swirlingflight

Theoretical Battle Scenarios and other secrets

#1 - Theoretical Battle Scenarios
focus: Papyrus reactions to the ongoing time resets, controlling what he can in the face of what he can't.
song notion: Just Another Day, reflects that time loop vibe
bonus song fun: "life underground" and "i feel it in my bones"

#2 - One of those days
focus: Papyrus has a bad day where memories surface, and he hides in the darkness of his closet to feel it, disassociate from it, and recenter himself.
song notion: A New Mission, hints of the past trauma, a downswing, and focusing on dreams/goals instead.
bonus song fun: "getting on with a new mission," which is a surprise tool for later (next fic's outro)

#3 - The Unforeseen Day
focus: Flowey and Papyrus both think of this as just another day in the resets, until the arrival of a human changes all their plans in a spiral of things falling apart, with depressed Undyne neutral ending.
Song notion: 2 songs! Just Another Day - reflect that Papyrus is still denying the time loop not being a dream at first, but by the end he's asking others to turn time back: Push Back the Hands of Time
bonus song fun: intros from Just Another Day, each a different clip to sorta resemble the chapters. outros from Push Back, first with "rosey fingers" to go w/ Flowey describing Frisk as less rosey than Chara, then three very brief ones re: how better sleep wouldn't prevent the changing priorities in this fic, and finally extending the brief one to acknowledging the time travel w/ his request

#4 - A New Cycle is Still Just a Cycle
focus: Papyrus adjusts to reset reality with renewed determination not to give up, despite new distance with Flowey, and Sans feels apathy at the hints of coming changes that'll still reset on them all
song: Push Back the Hands of Time - intro, Verse 1 to chorus, nod to how badly Papyrus had wanted time to go back to Before the deaths. outro, same outro as the last one of Unforeseen Day, because "endless day" is really applicable now

#5 - Memories Remembered Memories Forgotten
focus: Frisk asks Papyrus about lying re: labs, 4 chapters of flashback to the immediate post-Core [redaction] time and the skelebros struggling with different amnesia
song notion: Easier to lie?
reasoning: "only learning how to live" and yet trying to be what another needs
song notion 2: Neptune?
"i wanna tell you but I don't know how [...] open book with a torn-out page"

#6 - Interlude
focus: Chara asks Frisk why they keep resetting to go through the underground, why not leave? they decide to befriend Undyne next, but first - what's this grey door? (it's a surprise foreshadowing that will help us later)
song notion: Am I Awake, maybe? Chara annoyed by the repeats
song notion 2: Change, maybe? "whispering voices from the dead" / or / "And if i could change the future, I would change the past instead" / or / "seems I'm falling down a lot"

#7 - Driving Test
focus: post-canon, Ambassador Papyrus feeds a dog, leaves his brother food, and "passes" his first driving test (not the eyesight part)
song notion: Change, to emphasize his mixed feelings about the changes of life on the surface
bonus song fun: "see straight" bit for the eye test failure
- "better dumb and happy [...] show you mine, hey, what do you say?"

#8 - I would gladly be an ambassador for you too
focus: Flowey tries to resign himself to being Flowey alone forever, Papyrus reaches out to him
song notion: Try to Believe
- chorus - "hard to find a feeling buried long ago," "easier to hide,"
bonus song fun: I want to use the quieter outro part of this song again later w/ Sans when he starts clinging to the toy that proves Papyrus still exists, do something paralleling Flowey's and Sans's respective withdrawing out of guilt/shame

#9 - Glasses
focus: Papyrus struggles with stress at changes even when they're improvements, goes to Alphys to get his vision tested, and borrows glasses (that make him look like Gaster (because they're Gaster's)), Sans is unsettled by it, and then Papyrus realizes and is distressed
song idea: Easier to Lie, again?
- the "learn how to live" stuff applicable again w/ the surface changes
- "look you in the eye" lol, and something about lying and hiding the glasses from Sans

#10 - The Past is Always Tense
focus: long fic, return to the mysteries of Gaster! I'm thinking multiple chunks of intro/outro, in groups of chapters that have some common vibe threads to me.

ch1 - ch4, clips from My Life, Oingo Boingo

ch1
- intro: Verse 2 in full, "There's a time and a place for understanding [..] don't turn your back on me"
- outro: My Life, pre-chorus "but I never look back [...] drift away drift away"
ch2 - ch4,
- intro, Verse 1 partial: "I would really like to know you better [...] But I can't get a grip on all the little things"
- outro, shortened:

ch1 - 4: The idea of searching for him, Papyrus not-confessing to Flowey that he worries maybe he killed their dad, Frisk and Sans (and Flowey) decide to go looking.

