#Your characters are so flowey and are made of good shapes

[packet-of-staples]

Have you always wondered that you really wish that undertale would also gets it’s own adaptation since cuphead and fnaf gets it’s own

(it’s much better if undertale was like a animated series)

(And I really do wish it got it’s own adaptation cause I love the games😔)

I actually hope undertale never gets an adaptation outside of the video game format! The game is so intrinsically tied to the fact that it is a video game I dont know how you would adapt it.

Games like Cuphead, Fnaf and Mario's plots arent as tied to their video game mechanics like Undertale's plot is.

Entire plot points and characters just would not work (Like Flowey's entire character, resetting, choosing to spare or kill etc.). The whole story hinges on what you the player chose to do and that gets thrown out the window when you are watching something.

The active role the player has in shaping the story by sparing or killing cannot be replicated by a passive watching audience. Not in a way I think has the same impact anyway. Your choices are what make Undertale what it is.

Sure the story its self is very good! Outside of the mechanics. But a lot of the emotional battles like Asriel, Omega Flowey, Sans or Asgore are so inextricably tied to flipping the mechanics you have learnt on its head to illicit a reaction (see, Asgore breaking the Mercy button in a pacifist run through. You cannot spare him despite having done so for every other character. This is shocking to the player and I dont think it could work the same in a different format).

Or okay let's take the entire Omega flowey fight. What save points is he drawing back on to move you or kill you over and over when it is in film format? Who's save file does he discard when you cant make a save file when watching a movie? How about when he crashes the game after you die? How would you implement that into a film? You really cant.

How would you explain the ethics around resetting if you are unable to actively reset? You would not be able to relate to Flowey, get that gut punch in genocide when you realise you have become just like him after resetting and slaughtering all of your friends. When watching a tv show or movie YOU are not doing anything, the character on the screen is, you are just an onlooker with no ability to alter the story.

Toby wants it to feel like you're playing with these characters like toys you can discard, love or damage whenever you want and makes you think about the ethics around that. Characters in a video game feel a lot more like playing with toys than watching a film does, because in a video game you are able to make an impact on what they say or do. While in a film characters have a set script, you have no impact, there are no choices you have to make aside from keep watching.

Undertale's Metanarrative is woven into it's very being. By separating it from the video game format I feel like you are just gutting it of what made it special in the first place. You would have to rework it so much, I feel like you'd might as well just write a whole new story.

Does this make sense? Its 1 am while I'm writing this so I hope I'm not talking in circles.

[bonetrousled]

can you talk about why you disliked undertale yellow? never played it or watched a playthrough but i’m very curious!

PREFACING THIS WITH A DISCLAIMER i know it is a passion project and it makes me Feel Bad that my feelings on it r this negative. i do not mean to discredit the years of work anybody put into it and i am So Happy that the general consensus is that people really liked it! i'm glad the team's work paid off. i am also going to be SUPER opinionated. undertale is my biggest interest of all time it has been my special interest for going on Nine Years . i am Wired to have very strong feelings on it . please do NOT take my opinion as a message to Not enjoy it if you do! play it and form an opinion on ur own time

also SPOILERS for the game!

that being said

i will first state the things i Enjoyed

music was phenomenal! it was very fun and atmospheric

artwork was very good! it makes me a little sad that the canon characters we see didn't really get the tlc/polish that all of the original content did, but that's ok!

i like how smarmy flowey was in the no mercy run. it was a little ooc at times but i had a blast (which will sadly become a negative) partly bc of his attitude

i love mo as a character. im going to rescue him from this game i just know it

ok. things that frustrate me from least to most (i will try to keep this brief bc i WILL go on a tangent if left unrestrained)

i wish the main cast had more variety in monster types. body shape, proportions, colors, etc! with how wide the array of the cast is in ut, it's just a little sad that the main cast here all roughly have the same build, height, and aren't really "monstery". lots of the non-main characters (i am including the feisty five in here) have more diverse and visually interesting designs to me and i wish there was just a bit more variety

add-on to the previous point: something abt the fact that dalv just kind of looks like a human Guy who is Purple with Horns makes me irrationally irritated. they could have put a little more of a bat motif in there or Something because the first time i saw him i genuinely didn't think he was supposed to be a monster

some of the fights are NONSENSE BULLSHIT HARD for no reason. some of these have been fixed since release but there were multiple segments that weren't even like. main story character fights that made me want to rip my hair out. additionally the shops are FEW and FAR between. it was a STRUGGLE to get enough healing items 90% of the time and i had to ration them out constantly

i know most were patched out and this is kind of a nitpick but the complete ABUNDANCE of grammatical and spelling errors on release took me out of the flow of things SO much. places that desperately needed a comma that had none, words completely misspelled (outside of punchlines for jokes), things like that. it wouldn't have been such a problem but it happened SO much and really got into the way of making sure dialogue progressed as normal. speaking of

i'm so sorry. half of the dialogue and jokes make me want to shriek and scream in agony. maybe it's just not my cup of tea and nobody is forcing you to have completely toby-fox-accurate jokes in your game but the majority of the jokes made in the pacifist/neutral runs fall completely flat for me. the general dialogue is very fanfic-esque to me in a way ? i do Not know how to describe it. it's not Good. along w that i'm sorry but in my opinion the way they wrote asgore in there is COMPLETELY out of character. i'm going to be so so honest mr king "fuzzy pushover" fluffybuns isn't going to go GET OUT OF MY SIGHT AND NEVER RETURN!!!!! the man got beat up by a child and took her in to train her. like yeah his garden is sentimental or whatever but like. he is such a Nice Guy. he would Not do that

the timeline does not make Any sense. if frisk is the first human to fall in YEARS to the point where everyone is losing hope of ever getting another soul for the barrier and most monsters don't recognize you as a human and let you interact w them freely why in the Fuck are undyne and alphys just like. alive and kicking here. why is alphys doing amalgamate shit already. what is going ON

and finally. the part that makes me the Most Irritated

i cannot fucking stand the story. I AM SORRY

i physically cannot expound on this as much as i want to bc the post is long enough as it is and i'll go on forever but generally speaking

i Do Not Like ceroba. i didn't really feel any connection or anything to any of the other characters in General but her entire deal and everything that surrounds it just makes me So Mad. like ok. i tried to get past the "oh my husband is a super important scientist (but not the royal scientist because that's alphys teehee but still REALLY important) and he's also secretly a boss monster (even though the only boss monsters we see are the Actual Fucking King and Queen of monsters and are the same monster subtype)" shit but like. THEN it's like. oh he's actually making a super secret magic serum that uses essence from a boss monster soul and a human soul (where did he get that. he made this after he was fired from his job. where did he get a human soul from) to give EVERY monster the power of a boss monster so that when we EVENTUALLY get enough souls to get to the surface (could literally be hundreds of years from now) we'll be strong enough to beat the humans (that's why asgore is collecting the souls in the first place. to shatter the barrier and become a god strong enough to beat the humans. that's the Point)

but WUH OH!!!! the serum is actually KILLING him!!!! and he never told his wife! so he leaves a series of tapes behind to tell her abt it after he dies and IN THESE TAPES he's like listen. here's this awesome potion im making. you need a BOSS MONSTER SOUL and a HUMAN SOUL to make it work. our daughter IS a boss monster. BUT. do NOT FUCKING use it on her. ok. DON'T. do that. ok love you (dies) AND FUCKING. her like 6 year old daughter walks in and speaks in a perfect eloquent sentence and says some shit like "we have to carry on daddy's legacy :(" and asks to be injected w the shit that we saw kill her dad SECONDS PRIOR and ceroba is virtually IMMEDIATELY like well ok if the kindergartner says it's fine. AND OF COURSE HER DAUGHTER IMMEDIATELY FALLS DOWN????

and when i tell u the like. WHOLE second half of the game is dedicated to this bullshit nonsense. ceroba has this whole thing where she's trying to kill you because you're pure of heart or whatever and it'll work for the serum or something and after a LONG ASS (stupid incredibly hard for no reason considering SHE IS NOT a boss monster) battle w her she's like ok i'm not gonna do that anymore i give up kill me etc. and in pacifist you're like nah i won't kill u i forgive you Hooray!

and so. right. youve been fighting the ENTIRE TIME. to find the missing kids. to get home. to leave the underground after figuring out what happened. there are only FIVE human souls at this point. having one more will NOT break the barrier. you've been fighting to LIVE this Entire Time. the story must end in clover's death SOMEHOW but literally the driving force here has been survival

clover is literally like ummmm ok well im gonna give up my soul right here right now to add it to the pile. *dies on rooftop ALONE* . the shriek i screamed when this happened was. Astronomical. like. oh yeah everybody let the 9 year old give their life for a civilization that has been trying to kill them this Entire Time. never mind the fact it makes all of the fighting and striving and grueling we did Worthless because clover decides to sacrifice themselves completely out of the player's control. this wouldn't make me AS mad if we had like. a choice like the forgive him/do not asriel thing where we could face asgore and be forced to lose OR sacrifice ourselves but even then it's just. SO silly to me.

i think i get the like. doomed parents sad child dreemurr parallels they were TRYING to go for but it is all so clunky and wonky and. just DOES not work narratively if you think about ANY aspect of it for too long

all of these factors combined made the game a complete and total Slog to get through . it is Not just me i streamed it to a few friends the whole time and the opinion was the Same

HOWEVER.

the no mercy run, completely against what it is MADE to do, was fucking awesome

the passive aggressive comments from flowey the entire time were hilarious. the power trip i got chasing axis was splendid. i didn't have to sit through pages of dialogue that made my eye twitch. i just got to Kill People.

i do Not like the fact that they seemed to think no mercy = Hard Bosses which. isn't really true for undertale ? out of the normal bosses only two are ramped up in difficulty and it thematically makes sense Why. in uty martlet gets multiple fights (including a Bullshit Insane Hard Final Fight), ceroba gets a Bullshit Insane Hard fight w a new mechanic that is introduced out of Nowhere and took me like 6 times to notice that it was even Implemented, and axis gets a tough fight. which is Fine but i do not think it really understood the message of like. the no mercy run is not supposed to be Fun. you are eviscerating this world and everything it has to offer. you're literally Killing the game. it's a tricky thing to balance but all in all No part of it made me feel bad. this could be due to me Already not really caring abt any of the characters but. sigh

also martlet gets really strong at the end bc she injects herself w dt but like. why does she know about that. she does guard stuff Near the Lab but why does she Know about the experiments. the whole point is that nobody Else Knows. where did she get that from. what the fuck

anyway. says that i won't go on for too long. proceeds to go on for too long like some kind of Liar

[nitrosodiumepicfps]

Five more Music-Themed games

This isn't really a genre, since I'm not constricted by only researching "rhythm games". If it's got music and uses it in an interesting way, I'll take a crack at it.

Undertale - I really enjoyed this game in my younger years. Not only was it a well-put-together RPG, but it included pretty good commentary about morality, choice, empathy, and choosing what is right over what is easy. Characters were incredibly memorable, giving you reasons not to kill them, and the world would change based on your actions. You felt like this benevolent being in a world that you have no reason to save, and yet, by pulling on the strongest emotions, these characters, mere sprites and lines of code, could convince you to invest in their lives. The fandom may have been a cesspool rivaling the dark ages of FNAF, and to be honest, I never got interested in Deltarune, but standalone, Undertale was good. Oh, and the music was also amazing. Toby Fox is a ridiculously good composer; the music is well-made, but he also utilises leitmotifs and character themes to create emotional connections and fun nods. For example, Spider Dance - a theme that plays when you fight a spider lady - when played on piano, requires you to play as a duet, i.e. with two sets of hands, as a spider would. The greatest example of this is Hopes and Dreams, one of the last songs you listen to if you're going for true pacifist. I don't know how to spoiler text in Tumblr, so if you haven't played Undertale yet, just don't look at the screen. Essentially, Asriel is the true form of Flowey, that genocidal maniac who has been puppeteering your journey through the Underground. Now freed from his flower form, Asriel wants to reset the entire timeline and bring everything back to how it was. In his theme, the opening track Once Upon A Time can be heard, giving your adventure a cyclic theme, and Flowey's old theme, Your Best Friend, can also be heard at times, connecting back to Asriel's bitter existence in the flower. This is topped off with an orchestral rock theme to the entire track, showing you that this is the climax of the game. Video games are art.

Beatsaber - This one's a classic VR title. I believe it was FUNKe who said that (paraphrasing) most VR games basically boil down to either machinery operation, or swinging a stick. Beatsaber is this idea in its most distilled form, chopping apart blocks to the beat of whatever song you've chosen. Most times, you have to slice a block along the direction of the arrow stamped on it, and there are weird frosted glass blocks that you have to keep your sabers out of. There's really not much I can talk about with this one; in my eyes, it's the Pong of VR games. It's got a sort of interesting aesthetic; geometric shapes, colored lasers and dry ice gives everything an 80s disco theme. What I like about Beatsaber is that it's a VR game that uses its virtual reality to its advantage. Lots of VR games will have you maneuver yourself around with simple button presses from your controllers, and the VR-ness of it is relegated to a 3D graphics card. With Beatsaber, you have to swing the sticks yourself, and the directional blocks keep the movement interesting. I suppose it's closer to osu in the sense that you have to factor in your own speed, reflexes and direction, instead of pressing a key when the arrows line up.

BPM: Bullets Per Minute - I've referenced this game a couple times, but now I get to talk about it in a little more detail. Without just saying "it's like Metal Hellsinger but without vocals and without a sword", there is more to it. The beat-to-beat gameplay is more about hitting the smaller notes, rather than just performing an action to the tempo, as you do in Hellsinger. You know when you're listening to music, and imagining some sort of action-packed sequence unfolding to the rhythm? That's what BPM is. You have to leap, dodge, and shoot, all to the beat, but there's more to it than that. Some weapons have interesting reloads that don't easily fit into the rhythm, like a bolt-action rifle that has four shots on the beat, four cocks on the beat, and then three reload beats. It's hard to explain, but you need to account for the type of rhythm and fit your gun's timing into that. It's a pretty cool idea, and there is a bit of a roguelike element with gear you can switch out to make fights interesting, or add a new mechanic to fit onto the beat.

Serious Sam 2 - This may not seem like it has a unique twist to its music, but I believe it does. This ridiculously over-the-top cartoonish horde shooter is a lot of fun, primarily for all the things it does "wrong". It came out in 2005, when first person shooters were steadily stagnating into slow "piss-filtered" modern military games. Despite this, you juggle something like 15 weapons, fighting through hordes of clowns with explosive cream pies, ogre footballers, giant robot spiders and ripped devils with rocket launchers for hands. Everything is bright and stylised, you can clearly see enemies in the environment, and despite being a horde shooter, the gameplay loop allows you to progress through the enemies instead of being driven back by them. Also, it's just mindless fun to plough through the game's many worlds; there's a jungle world, a gigantic world, a culturally questionable China world, a volcano world, a fantasy world, and then a prison moon, and then a city planet... it goes on for a while. There's unique music for each level (not just each world), and not only that, but the level's music is split into different themes - a "peace" track, a "tension" track and a "fight" track. If you're just walking along, it plays the peace track. If you're near enemies, or escaping from combat, it plays the tension track. If you're in the middle of a fight, it plays the fight track. All of these share similar leitmotifs, so it appears like the music flares up organically depending on what situation you find yourself in. It's a pretty good system all things considered. Other games of the time with dynamic soundtracks would loop different parts of the ambience based on your situation (like Thief or the original Far Cry) but I don't know of many that had different tracks for your sitation, except maybe Deus Ex.

Geometry Dash - GD feels like a game that almost everyone has played, or at least heard of. It's a basic rhythm game, but instead of having you mash arrow keys to the beat, it's simple: jump on time to the beat. All you have to worry about is jumping; avoiding spikes, blades, and walls. There are other mechanics, like different modes (UFO is like Flappy Bird, while the spider can snap to a vertical surface) and portals that reverse gravity or make your character a mirror version of itself. The different collectibles add replay value, encouraging you to find secret paths in a level or try to complete one first try.

[butnobodycame627]

Undertale-themed ask game because I'm bored

Send a song title and I'll answer

Your Best Friend : Who in Undertale would you get along with the best?

Fallen Down : Would you climb the mountain in real life? Why?

Ruins : Who's your favourite character in the ruins? Why?

Unnecessary Tension : What fight did you have the most trouble with? (Other than Sans, if you've fought him)

Ghost Fight : Did you cry at any point playing the game? If so, which part(s) made you cry?

Home : Cinnamon or butterscotch?

Heartache : Did you kill Toriel on your first playthrough? If so, was it intentional or because you did not know how to spare her?

Sans. : What is your favourite pun from Sans?

Nyeh Heh Heh! : What is your favourite pun from Papyrus?

Snowy : Who's your favourite character in Snowdin's forest? Why?

Snowdin Town : Who's your favourite character in Snowdin Town? Why?

Shop : Who is your favourite shopkeeper in the game?

Bonetrousle : Can you make spaghetti?

Dating Start! : Did you flirt with Papyrus? (Basically, was it a date or a hangout?)

