sassafrisk

Alternate History: While running away from a mysterious past, Frisk fell into the fabled Mt. Ebott, a place from which travelers are said never to return. There, they were met with an odd sense of nostalgia and two quirky individuals: a snarky headvoice and a friendly flower named Flowey who promised to help Frisk through the world of monsters. Before he could finish explaining himself, Flowey was interrupted by the arrival of Asgore. While  Flowey snuck off, Asgore greeted Frisk with overwhelming kindness, giving them the care they desperately needed.

With Asgore guiding them, Frisk learned more about the Underground. They were taught the basics of combat by performing alongside the shy ghost musician Napstablook, then met with Flowey, who revealed that he had a plan to free the monsters from their prison. Frisk agreed to help, but shortly thereafter they died at the hands of some bullies… only to return in a manner similar to that of respawning in a game. Flowey taught them how to hone that power to travel back in time without dying, subtly encouraging them to treat their “superpower” with irreverence.

Frisk and Flowey ventured through the ruins, arriving at Asgore’s house where they were met with even more of Asgore’s kindness. But their duty to save the monsters called, and Frisk tried to leave despite their desire to stay. Asgore stopped them, forcing Frisk to show their strength if they wanted to pass… and Frisk then inadvertently killed him.

Wracked with guilt, Frisk quickly reloaded to save Asgore, this time refusing to attack him at all. Asgore relented, revealing that he was hoping for Frisk to take his SOUL as combining with it would be their only hope for escaping the Underground. They refused, and Frisk ventured into the rest of the Underground.

Soon after emerging from the ruins and removing a picture from a hidden camera, Frisk met Papyrus. The skeletal genius swore loyalty to Frisk, and he joined them on their journey as a team member. His brother, Sans, also seemed affable despite his position on the Royal Guard. But the more Frisk and Papyrus progressed, the more monsters showed fear and even hostility towards them, starting with a trio of teenage hooligans. Frisk scared them off with the threat of “scary human powers,” and after the teens fled, Flowey made himself known and shared his plans with the skeleton, who agreed to help.

Sans kept a watchful Frisk and his brother as they solved puzzles and peacefully resolved more encounters, even stepping in to help when Frisk and Papyrus stumbled across Snowdin’s Royal Guard division. It wasn’t until a “puzzle” that Papyrus’ mentor, Undyne, created showed off several anti-human weapons that the dangers of the Underground ran deeper than Frisk realized.

Fortunately, Sans replaced the weaponry with a sock, allowing them to leave the forest behind. When the duo reached Snowdin Town, the populace was very wary of Frisk, so Sans offered to let Frisk stay at his and Papyrus’ house for the night. A news broadcast revealed that the camera they’d encountered had captured footage of their face, alerting the entire Underground to their presence. Late that night, Flowey revealed that Sans had talked to Papyrus and informed him that Frisk could not leave Snowdin.

Hesitant to believe Flowey, Frisk stormed out into the cold, to find Sans awaiting them. Despite their multiple attempts at reloading, Sans always found them, thwarting their attempted escapes Eventually, Sans approached them on their way out the door, offering them pie and chitchat. When he seemed to fall asleep, Frisk made a break for it, but he caught them again on the outskirts of town. On their final reload, Sans was nowhere to be seen, and Frisk carelessly wandered into Grillby’s where the monsters almost rioted on seeing them.

Sans and Papyrus defused the situation, and Sans met them on the edge of town to give them a straight answer at long last. Despite Papyrus’ pleas, Sans refused to let them leave, and it came to a battle. Sans proved to be a terrifying opponent, but each time he beat Frisk, he just  weakened them enough to toss them into his “Socket Dimension.” Even so, Frisk and Papyrus persisted. As the fight raged on, Sans warned the duo of the dangers ahead: Undyne, the rest of the royal guard, and how leaving was impossible without Toriel’s SOUL.

After several attempts, Sans stopped the fight with his special attack. It wasn’t until Papyrus Sans’ belief in him that the lieutenant relented. There was no stopping those two, so he offered to play dumb to his captain and let them go. Before Frisk and Papyrus left, an absurd date ensued, and Sans opened up to Frisk about his insecurities.

Papyrus, Frisk, and Flowey left Snowdin entered Waterfall, but the only way forward was through the formidable Fort Aquarius, and a canine officer named Bassiere von Dohj blocked the dynamic duo’s entry. This forced Frisk and Papyrus to sneak in through a secret entrance. Even then, they faced danger at every turn in the form of both traps and Royal Guards.

While Papyrus slipped away to dismantle the security, Frisk snuck through guarded corridors. Along the way, they began to learn about the Underground’s tragic history. Despite the emotional gutpunch, they pressed on with Flowey’s assistance, climbing walls and staying in touch with Papyrus over the CODACs, meeting up with their friend once more just in time to receive his help in escaping a pair of enamoured guards.

