#who for starters is not a [redacted for the sake of me not having to add trigger tags to this post]. unlike him.

[rominasaintofthebud]

i just got madder than i have in months because i saw a post arguing that we should have "more nuance" abt a particular character and one of the things that got said was about how the character "randomly" becomes abusive in one of the routes and its like. no actually. he didnt Randomly get that trait. that route reveals hes been abusive the whole time. hes doing that in all the routes. and you didnt know. because the person he was abusing didnt want you to know. which like. the whole point of that route. is to reveal the shit thats been going on that you didnt know about. like the Whole Point

[pampanope]

Story time!

The origin of Red11~ posted here because it’s too long for the discord server💀

Emile ([REDACTED]) belongs to @kings-out-of-pocket-hell

Efren|7-11 (here in spirit lol) is mine~

Guest starring Russell Adler✨

——————-

Emile watched his scarred mentor lay flat three manila folders, each of varying thickness. The room was of the sterile variety that Langley as whole was fond of with nothing but the blandest tables and folding chairs.

He leaned forward, eyes filled with unbridled delight. The bland setting did nothing to dampen the excitement bubbling in his chest.

Finally, after years of lectures, rigorous physical conditioning, the marksmanship training, lessons on field craft, torture resistance, and the skepticism from his peers, this is it. No more tagging along on an op, no more hanging back when shit got interesting. His first operation as lead.

As if sensing the glee coursing through him, Adler raised a brow from across the table. The older man tapped at the middle folder to direct Emile’s attention, which, in Emile’s opinion, was completely unnecessary. He‘d never been this locked in.

“I’ve got a job for you,” Adler began. “Something I trust you can handle. We have the location of a suspected terrorist cell, embedded deep inside a mountain, too deep for satellites to confirm. You’re gonna have to go in and get visual and signal confirmation, as well as the layout of the compound.” The man paused, placing a thick folder on the table. It was heftier than the other three. “Here’s the full brief. Memorize it.”

Emile gave the thick brief the barest glance before immediately snapping his eyes back to the first three folders. Yeah, no. That’s not what he’s here for.

Actually, technically, it was what he woke up at the ass crack of dawn for. But it’s not what he wants. Not really.

Adler chuckled beneath his breath. “Fine, I see how it is.”

“‘Course you do. You’ve got me on pins and needles here, old man,” Emile grinned, “don’t keep me in suspense. Gimme.” The blonde crept a hand towards the rightmost folder. It was lightly smacked away by the other man.

Adler pinched the bridge of his in exasperation. “Kid, you’re being assigned an asset. It’s no big deal. This is a standard component of field operations.”

Nope. Adler wasn’t gonna dress this down as something mundane. “Yes, it is...But! Only fully trained intelligence officers get to be Handlers. Which means I am now a fully fledged intel officer. Today I’m getting my government sanctioned Scary Dog privilege. I’m over the fucking moon, sir.”

Adler, for his part, sighed and leaned back in his seat, as if drained by the exchange. He took a long sip of what must be lukewarm coffee, before making a ‘have at it motion’ with his free hand.

Emile snatched the rightmost file his hand had crept towards earlier. Azure eyes scanned every detail, eating up the feast of personal intel before him, all of it laid bare to pick at and examine within the palace of his mind. He sank into the deep concentration he’d adopted for analysis.

Huh. No photos. Not even a name, Emile mused. Must be to eliminate all bias. Relax, Adler. Pretty privilege won’t be a factor here.

The master, meanwhile, silently watched his protege work. He observed the younger man shuffle through page after page, folder to folder, noted which of the dossiers he spent the longest time examining.

Adler had his own guess as to who the younger would pick.

“Well? Your thoughts?” Adler asked after what he felt should’ve been enough time had passed.

Emile blinked, seemingly resurfacing from the depths. He stretched languidly before placing all sheets of paper in their proper folders.

“This is exactly what I imagined choosing my first starter Pokemon would feel like.”

“…I’m gonna pretend I understand what you said for the sake of moving on.”

Emile chuckled. “Heh. Sorry. Couldn’t help it.” He carded a hand through his hair briefly.

“Okay, to start with,” he pushed the file to the left the slightest bit but forward, “this one’s skilled, as expected. Service record’s impeccable and squeaky clean. He’s shiny. Perfect. Boring.” The blonde waves a dismissive hand.

“Boring?” Adler tilted his head, a clear order to elaborate.

Emile tapped at the table in thought. “Boring, as in the guy’s record may be stellar, but his résumé’s full of the basic ‘breach a target building and spray everything with bullets’ kind of work, which I’m sure he’s very good at, but I need more nuance, more variety. I also get the impression subtlety is lost on him and he won’t be finding it anytime soon.”

“Hm. Next?” Adler asked.

Odd. The man would normally needle him for more.

“Right…” Emile eyed the other with suspicion. He pushed the middle file forward. “This one? I hate to say this, it’s such a ridiculous nitpick, but he’s a bit of a yes man. I don’t need or want one. If I happen to fuck up, i need someone to set me straight. Get in my face about it. Everything else about him is great. Really. But…not what I want.”

He was being picky, sure, but he wasn’t gonna leave anything to chance. He needed someone with a spine, someone who won’t let themselves get steamrolled by him.

Again, Adler gave a noncommittal answer, this time a grunt of acknowledgment, and motioned for him to get to the final dossier.

Just like previously, that seemed too easy. Emile began to suspect something was afoot. If it was anyone else sitting before him, alarm bells would’ve been ringing in his head by now; and yes that’s a wild statement considering the reputation of the man before him.

Emile glanced at the final dossier, his right hand splayed wide over it like a possessive spider over captured prey. He’d saved the interesting one for last.

“This one,” Emile pushed the last dossier towards the center after sweeping the rejects aside, “Clearly, like the last two, his record’s fantastic; several successful missions, solo and team, as well as variety in his skillset and experiences. His evals paint him to be a free thinker when necessary yet easily falls into line and can take orders. When you put all this together, this guy pulls ahead of the others by a small margin… ”

“But..?” Adler prompted, shifting forward in his seat.

