#maybe this is inspired just a little bit by a certain undertale character...

[silveredcircuitry]

[star of the showcase]

#art #my art #traditional drawing #character design #scifi #sciencecore #robot #mixed media #the screens were done with watercolour pencils and the rest is markers #another one that looks a whole lot better in person lol #original character #illustration #wires #object head #tv head #science fiction #weirdcore #maybe this is inspired just a little bit by a certain undertale character... #retro futuristic

[anime-grimmy-art]

What do you do when there’s not much to an AU? You make up your own stuff, ofc. And as is per usual when I make Character Designs, I make up a shit ton of lore too.

The ramblings under the cut, but what I’m really interested in, is what you guys think. Do you guys have any headcanons/ideas for this AU? Let me hear them! Also, if you don’t wanna read on tumblr, here’s the Google Docs link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/151yshHxnb_--P6eMKkwkI2dee9xC_Llb/view?usp=sharing

Before I get into the characters’ roles, here’s some general facts and backstory of their town:

- Basically, it’s Undertale meets Harvest Moon / Stardew Valley. Well, kinda. I at least used that approach for coming up for the jobs for the characters. You know, how there’s always a general store, a doctor, a smithy, etc.

- The usual story of a HM game is that you come to a town that’s way past its glory days and you, as the player/farmer, help them get back to that. The “backstory” of the town is that that already kinda happened. I’ll get into it more in the character description, but basically when Asgore was still mayor, the town got really popular. Then yadda yadda, a certain tragedy happened, two kids died, and the town suddenly got very bad publicity. There was a lot of stuff going on back then, bad reputation being spread and also a lot of law stuff, cos, you know, supposed child murder ‘n all, so Asgore made the decision to shut off the town to ppl from outside. This was in the interest of most monsters living there, because as fun as it is to have a lot of people coming there, most just wanted to live a quiet life. Not everyone was happy with that though, so many moved away from town and some others are trying to get the town back on its feet. But more on that later.

On to the characters:

I’m just gonna start with the skelebros, cos it’s their fault in the first place I got so invested.

Basically, they are what the player is in hm/sdv. They just showed up one day, took over the abandoned farmhouse and began their life there. The two came to town way after it was “closed” and since then a new mayor has opened the possibility for new residents to move in. Their farm helps the economy of the town a lot and the mayor, like usually in hm games, is trying to use that to make the town more known again. The skelebros aren’t really working towards that goal however.

So, now a bit more detail on them individually.

Papyrus:

- The design is mostly based on what’s “canon” in this au.

- He works mostly on the fields and is in charge of the crops. Their fields aren’t spectacularly big, but still big enough to plant a few dozen rows of veggies. 

- Paps also helps out a lot in town when he has the time. He helps Asgore with his plants, he goes fishing with Undyne, helps Toriel carry crates around and so on. This is inspired by the part-time job mechanic in HM ToT.

- Unbelievably, in this AU Pap is not an absolutely awful cook. Since he helps out at Muffet’s and Grillby’s a lot, they tend to show him some tricks to cooking. Even though Pap’s not a big fan of the greasy or overly sweet cooking those two do, he picks up a lot.

Sans:

- Again, design mostly based on the “canon” look. Maybe a bit more baggy.

- This is finally an AU this dude gets to rest. Since there are no resets and he doesn’t have to see his bro die again and again, for once in his life, he’s not a sad ball of depression. He’s just a chill and lazy dude that loves to make puns. Though, since he’s not too experienced with the feelings of loss, helplessness or grieving, he still tends to hide behind puns and fakes smiles if he does feel bad.

- Sans is in charge of the animals on the farm. Papyrus begrudgingly gave him that role since Pap’s loud demeanour and hectic movements usually scare the animals. Sans’ relaxed attitude draws the animals to him naturally and even if Pap mostly finds him sleep against a tree, in a stack of hay or on one of the sheep, the animals are always fed, healthy and relaxed, so Sans seems to be doing his job.

- Sans always has a small chic sit inside his hoodie or hat. Is it always the same one? Who knows, maybe.

- Sans also, somehow, can produce eggs out of thin air. Grab into his hoodie pocket, in his pants pocket, in his hat, in his slipper, there’s suddenly always an egg there. On good days he can even make butter or cheese appear. 

Gaster:

- He’s literally just a scarecrow in this. Though, if you ask any of the bros why they designed their scarecrow that way, they won’t have an answer.

Frisk&Toriel:

- Frisk is mostly based on what I wore myself as a kid in summer. Just a loose shirt with a cappy. Toriel basically has her ut gown, just with an apron on top.

- Frisk just appeared outside the “magical” forest one day. Napstablook and his cousin found them and brought them to Toriel, who has been taking care of them since.

- Toriel runs the general store in town, but also often takes care of the few kids that still live there.

- Frisk usually helps out in Toriels store, plays with the other kids or sits around at Asgore’s. They’re notorious for nabbing small snacks, mostly from Asgore’s plants. You’ll always find them munching on something. 

- Frisk was in town before the skelebros. Since they’d moved in, Frisk often went to spy on their farm. After a small incident with angry chicken, Frisk got to know the two better and now they see them as something between brothers and uncles.

- But Frisk honestly gets along with everyone. Just like in UT, they’ve not only been adopted by Toriel but literally everyone.

- Toriel and Asgore’s relationship is not as bad as in the main game, since, you know, Asgore didn’t kill literal children, but there’s still tension between them. Back when Asriel and Chara died and the whole thing with the bad rep for the town began, Toriel felt betrayed by Asgore focusing more on the town than giving their deceased kids the grieving they deserved. They’re not divorced, but Toriel still moved out and said needed space to think. Now that Frisk is in the picture though, the both of them are slowly coming to even ground and may even be able to talk things out and clear up the uncertainty of their decisions.

Asgore:

-Asgore has his UT Ending / Deltarune clothes, just with a gardener’s belt.

- He’s the previous mayor of the town, but after all the crap that happened, he stepped down from the position. Now he has his own little shop and sells seeds, saplings, homegrown veggies and fertilizer. So, basically what e.g. the Marimba Farm is in HM AP

- His main customer is Papyrus and they’re on friendly terms. Asgore is worried about how much and how hard Pap works, so he often gives him a discount. 

- Since his family’s past tragedy, Asgore is kind of nervous around kids. So, when he first met Frisk, he hoped they’d not visit him too often. But to his chagrin, Frisk took an instant liking to him and spends a lot of time at his shop (and steals eats the fresh grown veggies). Now, he’s really grateful for that, because for one, he loves Frisk as dearly as he had his own children, and also because now the tension and mistrust between him and Toriel seem to grow smaller day by day.

Undyne&Alphys:

- I gave Undyne a pretty basic fisher’s outfit. Alphys basically has Elli from HM’s outfit, just a bit more doctory stuff added. She still has her canon lab coat too.

- In essence, Undyne and Alphys have 2 completely different jobs. Alphys is the resident doctor and Undyne runs the fish market.

Two things. Yes, I know Alphys is more a mechanic than a doctor, she fits the aesthetic though, so she’s the doc now. And no, Undyne being a fisherwoman is not cannibalism, think of it more as a shark hunting smaller fish.

- The reason I lump them together is because they act as the local “smithy”. Alphys is still really tech savvy in this (I mean, Mettaton is still part of this AU), so she takes on most problems with electronics and stuff. For Undyne, I didn’t want to lose her Royal Guard’s Captain image, so she’s really good at handling tools (and weapons, but Al doesn’t let her make them anymore). So basically, if there’s a broken tool, you can be sure that either Undyne or Alphys can fix it.

- As for relationships, those two are still an item. Alphys is still really shy and a shut-off, but since Undyne and Pap become best friends, she gets to know the skelebros better. She and Sans especially get along well, since most of the time Undyne and Papyrus are let loose, they sit back and talk about science-y stuff. (no, Sans doesn’t have a background in science but he’s still into sci-fi)

- Alphys has a bit of a strained relationship with both Asgore and Mettaton.

Back when Chara and Asriel died, it was because of “illness” (maybe poisoning?). Alphys feels awful because with her back then limited knowledge on medicine she couldn’t help the two. Asgore doesn’t hold anything against her but Alphys can’t help but feel guilty.

Alphys still built Mettaton’s body in this one. The two had a really big disagreement, because Mettaton hated the fact the town was going to close, and he couldn’t understand how Alphys could feel otherwise, even more so endorse the idea.

Mettaton, Napstablook, Mad Dummy/Mew Mew:

- Napsta and Dummy are pretty self-explanatory, they got straw hats. Mettaton’s outfit is a bit of a joke cos it’s a play on “work at the top and party at the bottom”. The tie has two different sides, one with the yellow red pattern, the other completely red. His “top part” is the business part, because when he’s on tv or in the mayors’ office, you don’t usually see his feet. The bottom is his party/dance part, cos his dancing/entertainment channels mostly feature his legs. 

- Mettaton, still a robot, Napstablook and Mad Dummy are all still cousins in this AU.

- Originally, they all lived and worked at the Blook Farm, the Animal Farm of this AU. Mettaton, however, despised that simple live and after befriending Alphys and her building him a body, he left the Farm to pursue bigger things. 

- Mettaton runs the local tv network. From weather to game shows, he does it all. He also runs the tailor shop in town that sells his designer clothes and merchandise. After Asgore stepped down, Mettaton also took over the role of town’s mayor and now works towards making the place more known again. Not everybody is happy with him doing that though.

- One of those people is the Mad Dummy. He can’t stand people anyways and he always claims that history would just repeat itself.

- Since the whole family is made of ghosts, they have different dummies and scarecrows they can use to take care of the animals. To mock Mettaton and kinda get back at Alphys for giving MTT such an opportunity, Mad Dummy found the blueprints for the Mew Mew robot and now modelled one of their scarecrows after it. 

- Napstablook isn’t fond of taking over obejcts like his cousins do, so he mostly takes care of the snails. Somehow, he can interact with them even when incorporeal. 

Muffet&Grillby:

- The two of them run the Inn together. Muffet cooks in the daytime and makes desserts, Grillby manages the bar in the evening. 

- The two still can’t really stand each other but working together like this benefits them both because their rivalry just spurs them on more.

- Even though Grillby is a patient person, somehow Muffet is the only person who riles him up enough to retaliate. (Well, maybe except for Sans, he’s a strong second).

So, basically everything between those two is a challenge in some way. Even if Papyrus doesn’t notice, even his cooking lessons are a challenge for them. 

- Even though they’re constantly bickering, after working together for so many years, there’s a strange level of respect and trust between them. Even if back when they first started this business, they’d pour salt into an already open wound, nowadays they’d know better and just take a step back from the other or even comfort the other (on very rare occasions only). 

Asriel&Chara:

- They be dead. Kinda.

Some Characters that’d live in that town too but that I haven’t made designs for:

- Gerson is the original smithy of the town. He’d grown up in a family of smiths, but he’d always had an appreciation for the sea. That’s why, when the town became more deserted and Undyne had a good enough skill level as smith, he took up the Captains hat and now mostly spends his days out on sea. He also ferries people to places if they need him to. Oh, and just like in canon, Undyne learned most of her skills from him.

- Burgerpants is a poor dude Mettaton basically kidnapped when he was trying to get fame in the city. Now Burgerpants works wherever MTT needs him to, be that as cameraman for the tv shows, cashier in his tailor shop or his slave secretary in the mayor’s office.

- MK is Frisk’s best kid friend. MK’s parents are in charge of shipping the goods out of town and paying the individual people. MK’s the one that usually collects the goods at the end of the day.

- Other than that, there are only a few people in town. I’d imagine the older folks or the really young families stayed in town after it was closed. I think the librarby dude would still run the library. Some Snowdin residents like the stone family or the dogs also might still live there. 

#undertale #au #farmtale #fanart #character design #lore #frisk #toriel #asgore #undyne #alphys #mettaton #gaster #sans #papyrus #muffet #grillby #napstablook #mad dummy #mad mew mew #asriel #flowey #chara #feels good to finally be able to tag them all

[glitteringstardust]

hey everyone, welcome to our stim blog! 💖 this blog is run by starlight and ali. likes and follows will be either from ali’s main, or my main @riddlerosehearts. please try to read this post before following or requesting!

also, please note that right now we'd prefer to do stimboard requests for media the mods are familiar with or non-media related things! we have a list of media below the cut and if something isn't mentioned there, you can also check my main or my anime blog (@ritsukageyamas) to see if i'm familiar with it--or just feel free to ask anyway and i'll see if one of us can do it, but be aware we might not be able to.

please DNI with this blog if you fit any of the following:

- blogs dedicated to dd*lg, k*nk, n/sfw, etc stuff

- (no)maps, racists, homophobes, and people who support trump or autism speaks

- pro-shippers/anti-antis

- terfs/truscum

also, please do not use our gifs without linking back to the post on our blog! the posts contain links to the sources we originally giffed the videos from and it’s just incredibly rude not to give credit!

we can do requests for specific kinds of gifs (for example, maybe you wanna see gifs of your favorite ride at disney world, or more gifs of lolita fashion or persian cats, things like that), specific videos if you send a link, or stimboards! under the cut are some guidelines for requests:

- an incomplete list of things i’m really familiar with and would be happy to make boards for are:

kingdom hearts

twisted wonderland

basically anything disney/pixar

just to be clear the above includes pretty much any disney/pixar animated film like frozen, encanto, winnie the pooh, toy story, finding nemo... i’ve basically seen them all more than once because disney is my biggest special interest lol

it also includes some disney tv shows like tangled the series, ducktales, and the owl house!

a3! act addict actors

percy jackson (& rick riordan’s other series)

fullmetal alchemist

fruits basket

ace attorney (i’ve played every game including aai2)

my little pony: friendship is magic

pokemon (lots of pokemon stuff! i like the main games, anime, mystery dungeon, pokemon adventures... practically anything pokemon is fair game lol)

avatar the last airbender

steven universe

neopets

undertale/deltarune

my hero academia

studio ghibli

or tbh pretty much anything i’ve ever posted about on my main or my anime blog! if i've posted a bit about something before then i can probably make boards for it even if it's not listed here, don't be afraid to ask.

and ali is really into the following:

demon slayer

animal crossing

detroit become human

overwatch

squishmallows

doctor who

good omens

danny phantom

sanrio

please do not request the following (we don’t really care if you like these things and interact with us, it's not about your morality or anything like that, we just don’t wanna make boards of them for various reasons):

south park

hetalia

bbc sherlock

game of thrones/a song of ice and fire

hazbin hotel/helluva boss

name stimboards, unless you can give a lot of specifics--we just wouldn't do well with blank inspiration for these, i think.

things involving irl bugs/insects other than butterflies or moths

- but other than that feel free to request basically anything, ships, characters, series, even boards themed around a certain color or animal or anything else you can think of! if ali or i feel uncomfortable with it or would rather not do it for whatever reason we do have the right to reject your request. and keep in mind that whether we do boards based on ships or LGBT+ headcanons may depend on how much we like the ship/headcanon ourselves, but it doesn't hurt to ask for them!

