History Webcomic / PaperTrail

* BadDreams: Both Susie and Kris suffer from one of those the night before going to Noelle's house. [[spoiler:Susie's details her fear about hurting Noelle. Kris's seems to depict an event in their past and is much more sinister.]]

* AbusiveParents: [[spoiler: The Spade King. The more things change. When confronted in the Dark World in Noelle's house, he wastes no time berating and bullying Lancer, even threatening to put him in the dungeon after he's defeated the Lightners. Thankfully, Lancer finds the courage to stand up to him.]]

** [[spoiler: During their first fight with Noelle in the party, she becomes terrified after realizing they could all die for real and is paralyzed for the rest of the fight, leading to Kris being unable to use any of her moves and the gang actually getting killed.]]

** Noelle was in no way prepared for the Dark World and it's many dangers and was repeatedly characterized as timid and easy to scare. [[spoiler: So naturally, when she learns she could actually ''die'' there, she's mortifed and freezes up, leading to her powers being nullified in the battle and the Fun gang getting killed as a result.]]

* VillainHasAPoint: [[spoiler: The Spade King uses a living Magic 8-ball in his fight that let's him cancel out the FUN-gang's turns and attack indefinitely. When Lancer scolds him for cheating, the Spade King points out that it's a bit hypocritical of the heroes to whine about fairness when the current fight is four against one.]]
* WhiteMage: [[spoiler: When brought to the Dark World, Noelle becomes a mage whose primary focus is on healing and protection.]]

* RealityEnsues: Really, why ''did'' Susie and Kris think they would get away with cutting class for three days in a row, especially since Kris's mother is ''one of the teachers''?

* VillainHasAPoint: [[spoiler: The Spade King uses a living Magic 8-ball in his fight that let's him cancel out the FUN-gang's turns and attack indefinitely. When Lancer scolds him for cheating, the Spade King points out that it's a bit hypocritical of the heroes to whine about fairness when the current fight is four against one.]]

* HeroicBSOD: It's heavily implied that Kris vividly remembers being possessed by the SOUL and dreads that it will happen again. For some reason, they're also deathly afraid of the Knight, to the point they were willing to pull Ralsei and Lancer into the Lightner-world (without knowing what would happen) rather than trying to fight him when he first appears.

* {{Troll}}: [[spoiler:Seam starts a fight with Susie, Lancer, Ralsei and Kris just because he feels like it and continually presses each opponent's BerserkButton while doing so.]]

* MoralityChain: Lancer is this to Susie, kind of. She tends to be a lot kinder to him than she is to anyone else and most of her current improved behavior is the result of his friendship with her.

* KnightsAndKnaves: [[spoiler:Noble and Naughty are a variant of this. Although it's fairly obvious who is the liar and who always tells the truth (they ''tell'' you, after all) the real challenge comes from them performing a sort of FusionDance that makes them look the same. From then on you have to decide by their respective statement who is who.]]

* RedEyesTakeWarning: A pretty interesting example. Kris's eyes are red and when you actually see them it's a clear sign that shit's about to go down. Not because of Kris themselves, but because if ''anything'' gets TheStoic Kris to react in a way that you see their eyes, it's probably bad news.

* RunningGag: During the Fun Gang's trip through the Rainbow Jungle Kris keeps checking things and remarking "Smells like socks". Susie gets so sick of it that the word socks alone is enough to make her fly into a rage afterwards.

** The different Princes of the dark the Fun gang meets all have names that are an anagram of Ralsei.

* SixthRanger: [[spoiler:Noelle ends up joining the team later along the story.]]
* StrawNihilist: [[spoiler:Seam seems to have given up on life in general when the Fun Gang finds him. He's convinced that nothing he or they will do will change anything, since they're all influenced by outside forces and have no real control over their lifes anyway. He seems to snap out of it a bit after the fight, however, remarking that even though it might soon be TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt for all of them, "when people care, unexpected things happen."]]

* {{Troll}}: [[spoiler:Seam starts a fight with Susie, Lancer, Ralsei and Kris just because he feels like it and continually presses each opponents BerserkButton while doing so.]]

* AmbiguousSituation: The comic heavily hints that Kris is being possessed by the SOUL in parts of the story, but it's still not clear who or what the SOUL actually are, whether or not they intent to cause harm and why they chose Kris as a host.
* AntiHero: Susie and Kris are both more CreepyGood than anything else and their heroics are confined to the Dark World. In the Light World, Susie is abrasive and anti-social to the point of being TheBully while Kris is a rarely emoting, silent moody teen who's friendship with Susie developed mostly out of convenience.

