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notquitecanon · 4 months

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Insufferably Admirable // Astarion x Reader

Summary: After a restful day turns into a bloody night, your unspoken yet painfully obvious dedication to Astarion has put you in what should be a harder choice. Once Astarion realizes just how far you'd go for him, he has to begin to confront the feelings and realizations he's been ignoring for a while. OR that time You figured out the most effective way to heal a vampire and Astarion got emotional about it

Set at the end of Act 1, but not quite act two. Pre-confession but it's obvious they have some sort of feelings for each other

TW: canon typical violence, blood & blood drinking(obvi this is an Astarion fic), no use of Tav or (Y/N), one use of technical self harm (c*tting) but not in a self mutilation way??, mentions of manipulation obvi, reader might be a little too willing to help (totally not be projecting what???)

this is my first time writing anything for Astarion after hyper fixating on him for a month so please be gentle. I know it's a bit all over the place. (yes I could have completely left out the first half, but there isn't much actual dialogue in the second half and I like to put this guy in situations)

"Remind me again why you insisted on coming with me? I figured you’d be ripe for a day to lay around camp and let us do all the heavy lifting." You grumbled, scanning the crowded streets for a merchant. The goal was simple: get to the nearest village, sell off the extra weight, use the gold to stock the necessary supplies, and whatever the gold couldn’t buy… well, acquire it by any means necessary. No matter your path, through the shadows or the Underdark, you'd need to be prepared.

Gale had gone to pilfer for useful scrolls and maybe an enchanted item to snack on. Lae’zel and Shadowheart to a blacksmith for specialty arrows, useful armor, and any other weapons that caught their eyes. Karlach had carried the two trunks and barrel of items you had collected from your adventure thus far, finding you a wheelbarrow before heading back to camp to help Wyll with his preparations. Halsin… had taken his wild form and disappeared into the forest. Originally, you had intended to do your tasks alone, until-

"My dear, I’m always ripe for a lay." Astarion twisted your words with a smirk, easily dodging the hand that reached to swat his chest. With a short laugh, he answered your question, his theatrics only increasing to more you argued, "To begin with, Someone- my fabulous self- had to make sure you didn’t get the whole group wrapped up in another laundry list of side quests- who knows what trouble you could have found if you were left all by your lonesome? A gnoll den? A kraken in the pond? an old woman’s wagon with a broken wheel? a kitten up a tree? An orphanage with a leaky roof? Another cult for us to dismantle? Another temple to drop on me? Where would it end? You’re incapable of turning people away, it’s one of your insufferably admirable qualities."

"It’s called being kind, you dramatic elf." You grumbled, not prepared for the in depth analysis of your character. Trying not to focus so much on the fact he’d called something about you admirable.

"Second, knowing you, you’d sell all this off and still manage to come back to camp with them full. Honestly, pet, how have you managed to collect this much junk? You don’t even have a bag of holding." Astarion scoffed, using a single pale finger to peek under the lid of the barrel. It was just barely containing the countless daggers, goblin bows, pairs of leather armors, and dusty sandals. Your cheeks burned hot- maybe you had a habit of being overzealous in how eagerly you pilfered through all the crates you came across, checking bodies for anything valuable, and demanding the vampire to pick every locked chest the party uncovered. Hells only knew the thrill you got when you would find a buried chest.

"You never know when you might need something!" You reasoned, but swatted him away to hastily shut the barrel before the contents could spill out. It had taken you the better part of the night to pack it full of all the things your companions had convinced you to get rid of. The pale elf rolled his eyes, brushing past you so gracefully you didn’t feel his fingers in your pocket.

"Really, my sweet? When, pray tell, might we need the collection of rusty necklaces you’ve amassed." Astarion held the bronze and silver necklaces up to the light, the red and blue stones sparkling despite the rust. His voice always like velvet, ruby eyes alight with teasing, "Far be it from me to criminalize accessorizing, but that darling neck of yours is tempting enough already."

"Astarion!" You cringed, hearing your voice almost whine. Damn him for having that effect, so you cleared your throat as you snatched the jewelry back, "They are useful when we can sell them for gold."

Astarion, having gotten the reaction he wanted, let you shove the necklaces back in a pocket before glaring at him, though it didn’t hold much actual malice, "Well, come on then, let’s sell the sandals for all the riches the village has to offer us."

—

An afternoon later, you were smiling smugly as you watched Astarion grumble. Between all the goods and six different merchants, you were leaving with an additional 9,000 in gold, not to mention the additional 3,000 Astarion had managed to pickpocket while you bartered, and the items the two of you had managed to swipe. You felt particularly vindicated as he complained about the weight of the coins in his pack.

"I’ll buy you something pretty in Baldur’s Gate." You cooed teasingly, to ‘appease’ him. Astarion spared you a deadpan glance before standing to leave, only making you giggle all the more, "Let’s get back to camp."

Astarion caught your eyes once more, scowl softening out at the sight of your bright smile. He was just about to say something sickeningly sweet and perhaps more than a touch vulgar when his eyes flitted up to something, pointed ears twitching at something you couldn’t quite hear. Until you could.

The door of the jeweler you had swindled burst open, a strangled voice shrieking, "THIEVES! SOMEONE CATCH THEM!"

Astarion must have been rubbing off on you, because for a moment you tried to feign confusion, looking around for the ‘culprits’ as if the dwarf wasn’t pointing directly at you. Not that it did much good as several passerbys began to circle around the two of you.

"Everyone’s so touchy about their personal belongings these days." The rogue scoffed. Astarion grabbed your wrist and tugged you to him, so that your back was pressed to his and no one could sneak up on you. In his other hand, a dagger had already appeared.

You sighed in defeat, taking your bow off your back, "No killing."

"No promises."

Compared to the goblin camp or fighting through the githyanki creche, disarming and incapacitating untrained townspeople and barely trained guards was barely a warm up. Still, Astarion never left your side, an increasingly common occurrence when you found yourself in tight situations. Together, it didn’t take long to put distance between yourselves and your attackers, managing to get far enough to escape to the fight. Deflecting one last blow as the two of you passed by an open tavern, you incapacitated a rather pitiful guard with a blunt thunk from the pommel of your dagger. Taking one relieved breath, you tried not to focus too much of the trail of bleeding, unconscious bodies you and the rogue had left behind in your escape attempt.

"Best we stick to the shadows before we attract more attention." Astarion mused with a cruel smirk, grabbing your sleeve and using it to wipe the blood off the corner of his mouth, his fangs glinting in the afternoon sun. The rogue only chuckled at your curses, giving some inane quip about the crime of dirtying his ensemble and how blood someone always looked better on you, "Now, believe what I said about you finding trouble? Back to camp before you find more."

Before you could wrench your arm back or remind him that he was the only who got caught stealing, he pulled you off the main road into the alley adjacent- unaware of the attention that had already been attracted from inside the tavern.

____

Ambushed in the night.

A whole hunting party of Gur hunters. Willing to purge your party as they slept.

And they were calling Astarion the monster. Fortunately, Scratch was an excellent guard dog. Waking the entire camp when the hunters tried to creep where you slept. Just as fortunately, there wasn’t a soul in camp that didn’t sleep without at least a dagger under their pillow.

Your camp had become a bloodbath in the dim glow of the campfire. You had used the book you had fallen asleep reading as an improvised weapon, throwing it so hard it broke the first hunter’s nose. Lae’zel was single handedly mowing through three hunter with her long sword. Spells and incantations sent flashes of light from Gale and Shadowheart’s part of camp, and fire and brimstone lit up Karlach’s. There was yelling and cursing echoing in the cool night air, orders to take the vampire spawn alive and to kill the rest.

And Astarion? Their target?

He was where he always was during a fight these days. Right beside you, like a pale, snarky shadow. He had been the one to press your sword into your hand so you’d have more than just your dagger. With him, you slashed and sliced anything that came near. Until the bastard appeared out of no where, squeezing in between you and the rogue. You would have applauded (more likely cursed) the near perfect use of an invisibility charm- had it not been for the poison-dipped stake raised against Astarion.

This hunter was different, you could see it in his eyes. They were somehow devoid of life and yet also simmering with rage as they trained on your snow haired companion. This hunter didn’t plan to take Astarion back to Baldur’s Gate, not alive at least. He didn’t care about whatever orders they had, or what consequences would come for disobeying them. He only cared about driving the stake into Astarion’s heart.

Astarion’s eyes went wide as well at the sight of the stake, realizing as you did that this was no longer just a kidnapping, it would be an assassination. Your thundering heart stuttered, blood going supernova in your veins before freezing to ice as your mind whirled through a hundred different possibilities and also went blank. Your own opponent, along with years of learned strategy, were instantly forgotten as blind instinct took over. Every ounce of strength and speed you had was directed into a desperate lunge. In your desperation, you really weren’t sure if your goal was to tackle the hunter, grab his arm, tackle Astarion, or maybe even take the stake to your chest instead- you decided to choose along the way, as long as it ended with Astarion alive(ish) and well.

You managed to close the distance, one hand planted firmly to Astarion’s chest shoving him further and the other clamping onto the leather of the hunter’s gauntlet, the same arm poising the stake. With a feral sounding shriek, you pushed his arm so his aim was off. At the same time, your original opponent, frustrated at being forgotten, cast a wave of thunder that sent all three of you flying.

Astarion, the Gur, and you flew backwards a good fifteen feet, the thunder shaking you to your very bones and splitting your ears. The breath was knocked out of you so hard you thought your poor lungs might collapse and you weren’t able to tell if it was the spell or the impact that did it. You didn’t have time to contemplate, the moment you were able, you scrambled onto your knees. With the same feral tenacity from earlier, you grabbed the hunter by the front of his leather armor, nails leaving scarily deep tracks as you hauled him off your vampiric companion. With your new opponent, you rolled both your bodies until you were on top of him, knee to his chest. Seeing the look in your eyes, the rage left his own, pure survival instinct taking over. You didn’t even feel the sting of the slicing blow across your shoulder, too consumed with a singular mission. It was Astarion’s dagger you had snatched from the ground on the way that delivered the quick death blow. Halsin, in bear form, had appeared out of the tree line and took care of your other thunderous hunter, taking a defensive position around you and Astarion with a goading roar. You expected to hear something from Astarion- a snarky comment about your lack of technique, a snide remark about his assailant, or even just a stream of petty curses- but he was silent. You turned back to him, only to have dread flood every cell in your body.

Nothing else mattered anymore, not the fight, not your injuries, and especially not your forgotten original hunter. Halsin, in bear form, had appeared out of the tree line and took care of your other thunderous hunter, taking a defensive position around you and Astarion with a goading roar. You barely noticed.

The moment you’d disposed of Astarion’s assailant, you were scrambling back towards the rogue, who was laying all too still. At first, you hesitated to even touch him as if that might make it worse. You called his name once, and then again when you were able to gingerly lay hands on him- one hand to his chest and the other pushing some curls out of his eyes. The stake, what should have been an almost useless weapon against anyone else, was still buried in his chest, piercing his favorite frilled collar shirt.

"No… Astarion-" Your voice was breaking, thick and raw. Your eyes couldn’t rip away from the stake, protruding from his chest, the poison staining the white linen of his shirt a sickly green. The hand on his chest balled into a fist, bunching the unsoiled fabric in your grip, but something caught your attention. The tiniest candle light of hope in the rapidly encroaching darkness of grief.

Your hand was directly over his undead heart. Anytime you touched him, your hand always fell directly over his heart. When you teasingly swatted at his chest, when you needed to steady yourself against him, when you needed to catch you balance… you always sought out his heart- subconsciously, instinctually, always his heart. Your hand was over his heart, and that gods-damned stake was four inches to the right. A tiny light, but a light none the less. It was then you realized you were calling the wrong name.

"SHADOWHEART!"

None of your companions had ever heard your voice that desperate, that scared. All their heads snapped to where they had last seen you, finding Astarion pulled to your chest as you wrenched the stake out of the spawn. Astarion stirred only long enough the let our a gurgling shout that fizzled into a groan at the pain, and you could only hope he heard your soft apologies before you started barraging the vampire with healing cantrips. You didn’t stop until the words held no more magic, your supply of magic tapped for the night.

The night air had changed, no longer fueled by adrenaline and challenge, now it was thick with urgency and fear. Each of your companions starting fighting towards the two of you, and when you locked watery eyes with Shadowheart you found her clearing her path with her spear. She had stopped using magic to fight, saving it all for Astarion.

"I’m coming! Hold on!" She promised as Karlach fell in beside her, battle axe taking over and sending two hunters to the grave together. Scratch and the owlbear cub had taking a lesson from Halsin and formed up beside you, growling into the night with hackles raised and feathers ruffled.

"Just hold on, Astarion." You relayed to the vampire, who was completely limp against you his back to your chest, head tilted back against your shoulder which bared his neck to you, showing the fang marks on his pale skin. If you were capable of humor, you would have laughed about the reversal of roles, it was usually you baring your veins to him. But at the moment, his lack of movement wasn’t particularly amusing, so instead you laced his fingers through yours, hoping the warmth would bring him some comfort. You pressed your cheek against his white curls, using your other hand to brandish his dagger just incase anyone got too close, and whispered all the reasons he was going to be okay. And that’s how you stayed until camp quietened and Shadowheart slid to a stop in front of you.

___

Hours later, Shadowheart had used every healing and restoration spell she knew, not stopping even when she began to sway and sweat. Halsin had offered his magic and healing herbs, Karlach made sure there was always a bucket of hot water and a stack of clean rags available, and you hadn’t missed Gale trying to hide the scroll of reviving from you as he slipped it to Shadowheart. Everyone in camp had been quick to gather all the healing potions, depositing them at the entrance of Astarion’s tent. Wyll and Lae’zell had slipped into the tree line to make sure the ambush was well and truly taken care of.

And you? Their appointed ‘fearless’ leader? You had gone uncharacteristically silent. Your heart hadn’t left your throat, clenching painfully every time they jostled the rogue. Your hands were shaking too much, both from fear and white hot rage, to really help the two more experienced healers of the group. And the thought of being too far from Astarion made your stomach turn, so you kept rooted like a tree. But, you were grateful, truly, for all of them. Even if in the moment, all you could do was sit beside Astarion and pray to any God or Devil that would listen. You felt like a wild animal in a cage and a helpless child at the same time, your insides very well might vibrate out of the body if you didn’t melt into the soil first.

The vampire needed all the help he could get. Aside from the occasional heartbreaking groan of pain or agony driven writhing, Astarion was eerily still. Barely breathing, less so than usual. His already pale, chilled skin had taken on a stony complexion, almost gray. And despite the inability to run a fever, there was a sheen of sweat over his face, clammy and uncomfortable. You hadn’t allowed them to undress him all the way, but part his shirt had been cut away to reveal the stab wound. It was deep, weeping Astarion’s already dark blood, and stretching out from the injury were black, twisting varicose veins that afforded you the cruel visual of the poison spreading. You wanted to take Gale’s revival scroll, use it on the hunter, and revoke the kindness of your mercifully quick death.

"It’s like the effect of our magic is being dampened." Shadowheart huffed, hands glowing as she cast another restoration spell. The sweat on Astarion’s brow subsided briefly before returning. Halsin nodded beside her, taking a deep sniff of the stake.

"His lack of blood isn’t moving the potions or antidote through his body fast enough, and this poison isn’t doing any favors." The druid thought aloud, taking some of his herbs to make a paste, "It doesn’t matter how many we pour down his throat if his body can’t absorb them."

Shadowheart’s worried gaze flickered to you for a moment, before settling back on Halsin, "We’ll figure something out."

You knew she was saying that more for your benefit, but you couldn’t bring yourself to acknowledge the pity. Instead, your grip tightened on Astarion’s hand as you swiped a clean rag to dab at his face. There was one more round of healing incantations and one more bottle of healing potion nursed into Astarion’s mouth. Your jaw twitched, watching most of it fall from the corner of his mouth. The same trail your own blood usually made after he fed.

"I’m tapped." Shadowheart sighed almost ruefully, the glow around her flickering and then fading, falling back on her heels. Halsin stood, stooped slightly in the low ceiling of the tent, turning to you.

"We’ve done everything we can do. We’ll try again with fresh minds in the morning. For now the best he, and we, can do is rest." His voice was calming, as if he thought you might start screaming again, but you just nodded, muttering something along the lines of thanks for trying, and not meeting either of their eyes as they ducked out of the tent.

Since you had belligerently refused any of their magical attempts to heal your shoulder, Gale had done a rather pitiful job of wrapping it, taking some pointers from Karlach along the way. The wizard offered you a tight smile and a gentle hand on your uninjured shoulder before pressing a bottle of healing potion into your hand, "This one is for you. You’re no good to him if you bleed out all over the floor of his tent. We all know how Astarion feels about waste."

"Yeah- fancy boy will be starving when he wakes up." Karlach’s chipper voice was still laced with a sting of concern. The tiefling didn’t touch you for fear of burning you, but did leave you with some roasted meat and a carafe of water from earlier in the night, "And it wouldn’t hurt for you to eat something either, soldier."

Then you were left alone with your thoughts, hunched next to Astarion’s side, tired eyes examining the bottle after confirming the rise and fall of his chest. In your hand, the potion glowed slightly with the subtlest warmth, the scarlet liquid seeming to have a mind of its own as it swirled in glittering patterns behind the glass. Your injuries were meager, this little bottle of healing would have you as good as new. Bitterly, you flicked your eyes to the numerous empty potion bottles in the corner that had barely slowed Astarion’s bleeding. Your hand closed around it as you cast another look to the Vampire spawn beside you. His breaths were shaky and shallow even after Shadowheart and Halsin had exhausted every last bit of magic they'd had. Now in the quietest parts of the night, or maybe the darkest hours of the morning, your thoughts swirled, desperate for any sort of plan to latch onto. You had to do something.

For you, Gale had said, No good to him if you bled out… He’d be starving, Karlach had been joking, His lack of blood wasn’t moving the potions enough to be effective, that had been Halsin’s hypothesis.

Blood. He needed blood.

The revelation was like being dropped into a freezing lake, determination razing the fearful lethargy out of your soul. With your teeth, you pried the cork out and downed the first circular bottle, the overly sweet taste a stark contrast to the somber mood of the night. For good measure, you did the same with a potion of superior healing and two bottles of general poison antidote, slamming them down so fast you had to ignore the churning in your stomach. You’d loot twenty more goblin caves to make up for the dent in supplies if you had to, in that moment you just didn’t care. You waited a moment, begging the powers that be for your ragtag plan to work, not so patiently watching the bruises on your wrist until they started to fade.

You felt it, the moment that you had been completely healed and there was no where else for that magic to go. And then, you wrapped your arms under Astarion’s, heaving him against your chest. You bared your neck, letting gravity gently swing Astarion's nose to meet your pulse point, his silvery lashes tickling your jaw. He stirred slightly, groaning at the movement, pressing himself into your warmth before stilling again. Was he too far gone to realize what was being offered?

Realizing you’d need to play into his vampiric insticts, you huffed, shattering one of the empty vials against a stone, struggling to do so and keep his deadweight in place. Taking a shard, it wasn’t hesitation but a moment of stilling your shaking hand before you pressed a shallow cut to your neck, right above where his lips rested.

You hissed at the haphazard sting, not as gentle as the pinprick of his fangs were in the night, feeling the blood instantly pool at the seam, a single red ribbon dripping before the potion healed the scratch, "C’mon, Astarion-"

The moment his name left your lips, or maybe it was the moment a drop of your blood hit his, regardless you could feel his instinct, that sanguine hunger, take over. The soft lips at your neck were replaced with dagger sharp fangs digging into where the small cut had been. The sound you let out was somewhere between a gasp of pain and sob of relief as you barred him against yourself, fists clutching into the back of his shirt like it would keep both of you rooted to each other. Somewhere, in the back on your mind, you thought about the irony of the position, being so afraid to let him slip away, like a rabbit latching onto a snake for fear of the serpent starving. Even if it meant being consumed.

In that moment, you were so relieved he’d started feeding that you didn’t care that his fangs dug in deeper than they ever had before, much more animalistic than his usual polite nibble. You didn’t dare flinch or wince, in case that might break the spell. Instead, you focussed keeping the both of you upright, one of your arms wrapped under his own, your fingers splayed across his ribs, and your other hand cupping the nape of his neck. The angle had his silvery curls dusting your fingertips and your thumb caressing the sharpest part of his jaw. Never had you been so happy to feel that throbbing numbness in your neck. Astarion’s chin prodded further into your neck, deepening the hold he had, and with his own shaky breath, he swallowed the first mouthful of your blood.

The hand at his ribs clenched, pulling him impossibly closer and twisting his shirt into your grip again as your pulse began to speed up. The increase of your heart rate only seemed to encourage the vampire, teeth sinking ever deeper to draw more blood flow. Clenching your jaw, you forced your muscles not to tense, it would only make it hurt more. This mouthful was quicker, Astarion seemed to be actively drawing it out of you instead of just waiting for it. He swallowed again, gaining the strength to snake his arms around you. It wasn’t a strong hold at first, but one arm snaked around your waist while the other cradled the back of your head, those long fingers finding their usual place in the locks of your hair. You couldn’t help the short laugh that escaped, relishing the cool touch. Your voice stoked another fire in him, provoking another instinct, your blood provided the strength for his grip to harden, becoming more cage like. As if he needed to worry about you trying to escape.

He swallowed again, and the numbness spread, not just in your neck but into your cheeks and across your chest. Blood was racing, coursing through you and into him, and with it all the magic of the healing potions. You could feel him getting his legs underneath him, untangling himself from you. At the same time, it was getting harder to hold your arm up, the numbness had reached your fingertips leaving them fumbling at his curls before falling to his shoulder. Another long drink and you found your eyes starting to flutter, everything was starting to feel cold as a shiver shook your body. Astarion, against two centuries of vampiric instinct, started to pull back, and you didn’t stop him, but didn’t let him go far either. He was mostly supporting himself now, which was a relief because a fair bit of focus was freshly delegated to preventing yourself from swaying.

"Take all you need, ’Stari-" You meant for your voice to be assuring and strong, but it came out breathy and slightly slurred. Astarion pulled away, the movement bringing you mostly out of your stupor. His ruby eyes were as sharp as ever once again, even if the shadows under his eyes were still too dark for your liking, and they stared into your own half lidded eyes. Other than the deep purple shadows, the ashen complex had started to even out, the sweat on his brow had faded away, and when you dropped your gaze, you noticed the twisting black veins were starting to recede and fade. Hells, you could get up and dance (very briefly before you passed out).

Even, with a foot in the grave, more dead than usual, and covered in both of your bloods he was unfairly beautiful. His eyes narrowed on your dopey smile, as if he your relief was a symptom of too much blood loss. If that was the effect of four swallows, just a little more would flush out the poison completely, "I can take it, love, just please let me help you."

Astarion never considered himself to be someone that had to be coaxed into receiving a gift, and you were offering him one so sweetly, practically begging him. After 200 years of rats and spiders, you had put literal magic in your veins for him. Magic that was bringing him back from death to his usual state of undead. He could feel it bringing his strength back, allowing all the magic the cleric and druid had poured into him to finally take some affect. Your blood, his first thinking blood, was always delicious- sweet and metallic, a delicate blend of all the good tastes, something so intrinsically you. With the potions infused, though, if Astarion was to hazard guess what sunlight tasted like- this would be it. How could he refuse?

Before he went back in, he placed a reverent kiss to the marks he had left in your neck, gingerly lapping at the wounds before sinking his fangs back into your tender flesh. This time, it wasn’t a gasp or sob, but a mewl, your frigid fingers once again digging into the flounced collar his shirt. If you both lived until morning, you were sure he’d gripe for hours about all the wrinkles you’d put in his favorite (only) shirt. Probably throw a proper fit about the stake hole.

Now, as the potions effects dwindled in your own body, you could properly feel the drain. The coldness crept up from your extremities but didn’t counteract the burn in your muscles, making it harder and harder to suppress the shivers. Your breathing was quick almost a pant, but you still felt like you weren't getting any oxygen. If you were thinking rationally, if you hadn’t gone through the brief grief of thinking you’d lost him, you would have realized you need to push him away, that you were approaching your limit. But you weren’t thinking rationally, no. You still were too busy grinning- as your hand had fallen from his collar, it grazed across the wound, now fully closed. Just a little more, you promised yourself. You felt him swallow more, he held himself up completely on his own allowing you to lean into him.

