#hsf!papyrus

King (Horrorfell Papyrus)  – He’s a tough nut to crack, but if you don’t happen to have a clever wit to banter back and forth with him, using your sharpest ripostes and most stinging barbs, physical comedy is actually your best bet. He’s a bit of a sadist and has just enough of a mean streak to always find it funny when someone falls, or walks into a pole, or really any other form of slapstick as a result of someone’s clumsiness or inattention. He generally has enough grace to rein his visible amusement in, but if you ever see some sort of petty accident waiting to happen, do point it out—or be the clumsy fool yourself, you just might see an undignified snicker.

Merc (Horrorswap Sans) – He actually has a great sense of humor and joy, so he does already smile quite a bit! Just…because of his condition, he has to keep in control of his emotions, so those smiles are small and slow and restrained, lest he feel too much and lose his handle on himself. That said, the element of surprise is crucial to winning the big and real reactions from him, catching him off-guard so he doesn’t see it coming and can’t mount an internal defense against it. Non sequiturs and unexpected punchlines work great for this, but are best used sparingly—both to keep the element of surprise at play, and to keep his discomfort from getting a little melty to a minimum.

Ell (Horrorswap Papyrus) – In spite of his often surly or sour mood, he’s not especially difficult to amuse. Probably his favorite thing, though, is anything that happens to be unintentionally funny—as in, something that was not meant to be comedic but, by circumstance or execution or some other factor, has just completely missed the mark and has worked its way around to funny. Really badly outdated special effects or especially hokey dialogue in shows and movies tend to work well in getting him to smile, but he’s liable to bark out a laugh for signs and billboards and such that should not have been placed next to each other, or if you share with him something stupid and out of touch that a celebrity or politician may have said.

Nemo (Horrorswapfell Papyrus) – He’s only deceptively hard to get a smile out of. He’s often anxious, or in guard-dog mode, thinking about things that could happen, and what he’d have to do in the event of X, Y, or Z, which has the Resting Bitch Face out in full force…but he’s far from a heart of stone. When he’s relaxed and comfortable, he’ll smile about pretty much anything, even just for it being a kind of nice day outside. …But if you want to see him smile even when he's not entirely chill, all it really takes is some kids, or maybe a funny animal. Seeing kids goofing around doing kid things, or a puppy dog up to some puppy type antics, he has a hard time not smiling for that.

Spectr (Transcendtale Sans) – He’s a very, very tough one, almost the poster skeleton for ‘nothing to smile about in my life.’ He’s definitely lost in his own existentialism a lot, or the opposite and trying not to think about more than what’s directly in front of him, which does make it pretty difficult to get a laugh out of him. Still, he can’t quite help himself when it comes to skeleton-based jokes and puns—it’s tired, old material, sure, but very comforting and familiar, and he likes to hear it. It’s not a guaranteed laugh if you hit him with some humerus wordplay, but he’s pretty likely to be smiling behind his mask, and even likelier to throw you a bone and respond in kind.

Tank (Underfell Fruition Papyrus) – With him, it’s a little bit like getting one of those palace guards to crack a smile—it’s not so much that he’s humorless, just that he’s (until recently) not been allowed to show a response…and as a related issue, he’s not at all familiar with social cues and doesn’t always realize a certain response is expected of him. Because of that, one of the best ways to get him to smile is to explain a joke for him, or just let him know that what was said was a joke. It’s easier for him to feel comfortable expressing his amusement if he knows for sure that he was meant to be amused, but as for a specific preference of humor… Well, he actually really likes skeleton-related puns and jokes, too! His brother used to tell them all the time when they were younger and since he wasn’t around long enough to use them to death those are very fond memories!

Same rough premise as my take on Horrorswap but to sum up— the Fallen Human comes through on a Neutral run, leaves the Underground in disrepair, without solid leadership and no souls.

Asgore was left alive, but has no interest in taking the throne. The people are restless and angry and want a leader who will act decisively. He steps in only long enough to appoint General Alphys of the Royal Guard the official successor of his late estranged wife and then back into the Ruins to mourn again.

Alphys, though she doesn’t really want the position nonetheless accepts the burden with grace and becomes the Empress of the Underground.

