A/N: did i mention i only write at like 2 AM after running on 2 days of no sleep and have to be up in an hour?
Yeaaaaah.
headcanon that storyshift chara drinks chocolate syrup
I do not own the AUs mentioned or referenced.
"what in chara-nation?"
"Sans, I regret showing you the Internet."
"my point still stands."
That it did. One Chara was had pushed themself into a corner as far away as possible from Papyrus, staring like they had seen a ghost. Another was playing with Asriel in a corner. Yet another was following a Gaster around, occasionally mimicking his garbled speech. An older Chara was helping Papyrus cook spaghetti. Someone who looked like Chara in a hoodie was drinking chocolate syrup straight from the bottle. A glowing red Chara glared at a short-haired teenage Chara in a green-and-grey striped tank top.
Charas weren't the only ones duplicating, though. There were several Gasters, Toriels, Sanses, Frisks, Asriels, Floweys, and (Frisk shuddered at the thought) Jerrys. In fact, it seemed the entire multiverse had gathered in the skelebro's living room.
"Frisk?"
Every Frisk in the room turned to a small, greyed-out Frisk.
"I meant the native Frisk."
The other Frisks went back to… whatever they were doing. The save file was constantly being saved over (except for the occasional overwrite, which was saved over soon after), and they wondered how often they were determined from the weirdest things.
"Please call me Core. As you do not know what happened in this particular timeline, I will ask Meta to explain the basics of the multiverse and the particular event that happened to cause the multiverse to converge here." They waved to the short-haired Chara, who broke their staring contest with a pile of small white dogs in a flash of light.
"Charas can teleport?" Frisk blinked at the human in front of them.
"Eh, I dunno. Probably. I don't think I'm the only one of me who can teleport. Anyways, I'm Meta. Chara, classic variant, corrupted timeline. What about you?"
"Frisk, uh…" They weren't exactly sure what Meta had meant.
"Oh, that's right. Core, in this timeline, have they broken the fourth wall yet?"
"Not yet."
"That makes sense. Well, Frisk, I'm guessing your timeline is based off of a Classic timeline, though it's less of a variant and more of a divergence. Uh… I'm not great at the explaining thing." They shuffled nervously and glanced at Core. "So… the multiverse. It essentially dictates every possible timeline and is relatively infinite. There are full universes, partial universes, outcodes… Anything is possible. Your timeline is a full timeline. It's been seen to its completion and will likely not suffer another full reset, though there may be some loads. Mine was a partial universe; not only was the timeline left unfinished, but about half the timeline was deleted. Outcodes, like Ink, exist outside of their timeline or no longer have a timeline to exist in." They turned to a Sans in canvas-like clothing. "Hey, Ink, wanna help me explain the multiverse to Frisk?"
"Hm?"
"The multiverse?... God, Ink, don't tell me you've forgotten the multiverse already."
"Of course not!" If it weren't for the puzzled look, he would have seemed indignant.
"He did," Core singsonged.
"We're never going to get anywhere with this." Meta glared at the small grey child. "Don't even say it."
"Universe where we do and universe where we don't, Meta."
"I just said not to. Anyways, I tried to jump into this universe at the same time you tried to reload. It opened a window to the entire multiverse on accident. It's like trying to run a local server but accidentally opening it to the entire world. Well… anyone who tried to travel through the multiverse got moved here instead."
"How do we fix this?" The native Frisk was confused at the multiversal trio's cringes. "It can't be that bad, can it?"
"We have to erase this timeline and every timeline each person here belongs to."
Every Sans, Chara, and Frisk in the room winced.
"can't they just reset?" Sans wasn't ready to die quite yet.
Most of the miscellaneous visitors has been rounded up and moved to Toriel's larger home, leaving only the Frisk, Sans, Papyrus, Ink, Core, Meta, and Gaster in the living room.
"Nope. If anything, the leak will be worse after they reset." Meta didn't sound too fond of the idea, though their posture was fairly resigned. "The only way to destroy the portal is to destroy the timeline."
"GREY HUMAN, WHY CAN'T WE JUST LEAVE THE PORTAL?" Poor Papyrus. The talk of murder and erasure must have gotten to hum.
"There are timelines where this would be perfectly fine; however, the amount of people who have already crossed this timeline indicates that the odds of that working out are slim."
"BUT THERE IS STILL HOPE, ISN'T THERE?"
"Papyrus, there's a timeline where it does and a timeline where it doesn't. Core would know."
"how would they know? they're just from another part of the multiverse."
"IF I AM NOT MISTAKEN, CORE IS OMNIPRESENT, ARE THEY NOT?" Gaster stretched his new-ish legs.
"Correct. You are merely seeing a manifestation of me meant to act as damage control. It is somewhat useless, as there is a universe where I do not manifest; however, this timeline has not collapsed yet, so I would consider this a success."
The native Frisk pulled out their phone. "Why do we need to erase the other timelines as well?"
"The timelines will collapse without certain characters. While Jerry is not essential to the timeline nor a guaranteed appearance, his erasure will alter the timeline. A more major character, like Papyrus or Chara, will completely fall to entropy."
"What about Meta? Their timeline has already been erased."
The couch was suddenly very, very interesting.
"Meta? What will happen to you?" Darn Frisk for being so determined.
Meta remained silent for several minutes before whispering, "I'll go back to searching for a timeline."
"You're an outcode, like Error and I?" Ink bounced and his eyelights became little hearts. "That's great! We finally have some company!"
"Ink, you forgot your own child. I don't think you're the best company," they muttered.
"I have a child?"
"Ink, you're worse than my fourth wall!"
"Your creators? What did they do?"
"They erased my timeline and forgot to erase us!" They summoned a knife and soon had it pointed at Frisk.
A pin dropped somewhere. Nobody dared move to find out where.
What seemed like hours passed before they dissipated the magic. "I-I'm sorry. You just… look so much like my Frisk…"
"What happened to your Frisk?"
"...They're dead."
AU credits:
Canon characters by Toby Fox, variations added by me
Storyshift (Hooded Chara) by Voltrathelively on Reddit
AFAC (Red Chara) by askfriskandcompany on Tumblr
Deletale (MetaChara) by deletaleau on Tumblr
XTale (Overwrites) by jakei95 on Tumblr
CoreFrisk by dokudoki on Tumblr
Ink by comyet on Tumblr
PJ (The referenced forgotten child) by 7goodangel on Tumblr
Not all AUs are used by their complete canon. Some have been modified slightly to fit this story.