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vgfm · 3 years

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Deltarune Theory: The True Identity and Importance of “Everyman”

I’ve been away from the Undertale theory scene for a long time. It’s been so long that a whole new-fangled game got announced, and I’ve got some theories on it.

Are these theories about Gaster or Sans or whatever’s going on with Kris? Not exactly. At least, not yet. I’ve got a better character in mind.

Let’s start with Everyman: Undertale’s most obscure character and (I think) one of the most pivotal in Deltarune.

This is a two-part theory: the first part outlines who Everyman is and why I think he’ll be important in Deltarune. The second part? You’ll have to read and find out.

This is a long one and with loads of images, so strap yourselves in.

Sections

Part 1: Introduction to Everyman

Who is Everyman?

“So Everyman’s just an Easter egg, right?”

Everyman’s Importance

Why did Everyman appear in True Lab?

Why Everyman will have a bigger role in Deltarune

Part 2: Everyman is ???

What will Everyman’s role be?

Jevil’s Connection to Everyman

The Spade King’s clue

Additional Evidence

“Seriously?”

The Gaster connection

The “Strange Son”

Who made who?

“Seriously, who is Everyman?”

End

Closing Summary

Final Conclusions

Who is Everyman?

"Everyman” is a special attack that appears during the Reaper Bird amalgamate fight in True Lab.

This same figure appears twice in Deltarune’s first chapter:

Once as graffiti in an alleyway in Hometown...

...and again as a rare bullet attack during Jevil’s fight.

The name “Everyman” only ever appears in-game next to his graffiti portrait in Hometown. Everyman’s sprites are simply titled “strangeman” in Undertale’s game files:

[Image transcript: UTModTool is showing multiple highlighted sprite entries that begin with “spr_strangeman”. On the right is the file “spr_strangeman_walk” opened, showing a picture of Everyman. End image transcript]

Some time after Undertale’s release there was a since-deleted tweet from Toby with a picture of Reaper Bird’s attack that he titled “Everyman,” which is where fans first got the name.

[Image transcript: A tweet from toby fox that says “Everyman”. The first reply says “Is that his name. please thell me thats his obj name.” Toby’s response repeats “Everyman.” The next reply says “everything i aspire to be.” Toby responds again with “’Everyman’ you aspire to be.” Toby then adds another tweet saying “Description. Just a good guy that shows up on occasion.” end image transcript.]

This is a web archive screenshot so the image of Everyman’s bullet sprite wasn’t preserved here. Special thanks to catcat for tracking this one down!

“So Everyman’s just an Easter egg, right?”

I don’t think so. I’d be more inclined to write off Everyman’s role in Deltarune as a mere cameo if he had only shown up once. But it’s odd that Toby felt the need to include Everyman twice in a single chapter. To me this seems less like a one-off cameo and more like foreshadowing for a greater role in the full game.

Let’s compare Everyman’s appearances to instances of character foreshadowing and one-off cameos from Undertale and Deltarune:

Mettaton

[Image transcript: four Undertale screenshots arranged in a grid. In the top-left screenshot, the narration text box reads “(the machine isn’t working.)” as Frisk stares at Mettaton in Snowdin’s colored tile puzzle room. In the top-right screenshot, the narration textbox is reading a TV announcement in Papyrus’ house: “(It says ‘STAY TUNED FOR A NEW PROGRAM - MTT.’)”. In the bottom-left screenshot, Napstablook’s text box says “there’s a show i like to watch on it... sometimes...” as Frisk looks at their television. In the bottom-right screenshot, Undyne’s text box says “This oven is some top-of-the-line MTT thing.” as Frisk stares at her oven. End image transcript.]

Mettaton is foreshadowed multiple times before he makes his proper introduction in Alphys’ Lab. This includes a direct on-screen appearance of his rectangular form as part of Snowdin’s colored tile puzzle. What’s interesting is that half of these references (including the tile puzzle) only make sense in hindsight to a first-time player. For all we know there could be other, more-cryptic Everyman references already in Deltarune that we don’t have the full context to understand yet.

Rouxls Kaard

Despite his legendary introductory sequence catching many-a-player off-guard, Rouxls Kaard actually is foreshadowed a couple of times before his stunning debut.

[Image transcript: four Deltarune screenshots arranged in a grid. In the top-left screenshot, Ralsei is reading a message from Rouxls Kaard: “It says... ‘Thoust fools, thou will NEVER figure it out now!’. This is continued in the top-right screenshot: “Then it, um, says, ‘PS - I make my own Rules. - RK’”. In the bottom-left screenshot, a puzzle-master says “ROUXLS KAARD... Lord of the Puzzles... Be careful...!” In the bottom-right screenshot, one of Clover’s heads says “RK came by... What a hunk!” End image transcript.]

I’ve noticed from watching Let’s Plays that many people don’t even realize that these lines were meant to foreshadow him (and I’m pretty sure I didn’t realize it either on my first playthrough).

Ice-E

Now here’s something that’s an example of both a one-off cameo and proper foreshadowing! In Undertale, Ice-E is referenced exactly once in the entire game—as part of Sans’ Monster Kidz Word Search puzzle. No other character mentions Ice-E, Ice-E does not appear in-person, nor does the Ice-E’s restaurant appear... in Undertale. Deltarune is a completely different story.

[image transcript: Two Deltarune screenshots side-by-side. in the left screenshot, Kris looks under their sink and the narration text box says: “A can of Ice-E’s Cool Boys Body Spray ‘Spray For The Boys,’ Flamin’ Hot Pizza Flavor.” In the right screenshot, Kris reads a chart in the hospital. The narration text box says: “(It’s a classic 1-to-10 pain scale, using ICE-E as a model.)” End image transcript.]

In Deltarune chapter 1 we find numerous references and bits of foreshadowing for Ice-E and, lo and behold, we see that Ice-E’s restaurant exists in Hometown at the end of chapter 1. And notice how it’s multiple references and not just a one-off like last time.

In every example of foreshadowing listed above we’re given more than one hint of a character’s presence, and so far Everyman fits this same pattern. This makes me feel safe in assuming he will have a bigger role in the full game.

Everyman’s Importance

What’s interesting is that in Chapter 1, Everyman appears in both the light and dark worlds. So far Deltarune has kept the light and dark worlds largely separate from one another, with only Kris and Susie traveling between them (as far as we know).

Everyman’s presence in both worlds implies that either he can travel between both worlds as well, or at least that lightners and darkners are both familiar with him.

Based on what we know, I’d wager that Everyman is a lightner—specifically, a monster. I say this for two reasons: 1.) so far we’ve only seen lightners (Kris and Susie) travel between both worlds, and 2.) this would explain Everyman’s appearance as one of Reaper Bird’s attacks in Undertale’s True Lab.

Why did Everyman appear in the True Lab?

The worlds of Undertale and Deltarune are connected. Toby has all-but-confirmed this himself.

[Image transcript: A screenshot from the official Deltarune website’s question-and-answer page. The question says “So there’s no connections between the two games?”. The answer says “It’s a different world that might even have different rules. That doesn’t mean there will be no connections at all though.” End image transcript.]

One major connection between Undertale and Deltarune is their largely-shared cast of characters. Many major characters from Undertale make an appearance in Deltarune’s first chapter, and Toby has shown that at least some characters from Deltarune’s universe have counterparts in the Undertale universe as well.

The Undertale Alarm Clock App makes reference to Rudolph Holiday living in the Underground some time prior to the events of Undertale.

[Image transcript: A dialogue box where Asgore says “Rudy... loved the holidays, you know.” End image transcript.]

This dialogue also strongly implies that Undertale’s universe has a counterpart for Noelle.

[Image transcript: Another dialogue box from Asgore. He says: “With a warm slice of fruitcake on the table. His youngest daughter peeking shyly from around the corner...” End image transcript]

Depending on how one interprets the Clamgirl NPC’s dialogue, there may or may not be an Undertale version of Susie (aka “Suzy”) too.

[Image transcript: Two Undertale screenshots side-by-side. In the left screenshot, Clamgirl tells Frisk: “Synchronicity...? My neighbor’s daughter looks about your age.” In the right screenshot her dialogue continues: “Her name is ‘Suzy.’ I feel like you two should be friends.” End image transcript.]

I’d argue that Everyman also had a “counterpart” in Undertale’s universe who lived as a monster in the Underground. Much like Rudy, the Underground’s Everyman likely grew old and eventually “fell down”. But unlike Rudy, Everyman was sent to the True Lab for the royal scientist’s soul experiments and became part of the Reaper Bird amalgamate.

This would fit with the pattern that we see with most other amalgamates, namely that they each seem to be made up of one named/noteworthy monster combined with several other generic monsters. The formula goes like this:

Lemon Bread = Shyra (Shyren’s Sister) + Aaron + Moldbygg

Endogeny = Muttler + various dog enemies

Snowdrake Mother = Crystal (Snowdrake’s Mom) + Vegetoids(?)

Reaper Bird = Everyman + Astigmatism + Whimsalot + Final Froggit

The Memoryheads seem to not “fit” with the other amalgamates, perhaps intentionally, so I’ll leave them out for now.

Long story short: Everyman was most likely a monster since he was part of an amalgamate and (as far as we know) amalgamates can only be made of monsters.

Why Everyman will have a bigger role in Deltarune

We see in Deltarune that three of the monsters who became amalgamates in Undertale have since passed away. This fits a trend I’ve noticed of Toby trying to “explain” the absence of characters who are prominent in one of his games but not the other.

The examples I cited above of Rudy, Noelle, and (possibly) Susie existing in Undertale’s universe also serve as “excuses” for where those characters were and why they were absent from the events of Undertale’s story. Rudy was dead and Noelle and “Suzy” were living with their families (presumably) in parts of the Underground where Frisk never ventured.

Shyra, Muttler, and Crystal are similarly “excused” from Deltarune’s story when the graveyard informs the player of their passing. Gerson is likewise excluded from Deltarune due to having passed away before the events of the game.

Conveniently, Everyman is not listed among the amalgamate monsters who have passed away in Hometown, and the alleyway graffiti implies he’s alive and well.

We know that Deltarune’s timeline and character ages don’t match up perfectly with Undertale’s—Deltarune Asriel is still alive and slightly older than Kris, who’s roughly the same age as DR Monster Kid. Conversely, Undertale Asriel died long before Frisk entered the Underground, yet Frisk is still seemingly in the same age bracket as UT Monster Kid (who’s barely younger than Asriel in Deltarune). Like Rudy, we can assume that Deltarune’s Everyman is younger than the Everyman who “fell down” in the Underground.

What will Everyman’s role be?

Remember when I said this was a two-part theory? Well, here’s the second half of my theory: Everyman is the Knight.

[Image transcript: A text box that says “Yes, you read that correctly.” End image transcript.]

Yes, the same Knight mentioned by Seam, Jevil, and the King of Spades. The same Knight who’s pulling new dark fountains out of the earth and who’s implied to be a major antagonist in the full game.

I could hedge my bets by saying Everyman is merely “connected” to the Knight, but if the Knight is a character we already know of then I think Everyman is the most likely candidate.

Let’s start with the name: Everyman’s sprites are titled “strangeman” in Undertale’s files. The very first mention we get of the Knight in Deltarune is Seam describing a “strange knight” who appeared, complete with red font for emphasis.

[Image transcript: Seam speaking inside of a shop, saying: “But, recently, a strange knight appeared... And three of the kings were locked away.” End image transcript.]

The word “strange” seems to be used selectively and very deliberately in Deltarune’s first chapter. Here’s a breakdown of all the times it’s used:

Seam referring to the knight

Seam referring to the Knight’s “strange son” (more on that later)

Telling Seam about Jevil (”Strange Prisoner”)

Seam referring to the “strange someone” that Jevil met

Seam mentioning the “strange words” Jevil said

Rouxls Kaard referring to Lancer (”a strange and irritating darling!”)

