#Kings Of Spade Strange Bird | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

vgfm · 3 years ago

Text

Everyman Theory Part 3: Picking Up the Pieces

HEY EVERY___!

A lot has changed, hasn’t it? Last year I wrote a massive theory post on Everyman’s role in the Undertale/Deltarune series, and a month later I made a follow-up post that went further down the rabbit hole and explored Everyman’s possible relationship to Gaster.

With the release of Deltarune Chapter 2 I debated making a third part to this analysis, but it turned out there’s more to talk about than I could’ve imagined.

One reason this post took so long was that there was a lot of ground to cover and many disparate ideas to explore that never quite came together. To make things easier for you to read and easier for me to write, I decided to divide my original concept for this post into separate “fragments” that each deal with a main topic. The first fragment was my theory about Kris and this second fragment will focus on Everyman, the initial catalyst for this theory series.

Before we delve right into things, let’s recap my original theory once more for those who don’t want to sift through two 40+ page analyses:

Everyman theory, speedrun version:

Everyman was the bullet attack from the Reaper Bird amalgamate in Undertale’s True Lab (the one whose head got eaten by butterflies)

Amalgamates generally follow the pattern of being made from 1 named/important monster combined with several generic monsters

Keeping the above pattern in mind, Everyman was likely an actual person/monster who became part of an amalgamate like Snowdrake’s mother and Shyren’s sister did

Everyman appears multiple times in Deltarune, implying that he’s alive and well (unlike the other amalgamate monsters) and will play a greater role in the full game

Everyman is referenced in both the light and dark worlds, implying that he’s a lightner who’s been traveling between both worlds

Everyman could be connected to “The Knight” who’s creating fountains in Deltarune (we’ll go over this in a bit)

Everyman is connected to butterfly imagery. Notably, the butterflies that eat his head in Undertale are unique sprites named after him and they are distinct from Whimsun/Whimsalot’s butterfly attacks

Jevil and the King of Spades make reference to both the Knight and Everyman, implying they could be the same person

The word “strange” is associated with Everyman; his sprite in Undertale is called “strangeman” and Seam first refers to the Knight as a “strange knight”

The word “strange” is used very selectively in Deltarune Chapter 1, usually referring to mysterious dark-world characters like Jevil or the Knight

Everyman is associated with knight-like characters—the Reaper Bird amalgamate is made from the armor-clad “sword and sorcery” enemies from the Core and Everyman is grouped with Knight Knight and Whimsalot in the official Undertale art book

Everyman is probably connected to Gaster, since they’re both connected to the True Lab

Everyman and Gaster are two of only six characters in Undertale referred to as “man” in the game files. This list includes strangeman (Everyman), mysteryman (Gaster), riverman (River Person), watchingman (bed amalgamate in True Lab), darkman (overworld sprite for Core enemies), and snowman (gives snowman piece)

In short, the broad stroke of my theory was “Everyman will be important,” but the main crux or “hook” was that Everyman is the Knight who’s pulling up dark fountains in Hometown. Chapter 2 has featured more appearances by Everyman and we’ve learned some new Knight lore, so let’s take a look at what this means for my theor—

Oh right, I keep forgetting.

Needless to say Chapter 2’s ending has complicated things. So much so that I needed to create a whole separate theory post (my longest ever) to address whether Kris might be the Knight or not. To simplify this post, I will not be addressing Kris’ “knighthood” here since I’ve gone over that in great detail already.

Regardless of whether Everyman is the Knight or not, I’m more convinced than ever that he’ll continue to appear in future chapters. Before I unpack all of Chapter 2’s implications for my Everyman theory, let’s do a quick rundown of what my original theory got wrong, what it got right, and what’s still up in the air:

What I got wrong

The Knight must have visited dark worlds personally

I assumed that the three kings at Card Castle were imprisoned in Chapter 1 as a direct result of the Knight’s actions within the dark world. However, Chapter 2 shows Kris creating a dark world in their house without needing to step inside of it. Moreover, the Queen explains how the Knight appeared to her as an outstretched hand in the sky, implying that the Knight was outside of the proto-dark world the whole time. It’s possible the Knight has been inside of dark worlds before (regardless of who they are), but it is no longer explicitly necessary as a device to explain away their actions, how they create fountains, or how darkners know of them.

The Knight’s pronouns

Chapter 2 consistently refers to the Knight with they, them, and it pronouns. Seam’s dialogue about the Knight in Chapter 1 made me assume the Knight was the “him” referred to when discussing how the Spade King came into power.

[Image transcript: A dialogue box from Seam that reads “But, recently, a strange knight appeared… And three of the kings were locked away. The remaining king put him and his strange son into power. End image transcript]

I’m now more inclined to think this line should be read as “the king put him[self] and his strange son into power.” The line is still phrased awkwardly this way, but Toby seems to have backed away from this line having any significance, so it was likely a simple error or fluke that I read too much into. Speaking of which…

The Knight’s “strange son”

I was already highly skeptical of this line and now I’m forced to conclude that it was always intended to refer to Lancer. Nothing is mentioned at all about a “strange son” in Chapter 2 and this line would be completely incompatible with the case Chapter 2 is making for Kris being the Knight, regardless of whether they’re a red herring or not (more on that in my Kris post).

Jevil isn’t “aware” of what’s outside his cell

While I haven’t been 100% proven wrong on this in regards to Jevil, Chapter 2 introduces several darkner characters who inexplicably have awareness of not only other beings within their own dark worlds but who also have prior history with darkners from other dark worlds. Most notably, the King of Spades is shown to have previous ties with Queen, and Spamton makes cryptic references to Jevil.

[Image transcript: Two screenshots. On the left, Queen taunts King, saying “You Slept Curled Up On A Dirty Throne Every Day.” On the right, Spamton says “SOON I’LL EVEN SURPASS THAT DAMNED [[Clown Around Town!]]” End image transcript]

It’s now far likelier that Jevil would know about the Knight without needing to meet them personally or be directly told about them.

Chapter 2 would take place in the Hometown’s hospital

A lot of people (myself included) assumed this due to the “tender loving care” act in the Virovirokun fight that was shown in early screenshots of Chapter 2, along with Noelle’s implied importance in early previews.

[Image transcript: Two preview images of Deltarune Chapter 2. On the left, the party dresses up as nurses and the narration states “Everyone treated the enemy with tender loving care!! All the enemies felt great!!” On the right is a Toby Fox tweet from September 15, 2019 of Noelle’s dark world form. End image transcript]

The fact that this chapter still introduced a few medical-themed enemies makes me think that a future hospital dark world is now less likely, otherwise those enemies would’ve been saved for then. This wasn’t an essential part of my original theory by any means, though it does majorly impact a certain Everyman/Knight suspect.

The Warrior will be important

I feel like it’s self-explanatory why this one isn’t true, and the less said about our favorite inscrutable pizza maker the better. We did find out where “giasfclfebrehber” came from in the Monster Kidz Word Search, so that’s a nice consolation prize.

[Image transcript: Kris solving a speak and spell puzzle. The solution is “GIASFELFEBREHBER”. Ice-E’s face is on the screen. End image transcript]

Sans and Gaster may be darkners

This was more of an aside and only tangentially connected to my original theory, but this hypothesis seems far less likely now that the workings of darkners have been elaborated on in Chapter 2. Unless the game establishes that there are “special” darkners who won’t turn into objects or statues outside of a dark world (besides Ralsei, maybe?) then this idea will have to sit on the backburner

What I got right

Dark fountains are created by Lightners

Even before Chapter 2, many theories have suggested that the Knight is a lightner character, but I don’t recall seeing many specifically posit that the Knight has to be a lightner. Queen attempts to create a new “Knight” but only lists lightner characters as potential candidates. Moreover, this revelation seemingly discredits other theories which posited that only humans can create dark worlds. Berdly’s weapon glows with power as he attempts to create a dark world before being stopped by Ralsei.

[Image transcript: Berdly raises his halberd, saying “I will make a new Fountain…” End image transcript]

Apparently Ralsei considers monsters just as capable of making fountains as humans, and Ralsei knows more about fountains than anyone else we’ve met so far.

Dark fountains were made in the light world

This one is mostly correct, since we see Kris create a dark world inside their own living room, but Berdly did attempt to create a fountain within a dark world. There’s no telling what a dark world created within a dark world would look like, but it seems unlikely that any of the current fountains were created inside of existing dark worlds, given how they’re mostly isolated from one another (with the possible exception of the two in the school).

Everyman has made more appearances

I was expecting to get one more Everyman cameo in Chapter 2, but now we’ve gotten two. I’ll discuss these in a bit, but suffice it to say I was pleasantly surprised.

Darkners can voluntarily turn into objects and back

I theorized Gaster could be doing this if he’s a darkner and if he’s the one who hands you an “egg.” While the jury is still out on that, we do see Lancer intentionally turn into a card to fit into Kris’ pocket and then turn back, showing that (presumably) all darkners can do this voluntarily at any time and not just when removed from a fountain.

[Image transcript: Two screenshots. On the left, narration states “LANCER was added to your Key Items.” On the right, Lancer drops out of Kris’ pocket as a playing card. End image transcript]

It’s also not an ability that’s exclusive to “special” characters like Jevil or Spamton when they’re defeated, though their case may still be special because they each have two different items that they can turn into (which may or may not be their “true” forms).

Father Alvin is related to Gerson

This one hardly counts because it was one of those theories that was 99% likely to be true in Chapter 1, like the “theory” that Noelle’s mom is the mayor. However…

The drawing in the unused classroom was of Gerson

This was a 50/50 chance (with the other possibility being that it was Alvin’s self-portrait). However, this does carry significant implications for Alvin as a character, which I’ll elaborate on at another time.

What’s still up in the air

Is Kris the only Knight?

If opening a fountain is what it takes to be considered a Knight, then there’s no question that Kris qualifies. But are they the only “Knight” out there? If so, then will that remain the case for the rest of the game? Hmm, maybe I have a theory post to answer that…

How much do darkners know about the light world?

Certain darkners seem to have memories that go back before the creation of their home fountains. The King of Spades remembers being previously abandoned by lightners and the Queen has footage of her own world’s creation, to say nothing of her prior relationship with King. Seam’s interactions with Jevil seem to have occurred before the Knight (and their fountain?) appeared. Ralsei in particular seems to have keen knowledge of what goes on outside of Castle Town. I don’t have answers to these questions, but they’re something to think about in future chapters.

Is the “strange someone” Gaster and/or the Knight?

In my original theory I suggested the possibility that the “strange someone” who Jevil met could’ve been the Knight. This was mainly to answer the question of how Jevil knew about the Knight after being locked up. Chapter 2 seems to provide more evidence that the “strange someone” could be Gaster or at least strongly connected to him, but we have no idea whether this means Gaster, this “someone,” and/or the Knight are one in the same or if they’re at least related. Time will tell.

The meaning of the term “strange”

Chapter 2 continues the trend of using the word “strange” selectively and in relation to key characters. I won’t go over all of the instances here, but suffice it to say there still seems to be an intention behind the word’s use.

Why were the previous fountains made in those locations and who would have access to them?

Even though we’ve learned a lot about how fountains are made, we still don’t know what the Knight’s motive is for making them or why they were made in the locations we’ve seen so far. Kris undoubtedly created the fountain in their house, but it’s relevant to ask whether they or any other Knight suspect had the means, motive, and opportunity to create the previous fountains we’ve seen so far.

Headshots in Pop-Ups

[Image transcript: Kris fighting Poppup. One of Poppup’s attacks is a browser window with Everyman’s face. End image transcript]

Everyman makes two on-screen appearances in Chapter 2: first as a pop-up ad during encounters with the Poppup enemy, and again as a profile picture during Queen’s PFP/“drama” attack. I haven’t tested these attack cameos extensively, but they both seem to follow the pattern of being rare encounters like the Jevil carousel cameo in Chapter 1. This rare encounter rate, again, implies to me that Everyman’s presence is significant.

Right off the bat I will say that the implications of these Chapter 2 appearances are a little harder to parse than the cameos in Chapter 1 due to the nature of the Cyber dark world. Cyber World contains search results and other personalized content created from (presumably) all of Hometown’s residents. This means that the line is a little blurred as to which dark world constructs are physical objects in the library and which ones are manifestations of data that came from the internet. However, each of these Everyman cameos has a “tell” that caries major implications for the character once we look at the context.

First up, the Poppup attack with Everyman is just one of several possible pop-ups. The other pop-ups include cameos of Maus, Virovirokun’s “demon” attack, the Addisons, and Poppup itself.

[Image transcript: Four Poppup attack windows. From left to right they include: a Poppup, an Addison with a tooth brush, several of Virovirokun’s devil bullets, and a swarm of Maus (Maice?). End image transcript]

Note that these are all dark-world entities. Everyman’s presence here implies that he is known in the dark world as well—not necessarily as a darkner, but as someone who has visited a dark world and interacted with darkners before.

One very interesting detail about the Everyman pop-up is that it resembles the Reaper Bird bullet sprite from Undertale but it’s actually different.

As you can see, the shape of the nose and the neck don’t quite match. This means that an all-new sprite was made just for this attack. This could mean that the Reaper Bird bullet sprite isn’t that different from Everyman’s actual appearance, or at least the head part of it. It’s possible that he could be wearing a helmet or mask of some kind, albeit one that covers his neck as well.

On the other hand, we do see one of Virovirokun’s bullet attacks in another pop-up.

[Image transcript: Kris and Noelle battling Virovirokun, dodging their pink devil bullets. End image transcript]

So it’s possible that the Everyman pop-up may just be another Everyman bullet attack rather than the man himself. This would track with Everyman’s original appearance in Undertale also being as an attack bullet. Still, this implies that Everyman was in the dark world either way since we only see lightners cast magic inside of dark worlds, meaning none of the darkners would’ve been able to see this bullet if Everyman hadn’t set foot inside the dark world first.

Everyman’s Drama-Free Life

Next we have the Queen’s Profile Picture (PFP) attacks. Their sprite filenames include “pfp” so that’s why I call them that. Everyman’s head appears as one of the icons, though this is a random chance. There are several interesting tidbits to be gleaned from this attack. Most noticeable is that Everyman’s icon is the only one that never hurls chat attacks at you, even when the Queen’s icon has enraged the other icons with “drama.”

[Image transcript: Profile pictures scrolling during one of Queen’s attacks. All of them are spouting text except for the two Everyman portraits, which are silent. End image transcript]

Something else to note is that, in most scenarios, Queen uses this PFP attack immediately after she mentions the Knight.

[Image transcript: Queen fighting the fun gang, saying “Is What I Wondered. Until The KNIGHT appeared…” End image transcript]

This isn’t always the case, since the order of Queen’s attacks can vary depending on the progress of the fight and whether her acid shield is up or down, but in most of my playthroughs she used it right after mentioning the Knight. This is not unlike how King showed off his butterfly cloak after mentioning the Knight in the final turn of his boss fight.

[Image transcript: Nine profile pictures from Queen’s attack. In order, they are: a frog, a bunny, Toriel, a sun with a face, Everyman, a human, a bird, a cat, and a dog. End image transcript]

What I find most intriguing about the Queen’s PFP attack is that the profile pictures (minus Queen’s) all seem to represent lightners. There’s a pfp that looks like Toriel and another that looks like a human (implying that humans are commonplace in Deltarune’s universe). This is one of the few times in all of Chapter 2 when outside lightners are visually represented in the cyber world—almost everything else is either a darkner, a dark world construct/building, or some sort of abstract symbol/ad. As mentioned before, even the pop-up ads are pictures of dark world enemies and attacks.

Given how these profile pictures stand out from other pictures in the cyber world, I’m inclined to think these are meant to represent actual lightners and not just abstract characters (i.e., like how a real-life person may have a profile picture of their favorite fictional character). The lone possible exception (besides Queen) is a profile picture that features a sun. However, the Undertale art book shows that Toby has considered sun-based monster designs in the past, so it’s not out of the question.

[Image transcript: Two images from the Undertale Artbook. Both are Toby’s doodles of an unused monster named Mr. Sunshine. The left description reads “Hard mode enemy sketches. I only regret not being able to include Mr. Sunshine and the Troubleboys. The right description reads “Hey, it’s Mr. Sunshine!” Mr Sunshine: “SHUT UP!!!!!” End image transcript]

So what does this all imply? The profile picture attacks imply that Everyman is a lightner, and this fits with my prior theory that Everyman is a monster who lives in Hometown. The Poppup ads imply that Everyman has been to a dark world before, which would be fitting for the Knight. We’ve seen Susie, Noelle, and Berdly’s first times entering a dark world. If Kris is the Knight then that carries the implication that they’ve been to (or at least known of) dark worlds before the events of the game. But, if Kris isn’t the first Knight then that necessitates that some other character has created and visited dark fountains before they did.

Strange Crew

In previous parts of my theory I’ve gone over the significance of the word “strange” in Deltarune Chapter 1. In total, the word is used five times in association with Jevil, twice when referring to Kris’ actions/reactions, once when the Knight is first mentioned, once in regards to the “strange someone” Jevil met, and at least once for Lancer. There is a line from Seam about a “strange son” that the Spade King put into power—this is likely another reference to Lancer but the wording is unclear.

The pattern we saw in Chapter 1 was that “strange” seems reserved for the big players in the Deltarune universe: Kris, the Knight, Jevil, and the “strange someone” he met, with Lancer seemingly being an outlier (barring some greater significance in later chapters).

In Chapter 2, “strange” is used more often than in Chapter 1 but it’s also used more broadly, referring to Spamton (5), shadow crystals (2), Kris (3), the dark world (3), the fountain (2), Ralsei’s conversation with Kris on the swan boat (3), Noelle’s internet searches(1), the Ice-E’s word search puzzle (1), the giant toilet (1), Top Chef and his bakery’s tools (3), and the “Twisted Blade” item crafted from the purified crystal and thorn ring (1).

[Image transcript: Four screenshots. In the first, Kris reaches inside a hole as the narration says “(You reached inside and found something alongside a strange piece of glass…)”. In the second screenshot, the item LoadedDisk is highlighted in the key item menu. The description says “A strange disk. You can feel it smiling in your hand.” The third screenshot is Ralsei saying “Kris, this looks like a strange word, but…” and the final screenshot is of Malius’ crafting menu with the item “TwistedSwd” highlighted. The description says “A strange blade” End image transcript]

[Image transcript: Four screenshots of Kris and Ralsei riding on a swan boat in Queen’s acid lake. Ralsei says “… is it s-strange to say… It’s nice spending time alone with you like this…?” A dialogue choice is presented. The left choice reads “I feel the same” while the right, highlighted choice reads “It’s strange.” Ralsei responds “Ah, s-sarcastic! I was just being sarcastic!” End image transcript]

The Ice-E reference is of dubious importance, since it’s used to describe the “strange” word that Kris must spell in the Cyber world—a word very similar to the long gibberish word featured in the Ice-E’s word search in Undertale. Noelle’s “strange and sad” internet searches are also of interest because the “sad” part implies that these searches may relate to her sister Dess, who will likely loom over what we learn in future chapters about Kris and Noelle’s pasts.

Top Chef and the toilet appear to be outliers this time like Lancer was before, given their overall goofy/comical nature. However, it’s been pointed out that Top Chef has some obscure dialogue that’s very, well, strange:

[Image transcript: A series of dialogue boxes from Top Chef. The dialogue reads: “Mama miba! You returned my cake to me… Mwah! I will never forget your kindness!! Every day, I will give you dizzying flavors! Every day, the flavors will become stronger! That’s the power of [Baker’s Arms]!” The words “Baker’s Arms” are written in brackets like Spamton’s speech. Flavor text reads “(You got Spincake.)” Top Chef resumes speaking, saying “Would you like to take my cake for a spin? Like night and day, the cake and the world revolve!” End image transcript]

In a short span Top Chef references Spamton’s bracketed speech and Jevil’s battle theme, The World Revolving. I have no idea if these lines are pure coincidence or if Top Chef will have some bigger role later in the story. It seems unlikely but who can predict where Toby will take a story these days?

One pattern I’ve noticed with the word “strange” is that Shadow Crystal holders Jevil and Spamton got the lion’s share of “strange” references in each chapter, in keeping with the theme of the “strange someone” that Jevil met. “Strange” only ever seems to refer to dark world characters and concepts, with the possible exception of Kris. Of course, Kris may have history with dark worlds that we aren’t aware of, especially if they’re the Knight.

Previously I tried to link the significance of “strange” to the Knight, in part to tie into the fact that the filename for Everyman’s sprite in Undertale is titled “strangeman.” While this could still be relevant, it seems like “strange” is more closely associated with shadow crystals now and the “strange knight” moniker has been dropped in favor of the “Roaring Knight.” Could the Knight still be the “strange someone” that Jevil met? That’s possible, especially since “strange knight” was written with emphasis in Chapter 1 and it was the first time that the Knight and the word “strange” had been mentioned in Deltarune. Still, I’m far more iffy on this idea than I was previously, if only because of the new hints we’ve gotten regarding that “strange someone” that feel more Gaster-leaning. It’s possible that “strange knight” might’ve been a false positive, and it wouldn’t be the first.

False Sightings

Since the time I made my initial Everyman theory posts I’ve found more analyses surrounding the character—some older than mine and some newer than Chapter 2. I’m happy to see that more fans are aware of this character and discussing his potential meaning—this was the main goal of my initial theory, even if many fans don’t agree with my points.

However, in this Everyman fervor I’ve noticed a few recurring “Pro-Everyman” arguments and pieces of evidence from other fans that don’t quite add up to me. First off is what I’d call “false Everyman sightings,” meaning props or characters that people have associated with Everyman that likely bear no connection. One of the most frequent examples I see is the dolls in Asriel’s room in the Ruins and New Home.

I’ve seen people claim these are Everyman dolls due to their simple facial features and snouts, but evidence seems to suggest that these are just boss monster dolls with simplified features. I think this is most evident by the dolls’ ears, which match those of a boss monster but differ entirely from Everyman (who has no noticeable ears). We can see from Temmie’s original concept art (on the bottom) that the original doll design was even more like a boss monster:

Another example I’ve seen tossed around is training dummies.

[Image transcript: Undertale’s encounter with the training dummy. The narration says “You encountered the Dummy.” End image transcript]

While I could sort of see the resemblance with Asriel’s dolls, I really don’t know what the connection here is. Lots of monsters have snouts and long faces, so Everyman is hardly unique in that regard. Moreover, the Mad Dummy has both eyes facing the same way, whereas Everyman’s face has distinct wall eyes.

[Image transcript: Undertale’s encounter with the Mad Dummy. The narration says “Mad Dummy blocks the way!” End image transcript]

The normal training dummy in the Ruins is a bit more ambiguous with its facial features—you could maybe squint and argue there’s a resemblance, but I think the dummy is simple enough that you could map several characters onto it. Heck, I’ve heard people argue that Susie and the Mad Dummy are related just because their faces sort of look alike, so take that line of reasoning for what it’s worth.

One other false positive I’ve seen, albeit one that’s very rare, is the claim that the swan boat you ride in Queen’s mansion is meant to resemble Everyman. I think this is the easiest to dismiss because the swan’s design is far more specific than the dolls or training dummies. Honestly it just looks like a swan to me.