Astarion was okay, more than just on the mend, he was alive and strong, the potions and magic were working, were the thoughts that were reverberating through your head as things started to feel farther away. Your desperation had melted away, leaving a grateful smile in its wake. It wasn’t completely on purpose, but you let Astarion take on more and more of your weight, barely aware of his fangs in your neck anymore, not quite hearing Scratch and the cub whining outside, the shivering even began to subside as it seemed to take too much energy.

Earlier, you had drug him to you and held him against your chest almost crying. But, as more of your blood flowed through him, it had become juxtaposed. Astarion held you in place, leaning over you for the best angle at your neck. It was his arms that kept you from falling over, his firm hand that kept your head from lolling too far back. His bite became less fervent, his grip less cage like and more affectionate. His survival instincts started to give way to civility and charm. You barely noticed as he twisted himself so he could slowly, gently lay you down onto the bedroll that had moments ago been his sickbed. He laid you on your back, onto the generous stack of pillows he kept in his tent. He tangled his fingers into yours, just as you had done for him, his knees holding him in a predatory crawl over you, all without breaking from your neck.

Barely registering the softness, it was the thud of your other hand against the floor that roused you, just a bit. It was also what drew Astarion’s attention, it took everything in him to withdraw his fangs. He gave each puncture would a diligent cleaning with his tongue before pulling away completely, lest he lose control and dive right back in. (Really, how could one person be that tempting?)

But, you had arguably saved his life, it’d be terribly impolite of him to kill you. When Astarion’s eyes met yours, your gaze was more than half lidded as you watched him- what little of your eyes he could see were glossy and fighting to stay focused, he could hear your heartbeat markedly fainter than he was comfortable with.

You were watching him as intently as you could. In the dim lantern light of his tent, surrounded by potion bottles and bloody rags, Astarion was up and moving and breathing again. Revived and strong, his eyes practically glowing scarlet, and, if you really focussed, you could make out the tips of his ears becoming pink. Something that only happened when he was freshly well fed, nothing was left of his stab wound but the hole in his shirt, the frayed edges dyed from the poison and his blood. He could have looked like a angel, complete with the fire’s reflection creating a halo effect on his snowy curls, had it not been for the sheen of sticky blood drenching his chin and neck. Your blood- the blood that gave him enough strength to heal. How could you not smile?

Astarion tried to come up with a snarky comment, but for once, nothing came to mind. Instead, he kept glancing between your intertwined fingers, glassy eyes, and that idiotic little smile. Your giddiness was beginning to unnerve him, had you been charmed or perhaps taken a hit to the head? With the parasite, he reached out briefly into your mind. His brow twitched when he was only met with waves of relief and gratitude, you were too tired for structured thought, but too relieved to give into the exhaustion. How could someone on the verge on exsanguination look so happy? And why in the nine hells did it seem to be directed towards his well being?

The vampire was stricken, taking count of everything you’d truly done that night alone: fought beside him, tried to take the death blow in his place, comforted him, held his hand, cleaned him up, hadn’t let the others undress him anymore than necessary, stayed with him, circumvented his vampirism to find a way to heal him, and had genuinely tried to bleed yourself dry for him. Hell, you’d cut your own neck for him- not even metaphorically, but literally cut your throat for him. He could feel your warmth, your kindness and everything good about you settling into his very marrow. Something uncomfortably… gooey… stirred in his chest, something more and more worrying common as of late, when it came to you. Had his manipulation really worked so well? A feeling too close to sharp guilt gnawed at that warm gooey feeling. Was it really manipulation anymore? Gods, your morality was infecting him.

“This is that Insufferabe admirability I was talking about ." He muttered into the tent, shaking his head as he watched your chest rise and fall, using his free hand tame some of the hair at your crown. It was then Astarion realized your eyes had slipped shut, your fingers, now just as cold as his, going limp against his. Weeks ago, he would have polished off the last of your blood and left you behind. But at present, he felt the sickening need to return even half the care you’d shown him. He’d have to dissect his emotions later. The rogue was glad the other companions had left supplies within arms reach, as it meant he could gather them without dropping your hand.

"Ah, ah, ah," He called quietly, gently pulling you back to the real world, pleased to watch your scrunch your nose in the exertion of waking back up. Finally, that contented little smile on your face slipped into a frown, a protest against his interruption of your sleep. Astarion’s smile was almost apologetic as he helped you into a slightly more upright position, "Not quite yet, little love. It’s your turn. No sharing this time."

Another healing potion was pressed into your hand and opened for you, and you allowed Astarion to guide it to your lips, his pale hand guiding your own. This time, the warmth of the elixir was welcome, a comfort instead of a taunt, assurance instead of a plea. Astarion carefully watched you as you swallowed the potion down, noting how you shivered less and a bit of color returned to your face. When the potion bottle was empty, he traded it for a small cup of water, keeping a guiding hand on the silver chalice he’d nicked from a tradesmen weeks ago until you had enough strength to hold it.

Though still exhausted and dizzy, you had the energy to throw him an obstinate look. Astarion feigned a dramatic sigh but kept a firm enough grip on you that you couldn’t lay back down, "All this for me, yet you won’t even let me give you water?"

Ignoring how it made the dizziness worse, you rolled your eyes, taking a few sips of the water at a time even if it was mostly just so he’d let you lay back down. Astarion was in one piece and you were exhausted, you couldn’t bring yourself to think about anything else. But, Astarion seemed very pleased with himself, squeezing your hand once again, "Good girl."

If you weren’t on the verge of blood loss, you could have choked on the water. Still, there was a part of you that whispered in relief he must be better if he’s back to teasing you. Astarion watched you take a few more sips before you sagged back against the pillows. Your eyes closed again, but your breathing was deeper now and the hand he held didn’t feel as cold. Outside, Scratch and the cub seemed appeased at your improvement as they stopped their pacing and whining to settle at the tent flap.

This time, he didn’t pull you back up, instead muttering to himself as he gently tilted your head to the side, exposing his bite marks. No wonder you seemed so tired, they were much messier than usual. Vicious, was the better word. Not only had his two fangs pierced your delicate skin, but his bottom canine teeth had punctured through as well, and he could see the outline of his other teeth in the deep bruising grooves they had left behind. In unfortunate addition, it seemed in the height of his blood lust he’d made more than one bite, leaving your neck littered in marks. Astarion grimaced, it really was more of a mauling, “Apologies, darling, I’m not typically so brutish. Forgive me?"

Astarion pointedly ignored how his heart lifted at the slightest nod you gave him, instead focussing on cleaning you up as gently as possible. The potion had stopped the bleeding, and he watched as the wounds themselves were slowly closing. Each swipe of the rag was feather light, almost not even there. The elf noticed you give back into sleep, this time not bothering to wake you again. Instead he kept working and fussing until the only sign of his feeding was the stained neckline of your shirt. Then, he gently ran a clean, wet rag over your face and hands, taking away the evidence of your tears and worry. Finally, he threw a cloak over you like a blanket, to hopefully ward off the last of the shivers from the warmth he’d stolen from you.

Not stolen, he reminded himself, though the truth somehow felt more dangerous, it was freely given to him. The vampire settled in, laying across from you, the only part of you he could touch was the hand still holding his. Though, already in your sleep you had shifted towards him. Astarion frowned, eyebrows furrowed, the more he came to know you, the more he knew that you would give and give and give. Truly, he knew that he didn’t need to manipulate you anymore, maybe he never needed to, and for the first time in centuries, he didn’t want to just keep taking. He didn’t want to bleed you dry and loot you for all you were worth. Astarion was surprised to find he wanted give something back to you. He just needed to figure out what.

The nights events caught up to him once again as his eyes closed, listening to the evermore familiar sound of your heartbeat as it became steadier and the even sounds of your breathing as you slept, letting it guide him towards meditation.

Gods damn you and your insufferable admirability.

___

Part Two Here!

Again this was my first time writing for Astarion. I also tried to balance things into being equal parts in each persons perspective. I just love when two lovestruck idiots have to confront their own feelings about being in love.

#me when I can use both literal and metaphorical vampirism as an allegory of being consumed by love.#astarion x reader #astarion x you #Astarion x reader #astarion x mc #astarion fanfic #bg3 x reader #bg3 x tav #bg3 fanfic #Astarion self insert

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rosyjuly · 6 months

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approximately one million years ago you wrote a little 3 sentence fic about office workers George and Alex and I’m wondering how things are going for them IF you had any divine musings

Wolff finally takes mercy on them; hires three people for social media management. It’s only taken George half a year and two ppt-s to convince him that being under 30 doesn’t automatically qualify you as competent, and anyway his age is a depreciating asset. But they’re here now, and it’s great – they love to feature him, still, but at least it’s not him who has to edit the godforsaken TikTok videos to perfectly match the audio.

The only downside is that with the new colleagues, they desks no longer fit into the corner of the second floor where George has been withering away for the past two years. It wouldn’t make sense to separate the comms team, so Claire makes them move up to the third. It makes more sense to be with the marketing team, anyway, she says. But now they have got the sales department on the other side, and in the open-plan office there’s just a lot more calls George has to listen to while he drafts the copies for the latest campaign. It makes him miss the data analysts.

For the first few weeks, it’s not that bad. He either gets lunch with the new coworkers, trying to get to know the boys and girls in the marketing team, or has half a pack of crisps while trying to finish a press release, wiping his hand after every bite to avoid staining his laptop. Then the onboarding finally finishes and he doesn’t need to spend two hours each day to explain the ropes to Frederik.

All of a sudden, he looks around, watches everyone else type away or nod at their screens with their most faux-genuine face, and he feels deeply, excruciatingly alone. He picks up his phone, opening the WhatsApp thread with Alex. Instead of the steady flow of texts, he can see the date annotated after every message or two.

He’s told himself that the distance might do them good; that it’ll be healthy to stop looking over at Alex after every joke he cracks, that he shouldn’t be so attuned with Alex’s tea refills. A pint or two on Fridays would still be fine – hunched over a barrel in lieu of a table on the pavement, shoulders pressed together and complaining about the bloody ridiculous prices. But he didn’t expect this. The hollow, tender part in his ribcage that feels half-filled with regret as he thumbs through Alex’s texts about how he didn’t know Quality Assurance could be so bad, and maybe George should still be doing that much overtime if it meant that Alex didn’t have to listen to one more overzealous phone apology.

You think Sales is much better? he sends back. It’s just past noon. Wanna grab an early lunch?

YES. You won’t believe the bs Marko pulled this morning, Alex sends back almost immediately.

George shuts his laptop, doesn’t announce that he’s getting food for once, lest someone tries to join him. Walking back into data analysis should not make anyone feel fond, yet here he is; the philodendron on Patrick’s desk has a new leaf.

“Here to pick Alex up?” Patrick asks, pushing his headphones back. It makes George’s stomach warm, both with embarrassment and, mortifyingly, with pride.

“You know how he is,” he tells Patrick, “gets lost in those Excel sheets and I’ll starve to death.”

“I’m ready, shut up,” Alex says, saving his work with a few efficient motions. “First person to complain about me in the sheets, I’ll tell you that–”

“And how would I know?” George asks, trying to ignore the hot shiver that runs up his spine. Alex whips around and George almost walks into his chest; when he raises his eyes, Alex is looking at him with his head tilted, like he’s a pattern Alex needs to find in a set of corrupted data.

#i cannot find the old prompt for the LIFE OF ME #sorry i got carried away thinking about structures as usual #george/alex #little fic #rosy.ask #my fic

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elliespuns · 1 year

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Truth about the Fireflies?

Joel only cared about one thing, which was getting Ellie out, and it was selfish, but in the selfishness of a father for his daughter. I don't think anyone doubts Joel would gladly give his life for Ellie. He also was willing to kill whoever and give up whatever (saving humanity) in order to keep Ellie safe. That is all there is really to say about Joel's motives.

BUT this is where many start to derail a bit and miss the bigger picture of the Fireflies. They are the other side of the story. Some people have noted about Joel, just because you play a character it does not mean they are the hero. Well, just because the Fireflies say they can make the cure from Ellie's brain does not mean it is true. In fact, the game was dropping hints that the Fireflies may be overzealous in there dedication to "the cure" to be thinking clearly.

One scientist (died by monkey bite) says in a recording that Fireflies have cycles every few years. There is a breakthrough that leads to hopeful years, which is followed by years of depression and failure. He says they have been in the slump for the last few years. Could Ellie be their next failed "breakthrough"? Also, think about how fast they put her into surgery. They just got her and perhaps in the same day decided that killing the one immune person in the world is necessary. No weeks of study and analysis. Another player noted that the doctors did not even get a chance to question her about her zombie attack to learn valuable information like that the zombie was legitimate because it had infected her friend. No, forget about testing her, let's cut open her brain! When you enter the ER room, the doctor is determined to not let Joel through, but notice his reasoning. "I won’t let you take her!" He doesn't sound like a doctor trying to save humanity. He sounds like a crazy doctor after "the cure" that has alluded him all his life. Then Marlene says in a recording that the doctor and her were in a shouting match over killing Ellie for post mortem study. She goes on to say that her approval of the surgery was a formality. This doesn't sound like good people looking for a cure, this sounds like hounds sniffing out blood.

BOTTOM LINE: we can't assume that the Fireflies were right in their assumption about the cure. In fact, I think the most likely outcome of Ellie's death was another failed study by the Fireflies. But Joel didn't let that happen. Can you imagine if he had?

#the last of us #tlou #ellie williams #joel miller #ellie ansld joel #joellie #fireflies #the last of us game #tlou game #bella ramsey #pedro pascal #bella and pedro #the last of us ending #cordyceps #the cure

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vgfm · 2 years

Text

Deltarune Theory: Reappraising Father Alvin

An Omnibus Analysis of the Angel’s Servant, Gerson’s Successor, and the Roaring Knight

HEY EVERY ! This has been a long time coming, but it’s time to take a look at one of Deltarune’s most overlooked characters: Father Alvin. This series newcomer has flown under the fanbase’s radar for years, but I’m here to tell you why he’s become my top suspect as the true identity of the Roaring Knight.

But that’s not all, I’ll also be delving into the nature of dark fountains, secrets that Gerson may have discovered before his demise, insights into a higher power offered by 1997’s #1-Rated Salesman, and even the origins of our favorite fluffy boy Ralsei. How can all this tie together? Read on and find out!

As a disclaimer, nothing I say should be taken as gospel—I tend to play fast and loose with my theory writing so as to weigh the various possibilities rather than settling on one objective answer. My goal isn’t to make readers agree with every point I make, but to inspire further thought and discussion on topics even if you disagree with my conclusions.

Note that this is the longest theory I’ve ever written, so I’ll break down the contents below in case you want to Ctrl + F to wherever you last left off:

Alvin as the Knight

The Initial Appraisal

Alvin’s Importance

Exhibit A: Alvin’s Drawing

King’s Connections

Fountains Bubbling from the Depths

Holy Fountains

The Knight’s Hand

The Knight’s Blade

Scoping Out the School

The Librarby

“A Large Person Could Easily Fit Inside”

Speaking of Communion

Ralsei’s Origins

An Alternative Perspective

Ralsei’s Connection to the Knight

Alvin’s Motives

The Knight’s Trials and Errors

Gerson and the Dark Fountains

Let’s Talk About Gerson

Gerson’s Grand Fountain

The Will of the Fountains

Dark Fountain Rulebook – Abridged Edition

Blessed with Talent

Lord of the Hammer

Counter-Arguments

The Elephant in the Room…

The Laws of Portraits

Exceptions to the Rule

Portraits and Typers

Spamton and Jevil

Bringing it Back to Alvin

Conclusion

The Final Tally

Closing Thoughts

Special Thanks

Alvin as the Knight

The Initial Appraisal

Father Alvin is the son of Gerson Boom, the old Waterfall shopkeeper in Undertale. He’s the local priest of Hometown and a devout worshipper of “the Angel.” Alvin’s first name is an anagram of “Anvil,” corresponding to his father’s association with hammers and former occupation as a smith. Alvin’s old drawing of Gerson can be found in the unused classroom at the end of Chapter 1, implying he was once a student at Kris’ school.

[Image transcript: Narration stating “It’s a yellowed, poorly-drawn picture of a green turtle. It’s signed ‘Alvin’. End image transcript]

Alvin typically speaks in a polite and reverent tone. He encourages Kris to express themself and become a more active member of the community.

[Image transcript: Alvin saying “Kris… What a pleasant surprise to see you here. And on a school day. I understand. I hope in time you may find the words you seek.” End image transcript]

Even when Alvin criticizes someone or makes light of their faults, he tends to phrase things in a roundabout, backhanded way.

[Image transcript: Alvin saying “Ah, Kris. Your brother. He is a very kind young man. Perhaps even a little… overzealous, in his younger days.” End image transcript]

This is in sharp contrast to his father, who was very curt and irreverent with this words.

[Image transcript: Gerson saying “What’s that? You want me to repeat myself? Heck no! Your eyes still work… Go read a book or something! Wahaha!” End image transcript]

It’s implied that Alvin may have had a complicated relationship with his father. Gerson is known for his best-selling “Lord of the Hammer” book series, which derived from a story he told to his children. Despite Alvin singing praises for Gerson and his work, his final graveyard dialogue indicates that he’s unsure if his father would be proud of him.

[Image transcript: Alvin saying “… were you proud of me, father…?” End image transcript]

Alvin’s dialogue implies that, like many townsfolk, he was once close with Asriel, who sang in the church choir.

[Image transcript: Alvin saying “Our choir sounds a bit thinner since your brother went away.” End image transcript]

It’s also implied that Kris, Asriel, Dess, and Noelle were part of the church’s youth group.

[Image transcript: Rudy saying “That angel? Noelle n’ Dess made it in youth group. Oh, right, you and Azzy tried to make one too...” End image transcript]

Both the Dreemurr and Holiday families are portrayed as religious and regularly attending Alvin’s services.

[Image transcript: QC saying “I remember, back on Sundays, after service… You and your family would come in and order the special.” End image transcript]

Gerson once taught at the same school as Toriel and she owns a signed copy of one of his history books, implying that the Dreemurr and Boom families may have been close.

[Image transcript: Narration saying “And a signed copy of The History of Humans and Monsters, by Gerson Boom.” End image transcript]

Speaking of family, Alvin and Berdly have dialogue which points toward other members of the Boom family—an unseen “Ms. Boom” that Berdly works for and one or more unnamed siblings of Alvin (which may include Ms. Boom).

[Image transcript: Alvin saying “Originally a smith by trade, he began writing history… And made a turn into telling stories, As a means to entertain his children.” Berdly saying “Ahh, I’m going to be late for my shift with Ms. Boom!!” End image transcript]

It’s currently unknown if Alvin had a counterpart that existed in Undertale’s world. Gerson is still alive during that game’s events, where we learn that, like in Deltarune, he’s a historian who knew the Dreemurr family. Gerson is also one of the few characters in Undertale to mention the angel of prophecy and the only one at all to mention the deltarune itself.

[Image transcript: Gerson saying “That’s the Delta Rune, the emblem of our kingdom. The Kingdom… Legend has it, an ‘angel’ who has seen the surface will descend from above and bring us freedom.” End image transcript]

Like many Hometown characters who did not first appear in Undertale, Alvin lacks a dialogue portrait or unique dialogue typer sound. His name also does not prompt any special response during the vessel creation sequence at the beginning of Chapter 1, unlike Gerson’s name.

[Image transcript: The Vessel creator saying “’Gerson.’ How interesting.” End image transcript]

Alvin has yet to be directly mentioned by any of the other townsfolk, so it’s unclear how Hometown’s other residents view him outside of their regard for his father and willingness to attend his church services.

On paper Alvin seems like a minor character in the grand scheme of Deltarune’s narrative and so far, as presented, he is. So why am I writing a theory post about him? I have two major reasons. The first is simply that I’m a Gerson fan and Alvin is the strongest link to Gerson that’s present in Deltarune. The second reason is that, despite appearances to the contrary, I do think that Alvin will be important.

Alvin’s Importance

One of the first things you’ll notice about Alvin is that he has one of the strongest connections to “the Angel,” a cryptic being represented as the central figure of the Deltarune symbol.

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

Additionally, Alvin is one of the few Hometown residents with in-depth dialogue choices who is not a classmate of Kris or a returning character from Undertale. In other words, Toby designed Alvin with a specific role in mind for this game instead of including him as a form of Undertale fanservice or making him a one-off joke npc like the milk cat in Sans’ store.

[Image transcript: Milk Cat saying “Yea I’m tha sicko that looks at all the milks to find the best expiration date.” End image transcript]

To cut to the chase, I believe that Father Alvin is the most likely suspect to be the Roaring Knight. This is not an unheard-of theory nowadays, but this is something I’ve suspected as far back as Chapter 1 (albeit with a lot less certainty back then).

In the past I’ve written at length about Alvin’s possible connections to the Knight and the Everyman entity from Undertale’s True Lab. Those posts are not required reading for this theory, mainly because much of their arguments were esoteric or became outdated with the release of Chapter 2. Instead I’m here to build a clear case from the ground-up for Alvin’s Knighthood.

Exhibit A: Alvin’s Drawing

[Image transcript: Narration saying “It’s a yellowed, poorly-drawn picture of a green turtle. It’s signed ‘Alvin.’” End image transcript]

The first major piece of evidence for Alvin being the Knight is his drawing that is found in the unused classroom at the end of Chapter 1. Toby Fox confirmed during his Chapter 1 playthrough stream that this is a drawing of Gerson made by Alvin. The drawing is referred to as yellowed and poorly drawn, implying that Alvin drew it as a child. At first this drawing seems innocuous, but its presence here is odd for a number of reasons.

Notably, we never see a darkworld manifestation of this drawing. Almost everything else in the unused classroom is represented somewhere in the Card Kingdom but there is no Gerson drawing to be found. When we look at the placement of the room’s objects, they’re roughly arranged from left to right in the order that we encounter them in the dark world, with the cabinet representing Card Castle on the far right. Alvin’s drawing is even further to the right, past the open door of the cabinet.

This implies that whatever manifested from this drawing would have been present at Card Castle but past the point where Kris and Susie ventured. Before Chapter 2 I had simply assumed that the construct created from this drawing had either fled out of reach or was lying in wait past the fountain. Chapter 2, however, gives us another solution: Alvin’s drawing is the Shadow Mantle.

In Chapter 2, Seam mentions the Shadow Mantle as a tool that will be needed to defeat the next Shadow Crystal holder. Unfortunately, Seam can’t seem to find the Mantle in Castle Town.

[Image transcript: Seam saying “In reality, it may be impossible to win. …Unless you use the power of the Shadow Mantle. Here, it may look like an old scrap of cloth, but… I can’t find it. Did someone… take it…?” End image transcript]

If Seam had this Mantle in the unused classroom then it seems strange that it would go missing, unless if it were left behind. Notably, Alvin’s drawing is one of the only objects in the unused classroom that Kris does not bring into the storage closet.

But what if that’s just a coincidence? Well, I can get more specific: I think that the Shadow Mantle was not only in the unused classroom but that it was also the King’s cloak.

[Image transcript: King in shadow saying “To my people, I am a hero...” End image transcript]

For one thing, it’s a dark cloak that casts him in shadow and the King loses it shortly after he mentions the Knight at the end of his boss fight.

More importantly, Toby refers to the cloak as a “cool mantle, bro” during his Chapter 1 livestream, but most importantly of all: the Mantle flies away from the battle and heads towards the right and (presumably) goes past the fountain.

In other words, the King’s cloak would have ended up in just the spot where Alvin’s drawing was, and the fact that Alvin’s drawing was not taken to Castle Town would account for the Shadow Mantle’s absence in Chapter 2.

The only potential flaw with this theory is that Seam’s dialogue implies that they were expecting to find the Mantle in their shop (or Seap) rather than in the King’s custody. However, this could have two explanations: First is that Seam was once the court magician and likely lived in Card Castle, which would give King ample opportunity to take the Mantle for himself before Seam left.

Second is that the Knight or any other lightner who entered the unused classroom may have moved the mantle in the light world without Seam’s knowledge. If Alvin were the Knight then it’d be unsurprising if he singled out his drawing from the classroom and hung it up in a place of prominence before opening the fountain.

Additionally, Chapter 2’s files have unused data for a “sky mantle” item that resists holy damage.

[Image transcript: unused text saying “SkyMantle – A cape that shimmers fluorescently. Protects against Elec and Holy attacks.” End image transcript]

Alongside it is data for a “pure crystal,” which is described as “the shadow purified by the cat.”

[Image transcript: unused text saying “PureCrystal – The shadow purified by the cat.” End image transcript]

The latter is implied to be a purified shadow crystal, which could serve as a parallel to the Sky Mantle—namely that it may end up being a “purified” Shadow Mantle.

