#hyposwap green

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Hyposwap Green: Swapping the Kids

Welcome to Hyposwap Green! A slowly ongoing project of both the mildly artistic and majorly imaginative varieties. It’s an original (somewhat) take on Underswap, inspired both by p0pc0rnprince’s “canonswap” that started it all, various fandom interpretations, and my own thoughts on the matter.

I think it is only apt to start with Undertale’s big trio: the Kids!

In Canonswap, Asriel is swapped with Monster Kid while Chara is swapped with Frisk. While I think the Chara-Frisk swap makes sense, I don’t particularly care for Monster Kid, and think it would be much more interesting for the Kids to be swapped with each other instead. So!

CHARA

The most recently fallen human in the Underground, Chara takes Frisk's place as the playable protagonist.

They have an unfortunate home life which led them to run away from their family. Armed with whatever supplies they could save money for and scrounge up from the house and various dumpsters, as well as a single woodcarving knife, Chara left for Mt. Ebott with the hope that they'd be lost forever: not dead, but undiscoverable, leading an idyllic and isolated life in the forest for the rest of their days. That did not happen. Chara tripped and fell into a hole instead, landing in the Underground as the first human since Frisk's death.

Yeah! The first! In Hyposwap Green, Chara is the second fallen human and the first human SOUL. I think it fits with the general "swap" fuckery that goes on in Underswap AUs, plus it puts a different spin on the situation that Chara will find themself in.

Chara's somewhat brutal upbringing made them especially prone to violence as a means of self-protection. They want to learn what being happy feels like and live in peace, and if the monsters want to kill them that badly, well, they're not going to make it easy for them! As Chara is the second human, the death of Frisk and Asriel is still fresh in the monsters' eyes and SOULs, so they tend to be more vicious towards Chara than they are to Frisk in Undertale. As a character, Chara would retaliate in kind, attacking with the INTENT to win (kill) and get out, finally able to live a happy life (they hope). Chara is DETERMINED as hell to get their happy ending. While naturally leaning towards a somewhat violent Neutral and possibly leaning to Genocide, Chara can be persuaded towards Pacifism by....

ASRIEL

Asriel is the angel on Chara's shoulder--a fitting swap for Chara themself! HSG Frisk and Asriel died much in the same way that UT Chara and Asriel did, but instead of becoming a flower, Asriel became the ghost haunting the narrative. Except instead of being a Demon of the Genocide timeline, Asriel is the Angel of the True Pacifist Route, giving Chara various pointers in dialogue boxes and whispering in their ear to not fight, please.

Asriel realizes that because Chara is the second human and there is not an abundance of people falling into the Underground, Chara will most likely have to kill Asgore or Toriel to be able to cross the barrier and leave. He hopes in part that by teaching Chara that monsters are good, just hurt and wounded and struggling to hold onto hope, they will find a home Underground, with their friends (and newfound family).

FRISK

Frisk takes UT Asriel's role as Flowey the Flower, but Chara's role as the first fallen human and Asgore and Toriel's adoptive child. In HSG, Frisk was very fascinated by the Underground when they had fallen in, especially the more magical aspects. Their favorite region by far was Waterfall, where they and Asriel would often go to sing to the echo flowers to the tune of the rushing water, weaving eerie yet soothing lullabies that filled Waterfall's caverns with gentle noise. Asgore ended up making a little echo flower garden in the New Home Castle where the royal family lived, which Frisk was very attentive to. They and Asriel would put on performances and "talent shows" for their parents, using the echo flowers as a choir.

I imagine that instead of the "Chara's Creepy Smile" tape in the True Lab, the player would find a cassette of a creepy lullaby Frisk would have the echo flowers sing for Asriel--perhaps about their plans on how to free the monsters and destroy the barrier.

The flower on Frisk's head and what I wrote so far makes the next part of their design very obvious; instead of being a golden Flowey the Flower, Frisk the Flower is instead an echo flower! Inspired by the fandom sometimes interpreting Frisk as mute or autistic nonverbal/semi-verbal (or both!), Frisk the Flowey would only be able of communicating through echolalia, a speech quirk that can be found in some autistics! They can only repeat what had once been spoken around them, withn the same inflection, tone of voice, and same voice wholesale! In the game, this would look like switching fonts (when using the skelebros' speech) as well as discordant and constantly-changing "voice dings".

DESIGN NOTES

I don't have much to say besides the fact that the colors are of the human kids are inspired/based on the inverted colors of their clothing. I prefer darker, more desaturated tones, so Chara's inverted colors and Asriel's natural colors got strongly muted to fit with the vibe I was going for. Asriel's inverted coloring is included mostly just to fill that space...