If I really, really wanted to stretch things I could claim there’s some symbolic significance to the swan, given that Rouxls Kaard (whose face vaguely resembles Gaster’s) rides on top of the Thrash Machine (which may symbolize the discarded Vessel) and he fights you over an overview of a small town (perhaps foreshadowing the Titans awaking over Hometown?).

[Image transcript: An edited collage of the Rouxls Kaard fight. Ralsei’s head has been replaced with Asriel’s God of Hyperdeath form, Kris has scary red eyes, the Swan boat’s head is Everyman, Rouxls Kaard has Gaster’s face, the Thrash Machine has the Goner Maker Vessel’s head lazily pasted on, and Susie is doing her “where the hell are we?” pose in the center while the Titans look overhead. On top of this is clickbait text that reads “deltarune ENDING REVEALED?!” End image transcript]

In that context where everything needs to symbolize something then I could see Everyman/the Knight being slotted into the role of the swan (foreshadowing some eventual team-up against Gaster or Kris fully taking on the Knight role themself?) but that is a huge, huge reach. Keep in mind that I’m not saying I believe a word of that, but that’s the only possible scenario where I could see a connection between the swan and Everyman coming into play or having any meaning. Sometimes a swan is just a swan.

I think some of these false positives tie into the idea I’ve seen floated by fans that Everyman is supposed to be monsterkind’s equivalent to a stick figure. While this is an intriguing idea, I can’t say that I fully agree. However, this is less something that I can outright disprove and more something that remains to be proven, in my estimation.

It’s true that Everyman’s features are very simple, but its shape feels more defined and solid than a stick figure’s. Moreover, stick figures already exist in Deltarune’s world. Queen uses stick figures to illustrate that teens are merely big children.

[Image transcript: Queen shows a picture of a small stick figure labeled “STUPID” and a larger stick figure labeled “BIG STUPID.” She says “Tens Are Merely Big Children And Adults Are Even Bigger Children” End image transcript]

While Queen isn’t a monster, she’s clearly not referring to herself here since she was never a kid.

[Image transcript: Continued from the screenshot above, Queen brings up a picture of two computers labeled “SMART” while saying “No I Am: A Computer (Smart)” End image transcript]

We know that Queen pulls her information from lightners and their internet, so the stick figures she uses can be presumed to match what lightners use for visual shorthand.

However, we know that humans exist in Deltarune’s world, so is there a possible cultural difference where humans use stick figures and monsters use Everyman? I can’t fully rule that out, but that seems unlikely to me since later in Cyber World we see signs with horned figures that also resemble stick figures.

[Image transcript: The Fun Gang looks at a green sign of a stick figure with horns.” End image transcript]

We don’t see many horned darkners, so the implication is that these figures are meant to resemble monsters.

Later on we also see green stick figures in the carnival ad signs (which can appear elsewhere during Snowgrave):

[Image transcript: Noelle and Kris are at the cyber fair. Above one of the stands is a sign with a green stick figure. End image transcript]

I definitely get why people associate Everyman with the idea of a stick figure—just the name “Everyman” screams “one size fits all” and his simplistic design lends him well to that. However, I just find that idea difficult to square with Everyman’s relative absence in Undertale (outside of the True Lab) and the Hometown graffiti of him. I mean, how often does someone spray-paint a stick figure on a wall and label it “stick figure”? Bonus points if they’re not being ironic or “avant-garde” about it.

[Image transcript: A Hometown alleyway with graffiti of Everyman with “Everyman” written alongside it. End image transcript]

Amalgamate Word Association

To close things out, let’s take one more look at where this all started: Reaper Bird. This was the very first enemy to have an Everyman attack, and the only one in all of Undertale. Now Everyman attacks have become a recurring trend in Deltarune chapters. At first I thought Reaper Bird held very few secrets due to its recycled dialogue from the Core mercenary enemies, but over time I’ve only found more and more interesting tidbits.

For starters, the enemies that make up Reaper Bird (Astigmatism, Final Froggit, and Whimsalot) have unique flavor text when you encounter them all together in the Core:

[Image transcript: An Undertale encounter with Final Froggit, Astigmatism, and Whimsalot. The narration says “What a nightmare!” End image transcript]

“Nightmare” is another term that’s used very rarely in Undertale and Deltarune. In Undertale it’s only used three times—once here, and once by Aaron and Papyrus in more humorous contexts. There’s also the title of Flowey’s boss theme, Your Best Nightmare, but this is never stated in the game’s dialogue. In Deltarune, “nightmare” is also said three times: once in Werewire’s check description, once by Noelle recounting her experiences in the Snowgrave run, and once by Jevil:

[Image transcript: Two screenshots of Jevil speaking after being defeated. He says “FROM NOW, A NIGHTMARE WILL AWAKEN IN YOUR HEARTS. IN THE SHADOW OF THE KNIGHT’S HAND…” End image transcript]

While this could be coincidental phrasing, keep in mind that the Core also has Knight Knight as an enemy, who makes puns equating “night” with “knight.”

[Image transcript: An Undertale encounter with Knight Knight. She says “Good knight,” using the spelling for a medieval knight rather than the time of day. End image transcript]

Toby also composed the theme for “Nightmare Knight” from Cucumber Quest—he’s no stranger to equating the two terms.

There was another bit of flavor text related to Reaper Bird that I’ve been holding onto ever since the end of my last Everyman analysis.

[Image transcript: The fight with Reaper Bird in Undertale. The Check description states “REAPER BIRD – ATK ?? DEF ?? This relentless future finally looks brighter and brighter.” End image transcript]

Reaper Bird’s check text, which states “This relentless future finally looks brighter and brighter,” uses parallel language to Entry No 17. Specifically, “brighter and brighter” is parallel to “darker, yet darker.”

“Darkness” in Deltarune can be taken as not only the opposite of light but also the opposite of the future. This idea originally came to me from Chapter 1’s Game Over text, where choosing to continue prompts the (Gaster?) voice to say “THEN THE FUTURE IS IN YOUR HANDS,” while quitting results in the voice saying “THEN THE WORLD WAS COVERED IN DARKNESS.”

[Image transcript: Two screenshots of Deltarune Chapter 1’s game over screens. In the left, the mysterious voice says “THEN, THE FUTURE IS IN YOUR HANDS.” In the right, the voice says “THEN THE WORLD WAS COVERED IN DARKNESS.” End image transcript]

This dichotomy is further reinforced by Ralsei referring to the heroes’ quest as one to bring about a peaceful future.

[Image transcript: Ralsei saying “As heroes, we have the power to make a peaceful future.” End image transcript]

Given that Ralsei’s legend was “whispered by time and space,” he’s likely on the same page as Gaster(?) about this, at least ideologically: future good, darkness bad.

[Image transcript: Ralsei saying “And fulfill the ancient prophecy, foretold by time and space.” End image transcript]

Now, it’s unclear whether this “brighter” future is somehow related to the Reaper Bird or, rather, if it has come about due to the absence of the Reaper Bird’s component monsters. If Everyman is the Knight and Everyman is part of Reaper Bird, then the future of Undertale’s world would be “brighter” because the Knight of that universe has been rendered inert inside of an amalgamate and can (presumably) no longer focus his will on creating dark fountains due to sharing his consciousness with the Core mercenary monsters.

In part 2 of my analysis I pointed out that although “darker yet darker” is often associated with Gaster, the phrase doesn’t necessarily represent Gaster’s goals or what he wants. Given how Gaster and the red soul’s goal involves sealing fountains, I think it’s more likely that “darker yet darker” represents a problem that Gaster is looking to solve. Likewise, although “brighter and brighter” is currently associated with Reaper Bird, that phrase might also represent something that Reaper Bird (or at least its Everyman component) was working against.

As if to reaffirm this idea, the pre-release Twitter messages for Chapter 2 mentioned how “DELTARUNE GLOWS BRIGHTLY FROM YOUR HOPE.”

Gaster praises the red soul (presumably) for their actions thus far, saying “YOU HAVE DONE EXCELLENTLY TO PERSEVERE.”

If Gaster is the man behind the tree who gives eggs then his interactions in Chapter 2 also imply that he has a far more positive and friendly attitude towards Kris/the Soul than he did previously.

[Image transcript: Two screenshots of the secret egg tree in Chapter 2 and two screenshots of Kris talking to one of the cars at the start of Chapter 2. The narration in the tree screenshots says “Well, there is a man here.” The narration in the car screenshots says “(There is even a man inside this one.) (He waves at you happily.)” End image transcript]

This strongly implies that Gaster and the red soul have been on the same page since day one and that sealing dark fountains is not only the red soul’s goal but also Gaster’s desired path to a better future.

Towards the end of Chapter 2 there’s a line from Berdly that plays with this bright/dark dichotomy. As he’s about to create a new fountain, Berdly talks about unleashing a bright future, but then clarifies that this future’s brightness is born from darkness.

[Image transcript: Four screenshots of Berdly raising his glowing halberd, saying “I will make a new Fountain… And unleash a bright future! A future that shines for US! A future whose brightness… is born from DARKNESS!” End image transcript]

While this line is likely meant to carry some irony, it’s a possible nod to the true nature of the fountains.

As I’ve said previously, dark fountains have been associated with holiness. The King calls them “holy” fountains and the name of the fountain theme is “the holy.”

[Image transcript: King saying “Holy fountains, whose shadows are creating a new world…” End image transcript]

We’ve also seen a “holy” element in the Chapter 2 game files but no indication of whether this is meant to represent a “light” or “dark” enemy.

[Image transcript: Unused narration that states “SkyMantle. A cape that shimmers fluorescently. Protects against Elec and Holy attacks.” End image transcript]

Holiness doesn’t really seem to fit Gaster’s MO as a mysterious scientist whose favorite number is 666, whereas the Angel’s Heaven is firmly associated with the creation of dark fountains and, presumably, the Knight. Each Chapter boss has protected the Knight’s fountains. Even Spamton, despite his possible ties to Gaster, intervenes to protect the Cyber World fountain in the Snowgrave route. He’s also referred to by one of the Swatches as praying frequently.

[Image transcript: A Swatch saying “Eventually, he just spent all his time in the basement… praying.” End image transcript]

Spamton seemingly makes this gesture multiple times during his fights.

[Image transcript: Two screenshots. In the left, Spamton bows his head with his hands together. In the right, the narration during the Spamton Neo fight says “Spamton begs to the audience, Spamton prays to the audience.” End image transcript]

On the subject of prayer, I recently remembered that Reaper Bird (and Whimsalot) have pray ACTs that are required for sparing them.

[Image transcript: Two Undertale battles. In the left, flavor text states “You kneel and pray for safety. Reaper Bird seems to remember something.” In the right, the text says “You kneel and pray for safety. Whimsalot remembers its conscience.” End image transcript]

Not only does praying prompt Reaper Bird to “remember something” once all spare conditions are met, but these two are the only enemies with this ACT, which is the only mention of praying in all of Undertale. By comparison, Deltarune seems to have many more references to religion than Undertale does. The only explicit religious references in Undertale (barring casual phrases like “go to hell” or “oh my God”) are all related to Deltarune in some way:

Gerson explains the angel in the Deltarune symbol…

[Image transcript: Gerson saying “Legend has it, an ‘angel’ who has seen the surface will descend from above and bring us freedom.” End image transcript]

Riverperson echoes this idea of the angel…

[Image transcript: River Person saying “Tra la la. The angel is coming… Tra la la.” End image transcript]

…and Whimsalot/Reaper Bird each react to prayer.

Now, I’m trying to remember if there’s a character in Deltarune strongly connected with prayer.

[Image transcript: A dialogue box that reads “Let us pray that the Angel will smile upon her.” End image transcript]

Maybe someone who associates with knights or knight-like characters the way that a certain “strange” man might have in Undertale? Bonus points if it’s in an environment like the Core or a small town suburb where knights seemingly shouldn’t be commonplace.

[Image transcript: Royal Guard 1 and 2 in Hometown, stating “Nothing like admiring the great paintjob, me and my bro did on our church.” End image transcript]

Someone with a background or connection to a “swords and sorcery” fantasy aesthetic that comes with knighthood?

[Image transcript: A dialogue box that reads “Fans of his famous book series, Lord of the Hammer…” End image transcript]

Maybe someone whose past history of “poor” drawing ability could have conceivably created a nondescript character like Everyman?

[Image transcript: Narration that reads “(It’s a yellowed, poorly-drawn picture of a green turtle.)” End image transcript]

Finally, some kind of visual association with amalgamates that might imply what became of Reaper Bird, or rather who took its “spot” in Deltarune’s setting would be helpful.

[Image transcript: Father Alvin standing in the graveyard with headstones for Gerson and the amalgamate monsters. End image transcript]

A character like that could easily take up a whole theory post. Maybe I already started writing that post. Maybe I had to break it off of this one because there was too much to talk about. And maybe that post is fast approaching.

#deltarune #undertale #deltarune theory #Everyman #the knight

86 notes · View notes

isoldmysoultojonahclemence · 3 years ago

Text

[Army Version] Ikerev Name Analysis!

Lancelot Kingsley:

The name Lancelot means “servant.”

OK so at first I was really confused because he’s the King of Hearts, which is pretty much the farthest thing from a servant. But then I realized that it could be alluding to how he was forced to work for Amon for so many years.

Or this could also be a reference to the Arthurian legends, in which Sir Lancelot was said to be the greatest of the Knights of the Round Table.

The surname Kingsley means “a king’s meadow.”

Given that the entire Kingsley line are Kings, this is a very fitting name for them. Also Kingsley is similar to the word kingly, which definitely describes Lancelot.

Jonah Clemence:

The name Jonah means “dove/pigeon.”

The two birds are often seen as symbols of peace. They’re also often seen as messengers.

I wouldn’t necessarily associate Jonah with peace, since he’s kinda rash and very quick to anger.

But something else worth acknowledging was that his little brother ended up joining the Black Army, and the symbol of the Black Army is a raven. Doves and ravens are usually considered opposites, which could stand for how the brothers ended up on opposite sides.

The surname Clemence means “merciful.”

It seems a bit ironic to me, since the Queens of Hearts aren’t really known for their forgiveness (the original Queen chopped off people’s heads without listening to their reasons and Jonah literally held a grudge against Sirius for 14 years and counting).

Edgar Bright:

The name Edgar means “rich/prosperous” and “spear.”

Maybe the “rich/prosperous” part is about the Bright family wealth? They’re the third most important family in the Red Territory, so you’d think they’d be pretty rich. And then they’ve also assassinated people for profit before as well.

And the spear is a weapon, so it probably points toward how Edgar was weaponized to be the perfect assassin.

The surname Bright means “bright” (obviously).

I thought it was kinda ironic, just like Clemence, because obviously the duty of the Jack of Hearts is anything but bright.

Zero:

The name Zero means “void.”

I know that this was just the number he was given to differentiate him from the rest of the human experiments.

But I still thought that “void” kinda describes Zero around the time he just left the Magic Tower, because he doesn’t have anywhere to go anymore. And even when he joined the Red Army, there’s still soldiers who disrespects him because he wasn’t from the crimson lineage.

Kyle Ash:

The name Kyle means “narrow; strait.”

A strait, in case you didn’t know, is a narrow passage body of water connecting two other, larger bodies of water.

I interpreted Kyle as the strait and the Red and Black Armies as the two larger bodies. Since he’s a doctor and his primary goal is to save lives, he can act as a sort of connector between the two territories.

The surname Ash means “ash tree.”

Ash trees are said to have protective and healing properties, which makes sense since the Ash family are all doctors.

Ray Blackwell:

The name Ray means either “king” or “counsel.”

The “king” part is obvious, given that he’s the King of Spades.

And the word “counsel” can refer to how wise he is. He’s able to give good advice to people and run an entire Army at just 24 years old.

Or, the “counsel” part could also refer to how the rest of his Army supports him. Fenrir is his best buddy who would absolutely die for him, Sirius is always ready with some sort of strategy, Luka is practicing with his massive sword, and Seth is insanely strong. I personally believe that Ray wouldn’t be such an excellent King without their support, and he also acknowledges it himself.

The surname Blackwell means literally “a black well.”

The “black” part probably refers to the Black Territory, which he is the King of. I have no idea what the “well” part could refer to, though. Maybe it just sounds really cool?

Sirius Oswald:

The name Sirius means “burning/glowing.”

The “burning/glowing” part could refer to the person he is deep down inside, as opposed to the cool and mature exterior he usually tries to upkeep.

Also, his family owns a flower shop called “Canis Major” and his siblings are named Furud/Zeta, Wezen, Mirzam, and Aludra, which are all stars in the constellation of the Canis Major.

Given that he’s the oldest in his family (and also bc he’s a suitor), it makes sense that he would be named after the brightest star in the sky.

The surname Oswald means “god” and “power.”

These are both extremely powerful words, so it’s probably to be expected that he would canonically be the strongest suitor in terms of fighting ability.

Luka Clemence:

The name Luka means “bringer of light.”

Honestly I squealed when I saw the definition for this name bc it fits Luka so much! He brings light into everyone’s lives, but he just doesn’t realize it himself.

Also the Clemence bros both seem to have names related to heaven? Luka literally means bringer of light and doves are pretty much the symbol of heaven as well.

I’ve already talked about the surname “Clemence” in the Jonah section, so I won’t put it here again!

Fenrir Godspeed:

The name Fenrir means “fen-dweller.”

A fen, if you didn’t know, is a “low and marshy or frequently flooded area of land” (thanks Google!) I can’t really fathom why Fenrir is named after that, so perhaps a more accurate interpretation is that his name is also connected to Fenrir the Wolf, from Norse mythology, who’s supposed to eat the Sun and Odin when Ragnarok rolls around.

Basically, Fenrir the Wolf is incredibly strong and chaotic, and both of those qualities also belong to Fenrir the human!

(also this means he’s the son of loki now lmao)

The surname Godspeed means “good wishes, specifically to someone who is beginning a journey.”

If I remember correctly, one of the two keywords describing Fenrir is “lucky star” or something along those lines. So a word meaning wishing someone good luck before starting a journey fits perfectly with Fenrir’s luckiness trait.

Seth Hyde:

The name Seth means “appointed.”

If you think about how the Magic Tower purposefully stationed him in the Black Army, then the whole “appointed” thing makes sense.

Also, this could refer to Set, the Egyptian god, who is known as the god of chaos, and he’s commonly associated with evilness. I guess that Seth’s connection to the Magic Tower and all the “work” he has done for them makes him “evil” as well, so maybe the game creators decided to name him after Set to hint at his true associations.

The surname Hyde means “someone living on a hide (which is a type of measurement) of land.”

As with Fenrir’s name from above, this doesn’t really make any sense, so I interpreted this name as originating from “Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” instead. So, if you didn’t know, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde are different egos in the same person, and Mr. Hyde is supposed to be the “evil” one.

(Cybird’s really playing it up with the “evil” theme in Seth’s name geez...)

I suppose this can point towards how Seth is a different person inside than what he’s like on the outside. The “outside Seth,” who is outgoing and friendly, corresponds with the good-natured Dr. Jekyll, while the “inside Seth,” who is cunning and devious, corresponds with the ruthlessness of Mr. Hyde.

Part 2 here.

189 notes · View notes

beewolfwrites · 3 years ago

Text

The Oar in the Sand - Chapter Seven: The Second Day of Nostos

@cheshiya @tenseoyong @szallejhscorner @something-more-original-please @ofsunsetsandpoetries @nek0dzuken @allozaur @serenzippity @hiqhkey

Another update! This was supposed to be posted yesterday, but life just kept getting in the way. But thank heavens it’s here now :)

I’ll stick the AO3 link here for the ones that want it. Thanks for reading <3

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

There were two things I had come to enjoy here in the Borderlands. The first was the freedom I had now that the old world and all of its problems were gone. The second was waking up beside Chishiya.

Usually I was the first to fall asleep and he was the first to wake up, so it was rare that he was still around when I opened my eyes. This morning was different. His face was angled away from me, and his hair was splayed across the pillow, almost obscuring his face from view. Almost, but not quite. Curling up at his side, I observed the way his sly smile had become slack, disappearing entirely as it made way for something far different.

He probably hadn’t intended on sleeping in like this, but the exhaustion of the previous day was overwhelming. I remained there for a long time, peeking out at him from beneath the sheets until his breathing lightened and he started to stir. One eye cracked open, squinted, then slid over to mine.

‘What are you doing?’

‘Just enjoying the fact that you’re not dead.’

He raised a brow. ‘Between the two of us, you’re more likely to get shot than I am.’

What should’ve been a snarky comment came across flat and uninterested. Now that he was awake, the shadows beneath his eyes were more pronounced, and I could see the dark roots of his hair had grown longer. It was strange to see him looking this weary, but even Chishiya was only human. He was no more immune to bullets than I was.

‘What are you thinking about now?’

I could tell by his tone that he was trying to taunt me. But my thoughts were detached. I couldn’t stop thinking about the game. ‘Yesterday, it wasn’t just me who cleared it. An was there too, with two girls from the Beach. They said that the King of Spades attacked their camp right after the second stage started.’

He quietly considered it for a moment. ‘And we were close enough to hear the gunshots. He probably started with the camp before heading over to us.’

Heading over to us?

‘You don’t mean…’

‘He knows the location of all the players,’ Chishiya said.

That’s not…

No, it was fair. Once a player knew about his game, it was easy to avoid him just by mapping out the location of his blimp and remaining as far from it as possible. Him knowing the players’ locations only evened out the playing field.

‘An told me something else too. Apparently he moves all across Tokyo. Aside from the other game venues, the whole city is his arena.’

I thought this would’ve piqued Chishiya’s interest more, but as expected he was already a step ahead. ‘I realised the same thing when he chased you. It makes sense they would plan things this way. They’re trying to drive players into the game venues.’ He sat up a little, resting against the headboard and lacing his fingers together. ‘While you were in your game, another one was cleared. The King of Clubs.’

The hardest of the Clubs games. It made sense that those ones would be completed pretty quickly, given the chance of survival was the highest. ‘That was pretty quick.’

‘I suppose it was,’ Chishiya retorted. ‘But I have a feeling I know who cleared it.’

‘Hm?’

‘Arisu.’

Arisu? The last time I had seen him was when he was with… ‘Kuina was probably there too. An said when their camp split up, she got into a car with Arisu and Tatta. They must’ve gone to the game venue together.’

And if they cleared it, that meant they were still alive. They had to be. Knowing Arisu, he would’ve taken Usagi with him too. I almost felt like I could rest easy if the four of them were safe. Although they must’ve met the King of Clubs while they were there.

‘The Queen of Diamonds died.’ I hated how thick my voice sounded. ‘But I wish she didn’t. Is that okay?’ I looked up, meeting Chishiya’s stony gaze. ‘I mean, is it okay for me to like her?’

‘I don’t see why it matters whether you do or don’t,’ he replied. ‘The outcome is the same.’

I could still see her smile right before the wood gave way, a sort of peace mixed with relief. ‘I thought she was going to be evil or scary, kind of like Mira.’ The way she’d picked out the footage of mine and Arisu’s first games, the provocation was like a test. The Queen of Diamonds though, had been totally different. ‘She wasn’t like Mira at all. Right from the start, she wanted us to win.’

