“Someone has to stay and take care of the flowers.” You try talking to Asriel again, but that’s all he’ll say. There’s no option to SAVE him, and no reaction from Toriel when you call her in the room where you fell. Asriel—and to a lesser extent, Toriel and Asgore—are the only ones who don’t get a happy ending. This is it. You’ve talked to everyone, and heard all of their hopes and excitement for the future. You return to the final room, with all of your friends arrayed there. You talk to them all a last time.
You finally head east to watch the sunrise. When Toriel asks whether you want to stay with her, you say yes. You stare fiercely at the credits and the cutscenes. By the time the special thanks pop up, you have tears in your eyes. You turn the game off and head to bed hours late. Everyone is finally happy. They’re just NPCs, but you can’t bring yourself to start the game up again. You’ve heard how Flowey—Flowey, of all creatures—shows up to guilt-trip you after getting the Golden Ending. You read fan comics, watch fan animations, listen to the soundtrack, and to the fan songs. You watch theories about Undertale and other games, about Gaster, and easter eggs that are a three-in-a-hundred-playthroughs chance—and you’re never playing again. Right? You even find some online answers to “post-Undertale depression.” Too many people suggest doing a Genocide run to distance yourself and let go; you close those out of disgust. If you’re already struggling with playing the game again, you could never bring yourself to kill the characters. Besides, you’ve watched Sans’ boss battle, and there’s no way you could ever get through it. You’d give up, and be in the same boat as you are now. Well, you’d feel worse.
What about another pacifist ending? You didn’t get the best neutral ending you could have the first time; you totally missed Undyne’s house in Waterfall. So Flowey told you about Undyne, and not Alyphs. It’s all the same, now, but you didn’t befriend the most people. You could play through again, and do that.
You start Undertale up again; you’re already cringing at yourself, and braced for Flowey’s monologue. But he doesn’t show. It’s just a black screen. You turn the volume up, because—yes, there’s the wind howling. This the post-Genocide start screen, you’ve heard. How did you get this screen? You might as well wait the ten minutes. If Chara shows up, you’re going to be pissed; Genocide ruins all future endings, and you don’t want that consequence for a run you didn’t even do.
You’re in? That’s Frisk on the bed of golden flowers, but there was no naming screen. You move Frisk out to meet Flowey. After you encounter Toriel, you can bring up your limited interface. Previously, you named the Fallen Child “Chara” for immersion and canonicity, after reading about it being the true name. You expect the same here, either due to your previous playthrough or as the default—it is short for “character,” after all. This is... Pamcke. Who would name the Fallen Child PAMCAKE?
The game progresses like new. You go pacifist again, and almost never touch the FIGHT button at all. Except for Ice Cap. You read you can’t get their happiest ending without stealing their hat, and you can’t do that unless you fight. You hang out with Papyrus immediately, rather than forgetting and backtracking. You hum to Shyren until you get the concert; you didn’t see that, last time. You wonder how Sans got toilet paper to make tickets out of, if monsters don’t need it. That train of thought stops pretty squickly. Quickly.
You made the snowman very happy, according to Sans, last playthrough. You don’t really need to do it again if this is all the same, but you keep it anyway. The snow piece clogs up your inventory; it takes up a spot you could really use when running and defending yourself from Undyne. Once you get the Dimensional Boxes from Alyphs, it isn’t such a pain. You just make sure to keep it on the last slot, so that it’s not as in the way.
Oh. God. Damn it. You don’t have to fight Knight Knight and Majik and go through that horrible three-monster battle with the Astigmatism to progress; you could avoid them. But you need to encounter them to get their best endings, rig—damnit! That’s the fifth death in a row. Why do their attack patterns change when you SPARE one of the other monsters? You weren’t prepared for that! Maybe you could just take the eastern path and ignore the Warrior’s Path. You aren’t made of HP. No. You can do this, even if you must SAVE between every fight. And so, you do, even though walking the halls takes so. Long.
Mettaton’s fight was so tough last time; you had to read up on it. You’d filled your inventory with bisicles. You could heal and persist, but you just couldn’t win. You didn’t know how to get through, and you were almost at the point of using FIGHT. With starfaits, it was— less difficult, though not easier. This time, you’re more prepared for the shmup—you had to autohotkey the arrows to WASD so you could move properly. You get over ten thousand viewers relatively quickly.