- if you want to send multiple requests, please send them in multiple separate asks so it’s easier for us to keep up with!

- it would be very helpful if you include certain themes/colors you want included in your board! if you don’t give us any info we’ll just do whatever we think fits best for your request, and sometimes that might mean we get the aesthetic/vibes wrong if it’s something we aren’t familiar with! however you can always let us know if you want us to change anything in your board.

- if requesting a character please try to specify the source name!! especially if a character has a lot of different major appearances/outfits, the one we base the board on may influence the stims we use--for example, link from wind waker vs link from breath of the wild

- also please please be patient!! personally i have other blogs that i try to keep at least semi-active and we also have real actual lives so don’t expect us to have your requests done immediately, but if it’s been more than a couple weeks feel free to send it in again or ask for an inbox check.

#star.txt #mod post #stim blog #stimboard requests #pinned post

[vonaegiremblem]

I think it's interesting to see how people have reacted to the recent memes about the "quirky mother inspired indie rpg". Some people have, understandably, gotten a little defensive since these games can mean a lot and touch on emotional subjects. That being said, I do think that a decent amount of nuance is lost when only seeing the memified gifs of assembly lines producing identical products.

I'm pretty certain that there has been a drastic increase in the amount of, what I'm calling, mrpgs released in recent years. If there hasn't been an uptick, then they are at least receiving far more attention from critics and online spaces. Every year there seems to be one "big" mrpg that is looked at more extensively than other indie games of similar scale. Now, this greater attention may be because people who grew up with and were influenced by Earthbound and Mother 3 are old enough to be in game dev and experienced enough to make games like these. Maybe it's because the Mother series is now as appreciated as it should have been upon release. And maybe, just maybe, it's because Undertale is one of the most popular indie games ever created. That's a bit of cynical take, I know, but I wouldn't be surprised if some devs saw the success of Undertale and realized that mrpgs can be successful given the right circumstances. I bet it inspired some devs to create a kickstarter or start working on a game in their free time. But in their zeal to become the next Undertale, or in their attempts to grasp the magic of Earthbound and Mother 3 (because let's be honest, nobody is taking inspiration from Mother 1), they often miss something important.

Yes, Mothers 2 and 3 have weird enemy designs, traditional rpg combat with a twist, offbeat humor, familiar locations, disturbing endings, and emotional stories that give just enough information to hint at something greater, but they also say something. Earthbound and Mother 3 are scathing in their commentaries on society. Undertale goes from "oh, wouldn't rpg conventions we take for granted be weird in universe" to "What does it say about YOU that you are willing to throw away the objectively best ending and ruin these characters' lives just so that you can see the part of the game you missed?". The fact that these games take some kind of stance and make the player confront themselves on issues is part of why people still talk about them today. There will always be mrpgs with sentient stop signs as enemies, jump ropes as weapons, and direct addresses to the player. There will even be some that go one step further and touch on heavy themes like depression, loneliness, and loss. But, even if they have these themes, if they refuse to raise questions to the player or comment on these topics, then they will inevitably be forgotten and replaced by another game with better gameplay or better characters

#long post #mother #mother 3 #earthbound #mother 2 #undertale #I made this partially because I saw people getting mad about the 'quirky mother inspired indie rpg' meme #but also because I watched some stuff about yiik and was like 'this game has its head so far up its own ass' #this is mean to say but it is very true #doesn't help that the devs were also really defensive about it #also somewhat because I was thinking about how matpat has never put out a good mother game theory #everyone talks about sans is ness; but iirc he also made one about porky where the message was that it's your fault #if some unlikable asshole does awful things because you weren't actively nice to them

[au-eldritchfell]

What inspired your comic?

Damn, that's a tough question. And a bit of a warning, but this may touch into spoilers for the comic.

I've mentioned it before, but this is actually the second reboot of Eldritchfell I've made, and the very first concepts were ended up different from the first comic I put out.

Eldritchfell was inspired by three things mainly though, I think.

For one, I've always loved taking characters the fandom sees as 'villainous' or 'evil' and thinking 'well, surely it's not as simple as this. What if the truth is a little more complicated?' As an example, just starting Eldritchfell, I'd just come off writing a fanfic with the premise 'what if in Soulless Pacifist, Chara's plan was not to kill everyone on the surface, but to use Frisk's stolen soul to revive Asriel.'

That's kinda a major impact on all my stories, to be honest. I just can't get start writing a story until I can get into the villain's head, and understand why they do and want what they do.

Second major influence was my love of the eldritch, and especially my love of the podcast Welcome to Night Vale. For the unfamiliar, it's set in a fictional town in the American desert where every single conspiracy theory is real, and plays with satire a lot. Often monsters, eldritch abominations, and conspiracy agents walk the streets alongside normal citizens-- and sometimes they ARE the citizens!

But at the same time, I've never found a more gentle horror story. Though many terrifying and fucked up and downright strange things happen in Night Vale, the narrator goes out of his way to state the love he has for his town and his community, the loving detail he goes into when describing its denizens, accepting even beings like a five-headed dragon or an omnipotent and faceless old woman or angels he's not allowed to acknowledge the existence of as his townsfolk. And even when they're bad people, he still tries present many of them as people.

So I wanted to write a story with eldritch elements. But I also wanted to consider... why are the eldritch and otherworldly beings doing what they do? Is it really so incomprehensible?

And the third and final inspiration... well, the Undertale Multiverse, for all it's called 'cringey' or 'dying' or 'toxic', is something I really love. I wanted to make my own addition to it, to make an homage incorporating and referencing it. Maybe even give people another angle to look at it from, another setting to play in with their AUs. I wanted to explore the multiverse in a way I hadn't seen people do so, yet. To take characters that I've seen dozens of iterations from, and put my own personal spin on them and the world they live in. Eldritchfell, despite the name and some... divergences, is actually extremely close to classic Undertale-- had certain events played out differently, perhaps it'd just be an AT rather than an AU. Perhaps it is still just an AT, for all its newfound differences. Perhaps you'll judge for yourself.

We're not very far into Eldritchfell. We haven't even seen the state of the Underground. But I can't wait to show you all. Thank you very much for this question, it was very fun to answer. ^^

#ask #eldritchfell lore #undertale au #eldritchfell

[fadedtale]

♦ Golly, it’s been a hot second! This may as well be a bit of a tradition; posting an update whenever a certain game does, huh?

Anyhow;

♦ TL:DR; Underfade/Colorless and its subsequent AUs, as well as the rest of the Undertale blogs under my wings, are in an indefinite hiatus. Should the faded!Frisk AU ever revive, then this blog (fadedtale) will serve as the main hub for it. The original blog will no longer be running at all.

♦ I’m doing great by the way!... but if this little message somehow reaches out to others from this tiny corner of the wide internet, here’s a full report on the status of things;

--

       – UNDERFADE/FADEDTALE RELATED –

❥ Why is fadedtale becoming the main blog for your AUs when you still have the original blog?

♦ Ha ha, it’s quite simple really!

I no longer have access to the original blog.

The email I used for it? I can’t remember it. Any record I have saved for what that email could be is also unfindable?? Please believe me when I say that I have tried near everything I could to try and recover the blog. A solid portion of the time away from this AU is the utter despair I felt not finding any trace of what made that blog in the first place.

Watch me say that and then find the email I need to claw my way back into it. Until then;

Goodbye, Underfade/Colorless It will forever exist as a relic of its time; a personally cringeworthy yet humble seedling for the monstrosity of a brainworm it is even to this day.

❥ Underfade/Colorless, cringeworthy?

♦ Immensely!

Not because it’s an Undertale AU, and not because Undertale is. Undertale is genuinely, unironically, epic and joy inducing -- thus, the work I’ve done for Undertale through these AUs is also joy inducing.

However, as the years have passed, I’ve become increasingly unhappy with how I managed things. I can’t look at that blog without feeling like I’m drinking raw lime juice, ha ha.

On the plus side; I’m happy with how much I’ve grown and changed since the blog’s establishment! That’ll be my overall takeaway... even if my past, not-nearly-as-cool self may forever exist within its own bubble of the internet.

❥ What about your other blogs? 

♦ I have no idea what the fresh hell is happening with my other blogs, as basically the only blog I do have access to still is fadedtale. So... my other UT blogs share the same fate as the original faded!Frisk blog: stasis.

❥ So... what’s the plan? 

♦ Well-!

As much as I want to come back and finish what I started, it has been difficult to find the motivation to.

Between real life, finding myself with real (!) paying (!!) art jobs, getting the therapy and rest I need to in between contract work, surviving 2020 and building myself up to higher heights, there hasn’t been much room at all for these AUs. I cannot guarantee, at all, that I will have the time or energy to return and work/roleplay for this as I once did.

I did think of just writing out at least the Underfade/Colorless AU and putting it someplace like Ao3, either as a series of notes or as a flimsily written fic, with either or being accompanied by the artwork I have accumulated on and off throughout my years’ long hiatus. I’m perpetually on the fence on this front!

Maybe by the time deltarune Ch. 7 is out, we’ll come back to all of this.

--

       – UNDERTALE RELATED –

❥ CIN, CIN, CIN, DELTARUNE CHAPTER 2

♦ YO

WHY DO YOU THINK I’M WRITING THIS STATUS UPDATE. COINCIDENCE??? NO

In all seriousness; deltarune chapter 2 was a delightful and inspirational experience!! The series really is a nostalgic-feeling one. It’s why I keep coming back to it I think, ha ha. I hope everyone’s had a fun time with the new chapter, too!

--

      – GENERAL NEWS –

❥ How’ve things been?

♦ I graduated college! I work as a full-time 2D animator! If you see my name in places, you can go “whoa! That’s a bird!”

I’ve been to weddings, I’ve been to graduations, I’ve been across the country, and I’ve been at home with my loved ones for over a year...

All in all, I’ve been just fine!

❥ What have you been up to lately?

♦ 2D animation contract work, mostly! Being loosely active in my typical haunts, too. I want to say my most active one nowadays is Discord, ha ha.

One of these days, it would be nice to pick up my britches and make my own game or webcomic. My current work in the 2D animation scene is saving up for that sort of dream.

Maybe I’ll see you there! Maybe not. I’ll let you know when deltarune chapter 7 lands.

❥ I want to talk to you! How do I do that?

♦ Echoing my last status update; I’m on Discord! If we don’t share a Discord server or if we haven’t RP’d when I was active, then... whoops.

The next best option is skybluescarf, which is my permanently queue-ing fandom blog. It may take a month or year to see messages from there.

❥ Anything else you want to mention?

♦ Kris, Chara and Frisk all canonically use they/them pronouns 🎉 This is an indisputable canonical fact and I’ve gotten enough therapy to take pride in my assertiveness, which I am exercising right now in order to aggressively stand for this notion.

Anyone who ships these characters with adults are free to take a vacation to hell!

Anyone who ships Cha//risk or any of the human children with Asriel, romantically, can also give me a wide berth. I see them all as friends/siblings and am firmly asserting this as well.

Otherwise, that should be all for now. Thank you all for your time and patience.

I’ll see you all later!

[bltngames]

SAGE 2020: Fan Games

I’d hoped to have this article out a little bit sooner, but I overestimated how long it would take to write about some of these games. Whoops! Like I said when I outlined the posting “schedule” on the first day, we’re playing it fast and loose, so this is just what you get.

Today is the day I talk about fan games! And even though SAGE has “Sonic” right there in the acronym, it’s always hosted fan games from all types, so today we’ve got Mega Man, Mario, Rayman, and even fan games of fan games, if you can believe it.

Sonic Pinball Panic!

Pinball is one of those things where I’ve always been obsessed with it, but never very good at it. And now, with access to digital pinball collections like Pinball Arcade and Pinball FX, I don’t actually find myself playing as much pinball as I thought I would when I was 14 years old. Still, I find myself fascinated by a good pinball table, and this honestly caught me off guard. This could very easily be an official DLC release for one of those aforementioned pinball collections and I wouldn’t even bat an eyelash (in fact, if you ask me, this is better than Pinball FX, which has always had weird ball physics). This looks, sounds, and functions exactly like a real pinball table should. My complaints are minor: for starters, the table feels kind of easy. I’ve never been a pinball wizard, but I was losing balls left and right here and it still took a good 15 minutes before I finally got a game over. Score accumulation is also pretty slow; most pinball tables will dump millions and millions of points on you, but here, it felt like a struggle just to reach the 379k I finished with. Both contribute to the fact that the table feels a little flat, like it’s missing a spark to really put it over the top. And, third, it would be nice if it had controller support. The keyboard works just fine, here (it’s just pinball, after all) but I find that the triggers on a controller feel really good with pinball flippers, and mapping the plunger to the right stick is great, too. This is a Unity game, so I wouldn’t think it’d be that hard to hook it up to the controller mapper. Still, I came away impressed.

Mega Man: Perfect Blue

There are two things out there that always give me pause: fan-made Doom level packs, and Mega Man fan games. Fan made gaming content generally has problems when it comes to difficulty balancing anyway, but these games have earned a certain reputation for their difficulty, which creates a problem when you have content made by fans, for fans. This insularity means these things are usually way too hard for what I would consider “normal” people (read: casual fans and outsiders). Add on to the fact that I’d even say that there are official Mega Man games with bad difficulty balancing, and you have a recipe for frustration. Sadly, this is how I’d characterize Perfect Blue: though this introductory level isn’t impossibly hard, it’s definitely pushing that edge where it’s not very accommodating to someone who hasn’t played and finished every Classic Mega Man game ever made. It almost immediately throws you into scenarios where you have jumps you can barely reach, insta-kill spikes, and enemies that not only actively dodge your shots, but invincible enemies that launch counter attack homing missiles. And then it starts making you juggle all of this stuff, together, at the same time. None of this is insurmountable as long as you’re paying attention, but as a very casual Mega Man fan, it’s an unfriendly first impression and makes me worried about what the rest of the game is going to be like as the challenge naturally ramps up. For those hardcore Mega Man fans among you, the rest of this is solid, at least. The presentation and controls are excellent, and the new sprites are beautiful. It’s a game I’d love to enjoy when it’s done… but I’m assuming I’ll be left out in the cold. A shame, really, because there’s so much promise here.

