Fanfic / Ebott's Wake

“Go directly to Yale! Do not pass Harvard, do not collect two hundred students!”

“Are you sure you're okay, Flowey? You've b-been very heavy on the non-sequiturs for a while now.”

The flower shook its head. “Not okay. Not okay at all. Can't stop seeing connections. Making me dizzy. Everything's connected. Cable TV shows control the United Nations.”

“Oh great. We traded an angry, rude flower for a conspiracy theorist flower.” Undyne snorted. “I thought there was a rule or something about that. Like, limit one per small weird town.”

“We're not weird, we're eccentric.”

—Frisk and Flowey, title-dropping the name of the series in unison.

Ebott's Wake is an Undertale fanfic written by TimeCloneMike, as the first in a trilogy called We're Not Weird, We're Eccentric. It was followed by a prequel, Terra Incognita, and a sequel, Legacy Of The Magi.

Royal Scientist Wing Ding Aster, long thought to have been scattered across time and space by one of his own experiments, instead finds himself launched into the future; A time where the Barrier is broken and the Underground has been left empty for over a year and a half, and a dawning era of coexistence between humans and monsters. The good doctor has a lot to catch up on as he adjusts to the quirky nature of small-town Ebott's Wake: Don't Trust the Flower.

You can read it here on Archive of Our Own.

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This fanfic provides examples of:

#–B

• 11th-Hour Superpower: A villainous example when Jordan Cater uses the stolen Phase Integrator to temporarily supercharge himself with magic.
• 20 Minutes into the Past: Initially Averted; it was first published in June 2016 and set in May 2016, until it fell into Webcomic Time as the story remained in that month while its last chapters were published towards the end of 2017.
• Abusive Parents:
  • It becomes clear early on that Frisk didn't come from a healthy home prior to their fall into the Underground.
  • Chara's reasons for climbing Ebott as well as their hatred of humanity both stemmed from mistreatment by their parents.
  • One of the radio personalities casually mentions having an abusive mother, but it's not shown or explored in any detail.
• Adaptational Badass: Sans has significantly higher stats in the fic. The justification for this is that his all ones across the board stats were the result of the CORE accident, and he underwent therapy right afterwards to get them back up.
• Adopting the Abused: The Dreemurrs didn't immediately realize it either time, but both Chara and Frisk had run away from Abusive Parents, and they gave them a second chance at a good home. Both Frisk and Chara became Extremely Protective of the Dreemurrs as a result… even to the point of trying to remove themselves from the equation if they thought it'd help them.
• Adoptive Name Change: Frisk is now Frisk Dreemurr. Toriel doesn't even know their former surname at the beginning of the story. When Toriel asks them about it, they assume it's so she can send them back, when it's in fact the opposite—the more Toriel learns about Frisk's Dark and Troubled Past, the more she's convinced that their human parents need to be kept away from them at all costs.
• Aliens Speaking English: Joe explains to Eli and Mike that the monsters used Pattern magic to learn English from human trash. Mike is a little surprised, as he'd always assumed the monsters were using magic as Translator Microbes.
• All-Loving Hero: Frisk and Papyrus both strive to bring out the best in everyone.
• The Alleged Car: Invoked by the annual Kludge Derby, where contestants have to build their racing contraptions out of whatever parts they can construct into something demonstrably street-worthy. Just as often as not, these vehicles can break down, break apart or crash during the race, meaning that victory rests as much on a contestant's skills in constructing them as it does in their ability to race them.
• Alliterative Name:
  • Chara's full name (on the Surface) was Chara Cater.
  • The human co-host of the Morning Rush is named Brett Brinkman (or Brinkmann).
  • One of Frisk's human friends from school is named Mary Metzinger. (You do have to put it together, because her full name is never spelled out—it's just stated that her father is Walter Metzinger.)
• Ambiguous Gender:
  • Frisk, as with in the original game. ^{Until later} It is later revealed that they are biologically female and never thought it was important to bring it up. They're fine with everything as long as it's not he/him pronouns, and that's to avoid future confusion more than anything.
  • Chara also carries this over from the game. ^{Until later} It later turns out that they were biologically female as well.
  • The Riverperson, also in keeping with the original game.
• Ambiguous Situation:
  • One of the character tags simply says "The Player(?)".
  • Chara shows up in Asriel's dreams sometimes, but it isn't entirely clear whether that's actually Chara, some sort of psychic imprint, or what. At least until Chara takes control of Frisk's sleeping body after the battle for the CORE. That's pretty conclusive.
• Anger Born of Worry:
  • Toriel and Undyne are furious with Frisk for putting themselves between Undyne and Riley—because they were so terrified for Frisk's safety.
  • While Undyne is preparing to jump into the battle for the CORE, Alphys calls her. We don't get to hear what she says, but it certainly sounds to other characters nearby like she's enraged.
• Anxiety Dreams: Poor Frisk has a lot of these. Often, they're about their closest friends finding out about whatever big revelation is bothering them at the moment and rejecting them because of it. Even when that cycle has repeated multiple times, and their friends have been nothing but supportive each and every time.
• Arc Words:
  • Early on, some characters will occasionally mention that they know each other because they "took shop class together." It later turns out that "Shop Class" is a secret organization of friends that teamed up to protect the town.
  • "You always say you're sorry, but this (shit) keeps happening." Alongside the context behind it, it sums up Frisk's guilt as well as any sentence can, and it's a common line for them to remember when they're at their worst.
• An Arm and a Leg: Joe Stanton gets his arm blown off at the elbow by an improvised shotgun, courtesy of Thomas O'Dell.
• Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: To quote Officer Steve on the criminal charges being held against Thomas O'Dell after his arrest: “Yes. You are under arrest. We have you dead to rights for breaking and entering, vandalism, theft, conspiracy, assault, three separate counts of attempted murder, and operating a wind[-]powered vehicle within the city limits of Ebott's Wake.”
• Ascended Extra:
  • Dr. Aster gets upgraded from a deleted character to one of the most important supporting characters.
  • The four mice from the different areas of the Underground are shown working at All Fine Labs and even given names and specialties.
  • The "Thaaat's Politics!" bear from Snowdin is given a name, Gunther, and a job at All Fine Labs.
  • Burgerpants appears throughout the story as a radio show host and even in person several times.
  • The green fire-girl from Hotland is named Roastie, is Grillby's daughter, and is working a job as a waitress before she goes to college for a degree in business.
• Asshole Victim:
  • Frisk stabbing Cater in the hand is one of the most gruesome parts of the story. But given that Cater is an Abusive Father, an Absolute Xenophobe, and the leader of a group of Fantastic Terrorists, nobody's feeling sorry for him. Indeed, some characters like Undyne say they would've done far worse to him in the same position.
    Frisk: Even after I stabbed Mr. Cater?
    Officer Steve: [snorts] If word gets out that you did, worst case scenario is somebody sends you one of those Edible Arrangements things where the fruit is cut to look like flowers and stuff.
  • When O'Dell attacks Papyrus, Asriel immolates him, leaving full-body second-degree burns. He's a little horrified with himself for coming so close to killing somebody, but since O'Dell has all Cater's flaws bar being an abusive father, most people are probably more inclined to congratulate him.
• Awesomeness by Analysis: One of Pattern magic's main uses is giving you the information you need to pull off feats you couldn't normally.
• Back from the Dead:
  • Dr. Aster turns out to have been alive at the beginning of the story. Or at least, not dead, just outside of time. From the other characters' perspective, though, he basically did come back from the dead.
  • Downplayed for Asriel around the middle of the story. He's been around for a while as Flowey, but like, not really. Here again, it certainly feels like he's Back From the Dead to most of the other characters.
• Background Magic Field: Dr. Aster explains the science of such a field when he appears before the Senate Oversight Committee on Paranormal Activity.
• Badass Bookworm:
  • Frisk is unusually sharp and knowledgeable for their age; while not genius-level in their intellect, they are a powerhouse at finding and applying practical knowledge and covering for the things that they don't know. As much as they downplay the significance of their contributions, Frisk played a major role in getting monsters situated on the Surface as their Ambassador in the weeks following the fall of the Barrier, and they more or less keep up with the adults involved at the age of eight.
  • Joseph Stanton is an electrical engineer by education and a lab gofer by trade. Doesn't stop him from showing up on a motorbike with a magic laser pistol during the battle for the CORE segment, nor does it stop him from giving himself magic and using it against O'Dell and Cater.
  • Thomas O'Dell used to be an absolutely average architect. He becomes Cater's right-hand man, with his quick planning prowess often enabling Cater to be the threat he is. He acquits himself decently without Cater, too, orchestrating a break-in into All Fine Labs and the theft of the Phase Integrator, and he shoots powered-up Joe Stanton's arm off when they get into a fight.
• Badass Normal:
  • The members of Shop Class, being little more than a group of friends who banded together to keep the community and its people safe when trouble rears its head. Though the "normal" aspect doesn't apply as much once they start being able to use magic… not that it applied well to Hal to begin with.
  • Many citizens of the town as a whole, taking to the streets to fight the Anti-Monster League outside of the hospital.
  • Jordan Cater, until he gains magic at the very end. He's formidable in close combat, has a knack for escaping imprisonment, and repeatedly poses a significant threat to the main characters.
• Beware the Silly Ones: Hal Greene is a Cloudcuckoolander in a town that's already off its rocker. He's also widely regarded as one of the most dangerous people in Lost Eagle County.
  Dr. Ross: Who was that? I'd warn him to watch his back. What Dr. Akron lacks in bedside manner[,] he makes up for by holding grudges.
  Dr. Aster: [points down the hall] I don't remember his name, if I heard it at all, but that's him speaking to my son right now.
  Dr. Ross: Hal Greene?? I don't know why I'm surprised. Well, if Robbie wants to go toe-to-toe with one of the Greenes, it's his funeral.
• Big Damn Reunion:
  • At the very beginning of the story, Sans and Papyrus get to see their father again after four and a half years, when they thought he was dead. Admittedly a little one-sided, because for Dr. Aster it's been a few hours at most since he last saw Sans, and it can't've been much longer since he last saw Papyrus.
  • Subverted when Asriel comes back, because Toriel assumes it's a trick and flies into a rage. Double Subverted after Asgore gets her to calm down.
  • At the very end, Asriel and Chara get to see each other again in real life for the first time in a long while. And then in the next chapter when they get to talk to Toriel and Asgore.
• Bizarrchitecture: The town of Ebott's Wake is difficult for non-locals to navigate, with one character comparing the town to M.C. Escher's work. Rather than being the result of the supernatural or magic, it's implied to be the result of inconsistent or incompetent city planning both in the past and present.
• Blunt Metaphors Trauma: Monsters often cite incorrect versions of various idioms.
  DJ Pantz/Burgie: Yeah, you can shoot a messenger[,] but you can't lead him to water.
• Bookends: The story's beginning is shortly followed by a Big Damn Reunion between family members where one thought the other was long dead, which is then followed in the next chapter by another one within the same family. The story's ending is shortly preceded by a similar pair of events.
• Bread, Eggs, Breaded Eggs: Flowey notes that Frisk is living proof that Dwayne Riley is "wrong and stupid and stupidly wrong about everything."
• Break the Cutie: Whenever Asriel is forced or pushed to take drastic actions, it painfully reminds him afterward that part of him never truly stopped being Flowey. At times, it almost convinces him that he couldn't possibly be the original Asriel, despite solid evidence to the contrary.
• Breather Episode:
  • The KEBT Morning Rush chapters tend to break away from the action to provide a more bird's-eye-view of notable events and flesh out the presence of the local community. It helps that one of the co-hosts is DJ Pantz, formerly known as Burgerpants, having quit his old job for (somewhat) saner pastures.
  • The Kludge Derby chapter in particular takes a complete break from the plot after the story arc preceding it winds down.
• Breeding Cult: Quentin Forsythe discovers some Guardian notes that lead him to think they were conducting an astrology-based breeding program to bring back human magic.
• Brick Joke:
  • Early on, DJ Pantz asserts that he can put his religious affiliation down as "Jedi" if he wants. Joe Stanton must've been listening to the radio at the time, because it later turns out that he's done exactly that on his own medical paperwork.
  • Later, while extremely sleep-deprived and suffering from hallucinations, DJ Pantz talks about settling a timeshare agreement with the ghosts of four members of the Continental Congress that were supposedly stuck in his head. Near the end of the story, having discovered that Chara is still around, Frisk really does end up making a timeshare agreement with a ghost in their head.
• By-the-Book Cop: Officer Steven Ward is considered a Reasonable Authority Figure by almost everyone else in town, human and monster alike.