- My Life - the pre-chorus "never look back / don't turn your back on me" seems simultaneously a plea not to be left behind and also a threat, fitting for Papyrus unwillingly thinking of Gaster and remembering his uncertainty about who did what to who, at the CORE. So, maybe Verse 2 as the intro (foreshadowing everyone losing Papyrus), and pre-chorus and the start of the chorus for outro?
ch5 - 7: after fun memory mismatch anecdote of Papyrus's short school experience, Sans and Papyrus fight about whether to save Gaster and whose memories are fucked. At work, Asgore compares Papyrus to Gaster, Undyne follows him storming out to and ask why that upset him, and shares her sad backstory to show what sharing things is like. Papyrus very reluctantly shares that he and Sans fought about their father and that he has bad feelings that might have no basis but might, Undyne pieces together shit was BAD and that Papyrus had been told he was like the guy who hurt him.

- Betrayed by Bones - impressions of childhood reminiscence, but actually grief and distance. the intro into verse 1, for that full nostalgia to scifi distance vibe. Verse 2 outro, nod to Undyne and Papyrus at the shore for their talk, and more foreshadowing that Papyrus will soon go missing ("you would not be there") and Gaster ("you would not care")
ch 8 - 10, Sans realizing how much he doesn't know about Papyrus gets Real Complicated after accidentally absorbing a Bad Memory (of his, Papyrus convincing him to work with Gaster in science, to keep pretending they can be a family now). Papyrus's driving misadventures with resets startling and frustrating him into a car crash, trying to call the lab to ask what's wrong gets [memoryhead noises], and he makes the mistake of a shortcut. Frisk keeps resetting to prevent Memoryheads from killing Sans, til they try the phone, when the heads offer Sans a memory (one of Papyrus's, the first skelebros-only Waterfall visit, feat: Papyrus panic attack). The memoryheads start glitching out, prob thanks to [shortcut redacted Papyrus], and Sans panic grabs one of them. It was Gaster memories, Sans rambles about them, Frisk recognizes stories of someone hurting a kid, Sans assumes from their reset-filled trip, but no - before. Reconvening with Undyne, who doesn't know who the hell Papyrus is, which Sans wants to take for a mean prank until Asgore more solemnly remembers Papyrus as Sans's kid brother who disappeared in the same accident as Wingdings Gaster. Sans gives up.

- Broken Bones - "Time bends broken bones [...] this is a story 'bout the three of us [...] I need a little more time with you"
#11 - Semi-conductive Echos
focus: Alphys, Undyne, pov chapters about the way they now perceive their lives around an absence they can't recall and glitches in their electronics that haunt them.
song notion: A Million Colours, "I could see how the world could exist without me"
bonus song fun: it's mean =)

12 - A Rather Persistent Illusion [WIP!]
focus: it's a long fic with multiple vibes through it, from the initial hopeless separation, into searching for hints that it's possible to save Papyrus | escape from the void (with or without Gaster), into more people poking at The Machine and doing morale support for those actually doing something with it. Multiple shifts in mood, multiple intro/outro combos, possibly not shifting at the same time

Stand-out options include:

- Can't See (Useless) - sans now remembering more of their context and helpless to save papyrus, everything is worthless.
- New Divide - the new separation, the ideas of Papyrus and Gaster both kinda wanting the other to get what he deserves, both bickering about memories and wanting to prove something
- Something to Believe In, verses for me to make fun of Gaster and a little bit Papyrus, but more than that, the chorus would need to precede the next song, the "Cut out the light and what are you left with - something to believe in" works well for the void AND for Frisk and Flowey trying to plan things
- Try to Believe - the reasons for hope, forgotten memories and yet a significant toy - he's still out there somewhere, and they have more friends who could help, now. the outro of the song is quiet and the seeds of hope.

Downer time, for real!
intro for ch1 - ch3: Can't See (Useless) - "we were both cast forth by the same pale hands [...] and I tried to find you, but you turned away"
outro for ch1 & ch2: "and you're fading away - and disappear [...] but it's useless..."

- ch1: sans gives up, frisk tries and fails to reset all of this, worry to toriel = sans brought to their home, dog offers the toy knight
- ch2: flowey takes grief out on sans who agrees with it all, frisk and chara have the machine idea. a door opens.
- ch3: frisk takes the bus w/o permission, they and flowey fail to move the machine, toriel is upset with worry and fear. papyrus is in the (wide open) void (he'd always been afraid of), and hears Gaster.

G&P chapter intros: verses from Something to Believe In.
Idea:
ch4 -"you talk too much [.. (no one's really listening) ..] reach for a hand to hold"
Gaster mostly talking At Papyrus, who's gone stiff and compliant out of terrible old habit
ch5 - "we stumble into our lives [...] something to believe in"
partly overlapping! but this way it's more that disoriented reaching thing, to suit the chapter covering void and toriel's house both
ch5 - "you have too much [.. (discovering) ..] what are we left with (what are we left with)"
Gaster focused on discovering and the things he can't get from that (the past that the humans destroyed), the WITHOUT a hand to hold to emphasize the ways he wasn't there for his experiment-kids

- ch4: Gaster and Papyrus have a stiff reintroduction that's mostly Gaster enthusing about the quantum ramifications. Forgotten.
- ch5: Resets, and the fate to be erased. Sans, comatose, and Toriel remembering her grief about Chara and Asriel to him.
- ch6: Gaster "so. you happily didn't attempt to save me. what do you have to say for yourself?" Papyrus attempts to defend himself. Gaster shuts it down, like Sans remembered losing fights with him.

