#also even if outer isn’t aware of the multiverse doesn’t mean he might not one day be available for asks…. we’ll see

[grayskiesandink]

( @sandeewithtwoe @drdontron ) <— tagging since your asks are answered here

(and thank you to the very sweet anon :) I’m so glad I can bring joy to you and your partner- all I want to do is spread joy and make people laugh! seeing that ask made my week!)

[nitewrighter]

Hiya Mun! |o/ its me birthday today! And I was hoping for some short Reidan drabble about anything if thats alright and possible? (Sorry for the ask 😅)

Ahhhh happy birthday!!! I was working on some Tommy Andromeda Reidan for that batch of prompts so yay!!!

---

50. “You’re the only one”

Band Mission! Band Mission! Band Mission!

-----

Backstage was always too warm, the curtain trapping in heat and roadies and venue staffers looking on suspiciously. There wasn’t really a dressing room so much as an offstage area with one might-be-pre-Crisis makeup mirror whose lightbulbs radiated heat as everyone crowded around it.

“Glitter me,” said Rajeev, flicking his finger up and down the fringe on his leather jacket. His head was tilted to accommodate his eyepatch.

“No!” Samir’s voice was muffled underneath his hard-light helmet as angry emoji eyes blipped up on his visor, “You’re going to be shedding that shit in our room for weeks!”

“Marti, tell him to glitter me,” said Rajeev.

“I told you guys, this is all Aedan’s vision, which means Aedan is in charge of our glitter budget,” said Marti. She was dressed in lavender-toned iridescent plastic overalls over a black bodysuit, her hair up in twin buns with a thin braid snaking over her shoulder. She had on silvery-purple lipstic and a temporary tattoo of three thick black rectangular lines over her right eye. She glanced over at Aedan, pacing back and forth in front of the mic, “Aedan? Does Rajeev need more glitter?”

Aedan was muttering to himself, chewing his thumbnail as he paced in front of the curtain. He wondered how quickly he was sweating off his makeup.

“Aedan,” Marti said again.

“What?” Aedan glanced up.

“You’re the expert, Tommy Andromeda,” said Marti with an eye roll.

“Right--okay--what was the question?” said Aedan.

Marti sighed. “Glitter,” she said flatly, “Should Rajeev get more glitter?”

“Oh--no, but you could use some more,” said Aedan, smoothing his hair. He had bleached it at the tips, creating a fiery ombre with his natural red hair. It nearly matched the gold sash at his hips and the copper spirals on his glittery blue one-sleeved unitard. It had cutouts on his opposite hip and with one slash at the thigh, showing off temporary tattoos of eyes and stars.

Marti shot the twins a dirty look before heading over to the makeup table and brushing glitter on her cheekbones.

“Mic check,” Aedan jerked to awareness at the sound of Rei’s voice coming over the speakers, “One, two three.” There was a tap on the microphone before Rei slipped back through the curtain to the stage. She was dressed in ripped jeans, a trucker hat, and flannel over a Velvet Underground shirt borrowed from Aedan. With her messy ponytail and aviator sunglasses, she looked every bit the part of a roadie and she flashed Aedan a smile, “5 minutes to showtime, Rocketeers,” she said, looking at her clipboard. She gave a thumbs-up to Marti and firmly readjusted the brim of her hat as a signal to Marti that she had established visual contact with Jaime. Marti gave her a single nod and Rei grinned and moved to walk off. She hesitated next to Aedan, those deep gray eyes flicking up and down at his outfit.

“...this probably all seems very silly, doesn’t it?” said Aedan glancing down at his outfit.

“I like it,” said Rei, “It’s very... you.”

Aedan snorted. “Well, if we ever get a chance to head onstage again, we could use a bassist, and the role of Celestial Priestess Oneira is still--”

“Hey. Personal Space Invader,” Marti called, catching them in the makeup mirror, “The Roadie still has a job to do.”

Rei gave him a smile and flicked a lock out of his sleeked-back hair so it hung in his forehead like a superhero spit curl, “Break a leg out there, Andromeda,” she said with a grin before slipping off.