Chishiya was watching the dust motes glide in the sunlight, idly listening. ‘Did you find out anything?’

‘I’ve dedicated my whole life to the pursuit of knowledge, but I’ve learned to be satisfied with not knowing.’

‘She was a player,’ I told him. ‘She didn’t know about the Borderlands either.’

He mulled it over quietly. ‘I thought so.’

Chishiya knew they were players?

I sat up in bed. ‘There’s no way you could’ve known that.’

‘It was just an idea,’ he replied. ‘I’ve been here longer than you. I’ve thought a lot about the possibilities.’ He paused for a minute, then smiled ironically. ‘It’s very possible we could all be dead.’

It was a horrible idea, the thought that all our efforts to survive were in vain. Or perhaps, it was one big test of character to determine our place in an afterlife. And if we died in a game, would it be a second death, or would it allow us to proceed to a further level of some kind? Was it a true death at all?

‘I’d like to think we’re still alive,’ I admitted. ‘You probably don’t care, but I’d like to go back to the real world with you.’

‘Oh? And what makes you think there’s a way back at all?’

Hatter’s theory had been only half correct. But while the Queen had avoided telling us everything, she’d revealed even more than she perhaps intended. ‘The Queen of Diamonds said she went through the same thing we did, found all the cards, and then completed the face card games like we’re doing now. But then she called the others citizens. If we’re currently here on a visa-basis, maybe clearing all the games gives us the chance of a permanent citizenship—’

‘If that’s so, it’d only prove my point.’

‘No.’ I shook my head, thinking back to the game. ‘She also mentioned that she chose to stay here. If there’s a choice to stay, it means there’s a choice to leave.

I could see Chishiya’s mind working, taking it all in. It was as if he absorbed all the knowledge he encountered, storing it up and processing it for use later. He didn’t respond to my theory, but simply accepted it, and relaxed against the headboard, staring at the ceiling. As he tilted his head back, the dressing over his neck was exposed, and I suddenly became aware that we were still wearing our old, bloodied clothes.

I really, really need a wash. And new clothes. And new bed sheets.

Climbing out of the bed, I left Chishiya and made my way to the bathroom to clean up a little. However, when I passed the mirror above the sink and saw the face staring back at me, my mouth fell open.

This can’t be me.

My skin looked thinner and sallow, and without the Beach’s constant food supply, I’d lost weight, only not in a good way. The girl in the mirror was haggard and I barely even recognised her. While Chishiya had cleaned the dried blood from my forehead the night before, there were still flakes in my hairline and my face was dirtied.

I reached for the bottle of water beside the sink, except the plastic crinkled, empty. Throwing it away, I then checked the bathroom cupboards for our extra supply, but they too were empty.

You’re kidding me…

A quick search of the store revealed that we’d run out of water entirely. If our little hideout were closer to the river, it wouldn’t be a problem. However the river was too far away to collect water on a daily basis, and with the King of Spades out there, it wasn’t worth the risk. There had to be some way of storing water for the long-run.

Standing in the small kitchen, I could hear the muffled creaks of Chishiya moving about upstairs. And then the idea hit me. Walking out into the hallway, I called up the stairs, ‘I’m just going out to get something! I won’t be too long!’

There was no reply, but I knew he’d heard me as the noises quietened. He then appeared at the top of the stairs, leaning against the banister with an unimpressed smirk.

‘Are you sure that’s a good idea? The last time you ran off on your own, you stole the Queen of Diamonds game.’

His words stung, even if they’d been said teasingly. I hadn’t intended to steal the Queen of Diamonds Game. I only ran inside the building because there were others sheltering in there. I desperately wanted to tell him this, but it wouldn’t have made a difference. Chishiya may not have directly blamed me for what happened, but there was clearly some resentment that he hadn’t been able to complete the game himself. In his eyes, it didn’t matter.

And that hurt. It really, really hurt.

‘I’ll stay away from the King of Spades,’ I called out before leaving the furniture store.

It was warm out here in Tokyo, but not a pleasant warm. The air was dull and sticky, as if the city was thirsty for rain.

There must be a storm coming.

I took my time wandering through the silent streets and deeper into the city centre. Even here, the only sound was that of the birds building homes in vacant office blocks, and aside from a deer grazing on the grass in an empty lot, there was nobody around.

Luckily, I had explored this side of Tokyo enough that I’d formed my own mental map of the area, and I easily found the camping store where Kuina had picked up our current stove. Inside, the place was scavenged, and I had to step over several boxes until I found the section I was looking for. There were several water containers, but none of them were quite what I had in mind.

I ambled further down the streets until the road opened up into a car park. It was lined by several walkways leading into large, white interconnected buildings. Two tall clocks stood above a disused bus station and taxi rank. And as I walked further down the road, there were ambulances lined up outside.

I followed a series of steps led up to the main entrance, but once I was inside, the sunlight cut off. While an abandoned Tokyo was eerie, a dark, dusty hospital was a thing of nightmares. Just inside the entrance was an international poster stuck to the wall, with the same phrase written in different word-art fonts and various languages.

‘Welcome to Nihon University Itabashi Hospital!’

I walked further inside, passing a reception desk and a waiting area. It was evident that other players had been inside here, as there was litter on the ground, and some of the store rooms lay open, their contents emptied out.

Strolling along the corridors, I explored the theatre facilities. There were drawers upon drawers of syringes and sterile metal trays of surgical tools, and aside from a thin layer of dust, the hospital beds were all intact. If it weren’t for the King of Spades and the danger of other players, the hospital would make a decent camp for a group of survivors. But on second thought, I wasn’t prepared to give up the warmth and comfort of waking up next to Chishiya. Retreating back out of the wards, it was in a main corridor where I finally found what I was searching for.

A water dispenser.

Unlike the others, this didn’t open from a cap in the top, but rather the container had a tap at the bottom. It was perfect for Chishiya and I. Rather than having bottles of water lying around, we could simply fill it up and keep it as a main water source. It was balanced on top of a platform, unattached. But the container was filled with water already, and barely budged when I tried to lift it. Wrapping my arms around the body, I lugged it forward, right as a loud clap resounded through the hall.

The echo of a drawer slamming.

Someone’s here?!

Holding my breath, my arms slid away from the water container. I could hear it clearer now, the rustles of someone rooting through drawers of supplies. It was coming from the ward opposite me. Every instinct told me to leave quietly the way I came. My thudding heart screamed at me to get out now.

I should’ve listened.

Inching forward on tiptoe, I peered around the doorway into what looked like a recovery ward. On the right, the door to a stock room had been kicked open, the rustling growing louder as I approached. A tall man with dark fabric wrapped around his head was hunched over a desk. He muttered something, and my heart stilled.

‘What the hell’s this shit? Ah, forget it.’

No.

He was dead… wasn’t he?

‘Where the fuck do they keep the morphine anyway?’

He’s alive, he’s alive, he’s alive.

My eyes gaped, unblinking, at the stock room door. I didn’t want to look but I couldn’t bring myself to look away either. The memory of his eyes burned through my mind. The sheer, unrestrained rage, and the desire to kill, I’d seen it all through the tatters of his singed shirt as he looked up at me from down below in the hotel lobby and pulled the trigger. I needed to leave. I needed to leave now.

I took a step back.

Clink.

The tiny, hollow clatter of a syringe rolling across the vinyl had never felt louder. It rolled across the width of the hall, before tapping against a doorframe. The rustling inside the store room suddenly stopped, and at that moment, we both knew.

#alice in borderland #chishiya alice in Borderland #chishiya #chishiya shuntaro #Chishiya x reader #chishiya x oc #aib #Imawa no Kuni no Arisu

58 notes · View notes

yuryecwn · 3 years ago

Text

before the sun rises location. spade’s kingdom, graveyard open to anyone.

it’s early. early enough that the sun has yet to rise and the birds have yet to sing their morning choruses. but yurye is up. in fact, the usual cheerful prince has been up for the last two hours sitting on the stone cold bench in the town’s center graveyard listening to the quiet whistle of the wind.

despite being the son of the king, his mother was never married to the king, nor had any royal titles bestowed upon her. so after her death, she was laid to rest outside of the royal palace’s graveyard. just like any other regular citizen. it’s a heavy feeling to have knowing how highly yurye is regarded compared to his mother, and how little she received.

his head hangs low and the edges of his eyes glisten with tears. it’s a strange thought to know that it’s been over 20 years since the passing of his mother. every single year that he goes to visit her on the anniversary of her death, he finds that there’s a part of him that grows with more fear each time. because he’s noticed how the already minuscule amount of memories he has of her is beginning to fade as each day is filled with new memories. more demanding thoughts and troubles of the present that require him to pick and choose what can stay and what can’t.

it scares him to know that the only reason why he can even remember his mother’s face is because of the photos he still has, kept safely in his private study. sometimes… sometimes it makes him wish that his mother had never brought him into the country to meet his father - the king. it’s a selfish thought to have, he knows. to wish that they could’ve just had a regular life outside of the country where maybe she would still be there.

his thoughts are interrupted when he hears a sudden rustling from behind. their voice is quiet, like they’re talking to themself.

his back immediately straightens and yurye wipes his tired eyes with one hand, sniffling quietly before standing up to see who else would be in the town graveyard that early in the morning. when he makes his presence known though, he hears the gasp and look of surprise on the other’s face.

“i’m sorry,” yurye hurriedly apologizes before taking a look around. “i didn’t mean to startle you… i didn’t think… anyone else would be here this early.”

#cwnopen #- i debated on making this a solo or not but #this is open to anyone who wants to thread and hasnt had time to plot!#- yurye has been dumb in all his threads so far #- lol so here's him being sad for change

8 notes · View notes

simpingforthisonedeer · 4 years ago

Link

Chapter 10: Storge I

SFW Version Here

Summary: There is some discussion of Kabbhalic lore in the beginning but this chapter and the next focuses mainly on the parental relationships Julius and Aika present. They certainly feel their age.

Notes:

- Ive split another massive chapter in half sighhhh. This is 5279 words and I’ve written 7.3k already but I still haven’t reached the ending I wanted so I just split it. 

- I know Yami and William haven’t made an appearance yet but they will. This chapter will shed some light on how Julius and Marx’s relationship and how proud he is that Marx grew up from an antsy young boy in his squad to a dependable young man by his side. -There’s like 2-3 sentences where its NSFW but besides that, nothing much sorry folks ajskjlk

Tagging: @thoughtfullyrainynightmare

Aika observed the dirty grimoire with one part apprehension and one part excitement. It was the first time she encountered a devil-possessed item without any supervision. A weg magic user that had come to Spade Nation War College as a guest speaker to her class had shown her how to recognize and deal with Devils. They were often best left alone in their sealed states whether they were friendly or not unless you wanted to make a pact. Though Aika’s curiosity was piqued, she had no interest in any other Devil except for one specific one, but he wasn’t heeding her calls or summons so she had lost any interest in becoming a host, especially considering the downsides.

There was no doubt there was a devil in there. She could feel the familiar mana from the Underworld. Aika cracked open the spine and stared in shock at the familiar writing. It was the same runic scripture from her own grimoire. She flipped through pages, skimming them. They all spoke of multiple different swords. Now, she had lightly studied grimoire magic over the years for fun because she found it fascinating how the countries in the Four Suits continent determined their borders purely based on the symbol on the grimoires. So she knew the basics such as checking the grimoire to see if anyone’s mana was connected to it and it wasn’t. This means that she could keep it and study it. If she took off her gloves, she could even make contact with the devil if she wanted to, but this was neither the time nor the place.

Aika looked up at her protégés as they stared warily at the book in her hand.

“What are your thoughts on this grimoire? What is so unusual and exciting about it?” She asked testingly. They needed to discern what it was from their own knowledge.

“Well, according to Clover Kingdom mythos,” Ellie began. “The three leaves symbolize hope, faith, and love. In the fourth leaf, a formation which occurred 500 years ago with the first Wizard King’s grimoire, contains luck. But according to legend,” she paused as she took a deep breath. “In the fifth leaf, there is a demon.”

“Do you think there is a demon in this grimoire?” Aika asked lightly.

Evan shivered before he answered, “There is definitely a devil in it. It reeks of the Underworld.”

She snapped the book shut and squinted at the anti-bird. Still strange how it was still here.

“Yes, you are right there is a devil in here,” she confirmed. They all tensed.

“What should we do? Should we kill it?” Jayce asked, his voice slightly shaking.

“No,” Aika shook her head and she crossed her legs again. “You don’t kill devils unless absolutely necessary.” She opened her backpack and stuck the grimoire carefully in it, willing it to be placed on top of her research table in her not-so-little study space in her loft.

“What?! Why?!”

“Because the very existence of devils obscures most of God’s Light and allows reality to exist. Killing them is counter-intuitive. You only kill them when they are unshackled and out in the human realm. This devil is very neatly sealed in this grimoire so no worries,” Aika explained as she smiled demurely. Their panic was quite amusing, especially when they are noticeably frustrated with her nonchalant attitude.

“Are you sure, ma’am?” Ellie asked carefully.

“Very.” She put the tea set away. “Now, if that is all, you may stand at ease.”

Their shoulders slackened and Ellie slinked over to her side and sat down next to her with a sigh.

“I can’t believe we are still brushing over the devil,” she murmured as she rested her head on Aika’s shoulder.

“Don’t worry. When I have recovered, I will make sure the devil is safe before I take you guys to interact with it.” She carefully patted Ellie’s mass of white curls.

Evan sat in the armchair to her right as Jayce picked up a book from the stacks around them and flipped through it.

“I’m in no hurry to talk to a devil, ” he began as he absentmindedly traced the pages in the book. He snapped it shut with a wicked grin. “But I do want to know everything about you and the Wizard King.”

They all rolled their eyes at his theatrics. Aika shifted in her seat, quickly categorizing information that she was willing to share and details that were better left to herself. She found that this method was better than completely shutting herself out from people as per her first instinct.

“What exactly do you want to know about the Wizard King and I?” She asked as she wrapped her arm around Ellie. “There’s a lot to know.”

“Ooooooh,” Jayce plopped down in front of her like a kid at storytime and gave her his brightest smile. “How did you two meet? How did you get so close? ” He winked. Even Evan, who was usually understanding of Aika’s reluctance to share information, leaned forward as she braced herself to tell them the barest details at the very least.

She told them about her first encounter with him that night and the captain’s meeting and the assassination attempt at her home.

The three listened to her story and watched in great interest as Aika grew more and more animated, an easy smile gracing her face and a twinkle in her eye as she spoke of the Wizard King. It was fascinating to see their boss grow less and less reserved as time went by and what little time she had spent with the King had sped the process up. The more she smiled, the younger she seemed, happier, more carefree, and very undoubtedly in love.

Aika grew more somber when she talked of today. They knew of her condition and how it was dangerous to spend too much time around her. It was why they valued the time they spent with her so much. It saddened them to hear about how she had to reject him so many times when she wanted nothing more than to be with him.

“But if it truly doesn’t affect him…” Aika’s gaze fell to the side. “Then I may have a chance.”

At love. She left unsaid, but they knew. They knew her well.

“There’s always an exception,” Ellie whispered soberly. “And if his words are to be believed, then he may be it.”

They all stayed quietly for a moment, and as if to herald the end of the storytime, Evan, Ellie and Jayce’s stomachs growled in unison.

Aika was the first to laugh. A tinkling kind of sound like windchimes swaying in the summer wind. They quickly joined in after the momentary shock, a sort of happiness bubbling in their chests to see her smile so freely after all these years.

“I’ve made flat bread and curry for dinner. Would you two like so—”

“Yes!”

Aika chuckled and opened her backpack. Ellie dove headfirst without warning and Jayce soon followed. She carefully helped Evan step into it as the anti-bird perched on top of him again. As he disappeared into the void, Aika set her backpack down next to the sofa in an innocuous spot. Satisfied, she climbed in and closed the flap above her. Light brighter than the study flooded her vision. She kept her loft well-lit and tidy for the most part so she was fine having guests today. Aika heard a faint “wheeee” as Jayce slid down the pole to get to the bottom floor.

When you walk further into the living room that first greets you, there was a L-shaped railing that overlooked a spacious opening to the bottom floor. There was a break in the railing for a spiral staircase and a pole which Jayce had always loved to use.

The anti-bird she had allowed into her home flitted around, exploring the open kitchen to her right and the rooms in the hallway adjacent to the railing. Evan and Ellie were already setting up plates and utensils on the table in the dining area.

Aika walked past them with a tired smile and quickly heated up curry and bread with the firestone on hand and a touch of her Time magic. She placed them carefully on the table just as Jayce launched himself into his seat. It may be rather late in the night, but he was still full of boundless energy.

Ellie helped serve the food and Aika muttered a small prayer before they dug in.

“There was something off about the Wizard King, wasn’t there?” Ellie remarked innocuously. Aika looked at her curiously. She motioned her to elaborate as she spooned some curry.

“I stood where you two were, er, standing and the remnants of your mana felt like they were the same yet completely different.”

“Well, he doesn’t have a heartbeat, if that information means anything to you.”

“He’s not the undead. He certainly has a lot of mana,” Evan added.

“Is that why you are pursuing him while still keeping him at an arm’s length, Miss?” Jayce asked suddenly. They all looked at him in shock. He looked uncharacteristically serious. “You could never resist a mystery after all.”

Aika stared at him evenly and his gaze never wavered from hers. Anger initially shot through her at his words but she held her tongue. She couldn’t be mad at him for discerning part of the truth. She was known for her lack of patience but she had lately been trying to better herself and she asked for the three infront of her to help her in this. Ellie and Evan were patient with her when she lost her temper while Jayce was the only one with the courage to test her, keep her on her toes so she wouldn’t one day explode.

“That’s not completely true,” she finally answered. Julius’ smile replayed in her head and she felt a lot calmer, a little happy even.

“I do genuinely like him.” She looked down at her plate. Her breath stuttered when she remembered his laugh, his eyes, the way his soft hair threaded between her fingers. Aika couldn’t help the smile that crept up her face.

“I must admit, he is the only one that makes me laugh and smile like that.”

“And what are we for doing all that too? Chopped liver?” Jayce snorted as he crossed his arms over his chest childishly. She rolled her eyes at that.

“You guys make me smile in a way mother smiles when her children do stupid things,” she quickly retorted. “Or when they make her proud—”

“You think of us as your children?” Ellie interrupted breathlessly.

Aika gaped at her for a moment. She had accidentally let it slip hadn’t she? It’s been too long since she had to be so careful and alert and she was losing practice. And she was especially close with these three so her guard was completely down.

She hesitated before she answered, “Well, yes—” Ellie hugged her arm tight and Jayce was suddenly behind her, arms wrapped around her neck. Evan stayed put in his spot but his shoulders were hunched as he smiled shyly at the plate in front of him, a pleased blush high on his tanned cheek.

“We’re glad you think so.”

Aika stiffened at the sudden touch. Did they really want to be that close to her? Then it hit her. Of course they thought of her as a mother. They were orphans, she had rescued them from their various dangerous situations, taught them valuable lessons, protected them, gave them means to better themselves.

Oh.

She relaxed in their hold. She had more than one child, didn’t she? “I—” I love you guys. She wanted to say, but the words were lodged in her throat. She had a severe aversion to that particular sentiment. It saddened her that she couldn’t comfortably say the words she wanted to say.

Jayce slinked back into his seat and they continued eating.

“If he makes you happy in a way nobody else does,” Evan spoke first, changing the subject for her sake. “Be as careful as you want to be before you get together.”

Ellie hummed in agreement with him. “But you also have to make it clear that while you are keeping him at an arm’s length, that you still like him, or he would take your distance as disinterest.”

“We want you to be happy, but we just hope you just don’t get hurt like last time.” Aika smiled gratefully at all three of them. They were no longer children. They were wise beyond their years and people she could depend on.

“Thank you,” she whispered hoarsely and cleared her throat with a blush as they giggled.

They thanked her for the food and helped wash the dishes before they all climbed out, ready to turn in for the night.

Ellie, Evan and Jayce wrapped Aika in a group hug, coaxing a joyful laugh out of her.

“Good night!” They exclaimed in unison before they shut the door to study behind them.

When they left, Aika grinned and buried her face in her hands. Her whole family died when she was just sixteen and she had wandered this plane of existence for decades, making friends along the way but they all had their own lives. She forcefully planted her feet in Clover Kingdom to protect it but along the way, she had found a family again. Her uncle, aunt, her daughter, whatever Arthur meant to her, Ellie, Evan and Jayce.

She felt an indescribable giddiness as she activated her Mana Hands spell to rearrange the stacks of books around her back into their places on the shelves. This was what she was looking for all these years. She didn’t even need Julius. This was all that she needed. –

Julius closed the door behind him and shifted the painting back into place so it was covered. He leaned his head against the canvas as he exhaled.

There was an unmistakable force pulling them towards each other every single time. First, that night, then the Captain’s meeting, that moment on the battlefield, then today again.

What in the world was wrong with him? Never in his life had he felt so lost. His whole life that he only ever needed magic and the power to do good in this world but what was this squeezing sensation in his chest?

“One month,” she said. One whole month. He thought about the way her eyes lit up at the Captain’s meeting, the palpable relief when she realized there were no hard feelings, the intent way she looked at him when she slipped off her blindfold.

Julius pressed his hand to his mouth as a blush suffused through his cheeks.

Oh, he was down bad.

He had always kept these sorts of interactions at an arms-length. One-offs were fine but what was so different about her? He just became Wizard King yet she consumed his thoughts. He was supposed to be thinking about the future of his kingdom not—

‘She held you like no other.’ His voice whispered in his head. ‘You have always protected others but you felt warmth and safety for the first time in the crook of her neck and her tight embrace.’ No one had ever dared to hug him and touch him like that. No one had ever kissed him so sweetly, and with that same mouth called him a “good boy” and made him see stars.

His hand clawed at the painting behind him as he pressed his legs together.

Julius let out a breathy laugh.

This was not the time.

He stared at the voluminous stack of papers on his new desk. His desk as Wizard King. He felt the crushing weight of that title again for the second time that day. He walked up to it, his fingers lightly tracing the edges as he stepped onto the side where he had rarely ever been.

He was here now, wasn’t he? He looked around the corner less office, cold and empty in every way. There was no fireplace, only torches that lined the walls.

Why was the room so big anyways? It should have a few couches at the very least to have comfortable conversations over tea instead of the vast barrier that the desk was sure to put up.

Julius turned around and faced the view he used to envy as a Captain. The giant, arched windows looked out over the Clover Kingdom from its highest peak. The sun had set hours ago but the bright, purple glow of the wisteria trees at the base of the tower was both exhilarating and calming.

He took a deep breath and faced his desk. He ought to finish at least one stack of papers. He filled up the fountain pen with ink and sat down heavily. Julius began with the paper on the top. It was a report from the Crimson Lion Kings.

Well, that piqued his curiosity.

He had always dealt with his own squad’s affairs and some collaborative missions with other squads but he didn’t know the specifics of the internal affairs in each squad.

