish bird monsters that appear to be the ancestors of both Berdly and Martlet 2. bats are nothing more than weird birds [in some ancient languages] 3. bats and birds are probably a single grouping of monsters called birbats
I have such a beautifully terrible idea
what if there was a puzzle where you literally had to walk through a maze of nothing but birbats, or you had to dodge swarms of birbats in a bullet hell section yeah here's how it goes: Frisk walks into the birbat domain. there is a brief sequence of either the player or even literally the characters being like 'oh god i cannot go one pixel without running into a birbat' and it is absurd, it's like, you literally go one pixel and get another one, this happens about three times and then the game lets up on you and represents the scene as a bunch of them on the map at once like a single very long attack pattern the birbats are somewhat the comedy characters of this adventure; average ones are presented as this inherently funny thing that nobody could take seriously. but not all of them are like that. "Grandma Berdly" is at the very least a much more conceptual and serious joke if not just in the tier of characters that is as serious as the Undertale universe typically gets.
given that all six of the 'challengers' have some secret aspect about them that extends to their grouping as a whole, birbats definitely have a secret too. the obvious thought is like, nobody knows them for their individuality, they just think of them as funny 1 HP monsters tasked with clogging up caves, but the birbats have dreams too. it's already true that only a small portion of them become skilled at something but all of them would like to be free
Snowdrake may secretly be classified as a birbat. I mean, 'Snowy' is blue, fluffy, and full of dumb jokes. there's a pretty good case he is actually a birbat rather than a dragon
I wonder how you are supposed to properly Spare these guys when there are literally too many of them to interact with. I have no idea
some dragon: we will take them to the Meat Factory another monster is horrified it turns out the dragon just meant giving them jobs magically synthesizing meat and was not talking about devouring them
god. maybe. all the other monsters claim there was never ever a Boss quality birbat in all of monster history and there never ever will be. but this is not actually true. given enough concentrated effort, or an extended life span, it is entirely possible for there to be a Boss quality birbat. maybe this is their secret that threatens to be erased from history. there is probably some dumb ironic twist to this like when there is a Boss quality birbat they are no stronger than Undyne despite being a Boss Monster. I know I've already done that joke with the normally weak phoenixes turning into a 'challenger' but it kind of never gets old
half the times i try to visualize this character i can only see them with the 'ideal male body' of the berdly statue like they've got ridiculous abs and stuff, but half the time i just picture a small sage character with a robe and staff that doesn't look impressive at first but when you get closer you can see is clearly very experienced and staring you in the eye with no fear almost no matter which way the design looks I also weirdly think they are insecure and secretly longing to get the attention of Dr. Aster. they are absolutely crushing on the guy after he gave them life and power, and after they had a while to think about this fact, but they are really afraid he will never think they are good enough even after they have gone through a long long road of training and becoming greater. they just keep training and training to become even greater, sweat on their brow, tears in their eyes, in this vanishing hope of one day having original-gaster yeah, I think they are a smaller sage-shaped character. it just makes more sense for somebody that would be enthusiastically helping out with monster science into weird new worlds using their actual power and wisdom and having learned all these spells nobody thought were possible. and I like the weird correspondence between this character and the themes Undertale shows in The Core and The End. thinking of things like Final Froggit and Whimsalot and all that, I think the sage design makes more sense than the buff berdly-statue design.
I have actually at different times pictured any and all of the forgotten monster categories paired with original-gaster. once it was him talking to an unnamed phoenix about Communism in the best ending and once it was him with Antiqua. I don't know why this is what pops into my mind. I think it's the fact gaster has always been associated with being fused into another person, so I naturally want to put other characters beside him in various roles like Alphys anachronistically helping out with science stuff or pairing him with the challenger characters for nearly no good reason. I think that's my reasoning.
I think going through the actual personalities of each of these 'challenger' characters we really have an implication that these are "Gaster's friends". he may or may not have absorbed them into the Memoryhead specifically in order to make sure they would get rescued and get their chance to be part of the timeline instead of being Goners and getting erased forever. which.... does give an implication that Dr. Aster actually cares about people? they may be confused if he does but secretly he really wanted all of them to make it out safely, thus he either accidentally or intentionally made them very important. the other odd implication is maybe by absorbing Asgore he accidentally opened up the possibility to make sure he wasn't forgotten either. for someone who's convinced there are no more possibilities, gaster has sure been opening up a lot of possibilities.
I hate romance arcs that don't actually make sense as much as anybody, so I think if this is going to be part of the story it has to genuinely make sense challenger-birbat goes on about [REDACTED] quite a lot but it is really specific to their particular story arc, whereas should they meet up with original-gaster their story essentially becomes about new things related to the goals of the royal scientist(s) and the fate of the Underground.
Frisk: unseriously flirts with challenger-birbat challenger-birbat: turns away, rejects it rudely, and cries
some stupid pun on phoenix simurgh? simburger. that is my first thought but it is exactly stupid enough to be in Undertale
phoenix phoenix lawyer lawlight some stupid pun on the words in lawlight/law-right/lowlight like we embody the theme of justice or murder with one side of the character that's a lawyer and one side that references Death Note L 'Ell Ellwing
a truly obnoxious phoenix lawyer named Ellwing Ellwing is actually similar to Sans in having very small stats and 1 HP, which balances with their regeneration ability. ellwing is easily defeated but will always be back.
some monster: ellwing is wonderful with accidents. we had a building get hit with lava once, and ellwing got everyone out and made sure the building was all fixed up. water fell on them once and they sparked up again. no matter what happens, they are always here to clean it up.
grandma blue bird: if lawyers were actually smart, they'd abolish kings or something. no, they'd abolish all governments. that would convince me they're smart.
if simburger dies, then burgerpants is born. a truly tragic swap
after ellwing is destroyed, what very much appears to be a baby Martlet is born.
