Chapter Text
-Welcome! This AU is a little bit complicated to grasp on the fly and the fic has no formal intro, so I thought a little bit of introduction would do no harm. This includes a Q&A and an overview of some of the important things, along with some casual notes. Hope you find this enlightening. If you want to just jump to the thick of it, well that’s good too! You can always come back and check it out whenever you want.
This fic was born out of my own personal-use AU. It’s a way for me to imagine all the characters of Undertale, Deltarune, and Undertale Yellow interacting and experiencing life in a universe where things like being different games doesn’t matter. It’s like my own personal sandbox for me to play with. Of course I sometimes enjoy thinking about more specific narratives, but when I want freedom? This universe comes to scene. It is not linear, or constricted by time, but rather just episodes of their lives and all the interesting shenanigans they go through.
So UDY on the Surface is, as its name indicates, a slice-of-life AU that follows the lives of the characters of Undertale, Deltarune and Undertale Yellow on the Surface. At first I wanted to call it “Deltatale Yellow” but uh… I searched and of course, being too good of a name, it’s already taken, hehe. The same with “Underune.” So I ended up just naming it “UDY on the Surface” with UDY obviously standing for Undertale-Deltarune-Yellow. Pretty dumb, I know. It could be worse I guess. Now, I searched for this and couldn’t find any pre-existing AUs that seemed to do exactly what I am doing… If there is another fic out there about a slice-of-life crossover like this one, I didn’t know of its existence, but I would be happy to hear about it!
You might be wondering how does this actually works in lore terms. What’s the story? What happened? First of all, the fic will not focus on the lore of the AU, mainly cause it’s pretty simple, really. Undertale and UTY have no problem at all coexisting. (if we ignore the pesky topic of Flowey technically not being alive when the yellow soul fell…?) Of course we are talking Pacifist ending here, both in UTY and Undertale, with UDY officially taking place quite some time after they all got to the Surface. But where is Deltarune in all this? Darkners? Lightners? Fountains? Eggs behind trees? And the answer is easy: They are all just monsters. I mean, not Kris, hope that’s clear, but for the rest there is no distinction between Lightners and Darkners. They were all monsters living in the Underground who then got into contact with some of the characters of Undertale and UTY. Also noteworthy: for characters that premiered on Undertale but returned in Deltarune, (e.g., Undyne, Alphys, Toriel, Sans…) I will only take into account the Undertale versions of said characters history-wise, though there will be parallelisms, like Toriel still being a teacher (and Kris mother), Undyne wanting to become a police officer (before settling for something less risky in the fic) or Sans just being Sans.
All the action takes place in Hometown: a small town under the shadow of Mount Ebott, situated in British Columbia, Canada. Yes, the real name of the mountain is “Abbott”, I know. One of the questions in the Q&A explains my choice of scenery. I'm kind of specific in geography: When I say it is in there I really mean it, I am saying Hometown is a town almost bordering the Glacier National Park, in the Columbia-Shuswap Regional District. Now, for purely convenient reasons, the population and size of the nearest city, Revelstoke (to which the characters will many times refer to just as “the city”) will be a little bit exaggerated due to the need of having some kind of “big city” for the characters to go to from time to time, and I am afraid the big cities of BC are a little bit too far from the Glacier National Park and therefore, the fictional Hometown. Apart from that, I like to be as precise as I can. Unnecessary, I know, but I like it.
What to expect on the inside of the fic? For starters, you might notice it doesn’t have that much of a linear narrative. It is structured in a way similar to a sitcom. Does that mean there isn’t any character growth, or that the characters won’t change? Nope. They will for sure. Some chapters will have less emotional content and some will have more, that’s all. As a matter of fact I prefer to call the chapters “episodes”, because chapters kind of give some vibes of direct time continuity, at least to me. There isn’t necessarily a main character, and different episodes will center around different characters and relationships.
-Q & A Many of the answers are literally “because that’s how I imagined the AU” but it’s useful nevertheless.