The report wasn’t from Leonardo, it was in fact from his son and the new captain, Fuegoleon. From the lengthy conversation he had with the Vermillion during the banquet, he could tell that he was a hardworking, young man who was eager to do his job. He also inferred from their talk that he didn’t particularly care for anyone’s class or background unlike his father so he had high hopes for the Crimson Lions to set a good example for the rest of the squads. The most recent reports were all about how the battlefield was being cleaned up and about the dead. He genuinely focused on his work for half an hour before slowing down.

He was so tired. So much had happened today and the words in front of him began to look like scribbles. Perhaps he shouldn’t have exhausted himself so much…

A knock sounded on his door, jolting him from his thoughts.

Julius cleared his throat and asked, “Who is it?”

“It’s Marx, Lord Julius,” he called out, a little surprised he was actually in there.

“Come in.”

Marx stepped into the room, eyes alert as he examined the big office. When his eyes landed on Julius, they softened, happy that he seemed to be working.

“Are you working, sir?” He asked as he moved closer.

“Yes, Marx.” He smiled lightly. “May I help you with something?”

“No, sir,” He shifted his new cloak. “I was just making sure you were working, sir, and offer my congratulations once again.”

Julius set his quill down as he sat up straighter.

“Thank you.”

“You’ve worked so hard to get here and I am so grateful you chose me of all people to be your advisor, sir.”

A smile grew on Julius’s face as he regarded the young man in front of him. He was only 20 years old and Julius had only known him for the last 5 but he had a special place in his heart. He may not be a superb fighter but Julius saw his value in other places. He took Marx into his squad for his brilliant memory magic, his work ethic, and his unique ability to be the only person who could stand up to him and keep him in line. And now, he couldn’t think of a better person to make sure he didn’t stray his path.

“Of course, Marx. I know you will be the one to make sure I do my job right,” He added with a laugh.

Outside of family, Marx was one of the handful of people who was truly close to him and could stand up to him. Even as a 15-year-old magic knight, whenever Marx would find him trying to sneak away, he never hesitated to berate his captain and made sure he worked. With time, Julius had come to see that he was also a hard worker and was one of the few people who could successfully curb his propensity to slack off. If it wasn’t for Marx, he would’ve neglected his paperwork all together.

Yet, there was one more person who began to worm his way into his heart.

“Though, I have to say, there is one more person who you may see often as you work whom you haven’t met yet.”

“Sir?”

“She is a private consultant who used to work for the previous Wizard King and she had offered to work for me as well,” Julius explained as he laced his hands together.

“She?”

He raised an eyebrow at that. That was an unexpected remark. “Yes, Marx. She’s a woman. I hope you don’t have any issues with that.”

He threw his hands up as he shook his head. “No, sir. That’s not the issue. I just never heard of any women in particular that could be a consultant for the Wizard King.”

Julius laughed, slightly relieved that Marx wasn’t that kind of a person.

“You wouldn’t know her. She likes her privacy and used to only work in the shadows,” he explained as he cast his eyes down.

Marx observed his melancholic demeanor. Why does speaking of her make him feel so down?

“What’s her name, sir?” Julius’s eyes flicked up. “Her name?” He steeled himself for reasons he couldn’t put his finger on. “It’s Aika Tolliver.”

His eyes immediately widened in recognition.

“M-Madam Tolliver?”

Julius cocked his head at him. Madam?

“Yes? Do you know her?”

“Yes, my older brother used to be the head of communications in her company.” His voice wavered as he clenched his fists. “He was recently promoted to president. But why would she be a consultant to the Wizard King?!”

Julius was taken aback by all that he had just told him. Marx spoke very rarely of his estranged brother, Karl, and he never knew that Aika knew him. And what exactly does he mean why she was a consultant to him?

“What do you mean by that, Marx?”

“Sir, she has a bad reputation for using forbidden magic,” He whispered urgently.

Julius stared at him blankly.

“Yes, I knew that.”

“Y-you did?”

“Yes. A Wizard King sometimes needs a licensed forbidden-magic user to deal with some unsavory things. She is also an amazing strategist and has experience in warfare for reasons I am still unaware. ” He added quietly as he picked at his quill. “We’ve talked for hours about a lot of things.” A lot of things indeed. “And I know she will be crucial in the future.”

Marx was about to object again but quieted at the stern look Julius gave him. He sighed as he clenched his fists by his sides, his light blue hair tickling his cheeks as he bowed his head in acquiescence.

“I will try to keep an open mind, sir.”

“Thank you, Marx.” He looked down at the papers, his smile falling. “I will see if I could introduce you tomorrow. I’m assuming you haven’t met her properly.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Then that’s settled.”

He stood there quietly as he watched Julius sign a paper with a flourish. Marx knew the man a lot better than most people and he knew that Julius would be ecstatic that he was finally the Wizard King and maybe even goof off a bit but right now, he was much too somber.

“Sir, are you alright?”

Julius looked up, surprised he was still here. He was far too lost in his thoughts. He opened his mouth and stopped. Marx didn’t need to know about Aika. He rubbed the back of his head as he forced his best natural laugh.

“Yeah, of course I’m fine, Marx! Why wouldn’t I be?”

“Well, you would usually be more excited on finally achieving your ambitions and…you wouldn’t be working…”

…He’s right.

“Well, I have simply realized the weight of my new title and I suppose that is what is making me more serious.” That technically wasn’t a lie. Julius mentally patted himself on the back for that.

Marx grinned, a giddy sort of feeling washing over him.

“Does this mean you will finally be serious about your paperwork, sir?!”

That was not what he meant.

“Wait, no!” Marx’s expression fell. “I mean yes! Of course I will do my paperwork!” His advisor’s face could not look any more disappointed. He quickly needed to change the subject before he got lectured again. “Speaking of paperwork, I think I will feel motivated to do it if I’m in a better setting like a study, you know? There’s a Wizard King’s study and it’s desk is longer and faces the windows so I would have an amazing view to keep me energized. And I would also be surrounded by a lot of books and I would feel so studious and motivated!”

That seemed to have caught Marx’s attention. He had never heard of study. “I would like to show it to you tomorrow and we could both explore it. Does that sound good?”

“But sir, you have to tour the squad bases and then you have to hold your first meeting with all the Captains—”

“We will explore the study after that, okay?”

“But then, there’s a lot of paperwork that—”

“Marx,” Julius addressed him patiently as he held his gaze. “Taking breaks is important, you know?”

“And all you want to take are breaks, sir,” Marx replied with an imperceptible roll of his eyes.

Julius laughed.

“I promise I will be productive!” – Aika threw her crimson cloak on, a cloak she had worn since her days with Mereoleona. She quickly examined her trousers for any odd wrinkles and stacked the needed papers for a meeting she had in 20 minutes.

She felt much, much better after speaking to Ellie, Evan and Jayce and Julius seemed like the type to be more casual about such things and not let them get in the way of work. She was rather worried it might because her Uncle told her that Julius gets distracted easily. She couldn’t meet up with him and talk today because she would be occupied, especially since she accepted Lord Silva’s invitation for tea.

Aika reached for her communicator to call for Ellie, but she tensed and quickly pointed her daggers at the person who teleported into the study.

“Mom!”

Her shoulders slackened and a tired smile softened her face as she dropped to crouch. Aika enveloped Holly in a tight hug as she giggled. She loved how her daughter smelled like roses and apples, though they smell the same. She pulled back and pressed light kisses on her cheeks and smiled indulgently.

“Hello, Holly. You are here to spend time at the CLK base right?”

“Yeah! Uncle Fueggy said I could play with the lions and I thought I should congratulate him for becoming captain too! I made biscuits and wore my crimson cloak.” She spun on her heel, showing it off.

“That’s really nice of you dear.” Holly led her mother to the sofas and motioned her to sit down. “Did you make any for me?” She murmured, amused as Holly climbed into her lap and made her wrap her arms around her tiny frame.

“I hoped to give you the leftovers if that’s okay.”

“That’s fine but what if there are no leftovers,” Aika asked, fake hurt lacing her voice.

“I have a plan to make sure there’s leftovers. Don’t worry, Mom,” Holly grinned and sighed contentedly into her mother’s chest. Aika looked down at her curiously, gently rubbing her hair.

“May I know what the plan is?”

“You really want to know?”

Aika let out a short laugh. Only her children could ever sass her like this and get away with it and she must admit, it was very refreshing.

“Yes, I really want to know.”

“Okay, so if Uncle Fueggy didn’t like them too much, you will have some left over. Obviously. But if he liked them and wanted to keep them, and give them to his squad or something, I’ll be like ‘I was going to save some for my mom, but oh well. I’m glad you liked them.’ And then he would feel really guilty and leave some anyways,” she finished with a proud smile.

Aika pursed her lips, tamping down the laughter bubbling in her chest. Holly caught this and narrowed her eyes suspiciously.

“Is something wrong, Mom?”

“No…” She cleared her throat and took a deep breath. “Have you simply thought of maybe just giving me one biscuit to taste or maybe simply telling Fuegoleon to save some for me?”

“What.”

“Yes, I mean it doesn’t have to be that convoluted because Fuegoleon is polite and wouldn’t say no to that and even simpler, giving me one biscuit now would be the simplest solution,” she explained with a laugh.

“Oh.” Holly buried her face in the crook of her neck in embarrassment. “You’re right.”

Aika laughed quietly as she rubbed Holly’s back. No one could make her feel as young and light as her daughter could and she absolutely loved her for it.

Holly peeked at the window between her mother’s arms to check the time. The moment she saw or felt the sun, she could instantly tell what the time was. But she let her jaw fall slightly when she saw an anti-bird perched on the lap. She had never seen one so close.

“Mom, is that a…” She pointed at the bird. Aika followed her gaze and found that the little bird from last night still here.

“Yes, that’s an anti-bird, but it also seems to be an anomaly.”

“Oh, you mean it doesn’t run away from us like other anti-birds?”

“I mean that bird is still avoiding me but seems perfectly fine with others.”

“Isn’t this a perfect opportunity to study how an anti-bird reacts to magic then?”

“What? No! It’s an anomaly so it doesn’t behave like other birds so it’s useless to study it, Holly”

“What about studying the anti-bird for its biology through the possession technique?”

The possession technique is a forbidden magic spell used in the study of animals to possess them and view how the world was from their perspective including the five senses and what instincts activate in any given situation etc. Possession magic only works on other species so a human cannot possess another human unless an attribute explicitly allows that.

People have tried to use a possession spell on an anti-bird before but like the North and South repel each other, anti-birds have shown to dodge magic at abnormal speeds when magic was thrown at them even in containment. The ongoing theory was that anti-birds actually feel some measure of pain, most probably a lot, the presence of or when in contact with magic.

“An anti-bird’s biology was already studied by people with less magic and it’s no different than a normal bird’s. You don’t have to worry about it—”

The door leading from the Wizard King’s office clicked open. Aika paused as her heart skipped a few beats when she glimpsed the blond hair before the door revealed to the Wizard King in all his glory. She could never get used to that strange yet commanding-looking cloak he wore.

Julius met her gaze and they were lost for words for a few moments. Last night seemed like a fever dream compared to the clarity brought by the daylight. His eyes flickered down to Holly who broke the silence. “Good Morning, Julius!”

Notes: Holly actually plays a bigger role than intended👀👀

#demons run #julius novachrono #marx francois #oc: aika tolliver #julius x reader #julius novachrono x reader #julius novachrono x oc #demons run chapter 10

31 notes · View notes

ikeromantic · 4 years ago

Text

Ring

Day 14 of Ikemektober!

I chose Sirius! This was inspired mainly by his Say I Do event story. Approx. 1200 words. Fluff!

Sirius felt his left pocket, making certain the hard, little circle of the ring was still there. He had this completely irrational fear that it would disappear. Working its way out the top or dropping through a hidden hole, to disappear in the flowerbeds and grass of the Black Army courtyard.

It was still there. He resisted the urge to pull the ring out again to look at it. That only made it more likely he’d drop it. And raised the chance that someone would see him with it.

The door to headquarters swung open. Ray stepped out and held it. Alice was behind him, looking radiant. She wore a teal blue sundress with a matching hat, but she would have been beautiful in anything. Or nothing at all, Sirius thought with just a touch of guilty pleasure.

Alice walked down the steps with Ray, chatting but she gave him a wave to let him know she noticed him waiting.

“So you two are headed to central today?” Ray asked as they got closer.

“We are.” Alice blushed, her eyes bright.

“A real date then, hm?” The King of Spades chuckled and patted his friend on the arm. “Well, have a good time.”

Sirius smiled. “We will, Ray. Thanks.” He held out his hand to Alice. “So, little lady, are you ready?”

She took his hand, her cheeks an even darker pink. “Yes! I’m so excited.”

Not that she needed to say so. Sirius could tell by the set of her shoulders, and the way she walked. Every step looked like she was about to start skipping. It reminded him of how young she was. Sometimes he felt a little guilty for accepting her affection. It wasn’t unusual for a man his age to like such a young woman, but for her to be interested in him? That was a special kind of madness. Maybe it was different in her home of London. Sirius wasn’t sure, but either way, he felt lucky to have found such love.

“You must be thinking some deep thoughts,” Alice said.

Sirius realized they were almost at the gate, and he’d been silently walking the whole way with her, lost in his own head. “Sorry about that, little lady.”

She studied his face for a moment. “Want to share what you were thinking about?”

“Just how lucky I am.” He bent down and brushed a light kiss across her lips. The brief touch sent a frisson of need through him.

Alice looked surprised by the sudden kiss. Pleasantly so, from the little sound she made as he straightened back up. “Ah, uhm, so w-where are we going today?”

“Some place special.” Sirius winked and started walking again.

She peppered him with questions along the way, hoping for a hint. Would there be flowers there, or sweets? Was it in a building or a garden? He made his answers questions, being purposely obtuse.

“You are so impossible sometimes,” she muttered. “I know you’re teasing me. Can’t I have just a hint?”

Sirius squeezed her hand. “It’s someplace special to me.” In Central, he stopped to buy some pastries, fruit, and wine.

Alice was bouncing on her toes as he loaded a basket with his purchases. “Are we going on a picnic? Sirius? A picnic?”

He laughed. “You guessed it. Have you figured out where yet?”

“No.” She slid an arm around his waist, pulling herself close against his side. “I will just have to wait until we get there.”

Alice fit perfectly against his side, like she was meant to be there. It felt good to have her so close. He put his free arm around her.

“I’m sure you’ll have it figured out before then.” Sirius kissed the top of her head before taking her hand again.

It was a short walk to the edge of town, and out into the surrounding homes and fields. The day was warming up nicely, the sun bright and almost at its zenith. Even though they weren’t quite there yet, Sirius could already smell the flowers on the breeze. Lavender, Sunflowers. Chrysanthemums. Baby’s breath. Iris. It brought back memories of his childhood, playing with his friends between the carefully planted rows of flowers and hedges.

As they came over a small hill, the flower farm came into view. Acres and acres of blooming plants, humming with bees and small birds. Sirius glanced down to see what Alice thought.

Her smile was wide and bright, her eyes as full of wonder as he’d hoped they would be. “It’s beautiful here, Sirius. Where are we?”

“This is where the flowers my family sells are grown.” He guided her down the hill to the edge of the fields where the grass was thick and soft. Sirius sat the picnic basket down and checked his pocket. The ring was still there.

Alice wandered over to the patch of tall sunflowers behind them. It was a wall of gold and green, full of sunlight and the smell of sweet flowers. She closed her eyes and breathed deep.

Sirius came up behind her and pulled her into his embrace. She settled back against him happily.

“Everytime I think I’ve seen the most beautiful spot in Cradle, there’s another one to see. I can’t imagine how Alice the first gave all of this up to go back to London.” She tilted her head back and opened her eyes to look at Sirius.

He remembered the time they’d been apart. How hard it was to send her away, uncertain if he’d ever hold her like this again. Sirius could not imagine being able to give her up again. Not for anything. “So, thinking about staying a bit longer are you?”

Alice smiled up at him. “As long as you’ll let me. Even if I didn’t love being in Cradle so much, I couldn’t be apart from you.”

Sirius reached a hand into his pocket and fished the ring out. His chest tightened as he felt the cold bit of metal in his palm. The ring was a symbol of forever. A promise of love eternal. Butterflies fluttered in his belly and his breath wouldn’t come properly.

“Are you alright?” Alice straightened up and turned around to see him properly.

He went down on one knee and looked up. It was so strange to see the little lady at this angle. Sirius took her hand and slid the ring onto her finger. It was gold, polished to a soft sheen with age. An amethyst sat in the center, capped with a small diamond. Purity, loyalty, love - forever - and it fit her hand perfectly. But his throat still felt closed tight against all the words he wanted to say.

“S-sirius? Are you - is this -” Alice glanced at the ring but her gaze was captured by his.

He swallowed, taking a moment to steady himself. “You said you’d stay with me as long as I let you. Would you be willing to give me forever?”

Alice trembled, her eyes shining with tears. “I - yes. Yes!”

Sirius stood, sweeping her into his arms. She was crying, and so was he. Joy so bright it hurt, like looking into the sun. Tears of happiness. He kissed her cheeks, her eyes, her cute nose. Their lips met in a passionate kiss, kindling the fire in their hearts.

#ikemektober #ikemen revolution #ikerev sirius #sirius oswald #queen of spades #otome guys #otome #fanfic #fanfiction #fluff

55 notes · View notes

advernia · 5 years ago

Text

fic: show me a boundary (that i should break)

— if you start believing that the skies above you are a cage, will other people start thinking the same way, too? - the mad hatter & the king of spades.

Six strokes: maintain a steady grip, increase pressure from the starting point then gradually lighten going down, and then -

Too long. Tips should appear sharper.

“… Are you planning to invent a device that allows you fly, Mad Hatter?”

Fingers still wrapped around charcoal, the young boy turns and angles his head to set his gaze once more on the vast blue above, up to the beaming sun that’s shadowed over by a pair of black wings and green eyes.

“You got rid of the cape, but those sleeves exist for a reason, King of Spades. What are your shoulders supposed to be, a makeshift hanger? It’s either you wear the jacket, or you don’t wear it at all.”

“Hmph. Would you wear a buttoned up leather jacket in this heat?”

A snort. “Unlike majority of you army lot, I have the common sense to forego wearing such clothing unless I was actively looking for a heat stroke, myself.”

Ray raises an eyebrow at Oliver’s thin smile, focusing on the edge of silver eyes that were every bit as sharp as their owner’s wit - they escape scrutiny right away just to look back at what they were so transfixed on in the first place, and Ray leads his own eyes into following where that gaze was so focused at.

He ends up staring at plump bodies wrapped around countless gray feathers.

“Is there a reason you’re drawing pigeons?”

Something akin to a long suffering sigh escapes Oliver’s lips, much more audible than the sound of charcoal scratching on parchment.

“Ever heard of a break? Maybe you need one if you can’t even tell that I’m drawing just for the sake of it.”

“Hmmm. That’s not a bad idea.”

Loosely hanging sleeves brushing against blades of grass, Ray seats himself a spot a few paces away from where Oliver sat - now the flock of pigeons had two pairs of eyes set on them, different degrees of interest present in both stares.

But the birds simply carried on with their blissful ignorance, a few of them sparing a glance and the others busying themselves by poking their beaks onto a clump of their feathers.

Only a few chose to fly away, wings spread wide and soaring high.

“You ask a man if he knows what a break is, he takes it as an invitation to actually slack off,” there’s another sigh, then notably softer scratching on parchment. “You’re a lot more laidback than you look, King of Spades.”

“And you turn out to be an artist, who knew. I won’t tell anyone or bother you from drawing your little friends, if that’s what you’re worried about.”

“Bold of you to assume that I’d consider literal birdbrains as a form of company, much less as friends. Do I look socially inept to you?”

“I wouldn’t go that far, but I suppose your humor makes you great at parties.”

“Heh - it’s as manageable as your brusque disposition, so I suppose that makes us even now, doesn’t it?”

Oliver smirks at Ray’s rather stiff grunt in response, delayed by a few seconds: primitive, yes, but put into translation it either meant resignation or embarrassment. Whatever the case, the lack of a substantial reply already marked the King of Spades’ loss, paving a way for the blessed silence that came with victory.

More pigeons have looked towards their general direction over the course of their conversation, beady black eyes open wide and seemingly unblinking. Perhaps as the birds cocked their heads and ruffled their feathers; they were talking about the two humans that sat by the grass on the hill, one a young man and the other obviously a small child, yet they spoke to each other as if they were equals.

Strange pair, the birdbrains probably coo amongst themselves.

Oliver couldn't really argue with that.

Victory is short-lived - it's a rough estimate of five short minutes and a few brushes of an eraser - when the King of Spades starts talking again.

"Hey, Mad Hatter."

Another pigeon takes off, flapping up, up, and away. Oliver takes note of the curves of its feathers, the shape of its wings in flight. Ray watches it soar until its completely out of sight, not leaving a single trace of itself in the open sky - a hand reaches out and green eyes squint themselves, but there's really nothing else to see but blue and he can't take hold of that in his palm.

Out of reach, as always.

"What do you want now?"

"... Would you create a flying device just to experience how it is to fly?"

Charcoal doesn't meet the parchment as intended - instead, Oliver shoots a glance at his unwanted company, a lone raven whose head was still engrossed with the sky. There's something lurking about the King's frame and forlorn eyes, perhaps as pensive as the question he suddenly brought about, but Oliver was never interested in poking his head into other people's business in the first place.

And he wasn't planning to start anytime soon.

"I'd create wings for me to get out and explore, not just to know how it is to fly," Oliver stares at the wings he had drawn, analyzing the detail he put onto the feathers. "What, have you grown tired of looking at the very sky you govern? Are you seeking your freedom?"

Ray doesn't answer that, but a wry smile does cross his lips.

"... In the Black Army's King's quarters, there's a globe, and it's been there for years."

"And? What about it?"

"It's said to be a globe - " Ray pauses, watching another pigeon go and to only continue once the bird had disappeared into the sky and out of his sight, " - of the Land of Reason."

Oliver feels his breath abruptly catch in his throat, sharp and biting.

The sound of flapping wings echo loudly in between them, cutting through the sudden silence - a pretty pair have decided to depart and together the birds cross the sky in perfect tandem, only to go their separate ways halfway through. One goes left, one goes right.

Their companions left behind on the ground simply stare, cooing.

The two pigeons don't come back, and they don't look back either.

1: scavenged this off my drafts... it’s random asf and honestly a shame to scrap + i've been told by friends that this gives off the painful vibe of a ray or a theoretical oliver route gone wrong (everything's resolved and the only tragedy is that alice goes back home) + hints of desperation so maybe it's not much of a hot mess like i thought?????? 2: tbh tho i’m sure wasn’t thinking of anything deep in particular and i think the fic being 70% pigeon is proof of that lol ∠( ᐛ 」∠)＿

#ikemen kakumei #ikemen revolution #ikerev fanfic #oliver knight #ray blackwell

19 notes · View notes

ladypyb · 5 years ago

Text

Snowballing Into The Heart

Rating: T (for a little bit of cursing)

Relationship/s: USUK, Brotherly AmeCan

Tags: hetaliaxmasevent, Cardverse, Meet-Cute (First Meetings), and a lot of snow XDD

Day 4 of HetaliaXmasEvent: Snowball fight | Skiing | Christmas without snow

|ao3|

(Ooohh man, it’s past midnight in my place. XDD I hope you enjoy it!!!)