ellwing: y' know, I' been thinking. 's really the king's fault ain' it? wha' if we all gah' together in a all group-like a' ran this place on teamwork? farmers a' clerks 'n alla them eggheads 'n university. our new leaders a' bring together the will a' the monsters 'n we'd believe 'n ourselves because 'er all monste——— aaaaaaackrghhhh
somebody: phoenix monsters are really weird. every one of them has started saying weird things like this before the day they meet their end. can you imagine a world without kings? or businesses? what nonsense! skeleton: I just remembered... phoenixes had left all these really weird newspapers in the library.
if you go back to the library to find the forbidden phoenix newspapers it's like, you find them and they suddenly lose all the color on them and vanish from reality. you're not getting them.
somebody: phoenixes can survive almost anything. but if their body ever fills up completely with solid matter, like water or mud, they will be permanently destroyed. they can't afford to be too careless. that's why they're like that. somebody: phoenix monsters have about 1 HP. despite that, they are surprisingly persistent, often getting strange ideas they are going to save us all from the most hopeless times.
this is supposed to imply that the "bad memories" that ultimately led to its creation may have all been prevented, preventing it from being created. when you select "Item", you receive a single Last Dream. this is mostly for flavor because you are very close to the end of the adventure, but it's still cool. when you select "Stat", the name of the Memoryhead is now in yellow, as if after going through a whole long journey you finally get to Spare it.
I guess when you get to the end what you see is the effect your actions had on Gaster. in the best ending he didn't die. in a medium-bad ending he is like, in some awful state but not gone. he met some bad fate kind of like becoming an Amalgamate, but not that, I don't know what exactly. in the worst ending he is gone and everything turned into Undertale. this is, oddly, played up as a really sad outcome, similar to the ending of OFF or the Undertale genocide route minus the Chara scene. I don't totally know the reasoning behind why this is a sad ending but I totally know the tone of it, which is empty and melancholic as if after so many bad things happened this is one of the worst ways things could be, featuring these shades of deep grey and black over things, these empty scenes at particular times, these background sounds of permanently silenced voices and possibilities. and yet... at the same time, everything turned into Undertale. I guess it's kind of like, people are going about their lives thinking they're happy but they will never know others' misery, or something like that. it's also possible before Gaster is "gone" you see how he died, and what "creation" he fell into. it's like, the whole game featured a bunch of distressing potential accidents and all of them were leading up to this moment.
overall the whole thing feels kind of like an inverted creepypasta. like, it's a creepypasta that you can stop, but if you don't it is just a creepypasta.
Dr. Aster opens the magic door with rainbow flames below, and as this happens each "man" entering from each universe smashes together into one entity with two opposite-pointing faces, the mysteryman. the mysteryman looks confused and dismayed, and somehow swirls and rotates around in space, with the door also swirling around and collapsing behind some invisible plane until it is precisely nowhere, nowhere to be seen. somewhere in the middle of this sequence mysteryman turns grey for effect before disappearing into the spatial anomaly.
Alphys: dr. gaster!! no!!!!!! .......wait, who on earth is "dr. gaster"? that can't be right. it wasn't "gaster" that worked here. who was it? oh no. I can't-- I don't remember. something very strange is going on. we're probably in a lot of trouble. I need to...... Alphys: asgore? w.d. gaster is missing. you know, w.d. gaster, the royal scientist. what do you mean you've never heard of him? so. I know his name wasn't "gaster" but there was somebody here and he is missing and I don't remember his name! I think something has gone extremely wrong. there's.... the universe might be broken. i'm not crazy! the person that isn't gaster is-- is--..... Alphys: I don't think he believes me. I think he thinks I've just made a very big mistake.... that I did all these experiments and shattered the universe so bad I made a nonexistent person not have existed. Alphys: (depressed) ...I guess it's on me to fix this.
there are now a lot of different places with the "Gaster hallway", and they always have the door; you just have to find them by walking from room to room a lot, much like in Deltarune. when you enter the door, mysteryman is a pretty much hostile character, who has an actual presence and things to say.
mysteryman: (in wingdings with TTS voice behind it speaking the lines aloud) I AM NOT W.D. GASTER. THERE IS NO W.D. GASTER AND YOU KNOW THIS. THERE SHOULD HAVE BEEN NEGATIVE POSSIBILITY OF THIS HAPPENING. WHY?? OUR WORLD HAS KNOWN NOTHING BUT TRAGEDY, AND NOW THIS. YOU. YOU HAVE THE POWER OF DETERMINATION. BUT FOR SOME REASON YOU STOOD BY AND DID NOTHING. EVERY POSSIBILITY THAT PRESENTED ITSELF, YOU LET SLIP BY YOU AND FADE INTO NOTHING. INTO THE GREY AND LIMINAL SPACE OF NOWHERE. I CANNOT STAND PEOPLE LIKE YOU. I HAVE BEEN THROUGH THIS TWICE OVER. THE OTHERS OF ME MAY HAVE BEEN THROUGH THIS A MILLION TIMES. PERHAPS WE ARE W.D. GASTER. PERHAPS THE ONLY WAY OUT IS TO ACCEPT WHAT WE HAVE BECOME. PERHAPS WHENEVER TWO THINGS COLLIDE, SOMETHING MUST RISE ABOVE AND SOMETHING MUST BE ELIMINATED. I NEVER WANTED IT TO END LIKE THIS. I NEVER WANTED IT TO END LIKE THIS EITHER. I JUST WANTED A WAY OUT OF THE INEVITABLE. AND I JUST WANTED ALL OF US TO HAVE FREEDOM. BUT NOW THOSE POSSIBILITIES HAVE BEEN ERASED. NOW WE ARE W.D. GASTER. IF DESTRUCTION IS THE ONLY WAY TO WIN OUR FREEDOM, WE WILL TAKE IT. DOLOR IPSUM DOCET
mysteryman actually wields the Unreal Knife in battle, I guess having taken it from you by spacetime merging shenanigans when two instances of it were in the room. one of his main attacks is various weird spooky faces, which are supposed to represent attacking with Bad Memories. I feel like that is actually why the Memoryheads use spooky faces although I don't know for sure. however, when he attacks with the Unreal Knife, it has very serious consequences because it can destroy anything "real". sometimes it destroys the scenery, sometimes it destroys an item, it can kill Frisk for the moment if it hits, sometimes he actually destroys a battle interface button or slices apart the normal battle box, and he will do so until there is nothing but the Fight button. past this point, if you lose he cuts Frisk's soul in two and turns it into a Goner, basically leaving the game in a state somewhat like Undertale's Chara ending where the game stays on one screen and is practically empty. although in this case I think it's something more like a demo screen scrolling across the Underground in sepia tones while a grey broken soul sits above it only able to "observe".
