Fanfic / Mysterioustale

"Once upon a time, two species shared the world. Humans, and whimsical, magic beings. The two lived in harmony until slowly, tensions rose between the two species. Soon, a war brew between them. The magic beings did have much more magic power than the humans but were much frailer physically, and soon enough, humanity won the harsh, long war.

When the magic beings miserably begged for mercy, humanity decided to gather seven of its best mages. They backed the magic beings, down, deep inside the caves of a mountain, and they chanted a spell that created a barrier around the mountain. No one could leave, but anyone could come in.

This mountain, located in Ashland, Oregon, and called Mt. Falls, became a place shrouded in mystery. Legends and tales from the books that recorded it and the people that knew it always said; "Never go there. No one that falls in, can ever return." But it wasn't like it stopped some brave souls from going down there."

— Chapter 1, Intro

Mysterioustale is an Undertale Massive Multiplayer Crossover Fusion Fic fanfic created by Minecraft Fan 11 (known on Archive of Our Own as ArtyMyella).

Coraline Jones is a 12-years old girl, unusually tall for her age, that is disheartened with having to move from Pontiac, Michigan to the Pink Palaces apartment complex in Ashland, Oregon, because of her parent's gardening catalog, which is also making them spend less time on her. Quite unlike her original story, however, instead of finding a door to an apparently perfect world, she found out thanks to her neighbors the tale of Mt. Falls, a mountain where nobody that fell in, ever escaped, because apparently the magical beings that dwell there eliminate them. Fueled by her curiosity, Coraline decides to fall, unaware that a crazy adventure is waiting for her inside the mountain...

The most plot-critical characters come from Coraline, Sonic the Hedgehog, Gravity Falls, Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi, and Bendy and the Ink Machine, but characters from Steven Universe, Kirby, and even a certain infamous cryptid make appearances.

It got a spinoff that literally functions as its Deltarune, called Amulet Serosity.

Tropes in Mysterioustale include:

• Author Appeal: The author personally believes in the "Chara was the Narrator All Along" theory of the original Undertale. Consequentially, the Mystery Twins, who take Chara's role as the first fallen human, become Coraline's Mission Control.
• Adaptational Angst Upgrade:
  • Coraline is a milder case among them, but she's troubled over the possibility of having to break her pacifism vow by killing Sonic, which seems to be the only way she can escape (or at least the only way everybody knows). Thankfully, Bill Cipher of all people ends up offering an alternate solution.
  • Dipper and Mabel feel extremely guilty over dragging Tails into their suicidal plan and letting him die. They mourn him in some instances, and when the topic is about him, they become a lot more somber. The same could count as to how they react to being unable to talk to their adoptive mother, Amy, or how they could possibly be Forced to Watch their adoptive father, Sonic, be killed so Coraline can escape.
  • Sonic got hit with it the hardest out of everyone, arguably. To put it in a quick way, having a Trauma Conga Line kickstarted by the deaths of his protege and adopted kids made him become a Stepford Smiler.
• Adaptational Backstory Change:
  • Averted for the protagonist, Coraline. She has the same backstory as her movie canon self and the only difference is a divergence that allows her to be the eighth human to fall in the Underground.
  • Hinted for Dipper and Mabel's case. In the post from the creator's official Tumblr account containing most of the main character's design, it's said they fell during The '60s, and that both of them had a harsh, difficult life on the Surface, that led both on a spiral of self-hatred and mild misanthropy.
  • Coraline's six main friends adopt tweaked backstories from Frisk's six main friends.
  • Bill Cipher apparently used to be a completely normal plushie with a voice box under the ownership of Tails, before becoming a vessel for Determination experiments and housing his owner's conscience and memories.
• A Child Shall Lead Them: Implied by the final chapter, although left up to interpretation. Sonic offers Coraline to be the ambassador, and she decides that she'll do it, as long as her parents are okay with it. We never find out about the adult Jones' reaction to the proposal or the aftermath.