Dating Tense! : Favourite ship?

Dating Fight! : Did you eat Papyrus' spaghetti or not?

Undyne : Do you get more sad watching Undyne's neutral death or genocide death?

Waterfall : Who's your favourite enemy character in Waterfall? Why?

Run! : Did you die running away from Undyne?

Quiet Water : Who's your favourite NPC character in Waterfall? Why?

Memory : Did you solve the piano puzzle without looking up a tutorial? (Bonus question, do you remember the solution?)

Bird That Carries You Over A Disproportionately Small Gap : bird 🐥

Dummy! : Did you punch them?

Pathetic House : Would you smooch a ghost?

Chill : Do you want to.... lie on the floor and feel like garbage?

Thundersnail : Have you ever won a game of thundersnail?

Temmie Village : Who's your favourite Temmie in the village?

Tem Shop : Have you ever gotten Temmie Armour?

Ngahhh!! : Is anime real?

Spear Of Justice : Did you die fighting Undyne?

Alphys : Do you... like.... anime?

It's Showtime! : What was your favourite show that Mettaton hosted? (Quiz, cooking, news, or musical?)

Metal Crusher : Who did you pick in response to "Who does Dr Alphys have a crush on?"

Another Medium : Who's your favourite NPC character in Hotland?

Stronger Monsters : Who's your favourite enemy character in Hotland?

Hotel : Did you get Burgerpants a date with Catty and Bratty?

Can You Really Call This A Hotel, I Didn't Receive A Mint Under My Pillow Or Anything : Did you pay for a room in MTT resort? Why or why not?

Confession : Bro...

Live Report : What did you report on?

Death Report : Did you defuse all the bombs?

Spider Dance : Do you normally skip Muffet's fight?

Wrong Enemy?! : Who's your favourite secret boss?

Oh! One True Love : Do you know all the lyrics to Mettaton's songs?

Oh! Dungeon : Did you finish the second coloured tile maze?

It's Raining Somewhere Else : Is it raining outside as you answer this ask?

CORE Approach : Any theories on Gaster?

Core : Favourite Core enemy?

Death By Glamour : What's your favourite Mettaton form?

For The Fans : There's a Mettaton-shaped hole in my Mettaton-shaped heart...

Long Elevator : Damn this is a long elevator huh

Undertale : Who's your favourite character in general?

The Choice : What was your first route?

Asgore : Would you like a cup of tea?

Your Best Nightmare : Do you call him Omega Flowey or Photoshop Flowey?

An Ending : Did you help the snowman?

She's Playing Piano : What's your favourite song in the soundtrack?

Here We Are : Favourite amalgamate?

Amalgam : Which amalgamate do you die to the most?

Don't Give Up : Has Undertale ever caused you to rage quit?

Hopes And Dreams : If you could say one thing to Asriel (or Flowey) right now, what would you want to say?

His Theme : Did you console him? (If you say no then I think something's wrong with you /j)

Bring It In, Guys! : make sure to brush your teeth before crossing the street

Good Night : Good night.

[bobateaboo]

Codebound Megapost

OK, so, a lot of these drawings aren’t very good, but they’re done, and so they’re getting posted.

These characters are all Undertale fan characters, and outcodes. They are also all residents of CodeBound. Enjoy!

First off, here’s the actual  place. CodeBound is in an empty space between universes called The Null, which is similar to the antivoid, but not connected. If you’re visiting CodeBound, you’re usually either one of the residents, or coming to get something from someone who is. The Residents of CodeBound typically spend their time helping Outcodes who come there. Kelpie provides illusions, Ara will build machines, Stitches if you need clothing made or fixed. You can go to Kat  if you’re injured, Indigo if you want code fixed, or Variable if you want it broken for some reason. Piper would be happy to help with adventures, but competence is not guaranteed. CodeBound was made by Indigo when portals started randomly opening and depositing people random places, as a way to increase likelyhood of someone ending up there instead of, say, the antivoid.

Next, Indigo. They’re travel the universe fixing code, and created CodeBound to attract portals that were opening at random and sending people places. It doesn’t get all of the portals, but no ones been randomly dumped into the anti void since it was made. Indigo is generally sarcastic, but kind. They are all alternate version of the blue human, and their own universe, along with their soul, was destroyed a long time ago. the fact that Indigo used to be the patron saint of integrity, and now cannot tell the difference between right and wrong is really hard on Indigo, so they mostly avoid fight unless it’s to protect someone they care about, (although if someone breaks code to many times they will return from the dead just to yell at them). They have a linked mind with every version of themself in every universe, and always have a headache as a result.

This is Kat. Much like Indigo, they had their soul destroyed along with their universe, but had stayed just as kind as before. They live in CodeBound, and will heal anyone who needs it, even if said patient is typically considered a bad guy. Kat is also trans, and had ran to mount Ebott to escape their transphobic family. They are one of Indigo’s adopted siblings

Next is Piper! The only living one of Indigo and Kat’s adopted siblings, unless you count Frisk. They are not from Indigo and Kat’s universe, and has fuzzy memories of their world of origin, as it happened a very long time ago, other than  memories of their abusive human mother, and the general idea of what happened there. They live in CodeBound, but spends most of their time traveling the universe trying to help people, until I finally get around to making bad guys to their story. They are blind, and travels with a version of Flowey named Smidge as their guide. They have no trouble telling where people are as they can smell magic, but can easily have trouble running into things in new places without Smidge’s help. Smidge also generally stops Piper if they’re about to do something stupid (picking a fight they can’t win, or starting a big problem just to see what will happen, mostly). Piper can tell that what they’re about to do is usually a Bad Idea, but usually does it anyway just for fun. If I ever make comics, Piper will be the protagonist. They became part monster when they learned magic and became part magic as a result.

This is Ara, CodeBounds mechanic. She has a dry personality, and doesn’t often open up to people. She is somewhat paranoid, and always keeps at least one set of her arms empty in case she needs to defend herself. She fixes and builds machines for outcodes that come to CodeBound, and is very protective of everyone who lives there.

This is Kelpie, CodeBounds illusionist. She’s very dramatic, and is rarely seen in casual clothes. her illusions can be activated and deactivated by star shaped stones she gives whoever the illusion is suppose to apply to. She’s Aras girlfriend, and the only one she will open up to.

Meet Variable, one of two skeletons who live in CodeBound. He’s nice, but can’t resist the occasional pun. Wherever he goes, code values randomize. Indigo considers him the bane of their existence, and only invited him to live in CodeBound so that they knew exactly where he was causing trouble at any given time. he cares abound Stitches, his boyfriend, over everything else, and is more than willing to risk anything and everything to protect him.

Meet Stiches! He’s pretty shy, and will hide his face in his hood when he feels nervous or overwhelmed. He has sewing magic, and will fix clothes for anyone who asks. He’s Variables boyfriend, and the only one whos seen him without his eye patch. his way of showing people that he cares about them is usually to sew them stuff, so Variable has an entire closet full of extra hoodies, good quality scarves, and eye patches of various shapes.

This is Gogurt. She comes and leaves CodeBound as she pleases, as she can somehow open portals. it’s all fun and games until the cat opens a portal to hell in your living room.

Meet Pyra, possibly the most sarcastic of those in CodeBound. She in a very small fire elemental, and very kind when you first meet her, but has a very sarcastic personality when you get to know her. Pyra has many lanterns, in several different places in the multiverse. she can sense distress near her lanterns, and can teleport between them to go help people. She speaks in the fire elemental language, which most don’t know, and uses sign language a lot as a result. when angry or threatened, her flames can grow, and she has very powerful fire magic, but using it is draining, and the more fire she uses, the more fuel she has to eat as a result.

[mahou-war]

MagiTale - Chapter 1

“So, how’s it gonna be?” – the voice rose up, surging from the darkness. A white weasel cat like creature.

“Go away!” – another voice, female now, hissed back. The figure of this voice was hidden by the shadows of the collapsed walls around her – “I don’t want to have anything to do with you. You tricked all of them! Their innocent minds, into becoming something they’d rather not!”

“I really don’t understand.” – the cat spoke – “You might as well be labeled as a Human, your ideals and concepts are roughly the same. But I digress.” – it stopped momentarily – “My offer is still on the table. You know where to find me.”

The cat turned away, seamingly wanting to distance itself from the other individual. It felt as if its time was wasted, but that didn’t exactly matter at the moment, as it knew what the next actions would turn out to be.

“Wait!” – the other voice jumped from the darkness – “Can you.. Can you really make anything come true?” – she questioned.

“Yes. Of course, as you already know, the true effects and consequences depend from your Karmic Weight, but you shouldn’t have any kind of problem with that.”

The other being made a pause. Her voice was calm, motherly, but sprinkled with a dash of urgency. As if her worst nightmares could finally end. Now her dreams, her ideal life, her past, it would all come back to her.

“Okay then. I’ve decided.” – she replied.

“Very well. Then what is the wish you’re willing to sacrifice your Soul for, your highness?”

╔═══*.·:·.☽✧ ✦ ✧☾.·:·.*═══╗

Chapter 1: Fallen Down

╚═══*.·:·.☽✧ ✦ ✧☾.·:·.*═══╝

Dark. Darker. Yet darker. I don’t even know if my eyes are open or not, but all I can see is darkness. Well, that and a distant voice echoes, as if I was deep underwater. A cold shiver envelops my whole body. But within that darkness, the voice gets louder. It’s lifting me up. With that, the darkness gets a bit more clearer. I open my eyes, slowly, and everything starts coming to me, bit by bit.

“Frisk! Oh, please tell me that you’re okay!”

I avert my gaze to the point of origin of the voice. A girl sitting on the same bed of flowers as I am looks at me, worried. Her hair is dark brown, just like me, and her eyes are a striking, vibrant red, just like my own. Except mine are usually closed. The girl is slightly see through. I can look at her and see the wall behind her at the same time. I know this girl. Yes, she’s important to me.

I was roughly 5 when I started noticing her presence. Everyone treated her as an imaginary friend, but I knew more. She was real. She IS real. She has a real story, and a real life. But now she’s a ghost that got stuck me. I don’t exactly know why though. She told me about Humans and Monsters. About Souls and Soul Gems. About Magical Girls and Witches. She told me everything. Even her name.

“Chara. Yes, yes, I’m okay.” – I managed to reply back at her.

“Oh, thank God! That fall was sure to put in you in a coma for at least half a year! I’m so sorry I’ve put you through this…” – she replied back at me, a clear worry in her voice.

“Don’t worry Chara. I signed up for this. I want to do this.” – it’s funny. My brain knows what to say, but it can’t remember why it’s saying what it is. I look around myself. I’m now sitting on a bed of flowers, golden buttercups. Giant walls of stone surround us, with vines covering them. The light above shines on us, warming our bodies. And just like that, more pieces of the puzzle fall back into my mind.

“Now that everything’s cleared up, what is your wish?”

“Frisk, you don’t have to do this, for real.”

“No, I have to. You’re stuck to me. You can’t exactly walk around and go back to the Underground. I’m going to help you. We’re gonna save them Chara.” – my voice fills my brain, alongside Chara’s and… his.

“Incubator. I wish for the power of salvation.”

“Can you specify that please?”

Yes, that’s it. I remember now. I get up, and see a small corridor, leading to a huge gateway entrance. Sparkles of light come out from it. There’s some kind of light source coming from it. We decide to move towards it.

As we reach it, we look inwards and find a single golden flower, similar to those earlier. We step into the wide area, and suddenly, the flower jumps to life.

“Howdy there! I’m Flowey – Flowey the Flower!” – it said happily. Chara warned me about how sudden Monsters could be, but I wasn’t expecting something like this.

“Say, you’re new around here, aren’t ya? You need someone to guide you through the Underground!” – it said happily.

“Well, actually--” – I tried to object, as I had Chara right next to me, but the flower just interrupted me.

“I guess little ol’ me will have to do it!” – it winked.

Suddenly, I felt a huge wave crushing my chest, as my surroundings lose its color. It becomes a mash-up of black and white. And just as it came, it left.

“Huh?” – the happy flower looked at me with very confused eyes – “Let’s try that again!” – he said cheerfully, as the feeling came back, pushing me downwards once more, but suddenly stopping. I wasn’t hurt, nor exhausted. It’s as if I just sneezed, for no apparent reason.

“Heh, hehe.. Okay…” – it continued, clearly starting to get annoyed – “Let’s try that one more time!” – I felt that energy again, but it no longer phased me. It’s now a very uninteresting movie for me.

“Hey, hey.. What’s going on, huh?!” – the tone of Flowey changed drastically. From a very friendly one to a tone filled with a thousand year anger – “You’re a Human, aren’t you? Where the hell is your Soul?!” – it hissed.

“Oh!” – I was taken by surprise, with such a direct approach, but I tried my best to befriend the friendly monster – “That’s right…” – I extend my hand, as the ring in my left middle finger glows and morphs into an egg shaped Gem, resting on my palm – “Here!”

There was a small pause. The flower starred in disbelief at my Soul Gem. It was a vibrant red, the same color as my eyes. Right at the top of it, was a heart symbol, and at the bottom, surrounded by a small circle, a four pointed star. The flower suddenly smirked, and was emitting an uneasy light cackle.

“Frisk, I don’t really trust this guy… he’s giving me really weird vibes….” – Chara spoke to me. Good thing only I can see and hear her, makes some of her comments easier to bear with. But still, now I’m worried. Chara lived quite some time with Monsters. For even her to be set back.. This “flower” must be something she has never seen.

Flowey’s laughter grew louder and louder, as vines erupt from the ground below him into the air, keen to claws of a starving wolf. He sprung his head upwards and looked straight into my eyes. His face was contorted. He no longer had his friendly smile, it was a monstrous look. His eyes void of life.

“WELL, THEN YOU’RE COMPLETELY USELESS TO ME, AREN’T YOU?! THIS WILL BE FAR TOO EASY FOR ME.” – a wall of bullets surround me in a perfect sphere – “D I E.”

I can see his vines lunging towards me, and the bullets dashing into me. I have my Soul Gem in my hand. Transforming takes only a second, I can protect myself from this. But I can’t. I froze in place, clinging to my own life, as the last bits of my life flash through my mind.

“I wish to have the power to save the Monsters. To save them from the Barrier and their thousand year prison. That’s what I want. The power of salvation.”

“I see. I don’t know why, but your Karmic Weight is quite heavy on you. Frisk, your wish will most certainly come true, but in order for it to come into fruition, you must go break the Barrier yourself.”

“That’s something I’m willing to do unconditionally. Nothing will stop me.”

‘Nothing’. Yet here I am, praying for someone to come help me. Please, anyone.

…

But… Someone did come.

As I waited for the impact of Flowey’s bullets and thorned vines, I suddenly hear a scorching sound and warmth, followed by Flowey’s screams. I open my eyes to find the unscrupulous flower burning in flames, and the bullets are now cinders slowly dancing and falling to the ground, as the flower retreats to whatever hellish hole it came from. From the other side of the room, a figure approaches.

She’s tall, and covered in white fur. She has small horns on her head and floppy ears at the side of her head. She’s wearing a dressing gown, purple with a crest on her chest – a circle with wings, and three triangles right under it. I can feel Chara’s intense gaze at her as she whispers – “Mom..”

“Oh, what a horrible creature torturing such a poor and innocent youth.” – she spoke to me, her voice calm, motherly, tender. Happy – “My name is Toriel, caretaker of the Ruins. Come my darling, let me guide you through them.”

She quickly grabbed my hand. I can feel her warmth warming me up from the inside out. Her aura, her presence. I enjoy being next to her. I feel like wanting to be with her forever. I can see Chara crying. This must be a hard moment for her. We make haste for the next room, where I can see red rose petals scattered around the floor. I catch a glimpse of a yellow shine, but it quickly disappeared.

•❅──────✧❅✦❅✧──────❅•

Hey there! Author here, you may call me Mahou! :)

This is the very first Chapter of MagiTale, a Crossover AU/Fanfic that puts the characters and events of Undertale into the World and Lore of the Madoka Magica series. This is also the very first time I temper with Tumblr, so do offer some tips pls :')

Anyways, this is only a "preview" Chapter, a Demo almost, as the full story is currently in progression. I intend to post the entire thing once it's completed, so please do look forward to it! I'll also keep updating this page with content, related (or not) to MagiTale.

