#also there are too many minor charas to name them all but i will have most of them on the official stats page

[olderthannetfic]

"Have there been purges on the Russian language sites yet?" We have one big archive which is for profit so they are shady at best. For example they had a "no mature content with characters under 16" and only R for chara" (which is yuacky as itself) and then they have (payed) moderators who can delete your fic because "yes you said that he's sixteen there but also you wrote that he looks younger that he is so it's still counting". They also deleted fics that had mentions of russian attac on Ukraine. Not in fics (site has a policy about "not writing fics about major tragedies until it's six months over" which I found restrictive but understanable) but like in notes as "pls donate to Ukraine" or "pls protest". And when goverment made last censor lgbt+ ban which now forbids not only "propaganda to children" but "all propaganda that can make same sex relatioships as equal to hetero", they lost their shit and made another site named slashbook that won't show up in russian search engines and won't assosiated with first archive in any way and then was like "we will drop ALL works containing slash and femslash there" but they had such a backlash after that that they kind of stopped this? But maybe will do it if giverment will send them angly later. Btw owners of site is not in Russia and servers are not in Russia too. They just scared about losing money from ads. Suckers. We also had two? I think? Smallish and still beta-ed (or more like alfa-ed) fannish archives but a) they ugly b) they both had the same "no sex with minors" and not clear in many ways rules so I'm not happy with them either. So it's mostly ao3 for now, but smallish fandoms have little to no fanbase there + it's just sad to lose place that was your TO-GO place for so long. I mean it's not the biggest problem in the world with war and distopian laws etc, but after long day of shit work and then volunteering and then reading upsetting news person should have a right to go to fanfic archive and just mindlessly scroll in search of perfect omegaverse and not think that some fuckers could sunk this ship if it's stop being profitable. Also there's some useful things in this archive that ao3 doesen't have and I will mourn them. Sorry for the long rant! Just thought that in can be interesting as I find other people talking about how fandom works in their countries facinating

--

Very interesting!

[blackbunnyblobchara]

[[Photo used is from Pinterest]]

Welcome to Gold Avion

Bonjour~

Gold Avion is both a restaurant,bakery,cafe and bar.Below here are my menu and meals you can order,please read the instructions first to get a full satisfied time here in my blog,Enjoy and be full

•••——————•••

Introduction:

Hi,Im blackbunnyblob here and in Ao3, my username could be either one of those.You can call me Bunny,Blob or Chara or just my full username if you want to.I use she/her and is straight as a ruler.I have autism, (mild-ish) ADHD ,and still going to school so my posts are pretty random and incoherent,please be patient with me. 

If by any chance meet or have seen post of another artist named ‘Multichara’,I’m sorry to tell you but she is now offline due to her account being deleted and cannot reset back all her work,All her AU’s are now mine and have given me full permission to have them as my own…Only because that person is actually ME,Hello~,I’m not actually dead

•••——————•••

Food Category:

Here are different meal courses you can have in my blog,both daily and exclusive 

Major:(Currently in the menu)

Multi-flavored rainbow cake (ROTTMNT)

Chocolate digital swirl (TADC)

Minor:(Exclusive in the menu)

Extra pepperoni cheese pizza (FNAF)

Happy Velvet-filled Cookies (Poppy playtime)

Apple Cream Pie (Welcome home)

Angel Beef Ramen w/ spice (Genshin impact)

•••——————•••

Warnings:

Sometimes my posts are dark and bloody (like blood and murder and all that icky stuff) so please be warned,and again, please be patient about me and my schedule, I’m sensitive on what I post and it will be very nice if you try not to give anything that might hurt my feelings or try to ask/say anything to me nicely.I am a human being ,so please, mind what you say.I am also not a Multishipper (I don’t support Leosagi,Kendratello or RaphCasey,I see them only as friends or BFFS,same thing with April x ‘any of the turtle boys’),please don’t attack me because of this,I just don’t see why shipping them with each other. This is an SFW blog but please be mindful that it will have many warnings of dark themes and whatnot,if you are a person who is uncomfortable with death and hurt/angst/anything in that bases,you can kindly leave and block me

Also…Drink responsibly and Eat with caution (I will have to see your ID to see if you can get a drink in the bar as policy stated,jk jk,just don’t drink too much)

•••——————•••

Other things:

If anyone, -I don’t know why would anyone do this- ,tries to go to me and seek advice and vent and stuff.Please be mindful that I’m not a therapist,I have some experience with mental health but not into a full instinct that I can actually help you like a full psychiatrist would do.I could still give some advice and tips if I’ve already dealt from it before but other than that, I won’t really be much any help.But don’t worry,you could still vent in here but don’t get your hopes up, I’ll just give you some virtual flower and water to make you feel better, all my customers (followers) here are safe and cherished ,your safe here and your health matters the most. I will not also tolerate bad behavior or any sort of bullying,it’s either behave or kindly leave or get blocked immediately.I also do not support TCEST and proshipping so also kindly leave or else I will unfortunately have to block you as well,Siblings are Siblings,Lovers are Lovers,it is messed up if you put those two together,they stay separated.

•••——————•••

Other other things:

Also…If you try to send an ask and I don’t answer or it takes a long time for you to have a reply from me…I’m sorry about that.I live in Asia so my time zone can be different from yours (depending on what country you live in), and school and work and all that.I’ll try my best to post at least something once a day but it would usually just be Drabbles or small writings,drawing can be pretty challenging for me since I still do traditional art….*cough**cough*because my parents still needs to think if I deserve an IPad *cough***cough*….so my drawings would be rarely seen here but I’ll post a doodle or wips and so.I would also post OC’s,Oc x Cannon content here so,yeah,also be mindful about that.And please,don’t steal my works and drawings or things that are rightfully mine.If you want to use my artwork or AU’s,that’s fine but it’s better if you credit me first 

•••——————•••

My Homemade Creations

My more exclusive menu’s:

(White clear wine) 

Bloody heart - Separated AU but all the boys gets taken away and Splinter is actually the one going o save them with April

(Riot Rum - Bloody Mary Vodka Mix)

INCOGNITO:PANDORA- To insure that peace stays still in the world,An unknown government official created the ‘Peace and National declaration of freedom on the earth’s race association’ or PANDORA after the yokai’s and mutants were able to go to the surface without war,it expanded till the whole globe was dotted with their secret operation.But when two enemy cooperation were against that law,the PANDORA had no choice but create weapons of their own,even if it’s inhuman and against moral code. Aka ,Experiments made to be weapons of war.There is more four of the main turtles made,older clones of themselves.

(Lemon curd sweets) 

Good Things Happened - Good future AU but things still never changed,life was still giving them a reason to hate it,they were still fighting enemies they need to end and protect earth like they have always have been since when they were still happy and young

(Strawberry Lemonade with lime tint) 

Happy Endings,Right? - My own version of the boys and having the more realistic injuries post-movie event,things are in shambles but their still together to mend things back to normal.Maybe,life would calm down for a bit

(Pork Stake with red wine)

Power and Ruins - Humans are in kingdoms,protected by walls and metal.Mutants and Yokais are in tribes,left to fight for their own.Hunting and Killing,Humans are the real monsters but if the yokais fight back and take what’s rightfully theirs,there the own being called that way.AKA,Yokais and Mutants are considered barbarians in this royal world.

(Spicy and Sweet Beef Stew)

TC:CR - Bad future AU but it stays like that,everybody lives but has a price,the world is still what it is when the sky turned pink,Mikey might knew how and why

(Blueberry Water Cakes with sprinkles)

What’s underneath? - April swore she lives alone in the isolated NY shoreline lands,just got a job by trying to extract good news in the town near the shorelines even if she was a rocky reporter,but things starts to get more weirder each time she gets close the rocky side of the beach near her home 

(Spicy and Sweet Fish fillet)

When worlds collide or MysticCoded - Yokais are now part of the human society,other dimensions are now known,a whole different world if curtain things in the Rise show changed earlier on.AKA,also my own take or iteration of TMNT but it uses Rise bases/basics.

(Riot Rum - Bloody Mary Vodka Mix)

Smoking Gunshots - To insure that peace stays still in the world,An unknown government official created the ‘Peace and National declaration of freedom on the earth’s race association’ or PANDORA after the yokai’s and mutants were able to go to the surface without war,it expanded till the whole globe was dotted with their secret operation.But when two enemy cooperation were against that law,the PANDORA had no choice but create weapons of their own,even if it’s inhuman and against moral code.

Edited:I only put my bigger projects in here to let you guys know this will be the only ones that are majorly served (active) in my posts,but it still doesn’t mean I won’t present (post) any other AUs other then this bunch,it just means it won’t be too active or frequently served (posted) that much.The whole list of my AUs came be clicked here if you want to check it out

FULL HOMEMADE MENU (AU LIST)~

FULL COURSE MENU (TAG LIST)~

Disclaimer:All AU’s are inspired either heavily or slightly,I did not copyright anyone and some of it are originally made by me.If you have any further questions,please do not hesitate to send an ask/question,I don’t mind.

~~•~~

Enjoy your Meal and have a great stay here in Gold Avion

And Remember,Drink responsibly and Eat carefully 

—— Yours truly,Bunny

[[Photo used is from Pinterest]]

[cheerful-solitude]

May I ask about your ocs?

Ok thank god tumblr doesn’t seem to have any character limit so I can go on for as long as possible.

Now, I don’t have much OCs as I have more of, “I wrote AUs about ToG and the characters within has strayed so far from canon they might as well be their own characters.”

There are probably more than thirty of them at this point, so I’ll go on a brief intro for 19 of them. Some have more lore than others, and some have their stories published in their interwebs, while most are stil in the WIP zone.

I know this answer is… quite late? Life got in the way, and it took some time for me to come up with a way to explain-but-also-not-explain the timelines… Enjoy ;)

New Message

To: Diana

Cc: muqin.1976

Subject: TTTs All Patch Notes (This should’ve been a meeting oh my god…)

Attached are all the images of the designs the rest of the agents and I put together. Look at them as you read along. If you have any questions, ask Father (Do not ask me which one. You know which one.)

Attachment 1

T21 V1.4 Patch Notes:

- No drastic changes have been made since the previous patch, so we continue in Version 1.

- All colors except red have aged like that grain of rice on the corner of the living room that couldn’t be swept by the broom: brittle and full of dust.

- Fella’s eyes that are too high on his face are still endearing to our design agents, so they stay.

- Fella has been given a jacket to “kill the bright red of his sweater”, and raise his Badass points by 20%

- Gris’s features have been sharpened. An agent has died of severe cuts to their psyche, informed that it was too hot.

- Gris has a coat to pair the 1920s Great Depression aesthetic he’s got going with the shirt and overalls.

T18 V1.1.2 Patch Notes:

- As these are just alternates outfits to mirror T6’s Snowdin Season, we continue on Version 1.1

- Night has slightly shorter hair and an earring. She is considered “cute”.

- Our agents can’t tell whether we have illustrated Agnis or Canon Khun. This is considered a win. We were later informed that the only difference, really, is that Agnis’ hair is longer.

T20 V1.4 Patch Notes:

- Finalized the height difference between Grace and Aguero. Changes in silhouette and basic design are minor aside from that.

- Grace’s hair is messier with split ends. Flowers are not so much delicately placed as they are tangled.

- Grace’s mismatched colored pupils are not a mistake. The tiny tears might be there permanently.

- Aguero’s tsundere points are increased to 9000.

Attachment 2

T19 V0.3 Patch Notes

- This timeline has yet to debut with a story of its own. Until then, development is underway.

- Bee has been given a “Your cousin, the skater” look. They may actually know how. There is a bee sewn on their jean jacket (jeacket?), for anyone that forgets their name.

- Congratulations to Romina for being the first Khun to pull off the Chara cheeks. Clearly, our agents have been watching too many FNAF videos, as she now looks a Puppet prototype runaway.

- Nobody expected that they would rise the rankings in drip.

T22 V.2.1 patch notes:

- Woele’s shirt has been changed to red to add more color variety to his design.

- Maoyu’s clothes has been simplified, as his design is already “pretty colored”

- The use of the “tile” feature and “warp” feature in drawing allows the creation of a knit pattern effect - especially liked in Maoyu’s vest as is looks like fish scales

- As always, references for Woele’s wings were necessary.

T14 V.3.0 Patch notes:

- As always, we strive to improve the visual appeal of our characters by keeping what works and improving what doesn’t.

- GBK’s color scheme is considered “iconic” and “swell matte” by one of our agents, so it has stayed in this third version.

- Although it’s considered “cheesy and on-the-nose”, the Roman numeral XIV will stay on the belt as well.

- The scarf from the short, “Phantom”, has finally been added to GBK’s design. Thanks to it, a new tile pattern is available for our use.

- Ghost no longer exists as of version 3.0. A tragedy for the agents that liked the booty shorts and ‘OwO’ face.

- Due to the previous note, whether the ‘GBK’ nickname will stay or not is up in the air. For consistency’s sake, the pseudonym will stay until further notice.

R17 V.1.3 - Knife - Patch Notes:

- Improved the “Kirio” look on Knife’s face.

- A research agent found that Yan’s hoodie used to be pink. Since Yan and Knife are cut from the same cloth, Knife now has this pink hoodie, with minor adjustments to fit his aesthetic.

Attachment 3

T26 V0.2 Patch Notes:

- No relevant changes have happened since the previous version.

- All members of the department have agreed to leave them alone for a little longer.

- They do not yet know these are the days they’ll miss.

E10 V1.4 Patch Notes:

- Kept the ace color palette in this version.

- Brought back C!Bam’s [NICKNAME PENDING] cape. No nipple-looking polkadots this time.

- New pattern available: Lace 01

- Gave C!Khun [NICKNAME PENDING*] a ‘mafia boss’ look. It’s the equivalent of a red flag, some agents acclaim. Surely, everyone will know not to trust him in any future games.

- Decided that not enough people had undercuts. C!Khun has one now (not visible from this image).

*An agent has suggested the nickname “Druval”, as the hairstyle is reminiscent of an old classmate by the same name. That classmate was also smart and a trickster. Pending revision.

T15 V.2 Patch Notes:

- Shaved some years off of Khun and gave them to Bam. A loss for height difference, a win for ‘Can comfortably write KB’.

- Reduced points in Bam’s “babie” category, put them in “disaster” and “charisma” instead.

- Further use of the warp tool to create patterned garments that could be sold on EBay.

- Gave Khun hearing aids and a backstory to go with it.

Attachment 4

T2-1 V1.4 Patch Notes:

- Rune gets its 726362 design - now with actual terms and key words to use as future reference. (It’s a bastard sword).

- Decided that Knight is a polo shirt guy.

- Fixed Prince’s fluff collar.

T16 V1.2 Patch Notes:

- This patch comes with more updates for Glasses than Dete. The former now has a one-piece made with canvas-like fabric, and some arm warmers.

- Added more fluff to Dete’s hair (and the timeline).

T23 V2.0.3 Patch Notes

- Admitted that trying to make a reference sheet for anything other than their faces is a waste of time, as they change outfits Swifter than Taylor changes partners (and sexuality, apparently).

- All agents can agree, though, that the King’s outfits get comfier over time.

- No one has yet dared to come up with proper nicknames for King-Khun and Not-yet-king-Bam. No pseuds are as practical as K!Khun and K!Bam, so it’s understandable.

Attachment 5

T2-2 V2.1 Patch Notes:

- THEY DON’T NEED TO CHANGE THEY ARE PERFECT

- That said, management decided Skel should be more fragile, like glass. Needs to depend on a firefish to continue living in this form. They also said they just want to see a ribcage fish bowl.

R17 - Ryan - V1.0.2 Patch Notes:

+ It’s been requested that Ryan must be at least five timelines away from Knife at all times. As a company, we always go the extra mile, so we’ve placed him six timelines away in this lineup.

+ Begun the use of prints on shirts.

+ We have saved budget thanks to Ryan not having a face.

E11 V1.1 Patch Notes:

- Although it is dubious whether the entities known as Frost and Daffodil continue to live as shades of themselves after their deaths, the original timeline and characters are still very much real. The designs in this patch, thus, reflect the versions of them that were alive.

- An agent submitted a note that summarizes a new addition to this patch better than I: “Oh my god they are T4T.”

Attachment 6

E12 V2 Patch Notes:

- Mariam’s design has reverted back to its original idea: kind of dead, sharp shapes, tiny waist.

- There is uncertainty in whether the entity known as Palomo is real or just a product of Mariam’s imagination due to guilt.

- Decided to go back to the original idea for Omo: just a really creepy doll.

T5 V4.2 Patch Notes:

- Clearly, the timeline with the most drastic revisions.

- This patch comes with Viole’s ‘emo’ design presented in January. We sent feedback to Mother at this request, summarized as thus: “Really?”.

- As a response, we only got, “It stays.” So it stays.

- No one is sure why Viole has a bedhead.

- Hang in there, Kitten.

Attachment 7

T4 V2 Patch Notes:

- Including Clover here is more a formality than anything. His design was finalized over a year ago, and his story wrapped up way before that.

- That said, V2 brings the problem that the First Meeting Event, Second Meeting Event, and all other storylines stemming from that (basically two-thirds of our stored data), has essentially been… rebooted.

- Once again, someone decided to fork up all our plans.

T17 V2 Patch Notes:

- Both Yan and Ket have had redesigns recently. This is just a late roll-out.

- For Ket, we tried a more “DIY plush” look to his design. Some agents are crying with the knowledge that they have to make at least six other versions of this blanket. Others are already looking for shortcuts.

- As for Yan, he had a long overdue design coming. The agents like the futuresque/streetwear hood. One of the agents nicked his eyebrow.

- Unlike Version 1, Poff comes earlier in the timeline. What this means for future updates is yet to be l solved as we go.

Attachment 7

[scheming-rat]

i got undertale for my ninth birthday!! friend, that game seriously rewired my brain. this is going to be crazy long, so i’m sorry for that!!

my original favorites nine whole years ago(?!?) were alphys first and foremost (it makes me so sad when people hate her!!! i related to her even as a baby) and also to a lesser extent asriel + chara. flowey is asriel, went through the same stuff, so i loved him too, but the sibling relationship was the big thing. the unbreakable bond that all went wrong, ended with both of them dying and one of them coming back with so so much trauma…

these days, it’s hard to say who my favorites are. i seriously love the entire cast so much. alphys is still definitely at or near the top tho. i definitely liked papyrus initially, but i think he’s way more up there now. peak character tbh. mad mew mew deserves a spot because undertale subliminally turned me trans, even if it was before her time. chara and asriel are still favorites, probably even higher than before because i have a somewhat more developed brain and i can actually get how tragic everything was with those two. i also appreciate flowey more now as a cool reflection of the player and a very interesting antagonist.

i did also just remember that i was sans for halloween when i was like, 10. so. that’s something. although i do think it was because my friend who was being frisk asked me to be sans (odd combo? i don’t think my friend was a shipper tho) rather than any particular attachment to the character. i love him, but not moreso than the rest of the cast.

but honestly, they all just kinda feel like my friends, and having favorite friends feels mean. genuinely, the game would not be the same if any of the cast was missing. (except for maybe that one guy, the old royal scientist? i forget his name. he just wasn’t very memorable, i guess.) so i had to really think about who my favorites might be now, since they’re all so necessary and perfect and awesome. even minor characters have so much charm, and the major ones are as deep as the goddamn mariana trench. i know this response is a lot longer than was prompted, but i feel that it would be a misrepresentation of my thoughts to name just some of the characters when i would die for nearly all of them.

undertale has made me cry countless times, and it basically defined my childhood. it’s still occupying over half of my brain, along with its sibling (which i could also talk about for too many hours. it is inadvisable to talk to me about either of these games). i think i’ve said all i have to say, so i hope that if anyone reads this, they appreciated the ramblings of a deteriorating mind. there may be more to come.

I'm really curious, ut fans that grew up with undertale (or anyone who became a fan years ago), who was your favorite(s) when you first discovered undertale and who is your favorite now?

[checkmatein3moves]

(18+) YOU are the heir; the child of one of the most powerful women on Oracle Island. When she’s accused of murdering her sister almost forty years prior after the revelation of a suspicious anonymous tip, her power falls to you — but so will her reputation. 

Many questions present themselves: is your mother a killer? Who wants to see her fall for it? Who will make the next move in the inevitable game? Can you play as well as the rest of them? 

The Elite Class are full of blood and schemes. Your generation carries the scars of those before them, and thus you all must join the game or face the consequences. But dark intentions are cloaked in silk and diamonds, and the heady taste of power corrupts like an infection. 

The world stops for nobody, but the biggest players need only the blink of an eye to dominate the board. (DEMO) / (SKINTONE REFERENCE) / (PATREON) / (KOFI) / (SPOTIFY) / (PINTEREST)

FEATURES.

unravel a mystery that will change your family legacy for generations.

prove yourself a capable heir through arrangements, alliances and key decisions. 

party! balls, galas, festivals and the like are hotbeds of opportunity for business and pleasure. beware what goes on in the dark.

discern who you can trust and who to be wary of — no shortage of falseness surrounds you now. 

try to denounce the game, play it reluctantly or get a taste for it yourself. 

influence the trajectory of oracle city.

who bleeds the most when everything is set in motion? 

LOVE INTERESTS.

HEBE HALE. 24. the best friend. (she/her, cis)

6′0. 6′5 in her favourite heels. bleached blonde, glamorous and slender. brown-skinned like her mother and square-jawed like her father with golden-brown eyes full of laughter. often keeps her hair slicked back. looks as effortlessly good in jeans and a sweatshirt as she does in a cocktail dress. supermodel exterior hides a loyal lion heart and geeky tendencies. daughter of the most powerful man on the island. she works as a digital artist for a popular comic series.

you’ve known her since you were eleven and have been friends for almost as long. most only see that she’s a rebellious leader-type with the kind of humour that has people snorting into their champagne glasses, but you know how much more there is behind that. you’ve seen her cry from creative burnout, fall in love with the oldest dog at the animal shelter, speak at length about everything she’s afraid of and talk her younger sister down from panic attacks. you know she only wants the best for you, but things are different than when you were kids; what some find protective and endearing, others find overbearing.

WINDO WINDHAM. 22. the other best friend. (he/him, cis)

5′6. petite. mousy brunette with shaved sides and hair that falls purposefully over his forehead. eyes are a greeny shade of hazel. white, somewhat ruddy complexion that isn’t helped by the fact he prioritises fashion over comfort regardless of the temperature. enjoys mismatched clothes, faux fur, pleather, PVC and colourful tinted glasses. youngest adopted son of one of the windham family. he’s studying hard to be an attorney.

you’ve known windo longer than hebe, but circumstance brought you all together as friends. as the youngest of an all-adopted family, he considers himself a patchwork of everyone that influenced him growing up, and the perpetually frazzled, neurotic and enthusiastic windo has always felt he has something to prove to those who think him too emotional or fragile to land a serious career. he refuses to let his generosity or perceived naivete be considered weaknesses. instead, he prides himself on resilience and adaptability, believing those are what give him the strength to be sincere. whatever he can do to help you, just say the word.

SAILOR BONES. 23. the live-in valet. (they/them, genderfluid)

6′2. broad-shouldered with tan skin and thick black hair that starts neatly coiffed in the mornings but often ends with locks out of place by the evening. their eyes are reddish-brown beneath thick eyebrows, and their full lips combined with a resting sardonic face give them the impression of pouting a lot. their uniform is almost always adjusted, with buttons undone and sleeves rolled up. 

your relationship with sailor will always be more complicated than the average employer-employee whether they’re your ex, your friend or something else. they signed when you were both 18 to train under your head of staff, but things were more simple back then. nowadays, although they enjoy a degree of informality with you, they’re far more careful about how your relationship appears in front of people that might judge. because of that, few other than you know that their cool exterior hides a soft heart. they will stretch the bounds of decorum to complain about their job, but somehow that doesn’t stop them from trying to take on extra hours elsewhere. 

