Coded to reality

by Anonymous

Summary:

A player from our world tries to get his best ending by inserting himself into the game, no matter what. An Underplayer fanfic.

(I saw there be exactly 3 Underplayer fics and so wrote this. Very self-indulgent.)
(If you want to read the original comic, https://archive.org/details/underplayer)
(No knowledge of the comic needed to read)

Chapter 1: Getting started

I wasn’t expecting this to work, but it did. On the screen was a world, shining like a star, evidence of the link I created. It’s poorly done, I can see parts that are inefficient or sections hacked off due to overflow errors. But for a first try it was better than expected.

This was the result of several months of effort: hunting down stray rumors, studying, coding, and applying abstract logic to metaphysical concepts.

How do you code a soul?

How do you use magic in a world that lacks it?

How do you access worlds lesser than yours? One that is a sheet of paper compared to your own?

Intent and determination.

Or at least, from what I gathered.

To sink to the borders of existence and find the soap bubbles that inhabit it, to access false worlds far enough from reality to exist, close enough to not scumble to nonexistence. Where the laws of reality have bent and frayed.

I glanced warily at the increasing number of errors, unfortunately, the hacked-off sections were necessary, and it only stopped the flow at the cost of an increased amount later. It wouldn’t do, but for now I looked ahead of me. Through a screen as a being with no body there was a world. One of magic and monsters, hopes and dreams, connections branching off to other players, a mere shadow of what I’ve achieved.

A world with characters that I grew to love and befriend. And to that I will get a perfect ending, for all of us.

.....

Months passed, and the work continued.

The first thing I did was secure the connection, after all if I couldn’t stay forever, what use was everything else? Firewalls were set up, repair programs prowled, intent mixed with code making an unattackable fortress. At the cost of bloat, but I already deleted everything unnecessary on my computer a while ago.

With that done I made a vessel. Technically, rather scraped bits from existing models.

There was a weird blip in the code... space... void. The place between worlds, between this world and countless others I can see in the distance. Upon investigation it was hundreds of grey bodies floating around, each different from the other.

No marks, no comments in the code, nothing to indicate who created them or their purpose. So I took them all, originally intending to use them as a player character, a vessel if you will.

Attempts to use them were quickly abandoned as they didn’t have a face. And where too tall, it was weird being five foot five even behind a screen. And a whole host of other problems, including the fact that they were weird magic-puppet thingies lacking organs. There was just a whole lot of nothingness inside.

They looked like they were meant for a player, but if they disconnected for any reason it would rapidly decay.

Despite all that, they had a few properties I liked, so I used them as a base.

Shrank one I liked down to 4’0, added internals from copying code from Frisk and Chara, same with the face. To smooth things over and make it stronger I added code from every monster I could find. Lastly, I, attempted; to change the color to something more human.

Human skin color isn’t the same all over?

I kept the grey skin color. I can say it’s a skin condition. Frisk is yellow so grey would be normal, right? It’s not the weirdest thing given that Tssundree Plane exists. Haha. Uh...

I ended up just changing the colors to something that didn’t strain my eyes. Grey skin, red hair, black clothing but the stripes are red. Red blush (?) thing from Chara, changed everything else to red and black stuff, and oh! Made the shirt much longer, hanging down to about short length at an outward facing angle. Since magic exists here, I can make it stay at a certain distance and not look like an oversized t-shirt.

.....

More time passed, and I approached working on the final thing, the soul. The halfway point of no return, to put the essence that made up me through the connection.

I double-checked everything. The vessel, the connection, watching over the world and ongoing runs while making a plan. I made more programs, more upgrades. To the point where I had to think of new things to code.

I don’t think I was stalling, at least I think? There was no reason to. Nobody would miss me, maybe my mom...? Or the people at the grocery store- no they looked at me weird, pity? Or that one person who helped me with this idea in the first place online, but we haven’t talked in a few... months. She seemed to be busy with something, wouldn’t say what.

That’s two, or maybe five. No one would notice or care enough. No one would shed a tear.

...I decided to do it on my birthday, as a present to myself. I would need to get supplies though, food, water, snacks, and most importantly memes.

.....

To: LeiattaAT2

Thank you for the help, your advice has been very helpful. I am starting up the connection halfway. Unless something goes wrong I plan to update you one more time.

With that message done, I began tying up my one loose thread. There is now no reason for people to bother me when I finally do it. A perfect plan.

Beforehand, I made sure I got enough sleep, ate, and drank. Preparations in case what I think would happen happened. With that done, I began.

On the screen was my future body, crafted to the exact specifications I wanted. An anchor, I then fired up the programs I created and pulled.

My view behind the screen shifted. The colors seemed a bit more grey, the world seemed out of focus. Can’t feel the pressure of the seat, the presses of the keyboard. Can’t hear the soft clicking of the mouse, or the rustling of air. The air now smelled of nothing. Everything felt lesser.

And something was gained.

Me, still behind the screen, and myself, now a dark blotch in the void of stars. The vessel snapped, couldn’t handle something that may as well be infinity, a being far beyond its current plane of existence.

I wanted another vessel, and a copy of it appeared. Then I sliced off a bit of myself, a slice of a slice of something that approached infinity to put inside it. Inside that I put the rest of myself, a pocket dimension which housed the rest of my being.

I paused to marvel at this as I saw from its eyes, at this entire thing and my new existence partially here. Everything was smoother, free from the limitations of a keyboard and screen. I could view the entire program at once, a perspective from above, seeing everything running simultaneously at the speed of thought. Shackles I didn’t know existed seemed to melt away, and the part of me still behind the screen felt utterly lacking.

A blank red soul was created and I looked into it. The code that made it up, its attributes (determination), what it wanted (nothing, it was a blank), it had a recurve property that I could spend days looking at.

I put the soul inside the piece of myself, and the darkness adapted shaping into a larger heart around it. Honestly it looked pretty cool. It was like a halo, so I kept it. I wasn't passing for a human anyway so it really didn’t matter.

I created a mirror and looked at myself. I liked it.

With all that done, I looked at the world and smiled, not due to joy, but because I had done it. Splitting myself in two across realities, it was time to finally visit the world in person and get that happy ending.

Our happy ending.

 

Chapter 2: Falling down

Summary:

The Player enters his friends' world for the first time

I entered the world, forcing a reset and jumping back one month before Frisk fell.

While I did expect to fall into the underground, I didn’t expect to fall into a bed of yellow flowers at terminal velocity, ending with a me-shaped hole in the flowers.

Despite not feeling it, I got up and dusted off the dirt, thankful that Flowey wasn’t there to witness it. It would have made the next part harder.

I hummed a soft tune as I walked over to where he was. Just a regular human child. No need to be suspicious. Don’t pay attention to the skin color.

Flowey was there like normal, having a grin on his face hoping to get some unlucky soul.

“Howdy! Hi Human! I’m Flowey, Flowey the Flower! You're new to the underground, aren't you?” He winked, and there were actual particles with the action “You must be sooo confused-” I grabbed his stem “HEY WHAT ARE YOU-” and gave him memories of past timelines, other players who connected while I was gone.

He immediately closed his eyes and shrank into himself, begging Chara not to kill him while trying to defend a blow that wasn’t coming.

I used the opportunity to put him into a pot and pick him up.

Being soulless and all Flowey recovered within a few seconds, before looking around confused, then at me. We both stared at each other with empty looks.

He then equipped his ‘I’m gonna murder someone’ face “Human.” Vines erupted out of the pot, turning sharp and pointing at me. “What did you just do to me?”

I copied his expression and put it on my own. “If you dare talk to me like that again I will rip your petals apart one by one then turn them into tea.”

He instantly recoiled and backed down.

“Don’t use my own face l-like that!”

Heh, for someone who has to deal with Frisk every run he really doesn't know how to handle a change in script.

“I restored most of your memories from previous timelines, seems like it worked.”

“Eh...?”

I made my way forward and used the save point. This snapped him back to attention.

