#spamton in his natural state
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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)
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Deltarune: Process Of Assimilation Concept AU
Process Of Assimilation is a horror-centric, insert-friendly Deltarune AU that focuses on the residents of Cyber City, the protagonist, and Spamton G Spamton himself.
CW // body horror, losing control of body, gunshot at end of song
The protagonist is unrelated to Spamton in a familial sense / is an adult (so not Kris). They are open for oc inserts but canonly have history with Spamton of some sort. At the start of the AU, the protagonist is outside of Cyber City.
Spamton was at his lowest; post downfall. He was prone to lash out, and desperate to make some sort of progress in his life. He harbored deep-seated resentment towards those who sat back and watched his descent; desperate to be the Big Guy of Cyber City again; or perhaps merely to secure a sale. Anything, just anything.
Given his obsession with his crash and burn; Spamton had found himself vulnerable to a phenomenon merely nicknamed "the anomaly". The nature of this enigma, whether it be a virus or a glitch (or something entirely incomphrensiable, remains shrouded in ambiguity as no explicit explanation provided. Nevertheless, it gradually engulfs Spamton, gradually usurping his body and mind. It slowly alters his very essence, driving him towards infecting the entire Cyber City.
The process of his assimilation initially caused him distress as he fought against it; however, over time, this pain transformed into a sense of satisfaction, as he experienced a newfound level of power previously unknown to him. It was sweet as sugar to him, and the newfound power he felt in his non existent veins was something he couldn’t let go of. In the midst of his transformation, he became aware that he could subject the residents of Cyber City to this anomaly, thereby bending reality to his own perfect vision.
Spamton discreetly spread the anomaly among pedestrians strolling along the city's sidewalks or unsuspectingly traversing the alleyways. His careful approach is rooted in his limited understanding of the workings of this anomaly, as he strives to ascertain how it works.
A slow infection is much more merciful. The victim does not typically begin to exhibit a total alteration of their physical form until several days to weeks following assimilation. This variant causes the individual to experience a gradual shift in their personality over time; rendering them more apprehensive and inclined to emotional outbursts. Their mere presence in any given space emanates a pungent odor of contagion; however, with time, this scent becomes increasingly pleasant to their senses.
The concept and AU itself draws inspiration from Kiss Me (Kill Me)
youtube
In stark contrast, a sudden infection evokes anything but mercy. It induces excruciating agony, subjecting the victim to an overwhelming influx of thoughts, leaving them trapped within their own mind as their corporeal form undergoes spontaneous and grotesque transformations. Their bodies become nothing more than mere puppets under the control of Spamton. Their actions are dictated solely by his will, despite their continued awareness of their surroundings.
Sudden assimilation profoundly impacts the victim's physical state, resulting in a warped semblance of their former selves. Their mouths often become grotesquely elongated, their limbs drag on indefinitely, and similar abnormalities manifest. Moreover, once assimilated, they are rendered incapable of speaking in their own will. Any attempt to speak culminates in a spewing of unintelligible and distorted sound. During the process assimilation, if they attempt to speak, their customary voice alteres into something resembling garbled text-to-speech. Upon full assimilation, they are entirely deprived of speech unless Spamton is puppetting them. Should they make effort to speak post assimilation, their mouths emit static, spilling over with the “flesh” of the anomaly.
The worst kind of assimilation, however, lies in groups. During excessively violent assimilations, a possibility arises wherein victims may conjoin and form what is commonly referred to as "amalgamations". They are rendered permanently fused and any attempts to disentangle them are excruciatingly painful for the amalgamation's entire corporeal form.
Upon assimilation, they are unable to die; instead in a state of limbo between life and profound darkness. They are spectators, helpless witnesses to the complete takeover of their being.
Despite the abhorrent nature of what he’s doing, Spamton fails to realize himself that he is the villain of the story. His own perception of reality has been warped by this anomaly, endowing him with a rosier perspective while reality contradicts his delusion. As the city itself falls dim; every advertisement around the city is unceremoniously supplanted by Spamton's own face, reminiscent of his bigshot days.
Swatch, Blue, a select number of other individuals, alongside the protagonist, stand as the sole people who evaded assimilation (at least to start). Yellow, Orange, and Pink had succumbed to assimilation; while a significant number of other addisons have become amalgamated.
The protagonist, upon returning to Cyber City, bears witness to the dire state of affairs, as most of the city has fallen under the influence of Spamton’s hivemind. The city now lacks its once vibrant essence, with the sole remnants of color emanating from the advertisements.
The protagonist managed to capture the attention of one of the assimilated citizens, whose eyes had become consumed by a static; just like the others. Spamton can see through them; and as mentioned prior; there is pre-existing history between the protagonist and Spamton. The only way they managed to escape was through Blue and Swatch. Out of the survivors, Swatch had become the core leader during the take over (Queen having been assimilated herself and trapped away).
Blue, the protagonist, and Swatch are all individuals that Spamton held genuine care for, albeit it all but the protagonist inevitably fall victim to assimilation. Swatch in an act of noble self-sacrifice allowed themself to be assimilated in order to protect the other two. Conversely, the circumstances surrounding Blue's assimilation remain enigmatic, posing an unresolved question. The AU is designed to be driven by mystery, and for things to be more open for the audience.
Spamton’s official design is also shrouded in mystery; the protagonist’s first altercation with him is while he’s in his final “Queen Bee” sort of form. He resides in the Mansion, his hivemind connected from the basement specifically. As of now, the visualization of many of the characters (aside from Pink, whose design is in the works) is up to people’s imaginations.
There are canon design aspects of Spamton however, consisting of;
Long fingers that are sharp at the ends but still puppet-like
Neo-like attributes; at least one pair of big wings
Glasses act like a searchlight beam
Saliva and tongue are made out of pure static, and eyes are complete static underneath the glasses
Has two to three pairs of arms
Heart is exposed, tainted with the goop of the anomaly
Chest is open, showing the heart
He has fangs (either vampire or curved)
Jaw can unhinge and unlock
Very Very Large
Neck can elongate outward almost endlessly
#deltarune#spamton#horror au#deltarune au#process of assimilation#Youtube#Main Inspirations:#Pibby#The Thing#the mandela catalogue
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Your interpretation of Spamton is really interesting, do you have any specific thoughts about each section of his life??? ( like addison, big shot, puppet)
warning, this is a huge autism rant LOL
addison era: i havent headcanoned much about his addison self tbh... the most ive got is hes transmasc and is very bird-like with feathers.....also cat-like too. i think the addisons in general act like that. another headcanon i have is that the addisons are naturally social creatures! they stick together and get depressed when alone, which is sad to think about considering the CircumstancesTM
big shot era: i think spamton during this era was at his highest career wise, and his lowest mental health wise (aside from his current mental health state). my headcanon is hed have a super inflated ego and lash out at people, but only to hide the deep rooted insecurity from knowing he only became successful from a phone. i imagine hed also feel paranoid and constantly anxious at the thought of losing it all, which ended up happening. the social nature of being an addison prolly also contributed to his decline since the addisons left him. so hed stick by the phone not only for advice, knowledge, etc... but for some type of social contact, albeit incomprehensible.
if you wanna see my headcanon for his character In ActionTM, i made a video on his big shot era here: https://youtu.be/OWeStag3dJk
puppet era: this is the most confusing one for me. i still to this day do not know how he became a puppet, if the addisons are puppets, when he became a puppet, etc... its such a confusing thing to wrap my head around. im a big fan of the acid theory and that it kinda melted him away ! however, i dont think it made him shorter bc he states he was always small in the qna, i believe... another theory that could be plausible is the force behind the phone slowly turned him into a puppet as like a "you get success, but only if i get to control you" type curse. idk! its a confusing timeline. regardless, i love his current form the most, aside from sneo. i think hes ageless, but still has the energy and features of a late 40-early 50 year old dude. i draw him with a receding hairline and damage to his puppet body. still transmasc also!
a huge thing i adore about his character is how unapologetically evil he is. he doesnt hide it, he admits hes evil and/or uses you for evil (in snowgrave). and the thing that fucks me up the most is, he had that thornring planned REGARDLESS OF THE ROUTE which is so scary. like if you beat his ass, hes like "whoa there dude! at least buy my ring! fuck you!" and runs off. that and the fact he kept trying to get that neo body. he is so desperate that he has multiple plans to get that body for god knows what.
also the trans allegories for him!!!!!!! love it!!!! like him really hating his puppet body and wanting to be bigger.... or like when u put the emptydisk in the mannequin with the dress, only for it to not wanna go in. like yeah it could be a interpreted as him wanting to go into sneo and not the mannequin, but given his connection to mettaton, who has some heavy trans allegories, i think it has more meaning than just "this isnt sneo!!!!" .,,, also the fact he gets such intense euphoria from being sneo. godddd i love trans spamton allegories!!!!!
spamton neo: my second favorite (almost first favorite) form of spamton. incomprehensible armor, but still killin it with those heeled boots!!!!! girlboss honestly
post sneo fight, i always found it interesting how his ark ends in a less hopeful, and more existentially dreadful manner. it almost feels unnecessarily cruel, but i think that the sad ending to his story is essential to get that hopeless "your choices dont matter" theme across. it also just shows how his hubris fucked him over in the end no matter what he did. ALSO HE DID NOT DIE!!!! people keep saying he died. he didnt. he literally has dialogue if u fill your inventory where hes like "bro???" so like. i think he just kinda gave up and turned into an item on his own accord, like jevil.
however, my favorite iteration of sneo is snowgrave. it really shows how genuinely fucking evil spamton is. he literally tries to stop you from being evil so HE can be evil, its so fucking awesome KJDJGSNKJSDNG
but like. fuck man, the dialogue is crazy good??? just peaking into his actual thoughts and insecurities and absolute self hate... muah. and getting that info from him self projecting onto kris? MUAH!!!!! i think its such a perfect battle for sneo because of how he tries to evade responsibility and hatred toward himself, or at least tries to make it sting less, by self projecting it onto kris. he hates kris, yeah, but its mostly just hatred toward himself, what hes become, and how far hes fallen from grace. and him trying to claw his way back to being successful- no BEYOND successful- and into world domination, is fucking harrowing. he is a fucking force of nature in the form of a YTP puppet.
i adore everything about the buildup to snowgrave sneo, the environmental storytelling, everything!!! it was only recently that i realized the scribbly lines around the mansion were his glitched advertisements.
also another thing that fucks me up: he killed his ex friend by proxy. absolute insane behavior its so. ohhmygod. i also love the connections to noelle and her being an angel. an angel sent to help him reach heaven... godddddd i love this shit
another thing i find so fascinating: his glitched speak in his sneo form is not as incomprehensible? its so eerie. hes like... he can better communicate his thoughts better and more coherently, which is genuinely so freaky because youre just so used to his nonsensical bullshit so its like. whoa. he was There Mentally all along, he just couldnt say it because of how fucked up and glitchy he was.
yes, i do believe he is like Completely There Mentally throughout the entire game. hes crazy as fuck, but he hasnt lost grasp on reality like jevil has. spamton has multiple plans concocted to get what he wants. hes smart! he knows what hes doing, and thats fucking Horrifying.
im tired of people saying he isnt evil or that hes just misunderstood. like yeah his circumstances are so unbelievably sad, but hes not some precious little creature who deserves to be protected... he is evil!!!!! he is evil and uses people to kill, or straight up tries to kill you himself! whether it be for freedom or his own demented plans of world domination!!!! and he outright says hes evil!!! he knows hes evil and doesnt give a shit, fuck, or damn!!!!
ok autism rant over :3 sorry if you read all that and were confused the entire time, spamton is my babygirl
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Alright, so the way I see it right now the Dark Worlds run on “Neverending Story Logic”, they’re created when Dark Fountains are opened, but they are created already with full history and memories for everyone inside them as if they alwas existed. But here’s another important element I want to touch on...