JELLY SISSEL. 21. the aspiring trailblazer. (she/they, non-binary)

5′5. pale-skinned, round-faced, button-nosed and fat with long purple hair, often bolstered by extensions and hairspray and tied into pigtails. their eyes are a rare blue so dark they appear almost black, naturally wide as though they’re always surprised. like windo, they dress outlandishly, but with more precious metals and gemstones. the heir to the sissel family, a new money household rapidly rising the ranks. they’re considering a political career.

you spent more time with jelly when you were little, but you’ve always existed in the same social circle. though she’s charming and extroverted and always offers a shoulder to lean on, you know there’s a more cunning nature behind sugar sweetness. she’s never been one to hide her penchant for mischief, especially in cohorts with her best friend twenty, but she’s expressed before that she’s both excited and afraid to influence more than petty games someday. has a reputation for being a player, but never details any of her experiences.

TWENTY ZU. 20. the contradiction. (he/him, cis)

5′11. 6′1 in the heeled boots he normally wears. tawny-skinned and sharply handsome with an aquiline nose and light brown eyes, he has a near-perpetual scowl and an underbite that obscure the boyishness of most of his features. his brown hair is just long enough to cover his eyes if unstyled — which it often is. wears green a lot, usually sweaters that cover his neck. wears his large square glasses very occasionally. is the affair child of penelope zu, mars zu’s deceased ex-wife, but mars claimed custody of him in the divorce anyway. in his second year of studying genetics.

it’s difficult to get close to twenty, but you know him better than most. a genius with a maverick style, twenty has always liked exploring the realms of the theoretically impossible and chasing down the mysteries of oracle history. since he never felt like he belonged to his family, he found that connection in jelly and takes the position of friend incredibly seriously. has severe trust issues due to past relationships and the obscure details of noir’s estrangement, so getting past his barriers requires a lot of work.

NOIR ZU. 27. the pariah. (he/him, cis)

5′7, or at least close enough. fairly broad, but rather drawn from stress and tiredness. he’s a few shades lighter than twenty with jet black hair that curls slightly around his ears and frames his wide face. his jaw and cheekbones could cut glass, and his eyes are so brown they seem to swallow all the light around them. twenty resembles him in the mouth, but noir has a wider, less pronounced nose. estranged fourth son of the zu family. struggling investor.

most of the things you know about him you heard from twenty, and the half-brothers stopped speaking four years ago after noir stopped rebelling and got boring and adult. what is common knowledge is that he’s friendless, avoidant and his reputation for disappointing his powerful father follows him like a cloud. most people write him off as a lost cause and are just waiting for him to sink, but it might not be too late for him to change.

HONEYSUCKLE ‘HONEY’ GOLD. 22. the enigma. (she/her, cis)

5′7. honey is buff with an athlete’s physique and white, freckled skin. she has a small, sharp nose, pale heart-shaped lips that match her face and watchful light grey eyes. her hair is dyed a few shades paler than her eyes and often held in a utilitarian ponytail. you’re so used to seeing her in her work uniform that you can’t begin to guess at her personal style. she works kitchen and bar in moon tower, the tallest building in the city. 

you barely know anything about her, but you’ve become used to having her around for your trips down to moon tower’s basement kitchen during various charity events and parties. most of the time she keeps her head down and focuses on the job, but hebe has built a rapport with her through playful banter and teasing that has some of her true colours showing through. she’s careful and considerate and more on the serious side, but she’s still deliberate with what she reveals.

JARETH JANUARY. 23. the media rival. (he/him, cis)

5′10ish. strong without being ripped, extra padding on the thighs, stomach and chest. has a light peachy complexion. his hair might be naturally blond (though it’s debated) but is currently dyed inky midnight blue and most often perfectly lacquered into a dramatic side-part. his eyes are a striking blue but usually dimmed by various coloured contacts, and his hooked nose contrasts the soft lines of his face. he wears ~intellectual~ rimless glasses. though he has no moneyed parentage, his success as an actor only continues to grow.

for some reason, jareth has chosen you as the beacon of what he wants to challenge. since arriving on the scene he has cultivated a brand of creative pretentiousness and declared his disdain for the elite he has carved a place amongst. though most see his act as an entertaining novelty, some are impressed by his boldness. his serious acting talent bolsters his credibility, but it’s hard to tell when he’s being honest for better or worse. in times like these, that’s more dangerous than ever.

CLAREMONT ‘MONTY’ KAMYA. 24. the media darling. (she/her, cis)

5′1. monty is chubby with a wide face, slight bunny teeth and a soft-sloped wide nose. she’s dark-skinned and has back-length curly black hair that falls around her face, often threaded with rings and silver charms. has a signature black lipstick, a septum, a medusa and a vertical labret piercing. her eyes are a true brown that get richer in sunlight. goth fashion icon. jareth’s co-star and first ever onscreen love interest, though she comes from a well-known family within the top 30 on the list.

 a few months ago, monty’s older brother unexpectedly passed away, leaving her as the family heir without notice. there’s been a lot of gossip regarding what the kamya family plan to do now that their heir is already successful in her own career field, and rumours have been slowly circulating about an upward marriage. you’ve yet to meet her in person, but from what you know of her reputation, monty is gentle, well-spoken and organised. 

LUDO LEE. 25. the rebel. (he/him, trans)

6′4ish. ludo is large and athletic with pale skin and thick muscles. has a black-blond shag cut that falls over his eyes unless tied back. brown eyes with a black outer ring, giving them a cool hue. a delicately curved nose and a face that suits an open-mouthed smile. honey’s roommate. 

as of now, he’s far from your world.

NOTABLE ELITE.

VIOLETA VINTEREN. 56. (she/her, cis)

5′7-8. rest of appearance determined by MC. 

your party-loving, colour-embracing, seemingly ditzy and careless mother. the ex-head of your family and architectural company. currently awaiting trial.

BENZ HALE. 56. (he/him, cis)

pale skin, grey-blond hair and icy blue eyes. at least 6′4. 

the current most powerful man on oracle island with a monopoly on most technological patents and your best friend’s father. for years he was your mother’s ally as he climbed the list of elites, and shall be yours unless you choose otherwise. known for being a ruthless businessman.  

MARS ZU. 52 (he/him, cis)

tawny-skinned with dark, intelligent eyes. seems taller than he is due to his dignified appearance.

a shrewd businessman with a cutting wit, mars is the hand behind the operating of the most popular broadcasting channels on the island and benz’s biggest competition for power. is rarely seen interacting with any of his children publicly other than his eldest daughter.

LISSO WINDHAM. 59. (she/her, cis)

small and mousy, lisso windham appears more a kindly grandmother than a powerful hotel tycoon. 

you’ve met her and her wife a few times through windo, and both women have been kind to you. you know little of her as a businesswoman. all of her children are adopted. 

MELONY SISSEL. 47. (she/her, cis)

a fashionable, bright woman with a rosy complexion, you can see the resemblance between her and jelly. 

the head of the only family in the top 10 without generational influence, melony makes it obvious she doesn’t share the dreams of her late father. owns some of the most resource-rich mines and oil rigs. 

TADLEY WEATHERBROOK. 26. (he/him, cis)

pale, with messy blond hair. his tall and gangly appearance belies his brutish attitude. 

since his father is in the hospital with a terminal illness, tadley has taken over as the acting head of his family and the weatherbrook health and life insurance company. his abilities remain to be seen, though he’s faced with public doubt. 

LAUREL TRAVERS. 32. (she/her, cis)

blonde-haired and blue eyed, she has almost no features that she didn’t inherit from the father that turned his back on her.

benz’s daughter and the head of the travers family. in charge of an event planning business to promote the travers’ beverage company. your mother liked her despite her self-obsessed attitude and opportunistic unwillingness to tie herself to anything. hebe has a functioning relationship with her. 

OTHER CHARACTERS.

MYRTLE COFFEY. your head of staff.

TALLULAH ETHERIDGE. your old tutor.

VOLTAIRE VOLTAIRE. frontman of a rock band.

FAYE LASSETER. dedicated reporter.

CALLISTO NAZARI. your mother’s lawyer. coincidentally, also windo’s mentor.

[potatogoats1blog]

Hi, welcome to my blog!

Im Alex, you can call me Soap/Moss(or both), Neko, Goat/Potato, or anything you like!

I speak Russian/Ukrainian, Italian, and English. No war or russiaphobia mentions, i chose stay on the neutral side and I'm glad if you get that.

My pronouns are he/they/it. You may use "she" only if we're close and im comfy with you

Im genderfluid!

This blog is Drama-free! That means i will not support or enter any gender/sexuality drama in the UT/DR fandom or any fandom in general.

KFC gang and many other characters canonically use They/Them pronouns. That doesn't give you the right to envade personal space of someone who thinks otherwise or makes AU's with ANY of them using different pronouns. Keep your believes and headcanons(and the urge to spread canons) to yourself.

Warning list:

Ban list:

@lovesupportbot (for being cringe, homophobic and pushing me(and other ppl) to blackwash my characters)

DNI undercut

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

Do not(or try not to) interact if you're:

· Racist, Homophobic, transphobic, anti-feminist or an asshole in general

· Pedofilia supporter (including such ship as Frans. I know there's some version of Frans that is NOT pedofilia or where both characters dont have a huge age gap, but please, still do your best to not interact with me if you ship those

Upd 4.1.23: Such ships as Chans, Chariel, and any other type of incest/pedophilia(/big age gap ships), are in the list too! )

· Art tracer. Fuck you i will spit on you and slap you

· Hi! There was a black/white-washing and making characters trans/nb part of the DNI. I wrote it when i was the person who misgendered KFC and other nb characters and i absolutely didnt remember it was there, when i was updating my DNI list. I am sorry if you ever saw that. I am deleting this part because i do not think about these things anymore. Everyone is free to do their HC's how they like them as long as they dont disrespect any other authors or the canons of the characters. Peace <33

And the usual!

Now what you may see in my blog? <3

CHARISK! - It's my comfort ship, so yeah, you may see it alot here!

My Chara and Frisk are absolutely not canon. My Chara uses she/they and My Frisk uses all(she/he/they/it!! No neo)pronouns. Please do not misgender them.

T.H.D - which stands for "The hero disappeared", which is.. My Deltarune AU! You may ask more about it, but im currently working on an animatic for it!!

THD TRIGGER WARNING: Minor smoke, drugs, death, sh/su1c1de, homophobia and violence. Also injuries and blood and many non kid-friendly things

NONAMETALE - it has no name, but it's my AU, check it uwu

And also other au's, fanarts, reblogs and sh!tposts.

GORE, BLOOD, SH/SU1C1DE, MINOR SMOKING, DEPRESSION MENTIONS OR VISUAL REPRESENTATION OF IT. - many violence huh

IM OK WITH MINORS ON MY BLOG, but my blog contains GORE, BLOOD, SH/SU1C1DE, AND MANY OTHER NOT KID-FRIENDLY THINGS. So it's going to be YOUR responsibility if you get traumatized. I warned you.

To get an anonim ask write "/Anon". I will not answer the ask directly from the askbox and i will not look at your blog. I'll post the question in a regular post and answer it

Being a child with special needs doesn't free you from your responsibilities! So be careful of what you write.

PLEASE USE TONETAGS!

Important info: i have 4 sonas, all of them use the same pronouns as me and all of them are genderfluid. I have suicidal intentions, SH problems, and should get therapy but can't afford that. I seek happiness in my comfort characters and i may change them to stay even more comfy. Its my happy space, do not ruin it and I'll be respectful in your space.

[5/09/2022]

[Upd 23/09/2022]

[Upd 20/12/2022]

Read this.

[thefreakinthemirror]

Hello. Please disregard the old blog that ran by the same name. That was me, and this is me, deciding I wanted to keep the name but run a different sort of blog. My name is Chara, and I'll be your tour guide through all of my shit. My preferred pronouns are ze/zir, cloud/clouds/cloudself, and clover/clovers/cloverself, though there are a shit ton more. I am many things, including but not limited too: neurodivergent, an age regressor, gay as all hell, a writer, a band kid, and a minor. This place is nothing more than an area to put all of my random ramblings that I come up with. Don't expect much to come of this, but who knows. The usual DNI, I am far too tired to type them all out. I also run two other blogs, @gray-culture-is and @agere-culture-is. Go check me out there. That being said, let's all have fun. Let's see if I can stay dedicated to this for more than three days.

[justmenoworries]

Not Up For Interpretation - An Essay On Nonbinary - Erasure

(Trigger Warning: Misgendering, Transphobia, Nonbinary-phobia)

If you’ve been following me for a while, you probably know this was a long time coming. I’ve made several posts about my frustrations concerning this topic and how much it hurt me just how socially accepted erasing an entire identity still is. While representation marches on and things have become better for nonbinary people as a whole, we still battle with a lot of prejudice - both intentional and unintentional.

In this essay, I want to discuss just how our identities are being erased almost daily, why that is harmful and hurtful and what we all can do to change that.

Chapters:

What does Non-binary mean?

Nonbinary- representation in media

So what’s the problem?

How do we fix it?

1. What Does Non-binary Mean?

Non-binary is actually an umbrella term. It includes pretty much every gender-identity that’s neither one or the other so to speak, for example, agender.

Agender means feeling detachment from the gender spectrum in general. If you’re agender, you most likely feel a distance to the concept of gender as a whole, that it doesn’t define you as a person.

There are many identities that classify under non-binary: There’s gender-fluid (you feel you have a gender, but it’s not one gender specifically and can change), demi-gender (identifying as a gender partially, but not completely) and many others.

Sometimes, multiple non-binary identities can mix and match.

Most non-binary people use they/them pronouns, but like with so many things, it varies.

Some nonbinary-people (like me) go by two pairs of pronouns. I go by both she/her and they/them, because it’s what feels most comfortable at the moment. But who knows, maybe in the future I’ll switch to they/them exclusively or expand to he/him.

There is no one defining non-binary experience. Nb-people are just as varied and different as binary people, who go by one specific gender.

There are non-binary people who choose to go solely by she/her or he/him and that’s okay too. It doesn’t make them any more or less non-binary and their identity is still valid.

If your head’s buzzing a bit by now: That’s okay. It’s a complicated topic and no one expects you to understand all of it in one chapter of one essay.

Just know this: If a person identifies as non-binary, you should respect their decision and use the pronouns they go with.

It’s extremely hurtful to refer to someone who already told you that they use they/them pronouns with she/her or he/him, or use they/them to refer to a person who uses she/her.

Think about it like using a trans-person’s deadname: It’s rude, it’s harmful and it shows complete disrespect for the person.

Non-binary people have existed for a very long time. The concept isn’t new. The idea that there are only two genders, with every other identity being an aberration to the norm, is largely a western idea, spread through colonialism.

The Native American people use “Two-Spirit” to describe someone who identifies neither as a man nor a woman. The term itself is relatively new, but the concept of a third gender is deeply rooted in many Native American cultures.

(Author’s Note: If you are not Native American, please do not use it. That’s cultural appropriation.)

In India, the existence of a third gender has always been acknowledged and there are many terms specifically for people who don’t identify with the gender that was assigned to them at birth.

If you’re interested in learning more about non-binary history and non-binary identities around the world, I’d recommend visiting these websites:

https://nonbinary.wiki/wiki/History_of_nonbinary_gender

https://nonbinary.wiki/wiki/Gender-variant_identities_worldwide

https://thetempest.co/2020/02/01/history/the-history-of-nonbinary-genders-is-longer-than-you-think/

https://www.teenvogue.com/story/gender-variance-around-the-world

Also, maybe consider giving this book a try:

Nonbinary Gender Identities: History, Culture, Resources by Charlie Mcnabb

2. Non-binary Representation In Media

The representation of non-binary people in mainstream media hasn’t been... great, to put it mildly.

Representation, as we all know, is important.

Not only does it give minorities a chance to see themselves in media and feel heard and acknowledged. It also normalizes them.

For example, seeing a black Disney-princess was a huge deal for many black little girls, because they could finally say there was someone there who looked like them. They could see that being white wasn’t a necessity to be a Disney princess.

Seeing a canonically LGBT+ character in a children’s show teaches kids that love is love, no matter what gender you’re attracted to. At the same time, older LGBT+ viewers will see themselves validated and heard in a movie that features on-screen LGBT+ heroes.

There’s been some huge steps in the right direction in the last few years representation-wise.

Not only do we have more LGBT+ protagonists and characters in general, we’ve also begun to question and call out harmful or bigoted portrayals of the community in media, such as “Bury Your Gays” or the “Depraved Homosexual”.

With that being said: Let’s take a look at how Non-binary representation holds up in comparison, shall we?

This is Double Trouble, from the children’s show “She-Ra And The Princesses Of Power”.

They identify as non-binary and use they/them pronouns. They’re also  a slimy, duplicitous lizard-person who can change their shape at will.

Um, yeah.

Thanks, but no thanks.

Did I mention they’re also the only non-binary character in the entire show? And that they’re working with a genocidal dictator in most of the episodes they’re in?

Yikes.

Let’s look at another example.

These three (in order of appearance) are Stevonnie, Smoky Quartz and Shep. Three characters appearing in the kid’s show “Steven Universe” and it’s epilogue series “Steven Universe: Future”.

All of them identify as non-binary and use they/them as pronouns.

Stevonnie and Smoky Quartz are the result of a boy and a girl being fused together through weird alien magic.

Shep is a regular human, but they only appeared in one episode. In an epilogue series that only hardcore fans actually watched.

Well, I mean...

One out of three isn’t that bad, right?

Maybe we should pick an example from a series for older viewers.

Say hello to Doppelganger, a non-binary superhuman who goes by they/them, from the Amazon-series “The Boys”.

They’re working for a corrupt superhero-agency and use their power of shape-shifting to trick people who pose a threat to said agency into having sex with them. And then blackmail those people with footage of said sex.

....

Do I even need to say it?

If you’ve paid attention during the listing of these examples, you might have noticed a theme.

Namely that characters canonically identifying as non-binary are either

supernatural in some way, shape or form,

barely have a presence in the piece of media they’re in,

both.

Blink-and-you-miss-it-manner of representation aside, the majority of these characters fall squarely under what we call “Othering”.

“Othering” describes the practice of portraying minorities as supernatural creatures or otherwise inhuman. Or to say it bluntly: As “The Other”.

“Othering” is a pretty heinous method. Not only does it portray minorities as inherently abnormal and “different in a bad way”. It also goes directly against what representation is actually for: Normalizing.

As a general rule of thumb: If your piece of media has humans in it, but the only representation of non-white, non-straight people are explicitly inhuman... yeah, that’s bad.

So is there absolutely no positive representation for us out there?

Not quite.

As rare as human non-binary characters in media are to find, they do exist.

Here we have Bloodhound! A non-binary human hunter who uses they/them pronouns, from the game “Apex Legends”.

It’s been confirmed by the devs and the voice actress that they’re non-binary.

Nice!

These are Frisk (bottom) and Chara (top) from the game “Undertale”. While their exact gender identity hasn’t been disclosed, they both canonically use they/them pronouns, so it’s somewhere on the non-binary spectrum.

Two human children who act as the protagonist (Frisk) and antagonist (Chara), depending on how you play the game. (Interpretations vary on the antagonist/protagonist-thing, to say the least.)

Cool!

......

And, yep, that’s it.

As my little demonstration here showed, non-binary representation in media is rare. Good non-binary representation is even rarer.

Which is why those small examples of genuinely good representation are so important to the Non-binary community!

It’s hard enough to have to prove you exist. It’s even harder to prove your existence is not abnormal or unnatural.

If you’d like to further educate yourself on representation, it’s impact on society and why it matters, perhaps take a second to read through these articles:

https://www.criticalhit.net/opinion/representation-media-matters/

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/arts/why-on-screen-representation-matters-according-to-these-teens

https://jperkel.github.io/sciwridiversity2020/

https://www.forbes.com/sites/quora/2019/05/22/why-is-equal-representation-in-media-important/?sh=25f2ccc92a84

https://www.theodysseyonline.com/why-representation-the-media-matters

3. So What’s The Problem?

The problem, as is the case with so many things in the world, is prejudice.

Actually, that’s not true.

There’s not a problem, there are multiple problems. And their names are prejudice, ignorance and bigotry.

Remember how I said human non-binary representation is rare?

Yeah, very often media-fans don’t help.

Let’s take for example, the aforementioned Frisk and Chara from “Undertale”.

Despite the game explicitly using they/them to refer to both characters multiple times, the majority of players somehow got it into their heads that Frisk’s and Chara’s gender was “up for interpretation”.

There is a huge amount of fan art straight-up misgendering both characters and portraying them as binary and using only he/him or she/her pronouns.

The most egregious examples are two massively popular fan-animated web shows: “Glitchtale”, by Camila Cuevas and “Underverse” by Jael Peñaloza.

Both series are very beloved by the Undertale-fanbase and even outside of it. Meaning for many people, those two shows might be their first introduction to “Undertale” and it’s two non-binary human characters.

Take a wild guess what both Camila and Jael did with Frisk and Chara.

Underverse, X-Tale IV:

(Transcript: “Frisk lied to me in the worst possible way... I... I will never forgive him.”)

Underverse, X-Tale V:

(Transcript: “I-It’s Chara... and it’s a BOY.”)

Glitchtale, My Promise:

(Transcript: (Referring to Frisk) “I’m not scared of an angry boy anymore.”)

Glitchtale, Game Over Part 1:

(Transcript: (Referring to Chara) “It’s ok little boy.”)

This... this isn’t okay.

Not only do both of these pieces of fan-art misgender two non-binary characters, the creators knew beforehand that Frisk and Chara use they/them-pronouns, but made the conscious choice to ignore that.

To be fair, in a video discussing “Underverse”, Jael said that only X-Tale Frisk and Chara, the characters you see in the Underverse-examples above, are male, while the characters Frisk and Chara from the main game remained non-binary and used they/them (time-stamp 10:34).

Still, that doesn’t erase the fact that Jael made up alternate versions of two non-binary characters specifically to turn them male. Or that, while addressing the issue, Jael was incredibly dismissive and even mocked the people who felt hurt by her turning two non-binary characters male. Jael also went on to make a fairly non-binary-phobic joke in the video, in which she equated gender identities beyond male and female to identifying as an object.

Jael (translated): “I don’t care if people say the original Frisk and Chara are male, female, helicopters, chairs, dogs or cats, buildings, clouds...”

That’s actually a very common joke among transphobes, if not to say the transphobe-joke:

“Oh, you identify as X? Well then I identify as an attack helicopter!”

If you’re trans, chances are you’ve heard this one, or a variation of it, a million times before.

I certainly have.

I didn’t laugh then and I’m not laughing now.

(Author’s note: I might be angry at both of them for what they did, but I do not, under any circumstances, support the harassment of creators. If you’re thinking about sending either Jael or Camila hate-mail - don’t. It won’t help.)

Jael’s reaction is sadly common in the Undertale fandom. Anyone speaking up against Chara’s and Frisk’s identity being erased is immediately bludgeoned with the “up for interpretation”-argument, despite that not once being the case in the game.

And even with people who do it right and portray Frisk and Chara as they/them, you’ll have dozens of commenters swarming the work with sentences among the lines of “Oh but I think Frisk is a boy/girl! And Chara is a girl/boy!”