“What...” he was at a loss for words. “What are you? What do you want?!” But instinct prevailed. He was already trying to figure out how to use me, sorry Flowey but I’m the one doing that here.

“I’m not Frisk, or Chara. Or really, anyone of this world.” I saw Toriel coming. “Call me... Player.”

.....

Wow she was tall. Tall. Capital T Tall.

“My child! Did you fall down? Are you hurt?”

I lifted Flowey. “I made a friend!”

Flowey looked down and started mumbling threats under his breath.

....

Toriel accepted that Flowey and I were friends despite him looking like he wanted to stab me.

I simply said we bonded over the shared experience of playing a video game. A 2015 2D role-playing video game created by American indie developer Toby Fox- techoblable which went over her head but Flowey got, though she did give me a weird look.

“So what the hell are you trying to do? Trying to get your fake happy ending? Or wipe out this entire world for good?”

Toriel had left me to get groceries, so Flowey was, of course, using this opportunity to gather information, something new. I don’t think he realized it was making this easier on me. With all the angry yelling he was doing I haven’t had a single encounter yet.

“...”

“Don’t tell me you did all that! And don’t think if you made me remember it would change anything!”

“I want to be everyone's friend. Everyone's genuine friend.”

I could already imagine his thoughts. ‘Oh great another idiot.’ ‘This person is an extra idiot.’ ‘I don’t think I can win against this stupid dumb idiot.’ ‘Oh my god I’m being carried by an idiot. An extra idiot stupid dumb idiot.’

“I want a real perfect ending.”

“Uh-huh. Sure. Whatever allows you to sleep at night.” Jokes on him I’m not even sure if I need sleep still.

I continued forward, participating in all the usual events. Calling Toriel, taking two pieces of monster candy, talking with the frogs,

“Ribbit, ribbit (You are very brave human).”

“Thank you.”

“Ribbit, ribbit. Ribbit ribbit, ribbit. (You are very kind to put up with him.)” He handed me some gold.

“Oh shut-” I looked at Flowey “mmph”.

I didn’t have enough gold to buy the spider cider and donut, but I could give more to myself. So I did that.

I had half a mind to explore, messing around with the leaves, puzzles, those water streams, seeing the rest of the city, but Flowey would bite me if I did. After I did my perfect ending I could always just come back.

So I went straight to Tori's house with nothing of note happening. Everything was on a similar track to a normal player run, including a pie getting burned. And getting a certain someone's bed.

“That is my bed.”

“Toriel said it was mine. You don’t even need a bed.”

“Do you even need to sleep!?”

I shrugged much to his annoyance.

“Toriel is going to tell Sans some things about me. To make things easier I will be spending the night here.” He looked like he wanted to do other things while I was asleep.

I equipped one of his Omega Flowey faces, “If you dare run away I will find you no matter where you hide.”

“S-stop using my own face to scare me!”

If it works why stop? Well, I could try using Jerry's.

Or Burgerpants’.

.....

There was no cutscene or scene transition, which meant I actually had to sleep the entire night. So I did, or at least the equivalent. The part of me down there didn’t need such things as sleep, for now it simply faked it. The part of me still in my frail body, unfortunately, still needed to be maintained. Drank, ate, bathroom, couldn’t fall asleep, stared at the computer, mind wandering while I waited...

And waited...

Kept waiting...

The stars were rather beautiful tonight, or at least the two still able to be seen.

After a few hours Flowey woke up, looking around before starting a battle, making my soul float out of my form. He brought a vine over to it, making it turn sharp before pausing and retreating back into his pot as he fired off a check. He then ended the fight.

He whispered under his breath, but I could still hear what he was saying.

“I don’t get it, all that power and for what? It’s kill or be killed, he’ll try and fail, again and again. There’s no happy ending for me. Well, at least this run will be interesting.”

For someone so bent on their soullessness, he sure feels things.

I teleported over to him and lightly poked him, trying to get his attention. Only he began screaming and attempted to stab me with a vine. It didn’t work and it pushed him off the nightstand he was on, landing on the floor shattering the pot.

“WAH- WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU?!!?!?”

I blinked at him, not really getting it. Were my eyes glowing or something? His screaming slowly petered out and he looked at me with a very annoyed expression.

A few seconds later Toriel came in and turned on the light. She immediately focused on us and the mess on the floor.

“Are you two alright?”

I nodded while Flowey scowled.

“I got up, he didn’t notice me.”

“Ah. Now please step away from the debris. I will get another pot for your friend Flowey.”

.....

I got out of bed at the same time Frisk did, something I saw while observing other Players. The perfect time to catch all the chaos of the underground or specific characters.

“Toriel?”

“Yes, my child?”

I hugged her. It should have felt... something but there was nothing. A Shame.

“Oh! Alright, child. There is no need to ask me for a hug. If you want one, then do so.”

I left the hug “Thank you, Toriel...” As much as I didn’t want to, I had to go. “But I have a few things that need to be done. I’m sorry I can’t stay with you. I will be back, don’t worry.”

One of her hands reached out but I had already left, teleporting to pick up Flowey then to the ruins exit.

“Wow. And I thought I was heartless.”

I didn’t give him a response.

 

Chapter 3: First attempt

Summary:

Player tries his first plan.

Everything was crisp compared to my behind the screen view. I can see the trees stretching above, the purple of the ruins clashing with the blue, and the snow having just the right amount of poofiness. Not enough to sink down but enough to lightly press and leave an imprint. I could wear sandals and still avoid the snow. Would also make for good snowballs. Or at least I would think, never encountered snow before.

Sans didn’t bother trying to be a troll on the way, when I got to the first ‘trap’ he teleported behind me.

“Human.”

I turned around and grabbed his hand. There was no punchline. Which, fair considering I was holding his least favorite tea plant.

His eyesockets went dark.

“See normally I do this joke, but you already turned around and shook my hand. Seems like your friend there really needs to double check his info.”

Ah. He thought Flowey was manipulating me. Rather than trying to explain I gave him his memories. The same thing that I did to Flowey.

A pause as his mind caught up to his soul, then he immediately tried to vaporise me by summoning a charged gaster blaster.

“WAHHHH-”

I translated my position by 180 degrees with respect to him.

“-AAHHH-”

It didn’t matter as a certain flower was still screaming. My soul turned blue and Sans attempted to throw back to the ruins along with a bunch of bones.

“-AAAHH-”

I teleported under the bridge thing ahead, landing against the wall and using the shifted gravity to keep me upright.

“-AAAAA-”

It was impressive how long Flowey could scream for.

“-Aaaaaaa... aaa... SCREW YOU SMILEY TRASHBAG! I WILL PAY OFF YOUR TAB AND BUY OUT ALL THE KETUPS FROM GRILLBIES!” he turned to face me “AND YOU! PICK A BETTER HIDING SPOT! YOU CAN TELEPORT!!!”

By the end of his little rant Sans had recovered and was now looking over the ledge at us. A bit winded, but not from physical exertion. Rather from, you know, having memories of everyone he knew dying and then himself. Multiple times.

“Uh...”

I teleported upwards, spooking him a little.

“I didn't ask for your permission making you remember all that. I apologize. Are you calm now?”

“Well... uh. Maybe don’t teleport right next to people?” There was mumbling from Flowey “A bit rattled, but, uh, yes.”

“We need to talk about some things. Could we go somewhere else? Papyrus is on his way no doubt, he shouldn't be burdened with some of them."

“I know a place. Follow me, I know a-” was he actually? “-shortcut” he did. Even with an over the top emphasis and wink. It wasn’t even a pun...

Without further fanfare we were somewhere else. A yellow hallway adorned with stained glass windows. Columns lined the edges and the floor had a checkerboard pattern. The judgment hall. I mean it was isolated, but, really?

“Why here of all places?”

“Well kid, it takes a real effort to get under my skin, so it seemed appropriate. I have a lot of questions for ya.”

Flowey looked like he wanted to run but also stay and watch the resulting incident.

I sighed, “Straight forward then.”

