#deserttale

in a small desert country, there are three kingdoms: bone kingdom, goat kingdom, and neutrality kingdom (yes those are what i named them. i originally had their names in latin - ossis, hircus, and otius - but later (now) decided on arabic - eazam, maeiz, and alhiad. but for my own sake, i’ll just be referring to them by their english names) (yes i used google translate pls don’t burn me at the stake)

bone kingdom -- formerly ruled by gaster. he has two sons, sans and papyrus. papyrus is the current ruler. this kingdom is well-known for their technological advancements and for being entirely powered by the sun

goat kingdom -- ruled by asgore and toriel. they have two children, asriel and chara. this kingdom is well-known for their farming and the king and queen’s garden of desert sunflowers. citizens from the other kingdoms often visit when the desert sunflowers bloom

neutrality kingdom -- unnamed ruler. the kingdom that takes in refugees when the bone and goat kingdoms went into war with each other (that’s literally it’s only purpose whoops)

the bone kingdom and the goat kingdom were at war, but when papyrus became sultan, he asked for (and got) a truce, even if it was tentative for now

the cause of the war (warning: dubious science and UT magic ahead)

years ago, in the middle of a long drought, gaster, the sultan of the bone kingdom (BK), decided to make a machine that could summon the rain

human souls were powerful and persisted after death, so he used one from a recently deceased human

but it wasn’t enough

human souls don't work by themselves or with each other; they needed monster dust because human souls can’t attach to another human soul

but monster souls don’t persist after death, and monster dust is devoid of soul power... and then gaster discovered determination, so he tried injecting it to monster dust

the DT managed to ‘power up’ the monster dust somewhat, and for a while, it was enough... but only for a while

gaster realized that he needed a strong “glue” to keep everything together; the rain clouds were sparse and small, and thus the rain itself was too

meanwhile, the goat kingdom (GK) had been trying to get in touch with the BK, because they’d noticed that the BK had been having some rain in the middle of the drought and wanted to ask for their help in any way, shape, or form

gaster had been ignoring their messages though, so the GK send their prince (asriel) and his bodyguard (chara) to speak with them personally

when they arrive, gaster had an epiphany -- he remembered that a fusion between a boss monster’s soul and a human soul (especially one with such high levels of determination) would have power beyond imagination

so gaster took their souls

and finally, the machine was complete

the raincloud was large (too large, actually) and constantly loomed over the kingdom, bringing frequent rain

but the raincloud was unstable, like it (or the souls in it) was trying to fight back, so he fed it more human souls + DT’d monster dust to keep the rain going

an unfortunate side effect, though, was that it stole all the rain clouds/condensation from the rest of the country, and the two other kingdoms immediately went into a seemingly permanent drought

weeks passed, and the GK haven’t heard from either asriel or chara, and somehow the BK had gotten rain almost every day since the two kids were supposed to arrive there

asgore and toriel were suspicious, so they sent someone to the BK, to check on asriel and chara’s status

but gaster claimed never to have seen them, even though the kingdom’s citizens said they’d seen the two kids going to the castle weeks ago

outraged and sure that gaster had murdered their kids, as well as somehow stealing the rain, they declared war

current events (the truce and the spies)

at some point, gaster dies and papyrus takes up the throne, and the two kingdoms agree on a tentative truce, with papyrus promising that he’ll give them the answers they seek

the skelebros discover the machine and its purpose, and destroy it

but the rain persists, and the drought in the other kingdoms remain

so they go over gaster’s logs and blueprints, trying to find the cause, even going so far as to fix the machine again in an attempt to find out how it works and if they could reroute the magic somehow, all the while trying to keep the facade of "everything is ok” to their kingdom and its citizens

asgore and toriel don’t fully trust papyrus, though, especially considering gaster’s own cageyness and claims of ignorance, so they decide to send spies

alphys (the GK’s royal scientist) enlists the help of her ghost friend, mettaton, and his cousin, blooky, to possess the spy bots and infiltrate the BK to get some answers

(mtt immediately becomes corporeal when he possesses his designated bot)

mtt and blooky pose as a traveling duo of a dancer and a musician, and set off for the BK

while patrolling the BK’s border, papyrus finds the two bots, and he lets them seek refuge from the rain

after finding out they’re performers, papyrus invites them to the kingdom’s rain festival, which was in a few days, and mtt agrees

blooky was out of commission when papyrus found them (“because of the rain” mtt says) but they’re just faking it

blooky is actually using their ghostness to their advantage, and sneaks around the castle for clues while mtt makes friendly with papyrus and sans to drive away suspicion

but mtt and the skelebros get attached to each other of course

and then blooky gets caught

mtt sneaks around himself to finish what blooky started, and that’s when he finds the rain machine and the souls that sustained it

so how does it end?

sans catches mtt, of course, and discovers he’s a spy from the GK

they both throw accusations at first, but then calm down enough to explain their sides

mtt decides to report to the king and queen, and plea for the skelebros’ innocence, but the skelebros are labeled as accomplices, while mtt gets branded as a traitor and sentenced to death

and then sans and papyrus get into contact with the raincloud

apparently, at some point after asriel and chara’s disappearance, frisk arrived at the bone kingdom and got fed to the cloud

frisk had tried to break free (and destroy the cloud in the process) but found out that the souls in the cloud were still semi-sentient

frisk hadn’t wanted anyone to die, and they figured the rain was helping people, so they stayed

(they were the last human soul to be fed to the cloud)

the raincloud reached a sort of stasis where it just kept on raining and raining

frisk’s determination has been keeping the raincloud stable all these years, and it’s also what kept it stubbornly whole even when the rain machine was destroyed

somehow, sans and papyrus manage to talk to cloud!frisk and reason with them

with great remorse and regret, frisk finally lets go

the raincloud destabilizes, big globs of DT’d monster dust and soul falling from the sky and sticking to all of human- and monsterkind (it’s harmless)

the cloud is gone and the skies over BK are, for once, clear

rain finally falls on the other side of the country

everybody cries and rejoices

mtt and the skelebros are pardoned, and the three of them go sailing at some point, just like in mtt’s daydreams

the end!

i just wanted it to end happily ok

but there you have it! the entire plot for deserttale! my idea of what the plot was and what i’d written out in my gdocs had some discrepancies and differences, so if there’s any plot holes or continuity errors, that’s why lol

also i never really figured out how they manage to communicate with cloud!frisk; i figured they, like, fell into the machine or something, gaster-style, but idk if they’d be able to survive that and i don’t want to end this au with major character death, so feel free to just fill in the blanks yourself lol