By the way, this kind of thing only happens to Frisk and Chara.

Every other character in “Undertale” is referred to and portrayed with their proper pronouns of she/her or he/him.

But not the characters who go by they/them.

Their gender is “up for interpretation”.

Because obviously, their identity couldn’t possibly be canonically non-binary.

Sadly, Frisk and Chara are not alone in this.

Remember Bloodhound?

And how I said they’d been confirmed as non-binary and using they/them pronouns by both the creators and the voice actress?

It seems for many players, that too translated to “up for interpretation”.

(Transcript: “does it matter what they call him? He, her, it, they toaster oven, it doesn’t matter”)

(Transcript: “I’m like 90 % sure Bloodhound is a dude because he could just sound like a girl and by their age that I’m assuming looks around 10-12 because I’ve known many males who have sounded like a female when they were younger”)

(Transcript: “I don’t care it will always be a He. F*ck that non-binary bullsh*t.”)

(Transcript: “Bloodhound is clearly female.”)

(Transcript: “I’m not calling a video game character they/them”)

(Transcript: “exactly. The face was never fully shown neither was the gender so I’d say it means that the player is Bloodhound. So it’s your gender and you refer to “him” as yourself. It’s like a self insertion in my eyes.”)

So, let me get this straight:

If a character, even a player character, uses she/her or he/him, you can accept it, no questions asked.

But when a character uses they/them, suddenly their identity and gender are “up for interpretation”?

This attitude is also widely prevalent in real life.

Many languages only include pronouns for men and women, with no third option available. Non-binary people are often forced to make up their own terms, because their language doesn’t provide one.

Non-binary people often don’t fit within other people’s ideas of gender, so they get excluded altogether. Worse, non-binary people are often the victims of misgendering, denial of their identity or even straight-up violence when coming out.

People will often tell us that we look like a certain gender, so we should only use one set of gendered pronouns. Never mind that that’s not what we want. Never mind that that’s not who we are.

Non-binary people are also largely omitted from legal documentation and studies. We cannot identify as non-binary at our workplace, because using they/them pronouns is considered “unprofessional”. We don’t have our own bathrooms like men and women do. Our gender is seen as less valid than male and female, so even that basic thing is denied to us. I’ve had to use the women’s restroom my entire life, because if I go into a male restroom, I’ll be yelled at or made fun off or simply get told I took the wrong door. It’s extremely uncomfortable for me and I wish I didn’t have to do it.

And since non-binary people aren’t seen as “real transgender-people”, we often don’t receive the medical care we need. This often renders us unable to feel good within our bodies, because the treatment and help we get is wildly inadequate.

It’s especially horrible for intersex people (people who are born with sex characteristics that don’t fit solely into the male/female category) who are often forced to change their bodies to fit within the male/female gender binary.

And you better believe each of those problems is increased ten-fold for non-binary people of color.

We are ignored and dismissed as “confused”, because of who we are.

Representation is a way for Non-binary people to show the world they exist, that they’re here and that they too have stories to tell.

But how can we, when every character that represents us is either othered, barely there or gets taken away from us?

We are not “up for interpretation”.

Neither are the characters in media who share our identity.

And it’s time to stop pretending we ever were.

For more information about Non-Binary Erasure and how harmful it is, you can check out these articles:

https://everydayfeminism.com/2015/08/common-non-binary-erasure/

https://www.dailydot.com/irl/nonbinary-people-racism/

https://nonbinary.wiki/wiki/Nonbinary_erasure

https://traj.openlibhums.org/articles/10.16995/traj.422/

https://medium.com/an-injustice/everyday-acts-of-non-binary-erasure-49ee970654fb

https://medium.com/national-center-for-institutional-diversity/the-invisible-labor-of-liberating-non-binary-identities-in-higher-education-3f75315870ec

https://musingsofanacademicasexual.wordpress.com/2015/05/11/dear-sirmadam-a-commentary-on-non-binary-erasure/

4. How Do We Fix It?

Well, first things first: Stop acting like we don’t exist.

And kindly stop other people from doing it too.

We are a part of the LGBT+ community and we deserve to be acknowledged, no matter what our pronouns are.

Address non-binary people with the right pronouns. Don’t argue with them about their identity, don’t comment on how much you think they look like a boy or a girl. Just accept them and be respectful.

If a non-binary person tells you they have two sets of pronouns, for example he/him and they/them, don’t just use one set of pronouns. That can come off as disingenuous. Alternate between the pronouns, don’t leave one or the other out. It’ll probably be hard at first, but if you keep it up, you’ll get used to it pretty quickly.

If you’re witnessing someone harass a non-binary person over their identity, step in and help them.

And please, don’t partake in non-binary erasure in media fandoms.

Don’t misgender non-binary characters, don’t “speculate” on what you think their gender might be. You already know their gender and it’s non-binary. It costs exactly 0 $ to be a decent human being and accept that.

Support Non-Binary people by educating yourself about them and helping to normalize and integrate their identity.

In fact, here’s a list of petitions, organizations and articles who will help you do just that:

https://www.change.org/p/collegeboard-let-students-use-their-preferred-name-on-collegeboard-9abad81a-0fdf-435c-8fca-fe24a5df6cc7?source_location=topic_page

6 Ways to Support Your Non-Binary Child

7 Non-Negotiables for Supporting Trans & Non-Binary Students in Your Classroom

If Your Partner Just Came Out As Non-Binary, Here’s How To Support Them

How to Support Your Non-Binary Employees, Colleagues and Friends

Ko-fi page for the Nonbinary Wiki

The Sylvia Rivera Project, an organization who aims to give low-income and non-white transgender, intersex and non-binary people a voice

The Anti Violence Project “empowers lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and HIV-affected communities and allies to end all forms of violence through organizing and education, and supports survivors through counseling and advocacy."

The Trans Lifeline, a hotline for transgender people by transgender people

Tl:DR: Non-Binary representation is important. Non-Binary people still suffer from society at large not acknowledging our existence and forcing us to conform. Don’t be part of that problem by taking away what little representation we have. Educate yourself and do better instead. We deserve to be seen and heard.

[ettawritesnstudies]

@writeblrfantasy gave me the excuse to ramble about history in the Laoche Chronicles (this post specifically) so I’m going to copy/paste my tags here and go from there! There’s a few spoilers but they’re marked with caps and italic, so I’ll put it under a cut too. Sorry in advance for the infodump...

#I cannot decide my favorite period of history but I love learning about catholic history and especially the early church#ancient history too I mean who are we kidding it's fascinating

OK SO in Maaren (the city state that Storge takes place in), there’s a small religious sect called the Followers of the Artist that are forced into hiding by the polytheist Daziam religion of the Atilan. There’s a LOT of dogmatic differences between the Followers and early Christianity, it’s not a direct insert and plays it’s own unique role in the story, but one thing I did seriously draw on was how marginalized communities have to stick together in order to survive.

The Roman empire was an AWFUL place for all sorts of minorities and the early Church was a haven and support structure for people who didn’t have anywhere else to turn. A ton of early converts were women, who brought their families with them! Mother Mary was really the mother to the whole church and all the other ladies who converted were just as much of a backbone to keep their communities running as anyone else. For example, Sts. Priscilla and Aquila were tent makers and friends of St. Paul who helped him in his ministry and used their home as a base for their ministry. And there are so many martyrs that died to protect their communities I can’t even name them all here.

So that was a huge influence for the Followers of the Artist! They practice in secret catacombs underneath one of their member’s homes (who I named after St. Philomena), they cover for each other, and use special code words to make sure it’s safe to discuss their beliefs without being outed. The word “Storge” which is the Greek word for familial love. It takes on it’s own meaning in the story, it’s a declaration of protection, that anyone who is a Follower is part of the family and deserves unconditional love. They take care of their own and the people most in need.

SPOILER: Luca even sacrifices himself twice to protect his family and his community, first by turning himself into Lyss which is when she steals part of his magic to create a powerful magic Staff, and then giving up his magic to defeat her once and for all and “destroy” the staff. He survives, because I love a happy ending, but he’s meant to fit that martyr archetype as a flawed person who was still willing to give it all up for his love of humanity, to save even the people who persecuted them. and it’s not just Luca being the chosen one hero that saves the day. The Avian City is destroyed, Acheran and Chara have to make hard choices too. It’s his whole family and the community agreeing to the decision and supporting each other that allows them to have that happy ending and aaaaaaaaaaaa I’m so soft about this but I can’t talk about it that much bc spoilers, so just know that I was crying while writing the climax of the book.

... moving on.

#ALSO the renaissance and industrial revolutions anytime tech takes a leap I love hearing about the history of science#marie curie my hero#and so in my wips Storge starts in the ancient history part of the world where they have and use magic#but they don't understand the fundamentals of how the world works yet#and then in the trilogy proper they've had time to develop their technology after a dark ages event set them back#so they're a little better but they lost a lot#and the events of the main trilogy send them into a magical revolution spurred on by what the characters discover and I'm so so so excited t#to write that#and so much of my worldbuilding is about the rise and fall of civilizations over time#and modeling it off patterns in history#because weather it's earth or Laoche people are still people

SPOILERS: when Luca gives up his magic during the climax, the surrounding battle and impact causes extensive damage to the Avian city and when it (and the Atilan power structure) crumble, a ton of valuable information is lost. The Staff wasn’t destroyed, rather it’s got new, scary magic properties, and so Acheran studies it, then locks it away where no one can use it to hurt anyone again.They get a happy ending where they get to set about fixing so many of the structural problems that made their life miserable, but they can only do that because they’re rebuilding from the rubble.

No Spoilers, just vague Laoche set up: 

So anyhow, there’s about a thousand years (give or take a century) of Medieval times while the avians diaspora and Maaren’s political influence declines, and there are skirmishes with Arga and they’re trying to rebuild like after the fall of the Roman Empire. There are pockets of power and succession crises and good art is made and learning is preserved through dedicated efforts in the parts of the world that aren’t currently on fire.

By the time we hit the Laoche Chronicles, things are starting to settle! The main characters are students at a magic-focused university/academy in the capital of Arga and they’re learning about what hasn’t been lost to time. New research is going on and for final projects, students are sent on field research to find more information and bring it back to the academics. It’s all heavily influenced by the politics and it has its flaws as every educational system does but that’s an infodump for another post. Anyhow this results in Stephan, Madelyn, and Alric going to Maaren to retrieve the legendary staff and bring it back for further research, instead of just leaving it alone as a relic/artifact.

Unfortunately for them, the specific dangerous property of the staff is equivalent to magical radiation. There’s a mutant forest growing in the ruins of the city in what-once-was-a-desert, and when Alric brings the staff back, it’s like delivering the secrets of nuclear energy. The ensuing trilogy deals with the aftermath, and how the new magi-science they’ve found can be used for great good and for great evil. The protagonists are trying to get back power of their kingdom before the usurpers can destroy everything, but then once they have power again, they have to DEAL with this without becoming power hungry themselves, and it launches off a whole industrial revolution. Even once their story ends, I have this world to play in and make other stories exploring all the different facets of what I’ve set up and I’m just! Very very excited to write this!

[nsr-scrapped-records]

I bet the assistants and people helping run the shows for the megastars would be fun to talk about how they have to deal with the stars. -《¤》 [long!]

DJ's workers are probably stressed a bit trying to keep things clean and working without much assistance of guidance from DJ while also making sure DJ is happy with Dodo pops and whatever else they need. They are running around making sure DJ is center stage and working around DJ rather than with or under them.

Sayu's team probably have the to deal with their workers the least. All their workers need to do is make sure the internet connection between them and Sayu is strong. The team is probably really close to their workers because Tatiana made sure to get kind and knowledgable people for Sayu's team to make their work a bit easier.

Yinu doesn't deal with any workers except a few personal assistants that make sure she is healthy and hydrated and have enough snacks. Mama deals with the rest of the workers who are mostly in fear of her. They know if they mess up and something happens to Yinu that they will not only be fired but probably have severely harsh legal actions put against them, even if it was just a minor accident like Yinu tripping and knocking out a tooth by accident. Most of them are stressed but only because they have to make sure a child doesnt do something stupid, working the actual stage and stadium is actually fairly easy for them and if a shows goes really well then Mama makes sure to thank and be extra kind to all her employees.

1010 deal with only a select few of their workers, the ones who are assigned to boost their confidence and make sure they look perfect before a show. Neon J handles everyone else. He honestly makes a huge effort to get to know every single worker under him, which isnt as many as you would think considering 1010's popularity. He has some major trust issues so he only employs people he can trust, so extensive background tests and simulation tests get put onto the employees before they are actually hired, but those hired love their job. There's always a neat and organized plan that if followed makes everything hassle free and perfect for the show. If something goes wrong Neon fixes it himself and makes sure all employees and 1010 are safe before letting any of them leave. He worries a lot about everyone and even knows all his employee's names, interests they have, and sometimes even about their home life if they ever needed someone to talk to and Neon offered to listen and try to help.

Eve is kinda like Neon where she gets to know her staff very well, but she is a lot more lenient with who she allows to work under her. She wants people who have had true life experiences to have their input and knowledge for her art. Her employees honestly are pretty laid back since the artistic mind is best when given a chance to flow and Eve loves boosting creativity. There are a lot of people under her though too, make up artists, architects, special effects technicians, all that jazz! And she tries to get to know each one to have a community, especially since her shows can get pretty crazy with all the effects and objects moving around. Having people who can mimic her powers with special effects helps keep Eve in a healthy mindset too, which is why she needs so many employees.

Idk about Tatiana, she probably doesnt interact too much with the people of NSR tower other than the necessary boss conversations. But she is still a caring boss who will stop and talk with an employee of she thinks they need it. She has to deal with the most employees under her along with the megastars so she doesnt get to know a lot of them personally.

-《¤》

-----

Yooooooo, I love all of these sm!!!!!!! So good for these charas

[angel-starfait-movedtonewblog]

(OLD) DNI of the blog, PLEASE READ!!

It's 2021 and another year on this blog.

I've made so many friends here, and had fun discussing many different topics of Undertale and Deltarune with you guys!

This is going to continue as normal, but I am going to be making a couple rules as well as to who can follow me. I know I know, rules aren't exactly fun, but trust me when I say that these are necessary cause of how many people I have to block in this fandom.

So let's start with the simple ones, which are in my blog intro, but I am making this more clear here.

When sending asks or submissions, do NOT interact with this blog if you:

- are homophobic, biphobic and panphobic, transphobic, enbyphobic, aphobic, fatphobic, racist, ableist or condone pedophilia and incest (yes that includes adopted siblings) and ships of that kind.

- if you are a TERF, MAP/PEAR, NSFW/kink blog. You will be blocked and reported if you interact, and if you reblog my posts I will message you privately to please remove my post.

- if you're here to start drama or send hate or troll me or anyone else. I will block you. If you continue I will report you. Also if you have fights or arguments in the notes of my posts I will block you, and I will delete and remove your comments.

Okay, now that the general rules are out of the way, here are the rules relating to UT and DR content.

- this blog and I are subscribed to the Narrator Chara theory, so if you dont like that theory, then dont follow this blog.

- Chara, Frisk and Kris are nonbinary, they aren't boys or girls, all three of them and many monsters like Napstablook and Monster Kid, canonically use they/them pronouns, while characters like Seam don't use any pronouns. If you misgender any of them on purpose, or use the excuse that 'they use those pronouns but are ACTUALLY boys or girls', then I will block you.

(Note that if you misgendered them on accident or its because your native language doesn't have neutral pronouns, let me know, and we can work things out.)

- Chara, Frisk, Asriel, and Kris are children/minors, so if you sexualise them, fetishize them (especially if its through their AGAB), or put them into relationships with adult characters, or if you ship them with each other, I will block and report you.

Speaking of which, please unfollow me if you do the following (if you dont I will block and report you) :

- if you ship frans. Frisk is canonically a CHILD, Sans is a goddamn adult. I don't care if you age Frisk up, because that means you actually looked at a child and thought, 'I'm gonna pair them romantically/sexually with an adult.', it is goddamn disgusting. Frisk is not a self insert for you. Just make an oc/self insert of your own.

This also applies to shipping Frisk or Chara or Asriel with any other adult in the games.

- If you ship charasriel, fontcest, krisriel or kralsei. Papyrus and Sans are literally brothers, you cannot have a healthy romantic relationship with a family member.

Chara and Asriel, and Kris and Asriel are siblings too, so don't make the excuse that 'Oh but they're ADOPTED so technically they're not related-', that kind of mentality is just spitting in the faces of adopted siblings and telling them that their sibling relationships are not real or valid.

Same with Chara, Asriel and Frisk, you might say 'But they're NOT TECHNICALLY siblings!!!!' , when they all have the same mother. Toriel took care of Chara as her own with Asriel, and at the end of the pacifist run, most people choose to have Frisk stay with her. So they are all siblings. (With Asriel, this also extends to Flowey, dont you dare try to separate them, they are the same person.)

With Ralsei, he is basically a version of Asriel. There's hints all over in Deltarune, his name being an anagram for Asriel being the biggest one. So it seems weird to be shipping Kris with a version of their older brother.

- If you ship undyrus, krusie, soriel, asgoriel, or kroelle. Most if these people are just good friends, and it's strange that some people in the fandom cannot accept that two people can be close without it being romantic. Characters like Undyne and Noelle are both shown to only be attracted to girls, while Toriel has shown multiple times that she doesn't want anything to do with Asgore after everything that has happened between them.

With Sans, it's the age gap thing again, Toriel is very clearly and older lady. Sans literally refers to as Toriel 'old lady' in the no mercy route. Also look, I'm cool with them being good pun buddies, cause that's canon, but if you see it as romantic, think about this.

Sans is a good guy but he's so goddamn lazy, and Toriel would just be cleaning up after him like Papyrus already is. That's not what she needs, Toriel deserves to move on and Sans needs therapy, let them be friends, not everything between a man and a woman needs to be romantic.

----

Okay now listen up, let's talk about AUs, Stories and Blogs...:

- AUs are fine, but frankly I'm very uninterested in most of the most popular ones, eg. Underfell, Underswap, Horrortale, cause they are all mostly only focused on Sans and Papyrus, but mostly JUST different colour swapped versions of Sans being shipped with one another. It's all weird and also quite unoriginal, so please DNI if that's what you follow.

- Any AU or story or blog that is incredibly sexual or has sexual themes/kinks or fetishes around it, please do not interact. There are minors who follow this blog and I don't want to have them see those things.

- Also, if the AU or story or blog that does any of the following above with shipping or homophobia or transphobia, please DNI. Those include AUs like gl*tchtale and c*retaker of the ruins, and blog stories like ask-frisk-and-company. Any other blogs similar in vein to these will be blocked and if you follow them I will also block you.

____

Okay, I think that's it for now. I know that this post I quite long, but please please please read it before you proceed to interact with my blog.

If you complain about any of these rules, if you try to jump through hoops to explain away the obviously nasty shit, if you start getting violent and causing drama in the notes of my posts, I will still block and report you.

And those of you who are following the rules, please be on guard and stay safe in this fandom, and block gross people in advance instead of arguing with them in the notes of posts. It saves you energy and is better for your mental health.

Thank you all for reading and stay determined!!

Edit - 15/06/2021 : I am from now on going to tag my posts with #safeutdr , a tag for UT and DR fans to browse through without seeing any of the nasty shit. I high reccomend it to the normal undertale tag!!

Edit - 10/09/2021 : Finally made some DNI banners, so these will both be added to old and new posts.

[Image ID: DNI: kink/NSFW/porn blog, incest shippers (includes adoptive and step siblings), pedo shippers, anti LGBTQIAP+, misgender trans/enby folk or gatekeep labels, racist, sexist, anti-semitic, islamophobic, fatphobic, ableist (includes neurodiversity), body shaming, pro shippers, MAPS/PEARS. End ID.]

[Image ID: DNI: if you consume/condone incest/pedo ships, includes AUs or if you "age up" the characters. Frans, fontcest, any between chara, asriel, frisk, kris, ralsei. Soriel, undyrus, asgoriel, krusie, kroelle, sanscest. AUs: sans centric AUs, glitchtale, caretaker of the ruins, etc. DNI: if you misgender characters who use they/them pronouns, infantilise/demonize neurodivergent coded characters, eg. babying papyrus, hating on alphys. End ID.]

[songfell-ut]

Rrrrrrgh Chapter 18 rrrrgh

I had to re-insert EVERY GODDAMN LINE BREAK ARGH it also took out all the italics. I’ll get those in a minute ;_;

(Watch out for arachnophobia, angst, aaaaand smut~~)

           For the eighth or ninth time, Frisk wished she had just said no. But she hadn’t, and she couldn’t back out now, so she kept walking, arms stiff at her sides.

At least she was almost there: she could hear rustling in the dark up ahead, and faintly musical sounds, like someone twanging a piano wire. Suddenly, her heel stuck on something, her shoe nearly coming off; the next moment, something else tickled her cheek. When she tried to brush it away, it wouldn’t come off her fingers. In the dim light, it looked like…a spiderweb?

           There was a high-pitched giggle overhead, and more webbing dropped onto her shoulders. The child was yanked off her feet, pulled straight up until she slammed to a teeth-rattling stop in midair. Heart pounding, head spinning, Frisk tried to tug herself loose, but it was no use: she was caught in the bouncy, gluey strands of…

…a really, really big spiderweb. And where there was a really big spiderweb—

           “Ahuhuhu~”

           Frisk turned her head as far as she could, and uttered a raspy sound as her gaze met five huge, mirror-shiny black eyes. It was a spider monster in frilly bloomers, ribbons, and pigtails—surprisingly cute, except for its fangs. “My! Whatever do we have here?” The giant spider leaned in closer, and Frisk watched in fascination as her reflection flickered in time with the monster’s blinks. “What brings a bite-sized human like you to my parlor?”

           The child couldn’t tear her eyes away from the spider monster’s eerie, fluid movements. It was balancing on the web, brushing crumbs off its sleeve, and dipping a pastry into a cup of tea it’d just poured for itself, all at once! “A-Are you Muffet?” she squeaked.

           The spider smirked, nibbling daintily on her pastry. “That’s me, dearie. Did someone send you to find me?” Her face creased into a scowl. “If that skeleton told you it would be funny to disturb us, I swear I’ll—”

           Something chittered, and Frisk couldn’t help squirming. Muffet gasped as a tiny shape emerged from the child’s collar. “Alphonse? Oh my goodness me! How did you get here?!”

           Frisk shut her eyes tight as the little spider crawled the rest of the way out of her shirt, followed by another, and a few more, and then what seemed like a thousand others. She could feel a tickly procession streaming up her neck and along her arms onto the web, where they swarmed around Muffet, making rapid clicking sounds.

           “They gave me a piece of paper asking for help,” the human explained, though the spiders were probably saying the same thing. “They were tired of the Ruins, but Snowdin is too cold, and it’s too expensive to get a heated carriage, so I gave some of them a ride to Hotland.”

           All five of Muffet’s eyes sparkled, and she clasped two legs in pure joy. “Oh, what a sweet little morsel you are! You’ve saved us thousands of g, just like that!” Frisk heard more chittering, and found herself being eased free of the webbing and lowered gently until she was back on the sticky floor. “I’m so sorry if I frightened you, dearie—most humans have a nasty habit of squishing spiders, but I didn’t know how very kind you were toward us!”

           “You’re welcome,” Frisk said, trying to pick the webbing out of her hair. The grownups had chopped almost all of it off before they left the castle; she’d hate for them to cut the webs out and make it look even worse. “My name is Kris. It’s nice to meet you.”