Well, I'll be going now, really hope you enjoyed it! :D

Cya~✨

[swappingswap]

character positions

this is what the characters do, or how they operate in the story, along with personalities. some of these are subject to change, along with designs! this is an ongoing au after all. 

sans: papyrus swap. his goal is to join the royal guard, but not really for himself. it’s more to prove himself to his little brother, who has been in the royal guard for years. instead of puzzles, sans sets up traps around snowdin for chara to trigger. also, he is not innocent, nor does he pretend to be. he’s a dumbass bastard and he fully knows it. he is nice, but if you make him angry, he will spit in your food when you’re not looking and then serve it to you. he is also a terrible cook. if he offers a friendship meal, run. your stomach will not survive it.

papyrus: sans swap. he’s been in the royal guard for so long that it no longer phases him, so he’s grown lazy about it. he loves his job, but it doesn’t have all the glamour that it used to have. he also likes to eat healthy, balanced meals, and is an amazing cook. however, his job keeps him so busy that he doesn’t have the time to cook. 

alphys: undyne swap. big and scary, but only really when she’s in the mecha. however, while chasing chara into hotland, she trips, and instead of dehydrating, she falls into a panic attack, which chara nervously helps her through, confusing alphys. she definitely fits into the jock archetype. she isn’t in the royal guard, but she is a hometown hero for waterfall. think vigilante for alphys. despite everyone clamoring for her, she excludes herself from any social interactions as she’s made mistakes in the past that cause her to believe she doesn’t deserve any of the attention. nervous out of mecha, confident in mecha. 

undyne: alphys swap. undyne is the royal scientist, though she generally enjoys thinking up things to destroy humanity or at the very least cause harm to them. once chara falls into the underground and undyne has sights on them, she begins to make passive aggressive comments on her account on the undernet about them. she’s very stuck up at first, but as chara progresses and undyne sees that they aren’t that bad, she slowly softens and starts to help, especially after chara meets and begins to deal with the eccentric nature of napstabot. she enjoys mech anime and kaiju movies, and helped alphys make her armor. 

temmie: flowey swap. temmie does go by she/her, though asriel goes by he/him and maybe even they/them. originally, before being taxidermied, temmie was the original royal pet. she was there around the time that frisk fell and when asriel died, his dust falling on top of her. a few days later, she died as well. undyne, instead of using buttercups, decided to use the taxidermied temmie in her dt experiments, causing temmie to ‘come to life’ and become a vessel for asriel. asriel/temmie is angry because frisk was an angel, and didn’t desrve what happened to them. there are also multiple other temmies, all in queen toriels throne room. 

flowey: temmie swap. generally kept as common pets. they bounce up and down and speak basic english. you’ll see one in almost every shop and home. however, some versions, like echo, aster or golden are not generally kept as pets for a very simple reason: they have a tendency to, on some occasions, predict the future. 

toriel: asgore swap. instead of demanding the death of humans, she demands that the humans be brought to her for her to raise. however, monsters have a tendency to over estimate their magic in battle or over estimate how much humans can take, or they’re just plain terrified of humans and kill them in a moment of terror. toriel weeps over the fallen souls that are brought to her, and instead of keeping them in capsules near the barrier, she keeps them in capsules close to her so that she can watch over them and make sure that they’re safe and secure at all times. when chara gets to toris fight, shes fighting chara because she’s admittedly terrified of going up to the surface, and she doesn’t want chara to leave just yet. what would the humans think of them coming up with a teenager? probably horrible things. 

asgore: toriel swap. he lives in the ruins. gardening every inch and making rounds to make sure every flower has been watered. that’s how he finds chara and temmie. generally, he rushes humans out of the ruins, trying to convince himself that they’re evil and bad. however, every time he grows attached, and cries when the human leaves. he grew especially attached to chara.

chara: frisk swap. chara falls into the underground because they’re angry at the human world and all of the hate inside of it. they’re a severely misguided kid with a tendency to lash out at those around them and to think the worst of everyone they meet, always assuming they have an ulterior motive or that they’re evil in some way, like they think they are. their journey is about coming to peace with themselves and the world around them, and learning that not everyone is bad or out to get them and that people can and do care about them. they learn that they can be soft and trust others and that freeing the monsters would be a good thing, because even if their is evil on the surface, there’s good, too, and freeing the monsters would add to the good of the world.

frisk: chara swap. frisk is the first human to fall and befriends asriel. they become best friends, but somehow, frisk manages to actually confuse buttercups with edible food, eating them and accidentally poisoning themself. frisk is a pacifist at heart, and believes that everyone is good.

mettablook: napstablook swap. he maintains the small snail farm while also being a struggling fashion designer. his wish is to create fashion for everyone of all shapes and sizes, though it’s hard with  low amount of money, so he works many jobs around the underground, even helping asgore with his plants. the different areas of the underground also serve as inspiration for him. 

napstabot: mettaton swap. the body made by undyne was perfect in many aspects except one, its low energy combined with his own low energy. to combat this, undyne made a special charger for him, giving his body and his soul an extra pep. he makes sick beats and seems super happy and charged up, but it’s all thanks to the charger. he can also only be out for short periods of time before his charger starts running out of juice and he has to leave or else he’ll ruin his star reputation. in battle, you would win by knocking his charger off. 

grillby: muffet swap. he still doesn’t talk very much, instead preferring to play an exciting game of charades to communicate. around the underground, he owns many food carts, all ran by his fellow flames. they sell the same foods as in the game. 

muffet: grillby swap. she runs a cafe in snowdin that papyrus frequents. it’s cozy and warm, and sells tons of sweets, pastries, and warm drinks. she does not do tabs, however, and if you try to open one you will be banned from her cafe. 

[redeyedryu]

Cross Dimensional Problems

Chapter 3 - Uh... | [Ao3]  | 1 | « | x | » |

Have some more of whatever this is, I guess. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Summary: Mmm, popato chisps~!

Popato chisps, as it turns out to your complete and utter disappointment, do not taste all that different from regular potato chips. The weird fizzy, pop-rock like sensation and the way they kind of just… disappear when you swallow is pretty neat, though. A monster food thing, no doubt. Still, talk about a letdown. Doesn't mean you're gonna stop eating them though, as you proceed to stuff yet another into your mouth. They even crunch like a regular potato chip.

“YOU EXPECT ME TO BELIEVE THIS? THAT THIS… THIS HUMAN IS FROM SOME PLANE OF EXISTENCE WHERE THE GREAT AND TERRIBLE ME IS NOTHING MORE THAN FICTION? SOMETHING CREATED BY SUCH A WEAK AND FEEBLE RACE?!”

You talk around the chisp you just shoved into your mouth and bring a hand to your chest, a mockery of being flattered. “Aw, love you too, boss,” you say in an overly sweet voice and as the very tall, very loud, very edgy skeleton proceeds to sputter and cough and choke at your words, you simply shove another two chisps into your mouth. He’s shouting, boots stomping against the linoleum of the kitchen floor, but you’re already toning him out.

Sans and the Underswap Papyrus had shuffled you up the basement stairs and into the kitchen, talking amongst themselves about needing to call a house meeting. As it just so happened, your additional company had already been present, apparently preparing some meal or another. It didn't smell like burnt rubber or vinegar so you’re hoping this is one of those takes where the Papyruses and Swap Sans aren't absolutely terrible when it comes to cooking, that they've had enough time to improve and learn that no, glitter is not a key ingredient.

Underfell Papyrus, Swapfell Sans, and regular ol’ Papyrus had been the lucky ones to welcome the newest party crasher (that's you, by the way) to the house. Papyrus had given a rather enthusiastic welcome, complete with bone-crushing (heh) hug. The Fell variants, being not so touchy feely, had merely scowled at you and turned up their skulls in that pretentious manner they’re often presented as being.

Goodness, it was all just so surreal.

You had to tell yourself not to stare because that's rude. Play it off, act as cool as the coolest cucumber. And so you had walked over to the nearby table sat in the middle of the large kitchen and plopped into a seat. Breezily, yet politely because you're no mannerless heathen, you had asked for a bag of popato chisps and Papyrus had all but gasped, affronted that you would choose to eat something so unhealthy—and so soon before dinner! But Sans had shot him some kind of look and the skeleton had ultimately acquiesced. He hadn't done so happily, of course, as he had none too quietly muttered this and that about poor eating habits as he fished a bag from the pantry.

You thanked him when he begrudgingly handed the snack bag to you and had proceeded to munch away while Sans and the Swap Papyrus set about explaining just why exactly a human had trudged up from their basement—and in such lazy attire, no less!

So that leads us back to the present. Underfell Papyrus appears to be taking the news the worst so far, you think. You're not sure, though, he's a hard one to read. Too tsun, too soon.

“SO, HUMAN,” another voice speaks up just as you toss the last popato chisp into your mouth. Judging by the deep, rough rumble not unlike Underfell Sans’s, loud though it may be, you guess it's the only other Sans in the kitchen that is addressing you. When you direct your attention to the source, you are proud to say your deductive skills aren't complete crap.

The Swapfell Sans variant has taken to standing at the table across from you, arms folded over his chest. His sockets are squinted and he's taking advantage of the fact you are sitting down, giving him the height advantage to sneer down at you. Pretentious prick.

Stop being so hot.

“Yes, skeleton,” you reply. His face scrunches up like he smelled something bad and you just smile. 

“WHAT DO YOU HAVE TO SAY ON THIS MATTER?” You're not sure how to interpret his tone, nor that question. It sounds like an accusation? Almost as if you're being scolded.

“Uh… Not exactly sure what you mean by that, but uhm… hmm.” You fuss with the popato chisps bag, neatly folding it in on itself--in half, a quarter, an eighth, a sixteenth. “Whether or not you believe me, it's the truth. Where I'm from y’all’re nothing more than fiction and fantasy.” You’re not avoiding meeting their eyes, you're just very interested in this folded up popato chisps bag. It's just so cool. Yup.

The skeleton clicks his tongue and you think you hear the sound of boots tapping out an impatient rhythm.

“PROVE IT,” he says.

That succeeds in drawing your attention.

“Uh…?”

“UNLESS, OF COURSE, YOU ARE LYING?” Ah, there's that smug, condescending leer again. You squint at him.

“I'm not lying.”

He waves a hand at you, a signal to, “GO ON, THEN. PROVE IT.”

Your face creases in a rather extreme pout, a breathy exhale forced through your nose. Fine, be that way you pretentious, sexy piece of shit.

You cross your arms and lean back in your chair.

“Well. That’s… there is… there are so many different takes on the AUs that there’s no guarantee anything I say will necessarily add up.” You cast a glance towards Sans, noting he and the rest of the ensemble have paused in whatever bickering they had been involved with with Underfell Papyrus, to listen to you speak. You take that as your cue. “I guess I'll start with the source material. Though bear in mind it's been at least a year or so since I've last played…”

You close your eyes and take a slow, deep breath. You exhale just as slowly, attention once more returned to the folded up popato chisps bag as your fingers itch for something to keep busy with.

Whelp. Here goes.

“Undertale is a pixel RPG style game. Its premise being that you don't have to fight. It's a game where your choices matter, and you can choose whether to fight and kill monsters or show them nothing but mercy.” From your peripheral, you don't miss the way Swapfell Sans’s face tightens, nor the way Sans’s posture seems to tense. “You play as a kid whose name you set in the beginning but eventually learn to be named Frisk, who is their own person separate from you, the player. They essentially act as your vessel.

“They fell into the Unground and start in the Ruins, in a bed of golden flowers. You proceed a room over and are introduced to Flowey. In Swapped universes it's often a toss-up between it still being Flowey, a Temmie, or even Monster Kid. Just depends on who’s writing the story.

“So anyway, you proceed through the Ruins. You meet Toriel, who bakes you a butterscotch cinnamon pie in most routes. When you try to leave she tells you about Asgore and how he’ll kill you if you go through the doors leading to the rest of the Underground. He's done so to all those that preceded you, afterall. So you fight Toriel and then trek towards Snowdin from there.” You pointedly don't look at Sans when you say, “You meet Sans just before a bridge and the whole thing is built up to unsettle you. You cross a stick in the middle of the path that winds up cracking behind you, you hear footsteps in the snow but no one’s there, and when you get to the bridge he’s all,” and here you do a poor imitation of Sans’s deep voice, “ ‘H u m a n. Don't you know how to greet a new pal? Turn around and shake my hand.’ It's a cutscene so your character does that and then a rather long, drawn out whoopie cushion fart sound clip plays.” You hear a couple chuckles off to the side. “Things happen, you hide behind a conveniently shaped lamp, you meet Papyrus, you go through Snowdin. You fight Papyrus, get locked in a shed, then proceed through Waterfall and are dogged by Undyne the entire time… you fight her then you go on to Hotland and all its conveyor belts, steam vents, and lasers. Talk to Alphys and fight Mettaton on his ridiculous show… several times. Then it's what… onto the CORE? The soundtrack there’s really neat. So you make your way through the CORE and you wind up fighting Mettaton Ex and the fight's broadcast throughout the entire Underground? So you beat him and then you're in New Home and you wind up getting the tragic backstory for the King and Queen’s kids. Then you fight Asgore… and after that you fight Flowey. And once that's done you've beaten the game. The ending varies depending on what route you're on and the choices you made.” You decide not to say it also depends on which monsters are still left alive.

You’re bending and twisting the piece of garbage in your hands, a bit nervous for whatever reason to meet anyone’s eyes. Honestly, what are you afraid of?

The room is utterly silent--so quiet, in fact, that you would undoubtedly be able to hear the proverbial pin drop. You take a hesitant peek up at your company and your cheeks heat up and there’s a tingling sensation that crawls down your back as you catch the voided stare of the skeletons around you.

You don't know why but you feel compelled to rush out that, “I only ever managed to do neutral pacifist and true pacifist runs…” before quickly averting your gaze back to the mutilated snack bag. Heck. Why aren't they saying anything? They're the ones who asked! And it's not like you did anything! You didn't bring yourself here, didn't put yourself into this impossible scenario!

Someone say something already!

There's a loud clap and you're ashamed to admit that you very nearly jump out of your seat at the abrupt noise.

“WELL!” Papyrus speaks up, drawing your attention. “I BELIEVE THE HUMAN! THEIR STORY CERTAINLY DOES ADD UP WITH WHAT TRANSPIRED HERE, WITH OUR HUMAN FRIEND. DOESN’T IT, BROTHER?”

Oh bless your beautiful, sweet bones, Papyrus!

All eyes turn to Sans and oh boy. He's doing that blank eye socket thing and he’s sweating.

“y-yeah,” he eventually manages as he brings a bony palm to scrape across the top of his skull. “yeah, paps is right, it checks out.”

Your shoulders slump as tension leaves you. Man, you're going to wind up with all kinds of knots at this rate. The errant thought of whether or not skeletons would be good at giving massages crosses your mind but you stuff it down. Now’s not the time. Maybe later. …maybe.

“WELL. BE THAT AS IT MAY,” Swapfell Sans begins, “THAT DOES NOT EXPLAIN HER APPEARANCE HERE, NOR WHAT SHALL BE DONE WITH HER.”

A cold chill rushes down your spine and your stomach flips. They're not going to throw you out, are they?

Op. There's that tension again.

You shift your gaze to Papyrus, eyes pleading.

“WELL OF COURSE SHE WILL STAY HERE, WITH US!”

Oh sweet baby Jesus, Papyrus you are a saint. That's it, he is absolutely your new favorite.

Underfell Papyrus, on the other hand… he sputters. “I SHOULD THINK NOT!” he protests, gloved hands slamming onto the table. You don't jolt at that, you don't. “WE DON'T EVEN KNOW THIS HUMAN AND YOU WOULD SUGGEST WE KEEP IT HERE? WHERE WE ARE MOST VULNERABLE? PREPOSTEROUS!”

Your brows furrow.

“What?” It's not like you're going to try and dust them in their sleep or anything, what the heck, man.

“OH YOU HEARD ME, HUMAN. I AM WELL AWARE OF YOUR KIND, HOW CONNIVING YOU CAN BE.”

You mouth a silent, “what?” Because… what?

“Uh… I mean. Not that I'm… not uh… flattered? That you’re apparently so intimidated by me but… I wouldn't… I uh… I'm not an asshole.”

Oh dang. Are his cheeks turning red?

… 

Holy shit???

They are!

“I AM NOT INTIMIDATED BY SOMEONE AS WEAK AND PATHETIC AS YOU!” he denies, booted foot slamming against the linoleum as he stands straight, arms crossing over his chest. “I AM MERELY BEING CAUTIONS, WHICH IS MORE THAN I CAN SAY FOR THESE GULLIBLE, IDIOTIC CREAMPUFFS!” 

There’s a chuckle, low and deep and sexy. Your eyes flit to Swapfell Sans. There’s an amused air about him, his sharp-toothed grin more relaxed than before.

“I AM NOT AGAINST THE HUMAN STAYING HERE. OF COURSE WE WOULD NEED THE REST OF THE HOUSE TO WEIGH IN ON THE DECISION, BUT SHE IS CLEARLY NO THREAT. SHOULD SHE TRY ANYTHING, SHE WOULD BE EASY ENOUGH TO DISPATCH.”

“Uh… thanks? …I think??” You're a bit on the fence with that reasoning. Also isn't that kind of a threat?

“TCH. SUIT YOURSELVES,” Underfell Papyrus sneers. “BUT DO NOT COME CRYING TO ME WHEN IT ATTEMPTS TO DUST YOU IN YOUR SLEEP.” And much like his brother had in the basement, the edgy skeleton makes an abrupt exit.

Funny how he had voiced your thought, though.

“Should… I be worried about him?” you ask the room.

You're a bit surprised when Underswap Papyrus speaks up, as he had been rather quiet since coming up from the basement. “nah, he’s just a worrywart.”