C–E

• Call-Back: Asriel asks about the time he as Flowey tried to kill Frisk the first time they met and why Frisk tried to dodge. Frisk explains that they were sort of expecting to be hurt right then. Asriel mentions that he's glad Toriel stopped him when she did. Toriel overhears this and starts breaking down over the realization that she tossed her own son aside like a weed.
• Calling Parents by Their Name:
  • In flashbacks to the Underground and in Flowey's dreams, Chara fairly consistently refers to Jordan by name rather than as their father or dad. It seems a whole lot like Chara thinks Jordan has lost the right to be called their parent.
  • Doctor Aster often refers to his father as "Semi," though he does also refer to him as "my dad" a few times.
• Cerebus Rollercoaster: By the time the story hits its stride, it frequently jumps between slice-of-life character development, zany background hijinks, and serious trouble.
• Cerebus Syndrome: The moment Jordan Cater first shows up in a scene, before his name is even mentioned, things already begin to take a turn for the serious in the Foreshadowing department. When he's properly introduced, all hell has already broken loose, and then he shows up and shoots both Dwayne Riley and Frisk in quick succession.
• Character Catchphrase:
  • Going by how many different town slogans get read on the air in the Morning Rush radio segments, the Ebott's Wake Tourism Board must have thought up of dozens at the very least. Ebott's Wake: The City That Seldom Sleeps, Don't Trust the Flower, Land of the Free and Home of the Daves, Fortified with Vitamin E, A Cut Aside…
  • Sans uses "have a bad time" and variants thereof a lot.
  • Tim will frequently say that something "doesn't really matter."
• Character Development: And quite a lot of it.
  • We get to watch Dr. Aster adjust to life on the surface.
  • We also start to understand Frisk's trauma and watch them begin to overcome it.
• Chekhov's Gun: The mind-bending puzzle Papyrus came up with as a security system for All Fine Labs's dimensional storage is mentioned multiple times. We only get to see it when it stumps some New Guardians near the very end. It turns out to be an actually difficult version of the tile puzzle from Snowdin, except the tiles change color when you take a step.
• Chekhov's Gunman:
  • Quentin Forsythe goes missing partway into the story. When he shows up again, it's by telling the police about a Guardian safe house.
  • Jason Taylor shows up on occasion in minor scenes. He suddenly becomes directly plot-important in the climax, where he shows up and shoots Cater.
  • Four New Guardians break into All Fine Labs near the end. We only see what happens to three of them. Later, though, we see the consequences of the last one escaping.
• Cloudcuckooland: Ebott's Wake was a wacky place before the monsters showed up. As Alphys puts it, "Five impossible things happen in this town every morning before breakfast."
• Cloudcuckoolander:
  • Hal Greene is a noted and self-professed madman.
    Hal: …the old joke applies; I don't suffer from insanity, I enjoy every moment.
  • Quentin Forsythe, the resident Conspiracy Theorist, has a rather nutty reputation among most of the townsfolk.
• Cloudcuckoolander's Minder: Justin Carrow ends up managing Hal Greene as a result of being his best friend since before grade school. The rest of Shop Class and, later, Asriel cover for him at times.
• Color-Coded for Your Convenience: There are seven "bands" of magic, each identified by a color that happens to match the seven human Soul colors. Each color has specific properties that dictate how it interacts with the physical world, but multiple bands of magic can be mixed or combined for different results, mostly limited to the magical strength, mental creativity, and rooted beliefs of the experienced caster. The different colors are:
  • Communications magic is red. It can be used for (two-way) Telepathy, sending or storing messages, sharing memories, and (with some skill) projecting actual images.
  • Force magic is orange. It affects "how motion interacts with physical matter." In practical terms, it primarily means the orange attacks that only hurt you if you're staying still, both in the original game and in the fic itself.
  • Energy magic is yellow. It manipulates and creates energy, such as temperature, electricity, and motion. It also allows the user to speed themselves up relative to the rest of the world—it's how Sans "gave [you] a private moment" in Grillby's and performed some actions instantaneously in the game.
  • Healing magic is green. In addition to the obvious, it also enables other "improvements to living organisms" and allows the creation of shields. In Legacy Of The Magi, the "shield" aspect gets used more generally to create simple Hard Light constructs.
  • Wave magic is cyan. It also interacts with motion, but… differently? The most obvious use is creating light-blue bullets that damage moving things, as in the original game. In Legacy Of The Magi, it also gets used to phase through objects.
  • Dimension magic is blue. It also interacts with motion, and much more straightforwardly than orange, yellow, or cyan—it's just straight-up telekinesis. It also allows Teleportation, which is somewhat implied to be normal motion in six dimensions.
  • Pattern Magic is magenta. It involves finding or altering connections between entities. In practice, the first part means things like Awesomeness by Analysis, X-Ray Vision, and Prophecy (which is actually Prescience by Analysis). The second part means things like telekinesis in limited contexts (such as switching a coffee cup from being in somebody else's hand to being in yours) or temporarily paralyzing people by messing up connections between their neurons.
• Comically Missing the Point: A frequent part of the on-air banter between Brett Brinkmann and DJ Pantz in the radio chapters.
• Consistent Clothing Style: When his attire is described, Dr. Aster is always wearing black and white with a single yellow accessory, like a yellow bowtie for formal occasions or yellow sneakers. Otherwise, he is always quite conservative and professional with his clothing, like slacks, coats, button-up shirts, etc.
• Continuity Creep: The story was originally intended to be around 60 chapters long and have a different plot featuring a custody battle for Frisk between the Dreemurrs and Frisk's biological parents. 150 chapters later, there's a prequel and a sequel in the works. According to the author, the storyline underwent massive changes with the introduction of Jordan Cater.
• Continuity Nod:
  • Seeing Sans's office at All Fine Labs, Frisk notes that Sans still hasn't given up on his sock dimension theory.
  • The four All Fine Labs mice have professions matching the locations of the four cheese blocks in the original game.
• Cool Car: Michael Van Garrett's modified pickup truck that can run into a van without being slowed down.
• Cult: The Guardians of the Legacy of the Magi, AKA "the Sages," were a secretive, manipulative cult convinced that there were monsters under Mount Ebott who were going to Take Over the World. After Asriel showed up, they concluded that the invasion was going to come soon, and they needed to prepare. They started threatening people who got in their way, and by the time the BADTF came down on them, they were basically holding the entire town of Ebott's Wake at gunpoint.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: Sans's fight with Cater outside the hospital is extraordinarily one-sided in the former's favor. Sans wipes the floor with cater (almost literally at some points) while giving him an epic "The Reason You Suck" Speech. Cater never lands a hit on him.
• Cut His Heart Out with a Spoon: When Hal is bugging Justin about an ex, the latter says, "I am going to pull all of your teeth out through your asshole if you don't drop this subject right now."
• Dark and Troubled Past: It becomes clear that Frisk's human parents were horribly abusive, leaving them with a damaged view of their own self-worth and a constant terror of being rejected.
• Deadpan Snarker: Dr. Aster has a talent for snarking with a neutral expression, especially towards people who thought he was dead.
  Roastie: Uh, not to be rude or anything, but didn't you, like, die a while ago?
  Dr. Aster: [rolls eye lights] Yes, but it was very boring, so I came back to life.
• Decoy Protagonist: The summary makes it seem a whole lot like Dr. Aster is the main character, as does the very beginning. In reality, though, his perspective is mostly used as a vehicle to introduce the audience to the titular Ebott's Wake, and before too long, it's clear that Frisk is the true main character of the story.
• Dehumanization: The New Guardians refuse to acknowledge that monsters are people.
• Deflector Shields: Healing magic can be used to create Hard-Light–like shields, and Wave magic can be used to create shields that damage incoming bullets (physical or magic), though the former can be cracked with enough force, and the latter doesn't stop the attack from coming through if it survives.
• Department of Redundancy Department:
  • Sans tells Frisk that if they start spreading word about him working hard, he'll call them "a lying liar who lies a lot."
  • Undyne tells Frisk that crying isn't a sign of weakness, and "If somebody tells you otherwise, they are a lying liar that's lying to you. With lies! Lies that are false and untrue!"
  • When Sans offers to read a sleep-deprived Alphys Peek-A-Boo with Fluffy Bunny, she tells him to stop mocking her with his mockery.
  • Joe and Mike sometimes repeat themselves when very excited and trying to keep it under control.
    Joe: Follow me to the place where I am going!
• Destructible Projectiles:
  • Wave (cyan) magic can create shields that damage incoming attacks (or attackers). If the shield is strong enough, it may nullify an incoming magical or even physical bullet.
  • A recording of the fallen child with the orange Soul shows them punching incoming magic attacks and disrupting them. In the climax, Hal, who also has an orange Soul, pulls off the same trick against Cater. This being a Force magic effect, Cater counters by using a Wave attack, which essentially creates a small Yin-Yang Bomb when Hal punches it.
• Digging Yourself Deeper: When Asriel comes back and tries to explain himself living in Asgore's shed, every detail he adds just seems to make Toriel stare at him harder. Somewhat Subverted because Toriel is mostly just shocked that he was living in a shed in the first place.
• Disappeared Dad:
  • Aster outright vanished from time for several years, unintentionally leaving his sons Sans and Papyrus behind in the wake of the accident. Once he returns and learns of his circumstances, he makes up for all that lost time with interest.
  • A Downplayed example with Frisk's human father. Frisk left him, not the other way around, but he had plenty of opportunity to show up and try to reclaim them, and he never did.
• Disarm, Disassemble, Destroy: The Asters like to use Dimension magic to disarm enemies of their guns and render said firearms nonfunctional.
• Disposable Superhero Maker: Seemingly Averted with the Phase Integrator. Once Joe realizes what made it explode in the first place, he creates a version with safeguards that allow it to be used seemingly at-will. It's late enough in the story, though, that we don't get to see what they do with it.
• Divorce Is Temporary: It becomes clear fairly quickly that Toriel and Asgore are going to get back together eventually.
  Toriel: It would have been madness for me to hold onto my anger for decades or centuries, or even longer…
• Does Not Drive: Of all Frisk's friends, only Papyrus seems to drive. Toriel and Asgore just walk everywhere, because they're barely small enough to fit in a car in the first place; Sans and Dr. Aster usually teleport everywhere or hitch rides with Papyrus; Undyne just runs; and it isn't clear how Alphys gets around^note Alphys does have a motor scooter in Legacy Of The Magi, but this is never mentioned in Ebott's Wake.
• Does Not Like Spam: Justin Carrow hates cinnamon. At least, until he picks up a liking for it from Asriel in the Soul Link.
  Justin: If I get another craving for Red Hots[,] I swear I am going to shoot myself in the face.
• Door of Doom: There's one in Frisk's mind, leading to a version of the Judgment Hall.
• Doorstopper: The finished story clocks in at 150 chapters and a total wordcount of 598,888.
• Dreaming of Things to Come:
  • Frisk has a number of dreams that keep on showing a weird set of symbols. They turn out to be an emergency shutdown password for the CORE, which comes in handy.
  • Frisk worries that some or all of their Anxiety Dreams may be this. The Riverperson shows up in one of their more standard dreams and tells them that those dreams could come true… but only if everybody involved agrees to participate in that future. (And given that the dreams include things like Sans killing Frisk for having magic, it's pretty clear to the audience that that's never gonna happen.)
  • Cater talks about dreaming of the BADTF attack on Bastion Circle the night before. He pins his escape on that, though the dream wasn't detailed enough for him to realize it'd be a human attack instead of a monster one.
• Dreaming of Times Gone By: The vast majority of Flashbacks in the story (and there are a lot of them) happen in dreams.
• Early-Bird Cameo: Dr. Aster asks Joe Stanton to man the Soul Scanner for him long before the latter is formally introduced.
• Eldritch Abomination: The Demon. They are an outside force that's not part of this world, and their features are completely indistinct because they leave an impression of someone being there, rather than actually being there. It's not even possible to classify their speech as talking.
• Elemental Powers: While the elements of Fire, Water, Lightning, Wind, and Earth are all present in monster magic, they are less important than the color of the magic itself.
• Ensemble Cast: Though the story's description might paint a different picture, the story doesn't focus on Doctor Aster so much as it uses his point of view to introduce the readers to the post-Pacifist setting. After the first few chapters, the spotlight starts to widen considerably.
• Establishing Character Moment:
  • For Flowey, when he makes the trees at the Arboretum go on strike. That, the way the radio announcers talk about him, and the way Frisk is able to convince him to stop reasonably easily all serve to showcase what people think about him and how he behaves.
  • For Dwayne Riley, it's when he calls in to KEBT FM and rants about monsters being invaders.
  • Hal's first direct appearance is heralded with the line, "YOU SUCK, METZINGER!"
• Everybody Knew Already: When Frisk reveals that they have magic by using it against Cater, the only one who's that surprised by it is Dr. Aster. Alphys overheard Asriel and Frisk talking about it, then later talked about it in her sleep while in the car with Papyrus and Undyne; Sans and Asgore had already figured it out themselves anyway; and of course they'd already shown Asriel and Toriel. They just all never said anything because either a) they knew it was really bothering Frisk and didn't want to seem like they were confronting them or b) they just figured they had a good reason for keeping the secret.
• Evil Cannot Comprehend Good:
  • Flowey simply cannot understand why Frisk is so nice to him.
  • Jordan Cater proves incapable of seeing monsters as no different than human beings at heart, instead believing that they are mockeries of life that even lack true consciousness, who either must be plotting the downfall of humanity or are corrupting with their mere presence.
• Exact Words:
  • When Brett and Burgie are pondering why they're seated so close to Hal Greene at the State of the Kingdom Address:
    Brett: There are things man is not meant to know, Burgie.
    Burgie: Yeah, but I'm a monster, so I should at least be entitled to read the Cliff's N- [gets interrupted by the Address starting]
  • During the AML siege of the town, Justin reports that Mike Van Garrett drove off the members assaulting the librarby. When Hal asks how, Justin clarifies that he meant literally. With his modified truck.
• Explaining Your Power to the Enemy:
  • Papyrus explains blue attacks to some AML members during the attack on the Auditorium.
  • When Jordan asks what Justin did after being instantaneously put on the ground in their 1v1:
    Justin: What did I just do? Oh, that's an interesting story. Allow me to explain in detail the secret technique I used to defeat you so you can come up with a counter strategy on the fly and turn the tables.
• Extremely Protective Child:
  • Within the scope of the story, Frisk only ever directly risks their life for Undyne, but they make it blatantly clear that they'd do the same for Toriel and Asgore (as well as their other friends).
  • The one time Sans gets angry at Toriel (and one of the few times he gets angry at all) is when Toriel threatens Dr. Aster while losing her temper.
• Eye Scream: Joe Stanton loses his glasses in spectacular fashion when a science experiment blows up in his face. And he then proceeds to use magic to rip out all forty-seven pieces of shrapnel lodged in his eyeballs before healing the damage with further magic.