if you instead persist for a long time without losing, a very unlikely friend will show up to help you. you will see some kind of speech bubble of "garbage noise", and if you use the Fight interface to hit your phone off an imaginary receiver, you can pick it up, and the Memoryhead shows up. as long as the Memoryhead is there, it will toss Bad Memories into the battle area which heal you at low HP. mysteryman cannot destroy the Bad Memories even with the Unreal Knife, as they are not a "real" object. you can do a few active interactions to take the Memoryhead to a spareable status, which are probably just grabbing green phones or something; possibly there are some references to the things you should have stopped portrayed in green, like a dissolving broken bone or a dissolving fire. when the Memoryhead is spareable, it will outright toss you a green Mercy button it stole from the game interface, although it is now directly labeled "SPARE". you actually have to move onto it and press the button to select it, but then the fight will finally end, stating "You won!" but that "You earned -666,666 EXP". mysteryman looks to be flailing or thrashing with frustration about the Memoryhead's interference. he does not understand why this happened, and it apparently is causing him some pain.
mysteryman: No!!! I am W.D. Gaster!! This is final!! Memoryhead: no, we are not. we must erase this world and begin on the next.
Frisk's phone rings like crazy, everything fades away, and you go back to the very beginning of this weird Gaster adventure. you escaped, because a piece of gaster turned on gaster and saved you.
Frisk walks into one of the random Gaster hallways somewhere and Alphys suddenly comes running in too
Alphys: wait!! you can't go in there by yourself! you're just a kid, and there is some kind of broken messed-up universe rift in there. I don't think anybody is qualified to go in there actually. but I can't just do nothing. I have to get Gaster out of there. it may not be my fault, but it's still my responsibility. I'm sure you understand.
here, "I'm sure you understand" is a nod to the concept of protagonists getting thrown into stories to fix other people's messes, as in Deltarune, this story, and to a lesser extent Undertale with its overall conflict between monsters and humans.
Frisk goes through the door, with Alphys loosely following behind. if this were Undertale you would see her actually go through this interesting movement of catching up to Frisk only every few seconds, and following Frisk through the door before the screen properly transitions. I guess there would also be a silly easter egg that if you leave the hallway, Alphys would appear in the next room too and comment on you needing more time, like that was acceptable even despite this technically being an emergency, or something like that. you get the sense Alphys is already sliding into her depressed, low-effort phase where she can only sometimes be bothered to have courage or energy, but is just not fully there yet.
aside: this story is a bit weird because it's like, it implies Alphys cares more about saving Gaster than she did about saving Undyne in Undertale. which is really strange. but I still like this a lot for some reason even if it's inexplicably different. I guess you could maybe rationalize this as Alphys not being as depressed in the past, but after more bad things happen she loses hope and doesn't have it in her to help Undyne. the Gaster incident really messed her up I guess. I guess the pressure of not being able to successfully tell anybody about it and having to handle it herself got to her. which would make her so much more of a tragic character in Undertale honestly cracktheory: Alphys is the one who put the quiche under the bench. somebody tried to give her a quiche on the way to "the abyss" and she left it there because to say no would be to have to explain herself
mysteryman: WHAT IS YOUR PURPOSE HERE? Alphys: (intimidated) We... we're here to get you out of here. mysteryman: NOBODY CAN GET US OUT OF HERE NOW. [1] Alphys: ...us? (Alphys looks around the room to make sure mysteryman is not referring to her and Frisk) mysteryman: IT IS FUTILE. NO MORE POSSIBILITIES REMAIN FOR US IN THIS WORLD, AND THAT IS HOW WE ENDED UP HERE.
Alphys: W.D. Gaster! Gaster: IF I AM W.D. GASTER, ALL HOPE IS LOST. Alphys: No! Just because you are who you are it doesn't mean you're hopeless! Alphys: ...You have always been W.D. Gaster, haven't you? Gaster: NO. THAT IS WHAT I HAVE BEEN TRYING TO TELL YOU. WHEN ALL THE POSSIBILITIES OF BOTH WORLDS WERE EXHAUSTED, WE BECAME W.D. GASTER.
Alphys: Oh, so I did have the wrong "we". You're two people?? This is going to be harder than I thought. I don't even know the other one. Gaster: Gaster, we're going to get you out of here with the power of teamwork! Both of you!
when you begin the encounter with Gaster, Alphys shows up about where the Memoryhead would show up in the worst ending, and helps you out during the fight.
Gaster: (some typical remark about how all the possibilities are gone) Alphys: No! That can't be how possibilities work! Alphys: (racking brain) there has to be.... some way you can add more possibilities.
[Anime] * You ask Gaster for anime recommendations. He tells you there are no more possibilities. * You ask Gaster his opinion on the Mew Mew series. He ignores you.
* You ask if Tsunderplane was an experiment. Gaster: NO.
* You tell Gaster about a manga series where writing people's names erases them from history. Gaster: (both faces get the Lost Soul effect for a moment) Wait.
