#Iceshock

[evilmurlock]

How the Roaring Knigth will be defeated!

Goatest character of all time! Love the guy, he is funny, evil and the strongest!

[silverstormsxx]

An Angel Is Born - A Deltarune Fic

Part 2 of "A Warm Cup Of Tea On A Cold Winter Night"

----

Pink had begun getting really into The Light World recently.

They had been reading about the clouds, the sun, the sky.

It wasn't for any particular reason, mind you - they simply found themselves getting a little.. curious all of a sudden, that was all.

(That was the same thing he said before.. before-)

In their studies, they had discovered something that truly fascinated them.

The Lightners worshipped a deity - The Angel. The same way Darkners worshipped Lightners.

"What in Light's name could possibly be above.. well, a Lightner?" They had thought.

Thus, they had done more research into the subject, and well..

What they had found was wonderful.

The Angel was incomprehensible to any eye - Lightner, Darkner, Human, Monster.. no mortal eye could ever truly understand it. The Angel watched over them all in it's omnipresent eye, guiding them to whatever destinies it believed best for them. It had the ability to control the very fate of everybody that existed in this plane of reality. Those who were lucky enough to be shone on by it's light, were rumored to be blessed with powers and abilities that would allow them to shape their own destinies, as well!

It was while they were reading about this absolutely glorious being they were visited by none other than Blue.

"Heya, Pink." Blue greeted, his cheerful voice just barely managing to hide the pure exhaustion in his tone, something only an Addison would ever be able to recognize. He glanced towards their storefront as he leaned on their cash register, "Business slow today?"

"No!" They yelled out on instinct.

'I am not like him whatsoever I am not like him whatsoever I am not like him whatsoever-'

"Pink..?" Blue had put his hand on their shoulder, a concerned look on his face. "Are you okay? Do you want to clock out early today-"

They cleared their throat, putting on a deceptively calm voice in order to soothe Blue's nerves, "Don't worry. I'm.. I'm fine. It's just been a bit of a.. stressful day, that's all."

Blue's face looked emphatic as he walked up to stand beside them, "It's okay to admit that you're not okay sometimes, you know that right?" He giggled, "We're family. And family is always there for eachother. No matter what. If you want, I can.."

Pink found themselves spacing out as Blue talked about what has could do to make them feel better. After the.. incident, he had been focusing more on making sure no one's feelings were ignored. They didn't do it on purpose, mind you. It was certainly a sweet gesture that Blue was willing to do for them, but-

❤ Iceshock.

There it was. That.. voice again.

They had been hearing it every day these past few weeks, trying to get them to examine random things more closely, to talk to people they didn't even know the names of. They were beginning to sick of its apparent omnipresence over-

... Wait a minute.

❤ Iceshock.

"Maybe I could even get Orange to chip in, if he's not too busy with that new commission he was talking about earlier- Pink?"

'The Angel watched over them all with its omnipresent eye, guiding them to whatever destinies it believed best for them...'

❤ Iceshock.

"Pink, are you okay..? Do I need to call somebody-"

❤ Iceshock.

...

"P-Pink, what are you doing-"

...

They awoke to the sight of an ice sculpture right next to them, miraculously not melted in the heat of their store.

"Oh? How nice of somebody to gift me this.." They murmured tiredly as they began to drag the statue into the backroom of their shop, "Was it Blue? He always did like giving gifts.. I'll have to thank him for it in the morning.."

---

Extra notes:

Totally unrelated but every time i write pink I picture them having the voice of rarity from mlp:fim

Also yeah. 'Player is the angel' theory is canon in this.

[renny-mayflower]

coffee date + background i put too much effort into

god its been a hot minute since ive drawn lumibloon and iceshock bein all lovey-dovey LMAOSDFDSFS

[luigigoeshard69]

soulsona...!!

[jennsmelody]

are these funny

[abandoned-quiche]

i am in the very small minority that thinks noelle wasn't actually killing darkners in the weird route. snowgrave is specifically labelled as "fatal" while iceshock is not.

they don't work like human beings, where your cells start dying if you're encased in ice. they're COMPUTER PROGRAMS; computer programs freeze. get it?

it still sucks that you did all that. everyone gets frozen and then left behind in the cyber world. but berdly was the only one you KILLED.