The plan is the same as in Horrorswap: her right-hand skeleton Sans, the Captain of the Royal Guard, will bring her the Next Human that falls, she’ll subsume their soul to cross the Barrier, and then break it from the other side with whichever humans she can find.

Until then, martial law is declared to ensure utmost efficiency with the Underground’s remaining resources and keep everything from breaking down any further than it already has.

The overall atmosphere amongst monsters is strained and tense, but everything works like clockwork for the few months it takes for another human to appear.

Sans captures them, escorts them to the Capital and to the new Empress, who kills them and absorbs their soul.

And then…

Alphys is unable to subsume it.

The human soul in Alphys’ now especially monstrous body wins control and goes berserk—a startling reminder for the watching Guard and civilians of the shocking and terrifying power of one human soul.

In fact, everyone flees as the beast rampages around the palace, wanting only to get out of the way of the destruction.

Only Sans remains to bait the creature, using his speed to dodge its heavy blows and hopefully tire it enough for his Empress his friend to get control.

Even he can’t dodge forever, of course.

Only one brutal swat of the beast’s whiplike tail lands, but one is all that’s needed. The sound of crunching bone startles Alphys enough inside of the creature to give her a foothold toward control.

She digs in as hard as she can and yells for Sans to run; to let her take it from here.

Normally, Sans might protest, if just for the sake of his own ego…but disoriented, very badly wounded, and in an amount of pain he’s actually never been in before, he obeys the order and blindly shortcuts home.

Papyrus is, expectedly, horrified and alarmed at the state of his brother and does his best to take care of him and keep him from dying because it was close, it was very close.

His task is only made harder by the complete and utter breakdown of…everything outside, more fighting and looting than even the Royal Guard can stem, wherever they are.

(Sans was meant to lead in Alphys’ absence and keep things running normally, but…)

Papyrus goes out of doors into that chaos as sparingly as possible, only to scrounge around for what food and healing items he can find, and he has only the barest awareness of Asgore returning from his self-imposed exile and calming things again by force.

A little late, but better than never.

There’s no word on Alphys for a long time, no certainty that she’s still alive on the otherside, or that if she is, wherever she is, she’s even still in control.

Papyrus doesn’t know and doesn’t care to know—it’s safest to just barricade himself and his critically injured brother in the house and hope that no news is good news.

Sans is, of course, in no state to protest this plan.

Alphys does return, eventually, with all the necessary souls to shatter the Barrier and set monsters free. She’s deeply unsettled by her experience with the soul that took control of her and still feels that she can hear it in her head, fighting her still.

She has no desire to be Empress anymore and begs for Asgore to stay on as the ruler of monsterkind.

Monsterkind, equally unsettled by the power of humanity and the chaos of both the Fallen Human and the brief breakdown of social order, are willing to accept Asgore as their Emperor, and to accept making peace with humans to stop the fighting now.

Asgore leads monsters to the Surface and integration with humans, and even negotiates Alphys’ prison time to asylum care.

Monsterkind can begin to heal.

Horrorswapfell Sans (Pitch)

The Creature’s tail hit him full in the face, shattering the bone between his eye-sockets entirely—though all his other broken bones from the fight have healed by now, he’s still entirely blind thanks to the gaping void in his face

He’s far too stubborn to let this affect him, of course, and has determined to go on as usual, making use of every adaptation that might help him. He carries a cane now and has started learning Braille…he’s thinking of putting in for a seeing-eye dog, too, while he’s at it…

He’s actually dealing with everything very well. While he’d of course prefer to still be able to see, being so badly hurt and put out of commission for so long forced him to rely on others and let them help him, all while he actually couldn’t do anything in return…and he wasn’t…immediately discarded? There were a lot of ways he’d have preferred to realize he has worth beyond what he can do for people, but beggars can’t be choosers, he supposes

Amidst learning how to do things again without a major sense, reestablishing his independence, he stumbles into boxing at a local gym. He never particularly liked the up-close-and-personal physical sort of fighting before, preferring to use bullets, but he actually finds it’s great for blowing off steam and boosting his ego when sight or no, he can still go toe-to-toe with his opponents and win more often than not. He’s gaining a bit of notoriety on the semi-pro circuit and is kicking around the idea of making a living out of it

If only it weren’t for his brother…

But he’s on the Surface, and even if he can’t see it, he can still feel the wind and the sun on his bones and he can still do everything he wants to do up here and he’s...he’s happy! And sorting things out with Papyrus...will come when it comes.