[Pray]/[Sing] * You get down on your knees and make a wish. But nobody came. * You burst out singing the first song you can think of. But nobody came.
[Goner boss themes version] * You burst out singing the first song you can think of. Nobody came? [Dogsong version] * You burst out singing the first song you can think of. Gaster: NO! NO! NOT A POSSIBILITY!!
If you manage to call up all six Goner boss themes the Memoryhead will appear and throw you a Mercy button. You hear the phone ring briefly, Alphys freaks out that it suddenly appeared, it moves in front of her, and then it tosses in the green Spare button.
the story mostly goes the same along one of the typical accident/genocide routes, and then at the end you fight the phoenixes in a similar role to fighting Sans in Undertale. there are three phoenixes that appear beside each other, known as the "Three Ells" — Ellwing senior, Ellsburn, and Ellshriek. the gimmick is that although they only have 17 HP they keep getting back up unless you successfully kill all three of them. as well as all sorts of other dumb tricks like dodging, taking partial damage and refilling their HP such you can /see/ the bars going down and up again, etc.
the phoenix fight might be a little like the Shyren fight where if it goes on and on more monsters show up to watch. this has a bit more significance in the phoenix fight because they are legitimately difficult normally but if more monsters show up the fight will become easier, specifically if you want to Spare them and not if you are attacking. there is one attack pattern which looks like a simple phoenix head popping up from the corner and shouting this poster-heading-looking scribbled "XLBLWJ!" across a vague crowd of monsters. this is implied to be Ellshriek's ability. there are attacks which are simply flames hurled across the battle box from multiple directions. there may be a variation which is just one huge sudden bursting flame from the bottom of the box. this is implied to be Ellsburn's ability. there is one attack where the phoenixes throw a newspaper or two. these are actually meant for the crowd monsters. there is one attack where fireworks go off in the shape of the phoenix party logo - which is something like a hammer, hoe, and quill pen. multiple fireworks go off in succession and they scatter across the battle box. there may be some simple hammer, hoe, and quill attacks. the hammer is very big and comes from a random side. the hoe falls across the whole box but is blue, so you can avoid it by standing still. the quill is another fire attack that sticks in one corner and turns into a fire jet. there may be a small chance of attacks related to /other monsters/, specifically the major "Goner"/"accident"-associated monsters. for instance, there can be a skeleton attack that looks a bit like Sans' or Papyrus' but is not exactly the same, or there could be some kind of chompy jaws attack related to the "dragons" represented by Suzy or by Susie and the pizza guy.
the phoenixes have their own battle theme which at first sounds somewhat like the regular Undertale encounter music, but then turns out to be a rendition of the Internationale.
* Ellshriek accidentally burned the newspapers while attacking. Ellshriek: curses!
* Ellwing sr. is flying across dropping red flags.
* Ellshriek set up another stand of books and pamphlets.
* Ellshriek issued a world-echoing caw. [the shouting ability always accompanies this]
Ellwing sr.: barrister or barista, we'll take anybody! Ellwing sr.: spectres and pheasants unite!
Ellsburn: kings and queens are always trying to divide us, but we will never be divided.
Ellshriek: apart we may be weak, but together we form a mighty f—.... a big strong firewood bundle!
[Hum] * You hum. * The phoenixes still know this song a lot better. * Various other monsters join in. * Monsters are holding up magic fires like lighters. * The crowd is tossing socks for some reason. * There are suddenly a whole lot of phoenixes here. In fact, they might all be here. * A phoenix seems to be cawing out chords. [sixth time] * The monsters' singing fills you with determination. (At this point the battle music actually changes to the second arrangement of the song styled more like "Hopes and Dreams")
[Agitate] * You shouted at the monsters to share their grievances. * The monsters are confusedly trying to figure themselves out. * The monsters muttered something about annoying neighbors. * The monsters grumbled about disappearing shops and disappearing customers. * The monsters are choked up about kids and accidents. * The monsters cried out that they are tired of violence. * The monsters growled that after pounding out pizzas they should not be hungry. * The monsters hurled insults at the king. * The monsters cried out for freedom.
[Vote] * You improvise a couple of ballot boxes. * The phoenixes fold into a nervous heap. Ellwing sr.: Not this again. Ellsburn: They won't step down that easily. Ellshriek: hisssssss!!
[Join] * You offer to join forces.
[if you're close to Sparing] * The phoenixes flare up with vigor. Ellsburn [A]: Yes! We can finally join together the two major people groups! Ellwing sr. [A]: Monsters and humans unite! Ellsburn [B]: Yes! Our nations will fight on free and united! Ellwing sr. [B]: Surface and underground unite! Ellsburn [C]: Yes! We cannot leave the Underground sawed in two! Ellwing sr. [C]: Old home and new home unite!
[if you aren't close to Sparing] * The phoenixes flare up with fury. Ellsburn [A]: This is a party of the people, not a party of killer knife children. Ellshriek [A/B]: caaaawwwww!
[if you aren't close to Sparing, and have killed nobody] Ellsburn: This will never do. We need more monsters!
the overall flow of the phoenix fight is based on the phoenixes' "ratings". as the fight goes on, more monsters show up, and as you Act, enthusiasm goes up. there is some fairly-simple formula of monsters times enthusiasm which determines whether you are at the end of the fight, and if you get this score high enough you can Spare the phoenixes. there may be a couple of silly extra dialogue secrets like the game commenting on exactly how many book stands got put up and such.
I also feel like, there are so many unnecessary secrets in this fight that there ought to be some small reward for digging so deep into it. I think that if you get above a certain score before ending you get a persistent item similar to the Shadow Crystals in Deltarune that follows you through runs.
this persistent item appears within the phoenix route as the "Phoenix Quill" - "It's always surrounded by a magic hammer and hoe." when starting the adventure at the beginning, it appears with a glitched name - "Some piece of an avian skull. It looks to be burning with dark flames." when you first encounter a phoenix monster, it changes to "Bad Memory??" - "An avian skull burning with dark flames. You hear thundering machinery." the "Bad Memory??" can only be used inside select fights such as fights against Gaster or phoenix monsters, and gives you some highly important bonus like the ability to get back up with "but it refused" just three times per fight. It might also allow instantly sparing low-tier phoenix monsters Real Knife style.