In hindsight, Matthew shouldn't have gone to fetch a towel and leave him, the Prince of Spades, bored and alone near the Mages' Tower. He should have just called a servant.

Time passed onwards, as usual, its pace made Alfred wonder if they have the capability to change it. How curious it made him. And how desperate he was to hurry for the warmer days.

The prince liked winter. He didn't hate it. He didn't like like it, either. This was when the power of their kingdom had significant growth, after all. But Alfred didn't love the long cold nights in the season. He didn't outright adore the fact that he had to wear multiple, thick woolen jackets and heat-producing amulets that hinder his movement and stealth. Not to mention the tales about the cold season his mother told him in his childhood. Bad things happen to everyone in winter. Terribly bad things. Brrr!

He liked the powdery snow, though. Its color and often ethereal shine made the scenery look so pure. The dusting they made on the landscapes made him grin and jump into the freezing powder.

It itched him to jump in right now. Anything to go distract himself while Matthew began narrating to him the activities he had for the day. Often, he found his brother's tone monotonous when in duty. No, definitely not 'often' but 'always'. Yes, that's the right word.

"Remember not to touch anything, you might get a curse for even holding a pen that isn't yours. Don't stray away from the floating white lamps and proceed to the violets, the Head Mage told me the young fae tend to use play-magic there. Mother would kill both of us if you tried to pick a fight with one of the mages-"

Bla Bla Bla. The prince slumped against the cold brick of the wall, crossing his arms. What was the point of visiting the Magicians' Wing if they weren't even allowed to enter their laboratories? What was the goal of even doing biannual safety procedures with Alfred, the future King of Spades, if he wasn't the one doing the procedures?

In his head, his mother would definitely reply to him in her babytalk: "Aw, sugarplum, you are only needed to show your face and let the mages do the rest of the checking. It's theirs, after all. You wouldn't want to ruin their threshold and be painted as the villain, would you?"

... Yeah... Listening to Matthew's nagging would be better than their mother's overly-sweet babytalk. Both were sadistic in their own way but his brother's words were blunt, unlike the queen's underlying threats.

"-To stop... Are you listening to me, Al?"

He groaned in his head. "Yeah, I was." No, he definitely wasn't. "How about this tower?" Alfred gestured to the one behind him but kept his eyes on the soft, beckoning snow at their feet. Hmm... He looked up to his brother so quickly he felt his neck crack a bit. "Can we at least have permission to rest in somewhere warm rather than in their freezing gardens?" The garden wasn't biting in the least. He wore a heating amulet and multiple coats, Alfred was warm to the core and sweating inside his personal sauna.

Distract him, distract him, distract him. Alfred recited like a mantra in his head as he slowly crouched down to the soft ground, his eyes on his brother. As Matthew blinked at the tower's structure, the prince started to fist a ball of snow in his leather gloves.

Matthew studied the tower, contemplating. It was smaller than the other buildings on the property. The tower must be a storage room. The lights shining behind the elaborately framed windows stated otherwise, though.

"I don't know, Al. There might be someone important residing in the- Oomph!"

Something wooshed in the air! A cold and soft object hit the side of his jaw. Matthew paused and stared at the sitting and grinning person in front that was his brother. A snowball. Alfred hit him with a snowball. The prince guffawed heartily at his brother's expression of Thou-hast-betrayed-me-brother. Matthew's wide eyes turned into slits. This unbelievably childish tool-

Matthew bent low, scooped a handful of snow and-

"Hahahaha- Fwah!"

Bullseye into Alfred's mouth. Matthew smirked when the other began 'blech!'-ing and 'pswooh!'-ing out the melting snow out of his mouth. Heh, you aren't the only one who can throw snowballs, Alfred!

The blue-eyed prince stared at the violet-eyed ace with a sly look in his face. "You're on!"

Alfred scrambled onto the ground, embracing and creating a mound out of snow. He cupped a fistful and rotated it in his hands. He glanced back at his brother, crap, he's on his third ball! The prince started to quickly fist and cup the snow. The mound in front of him waned to his fear of losing.

No time! Alfred sprang to his feet and threw a snowball at his brother. On the face! Grunting, Matthew frowned and fired back at him. The prince dodged to the side as it almost hit his prized family jewels down below. Matthew cackled. Oh, man, this was war. A man doesn't aim for another guy's most sensitive area!

Then came the onslaught of the balls of snow. Missed and badly-aimed snowballs hit the walls, the hall near the entrance, and the plants carefully maintained in the garden. Bushes cracked and broke to the strength of their blows.

Passing servants and apprentices of mages paid them no mind as they passed by. It was no secret that both men in the royal family often behaved like children when they thought no one was looking. A few frowned at their display when they hit a third party, these occurrences were followed by a distracted 'Sorry!'.

Their roughhousing with the snow ended with a grand snowball from the prince to his brother on the stomach, sending poor Matthew falling on his back. Alfred fell to his knees, a goofy smile on his face in his triumph. He fell forward in exhaustion. Afterward, he moved to his side, panting.

Matthew managed to only hit him on his jaw and legs. Alfred hit him everywhere on his body with the help of his overzealous need to win every challenge and interest that crosses his path.

Matthew shuffled to stand, the other raised a brow at him, disbelieving. Alfred gave it all he had, ended up on the ground last and Matthew still stood up? What gives? He whined.

"Oh, don't be a baby. Stand up, you'll catch a cold." Matthew held his hand out to his brother which Alfred accepted. "Ugh," Matthew brushed off his clothes with his free hand, "I'm dripping. I'll never doubt these amulets, again."

Alfred flailed his arms like a dog, droplets flung everywhere. "Looks like it. Let's go ask for towels."

The older and logical of the two watched the other suspiciously. "No. You'll most likely slip away somewhere and get lost- "

"Impossible! I don't get lost."

"-Or cause some mischief on the way." Matthew crossed his arms, firm.

Alfred wiped his brow. "So are both just going to stand here? Baiting the cold and die of pneumonia?"

The ace pursed his lips. He clicked his tongue. "Fine," Alfred cheers at this, " But I'll fetch the towels. You," he gestured at Alfred, "Stay here."

The other pouted and kicked the accumulating snow below. Matthew enters into the open doors of the hallway. "Aww c'mon, Matt!"

"Don't. Go. Anywhere." The ace commanded as he eyed Alfred and continued down the hall.

Alfred clicked his tongue childishly. So what if he'd stray away from the directions sometimes, it wasn't like he'd easily die! The blessings from their clocks prevented that.

... He did oftentimes find himself suffering from a curse or two, managed to almost get assassinated, have been on the verge of death more than five times, and have been poisoned while eating street food. But Alfred survived!

He could almost hear Yao, the Jack, mumble beside his mother while tending his wounds or whatever harm he was inflicted, "With the amount of curiosity, and stubbornness you are born with, I could only pray to the Maker your rule would be as peaceful as it can be."

Alfred sighed, looking up he traced the flying bird overhead. The feathered animal circled the garden and perched atop a small roof of a window sill of the tower. He wished he was as free as the bird, free to go anywhere and able to do what he pleased.

He observed the little bird, bright orange stomach- A robin! How strange, robin birds weren't native to Spades, especially in one of Spades' northern areas. Alfred moved to spy under the windowsill, it was a few feet above his head but nothing could stop him.

When he craned his neck to observe the bird, he noticed a messy mop of golden hair near the windowpane. Someone was there- Oh Blessed Time!

Alfred ducked and made himself be one with the wall behind him. The windows opened with a clank! and the snow sprinkled on the prince's nose. His nostrils tickled. Ah- He wants to sneeze! Alfred pressed his tongue to the roof of his mouth.

"-Damned pests. No wonder the potion did nothing! I should have known they'd place it in the wrong flask."

An accented voice of a man. It was so light and deep at the same time, it made Alfred wonder if the man swallowed a piccolo and a bass at the same time.

Light thumps and a resonating clink. "... What in the name of Time happened here?" The mystery man groaned. "Those freshmen! I can't believe- My roses!" The man stomped away from the window. The sound of heavy steps receded with a bang from a door.

The prince released a breath he was holding. That was so close. If the guy looked down, he'd see Alfred's nose and furred boots. He moved away from the wall. Finally able to ogle freely, he found two open flasks filled with mysterious liquids. One was changing colors rapidly while the other alternated between gold and silver.

The robin from before chirped and fluttered its wings. Oh no. Don't tell him the bird wants to- It glided down unto the windowsill with the two very open and unmistakably dangerous flasks.

"Oh, damn it!"

Alfred scrambled and raised his foot on the side of the brick wall. His gloved hands gripped the windowsill noisily, the robin squawked at him. The prince grunted as he set his elbows down near the flasks, he faced the bird's screeching. He shooed the orange robin with a dismissive hand.

It flapped its wings and nearly bit off his ears as it flew away from him and the flasks. He liked birds but he didn't like them mutated or dead.

Alfred banged his head and resisted to groan at the ridiculousness of his situation. His top half was rested atop a mage's windowsill in an effort to avoid an unwanted experiment. He didn't even know exactly why he ducked to be seen by one mage when didn't even bother to care for his image while playing in the snow with his brother.

He shifted an annoyed glance to the strange fluids. With their swirling and changing of colors, he thinks of them to be potions. They certainly resembled like potions. He sniffed at both of their opening; butter, lilies, and peach. Yep, definitely potions. There was no way liquids could change colors with just these ingredients.

"Hey! You there!" The same accented voice shouted below him. "What are you doing?"

There was disapproval in the voice. Alfred seemed reluctant to look at the man scolding him. He has had enough of it today! Alfred prevented a bird from destroying your potions. The prince turned his head to glare at the man, a scowl on his face.

Eh? His scorned expression dissipated into a daze.

Bright green eyes that were the shade of grass in summer framed by spun gold locks stood out from the man's white robe and soft snowy landscape. The guy had half of his face overrun with caterpillars- Wait, no. He just had large eyebrows. Surprisingly, it made the other look distinguished.

This guy must be the mage! The mage furrowed his brows and growled something Alfred couldn't hear. He raised his brow in confusion and held unto the sill with only an arm as the handsome man gestured his arm aimlessly... at Alfred?

What was he- Whack! Alfred's hold on the windowsill slipped.

"Aaaaaa- oof!" He crashed down on his back. Groaning, he placed his hand on his chest. Fragments of a snowball began melting to the power of the amulet under his coat. The dull pain that throbbed in his chest was nothing to the sharpness of blow to the side of his head. Did he hit his head when he fell...?

The mage's face swam into his blurry view. The expression of the mage full of concern was badly hidden through the annoyed curve of his lips. Alfred decided the guy was adorably handsome.

"... Are... kay... ?"

"Hn."

The green-eyed beauty touched his cheek. The prince moved into the chilled fingers. Aaah. He felt hot and cold at the same time.

"Hold... I... get... elp."

The angel's face blurred. Huh, did... Did Alfred lose his glasses when he fell?

He tried to focus on the other's fretting on him. Alfred's eyes closed, losing its strength to even move an eyelid. Darkness swallowed him and his consciousness.

Hm. It seems the Cupid from Hearts shot him in the chest with a snowball, instead of an arrow.

//end

#hetaliaxmasevent #hetalia #hetalia fanfiction #my fanfic #slightly usuk #usuk #brotherly bonding through fighting AmeCan #snowballs #a little magic #cardverse #meet cute #first meeting #APH America #hws america #APH England #hws england #APH Canada #hws canada #snowball fights

22 notes · View notes

unseelieofficial · 4 years ago

Text

Fate Cards

All Fate Cards we’ve encountered, and who pulled them. Bless Feo for compiling this here.

The Angel

Description: It depicts a being floating among golden clouds and arcs of dark red flame, shadowed face turned upward, silver halo shining bright around its flowing black locks. It’s dressed in brilliant blue robes, two dark grey wings outstretched, both hands planted firmly on a brilliant sword the colour of the sky. There are numerous vibrant golden eyes dotted across its wings, looking to the heavens, lined with black. Meaning: Divine intervention, guidance Victim: Wally

The Bluebird

Description: The card is a simple design- a small blue, red breasted bird on a branch of a white tree with black leaves and purple berries, a gorgeous red sun setting behind it. Meaning: It represents having to leave a part of yourself behind for the sake of your freedom. (Jasper) Victim: Sadie

The Caretaker

Description: The card shows a light grey figure with curly white hair and a brilliant gold tunic on a pale green background. It's hunched over its work- one hand in the air holding a black needle, pulling taught a red thread keeping its project together- a patchwork quilt. Every square is another dazzling colour, a different pattern, seeming to change every time you move your eyes over it. The quilt takes up the bottom half of the card completely. Meaning: It represents relationships where people rely on you to look after them. Deepening a bond with someone you care for deeply or like... Adopting another teen or something I guess. Victim: Poppy

The Chessboard

Description: The card depicts a battle scene, blocky silver and gold soldiers frozen in the middle of a scene of battle, spread out on a long expanse of black and white checkered territory. All the pieces are in full armour, some wield bows, some swords or axes, but all of them are bleeding, looking weary, standing under the same blood red sky choked with black smoke. Some lie dead by the feet of their comrades. Meaning: It represents being thrown into a dangerous struggle between opposing forces. The outcome is up to you. Victim: Poppy

The Cinders

Description: The card depicts a somber scene, dark ash spread mingled with snow, a single jagged, charred cross poking up through the salvageable wreckage around it. Embers still glow faintly, dotted around the burned wood like Christmas lights, red smoke spilling up into the dark sky above. Meaning: Victim:

The Clairvoyant

Description: This card has a dark skinned figure draped in gold, standing in a similarly golden archway emblazoned with eyes. The figure has their blue kohl lined eyes closed, one silk draped arm over their chest and the other held out, palm open like a pledge. In the place of their mouth is a purple aster, beneath their sandaled feet a set of stairs leading into a dark blue river. Meaning: Bring some much needed insight to someone. Resolve a bad situation with that insight. (Poppy) Victim: Poppy

The Clock

Description: The card shows golden grandfather clock with a silver face, both ornate black hands pointing towards the 12. White lilies grow around the base of the dark mahogany wood, red roses bursting out from inside it. Meaning: A repeat of past events. Or something from an alternate future. Victim: Dorian, Saorise

The Clover

Description: A small, green shamrock pushing up through a blank field of snow, light sparkles of it still clinging to each of its four leaves. Meaning: Good Luck (Saoirse) Victim: Poppy

The Crow

Description: The second card depicts a large black bird, perched on the skull of some sort of canine creature with blood on its sharp, jagged fangs. The bird looks serene, with a small red button trailing red thread in its beak, eyes empty and white. Meaning: A loss of someone, or something, that is tied to you by fate. (Character?) Victim: Jimothy, Wally

The Crown

Description: The second card depicts a large black bird, perched on the skull of some sort of canine creature with blood on its sharp, jagged fangs. The bird looks serene, with a small red button trailing red thread in its beak, eyes empty and white. Meaning: It's an intrigue card. Put loosely, it means a sudden, tremendous power is coming your way. Maybe snatched from someone else's possession. Whatever it is, it will be a great responsibility! That's a lot of pressure... Victim: Sadie, Calypso

The Devil

Description: The card shows a dark green figure on a dark red background. They're slender, clad only in black chains, a spaded tail curling around one leg and up across their chest. Two small, triangular horns poke up through their thick hair. There isn't much detail other than their grin- white, sharp, twisted, dripping blood. Purple flames dance on their skin in the light. Meaning: An encounter with something evil. Something that makes you question your morals- whether it be through trickery, or something stronger. It's a problem that's almost impossible to overcome, Much like an ex lover. Tough break. (Cosmo) Victim: Isaiah, Saoirse

The Eye

Description: The card depicts a large black eye set in a pale silver face. Golden tears pool by the bottom, black lined lid, spilling down the drawing's porcelain cheek. There's a reflection of something in the dark iris, something that seems to change as Jimothy looks at it. Meaning: An awakening. Finally seeing something that was hidden- or something that you were hiding from. Figuratively or literally seeing things in a new light. (Feli) Victim: Jimothy, Sadie, Jasper

The Fallen

Description: The card shows a figure, falling through the twilight sky. They're splayed, silver hands stretched out to the heavens, mutilated, feathery stumps where wings used to be still streak blue blood across their battered body, shed black feathers as they fall. Their white robes are shredded, one arm shielding their eyes and face from whatever's up there. Meaning: Usually means a run-in with demons, or dark magic, or a corrupting force. Victim: Isaiah

The Fighter

Description: The image depicts a sort of soldier in dark blue armour, cracked and falling apart in places. His exposed golden skin is dirty, scratched, smeared with violet blood. He's slumped over, down on one knee, arm braced on his shining silver sword propped against the ground. Behind him is a purple pentagram- the right side up. Not a satanic symbol. Meaning: It represents bringing the end to a conflict. Could be war, could be a relationship problem. (Wally). Victim: Jimothy, Wally, Poppy

The Glacier

Description: This card is entirely black, with outlines of the stormy sea, and the tip of a giant chunk of ice etched into it in silver. The iceberg is much larger below the water, but this outline is in red. Meaning: This is... trouble. This card is big trouble- trouble that is way more than it seems on the surface. Victim: Othello

The Hero

Description: A single figure, half its body green, the other half blue. Adorned in a very fancy uniform covered in a pattern of white sunflowers, a cape swirling off to the left side, right arm bearing a shining silver sword. A crown sits atop a tangle of curls, made of silver snowdrop flowers woven together. Meaning: It represents coming into the roles of your ancestors. (Fionn) Victim: Calypso

The King

Description: The card depicts the white silhouette of a man seated on a black throne in a clearing of silver trees with black leaves, and the purple twilight sky behind him full of stars. Both his gloved hands are on the pommel of his sword, which is stuck in the ground and giving off beams of golden light. Two red, moth like wings stretch from his back, emblazoned with white roses. Meaning: Getting meddled up in politics. Whether that's good or bad is up to how you handle it. (Oberon) Victim: Isaiah, Wally, Sadie

The Legacy

Description: A card with a rather grisly scene- a white sky with a blood red moon over a black plain, blocky, eviscerated corpses littered across the field, pools of dark red blood and disembodied limbs littered between them. A single red rose is blooming from a particularly detailed corpse in the middle of the card, from the pool of golden blood dripping from its chest. Meaning: It represents the inheritance of the sins of your ancestors. (?) Victim: Jimothy

The Legion

Description: The card has a tall dark skinned figure in white and blue armour with long black hair holding two banners, one in each hand. In the left is a black banner with a white rose and in the other is a white banner with a black sunflower. The white banner is half burned, the black one torn almost in half. Behind the figure stands an army of gold and orange armoured figures in helmets, in a black field under a dark red sky. Meaning: This is a good card. It’s like, the aid of many or something. Victim: Dorian, Wally

The Lover

Description: The card shows woman in a long violet dress, standing in a field of dark red flowers as the sun rises behind her. Her face is turned away, long auburn hair covering her features. Her arms are outstretched, covered by the white wings of the dark blue heart pierced by a silver sword in the foreground. Meaning: Self-sacrifice. When the time comes, you'll have to make a choice between yourself and someone you love. (Mack) Victim: Poppy

The Magpie

Description: A strangely geometric black and white bird on a light grey background. It has red eyes, and red smeared over its beak and unusually long talons. Ruffled feathers seem to be falling out of its ragged wings. An arrow sticks out of its back. Meaning: A fight for something that you love dearly in the future Victim: Jasper, Calypso

The Mirror

Description: This one is just... a reflection. Isaiah sees their face, looking back at them, with the writing down by their chin. Meaning: Self reflection! Fucking hate that. It's about dealing with your problems. Victim: Isaiah

The Mist

Description: This card is... Hard to read. It's almost blank, but if moved, it shows off other colours- faint ones. Almost holographic. Meaning: This is you losing yourself- or donning some sort of... mysterious persona. I dunno. It's hard to read. Victim: Sadie

The Moon

Description: The third card depicts a simple silver crescent moon in a dark black sky. There are no stars in the depiction. Meaning: A symbol of serenity. A slow change of pace from what you're used to. A total transformation into something entirely different. Lucky you! (Max) Victim: Othello, Dorian

The Psychopomp

Description: The card shows a dark blue figure on a black background, standing tall and proud, hands folded behind its back respectfully. It's got on a top hat, and where its face should be is covered by a white skull, bright blue liquid streaking down from the holes of the eyes. Its finely tailored violet pinstripe suit has a bright red feather tucked into the lapel. Meaning: A bargain with death itself! Getting through a near-death experience, sometimes too. (?) Victim: Othello

The Prodigy

Description: This one looks a little more hopeful- a dark blue figure hunched over a black desk covered in brightly coloured scrolls of parchment on a white background. Colourful notes of music scroll across the blank background like bursts of light. Jimothy can almost hear a familiar tune in his head when he looks at it. Meaning: It's a triumph. Finding a new talent, or succeeding at one you've been working on for a while. (?) Victim: Jimothy

The Queen

Description: The card depicts the black silhouette of a woman sitting on a black throne in a clearing of golden trees with white leaves. The red sky of dawn shows the golden sun slowly rising behind her. Both her delicately gloved hands are resting on the sword in her lap, a long silver rapier. Two butterfly-like wings stretch out from her back, emblazoned with black sunflowers. Meaning: The queen is a responsibility. A sacrifice you make for your people, when faced with an unbeatable force. Whoever your people are. --- This card says you’ll be getting into some trouble soon. A power struggle between you and a force you can’t beat. A sacrifice will have to be made for the good of your people. Whoever those people are. (Titania) Victim: Isaiah, Saoirse

The Quill

Description: The card depicts an unreasonably large feather, like that of an albino peacock, resting in a violet bottle of ink, that's spilling its red contents over the side, on a black background. Meaning: Rewriting some aspect of what's past- or what's to come. Victim: Jasper, Wally

The Reaper

Description: A self explanatory card, with a dark hooded figure on a horse made of black bones, pawing at the ground. The cloak seems to be made of the night sky, stars winking in the fabric. In its hand, it holds a scythe that seems to glow with golden light, carved with hearts and moons, and little skulls. Meaning: Some other death thing? Maybe it means you'll die? Maybe see someone else die? I'd ask someone who's better at this. Victim: Jasper

The River

Description: The card shows pale blue river, white crests of water sloshing up against the green grassy banks, swarms of purple flowers choking the green out, dangerously close to the water. Meaning: Moving past something that's been holding you back. (Athena) Victim: Othello

The Saint

Description: The card depicts a tall man with his hands extended, black blood dripping from holes in his dark palms. He has long, dark curls that cover most of his face, dark blood dripping from his golden eyes, down to his gold and white robes, covered in patterns of angels and demons. He has a red halo, shining silver beams into a dark sky. (Zach) Meaning: Martyrdom or divine intervention. Victim: Poppy