Sonic and the Mayhem Master

There’s a lot to like about this game, but there’s a part of me that really wonders if this should even be considered a Sonic fan game. Mayhem Master’s depictions of Sonic and Amy Rose are atypical to put it mildly. Here, Sonic seems to be a bookish nerd of sorts, a sidekick to Amy Rose, who has been turned into a burnt out, cigar-smoking detective. Most of the game plays out as half an adventure game, half an RPG, where you roam around the world talking to NPCs and gather clues while being assaulted by random battles. The battle system is super off-the-wall, too, perhaps taking inspirations from games like Mario & Luigi and Undertale. This means that battles aren’t passive -- you spend most of each fight dodging or nullifying incoming attacks with simplistic action-based commands. It’s weird, and different, and occasionally even a little bit overwhelming. That’s kind of the whole game, really. It’s the sort of thing that really doesn’t feel like a Sonic game at all, but it also doesn’t feel bad. The artwork is very charming, I’m interested in seeing the characters develop, and there’s plenty of worldbuilding and mystery. Would this still be as intriguing if you removed the Sonic connection, even if it’s so threadbare? That’s a hard question to answer. I know that some of my interest in this game is seeing how it spins more familiar Sonic elements into something that’s completely different. Worth checking out, for curiosity’s sake if nothing else.

Sonic and the Dreamcatcher

This is a fairly brilliant little game with two unfortunate quirks. If you didn’t know, the special stages in the original Sonic the Hedgehog were inspired by an arcade game of the era called Cameltry, published by Taito in 1989. Now, Sonic’s special stages were different enough from Cameltry that it wasn’t a case of Sega outright stealing the gameplay, but there’s a clear lineage there, and it only becomes clearer when you compare the special stages in Sonic 4 Episode 1 to Cameltry (spoilers: in that game, they’re nearly identical). Dreamcatcher is also from this lineage, but is infinitely more charming than either Sonic 4 and maybe even Cameltry itself. The idea is that you must collect a specific number of blue spheres in order to reveal the Chaos Emerald, after which you have a limited amount of time to find and collect it. It’s very simple, but the presentation really sells the game’s charm. It’s just a game that looks good and sounds good, with an interesting premise executed very well. Also, you get a dedicated “& Knuckles” button to spawn infinite Knuckles to help you collect blue spheres and bash enemies. Being able to have unlimited numbers of these guys sounds like it would break the game, but once that countdown clock begins, the last thing you need is 20+ echidnas clogging up the route back to the emerald. The first quirk this game suffers from is that there’s only two levels. Parts of this have a very “game jam made in a weekend” vibe to it despite the rock-solid music, sound, and gameplay, and only having two levels contributes to that. Hopefully more are coming in the future. The other quirk? You can’t actually download this game -- it’s embedded in a webpage. I’m sure this is to make it easy to play on any platform with a web browser (phones, PCs, etc.) but I find myself greatly desiring a hard copy of this game that can live on my computer forever.

Sonic Galactic

Now here’s just a good old fashioned Sonic fan game. Though it clearly takes inspiration from Sonic Mania’s aesthetics in some places, it’s clearly doing its own thing, featuring not just the core cast of Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles, but also Fang the Sniper, and even a brand new character named Tunnel the Mole. Unlike a lot of Sonic fan games at SAGE, this appears to be using something besides Clickteam Fusion, Game Maker, or Unity. Here, it’s the “Hatch Game Engine,” whatever that is. Whatever the case may be, the game runs very well and is basically indistinguishable from just playing Sonic Mania. Visuals are sharp, music’s good, the two included boss fights are surprisingly fun to fight -- everything seems to be in order. As a result, there’s not really a lot to say. This is just a good, fun game. Anything else I’d say would come off sounding like nitpicks. For example, there’s no way to set graphics options yet, so the game is stuck in 2x Windowed mode. Fang and Tunnel are cute additions, but I wonder how much utility they have as characters. Unless I missed something, Fang’s pop gun is mainly for a weak double-jump ability, and Tunnel’s ability to dig and ricochet off floors, walls and ceilings is cool, but it doesn’t have quite the universal utility of Tails’ flight or Knuckles climbing and gliding. It’ll be interesting to see how or maybe even if their abilities have a chance to grow into something special. Anyway, like I said, those are nitpicks, so try to give this a shot if you can.

Sonic Robo-Blast!

Remasters seem to be a bit of a theme this SAGE, between Sonic Triple Trouble 16-bit, Sonic 2 SMS, Sonic 1 Revisited, but this is perhaps the most surprising of them all: a loving remaster of the original Sonic Robo-Blast. SRB1 was perhaps one of the first true “landmark” fan games, given that it was basically a whole entire game that people could play. It's not a stretch to say that SRB1 probably helped kickstart the fan gaming community that still survives to this day -- I certainly owe my involvement in the community to seeing SRB1 for the first time. The problem is, as historically significant as the game might be, it’s nearly impossible to go back to nowadays -- it’s much, much too dated to be any fun. This remaster completely re-envisions SRB1 as a regular Sonic game, while also pulling in gameplay elements from Sonic Robo-Blast 2. It’s a bit of a time paradox mindwarp, but it helps give it a bit more personality than just making a bog-standard 2D Sonic. It works, aided by the fact the sprites, music and overall presentation are fantastic. The only downside is the Act 2 boss, which commits the cardinal sin of taking away player agency and making you wait around far too much. Here’s hoping this gets finished, because it’s definitely on my radar now.

Super Mario Flashback

This has been floating around for a few years now and I’m glad to see it’s finally starting to get some more substantial content as it moves towards becoming an actual game. That being said, this is also one of those games that’s kind of hard to talk about because it’s just… really polished. The art is incredible, it controls exactly like a Mario game, and there’s already a decent mixture of ideas at play in the demo. Anything else I’d say would sound like nitpicking -- like, for example, the backseat game designer in me wonders if maybe the game is prioritizing aesthetics a little too much. This is a wonderfully animated game, absolutely gorgeous, but some actions, like the butt-stomp and the wall kick, feel a bit sluggish, and I think it’s because they show off fancy animations. Even if it’s a split second, waiting for Mario to attach to a wall to kick off of it feels slow. Really, though, that’s an insignificant complaint. This demo is still well worth checking out.

Sonic Advance 4 Advanced

This game seems like a greatest-hits of Dimps best ideas, spanning the first Sonic Advance all the way to Sonic Rush. There’s just one problem: the game seems broken. Now, my desktop PC is starting to show its age. I built it four and a half years ago, and though it can handle game like Gears of War 5 on high settings at 60fps, slowly, newer games seem to be leaving it behind. That being said, I don’t think a game like Sonic Advance 4 here should be running at what appears to be half its intended speed. It also originally launched in a teeny-tiny window (we’re talking, like, smaller than a postage stamp) and even though the options menu has a toggle for full screen mode, it doesn’t want to work. Something about this game under the hood seems to be struggling very, very, VERY hard. It’s a shame, because if this actually played at the proper speed, it seems like it might actually be an alright game, if a bit complex and busy.

Sonic 2 SMS Remake

Here’s a game I was all buckled in expecting to enjoy. Like it says on the tin, this is a remake of Sonic 2 for the Master System (and Game Gear), but with wide screen visuals and huge expansions to the mechanics, roster of playable characters, and levels. On the outside it seems really impressive, and to a certain degree it is, but something about the controls feel a little off. Sonic’s heavier here than he is on the Master System, perhaps to simulate “real” Sonic physics a little more accurately, but you can also pretty much stop on a dime, and the combination of the two feels awkward. The camera also needs a lot of work, as it’s basic at best and does a poor job of letting you see what’s below (to the dev if you’re reading this: there’s actually video tutorials out there on how 2D scrolling cameras work, it might be worth looking a couple of them up). It also leans into some of the tech limitations of the Master System, like how you aren’t given any rings for boss fights (and even hiding the HUD, a move done to save on resources for the large enemy sprites). I could be picky on a bunch of other little stuff, too, like how the flight mechanics feel, but there are other games to play at SAGE and I’ve got at least two more articles to write. Needless to say, this is a solid (impressive, even) foundation but it’s missing a lot of late-stage polish to clean up the tiny little rough edges.

Rayman Redemption

I tell this story every so often, but it was about three quarters of the way through Rayman 2 on the Sega Dreamcast when it struck me, suddenly: I love this game. I was being chased by a pirate ship through some rickety bridges and even though I was dying over and over and over again, I realized I had been enjoying Rayman 2 enough that I might put it in my top ten Dreamcast games. But that was 2002, and the years haven’t been so kind to ol’ Rayman. From the strangely celebrity-infused Rayman 3, to the tragedy of Rayman 4 (eventually becoming Raving Rabbids) to the endless, careless ports of Rayman 2 to every platform under the sun, one gets the impression Ubisoft maybe didn’t know what to do with Rayman. Especially now, when most of Ubisoft’s games are some form of online live service or cookie cutter open world experience (or increasingly both). But the fans know what they want. Rayman Redemption takes the original 1995 Rayman game and lovingly gives it a fresh coat of paint. The results are akin to what Taxman and Stealth did for Sonic CD in 2011, with wide screen visuals, improved controls, touched up level design, but gameplay that still feels faithful and accurate to the original experience. Except that Sega charged money for that, and here, fans have released this for free. Ubisoft’s loss, I guess. I didn’t play Rayman 1 until well after I’d finished Rayman 2, and I’ll admit, I kind of bounced off of it back then. It felt slow, and awkward, and when the difficulty ramped up, it got very hard, very quickly. Now, admittedly, I’ve only put about 30 minutes into Redemption here, but just the addition of a run button is incredibly welcome, and the retooled level design and powerup mechanics helps the game feel way less obtuse overall. It’s just a cleaner, tighter, more accessible and more polished version of Rayman.

Stay tuned for the next article: Indie games.

#sage #sonic amateur games expo #writing #review slew #rayman redemption #sonic pinball panic #mega man #perfect blue #mayhem master #dreamcatcher #sonic galactic #sonic robo-blast #super mario flashback #sonic advance 4 #sms remake #sonic the hedgehog #sega #sonic team #review

[jaypelt]

Cheers for Five Years of Undertale, and its Everlasting Effect on Me

Been a while since I’ve done one of these... I might even be rusty at it! Honestly, what I’ve got right now are more vague thoughts than coherent words in my head. I wasn’t sure if I’d even do this, since I felt it wasn’t entirely necessary. Everybody had so much to say! But spurned on by the display of someone very close to me, the cogs in my head couldn’t help but start turning for me too. So here I am. This isn’t going to be easy, though. Because if you read this, I need you to understand the depth of my feelings. Even if just a little. So I’ll do my best to bare my heart yet again, for the sake of it and everything its done for me. Everything it’ll keep doing for me.

The beginning is usually always one of the hardest parts. A blank space devoid of anything, that you’ve got to somehow miraculously fill with thoughts somebody else could understand. But Undertale is rarely a subject I ever have to struggle so much with. It’s been a long, long five years.

This is re-treading old ground that a number of those who know me are already familiar with, however, I don’t think this would be complete without it. But it will get very, VERY personal. If you’re not comfortable with that, then uh... giving you another warning now. But pushing forward...

Right before UT came out, I hadn’t begun to really unravel quite yet. But I was very close. It was somewhat of a rough transitional period as I moved on from my middle school to high, losing very dear IRL friends and generally continuing to struggle with school, as I had been for years. Untreated ADHD is real nasty. But I’d always had at least some friends, either online, or ones I made throughout the year, to rely on. And I didn’t really think about things. The start of this school year was no different. Even having a... perhaps questionable choice of boyfriend, but, well, he was my first.

I struggled with just about every aspect of school from basically the start, but having a small group, and especially an online partner to come home to everyday, helped me at least get through. In the coming months, however, I’d start to encounter more turbulence. Through aforementioned partner, I met someone who’d come to rely on me far more than he should have. Made even worse by the fact that he was a full grown adult while I was only 14, which will be a recurring trend. And has been for most of my life.

We hit it off pretty quickly, becoming good friends and talking to each other outside of mutual friend spaces. And through that, he started to open up about his problems. Living with a family that treated him poorly, suicidal urges, and particularly, an abusive boyfriend. If you know me well, I’ve probably definitely talked about this at least a little.

My daily routine starting becoming supporting this person through all of his troubles. Sitting in skype calls or exchanging messages for hours at a time on the daily. Rarely did a day go by where I didn’t, slowly sinking into an apathetic pit from overextending myself for the sake of his mental health. I couldn’t even help him improve, all I could do was just try to keep him alive. Which, well, I did. For months.

Everything else fell to the wayside as I was constantly stressed about the life of someone I cared about. Obviously my school life suffered even further. I grew withdrawn from everyone, and kept only to the few online friends I had. However, in the midst of this downward spiral, just before the ball really got rolling, a certain game came out. Exactly a month after it had come out, October 15th, 2015, I’d become interested after all the talk on tumblr about Undertale.

After watching a playthrough on youtube(I didn’t play for myself at first, a pity), It’d personally resonated so strongly and gotten me so hooked that it was something I invested a fair amount of my time into consuming content about. I grew super attached to all these characters that’d made me laugh, smile, cry... just this whole spectrum of emotions. And someone in particular, Alphys, really caught my attention after things had begun to get worse.

She felt so... relatable, though I couldn’t possibly tell you all the reasons. When I think about it, we’re not really the most similar, but something about her just hooked me. Maybe because she had all these things going on that nobody knew about. And that she lied. And felt so anxious interacting with anyone after she’d previously been much warmer and closer. That she was closer to “disappearing” than she seemed.

Whatever the reasons, the months moving further along, consuming content about UT practically became my lifeline. I reblogged heaps and heaps of posts  about it, watched videos, listened to the soundtrack, even started drawing because I’d been so inspired. When I was just stuck in this horrible pit of second-hand depression, it was the one thing that still made me happy. I started to really think about why it mattered to me and how. It’s funny, I’d read books obsessively for years before then, but UT was the thing that really got me thinking. It was all downhill from there, I tell you. Now I’m an artist and a writer. Horrific.

But, unfortunately, for all its good... it couldn’t stop what was to come. I was still getting worse and worse, with no end in sight. I’d already been supporting... let’s call him Phil, for a few months. And in December of that year, my boyfriend completely dropped off the grid for a while. I’d see him appear online sometimes and I’d message him, but no response, then right back to offline. Finally, he came back, approaching me with something he obviously was uncomfortable about.

To make a long story short, he’d come to the conclusion that he was straight, and decided to end the relationship. What’s bad is that... honestly? I was already doing so poorly that I had a hard time caring. But we did pretty much stop talking, and I leaned into Undertale all the more. Anyway, time continued to pass. Not without its few ups, and mostly downs. I got used to being called “mature”, usually followed by “especially for your age.” “Phil” told me that if I were legal, he’d date me. I’ve got a crippling fear of screwing up with people that’s stuck with me to this day, after a few occasions involving him. I considered doing some... not so great things to myself. Thankfully, I was always so averse to physical pain that it didn’t become anything extreme.

As for the few ups, there was “Phil” finally managing to leave his abusive relationship, when he’d tried previously and fallen into such a bad depressive episode I had to talk him down. So that was something. He’d even started going to therapy after the second break up.

Not that it did a whole lot. The school year began approaching its end and nothing had really changed. I’d been going through all the same motions for around half a year or more. My sleep was terrible, I was passing almost none of my classes, had practically no friends to speak of, and just felt... tired. All the time. But during this... the minute beginning of a monumental shift started. Another character in UT had begun to clutch me in his grasp. Even more strongly than Alphys. Flowey. Through the posts a singular person on tumblr had made about him and my experience with the geno run, I came to understand the dumb little flower more. Which is also funny, because he was previously my least favorite. Even, yes, after the Asriel reveal.