Asgore destroys your MERCY button. You eat the pie, which you remembered to keep this time, and it gets a lot easier to dodge and CHECK and dodge and CHECK and doge— dodge—and TALK. Three healing items into the battle, you remember that you can’t avoid FIGHTing Asgore. It takes forever to get his health down, with your paltry pacifist punches. You MERCY him, and Flowey kills him. You forgot how horrifying Photoshop Flowey was. The souls rebel, you succeed, and Flowey’s just a flower again. He tells you you could be better friends with Alphys.
The date is just as cringy as it was before; throughout it all, you’re just dreading the True Lab. You finish the date, head back to the Lab on Papyrus’ instruction, and double-check the bag of dog food. Yep, still half-full. You know you hadn’t killed anyone, but it’s still nice to see the optimism in narratorChara Pamcke. You head down into the True Lab. The first time, the elevator malfunction gave you a jumpscare. This time, it just means the end is near.
First, you have to get through the amalgamations. Endogeny is so much easier this time, now that you know the Stick's true importance. You wish you could do more to help Lemon Bread. You tear up at Snowy’s mom, again, and you die—again again—at Reaper Bird. Three deaths there, this playthrough. That’s not so bad.
The elevator zooms you up to the castle and jams shut with vines. This is it. You save at the final point available. Maybe you could just keep your save here; that way, when you want to play again, you can cut right to everyone assembling to save you from fighting Asgore, everyone cheering you on and saving you from Flowey, and—getting to SAVE them all, and Asriel.
One. Two. Five. You keep dying to Asriel. You aren’t sure whether your progress continues despite your deaths, so you keep healing. You’re running out of last-dreams. You need to heal to stay alive, but you need to dream to heal. You eat your last last-d—
You ate the snowman piece, not the dream. Damn it. It heals you, and it doesn’t really matter, but... but you held onto it all this time. You ESC out of the fight. Upon restarting, no one reacts to the aborted battle. Back to Toriel taking out Asgore, seeing your friends, fighting Asriel. Dying to Asriel. But it refused. But it re-fused. But you’re still dying. It does seem to be progressing even when you die, but come on.
That’s it. The last bullet hell you’ll get from this playthrough is over. You’ve given everyone the happiest ending you can—including keeping Frisk with Toriel again. You just can’t stand breaking them apart, and you know what happens with the other choice, with the picture. You brace yourself to see Chara’s Pamcakes’ jumpscare at the scene with the pie... but there’s nothing.
You close the game, and then start it again. No Flowey. Just the windy void. You did everything right, even better than you did the first second time; this isn’t the beginning to your end. You wait, you enter the game, and you play until you get your interface. The Fallen Child is MRDRBB this time around. That’s a Genocide-run name for sure.
You finally head east to watch the sunrise. When Toriel asks whether you want to stay with her, you say yes. You stare fiercely at the credits and the cutscenes. By the time the special thanks pop up, you have tears in your eyes. You turn the game off and head to bed hours late. Everyone is finally happy. They’re just NPCs, but you can’t bring yourself to start the game up again. You’ve heard how Flowey—Flowey, of all creatures—shows up to guilt-trip you after getting the Golden Ending. You read fan comics, watch fan animations, listen to the soundtrack, and to the fan songs. You watch theories about Undertale and other games, about Gaster, and easter eggs that are a three-in-a-hundred-playthroughs chance—and you’re never playing again. Right? You even find some online answers to “post-Undertale depression.” Too many people suggest doing a Genocide run to distance yourself and let go; you close those out of disgust. If you’re already struggling with playing the game again, you could never bring yourself to kill the characters. Besides, you’ve watched Sans’ boss battle, and there’s no way you could ever get through it. You’d give up, and be in the same boat as you are now. Well, you’d feel worse.
What about another pacifist ending? You didn’t get the best neutral ending you could have the first time; you totally missed Undyne’s house in Waterfall. So Flowey told you about Undyne, and not Alyphs. It’s all the same, now, but you didn’t befriend the most people. You could play through again, and do that.
You start Undertale up again; you’re already cringing at yourself, and braced for Flowey’s monologue. But he doesn’t show. It’s just a black screen. You turn the volume up, because—yes, there’s the wind howling. This the post-Genocide start screen, you’ve heard. How did you get this screen? You might as well wait the ten minutes. If Chara shows up, you’re going to be pissed; Genocide ruins all future endings, and you don’t want that consequence for a run you didn’t even do.
You’re in? That’s Frisk on the bed of golden flowers, but there was no naming screen. You move Frisk out to meet Flowey. After you encounter Toriel, you can bring up your limited interface. Previously, you named the Fallen Child “Chara” for immersion and canonicity, after reading about it being the true name. You expect the same here, either due to your previous playthrough or as the default—it is short for “character,” after all. This is... Pamcke. Who would name the Fallen Child PAMCAKE?
