Fragments of Tales Decaying Petals Share

Or: The Flowerfell Universe, as Leviticus sees it.

CHRONOLOGY

I didn't really have a 'Flowerfell'verse' when Overgrowth was being written, because I was planning on it being a one-time thing. I wanted to just show it to my friend and then briefly forget it existed until I revisited my AO3 page to upload a new fic and see the title and go, 'hey, right, I wrote that'. But then the thing got popular and ideas started popping into my head because of the potential that Flowerfell had, so I expanded.

Sanei hadn't written Last Reset during Overgrowth yet, and during the brief period where the comic still wasn't up, I had to build my own history of what happened in the universe for it to turn out that way.

Note that some of this might not be canon, but this was the way I saw the Flowerfell universe.

Chara is a young human who has a loving family. They are odd-looking, yes, and sometimes (oftentimes, really), they are bullied for it, but they don't pay it much mind. They are as normal as a normal kid with red eyes can be. 

Their father contracts a lung disease, and seeing as the time period Chara lives in is very, very old, science hasn't advanced that much yet to be able to find a cure to the disease. Their father dies. In grief, Chara's mother starts to unleash her frustration on her child, and then gradually just straight up beats them.

Chara is at first terrified of this, but slowly comes to an acceptance of their mother's mental state. Eventually, they get tired of everything and, knowing the legend of Mt. Ebott, goes to the mountain and jumps into the Underground, intent on killing themselves.

Asriel Dreemurr, Prince of the Underground, finds them hurt (but not dead, due to flowers cushioning their fall) at that one patch of sunlight in the Underground, just past the Ruins.

The Royal Family takes Chara in as their own, and for a while, Chara is happy. Unfortunately, Chara has inherited their father's poor immune system and the lung disease that eventually killed him, and Chara gets sick. Monster Food is known for healing souls in the Underground, but the body is usually slow to respond. And as they have next to nothing when it comes to knowledge about human illnesses or medicine, the scientists can do little to help Chara. 

Dr. Gaster is one of the scientists who are commissioned by the King and Queen to find a cure.

Chara dies, and Asriel, in his grief, takes their soul, and - seeing all the hurt Chara has gone through during soul-melding - marches up to the Surface, intent on getting revenge. Chara stops them just as they reach Chara's hometown. However, some of the humans have already seen Asriel, and they attack him. Asriel reaches the Underground, but his injuries are too severe and he dies.

The entire kingdom mourns, and they are now convinced that there is really no hope for a peaceful coexistence with the humans. The panic starts slowly, with the grief of the kingdom's heirs widespread, but then people start talking about how they are never getting out of the Underground at this rate, and even if they do, the humans would just kill them when they get to the Surface. The anxiety brews in everybody's minds and a few brave speakers declare that if push comes to shove, they wouldn't be afraid to fight back.

That causes a bit of an uproar, of course, as monsters are inherently kind, but the thought is now planted in people's minds.

Eventually, the first human soul falls in, and everyone holds their breath. The first soul is neutral, but the ones who are panicky take it to mean that the human is violent. There's division, but one faction says that it is necessary to eliminate the human if they want the monster population safe. Also, they bring up hte argument about being able to use their soul to open the barrier. Given that the First Soul has killed a few monsters, majority agree that the human must be eliminated and the soul collected to open the barrier. They do it. 

The soul is presented to King Asgore. Queen Toriel is horrified and disgusted, and when her husband attempts to justify the situation, she leaves. She takes up residence in the Ruins.

Over time, more humans fall in. Toriel shelters them each time, intent on keeping them safe, but they insist on wanting to progress so that they can go out. Toriel is lenient at first, warning the humans and making sure they knew what they were going to have to go through. However, as time passes and more children die, she becomes more wound up, as she keeps losing child after child. It reaches the point where she considers killing them by her own hand so they wouldn't have to suffer at the hands of others.