F–I

• Failed a Spot Check: Metaphorically. Jordan Cater's initial plan to use the Anti-Monster League to siege the town and wipe out all monsters gets completely blindsided by the fact that the majority of the humans in town wind up siding with the monsters in the conflict. This should've been obvious to anyone seeing monsters and humans openly coexisting in the same community.
• Family of Choice: A subtle but recurring theme throughout the trilogy. Frisk's connection with the monsters they met in the Underground is much stronger and closer than any connection they have with their biological family or humans they knew on the surface. To a lesser extent, this also applies to the town of Ebott's Wake as a whole, with various citizens taking pride in their local traditions and history no matter how ridiculous they may appear to tourists and outsiders.
• Fantastic Racism:
  • The Anti-Monster League's bread and butter. Though as far as influence goes, they're viewed by the rest of the town's residents as a vocal nuisance at best. Until they attempt to outright siege the town, that is.
  • After the AML is largely put out of commission, a resurrected Sages cult replaces them. They're forced to operate from the shadows, but they're a much more potent threat in terms of their goals and methods.
  • A milder example shows up during a public meeting, where two people trivialize the monster's technological ingenuity and limited resources in the Underground as making everything out of trash.
• Fantastic Terrorists:
  • When the AML couldn't get their way with loud words, they try sieging the town.
  • The Sages basically held all of Ebott's Wake at gunpoint so they could get their way with regards to preparing for a monster attack.
• Fireball Eyeballs: Toriel and Asgore sometimes get these when using or preparing to use a lot of magical power, or simply when they're angry. In Asgore's case, one is orange and the other cyan, calling to mind the colored eye flashes from his bossfight.
• Fish out of Temporal Water: Doctor Wing Ding Aster only gets launched four and a half years into the future at the start of the story, but there have been so many changes between those two points that he has to work double-time to catch up with the rest of the monsters in learning about the Surface.
• Flashback: Several of them, usually in dreams and starting the chapter off (but not making up its entirety).
  • There's a loose series of them in chapters titled "BAD MEMORY."
    • Frisk dreams of fighting Toriel in the Ruins in "BAD MEMORY 01: 'Heartache.'"
    • Sans dreams about the time he confronted Andrew in the Judgment Hall in "BAD MEMORY 02: 'Justice.'"
    • Asgore dreams of the time he met Frisk in "BAD MEMORY 03: 'The Barrier.'"
    • Undyne has a dream about chasing Frisk in "BAD MEMORY 04: 'Mercy.'"
    • Papyrus dreams of meeting with Undyne in Waterfall in "BAD MEMORY 05: 'Trust.'"
    • Toriel dreams about various parts of her time with Chara in the Underground in "BAD MEMORY 06: 'Fallen.'"
    • When he goes on his Journey to the Center of Frisk's Mind in "BAD MEMORY 07: 'Broken,'" he witnesses how Frisk's life deteriorated before they climbed Mt. Ebott.
    • Alphys dreams about watching Frisk fight Undyne in "BAD MEMORY 08: 'Doubt.'"
    • Frisk dreams about… Chara's death?? in "BAD MEMORY 09: 'Failure.'"
    • Frisk shows Asriel their memory of Jason killing them in "BAD MEMORY 10: 'RESET.'"
    • There's one to the night after Asriel came back in "GOOD MEMORY: 'Family.'"
  • The day of the State of the Kingdom address, Flowey has a dream about the time he came down from the mountain. At two separate points a while later, he has another two consisting of various parts of his time with Chara in the Underground.
  • When he goes on his Journey to the Center of Frisk's Mind, Flowey has a few flashbacks to his time (as Asriel) with Chara.
  • Frisk relives a few different memories while fighting for their life on the operating table after the Address.
  • At one point, we see a collection of moments from Chara's life, seemingly not in a dream.
  • Late in the story, Frisk dreams about the time they first entered Asgore's house.
• Flashback Cut: When Flowey finds out that he has a piece of Frisk's Soul, we see a brief snippet of Asriel's bossfight.
• Foreshadowing:
  • Frisk remarks that if there were any time for the AML to make a big move, it'd be the State of the Kingdom address. At it later turns out, the AML had the same idea.
  • The day of the State of the Kingdom address, Flowey finds himself doing a lot of stuff that's really weird for him without knowing why.
    • He has a dream (about the day he came down from the mountain), which hasn't happened in a while. Near the end of the same chapter, his eyes start stinging when he hears Toriel's voice—and he hasn't cried in a long time.
    • He goes to apologize to Alphys for scaring her the other day.
      Flowey: Listen, that whole thing last week with me making threats and throwing stuff around in the garage? That was out of line. I shouldn't have been doing that to anybody, but especially not to people I was asking for help. So... I'm sorry. I don't know why, I don't know how... but I am.