* Your SOUL turned a slightly different shade of red.
you need an unusual weapon to kill the Three Ells, like a bucket of water/sludge or something. though even if you do not kill them, they still cannot succeed if you do not cooperate. if the fight goes on for an exceedingly long time with a low score, they will eventually give up and run away, attempting to go back home.
their home is just past the fabled Meat Factory — which is simply another out-of-the-way place in Hotland. but if you go there, you will learn about how they met their end. apparently, shortly after their failure the Three Ells were trying to organize the monsters at the Meat Factory, and this is where their accident happened. monsters in the Underground go somewhat by Digimon rules and the Meat Factory is actually a place where they ship in raw dirt and magically transform it into ethereal meat. unfortunately, monsters were busy evacuating or not listening or something, and a miscommunication at the factory resulted in phoenixes falling into large heaps of dirt and being destroyed.
when the Three Ells disappear, everyone once again only talks about monster/human conflict and panic and stuff and how they don't have any idea what the phoenixes were on about. the phoenix newspapers over at the library become "Goner tools" and vanish right before Frisk can get a good look at them, as do any other traces of the phoenix party. whatever else happens in the story continues as usual as if the phoenixes had been successfully killed.
Paul: yeah, I eat dirt. don't judge me (Paul simply leaps off the screen in a vaguely taunting way before you can do anything to him)
my thought on naming him is he is like a weird loose counterpart to The Judge ("Pablo") but by far not the same character. I also like the theory that, for no good reason, the "Paul" mentioned in the InferKit version of Deltarune is actually this random dirt-eating cat that technically lives in the Undertale universe
y'know what, I think Paul is a secret challenger too — something of a miniboss to be precise it would be so funny to have like, an enemy that has no particular constant place to appear and just, at some location randomly chosen out of a limited set of possibilities ambushes you out of nowhere. this ominous music plays and then his encounter flies up and you are thrown into the middle of an attack. it's perfectly spooky, there is a minimum of text on the screen and the battle background is missing, and there have been no narration lines, just attacks but then there is a small tonal shift as Paul leaps down and steals the Fight button, then jumps off the screen and lands back where he was without it. you have to fight him inside the battle box using the yellow Soul or something similar, although he is ridiculously evasive. in some ways he is a maximally annoying opponent. I think you can run away from Paul, given he likes to run away anyway, and in that case he will still show up in the one or two normal places he appears on the map, acting mostly with nonchalant knowledge you probably won't successfully catch him and he's probably safe. he has loose similarities to Gerson in that regard
when you get to Asgore, you see all this continue to unfold. the Three Ells show right up at the castle wall area where they come face to face with Asgore.
Ellwing: we are here to represent the people of the Underground. they do not want a war. Ellshriek: surrender the throne, and nobody gets hurt!
Asgore: Hmm. I mean... it's not like I really wanted to collect any more human souls. I'd love to spend more time gardening. But I'm not sure if you understand what you're getting yourselves into. Asgore: It's a tough world out there. Are you sure you're... ready to defend the Underground if the humans attack us? Ellsburn: we are nothing but ready. the souls of the people are all unified together to defend each other. Asgore: wow. I've never seen anything like this. okay. I guess my last question is, how do you plan to remove the b—
right about at that moment, there is a nasty interruption. you might expect that this interruption would be Flowey, given that even though this is way before Frisk he was busy messing with the interactions between killing and timelines, but it's not Flowey that appears in this case because it is strongly implied he hasn't been created yet. instead what shows up is...... our old friend the Memoryhead.
Asgore: good heavens, what is this? the Memoryhead fills the area with terrible static distortions and a few graphical glitches, before.... a strange monologue emerges out of nowhere in particular.
??????: ALL POSSIBILITIES HAVE VANISHED. DO YOU NOT UNDERSTAND? THIS IS NO LONGER A GAME OF KIDS AND PUNS AND NEWSPAPERS. THERE ARE ONLY TWO OPTIONS REMAINING, WHICH ARE CONQUEST OR EXTINCTION. ??????: EITHER JOIN US, OR PERISH. The static glitching vanishes for a moment when the voice stops speaking.
Asgore: Oh... dear. Ellshriek: Hey stupid radio man! If you make fun of us, you're gonna Paper it!
for a brief moment there is a very unsettling silence. and then, Ellshriek's form is suddenly consumed from the inside by a churning swarm of static butterflies. it happens much too fast to stop it, and then they turn grey and fade into nothing. a green healing flame is hurled onto the spot fractions of a second too late and sadly burns alone. Asgore turns toward the Memoryhead and stares it down with absolute fury, ready to fight it with all the human souls right on this very spot.
Asgore: I don't know what you are or what you want but we are not letting you win.
??????: STILL YOU DO NOT UNDERSTAND. ALL POSSIBILITIES ARE GONE. THERE IS NO HOPE. WE ARE THE ONLY THING POWERFUL ENOUGH TO SAVE THIS WORLD. YOU CAN JOIN US. OTHERWISE, OUR PATIENCE HAS RUN THIN.
with this, the Memoryhead devours Asgore into its messy Amalgamate body, and moves over to the final door, basically holding the barrier open just long enough Frisk can leave.
there could be a silly alternate ending here where you can just repeatedly walk into the Memoryhead over and over for a while and if you keep doing it, it will simply absorb you like it did Asgore, leading to a phone ringing fade and a reset.
when Frisk walks out the door, you also get a fade where everything is consumed by phone ringing. but this time, it stops for a moment and we get to see the neutral ending call.
