Aftergore is a series of Alternate Universe Fics taking place after Undertale's neutral endings, in which a new human enters in Frisk's wake. It is seperated into 10 variations, each following different neutral endings.
Different Variations
- Aftergore I
, the Incomplete/Flawed Pacifist ending, sees all the monsters (save for Asgore) live until the end, with Toriel taking over as the Underground's ruler - Aftergore II, the Betrayed Undyne ending, sees Mettaton as the only casualty of Frisk's time in the Underground. While Toriel still takes over, the monsters are wary of her pro-human policies after seeing their top celebrity be slain by one on live TV.
- Aftergore III, the Exiled Queen ending, sees Asgore and Undyne killed but all other monsters spared. With the Underground's strongest monsters gone and Toriel sent packing by threats of a coup, life down there has grown tense and unstable.
- Aftergore IV, the Queen Undyne ending, has Asgore, Toriel, and the monsters in the Ruins killed but everyone else spared. Undyne has become ruler of the Underground and is seeking revenge against humanity for the deaths of her mentor and those in the Ruins.
- Aftergore V, the King Mettaton ending, has Mettaton take over the Underground and turn it into his version of paradise after Asgore, Toriel, and Undyne are killed. The only respite from his obnoxious "improvements" and his widespread fan club are the Ruins.
- Aftergore VI, the King Papyrus ending, has Frisk kill as many monsters as possible except for Papyrus. He's trying to keep the populace happy, but the pressures of wearing the crown are starting to wear him down, even though Sans and Flowey are doing all the real work.
- Aftergore VII, the Dog ending, has Frisk kill all of the fightable major characters but leave the common monsters alone. A little white dog's taken over the underground; despite several very important people dying, most monsters don't seem to be that perturbed by this turn of events.
- Aftergore VIII, the Leaderless ending, has Frisk kill all the monsters they encountered without going out of their way to wipe out everyone. The result is an Underground that's embroiled in societal unrest, with an unlikely character stepping up to rule.
- Aftergore IX, the Aborted Genocide ending, has Frisk kill as many monsters as possible save for a handful. Alphys is left to pick up the pieces, and the Underground begins to shift into a hostile industrialized society.
- Aftergore CDIV, the Impossible/Dirty Hacker ending, has a player tamper with the game's code to render one of the bosses alive and dead at the same time. Things in the Underground get... strange because of this.
Aftergore contains examples of:
- Adaptational Badass:
- In Undertale, Burgerpants is a disillusioned young adult working at a burger restaurant who has to put up with a Mean Boss and is only encountered as a shopkeeper. II sees him assume Undyne's role, renaming himself Boomstick and taking control of Waterfall as the leader of a gang of Greaser Delinquents.
- Politics Bear, of all characters, serves as the character who takes on Asgore's role in VIII. Keep in mind that he's a minor gag character in Undertale who has no importance whatsoever.
- Back from the Dead: CDIV has Gaster, who succeeds Asgore as the Underground's ruler.
- Big Bad: Depends on which installment of the series.
- Big Bob serves as Flowey's replacement in I.
- Mad Crown, the former Mad Dummy, serves as the primary antagonist of III. Toriel technically takes over Flowey's role, but she is very much not hostile to Nex at all. Mad Crown, however, is.
- Mettaton serves as the primary obstacle in V, though Alphys is the final boss of the Pacifist Route.
- Flowey still remains as the main antagonist and final boss of the Pacifist run in VII.
- A nameless monster within Memoryhead's family is this in CDIV. It's Toriel.
- Came Back Wrong: Undyne in IX oh SO much. Her remains were salvaged and put into a robotic shell, but make no mistake: she's changed for the worse.
- The Chains of Command: Papyrus is dealing with a lot of pressure as ruler of the Underground in VI, even though Flowey and Sans are doing most of the heavy lifting. Sans and Flowey are fighting each other for power behind his back, the Underground was heavily depopulated right before he took over, the monsters who are left don't respect his policies, Sans is implied to be doing poorly because he's the one actually running the kingdom for him, and Flowey's barely bothering to hide his sociopathy anymore. Even the title of Papyrus' pre-fight theme, "The Pressure of Prestige", reflects how he's being worn down by power.
- Empathic Environment: The weather on the Surface when Nex makes it out of the Underground differs between Aftergore variations to reflect the overall mood of the Underground, with the names of the various "Respite" equivalent tracks likewise having different names and sound effects to tie into the weather.
- I's Respite is called "A Beautiful Day" and has birdsong audible, mirroring how it's the happiest possible ending that still has the monsters trapped after Frisk left.
- II's Respite has a rainstorm accompanying the song and is called "It's Raining", reflecting how the loss of Mettaton has dampened the Underground's spirit. It also refers to Sans stepping up to try filling the void Mettaton left, as one of the tracks associated with him in Undertale is called "It's Raining Somewhere Else".
- Fan Sequel: To Undertale's neutral endings.
- From Nobody to Nightmare: Downplayed. In Undertale, Burgerpants worked as a cashier for the MTT Resort's fast-food restaurant despite wanting to be an actor and had to content with various misfortunes inflicted upon him since he started working there, many of them because his boss Mettaton seemingly only hated him among the rest of his workforce. Since Mettaton is the only monster who Frisk killed in Aftergore II, however, Burgerpants is able to leave his lousy job and reinvent himself. The result is him renaming himself "Boomstick" and leading a gang of Greaser Delinquents in taking over Waterfall, causing the rest of the Underground's residents to avoid the area.
- Greater-Scope Villain:
- Though not evil in all of the AUs, Frisk's actions during their trek through Ebott are responsible for the Underground's current status.
- In CDIV, the Player is responsible for having manipulated Undertale's files so that Toriel is both dead and alive at the same time.
- In Spite of a Nail: Despite all the differences between both the versions of them and the consequences of their actions, Frisk still takes an identical role as the final boss of the pacifist run in variations I-IV.
- Named by the Adaptation: Politics Bear is named Theodore.
- Noodle Incident: Dogamy and Dogaressa, who were Sickeningly Sweethearts back in Undertale, divorced sometime between the game's Betrayed Undyne ending and the beginning of Aftergore II and now run shops in different parts of the Underground, with neither of them keen on discussing what happened.They don't wanna talk about their marital struggles or their former nose nuzzling anymore. Just buy their stuff.
- Pre-Final Boss
- Toriel serves as this in both I and III, with her fights preceding those of Big Blob and Mad Crown.
- Reimagining the Artifact: In the original Undertale, Big Bob was simply a
Dummied Out white blob thing. In Variant I, he's an eldritch abomination that takes the role of Flowey. - The Stations of the Canon: Downplayed, as they often tend to follow the spirit of them, but all the variations follow the same general "roles" that the original Undertale characters took.
- Took a Level in Cheerfulness: Napstablook in IX. In a stark contrast to the game, they're the most cheery person in the Underground.
- True Final Boss: Depends on the variation, but the Pacifist Route's true final bosses include...