How does this work with the mysterious entity that keeps driving people mad and creating Secret Bosses?
Like, this feels a bit too Ominous to just be a retroactively-existing backstory element, right?
And, I think... I think one of the reasons why this is so Ominous is because this is kinda goes against the rules of how Dark Worlds are supposed to work?? Like, whoever or whatever this ‘someone’ is, they are something very Not Normal and this is partially demonstrated by the screwy way they interact with the Dark Worlds.
(Also for the sake of clarity, I will be referring to this unknown entity as Someone with a capital ‘S’ for the reminder of this post. I would also be making some references to the very popular theory that Someone is actually Dr. W. D. Gaster, but I will only be using his name when directly talking about aspects of my theory/interpetations that factor in the idea that Someone is Gaster)
I think that Someone might be able to, like, ‘infect’ newly-created Dark Fountains with their own presence. Like, to retcon themself into the history of the Dark World once it’s created? Maybe they can travel to the ‘past-that-has-always-been-there’ of a Dark World even though it’s not supposed to ‘actually exist’? Or maybe they truly only exist as a Backstory Element in various Dark Worlds but are somehow also aware of the fact that they do not truly exist save for in the past and the third-person, and are working with that knowledge? A villain you could never confront under normal circumstances because they never ‘is’ and always ‘were’?
I think all of these options kinda make sense within the Neverending Story Logic while also being kinda brain-breaking in the way that they directly interact with the paradox in the center of it all, which is The Point.
And I think it all work pretty well with the idea that Someone is Gaster. Cause, like, Gaster in Undertale was stuck in a weird state of nonexistence and existence where he DID exist in the past (since his creations, most notably the CORE were still around) but somehow it’s like he never existed in the present. So him (or even just some sort of being related to him) being able to interact with the Deltarune universe only through the Past Tense and\or through Worlds that technically do not exist kinda makes sense to me???
And it also factors into one thing I’ve noticed about our Secret Bosses which is.... there are all potrayed as having been somewhat ‘corrupted’ by Someone but it’s... never really in a way that corrupts their nature as Darkners representing spesific objects?
You know, it’s not really “this Darkner is a representation of Object and therefore they are X, but then Someone came along and through their influence the Darkner became Y” as much as it is “this Darkner is a representation of Object and therefore they are X but they actually used to be Y before Someone came along and made them X”.
Like, Jevil is locked up because he has been driven mad by Someone, but also because the Jocker Card is often ‘locked out’ from many Card Games. The greater understanding of the world given to him by Someone seems to have made him more powerful and unpredictable... but powerful and unpredictable is also just what a Joker card is.
Spamton is a barely-coherent madman living in a [[GODDAM GARBAGE CAN]] because of Someone’s influence, but also because Spam Mail is often barely-coherent and usually gets thrown in the garbage (and Spamton spesifically seems to have been created by a pile of spam-emails in the recycling bin).
When Someone abandoned Spamton and left him to crash and burn, can we call that an intentional act of maliciousness on their part? Or was that simply an inevitability that not even they could stop, because Spamton is fated to end up in the garbage when he reaches his actual present-day ‘creation’?
Like, just as I can say “from a Darkner’s perspective they and their world always existed but really they are created by the Dark Fountains” I can also say “from a Darkner’s perspective, if Someone hadn’t come along, Jevil would still just be the Court Jester and Spamton would still be a somewhat incompetent Addison. But from really, without Someone’s influance, Jevil would still be a Very Strong Clown in Jail and Spamton would still be a rambling garbage-dwelling conman, it’s just that the reason to their situation wouldn’t be Someone-related.
Cause you have like the Dark Fountain kinda forming the Joker Card into a Powerful Clown that is Locked Away, and then Somone butts in like “and the REASON for why he’s locked away is MEEE”. An the other Dark Fountain is like ‘Spam Mail in a Bin’ = ‘A weird conman who lives in the trash and is both very driven but incredibly incompetent and kinda off-putting’ and then Someone makes it so They Did This to Him. But by doing that they did corrupt Jevil and Spamton further due to their otherworldly and paradoxical nature, and the knowledge they seem to hold. If Someone hadn’t interfered, Jevil might not be quite as powerful and Spamton might not be quite as miserable, but there’s still isn’t truly an option for Jevil and Spamton to remain the people they and other Darkners remember them once being.
And linking this back to Gaster... in the Undertale’s universe his situation was very much that he was... a Cause removed, while his Effects still remained. Again, even though he seemed to have been somewhat ‘erased’, the CORE he designed still remains standing and active.
And meanwhile here we have Someone as, like the way I think they operate, they’re like a rogue Cause attaching itself to Effects. Which is possible because they truly are reversed when it comes to the Darkner’s pasts. And I think that if Gaster’s goal is just, basically, to Exist within the Deltarune Universe - there’s a certain logic in the idea that he’s trying to Make Himself Exist by inserting himself into Darkner’s backstories, no matter if it keeps driving them crazy(er).
This also raises the question of like... did Someone have any agency in picking their ‘Effects’? Like, is the reason why Someone’s has influanced Darkners that ‘make sense’ for them to influance like Jevil and Spamton and not like... Jigsaw Joe and Tasque Manager is because Someone is deliberatly trying to minimize their corrupting influance by targeting Darkners would be kinda Fucked Up regardless? Or is it something that they can’t even control and it’s more that the powers of Inevitability of the Dark Worlds make it so they can’t change what the Darkners are too much?
Man I hope any of this makes sense it’s like 4AM lol.
#deltarune#deltarune theory#spamton#spamton g spamton#spamton deltarune#jevil#jevil deltarune#gaster#w. d. gaster
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Red Soul = Control Theory
here comes my bi-yearly random undertalerune theory infodump
i think the red human soul trait is control. my other guesses are freedom or power but control has the most likelihood in my eyes based on evidence. starting with undertale and then moving onto deltarune, here's my thoughts!
'since when were you the one in control' - the most potent and obvious evidence, this is the emblematic line spoken by chara (first red soul bearer's reanimated self); it not only is one of the few spoken lines canonically confirmed to be from a red soul bearer, it implies that chara has more control than even the player themself over the game at the very end of genocide and this is proven to be true when they hold your game hostage until you willingly hand frisk's soul over to them, finalizing their resurrection, their control, and thus letting them run rampant after future runs
the major(/'true') theme of ALL routes in both undertale and deltarune (so far) is control. ut paci/geno routes are, broadly speaking, to determine which red soul bearer between frisk or chara retains control over frisk's body and personality by the end, taking it from you the player. ut neutral is about flowey engaging in a power struggle with you over controlling the game. when either frisk or chara wins, they exert their control over you in turn - frisk refuses to be called your/chara's name anymore and assumes their own choices post-game, chara is less subtle and outright enforces their domination over you as soon as they have it (as stated above)
as for deltarune, secret bosses are the easiest evidence of this common theme. spamton's fight is about having been taken advantage of - controlled - and his desire for freedom; jevil only THINKS he's free but in actuality he's the opposite of free (and so, is also controlled).
deltarune's main conflicts so far can be summarized as the controlled vs. the controllers in all aspects: dark vs. light/darkners vs. lightners, kris vs. player, noelle vs. kris, secret bosses vs. the person who gave them a deal they couldnt refuse
the best deltarune evidence for control being the red human soul trait is kris, ralsei, and snowgrave - all of these things being interconnected. in the chapter 1 prison break segment, ralsei subtly teaches kris (and consequently the player) how to use their mindlink/manipulation power ('proceed' or control itself, in absence of a canon name for the ability) for the first time and they/you immediately try it on susie to help her solve the puzzles. HOWEVER, this is resisted and nullified by susie, although she hears kris's voice despite being far away from them... sound familiar? this is for a good reason unlike snowgrave, but it is undeniable from this instance that throwing their consciousness around and influencing others is a power of kris's and not just a meta thing.
speaking of snowgrave and ralsei, ralsei is visibly confused when kris refuses to throw their consciousness into the scenes involving noelle and susie (ferris wheel, noelle's room), instead standing there in stark silence with ralsei until the other two return as ralsei is clearly confused. this and telling them how to do it proves without a shadow of a doubt that ralsei is fully aware of the nature of what kris's ability is and in chapter 1 he talks about how darkners exist to serve lightners, enforcing his identity as someone who believes he and other darkners exist to be used or controlled. this is not a 'ralsei is evil' aside im taking you on (yet?), but ralsei may be very misguided or was possibly manipulated/gaslit in a horrifying way that might be similar to noelle post-snowgrave
finally, snowgrave again. we're talking about the obvious bits, the roles between the player, kris, and noelle. it is a chain of control descending in that order. you control kris who controls noelle through you. compared to susie, noelle doesnt resist much, and the thornring increases your control over her by inflicting pain and putting her in a trance (which seems to prevent her from being fully conscious or recognizing her surroundings based on berdly's fight)
actual final: back to undertale one last time, Ball Game is something i did seriously consider for this. its for sure a meme to prevent actually saying what it is, but i would wager that it being red is likely still important knowing toby's sense of humor/metanarrative. what's important in any Ball Game? power isnt always necessary, freedom either. control is ALWAYS important in Ball Games. whether you're tossing a dodgeball, dribbling or dunking a basketball, hitting a tennis ball or baseball, kicking a football field goal or a soccer goal, putting to the hole in golfing... you need control to do all these things, more than anything else, even if you might need power for some of them. what does it mean, why Ball Game? no fuckin clue man.
alright, now that ive listed my reasons... my last thoughts will be on why i dont think Determination is the red soul trait as it is commonly believed to be. its too obvious, its said throughout the ENTIRE game and yet toby has played coy with it, never directly stating that that is what it is. is that not odd for a word and concept said in all routes, constantly? also, every human has tons more determination than any monster, up to the point where it takes the entire underground to even equal one single human soul.
so, what makes the red soul stronger than the other souls, what makes it so powerful that even sans, omega flowey, and literal GOD asriel can't beat the red soul bearer, the latter two possessing SIX OTHER HUMAN SOULS and god azzy having the equivalent of SEVEN via monster souls? it's surely not just an abundance of determination... if red soul bearers were all that powerful (stronger than any other seven human souls combined) by default, regardless of their rarity, monsters wouldn't have had a chance at all in the war to begin with - even if they were beaten, we know it wasnt instantly.
so, think - if it's not just an above-average amount of determination, what else do all three red soul bearing humans in the games we know have in common? us. they have us. we have controlled all three of them at some point in their lives. it's possible that the red soul bearers become much stronger when they're under our control at the cost of basically subjecting themselves to our will, whatever that may be, and it may in turn be possible that those they control become stronger too (like noelle does) at that same cost.
well thats my essay on why the red soul is control. thanks for reading if you did, id add pics to back up my words but im lazy lol so just ask for specific bits if interested and i can go dig em up... i think the prison 'proceed' bit is particularly interesting since you would only realize what it means on a repeat playthrough of chapter 1 post-snowgrave, among other ch 1 oddities
#undertale#deltarune#human souls#frisk undertale#chara dreemurr#kris dreemurr#theory#long post#snowgrave
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Possible Connections Between DR Secret Bosses and Party Members
After having seen this post in conjunction with this video.