Ellwing: 'Ello. everyone has been very busy down here. Waterfall had an arts festival. the birbats have been generously opening up bird schools everywhere. and everyone in Hotland has food now. did you know that when you put Vegetoids in new environments they turn into more powerful alternate versions? we're discovering new things every day. Ellsburn: don't think too much about the Ellshriek incident. it wasn't your fault, and it's probably best for your own health not to dwell on it. Ellwing jr.: the people a' 'otland made me the new secretary! some dragon: *h*otland. hot. land. Ellwing jr.: that's what I said, 'otl'nd. [more stuff]
Ellwing: we have been thinking about... how we are going to address the threat. none of us has any idea quite honestly. but maybe... there is something good in it? just like us. we got together all the different monsters and industries, and we became whole again. maybe the same thing applies to the threat... somehow? I'm sorry. none of us has any clue. Ellwing jr.: I know we can do it. I 'a'en't a clue 'ow, but we'll pull it off some'ow!
at the end of the call, the fade transition just kind of finishes up from its paused state and the adventure resets to the beginning.
but this dumb song edit I found of undertale themes mashed together is so messed up that I can actually imagine an ending where Flowey crashes into the Memoryhead through timeline carnage shenanigans and everything is a mess.
what happens is, Flowey goes through one of his first few resets on another timeline, then he accidentally ends up a bit too far back and "to the side", putting him inside the Gaster adventure timeline. the mechanism is loosely connected to how Frisk and Alphys got there - it's the same particular "spacetime anomaly". however.... there is another sad twist to this. normally when Flowey tries to reset, he can only reset to the moment he was created. but if he is able to reset far enough before he was created, this means he is in the time he logically should be Asriel. this does not have a straightforward result. when Flowey began the reset, everybody else on the timeline shattered into nothing, and Flowey went backward. however, on the shattered timeline, Flowey and Asriel are two different entities because they do not have the same Soul. at first Asriel had a body and a Soul, but then he died, leaving the body and Soul to disperse, while Flowey was created as a new entity from only Asriel's body. this means Asriel and Flowey have two different timelines if the timeline were to revolve around each of them, where Asriel is considered a Goner on the Flowey-can-reset timeline and Flowey is considered a Goner on the Asriel-can-reset timeline. when Flowey resets past the beginning of his own Flowey-can-reset timeline, he goes back to the middle period where there were only flowers and a dead Asriel. the wad of Determination inside him moves to the approximate location of Asriel's body, and shortly, the dust that was part of Asriel attempts to form into a different and arguably scarier Asriel Amalgamate. this looks like, I don't know, an actual shaky image of Asriel composed of flowers standing in the middle of a torn-up flower patch. possibly some of those unseen birds around the judgement hall got sucked in as well. (which may actually be birbats.) god imagine if he has a bunch of messed-up angel wings which are also flowers
"Composite-Flowey" is confused and dismayed, because this definitely did not happen the first few times. he tries to reset, and manages to knock himself back to being a wad of Determination again, but only successfully manages to get back to the beginning of the Gaster adventure timeline before the appearance of Frisk makes him unable to reset any further.
at this point on his own timeline, Composite-Flowey is integrated into this timeline, and is considered an anti-Goner relative to the Asriel from either timeline but a Goner relative to the Undertale characters that will appear later and all the long-lived "Dalvs" or "Toriels" or "Ellsburns" that were born a long time before any of the Aster-challengers existed. Composite-Flowey could technically be destroyed with the Unreal Knife if he weren't brimming with Determination that made that impossible. alternatively, he could technically slip out of the timeline into a space in-between just as Gaster did, and properly become a Goner that way. while he exists on the Gaster adventure timeline he is not "yet" a Goner, but is maybe possibly slated to be one.
some way, somehow, Gaster-as-Memoryhead ends up taking pity on Composite-Flowey and deciding he is just as good as any of the Aster-challengers and deserves to be saved. this should be a good thing, being one of the nicest things Gaster/Memoryhead has done. but Composite-Flowey is just really bitter that first he lived in an unfair world and then some other weird drippy abomination of greater power is trying to absorb him.
Memoryhead: COME JOIN THE FUN Composite-Flowey: No. no!! Get out of here! Memoryhead: IT'S A REAL GET-TOGETHER Composite-Flowey: shut—! ssss—! get out!! (Compound-Flowey snaps and looks insane with rage like he is going to rip this thing in two somehow) Memoryhead: (sliding off the screen) OK, YOU CAN COME BACK NEXT TIME
I do not fully understand the process of this but I do know that moment of hurt over being betrayed by Chara has come bubbling back up in some way. for reasons I don't yet know he is really mad at Gaster as if that were who hurt him or something. it isn't the case that original-Gaster did anything to him; it's only Alphys that would have created him. but he is taking it out on Gaster anyway. the reason is something vaguely like either the fact that Aster slipped out of the timeline and "abandoned" everybody in a manner of speaking — that's not quite what it is — or the perception that Gaster being able to just decide (even subliminally) that there is a perfect way he'd like things to be and simply be able to keep persisting until he actually gets what he wants while Flowey will never be able to have that and is furiously jealous.
Asgore: Hmm. I mean... it's not like I really wanted to collect any more human souls. ... okay. I guess my last question is, how do you plan to remove the b—
right about at that moment, Flowey pops out of the castle and strikes apart Asgore with a swirling gust of seed-bullets, more or less as usual. the only weird thing is that this is implied to have happened about 90-100 years earlier than it does in Undertale — so, basically during the time Flowey was busy experimenting and resetting, and still may have been doing this anyway.
Flowey: Really? you idiots think Communism can save us?? Ellwing sr.: Of course! Flowey: Shut up!
Flowey: Nothing. Matters!
Alphys comes running into the room as fast as she can
Alphys: Aster! There's!! There's a man from another world!! Aster: What?