Narration before Kris seals the dark fountain (”You felt something strange.”)

Flavor text during the Jevil fight (”Kris gazed strangely”)

The Devilsknife/Jevilstail appearing in a “strange chest” outside of Jevil’s cell upon defeating him (this may be dummied out or only triggers if your inventory is full of weapons/armors and Jevil can’t give his item to you)

The description of the key to Jevil’s cell (”something feels strange about it”)

With the exception of the line from Rouxls Kaard, every instance of “strange” somehow connects to the Knight or Jevil. If the Knight is indeed the “strange someone” who Jevil met then the list tightens even further, to the point where all but one use of the word “strange” is associated with a single character and his handiwork—a very “strange man”, as it were. Speaking of Jevil...

Jevil’s connection to the Knight and Everyman

Jevil’s fight is one of two places where Everyman appears in Deltarune chapter 1. Not only that, but Everyman’s sprite only appears as a rare event during Jevil’s carousel attack, implying that his appearance is somehow significant.

Interestingly enough, the other two sprites that appear during this attack are one with a head that vaguely resembles Mysteryman (believed to be Gaster) and another with the head of a horse, a.k.a. the same as a knight piece on a chess board. It’s also worth pointing out that it’s rarer for the Everyman sprite to appear than it is for either of the other two sprites to appear.

We can also see the Everyman sprite represented in the official Chaos Revolving Keychain from Fangamer.

Jevil mentions the Knight once you defeat him, showing that he has knowledge of his existence.

[Image transcript: Jevil saying “THE HAND OF THE KNIGHT IS DRIFTING FORWARD.” End image transcript.]

This is interesting since Seam’s dialogue implies that Jevil was imprisoned well before the Knight overthrew the three kings at Card Castle. I can think of three possible explanations for this seeming timeline discrepancy:

Jevil is somehow intrinsically “aware” of things that go on outside of his cell

The Knight or someone else visited Jevil in jail to tell him about what happened with the three kings

The Knight is the same “strange someone” that Jevil met before he was locked up

The first explanation is the least likely, imo, due to Jevil asking who Kris, Ralsei, and Susie are when he first meets them.

[Image transcript: Two Deltarune screenshots side-by-side. In the left screenshot, Jevil is talking to the fun gang and he says: “BUT LO, THREE VISITORS STANDING INSIDE?” This continues in the right screenshot, where Jevil says: “WHO ARE YOU FEW?” End image transcript.]

If Jevil was aware of the outside world then he’d surely know of the fun gang’s antics by that point.

The second explanation doesn’t seem very likely either. Seam is the only character who acknowledges Jevil’s existence and we never see Seam visit Card Castle, even after the Spade King has been overthrown.

[Image transcript: Two Deltarune screenshots side-by-side. In the left screenshot, Jack Person tells the fun gang: “By the by, I asked Seam to come here, but...” Continuing onto the right screenshot, where Jack Person finishes by saying “There wasn’t any interest.” End image transcript.]

Jevil’s cell doesn’t seem to have any guards and it’s kept on its own floor, so that would rule out Jevil hearing about the knight from other prisoners.

If someone in the castle brings food to Jevil then he may have overheard it from them, but even that is speculative. Does Jevil even need to eat? He says his body “cannot be killed,” after all.

[Image transcript: Jevil saying “THIS BODY CANNOT BE KILLED!” End image transcript.]

And I’m not sure if the King of Spades would be so accommodating towards a dangerous prisoner.

That just leaves the third explanation, which seems the most likely to me. It’s also the tidiest explanation for how Jevil would be aware of both the Knight and Everyman—they’re the same person.

We can only speculate as to why the “strange someone” caused Jevil to run amok. If that strange someone was the Knight then I would assume that setting Jevil loose may have been his attempt to overthrow or destabilize Card Castle’s leadership. We know that the Knight eventually overthrew the three other kings himself, so that may have been his plan B after Jevil failed or he merely wished to remove Jevil as an obstacle. Either way, the Knight toppled the quadrumvirate and installed the Spade King as the protector of Card Castle’s dark fountain.

The Spade King’s clue

The Spade King is the closest ally of the Knight that we’ve seen so far. The exact nature of their relationship isn’t fully known, but the King’s words imply that he reveres and is loyal to the Knight.

[Image description: Four Deltarune screenshots arranged in a grid. In the top-left, the King of Spades says “By the Knight’s will, I shall shatter your heart to pieces!”. In the top-right, the King says “For the KNIGHT has appeared.” In the bottom-left, the King says “The KNIGHT that pulls the Fountains from the Earth.” In the bottom-right, the King says “My KNIGHT... I shall not fail you...” End image transcript.]

Both characters share an interest in maintaining the existence of dark fountains, given that the Knight has been said to create new fountains by pulling them up from the Earth.

Unlike Jevil, the Spade King’s attacks never make explicit reference to Everyman’s visage, but he does give a possible nod that many players have overlooked. When the Spade King is defeated, he makes a curious gesture by letting his cloak fly away like a butterfly.

While this may be a simple artistic flourish, I always found this moment to be odd and unfitting for a brutish character like the King. It’s also worth pointing out how the King’s cloak is clearly not a part of his body, unlike what’s implied with Lancer’s “clothes”.

[Image transcript: Two Deltarune screenshots side-by-side. In the left screenshot, the battle narration says: “You tell Lancer you can’t tell the difference between his clothes and his body.” The narration continues in the right screenshot, saying “He seems flattered... His ATTACK POWER went down!” End transcript.]

What if the King didn’t always have that butterfly-shaped cloak? Did someone give it to him? Think of where else we’ve seen butterfly motifs before.

At first blush, this seems obvious—the Reaper Bird is clearly made from the Core mercenaries, including Whimsalot. Whimsalot attacks with butterfly bullets, so that’s where Reaper Bird got them from, right? Case closed. Well, not so fast.

It turns out there are two different sets of butterfly bullets in Undertale’s game files, and Reaper Bird’s are different from Whimsalot’s.

[Image transcript: Two groups of butterfly bullet sprites. The left group is labeled “Whimsun / Whimsalot.” The right group is labeled “Reaper Bird”. End image transcript.]

Notice how Reaper Bird’s butterflies are smaller and have pointier, more symmetrical wings? While those differences could be chalked up to limited pixel resolution, it’s interesting how Toby went out of his way to create an entirely unique set of butterfly bullets for Reaper Bird when it arguably would have made more sense for him to recycle the Whimsun butterflies like he did for Whimsalot.

If you want to compare the sprites for yourself I suggest either looking at the game files directly or looking at an actual playthrough of Undertale. I’ve noticed that Spriter’s Resource mistakenly has Reaper Bird’s butterflies listed under Whimsun’s sprite sheet (which is a completely understandable mix-up).

To drive the point home, notice the string names that are used for these butterflies:

[Image transcript: An UTModTool window showing multiple named strings. Highlighted in red are six strings that each contain “obj_strangeman_butterfly” in their names. End image transcript.]

They’re “strangeman” butterflies. Not “amalgamate” or “Reaper Bird” butterflies (despite Reaper Bird having its own share of dedicated strings and named sprites), and they’re not “Whimsalot” butterflies either. Toby clearly delineates them as belonging to strangeman, a.k.a. Everyman, meaning that Everyman is specifically associated with butterfly imagery. The Spade King also makes use of butterfly imagery immediately after he mentions the Knight in his final turn.

Between the King and Jevil, this makes two characters that can be linked to both Everyman and the Knight.

Additional Evidence

Let’s circle back to Reaper Bird for a second. It’s commonly known that this amalgamate is made from Astigmatism, Final Froggit, and Whimsalot. To wit:

These enemies are part of the mercenary group that Mettaton hires to attack you in the Core. Have you ever noticed how out-of-place they seem? Almost every other set of enemies in the game is somehow themed around their environment — Snowdin enemies are ice creatures, Hotland enemies are fire/lava-themed, etc. These mercenaries are themed around medieval warfare and yet they show up in the Core, the most high-tech area in the entire Underground.

What’s even stranger is that this medieval theme seems to come out of nowhere. Astigmatism, Final Froggit, and Whimsalot act as “upgraded” versions of Loox, Froggit, and Whimsun, respectively. And yet their Ruins counterparts don’t have any medieval theming whatsoever—it was added purely for the mercenaries. For whatever reason they’re all dressed like a bunch of wizards and... knights.

[Image transcript: Two Undertale screenshots side-by-side. In the left screenshot, a Core NPC says “Why do I look like a black sausage and not a knight or a wizard?” This continues on the right, where it says “Well... Everyone has an angle they look best from.” End image transcript.]

That’s not my interpretation of their designs—the game outright calls them knights.

On the one hand, it’s true that Asgore’s royal guards also dress up like knights, but the Core mercenaries are explicitly not part of the royal guard—they’re mercenaries.

[Image transcript: Battle flavor text that states “Mercenaries emerge from the shadows.” End image transcript.]

Assuming that Asgore has a dress code for his guards or is just old-fashioned in his sensibilities, there’s still no reason why fighters outside of the guard should follow their standard. Even some of the royal sentries don’t follow this theming, as seen with Doggo and Sans (who’s technically a sentry):

With the abundance of knight-themed royal guard and sentry enemies that exist already, Toby could’ve easily designed the Core Mercenaries to more accurately fit with the Core’s futuristic theme. Doesn’t it seem a little too coincidental that Everyman would wind up as part of the same amalgamate as these otherwise out-of-place knights?

When we look at the other amalgamates, we can see that Lemon Bread (a.k.a. Shyren’s sister) is made up of Waterfall enemies. Endogeny is made up entirely of dog-based enemies. These two amalgamates each have a “theme” for their component monsters that fits the “main” named monster they’re each made of, and Reaper Bird has a clear theme of its own. Why would Everyman be paired with a bunch of knights if he was not connected to them in some way?

Even the Undertale artbook groups Everyman’s concept art with the Core Mercenaries, specifically the ones that look the most like knights and wizards in-game. The book also repeats the name “Everyman” and Toby’s cryptic phrase of “Just a good guy who shows up on occasion.”

Perhaps Everyman knew the Core mercenaries when he was alive? Were they his fellow knights? Or did they work for him before he fell down and they had to then lend their services elsewhere?

“The Knight? Seriously?”

Some of you may be shaking your heads dismissively at the idea of Everyman being the Knight (or you more likely clicked over to another tab by now). I mean, just look at the guy:

What part of this design makes you think “knight”, let alone THE Knight? Well, Seam does refer to the Knight as a “strange” knight, and Everyman certainly fits that bill. But more importantly, we haven’t seen an actual overworld sprite for Everyman yet—we’ve only seen some graffiti and a couple of magic bullet attacks, which are always abstract and simplified.

Not pictured: Froggit, Migosp, Temmie, Moldbygg, Tsunderplane, Mettaton, or Endogeny.

Everyman’s “proper” design would almost certainly differ from his Pillsbury Doughboy-esque bullet sprite, especially if he’s wearing a cloak or a suit of armor. And even if his design doesn’t differ that much, so what? It’s not like this series has ever had an opponent that looks goofy or non-threatening, right?

Another little tidbit I noticed: one of Reaper Bird’s attacks consists of Everyman repeatedly removing his own head.

Or maybe it’s not his head? Perhaps it’s a helmet? Like one that a knight would wear? After all, it’s not unheard of for helmets to have beak-like protrusions.

And this is a series where helmets can come in any shape or size to better fit the needs of the wearer.

Just some food for thought.

The Gaster connection

It’s time to address the elephant in the room: “Isn’t Gaster supposed to be the Knight?” If you haven’t heard by now, this is one of the prevailing theories in the fandom. To be honest, if the Knight ends up not being Everyman then Gaster is the next-best candidate, imo, but these two theories don’t have to be mutually-exclusive. I think a case can be made that Everyman and Gaster are connected in some way.

