of course chara might just've explained human religion to the monsters (to the best of their knowledge which might not be very much-for all we knew they grew up in an isolated cult or something)
had a thought about that post jacktrash reblogged with tony stark have the superpower to metabolize caffeine super well+always tell where coffee was specifically jesse's addition: "there's lots of mutants who need/sense/crave uranium or spinal fluid or whatever but what about a super whose required substance was common and legal" so consider: chara with superpowers (coming back from the dead?) that are chocolate-powered
and then what if frisk's time-travel-thing wasn't just determination-powered it's also hug-powered or something else really weird ETA: and harmless. not like. monster dust or blood or servitude or whatever. although enough 'needs a substance/action' superpowers are a thing that people with such a power are generally feared even if it's something like 'can sense apples at a long distance provided they eat enough apples'
okay that's just hilarious. sans's attacks etc being ketchup powered no wonder he drinks it that's how he teleports!
also, consider: chara eats ghost chocolate or possesses frisk while they eat chocolate or something and then pop! alive chara! very confused alive chara.
very confused alive chara who proceeds to raid the store for cheap chocolate. also frisk whose powers rely on physical affection is probably what i'm going to use if i write this or frisk whose powers rely on love
Spoiler: genocide end spoilers Chara coming from a religious background makes a lot of sense, given that whole "you feel your sins crawling on your back" thing came from the narration, not from Sans.
Chara coming from a weird cult village is my headcanon-and then Frisk might've come from the same weird cult village, but when the cult was falling apart.
There's a thing that's not-exactly-a-headcanon but just a thing I like to think to make Undertale feel spookier Spoiler I like to think Frisk has all their powers because they made a deal with an eldritch abomination (the player) because they wanted to save monsters and be a hero and be loved, and in exchange the player gets to control most of Frisk's actions to accomplish the thing. And of course it's a deal with an eldritch abomination so it's definitely not gonna go the way Frisk planned. The player can give Frisk a Pacifist route and leave them happy with their friends and new family. Or the player can restart it for a Pacifist route again and again and get some sort of amusement out of all these monsters adoring them so much when they took their happiness away so many times. Or the player could get bored. They could use Frisk to kill a few people. Or everyone. The player could make Frisk sell their soul to Chara if they like. And then override that if it bothers them enough down the line. I also like to think Chara's a separate entity from the player. Like Chara is a demon/ghost/whatever Chara actually is cause I'm not sure, and Chara also originates from the Undertale setting, but the player is the player and comes from somewhere entirely outside that. I'm actually pretty sure Chara doesn't even recognize the player is there? Out of the group of people with some ability in timeline manipulation (Flowey, Sans, Chara) Chara is the only one who doesn't address the player as a separate person from Frisk, if I remember correctly. Which is interesting to think about, because if Chara is the one providing all the information on how to spare monsters in the narration, that would probably give the player a good reason to hide their presence, if Chara was only helping because they thought they were helping Frisk. Teal deer, I like feeling like an unknowable monster :P
i am probably going to write a chara<3frisk<3<asriel<3chara fic to quote my friend: "that is a complicated ship" EDIT: bolded the <3< to make it easier to see and harder to mistake for a <3 because I thought i'd forgetting the second <
okay so chara spent a lot of time dead before the game starts right? what if chara developed a stereotypy from that (stereotypies usually affect animals but who knows what effect being a spirit has on psychology) like, repeating themself or whatever at first it's a way they express/cope with stress, but then frisk shows up and they just. keep doing for really minor stresses so like. can't think of anything to say? repeat the last thing they said what if that was why the narration just repeats itself after a few checks of the same object or whatever chara has no idea what to say so they just. panic and start repeating themself. also consider: once the underlying problem is fixed, stereotypies usually remain, but often get generalized to other situations-so from 'stress' to 'anticipation' for example. so like. movie night or something. chara asks someone a question and then just. keeps repeating it? everyone is like "chara what" movie starts chara stops mid-word to watch the movie ETA: there might be a different term for this happening in humans in which case, whoops
there's a pallalia papyrus theory and now i'm imagining pallalia papyrus and stereotypy chara just repeating stuff at each other constantly and driving everyone else crazy
stereotypy is the clinically appropriate word for the phenomenon in humans. it's *technically* the same thing as stimming? also wingyl i have a question