+Alphys +Frisk

cancerously if it's okay, can I ask your thoughts on it?

PBmajesty too

ooh I will look this over after work :V

lmao oh shit Mettaton with Determination inside of him is WILD

I'll engage with this more when I am more awake but like, this was interesting to read!!!

Reading this again, it would be an interesting explanation to how he seems to "remember" the human doing things/noticing they're bored because they've seen this before.

I play it up that he has some 4th wall breaking powers and that's why, but Determination being an in-universe explanation is fun too!

OKAY I finally read through this and

pretty much my only notes are that 1) EX wasn't technically done when Mettaton premiered it. It's part of the reason it broke so easily + he breaks down mid-battle. the energy consumption work wasn't finished and he likely needed a bigger battery

and 2) the game specifically refers to Mettaton's center as his "heart shaped power core", implying that it likely isn't his SOUL. On top of that, the chances of Alphys having made the SOUL containers is basically a no-go, since she said she "received" the human souls from Asgore upon becoming the Royal Scientist (from her first lab notes)

so... it's possible it's a thing she was working on, in terms of making Mettaton's SOUL more resilient, and then everything went to shit hell and it fell by the wayside. but I also don't think she'd leave an injector of determination lying around lmao

but that's my personal thoughts on her actions regarding determination as a whole, since I think she'd be pretty, lmao, determined, to shove all of that somewhere sight unseen

those notes could, however, be studies on the nature of the differences between human and monster SOULs. and it could be determination at play but again, unlikely

but at the same time mettaton with determination is fucking Wild

There probably wasn't determination in the injector on the desk, yeah. I'm thinking it acted more as a visual shorthand for it, because all the mentions of injection are in the context of determination.
The studies on human and monster souls is possible, but the progression of the arrows is a bit odd because it suggests a process.

(but this process could be a 'what if humans descended from monsters' thing rather than a 'i'm planning this' thing, with that in mind)

and 1) good point, hhhh i completely missed that. that decouples the delay of debut from the blueprint nicely

2) tbf you could describe a soul as a "heart shaped power core" and not be wrong. but yeah, that's odd. I think what clinched it for me was the magic coming off it, but there's no reason a magitech power core couldn't do that either

tbh I thought that was a drill or a soldering gun not a DT injector

alphys "attempt to give a needle to a solid chunk of iron" mcscience is a funny mental image though tbh

that's a distinct possibility, considering the chainsaw and tools on the wall

snrk

that is kind of the flaw I'm stuck on though like. either she'd be injecting dt into solid metal plating somehow like it's a vein?? or she'd be injecting a literally intangible ghost

how you do this alphys

it is a mystery
ghosts can interact with solid objects if they want to, judging my napstablook, so maybe that's how
it's also possible there was allowance in the design for it, but that's moving away from (0,0)

well it'd probably have to go directly into his soul

but like. also. how are you gonna fucking do that WHERE IS THE SOUL ON A GHOST

ngl tho Im laughing at Alphys, injector in hand, standing over mettaton and just whispering "... shit"

didn't think this one through

"i have made. an Error"

five bent tips later...

I mean then that presents the whole "monsters can't separate from or expose their souls they just immediately go to dust" issue it just goes in THE CIIIIIRCLE OF LIIIIFE

Unless alphys knew a way to make monster souls linger when pulled out of their bodies in which case there's no need to study dt at all

honestly the 'separate from' bit might be how
no clear cut line between your average monster's body and soul
so injecting into the body would work

well she planned to make them linger with dt...

plus if mettaton had already become tangible by merging completely with his body then. where is the ghost. he is the box now. he is the sexy cereal box

hows that DEF 999 working out, alphys

alphys just smashing a bottle of dt on him like she's christening a ship. "DRINK IT YOU METAL BAKA"

this is kind of leaning on the idea that the box was a placeholder body, yeah

snrrrr

like idk I figure the fact it's called a core and not "this particular monster has a human soul" means it isn't a soul it's just heart shaped as like... camouflage

alphys got the royal scientist job by presenting mettaton under the false ruse of " I built an artificial soul" not "hey look a ghost"

i figured it was Chara kind of going 'well it can't be a soul, that's nuts, it must be something else' style thing

so the heart shape was probably meant to feed into that lie rather than like... mettaton is determined despite not being more reset savvy than like toriel or asgore or Undyne"

yeahh

if the soul being aritficial is a ruse, then wouldn't that mean it was real? : / I mean how does one fake a soul. paper mache?

I mean it isn't a soul. it's just a heart shaped battery

that's fair - that idea can be taken out and the broad thing still work. a soul's definitely in there, even if the thing that moves around in the fight isn't it

the amalgamates don't appear to be reset savvy, although it's hard to tell, so it's possible more than that is needed.

(it is, admittedly, very easy to go 'well mettaton has a soul' -> 'i guess the thing that looks and moves like one is it?' even if the linker is untrue)

See I've just been playing it like that heart is Mettaton's soul but that's also because I am kind of lazy lmao

But yeah there's a high chance that his actual SOUL can't really be seen.

nods this is the sort of thing that will probs not be confirmed

it's interesting how many ways things in the game can be interpreted