Let me say up front that this section is highly speculative (unlike the previous sections, which clearly aren’t the least bit speculative). We’re dealing with two super-obscure characters who’ve yet to make a proper on-screen appearance in either game. It’s already hard enough to figure out how either of them connect to the broader Undertale universe, let alone to each other, but I’ll give it a shot.

For starters, we can affirm that both Gaster and Everyman are linked to the True Lab. There’s no shortage of fan theories and speculation on Gaster’s prior usage of the True Lab in his own experiments and I won’t get into all that here, but suffice it to say the True Lab has Gaster’s name written all over it.

(Am I the only one who thinks the DT Extractor looks more like Everyman’s head than it does a Gaster Blaster? Forget I said anything.)

We’ve covered how Everyman appears as one of Reaper Bird’s attacks. Interestingly, the amalgamate Memoryhead has an attack that resembles the head of Mysteryman, the figure believed to be Gaster (which I’ll assume here for simplicity’s sake).

If we follow the logic of my prior “Everyman is the named/important monster that makes up Reaper Bird, fitting the pattern of other amalgamates” argument, then Gaster (or pieces of him) could fill the same role for the Memoryheads.

Everyman and Gaster’s sprites both have the suffix of “man” in Undertale’s game files. Here are all the sprites that use this same naming scheme:

strangeman - Everyman

mysteryman - “Gaster”

snowman - gives you the snowman piece

riverman - a.k.a. River Person

darkman - the shadowy overworld sprites used for the Core Mercenaries

watchingman - The spoon-shaped amalgamate that tucks Frisk into bed

The snowman’s inclusion is a bit of a fluke, because what else would you call a snowman without using “man” in the name? If we exclude the snowman, each instance of “man” represents a mysterious figure that ties back to Everyman and/or Gaster.

We’ve already covered the connection between Everyman and the Core Mercenaries, and it’s easy to connect the “watchingman” amalgamate with the True Lab. River Person is also frequently linked to Gaster in fan theories (and they allude to “the man from the other world” and “the man who speaks in hands”), so what we’re left with is a close-knit community of strange, mysterious "man”s.

This naming scheme looks very intentional on Toby’s part, and he seems to be continuing it in Deltarune by referring to the secret unseen NPC who gives you the egg behind the tree in Scarlet Forest as simply “a man.”

[Image transcript: Narration from the secret egg room. The text box states: “(Well, there is a man here.)” End image transcript]

The Knight’s “Strange Son”?

Remember when I said I’d get back to the Knight’s “strange son”? That’s now. I’m a little iffy on this topic because it involves stacking a whole ton of assumptions onto a single line of dialogue that’s phrased in an ambiguous way. But, if it means what I think it means, it could shed a ton of light on Everyman’s possible connection to Gaster and whether either of them are the Knight.

When you ask Seam about the “Kingdom”, Seam says this:

[Image transcript: Three of Seam’s text boxes arranged vertically. In order, they read: “Historically, this land was ruled by the Four Kings, from CARD CASTLE to the East. But, recently, a strange knight appeared... And three of the kings were locked away. The remaining king put him and his strange son into power.” End image transcript]

Let’s focus on that last sentence. On my first playthrough I misread this line as “the knight put the king and his strange son into power” because that sounds a lot closer to the events that happened—the Spade King and his “strange son” Lancer are in power now because the three kings were locked away, presumably by the Knight.

But the actual text states the opposite—the remaining king (Spade King) put him (the Knight) and his strange son (i.e., the Knight’s son) into power. Or does it? The line could also read as—the remaining king (Spade King) put him (the Knight) and his (the King’s) strange son (Lancer) into power. The second way is awkwardly-structured but technically valid. And this is assuming that Toby didn’t make any grammatical errors when he typed these lines, which he has done on occasion.

[Image transcript: A dialogue box where Dr. Alphys says “I felt so guilty knowing I hadn’t do anything to stop you.” End image transcript.]

Not to be too hard on Toby, but even if Seam’s line is grammatically correct it’s still clunky and murky in its conception—at this point in the game we’ve only just been introduced to Lancer and the fact that his dad is the King, and now this line is potentially introducing yet another father/son duo that is closely connected with Lancer’s dad—is it any wonder that this line is often glossed over by fans?

The second reading, where Lancer is the “strange son,” is also awkward because the Spade King would have little need to put Lancer “into power”. Lancer was already a prince and, presumably, already wielded power in that role. Various NPCs make reference to Lancer bossing them around, and such a thing could’ve easily happened before the three kings were deposed.

If we take Seam’s line with the first reading (where the Knight has a “strange son”) and assume there were no grammatical errors, then this is the only time in chapter 1 that the Knight is ever referred to as having a son. It’s also the only time that the Knight is addressed with pronouns, implying that the Knight is male. If true, this would rule out the theory that Kris (or any potential alter ego that Kris has) is the knight, since Kris is neither male nor do they have a son. This would also rule out Susie, who’s never been a popular contender for being the Knight but is referred to as a “dark knight” on her stats page.

Who made who?

So then, who’s male, widely believed to be the Knight, and is often depicted as having one or more sons?

This (alleged) guy!

“But wait,” you might ask, “isn’t your theory that Everyman is the Knight?” Well, the Knight and his “strange son” seem to be working as a duo in the scenario that Seam outlines, given that the Spade King put both of them “into power.”

Because of Everyman’s connections to the Knight that I’ve laid out, plus the more popular theory that Gaster is the Knight, it’s possible that one may be the Knight and the other may be the Knight’s “strange son.” The way I see it, it doesn’t make a huge difference which one is which.

Now, I don’t think that Gaster and Everyman would be father and son in the strict biological sense. There are a number of reasons for this, but for starters I’m not even sure if Everyman and Gaster are the same species. My inclination is that Everyman is a monster, while Gaster may be a darkner. The latter is mostly my own guess and springboards off of a popular theory that Sans is a darkner, but it’s a whole other can of worms that I won’t get into now.

More importantly, Gaster is strongly implied to have some sort of connection to Sans and Papyrus. All three of them are also connected with special fonts that they each use. As far as I can tell, there’s no widely-used font by the name of “Everyman”, so this would imply that Everyman is not a skeleton and therefore not biologically related to them. However, there’s more than one way to start a family.

Gaster was the royal scientist in Undertale’s universe and it’s not out of the realm of possibility that he (or his potential Deltarune counterpart) could find the means to create life forms artificially.

[Image transcript: The vessel creation scene from Deltarune. The on-screen text says “YOU HAVE CREATED A WONDERFUL FORM.” End image transcript.]

Everyman could be a creation of Gaster’s and thus he’d be Gaster’s “son”.

There’s also another possibility: Everyman is Gaster’s creator. We know that the Knight is pulling new dark fountains out of the Earth. I think the Knight, regardless of who they are, must be able to survive without a dark fountain to give their body form, otherwise they wouldn’t be able to venture into areas where new fountains have yet to be pulled up. The Knight is almost certainly a lightner, and I’ve already detailed why I think Everyman is a lightner as well.

We don’t fully understand how dark fountains interact with darkners, but it’s stated multiple times that dark fountains “give form” to the Dark World.

[Image transcript: Two Deltarune screenshots side-by-side. In the left screenshot, Ralsei’s narration says “Today the FOUNTAIN OF DARKNESS-” and continues into the right screenshot, saying: “The geyser that gives this land form-” End image transcript.]

In the dummied-out manual pages, Ralsei also mentions how his dark fountain gives his body form.

[Image transcript: Ralsei’s manual excerpt, whic says “Dedicated to The unending pillar of darkness that gives my body form.” End image transcript]

Darkners need dark fountains in order to maintain their forms. They may not even be able to survive at all without them. From this point of view, when the Knight creates new dark fountains he’s bringing new darkners to life. If Gaster is a darkner himself, then it’s not unthinkable to imagine that Everyman may have brought him to life in this way and could thus be called his “father”. Seam does refer to lightners as the “creators” of darkners, after all.

[Image transcript: Seam’s dialogue box saying “They were like Gods to us. Our protectors. Our creators. Those who gave us purpose...” End image transcript.]

Ultimately the question of who’s the father and who’s the son is purely speculative. We don’t even know for sure if the Knight has a son, let alone whether it’s Everyman, Gaster, or someone else entirely. It’s very much a “the chicken or the egg?” kind of question.

[Image transcript: Two images. The right is a screenshot of the egg room with narration stating “(You received an Egg)”. End image transcript.]

Hmm...

“Seriously, who is Everyman?”

Let’s bring this home with the question we started with: Who is Everyman? I’ve gone into evidence that he existed as an actual person in Undertale and will likely play a role in Deltarune, but this doesn’t tell us much about the kind of character he is. We don’t even know if “Everyman” is his real name.

If Everyman is indeed a prominent character in Deltarune then there are two possibilities: 1.) he’s a brand new character we’ve never met before, or 2.) he’s someone that we have met before. The first option, while a strong possibility, doesn’t leave us with much to talk about, so let’s look at the second.

Right out the gate I can confidently say that Everyman is not a character that we talked to or had significant interaction with in Undertale. The obvious reason is that he was busy being stuck inside Reaper Bird and he couldn’t have been in two places at once (as far as we know). This means that Everyman would have to be a character introduced in Deltarune chapter 1.

I’ve said before that I believe Everyman is a lightner, so this would rule out any dark world characters. That leaves us with the residents of Hometown who didn’t have direct counterparts in Undertale’s story.

After careful consideration I’ve narrowed the field to two suspects:

Father Alvin

Father Alvin has always struck me as an oddity. He seems like an important member of Hometown’s community, and yet none of the other residents ever talk about him. He’s also conspicuously absent from Undertale’s universe.

The most notable thing about Father Alvin is that his church seems to worship “the Angel”.

[Image transcript: Father Alvin saying “Let the Angel’s power light your way.” End image transcript.]

Ralsei’s prophecy states that the three heroes must seal the dark fountains in order to banish the “Angel’s Heaven.”

[Image transcript: Two Deltaunre screenshots side-by-side. In the left screenshot, Ralsei’s narration says “Only they can seal the fountains.” The right screenshot continues, saying: “And banish the ANGEL’S HEAVEN.” End image transcript.]

This would put the heroes at odds with both the Knight (who’s creating fountains) and whoever is serving this Angel. We can only speculate on the Knight’s motives, but what if he’s acting in service to the Angel?

Something that isn’t brought up much in the fandom is the religious reverence that darkners give to their fountains. The King of Spades refers to the fountains that the Knight creates as “holy” fountains.

[Image transcript: Two Deltarune screenshots side-by-side. In the left screenshot, the King of Spades says “Holy Fountains, whose shadows are creating a new world...” The right screenshot continues, saying “OUR world.” End image transcript.]

The soundtrack that plays at the Fountain is called “The Holy.” Dark fountains can seemingly create life, so it’s easy to imagine the Knight viewing his own mission as some sort of holy rite.

As far as evidence goes for Alvin being Everyman/the Knight, the biggest clue is the drawing signed by Alvin that shows up in the supply closet at the end of chapter 1.

Every other object in the closet represents a part of the dark world that Kris and Susie visited, and yet at no point do they encounter a dark world manifestation of this drawing. We know that the Knight visited Card Castle previously, so this drawing could be meant to represent the Knight’s presence in that part of the dark world.

It’s also worth noting how most of the closet’s toys are arranged from left to right in the order that Kris and Susie encountered them on their journey. Alvin’s drawing is on the far right, just past the open cabinet drawer (i.e., Card Castle), implying that Alvin’s drawing was either at the fountain or that it was effectively the “next” thing that Kris and Susie would’ve encountered if they had stayed.

