Universetale
is a dormant (and likely dead) Steven Universe and Undertale crossover fanfiction by PitViperOfDoom. It was last updated on March 26, 2016.
Warning: unmarked spoilers for both original works ahead.
The story begins when the Barrier sealing the monsters underground is shattered, allowing them to return to the surface. The Crystal Gems take note of this and greet them, revealing that they knew of the monsters from before the human-monster war and rebellion against Homeworld. From there, we see how the monsters adjust to strange new world that, thankfully, is used to magical phenomena thanks to the Crystal Gems.
Universetale contains examples of:
- Abusive Parents: Chapter 6 implies that Frisk's parents were this.Frisk's Perspective: Whatever you might call your life and the people you lived with before you fell, “family” isn't the word.
- Ambadassador: Frisk agreed to be the monsters' ambassador to the human world.
- The Atoner: Frisk, after having done a Genocide run in a previous timeline. Unfortunately, they still have Chara's voice whispering in their ear.
- Ax-Crazy: Chara may have eased up on their Omnicidal Maniac tendencies, but they are still delighted at the violence that unfolds when corrupted Gems attack.
- Call-Back: Monster Kid's lack of arms almost makes Steven cry.
- In a later chapter, Ronaldo theorizes on his blog that Frisk and the monsters are deep-cover snake people agents.
- Chekhov's Gag: The dog residue mentioned in chapters 5 and 6 comes in handy in Chapter 11 when Frisk uses it to create some dog salad to heal themself.
- Cruel and Unusual Death: In Chapter 9, Frisk gets sliced by a gem monster and later smacked through a glass window and against a glass display. Good thing they Saved.
- Fantastic Racism: The monsters towards the Crystal Gems at first. Justified since the last the monsters knew, the Gems were invaders who were trying to harvest the Earth, and they had no knowledge of the Crystal Gems' rebellion.
- The Dreaded: For the Homeworld Gems, it would be humans and monsters joining forces. The war between humans and monsters was explicitly engineered not because the Gems didn't fear the scenario of monsters taking human souls by force, but rather the notion of humans willingly giving their souls to fight the invaders, as unlikely a scenario as it seemed - Garnet recalls that, in hindsight, her former superiors were fearful of the possibility when it was discussed, hence why they went to such lengths to prevent it. They would likely be beyond terrified if they knew what Flowey/Asriel was capable of with six human souls.
- Formula-Breaking Episode: Chapter 7 is written in the style of two Keep Beach City Weird entries. Complete with comments by a few of the Undertale cast.
- Hand Signals: Frisk is selectively mute in this story, so they speak with sign language at least half of the time.
- Heroic BSoD: Alphys doesn't react well to Opal after her experiences with the Amalgamates.
- Hurricane of Puns: One of the story's tags is literally "Sans and Steven will be in the same room we will drown in puns" - that should give you an idea.
- Interface Spoiler: The character list includes Flowey, who hasn't appeared as of Chapter 11.
- Interspecies Friendship: Steven puts in a lot of effort to befriend the monsters, and making sure others (like Connie) do as well.
- Ludicrous Gibs: When Frisk dies in Chapter 9, this is implied by a line from Steven's POV:"Humans don't go poof. Humans go squish."
- Mythology Gag: The Keep Beach City Weird blog has trouble counting the dogs, much like the Steam profile of the game.
- No Gender: The fic presents Frisk as a gender-neutral individual, as in the game. The same goes for Monster Kid and Chara.Papyrus: ER, EXCUSE ME, HUMAN. BUT FRISK IS NOT A GIRL. OR A BOY. THEY'RE JUST FRISK.
- No Social Skills: This interpretation of Frisk is selectively mute - they can speak to their monster friends relatively fine, but when confronted with someone new (especially kids like Steven), they just go mute. It gets downplayed when it's revealed they know sign language, which Steven starts learning - they connect much more easily after that. They also seem to be more willing to be social to help other people who are having trouble socialising, such as Peridot, who they help integrate into the group by having her bond with Alphys over science and engineering.
- Poor Communication Kills: Narrowly averted: at first, Asgore thought the Crystal Gems were hostile, since the only previous experience he had with Gems was with the Homeworld Gems manipulating humanity into starting the war with the monsters. Frisk managed to calm him down and explain things, though.
- Reset Button: As in the game, Frisk can use Determination to Save. Things get complicated when Garnet's Future Vision is disrupted by it, and it turns out that both she and Steven retain their pre-continue memories.
- Ripple-Effect-Proof Memory: As of Chapter 10, there are exactly four characters confirmed to have this trait: Frisk (makes the Save points and resets), Chara (co-owns Frisk's soul), Garnet (due to Future Vision), and Steven (unknown how).
- Spanner in the Works: Garnet muses on the irony that a lot of meticulous planning and manipulation by the Homeworld Gems to engineer a permanent rift between humans and monsters was completely ruined by the actions of one child.
- Squee: Connie when she gets the opportunity to meet (and study) monsters.
- This Cannot Be!: When Frisk is killed, Garnet can't understand why time seems to end, and subsequently restarts from an earlier date (Frisk reloads their save). Ruby and Sapphire even have a brief back-and-forth out of shock and confusion.
- Time Abyss: Aside from the Gems themselves, Asgore and Toriel are also this, as they are old enough to remember the last time the Gems came to Earth (which was roughly 6000 years ago).
- Token Human: Frisk to the monsters, and Steven (although he's only half-human) to the Gems.
- Took a Level in Kindness: Chara has apparently mellowed out (somewhat) from the (literally) world-killing maniac seen in the Genocide finale. In Chapter 9, they even say that they don't want to hurt Lars after he was mean to Frisk.
- Translator Buddy: Toriel acts as this for Frisk's sign language towards the Gems in Chapter 3.
- Wham Episode:
- Chapter 3 is innocuous for the most part, but it reveals that Chara is around and somehow speaking to Frisk. A short line at chapter's end reveals that Frisk had previously done a Genocide run - which means that they had sold their soul to Chara to bring the world back.
- The ending of Chapter 9 and beginning of Chapter 10. Two gem monsters appear and kill Frisk—who then reloads to a previous Save point. However, it turns out that Garnet and Steven have retained their memories of the previous timeline as well.
