DATA UPLINK ACQUIRED @Nine@awoo.space

@kara_dreamer@witches.town at least, that's my take on it at any rate. The monsters that will talk to you first and foremost are all either more introverted, maybe a bit more worldly, or more reserved and saving their exuberant passionate displays of emotion for more intimate encounters... or in the case of Shyren, actually a sort of defense mechanism, and in Napstablook's case, just an unfortunate side effect of their emotional state.

@kara_dreamer@witches.town and it's like an extreme extrovert seeming like they're obnoxious or too energetic for others and being super lively, so their magical 'attacks' which are really greetings and such hurt because they're too exuberant, hence why a lot of them will talk to you after a fight, realising your personal boundaries?

@kara_dreamer@witches.town with magic, they are literally attacking you/defending themselves with their very soul and expressions thereof... But also it could be inferred, especially from some fights, that they aren't aware you're human (nobody's seen one in generations, decades, centuries maybe), so they're not ATTACKING, exactly. They're expressing emotions and greetings in the only way they know how to you for the most part, but in a very overt way.

@kara_dreamer@witches.town Hmm, I.... haven't really? I just sort of accepted it as "yeah it's magic it just happens" but considering each monster has its own specific attacks and it's implied all of them are magical (there's a book in the library in snowdin that says humans don't HAVE magic innately, so will never know the joy of a bullet curtain birthday card which seems like a throwaway joke but really it's fascinating), that because their soul is suffused

@masklayer you are forceably ejected from the waking world

@kara_dreamer@witches.town I actually like this interpretation a lot! This is good stuff! :D

Every time I see, hear, or use the phrase "but first", I give myself a few seconds to giggle internally and repeat it in my mind as "butt thirst".

This has resulted occasionally in people looking at me strange and wondering why I paused and started grinning.

@kara_dreamer@witches.town Chara even suggests maybe taking a different course of action next time after accusing the player of a "perverted sentimentality" wrt recreating and destroying the world again. Choosing to not give your soul this time results in Chara saying "this is what I was talking about", then reminding you that you already "made your choice long ago". followed by a reset anyway after a jumpscare.

@kara_dreamer@witches.town Basically doing more than one genocide run has Chara refer to themselves as "The demon that comes when people call its name." No matter where or when, Chara will kill the enemy and become strong. They then list the stats off like normal, then say they don't understand the player's SOUL's "Twisted feelings"; why they destroyed everything, then went back and did it again.

@kara_dreamer@witches.town else Chara asks "So what are you looking for?" , They then offer to recreate the world in exchagne for your soul. Saying no makes Chara just leave with "Then stay here for all eternity", before returning in 10 minutes again. Yes makes you give Chara your soul, then the True Reset option appears. A "Soulless" Genocide run does have some interesting results though.

@kara_dreamer@witches.town I don't think there is any difference other than the endings on a post-genocide pacifist run. Basically to get any "soulless" as they're called runs, first you gotta do a genocide run, then relaunch the game and wait 10 minutes on a pitch black screen. Chara then reminds you that you destroyed the world, and asks if you think you're above the consequences. Selecting yes causes them to reply "Exactly"

@kara_dreamer@witches.town Though it does still absolutely fit either way with the statement of "you think you're above the consequences of your actions?" from Chara.

@kara_dreamer@witches.town That's also possible and valid, but it also stands to reason that they want to punish themselves and all humanity, given the Post-Genocide Pacifist Endings. (staying with Toriel grants that creepy epilogue scene with Chara's eyes opening with that smile at the end, and leaving on other business shows the photos with everyone's faces crossed out and Chara's smile and red eyes)

@kara_dreamer@witches.town I think honestly, given what you said, and Chara's Genocide run personality, I suspect Chara's going through the same thing. So mired in self-hate and nihilism, they want to wipe out EVERYTHING, and with Frisk's help gain the strength (ExP and LOVE) and Determination to literally tear reality asunder as The Demon Chara, rendering it into Oblivion where they can be alone and not exist. :(

@kara_dreamer@witches.town Yep! This also feeds into when in a genocide run he realises Chara can kill him. It strikes him full of abject terror to the point he tries to curry favour with Chara at the end...which fails, ending with Chara /taking their time killing him/ even as he pleads for "his best friend" to spare him D: D: D: It's...really really chilling and quite scary. I barely can stomach watching it.

@kara_dreamer@witches.town but yeah I run with the idea that Chara is narrator in ALL runs, that Frisk's actions either confirm Chara's twisted world view and continue their path towards demonhood (Genocide), or help Chara realise that humanity, and by extention, themselves, are not corrupt and evil and awful and don't deserve to be wiped out (True Pacifist), and the True Pacifist run is Chara's way of redeeming themselves by helping Frisk repair the situation they created.

@kara_dreamer@witches.town as his speech at me made me realise just how broken and tragic he was. "I just don't understand!" just...it broke my heart. I think I resolved at that point to help heal him, to help him understand. I'm glad I did, but it was still tragic seeing how it all ended.

@kara_dreamer@witches.town despite not knowing the material you referenced, I came to the same conclusions myself from playing through Undertale on neutral and pacifist, and then reading about the genocide route, and I think even at just playing it blind on the Neutral route, even after everything, even with how angry I was, I couldn't even bring myself to kill Flowey. At first it was just stubborn refusal to let him "win", but then it became true sorrow for him.

@kara_dreamer@witches.town This is because Flowey earlier, upon agreeing quite enthusiastically to help you kill everyone and everything right at the beginning, realises that the only being with enough Determination to end his existence, is Chara.

This makes him deeply, intrinsically afraid. As a being with Determination, despite his lack of a Soul, he wants to live. Fear gives way to terror and he flees as it implies Chara smiles THROUGH Frisk, knowing this.