[amalgamdess-roaringknight]

🎶 heaven knows, the story that we've borne 🎶

[ID: A digital drawing of Noelle from Deltarune, a deer monster with antlers and medium-brown fur, singing. She has long, fluffy blond hair that reaches past her shoulders, and a long face that has lighter fur under her eyes, which are closed. She is wearing glasses. Her hands are grasped just under her chest. Noelle is wearing an oversized grey-purple church robe, which has a white panel over the front with the Delta Rune on it, as well as engraved over the sleeves, over a white button-down long-sleeved t-shirt. She is wearing no shoes, but her feet are vaguely digitigrade, with her hooves showing, and she has a tail sticking out from her robe. Noelle's face is tilted slightly upwards, and her mouth is open. In the top left of the drawing is sheet music vaguely resembling 'Hymn'. The background is an unfocused image of church windows, from the Church in the Light World. End ID]

[sailor-crusader]

Snowgrave abortion

[ceroba-thebrimstonewitch]

what are the odds of me getting fourth degree burns if i were to ask you "why the long face?"

[meowing-at-u]

just realized. ralsei has access to fire magic.

When you fight Balthizard (the incense balls) one of Ralsei's acts is LightUp with the flavor text of "Ralsei lit up!". The sprites in his animation are identical to Toriel and Asgore's fire attacks.

[brixbraxium]

The Significance of Susie, Rude Buster, and The Prophecy.

(This has spoilers for 3-4)

This is a bit of a long post, but it's an important one, I think. Let's talk about Susie's signature spell, Rude Buster. I genuinely think there is thematic significance to this spell. To get to why, though, I want to go over everything.

Rude Buster is a spell that Susie knows from the moment we meet her in Chapter 1. It costs 50% TP, and, as the description tells us, it inflicts moderate "rude" element damage to one foe, and uses both Attack and Magic in its calculation. It considers defense in its calculation, and it scales better with Attack than it does Magic.

I want to compare this spell to another spell, Iceshock.

Iceshock inflicts "magical ICE damage" to one enemy, and costs 16% TP. It scales purely with the Magic stat, and is unaffected by her Attack stat. It also cuts through defense. On the surface, Iceshock is generally the better spell, it would seem. It might not deal as much damage at first, but it's significantly cheaper than Rude Buster, ignores defense, and scales like crazy when Noelle becomes Stronger.

While this is speculative, it almost comes off as if Iceshock is being more 'properly' cast. It's described as 'magical', it seemingly instantly surrounds an enemy rather than needing to be aimed, it ignores defense entirely. But... I think there's a bit more to it than that. Noelle's magic is kind of distinct from Noelle herself in a way. There's some level of detachment. There's distance. This is (partially) why we're able to manipulate her so easily into getting stronger. It's easy to not think about it. They're just enemies. Etc. But Rude Buster? It's a direct extension of Susie herself. She might not be directly naturally talented with Magic, but hell if that'll stop her. She channels everything she has into her axe and sends it out as a bolt of rude energy.

My point is this.

Iceshock deals perfect, magical damage to an enemy, piercing defense. It's better than a Susie crit at first, and it scales drastically. It's simple, and it's cost efficient.

Rude Buster is a direct extension of Susie herself. It's her raw emotion channeled into a single attack. It's her willpower, her resolve, her hope, all imbued into one little spell. Rude Buster as a spell is, either symbolically or literally, Susie's resolve.

This is why it is a "Rude" buster. What does it mean to be Rude? To be impolite. To not follow the rules, the expectations. And, if there's one thing Susie excels at, it's breaking every single expectation anyone might have for her. Is it truly by chance that, out of everyone in the party, it is Susie who talks back to the Roaring Knight? Is it truly by chance that the only party member who can actually do anything of substance against The Knight is Susie, with Rude Buster? Kris is (in most circumstances) holding back. Susie and Ralsei are able to deal chip damage. But Rude Buster, through sheer force alone, overcomes the Knight's defense, not by being magic or anything like that, but simply because it's that good.

Consider also The Titan. Everything seems bleak, the Titan can regenerate, and there's nothing we can do. So what do we do? We call upon Rude Buster. Technically it's "Dual Buster", but...

Susie and Gerson are both clearly casting variations of Rude Buster here.