Although Emile couldn’t see the man’s eyes, shielded behind Oakleys as they were, he felt the heat of them. Years of exposure had never made them any less unsettling.

“I noticed some strikes against him on an otherwise impressive record.” Emiles pulled the relevant page out of the folder. “Guy’s got a record of violent outbursts and—-well, reports of him ripping out two men’s throats. Two. I have questions.”

”Of course you do.” Adler, the bastard, didn’t bother to hide the smugness coloring his voice. “The torn throats happened during a raid two years into his time as a vanilla Marine, very close quarters. He’d been jumped and lost his firearm in the scuffle, but managed to dispatch both—“

“Wait, I’m sorry, ‘both’? As in, within the same instance? He chomped two throats, in a row? Consecutively?!” What the fuck. Why am I fixated on this?

“You’re fixated on this.”

Shit.

“No. Nope. It’s just…impressive is all. Please, continue,” said Emile. He fought off the sudden urge to press a hand against his throat.

The scarred man obviously didn’t fall for his bullshit with how the corner of his mouth was lifted. “The violent outbursts, on the other hand, were actually two separate instances. Well…more like cases than instances,” Adler said.

“Yeah?” Emile asked,leaned closer.

“The first case happened during his early days of basic. A couple of recruits from his cohort thought it would be cute to mess with the moody guy. Repeatedly. Moody guy had enough and sent them to the infirmary.”

Emile let out a low whistle at that. A spine. This was promising. “Nice. And the powers that be at the time didn’t boot him from the Marines?” Honestly, beating the crap out of your bullies screamed devil dog behavior, really on brand of them.

“No need.” Oh. That was a full blown smirk on Adler’s face. Holy shit. “Kid got squared away and humbled by a passing spec ops operator at the behest of a drill instructor. He’s been well behaved and obedient ever since. Mostly.”

Wow. Note to future self: conduct an extensive, invasive background check of this guy’s past. Because he needs more, dammit. And he’s the goddamn CIA now, no need to jump through hoops to unlock someone’s backstory.

“That’s one. What about the second case?” Emile found himself mentally cataloging the gear they’d be needing. Heh. I guess I’ve made my mind up.

Adler downed the last of his, now frigid, coffee before continuing. “The second happened a year into his time as a Force Recon operator. Heard a rumor about a Captain abusing his rank to coerce members of the lower ranks into acts of…that nature.”

The younger scowled. Jesus.

Adler nodded. “Yes, Exactly. Our guy caught this captain in the act with one of his fellow squad mates. From the official reports I’ve read, that officer was absolutely mauled.”

Emile took in a ragged breath. Just what exactly are you gifting me, Adler? Because… “Okay but this time, he had to have been punished severely.”

“Three month’s suspension,” the other man chuckled, “a slap on the wrist. They couldn’t punish our guy in a meaningful way for this, the optics would be terrible. Not to mention the uproar it would cause among the enlisted. But they had to do something.” Adler shrugged. “So, slap on the wrist it was.”

Emile let out a bark of laughter, giddy and light with elation. He took a deep breath, leaned back in his seat, mind warm and fuzzy, and closed his eyes for a moment before speaking.

“I want him. Gimme the spicy one.”

I want him. I want the one who’s gonna literally fight tooth and nail to survive when the odds are stacked against him. I want the one who’s gonna take matters into his violent, vicious hands when a comrade can’t protect themselves. I want all of that for myself. I’ll be the one to hold his leash. I’m gonna point all that teeth and violence at the enemy. He’s dangerous. But screw safe. Safe doesn’t get shit done. It’s why I’m here.

Emile thought of Oscar. He thought of how he’d gladly suffer countless sentences for him if it meant keeping him safe.

“Heh.”

The younger man blinked. ”Eh?” Whoops. He’d been fantasizing about the new murder puppy. In front of Adler. Fuck.

Adler snorted. “Good to know you approve of this one. I won’t have to tell the Marines to cancel all the arrangements made.”

Emile stared down the smug face across the table.

“…You’re a bastard, you know that?” he asked in disbelief. “Why even ask me to go through the others? Did I even have a choice?”

Adler stood, gathering the two rejected folders. “Yes. If you chose any of the other two, I’d have taken care of it. But I know you. You were never gonna take them. I knew you wanted someone who matched you psychologically. But you had to make that decision for yourself.”

Great, Emile thought. His mentor knew him enough to find the right candidate to match his freak. The man should consider matchmaking as a side hustle if the CIA no longer worked out.

“Here,” Adler said, sliding a small photo towards Emile. “A peace offering for bamboozling you. It was fun.”

“Tch. I was not bamboozled.“ Emile muttered. He snatched the offered photo eagerly.

Oh.

Oooh.

Maybe Adler made the right call withholding photos. Impartiality would’ve been thrown out the window.

Pretty, was Emile’s immediate impression. The eyes in the photo were fierce, the hair a non-regulation mess, and a beauty mark sat at the corner of the left eye. Emile then noticed the name scribbled in Adler’s neat handwriting.

Efren Torres Aldrich.

Efren. EfrenEfrenEfren. Heh. Effy. Emile ran a reverent thumb over dark eyes, wondering what they would see once they’ve peered into his own dark blue. He gently tucked the photo into his shirt pocket, a hot brand nestled against his heart.

Adler slid the neglected brief closer to Emile. “Like I said, memorize it. You’ll meet him tomorrow at Langley Air Force base, 0500.” He gathered his empty mug, files tucked under arm, before reaching over to ruffle Emile’s hair. “Don’t scare the poor guy away, kid. I actually put effort into pairing you with someone who’d watch your back.”

Emile let warmth wash over him as he leaned into the affectionate touch. “I make no promises,” he teased. Hm. Would Efren like having a hand in his hair, too?