“’Celestial Priestess Oneira?’”Marti repeated incredulously.

“If you read ‘The Andromeda Saga Cliffnotes’ document I sent you, you’d know that Oneira is a vital foil to Tommy Andromeda and his---”

“Oh my god only you would have an eight page document on lore for a band that isn’t real,” said Marti.

“No one appreciates concept albums anymore,” muttered Aedan, his shoulders slumping.

“We’re literally only doing covers,” said Samir.

“Again, I would like to stress that we just have to be competent enough to buy Rei a few minutes,” said Marti.

“That’s right, Rocketeers!” said Rajeev, strumming a note on his guitar, “Get your heads in the game! Or my name isn’t Dorado Crux!”

“Your name isn’t Dorado Crux,” said Samir flatly, “And also you’re wearing your eyepatch over your real eye.”

“...Prosthetic looks cooler,” said Rajeev with a shrug.

“Guys! Focus!” said Marti, hurrying over to her soundboard as Samir looped his keytar awkwardly over his oversized helmet. Aedan took his place at the blue masking tape-marked x at the part in the curtain.

“Okay. Tommy Andromeda. Here to save the multiverse with the power of rock and roll,” he muttered under his breath, hopping in place and rolling his shoulders.

“Or... here to create enough of a distraction so Rei and Jaime get the mission done?” said Marti.

“...sure,” said Aedan, “That too.”

The rest of the team, well, band, took their positions. Marti at her soundboard, Samir with his keytar, Rajeev on guitar, and Aedan on vocals. Rei on extraction. Jaime on lookout. Aedan took a few calming breaths.

“Hello Santa Fe, how’s everyone doing this evening?” he listened to the MC through the curtain. A lackluster swell of claps rose up from the audience.

Stay calm, Aedan, It’s just a jam session, just think of it as a jam session, he thought to himself.

“For your opening act we have some funky unknowns who claim they’re from outer space--We’ll have them send our regards to the apes at the lunar colony. Santa Fe, I give you, the Tommy Rocketers!”

The jumpsuit already felt like it was riding up by the time the curtain parted. The lights were too bright for Aedan to see the audience. He squinted, hoped his eyeshadow wasn’t melting under the lights

“Actually we’re Tommy and the Rocketeers--I’m Tommy--They’re... they’re the Rocketeers,” Aedan’s own voice seemed swallowed by mic feedback for a second as he readjusted the mic to his height.

“Like Bennie and the Jets?!” someone yelled from the crowd.

Aedan drew in a calming breath through his nostrils. If that was Jaime I’m going to kill him, he thought.

“We don’t get them back in the Andromeda system, are they good?” he asked, tilting his head with ingenue-wide eyes as he got into character. A snicker rippled through the crowd and Aedan smiled as Marti laid down a beat on her soundboard and brought in a warbling theremin note as Samir started accompanying her beat with organ from his keytar and Rajeev soon strumming alongside his brother. Aedan rolled his neck and stretched out his arms with that dancer posture before taking hold of the microphone, drawing in breath, and singing. He had agonized over the setlist, of course, and then there was the matter of what songs they could get down with only a little over two and a half weeks of practice. They warmed up the crowd with “Final Day,” definitely more New Wave than glam, but it fit their minimalist instrumentation and their spacey aesthetic with its semi-innocent, semi-prophetic lyrics seemed to placate the crowd into accepting them as semi-competent, with the “Woah-oh-oh” allowing them to transition into the more high energy “Senses Working Overtime,” a song just weird and well-known enough to let Tommy Andromeda feel more settled in.

 And, with a few hip shakes, suddenly he was coming to Aedan--every extra few seconds Aedan had taken to emote at himself in that character in the bathroom, every performance he had alone in his lab, every vivid fantasy he had had listening to music on long orca rides and quiet nights back at Talon was suddenly surging out of his heart and throat. He was in every swing of Aedan’s hips. Every stomp of his platform red and gold boots. He was the exiled magical space messiah who was a reincarnation of the prince of a fallen space kingdom who had to fight against the ancient order of his alien father’s--Okay, Marti was probably right about the unnecessarily convoluted backstory, but what mattered was that he was Tommy Andromeda.