youtube
I thought of a theory/prediction(?) on the nature of the secret bosses (not who or what they are per say but at least an insight into their possible personalities and character foils).As the theory states there are two main “sides” like that of a chess board. The white or light side being the Lighter’s (+ Ralsei and the player) and the black or dark side being the Bosses, the Secret Bosses ,The Knight and Gaster. The main bosses are analogous to the chess pieces sans the pawns as the characters analogous to the Pawns are that of the party members and the secret bosses. As stated in the post linked above Noelle and Kris share traits w/Jevil and Spamton respectively, cliff notes Spamton and Kris are both puppets controlled by external forces i.e. Gaster and the Player,said entity dragging both into desperation and misery after difficult experiences and a emotional and physical separation from friends and family.Jevil and Noelle albeit very different people have very similar reactions to being controlled by Gaster and the Player respectively both give little resistance to their captor and are in denial of the gravity of the situation sometimes to the point of trying to spin it as a good thing to spare themselves of the pain ex.Noelle w/getting stronger,Jevil w/“freedom.”(Also Spamton has angelic features in his NEO form and regularly mentions heaven meanwhile Kris is associated w/the inverse their red eye’s,horned headband,occult interest’s and their lightbringer nickname courtesy of CK. Noelle is referred to as angel by Spamton in snowgrave and by herself in on the Ferris wheel etc,Jevil’s item’s all include the term devil within them and, well his name is literally a fusion of Joker and Devil).This begs the question of if the other secret bosses will share traits w/other party members. If these 7 party members are as follows Kris, Noelle, Susie, Birdley, Catti,Jockington and Ralsei.For example if The Vessel is a secret boss may-haps their foil is Ralsei as he may be the Darkner former of Kris’s headband much like how the vessel is a discarded creation of Gaster’s both created w/the sole purpose to serve their creator.Considering the fact Ralsei seems to know of the player’s presence w/in Kris maybe he finds a way to transfer the soul to The Vessel or maybe he and The Vessel swap places the Vessel being used by the player while Ralsei becomes an antagonist (sorry for the long post I might make a part 2 if I get ideas).
#deltarune#deltarune theory#noelle holiday#noelle deltarune#kris dreemurr#kris deltarune#spamton g spamton#spamton deltarune#jevil the jester#jevil deltarune#ralsei#ralsei deltarune#vessel deltarune#deltarune secret boss#deltarune predictions#Youtube
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Welcome to The Angst Cafe, what can I get for you?
I was scrolling through the self ship tags the other day and found a post related to the Unsent Project. I thought I would assign unsent texts for some of my personal non-canon ships: 3 with an SI and 2 with OCs
👇They're all down here👇
🍍Zanzo🍍 and 🟣Violet McCormick 🟣
I've talked about these two before. My poor babies, suffering through a second break-up 💔
🦋Ted🦋 and 🔮Pearl Seely🔮
When I encountered Ted for the first time in Bad Day On The Midway, I thought he was exactly the type of character I'd get attached to. And it happened! Lol
Suspension of disbelief is required since these characters exist in the 1960-70s before texting.
Alternate Text Version
(Combination of two different Unsent Messages. Only Pearl here.)
Pearl: I think about what we could've been more than I should... I wish you were still here
☎️ Spamton ☎️ and 🛡️Molly Ehlert🛡️
This one is more OC × Canon than SI × Canon. Miss Ehlert is a robot based on a Molly Guard, which is a (physical or virtual) safety device that prevents accidental activation shutdowns. Spamton dated her in his Big Shot era.
Nothing came up for Spamton obviously- pretend "Sam" is "Spam".
I think a more canon compliment Spamton response would be like:
Spamton: LOOKING TO ENJOY SOME SWE3T [Hyperlink Blocked] WITH [Man Woman Or Child] OF YOUR ?!?! E-Z!!! ALL YOU HAVE TO DO IS- [Your Call Has Been Forwarded To An Automated Voice Message System]!!!
...
I miss you.
Alternate Text Version
(Still based on Unsent Project texts)
Molly: I am worried about you. You do not look or sound like yourself anymore
Spamton: YOU WILL ALW4YS HAVE A [Specil Place] IN MY [Heart Shaped Box] IT"S SICKENING!!! YOU WILL- YOU WILL- YOU WILL
🐔Shane🐔 and 🌼Marjorie "May"🌼
My very first SDV Farmer was a self insert lol. She and Shane married Year 2 on Jas' birthday (sorry Jas). I deleted that save a while ago, but I saved hundreds of screenshots from Savory Farm. No joke.
Because of the nature of how their relationship ended (dimensional travel and magic induced forgetfulness), there is only a text for May. (Shane's still around, don't worry.)
🐇William Afton🐇 and 🔥Lucinda "Cindy" Schmidt 🔥
A wild (former) Mrs. Afton appeared! Technically canon x canon but we never see another Afton spouse in game or print (if they exist). In my AU, Cindy moved to another state (Arizona or Nevada) post divorce and lives there still.
I used nicknames for both William and Cindy because they are that kind of couple. Cindy = Light and William = Bunny
Similar to Ted and Pearl, they were together pre-texting so suspend disbelief again.
Bonus two written in text because I maxed out image upload:
William: everyday
Cindy: Do I haunt you like you haunt me?
(...We came in? Isn't this where...)
~~~
Cindy: How can our very last conversation end in the most hurtful lie you ever told me.
#launch the megalleon#self ship#oc x canon#ouch the angst#hi fi rush#deltarune#stardew valley#bad day on the midway#fnaf#hfr zanzo#sdv shane#william afton#edited
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Feedback Fest let's gooo!
Here's 10 recommendations from me, in no particular order
1] More Than A Sidekick, by Jason_Todds_Thigh_Holster (Henry Danger)
Oh, the classic "I have to pretend I don't care about you at all to save you, meanwhile I would give the whole word to you"-trope (totally official name). Mixed with the character in danger having relatively low self-worth and a usual "rough around the edges"-caretaker/mentor, it's just HMMMM (/pos)! I'm already a sucker for characters in hostage situations, so pairing these together is Such Good Soup.
I personally didn't even keep up much with Henry Danger after my childhood, but the characters are already so nicely characterized within the fic itself, that you truly don't feel like you miss anything.
2] [injury] of a salesman, by becki (Deltarune)
It's only a one shot, but everything that happens is so well organized and shown that I keep forgetting. "basically just lots of spamton getting the love and care he needs" (author's tag) describes it well, and I am HERE for it. Especially the part where the two eat together tugs at my heartstrings, I love characters with some form of food-insecurity being allowed to eat freely. Swatch as a character is also such a delight.
3] URL not found, by Aster269 (@aster269) (Deltarune)
Quite a long one, this time; I read it while it was still going, and it was worth waiting for every update! The Addisons have very clearly established personalities and beliefs that are explained through their backstory. It's also very interesting to see every facet of their life, from childhood, to Big Shot Era to reunion. And personally, I can't get enough of the Addison Family unconditionally loving and supporting each other <3
4] The Wake-Up Call, by cookiescrumbles (Wander Over Yonder)
Wander. Has. Issues. And they are very well acknowledged here.
His personality really shines through here, both in the way he acts and talks. The entire concept is also very sweet; and I love Sylvia's and Wander's relationship. Shout out to the Hat, for getting Wander what he needs!
5] Tiny Reverberations, by Sylphidine_Gallimaufry (@sylphidine) (Deltarune)
SO! CUTE! Very short, but that just contributes to how fun of a read it is. It's pure fluff, and that mixed with Spam's reaction due to his low self-worth is balm for the soul <3 It's just so adorable; love the kitty <3
6] Mourning Dove, by LynnCanigula15 (@moonbeam-dragon) (Darkwing Duck)
I must say, I'm always a fan of people talking about the kinda messed-up stuff that happens in DW sometimes. And I think how the other three members of the F4 react to this - relatively complicated - situation is very much in character for who they are. Big fan of angst, and Bushroot's state of mind is especially interestingly described and established in chapter 2.
7] Back Alley Beatdown, by SwoodMaxProductions (@swoodthis) (Deltarune)
I love seeing Spamton fighting tooth and nail, knowing his own advantages. Sweet Cap'n Cakes are also very sweet and considered to the Spam Man here; making sure to reassure him when necessary. The description of the parts carefully placed beside him is a personal favourite of mine here! It also has a very nice conclusion.
8] Last of your Kind, by Vanyel (@boonbeenblade) (Cult of the Lamb)
It manages to say what it wants so clearly and concisely, seeing the length that it is. The use of language is truly phenomenal, and it shows a very cool outlook on the relationship between the Lamb and TOWW. Even though the fic depicts events that you literally play yourself, it manages to give an interesting outlook on them, making one able to experience them again as if from fresh eyes, from the perspective of the character. The second-person writing comes off as very natural.
9] Ever so slightly, by Pancakes_for_Dragons (Deltarune)
Sometimes I need a story that is just unapologetic angst. The fic gives Rouxls a very clear persona that reflects on his literal state as the "Rules Card" very well. How his relationship with Lancer grows is really sweet; and especially "I’m thoust Lesser father, surely that musteth count for something." and the whole event around it, still has a space in my mind, since the first time I read it!
10] breathe, breathe, by SteveSmackdown2014 (School for Vampires)
Again, just a very sweet story. It's very easy to see it both from Oskar's (with all the knowledge we have as viewers) and from Sunshine's (with a more 'normal', human outlook) perspective; and why they both react the way they do. Oskar's fear is shown as so very real, but the actual moment is just as sweet.
(Deviders by yizaicons)
#Changed my mind an decided to tag them afterall. Hope everyone is correct#You can definitely somewhat read my fanfic habits out of this list lol#Tried to include different authors and fandoms in this though#other's writing#ao3 fics#fanfic rec#fanfic reccomendation#feedback fest#feedbackfest#ifd2024#international fanworks day#henry danger fanfic#deltarune fanfiction#wander over yonder fanfiction#darkwing duck fanfiction#cult of the lamb fanfic#school for vampires fanfiction
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It's lore posting time but not really lore it's just me rambling about winged Addisons
So winged Addisons are part of the Additional limb magic category. They function the same way as any other limb with a few differences ; Addisons can make them disappear or not at any time and they heal faster than regular wings
Winged Addisons can also be forced to make their wings appear. There's a pressure point on the back of their neck which can do that. It's usually only done when the wings are too damaged to regenerate by themselves and the Addison is unconscious. It can also be used to identify criminals who's wings were seen by witnesses. Forcing an Addisons to have their wings out is not affected by anything antimagic
For Addisons like Infinity, so with wings connected to their arms, the pressure point is instead located on their wrists. If the wings are neither located on the back of the Addison or connected to their arms, they don't have a pressure point
Wings works the same as what they are first associated with, by that I mean for example : Yelena has bird-like wings so they are gonna work like bird wings. This also applies to Spamton even though his wings don't come from his own magic abilities
Now, magic reflects its user, and so do wings, they can change depending on how the Addison does. It doesn't change their nature, just their apparence and abilities. These changes can be affected by an Addison's personality, mental state and/or specific event in their life.
The mental state of a winged Addison is very important as it affect their regenerative ability. An Addison with damaged wings can prevent their healing if they have a mental block related to them. At the moment the wings are damaged, it will hurt and the Addison will be affected depending on how much the wings were damaged just like the other Addisons. With the mental block, the wings will only regenerate partially : It stops hurting/bleeding, but they will keep the appearance of broken wings, making them unusable. They will only start healing as the Addison's mental state heals too. Regenerating at the same pace until the Addison has fully healed mentally
___
Alright I think that's all I had to say for now, I think we can congratulate me for making a long post about wings without ever once mentioning- [REPEATEDLY GETS SHOT]
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Okay people have been asking me to explains what stands out between snowgrave and no mercy/genocide . I struggle with reading and phrasing things so sorry if some of this sounds odd ,':3
how punishment works.