For the rest of the Underground, the 'mercy' mindset is being curbed. More and more monsters preach that if they were to get out and survive, they needed to be able to fight and defend themselves, and violence was a necessity. Any human that fell into the Underground must automatically become Public Enemy No.1, and must be captured and its soul harvested at all cost, because it was necessary for the breaking of the barrier.

As time passes, that becomes tradition and law. Parents teach children this instead of mercy and compassion, and violence becomes culture.

During this timeframe, Dr. Gaster does his CORE experiment. He falls into the CORE and shatters across time and space. The only person who remembers him is Sans due to Sans' own mechanisms (the 'Never Forget' lunchbox thing, a bunch of other things).

Alphys is promoted to Royal Scientist. Around this time, Papyrus, who is in the Royal Guard, is slowly working his way up the ranks and is more short-tempered than usual. Burdened by his brother's attitude and his father's death, Sans resigns from being a scientist, but leaves his work in the laboratory.

Some time later, Alphys creates Flowey.

Flowey escapes from Alphys after a few months and takes up residence in the Ruins, where Chara was buried. Due to the Determination in him, Flowey is able to manipulate time. He befriends the humans that fall into the Underground.

At first, every time the humans die, he rewinds time. Unfortunately, due to the humans not being Determined, they don't remember anything and usually end up making the same mistakes. Flowey tries to rewind as much as he can, but soon gets tired and just lets it be. The humans die, the souls are collected, and Flowey goes back to the Ruins.

Sans, now retired from the laboratory, is depressed and has nothing to do. He decides to get his mind off things and tries to support Papyrus' endeavors by showing interest in the Guard. He joins humanhunts when he can and has killed the humans more times than he can count, since he remember every reset Flowey does.

The resets frustrate him, but he can't pinpoint the source of the resets. Especially not without lab equipment, but he's not going back to there.

Eventually, even the resets take their toll and he figures that no matter what he does, time is just going to wind back and all of his progress will be lost, so he doesn't try. Papyrus chalks this up to laziness.

Alphys, in the laboratory, breaks down under the pressure of filling in Gaster's shoes and becomes unhinged. Undyne, a soldier in the guard, loses her confidence when she sees that one of her shieldbrothers is better than she is and constantly beats her at everything and is unforgiving about it. This, however, fuels her desire to be better and to gain rank, but this desire is constantly hampered by her negativity and depression.

Soon, the Underground has collected six human souls, and it goes for a while without any souls. The citizens are all jittery because they were so close. 

When Frisk falls - jumping into the Underground for similar reasons to Chara's - , it's what they've been waiting for. Toriel takes care of Frisk for a while, but they want to progress. The events of Overgrowth unfurl.

OVERGROWTH

I have a separate post exploring the history and inspiration for Overgrowth, but basically, majority of the interactions and scenes in the fic are inspired and taken from personal experience. It was originally titled Baby's Breath after an artwork of Nesybo, and was a gift for Sanei.

THE EMPTY CITY

Post-Overgrowth, Sans' mental landscape isn't doing too well, and he is constantly being tormented by his guilt. His dreams are being infiltrated by his grief - his denial in Frisk's death manifests itself with how Frisk constantly shows up, his desire to bargain is subtly hinted with how Empty-City-Frisk comments that he doesn't like the Surface (this is also hinted in 'found by flowey' when Sans writes 'The Surface wasn't worth you'), his anger is expressed when he yells at EC-Frisk, and his depression takes on the form of the City itself. 

Sans never reaches acceptance.

The Empty City is a manifestation of a mind that is submerged in depression. The landscape is a towering city that might have been something once, but the waters have overtaken it, and it is cold, and you can't see what is under the water, as it is dark and murky. Which is - well, which is pretty much what depression feels like. Everything feels muted, submerged, cold, and there's the constant feeling of drowning. The City is supposed to show Sans' mental state.

CHARA'S THEORY OF DETERMINATION

Title taken from Ayano's Theory of Happiness. Chara has fallen sick and blames themselves for the sadness that has permeated their family. Due to their guilt and martyrdom complex, they take it upon themselves to do penance by offering their soul to be used to open the barrier. Asriel takes up this offer, in his anger and grief, but Chara ends up having to stop him from wreaking havoc in their hometown.

