BONUS CHAPTER: Making Of

Back in 2016, I had the idea of "What would Undertale be like if the main character is more paranoid than Batman?" Then I crossed that idea with Minecraft and Nafi, in her most base form, was born

In 2017, I wrote the first version of this story on Wattpad, titled 'Friends Are Useful'.

In 2018, I rewrote the three chapters I had posted and moved it from Wattpad to and AO3.

In 2020, I finished 'Friends Are Useful' and found myself disgusted with the earlier chapters and decided to rewrite it once again under the title 'Separation'.

You have read that finished product.

This is my first truly finished story, and as such I want to give those of you who have read this a peek behind the curtain.

The Prologue was rewritten four separate times, every time it came out totally different. The first time was from Frisk's point of view, the second was from Chara's, the third can be read in the, still up, original 'Friends Are Useful', and the fourth is this one.

There was originally an original character that started everything and not Gaster's Machine, but as you can see, the only OC is Nafi.

Chapter 1 got the second most reworking done to it, but the plot stayed the same over each version. Nafi goes mining, gets attacked, and falls into the Underground. In one version, she was attacked by another human, but that was quickly changed into an Enderman.

When we actually get to the Undertale storyline, you probably noticed I skipped large portions of the areas, especially skipping the entirety of the area around Snowdin in Chapter 3. That's mostly because every Undertale story I've read that takes place during the game always seems to hit every puzzle and I didn't want to rehash the same thing everyone else does.

Really, this wasn't supposed to be about exploring the environment, but about exploring character interactions.

That really shows in Chapters 3 and 5. Chapter 4 was really the lead up to Undyne and expanding her relationship with MK.

Chapters 3 and 4 also have the most foreshadowing of any of the chapters.

(Special thanks to One_Lost_Soul on AO3 for pointing out a few issues I had in these early chapters. I sometimes forget that I'm the only one who has the whole world in my head and I don't mention important things.)

Chapters 6 and 7 I hated to write originally, Mettaton and Alphys just don't seem to like me for some reason. That's why Alphys' dialogue is taken almost straight from the game and Mettaton is skipped whenever possible. The Muffet fight was skipped because I didn't want to figure out how her mechanics worked (the strings, the pastries, her pet) and the idea of them getting into a fight about spiders was just too good to pass up.

Then True Lab happens early. The thing was, in the game, you only really unlock the True Lab after you get the Neutral ending, and without saves that couldn't happen. So I devised a way for Nafi to get down there and then followed a let's play for where she went. The induction of Entry Number 17 was just because I wanted more Gaster in there.

Fun fact, the reason the rest of the monsters at the table took so long to get down there was Nafi broke the elevator. Sans had to take a shortcut in to fix it. So they knew he could teleport after that, which is why they don't react to Sans going off to Judge Nafi and then coming back. Nafi just never bothered to question what took them so long or why they didn't seem bothered because she had other things going on.

Another fun fact, Chapters 9 and 10 were originally one chapter and my beta reader had me split them. He helped throughout this entire thing actually, reminding me that this is actually a crossover and not just a retelling of Undertale, put some Minecraft things in there.

I loved doing the Mettaton fight, giving him actual reason to fight instead of just wanting to perform for the humans and leaving Alphys in the dust. The NEO transformation was inspired by a really cool animation on YouTube called "Undertale Shots: Chara Vs Mettaton NEO". Go look it up! (I'm not giving the link because FF.N doesn't like that and I don't want to deal with it.)

Another reason why Chapters 9 and 10 were one originally was because the CORE was pretty much the Mettaton fight and that was it. Once I was told I had to split it, I added the magic conversations to get it up to 3000 words, which I set for the minimum words each chapter.

I really enjoy the final three chapters, not counting the Epilogue, Chapter 11 especially. I didn't even have to do much rewriting, given it was the last chapter I wrote before the rewrites.

Speaking of the Epilogue, would you believe me if I said I forgot Asriel/Flowey in the first draft and the second? I actually started posting the chapters before I remembered. Also, did you notice the final lines were the first lines of the Prologue?

Now, I want to explain some behind the scene physics for you. Specifically why Gaster's Machine never worked. In this version of Undertale, alternate timelines don't exist. The Machine looked for alternate timelines and, upon not finding one, tossed the searcher out of the timestream. How do Resets work then?

By bending the timestream like a paperclip to deposit the memories of the future into the body of the past.

Which is why Flowey's constant Resets caused the time loop, when you bend a paperclip too much it breaks. When the time stream got past a certain point, it broke and bent back. What the Machine did was take everything that existed after the bend and toss it. Does that mean alternate timelines exist now? I'll leave that up to you.

More background stuff that I never figured out how to incorporate, a Spite Soul's natural magic? Redirection, specifically Damage Redirection. If Nafienta ever learns how to use her natural magic, not only could she heal herself on the spot but if someone sent an instant kill attack her way she could literally send most of the damage the attackers way.

Here's another fun fact for you, At the start, there were plans for a sequel with the cut OC as one of the main characters. It was going to be an AVP crossover set mostly in Minecraft. That's not going to happen, but I did create Check dialogue for the humans:

Frisk: Pure green protected by a shell of red, her Kindness is only overshadowed by her overwhelming Determination to live.

Chara: Determined to the core, he never strays from his path to his and others lasting happiness, even if that path is stained by death.

Nafienta: She is kind, yes, but that Kindness is easily overcome by her Spite at the world and the heavy weight life has hung on her shoulders. A cracked, green veil hiding a reddish-purple center.

Nafi: A fusion of the three most powerful Souls, created by a desperate world.

When others didn't care, out of her Kindness, she cared.

When others abandoned her, out of his Determination, she lived.

When others told her to die, out of her Spite, they died first.

Maybe when Deltarune chapter 2 comes out I'll make a sequel. Depends on what happens.

Either way, thank you so much for reading this, not only the story but my ramblings too. Extra thanks to those who comment, I read every one, even if I don't respond.

I hope everyone has a wonderful rest of your lives.

~Multi