He felt Adler make his way towards the door as he settled in, ready for hours of reading, careful planning, deciding which insertion points would be the least detectable, which exfil routes were the least hazardous in all that mountain terrain, maybe study a topographical map of the area, and if he needed to make contact with a trustworthy local source to have—

“Emile.”

Deep blue eyes blinked into awareness, mind resurfacing.

“Yeah?”

From the open doorway, Adler gazed at Emile. The man appeared to consider something.

“Good luck out there. Remember…” Adler paused, voice heavy with faint emotion the younger man can’t quite identify, “as handler you’re responsible for the well being and, to an extent, actions of your asset in the field. Call the shots and he’ll follow. Got it?”

Somber and pensive Adler was a rare creature, one Emile wasn’t well versed in dealing with even after years of knowing the man.

“Understood,” Emile said, nodding, matching the other man’s tone.

The mood possessing Adler was gone in an instant. He gave a brusque nod before shutting the door.

I’m gonna steal his jacket when I get back, Emile thought fondly with a chuckle as he went back to reading. And gotta have all my prep finished early enough so that dear Efren won’t have to put up with my sleep deprived whining.

Emile spent the rest of the day quietly poring over mission intel, hand occasionally reaching to cup his throat.

[captainfightingflower]

Y’know what annoys me? Most Trivia Murder Party fans. If you feel like you belong in the most category and/or feel like you’re going to be attacked by reading this: please do not read further, this isn’t designed to be an attack on anyone, but i do not sugarcoat my feelings one bit ether. Now for the rest of you who are interested in reading out my very long vent about my distain for the fandom’s babification of TMP & TMP 2: click “Keep reading” instead. (But be warned: my words are venomous to the ill prepared.)

Now this isn’t talking about ALL of them: i mean for starters, i have no qualms with the majority of Russian Trivia Murder Party fans, since they actually stay quite true to the themes of the source material, i’m talking about the actual children who take this game that’s themed around horror and death and turn it into a children’s show!

Like the amount of poll vaulting these children do with their headcannons to remove everything that’s scary or even SLIGHTLY violent about the Trivia Murder Party series deserves an Olympic medal. There’s a joke about masturbating in a cemetery for Pete’s sake! The “not family friendly” tag is there for a reason.

I mean not only do they infantilize the host, turning them from a quirky individual who can be incredibly threatening when they want to be to just “uwu stabby stabby”, but they also somehow manage to infantilize the VICTIMS! Y’know, the voodoo dolls that are meant to represent you, the player behind the phone?

And i mean i have nothing against giving the victims a little personality, but like...god these guys treat The Jester like they are an actual infant! If i was shot everytime i saw a “Jeter likes cheese” post; it’d be a miracle if i was still alive! And why do you guys ship them with The Sheriff of all victims?!? I just don’t get that, never did and probably never will. Not to mention how much they downplay some victims like Lust, Pride, Gluttony or Despair, to the point where they don’t even resemble their sins anymore!

Now let me tell you about these headcannons. First of all: the whole “they get turned into the dolls” pisses me off SO MUCH! Every time i see this happen, it just RUINS my enjoyment then and there. The only reason why these kids even headcannon this is because acknowledging the fact that whenever a doll get’s shot, or stabbed, or thrown into a blender: there’s supposed to be a human that’s getting mystically mangled like the doll! And since any blood whatsoever is too scary for them to handle, they would rather turn people into dolls or completely remove the voodoo from voodoo doll. Because god forbit a piece of media run by a serial killer have blood!

And don’t get me started on the shit-show that is Schmitty X [REDACTED]. The amount of hurdles these babies jump to justify that this is a healthy relationship and not abusive stockholm syndrome is frankly disgusting. Now it’s one thing to base your ship entirely around the original Trivia Murder Party, where they are just friends and shipping them wouldn’t be problematic. And it’s another thing to ship them and make it an abusive one. But...god...god these kids are so insistent that ether 

A. It’s all fake, and that the trauma Schmitty is going through is just coincidental (which i find to be a copout that does not make sense, especially if you add the fact that they believe YDKJ: FS’s ETS is fully real [which i’ve already made a post about my gripes with that]).

B. He forgave him after realizing that it was his friend who kidnapped and tortured him for actual years (which is much worse).

C. TMP Killer kidnapped him because they were attracted to him (which is not only significantly more worse, but also what the fuck are you implying with that).

Or D. All of the above (which does not make ANY sense and violently contradicts itself).

I don’t get why these kids want to back Schmitty up in a love corner with Cookie Masterson & the Trivia Murder Party killer, when cutting him out and shipping “Murderson” instead is infinitely better! (No i do not ship Cookie X [REDACTED], if you were wondering; i’m just pointing out the obvious).

I mean where’s the violence? The angst you guys love so much?! What’s stopping you from drawing gore of the series that’s just BEGGING for it?!?! It seriously reminds me of the Creepypasta fandom or the Five Night’s at Freddy’s fandom, but at least with those two: i can actually FIND gore and angst about it! I have 3.81 GB of JUST Trivia Murder Party content stored in my Fun & Games drive, and barely ANY of it has even the SLIGHEST bit of blood or the MODICUM of angst!

Honestly i just wish that these children would grow up and start making some content that’s actually true to the source material of the game they claim to love so much.

[asmr-analyst]

an update on my last post (about the geordi video), probably a little ranty (tldr: that was more distressing than i expected!)

For starters, the voice acting in that was stellar. Don’t know why Erik has such a talent for acting out distress and crying but my god, it always hits. That’s why it surprises me so much when people were acting like it’s unreasonable that people reacted emotionally to this video??? Because that’s the point, right? How anyone can watch that and not be mad at Cutie is beyond me lmao

Cutie seems extremely insecure, but their view on reading Geordi’s mind is so toxic and... out of touch? I don’t see how any person could believe that their somehow entitled or constantly deserving of literally being inside someone’s head! Sure, coming from a family of telepaths might do that to you, but that is one of the most abusive behaviors I can think of. It’s the exact reason Regulus is so scary, at least to me (not comparing them, but you’d think redacted fans would understand how violating this behavior is?)