It’s hard to make out what the drawing could be beyond being a “poorly-drawn picture of a green turtle”, as the flavor text explains. Could it be Everyman? Or is it just a reference to Bold and Brash? Both? Neither? The world may never know. Or it may know when the full game comes out.

Can I also add how strange it is that Alvin’s drawing is in the closet to begin with? Alvin looks to be a pretty old dude, so why would his drawing still be in a school that he no longer attends? I don’t have an answer, I just think it’s weird.

Other clues that could point to Alvin being Everyman are that he is, scientifically speaking, old-looking, which would line up with my hypothesis of Undertale’s Everyman being an older monster who fell down before becoming Reaper Bird.

Alvin also vaguely resembles Everyman as far as their proportions are concerned.

It’s by no means a perfect match, especially if we factor in Alvin’s shell, but both characters possess a round head with some sort of beak or proboscis.

If Everyman actually is Father Alvin, then the title “Everyman” could be a reference to The Summoning of Everyman, a 15th-century religious morality play. I won’t get into the specifics here, but the play focuses on a character named Everyman who must prepare for his inevitable death and judgment for his deeds in life. I don’t really know how much that would tie into Deltarune’s themes or if it’s even a deliberate reference to begin with, so make of it what you will.

Father Alvin was the first character that I suspected of being Everyman when I started writing this theory, but there’s one major sticking point that prevents me from fully embracing the idea: the fact that he lacks a character portrait for his dialogue boxes.

This may seem like a minor nitpick, but dialogue portraits indicate when a character is important to the story, and it would be a pretty big oversight on Toby’s part if a (presumably) recurring antagonist wasn’t given a portrait. Even a three-scene wonder like Rouxls Kaard was given a portrait.

It’s true that recurring characters like Napstablook and Monster Kid weren’t given portraits in Undertale...

But Deltarune has greatly expanded the number of characters with portraits this time around, and we can already infer that Noelle (who had a portrait in chapter 1) will be an important character going forward:

Given Alvin’s limited dialogue in chapter 1 and his lack of a portrait, I’m more inclined to believe that he’ll end up being a minor character, in which case he’d almost certainly not be the Knight (and therefore not Everyman). But who knows, maybe Toby will give him a portrait in the full game.

Thankfully, we have another candidate who might be Everyman:

The Ice-E’s Employees

You think I’m joking? Trust me, you’ll know when I’m joking.

I didn’t initially make the connection between Ice-E’s and Everyman until I saw a post from @curioscurio that pointed me in that direction.

Let’s go back to the Everyman graffiti that appears in Hometown.

Notice how the drawing right next to it resembles Ice-E’s head? I can’t believe this was staring me in the face the whole time and I never realized the connection.

Another point in favor of the Ice-E’s workers is that we don’t even know what two of them look like. We know that Burgerpants is one, and another is implied to be the Nice Cream Bunny that we met in Undertale.

[Image transcript: Two Deltarune screenshots side-by-side. In the left screenshot, the Ice-E’s employee says “Psst, can I tell you a mascot secret? I only started working here because...” The right screenshot continues, saying “The logo made me think it was an ice-cream shop...” End image transcript.]

But this still leaves the “purple guy” and “The Warrior”, who remain in full costume for chapter 1, meaning that one of them could resemble Everyman underneath their mask.

Speaking of The Warrior, he certainly fits the bill as being “strange.” His title wouldn’t be out of place among the likes of The Knight, and his dialogue refers to the hospital’s medical staff as “white wizards”, which fits with the medieval theming that’s associated with Everyman’s mercenary cohorts in Undertale.

[Image transcript: Two Deltarune screenshots side-by-side. In the left screenshot, the Warrior says “This castle’s WHITE WIZARDs relegated me to this HEALING CHAMBER...” The right screenshot continues, saying “But my BLOOD is BOILING FOR BATTLE!!!” End image transcript.]

Speaking of the Core Mercenaries, here’s an interesting tidbit:

[Image transcript: Two Undertale screenshots side-by-side. In the left screenshot, a Core NPC says “As a youth, I would sneak out to play by this creepy flaming pit.” The right screenshot continues, saying “Since the CORE is always re-arranging, it was like a game trying to find it.” End image transcript.]

I used to assume that the Core Mercenaries were older monsters who fought in the human-monster war, which would explain their insistence on dressing up as old-timey knights and wizards. However, these lines of dialogue imply that the Mercenaries are far younger—young enough to visit the Core when they were kids.

So why would a bunch of younger monsters dress up like old-school knights and wizards? Simple: they’re LARPers. This would explain why their more casual overworld dialogue doesn’t match their overly-serious battle dialogue whatsoever—the battle is over and, thus, so is the act.

What does this have to do with Ice-E’s? Simple. The Warrior is also a LARPer. But he takes it a step further and never lets the act slip. According to Burgerpants, he terrorizes customers with war chants during his day job, and we see him keeping up the act while he’s injured in the hospital. It’s clear that he’s living in a fantasy world, and someone like that would have every reason to spend time in a strange dark world that “seems like” fantasy.

[Image transcript: Lyrics from Deltarune’s credits theme. It says: “And the places that you know seem like fantasy”. End image transcript.]

Someone like him could grow attached to such a place and want to see it spread as far and wide as possible, with no regard for how it would affect the boring “real world”. All he’d need to do is create new dark fountains to sustain this fantasy world.

I also find it interesting that The Warrior is in the hospital during chapter 1. Burgerpants claims that this is the result of “pizza-related injuries.”

[Image transcript: Two dialogue boxes from Burgerpants. Read from top to bottom, it says “The Warrior - Thankfully absent due to pizza-related injuries. Constantly terrorizing customers with war chants.” End image transcript.]

But what if there was another reason? We can see signs of “some kind of struggle” in the King of Spade’s throne room, complete with tattered wall banners.

[Image transcript: Narration in the Spade King’s throne room. The text box says “(Wall banners. They seem to have been through some kind of struggle...)” End image transcript.]

What if the Knight sustained injuries when he overthrew the three kings and had to go to the hospital afterwards? A “struggle” implies that there was some resistance involved.

Another interesting coincidence is that the previews for Deltarune Chapter 2 strongly imply that it will take place in a dark world that forms in the hospital.

Earlier previews have also implied that Noelle will have a larger role in Chapter 2, and she’d have every reason to be in the hospital visiting her father when things hit the fan.

It feels awfully convenient that a new dark world springs up right in the spot where the Warrior is. I wouldn’t be surprised if chapter 2 gives us our first glimpse of the Knight in person, and what better way than a surprise run-in with the Warrior?

Some of you may be asking why I’d suggest a minor character like The Warrior might be the Knight when he has a single line of dialogue and no dialogue portrait? Simple: characters tend not to have portraits when their face is hidden from view. We see this with Undyne in Undertale:

She doesn’t gain a dialogue portrait until after she removes her helmet. This is also true of Burgerpants in Deltarune.

So, unlike Father Alvin, The Warrior has an excuse for not having a dialogue portrait yet. While Father Alvin has some compelling evidence supporting him being the Knight/Everyman, The Warrior has no major counter-argument that I can think of (unlike Father “no portrait” Alvin), so I give The Warrior the edge as far as Everyman suspects go.

I’d also like point out that if Gaster ends up not being the Knight or the Knight’s “Strange Son,” then we could get a two-for-one deal of Father Alvin as the Knight and The Warrior as his strange son. Definitely not the most likely outcome, but technically possible! I’d imagine those two would have a hilariously awkward dynamic if they were related.

Closing Summary

Wow, this post went on for a while! Let’s summarize what we’ve learned today.

Everyman (in Undertale)

Was likely a monster who “fell down”

Became part of the Reaper Bird Amalgamate

Likely knew the Core Mercenaries

Is connected to butterfly imagery

Described as “strange”

May or may not have looked like his bullet sprite

May or may not have been connected to “mysteryman”/Gaster

May or may not have been connected to the River Person

Everyman (in Deltarune)

Is alive and active

Is known to both lightners and darkners

Can most likely travel between the light and dark worlds

Is known of by Jevil

May or may not resemble his Undertale bullet sprite

May or may not be connected to “mysteryman”/Gaster

May or may not be Father Alvin

May or may not be an Ice-E’s employee

May or may not be the Knight or the Knight’s “strange son”

The Knight

Described as “strange”

Is pulling up new dark fountains from the Earth

Has been to the dark world

Is possibly a lightner/monster

Is connected to the Spade King, who uses butterfly imagery

Overthrew the other three kings at Card Castle

Is known of by Jevil and Seam

May or may not be Everyman

May or may not be “mysteryman”/Gaster

May or may not be the “strange someone” who changed Jevil

Likely male

Likely has a “strange son”

Everyman and the Knight (similarities)

Both are likely monsters

Both are alive and active in Deltarune’s world

Both are (presumably) male

Both have a presence in the dark world

Both are known by Jevil and may have met him previously

Both are associated with butterfly imagery to some degree

Both are connected to knight imagery

Both are described as “strange”

Both may be connected to “mysteryman”/Gaster

Both are foreshadowed in Deltarune chapter 1

Final Conclusions

So what do I really think? I’m reminded of Undertale’s original Kickstarter demo and how much of the full game’s story was left out of it. Right now we’re in a similar situation with Deltarune. I can’t view any of my theories with certainty because at the end of the day I have no idea what Toby’s going to write for the full game, but I can guess.

If I had to put a number to it, I’d say the odds of Everyman making further appearances in Deltarune is 95% and the odds of him being the Knight is about 66%. There’s always the possibility that Gaster will usurp the title of Knight and leave Everyman as the Knight’s “strange son” or as the far less illustrious role of “no one particularly important”.

If Everyman is in the game, I’d give 50/50 odds that he’s one of the Ice-E’s employees, mainly due to the Warrior’s situation lining up well with Chapter 2′s (likely) setting. I’d then give a 25% chance it’s Father Alvin and the remaining 25% as “anyone else”.

Thanks for reading all of this (or skipping to the end). I’ve seen hardly anyone talk about our favorite strange little man and I just wanted to get the word about him out there. Even if you don’t agree with my conclusions, I’m happy to (hopefully) ignite further discussion over this often-overlooked character.

For now I’ve said all that I can say on the topic. All we can do is wait and see what happens. Fingers crossed.

Special thanks to @curioscurio for inspiring me to make this post in the first place.

