DELTA_EXPERIMENT is a Crossover Alternate Universe fan-comic of Undertale and Deltarune that utilizes reader input to determine the course of its story. It was created by GonerBoy
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In the charming little town of Hometown, siblings Asriel and Frisk prepare for their first day of school. But when recently arrived scientist Dr. W.D. Gaster is announced to be their new principal, Frisk starts to act strange.
To add onto that, Hometown is suddenly beset by a weird creature that their new classmate Monster Kid insists is a zombie. Could he be right? And what exactly is Gaster planning with Frisk?
The comic is free and can be read on Tapas here, the official Tumblr-page here or on the creator's Deviantart page here.
DELTA_EXPERIMENT contains examples of:
- Aerith and Bob: Compared to names like "Asriel", "Gaster" and "Frisk", "Chris" is an almost laughably normal name. Doubly ironic, since Chris is anything but normal.
- Almighty Mom: Toriel can get very nasty if she thinks someone is mistreating a child. The second she thinks Chris is being abused, she intimidates the police officers into letting them go and stay with her.
- Ambiguously Evil:
- Gaster has been performing a surgical procedure on Frisk that allows him to connect directly to their soul and monitor them at all times. This is obviously a gross invasion of privacy, but Gaster claims that it's purely for research purposes and that the on-going experiment will benefit monsterkind and humankind in the end. Though how sincere that statement is is debatable.
- Chris is an at times violent bully and an all-around shady, manipulative person, but so far hasn't done anything truly "evil". Though Gaster seems convinced that their influence could negatively impact both the future of monsterkind and Frisk's development.
- All-Loving Hero: Frisk is a very kind and empathetic child, willing to give even people like Chris a chance to be friends.
- Art Evolution: There is a massive improvement in artistic skill and level of detail as the comic progresses, including lighting and shading.
- Audience Participation: When Frisk has to make a decision that influences the storyline, readers can vote on the action they will take.
- Blatant Lies: Chris' made-up name "Chris Kringle", as well as their claim that they can't remember where they come from are very obviously this. But since they're under Toriel's protection, no one dares call them out on it or press them on their statements.
- Both Sides Have a Point: Mrs. Holiday isn't wrong about not wanting a child with behavioral issues near her already timid daughter. Especially since said child has lied about their true identity and has spent the majority of their time in town with terrorizing residents, break-ins and just general mess-making. However, Toriel's point about Chris still being a child and able to learn, if they're given the right environment and care instead of sent away also has some truth to it.
- Breaking the Fourth Wall: The surveys Gaster sets up. In-story, they're answered by Frisk, but the ones who actually answer are the readers via voting which option they like best.
- Played entirely straight with the 100-pages QnA, in which the questions are actually submitted by the readers and answered by the characters directly.
- The Bully: Even before being revealed as just a normal kid, Chris acts so cruel towards everyone and everything that you can forgive the monsters for believing they were some malevolent night creature. Once they move in with Toriel, Frisk and Asriel, they waste no time terrorizing and hassling their new "siblings", as well as everyone they try to get close to.
- But Thou Must!: In a pretty unsettling instance of this trope, Chris manages to override the reader's choice two times in the story. Once in chapter two, when they reject every name proposed by the survey and name themselves Chris, the second time in chapter three when they interrupt Frisk's and Asriel's play-time with Noelle (who had won the previous survey of who Frisk and Asriel should play with) to force them to play with them instead. Gaster is incredibly disturbed by this, since Frisk's will should be absolute due to their strong determination and the possibility that Chris could wrestle control away from them is deeply upsetting.
- Central Theme: Both the concept of "free will" and "choice" play a large role in the story. Frisk, the protagonist, influences the story through their actions and choices, but said choices are given to them by somebody else without their knowledge. Someone who, when he isn't satisfied with the set-up, even removes possible choices they could make, bringing into question how "free" Frisk really is in their decision-making. On the other side, the new character "Chris" is free-spirited to an unnerving degree and cannot be controlled by any outside forces. The choices they make are always their own and at times even override Frisk's, who for all intends and purposes isn't really as free as they believe. That's not to mention the additional meta-level of the readers' influence on the story, adding yet another layer of outside control.