“I… if you say so…” You're not entirely convinced but, well. Your options are kind of limited.

You're about to ask something else when a rather shrill BEEEEEP cuts through the kitchen.

“AH. THAT WOULD BE DINNER.” Swapfell Sans announces. He turns away from the table and all of you grouped there, to attend to the oven.

And it's only after he says something that you finally register the rather pleasant scent wafting through the air. It entices your hunger, your mouth watering as your stomach grumbles quietly. Popato chisps aren't very filling, after all.

[chara-in-other-games]

I probably won’t post many caps like this one from Icewind Dale (or other Infinity Engine D&D-based games like Baldur’s Gate), simply because visually they’d all be pretty similar. It was fun, though, to come up with a Dungeons and Dragons party using Undertale characters, and even though I was limited to six characters I think I created a pretty well-rounded party that also fit the personalities involved. Here’s what I did:

Chara - Assassin: Somewhat amoral, stabs things good with daggers.

Undyne - Berserker: Berserkers are fighters that can go into a rage that raises attack and defense, but leaves them fatigued afterward. That’s Undyne in a nutshell.

Papyrus - Fighter: Paps was a little harder to pin down (I almost made him a bard) but I think straight-up fighter fits a little better, considering his ultimate Hopes and Dreams (and his penchant to work out and be cool).

Asgore - Ranger: I could’ve made him a barbarian or a fire wizard or something, but Asgore’s penchant for plants made him a bit more in-tune with nature while still being a good fighter, so Ranger seemed to fit best.

Toriel - Cleric/Mage multiclass: Good healer, but can also throw fire around.

Sans - Sorcerer: Mostly unassuming, but out of nowhere can suddenly kick your ass.

If I had more party spots I may have added:

Mettaton - Bard: An obvious choice. Not even going to explain it.

Alphys - ?: Pheh, I dunno...you never actually fight Alphys so who knows...something tech-related? What would that be in D&D 2nd or 3rd edition (which is what Icewind Dale and other contemporary games are based on)? Illusionist? Bounty Hunter? Nothing quite fits.

Asriel - Cleric: Good-natured, would rather heal than destroy, but in certain cases can also call down Destruction from the Heavens!

Flowey - Druid: Already shape-shifted, controls nature in many ways, can shapeshift more given enough power.

Frisk: Frisk has no character outside of what the player does, so you can make Frisk anything.

Do you agree? What would you change? Who would you add to this list? Reblog and speculate!

[puppyenergy]

@rickenrolled​ you’re an absolute mad man i love you. here’s all my answers. long ass post beneath the cut

1. Who’s your favourite character from UT?

i love them all but if i had to pick one then chara

2. Who’s your least favourite character from UT?

asgore

3. Your opinion about UT fandon:

very sweet, lots of smart and lovely and creative and gay people. could do without all the transphobes and incest/pedo shippers tho but like, theyre kinda everywhere aren’t they. like flies! smack

4. What’s your favourite quote?

“you never gained LOVE, but you gained love. does that make sense? maybe not.“

5. What’s your favourite soundtrack?

death by glamour

6. Pacifist, neutral or genocide?

pacifist

7. Why did you decide to play UT?

when it came out, my first exposure to it was thru supporting a friend who had recently started a youtube channel and they did a playthru of undertale! i ended up being unable to wait for them to finish it and just went and bought the game myself so i could play it. i was just so invested, i couldn’t wait for them to upload asklghskl

8. Favourite battle?

undyne’s

9. Favourite scene?

GOD I CAN’T CHOOSE JUST ONE SCENE. fuck. you can’t do this to me.

10. Your first letter to Mettaton was:

“legs” probably sldkghsd i don’t remember

11. Your reaction when you saw Omega Flowey for the first time:

VERY SCARED. I LEGIT THOUGHT MY GAME WAS POSSESSED.

12. Your headcanon about Frisk’s gender:

they’re nonbinary but i specifically headcanon them as agender! i also rlly dig genderfluid frisk as well bc same.

13. Which UT character reminds you of yourself?

mostly frisk but also chara and also mettaton

oh and all the dogs

14. Which UT character reminds you of your best friend?

TEMMIE. we are dog and cat solidarity.

15. Would you smooch a ghost?

i already have!

16. Which UT character would be your best friend? Why?

all of them. i will befriend them all.

17. Do you remember your first killed character? Who was that?

toriel ;_; i reset & redid the entire game for her, i felt so bad

18. Did you do sth in game you regret?

killing toriel lmao

19. Which ending was your first?

pacifist!

20. Your favourite land in UT and why: (Snowdin, Waterfall or Hotland)

snowdin is my favorite... it’s just so home-y. i rlly love snow, it brings a lot of happy memories. the christmas aesthetic does as well. and it’s also where you meet sans & papyrus & all the dogs. it’s just such a happy place.

21. Your favourite place in UT and why: (Undyne’s house for example)

i just rlly love snowdin ok. every area in snowdin. i still remember my little gasp!! when i found out that the snow on frisk’s head is always a different shape every time you go thru that slide-y puzzle.

22. Your headcanon about River person’s gender:

“it doesn’t really matter.”

23. Your headcanon about one of the UT characters:

papyrus is nonbinary!

24. Butterscouch or cinnamon pie?

cinnamon!

25. Your opinion/headcanon about six human souls:

i always connect the deltarune characters to the six human souls for some reason. kris is the cyan soul, susie is the purple soul, ralsei is the green soul, lancer is the blue soul, noelle is the yellow soul, and then im not sure who would be the orange soul... ofc only one of them is actually human but that’s always an association i made asdlghsd

26. With who would you go on a date?

none of them tbh sdkglhskdlgha i would go on hangouts with them tho!

27. Marry, fuck, kiss and kill:

marry: napstablook fuck: mettaton kiss: all of them getting kisses from me!!! mwah kill: none :(

28. Do you wanna have a bad time?

no!! i wanna have a fun time. a sillay ol’ time.

29. Your favourite UT au:

there’s this one unfinished comic someone made a while ago i don’t even remember what it was called but it was about two charas or smth??? idek if that counts as an au but tbh that comic is the origin of my love for feral chara

30. Your least favourite UT au:

all of the ones where anyone is misgendered or there’s incest/pedo/abuse in it it just automatically makes it a bad au.

31. Would you want to fall into underground?

i mean, yeah. where’s the hole. i’m on my way.

32. Describe or draw your undersona:

the puppy is specific to dfta

my other undersona is dragon kid. he’s a human & monster fusion with a rough past. he’s also adopted. the cat is his sibling.

33. One reason why you love UT:

toby said Hello LGBT Community

34. One reasom why you hate UT:

frisk’s design is,, u kno

35. If you could choose one type of food from UT, what would it be?

dog salads for days!

36. Your favourite amalgamate:

snowdrake’s mother & endogeny

37. Your headcanon about Gaster: who do you think Gaster is to Sans and Papyrus? (Father, brother, uncle etc)

i like to headcanon him as their dad

38. Your opinion about bad puns:

they’re good, ok.

39. Do you draw fanarts from UT? If yes, then what do you like the most to draw?

yes i do asklghsdkgl i could probably draw chara/frisk/asriel forever and be ok with it

40. Which of human souls fits you the most?

red, baby

41. What would be the first thing you would to show to Sans, Papyrus or the rest of characters in human world? Why?

the stars!!! they’ve been wishing on rocks for too long. time to see the real thing.

42. Which song reminds you of UT or one of the UT characters? Why?

skglhslkhg i make playlists just for this tbh. i have a playlist for mettaton, chara, frisk, asriel, undertale in general, and then one for both chara & frisk. too many songs to talk about rn so here’s the most recent one i added to chara’s playlist:

https://soundcloud.com/serious-url/last-night-on-earth-2

my favorite lyric is “we are horrible but not bad”

43. Your opinion on underloid:

i. i’m not sure what that is askdlghsdk

OH I JUST LOOKED IT UP ITS UNDERTALE VOCALOID??? i’ve never listened to it before but tbh that’s real cool

44. Do you forgive Asgore for what he’s done?

no lol

45. Did you pay for Tem’s college?

I DIDNT, IM SORRY TEM... i just dont have the patience to sell all that residue

46. Have you seen any youtube letsplay of UT?

i swear i’ve seen them all now. i watch them when i need some free serotonin. u_u

47. Do you listen to any fanmade songs? If so, then which are your favourite?

i don’t rlly listen to any but i have a few saved! i rlly love the fucking checker dance & death by glamour mashup

48. What are your favourite theories?

narra!chara if you can even CALL that a theory man it’s literally canon

i also rlly like the theory that ut sans is actually from deltarune, and also maybe a darkner.

49. Who is your favourite enemy? (Not including boss monsters)

LESSER DOG

50. Do you have any headcanons about Chara’s past? (Why they hate humanity, why did they fell to the underground etc)

i think they had some pretty shitty ppl in their life until they met the dreemurrs, probably.

51. Who is your favourite dog?

DONT DO THIS TO ME,

52. What was your reaction to true lab?

fear and a lot of emotion

53. Your fabourite voice acting:

myself sakldhgklsh

54. At the end of pacifist run did you stay with your friends or did you come back to your family?

i always send frisk to stay with toriel bc as their player guardian i would not feel comfortable with myself if i just left a child stranded on their own. it was the same in oneshot. if i’m ur temporary game dad then i’m leaving u in a safe place before the game ends ok.

55. Who is older - Sans or Papyrus?

sans

56. Your OTP(s):

OK LISTEN. GOATBUN,,

also ALPHYNE

57. Your NOTP(s):

any of the incest/pedo ones. especially with fr4ns & ch4sriel i’m gonna get real stabby.

58. Your BROTP(s):

chara/frisk haa

59. Your favourite puzzle:

i like the shooty spaceship ones!

60. Which battle was the hardest for you?

fingers in his ass.... fingers in his ass.... asgore he likes b

61. Did you still hate Flowey after you discovered his true indentity?

i never hated flowey, ok. and also no.

62. The saddest moment:

“the next day.”

“the next day.”

“...”

“the human died.”

63. Which ending is your favourite?

true pacifist, pls

64. How old do you think Frisk is?

9, maybe? i always change my mind on this asdlghsdk. they’re just a baby. age is baby.

65. Any post pacifist run headcanons?

both chara & asriel get revived. always.

66. Your favourite NPC:

the trans woman lionness npc who mettaton gives his dress to

67. Humans or monsters?

both!

68. The funniest situation:

my brain is failing me but i fucking love the idea that frisk is just walking away from undyne during her battle sequence and she’s just CLANK CLANK CLANK in her armor stomping after but ugh has to stop and wait while frisk gets a phonecall and UGH has to check on sans who fell asleep at his post.

AND UNDYNE’S HANGOUT

UGH JUST UNDYNE IN GENERAL I LOVE HER

69. Skeletonfucker, robotfucker, goatfucker or kinkshaming?

listen i KNOW i said i’d fuck mettaton but i’m NOT a robotfucker.

70. When playing for the first time how many candies did you take?

one! i wanted to be a good boy.

but then i just went ham,

71. Did you kill or spare Flowey at the end of the game?

spare and i got emotional with how he reacted

72. If you had to be one of the main characters, which would you choose?

73. If you had to kill one of the main characters which would you choose?

i wouldn’t kill any of them!! i love them all. i refuse.

74. Which character(s) would you like to cosplay?

HMM. i could probably pull off frisk the best.

75. Your favourite Burgerpants’ quote?

[argentdandelion]

How to Beat Undertale With Your Eyes Closed (or Nonfunctional)

(Note: I have no experience engineering video games for the blind. This is all hypothetical.)

In one of the patches for Undertale, Toby Fox modified the color of blue attacks so they would be easier to distinguish for color-blind people.

But what about...actual blind people?

(Mock-up for the Flowey encounter in “Blind Undertale”)

When people say, “I could beat it with my eyes closed”, sometimes that's actually possible. Some games have sound design so sophisticated even blind people can beat them. This is true even for some games not made specifically for the blind, such as Super Mario 64 or The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time.

For the latter, a blind man named Terry Garrett didn't exactly need the game itself to be modified. He navigated based on sound cues, using stereo loudspeakers to know where they were coming from, and set up multiple save states to try again faster after failing (such as by falling).

Relative to Ocarina of Time or even the more comparable Pokémon Emerald, Undertale is rather quiet: it applies sound effects much less, and characters rarely have a walking noise. So some modification is necessary.

Narration and Dialogue

Technical Aspects

Terry Garrett's friends and family sat with him while playing Ocarina of Time and helped him by describing what objects looked like. Undertale's extensive narration makes this less necessary...if there's some way for the blind person to hear it.

The best solution, which even non-blind players would gush over, is making the game fully voice-acted. However, that would be very expensive and make game downloads take a long time. Fortunately, there's an alternative: screen readers.

Screen readers read text on a screen aloud using a synthetic voice (think Vocaloid). Screen readers are how blind people use the Internet, and so the solution would be easiest to use for the computer version of Undertale.

Undertale has lots of characters which should be distinguished from each other, and they speak at different rates at different points in the game. One solution is creating a program that co-opts a pre-existng screen reader (e.g., JAWS) to customize in-built voices to match different characters and adjust the speaking rate as needed.

Alternatively, a custom screen-reader/dialogue-producer could be added into the files of a “Blind Undertale” download, which doesn't depend on preexisting voices in the player's computer.

Gameplay Aspects

Once there’s a way of providing narration, the narration could describe the environment. At spots where there’s something interesting that can’t be conveyed through sound, such as something quiet in the distance, a “hmm?” sound could pop up, and the player could then press a button to hear a description. (Potentially, this would support NarraChara theory, since it would be voiced.)

Once the Papyrus hangout is completed, Papyrus and/or Undyne could help in giving details about an area or tips on how to navigate in it. (The Papyrus calls are occasionally helpful, after all.) Potentially, Papyrus could have extra dialogue with hints on navigation. His calls could even be separated into “Where to Go” (navigation tips) and “Interesting Things” (non-navigation/little environmental description value) categories in the menu.

Navigation by Sound

Environmental Cues

Terry Garrett finds retro two-dimensional games impossible to play, for they don’t have enough sound cues. Yet, in principle a retro two-dimensional game would be easier to adjust for blind people, as it’s simpler than a 3D world. In principle Undertale’s overworld (underworld?) would be especially easy to navigate, since the Underground follows a largely linear path up and to the right and has fairly few falling hazards a blind person would find hard to avoid.

When Terry Garrett needs orientation, he listens carefully for “sound landmarks” such as running water or footsteps shifting from grass to earth. Undertale could similarly have such sound landmarks, and, to make it even easier, an indication one is on the most direct path. (Note that the linear design of Snowdin Town naturally funnels players to the most important location: Papyrus’s house.)

Undertale, conveniently, already has noises that could be used for orientation: it just doesn’t use them much. For example, Sans makes a “crunching through snow” sound effects when he sneaks up on Frisk in Snowdin Forest. Recycling this sound effect would indicate one is in Snowdin, or at least in Snowdin forest or off the most direct path through the area. Using different sound effects for the most direct path versus going off the path would make this even easier, particularly if a similar effect for the most direct path is used in each area.

Proximity Sounds/Character Sounds

The game could provide a particular sound when there’s something to interact with nearby. Giving a sound for people versus objects would help distinguish the environment. Providing distinctive sounds when a specific, important character is nearby would help people when they need to go to a very specific spot and interact with someone to advance the plot. (e.g., talk to Toriel in her reading chair, talk to Papyrus in front of his house for his hangout)

Giving them all a distinct “hmm?” or “uh?” sound could work, as would playing their themes faintly or giving each a distinctive sound effect. (e.g., a bone-rattling noise for Papyrus)

Puzzles

Puzzles would be more difficult to do, particularly if they require good timing. (e.g., the Hotland steam vent puzzles) Some puzzles would be very difficult or impossible to do by environmental sound cues alone, and so require a slight software change or modification into something easier.

For example, some of the Hotland puzzles have arrows indicating where it sends Frisk, and the player waits until the arrow faces the desired direction before walking onto it. A software change could say, “The arrow is facing left. Jump? Yes / No” when walking on it.

Conclusion

But overworld navigation is just the easy part. The hardest parts are the battle system, which would require precise movements and excellent timing if unmodified, and potential custom hardware to achieve this end. These, depending on interest, shall be the topic of future posts.

[vonbaghager]

brain’s really scrombled from work so i gotta throw all this down

huge deltarune spoilers. REAL huge.

current theory me and a friend share is that the game may be some kind of escapist fantasy created by asriel/Flowey. an AU, except instead of a mental vision, it could actually be a literal alternate universe. the post that was like “Undertale 2: Majora’s Mask” is a really, really good way to describe it, because Majora’s Mask had characters we knew, but not as we knew them.

there’s a few things pointing to how Flowey likely commands how this world works:

All the simplistic, childlike names. The town of Hometown. Lightners and Darkners. Ralsei.

Alphys being a doormat loser who lives in an alleyway with no company. Separated from the person who actually loves her. It’s her fault Flowey ended up like that, you know.