Frisk went through more changes. I based their skintone off of the inverted blue of their romper (that's what they're wearing in my drawing, anyhow!) but a little desaturated, but the rest of their clothing is colored mostly just to match Asriel. I want for most if not all of the monsters to have some green element in their clothing (it's Hyposwap Green after all), but I also found it cute how UT Chara and Asriel wore matching shirts. Chara likely borrowed Asriel's clothing. I wanted to make Frisk match Asriel, since they were now the adoptive sibling stealing their brother's clothes. I made their clothes a bit dark though, so to help the siblings match, Asriel's shorts are the same dark green as most of Frisk's romper.

#undertale #underswap #undertale au #frisk #asriel #chara #ut au #underswap au #hyposwap green #ut hsg #hsg #no future drawings will be lineless pixels bc i swear to GOD this took four times as long as it should have #i mean i am slow already but GOD #i really do have a lot to draw bc i have so many thoughts about some new “mechanics” for the game #like fire sprite gathering #and asriel being a hands-on teacher of pacifism

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Hyposwap Green: Early Mechanics

Hyposwap Green is purely an imaginative project and won't be a game, but if it was...

Since Muffet and Grillby are swapped, instead of buying snacks from spiders, Chara will instead be carrying fire sprites in some old lantern. They don't have nightvision and, unlike most monsters, they didn't spend enough time in the dark to get used to it. They've brought a flashlight with them when they've ran away from home, but it's unfortunately the shittiest flashlight known to man even with fresh batteries. Chara would either find a lantern and start carrying it around or be given one by Asgore. The lantern would be lit by fire sprites, Grillby's fellow fire monsters who have gotten stuck in the RUINs. They don't care much about leaving, really, but Grillby would love to bring the rest of his family to Hotland so they could thrive there. Chara could gather several sprites, each giving them a lot more vision in the RUINs. Once Chara leaves, however, the crystals lining the Underground walls would help with the lighting a lot. Should Chara ever encounter Grillby, they'd only need to open the lantern and release the fire sprites to end it.

Chara, scared as they are of the new place they fell into, would still be rather curious. Especially of talking, seemingly glowing flowers.

#hyposwap green #underswap #underswap au #undertale #undertale au #ut au #swap au #flowey!frisk's speecjh bubble is wobbly and such to imply the voice is distorted #and like it was previously mentioned theyd be communicating through echoes entirely! so sentences and even individual words would be jumble #chara also scunches up like a gremlin often #ignore my lack of consistency too pls

[hyposwapgreen]

Hyposwap Green: The Dreemurr Royalty

Since Chara would meet Asgore first (well, after Frisk!Flowey...), it only made sense to do Asgore and Toriel next. In this version of Underswap, Toriel and Asgore are still married and together, but their love for each other is extremely strained.

After Asriel and Frisk's deaths, Asgore, in his grief, declared war on all of humanity, and promised to the monster population that the next human that falls shall be killed and their SOUL harvested, such that he may ascend and leave the Underground and free the rest of monsterkind as quickly as possible. Toriel, in this world, is skeptical of the whole 'war' thing, but she is a bit more ruthless, prioritizing the monsters over the innocent humans. She stays with Asgore after his declaration of war. She sees exactly how, as Asgore's grief-fuelled rage fades, he begins to doubt his plan and hate himself for making such a promise. He knows he cannot go through with it. He is too weak-willed. But Toriel isn't.

Somewhat silently, Toriel takes over the main leadership position, acting as the Queen Regnant. She knows that she can do what Asgore cannot--she can kill a human, and she can merge their SOULs together. She sends Asgore to the RUINs, as they know there is an entry point to the Underground there, while Toriel stays in the great castle where the major gates of the Barrier are situated. She sees herself as the last resort, and the only one between the two of them that can and will do what is necessary to free their subjects from their imprisonment. While Asgore is good at pretending everything is fine (whilst dying of guilt, though happy to live in as much ignorance as the RUINs allow him), Toriel grows bitter under the weight to this responsibility. She resents Asgore for being too cowardly to keep his promise and back up his words with his actions, but then again, his meekness and gentle SOUL was exactly what brought her to love him once.

There is. A lot of issues between the two of them and resentment for the situation they're in. Mostly from Toriel's side, and for good reasons. Asgore is incredibly in love with his wife, like in Undertale proper, but he feels so guilty for everything that he's incredibly awkward around her. Still, I like the idea that their connection could be salvaged...

Mostly because it can end up being such a bittersweet thing.

Assuming that Chara goes down the True Pacifist Route, there are two choices that lay before them at the very end: does Chara stay in the Underground, or do they take the King's or the Queen's SOUL and leave? After all, since Chara is the Second Fallen Human and the First Human SOUL, there simply is not enough SOUL power to break the barrier from the inside.

If this was a game, Chara would have the option--given to them by the Dreemurrs themselves--to take one of the Boss Monster's SOULs to cross the barrier. After a True Pacifist Route, everyone had gathered in the Castle, hoping to stop any fight from starting. Asgore and Toriel have a difficult reunion, and, ridden with guilt, he offers Chara to take his SOUL and leave the barrier. It would be Asgore's atonement for not having the heart to kill Chara himself, for inadvertently forcing Toriel to take up the mantle of a true leader and keeping their people hopeful, crushed by the duty imposed on her--the duty she had saved Asgore from by sending him into the RUINs.