The Scales

Description: The card shows a set of ivory scales, perfectly placed in the middle of the card with a blue background. On one side is the dark red skull of some sort of ram, black liquid dripping from the void of the eye sockets. On the other, the black skull of a wolf, dark red blood dripping from its horrific fangs. Meaning: The Scales represent a deadly balancing act. Tip too far one way, there'll be consequences. Victim: Wally, Dorian, Calypso

The Spy

Description: The card shows a green figure, dressed in a black tunic and hood with a dark red mask over their eyes on a golden background. two dark red branch-like antlers come up off their head, covered in flowers. Black roses, red sunflowers, golden snowdrops, strings of green ivy curling up like spider's webs. Meaning: Someone in your life can't be trusted. Either that or you're gonna learn a big secret about someone else's identity. (?) Victim: Saorise

The Stars

Description: Every time Poppy moves the card even slightly, it seems more silver dots appear in the dark violet sky shown on the card. It would take a while to count them- there's so many, in familiar constellations, in patterns none of them have seen before. Meaning: Absolute truths - Clarity through interference from otherworldly forces. Something to keep you grounded as you try to find what you're looking for. Victim: Poppy, Sadie

The Storm

Description: The card depicts something... it's hard to tell, really. Every time Wally moves it, it seems to change colours, a flurry of cool blues that seem like they could be a tropical hurricane, then a dark storm cloud, then a windswept canopy of lush forest. It's inherently chaotic. Meaning: Something on the horizon for you - Something big. Something that will sweep through your life, changing it forever. Might be good, might be bad. Whatever it is, it'll hit hard. Victim: Wally

The Sun

Description: The card depicts a dark gold sun in a cloudless red sky, the rays reaching towards the golden edges of the card. Meaning: A good development. Something breaking new grounds and beginning anew. Victim: Othello

The Tower

Description: This card shows a tiny, far off lighthouse, up on a rocky, storm battered shore. It's small, white and red, shining silver light into the inky blackness of a dark sky that bleeds into the white capped sea. Meaning: A great effort! May result in a mighty climb- or a mighty fall. (Ledge) Victim: Saoirse

The Trickster

Description: This card depicts a hooded figure against a gold background, standing on one foot on a dark floor as their dark green cloak billows behind them with both their amber hands outstretched. Playing cards are flying everywhere, floating around them in a circle. Looking at it too long seems to make golden, animalistic eyes appear in the darkness of the hood where their face should be. Meaning: This one's... Well. Tricky. Multifaceted. It's an unexpected happening- mostly a new power, or a new ally. Could be a revelation- something terrible, or something joyful. Something to make you feel like you're the plaything of the gods. Exciting! (Ori) Victim: Jimothy

The Troubadour

Description: The card shows a figure standing at a music stand. It seems they're addressing an orchestra, both arms in the air, notes of music bending and shifting around on their lines, dipping to weave through their fingers. They're in a ratty coat, however, plain brown clothes contrasting with their copper skin and mousy brown hair. Meaning: A self made hero from humble beginnings. The resolution of a problem in a peaceful way. Power and prestige. Not bad! (Character?) Victim: Othello

The Vulture

Description: The bird depicted on the card is really just the skeleton of a vulture, black and red bones with dingy, dark orange feathers still clinging to them. There's a silver dot in the otherwise empty eye socket, and black smeared over its beak. Meaning: An opportunity to gain something from someone's death. Victim: Jasper

The Wanderer

Description: The card shows a silhouette in a cloak that only reaches to their shoulders, face covered in shadow. They have a billowing cloak, rainbow in hue, primary colours on one side, secondary on the other. Half of their body is white, the other is red. On the red side, they hold a bag, brimming with... something. On the white, they hold a sword, golden and glowing. Meaning: A vagrant. This one’s new! Huh! Well. This is something big wandering into your life. Or wandering out. Could be good, could be bad. That’s the spirit of the wanderer. Sometimes it’s both. (Jimothy) Victim: Saoirse, Poppy, Jimothy

The Wasp

Description: The card depicts an wasp, curled up into a perfect circle. It's black and yellow, stinger long and gold and engraved with the same symbols adorning its blue metal armour. Its face is covered with an ornate helmet, angular and sharp, all its legs covered in plates. The background is white. Meaning: Victim:

The Witch Bottle

Description: The card depicts a green glass bottle. There's an assortment of items at the bottom, warped, with their colours mottled by the colour of the glass. There seems to be a bird skull, resting on a bed of dry grass and dark flowers with big, heart shaped petals. A faint lavender smoke comes from the open top. Meaning: A brush with a very old, often forbidden sort of magic. Victim: Poppy

The Wolf

Description: A wolf- an old one, by the looks of it, thin and lean and battle scarred, walking through a forest of silver trees and black grass. Patches of fur are missing from its golden coat, mottled with dark black scars, stained with purple blood, wary red eyes downcast. More blood blooms from its coat where arrows have pierced through it, and there is a hole in its chest dripping violet in a pool on the ground, possibly because it’s missing its heart, which it carries gingerly in its blood streaked jaws. Meaning: It represents breaking free of a relationship that was holding you back. Victim: Calypso

#Fate Cards

2 notes · View notes

chibiclem · 4 years ago

Text

The Ace of Hearts and his Jack

" Feliciano never expected the situation to be this complicated... For the Jack of Heart to have been dispatched far from his King and Queen it was an event, but to even have sent him to the border of the No Man's Land, the Joker's territory....By The embodiment of Heart! He really knew something had been off . But what exactly.... Even Kiku..-well I mean his Highness- who was the one to give the alert about strange phenomenons couldn't tell him exactly what he was supposed to find. And even Gilbert the Joker who often came to tease his King would only smile widly at the question, exposing his sharp teeth, and say something like " Kesese !! It's so exciting and awesome you will see!! It's something long forgotten but that will awaken to furfill it's purpose once more! But I can't tell you more, you will have to find out by yourself!" The Heck was that seriously?! It was hella scary now!! Don't get him wrong, Gilbert was mostly friendly to the Heart's hierarchy in general, but he was a JOKER, a malicious and suspicious being, and thus, couldn't be trust. Nobody knew what he really was, nor the extend of his power...nor his purpose. And after saying such things, he would just vanish in a "pouf!", nowhere to be seen ( like usual), letting the poor Jack having to go check all the things out. At least his Highness told him to be carefull not to go too far behind the border and to retreate if any danger was around, which the Jack was to gladly obliged! Still, he had been scared to the core, being the one being send for one of his first real mission, near the abandonned and scary land where nobody from the 4 kingdom would ever go excepted banished ones! Tales said it was full of monsters, or people that didn't belong to any of the 4 kingdoms .(He prefered the second kind to the first honestly.) He eventually had left with his faithfull horse, Isabella, after a 3-hour lecture about how to call help and flee AT THE LAST TIME by his King, and had ran for 4 days before reaching the borders, gulping at the sight of the devastated landscape and the narrow mountain looking like shark teeth. The checkpoint tower's guardians were really brave, he had though, to be able to stay there. Hearts soldiers were known for their discipline and here was the extreme example of that! Stopping by the tower, the Jack had tried to give a confident vibe and had proposed himself to go on an inspection, alone. He didn't know why he had said that at that moment, maybe because he had always wanted to prove he wasn't useless to Ludwig, but he had regretted it immediatly afterward, when he had started to walk along the borders. Before him had been standing the mountains he had seen earlier, and the sight of a desert, the air being dry and heavy and the sun burning good despite the purple smoke emanating from the floor. "Vee!!!" would he cry out when he though he spotted a movement, or a sound. He really wanted this to be over soon, but he still had to go there. And surprisingly even to him, he did. Shortly enough, he had been surrounded by rocks, but still could see the reassuring tower behind him. After 1h, seeing that nothing was happening and that he couldn't spot anything wrong, he had though about fleeing when he had suddenly realized there was an extra shadow covering him. Just after that, he had heard a soft whistle and had felt the air being moved behind him. At this point, he had hoped for a bird, but when he had turned around what he had found...was the most strange humanoid he had never seen: A blond humanoïd man (or woman? He couldn't tell), wearing some bizarre clothes with a heart printed on it, and with a huge tail also shaped as a Heart, floating by him and looking at him with wide eyes. Wide eyes he had exchanged for long seconds while gasping and holding his lance near him as if it was a ramp to save him from falling. "Vee!!! Don't...don't hurt me please!! I don't taste good!" he had said out of habbit. At that, the blondy had started smiling and waltzing right and left in the air with excitement, singing musical notes so fast that even the Jack confused spirit came to notice it was like he was trying talking to him. Without much warning he could have understand, the thing was hugging him with strengh, seemingly very happy to see him, whereas the Jack had started screaming. More minutes had been needing for him to fully recover that encounter. When the half-humanoïd floating hazard had let go of him, sniffing him around, he really did start to examinate him. "Ve..you scared me! But what are you exactly? I've never seen such creature before...Oww...nobody will believe me.." How was he gonna explain that? No, was that even real? He couldn't have told at that moment. Besides, he didn't know if it was the thing he was looking for. So what to do? Well, he had asked! "Are you...the one who was supposed to awaken?" To his surprise (not that he wasn't already, but it was pilling up), the humanoid had seemed to understand and waved his head, then ondulated and caressed the Jack's hand with his nose. It was like...a floating giant humanoid cat asking for a hug! Feliciano had patted him back cautiously, allowing himself to relax until he had remembered his mission with a serious dead face. "Sorry buddy...I've to report you to the King and the Queen! But I should still search a little more...Could you stay there for a while ?" He had told the Blondy. Yeah, he really did believe it to stay kindly there, but the night and the day afterward proved him wrong. And here he was right now, straddling back to the castle Isabella with the dragon-thingy flying and playing with his lance, trying to steal hugs here and there or floating around him like he was the sun and him an hyperactive moon. Heck he never actually believed nobody in the tower saw the Blondy before he left. It was like he could dissapear in thin air as soon he tried mentioning him and then come back waking him up in his bedroom, when everybody he had tried to explain what he saw was soundly asleep. At least, it was following him so his highnesses could see him! It was better than what Feliciano hoped! But now he was thinking....what was going on exactly, and if the floating hazard was the thing to awaken...what was his purpose? Was he gonna be scolded by the King once again for bringing it to the castle? Heavy thoughs would accompagny him all during his trip, while the Ace of heart seemed perfectly fine and playfull! Fa Fa Mi Sol, It felt good to be awake!" *** From a serie I will call "Ace awakening", with for setting the Hetalia Cardverse universe and his representation I have of it! *Hearts : For me, Heart is a valiant kingdom, know mostly for his strong army but also hard workers community, which is appreciated among the others kingdoms. However, the" Land of Love and Faith " has some like to call it suffers from a lack of ressources, and are very dependant of the others kingdoms, specially since it is one of the most populated kingdom. Thus, only ties with Clubs (a manufacturing specialized kingdom) are a strong one since a long time, the others really being for necessity and commerce mostly, even if the Queen of Spades and Hearts are quite close together. Poland, Ace of Hearts : “Fé” is the most sociable, expressive and malicious of all the Aces. Like an hyperactive cat, He likes to give hugs, to eat with the royalties, expressing his joy by singing (he is quite “talkative” ) and waltzing in the air like crazy! The Kingdom of Hearts in my story is the Kingdom of the mind and spirit : Motivation, Determination (hehe, remind you of something?), Bravery, Valor, etc…As his Queen, he have the power to control bodies and of course, can do it to more than 2 or 3 person! *The royals and their Jack : As a result of these weakness the others could exploit, the King Ludwig has to lead his kingdom with an iron hand and thus has it very strict about many aspect in life, at least in public. He had to for most his life, and if it wasn't for the help of his Queen Kiku and his Jack Feliciano, certanly he could evolve in a scary and cold king that have to keep an appareance even among his own people. However he is quite loved, which is not totally the same with his wife Kiku, a foreigner that was born from Spades parents but that showed the Heart mark. Why would the at-the-time Prince choose a stranger among all the candidates? Well, Ludwig wasn't much for love but he felt Kiku and him where on the same vibes, as they both could be strict with things. And he was right, since they became allies quite fast. Kiku is a secretive Queen, not showing much of his emotions and used to not be liked. He was almost pulled out of his family, magical scientist from Spades, and forced to marry the Heart King. Having a strong will to respect the rules, he still initially held a grudge against the Hearts but then thanks to Feliciano discovered the hidden side of Ludwig, the kind one he never showed, and progressively felt like a part of the family himself, becoming the most precious ally of his husband. Still, even if he was never borned with a Spade symbol, he sometimes crave for his old place. That's how he became friend with Queen Arthur, as they are both quite found of spells and magic! He always though that Spades had the key of all the magic power hidden in each kingdom and behind their marks, and he likes to borrow books to deepen his knowledge about it! Feliciano him was Ludwig's devoted Jack since they were children. The poor one wasn't really good at it (he could be scared of many things and run away without warning!), but only him could make him show his warm side, and thus he kept the honor of his family, working for the Heart Monarchy for generations, intact! Besides, the young brunette was strong as all the citizen of hearts, and some had made a mistake by underestimating him. It's rare, but it's only when he wants to! He has an older brother who's ended up being diamound and they were separated very young. They still saw each other from time to time since Lovino was taken care of by a close friend of Francis, Antonio; but there's still a gap between them... It's probably this missing brother that made Feliciano be so clingy with Ludwig and after Kiku. Like that, the trio has an alchemy that none other Kingdom royalties can relate to. ****

Links to others Cardverse related art: https://chibiclem.tumblr.com/tagged/cardverse

I’m making a test to see if it is better that way than making this in as a picture post!^^

3 notes · View notes

thejoyofviolentmovement · 6 years ago

Text

New Video: Kings of Spade Release Semi-Autobiographical Visuals for "Strange Bird"

New Video: Kings of Spade Release Semi-Autobiographical Visuals for "Strange Bird" @kings_of_spade @girlieaction

Comprised of founding members Kasi “KC” Nunes (vocals) Matt Kato (drums) and Jasio Savio (guitar) with Tim Corker (bass), Ken Lykes (keys) and DJ Packo, the Honolulu, HI-based sextet Kings Of Spadecan trace their origins back to when Nunes, a self-described “somber, closeted queer kid, who felt soul and blues music,” was…

View On WordPress

0 notes

vgfm · 4 years ago

Text

Deltarune Theory: The True Identity and Importance of “Everyman”

I’ve been away from the Undertale theory scene for a long time. It’s been so long that a whole new-fangled game got announced, and I’ve got some theories on it.

Are these theories about Gaster or Sans or whatever’s going on with Kris? Not exactly. At least, not yet. I’ve got a better character in mind.

Let’s start with Everyman: Undertale’s most obscure character and (I think) one of the most pivotal in Deltarune.

This is a two-part theory: the first part outlines who Everyman is and why I think he’ll be important in Deltarune. The second part? You’ll have to read and find out.

This is a long one and with loads of images, so strap yourselves in.

Sections

Part 1: Introduction to Everyman

Who is Everyman?

“So Everyman’s just an Easter egg, right?”

Everyman’s Importance

Why did Everyman appear in True Lab?

Why Everyman will have a bigger role in Deltarune

Part 2: Everyman is ???

What will Everyman’s role be?

Jevil’s Connection to Everyman

The Spade King’s clue

Additional Evidence

“Seriously?”

The Gaster connection

The “Strange Son”

Who made who?

“Seriously, who is Everyman?”

End

Closing Summary

Final Conclusions

Who is Everyman?

"Everyman” is a special attack that appears during the Reaper Bird amalgamate fight in True Lab.

This same figure appears twice in Deltarune’s first chapter:

Once as graffiti in an alleyway in Hometown...

...and again as a rare bullet attack during Jevil’s fight.

The name “Everyman” only ever appears in-game next to his graffiti portrait in Hometown. Everyman’s sprites are simply titled “strangeman” in Undertale’s game files:

[Image transcript: UTModTool is showing multiple highlighted sprite entries that begin with “spr_strangeman”. On the right is the file “spr_strangeman_walk” opened, showing a picture of Everyman. End image transcript]

Some time after Undertale’s release there was a since-deleted tweet from Toby with a picture of Reaper Bird’s attack that he titled “Everyman,” which is where fans first got the name.

[Image transcript: A tweet from toby fox that says “Everyman”. The first reply says “Is that his name. please thell me thats his obj name.” Toby’s response repeats “Everyman.” The next reply says “everything i aspire to be.” Toby responds again with “’Everyman’ you aspire to be.” Toby then adds another tweet saying “Description. Just a good guy that shows up on occasion.” end image transcript.]

This is a web archive screenshot so the image of Everyman’s bullet sprite wasn’t preserved here. Special thanks to catcat for tracking this one down!

“So Everyman’s just an Easter egg, right?”

I don’t think so. I’d be more inclined to write off Everyman’s role in Deltarune as a mere cameo if he had only shown up once. But it’s odd that Toby felt the need to include Everyman twice in a single chapter. To me this seems less like a one-off cameo and more like foreshadowing for a greater role in the full game.

Let’s compare Everyman’s appearances to instances of character foreshadowing and one-off cameos from Undertale and Deltarune:

Mettaton

[Image transcript: four Undertale screenshots arranged in a grid. In the top-left screenshot, the narration text box reads “(the machine isn’t working.)” as Frisk stares at Mettaton in Snowdin’s colored tile puzzle room. In the top-right screenshot, the narration textbox is reading a TV announcement in Papyrus’ house: “(It says ‘STAY TUNED FOR A NEW PROGRAM - MTT.’)”. In the bottom-left screenshot, Napstablook’s text box says “there’s a show i like to watch on it... sometimes...” as Frisk looks at their television. In the bottom-right screenshot, Undyne’s text box says “This oven is some top-of-the-line MTT thing.” as Frisk stares at her oven. End image transcript.]

Mettaton is foreshadowed multiple times before he makes his proper introduction in Alphys’ Lab. This includes a direct on-screen appearance of his rectangular form as part of Snowdin’s colored tile puzzle. What’s interesting is that half of these references (including the tile puzzle) only make sense in hindsight to a first-time player. For all we know there could be other, more-cryptic Everyman references already in Deltarune that we don’t have the full context to understand yet.

Rouxls Kaard

Despite his legendary introductory sequence catching many-a-player off-guard, Rouxls Kaard actually is foreshadowed a couple of times before his stunning debut.

[Image transcript: four Deltarune screenshots arranged in a grid. In the top-left screenshot, Ralsei is reading a message from Rouxls Kaard: “It says... ‘Thoust fools, thou will NEVER figure it out now!’. This is continued in the top-right screenshot: “Then it, um, says, ‘PS - I make my own Rules. - RK’”. In the bottom-left screenshot, a puzzle-master says “ROUXLS KAARD... Lord of the Puzzles... Be careful...!” In the bottom-right screenshot, one of Clover’s heads says “RK came by... What a hunk!” End image transcript.]

I’ve noticed from watching Let’s Plays that many people don’t even realize that these lines were meant to foreshadow him (and I’m pretty sure I didn’t realize it either on my first playthrough).

Ice-E

Now here’s something that’s an example of both a one-off cameo and proper foreshadowing! In Undertale, Ice-E is referenced exactly once in the entire game—as part of Sans’ Monster Kidz Word Search puzzle. No other character mentions Ice-E, Ice-E does not appear in-person, nor does the Ice-E’s restaurant appear... in Undertale. Deltarune is a completely different story.

[image transcript: Two Deltarune screenshots side-by-side. in the left screenshot, Kris looks under their sink and the narration text box says: “A can of Ice-E’s Cool Boys Body Spray ‘Spray For The Boys,’ Flamin’ Hot Pizza Flavor.” In the right screenshot, Kris reads a chart in the hospital. The narration text box says: “(It’s a classic 1-to-10 pain scale, using ICE-E as a model.)” End image transcript.]

In Deltarune chapter 1 we find numerous references and bits of foreshadowing for Ice-E and, lo and behold, we see that Ice-E’s restaurant exists in Hometown at the end of chapter 1. And notice how it’s multiple references and not just a one-off like last time.

In every example of foreshadowing listed above we’re given more than one hint of a character’s presence, and so far Everyman fits this same pattern. This makes me feel safe in assuming he will have a bigger role in the full game.

Everyman’s Importance

What’s interesting is that in Chapter 1, Everyman appears in both the light and dark worlds. So far Deltarune has kept the light and dark worlds largely separate from one another, with only Kris and Susie traveling between them (as far as we know).

Everyman’s presence in both worlds implies that either he can travel between both worlds as well, or at least that lightners and darkners are both familiar with him.

Based on what we know, I’d wager that Everyman is a lightner—specifically, a monster. I say this for two reasons: 1.) so far we’ve only seen lightners (Kris and Susie) travel between both worlds, and 2.) this would explain Everyman’s appearance as one of Reaper Bird’s attacks in Undertale’s True Lab.

Why did Everyman appear in the True Lab?

The worlds of Undertale and Deltarune are connected. Toby has all-but-confirmed this himself.

[Image transcript: A screenshot from the official Deltarune website’s question-and-answer page. The question says “So there’s no connections between the two games?”. The answer says “It’s a different world that might even have different rules. That doesn’t mean there will be no connections at all though.” End image transcript.]

One major connection between Undertale and Deltarune is their largely-shared cast of characters. Many major characters from Undertale make an appearance in Deltarune’s first chapter, and Toby has shown that at least some characters from Deltarune’s universe have counterparts in the Undertale universe as well.

The Undertale Alarm Clock App makes reference to Rudolph Holiday living in the Underground some time prior to the events of Undertale.

[Image transcript: A dialogue box where Asgore says “Rudy... loved the holidays, you know.” End image transcript.]

This dialogue also strongly implies that Undertale’s universe has a counterpart for Noelle.

[Image transcript: Another dialogue box from Asgore. He says: “With a warm slice of fruitcake on the table. His youngest daughter peeking shyly from around the corner...” End image transcript]

Depending on how one interprets the Clamgirl NPC’s dialogue, there may or may not be an Undertale version of Susie (aka “Suzy”) too.

[Image transcript: Two Undertale screenshots side-by-side. In the left screenshot, Clamgirl tells Frisk: “Synchronicity...? My neighbor’s daughter looks about your age.” In the right screenshot her dialogue continues: “Her name is ‘Suzy.’ I feel like you two should be friends.” End image transcript.]

I’d argue that Everyman also had a “counterpart” in Undertale’s universe who lived as a monster in the Underground. Much like Rudy, the Underground’s Everyman likely grew old and eventually “fell down”. But unlike Rudy, Everyman was sent to the True Lab for the royal scientist’s soul experiments and became part of the Reaper Bird amalgamate.

This would fit with the pattern that we see with most other amalgamates, namely that they each seem to be made up of one named/noteworthy monster combined with several other generic monsters. The formula goes like this:

Lemon Bread = Shyra (Shyren’s Sister) + Aaron + Moldbygg

Endogeny = Muttler + various dog enemies

Snowdrake Mother = Crystal (Snowdrake’s Mom) + Vegetoids(?)

Reaper Bird = Everyman + Astigmatism + Whimsalot + Final Froggit

The Memoryheads seem to not “fit” with the other amalgamates, perhaps intentionally, so I’ll leave them out for now.

Long story short: Everyman was most likely a monster since he was part of an amalgamate and (as far as we know) amalgamates can only be made of monsters.

