#shift au

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The Primary Role Shifts:

Kanako -> Protagonist

Clover -> Martyr

Ceroba -> Ruin’s Lurker

Axis -> Royal Guard

Dalv -> Town Leader

Martlet -> Steamwork’s Security

Starlo -> Grieving Parent

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Elaborations:

Kanako - Kanako had lived all her life in the Ruins with little contact with other Monsters outside Ceroba. She always had a curiosity about the larger underground, but was discouraged from it. She snooped around her mother’s belongings one day and found some old tapes (Chujin style). The tapes depicted a young Human being hidden in the Underground by some unfamiliar Monsters (Starlo, Martlet, and Dalv). Vaguely knowing about the need for Human souls to break the barrier, she set out on her own to find and capture this hiding Human to become a hero for Monsters. She’s assisted by her secret best friend, Flowey.

Clover - Clover fell into the underground much earlier than in canon, falling into the Dark Ruins without Toriel or Flowey knowing. Instead of letting Clover advance on their own, Dalv decided to go with Clover to Snowdin to protect them. Dalv and Clover met Martlet and Chujin (prior to the events depicted in the Zenith Martlet flashback). Chujin is apprehensive about Clover but Dalv and Clover befriend them both. Chujin led them to the Dunes. Clover and Starlo meet and immediately grow attached to each other, forming a strong father-child relationship. Eventually, due to everyone growing complacent on keeping Clover hidden, Clover and Chujin end up getting caught by a Royal Guardsmen in Waterfall, an area both Clover and Chujin are unfamiliar in. Chujin defended Clover in vain, they both died in the ensuing fight. Clover ends up haunting Kanako in a similar manner to Chara does to Frisk, helping her along her journey.

Ceroba - Ceroba is married to Chujin, but both elected to not have children until Monsterkind’s future was more secure and hopeful. She met Dalv and Clover through Chujin after they arrived at the Dunes. She became friends with Dalv and acted as an aunt to Clover. Loving to help take care of Clover, Ceroba and Chujin decided to have a baby of their own. However, distraught by Chujin’s and Clover’s simultaneous deaths and remembering Dalv telling her about his time in the Ruins, Ceroba fled to the Ruins with her baby, Kanako. She elected to raise Kanako away from the larger Underground, not wanting Kanako to be raised in a place which would condone the murder of a caring Monster and an innocent child. Ceroba is lonely and still deep within her grief, but focuses all her attention on raising Kanako and keeping Monsters out of the Dark Ruins.

Axis - Chujin, having fewer stressors and responsibilities since he was childless, had the time and energy to fine tune the invention of Axis. That led to fewer faults in his programming when presented to Asgore and the Axis Project being green-lit. Axis was constructed and placed in Snowdin to be trialled due to the lack of official Royal Guardsmen being in the Snowdin area. Chujin had control over Axis, but rarely used these controls due to an appreciation for Axis’s developed individuality. Martlet and Axis became close because of their similar relationship with Chujin. Initially he tried to capture Clover on sight, but Martlet convinced him to hold off. He became friendly with Clover as they visited Axis in Snowdin. Axis was deeply saddened by Chujin’s and Clover’s deaths, losing all of his closest relationships shortly after when Martlet moved to the Steamworks for work. He knows about Ceroba’s location in the Dark Ruins but purposefully misdirects people from her location to honour his creator. Axis runs autonomously in Snowdin as an asset of the Royal Guard, although none of them know how to operate him.

Dalv - Dalv was attacked by the Blue Soul Human when he was alone in the Snowdin forest, leading him to run off to the Dark Ruins in fear. He was given Coffee Beans by the Honeydew Resort residents when they heard about the attack, leading him to learn how to grow Coffee Beans. He eventually left the Dark Ruins with Clover and moved to the Dunes. He grew close to Starlo and his family as Clover did, bonding over an appreciation of farming. He was heartbroken by Chujin’s and Clover’s deaths as well as Ceroba’s and Starlo’s grief. Refusing to fall back onto his isolationist habits Clover helped him out of, Dalv took over Starlo’s role as leader of the Wild East to give him time to grieve. However the longer he takes on this role the worn down he becomes from his new found duties, but the Feisty Four help him out. Dalv does have a hunch on where Ceroba is, but he has no spare time or energy to pursue his suspicions. As a result of his leadership the Wild East has gained a Western Gothic aesthetic.

Martlet - Martlet never ended up joining the Royal Guard due to meeting Clover earlier on. She instead hopped between the Dunes and Snowdin while doing odd jobs for money in between, such as helping Axis with puzzle maintenance or Starlo in constructing his new house. As a result, she decided to become an independent contractor. After Chujin’s and Clover’s deaths she elects to remain in Snowdin to find company in Axis. She eventually gets hired by Asgore to rework the abandoned Steamworks into more living space for Monsters. Asgore wanting as few people to know about the old Steamworks as possible resulted in Martlet becoming exclusively responsible for the project. Eventually she had to move to live in the Steamworks just to make any significant progress on the project. The project was named the “Steamworks Reconstruction, Repurposing, and Reassimilation Initiative” or “S3RI”.

Tang and MK swap

Pigsy and Red Son swap

Mei and Sandy swap

Macaque and DBK swap

Wukong and PIF swap

Spider Queen and LBD swap

Syntax and Mayor swap

Goliath and Huntsman are bone demons instead of spider demons

Azure Lion is replaced by Dragon Demon King

Peng is replaced by Macaque Demon King

Yellow tusk elephant is replaced by Female Monkey Demon King

(if im missing anyone, let me know)

Tang

a nice kid who’s prone to anxiety 

he discovers his mentor when he encounters the Six-Eared Macaque attempting to steal his mentors weapon to free the Monkey King

he was joined by their friend (family figure) Pigsy

he ends up taking the weapon before they can and everything goes on normally, expect with everyone’s roles shifted

so he ends up at the Flaming Foundry (thanks to red) and returns the fan to PIF

in return, she gives him the staff that Tripitaka used because she (had a feeling he’d need it)

and with it, he defeats the Monkey King for the first time!

why she has it, I have no clue

but since that day, Tang is under the training of PIF

PIF

wife to DBK

mother to Red Son

she’s a lot more prominent in Red’s life, being supportive of his choices and an overall good mom

she resides in the Flaming Foundry, sometimes going to the fire ring around Flower Fruit Mountain for Tang’s training 

in the beginning, she finds it very weird to be training the mentor of the demon she hates the most, yet she grows fond of Tang

she mostly teaches him calming/breathing techniques for his anxiety, which also helps him recite his sutras better