Snowgrave, albeit very dark and more blunt then no mercy, doesn't exactly punish you for putting berdly in a comatose state. THE most you get is noelle and susies relationship going back to susie thinking she's scared of her, and noelle also fearing her childhood friend but the player gets off scot-free. We haven't seen the whole game, but from what it looks like, you're going to be regarded as a murderer in that one fountain, where it doesn't even exist to the outside world. Nobody else is going to know how many you've really killed.
No mercy, on the other hand, everyone starts fleeing. People go from believing you can change, to trying to guard the barrier to stop you from getting out and doing it to your own people. Sans endangers a child, just to stop YOU from using this kid to hurt more people, which is why some people say his theme is the players theme (I don't believe this, because his theme belongs to another certain someone else too rendering this impossible?!).
The only person that believes you're capable of changing your ways is papyrus. His death leads to the rest of the bosses frantically wondering what happened, alphys especially.
Both pap and alphys would be the two people to trust you right off the bat, and since you've broken that trust, they're doing everything they can to stop you where you stand, snowgrave doesn't do this! Nobody really evacuated, Nobody really got away before you decided to start hurting them. Infact, when you initiate this route its already far too late for them to start running.
Route play-out functions
I know ALOT of people have mentioned the dumpster countdown, and spamtons importance to how it functions, but this is what also interests me.
You do not know how many people are left, you have to be told by someone, guided by another monster, to know what you're supposed to be doing. No mercy lays everything out for you, down to the save points giving you exact amounts remaining in each area!
Yes, they are direct copies supposed to mimic the way genocide functions, but the difference is an outer force is guiding you and giving you exact amounts to massacre entire areas of monsters that remain. Snowgrave gives you some puppet that suffered, and is using you and noelle as an outlet to get his revenge.
Youre being messed with WHILST youre manipulating kris's friend. You are just as vulnerable, you needed spamton for your next tool to ice berdly, whereas in genocide the only real roadblock is sans, but even his forces don't stop you if youre good at the game.
The tedious open spaces for snowgrave, the closed off areas that you can just pace around for no mercy!
There is ALWAYS a save point nearby, so you can keep track of your kill streak. Snowgrave makes your journey far worse, once you've started you can't exactly stop. There's hardly save points, your items can only gather from junk you find laying around, and iced corpses will stay there for when you go back to get something.
Both have horrible amounts of work to stop you from marching foward, no mercy has stupidly high amounts of monsters for you to kill, snowgrave has a step-by-step plan for you to initiate it, and the further in you get the more ridiculous it is. Both games literally go "wtf??? You actually did it" each time you initiate the route. Snowgrave has jingles for each time you properly complete a part, no mercy has another person seeing you as a vile human each time you wipe out another area.
Human guidance (kris vs frisk)
Alot of people have spoken about this, but I think there's alot more people fail to mention. Kris is naturally a very quiet kid, but they aren't silent, or emotionless. Infact, they are way more expressive than the game is letting us know! For frisk, however, we only know that they were an outcasted child. YOU decide how frisk reacts to the monsters they've just met, your initial reaction helps them develop theirs, exactly the way a child learns from their parent how to react to someone you've just met.
Some people forget frisk is very young (for this, and MANY, MANY other things too. >:[), so the drastic difference is you're using an impressionable child to do your work, whereas in snowgrave you weaponise some poor teenagers friendships to re-traumatise all of them.
Both react very differently to what you're doing to them. Frisk has no choice but to listen to you, they're a kid, they wouldn't know it any different from an adult guiding them.
They learn from your guidance that these monsters aren't worth the time, if you don't react they won't bother either. You turn them into a cold, careless killer. You teach this child to have the old views of humans, and in the process endanger humanity from it too. Alot of people turn both frisk and chara into the villains, but both of them are young children in a place they don't recognise, they're obviously going to rely on this nagging voice, this soul controlling them to help them get home. What happens during that process is out of their control, this is all on you.
Kris, on the other hand, is very clearly trying to let their friends know they aren't okay. Constant silence, barely any emotions, lashing out to let people know someone else is using their body to do harm on others. (Can't get images, mobile limit is WAY too small lul) you aren't even using kris, perse, you're using noelle. The impact of trapping berdly both hurts noelle and kris, yet kris will hold this guilt as long as you remain a constant force for them, and they hate you for it.
Using kris as a vessel to hurt noelle, and using frisk as a vessel to spread the old views of humans towards monsters. Noelle is more optimistic on things, shes not innocent at ALL despite what people say, but you use her close best friend to hurt her. Kris has to stand and take this all in, let you hurt her and their childhood friendship, because they aren't in control so long that soul keeps them in the backseat. Frisk has to go up to the surface with a warped view on regards to life, and who truly deserves to live.
Your impact on these kids stays with them, despite kris being very emotionally defensive, you still manage to hurt them. You manage to hurt noelle, too, despite not even having physical control over her. You use kris as the gearstick, making them the monster in noelles eyes. Kris constantly kindly tells you to fuck off, whereas frisk can't say or do much, because they haven't matured enough to know.
Other stuff :P
This one is something many people have pointed out, so I don't feel the need to say much more on it, but the way monsters die. Snowgrave is far more darker, you freeze them eternally, and leave them to die in a sealed fountain. Berdlys death is also horrible both in the way it plays out, and the way you torture noelle to get to it. No mercy is more "kill now, think about it later" kind of shtick. They aren't brutal, but it really makes you think on how it's so easy to do it, and then your actions come crawling back when you really are a danger.
Berdly and papyrus, the two people who strongly believed in frisk/kris, are violently dealt with and hurt for doing so. These two have parallels that are more complex, and I don't wanna fill this with MORE text, but you get the idea. You hurt "your" most trusting friends to get your way, and both deaths are a sign that you are now too far in to turn back.
Dialogue changes too, where it goes from chipper to regarding you as a force to not be reckoned with. Alot of people say chara is the narrator for undertale, I do think this too, but this also plays into you manipulating a child to get your way! Chara is already a very troubled kid, being raised in an environment that just wasn't made for them, so obviously they're going to be very upset in death for what you're doing, but they can't stop you aswell, so on and so forth, yadda yadda. You get it :P
Sans, noelle, kris and so on talking directly to YOU. I don't need to really talk about this, you can find alot of people mentioning it already. Everyone knows that you're to blame, not these kids you're forcing to hurt people. Don't need to mention that when it's been said enough XD
Spamton is a different case entirely, kind of based of him to use you to set his own plan into motion (KIDDINF OBVIOUSLY) but he's a different case that would need a different post and oh MAN do I have alot to say about him and his situation.
We've barely touched the surface for deltarune, so some of the stuff here could change! So far, though, this is what I've noticed.
Anyway, that's my thoughts on that . Thank you if you actually read my nonsense I don't really post my thoughts/analysis on stuff publicly :^]
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[ DISCLAIMER! The following rant is just my personal thoughts, opinions, and grievances. I highly recommend you come to your own conclusion about this and don’t take my words as fact or law. I also don’t mean to offend anyone with this, but feel free to debate this with me in the notes I guess. ]
I’m going to be completely honest…
I REALLY don’t like Broker.
The Phighting devs are kind of hyping him up to be this “ooo mysterious silly lore guy!!! And also he’s a bit kooky, and maybe even self aware!!!”
Like. He feels like a rip-off Jevil and Spamton to me. And even then characters like Jevil and Spamton are only VAGUELY, SLIGHTLY aware that they might be in a game, (Jevil moreso than Spamton but still).
BROKER, on the other hand, outright states he thinks the world and its people are all fake, (cough they’re in a game cough cough), and feels way too direct in my opinion. Maybe if he just pointed out the strange things about their world in a questioning manner instead of saying something along the lines of “hmm I think our society is a simulation” it’d feel a bit more natural, as if he doesn’t fully comprehend yet that their world is a game, and it’d feel less to the point, since Broker seems like he’s NOT supposed to be a very direct and honest guy.
And honestly, Broker doesn’t stand out much to me. Sure, he’s got the whole cult thing going on, and the Broker coins, but besides that, he’s just kind of… there. No obvious goal, drive, or apparent ulterior motives, and his “quirky silliness” is barely displayed in the actual game, and when it is it’s hidden in dialogue that’s no longer accessible due to him moving locations.
The thing that did catch my interest is how violent he supposedly can be, being confirmed to have both intentionally and unintentionally killed other demons. And I think they could’ve gone a very interesting direction with this instead of making him as vague as a soggy cardboard box. Make him a bit violent! Maybe even in a silly way; have him accidentally kill people through means that he didn’t expect would happen! I’m not saying he should be serial killer crazy, (Scythe has that covered already), but I wish they’d give him SOMETHING more than “oh he’s silly and sells crypto currency and also he’s gone to jail” and vague social media posts.
He does have an okay design, and his weird eye, wrist cuff, and colors do pretty well to portray the vibe of “shady guy in an alley who’s a bit kooky”.
Thus ends my rant about a stupid fictional character. Thank you for listening to my insane rambling, have a nice day.
| Dialogue that sparked this rant |
#ashleyisodd#oddityrants#phighting!#phighting broker#broker phighting#the broker phighting#roblox phighting#phighting roblox#Phighting rant
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So, I was thinking a lot about theoretical Deltaswap swaps and then I got to thinking about the Chapter 2 bois, naturally. Now, what most default to for the swaps are like Spamton swapping with the likes of Queen, Swatch, or Jevil. But, I had a new idea.
What if it was every Addison?
And thus, I got to thinking. And what resulted from this line of thinking was a concept of its own. Spamton was still the failure of a salesman he’s always been, but his associates? Now, THEY had talent. Talent enough to draw the attention of a certain individual. One by one, their phones lit up, and they were tasked with carrying out a few chores for a select individual. Spamton was left even further in the dust, well, until the caller pulled out of investing.
Suddenly it would seem as if the other Addisons began to lose their touch, and each and every one of them went out of business without the aid of their new benefactor. They had grown dependent on it, and lost all their latent skills. And like that, Spamton suddenly had no competition anymore, and he was left the only salesman left in Cyber City. Needless to say this wasn’t entirely for the best, as he had to do a lot of extra work to make up for all the missing Addisons.
Despite how they treated him, Spamton still missed them, even going as far as to put up missing posters for them. All the while, trying his best to run every business they left behind. He became stressed, overworked, tired. But he never lost enthusiasm. After all, he was finally a big shot!
But what of the Addisons?
In their destitution and bankruptcy, they had all taken refuge in an alleyway down the street, creating a shoddy little makeshift bazaar near a dumpster they tried to treat like a hotel, devolving into playing make believe to feel like they were still in touch with their sales, swapping who was the seller and who was the buyer. This manic sort of frenzied selling tended to drive off any ACTUAL customers.
When they finally come face to face with the player for the first time, they FINALLY have a customer again after so long, and they won’t this one go. They block off the exit and start to get more and more frenzied trying to get sales out of the player. However, they get a little too violent in their methods. They fight in sync, like a well oiled machine, until finally talked down. They concede and let the player pass through, just as long as they promise to come back and make a sale.
Of course, curiosity killed the cat, and the Addisons are not alone for too long. They manically try to convey to the player about a special item in the basement of the nearby castle, offering to sell a key to said basement. However, they weren’t able to get their hands on a key, so, they instead just sell various makeshift burglary kits to help break in.
And now, we come face to face with the main course of this extravagant swap.
Addison NEO.
