W.D. Gaster

"Beware of the man who speaks in hands."

- River Person W. D. Gaster was the royal scientist before Alphys, responsible for creating the CORE. Gaster's Followers relay various explanations as to what happened to Gaster. One iteration says that he "fell into his creation," another says that "his experiments went wrong," and the last says that he "shattered across space and time." When exactly this happened is unknown, but its said to have been a 'long time' before Alphys was hired.

Characters such as the River Person and Gaster's Followers hint at his existence. Similar to Sans and Papyrus, he speaks in a typeface different from the other characters.

Profile
Gaster was a royal scientist before Alphys. He fell into his own creation, generally assumed to be the Core as it is the only thing known for certain that he created. He was then shattered through time and space, as one of his followers states. When exactly this happened is unknown but it's said to have been a 'long time' before Alphys was hired.

Appearance
W. D. Gaster does not have an officially known form, but there are several rooms and unused assets found in Waterfall that point to what he may have looked like.

Room 268 and 269
In Room 269, a figure widely believed to be Gaster can be found. The figure is black and white with a distorted, cracked face. Unlike every other NPC, they have no collision physics, and interacting with them will cause them to react in surprise and vanish while a sound effect plays.

This room can only be accessed when the game's "fun" value is set to 66. In this scenario, Room 268, a hallway with a gray door, appears between Room 94 and Room 95, the rooms with the crystallized cheese and Sans's telescope, respectively. The door in this hallway leads to Room 269.

Once the protagonist leaves Room 269 back into Room 268, the door disappears from the corridor, though it is possible to exit the room and trigger the door's reappearance, as the fun values do not reset until the protagonist leaves the hall. The corridor itself becomes inaccessible once the protagonist leaves it and all values drop to 0.

Upon attempting to call someone using the Cell Phone in either of these rooms, only the message "There's no response..." appears.

Room 123
Room 123 is a removed corridor with tall grass that is presumed to connect Room 99, where the bird that carries the protagonist over a disproportionately small gap is located, and Room 116, where the six-way fork in Waterfall is. The characters in this area mention that this corridor is a bug catching spot.

An unknown character on the left side of the tall grass mentions that "there is somebody with a creepy smile behind you." The unseen character presumably disappears after the dialogue is triggered. The character with the "creepy smile" is possibly the Mystery Man seen in Room 269 which may be Gaster, and the evidence supporting this theory lies within the word "smile" in the dialogue, as the track that plays in entry 17 is named . However, it can also be Flowey (who follows the protagonist throughout the game), Sans, or even the fallen human.

Room 272
Room 272 is black and has a ghostly figure in the middle of it that becomes less transparent as the protagonist approaches. If the protagonist attempts a conversation with the NPC, it returns "* [redacted]" in lowercase Wingdings, which implies that a conversation was planned here but was removed for security purposes. Exiting Room 272 leads to the Sound Test Room, where the protagonist can listen to four songs including Gaster's Theme.

All but one of the songs can be played and switched amongst each other. Upon playing Gaster's Theme, the other three songs are unable to be played again even if the player tries to do so. After Gaster's Theme is concluded, the text "Thanks for your feedback! Be seeing you soon!" will be displayed and either the game will crash, or the protagonist will be put in the room with the fishing pole in Snowdin, suggesting this room was intended to be focused on Gaster.

To access this room and avoid the Annoying Dog error screens, a hexadecimal editor needs to be used to change the "Dogcheck" value.

The Stable
Inside the game's files are strings of text that implicate a stable was planned to be put into the game. In the said stable, there is a trash can where a key can be found. If the key is brought to the horse stable, the same figure from Room 272 appears and says "* x" in Wingdings.

Wrong Number Song
In Room 70, the northernmost part of Snowdin, the protagonist's Cell Phone may randomly receive a call. The phone call begins asking for somebody whose name starts with the letter "G." The caller then recognizes that they dialed the wrong number, and proceeds to sing the Wrong Number Song. This phone call is speculated to be for Gaster, but it could be for Gerson, Glyde, Gyftrot, Grandpa Semi, or Grillby instead. Even in the Japanese localization, the initial greeting is in English so as to give no further hints to what character it could be. This event only happens when "fun" values in the game fall into a specific range.

There is a known glitch with the Wrong Number Song where the avatar of whomever the protagonist spoke to last will show up as the ID of the call.

Room 264
In Room 264, the text below is displayed in uppercase Wingdings. This text is believed to be the seventeenth entry from the True Lab that cannot be accessed. This could, however, only be a red herring, since another entry number 17 also exists, written by Alphys and very obviously connected to the other entries accessible in the True Lab. It is worth noting that both Alphys's seventeenth entry and Room 264 are inaccessible in normal gameplay – Alphys's entry can only be found in the game's text files, and Gaster's entry is only accessible through SAVE manipulation or debug mode. Room 264 immediately precedes the generator room in the True Lab.