• Adaptational Early Appearance: Bill Cipher, who debuted in part one of the first season finale of Gravity Falls, appears in the first chapter (not counting the Opening Narration chapter).
• Adaptation Origin Connection: Dipper, and Mabel, and their adoptive brother, Tails, used to play with an inanimate Bill Cipher back when they were alive. When they see him again, they gradually realize how familiar he is, until it all comes to a head in the Real Lab chapter.
• Adaptation Species Change:
  • All the non-human characters are bound together by the label of "magical beings."
  • Ami and Yumi were normal humans, while here they are magical.
  • Bill Cipher went from Eldritch Abomination to plushie enhanced by Determination.
• Adaptational Heroism:
  • Bill Cipher is still a Big Bad, but much, much more sympathetic, due to actually being Tails after going crazy over missing his adoptive siblings. By the end of the fic, he seems to be much more stable and sane.
  • Reala is not the nightmare enforcer from his canon, but simply a lonely and melancholic fellow.
  • The toon versions of Bendy and Boris are initially pitied against Coraline but are definitely affable and nice. A sharp contrast to their monstrous selves in their origin game.
• Adaptational Intelligence: In Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi, Ami was The Ditz among the titular duo. Here, she has Alphys' knowledge in how to build robots, hack/program, etc.
• Age Lift:
  • Amy Rose and Sonic, who are respectively a pre-teen and a teenager, are Really 700 Years Old. Averted with Tails, who was presumably his canon age prior to death.
  • Zig-zagged with Dipper and Mabel. While they probably died in the same age as their canon selves were during the majority of Gravity Falls (twelve), depending on which year they died and which year the story takes place, they could be in their '30s or '40s if they ever physically aged.
• Adaptational Nice Guy:
  • Coraline. Considering her main goal, she learns her lesson much quicker than she did in canon. Along with acquiring her canon Character Development, she becomes an Actual Pacifist that, while exasperated with the Underground's logic/lack of it, refuses to get out of it by harming anyone.
  • Mabel Pines doesn't seem to show her infamous selfishness, Aesop Amnesia, and All Take and No Give behavior anywhere in the fic. Justified considering that the harsh life she and Dipper shared on the Surface prior to the fall could've damaged her self-esteem.
• Adapted Out: There's no Other World to speak about; not even hints about it.
• Art Shift: In-Universe example. Recording Snow is described to look like the background of a cartoon from The '30s.
• Big Bad: Bill Cipher, a living plushie that turns out to desire the six humans' SOULs and the SOULs of every single magical being to be able to achieve his real form.
• "Burly Detective" Syndrome: Can descend into this.
• Breather Episode: More like a Breather Arc. The Recording Snow arc is relatively lighthearted and more focused on comedy, in contrast with the arcs of The Hidden Palace (which in its last chapters sets up some of the mysteries, and the heart-shaking misery laying underneath the apparently wacky world) and of Emeraldaqua (which intensify the mysteries, does a revelation that pushes the story into the white/grey, grey/gray kind of morality, and sneaks in the hints of a future revelation).
• Book Ends: At the start of the fanfic (specifically, Chapter 3), Dipper and Mabel meet with and decide to be the Spirit Advisor to Coraline. At chapter 32, Dipper and Mabel decide to stay in the Underground so Tails, once he turns back into Bill, won't be a complete loner.
• Bittersweet Ending: Coraline concludes her The Homeward Journey without having to harm anyone, figures out a large portion of the Underground's mysteries, gains new friends who are going to be able to experience the Surface since forever ago and even gets an honorary aunt in the form of her first friend, Amy Rose, which means if her parents ever get busy again, she won't be 100% lonely and bored again. However, her sidekicks Dipper and Mabel, and their beloved adoptive brother, Tails, won't be able to appreciate the freedom too; the former two decided to sacrifice their chance to keep the latter company, and the latter will soon become his soulless form, Bill Cipher, once again. At least, The Stinger shows that Bill managed to keep his recovered sanity... But he also warns the twins to not use their RESET option, and let Coraline be happy.