Asriel ends up dying instead, and Chara blames themselves for this 'failure'. When they are awakened by Frisk's fall, they are more determined to do better this time and constantly urges Frisk on. They are also half of the reason why Frisk doesn't fall apart so easily despite the fact that there are literal flowers growing out of them.

THE END OF ALL THINGS

Title taken from the Panic! At the Disco song 'The End of All Things'. The concept was inspired by EchoTale's own Frisk being able to see/dream that Frisks from other universes are able to use phones and so they are slightly envious.

Alpha'verse Frisk (Frisk Classic, Undertale!Frisk, whatever you want to call them), is nineteen years old and starts to dream about the events of Flowerfell on a daily basis. The dreams are in such vivid detail that they start to forget exactly who they are and what is happening. 

The dreams can be interpreted two ways - either Flowerfell is a memory of a run gone wrong (as Flowerfell starts in the Undertale universe and just slightly swerves from being Underfell and then flowers are thrown into the mix) or Frisk is actually dreaming of events happening in another universe.

Frisk is so moved by their Flowerfell counterpart's kindness (which they feel that they cannot achieve if they were put into their shoes) that they say the 'Always be Kind' line during a conference, in memory and in honor of them.

As I am a filthy SansFrisk shipper, the title choice is very deliberate. The End of All Things is, after all, a wedding song. It can be interpreted as a ship song (I certainly had that in mind when choosing for titles), or the lines: 

'Whether near or far/ I am always yours' 

can be interpreted that no matter what universe Sans and Frisk will always be the best of friends (or an ever-sailing ship, your choice of reading; especially when further lines in the song say:

 Lay us down/We're in love ), 

or that even universes across, Flowerfell Frisk and Sans' friendship/matespritship is strong enough to bleed through. Due to the fac that I wanted to keep things as ambiguous as possible, everything is written to be up to interpretation, but the title choice was for shippers to get the hint.

It's a wedding song.

FANTASTIC POSING GREED

Title taken from Panic! At the Disco's Northern Downpour, which holds a special place in my heart because Ryan Ross and Brendon Urie duet. And it's Northern Downpour.

Basically, I was thinking up other ways Overgrowth could have gone and thought, what if Sans used the power of the six souls to take Frisk's flower curse? This was fueled by the lines in the song:

'If all our life was but a dream/ Fantastic posing greed/ then we should feed our jewelry to the sea/ for diamonds do appear to be/ just like broken glass to me.'

I thought that it fit awfully well, with the way that Sans is now thinking that maybe the Surface isn't worth it if Frisk is going to die. (For diamonds do appear to be just like broken glass to me.)

The fic can mostly be taken as an alternate end and non-canon, but for those who want it to fit into canon, it can be taken as a failed run that resets after Sans dies. Chara hints this much, when they say that Sans' choice has backed them into a corner and that he should make sure Frisk is happy as long as this run lasts. (If all our life was but a dream.)

The line 'Fantastic posing greed' is a reference to how selfish Sans is being by choosing to damn the entire Underground to imprisonment and neglecting Frisk's wishes just so he can keep them. Chara also tells Sans that sometimes he needs to let go of his selfishness. Sans, however, thinks that it is worth it because Frisk doesn't deserve to die for the freedom of others who barely care about them, so he tosses aside that freedom for Frisk's life. (Then we should feed our jewelry to the sea.)

The lines 'Hey moon, please forget to fall down/ Hey moon, don't you go down' also hint at Sans not wanting the run to end, and that he just wants to be here forever, with Frisk alive, even if he is suffering.

All in all, this was just a very subtle song fic.

ALSO, it's NORTHERN DOWNPOUR, the song that one person wrote for one of his bestest friends, and in the end, they just separated because we can't have nice things, and there is simply nothing worse than knowing how it ends.