           The spider-lady was ignoring her, listening to what sounded like dozens of little voices at once. She didn’t have eyebrows, but her upper three eyes wiggled in almost the same way. “Really, now?” She regarded Frisk with new interest. “You wouldn’t happen to be ten years old, would you, dearie?”

           Where had that come from? None of the other monsters had asked her age. “Um…yes? I don’t know my real birthday, just the year.”

           The spiders must have understood her, because the noise increased, and Muffet tittered louder than ever. “How interesting~”

           “Why?” the child couldn’t help asking.

           “Ohhh, nothing, just a bit of gossip.” Muffet hopped onto a higher strand of webbing, crossing a pair of legs and pouring herself more tea. “Would you like something to eat?” She indicated a table with a pile of iced cakes and a sign reading 9,999 G. “No charge, just for you.”

           Was that a spider leg sticking out of the frosting? “I’m full, thank you,” Frisk lied.

           “Suit yourself, dearie.” For someone without any lips, the monster could slurp her tea quite loudly. “The spider clans don’t communicate with each other nearly as often as we should, but when someone manages to get here from the Ruins, they tell the most fascinating stories. Like the humans’ last visit here, eleven years ago—did you know that your King came with them? Supposedly, it was a group of minor nobles discussing repairs to the border fence, but no one notices spiders – except you, of course – and they hear all sorts of things behind closed doors~”

           The child frowned. “The King was here?” She didn’t think he’d ever been to the Underground; she’d just been glad he hadn’t come on this trip, though she was sorry the Queen was sick. It would’ve been so nerve-wracking to have to behave around him!

           “He certainly was.” Muffet licked a drop of tea from the fine hairs on her forelimb. “Yes, the King paid us a secret visit, and poor Chara was never the same afterwards. There was quite a commotion, you know, after he’d been gone a little while. They had to take her all the way to the Ruins so no one would hear her s—”

           There was a familiar chuckle behind Frisk. “ahh, muffet. putting the spy in ‘spider,’ huh?” Sans held out his hand, and Frisk gladly took it. “yeah, i dunno what she’s talking about, either. c’mon, kiddo, you shouldn’t be here. time to have a ferry good ride back.”

           “On the contrary,” Muffet said haughtily, “this wonderful child is welcome in my parlor any time. I would love to have her over for lunch!” Two sets of arms clapped their hands. “Go on home, dearie. Come and see me again sometime soon.”

           “man. you got a knack for making friends, ya know that?” Sans remarked as they stepped around the webs lining the floor. “i didn’t think she liked anyone who wasn’t rich, or fattening.”

           Frisk didn’t answer. The corridor had just enough bare, echoing surfaces for her to hear the last of Muffet’s conversation. “Not a word to anyone,” the spider was telling her family, or minions, or whatever they were. “I—what? …Why, yes, he would pay for that information. What a splendid idea! We could even give him a discount! Those glasses are so cute~”

           Frisk and Sans looked at each other, shrugged, and moved along to thinking up spider puns to unleash on Pap. It didn’t occur to Frisk until much later that Muffet had said “her”—the smaller ones hadn’t gotten that far under her clothes, had they?

Ah, well. She figured spiders must not know much about human pronouns, and they probably said strange, random things to everyone. It was nothing to worry about.

           Many years later, Frisk would remember that and wish she could smack her younger self upside the head. Not only was it racist, it was very incorrect, not to mention ungrateful. Spiders knew damn well what pronouns were, and nothing Muffet had said to her was random. She hadn’t even charged her for it…

 ~

             The hotel attached to Mettaton’s resort was unbelievably crowded that evening, the air warm and full of amazing smells. Sans had materialized by the fountain in the lobby, figuring it was long enough after dinnertime that there wouldn’t be too many people around. This turned out to be hilariously wrong: the line was still two or three deep at the food counter, the queue winding up and down the room and ending nearly out the doors. There wasn’t enough space for one boss monster to just appear out of nowhere, much less two, but here they were.

“My. Do you think they’ve gotten a room?” Toriel asked dubiously, releasing his arm and nodding to the monsters scrambling out of their way. “Should we check with the front desk?”

Sans glanced around, then relaxed and let his SOUL point him in a direction, like giving a hunting dog a scent to follow. Sure enough, his feet started toward the restaurant on the left side of the resort. “This way,” he grunted.

Luckily, at their size, they didn’t have much trouble getting through the crowd. Nor did they have to say anything to the restaurant’s maître d’: he took one look, bowed so deeply that he almost fell over, and walked ahead of them to harass the seated monsters out of their way.

They soon reached the far end of the room, where Frisk was holding court at a small table with Alphys, Undyne, Mettaton, and a few others. To Sans’ delight, she had perched on the back of a heavy chair, confidently projecting her voice over the other diners. “So I finished the introduction, she came out onstage, and what did she do? She froze right there in front of everyone,” the human said, gesturing with her champagne glass.

This got quite a reaction. “Oh, please,” Mettaton said with a groan.

“Ha!” Undyne thumped the table. “Served her right! What’d you do?”

“I peeked out from behind the curtain, and I looked at her, and I went—” Frisk closed one eye and opened the other as wide as possible, flashing a demented smile, and the monsters cracked up. “She almost started laughing, and it was perfect, because that was where the Queen was bragging about how much everyone loved her!”

“Good evening, everyone,” said Toriel, walking ahead of Sans to join the others. “Forgive me, but, what was this?”

Cries of welcome rang out. “Good evening, Lady Toriel! I was telling them about my friend Mathilda,” explained Frisk.

Standing on the periphery, Sans drank in the sight of his human seated among the monsters, looking adorably tiny by comparison, but completely at home. She was more animated than he’d ever seen her at the castle, her eyes bright and hands in constant motion as she talked. It was everything they’d both hoped for when they came here.

And speaking of drinks, he also had to note all the open bottles of wine and other adult beverages around the table. He remembered ordering several crates of them, but he’d assumed they would be consumed at a slower rate than this; monsters couldn’t handle alcohol as well as most humans. Come to think of it, neither could Frisk.

Mettaton had gotten up to greet Toriel, and was bowing her into his seat; Sans was impressed with his manners until the automaton turned and shooed Alphys out of her chair so he could take it.

Justice came swiftly: Undyne waited for Mettaton to get comfortable, then kicked him under the table hard enough to make a metallic clang. “Never mind him. Here,” she said to Alphys, holding her arm out and patting her lap.

Toriel cleared her throat, and the scientist turned about five shades of reddish-orange. Practical as ever, Undyne got up to grab a chair from another table instead, ignoring its irate former occupant and cramming it between her seat and Frisk’s. “Ta-da!”

When Alphys was happily settled, Toriel gave the automaton and the Royal Guard Captain reproachful glances. “Your friend Mathilda?” she prompted.

Frisk smiled. “Yes, from St. Brigid’s. She wanted me to narrate the part of the spring pageant where she was playing the Queen—have you heard of The Sun Cycle?”

Toriel accepted a glass of red wine from the waiter. “The allegory about the two sisters? Of course. Did Mathilda have a case of stage fright?”

“Right after she spent ten minutes straight telling me not to be shy.” Frisk made another face. “I teased her about that for years.”

Toriel chuckled. “And rightfully so.”

Sans was busy staring at Frisk when she suddenly looked straight at him. “Sans?” He jumped, then scowled self-consciously as she shifted her weight. “I hate to make you stand there—is there anywhere he can sit?” she asked the group.

There was a general murmur and scooting-out to make room, but Sans waved his hand. “Nah, don’t worry about it. ‘s what I get fer bein’ late to the party,” he muttered.

The priestess frowned a little. “Well, if you’re sure…” She indicated a green jug on the table. “You wanted to try some hard cider, didn’t you? Now’s your chance.”

“’m fine,” he said gruffly, and she gave him a short nod before Mettaton reclaimed her attention with a question about human seating etiquette.

Sans wanted to smack himself on the cranium. Typical Frisk: she was mad at him, but still didn’t want him be to left out. Well, neither did he! It physically hurt to keep himself from going over and petting her hair, tucking that one bit behind her ear, asking how she was feeling…

Yeah, this whole staying-apart thing wasn’t fucking working. If he couldn’t have some time alone with her soon, he was going to throw her over his shoulder and teleport them both far, far away, which would probably look a little suspicious. What would it take to—

Alphys coughed. “S-So did the rest of the pageant go all right?”

Frisk sipped her champagne. “Oh, yes. I’ve always loved that story, and I didn’t have to be onstage, so I—” She paused and held the empty glass out, and another waiter swooped in to refill it. “Thank you.” Sip. “It was wonderful. We had a five-piece orchestra playing along, and the Queen’s song, ‘Daylight’s Lament,’ actually brought people to tears.”

Sans wasn’t thinking very straight, or else he would known better than to say, “Is that the mopey thing you’re always singin’?”

Everyone turned toward him, and he shrank back at the priestess’ expression. “Are you a musician, Frisk?” Toriel asked around her refilled wineglass.

“Yes, I was in the choir at school,” the human said, giving Sans a significant look. “The Sun Cycle had just been adapted into a musical, and we all nagged our teachers until they let us perform it.” She grinned ruefully. “It was the best political training I’ve ever had. If you want to delve into the darkest side of human nature, just tell a group of teenage girls that only one of them gets to play the Queen.”

They all laughed, though no one disagreed. “And Mathilda got it?” Sans asked, just to contribute.

“Yes, she did,” Frisk replied. Her feet swung back and forth a few times, drawing his attention again. “She tends to get what she wants.”

Trying to distract himself, Sans remembered something and asked, “Isn’t she the one who’s gonna replace you?” They looked at him in surprise, and he added, “Y’know, if you ever decide ta quit?”

That earned him another glare. “Yes, if I ever do. The only reason I became High Priestess and not her was that my magic was stronger. Otherwise, she’d have been perfect.”

“Now, now. I would think—no, I know that you’re doing an excellent job,” Toriel said warmly, and the priestess ducked her head.

“Wait a sec.” Undyne banged her mug on the table, startling Alphys. “Didn’t you say somebody tried to kill you ‘cause you’re the High Priestess? Aren’t you worried someone’ll come after her, too?”

“Well…not really.” Frisk made a complicated gesture. “It may sound cold, but you’ve never met Mathilda. She doesn’t have time to be assassinated. If the Church didn’t pay for a half-dozen guards everywhere she went, she’d just hire them herself and go about her day.”

“Nice,” said Undyne, but despite Frisk’s light tone, Sans wasn’t so sure about the way she was frowning into her champagne glass. Did she feel guilty for being so cavalier about her friend’s safety?

…No, that wasn’t it. He had a sudden attack of insight: Frisk wasn’t only in danger because she was the High Priestess; she was also in the way of people who profited off monsters. Did Mathilda have different views on the subject – maybe more safe or conventional ones – that would keep her from being targeted?

What about the person who had paid to keep Frisk safe? He still had to tell her about that, too, assuming he ever got the fucking chance!

That was enough of that topic. What else could they talk about? “How’d it go in the lab today, Al?” he asked.

This time, they all looked at him as though he’d thrown dog turds onto the table, and a couple of the other monsters actually got up and left. His stupid, tired, frustrated mind took a second to catch up: everyone knew that Alphys had been testing Frisk’s magic, and as much as they liked and hopefully trusted the human by now, they didn’t want to hear about her barriers.

“Um…” Alphys fidgeted with her mug of spiced cider. “You were r-right. I couldn’t even quantify how much f-force she could potentially withstand. It’s honestly still hard to believe.”

“Yeah, it turns out she’s even better than we thought,” Undyne said defiantly, and raised her mug. “Toast: to Frisk being on our side!”

Frisk raised her glass in reply, downing the rest of the champagne in one gulp, and everyone with a drink quickly followed suit. As the waiter came back for more refills, Sans nodded his thanks to Undyne; she stared at him, then drew her thumb across her throat to indicate that he was dead. He shrugged, agreeing that that was fair.

Alphys fidgeted again. “Actually, Sans, I’d like to t-talk to you about that sometime soon. Alone, m-maybe?”

The skeleton blinked. “Uh…okay.” Now that a few chairs were empty across from Frisk, he walked over to shove them aside and sit down on the floor, putting his eye level only a foot or two below the others. Why would Alphys need to talk to him alone? If she wanted more data, why not include Frisk? He’d have to find out later.

Undyne scowled, half-turning to drape her arm over Alphys’ shoulders; the lizard monster turned a few more colors, then leaned into her. Good for them, thought Sans, with only a twinge of jealousy. “I remember when I was a kid and I used to snoop around in my parents’ room,” Undyne continued. “My mom got fed up and told me there was a human hiding in her closet. Not only did I stop sneaking in there, I’d run past their door to get to my room!”

Sans forced himself to join in the laughter. “Poor Pap,” he remarked. “When he was a kid, I got him that pirate bed, and he wouldn’t stop jumpin’ on it in the middle of the night. I didn’t wanna take it away, so I said there was a human under it ‘n Pap was gonna wake him up.”

“Sans,” Frisk scolded him, but she was smiling now.

“It’s true,” he said gleefully. “The next night, I found him makin’ a decoy to throw into bed so he could go hide in the closet.”

Undyne guffawed, and Toriel shook her head, though she was also smiling. “That poor child! Tell me he isn’t still sleeping in the closet, Sans!”

“He’s not. I made a big deal about talkin’ with the librarian and finding out humans are scared of books about Fluffy Bunny. We read one every night from then on, and whaddya know? The human never got ‘im,” the skeleton said proudly.

They laughed again, and the last of the tension dissipated. “Speakin’ of Papyrus, where is he?” Sans asked, feeling guilty for not noticing sooner. “Hope I didn’t miss ‘im on his way home.”

Mettaton couldn’t drink, so he had spent most of the conversation checking his face paint; he sighed theatrically, putting the mirror away in his chest compartment. “He got drunk already, the poor dear. I sent him upstairs to sleep it off.”

Sans didn’t have to fake a grin. “Makes sense. It only takes half a mudslide to get him started tellin’ everyone how bad my jokes are, and tellin’ the jokes ta prove it, and then gettin’ mad that he knows all my jokes by heart.”

“A ‘mudslide’?” Frisk repeated.

“Yep. ’s one of Grillby’s finest cocktails: magic ‘n mud.”

The human looked puzzled. “By ‘mud,’ you mean…?”

“Wet dirt,” Sans clarified.

“…You…drink…?” Frisk couldn’t bring herself to finish the sentence. “What does that even taste like?”

Pause. “Mud.”

More laughter. Frisk’s nose was wrinkled, but she was still smiling; that was enough for Sans.

He didn’t want to ruin the mood by saying something else stupid, so he nodded to her and turned to survey the now-half-empty room. It must have been pretty late, because the maître d’ wasn’t letting anyone else in. The nearest table had just one person, and—

It was sitting there, out of nowhere, legs dangling over the side of the table. The demon-child locked eyes with Sans, hands resting on the knife in its lap, and it grinned.

Sans stared back at it, paralyzed. Through the fog of shock and terror, there arose a single thought: Are you fucking serious?! I don’t need this right now!

The thing shook its head. It looked meaningfully at their table – at Frisk – and back at him. It raised the kitchen knife, pointing at the side of its own head, and made a circling motion.

Sans managed to twitch with sheer rage as he recognized that childish gesture. The little bastard had come all the way here to tell him Frisk was crazy?

Its grin faded into a faint, superior smile. It lowered the knife and tapped on its sternum three times. Then it shifted around to face the human; to Sans’ bewilderment, it sat cross-legged and leaned forward on its elbows, ruby eyes glued to Frisk, as if waiting for a play to begin.

What was it doing? …Why was it doing? He had the feeling that it genuinely wasn’t interested in him for the moment. What did it think Frisk was going to—

“Sans?” Her voice snapped him out of it; the skeleton found he could move again. “What’s the matter?”

“Uh…” He looked at her, then back at the demon. It was gone now, of course. “Nothin’.” He glanced back and forth a couple of times just to be sure. What the hell was that about? The thing wanted to tell him that Frisk was nuts and Sans should check her SOUL? But…

Sans shook himself, turning to size up the room. Everyone was slightly to moderately tipsy, but relaxed, probably ready to call it a night soon. There was absolutely no sign of danger anywhere; even if there was, Sans couldn’t imagine a threat too big for him, Toriel, Undyne, and Frisk.

To hell with that thing. He wasn’t going to ogle her SOUL for no reason in front of everyone; somebody would notice and give him crap for it, she’d get embarrassed, and he’d have yet another thing to make up to her.

Toriel took a bottle of wine directly from a passing waiter and poured herself another glass. “Where are you staying tonight, my child?”

           The human brushed her hair behind her ear. Sans glanced at her, and his spine stiffened: she was looking right at him, her finger tracing the edge of her choker. “My things are still at Sans and Papyrus’ house, so I was planning to stay in Snowdin tonight at the inn.”

The skeleton tried to hide his sudden jubilation. She was telling him she’d have her own room, which meant some damn privacy at last! He’d have a chance to tell her things and apologize for being stupid about the chessboard, and then…choker, and—

           “Whaaat? You have an entire new wardrobe upstairs, and you want to go all the way back to that smelly wasteland?” Mettaton complained. Sans gritted his teeth as the automaton reached over to play with Frisk’s hair, sweeping it up with one gloved hand. “You know, darling, if you’d let me put this up for you, it wouldn’t keep getting in your way. Why don’t you stay here another night so we can figure it out?”

           “I’ll be fine, thank you,” Frisk said tartly, pushing his arm away.

           Mettaton pouted. “But what about—”

           “She said no, dipshit,” Sans snarled. “Not everyone has time to play dress-up.”

“Oh?” drawled the automaton. He sized up the giant skeleton and flashed a literally pearly-white smile. “I see. Well, if she absolutely must stop in at your hovel, be sure she has everything she needs. You know, her clothes, a few midnight snacks…plenty of socks?”

Undyne and Alphys nearly spat their drinks across the table. Sans twitched as though he’d been poked in the SOUL—which, in a way, he had. “Ya wanna die, ya friggin’ piece of—”

“Be nice, children,” Toriel mumbled. She covered her mouth for a massive yawn, nearly dropping her wineglass. “Speaking of wardrobes, Frisk, I had enough time after my nap this afternoon to go through Chara’s old clothes. I found several things that should fit you. Why don’t you stay over another night so we can try them on?”

           The human’s face was still red. “No, thank you, Lady Toriel,” Frisk said over the faintest murmur of “Socks” and barely-suppressed snickering.

           The former Queen sighed, too far gone in memory – and alcohol – to notice. “It would be so cute to see you in those dresses,” she murmured. “We can hem them up if we need to. You’re about the same size she was at…goodness, fourteen or fifteen!”

           “Yes, childhood malnutrition will do that.” Frisk accepted yet another refill from yet another waiter. “My mother took no care of me.”

           “You poor thing.” Toriel shook her head. “How I wish you could have stayed and grown up here! We would never have neglected you like that.”

Undyne sighed, propping her head on one fist. “Yeah, that would’ve been amazing.”

Mettaton also sighed, lacing his fingers together and resting his head on them. “For once, darling, we agree. She should know at least five times as many dances as I’ve taught her.”

Toriel hiccuped. Sans had always heard that drunk people did that, but never seen it for himself. “And she could’ve sang for us, too. My poor little angel—such a wonderful child!”

Frisk smiled, until Toriel went on, “Yes, I’ll always miss Chara. Did you ever get to meet her, Frisk?”

           No answer. Sans’ backbone prickled; he checked the other table, but the demon wasn’t there. He glanced at Frisk, and to his alarm, she was almost literally vibrating with tension.

Alphys was also squinting at the human, as if checking her. Whatever she saw made her eyes go wide, and she signaled frantically at Sans. “So, Frisk,” he said, too loud.

She looked up, startled. “Uh,” he said. Crap. Now he had everyone’s attention, and he had to say more words. This time, though, he made himself think first, settling on a topic so safe and dull that nothing bad could possibly come of it. “I just remembered—when I was passin’ stuff out with the Royal Guard earlier, we found a couple small discrepancies in the list,” he said casually. “I made some notes about it. Can you and Tori take a look real quick?”

           “Of course. I’m sure it’s fine, though,” Frisk said, giving him another smile. Then, as he started to reach into his coat for the invoices…

It was the tiniest movement, and he just barely caught it. She took too large a drink and slopped champagne onto the corner of her mouth, which she chose to lick off slowly, eyes on his.

           Sans would think of that moment and berate himself for years afterward. For one thing, he didn’t know or care how openly he was staring at her, or who was watching; more importantly, his hand kept moving while the rest of his mind did a belly-flop into a mire of absolute lust, all his resources suddenly diverted to socks and lace chokers and that cute little mouth…desperation to run his hands all over her again and find out if she still had that weird blood thing going, what her exact criteria were for it being the right time to—

Left to manage on its own, his hand knew only that it was supposed to get something for her out of his pocket. It encountered the papery thing he needed, and then another thing it knew was for her, and dutifully pulled both things out. He didn’t have enough concentration to use magic and send the invoices directly to her, so he tossed them onto the table with a solid thmp. “Pass that t’ Frisk, wouldja?” his mouth said.

A couple shreds of conscious thought worked themselves free, wondering why the papers had gone thmp. Paper wasn’t supposed to go thmp. What had he…

Oh. It was the heavy golden envelope, the one with the King’s letter for her.

           On the table.

…With her full name on the front.

Right by Undyne, who was reaching to pick it up, just like he’d asked.

           Time slowed to a crawl. Icy dread swept over him, and he raised his hand, knowing it was too late—Undyne had handed over the invoices and was already saying, “Heyyy, what’s this, boss?” Before he could stand up or regroup his magic, the Royal Guard Captain flipped the envelope around to read the calligraphy. “Fancy! Is it a love letter for—”

           She stopped. Sans’ SOUL shrank to nothing as the fish monster’s brows drew together. “Hey. Your Majesty?” she asked, raising her voice.

           Toriel finished her drink, trying to set her glass down and missing the table entirely. “Yes, Captain?”

           Undyne gave a puzzled half-smile. “Did you adopt Frisk or something?”

           Frisk looked up from the invoices. The goat monster glanced at her, then chuckled. “Why, no, not that I’m aware of.” Toriel was smiling, too, clearly waiting for a punchline.

           Sans snatched at the envelope with a burst of red magic and shoved it into his pocket. “Hey, Frisk! Guess what? Time ta go!”

           Frisk started, and had to catch herself before she fell off the chair. “What? Why do—”

           “Then how come she has your last name?” asked Undyne.

           Silence. Toriel and Undyne were awkwardly smiling, each waiting for the other to speak and growing more confused as the seconds ticked by.

Alphys frowned, then peered at Frisk, who was staring at the panicky skeleton. “Sans,” the human said softly. “What is she talking about?”

Sans was still sitting on the floor, and couldn’t get up; he felt sick as Frisk stepped down from her perch and came over to him. “What do you have there?” she asked, even softer.

           His hand moved on its own again to pull out the envelope. “’s a letter,” he mumbled. “I was gonna give this to ya later, when we talked about—”

           Frisk snatched the envelope and turned it over. He forced his sockets to stay open as her face went pale, then stark white. Slowly, her head lifted until their eyes met. “I didn’t mean ta get it out yet,” he said helplessly. “It was an accident. I’m—”

           “Where did you get this?” she asked carefully. “When did you get this?”

           “Yesterday. From…from Dr. Serif. He met me in the village to help get all the stuff ready, and the King gave it to ‘im ‘cause he thought you’d be—”

           “This is from my father?” Frisk stared at the dark-gold calligraphy, then at him. Sans just stared back, letting his silence speak for itself.