And it works. And, lets think on that for a moment. Gerson also knows a version of Rude Buster. ...Why?

It's not like Gerson doesn't have his own magical attacks he could have used here, right? They could've easily done something else for this. But... No. Gerson casts his own Rude Buster. Why? Well, think about what Gerson stands for. He believes, in the same way Susie does, that the Prophecy isn't all it's cracked up to be. He believes that it can blind you, that it's better to read between the lines. As a Secret Boss, his philosophy is "I don't care".

So, to me, at least, it makes perfect sense that he would also know Rude Buster. Because, just like Susie, when confronted with the fate of the universe in bold text, he simply laughs it off.

This is also, I believe, why Gerson is the only character who can outright reflect Rude Buster.

Because while Gerson might not have the same resolve to change fate as Susie does, he is driven in a similar way.

The Devilsknife reduces Rude Buster's TP Cost. Why? Is it just because logically a jevil-turned-scythe would be good at channeling Magic? No. Think about what Jevil stands for. He believes that because his choices do not matter, he is free of consequence. He can "do anything", because his choices are irrelevant. If he could somehow be punished, then, well, his choices would've mattered, then, wouldn't they? And he knows that's not true. So he does whatever he damn well pleases. Obviously, Jevil and Susie are not really comparable- Jevil fully accepts that Fate is unbreakable, and Susie very much seems to think The Prophecy is bogus by the end of Chapter 4.

But, I think the throughline is there. Devilsknife makes Rude Buster easier to cast, because by nature, Jevil is already used to doing whatever he wants and ignoring the 'rules'. I hope I've made my case clear. But there's even more.

This may well be where I lose you, to be clear, so I hope you take everything I've said about Rude Buster as its own thing, and consider the rest of what I have to say as an extension of that. If you don't believe what I'm about to say, that's totally fine. Without further ado... Let us consider... The Prophecy.

The Second Hero of the Prophecy is "The Girl, with Hope crossed on her heart." As many before me have pointed out, this depiction... does not quite look like Susie. The weapon is wrong. This is a much longer discussion and I don't think I can quite fit it into this post, but, in essence, I believe that this was supposed to be Noelle Holiday. Noelle actually can equip a few swords as of Chapters 3-4, surprisingly. She can equip the Jingleblade and the Blackshard. However, I don't believe that Susie is "not" the second hero. I believe that The Prophecy has been tampered with. Or, at least, reinterpretted. Think back to what Gerson said. Stories can be changed. They can be retold.

Cat Petterz the RPG is a ripoff of Dragon Blazers, which is a retelling of Lord of the Hammer, which is a retelling of The Prophecy, which is a retelling of DELTARUNE.

I believe that this sort of thing is happening to the prophecy itself. I believe that Gaster, for one reason or another, changed the prophecy, replacing "The Second Hero, The Girl" with Susie. This sort of rules lawyering is possible because Susie is also referred to later in the prophecy:

We know that this is Susie because Rude Buster is being used to identify her. This image is even called "Rude Buster" internally. I believe the original prophecy was introducing Susie as a different "The Girl". However, because it technically uses the same term to refer both to Noelle and Susie, their roles can be altered. And so, Susie, through Gaster's intervention, became the Second Hero.

But why? Why was it important to make Susie involved? I believe it's simply because of who Susie is. When confronted with fate, Susie laughs it off. She won't let it happen. Wheras someone like Noelle would try and accept it for what it is, most likely, Susie outright refuses to play by the rules. And this gets us back into Rude Buster. Rude Buster is important. It's important enough to be the name of the battle theme, it's important enough to be what symbolizes Susie most directly in the prophecy. I believe that Rude Buster, and what it represents, is why Gaster chose Susie. Noelle might, in some sense, have "hope crossed on her heart". But it'd be passive hope. Wistful hope. Susie has active hope. With every fiber of her being, she has that hope. She inspires that hope in others. It is, as Ralsei puts it, infectious. She infects herself with hope, and grows it.

She infects Ralsei with hope.

She gives Tenna hope.

And, though this is more of a stretch, she even, indirectly, infects Seam with hope.

Remember that the only reason we could even potentially defeat The Knight is through Susie's perseverance, and Susie has to defeat Gerson, (who Seam is talking about here) on her own. Remember what Gerson told us.

Susie has the White Pen, that can draw over the dark pages of fate, known as Hope.

