A (personal) author note

Dear readers,

So you decided to bore yourselves with the rantings of a visionary madman? But well enough, be my guests!

When you'll finish reading, you'll think of me: "Are you crazy?!"

Maybe I am, but if we have to do something, let's do it and make it right!

It was an interesting experience, my first attempt actually in fanfiction.

Rereading it, I realized that some blooper fell behind, but overall I am satisfied with the work (at least for me, a non-native English speaker).

I did not even think that I would be pushed to write, but Undertale proposes such deep characters with great potential, that I would be sad by not taking advantage of it. However, by the looks of it, I couldn't help but shower its spontaneous and minimalist style with too much dramatic charge. Perhaps I am giving it just too much importance, but I believe in the transforming power of human creativity in producing new concepts on the basis of an existing plot (as you see this game stole my heart and I'm still searching for it).

You know, since it's my first try, allow me some pride for it!

While everyone is struggling with the various characters of Undertale, I fell back on the unfortunately neglected Asgore: on one hand an easygoing King (without playing down it because this is what makes him really adorable), and on the other a monster afflicted by this cumbersome decision/duty that destroyed his life.

He is a figure terribly similar to the sovereigns of Shakespeare's tragedies, and among them comes to mind King Lear, on whose example I outlined in part my interpretation. But on the contrary of him, he doesn't die brokenhearted while holding her dead daughter Cordelia, but he is reborn with a filled heart with his family (after putting to rest in peace this poor daughter that is Chara).

Since he didn't have the time that was devoted to the characterization of all the other characters, Asgore suffered the stigma of hasty judgments (as if Toriel's resentment was not enough). A King annihilated in the face of responsibility, it's not a trivial matter that can be overcome in a generic and clichéd manner. Accompanied by the revived Barrier, however, he has succeeded to get over it, and slowly came out of the darkness of the cave. Of course, I too find unreal having all humans to life again, or that Asriel's soul survived inside that of Chara, but why not?

Now, just let me elaborate a thought that to some of you won't probably appeal.

The views that run on the topic about the need for such an edict, the obvious repercussions for two pacifist like Asgore and Toriel, as well as the emotional zeal caused by the killing of the two Princes of the Underground, I find them deficient and unsatisfactory.

Internal and especially foreign policy does not work through handshakes, kisses and hugs and pats on the back. In the end, may it be right or wrong, it was wise to wait because the hatred between the two races had not dozed off, and it is not Boss Monsters that had to show that humans are capable of good, but a human, precisely. Frisk obviously managed better than their foster siblings (I cannot rule out that the six humans have some dead on their conscience). Frisk was convincing because Determined to be so.

It was a good time to take risks and escape the Underground, given that Frisk came? Maybe, but I should remind you that they could also commit a genocide, and this depends on us. If we are the mirror of human society, would it be wise to let them leave the Underground, beyond the safeguard of the Barrier, especially if bloodlust did not extinguish even over centuries?

Well, it would certainly make sense for Asgore and Toriel to say clearly that it is better to live under Mt. Ebott, but who says that there are no monsters, who aren't free of fear and anger and sense of justice (that could result in revenge), compelled to create factions and oppose the forced do-goodism, and rather conquer the surface? Even in certain endings, if we killed several people and Toriel ascends the throne, she is exiled just after she proposes a change of policy. If monsterkind so far hadn't objected the King for his decision, I think they agreed with it.

You know, "no one is without fault".

Since I am unconventional, I believe also that a loving, spousal relationship can be restored. In fact, Asgore and Toriel retain the habits that saw them absorbed with. The ones that come to mind are: Asgore who tries in vain to reproduce the Cinnamon-Butterscotch Pie recipe while Toriel fills her house with Golden Flowers and still continue to cook his favorite pie (despite the player's decision in choosing one flavor over the other).

Here Asgore broke the ice blatantly bringing the whole gang of children, but then it was Toriel to take the lead, as she went herself to look for him up to the Underground entrance. Okay, I cannot say that this is an act of great love, but at least of concern for his conditions. Both their personalities were exacerbated by the death of Chara and Asriel, and it will take time before they can normalize, now that all their tension is exhausted thanks to the breakout. So, I am sorry SORIEL, but I side with ASRIEL in this.

Speaking of which, I indeed chose to give a chance to Asriel, for a number of reasons.