The amalgamates are all dead. A form of mercy? Flowey doesn’t want to die, but they might have wanted to.

Probably the biggest and most obvious sign is that Asriel is a beloved member of the community and has been successful enough to go off to college. Everyone knows him, everyone loves him. Who would make a fantasy and not give themselves a life like that?

there’s a few smaller signs though.

hell just look at Kris

Like???

And then Chara:

More or less the same outfit. There’s even an unused sprite of Chara deep in the game’s code that looks like this:

That’s Chara with their hair over their eyes. It’s really, really small, but you can sort of see it better here.

The NPCs you talk to comment that Kris has some creepy child traits--namely, that they like to pull scary pranks on people. It’s scraps of info, but we also have scraps about Chara, and the scraps are pretty similarly shaped. Kris might either be Chara as viewed through Asriel’s eyes, or a replacement for Chara since the original Chara is... Kind of insane. 

Also, Ralsei. Another self-insert? For the story-within-a-story? A mundane life is good and all, but sometimes you want to go on an epic quest with your friends. Flowey obviously can’t (because he’s running the world), and Asriel’s off at college... But Ralsei, an important NPC and your new best friend, is free.

The whole adventure is run on more or less an excuse plot, with all the areas, encounters, and enemies based on whatever was laying around in the unused classroom at the time. Everything that an imaginative kid would do with the materials presented to him.

I’ve rambled a bit and this theory will likely be disproven when the actual game comes out in a few years but the long and short of the whole thing is that it’s something Flowey’s create---

FUCK I just made myself sad b/c typing that sentence made me realize

what if Deltarune is Flowey passing the time while he’s in the underground, alone? dreaming up AUs for himself of how he thinks everything “”should”” happen.

[krakenator]

CHAPTER 7 aka “Blighterpoop”

SPOILERS are sprinkled around extremely liberally for The Property of Hate

Masterpost here

POV, short of Point of View, is about perspectives. Makes sense for a chapter that’s one big fight and chase scene through a tree

Bruh you can actually see exactly the branch that Hero will spear herself on on the title page. also what looks like a deer head on the direct opposite side of it

We actually see the moment RGB’s color pallet resolves itself into his new Look of the Day. Suit counter = 4

Yo those… those are veins on the tree. Nice hint that this thing is also a heart

Hero singing that Gonzo song from the Muppet movie is not ok

Hewwo? Assowk? OwO

Mad applause once again to mod for the speechboxes bc goddamn. It sets such a tone for character voice. Assok’s voice is pink tinged with Hero’s orange, since they’re copying Hero’s words- it so very neatly establishes that Assok’s voice is a garbled combination of their own, original pink sound and Hero’s orange cadence. When they parrot RGB is in just a few pages, that pink is mixed with RGB’s white text!

And! Hero’s speechbubble visually cracking alongside her voice! Like, that’s motherfucking genius but also NOT OKAY

Hero, seeing her first friendly face after having a big argument with TV Dad and seeing Scary Dad wear his skin and eviscerate enemies with extreme prejudice: oh thank god

I didn’t actually get that Hero was mimicking Negative’s face/eye here until now. Even more interestingly, Assok doesn’t recognize it- Assok’s never met Neggy Boi. This might add substance to the “Negative is a recent development, split from RGB when he was speared by Fears in Ch. 2” school of thought

That’s just the foreshadowing babey dont worry ‘bout it

ASSOK DOES THE KERMIT :S FACE

Interestingly, RGB recognizes Assok immediately and is. Very contrite. Lookit that awkward hat fiddling. Gotta wonder who the last Hero before our Hero was. Gotta wonder if it was Assok

Assok is having too much fun with this. Look at that smirk. That’s a smirk of pure glee. Of mischief and cahoots

Okay I am. In love with the page composition of 120.

Ey, the first time RGB fiddles with his volume

That’s… a very specific pose there mod. A hanged man sort of pose. A sacrificial sort of symbolism

AND THUS BEGINS MY FAVORITE SET OF RGB MOVEMENTS: FRUSTRATION PARKOUR

Which really just smacks you in the face with a certain reality: RGB is FIT as FUCK in many senses of the word. I’ve already mentioned he STRONK but look. Look at him monkeying around the tree in this chapter. Take it from me that he moves like a rock climber here. Like, a confident one. This pose right here? Goddamn. He’s one of those people that makes the sport look easy damn him

Would he have muscles if he wasn’t invisible? Will we ever get a glimpse of skin RGB and just get whacked in the eyeballs with an athlete of a man?

I heard RGB has an 8 pack. Heard that he’s shredded

Wow Hero knows some BAD WORDS for a six year old. Who taught this girl to say dumbass?!

Even beyond the hilarity of Assok’s garbled contributions, lookit the colors- not a trace of pink in there. It’s only white and orange, a mixture of RGB and Hero’s namecalling without Assok’s own voice in there and… oh come on. the shapes that make up the speech are white squares and orange circles.

And looking back, Assok repeating Hero words are in orangey-pink circles that gather into a roughly oval-shaped speech, and RGB phrases are in pinkish-white squares that gather into more rectangular shaped speechboxes.

the power of laughter prevails! the argument isn’t over, but they’ve definitely reached a ceasefire

Aaaaand cue the second stabbing! Can’t believe she went a broke her promise to Madras like that

I guess that’s it everyone! Hero’s dead, journey’s over, time to start a new Hero! Thanks for tuning in, see you next time when RGB shows up in my room to take me on a magical adventure where I inevitably end up being turned into, like, an ink creature

New TPoH art challenge, draw your Hero-self after RGB’s gone and fucked it all up

But on that life-saving schism though… going back, we can actually see it opening up over the course of the last 15 or so pages! We first get a look at Hero’s shirt on page 110 when she takes off the Doubtified raincoat. No visible schism

Between pages 110-126 we actually see it re-appear! Super neat!

Check it: page 115: no schism

page 120: we get our first clear look at Hero’s shirt since climbing the tree and- ah.

it only seems to get longer and, uh, open-er as their fight continues; here’s page 123 shortly before Hero takes her tumble

So why did Hero’s schism come back like a bunch of ripped stitches, but RGB’s own stab wound is never seen again? Is it because she got nightmare-gassed on top of the trauma? it is to do with doubts?

RGB hasn’t actually said “I’m sorry” in this chapter that we’ve seen… for Assok to be using it, he’s either used it in the minor timeskip that’s implied between pages 127-128 where RGB has a “I wasn’t attached” breakdown, or Assok heard it when Assok was the Hero… who wants to bet they heard it when their own Hero’s Journey forcibly and tragically ended?

Y’know, I thought the first go around that RGB was just reassuring himself, but looking closer… he’s petting Assok while Assok cries that they’re sorry. He’s saying it to Assok.

Which isn’t to say that RGB isn’t also feeling horrible, he absolutely is, but realizing that it’s not two characters having two separate meltdowns but RGB comforting Assok while having his own meltdown… that’s some Good Shit right there.

Another note of interest is that there is very little pink in Assok’s cries here; this is almost solely RGB’s voice they’re using, in contrast to another time they’ve used RGB’s voice:

“what in heavens name are you MADE of?!” sterling stuff, RGB. Sterling stuff. But seriously… this is the second of at least three times Hero’s been noted to be particularly resilient

Additionally, everything is made of Stuff here, not just the trees. Hero didn’t make that statement with a literal intent but… it probably is literal, now

So, the schism opens when Hero experiences, what, anger? Resentment? Or hate perhaps? Also, check out the, like… fear residue she leaves behind in the tree??

“just this once” lmao ok RGB you keep telling yourself that

He’s siiiinging in the rain

RGB dips out of panel boundaries constantly but this is a big one.  he breaks the laws of space to point accusingly at Hero’s face from both four inches and 2 meters away

Whoof, even the MEMORY of Negative glitches the page what fierce. Jeebs you’re gonna give this child nightmares

?? what’s Assok looking a-

Hold the fu. Hold the fuck on. hold the. That shadow. That’s- is that the butterfly?

I gotta tell ya, I am getting DISTINCT flowey vibes right now.

And thus we conclude Day 3 as the tree begins to thaw... better go find out how that turns out next chapter

[sunfrost23]

Theology Thursday: Why Undertale is Very Christian

So, a little indie game came out in 2015 called Undertale, and it took the Internet by storm. Everybody was talking about it, but me, being the person that I am, didn’t know anything about it until 2017 or 2018 when I finally decided to look into it and I watched Damien Fate’s playthrough. And, not that surprisingly, being the person that I am, I was hooked. And I definitely don’t listen to the soundtrack almost every day.

But yeah, the game’s pretty great, as all of you know. Oh, and by the way, if you don’t know, then either go watch a playthrough or play it for yourself because I’m going to be talking spoilers in this post. And seriously, this is not a game you want spoiled for you.

So yeah, I now assume that all of you who don’t know the story have gone and now I will get into the actual point of the post.

Obviously, Undertale has a lot of great themes in it: love, mercy, determination. But I want to talk about how those themes and the story can be seen in a uniquely Christian light.

To explain my point, let’s start with the story. This is an area where I’m more just drawing interesting parallels, I’m pretty sure it’s not an intentional allegory, but there are some very interesting elements. First of all, we have a race trapped, underground, sealed off from the light. It seems hopeless, but then, a savior falls down into the world, becomes one of them, and sets them all free through the power of love. Sound familiar? Kinda like salvation history, if you think about it. Humanity fell, we were sealed off from heaven, and it seemed like we had no hope of salvation. But then, Jesus came, as an innocent child, to become one of us and set us free, give us hope again, and save us all.

Obviously, the comparison isn’t perfect, since the monsters were essentially innocent and trapped underground for no reason, not for their sinfulness like humans were. But I just think that’s an interesting thing to think about.

The thing I want to talk about more are the themes, one of which I think is the power of transformative love. See, when you play Undertale the way it’s SUPPOSED to be played (all of you who played genocide are heartless monsters don’t @ me) you go through the Underground and you make friends with everyone, even the people who are seemingly the most awful, terrible, and irredeemable. And through the force of your determination, of your refusal to stop loving them even when they seem too far gone, you change all of their lives, for the better. That’s what Jesus does for us.

Let’s face it, humans are pretty awful. Another point made in Undertale! But what I mean is, we’re fallen creatures. We sin, again and again and again, over and over and over, and sometimes it seems like there just isn’t any hope left. Like some people can’t be redeemed. But Jesus never gives up on us. He never abandons us, He never condemns us to Hell because we make mistakes. And this is a whole other post in and of itself but I just have to point out here that God doesn’t send you to Hell because you “broke His rules” it’s because you’ve made it eminently clear by living the way you have that you don’t love Him, therefore you don’t want to be with Him, therefore you don’t want to go to Heaven, THEREFORE you go to Hell. Anyway.

Jesus gave up everything for us. He endured the most painful, humiliating death possible to save us, to give us hope, to help even the worst person change. And that love, that all-powerful, sublime love, has touched the lives of millions of people.

That same love is what you show in Undertale. You die, over and over again, just so you can come back and do it again and show that you truly care about whoever it is your fighting. And your love, your refusal to hurt another person, actually changes people. All the monsters who attack you out of hate and fear give up the fight because of your kindness and patience. They come to understand that you won’t hurt them and that you want to support them. You give them friendship, you teach them understanding, you teach them to believe in themselves, you give them hope, and then you set them free.

And even Flowey, Flowey the frickin’ Flower, is changed by your influence. When he turns back into Asriel, your stubborn refusal to leave him and resolve to SAVE him inspires him to break the barrier and free the Underground. And if you boot up the game after finishing a True Pacifist run, Flowey straight up begs you to go away, the one thing he had been so determined not to let you do. He gets it now. You taught him how to love again. And love isn’t a feeling. Love is to will the good of another, and that’s what Flowey’s doing. In an effort to preserve everyone’s happiness, he’s asking you to stay away and not reset everything. Your love changed the most irredeemable character in the whole game.

So yeah, that’s my point. Undertale masterfully showcases the power of love that always protects, always trusts, always hopes, and always perseveres. It encourages you to show mercy, to forgive. And, in the end, love prevails. Love changes everyone’s lives. Love saves the world.

And now I have to end this by saying that I’m pretty sure that the Christian elements weren’t intended, I mean, I don’t even know if Toby Fox is religious in any way, shape, or form, but it’s like I always say, if you look for God, you can find Him almost anywhere. It’s kind of His job.

Obviously, I didn’t talk about the genocide route at all because that’s an entirely different thing and I also choose to exist in a world where the genocide route isn’t a thing and they all lived happily ever after, the end. I actually might talk about it in the future, but that’s for another time. Also, as another disclaimer, I understand that they are elements of Undertale that are very, y’know, not Christian. Same-sex relationships, anyone? But yeah, overall, the game’s pretty great, and you should check it out for yourself if you can. I highly recommend it.

[bluerosesburnblue]

Liz Liveblogs Bravely Second: Final Thoughts

Alright, as promised, let’s take a deep dive into my experience with Bravely Second. I’ve done the postgame, not really much to talk about. All it really is is unused dungeons that appeared in Default, but not Second, repurposed to hold missing enemies with a set encounter rate. Game’s been 100% completed besides some of the Ba’al bestiary entries, which I’m working on. (And by 100% I mean all Bestiary entries completed, all item/equipment journal entries completed, all character levels and job levels maxed out, all songs unlocked in Chompcraft, and all Titles collected.) So, now that there’s nothing left to do but hope for the best at Fort-Lune, I’ve taken some time to organize my thoughts and gone back through the liveblog to see if any of my opinions have changed

Speaking of the liveblog, I saved it in a word document when the Tumblr purge happened, just in case, and that thing ended up being 98 pages/53823 words long. So wow. That’s more than the entirety my college thesis paper. Kinda nuts how much I can write when I’m motivated. So now I’m gonna write EVEN MORE

Major spoilers for Bravely Default, Bravely Second, and also Undertale follow below

I suppose I should start this post by talking briefly about my history with the series, since I only liveblogged Bravely Second and don’t think I’ve said much about Default before

I beat Bravely Default about three years ago (shortly before November 8, 2015 if the email I sent to my best pal anheiressofasoldier, who I will not tag as she’s avoiding Bravely Second spoilers, is any indication). I binged the game while at college, because I wanted to be able to play Bravely Second when it came out (...whoops). Around the time I really started getting into the game, indie darling Undertale came out, and I spent a lot of my time bouncing between playing Bravely Default and having Undertale playthroughs going in the background while doing schoolwork/grinding in BD. I learned one thing about my tastes during that time: I really love meta plots in games and the way that they both utilize the system’s capabilities to mess with the player and integrate the player into the story, expanding the lore and fostering the sense that you, behind the screen, really are a part of this story and a member of the world of the game, just like all of the other characters. It is a fascinating story mechanism, and it’s a surefire way to get me invested in the narrative

Makes it kind of funny that the Undertale spiritual sequel/AU, Deltarune, came out just as I was finishing Bravely Second. I guess the two series will always be tied together for me

For those unaware and who also don’t care about spoilers, Bravely Default and Undertale are both RPGs with similar twists at the end. Namely that you, the Player, are a full-blown character and active participant in the world of the story. And also that saving the game is an in-universe thing. Bravely Default reveals during its final boss battle that another realm exists, the Celestial Realm, and when it’s depicted the game uses the 3DS camera to show the player’s face, creating the narrative that the villain, Ouroboros, is attempting to break out of the “game” into the “real world,” and the entire plot of the game has been revolving around this fact. It is also revealed that “The Celestial” has been keeping Tiz alive and guiding him, and when he severs the bond between himself and the Celestial, he collapses and the game ends. You, the player, lose control of the character because he breaks your bond, which means you can’t play anymore

The first hint that there may be more to Undertale’s story of a human falling into the Underground land of monsters is during the final boss of a Neutral run (necessary to get the Pacifist ending and the first ending most people see), where the main villain, Flowey, abruptly crashes the game. Booting it up again causes the intro to glitch out and the save file to show what appears to be Flowey’s own save file. When accessed, the player is loaded into a black void with nothing but a save point. Accessing that causes Flowey to delete your save file (not unlike what Providence tries in Bravely Second), which begins the final fight against him. During the fight, he makes use of Save States to reload you back into the way of his attacks. This messing around with the player’s save data is only the first part of the game’s meta twist. Another reveal happens at the end of its Genocide route, where the player actively guides their character into eradicating every last monster in the Underground. You have to actively stay in each area of the game and kill everything you see until every enemy encounter becomes a blank screen with the message “But nobody came...” There’s no way to just accidentally end up on this route. Like, I cannot stress that enough. Very few people actually see the Genocide route, but its reveal is integral to understanding the overarching story