Why Everyman will have a bigger role in Deltarune

We see in Deltarune that three of the monsters who became amalgamates in Undertale have since passed away. This fits a trend I’ve noticed of Toby trying to “explain” the absence of characters who are prominent in one of his games but not the other.

The examples I cited above of Rudy, Noelle, and (possibly) Susie existing in Undertale’s universe also serve as “excuses” for where those characters were and why they were absent from the events of Undertale’s story. Rudy was dead and Noelle and “Suzy” were living with their families (presumably) in parts of the Underground where Frisk never ventured.

Shyra, Muttler, and Crystal are similarly “excused” from Deltarune’s story when the graveyard informs the player of their passing. Gerson is likewise excluded from Deltarune due to having passed away before the events of the game.

Conveniently, Everyman is not listed among the amalgamate monsters who have passed away in Hometown, and the alleyway graffiti implies he’s alive and well.

We know that Deltarune’s timeline and character ages don’t match up perfectly with Undertale’s—Deltarune Asriel is still alive and slightly older than Kris, who’s roughly the same age as DR Monster Kid. Conversely, Undertale Asriel died long before Frisk entered the Underground, yet Frisk is still seemingly in the same age bracket as UT Monster Kid (who’s barely younger than Asriel in Deltarune). Like Rudy, we can assume that Deltarune’s Everyman is younger than the Everyman who “fell down” in the Underground.

What will Everyman’s role be?

Remember when I said this was a two-part theory? Well, here’s the second half of my theory: Everyman is the Knight.

[Image transcript: A text box that says “Yes, you read that correctly.” End image transcript.]

Yes, the same Knight mentioned by Seam, Jevil, and the King of Spades. The same Knight who’s pulling new dark fountains out of the earth and who’s implied to be a major antagonist in the full game.

I could hedge my bets by saying Everyman is merely “connected” to the Knight, but if the Knight is a character we already know of then I think Everyman is the most likely candidate.

Let’s start with the name: Everyman’s sprites are titled “strangeman” in Undertale’s files. The very first mention we get of the Knight in Deltarune is Seam describing a “strange knight” who appeared, complete with red font for emphasis.

[Image transcript: Seam speaking inside of a shop, saying: “But, recently, a strange knight appeared... And three of the kings were locked away.” End image transcript.]

The word “strange” seems to be used selectively and very deliberately in Deltarune’s first chapter. Here’s a breakdown of all the times it’s used:

Seam referring to the knight

Seam referring to the Knight’s “strange son” (more on that later)

Telling Seam about Jevil (”Strange Prisoner”)

Seam referring to the “strange someone” that Jevil met

Seam mentioning the “strange words” Jevil said

Rouxls Kaard referring to Lancer (”a strange and irritating darling!”)

Narration before Kris seals the dark fountain (”You felt something strange.”)

Flavor text during the Jevil fight (”Kris gazed strangely”)

The Devilsknife/Jevilstail appearing in a “strange chest” outside of Jevil’s cell upon defeating him (this may be dummied out or only triggers if your inventory is full of weapons/armors and Jevil can’t give his item to you)

The description of the key to Jevil’s cell (”something feels strange about it”)

With the exception of the line from Rouxls Kaard, every instance of “strange” somehow connects to the Knight or Jevil. If the Knight is indeed the “strange someone” who Jevil met then the list tightens even further, to the point where all but one use of the word “strange” is associated with a single character and his handiwork—a very “strange man”, as it were. Speaking of Jevil...

Jevil’s connection to the Knight and Everyman

Jevil’s fight is one of two places where Everyman appears in Deltarune chapter 1. Not only that, but Everyman’s sprite only appears as a rare event during Jevil’s carousel attack, implying that his appearance is somehow significant.

Interestingly enough, the other two sprites that appear during this attack are one with a head that vaguely resembles Mysteryman (believed to be Gaster) and another with the head of a horse, a.k.a. the same as a knight piece on a chess board. It’s also worth pointing out that it’s rarer for the Everyman sprite to appear than it is for either of the other two sprites to appear.

We can also see the Everyman sprite represented in the official Chaos Revolving Keychain from Fangamer.

Jevil mentions the Knight once you defeat him, showing that he has knowledge of his existence.

[Image transcript: Jevil saying “THE HAND OF THE KNIGHT IS DRIFTING FORWARD.” End image transcript.]

This is interesting since Seam’s dialogue implies that Jevil was imprisoned well before the Knight overthrew the three kings at Card Castle. I can think of three possible explanations for this seeming timeline discrepancy:

Jevil is somehow intrinsically “aware” of things that go on outside of his cell

The Knight or someone else visited Jevil in jail to tell him about what happened with the three kings

The Knight is the same “strange someone” that Jevil met before he was locked up

The first explanation is the least likely, imo, due to Jevil asking who Kris, Ralsei, and Susie are when he first meets them.

[Image transcript: Two Deltarune screenshots side-by-side. In the left screenshot, Jevil is talking to the fun gang and he says: “BUT LO, THREE VISITORS STANDING INSIDE?” This continues in the right screenshot, where Jevil says: “WHO ARE YOU FEW?” End image transcript.]

If Jevil was aware of the outside world then he’d surely know of the fun gang’s antics by that point.

The second explanation doesn’t seem very likely either. Seam is the only character who acknowledges Jevil’s existence and we never see Seam visit Card Castle, even after the Spade King has been overthrown.

[Image transcript: Two Deltarune screenshots side-by-side. In the left screenshot, Jack Person tells the fun gang: “By the by, I asked Seam to come here, but...” Continuing onto the right screenshot, where Jack Person finishes by saying “There wasn’t any interest.” End image transcript.]

Jevil’s cell doesn’t seem to have any guards and it’s kept on its own floor, so that would rule out Jevil hearing about the knight from other prisoners.

If someone in the castle brings food to Jevil then he may have overheard it from them, but even that is speculative. Does Jevil even need to eat? He says his body “cannot be killed,” after all.

[Image transcript: Jevil saying “THIS BODY CANNOT BE KILLED!” End image transcript.]

And I’m not sure if the King of Spades would be so accommodating towards a dangerous prisoner.

That just leaves the third explanation, which seems the most likely to me. It’s also the tidiest explanation for how Jevil would be aware of both the Knight and Everyman—they’re the same person.

We can only speculate as to why the “strange someone” caused Jevil to run amok. If that strange someone was the Knight then I would assume that setting Jevil loose may have been his attempt to overthrow or destabilize Card Castle’s leadership. We know that the Knight eventually overthrew the three other kings himself, so that may have been his plan B after Jevil failed or he merely wished to remove Jevil as an obstacle. Either way, the Knight toppled the quadrumvirate and installed the Spade King as the protector of Card Castle’s dark fountain.

The Spade King’s clue

The Spade King is the closest ally of the Knight that we’ve seen so far. The exact nature of their relationship isn’t fully known, but the King’s words imply that he reveres and is loyal to the Knight.

[Image description: Four Deltarune screenshots arranged in a grid. In the top-left, the King of Spades says “By the Knight’s will, I shall shatter your heart to pieces!”. In the top-right, the King says “For the KNIGHT has appeared.” In the bottom-left, the King says “The KNIGHT that pulls the Fountains from the Earth.” In the bottom-right, the King says “My KNIGHT... I shall not fail you...” End image transcript.]

Both characters share an interest in maintaining the existence of dark fountains, given that the Knight has been said to create new fountains by pulling them up from the Earth.

Unlike Jevil, the Spade King’s attacks never make explicit reference to Everyman’s visage, but he does give a possible nod that many players have overlooked. When the Spade King is defeated, he makes a curious gesture by letting his cloak fly away like a butterfly.

While this may be a simple artistic flourish, I always found this moment to be odd and unfitting for a brutish character like the King. It’s also worth pointing out how the King’s cloak is clearly not a part of his body, unlike what’s implied with Lancer’s “clothes”.

[Image transcript: Two Deltarune screenshots side-by-side. In the left screenshot, the battle narration says: “You tell Lancer you can’t tell the difference between his clothes and his body.” The narration continues in the right screenshot, saying “He seems flattered... His ATTACK POWER went down!” End transcript.]

What if the King didn’t always have that butterfly-shaped cloak? Did someone give it to him? Think of where else we’ve seen butterfly motifs before.

At first blush, this seems obvious—the Reaper Bird is clearly made from the Core mercenaries, including Whimsalot. Whimsalot attacks with butterfly bullets, so that’s where Reaper Bird got them from, right? Case closed. Well, not so fast.

It turns out there are two different sets of butterfly bullets in Undertale’s game files, and Reaper Bird’s are different from Whimsalot’s.

[Image transcript: Two groups of butterfly bullet sprites. The left group is labeled “Whimsun / Whimsalot.” The right group is labeled “Reaper Bird”. End image transcript.]

Notice how Reaper Bird’s butterflies are smaller and have pointier, more symmetrical wings? While those differences could be chalked up to limited pixel resolution, it’s interesting how Toby went out of his way to create an entirely unique set of butterfly bullets for Reaper Bird when it arguably would have made more sense for him to recycle the Whimsun butterflies like he did for Whimsalot.

If you want to compare the sprites for yourself I suggest either looking at the game files directly or looking at an actual playthrough of Undertale. I’ve noticed that Spriter’s Resource mistakenly has Reaper Bird’s butterflies listed under Whimsun’s sprite sheet (which is a completely understandable mix-up).

To drive the point home, notice the string names that are used for these butterflies:

[Image transcript: An UTModTool window showing multiple named strings. Highlighted in red are six strings that each contain “obj_strangeman_butterfly” in their names. End image transcript.]

They’re “strangeman” butterflies. Not “amalgamate” or “Reaper Bird” butterflies (despite Reaper Bird having its own share of dedicated strings and named sprites), and they’re not “Whimsalot” butterflies either. Toby clearly delineates them as belonging to strangeman, a.k.a. Everyman, meaning that Everyman is specifically associated with butterfly imagery. The Spade King also makes use of butterfly imagery immediately after he mentions the Knight in his final turn.

Between the King and Jevil, this makes two characters that can be linked to both Everyman and the Knight.

Additional Evidence

Let’s circle back to Reaper Bird for a second. It’s commonly known that this amalgamate is made from Astigmatism, Final Froggit, and Whimsalot. To wit:

These enemies are part of the mercenary group that Mettaton hires to attack you in the Core. Have you ever noticed how out-of-place they seem? Almost every other set of enemies in the game is somehow themed around their environment — Snowdin enemies are ice creatures, Hotland enemies are fire/lava-themed, etc. These mercenaries are themed around medieval warfare and yet they show up in the Core, the most high-tech area in the entire Underground.

What’s even stranger is that this medieval theme seems to come out of nowhere. Astigmatism, Final Froggit, and Whimsalot act as “upgraded” versions of Loox, Froggit, and Whimsun, respectively. And yet their Ruins counterparts don’t have any medieval theming whatsoever—it was added purely for the mercenaries. For whatever reason they’re all dressed like a bunch of wizards and... knights.

[Image transcript: Two Undertale screenshots side-by-side. In the left screenshot, a Core NPC says “Why do I look like a black sausage and not a knight or a wizard?” This continues on the right, where it says “Well... Everyone has an angle they look best from.” End image transcript.]

That’s not my interpretation of their designs—the game outright calls them knights.

On the one hand, it’s true that Asgore’s royal guards also dress up like knights, but the Core mercenaries are explicitly not part of the royal guard—they’re mercenaries.

[Image transcript: Battle flavor text that states “Mercenaries emerge from the shadows.” End image transcript.]

Assuming that Asgore has a dress code for his guards or is just old-fashioned in his sensibilities, there’s still no reason why fighters outside of the guard should follow their standard. Even some of the royal sentries don’t follow this theming, as seen with Doggo and Sans (who’s technically a sentry):

With the abundance of knight-themed royal guard and sentry enemies that exist already, Toby could’ve easily designed the Core Mercenaries to more accurately fit with the Core’s futuristic theme. Doesn’t it seem a little too coincidental that Everyman would wind up as part of the same amalgamate as these otherwise out-of-place knights?

When we look at the other amalgamates, we can see that Lemon Bread (a.k.a. Shyren’s sister) is made up of Waterfall enemies. Endogeny is made up entirely of dog-based enemies. These two amalgamates each have a “theme” for their component monsters that fits the “main” named monster they’re each made of, and Reaper Bird has a clear theme of its own. Why would Everyman be paired with a bunch of knights if he was not connected to them in some way?

Even the Undertale artbook groups Everyman’s concept art with the Core Mercenaries, specifically the ones that look the most like knights and wizards in-game. The book also repeats the name “Everyman” and Toby’s cryptic phrase of “Just a good guy who shows up on occasion.”

Perhaps Everyman knew the Core mercenaries when he was alive? Were they his fellow knights? Or did they work for him before he fell down and they had to then lend their services elsewhere?

“The Knight? Seriously?”

Some of you may be shaking your heads dismissively at the idea of Everyman being the Knight (or you more likely clicked over to another tab by now). I mean, just look at the guy:

What part of this design makes you think “knight”, let alone THE Knight? Well, Seam does refer to the Knight as a “strange” knight, and Everyman certainly fits that bill. But more importantly, we haven’t seen an actual overworld sprite for Everyman yet—we’ve only seen some graffiti and a couple of magic bullet attacks, which are always abstract and simplified.

Not pictured: Froggit, Migosp, Temmie, Moldbygg, Tsunderplane, Mettaton, or Endogeny.

Everyman’s “proper” design would almost certainly differ from his Pillsbury Doughboy-esque bullet sprite, especially if he’s wearing a cloak or a suit of armor. And even if his design doesn’t differ that much, so what? It’s not like this series has ever had an opponent that looks goofy or non-threatening, right?

Another little tidbit I noticed: one of Reaper Bird’s attacks consists of Everyman repeatedly removing his own head.

Or maybe it’s not his head? Perhaps it’s a helmet? Like one that a knight would wear? After all, it’s not unheard of for helmets to have beak-like protrusions.

And this is a series where helmets can come in any shape or size to better fit the needs of the wearer.

Just some food for thought.

The Gaster connection

It’s time to address the elephant in the room: “Isn’t Gaster supposed to be the Knight?” If you haven’t heard by now, this is one of the prevailing theories in the fandom. To be honest, if the Knight ends up not being Everyman then Gaster is the next-best candidate, imo, but these two theories don’t have to be mutually-exclusive. I think a case can be made that Everyman and Gaster are connected in some way.

Let me say up front that this section is highly speculative (unlike the previous sections, which clearly aren’t the least bit speculative). We’re dealing with two super-obscure characters who’ve yet to make a proper on-screen appearance in either game. It’s already hard enough to figure out how either of them connect to the broader Undertale universe, let alone to each other, but I’ll give it a shot.

For starters, we can affirm that both Gaster and Everyman are linked to the True Lab. There’s no shortage of fan theories and speculation on Gaster’s prior usage of the True Lab in his own experiments and I won’t get into all that here, but suffice it to say the True Lab has Gaster’s name written all over it.

(Am I the only one who thinks the DT Extractor looks more like Everyman’s head than it does a Gaster Blaster? Forget I said anything.)

We’ve covered how Everyman appears as one of Reaper Bird’s attacks. Interestingly, the amalgamate Memoryhead has an attack that resembles the head of Mysteryman, the figure believed to be Gaster (which I’ll assume here for simplicity’s sake).

If we follow the logic of my prior “Everyman is the named/important monster that makes up Reaper Bird, fitting the pattern of other amalgamates” argument, then Gaster (or pieces of him) could fill the same role for the Memoryheads.

Everyman and Gaster’s sprites both have the suffix of “man” in Undertale’s game files. Here are all the sprites that use this same naming scheme:

strangeman - Everyman

mysteryman - “Gaster”

snowman - gives you the snowman piece

riverman - a.k.a. River Person

darkman - the shadowy overworld sprites used for the Core Mercenaries

watchingman - The spoon-shaped amalgamate that tucks Frisk into bed

The snowman’s inclusion is a bit of a fluke, because what else would you call a snowman without using “man” in the name? If we exclude the snowman, each instance of “man” represents a mysterious figure that ties back to Everyman and/or Gaster.

We’ve already covered the connection between Everyman and the Core Mercenaries, and it’s easy to connect the “watchingman” amalgamate with the True Lab. River Person is also frequently linked to Gaster in fan theories (and they allude to “the man from the other world” and “the man who speaks in hands”), so what we’re left with is a close-knit community of strange, mysterious "man”s.

This naming scheme looks very intentional on Toby’s part, and he seems to be continuing it in Deltarune by referring to the secret unseen NPC who gives you the egg behind the tree in Scarlet Forest as simply “a man.”

[Image transcript: Narration from the secret egg room. The text box states: “(Well, there is a man here.)” End image transcript]

The Knight’s “Strange Son”?

Remember when I said I’d get back to the Knight’s “strange son”? That’s now. I’m a little iffy on this topic because it involves stacking a whole ton of assumptions onto a single line of dialogue that’s phrased in an ambiguous way. But, if it means what I think it means, it could shed a ton of light on Everyman’s possible connection to Gaster and whether either of them are the Knight.

When you ask Seam about the “Kingdom”, Seam says this:

[Image transcript: Three of Seam’s text boxes arranged vertically. In order, they read: “Historically, this land was ruled by the Four Kings, from CARD CASTLE to the East. But, recently, a strange knight appeared... And three of the kings were locked away. The remaining king put him and his strange son into power.” End image transcript]

Let’s focus on that last sentence. On my first playthrough I misread this line as “the knight put the king and his strange son into power” because that sounds a lot closer to the events that happened—the Spade King and his “strange son” Lancer are in power now because the three kings were locked away, presumably by the Knight.

But the actual text states the opposite—the remaining king (Spade King) put him (the Knight) and his strange son (i.e., the Knight’s son) into power. Or does it? The line could also read as—the remaining king (Spade King) put him (the Knight) and his (the King’s) strange son (Lancer) into power. The second way is awkwardly-structured but technically valid. And this is assuming that Toby didn’t make any grammatical errors when he typed these lines, which he has done on occasion.

[Image transcript: A dialogue box where Dr. Alphys says “I felt so guilty knowing I hadn’t do anything to stop you.” End image transcript.]

Not to be too hard on Toby, but even if Seam’s line is grammatically correct it’s still clunky and murky in its conception—at this point in the game we’ve only just been introduced to Lancer and the fact that his dad is the King, and now this line is potentially introducing yet another father/son duo that is closely connected with Lancer’s dad—is it any wonder that this line is often glossed over by fans?

The second reading, where Lancer is the “strange son,” is also awkward because the Spade King would have little need to put Lancer “into power”. Lancer was already a prince and, presumably, already wielded power in that role. Various NPCs make reference to Lancer bossing them around, and such a thing could’ve easily happened before the three kings were deposed.

If we take Seam’s line with the first reading (where the Knight has a “strange son”) and assume there were no grammatical errors, then this is the only time in chapter 1 that the Knight is ever referred to as having a son. It’s also the only time that the Knight is addressed with pronouns, implying that the Knight is male. If true, this would rule out the theory that Kris (or any potential alter ego that Kris has) is the knight, since Kris is neither male nor do they have a son. This would also rule out Susie, who’s never been a popular contender for being the Knight but is referred to as a “dark knight” on her stats page.

Who made who?

So then, who’s male, widely believed to be the Knight, and is often depicted as having one or more sons?

This (alleged) guy!

“But wait,” you might ask, “isn’t your theory that Everyman is the Knight?” Well, the Knight and his “strange son” seem to be working as a duo in the scenario that Seam outlines, given that the Spade King put both of them “into power.”

Because of Everyman’s connections to the Knight that I’ve laid out, plus the more popular theory that Gaster is the Knight, it’s possible that one may be the Knight and the other may be the Knight’s “strange son.” The way I see it, it doesn’t make a huge difference which one is which.

Now, I don’t think that Gaster and Everyman would be father and son in the strict biological sense. There are a number of reasons for this, but for starters I’m not even sure if Everyman and Gaster are the same species. My inclination is that Everyman is a monster, while Gaster may be a darkner. The latter is mostly my own guess and springboards off of a popular theory that Sans is a darkner, but it’s a whole other can of worms that I won’t get into now.

More importantly, Gaster is strongly implied to have some sort of connection to Sans and Papyrus. All three of them are also connected with special fonts that they each use. As far as I can tell, there’s no widely-used font by the name of “Everyman”, so this would imply that Everyman is not a skeleton and therefore not biologically related to them. However, there’s more than one way to start a family.

Gaster was the royal scientist in Undertale’s universe and it’s not out of the realm of possibility that he (or his potential Deltarune counterpart) could find the means to create life forms artificially.

[Image transcript: The vessel creation scene from Deltarune. The on-screen text says “YOU HAVE CREATED A WONDERFUL FORM.” End image transcript.]

Everyman could be a creation of Gaster’s and thus he’d be Gaster’s “son”.

There’s also another possibility: Everyman is Gaster’s creator. We know that the Knight is pulling new dark fountains out of the Earth. I think the Knight, regardless of who they are, must be able to survive without a dark fountain to give their body form, otherwise they wouldn’t be able to venture into areas where new fountains have yet to be pulled up. The Knight is almost certainly a lightner, and I’ve already detailed why I think Everyman is a lightner as well.

We don’t fully understand how dark fountains interact with darkners, but it’s stated multiple times that dark fountains “give form” to the Dark World.

[Image transcript: Two Deltarune screenshots side-by-side. In the left screenshot, Ralsei’s narration says “Today the FOUNTAIN OF DARKNESS-” and continues into the right screenshot, saying: “The geyser that gives this land form-” End image transcript.]

In the dummied-out manual pages, Ralsei also mentions how his dark fountain gives his body form.

[Image transcript: Ralsei’s manual excerpt, whic says “Dedicated to The unending pillar of darkness that gives my body form.” End image transcript]

Darkners need dark fountains in order to maintain their forms. They may not even be able to survive at all without them. From this point of view, when the Knight creates new dark fountains he’s bringing new darkners to life. If Gaster is a darkner himself, then it’s not unthinkable to imagine that Everyman may have brought him to life in this way and could thus be called his “father”. Seam does refer to lightners as the “creators” of darkners, after all.

[Image transcript: Seam’s dialogue box saying “They were like Gods to us. Our protectors. Our creators. Those who gave us purpose...” End image transcript.]

Ultimately the question of who’s the father and who’s the son is purely speculative. We don’t even know for sure if the Knight has a son, let alone whether it’s Everyman, Gaster, or someone else entirely. It’s very much a “the chicken or the egg?” kind of question.

[Image transcript: Two images. The right is a screenshot of the egg room with narration stating “(You received an Egg)”. End image transcript.]

Hmm...

“Seriously, who is Everyman?”

Let’s bring this home with the question we started with: Who is Everyman? I’ve gone into evidence that he existed as an actual person in Undertale and will likely play a role in Deltarune, but this doesn’t tell us much about the kind of character he is. We don’t even know if “Everyman” is his real name.

If Everyman is indeed a prominent character in Deltarune then there are two possibilities: 1.) he’s a brand new character we’ve never met before, or 2.) he’s someone that we have met before. The first option, while a strong possibility, doesn’t leave us with much to talk about, so let’s look at the second.