First, his state do softened me up, and the idea to abandon him in the solitude of the Underground was rather heavy. Toby Fox will never agree with me on this! :-)

Second, with a twist, Asriel received new life, but this came only after his maturation as Flowey. By the mouth of Ioreon, even if he cannot feel anything, he can make feel others (he ticked me off for example). So, you could hate the fact that you won't feel anything, and although you will never savor that warmth, you yourself will become its source for others. This is the message, and after his decision, a reward was bestowed.

Mind you, I was battling with myself on this, but this story has taken on too many dramatic connotations. After all, the True Pacifist is the best of all possible endings.

Not to mention that, in addition to Asgore's magic (the physicality medium) and his human brothers and sisters' Determination (the stabilizing needlework), Ioreon emptied all of his own magic reserve hoarded for centuries. So, Asriel has been recreated with the very Hopes and the Dreams of monsters. How does that song go again?

Indeed, something sensational can come up from this decision, which hold some peculiar surprises.

That was my way to recompose the Dreemurr family again. Now, just a thought towards Ioreon.

He is an odd character. I gave birth to this weird idea of restoring dignity to the most powerful and unconscious element of the game, but fashioned in this way: an ordeal turned into a life force that seeks to correct the evil in a more or less veiled way, he who knows but prefers to keep hidden, an emblem of the past that resists but that also transforms itself... Yep, this is something absurd.

His origins are consistent with my subdivision of the planes of existence and the magic system, as well as the energo-material flows (or space-time if you prefer) of Undertale, but perhaps we might end up encompassing the philosophical. As Shakespeare would say, he is "such stuff as dreams are made on". If you're curious though, I can write about him somewhere, albeit I have not the faintest idea where to put it.

For his creation I was very inspired by Gandalf of "The Lord of the Rings" (other than an energetic old man, he is a Maia, an angelic force of Arda), and by the idea of Undertale characters portrayed in tarot cards, which is why I chose for him the Hierophant, the holder of sacredness and wisdom, but in principle known as the guardian of Mystery secrets. I wanted to make him quite overwrought, intrusive and manipulative (within a certain extent of course), a thing that he sometimes does reluctantly. In fact, he embraced a mountain, so the sense of pervasiveness and control has not abandoned him.

By the way, his name is an anagram. What comes out is a further indication of his symbolism (there's just an E at the end of the name by variety of language, but you can still guess it easily).

In effect, I always wanted to create a history laden with symbolism. This one in particular I could say has at least three interpretations.

One, the obvious: this is a classic adventurous journey, half fantasy and alas not so action-packed (except towards the end), complete with a clichéd villain (but I use clichés for my own ends) and the rescue of several princes and princesses.

Two, the metaphorical: this is a journey especially with Asgore in mind, as suggested by the chapters' titles. He re-appropriated those virtues which gradually wore out after killing (directly or indirectly) the six humans. In this trip, undertaken in reverse compared with that of the humans and Frisk, he recovered those virtues so highly expressed by them, culminating in their resurrection.

He sealed his success with the reconciliation with his wife Toriel, and above all with the overcoming of the past that he was determined to behold until the end, when he was finally able to take his eyes off of it, and gaze upon the future (his wife and his children, in essence). And when I said he would have come to terms with his past, Ioreon could not be a better choice. He himself is precisely the past of all of them that however prompts them to look ahead.

And three, the metaphysical: this is a revival (with a novel twist) of the Platonic fable. Well, I saw it as a real clash of notions, represented by Asgore, symbol of Agapè (love seen as the sacrifice for others at the expense of oneself) and Ioreon, an idea himself, symbol of stoic detachment and pragmatism, against Chara/demon, symbol of chaos of instincts, murderous madness and irrational fear (although their herald is far from mindless, but in fact cold and calculating).

Finally, why I have chosen as the title of the story 'Once Loved, Always Loved'?

First of all it sounds good (okay, I'm joking).

In fairness, this is somewhat the life story of Asgore and Toriel. It applies to both because I saw in them a sincere love that has suffered a harsh blow, but that has all the prerogatives to fortify again. It's as if, under the ashes of these consumed lives, remained embers which, if fed, can return to kindle. In short, infatuation is discovered while love is built, and if it is such, it has a solid foundation from which start up again.