Horrorswapfell Papyrus (Nemo)

Physically, he’s fine excepting a few more scars than before and just a bit more LV than he ever wanted. Emotionally, well… he’s pretty rattled after how basically the stability of his whole worldview kinda crashed and burned back there

Seeing his untouchable big brother so hurt and helpless actually really scared the hell out of him and it made him step up a lot. He learned a lot of self-sufficiency in those couple of weeks Sans was out of commission, most by trial and error, and it gave him a new respect for everything Sans had been doing for both of them

And, unfortunately, a new kind of fear of the dangers out there in the world that can strike at any time: it started gradually on the Surface, but it isn’t long before he has a case of full-blown agoraphobia and hates to leave the house, knowing it’s not rational to just stay indoors forever, but struggling to rein in the fears and anxieties that creep in whenever he steps outside

Or when Sans steps outside, for that matter, especially when he’s going to a fight—he’d really rather Sans stop the whole boxing thing altogether and stay home where it’s safer, but Sans wouldn’t budge and they had a whole blowout about it, where…some things…may have been said, and…

Suffice it to say, things are strained and they’re not…talking very much…

Ash (Undergloom Sans): Pretty mundane, all things considered, he’s not really an over-the-top sorta guy. By the time he proposes, you’ve almost definitely had at least a handful casual conversations about getting hitched, just to make sure you’re on the same page about the idea. And then, you find the ring, hidden at the bottom of a basket of fries at Grillby’s (because of course it’s at Grillby’s) and the question in his eye-lights when you look back up at him. He won’t say it out loud, he wants you to have the out of shoving it back at him or maybe just quietly taking it if you’re not up for a scene--but if you lick the grease and salt off that puppy and slip it on your finger, you’re already in the best place to celebrate your engagement with all your friends and family!

Yrus (Undergloom Papyrus): Paralyzed by indecision on how to ask you, quite frankly. You’re his s/o, and very special and important to him, so he wants it to be perfect, exactly what you want... but how??? He spends months looking up proposal ideas, asking friends and family for advice, practically stressing himself to tears over how much he wants this to happen but just can’t decide on how to do it! You’re almost guaranteed to find out about it before he follows through on anything, and honestly, you should probably propose on his behalf. The tears will finally come then, but they’ll be happy ones, and hopefully the two of you can laugh about it later that it was his idea and he had everything ready, but you had to be the one to ask just to make it happen.

Brick (Horrorfell Sans): Once he’s decided that he really wants to be with you on a permanent basis, he’d like to make the proposal really special and memorable for you… but he doesn’t really have any ideas. He’s…not the most creative, or spontaneous, and everything he’s come up with feels boring or clichéd… In the end, the only thing he can think of is to just... rehearse and memorize a little speech-- the usual pre-proposal stuff, like what you mean to him, how much he loves you, the future he wants to have with you... He writes it all down, everything he wants to say to you, and drills it, over and over until he’s got every word down perfectly with no pauses or wrong signs or stand-in-words for what he actually means, like there usually are when you talk to him. When the time comes, it’s the skeleton-equivalent of muscle memory and he delivers his speech perfectly, flawlessly for you, ending on the classic ‘will you marry me?’ and watching carefully for your answer. (If it’s ‘yes,’ you can bet he’ll still remember the speech, word for word, years later and be able to repeat it to you whenever you ask-- your fifth, tenth, twentieth anniversary and beyond.)

King (Horrorfell Papyrus): Probably disappointing, honestly. He’s a very restrained and understated type of person, not the type to make a fuss, even about this. Honestly, you’ll be with him so long and so harmoniously that everyone you know will be assuming you’re already married before he’s ever said anything to you about it. And then, one day... he tells you that he’s looked into it and that it’d be relatively easy to make things official, he already knows the forms to fill out and the pieces of identification you’ll need, if that’s something you’d like to do. Not...very romantic...definitely not much of a wow factor... but you might feel at least a little flutter if you agree, because he’ll take your hand and press the back of it to his teeth and follow it up with, “GOOD. LET’S GET ON WITH FOREVER, THEN.” And he does mean that-- he only plans on marrying once, and you’re it for him.