The door opens and "Wingding" is on the other side
W.D. and Aster worked together to create an inter-universe congress to make sure that no universes or timelines ever had to band together to destroy each other again. (there is literally a logo of two hands joined with two starry cosmos shapes behind and a determination star. there is also a phoenix monster at the table. those are probably so small the phoenix is just perched on it) how the monsters from all universes would defeat the humans and other such threats to peace... that was less certain.
AU Alphys, who looks much more impressive like she is clearly "The" royal scientist and not as insecure as the other one: it's amazing what science has already been able to do for us. there has to be some way.
because Gaster created and understood the DT extractor he managed to get his hands on enough DT to keep doing his experiments until they succeeded, while Alphys never actually had that option and assumed things went badly for her because she was a screw-up. Gaster was the first monster to take control of DT, then Flowey had it, then the human children had it. fans think Alphys was a "fraud" and paled in comparison to Gaster, but actually Gaster was the one who fooled everyone while Alphys had to prevail through to the end of the experiment with nothing but persistence. gaster never created a vessel that could hold one giant store of soul power. Alphys kind of ultimately did do that, when Asriel was able to take the souls. Alphys really did do something Gaster was not able to do, even if it was largely by accident.
but I didn't entirely know what to do with them. one of my first thoughts was they were ruthless capitalists that were running things wastefully creating redundant tiny businesses and treating all territory as just an item, leading even a lot of dragons to go hungry. that was maybe a little too grim. then I tried to conceptualize them as landlords gouging people for rent and it worked a bit better but I still wasn't getting a lot of ideas
so today I thought of the idea, what if a dragon monster was a football player. that way you go through the concept of them violently smashing into each other over something with very little reason, and it's perfectly inscrutable. many people don't understand sports.
the dragons live far below Hotland in an area which wraps around to being cold again, called Unarctica. there are vague connotations of this being The Divine Comedy. it's dark, with stars on the ceiling, but unlike Waterfall there are a lot of warmer colors. the ground is tundra -- a pretty yellow-orange with patches of deep pink-red moss and in-between areas of frozen river or bog. it's quite a pretty area, a bit like a waterlogged maple tree, and a nice mirror to Hotland. but there are some slightly twisted things about it. you sometimes get the feeling that the pretty exterior conceals people suffering. the monsters in this area are often animal-like, including foxes, caribou, wolves, penguins that look oddly like poofy plush toys, tern-people, yaks, swans, beavers, a snowy owl or two, a "demigriff" (mostly cat), a Yutyrannus, and a number of things which are less like animals. there's like, a druid character who is just a snow fae wearing a glorified fursuit. a winged elf knight vaguely evoking a gloomy angel. kobolds. a wyvern. a land orca with ears and hoof-toes. lightning crows. frosty ghost-orbs. a skeleton encased in ice who likes it better that way. these kinds of things. I probably listed enough things to populate the whole area honestly. there are open tundra areas. there are wooded taiga areas, though they're small. there is a town which lies between a cleared-out taiga area and a frozen bay. the town feels a tiny bit desolate and listless, like nobody really puts in great effort and nobody knows why they're here. but more of the monsters in it seem to like it and think of it as their own than not. there's also a funny phenomenon of sports stadiums just kind of being in the middle of nowhere, awkwardly far from the town. it's called Unarctica as a pun on "Unalaska" but also "Antarctica", being kind of like a dark mirror to Snowdin.
the dragon has the "coldly-fiery" tundra palette. she is a woman but due to the androgynous look of many dragons she is totally mistakable for a man — this is the trope of a nonhuman or reptile woman character having basically a man build. she is totally into this area's sport of combat football where people will pile over each other and semi-literally fight to take the ball. she grins great big about it after saying slightly gruesome and terrifying things. nobody messes with her; some monsters are afraid to get too close. then again there are also reindeer or fox monsters, etc, that love watching football and basically look up to her. she can eat a whole lot. it's the Goku thing of real or fictional sports players having a high metabolism and scarfing down all the food. this is probably what Kris remembers in the Deltarune world. poking around some diner and this football dragon has stacks and stacks of everything. her name is Lake. she gets a little heat for that name when people are feeling foolhardy but it's in reference to the Lake of Lament at the very bottom of Unarctica.
there is a Fun event down here where Chester appears. yeah, I'm serious about this. he exists, but he's solely an Undertale character and doesn't exist in Deltarune. he appears sitting in the bleachers of an ice hockey rink while nobody else is there. this liminal space which is totally empty when he doesn't appear, but even when he's there evokes a weird feeling of dreading that it will be forever empty and he's just stuck there by himself. Chester: I've been waiting and waiting here, but the hockey match never started. Chester: Now all I can do is think about things. Chester: The former royal scientist... is he living on in some kind of tortured state? Knowing the universe will end, staring into the end of time? Chester: I have no idea. I'm just some dude. Chester: Still waiting for that doggone hockey match. he first appears to be a regular character, but after you talk to him there is a tiny "shffft" noise, and he turns grayscale, although nothing else changes. he disappears only after you go to another room.
partly overlapping with Chester's Fun values is an event where Carol finally shows up. she was there all along, but specifically in one of the furthest, most ominous places in the Underground. Carol is not a Goner; the Fun value mechanic is just used to imply that she's grumpy enough to be reclusive and thus is hard to find. she might turn up in about two or three different places. Carol is... weirdly unhelpful. if she shows up in an open tundra area, she comments that the nearby taiga area is tackily blocking the view and somebody ought to chop down the trashy cottonwood trees. if she shows up in the tundra town, then she's upset about people thinking the Lake of Lament is a good tourist destination. she can also show up next to the Lake of Lament, although Noelle will just show up in one of the other places in that case.
Noelle lives down here too. on whatever half or so of Fun values where Carol shows up "sometimes", she shows up always. the Noelle on the stream was actually just visiting Snowdin with Berdly and Jockington so they could go meet Gyftrot.