“I glanced over the memories you gave me, and tell me if this sounds right. An extraneous entity from beyond time and space. Seemingly able to alter the timeline at will. Does this through a human with a determined soul. Has wiped out the underground multiple times, presumably gaining a lot of exp and LV”

My soul was exposed as he pulled me into a battle, and I saw a check go off. Flowey was being smug like he expected this, while a bead of sweat went down Sans’s skull.

I fired off my own check.

Player

[9̵9̵9̶.̴.̷.̴] ATK [9̵9̵9̶.̴.̷.̴] DEF [9̵9̵9̶.̴.̷.̴] LV

Wants to be everyone's friend.

The brightest star in the sky.

Knows that the brightest stars burn out the fastest.

And at the end of their lifetime, dying stars outshine entire galaxies... even for just a moment. Which is what I need, that raw power to be able to descend here fully.

All my stats were glitched out as a repeating number of nines. Even the LV stat for some reason. Checking further revealed that all my other ones were of similar state.

“I knew something was off when I first saw you, never mind the Flower. And uh well.”

“I promise you. I can explain-”

“You know I’m only here for one thing,” judgment, “and despite how you're acting, heh. Decided not to be a lazy bone this time and get to it.”

Several blasters formed in a circle around me, all charging ready to fire.

Cue screaming from Flowey.

I threw him up as they fired, white beams overpowering the natural yellow of the hall. Even with all the LV I apparently had, the karma didn’t put a dent in my health. Flowey then landed right back in my arms, still screaming.

Sans shrugged, “...Well I tried. I did my job. I’m not the one to keep trying useless actions, so mind actually explaining?” This skeleton.

“You're just lazy.”

“Guilty as charged. So.”

I set Flowey on the ground.

“So, you are right. Yes I did control Frisk. Yes I stopped this world from keeping its happy ending. Yes I let everyone's effort go to waste. Yes I didn’t do anything about other beings like myself. Yes, I am of similar nature to what you just said.”

“Not... helping your case here.” For some reason Sans was backing up.

Afraid?

“So in my world, we see this as a game. We use a window as a medium of connection, same for Frisk as a vessel for our will. The process of this is simply, playing. Entertainment. A way to pass time for us.” Flowey looked like he wanted to say something, but held back.

“This world is a bunch of playthings to you?”

“As you can see-” I gestured to myself, and flailed as some sort of black goof came off my face.

“snerk.” not the time for this Flowey.

“As YoU CaN SeE that is not the case. My soul, or at least part of it, is here. Physically. You can see it.”

“That's uh...”

“I suppose to make it recognizable, in another ending you called me a ‘Dirty Hacker’. I broke the script. I broke the window. Part of me is here.”

“In other words he’s a crazy ido-” I hit Flowey with a friendliness pellet.

“I just want to be everyone's friend. That’s why I’m doing all of this.”

“If you say so,” he didn't look convinced. Was it that hard? I just wanted a true perfect ending for my friends! “Then what’s with you LV?”

“I’m... not sure. This was the first time seeing my actual stats." He gave me a weird look “I just got here yesterday, didn't get in any battles as Flowey scared off everyone. As far as I know this is the only time this has happened, a player like myself descending a part of themselves permanently. It could be a bug with the link I created, if it bothers you that much I can set it to a lower value.”

“You can do that?” he raised an... eye? Eye Socket?

“It’s just a bunch of code to me. Just, here... now that I think about it I know what the problem is.”

I unveiled my soul, forcing it out of the heart shape and let it expand, a torrent of black mixed with the faintest red filling the entire room. It simply existed, not destroying not creating, it was there. Watching.

Both Flowey and Sans were shining like the barest pinpricks, a smidge of light against the endless dark.

“This darkness. It’s my soul, it’s too big to fit here.” the darkness retreated back into the normal heart form “So I... cut off a piece, and put the rest inside. As far as this world is concerned I cut off something of infinity. Infinite damage, infinite exp, resulting in Infinite LV. I did ‘hurt’ something even by technicality.”

“So what you're saying is I could have been taking a nap instead of judging you?”

“...Yes, Sans. Even if you tried, my health wouldn’t lower.”

Sans took a deep breath “Alright. On one hand you just showed up and did all of this, and that’s not what friends are supposed to do.” Before I could respond he held up a finger. “On other hand you're trying your best. Could have hid facts, lied, by your facial expression you're genuinely telling the truth, or at least believe it.”

“...In a previous timeline I promised to tell you.”

“And on the other hand...” a long pause “I’m all out of hands. You're free to go kid. I’m gonna catch up on that nap now.” he walked past me.

“You do you. I’ll be breaking the barrier.”

“What.”

While we were talking Flowey left his pot and went somewhere, so I teleported myself and Sans to the barrier. Low and behold there was Flowey attempting to pry the human soul containers out of the ground.

“Boo.”

Credit where it’s due he didn’t scream that much, then he slowly turned around to face me with a worried look. Worried as in getting caught trying to do something he shouldn't have.

“I don’t see what you were attempting to do. If you stayed you would have realized why you-”

“-’d be in for a bad time.” Sigh.

Flowey looked at me expectantly.

“...You know what. Sure after this feel free to have your way with him. Now-”

Before the two could argue further I deleted the barrier. Where was once a flashing white and black space was now a blue sky over the horizon line.

Both of them stopped, looking at it in awe and stunned silence. The barrier, needing the power of seven human souls, gone just like that.

“Monsters have no need to fight Frisk anymore. I just removed the reason, there wIll oNLy be goOoooD pathS Foooor T-” I looked down and saw the texture of my clothes start smearing. It was fine, I could fix it.

“Are uh, you ok?”

“EverrrrY ThiNG is FInEee, Oh.”

I couldn’t fix it. My body was breaking apart, somehow somewhere some inherent code was deleting the body, no. Something was attacking the connection. I glanced at my computer info and warnings popped up, that my computer fans were running at max and even then the computer was overheating.

Time glitched and shuttered, the barrier snapped back into place.

“I’ll be-e-e bAck-”

I activated a failsafe, turning off all non-necessities. This wasn’t enough as the computer shutdown and I was forced back into a single point of view.

...I swore I could hear something, a faint voice calling me an idiot.

Notes:

So you may have seen that I've changed something large if you read the comic. Their's one singular world with one timeline, rather than one world and multiple timelines going on at the same time. I did this because the scale was just too big and too complicated and I had no clue how to write that.

Chapter 4: Waiting and watching

Summary:

Player waits for the connection to come back, then watches the changes he made unfold.

Notes:

A small dash of Sans POV then back to Player.

Player was gone.

Vanished as reality rejected him.

It was weird in Sans’s opinion, but he kept looking for him. Showing up at the barrier every day, going over old machines with Alphys, but nothing came of it. Player never showed up again.

So with having memories of the future, he did the only sensible thing. Set up things to troll the ever living daylight out of the next human-slash-’player’ to come here.

Papyrus was ecstatic to redo all the puzzles with him.

As for Flowey, he...

“I’ll take a burger and a bottle of ketchup."

“...”

“You're out of ketchup?”

“.....”

Someone else at the bar began laughing “You should have SEEN Grillby's expression! Some flower came in and bought out ALL the ketchup!”

Nonono this was not happening.

“Grillby allowed it as it also paid off your ENTIRE tab!”

Several hours later the royal guard was called in for a disturbance. In the forest at a clearing there were reports of serious fighting, but all they could find was broken vines and vaporized rocks.

He was hiding somewhere in the ruins.

.....

I waited for my computer to reboot.

It did not, keeping its empty screen. The fans were still running at full speed, I could see dust moving in the air

So I waited.

.

.

.

Drank a cup of water per day. Ate three times a day. Mimicked sleep. I did not get bored, I did not want anything else besides the connection. It was still there, I could feel the part of me down there.

.

.

.

Got a bunch of memes that I’d thought I would like, thinking it would distract or keep my attention, but it seems even the power of memes can’t fix this.

.

.

.

Waited some more. Dust was still moving, however at this point I went and cleaned the room. Didn’t want the fans to get damaged.

.

.

.