The game progresses like new. You go pacifist again, and almost never touch the FIGHT button at all. Except for Ice Cap. You read you can’t get their happiest ending without stealing their hat, and you can’t do that unless you fight. You hang out with Papyrus immediately, rather than forgetting and backtracking. You hum to Shyren until you get the concert; you didn’t see that, last time. You wonder how Sans got toilet paper to make tickets out of, if monsters don’t need it. That train of thought stops pretty squickly. Quickly.
You made the snowman very happy, according to Sans, last playthrough. You don’t really need to do it again if this is all the same, but you keep it anyway. The snow piece clogs up your inventory; it takes up a spot you could really use when running and defending yourself from Undyne. Once you get the Dimensional Boxes from Alyphs, it isn’t such a pain. You just make sure to keep it on the last slot, so that it’s not as in the way.
Oh. God. Damn it. You don’t have to fight Knight Knight and Majik and go through that horrible three-monster battle with the Astigmatism to progress; you could avoid them. But you need to encounter them to get their best endings, rig—damnit! That’s the fifth death in a row. Why do their attack patterns change when you SPARE one of the other monsters? You weren’t prepared for that! Maybe you could just take the eastern path and ignore the Warrior’s Path. You aren’t made of HP. No. You can do this, even if you must SAVE between every fight. And so, you do, even though walking the halls takes so. Long.
Mettaton’s fight was so tough last time; you had to read up on it. You’d filled your inventory with bisicles. You could heal and persist, but you just couldn’t win. You didn’t know how to get through, and you were almost at the point of using FIGHT. With starfaits, it was— less difficult, though not easier. This time, you’re more prepared for the shmup—you had to autohotkey the arrows to WASD so you could move properly. You get over ten thousand viewers relatively quickly.
Asgore destroys your MERCY button. You eat the pie, which you remembered to keep this time, and it gets a lot easier to dodge and CHECK and dodge and CHECK and doge— dodge—and TALK. Three healing items into the battle, you remember that you can’t avoid FIGHTing Asgore. It takes forever to get his health down, with your paltry pacifist punches. You MERCY him, and Flowey kills him. You forgot how horrifying Photoshop Flowey was. The souls rebel, you succeed, and Flowey’s just a flower again. He tells you you could be better friends with Alphys.
The date is just as cringy as it was before; throughout it all, you’re just dreading the True Lab. You finish the date, head back to the Lab on Papyrus’ instruction, and double-check the bag of dog food. Yep, still half-full. You know you hadn’t killed anyone, but it’s still nice to see the optimism in narrator
First, you have to get through the amalgamations. Endogeny is so much easier this time, now that you know the Stick's true importance. You wish you could do more to help Lemon Bread. You tear up at Snowy’s mom, again, and you die—again again—at Reaper Bird. Three deaths there, this playthrough. That’s not so bad.
The elevator zooms you up to the castle and jams shut with vines. This is it. You save at the final point available. Maybe you could just keep your save here; that way, when you want to play again, you can cut right to everyone assembling to save you from fighting Asgore, everyone cheering you on and saving you from Flowey, and—getting to SAVE them all, and Asriel.
One. Two. Five. You keep dying to Asriel. You aren’t sure whether your progress continues despite your deaths, so you keep healing. You’re running out of last-dreams. You need to heal to stay alive, but you need to dream to heal. You eat your last last-d—
You ate the snowman piece, not the dream. Damn it. It heals you, and it doesn’t really matter, but... but you held onto it all this time. You ESC out of the fight. Upon restarting, no one reacts to the aborted battle. Back to Toriel taking out Asgore, seeing your friends, fighting Asriel. Dying to Asriel. But it refused. But it re-fused. But you’re still dying. It does seem to be progressing even when you die, but come on.
That’s it. The last bullet hell you’ll get from this playthrough is over. You’ve given everyone the happiest ending you can—including keeping Frisk with Toriel again. You just can’t stand breaking them apart, and you know what happens with the other choice, with the picture. You brace yourself to see Chara’s Pamcakes’ jumpscare at the scene with the pie... but there’s nothing.
You close the game, and then start it again. No Flowey. Just the windy void. You did everything right, even better than you did the first second time; this isn’t the beginning to your end. You wait, you enter the game, and you play until you get your interface. The Fallen Child is MRDRBB this time around. That’s a Genocide-run name for sure.
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