I believe that Gaster picked up his own pen, to transform Deltarune into his deltarune, one where Susie steps up to bat as the second hero of prophecy...

...So that Susie could, in turn, pick up her own white pen, and write a new ending. Chapter 7. A retelling of a retelling. The words on the wall called her a hero. Maybe that's not what they were ""supposed"" to mean. But, does it even matter? Through her grit and determination, it won't make a difference. She may not have been intended to be the second hero, but, she is, angel damnit, and the universe is just going to have to accept it. She may not have been chosen by The Angel, or whatever the hell wrote that prophecy, but she was chosen by one Wing Gaster, who considers her Very, Very Wonderful. She wields the White Pen to draw all over fate. And, of course, that white pen has a name. "Rude Buster". When the hands of fate draw near, you can always count on a good ol' Susie Rude Buster to persevere through anything.

[silverstormsxx]

A Warm Cup Of Tea On A Cold Winter Night - A Deltarune Fic

When Pink woke up this morning, they felt as if they were freezing.

"Oh.." For a moment, they had felt normal, warm even, "What a lovely morn-"

But then the sleep had left their eyes, and they had been hit with a wave of pure cold.

"What the.." Their brow furrowed. They began to hug themselves, softly rubbing their shoulders in a meager attempt to garner some warmth, "Did winter come early or somethin'?"

Chuckling at their own joke, they hopped out of their bed and barely repressed shivers as they walked towards the bathroom.

They looked at themselves in the mirror.

(... For a moment, they could've sworn their eyes were pure white, looking almost.. frozen over.)

But as soon as they blinked, they were back to normal.

... Well this was a confusing situation, wasn't it?

Sighing, they felt their signature salesman smile begin to form on their face, almost subconsciously.

"Those bills won't pay themselves, Pink!" Though their voice was enthusiastic and carefree, it was certainly not genuine, "You wouldn't want to end up like.. Him now, would you?"

With that last, scathing reminder of their past.. business partner, they fell into the routine that had become the status quo for them for all these years.

Everything was fine. Everything was perfectly okay. Nothing was out of order.

----

"Would you perhaps be interested in a flower bracelet?" Their charismatic and suave voice was a little.. off today, but they doubted that any of the customers could tell the difference, "It would match your eyes!"

The Tasque they were advertising to looked them dead in the eyes and replied: "meowowow meowmeowmeow mrow"

.. What were they expecting?

Still, The Tasque seemed to be somewhat interested in what they were selling, judging by the look in its eye and the fact it hadn't walked away.

(.. What? When you work in sales for a long time you learn to pick up on signs!)

They clasped their hands together, "Wonderful! I'll go fetch it for you right now!"

Humming as they rummaged around their store looking for the damned bracelet, they opened various compartments and whatnot as the looked around.

Where did they put it again? They could've sworn they placed it right next to-

❤️ Iceshock.

... What?

Peeping their head outside their store, they met the eyes of the Tasque once more.

"I apologize, but did you say something?"

They watched the Tasque tilt its head in pure befuddlement.

.. Strange.

"Ah. My mistake then."

Stepping back inside of their store, they readied themselves to begin aimlessly searching for.. whatever it was they were looking for before.

That must've been a fluke, they told themselves, must've been the wind.

Internally, they scolded themselves for bringing it up. It was the number one rule of salesmanship: Always act like everything is fine, even when it isn't. Never make the customer uncomfortable.

The Tasque must be getting tired of waiting at this point. They really needed to speed it up-

❤️ Iceshock.

Was their store always this cold?

❤️ Iceshock.

Why was their vision getting blurry?

❤️ Iceshock.

...

They blinked, wincing due to how bright everything was.

What had happened?

Everything was fine one second, and then the next-

... Wait a minute.

The customer.

Racing outside, they mentally prepared a thousand apologies for making the Tasque wait so long. Maybe they could throw in a free subscription for-

The Tasque wasn't there.

It.. it must've gotten tired of waiting and left.

Yeah. That was it.

... At least that's one less customer they'd have to pacify today?

Yes. This was a good thing. A good thing.

They plastered on their trademark Addison grin, and waited for any potential customers.

...

(Since when did their ring get so numbing?)