Another hot take, I think the fandom views the listener characters too much like their fully formed individuals when they really... aren’t. Sure, I have my favorites, but they’re really just vessels to project onto, even if some have more of their own personality and spunk than others. Trying to give Cutie an abusive family backstory or something to explain everything seems like such a weird response, but I guess that’s just people listening to things differently, which is completely okay. 

^ My point with all this is that I think listener characters being morally grey is wonderful, but there’s a line where it’s just too much (and that’s why people reacted so poorly to Fred and Bright’s series and eventually got it deleted). People don’t enjoy projecting onto characters that clearly exhibit abusive behavior, especially when they’re attached to the character they’re abusing.

And I can’t imagine having to deal with what poor Geordi is going through there, especially since he can’t know if they’re in his head (since he’s unempowered). Cutie thinks that him sharing his feelings verbally is somehow “fake”, but he has to trust they aren’t reading his mind all the time? terrifying.

That’s it, I guess? Feel free to share what you think (I’ll open up asks soon if I figure out how). Maybe I’m wrong - for god’s sake, past me thought Xiaver was gonna be evil, so I have a precedent for being wrong LMAO

EDIT BECAUSE IM AN OVERTHINKER: just because I’ve took a bit of a stance on this doesn’t mean I disagree with people who think Cutie’s behavior is tramua based or that they have room to improve or anything like that. I agree with those things! But i feel like people are missing the other side of this picture. We need both for this to be beneficial discussion. It’s silly and not helpful to pick Geordi or Cutie’s side and ignore the rest, this is complicated. Duality of man and all that LOL

[kytea]

The True Nature of Deltarune

Deltarune Chapter 1 has been out for over a year now, and being the big UT/DR fan that I am, I’ve been slowly mulling over both games, reading many fan theories and putting together my own interpretation of what I believe the nature and goal of Deltarune will be. This will be a long one so grab some popcorn, put on your matpat hats and click to keep reading!

So what is Deltarune? Is it a sequel to Undertale? Is it a prequel? Is it an alternate universe? Is it the coming of age story of a bunch of teens? Is it a complex meta-narrative on the nature of video games?

The answer is yes to all of the above. And to begin delving into this we must first understand the creator of this game: Toby Fox.

I won’t toot Toby’s Fox’s horn too much, we all know how talented and hardworking he is, but he’s also very emotionally perceptive and empathic. His general disposition is reminiscent of avant-garde artists that push the boundaries of artistic creation in a medium.

Toby loves mysteries, and in the early version of Undertale there was an included file that disparaged hackers and went on to say that it’s difficult to add mysteries in games these days due to data miners and such.

Thankfully, this did not stop Toby from lovingly adding quite a few big mysteries to Undertale that have yet to be resolved. Knowing Toby and his strong desire to share his story, a story that according to him, kept him awake at night:

“For the past 3 years I've been waking up in the middle of the night unable to go back to sleep because I've been thinking about the scenes that happen in the game. Even though so many details are still hazy, I really want to show you the things I've been thinking about.That's really my only reason for making this game. If I don't show you what I'm thinking, I'll lose my mind.“

I don’t believe Toby will let these mysteries go unanswered, and it is here that we can begin to understand what Deltarune is about.

The Mystery of W.D. Gaster

Truly, the biggest mystery of Undertale is that of W.D. Gaster: former royal scientist, creator of the CORE and the Determination Extraction machine.

A player can go through the entirety of Undertale multiple times and never even hear word of Gaster’s existence. This is because all the events that pertain to him are hidden behind a value in the game’s files known as the “FUN value”. Outside of actually manipulating this file manually yourself, it is, to the average player, random. The FUN value can trigger multiple different events throughout the game, some of which include running into “Followers of Gaster” or even Gaster himself.

While the latter has nothing to say before he “boings” out of existence, the former Followers all tell an eerie tale of a scientist who fell into his own creation and was scattered across time and space.

But hold on. Time and space? Why does that sound familiar?

Ah yes, during the Sans battle he speaks about an “massive anomaly in the timespace continuum”.

And during this battle Sans says a lot of other cryptic things without context, for example, he laments not being able to “go back” somewhere. But where or when is he referring to?

He mentions how he and others were monitoring time-lines and their readings showed them stopping and starting, jumping left and right, and eventually ending. Who was he monitoring these readings with? This all seems incredibly scientific and sci-fi, I thought Sans was just a silly skeleton, is he some kind of time cop? (he does have a “badge” in his workshop) He also uses skeletal weapons known as “Gaster Blasters”.

What…? Gaster Blaster?

Okay, now we KNOW Sans DEFINITELY has some connection to this mysterious scientist W.D. Gaster, but what? Well, for starters W.D. Gaster is short for Wing Dings Gaster, a type of font that he also speaks in.

Who else is named after and speaks in specific font types? Sans and Papyrus of course!

Furthermore, in the concept sketches for Papyrus, Toby wrote and redacted parts of a message that says: “has a brother named comic sans and a [BLANK] named [BLANK]”.

Who is this mysterious redacted person and what is their relationship to Sans and Papyrus? The easy money is on a family member, and for sake of argument lets use the prediction most of the fandom has already concluded and accepted: that Sans and Papyrus have a father named Gaster.

So Sans and Papyrus have a long lost father that was a scientist. This explanation would begin to explain why Sans has a weapon named after him, and why he wanted to “go back” to some place or time, perhaps in an effort to save him from his fate.

There’s a hidden event in Undertale where if you reset after listening to Sans speak about LOVE and EXP in a pacifist route, and initiate the conversion a couple of times in a row, he’ll catch on by the expression your face that you’ve heard it before and will surmise that you’re a time traveller and give you secret code words to tell his past self.

This will lead to him giving you the key to his room which ends up just being a prank at first.

But then you find a key to the secret workshop/basement hidden behind his house.

Once you enter the workshop, you’ll find some blueprints written in symbols you can’t read (wing dings?) and a curtain covering a machine that doesn’t seem to be working, among other things.