Right out the gate I can confidently say that Everyman is not a character that we talked to or had significant interaction with in Undertale. The obvious reason is that he was busy being stuck inside Reaper Bird and he couldn’t have been in two places at once (as far as we know). This means that Everyman would have to be a character introduced in Deltarune chapter 1.

I’ve said before that I believe Everyman is a lightner, so this would rule out any dark world characters. That leaves us with the residents of Hometown who didn’t have direct counterparts in Undertale’s story.

After careful consideration I’ve narrowed the field to two suspects:

Father Alvin

Father Alvin has always struck me as an oddity. He seems like an important member of Hometown’s community, and yet none of the other residents ever talk about him. He’s also conspicuously absent from Undertale’s universe.

The most notable thing about Father Alvin is that his church seems to worship “the Angel”.

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

Ralsei’s prophecy states that the three heroes must seal the dark fountains in order to banish the “Angel’s Heaven.”

[Image transcript: Two Deltaunre screenshots side-by-side. In the left screenshot, Ralsei’s narration says “Only they can seal the fountains.” The right screenshot continues, saying: “And banish the ANGEL’S HEAVEN.” End image transcript.]

This would put the heroes at odds with both the Knight (who’s creating fountains) and whoever is serving this Angel. We can only speculate on the Knight’s motives, but what if he’s acting in service to the Angel?

Something that isn’t brought up much in the fandom is the religious reverence that darkners give to their fountains. The King of Spades refers to the fountains that the Knight creates as “holy” fountains.

[Image transcript: Two Deltarune screenshots side-by-side. In the left screenshot, the King of Spades says “Holy Fountains, whose shadows are creating a new world...” The right screenshot continues, saying “OUR world.” End image transcript.]

The soundtrack that plays at the Fountain is called “The Holy.” Dark fountains can seemingly create life, so it’s easy to imagine the Knight viewing his own mission as some sort of holy rite.

As far as evidence goes for Alvin being Everyman/the Knight, the biggest clue is the drawing signed by Alvin that shows up in the supply closet at the end of chapter 1.

Every other object in the closet represents a part of the dark world that Kris and Susie visited, and yet at no point do they encounter a dark world manifestation of this drawing. We know that the Knight visited Card Castle previously, so this drawing could be meant to represent the Knight’s presence in that part of the dark world.

It’s also worth noting how most of the closet’s toys are arranged from left to right in the order that Kris and Susie encountered them on their journey. Alvin’s drawing is on the far right, just past the open cabinet drawer (i.e., Card Castle), implying that Alvin’s drawing was either at the fountain or that it was effectively the “next” thing that Kris and Susie would’ve encountered if they had stayed.

It’s hard to make out what the drawing could be beyond being a “poorly-drawn picture of a green turtle”, as the flavor text explains. Could it be Everyman? Or is it just a reference to Bold and Brash? Both? Neither? The world may never know. Or it may know when the full game comes out.

Can I also add how strange it is that Alvin’s drawing is in the closet to begin with? Alvin looks to be a pretty old dude, so why would his drawing still be in a school that he no longer attends? I don’t have an answer, I just think it’s weird.

Other clues that could point to Alvin being Everyman are that he is, scientifically speaking, old-looking, which would line up with my hypothesis of Undertale’s Everyman being an older monster who fell down before becoming Reaper Bird.

Alvin also vaguely resembles Everyman as far as their proportions are concerned.

It’s by no means a perfect match, especially if we factor in Alvin’s shell, but both characters possess a round head with some sort of beak or proboscis.

If Everyman actually is Father Alvin, then the title “Everyman” could be a reference to The Summoning of Everyman, a 15th-century religious morality play. I won’t get into the specifics here, but the play focuses on a character named Everyman who must prepare for his inevitable death and judgment for his deeds in life. I don’t really know how much that would tie into Deltarune’s themes or if it’s even a deliberate reference to begin with, so make of it what you will.

Father Alvin was the first character that I suspected of being Everyman when I started writing this theory, but there’s one major sticking point that prevents me from fully embracing the idea: the fact that he lacks a character portrait for his dialogue boxes.

This may seem like a minor nitpick, but dialogue portraits indicate when a character is important to the story, and it would be a pretty big oversight on Toby’s part if a (presumably) recurring antagonist wasn’t given a portrait. Even a three-scene wonder like Rouxls Kaard was given a portrait.

It’s true that recurring characters like Napstablook and Monster Kid weren’t given portraits in Undertale...

But Deltarune has greatly expanded the number of characters with portraits this time around, and we can already infer that Noelle (who had a portrait in chapter 1) will be an important character going forward:

Given Alvin’s limited dialogue in chapter 1 and his lack of a portrait, I’m more inclined to believe that he’ll end up being a minor character, in which case he’d almost certainly not be the Knight (and therefore not Everyman). But who knows, maybe Toby will give him a portrait in the full game.

Thankfully, we have another candidate who might be Everyman:

The Ice-E’s Employees

You think I’m joking? Trust me, you’ll know when I’m joking.

I didn’t initially make the connection between Ice-E’s and Everyman until I saw a post from @curioscurio that pointed me in that direction.

Let’s go back to the Everyman graffiti that appears in Hometown.

Notice how the drawing right next to it resembles Ice-E’s head? I can’t believe this was staring me in the face the whole time and I never realized the connection.

Another point in favor of the Ice-E’s workers is that we don’t even know what two of them look like. We know that Burgerpants is one, and another is implied to be the Nice Cream Bunny that we met in Undertale.

[Image transcript: Two Deltarune screenshots side-by-side. In the left screenshot, the Ice-E’s employee says “Psst, can I tell you a mascot secret? I only started working here because...” The right screenshot continues, saying “The logo made me think it was an ice-cream shop...” End image transcript.]

But this still leaves the “purple guy” and “The Warrior”, who remain in full costume for chapter 1, meaning that one of them could resemble Everyman underneath their mask.

Speaking of The Warrior, he certainly fits the bill as being “strange.” His title wouldn’t be out of place among the likes of The Knight, and his dialogue refers to the hospital’s medical staff as “white wizards”, which fits with the medieval theming that’s associated with Everyman’s mercenary cohorts in Undertale.

[Image transcript: Two Deltarune screenshots side-by-side. In the left screenshot, the Warrior says “This castle’s WHITE WIZARDs relegated me to this HEALING CHAMBER...” The right screenshot continues, saying “But my BLOOD is BOILING FOR BATTLE!!!” End image transcript.]

Speaking of the Core Mercenaries, here’s an interesting tidbit:

[Image transcript: Two Undertale screenshots side-by-side. In the left screenshot, a Core NPC says “As a youth, I would sneak out to play by this creepy flaming pit.” The right screenshot continues, saying “Since the CORE is always re-arranging, it was like a game trying to find it.” End image transcript.]

I used to assume that the Core Mercenaries were older monsters who fought in the human-monster war, which would explain their insistence on dressing up as old-timey knights and wizards. However, these lines of dialogue imply that the Mercenaries are far younger—young enough to visit the Core when they were kids.

So why would a bunch of younger monsters dress up like old-school knights and wizards? Simple: they’re LARPers. This would explain why their more casual overworld dialogue doesn’t match their overly-serious battle dialogue whatsoever—the battle is over and, thus, so is the act.

What does this have to do with Ice-E’s? Simple. The Warrior is also a LARPer. But he takes it a step further and never lets the act slip. According to Burgerpants, he terrorizes customers with war chants during his day job, and we see him keeping up the act while he’s injured in the hospital. It’s clear that he’s living in a fantasy world, and someone like that would have every reason to spend time in a strange dark world that “seems like” fantasy.

[Image transcript: Lyrics from Deltarune’s credits theme. It says: “And the places that you know seem like fantasy”. End image transcript.]

Someone like him could grow attached to such a place and want to see it spread as far and wide as possible, with no regard for how it would affect the boring “real world”. All he’d need to do is create new dark fountains to sustain this fantasy world.

I also find it interesting that The Warrior is in the hospital during chapter 1. Burgerpants claims that this is the result of “pizza-related injuries.”

[Image transcript: Two dialogue boxes from Burgerpants. Read from top to bottom, it says “The Warrior - Thankfully absent due to pizza-related injuries. Constantly terrorizing customers with war chants.” End image transcript.]

But what if there was another reason? We can see signs of “some kind of struggle” in the King of Spade’s throne room, complete with tattered wall banners.

[Image transcript: Narration in the Spade King’s throne room. The text box says “(Wall banners. They seem to have been through some kind of struggle...)” End image transcript.]

What if the Knight sustained injuries when he overthrew the three kings and had to go to the hospital afterwards? A “struggle” implies that there was some resistance involved.

Another interesting coincidence is that the previews for Deltarune Chapter 2 strongly imply that it will take place in a dark world that forms in the hospital.

Earlier previews have also implied that Noelle will have a larger role in Chapter 2, and she’d have every reason to be in the hospital visiting her father when things hit the fan.

It feels awfully convenient that a new dark world springs up right in the spot where the Warrior is. I wouldn’t be surprised if chapter 2 gives us our first glimpse of the Knight in person, and what better way than a surprise run-in with the Warrior?

Some of you may be asking why I’d suggest a minor character like The Warrior might be the Knight when he has a single line of dialogue and no dialogue portrait? Simple: characters tend not to have portraits when their face is hidden from view. We see this with Undyne in Undertale:

She doesn’t gain a dialogue portrait until after she removes her helmet. This is also true of Burgerpants in Deltarune.

So, unlike Father Alvin, The Warrior has an excuse for not having a dialogue portrait yet. While Father Alvin has some compelling evidence supporting him being the Knight/Everyman, The Warrior has no major counter-argument that I can think of (unlike Father “no portrait” Alvin), so I give The Warrior the edge as far as Everyman suspects go.

I’d also like point out that if Gaster ends up not being the Knight or the Knight’s “Strange Son,” then we could get a two-for-one deal of Father Alvin as the Knight and The Warrior as his strange son. Definitely not the most likely outcome, but technically possible! I’d imagine those two would have a hilariously awkward dynamic if they were related.

Closing Summary

Wow, this post went on for a while! Let’s summarize what we’ve learned today.

Everyman (in Undertale)

Was likely a monster who “fell down”

Became part of the Reaper Bird Amalgamate

Likely knew the Core Mercenaries

Is connected to butterfly imagery

Described as “strange”

May or may not have looked like his bullet sprite

May or may not have been connected to “mysteryman”/Gaster

May or may not have been connected to the River Person

Everyman (in Deltarune)

Is alive and active

Is known to both lightners and darkners

Can most likely travel between the light and dark worlds

Is known of by Jevil

May or may not resemble his Undertale bullet sprite

May or may not be connected to “mysteryman”/Gaster

May or may not be Father Alvin

May or may not be an Ice-E’s employee

May or may not be the Knight or the Knight’s “strange son”

The Knight

Described as “strange”

Is pulling up new dark fountains from the Earth

Has been to the dark world

Is possibly a lightner/monster

Is connected to the Spade King, who uses butterfly imagery

Overthrew the other three kings at Card Castle

Is known of by Jevil and Seam

May or may not be Everyman

May or may not be “mysteryman”/Gaster

May or may not be the “strange someone” who changed Jevil

Likely male

Likely has a “strange son”

Everyman and the Knight (similarities)

Both are likely monsters

Both are alive and active in Deltarune’s world

Both are (presumably) male

Both have a presence in the dark world

Both are known by Jevil and may have met him previously

Both are associated with butterfly imagery to some degree

Both are connected to knight imagery

Both are described as “strange”

Both may be connected to “mysteryman”/Gaster

Both are foreshadowed in Deltarune chapter 1

Final Conclusions

So what do I really think? I’m reminded of Undertale’s original Kickstarter demo and how much of the full game’s story was left out of it. Right now we’re in a similar situation with Deltarune. I can’t view any of my theories with certainty because at the end of the day I have no idea what Toby’s going to write for the full game, but I can guess.

If I had to put a number to it, I’d say the odds of Everyman making further appearances in Deltarune is 95% and the odds of him being the Knight is about 66%. There’s always the possibility that Gaster will usurp the title of Knight and leave Everyman as the Knight’s “strange son” or as the far less illustrious role of “no one particularly important”.

If Everyman is in the game, I’d give 50/50 odds that he’s one of the Ice-E’s employees, mainly due to the Warrior’s situation lining up well with Chapter 2′s (likely) setting. I’d then give a 25% chance it’s Father Alvin and the remaining 25% as “anyone else”.

Thanks for reading all of this (or skipping to the end). I’ve seen hardly anyone talk about our favorite strange little man and I just wanted to get the word about him out there. Even if you don’t agree with my conclusions, I’m happy to (hopefully) ignite further discussion over this often-overlooked character.

For now I’ve said all that I can say on the topic. All we can do is wait and see what happens. Fingers crossed.

Special thanks to @curioscurio for inspiring me to make this post in the first place.

Date published: December 10th, 2020

#deltarune #undertale #everyman #undertale theory #gaster

934 notes · View notes

leina-reads-homestuck · 6 years ago

Text

Deltarune, the end (pt.1)

...Already (o O) I thought it would take me a lot more hours to finish the game...

So yeah, we were fighting the King. Guess who got killed over and over ?

( - ��-)

It took me a long time to learn to successfully dodge his attacks. Good thing I had a provision of HP items... Basically, being good at dodging is the only strategy. The goal is to last the longest time possible, until he gets...

...too tired to fight.

He falls on his knees and complains that he’s not used to fight for so long, that he wishes there was a way to end this pacifically... So we put our weapons away and Ralsei even offers to heal the King !

That’s when I start thinking that it looks like a hell of a trap.

Ralsei asks the King how he feels.

King **smacking the three of us** :

He even attacks Susie who tried to get up, but I intervene :

He kicks me out of the scene, then proceeds to steal Susie’s line.

She doesn’t appreciate the plagiarism, and attacks him from behind.

The King didn’t lie actually, he’s really tired ! He challenges us to kill him, knowing that doing that will damage the trust Lancer has in us. But he also has his spades above our heads, ready to finish us off. Susie won’t hesitate.

“Waiting for what ?” asks the King, right before falling asleep. He’s been Pacified™ without even realizing it.

I thought Ralsei had casted the spell while no one was watching but no, it was Susie herself. She learned it !

Also omg, SUSIE HAS EYES ! (°0°)

I knew she had one (1) glowy eye but seeing her actual face is strange, in a cool way.

Ralsei feels guity because he’s the one who healed the King. It could have ended badly, yep, but how to be mad at Ralsei ? Either way, the King would have played a dirty trick on us.

Aaahh... **patting urges**

As amazing as it seems, Susie is the one who comforts Ralsei. You’d think she would call him a weenie or scold him, or lecture him on the dangers of being too nice, but no :

Like, at some points you have to kick some butts, but if you never let your guard down, you might end up hurting people you didn’t mean to hurt.

Lancer (who escaped before the battle after blocking his dad’s first attack against us) comes back. He’s not too mad at us for beating his dad a bit. Actually he came to warn us, because...

...His people is trying to get to the throne room. Time to scamper in direction of the fountain. There won’t be a goodbye, because as Lancer said, they’re bad guys, and bad guys only say bad-byes !

But before we go, Ralsei has something to tell us. With a lot of hesitation.

wwhwhwwhwAT ?

Ralsei isn’t the cute black fluff we walked with all this time ? Ralsei is a....

....Pink horned Asriel... Or something ???

(Yeah, I had noticed that Ralsei is an anagram of Asriel...)

But dang, I liked his black fluffo aspect better... Oh well.

Determination ?

At this point, I started to have a bad feeling. I’ve read something about the end of the game being actually darker than expected...

But nothing happened.

We just go back home... I mean, school...

...Random sounds can be heard...

We’re in an empty classroom, and what we see oddly looks like the remnants of the fantasy world we just were in. That plush on the floor looks exactly like the stitched cat guy who sold us some stuff, there are red Lego blocks (some enemies were made of these), cards, a chess game...

Hmmmmm.

Was there something in Susie’s chalk...? Maybe she offered me to taste some in this empty classroom and we both had a sort of... bad trip ?

Kidding, of course, but that’s strange.

The deserted school is very peaceful, birds are chirping, and it's exactly like when it’s the end of the school year and you and your friends are the last remaining students in the building.

(Toby Fox has a talent for creating places that you only leave with a regret). Susie grunts that it’s time to head back home, but before she goes...

She’s.... she’s SMILING. Not her usual sarcastic grin, no, a real smile !

What happened...? Oh yeah, I think I just melted. ( - <-)

I explore what seems to be Toriel’s classroom for the younger kids. There are scented markers...

Kris is a character of refined taste.

I examinate everything, including this pile of chairs, because the game maker’s comments are worth it :

I get a call from my mom as I exit, she had waited for me in her car and didn’t see me.

She might even have to punish me. Oh naw ! (°a°)

Yes ! I made friends with the very girl who was bullying me this morning !

I’m out of trouble, but I’ll have to go to bed early tonight.

What happens if I call Toriel back ?

She tells me to walk home (”it builds the character”). Boo.

Actually I’m happy, because it means I’ll get to explore the town and interact with the characters I saw this morning ! That’s so cool !

Nice place. That reminds me of the end of Undertale, once I got rid of the bosses and got the whole town all for myself. Except that this is only the end of the first chapter.

Oh, no, there’s the bitchy kid in the librarBy. He’ll probably give me shit for skipping class. There’s something wrong with either his head or the way he wears his polo. One of these is... I forgot the word... turnways. Whatever.

Wow, wait, he’s showing concern ? I take it back, this kid is actually not a butt. He is...

...A MAJOR butt. What are you even talking about ?!

...Oh. Just a book I shall bring back. Well dragons are heckin hard to draw, mind you.

Ick ! Get to the point, Snugbutt McScaryFace.

Whut ? There is a Susie on the front of my book ?!!

Oh well.

See this Teenz-Own board ? That’s “the place where adults and teens can be kids”, if I remember well. There is an anime review. Do I want to read it ?

‘Course I do.

It’s a review of Mew Mew Kissy Cutie 2, by a certain Anonymous Yellow Lizard. It’s praising this second season for how mature and dark it has become, and how the character of Mew Mew is a lot less stale. It also mentions instant noodles.

Dang, Alphys’s tastes have changed a lot.

Oh yeah, Temmie is there, too !

I... have a feeling of déja-vu. Like a temptation of suggesting her to sell Temmie Flakes to get funds.

It’s not specified of those demons have orange horns.

Terezi no. Get out of this body.

Wait, what if Kris is actually blind ? We never see their eyes, after all... Kidding.

Wait wait wait. I actually do remember that guy. Fiery Hotguy or something. In Undertale.

He remained shocked FOREVER because I did remember his name. Each time I exited the elevator, I found him like that.

I also see a dog on the computers behind a door. It seems to be working on a game. A game I could be in once it’s done.

Toby...

(I check a bit later...)

There’s also a book written by Gerson (turtle guy) and someone’s diary who got added to the catalogue.

Now let’s see Undyne ! She’s a police officer, she’s doing her job.

Which is blocking the way and yelling at the passerbys, apparently.

The guy on the left is the one Muffet has robbed of his money convinced to buy her a donut in Undertale, and the one on the right, one of the snails from Napstablook’s snail farm !

AAAAAAND here’s the part that broke the heart of millions of Alphyne shippers.

ALPHYS WHO ???

She even mentions tackling Alphys in case she finds them doing anything illegal. :’c

But let’s remember : it’s only an alternate universe. Alphys and Undyne are probably sitting next to each other on a couch decorated with pink fish, eating instant noodles together, in another world we know.

Aww. She too is cute when she smiles. I only realize now that she has her two eyes.

O... Okay. Might even do it myself.

She also mentioned that I am “Asgore’s kid” which means I’m gonna meet the big guy too.

(-<°) *winks back*

She also mentioned “purple girls who committed comic mischief”. Susie, what have you done ?

There’s a hospital next door, and I can go in and bother the patients, so let’s do that.

And play the obligatory piano.

I find my classmate Noelle in one of the rooms, visiting her dad. He asks her if she has beaten a game, and she says she’s rather wait for him to be out so they can finish it together.

...UH OH.

Y-yeah...?

He also declares his intention to kick Bird Guy’s ass (”What’s his name ? Nerdly ?”). As his daughter objects that he can’t get up : “Tell him to stand by the window, I’ll throw something at him !” Now that’s a dad.

By the way, the reindeer characters are Christmas-themed, right ? Noelle sounds like “Noël”, which is the word for Christmas in french. ( °3°)

Jingle your what now ?

Apparently I was supposed to be here somehow, because he asks me if my mom sent me here. Upon hearing my negative response, he compliments me on how much I grew up.

Uhhhh....

“Hahahaha !”

Ha. (- _ -)

He’s my parents’ friend. He’s very happy with his daughter, but asks me to watch out for her, worried at how defenseless she is.

Well uh, scary movies are scary. That’s their goal. To scare people. (As a fearful person myself, I can relate).

Apparently, I’ve scared the poor girl myself by hiding under her bed, at a time she was afraid of monst... of humans under her bed, sorry.

Why is he hospitalized, anyways ?

“Nothing I can’t beat. I’ll be out in a jiffy.”

(0_0); Bad feeling bad feeling

Like, the dude who tells me to watch on his daughter, advises her to not wait and “it’s just some tests” ? I hope I’m wrong when I say it doesn’t bode well...

In the next room, there’s... him.

He seems to be divagating... (there’s an obligatory hospital piano in the cupboard.) (A tiny one.)

I try to enter the police station, but someone comes and closes the blinds. Geh...

Look at that. I know all of these people. The lion who loves dresses, Ice Wolf, the female rabbit...

Catti seems uh... happy that I’m alive after my encounter with Susie ?

“...I’m working.”

Okay, okay... not disturbing you more... I really dig her style, by the way.

I wonder how old are the characters. I thought we were schoolkids, but if Catti is working here, since she’s in my class, it means we’re both teenagers at least ...? I don’t know at what age you can start working in the States...

Next I encouter these... guys...

Oh my god. It’s him.

Nervous Guy. He calls me Little Buddy, the same way he called Frisk at the end of Undertale, when I went back to talk to everyone.

Eeehhh... sure ?

The poor guy is overworked, he “can’t even slack off for a minute” without a coworker falling on his back :

Yeah, I see what you mean...

Ppfpfpfpff

Him and Asriel seemed to be good friends, Nervous Guy wishes that he was back, so they could hang around together and pick up...

...y-yeah, you do that.

He talks about his coworkers, and I realize that the dude I saw raving at the hospital is one of them. He got uh... “pizza-related injuries”.

He also mentions...

...That name is ringing a bell in me, but I can’t tell why it sounds so familiar.

...*TILT*.

A pizzeria ? Weird bunnies and bears with scary faces and crazed smiles trying to entertain clients ? Purple guy ???

I never played Five Night at Freddy’s, and even I know that this pizzeria is a FNAF reference.

Dang it. Let’s go elsewhere -

Sans !!!

I was not expecting to encounter him, I don’t know why...

Next part coming later cause I’m sleepy and myinternet is running slow.

(-0-)

#deltarune #deltarune spoilers

6 notes · View notes