I ran out of food, meaning I had to get more.

Made sure I was socially acceptable. Changed clothes, cleaned up, didn’t want any trouble or attention.

I then went out of my room, on a table nearby was my weekly allowance thrice over which I collected. My mom just kept adding money even when I didn’t take it.

One final check in the mirror, I looked dead. Still human, but missing something. A chunk ripped out somewhere and pasted over with clear tape. Nothing was wrong per se, but there was this gut reaction of wrongness. Hiding my eyes with my hair made it slightly better, but my mind kept screaming wrong wrong wrong- put a smile on, ignore people, act normally. Please ignore the soul sized hole in my very being.

I left my empty apartment and immediately ran into someone, who looked at me for a bit too long before quickly walking away.

.....

At the store, knew what I wanted. Microwave veggies, potatoes, jerky strips, and some comfort snacks.

...I forgot to bring bags.

Self-checkout, buy two plastic bags, machine took my money and broke.

Got someone to come over, said she forgot to mark that this machine was undergoing maintenance, but the other ones worked.

She put a hand on my shoulder and bent down, clearly worried. She was young-ish, didn’t recognize her, likely an intern or new hire.

She then spoke, couldn't hear but could see what she mouthed, “Are you ok?”

“I am fine.”

“Are your parents around here?”

“They are not. I am getting groceries. Thank you for asking.”

She clearly looked disturbed but I was uninterrupted while I made my way back.

...I then realized I only bought a day’s worth of food, and spent the rest of the day debating whether or not it was worth the risk of rationing it till the connection re-establishes itself enough to be used.

.....

The next day, I went to the store. Brought all of my plastic bags and got everything I needed for the next two weeks.

I had too many items to use the self-checkout, which meant I had to wait in line and ignore how my presence made everyone uncomfortable. The girl was the cashier of course, even with a few people I recognized. I didn't like the way they were looking at me.

“Do you need help?”

“I am fine. Thank you for offering though.”

They looked amongst themselves, saying something I couldn’t make out.

“I. Am. Fine.”

“Just tell the kid he looks like he got ran over by a truck-”

“I have shopped here for the last few years. Everything is normal. No need to look into it. I am not sick.”

I quickly paid and ignored their attempts to be nosy. Why care now? I was already partially gone.

...In one of the bags was a bottle of kids' cold and flu medicine.

Why did they have it on them? Never mind actually, I shop here every week on Saturday and I skipped a bunch, and only bought enough food for one day. At least they didn’t do anything else.

.....

About a month passed since the connection nearly fried, and my computer finally recovered. Frisk fell down, someone else connected to the world and I piggybacked off it.

The first thing I did was make several new programs which would pop up if something happened with the connection, and a few auto-disconnects so I don’t get locked out for a month again.

The second thing was not immediately rushing to the world, rather figuring out what happened. In my logs there was nothing, no compounding errors, the hardware broke before my code. So looking at the hardware there were two back to back spikes in heat generation before the crash.

The last was clearly me breaking the barrier and suffering some sort of backlash, so what caused the other one? Before that was me talking with Sans, me getting blasted by Sans, and jumping all the way to the judgment hall. Talking and blasting only affected my body, so it must've been the jump... which implies that sequence breaking leads to fraying the connection. Meaning I have to do a pacifist ending the normal way. Oh well, hopefully this player’s doing a pacifist run.

I tried entering the world.

[Warning: Sudden spike in link degradation. If you continue: Crash in: 10 min. Are you sure whatever you're doing is worth it?]

...No it was not. Well. I could try and revive monsters- no, that would lead to the hackers ending.

At least I could spectate.

g3th

[6] ATK [3] DEF [4] LV

Ahuh. Let's check the other stats.

[100] EXP [21] KILLS [20] EXP-NXT-LV.

I checked their location. They were in the ruins. Great. Would it kill people to actually do a pacifist run for once?

A load happened and I glanced at what they were actually doing. They were... fighting Flowey?

“Phtttt- idoit. Actually trying to squeeze some tragic backstory out of me? You already know it Idoit! Screw you!”

The fight began and I could only describe it as absolute unfairness from Floweys end.

From the Player's point of view, undodgeable attacks, the game window being dragged around, constantly talking to keep the turn going, and even using his own text to obscure attacks.

From my point of view, looking as a being down there- playing dirty, abusing the rules of the world as a part of his attacks. It was the same thing as Sans, but more. To put it in perspective Sans has a quick rundown of certain things, like turns. Flowey on the other hand has read the entire manual and has several hundred resets of experience.

And it all applied by the same rules. The attacks were dogable, all the player had to do was press the escape key to pause the game and avoid. The dragging around the screen was merely Flowey blocking off part of the battlefield, forcing the ‘camera’ to move elsewhere. The other two were entirely on how the world is interpreted in the window.

Most importantly, wow, this player was bad. This was coming from someone who kept dying to Icecap, but I mean Flowey at this point was purposely messing with them. He was leaving safe spots and they kept on avoiding them.

Eventually after getting knocked down to one health, Flowey stopped and began, ranting? Mix of trash-talking, insults, and venting about random things. For a while. It was as if he had just found a random child who couldn’t escape, and was now complaining about everything wrong in his life.

“Alright I have stalled for long enough. I hope you’ll enjoy what’s up next~” he cracked his stem and put it at an unnatural angle “I’ll be watching you suffer every step of the way.”

.....

Ruins exit- no traps, no tricks, no whoopee cushion in the hand. Just Sans the skeleton. I also get a good look at Frisk, she’s a lot less yellow than I thought, and rather is a tan color.

“Heya kid. I see you have been busy, eh?”

An unnatural silence as he kept the response time long.

“Well, a yellow Flower told me all about what you were doing, and uh hehe.” his eyes went dark before returning to normal “I hope you're ready for some all new original puzzles me and my bro threw together. I’m sure you’ll be able to complete it in a few, dozen hours.” He topped it all off by going the complete opposite direction and teleporting away when out of view.

I could almost feel the virtual rage from the player, coming from the fact that they stopped moving for about a minute. Valid crash out after what happened with Flowey, but still.

.....

And Sans wasn’t lying. He made them extraordinarily tedious, and on a time window. If ‘Frisk’ didn’t the puzzle within about 3 minutes he would kill and force her to go through the entire thing again. Coincidentally all save points were blocked off with vines.

Oh hey would you look at that, Papyrus was busy elsewhere oh noooo there's nothing stopping Sans from being the evil troll he is, such a tragedy.

Progress was made, barely. The player wised up and paused, taking screenshots, even then uh...

Is that a non-homogeneous linear system of differential equations?

It is. Good luck. Not even the internet can save you from those. Believe me, I’ve tried and most of the solutions are incorrect.

The entire section was a lot of really unfair irritating puzzles that aren't even fun. That was the point, and knowing Sans he probably did this to the rest of the underground because it would be funny.

.....

Eventually, they quit. Gave up, went to the save menu where I have been waiting from. It wasn’t in the world meaning I didn’t have to worry about connection issues. Aka I can do whatever I want while possibly having a link to their PC, all without suffering any consequences.

As soon as I saw a button flash yellow I held up the one I took.

“Hi there, looking for something.”

They seemed to get scared as the color jumped around, before finally setting on a pattern trying to access the reset button I was holding.

“See, this world is under my protection. You can probably guess that by what you just experienced. Now. You will leave.”

I gave them two options: Yes or Yes.

They did not select either of them.

“Alright, fine. I will sweeten the deal. You will leave, in return I won’t brick your PC.”

They still didn’t do anything, so through their link I simply... ran a command to move some critical files around. And made something pop up on their end.

[Warning: deleting system 32 can result in system errors, crashes, and may even prevent your computer from booting up.]

“Did I stutter?”

They quickly selected yes.

“Thank you for your cooperation. You will be able to connect to a different world, I do not care what you do with it.”

With that, they were gone.

I quickly went back to enter the world-

[Warning: Sudden spike in link degradation. If you continue: Crash in: 999...+ min. Are you sure whatever you're doing is worth it?]