      A few moments later, he proceeds to give her a fair amount of helpful advice with only one insult mixed in.

    • After the Address, it turns out that he has part of Frisk's Soul and is starting to feel again. Too bad he immediately has to give it back… right?
  • Asgore notices that he has a single gray hair… which should be impossible, given that boss monsters without children don't age.
• Freak Lab Accident: Joe gains magic from this while investigating the similarities between magic colors, human Soul colors as measured by the Soul Scanner, and the Sages' lore about human soul colors.
• Freudian Excuse Is No Excuse: A large part of Jordan Cater's motivations involve avenging the death of his daughter Chara; however, as pointed out multiple times—and more than once, to his face—he's all too willing to kill another human child to achieve his goals, so nobody feels all that sorry for him. Not helping his case is that he's the reason Chara climbed Mt. Ebott in the first place.
• Fun T-Shirt: Alphys promises every volunteer for the Soul Scanner project a free T-shirt that says "Dwayne Riley Is an Imbecile." The project proceeds to be absolutely overrun with volunteers, because the people of Ebott's Wake love free T-shirts for some reason.
• Fun with Acronyms:
  • CORE stands for Chronodynamic Optronic Retrograde Emitter.
  • Dr. Aster explains that every vital statistic is actually an acronym:
    • ATK or AT stands for Aggression Transfer(, Kinetic).
      Dr. Aster: Broadly speaking[,] it's your ability to exert your will on the world in a destructive manner… the ability to inflict harm requires a physical connection to complete the, uh, I guess you'd call it a circuit, even if it oversimplifies.
    • DEF or DF stands for Defensive (Energy) Field.
      Dr. Aster: DF is the counterpart of [AT]… the capacity of your soul to divert or deflect aggressive energy away when it is attacked.
    • HP stands for Healing Potential.
      Dr. Aster: [HP is] your soul's ability to regenerate from damage and interference. More is nice to have because it means you're less likely to be impaired through injury, illness or magical disruption, but honestly as long as you have even a fraction of Healing Potential – and I mean even less than 1, in the decimals – you'll be alright.
    • SPD stands for Shortest Path to Destination.
      Dr. Aster: …it actually quantifies your mental acuity and reflexes, how quickly you react psychologically… it's a bit archaic and refers to a model of consciousness as a simple electrical circuit.
    • INV stands for INduction Vector.
      Dr. Aster: When anyone's Soul is harmed, the disruption in energy creates eddy currents… the resulting counter current in the soul pushes back any further incoming energy, no matter how great it is, until the counter current dissipates.
  • An additional attribute called LV CAP is introduced a little later, but it isn't an acronym—or at least, not its own; LV is still Level of Violence, but CAP is simply short for "capacity."
  • SAVE, LOAD, and QUIT are all turned into acronyms to describe their in-universe effects on the timeline. Sans explicitly mentions that they are all deliberate Backronyms. SAVE stands for Sentient Achronal Variation of Events, LOAD stands for Localized Opposing Act of Determination, and QUIT stands for Qualitative, Unambiguous, Intentional Termination.
• Gadgeteer Genius: A downplayed example with Frisk. They mention building various improvised tools and appliances before falling into the Underground, and speculate on the possibility of building a cooling system for Undyne's armor and an automatic gravy-mixing machine for Toriel's kitchen. They are also shown buying appliances from the local thrift shop and dismantling them for parts.
• Genius Bruiser: Mike Van Garrett, who is vice president of the Ebott's Wake Librarby Board and possesses a degree in aerospace engineering. He also is a muscled giant who has broken a man's femur with a single punch, was almost a match for Undyne in an arm-wrestling match, and is practically unfazed when he gets shot with a .22 caliber pistol.
• Gentle Giant: Van Garrett prefers to downplay his strength and cultivate his appearance more in favor of the Genius side rather than the Bruiser side. (Not that this stops him from being appropriately threatening when the situation calls for it.)
• The Glomp:
  • Sans tackles Dr. Aster in a bear hug when they're finally reunited. Papyrus does much the same when they meet in the next chapter.
  • Chara glomps Asriel when they finally get to talk in real life near the end.
• Glowing Eyes of Doom:
  • Inverted for Sans and Wing Ding Aster. They have pupil-like lights in their eye sockets normally; it's when those lights go out that you know things have gotten bad.
  • Humans who are using a lot of magic will often have eyes glowing with the color of their Soul. It could be a perfectly benign use of their magic… but it could also mean they're about to ruin your day.
  • Averted with those using Pattern magic to enhance their senses—their eyes will glow magenta, but they're just using it to enhance their senses.
• Gone Horribly Right: Lance Lepus (the Nice Cream Guy)'s business is booming on the Surface—to the point where he can't keep up with demand even after a year and a half to adjust and four or five employees to help. He simply cannot work hard enough to satisfy the demand for friendly monster ice cream, and it is really stressing him out.
• Go Through Me: During the attack on the State of the Kingdom address, Frisk rushes in front of Undyne to keep Riley from shooting her. They tell him that he'll have to shoot them in order to get to Undyne.
• Happily Adopted:
  • Frisk still hasn't gotten over their issues from how their human parents raised them, but they're happier with Toriel than they have been in a long time. Indeed, their greatest fear is that Toriel will find something out about them that makes her send them back to their human parents, which Toriel makes clear time and time again is never going to happen.
  • Chara never got over their issues, either, but they were happier with the monsters than they ever were on the Surface.
• Harmful Healing: Toriel attempts to heal Frisk after they are shot by Jordan Cater. While the healing magic works, Frisk has to be rushed to the hospital to remove the bullet fragments left inside their body and to treat the infection from the gunshot wound. Somewhat Zig-Zagged because various doctors differ on whether the time bought by the healing magic outweighs the complications to the surgery.
• Healing Potion: Monster food is explicitly mentioned as healing a wide variety of illnesses and injuries, including cancer and nerve damage, though it does have limits. Frisk still has to get shots for their allergies, it can't get rid of illnesses, and healing magic can't grow back Joe Stanton's arm after it gets shot off.
• Heal the Cutie:
  • It gradually becomes clear that Frisk has a terrible past that's taken a huge toll on their self-worth. Probably the main storyline of Ebott's Wake is watching them start to overcome this.
  • Once Asriel comes back, there's a lot of focus on helping him get over all the things he did to people who don't even remember it. Or perhaps, that he had once done to people but hasn't anymore. And even some of the more restrained things he did on the Surface.
• Humanity Is Insane: Dr. Aster thinks space travel sums up humanity quite well, in that they somehow convinced each other that riding on top of an explosion was a good idea.
• Humans Kill Wantonly: Semi Serif Aster was convinced that humans were more of a force of destruction than a species.
• Hurt/Comfort Fic: The real meat of the story is watching Frisk gradually get over their trauma from their Dark and Troubled Past. Once Asriel comes back, he gets some focus in that respect as well.
• Ignored Aesop:
  • Time and time again, Frisk worries that some revelation or minor mistake will cause their new friends to reject them, even after all they've done for them. Time and time again, this fear is proven incorrect… yet they still can't shake it. Justified in that their abusive past hammered this idea into them, and even though it gets proven wrong, the older experiences largely take precedent.
  • Every moment Toriel mentioned missing Chara, they were there for it, yet they still fear that they'll be met with retribution if they make themselves known.
• The Illegible: The other monsters couldn't pick up Dr. Aster's work on the CORE based on his notes because his handwriting is atrocious. Given that Papyrus apparently writes in the Papyrus computer font, it's likely that Dr. Wing Ding Aster writes his notes in, well…
• Impaled Palm: Frisk stabs Jordan Cater in the hand with the Worn Dagger during the battle for the CORE.
• I Need a Freaking Drink:
  • Said word-for-word by Sans in a Flashback where Andrew (the Justice Soul) kills himself.
  • Quentin Forsythe needs a drink when he's utterly blindsided by Cater getting magic.
• I Need to Go Iron My Dog: When Flowey goes to apologize to Alphys, she promises she'll figure out what's going on with him. He suddenly starts crying, then says:
  Flowey: I need to, I should, I have a doctor's appointment at the dentist bye.
• Insistent Terminology:
  • Flowey does NOT like being called Asriel.
  • Frisk insists that the people of Ebott's Wake aren't weird, they're eccentric.
• Insulted Awake: In a way. When Alphys is really out of it due to being distracted by a scientific issue she can't let go of, Undyne can only get her attention by saying, "Mew Mew Kissy Cutie 2 wasn't that bad." Even then, it takes a moment for it to register.
• Internal Reveal:
  • When Asriel comes back, word gets out that Flowey is Asriel.
  • When Frisk uses magic in the climax, everybody present can see it. As it turns out, though, most of their friends already knew.
  • The audience could tell since the night after the battle in the CORE, but it's only after the climax that Frisk figures out that Chara is still around in their head. This leads to some more Internal Reveals when they tell other people.
• Interspecies Adoption: The Dreemurrs adopted human children on two separate occasions (first Chara, later Frisk).
• Interspecies Romance:
  • Burgie/DJ Pantz, a cat monster, is dating Lazy Lindsey, a human. When we learn this, we also find out that Lindsey is pregnant with a Half-Human Hybrid.
  • Tsundereplane appears to have a thing for Gary Welkin. Lots of people do, but towards the end, Gary appears to reciprocate.
  • Frisk flirts with their classmate Skate, who is also a plane monster (though a propeller-driven one rather than a jet).
• I Should Have Been Better: Frisk feels that they should have been able to bring Asriel back permanently, if they'd only done everything right. Which is insane, but it gradually becomes clear that they were raised to think anything less than perfection is utter failure.
• It's All My Fault: Frisk is constantly afraid that everything will go wrong because of them.

