Fanfic / Magicae Est Potestas

Magicae Est Potestas is an Artemis Fowl/Undertale crossover fanfic by SomniumOfLight.

Warning: spoilers for both franchises ahead, as it takes place after both the 8th(and final) book of Artemis Fowl, and the True Pacifist route of Undertale.

After almost a decade since the events of Artemis Fowl: The Last Guardian, Frisk Dreemur (real name Frisk McNamara) falls down into the Underground, helps in destroying the Barrier, and frees the monsters of Mt. Ebbot. However, the Surface is less than accepting of monsterkind, even after hundreds of Resets in their attempt for humans and monsters to live in peace. Until they respond to an e-mail from an anonymous sender - who is no less than Artemis Fowl the Second himself. From there, new events unfold, for monsters, humans, and fairies alike.

It can be read here on Archive of Our Own, here on Fanfiction Dot Net, or on the author's DeviantArt account here.

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This fanfic provides examples of:

• Absence of Evidence: Artemis realizes that something is off with Frisk's family partially because he realizes how odd it is that their father has no mention of them in their social media profile. Combined with a lack of activity from Frisk online, and Artemis is worried enough to tip off an old associate of Butler in the police department.
• Abusive Parents: Frisk's biological parents, who punish Frisk by locking them in their room without food and verbally abuse them. They are also very anti-monster, which only makes things worse for Frisk when they find out Frisk helped set monsters free. Frisk tries to downplay how bad they are, but Chara, who also came from an abusive biological family, makes it clear they hate Frisk's parents and push Frisk to get a knife and fight back (ironically, knowing that Chara's situation was so much worse than their own makes Frisk more accepting of their own, because they know that it can be worse). After they discover Frisk's association with the monsters and pro-monster movement, they lock the child up in their room without food for days.
• Action Girl: Undyne and Juliet, of course. This is also part of the reason why the former warms up so quickly to the latter. For the other part, see The Knights Who Say "Squee!" below.
• Adaptational Angst Upgrade: Here, Frisk and Chara explicitly aren't in control of the Resets and can't just keep reloading whenever they like. Author notes in Chapter 44 explain that there is a limited amount of times they can reload from the same save point before they run out of loads and a Reset is triggered, which carries risks of their empathy potentially being erased for that run and them going on another Genocide rampage until another Reset returns them to their senses. Resets can also be triggered by certain events if Frisk isn't careful to avoid them.
• Aggressive Categorism:
  • Mr. Yew to Frisk in Chapter 14, dismissing them as a mere child. Needless to say, Artemis has different opinions, much to the distress of Mr. Yew.
  • The human magic user behind Humanity's Resurgence refers to all monsters as murderers, and is willing to target both monsters and those who stand by them, even wishing that Frisk had died along with the others who fell through the Barrier.
• Allergic to Routine: Despite having shaped up since the events of Undertale, Flowey's main motivation is still boredom, which is why he attacked two Retrieval officers.
• All in the Manual: The author often adds world-building to the notes after each chapter.
• Awesome by Analysis: Frisk is capable of this thanks to their experience gained through the Resets. Myles one-ups them, reading them like a book.
• Big Damn Heroes: After the bomb threat is dealt with, O'Reilly sends mesmerized police officers after Frisk, cornering them, Toriel, and Flowey, and only fairy aid (which also helped with defusing the bombs) prevents casualties.
• Broken Ace: Frisk is a Child Prodigy ambassador for humanity who impresses even Artemis with their skills, but they're incredibly scarred by previous runs and the burden of trying to both get and maintain a happy ending for monsters without another Reset occurring. They're also no stranger to panic attacks.
• Child Prodigy: Artemis (who was one himself) calls Frisk this, though Frisk believes that their prowess is only thanks to the Resets. Though once you think of it, remembering all those details from previous Resets is no mean feat.
  • Myles and Beckett take this up to eleven, considering the former has several doctorates.
• Collective Groan: Papyrus, Flowey, and Beckett do this in response to one of Artemis' puns.
• Death Glare: Toriel gives one to the would-be HuRg assassin. Frisk gives one to Flowey as well later on.
• Determinator: Frisk, obviously. So is Chara.
• Fantastic Racism: The main reason for why it takes so many runs for the monsters to be accepted initially, and is still present after the two-year Time Skip.
  • Humanity’s Resurgence(or HuRg for short), full-stop.