           Alphys squinted one more time at Frisk’s chest. Then she bolted from her seat, skittered around the table to Mettaton, and latched onto his arm. “You need to get everyone out of here! Right now!” she hissed.

           The automaton quirked a lacquered eyebrow at her. “Are you joking? This is the most—”

           “I said now!”

           Toriel and Undyne watched Mettaton scramble out of his chair, leap straight into the middle of the room, and strike a pose. “Hello, beauties!” he called to the remaining twenty or so diners, giving Alphys a nervous glance. “This is your lucky night! We’re going to have a scavenger hunt, and the prize is me—one candlelit dinner with yours truly! Follow me to Paradise!”

           Alphys breathed a sigh of relief as the monsters trooped out, dragging the waiters and the protesting maître d’ with them, and the doors slammed shut. The royal scientist gestured to Toriel, then Undyne, who had come around to their side of the table. “We should leave, too,” Alphys said urgently.

           “What?” The goat monster frowned at her, and at Frisk, whose shoulders had hunched. “Are you all right, my chi—”

           “Yes!” They jumped as Frisk whipped around, clutching the envelope to her breast, giving them a dreadful smile. “Yes. Yes, I…I’m fine. I just need to—” She gulped. “Never mind. I have to talk to Sans.” She held her hand out. “Let’s go.” He didn’t move, and she said desperately, “Now? Please?”

           A tiny quiver of fear ran through him, and not just because he, personally, was in an absolute world of shit. He could feel the air around Frisk grow heavier, and for the first time in a long time, his instincts were urging him to back away. Her magic was building rapidly, as if she was getting a barrier ready, but she wasn’t doing it on purpose. What did she—

Oh, crap. Not only were they Underground, where magic was naturally stronger than above, she was already at least a little drunk, and tired, and…well, “upset” would not begin to cover the fallout of his slip-up. Was Alphys worried something would happen? But…

Just to be sure, Sans took a long look at Frisk’s SOUL. For a second, he thought something was wrong with his vision, or he was just out of practice; then he realized that, for once, he was not the problem.

Her SOUL was a goddamn mess. It shone as bright and beautifully red as when he’d first seen it, but where it had been rock-solid with determination, it now looked more like a snowglobe that kept getting shaken up before the glitter had a chance to settle. Magic was seeping through her skin and beginning to tint the air around her, and if she was aware of it, she wasn’t even trying to control it.

Fuck. Alphys had been smart enough to keep an eye on Frisk’s SOUL when she started getting agitated about Chara—had the scientist noticed some instability when she was testing the human’s magic? Either way, she’d been scared enough to have Mettaton clear the room.

But it wasn’t as if the monsters should be scared of Frisk, was it? Sure, she seemed pretty volatile right now, but she was still Frisk! She would never hurt anyone! At least, not on purpose…

Sans couldn’t help glancing at the other table. Sure enough, the demon-child was back, grinning and clapping its hands in sheer delight. “Told you so,” it said gaily.

           Undyne coughed. “Uh…Frisk? Why’d your dad call you that?”

           Frisk gestured one more time, and Sans made himself look at her hand with a grim, apologetic shake of his head. His SOUL wanted to tear loose and go hide at the way her face contorted. “You’ve gotta calm down, kid,” he said quietly. He didn’t know how to explain in front of everyone that her magic was too thick for him to teleport her anywhere without touching her, and doing so right now would singe him down to the bone—probably straight through it. “Please,” he added.

           The priestess let her hand drop. She closed her eyes in resignation, pinching the bridge of her nose. “He called me that because I’m illegitimate, and I have to use my mother’s name.”

           Pause. Sans shuffled back a little as Frisk’s eyes opened again, taking in the monsters’ blank faces. “Oh, for God’s sake! Do I need to spell it out for you?” She brandished the envelope at them: FRISK DREEMURR. “That was Chara’s last name, and she was my mother!”

           The world stopped for a moment. Sans watched Toriel, breathless, painfully aware that her reaction was the one that really mattered. If she took Frisk seriously, then the priestess could probably recover her equilibrium and work through some of her feelings. If she didn’t—

           Toriel was frowning in bewilderment. Then…she started to smile, and Sans’ SOUL shrieked in panic: Nonono, don’t do it, don’t—

           The former Queen gave a polite little laugh. “I’m…sorry, my child, but…there must be some mistake.”

           The air crackled, not loud enough yet for the others to hear. Frisk gripped the letter harder, still holding it at arm’s length. “Why do you say that?” she asked, too calm.

           “Well…” Oh, crap. Now Undyne was smiling, too, only stopping when Alphys yanked on her sleeve. “Sorry,” the Captain said, “but c’mon. Chara never even had any kids!”

           “Yeah, she did,” said Sans, and the women looked at him in astonishment. Frisk’s arm fell to her side as he continued, “The humans who visited ‘bout twenty-four years ago had their King with ‘em, and he knocked her up. She hid it till the last second, ‘n then she gave birth in the Ruins so no one would see anything.” He glanced at Toriel. “Right?”

           It was hard to say who was the most shocked. “I thought Chara had me after she left the Underground! You mean I was born here?” demanded Frisk.

“You’ve gotta be kidding me!” barked Undyne. She looked at Toriel, whose eyes were huge, hands pressed to her mouth. “I-I mean—” The fish monster turned to Alphys. “Don’t humans get really big and weird when they’re pregnant? Wouldn’t we have noticed something?”

           “Not n-necessarily,” Alphys said, fiddling with her claws faster than ever. “It depends on the individual, and how the baby d-develops. Besides, it’s not as if we had other humans to compare her with. She could’ve just w-worn thick clothes and stayed out of sight.”

“Huh.” Undyne stared at the floor. “Now that you mention it, she did spend a few months cooped up in the house before she left. But—”

           “Where did you hear this, Sans?” None of them had ever heard Toriel sound like that, her gentle voice lowered to an almost bestial snarl. “Who told you?”

           Sans grimaced. “You guys cleared everyone out of the Ruins, but you didn’t get all the spiders. They saw what happened, an’ they heard her tell you who the dad was.”

Toriel’s mouth fell open. “Spiders?”

“Yep. Some of ‘em made it over to Hotland while Kris was here, and they told Muffet, an’ she wound up sellin’ the story to Grillby. I don’t think he ever told anyone else. He just likes knowin’ stuff.” The skeleton scratched the back of his skull. “When I asked him ‘bout Chara the other day, he told me everything. I just never got a friggin’ chance to talk to Frisk about it.”

Another long pause. Was it his imagination, or was the air getting hotter? The priestess was only a few feet away, and though he didn’t have the courage to look at her again, that side of his body was tingling very unpleasantly.

           Toriel’s face had hardened, her arms folded at the waist. “Be that as it may, it proves absolutely no connection between her and Chara.”

God damn it. “No, they didn’t know for a fact that Frisk was her kid. But her age matched up, and a bunch of the spiders who rode with her were right next to her SOUL for a few hours. They said she had a buttload of magic, and it smelled like the Underground—way more than any human’s should.”

“It would explain how she’s so powerful,” mused Alphys. “With the capability to use magic from her f-father’s side, and being c-conceived and gestated here, she probably started accruing it before she was even born. She’s already proven that she can convert a monster’s power for herself, so…”

“Holy shit,” whispered Undyne. “So Chara really did have a kid?”

“Yes, she did,” the former Queen said tightly. “We just thought she was ill and shutting herself away for a while. She didn’t tell us how Stephin had betrayed our hospitality until she was nearly in labor, and she begged us not to tell any of the other monsters.” Toriel was gripping her own sleeves hard enough to puncture the fabric. “We gave her two months to recover, and then Asgore sent them both to Stephin. The baby wasn’t very strong, but Asgore was afraid that if we kept her here, Stephin would think we were holding his child hostage.”

No one answered, and Toriel swallowed hard. “A few weeks later, Chara returned to us in agony. Stephin had just become engaged to another woman, and he refused to break it off. The baby had become sick after leaving the Underground, and when Chara started preparing for the journey back here, she…the child didn’t make it home.” The former Queen wiped her eyes with the side of her hand. “I am sorry, Frisk, but there is no way you could be—”

           “Yes, there is,” Frisk said, sounding oddly detached. “Chara lied to you. I didn’t die—she left me with a wet nurse and paid her to be my foster mother.”

Sans wanted to dive out of the way as Toriel took a step toward the human, Undyne and Alphys also shrinking back. “You mean to tell me,” the goat monster said, deathly quiet, “that my daughter knowingly abandoned her child and deceived her family?”

“Yes. She did.” Frisk was standing firm, but the monsters could see the haze coming off her like a golden mist; Sans traded looks with Undyne, who pulled Alphys closer. “If you really think it’s impossible for me to be Chara’s daughter, why did you ask my exact age?” the human demanded. “Why did you want to know how old I was when I first visited, and why did Asgore ask Sans the very same thing? You knew Chara had had a baby girl ten years before the delegation arrived, and then you found out Kris was a girl. Were you wondering if I was actually—”

           “No!” They flinched at Toriel’s sheer vehemence. She gritted her teeth, trying to control her temper. “It was all Asgore’s fault. When Chara returned to us, he had the temerity to accuse her of lying about her child’s death. He told her she was not welcome unless she brought the baby back with her! Of course we didn’t see her again for ten years!” Smoke drifted from between her fingers as she wiped her eyes again. “I still don’t know how he could have done something so cruel, or how he told you about it, but my only regret is that I ever considered the possibility for a single second! I know you are both wrong!”

           Frisk’s eyes narrowed, and Sans jumped as a golden spark flew in his direction. He quashed the reflex to teleport to safety and stood up, only for Frisk to look around him, as though he wasn’t there. “I haven’t spoken to Asgore since I was a child. He has nothing to do with this conversation,” she snapped. “Do you know who first told me Chara was my mother?”

           Toriel tried to give her a tolerant smile. “No, child. Who first told you?”

           “Asriel.” Before the goat monster could react, Frisk pressed on, “He put the pieces together after he saw me make a barrier by accident. He knew that that ability ran in the royal family, and the King had fathered Chara’s child, so he asked her if it could be me. Chara got him to bring me to her, and he told me who I really was.” The envelope trembled in her hands. “He told me I’d come home.”

Toriel’s eyes widened again. She started to speak, but Frisk raised her voice: “Chara said my nurse had told her I’d died, and she apologized to me for how she acted whenever she visited the orphanage or the castle kitchens.” The human’s face had the hard, bitter expression Sans recognized from the time she’d caught him trying to escape. “She was so sweet to all the other children, and then she looked at me like I was some kind of diseased rat! She said it was because I reminded her of her little girl and it made her sad, and she didn’t know it was actually me!”

           “There!” Toriel exclaimed. “You see? The nurse wanted to hide the King’s child for her own gain, and—”

           “Chara knew who I was all along!” bellowed Frisk, and it was the goat monster’s turn to step back. “She knew damn well that I was alive! Why else would she pay my foster mother a hundred dinar every month for ten years? How did she know to check in on me every so often to see if I still existed? Why’d she leave me to be beaten and starved half to death while she kept the thousands my father gave her to support us both and did whatever she liked?!”

           “How dare you say that? My child would never have—”

“She would, and she did! I’m sorry, Toriel, but she lied to everyone, especially you! Chara abandoned me until I was useful for something besides money, and she tore your family apart to punish Asgore for being right about her!”

           “ENOUGH!” roared Toriel. She made a violent gesture, flame sizzling through the air. “I will not hear any more of this! Do you understand, High Priestess?! Whatever you may think happened, I know my daughter, and I know what she was and was not capable of! If you’re going to insist on slandering her any further, perhaps it would be better for you to l—”

           The echoes died. The fury in Toriel’s gaze was gone, a hand coming back to her mouth.

           “Better for me to what, Lady Toriel?” Frisk asked, so gently that Sans cringed. “Should—” Her throat worked. “Should I leave the Underground? Are you going to send me away again?”

           Toriel didn’t have the chance to reply. A barrier screamed to life overhead, and constricted until it formed a dome around them only about twenty feet across and fifteen feet high. “All right. I understand,” said Frisk.

Undyne reacted first, pushing Alphys to the floor and stuffing her under the table. “Frisk!” snapped the fish monster. “Calm down, okay? She didn’t mean it!”

“She didn’t mean to say I was lying?” Frisk inquired, her voice suddenly rising to a shriek: “She didn’t mean to tell me to get out?”

“Frisk!” Sans tried to grab her shoulder, only for a flare of gold to warn him away. “C’mon, sweetheart! Ya gotta stop it! We can talk about this!”

“We just did, Sans!” He had seen her in pain before, but it was nothing compared to the wild-eyed stare she turned on him now. “We talked about it because you couldn’t wait to show everyone who I was! Thank you so much for helping me have this difficult conversation! We’ve finally answered the question of whether someone else I love is going to call me a liar!”

Sans’ SOUL already hurt so much that it took a moment to remember what she—oh, God. She meant when she’d told him she was Kris, and he’d scoffed at her until she stripped down to prove it. Now she’d been forced to reveal her identity to Toriel in the least natural way possible, and she didn’t believe her, either. “Frisk—”

She was smiling, but in a very unhinged way. “No, I should really be thanking you. Life is so much simpler now! I don’t have to waste any more time and energy wondering if I should feel worthless, because the closest person to a real mother I’ve ever had just told me so!”

Sans couldn’t answer: he had to fling himself backward before a cascade of sparks hit him in the face. Frisk drifted away a few steps and sank to her knees, hands still clenched on the envelope in her lap. “It’s fine,” she mumbled at the floor. “Food, presents, bubbles—I already gave you everything I have. If you don’t want me anymore, then…”

Toriel was rooted to the spot, chest heaving. The barrier sank lower, nearly grazing her horns, and Undyne rushed to sling her under the table as more sparks flew. “Sans!” the Captain shouted over the crackle and hiss of human magic.

The skeleton glared down at Toriel, and shook his head as she tried to speak. Frisk was too far gone—anything else the goat monster said would just aggravate her further, assuming she could even hear it.

Meanwhile, the dome was slowly closing in on them, and they couldn’t do a damn thing about it. If he tried to touch Frisk now, she’d just shove more magic at him; not only would that hurt like hell, it’d trap them all between two layers of barrier. He yelled her name again, but she didn’t move.

Shit! Why hadn’t Alphys warned him sooner? Why hadn’t Undyne kept her goddamn mouth shut about the letter? And if Toriel couldn’t accept right away that everything she knew was wrong and Chara was even worse than Sans had imagined, couldn’t she have found a way to deny it without completely destroying Frisk?!

Why hadn’t he—

No, all that mattered right now was getting through to her. The light surrounded them in blinding golden pulses, the barrier crackling like…

Humming. The barrier was making a hell of a lot of noise, and it…didn’t sound like her humming at all. Why was he thinking of that now?

…Because the last time his magic had been out of control, in his prison cell, she’d calmed him down by humming. But he hadn’t even heard her at first; he’d only snapped out of it when she touched his blaster – the physical embodiment of his magic – with her bare hand. He never did explain to her what a no-no that was…

Sans looked at his hand. He looked at his priestess, curled in on herself, lost in misery. The golden dome was so close to the crown of his skull that he could feel his whole body screaming at him to run.

The giant skeleton looked Toriel in the eye. Then he squeezed his sockets shut, lifted his arm, and placed his hand flat on the barrier.

 ~

             Something…happened.

           One second, the pressure in Frisk’s head was intolerable, grief and despair rising to a fever pitch, spurred by the determination to keep the monsters here until they changed their minds, till they were sorry. Then—

           The sensation could only be likened to someone running their finger down the inside of her chest, the most strange and intimate thing she’d ever felt. It should have been horrible, or at least uncomfortable, but…

           But it didn’t feel invasive. It felt like someone giving her heart a gentle nudge, saying in a familiar, gravelly baritone, “’s all right, Frisk. It’s gonna be okay. I promise. But you gotta stop now, ‘kay?”

The feeling slipped away. She stirred, trying to get it back; Frisk opened her eyes and—

           Sans. Her chest gave a happy little shiver as she saw him looking down at her. He was standing nearby, giving her a strained smile and…and touching—the barrier—

           Fear jolted her fully awake. Frisk whistled as hard as she could, and the searing golden light vanished. Her whole body ached, but it was nothing compared with what she glimpsed as Sans lowered his arm. “Oh, God! Sans—”

           “Hey, kitten,” mumbled the boss monster. He had to stifle a grunt, shuffling hastily to turn his back to her. “Tori, could I…get a hand with this? Heh…ow…”

           Frisk tried to get up from where she was kneeling, or at least stop shaking. Green light shone around Sans’ huge form, but she barely noticed; all she could see in her mind’s eye were his blackened metacarpals, the smaller bones not just burned, but partially melted by her magic.

           Her legs refused to work. Frisk dropped the envelope and shuffled herself around in a half circle to see if anyone else was hurt, and whether they had seen her nearly kill her poor skeleton. No one was here…

           “Aww, darn. You were so close.”

           …except for a voice that felt like spiders crawling into her brain. The demon-child sat on the edge of a nearby table, shaking its head at her and sighing. Then it gave her an encouraging grin. “Oh, well. That was still fun—just like old times. Don’t worry, you’ll get ‘em someday!”

           Someone moved behind her. Frisk blinked hard, then shuddered, and pushed herself up onto her feet, standing with her back to the demon.

Undyne was climbing out from under their table and offering a webbed hand to Alphys. “Undyne?” The human moved gingerly toward them. “Are you two all right?”

           The Captain’s eye widened, and her arm shot out, protecting Alphys from…from what? Frisk glanced around them, looking for—

           Her. Undyne was protecting Alphys from her.

And why not? Hadn’t she done exactly what the monsters feared most—trapped them with a barrier, maimed someone, and nearly killed them? Even Undyne was afraid of her now!

           Frisk shouldn’t have gotten up: she felt her body go heavy, legs giving way. She was only vaguely aware that she was going to fall, and that Undyne was hesitating, moving too late to catch her.

A soft, tingling sensation stopped her just short of the marble floor, lifting her higher into the air. To her dismay, she was enveloped in red magic, and Sans was reaching for her; Frisk tried to say, “No, don’t—”

           His arms closed around her, strong and safe, his injured hand settling her against his shoulder. The other drew his coat over her legs; a shaky phalange ran through her hair, and a shakier voice rumbled, “Y’okay, sweetheart?”

           Frisk wound her arms around his neck as tight as they’d go, not caring how his vertebrae dug into her flesh. She was too numb to cry, and she didn’t have the strength to ask what he was doing, or why he was anywhere near her. All she could do was hang on.

           Undyne cleared her throat. “She…is she okay now?”

           “She’ll be fine,” snapped the giant skeleton, and immediately stroked Frisk’s hair again as she trembled. “Shh, s’alright,” he murmured.

“Sans,” Toriel said brokenly. “I—”

The world tipped and swerved as Sans shifted his weight, turning them away. “C’mon, kitten. Let’s go home.”

           “To your house?” Undyne was still shaken, but Frisk heard a warning note in her voice. “Look, I know you’re really emotional right now, but she’s not in any condition to—”

           “To sleep!” he snarled. “I’m takin’ ‘er home, and we’re gonna sleep! Good fuckin’ night!”

           A tiny part of Frisk wanted to tell him to be nice, but she couldn’t even stay conscious. The last thing she heard was Toriel’s cry of “Sans, wait!” before his magic rushed them through space. Then—

 ~

             On her third day at the convent, they finally made her leave her room.

           Frisk kept her eyes on the ground, letting the matron steer her down a hall and out into a courtyard full of chattering girls. The noise dropped a little as they saw her, but when Frisk stayed by the wall, there was a collective shrug, and the chatter resumed.

           The wind was howling. Frisk wiped her nose on the sleeve of her new uniform, wondering dully if it was going to snow out here. The drifts in front of Sans and Papyrus’ house never seemed to go down, no matter how often they tossed her into them.

           Did they miss her yet? Did they even know she was gone? Or had the accident—

           “Excuse me?”

           Frisk looked up. Through her tears, she saw a group of older girls standing in front of her, with a grownup right behind—the Sister must have ordered them to come be nice to the new girl. Sure enough, the speaker was holding out a handkerchief, looking kind and concerned. “Thank you,” Frisk whispered, taking it and wiping her eyes.

           “It’s all right. I know I was very sad when I first got here,” the girl said, a little too loud. She smiled, and Frisk tried not to shudder—she’d gotten so used to monsters that the girl’s pretty blue eyes, golden hair, and rosy skin looked fake, like a doll.

The grownup nodded approval and moved away to yell at another group for telling dirty jokes. Immediately, the blonde girl’s smile sharpened, and she wrinkled her nose. “Keep it,” she said curtly.

That was bad, but at least Frisk had expected it. What really hurt was when the group moved off and the girl said to her friends, “Oh my God, her hair! And did you see her eyes? She looks like a rabbit!”

The snickering felt like a scab being ripped off Frisk’s heart. “Geez, Mathilda,” another girl said quietly.

“Well, it’s true! They’re not supposed to be red! Is she cursed or something?” Laughter. “I’m serious! We all need to say extra prayers tonight!”

…

Would it have changed anything if Frisk had remembered that conversation? Soon after, the King visited and told her everything – how he had thought Chara was at least providing her with basic necessities, and he would be sure she never lacked for anything again – and when she worsened, they decided to remove her memories; the Mother Superior had repeated the most relevant facts about her father and her future education, and Frisk had accepted her new life.

As far as Frisk knew, the first time she met her best friend was soon afterward, when Mathilda switched places with someone to sit next to her at lunch. “Hello. You must be Frisk,” she said, smiling. “Do you, um…”

Frisk watched her in puzzlement. Why was Mathilda Owen bothering to speak to her?

Mathilda fidgeted. “Never mind. I just wanted to say hello.” Why did she look so guilty? Her friends were watching, whispering anxiously to each other, as though something important was at stake. “Would you like to come and sit with us? I hate to see you all by yourself.”

As soon as she figured out that it wasn’t a cruel prank, and she really was making friends with the most beautiful and kind-hearted girl in the entire school, Frisk was too happy to question things further. It took her a long time to realize that everyone knew why the King had been here, and that everyone wanted his daughter to like them, especially Mathilda.

Even then, Frisk had decided not to care. As long as she could earn their friendship by being kind and helpful, did it really matter how it’d started? It wasn’t as if she was only worth something because of her father.

…It wasn’t.

 ~

             …Finally.

She shook the ruby droplets from the kitchen knife, wondering idly why he was the only monster who ever bled, then kicked the dust aside. It was time to move on.

 ~          

                       Frisk awoke in a rush of adrenaline and half-remembered nightmares. It was dark; she thought for a moment that she’d been buried alive, then realized that something huge and leathery was draped over her entire body. No golden twilight through the windows, no blood, no dust…

Ugh. Her mouth tasted like a warm sock, and her head throbbed the way it always did when she’d used too much magic. With great care, the human slithered out of her warm prison for a look around.

She was in Sans’ room, lying on his outgrown mattress, his overcoat loosely wrapped around her. The lamp was on, but he’d draped an old shirt over it to diffuse the light into a soft glow, giving the cold, messy space a warmer aspect; in fact, the golden haze reminded her of—

           A barrier.

Chills swept through her, clearing her head of other thoughts like a blast of frigid air. It wasn’t just a nightmare: she had used a barrier against monsters inside the Underground. There was no coming back from that, no excusing or explaining it away.

