Fading Light BONUS
-Fading Light was born when I was watching SteamTrain's play through of Undertale. As Barry and Ross played through the game, Ross stated one of his theories that Sans and Papyrus could have been humans at one point, which I thought was a pretty cool idea and used as a base to build this story.
-In early concepts of the story, Sans and Papyrus would have been young children like the other fallen children. Sans had a very outgoing and adventurous spirit while Papyrus would have been timid and reluctant about everything, in order to contrast their present counterparts. However it was decided to make them teenagers, though their personalities were transferred over to Mary and Carrie.
-When creating the plot, I had Sans and Papyrus get to the barrier very early in the story. They would have found out that they couldn't pass through and the rest of the story would have been them trying to survive in hiding. This was scrapped when I quickly realized that just the journey to the barrier would have been a story in itself.
-Originally, Sans and Papyrus were going to die. This was changed as I had a hard time explaining how they would become monsters if their souls were taken, and also the fact that I wouldn't be able to write it without bawling.
-Back when death was the end result, I knew I wanted Papyrus to die first. The first idea was of him dying of starvation when him and Sans tried to survive in hiding with Sans soon following, and the other was both boys dying in a brutal fight against the Royal Guard. Papyrus would have fallen first and Sans would have been done in by Sagiv, with Sans saying how he was too weak to save his brother over and over until he was killed.
-Keshika and Raviath are loosely modeled after my own parents without the abusive part.
-How Papyrus and Sans transition to finding out their powers to mastering them in just a few minutes is what I like to call "The Spectacular disbelief" modeled off of the Spectacular Spider-man show where most of the villains were masters of their powers after just using them for the first time.
-There are a few pop culture and technology references in Fading Light to help solidify the fact that Sans and Papyrus come from a different era. This includes the walk-man, no mention of a cell-phone, Crocodile Rock, Casper, box TVs, pagers, exercise DVDs and mix tapes.
-Speaking of DVDs, those were supposed to be VHS, but I forgot to change it. Papyrus and Sans' journey takes place before the invention of the DVD, so earlier than 1995 for those of you wondering.
-Papyrus eventually forgets that he's carrying around a pager, and so did I.
-The reason no specific date was given as to what year this takes place is because I wanted it to be like the game, where we don't know exactly what year Frisk falls down. That, and also the fact that I didn't want to box myself in as if I gave date, then I would have to abide by the years from this time to Undertale, and that would have made things more strict on my part.
-While I like to keep Sans and Papyrus as close to character as I can, one thing I forgot to give Sans was the habit of combing his hair. I kept trying to work it in but it never fit the mood, so sorry Sans, but that hair is staying messy.
-Sans and Papyrus' journey is supposed to mirror the journey all fallen children have to make in order to reach the barrier. This gives Sans a better understanding of Frisk's journey through the Underground in the present.
-There were some early concepts of other places Sans and Papyrus could have traveled to, such as a cactus bar located deep in Hotland, but was scrapped because I didn't want to overcrowd the story with needless OC's.
-In total there are only six main OC's in this story; Sagiv, the two Royal Guards, Mrs. Flame, Volare and Charlotte.
-The idea that Sans and Papyrus descended from monster-humans wasn't thought up until I had already completed Level 3 and was already posting the story.
-Despite Fading Light's success, this isn't a story I feel too proud of. The plot wasn't fully fleshed out when writing it, some characters felt off, it basically wasn't how I have written stories before. I hope to change this and get a more solid story with Accepting Darkness.
-Originally Sans was going to meet Alphys and Gaster. Gaster would have told Sans how they saved Papyrus back in Snowdin with Alphys going off about how easy her hints were to understand if only Papyrus watched "Mew Mew Kissy Cutie".
-Originally Papyrus was going to sing "I can't get no Satisfaction" but that was scrapped really quickly for obvious reasons.
-No Megalovania was played during the entire writing of the boss fight between Asgore and Sans. It was instead a few MLP remixed songs by TheLivingTombstone.
-Around 60% of the nightmare sequence in Level 17 was redone as the original had too much of a Puella Magi Madoka Magica feel. The only thing that was kept was the mom and dad.
-Originally Chara wasn't going to be included in the story. They wormed their way in though.
-Mettaton was another character who wasn't going to make an appearance, but I figured he's got to start somewhere before he's a celebrity and included him.
-Future Sans was a giant question mark on if he was going to be included when I was writing the end of the story. Originally he was going to pass by Sans when he left the Hotel, warning him to forget his plan and go home, then he was thought of for the Judgment Hall as well as Gaster or another OC who would have been a female skeleton with blue ninja clothes and a scythe. When I figured out a loop-hole to Future Sans' existence, he was placed in the Judgment Hall for the greatest effect.
-After Papyrus and Sans escaped Grillbys, they were going to spend a night in the abandoned shack while hiding from the Royal Guard. A small scene was thought up of the two coming close and sleeping together for warmth, but the idea was scrapped since, as Sans' put it, 'They'd look for them there.'
-I had to be careful on how much I compassion I showed the brothers having for one another, as I didn't want it to cross over into incest territory. This involved cutting a lot of scenes that were planned of the two trying to understand one another, or the fact that Papyrus is only one who says I love you in the present story.
-When designing Volare and Charlotte, the two had a good chance of ending up as gay spider men. They were changed back to girls though as I wanted to play more on sister relationships.