• For Want Of A Nail: Frisk answering Artemis' anonymous e-mail is what kicks off the entire story, compared to the past runs, as his advice and help allows the monsters to gain their freedom.
• Friend to All Children: Crane, an LEP agent, has a particular soft spot for kids, regardless of species, and she is the one to reach out to Frisk the most.
• "Groundhog Day" Loop: Frisk has been put through hundreds of Resets so far, some of which have lasted a year or more. Fortunately, there haven't been any since this run, which is good considering what too many of them can do to Frisk.
• Happily Adopted: Frisk by Toriel, considering their biological parents were abusive jerks.
• Hero Antagonist: The LEP in regards to the monsters, or more specifically Flowey, who is more of an Anti-Hero than anything else.
• Hurricane of Puns: After seeing the numerous humorous pennames in the Fowl Manor library, Myles unleashes one of these. His brother is not amused. Chara, on the other hand...
  • Later, Sans and Artemis engage in a pun-off, much to the chagrin of Beckett, Papyrus, and Flowey.
• I See Dead People: A variation. Frisk mentions in the first chapter that they've never seen their ghostly companion Chara in-person, but they're the only one who can hear Chara thanks to the connection between their souls. When the fairies and Artemis review Frisk's memories, they can hear a distorted child voice speaking to Frisk, but can't hear what they're saying. Naturally, when talking about Chara to Beckett and Myles, the inevitable reference is made, and Chara himself grouses about not coming up with the joke previously.
• I Warned You: Foley to the Fairy Council when he presents irrefutable evidence of Frisk's mind-wipe not working.
• Internal Reveal:
  • Sans the Skeleton has already been told off-screen that Chara is with Frisk as a ghost and Frisk telling him about resets. Flowey is the only other one in the know.
  • After 20 or so chapters, Flowey, Frisk, Chara, and Sans realize that fairies exist and can be a threat. Later, Toriel, Undyne, and Alphys get clued in.
  • The end of Chapter 50 has Artemis, Butler, Holly, Foaly, and No. 1 watch a recording of Frisk's memories in first-person, finding out about the Genocide runs and Resets in the process. They also learn that a ghost named Chara is with Frisk. They decide not to share this information with the Council because their response would be to bio-bomb Frisk. Chapter 59 ends with Beckett and Myles finding out as well.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Chara is often grouchy, snarky, and has no mercy towards Frisk's enemies, but they Took a Level in Kindness over the course of the Resets, care about Frisk, and Frisk mentions that their hatred of humanity has cooled somewhat. They're also as dedicated to helping monsters get full rights and acceptance as Frisk is.
• Keet: Beckett is a pretty good example of this, considering his Establishing Character Moment is grabbing Frisk's hand and shaking it with "enthusiasm to rival Undyne’s cooking lessons". Yes, those cooking lessons.
• Lame Pun Reaction: Flowey and Papyrus have this thanks to Sans, who is apparently rather infamous for it. Butler on the other hand barely reacts, due to Artemis' aliases being horribly Punny Names, raising an eyebrow at most.
  • In chapter 26, Beckett has several due to his brother.
  • Happens yet again in chapter 28 - see Hurricane of Puns above. It's even mentioned by the trope name in the text.
• Last-Second Word Swap: Mrs. Fowl does this when talking about how Artemis first... made contact with fairies.
• LGBT Awakening: The monsters, due to how flexible their appearances are compared to humans, are much more flexible about gender identity as well. Frisk came to realize that they identified as genderless after entering the Underground and being exposed to monster culture.
• Magitek: The basis of monster technology, which is slowly being shared to humans as well.
• Mass "Oh, Crap!": The fairies pretty much freak out when they learn Flowey is in Ireland. And for good reason. They even had invented a new alert code for it! The author flat-out says that writing panicked fairies is her favorite part in the notes.
  • The Fairy Council flips out in a mass panic when Foley presents to them irrefutable proof that Frisk's mind-wipe didn't work.
  • Artemis, Foley and No 1. almost panic when they realize that Frisk is a time traveller.
  • The entire Fowl family and the faries with them freak out when Sans deploys a Gaster Blaster during the tense negotiation meeting. Even Artemis, despite all his experience and ability to stay calm, can't stop himself from trembling when exposed to that kind of magical energy.
  • Happens yet again with the Fairy Council when Frisk and Toriel, with help from Artemis, make an ultimatum of an alliance to said council demanding a mutual trade of knowledge and technology to ensure that any conflict started would result in Mutually Assured Destruction, using a one-way broadcast to make it perfectly clear that because of the mind-wipe attempt on Frisk, the council absolutely have not earned the right to negotiate terms. Once it sinks in, the council absolutely flips out in sheer panic harder than ever.