- Character Tics: Noelle's nose glows red when she's happy, like when she was a baby and saw her sister Dess for the first time, or when Dess tied her hair into pigtails so they could match.
- Composite Character: "Chris" seems to be one of Chara from the original Undertale and Kris from Deltarune (the latter of which is kind of a composite character by themselves). Appearance-wise, they seem to be modelled after Kris, with their bangs and occasional flash of red eyes, but their personality and manner of speech is closer to Chara (or at least what little of both Undertale provides from Chara). Even their name is a mixture of Chara and Kris.
- Creepy Child: Chris walks around town pretending to be a zombie for the majority of the first few chapters and is disturbingly convincing at it. They don't get much better once Toriel takes them in, regularly creeping Asriel and Frisk out for fun and showing an eerie interest in all sorts of macabre things.
- Doorstop Baby: Frisk was deposited on the Dreemurrs' doorstep on a Christmas eve.
- Fantastic Racism:
- It's heavily implied that monsters face discrimination from humans. One of the reasons the mayor wants Chris out of town is the fear that their actual parents might jump to conclusions, which would undoubtedly bring Hometown under fire from the humans.
- In Mrs. Holiday's case, the feeling is mutual; she hates humans and had reservations about letting Frisk stay with the Dreemurrs when they were left on the family's doorstep as a baby, only relenting because they were so young that they didn't have any memories of other humans. She doesn't like the idea of Chris staying with the Dreemurrs either, although that's more reasonable, given that Chris is a bully with violent tendencies.
- Fatal Flaw: Toriel has a tendency to automatically assume every child is an innocent angel who needs protection. Which plays right into the hands of jerks like Chris, who milk this assumption for all it's worth. Mrs. Holiday even calls her out on it in chapter 3.
- For Science!: Gaster's reason for monitoring Frisk.
- Foul Cafeteria Food: On the first day of school, the cafeteria food turns out to be a mess of green glop. Asriel's reaction is "Well, um...guess we can't win 'em all, huh, Frisk?"
- Happily Adopted: Frisk is completely content with the Dreemurrs and sees them as their actual family. In the QnA, they even state they have no desire to meet their biological parents, since the Dreemurrs are more than enough.
- Interspecies Adoption: Frisk was adopted by the Dreemurr-family when they were a baby.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Carol Holiday is stern, cold and implied to be such a workaholic that it's affecting her parenting skills—she has a difficult relationship with Dess and seems to spend little time with Noelle. However, she's not completely unreasonable and allows Toriel to keep Chris in her home while they search for the human child's parents.
- The Maiden Name Debate: Toriel is in the process of divorcing Asgore and makes it clear to Mrs. Holiday that she is no longer fine with being called "Toriel Dreemurr." Mrs. Holiday coldly responds that, since the paperwork hasn't gone through yet, that's what she'll keep calling Toriel until it does.
- Nightmare Fetishist: Chris has an uncanny fable for all things horror. They also seem to have creepy fascination with violence and weapons.
- Oh, Crap!: Gaster has this reaction when he receives a notification on his phone that displays that "Spy on Gaster" has won the vote just as he and Sans were talking about Gaster's experiment. Then Frisk reacts this way when Gaster makes it known that he's aware that he and Sans are being watched.
- Pet the Dog: After Asgore's divorce from Toriel, the mysterious "C" (implied to be Carol) found a building that was set for demolition and convinced the owners to rent it out to him instead so he would have somewhere to live. She does, however, make a point of telling him not to ask for any more favors.
- Prone to Tears: Noelle is timid and cries frequently. Asriel remembers that she cried on three separate Christmases when she was scared by Asgore dressing up as Santa, when the Christmas lights overloaded the power grid and caused a blackout, and when she got hit in a snowball fight.
- Red Eyes, Take Warning: Downplayed. Chris isn't really the greatest person normally, but they tend to be at their meanest when you can see the red flash of their eyes.
- Shout-Out: The entire Pezza-arc is a huge one to the Five Nights at Freddy's series, down to Monster Kid telling the others a fake backstory about kids being stuffed into mechanic suits by a mysterious purple guy.
- Token Human: Frisk is the only human child living in Hometown. Later on subverted with the appearance of Chris.