If Alvin’s drawing is the shadow mantle then it would make sense why the sky mantle would resist holy attacks—because the drawing would have sentimental value for Alvin and he wouldn’t attack as strongly if someone wielded it. This is not unlike how the Mannequin item that resembles Spamton grants damage resistance towards Spamton Neo’s attacks.

[Image transcript: A yellow Addison selling a Spamton-like mannequin saying “We’re selling this for 75% off! Only 300 Dark Dollars!” End image transcript]

Speaking of Spamton Neo, he’s proof that cherished drawings can hold a lot of power in the dark world. The Neo body was created in an art program by a certain lightner with the help of Swatch and was seen by darkners as an artifact of great power, even before Spamton got his hands on it.

[Image transcript: Swatch saying “That robot was the embodiment of a Lightner’s dream. A dream I helped create… once. Splashing color from the motion of their hand. The Lightner filled it with their own hope, giving it an incredible power.” End image transcript]

Given Alvin’s sentiments towards his father, it’s very likely that his drawing would also be a powerful item. We do see King’s mantle fly away on its own accord, almost as if it had a life of its own—in that respect it has one clear advantage over the Neo body, which couldn’t move by itself. Speaking of the Neo body, one often-overlooked fact is that the Neo body contained Chapter 2’s shadow crystal, not Spamton himself:

[Image transcript: Seam saying “Oh, is that so? That salesman had found the crystal in the old machine…? I wonder… if perhaps, long ago, that old machine was very important to someone. A certain Lightner, perhaps… or maybe it’s just a hunch. Haha! At any rate, it’s truly unfortunate a Darkner decided to steal that power...” End image transcript]

This means that powerful artistic artifacts that embody a lightner’s hopes and dreams might somehow be tied to shadow crystals. Seam has already said that the Shadow Mantle will be connected to the next Shadow Crystal holder somehow, and given that Seam may end up purifying one or more shadow crystals to make the purified crystal, this is further evidence that the Shadow Mantle may end up purified into the Sky Mantle.

Overall, not only is it extremely likely that Alvin’s drawing is the Shadow Mantle and King’s cloak, but the fact that it ends up in King’s hands reveals even more evidence of Alvin being the Knight.

King’s Connections

King is the first true ally of the Knight that we meet. He was installed as the ruler of Card Castle after the Knight appeared and the other three kings were locked up.

[Image transcript: The three Card Kings saying “Once, all four of us ruled together, but when the Knight arrived, everything changed...” End image transcript]

The game never explicitly states whether King was merely inspired by the Knight and took over single-handedly or if the Knight aided him directly in this task. The other kings saying the Knight “arrived” does suggest a direct presence, as opposed to merely saying the Knight “appeared.”

Chapter 2 shows that lightners can create dark worlds without ever setting foot in them.

Queen also describes her world’s creation as the Knight manifesting as a giant apparition in the sky, implying that the Knight was outside of the Cyber darkworld for most if not all of its creation.

[Image transcript: Queen saying “The Roaring Knight... Today, It Deigned To Create This World. Reaching Its Long Hand To The Sky. It Coursed Its Will Into Its Blade.” End image transcript]

However, Chapter 1 implies that the Knight might have taken a more hands-on approach with Card Castle. One piece of evidence is the state of King’s throne room: the banners on the wall have been cut to pieces and the spade throne has a massive gash carved into it.

[Image transcript: King’s sliced up throne room. Narration saying “Wall banners. They seem to have been through some kind of struggle...” End image transcript]

One might assume King did this when he overthrew the other kings and a struggle ensued. However, we never see King’s attacks produce a slicing effect like this. Most of King’s attacks are regular spade bullets like Lancer’s and his chain attack is primarily presented as being able to latch onto and pull objects rather than slice them.

Moreover, we can see that the throne room is already adorned with spade-focused imagery, implying this was set up after King’s reign. It also wouldn’t make much sense for King to thrash his own chair. However, we do know that the Knight uses a bladed weapon. There isn’t a clear reason why the Knight would carve up the throne room, but given how power-hungry the King is it’s possible that a demonstration of power from the Knight was needed in order to establish the pecking order. This would explain why the Knight seems to be the only being that the King respects or demonstrates any lasting loyalty to.

[Image transcript: King saying “My Knight… I shall not fail you...” End image transcript]

Speaking of King’s attacks, one of his attacks is named the Chain of Justice.

[Image transcript: King saying “Fall before the chain of justice!” End image transcript]

The fact that it’s called a “chain” corroborates my point that King’s weapon is intended primarily for grappling and tethering rather than slicing. More importantly, this attack follows the same naming convention of Gerson’s title in Undertale as the Hammer of Justice, which inspired Undyne’s title of the Spear of Justice.

[Image transcript: Undyne saying “That’s the store of Gerson, the Hammer of Justice!” End image transcript]

Given Alvin’s reverence for his father’s legacy and the precedent that’s been set for Gerson inspiring others, it’s not hard to imagine that he might wield a “Blade of Justice,” which in turn inspired King.

Lastly, King refers to the Knight’s dark fountains as “holy” fountains and the theme that plays when Kris encounters them is called “the Holy.”

[Image transcript: King saying “The Knight that pulls the Fountains from the Earth. Holy Fountains, whose shadows are creating a new world...” End image transcript]

Ralsei refers to sealing these fountains as a necessary step for banishing the Angel’s Heaven.

[Image transcript: Ralsei saying “Only they can seal the fountains and banish the Angel’s Heaven.” End image transcript]

Alvin is a devout servant of the Angel, so these aspects of the Dark Fountains all point in his direction.

Fountains Bubbling from the Depths

Let’s focus on Dark Fountains for a second. All too often we take the name for granted, but why are they called fountains, exactly? The fountain in Castle Town is referred to as a geyser—once at the initial save point and again during Ralsei’s telling of the legend.

[Image transcript: Narration saying “In front of you, a castle looms beneath the empty town. A black geyser emerges from it, piercing endlessly into the sky.” Ralsei says “Today, the Fountain of Darkness—The geyser that gives this land form-“ End image transcript]

Jevil alludes to “Hell’s roar bubbles from the depths” after mentioning the Knight, which likely refers to the roaring, but he curiously compares this to the ocean’s depths.

[Image transcript: Jevil saying “Soon, the ‘Queen’ returns, and Hell’s Roar bubbles from the Depths...” End image transcript]

To top it off, the sound that plays when Kris first wakes up in a dark world is called ocean.ogg. To put it simply, dark fountains are associated with water.

[Image transcript: a list of Deltarune audio files that includes “ocean.ogg.” End image transcript]

This is a strange comparison at first glance because the fountains aren’t simply spewing out darkness as if it were water—we can see from the fountain Kris creates and Queen’s footage of her fountain that the fountains emit darkness as if it were smoke or a column of energy.

[Image transcript: Narration saying “It’s a video of someone creating a strange pillar of smoke. There’s so much smoke, it’s hard to tell who it is.” End image transcript]

This leads me to think that the connection between dark fountains and water is more than simply a visual descriptor. What this exact connection will be remains to be seen, but it does make me question what else in Deltarune or Undertale is connected to water.

Waterfall would be the obvious answer, albeit a broad one. There we find Gerson, Goner Kid, Clam Girl, the Mysteryman event (believed to be Gaster), and the River person.

[Image transcript: River Person saying “Tra la la. Beware of the man who speaks in hands.” Goner Kid saying “Please forget about me.” Clamgirl saying “Her name is ‘Suzy.’ I feel like you two should be friends.” Ending with Mysteryman in an empty grey room. End image transcript]

All of these things bear some connection to Deltarune. Gerson mentions the angel and deltarune symbol, Goner Kid is likely connected to Gaster, mysteryman is self-explanatory, and Clam Girl is linked to “Suzy” and the “don’t forget” drawing in Sans’ workshop.

[Image transcript: Narration saying “It’s a poorly drawn picture of three smiling people. Written on it… ‘don’t forget.’” End image transcript]

The River Person alludes to the Angel and (what is likely) Gaster and Sans. On top of that, however, the River Person also mentions “the old song coming from the sea.”

[Image transcript: River Person saying “Tra la la. Did you ever hear the old song coming from the sea?” End image transcript]

We see this thread picked up on in Onionsan’s subplot in Deltarune, where they hint at a song coming from the sea as well.

[Image transcript: Onionsan saying “…I’ve heard that song before… coming from the sea. It’s not a ‘new’ song.” End image transcript]

“Sea” is an interesting choice of word, since “sea” refers to oceanic water. Until now I had assumed that Hometown’s shore lead to a small body of freshwater.

We do know that Gerson is connected to the sea—he lives in Waterfall, sells sea tea, and is likely a sea turtle himself. If the latter is true then this would also be the case for Alvin; funnily enough, a sea turtle conjures the image of both water and natural armor. If Alvin has been the one creating dark fountains then it would make sense why they’ve been associated with the sea.

Something that could make or break this idea is Kris’ fountain in chapter 3—if it shares this water theming or is noticeably distinct from the two previous fountains then that could tell us something about the true nature of dark fountains, since dark worlds are said to reflect the will of their fountains.

[Image transcript: Ralsei saying “You see, each Dark Fountain creates a different ‘world.’ A ‘world’ whose Darkners reflect the will of its fountain.” End image transcript]

For the time being, the fountain/sea connection is something to keep an eye on. It does serve as a slight nod in Alvin’s direction over other Knight suspects, many of whom have little to no connection to the sea. If I had to place a bet, I’d wager that Gerson and Alvin likely wield water magic in the dark world, which would be a fitting contrast to the Dreemurrs’ fire magic—there’s no evidence for this currently, I just think it’d be a neat idea. Besides, I’m sure Toby wouldn’t pass up the opportunity to make a pun on “holy water.”

Holy Fountains

This is a brief topic to cover and a bit of an obvious one, but it’s worth expounding that Ralsei refers to banishing “the Angel’s Heaven” as the ultimate goal of the Delta warriors. It’s not explicitly stated whether the Angel’s Heaven and the Roaring are the exact same thing but it’s a safe assumption, given that both are described as end-of-the-world events that occur when light and dark are out of balance.

Another somewhat obvious fact is that Alvin is strongly connected to the angel. In fact, he mentions it more than any other character aside from maybe Spamton. This led some fans to speculate Alvin had some significance even as far back as Chapter 1. There’s not a whole lot else to add here, other than just pointing out that Alvin would be one of the strongest proponents of an “Angel’s Heaven” out of Hometown’s residents.

If Alvin knew that Angel’s Heaven and the Roaring were the same then I could see him proudly taking on the title of the Roaring Knight while keeping the true nature of the Roaring to himself, perhaps preferring the gentler title of “Angel’s Heaven”. It would be in-character, given his tendency to bury the lede.

[Image transcript: Alvin saying “Kris, if you want some of our ‘sick’ Fruit Juice, you should come to our service. Kris, it would be wonderful if you would sing with us. Or even participated to any extent. Instead of just trying to drink the Fruit Juice.” End image transcript]

This would explain why King believes that opening more fountains will allow Darkners to rule the world, when in fact the Roaring will doom darkners as well as lightners.

[Image transcript: King saying “Soon, this world shall be blanketed in darkness… And Darkners shall rule it!” End image transcript]

This could also address the seeming plothole that Queen knows the title “Roaring Knight” but has never heard of the Roaring itself.

[Image transcript: Queen saying “The Roaring Knight… What Is That.” Ralsei says “Um… the Roaring.” Queen says “Yeah That What Is That.” End image transcript]

The Knight’s Hand

While the Knight has now been associated with the Roaring in Chapter 2, the Knight has also been associated with the image of a hand ever since Chapter 1.

[Image transcript: Jevil saying “The hand of the Knight is drifting forward.” End image transcript]

Hand imagery is something that’s obviously associated with Gaster due to his use of wingdings font and River Person’s ominous warning of “the man who speaks in hands.” I think it’s likely that Gaster has some sort of connection to the Knight, but the old doctor also has his “hands” in a lot of a lot of pies so that’s maybe not quite as telling as one would assume.

Something that’s often overlooked is that Queen provides us with a representation of the Knight’s hand at the end of Chapter 2.

[Image transcript: Queen looking at a green projection of a hand saying “Reaching Its Long Hand To The Sky.” End image transcript]

One thing I’ve seldom seen pointed out is that this hand lacks Gaster’s signature hole/circle in its palm. Since Queen’s depiction is likely abstract/simplified to some degree, this is by no means a silver-bullet argument against Gaster being the Knight, but it is something to bear in mind.

Getting back to Alvin, I think this depiction of the Knight’s hand is yet another nudge in Alvin’s direction. First, the hand is depicted as green. This is a minor point, since some of Queen’s other displays have used green lights and it’s not the exact same shade of green as Alvin.

[Image transcript: Queen with green displays saying “No I Am: A Computer (Smart).” End image transcript]

Still, it is curious that this is yet another small detail that aligns with Alvin over other Knight suspects (almost none of whom have green skin).

One thing I should note is that the slight difference in color from the Knight’s hand and Alvin’s skin could be accounted for by the dark world itself. Noelle, Berdly, and Susie all have brighter-colored skin in the dark world than they do in the lightworld. And wouldn’t you know it? The Knight’s hand is also a (slightly) brighter shade of green than Alvin, which would line up with this trend of using a different shade of the same basic color.

Granted, the shift in color palettes for lightners in the dark world is not 100% consistent. For example, Berdly’s beak doesn’t change brightness and instead just becomes more saturated with color. Kris also changes into a completely different color rather than a different shade of the same color. Though, so far Kris has been the exception and such a radical color shift might be exclusive to humans for all we know. The general trend is that monsters’ dark world forms will be a brighter and more vibrant shade than their light world forms, and that trend very well could mean that Alvin’s dark world form will match the color of Queen’s depiction.

Something that’s far more interesting about the Knight’s hand is that it has the proportions of a human arm. Now, ordinarily this is what you’d expect: we’re led to believe that Kris is the Knight and they’re human, and on top of that a lot of Hometown’s residents have human-looking hands. This does rule out characters like Monster Kid or Jockington, who lack hands entirely, but on its own it doesn’t say much. Or does it?

Now, Alvin does appear to have human-looking arms. This alone does not improve his chances of being the Knight since, like I said, so many other characters fit this criteria. But what makes things interesting is when we look at Gerson’s arms: they’re absolutely massive.

[Image transcript: Gerson saying “Woah there! I’ve got some neat junk for sale.” End image transcript]

His arm is almost as big in diameter as his head thanks to his huge Popeye-styled forearms. Note that Alvin lacks this feature entirely, which makes some amount of sense since Gerson was a former smith and (in another world) a former soldier.

Toby mentions in the Undertale artbook that he designed Gerson’s face and Temmie “drew the rest.”

[Image transcript: Toby saying “I drew Gerson’s face then Temmie drew over the rest.” End image transcript]

It could be that Toby didn’t originally plan to give Gerson massive arms or he didn’t have a preference either way. But what we do know is that Alvin was intentionally designed not to share this trait. This is in contrast to other new characters who are relatives of Undertale characters. Specifically, Catty’s family is made up of monsters who all share a nearly-identical body type to her own.

If Toby planned all along for Alvin to be the Knight and for Kris to be a red herring, then showing the Knight’s hand to us would almost necessitate giving the actual Knight human-like hands. If Alvin and the Knight’s hand both looked like Gerson’s hand then that would’ve been a huge giveaway that the Knight isn’t Kris. Given that Gerson’s design provided a potential template for Alvin like how Catty’s design did for her family, it says something that Toby went out of his way to defy that template. And the end result is that Alvin once again just happens to check the boxes that would be needed in order to be the Knight.

The Knight’s Blade

There’s one last feature of interest in the Queen’s depiction of the Knight’s hand: the blade that it wields.

[Image transcript: Queen looking at a green projection of a hand and blade saying “It Coursed Its Will Into Its Blade.” End image transcript]

The game files refer to this as a “laser_knife.” The hand is referred to as a “laser_hand,” so the laser part is no doubt referring to the Queen’s method of depicting it rather than any trait of the blade itself. While the filename makes it safe to assume that this blade is a knife, that could just be its light world form. We technically haven’t seen the darkworld manifestation of Kris’ knife, and given that Kris’ pencil can become a sword it’s not unreasonable to consider that a knife could transform in the dark world as well.

Nonetheless, it’s safe to assume that the Knight owns a knife in the light world. When we look closely we can see that the knife has a crossguard on it. This means that this isn’t a simple kitchen knife or pocket knife, but rather what is likely a dagger or some other weapon. Guarded knives are a specialty item, meaning most regular people would have no reason to own one. Kris is an obvious example of a knife owner, since we see them brandish a guarded knife at the end of Chapter 1 and we know that they are a knife enthusiast.

[Image transcript: Kris brandishing a knife, following by narration saying “From search query: sharpest kitchen knife jello.” End image transcript]

Alvin, however, could be a knife owner as well. I mainly say this due to the fact that Gerson was a former smith, which Alvin himself points out.

[Image transcript: Alvin saying “Originally a smith by trade, he began writing history...” End image transcript]

This is a somewhat odd detail to draw attention to, considering that Gerson is already known for his other careers as a writer and teacher in Deltarune’s world. It could be that the smith line exists merely to explain why Gerson is still affiliated with a hammer, though his “Lord of the Hammer” series would be sufficient to explain that.

Smiths in real life don’t exclusively make weapons or armor, but given Gerson’s enthusiasm for fantasy writing it’s very likely that he has made a blade or two in his time. We also know that Alvin grew up with Gerson’s stories and expresses a fondness for them, so it’s not unreasonable to think that Gerson may have bequeathed a few weapons he fashioned to his children. We even have evidence that Gerson created armor during his time.

[Image transcript: RG01 saying “Nothing like admiring the great paint job, me and my bro did on our church.” End image transcript]

In Hometown we see the two royal guards from Undertale. Curiously they’re both still wearing armored helmets like they were in Undertale. While this may simply be an artistic decision to make it easier for players to recognize them, it does raise the question of where this armor came from. While there isn’t a direct link between the guards and Gerson that we know of, they do mention that they recently completed work on “our church.” Note that they don’t say “the church,” but “our church.”

Given that Alvin likely owns the church, he almost certainly has done business with these two men before, and the “our church” line implies they regularly attend his services. If Alvin owned some of Gerson’s old wares then I could see him giving them to friends and family, especially if they were sought after as props related to Gerson’s novels.

So although it takes a few steps to get from “the royal guards have helmets” to “Alvin has a knife,” Gerson making weapons and armor is a tidy explanation to connect those dots and it fits with everything we know so far about Gerson, Alvin, and the two guards. It’s possible that the guards’ helmets may never be explained and are just a joke, but this is another curious case of little details falling into place in such a way that hints towards Alvin.

Scoping Out the School

Let’s take a minute to look at the “crime scene” for Chapter 1’s fountain. The Knight would’ve needed to have access to the School in order to create a dark fountain there. It’s unclear whether Ralsei’s Castle Town fountain was created around the same time as Card Castle or whether the two fountains were even made by the same person. I have my own thoughts on that, but we’ll table that topic for later.

It’s harder to draw conclusions from Chapter 2’s dark fountain because it was created in a building that anyone in town would have had access to. We can infer some things from the exact location within the Librarby and the potential timeframe of that fountain’s creation, but the school fountains tell us a lot more.

Putting the Knight’s first fountain in the school makes a lot of potential suspects far less likely to be the Knight. This is because a school would typically be shut to the general public during daytime hours and locked up at night. In truth, I think the only person who could’ve made the Card Castle fountain would have to be someone who’s a student, a staff member, or someone closely connected to one of the former.

The only current students we know of are Kris and their classmates. A former student is perhaps possible, though it’s not exactly normal for schools to let graduates waltz in unannounced. Toriel and Alphys are the only known members of the current faculty, with Gerson a noted teacher when he was alive. There is a line from Sans about him being “the janitor,” which could tie into the school’s supply closet, but it’s still speculative whether there’s any connection there.

[Image transcript: Sans saying “me? I’m just the janitor.” End image transcript]

I feel that Susie, Noelle, and Berdly can be dismissed as suspects out of hand since we witness their first encounters with dark worlds. Kris is a thornier subject that I already wrote a whole post about, but let’s simplify and say that darkners (even savvy ones like Jevil and Spamton) don’t recognize them as the Knight.

[Image transcript: Spamton saying “Kris, did you know that the Knight...” End image transcript]

Snowy, Jockington, and Monster Kid lack arms, which Queen depicts the Knight as having. Temmie and Catti are technically possible and I don’t want to sell them short, but neither seem to have a clear motivation that we could draw on, nor do either of them seem driven enough to pull off the Knight’s handiwork. Catti’s after-school job may or may not give her an alibi as well.

[Image transcript: Catti saying “I’m working.” End image transcript]

Former students come with a big asterisk—the fact that they’re no longer students at the school means they lose the single biggest advantage that a student would have as a suspect: easy access to the school during the day. In order for a former student to be plausible, they’d have to have some kind of special skill or tool that would give them access to the school, or they’d have to know someone with access. This alone would shut out a number of (presumed) former students like Bratty, Catty, or Burgerpants, who have not been shown or implied to possess such means of access.

Lastly we have the three known faculty members: Alphys, Toriel, and Gerson. Alphys could have the means to open the fountains we’ve seen, though she hardly seems like the determined type or the sort of person who’d be respected by King. Toriel could command such respect, but the Knight’s actions are seemingly out of character for her. Additionally, Toriel is seen still at the school at the beginning of Chapter 2 and may not have been available to open the Librarby fountain. That just leaves Gerson.

Now, obviously Gerson is dead. That’s pretty much the strongest alibi there is. But as discussed with King’s “chain of justice,” there is reason to suspect the fountains in the school are somehow connected to Gerson. The fact that one exists in an unused classroom that King claims was “abandoned” by lightners would line up with Alvin’s statement that his father died years ago. And it goes without saying that Alvin’s drawing of Gerson is an even more obvious connection that implies Gerson used that room.

So how can any of that give Alvin an opportunity to open the school fountain? Well, for one thing we can infer he’s a former student due to his drawing. At minimum that would help him know the layout of the school and basic information regarding the building’s schedule and access points. On top of that he’s related to a former teacher, meaning he likely had more knowledge of the school than a typical former student, assuming he ever came to visit his father or was privy to any insider information. He’s aware of the fact that Alphys was his father’s replacement at the school and that Kris never had Gerson as a teacher, so he seems to be keeping tabs on things even after his father’s departure.

[Image transcript: Alvin saying “Kris, it is a shame you were not able to have him as a teacher. And difficult for Ms. Alphys, as his replacement.” End image transcript]

Alvin being related to Gerson could also give him an excuse to come visit the school and be let in by faculty even after Gerson’s passing. He could simply use the excuse that he’s stopping by to visit his father’s old friends or collecting some of his father’s old things, which we know there’s at least one of still in the school (i.e., the drawing). However, such an excuse is likely not even necessary.

As a teacher, Gerson likely had his own set of keys to get in and out of his classroom and likely the school itself. We know that Gerson was a smith, which could cover locksmithing and the ability to make duplicates of his keys. In the modern era locksmiths are far more common than classic weapon and armor smiths, but Gerson’s variety of talents wouldn’t rule out multiple types of smithing. But the idea of Alvin still having Gerson’s keys is pure speculation, right? Actually, it isn’t.

In Chapter 1, Kris and Susie enter the school supply closet and the door shuts behind them.

[Image transcript: Susie saying “Hey, this isn’t funny! Let us out!” End image transcript]

In the moment it’s easy to assume that this is some supernatural event similar to the darkness spreading out of the closet door or the floor in the closet falling away. However, Susie reacts to the door shutting as if she knows there’s a person on the other side, and at the end of the chapter we see that the outside of the supply closet is locked just like the door down the hall.

[Image transcript: Narration for two doors in the school, both saying “The door is locked.” End image transcript]

Note that the flavor text doesn’t say “the door is mysteriously held shut,” but simply “it’s locked.” In other words, someone must have locked this door, which would require a set of keys. Only a staff member would have a set of keys—Alphys and Toriel were busy teaching their classes, which leaves Gerson’s keys as the only known set that weren’t accounted for in that moment.

Out of all the residents of Hometown, Alvin arguably has the most plausible opportunity to be within the school hallway during the moment when Kris and Susie are locked in the supply closet. All the other students and faculty are in their classrooms, the school is (presumably) closed to outsiders, and several other townspeople are seen outside the school when Kris and Toriel arrive.

Alvin, however, is not seen during Toriel’s drive, meaning his location at that time is conveniently unaccounted for.

