Frequently Asked Questions About DeeperDown

I will be adding more to this list as time goes on. They're all really good questions/comments and are helping me to form the details of the world and au of DeeperDown.


1. Can I dub your comic?

Absolutely! As long as you give me the credit and let me know where it is so I can watch and enjoy it too, then go right ahead! Also note that I will probably set a link up on my DeeperDown site for the video so others can watch it too.

2. Why Does Sans' Chest Glow When He's Upset?

It's sort of something I started unintentionally at first, but I like the idea of a monster's magic becoming more prominent when they are upset. This wouldn't be a danger to Sans' low HP and magic levels, since he's not expending any of it. It's more like a stirring of his magic in his soul, a sign that he is feeling deep emotion. This would be unique of skeleton monsters, since they don't have any flesh or organs to block the glow, like other monsters would.

3. Why Did Sans Call the Entrance to the Cave "the Barrier"? The Barrier was destroyed.

Yes, the actual Barrier is gone. The magic of it has been destroyed. BUT. After -what? hundreds of years?- of calling that region of the Underground "the Barrier", it made sense to me that Sans would still refer to it by that name. I mean, if Niagara Falls dried up, we wouldn't stop calling it by its name. It just...wouldn't be quite accurate any more.

4. Why is Sans Being So Emotional?

DeeperDown takes place at the very end of the resets. Who knows how long Sans has been stuck in the loop. I'm having a little ptsd trouble lately, and it's made me pretty weepy, so I can only imagine what it'd be like for him. While he manages to keep up his fake smile around his brother and the others (like he's been doing for heaven knows how long), when he's with Frisk he doesn't have to keep up the act, and the truth is that the resets have torn him down to the point where he's THIS terrified. THIS hurt. THIS traumatized that if Frisk even so much as blinks suspiciously, he thinks his world is gonna end.

5. Where's Flowey?

Flowey is still in the Underground. Don't worry, he'll show up, just maybe not in the way you're expecting...

6. What is Causing Sans' Decrease in HP?

The Barrier lent an small extra boost of magic to all monsters, and, over time the weaker ones came to rely on it. With the barrier gone, so is that extra bit of magic, leaving the weakest monsters even weaker than before. Sans is the most effected, so much so that being out of the barriers protection is too much for his soul to handle. That, and he doesn't have much hope left.

7. Sans Doesn't Have 1 HP in the Game!

Well, whether he does or not, in DeeperDown he does. *grins*

8. Why Does Sans Only Have 1 HP? Did Something Happen to him?

....I can't answer that one. It'd be a spoiler.

9. Frisk doesn't need to be in a specific locale to reset, does she?

In this au, Frisk does have to be in a certain place to reset, at least when she's on the surface. Frisk didn't have the power to reset before she fell into the Underground. Perhaps something about all that human magic in the Barrier affected her in some way as well, bringing out the 'gift' that, apparently, has been lost to all other humans, since neither Tenson nor any other human mentioned in the comic so far has had any magic of any sort. So I'll say, as official DeeperDown canon, that Frisk can reset anytime and anywhere in the Underground, but once she finishes a pacifist run, she can only reset in one place: the entrance to the Barrier (or where it used to be).

10. Has Frisk commited Genocide Routes before the start of DeeperDown?

Short answer is yes. The long answer is that Frisk fell down into the Underground, did a pacifist route and got all the monsters to the Surface. But then she realized how much she missed her adventures and found out she could still reset (remember, she would have had to go up to the old entrance to the Barrier first [question 9]). She did so, and by doing that she somehow awakened Chara. Chara eventually took over, running them all through Genocide after Genocide and reset after reset until...she just disappeared. As Sans stated to Frisk by the fire, neither he nor Frisk now why she suddenly stopped. Frisk ran a pacifist route, saving them all and bringing them to the Surface. And that is where DeeperDown starts.

11. Why does Undyne have a nose? She doesn't have one in the game.

Hmm, I guess I was just thinking of Undyne as being very reptilian (even though she's more commonly referred to, even by me, as fish like. Her eye reminded me of a snake, and in a flare of creativity (good or bad) I gave her two little holes like a snake's nose.

12. What is Frisk trying to say at the top of page 167?

Okay, so, originally I was trying to have her gesture "Shh" (which came out pretty well) and "Watch" by pointing to her eye (which didn't come out so good). It is very hard sometimes to have Frisk say what I want her to without using words. I could have used a picture maybe, of a watch or something in a word bubble, but I felt that would be a little to comedic for th scene. So I drew...and re-drew, and re-redrew that panel. I'm still not 100% happy with it, but I was ready to move on. It's pretty much open to your guys' interpretation.

13. Why does Sans and Papyrus have different color souls? Monsters have white souls, and not the same traits as humans!!!

Haha, yes, I am well aware of this! And don't worry, I am not going against that. Sans does NOT have the Patience trait, and Papyrus does NOT have the Bravery trait (though both of those traits would work well for them). Both of their souls are white, upside down hearts. BUT, it seemed to me that the color of one's soul does not determine the color of one's magic. Like how Sans' magic is cyan, but he still has a white soul. Pap would be the same way. His magic is warmer, more hopeful, so I chose orange. Of course, their magic can change color (green for healing magic, blue for Blue Attack), but they each have a kind that their soul is inclined to be in its 'neutral state'. For Pap, that is orange.

14. How does Sans know about Issac Newton?

I'm going with the theory that he found it at the dump. All kind of human junk has found its way down there.

15. WHAT IN THE WORLD IS UP WITH FLOWEY?!!!!

This is a big one. I got quite a few messages about the fact that Flowey should not be acting the way he is in DeeperDown, because in the pacifist run, after becoming Flowey again, he retained what he learned about compassion and love from Frisk. That is very true. And in DeeperDown that did, in fact, happen, as is canon. BUT! Something has happened. Something bad. Something that I can't say here because it would give away a HUGE portion of this comic. So, try not to worry. I am not painting Flowey as the evil demon flower that hasn't or never will be saved. That is not my intention. I love Flowey's character too much for that. There are darker forces at work here, you just gotta give me the chance to write and draw them out in the comic, I can't do it all in one page! ^^

16. How does the 'sickness' that Sans have work?

First, a quick review of the sickness itself: Magic is what keeps monsters alive, yes? Especially skeleton monsters I would imagine, since it's probably magic holding them together. Alphys explained earlier that when they all came to the surface they all felt a little under the weather, some more than others. She discovered that the Barrier had trapped them inside the mountain with a large amount of human magic, which, while monsters can't absorb directly. managed to seep into their systems as years piled on years. Kind of like radiation. Except this radiation probably was what ended up keeping them alive those first few years of living down in the darkness. But then, the Barrier falls, and all that extra human magic falls away as well, leaving monsters without it for the first time in years. Some, like Sans who was more than likely born under the mountain, would have never experienced life without that extra boost. And now it's gone. Ok. So. The illness is more or less like withdrawals. Sans' body (and the bodies of the other monsters who were most effected) are reaching out for a power they no longer have. So their magic is constantly trying to draw on something that isn't there. Like a trickle dripping from a hole in a bucket, it slowly saps away their strength (but not their HP). That's all fine and good, as long as the 'drip' is constantly replaced by eating and sleeping to replenish the magic that was lost. Of course, we know that Sans doesn't sleep all that well at night, so that's one source of magic that he isn't getting enough of. Using his magic won't directly effect his HP, but it's like widening that 'hole in the bucket'. The more magic he uses, the bigger the 'hole' gets, the more energy 'drips' out. And when the balance of magic lost starts exceeding the amount of magic gained, THEN his HP will start to be effected.