After cramming far too many people into a disc and uploading them into one body, the player is met with a horrid hydra amalgamation that stands far larger than the classic Spamton NEO. The resulting abomination is a mess of arms, legs, and wings, seemingly welded together into a mangled beast suspended by a tangled mess of wires with a hideous warped series of arms attached at the back, curving upwards over the beast’s head, culminating in a blaster tipped scorpion’s tail. At its helm are several long necks sprouting from one base, each ending in another horrid Addison head.The beast blocks the path forward, completely barricading the way out with just its sheer size. The Addisons attempt to move, before realizing they were not all given their own individual shots. They start to focus on the player, stating how they feel betrayed, and how their body can make up for it, or at least start to.
The beast shambles forwards, crushing the tracks under where it walks. The other two in the party strike it from behind, causing the mess of wires to lurch the beast upwards, clinging to the ceiling with its various claws and stylish boots. Before the party can escape, however, the coasters roll through, getting everyone their own personal escape vehicle as the enraged Addison NEO descends from the ceiling and begins its rapid manic sprint towards the party, becoming a race for their lives. Addison NEO felt betrayed, and it intends to return the favor.
As it follows closely behind, each head of this mechanical hydra takes its own part in this act of vitriol, with each Addison head having a different series of elemental attacks to use at its disposal to wipe the party out, each head’s color corresponding to the elemental attacks that head wields. Yet the body can also attack with various acts of horror that causes the body to shift and warp in unnatural ways. The beast is felled through pacifism when the party manages to tangle the beast further, preventing its movement entirely.
With immobility taking the wheel, the Addisons slowly begin to come to terms with their failure, and mistreatment of their only other friend. The mechanical monster shuts down, and the party is left to wonder, what would this thing have done if it left the confines of the basement?
Anyway I thought this idea was cool, if people like it, I might elaborate on more swaps and/or more about Spamton and Addison NEO
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*…How are the others ta-taking it? Y’know…that I’m spending the holidays with Eileen this year…
*I myself wasn’t entirely surprised, although the others were certainly taken aback. Navy most of all; he’s worried you’re abandoning us again.
*I’m not!!
*I know. But you did ask.
Spam falls silent, turning back to his chamomile tea that Saffron just brewed for him. Although the other Addisons have taken the day off for Christmas, Saffron is expecting a few customers picking up flower arrangements for their loved ones today. While waiting for them he’s more than happy to chat with him, even if things are a little awkward at the moment. Saffron finishes taking a sip of his own tea before continuing to speak.
*Coral just hopes you’re okay. And Clem…I’m quite worried about her. She locks up whenever anyone says your name, but it’s not like before. It’s like she doesn’t know whether to go check on you or leave you to your own devices. Call it wishful thinking, but I have a feeling she’ll be coming around next.
*Coming around…?
*To the fact that you’ve changed. And to the fact that we can still be a family despite that.
Spam falls unusually quiet at that, forcing himself to take a long, hard sip of the tea to try to calm down and hope he doesn’t burst. But even though he’s back in his old body, he’s not the kind of person to hold things in. Something inside bends to the point of snapping, and the saucer with the teacup still on it is set down forcefully next to Saffron as he vaults off the counter.
*Spamton…?
*How…H-How are you so calm about everything?! I just show up unexpectedly in my old body again and you’re acting like it’s an ordinary Tuesday, brewing tea and talking with me like nothing’s wrong!! I didn’t do this to myself, the audience did! I’ll be back to my broken state sooner than later-how is this sitting right with yo-you?!
*…Ah. So that’s your trouble.
Recognizing his anxieties and frustration, Saffron sets his cup aside as well and slides off of the counter, putting a hand on his shoulder.
*Truthfully, it doesn’t sit right with me, Spamton. Not at all. I hate that you’ve been cursed like this. But I’ve been making peace with the fact that after 25 years, this is how things are for you now. Your body and your voice, and most of all your mind, are unlikely to change unless your strange customers will it, like right now. All I can do is change mine and accept you as you are now. You may think you are broken, and that may be true from a certain point of view…but to me, you are still like a brother. I support you, as long as you aren’t harming yourself. I-
He’s cut off by Spam’s hands digging into his back in a tight, aggressive hug, and when he feels him shaking he realizes he’s crying. Two rivers flowing down his temporarily organic eyes, his face burrowed in Saffron’s shoulder. The Yellow Addison doesn’t continue his speech after that, instead gently rubbing the little salesman’s back. Only stopping a couple of minutes later, when Spam’s voice, hiccuping with both static and sobs, ventures to speak again.
*Can’t…can’t you just t-tell the rest of them t-that? Just tell them I’ve chan-changed…
Saffron sighs.
*If only if were that simple, Spamton. They need to realize all of that on their own; otherwise, things are no different than they were in the alley that day. Forcing them won’t do any good. But…I do have a suggestion.
The former White Addison’s head raises from his shoulder, head turning to see Saffron as he wipes his tears with his arm.
*After the holidays, I would contact us, somehow. Don’t worry, I will pretend I had nothing to do with it. Say you want to talk to us. And tell them, upfront, however your voice decides to say it, that you’ve changed. It might not fix things overnight, but…I have a feeling it might start it.
Spam nods, allowing himself to break from the hug.
*Ok. Ok…I’ll try it. Thank you, Saff…
The Yellow Addison ruffles Spam’s hair affectionately, earning a good-natured grumbled from him as his half-black half-white hair is further mixed up. He passes him back his teacup before picking up his own.
*Better finish this up before you head back out.
*Why? Do you have custom-customers coming??
*Possibly. But more importantly, you have friends that want to give you gifts for the season, don’t you? Don’t keep them waiting.
Spamton’s eyes flutter open widely with a sudden jolt of remembering, and with that he hurriedly downs the rest of his tea all at once with a loud gulp. He sputters for a moment from how hot it is, having forgotten what it’s like to being able to process the temperature of hot food and drinks, before wiping away the rest of his tears and handing the empty cup back to Saffron.
*Of course!! I can’t access my Inventory right now, but in a day or two stop by my shop, alright, Saff? I’ll give you a little something for everything today!
*…Of course, Spamton.
And with that, and several lagging frames, he went dashing out of the flower shop and off into the cool winter air of Castle Town. Leaving Saffron to enjoy the rest of his tea by himself.
There has to be something I can do to help him aside from just supporting his decisions…
#(have a very merry and slightly angsty thingie between spam and saffron! as promised 😁)#(definitely inspired by that one heart to heart over tea pink and spam have in the Defragmentation comic for sure)#(ok NOW gifts will be coming soon lol. still though I hope you enjoyed!)#ONE WEIRD TIP-in character#SAFFRON-yellow addison#m!a: an (out of date) addison again
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Vermillion Crystals - Kris and Queen (Update!)
I've been incredibly busy in my own life, so progress has been slow with the reboot (If it can even be called that), but, I have at least something!
First up, a redraw of Vermillion Kris. I decided I should make my own sprites for the sake of convenience and consistency. It'll be easier to make poses for Kris when I don't have to edit 99% of their spritesheet, also I wanted to match them with the way I stylized the Undertale human sprites. I also slightly redesigned them, changing their color palette to incorporate the darkened armor from their Demon design, featured in my last post about the future direction of the AU. I will not be updating the thumbnails for previous songs, as they are all now non-canon. New and more unique versions of what I've showed off will come in the future.
Onto something with a bit more substance, Queen!
Building off of my ideas from the last post, she has a new design for her debut in Chapter 2! The idea is that, when she got overthrown and kicked out of her Mansion (which is now gonna be a Hotel/Casino, thanks to Spamton), she also got kicked out of her body! Which leaves her to have to built a new body with the scrap she finds around the Cyber Field (made possible with the help of Swatch and his Swatchlings). This DIY body (resulting in her final name being Q5U4EX7YY2E9N-DIY, or just Queen-DIY) was made to emulate her original look, but significantly stunted due to limited supplies.
Thankfully, Sweet Cap'n Cakes left a lot of junk behind when they moved into Spamton's Hotel!
The design is loosely inspired by P03 from Inscryption, as seen by the claw and crank. I would provide the design of P03, but the nature of its physical appearances in the game are heavy spoilers, so proceed with caution.
But anyways, I also have a concept for the current state of the Cyber City! Thanks to Spamton bringing in so many viruses, the city had to have a Firewall installed in order to combat it. This prevents people from getting both out and in (although there's not much left in the Field at this point other than the people Spamton wants to keep out, so not much is lost by everyone being locked in), so it's impossible to get in, right?
Wrong!
Thanks to the exaggeration and expansion of things between the Light World and Dark World, the Firewall is a literal Fire Wall. Noelle joins the team much earlier (tagging in and out with Ralsei in combat) and helps the Fun Gang break into the city. The main track for the city is called "WELCOME TO THE [FireWall]!" and is actually complete! I want to wait a bit more for the au to have a substantial amount of content before I release any new tracks though.
And that's all for this update!
I hope you enjoyed, and as always,
Welcome to the SOUL Intersection.
#deltarune au#kris deltarune#kris dreemurr#vermillion crystals#queen deltarune#vermillion queen#deltarune fanart#the soul intersection
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The Comeback Special
13 Degrees.
The wind was unforgiving in Cyber City. Winter was here, and it wasn’t holding back. No matter what kind of Darkner you were, whether it be a werewire, a swatchling, a tasque, or even a maus, the cold affected them all. Those who were privileged enough to be programmed with insulators such as fur or feathers were better equipped to stave off this cold, but not all are created the same. Some needed to seek modifications like clothing files to keep warm, and some simply had homes to retreat to when the cold became too much.
One was not so lucky.
Once beloved by customers as the best sales Addison the city has ever known, a fallen and broken Addison sought shelter from the sheer cold in an empty dumpster down a shady alleyway. Their name was Spamton G Spamton. With no home to go to, no fur or feathers to shield them, and barely any dense clothing modifications to protect them, the Addison was left to face the elements at their intensest. Only armed with a stain-ridden white sweater, a torn up black trenchcoat, and a stiff and stale fleece blanket, Spamton braced for one of the hardest nights he may face this winter. If he wanted to get sleep of any kind that night, he would have to sacrifice any kind of comfortable sleeping position in order to warm up. He was curled up hard into a ball in the corner of the dumpster, his blanket wrapped around his compressed body tightly. But the cold sharp air easily penetrated his defenses, leaving him without much hope of getting any sleep. His teeth chattered harshly, no way of crying out for help except for the soft whimpers he made from the painful temperature. His body shook violently with desperation, desperate for any kind of relief. It was difficult for his body to produce any kind of warmth, he was quite malnourished, and hadn’t had a decent meal in days, leaving his system running on empty. The cold air hurt so much, It was as if someone was stabbing his body with thousands of frozen needles over and over again. His eyes were firmly clenched, beads of tears lined his ducts due to the pain, which were on the brink of freezing right to his face. There would be no sleep tonight, only slow and agonizing pain and numbness for Spamton. Gasps of harsh, labored breaths escaped from the Addison’s blanket ball, his body’s last attempt to call out for help. With time, each breath became painful as well, the freezing wind filling his cavity and shocking his vocal chords, leaving the broken salesman in complete silence. His energy for the night spent, he was too drained to keep himself warm, eventually succumbing to the icy hand of motherboard nature, as he passed out into a deep hibernating state. His body unclenched, and collapsed face first onto the solid floor of the dumpster, leaving him open and vulnerable to the elements. He was at the mercy of the weather…
*Creeeeaaaaak*
The dumpster lid was hoisted open, and a trash bag was thrown into the opposite corner from where Spamton was lying down. Despite the loud thud of the bag, Spamton remained outcold and motionless. The one who opened the dumpster was a resident Addison of the apartment building nearby, and coincidentally enough, this was an Addison Spamton knew all too well. It was Banner, his blue and empathetic coworker, the only Addison who went to check on him when he was being evicted from the Queen’s mansion. Banner was always the kindest to Spamton, and even showed immense regret from the getgo when the team abandoned Spamton. They were the one who encouraged him the hardest when he had a no-sale shift, or would buy him a coffee and snack when he had run out of money and hadn’t eaten yet that day. They were Spamton’s rock during his Addison days, and there they stood at Spamton’s dumpster doorstep, just about to be unaware of his presence, if it wasn’t for the static coming from his glasses, his body’s last signal for help. They gasped when they took notice of the little Addison.