The Librarby

The next day, the Knight opened up a dark fountain in the computer lab of the public Librarby. As mentioned before, virtually everyone in town has easy access to the Librarby, so it’s more difficult to deduce the Knight’s identity based solely on this location. However, there are a couple of things that connect this location to Alvin.

First up is Berdly’s mention of a “Ms. Boom” at the end of Chapter 2. Alvin mentions that Gerson told stories to his children (plural), implying that this Ms. Boom could be Alvin’s sister, or possibly some other relation. While it isn’t explicitly stated, this would imply that Ms. Boom works at the Librarby since we know that Berdly is a volunteer Librarby assistant and he mentions being late for his “shift” with Ms. Boom.

[Image transcript: Berdly saying “However, Kris. I am a benevolent volunteer assistant. Ahh, I’m going to be late for my shift with Ms. Boom!!” End image transcript]

If Ms. Boom works at the Librarby (or perhaps even owns it), then that would connect the location to the Boom family and give Alvin an easy method of visiting the building or reserving it whenever he likes.

[Image transcript: Susie saying “Hey, Kris, where the hell is everybody?” End image transcript]

Susie does mention how the Librarby seems empty when she and Kris first show up—perhaps Alvin pulled some strings to get the building to himself until a certain volunteer assistant let himself in?

Another thing that connects the building to Alvin’s family is the presence of Gerson’s book series, Lord of the Hammer.

[Image transcript: narration saying “Lord of the Hammer. First in the award-winning fiction series by lauded historian Gerson Boom.” End image transcript]

It’s not surprising that these books would be in a Library, but it could also explain why Alvin would choose this location in particular or take any sort of interest in it. To anyone else a Library is just a Library and a school is just a school, but to Alvin specifically these locations are far more personal in light of his loss. Alvin even talks extensively about his father’s work during Chapter 2, despite not bringing it up at all in Chapter 1—maybe the topic was on his mind for a reason?

[Image transcript: Alvin saying “Fans of his famous book series, Lord of the Hammer… That such a story, created for such a simple purpose. Could blossom into such a large, wonderful, world-changing thing… That is the majesty of words, Kris.” End image transcript]

One thing that doesn’t add up at first is why the fountain was ultimately created in the computer lab. Alvin doesn’t seem like a tech-savvy person, to put it lightly.

[Image transcript: Alvin saying “Nearly omitting the fact that he had done so in a ‘videos game.’” End image transcript]

You’d think it would make more sense for him to open the fountain in the main area of the Librarby where his father’s books are. My personal theory is that the computer lab was not the Knight’s first choice and there are some hints that point towards this.

First off is the fact that Queen seems far less connected to the Knight than King was. While not explicitly stated, the implication is that the Knight may have entered Card Castle and interacted with its denizens directly but interacted rather sparingly with the Cyber World. Queen mentions that the Knight has taken its leave, and given the limited timeframe when this fountain could have been created (in light of Noelle and Berdly’s presence), it’s likely that Cyber World may have been a rush job that the Knight was quick to leave behind. And given King’s attitude towards being “left behind,” I think it’s less likely that this was the case with Card Castle.

[Image transcript: King saying “How dare you come here, Lightners…? You, that left us in the shadows, stripped of meaning...” End image transcript]

The way I see events playing out is that Alvin may have reserved the Librarby to himself thanks to Ms. Boom. Unexpectedly, Berdly and Noelle showed up due to Berdly having his own key. Alvin backed up into the computer lab to avoid being seen and then was driven further back into the equipment closet once Noelle and Berdly came inside. As luck would have it, Noelle and Berdly fell asleep (as evidenced by Noelle claiming this is what happened, Berdly previously putting Kris to sleep, and Berdly setting an alarm beforehand).

[Image transcript: Noelle saying “I fell asleep in the Librarby, and…” Rudy says “I knew that birdbrain’d put you to sleep! Haha!” Noelle says “… he fell asleep, too.” Rudy says “Wow, he even put himself to sleep? Ha!” End image transcript]

[Image transcript: Berdly saying “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.” The narration says “Listening to this, your eyes began to close automatically…” Berdly says “H… Huh?? My… my alarm??” Noelle says “Oh no, how is it that late already!?” End image transcript]

Alvin then cracked the closet door open, created a fountain that spilled out into the lab, then he ran out of the Librarby.

“A Large Person Could Easily Fit Inside”

One of the lynchpin clues of the Knight’s identity is the equipment closet in the computer lab.

[Image transcript: narration saying “The closet is spacious and full of old electronics. A large person could easily fit inside.” End image transcript]

The narration mentions that “a large person could easily fit inside.” As I’ve noted in my other theory posts, this is a very suspicious observation to make. The fact that the door to the closet is left ajar when the fountain is sealed indicates that the fountain’s darkness either seeped into the closet or, more likely, seeped out from it.

Why else would the narration draw attention to not just anyone fitting inside that closet, but a large person? As I’ve stated elsewhere, Berdly is among the smaller characters in Hometown. Kris, our point of reference character, is even smaller. Alvin, conversely, is on the larger end in terms of his sprite’s dimensions, and he’s easily larger than any of Kris’ party members.

While writing this post I tallied up the height and width of each of Hometown’s residents in order to argue in favor of Alvin’s “largeness,” but in the process I discovered something far more shocking: Alvin’s sprite is the exact same size as the equipment closet door. And I mean exact. Down to the pixel.

Admittedly the width has some wiggle room due to the open door overlapping the opening, but if we measure the opening based on where the top of the door ends (and how a door like this would open in real life) then it is 25 pixels wide and 47 pixels tall—Alvin’s exact size (and the only lightner in the game with those specific dimensions).

This makes my job easier since I no longer have to argue for Alvin’s “largeness” because by definition he is the largest character who can “easily” fit inside the closet (i.e., without having to duck or turn sideways). While the size matchup isn’t quite a silver bullet on its own, I do think it would be very in-character for Toby to make a doorway like this the exact same size as the Knight, given his usual attention to detail.

Speaking of Communion

Chapter 2 has one last major clue to the Knight’s identity, courtesy of our good friend Spamton. A lot of fans are already aware of this one and it’s what sparked many to consider Alvin as a potential suspect in the first place. When given the chance to talk to Spamton at his shop, he has this to say:

“I USED TO BE NOTHING BUT THE E_MAIL GUY, NOW I’M THE [[It Burns! Ow! Stop! Help Me! It Burns!]] GUY! [[Amazed at thi5 amazing transformation? You too can]] HAVE A {{Communion]] WITH [[Unintelligible Laughter]].”

When you ask him about the Knight, he continues this train of thought by saying:

“SPEAKING OF [[Communion]], KRIS, DID YOU KNOW THAT THE KNIGHT… No, I’m sorry! I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to – TOO MANY EXCESS VACATION DAYS?? TAKE A GOD DAMN VACATION STRAIGHT TO HELL.”

Generally, Spamton’s dialogue can be hard to parse and you get the sense that he’s self-censoring (or being censored by someone else) whenever his manner of speaking changes abruptly. Even so, I find his use of the word “Communion” very interesting here. In the first usage of the term, he seems to be referring to his own encounter with whoever called him on the phone, likening this encounter to Communion.

In the real world, communion refers to the Christian rite of receiving “the Lord’s Supper” of bread and wine in church. Many interpretations of this rite involve a divine presence being imbued in the communion bread and wine, with some interpretations arguing further that the bread and wine are literally transformed into the living flesh and blood of Christ. Alternatively, communion can also mean a general association or friendship.

Now, the first definition could easily point in Alvin’s direction. The religious connection is obvious, and Alvin mentions that his church does offer “sick fruit juice,” likely referring to communion wine (or actual juice, which is a common substitute).

[Image transcript: Alvin saying “Kris, if you want some of our ‘sick’ Fruit Juice, you should come to our service.” End image transcript]

Toby has also shown concept art of Susie serving herself some sort of red liquid, which could be the same fruit juice.

Additional concept art of Noelle sitting in a “polite” manner in an unknown location, possibly next to her mother (assuming the face is being censored by the Noelle sprite) would imply that we’ll be seeing the inside of Alvin’s church in the coming chapters, given Rudy’s remarks about his family going to church the day after Chapter 2.

[Image transcript: Rudy saying “Might even be able to go to church tomorrow.” End image transcript]

The idea of non-living bread and wine being turned into flesh and blood is not unlike inanimate objects being turned into darkners through the use of “holy” fountains. In light of this interpretation, Spamton could’ve easily been about to say “SPEAKING OF [[Communion]], KRIS, DID YOU KNOW THAT THE KNIGHT IS A PRIEST?”

The second definition of communion, as association or friendship, could potentially apply to Alvin as well. Spamton first mentions communion in regards to his own transformation, which is likely referring to when he received the mysterious phone call that kickstarted his career. Given Spamton’s recurring theme of being someone else’s puppet, it’s possible that this “communion” event may be more akin to a possession, especially since Spamton frequently compares his own situation to Kris’ situation with the soul.

[Image transcript: Spamton saying “If you’ve lost control of your life. That’s a real bigshot move kid!!! You’re like me… I won’t have to be just a puppet any more!!!! It seems after all I couldn’t be anything more than a simple puppet.” End image transcript]

We know that Alvin serves a higher being in the form of the Angel. He refers to the Angel’s power “lighting your way” and the Angel watching over others.

[Image transcript: Alvin saying “Let the Angel’s power light your way. Good day, Kris. May the Angel watch over you...” End image transcript]

This is not unlike the soul’s role in guiding Kris, which Spamton likens to his own situation. Spamton’s line about the Knight could be a double-entendre meant to imply that not only is the Knight a religious figure but similarly a puppet to a higher power.

Now some might argue that since communion is written in brackets in Spamton’s dialogue it must be disregarded as a literal term. While I’d agree that it probably wasn’t intended solely as a literal meaning, many fans forget that Spamton’s bracketed text can sometimes be literal and straightforward. For example, he refers to Queen’s Mansion, the keygen, and the act of buying it all in bracketed text despite using the literal terms for them. He even uses brackets or no brackets interchangeably for both “buy” and “keygen”.

[Image transcript: Spamton saying “As a [Commemorative Ring] I will let you by [KeyGen] from me at [the low low price of]. [Buy] the keygen from me, unlock the basement, and get that EmptyDisk!!!” End image transcript]

Even many of his more off-the-wall bracketed text has some context clues that imbues it with meaning.

Moreover, Spamton uses religious terminology many times during Chapter 2, arguably more often than even Alvin does, so I don’t think the implied religious connotations of “communion” are a coincidence. Religious theming is very much a recurring part of Spamton’s repertoire.

[Image transcript: Spamton saying “Are you watching, heaven!? It’s time for Spamton’s comeback special!” Narration says “Spamton begs to the audience, Spamton prays to the audience.” A Swatchling says “Spamton? This used to be his room… Eventually, he just spent all his time in the basement… praying.” End image transcript]

Spamton is also one of a few characters shown to pray in dark worlds, with the others being Noelle and Ralsei.

The latter two utilize Heal Prayer, which is described as a heavenly light.

[Image transcript: menu text saying “Heavenly light restores a little HP to one party member. Depends on Magic.” End image transcript]

Noelle’s prayer isn’t too surprising, given that her family regularly attends church, she’s made her own angel doll, and is likely connected to the angel herself. Ralsei… well, he’s a whole other can of worms, but since I’m going for broke here we might as well talk about him. Trust me, I’m as surprised as you are.

Ralsei’s Origins

An Alternative Perspective

I honestly don’t know where to start with Ralsei—it feels like everyone has a Ralsei theory and no one can really agree what his “deal” is. I’ve tried to remain agnostic on the subject since I’m sure there’s something up with him that we won’t find out until later. But in the process of researching this Alvin theory I’ve found a troubling number of connections between Alvin and Ralsei. I say “troubling” because up until now I’ve been fairly confident that Ralsei is not “playing both sides” of the fountain conflict, nor that he’s secretly working for the Knight. However, I’m beginning to question things.

To cut to the chase, I’ve always been hesitant towards the idea that Ralsei is literally Asriel, and even the thought of Ralsei being Kris’ recreation of or idealized version of Asriel never sat right with me, especially after Chapter 2. Kris’ interactions with Ralsei don’t add up with this interpretation, in light of the Ralsei tea healing Kris for far less than the Susie tea.

[Image transcript: Kris heals 120 HP from Susie tea. Susie says “Stop looking at me!” Ralsei says “They seem into it” Kris heals 70 HP from Noelle tea. Susie says “…do they like it?” Ralsei says “They’re drinking it…” Kris heals 60 HP from Ralsei tea. Susie says “No reaction?” Ralsei says “I’m happy!” End image transcript]

Kris also seems to react more earnestly to the idea of taking Susie to the festival than taking Ralsei (or Noelle).

[Image transcript: Kris chooses Ralsei. Susie says “What!? Why are you saying it so confused?” Kris chooses Susie. Susie says “H… huh?” End image transcript]

Kris just seems more inclined towards Susie, and even some of their interactions with Noelle feel more earnest than many of their interactions with Ralsei (not to mention Noelle tea heals Kris more than Ralsei tea).

[Image transcript: Noelle saying “Har har, very funny! …gosh, do you need a dog treat or something?” Kris chooses “Nooooo.” Noelle says “Gosh, stop howling, I get it!” End image transcript]

You’d think someone who misses their brother as much as Kris does would embrace a suspiciously “similar” substitute, or conversely be horrified at encountering an uncanny doppelganger (especially for fringe theories which posit that Asriel is dead and Ralsei is him revived as a darkner). Instead Kris seems ambivalent towards Ralsei—they don’t dislike him, but he’s just a friend who isn’t quite “best” friend material.

This is one reason why I’ve always doubted the idea that Kris created Ralsei or that Ralsei represents Kris’ idealized conception of Asriel. Moreover, there are some key differences between Ralsei and Asriel. For one thing, Ralsei is implied to be much smaller, given that Asriel used to be able to carry Kris to school.

[Image transcript: Ralsei saying “Uh… um… it’s ok, Kris… err… I’m short, too....” Toriel says “Your brother cannot carry you to school any more, you know.” End image transcript]

Second, we know that Asriel was obsessed with video games, whereas Ralsei doesn’t express any direct interest in playing Queen’s punchout machine and implores Kris to play the game instead. He also takes Kris’ words at face value when they say that gaming is their life in (presumably) a dry, sardonic fashion. Even if Kris says “gaming is not my life,” Ralsei will nudge them toward playing anyway. I get the feeling that if Asriel were there he wouldn’t pass up a gaming opportunity, especially if his own sibling was offering up their spot.

[Image transcript: Narration saying “There’s also a game console. It has one normal controller, and one knock-off one.” Toriel says “Remember that video-game you and Asriel used to play?” Narration says “On the computer’s desktop is a folder called “Epic games Stuff!!!! It’s a picture of your brother and you playing video games.” End image transcript]

[Image transcript: Ralsei saying “Kris, I bet you’re very good at games, aren’t you?” Kris says “Gaming is my life.” Ralsei says “W-wow, Kris! Your passion is amazing!!” Susie says “…That was the most monotone response I’ve heard in my life?” Ralsei says “Do your best, Kris! I’ll be cheering you with magic pom-poms!” End image transcript]

[Image transcript: Kris saying “Gaming is not my life.” Queen says “If you aren’t enthusiastic I won’t want to enslave you.” Ralsei says “We don’t want that…” Queen says “Think ahead you will after I enslave you.” Ralsei says “Do your best, Kris! I’ll be cheering you with magic pom-poms!” End image transcript]

Finally, Asriel is implied to have had an active dating life with the ladies of Hometown, whereas Ralsei has no game.

[Image transcript: Catty saying “Oh my god, Asriel! Like, what a cutie pie! Do you remember when me and him went to the dance?” Bratty says “Remember that time I played truth or dare with Azzy? I, like, made him give me his first kiss…” End image transcript]

[Image transcript: Narration saying “You ordered Susie to flirt with the enemy!” Susie says “Hell nah. Let’s see Ralsei do it.” Ralsei says “I suppose if it can’t be helped…! Your hair is like a waterfall of…” End image transcript]

[Image transcript: Ralsei saying “… wait, um, do you have hair, or…” Narration says “Head Hathy felt awkward and left…” Ralsei says “Oh, oh dear! Wait!!” Susie says “Not so easy, huh!?” End image transcript]

So Ralsei hardly seems to represent Kris’ idealized version of Asriel, but maybe he’s meant to be someone else’s ideal version of Asriel? I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I think Alvin may have had a hand in creating Ralsei.

Ralsei’s Connection to the Knight

I know, I know, “Alvin made Ralsei” sounds like a madlibs theory, but hear me out. For starters, let’s look at how Alvin views Asriel: a very kind young man who is, if anything, overzealous in his kindness.

[Image transcript: Alvin saying “Ah Kris. Your Brother. He is a very kind young man. Perhaps even a little… overzealous, in his younger days.” Ralsei says “Kris, if it’s for friendship… Well then, we’ll gladly help. What shall we do?” End image transcript]

We know from Alvin that Asriel once sang in the church choir, and in Chapter 1 we see Ralsei sing to put Susie and the Ponmen to sleep.

[Image transcript: Alvin saying “Our choir sounds a bit thinner since your brother went away.” Narration says “Ralsei sang a soft and entrancing lullaby!” End image transcript]

Alvin expresses unfamiliarity with the concept of video games, which lines up with Ralsei’s seeming lack of Asriel’s gaming obsession. Both of Alvin and Ralsei know what games are, but don’t express interest in playing themselves.

[Image transcript: Alvin saying “Nearly omitting the fact that he had done so in a ‘videos game.’” Ralsei says “Kris, I bet you’re very good at games, aren’t you?” End image transcript]

Finally, Alvin refers to instances where Asriel would show up to confess various sins to him.

[Image transcript: Alvin saying “He would visit me often to confess… to various, ‘sins.’ I would always ‘forgive’ him and send him home.” End image transcript]

And, in an uncommon piece of battle dialogue we can see Ralsei “repent” when he clicks on Poppup’s ads.

[Image transcript: Narration saying “Ralsei accidentally clicked on an ad for ‘lightners 4 darkners in ur area’ and was mortified. He deleted the browser shortcut on the desktop entirely… but immediately felt guilty because he thought he had ‘deleted the entire internet.’” Ralsei says “I… I didn’t mean to do it… I… I’m sorry!!! I repent!!!” End image transcript]

We also hear Spamton recite a similar line of dialogue begging for forgiveness when he discusses the Knight.

[Image transcript: Spamton saying “No, I’m sorry! I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to--” End image transcript]

This line uses proper capitalization and no brackets, not unlike when Spamton quotes the “can anybody hear me?” line.

[Image transcript: Spamton saying “… can anyone hear me? Help...” End image transcript]

This implies he’s quoting something that someone else said, and his line is very similar to Ralsei’s, sharing the “I didn’t mean to—“ refrain, which makes me think both are channeling a young Asriel. The “repent” dialogue is especially telling because Alvin clarifies that his religion has no concept of sin or confession.

[Image transcript: Alvin saying “He would visit me often to confess… to various, ‘sins.’ Despite the absence of sin, or confession, in our religion.” End image transcript]

In other words, this isn’t standard practice for the town’s religion and it’s an experience that only Alvin and Asriel would be familiar with (and possibly Spamton, owing to his “forbidden knowledge” vibe). And, again, Spamton says this line when he’s talking about the Knight specifically. While I’m sure someone could try to use this fact to bolster an “Asriel is the Knight” theory, I think this points more towards Alvin because it’s implied that this confessional activity is something that Asriel grew out of—something that he might not even think much of nowadays but something that Alvin clearly reminisces about.

Given Alvin’s loss of his father and Asriel’s absence, it’s not too much of a stretch to imagine that he, like Kris, has (to a lesser extent) felt a bit lonelier since Asriel went away. If Dess was part of Alvin’s youth group and if she’s missing then that’s two pupils of Alvin’s that are no longer in his life.

We know from Ralsei that darkners reflect the will of their fountains. Given how few character could even know about the concept of confessing sins, I’m forced to conclude that Alvin’s conception of Asriel must have shaped Ralsei’s personality in some way.

I say I’m “forced” to conclude that because, despite my tendency to stress Alvin’s importance, I did not walk into this post from the outset intending to prove that Alvin created Ralsei. It’s certainly not a hill I want to die on, and I can understand anyone who was with me up until now seeing this as a hard sell.

Still, Ralsei being connected to the Knight could fill in a couple of small plotholes. First would be the fact that Lancer and other Card Castle residents know about Ralsei’s legend in Chapter 1.

[Image transcript: Lancer saying “You know. Teardrop-headed kid. From the legend?” Seam says “Ha ha ha… So you are the ‘heroes’ who are going to seal our Fountain?” End image transcript]

There’s no reason why this should be the case since Ralsei (to our knowledge) hasn’t even met individuals like Seam, who alludes to the legend when the option “we’re legendary” is selected. But if Ralsei and the Knight both know the legend then it makes sense the Knight would warn the King’s subjects about it.

[Image transcript: King saying “Their only goal is to destroy our glorious Fountain.” End image transcript]

This would also address the final battle in Chapter 2 where Queen knows about the Roaring Knight but doesn’t know what the Roaring itself is. This implies the Knight knows about the Roaring and introduced itself as the Roaring Knight, but essentially lied by omission as to the Roaring’s nature. If Ralsei and the Knight share some kind of connection then this could also explain how Ralsei is able to “feel” a dark presence from Castle Town when the Librarby fountain is opened.

[Image transcript: Ralsei saying “I felt a dark presence and hurried over!” End image transcript]

Like I said earlier, I’m not fond of the idea that Ralsei is secretly working for the Knight and I don’t think this theory automatically entails that. Creation does not necessarily mean loyalty. It’s possible Alvin and Ralsei may not even be fully aware of each other, or at least not actively keeping tabs on one another. How could that be? Well, I think it’s worth asking what Alvin’s intentions are—not just for Ralsei, but for the fountains he’s creating.

Alvin’s Motives

The Knight’s motives seem downright inscrutable, and the same goes for many would-be Knight candidates. When fans try to theorize about the Knight’s motives it usually boils down to either “something something escapism” or “life sucks, time to end the world.” These are certainly potential motives that the Knight could end up having, but they feel a bit too broad and impersonal. One advantage that Alvin has over most Knight suspects is that he has several potential motives that are hinted at in-game and largely unique to him.

The one most people have picked up on is the Roaring’s connection to the Angel’s Heaven. Given that Alvin serves the Angel, this is a bit of a no-brainer. We don’t know exactly what the Angel’s Heaven is, or rather what Alvin thinks it will accomplish (if it’s actually just the Roaring), but I think this is almost certainly one of his key motivations. However, I don’t think it’s the only one.

One lesser-discussed possibility could be that Alvin is trying to lure Noelle into dark worlds in order to help unlock her angelic powers. If you’re wondering what “angelic” powers I’m referring to, this is hinted at throughout chapter 2:

[Image transcript: Noelle saying “I’d grow big angel wings, and fly as far as I can, gazing back at it all...” A pink Addison says “C’mon, angel! You can’t get stronger without good equipment!” Spamton says “Angel, Angel.” End image transcript]

I suggest that Alvin could be luring Noelle because in Chapter 1 Noelle almost goes into the storage closet with Susie before Alphys sends Kris instead, and the two of them are then locked in the closet (presumably) by the Knight.

[Image transcript: Noelle saying “Hey, there might be a box in the supply closet… Miss Alphys, why don’t Susie and I...” End image transcript]

Later in Chapter 2 we see the Knight trapping Berdly and Noelle in a dark world.

Now, I think this motive is worth considering but also isn’t the most likely. For one thing, Alvin never mentions Noelle in his dialogue and it’s unclear if he’s even aware of her possible angelic connections. While Noelle does go to his church and it’s implied her youth group was tied to it as well, she doesn’t seem to be held in the same regard by Alvin as Asriel is, based on what little we know. A bigger issue is that this motive would require Alvin knowing in advance where Noelle is (likely) to be, which is a bit of a stretch.

What I think is the most probable motive for Alvin is a desire to revive his father through the use of dark fountains. Several fans have speculated this and there’s plenty of evidence to back it up. The most obvious is Alvin’s dialogue in the graveyard where he mentions his father’s hammer.

[Image transcript: Alvin saying “As per the ritual, a hammer is buried in the earth here. To symbolize his existence.” Narration says “You heard Alvin mumbling to himself as you walked away.” Alvin says “And… is it right for this hammer to…” End image transcript]

If monster burial rites are anything like Undertale’s then we know what happens when a dust-covered object is introduced to determination (or in this case, a life-giving fountain opened with determination).

