#undertag

two schools of thought: dess was either a prepper because she thought an apocalypse aesthetic was cool af, OR she saw some sort of vision of the roaring and became obsessed with surviving it. either way, she thought it pertinent to check out the bunker, and something bad happened to her that kris bore witness to.

dess is not missing or dead--she was shattered across time and space the same way gaster was.

there is a sense of skirting around her actual name. like in noelle's room in chapter two, examining her calendar says 'every month is the last month, every day is the 25th'

(this implies that noelle was googling 'december holiday' in an attempt to find her sister and couldn't because it just brought up results for christmas. which actually ties into my point)

i don't think anyone in the light world, besides her family and kris, fully remembers dess. i don't think they remember what happened to her, because she got gaster'd.

undyne and her colleagues repeatedly talk about having nothing to do.

dess is mentioned in the light world, but only ever by her nickname, and... incredibly sparingly, as well.

noelle knows there is a vacant room in her house, and she knows she is not supposed to let anyone in. noelle knows susie shouldn't touch the guitar in there, but she doesn't say why. to not make us too suspicious, this looks like she's jut avoiding the subject. but what if she literally doesn't know

carol obviously responds terrifyingly to all of this too. but again, she doesn't say why.

but, again, she's remembered in the dark world. noelle talks about her in the dark world. with that, several more schools of thought open up--

dess is the knight to me. i am not budging on this. the knight is a shadowy figure, a dark harbinger of the apocalypse (something we now know is dess's aesthetic) appears in the 'cold room,' and fucking has antlers. it could not more obviously be dess.

so i think we have two options here. either dess is trying to cause the roaring because it is the only way she can force the earth and all upon it to REMEMBER her, or

dess knows the roaring will happen regardless--your choices don't matter. dess knows in all her omniscience that the roaring is unstoppable, and she is actually trying to pull everyone into the bunker to save them.

i think the shadowy figure kris was on the phone with might have been her, but i'm not certain of that. this is also how gaster communicates despite his being shattered, but the phone person doesn't have the same cadence as gaster. no caps lock, no repetitive speech.

i think that the roaring needs to happen for the story to reach its natural end. because of this, i think you will at one point be forced to take ralsei's side or susie's side. since susie (who you cannot control, and who contradicts every attempt you make to do so) represents absolute autonomy and free will, and ralsei represents staying on the path that was chosen for you.

If you tell Sans that Papyrus is uncool he tells you that sarcasm isn't funny (it's also v interesting to me that Sans never says an untruth if he can help it but hides a bunch, while Papyrus is occasionally dishonest, but usually for benign reasons). I've seen theories that Sans is also autistic and having difficulty reading tone (which is oftentimes the bulk of sarcasm) is a big one. Which is also neat to me is that Sans is really good at reading expressions. So in short, Sans typically only says something dishonest if it's blatantly part of a joke with an incoming punchline, right? And he doesn't like sarcasm, never uses it.

Papyrus will get sarcastic and cutting regularly when talking with Undyne when you call them both. The few times she misinterprets these it tends to be in the direction of "continuing a bit Papyrus might not have realized he started", not outright confusion. There's few if any times she legitimately fails to understand when Papyrus is being sarcastic, in a way that makes her feel bad; they're almost always in agreement or doing a bit.

What makes this really interesting to me is that while Papyrus tends to act kind of overblown with Sans - even moreso than usual, probably because he knows Sans won't be bothered with it or will go along - he never seems to use dishonesty or sarcasm when conversing with his brother.

Papyrus also has a lot of negative things to say about Hotland, but he only says "Glad I don't live in Hotland!" before you befriend Undyne. When he complains after that, it's always about specific aspects, usually of puzzles, a thing Undyne doesn't like much so they can have an agreement or fairly constructive conversation about it.

He also changes his opinion on Grillby's to agree with Undyne, but is fine making jabs at her love of anime, so he's not being like... obsequious at all times.