---

Rei had her finger to her ear as she ascended the stairs to the VIP lounge. “Security cams are still down, right?” she said.

“Yup,” Jaime spoke over her earpiece, “You’ve got three loud songs in the set.”

“I only need one,” said Rei, reaching the door 

 Admittedly when Marti said they would be going undercover as the band and it turned out Aedan was the best singer out of all of them, no one expected him to suddenly heft up a cardboard box of costumes and notebooks of sketches, but ‘outlandish’ fit the role for this mission. It was an odd little side project Aedan had talked to Rei about it before, but it seemed so intimate to him she couldn’t imagine him putting it on the line for a mission. As Rei reached the door to the lounge, she could hear the band’s music muffled up through the stairs. She pushed the door open as “Because the Night” came on, Samir’s keytar was muffled in the walls as Rei scanned across the room. There was an interior window looking down at the stage and Rei tried not to get too distracted by Aedan’s brightly-colored figure swaying and dancing below before she glanced at the people in the room. There were a handful of Deadlock members laying about the room in various states of drunkenness and boredom. One of them glanced up at her, a burly biker with his boots propped up on a scuffed up coffee table. 

“Oh! Hey!” Rei rubbed the back of her head sheepishly, “Don’t mind me, I’m just looking for another extension chord.”

“...yeah we don’t have any of those,” said an Omnic picking dirt from his joints with a knife and barely glancing at her.

“Ah okay,” said Rei, “You know, while I’m up here, you wouldn’t happen to have a Null Sector Data Lamprey that you’re currently extorting interpol with, then?”

 Both Deadlock members glanced up sharply at her and Rei smiled. “I can go look downstairs---” she said, turning around before she felt a heavy hand on her shoulder. 

“Oh, mosh pit?” said Rei.

“What--?” said the deadlock member gripping her shoulder before she took hold of the biker’s forearm and flipped him over her, slamming him into the floor before pivoting and catching another Deadlock member in the stomach with a kick.

----

The Venue was your typical grubby-but-big bar show that had a handful of would-be music journalists trying to look casual in the audience. Jaime sipped at his ginger ale with resignation at the bar as the set started. All things considered, Aedan and the team weren’t that bad. Marti was probably carrying them, instrument-wise, but Aedan had decent pipes and seemed to be so caught up in.. whatever the hell kind of interpretive dance shit he was doing while singing that it kept the audience’s attention. Jaime kept watch on the whole venue from a corner opposite the VIP lounge overhead, and he glanced up to see the venetian blinds of the VIP lounge drawn, and rustling. He kept an eye on the window, watching the blinds sway before they stilled. He sipped his ginger ale again and suddenly the blinds were being drawn back to the side. Rei gave him a thumbs up from behind the glass and he gave a thumbs-up to her before she moved out of the window. He turned his attention back to the stage. Even if Marti, Aedan, and Rajeev were all coated in enough makeup to screw up facial recognition software, Samir was probably the smartest out of all of them by covering his face up altogether with that cute emoji-eyed helmet. Part Daft Punk, part ‘Danger Will Robinson!’ Jaime smiled a little. Samir was all business even as his twin was feverishly hopping around the stage, restrained only by his guitar’s chord.

“What did I miss?” said Rei, breathlessly stepping up next to him. She had ditched her flannel and trucker hat and shaken out her hair so that the Ziegler volume could pass for 70′s shagginess. She was still wearing Aedan’s ratty Velvet Underground shirt. 

“Rei--mission,” said Jaime.

“Oh, right,” said Rei, handing him the data lamprey from under her shirt, which he unceremoniously stuffed into the interior pocket of his jacket. Jaime drew a lighter from another pocket and lifted it over his head, making eye contact with Marti on the stage. She gave him a single nod. “So what did I miss?” Rei said again, now rolling up and tying off Aedan’s shirt into a sleeveless crop top.

“...Pelvic thrusts?” said Jaime, glancing back at the stage as Aedan was practically using his mic stand to pole dance to “Black Tongue.”

“Dammit,” Rei muttered under her breath.