[Image transcript: Flavor text saying “When monsters get old and kick the bucket, they turn into dust. At funerals, we take that dust and spread it on that person’s favorite thing.” Monsters say “Wounded, Asriel stumbled home. He entered the castle and collapsed. His dust spread across the garden…” Alphys’ lab entries say “In the center of his garden, there’s something special. The first golden flower, that grew before all the others. What happens when something without a soul gains the will to live?” End image transcript]

However, one thing to consider is that this resurrection-by-hammer (most likely) hasn’t happened yet. There’s no sign of Gerson’s hammer being dug up from his grave and Alvin’s final lines in Chapter 2 imply he’s still mulling over the idea. I’ve seen some suggest Alvin can’t be the Knight because he’d be using Gerson’s hammer instead of a blade, but I think he’s still working his way up to that. This is where Ralsei comes in, because I think that Ralsei and the previous dark fountains have been experiments conducted by Alvin in an attempt to bring Gerson back.

The Knight’s Trials and Errors

Perhaps the only thing harder to figure out than the Knight’s motives is trying to piece together how the Knight’s actions so far have tied into that motive. One day the Knight opens a fountain and seemingly intervenes in the affairs of its rulers, then the next day the Knight is suddenly in a hurry to leave a brand new fountain. And here I am throwing Ralsei’s creation into the mix, which should only complicate things further.

Well, here’s how I see it: we know from the Spamton Neo fight that drawings and representations of real or conceptual figures can be imbued with great power by lightners and brought to life. The implication is that this might somehow be distinct from an object that’s mass-produced or not made by a specific lightner’s hand for a specific purpose. In other words, sentimental value or a strong creative intent might make a darkner or dark world object more powerful than it otherwise would be.

Given that Ralsei closely resembles Asriel and looks far more like a lightner than any other darkner does, I think it’s not unreasonable to posit that Ralsei may have been made from a drawing or some other representation of Asriel. We already know that a Ralsei drawing is present in the game files as a page in Ralsei’s unused manual and it also appears inside of the official (hat) Ralsei plush.

[Image transcript: A drawing of Ralsei saying “Thank you! I’m looking forward to meeting you!” End image transcript]

This would not only explain why Ralsei looks so much like a boss monster but it would also explain Ralsei’s own identity issues and why he’d ponder what being “Ralsei-like” even is.

[Image transcript: Kris saying “It’s nice that Ralsei is Ralsei.” Ralsei says “No one’s… no one’s ever said that to me before… I mean, e-everything’s a first for me, but… I just wonder what… being ‘Ralsei-like’ even is…?” End image transcript]

I could easily see him worrying about this if on some level he knew he was created from a representation of someone else, or if he was viewed as a “failure” for not representing that person more closely.

On a somewhat-related note, both Alvin and Asriel share the distinction of having “poorly drawn” images in Deltarune. This description is also used for the “don’t forget” drawing in Sans’ secret room. The latter drawing only appears when Clamgirl tells you about Suzy, which ties the drawing to Deltarune:

[Image transcript: Narration saying “It’s a yellowed, poorly-drawn picture of a green turtle. It’s a poorly-drawn design for a game… It’s a poorly drawn picture of three smiling people. Written on it… ‘don’t forget.’” End image transcript]

I’m not quite sure what the full implication of this is—perhaps Alvin or the Deltarune version of Asriel was the one who made the “don’t forget” drawing? Maybe it’s just a coincidence? Who can say.

Now, I know the popular theory is that Ralsei was made from Kris’ headband, and I’m not dismissing that idea out of hand.

[Image transcript: Toriel saying “Remember when you were little... You asked when your horns were going to grow in? So we bought that headband with the little red horns on it. Oh, you wore it for months! Whatever happened to it?” End image transcript]

An object like that could have a lot of sentimental value stored in it, and if Kris harbored some desire to be more like Asriel then it’s possible some of that “intent” may have been imbued in the object, which mingled with Alvin’s own intent for it (assuming he got ahold of it somehow). Even so, I lean more towards the drawing interpretation just because it feels like the more straightforward way to explain why Ralsei’s appearance is so specific and anthropomorphized (as opposed to him just being a talking headband).

Getting back to Alvin, I think if he created Ralsei then his intention was to see how closely he could recreate a real-life person. Naturally, he based Ralsei on his own narrow perspective of Asriel as the overzealous do-gooder from his pre-college days. It’s unclear whether Alvin saw the experiment as a success or not, but I think it’s likely that he parted ways with Ralsei—either out of disappointment or out of a desire to move on to his real project: reviving his father. I think it’s quite likely that Alvin and Ralsei never meaningfully interacted, or at least never conspired together like some “Ralsei will betray you!” theory would have you believe.

Next up, Alvin created the Card Castle Fountain. This makes sense as a next step since it’s right next to the supply closet, it’s likely a place that was significant to his father, and Alvin’s drawing of Gerson would prove the perfect test subject. However, I think this experiment was unsuccessful. If Alvin’s drawing was the Shadow Mantle then it’s clear he did not succeed in recreating Gerson. This is likely owed to the “poorly-drawn” nature of the picture. Instead, I think the Shadow Mantle ended up like the “Neo” robot body—a powerful artifact that isn’t fully sentient (as far as we know). As a token of goodwill (and insurance policy against the heroes of legend), Alvin left the Shadow Mantle in King’s care.

Finally we end up with Cyber World. Like I explained earlier, I think this fountain’s creation was a botch job from the start. Whatever Alvin might’ve had planned, I think he threw that plan out the window as soon as Berdly and Noelle showed up. Instead, he settled for opening a fountain to cover his escape and bring the Angel’s Heaven one step closer. This would also explain why he (likely) didn’t linger in this fountain—it held no special value to him.

Afterwards, Alvin may have checked in on the Unused Classroom, where he’d only find the Card Castle fountain sealed and its darkners missing. This would explain why Alvin seems much more morose and unsure of himself at the end of Chapter 2.

[Image transcript: Alvin saying “It’s been a few years since my father passed on...” End image transcript]

At this point he’s no closer to seeing his father again, his fountains have been sealed, the darkners he entrusted have vanished, and his past efforts have all ended in failure. This could easily provide the catalyst for him to consider digging up his father’s grave—it’s not like anything else was working up to this point.

I think it’s safe to say that Gerson is the common thread that connects Alvin’s actions as the Knight. On top of that there’s evidence to suggest that Gerson may have had knowledge of dark worlds, which likely sent Alvin down this path to begin with. Gerson could almost get his own theory post, but since I’m swinging for the fences…

Gerson and the Dark Fountains

Let’s Talk About Gerson

[Image transcript: Gerson saying “Really? YOU wanna chat?” End image transcript]

To start with, can I just say that Gerson is a massively underrated character? In Undertale he’s one of the only living survivors of the human-monster war and he offers some of the most crucial lore tidbits in the whole game. Without him we wouldn’t know anything about boss monsters or the Deltarune symbol. Undyne refers to him as “the toughest monster that ever lived,” which is high praise coming from the “undying” head of the royal guard who regularly trained with Asgore.

[Image transcript: Undyne saying “That’s the store of Gerson, the Hammer of Justice! The toughest monster that ever lived…! He fought in the war between humans and monsters… And he survived! He’s a real hero!” End image transcript]

To top things off, Gerson is implied to have some degree of “forbidden” meta knowledge. He’s seemingly aware of the fact that you cannot fight him inside of a shop menu and even acknowledges that this is special knowledge that he’s exploiting for his own survival.

[Image transcript: Gerson saying “I’ve lived too long to be afraid of something like you. Try it, kiddo! … I know you can’t here. Wah ha… Knowledge like that is the only reason I’ve survived so long.” End image transcript]

Let’s see: implied meta knowledge, implied hidden strength, and a cavalier sense of humor even in the face of oblivion—it’s like Gerson was the Underground’s Sans before Sans was.

Getting back to Deltarune, the fountain locations from chapters 1 and 2 can all be tied to Gerson in some way. Gerson was a teacher at the school, where the Castle Town and Card Castle fountains were located. There’s also the possibility that the unused classroom was once Gerson’s. Then we have Gerson’s books in the Librarby, where a Ms. Boom is implied to work.

That much is an easy assertion to make, but let’s unpack this a little more. Are there any telltale signs within the dark worlds that indicate some sort of connection to Gerson or the Boom family? I did mention King’s usage of the “chain of justice,” which is likely an homage to Gerson. There is the occasional Deltarune symbol, which would be more of a link to Alvin, though surprisingly this symbol doesn’t appear as often in dark worlds as you might think. We do see it a couple of times in the Card Kingdom and it appears a few more times in Castle Town, but is otherwise rather scarce.

However, there is one telltale sign of Gerson in the dark worlds that I’ve seen no one bring up. I think the reason for this is that it’s a sign that’s so obvious and so broad that it almost blends into the background: the “swords and sorcery” fantasy aesthetic. Think about it: why do Kris and Susie gain medieval weaponry when they enter dark worlds? Why are there magic spells? Why do these elements persist even in a technology-themed dark world?

[Image transcript: Menu text saying “Brave Ax: A glossy ax from a block warrior. Suitable for heroes. Spookysword: A black-and-orange sword with a bat hilt. Heal Prayer: Heavenly light restores a little HP to one party member. Depends on Magic. MechaSaber: Press hilt to extend.” End image transcript]

Keep in mind that, unlike Undertale, there’s no in-universe explanation for why monsters or anyone else would gravitate towards these trappings. Undertale’s monsters were, to some degree, still stuck in their old ways of doing things from the war with humans. Deltarune’s world, however, is unabashedly modern. There’s a mayor instead of a king, there’s police instead of a royal guard, and it’s implied magic does not exist in the light world.

[Image transcript: Politics Bear saying “This town doesn’t have a mayor. The mayor’s charisma is about zero. No, it’s negative.” Undyne says “Nothing beats food home-cooked with fire magic.” Noelle says “I wish I knew healing magic in real life.” End image transcript]

Most players just take it for a given that an RPG is going to have a fantasy theming to it, but it’s by no means compulsory. Furthermore, it feels right up Toby’s alley for him to undermine our own assumptions about genre conventions by luring us into a false sense of security.

If you haven’t guessed what I’m getting at, I believe that Gerson’s Lord of the Hammer book series has had some sort of influence on the fountains we’ve seen so far.

[Image transcript: Narration saying “It’s the Lord of the Hammer series.” Susie says “Hahaha, Kris, you READ that nerdy stuff? Heh! Giant swords, hammers, bloody battles… uh, so if there’s any cool parts, you’d tell me, right?” End image transcript]

Perhaps the series is on Alvin’s mind whenever he creates a fountain, thus making it part of that fountain’s “will.” Maybe Alvin even brings a copy of one of Gerson’s books with him, either as a good luck charm or to add a special “flavor” to his fountains. Or, what if this dynamic goes both ways?

Maybe Gerson’s writing not only has an influence on dark worlds but was also inspired by them? In Undertale, Gerson mentions how it’s easy for him to study history when he’s lived through so much of it.

[Image transcript: Gerson saying “Studying history sure is easy when you’ve lived through so much of it yourself! Wa ha ha!” End image transcript]

In Deltarune Gerson was also a historian before making a sudden pivot to writing fiction, but what if he’s once again merely describing “history” that he’s lived through?

[Image transcript: Alvin saying “Originally a smith by trade, he began writing history... And made a turn into telling stories.” End image transcript]

Admittedly, establishing a direct connection between Gerson’s work and dark worlds is somewhat tenuous, but there are breadcrumbs here and there. For one thing, Gerson cites dreams as a major inspiration for his work.

[Image transcript: Narration saying “Gerson Boom Memorial Bench.” A quote from Gerson says “Throughout my career, some of my best ideas came from dreams. Take a rest here. If anyone asks—you’re writing!” Narration says “Gerson: Renowned historian, author, and teacher.” End image transcript]

Dark worlds and their constructs are compared to dreams numerous times in Chapter 1 and especially Chapter 2.

[Image transcript: Susie saying “Uhhh… you’re, uh… just having a dream!” Swatch says “A dream I helped create… once.” Narration says “It feels incredibly soft. Like sleeping on a dream…” Queen says “Into a darker, darker dream.” End image transcript]

You even have the option to skip right to each chapter’s dark world by going to sleep.

[Image transcript: Kris in the light world choosing “Sleep.” Narration says “For some reason, you decided to go back to sleep… But, when you opened your eyes…” Kris appears in the dark world. End image transcript]

We also know that Toby was inspired to create Deltarune based on a literal fever dream.

[Image transcript: An interviewer saying “How long has the idea for Deltarune been kicking around in your head?” Toby says “In 2011, when I was away at school, I got very sick. Iended up having a terrible fever and couldn’t get any medicine for it, and while I was sleeping I had a vivid dream about the ending to a game. Since then… I felt like I had to make the game with that ending. I attempted to make that game in 2012 using character designs by an artist I really like called Kanotynes. However, I stopped making ti even before I made a single room of the game. That game… I ended up repurposing a few of the songs from it for Undertale. For example, ‘Heartache’ was originally called ‘Joker Battle’ and ‘Bonetrousle’ was originally the main battle theme. Then I decided around when I did the Kickstarter to Undertale (2013) that if I ever completed Undertale, my next game would be a mix of Undertale and that concept.” End image transcript]

Alvin also describes his father’s work as blossoming into a “large, wonderful, world-changing thing”. While this would be a fitting description of a popular book series, it would also be a fitting description of a dark fountain—they can be said to “blossom” into something large since dark worlds are bigger on the inside than the outside, and they certainly change the world. One of the darkners in Castle Town even refers to the town as “a dream that grows with love and care.”

[Image transcript: A Rudinn saying “Things have changed again here in GersonTown! This is a dream that grows with love and care. Don’t be afraid to dream!” End image transcript]

Lastly, tying Gerson to the dark worlds would go a long way to explaining one of the major unanswered questions in Deltarune: where did the Grand Fountain come from?

Gerson’s Grand Fountain

In the past I’ve alluded to the idea that Castle Town and its “grand” fountain were not created the same way as the other dark fountains, likely through different means and/or by a different person. It’s explained in Chapter 2 that Ralsei’s fountain is one of pure darkness, which allows any darkner to live there without turning to stone. It could also be the case that Ralsei is immune to turning to stone because he originated in the grand fountain.

[Image transcript: Ralsei saying “Castle Town’s Grand Fountain is made of pure darkness. As long as it stays flowing, any Darkner can live there.” End image transcript]

Unless if there’s some hidden drawback we’re unaware of, it seems like the grand fountain is outright superior to other dark fountains, at least when it comes to living conditions for darkners. Chapter 1 implies that the grand fountain is the oldest dark fountain, given that the Card Kingdom fountain is referred to as appearing “recently.”

[Image transcript: Ralsei saying “Today, the Fountain of Darkness—the geyser that gives this land form—Stands tall at the center of the kingdom. But recently, another fountain has appeared on the horizon…” End image transcript]

If the first three fountains were all made by the same person then it raises the question of why their first fountain was so much more powerful and “pure” than the ones that followed. If anything you’d think the Knight would be getting better at making fountains with each new attempt.

I’m inclined to believe that Gerson created the Grand fountain, or at least had a hand in it. Besides being a more refined fountain, we can also see the afore-mentioned fantasy theming most prevalently in this fountain, which features an inn, weapons shop, and item shop—traditional staples of fantasy RPGs.

The music and presentation of the legend, while debatably non-diegetic, does evoke a fantasy theme the most strongly. Moreover, in the darkened supply closet we do see old papers on the floor—we know Gerson was a writer, so these would be expected in such a setting.

[Image transcript: Susie saying “There’s nothing in here but old papers.” End image transcript]

The abandoned buildings also look somewhat flat—perhaps they’re paper-based constructs?

The Will of the Fountains

The grand fountain’s seeming ability to make Ralsei persist across all fountains makes me wonder if darkners and dark world constructs are, for lack of a better term, “programmed” when they’re brought to life for the first time. In other words, Ralsei retains the grand fountain’s immunity to petrification even when he’s not in the grand fountain because he was made there. Conversely, Lancer retains his vulnerability to petrification when he’s in any fountain aside from Castle Town or his own because he was not first “programmed” in a grand fountain like Ralsei was.

This could explain why items and equipment maintain their original shape even when they’re brought to other fountains—Kris continues to wear medieval armor in Cyber world despite the clashing themes. Berdly, on the other hand, had his gear first “programmed” in Cyber world, which is why he’s outfitted with a scouter and more sci-fi-looking apparel.

[Image transcript: Narration saying “Berdly crushes his Smart Scouter out of frustration.” End image transcript]

Since items from Card Castle can be brought to Cyber World with no issue, it can be presumed that petrification is something that only affects darkners rather than non-sentient dark world constructs. Whatever fountain a darkner or construct originates in seems to determine that dark world entity’s appearance and “compatibility settings” for all future fountains.

Why do I bring this up? Mainly to reconcile a potential snarl in my theory—namely, the idea that Gerson made Castle Town but Alvin (may have) created Ralsei. The two ideas seem to contradict each other, given that I’m arguing Ralsei was created in Castle Town but that Alvin did not create Castle Town. However, I think what matters here is what fountain a darkner is first placed into (and by who) when they’re brought to life, not whether they’re brought to life by the same person who originally made the fountain.

For instance, we know that Susie’s clothing and gear was not created by anyone who created a fountain—the fountain(s) were made first and then Susie brought her own starting gear into them. At that point her gear was “programmed” to take on its current appearance, which is arguably a mix of fantasy aesthetic and (to a lesser degree) her own tastes, and this appearance has persisted across fountains ever since.

Likewise, Gerson may have created Castle Town but Alvin may have been the one to create Ralsei by being the one to first bring his source object into Castle Town. If this object was a drawing of Asriel created by Alvin then, like the Neo robot body, it would have been imbued with its creator’s own creativity and dreams, allowing Alvin’s own intentions to shape the creation. Note that the Neo body was almost certainly not made by the same person who created Cyber world, and yet it maintains much of its original intent (assuming Mettaton was drawing his ideal body) while still fitting into Cyber World’s theme. Likewise, Asriel’s likeness shines through for Ralsei but he also has some of the flavoring of Castle Town’s fantasy theme sprinkled on top.

Alternatively, I could also argue that Gerson may have had a similar conception of Asriel that Alvin did, especially if Alvin shared any of his stories with his father, which could have resulted in Gerson and Alvin’s mutual view of Asriel shaping the creation of Ralsei. It might also be possible that Gerson was a teacher of Asriel’s—we know that Gerson never taught Kris, but Asriel is clearly older than Kris so it’s likely Gerson may have had him as a student. Or it could even be argued that Gerson and Alvin made Castle Town together, if it’s even possible to create a fountain collaboratively.

Dark Fountain Rulebook – Abridged Edition

Admittedly the “rules” of dark worlds are still vague in some areas and may never be fully explained in the story, but to summarize this is how I think darkners and constructs are made:

When a dark fountain is created, every object in the immediate surrounding forms a dark world that reflects the fountain’s will (aka, the maker’s will). All darkners and constructs present at the time of creation are “programmed” to take a certain appearance that will persist across other dark worlds. Darkners created in impure fountains will not “belong” in other impure fountains and will eventually turn to stone.

Objects that are hand-made by a lightner and/or that have a lot of sentimental value will retain some of that lightner’s original intent and power, even when brought into someone else’s dark world. If the object is artistic in nature and is given a specific appearance/likeness then it will largely retain that likeness in the dark world.

Ordinary objects that don’t fit the above description can be brought into an existing dark world by any lightner. If these objects were not previously “programmed” in a dark world then they will take on whatever “theme” reflects the fountain’s will. It’s possible that the lightner carrying the object may have some minor influence on the object’s final appearance in the dark world (i.e., Susie and Berdly’s clothes), but they will still match the fountain’s will.

To make this even simpler, the will of the fountain’s creator usually decides what an object will look like in the dark world, but a determined lightner with a strong desire for a specific object can potentially override the fountain’s will in varying degrees if the item has not already been “programmed.”

While I think this framework mostly makes sense, it doesn’t account for everything—namely the implied histories of King, Queen, and other darkners who seemingly existed before Card Castle’s fountain was created. Sweet Cap’n Cakes even talk about what Queen was like before the dark fountain showed up, which seems like a contradiction in terms.

[Image transcript: Sweet saying “Queen wasn’t always so… harsh.” Cap’n says “No, she WAS! She just got worse somehow!” Sweet says “It wasn’t ‘til that Dark Fountain showed up.” Cap’n says “That she started going into overdrive.” End image transcript]

Admittedly, I have no answer for this, but then again I haven’t seen many compelling explanations in the fanbase either. It could be that darkners are simply aware of their experiences as inanimate objects and process those memories as if they were sentient at the time.

The only alternative explanation I see is that some darkners would have had to have existed previously either in Castle Town (despite most darkners’ unfamiliarity with Castle Town in Ch 2) or in some other fountain(s) that existed prior to the start of the game. And the latter option only invites further questions as to who made and (presumably) sealed those fountains, which is beyond speculative and far outside the scope of this already massive theory. Speaking of which, let’s get back to Gerson so that we can (hopefully) get back to Alvin.

Blessed with Talent

Sorry for that big tangent, but it was important to lay out the differences between Gerson’s fountain and Alvin’s fountains for two main reasons: The first was to clear up the issues involved in Ralsei’s creation, which is one reason why I was initially reluctant to believe that Alvin created him. The second reason is to illustrate what could be another aspect of Alvin’s motivation: feelings of inferiority towards his father.

[Image transcript: Alvin saying “… were you proud of me, father… ?” End image transcript]

Admittedly this interpretation doesn’t have a ton of evidence yet but it seems like a direction that the story could go in in order to give nuance to Alvin’s motivations beyond a generic love for Gerson. We do see Alvin question whether his father was proud of him—note that he says “were you proud of me,” not “are you proud of me,” implying that he isn’t referring to his recent deeds but rather referring to whether Gerson was proud of him while he was alive.

[Image transcript: Alvin saying “My father was blessed to have such a talent for writing.” End image transcript]

Alvin also goes on about his father’s talents and remarks “my father was blessed to have such a talent for writing.” Note that Alvin doesn’t chalk this up to his father’s hard work, but almost views Gerson’s writing ability as something that fell into his lap—as if to say his father didn’t earn it or that Alvin rues the fact that he wasn’t similarly blessed.

The difference between Gerson’s fountain and Alvin’s fountains could reflect this feeling of inferiority—Gerson’s fountain is pure while Alvin’s explicitly are not. If we assume that Alvin created Ralsei then the order of Alvin’s dark world “experiments” paints a picture where he sees less and less success the further he strays from his father’s work. First he makes a petrification-immune darkner replica of Asriel in his father’s fountain, then he makes an impure fountain next-door to his father’s fountain, and then he completely botches a new fountain down the street at the Librarby. And to top it all off, Alvin’s fountains have been sealed while Gerson’s is still standing.

This idea of inheriting a legacy and failing to live up to it could be meta commentary on Toby’s own fears about creating Deltarune after the runaway success of Undertale. Or perhaps it’s a broader commentary on his own games’ place in the pantheon of RPG and indie greats that inspired them. Dark Worlds can certainly be analogous to creating fictional worlds that others can immerse themselves in and interact with. However, there is a different real-life creator that Gerson might parallel more closely, especially when taking each of their sons into account.

Lord of the Hammer

Deltarune establishes Gerson as a famous fantasy author who gained notoriety for his series “Lord of the Hammer.” The name is an obvious nod to the Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien and both works are implied to share a similar tone and subject matter, but the parallels between these two run a bit deeper. Tolkien was a former soldier and, in Undertale at least, so was Gerson. Both of them became writers and teachers with an initial focus on more academic subject matter—history for Gerson and translation/linguistics for Tolkien (with some focus on historical works like Beowulf). Both of them created their initial fantasy works as bedtime stories for their children. Both became highly successful based on their fantasy work but retired from the life of celebrity in favor of simpler pursuits.

JRR Tolkien named his youngest son Christopher Tolkien as his literary executor in his will—a position that Christopher used to publish many of his father’s unfinished works posthumously. Some might remember Christopher Tolkien as an outspoken critic of the various film adaptations of his father’s work and once threatening legal action against New Line Cinema.

I can’t say what kind of person Christopher Tolkien was, but based on what I know of his view of the films and based on the many posthumous works of his father that he helped publish (which I’ve read), I would offer my own opinion that Christopher was very protective of his father’s work and viewed it as sacrosanct. Even if the work in question was an earlier draft of an unfinished tale that was literally scribbled on top of an erased previous draft in an old notebook, the younger Tolkien likely viewed that as a work of infinitely greater value than any academy-award-winning film adaptation that lacked his father’s direct involvement.