Summary: The human is arriving in Snowdin, covered in dust. Papyrus goes to face them, and this time...

This time.

This time.

Papyrus padded through the deserted town. Sans had gone who knows where, but his brother had an uncanny ability to appear wherever he needed to be, so Papyrus wasn’t worried. Sans could take care of himself. He had before.

Still, he was concerned. They hadn't hid from him. They hadn't responded to sans's terribly funny puns. They hadn't played the puzzles! Walked through them as if they were nothing. And those horribly cold eyes...

Papyrus was snapped from his thoughts by a bump against his legs. He looked down to see the Innkeeper and her daughter. The girl was trembling. He smiled at her, and directed them to the nearest evacuation route. He saw Sans at the entrance, beckoning them in. Sans, always where he needed to be. Papyrus took a deep breath and went on. This time.

As he passed the eastern edge of town, he stationed himself to meet the human. Excitement and dread battled for dominance in his soul. This time…The air grew colder and quieter until, three and a half minutes later, the fog rolled in like clockwork. A shadow formed in the distance.

He hoped sans was safe. He hoped the Innkeeper and her daughter were safe.

He hoped the human could be saved.

Papyrus took a deep breath.

“HALT, HUMAN!”

They moved forward a step. Like clockwork. Papyrus felt a cold sweat break out on the top of his skull.

“HEY, QUIT MOVING WHILE I’M TALKING TO YOU! I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, HAVE SOME THINGS TO SAY.” The human looked back at him with cold eyes, but did not respond. “FIRST: YOU’RE A FREAKING WEIRDO! NOT ONLY DO YOU NOT LIKE PUZZLES. BUT THE WAY YOU SHAMBLE ABOUT FROM PLACE TO PLACE…THE WAY YOUR HANDS ARE ALWAYS COVERED IN DUSTY POWDER.” He glanced down, but there was really no need. Even from a distance he could see the dust glinting in the low light, sparkling gaily as if it were only powdered crystal. His hand shook, but he stopped it as best he could. He could almost hear sans in his head, telling him to run or to fight, but…this time…

“IT FEELS…LIKE YOUR LIFE IS GOING DOWN A DANGEROUS PATH.”

The human’s hands clenched, as if they were…ashamed? Papyrus’s soul did a great leap in triumph. This time…

“HOWEVER! I, PAPYRUS, SEE GREAT POTENTIAL WITHIN YOU! EVERYONE CAN BE A GREAT PERSON IF THEY TRY! AND ME, I HARDLY HAVE TO TRY AT ALL!!!” He laughed. They would laugh with him, they would—

“HEY, QUIT MOVING!” The human stopped in their tracks, but not after they had closed the distance considerably. They put a hand in their pocket. Papyrus fought the urge to hold them, to shake some sense into them.

“THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT I AM TALKING ABOUT! HUMAN! I THINK YOU ARE IN NEED OF GUIDANCE!” If his words were affecting them at all, they didn’t show it. But Papyrus saw the light behind their eyes. They were in there. They hadn't even skipped his words like last time.

“SOMEONE NEEDS TO KEEP YOU ON THE STRAIGHT AND NARROW! BUT WORRY NOT! I, PAPYRUS…WILL GLADLY BE YOUR FRIEND AND TUTOR! I WILL TURN YOUR LIFE RIGHT AROUND!!!” He smiled at them, a picture of Sans and himself holding the human in their arms, together and happy, forming in his mind. He thought they may have remembered the same thing, for he saw some recognition flash behind their eyes.  Papyrus didn’t take his eyes from theirs as they advanced again towards him. He stayed exactly where he was.

“I SEE YOU ARE APPROACHING.”

This time. This time, they would listen.

“ARE YOU OFFERING A HUG OF ACCEPTANCE?”

This time. This time, they would change.

“WOWIE!! MY LESSONS ARE ALREADY WORKING!!”

This time. Once again, he knelt and held out his arms.

“I, PAPYRUS, WELCOME YOU WITH OPEN ARMS!”