-“¿Why British Columbia? There is another Mount Abbott in California.”
Yeah, but I just preferred good ol’ Canada. I’m not even Canadian but hey, it doesn’t matter. I think I actually got this from another fic or comic that placed the action of the Surface on Canada and I guess the idea just stuck with me. Which brings us to the next question:
-“Hey, you totally got this (insert X idea about a character or an event) from this other fanfic! Have you read it?”
Now, hold your horses. I have read a lot of fanfics and comics and sadly enough, I can’t remember most of the names. What I mean is; maybe, yeah, maybe I read it or saw it somewhere else and then it just stayed along inside my headcanon, but the line between what’s “truly original” and what’s influenced is blurry to say the least. I will try to credit everything I can if I do remember clearly getting inspiration from something, there are a LOT of incredible artists and writers out there that have shaped elements of this fic, if you think you found one, leave it in the comments and I will check it out and see if I read it or it’s just coincidence, which is also pretty plausible taking into account how big this community is.
-“How long are the chapters/episodes?”
Depends on the episode. Some will be short, and others will be long. I don’t have a minimum nor a maximum of words per episode.
-“Will there be ships?”
No, you silly! Hometown is nowhere near the sea! Haha, now being serious, yeah, there will be ships. Most of them are absolutely common except for one… two…? that are a little bit rarer, but whatever. They aren’t going to be the main course. I guess there will be episodes dedicated to the ships, but I wouldn’t qualify the fic as centering around romance. HOLD IT! Important warning. All of the ships are pointed to in the relationships category BUT this doesn’t mean they are going to end together. It isn’t bonding. It just means there will be allusions to the possibility of that ship. Maybe it doesn’t work out. Maybe it is one-sided. Who knows?
-“Is the fic’s Hometown the same as in the game?”
Nope. I just take the name. Some buildings, like the Holiday’s house, or the hospital, or the cemetery, or even ICE-E will be there, but the Hometown of the fic is supposed to be different. It’s just a small town where monsters and humans live together in harmony.
-“Is that Flowey? And Asriel? at the same time? And also Chara? and they are older now? And Clover is alive too? AND OLDER TOO?”
First of all, remember that the lore and explanation of the magic system aren’t the priority of the fanfic. Still, those stories will be mentioned and explained in some episodes, as they are important to the characters.
-“(X character) would never speak with (Y character)!”
Alright, be a little bit understanding. There are a TON of characters. Many of them don’t even know each other in canon, being from different universes. This forces me to make any connection I can between characters to have everyone interact with everyone (or almost) This is the reason why, for example, Martlet is an older cousin of Berdly (Yeah, cause they are both bluebirds) Still sometimes I must resort to the fact that hey, Hometown is a small town. People know each other. Characters like Spamton or Jevil don’t necessarily have too many relationships, but they are still known in the town and thus, by other characters that would otherwise ignore their existence.
-“Why do Flowey, Asriel and Asgore speak like southerners? And why is Ralsei a brit?”
I love studying English around the world. English isn’t my first language, but I sincerely love it, and like to learn about big and small differences and variances between its dialects, accumulating vocabulary specific to those regions in the process. You may notice that in the case of Flowey, Asriel and Asgore they already showed small indicators of a southerner accent in canon (howdy, golly…) but that in the fic they speak even more clearly in this jargon. As for Ralsei, that’s just headcanon (though he does say “lift” instead of elevator once) but also an opportunity for me to dig more into specifically British lingo. I don’t know if any other characters will have a marked dialect. Maybe some extras.
-“Why do some monsters still don’t know key elements of human culture? haven’t them been out for some years now?”
Yes, and those years aren’t enough to catch on with thousands of years of culture and history. That’s why sometimes the human characters will still need to explain some things to the monsters.
-“Are there any OC’s?”