The final boss of the Genocide route is designed to actively screw with the UI (which is what I referenced when fighting Providence). His attacks change the shape of your action box, where you’re intended to dodge attacks in bullet hell segments, around. Some of his attacks are in the menu, hitting your icon in the text box and the buttons to select your action for each turn, constantly damaging you. There’s no downtime in this fight. You have to always be moving, because now he’s attacking your safe zones, just like Providence’s Bravely Second attack. There is no safe place from damage against these bosses. The trick to beating Undertale’s Genocide boss is to wait him out and dodge his attacks until he’s tired, and then use the time he’s asleep to move the action box into the menu to access your commands. Then, at the very end, you’re taken to a void and speak to a child you’ve never seen before, who informs you that you’ve both been controlling the main character of the game, Frisk. In a Neutral or Pacifist run of the game, this child is content to let you take control, and in fact may not even awaken as an entity possessing Frisk at all. In a Genocide run, however, they get so gung-ho about killing that they take control from you at various points. Noticeably, in the Genocide route, “Frisk” seems to act on their own a lot in cutscenes, something that they only do occasionally in other routes. The Mysterious Child informs you that they are the Fallen Child that the player named in the beginning, and that they also believe that they are some manifestation of... I don’t know how to phrase this. Game addiction? Completionist tendencies? They call themself “the feeling you get when your stats go up” or something along those lines. They ask you to destroy the world of Undertale with them and move on to the next game, where you’ll do the process over again together, killing all enemies and the “beating the game,” over and over until there’s nothing left. Accept their offer and the games ends there, the game’s world is erased. Refuse, and the Fallen Human informs you that you were never in control and attacks the player directly, causing damage numbers to be displayed across the screen and the game to crash instantly after. Booting it up again in either situation leaves you with nothing but a black screen with wind noises. 10 minutes after booting up that screen, the Fallen Human will offer to reset things so long as you sell them your soul. Accept, and every time you play a Pacifist route again the happy ending will play, before showing Frisk abruptly becoming possessed by the Fallen Human

I’d hazard a guess that what takes Undertale from being a goofy, lighthearted game with fun jokes and a lot of emotional moments into a ridiculously fascinating game to analyze is that reveal. The realization that the Player is a character takes that game’s story from good to great in a very short amount of time. Everything changes. And that’s exactly what happened to me with Bravely Default, which suddenly went from a cute throwback game to nostalgic RPGs (of which I have played none so there really isn’t any nostalgia there for me) that I genuinely enjoyed both the story and gameplay of to a brilliant game that I couldn’t get enough of. In fact, I’d go so far as to say that seeing that plot thread in Undertale is what made me appreciate its appearance in Default and hope that the lore there would be taken up a notch in Second. And honestly, I’d say it did. Gameplay-wise, it doesn’t go nearly as hard into it as Undertale does, but I don’t think it really has to. It’s not the same game, it just draws on similar themes, and I think it does that really well with the 3DS hardware. And to the Bravely Series’s credit, its integration of the Player into the narrative is done very well

So with all that said, what do I think of Bravely Second as a product? I had expectations, obviously. I expected to get more lore about the Celestial and the Celestial realm and was not disappointed. I went in spoiled on quite a few things, namely:

Anne is Airy’s sister, and is evil and works for a purple-ish pyramid named Providence

Ringabel is in it. Or at the very least, Alternis takes his helmet off. But it was probably Ringabel

The Kaiser’s real name is Denys Geneolgia

Obviously I knew who the asterisk holders were, since I had a list, so that spoiled Yōko as an antagonist to an extent, as well as a few tricky methods to beat bosses, namely Rev

A general overview of some sidequests, mostly Profiteur vs. Holly, Barras vs. Einheria, and Khamer vs. Alternis. You know, the controversial ones

Tiz/Agnès, Ringabel/Edea, and Yew/Magnolia are endgame ships

There is one time loop in the game. Not a world change, but a genuine time loop

I didn’t even pay much attention to pre-release info for Bravely Second, but try as I might, I can’t ever seem to completely avoid spoilers 😓. Oh well. The good news is that none of them really ruined the experience for me

Bravely Second is something that I haven’t seen in a long time: a good sequel. Good GOD have I seen games ruined by their sequels. Maybe I’m just bitter about the sequel hook in TWEWY Final Remix, which makes it seem like the writers have no idea what to do with a sequel, despite having a rich world to set it in. SO MANY sequels just rehash the first game, contradict its ending to get rid of everyone’s happy endings, or else try to explain things that didn’t need explanation (and explain them poorly at that). Bravely Second completely destroyed any of those worries for me. Everything feels like an expansion of the world and characters, done tastefully and with nothing but love for the first game that it’s expanding the lore of. I really felt the heart that went into making it while playing the game, and I have so much respect for the people who made it

Now, it does hit some similar plot beats, like the betrayer fairy who turns out to be working for an extradimensional being looking to mess with both the Celestial Realm and Luxendarc, but I love the twists it made to the formula. Bravely Default was a deconstruction of nostalgic JRPGs, where the helpful guide turns out to be working for the villain and tricked you into doing their dirty work, and instead of saving the world you were dooming it. Bravely Second then takes that plot and flips the perspective on it. They make the person being led by the fairy to open the Holy Pillar the villain, and he believes that he’s saving the world just as vehemently as the party did last game. Which almost makes him the perfect sympathetic villain, since he serves as a counterpoint to the main party who can understand exactly how he got into that position once the full extent of it has been revealed

At no point did I feel that Bravely Second’s added lore hampered the game, or ruined what I knew from the first game (I can easily ignore how silly it is that “oh all of the asterisk holders you killed last game were actually alive!” because I understand how much extra effort it would have been to design all new holders for old asterisks just to justify their inclusion in the game. It also might backfire for fans of the original characters who’d want to see their old favorites included.) Bravely Second’s lore expansions are only ever beneficial to its narrative. The expansion of the Celestial lore and the Plague, largely footnotes in Default, are turned into driving parts of the narrative in ways that only seem to make the world feel larger and older. Lived in. I can only hope that Bravely Third, or whatever it end up being called, keeps up the trend

And Bravely Default didn’t have the happiest of endings, with Ringabel getting a second shot to save his version of the party, but at the cost of abandoning the friends he’s made on this journey. Tiz is comatose, Til and Olivia are still dead, Edea is alone, and Agnès is left to reform her entire religion while fully believing that one of her friends is gone forever and the love of her life may never wake up. I am extremely grateful for being able to take that bittersweet ending and make it a happy one

On top of the amazing graphical upgrades, which stay true to the feel of BD while making everything feel grander, and the tweaks to the battle system to allow for minor enemy variation and the Another Round feature, which gives some incentive to carefully managing BP consumption, and some really fun new jobs, and I’d say I like Bravely Second even more than Bravely Default! (And browsing the internet, it seems like that’s an unpopular opinion. Dunno why, might be the fact that Second is goofier in its first half than the overall tone of Default and relies less on nostalgia for old RPGs). Bravely Second is where I feel the series went from a neat homage with some interesting gameplay innovations to a real adventure with its own unique world and story to tell

So what about the main characters, then? I’m gonna consider the main characters Yew, Magnolia, Edea, Tiz, Altair, Denys, and Anne, as they’re the ones who arguably drive most of the plot

Yew Geneolgia is the character that I was most worried about when I started playing this game. I was really expecting him to just be “Tiz but Younger” and I was happily surprised by what I got. If the liveblog didn’t make it clear, I LOVE YEW. He is such a genuinely sweet boy, who’s chipper and nerdy and so dedicated to his loved ones and I can’t help but relate to him. He’s like the perfect little brother I always wanted (I love my actual younger brothers but they ain’t perfect). His growth is incredible. He goes from a scared kid singing off-key to himself in the woods to keep calm to staring down the god of the realm of people that act as gods to him and telling him to get lost, all without ever losing his kind and dorky nature. He learns the importance of taking your mistakes and growing with them. His sense of familial duty is so wonderful to see, and he serves as an excellent foil to last game’s lead character, Tiz. We went from a low-class farmer and dutiful older brother to a high-class noble and dutiful younger brother, and the flip in perspective with the lead characters only serves to highlight the flip in perspective on the story as a whole. Yew is a Good Boy™ and I couldn’t ask for a better lead character in the game, especially since he’s not even on the cover of any version of the game? Bravely Second is Yew’s story and it’s a damn good one

Magnolia Arch is... honestly kind of underwhelming? She was marketed as the big female lead of the game, she’s the star of the teaser at the end of the international version of Bravely Default, she’s on the cover of some versions of the game! And I... uh... I like her just fine, but I don’t feel like she really served much purpose. She’s got a nice design, I like how sweet she is and her sense of curiosity as a newcomer to Luxendarc, but I don’t feel like she had much... point? She really feels like she was just there to introduce the major plot point of the Ba’als and be a love interest for Yew. I just can’t think of anything she really contributed to the game besides that. I don’t hate her by any means, I just wish there was a bit more to her than minor worldbuilding, especially with all of the buildup she got

Edea Lee is the person I would call the actual female lead of the game, just a different part of the game than Yew is. She’s the protagonist of the sidequests (sans the Yōkai quest, where she gets slightly lesser billing than Yew, but is still a major focal character.) Also, like Yew, she had little marketing. I really respect what they did with Edea. She was one of the most developed characters last game, having her whole arc where she learned to see the shades of gray in morality. So where do you go from there? How do you keep the character interesting without contradicting or repeating their character development from the last game? And my god did they do it with Edea. I love how she legitimately seems to have grown up in Second. She’s learned to see the complexities of situations and acts as a mentor figure to Yew, while still retaining her spitfire qualities... in the main story at least. Her development is actually about taking what she learned in the last game and applying it to a leadership role (which is what the sidequests are supposed to do, but really fail at in execution. More below.) She gets a different arc that complements her arc from last game, where she takes what she learned and now has to figure out how to apply it to a new role. The focus is less on learning to be a decent leader and mediator. It’s a continuation of her character, and it works really well. Ultimately, I’m happy with what we got of Edea (in the main story not... not necessarily Sidequest Edea, who may as well be a different character impersonating the real Edea for how much they have in common)

Tiz Arrior has a similar dilemma to Edea, and a different solution. What do we do with a character who’s already had a full game to be developed? Edea got a new arc that extends off of her first one, taking it in a new and mature direction. With Tiz, however, they decided that he would remain flat in Second, since he got the development in Default and seems content with where he is, personality wise. Like Edea, he’s placed in a mentor role, which I do really enjoy, but Tiz’s real strength in this game is how they used him for worldbuilding. He’s the perfect avenue to explore more of the lore surrounding Celestials, being the closest character to them thanks to his bond with one in the last game. So what does Bravely Second do? What it does best. It takes plot beats from the original and flips the perspective to give the player a new and better understanding of its world and characters. In this case, they take Tiz’s Celestial bond from the first game and give him a new Celestial to bond with, who is more than happy to exposit on his world and the world of Luxendarc. Like Magnolia, I feel like Tiz is much more of a worldbuilding device than a character in Bravely Second, though unlike Magnolia I can excuse this since Tiz already had a whole game that he was the main character of to be developed. We already like Tiz, so he has nothing to prove to us, and it feels good to see him get his delayed happy ending. Weird, though, how the two characters shown on box art for this game have the least impact as characters, though I suppose you could argue that they’re both tied to the main plot though other means. Other means such as...

Altair. Oh, Altair. You weird vegetable-loving alien man. He really grew on me, actually. I find it really interesting that despite constantly stating that the player is a Celestial and implying that the real world is the Celestial Realm, Altair comes in and almost seems to contradict that. Through him, we learn more about the Celestial Realm and, by extension, who and what kind of entity the Player is in this story. Is he aware of who we are? Who knows! He’s a good avenue of lore that I’m fond of. And if Yew is the emotional heart of the main story, then Altair is the emotional heart of the climax. His bond with Vega is what drives a lot of the overarching plot, and it’s a sweet romance. I dunno, I like Altair. I wish he was a little more meta-involved, and gave a little more info about the Celestial Realm, but he did good for what he needed to be. Team Dad’s good

Denys Geneolgia is tied for my favorite character with Yew and I’d talk about him but I already did and nothing’s really changed about my opinions since then, though the rewritten talk with Anne might need to be changed since she apparently doesn’t even know the player exists on the second loop, somehow. Oh well. I wouldn’t be upset if he was a party member in Bravely Third though *wink* *wink*

Anne is cool. Anne is a good foil to Airy, and my rage at realizing that she’s been playing the player since the beginning of Bravely Default is definitely a highlight. She’s a good foil to her sister from the last game. I mean she’s basically Airy taken up to 11 and without the pretense of being a good guy in this game. No, she got that out of her system last game and is in full blown Manipulative Bitch mode this game. She’s a fun villain to have on screen. Very punchable. I’m not sure if there’s much more to say about her, though. I would have loved to see her interact with the player more than the one scene where she taunts us. Just really rub it in that even though we’re a god in Luxendarc, she still managed to deceive us. Maybe expand on her relationship with Airy a little more, focus a bit more on her status as a foil to Denys. She’s a good antagonist, I just would’ve done more with her

We’ve covered the good, so what’s the bad? The sidequests. I’ve gone on a lot about the sidequests but I cannot stress enough how much I disliked all but the Chapter 6 sidequests. They are so formulaic, and that formula actually hampers the story they’re trying to tell with them. The sidequests are Edea’s spot to shine, and I can so clearly see what they were trying to do with them. They’re training Edea for her role as the Grand Marshal of Eternia, where she will end up facing two forces that oppose each other and have to make a decision about her nation’s involvement, which becomes evident during the Templar quest, which all of these seem to be leading up to. The problem, though, is that they’re trying to set up Edea as a mediator and then outright contradict that by having her just choose a side with no thought of compromise, desperately try to validate her choice as the only correct one, frequently claim that the other side’s argument has no merit, and then beats them down to make them agree with her. I mean, what!? That’s not mediating! That’s not my Edea!

By forcing us to make a binary choice, they completely gloss over any moral ambiguity in the situation, and the epilogues always focus more on how Edea feels about her choice, and not the impact that the choice has on the world as a whole. I can somewhat understand why they wanted to implement a choice system into the sidequests to make use of the second loop, but good gracious does it NOT WORK. And it doesn’t help that at least half of, if not 2/3 of, the sidequests try to make a situation morally ambiguous that really shouldn’t be? Or that has a clear correct answer? And all the rest are just really petty disagreements and none of them expand upon the world or characters in any meaningful way. Edea’s sidequest story of becoming a great mediator to make her father proud and grow into the role of Grand Marshal could have gone somewhere if that was a consistent thread between them and not a concept that solely exists in the Templar quest that tries to make the rest look good with hindsight. They really were the worst part of the game. The narratives weren’t enjoyable and the gameplay was just repetitive. Meet two bosses from the last game, listen to grievances, go through old dungeon from last game, pick a boss to fight, meaningless resolution. Rinse. Repeat. But in all honesty, the poorly written sidequests are my only big criticism of the game, and they’re entirely skippable to the average player. (I don’t recommend that you skip them because they offer useful jobs, but you certainly could if you wanted to)

Overall, I’d give Bravely Second a solid A. It is, unquestionably, one of the best games I’ve played in a while. Which is almost word-for-word what my final verdict for Bravely Default was in the email mentioned at the beginning of this post. This series consistently manages to suck me in and keep me invested in its world and characters. I adore it. I love the Bravely series so much and I’d happily buy whatever they come out with next so long as they never try that sidequest stuff ever again. Ever. (Though playing the game is probably gonna mean buying a Switch. Mmmm.)

Moving forward, what are my hopes for the hinted at Bravely Third? Ringabel’s certainly been teased a bit, so I’d hope to see him make a return. Especially as a playable character. I’d love to see his role with the Planeswardens expanded on and what their impact on the lore is. I could easily see Magnolia returning as a playable character, too, just for that little bit of extra development that she desperately needs and her implied relationship with the Planeswardens. I’d really love it if they brought Denys back and made him a playable character, finally giving him an actual, well-crafted character arc. Not to mention that his ties to both the Sword of the Brave and the Eye of Foundar make him an excellent candidate for the plot that the end of Bravely Second teased (also gives me more Geneolgia brothers content).

Story-wise, Bravely Default was centered around parallel worlds (or space), and Bravely Second explored the concept of time, so perhaps we could see alternate Realms/dimensions in Bravely Third. It would be interesting to see them expand upon the lore of the Celestial Realm, especially now that there are characters aware of the Player’s existence, such as Denys and Magnolia. Having Deneb around could also be an interesting choice, as she’d certainly know what the cataclysm in the Celestial Realm was and the capabilities of the Celestial Beings, since she is one. I’ve seen the idea of Deneb as a party member thrown around, and I wouldn’t be against it. Maybe if the whole party was made up of people aware of the Player’s existence, we could have more Player-party interactions. Dialogue choices in cutscenes for us, maybe, where we can talk directly to the party

I wouldn’t be against a Ringabel-Magnolia-Denys-Deneb party. I think that could work really well. Just a team composed of blond boys and silver-haired girls

I love Yew Geneolgia to death, but I think I’d keep him as a side character. He’s already had his story, though a look into what he did after Bravely Second would be much appreciated. Show me my son who reformed the Crystalguard and became the most well-loved member of House Geneolgia in history! At least give me a good sibling reunion! Give me the hug between Denys and Yew that I was robbed of in Bravely Second!