Noelle is considered important enough to actually get an encounter, more on the level of someone like Snowdrake and Chilldrake than a "main challenger". you get this very messed-up opportunity to just slay Noelle. she is not hiding on a Genocide save, even though Carol will be absent. it's very sad, there is this very fatalistic tone that Noelle somehow knows that death is not something she can run from and it would be more painful to be hidden and afraid, so she just has to face it. her battle box is a mildly challenging diagonal blizzard pattern that looks way harder than it is, but where you actually can just stay in one spot and watch the pretty animation with snow piling at the bottom. she will likely take about one or two hits depending on if you're doing a no-equipment challenge; she's surprisingly tough, and yet still a child. her dialogue is a little mysterious. without saying the name, she seems to be implying she knows who Chara is, and is disappointed but unsurprised they "never came back", because it was evident they "must have a deep empty void inside of them". she dies in about the bravest way any ordinary monster ever did, gazing into the horizon hardly looking fazed as she dissolves into the night.
of course, on a Pacifist save the Noelle encounter is a lot brighter. she is rather shy; this is the smaller Noelle after all. one Act is to tell her a "Secret", which is implied to be basically your favorite videogame rumor. she has varying responses, sometimes not believing them but sometimes being impressed. one Act is "Knife". this Act shocks the hell out of her but it doesn't do her any harm. if you already did one of the other Acts she will shortly calm down and be like 'why are you like this, I should have known you'd do that'. the Spare value will actually go up a tiny bit. the third Act is "Hope". when you do this, Noelle will give more utterly cryptic remarks that "I know, I just need to hold out a little longer". Sparing Noelle is not really a difficult puzzle as much as it is a highly loaded Deltarune lore drop.
if you attack Noelle on any save that's at least neutral, she will change to a really terrified pose and take the hit, then propping herself up from the ground looking quite wounded, she will simply say,
Noelle: [forlorn] Chara... you don't have to make it this way. go— go to the void... find—...
this is one of the single most loaded things she says. by "make", she is literally meaning to imply that Chara or Kris created the Underground, although it's easy to plausibly deny she is just talking about "making" things terrible though cruel actions. and by "find", she is literally suggesting that Kris go locate Gaster so he can repair the Underground and/or Kris' psyche. being so young, she doesn't totally understand how somebody else having the power to save and load is possible, and she kind of just thinks Gaster custom-builds all the timelines. but the one thing she does know is that a certain missing person she has been searching for is out there and can help the two of them if Kris only finds him.
the Lake of Lament is simply waiting below a regular tundra area, down this very ominous huge flight of shadowed stairs. the area around it is very normal, open and calm if just a little bit emotionally empty and dry. the stairs have a concrete border around them like any normal set of stairs into an underground stadium or going down a hill into a building. but the shadowing within them is just plain freaky.
as you go down the stairs they at first look normal like a subway or such but then they simply get darker and darker until you're at the bottom, and everything is darkness with lighter highlights and outlines. the lake is just there, visible only in its highlights and looking perfectly eerie.
there are mostly just objects here, with unclear history. there is a paper recycling bin full of scribbled-over pages, and you can throw them into the lake "as an offering". there is a sink inside an alcove, which is claimed to be there because "to drink from the lake" or "to wade into its depths" is a terrible idea.
Carol can appear here just sort of standing around rendered in shadow and making the place a hair more ominous. she appears vaguely upset about the lake, but serious and level in tone. she says something like, so many people have tried to get to the bottom of this lake, but they always inevitably drown, or freeze, or find nothing. she leaves open the possibility there's something good at the bottom of the lake but wants you to know the lake has nothing good about it.
you never actually get an answer to what is going on with Carol and Noelle and the lake "within Undertale itself", only if you rescue the six goner characters in the storyline of REDACTEDTale.
Lightning Crow: Aurora borealis, at this time of year, localized in your kitchen? you bet. Lightning Crow: I make a mean burger. Lightning Crow: Magnets, how do they work??
Kobold: The Bears will win!
Kobold: Yeah petrels! Kobold: The Petrels still have a chance, come on.
Dan: I try my best, but I never seem to get anywhere. oh... Dan: ever watched a kaiju show? Dan: I am not working overtime.
as you first enter Unarctica, one of the first "difficult" encounters you run into are the royal knights Harfang and Uncial. Harfang is a regular-sized owlbear monster with the most metal name I've ever heard for a normal owl, Uncial is a giant snow leopard looking thing. these two are "serious business", all "lord of the rings" about things. Uncial speaks in uncial script only occasionally, being the only font monster besides maybe Antiqua that actually has style and isn't trying to be annoying.
Harfang and Uncial are relatively persistent, like Undyne, and will just about fight you to the death, but there are a few funny little things you can do to break it up, like flirt with one of them. Uncial: [looking away flustered] A horse show...? But there's no way they'd let me in. Harfang: [flustered] A race...? Oh, no, there's a lot of dexterity in that...
as the encounter goes on Harfang steps off her mount and the two are just fighting side by side, slowly reaching the end of their wits but still pushing on. if the encounter is going well, Lake will appear in the middle of them and break it up, inviting you into the tundra town. when they see Lake, Harfang and Uncial drop their serious exterior and step away looking a bit afraid.
Carol only showing up on the Genocide route. to absolutely destroy you Harfang and Uncial are going to be a nightmare on their own. but then Carol steps out from between them telling them to "not waste their energy", absolutely done with all this. she does wield a sword. she's pretty terrifying. Carol: You mean to tell me we let a human get all the way to Unarctica?? What kind of numbskulls do we have guarding this place?
this does make the Noelle encounter make more sense. Carol already tried to protect her, and she knows there's no hope after that
Footnotes
- ↑ "nobody can get us out": I wasn't even trying to do it but I like how this is accidentally a reference to Uboa and how once you get into their room you are somewhat trapped in there. that's very fitting for Gaster.