No… Yeeees? I mean, you could count Ralsei’s adoptive dad as an OC. He isn’t that much important… Well, sometimes… By the standard definition, yes, he is an OC, but he is not my OC, he is not a character I made long before and then inserted into the story, but rather a character I made for the story specifically to fill some gaps I had (i.e., Ralsei’s father and Chara’s boxing coach) And then there are the extras. I guess they’re also OC’s??? I just like to give personality to my extras.
-“Content warnings I should know?”
I’m not good with tags and things like that, so I will also specify about its content here, just in case. This fanfic will not have any kind of sexually explicit content. This fact will stay consistent through the whole fic. It will, however, have a few small jokes that might have a sexual meaning, along with occasional curses, swear words and general profanity, so it is not intended for kids. The fanfic will also sometimes tackle some heavy topics (e.g., depression, suicidal intentions, mourning, etc.) I will always warn if any topic as such are present in an episode. Also you can rest assured that none of the characters will die or suffer any traumatic events. There will sometimes be a little bit of angst, but nothing too extreme.
-“Number of planned episodes?”
I’ll be sincere: I don’t know. I plan to write quite a lot of episodes, but I genuinely don’t know if some day the flame of passion will die or I won’t be able to continue due to some other reason. I do swear solemnly to not abandon it without warning, and to actually try to wrap it up and give it a last chapter in case I were to finish it, as long as my motive for abandoning the fic wasn’t any kind of disabling emergency, such as a major accident.
-“And the frequency of the new episodes?”
At the moment this fic is being released it has a total of five episodes that I pre-wrote plus the pilot. I promise a minimum of an episode per week, reserving for myself the right to not publish one week due to an emergency or work overload, though these cases will be (I hope) extraordinary.
-“Will more characters from other AUs/fangames be added?”
Nope. I already got enough, haha.
-“Hey, you forgot (X character)”
First of all, I still got enough. Second, maybe not everyone appears in the fanfic, I think it’s pretty comprehensible. Maybe they’ll appear as extras on some episodes.
-Overview
It’s been a few years since the Monsters returned to the Surface and lots of things have changed…
The Dreemurr family is bigger than ever, with Frisk, Asriel, Kris, Chara, Flowey and Toriel living under the same roof. Managing two kids, two teenagers and one foul-mouthed flower isn’t a mean feat, so our favorite goat mother will have to do her best to keep things in order.
Frisk and Asriel, currently in their last year of primary school, tandem with Monster Kid and Lancer and end up running into as many fun problems as they possibly can.
Kris, along, of course, with Susie, Ralsei, Noelle and Berdly, tries to navigate their high school years and not lose sleep hours in the process, with mixed results.
Chara and Clover have developed a lasting friendship in college, as the vicissitudes of adult life loom over them.
Our friendly Monsters have adapted to the rhythm of modern life in many ways. Sans has his grocery store and Papyrus works as a waiter. Both Undyne and Alphys help out Toriel with her school, as P.E. and Science teachers, respectively. Asgore still has his not-too-profitable flower shop, and Mettaton has taken the world by storm, with his cousins by his side, Napstablook as his DJ and Mad Mew Mew as… His secretary.
Mayor Holiday is as strict as ever, and Rudy, as irreverent as always. Rouxls has found a new passion in theater, and while King is finding surprising ways of hitting new lows, Queen is the founder and CEO of an important tech company. Tenna and Spamton are as much old glories as Gerson, and that’s saying something, and Jevil… He’s just jevilishly jevilish.
Martlet is back at living with her uncles and cousin while she saves money working as a parking manager, and Dalv now dedicates himself to writing children’s books and playing the organ from time to time. Ceroba must return to her work as a barista, Axis has found a most fitting role in being a security guard, and Starlo has strangely returned to being a sheriff, (except he’s a real one now.)
And last, but not least, Temmie finally goes to college. For real. You’re welcome…
I think I am not forgetting anything? Well, I already held you long enough. If you have any doubt, you can ask in the comments. Probably some of those doubts will be later explained in the fic. Thank you for giving this a read!