Jaime snorted. “Don’t worry, he’s still in full bird-of-paradise mode.”

“Yeah,” said Rei, leaning her elbow on the bar and leaning her hand on her cheek, “Isn’t he amazing?”

Aedan was contorting himself on stage as he sung, letting his body shift and stretch with the sound.

“He’s... certainly... leggy?” said Jaime. He nudged Rei’s shoulder. “You should get closer to the stage.”

“I shouldn’t,” said Rei, “ I don’t want to distract him.”

“Oh come on, when are we going to get another band mission?” said Jaime.

“Well, you’ve been keeping lookout, it’ll look more natural if you go see Samir,” said Rei.

Jaime made eye contact with Samir and the emoji display on Samir’s helmet flashed up hyphen-closed eyes with a sweat drop.

“...I think he’s embarrassed enough without me rubbing his nose in it,” said Jaime with a snicker. He motioned with his head. “Come on. You’re Tommy Andromeda’s number one fan, right?”

Rei blushed and elbowed him. “I’ll be right back,” she said, hurrying into the concert crowd.

“Don’t throw your bra at him!” Jaime called after her.

“Don’t tell me what to do!” Rei yelled back, jumping so he could see her over the crowd.

---

Aedan wasn’t really sure how he had managed to get himself into a glute bridge pose while covering “Love is the Drug” but he stretched an arm up to the overhead lights as he vocalized. He was still lying on his back on the stage when they transitioned into the next song. The finale, “Baby It’s You,” by Promises. Aedan assumed all the foppish melancholy of Tommy Andromeda as he sang, letting his arm limply fall against the stage, his hand hanging over its edge. 

“You're here with me now but you're saying You don't want me any more You're holding me now but you're saying You can't see me no no more You whisper good-bye then cling tighter to me I can't take no moooooore---” Lower to the floor of the stage, he could make out more faces in the crowd, including one figure with dark hair in a Velvet Underground shirt. His eyes flicked open with sharp awareness as he brought himself upright on the floor. “Woo--oo---oooahhhh!” He clutched his spare fist to his chest before flinging his arm out to Rei in an imploring motion as he sprang to his feet and Rajeev slammed down on the C chord on his guitar, “Baaaaby it’s yooooou!”

Rei apparently didn’t anticipate him being able to pick her out of the crowd so quickly and her hand went over her mouth and she went beet red and a nervious laugh fell out of her as he started strutting around the stage, occasionally throwing her a wink or a hip gyration. A side-eye emoji flashed up on Samir’s helmet display as he looked at her and then looked to Marti, but Marti just smiled and kept working at her soundboard. They finished the mission after all, they might as well finish the set. She got a few glances from the crowd, but none of them seemed to recognize her as the roadie with her hair down and jacket off.

Aedan threw his head back as he dropped to his knees again with the chorus, glitter-saturated sweat gathering in the dip of his collarbone as he raised one arm up to an unseen night sky before gesturing back out at the audience--well, Rei, to be honest--as he hit that final high note.

“Baaaby it’s yoooooou!”

[dailyfantastic]

IT’S ONLY FOREVER: THE ETERNALS RECAP PART 1

ALONE IN THE UNIVERSE: THE ETERNALS ISSUE 1

Jack Kirby is the king of comics for many reasons, like his peerless art, boundless creativity, and frightening productivity. Also probably his amazing narration skills. Check out Mister Miracle to see what I really mean. But you can also check out The Eternals, which opens with the most powerful question of all:

“IS MAN ALONE IN THE UNIVERSE?”

If you’re a thoughtful Marvel comics reader, though, you might recognize a flaw in this question. The year was 1976, and it had been 14 years since Jack Kirby conclusively answered that question in Fantastic 4 Volume 1 Issue 2, “The Skrulls From Outer Space.” Mankind is not alone in the Marvel Universe, because there are Skrulls and Galactus and Impy the Impossible Man. Likewise, Jack Kirby had also already told us mankind is not alone on the Earth, because he has written comics featuring Atlanteans (like Attuma) and mutants (like Unus the Untouchable) and Inhumans (like Aireo).

So what’s the deal? Well....