• Blue Is Heroic: The Hero Coraline has (dyed) blue hair, and her sidekicks/Spirit Advisors Dipper and Mabel are clad respectively in a cyan shirt and sweater. Downplayed with Yumi, who has blue skin, hair and eyes and starts off antagonist before having her soft spot revealed, and Sonic, who has blue fur and is a Well-Intentioned Extremist Stepford Smiler.
• Blow You Away: Amy has this power, and presumably King Sonic has it as well. Notably, Amy can use these both for offensive and for healing.
• Completed Fic
• Crack Fic: The author doesn't hesitate to call this one of these. Unlike most of the trope's examples, though, it (at least partially) tries to move along with a serious (in a dramedy way) and emotive story just like Undertale.
• Cliffhanger: "Date With A Ex-Drummer" ends in one, with Coraline finding a letter left behind by Ami, and deciding to follow her to the bathroom door as the note suggested... only for it to turn out to be an elevator to the nightmarish Real Lab.
• Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Bendy. This gentlemanly and friendly, but apparently harmless goofball that just exists to seek good trouble and fun, is aware of the Big Bad's existence, is the Underground's judge, made a vow with Amy Rose that is the sole reason he hasn't gone violent on Coraline and also probably knows much more.
• Death by Adaptation: Dipper and Mabel, who replace Chara, and Tails, who replaces Asriel, suffer this in their backstory. The Mystery Twins came back as ghosts, while Tails came back through his Determination-fueled plushie containing most of his essence.
• Dynamic Entry: Amy Rose is introduced and re-introduced by coming in with a yell, brandishing her hammer, and bashing someone with it. First with Bill Cipher, then with her own ex-husband, Sonic.
• Deliberately Monochrome: Recording Snow is described as having dull color palettes, not unlike a golden age era cartoon. Its most notable inhabitants, Bendy and Boris (already from a game that homages this animation era), are black and white down to the clothing.
• Dark Is Not Evil: Bendy and Boris are black-and-white colored, like golden age era cartoons (and also because they're made out of ink). Plus, the former is a cartoony demon while the other is a wolf. Bendy does get his more creepy/non-silly moments, but he's a goofy if not cherry gentleman and Boris is just a disheartened guy in the need of friends.
• Dawn of an Era: Sonic considers the oncoming peaceful times between magical beings and humanity this.
• Deadpan Snarker: Coraline and Dipper are these, just like their original selves. Yumi has fewer moments of it compared to her canon self, but she has some dry tips.
• Demoted to Extra: Lots of characters that were important in their native works have mitigated roles. The most notable examples are Ruby and Sapphire (Monster Kid), Pearl (Muffet), and Kirby (one part of the Royal Guards in Hotland).
• Dreaming of Times Gone By: At the end of "The Hidden Palace - Welcome Home!", when she goes to sleep, Coraline dreams of how each of the fallen humans that came before her (including Dipper and Mabel) found out about the mountain. However, since she's frozen in place, she can't find out how they died. Once the last humans fall, the dream morphs into Dipper and Mabel on a bed, with a disembodied voice telling them to not give up. The dream ends once the twins give her a Jump Scare.
• Early-Bird Cameo:
  • Sonic's voice is heard on Coraline's dream during "The Hidden Palace - Welcome Home!".
  • During "Emeraldaqua - A Faithful Memory", Tails' existence is hinted by a mild flashback of Dipper and Mabel, the statue where the music box plays from having the shape of a fox, and the Cliffhanger being the flashback of when they met the twins.
• Eleventh Hour Super Power: Coraline, while battling Tails, becomes so determined to save her friends that she is able to rejoin the pieces of her [SOUL] before they fully shatter.