- ch7: Papyrus goes off alone to lick his wounds, finally heal his injuries, and shake off the Ambassador mask to dress for himself.

Try to believe's outro chorus (toy reference)
- ch8: Avoiding Toriel talks, Frisk and Chara decide to rope Alphys into planning, and give Sans the toy. He realizes - that's post-core. Proof Papyrus existed. A seed of hope returned.
- ch9: Frisk and Flowey explain to Alphys, who thinks a quantum disappearance explains the reality glitches, and overwhelmed by it all she DOES want to help.

people start to gather ideas and try things!
- ch10: which is titled "scratching around for something to believe in" oh NO lmao. anyway:
Papyrus tries shortcutting to Sans's wavelength, keeps ending up by Gaster because they're all too similar. Gaster needles him, Papyrus tries to be cold (like Gaster) back at him, and it ends with Papyrus startled into drawing up bones defensively, Gaster realizing the level of distrust, and Papyrus leaving

outro: Try to believe's outro chorus (toy reference)
- ch11: FLASHBACK. after the holiday, papyrus and sans talking. wake up, the toy still exists. Toriel is relieved to see him moving, and asks: therapy? Sans jokes it off, realizing if he tries to help Frisk with whatever they're trying and it fails, he'll be done for good.
- ch12: catching up with Alphys and Flowey, retrieving notes, talking science like monitoring the anomaly. toriel is concerned by all the past-date food.

- ch13: Papyrus, examining all the windows and Xing them off, in search of one back to the world
- ch14: Gaster POV, put out that Papyrus isn't people pleasing at him, impressed at his power. Papyrus, in a new timeless cycle of trying a thing that might be futile but why not try when he seemingly has all the time in the world, tries NOT to engage with Gaster criticizing his efforts.

- ch15: Frisk and Flowey struggle to come to terms with helplessness and hope, Sans did power source (CORE connection) crimes, Alphys (un?)fortunately has the time to work on this, Undyne is warier of humans but happy to help with something

---

the recommended songs:

Am I Awake? (They Might Be Giants)
disorientation in time and wanting something to be over

A Million Colours (Tunng)
the way the world could exist without someone (Papyrus) (being mean to him), #11

A New Mission (John Whitehouse)
downswing because childhood trauma and then rebuilding oneself, #2

Betrayed by Bones (Hellogoodbye)
nostalgia -> bombastic like kids playing games or watching scifi adventures w/ lasers, but the lyrics are mix of apology for leaving yet recrimination that the one they left wouldn't care. skele-family vibes.

Broken Bones (Aqualung)
time, broken bones, "a story about the three of us," and "just want a little more time with you" - Sans, wanting to rescue family, and the truth of it. #10, later chapters.

Can't See - Useless (Oingo Boingo)
"we were both cast by the same pale hands" bit is skelebros created/raised by Gaster, and sounds very depressed / helpless. #12, sans feeling hopeless.

Change (Oingo Boingo)
why is this song so long and at least 5 different genres?

Easier to Lie (Aqualung)
learning how to live, making things easier by lying about them. #5, Papyrus struggles?

Just Another Day (Oingo Boingo)
life underground, bones, time loop of days blurring together, and smile on my face =). #1, and #3 too, for the Papyrus POV during resets

My Life (Oingo Boingo)
the "never look back / don't turn your back on me" is a weird energy, don't dwell on past but also speaker is threatening?

Neptune (Sleeping At Last)
vibes are sad and an uncertainty helplessness.
brokenness prodigy is a sentiment papyrus wouldn't express, but the open book with torn out page is a little bit skelebro amnesia problems. maybe #5?

New Divide (Linkin Park)
#12? black skies - the void, new divide - trapped there too with reality redacting papyrus. "fate had finally found me / your voice was all i heard" a bit of Papyrus coming face to face w/ Gaster after all that time. "nowhere to hide," too. Gaster all but taunting Papyrus to convince him to think differently, "give me reason".

Push Back the Hands (They Might Be Giants)
possibly #3, The Unforeseen Day. "It wouldn't save you from the mission creep" after the "a new mission" stuff for #2 would be funny, and the repeating 'push back the hands of time' to go with the fic in which Frisk figures out resets and eventually Papyrus asks them to reset

Try To Believe (Oingo Boingo)
for #12, A Rather Persistent Illusion, as people start thinking there's hope to try again? I particularly want the outro, with how there's reason for hope with remembering the toys put aside, for the toy soldier Frisk clings to, and then Sans clings to, as proof.

Something to Believe In (Aqualung)
Indecisive! The verses feel like they're about Papyrus and/or Gaster. The "we stumble" part feels like lonely tragedy, and could be any of the skelefamily, esp young skeletons seeking someone to care about.

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planning intro/outro for TBSaos podfic

planning intro/outro for TBSaos podfic

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