I’m having a difficult time weaving together this convoluted timeline of events, but it was around... perhaps March or early April that the person whom I’d been supporting for almost a full fucking year completely disappeared. Without a word. The one thing I’d tried to stick to for so long was just. Gone. So I drifted about with, well, no purpose.

By the end of the school year, it probably goes without saying that I was... not doing great. But one those aforementioned acquaintances I’d only just started to become actual friends with came forth to me with a question. That being if there was some way for us to keep contact during the summer. So I gave her my email, which would turn out to be a decision that saved my life. Because things would only get worse before they got better.

This is getting to be way, way, way too long. So to summarize, summertime came around and I’d been in pretty close contact with... I’ll just call her V. She was... well, unlike anyone I’d ever known. Someone who stood out with the intelligence you could just see in their eyes. Outgoing, charismatic, compassionate... all those sorts of things. We were opposites in a lot of ways. Or, at least, it felt like it.

Some things happened, like “Phil” coming back after months of nothing. Me immediately slotting back into my role of being a pillar of support, but then screwing up and hating myself for it. But honestly, that ain’t shit to the rest of the whole shitshow.

For a bit of context, my parents are divorced. So for most of the previous years, I’d been going to my mom’s place during the summer and staying with her the whole time, to make up for how rarely we’d see each other otherwise. That year... she was beginning to run low on money. She lived next to my granny, but still basically alone, compared to how she’d been staying with someone else in hotels for the few prior years.

After learning she didn’t have enough to pay rent and might be kicked out, she tried to appeal to her mom, who said she wouldn’t let her stay. Why? I don’t know. After that, she spiraled into a panic. And, well, the ever faithful little worker bee, I stepped forward to try and console her in any way I could. She seemed to recompose, at least a little. It wasn’t great, and she thought she’d have to do some unsavory things in order to survive, but... I thought that, just maybe, I’d done something.

But... later that night, she started drinking. Which... well, put her in a mood. Exacerbated by the day’s earlier events and the fact that she was taking medication that responded poorly to alcohol. She came over to where I was sitting, my little makeshift desk I’d put together to set up my desktop, with my little sister just in the other room. Just... a warning for this next part, it’s... grim. More grim than anything else in this thread.

She proceeded to tell me she was going to go upstairs and grab the gun my granny kept in her room. And berated me for thinking I’d done anything to help, saying she “wasn’t like my little friends” that I could simply talk to. With that, she walked away, heading upstairs. I don’t think I’ve ever felt so crushed in my entire life, to this day. I broke down crying, sitting in that chair.

Yet, somehow, I managed to stop when I saw her coming back down. She walked back over, pointed the gun at her head, and told me to give her a reason she shouldn’t do it. And also to this day, I.... still don’t know if I said what was right. It was all I could think of. I quietly told her that if she did it, I’d pick that gun up and do it to myself. Same as her. And I asked if she wanted to be responsible for that.

It was true, too. By that point, I didn’t care anymore.

And if there’s one thing I can say about her, it’s that she’s always cared about me. In a horrible, twisted way especially, that night. It was enough to make her silently pull the gun down, go back upstairs, and put it away. One last time... she came down, walked past me to the front door and simply said “I love you.” before going out to sit on the porch.

I’m not sure I’ll ever truly get over the events of that night. I spoke to V afterwards, as I’d been keeping in regular contact, as I said. And even been speaking to her throughout the day about what was happening. I think she was panicking just as much as I had been, and told me to go find the gun and unload it. So I did. Bawling my eyes out the whole damn time. Afterwards, I took the bullets and threw them in the large neighborhood garbage can.

The rest of the night’s a blur. I don’t recall if anything else happened, I just remember waking up tired the next day. My uncle was in the house, as he’d been staying with my granny for a while, but hadn’t been around the night before. I tried to talk to him, but.. couldn’t bring myself to open up. Even though we were pretty close. I went back to my dad’s.

That wasn’t the end of it, either. For the next coming months, I’d get drunken calls and live in fear of being put right back in the same situation. It got so bad that I stopped answering my phone altogether. I broke contact with my mom entirely. I still hate answering or making calls.

Anyway, a few other things happened in the summer, like my applying for online courses. And the subsequent ridicule from my dad’s side of the family for the decision. Tell you what, the stress of taking a test to try and join that online program, then going to golden corral and having to struggle to not cry in front of everyone there was... not the ideal way to spend a birthday. Happy 15 years to me.

So.... that was that. I still went through with online courses and everything kind of... slowed to a crawl. I tried to do school work, but depression and still yet untreated ADHD prevented me from making any substantial progress beyond a few finished classes. For a while I simply... existed in a limbo. All I did was get up, get on my computer, maybe talk to a few people, and play Overwatch. Maybe look at tumblr, as I remained into Undertale. V and I lost contact after school started back up. I never blamed her for it. In fact, I preferred it that way. She didn’t deserve to have such a burden placed on her, and I still... feel guilty for leaning on her so much.

But I’m very thankful. I hope she’s out there living a good life, wherever she is.

And this! Is where we finally get to the not depressing parts! And only... what, 29 paragraphs in? Sheesh... I know I wanted to really illustrate just how shit things were to demonstrate just how much UT did for me, but this is taking it a bit far, isn’t it? Ah well... already made it this far. In for a penny, in for a pound. If you’ve made it this far, congratulations! I’m sorry. Truly. And I love you so very dearly.

Time went by and I kept doing my thing. Playing Overwatch(a practically self-destructive behavior deserving a therapy, frankly), talking to the few friends I had that I kept at an arm’s length, that sort of stuff. “Phil” and I no longer talked, thank goodness. Obviously I was depressed as all hell, not bothering to shower, eat, clean up, or do laundry for days on end. I spent more time asleep than I did awake, on most days. Did I say this was where the not depressing part was? I may have lied a little.

Blah blah “more months go by”, you know the drill. Until... I believe, November of 2016. After cementing my love of Flowey ever deeper, I’d started to follow more blogs putting out content for him on tumblr. In particular, the most important ones being I’lltrytobegood, Flowey-Answers, and later happyflowey and Corruptedflora.

It all started with a stream. I joined an art stream of LLA(Lovelyladyartist) on picarto as he worked on ITTBG. I kept quiet for the first few streams I joined, being too anxious to really out myself in any capacity. But little by little, I was coerced out of my shell. Particularly by one SilverKhaos, who I think at the time went by SilverSlayer or something. Anyway, he got me talking. And through that, I started making friends, bit by bit.

Also through the stream, I was introduced to CC(CuteCatDoodles) of Flowey-Answers. I obsessively read through the entire blog in a single sitting, just... having such a good time with it. And... strangely enough, it... got me feeling oddly better. Like I’d finally started to breath after not being able to for what felt like such a long time. If just a little. The next day, I got out of bed early, cleaned up, took out some garbage, and made breakfast. Just a simple plate of scrambled eggs. A simple, easy morning for most any average person. But for me? It was one of the most special mornings I’ve ever had.

Likewise, I did the same with Ding’s happyflowey, of reading through all of it in a single night. My head hurt like a motherfucker, but I tell you, it was worth it. The effect perhaps not as profound, but still very meaningful to me, as well as sowing the seeds of yet more relationships to form. If far off in the future, as far as this timeline is concerned. I still adore all of those dumb, charming little flowers so much. Mania would come to inspire my first ever OC, in fact. Thinking about that blog makes me miss when the UT fandom was more active here, even though I never participated in the fandom at large. But I’m grateful for the memories and incredible amounts of enjoyment getting to read it all brought me. I have way too many cropped images of Hysteria.

I wasn’t immediately better, but it was all the start of something new. I kept up with the streams, also joining in for CC’s. For hours upon hours a day, I’d just hop into them and spend the day talking away. I had something to really look forward upon waking up, starting to adjust my schedule so that I at least didn’t miss TOO much. I was able to really make friends, it felt like. Even though I wasn’t and still am not the most socially adept.

And as luck would have it, because picarto chat was and probably still is pretty unstable to this day, it just happened to go down and that led to... the creation of the discord server! It started off small, but steadily got more and more joiners from the growing population of the streams. LovelyLadyArtist, CuteCatDoodles, BrySkye, Flowers-Without-Pots, SilverSlayer, KRS, Donut, Mr.Quarter, Dragoler, Stilla, Chara, RotmModdy, Rowdy, Dunal, and probably at least a few others I’m forgetting... all names I encountered there and most of which I still see daily.

Through that server, we started keeping up even when there wasn’t any stream going on. Just goofing off and having a good ‘ol time. Already I was... well, doing a helluva lot better than I had before. All because of the gathering of a small community surrounding this indie gem. And even further centered in a niche specifically about Flowey! Who, and I’d forgotten to mention this before, I’d found a surprising amount to relate in. He’d become a big, BIG hyperfocus. Which is why I’d met everyone at all. Truly, it’s crazy to think how possible it is for me to have never come down this path.

From there on, I continued to meet new people, established new relationships. I even got invited to an RP server, creatively named “Flower RP” :p. At first I was hesitant, perhaps not even initially 100% interested. But as people really got into it, I felt an incredibly strong Fear of Missing Out. Leading to the creation of a character still near and dear to my heart.... Zorch. The result of contributions from many friends, from design ideas, to character concepts, and even his name(thanks for that, Rowdy). And... I began to write. It wasn’t great at first. very short form, and I didn’t know how to approach the roleplaying mindset, or even how to properly characterize him.

But over time... I got better. I became more confident. I really got into the nitty-gritty of character writing and discussion. I joined in on hours long discussions about the characters, lore, and narrative of Undertale. I’d wake up just to be there as soon as chat began to move, all the way to the point where everyone was finally asleep. I started to be able to help people again. For months, participating in this RP, in this chat, in this community was what I lived for. The joy that I felt in being among friends all working towards and talking about a common goal and interest is, well, honestly still somewhat unrivaled.

Paci, Pots, Neue, Castor, Silver, Nightmare, Rowdy. Me. All of us joined together in mutual love for a game, spurred on to feverishly create our own content about it. I kept up for months on end, living by the mostly same routine for probably the longest I’ve ever stuck to anything. Eventually... things happened and the server’s gone quiet. We had problems with management, people feeling excluded, targeted, etc etc. It was a very... consequence heavy RP, most of us were almost complete newbies to the roleplaying game, and many came to care rather deeply about the ongoings of it. Perhaps too much. But, well... I’m not sure it could have been prevented.

Sometimes, I still wish I could go back to that point of my life. I know someone else who does too. Even more than me. But I know not to try and emulate the past, as alluring as it may seem. So I push forward. Leading to yet another server with its own events. Clement, myself, Rowdy, Zielo, Neue, Moddy, Vee, Mini, Nappy, Tia, Silver. Some familiar names, some new. All still with the foundation of Undertale, but it quickly became a thing for us to just... chill and talk about anything. There was real love in that place. It was at this time that I even started going to therapy! After some struggling with the family. It helped a lot.

In time, that server, too, went under. For reasons that have long since been buried and forgiven. It no longer exists, after being deleted entirely, but I’ll always remember it. And we did eventually all(mostly) gather back together someplace new, which is still being talked in. Even gaining some new additions recently! If any of you guys are catching this one, I love you!

And we come to the final and most recent group. One I wasn’t actually a founding member of, instead being a late joiner. Comparatively smaller than all the ones before, but filled with just as much love. Pip, Ding, Kink, and Cola. Remember when I mentioned happyflowey sowing seeds, and then didn’t even expound in further detail about corruptedflora? Well congratulations, you’ve reached the payoff.

It all started after I began interacting with the mun of CF, Kinko, and became mutuals with them. We usually just spam reblogged from each other on occasion for a while. That is, until I got messaged, then sent a friend request through Discord. Which, even still, didn’t immediately go anywhere. But eventually... some things led to another, and we joined up in a particular server. Not one I’ll be naming, but times were... turbulent in there. It went under and we lost contact a bit after that.

That is, until completely out of the blue, I just get invited to a server with them and some pals to just join in on Roblox shenanigans. Imagine me, sweating and anxious as hell after getting asked to join a server with two people behind blogs I adore, considering Ding was there too. Cardiac arrest, I tell you. And obviously more than just them too! But the night turned out to be so fun that I forgot I’d ever been so anxious in the first place.

From there on... the rest was history. There’s been many, MANY ups and downs, but I’ve found yet more people I love very, very dearly. And they’ve gotten me to open up about the way I feel the most. In the past years, I could never tell someone I loved them, no matter how much I really wanted to. The words just couldn’t come out, but they... they brought that out in me. And now I can say it whenever I want! Like now! I love you guys!!! So much!!!! And not just you all, but everyone else too!!! And much love to Kink especially for being a driving force behind me making this, as well as just being a goddamn star.

So... as a final ovation... LLA, CC, Bry, Drago/Paci, Pots, Silver, Donut, Quarter, Stilla, Chara, Moddy, Rowdy, Neue, Castor/Skater, Tia/Nightmare, Clement, Zielo, Vee, Nappy, Ding, Pip, Cola, and Kink. As well as some stragglers like Log, Ingrid, and Jai. I’m probably still forgetting some... but thank you all for being my friends. It’s been a long, long five years. And yet, many of you are still in my life. In at least some form. There aren’t words enough to express my gratitude towards every single one of you for the most incredible years of my life and pulling me from what can be called nothing less than the fucking abyss. You all made and continue to make life worth living.

And thank you, Undertale. The game behind all of these relationships.  The game that inspired such strong feelings in me when nothing else could. That made me into an artist and writer. The reason I’m still alive. The game that changed my fucking life and will continue to affect me, I believe, for the duration of it. I really cannot overstate just how important you were and still are. There’ll never be anything else like you.

#this is probably littered with mistakes and things that didn't need to be there #Like the sheer amount of context provided for how poorly I was doing #But too late to change things now! #My brain hurts too much to bother proofreading #So take this raw and unfiltered thing and do what you will with it #Or don't #It's a rough read #Don't push yourself through it if you can't #Or simply don't want to #long post

[somnolent-snufkin]

Spring Flowers

TW: Heavy gore, emotional sh!t

Disclaimer: This story was inspired by the Undertale fandom's beautiful AU FlowerFell and the story "Overgrowth" by SociopathicArchangel. However, I would like to keep the two things separate. I was INSPIRED by it and wanted to make my own story based off the idea of a character having flowers grow over their body over a period of time.

You can read the prequel here: Roses with the Amber Hue

Previous Chapter

Chapter Six

The morning following the alarming events that took place the night before felt nearly dull. Not that Moomintroll and Snufkin would want any more awful things to happen to them. It had been quite rough already.