* ArmorIsUseless: Once again, Kris is the only one in the party who wears any kind of armor but they get hurt all the same and if anything are actually squishier than both Ralsei and Susie.
* ArtificialHuman: [[spoiler:While not stated outright, Kris's nightmare about their past heavily implies they are one. It shows them confined in some sort of container and looking out at what appears to be another human body, constructed from multiple parts strewn around the room. The two unseen other people in the room also frequently refer to Kris as "it" and when Kris wakes up, they notice with glee that the SOUL is still in it's cage, although it's thrashing wildly in an attempt to get out. Kris then tries to get away from it, but seemingly has difficulty walking without it. Their escape attempt is ultimately unsuccessful and the SOUL flies into their body yet again.]]

* BulletHell: True to the game it's based on, every battle in the comic consists of Kris, Ralsei and Susie, plus whoever else is in their party at the time having to dodge a variety of projectiles.

* TheCameo: [[spoiler:Frisk and Chara appear as living portraits in the Highlight Gallery. Though in there they apparently go by Noble (Frisk) and Naughty (Chara).]]

* HeroicBSOD: It's heavily implied that Kris vividly remembers being possessed by the SOUL and dreads that it will happen again. For some reason they're also deathly afraid of the Knight, to the point they were willing to pull Ralsei and Lancer into the Lightner-world (without knowing what would happen) rather than trying to fight him when he first appears.

* ApocalypticLog: A non-lethal example. Every Prince of the Dark, including Ralsei, turns into a page of Asriel's secret diary when brought into the Light World. The entries detail his general thoughts and feeling towards and about Kris from his childhood up until his departure for college.

* RedEyesTakeWarning: A pretty interesting example. Kris's eyes are red and when you actually see them it's a clear sign that shit's about to go down. Not because of Kris themselves, but because if ''anything'' gets TheStoic Kris to react in a way that you see their eyes, it's probably bad news.

* ArtificialHuman: [[spoiler: While not stated outright, Kris's nightmare about their past heavily implies they are one. It shows them confined in some sort of container and looking out at what appears to be another human body, constructed from multiple parts strewn around the room. The two unseen other people in the room also frequently refer to Kris as "it" and when Kris wakes up, they notice with glee that the SOUL is still in it's cage, although it's thrashing wildly in an attempt to get out. Kris then tries to get away from it, but seemingly has difficulty walking without it. Their escape attempt is ultimately unsuccessful and the SOUL flies into their body yet again.]]
* BadDreams: Both Susie and Kris suffer from one of those the night before going to Noelle's house. [[spoiler: Susie's details her fear about hurting Noelle. Kris's seems to depict an event in their past and is much more sinister.]]

* TheCameo: [[spoiler: Frisk and Chara appear as living portraits in the Highlight Gallery. Though in there they apparently go by Noble (Frisk) and Naughty (Chara).]]

* HeroicSelfDeprecation: Susie has pretty severe self-esteem issues, not helped by her continually pushing others away and earning a reputation as a delinquent for it. [[spoiler: This actually bites her in the ass when the gang has to answer a riddle that includes a true and a false statement. Susie automatically assumes the statement "One of you is a terrible person." to be true since, well, ''she's'' there. Turns out that was actually the false statement, something Susie registers with blatant surprise.]]

* ItAmusedMe: [[spoiler: Seam's entire reason for fighting the Fun Gang instead of just coming home with them.]]
* ItIsDehumanizing: [[spoiler: The two unseen people in Kris's bad dream call Kris an "it" several times. This, along with the fact that they apparently kept younger Kris in a cage makes it pretty clear they didn't really care about them that much.]]
* KnightsAndKnaves: [[spoiler: Noble and Naughty are a variant of this. Although it's fairly obvious who is the liar and who always tells the truth (they ''tell'' you, after all) the real challenge comes from them performing a sort of FusionDance that makes them look the same. From then on you have to decide by their respective statement who is who.]]

** [[spoiler: Aelsir is pretty fond of adding a certain flair to his sentences and movements. Funnily enough, he infects Ralsei with this too, for a short time.]]
** [[spoiler: Naughty. ''Especially'' when you fail at their and Noble's puzzle.]]

** [[spoiler: Noble is the blue to Naughty's red. Noble is polite, soft-spoken and CannotTellALie, Naughty is loud, rude and a CompulsiveLiar. Also a partially literal example. Noble's portrait is blue, while Naughty's is red.]]