As the power returned, Frisk’s morale continued to lower with each new horrifying fact about the impact of violent humans on monster society came to light; and how Undyne had become the effective ruler in the true queen Toriel’s absence. In order to reach the top of the fort, they had no choice but to sneak into Alphys’ office… and as luck would have it, Alphys and two of her friends entered soon after.

It became clear that Alphys didn’t want to capture Frisk, but her repeated talk of the Waterfall Incident served to only twist the knife further into their heart. They tried to play it cool after the fact, but as they climbed to the top of the fort and encountered Dohj, the stress would only mount further. She accused Papyrus of chasing a childish fantasy, arguing for the needs of the many over the few.

Despite this, Frisk and Papyrus managed to push Dohj to a point where her canine instincts kicked in, and escaped in the ensuing chaos after the rest of the Royal Guard caught up to them.

After escaping, the dynamic duo met with Napstablook, where they were reassured that Papyrus wasn’t their sole ally. However, the plaques in the following room pummeled them with bombshell after bombshell. Learning of the war in greater detail, Frisk’s mood dropped dramatically until they reached a breaking point, snapping at Papyrus and running off. Although Papyrus caught up and offered reassurance, his words fell on deaf ears. Only when Papyrus confided in Frisk about his own insecurities and inner loneliness did Frisk finally recover their confidence and reveal their name to Papyrus.

The trio continued to venture through Waterfall, but Alphys’ anti-human traps forced Papyrus and Frisk apart once more. Reloads did nothing to help their situation, and Frisk resigned themself to having to find Papyrus and Flowey again the hard way. While walking, Frisk attempted to get their cryptic headvoice to defrost to no avail, and their efforts were interrupted by the untimely arrival of the Royal Guards Bratty and Catty

One failed attempt to bluff their way out of the fight later, Frisk was forced to engage with the guards. They seemed to leap out of the frying pan and into the fire when Mettaton, the Underground’s star and foremost human-killing robot arrived to take them on himself. Fortunately, Frisk escaped death when Bratty and Catty wandered off to let Mettaton take care of them, and it was revealed that he was actually helping Frisk by getting the guards off their back by playing the part of the killer robot.

Mettaton led them to his cousin Napstablook’s house so that Frisk could have both a safe haven and a place to talk privately, but not before pointing out Captain Alphys’ delightfully weeb-tastic house, which betrayed her true feelings on humanity. Once at Napstablook’s house, Frisk and Mettaton discussed Alphys in more detail, agreeing that the captain’s heart wasn’t really in trying to capture Frisk. Mettaton revealed that she idolized humans, and the only reason she wasn’t using her position to calm the Underground was that she felt beholden to the masses, who were riled up due to Undyne’s hatemongering.

Mettaton offered what little assistance he could give Frisk in their journey in exchange for them helping Alphys. The robot also gave Frisk the chance to explore his hometown, Forgespring, while they waited for Papyrus. Although they had fun exploring the village, their trip came with sober reminders of the Waterfall Incident in the form of a memorial statue (where it was revealed that the heroic Mage was a human), a firsthand view of monsters’ opinions on and fears of humans... and a graveyard, where they met one of the heroes of the War and the Incident: Gerson, the Hammer of Justice. Gerson tipped Frisk off to Alphys’ abilities and confirmed her propensity for lying to herself, telling Frisk to literally close the distance with Alphys during their inevitable fight if they wanted to get through to her.

They explored the town some more before finally meeting up with Papyrus. One heartfelt reunion later, the dynamic duo split up from Mettaton and Napstablook. Unfortunately their journey became significantly more difficult as Alphys did her best to stop their progression, sabotaging puzzles and sending lightning-tipped warnings Frisk’s way. Thankfully, with Papyrus’ help, they got through the worst of it. They stumbled through darkness to find Flowey once more, and after some reminiscence, the three continued on their way despite Alphys’ efforts to stop them.

At the entrance to Hotland, they came face to face with the captain of the guard herself. Not even making an effort to hide her true feelings on the matter, Alphys, despite her misgivings, stood in their way. She blocked Frisk’s way from the top of the ridge, and Frisk and Papyrus confronted her at long last. The fight was a difficult one, due to both the emotional and physical distance involved. However, they still managed to get to the top of the ridge and reach out to Alphys, talking through her problems and the expectations placed upon her by others.

Although she let them pass, Alphys was still conflicted, and she stalked off to her house to sort out her feelings. Luckily Sans was there to shortcut Frisk and Papyrus there before Alphys could even arrive, giving them time to craft a weeb-tastic surprise party for her. At first Alphys was… less than receptive to their efforts, but Sans convinced her to accept Frisk and Papyrus’ olive branch. Sans left the three to bond, and Frisk explored Alphys’ house with running commentary from the lizard herself and Papyrus, helping soothe her insecurities along the way.

