#Understanding the Rules AU

[augment-techs]

🌹

Matt was right; it wasn't that Billy didn't want Eugene--sweet merciful fuck did he want the young man sitting in his lap, letting Billy's cock softly glide along his tailbone as strong hands wrapped around him and felt his inner thighs, knees, hips, the curve of his belly that was trying its best to become something like muscle due to running around and his work and general exercise, his pecs, his bird bone clavicle and soft shoulders, his swan-like neck; all the while with Billy getting to know the scars he faced that Eugene didn't want to talk about and Billy wasn't going to question until they were more comfortable with each other, kissing each streak of white or dark purple he passed as he licked and sucked and kissed--it was just that he was so fucking scared of finding way back to him and then ruining it.

[chiiimchar]

i NEED to know nille's reaction to the whole. yknow. looping in time thing. shakes you /lh

(after a few hours) "the dying bit was kinda punk rock though how many times did you die?"

[pinkd3mon]

Bonus piece from this art

[deltarunebt]

Very normal about this Spam NEO fight, but I'm also curious how closely the fight plays out.

Does Frisk spare him by snapping wires still? Does he fall just like the base game when they're gone? I know he's gonna be better off at the end than becoming a pair of sunglasses, if only because he's gonna be a party member, but...

You assume this because he's a party member, but the Secret bosses are also only party Members for the duration of the Chapter they're from ;)

...

I could just leave this ask with that but, lets be honest here, I've said before that this AU initially spawned out of me joking about if Frisk was the Deltarune protag, freeing Spamton would've worked. Of course it ends better, this is happy ending city babey, that's all I do!

Frisk does snap the wires, yes, because that seems to be what Spamton's freaking out about as far as they can tell. Spamton doesn't actually get what they're doing until After all the strings are cut and he's fallen though, at which point he realizes they were trying to help him, feels somewhat guilty, and then feels a whole lot worse in general because it didn't Work.

Killing them didn't work (or, at least, he utterly failed to do so), cutting the strings Didn't Work, and now all his work was for Nothing and he tried to kill a child that did nothing but help him this entire time and that, despite how much he would attempt to convince himself otherwise, he DID get attached to. Everything's utterly fallen apart and there's nothing he can do to fix any of it. His one big plan was a dud and he has nothing else.

So Spamton is pretty ready to give up and just be a pair of glasses, but Frisk...

Well, Frisk isn't one to give up on a friend no matter what, and they will Not fail to save anyone ever again. So they try to help Spamton get back up. Again, and again, and again, and again.

And, well, that kinda Determination is enough to inspire a little hope in anyone, y'know?

And, you know, maybe, just maybe, sometimes, a little hope, a lotta determination, and a friend is all you need to defy the rules of the game.

Maybe, sometimes, you get to be more than Just A Puppet.

[fauvester]

someone asked about girldad julian.. he’s trying his best

[jessamine-rose]

*lovingly tackles Aine*

Read my Yandere! Pierro longfics first ♪( ´▽｀)

Last week, my beloved mutual @ainescribe surprised me with Savior! Darling fan art and AHAI9232@2-!/! CRYING SCREAMING I WANT TO LOOK AT THIS ART AND WORSHIP YOUR VERSION OF SAVIOR THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR BLESSING ME WITH YOUR ART—

*clears throat* Anyway, now that I finally have the time to properly sit down and comment on the fan art, I’ll do just that. Feedback will be in the tags and it will be unhinged. Once again, thank you so much to Aine for drawing this <3

[i3utterflyeffect]

your drawing of selkie!sc with a tiny backpack made me think: do sc and the rest of the cg wind up going to school in selkie!au? does alan even think to send them to school at all, or would king wind up being the one to bring it up to him?

oh, Alan mainly homeschools them! he would feel bad letting the others go to school while SC is forced to stay at home (he doesn't want to take their coat when they're in a stressful environment but also he doesn't fully trust a kid who doesn't fully understand the consequences of their actions yet to not turn into a cursor), but they might start public school when they're a little older. i could definitely see SC hiding on the ceiling whenever they don't feel like doing schoolwork also so it's probably a good call tbh

he's pretty good about teaching them, though! he does his best to try and make it fun for them even if he's not really an expert at teaching or anything. sometimes he has to bribe them, though.

[insignificant457]

Thinking about the fact that sevro is a carvers creation too.

“We went to a carver to see if we couldn’t make ourselves some magic. We did.”

Sevro, just like Darrow, is created in a lab, but their purposes are completely different. Darrow is created as a machine of war, his whole purpose after being saved by the sons of ares is to infiltrate and tear down the gold machine. He can’t separate himself from this war, because his purpose is not yet fulfilled.