Moomintroll was the first to wake up, of course. His movements were soft and quiet, trying to be gentle with the supposedly still body he held. But his whole body froze when the mumrik managed to move on his own. It was just a simple hand twitch, however.

"Snufkin?" Moomintroll asked, voice faint and small. No words came back. A couple of tears fell. Then a few more. Then plenty of tears came running down Moomin's face. But something made the moomin pause.

One of the daffodils that sprouted below Snufkin's eye turned into a chestnut brown and crumbled off of Snufkin's face. Then a few more copied it, turning into dead dust. Eventually, the snowdrop and daisy diminished. All of these taking less than a minute to perish completely; it was like watching a timelapse.

Moomintroll could feel a sliver of hope rise. Was Snufkin going to be ok? Was he alive? Snufkin remained silent, still not moving.

"Oh Snufkin.." Moomintroll buried his face in the mumrik's chest, crying yet again. A moment of silence passes by, short muffled sobs being the only sound heard.

"..emotions are strong, aren't they?" Snufkin hummed weakly. Moomintroll's ears perked up as he sat up swiftly.

"Snufkin!" Moomintroll cried out with relief. For this one time, he completely forgot about boundaries and pressed his nose against the mumrik's; a moomin kiss.

Snufkin would look surprised, but his energy had been depleted. Instead, he just smiled softly. Moomintroll pulled away and his face turned a crimson red.

"S-Sorry! I'm sorry for not giving you any space and forcing a k-kiss on you-"

"Moomin, it's fine.." Snufkin kept a frail smile on. "I love you.. I feel it should be perfectly fine to kiss..." Snufkin lifted his hand up and Moomin nuzzled it. They both smiled, full of genuine love for each other. This was real. This was all genuine affection.

Roughly half an hour goes by, Snufkin now laying in Moomintroll's bed. Moomin sat on the edge of the bed, gazing at his sleeping boyfriend. He thought about how long the mumrik was holding in emotions. Realistically, he must of been bottling up love for a least a few years. Maybe more... He'd have to ask that some other time. For now, the two of them should stay close together and get some rest...

Unfortunately the universe has other plans.

"MOOMIN! WHAT'S TAKING YOU SO LONG TO WAKE UP? MOOMINMAMA MADE BREAKFAST NEARLY TEN MINUTES AGO!" Little My shouted from down the hall. It sounded as if she was coming to the door.

Moomintroll panicked and covered his sleeping boyfriend with the rest of the blanket without hesitation. He did not need Little My asking questions about this situation. The whole thing was stressful enough already.

Little My slammed the door open. Raising an eyebrow when she saw Moomin look worried.

"What are you doing?" The short mymble grinned.

"Oh, nothing! Just woke up, that's all." Moomintroll wasn't the greatest liar.

"Right.." She stepped forward, curious as to what the bump under the blanket was. Since it definitely wasn't Moomintroll.

"Haven't you got.. anyone else to bother today..?"

"Not really."

As if he knew his sister was there, Snufkin sat up slowly. He didn't notice My right away.

"Why did you cover my face with the blanket, Moomin?" Snufkin asked, a certain joking feeling to his tone. Little My began cackling hysterically. She was certainly confused as all hell but she was pretty amused, apparently. The mumrik sighed in silent frustration when he saw his sibling run off.

"Great, now she's going to tell our friends about this." Moomintroll grumbled.

"Hey Moomin?"

"Hmm?"

"Can I tell you something that I've noticed?"

"Sure."

"Last night felt really over dramatic. I felt like I was being a bit too emotional. Do you think that?"

"Well, we're young adults. And there was quite literally a flower coming out of your eye! You had every right to be emotional!"

"I guess that's true. Anyways.. we should probably go explAiN tO- Owww!" Snufkin tried stepping out of bed, only to fall onto the floor. His whole body was still very weak from fighting the Blomst and dealing with the decaying flowers.

"Snufkin! Please be careful!" Moomintroll ran over to help him sit up. "I think you should stay in bed."

"Alright. Fine. I'll stay here." Snufkin said as he laid back down on the bed.

Then there was a knock on the door. Moomintroll opened the door.

"You've got a lot of explaining to do!"

Next Chapter

#moomins #moomin fanfic #moomin fanfiction #springdove #Spring Flowers #flower language #flower gore #flowers #snufkin #snufmin #moominvalley #moomin #little my

[sleepyfan-blog]

Ink Please

Discord request fill for @trashydragonartist7

Fandom: undertale aus

Characters and pairing: Ink, Dream, Nightmare, Dreammare

Warnings: lying tw

Word count: 1,687

Summary: Dream and Nightmare are about to cuddle when Ink comes over for a chat.  

Tagslist: @anxiety-is-married-to-depression @angelofthehalfmoon @trainwreck-of-skeletons @hisame-amadashi​ @therandomskelekey @capisnotonfire

"I'm really glad that you came. I've missed you..." Dream hummed softly as he moved over to where his other half was currently sitting on his couch.

"You've been busy ever since Ink struck that truce with Error. I'm convinced that one or both of them are up to something, but from what I've seen, Error's just been sitting in his anti-void, watching Undernovella and stealing chocolate from Underfell timelines when he's hungry. What have you been up to?" Nightmare responded with a sigh, one of his tentacles reaching up and curling around one of Dream's wrist - a subtle hand-hold of sorts. 

"Well... Since Error hasn't been destroying things - and Ink has been unable to help create new timelines... he's been going a little stir-crazy. He's been doodling up a storm and helping to fix up anything that's the slightest bit out of order in timelines that already exist. He's also been talking about fighting you and your friends - I mean your evil minions of evilness. To fix the timelines that you're currently ruling... I've been doing all I can to talk him out of doing that... Not that I've told him that you and I collaborated on making that magical mason jar that Blue and I use when he's being completely insufferable and his form destabilizes, so of course you not only know how to make one, you have one on hand in case he is being a terror or a complete nuisance."  Dream ranted, pacing back and forth in front of his beloved. "Blue and I have been desperately trying to come up with anything and everything to keep him from breaking the truce out of boredom. Core's been trying to help as best as they can."

"Ah well I am grateful that you're trying to keep that nuisance from interfering in the dark timelines that he helped to create, and then abandoned to their miserable storylines because that was what the supposed creators that he supposedly worked alongside in order to -" Nightmare started, though the stopped speaking abruptly as someone banged loudly on the door.

Both of the emotive guardians startled and raced for the door, Dream just a touch faster. He peered through the peephole to check who it was and swore under his breath as he turned, opened the closet door and shoved Nightmare inside of it before closing the door shut, whispering "Hide! And please stay quiet!" Before he opened the door, a bright (and fake) smile appearing on his face as he gestured for the person who was at the door to come in. "Hi Ink - how are you?"

"Gooood! I'm super bored though... I helped Captain Alphys repair her training dummies - as well as the walls of her house, but that didn't take more than like... an hour to fix! She was super impressed by how quickly I was able to fix things, and I ended up sparring with her... and then the entirety of Blue's royal guard, which took several hours as they insisted on fighting me individually - apart from Number One and Number two, and Dogamy and Dogaressa! Both of them are really cute couples. So I came to see you!" Ink responded, bouncing a little bit on the balls of his feet "I"m... Bored and I want to do something, but I can't think of anything that wouldn't get me into trouble. I've already pestered Glitchy until he chased me out of that boring, blank space of his. I mean really - why won't he let me decorate the place a little? The Blue Strings and Red Souls are creepy at best."

Dream paused for a moment, thinking "Uhm... Have you tried talking to Outer, to see if he or his people need anything? Their AU is a lot bigger than most, and I'm sure that there's a lot that you could explore?"

"Meh, I was there when the first Outertale was created - that was a lot of fun to help make, you know? SUch space and grandeur... It was stunning to look at, at first... But I know every star, every planet, every asteroid, and comet. I've played cosmic billiards with Glitchy using asteroid belts and danced on planetary dust rings... And before you suggest going to Outerswap or Outerfell, I've done all of that in multiples of those timelines as well... I just wish that there was something new... I'm so bored." INk complained, flopping down dramatically on Dream's couch, pouting for a couple of moments. He then stared hopefully up at the positive guardian "Do you have any ideas? Any clue as to Nightmare and his gang of evildoers are?"

Dream nearly swallowed his tongue as he froze at the sudden mention of Nightmare - who was hiding and irritated in his closet "Uhh... No? Why do you ask?"

"Well... I can't create anything, as agreed with Glitchy... But we've got to stop whatever evil bullshit that Nightmare is up to... Not that you've ever explained how the hell the two of you know each other or anything like that... I'm sure that there's a very interesting story behind that." Ink responded, walking closer to his long-time companion. He was pretty sure he hasn't been to Dream's timeline in a very long time... Or perhaps ever. There were timelines that were spontaneously created - rare as it is that such things happen that way. 

"I... I've told you before, I don't like to talk about my past - and even if I did tell you, Nightmare would do his best to murder you if you gave so much as a hint about knowing said past..." Dream sputtered in protest. 

"I know that the two of you are connected somehow - your powers and his counterbalance each other in a way that I've never seen before... And the way that you talk about him, I'm quite certain that the two of you lived together in the same timeline for a while... Although I can't imagine what that might have been like... Oooh, maybe I could try to do that? I don't like the way his aura affects me much, but it could be fun pestering him regularly... and since he seems to fancy himself as some sort of tyrant of sorts, we could live amongst his people and sow the seeds of rebellion against him... I wonder if it would be fun to be a rebel leader, or perhaps the guiding whisper in their ears... I don't think that I've done a lot of larger-scale strategy like that, but Blue's had a lot of royal guard training - and is very good at instructing others. With your ability to inspire others, my ability to create things - like weapons for those who can't make their magical attacks, and Blue's knowledge of actual fighting training, I bet that we could do quite a lot to help inspire them!" Ink babbled excitedly, his eye lights shifting shape and colors as the plan started to form in his mind.

"And... Uhm... What if they are content to live under Nightmare's rule?" Dream gently prodded, a small frown appearing on his face "Nightmare usually targets darker timelines - most of those timelines I am unable to physically enter, even in pacifist timelines, due to the extremely low positivity... and from what we have been able to observe, he takes them over, not just through force and intimidation. They may be loyal to him because of what he's done for them."

"Oh... I suppose that you're right about that... But he's disrupting the narratives of their stories, which isn't right!" Ink protested "... Although, you not being able to enter those timelines does throw a major wrench into potential plans... I'll have to think about something else to occupy all of the free time I've got, suddenly. Maybe we'll be able to figure out where Nightmare is going to strike next and chase him off before he can get his tendrils in their minds... Bye for now! I've got some thinking and planning to do. See you later, Dream~!" With that, the creative guardian teleported out of the timeline in a flash of rainbow-colored magic. 

Dream silently counted to twenty before he walked over to where Nightmare was, opening the door "I... I think it's safe for you to come out now."

"Thanks... Is he planning on trying to sow chaos and discord in my empire?" Nightmare asked with a huff as he leaves the closet, scooping up his beloved and snuggling the other close.

"I... I don't think so? Long term and large-scale strategy is not something that Ink is good at for several reasons..." Dream responded.

The negative guardian snorts a little bit "For example the fact that he has the attention span of a gerbil and the memory of a goldfish?"

"Hey! Ink's not that bad - and he does his best to adapt to his memory issues by writing things down... But... He is more than a bit scatterbrained, which wouldn't help him in the whole... Plotting to overthrow a supposedly evil overlord. Speaking of, I plan on thwarting your plans for the rest of the day by cuddling you." Dream responded, moving closer to his beloved, wrapping his arms around the other's waist as he rested his head on one of the other's shoulders.

"Well, your sneaky plans happen to coincide with my evil plots for the day. I plan on trapping you in my arms as we watch movies and eat junk food." Nightmare purred in response as he carried the other over to the couch, settling the both of them down on it, grabbing a blanket and draping it around the two of them. he grabbed the remote and started to flick through the movie selection.

"Ah... Our plots align... How fortuitous for the both of us... Mm... Love you." the positive spirit mumbled as he contentedly nuzzled into his other half.

"And I love you... Are you ready to start the first movie? It's about pirates and curses. Adventure on the high seas." Nightmare asked after a moment, smiling gently. Dream nodded in response, and the movie began to play.

#my writing #dream sans #nightmare sans #ink sans #dreammare #tw lying

[suzyundertale]

Deltarune Theory - The Red SOUL

It’s pretty clear that, in Deltarune, the person we are “playing” as is not Kris directly, but the red SOUL that is controlling them. 

After all, when Kris tosses the SOUL out of their body, we can still control it.

So then, the question is... Who IS the red SOUL?

In this post, I’ll go over several theories, their main points, and evidence for them and against them.

It’s not Kris’ SOUL.

With the information we have, it’s nearly impossible for this SOUL to belong to Kris.

First of all, in the Dark World, Kris’ description describes them as follows:

“Body contains a human SOUL.” Not “THEIR” human SOUL, “A” human SOUL. That’s just about the most suspicious-sounding way you could possibly word that.

Second, the first time we go to save the game, a save file titled “Kris” is overwritten by one with the chosen name of the “creator”.

And, throughout the epilogue, everyone keeps pointing out how strange they’re acting, how they aren’t like themself...

They’re acting unlike themself because they aren’t themself - they’re being controlled by someone else.

... Someone who knows some things Kris doesn’t.

(Because of the above two, I’m going to assume that all of the dialogue choices come from the red SOUL.)

The SOUL also seems a little, um, opinionated:

And they apparently don’t know who Rudy is, when Kris definitely does.

So... who could they be?

Theory 1: The Player (“Player Theory”)

This is probably the most popular theory going around right now. In this theory, the red SOUL represents us, the “player”, as an actual in-game entity. 

This is an understandable interpretation, as Undertale is known to be very meta at times. It’s not totally unthinkable that ‘we’ exist as an actual force in-universe.

Evidence against Player Theory

There’s a significant amount of evidence that the red SOUL has their own personality and is their own person, such as:

They have their own opinions on Mew Mew 2.

They can’t play the piano. I’d imagine a lot of players can, so it’s strange to put this here if they’re meant to be the player. It would be odd to exclude a significant amount of the player base (including Toby himself) for, um, literally no reason.

Support for Player Theory

According to Deltarune’s official website, Deltarune is a game “intended for people who have completed UNDERTALE.” Therefore, the “player” is supposed to know everything that happens in Undertale.

Therefore, these interactions make sense:

... Because the player knows who Sans is, and they know that Alphys and Undyne were dating in Undertale.

...However, there is someone else who knows all the same things about the Undertale universe that the player does.

Theory 2: Frisk

From Undertale, we know that Frisk has a red SOUL. This theory says that the red SOUL present in Deltarune is also the very same Frisk from the Undertale universe.

Evidence against Frisk Theory

Toby has said this about Deltarune in relation to Undertale:

...so, that shoots a bit of a hole in this... but. Hear me out.