After sitting down to some food, Frisk and Papyrus cheered up Alphys enough for her to consider standing up to herself, and when it was time for them to move on, Sans appeared to stay with Alphys himself. From there, the two of them ventured to Napstablook’s house to have a night’s rest before walking into the inferno… although Frisk’s night was less than peaceful, as they failed yet again to get Captain Cryptic to open up, and their sleep was unusually restless.

And then Frisk and Papyrus were at the doorstep of Hotland. Before they entered, Papyrus and Flowey asked them many worrying questions that they had no answers for, but ultimately they still ventured into the scientist’s domain. Frisk doubted Undyne’s heroism, but after some reassurances from Papyrus they continued into Hotland. Unfortunately, the only way forward was through Undyne’s lab.

Barely a moment had passed after they stepped inside when Undyne cornered them. Undyne accused Frisk of stringing Papyrus along and using him as a shield. Ranting at Frisk to “cut the crap” and about humanity’s many, many sins, Undyne challenged Frisk to step up and fight her if they were really as good as Papyrus insisted they were.

Frisk accepted.

Undyne assaulted Frisk with a brutal barrage of magitek weaponry while the dynamic duo failed to reason with her. Thankfully, Undyne let slip that she had a contractual obligation to let Frisk participate in Mettaton’s shows, but that didn’t stop Undyne from attacking or Frisk from getting under her skin. Before things escalated further, Mettaton revealed himself just at the right time to remind Undyne of her contract with him and to get Frisk out of trouble.

Undyne swore to “keep her promise” before leaving with Mettaton. Papyrus took the opportunity to give Frisk a tour of his and Undyne’s lab, giving them a change of clothes and engineering a variety of fancy devices such as a jetpack. Unfortunately, Papyrus’ telepads failed to get them past the deadly puzzles, but teamwork won the day and helped Frisk and Papyrus get through the worst of it. Flagrant abuses of Frisk’s time travel powers and Papyrus’ gadgets helped as well. They made it to Mettaton’s first show, a send-up of magical girl anime. Also there to watch the show up close (and to prevent Undyne from getting too extreme with her methods) was Monster Kid, fully geeking out at being in a room with all his idols, despite Undyne’s protective prickliness.

Too many dated anime tropes and one over the top merch-laden transformation sequence later, Undyne had enough and began launching spears at Frisk willy-nilly while giving a ridiculous speech about justice. Frisk and Papyrus pulled off all sorts of fancy moves, giving Mettaton both a ratings boost and completely showing her up. Which caused her to activate a trap rom Space Jam, catching poor Papyrus in the crossfire.

Although the rapidly accelerating conveyor belt almost made Frisk puke into the basketball hoops as intended, they avoided that humiliating fate by making clever use of the Dog Residue that they received during some dog-related antics. While Undyne feel guilty for inadvertently trapping Papyrus, that was outweighed by her anger when Frisk circumvented her “puzzle” and tore into her for getting Papyrus involved and intimidating Monster Kid into agreeing with her.

Things cooled down afterwards, with several skeleton shenanigans lightening the mood. During a conversation with Napstablook, Frisk’s increasingly antagonistic feelings towards Undyne flared up, but before things could get too heated Napstablook warned the dynamic duo that Undyne had set up a tournament arc for them to fight through

Fighting through several unfair obstacles, Frisk and Papyrus encountered Undyne’s wayward training dummy, who took offense to Frisk’s assumption about their mobility as well as the headvoice’s snarky narration about its pogo-stick leg. They were saved from clashing with the robot by a pair of Royal Guardswomen, whose relationship issues Frisk deftly solved before moving on.

After the fight, Frisk and Papyrus met with Flowey. The human accidentally let slip a small detail about their background--that they were often out on the streets--but quickly redirected the conversation before it could go near uncomfortable territory. Frisk and Papyrus left Flowey behind to proceed to the totally logicless Dog Dojo, where Undyne’s anime tournament would begin.

Many battles later, the dynamic duo finally reached the top seed and confronted Undyne and Mettaton. Tensions continued to escalate between the Royal Scientist and Frisk, culminating when they tossed the Annoying Dog at Undyne’s face after a particularly bizarre scientific spaghetti result. Snapping, Undyne chased Frisk and Papyrus all the way to the next level of Hotland on top of Mettaton.

Frisk and Papyrus made their way to Muffet’s bake sale… and soon found themselves on the receiving end of the spider’s web! Through the spiders and the pastries they carried on, slowly convincing Muffet of the impracticality of her prices and bringing to light a large source of her frustration: her partnership with Mettaton. Napstablook eventually swooped in to break up the fight, letting Frisk and Papyrus proceed to the final show: a court drama.