Literally in this first line, I realized something no one has ever said about the Eternals before: this book is not supposed to take place in the Marvel Universe.

Mankind is not alone in the universe, but the Eternals are alone in their own Universe.

This thought is something we’ll be tracking throughout our read-through. I’ll tell you now, there’s more evidence coming soon, notably that Not A Single Other Marvel Character Even Cameos In This Book.

Depicted: The kind of thing the Fantastic 4 usually would handle

Look, it makes sense. Kirby did not like having his characters messed with. We know he resented the way his ideas got treated once he was gone, and we know he desperately wanted to make his Own Thing. That was the point of New Gods, right? Kirby wanted to carve out his own part of the DC Multiverse; he wanted to tell one complete story that no one else could meddle in. And he tried, but then they did.

So it obviously makes sense that Kirby would want to just have his own little sandbox to get cosmic in, without needing Reed Richards to explain why the Celestials can’t just be threatened with the Ultimate Nullifier this time.

But it explains, already, one narration box in, why this comic feels like such a weird fit in the Marvel Universe. It isn’t about Skrulls or Kree or Kronans. You’ll see that it doesn’t really mesh with Marvel’s everyman themes. This is something new.

This is...well, it’s...something.

There’s probably more worldbuilding in this issue than in any other single issue of any comic, but the plot that happens is basically just a lot of people going to South America. Which is fine, I guess. We’ll talk about the plot later, but let’s take this time to establish some of the primary lore elements we’ve learned so far.

Eons ago, unknowable space gods called the Celestials came to Earth. They saw apes, and like any unreasonably powerful godlike beings, they decided to evolve them into three forms. 

Depicted: Some Deviant art

Humans are pretty run-of-the-mill. The Jolteons of the crew, if you will. You know them: they love to cause problems on purpose and on accident. The second bunch are the Deviants.  They aren’t artists who love Sonic the Hedgehog, but horrific monstrosities who love doing evil. Flareon, of course. And lastly, the Vaporeons: the Eternals. The Space Gods’ greatest triumph. We learn in this issue that the Eternals are beautiful, cannot die, can hover, shoot lasers out of their eyes, and probably do whatever. Then the Celestials left, only to return semi-regularly to check in on their cool evolutions. Throughout history, Eternals and Deviants have appeared in human legends as gods, heroes, monsters, and demons. And now, in 1976, we are finally becoming aware of this fact as the Celestials return to cast their final judgment on all three species.

They’re doing this in some incredibly-cool-looking Kirby space ruins, located in an Inca temple. Cultural appropriation is obviously a big problem in all Ancient Alien comics, but I can’t deny that the visuals are the best part of the Eternals.

Depicted: South America is basically space

We meet a few characters as well, who are going to show up a few times. The Professor and his daughter Margo are our two main humans. He’s studying ancient history, and has agreed to let a mysterious man named Ike Harris show him these ancient ruins.

Who is Ike Harris? Well, if you say that name really quickly, and pronounce the “I” incorrectly, you’ll realize he’s Ikaris the Eternal, in disguise to try to get to the Andes to send a beacon to guide the space gods back to Earth. We don’t know much about Ikaris yet, aside from that he’s a handsome blond man who can shoot lasers out of his eyes and rearrange the atoms in the air to turn it into a solid wall.

Also joining the fray in this issue are Kro and Tode of the Deviants. Kro looks like how the devil looks when he shows up in certain Twilight Zone episodes, except he has the sunglasses that the Koopa Troopas wear in the early Paper Mario games, and Tode looks like Jabba the Hutt with arms and legs. The Deviants have a couple of key problems. One is that they can’t produce consistently-viable offspring and are instead breeding Deviants who are basically just Humans. The other is that they don’t want the Celestials to return to Earth, presumably because they’ve been naughty and they’ll get in big trouble.

Depicted: Kro’s parents

Also they live at the bottom of the ocean and shoot down airplanes for no real reason.

So the last thing you need to know is that Kro and his henchmen ride a submarine through a stone dragon’s mouth to reach these Inca ruins from underwater, which is a little weird when you remember that most Incan structures are several hundred miles above seawater.