Sevro, on the other hand, is created out of the love his parents have for each other. And when his mother is killed his father starts this revolution, and he does it in big part for him. It’s no coincidence that the organization fitchner starts is called the sons of ares. In sevros life, the war hasn’t just been about tearing down the society, it’s about the possibility of what comes after. The possibility is own birth represents.

I think iron gold and dark age really highlight the differences between their individual philosophies. You can see it in the fact mustang says she’d like to retire with Darrow and their children, plural, despite the fact that in ten years they’ve only got the one (who certainly wasn’t planned). Meanwhile sevro and victra have had three and another on the way in that intervening time. You can see it in the way Darrow continually struggles to pull himself away from the war, while sevro is able to compartmentalize and prioritize his family when he’s home. You can see it in the sevros palace chapter in dark age, when Darrow says sevro “didn’t close his mind to his family before battle, because he knew they did not make him weaker, they made him stronger than he was by himself.”

Darrow can’t start living life for himself until his purpose is fulfilled, while sevros purpose has always been that very life, so he finds a way to fit it in.

So in the end, it’s not surprising that when it comes down to it, Darrow chooses his army and sevro chooses his family. It’s not about one of them being right and one of them being wrong. It’s about what they were created for.

[markiza297]

brainrot continues

I swear to god I won't stop drawing everyanimalHYBRID til one of you comes to my house and forcefully takes all of my drawing supplies from me

This brings me so much joy i loved every second of drawing it i love every second i think about this silly little au

[weaverofink]

“Would it make you happy? Really?”

Deity!Tikki AU-- Tikki can’t understand why someone wouldn’t want to be free and Plagg can’t understand why someone would choose to become someone they don’t recognize

[betweenblackberrybranches]

All I see is Y/N being at their mercy once they recognize the poor janitor. What if they just assume they're being a good listerner by not talking. Like if one of em is having a bad day they just snatch Y/n mid task for cuddles and to vent.

Ah this is about the rlgl au right?

Well that would be a super dangerous game to play because the staff is strictly forbidden contact to the bots or the clients, so if they ever got caught doing that y/n would definetly be fired, even if they werent at fault. Fazbear policy

This also means that if y/n wants to keep their job they cant openly help sun or moon if anything happens at work, and they cant be spotted with sun or moon while off the clock or that little oversight of management (overlapping adresses of staff and bots) could be discovered

lets see how long y/n will be able to keep the distance to the celestial twins befor those idiots worm their way into y/n s heart

[skitskatdacat63]

I don't know how I'd ever convey this in art but. Thinking very deeply about how in boy king au, a very crucial part of characterization is that Seb is a wolf in sheep(or lamb more specifically)'s clothing and Fernando is a sheep in wolf's clothing.

Seb is very unassuming, very delicate, seemingly very vulnerable and malleable. But, deep down, he can be very ruthless. It's in the the way he hesitantly declares war, with a spark in his eye and a suppressed smirk. In the way he challenges someone to a card game or a horse race, proclaiming that he's not great, but winning every round and prancing around the room and mentioning it ad infinitum. The way he's able to instantly turn the tide in a debate in one fell swoop. By showing all his cards constantly and letting himself be vulnerable, he's making himself invulnerable. No one would ever consider him to be able to make big moves, so he wins every single time, because no one even thinks to expect it from him.

Fernando on the other hand, is constantly committed to having a looming presence and harsh reputation, but deep down, he's soft. He knows what happens to people when they're vulnerable, and he's not going to let himself be taken advantage of. The way he keeps a brave face when being informed of the marriage proposal, but goes back to his room and cries. The way he proclaims that he was always going to be the rightful ruler of Spain, but confides to Flavio that he never thought there was any real chance of it ever happening. The way he takes himself so seriously in public, but inside feels so giddy whenever he can make someone laugh. Everything to him always feels unstable and ready to crumble at any moment, and he's not willing to contribute to that by letting himself relax.

I think thats why it's very difficult for them to get along at first, because they have completely different approaches to how they carry themselves and make their way through life. Seb is confused at Fernando because he feels that he's very bland and overly serious at first, but truthfully he's not really seeing the actual Fernando. And Fernando finds Seb to be naive and easily taken advantage of, but that's because he's never seen Seb at his most cruel. Seb really loves when he eventually gets to see Fernando being vulnerable, and Fernando really admires and respects Seb when he sees him being serious. I think it just takes a while for them to show the other their full and complete selves, even the parts they can sometimes be ashamed of. There's this very compelling dichotomy in Seb laying out all his cards, but still being very difficult to read, and Fernando keeping his cards to his chest, but his intentions often being easily seen through.

[landwriter]

2!