• Faux Affably Evil: Bill Cipher tries to woo Coraline to touch his "Flames of Friendship". She doesn't care, but once one of the flames hits her, he's quick enough to shred his affableness and reveal he's deranged.
• Fusion Fic: The events of Undertale, lived through the titular protagonist of Coraline, interacting with characters from many other franchises replacing the original cast.
• The Ghost: Coraline's neighbors and parents. Justified in that Coraline is in the Underground, and thus cannot directly reach them during most of the story's duration.
• Our Ghosts Are Different: Dipper and Mabel are unable to interact with anyone but Coraline, due to the latter sharing the same type of SOUL they had in life.
• Gender Flip: NiGHTS and Reala respectively go by feminine and masculine pronouns, while canonically both are genderless.
• Genki Girl: Amy Rose, Mabel Pines, and Ami Onuki all qualify, being cherry in their own respective ways. Subverted though, when all of them turn out to be varying degrees of Stepford Smiler behind their attitudes.
• Guile Hero: Coraline tries to (and succeeds in) getting out of all the situations with diplomacy and friendship, initially at the push of the twins but later as a self-made vow.
• The Homeward Journey: Coraline treats her journey through the Underground as this mostly. Unlike other examples of this trope, she has a lot of danger to face before she can conclude her journey.
• I Choose to Stay: A variation at the second-to-last chapter. Dipper and Mabel could've potentially followed Coraline to the Surface. Instead, they tell her they decided to stay in the Underground to keep Tails/Bill Cipher from being completely lonely. Coraline doesn't mind it and allows the twins to stay, while she and the rest of the magical beings get to live their best life on the Surface.
  • Another variation technically happened earlier. Once Coraline finds out she has to kill Sonic, The Good King of the Underground plagued with regrets and the pain of the past, and also the dear adoptive father of Dipper and Mabel, she decides to back down from going back home yet and figure out a pacific solution, leading to the True Pacifist arc. If it wasn't for Bill Cipher appearing and absorbing the SOULs of all magical beings and the six human SOULs, she might've pulled a straight version of this trope to avoid killing any of her friends.
• Internal Reveal: Virtually, all the Undertale spoilers and plot twists count as these whenever this fic does its take on them.
• Improbable Infant Survival: Averted for Dipper and Mabel, Tails, and the six humans. Played straight for Coraline.
• I See Them, Too: Albeit one the protagonist is not there to witness. The Stinger of the last chapter reveals that, after transforming back from his true form, Bill Cipher is aware Dipper and Mabel are there in the Underground with him, and he directly talks to them.
• Lemony Narrator: Downplayed, but there are some non-conventional remarks scattered through.
• Myth Arc: Coraline's journey to go back home without having to seriously harm anyone. Another one is her curiosity over Dipper and Mabel.
• The Magic Comes Back: More explicit because of the usage of the term "magical beings" to describe the beings trapped in the Underground. Once the barrier is broken and they ascend to the Surface, magic does return to the world.
• Mouthy Kid: Coraline, to a degree.
• Mythology Gag: There are minor references to the character's parent works scattered through the story, mostly in dialogue.
  • When she introduces and re-introduces herself, Amy Rose uses the same words she did in Sonic Adventure 2 when rescuing Sonic from Prison Island ("Have no fear! Amy Rose is here!").
  • The title of the Hidden Palace's arc first chapter (Y'ello!) is a rapid-fire joke from Bill Cipher's debut in the Gravity Falls episode "Dreamscaperers". Plus, just like in his first minutes of screentime there, he calls Coraline a ventriloquist dummy.
    • Twice in the story, he uses variations of one of his many iconic quotes from the same episode: "It's funny how dumb you are!".
    • Near the end of "Torn Rose", Bill Cipher uses his Verbal Tic of repeatedly saying "well". He also references "Sock Opera"; specifically, the screaming head he briefly summoned in the episode.