And then, here we are: Humans! Deviants! And Eternals! Together in an Incan ruin, with the Celestials on their way.

It’s a dense issue. We literally learn all of these facts here, and still have time for Kro to try shooting Ikaris with a laser gun. I have no idea how quickly they’re gonna attempt to explain all of this in a major motion picture, but we’ll worry about that later on I guess. For now, we’re left off an exciting cliffhanger: the Celestials are on their way back to Earth, and no one knows if that’s good or bad!!

We aren’t alone in the Universe, but I’m kinda thinking things were an awful lot simpler when we were.

And coming next issue...Does Jack Kirby know any Inca mythology anyway?

[thegreatyin]

U.04 Thoughts...basically a review/reaction. But also not. Because I'm a sarcastic narcissist.

So- I- WOW.

I HAVE A LOT OF FEELINGS RN

OH. MY GOD.

(spoilers ahead, be warned!)

(Also, I wrote this on my Kindle Fire, so expect spelling mistakes.)

(Also, this is vry long yes™, so it's under the cut. Read at your own risk.)

First off, I'm gonna clarify - this is my thoughts on the FIRST VIEWING. I'm gonna re-watch it later and think about stuff more then. I haven't watched it a single time after the first, because I needed to write this.

Second...

Ink was portrayed BRILLIANTLY in this episode. This is EXACTLY what he is- only in it for his own entertainment/benefit. He is Chaotic Neutral at best, and Chaotic Evil at worst. And here? He's at his worst. Straight up ELIMINATING the rest of the Multiverse, breaking the natural order of things- all because he was bored. Goddamn, I love/hate that asshole.

I gotta give props to the animation, as well- it was gorgeous. Jakei is an EXCELLENT animator, and this episode was WORTH the wait. I actually paused the episode at certain points just to appreciate how a character breathed, or how good they looked.

While the humor wasn't a prime focus, one always has to give it a HUGE shoutout. The joy, of course, usually came from my own squeals at Error's usual crazy reactions to things (imsorryilovehim) but there were also times where I took a break from my sobs just to laugh hysterically. Lots of them, in fact.

Enough praises though, lets give it a rundown. Skipping over the part that was previewed, we start in Underwap, with X-Tale Alphys. Now, what I noticed here is that Code Frisk seemed a bit surprised at all this- but I'll put that down to out-of-ut shenanigans. Anyway, X-Tale Alphys somehow uses one of the X-Tale TIMELINES to 'quarantine' Underswap, that's the main thing. Here, we also get an explanation for why Papyrus didn't come with them...there wasn't any point to it. Which is kinda a grim start for the episode, if you ask me.

Skimming over the Underfell bit- I don't have much to talk about there, surprisingly - lets discuss Nightmare and Killer and X-Tale Chara. Nightmare got a few chuckles out of me here, I have to say. Mainly from the look he gave Chara after they wanted to get the vial. It was the perfect embodiment of 'dude wtf' 

I find it interesting here that Nightmare says that he 'owns' Chara. I mean- once they get to full power, they could just OVERWRITE him away.

Then again, it won't happen if he kills Chara first. Which he plainly can, dear Lord.

Now, what REALLY gets me in this scene is what Killer said. Because they took Classic's soul, they interfered with the UT Universe, thus making a ripple effect across all the timelines connected to it. This way, Killer knew EXACTLY what was going down.

This makes me wonder- does that mean, currently, all the Sanses in the Multiverse will be aware of the X-Event? Or just the ones closely intertwined with the main UT universe, like Killer's? It's a shame they never touch more on this, I personally find it fascinating.

Anyway, we finally make our way to Outertale, where we stay for almost all of the remaining episode. Here, the Sanses, Swap, Fell, and Sans, decide that they're done with Ink's bullshit. They want to go home, and they miss their brothers.

Unfortunately, Ink went missing, because he's a little shit that can't stay in one place like a good boy. So Classic has to take a break from his beautiful, busy hair-brushing and babysit this douche. AKA, go find him.

While looking, Classic finds a meteor shower, which...has no real importance. I'm not even sure why I included it, it's just a nice moment. Followed up by a fart joke.