[renny-mayflower]

small excerpt from what im writing that i think is kinda funny

[dont-touch-the-flower-child]

so, i've been thinking about this. how Susie has grown to care so much about Darkners...

...she calls them by their names even in the Light World, to their Light World forms. she cares for them as real people.

but i'm not here to just talk about that. instead, i want to contrast it with something we see of Noelle on Weird Route.

we have made her accept that you do battles by freezing the enemies. by the time we reach Berdly, Noelle is so far gone that initially, she couldn't recognize her own classmate, a fellow Lightner, as anything other than another enemy to freeze.

it's horrifying, isn't it? and it is certainly treated as so in the game. Berdly dying to snowgrave is given more gravity than all the other Darkners dying to iceshock. it locks you onto the Weird Route for the rest of the chapter, whereas aborting at any point before it just boots you back to normal gameplay, with all your damage seemingly undone. no one comments on it. and you notice how Noelle only agonize over Berdly's condition, but none of the Darkner's.

the reason for it is simple, of course. the Dark World is framed as fiction to the Light World's reality. Noelle recognizes, even on normal route, that her Dark World adventure feels like a game. in a lot of games, killing enemies is just standard fare.

but it's completely different to kill a fellow player. as in, more than killing their in-game avatar, you have made them feel the attack in real life. how terrible is that, you think, and how warped must Noelle's perception have become to see Berdly that way?

...or, isn't that perception just...true?

Berdly is a video game character. to any player doing Weird Route, he is indeed, just another enemy to freeze.

Noelle is just carrying out your will. though the eyes of you, she starts to see her own reality as fiction, her own power as that of a real life player's.

this is her awakening.

"Noelle's player" is one who is detached. its playing style is one of stripping a game down to its bare mechanics: kill enemies to get stronger, in order to take down bigger enemies, until you've grown so big (max LV) and strong that nothing could stand in your way, until you're finally victorious, and you call satisfaction.

on the flip side, we have Susie.

Susie is also a player. she engages with the characters, listens to their stories, empathizes with their troubles. she sees these colorful, idiosyncratic personalities...and she wants to get to know them all!

Susie plays, the way deltarune is (mostly) intended to be played. enjoy the characters. enjoy the ride. learn to ACT. use violence as a last resort, in self-defense rather than thirst for strength.

ironically, despite being deeper in the dark, and therefore further into fiction and away from reality...

Susie's world is much livelier, and so much more real, than Noelle's sterile Heaven could ever be.

remember how Darkness is associated with fiction, and with water?

what's something both fiction and water are good for?

immersion.

[wdg-rb]

((yap session/theory

((i think. personally. the main antagonist is gonna be A. asriel/ralsei twist villain B. sans + papyrus twist villain OR its gonna be like. a truth vs ideals/ two points kinda thing, where both sides have a point but you have to pick. i have reasons under cut but nobody is allowed to call me crazy

((i just feel like it being JUST gaster in the end would be sooo predictable and obvious, like. omgg guys scary shadow mystery man is bad . like what.

((currently going with the two points one as my main theory for several reasons. such as but not limited to 1. “who will miss him” (“him” is used to refer to asriel and gaster(?) in undertale, but ppl would obviously miss asriel, he’s a really popular and well liked guy in hometown. gaster however (a lot of assumptions here) seems to be a kinda shut in bunker in the woods type guy.) since we know “papyrus is busy” (and he is labeled as “forgettable” in the ut genocide description, plus a very accepting and forgiving guy) i would assume he is going to be the one looking for him - because he cares about everyone and sees good in everyone. sans isnt looking, however, making me think that gasters more of a morally gray character? and asriel/flowey seemed to have very a black and white moral compass (to me, which is debatable). leading me into my next idea/point

((asriel is using gasters soul as a save point to play videogames with kris. first of all everybody realizes ralsei is the only darkner who can travel between dark worlds with the gang. second is eye colors. we see several reoccurring patterns with colors and souls and eye colors, the main ones im reffering to are sans (cyan/patience + yellow/justice), IMAGE_FRIEND/spamton (magenta/perserverence + yellow/justice) (and jevil just has yellow eyes (justice)). i think (big leaps here) image_friend is papyrus, who has magenta/yellow eyes (in opposition to sans’ cyan/yellow). this would mean they have yellow in common, which i think is . gasters color. (along with indigo or purple maybe (magenta+cyan))

((also think its his color bc of the egg thing.*

((yellow is the save point color in undertale, but not deltarune. which wouldnt make sense, except cyan yellow and magenta can make either black or white depending on whether its print media (light world?) or digital media (dark worlds?). this could also be me connecting pieces that dont fit, so take with a grain of salt of course.