  • Relatively mild (especially because of the contrasting characters being talked to), but at the beginning of "Torn Rose", Coraline punctuates to Amy Rose that she wants to "go back home, with her mom and dad", invoking the dialogue she had with the Beldam right before she turned into her second form in Coraline.
• Mid-Season Twist: The Emeraldaqua Arc gradually reveals that the kind King that everyone praises, and the child murderer Sonic that Amy Rose mentioned, are one and the same. In retrospect, it also hints about Tails' existence, and how dear he was to Dipper and Mabel.
• Non-Human Sidekick: Played with. Dipper and Mabel used to be humans but died during their pre-teen years, being resurrected as ghosts. During the story's timespan, they are Coraline's company and Mission Control.
• Non-Protagonist Resolver: Downplayed. Coraline does end up saving her friends by recovering their memories, but she's not the one to make Tails calm down. The job is given to Dipper and Mabel instead; both of them supply to their adoptive brother the memories of their time together to get him to be calmer.
• Origins Episode: "Green Hill Castle - Mysterioustale" doubles up as the origin of the vow of the King to kill all humans, and the origin of Dipper, Mabel, and Tails.
• Protectorate: Dipper and Mabel consider Coraline their protege.
• Planet of Steves: There are two characters with the name Amy; Amy Rose, the Caretaker of the Hidden Palace and ex-Queen of the Underground, and Ami Onuki, the Royal Scientist. Sometimes the story uses their second names to differentiate them.
• Power Trio: Coraline, Dipper, and Mabel. When the latter two were alive, Tails seemed to mostly fit Coraline's role in the dynamic.
  • Freudian Trio: Mabel as the Id (cheerful, enthusiastic, and silly), Dipper as the Superego (analytical, socially awkward, serious, and snarky), and Coraline/ Tails as the Ego (both a balance of intelligence and passion in their own ways).
  • Nice Mean And In Between: With Coraline in the mix, Mabel is the Nice (positively cheerful and silly for a fault), Coraline is the Mean (pre-Character Development, a Bratty Teenage Daughter), and Dipper is the In-Between (snarky and serious, but not as rude as Coraline). With Tails, Dipper was the Mean one, and Tails was the In-Between (being both smart, timid, and wise for his age while humble and kind), while Mabel kept the Nice role.
• Playing with Fire: Bill Cipher is capable of using bullets shaped like blue flames. He tries to trick Coraline into touching them, claiming they are "Blue Flames of Friendship".
• Related Differently in the Adaptation:
  • Amy, in Sonic's canon, is his self-proclaimed girlfriend, while here they used to be husband and wife until Amy got mad with Sonic's goals. Tails, who's a little brother figure to Sonic, was his protege prior to death.
  • Bendy and Boris, Sitcom Arch-Nemesis towards each other, here, are roommates, best friends, and practically brother figures to each other.
  • Ami and Yumi have feelings towards each other.
• Redemption Equals Death: A Death of Personality variant. Thanks to being supplied his memories of his time with Dipper and Mabel, Tails comes back to his senses and apologizes for Coraline. Aware that, without all the magical SOULs and the human SOULs, he's doomed to eventually assume his Bill Cipher plushie form again, he decides to free everyone by shattering the barrier, isolate himself, and accept his fate.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: A pretty frequent trope among the characters (some of them even take it literally), to the point of being an accidental motif.
  • The adventurous and brave Coraline to the introspective, melancholic Mystery Twins. Among the twins themselves, the cheerful Mabel to the cerebral Dipper.
  • Amy Rose, the motherly (but easy to infuriate) figure that is trying to move on from the pain of the past in spite of being mostly stuck on it, and Sonic, the fatherly figure who's more chill, but hurting over past events to the point of being frozen in the past.
  • The goofy, gentleman-like, and playful Bendy to the mildly disheartened, levelheaded Boris. Could be considered Subverted when Boris gets happier and Bendy is revealed to be much more aware of what's going on.