Date published: December 10th, 2020

#deltarune #undertale #everyman #undertale theory #gaster

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melodiesofblueroses · 3 years

Text

𝘨𝘭𝘢𝘴𝘴𝘦𝘴 𝘩𝘤𝘴 𝘸/ 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘣𝘳𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘴

-𝘴𝘶𝘮𝘮𝘢𝘳𝘺: basically general eyesight and glasses hcs for each of the demon bros

-𝘨𝘦𝘯𝘳𝘦: general

Lucifer

he doesn’t like the look of glasses, so he often doesn’t wear them

he thinks that glasses are an unsightly look on him, and as diavolo’s right-hand man, lucifer wanted to look both frightening and presentable

thus, he opts for contacts most times, though he may put on his glasses once in a while when he was alone

contacts were his go to option since they were practically hidden. he doesn’t like the idea of others knowing that he had a weakness: his eyesight

(spending hours reading documents at a dimly lit desk is sure to strain anyone’s eyesight)

lucifer is farsighted, so he often doesn’t see the need to wear his prescription since he’s often standing up and presenting

plus, he had to rest his eyes every once in a while

and when he does need to see close up objects, it was usually when he was alone, so lucifer really had no trouble putting on his glasses then

since it was sort of a secret, sometimes his brothers forgot he wore them since lucifer was rarely seen with them on

whenever he did wear his glasses, they were always slightly taken aback until they remember that his eyesight sucks

when the exchange student sees him with glasses, they get a slight heart attack just from how attractive he looked (seriously, who gave him the right?)

probably pesters him to wear it more often since he looked rather dashing in them, to which he complies after much annoyance

wouldn’t admit it, but lucifer loved to see you swooning over him, so he often found himself wearing his glasses whenever you were around (only if the two of you were alone though)

Mammon

he is seen wearing glasses only when sporting his casual look, so most often others think that they’re just for show

he likes the pop of color they add to his outfit, so in a sense, they were an accessory, but they were also perscription lenses

i think that mammon has astigmatism, so he definitely needs to wear either glasses or contacts if he wants to see anything

he prefers contacts over glasses, which is why he’s often seen without his iconic tinted glasses

like lucifer, mammon didn’t think that he looked good in glasses, and he was a bit insecure of the fact that he even needed glasses, so he often chose contacts instead

(the only reason he wore glasses on his casual attire was because the tint matched the rest of the outfit. plus, he agreed that it was the only time that glasses looked good on him)

he also believes that contacts are a lot less work since he didn’t have to worry about misplacing them throughout the day

he just had to put them on in the morning then could wear his contacts all day. and they were invisible, so they wouldn’t get in the way of his usual antics

definitely has slept with his contacts on a few times since he forgot to take them out

thus, he sometimes woke up with dry and irritated eyes

when you came to the devildom, mammon realized that you seemed to absolutely love his tinted glasses, so he made it a point to wear them around much more often, if only to impress you

you think that they’re just for show at first, until you put them on and realize that they’re prescription lenses

mammon is embarrassed that you found out, but you reassure him that it didn’t matter in the slightest

Leviathan

my guy definitely has some eyesight problems from how often he strains them playing games or watching anime

since he’s nearsighted, he doesn’t really wear his prescription often since he’s always seeing things that are close to him, such as the computer monitor or manga

the only time he really wears them is if he needs to go out, but even then that’s not often

he alternates between glasses and contacts since he doesn’t really mind either. it entirely depends on his mood and whether or not he wanted to try and put in his contacts that he often struggled with

although he wears both and alternates, i feel like he may prefer glasses because he thinks that they make him look cooler

thinks it makes him look like one of those cool anime guys so levi ofc loves it

(levi definitely has pushed up his glasses more than a few times to imitate the glowing glasses thing)

plus, glasses were way easier to take on and off (levi would admit that he’s slept in his contacts a few times because he was dead tired)

he also has his glasses and contacts match up with the characters that he’s cosplaying, including wearing colored contacts in order to match the character’s eye color

levi also loves to design new glasses to go along with them

when you pointed out how cute he looked in glasses, levi swears he had an out-of-body experience

he’d never had anyone compliment him on his glasses before, so levi really takes it to heart

whenever he wears his glasses, he remembers that one compliment and becomes all flustered. you played with his heart way too much

Satan

satan always made it a habit of his to wear glasses when reading or even doing his RAD homework

although satan has 20/20 vision (he’s one of those lucky people), he still absolutely adored the look of glasses

in his mind, glasses made him look like an intellectual

since satan believed that knowledge made a person respectable, he extended that to glasses as well, falling into the generic way of thinking that those who wear glasses appear to be smarter

so he always carried decorative glasses on hand to wear whenever he was reading something

also fits with that entire academia aesthetic he was going for lol i believe that satan cares very much for looks and wants to appear put together

(plus, in his mind, he looked damn attractive in them)

for a while, his brothers think that he’s farsighted for how often they see him wearing glasses whenever he’s reading

when they gift him reading glasses for his birthday, satan laughs and says that they’re merely a fashion accessory

everyone always forgets that and mistakes him for being farsighted, as well as the exchange student when they first meet him

when you comment on how sexy you think he looks with glasses, satan feels accomplished in a sense

it’s not like he needed the validation, but it felt nice either way

he does feel a bit guilty though since you seem to believe that he was also farsighted lol

Asmodeus

asmo absolutely hates wearing his glasses

for one, he thinks that he looks absolutely dorky in them (asmo knew that he looked good in them; he just didn’t like their style)

secondly, he was embarrassed to admit that he needed prescription lenses even if it was totally normal

the only time he ever wore them was if they complimented his outfit, and even then he’d insist that it was nothing more than a fashion statement

would also wear them if he forgot to put on his contacts that morning. he didn’t want to seem like a fool as he constantly ran into things and squinted at objects from afar (one time that happened and his brothers never let him live it down)

more often than not, asmo chose to wear contacts since they never got in the way

asmo is nearsighted, so he tries his best to sit as close to objects as possible, such as always sitting in the front row of RAD (he still can’t see the board but i digress) or bringing his books way too close to his eyes

his eyesight isn’t as bad as the others though, so he could sometimes afford to go a day or so without them. things were just going to look a bit blurry from afar

one day when asmo forgot his contacts and wore glasses, you pointed out how good he looked in them and asked why he didn’t wear them more often, to which asmo is a bit taken aback

like yeah, he did look good, but you liked them? really?? it was such a strange thing to hear

when he looked in the mirror, asmo would realize that you were right

damn, he did look amazing. why didn’t he wear them more often?

would definitely make an effort to use them more afterwards

Beelzebub

like satan, beel is one of the lucky few in the house of lamentation that didn’t need glasses or contacts

his eyesight was perfect as is, so he could never understand the struggles his other brothers went through

i feel like he’d try out his one his brother’s glasses at some point just to get a feel for it

his perception would immediately falter and the entire world seemed so round. plus, wearing such strong lenses gave him a headache (seriously, what was up with levi’s eyesight?)

felt sympathetic for his brothers since their eyesight was blurry as hell

he’s the type that would help them out such as looking for their misplaced glasses

(he may have sat on them on more than one occasion since he wouldn’t have noticed them)

even if beel is practically a gentle giant, i can see him accidentally destroying his brother’s backup glasses more than once since his grip was so strong

as for fake glasses, beel wasn’t too fond of them

he really didn’t like how they looked on him. they looked bulky and a bit tacky, at least that’s what he saw

if on the off chance you complimented how well he looked in them when you once put some on him, beel would be confused

beel wouldn’t really change his mind on them, but if you said that he looked good, then maybe he should give them a second chance

Belphegor

he was the last of the trio that had perfect vision, so belphie often made it a point to rub it in his older brother’s faces

(particularly asmo who seemed to be extrememly jealous of his eyesight. he loved hiding asmo’s contacts so that he would be forced to wear his glasses that he hated so much)

though asmo was the easiest to tease, belphie absolutely loved making fun of lucifer and his “deteriorating eyesight”

belphie always had some snarky remark to comment whenever he saw lucifer passing by, such as to watch out for that little rock on the road before he tripped over it, since he couldn’t see anything in front of him

sure he may be lectured afterwards, but belphie found it to be worthwhile

he also played pranks on them, such as hiding their glasses and amusing himself as he watched them trip over their own feet as they tried to find them

he always acted innocent whenever the others asked where he hid them, acting as if he had absolutely no idea what they meant

belphie hated fake glasses with a passion since they always looked way too tacky for his tastes

not only that, but whenever he put them on, he was reminded of his older brothers, and belphie couldn’t stand that

one day when he was napping, you secretly slipped on some glasses on him to which he woke up to

he grumbled to take them off, way too tired and sleepy to move, and ignoring your comments that he looked so cute in them

when he was alone, however, belphie would put some on due to your compliments, and look at himself in the mirror with them on

as much as he hated to admit it, you did have a point, but he’d never let anyone know that

#obey me #obey me shall we date #obey me lucifer #obey me mammon #obey me leviathan #obey me satan #obey me asmodeus #Obey me beelzebub #obey me belphegor #headcanons #general #sincerely a glasses wearing fan lol

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callistolivia · 3 years

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Hello. How would one go about rectifying their birth chart? I have no idea what time I was born and won’t be able to find my birth parents but I really want to know my rising sign and house placements. Thank you very much 💚

I’m not sure if Tumblr changed the way you can search for keywords or tags on someone’s blog, but I answered this in depth before and I can’t find it now. Oh well, I’ll explain this again and hopefully I won’t forget to include something;

First things first, if you know the hospital you were born at (if you were born at a hospital), you can actually order the birth certificate from them that would have your birth time. Obviously not all hospitals may have this option, but if it’s an avenue that you can and haven’t tried to take yet, definitely do this. If you live in the US, you may need to contact your state’s Vital Statistics department and get it from them instead.

If this isn’t an option for you, read on

1. Physical Appearance - You may refer to my post on physical appearance to help you with this. Just keep in mind when reading that post that those descriptions are the extremes of each sign and there’s a very big chance that you have features from several different signs. In addition to that, the only real life examples I could provide in that post were celebrities who also have features from several different signs than just the one they are being used as an example for. Also, some people just look almost entirely like their Sun sign versus their Ascendant, at least that’s what I find when I try to guess people’s sign.

2. Day VS Night - If you know if you were born before or after 12:00 noon, that will narrow your ascendant possibilities down by half! This is because if you were born during the day, the Sun will always be ABOVE the ascendant-descendant line (So, in the 12th, 11th, 10th, 9th, 8th, or 7th house). If you were born at night, the Sun will always be BELOW the ascendant-descendant line (in the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, or 6th house). With this knowledge, there will only be 6 different charts that will work where the Sun is above or below (day vs night) the ascendant-descendant line.

3. The Chart Ruler - Depending on what sign the ascendant sits in will dictate what planet rules the birth chart. For example, if you’re a Cancer ascendant, then the Moon is the chart ruler. The chart ruler is as vital to the entire makeup of the birth chart as the Sun, Moon, and Ascendant itself. The chart ruler indicates prominent themes and overall focus to an individual’s life. If you play around with different ascendants, really analyze the condition of the chart ruler for each other. What house is it in? What other planets is it aspecting?

4. The Moon and Neptune - SOMETIMES the Moon and Neptune can be indicators of either an individual who was adopted as a child or someone who is unsure of their roots. You can play around with these placements and see if in the end any of them really click with the rest of your chart rectification;

Moon in the 10th house = Indicator of someone who was adopted as it is the furthest away from the 4th house

Neptune in the 4th house = Indicator of someone who was adopted and/or confusion and uncertainty of roots/upbringing

Moon (and/or Sun) in the 12th house = Uncertainty of parental figures

Ruler of the 4th house in the 12th house (e.g. if the 4th house is ruled by Aries and Mars is in the 12th house) = Uncertainty of roots

Ruler of the 12th house in the 4th house (e.g. if the 12 house is ruled by Cancer and the Moon is in the 4th house) = Indicator of someone who was adopted/being fostered or has parental figures other than their biological parents

5. Life Events - This is a really big one for chart rectification and it’s easier if the person trying to rectify their chart has lived a lot of life. Write down all of your major life events, I mean ALL of them. This can be relationships, major illnesses/broken bones, deaths, traumas, achievements, education, births, transitions, and so on. Things like relationships and illnesses are almost always indicated in the birth chart. The 7th house and planets in it often indicate the people that come into our lives seeking a relationship with us or the relationships one pursues. Specifically planets in the 7th house can indicate the likeness of the people that come in to your life or the circumstances in which you meet them. The ascendant can indicate what someone is “prone” to health wise, even if it’s something as minor as acne or cracky joints or astigmatism. These are just some things to consider that are very helpful in deciphering someone’s birth time.

6. Recent Transits - To coincide with life events, if you’ve had any recent life events, you may observe them through transits. Particularly focusing on retrograde periods, Jupiter transits and returns, Saturn transits and returns are really helpful. It wasn’t very long ago that we had the great Jupiter/Saturn conjunction; was there anything in particular that happened for you as that conjunction approached? Mercury is currently retrograding and people tend to see its effects based on the house it’s transiting over. What area of your life do you feel a sudden urge to change? Did you try to change it? Was the outcome reckless or impulsive? Mercury is retrograding in Aquarius right now so a lot of people may feel the impulse to change something very quickly or recklessly.