Toriel wouldn't like that much. In part because it is, yet again, Asgore doing something really impulsive out of grief/guilt, and because if Asgore was so willing to just give Chara his SOUL, what was all of what they've been through for? No. It has always been Toriel's duty to cross the barrier, and she is willing to do so in death. This of course becomes an extremely emotional discussion between the Dreemurrs and everyone else gathered.

It is, after this discussion happens, that Chara is given a choice. Take either Toriel's or Asgore's SOUL and leave. I think that should Chara pick any of these options, they would be fuelled by the Dreemurr's love for monsterkind and their own newly formed friendships to actually go to someone in the human world to break the barrier. Thus by taking either Toriel's or Asgore's SOUL, Chara frees the monsters, which is all that the Dreemurrs had wanted in the end. It fulfills Toriel's duty and assuages Asgore's guilt. Which SOUL is taken doesn't matter much in the end--except maybe the scenes shown in the very Epilogue of the game.

However, HSG is not a game--just an imaginative work in progress. So, in the 'canon timeline' of HSG, Chara instead chooses to stay Underground. They had wanted to run away from their horrible home life to find somewhere good to stay. They thought they could only find such a place alone, isolated from the terrible humanity. Yet, they found home and family and friends in the Underground, and even if they will never see the sun or the sky again, they are happy to stay with the monsters.

This of course leads to.... a lot of work for Asgore and Toriel. They have a lot of feelings to go through, a lot of bitterness and resentment and guilt they need to air out and discuss, they would definitely try to make things work--they have a new child, after all!

ASGORE

Asgore is the Caretaker of the RUINs, a paternal figure to all of the monsters within. I don't think the RUINs would be the RUINs anymore, but it would be generally less populated due to the general lack of resources within. There are fines and there is water, but there aren't many monsters who thrive there well. As such, RUINs are something of a metaphorical 'ghost town', mostly inhabited by the hardier, smaller monsters that don't need much to survive. Plus, Asgore's presence brightens the place like nothing else. He frequently arranges tea parties that he bakes pastries for (never pies) and enjoys exerimenting with teas. He has decorated his space with water sausages and echo flowers, to which he whispers encouragement every morning so that all passing monsters have something wonderful to listen to. He's a lot more popular than Undertale Toriel seems to have been--nobody's scared of Mr. Dad Guy, that's for sure!

He will guide Chara through the RUINs, as any good Caretaker should, and offer doughnuts and tea. Mostly tea! When Chara tries to leave, Asgore... well, Asgore does initiate an Encounter, but that is less to keep Chara in the RUINs, and more to prepare Chara for the bigger monsters in the rest of the Underground. As with Papyrus, you cannot actually die to Asgore! If Chara gets too injured, Asgore ends the Encounter and takes Chara to their new room, feeds them, gives them tea, and a few pointers on what went wrong. Then, if Chara asks to leave--well, that's another play-fight (training) to see if Chara will survive. If Chara lasts enough rounds and consistently chooses Mercy, they'll be let through. Asgore simply hopes that Chara will buy themselves enough time to befriend whoever is fighting them.

PS. Asgore (and everyone really) can enter and Exit the RUINs anytime they want. He's still Santa!

TORIEL

Inspired by canonswap's notes, Toriel is a more ruthless, cold, and distant figure than Undertale's Asgroe ever was. She is somewhat isolated and secluded by her own will, slowly becoming more and more legendary in the eyes of the Underground due to being rarely seen. Still, those who do encounter her describe her as very motherly. I will be honest, there is not much to say about her here, seeing as most of her situation was described earlier.

Design Notes!

I wanted Toriel and Asgore to match clothing-wise in some ways, so they're wearing the same sleeveless robe. Asgore's undershirt is, of course the pink flower shirt from the epilogue/Deltarune, and has a very long collar for Aesthetic Purposes, which I will delve into when we get to the skeleton brothers and the setting proper. Toriel is wearing pretty much what she wears in Undertale, except shorter and with armor on top. I based the design strongly on canonswap's design, though with minor changes. Not sure how well it reads, but Toriel is wearing a haubrek under her breastplate. She probably doesn't wear this armor on the daily, and would instead put it on because unlike Asgore, she would be paying very close attention to Chara's presence in the Underground and get dressed up for their fight. Toriel *is* more ruthless, but she still has that maternal streak, and... even though she knows she will kill Chara (or thinks so, at least) she doesn't particularly want to, so she stays her hand until Chara themselves come to her.

Any and All HSG designs may yet change (especially Toriel's scepter) but that will not happen for a long while yet!

#underswap #underswap au #undertale au #undertale #hyposwap green #ut au #asgore #asgore dreemurr #toriel