Long story short, Sans encounters Outer, who is actually really fucking chill??? And I love?????? Him?????????? So much????????????????

Skipping ahead a bit, Nightmare attempts to force-feed Chara some poor monster's soul, but Chara can't eat that shit. You know what they can eat? Their soul! That's right - Glitchlord, aka ERROR, is here to find Ink and beat the crap out of him.

Little personal note- I love how he goes from basically 0 to 100 in a second. "Sup Nightmare, WHERE THE FUCK IS INK."

Turns out, Ink isn't feeling things, because not even Nightmare, who can sense emotions, can find him. Which means that Ink didn't take his pills today- naughty boy.

It's a shame we don't get more of Outer, tbh- I really liked him. That's definitely one of this episode's flaws. Alas, Killer has to kill SOMETHING, otherwise his name means literally nothing.

Skipping ahead, since I, again, don't have much to say about anything else- the Error and Ink fight.

DEAR LORD, THE ERROR AND INK FIGHT.

This thing is BEAUTIFUL. It's basically a game of keep-away between a grumpy glitchlord, a mad artist, and a smol anger child. Because that's what it is- and it gave me CHILLS. Mainly Ink. He gives me chills. How he looks, the way he can effortlessly throw down everyone WITHOUT his brush, the cut Error gave him- this is what he really is, at heart. Or should I say, without one.

The fight pauses so Ink can give a speach, and now? Now, we have CONTEXT.

Record Scratch.

Freeze frame.

That context.

Ink did this all because he was going to be empty without new AUs. He sided with X-Gaster because he needed something new. Something interesting. Something to fill the emptiness that is eternally there, he did it because he was bored, he did this all to have something new, he did it to play a game that would never end- and I'll fight you on it, that is the most human thing he's done, ever. Period. Never again, I show ship Ink and X-Gaster, we're calling it Creation, you can't stop me, it's sailed, and I'm the captain.

But, you ask, why did he have to be soulless to do it? Because he would otherwise feel guilty about leaving behind Cross- a genuine FRIEND. And if that also isn't the most human thing to do, if you can find a better example I'll write a bad Jerry X Reader fanfic.

(I'm not joking. I will, please pm me if you find something.)

Anyway, the real takeaway here is that Ink successfully summons Satan, AKA X-Gaster. And he proceeds to murder everyone, shove Error in the Anti-Void for being bad, give Ink's brush back, shove Classic back into UT, kill the AUs (no, actually, Error did that, but shh-) and make Cross...come back?

Horray! Start the victory parade!

...but not really. Because, from what I can tell(?), almost everyone is in a 'Quarantine ' zone, probably to wait while Ink and the X-Tale crew break bread and make their new world. Infact, from what I can tell, the only people besides them who aren't there are Error (who's having a fit in the AV), Cross, Dream, Fresh, and Nightmare and Killer, but those last two might just be around because Nightmare blends in with the background WAY too much.

x-Faster leaves, giving Cross the option to join him, and...I hope he doesn't. I pray he doesn't.

But enough of that. Let's talk about 'Valiant Heart' for a second, huh ~?

(Putting a break to pretend like I'm organized)

Tbh, I actually thought that Dream would DIE in this scene. Really - Nightmare saw a chance to get rid of a KNOWN thorn in his side, and he took it. Luckily, Cross saved him, and they both escaped...

But this scene has other things to talk about. First off, it's beautiful. This is the only thing in Underverse (so far/as far as I know) that isn't fully animated, instead shone in quick images and only having GORGEOUS song lyrics. I LOVE this part, and it might just be my favorite out of the whole episode.

Although..... I'm 25% percent sure that Dream and Cross went to X-Tale to hide, and Nightmare and Killer are now left alone in the black space that used to be the Doodle Sphere. Do they stay there? Is Nightmare's castle still existing?? This is like Killer's line at the start- I want insight to this.

For the sake of keeping this (long) thing short, I'm gonna end here, but...wow. Things are BLEAK rn. I can't even theorize any good possibilities - I'm shook. What a way to end an arc.

....or, should I say, what a way to start one~?