Even if Toriel hadn’t really meant it at the time, her order to leave would probably become reality. Her friends might not entirely blame her for lashing out, but there was still no way they could trust her anymore—after she had hurt Sans like that, she’d be angry if he did trust her!

           Frisk slowly eased herself back down inside the coat, as if she could hide from what she’d done. In her bitter, selfish regret, she didn’t even think of what this meant for her peace efforts; all she knew was that the Underground was the only place she’d ever really belonged – her birthplace – and she had lost any right to be here. Back to the humans, then, and her suffocating routine of work, exhaustion, and loneliness, secretly hoping that maybe, if she could be useful enough, someone would love her for more than her money or her pedigree and stay. If she could just be good enough—

           Well, obviously, she couldn’t.

           Frisk wasn’t going to cry again. She was tired of crying about things in general, and in this case, there was no possible way to make herself feel better. Why bother making her headache worse and her sleeves all soggy again? She just burrowed deeper into the huge leather coat, willing her mind to subside into comfortable nothingness; at least she was good at that.

It usually helped to have something small to focus on, so Frisk unhooked her itchy black choker and scratched her neck, flushing at the memory of flirting with Sans in front of everyone. Then came her boots, her stockings, and her earrings…

…which weren’t there. The priestess frowned, fingering her earlobes. She didn’t remember taking them out. Had they come off while she was asleep?

Wait a moment. Sans had put her here, hadn’t he? Her satchel was close by; Frisk stuck her arm out until she could pull it over and peek inside. Sure enough, not only had the boss monster removed her earrings for her, he’d left them atop her folded clothes, where they were both safe and easily found.

For some reason, that one little thing, that bit of care and attention, was the last straw. She took a deep breath, only for it to catch as a huge sob tore loose, partly muffled by his coat. Then another, and—

Sans was suddenly standing by the mattress. “Frisk!” He sat down hard. “Frisk, it’s okay, don’t—”

The human forgot that he was supposed to be scared of her. Moving on pure instinct, she flung the coat aside and launched herself up at him, letting his shirt absorb the first wave of tears. “Aww,” he murmured, folding his arms over her back and cradling her head in one massive palm. “C’mon, sweetheart, ya don’t hafta cry. Everythin’s fine now.”

Frisk pressed her face into his clavicle, furiously shaking her head. It was important to explain to him that nothing was fine and it was absolutely correct for her to be crying, but she was crying too hard to get the words out.

Sans gave a large, soft sigh, carrying her outward and back in. “It’s okay,” he repeated, his voice rumbling throughout her body. She shook her head again, and he ran the side of his finger down her back. “Yuh-huh, it is. Calm down.”

She didn’t want to calm down, but as he kept petting her, Frisk’s sobs slowed down a little. The boss monster made a sound deep in his chest, and she answered him with one that made him squeeze her tighter.

There was that magnetic feeling again, as though she was completely stuck to him. This time, though, she wasn’t frightened. And this time, she felt something else: another sensation was stealing over her, so slowly that she thought it might just be her imagination. It was similar to when he’d accidentally given her his magic, but this didn’t seem accidental, and it wasn’t exactly magic…

She’d felt it when he touched the barrier, and here it was again, washing over her in gentle waves: guilt and anger at himself for kicking off the whole incident, anxiety for her, and…well. He didn’t think she was worthless, or dangerous, or that she needed to do a single thing to deserve forgiveness. His hand didn’t even hurt anymore. …Much.

Even if it did, he still loved her.

Frisk shook her head again, but her sobs grew slower and weaker, gradually coming to a stop. The human leaned away long enough to sniff back a giant wad of snot, then sought a dry patch of his shirt to wipe her eyes. She wasn’t sure how he was doing this, but she wasn’t going to question it right now. “Hand?” she croaked.

Sans was quiet. He grunted, then held his palm up. “It ain’t that bad. Looks kinda like a frowny face. See?”

The priestess gulped, raising her own fingers to trace the pattern of deep swirls and grooves her magic had left in the living bones. “Can…” Frisk had to swallow a few more times before she could whisper, “Can you still move them?”

He paused. She felt a closing-off sort of twinge in her chest, as though he’d decided to stop sharing his feelings so he could fib: “Yeah, pretty much.” His metacarpals waggled back and forth, the smallest of them longer than her entire hand. She poked the base of his thumb and forefinger, where a good two or three inches of bone were fused together. “That doesn’t count,” he said stubbornly.

Frisk shuddered, turning to rest her cheek near the top of his sternum. “I’m so sorry.”

“I know.” He shifted uncomfortably. “Do ya wanna talk about it?”

“I don’t know,” she said, and winced as her head throbbed. “What time is it?”

“Last I checked, it was about seven o’clock,” he replied, petting her hair again. “I got up maybe half an hour ago an’ healed you, just in case.” Tap, tap. “How’s yer hangover?”

“…Not that bad, actually.” Frisk yawned. She’d missed being with him so much that it felt like a waste to just sleep, but it was hard to argue with the results. After all she’d had to drink last night, and then…the incident, she was amazed that she only had a headache and an icky mouth. “Thank you for that. It feels like I got much more than five or six hours.”

Sans chuckled, tapping her head again. “That’s ‘cause it’s seven in the evening, kitten. I think we slept about eighteen hours.”

Frisk’s eyes shot open. “Are you serious?” She leaned back enough to look him in the face. “Is that even possible? I—”

The words faded as their eyes met. Frisk figured she must look pretty awful, but he wasn’t much better. “Did I miss a spot?” he asked gruffly.

The human nodded, reaching up to brush at the dried red on the corners of his sockets. Sans leaned into her touch as she rubbed his cheekbone. “You’re supposed to be a big boy now,” she scolded the giant skeleton. “Do I need to—”

Memory hit her again like a fist. Sans jumped as Frisk suddenly yanked her hand away, trying to push herself off him. “Hey!” he protested. “What’re you—wouldja hold on a damn minute?!” More by reflex than design, his hand tightened around her back, keeping her in place. “It was an accident, goddammit! You’re not gonna do it again!”

“No, it wasn’t!” Frisk thumped his shoulder with her tiny fist. “You don’t understand!” Thump. “It wasn’t an accident! I was so angry, I wanted to keep everyone there, and I didn’t want to control it! I don’t know what would’ve happened if you hadn’t stopped me!”

Sans started. “That little fucker,” the skeleton whispered, as if he’d realized something very profound. “I know what it was, Frisk. That goddamn thing was right there! I saw it a minute before the whole name thing started! I dunno if it made me drop the letter so you’d freak out, or if it was plannin’ something else, but it wanted you to go nuts! That’s why—”

“No! It wasn’t!” Thump. Thump. “Are you even listening?! It was me! I did it on purpose!” Thump. “I was already…” Frisk shuddered, shaking her head again as more emotions boiled to the surface. “Do you know how scared I’ve been? We’re halfway through our visit, and I haven’t even talked to anyone about ending slavery! I’ve just been thinking of how to tell Asgore and Toriel about Chara, whether they’d believe me and if I’ve been selfish to keep back something that could help make peace—I had no idea their estrangement was because Asgore knew Chara was lying about me! And I missed you so much—” His arms tightened, and Frisk caught herself on another sob. “I don’t want to go, Sans!”

“No one’s makin’ you go anywhere!” He gave her a very light shake. “We all know you, Frisk! Ya think anyone’s sittin’ there thinkin’, ‘Welp, that was inevitable, let’s go ahead ‘n toss ‘er out now’? Or d’ya think we feel like shit ‘cause we kept pokin’ you till you couldn’t take it anymore?”

“How can you say that?” she demanded. “It doesn’t matter how badly I was provoked! I wouldn’t let you get away with attacking me just because you were angry!”

“Y’already did. Remember?” He stroked her back with one knuckle. “You coulda done anythin’ you wanted once I quit tryin’ ta murder you, and ya put me to bed ‘n fed me.”

…Damn it. “That’s not the same thing! I—”

“Frisk.” His phalange brushed her cheek. “Yer the one who’s not listenin’. No one is makin’ you leave. We’re gonna talk about it with everybody, there’s gonna be a big damn fight over who’s the most sorry, an’ we’re gonna figure out how to get you in to see Asgore. You’re gonna say whatever you need to about Chara and lay out yer big plan to make everything all better. If he doesn’t wanna do it, we’ll figure somethin’ else out before we leave.” His hand rested on her back like a shield. “And I’m gonna quit actin’ like all I hafta do is stay outta yer way an’ let you do everything. From now on, I want you ta tell me if somethin’s botherin’ you before ya go crazy.” Squeeze. “Any questions?”

Frisk thought about it as she sniffled. “Yes. Why couldn’t you have been this sweet when I gave you the stupid chessboard?”

He snorted. “Yer startin’ ta sound like me!” Pause. Shrug. “Short answer? It was pretty much the best thing I ever got, and I didn’t know what to say.”

“Whatever happened to ‘Thank you,’ Sans?” Thump. “I was really looking forward to you opening your gift, and you couldn’t wait to get away from it!”

“I know, I know!” His shoulders hunched again. “’m sorry! I…wanted ta jump you, but that wasn’t exactly an option. I didn’t know what else ta do!”

How could he make her want to hug and slap him so badly? “Well, putting that aside, do you plan to spend the rest of your life running off when you get embarrassed?”

“I wasn’t—” He caught himself and scowled. “I dunno. Just…sorry I was shitty about the chess stuff. It was amazing, and thank you a lot for it. Okay?”

He was so exasperatingly cute that Frisk had to bite her lip. “All right, then. You’re welcome. I…”

Rrrrgggrgrgl.

They both froze as her stomach rumbled. Frisk made a sheepish sound, and Sans chuckled. “Right. I was in the middle of makin’ a couple sandwiches when I came up.”

Frisk nodded. “Where’s Papyrus?” She wiped her eyes again. “Please don’t say he’s planning to make dinner.”

“Nope! I left a note on the door tellin’ him and Undyne ta stay at the inn tonight. I said we’d meet ‘em at the Ruins tomorrow morning.”

They were going to be alone tonight? The priestess felt light-headed, her cheeks burning. Sans must have been thinking the same thing, because she could’ve sworn his bones were getting warmer. “Time ta eat,” he mumbled, and a blink later, they were in the living room.

Still in his arms, Frisk turned her head to survey the kitchen table. He’d set out a loaf of bread, some cheese, tomatoes, and a few other things, obviously dropped when he’d heard her crying. Frisk thought about it, then snuggled back into Sans. There was food, and she was starving, but he was right here, too; she didn’t know which she wanted more at the moment.

Another rumble from her stomach settled the question. “Off ya go,” he said reluctantly, and Frisk sighed, moving her hand down to push free of their stuck-togetherness.

Sans suddenly made a strangled sound. Frisk didn’t understand it, or why his hand had flexed to avoid squashing her, until she looked down: she’d accidentally reached in between his ribs, pushing his shirt through and wrapping her fingers most of the way around his middle rib.

She’d never put her hands inside his ribcage, assuming it was basically a private part, and it seemed she was right. Just like that, his breathing had grown ragged, his bones trembling as her hand tightened. There was no misinterpreting his physical reaction; she could imagine how his instincts to comfort and protect her were deepening into much more raw emotion…

…because it was completely mutual. The young woman tugged lightly on his rib, and felt him shudder again. “Frisk,” he muttered. “Knock it off.”

Frisk moved just enough to brush her cheek against his jawbone. “What?” One finger slid along the bone toward his sternum. “This?”

Sans’ entire frame jerked. “Yes, that!” He caught her wrist in the curl of his index finger. “If I was a human, it’d be like stickin’ yer hand down my pants!”

“You don’t want me to?” she asked, very matter-of-fact.

Sans’ arm across her back was almost hurting her. Not tight enough, then. “Frisk,” he said warningly.

“I’m serious.” She licked her lips, feeling heat spread through her, chasing away the sorrow and anger. “My period’s over, the house is empty, and your magic doesn’t have any negativity at all right now.” Her free hand drifted toward his sternum. “We both need this, Sans. Don’t tell me you’re not interested.”

“I’m not sayin’ that!” To her bewilderment, he seized her with his magic and set her on the couch with a butt-tingling thump. “Just… I want you so bad, I’m about to lose my damn mind!” His entire skull was bright red. “But you’re still messed up from somethin’ that only happened ‘cause I was bein’ a dumbass, an’ I’m not gonna do it when you’re not thinkin’ straight! That would be fuckin’ wrong! Got it?” Despite himself, he stepped closer to touch her cheek. “’Sides, there’s somethin’ we’ve really gotta talk about first. The letter from yer dad is…”

He trailed off as her face twitched. “What?” he asked suspiciously.

“So, you…” Frisk knew this was not the time, but she couldn’t keep the words from bubbling up: “You’d be…fucking wrong?” Her body was trembling again, this time with the urge to giggle. “You already went the extra mile and figured out how to be my size. I’m pretty sure that means you can do it correctly now!”

“Frisk,” he said, scandalized, and covered his face as she snrrrked. “God damn it, woman, I’m tryin’ ta be serious here!”

She didn’t answer, at least not out loud. Sans took one look at her face and gave his scariest growl. “No.”

“But—”

“Frisk.”

“But are you—”

“Friiiiisk—”

A long pause. Frisk sighed in resignation, shrugging one shoulder.

Sans nodded. “Okay. Now, for real, Frisk, I’m—”

“—fucking serious?”

The dam broke: one moment, they were staring each other down, and then they burst into hysterical, snorting laughter. Frisk was sobbing again, but for the right reason, dammit; Sans let his forehead thunk on the floor, trying desperately to stop long enough to say something, only to end up laughing harder.

Eventually, out of sheer weakness, they had to slow down, and reached a point where they could almost breathe normally. “Shit,” rasped Sans, and wiped his eyes on his sleeves. “Oh my God, I love you.”

Frisk’s breath caught, her heart coming to a standstill. She sat up, watching the skeleton realize what he’d said. His sockets widened, but he looked straight at her, almost defiantly. “What?” There went the red again. He looked away…and back. “’s true,” he said, very quietly.

There was no telling what she might have done if Sans hadn’t pushed to his feet and waved his hand at the table. The bread knife started sawing away, cutting the loaf into sandwich slices and assembling the ingredients. “We need ta eat somethin’, an’ then I should go track yer letter down,” he mumbled, trying to rub the color off his skull. “I dunno if someone picked it up, or if it got left up there, or what. You can get some time to yerself—take a bath or somethin’.”

A bath sounded good, decided the one functional corner of her mind. She accepted the glass of water and mostly-tomato sandwich he wafted over to her a moment later, ignoring his muttered apologies for its crappiness. Nor did she pay much heed when he said something else, tapped a knuckle on her shoulder, and winked out of sight.

Alone for the first time in several days, Frisk finished her sandwich. She put the dishes in the sink, went upstairs, and ran a very hot bath, staring at the steam rising from the water. Then she went to Sans’ room, removed all her clothes, and lay down to wrap herself in his overcoat again. She hadn’t touched herself since before they left the castle, and she was even more worked up now than she’d been the night she made herself clear to Sans; being in his room, with the feeling of his bones and everything he’d said to her fresh in her mind, anticipating time to themselves at last—that was more than her body could handle. So…

It took so little time that the water was still hot when Frisk stumbled back into the bathroom. She left the door open a crack before she got in the tub, because…the steam…had to escape. Yes. The door needed to be open. For the steam.

Frisk knew exactly when Sans returned; to her disappointment, she heard an embarrassed mutter in the hall, and the door clicked shut. Just because she could, Frisk splashed louder, whistling his favorite song and letting the notes linger than she probably had to. She let the water out, also loudly, and kept humming as she dried herself and got dressed.

Sans was obviously on his guard when she came downstairs, which was wise: she was wearing his old clothes again, hands in the pockets of his zipped-up blue jacket, though she hadn’t had the nerve to put on any socks. He gave her one glance, reddened again, and turned his head, shoving the golden envelope at her. “Here.”

Frisk swallowed. “Thank you.” She studied the envelope for a moment, then tossed it on the couch and advanced on him. “I’m feeling much better now, so—”

“Nope!” Sans skipped away fast enough to make her yelp a little. He held up his good hand, as if to ward her off. “Dammit, Frisk, I mean it when I say I’m not gonna fuck you yet! Sit down and listen!”

Startled, the human sank onto the couch. Sans scratched the back of his head, collecting his thoughts. “Okay. So. Gaster gave me that thing, an’ he told me what’s in it.” He shut his eyes. “First thing: your King’s been talkin’ about you all over the place. Everyone—all the humans know Chara was yer mom.”

Frisk’s stomach lurched. “I see,” she murmured. Sans watched anxiously as she blew out a long breath. “Well, at least if I start throwing barriers at humans, it won’t frighten them.”

Sans chuckled. “Nope. They’d think it was neat,” he agreed.

The priestess thought it over, and decided that this particular problem could go back on the shelf for now. “Did someone see the letter and start spreading the word?”

“Yep. Gaster says yer dad’s pissed off, and that’s his way of bein’ passive-aggressive.” He indicated the envelope. “He fixed up a bunch of legal stuff with your name all over it.”

“‘Legal stuff’?” Frisk scowled. “Am I being arrested for theft?” She almost hoped so; that was a fight she’d enjoy winning. “If I am, I swear I will burn down the entire—”

“Nope. Just the opposite.” The skeleton took a deep, deep breath. “He…”

Watching his face, it suddenly clicked. “He wants to adopt me?” she asked crisply.

Blink. “…Uh.” Blink. “…yes?” Emphatic blink. “How the hell did you know?”

Her teeth clenched, all her muscles knotting at once, and then she let it go with a sigh. “He hinted at it a few times back when I was teaching Gaius magic. It’s been so long, I forgot all about it.” Mostly. “The poor boy isn’t going to live long enough to have his own heirs, and my older siblings are almost all gone, so… I was hoping His Majesty would name one of his more distant relatives, or pick another of his children.”

“Well, you’re the best he’s got.” Frisk flushed as Sans sat down against the opposite wall. “Is that a normal thing fer humans? You’re gettin’ old and yer official kid is kinda puny, so you grab a backup?”

Frisk crossed her legs, absently enjoying his reaction. “It’s uncommon, but it’s happened before in order to keep a particular bloodline going.” She picked up the envelope and broke the wax seal. “I’ll bet you a million dinar my father says he’s invited Luke and Mathilda back to the castle with their family. He went to school with Luke’s father, so he probably wants to get reacquainted before they announce our engagement.”

The boss monster watched in silence as she pulled out a sheaf of expensive papers, setting aside the copies of her ducal investiture and adoption decree. Frisk unfolded the handwritten letter, read it over carefully, and nodded. “You owe me a million dinar.”

He didn’t laugh. “See? If you end up havin’ my kid, it’s probably not gonna improve yer chances of bein’ Queen someday and gettin’ to set everything right for everyone.” Sans shrugged, eyes on the floor. “Not the kinda thing I can ask you to give up just so I can get laid.”

Warmth bloomed in her chest and rekindled in her middle, where she was still sensitive from her personal time upstairs. “I’m not giving anything up. I don’t want to be Queen,” she said calmly. “I want to become the humans’ ambassador to the monster race and set up an embassy somewhere close by—maybe at the farm on the river.” She set the papers aside and got to her feet, her entire body humming. “And if I do have a child, I’m going to love it and raise it, no matter how hard things get…even if it’s only half human.”

Sans’ eyes went blank. “…Frisk?”

The High Priestess’ heart was pounding so hard that she wondered if he could hear it as she crossed the room. She stopped in front of him, and held her hand out. “Will you stay with me, Sans?”

His hand came up to engulf hers and tug her against him, even as he shook his head. “Ya can’t decide somethin’ like that so quick,” Sans protested. Frisk leaned in just hard enough for him to feel her breasts through the thick blue jacket, and he shuddered. “I-I mean, believe me, I understand bein’ horny, but—”

Frisk reached up to rap on his cheekbone with her knuckles. “Excuse me, sir, but my mind has been made up since I opened the box.” She turned to press her lips to his phalanges. “Take me to your room, please.”

The light in his sockets dilated nearly all the way. Massive hands closed around her, and the world suddenly rushed by, depositing them by the door in his room. His magic pulled the mattress out to the center of the floor, straightening his overcoat in lieu of sheets or a blanket; the skeleton released her and glanced around for a moment, visibly regretting that they weren’t in a more romantic or at least clean environment. “Close yer eyes,” he mumbled.

Frisk complied, feeling and hearing him compress his huge frame down to human size. She opened her eyes just in time for Sans to pull her down to the mattress, setting her in his lap with her calves draped over his femurs. As before, he didn’t seem to care how his clothes hung off him; he simply yanked his sleeves back, then slipped his arm around her waist, the other running through her hair as he mouthed her neck.

That was a good start; the priestess wound her arms around him as Sans pulled her even closer. She made a delicate little sound as he slid his tongue into her mouth, his movements slow and gentle until she deliberately nipped him.

He nearly snarled at her, one hand gripping the small of her back and the other tangling in her hair. Frisk almost purred at the twinges in her scalp, letting him hold her in place as the kiss grew rougher and his fangs grazed her lip. She couldn’t believe how easily this was coming to her, how gratifying it was—all it took was a few little sighs, soft touches, and complete sexual abandon. Who knew?

It was more than a physical urge, though. She couldn’t even guess which of them needed this more, to be held and explored, valued, accepted—

The hand on her back had crept under her jacket, finding the hem of her shirt and then encountering bare skin. Frisk shivered pleasurably at the feel of bones gliding up her side, and at the disbelieving sound he made. “Holy shit,” breathed Sans. “You’re so soft.” His nasal ridge dropped back to the crook of her neck; he inhaled so deeply that she felt a rush of cold on her damp skin. “You smell amazing—” His tongue ran across her throat, his teeth sinking just hard enough to make her whimper and reach up to caress his skull. “I don’t…are ya really sure about this?”

Sighing inwardly, the priestess nuzzled the side of his vertebrae; he sucked in his breath as her tongue ran over the dry bone. Her legs shifted toward him, hips scooting closer as she guided his hands to her waist. Sans accepted the invitation, hitching up his baggy trousers and carefully grinding his pelvis into her so that she could feel his magic more directly.

It was one thing to have undergone a comprehensive scientific education and read dozens upon dozens of romance novels, and quite another to actually feel male parts…or magical facsimiles. The eternal, universal question sprang to mind: how was anything that size supposed to fit in her? That couldn’t be right. If she didn’t know better, she’d dismiss the whole idea as an elaborate prank, and childbirth as some kind of optical illusion. But…

Frisk ducked her head into his shoulder, face burning as his fingers combed through her hair. Luckily, Sans was oblivious. “’s not fair,” he murmured above her. “Everythin’ about you feels nice, ‘n I’m just a buncha gross bones.”

Frisk gave a disapproving snort—this, she could handle. “Here, give me your hand.” Ignoring her hot cheeks, she took his wrist and slid his hand up under her jacket, unable to suppress a tremor as his phalanges traced the underside of her breast. “If I thought you were ‘gross,’ would I be letting you do this?”

There was no telling what Sans thought: his powers of speech had degenerated into a series of incoherent sounds. To her irritation, he withdrew his hand and grabbed at the bottom of her jacket, desperate to pull it over her head…only to blink in confusion as Frisk snrked at him, leaning back and helpfully tapping the zipper.

As it turned out, the joke was on her. In another split-second, Sans had the jacket unzipped and the sleeves pulled straight down her arms, the whole thing tossed aside; before she knew what had happened, he was crushing her against him, his hands back under her white shirt, palms sweeping along her sides and up across her back—

In the heat of the moment, both of them had forgotten about her scars. Frisk tensed as his hands passed over the rough skin, and he stopped dead. “This okay?” he inquired after a moment, giving her a few experimental pets. “Doesn’t feel too weird, does it?”