So yeah, no matter how much Sans wants for both of them to stay together, the moon is going to go down, and he and Frisk are going to be separated.

ANATOMY

My squad and I are DHMIS fans, and we specialize in writing Padlock and gore and researching unconventional methods of murder, so majority of my writing practice has been spent on months of taking an innocent prompt and turning it into something puke-worthy. (Trust me, we've done prompts like birthday, twelve and drug. I wrote cannibalism for birthday, sorta-cannibalism for drug and then torture for twelve. And it fit. My friends are even better than I am.)

So writing for Undertale - all soft and squishy and all that - was a very, very different experience. Needless to say, everyone goes back to their roots every now and then.

Mostly, Anatomy started with the questions: are the flowers growing on Frisk or out of Frisk? Why does it hurt when you pull them? Why is Frisk so drained?

And then my brain thought up the image of a beating heart that had flowers growing out of it. And I thought I just really wanted to see that on a fic. So I wrote it. 

Anatomy is as basic to my writing style as it can get. Obviously, there's nothing heart-wrenching or thought-provoking. There's just a lot of blood and gore, which I thrive in. Mostly because there's no empathy involved, and I don't have to think, I just have to write. Writing emotional fics is hard for me because I always have to draw it from my own experiences, or try to gauge how I would react, and sometimes it gets out of hand.

Fun fact: Someone sent me an ask about Anatomy, and they just wrote that I needed to go to church because of how messed up the fic was. I thought up the beating heart with the flowers while in church. 

HEAVEN HELP US

Title taken from My Chemical Romance's Heaven Help Us. The fic was written in the midst of the whole plagiarism mess, a few days from when I decided to take down Overgrowth. The entire debacle was already weighing on my mental state, and due to the fact that I wanted to write the fic in an airy, mysterious, sort of vague yet clear and sad sort of tone, coupled with the pressure of real life and the undue stress of seeing Overgrowth, which meant a lot to me, being reposted despite what I have repeatedly stated, the fic instead came out as disjointed and largely incomplete.

Originally, the fic was supposed to be told from the perspectives of the monsters as they slowly lost all hope - from Sans' losing his father and then being estranged from his brother to his spiralling into depression, from Alphys' initial hopes of being enough as a scientist to her breakdown, from Papyrus' anger-fuelled determination to become a someone, from Undyne's warring states of anxiety and thirst for recognition, from Toriel's grief to madness, from Asgore's guilt to hardened resignation. And then it was supposed to show how Chara came to fall into the Underground (which is then mirrored by Frisk at the end), and Asriel's hope to reach the Surface.

Chara is always easy to write for, since I just picture Alpha'verse Chara as this refined royalty with an immovable sense of calm, a ton of sass, an unhealthy dose of self-loathing and angst, coupled with well-hidden confusion and thirst for revenge. For Flowerfell Chara, I just have to bury the thirst for revenge underneath a sea of martyrdom complex. The thirst is still there, but it's drowning in something that can't be drank.

So, I wrote Chara's parts first, and then wrote Asriel's alongside it to mirror how badly Chara was doing in one aspect of life but how well Asriel was doing in it. Due to the outside stress, the writing declined and started to be vaguer and vaguer. And then I just decided to stop, right on the day I decided to take Overgrowth down.

I decided it was okay enough, and thought that if everyone just calmed down, I'd post it up, even if Overgrowth wouldn't be reposted. Unfortunately, it did not calm down, and Heaven Help Us never saw the light of Tumblr and AO3.

Obviously, Heaven Help Us is supposed to highlight and showcase bloody despair and messy wanting for salvation. It is supposed to show the extreme disarray of the Underground after Chara and Asriel died, and it is also supposed to reflect on Chara's mental state. 