7. Your Interests - Your wants in life are a huge component in describing who you are. Your birth chart, in a lot of ways, will compliment your interests. Your interests include self expression (ascendant), your hobbies (5th house), your attractions and relationships (5th and 7th), your career goals (6th and 10th), your desires in general (the house Venus occupies), and your opportunities/dreams (the house Jupiter occupies). Big career goals? Maybe Aries is at the 10th house. Artistic inclinations? Maybe Venus is in the 5th. Wanna marry a Scorpio? Maybe Scorpio cusps the 5th or 7th house or Mars sits in one of these houses. Shooting for a PhD? Maybe Jupiter is in the 9th house. Weird fetish for hands and arms? Gemini on the 5th perhaps. It’s almost always all there as long as you’re not making any big stretches (like for example... A lot of people wanna be rich or famous and they don’t have Jupiter in the 2nd or 10th house). It has to make sense at the end of the day and align with the other criteria. Also, if you’re someone who is fashion oriented, these posts 1 2 of mine might interest you as I drew correlations to specific styles and the signs (there’s 12 separate posts in total, but you can find them all linked in those two).

8. Don’t use placidus - With chart rectifications, only use the equal or whole sign house system. Since chart rectifications are just a speculated chart, placidus will over complicate things with uneven houses and intercepted signs.

This is everything that comes to mind. I’m sure there’s lots of resources on google as well for chart rectification. I hope this helps though

#ask #astrology #chart rectification

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ahedderick · 3 years

Text

The optics of the situation

Last week I visited a small local jeweler’s to get my watch band fixed and order a ring for my daughter’s sweet sixteen birthday. An unremarkable errand, except for the unusual good nature of the jeweler himself. I met him during the Episode of the Curséd Diamond.

I have bad eyesight. I mean, truly dreadful eyesight. Nearsighted by 20/400 and a dash of astigmatism. Glasses correct it; I have contacts for doing martial arts or trying to look fancy to go out. The last few years, though, I have been having a harder and harder time with detail tasks like sewing or artwork. Both of which I do rather a lot of. I got a second pair of glasses for close-work, but they just aren’t good enough. I end up taking my glasses off entirely and holding the sewing or the artwork just a few inches from my nose (3 to 6 inches from my nose is the ONLY place I have clear vision without glasses!)

Anyhow, the jeweler had a visor around his head to work on my watchband. I admired it, and he immediately pulled it off, loosened up the band, and handed it to me to try. Like a kid with his favorite toy; You gotta try THIS! I put it on and held my hand in front of my face. It was amazing. I loved it! I could see tiny detail so well. And it fits right over regular glasses and it’s fairly comfortable! (the name of it is OptiVisor)

So I may end up with a jeweler’s-style visor to paint and sew. Which will likely make me spend even MORE time thinking about Star trek than I ordinarily do, but that’s no problem.

So, the watch. That I got for Christmas 2019. The band fits now. Sometimes I procrastinate so MUCH.

#vision #eyewear #eye problems #glasses

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dishsoapandcards · 2 years

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THE PURSUE OF HAPPINESS (Chapter 1 or something)

Please acknowledge that this is a joke story with Inscryption characters. That’s. That’s all I have to say. Goobert woke up one morning, the sun hitting him right in the eyes, and boy, that isn't a good thing for him, really. Goobert suffered from a case of astigmatism in both of his eyes, so when he moved away from the sun's blinding rays, he had these weird wiggly things in his vision. Kinda like a bunch of tiny, flying worms. How annoying...

Though, he wasn't bothered by the little worms he hallucinated. He stood up next to his bed with a grin after rubbing his eyes with his goopy green hands. "GOOOOD MORNING, TOWER!" He yelled at the top of his nonexistent lungs, dashing over to his closet to get some clothes on since he slept practically naked (it's not like he had anything to cover anyway.) His closet was a humourous sight, it was a walk-in closet with duplicates of his same exact robe, extra-large, purple, and made from fine silk, laced in a gold yellow around the sleeves and such.

He didn't mind though, that was his fashion. He unhooked one of the robes and slipped it on. "I LOOK FANTASTIC!" He yelled, though truthfully he looked very average. Goobert continued to grin widely before he walked out of his room with his new clothing on, sliding down the staircase since he had little to no care for walking down. And then he went into the kitchen, where Magnificus, Lonely Wizard, and Piked Mage were sitting at the table.

Piked Mage looked annoyed while she was texting on her little Samsung phone. Or she was looking something up. Goobert went to her first, grabbing her shoulders and glancing at her phone out of curiosity. "WHATCHA DOOOOIN'?"

"GAH-!" Piked shrieked, turning off her phone screen and shoving it up to her chest. "Privacy, please?" She seemed a bit anxious now.

"OH. OH PRIVACY, YEAH THAT'S A THING! UH, HOW'S EVERYONE DOING THIS FINE MORNING?!" Goobert stood on the kitchen table.

"Get down from there," Magnificus demanded sternly.

"Oh- RIGHT-" Goobert began to frown a bit as he sat in the only chair available.

Magnificus cleared his throat, "However, to answer your question, I'm decent, I suppose." Magnificus replied though he sounded quite annoyed for whatever reason. Goobert assumed one of the other Scrybes must've ticked him off earlier.

"I'm good." Piked spoke in a monotonous tone, going back to staring at her phone. Goobert didn't understand why she liked that thing so much. Sometimes, he wanted to just take it away from her, but he also did that once before and got shanked two hundred times in seven seconds from her. He shivered at the memory.

Lonely let out a small growl (like a "kkrrggg") as he looked over at Goobert, "I WANNA KILL A GUY! I WANNA KILL A MAN AND MAYBE ANOTHER!!"

"EMMM... W-WHY'S THAT?" Goobert asked his small friend.

"SOMEONE STOLE MY KIT-KAT BAR!! THE CHOCOLATE... IT STIMULATES, IT'S GONE NOW, I MUST AVENGE MY CANDY BAR! I WILL DESTROY THE WHOLE WOOOOORLD!" He slammed his tiny fists on the table, breathing heavily.

"Dude, it's been on the counter the entire time." Piked replied, pointing over to an opened kit-kat bar. The attached kit-kats were all bit together rather than snapped apart.

"Oh- KIT-KAAAAAAAAAAT!" The feral tiny creature screamed aloud, skittering over to the unsatisfyingly eaten candy bar.

Piked snorted and rolled her eyes (presumably, at least,) before she went back to her little phone.

"What's up with you guys today? C’MON, LET’S DO SOMETHING TOGETHER!!" Goobert forced a wide smile, getting out of his chair and gesturing for everyone to get up. But nobody listened or even glanced at him. That frown of his came back as he sighed...

...The rest of the day was very long and unamusing, to Goobert anyways. He went back into his bedroom which was almost as messy as a splatter room. He face-planted into his pillow on his bed, not finding even his bed comfortable anymore. Goobert groaned and adjusted himself to stare at the ceiling of his room, resting his hands on his chest as he felt alone and boring. Why weren't the others happy like him? Has he done something wrong? He questioned things that he usually wouldn't! He thought his 'tower family' was perfect, but he was now questioning his relationship with everyone...

As everything fell into silence, Lonely Wizard snuck into Goobert's room after sensing an unusual wave of sadness coming from his friend. Lonely growled as he crawled over to Goobert before sitting right on his friend's stomach. "Hi."

"Oh," Goobert forced a grin, "Hey, I guess."

"What's going on? KKKRRGGG DO I NEED TO DESTROY SOMETHING?" Lonely got on all fours and arched his back, glancing around while hissing softly. His pupils slit, giving him a more cat-like appearance.

"Lonely, it's- eerrughh... It's fine... Just, Magnificus and Piked have been pretty moody lately-" Goobert sighed.

"AND RECLUSIVE. I DON'T LIKE IT." Lonely said, shaking his head.

Goobert gave a more genuine smile, "I see, I'm not the only one who's noticed..."

"NOPE! BUT HEY, I HEARD SOMETHING ABOUT THIS UH..." Lonely had to think, "OH YEAH!! SOME GOLDEN TULIP THING!! IT RADIATES STIMULATION AS LONG AS IT'S ALIVE! MAYBE WE COULD GO AND GET IT, THEN BRING IT BACK TO THE TOWER!"

"A golden tulip of happiness?" That peeked Goobert's attention, "Where would we look for it though?"

"UM... I-I-IN SOME MEADOW WITH BLUE AND PINK FLOWERS, GOLDEN YELLOW GRASS, YEAH!" Lonely's tail wagged as he hopped off Goobert.

Goobert was quiet, but he got out of his bed and began to search through his room. He grabbed a bag and put it around his neck as he searched through his drawers. Not much was in the drawers besides art supplies, potions, elixirs, and what seemed to be a few pocket knives. He decided to take a few of each, which quickly filled his bag. "L-Lonely? You miiiiind p-packing some- arrgh- food? It may be a while of t-traveling."

"Waaaait, W-WE'RE GOING RIGHT NOW?" Lonely cocked his head.

Goobert simply nodded as he stood up.

"OH, OH OKAY-!" The lonely wizard skittered out of the room nervously.

#inscryption #inscryption goobert #inscryption lonely wizard #inscryption fanfic #fanfic #inscryption pike mage #student trio #writing #inscryption writing #joke story #the pursue of happiness #dish soap cards

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chaos-in-bright-pink-hair-dye · 2 years

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Okay, but CDs as a concept are also so insane because it's like. You've these tiny little grooves and you use concentrated light particles to tell the variation in those grooves that are so small you need special microscope lenses to even be able to see them. Like, it's a vinyl, but if you had the entire contents of the library of Alexandria etched on it.

Also, I do have an answer for the bat echolocation thing! First off, bats and moles are not fully blind, their vision is more like if you had really bad astigmatism, but both use really tiny hairs around the size of capilary veins as a more accurate way of determining depth, shape and size of objects around them. In the case of bats, these hairs help determine how far away something is based on how long it takes for a sound to return, because sound acts a lot like light in that when it hits an object it'll bounce back from where it came from. If the path is clear the sound will simply fade away before it can return to the bat, though of course sound in general can only travel so far in a certain frequency range, so the bat repeatedly has to make noise to know whether there's something in it's way say a meter further than last time.

Humans and pretty much any other organism that has the ability to hear things has these tiny little hairs, but we have far less (located in our inner ear) therefore while we can hear the sound a bat makes, we cannot hear it returning because it's simply out of range!~ Maxx 🧷, who arguably spent too much time watching nature documentaries as a kid

They are awesome, you can literally replicate something so delicate at home using not so expensive device, plus it doesn't get worn down as quickly as vinyls which all sounds mind blowing but then you realize it's actually old fashioned and we have even crazier and more effective stuff, I might not be old enough to remember when floppy disks and tapes were being used but that doesn't make it all any less impressive

And CDs also diffract light and create that nice rainbow effect so that's a great win :)

Actually meant that more as a rhetorical question used to express my amazement but that's on me, thank you so much for this great and long explanation! And well I've never heard some of the details which are very cool!! Many organisms and biological functions are truly so amazing and crazy, probably even more so than technology ('cause yk it all somehow develop on accident....?)

#yeah truly thank you for the explanation bats are really amazing #🧷#not danger days stuff #spilling the power pup

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skinks · 4 years

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Is there a lighthouse keeper Eddie fic???

If there is, I don’t know about it :0 I just searched the tag on ao3 and there’s exactly ONE lighthouse keeper Eddie fic that I can see but it’s one chapter, unfinished, and was posted in May, so it doesn’t look like it.

I’d like to see it though. An Eddie Kaspbrak who self-isolates to an offshore Maine rock he can control entirely himself, control who and what comes on and off his island. He wears knit sweaters and yellow oilskins but still refuses to grow a beard... he’s hiding from people and his mother and attachment and danger, even though he does have an objectively fairly dangerous job - it’s all about being king of his own island, serving a purpose.