Hounds of Love by The Futureheads. Oh! What a gem!! I first loved this song when I was a wee bab and rediscovered it this past summer. It, along with all my top songs, was on a summer driving playlist which is why it is so insanely high haha. There's a sort of lovely pastoral wildness to this and I think that suits our lads so well.

An outdoorsy AU with competence kink out the wazoo, where Dream is a bird specialist at a wildlife rehabilitative centre, who becomes a minor TikTok celebrity (much to his enormous apathy) when the centre starts doing interpretive meet-birds events and the internet falls in love with this dour hottie who only smiles when he's talking about birds (Matthew, naturally, runs the account). Hob is a hunter - bow, mostly - who is regrettably very on TikTok, very on all social media - he hates the term but he is unquestionably an 'influencer'. He just likes sharing his knowledge and passion, alright? And the gear sponsorships are nice.

He sees Dream, and sees, mostly, a really great collab opportunity, so he messages him, and Dream (who is Matthew, and just shouted HOB FUCKING GADLING? IN MY DMs? at his phone when he got the message, immediately sets up a meeting at the centre. Then he breaks the news to Dream, specifically when Dream is holding Jessamy, so he can't be murdered.)

Dream, of course, expects Hob to be some like, swaggering font of red-blooded machismo talking points, and suspects Hob is only popular because he looks like an advertisement in Outdoor Living. (Matthew showed him pictures.) He disregards Matthew, who says Hob is actually super cool, because Matthew has terrible taste and would be the first to admit it. But his interest is piqued when Lucienne also knows who Hob is. It turns out Hob is deeply involved in nature and wildlife conservancy. Gives talks at schools. Gets involved with land protection initiatives. Teaches orienteering to youth. But everyone seems to expect him to hate Hob, which he would find faintly insulting except that he also expects himself to hate Hob. He doesn't. Not that much. Even when he shows up in a plaid shirt that is made of 'technical' fabric, because he's smart and excited to talk to Dream about birds, has an encyclopedic knowledge of the history of falconry, and most importantly, Jessamy takes to him immediately.

They run into each other again at a renaissance fair, another thing Dream hates but has been strong-armed into doing, and so they are both dressed in very silly clothes when it happens: the first time Hob watches Dream demonstrate falconry, the first time Dream watches Hob use a longbow made from a yew tree he fell himself, the first time they go from a wary sort of respect for one another to a wanting.

Dream, who has a recurring fantasy about running away from it all, listens to Hob tell tracking stories and thinks, If I went into the woods, you would find me. But he doesn't want to run from Hob - except sometimes, when he sees Hob chew on his lip consideringly before giving a thoughtful answer about the guiding industry, or when Hob grins wildly at the crowd after his archery demonstration, and most of all, when Hob phones him out of the blue one day - he doesn't text, he phones - sounding a little breathless with excitement, and asks Dream if he wants to come with him for a week in the mountains, on "probably a wild goose chase" and promises "all sorts of birds if nothing else." (Hob had meant to only share the news with Dream. Fuck, he thinks. I am so fucked.)

He says yes, for the birds, of course, and tells Matthew the next time he's at the centre.

"So what's the wild goose chase?" asks Matthew.

Dream plumbs his memory of the phone call and says, "Hob told me he received a bighorn sheep tag." Matthew gapes at him.

"Holy shit," says Matthew. "He's in love with you."

"He is certainly not."

"Uh, no, respectfully boss, he 'certainly' is. Lucienne!" he shouts, "Hob invited Dream to come out on his Dall sheep tag. What the fuck, right?"

Lucienne comes in and raises her eyebrows. "Oh dear," she says. She's smiling.

"What," says Dream. "It's a sheep. I don't understand."

Lucienne and Matthew exchange a glance.

"Him. I cannot believe Hob chose him," says Matthew.

"Love works in mysterious ways," says Lucienne.

"I am right here," says Dream.

Matthew turns to him, "Have fun in Alberta," he says.

this would ft. nights of wild stars, rugged terrain, type ii fun, sexual tension around a campfire, homoerotic form checks, tent sharing, dream glassing beautiful birds with hob's $3000 binoculars while hob stares at him in abject adoration, dream watching hob strip off his clothes and jump into an alpine lake, and refusing to join him out of pretended prudishness when it's really because he's suddenly so hard it hurts, camp coffee, confessions about themselves instead of confessions about their feelings for each other, sore muscles for a VARIETY of reasons, and lots of allegories about wildness and taming and running away from things, and SO MUCH COMPETENCE KINK, friends. so much. i would probably write it like - act one them leading their separate lives, their desires and aches etc., act two - meetcute and circling one another, act three - The Trip. this one has a very happy ending i can tell