  • The determined, battle-focused Yumi to the scientific Non Action Girl Ami. Double Subverted personality-wise, with the snarky and rude but mildly hopeful Yumi, and the apparently cherry and harmlessly awkward Ami.
  • The childishly passionate, dramatic, flashy, and extroverted NiGHTS to the sad, goth-like, and introverted Reala.
  • The psychotic, sociopathic Straw Nihilist Bill Cipher turns out to be the Red Oni to his past self, the humble, kind Anti-Nihilist Tails.
• The Stinger: The final chapter, "True Pacifist - The End", ends with something resembling one, where Bill Cipher talks with the ghostly Mystery Twins at an ambiguous point of time after the rest of the story's events.
• Story Arc: It's divided into five arcs if one doesn't count the standalone chapters "Intro" and "Green Hill Castle - Mysterioustale" as parts of the arcs that come after/before them.
  • The Hidden Palace (parallel to the Ruins)
  • Recording Snow (parallel to Snowdin)
  • Emeraldaqua (parallel to Waterfall)
  • Dreamland (parallel to Hotland, and later, the CORE)
  • True Pacifist (parallel to the rest of the events of the True Pacifist Route)
• Spirit Advisor: Zig-zagged. Dipper and Mabel decide to serve as this for Coraline, providing whatever Underground knowledge they can. However, most of the time they are also simply Coraline's most frequent company whenever she's not interacting with the magical beings, and in some topics, are just as oblivious as her.
• Season Finale:
  • The Hidden Palace's one is "Torn Rose", where Coraline is ultimately forced to try and reason with Mama Bear Amy Rose to let her out of the titular area and not destroy the door.
  • Recording Snow technically has two: "Sheepsongs", where Coraline comes to blows with Boris, and "Date with a Wolf", which serves more as a Dénouement Episode to detail the on growing friendship of the two.
  • Emeraldaqua's is "Guitar of Integrity", in which Coraline finally faces the Royal Guard's captain.
  • Dreamland's is "Diving into Dreams", where Coraline must defeat who seems to be the last challenge between her and her freedom, NiGHTS.
• Small Role, Big Impact: Coraline's neighbors are The Ghost, yet as the first chapter narrates, they told Coraline about Mt. Falls, which made her, in the peak of her curiosity and boredom, climb down there and fall down.
• Took a Level in Cheerfulness: Boris, due to believing he'd never find a human to capture and/or a new friend, became more jaded and embittered. Once Coraline came and became his friend, he regained his spirit, although while still being more levelheaded in comparison to Bendy.
• Took a Level in Kindness: Coraline, like in her origin movie, starts out as a jerk, but becomes sweeter over time. Bill Cipher also recovers some of the sanity and kindness he had when he was Tails.
• Trapped in Another World: Happens to Coraline just like in her story. Unlike in her story, however, it's inside a whimsical, magical, and nearly cartoonish world inside a mountain.
• Title Drop Chapter: "Green Hill Castle - Mysterioustale". It displays the In-Universe tale, about the King's children.
• Tragic Villain: Bill Cipher/ Tails. Ultimately, all he wanted after dying violently and being revived in his own plushie was to be with his siblings/best friends again, but he went crazy with his Determination powers over time. And even once he achieves true form and boasts that he will trap Coraline in a hellish loop, it's because he's projecting both of his siblings onto her, as he's that desperate to be with them again.
• Wham Episode:
  • "Green Hill Castle - Mysterioustale" is the biggest example. It turns out the reason why Dipper and Mabel know a lot of things about the Underground is because they were Happily Adopted by Sonic and Amy, and became best friends with their protege, Tails. However, they fell ill and died, and Tails died while trying to fulfill their dying wish by being attacked by humans and, instead of fighting back, fleeing and succumbing to his injuries shortly after getting home. This death is also why Sonic vowed for the humans to die... but he doesn't want to go through it due to the guilt.