((*the egg thing is big for me but i could also be insane for it. first of all. hard boiled?? wont hatch but leaves due to happiness. i think that will be gasters good ending, however that plays out. on the other hand,

((have u guys ever heard of shocking a hard boiled egg in ice water before u peel it?? iceshock Is one of noelles attacks. i think the weird route/snowgrave will be the one where u fight gaster in the end. this is another reason i think gaster will either be good or morally gray - you have to be a total dick thru snowgrave to fight him. these last two points may be seperate from the main one, not sure.

((anyways this has been wdg mod throwing sketti at the wall. i may add onto this or scrap it entirely

[descendant-of-truth]

There are a lot of things to wonder and speculate about with the release of the new chapters, but there's one thing that's really been brought to the forefront of my mind now that we have more things to work off of:

What exactly... are we playing as in this game?

The heart, duh, but like. Is that meant to literally just be us? When I'm floating around the vents and see Kris passed out, and I try several times to join back with them because I'm worried they might die without me, is that the heart's canonical motivation in my playthrough?

Or are we playing as an in-universe entity, a character with their own desires that might not line up with our own?

Obviously we can still shape what those desires are with our choices, but I'd argue that the way we do so is more akin to roleplaying an OC in an RPG than anything else. Like, in an average choice-based RPG, if you choose to be evil, your character's motivation for being evil is not going to be the same as yours. You just think it'd be fun to see what happens, but your character now retroactively has their own personality traits and belief systems that lead them to doing heinous acts.

In the regular routes, it's pretty easy to insert yourself into the avatar of the red heart, but doesn't that kind of fall apart when you consider the Weird Route? As a player, you try out Iceshock experimentally and probably get startled when the enemies are still frozen in the overworld, so naturally you get curious - "what happens if I keep doing this with every enemy?"

You see "Proceed" show up as a dialogue option and you only choose it because it's surprising. You choose "Snowgrave" and keep doing it until something happens because, well, now that the option suddenly presented itself, aren't you wondering what it does?

But. but. All of those things you do, the words you say, the systematic way you manipulate Noelle... it feels VERY premeditated on the soul's part. The consistency with which "we" pursue this possessive, uncomfortably romantic route with our sights set on Noelle exclusively, even trying to kill our supposed "competition" in Berdly (who, keep in mind, the soul would have reason to assume is interested in her at this point if they don't remember other routes) is like. more than enough proof to me that the soul wants something that we don't.

Because really, who's playing the weird route with a clear goal in mind? We all know the steps to getting it to happen, sure, but we aren't trying to get anything in particular out of it other than Something New.

For example, I don't think anyone is personally invested in keeping the Thorn Ring on Noelle - we'd be just as happy to see what happened if she tore it off or something! But in chapter 4, the option to re-equip it to her keeps showing up at a certain point, like that's something the soul really wants to happen for some reason.

But also... there's the very simple fact that the weird route, frequently, makes the player scared when partaking in it. A fear which is never reflected as even an option in the dialogue. Would someone scared of their own actions, continuing only on morbid curiosity, be able to stoically repeat the word "proceed" the way the soul does in-game?

That brings up its own questions though, because if the soul isn't literally us, then. Who Are They. And why can they develop such a weird fixation on Noelle?? They don't even seem to be fueled by shipping anymore, because if you pursue the route in chapter 4, they get very clear with Noelle herself that they are listening in, they can hear her thoughts, thus cueing her into the fact that they are Not Kris. Which means they're not wanting Kris to be with her, they're going full self-insert on this.

And forget who, at this point I really have to ask WHAT this heart-shaped thing even is. I don't think it's the angel - one would have to assume that the thing everyone's worshipping would be powerful enough to not lose their homemade vessel that easily, and shouldn't need any help from Presumably Gaster to connect to the world of Deltarune, either.

There's a lot here I can't figure out, but the one thing I'm getting pretty confident in is that we might not be playing as ourselves. Which has some insane implications