I’m not saying that Christopher was right or wrong to feel this way, but his stance seems pretty clear to a mere outsider like me. Where this could invite parallels to Alvin Boom is the idea of him trying to pick up where his father left off, in some cases possibly even working with his father’s previous fountain and personal artifacts. This could be a meta commentary on fan works or literary “expanded universes” that operate on the principle of “continuity is law” while being afraid to try anything new. Alvin may have the knowledge and tools of his father, but perhaps what’s lacking is the unique creative drive—the soul, if you will.

If Alvin created Ralsei then even he is merely a recreation of something that came before. And that would make Alvin’s fountains pale imitations of his father’s work. If my theory is correct then Alvin’s work up until now has merely been chasing his father’s success. Bringing things full circle, I could see this idea tying back into Toby’s own view of his series and the works resulting from it.

I can’t say exactly how Toby regards his own fanbase in any appreciable detail, but given Undertale’s runaway success I would be surprised if Deltarune doesn’t contain at least some kind of thematic commentary on Toby’s experiences. As many fans know, Toby had the idea for Deltarune before he even finished Undertale, but I don’t think that rules out likelihood of Toby’s later experiences influencing his work—if he has room for modern memes in his writing then he has room for modern themes as well.

Toby has outright said that Deltarune Chapter 1 was meant to trick players into thinking they were playing a direct follow-up to Undertale, and since then he’s remarked that he’s glad Deltarune is being appreciated for its own merits rather than in relation to Undertale.

[Image transcript: Toby saying “My head is spinning seeing the massive response to Chapter 2. Thank you so much for playing, everyone. It was a really silly chapter, and the next one is going to be super silly too! I feel happy because it seems like people are finally seeing ‘Deltarune’ as something with its own identity and characters, rather than only thinking about it in relation to ‘Undertale.’” End image transcript]

Despite Toby’s own history with collaborative and fan projects, I think at the end of the day he values a work that can stand on its own two legs, even if it has more than its share of influences that it wears on its sleeve. Perhaps this is what he’s driving at with Deltarune’s potential themes of dark worlds as works of fiction—it’s ok to be inspired by someone else, but trying to directly recapture their work without reinvention produces diminishing returns.

Counter-Arguments

The Elephant in the Room…

In an ideal world this is where I’d be wrapping up my theory—I’ve stated the main idea, examined the in-game evidence for it, and even explored the potential character motivation and thematic meanings behind the theory. However, there is one major topic that I have failed to address—one that I’m sure many reading this post have been thinking or saying aloud to themselves this whole time: “but Alvin doesn’t have a dialogue portrait.”

To restate the obvious, Alvin does not have a dialogue portrait. His dialogue does not have a unique typer sound. His name does not prompt any special response during the Vessel creation sequence, unlike his father’s. These are all true statements. I’d be lying if I said that these facts haven’t given me pause before. Heck, in my first major Deltarune theory post I passed over Alvin as the most likely candidate to be the Knight for this exact reason. However, time and the release of Chapter 2 have made me rethink this position.

Before I begin addressing this topic, I fully acknowledge that Alvin’s lack of a portrait is a legitimate counter-argument to his supposed importance in the future narrative. And although I have several counter-arguments of my own, I understand that these will not convince every possible detractor. However, I will say that even if all of my following arguments fail to persuade then I feel it’s worth also acknowledging that seemingly the most prevalent argument against Alvin’s importance is one that sidesteps the game’s narrative entirely.

To me a dialogue portrait mainly falls into the category of game design and UI, so it says a lot to me that the biggest argument against Alvin is one that doesn’t directly engage with the narrative or its evidence at all. That in and of itself doesn’t disprove the portrait argument, but it feels both funny and slightly frustrating that so much focus has been placed on this aspect, sometimes to the exclusion of all else. I’ve seen competing theories that refuse to even entertain the possibility that Alvin could be important in any way solely on the basis of his lacking a portrait.

I’ve even seen more than one prominent Knight theory where the proposed Knight is literally a brand new character created out of thin air who’s attached to Alvin in some way (either as an old friend, relative, or creation of). Effectively, these theories are willing to file the serial numbers off of the evidence that’s in favor of Alvin’s knighthood by passing it onto a literal fan character just to avoid Alvin’s portrait issue. Whatever your view is on the importance of dialogue portraits, I hope you can at least agree that going to these lengths on account of Alvin lacking a portrait is a bit silly. Harmless, but silly.

The Laws of Portraits

To get everyone on the same page, these are some of the commonly-accepted “rules” regarding dialogue portraits, based on in-game trends and discussions I’ve seen within the fanbase:

Characters who have dialogue portraits are more likely to be important to the narrative than characters who do not have them.

Characters who had dialogue portraits in Undertale will continue to have dialogue portraits in Deltarune.

Characters from Undertale who did not have portraits will continue not having them in Deltarune.

At least some characters who were shopkeepers in Undertale now have dialogue portraits in Deltarune.

Lightners have black-and-white dialogue portraits and darkners have colored dialogue portraits.

Now, one thing you might have noticed is that there’s no universally-held definition for what constitutes an “important” character. Out of all the rules on this list I’d argue the first is the most vaguely-defined, and yet some variation of it is almost always cited when arguing why Alvin’s lack of a portrait disqualifies him from story relevance.

What exactly makes a character “important”? Is it the amount of screentime? That can be hard to gauge in a game where battles and dialogue go at the player’s chosen pace. Is it making recurring appearances? Well, Napstablook, Monster Kid, and Mettaton’s box form made recurring appearances in Undertale but lacked dialogue portraits.

Is it expressiveness? You could argue that base Mettaton and (maybe) Blooky lacked expressiveness to a degree, but that’s a much harder case to make for Monster Kid.

Is a portrait determined by a character’s total amount of dialogue? In Undertale there were nine characters with dialogue portraits: Flowey, Toriel, Sans, Papyrus, Undyne, Alphys, Mettaton EX, Asgore, and Asriel. According to this tally, the top nine characters are the ones with portraits… almost.

As mentioned, regular Mettaton does not have a portrait but his EX form does in the true pacifist ending.

Notably, Napstablook and Monster Kid have more dialogue than Mettaton EX, and even if we combined Mettaton’s totals it still results in a case where Asgore is barely above Monster Kid. You can argue this is some sort of cutoff point, but it does seem a bit arbitrary, given that Blooky and Kid make more total appearances than Asgore. If it wasn’t for the true pacifist finale dialogue in New Home then Napstablook and Monster Kid would likely have significantly more dialogue than Asgore as well.

Now one can easily say that Asgore is the king of monsters and the would-be final boss of the game, so of course he should have a portrait. No arguments here, though one could argue that Chara is just as important, despite their similarly limited screentime, and yet they lack a portrait.

And yet Asriel, a character with a similarly-late debut, gets a unique dialogue portrait.

One could argue that Chara’s situation is special, either due to being a human or due to the state they’re in during the game’s events, but that’s my point—there seem to be exceptions to these “rules” and the exceptions have only increased in number in Deltarune.

Exceptions to the Rule

So I pointed out that Mettaton initially lacks a portrait but later gains one in his EX form. This is a case of a character without a portrait gaining one and it isn’t the only example. Undyne lacks a portrait during her initial speaking appearance and so does Sans.

One could argue that this is done for dramatic effect and, in Undyne’s case, because her face wasn’t visible. However, I’m not even sure how to explain this next example:

Papyrus’ face is clearly in view here and he’s even striking up a pose full of his usual bravado, yet he still lacks a portrait. Granted, his face is in shadow for a good chunk of this scene, but I’m honestly not even sure what to make of this.

Nonetheless, contextual drama and face-concealing headwear are fair enough explanations for characters gaining or losing portraits in Undertale, but in Deltarune we see a clear-cut example of a character without a portrait gaining a portrait for no story-related reason whatsoever: Clover.

Clover is an interesting case because not only does she gain dialogue portraits between Chapters 1 and 2 for no narrative reason but I have not seen one person try to argue that Clover is suddenly important now because she has portraits. Clover was a one-off miniboss in Chapter 1 who only appears in Chapter 2 for minor dialogue and an optional re-fight in the Dojo—she can be skipped entirely in Chapter 2 and likely is skipped by most players.

While it’s likely that Clover may have gained portraits to make it easier to tell her three heads apart in dialogue, note that the Steam release of Chapter 1 was not patched to include these new Chapter 2 portraits. I would argue that such a change would be feasible, given other modifications made to Chapter 1 during Chapter 2’s release such as the doors of the computer lab being updated and Jevil’s shadow crystal being added.

Noelle received updated portraits in Chapter 2 that were ported back to the Steam release of Chapter 1, suggesting that portraits can be subject to change from chapter to chapter and even changed retroactively, including whether or not a character even has a portrait to begin with.

Additionally, in Chapter 2 we see another “three for one” portrait in the form of Sweet Cap’n Cakes.

Like Clover, their portraits were likely added to make it easier to differentiate between each character’s speech. This could be yet another example of portraits not being mutually exclusive to “importance,” since the Sweet Cap’n Cakes trio seldom appear outside Cyber Field and aren’t story-relevant until the final team-up with Cyber World’s other darkners. The trio is by no means unimportant, but the fact that their shop in Castle Town is essentially an optional recruit milestone makes it seem unlikely that they’ll have further story relevance beyond potentially inventing something or joining another recruit team-up sequence later on.

[Image transcript: Cap’n saying “Yo, chief. If you recruit enough fans for us, We might be able to make our music shop again...” End image transcript]

Sweet Cap’n Cakes’ portraits illustrate another rule exception: their portraits are black-and-white despite the fact that they’re darkners. Now while I do agree with the consensus that darkners generally have colored portraits (which is one reason why I don’t think Ralsei is a lightner), SCC nonetheless present an exception to this rule. Even though their portraits are smaller than the standard size, Toby could’ve easily given them monochrome colors like Kris and Susie’s battle icons if these portrait “rules” were as important to him as many claim they are.

Speaking of colors, one minor point is that Toby once tried another method of differentiating dialogue when more than one character is speaking: Catty and Bratty.

Technically this isn’t directly related to portraits but it does show that Toby has attempted multiple solutions to overlapping dialogue before eventually settling on 3-for-1 portraits. Notably Catty and Bratty lost this pink/purple text gimmick completely in Deltarune, showing that some characters’ text quirks aren’t set in stone and may only exist to serve a functional purpose.

Another important observation with 3-for-1 portraits is that it means Clover and SCC now have portraits… while Spamton does not.

Now I don’t care what kind of pretzel you try to twist yourself into, there’s no way to argue that Spamton is not an important character. He’s a shopkeeper with multiple boss fights and is the main Chapter 2 boss for the weird route, to say nothing of his thematic ties to Kris and his treasure trove of cryptic lore. All of that’s on top of his explosive popularity after Chapter 2’s release (which, to be fair, Toby didn’t fully account for). And to boot he has not one but two unique dialogue typer sounds, which is a whole other can of worms. But, this theory post is already one big collection of opened worm cans, so let’s talk typer sounds.

Portraits and Typers

If anything I’d argue that typer sounds are even more inconsistent than dialogue portraits. Deltarune has multiple examples of characters who have one but lack the other. Contrast this with Undertale, where Mettaton was the only outlier until his EX form. In Deltarune we have Catti, Catty, Bratty, Jockington, Burgerpants, Clover, Sweet, Cap’n, Cake, and Rouxls Kaard, who all have portraits but no unique typer sounds. Conversely, we have Jevil and Spamton who have unique typer sounds but no portraits.

To start with the “no typer” gang, one could argue in the case of Catty, Bratty, and Burgerpants that this is consistent with Undertale—in that game these three characters were shopkeepers with the default typer sound who could never be talked to outside of their shops. Between both games, Spamton is the only shopkeeper to use a unique typer sound, so one could argue that the three Undertale shopkeepers already had their typer value established before Deltarune.

One could also argue that Clover and Sweet Cap’n Cakes lacking a typer makes sense because their portraits are meant to serve a functional purpose rather than indicate their importance. What’s harder to argue is Catti and Jockington. Their case is especially tricky because many in the fanbase have argued that these two will become future party members—an assertion I don’t necessarily disagree with, but it does raise the question of why both of them use the generic typer sound.

In Catti’s case you could try to argue that because she’s related to Catty, who has the default typer sound, then that means she’s somehow “inherited” this sound as well. Note that this same argument could be used to justify Alvin’s lack of a unique typer due to his relation to Gerson (who lacked one), but I find this whole line of reasoning specious.

This would be a strange precedent, given that no other characters who are related “inherit” typer sounds when they’re unique, plus we know that Mettaton and Napstablook are cousins and that didn’t stop one of them from getting a unique typer and the other one from using the generic typer, though this could be chalked up to Mettaton’s robot body since Mettaton seems to lack a unique typer in Deltarune. I guess characters can lose unique typers in certain circumstances?

Jockington’s an even stranger case because not only does he lack a unique typer but he only has a single dialogue portrait in Chapter 1 or 2. Moreover, the game’s files include multiple duplicated entries that point to this same portrait and there’s a joke in Chapter 1 about him duplicating a picture several times.

[Image transcript: Jockington saying “I’ve already, copied a bunch of pictures.” Narration says “It’s the same picture of a soccer ball 73 times.” Jockington says “You could say I’m having a Ball! Hah haha!” In-game files show 9 duplicated entries for Jockington’s dialogue portrait in Chapter 1 and Chapter 2. End image transcript]

While Jockington certainly could be a future party member or important character by some other means, there’s also a non-zero chance that Toby gave him a portrait solely as a joke, given that he duplicated Jockington’s portraits in the files in both Chapters.

Lastly we’re left with Rouxls Kaard, who’s the most interesting case of all. Like the others mentioned above, he has a portrait but no unique typer. However, Chapter 2 does contain scrapped audio files for a unique Rouxls typer sound, which can be restored via hacking. Note that these sound files are exclusive to Chapter 2 and are not found in Chapter 1’s files. This implies that Toby was experimenting with giving Rouxls a unique typer starting with Chapter 2 but decided against it. Theoretically this means that a character without a unique typer could gain a unique typer sound in a future chapter.

Spamton and Jevil

Spamton and Jevil present the inverse issue with the above characters—these two have unique typer sounds, but no dialogue portraits. As mentioned, Mettaton had these same attributes up until the True Pacifist ending in Undertale. When I noticed this quirk for Jevil in Chapter 1 I thought little of it—I figured that Jevil wasn’t important enough for a portrait but perhaps his typer sound was a way to give him more presence when he’s introduced behind bars or to tie into the fact that he speaks during his fight. I was willing to leave well-enough alone until Spamton came along.

In terms of portrait and typer “rules,” Spamton makes absolutely no sense. As I’ve said before, he’s clearly an important character and he’s highly expressive, meaning that he bypasses the Mettaton argument.

Spamton’s also a shopkeeper and to top it all off he has two unique typer sounds, but still no portrait. If I wanted to be lazy I could just say “Spamton didn’t get a portrait, so who says Alvin needs one?” and leave it at that but I feel like there’s something deeper at work here.

Why does Spamton lack a portrait? If anything this bugs me more than Alvin lacking a portrait because Spamton’s importance is already self-evident at this point, whereas Alvin’s importance is still theoretical. We can already rule out the “expressiveness” argument for Spamton, who doesn’t seem to be wearing any sort of face-obscuring headwear either. There doesn’t seem to be any story-related reason to deprive Spamton of a portrait, or is there?

Spamton never makes any direct reference to losing his face, nor would it be easy to interpret such a meaning from his various cryptic statements (that I’m aware of). However, throughout Deltarune we see multiple references to the idea of losing one’s face.

[Image transcript: Susie saying “Kris… How do you feel… about losing your face? Don’t worry, we won’t let your face get roboticized!” Narration says “It’s an angel doll. Its lack of facial features is unsettling.” End image transcript]

The Vessel has no face, Susie asks Kris whether they want to lose their face, Queen threatens to roboticize Noelle’s face, and the Holidays’ angel doll is notably unsettling for its lack of a face.

We see Queen’s method of “roboticizing” faces come to fruition in the form of the Werewrites and later Berdly. Queen’s control wires cover the victim’s face, and in Berdly’s case he does not speak with a dialogue portrait until after his wire is removed.

[Image transcript: Narration saying “Werewire – Controlled by the Queen’s wire, it’s sleepwalking through a nightmare!” Queen says “My control plugs are now suitable for teenagers.” Berdly says “You… won’t… control… me… Kris. Susie. I can’t do much with a fried wing…” End image transcript]

There’s also placeholder text in the game files that pertains tearing off a “mask beneath your face.” The Xbox One version of Undertale (which was made during Chapter 2’s development) went so far as to add a special controller disconnect message in True Lab that references no face being connected.

[Image transcript: Unused text saying “You’ve come again to this wonderful place. Now tear off the mask beneath your face!” Narration says “No controller connected: No head is connected. No body is connected. No arms are connected. No legs are connected. No skin is connected. No ears are connected. No face is connected.” End image transcript]

Now at first this seems like a broad running theme until you notice that most of the Deltarune instances of face removal/replacement tie into either Kris or Noelle. Noelle is implied to possibly be the Angel from Deltarune’s prophecy, which Kris is also connected to. Spamton uses the phrase “Angel, Angel” when approached by Kris and Noelle in the weird route, which could be simple repetition or it could be Spamton addressing both Kris and Noelle as angels. The latter interpretation is a bit of a stretch, but we can at least say Kris is part of the prophecy and losing their face could be a metaphor for loss of identity and/or control by a higher power.

So how does this tie into Spamton and/or Alvin? Well, Spamton was similarly a puppet for a higher power, implied to be the same “strange someone” who corrupted Jevil. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that neither Spamton nor Jevil have portraits in spite of their unique typer sounds—I think whatever happened to them caused them to symbolically lose their autonomy/identities/faces, which is represented by their lack of portraits. We also see that whoever hijacked the Undertale Twitter account had a blacked-out user icon and name, implying a similar loss or redaction of identity.

Given the high likelihood that the Twitter hijacker and the corrupter of Spamton and Jevil could be Gaster, loss of face/identity could be seen as a sign of Gaster’s meddling or just a general symptom of characters who mingle with higher powers. I mean, technically so far Kris hasn’t shown a dialogue portrait either—we don’t even hear their own dialogue outside of maybe their dialogue choices, and we know for a fact that they’ve had part of their autonomy and identity subsumed by a higher being of sorts.

Bringing it Back to Alvin

Wow, that was my biggest tangent yet! So what does all this portrait and typer talk mean for Alvin? Well, I hope I’ve demonstrated a few things:

The rules for dialogue portraits and typers are not 100% consistent

It is possible for characters to gain a portrait or have theirs updated from chapter to chapter (as seen with Clover and Noelle)

It’s theoretically possible for a character to gain a typer sound between chapters (as seen with Rouxls Kaard)

There could be a narrative or thematic reason for why otherwise important characters lack portraits

I see three pathways going forward for Alvin if he is indeed an important character:

Alvin will gain a portrait and/or typer sound in a future chapter with no narrative explanation

Alvin will gain a portrait and/or typer sound for a story-related reason

Alvin will continue to not have a portrait and/or typer but there will be a narrative or thematic reason for it

I feel like I’ve demonstrated the first option is possible—not necessarily likely, but it has happened before. Toby’s reasoning for such an approach would be simple: Toby knows that his fanbase loves to datamine and second-guess every detail of his games, so if the Knight’s identity is meant to be a mystery then he’d probably (rightly) assume that many fans would guess that a new lightner with a portrait is important, since the only others who fit that description are Kris’ classmates and Rudy.

The second option may seem unlikely as well but I have theorized a way this could work. For starters, we never see Alvin open his eyes. We don’t know if this is just a quirk of his spritework or if his eyes are literally closed. The latter possibility can’t be entirely ruled out, since this series has at least some precedent for making a big deal out of characters opening their eyes for the first time on-screen.

It’s also possible that Alvin may be vision-impaired and require glasses. This would fit with the sign in the early dark world that says “only eyes blinded by darkness can see the way.”

[Image transcript: Narration saying “In this land, only eyes blinded by darkness can see the way...” End image transcript]

We do see Ralsei lose his dialogue portrait when he takes off his hat in Chapter 1 and when he covers his face after Susie takes his glasses in Chapter 2.

While it’s a stretch, it might be possible that a character could forego a portrait while their eyes are closed, impaired, or otherwise obscured. Granted, we do see examples of dialogue portraits that seemingly have closed eyes so this is far from a bulletproof argument, but the above Ralsei scenes give me a little pause at least.

One thing I can say is that Deltarune Chapter 1 had a running motif of main characters having their eyes obscured only to be revealed later, and while this didn’t prevent them from having portraits (except maybe Kris), it does seem to be an intentional aesthetic choice.

Given the allusions to dark worlds as dreams and the possible thematic reasons for Spamton and Jevil losing their portraits, perhaps being steeped in dark worlds is like sleepwalking through life and losing your face/portrait completely is the next step of that process. We do see this idea represented in the Werewires and Berdly when they’re controlled by Queen.

One other x-factor to bring up with Alvin is the fact that he spends all of Chapter 2 with his back turned to the player. This may seem minor, but there is precedence in this series for characters not using their portraits while their back is turned, especially during emotional/dramatic moments, as was the case for Alvin in the graveyard.

[Image transcript: Asgore saying “I have almost finished watering these flowers.” Noelle says “… I wish Dess could see this.” End image transcript]

This isn’t universally true of all back-facing characters, of course, but it’s certainly not uncommon. While this doesn’t address Alvin’s lack of a portrait in Chapter 1, it would be a fitting enough excuse for his lack of a portrait in Chapter 2. If Alvin is intended to gain a portrait in a future chapter then this would be the perfect excuse for Toby to put it off until Chapter 3 or later.

But how would the game even address Alvin suddenly gaining a portrait? Well, I see two possibilities: In the first scenario, we would be inside Hometown’s church and Alvin would be poised to deliver a sermon. Before he begins, he clears his throat and dons a pair of reading glasses that let us see his eyes—at this point he would transition from no portrait to having a portrait as soon as he starts reading.

This is the more subtle of the two approaches, but if such a sermon scene were meant to serve as Alvin’s “proper” character introduction then it could follow the mold of character intros like Sans, Undyne’s, Asgore’s, or King’s where their portraits aren’t visible until well into the scene (or in Undyne’s case, after multiple encounters).

The other possibility would be that Alvin only gains a portrait once he’s in the dark world, showing how fully immersed he is in that reality. Perhaps this is when we’d see him open his eyes as well, tying into the afore-mentioned eyes blinded by darkness.

The final path is Alvin foregoing a portrait for thematic reasons. I touched upon this with Spamton and Jevil, but Alvin would similarly be deprived of a portrait due to his service to a higher entity that controls him. Now, one issue with this approach would be the question of why I’d carve out this special exception for Alvin when there are plenty of other characters without portraits—who’s to say their lack of portraits can’t be given a similar “thematic” excuse? What, is Milk Cat suddenly “important” now?

Well, Alvin’s ace in the hole here is once again his connection to the Angel—a being specifically associated with a lack of facial features. Moreover, the other characters most strongly associated with the angel (Noelle and Kris) are also the characters most strongly tied to this idea of losing your face. Even Spamton is heavily tied to the idea of Heaven and, thus, the angel. If any other character could claim this special Angel exception, it would be Alvin.

We might even see the beginnings of this angel-induced portrait loss for Noelle in the weird route, where she foregoes a portrait during several key moments:

[Image transcript: Noelle saying “It doesn’t matter if the battles are blurring together, There was so much snow, I couldn’t see anything… Keep it together, Noelle...” Susie says “So, uh, the hell were you two doing?” End image transcript]

Notably, Noelle doesn’t gain her portrait back in the ending hospital hallway scene for the weird route until after Susie butts in. Perhaps this snapped Noelle out of whatever “tranced” state of mind she was in at the time?

Now, the main weakness of my portrait argument here is the question of typer sounds. Jevil and Spamton still have unique typer sounds and Alvin does not. Even when Noelle loses her portrait in the weird route she still keeps her typer sound. I don’t have a firm counter-argument for this beyond reiterating that, if anything, typer sounds have proven even more inconsistent than dialogue portraits and I’d argue that giving Alvin a unique typer sound but no portrait would have been an even bigger giveaway to his importance, given how rare that combination is (and its current association with shadow crystal holders).