* SixthRanger: [[spoiler: Noelle ends up joining the team later along the story.]]
* StrawNihilist: [[spoiler: Seam seems to have given up on life in general when the Fun Gang finds him. He's convinced that nothing he or they will do will change anything, since they're all influenced by outside forces and have no real control over their lifes anyway. He seems to snap out of it a bit after the fight, however, remarking that even though it might soon be TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt for all of them, "when people care, unexpected things happen."]]

* {{Troll}}: [[spoiler: Seam starts a fight with Susie, Lancer, Ralsei and Kris just because he feels like it and continually presses each opponents BerserkButton while doing so.]]

* HeroicSelfDeprecation: Susie has pretty severe self-esteem issues, not helped by her continually pushing others away and earning a reputation as a delinquent for it. [[spoiler: This actually bites her in the ass when the gang has to answer a riddle that includes a true and a false statement. Susie automatically assumes the statement "One of you is a bad person." to be true since, well, ''she's'' there. Turns out that was actually the false statement, something Susie registers with blatant surprise.]]

* TokenHuman: Kris is the only human child living in a town full of monsters. It's even lampshaded later in the story. When Kris meets Sans again, he not so subtly points out that it's a little odd for them to be the only human for miles and asks if they have any idea why that is, but backs off as soon as he notices that this topic is making them severely uncomfortable.

* ApocalypticLog: A non-lethal example. Every Prince of the Dark, including Ralsei, turns into a page of Asriel's secret diary when brought into the Light World. The entries detail his general thoughts and feeling towards and about Kris.

* TheBully: Susie might be TrueCompanions with Kris, but her attitude towards the rest of the student body hasn't really improved that much. It's best seen when she "asks" Berdly about the missing toys from the closet. When he doesn't answer her right away, she immediately goes on the offensive by threatening him. A bit of a deconstructed example, since she afterwards confesses to Kris that her mean-and-tough-persona is mostly her trying to cover up that she has NoSocialSkills, because she doesn't want the other kids to pity her.

** The different princes of the dark the Fun gang meets all have names that are an anagram of Ralsei.

* DeliberatelyMonochrome: The Light World and it's characters are drawn in all black and white to contrast it with the literally way more colorful Dark World.

* InterspeciesFriendship: Twofold in the story. Kris has one with Susie, who is a a monster, while both Susie and Kris share one with the Darkners Ralsei and Lancer.

-> ''"One of you will destroy your home."''

* RedEyesTakeWarning: A pretty interesting example. Kris's eyes are red and when you actually see them it's a clear sign that shit's about to go down. Not because of Kris themselves, but because if ''anything'' gets TheStoic Kris to react in a way that you see their eyes it's probably bad news.
* SignificantAnagram:

* AmbiguousGender: Kris is non-binary and goes by they/them pronouns.

* RedEyesTakeWarning: A pretty interesting example. Kris's eyes are red and when you actually see them it's a clear sign that shit's about to go down. Not because of Kris themselves, but because if ''anything'' gets TheStoic Kris to react in a way that you see their eyes is probably bad news.

** The different versions of Ralsei the Fun gang meets all have names that are an anagram of his name.

* SuckECheeses: The "Pezza" parlor Kris and Susie have to go to to retrieve Seam. It's closed upon their arrival and Kris even comments on how they don't believe they've ever seen it open to begin with.

* AmbiguousGender: Kris goes by they/them pronouns.

'''The comic takes place after Chapter 1 of Deltarune. Thus, this page will be rather spoiler-heavy. If you haven't finished the game yet and had planned to do so blind this page definitely isn't for you. Proceed at your own risk!'''

* RealityEnsues: Really, why ''did'' Susie and Kris think they would get away with cutting class for three day in a row, especially since Kris's mother is ''one of the teachers''?

-> ''"You're the kind of person who struggles with Junior Jumble..."''

'''Paper Trail''' is a ''VideoGame/{{Deltarune}}'' fan comic created by [[https://lynxgriffin.tumblr.com/ Lnyxgriffin]]. It functions as a fan-made sequel to the game and follows the adventures of Kris, Susie and Ralsei as they once again venture through the Dark World.

* AmbiguousSituation: The comic heavily hints that Kris is being possessed by the SOUL in parts of the story, but it's still not clear who or what the SOUL actually are, whether or not they intent to cause harm and why it chose Kris as a host.

* NothingExcitingEverHappensHere: The reason Kris and Susie frequent the Dark World. Both of them have become bored with their day-to-day-lives and would rather spend their time in the fun fantasy-world that sees them as heroes than the dull reality in which they're outsiders at best.

-> "You're the kind of person who struggles with Junior Jumble..."