Personality: Although not much can be gleaned of their personality in Undertale, a few traits can be ascertained from the available dialogue choices in the Pacifist route. There's evidence that they are flirty, given the amount of times the flirt option comes out. Some of the dialogue options hint that they are fairly sarcastic, given the choices like "I have zero redeeming qualities," "Obviously let's roleplay," tHeN shE kiSSES yoU". They have dorky tendencies, like "petting" vegetables when choosing not to pound them hard during the Undyne hangout.   They can be kind, as evident by the fact that their name is only given in a pacifist route, but they also have the potential to be very cruel, as their heckling for Snowdrake is a prime example of them saying very coldhearted things. Frisk has ABSOLUTELY NO SHAME in showcasing their dorky side, seeing how they, without hesitation, say things like "I'm a stupid doodoo butt" during the chain of reloads to get Sans' key. Taking these clues into account, Frisk’s personality is very similar to the original game’s, although drastically expanded upon due to their speaking role. However, there is one small, yet key difference: while the original Frisk stayed determined throughout the game, even tiny, funny things like a mouse's efforts to get to absurdly well-guarded cheese, and Frisk does have this same willpower to some extent... Frisk can also lose sight of their determination if faced with something sufficiently terrifying, such as the God of Hyperdeath.

On the surface (metaphorically), Frisk is about as carefree as they get. A loyal, sassy people-pleaser, they’re always ready with a joke, a flirt, a terrible/amazing pun, or any other sort of antic that might entertain the people around them. They risk life and limb to end fights without harming a single hair on their opponent’s head, bullheadedly refusing to fight back against even the most ruthless of foes. They’re a staunchly loyal friend, willing to walk through the fire, flames, spears, and bones for the sake of Papyrus and Flowey, such as when Flowey urged them to leave the comfort of Snowdin despite the hospitality of Sans, thus leading to three intense clashes with the “lazy” skeleton. But most of this attitude is just an act.

Beneath this facade Frisk is bitter and guilty, maintaining their outward face to make up for what they see as their past sins. This determination to help others no matter what can manifest in unhealthy ways, most prominently their savior complex regarding their ability to save and load. Goaded on by Flowey, Frisk believes that it is their duty to be a “superhero” to the monsters of the Underground and to try and achieve the best possible outcome, no matter the potential consequences of reckless use of time travel. They’re not above to abusing this power to cut corners either, such as when they reloaded multiple times just to avoid the hassle of trekking all the way back to the start of a puzzle when they fail it. Frisk is also insatiably curious, as shown when they examined every last snow poff in Snowdin Forest in the original timeline.

Frisk, unfortunately, is easy to be taken advantage of. For the vast majority of their life, they were mostly friendless, and before arriving in the Underground they alienated their only friend, an act which created the guilt that drives many of their actions even now. Anybody willing to make an attempt at being friends with Frisk will earn their trust and loyalty, making Frisk willing to look past obvious flaws and shadiness if it means keeping said friend, as shown through Flowey’s masterful manipulation of Frisk even when he used his bullets to drive off the Snowdin Trio.

Likewise, those who draw Frisk’s ire will be the subject of a long-lasting, fiery grudge. The mere sight of the Migosp and Loox that killed Frisk in the Ruins makes their blood boil, and Undyne’s mistreatment of Papyrus--and by extension, anybody who hurts Frisk’s friends at all--planted an anger bordering on hatred in Frisk.

Above all, Frisk just wants to be loved, and their actions reflect that. They maintain their persona of a witty, carefree, pacifistic child as it makes them quite likable, but keeping this front up can be exhausting to them, and when it falls completely Frisk can’t bear for the people they care about to see who they really are. After an emotionally draining journey through the history of the monsters in Waterfall, Frisk finally snapped and ran away from Papyrus after their facade dropped. This desire to be loved can lead to occasionally selfish acts, most exemplified in how their primary motivation for their good acts is the desire to be seen as heroic and someone to be admired.

Much of Frisk’s personality can be traced back to their time on the surface, which was… unhappy, to say the least. They acted out, and thus had only one true friend for most of their life, their occasionally reluctant partner in crime. However, when Frisk’s aggressive, delinquent tendencies reached a boiling point, they alienated their friend, leaving them completely alone again. To try and attract positive attention, they constructed their helpful, pacifistic, funny facade in an attempt to impress others around them. But this failed, leaving them alone again. That is, until they fell into the Underground.

Frisk rapidly made many new friends for the first time in a long time, which caused them to open up ever so slightly… while also increasing their worries about disappointing the people that they found they actually cared about, including Papyrus. This came to a boiling point during the aforementioned incident in Waterfall, where after breaking down Frisk finally opened up to Papyrus, and now has a stronger bond with him than ever before and a renewed ability to put their trust in others.