I only succeeded on the Chara bit. (I'm at this old hotel/ but can't tell if I've been breathing or sleeping or screaming or waiting/ for the man to call/ and maybe/ all of the above/ cause mostly I've been/ sprawled on these cathedral steps/ while spitting out the blood and screaming/ "SOMEONE SAVE US")

Also Chara's martyrdom (which I love to play with, because I really love how Flowerfell Chara thinks their self-loathing can be cured if they can prove their worth by dying for something) is in the lines: 'And would you pray for me?/ Or make a saint for me?/ And would you lay for me?/ Or make a saint of.../ 'Cause I'll give you all the nails you need/ Cover me in gasoline/ Wipe away the tears and blood again'

and: 'You don't know a thing about my sins/ How the misery begins/ You don't know/ So I'm burning/ I'm burning.'

Basically another songfic, but I love writing Chara with anything MCR. 

The Chronology of the fics would go:

Heaven Help Us

Chara's Theory of Determination (the end crosses Overgrowth's timeline)

Overgrowth (Fantastic Posing Greed and Anatomy both insert as one of the runs)

The Empty City

The End of All Things is transcendent - it can happen during or after Overgrowth

In-Universe Tie-ins

• When Frisk tells Sans only he could save the Empty City, they meant that only Sans could do something about his depression. If he made an effort, he could unflood the city.
• Sans has, in fact, never actually seen Frisk without flowers. When they first met, they were already infested, so in The Empty City, when he dreams that Frisk is flower-free, all he can see are blurs.
• In Flowerfell'verse, Frisk's eyes are red.
• Obviously, both Chara and Frisk are suicidal.
• Chara and Frisk were written to be mirrors of each other, right from the start (thus the narration from Heaven Help Us) until the end (Overgrowth), except where Chara is a constant 'failure', Frisk is able to have a 'success' at the price of death.
• End of All Things Frisk also has red eyes.
• Flowey has a habit of staying in Sans' room, at their house in the Surface. He doesn't like going out much, unless it's with Sans. He is poking around the room, tracing the cracks of the walls with his vines, when he finds the things Sans has scratched behind the bed. 
• Sans scratched it with his bare fingerbones.
• It hurt like hell. Imagine your entire nail chipping off when you run it over something.

Out-Universe Tie-ins

• The scenery for The Empty City was based on numerous recurring dreams and space outs I've had. I've had numerous dreams about floating on driftwood while wandering an eerily quiet and waterlogged empty city. It says something for my mental state, I think.
• One time, there was a visitor to my empty city, and they told me I could fix things. I was confused for a while before we went on this epic journey (along with a couple of friends we picked up on the way) to find the dam at the end of the city. I was supposed to break the dam so that the water could escape the city wouldn't be flooded anymore. Needless to say, I spent the next few months in a better mood after that dream.
• Chara's Theory of Determination was written after listening to a lot of UTAUtale.
• Chara's Theory of Determination: Chara has red eyes. In Ayano's Theory of Happiness, Ayano's scarf is red (which is a very special color in Undertale, and also in the KagePro fandom, the Kagerou Days Wannyanpu video especially) and eyes is a constant thing in the song.
• The End of All Things and Fantastic Posing Greed are supposed to be hints of shippiness. As stated before, The End of All Things is a song Brendon Urie wrote for his wedding, and Northern Downpour is a song Ryan Ross supposedly wrote for Brendon Urie based off of when he flew, without sleep, just to get to Seattle for - dinner, I think? - with Brendon. It was Ryan's birthday, and the meal was supposed to be a celebration between them.
• Anatomy was written with Ice Hell (my squad) in mind. I really missed writing violence and gore.
• I went soft writing Flowerfell, damn it, I was unnerved with the beginning of Glassbreak when I've written wrose things than that.
• Heaven Help Us was mostly written with the image of Chara singing in mind. Singing wildly. As in, going up to the camera and clawing their own face and spitting blood when screaming "SOMEONE SAVE US".
• The series was written while keeping in mind that what I write has to be inconsequential, so that Sanei wouldn't have to change a lot of canon in Last Reset, as people are taking the series as canon to the Flowerfell'verse, even if I don't own the universe but am simply the writer of it.