Merc (Horrorswap Sans): You’ll find him in the kitchen, getting a little baking done. He’ll tell you, straight-faced and straight to your face, that he’s making a proposal cake...and ask if you’d like to help. You’ll probably assume it’s a paid project of his, for a client, and he’ll encourage your misunderstanding every step of the way. (Bonus points if you happen to have any comments--positive or negative--about the guy who’s proposing to his datemate with a cake!) The two of you will be flirting and cooperating and having a nice afternoon together making this cake--mixing the batter, putting on the frosting, carefully decorating it-- and it probably won’t occur to you that every part of it, from the flavors to the colors are exactly to your tastes... at least, not until he’s piping ‘Will You Marry Me’ on top and then spells out your name. The cheeky son of a bitch got you to help him bake your own proposal. He’ll slide the cake over to you with a patient smile while he waits for it to click, and to hear your answer to the question.

Ell (Horrorswap Papyrus): He’s definitely going to take a long time to get around to it, lots of hesitating and talking himself into and out of it. You’ll mostly likely be cuddled together, in the middle of the night, when he can’t wait anymore and nudges you awake to ask how you feel about doing something stupid. (It’s a prime opportunity for an ‘I’m doing you, aren’t I?’ joke, and honestly that might loosen a little bit of the tension for him if you’re quick enough on the draw to make it.) He’ll hem and haw and talk around it for awhile if you choose to probe into what he had in mind, but he’ll go for broke sooner or later and say that it’s marrying him, that he was thinking about. The stupid thing. That he...wondered if you would...do... He has a ring, which he fishes out from underneath the pillow, but the self-consciousness will start hitting him around then, and he probably won’t be able to look you in the eye as he sheepishly nudges it at you, waiting for your answer. If it just so happens to be ‘yes,’ well... he’ll probably be smiling into your shoulder all night and well into the morning.

Pitch (Horrorswapfell Sans): He wants an organic moment and he’ll wait as long as he needs to for a natural, intimate moment where it just feels right to ask. It’ll probably be a morning, early but not so early that the sun isn’t coming through the windows and making everything feel warm and pleasant as you start the day. Domesticity in its purest form, he’d most like to catch you getting some chores done with a little music playing, the perfect excuse to sweep you into a playful, spontaneous waltz across the floor... And somewhere between the twirling and the laughter and the kisses ruined by smiling, there it is--“MARRY ME...” No ring, no collar, and no real plan for what you might say after, but you can figure that out together, can’t you?

Nemo (Horrorswapfell Papyrus): He pops the question as far from home as possible, out in the great big world. The specific location isn’t important to him, it could be anywhere as long as it’s beautiful and new to him and he’s all the way out there with you. He may not have intended to come on vacation just to do this, so he’s definitely not prepared, but it reminds him how far he’s come and how he never could’ve predicted he’d end up here, with all this, and that inspires him; giving him the confidence to propose without hesitation. He’ll take your hand in his, look you in the eye, and just ask: “will you marry me?” He just...knows that it’s something that he wants and he hopes that you feel the same way.

Sunny (Gastertale Sans): Guaranteed to be a spur of the moment thing, completely off-the-cuff. After you’ve been together awhile, after it’s clear that you two are a Serious Thing and probably in it for the long haul, it could happen pretty much anytime, anywhere... but probably on some adventure you’re on, whether that’s an aimless drive to nowhere, a ‘hey I’ve never done that before, let’s do it’ outing, or even just hitting up a convenience store for snacks in the middle of the night. You’ll just be laughing, having a good time together, living in the moment, and he’ll catch your eye and… “hey. let’s get married!” Spontaneous, but not thoughtless-- if he says it, he means it completely, so there’s no need to worry about him taking it back. He’s just too excited about the idea to not tell you about it immediately, as soon as it pops into his head. Still, he won’t be offended if you doubt the offer at first, and he’d be very happy to talk it out with you--where it came from, how he feels about you, why he wants it-- until you believe him and can maybe start thinking about an answer to give him. Take your time, he can wait, as long as it’s with you!