“O-Oh my God, i-is that, Spamton?” Banner wondered with concern.
They lifted the other side of the dumpster lid and took a closer look. There was no doubt about it; it was him, and he didn’t look good.
“Oh shit, Spamton!? Wake up!” they yelled, reaching in to pull him out.
His hands were ice cold to the touch and he wasn’t responding, the static in his glasses slowly fading. Banner grabbed Spamton’s fleece blanket and wrapped him up tightly and held him close, hoping some of their warmth would transfer to him. They knew that they had to get him as quickly as they could back to their place and warm him up before he succumbed to frostbite, so they wasted no time booking it back to the apartment.
‘Oh god, please don’t die, please don’t die…’ Banner thought, worried that he might not make it.
They aggressively pressed their room’s door button over and over until the door buzzed open after a few seconds. They hustled their way to their apartment door and slammed it open, startling the other Addisons who were visiting them that night.
“Whoa Banner, what happened out there?” Vid asked, turning towards Banner from the couch.
“Off the couch Vid! Click, get a hot water bottle! Survey, grab a-” Banner commanded, but was interrupted by Click.
“Hey hey hey, calm down! Take a breath and explain to us what’s going on!” Click said firmly, his hands on Banner’s shoulders.
“N-No! He’s- in trouble! Spamton- he’s freezing! We need- to help him!” Banner cried, pushing Click out of the way and placing Spamton down next to Vid on the couch.
“Hey!” Vid complained, Banner having ripped the blanket right off of him to wrap Spamton up more.
“Wait, is that really Spamton?” Click questioned, getting up from the floor and approaching Banner.
“DON’T JUST STAND THERE, HELP ME!” Banner screamed, tears in his eyes and his teeth grit.
“O-Okay okay!” Click replied, running to the kitchen to retrieve a hot water bottle.
“Oh man, he looks terrible! Where’d you find him?” Vid asked Banner.
“He was in a dumpster, I thought he was frozen solid!” Banner answered, tightening the blankets around Spamton. “He’s still alive, but we have to warm him up, he’s not waking up!”
“I’ll go grab the heated blanket.” Survey announced, running into the bedroom to grab it.
Banner stayed by Spamton’s side and attempted to warm up his little hands. They were stiff and locked in a closed fist, so frozen that it even made them shiver. Banner cupped Spamton’s hands inside theirs and blew hot air into them. Click soon returned with the hot water bottle and they placed it on Spamton’s chest inside the blanket, making sure that it wasn’t touching bare skin so as to not burn him or warm him up too quickly so his body wouldn’t go into another shock. Survey soon followed with the heated blanket and they plugged it in, wrapping him up in a third layer. The heat from the blanket soon penetrated the other layers and began to warm him up to the point where his body started to shiver again, adding more heat energy to the blanket wrap. All four of them sigh in relief to see that he was starting to recover, and Banner gave their brothers a hug.
“Th-Thanks guys… I thought we lost him for good…” Banner sniffled.
“It’s okay Banner, relax now. He’ll be alright now, take a breather.” Survey reassured, rubbing Banner’s back.
“O-Okay…” Banner nodded, lying down on the couch next to Spamton.
The other 3 sat on the floor next to the couch, and anxiously waited for him to wake up. At the same time, each of them began to realize what kind of trouble they were going to face when Spamton woke up, they were sure going to get an earful about abandoning him during his big shot days and practically kidnapping him from his dumpster. Click rubbed the back of his neck, Survey twiddled his thumbs, Vid bit his nails, and Banner rubbed their temples. What felt like forever to them was only a few minutes later, and Spamton’s glasses had switched from static to their usual pink and yellow coloring. The four of them could see behind his glasses at this point, Spamton’s tiny black beady eyes beginning to open. A soft groan escaped his mouth and he attempted to sit up, but found himself practically bound by the amount of blankets that were wrapped around him. Banner eased him back into a lying position.
“N-No Spamton, you need to rest and warm up.” they told him firmly but calmly.
“Nnrrgghhh… Wh-Where… Wh-” Spamton tried to speak, but was ultimately shushed by Banner.
“Relax Spamton, you’re in rough shape. You’re at Banner’s home, you remember us, right?” Click answered.
Suddenly Spamton’s eyes shot open and he began to struggle more, as if Banner’s name was a trigger to some kind of fight or flight response. The four of them gasp and try to hold him down. It was surprising how strong he was despite being weak from starvation and the cold.
“No Spamton! You’re not well!” Vid yelled.
“Stay still!” Click instructed.
“Relax, you’re gonna hurt yourself!” Survey warned.
“Shhhhh, calm down, Spammy! Let us help you!” Banner told him with worry.
Somehow Spamton managed to break free from his blanket wraps and out of their grips from the massive jolt of adrenaline his body released. He scrambled his way to the door, his feet barely keeping up with him and almost tripping on each other. He flings the door open and makes his way to the apartment entrance, where the four of them catch up to him. They watch as he pries the front doors open and is presented with a very strong gust of wind that was carrying a bit of snow with it, covering Spamton in a layer of frost. Within seconds his knees collapse under him, and he’s brought down with a thud. Banner gasps and runs quickly over to Spamton, scooping him up and brushing the frost off his face.
“Spamton, what in Cyber City were you thinking!? You could’ve gotten seriously hurt!” Banner questioned with concern.
“I-I don’t need your [HELP WANTED]... I-I can [MAKE IT RAIN] on my own [TERMS AND CONDITIONS]...” Spamton muttered, violently shivering from the gust of wind that hit him.
“Please Spamton, let us help you. I know you want to feel independent, but this isn’t the time, buddy. It’s below freezing out there and you’re only wearing a sweater. That dumpster isn’t going to keep you warm… Please swallow your pride and relax, you need to get better.” Banner told him, standing back up and stroking his rosy cheek.
“...Don’t [$8.99 PAMPERS CRUISERS] m-me, I’ll be [A-OKAY] with just a [GOOD NIGHT MOON]’s rest on the [GROUND FLOOR]... I d-don’t need the [LOVESAC: DESIGNED FOR LIFE FURNITURE]…” he instructed, his stubbornness clearly visible.
“Spam, we’re not gonna have you sleep on the floor or the couch. You need some real sleep, plus we have a spare room you can use, we don’t mind sharing beds to let you have some privacy.” Banner replied, holding Spamton closer.
“...fine.” he huffed, finally admitting defeat and allowing Banner to bring him back to their apartment.
Click followed beside the two of them, his nose wrinkling from the sudden stench that just smacked him in the face.
“Ugh Spam, when was the last time you took a shower!?” Click cringed, wafting the air around them.
“Click, Don’t embarrass him more than he already is!” Banner barked at Click, ruffling Spamton’s hair. “You’re welcome to a nice hot shower once you’re warmed up…”
Spamton answered with a soft groan, but had no intention of taking a shower, no matter how much dirt and grime was in his hair and on his plush body. Taking their free hospitality offers went against his drive to be completely independent from them, especially after the four of them had abandoned his friendship long ago. But in his current state, he was in no condition to turn them down, but wouldn’t make it easy for them to help him. He was soon wrapped back up in the blankets on the couch, the warmth of the electric blanket enveloping his freezing frame. His eyes began to droop as his instinct to run away lessened and his shivering ceased. He clung to the hot water bottle like a cat holding onto their mother for comfort, and let himself lean back into the couch. Once his energy could stop primarily focusing on warming himself up, it had turned to other issues he had on hand. Spamton didn’t realize just how hungry he was, it had been days since he’d last eaten, but he had gotten so used to going without that he had gotten real good at hiding it. But tonight, that was not the case.
*Grroowwwrrlll*
The four Addisons all turned to Spamton at the same time, each with a different look of worry. Banner turned to Survey and gave him a suggestive nod, Survey got the hint and went to prepare Spamton a cup of tea. They knew he needed to eat, but were worried that he wouldn’t be able to keep it down after having nothing for a long time. If he could first keep the tea down, then he should be able to keep food down.
“Hey buddy, we’re gonna make you some tea. I know you must be starving, this should help any nausea you might get or have with your meal.” Banner whispered to him.
Spamton whined and struggled a bit in his blanket wraps. Banner quickly held Spamton close and rubbed his head, softly shushing him. They could tell he was both in pain and fighting his inner prideful demons, and kept their patience up.
“Nnnoooooo! No [T MINUS 10 SECONDS], I don’t want [FOOD COURT AHEAD: EXIT 16], I’m fiiiiine! I’m not [LOW ON FUEL]!” he rejected, struggling harder in the blankets.
“Stop flailing, Spamton! You don’t need to tough it out right now, we’re here to help you get better. Plus, you’re not fooling us, I can hear your stomach growling from here..” Click snarked, filing his nails on the chair across the room.
*Grrrgggrrrlll*
“Speak of the devil…” Click snickered.
“Click, not now…” Vid sighed, rolling his eyes.
“Here Banner, I made sure it wasn’t too hot to drink already.” Survey softly smiled, handing Banner the mug.
“Thanks Survey… Spamton, open your mouth for me.” Banner said warmly, holding the tea near his face.
Although he wanted to refuse the tea again, he knew that the more he resisted, the more they would be hounding him with more healthcare. Despite how much his soul hurt to do this, he slowly opened his mouth, allowing Banner to pour some tea in. Gulping it down, the tea instantly filled his belly with a medicinal heat, calming the hunger pangs a bit; the taste was strangely familiar.
“I don’t remember which one of our teas was your favorite, so I hope you’re okay with mine.” Survey added.
Spamton finished his drink and nodded, snuggling back into the blankets. He let out a sigh and a faint bit of steam escaped from his nose. Banner chuckled at the sight, Vid giggled a bit, Survey smiled, and Click simply huffed.
“Now then Spamton, do you want to try to eat something now, or shower first?” Banner asked him quietly.
“N-No… No [HOOVER DAM], or [FAST FOOD]... so [SLEEP MODE]...“ Spamton rejected.
“Are you sure? It might help you sleep better… C’mon, just a quick rinse, you’ll sleep more comfortably without mud caked to yourself.” Banner countered.
Spamton groaned and turned his head deeper into the blanket wrap and curled himself up tight. It seemed like he wasn’t going to budge this time. They decided that it was best not to push him farther, sure it was a bit annoying to have someone refuse any help you offer to them, but this was Spamton they were talking about; ever since he joined the Addison team, he had been headstrong, stubborn, and very prideful. Anytime they tried to offer him advertising advice, he would ignore them. It seems his personality had never left him after all these years. Banner sighed and lifted Spamton up, carrying him to the spare room to tuck him into bed. They figured it was best that he got some much needed rest first before anything else.
“Tch, typical Spammy. So resistant to help...” Click mumbled under his breath.
“That’s enough, Click. Our friend’s suffering, and it’s all our fault.” Survey growled, glaring harshly at him.
“Our fault!? When was it our fault when he decided to rub his success in our faces and snap at us when we questioned about the source of it!?” Click yelled. “You can see it, he’s not sorry for what HE did, he wants nothing to do with us!”
“Shhhh! Click, he’s sleeping…” Banner shushed, peeking out of the guest room. “I think it’s best that we head to bed, it’s been a long night for all of us…”
“We can discuss what to do with him tomorrow after he’s had a good breakfast and a shower.” Survey declared, heading for one of the bedrooms.