J–O

• Journey to the Center of the Mind: Flowey uses the Soul Link to go into Frisk's mind and return the fragment of their Soul he has from their fight.
• Jumping the Shark: Officer Steve says the town has done this when, at the very end, he learns that Hal has magic.
• Killing Intent: As an Undertale fic, EXecution Points and Level Of ViolencE still play a role in the trilogy.
  • Ebott's Wake introduces a new stat called Level of Violence Capacity, or LV CAP for short, which is the highest LOVE a person can reach. A high enough LV Cap can affect a person's mindset just like LOVE can, but it can only increase based on outside stimuli. Essentially, it's a measurement of how much a person has been hurt, rather than how much they've hurt others.
  • As in canon, Frisk has a LV CAP of 20. In this fic, however, it's unnaturally high, an indicator of Frisk's Dark and Troubled Past and true nature as a Stepford Smiler.
  • Justin Carrow has a LV of 3, which he explains as a result of being a former soldier. He has an LV CAP of 8, which is fairly average for humans.
  • Jordan Cater has an LV of 4 and an LV CAP of… also 4, which is the lowest known for humans. It implies he was extremely sheltered as a child and still managed to become a murderous bigot and an extremely abusive father.
  • Jason Taylor, Frisk's human father, turns out to have a LV of 6.
  • Killing Intent ends up working against Jordan Cater after he gains magic, as his body ends up reacting to the intent to kill in the bullet fired by Jason Taylor during the attack on Dreemurr Elementary.
• Kill Me Now, or Forever Stay Your Hand: During the attack on the auditorium, Frisk stands in front of Dwayne Riley, who was about to shoot Undyne, and dares him to shoot them. He can't do it. He doesn't even try to aim around them. There's a strong implication that Frisk is trying to make a point to Dwayne Riley about himself. We don't get to see them follow up on this, though it appears that Papyrus does later.
• Large Ham: Undyne and Papyrus, naturally, and Hal Greene is a particularly bombastic member of the human cast.
• Last-Second Word Swap: Many characters do this when they were about to swear in front of children—probably too many to put here.
  • Frisk often switches words at the last moment when talking to Flowey, because their word choice would've treated Asriel and Flowey as the same person, which seriously annoys him.
  • Flowey himself does the same thing a few times. He also comes close to calling Toriel "mom" at several points.
  • Van Garrett while giving his opinion on the AML to KEBT FM:
    Van Garrett: Dwayne Riley, his drinking buddies, and every other ne'er-do-well in this town with giant egos and tiny... brains. Tiny brains is exactly what I planned on saying the whole time, and not other parts of the body. Though if I were to say another part of the body, that too would be disproportionately small compared to everything else, causing members of the opposite sex to laugh uproariously upon seeing it.
  • Brett Brinkman, discussing opinions on the Sages:
    Brett: Probably more than half of why so many of the people of Ebott's Wake rallied around monsters and against Mr. Riley is because they didn't have any patience for anyone that would support the Sages and their horsesh... their behavior.
• Leaning on the Fourth Wall:
  • While preparing for the AML assault on the hospital, Hal is reminded that the changing of the Dank Memehaus billboard was the previous night. He says it feels like it was weeks ago… which it was, for the author and anybody reading the fic at the time.
  • After waking up from an energy drink crash, Hal feels the need to ask what year it is. That chapter was the first chapter of 2017.
  • Late into the story, an author's note says that "the man in the fancy suit buys an umbrella" in the next few chapters. A later author's note admits that their pacing got thrown out of whack, and the umbrella purchase was behind schedule. When he finally does buy the umbrella, the man says, "Honestly I should have done this yesterday[,] but the best-laid plans of monsters and men oft go awry."
  • Near the very end of the story, Frisk is distressed over being asked to take a break from being the Ambassador. While reassuring them, Asriel asserts that "this isn't the end," which lines right up with notes from the author talking about a prequel and a sequel.
• Literally Laughable Question: When Cater asks Dr. Aster if he "really didn't think somebody would figure [that monsters use the CORE to send messages back in time] out," all the latter can do is laugh and laugh for an entire paragraph.
• Leave Him to Me!: Before the attack on the CORE, Jordan tells the other New Guardians to let him kill Asriel.
• Literal Metaphor: Alphys asks Undyne how she knew about the Soul Ring project before it was announced. Undyne says that a little bird told her… and Woshua told them.
• Living Shadow: One of these is shown to be indirectly responsible for Flowey leaving the Underground and joining everyone else on the surface; he gives it his Post-Pacifist speech thinking that it is Chara in some form and proceeds to Freak Out when he realizes that it isn't. Later on, the same shadow shows up again when Cater summons it. He calls it the Demon; it seems like an Eldritch Abomination and appears to be some sort of player analogue.
• Look Behind You: Alphys tells some New Guardians that DT keeps people alive when they shouldn't be… "like what happened to them." One of the burglars says, "Oh please. That's the oldest trick in... the book..." turning around to see a Memoryhead behind him.
• Look on My Works, Ye Mighty, and Despair: Hal Parodies this before the second State of the Kingdom address.
  12:43 PM EZ_Being_Greene: LOOK UPON MY WORKS YE MIGHTY
  12:43 PM EZ_Being_Greene: AND SOMETHING

  He proceeds to come in armed with a football helmet, a singing bass trophy (thankfully with the batteries taken out), and two bandoliers of monster soda. "Look upon my works, ye mighty, and something," indeed.

• Made of Magic: Discussions of the nature of monster biology come up a lot, and they always refer back to this fact from the game.
• Magic A Is Magic A: Magic has well-defined properties, capabilities, and limitations. The use of magic is always accompanied by a burst of light, for example, and said light's color depends on the type of magic being used.