Translation of the Wingdings text is as follows: Once the message ends, the screen turns black for a second before the game closes. The audio that plays during the entry is labeled as "mus_smile" in the game files. This file can be sped up by 1000% to reveal Muffet's laugh, reversed, and then looped over. An excerpt from the entry number 17 can also be found on a snapshot of  a snapshot of deltarune.com/him.png  from 2015.
 * ENTRY NUMBER SEVENTEEN
 * DARK
 * DARKER
 * YET DARKER
 * THE DARKNESS KEEPS GROWING
 * THE SHADOWS CUTTING DEEPER
 * PHOTON READINGS NEGATIVE
 * THIS NEXT EXPERIMENT
 * SEEMS
 * VERY
 * VERY
 * INTERESTING
 * WHAT DO YOU TWO THINK
 * WHAT DO YOU TWO THINK

"The Man who Speaks in Hands"
During one of the travels with River Person, they say "Beware of the man who speaks in hands." There is speculation that this alludes to Gaster since the typeface used in the entry number seventeen (room_gaster) uses hand symbols.

A similar line from the River Person is "Beware of the man who came from the other world." Considering the similarities it shares with the previous quote, it might either refer to Gaster or the monster So Sorry, whose check text reads "This creature is definitely in the wrong time and space!" as well as the file name of So Sorry's theme being .

Goner Kid
A gray version of Monster Kid ) can appear in Room 91 (room_water7) on a dock right before the room where Undyne first throws spears at the protagonist if the fun value is greater than 90. Their dialogue is as follows: In the game files, there is a dialogue of Goner Kid saying "Yo! You're a ??? too, right?". This dialogue is unused in-game but can be seen with debug mode on.
 * Have you ever thought about a world where everything is exactly the same...
 * Except you don't exist?
 * Everything functions perfectly without you...
 * Ha, ha... The thought terrifies me.
 * An umbrella...? But it's not raining. [If holding an umbrella]
 * Ha, ha...
 * You know, that does make me feel a little better about this.
 * Thank you.
 * Please forget about me. [Leaving and attempting to talk again]
 * Please don't think about this anymore. [Leaving and attempting to talk once more]

There is some inconclusive evidence as to whether Goner Kid is actually related to Gaster. Like Gaster's followers, Goner Kid's sprite has minor differences compared to the monster their sprite is based on. Goner Kid's clothing has a blocky, checkerboard-like pattern, they have a bow or two horns/spines on one side, two lines behind their head, and their eyes have no pupils. However, unlike Gaster's followers, the protagonist's phone will work if they attempt to use their cell phone while in the room, and Goner Kid never mentions Gaster's name.

Gaster's Followers
Gaster's Followers are gray NPCs that are found near the elevators in Hotland when the fun variable is at a certain value. They all resemble certain NPCs in the game but with a few minor differences.

If the protagonist tries to call Papyrus (or Papyrus and Undyne) while in a room with a follower, they will only get the line "The phone won't turn on." The protagonist can still attempt to reach Toriel over the phone. The phone will work normally after leaving the room.

Gaster Follower 1
Gaster Follower 1 appears outside of elevator L3 if the fun value is 62. This follower is a gray, emotionless version of the ficus licker NPC. They have a double cross on their chest instead of four dots and talk about how Gaster's life was cut short after he fell into one of his creations. They later wonder if Alphys will end up the same way as Gaster. This NPC disappears once the protagonist leaves the room.

Their dialogue is as follows:
 * It makes sense why Asgore took so long to hire a new Royal Scientist.
 * After all, the old one... Doctor Gaster. What an act to follow!
 * They say he created the Core.
 * However, his life... was cut short.
 * One day, he fell into his creation, and...
 * Will Alphys end up the same way?

Gaster Follower 2
Gaster Follower 2 appears outside of elevator R1 if the fun value is 61. This follower is a gray version of the guy normally found near Hotland's Spider Bake Sale, with a talking head in place of the donut. This follower speaks in rhymes through the head in their hand. They talk about how the old royal scientist, W. D. Gaster, suddenly vanished without a trace and was shattered across time and space. They immediately disappear once they mention that they are holding a piece of him, playing the same sound effect while disappearing that plays when the NPC assumed to be Gaster disappears in Room 268. Unlike Sans, their disappearance does not include a black screen interlude.