More in line with the theme, the title is the love that the two had and have for their children, biological and adoptive. Toriel cared for the humans in life, because they all supposedly bumped into her house, while Asgore retains their souls and since they can hear, (attention: headcanon) through paternal instinct he entertained them according to what he felt was the right thing to do.

Asgore embarked on this journey, but not for him, that is washing away guilt and making peace with his soul. That's only a side effect. It was for this simple reason, having loved them and loving them still, with his fatherly fondness soaked with their innocent blood, whose only crime was falling into Ebott. Everything revolved around this, once loved, always loved, all the way up to the beyond repair body of Chara, giving her his last respects.

That's why he decided to leave, but this time is no longer for the fear of what he might do, because it is a fact that he would not even be able to touch one hair of their heads, he could not even relate to such an impulse. Something else battles its way up, a resignation that however is not so bitter, because he knows that that household where he is a father belongs to a world that it's not his own, because he feels alienated. He changed inside.

When one grow so far apart, cradling his own disillusionment and getting acquainted with blood, it is an absolutely natural thing to consider himself different, to become a stranger to himself. A visible scar, which one will eventually get used and fortunately end up forgetting, only to discover it on himself just by accident.

This is the theme of change, the turmoil of what one had lived up to that moment, an improvement of habits in every respect. Eventually the flight was a spontaneous reaction, really introspective, which that great woman that is Toriel helped to defog.

I have never seen Asgore as a coward or a weakling, but as a defeated husband and a father, by now a close friend of that sordid terror of losing his loved ones. What I tried to convey, was a gesture of exaggerated altruism on his part that however, in the long run, becomes selfish, and we can certainly define it wrong, because he could be considered, rightly, their maximum safeguard along with Toriel.

Yet that's the consequence of having to move on, and in a sense it was Toriel to save him, finally putting in place with him centuries of dormant feelings and cornering with her love that despair, from which he struggled to free himself without ever succeeding.

The coup de grace was Ioreon. Symbolically it's a very strong message, even though things were pretty much settled already. He needed just a little push outward. :-)

Okay now, deep breath.

That's the stuff. The story ended up complicated despite everything. I found quite useful for better sifting through this chaos in the background several entries of the blog "Undertale Science", since it's quite analytical when it comes to some of the more or less ambiguous facts of Undertale.

This means it's over? No it isn't, just because I prefer to raise more questions than answers. I still have many other symbolisms and strangeness to display.

About the life of the extended Dreemurr family, Ioreon's reluctance to countless questions, the fate of Gaster and that of Chara/demon of the flowerbed… I have many ideas on the future in my head. It is likely that this thing will become quite long.

In my intentions, this story was meant as a stepping-stone for what would come next. A lot of repercussions shall branch out from this adventure for things done well and for things done bad, according to good or bad intentions, and so on. Where everyone will be a protagonist, a star of his own kind.

I take this opportunity to examine in depth the world of Hyperuranion, to which the magic system hooks in its own peculiar way. I think of it as biphasic, because the game suggests that there are substantial differences between the magic of men and monsters. I will explore moreover the interactions of these two kins, in a society very different from our own, virtually a Medieval-futuristic one (but not overly sci-fi). In fact, given the technological levels that monsters have achieved, in part by exploiting human inventions turned up inside the Garbage Dump somehow (in a fantasy world, everything is possible), maybe we are far ahead of the 2000s, maybe fifty years later. I am already thinking about the juicy possibilities of a not-too-distant future after some political and sociological overturning.

I'm still undecided to proceed directly to the second act or structure a sort of interlude.

In this latter case, I suppose that the best way to describe it would be a collection of slices of life, where to add little by little details of the world in which they live, and this time within a lively and sunny world, with few moments to get depressed, and where I will not rule out emotional moments or sentimental situations (sometimes complicated and wholehearted but never overly corny). It will be for the most part a light reading, with few or no hidden meanings (I feel responsible for your mental struggles), although none of them will be in its own right but following a common thread, where more intense points will not fail to point out the evolution of the plot, to which the second act will follow. As you know the policy of a state, with external pressure and internal conflicts, coupled with its intrigues worthy of Renaissance courts, has never been an easy matter.

It means more work for me, and I have no idea when I'll put an end to it, but indeed I need some lightness amid this overwhelming seriousness.