• The Magic Goes Away: One of the research projects at All Fine Labs involves trying to understand why humans can no longer use magic. Near the very end of the story, Dr. Aster comes to the conclusion that the Barrier itself used up all available magic energy just to sustain its own existence, leaving virtually nothing left for humans to use. With the Barrier gone, humans are regaining access to magic, which Frisk intends to leverage to make sure humanity never tries to create another Barrier.
• Mental World: Whenever Flowey uses the Soul Link to connect to Frisk, he shows up (as Asriel) in… some place filled with thick fog. There's also a lamppost for some reason.
  • The first time, he sees a lot of Frisk's memories play out. The people in those memories are always at least partially transparent.
  • The second time, he and Frisk are together. They see some memories and objects from the past, including Frisk's human parents' old car minus internal details, but the main "attraction" is the Judgment Hall copy with stained-glass windows showing Frisk's recurring nightmares.
• Metaphorgotten: Gary Welkin has a marked tendency to go overboard with metaphors or lose track of them entirely.
  Gary: Much like the dreaded U-Boats referenced in this eatery's advertisements, the Kriegsmarine Special descends silently beneath the waves of biting teeth, only to later surface and torpedo unsuspecting commercial shipping traffic carrying valuable materiel to a besieged Britain!
• Mirrored Confrontation Shot: A textual version when Dr. Aster reflexively summons an Aster Blaster when Sans bridges up to the cave:
  A part of [Dr. Aster's] mind, standing off to the side like am impartial observer or referee, noted that there was an appealing symmetry to the situation; on each side, a skeleton and two blasters.
• Mirthless Laughter: In a Flashback, when they wake up in the ruins a second time, Frisk can only laugh out of a mixture of Irony and despair.
  Hands covered Frisk's mouth as they started to laugh. And laugh. And laugh.
  ' It's soooo funny. '
  Tears streamed down their face.
• Missing Mom: Frisk's human mother is nowhere to be found.
• Mistakes Are Not the End of the World: Frisk understands perfectly well that it's okay to make mistakes… unless they're the one making them.
• The Mole: Dwayne Riley calls Justin one and blames him for the failure of the attack on the Auditorium. Justin says he prefers "double agent."
• Muggle with a Degree in Magic: There are a number of humans working at All Fine Labs, and it's impossible to work there for long without understanding the theory of magic. Joe Stanton in particular stands out as having an extremely good intuition for magic despite not being able to use it himself.
• Murder by Inaction: Andrew accuses Sans of being too lazy to pull Sam out of the river. Sans doesn't deny it, though he's also pretty caught off-guard by the accusation, and Andrew doesn't give him a chance to respond.
• My God, What Have I Done?: Asriel has trouble forgiving himself for all the things he did as Flowey.
• Names to Run Away from Really Fast:
  • The Demon.
  • The Usurper.
• Never My Fault: Jordan Cater refuses to admit that nobody hurt Chara worse than he did.
• New Parent Nomenclature Problem:
  • In a Flashback, Chara asks Toriel if it's alright to call her "mom." They started doing it without quite realizing it, but they felt the need to ask once they did realize. Even though Toriel had never had a problem with it and had just referred to herself as "Mom" when talking to them.
  • Frisk seems to waffle on whether or not to call Toriel and Asgore "Mom" and "Dad," most commonly when they feel like they don't deserve to be their child or think they're going to be sent away.
• Nightmare Sequence: We get to see a lot of Frisk's nightmares. Usually, they're about their friends (especially Toriel) turning on them after finding something out about them. These issues are practically guaranteed to come up in real life, and Frisk's friends are absolutely guaranteed to think no less of them each time.
• Nobody Can Die: Even once the Cerebus Syndrome sets in, nobody seems to die other than Frisk, but it's only a couple times, and they always get better.
  • There's some implication at the end that this is because magic is a function of will and intent, and Frisk cares so much about everybody, so naturally their magic protects everybody it can. The results are most blatant when Cater finds himself unable to stab Justin because a shield keeps forming in the way.
  • The only exceptions are three deaths in Flashbacks. One is Andrew, the last child before Frisk to fall into Mount Ebott, who shoots himself to QUIT; the second is Chara dying of buttercup poisoning; and the third is Asriel dying from his wounds. Even you count these, they actually kinda mesh with the previous explanation, because Frisk didn't have magic at the time.
• No Full Name Given: Surnames are given for Sans and Papyrus (Aster), Frisk (Dreemurr, formerly Taylor), Chara (Dreemurr, formerly Cater), and all major OCs, meaning that of the main cast, only Undyne and Alphys lack full names. Given that these are also the names used with their titles, it's possible that each of them really does have Only One Name.
• Non Sequitur: Flowey says a lot of random things after coming out of the Soul Link.
• Noodle Implements: Joe's plan B for stopping Cater from escaping the hospital would've involved a cup of hot coffee and a rubber band gun.
• Noodle Incident:
  • The series has enough of them to weave into a basic roadmap of the town's history.
  • Apparently something happened during the 2010 Kludge Derby to necessitate some insanely good driving skills. Akin to, say, dodging through a large group of Temmies that ran onto the track in the middle of the race (which was what drew the comparison in the first place).
  • Michael Van Garrett once broke the femur of a PETA protester with a single punch. He's enough of a Gentle Giant that the fact that he threw the punch is more surprising than the fact that he was capable of doing it, but we're never told what happened to push him that far.
  • At one point, an inflatable life raft turns up in the All Fine Labs break room with no indication of how it got there.
• Not Quite Dead: As Undyne puts it, with the Sages seemingly back, the humans of Ebott's Wake "feel like people in a horror movie when the guy with the knife and the mask should be dead, but he shows up out of nowhere with a Scare Chord."
• Not-So-Harmless Villain:
  • The Anti-Monster League are regarded by everyone as a nuisance at worst, despite them being a major obstacle to integrating monsters and humans. Then they stage an assault on the State of the Kingdom address, which leads to Frisk getting shot and the revival of the Sages.
  • The Sages were apparently less obtrusive in the past, being a weird cult with ominous rumors about them, but ultimately keeping to themselves… until Asriel came down the mountain with Chara's body. As a result, the town began taking them more seriously, leading to them eventually taking over Ebott's Wake.
• Odd Friendship:
  • Frisk and Flowey, particularly to anyone who doesn't know their past history together.
  • Between Hal Greene and Asriel Dreemurr; the former being a thirty-something car mechanic and a borderline madman, and the latter being a mellow child of no older than eleven.
• Office Romance: DJ Pantz and Lazy Lindsey are dating.
• Offing the Offspring: It turns out that this is how Frisk got reset after the first run. And it was in panicked self-defense; Frisk finally lost their temper when they went back home and their father rejected them, and they were going to kill him if he didn't stop them.
• Omnidisciplinary Scientist:
  • Downplayed in Dr. Aster's case; he's primarily a physicist, but also knows a lot about engineering, and mentioned that he ended up reading whatever human medical knowledge could be salvaged from the garbage dump. While this knowledge was neither complete nor comprehensive, it still made him the closest thing the Underground had to an expert on human biology and physiology.
  • Averted with Joe Stanton, who is explicitly stated to have a degree in electrical engineering.
• One-Steve Limit:
  • Averted with Joe Stanton, lab gofer/wrangler at All Fine Labs, and Joe [no surname given], the owner of Joe's House of Stuff.
  • Humorously averted with The Daves, a former band local to Ebott's Wake consisting solely of people named Dave. Brett says they were "the most popular band to come out of Ebott's Wake during the Seventies, featuring Dave McGee on vocals, Dave Harrison on saxophone, Dave Thorton on keyboard and Dave Greene on theremin and pyrotechnics." (Dave McGee is the father of Clutch McGee, a KEBT FM radio host; Dave Harrison is later mentioned as Derby Marshal for the Kludge Derby; Dave Greene is the father of Hal Greene; and Dave Thorton is presumably Byron Thorton's dad.)
• Only in Florida: Undyne cites Florida as proof that if humans getting magic were at all simple, it would've happened already.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business:
  • It's only apparent on reread, when you've gotten to know Hal better, but when he learns that the AML is planning to attack the hospital (where Frisk is having surgery), his Cloudcuckoolander tendencies are nowhere to be seen.
    • This is much more apparent (because you're more familiar with him) when he shows up at Asgore's house after keeping himself up all night with a mixture of Red Bull and Five-Hour Energy, vomits his way into sobriety, and finally explains himself once he gets inside.
  • Flowey makes it very clear that he hates the idea of being put in a flower pot. It's too Claustrophobic, and it reminds him too much of when he first woke up in the garden and didn't know how to move. Later, however, he puts up with it so he can visit Frisk in the hospital.
  • After Asriel comes back, and Toriel doesn't take it well at first, Frisk tries to run away but is later stopped once Toriel calms down. Toriel tries to understand what's wrong, and suddenly…
    “Because,” Frisk swallowed. “Because it's over. Everyone has what they wanted. You have Asriel again. The way it should have been a year and a half ago, if I hadn't screwed up everything. And I won't screw it up again.”
    “...my child. What did you-”
    “I'M NOT YOUR CHILD! YOUR CHILD IS RIGHT THERE!” Frisk screamed, pointing at Asriel. “HE'S BACK AND YOU'RE A FAMILY AGAIN AND JUST STOP TAUNTING ME WITH WHAT I CAN NEVER HAVE! I DON'T...”
    The human child took a deep breath, but the momentum was gone. Around them, eyes widened, and eye sockets darkened. Nobody present had ever heard Frisk raise their voice that much. Some of them had never heard the human child raise their voice ever.