The young woman shook her head, resting it on his shoulder and reminding herself that he’d already seen them. There was nothing to worry about or feel ashamed of. “You can touch it if you want. It doesn’t feel like much of anything anymore—the nerve endings are gone.”

Sans ground his teeth. “Are ya sure I can’t go kill that bitch?”

Purely on instinct, Frisk placed her slender fingers between his upper ribs, near his sternum; his eyes widened further as she pulled herself the rest of the way onto his bony, baggy-trousered lap. “Please don’t,” she said against his jaw. “I think we have better things to d—”

In one motion, Sans pulled her shirt up to her collarbone and hitched her forward to lay them both down on the mattress. With her face aflame and her heart galloping harder than ever, Frisk stayed still as he rose on one elbow to look her over, jaws parting to breathe more heavily; but to her surprise, when he reached down, all he did was rest his right palm on her sternum, where they could both feel her heartbeat reverberating through the disfigured bones.

Frisk gradually forget to be embarrassed, or cold, letting him see that she trusted him enough to stay exposed. Sans moved his thumb a little, and without thinking, she rested her hand on his, playing with the gaps between his joints. They were both content to stay that way for a few quiet moments, studying the contrast between her skin and his bones.

Soon, though, he had to lean down again to kiss her, and his hand turned to stroke her breast with the backs of his fingers. Frisk made a soft sound and tried to sit up to demand more; to her surprise, he shook his head and slung his femur across her waist, pinning her to the mattress. “Slow down, kitten,” he muttered. “I don’t wanna go nuts an’ hurt you by accident.”

That was cheating. She was already aroused enough; when she reached down to grab his hand, only to have her wrists corraled and pinned over her head with a trace of red magic, she couldn’t help moaning out loud.

Sans’ orange eyes were fully dilated now. He had sat up and partly turned aside, but couldn’t look away from her writhing and urgent noises. “What’d I just say?!” he snapped.

“I can’t help it!” Frisk squirmed again. “Let me go, and I’ll stop! Please!”

With unnatural speed, Sans released her and kicked off his trousers. His full weight flattened her to the mattress, and something pressed very distinctively into her stomach; Frisk tried to look down between their bodies, but his baggy shirt was blocking her view. Was it red like the rest of his magic, or—

His fingers caught her chin, making her look up at him. “Okay, kitten. You ready?” He let go long enough to hook his phalanges in the waistband of her black-and-white-striped pants, and rested his forehead on hers. “I…” He exhaled, his entire body trembling. “I’m just guessin’ on size. Went with somethin’ like this.” His tongue stuck out for a moment. “If it doesn’t work, then—”

“It’s all right, Sans.” Frisk leaned up to kiss his jaw, wiggling her hips to help him remove her last piece of clothing. “Go ahead.”

Sans nodded, taking in the view with his jaws still parted and his eyes burning, but he clearly couldn’t wait any longer. She let him arrange her arms around him, then run his hand over her waist and hips, rubbing her thighs for an appreciative moment before he nudged her legs open.

Either Sans had read up on this process, or the instincts Undyne had mentioned could adapt to human anatomy, because he didn’t even hesitate. He plucked the folds of his shirt out of the way and reached down, and Frisk jumped as something prodded her entrance. She’d gotten a couple of her fingers in there before, but as Sans moved forward into her, she couldn’t help wincing. The pressure quickly grew into discomfort as her body started giving way; she buried her face in Sans’ shirt, and he paused for a second, then leaned in—

Romance novels had absolutely lied to her. The pressure built into sharp, burning pain as he pushed further into her, and Frisk couldn’t hold back a little sob as he moved out, and back in. He shook his head; she tried to tell him it was all right, only to cry out as he sank the rest of the way inside. “God—‘m sorry, Frisk, just—” His hips moved back again, and he started to sit up.

Frisk latched onto his ribs again, legs squeezing his pelvis in the strangest, strongest determination she’d ever felt. She didn’t care if it hurt: he needed her, she needed him, and she’d be damned if she’d let it end yet! “Don’t stop,” she whispered, keenly aware of the effect her voice had on him. Just to be certain, she ran her finger over the back of his skull. “Please?”

There were no more words after that. The boss monster slammed into her again, drawing another near-sob from her. He snarled deep in his throat, hands trembling as they grasped the overcoat behind her head; with a huge effort, he drew out and pushed in more slowly, then stayed still for a moment. Frisk made the mistake of wriggling her hips to try to adjust to the feeling of fullness – of intrusion, really – and he swiftly jerked out and slammed in again.

That was enough for Frisk. She pulled clumsily at him with her legs, and he either took the hint or couldn’t hold back anymore: he snarled in his throat, movements faster and more erratic the closer he came. Frisk held on, ignoring the pain and focusing on the fierce exultation of watching him lose himself in her; when he started to slow down a little, she growled and bit his clavicle as hard as she could, determined to see him finish.

Sure enough, Sans groaned deep in his throat, ending on a snarl; his hips went once—twice—three times more, and his arms locked around her, his entire body shoving her into the mattress as hard as she’d wanted. Frisk let him ride it out for as long as he wanted, waiting till the tension in his limbs finally relaxed and he slumped into her.

Neither one spoke for several minutes. There was no need for him to pull out: she felt his magic vanish, and tried not to breathe too big a sigh of relief. Well, she couldn’t be disappointed in the lack of multiple orgasms or even much pleasure yet—how could she when Sans was lying in her arms, rubbing his face slowly into her neck as his breathing began to slow?

Frisk stroked his skull and shifted her weight where his leg was digging into her, and immediately regretted it as her entire lower half protested. She was going to have many bruises in the morning. They would just have to work on their technique, she thought, resting her cheek on his cranium.

Sans showed no signs of life besides his breathing for several minutes. She was starting to worry a little when he moved his head enough to say, “M’rm.”

The young woman blinked. “Beg pardon?”

He was silent for a long time. “Never mind. I’ll ask ya later.” Sans rose up on his elbow and shakily leaned in to lick her neck again. “Thank you,” he murmured.

There was so much behind it that Frisk didn’t know what to say. Instead, she reached up and pulled his head back down to her breasts, resting his cheekbone over her heart. It made her remember how he’d shared his feelings directly with her before, and what’d happen if he tried that in the middle of sex…

Frisk sighed, closing her eyes. That was another thing to put away for later, to worry about and/or look forward to when she got to it. For now, she closed her eyes, and waited for Sans to say something; then she peeked at him, and saw that she was wasting her time. He was already fast asleep.

[starkeaton]

the adventure zone: graduation character list

Well, i accidentally deleted the original graduation character list post, so here i am making another one. Oops. And as always, if anyone has important details i should add then feel free to suggest them!

Here are all the characters introduced in episodes 1-25. Named characters only!

Also i can’t hide spoilers! So, um..... I can’t put spoilers on this one. If you need the version with spoilers try this version of the post that i made on the adventure zone subreddit but youre not missing out on much.

# -EPISODE 1- (19 characters)

Hieronymous Wiggenstaff (he/him): Head of the Hero/Villain school. at least 400 years old. wears shining blue armor with gold accents. also an elf. according to Tomas, he led the charge at the "battle of blood valley", brought the Kingdoms of Rickart and Dawnbreak to a peace treaty, and founded the school. a little boastful, a little prideful, [SPOILERS OMITTED], and overall a pretty good dude.

Higglemas Wiggenstaff (he/him): Head of the Sidekick/Henchperson annex, cranky old elf. has a dog named hero who shows no signs of anything strange at all, ever. 

Gary (he/him): friendly room gargoyle. pseudo-hivemind.

Groundsy (he/him): the groundskeeper. a pretty nice fellow. don't go in his shed.

Hernandez (he/him): beautiful centaur professor of animal handling.

Jimson (he/him): human battlegrounds trainer for sidekicks/henchpeople, world famous featherweight champion, wields a staff. married to crushman.

Crushman (he/him): silver dragonborn with a sickle, and self-described beefy boy! heavyweight blood champion married to jimson. never lost a match for 8 years. full name Frostus Crushman.

Rolandus Fontaine (he/him): former prince, son of deposed king, kind of an asshole, maybe. wears a cape (important detail)

Zana (she/her): "terrifying" tiefling villain sorcerer, friend of rolandus. barkept the test tavern in ep2

Rhodes (she/her): hero ranger, friend of rolandus.

Buckminster Eden (he/him): hero guy. son of "The Iron Lord". their dad is stronger than rolandus's dad. his wiki page says rogue so i think hes a rogue? i never caught that and ive listened more times than i wish i did

Leon (he/him): softspoken buff, bald "fighter" (although i dont remember any clarification on how exactly he fights), sidekick of buckminster, around 28. anyone else keep forgetting he's bald? i keep forgetting it. >!gets sorta-drafted into becoming a falcon for higglemas and so far hasn't done much else.!<

Rainer Michelle (she/her): cheerful villainous necromancer with a floating chair. also, her name is pronounced "rainier" despite not being confirmed as such? travis ships her with fitzroy.

Tomas (he/him): human man with "kind eyes" and a good (psychic???) memory. guidance counselor.

Stewart LeBoeuf (he/him): brawny human man. serves food. there is no joke here, i promise

Mulligan (he/him): teaches potions. mentioned but doesn't appear yet. and we're like 25 episodes in. maybe we'll see him someday

Germaine, Victoria, Rattles (he/him,she/her,???/???): Skeleton crew. They live in the training room i guess, and as a result can never die, because "no one dies in the training room!" (note: someone now HAS to die in the training room). also their races are never explicitly stated but i guess they're probably human? in episode 3 travis brings up something about how many bones are in "the human body" and at this point i think i'm looking too deep into this so i'll just forget about it and you probably should too.

# -EPISODE 2- (9 characters)

Riveau (he/him): halfling, blame-taking teacher.

Mimi (they/them): gnome sidekick who builds cool robot prosthetics

Bartholemus (he/him): owl aarakocra accountant teacher, known for being the best accountant in the land and having a face some might describe as "smoochable". very pro capitalist :’( hope he gets better

Ramos (she/her): goliath teacher of shieldwork. *

Dip (she/her): sidekick, half-orc twin of pip

Pip (she/her): hero, half-orc twin of dip

Festo (they/them): fairy with "beautiful gossamer wings", independent study teacher of magic, loves to party

Snippers (he/him?): Let me tell you my story about Snippers the magic crab. When Travis gave the list of animals that Griffin could choose as Fitzroy's familiar's current form, he listed crab near the start, and this gave me excitement. Now i knew that crab was pretty unlikely but god i hoped that he would choose it. When the list went on- Bat, Cat, Crab, Frog, Hawk, Lizard, Owl, Poisonous Snake, Fish, Rat, Raven, Seahorse, Spider or Weasel- I nearly lost hope. I was hoping so hard that Griffin would choose the crab, but i was ready to accept a non-crab familiar. It was just buried in that list. It wasn't the most useful animal and it was an obscure pick. And as Travis informed him that it didn't have to keep the form for the whole campaign, Griffin said those five words i wanted to hear so, so badly. "Well then it's a crab." Folks, I do not often react physically when something happens in media. But in that moment, i remember very clearly, i fist-pumped and yelled, "YES!!!!!!"

so anyway, Fitzroy has a crab.

Jackle (he/him): kenku teacher of sneakery. creepy dude. apparently knows something about argo? also his name is not spelled "jackal" for some reason. Also in later episodes theyve started calling him "The Jackle" for some reason??? *

# -EPISODE 3- (1 character)

Dakota (they/them): tavern instructor, clad in black/red leather. no race stated? probably human. *

# -EPISODE 4- (6 characters)

Gerry & Tom (she/her, he/him): shopkeepers at barns and nobles who seem to have very bad names. also constantly competing for customers? these guys got dropped faster than the heathcliff quests, which is honestly just sad.

Barb (she/her): the bartender. runs Springs Eternal in Last Hope. has a sweet seeing-eye hawk familiar. 

Jaryd Reginald (he/him): owner of Reginald Ore. Wants the workers to be held responsible for the damage caused by the xorn. (fun fact: originally i wrote down "Jerrod" because i wanted it to sound like a fantasy name, then realized it was probably "Jared" because theyre named after listeners, but i was pleased to find it confirmed that it's actually "Jaryd")

Candice (she/her): A Miner. thought those werent allowed in bars but, i guess not. Wants the mine owner to be held responsible for the xorn's damage.

Jade Johnson Esq. (she/her): lawyer.

# -EPISODE 5- (1 character)

Xorn: a big hungry gem eating guy from the plane of earth Low-Down Deep with 3 arms and 3 legs. why did travis just say "multi-armed" instead of specifying it was 3? who knows! Anyway it leaves

# -EPISODE 6- (3 characters)

Osric (he/him): the man, the myth, the bursar. finally shows up after being mentioned in episodes 2 and 4. he's an elf. 

breeze through the willows (she/her): Pegasus attacked by demons, lost her parents. introduced in ep1 but gets a name here so fuck it. also in ep>!16!< we find out shes a "white arabian pegasus" and i dont think thats a spoiler bc we shouldve really known it from the beginning

Sabor (he/him): Librarian/research teacher. also a TORTLE. Really good at recalling stuff, i guess. kinda reminds me of Tomas's memory thing but i'm sure that's just a coincidence... *

# -EPISODE 7- (1 character)

Mosh (he/him): The goliath blacksmith who welcomes argo into the unbroken chain. Also, and this is specific to the tumblr version of this post, all the characters with an * at the end of their descriptions are also members of the unbroken chain. if someone knows how to do spoilers on tumblr please tell me

# -EPISODE 8-

:)

# -EPISODE 9- (2 characters)

Eeiïäá#æ&éñn (pronounced like "Ian") (he/him?): an imp but without a shitty voice. also happens to not be violent. what a coincidence?

Terence (he/him): a chain devil with a real demonic name. minor boss of the imps. very convincing and very threatening. has the frightening ability to make you zone out during his fight

# -EPISODE 10- (2 characters)

Althea Song (she/her): elf with autumn-orange hair. representative from heroic oversight guild. i'd like to personally thank travis for spelling her name out.

Crabtree (she/her): Artificing teacher. Long gray hair with a long grey beard. no mentioned race, one might guess dwarf but that would be an assumption i suppose. also unbroken chain member, presumably the dwarf argo didn't recognize in episode 7.

# -EPISODE 11- (3 characters)

Marie (she/her): Grey-haired elf woman. She's the school's physician, i guess. Member of the unbroken chain.

Dendra Maplecourt (she/her): Fitzroy's mom. Has hot mint gum, i guess. She was mentioned earlier but i wasn't convinced she was a real person until this episode

Cool Gary (he/him): AYY ITS ME GARYR

# -EPISODE 12-

no new characters again!

# -EPISODE 13- (7 characters hhhyyyuu)

Kale (???/???): Head of the Placement Department, in charge of real world assignments. First mentioned in Ep4 but i missed that the last few times bc it is so brief. Gives exposition about missions i guess????? is that the only reason this chara cter exists

satyr thief (unnamed) (he/him): tries to rob thundermen, dies instantly

Ogre (he/him): teamed up with the satyr. his name is ogre.

Moon (he/him): A Sidekick. small pale sullen guy. no mentioned race. Why is there another FUCKING sidekick WE HAD ENOUGH hhhyuuuuuu

Deanna (she/her): A bigoted centaur with an obnoxious voice. Malwin the Strong's second in command.

Malwin the Strong (she/her): Leader of the centaurs of the scarlet woods. Wants to appease the spirit of the scarlet woods so that thecentaurs of the scarlet woods will be protected in the scarlet woods. Had a relationship with Arturas in the past but their clashes are currently known to get pretty heated.

Arturas (he/him): Leader of the Centaurs of the Valley, i guess. Had a relationship with Malwin. Centaur. Did i mention centaur? i cant think of anything else about this character

# -EPISODE 14- (2 characters)

Calhain (he/him): Human wizard, Malwin's magical advisor. Kind of an amateur wizard in a job high above his skill level. Graduated Wigginstaff's as a hero.

Spirit of the Scarlet Woods: A spirit who requires sacrifice in order to keep Malwin's herd safe and prosperous. Not keen on dubiously canonical combos, i guess. i wouldnt be either. also apparently the sacrifice depends on personal value, not how much value it has to the spirit.

# -EPISODE 15- (2 characters)

Sylvia Nite (she/her): Fitzroy's magic theory teacher at knight night school, who he turned into a catfish by accident. oops!

Chaos (they/them, maybe more): Presumably a deity, gave Fitz his powers and wants him to give in to his chaotic desires. (physical desc: 9 foot tall, iridescent 'mother of pearl' skin, pure white eyes, fine burgundy cloak with gold/onyx lining. their physical form beyond that seems to change every time they show up.)

# -EPISODE 16-

none -w-

# -EPISODE 17-

some demins happened. the big dudes are called "Pit Fiends" and the armored demon ladies are called "Erinyes", by the way. that was incredibly hard for me to figure out the first time, especially without headphones, i thought travis was saying "pig feet" and i just could not discern what the other things were

# -EPISODE 18- (6 characters)

snow on the mountain: shire horse pegasus

storm at sea: peruvian paso pegasus, vehement defender of The Guardian. doesn't have a goofy voice.. but he could have....

thaw of the spring: a winged horse

night of no clouds: a winged hhorse

The Guardian: "An ancient and powerful being that guards the unknown forest." Has protected the flock from demons for many many years. apparently is the voice that was talking to our firbolg in episode 1?

Grey, the Demon Prince (he/him): wants to cause a war, originally wanted to kill hiero and higgs, forces the heroes to build an army to fight his. As "Fauxronimous", he has skin the *color and pattern of* (but not necessarily made of) slate splashed with liquid, pointed ears, sharp teeth, shining eyes, horns of unspecified shape. 12 fucking feet tall. wonder if the slate-looking skin is related to garys. plot twist detected? Also i recently looked at the episode descriptions and found out his name is spelled "Gray", but really does it truly matter?

# -EPISODE 19- (2 characters)

Shabree Keene (she/her): Argo's mom, killed on the Mariah, possibly by the Commodore. Long auburn hair, green eyes. Mentioned earlier but described here, so fuck it.

**Thomas** (he/him): Argo's first mate on the Mariah, as the Kraken, in his chaos-dream. may or may not actually exist.

# -EPISODE 20- (1 character)

The Commodore (he/him): Reknowned hero of the seas, military regalia, great naval hero, presumably responsible for the death of Shabree Keene. No mentioned race. Seriously, they never mention this guy's race. The only thing described about him is how he's dressed and his evil smile. Does that mean he's human? Elf? Dwarf??? Who knows! maybe it just doesnt matter. 

# -EPISODE 21-

none

# -EPISODE 22-

not any of them. not any.

# -EPISODE 23- (1 character)

Ozymondelius (sp???) (it/its): A warforged teacher who just so happens to like war or something? i guess its in the name. only mentioned in this episode, doesnt show up yet.

# -EPISODE 24-

they have a fight in the training room but nobody dies :\\ maybe next time. also no new characters. pog

# -EPISODE 25- (4 characters)

Gherkin (he/him): Tall lankier skeleton, has a scimitar and a merkin, which is a pubic wig... and he wears a jerkin? which i guess is a kind of coat? also i think hes mute 

Tibia (she/her?) : Shorter skeleton with gold teeth, and long canines. i think both of the skeletons are mute actually.

The Lich King aka Gordy (he/him): Rainer's dad. Commands armies of the undead. lives in The Crypt. described as a hooded, skull-faced man with intricate black lines on his face, but changes to a shaved-head man with dark skin and vetiligo. Abandoned as a babby, raised by traveling parents, had necromancy powers, took Rainier in. Not actually very scary at all i don't know why he did the creepy laugh. Kind of a warm fatherly figure actually. hm. also people are speculating Gordy might be short for Gordita and his parents are maybe supposed to be lup and barry but THAT S JUST A THEORY.

our firbolg's father (he/him): A firbolg who lived by the code and was there when our firbolg was banished. Came to respect our firbolg's interest in a new way of life, in his final moments.

TOTAL: 72 NPCS! (well, including 2 extra PCs, i guess.)

Average: 2.88 NPCs per episode.

i was gonna not include the bone-PCs and have it be 69 but our firbolg's dad was just too important to not respect with a spot on the list.

anyway as always make sure to smack me with a blunt object if i forgot any characters!!!!!

[bluegamerchick]

Rune Factory 5 Wants

So, I’ve been playing Rune Factory 2 again ( never really beat in the first place, but remade a save where I accidently named my the MC Kyle with two spaces behind his name ). And replaying it, reminded me, oh yea, there’s a 5th Rune Factory coming out. There’s like no discussion on it, soo, here’s my wants for it. 

This is just what I general/plot wants for, to romance wants, to character wants. So yea, let’s go.

A fair warning, some points may be repeated and or, belong in other sections. I was sleep deprived when I first started typing this and it’s now 4am as I finish this.

General/Plot Wants Returning Areas Off the bat with something that’ll probably not happen, but I can dream. Replaying Rune Factory 2, I fell in love with the game’s town. It was a little port city, and was just so visually beautiful, what was not to love? Same goes for Rune Factory 3 and 4′s areas. Personally, I have never played Rune Factory 3 ( only seen videos ), but I find the area beautiful too. Same goes for Rune Factory 4′s town too. Could we return to this areas? Probably not, but it still would be cool to at least visit them for a short while or have mention of them.

Half Human, Half Monster Speaking of Rune Factory 3, I want the monster human hyprids to return. We sorta got this with the guardians in Rune Factory 4, and the Raven cameo, but not much really. It be really cool to see the human monster hybrids to return. 

Past MC’s Children

We get a taste of playing as a main character’s child in Rune Factory 2, where you play as Kyle’s kids. But, you know what would be cool? Playing as a grown-up version of the past MC’s kiddos. Sure, they would lose their memory at the start, but it would be super cool to play as grown-up version of Aaron, Aria, Leona and Lucia ( Raguna’s kids in Frontier ), Micah's kids ( the wiki says the boy’s default names are: Ray, Leaf, Horace. While the girl’s is: Lala ), or Noel and Luna! Maybe if you play as grown-up versions of Aaron and Aria, kids from RF: 2 come and end up jogging your memory! idk, just an idea.

3D? Since it’s going on the switch, I kind of want it to be 3D. And from the looks of it, it’s gonna be? But, then again, I’m not sure, it may just be like most Rune Factory games ( minus Frontier and Tides of Destiney ), appears 2D but is 3D if that makes any sense.

Returning Characters!!!! Let’s be all honest, we want to see returning characters. Even if they are just extra shop-keeps, we want to see them again.

Requests Weird hope, but, can we have the request like the ones in RE: 2, where they felt...personal? Like, they actually were tied to the character. Will explain more in the characters part, but yeaaa. Can we just not have Rune Factory 4′s requests. It’s been awhile since I played it, but from what I remember the request weren’t that personal. ( Do correct me if I’m wrong though! )

Plot Now for the main thing, the plot. Rune Factory was kind of already neatly wrapped up in RF:4. I wanna say other’s have voiced this opinion too, but what are they gonna do for the plot? Maybe this is a prequel to all the other games? Like, what would be the very first game in the RF timeline to start it all off. Or does this take place after RF:4. Are there more dragons we don’t know about? Is our goal to find baby versions of the previous 4 dragons? Does this game show the after effects of losing all 4 dragons? What is it? Personally, I would love this to be a game that is either a prequel to the very first Rune Factory game or shows off the after effects of the events in RF: 4.