Toby Fox tweeted a message regarding this machine a few days after Undertale’s release around the time people were figuring out FUN values and the secrets surrounding Sans and Gaster.

“You’ve all seen the happiest outcome. Neither of them could fix the machine, no matter how hard they tried. No one can.”

This tweet seems to imply that if the machine could be fixed that Undertale could have a happier outcome.

And this my friends, is the gateway to the nature of Deltarune.

Deltarune, according to Toby Fox, is a game for players that have completed Undertale. But what does it mean to complete Undertale, and I mean, TRULY complete it? Toby often expressed that he wasn’t happy with how people told others how to play the game, that it is best played completely blind. Having played Undertale blind myself, and having watched others do the same, the natural way the game is meant to progress is that first players will experience the Neutral Ending, followed by the Pacifist Ending, and Finally the Genocide ending. This is because the game cruelly plays against your expectations of how an RPG should work and this almost guarantees that you will kill at least one monster your first play through. As if the fact that the fight button is always the default position in battle isn’t enough, in the early parts of the game you are told that you may need to weaken a monster before you can spare them. This naturally brings to mind the systems of Pokémon, where you have the best chance to catch a Pokémon if it’s at low health. Well, if you try this during the Toriel fight, as most do, you’ll find that as soon as you get close to critical health, you’ll instantly kill her.

Poor goat mama..

Difficulty-wise, the neutral route is the most easy, because you can level up a little and gain more HP. The Pacifist route is a bit harder because your HP is lower, but with the experience you gain from the previous route, it should prove no problem. Finally the Genocide route is the most difficult because it takes a concerted effort that implies knowledge of the previous routes to kill every single monster.

So an ideal Deltarune player has knowledge of all three main routes of Undertale, and may have experienced or heard of Gaster.

Is this player you? If so, ask yourself, what would a “happier outcome” look like to you? And be honest. Many fans in the Undertale community have already answered this question in the form of fanworks. Some of the most common elements among them are as follows:



1) Frisk and all the monsters are free from the Underground and living on the surface with humans.

2) Asriel is revived.

3) Gaster is revived.

4 )Chara is revived.

The revival of Asriel, Chara, and Gaster are the undisputed holy grails in terms of happiest endings that the UT community dreams of and creates endless fan works to explore the possibilities. Toby knows this well.

Using a speech pattern attributed to Gaster, Toby teased the release of Deltarune Chapter 1

“I LOOK FORWARD TO CREATING A NEW FUTURE WITH YOU.” stands out quite a bit to me as the prospect of a “happier outcome” is already tied to Gaster and Sans, now a “new future” is connected.

And when Deltarune released, and fans had a chance to play it, they found:

1) All the monsters are free and living on the surface.

2) Asriel is alive and well and living his best life.

3) A voice with the same speech pattern as Gaster (based on Japanese text) brought you to this world and attempted to give your own vessel before…

4)…a voice with the same speech pattern as Chara (also based on Japanese text) discarded it.

Right off the bat Toby seems to have given fans what they wanted, a perfect future ending. But as you continue to play, you begin to realize that this may not be the world you dreamed of.

First, while all the monsters are living on the surface, they aren’t the same people from Undertale, for example: Undyne has never met Alphys, and the amalgamates that went to live with their families at the end of Undertale are deceased in this world. And while Asriel is alive, it’s not THE Asriel we were so determined to save in Undertale.

Gaster’s presence permeates Deltarune so thoroughly it would take awhile to point out every example, but it seems clear that he’s present in some form.

And Chara? You only need to see the ending cutscene of chapter 1 to know that they are around in a similar fashion as when they possess Frisk in the True Pacifist after a Genocide ending.

But their presence is also present in subtle ways. For example, if you attempt to play the piano in the hospital in Hometown and then speak to the receptionist, she comments that Kris’ playing isn’t the same as usual (Likely due to our control), but it seems that Chara may be good at piano. Interestingly, on the cover artwork for the official Undertale Piano Collection 2 book, Frisk can be seen holding a knife playing a key on a piano in the judgement hall filled with bones.

So for better or worse, what appears to be the original Chara and Gaster from Undertale are present in Deltarune, in some meta form or another. And maybe that’s the key: “Meta-characters”. After all, you yourself as a player are a “Meta-character”. You can ask the inhabitants of this new world questions that only someone with knowledge of a True Pacifist route would have, such as being able to ask Undyne about Alphys. Asking her this only makes sense if you yourself completed a True Pacifist route before playing Deltarune.

Ralsei, the lonely prince.

Toby being the trickster dog he is, he didn’t just give us 1 Asriel and call it a day, no he gave us 2.

Ralsei is quite clearly meant to be a version of Asriel because not only do they have similar or identical dialogues, but he was also was meant to look more like him before Toby decided to give him his Black Mage look.

There are even strong parallels obviously meant to create an emotional response and connect Ralsei to the feelings people had for Asriel in Undertale by giving the players the option to hug him.

Ralsei is quite the mystery on his own. And while he’s most certainly sweet and lovable, there’s undeniably some disconcerting things about him such as:

-Why does he know Kris and Susie’s names?

-Who did he learn the prophecy from? “Foretold by time and space” isn’t a good answer (or is it?).

-What did he say to Kris when the player SOUL wasn’t present in the prison?

-When he’s KO’d in battle, what does he become? Apparently he can still eat to regain HP when in this shrunken form.

Ralsei seemed to be under the impression that violence wasn’t needed in this world, but upon nearly being defeated by the King after mistakenly healing him, Ralsei says “This isn’t a world where kindness always wins, is it?”

The way he says this seems to imply he knows of other worlds and that they have different rules. Perhaps he comes from a world where someone being kind to everyone they met had great results?

There are definitely things that Ralsei is not telling us, whether this means he’s up to no good will remain to be seen, however, I would like to take this opportunity to make a prediction based on the previous understanding that the original Chara and Gaster are present in this new world in meta forms, and assert that Undertale Asriel, the final piece of the perfect ending puzzle is present in Deltarune in his own meta-character form of Ralsei. Perhaps the form he shrinks into when KO’d is one we know well...

