#dr dess

Daily Journal (my English assignment)

Ignore the date and location information.

December, it's her month

This is my Dess design when she's older, like closest to when she goes missing. The other one was when she was around Kris and Noelle's age

Flat colors and sketch undercut

With that in mind, it is extremely interesting to me that Toriel, who seems like a stickler for keeping up a responsible appearance and has disapproved of her children’s more rebellious actions, makes sure Kris knows on a phone call she will fight (throw a smoke bomb!?) on their behalf if Kris is given trouble for the overdue book. I repeat, Toriel is *against* returning and paying back the fee for a library book with a known connection to Dess, for some curious reason. Considering this strange break in character I think it’s premature to say Toriel didn’t care about Dess.

!!!!! Oh! That is a very interesting observation!!

Like, obviously the whole thing about smoke bombs is just kind of a joke, yet another little moment where Toriel's Responsible Motherly Mom Image kinda gives away to her hidden silly side, and maybe that's all there is to it but....

Maybe it is notable that Toriel is fully aware of Asriel's crazy overdue library book and all she does is make this little joke about it. It's not like "hee hee hee... But seriously, Kris, you need to return this book. When Asriel comes home I must talk with him about this". Or, even, like return it herself (seeing how her workplace is literally a two-second walk away from the library)...

She knows about the overdue book and she does not seem to put pressure on anyone to return it or just return it herself. At minimum she seems to be casually complicit in her children's Library Crimes, at maximum, like you said, she does not want to return this book either and she just hides it as a silly little joke.

Toriel also refers to the Library Fees as 'our' debt, which kinda just learns into Berdly jokingly referring to the Library Fees as Kris' "Family Debt"... but it also kinda implies that, like, not returning "How to Draw Dragons" is her decision as well as her children's. It's not 'your brother debt' or 'you and your brother debt' or anything like that.... it's Our Debt.

And especially since, like, one of the often-repeated gags about the "How to Draw Dragons" book is the... provocative cover art.

Which seems like it clashes with Toriel's generally sexually-conservative sensibilities...

So Toriel being totally chill with Asriel keeping not just an overdue library book, but THIS overdue library book does feel like a significant character beat for her...