[EDIT]

On February 14th 2019, a FAQ section was added to the official Deltarune website. One of the questions is:

Basically confirming that there are “connections” between the Undertale and Deltarune universes.

So... I guess there isn’t any evidence against this theory, now.

[END EDIT]

Support for Frisk Theory

Like the “player”, Frisk knows everything that happened in Undertale. They’re friends with Sans, so they would be excited to see him. They know Alphys and Undyne are dating, so they would be eager to ask Undyne about her girlfriend. And they don’t know who Rudy is.

And, of course... there’s the intro sequence.

Gaster prompts us to create a “vessel” to hold our SOUL...

A vessel that just so happens to always have exactly two stripes on their shirt.

However, the person that interrupts the intro - Chara, if you remember my post about it - doesn’t seem very happy about this whole vessel thing.

... Which would make sense if the red SOUL is actually Frisk. Frisk is Chara’s friend, Chara wouldn’t let Gaster suddenly try to turn them into a whole different person. So... What if Chara was actually trying to say “Your name is Frisk”, but was cut off?

After all, in Undertale, there’s a scene that this is likely meant to be a parallel to...

... And, of course, after beating the game, we know the speaker of this line is Asriel, and he was saying, well, “My name is Asriel”.

Speaking of Chara... the voice of the narration in Deltarune is suspiciously similar to Undertale’s, and at some points, seems to almost intentionally call back to Undertale.

(In case you’re not convinced by the above one - it matches word-for-word in the official Japanese translations, as well.)

...Which would make sense if, not only are we playing as Frisk once again...

...But Chara is the narrator once again, as well.

Of course, Frisk themselves could just as easily be the narrator. It’s difficult to tell at this point. I’m personally leaning towards Chara, though.

Also, it’s probably just a bizarre joke, but this line would make a lot more sense if the person controlling Kris was actually a child: 

My favorite thing about this theory is that if it is true, Toby would have tricked us into thinking Frisk is actually an in-game representation of the player not once, but twice. 

Theory 3: Chara and Asriel’s Combined SOUL

This theory proposes that the SOUL is a combined human-monster soul - specifically, Chara and Asriel’s.

It’s said in Undertale that Asriel absorbed Chara’s SOUL, and then died. However, it’s never explicitly stated that the SOUL shattered. We know that a human SOUL can persist after death presumably indefinitely if preserved properly, and a boss monster SOUL can survive outside the body for a few seconds... But we don’t know how long a combined human-monster SOUL could last outside its body. 

Evidence against Combined SOUL Theory

There’s no evidence in the game that the SOUL belongs to two people. In Undertale, Asriel states that when he and Chara were sharing a SOUL, control was split between them, and they were both actively fighting for control over their body.

There isn’t any instance of any sort of “internal argument” within the SOUL. Unless you interpret the differing dialogue choices as such, but even so, you’d think there’d be more of a hint that there’s actually two people fighting for control. But who knows, maybe it’ll only become more obvious in later chapters...?

Support for Combined SOUL Theory

The red SOUL is... odd. And I don’t mean their personality, I mean the SOUL itself.

(screenshot and gif from this post, which is what inspired this theory!)

When Kris removes the SOUL from their body... It glows red and white. White, of course, is the color of a monster SOUL. 

While it could just be a visual effect... It’s at least one more thing to be suspicious about.

And, like I touched on before, we never know what exactly happened to Chara and Asriel’s combined SOUL. Some people think it could even be the red heart in this machine in Undertale’s True Lab:

... and, with this theory... perhaps that machine might be somehow connected to the Deltarune universe.

Theory 4: Suzy

No, not Susie, Suzy! The one from Undertale. If you don’t know who I’m talking about, read this post.

This is my personal favorite theory, even though it’s quite unlikely. The premise of this theory is that Suzy is actually a human, and the red SOUL belongs to her.

Of course, a lot of people think “Suzy” is simply the Undertale universe version of “Susie”. That’s fair, and that theory certainly fits in with “fast approaching”. But I’m going to assume they’re completely different people for the sake of this theory. (Plus, why would Susie be the only character with a different name from their Undertale counterpart..?)

Evidence against Suzy Theory

This theory doesn’t have an explanation as to why the red SOUL knows about Alphys and Undyne’s relationship. (If you can come up with one, please tell me.) I mean, even though she exists in the Undertale universe, they only get together at the very end, and Suzy almost certainly wasn’t there. But who knows. Maybe she’s been shipping them the whole time. /s

Also, as much as I love the concept, it is quite unlikely that Suzy is a human. I do have a couple of explanations for it as you’ll see below, but I will admit that it’s still kind of a stretch. Still, what’s theory-making without a little fun?

Support for Suzy Theory

No matter whether or not Suzy ends up being the red SOUL, or even a human, she has to be in the full version of Deltarune. And, considering what we know... It’s not a stretch at all to think she might be in the very first chapter.

“Don’t Forget.” The title of the main theme of Deltarune is a phrase that is specifically associated with Suzy. In Undertale, you can only see the “don’t forget” note in Sans’ lab after speaking with Clamgirl and, consequently, learning about the existence of “Suzy”. Therefore, the phrase “don’t forget” is intrinsically linked to her.

This note also gives us another hint about who Suzy is: She knows Sans.

... Hm.

And, of course, her knowing Sans in combination with the fact that you only learn about her when you have certain “fun” values... it’s likely she knows Gaster, or at least of him.

Okay, I think you see where I’m going with this...

Now, for the “Suzy is a human” part. I’ve actually had this theory since before Deltarune, but I never made a post about it or anything.

In Undertale’s No Mercy route, Sans says something quite... interesting.

This line of dialogue implies that Sans knows or knew someone with Determination. A lot of people theorize that this line is referring to Gaster, who may have injected himself with Determination, which is a valid theory... However, I think Sans knew a human. Specifically, a human girl named Suzy.

Sans also knows a lot about concepts such as “LOVE” and “EXP”, and has secret passwords for “time travelers”. This implies that not only did he know someone with Determination, but likely with someone with the ability to “saving”, “loading”, and “resetting”... and, combined with what he talks about in his fight about “knowing our type”... it’s likely this person did a “no mercy run” in the past, or at least killed a significant amount of people.

Wait. If Suzy is a human, and she’s still alive in Undertale... How does she manage to survive in a world of monsters who need just one more human SOUL to break the barrier?

Well.

I have a few theories...

Sub-theory 1: LOVE

I mentioned before that if Suzy is a human, it’s possible, even likely, she has high LOVE.

And, well..

Apparently, once you reach 20 LOVE, you become completely unrecognizable as a human being. Even to the king of all monsters, who would otherwise even compare Frisk to his own dead human child.

Sub-theory 2: “Goner” form

Clamgirl’s “fast approaching” line shows us that, apparently, some people can switch between their “normal” forms and their “goner” (grey) forms at will.

If a human had this ability... perhaps their SOUL would also turn grey? Then it would appear more like a monster SOUL than a human one. Sure, it would still be upside-down, but it’s an interesting thing to think about.

Speaking of “goner” forms...

In the files, Deltarune’s vessel creation sequence is called “GONERMAKER”.

Sub-theory 3: She’s not fully human

Remember earlier how I mentioned how the red SOUL glows red and white in the ending sequence, and how that could possibly be a hint towards the SOUL being not fully human? Well, that could apply here, as well. It’s possible Suzy could be half-monster, but we don’t even know if that’s a possible thing. I’m thinking that perhaps she could have had her SOUL infused with monster magic or dust or something of the like, since it’s likely Gaster experimented with SOULs at some point.

Sub-theory 4: Someone is hiding her/concealing her identity as human

Since Clamgirl talks about Suzy being her neighbor’s daughter, it’s possible her parent is protecting her or even hiding her. I’m not sure how exactly this would work, but it’s a possiblity.

There’s also a few other things I’d like to mention about this theory that I couldn’t fit in:

1. Clamgirl tells Frisk that “In life’s grand scheme, [Suzy] might be why [they] came here in the first place”. This could be implying that Frisk knows Suzy from the surface, which would support the theory that she’s a human. However, it could just as easily be Clamgirl going on about how Frisk and Suzy are fated to meet, especially considering Clamgirl’s phrasing makes it seem like Frisk and Suzy haven’t met before.

2. Clamgirl’s “Fast approaching” line only appears in the Switch version of Undertale, which was released less than two months before chapter one of Deltarune came out. There are 3 possibilities you could take from this:

a. Clamgirl was lying (unlikely)

b. Deltarune’s release was a distraction from some more content coming soon that will actually feature Suzy

c. Suzy is in chapter one of Deltarune.

Conclusion

Anyway, those are the four theories I could come up with on who the red SOUL could be. It could also be a completely new character. Who knows. 

Well, now that you’ve read this far... I’d actually like to gather some data. I’m curious what people think the most likely outcome is after reading this. If you could take a few seconds to vote on this poll, I’d really appreciate it!

#deltarune #deltarune spoilers #analysis

[vertebralheights]

REALLY LONG CHARACTER SURVEY. RULES. repost ,   don’t  reblog  !  good  luck  !

TAGGED. Redoing this from uhhh last year almost. TAGGING. Yeet

BASICS.

FULL NAME: MV Boli Dingbat

NICKNAME:  Bo

AGE: It’s really hard to gauge but lets just call it mid-twenties, but she’s been alive for much much longer.

BIRTHDAY: It honestly has changed like.  100 times?  Currently it’s February 18th.

ETHNIC GROUP: Skeleton monster.

NATIONALITY: Undergroundian

LANGUAGE(S): English, Dingbats.

SEXUAL ORIENTATION: Demisexual

ROMANTIC ORIENTATION: Demiromantic

RELATIONSHIP STATUS:  Technically this is verse dependent but her main verse squeeze is an absolute meme.

CLASS: Prodigiously lower-class.

HOMETOWN / AREA: She doesn’t remember what it was called.  She lived near the Capital, Maybe in Hotland?  She doesn’t remember much before Vertebral Heights.

CURRENT HOME: Vertebral Heights, a city with a dwindling skeleton population.

PROFESSION: Unemployed with no benefits!

PHYSICAL.

HAIR: That would be weird.

EYES: White most of the time, sometimes they’re ooky spooky green/teal.

NOSE:  Set nose to NO.

FACE:  Bean-shaped.

LIPS:  No thanks.

COMPLEXION: Bo has kinda yellower, slightly off color bones from lack of light and access to bone polish. 

BLEMISHES: She has a sternal foramen, a genetic abnormality. 

SCARS: None

Tattoos: How?

HEIGHT:  5'5″

WEIGHT:  Like.  12 Pounds?

BUILD: She’s very slim.  If her bones had flesh on them there wouldn’t be that much of a change in physique.

FEATURES:  No flesh.

ALLERGIES: Hard to have allergies without lungs, blood, or organs.

USUAL HAIRSTYLE: ???

USUAL FACE LOOK: A relaxed and placid smile, eyes wide but also very tired looking.

USUAL CLOTHING: She has one pair of dark jeans that she wears and a variety of t shirts, most of which are black or have funny sayings on them.  She usually wears a green flannel shirt tied around her waist.  She never wears shoes, and always wears a black stocking-hat beanie.

PSYCHOLOGY.

FEAR(S): Losing her friends/family and being completely alone.

ASPIRATION(S) : Learning how to use her magic and her other skills to the best ability that she can to protect people and solve problems.

POSITIVE TRAITS: Clever, friendly, creative, intelligent, compassionate.

NEGATIVE TRAITS: Depressed, mildly nihilistic, no regard for personal care or safety, anti-authoritarian (not really a BAD trait but it hasn’t gotten her anywhere)

ZODIAC: Aquarius!

TEMPERAMENT: Generally, she’s very good natured and friendly.

SOUL TYPE(S):  Monster Soul, her ‘trait’ is Idiosyncrasy.

ANIMALS:  If she were an animal she’s probably be something rat a possum or a rat.  

VICE  HABIT(S): She does them botha lot less, but she used to drink to excess and smoke a lot.  But since taking in Lark and becoming happier with her life, she’s cut down on those habits a lot.  She still drinks on occasion (to have fun more than to drown her sorrows) and she still smokes when she’s really stressed/overworked.

FAITH: It comes and goes.

GHOSTS?: They’re lovely.

AFTERLIFE?: It happens for some people.

REINCARNATION?: Yes, she knows it can be done.

ALIENS?: God, she hopes so.

POLITICAL ALIGNMENT: Anarchist???????

ECONOMIC  PREFERENCE: Money would be cool.

SOCIOPOLITICAL POSITION: Pro environment and pro-monster rights.  Anti-Capitalist.

EDUCATION LEVEL: Uhhh the 4th Grade???  She stopped after her parents vanished.  Had a lot of advanced education from her parents as supplement to her education.

FAMILY.

FATHER: Dr. Zapfino Dingbat ✝️

MOTHER: Dr. Lucida Dingbat ✝️

SIBLINGS: Cooper Dingbat ✝️

EXTENDED FAMILY:  She has an adopted child, Lark, who she’s had for about two years.

NAME MEANING(S): It’s a font, chosen from a big book of 5000 fonts based on what an old skeleton said she should be named.  I dunno, the lore is fuzzy.

HISTORICAL CONNECTION?: Her parents were a part of an initiative during the war that took human bodies and turned them into monster warriors via skeleton resurrection.  It was semi-successful.

FAVORITES.

BOOK: Bo doesn’t have a favorite, but she does have a pretty sizable collection of do-it-yourself books on a variety of subjects, as well as a few music books, and a very well-read book on plumbing.

MOVIE: Can’t recall ever seeing one?  Lmao she’s only ever had radios.

5 SONGS: Thrift Shop, Planetary Go, Seashore, Love Like You, and Polka Covers or literally any song ever made.

DEITY: Johannes Gutenberg, creator of fonts and typeface.  But that’s mostly a joke.  

HOLIDAY: All holidays are just variation of the prime holiday... H A L L O W E E N.

MONTH:  They all seem to be the same for her.

SEASON: Fall or Winter, probably.  

PLACE: Cities and Caves.

WEATHER: Overcast and on the cool side.

SOUND: The accordion, harmonica (most instruments, really)  the sound of certain people’s laughter, the sound of a dry erase marker on a white board.

SCENT(S):  Brass, pine trees, hospital antispetic, food cooking, weirdly, trash.

TASTE(S): Soy sauce, vegetable broth, white rice.

FEEL(S):  Cool metal, small clicking buttons, flannel,

ANIMAL(S): Rats, Possums, Mice, Raccoons, Badgers, pretty much anything that’s kinda... Scrappy.

NUMBER: 11.  I wrote 11 last year and I still don’t know why.  Why 11.

COLORS: Green!

EXTRA.

TALENTS: Figuring out and playing instruments, reverse engineering machinery, rock climbing, singing, somehow turning all food she cooks into fried rice.

BAD AT:  Cooking anything that isn’t fried rice, public speaking/singing, believing in herself.

HOBBIES: Tinkering with instruments and appliances, learning new shit, pestering her loved ones, exploring caves.