There is that unused Flowey face...

Add glasses and a hat and...

but that’s just a game theory!

And I can't help but wonder about the dark heart on Ralsei's chest and this merchandise in the Deltarune section of fangamer that specifically features a quote from Undertale about the prophecy of Delta Rune (that turns out to be about Asriel in the TP ending, and Chara in the Genocide ending) "There is a prophecy. The Angel... The One Who Has Seen The Surface... They will return. And the underground will go empty."

It's also the Deltarune game logo

Because the merchandise is called Darkheart, it made me immediately think of the dark heart on Ralsei's chest, and having an Undertale quote about Asriel/Chara makes it all the more mysterious...

Regardless, in just the first chapter of Deltarune, the elements of the “happier outcome” connected to Sans’ machine are present. But how do they all connect? Well, let’s look at the other characters in Deltarune, starting with:

Lancer

Oh Baby Santa Claus, how we love you so. It’s hard to overlook how similar Lancer is to Sans. They’re both hilarious in their own way, both ride bikes, have similar color-schemes, both have a love for tomato-based products, and both have some scientific/engineering affinity (Sans and his workshop, Lancer and his “Lancer Industries”).

But that’s not all, the door to Sans’ room is identical to the warp doors found in the Dark World that Lancer hails from, and Sans’ warp ability also makes the same sound effect as these doors as well.

Lancer is a member of the FUN gang (remember the FUN value?), that, as far as we know currently, has 3 other members besides himself: Kris, Ralsei, and Susie (with the possibility of Noelle and others in the future).

Speaking of Susie, her name (or a version of it) popped up in Undertale prior to Deltarune’s release when the game was released on the Switch. By speaking to the Gaster Follower “Clamgirl”, you can learn of a girl named “Suzy”, that you will meet her soon, and that “in life’s grand scheme, she might be why you came here in the first place...”

Upon receiving this dialogue, checking the drawers in Sans workshop will reveal a card with a drawing of 3 people smiling and the words “don’t forget”.

“Don’t Forget” is the vocal theme of Deltarune sung by Laura Shigihara, and the melody from the ending verse,“Don’t forget, I’m with you in the dark.”, is leitmotifed throughout the entire Deltarune chapter 1 OST. The connections between Sans, the FUN gang, Gaster, and by extension Undertale and Deltarune are quite apparent. Perhaps the actions of the FUN gang in the Deltarune world will have an affect on the FUN value in Undertale.

Based on all the evidence we have now, I am going to make a bold prediction:

Lancer is literally a younger Sans.

That’s right, Toby Fox made Baby Sans before Disney and Sega made Baby Yoda and Baby Sonic.

Deltarune’s Dark World is the past from the perspective of Sans and Gaster (or a recreation of it). How Lancer becomes Sans will likely be a very large part of Deltarune’s narrative, and once he becomes Sans, he will exist as a separate meta entity that can traverse different worlds, even if versions of himself already exist in some form there (similar to Ralsei and Asriel).

We’ve seen that if characters are exposed to elements that make it clear they live in a video game world, whether this be Determination for humans and Flowey, a time-space accident for Gaster, or a strange man whispering to Jevil, these characters become something wholly different, more powerful, and begin to become more similar to players with the ability to SAVE, RESET, or use abilities that seem beyond the scope of the game (e.g. Photoshop Flowey, Jevil’s ability to speak, etc). Undertale and Deltarune are video games about video games.

So if it is to be believed that Gaster is Sans’ father, and that Lancer is a younger Sans, then it stands to logical reason that whoever Lancer’s father is, that they must be Gaster.

No, not the King, there is another. A “Lesser-dad”.

Yes, Rouxls Kaard.

“GOD DAMNIT”

Rouxls Kaard, or “Rules Card”, or if you rearrange his name “A Dark Soul Rx”, wait, Rx as in prescription? As in a doctor? Dark Soul as in Mr. Darkness Gaster himself? Too much of a stretch? Maybe. Although you can’t deny they have similar appearances.

If Rouxls Kaard is Gaster, and therefore the father of Sans and Papyrus, then he’s undeniably similar to one of his sons. Rouxls Kaard seems to be quite passionate about puzzles, (despite not having a natural predilection to them). I could see Papyrus gaining an affinity for puzzles by being raised by such an individual, they both have quite flamboyant personalities. And let’s not forget that there are also hints that Rouxls Kaard may be inclined to creating scientific devices such as the “Control Crowne” he uses to control K.Round.

Hmm, controlling other people… sounds familiar to what we the player are doing to Kris… and who was it that was initially going to give us control of a vessel before we lost said control to Chara’s intervention? Control seems to play a big part in Deltarune doesn’t it?

Also, isn’t his manner of speech is reminiscent of a silly ye olde knight. Wait, wasn’t there a Knight causing trouble in the Dark World? Hm.

So something is going to turn Lancer and Rouxls Kaard into Sans and Gaster, respectively.

Now remember the CORE that Gaster built? This one?

It turns geothermal energy into magical electricity via an unknown means with one of the byproducts being ozone, which is corrosive and could potentially make someone very melty. This is what it looks like on the inside.

Lots of blues of varying hues with white accents. Kinda reminds me of Rouxls Kaard and the other “card” people’s color schemes.

What a coincidence! Oh and apparently the layout of the CORE can be re-arranged or something:

"I work at the CORE. The inside is a maze made of swappable parts... That means we can shuffle the layout at will." - Hotland NPC

Almost sounds like a sliding puzzle…

Finally, Gaster is referred to as “The man who speaks in hands”, likely due to his Wing Dings font that contains a lot of hand symbols, however, it isn’t a stretch to also apply that epithet to Rouxls Kaard, after all, the Rules Card speaks in hands as well. Hands of cards.