• Mental Time Travel: Using the SAVE points, compared to the physical time travel in the Artemis Fowl series. It does have similar risks though, if only mental.
• Muggles Do It Better: Despite all the advantages of magic, humanity defeated both the Monsters and the Fairies in this universe. Even with tech that is significantly more advanced than current human technology, particularly after the Crash, fairies are still terrified of humanity.
• Mundane Utility: Myles has taken tracking lessons from Butler... and uses that knowledge when playing hide-and-seek.
• Mutually Assured Destruction: Dropped by name when Frisk and company make their ultimatum to the Fairy Council.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: The Fairy Council, as usual, have a bad habit of making things worse for everyone due to knee-jerk decisions. They order that Frisk be mind-wiped of any knowledge of Fairies, even though everyone else working for them knows all too well that it is more than likely not going to work (due to Flowey and Sans being able to undo the effects by simple reminder, though Chara does it much faster), and that it could potentially drive Frisk to mistrust the Fairies and even cause a war between Monster and Fairies. Despite everyone and their mother telling them it is a terrible idea, the Council goes through with it anyway. Not only does it not work as predicted, it causes significant mistrust between Frisk and their companions towards the Fairies and the humans working with them, resulting in Artemis and co. being forced to clean up the Council's mess and try to regain that lost trust.
• Noodle Incident: Whatever happened to Myles the last time Artemis called him with a "challenge".
• "Not So Different" Remark: When Crane explains to Frisk in more detail about just how outnumbered and outgunned fairykind is compared to humans, and how they have to hide in order to survive, they draw a parallel to how they've been hiding knowledge about monster souls.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: After traumatizing poor Frisk with their questioning and finding out that it could've been avoided had they just talked to Sans first, Artemis actually apologizes to him. Artemis is clearly not used to actually genuinely apologizing to people.
• Older Than They Look: Frisk (and by extension Chara), due to the Resets. This is part of why they don't believe that they're a genius, they think that their accomplishments are solely because of the extra experience that they have as a result of being able to try over and over and learn what does and doesn't work.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: Chara is the impulsive Red Oni; Frisk is the calm and collected Blue Oni. The twins are also an example; Beckett is the Red Oni, Myles the Blue Oni.
• Reformed, but Not Tamed: Flowey - while much better compared to the murderous psychopathic flower than he was in-game, boredom is still his main motivation, to the point where he attacks LEP fairies because he was curious.
  • Chara. They've mellowed out a lot since the first genocide run, and Frisk's kindness rubbed off on them enough that Chara was actively trying to stop Frisk from attempting the second Genocide run. However, Chara still has violent tendencies, and suggesting violent solutions to problems is something they sometimes do.
• Ripple-Proof Memory: Obviously, Frisk, Chara, and Flowey are examples of this. Sans, however, is not an example, according to the author, though he does have dreams of certain runs, especially the genocide runs.
  • Artemis isn't an example either, but he does get a notable feeling of deja-vu when experiencing resets. Not surprising, considering his own experiences with time travel and all the magic he's been exposed to over the years.
• Set Right What Once Went Wrong: The main reason why Frisk went through so many resets.
• Shell-Shocked Veteran: Frisk has a few shades of this due to their experiences over the Resets, especially the Genocide Runs, though they usually hide it well. In a later chapter, Myles can't believe that he missed that Frisk basically has PTSD.
• Sibling Yin-Yang: The Fowl twins - Beckett is blond, has enough energy to be compared to Undyne, and practically has a fangasm when he meets Frisk. Myles, on the other hand, has been described as Artemis' clone, which is fairly accurate.
• Smart People Play Chess: In chapter 28, Myles and Papyrus play chess. Papyrus actually comes pretty close to beating Myles, despite it being implied to be his first time playing it ever. Considering Myles regularly plays with Artemis, the latter silently adjusts his rating of Papyrus's intellect.