TROPES:  Satisfied Street Rat, Always Save The Boy, Family of Choice, Undead Barefooter, Wrench Wench

AESTHETIC TAGS:  #cities, #green, #neon, #abandoned

GPOY  QUOTES: My only crime is that I was down to clown.

FC INFO.

MAIN  FC(S): None, I just draw her.

ALT FC(S): Seriously, I just draw her.

OLDER FC(S): Seriously-

YOUNGER  FC(S): sTOP

VOICE CLAIM(S): I’ve been at war with what she sounds like for what feels like eons.  I’m currently on a kick with Sara Gilbert, but I think Bo would be way less monotone than Sara.  I dunno, I usually just think of my own voice with a slightly different accent and inflection. 

GENDERBENT FC(S): 

MUN QUESTIONS.

Q1: if you could write your character your way in their own movie, what would it be called, what style would it be filmed in, and what would it be about?:  It’s an absurd comedy.  Stephen Chow is directing it.  There are ridiculous fight scenes and cult-classic humor.  It has absurd montages and weirdly placed rock ballad musical numbers.  It’s honestly not very good.

Q2: what would their soundtrack / score sound like?:  Bo’s sountrack is all 8-bit chiptune music, kazoo covers, polka remixes, and hard rock.

Q3: why did you start writing this character?: I started in 2015, took a big break, picked her up again in 2018, took a smaller break, picked her up again here in the tail end of 2019.

Q4: what first attracted you to this character?:  I loved Undertale and Skeletons.  Wanted to make a skelesona, loved to rp, decided to mix the two, got rid of the ‘sona’ part and here we are.

Q5: describe the biggest thing you dislike about your muse:  I wrote this last year and it’s still true, She can be a little inconsistent depending on who I’m writing with.  She changes a lot, writing partner/muse to muse.  Also I don’t ever want to make her as depressed as I’ve written her in the past.

Q6: what do you have in common with your muse?: Too many things honestly, Bo started as a self inset.  We’re pretty different now, but we dress the same.  The biggest one is one I’m trying to dial back on, which is the mental illness.

Q8: what characters does your muse have interesting interactions with?: I’ve branched out even LESS that the last time I filled this out.  Currently it’s just.  Tumblr user bonepranks.

Q9: what gives you inspiration to write your muse?:  Listening to fight-y music, watching Undertale comic dubs, talking about her to people.

Q10: how long did this take you to complete?:  Eh, not that long.  Most of this was filled out already.

[a-shrieking-cloud-of-bats]

anyway let’s do a top howevermany video games of 2018 (that’s “that I played in 2018″, and not “released in 2018″) before the year rings out (I got three hours) no particular order in here by the way, and the readmore’s after the first entry so don’t worry too much about this here post length (at least on the dash) Games in this here post: Lobotomy Corp, Pyre, Cultist Simulator, Deltarune, Hollow Knight, and while I didn’t write about it because I hven’t played enough of it yet, I want everyone to know that HEARTBEAT is delightful Lobotomy Corp I... sort’ve have complex feelings about this game. Because it does a lot of weird stuff and I don’t necessarily agree with every single thing it does. I think it’s even bad in places, sometimes, but overall it’s a game that tried to make something mechanically complex out of an SCP-like setting, and that’s a niche that I think has been empty for a very long time, given how convoluted some of those containment procedures get, and while I dunno if they hit it dead on, they certainly did a good job of it. It’s basically a little manager game where you’re managing an SCP-like facility, you start out knowing nothing about the abnormalities and as you interact with them you get more “points” which can be spent on unlocking info that help you deal with the abnormality safely in the future! This gets pretty interesting at best and pretty russian roulette-ey at worst, I distinctly have a memory of botching my first interaction attempt on one only for the thing to immediately break out, fly into the center of the facility, and murder everyone in an extravagant fashion. Like a lot of my beefs with the game, though, this happens exceedingly rarely, so it’s okay (and I could’ve retried that day if I wanted to). To boot, the game sort’ve creates stories in and of itself, not unlike dwarf fortress or something, where someone botches something in the facility and it has widespread consequences and you’re suddenly running on all cylinders to find out what buttons that thing pushed and how to get them unpushed, and it’s super awesome when you manage it. I had one time where a beehive abnormality managed to infect a few employees with spores, and it turned into a whole ass situation (that you can read about here, it’s long by the way) that IIRC took down like, half the employees in the facility. I should’ve reset, but I didn’t, because I Won. And any game that gives you that vibe can’t be all bad. On top of all this, the game does have a plot, I don’t think everyone ever is going to love it, but it’s not bad, and honestly some of the plot related challenges later in the game are some of my favorite thematic set pieces in a good long time. If you like resource management games, visual novels (a little bit, the plot is there, it’s in visual novel format, and it’s pretty good), and don’t mind a bit of anime plot (or even prefer it, maybe!), consider this one.

Pyre Pyre is a game about a person (you) that falls into a sectioned off part of the world called The Downside. The game starts with you, unconscious, and being rescued by a group of people, where you learn that you were exiled from The Commonwealth, to The Downside for the crime of literacy, and that literacy is extremely valuable in the downside because a literate person is required to perform The Rites of Flame which are sort’ve soccer ball games where you try to get your team to throw a crystal ball thing into the opposing fire. These rites eventually free a single person from the downside, using a tournament format. Over time you learn about your fellow team members, why they were exiled, among other things, you learn about the history of the world, and find out exactly how bad The Commonwealth actually is in some ways, and you, eventually, do something about it. The plot is legitimately fantastic and despite this there are at least  2 “overall endings”, and at least two endings for not only all of your team members, but also for the members of opposing teams, as you can lose to them on purpose to let them escape instead of your own dudes. All those tie into the over-arcing plot, which is to send people back to the corrupt other side to resolve the conflict going on there in secret. So you may not want to let some people go back because they won’t be much help, or they might actively hurt things. Some characters might even be better suited to life in the downside as a whole. It’s also neat to see your liaison on the other side that’s helping you perform the rites steadily reacts to how the overall situation is developing on the other side. The soundtrack is also fantastic, seriously top notch. If you like narratively driven games, games with good characterization, games with a just sort’ve full bodied plot in general, and don’t mind a bit of sportsball, you might take a look at this.

Hollow Knight People call things Dark Souls Inspired a lot, and that unfortunately is rarely a good thing, as dark souls difficulty when done poorly is a huge frustrating mess and it’s a testament to how well FROM did things in that game that it’s as fun to play as it is. And of course a lot of games just aren’t dark souls inspired at all and it’s used as a tagline, but with all that said I will say Hollow Knight is absolutely Dark Souls Inspired in the best way. You’re a little fella and you mysteriously arrive to a town called Hallownest, no knowledge of why you’re there or what you’re doing, and you set out to romp around in the caverns beneath the town. For most of the game you just sorta listen to NPCs talk about things and you slowly piece together the plot (maybe, it’s certainly not required and it’s certainly not guaranteed), unlocking upgrades and such along the way. Basically a metroidvania, with attrition based combat based around knowing your limits and when to go back and rest, along with more traditionally difficult boss fights. It all culminates in a big fight with the big bad and if you did everything right, you get to figure out what the hell was actually going on (sorta). It’s a beautiful game, the character looks like exactly the sort’ve character to never talk, partially because he doesn’t have a mouth, admittedly, the combat feels great, and the NPCs are a delight, I really can’t think of anything bad about this game, unless you just don’t like platformers, or prefer easier games, or something. If you like metroidvanias, a bit of a meloncholic tone, inferred plot from dialogue and item description clues, and don’t mind having to wrestle the game a little bit, I’d say give this a shot. Deltarune Like everyone else, I played Deltarune the day it came out, and had no idea what to expect, probably because we got 24 hours of warning and no tell that it was a new game at all, and ultimately I found out that it was a marked improvement over Undertale (which isn’t to say Undertale is bad, of course). Party based combat was a blast, the game just sort’ve in general warmed my heart (after scaring me briefly right at the beginning), and honestly I’m very very happy that the focus on pacifism was taken out because it was great the first time, but I feel like it’d just be more of the same to functionally “quote” Undertale, so I’m super happy with that decision, and really as a companion piece to Undertale I think it makes a load of sense as a bit more “grounded” take on the whole “combat in video games as a means to an end” thing, that (mostly) manages to not lose the good vibes. I don’t think I could’ve been happier with it, really. If you love to be happy, I highly reccomend deltarune (and it’s free anyway so whynot right) To be real, if you like top down shooters, games that don’t take themselves entirely seriously, or games with just sorta positive vibes in general, take a look. Cultist Simulator I’m gonna be honest with You, The Reader, and say that I do not like reading a whole lot, in general. This is important because Cultist Simulator is a game with a lot of reading in it, and honestly, I loved it regardless. It paints a fantastic picture of a world with Actual Occult Business of some description in it, and it manages to have a unique UI that didn’t make me throw my hands in the air out of frustration and quit. I’d say that this UI, would be a fantastic way to do adventure games in the future, in general, in fact. It is that good. The game itself revolves around you, a person that, up until just recently, was working at a hospital as a ferrier (so someone that wheels around wheelchairs with people in them). One of the patients you wheeled around leaves you a package, you open it, and find an address to a bookstore, a person, and a load of money. You move on from that in a very free-form fashion and Things Happen, I legitimately can’t tell you anything more the game is all about learning how to do things. To go on about the UI more, you have cards, initially you have a reason, health, and passion card. You use these cards in slots to cause certain effects, so putting health into the work slot gives you money and vitality after 60 seconds have passed. You can put the vitality in the dream slot to get a prompt to get more vitality, so you work with health again (after it’s cooldown has expired), get another vitality, put them both in, you got a “hardened physique” skill card and another health card. This is basically how the game flows and how you get access to everything in the game, there’s obviously more to it then hard labor, but again I can’t talk about it too much or I’ll ruin it. And while I’m here, it’s really nice that they didn’t just base it on the Cthulhu Mythos and call it done, it’s a unique, original setting and it’s great. Got no hate for the Cthulhu Mythos but I feel like I’ve seen or heard it A Million Times. If you love adventure games, resource management games, reading, narratively driven games (kind’ve, the plot and characterization is mostly on the side, but it is there in a way), or just really want to see an occult game that isn’t based off Cthulhu, check this one out I say.

#bats writes #long post

[askblueberrymuffin]

REALLY LONG CHARACTER SURVEY.

RULES. repost ,   don’t  reblog  !  good  luck  !

TAGGED. @vertebralheights sorta? TAGGING. I dunno, do what u want

BASICS.

FULL NAME: Sans Gaster

NICKNAME:  Blueberry, Muffin, Blue

AGE: 23

BIRTHDAY: July 1st, 20XX

ETHNIC GROUP: Skeleton/Shadow Monster

NATIONALITY: Underground??

LANGUAGE(S): English, Wingdings(?)

SEXUAL ORIENTATION: Asexual

ROMANTIC ORIENTATION: Panromantic

RELATIONSHIP STATUS:  Forever alone Single

CLASS: Middle class? Maybe upper middle when their mom was around?

HOMETOWN / AREA: Snowdin

CURRENT HOME: Still Snowdin, same house and everything

PROFESSION: Sentry, but he’ll likely pursue higher education soon

PHYSICAL.

HAIR: Skeleton?

EYES: Usually cerulean blue.

NOSE:  Nope

FACE:  Boney (har har)

LIPS:  Still skeleton

COMPLEXION: Guess what? Skeleton

WEIGHT:  Like, 9 lbs.

BUILD: Bony boi

FEATURES:  Solid shadow? In skull and ribcage? Also tiny nubby tail

ALLERGIES: Straight up a magic skeleton

USUAL HAIRSTYLE: No?

USUAL FACE LOOK: A bright smile

USUAL CLOTHING: So many sweaters. Too many sweaters. And baggy pants. And cerulean boots. Of course all topped off with his scarf, tied as a bandana.

PSYCHOLOGY.

FEAR(S): His brothers dying, Cake killing himself(again), Cake self harming(more), being abandoned, hurting others, using others, being alone, fire, being burned, the kitchen, ice picks, chisels, sledge hammers, lighters, people getting hurt because of him, people dying because of him-- *SLAPS ROOF OF SANS* THIS BAD BOI CAN FIT SO MANY FEARS and he hides them all so they never get any better, someone help him oh my god--

ASPIRATION(S) : He wants to help others however he can. He also would really like to be come a scientist, but he puts that aside for the former

POSITIVE TRAITS: Excitable, loving, affectionate, intelligent, optimistic, resourceful, adaptable, perseverance, determination, overwhelming kindness and forgiveness

NEGATIVE TRAITS: Depressed, fakes many emotions, fakes many situations, fakes his persona, shoves his own feelings aside constantly, takes all the blame, always takes the fall, forgives instantly, never blames anyone, too trusting, can be absent minded, easily distracted, never honest about his own feelings to other or to himself, won’t tell people when they’re hurting him, will do almost anything you tell him, he’s entirely too codependent, his entire life revolves around his brothers, if you take that away he doesn’t know who he is anymore, he’s content now but if he were to ever not be, that is a very, very steep slope with no coming back. Get this baby a therapist, someone.

ZODIAC: A hecking crab Cancer

TEMPERAMENT: He only gets upset when bad stuff happens to others or they talk bad about themselves. Otherwise you could literally stab him and-- WAIT people literally did torture him and he was not at all upset! Ahhh--

SOUL TYPE(S):  Monster Soul?

ANIMALS:  Probably some kind of dog. He’d be the goodest good boy.

VICE  HABIT(S): He stress bakes and stress cleans. Don’t take that for innocence as he’s tried other things. A lot of other things. But he has 1 HP, hates the choking feel of smoke and can’t get drunk if his life depended on it. ...Perhaps it isn’t so innocent though, looking at all he does.

FAITH: Who needs gods when you’re a massive science nerd

GHOSTS?: Yes?

AFTERLIFE?: He believes there is none. A part of him hopes he is wrong.

REINCARNATION?: He’s a science nerd, he hasn’t put much thought into this stuff.

ALIENS?: He believes with the vastness of the universe, likely? He wants to meet one.

POLITICAL ALIGNMENT: Heavy shrugging? He only wishes the Queen were more open.

ECONOMIC  PREFERENCE: None in particular

SOCIOPOLITICAL POSITION: He’s content where things are.

EDUCATION LEVEL: High school. He hopes to change this now that they actually have money--

FAMILY.

FATHER: Wingdings Gaster

MOTHER: D̵̀́͟͜r̶̶̶̛̕.̴̀ ̷̡̨̢P̶̧e̢̡̕n̷̷̨̧u̴̶m̡̛͘͠͠b̧͞͠r̴̷̨͞ą̧̛͘ ̸̨G̴̡͜͜͠a̵͜s̢̀͜t̢e͠҉̕͟r̷͏̢̢̀

SIBLINGS: Papyrus ‘Cake’ Gaster (younger), Papyrus ‘Rex’ (older)

EXTENDED FAMILY: Sakura Shalie (niece), Martin Magnus (nephew)

NAME MEANING(S): I dunno, ask their mom OH WAIT-- (imsorry)

HISTORICAL CONNECTION?: His mom was the royal scientist, while his dad killed the human who possessed the soul of integrity. Perhaps in certain timelines caused by a certain human, he may have been more historically important (winkwinknudgenudge)

FAVORITES.