P–S

• Past Experience Nightmare: There's a lot of these here. Many (but not all) of them take place in the "BAD MEMORY" chapters.
• The Place: The story is named after the town it (largely) takes place in.
• Posthumous Character:
  • Chara's life and death continue to affect those who knew them throughout the story. Subverted when they prove to be… well, not alive, but still around in Frisk's head after all.
  • The six humans that died in the Underground get several mentions in Ebott's Wake, and their past deaths serve as a plot point in Terra Incognita.
  • Byron Thorton, the town's previous postmaster and the seventh member of Shop Class who united them all in a common cause, who died after he was caught by the Sages for sneaking evidence of their crimes to the federal government.
• Pre-Asskicking One-Liner:
  • Dr. Aster delivers one to Cater and O'Dell before their fight in the CORE.
    Dr. Aster: My name is Doctor Wing Ding Aster. And if you are currently enjoying yourself, you had best get ready to stop.
  • Justin, tapping his Condensintrator watch before fighting Cater one-on-one: "Would you look at the time. It's Bad O'Clock." Once Cater is on the ground, Justin admits that he needs to work on his one-liners.
• Precision F-Strike:
  • When Frisk and Flowey are discussing the ethics of the time loop:
    Frisk: But if I have to take everyone's hard work, everyone's struggles and triumphs and throw it all away... how can anyone make that choice? Between one life and everyone else's life?
    Flowey: I never had a problem with it. Though I didn't exactly have a lot going on in the empathy department.
    Frisk: Well... it scares the hell out of me.
  • Dr. Aster's language is usually clean and collected, even when he's angry. But he makes an exception every now and then.
    Cater: Do you really. Honestly. Expect me to believe that with all of this [waves hands at the CORE], and everything you said about time energy and controlled paradoxes, that you couldn't even send your past self a simple message in Morse Code?
    Dr. Aster: [eye sockets narrow, eye lights fade] You want to kill me and everyone I know and care about, and wipe my race from the surface of this planet. Explain to me why I should give a fuck about what you believe.
  • Sans doesn't swear often, but he does when talking to Frisk about what they said in the hospital.
    Sans: …we got to talking earlier[,] and he thinks that [resetting is] better than the alternative, if the alternative is going to your funeral. And I'm inclined to agree; pardon my coarse language, but you scared the fuck out of me and dad in the hospital when you told the doctors you didn't think you could keep going.
• Punishment Detail: Dwayne Riley talks about Officer Steve getting "shuffled over to monster patrol as punishment for embarrassing the force." Steve, for his part, seems to think it's a pretty cushy job.
• Punny Name:
  • Chara's father's name is Jordan Cater, making Chara's full name Chara Cater. Completely Lampshades that in Undertale proper, Chara's name comes from the word "character."
  • The meteorologist on KEBT FM is named Hailey Skye.
• Ragtag Bunch of Misfits: Alphys describes O'Dell's burglary crew as a "rag-tag b-band of misfits." They're much more villainous than the standard for the trope, though they are certainly more "the people O'Dell could find" rather than the best people for the job.
• "Rashomon"-Style: In-Universe; every monster seems to have a different idea of exactly what happened when the Barrier was broken. Strangely, some of them don't even remember some things that happened while they appeared to be conscious in the game. A few characters (like Alphys and Sans) just remember a white light and then the Barrier being broken; Toriel remembers a dim haze, and in it one child reaching out to comfort another; Papyrus remembers Flowey showing up with a fake mustache and calling himself "Herb the Soul Inspector;" and Flowey implies that he got even more different answers from asking around that we never get to see.
• Readings Are Off the Scale: Alphys tries using a bullet analyzer to measure Flowey's stats. They come back as all nines, which Alphys interprets as the analyzer trying to divide something by zero, because he has no soul. Except he does have one, or at least part of one, and the actual reason is that the analyzer is calibrated for monster souls and not human ones—and his soul fragment is from Frisk.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech:
  • Alphys, of all people, gives one to Dwayne Riley.
    Alphys: When have you ever cared about anybody but yourself? Before we came out of the underground you spent all your time complaining about other humans! All you ever do is tear people down and you never, ever care about anybody from yourself! I'll put up with a lot of crap[,] but I won't take it from the likes of you! And you know what? You know what?! Anybody who comes to the volunteer study this week gets a free T-Shirt that says 'Dwayne Riley is an Imbecile!' I don't know where we'll get them on short notice[,] but I will knit them with my own damned claws if I have to! CHOKE ON THAT!
  • Sans's fight with Cater outside the hospital consists primarily of the former brutally dressing down the latter.
  • Dr. Aster sort of gives one about the human body when confronting Cater and O'Dell in the CORE.
    Dr. Aster: Your bodies are mostly water. Our bodies are mostly magic. Both provide a medium for energetic and physical reactions and activity. But your bodies rely on those reactions for everything, reactions that rely on other reactions, on specific elements and compounds, on extremely narrow ranges of temperature and pressure and electrical charge. If it gets too hot, you die. If it gets too cold, you die. If ambient air pressure goes up or down too much, you die. Electrical interference can stop your heart, jam your muscles, damage your brain. And let's not get into the train wreck that is your digestive process. Do I need to list any more examples? You said you could kill me with one hit. That might be true. But somebody could kill you with one hit too, and they wouldn't even have to be trying to do it, so long as they hit the right spot.
  • The Demon gives one to Cater near the end.
    The Demon: Asriel didn't take Chara away from you. Chara wasn't taken at all. Chara ran away. You've read the letter enough times. You know that, and you know why. But you cannot accept it… W hile[sic] you regret saying what you said before Chara ran away to climb Mt. Ebott, you can't accept that any of what you said or did before that played a role in Chara's decision.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: Played with with Chara. They had a rare form of heterochromia that resulted in one eye turning red over time. They normally weren't a dangerous person or anything, but the other children called them a "demon child" for it, and they got into a lot of fights as a result. Later, when Chara is taking over or sharing control of Frisk's body, one or both eyes will glow red, such as when they stab Cater in the hand or when they're fighting him outside the school.
• Refused Reunion:
  • Flowey doesn't want to tell Toriel and Asgore who he is.
  • Chara doesn't even know how to tell anybody they're there.
• Replacement Goldfish: Frisk thinks they're just a placeholder for Chara and Asriel. Toriel, however, does not.
  Toriel: Had fate only allowed it, there would be three children[-]sized beds in our house right now.
• Research, Inc.: All Fine Labs exists primarily to conduct magical research, though it also has production lines that manufacture magical technology, such as Point Source Emitters for other monsters to use to keep up with the demand from the human population on the surface. Ethical conflicts are almost completely nonexistent; thanks to her experience with the Amalgamates, Alphys prioritizes safety and informed consent very highly.
• The Reveal:
  • Relatively early on, Frisk learns that they have an LV CAP of 20. Everybody who hears about the idea of somebody having an LV CAP that high is horrified. Frisk thinks this means something terrible about them, but then they and we find out: LV CAP measures how much you've been hurt when you were powerless to stop it (primarily during childhood). Nobody's horrified of somebody with LV CAP 20; they're horrified at the idea of what has to happen to somebody in order for them to have an LV CAP that high.
  • While Flowey is visiting Frisk in the hospital, it turns out that he has a piece of their Soul, which explains some of the weird stuff that's been happening to him lately.
  • After the attack on the Auditorium, Elijah McGraw, Hal Greene, Officer Steven Ward, Josef Stanton, Michael Van Garrett, and Justin Carrow reveal that they are Shop Class, a mini-conspiracy intended to keep watch over Ebott's Wake and fight against threats like the Sages.
• Rewatch Bonus: Knowing that Chara is right-handed (in contrast with Frisk being left-handed) and that Chara is still around in Frisk's head puts a whole new light on several mentions of just one eye doing something and on a couple places where attention is drawn to Frisk's right side for no clear reason. This is especially true with additional characterization of Frisk and Chara's "timeshare agreement" in Legacy Of The Magi.
• The Runaway:
  • Chara ran away from home to finally do something to make Jordan proud of them.
  • Frisk ran away from home because they thought the world would be better off without them.
• Running Gag:
  • The weird slogans the Ebott's Wake Tourism Board creates, usually found at the beginning of The Morning Rush segments.
  • There's a man in a suit who sometimes shows up in Joe's House of Stuff buying random objects (such as every desk they have) as a sort of Funny Background Event.
• Science Marches On: An In-Universe version. All Fine Labs is full of magical-scientific geniuses, but they still have a wrong theory every now and then, so they have to come up with a new one that accommodates the new information. Preferably more than one.
• Science Wizard: Monsters being inherently magical, any monster scientist is bound to be proficient in magic. Doubly so because magic is a field of science (or multiple fields of science, arguably) in and of itself.
• Secret Secret-Keeper: Alphys overhears Frisk talking about having magic with Asriel, but she doesn't want to talk to them about it because she knows how terrified they are that people will find out, and she doesn't want to seem like she's confronting them. She was going to send them a letter about it, but that didn't end up happening, what with literally everything happening.
• Seeks Another's Resurrection: Frisk is secretly desperate to bring Asriel back all the way. Once they find out that Chara's spirit is in their head, they want to bring them back, too.
• Seen It All: One possible interpretation for everyone in town taking the appearance of monsters in stride is that they are just that jaded to strange things happening.
• Serious Business: The Chili Cook Off had to be split into a Pro Beans camp and a No Beans camp to avoid violence. There's even a demilitarized zone between the two, with police standing by to make sure it's respected. Apparently, the police weren't there last year, which somehow lead to trees getting set on fire. (Hal Greene was involved, which almost helps explain it.)
• Ship Tease:
  • Dr. Ross and Dr. Aster get along… really well in the scenes they share.
  • Tsundereplane starts giving Gary Welkin her characteristic mixed signals late in the story. In the climax, Gary maneuvers his helicopter to take a bullet for her, and later, there are pictures on the internet of them hugging.
• Slice of Life:
  • A defining feature of the series, capturing multiple facets of a quirky small-town American community, with the monsters in the mix coming along for the ride.
  • Upcoming events that get mentioned on the radio segments are likely to be featured in later scenes, with various members of the cast either participating or observing.
  • A lot of the focus on the Dreemurr family involves preparing and eating meals, school assignments, parent/child quality time, and sibling rivalry.
• Social Services Does Not Exist: Averted; Child Protective Services are mentioned multiple times and shown checking up on Frisk in the spinoffs. It's explicitly stated that the agency is overworked and understaffed after having all of the children of the Sages suddenly placed in their care.
• Spell My Name With An S:
  • An In-Universe version with Wing Ding Aster; multiple characters refer to him by the name "Gaster" and have to be corrected. Sans explains that this was caused by a typo on some Royal Scientist paperwork. Somehow, though, even humans continue to make that mistake.
  • The story is inconsistent as to whether human radio announcer on The Morning Rush is Brett Brinkman or Brett Brinkmann. Usually it's the former.
  • Michael Van Garrett's surname is inconsistently spelled with either 1 or 2 T's, usually 2.
  • Officer Steven Ward's given name is spelled "Stephen" for approximately the first half of the story and then "Steven" for the second half and the spinoffs.
• Spoof Aesop:
  • Alphys after giving Dwayne Riley a "The Reason You Suck" Speech via KEBT FM call-in:
    Alphys: Who knew that all I needed in order to grow emotionally as a person was to get in a screaming match with a racist on a community radio show?
  • One from DJ Pantz after Omega Flowey ruins the New Guardians' evening:
    DJ Pantz: Let that be a lesson for everybody out there. Don't be a murdering bigot, or a young, fuzzy boss monster will turn into a giant flower and eat your face.
    Brett: I'd say that's a really obscure and impractical lesson for anyone to learn, but the fact is somebody didn't learn it[,] and that's why we're having this conversation in the first place.
• Squishy Wizard: Sans and Dr. Aster speculate that human wizards were especially weak—much like monsters, the magic in their bodies would respond to the intent to harm from their attackers, while they continued to have all the fragility of a human body.
• Start My Own: Burgie declares that he's going to start an anti-human group as a counter to the AML.
  Burgie: And it'll be better than your group in every possible way! We'll have blackjack! And hookers! And a tree house!
• Status Effects: Monster illnesses resemble these, and the differences between monster and human biology makes it difficult but not impossible for humans to contract them.
• Stealth Pun: When preparing to fight the AML outside the hospital, Undyne passes out ears of corn in hot dog buns—corn dogs.
• Stepford Smiler:
  • Early on, it becomes apparent to Frisk's adoptive monster family that Frisk has been hiding a lot of trauma and anxiety for fear of being rejected and sent back to the circumstances that left them so scarred to start with.
  • Asriel, too, once he is resurrected for real. There's a striking contrast between how he behaves in various flashbacks and how he behaves in the present, and with a SOUL giving him back his empathy, his past actions now haunt him continuously.
• The Stinger: Literally the title of the last chapter. It's just a joke about Quentin mistaking Bob the Temmie for a reticulan.
• The Stoic: Frisk does show emotion in public, but they definitely keep a firm lid on a lot of their feelings. For example, Undyne says Frisk can't have a DF of 0, because somebody with 0 DF would've "cried like a baby" after tanking one of her spears. Of course, she doesn't know what Frisk has had to deal with in the past.
• Strongly Worded Letter: Papyrus intends to send one to the Arboretum after Robin Wren yelled at Asriel when he came by to apologize.
• Stumbling in the New Form: Asriel isn't used to having a humanoid form, so he needs a little while to figure out how to walk again.
• Suddenly Bilingual: After the lab accident, Joe can suddenly understand Delgado. Justified thanks to the former gaining Pattern magic that acts as Translator Microbes, but it still comes out of nowhere for everybody involved. Even him.
• Sufficiently Analyzed Magic: All Fine Labs is half magic-technology hybrid factory and half sciencing the heck out of magic. Dr. Alphys and Dr. Aster got their doctorates in magical fields, after all.
• Suspiciously Specific Denial: Secondhand, in the first KEBT FM segment:
  Brett: "Dr. Alphys went on to reassure that the C.O.R.E. plant is in emergency power mode, and even if a catastrophic failure were to occur, it would not endanger the town or agitate the dormant volcano under the mountain."
  DJ Pantz: "That is... oddly specific."

  Surprisingly, this denial doesn't turn out to have any greater significance, nor even to be Tempting Fate.