[Warning: Sudden spike in link degradation. Process automatically aborted.]

I quickly fine tuned the warnings to only fire if something large happened, before forcing a reset and entering the world.

Notes:

In the original comic, an entire month passes, time goes by at the same pace in the underground and on Players end. We don't see anything, implying that Player was like this for an entire month. Like, an entire month goes by and Player is still gunning for the exact same thing. So, well, decided to expand upon that here. He literally bailed on his entire reality after all, so I think his IRL existence wasn't that good.

I'm probably looking wayyy into things but stars Player is an interesting character if you look what's shown in the comic and what's not.

Also, upload schedule is once per day till all 8 chapters are out.

Chapter 5: Reset try again

Summary:

Frisk POV, now back in the world, Player tries getting his happy ending via getting a true pacifist one.

Notes:

So about that update every day schedule. Uh. Guess who caught the AO3 author curse. I think I'll still be able to keep it going though.

[Reset]

[Reset]

[Reset]

[Reset]

[Reset]

[Reset-

You are in front of a hole.

You're not sure why you're in front of a hole, just that you are. It feels like you’ve done this before.

...it’s a long way down.

No. You must’ve climbed here for a reason! And the hole is the reason!

There is a bed of flowers at the bottom, so you jump. You somehow know they are cushy enough to prevent you from being hurt.

You were right, and when you get up you see someone there. They're the same height as you, and have grey skin and red hair, black shirt and red stripes, a lot of red and black actually! Their eyes probably are red and black as well, but you can’t see it under their bangs.

“Greetings,” They-

he (something tells you)

-says, “You fell down as well?” he doesn't wait for you to respond “I saw some ruins, but I heard something so I came back.”

He must have been fast! You didn't even see him as you were falling!

Hm....

You flirt with him.

You feel something yell inside your mind as-

Player (the something says)

-seems to internally scream.

.....

The name of the something is “Chara”. Apparently another human awoken by your determination.

You quickly become friends, though he seems distrustful of Player, and yourself for trusting him.

You think that as he attempts to keep your mouth shut as you try to flirt with Toriel.

Eventually you overpower him, and Toriel just laughs. Flowey looks at you with a disturbed expression and Player just looks away.

.....

You tug on the jacket Toriel gave you, listening to Chara rant about Sans. You weren't sure what the problem was, he was funny.

His jokes are horrible. There is no setup, no lead on, just forcing them as they come. Nevermind his attitude, it is annoying.

You think that Chara just has bad taste.

Says the one who did not even try the snail pie.

See? You think, further proving your point.

Chara began to scream inside your head as Sans somehow pulled out another bottle of ketchup. He notices you looking at him.

“Want some? It’s 10 gold per bottle.” Chara stops screaming.

Do not.

You take out 10 gold which Player handed you earlier.

Don’t you dare.

You give Sans the gold and he passes you an empty bottle. You look at him and try to give your best disappointed face.

Phtt- it just looks like you're pouting.

You do it harder, and Sans takes out a full bottle and passes that over.

Your limbs shake and attempt to lock up, but you persist and slowly bring up the bottle to your mouth, taking a sip-

It’s chocolate. Hot chocolate, dyed red.

Chara starts to scream inside your head again.

.....

You flirt with Papyrus, and it goes really well! You even managed to go on a date!

I... don’t think dates are supposed to work like that.

You ask Chara if he ever dated someone before, he says no.

You ask Chara if he wants to go on a date with you, and he does not say no. He does not say yes either, rather staying quiet. Seems like you made him speechless!

You flirt with him and you can almost feel a blush.

....

Papyrus introduces you and Player to Undyne.

From the safety of being out of spear range you use the opportunity to flirt with her.

When Papyrus isn’t looking she makes a slicing motion on her neck.

Player just sighs.

.....

Chara laughs at you while you're running from Undyne. She’s carrying Player in her arms and it doesn't seem like she realizes it.

.....

You successfully set Undyne's house on fire. Somehow you become friends with her because of this.

.....

You flirt with Alphys, by the time-

Mettaton

-bursts through the wall she’s red.

.....

You duck and dodge under lasers as you flirt with the camera, ratings go up!

...And you also start thinking something is off with Player. He never speaks unless spoken too, seemingly already knows what to do, and now that you think about it you have never seen his soul. He also has gotten hit much more than you, but is seemingly unaffected by it. It’s very weird.

Finally you get it.

But the fight's already over and Player’s already leaving somewhere, he knows what he’s doing and so you follow him.

.....

You go on a practice date with Alphys and both of you stand there awkwardly when Undyne shows up.

They are cute together.

You agree.

.....

Operation ‘unhide the bodies’ is complete!

Chara doesn't think you're funny.

The amalgamates are sent home to their family, though the memoryheads hang around Player for some reason.

.....

Flowey takes the souls.

Flowey becomes Asriel.

Together with Player you hold against a god.

It takes all your effort to keep going... but Player seems to casually shrug it off.

Almost like he is faking it.

You resolve to talk to him after this.

With Sans. As much as I dislike his puns, he is awfully perceptive.

You agree.

.....

The barrier has been broken. The sun is hovering just above the horizon.

Your monster friends stand beside you.

You don't want to be the ambassador, and Papyrus takes the role and goes on ahead. Everyone but Sans follows him, you lie and say you forgot your phone and go with Sans.

Everything is perfect.

But something is off and Chara agrees. Where is Player? You both think.

You say nothing to Sans and he says nothing back, and you wait where the former barrier is, waiting.

After some time, something changes.

You feel as though something is wrong. Like your skin is melting off, a noose forming around your neck, you feel as though another sun has appeared in the sky, cold, dark, and miserable. Your soul is screaming that you’ve done this before, and that you need to ACT.

You look at the exit, and there is Player looking at the sunset. There is a-

button

-in his hands,-

reset

-it says. Something in your gut sinks.

Sans seems to know, he turns him blue and pulls him over, Player doesn't fight it. For once you can see his soul, a red like your own but with something extra. It is surrounded by darkness, forming a larger soul shape around it.

“Don’t think of doing something you’ll regret kiddo.”

Player stands there, shaking. He turns around and you can see his eyes and instinctively back up. They were hollow, empty,-

just like Flowey.

He continues to shake, head slumped slightly to the side with tears starting to form.

“This is not the first time. I have done this. I have tried so many times.” his voice cracks as it trails off.

You rush over and hug him, and he seems shocked before cautiously returning it. The tears get worse and your shoulder feels damp.

He breaks the hug by teleporting (what???) away, seemingly afraid of you and Sans.

“I thought if I made everyone happy. Then I would stay here. I played by the rules, I got everyone their happy ending, w̶h̶y̶ ̴i̴s̵n̵'̵t̵ ̴i̴t̵ ̴e̷n̶o̷u̶g̶h̵!̵?̵ WHY CAN’T I STAY HERE!?”

Darkness spilled from his eyes as his soul seemed to shudder.

You didn’t realize you were walking backwards until Sans put a hand on your shoulder.

It then stopped. Player looked at you and Sans.

“I’m sorry. I’m sorry I’m sorry I’m sorry I’m sorry-” Player jerked and paused like a puppet, before straightening himself up.

“I have no future like this. I should have done this before-” he chucked but it seemed forced. All at the same tone and volume. “I don’t want to do this yet... Then fine! Fine FINE FINE!”

A star went supernova, red and black rushing outwards as a new horizon line formed.

The remains fell down, all the way from above.

Notes:

If you're a bit confused, basically Player's plan failed spectacularly. He kept getting kicked from the world even after getting the true pacifist ending. He's also stubborn and kept doing it, again and again, till he snapped and did the next part of the plan prematurely.

Chapter 6: A finale

Summary:

The player descends fully, and attempts to take care of the thing that is kicking him.

The link, the connection I so desperately maintained, snapped. It pulled all to one side, with both planes of existence unsure of what to do.

[THE END]

I died in one place.

[Game over]

I lived in another.

[And nobody came]

It’s just me, no one else.