Susie

Can’t forget Susie. Unfortunately, there’s not much we can say about how her role in all this will play yet. If we are to believe that the “Suzy” that Clamgirl references is Susie, then it’s clear that she’ll be key, perhaps as a catalyst for all the big changes some characters will need to undergo...

I will say that I think it’s interesting that toby specifically has a character in Hometown comment that humans are made of blood (and implying the monsters are not),

and Susie says:

“Everybody bleeds, right?”

From our understanding of monsters in Undertale, monsters don’t bleed, they turn to dust. But, maybe Darkners can bleed. If we believe Sans is a Darkner, it may explain this:

It could be ketchup. It could be a Darkner thing. Lancer does mention blood casually. But if only humans and Darkners bleed, then why would a monster like Susie say “everybody bleeds”?

So what is Deltarune you ask? I think it’s:

1) A story about Sans, Papyrus, and Gaster’s past and future. We get to experience their past in the Dark World, and speak with their future selves in the Light World. But these future versions of Sans and Papyrus may not be as far into the future as the Sans and Papyrus we meet in Undertale. Remember, Sans had an Ice-E’s crossword in Undertale? Ice-E’s-P’E’zza is a restaurant in Hometown. Papyrus may also be younger than he was in Undertale because Sans, an adult who runs a grocery store, thinks a teen like Kris should hang with his little brother, and it would be “weird” if he were there with them.

2) A story about post-Undertale Asriel, Chara, and Gaster. Asriel/Flowey maintains his new form as Ralsei thanks to the power of the Dark Fountain. He now lives in what is/was Sans’ childhood home. Whether he knows this or remembers the events of Undertale is unknown, but it is my belief that he holds a deep connection to the Asriel we all wished to save. Chara resides within Kris in a similar manner as they did at the ending of a UT True Pacifist Ending after surrendering the red SOUL to them in a Genocide ending. Does this mean that Kris’s body or “vessel” is Frisk? This seems to be heavily implied by Kris’ outfit taking on the same color scheme as Frisk’s UT shirt while in the Dark World.

3) A coming of age story for a bunch of teens. Kris, Susie, Ralsei, Noelle, Lancer, and all the friends that may join on their adventures are still people regardless of what grand meta narrative is at play involving the nature of their reality. They still need to go to school, fall in love, and worry about growing up and going to university. Noelle will undoubtedly play a large role with Toby’s tease of her as “Lost Girl”, and considering how attached most of the community has already gotten to these characters, it hurts my heart to think about what may befall them as they try their best to live their lives. Does this mean Deltarune’s world is doomed? I hope not... but those save file screens sure are creepypasta...

“IT WAS AS IF IT WAS NEVER THERE AT ALL.”

4) A story about video games and the control (or lack thereof) we have over them. It’s quite clear that we, the player controlling the red soul, is able to influence this new world based on knowledge from Undertale that should have no barring. For example, we can name “Onionsan” who has forgot their own name. One of the options is “Onion”, but why? Is it because we know their name is Onionsan in Undertale? How do we even know if that is actually what this version of them is really named?

Deltarune is so close to the perfect Undertale ending we wanted, but it’s just a little bit wrong. Would it hurt to force Undyne and Alphys to meet and fall in love? To get Toriel and Asgore back together? To make Bratty and Catty friends? If you were given the option in game to do it, would you do it? What if it made their lives worse…? I believe that the fact we are able to influence inhabitants of Deltarune with our Undertale knowledge may have some unforeseen consequences, and perhaps, be what begins this whole situation in the first place. (Paradoxes are the best time travel stories!)

Toby Fox said that Deltarune was the game he originally wanted to make, but whether it was too ambitious or time consuming, his idea evolved into Undertale. Now that he’s creating the game he always wanted to, I believe that he will connect everything we know about them together and resolve the mysteries, after all, Gaster has been waiting for this chance.

And maybe, with a little luck and determination, we can create a new future with a happier outcome. If I’ve learned anything from Undertale, it’s that you must hold on to your hopes and dreams, because dreams are the goal of “Determination.”

[asterisquebloomed]

🐰 🎶 🐅 (Reiko)

🐰 - Favorite movie? 

I haven’t the faintest clue! I’m absolute dog shit when it comes to picking a favorite of anything really!

🎶 - share a song you think the asker would enjoy

While I don’t know what you would enjoy since I don’t actually know that much about you, I do love music and sharing it, so here’s a song I don’t believe I’ve shared before.

A very peculiar instrument, that’s oddly charming.

🐅 - what’s your favorite thing about your muse? 

My favorite thing about Reiko, hm? That’s a good question.

For starters, how unpredictable and chaotic she is. It makes every interaction with her so vastly different. Take her interactions with @nekofantasia and @mayohigan-orange for example. It’s the same character, they’re both Chen. But one Reiko is drinking buddies with and the other she absolutely despises. It also goes to show how vastly different the same character can be and it’s great.

She’s also quite fun to write dialogue for because she says some of the most ridiculous bullshit I’ve ever heard. Though it’s annoying how often she has a good point.

But for me? My favorite thing about her as of now?

It has to be how complex she actually is.

I’ve been thinking about it a lot recently. Why is she like this? Why does she act the way she does? What are her reasons and motives for being such an unrepentant asshole to everyone she meets?

It turns out there is a reason she acts the way she does!

So why is it that she is the way she is? What made her like this? It’s simple really.

Time.

She has lived over and over again. She’s loved, she’s lost. She’s tried desperately to change things, to fight against the nature of the world itself. She’s had over 16 lives in total. She’s been conscious for over 3,600 years. She’s experienced good, bad, and the absolute worst of what not only humanity, but life itself has had to offer. She’s repeated this cycle of birth, life, and death 16 times over. Wouldn’t you become jaded if you were in her position?

Which brings me to why she is such a terrible person. The reason for that, is also quite simple.