[carnivalcarriondiscarded]

Question about Frank! What is his fighting style? I know you mentioned he does hand on hand, but does he do any specific form of martial arts?? Or is it just kind of the basic, punching, kicking, ect. Also, does he have some form of magic, or is he basically like Howdy? (I'm just imagining they all play like.. actual table top DnD and Frank is getting irritated because his rolls are garbage-)

i'm not nearly well versed enough in martial arts to name styles or blend them - though i feel a "i need to know everything i can about this" fixation creeping up... so i might be able to provide a better answer later!

but for now lets just say he's adapted his own stylized form, blended from his childhood training, what he learns on the streets, and what he picks up on his travels / figures out himself. i imagine it would be an efficient, ruthless, and elegant personal style of combat

Frank has no magic! if he rolled for it he'd somehow get a 0! he and Howdy are the only magicless maidens of the group

[fvedyetor]

"wip" scene redraws (i'll never finish them)

[kijosakka]

how. how would i even write out a proper fic of dramaturgy au,,

cutting this off bc i got too caught up in myself and rambled

ok umm,, dramaturgy as an au is just so character study-ish and generally character-focused,, plus the initial developments made on island are kiinda important to the cast dynamic?? so as i see it there are a few options:

A: rehash/go through the unchanged plot of island, the TDDDDI special, some eps of WT, using it to develop the Situation from other characters perspectives while maybe having one or two to emphasize noahs characterization

it gives a lot of time for character developments outside of noah himself, and time to reinforce noahs own characterization using that outside perspective,, but could potentially get boring/long-winded, since nothing different happens and its literally just Characters Having Screentime

^ maybe sub a full going-through with character vignettes and specific scenarios throughout island/the special/celeb. manhunt or after TD/eps of WT??? i guess you could also slot smth like this in with the other ideas aswell

B: begin the hypothetical fic post-jamaica challenge and leading into london, use it to exposition some minor things and generally establish characterization before getting into challenges and actual canon divergence

it doesnt drag on (as much atleast), gives you enough time with enough cast members to establish what the others think of noah and what noah thinks/how he behaves and why (probably slot in his distrust of alejandro here??), more challenges gives noah more chances (and reasons) to break character, though the character development has to be slow and conflict should probably be built up (but im kinda partial to this one ngl)

C: kindof half-baked but beginning in london (i’m imagining literally at his eel line), where hes eliminated that episode, but comes back via comeback challenge; arc kicked off by being so pissed off that he has to come back and do the Same Shit yet again (and probably because of producer-rigging. again.)

the conflict/character dynamics would move a little faster, its less to trudge through and figure out canon changes like the butterfly effect of noah staying in the game in london, but having less characters to have relationships/interactions with (but making the ones had can be more developed/rounded as a result), less Time in general, the original idea of noah ‘unmasking’ alejandro is kiiinda less impactful this late into the game?? slightly i feel like

or D: even more half-baked than C and kinda just 'possible' and feeling out of place, but you could have noahs arc happen in all-stars instead (smth smth the audience was vv dissatisfied with how he ranked in WT and so he gets brought back)

^ this is mostly bc i like the motif of noah having eel-pond related scars and seeing it as a physical reminder of where 'acting like the camera isn't there' can get him (but you could potentially fit this into the C idea, posing it more as a bitter feeling/theme rather than a motivation to continue his facade)

i dont really like this one from a storytelling standpoint, and it doesnt make much sense since theres no character motivation via unmasking alejandro since everyone already knows at this point?? idk it is there though

umm yeah thats all ive got, i guess you could also mismatch ideas like B&C so the fic starts post-jamaica but noah still gets eliminated, or have noah eliminated after london but still winning the comeback challenge and coming back swearing vengeance (within his own head mostly) or smth like that

i kinda wanted to just put this Out in the World and let it simmer before i start combing through WT to make the allotted ‘official’ canon changes of this au lol

(and not to mention theres still the issue of the actual Ending,, does he win?? is his winning both symbolic and the first genuine, intentional break of character he makes, to the audience and his peers beyond the unintentional ones hes made along the way???

smth smth character growth, hes learned how to let himself break character but now hes learning to do it intentionally too??? < im partial to that but im also biased towards noah and any hypothetical win of his

^ or does he lose?? and his ending watching the finalists parallel the island bit where he Did Not Care but now??? idk idk the longer i think the more i like the whole symbolic win thing but in terms of storytelling/the Themes, does it Work. i do like to think so

the original draft of this idea has noah not in fact winning but it also had a strangely,,,,, vindictive tone?? that might not be the word but the Themes were different and noah was more scheme-ish rather than defense mechanism-having so im thinking the ending should change as well)