Before I couldn't feel anything, I wasn’t whole enough. Couldn’t feel love. My soul wasn’t entirely a part of reality, not in either place. But it’s different now.

Half and half, now one full and one empty. My soul is fully here.

There is a breeze. It’s calm and uniform, blowing my hair and pushing me somewhere.

I open my eyes.

My vision is ablaze with lights, from red to white, green to blue, all the colors lighting up the infinite blackness. Worlds, far more than I could ever hope to visit, glitter in the beyond. It was awe-inspiring, and I spend a while simply looking at them, enjoying the sensation of actually being able to feel things properly.

I slowly rotate, appreciating how the lights seemed to pivot around me, before stopping and staring at a bright one in particular.

It was a world. My friend's world. The one I tried getting a happy ending in. The closest star in this endless sky.

There was already someone else connected to it, and now since I didn’t have to rely on a link or connection, maybe I can get that happy ending.

Maybe later, I’m tired... when was the last time I slept?

So I relax, closing my eyes and floating under an expanse of stars. It’s nice like this.

.....

Slowly, I come to awareness again, reluctantly blinking off the last remnants of sleep and reaching out to my programs-

Nothing. They were stored in the link, partially across both realities. The link isn't there anymore. I can’t access my computer.

I take a deep breath and sigh, feeling a sense of emptiness inside. I could create them easily, but it seems like too much effort now, as if I've put in my all and have nothing left to give. Which is what I did earlier.

...I just ignore it and put myself into a slow spin, watching as the lights whirl and create pretty sights.

Actually, why do I need a library of programs when I can just create them on the fly? Or I can, later. I’m not on a time limit here. Or really any, am I technically immortal now? I didn’t think about that.

I kick the spin up and watch as the lights turn into trails.

It feels wrong to be doing nothing like this. Like I should be working now towards my goal. It’s, boring? No, it feels like I can stay here forever. But I also want to be doing something.

As a compromise, I create a clock. Now what?

Memes.

On instinct I reach and pull out my meme folder-

Right. It was stored on my computer. And I can’t access it anymore. I mean I technically have access to all my memories and can replay them as needed, but that would require coding and that means work and bleh.

...Man, it's going to take so long for me to code everything again. Maybe ten minutes given I can code at the speed of thought, but that’s ten minutes! I can be spending time doing other things! Like memes! The memes I long longer... have...

I stop the spin and look at the main world.

Don’t they have memes there? The underground has anime and phones, with a beta version of the internet made by Alphys. The undernet has memes, probably.

The undergrounds tech is based on discards from the surface, which implies that the surface has a much better internet.

I can access memes from a different universe. Yes! Unlimited memes!!!

Wait, no, backup. Given all the realities I see in the distance I highly doubt they're all canon Undertale, which means AU’s (Alternative Universes). I haven't really researched them but I know the popular ones.

How would an underswap verse be? Like everything's swapped? Instead of cat videos being popular they’ll have dog ones? Or how about underfell? Dark edgelord emo memes?.

Or outertale? I know it’s set in space, and that one fan game has it in the future. Lots of fun tech there, honestly at one point I should visit... wait.

I CAN ACCESS MEMES FROM THE FUTURE!

Ok that settles it. I’m doing stuff now.

.....

I finished coding all the stuff I know I’ll use, though I didn't exactly enjoy the process. Which was weird, normally I like it. I’m good at coding, and for all the time I have been doing it, this is the first time I felt this way.

Anywho. Something I was thinking while procrastinating on writing the code, what is kicking me out? Well duh, it’s the end of the game and I really should have thought about that earlier. Alright, well, what about whatever is pressing the reset button or connecting random players? And why did I get backlash for skipping sequences and going straight to the judgment hall the first time?

I look out at the scene in front of me, not in front of the barrier but in fact somewhere on the opposite side of the planet. A capital city with skyscrapers reaching towards the heavens. Clearly not a part of cannon.

This world isn’t a game, it’s whole, complete. I knew that from the start and it’s why I didn’t even think about it. There is no ‘end’ to the game.

So what's causing all this? It’s not the end of the game, it’s probably not Gaster with this world's FUN value being 37, honestly the only remaining thing I can think of is the Angel prophecy, with the Player = Angel. And after the ‘Angel’ completes its mission it gets banished- ie disconnected. But that doesn't explain why the reset button keeps getting pressed. Or why random players keep connecting. Or why skipping parts leads to backlash.

Well, time to start testing things.

First, let's see what the player is doing.

chillbeastyt

[22] ATK [2] DEF [10] LV

This is why we have a billion edgy emo sans fights, and probably a lot of dusttale AUs down here.

Well, it’s a genocide player and I won’t feel guilty for messing with them.

I teleport over to them and see that they are fighting Undyne the Undying, she’s already starting to melt. The Player is still at full health, and judging by the stats they are doing a no hit run.

You know what? Screw this player.

Undyne is glaring at me, and it turns into surprise as she’s suddenly at full health and much stronger.

“Oh no how clumsy of me seems I accidentally healed Undyne oh nooo-”

“GET OUT OF HERE KID!”

I teleport away and notice something, a pinprick, some code trying to force me out. Upon trying to find where it is or what it’s doing, it vanishes.

Well, two can play it that way, and I wait for the next load to try something.

In front of me is Toriel's dust, so I simply start remaking her soul. The force comes back and I immediately try to locate where it’s coming from, but it stops before I can find it. That’s fine, so I repeat the process, as the soul gets closer to completion the effect gets stronger. It seems to know what I’m doing as it gets more scattered, but it can’t stop less I actually do revive her.

I do end up fully reviving her and instantly get kicked, but at least I now know the general direction of where the signal’s coming from. It’s... coming from the very world itself. Every object, item, person, the entire existence radiating the signal and trying to force me out. It’s something baked into this world's code. I can’t get rid of it; it’s a fundamental force. It’s almost as if it’s scattered across time and space-

That British tea drinker.

I go to the player's menu screen, waving at them and creating new dialogue lines.

“Sorry about that, well not really. Please never come to this world again. How about this: You leave, the next time you connect you won’t have to deal with me.”

They took the deal fairly quickly.

......

There is only one option for whoever's doing this. Gaster. The wolds fun value is 37, so it’s a part of canon, meaning Gaster was scattered across here.

I feel really stupid for not figuring it out earlier, there is no other choice that made sense. It would also explain why I couldn’t find the signal source or notice it earlier.

He even has a reason for why he’s doing all this. Players constantly keep worlds going, resetting and rebuilding them if destroyed. And well, there are clearly more than 100 worlds I can see meaning non-cannon FUN values, so world destroyers probably do exist if we are going by fannon.

The only reason why he would do all this, is simply to continue his own existence. If all the worlds he’s scattered across die, then he does as well.

I break this mold and can be considered a threat to him, he’s getting rid of one of the few things that can take him down. He can’t instantly kick me due to the ‘rules’ he implemented, however the more I break them, the more force is applied.

How do I fight this then? How do I fight a being that exists across a hundred worlds at every conceivable level?

Well.

Then.

I don’t.

I'll just cut off his connection between worlds until he yields. Cut off world after world until he removes the code that keeps kicking me.

And out here in the void, I’m not limited by the rules set in place.

I try to create a barrier around the world, a cloak to hide and prevent anyone from seeing in. The world responds by screaming, burning, trying to push away all my attempts to hide it. It works, and I can feel somethings attention on me.

I try and try again, getting more efficient and better, but it’s not enough. Even with all my speed and talent at coding, it’s an entire universe. Where a light year is equivalent to zero, and I have to go far, far beyond to even approach a usable scale. My mind alone isn't able to grasp that scale, however Gaster's fragmented mind is.

I’m not limited by bandwidth or a connection, and another body appears besides myself.

It’s me.

It’s a fully independent mind.

We both have individual thoughts, unique brains running in parallel to each other.

We’re still controlled by the same overmind.

It’s us.

Two to four to sixteen exponential growth takes hold and the world is quickly quietened, and several more began screaming in alarm.