Contrary to what you may think, Reiko isn’t incapable of love. She’s very capable of it. And that’s what is the worst about it. Love brings pain. Caring brings pain. It’s an inevitable fact of life that all things must end, all things must die. Yet she has not, and will not so long as her magic isn’t completely exhausted. She is the one constant. And she’s come to learn this the hard way, over thousands of years. No one she loves will remain alive, everything she will ever care about will die. Nothing she treasured, and nothing she will come to treasure, will stay by her side. That is enforced existence itself. And she hates it.

So what is the best way to avoid pain? Well, you can’t be hurt if you never cared in the first place right? If you don’t love anything, and nothing loves you, then you can’t be hurt when that thing eventually ceases to exist.

I’ve mentioned briefly that she is the Essence of Chaos, and recently I was thinking about that.

What I realized is that she, and her opposite Aliah Meshia, represent and symbolize a duality.

I say Essence are not good or bad, they are people. They have personalities and they make choices, time shapes them the way it shapes us all, through experiences, events and circumstances.

And there’s really no better example than Reiko. While she is undoubtedly a bad person, she is not ‘evil’. She is not incapable of good. While it’s rare, she has done good, and she has said things that were meant to help people at times. Such as a few instances where she’s given motivational speeches to @mayohigan-orange‘s Chen, urging her to not self-harm or become anorexic for the sake of something so trivial as beauty. When @twinfoxtails‘s Eri was kidnapped and forced to do [REDACTED] against his will, she wanted to rescue him. Her first instinct was to come to his aid and stop those who wanted to make him do things against his will. She might not have acted, and she hated the fact that she didn’t, it still goes to show you that she’s not this undeniably evil monstrosity. She’s a person, just like everyone else. She can be good or bad, she’s not limited to one or the other.

The most amazing thing though is the duality I mentioned before though. She is the Essence of Chaos. Chaos isn’t inherently good or bad. And she shows the duality of it so well.

The Bad Chaos is what you would think of as death and destruction running rampant, suffering doled out to all without discrimination.

Then there’s the Good Chaos, Diversity. The sheer wonder of anything is possible. The vast and wonderful variety of people, culture, and life itself.

Reiko manages to not only represent Chaos, but also the duality of the good and the bad of it. She’s unpredictable and dangerous, she could hurt or kill you at the drop of a hat. She could bring suffering is she so chooses and leave tragedy and devastation in her wake. But somehow despite all her cynicism and pessimism, she hasn’t succumbed to being nothing more than destruction incarnate. She hasn’t given up. She still goes out and interacts with people, despite how much that has bit her in the ass prior, she still does it. The freedom of experience, that nothing is ever exactly the same. That interacting with others and the world is still worth it because each experience is unique.

She is both good and bad, simultaneously.

And while I may be talking out of my ass just as much as she does here, it astounds me that she’s somehow become this complicated and intricate of a character without even ME realizing it!

Sorry that got kind of long, I’ve just been thinking about her a lot lately and realizing that’s she’s so much more than what is on the surface and it baffles me how I somehow made her this way without realizing it.

I hope this sheds some light onto not just my feelings, but also Reiko’s character as well.

Thank you to all who read this to the end!

[sachikatsutano]

scriptwriter’s beginnings.

The skeleton opened his eyes. He couldn’t see anything. Wherever he was, he did not know. He did not know anything. Who was he? Did he even exist? The world around him concaved and fell apart. He fell to the floor, grunting. If the aching side proved anything, he was real. He looked at his hands. He opened and closed them. Definitely alive. He looked around. What was his name? His purpose? Did he have a family? As he got to his feet, streams of code wrapped around him from some other place, solidifying into clothing. Brown coat. red and gold boots. Red scarf. He looked down in surprise, making a small breathy sound of amazement. something dropped into his pocket, making him swirl around to check behind him. No one was there. He reached into his pocket, looking at the contents. An orange fountain pen and a letter in thick paper. Naturally, he checked the letter first. It was written in a looping scrawl, lines words flowing off the line.

----

To you.

Hello there. You’re probably confused. And probably wondering what you’re doing, being alive and all. For starters, your name is script.it’s short for Scriptwriter Papyrus. You’re one in a hell of a lot of other Papyruses, but you? You’re special. You have a pen in the pocket you pulled this from. It’s yours. Your purpose, your life job is to fix the breaks in code. To keep things running smoothly. You can even create items. The limits to what they are is up to you.

My name is [REDACTED].

---- He couldn’t help but wonder why the name was missing. ----

I’m pretty much your creator. I made you, to do what you want. I don’t know where your life will go, but i know that wherever it leads you, i will be there. Watching over your shoulder. Making sure you’re alright. I hope you understand now.

Use your pen to travel through the universes. Make friends. Make enemies. Make memories and live your life. Do what you feel you must. But please, try not to be seen for god’s sake!

Be good now.

Your creator, [REDACTED].

P.s: stay away from error.

---

Script looked at the letter. He looked up at the endless white. Was he really being watched? Right now? Honestly, he felt a little spooked. But also comforted somehow. He took his pen in hand and looked around. He smiled. So this was being alive? He felt it. Every hum of magic, every breath he took.

He uncapped the fountain pen, and swiped it down on instinct. A portal opened, buzzing with code. He jumped in without a second thought and landed head-first into a snowdrift. He dislodged from the packed in snow, and shook his skull clear. Looking around, he saw forests and monsters in the trees. He made as if to go and talk; but remembered the words on the letter. Try not to be seen. He retreated back into the treeline and observed them. He felt like he knew all about them, and most likely he did, but whether that was the case was not his main focus.

All he was focused on was finding these ‘bugs’ and fixing them.

He stood and walked through the forest, eyesockets searching for what he supposed he would recognise instantly. Script’s only mistake was not checking behind him. He yelped in surprise as something yanked him by the feet and hung him upside down. Script struggled against whatever was holding him, but ultimately gave up. Footsteps from behind him approached. A face came into his very upside-down view. A rather familiar, skeletal, face.

“Hey buddy. Mind tellin’ me what you’re doing here?”

Script looked at him in slight fear.

“ERR... WOULD YOU BELIEVE ME IF I SAID I HAD NO CLUE?”