• Spirit Advisor: Magicae est Potestas uses the Narrator Chara theory for Undertale. Chara had served as Frisk's invisible companion and guide in the Underground, and continues to do so on the Surface. They can take a more active role in things by controlling Frisk's body to help them dodge attacks, but their status as a ghost comes in handy when they stop O'Reilly from using his Compelling Voice on Frisk (since they're unaffected by it), and undo the mind-wipe fairies did on Frisk mere moments after Frisk wakes up (since fairies can't exactly wipe Chara's memory to keep them from reminding Frisk).
• Sufficiently Analyzed Magic: This is how the monsters are able to make their Magitek. Also, the fairies have started recreating color magic as well, or "reverse spellcasting" as No. 1 calls it.
• Symbiotic Possession: Frisk and Chara work like this. Frisk takes care of every-day life and diplomacy. When they're in danger though, Chara takes control - which is quite useful when dodging assassination attempts.
• Temporal Sickness: Time travel has been shown to cause memory loss, rearrangement of body parts, or physical and mental de-aging in the Artemis Fowl series already, but so does Mental Time Travel - aka the Resets. Going too back far in time after too many Resets is what caused the Genocide runs. Runs, because this has happened twice. Frisk was, fortunately, able to establish contingency plans in case they attempted another genocide run, meaning by the time they reached Sans on their second run, they simply didn't have enough EXP to outlast him, and eventually was forced to reset. Poor Frisk was a sobbing wreck when their normal mental faculties returned, and unfortunately Frisk lives in a constant state of fear that another Genocide-causing Reset is right around the corner.
• Tempting Fate: Literally the very moment Frisk thinks that things might be okay, the group is attacked by snipers.
• The Dreaded: Flowey quickly becomes this to the LEP for two reasons: he is able to sense shielded fairies through the vibrations, and because he attacked two Retrieval officers on separate occasions. We don't get to hear how it went with the first officer, but the second officer got vines stabbed through his feet.
  • Later on, Sans for basically everyone who was around when he deployed the Gaster Blaster. Artemis immediately realizes that Sans was likely the most dangerous individual in the room. He's not wrong.
• The Knights Who Say "Squee!": Several occasions appear.
  • Frisk has this reaction to Artemis Fowl II in general. Papyrus also does this when he first meets Artemis.
  • It turns out that some of the human tapes Frisk had watched with Undyne and Alphys in the Underground featured Juliet's wrestling match as the Jade Princess. Guess how Undyne reacted.
  • Beckett Fowl has this reaction to Frisk in turn.
• Time Skip: Chapter 6 takes place two years after the previous one.
• Wham Episode
  • Chapter 14, due to the SAVE point in the Fowl Manor gardens.
  • In chapter 29, assassins attack the group after the birthday party, and it takes two LOADs to fix.
  • Chapter 44-46: Is one from start to finish. Frisk's mind-wipe basically lasts only five minutes thanks to Chara. When presented with evidence of this, the Council flips out. Artemis, Foley and No. 1 discover that Frisk is capable of saving and reloading, and also discover the existence of Chara. And Frisk finally decides to inform their friends about the Fairies, and conclude that their anonymous contact is Artemis. The last of these chapters ends with Frisk emailing Artemis to inform him that they've figured him out, and they demand a meeting.
  • Chapter 50-51: Artemis, Holly, Foley and No. 1 find the memories of Frisk's genocide runs. It ends up being in-universe Nausea Fuel for them, and they realize something about the toll of the resets can cause major mental problems for the poor kid.
  • Chapter 59: Artemis and company finally get some info from Frisk about the Resets and Save Points.
• What Measure Is a Non-Human?: Inverted, Alphys, when thinking about mind-wipes, realizes that part of the reason that fairies are so willing to whip them out to keep their existence secret, besides the cultural and biological differences that make the idea of mind-wipes so horrific to monsters, is that the fairies don't really see humans as people, or at least not in the same way as they see other fairies.
• Would Hurt a Child: The HuRg assassin tries to hurt Frisk, though Toriel's Death Glare makes her think twice. The mesmerized assassin has better luck the first time, though this isn't exactly what he wanted.
• Workaholic: Frisk as an ambassador, which is motivated by failing not to be this often resulting in a Reset in previous runs.
• You Are Better Than You Think You Are: Miles and Beckett tell Frisk this in Chapter 60.
• You Should Have Died Instead: O'Reilley's daughter Diana was one of the humans that fell into the Barrier, and it seems that he hates Frisk partially because they survived when his daughter didn't.

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