I stay here and I go. I leap distances multiple realities in length in an instant, and it still takes time for me to approach the other worlds. But I do, and the process repeats.

There is only one signal left, a song in the abyss, and that gets blocked off as well. But one of me goes inside.

In this patch of void, there is a grey platform with a table on it. There is a skeleton sitting down, wearing the definition of a scientist's clothes.

“Gaster.”

He nods and pulls out a teaset from somewhere. There is a seat open but I don’t move.

“I do not care for what you are doing with all those other worlds. I do not care what you're doing with Players or your experiments in the void. Remove what keeps kicking me, else I’ll finish blocking off your influence.”

He takes a sip from his cup of tea, “No.”

The place is cloaked under lock and key, requiring hundreds of barriers' worth of power to even attempt to enter or exit. Gaster doesn’t even flinch.

“Whatever you are doing here is none of my business, all I want is to experience the pacifist ending in one world.”

He takes another sip, “No. I don’t think I will.”

I push out my soul, imprinting it onto this place itself. He looks up at the mass, black and red, not a threat but a promise of violence.

Gaster shutters and drops his tea, but he still acts calm despite the sweat I can see running down the side of his skull.

“You.” he puts his hands on the table, holding them together in a formal way. “You are a psychopath. You are a genius, even at your age; you’ve already surpassed me in most regards, never mind when you grow up. And what did you do with it? Bail on your entire reality for a bunch of beings who don’t even know you exist. You're smart, you could have reached out, marketed your intelligence, yet you chose this.”

“I don’t care-”

“You’ll burn out. You even know, planned this, and it says so in your check. Tell me, did you even tell your parents about this? That your self up there would die?”

“I don’t-”

“For your so-called friends, what did you do? Repeatedly manipulate them. All I see here is a lonely kid who just wants to be loved.”

“I-”

“You are a threat as you just demonstrated, and you are also a mentally unstable child. You will burn out, and I would rather not get caught in the blast radius. So I propose this. Find some other world not under my control, it doesn’t matter as your friends don’t even know you-”

I snapped and the darkness responded. Creating the most powerful thing that I knew of.

A star was born, four-sided in shape, malevolent and hateful, dying. It burned, heat radiating off it as matter and magic were compressed and heated to ever higher temperatures. Concrete rings of light began pulsating outwards as space bent around it.

“I don’t care. I don’t care what you're doing, whatever you're talking about, you're a hypocrite so about about TLDR: EAT SHIT!”

All of myself except for the main one dissipated as their souls were added. It gave it a weight in existence, essence, raw intent, the combined sum of myself going into this one object.

I wouldn’t care if Gaster died. He caused the deaths of my friends multiple times and I would repay in turn.

The star died as it fired, a beam of energy reaching temperatures so high that physics began breaking down, only held together by my single-minded will.

Space in its path simply ceased to exist, the rest of the existence here tried to fill it but met the same fate and so on.

Complete and utter obliteration followed.

Notes:

Player is really OP, but his main flaw is his powerset relies on pure logic, and he isn't a logical being. He's emotional, a child, and that taints what he does, leading to some less than stellar situations.

Chapter 7: An ending

Summary:

Player gets an ending.

I got baited.

I sent a clone back out, only to find no trace of Gaster. No signal to track, no shattered consciousness collapsed into a single being, somehow he got away from the non-existence that felled the place. I got played, and he used the distraction to slip away somewhere.

I know he’s still out there, sending the clone over to another world and breaking the barrier caused it to get kicked. It was fine. It would be fine. One day Gaster will show up again, and I won’t get mad. Mad enough to the point of doing something stupid.

In the meantime I took leftovers as a trophy, a blackhole with a disk of dust. Honestly it was really cool... though I don’t know what to do with it. Maybe I can throw it at him next time.

.....

I fall down into the underground, one month before Frisk does.

I stay with Toriel, and I get to know her. She’s a good listener... and really observant. Sans level of observance, though she didn’t push or ask any questions despite knowing something was very off with me. She cared.

Whenever an ‘off’ thing gets brought up, her face shifts to neutral before returning to normal. Like me saying I know how to do something because my mom was never home. It’s not that weird, other kids know how to get groceries, right? Or me trying to make friends because I never had any physical ones. Normal human behavior.

I explore the ruins as well, talking, messing around, doing things. Not actively working on something, but it feels nice.

Flowey only tries stabbing me once before realizing I am not worth the effort. Coincidentally I also learned that the ruins spiders have a bunch of aphids, apparently the spider clans think of them as a delicacy.

.....

Players cannot connect to this world anymore. I made sure of that. So Frisk falls down and it’s herself rather than a being beyond this reality.

Upon meeting, she immediately flirts with me.

aaaaaaaa-

She then does the same to Toriel, and every single monster we come across in the ruins. She knows what she’s doing, and when I give her a look, she winks at me. What a chaotic gremlin.

Toriel lets us leave after knitting Frisk a sweater, she trusts me to keep Frisk safe.

.....

We go through the underground as normal, as if it’s just Frisk + another human. Though I do purposely, just, go out of my way to do random stuff with Frisk and not optimize anything. I’m not rushing to crash my head against the barrier repeatedly, so I just go along with whatever comes up and the corresponding changes. This time I do make friendships. Try out new things, genuinely have fun and explore, just being myself.

Sans is more of a troll, like preventing Papyrus from giving the invisible maze solution away, or joining up for a duo battle when we try to leave Snowdin.

Papyrus joins us in Waterfall and attempts to convince Undyne to be besties. It nearly works but Frisk decides to flirt with her, and I get a tempting feeling to leave Frisk to her fate. Unfortunately Undyne goes after me as well for ‘collaborating in human mind control like in Kissy Mew Mew’.

Frisk and Mettaton have a blast while I hang out with Alphys, and comfort her as the disaster duo go off script, including going to Undyne's house and doing the cooking show there. Somehow her house didn’t burn down.

Muffed was bribed. I already got the ruins spiders to send her a message and dropped off the money myself. Somehow she’s the only one to have a clue as to what I can do, and asked me to stop making gold else the currency would be devalued.

MTT Neo goes uh, I’ll just let the recording speak for itself.

(The stage stops moving, and three figures are seen above.)

“Three, two, one....”

(Sounds of water guns going off.)

“BEGONE FLIRTY DEMON!”

“Y-yeah!”

(Maniacal laughing from Player, Undyne, and Alphys)

(Mettaton pulling out two water guns and giving one to Frisk) (Frisk joining in and sputtering as her hair gets wet.)

Instead of delivering a letter to get Alphys and Undyne on a date, they do so over the shared experience of shooting the flirtmaster with water guns.

True lab went nearly the exact same as cannon, though...

“HoI! I’m temmie!”

I share a look with Frisk, and we have the exact same thought. Why is there a Temmie here?

Temmie then looks at me.

“We forgive you. All of us do.”

Silence.

“We know what you did, all the events you put the world through, and you are forgiven. You suffered yet you stayed true to yourself.”

I blink.

“BYEEEeeee.”

That happened.

We then hit the judgment hall. Sans and Papyrus meet us there.

Sans gives us the normal spiel about LV and EXP, then Papyrus goes up.

He tells us about an odd feeling of déjà vu he has been experiencing, and that he has noticed a darkness within our hearts. He then thanks us for trying and gives us a hug.

We then go forward to encounter Sans and Papyrus again, as well as everyone else.

Things proceed, we meet Asgore, a reunion happens, then Flowey shows up and takes everyone’s souls.

We face off against Asriel, god of Hyperdeath, we save everyone's souls, then we save him.

Eventually, he calms down and reverts to Asriel. After he talks with Frisk and they hug, I intervene.

“Wait. There are some things I need to tell you.”

So I do. I explain everything. Past timelines, other players, my own futile attempts, my attempt at fixing it, and the current situation.

Frisk, for once, has her eyes open, but doesn’t seem that surprised. Same with Asirel.

He looks at me “I figured something like that happened.”

What?

“I can see past timelines like this, I have seven souls' worth of power. “

Oh.