Their dialogue is as follows:
 * Alphys might work faster. But the old Royal Scientist, Doctor W.D. Gaster?
 * One day, he vanished without a trace.
 * They say he shattered across time and space.
 * Ha Ha... how can I say so without fear?
 * I'm holding a piece of him right here.

Gaster Follower 3
Gaster Follower 3 appears outside of elevator L2 if the fun value is 63. This NPC is a talking face sprouting out of the ground and is its own character, unlike the other followers. They talk about how Gaster's life was cut short after an experiment went wrong. They will then stop and mention that they should not gossip about someone who is listening. This NPC disappears once the protagonist leaves the room.

Their dialogue is as follows: The striped bird in Deltarune, a spinoff alternate universe by Toby Fox, appears in the same pose and shape as Follower 3. As the connection between Deltarune and Undertale has been denied by Toby Fox, the shape of the Follower being that of a sprouted face or the body of the striped bird is currently unknown because of the monochromatic color scheme obscuring the details of the supposed legs and neck.
 * I understand why Asgore waited so long to hire a new royal scientist.
 * The previous one... Dr. Gaster.
 * His brilliance was irreplaceable.
 * However, his life... was cut short.
 * One day, his experiments went wrong, and...
 * Well, I needn't gossip.
 * After all, it's rude to talk about someone who's listening.

Goner Clam Girl
Goner Clam Girl, also known as Clam Goner, is a Waterfall NPC exclusive to the Nintendo Switch version of Undertale, where Clam Girl gets some new dialogue in the epilogue of the True Pacifist Route. After she finishes her dialogue, she disappears with the same sound effect as Mystery Man and Gaster Follower 2, which shows a possible connection to Gaster.

Her dialogue consists of three lines:
 * So you never met my neighbor's daughter.
 * But please don't despair. Because the time that you will meet her...
 * ... is fast approaching.

Sans
Sans is presumed to have a connection with W. D. Gaster due to the workshop behind his house and the name of his weapons used in the Genocide Route.

Goner Kid, the NPC that discusses alternate timelines, says, "An umbrella...? But it's not raining." This relates to one of Sans's leitmotifs "It's Raining Somewhere Else" which plays on his date at MTT Resort and in his workshop. Sans also discusses his research on timelines during his battle in the Genocide Route.

On the official Undertale Tumblr, is a post that includes the line "besides, it’s rude to talk about people that are listening, right?" This quote is similar to a line from Gaster Follower 3.

Room 80 is a workshop that has four drawers and a strange machine covered up with a curtain. One drawer contains a badge, and another contains a photo album with numerous people that the protagonist does not recognize. If the protagonist has encountered Clam Girl earlier in the route, interacting with the drawer will cause a card to slip into the protagonist's view; it displays a poorly drawn picture of 3 people, with the words "don't forget" written on it. The other two drawers will cause the protagonist to read the blueprint on the countertop, which is said to be written in unintelligible symbols or handwriting that could potentially be related to W. D. Gaster.

The note written on the picture with three people is most likely from Sans; Unlike Papyrus, he does not write in his typeface, which can be seen when the protagonist reads the note on his treadmill.

In Room 264 in one of the parts of Gaster's version of Entry Number 17, he says, "What do you two think?" By "two," Gaster may be referring to Sans and Papyrus as their names are both references to fonts. An alternate interpretation to these "two" is that they consist of Sans and Alphys, as it is hinted at the end of the True Pacifist Route that they had a past together and Gaster could be the missing link to where they possibly could have had a relationship.

The broken machine in the room has been said to be unfixable according to Toby Fox. This means that the machine was never meant to be fixed, and if this was the creation Gaster fell in, then he is surely doomed to remain erased.

Additionally, Sans uses a weapon during his fight in the Genocide Route called a "Gaster Blaster," possibly indicating that Gaster developed the weapon. Another theory could be that it was a weapon specifically made to be used against Gaster if he was a boss in the game.

Skeleton family
Due to him speaking in a font different to 8-bit operator and his name seeming to connect to his font, he is assumed to be a skeleton and hence somehow connected to the skeleton brothers. This is reinforced by Sans' Gaster Blasters.
 * Due to the expected age difference, he is usually considered a father/creator of the brothers though he is sometimes another brother.
 * Other times he is a being that got split in two; one half becoming Sans, the other Papyrus with the empty shell being the 'mystery man' seen in the Waterfall room.

Unethical experiments
Flodpersonen varning is the main source for this, though it increases because his statistics are linked to 666, a number associated with evil. The parallels are drawn by the Gaster Followers and Alphys, who performed the DT experiments and fetched the unsuccessful failures, also supports this headcanon. While the experiment exactly varies with different AUs. WD Gaster disappeared when he tried to load determination in himself though the mystery man could be Gaster but there is no evidence that he is Gaster and the river person warns and says "Beware the man who speaks in hands."