Don’t undo any of the happy endings everyone got. Tiz and Agnès are happily married and retired, and Ringabel and Magnolia make it back home safe to their significant others post-Bravely Third

I guess I’d also kinda like to see a good Cryst-Fairy around at some point. I like the idea I’ve seen around of the Player having their own fairy servant. That could be fun to play with. Maybe with those Party-Player chats I mentioned our dialogue choices could be telling our fairy what to tell the party. Speaking through our own, personal Cryst-Fairy, if you will. Though again, if we’re still expanding the lore, maybe they could go into the state of being of Cryst-Fairies more. Anne gave us a bit to work with, so I suppose I just want more elaboration on how they’re all siblings, how they feel about being siblings, etc. Maybe there’s a good fairy and a bad fairy in the same game and they bicker like real siblings

Also, can they give us confirmation as to whether Yōko was a Luxendarc native or not? And if not, can we see her home realm? That’d be cool. I’d like to see the Yōkai world please

I guess that’s really it, though. For now, that’s all I have to say on the Bravely series! Again, I’d like to give a huge thanks to everyone who’s read through the liveblog and/or commented on any of the parts of it. Seriously, you guys rock and I don’t know if the liveblog would’ve gotten as big as it did if it wasn’t for you guys and the support you provided. If any of you guys want to chat, don’t be afraid to hit me up. My ask box is always open

So! I’ve been Liz, this has been Liz Liveblogs Bravely Second, and I hope to see you all again if/when Bravely Third drops so we can all get lost in the world of Luxendarc together one more time!

[liketolaugh-writes]

[Context: Sebastian is a LetsPlayer in modern times. He is still a demon and the events of Kuroshitsuji happened over a hundred years ago as appropriate. He does not currently have a master, having finished with his last some five to ten years ago. Because he enjoys human pastimes on occasion, he decided to amuse himself with this for a while. It’s set in the Marvel universe, insofar as metas are known to exist and he is known as a lightly closeted one. He is currently playing Undertale, and because of who he is as a person, has accidentally stumbled onto the Genocide route on his first playthrough.]

The character avatar walks down the purple hallway. In the top-left corner, Sebastian’s brows are furrowed. He looks unsettled, but is attempting to appear merely bored.

Sebastian: This is quite an unusual take on an RPG game, I’ll admit. I’ve never encountered one that attempted to make me feel guilty for progressing before. Toriel’s last words in particular were… well. I expect this is going to be quite an interesting letsplay.

The avatar reaches the hallway exit and goes through. On the other side, Flowey is sitting in a spotlight.

Sebastian: Oh, it’s you again. Now, you, I would not feel bad for killing at all.

Flowey: Hahaha… You’re not really human, are you?

Sebastian’s eyebrows lift as he reads the dialogue. For a moment, he looks amused.

Flowey: No. You’re empty inside. Just like me. In fact… You’re Ciel, right? We’re still inseparable, after all these years…

Sebastian’s brows furrow, and he pauses in reading the dialogue.

Sebastian: That’s an interesting plot twist, this early in the game. I thought I’d just fallen down. Perhaps I have escaped the Underground before? But then, why is it that I fell in again? To take revenge?

Flowey: Listen. I have a plan to become all powerful. Even more powerful than you and your stolen soul.

Sebastian scowls, but does not remark on the dialogue.

Flowey: Let’s destroy everything in this wretched world. Everyone, everything in these worthless memories. Let’s turn ‘em all to dust.

Flowey [computer-generated voice]: That’s a wonderful idea!

Flowey disappears into the ground, and Sebastian continues to frown at the screen. His scowl has eased.

Sebastian: That was… odd. This game is obviously not what it first appears. Is that my goal, then? To conquer the Underground? It seems frivolous and unnecessary, but it’s quite the take on the traditional RPG mechanic of slaughtering everything you come across.

The avatar begins to move forward again and soon encounters the door out.

The screen fades to black and then displays the title screen, UNDERTALE. It then switches to By Toby Fox, and then to black. Sebastian smiles.

Sebastian: As I said, quite an interesting game. I’m looking forward to continuing it. I expect it has some interesting lessons to teach, and perhaps some remarks on human nature as well. It’s a surprising contrast with the rather cute aesthetic.

Sebastian chuckles, and as the screen reforms on a snowy forest, the avatar begins walking right, and then pauses and interacts with the bush nearby.

[…!? There’s a camera hidden in the bushes.]

Sebastian: …Interesting.

The avatar continues right. The avatar passes a branch, and a handful of steps after the avatar passes, it breaks unexpectedly. Sebastian rolls his eyes.

Sebastian: The music is appropriately ominous for such a setting. I do hope I have an encounter worthy of it soon.

The avatar starts to cross a bridge, and then stops on the left edge. A shadow begins to approach from where the avatar came from.

Sebastian: Speak of the devil.

Sebastian chooses a creaky, deep voice for the new character.

?: H u m a n.

The avatar turns around. The shadow sticks out its hand, and the avatar takes it. The shadow is suddenly lit, revealing itself to be a grinning skeleton in a blue hoodie, and a fart sound plays. Sebastian snorts, visibly surprised.

Sebastian: Well, that was rather anticlimactic.

?: heheh… the old whoopee cushion in the hand trick. it’s ALWAYS funny.

Despite the change of font, Sebastian sticks with the original voice, raising one eyebrow and smiling in obvious amusement.

?: …that’s, uh. your cue to laugh. or, uh, to emote at all…?

Sebastian chuckles again.

Sebastian: They really are pushing the inhumanity of this character, aren’t they? They ought to be careful not to go heavy-handed, but it’s amusing as it is, and somewhat unsettling as intended.

?: …(gee, lady, you really know how to pick ‘em, huh…?) OK, that’s fine. everyone’s got their own sense of humor. i’m sans. sans the skeleton. im actually supposed to be on watch for humans right now. but… you know… i dont really care about capturing anybody.

Sebastian grins.

Sebastian: Perhaps you should, Mr. Skeleton. It looks like letting this one go will be bad for your health.

Sans: now my brother, papyrus… he’s a human-hunting FANATIC.

Sebastian: Ah, so is that the interesting battle I’m promised? Or- no. No, given the nature of the last boss, I don’t suppose any of these bosses are going to be truly terrible people. Hm. Does that mean I won’t be able to dispose of Flowey?

Sans: hey, actually, I think that’s him over there.

Sebastian: Another boss battle already? That seems unlikely, so I suppose this Sans character is going to help me as well.

Sans: i have an idea. go through this gate thingy. yeah, go right through. my bro made the bars too wide to stop anyone.

Sebastian chuckles, head dipping as he smirks. The avatar and Sans rush right, quickly arriving at a small area containing a lamp shaped precisely like the profile view of the avatar, two rocks, and a shop stand.

Sans: quick, behind that conveniently-shaped lamp.

The avatar does not move. Sebastian raises his eyebrows.

Sans: …uh, okay, i guess you don’t have to.

Sebastian [softly]: …Strange.

From the right, a tall skeleton in red zooms in, stopping in front of Sans and the avatar. Sebastian chooses a high, crackly voice for this character.

Papyrus: SANS!!! HAVE YOU FOUND A HUMAN YET!??!

Sans: yeah

Sebastian: From any other game I would expect betrayal, but…

Papyrus: REALLY!?!? WOWIE!!!

Sebastian: Goodness, two lines and I already cannot wait for this character to be gone.

Papyrus: GUESS THAT’S SETTLED!!

The skeleton leaves out the right side. Sebastian snorts.

Sebastian: My wish has been granted.

Sans: that worked out, huh?

The avatar wanders around the screen and interacts with the lamp.

[Just a conveniently-shaped lamp.]

Sebastian chuckles.

Sebastian: I’ll admit, this game is quite funny when it isn’t resorting to bodily humor.

The avatar moves to the stand and interacts.

[It’s some sort of checkpoint or sentry-station. But there are bottles of ketchup, mustard, and relish sitting inside…]

Sebastian: I hope they don’t belong to the skeletons. I imagine that would be quite messy, and what a waste.

The avatar begins to move right but is stopped at the exit.

Sans: well, i’ll be straight-forward with you. my brother’d really like to see a human… so, y’know, it’d really help me out… if you kept pretending to be one.

Sebastian pauses, staring at the screen with an unreadable expression as Sans exits left.

Sebastian: Again with this, hm…? If not a human, then I wonder what I’m meant to be.

Sebastian smiles.

Sebastian: Perhaps a demon? Well, I suppose I’ll find out in time. …If I find out that the playable character is a metahuman, however, I’m going to be deeply disappointed in not only the game’s creator, but also every person who recommended this game to me. That would be an utterly pathetic plot twist.

The avatar exits right, and the approaches the nearby sparkling save point.

[16 Left]

Sebastian: Quite handy. But why is the text red…?

The avatar explores the area for a while, and then encounters a monster. The monster is identified as Snowdrake.

[Snowdrake flutters forth!]

Sebastian: Though I may come to regret it, given the odd ‘but nobody came’ encounters, I believe I’ll handle all of these now. I’ll clip in the images and dialogue of each new monster, however – for your amusement, yes?

The screen skips through several images without remark and resettles on the same stretch of path.

Sebastian: That didn’t take too long, did it?

Sebastian smiles.

Sebastian: Now we can progress the story without interference. I could do without the skeleton characters, myself, but they’re a necessary evil. Never mind- they’ll be gone soon enough.

Sebastian laughs, and the avatar exits right.

Sebastian: I did explore the top path, but there was nothing of interest. Ah, here we are.

Papyrus: SO SANS! WHEN’S THE HUMAN SHOWING UP???

Sebastian: Mr. Papyrus’ enthusiasm is amusing, but I’ve known enough people like him to be quite glad that his dialogue is text-only. Goodness knows how loud it would be.

Papyrus: I WANT TO LOOK MY SUNDAY BEST… OR AT LEAST MY TUESDAY PRETTY-GOOD.

Sebastian laughs again and shakes his head slightly.

Sebastian: A game with a sense of humor more sophisticated than a grade schooler, what a rarity.

Sans: don’t you only have one outfit?

Papyrus: YEAH, BUT I COULD STYLE MY HAIR!

Sebastian covers his mouth with the back of his hand. He is grinning, and his eyes glitter with amusement.

Sans: oh. right. good idea. say, why don’t you look over there?

Papyrus looks at the avatar. An exclamation mark appears briefly over his head. He turns back at Sans, who turns to the human, and then back to the human, while Sans looks back at Papyrus. This process repeats itself several times, rapidly speeding up, and Sebastian lowers his hand to smile in open amusement. Eventually, both skeletons stop, and then turn right.

Papyrus: SANS!!! OH MY GOD!!!!

Sebastian: That is entirely too many exclamation points, and I can picture the volume perfectly.

Papyrus: I’M DIZZY. WHAT AM I LOOKING AT?

Sebastian snorts, apparently caught by surprise.

Sans: behold.

Sans turns to his brother. The screen pans left to center on the avatar and reveal a rock.

Papyrus: OH MY GOD!!!

The screen shunts right again as Papyrus turns back to Sans.

Papyrus: WHY ARE YOU TELLING ME TO LOOK AT A ROCK.

Sebastian closes his eyes and covers his mouth with a gloved hand. A muffled snort escapes anyway and the corners of his eyes are crinkled. After a second, he removes his hand and shakes his head.

Sebastian: This game is entirely too much.

Sans turns back to the avatar.

Sans: hey, what’s that in front of the rock?

An exclamation mark appears above Papyrus’ head.

Papyrus: OH MY GOD!!!

Sebastian takes a deep breath.

Papyrus: I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT THAT IS.

Sebastian lets it out in a huff, closes his eyes, and tilts his head back briefly. After two seconds, he opens them again, and then continues without comment.

Sans: well. it’s not a rock.

Sebastian: A pair of geniuses, these two.

Papyrus: NOT A ROCK…? OH NO!!! BY PROCESS OF ELIMINATION!!! THAT MEANS IT’S A HUMAN!!!

Sebastian closes his eyes again, presses his palm to a forehead, and for a moment, laughs helplessly, quiet and breathy.

Sebastian: What an imbecile.

Sebastian opens his eyes and continues on, shaking his head.

Papyrus: AHEM!! HUMAN!! PREPARE YOURSELF!! FOR HIGH JINKS! FOR LOW JINKS! DANGERS! PUZZLES! CAPERS! JAPERS! BEING CAPTURED!! AND OTHER SORTS OF FUN ACTIVITIES.

Sebastian rolls his eyes.

Sebastian: If I have any say in the matter, I will not be participating in a single one of those things, Mr. Skeleton. Particularly not with someone as obviously loud as yourself – my ears hurt and you’re not even speaking aloud.

Papyrus: REFRESHMENTS WILL BE PROVIDED… IF YOU DARE! NYEH HEH HEH HEH HEH HEH HEH HEH!!!

Sebastian wrinkles his nose as Papyrus exits right.

Sebastian: Is that his laugh? How awful. I shall give him as little cause to do that as possible.

Sans turns to the avatar.

Sans: …and you don’t even bat an eye, huh?

Sans exits right.

Sebastian: Well, I wouldn’t want to give that moron any form of encouragement. That’s your job, is it not? Really, this Sans character is… quite suspicious, I’d say. Though not as suspicious as the playable character, naturally… Given that they seem to be on a warpath. Now, let’s see-

The avatar moves right and interacts with the stand nearby.

[There’s some narration on this cardboard box.]

[YOU OBSERVE THE WELL-CRAFTED SENTRY STATION. WHO COULD HAVE BUILT THIS, YOU PONDER… I BET IT WAS THAT VERY FAMOUS ROYAL GUARDSMAN!]

Sebastian rolls his eyes again and sighs, muttering something inaudible before speaking.

Sebastian: Goodness, he does get into everything, doesn’t he? And self-congratulatory, too. I’d bet anything he isn’t a royal guardsman at all.

[(NOTE: NOT YET A VERY FAMOUS ROYAL GUARDSMAN.)]

Sebastian pinches the bridge of his nose.

Sebastian: Ridding the Underground of this idiot will be a service.

The avatar moves right. An encounter appears.

[but nobody came.]

Sebastian: Ah yes, there it is. Very ominous… the first few times, at least.

The avatar continues right and crosses into the path of another station, this one sporting a bell. When the avatar reaches it, a dog emerges from behind the counter.

?: D-did something move? Was it my imagination? I can only see moving things. …hey! I can’t stop shivering all of a sudden. …Who’s there!?

An encounter overtakes the screen.

[Doggo blocks the way!]

Sebastian: Why would you announce your biggest weakness to the world immediately before initiating a fight? Really, now… I’ll take many things at face value in a PC game, but some of these habits are simply absurd.

Sebastian continues to mutter as the fight progresses, looking bored. Doggo is easily defeated, and the avatar moves on, exiting right.

Sebastian: I might have been more sympathetic if it had been a cat. Of course, a cat likely wouldn’t have announced its only weakness so easily, hm?

The avatar continues to travel.

[but nobody came.]

[but nobody came.]

[but nobody came.]

Sebastian: Yes, yes, I understand, everyone is dead. I am aware of that. I actually made that happen. It doesn’t appear to have decreased the amount of trouble I go to just to move, unfortunately.

The avatar reaches an intersection, pauses briefly, and exits top. A snowman appears onscreen and the avatar approaches and interacts with it.

?: Hello. I am a snowman. I cannot move. Traveller, if you could…

[(You got the Snowman Piece.)]

Sebastian: Well, that was simple foolishness.

Sebastian checks the Snowman Piece in his inventory.

[“Snowman Piece” – Heals 45 HP. Please take this to the ends of the earth.]

Sebastian smirks with too many teeth.

Sebastian: 45 HP, hm? I think I’d like more of that, if at all possible.

The avatar interacts with the Snowman again.

Snowman: Oh me, oh my. What are you doing? Soon there won’t be any of me left…

Sebastian: I’m taking your flesh for sustenance, isn’t it obvious?

[(You got the Snowman Piece.)]

The Snowman shrinks dramatically. Sebastian smirks, and the avatar interacts with the Snowman again.

Snowman: Stop… Please…

The Snowman collapses into a small puddle of snow. Sebastian chuckles, raising an eyebrow.

Sebastian: Well, what did you expect, giving pieces of yourself to a stranger? Quite foolish, as I said. You should never give of yourself, really – even those you trust can easily turn their backs on you.

The avatar interacts with the pile of snow again.

[A useless pile of snow.]

Sebastian: Only three, then. Well, that’s quite enough to be getting on with. I won’t need that many, with a small amount of luck and a fair bit of skill. And I like to think I have both in spades, don’t you?

The avatar exits bottom, and heads toward the right exit. An encounter spawns.

[but nobody came.]

Sebastian pauses, frowning.

Sebastian: …An interesting choice of mechanic.

Sebastian ends the encounter and the avatar exits right. Sans and Papyrus are waiting by a bridge on the other side.

Papyrus: YOU’RE SO LAZY!! YOU WERE NAPPING ALL NIGHT!!

Sans: i think that’s called… sleeping.

Sebastian: Regretfully, I’m actually on Mr. Papyrus’ side on this one.

Papyrus: EXCUSES, EXCUSES!