“Ughh, fine… Don’t expect me to get up in the middle of the night if he cries from a nightmare…” Click grunted, heading towards the bathroom to freshen up before bed.
“G’night guys.” Vid yawned, heading to the bedroom with Survey.
The four of them decided that Click and Banner would sleep in one bedroom, Vid and Survey would sleep in the other bedroom, leaving Spamton the guest room to himself to allow him to sleep better and give him a bit of privacy and independence. Banner was concerned that Spamton would try to take off again in the middle of the night, so as a precaution, they had locked the bedroom windows and locked the door, hoping that might slow him down enough to where they could catch him.
“Do you think he’ll be alright alone in there?” Survey asked Vid, brushing the fur on his head.
“He lived on his own in the garbage for years, I’m sure one night in a bed won’t make a difference on his health.” Vid answered, climbing into his side of the bed.
“I guess you’re right.” Survey agreed, turning the lights out and climbing into bed too.
“Click, try not to be so blunt around Spamton tomorrow, he’s clearly still upset about what we did, and I know you’re still mad at him… But now is not the time to talk about that, his health needs to come first.” Banner confronts, changing into a nightgown.
“Look, I just don’t think he’s being grateful for our help-” Click started, but was cut off.
“Click, enough! I don’t want to hear another word out of you, you have no idea what kind of pain and suffering he went through living in the streets… unless you’d like to know firsthand tonight… Now go to bed.” Banner scolded, climbing into bed and ripping the covers more to their side, not leaving Click with much.
“Okay okay, jeez…” Click muttered, giving up on the conversation and climbing into bed, turning the light off. “Atleast I can still get my beauty rest.”
The four of them slowly shut their eyes and eventually lulled into sleep from the night silence.
- - -
*GRRROOWWWRRLLL*
Click’s eyes shot open and realized where the strange sound was coming from. Of course, it had to be Spamton… He let out a frustrated groan and pushed the pillow his head was lying on into his ears. Banner simply tried to ignore it and kept their eyes shut. Survey had been woken up by the noise, but just rolled over and shut his eyes again. Vid… didn’t notice, and was too deep into sleep, snoring with his rear end in the air and one leg off the bed. Click sighed and sat up, knowing he most likely wouldn’t be able to get back to sleep. He turned to the clock, only three hours had passed. Dammit.
*GRRRGRRRRLLLL*
Suddenly Click started to climb out of bed, about to storm into Spamton’s room in frustration, when he felt something grab him.
“Let it go…Go back to bed…” Banner mumbled, lightly grabbing Click’s arm and giving him a tug.
“Banner, I can’t sleep with all this noise! His stomach is so fucking loud...” Click complained, picking up his pillow and pressing it aggressively against his ears again.
“Do you want to live in a dumpster with nothing to eat this week and sleep in the cold too?” Banner sternly asked.
“N-Nooo? Of course not!” Click replied, his face changing from irritated to hesitant when he saw Banner’s face turn to him.
“Then two words: Shut. Up.” Banner snarled, giving Click a serious look. “Or I’ll make it happen…” They turned back around and fell back asleep.
Click got the message and decided to try and sleep through the noise. He was quite the light sleeper, and any noise that wasn’t a white noise machine tended to wake him up. He climbed back into bed, kept the pillow pressed against his ears and turned to his side, trying to get into a more comfortable position. He thought perhaps he could try counting some tasques jumping over the Queen’s vases to help him relax enough to rest again. He counted one, two, three, four, five, six, spaghetti code, a CD bagel, a Butler juice- what? His eyes shot open as his thoughts about tasques turned into thoughts about food, leading to his own stomach to start gurgling at him for a midnight snack.
“Shut the fuck up…” Click grumbled, ignoring his belly, pulling the covers up and shutting his eyes tight, eventually drifting back to sleep after a few tosses and turns.
- - -
Morning soon rolled around and the four Addisons stretched their way out of bed. Click didn’t get much of a wink of sleep while the others were decently rested. Vid quickly got out of bed to go brush his hair and teeth while Survey got dressed in his Sunday best. Banner put on a robe and headed for the kitchen to make a few pots of coffee for everyone and begin making some cinnamon toast. Click reluctantly stumbled out of bed, rubbing the now visible dark circles under his eyes, and shuffled into the bathroom. Once everyone was done getting ready for the morning, they headed to the kitchen where Banner greeted them with a good morning and a cup of coffee. Spamton was the last to wake up, slowly crawling his way out of the opening of the blanket wraps. The inside was stained with dirt from his clothes. He stepped down from the bed and wandered over to the door, reaching up for the handle. Despite his size only being a couple feet shorter than his friends, things around him just always seemed taller. He jiggled the handle to find it stuck in a lock position. He was worried that he had gotten stuck in the room without realizing it, so he started to turn the handle over and over a bit more aggressively. Banner overheard the door handle noises and walked over to unlock it, bending down to Spamton’s level.
“Morning Spamton, did you sleep well?” Banner asked, smiling.
“U-Uhhh…Y-Yeah, I feel a bit [RECHARGE COMPLETE]...” Spamton stuttered.
“Good, now c’mon. I made some coffee, I’m sure you could use the caffeine.” Banner said, taking Spamton’s hand and leading him to the kitchen.
At first Spamton kept his head down, not exactly wanting to look his friends in the eyes, he knew they were most likely mad at him for his behavior during his big shot days. He wanted to quickly come up with something to say to them just to break the ice and lessen the tension, but his voice was caught in his throat. He felt like all eyes were on him when he walked into the kitchen with Banner, but he was correct, all eyes were on him.
“Mornin’ Spam.” Vid greeted, taking a bite out of some toast.
“Feel a little better?” Survey asked, sipping some tea.
“Sleep well?...” Click questioned, sarcasm lingering in his voice.
Spamton nodded, keeping his eyes to the floor.
*Grrrooowwwrrllll*
The four of them all were startled at the sudden noise, but ultimately tried not to directly confront him about it right away. Banner smiled and let his hand go, headed toward the stove, and grabbed a pan from the cabinet. They snapped their fingers and Vid reached into the fridge, handing them a carton of eggs.
“Well, a good morning to you too!” Survey chuckled, ruffling Spamton’s hair.
“That’s quite a noise, Spammy!” Vid giggled, patting his own belly.
“A bit too noisy if you ask me…” Click muttered under his breath while sipping his coffee.
“Spamton, what would you like for breakfast? Scrambled eggs, pancakes, some cinnamon toast? I’ll make you whatever you want.” Banner offered, turning their head to smile at him.
It was at this moment that Spamton walked over to the coffee pot and grabbed the mug Banner had left for him, taking a small sip. All four of them stared at him, waiting for his answer, knowing most likely he was going to ask for a Queen buffet. But to their surprise…
“Y-You don’t need to [SLAVE LABOR] away to make me a [$1.99 MCGRIDDLE], I’ll be [ALL SET] with a coffee…” Spamton replied.
“I knew he wouldn’t want anything…” Click complained.
“B-But Spam, you didn’t want to eat dinner last night, and who knows when you ate last!” Survey countered with worry.
“Aren’t you starving though?” Vid asked.
“Please Spammy, at least have some cinnamon toast or something, you’re not well…” Banner begged, bending down to Spamton’s level.
“[NO]! I’m fine! Now leave me [ALONE ON A LATE NIGHT?]...” Spamton yelled, strutting away from the Addisons and headed over to the balcony.
The four of them watched as Spamton opened the balcony glass door and stepped out, rustling his free hand in his pocket. Vid got down from the counter and walked toward the balcony, peeking at what Spamton was doing. To his surprise, he watched as Spamton pulled out a broken cigarette and a lighter from his pocket and began to light himself a drag. It took Vid aback, he had no idea that Spamton smoked. It was something Addisons would greatly avoid getting into as they tend to have very addictive personalities.
“S-Spam? Are you… smoking?” Vid stuttered.
“I’m sorry, WHAT!?” Click yelled from across the room.
“It’s just a [HOBBY LOBBY] I picked up at the [ROYAL HOUSE], I don’t [TAKE ‘EM DOWN] that often, why?” Spamton replied, taking another hit.
“Spammy, that’s not good for you, don’t you know how addictive that stuff is to Addisons!?” Survey warned, approaching the balcony.
“It’s nothing to [WORRY WORRY WORRY] about, I know [WTF] I’m doing, get off my [BABY BACK RIBS]!” Spamton argued.
It was at this moment that the Addisons had seen enough. They knew it wasn’t going to be easy trying to care for Spamton with his stubbornness and pride, but seeing him trying to skip breakfast with a coffee and a smoke when they’re offering him anything he wanted in his condition was what broke the camel’s back. Click, Survey, and Vid stood tall over him, their arms crossed and glaring beady eyes. Typically Addisons never show their eyes, so to have all four of them reveal their eyes meant business. Banner took it upon themself to step over to Spamton, take the cigarette from his hand, and put the flame out with their fingers.
“HEY! That was my [99% OFF MERCHANDISE]!��� Spamton snarled, trying to jump up and reach for it.
“Spamton, this behavior is unacceptable. We’re not going to take your prideful attitude anymore, you are in no position to refuse or argue. We have been very patient letting you decompress your feelings towards us, and we’ve held our tongues about what you did years ago. We gave you a place to sleep tonight, and you show us no respect or a thank you. And we are certainly not going to allow you to have just a coffee and a cigarette for breakfast. We’re going to make you a proper breakfast whether you like it or not.” Banner told him sternly.
“NO! You’re not making me an [ALL-YOU-CAN-EAT BUFFET]! I [REFUSE] to [CONSUME] it!” Spamton tantrumed, stomping his foot.
“Hrmm, a buffet… That sounds even better!” Vid brainstormed.
“Yes, I agree. Let’s get to work!” Banner smiled standing back up. “I’ll make the scrambled eggs, Vid you make the pancakes, Survey you make the breakfast meats, and Click, make him some fresh squeezed orange juice!”
“Right!” they all agreed and headed towards the kitchen, Spamton following behind them in a fit.
“[STOP] IT! I DON’T WANT [WAKEY WAKEY EGGS AND BAKEY]!” he aggressively pouted, trying to kick their legs as they cooked.
Vid got the griddle warmed up and began to prepare some chocolate chip and blueberry pancakes, as he couldn’t decide which one to make. Click cut the oranges they had in the fruit bowl in half and began to wring them out, straining the pulp from the juice. Survey got the bacon and sausage from the fridge and placed the sausages a few at a time in the pan to fry them and put the bacon in the oven to crisp. Banner was busy seasoning the eggs with pixel salt and cheese while they melted some butter in a pan to add to their flavors. Spamton alternates between them all, kicking and punching, screaming and biting, snarling and protesting. But it was all for naught. They were too busy and focused to pay attention to his arguments, and he was too hungry to really do any damage to them. In fact, Spamton only managed to fight them for about 30 seconds before growing too exhausted to continue. Eventually he gave up trying to stop them and just laid down on the couch, trying to catch his breath and calm the achy, empty feeling in his stomach. Despite how hungry he was, he was still determined not to accept their help and keep the remainder of the dignity he thought was in threat. It was hard for him to resist the sweet and savory smells coming from the kitchen, he couldn’t help but peek at their progress over the couch. It looks like they were almost done cooking as they started to plate the food up. He started to panic, worried that they were going to force him to eat, so he decided that he would have to hide long enough for them to give up looking for him, then he could make his move out of the apartment. Spamton ran out of the living room and into one of the Addison’s bedrooms, crawling under their bed.
“C’mon Spammy, time to eat!” Banner called for him.