-Originally Papyrus' line in Level 11 when talking about the letter was, "Like Chinese?" I changed it to Morse code as I didn't want to offend any viewers accidentally.
-Before Sans reveals to Papyrus his plans of staying, Papyrus was originally going to find out about it via Sans' items. The first script was of him stumbling upon the photo album and questioning Sans about it, while the other script was for him to flip through Sans' journal and see how Sans was slowly descending into madness.
-I had a hard time trying to figure out how I was going to get Papyrus out of Snowdin before coming up with the pager idea. A few ideas that my friends, who were not familiar with Undertale, tossed around for fun was Papyrus going to the bathroom only to find blood stained on the mirror saying "run *female dog* run", a celebrity guest-star coming up to Papyrus and telling him to get out, or, my favorite, Gaster taking Papyrus out for a drink, then knocking him out when he's drunk, put him in his truck, drive him as far away as he could from Snowdin, and then dump his body somewhere.
-The Royal Monster Lullaby was thought of when I was randomly singing in the shower. I basically had to keep singing it for the rest of my shower and all the way back to my room since I knew I would forget it if I didn't.
-I had hoped of doing more past scenes to give more depth to Raviath and Keshika, but never really got the time. Nevertheless, Raviath does care for Papyrus, but he's blinded by Sans' potential, which was something I wanted to show.
-If I were to put a time on how long Sans' and Papyrus' journey was, I would say close to 4-5 days.
-Papyrus was going to get a scene where he freaked out about his car, but I never found a good time to put it in. Rest in Peace, Papyrus' car.
-Happstablook was going to make an appearance before I decided on Mettaton instead. However I decided to take it out of the story since as it would contradict his diary entries.
-When scripting Fading Light, I already knew I wanted Papyrus to be the older brother. This actually mirrors my relationship with my younger brother, who is more down to earth than me, who is always jumping around and being silly. Whenever we're in public people assume he's the older one. I basically thought it would be a neat idea to have the younger brother taking care of the older one.
-Grillby was the only child to not have something striped on him to show that he was a kid.
-Flowey was a last minute add-in to Level 16. I sort of wish now I had Sans turn around every few chapters to show that Flowey was indeed stalking them.
-There was six different ways that Fading Light could have ended. The options were Sans waking up in Gaster's lab with his memories, where Gaster tells him what's happened, finds Papyrus waiting outside for him, who forgot everything and then go to Snowdin where their house is; the first option but with Sans not remembering anything; Sans waking up as a child but remembering everything and leaving with Pap; Sans waking up but not remembering anything and leaving with Pap; Sans waking up remembering everything as Gaster takes care of him and his brother, and Sans waking up with no memories as Gaster takes care of him and his brother.
-For those wondering who the cat-announcer was in Level 13, that was Burger Pant's Mom.
-In case you were wondering why Toriel was holding a knife in Level 2, she was bringing down the rest of her pie to give the boys another slice as a sign of peace.
-Fading Light is the longest story I've ever written, maxing out at 203 pages.
-Despite the entirety of Fading Light, I still stand by my word that I don't know how to write Skeleton Papyrus and Sans.
-Why is Papyrus and Sans Indian? I wanted to try out another ethnicity as I usually do white characters, and when I was writing the story it wasn't adopted yet by the fandom that Papyrus and Sans are African American.
-The most ironic thing about this whole story is that I, myself, could not envision Papyrus and Sans as humans for at least 3/4ths of it. I finally got the hang of it during the Sagiv battle.
-There were a lot more scenes I had planned of Sans getting to know the 'common enemy', but I had to scrap them for time and how long the story was becoming.
-Shyren's sister was originally going to be the one to ask Papyrus and Sans to move from the rock, but it was changed to Napstablook since I was still unsure with how I wanted the timeline to flow. Shyren hasn't fallen yet, for those of you wondering.
-The ages of Sans and Papyrus can be deduced by the hints throughout their past, but for those of you who didn't catch it Sans is 16, while Papyrus is 18.
-The reason Sans doesn't have his license was because he wanted to get a moped license.
-In case you were really curious, no, no one showed up for Papyrus' big party.
-There was a scene originally planned in the last battle where Sans completely snaps and tries to take his life. Defeated and unable to kill Asgore, Sans starts screaming about how he only needs to get Papyrus out, and if he needs a monster soul to escape well, he's basically a monster right? So his soul would do. But it's actually Chara that holds him back from killing himself long enough for Papyrus to wake up and come to save his brother. While I so desperately wanted this scene in the story I couldn't find room and had to leave it out.
-Another scene that was thought of was of Sans making his way over to where the souls are kept, but was taken out as the scene wasn't needed and would have made the chapter too long.
Wow, I've gotten so many votes since I posted this! Thanks to all of you who have been voting!
So basically it's official that you guys are going to see how Sans' and Papyrus' parents reacted to their children disappearing forever and good lord that's going to be one hell of a ride. But the second one-shot is literally neck-to-neck for either Flowey's secret journey or Papyrus waking up. If you've already voted for Flowey or Papyrus you can't again, but if you voted just for the parents i'll give you another vote since I stopped taking count for the parents after ten. (I'll know if you're voting twice.)
So who will win this one-shot race? The winners will be announced when the reviews start to go dead, so get to voting!
-Flowey's secret journey with Sans and Papyrus'.
-Papyrus waking up first with Gaster.