T–Z

• Technically a Smile: Smiles that "don't quite reach the eyes" are quite common from characters in grim situations.
• Temporal Paradox: The Core facility in Hotland was built specifically to create a paradox that could unmake or destroy the Barrier, allowing monsters to escape the Underground without requiring any human souls at all. The first full-scale test doesn't go as planned and is responsible not only for Dr. Aster's trip to the future, but also for the Save Points scattered throughout the Underground and the surface.
• Tempting Fate:
  • Preparing to fight the AML, Hal finds a spot good enough that he's "pretty sure they can't get me from here[,] even if they see me." Justin tells him not to say that, as it's just begging for a counter-sniper to take him out.
  • Alphys points out that, whatever Joe finds out while researching human souls and magic, it won't be "an instant magician kit." Except that's almost exactly what he makes.
  • Invoked by Justin:
    Justin: Well, maybe it'll take a while for it to reach whoever O'Dell intended it to get to.
    Steve: Justin... we're not that-
    Justin: I know we're not that lucky. [glares at Steve] I was deliberately tempting fate so we can get this over with as soon as possible.
• Testing Range Mishap: Joe tests something along the lines of a magical crystal radio of his own design in a lab. Next thing he knows, there's a hole in the roof and the rooms adjacent to his lab are in shambles (to say nothing of the lab itself).
• There Are No Therapists: Averted multiple times. Toriel's school has a counselor on staff, and after Frisk is shot, the subject of psychological first aid comes up to help them deal with the trauma of the attack.
• These Hands Have Killed: Sans's reaction to Andrew (the Justice Soul)'s suicide. Even though he did not actually kill him, and Sans's hands did not even get dirty, both literally and figuratively, he still feels dirty. He started wearing gloves from that point on.
• Think in Text: Chara's dialogue in Frisk's head is generally italicized and in single quotes.
• This Is Gonna Suck: Said almost word-for-word by Chara when preparing to tell Asriel they're there.
• Time Travel: Yes and no.
  • The true purpose of the CORE was to send energy backwards in time—electricity generation for the whole Underground was actually the job of the geothermal plant that powered it. (Very few people knew this, though, so they used "the CORE" to refer to the whole structure.) The scientists working on it ended up figuring out that when energy is sent back in time, anti-photons—literal negative light—are created to subtract the equivalent amount of energy from the new timeline. This wasn't actually a problem, though, because they realized they could point the anti-photons at the Barrier and drain it of energy to make it easier to destroy. At least until the first full-scale test Went Horribly Wrong and seemingly deleted Dr. Aster from existence.
  • Matter, however, cannot be sent back in time, because it will promptly collide with itself in the immediate past. Traveling forward in time is possible (and indeed happened to Dr. Aster)… which everybody knew anyway.
    DJ Pantz: It's not that impressive. He traveled forward in time. Anyone can do that. I can do that. Especially after an hour at the Dank Memehaus.

    This caveat is why Dr. Aster is loath to tell people about the CORE's function, because they hear "temporal paradox," immediately think "time travel," and quickly develop a whole lot of drastic misconceptions.

  • All the Save Points in the original game are described as "shrapnel" from the explosion in timespace set off by the experiment. Said experiment accidentally set up a self-sustaining time loop that somebody with enough DT could tap into. Matter can't go back, but energy can—and energy means information, which means memories.
• Too Dumb to Live: Or at least, Too Dumb to Have Fingers. During the attack on the Auditorium, Papyrus plugs some AML members' guns with blue attacks, loudly explains what they do, and (somewhat redundantly) recommends that they not pull the triggers. They all proceed to do just that and are "rewarded with several sounds nobody holding a firearm wants to hear." One of them has chunks of his fingers fly all over the place.
• Took a Level in Kindness:
  • While he still acts rude and abrasive much of the time, Flowey has apparently spent his days on the surface cultivating a reputation as a particularly mean prankster; a far cry from how he treated others during his days in the Underground.
  • Undyne shows a softer, calmer, and more introspective side when the situation calls for it, to the point where Frisk comes to her for advice when they don't feel comfortable talking to anyone else.
  • Toriel's My Beloved Smother tendencies show up much less frequently, and when they do, are less severe. At least to begin with, this may be less character development and more simply Frisk not being in as much danger.
• Town with a Dark Secret: While under the thumb of the Sages, the town of Ebott's Wake seemed like a quirky small town on the surface but was actually controlled by an Ancient Conspiracy.
• Toyota Tripwire: Mike Van Garret catches a New Guardian by opening the door of his pickup into his face.
• Translator Microbes:
  • Mike Van Garrett had always assumed monsters were using magic as telepathy—the humans of Ebott's Wake just heard it as English, and the monsters read the thoughts behind the humans' words. It comes as a small surprise to him when he learns that no, the monsters are actually speaking English. They learned it by using Pattern magic to analyze human trash that fell into the Underground, and Toriel then implemented a program to attempt to switch the entire kingdom over to English—logistically hellish, but if they'd primarily been speaking monster languages when they got to the Surface, that would've just made everything else even harder.
  • A few monsters don't speak intelligible English, most notably the All Fine Labs mice, but other monsters can understand them just fine via the use of Pattern magic.
• Trickster God: One of the four gods in monster mythology is known as the Trickster. No points for guessing what their shtick is.
• Turned Against Their Masters: Asriel Discusses this when he picks up a sleep-deprived Alphys up and carries her to a bed in spite of her protests. He references the trope again later when he tells her he's going to be a really bad influence when she and Undyne have kids.
• Turning Back Human: Flowey turns back into Asriel a few days after the State of the Kingdom address, because he hadn't actually given the soul fragment back to Frisk in the hospital, and now that fragment has turned into a whole soul. It still counts because it's turning back into the original form.
• Uncomfortable Elevator Moment: Even when you're Jordan Cater and a group of New Guardians on your way to vandalize monster infrastructure nobody uses anymore, elevators are still awkward.
• Unconventional Formatting: When Frisk and Chara converse in writing, the latter's lines are right-aligned. Justified because the latter is literally writing on the right side of the page.

• Universally Beloved Leader: Even a year and a half after he dissolved the Kingdom of Monsters, Asgore is still treated as a king by the other monsters, and a thoroughly beloved one.
• Voice of the Legion: Frisk's voice "echoes slightly" when Chara speaks through them.
• Wacky Racing: The Kludge Derby is all about racing vehicles created from things that were never meant to move under their own power.
• Webcomic Time: The story is set in May and early June of 2016. It started in late June of 2016 and wouldn't be finished until the end of October 2017.
• Welcome Episode: The story starts from the perspective of Dr. Aster, who has spent the past four and a half years not existing, which necessitates that the other characters explain things about the town of Ebott's Wake and what happened after the Barrier broke.
• "Well Done, Son" Guy: Chara ran away to either do something to finally make Jordan proud of them or die trying.
• Wham Episode: The very end of chapter 49, going into chapter 50 and beyond. The Anti-Monster League launches an armed assault on the State of the Kingdom address, resulting in Frisk being shot and sent to the hospital and soon spiraling out into a riot across the town. Chapter 50 also introduces Jordan Cater as the main antagonist, who resurrects the Sages as a tangible threat and shakes up the whole town. This is the point where it becomes clear that the story just grew larger than its previous Slice of Life elements.
• When Trees Attack: Near the beginning of the story; Flowey controls the trees at the Arboretum and sends them on strike.
• When You Coming Home, Dad?: Dr. Aster is fully aware that his dedication to his work as the Royal Scientist meant that he wasn't around Sans and Papyrus as much as they needed him to be and put a lot of responsibility on Sans at an early age. Subverted in that both Sans and Papyrus understand that Dr. Aster's disappearance was an accident, and the three of them have taken the time and effort to reconnect rather than Dr. Aster being locked out of his sons' lives.
• Who Names Their Kid "Dude"?: Frisk wonders this about their own name, while also mentioning Royal Guards 01 and 02.
• Why Don't You Just Shoot Him?: Justin asks himself something like this after he had Jordan on the ropes but still managed to lose to him.
  Justin: I started talking when I should have just kicked him in the face until he stopped moving or his teeth reached escape velocity, whichever happened first.
• Wiki Walk: DJ Pantz gets stuck on TV Tropes while trying to find an unspecified website.
• Worldbuilding: So much of it.
  • For one thing, there's the wonderful world of Lost Eagle County, with a history and characterization rich enough to feel like they could be real places in their own right.
  • The story also goes deep on how magic works, how it meshes with human physics, and its impact.
  • There's plenty of fleshing-out of monster culture, too.
• Wouldn't Hurt a Child: Dwayne Riley, for all his anger, racism and bluster, ultimately chooses to toss down his gun during the AML riot, when Frisk shields a wounded Undyne and calls him out on his actions.
• Would Hurt a Child: Jordan Cater introduces himself as the story's Big Bad almost immediately after Riley surrenders by shooting him in the back and then deliberately shooting Frisk. Afterwards, every encounter between Frisk and Cater involves the latter attempting to outright murder the former.
• Wrong Context Magic: Even though Magic A Is Magic A is in full effect here, there are other forces beyond what monsters define as "magic."
  • Souls are noted for their ability to "generate energy ex nihilo" and "make a mockery of thermodynamics as commonly understood." This example is Downplayed because it's still the force behind monsters being able to use magic.
  • The Beyond the Impossible-type feats Determination enables kind of put it here by definition.
  • The Demon, possibly a parallel to the player, doesn't work like the magic and physics of the rest of the fic at all.
• Wrong Genre Savvy:
  • Thomas O'Dell deliberately invokes the traditional RPG approach of fighting monsters in order to save the world, not realizing that monsters are not Always Chaotic Evil.
  • The remaining Sages think the CORE is actually a time machine that allows the monsters to Set Right What Once Went Wrong, and anyone denying that (such as Dr. Aster, who built the thing and repeatedly states it's not a time machine) is just lying to cover up the truth.
• Xanatos Speed Chess: Thomas O'Dell is frighteningly good at planning on the fly, negating major setbacks and hitting critical points, to the point that a last-minute plan to raid the CORE, something that in different circumstances would've accomplished little more than petty vandalism, very nearly turned into The Bad Guy Wins on a cosmic level simply from the sheer impeccable timing of it. One of the characters explicitly compares him to the Trope Namer.
• Yin-Yang Bomb: Combining Orange and Cyan magic without taking certain precautions results in a spectacular explosion.
  • Joe Stanton causes this by accident when trying to build a machine that lets humans use magic.
  • Frisk and Chara end up exploiting this to create a Wave-Motion Gun to bring down Jordan Cater.
• You Can't Go Home Again: When Chara fell into the Underground, the Dreemurrs were regretful to tell them that they wouldn't be able to leave. Chara thought this was because they were going to eat them until they showed them the Barrier.
• You Have GOT to Be Kidding Me!: When Flowey finds out he has part of Frisk's Soul inside him, he says, "...no. This is a trick. Some kind of sick joke."
• You Just Told Me:
  • Multiple times Undyne gets somebody to reveal something she didn't know by acting like she did, though it's never plot-important.
    Undyne: And all this time, I thought you were watching my fight with Frisk because you were trying to analyze my fighting style for science, or something like that.
    Alphys: [freezes] You... you know about that??
    Undyne: Naw, it was a hunch. But now I know that hunch was right!
  • Asriel pulls it off in a much more serious context when he tells Frisk he won't let their human parents kill them again. He's desperately hoping they'll correct him… but they don't.