Maybe Richie is the first mate of Ben’s fishing boat that comes once a week, or every other week, to resupply Eddie’s lighthouse. Thinks he’s a real fucking comedian. His hair curls out from under his beanie and Eddie totally doesn’t watch them sail away every time and go back inside to think of something he could have said to make Richie laugh.

God, Richie has an eyepatch (technically for his left eye astigmatism but he milks the fuck out of the pirate thing) and he absolutely makes a ton of Rapunzel jokes about Eddie’s tower. Rapunzed, Rapunzed, let down your dick—

Eddie doesn’t get cell reception out there, but his radio does tune in all fuzzy to the closed harbour frequency. Richie uses it to bug him and also he brings Eddie all kinds of junk to keep him entertained, along with regular supplies. Puzzles, books, CDs.... nudie mags... Eddie’s like, “I don’t....... need those,” and they have a weird Not Conversation conversation about it and it’s all very tense.

Richie wants him to use the lighthouse to do morse code to shore but Eddie’s like “you’re aware that would sink like, a dozen crews at any one time, right? You know what my ONE job is?”

“Ooh, is it being bewitched by mermaids? Writing the great American novel and then going nuts out here? I should bring Billy along next time, you can go full Shining on each other—”

“Who the fuck is BILLY - OH my god get back in your stupid boat, stop leaning out!!!”

Richie always pokes around the lighthouse during resupplies, keeps invading Eddie’s spaces to find out if he’s lonely or not. Eddie is lonely. Eddie is so lonely that a lot of the time it doesn’t feel like he’s a real person in the real world until that boat comes putting over the horizon, but for a long time he had figured it was a worthwhile trade-off for feeling safe. It takes Eddie months to figure out Richie’s rota and even longer to muster up the courage to ask if he’d like to hang out and keep Eddie company during his free week.

Eddie also screws up the courage to put in orders for a couple of lobsters and some wine in the resupply, even though it’s just two bros chilling in a lighthouse playing cards, cooking, spitting off the light deck, talking, sunbathing, laughing, stargazing... Eddie even lets himself grow a beard...

Nothing happens during the week and Eddie’s so frustrated. Fishermen are almost always straight but he’d THOUGHT Richie was into it. He keeps catching himself in all these maudlin thoughts and he hates it - maybe he’s spent too much time on the damn rock if he’s started comparing himself to the lighthouse but that’s how he feels. He hasn’t ever felt like this, like he’s shining at Richie with everything he has and saying notice me, notice me, please. What a fucking juxtaposition, to be the light that saves someone by only ever pushing them away.

Anyway, it’s fraught. Richie leaves at the end of the week, things go on as steady as the tides. Eddie does come ashore once every quarter to deal with finances and his mom. Either he stays near her assisted living complex or in a motel, but he gets word that she’s passed away, and has to come early. Richie offers to put him up in his place while Eddie handles everything, the will, the funeral. He meets all Richie’s friends, not just Ben from the boat.

Metaphorically, Eddie comes back to the (dry) land of the living and of course Richie’s in LOVE with him but couldn’t do anything about it because a) he was scared and b) he can’t live on a rock, even if it did work out, and Eddie was hiding from what his mother did to him so compromise didn’t seem like an option. But she’s gone. Eddie’s letting himself feel things. Richie might have had more people around him, but you can be achingly lonely even in company if you still make an island of yourself. They get a beach house, or maybe go somewhere warmer and drier, but not before they bang each other’s brains out in broad salty daylight on the deck of an otherwise empty boat, the end

#FICLET #!!!!! LIGHTHOUSE EDDIE

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broken-clover · 4 years

Text

AU-gust Day 21- Professional Rivals (Very, very late)

...yeah. I am. Very behind. But I’m trying to work on it

I wasn’t entirely sure how to interpret this prompt. I ended up going with something a bit superhero-esque again, but a lot more lighthearted than the last one, sort of inspired by Dr. Doofenschmirtz and Perry the Playpus. Nothing too dark or serious, just kind of dumb.

Sin let the weight of his body more than anything else push the door open to his apartment as soon as he felt the lock click. He managed to avoid stumbling over and hitting the carpet face-first, but only barely. At least he didn’t have to worry about anyone seeing him in the state he was in. Though he did notice a pair of slip-ons by the door, which made his shoulders sag further with an emotion he didn’t have a word for.

“Hey, Mattie.” He called into the empty space, slumping against the door behind him. “I’m back.”

Soft footsteps echoed somewhere in the bathroom. “Sin? You’re home already?”

He managed to stand himself up again and take a few tentative steps, clinging onto the gash on his arm that had just barely begun to clot. “Yeah, ran out of tasks to do so they let me out early. Bridget on the night shift again?”

“No, he should be home in a few minutes, hence why I was so surprised it was you and not him.” Sin sat down on his bed and watched as the silhouette in the bathroom moved towards the doorframe. “He’s bringing pizza with him, though, so at least we have that to look forward-

The two of them paused in place, completely halted by the sight of each other’s state.

“...Wow.” They said, in perfect unison. “You look terrible.”

Sin ran a hand through his hair, immediately regretting it when he realized he was staining it with blood. “Hehe. Yeah, rough day at work today.”

“That looks remarkably painful.” Bedman limped over, a hand hovering over Sin’s cut arm. “You’re all scraped up...what happened?

++++++

Sin soared over the cityscape in a ball of lightning, sparks crackling off his skin in iridescent arcs. He wiped the blood running from his nose and tried to focus on the dark cloud hovering up ahead.

“You’re gonna have to hit harder than that to do me in, big guy!” He shouted over the rush of wind. With a few more sharp bursts, he was at eye-level with the peculiar contraption. “Brought a new toy today? Hope it’s sturdier than the one I trashed last week!”

His taunting was interrupted by a series of metallic clicks. A dozen or so little objects were ejected from the hovercraft, which unfolded into hovering metal discs that immediately began chasing after him.

“W-whoa- !” Sin shouted, barely managing to dodge their sharp blades.

“Don’t be getting cocky, dear Mr. Raiden!” A warped, mechanical voice resounded from the main machine. “You look so cute scared out of your mind!”

Sin grinned back at him. “Y’think I’m scared, Oneiroi?” He fired off another bolt, making one of them explode. “I’m just hoping these ones are an actual challenge this time!”

Heroics weren’t quite where he’d seen himself ending up, but he couldn’t have been happier. Saving the day, stopping the bad guy, and getting out a bit of extra energy. It wasn’t the most high-stakes hero town, he was the only one there, after all (and he couldn’t remember the last time Oneiroi had made a fully serious plan as far as he knew) but Sin was perfectly happy where he was.

Well, most of the time. In his distraction, a blade whizzed by, drawing blood and leaving a mark Sin didn’t even feel until a few moments later.

The remote drones immediately freezed in the air, bobbing harmlessly. “Oh- oh shit.” The electronic voice’s tone suddenly shifted, from aggrandizing and pompous to concerned. “That wasn’t supposed to do that. You okay?”

“Nggh- I’m fine.” He wasn’t done for the day, and he certainly wasn’t going to throw in the towel as soon as he’d gotten nicked! That was just pathetic, for both of them.

“Are you sure? I can give you a minute to sit down-”

Grinning under his mask, Sin grabbed the nearest drone and spun before hurling it right back at where it had come from, wreathed in electricity.

“Sit on this!”

++++++

“Bit of a funny story.” Replied Sin, grinning with a bit of cheek. “Was helping deliver another truckload of slate across the 4 & 15, and I guess they did a shitty job blowing up the tires or something, whole thing toppled right into some poor old lady’s backyard!”

His roommate seemed to find it much less funny, mouth opening in quiet shock before he uneasily sat down on the nearest bed.

“A car accident?? And you didn’t think to tell Bridget or I about this? Not even a text?!”

Sin threw up his hands, immediately wincing and going back to grabbing his arm. “Easy, man! I was fine, It wasn’t a big deal! Besides, you didn’t mention whatever happened to you.” He gestured to the other, a lot more carefully. “What’s with that ding on the back of your head? And why’s your wrist bandaged up?”

++++++

“DANGER. DANGER. SHIELD TAKING DAMAGE.”

“ -agh!” the projectile had managed to knock his ship’s gyroscope off a bit when it struck, throwing him into the far wall console. He winced at the sore, and not to mention wet spot on the back of his head when he went to touch it. He’d seen much worse, but it would definitely take a few days to heal.

He knew he was vulnerable, but a second hit didn’t come. “Uh, you okay in there?” A slightly muffled voice came through the speakers. “Too much?”

After making sure it hadn’t been damaged, Bedman patched through to the speaker system with his helmet. “Are you being facetious? That hardly scuffed my outer plating! You’re going to have to do better than that to damage- khh- ow-” He winced, immediately sitting back down as soon as he’d tried to prop himself up with his free hand. Had he twisted it? At least it wasn’t his writing arm…

“Seriously, need a breather?” The other said.

“N-no! I’m perfectly fine!” He managed to scrabble to his knees with one arm, clinging onto the control panel for support as he pulled himself up, panting with effort. He tried to grin wickedly. “But while you were distracted, Raiden, you have unwittingly lowered your guard! Take this!”

He slammed a fist down on one of the large, brightly-colored buttons (a bit cliche, but they were helpful for his astigmatism). The sound of rockets firing off was supposed to sound, but he found himself tilting his head at the silence.

“Uh...Oneiroi?” Raiden’s voice came through again. “Tech error?”

“No! No, I’m sure I just hit the wrong-” He smacked it again, but still nothing. “Um…”

A little sigh followed it. “Yeah, let’s- let’s take five, okay?”

++++++

“Well, erm, there was a bit of an incident down at the office.” He shrugged innocently. “Shiina asked me to refill the printer trays, and I thought it would be a good idea to bring the paper bundles up the stairs- you know, exercise and building muscle and all that- but I wasn’t as careful as I could have been, I suppose, and I...erm, fell down from the top step.”

Sin cringed. “Yikes. That’s gotta hurt. Definitely made a good call, wrapping it up.”

“And it looks like you should do the same.” Bedman walked off and came back with the first-aid kit and a wet washcloth, the latter of which he pressed against Sin’s arm. “Just sit still. So aside from that, was the rest of your day okay?”

“Yeah, totally, everything was fine. You?”

“I was having a bit of a rough patch, but I had a nice talk with one of the other coders, that was nice.”

“Oh, really?”

++++++

The front panel of the hovercraft had folded over into a neat little platform that now hosted a cooler and a foldout chair.

“You don’t drink, right? Lemon-Lime Fizz?” The villain asked, offering a can to his rival. Raiden continued to hover a few feet away, though in a perfectly comfortable lounge.

“Ooh, yeah, toss me that.” He cracked the can open as soon as it hit his fingers. “So what’s up? You seem out of it.”

Oneiroi tapped fingers on his helmet. “I guess I just feel a little off today. Didn’t expect you would notice.”

“Aww, don’t be like that, man! You’re my nemesis! I notice these things.”

He supposed that was true, and it was nice. He could remember nervously typing up a memo on Heroes4Villains.com (‘M25 evil engineer, coder and aspiring megalomaniac seeking monogamous hero rival, serious applicants only, please!) at a fellow villain’s behest. He’d never had a real nemesis, but he was happy having Raiden. A bit dense, but he was a skilled electromancer and he made for an excellent enemy to battle on a regular basis.

He thought a moment before speaking. “Am I not adequately menacing? I’m worried I’ve gotten...a bit out of practice, as it were.”

Raiden blinked in shock, before shaking his head and waving him down. “Nah, man! You’re totally menacing! Those new drones of yours were super scary!”

“You really thought so?”

“Yeah!”