I admit that my argument that Toby removed Alvin’s portrait and typer from the start to avoid making him “too obvious” is a bit conspiratorial. Ironically, many of the fans who dismiss Alvin for his lack of portrait largely make my argument for me—many of these same people have turned a blind eye to Alvin but are 100% convinced that Catti and Jockington will not only be important due to their dialogue portraits but that they’ll also be full party members. Again, I’m not saying this won’t happen, but the most common evidence I’ve seen brought up in their cases is their portraits. If Toby even had an inkling that his fanbase would think this way, and he’s generally good at anticipating his fanbase’s assumptions, then it’s at least possible that he’d try to get out in front of that.

Giving Alvin no portrait or typer, at least for the first two chapters, is the perfect camouflage for a meta-savvy fanbase. It also has the advantage of allowing Toby to still give us interactions with Alvin and for clues to his greater role to be sprinkled into the narrative without arousing too much suspicion. Personally, I find this approach preferable to the idea of keeping Alvin (with portraits) unseen for the entirety of the first two chapters to avoid tipping us off, which would only make a future reveal feel like it lacked any buildup.

We do know that Toby is playing a lot of things close to the chest in Deltarune: Papyrus, Mettaton, Mayor Holiday, and Dess to name a few. But the Knight’s identity comes off as a mystery that should be solvable—not necessarily with what we know now, but something that would necessitate at least some clues being given to us early. And the fact remains that “unseen” characters like Papyrus or Dess wouldn’t be the best candidates for this approach since we know very little concrete information about them yet.

I think the “unseen” characters are meant to serve as unanswered questions in their own right rather than being solutions to the mystery of the Knight. We’re meant to ask where these unseen characters are or what they’re like, not pondering what secret alter ego they have. Kris’ actions at the end of Chapter 2 feel like a red herring, which implies that Toby is intentionally building up the Knight as a mystery he knows we’ll investigate and thus he’s feeding us false leads. Details like Alvin’s drawing or the equipment closet narration would be pointless inclusions if they didn’t mean something—they clearly aren’t jokes and their proximity to fountains is a major red flag. Toby even went out of his way to point out Alvin’s drawing during the Chapter 1 stream.

Two final counter-arguments that I wanted to address are the fact that Alvin’s interactions are optional and the fact that Alvin’s name doesn’t generate a response during the Vessel creation sequence. Unlike Alvin’s lack of a portrait, I never saw either of these two facts as a major obstacle to Alvin being the Knight. The first point is simple enough: Rudy is optional, Asgore is optional, Sans is optional, Undyne is optional—is it safe to say that none of these characters will be important to the plot? Especially with the police on their way at the end of Chapter 2?

As for the Vessel creation names, the roster seems a bit haphazard to me. We get QC but no Temmie, despite the latter being both a shopkeeper and classmate with implied importance to the egg sidequest. Conversely, we get no darkner names and no mention of Dess or the Mayor—while the latter would be a spoiler, Dess is mentioned in Chapter 1 and will likely play some role in the future. Near as I can guess, the vessel name selection is weighted towards Undertale characters and Kris’ classmates, with Rudy being the outlier.

Gerson’s inclusion among the Vessel names is both interesting and odd, given that he’s dead. While a resurrection is possible, such a thing would almost require Alvin being the Knight or at least having dark world knowledge, so Gerson’s name is a bit of a litmus test—if vessel names are those of important Deltarune characters then Gerson’s impending “importance” would necessitate Alvin’s importance, or at least grant Alvin some importance by association. If the names are somewhat arbitrary or not reflective of all important lightners then Alvin’s absence isn’t that big a deal.

Conclusion

The Final Tally

This has been a long journey, so I think a recap is in order. If it’s not obvious by now, I think Alvin is the Roaring Knight. If Kris ends up being a red herring (which I’ve devoted an entire separate theory post to) then I think Alvin is easily the candidate with the most evidence in his favor. Even when taking Kris into account I’d argue this is still the case. Let’s compare what we know about the Knight with Father Alvin:

The Knight:

Has been to the unused classroom

Has some means and opportunity to access the school

May have locked the door to the supply closet in Chapter 1

Creates dark worlds with varying degrees of fantasy influence

Their Dark fountains are associated with water and oceans/seas

Their Dark fountains are also referred to as “holy” fountains

Created a fountain next door to Castle town, which is distinct from the Knight’s other work and may or may not be the Knight’s creation

Gained the loyalty of King

Used a crossguarded blade to open Cyber World

Had access to the Librarby at a time when few people were inside

Likely hid in the Librarby’s equipment closet, where “a large person could easily fit inside”

Is somehow associated with “Communion” by Spamton

Is depicted by Queen as a green human-looking arm

Is set to bring about the Roaring and Angel’s Heaven

Alvin:

Has a drawing in the unused classroom

Is related to a former teacher and his location is unaccounted for at the start of Chapter 1

May own a set of his father’s keys, which would be the only set of faculty keys that weren’t accounted for at the start of Chapter 1

His father was a fantasy author who shared his stories with his children

Is a partially-aquatic species and his father was associated with water and the sea

Is the most outwardly devout and religious character in the game

His father was inspired by dreams that grow, which Castle Town is directly compared to by its inhabitants. His father had access to the supply closet over a long period and Alvin has potential connections to Castle Town’s only native darkner. Gerson had the opportunity and possibly the knowledge to create Castle Town, inspiring Alvin’s future fountains and explaining why they’re distinct.

King named one of his attacks after a term used by Alvin’s father. The King’s mantle may be the shadow mantle, which seemingly ends up in the same location as Alvin’s drawing

Alvin’s father was a smith, and the helmets of RG01 and RG02 (and their connection to the church) imply that some of Gerson’s wares are owned and circulated by Alvin

One of Alvin’s relatives is implied to work at the Librarby, which he may have exploited to keep others out

The opening for the equipment closet is the exact same size as Alvin’s sprite, making him by definition the largest person who can “easily” fit inside

Alvin is a priest and his church gives “sick fruit juice,” implied to be communion wine (or a substitute)

Alvin is green and has human-looking hands in spite of his father’s design

Alvin is the most devout follower of the Angel in the light world

Closing Thoughts

When all is said and done, could I be wrong about all this? Absolutely. While I’m more confident in the chances of Alvin’s Knighthood than I was during Chapter 1, I could never be 100% confident in a theory like this until the game itself confirms it. So why would I write for so long about a theory that I don’t have absolute confidence in? Well, I still think it’s very likely to be true, but beyond that I wanted to shed light on ideas that aren’t discussed very often in the fanbase—not just Alvin being the Knight, but alternative origins for Ralsei besides the popular headband theory.

All too often it seems like the mysteries of this series are blindly attributed to Gaster or a handful of other widely-accepted answers, even when the game hasn’t settled the matter yet. In this case, however, I think that Alvin is legitimately a more compelling and likely answer to the Knight mystery than most other suspects. As I’ve alluded to earlier, many other popular Knight suspects either lack a specific motivation, a means of accessing the school, or have not even appeared in the narrative at all yet.

I think my rambling about dialogue portraits can also be attributed to my efforts to untangle commonly-held assumptions within the fanbase. The portrait “rules” I mentioned are not unlike the Smash Brothers fanbase’s tendency towards inventing “fan rules” for what characters can make it into each game, and more often than not such rules are eventually proven wrong. Unless Toby or another creator explicitly lays out their intentions, it’s best to never make assumptions or “rules” about what said creators can and can’t do with their own work, especially someone as subversive as Toby.

So even if my theory is ultimately wrong and nothing comes of Alvin as a character, I don’t feel that writing this post was time wasted—if nothing else it would be an interesting concept for an AU, plus it shows a scenario where a UTDR narrative doesn’t focus solely on the most widely-known characters. Even if you walk away from this post not agreeing with my conclusions, I hope you’ve at least considered alternative ideas or perhaps even found ways to strengthen your own theories with the information I’ve presented. With that, I’ve finally run out of things to talk about, so:

Good day. May the Angel watch over you…

Special Thanks

Afewbitsandpieces for their Undertale and Deltarune text projects, which were massive time savers.

Uselessundertalefacts for their data on Undertale characters with the most dialogue

Spriter’s Resource for their Deltarune sprites (even if several of them are improperly sized)

#deltarune #deltarune theory #undertale #ralsei #father alvin #arrow don't look

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intergalacticaquarium · 2 years

Note

Reader visits Family Video practically every day, and tries to get service only from Robin, ignoring Steve 🥰

Hoooooo boy went a little overboard with this one but I really really really love it so much- maybe not exactly what you asked for but I hope you like it!

This Week at Family Video

Robin Buckley & Steve Harrington friendship (and character study) Robin Buckley x a girl who I guess is technically an oc

summary: A cute girl keeps coming into Family Video and Steve is determined to wingman his best friend Robin into a date with her, which turns into a deeper bonding moment when Steve realizes he's grown a lot but there's still room to go and Robin realizes that she's not as alone as she feels.

Content/warnings: Robin talks about how it feels to be closeted in the 80s so there are allusions to period typical homophobia and a quote from Steve from season one which is uncool. It's just like....an analysis of the friendship between the lesbian and the straight himbo and how there's a lot more to it than bonding over hot girls.

(Also I mention a couple movies in here and I have seen none of them so don't @ me)

-----------------------------------------------

9k words

Monday

It was an average day at the Family Video. People filtered in and out, a few of whom garnered some appraising, and, admittedly kind of objectifying glances from the two clerks that sat behind the central desk, who’s eyes would flash up as the bell ring, look at each other and make a subtle face to indicate whether or not the thought the girl that just came in was cute.

Robin admits openly to feeling bad about this ritual, and Steve agreed that it was pretty sexist and they shouldn’t be collectively checking out chicks that came in and consulting on their hotness but at this point it was almost involuntary and hard to avoid when Steve all but lept over counters when a pretty girl walked in. Robin told him that she only did it now so she knew if she’d have to be working the sales desk for the next 2-8 minutes until he’d get rejected and come back to help but he didn’t buy it for a second.

The bell over the door rang and they glanced up to see a cute girl with intentionally messy hair, some oversized layers, and a bucket hat walk in casually. Steve and Robin both looked at each other with raised eyebrows just before Steve walked around the counter.

“Welcome to Family Video- anything I can help you find today?” Steve said, turning on his charm, regardless of how overzealous he was with it at times. “I’m Steve, and you are?” He said, sticking out a hand. The girl looked a little overwhelmed at the attention and laughed awkwardly.

“Uh, yeah I’m Leslie. I’m just looking for a movie that nobody else seems to have.” She said with a laugh and a furtive glance at Robin, who prepared herself to step in quickly.

“Well, obviously we have a wide, wide selection of movies, what kind of things are you into? Tell me about yourself.” He said, leaning seductively against a shelf and knocking a few of the empty cases to the ground and picking them up while attempting to look like he hadn’t missed a beat. Robin couldn’t help but widen her eyes in mild horror at how poorly he was doing. Then her eye caught the girl’s, who met it with the same look that said holy shit, are you seeing this? Robin nodded and silently laughed as she watched the girl turn back to Steve’s attempted flirtation with an overly exaggerated interest and nodding that Robin delighted in seeing was entirely sarcastic.

“I’m actually looking for something pretty specific that I’ve been having a hard time finding.” She interrupted after the humor of the situation had worn off.

“Of course, yeah- what do you need?”

“A film called Hour of the Wolf?” she said nervously, and Robin’s ear perked up.

“OH, yeah I love that one- Michael J Fox as a basketball playing werewolf- who thinks of this stuff? I used to play basketball, you know. Didn’t need the wolf powers, though-”

“That's Teen Wolf, Steve.” Robin corrected from the counter, earning a grateful glance from the girl, who walked over to her quickly, and Steve threw his hands up and sighed.

“We don’t actually have Hour of the Wolf which is a shame because it really is a masterpiece.” Robin chimed in, pulling a thoughtful face

“I’ve been trying to get stupid Keith to get it but he says there isn’t enough demand. Shows what he knows.” Robin said, making Leslie smile and her own heart flutter at the sight.

“Whoever Keith is sounds like he’s got quite the expert on his hands…” She said cheerfully.

“If you're into arthouse horror stuff though you should check out Eraserhead.” Robin suggested, and Leslie shrugged.

“Arthouse? Is that like a place, or..?” Steve asked, trying to stay in the conversation, but was largely ignored.

“Sure. If you recommend it I’m sure it’s a winner...” She said, a little cheeky, glancing down at her nametag so obviously that for a second Robin thought this girl was checking out her rack in the middle of the store.”Robin.” She finished, saying her name clearly.

Robin thought that maybe for a second there she died and was resurrected, but it turned out to just be butterflies. She stuttered for a moment, telling her about the cinematography as she got her the movie and finished lending it. As she walked out Robin sighed, glancing at Steve.

“Once again, you blew it, Steve.. I really wish I still had the you suck board.” She said with a wry smile.

“Yeah…I know you do, Robin. I know you do.”

Tuesday

The next day at Family Video, Steve was peppering her with questions to Robin’s ire.

“Okay, explain one more time what an arthouse movie is?” He asked, and she rolled her eyes.

“Why do you want to know? You already blew your shot.” She criticized while put away the tapes.

“Alright, you don’t know that. And she’s not the only arty chick in the world. Maybe that’s why I haven’t had any luck lately.” He guessed lamely and Robin gave him a dead stare.

“You are telling me that the reason you can’t get a second date is because you haven’t met a girl that is artistic enough? You, Steve Harrington, want a girlfriend who’s primary interests are in arthouse cinema? Is that really what you’re saying to me?” Robin asked incredulously, stopping herself from laughing at the idea of Steve on a date with a moody poet who wanted his opinions on verse. Maybe she should help him if she’d get to hear about that.

“Just give me another movie like that to recommend her if she comes back in.”

“I don’t know- Dr. Strangelove.” Robin pulled out of thin air. He was definitely about to ask more questions but at that moment the bell rang and there was the girl from yesterday.

She gave Robin a big smile and waved the tape in her hand as she walked over.

“Holy shit, Robin. Holy shit.” She said, putting both hands on the counter. She remembered my name, Robin thought giddily.

“Is that a good holy shit or a bad holy shit?”

“It’s a holy shit holy shit.” Leslie said, still a little bit stunned. “I mean, the last scene? With the bandages? I mean what the fuck? I mean it’s a…bold recommendation to make to a stranger that’s for sure but it was a good one.” She said, giddy, and all of a sudden Robin’s worst fears came true: she opened her mouth and couldn’t shut it.

Fun facts about the movie, her favorite things about cinematography, favorite movies in order, all of it came pouring out involuntarily. Steve sensed her panic and stepped in front of her.

“I think what Robin meant to say was that you should check out uh, Doctor, uh,” he glanced at Robin quickly, who tried to mouth the words subtly even though Leslie was standing a foot away. Steve read her lips and confidently looked to the customer and said: “Doctor Trained Dove. It's great. Arthouse.”

Leslie tilted her head and pulled her lips between her teeth like she was trying as hard as she could not to laugh, Robin put her face in her hands and Steve grimaced, reading the room correctly and guessing he hadn’t gotten the title right.

“I haven’t heard about that one. What’s…it about?”

Steve opened his mouth and looked at Robin helplessly.

“It’s a musical about a surgeon that becomes a magician. It’s a lesser known sequel to Doctor Strangelove.” Robin said dryly, glaring at Steve when she said the real title and Leslie laughed and bit her lip.

“Didn’t know Kubrick did sequels.” She said teasingly.

“No, this one is John Hughes, actually.” Robin said, sarcasm not coming through as much as a hopeful punchline that she was obviously shocked to see land.

“Well, Unofficial Kubrick sequels aside, do you have another recommendation for me?” Leslie asked, now leaning on the counter.

“Are you sure you don’t want to hear about 2002?” Robin said, her voice now fully transitioned to that of a person daydreaming and unaware they were talking aloud.

“I preferred 2003, actually.” Leslie played along, and Robin knew she was laughing too hard as it was happening.

“Or 2004, right?” Steve cut in , and they both looked at him awkwardly as he ran a hand through his hair. “Seems like it’s a long time from now but it’s not that far, huh? Weird. End of the century."

Two two women just stared at him blankly and just like that the magic was broken. Robin was no longer in the nonexistent John Hughes movie where she was the one that got to kiss Molly Ringwald over a birthday cake and the three of them were just standing in a video store again.

“Have you seen Holy Mountain?” Robin suggested, and Leslie left with it in hand.

Robin and Steve sort of just stood there in shock at just how badly that interaction had just gone.

“Maybe you’re my bad luck charm. I feel like the last time I was cool was before I met you.” He said contemplatively.

“I’m not going to dignify that with a response besides the fact that I didn’t put you in that sailor outfit. If you want to get her attention tomorrow you’re gonna have to study up, man.” Robin said with a laugh, and Steve frowned at her and cocked his head.

“Me?” He asked, and Robin looked at him with confusion.

“Yeah? I thought you liked her.”

“I mean she’s cute but I was kinda getting a…. Hm?” He said with a vocalization and a hand gesture that Robin didn’t understand.

“C’mon man, you know I have a hard enough time reading people as it is.” She complained.

“What vibe?” She asked incredulously.

“A vibe, Robin, there was a vibe.”

Steve looked around to make sure nobody was around so he could remind Robin that she was a lesbian and he was pretty sure that girl was flirting with her.

“She was totally flirting with you.” He said quietly, and Robin looked at him far more aghast than she had any reason to be.

“What? No! No, of course she wasn’t flir- what would even make you think? I mean that’s just-” Robin stammered and Steve’s eyebrows got higher and higher.

“Alright, alright, alright, don’t start spiraling. You seemed into her, though, right? I’m not about to violate bro code and ask out the girl you like just because you’re a chick.” He said in what she assumed was a tone that bros used to talk to each other with a shrug and Robin just set her jaw in disbelief and well meaning annoyance.

Not for the first time since she met him she imagined getting into a time machine and traveling to Ms. Clicks class and leaning over to whisper to herself See those two right there? See sweet, beautiful Tammy Thompson staring at that dick Steve Harrington? In a couple of years one of those people will be the single person on the planet earth that you have ever told that you’re gay and the best friend you’ve ever had in your life. I’ll give you one guess to who it is, and if you guess right I’ll give you a billion US dollars. Also you’ll be tortured by evil Russians together.

“Whatever- look, whether or not I think she’s cute she’s not a- y’know-” she said, grimacing instead of saying lesbian in such a casul setting without a self pep talk to convince herself it wouldn’t be weird.

“Returning Fast Times at 53 minutes and 12 seconds?” He offered, and her shoulders relaxed and she loosely pointed at him.

“Right. Sure. She’s not pausing fast times and she’s cool- why shouldn’t you go for it?” She said, now surprisingly adamant in a way that Steve didn’t understand in the slightest as Robin was almost always apathetic towards his love life.

“Because I blew my shot? It’s fine, it happens. A lot, according to the You Suck board.” He justified it, but Robin had a determined look on her face.

“I could coach you! Yeah, she’s gonna watch Holy Mountain tonight, why don’t we watch it too and you can talk to her about it.” She suggested, and Steve emphasized the confusion on his face.

“Robin, it's fine if you like her. You know I don’t have any problem with-” he started, and she cut him off on the spiel.

He did that sometimes when she was upset and he couldn’t figure out why- always jumpeing to defend himself and assumed he had said something wrong by mistake. It happened on occasion, Steve, as much as she knew his heart was in the right place, was still a white, straight male former highschool bully from Hawkins Indiana with parents that voted for Reagan, he was always honest that he was still unlearning a lot of shit and it was inevitable that something would slip out every once in a while. The first time it had happened, about a month after they started working at the video store she heard him talking to an old team mate and casually dropped the word fairy as a descriptor. She told herself he didn’t mean it but she had still let it fester until he was following her around while she restocked movies asking what’s wrong what’s wrong what’s wrong over and over again like a petulant child. She confessed loudly and angrily before looking around in fear that there was a customer. He swore at himself and apologized profusely and in that moment she was really reminded of that night in the Starcourt bathroom and how, despite how annoying he was, Steve Harrington had a heart even bigger than his hair.

It had been a nice moment, the next time he said something a little off-color he caught it himself, but still apologized a lot. It only got annoying when he started doing it every time he (unfortunately, usually correctly) identified that she was in a bad mood because of a problem that stemmed from her sexuality and assumed that problem was that he said something offensive by accident. The truth was that there were just always going to be some things that she would go through that he would never be able to understand and would be hard for her to explain. Half the time she hadn’t even taken the time to figure out what exactly it was that was bothering her besides the baseline level of worry that came with the small town closeted lesbian territory.

“I know you’re not homophobic, Steve.” She said and he stopped, nodding in relief, but then doubling down on his confusion.

“So then why are you getting all weird about this?” he asked genuinely, and Robin shook her head exaggeratedly, like if she did it super obviously he would believe it more.

“Fine, I’ll watch the movie.” He conceded, as they started to gather their stuff for the end of the day. Robin shook a triumphant fist with a silent yes as she grabbed her bag and headed out the door to his car.

“I’m not being weird at all. I just think you have a shot and she seems cool. Also I haven’t seen Holy Mountain in a while and it rules.” She said all too casually, and Steve stared at her suspiciously. Robin wasn’t budging, mostly because she didn’t really know why she suddenly had the urge to push them together either besides the odd sensation of trying to make something go away on its own.

“Is this gonna be a movie that I have to think about a lot while we’re watching?” He asked apprehensively, and did not care for the mischievous and possibly sadistic smile she gave him

Wednesday

Robin and Steve sat on stools behind the checkout counter, Steve looked shell shocked, to say the very least. More so than he looked after last year's Russian Invasion. Robin was alternating between laughing at him and trying her best to be comforting and apologetic.

“Steve, I told you you could close your eyes if it got too scary.” She said in a voice she hoped sounded genuine and that he couldn’t hear it shaking a little. He didn’t say anything, just leaned back against the counter staring downwards, unresponsive. “Okay, you’ve been doing this for like a day and a half the movie wasn’t that weird.” she said, and he turned to glare at her.

“You know that’s not true, Robin. You know that.” He said emphatically, and they glanced towards the door as it rang.

It was Leslie, walking in with a grin on her face and the movie in hand and Steve was pretty sure that this girl might actually be a serial killer. Robin liked it, too, though, so maybe they were on a crime spree together and they were definitely going to take him outside and skin him alive and hang it up and- ugh, Steve stopped and put his palms over his eyes to get the image out of his head.

“Is…he okay?” Leslie asked, leaning past Robin to look at the unresponsive Steve.

“He’s fine- we actually watched Holy Mountain too last night and he's contemplating it.” Robin said, glancing at Steve and pumping the eyebrows of a wingwoman, and scowled when he didn’t see her because his head was now resting against the counter.

From his vulnerable state, Steve braced himself to hear them babble on about the perfect ratio of that shot of that lady banging that mechanical horse without legs but instead only heard Leslie respond with a disingenuously excited “Oh!”

Robin was expecting the same as Steve, and she couldn’t quite decipher the way that Leslie’s eyes flitted between the two of them.

“I’m guessing Steve wasn’t a fan?” She asked, and Robin laughed at him to which he responded with a dry ha ha ha said from under his arms laying on the counter.

“Well, that’s commitment for you. Takes quite a guy to sit through a movie like that just because he wants to hang out with you.” She said with a tight smile. The way she said it made Robin wish she was better at social cues because she knew for damn sure she was missing something.

“Yeah, he’s alright.” Robin said affectionately.

Steve was torn between warm fuzzies at the closest thing his best friend can ever come to a compliment and smacking her on the back of the head for not realizing that this girl now thinks that they’re dating. It never ceased to fascinate him that the person that can decipher Russian without knowing Russian couldn’t hear that telltale sound of jealousy and disappointment in the goodbye of a person who just discovered that their crush was dating sebody already. Then again, he could do that but couldn’t decipher the Russian, so maybe it was just a different skill set.

“Wow, I’m sorry dude I really thought that she’d want to talk to you about the movie.”

Leslie let out a fake laugh and put the tape and some cash on the counter before walking away with an awkward wave and disappeared with the bell.

Steve pulled himself up off the counter, his forehead red from pressing against the surface and his hair messed up, and his look was one of utter frustration and disbelief.

“Holy shit, Robin of course she didn’t. She wanted to talk to you about the movie. She left because she thinks we’re dating and it bummed her out.” He said, almost in a yell at the fact that he knew she wasn’t going to listen to him.

“Ooooh, that makes more sense. See, I was right, her being jealous is proof that she likes you.” Robin declared and Steve dropped his head back onto the counter with a smack that hurt enough to drive that weird ass flick out of his brain. “I’m sorry you watched Holy Mountain for nothing though. She’s right, it is a rough one if you don’t enjoy it.” She said casually, almost certainly smiling maliciously. He began to smack his head against the counter and he was pretty sure he heard her laughing.