Literally we will turn away from the context that we have come to know, and this is inevitable, but I know how much you care about the Underground people, and therefore I won't distort the characters, but elaborate them with their strengths and weaknesses as realistically as possible thanks to the information we have, as I hope I managed to do so far.

The plot… well, let's say I'll do my utmost to prevent it from doing flights of fancy and keep it in a reasonable track, without excluding however that it will turns out a gargantuan speculation of post-Undertale facts, designed to settle in said plot.

Because, in fact, the most difficult issue is precisely Chara.

Since I have to remain consistent with the ontological system of my own creation, Chara died for good. Having been brought out of the Barrier, its "immortalizing" effects were no longer there to shield them, and so nature took its course. In effect, their lifeless body was able to pass through with Asriel, and this might strengthen my concept of the Barrier as a prison of souls, which remain bound to it when within.

However, I have also several theories about Chara, leading me to make that "eldritch" choice. They are mostly driven by my skepticism on their actual role as a human child in their scary appearance in Undertale as a whole.

They were supposed to simply fade away as the Underground lost all its importance. After all, they said it was Frisk's Determination to awaken them, in that small universal pocket that is the Underground. By playing on the possibility that their soul survived, it opens much larger scenarios.

Even if I find the use of Heaven and Hell as extremely appealing (something that I wrote might hint that), the reality of things that I am tinkering is more... earthbound. Philosophical at most.

These are the kind of questions I wondered about:

Does Chara have awakened thanks to Frisk, by virtue of the peculiar world of Undertale, or there's something more?

How can a child know so much of the post-mortem possibility of a human soul merged with that of a monster, and their power when acting in tune?

Can we exclude that Chara themselves transcended to a "demonic" state, dispensing the need of that luggage that is body, mind and soul, because they were reborn into something else?

Maybe yet, there are obscure reasons to which only the ideas of Hyperuranion can answer. Here's explained in fact my use of 'they', which means that the matter has become more complex.

I have many plans for Chara. I would not make them (or her) appear and disappear carelessly. Indeed I am conscious that we, the players, are Chara or maybe the ones corrupting Chara with our violent Determination, and… okay, that's enough for now, or else I'll say too much.

Their memory now repose, but indeed I am not done with them yet. The demon still comes when people call its name.

Well. I may get embroiled in a bigger project than me, but I think that Undertale deserves one or two hours a day of world-building.

My oh my, I sure have to explain what kind of stuff is this Hyperuranion. I tell you this: do not take it as a dimension exclusive to this story, or just another mundane plane, one of countless enactments of the multiverse, or whatever. In fact, to help you unravel this mess in my mind, we can apply its concept now.

Every thought, conjecture, art or fanfiction (even mine), woven upon the plot of Undertale, are an ideal projection in this realm (a sort of utopia of a writer, since we do not know the real intentions of Toby Fox). The more they are nurtured, the more they thrive and acquire a life of their own. With this small contribution, I wanted to get myself in the game.

That's also why I am sure this story will be appreciated only by a few people. A practical reason is that the combination Asgore/Flowey/Chara/OC it's a tough one, and almost nobody would consider it. I can't even put interesting aspects of the story or the epilogue in front-page because I would only spoil the surprise.

I also think that the problem is its themes, light years away from casual ones, nowadays the most popular trend (without detracting anything from this genre).

Seeing more views in the first chapter than throughout the rest of the story, it is a sign that people just lose interest in it. I can understand that, in fact the first few chapters don't seem so exciting even to me. Of course, I wouldn't dream of forcing someone to read it, that's obvious.

You few ("we happy few!", lol), have in fact given me the strength to finish this first step in the meantime, from which could follow something that will be… I will not say addictive, but pleasant at the very least.

Why do I say this? Let's face it: if the work of art, no matter how repulsive, is not kept alive and perpetuated by its audience, what is a painter, a sculptor or a poet?

Once finished their stroll, they collapse and wait for their toll. Fate of those who begin and already end, bloom and after a moment fade. Fate of those who only for a few hours fly, hoping for a round of applause, and then die.

Yep, I am overdramatic, and I like to be so! Also because this is a good excuse for me to read your stories too, guys. Verily, ideas have to be fed, lest they die (literally).

I hope that you've been fascinated by the story while reading it, as I was enraptured in writing it.

Thank you for your kind attention and your support for now, with the hope that the sequel would not be too long to wait.

Ave atque Vale.

Hunter of Eridanus, out.