“You better come and eat this, we worked very hard to cook it all!” Click yelled.
“Spamton?” Survey muttered, peeking out of the kitchen.
“Shit, where’d he go?” Vid wondered, looking around the living room.
“Spamton, don’t do this, it’s for your own good.” Banner groaned, checking under the couch.
“Don’t worry, we’ll find you Spammy, you can’t hide forever…” Click whispered, peeking behind the curtains.
‘Heh heh, they’ll never find me under here…’ Spamton thought, but suddenly felt the empty feeling shift. He held his belly tight with his hands. ‘Oh no, please not now!’
But it was too late.
*GRRROOWWWRRLLLL*
“Aha! Found you!” Click laughed, violently pulling the covers up and grabbing Spamton’s legs.
“[AAAAAHHHHHH]!!!” Spamton screamed, gripping the carpet as hard as he could.
Click pulled Spamton from under the bed, there were claw marks left in the carpet. He began to flail in Click’s arms, but he wasn’t going to let him go. Vid and Survey soon joined him and grabbed a different part of Spamton, leaving him virtually unable to escape now.
“Stop fighting!” Vid commanded, struggling to hold Spamton’s right arm.
“Stay still!” Survey instructed, struggling to hold Spamton’s left arm.
“This is happening whether you want it to or not!” Click roared, struggling to hold Spamton’s body.
“Here Click, sit down at the table and hold him in your lap, I’ve got the plates all set.” Banner told the three of them.
“Okay okay!” the three of them replied, Click sitting down and keeping Spamton on his lap.
Survey stood behind Click and kept Spamton’s arms behind him so he couldn’t try to slap them or the fork away. Vid stood next to Banner as they prepared the first plateful; it contained four pancakes, some scrambled eggs, and a few pieces of bacon. They sat next to Click and got a forkful of a blueberry pancake slice ready.
“Now open your mouth, Spammy dear~” Banner ordered Spamton, waving the fork in his face.
“[#&$&] YOU!!! [#&$&] YOU [#&$&] YOU [#&$&] YOU!!!” Spamton screamed through his tightly clamped teeth, not wanting to allow Banner to feed him.
Banner sighed. “Fine… I didn’t want it to come to this… Vid, pry his mouth open.”
“WHAT!? I’m not putting my fingers near that bear trap, he’ll bite them clean off!” Vid refused.
“Just grab the garden gloves from the closet, he shouldn’t be able to bite you through them.” Banner instructed, tilting their head towards the closet in the hallway.
“Alright alright, I’ll do it.” Vid replied, running to the hallway.
“[QMDSLMLZJ] [FIOEWSYOFWEU] [HFJNKSNFSDG]!!!” Spamton cursed, a faint bit of foam coming out of the corners of his mouth.
“Don’t worry Spammy, you’ll feel better in a moment.” Banner reassured.
After a minute of struggling and cursing, Spamton soon found himself too exhausted to resist again, but managed to keep his mouth firmly shut. His stomach bubbled and churned from the sudden burst of movements and prolonged empty feeling, which made him feel quite nauseous, draining his energy quickly. He went a bit limp in the Addison’s grips.
“Urrrgghhh… s-so [SEASICK] and [FRAGILE GOODS]...” he mumbled weakly.
“Shhhh, breathe Spamton.” Banner whispered to him, scratching the top of his head.
“I got the gloves!” Vid announced, stepping back into the room wearing them.
“Good, now quick while he’s distracted!” Banner told him, readying the forkful.
Spamton let out a pathetic whimper as Vid began to stick his gloved hands into his mouth. Slowly but surely Vid managed to wiggle his gloved hands through his teeth far enough to be able to start separating his jaws.
“NnnnnooooOOOOOOOO!” Spamton whined as his mouth was pried open.
“Agh-! Okay, I got it!” Vid grunted, his hands shaking from the fight Spamton was putting up.
Banner quickly stuck the forkful into Spamton’s mouth before he managed to clamp his teeth back down. Vid shrieked and jumped back, saving his fingers from being caught. Spamton wretched a bit from the aggressively inserted pancake, but Banner quickly covered his mouth before he could cough it up.
“Nope! I’m not going to let you spit it out, now chew and swallow it! They commanded, their eyes growing more stern as their patience finally ran out.
Spamton shook his head back and forth, trying to get Banner’s hand off his mouth. His tongue strained to keep to the back of his throat and not taste the pancake slice too much. The syrup dripped to the back of his throat and coated his tongue with its sweetness, eventually leading him to taste it a bit more. The sugar in the syrup caused his mind to be flooded with bursts of serotonin, which encouraged him to accept the food. Cautiously he started to chew the pancake, the taste of blueberry intensifying with each rotation to both sides of his mouth. Spamton began to relax in the Addison’s grip and enjoy the food, his belly anxiously awaiting for the first bite. He hesitated to swallow, worried that he would lose what dignity he thought he had left. But eventually he couldn’t wait any longer…
*Gulp*
Banner took their hand off of Spamton’s mouth when they were satisfied he had eaten the first slice. They scratched Spamton’s head and ruffled his hair.
“Good job, buddy…Now, would you like some more?” Banner softly asked him.
Spamton smiled a bit and Banner prepared another forkful, this time getting some scrambled eggs, and then sausage, and then alternating through all three options. He was finally taking the bites of food voluntarily, relishing in all of the delicious flavors. Banner was confident after a dozen mouthfuls that Spamton wasn’t going to run and that he would be comfortable eating without having to be restrained.
“Let him go, I think we should let him finish on his own.” Banner instructed, placing the fork down next to Spamton’s plate.
“If you say so…” Click mumbled, putting Spamton in the chair where he was sitting before.
“Got it.” Survey nodded, letting Spamton’s arms go.
“Eat as much as you want, Spam~” Banner chuckled, patting Spamton on the shoulder, and leaving him to it.
“Thank you…” Spamton answered, picking up the fork and digging in.
Click, Survey, and Vid walked to the living room and sat down on the couch to watch the morning news. Banner stayed at the opposite end of the table, watching as Spamton was having his fill. One by one, the pancakes disappeared into his awaiting belly, along with each sausage link. Soon the eggs were all gone, and he was washing it all down with the homemade orange juice. It all tasted so phenomenal, slowly filling his belly more and more with goodness. A small little paunch began to form under Spamton’s sweater, peeking out from the bottom like a balloon. Banner noticed Spamton’s frame going from concave to convex, and they smiled warmly, knowing that his body was finally showing signs of healing. Soon he was done with his first plate, and he picked it up and held it out towards Banner.
“C-Can I have [10 SECONDS LEFT]?” Spamton begged with wide puppy eyes.
“Of course, we made this buffet for you after all!” Banner nodded, taking the plate and filling it with another healthy portion.
Spamton took back the plate and dug right in, with no change in his pace. He was still practically inhaling the breakfast down, barely chewing it sometimes. It was just as delicious as the last one, maybe even better as he knew what flavors to expect. His belly continued to expand under his sweater, the bottom opening slowly riding up towards his chest. The bacon this time was the first to go, then the pancakes, then the eggs and sausage. Each mouthful swallowed made his belly jut out a centimeter more, and soon it was time for the third plate. Banner didn’t hold back and kept the portion the same, it probably wasn’t good for Spamton to be eating this much at once, but this meal was a bit of an exception, he had gone without something nourishing for a long time, it was probably the right call to not hold him back. Third plate gone, his belly starting to rise above the table. Banner decided to ease up on the portion a bit with the fourth plate now that they could see Spamton’s stomach rising up like the sun in the Lion King, plus he was slowing down a bit. Spamton didn’t care how much was on the plate, so long as he could shove it down his gullet. Click, Survey, and Vid eventually got bored of the news and decided to check on Spamton.
“Hey buddy, how you- whoa…” Survey stopped, bewildered by the amount of food missing.
“Wow, that’s amazing, not even I can eat all that!” Vid laughed, patting Spamton on the back.
“Okay, I guess that’s impressive.” Click smirked, getting an eyeful of Spamton’s paunch.
“Feeling full yet, or do you want one more plate?” Banner asked him.
“[ONE MORE TIME], please…” Spamton huffed, his belly straining against the table.
“Here, why don’t you eat it in a more comfortable position?” Survey offered, pulling the chair out and helping him step down to the floor.
“Oh yeah, let’s bring him to the couch!” Vid squealed, running back to his spot.
“We’ll even help you finish it…” Banner whispered to him, leading him to a spot they left for him.
“Wait, what are we doing?” Click questioned with confusion.
The Addisons sat on the couch together with Spamton in the middle of them all. Banner and Survey were right beside him, while Vid and Click sat on the outside. Survey picked up a piece of bacon and waved it by Spamton’s mouth, to which he opened up and the piece was inserted. Then it was Vid’s turn, he took a slice of pancake and fed it to him. Meanwhile Banner took the opportunity to help Spamton relax more and help his belly digest everything he had eaten with a nice massage, rubbing smooth circles into his fluffy pillowy skin. Spamton purred deeply, munching away each mouthful fed to him, they again alternated which food was fed to him, until all the plates were empty. A few last gulps of the orange juice to wash it down, and Spamton was done with breakfast. His sweater had risen up to the top of his chest, his belly round and profounder than ever before, even during his big shot days when he was eating like royalty. Banner gave it a little kiss and nuzzled it softly.
“I hope you can forgive us for making you have breakfast…” Banner told him.
“Are you [KIDDIE]ing me? I… can’t [THANK YOU] enough for [SAVE]ing my [$4.99 LIFE]...” Spamton replied, melting into the couch in comfort.
“You’d better be thankful, you-” Click started, but was cut off by Banner.
“Don’t.”
Click quickly shut his mouth and took a minute to rethink his answer.
“I-I… I’m glad you’re doing better… When are you going to shower? I don’t wanna come off as rude, but… you still reek.” Click asked, his nose wrinkling up from the stench reappearing once the smell of breakfast and coffee was gone.
“I can [SLIP AND SLIDE] now if you [WANT IT? NEED IT? BUY NOW!]...” Spamton replied, looking down at his belly, realizing it’ll probably be a struggle to stand for very long..
“Why don’t you first focus on digesting your meal? I’m sure your body will appreciate taking it a bit easy for once.” Banner offered instead. “You can shower in an hour or two.”
“Thanks, [YOUR AD HERE]...” Spamton sighed, his eyes slowly drooping from exhaustion and from the massage Banner was giving him.
The five of them smiled together for the first time in a long time, and got closer together on the couch as they watched the remainder of the morning news. Even though Spamton had allowed them to help him today, he knew the longer he stuck around, the closer the day would come that he would have to apologize for his behavior and step off his pride pedestal. There was no way in Cyber hell he wanted to face that day. He would soon have to plan a way to escape their apartment without them knowing, but for now, he felt content and safe enough to be vulnerable around them, and let his body recover a bit from the years of hardship and depression. As he laid back on the couch, his belly slowly rose up and down in his lap as he took some deep breaths. It was a little rosy at the center from being so taut, and the seams were a bit more visible. It was so cozy, so warm, he missed this feeling so much… Safety, friendship, love… He just wished that it didn’t have to go so soon, but his pride was just too stubborn…
#spamton deltarune#spamton#spamtongspamton#spamton g spamton#spamtom#spamtum#deltarune addisons#addisons#addison#deltarune chapter two#deltarune chapter 2#deltarunefanart#deltarune#deltarune fanart#spamtondeltarune#stuffedtummy#stuffedbelly#stuffing#hurt/comfort#force fed#pink addison#blue addison#yellow addison#orange addison
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spamton downloads malware and for a week whenever he opens his mouth a siren starts playing
That's just his natural state
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