Thursday

Family Video opened at 11 AM, so almost every morning after he dropped Robin off he’d go and try to figure out more ways to not talk to Keith for an entire shift. Today he had decided to take the stack of returns into the back room and rewind the ones returned by the “unkind” that he secretly wanted to kiss on the mouth for giving him a really easy and time consuming thing to do every morning until his break, where he’d go get Robin, listen to her rant about school, get some drive thru for the both of them, and then finish off the day with his best friend.

All in all, it was an alright gig.

Except for Thursdays. Steve hated Thursdays.

Because on Thursdays Robin’s band practice goes late and she doesn’t work a shift, and Keith takes off for long periods at random intervals and would leave him alone to mind the store on a pretty busy day of the week.

Today was slow, both in passage of time and number of customers, so they canceled each other out and made the day suck exactly as much as last Thursday.

He continued to rewind movies, noting a few titles for later that seemed interesting. He took out the next tape and pushed it in. The movie turned on and Steve nearly fell off his chair when his screen was very suddenly two very naked women. He didn’t rewind yet as the two of them kissed and Steve glanced down at the tape. Desert Hearts. He quickly checked to see who returned it and it was, unsurprisingly, a long list of male names, a few of whom he recognized from various sports teams and parties throughout high school, and strangely Karen Wheeler of all people, but he wasn’t going to unpack that.

As Steve scanned the back of the VHS box he read about the plot of the lesbian love affair that blossoms between the two women out west and a plan formed in his mind, and that plan would help him honor his Duty as a Man with a Heart a Soul and The Critical Social Skills Robin Buckley Lacks: He was going to get his best friend laid. Because that's what friends do.

Later that day Steve had an okay plan that could potentially pan out and now was just waiting for the opportunity, he just had to wait for Leslie to come in like she had every day this week. He leaned against the counter and idly watched the screens and glanced out the display glass as people passed by.

That was when he glanced up to see somebody slowing down and peeking inside. It was Leslie. Whatever she saw, she looked away and kept walking. Steve tilted his head in confusion, but pushed the VHS tape into the player and waited. There wasn’t much business today and as the movie played he did find himself a bit enraptured in the drama between the two women.

The only time when his attention was torn from the weighty glances between Vivian and Kay was when he saw somebody pause outside the window. It was Leslie again, peeking in. When Steve met her eye and waved a little she looked like she had been caught red handed and awkwardly walked in and waved.

“Uh, hey Sam.” She said a little stiffly.

“It’s- it’s Steve.” He corrected, and she quietly apologized and wandered into the stacks.

Now that Leslie was actually in the store, Steve realized that his so-called ‘plan’ was actually just the idea to put the movie about lesbians on the tv and wait to see if she reacted. He wished that wingmanning for Robin didn’t have to be so subtle.

She put the box on the counter and Steve began to slowly start checking out the movie to give her time for her to either look at the tv and say…something. This was a stupid plan, he realized, and he made a quick move to salvage it.

Using his stealth skills gained from years of monster hunting and high-stakes babysitting, he tried to secretly watch Leslie around the store and noticed that she seemed to not be looking at the movies, but at the staff break room and around the store for other clues about the whereabouts of a certain missing front desk associate. When her eyes caught the TV screen and saw the actresses that Steve hoped looked familiar her head snapped back in front of her and she stood very still, examining a box without really seeing it for what she deemed long enough to take it to the counter to make a quick escape.

“Do you like this movie?” He asked, pointing at the screen and unable to stop himself from visibly cringing.

She looked up at him incredibly awkwardly. “I’m…not sure what movie that is, honestly.” She said, and he was like 50% sure she was lying.

“Robin likes this movie.” What had happened after breaking up with Nancy that left him so much worse at talking to other people? Was it Dustin’s influence? Was it just that he didn’t know how to be charming without being a total dick? He knew it was probably that one.

Leslie gave him a tight smile. “That’s sweet that you’re watching her favorite movies. She’s a nice girl. I'm glad she’s got someone that cares.”

“Yes! Robin is a nice girl!” He said energetically, even if that wasn’t necessarily a word he’d use for her. “She’s super cool and smart too. She speaks four languages and can translate Russian by ear.” he said, hyping her up, realizing now that Leslie had meant it’s sweet that you watch your girlfriend’s favorite movies.

“I…didn’t know that. Very impressive. You two make a cute couple.” She said, and it was audibly strained.

“We’re not dating. We’re just friends. Best friends.” He added at the end, a little embarrassed of himself. “But I do watch her favorite movies and thank you for seeing the value in that because Holy Mountain has literally been haunting me for two days and I just think that friends should get credit for doing that shit too.” He added in annoyance at nobody in particular.

“Oh!” She said, and he could hear the audible relief, and saw her glance back at the tv and swallow. Steve could see the gears grinding in her head and he could not believe that his terrible plan might be working. “That’s- I mean- I guess I just assumed.”

“Nope, not dating, she’s totally single. I asked her out a little after we first met because of all the cool hot smart stuff I said earlier but she was not interested and now we’re just friends.” He explained, trying to put emphasis on the not.

“Best friends.” Leslie said gently with a smile, her awkwardness gone and replaced with a very cautious beginning of a theory he was trying to confirm without saying anything.

“Yes! Best friends. Because she’s the best.” He said, nodding, and then Leslie nodded too. They stood there in silence for a second before Steve remembered he was checking out her movie.

He went to write down the number and furrowed his brow when he saw the title.

“National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation? This doesn’t seem like your kind of flick.” Steve said oddly, and her cheeks got a little red.

“I was kinda waiting for Robin to give me another recommendation.” She said with an awkward laugh.

Steve saw his opening, and was closing in on his plan quickly and efficiently. “Well, Robin really likes this movie.” He said, stepping aside so she had a full view of the tv and the lengthy stares between the two actresses. “Do you want to rent it?” he asked, suddenly kind of hoping she said no because he wanted to finish watching it.

“Uh, sure?” She said, and he reluctantly turned around to eject it and making it a full spin when he came up with an alternative.

“Oooh no!” He said in a dramatic fake tone akin to a child's television star that didn’t see you come in but wants to show you some puppets anyway. “This is actually Robin’s copy of Desert Hearts, and not the stores. So I can’t lend it to you.” He said in an exaggerated voice.

Leslie furrowed her brow. “Then why is it playing?”

“Becaaaaaause….she thought I’d like it and she knew it would be a slow day and she wasn’t working.” He pulled out of nowhere. “But- you should come back tomorrow, when she is here and ask her to borrow it. Oh! Maybe you could watch it together and talk about cinema! Now that’s an idea!” He said, knowing he was overplaying it while he was talking and as Leslie stared at him incredulously.

“You…want me. To come in tomorrow. And ask your friend Robin if I can watch her copy of Desert Hearts with her?” Leslie asked, and Steve nodded profusely at the secret code the two of them had developed.

“Yes. That’s exactly what I think you should do. If you want to.” He said encouragingly, and he could tell that Leslie was running some serious cost-risk analysis gymnastics in her head trying to decide if this really weird situation was actually trustworthy. Steve knew that if he said anything else he could blow his cover, so he just kept his mouth shut.

A little smile came on Leslie’s face and she nodded.

“ I guess I’ll be back tomorrow, then.” She said, and Steve thought it was adorable how she was trying to hide her excitement.

She left with a little spring in her step and, unsurprisingly, National Lampoon’s stayed on the counter with him. Steve grinned, imagining how excited Robin was going to be, and started to rewind the movie because he was sure that he’d missed something important while he was talking to Leslie.

Friday

It was Friday at Family Video and Steve was acting….weird.

“Dude, tell me what’s wrong you know I can’t read body language.” She scolded and he shrugged energetically.

“Nothings wrong. Everything’s great!” He said, and reached out to pick a piece of fluff out of her hair so she would look her best when Leslie arrived but she smacked his hand away.

“Don’t touch my hair-Is it the Russians again?” Robin asked seriously.

“What? No. Why do you always assume it’s Russian?”

“Because of the time that it was Russians.”

“Yeah but it was only once.” He said calmly.

“That’s already too many times, Steve.” She said dryly. “Okay, fine, nothing’s wrong but something is up. What is it?”

He sighed. “Okay, but I’m only keeping it a secret because I don’t want you to freak out and get in your head about it.” He explained, and Robin’s eyes went wide.

“Oh no. What did you do?” she asked in horror.

“Not oh no! This is good!”

“Tell me now or I’m going to punch you in the throat Steve Harrington I took a self defense class after last summer.” She said sternly. Robin didn’t like surprises. Especially after the Russian thing.

Steve leaned in conspiratorially, looking around the store to double check that no customers had snuck in. “Leslie’s gonna ask you out today.”

“What?” Robin squeaked, her eyes going wide and her chest filling up with that extra special anxiety that was cooked up for her specifically by Sappho two thousand years ago and Ronald Reagan now.

“Yeah! It’s gonna be great- I had a whole plan to figure out if she was, y’know, pausing Fast Times and it worked and she’s gonna come in later and ask if she can come over and watch your copy of Desert Hearts.” He explained cheerfully, hoping that his enthusiasm would break through what he really hoped was happy stunned silence.

“What? How did you..? Did you tell her I was- I mean what the fuck, Dude- and what is Desert Hearts?” She stammered, trying to gather her thoughts.

“You haven’t seen it?” He asked in shock. “Oh my god it’s amazing the chemistry between Helen Shaver and Patricia Charbonneau is electric and-”

“Steve!” She said, snapping him out of his review.

“Right, sorry. I didn’t tell her anything, I just put on the movie and said that you liked it and she said she also liked it and I said that she should ask if you want to watch it.” He said calmly. “More or less.” he added, but Robin didn’t look any less freaked out. “What’s wrong? I thought you liked her.” He asked, truly confused.

That happened sometimes. Steve would assume he said something wrong but that’s just because he doesn’t like seeing her upset. If he had just accidentally said something shitty at least he could just apologize but more often than not it was just something that she didn’t believe she could explain to him. He had asked her to try, he was her friend and he knew that he was the only one that knew she liked girls- He wanted her to be able to talk to somebody- he hated that his best friend ever felt alone.

“It’s not about that you just- you shouldn’t have done that.” She said angrily and walked towards the counter away from him.

“Why not? You’re always helping me get dates- why can’t I help you too?” He asked, hoping she could tell he was confused and not just being difficult.

“Because it’s different!” She snaped.

“You always say that but maybe it isn’t! Maybe I would understand. We’re friends, Robin. Just because we don’t have the same experiences doesn’t mean that I won’t be able to listen and help you. You told me about how much you liked Tammy- I thought you wanted to meet somebody.” He said, and Robin glanced at him, her hard gaze softening to something more awkward and nervous and familiar.

“It’s just…” she started, screwing up her face and trying to figure out how to explain something that frustrated her about herself endlessly. “It’s- fuck- okay,” she took a deep breath and tried to start, quickly scrubbing her face with her hand.

“I knew Tammy didn’t like me back. It wasn’t real it was just a stupid crush and it hurt like hell but it was still safe.” She tried, words spilling out of her.

“Robin, Leslie’s a nice girl. She’s not going to hurt you.” He said, pained at the fact that he got to ask out and get rejected by 20 girls a week and Robin could just watch from afar.

“That’s not what I mean. I mean, it kind of is, you never really know it’s just- fuck.” she groaned in frustration, pacing for a moment before finally finding her words.

“I don’t know what I’m doing, okay?” She said in a furious rush. “I’ve never done this before. It’s not like when you were ten and you got to walk up to a little girl on the playground and ask to hold her hand. I never got to learn how to flirt or ask my friends if the girl I like mentioned me or figure out when you’re allowed to put your arm around a date at the movies.

“Robin…” Steve said softly, but she wasn’t done and he wasn’t going to stop her. She took another unsteady breath

“I didn’t get a first date, or a first kiss or a dance with my crush at the Snow Ball or-or ever get to ask my mom for dating advice or gotten to hear my dad sternly talk to my date before giving a nod of approval.” Robin sniffed hard, her eyes watering up as she valiantly fought away the tears.

“I didn’t get any of that. And I’m never going to.” She said, her voice now rough with emotion and a little quieter. She wiped away a stray bit of wetness from her eye and twisted her mouth up. “Nobody’s going to be pulling up in a limo to take me to prom.”

“I’m always going to be different, and it’s hard and it hurts that all of that is just gone now and I missed all of it and I can’t ever get it back. I’m never gonna be a kid at the Snow Ball looking at Kelsey Landin sitting by the punch and not understanding what was so wrong about wanting to ask her to dance. I couldn’t even doodle our names in a heart in my notebooks.” She took a gasping breath and wiped away a tear that finally fell.

“It shouldn’t be like that.” She was almost talking to herself now, taking an angry breath and shaking her head. “I was just a kid. It wasn’t fair that for my entire life every person that has ever claimed to love me might have hated a piece of me so much that if I was sitting on the swing sets at recess holding hands with Jenny Becker instead of you then I would be utterly ostracized by everybody. Not just bullies. Friends, family, students, teachers, strangers. Grown-ass adults that would hate a child for the crime feeling the same way as every other kid but about the wrong kind of person.” Her voice was sad and proud and angry and valiantly holding down the waterworks that were going to come bursting through any second now.

“I mean, Jesus, Steve, you’re the only person I ever told and I did it totally on a whim fueled by adrenaline and truth serum- you have no idea what it’s like not knowing if anybody else I care about might turn on me and ruin my life if they actually knew me. I still don’t even know if my parents would still fucking love me if they knew I wanted to watch a stupid movie with a pretty girl and put my head on her shoulder.” Robin was humiliated that she was fully crying now, sitting down behind the desk on the floor and unable to stop. She had kept all of this in for so long and now it was pouring out of her involuntarily. Steve walked away for a moment and she felt an irrational panic that he was going to leave and not wantt to be her friend anymore because she couldn't keep the ugly parts of it to herself and left any discussion of her sexuality at vague looks of hot or not when a girl came into the store. She watched him go to the door and her heart froze until he just reached out flipped the sign to closed before coming back and sitting next to her on the floor.

Relief flooded her followed quickly by more misery that after all they’d been through her instincts still told her that she shouldn’t expect him to be okay with her saying any of this out loud and the tears came back in full force.

Steve put his arm around her and pulled her close so she could cry into his shoulder and patted her back as comfortingly as he could as his heart just fucking shattered. He remembered when they were in the Starcourt bathroom and she said that if he really knew her then he wouldn’t even want to be her friend. The two of them had just been kidnapped and tortured by evil invading Russians armed with bone saws and floor eating acid and Robin was afraid to tell him that she had a crush on Tammy Thompson. Even worse is that she had watched him be King Dickhead Steve for years and he had almost certainly given her a reason to think he wouldn’t be okay with it at some point.

You know what, Byers? I’m actually kind of impressed because I always took you for a queer but turns out you’re just a screwup like your father. Was what he had said to Jonathan after telling Nancy to go to hell. He felt bad as soon as he said it, but that didn’t stop him. Back then he didn’t know how to be hurt he just knew how to be angry. He had been heartbroken, in love, and an absolute piece of shit about it. About thirty seconds after saying it Jonathan was beating the ever loving shit out of him and each punch really hit home the fact that he absolutely deserved it.

He had actually thanked Jonathan later for very literally knocking some sense into him, and to his surprise, he forgave him. And it felt good. He hated who he used to be. He really did, so he had made a few phone calls and a few drop ins to make some heartfelt apologies to some surprised people that were genuinely shocked that he would ever have come around. The worst part is that he would never really know everybody that he hurt, never know who was out there overhearing him say something hateful and taking it to heart.

Robin was his favorite person. He wasn’t sure when it had happened but despite all his complaining she was somehow the only person he knew that really got him. She exploited that knowledge constantly and used it against him, sure, but she got him. He wished he could make her feel as understood as she did. But there would always be things like this that he never would’ve considered that she had gone through her whole life.

Eventually her breathing calmed down and she sat up, her breathing a bit unsteady and her face red and puffy. She gave him a watery smile when she saw their matching tear tracks and she patted him gratefully on the shoulder.

“I’m sorry about that- that was-”

“You don’t need to apologize, Robin. I’m serious.” He said, looking at her so she knew he meant it. “If I’m the only one you have to talk to about this then I want to hear it all, even when it’s sad and it sucks. Especially when it’s sad and it sucks.” He said, and took a deep breath. “You’re not alone anymore. Anybody tries to mess with you or make you feel like shit just come and get me and I know that I’m not enough to make up for the entire world’s garbage but if there’s anything I can do to make all of that even a fraction less shitty for you then I’ll do it.”

He looked at his hands for a moment, feeling a confession of his own coming on.

“You’re the best friend I’ve ever had, you know.” Steve said honestly, and Robin quirked an eyebrow. “Like, even though I was super popular and knew everybody I still only really hung out with Tommy and Carol and they were just the worst.” he sighed, not knowing how to say this without making it seem like he was trying to get out of responsibility for being a shithead.

“I have never met two people so good at making somebody feel like a fucking loser like Tommy and Carol and there is nobody better at making you terrified of being that loser like they could. I’m not saying that they forced me to shove nerds against lockers or anything but any time I tried to do the right thing they’d just shut me down and taunt me until it felt like if I didn’t do whatever bullshit they wanted me to then everybody would think I wasn’t a real man or some shit and they’d drop me and then I wouldn’t be fucking King Steve anymore.” He shook his head, his hair wobbling as he swore and looked at Robin, unsure if he was getting across what he was trying to and he saw that she was listening, even if her thing had been bigger and more painful she still cared.

“And that’s exactly what happened. For the first time in my life I stood up to them instead of for them and Tommy punched me in the face and drove away. Never even tried to talk to me again. Then at school they started all kinds of rumors and talked shit about me all the time and then I wasn’t King Steve anymore and…” he trailed off and had a little smile “and then I was happy.” He said, in a little disbelief.

“I was thinking about that the other day, pointing at you and Tammy in Ms Clicks class and asking young Robin one day, one of those two people will be the only person you trust enough to tell that you’re not into dudes.” She said, a little mystically, and Steve burst out laughing, and Robin quickly followed. Their laughter calmed down and they knew that the storm had passed and they came out better on the other side of it. They grabbed each others hands to hoist each other back to a standing position and looked at each other grinning.

“I didn’t fucking hate myself anymore, I got to follow my own instincts and do the right thing. Sure, Nancy dumped my ass and broke my heart and it actually felt so good to just…be sad. Without Tommy and Carol taunting and yelling at me until I felt so angry and pathetic that we’d spray paint her name on the movie theater again and I would’ve felt like absolute shit about it for the rest of my life. I was totally heartbroken but for the first time in my life I actually got to feel it and it. Then Dustin Henderson of all people comes sprinting at me one day and says that everybody else is busy and he needs my help.” He grinned. “It’s just stupid, right? All that time I only cared about being popular and if I could tell my younger self that someday I’d be working in at the video store for minimum and I’d spend all my time hanging out with a 15 year old egomaniac and a band geek that I was briefly a little bit in love with until she rejected me and the entire male population on the floor of a mall bathroom I’d do it and let him know up front that they’re honestly the reason that I’ve never been happier. Really rub his nose in it too.” He said, and Robin laughed aloud in that special way he recognized because it always preceded I was just about to say that.

“Is my face red?” She asked, touching it and being a bit satisfied at how healthy her skin felt after crying.

“Yeah but just give it a couple minutes.” He said, and she nodded. “Hey, when Leslie does get here you can go hide in the back or something if you really don’t want to talk to her, I know I overstepped, but if you need any advice on stuff you didn’t get a chance to learn let me know, no judgment- guaranteed.”

Robin furrowed her brow. “Wait- how exactly did your conversation with Leslie go yesterday? Did you just point at the screen and ask if she liked the movie?” She asked incredulously, and Steve slowly began to nod.

“Uhhh…yeah. That’s exactly what I did.” He said, and she started to laugh again. Steve grinned when he heard a laugh that seemed a little lighter now.

About an hour later the bell rang and Leslie came in. Steve nodded at her and went into the shelves to give quiet support and maybe some advice via arm gestures from behind Leslie, and Robin took a deep breath.

Both girls were extremely nervous, both giggling when their eyes met in a way that reminded Steve a bit of middle school. He smiled to himself and resented the tears pricking at the corners of his eyes when he thought about her getting a chance at simple, blushy, giggly, inexperienced romance for the first time. She deserved it, more than anybody.

“So, um, this is kind of a weird question but I stopped by yesterday to see if you have a copy of um…Desert Hearts?” Leslie said tentatively like she was giving a secret password at a speakeasy and hoping it was the right one.

Robin had a determined look on her face that didn’t necessarily give off a romantic vibe but he could feel her relentless bravery from where he stood.

“I’ve heard of it.” Robin tried to say mysteriously, waiting for the next part.

“And your friend with the hair- He said that, um, that you didn’t have it at the store but he said that you had a copy and that maybe…..you…might…want to watch it with me?” She said, finishing with a smile that was also a grimace. Steve was delighted at how awkward the girl who had seemed so cool all week had gotten.

“I…would like that very much.” Robin said, holding in all her excitement to seem casual when inside she was exploding.

“Cool.” Leslie said, and she and Robin stared at each other in gleeful silence until they made a plan to meet after her shift and Leslie left, waving awkwardly while walking out the door. The bell rang as the door shut and Robin turned around so she could catch her weight against the counter, but Steve’s eyes followed Leslie out the door first and saw her get into a car parked out front with a driver that was currently giving her a high five and obviously congratulating her. Steve waved subtly to the silhouette of the other wingman and he waved back before they drove away.

Steve then walked up to Robin to see her smiling dreamily and starry eyed.

“Cool.” She said softly, and smiled again. She wasn’t much help around the store for the rest of the day, but every glance he got of the wistful Robin putting tapes back in the wrong places and saying cool in a whisper every few moments and giggling made it worth it.

Saturday

Steve waited anxiously outside Robin’s house before work and was annoying himself more and more every time his brain made the comparison of a parent waiting for their kid after their first day of school to ask how it went when they’ve spent the whole day worrying. It wasn’t like that, but he was still anxious for her to come outside.

Robin opened the door and waved goodbye to her family and started towards the car. He could see the size of her grin from the moment she was in sight.

When she got into the car she was silent for a moment, and he refused to drive, only stared at her expectantly

“So? How’d it go?”

Robin was trying to play it cool despite the fact that she was bouncing in her chair.

“You know that whole list of things I thought I had missed out on and it was too late for? Let’s just say I…checked a couple things off.” She said coyly, and Steve grinned at her proudly and gave her a victorious shoulder pat. That’s when she exploded into squeals and all that sandy hair shaking around her as she bounced up and down.

“Oh my god, Steve, it was amazing. She was so cool and pretty and funny and we had so much in common and we, um” She stopped and her cheeks turned red, and Steve’s eyebrows shot up.

“I knew it. I knew that you had it in you to be a total chick magnet.” He said proudly, and she grinned at him, shrugging in concession.

“Turns out I’m a natural Cassanova.” She said with only a hint of irony, and turned her head to look at him. “Thank you, Steve. I mean it.” she said with a tone so genuine that it almost sounded strange in her voice.

Steve nodded and smiled back. “No worries. I’m your wingman, it’s what friends do. And I like seeing you happy.”

The End.

“Well then…you did what you came to do, because I’m really really happy right now. You’re a good friend.” She said with a sweet finality. Things would stop being mushy and go back to normal but they’d never be the same.

As they began their drive to work they glanced at each other and smiled one more time. Robin had never been so grateful to have a friend like Steve, and Steve had never been so proud to have a friend like her.

#OOPS its 15 pages my b #robin buckley #robin buckley x reader #steve harrington #stranger things #stranger things fanfiction #stranger things fic #steve harrington x reader #this ones really just about the friendship of a closeted lesbian and her straight male bff #hes a little confused but he's got the spirit #also i do headcanon steve as bi but the story only works if hes straight #also i think too highly of robin to believe shed canonically be attracted to a film buff #i feel like this post has become extremely aggressive towards ppl that like movies which isnt great #imma change some wording #there we go its better now #thats a me thing tho u get it. weve all be starstruck by a girl that likes arthouse movies but robin u gotta just roll past that one #why do i always get so fucking personal in the tags of this blog #why does this show have like 2 of the 3 characters that ive ever genuinely related to a lot and why is it making me insane #maybe its the sideblog thing i usually have a lot more restraint on main bc theres ppl i know on there #and ppl from a lot of fandoms and its a 10 year old blog so i kinda feel like i have to behave myself #idk man but if u want to read me go on like 12 totally unhinged tag rants today then keep scrolling baby

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