Character Wants Requests Like I said before, I kind of want the request system from RF: 2. Sure we can a few some generic requests, but also, I would love to see requests based on the friendship levels of certain people. Maybe as time goes on, you get more and more personal request. Maybe this can also led to romances!

Returning Characters Pls You already stated this in-Yes, I know I put this in General/Plot, but I’m putting this here too. Yes, returning characters! Of course, I expect them to be like RF: 3 and 4, where they are shopkeeps, but also, it would be neat if certain returning characters ended up being romance choices or you could convince them to move into to town. As for character’s I actually hope return or make a cameo ( which a cameo seems for likely ) are Alicia, Ray, Giaus, and Margaret. Or maybe grown-up Cammy and Roy. Be cool to see them traveling together too ^v^.

Character Events It be cool to see character events for the townsfolk, be it a romance option or not. Really just a minor thing that I would like to see.

Befriending Divine Beings? Kind of like how you could befriend Venti in Rune Factory 4, it be cool to befriend divine beings in RF: 5. That is all.

Rivals Bring back rivals. They were really neat in Rune Factory 2. It be fun to attended your rival’s wedding, and either go “Congrats on the wedding” or steal their spouse. Right at the alter. Because you’re Mr or Mrs Steal your girl or guy.

Group Events Kind of like how in RF: 4 you got those sleep-over events and possibly more ( sleep over event is the only that comes to mind ). I want to see more of that. Image you and your friends eating lunch at the restaurant. Maybe you all have a sleepover at someone’s house. Maybe you can choose where the sleepover takes place or you all take turns on where the sleepover will be. Maybe you can a girl’s or guy’s night out. In the summer, maybe you and your closest friends go hang out at the beach. Stuff like that!

School and Kids This is probably an odd one, buuuut, can the kids go to school? Just having them sit around the house or maybe sometimes wander the town is..boring. And also makes me worry for their education. It be nice to see your child have their own schedule besides “ Wander town aimlessly”. Maybe they have dialogue based on school, and you have little events where you may have to deal with problems ( Kid got a bad grade and is upset, they got in trouble at school, they’re being picked on, etc ). Maybe they can bring friends home from school to play with! Really all I’m asking is not a repeat of Rune Factory 4′s kids. Please

Romance Wants Same-Sex Marriage It’s 2020. The newest Story of Seasons game as Same-Sex marriage in it, if I’m right. And you can kind of do it in Rune Factory 4 by changing Frey or Lest’s appearance to look like each other and then dating either a bachelor or bachelorette ( example, playing as Lest but changing into Frey, so Frey can date say Forte ). So why not? Just give us proper same-sex marriage, could open so many more possibilities for character interaction and so on. “But children chara-” There is something called adoption and after you and your romance option choice are married and want kids, you can adopt, problem solved on that.

Romance Option Events! Give us all the romance events! Pre-marriage, marriage, honeymoon, all of them! Just stuff that shows we are progressing with the romance, and then cute fluff stuff to show “Hey! There’s more to the marriage than just fluff and hugs” Although those are nice too.

Older Romance Options You know how in Rune Factory 4, everyone was kind of upset Bado wasn’t romanceable? Yea, can we not have that same mistake again? But in all seriousness, it would be nice to have older romance option, even if by older they are like late 20′s to early 30′s, it still would be nice for say players who are more in that age range and don’t want to marry 20 looking year old characters. 

Returning characters and romance?! You know how in RF: 3 and 4, you could build relationships with those characters and make them your buds? How about we romance some of them! Sure, I image it would a Yuu thing, and they would have to be traveling merchant, but in this case, it would be certain days you could find them and gift them stuff to romance them. But, you know, just a thought!

Hidden Options? Hidden Romance options! Romance options you didn’t expect. Maybe after doing a line of mission or requests, a new option comes to town. Maybe crawling through dungeons scores you a new love interests. Maybe dragons return and one turns into a human and you can know smooch their face, who knows! It would just be nice to have more hidden options, that a player wouldn’t know about until they did something, rewarding with a new character you could befriend or romance.

Okay, that is all for my wants. This is long as hell, I hope you have fun reading and it’s almost 5 am as I finish this.

[askkrenko]

Krenko’s Guide to Pokemon: Gastly Line

I may or may not be afraid of some ghosts.

DESIGN: 

Gastly, Haunter, and Gengar are an interesting design combination of a creature being fully realized. Gastly is just a face, really, while Haunter has something of a proper head and hands, as well as the hints of a body. Gengar is then the full creature, with legs and everything. Meanwhile, Gastly has a very will-o-wisp look for a minor ghost, while Haunter is more actively ghostly. Gengar, meanwhile, is designed to be sort of an animated shadow of a nonspecific Pokemon that’s absolutely Clefable. It’s name, even in Japan, comes from the word Doppleganger, which is a magical being that looks like a copy of a real person. Basically your classic evil twin. 

All three designs are relatively simple, but I also think they get the point across. These things are spooks, and they’re all the same spook gradually getting stronger over time.

The only really weird and confusing thing about the trio is... Haunter is bigger than Gengar.  Forget the tiny Haunter you remember from the anime. 

Thanks, KlavernBoer for taking this picture. Haunter is 5′03″. or 1.6m. Seriously. It’s HUGE. It’s just only in the newer games that you can really tell. The anime’s wrong on other sizes, too, but the Haunter one is extra surprising because you can ride Haunter in Let’s Go.

So, the base three are fine, and then we’ve got two added forms. Mega Gengar, like many Mega evolutions, is just... X-TREME!

I don’t really have anything interesting to say about Mega Gengar. It’s just Gengar but spikier. It has a third eye for some reason... and if anything it feels like it’s devolving back toward Haunter with the forward-leaning pose and the lack of feet. It’s interesting for the Mega Evolution gimmick, but I’m really not feeling the design. You know what design I do feel, though? GIGANTIMAX GENGAR!

At over 65 feet tall, this thing is higher than many buildings, and it clearly just wants to eat everyone and everything into the netherworld that is its mouth.  According to the Pokedex, its mouth leads directly to the afterlife, and if you stand too close you’ll hear your loved one’s voices calling for you to enter. 

Those children are about to get eaten. That’s just what’s going to happen. Maybe they can fight it off, but if not, they’re snacks. I also love how Gigantamax Gengar sinks into the ground, making it even bigger than what we can see. It’s huge. It’s terrifying. I love it. EVOLUTIONS:  Gastly to Haunter at 25 is fine but I’ve already complained about how trade evolutions are kind of out of date and more of a pain than they are fun anymore. Back in they day they were fun, sure, but now it’s just a chore.  Mega Gengar was a bad idea. Many Pokemon needed Megas. Many Pokemon want Megas. Gengar was not one of them.  In fact, Gengar was so good even before getting a Mega that they had to nerf it by changing its special ability from a good one to a bad one, and it’s still an entirely solid Pokemon. Megas very clearly were distributed more on ‘what would be cool’ rather than ‘what Pokemon needs a boost’ and that makes me sad. Because part of the reason Gengar is so cool is that it really doesn’t need the boost.

Gigantamax Gengar is basically a straight upgrade from Gengar. Max Phantasm lowers an opponent’s physical defense, but Gengar’s special attack is literally twice its physical, so there’s no reason to use that. Instead, it gets G-Max Terror, which prevents the opponent from switching out. 

Art by please tell me if you can figure this out I’ve done reverse search and nothings turned up. It seems to be linked to https://theroaringtrainers.com/ but I can’t actually find it there.

TYPING:  Poison/Ghost was a really dumb thing back in Red and Blue. Ghost was the only thing good against Psychic, but there were no Ghost moves worth a damn and the only ghosts were Poison/Ghost, so they were weak to Psychic.  Now that the Psychic bogeyman’s a lot less of an issue, this type combo is a lot stronger. The Gastly line has four weaknesses, two resistances, two double resistances, and two immunities.  Six is a decent array of defensive types, and the fact that Normal, Fighting, Poison, and Bug attacks fall off Gengar like water off a duck’s back really helps.  Offensively, Gengar’s getting super-effective hits on only Ghost, Psychic, Fairy and Grass (two of which are getting super-effective hits right back on Gengar), but almost nothing resists Ghost, and Poison works just fine on most of the Dark and Normal types that do.

Grim Haunter by Dragolisco

STATS: 130 Special Attack, 110 Speed. Oh, you want to know about its other stats? ...Why? It has 130 Special Attack and 110 Speed. It usually goes first, and the other Pokemon often won’t survive. Okay, so, defensively, Gengar’s sub par at 60 HP, 60 Defense, and 75 special defense, but those stats aren’t so low that he’ll simply collapse to most hits. Just build for Special Attack and Speed, and swing for the fences. It’s not complicated. Mega Gengar has bigger numbers all around, with 170 Special Attack and 130 speed, with both defenses raised by 20. Look, if you have 130 speed and 170 special attack it doesn’t really matter what your other stats are. You’re a murder machine. 

Art by TsaoShin 

ABILITIES: Gastly, Haunter, and any Gengar in generations 3, 4, 5, and 6 has the ability Levitate. With a ground weakness and two pre-existing immunities, Levitate makes them particularly hard to stop. Shifting this line’s already defensive typing to include three immunities and four resistances with only three weaknesses is absurdly powerful, and the devs figured that out the hard way. As of generation 7, Gengar has the Cursed Body ability.

Cursed Body... is an ability that exists. It’s has a chance to disable any move that hits Gengar, and while that’s not garbage, Gengar’s relatively fragile body means you’re unlikely to see it trigger in a normal fight, except maybe on an attack you intentionally jumped in front of because Gengar’s resistant anyway and you’d rather they use again instead of switching attacks.  Yes, sometimes it’ll save your life, and sometimes it’ll really mess up someone using a Choice Band, but it’s not really a relevant part of the overall Gengar discussion. Mega Gengar has Shadow Tag which prevents the opponent from switching out.  Shadow Tag is a very powerful ability that makes sure Gengar gets to knock out what Gengar wants to knock out. There is no escape from Mega Gengar.

Pokemon x UNDERTALE: Chara and MegaGengar by Sa-Dui

MOVES:  Gengar is one of those early Pokemon that gets all sorts of moves that it has no reason to have. I have a theory that when TMs were first programmed into Red and Blue, every Pokemon could learn every TM, and then they decided that was silly and cut out the moves that really didn’t make sense... But any Pokemon programmed in after this was instead given TM moves case-by-case. My basic evidence for this is that the Pokemon that can learn Thunderbolt for no apparent reason are mostly Pokémon early in the Internal List.  I haven’t really gone on a deep dive, but this is my theory. Anyway, for attacks, every Gengar takes Shadow Ball.  Gengar gets it on level-up, it’s its best Ghost-type move.  The only bit of competition here is Hex, which requires either Hypnosis or Will-O-Wisp to set up.

Gengar’s other attacks have a lot of options. If you want a Poison move, Sludge Bomb. While Sludge Wave technically does more damage to a single target than Sludge Bomb, the added 20% chance to poison in Sludge Bomb is generally going to wind up being more damage than 5 more power. 

The only things that don’t take full damage from Shadow Ball are Dark and Normal, and while Sludge Bomb can work on them, they share a weakness in Fighting. With fighting ALSO being super-effective against Ice, Rock, and Steel, many Gengar trainers teach it Focus Blast, an absurdly strong albeit highly inaccurate attack.  Further, Gengar has plenty of special attack options like Dark Pulse, Thunderbolt, Psychic, Energy Ball, and Dazzling Gleam if you just want more options at Super-Effective damage.  If there’s a Pokemon you’re particularly worried about, Gengar probably has something it’s weak to.

But what sweeper setup would be complete without Sword Plot or Nasty Dance?  Get a moment to set up and Gengar can double its Special Attack, giving it an easy time tearing through anything that gets in its way.

On the other hand, maybe you’re a bit worried about backlash. With high speed, Substitute can make a good defensive measure and scout what the opponent’s doing.  And aforementioned Will-O-Wisp and Hypnosis can severely impact the opponent’s ability to smash your face in while also turning Hex into a 130 power attack. With Mega Gengar’s Shadow Tag, you can get even tankier. Disable and Taunt can severely inhibit a Pokemon that’s trapped in combat against it, and if you really just want to trade Megas, you can use Destiny Bond because they can’t exactly switch out.   Gengar has a lot of options, and it’s good at them.

Art by Nohbyl

OVERALL:  The Gastly line is great. They look cool, they’re powerful, they’re useful, and there’s actually a bit of a niche for Haunter to be used on its own due to having a different ability than Gengar, not that it’s a particularly good one.  GMax Gengar is great, too, though Mega Gengar is entirely unnecessary.  Gengar with Levitate was good enough before Mega Gengar existed, it’s weird to me that they added the Mega, then nerfed base Gengar. 

Anyway, Gengar’s in a great place, always has been, and I’m sure we’re going to keep seeing it for years to come. It’s also simple enough to easily show up in any region, and popular enough that they’ll never shelve it for long. 

[undead-tale]

Little Known Fact

There was an original version of Undead Tale I wrote back in 2017 or even late 2016 (the dates are fuzzy at best).

It was completely different in tone, writing, character designs, plot... it was basically a different story but with a similar starting point.

I felt like drawing the Sans design from that version, now called "Classic", compared to the final design, or the "True" design, as I consider the current version of Undead Tale the true, final version.

Here is the drawing, and below that will be a list of all the changes and descriptions of the differences behind a read more as to keep the post nice to see if someone just wants to look at the art (the stuff below the read more goes very in depth, be warned, it's long).

Let's start from the beginning with what changed:

Both stories start with an outbreak stemming from the lab, however,

Classic does not have the backstory of a corrupted reset corrupting the amalgamates and determinations properties. The origins in Classic were never explored.

In the True version, the origins were explored, and the reason why the world is the way it is is also explored through Before the Reset.

In Classic, Undyne fights a massive amalgamate thing in the Lab in the very beginning of the story instead of slowly easing into the events of the outbreak, which True did.

Chara was never present in Classic, and also there was no controlling force of the corrupted.

Corrupted is a term only in True, Classic doesn't have a term to refer to the infected monsters.

Both stories have Frisk fall after the initial outbreak, but Frisk in Classic falls way earlier than Frisk in True (as far as I can see, the timeline of Classic, unfortunately, is not very clear)

Classic explores the surface and humanity above during the events of the Underground. In True, the surface is only seen when Frisk falls and after monster kind escapes. Humanity in True wiped itself out with a war where the details aren't known, and won't be explored, as it's not important. In Classic, there is an outbreak similar to the Underground on the surface which causes an apocalypse.

Both stories have Sans lose an eye, though, as seen in the image, the eye is swapped. Beyond that, there are differences in the two Sans.

Classic Sans is a silently hopeful character, different from normal Sans compared to True, who is basically normal Sans but with some darker tendencies and visions of past timelines (called moments in the story).

Classic Sans lost most if not all magic ability when he was struck by Undyne, resorting to using physical weapons such as pipes or any blunt weapon.

True Sans retains most magic ability, such as teleportation, time stopping, and bones, he just can't use them as often. He does lose Gaster Blasters however, as they would take too much magical energy for him to muster normally.

Classic's outfit has a fluffy hood and a zipped up, torn hoodie, compared to True, who is normal Sans with bandages wrapped around the left side of his skull.

Classic only lost his eye, True had the whole left side of his skull horribly mangled and fractured, which is why the bandage size of both is different.

Classic only has the bandage, True also has the device strapped to his ribs that connects with his soul to amplify the healing process.

True Sans has what are called "moments", where he'll freeze up as he sees a vision of a past timeline, either consisting of the Judgement Hall or of Snowdin which get worse until reaching a turning point in the story near the halfway point. Classic has no such things.

Moving on from Sans, let's go into the other characters in general

Papyrus in Classic retains some confidence, however, he is much more broken and emotionally torn, acting out of character at points (pretty much everyone in Classic is out of character).

True Papyrus is very much like normal Papyrus, only taking things a bit more seriously and being more cautious and concerned for his friends, due to his circumstances.

Classic Papyrus has a kill count of normal monsters, True, however, does not.

Classic Papyrus and Snowdin in general are enemies of the Royal Guard, due to a plot point where Snowdin and the Royal Guard enter a conflict.

True Papyrus and Snowdin are very much allies and apart of the Royal Guard, Papyrus being ranked Lieutenant, commanding all Snowdin units.

Undyne in Classic acts very out of character with the little time she appeared in, she isn't as confident, she's a lot more cold, and attacks Sans with intent to kill.

True Undyne is like normal Undyne, and her attack against Sans was completely accidental, as she meant to attack another character named Fang for kidnapping Sans and Papyrus.

Papyrus and Undyne fight with the intent of killing one another in Classic. In True, Papyrus fights to slow Undyne down and let Sans and Frisk escapes, Undyne fights to get past him and capture/kill Frisk, attempting to pass him with every opportunity, not wanting to hurt him. In True, neither were fighting to kill.

Classic Undyne exiles herself out of shame after her battle with Papyrus in Snowdin. True Undyne remains the Captain of the Royal Guard throughout the entire story.

Classic Asgore is seen too little to really judge his character, same for Alphys. True is normal Asgore but affected by circumstances, again, same for Alphys.

Mettaton in Classic is missing, while Mettaton in True is similar to his normal self, albeit more cruel and harsh when Frisk meets him, becoming a minor antagonist before having a change of heart at the end of their fight in the CORE.

Mettaton's disappearance in Classic would've tied into a plot point, which I'll explore later on.

Classic Toriel allows monsters from Snowdin into the Ruins during the outbreak, accidentally bringing it to the Ruins. No such event happens in True.

Classic Toriel is the most in character of the cast, remaining mostly consistent with normal Toriel. True Toriel is normal Toriel until she leaves the Ruins, where circumstances and events change her.

Classic Flowey is infected very early on, True Flowey remains uninfected and even becomes the controller of the corrupted near the end. In True, he is very much normal Flowey.

Classic Frisk is more like fanon Frisk (meaning she's just a soft little pacifist who wouldn't harm a fly. Glad I didn't continue with this in True, because holy hell that would've been boring).

True Frisk is much more of her own character, she doesn't want to hurt anyone, but she won't hesitate to fight when she knows she's in danger, plus her backstory and her motivations, along with having to deal with the trauma's shes faced later on.

True Frisk also older, being 10 when she first falls and being around 13 at the end. Classic Frisk is around 8 when she falls, if I remember right.

Classic didn't go far enough into the plot for Classic Frisk to even leave the Ruins or have to face inner demons and trauma. True Frisk is very, very different.

Classic Chara doesn't even exist. True Chara is corrupted determination in it's purest form, and is a prominent antagonist, controlling the corrupted at one point.

There are characters exclusive to both version. In True, Fang, Ferno, and the entire gang Fang leads are exclusive to True.

In Classic, the exclusive characters are Artico, Stitch, Rycher (pronounced ri ker for some reason), Carly (Artico's daughter) and Ethan (Artico's son). These characters were a part of a spinoff story called "A New Monarch", which was establishing a new kingdom/rival for the Royal Guard. They would've been antagonists later on, similar to the Saviors from The Walking Dead, if memory serves me right.

Rycher and Stitch would've had been in a relationship later on.

Another exclusive character to Classic is Flynn, who is the third monster Frisk meets after Flowey and Toriel (he was an OC I made on Undertale Amino years ago, my account on which has since been deleted)

There is one more Classic exclusive character named Charlie. I go more in depth on him later.

There are more Classic exclusive characters, but they're not notable enough to go into here.

Finally moving on from characters, we go onto the plot/setting

The basic plot of Classic goes like this (I won't do the same for True, as that is very, very long, and I'd like people to read it on AO3):

The outbreak begins, Asgore is escorted from the Capital as it falls. Sans and Papyrus fight back an attack from Snowdin, and set up defenses.

A plot point arises where the weather in Snowdin becomes harsh, to the point where monsters die outside the village or flee to the Ruins. One of the monsters is bit before hand, and brings the infection into the Ruins, infecting Flowey and beginning to spread there.

Members of the Snowdin Safe Zone steal from the Royal Guard, which causes the Guard to retaliate against Snowdin and assault the town, Sans and Papyrus fighting them back, killing many. This is the fight where Sans is almost killed by Undyne, who is then almost killed by Papyrus before he rushes to get Sans to the village.

Sans loses his eye, and Undyne exiles herself.

Frisk falls later on, almost get's killed by Flowey, but is saved and taken home by Toriel. This introduces the fact that Toriel's home is now full of monster survivors and that the rest of the Ruins has fallen.

Frisk takes time to heal, and meets Flynn.

In the Capital, within areas known as "Dark Zones" (pretty much ripping off Dying Light), new infected begin appearing simply known as "Them". This leads to the death of two monsters in a short story titled "Them". In True, these would be turned into the acolytes that appear at the end.

Sans and Papyrus receive a broadcast from MTT Resort begging for help, and decide to investigate. They then go to sleep on their way, and are split up, Sans being taken to the Capital while Papyrus is captured and brought to MTT Resort (don't ask, I don't remember why or how).

Sans wakes up in the Capital on a high up roof and encounters a character named Charlie, who brings him to his group in the city hall. He teaches Sans how to survive in the capital later on.

Papyrus wakes up in MTT Resort, hung in the lobby by a rope around his neck with infected all around. He is saved by a stranger on a walkie talkie who begins to tell him what happened. He then tells Papyrus about a mysterious monster who will kill him upon sight, and then tells Papyrus to flee. Papyrus does so and returns to Snowdin.

Stitch and Rycher are brought to the cavern where the new kingdom is by Artico, meeting all the other characters listed in the "A New Monarch" section.

On the surface, an outbreak occurs (somehow, I don't remember), and soldiers move in to the city near Mount Ebott, called Sanctuary City, to save a doctor. The doctor kills himself (ripping off State of Decay: Lifeline).

Scrapped plot lines include:

Disclaimer: The details are very fuzzy at best with this, unknown/forgotten at worst

Mettaton Madness: An event where a group of monsters from Waterfall would have to contend with an army of defective Mettaton drones in the CORE. I don't remember much else about this. Maybe Mettaton would be involved? I don't know.

A plotline on the surface where a city is burning down and being pelted by meteorites or missiles (I don't remember) and a group of survivors have to escape.

Papyrus would die at some point, due to being bit. Sans would put him down. This would happen after Frisk left the Ruins.

Snowdin would fall at some point.

Undyne would have her own story about finding herself or something, I don't know, but I know I wanted to do something with her at one point.

The New Monarch and the Royal Guard would get into some conflict, maybe.

More characters would die I think, and maybe Soriel would be canon? I genuinely don't know and I don't remember. Like I said, everything about this section is fuzzy, as I didn't take notes and I don't remember half of this story anymore.

That's pretty much it.

These two stories are very, very different. If you want to know just how the True version goes, please check out the link to it on AO3. It's long, and it's actually finished compared to Classic, which is not publicly available now, but I might change that in the future. Classic won't be expanded on, and I won't write anything for it ever again. I'm not sure if I'll abandon it entirely, as I could still draw the characters from it, but in all likely hood it'll be forgotten.

True is a much better and more well written story anyway. Classic was just edgy and ripped off so many other zombie stories, and even other Undertale AU's, since it was slightly inspired by Axetale (I saw one video of it, really glad I didn't take many elements from that dumpster fire of an AU) and other fanon edgy content.

Overall, I'm proud of what I've done with the True story and I'm ecstatic to have gotten it finished and released, having people actually read it is so much fun.

I just felt like going into how Undead Tale really started, and the origins it had as an edgy Undertale story I wrote in 2016 - 2017 that really doesn't hold up at all anymore.