#underfell lore

Charon: warnings; mentions of torture, not explicit. Mentions of mercy killing, not explicit.

Back underground when Charon became the Captain of the Royal guard, the mad king Asgore made Charon hunt down ‘traitors’ - monsters who Asgore in his paranoia thought were secretly rebelling and planning to backstab him - and bring them back in front of the mad king.

Which Charon did, only to find out about the terrible fate that would befall said monsters: Enduring a horrible torture in view of the entire inhabitants of New Home, kept alive for days in their horrific state as a warning to any possible traitors that wish to rebel before being dusted.

Horrified by this, Charon found an ultimatum; offering the ‘traitors’ he captures a choice. Either be handed over to the mad king and the merciless fate that awaited them there, or dust painlessly by Charon’s hands, have their last will fulfilled and their dust spread out at a location of their choosing.

He hid his actions from the king by pretending he was merciless and didn’t hold back, often causing a dusting instead of a capture. The king believed this ruse. As did most of monster kind. Meanwhile Charon kept the dust of monsters who wanted to be spread on the surface in urns kept safely in the basement. The urns labeled by names of the monster and their wills.

-🍄

*me vibrating cuz I get to infodump a bit of lore of my boys*

That means that Red’s and Charon’s little charade has worked! You see, Charon and Red care a great deal about one another, they’re each other’s last remaining family.

Red has risked so much with his illegal trap and machine repairing services to keep both himself and Charon safe, fed and sheltered. Having to constantly relocate, sneak around and be suspicious of everything and everyone he bordered on getting a burnout so bad there was almost no point of return.

Charon has struggled, fought and forced himself to become strong and harsh enough to survive and rise up as captain of the Royal guard. Stomping down and hiding his kind self in the deepest corner of his being to seem like an soulless force to be reckoned with. Just so he could step up and be the protector of the two of them. To make sure Red won’t have to risk himself getting either dusted by an unsatisfied customer or worse, captured by the Royal guard and most possibly tortured by the crazed king himself. (Or forced to be a scientist like their deceased older brother had been)

Out in the open, Charon complains and scolds and pushes Red around as if he’s just a nuisance he can’t wait to drop. Out in the open, Red acts as if he’s intimidated by his brother, acting like a lackey that doesn’t bother to even try.

But this act they keep up is the farthest from the truth. The two brothers are protective over and care about each other. Yes they are rough around the edges and quite stubborn and hotheaded. But if you look a bit closer, look a bit deeper than the surface level, you’ll see Charon nag his brother to train more, to get stronger, you’ll see Charon force Red to nap as he seemingly roughly - yet carefully without any discomfort on Red’s side - grabs Red by the collar or hood of his jacket and hoist him like sack of potatoes and walks home ‘grumbling’ and ‘complaining’ about how ‘incompetent’ his brother is.

If you look a bit closer, and deeper beyond the surface level, you’ll see Red whip up some waffles for Charon which he places in front of his brother’s door when he knows Charon had a rough day. You’ll see that the heated argument between Red and Charon is actually about Red wanting Charon to not take all the weight and load on his shoulders, to for once think about himself and not about the monsters he dusted who Charon has yet spread their dust out in the places they wanted their last resting place to be.

These two boys care and love each other a great deal, they are each other’s anchor and they may act like they hate each other with a passion rivaling the sun, but that’s just all an act to ensure that other monsters don’t see their brother as a way to get to them.