From Frisk “...I thought you were the Angel...”

I check my stats

Player

[9̵9̵9̶.̴.̷.̴] ATK [9̵9̵9̶.̴.̷.̴] DEF [9̵9̵9̶.̴.̷.̴] LV

Wants to be everyone's friend.

Fallen.

The one who fell from above.

Ops.

“Uh. Ok. I’ll go fix that later- Right. WELL. I do have a plan for what to do next. First I’ll revive Chara-”

“WHAT!?”

“...He’s still there, his soul is just attached to Frisk’s. His body is also still there in the code. I just need to transfer it over.”

Asriel's eyes turn into stars before switching back to depressed, then back to stars.

“Can you give me a soul as well?!”

“Yep-” Asriel started doing something with the souls- “Wait wait wait, the next part- how are we going to explain this to everyone else?”

“We show up and go with it? I mean, it worked for Frisk,” she nods.

We end up doing precisely that, and it works. Though we did end up having to explain what Floweys’ deal was.

It’s... not a perfect ending. Monsterkind is still trapped behind the barrier underground, and even if they do find a way to bypass the barrier without human souls, they wouldn’t. Asriel would tell them about it kicking me and that whole ordeal...

I’m the thing that’s holding this world back... and that’s ok. They want this. I have friends. I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Notes:

Well, just an epilogue after this, though I do have plans for 3 more underplayer works. Introduction to wider multiverse, Deltarune, and Underverse/X-Tale.

Chapter 8: Epilogue

Summary:

Player is in his ending. Not a perfect one, but close enough

Toriel's house isn’t large enough, so we end up staying at Asgores. There's some tension between the two, but it turns out that having your two children suddenly come back from the dead is a great way to repair a relationship.

Even then I decided to make a house for myself, tucked away in some corner of Hotland containing private stuffs.

.....

“Hey Player, there is a question I wanted to ask you ages ago! Although I might not have seen that many human races,” Chara and Frisk walk by, though it’s Chara mainly dragging Frisk along. “...Aren’t you a bit, pale?”

“Because the base I used was grey,” I rub the back of my head in embarrassment. “I’m not that good with colors, I just threw together whatever looked good. It’s why the white part of my eyes are black.”

“Huh.”

“I can change it, here...”

Skin color:

R: 225 G: 225 B: 225. White, it kinda fits?

R: 225 G: 0 B: 0. Red, Asriel doesn’t seem to like it.

R: 225 G: 225 B:0. Yellow, honestly it fits. Asriel is slowly his head no.

Restart.

“....Don’t change anymore.”

“Well, I still have to work on the internals about it... Biology is annoying.”

He looks at me weirdly. The same type of weird whenever I do something technoblabbly and nobody gets it.

“My body isn’t exactly fully human, I copied internals from Frisk and Chara, but uh I didn’t put it together properly, so I copied data from other monsters, using dust to smooth things over. ”

“So you're an amalgamate?”

“Didn’t think of it that way, but yeah.”

.....

I look at myself in the mirror, with Chara, Frisk, and Asriel looking at the reflection.

“Wow this is weird.”

I can copy different expressions and put them on my own face... and we’ve been messing around trying to find the scariest.

Currently all the top ones are Burgerpants’ according to me, Frisk, and Chara.

“Come on Chara, the Flowey faces are scariest!”

“No, I agree with Frisk. Burgerpants are indeed the scariest.”

“Nu uh!”

I apply burgerpants face #2 and turn around to face a distracted Asriel.

“Hey.”

“He-” he screams and jumps back into Chara, and they both end up on the floor. Frisk does a little salute before falling over and joining them.

.....

“You said there are other worlds out there, what are they like?”

“I only got glances, but generally there is one major ‘theme’ which applies changes. Like Outertale, the theme is ‘everyone is now in space’. Or Underswap, the theme is ‘everyone’s personalities are swapped around’.” It would be an interesting side project to catalog all of them, could there be another one of me actually?

“Sounds like they would be fun to see, though I don’t wanta worry about you being kicked or something happening to prevent you from re-entering...”

“Oh! I solved that actually, though I haven’t implemented it yet.”

I create another body.

“If all of me goes out then I would have to worry, so I can just” I gesture to the other me, and I wave back. “I’m not breaking any rules and it’s technically still me, so while I can stay here, I can also go look for other words... and Gaster.”

He looks disturbed seeing two of myself, so I delete the clone.

That makes his expression worse somehow.

.....

Lalalala~

There's nothing stopping me from teleporting past the barrier to the surface!

Hahaha~

I can cloak myself and not have to deal with anyone!

Hehehe~

I copied all 7 seasons of the Kissy Mew Mew anime, and seasons 5 and up absolutely stuck!

Alphys is traumatized~ and Mettaton agreed that if we do ever get to the surface, he’s buying out their entire studio~ and remaking those two seasons~

Side note: Memes have been acquired.

......

You decided to look for Player's personal home area, and it seems like you found it.

But you doubt this is the right place, a random door off the main path of Hotland, however it is the only place that fits the description.

Chara follows you inside, and the place looks familiar to you.

On the right is a table with a box and many, many papers.

Player's box is full of dog residue and legendary artifacts. Both you and Chara attempt to take an artifact out, but fail to do so.

The papers are full of what appears to be star charts. There are spaces for writing, but they are blank. Chara does not recognize them, saying that they don’t match the night sky on the surface.

There is a door ahead, but you decide to explore this room first.

To the right of the door is a display screen, it’s currently empty. Chara points out a bunch of buttons on the side, and you press them. It switches through multiple, and they are all various cooking recipes.

More to the right, a TV. You take the remote and sit down on the sofa opposite of it. It is brand new and the seams are full of popcorn. You turn on the TV and see several options.

-Private reality 1

-Private reality 1 sun

-Underground TV

-Underground internet

-Surface internet

First option shows a blank area, illuminated by something it can’t see. The sky is black and the ground is white.

Second option shows a dark object orbited by a glowing disk. The inner part is white and it fades to blue the farther away it is. Chara calls it a singularity and compliments the graphics of the TV.

Third option displays one of Mettatons' shows.

Fourth option shows an Undernet profile, “Eyezeekai_protag”. You recognize it as Player's account.

Fifth option shows a search bar, logged in with the name “Who.” Chara takes the remote and goes over to search history.

It’s full of a bunch of random things. Like the current year, history, recent history, ancient history, textbooks that your eyes glaze over, memes, lots of memes, some games, and some forum sites? Chara opens one randomly shows an argument in which “Who” is being accused of hacking, and “Who” responding by saying he’s just that good. “Who” ends up banned but the admins are very confused as “Who” unbans himself.

Chara seems deep in thought.

It’s boring so you take the remote and turn it off, and explore further.

There is a fridge. Inside the upper shelf are a bunch of vegetable packets, potatoes, and some fruit. On the bottom shelf are some fruit, snacks, popcorn, and jerky strips.

Chara seems disappointed until you both realize there's another part on top. Opening it reveals a bunch of soft drinks. No chocolate, and Chara vows to one day find out where Player keeps getting it from. He still doesn’t believe you when you say Player just teleports past the barrier and takes it from the surface.

The last thing here is another table with a flower on it. It looks like an echoflower, but it’s much smaller and faces up instead. When you speak into it, it doesn’t respond.

You go back to the door, and open it.

The room is much larger than the previous one, and it’s taken up by one very large bed. A small white dog is sleeping on it.

Chara goes over and grabs a pillow, before looking at you mischievously. You easily dodge the upcoming attack.

Chara whips out his phone and calls for Asriel, you do the same and call for Sans and Papyrus.

You end up having a full-blown pillow fight, except for Sans who just sleeps through it.

Eventually Player comes back, and you can see the confusion on his face.

Notes:

Thank you all for reading this!

Honestly, this fic isn't perfect, I set the pace a bit too fast and wanted to add more emotional scenes. But I wrote a fic that I want to read, and I did learn a few things, and I think that's good enough.

Series this work belongs to:

• Part 1 of A Nova's dream