“Maybe I should commit to the motif a bit more?” He pulled out a roll of blueprints and unfurled it. “I had a concept saved for an army of robotic sheep with laser eyes, but the outer casing was complicated and I wasn’t sure if it was too...what’s the word…’hokey?’ I’m no Terumi or anything but I’d like to avoid coming across as too silly, you know?”

“I get you, totally.” Raiden nodded. “I think a lot of villains aren’t into the whole ‘motif’ thing anymore, but I totally get wanting to have a theme. And those tend to be some of your most creative plots! Remember the time you flooded city hall with nightmare gas during the benefactor’s dinner? That was iconic!”

Oneiroi looked down at his blueprints again. “Perhaps I could give this model another go...I know I didn’t exactly have a whole plan thought out for next tuesday. Maybe I could use my laser sheep to kidnap the mayor…?"

The other man smiled in approval. “Sounds good to me! Mayor Whitefang sounded like he needed a break from desk work too, he could probably use another kidnapping-for-ransom. It’s been a while since you did that!”

As he went to say something, a light began to blink and beep on Oneiroi’s gauntlet. “I wasn’t expecting that to pop up so soon.”

“Got a call or something?”

“Promised I’d help another villain remodel their evil lair, I wanted to cancel but they couldn’t get anyone else to help out. Is it fine if I leave early?”

Raiden nodded again. “Sure, sure man, by all means. I get it. Uh, and this is why you never underestimate the power of the good guys?”

“Of course. Curse you, Raiden? I’ll beat you next time?”

++++++

“...Yeah. It was nice.”

“Well, guess it wasn’t that bad of a day after all!” Sin beamed, throwing his bandaged arm around his roommate’s shoulders as soon as he had finished. “And now, all we’ve gotta do is chillax and wait! Hopefully Bridget ‘ll be back soon with dinner.”

“I don’t suppose we would happen to be getting garlic knots, as well…?

“You know it!”

“Excellent.”

#AU-gust #writing #guilty gear #Sin Kiske #Bedman

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olderthannetfic · 4 years

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It’s International Fanworks Day and also the 30th and final post in this series. If you follow my tumblr, you know that my true fandom isn’t buddy cops or Highlander or any of those things. No, my true fandom is...

WANK

No matter which bitchy piece of fujo-course nonsense you’re looking at on tumblr, no matter which debate about WNGWJLEO or women in slash or fanfiction vs. media you're reblogging, your grandma was having that fight in a zine somewhere in 1985 and at Escapade in the 90s.

Here’s a vid review from 2002:

"History Repeating," [...] was an Amanda vid. In-fucking-credible. Who knew? Who knew I could like Amanda? Who knew there were fresh HL clips I hadn't seen a thousand times before in HL vids? (Of course, as someone pointed out, she had her own spin-off.) This rocked--sharp, fast cutting and pretty, pretty shots, with a hot bisexy vibe running through it. And, you know, people like to say that there's all this self-hating misogyny in fans--you know, that women hate shows about women, hate women characters breaking up the OTP, etc. But when you see a femme-centric vid like this bring down the house, you really have to wonder. Is it misogyny, really, or is just that we usually see a bunch of crap representations of women in media and resist them?

So on the theme of There Is Nothing New Under The Sun, here is a selection of past Escapade panels on gender, representation, and problematicness:

1993 - Anti-Feminism in Slash Fandom (Or, how 'it was never this good with a woman' syndrome... where are the women, and why do we care?)

1995 - Why Lesbians Read Slash - (What's the attraction? Why do they care? Why do they write it?)

1996 - Character Bisexuality: Convenient fiction or character trait? (Is this a good compromise between "We're not gay, we just love each other" and "I was gay all along and just faking it with women"? Or is this too easy? Special mention for the stereotypical bisexual villian who's evil, sexy, and can come on to everyone.)

1996 - Female Heroes: Female Empowerment, or male power in women's bodies? (Give a woman a gun and make her really tough. Wow, cool! yes, or no? Are we celebrating women, or are we merely putting breasts on male action heroes? Heroines under discussion may include (but not be limited to) Sara Connor, Ripley, Vasquez, Thelma & Louise.)

1997 - Gender Astigmatism (The Gender Continuum: in what we read, in what we write, and what we are, there is always a connection with a point on the gender continuum. How do our definitions of "feminine" and "masculine" influence our creativity? Where do bisexual characters fit in? (besides there, you dirty-minded person!)

1998 - Xena: Does Girl-Slash Get Us Going? (Xena is the first show with a feminine couple to be really popular. What kind of slash fans are interested? Does gender orientation matter? Or do slash fans love slashy couples regardless of their gender? Can m/m fans be 'converted' to f/f fans?)

1998 - Bastards & the Women Who Love Them (When Methos says, "you live to serve me," any normal '90s woman says, "I don't think so!... or does she? A happy contemplation on the virtues of handsome thugs.)

1998 - Slash: a Continuation of Women's Writing, led by Constance Penley (In case you didn't know, in her recent book NASA/TREK (yes, the slash is intentional), she addressed slash as a continuum of women's writing, combining women's romance, and the male quest romance. Join her for a discussion of slash -- where it was, where it is, where it might be going.)

1998 - The Trauma of Slash Fans in Het Fandoms (Or, what to do when find women doing all that cool, tough-guy stuff you love.)

1999 - Male Slash Fans - Welcome Voice, or Infringement? (Slash is written by women for women — or is it? The Internet has attracted new fans, including the "male slash fan". Who is he? What does he think of what "we" do? Do we care?)

2002 - Femslash (General discussion on female/female slash fiction. If Buffy wanted something cold and hard between her legs, why didn't she just choose silicon?)

2003 - Slash: Feminist political act or really good porn?

2005 - Where have all the lesbians gone? (When some slash lists explicitly state m/m only, where do you go for femslash? Are there any hot femslash couples? Pimp your femslash fandom here, or bemoan the lack of strung female characters in the current conservative social climate.)

2007 - Femslash: The Other Love That Dare Not Speak Its Name (Femslash. It's a work that makes some of our hearts leap for joy and inspires complete and total disinterset—or even dislike and disdain—in others. Where can we find the good stuff? What makes it good? And what's up with the haters?)

2007 - SGA: The Women of Atlantis (What do we like about how the women of SGA are written and portrayed, and what makes us wince? What do we think about how their issues are being woven into the show's narrative?)

2008 - Gay is Not Slash (...even though slash is sometimes gay. The current argument about m/m romances by women as taking recognition *away* from male gay writers, depends on m/m writing being intended as gay lit. And slash, for one, isn't, even if there can be overlap. What overlaps? What doesn't? What examples do fans like?

2009 - Female Character Stories: Halfamoon, Full Moon or Just Moony (F/f slash, and other stories centered on female characters, are gaining visibility in fandom. Are there things fens will write about women that we won't about men? (Given MPreg, *are* there?) Should f/f be like m/m, or is it unavoidably different?)

2011 - My ***** is Not Ideologically Driven, But is it Homophobic (Slash fandom often sees itself as a mostly liberal community. IDIC, right? But recently there's been a slash backlash: it's anti-feminist, a 'symptom' of internalized misogyny. We're 'erasing' the women characters after all. Is slash homophobic? Does slash fandom appropriate gay culture? Is it awesome and ennobling as it makes us happy in our panties, or is all that self-hatred bubbling just beneath the surface of our porn?)

2012 - Natural Woman (We've lamented the lack of strong, believable female characters (who dress appropriately). But now we have them: Gemma Teller and Audrey Parker; Salt and Haywire; we've got Bechdel-passing women who look like they can throw a punch. Still, most of them are in the sci-fi or action genre, so are we really seeing progress? And what are we doing with them, as fans?)

2012 - Don't Call It a Bromance (It's Just Canon) (TPTB are increasingly aware of slash, and bromance is regular fare on TV canon these days. Does overt bromance make the fic and art hotter or just vanilla? Is there an anti-slash backlash in our shows? Is the emphasis on men's relationships making women disappear? Inquiring minds want to know. If you have answers, theories, or just want to squee, join in the fun!)

2014 - (The End of?) Ladybashing in Slashfic (Slashfic used to regularly feature bashing of female characters. Now, blatant bashing seems less fashionable. If you recognize this trend, let's talk! Were most ladybashing fics ones for juggernaut pairings in megafandoms, or were they everywhere? What's causing the change: more women in leading roles/ensemble casts, fic writers being more conscious to avoid bashing ladies even if they're not their favorites, more willingness to blame show writers' bad writing (instead of the character being just bad/evil/stupid) for bad female characters, or something else entirely?)

2015 - Fifty Shades of Fandom (Fifty Shades of Grey has become the representation of fan fiction in mainstream culture. It’s bad fan fiction, and it’s being used to ridicule women while making millions off women readers and viewers. Can we connect with these women: proto-fans who would love to read, and maybe write, great fan fiction if they found it? Can we use the FSoG phenomenon to expand our community? Does keeping our doors closed and our mouths shut perpetuate both monetization of our fan culture and misogynist scorn?)

2016 - Who Are We? (How do we define ourselves in this age of so many OT3s and team orgy pairings? Does m/m/f count as "slash"? Is slash-only space slipping away? (And would that be bad?) Do m/m and f/f belong together more than they do with m/f? Is "Media Fandom" a valid term any longer? Who are we if we start shipping het?)

2016 - Ladies Loving Ladies. (There would seem to be enough queer women in fandom to write/want more f/f. Do lesbians write f/f, m/m? Both? Do straight women? Or are we still missing the iconic female characters and relationships that create a great slash fandom? Did they figure out the answer to this question at TGIF/F and if so, what is it?)

2016 - By Us For Us (Fic, even kinky slash, is practically mainstream these days. The ebook revolution puts publishing within reach of almost anyone. Sundance hits have been filmed on iPhones. So why aren't fangirls making more media? Or is it happening right under our noses? Is this a place where our women's gift economy does our community a disservice? Discuss what's out there, what we'd like to see, and what's holding us back.)

2017 - LGBTQIA+ in Slash Fandom (Queer fans have always been here. In a subculture often defined as "for" straight women, what do we as fans have to say about non-straight, non-cis, and non-conventional sexuality and gender in fanfiction, in fandom, and in the larger culture?)

2018 - Confronting the Tensions Between Slash and Queer Representation (Slash fandom thrives on homoerotic subtext. Many queer fans are unwilling to settle for this quasi-representation. Part of every slash fandom seems loudly invested in their ship becoming canon. Some are queer fans who want actual textual representation in their favorite shows, and some are fans using queer politics to fight ship wars. Then the “slash is not activism” posts make the rounds. Is slash activism? Is advocating for slash ships in canon the same thing as advocating for queer representation?)

2018 - Representing Slashers (What does "representation" in the media mean to us? We know what more gay or POC representation means, but what about slash fandom, which is largely female and focused on bodies that don't resemble our own? Would better female characters in media better represent us? Or male characters written for a female audience? Come talk about the intersection of slash, personal identity, and media representation.)

2018 - Anonymity in Slash Fandom: Choosing to Hide (Why do the majority of slash fans hide their hobby? Is it fear of blackmail? Embarrassment? Fear of losing employment? How does this affect your happiness? How does this affect your security? What would an ideal world look like? Who would/have you told about your interest in slash? Who would you never, ever, tell?)

2019 - Fandom Post-Slash? (In an era of "ships" and #pairing #tags on Tumblr and AO3, has the "slash" label lost its meaning? Same-gender pairings are as popular as ever and fans still ID pairings with a virgule between the names, but how many fans still call m/m and f/f slash or femslash? How many fans identify as "slashers?" Het and slash were opposing binaries which few fans crossed. Are these barriers breaking down? What purpose has the term "slash" served? Has fandom moved

past it and, if so, what does that mean?)

#escapade 2020 #escapade con #fandom meta #fandom history

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