Amalgamate
A more recent hypothesis to appear is that the W.D. Gaster seen is some kind of amalgation and that he/they fell into the D.T extraction machine instead of the CORE. There isn't much evidence supporting this one other than visual similarities between the sprite and other amalgamates. This being said, the tarot card could support either fall theory as the bottom of the card looks similar to the core while the top looks like the extraction machine.

Magic hands
An ability commonly used in many AUs but one that seemingly has 0 support in the Undertale canon except him being referred to as the man that speaks in hands.

List of AUs involving W. D. Gaster
(Fanon/Fan-made/Parodied/Fusion/Fanon ship children/OC Sanses go to this scroll below)

(MATURE AU Sanses/Pages with gore and violence/Scary AU Sanses/Pages with heavy/strong topics go here) {{Scroll|* Freaktale }}
 * Underlust
 * Axetale}
 * Horrortale
 * Underworld
 * Goretale
 * Horrortale
 * Under(her)tail
 * Slendertale
 * Help_tale

In Battle
See W. D. Gaster/In Battle.

Trivia

 * Gaster's Theme sounds similar to "Who... Are You?" from Final Fantasy VII.
 * The figure in Room 272 speaks with an asterisk and in lowercase, similar to Sans. Entry Number 17 is written in uppercase and without an asterisk, similar to Papyrus.
 * "W. D. Gaster" is presumed to be a combination of the fonts "Wingdings" and "Aster."
 * W. D. Gaster's name could also be a reference to "M.D. Seeger," the alias of Shigeru Miyamoto used in the EarthBound end credits (as "Opening Rock Guitar").
 * Attempting to name the fallen human "Gaster" will cause the game to return to the intro.
 * In the PS4 version, this would cause the game to crash. As of v1.03-4, it simply restarts the game.
 * It is possible that Gaster could have created the DT Extraction Machine in the True Lab as Alphys admits to using blueprints to operate it in Entry Number 5. This may be the blueprints found in Sans's Workshop.
 * Mystery Man shares some visual similarities with Uboa from Yume Nikki. This appearance is also shared with Dr. Andonuts from Toby's EarthBound Halloween Hack.
 * Mystery Man also shows a slight resemblance to the character Whiteface from the horror game Imscared.
 * Mystery Man is also similar to some versions of Slender Man, a famous creepypasta figure.
 * Mystery Man is also similar to the Marionette/Puppet from Five Nights at Freddy's 2 and Nightmarionne from Five Nights at Freddy's 4 though he is more similar to the latter than the former.
 * If Mystery Man is turned upside down, their clothing and hands resemble another face.
 * On the official Undertale Tumblr, Sans suggests doing research about Shyren's lower body. Shyren's head and body are two different beings, but an optical illusion makes them look like one entity.
 * This could relate to the face that shows up on the body of the Mystery Man. Further interpretation could be that the Mystery Man is actually two different monsters or an Amalgamate.
 * Alphys and Gaster both wrote an Entry Number 17; neither transcript appears without file manipulation.
 * In the True Lab, if the protagonist does not activate the fans and enters the area where the protagonist encounters Snowdrake's Mother and interacts with the second refrigerator in the room they will describe a figure obscured by the fog in the shape of a man. This figure could be Gaster. However, it may simply be the "watching man" Amalgamate that tucks the protagonist into bed in the True Lab.
 * Until version 1.001, events related to Gaster were inaccessible unless a SAVE file was edited to have "fun" capitalized to "Fun."
 * The Gaster card is not included in the official Undertale tarot, which indicates that this card is either a spoiler or not canon. However, Toby Fox has stated the merchandise is not canon.
 * If Entry Number 17 is considered, Gaster is the only individual character to have a unique typeface and soundbite without their face accompanying the text box when he talks. The other main-game examples are Mettaton (during his initial form) and the species of Temmie, though they both keep the Determination Mono typeface.
 * In a tweet, Toby Fox showed very early concept art for Papyrus. In the same image was a note saying that Papyrus "had a * named *" with the nouns censored out. It is possible this refers to Gaster, due to the popular theory that Gaster is related to Sans and Papyrus in some way. This note may also refer to Grandpa Semi.
 * In the game files, Gaster's Theme is named , unlike the other rooms in the sound test that have their song names explicitly shown (such as  ).
 * If the protagonist's name is changed to "Gaster" through the SAVE files, the ability to reset will be unavailable as the game will restart upon clicking the Reset button.

Extra
Wanna speak like Gaster? Use this translator to use Wingdings!