BOOK: Pffff-- Textbooks, old scientific studies, non-fiction, history texts, books on space, really just picture anything nerdy. He loves it. Oh yeah, and sci-fi.

MOVIE: The first Star Wars film, he will fight

5 SONGS: Dollhouse, Sleeping Powder, More Than Words, Squid Melody [Blue Version], Cut My Hair

DEITY: Can I just put Phil Swift here? I’m doing it.

HOLIDAY: Christmas

MONTH:  July. Birthday time!

SEASON: Indifferent. They all seem the same to him.

PLACE: Quiet places no one else can reach

WEATHER: Storms. Rain storms on the surface.

SOUND: Laughter

SCENT(S):  Laundry, baking, cooking

TASTE(S): He loves tomatoes? In juice, sandwiches, food in general? Yeah.

FEEL(S):  Warm, soft, physical contact with other living beings.

ANIMAL(S): He loves dogs? All dogs. So many dogs. He wants to pet them all. All dogs.

NUMBER: 9 now. XD

COLORS: He likes orange and blue. He says his favourite colours are his dad’s eyes. Which sounds adorable tbh--

EXTRA.

TALENTS: He’s a little smarty pants with a good memory. Helpful for science, helpful for reloads. He’s decent at cooking and is much, much to physically strong for his 1 HP?? He also has quite the great handle on his magic. Fighting him isn’t fun, at all. He’s only been fairly beaten once. He’s empathetic, great at reading people and a masterful deceiver. He could be a super villain with his manipulation abilities tbh, but he just hates the idea of using people.

BAD AT:  He acts before he thinks. He switches from topic to topic and overpowers conversation. He’s quick to defend others and gets himself hurt like this more often than not, and mentally he’s an absolute wreck. He can be overbearing and clingy though, especially to those close to him. The more paranoid he becomes, the more annoying he seems in these ways.

HOBBIES: Reading, cooking, cleaning. He’s starting to get back into actual hobbies like reading with Rex around. He used to just not have them.

TROPES:  He is about the best supporting ally and mom friend one can be. His best quality is being able to lift people up high. He however, cannot do this to himself.

AESTHETIC TAGS:  #space , #baking

GPOY  QUOTES: ((I don’t know what this is--))

FC INFO.

MAIN  FC(S): No

ALT FC(S): Nope

OLDER FC(S): Nuh-uh

YOUNGER  FC(S): Nadda

VOICE CLAIM(S): ((I have no idea?? The closest would be Cryaotic but I honestly have no idea the specifics))

GENDERBENT FC(S): Nah

MUN QUESTIONS.

Q1: if you could write your character your way in their own movie, what would it be called, what style would it be filmed in, and what would it be about?:  If I were to write it??? It would turn into something psychological or horror related. Blue would fit wonderfully in a deconstruction of the human(or i guess skeleton??) mind. Hopefully it’d be about him seeming alright but being an absolute mess and managing to realize there is indeed a problem and work through his issues with friends, family and some professional help. That’d be lovely.

Q2: what would their soundtrack / score sound like?:  He listens to anything catchy, though likes chiptune and electronica. He’d probably make his own soundtrack out of other video game soundtracks though, he’s a doofus.

Q3: why did you start writing this character?: I... Don’t know?? Huh. Guess I did a little bit about... Three years back? I didn’t do a whole lot with him, but that’s around when he met his niece and nephew. Hm.

Q4: what first attracted you to this character?:  Papyrus is my favourite undertale character. Sans is my second favourite. Mash them together and what do you get? A cool science boy! A sad cool science boy that covers his pain with laughter and smiles. Someone help him.

Q5: describe the biggest thing you dislike about your muse: He won’t let anyone in, in any way that matters. He’s affectionate to everyone and it would be so easy to use and abuse him. He so strong in some areas and so weak in others. His whole life is his brothers and I’m often lost as to what I should make him do as he doesn’t keep hobbies really due to being busy. He never sleeps, works himself to exhaustion and picks everyone up despite being hurt himself. He thinks he knows what he is but he’s wrong. He thinks he’s fine but he’s not. He denies these problems in himself so hard that even he’s deceived by his act. It’s frustrating in a way even if it is interesting? As a writer I want to break him apart and crush him but as a person I want someone, anyone to finally see through this and HELP him. But no matter the hints I give or things I mention, no one has tried. I suppose he just hides it too well. Ahh...

Q6: what do you have in common with your muse?: Super depressed! Uh-- Ha, put up a mask. Hide pain with jokes. Try to see the silver lining in situations. Loooove space. And science. Psychology’s a huge yes.

Q8: what characters does your muse have interesting interactions with?: Citrus is always neat. Rex and him also have an extremely interesting dynamic. Fluff and him are adorable and fun, and I want so much more of them. Sakura’s is hilarious because she’s literally a god in her multiverse and she’s just accepted him as being able to break all laws of space and time

Q9: what gives you inspiration to write your muse?:  The interactions and dynamics he creates with other characters as well as the unique story and plot aspects that can be created!

Q10: how long did this take you to complete?:  At least two hours. Maybe longer. Oh jeez--

#meme #blueberry #ooc #maybe #too long #so long #ahhhh #tag #kill me

[nosleepuntilvacation]

3, 7, 22, 23, 48, 50!

This post ended up being really long, so… answers below the cut!

3. In your opinion, what’s your best fic? 

So far, I’m really proud of how The Most Glamorous Puzzle of All is turning out; it’s giving me exercises in character development, and I can write in a lot of different styles depending on the prompts and what I choose to do with them. As the summary for that fic mentions, chapters can be anywhere between silly, angsty, and fluffy. Also, I’m having fun seeing how these two work together, both as friends and as a couple - and hey, it’s Papyton fluff, and it’s really hard to go wrong with that, in my opinion!

As for my oneshots, I really like a lot of them, but I can’t help but feel proud of With You in My Sights for condensing the development of the relationship into six brief scenes and still having it come out with nice pacing (at least in my opinion).

(I’m also quite proud of some of my NSFW fics, but given that they’re… well, NSFW, I’d rather not discuss them on this blog, since I’m trying to keep it family-friendly over here. I do have a NSFW sideblog, but so far, all I’ve done over there is publish links to my fics with the occasional text post about one of them.)

7. What’s the fic you most want to continue (unfinished or no)? 

I know I want to see Glamorous Puzzle completed with all 100 chapters, but I also really want to publish more chapters for my pro wrestling AU Contendertale; I have lots of worldbuilding planned for that fic, and it’s gonna be really cool! (At least, I hope…) Also, I hope to publish more chapters to my Undertale/Mother 1 crossover Sing a Melody of Determination someday, though I think I may need to rewrite that one a little; back when I wrote it, I was still open to referring to Frisk and Chara with non-canon pronouns, but now that I’ve changed my mind about that and started referring to them exclusively with their canonical they/them pronouns, I think I should edit the story accordingly before I continue. I do have lots of cool plans for that fic, too…

(Also, I should get off my lazy behind and finally finish the final chapter of Frisk and Asriel’s Special Day; I’ve already written most of it, but I just have a little more that I need to finish.)

Heck, maybe someday, if I ever return to the Digimon fandom, I could finally finish my fic Heroes Wear Green; I may need to do a little tweaking here and there, but I had so many awesome plans for that story, and I don’t want them to go to waste (but at the same time, I’m reluctant to hand any of my stories off to anyone else). That being said, given that I’m not anywhere near as much into Digimon as I used to be, it might not happen anytime soon; besides, I still have all those cool Undertale stories to finish.

22. Has there ever been anyone who’s made you freak out because they read your work and followed/favorited/reviewed? 

Well, for starters, several months ago when I published a little story about Mettaton going stargazing with Papyrus and asking him a certain question, the very same person who sent this ask left a nice review for that fic; given that I’d read a number of his fluff pieces and liked them (though I was kinda shy about leaving kudos or reviews at the time), as well as him being a popular Papyton writer, my thought process was pretty much “wait, you think my stories are good? Wowie!” In general, whenever a popular Papyton author leaves a nice review on my work, it gives me a “whoa!” feeling because their work probably inspired mine, even if only in the slightest of ways.

23. What’s the nicest review you’ve ever gotten? 

It’s hard for me to pick just one, so here are just a few of my favorites (note: some of these are just excerpts from longer reviews):

you had me at “tooth-rotting fluff” in the tags. I love this stuff, it feels utterly soul-cleansing. -review for The Joys of Sleeping In (look familiar?)

[…]And I always look forward to reading this book, every time I see there’s a new chapter, I must admit, I squeal a bit xD-review for chapter 42 of Glamorous Puzzle

[…]“Who the hell am I?

I AM hell” I swear to God that was the greatest thing I’ve ever read! -review for chapter 43 of Glamorous Puzzle, from the same reviewer directly above, referring to a quote in that chapter that I was hoping people would like, since I’m proud of that quote as well.

[…]I can’t believe I missed so many good NoSleepUntilVacation stories!  I need to catch up![…] -review for A Cool Day for a Cool Dude; this one made me feel like “whoa, my work is that good?”

There were a couple of other ones for one of my NSFW stories, and while both are too long to be posted here, they both warmed my heart to a huge degree (hint: one of them should look quite familiar to the person who sent this ask!)

48. Does anyone you know from outside of fandom know you write fanfic? Are they involved in the same fandom too?

I prefer to keep my fanfic life and my IRL life separate, since there are people in my life who I would prefer didn’t know about this hobby of mine, for various reasons. Since a lot of what I write involves a slightly niche pairing, and some of it is NSFW, and the vast majority of my writings are Undertale (a controversial topic in several circles), I’m kinda nervous about bringing it up. I have met some Undertale fans in real life, though, but given that they were my classmates in team projects, we didn’t really talk about Undertale as much as we talked about the assignments we were doing.

50. Has writing fanfic had a significant impact on your life? Would you say it’s entirely positive?

The thing about writing fanfic (for me at least) was that I had to write quite a few duds before I struck gold. And back in my earliest days, I wrote a lot of duds; it’s for this reason that I often feel unsure about ever returning to the Digimon fandom, since a lot of what I wrote was mediocre at best and disgraceful at worst (characters in-name-only, lots of lolrandom humor, the heroes looking like total dorks because I was in a phase of liking the villains the best - all while removing the traits that made them villains, etc.) and it was only around the time shortly before I left the fandom that I really started to take my writing seriously. It may be hard for me to think of some of the characters (both heroes and villains) without thinking of how I horribly mangled everything about them for some cheap attempts at “comedy”.

So that’s the negative side of my fanfic writing; now onto the positive! Since starting this hobby, I’ve slowly become more confident in expressing myself, and I’m believing in my own writing skills more and more. Also, knowing that a story of mine could be the thing to brighten someone’s day (as shown in some of the reviews I quoted above) is always a good motivator. Especially since a lot of what I write is close to my heart; it’s stuff that I would like to read myself. Another big thing is that, when I was younger, I was hoping to become a good artist so I could animate cartoons; I never quite got the hang of the intricacies of drawing, but I’ve noticed that my writing has definitely gotten better, so I’ve realized that maybe, just maybe, this is where my true talent lies.

And, of course, I’ve made a lot of friends (and, at one point, even found love) through both reading and writing fanfiction, and while not all of those friendships have lasted (sadly, the romantic relationship didn’t last, either), the people I’ve met because of this hobby are still very special to my heart. I think it’s safe to say that I owe a lot of my friendships, directly or indirectly, to my fanfic writing; given that, when I first started out, I was - in real life - the shy, easily-startled girl who got bullied a lot, it was much easier for me to let my guard down around people who didn’t know my IRL identity. Even though my situation has gotten better since then, I still find it easier to make friends online than in real life, since I’m more likely to find people who share common interests, like Undertale or favorite bands… or fanfiction!

#Thanks for asking! #disbian #spiny speaks #here's a tip #write first and italicize later #otherwise every new line will automatically italicize #even if you don't want it to #i learned that the hard way

[prisma-does-things]

The Paradox Dictionary of Words That Mean Nothing

Y’know, writing fanfictions used to be this really exciting concept in my head. The idea of being able to create another episode of BeyBlade or Pokemon, with complete control over every creative decision was just about the best thing ever. I searched online for some inspiration and found a few websites that catered for this kinda stuff. Fanfiction.net, Wattpad, and DeviantART. Around that point was when I tripped over the boulder; no, the mountain that was the Mary Sue, another internet word that will go in the infinite paradoxical dictionary of words that mean nothing and yet mean everything;

To reiterate my last sentence, what’s a Mary Sue...exactly? Without looking at Google or showing me a certain blue lightsaber wielding jedi who lives in the desert, go on. Alright, my best guess is that you thought of a perfect character without any flaws or too little flaws, something with actual rhyme or reason, hopefully.

Unfortunately the internet, being the collective genius that it is, has way more definitions than you might think. There’s several different types of Mary Sue, the frequently mentioned, Victim Sue, Warrior Sue, Punk Sue, Mage...Sue. Probably one for every D&D class and a few extra that apply only to Undertale. Each of these have their own definition and classification for the poorly executed character archetype they inhibit. Most of these make plenty of sense on their own, but applied elsewhere and things get a bit weird.

In Teen Titans, isn’t Raven a...Edgy Sue? Or maybe a Mage Sue right? She’s the daughter of some devil thing, and she has powers that no one else does right? She’s super edgy too, but relative to everyone else in Teen Titans she fares off alright. Cyborg’s pretty edgy too, and Robin gets edgy later on...Doesn’t that make them all Mary Sue’s?

It’s really confusing, but what’s more confusing is the fact that the internet still uses this as a way to help authors grow. Most of the time, using words like this only cloud up what you’re actually trying to say, and you end up resulting to using more and more words from the Paradoxical Dictionary of Words That Mean Nothing.

Even discussing this with myself now, I feel my motivation sapping. It’s like this whole thing is just a drain on writing as a whole, a parasite that distracts from fun and replaces it with cold hard work. I’m not trying to make it as if you can just write a bunch of nonsense and call it a day, I’m trying to say that we’d all be much better off if we could just use words that made sense again. I’d like to enjoy my writing, and it’s clear that stuff like this is going to be and endless drain on me and everyone else in my head’s lifespan. So to keep that from happening, I’m going to rant about these thing until I can accept them.

Liking things shouldn’t be work and neither should writing, just write and you’ll learn from that. You don’t need to do endless research on Mary Sues to avoid becoming that, because once you go to far in the other direction you get...anti-sues....

#mary-sue #writing #personal rant