Sans and Papyrus turn to look at the avatar.

Papyrus: OH- HO! THE HUMAN ARRIVES! IN ORDER TO STOP YOU… MY BROTHER AND I HAVE CREATED SOME PUZZLES!

Sebastian rolls his eyes.

Sebastian: Well, at least they bothered to come up with an in-universe reason for gratuitous puzzle-solving, I suppose. Once again, that’s better than most games do.

Papyrus: I THINK YOU WILL FIND THIS ONE… QUITE SHOCKING!!!

The avatar starts to walk across the patch of bare ground, and Sebastian blinks, and then frowns, and then laughs, the corners of his eyes crinkling in amusement.

Sebastian: I think I could get along with this character.

Papyrus: FOR YOU SEE, THIS IS… THE, INVISIBLE… UHHHHHHH…?

Sebastian: Yes, Mr. Skeleton, not everyone is willing to play along with your foolish and pointless antics. I see this character’s attitude is going to save me quite a bit of time.

Sebastian actually looks slightly put-out by the notion.

Papyrus: HMMM… YOU MUST BE HAVING CULTURE SHOCK. YOU SEE, WHERE I COME FROM, IT’S A LOVING TRADITION. TO SUFFER THROUGH HORRIBLE PUZZLES FOR NO REASON.

Sebastian sighs and pinches the bridge of his nose.

Sebastian: This feels oddly familiar, for some reason… Though of course, as the playable character is the one visiting here, they are indeed being rather rude. It saves me time, but not that much time, I suspect.

The avatar continues to approach the skeletons.

Papyrus: SO, UH, JUST WALK BACK THERE, AND…

The avatar does not move. Both skeletons turn south.

Papyrus: SIGH… WHY COULDN’T WE GET A HUMAN THAT LIKES PUZZLES???

Papyrus exits right.

Sebastian: My amusement at the character’s attitude aside, I would have preferred to be allowed to play the puzzles as I wished. They are a fundamental part of this sort of game, after all.

The avatar moves towards Sans and interacts.

Sans: it would make my brother happy if you played along.

Sebastian: Surprisingly, that is not my primary concern.

The avatar exits right, crosses the bridge on the other side, and passes by several trees and a snowball.

Sebastian: I’ve said it a few times already, but I’m continually fascinated by many of the stylistic choices this game makes. They all seem to be geared in a certain direction, but I’m not sure I understand what they’re trying to say as yet. I assume I will later.

The avatar exits top right, walks past both doghouses, and then returns left. Sebastian grimaces.

Sebastian: Dogs.

Eventually, the avatar exits bottom-right and emerges with the two skeletons again, and a piece of paper on the ground to their left.

Papyrus: HUMAN!!! I HOPE YOU’RE READY FOR… SANS!! WHERE’S THE PUZZLE!!!

Sebastian: At this stage, what on earth makes him think I would complete a puzzle?

Sans: it’s right there. on the ground.

Sebastian: Somehow, I’m not surprised in the least.

Sans: trust me. there’s no way they’ll skip this one.

The avatar walks past the piece of paper. Sebastian looks pained.

Papyrus: SANS!!! THAT DID NOTHING!!!

Sans: whoops. knew i should have put down junior jumble instead.

Sebastian: Oh yes, I certainly would have been far more interested in that, rather than- whatever it is that’s on the ground there.

Papyrus: WHAT?!? JUNIOR JUMBLE!? FINALLY, SOMETHING WE CAN BOTH AGREE ON.

Papyrus exits right. The avatar moves to interact with Sans.

Sans: guess you don’t like word searches, huh? me neither. i’m more of a funny pages kinda guy.

Sebastian: Of course you are. They share your high-brow sense of humor, Mr. Skeleton.

The avatar exits right, finding a piece of paper, a table with spaghetti on top, and a microwave. The top wall has a small mouse hole. Sebastian smirks and the avatar goes to interact with the piece of paper.

[It’s a note from Papyrus…]

[HUMAN!! PLEASE ENJOY THIS SPAGHETTI. (LITTLE DO YOU KNOW, THIS SPAGHETTI IS A TRAP… DESIGNED TO ENTICE YOU!!! YOU’LL BE SO BUSY EATING IT… THAT YOU WON’T REALIZE THAT YOU AREN’T PROGRESSING!! THOROUGHLY JAPED AGAIN BY THE GREAT PAPYRUS!!! NYEH-HEH-HEH, PAPYRUS)]

Sebastian chuckles.

Sebastian: Not much of an antagonist… or a human-hunter. And that laugh is still awful.

The avatar interacts with the save point, the spaghetti, and the microwave.

[10 left.]

[(It’s a plate of frozen spaghetti. It’s so cold, it’s stuck to the table…)]

[(It’s an unplugged microwave. All of the settings say “spaghetti.”)]

Sebastian rolls his eyes.

Sebastian: Idiot.

The avatar continues on until it reaches two dogs, which come up from the south exit.

?: What’s that smell? (Where’s that smell?) If you’re a smell… (…Identify yoursmellf!)

The two dogs wander the screen around the avatar for a few seconds before converging on it.

?: Hmmm… Here’s that weird smell… It makes me want to eliminate… (…Eliminate YOU!)

An encounter triggers.

Sebastian: God, when will I escape the dogs?

[Dogi assault you!]

Sebastian: The story of my life.

Sebastian swiftly kills Dogaressa, and then the depressed Dogamy.

Sebastian: When will I be free from the dogs…

The avatar continues to make progress, and passes by what appears to be a completed puzzle. Sebastian looks put-out again.

Sebastian: I actually would like to complete a puzzle at some point, please!

The avatar exits right, finding a grayscale board with Papyrus and Sans on the right side, standing by a machine.

Papyrus: HEY! IT’S THE HUMAN! YOU’RE GONNA LOVE THIS PUZZLE!

The avatar starts to cross the board, and Sebastian sighs, a look of resignation on his face as the avatar stops halfway across.

Sebastian: This is getting rather annoying.

Papyrus: IT WAS MADE BY THE GREAT… ARE YOU SERIOUS? SANS!!! HELP!!!

A flicker of a smile crosses Sebastian’s face. He does not explain this.

Papyrus: THEY KEEP WALKING THROUGH MY PUZZLES! THEY’RE SUPPOSED TO LET ME EXPLAIN THEM. THEN THREATEN AND BAFFLE THEM WITH DANGEROUS JAPES.

Sebastian looks exasperatedly amused.

Sebastian: This character could not be less threatening if he wasn’t a skeleton. He can do as he likes, of course, but…

Sans: well, maybe they don’t like japes.

Papyrus: EVERYONE LIKES JAPES!!!

Sans: what about undyne? doesn’t she hate puzzles?

Papyrus: SHE HATES PUZZLES. BUT SHE LOVES JAPES.

Sebastian: The distinction is vital, of course- though I couldn’t tell you what it is.

Sans: that makes sense.

Papyrus: HUMAN!! WHAT DO YOU THINK!? PUZZLES OR JAPES? … … OKAY, THIS IS NORMALLY THE PART. WHERE YOU EITHER AGREE OR DISAGREE. AND DEPENDING ON YOUR ANSWER. WE SAY SOMETHING GREAT IN RESPONSE. …HERE, WHY DON’T YOU DO THIS PUZZLE YOURSELF.

Papyrus leaves a piece of paper on the ground and slowly exits right.

Sebastian: Well, he is attempting to be helpful. He would be meeting with more success, however, if he was remotely capable of comprehending the problem at hand. Perhaps being a skeleton is suppressing his self-preservation instincts?

The avatar ignores the paper and interacts with Sans.

Sans: hey… puzzles might be fun. if you tried them.

Sebastian looks irritated.

Sebastian: Yes, I actually happen to agree with that. If I was permitted to try them.

The avatar exits right, passes the dog house, and saves.

[6 left.]

Sebastian: Mini-bosses, I assume.

The avatar exits right again and encounters another puzzle, which Sebastian solves on the first try. He still smiles slightly as the avatar exits right.

Sebastian: Well, at least that wasn’t a complete waste.

The avatar exits bottom and finds Sans.

Sans: what’s up?

Sebastian: What, nothing else?

The avatar goes left and finds Sans on the other side unreasonably quickly. Sebastian smirks slightly and the avatar interacts with Sans.

Sans: say… are you following me?

Sebastian: Clearly, I have nothing better to do.

The avatar exits left, wanders around, and an encounter triggers. It is skipped without comment, and the avatar exits top again, and then right.

Sebastian: Quite a bit of fairly pointless wandering. Am I missing something, I wonder? Though that may be an engineered feeling.

The avatar continues on and finally encounters a number of small piles of snow, ending in a large, excitable armored dog which emerges from another. Sebastian pinches the bridge of his nose again.

[It’s the Greater Dog.]

Sebastian: My worst nightmare.

Sebastian defeats this foe easily.

Sebastian: There isn’t much challenge to this game, is there? Is that, too, deliberate?

Sebastian smirks.

Sebastian: Then again, I may simply be uncommonly good at it.

The avatar continues on, eventually coming to one end of a bridge. On the other, Papyrus and Sans waited.

Papyrus: HUMAN! THIS IS YOUR FINAL AND MOST DANGEROUS CHALLENGE!

Sebastian: I haven’t been given any challenges yet.

Papyrus: BEHOLD! THE GAUNTLET OF DEADLY TERROR!

Six different weapons emerge from various parts of the screen, in between the avatar and the skeletons. Sebastian raises his eyebrows and smirks.

Sebastian: Why, Mr. Skeleton, I never would have attributed such viciousness to your character!

Papyrus: WHEN I SAY THE WORD, IT WILL FULLY ACTIVATE! CANNONS WILL FIRE! SPIKES WILL SWING! BLADES WILL SLICE! EACH PART WILL SWING VIOLENTLY UP AND DOWN! ONLY THE TINIEST CHANCE OF VICTORY WILL REMAIN!!!

Sebastian looks unimpressed.

Papyrus: ARE YOU READY!? BECAUSE! I! AM! ABOUT! TO DO IT!

A pause. Papyrus turns away. Sebastian looks irritated.

Sans: well? what’s the holdup?

Papyrus: HOLDUP!? WHAT HOLDUP!? I’M… I’M ABOUT TO ACTIVATE IT NOW!

Pause.

Sebastian: Oh, for goodness’ sake.

Sans: that, uh, doesn’t look very activated.

Papyrus: WELL! …THEY’RE PROBABLY GOING TO WALK THROUGH IT. AND IT WON’T BE ANY FUN AT ALL.

Sebastian: You know, I’m not surprised in the least. And, of course, he doesn’t at all realize that once he activates it, ‘just walking through it’ is actually the entire point…

Sans: hmmm… so this human thing was a bust, huh?

Papyrus: WELL. I MEAN. I’M EXCITED TO CAPTURE THEM. SO I’LL BECOME A FAMOUS ROYAL GUARDSMAN!!!

Sebastian: You may try, Mr. Skeleton.

Papyrus: BUT ALL THE TIME I PUT INTO THESE PUZZLES… IT’S KIND OF LIKE THROWING A BIRTHDAY PARTY…

Sans: without traps and fire?

Papyrus: EXACTLY!! IT’S POINTLESS!!!

Sebastian: Goodness. I am violently reminded of far too many people.

Papyrus: MAYBE YOU WERE RIGHT TO BE LAZY ABOUT PUZZLES.

Sans: me? right about something? really?

Papyrus: …YEAH!! WHAT AM I SAYING! YOU’RE STILL COMPLETELY WRONG! I JUST HAVE THE WRONG AUDIENCE! THINK ABOUT HOW MUCH FUN UNDYNE WOULD HAVE HERE! FLAMES, VIOLENCE, IT’S RIGHT UP HER ALLEY!

Sebastian rolls his eyes.

Sebastian: Far too many people.

Papyrus: SO I WON’T WASTE THIS PUZZLE ON YOU. I JUST HAVE TO APPRECIATE… THE FRIEND I ALREADY HAVE!!!

Sebastian: And perhaps your brother, supporting you every step of the way. But that’s none of my business, of course.

The weapons withdraw and Papyrus turns away.

Papyrus: PHEW! A VALUABLE LIFE LESSON!!! NYEH HEH HEH!!!

Sebastian scowls as he reads the laugh, but does not drop the in-character voice. Papyrus exits right.

Sebastian: Another waste of time, I see.

The avatar exits right, passing Sans this time. Soon it comes to a town, which is mostly quiet. The avatar enters a building, and what appears to be a shopping screen pops up.

[But nobody came.]

Sebastian: That flavor text is going to haunt me in my rare attempts to sleep.

Sebastian selects ‘read’ first.

[(There’s a note here.) Please don’t hurt my family.]

Sebastian: This isn’t a game, this is a lecture on why it doesn’t actually pay to murder people who annoy you.

Sebastian then selects ‘steal.’

[You took 758G from behind the counter.]

Sebastian: And plenty of good that does me if I have no need to buy anything because the shopkeeper has apparently run away.

Sebastian selects ‘take’ and takes one of each item. Then he closes the shopping screen and the avatar continues to explore the area. It is abandoned. The avatar interacts with the sparkling save point.

[Determination.]

The avatar wanders right and finds a monster. Sebastian raises one eyebrow and the avatar interacts with it. He chooses a squeaky voice for the character.

?: Yo, everyone ran away and hid somewhere. Man, adults can be so dumb sometimes, haha… Don’t they know we’ve got Undyne to protect us!?

Sebastian [deadpan]: A tiny moron.

The avatar continues right, but every building it enters is abandoned. Sebastian frowns.

Sebastian: Then why bother to develop the town so thoroughly at all…?

Finally, the avatar exits right into a misty area. It continues right until it is obscured, and then stops and appears as a shadow. A moment later, a shadow Papyrus appears as well. Sebastian sighs, frowning.

Sebastian: Ah. From the looks of the scenery, I’d say it’s time.

Papyrus: HALT, HUMAN!

The avatar steps forward.

Papyrus: HEY, QUIT MOVING WHILE I’M TALKING TO YOU!

Sebastian smirks faintly.

Sebastian: I suppose it is rather rude. But it won’t matter soon, Mr. Skeleton.

Papyrus: I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, HAVE SOME THINGS TO SAY. FIRST: YOU’RE A FREAKING WEIRDO!

Sebastian snorts.

Papyrus: NOT ONLY DO YOU NOT LIKE PUZZLES. BUT THE WAY YOU SHAMBLE ABOUT FROM PLACE TO PLACE… THE WAY YOUR HANDS ARE ALWAYS COVERED IN DUSTY POWDER. IT FEELS… LIKE YOUR LIFE IS GOING DOWN A DANGEROUS PATH.

Sebastian’s expression falls into something unreadable.

Papyrus: HOWEVER! I, PAPYRUS, SEE GREAT POTENTIAL WITHIN YOU! EVERYONE CAN BE A GREAT PERSON IF THEY TRY!

Sebastian stops, and remains silent and motionless for five seconds.

Papyrus: AND ME, I HARDLY HAVE TO TRY AT ALL!!! NYEH HEH HEH HEH HEH HEH!

Sebastian does not react to either of these statements and reads them somewhat mechanically, though still in his chosen voice. The avatar steps forward again.

Papyrus: HEY, QUIT MOVING! THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT I AM TALKING ABOUT! HUMAN! I THINK YOU ARE IN NEED OF GUIDANCE! SOMEONE NEEDS TO KEEP YOU ON THE STRAIGHT AND NARROW! BUT WORRY NOT! I, PAPYRUS… WILL GLADLY BE YOUR FRIEND AND TUTOR! I WILL TURN YOUR LIFE RIGHT AROUND!!!

The avatar continues to walk forward. Sebastian’s voice has regained his energy, but he is still expressionless.

Papyrus: I SEE YOU ARE APPROACHING. ARE YOU OFFERING A HUG OF ACCEPTANCE?

Sebastian [softly]: Fool.

Papyrus: WOWIE!! MY LESSONS ARE ALREADY WORKING!! I, PAPYRUS, WELCOME YOU WITH OPEN ARMS!

An encounter triggers and Sebastian flinches, and then scowls.

[Papyrus is sparing you.]

Sebastian: He really is precisely that kind of idiot, isn’t he? Goodness.

Sebastian scowls for a moment longer, and then kills Papyrus in silence.

Papyrus: W-WELL, THAT’S NOT WHAT I EXPECTED… BUT… ST… STILL!

Sebastian cuts himself off. His eyes go wide and begin to glow bright crimson, and his canines lengthen into fangs. Three seconds pass, and then the glow fades from his eyes, his fangs shrink away, and he relaxes. He looks melancholy. Two more seconds pass, and he reads the dialogue in a quiet and unadorned voice.

Papyrus: I BELIEVE IN YOU! YOU CAN DO A LITTLE BETTER! EVEN IF YOU DON’T THINK SO! I… I PROMISE…

Three seconds of silence pass.

Sebastian: Well. If I had known he was that sort of character, I might have paid more mind to him earlier on. All the same… it is too late now, I suppose.

Two more seconds of silence pass, and then the avatar begins to walk again.