#guardian tales is a game btw!

[emanation-aura]

joker palace fic. im in love with your writing. please share some with us

Oh my god anon I'm so happy you asked!! I made some fantastic progress recently so I'm definitely going to talk about it now

So actually I have. um. two Joker Palace fics. One of them is based in the third semester and is basically what I talked about in this post: in short, due to some Wild Card Bullshit™️, instead of living in Maruki's altered reality in third semester, Joker actually forms a Palace as a cognitive defence and basically it becomes Goro and Sumi's job to get him out (like Maruki, he physically resides in it).

The other one is a post-game Palace au, where Joker forms a Palace out of the stress and debilitating isolation of prison. This one is the one I've been working the most on and it's at 11k words and counting— when I'm not even close to finishing it!! I'm having so much fun with it so I guess I'll talk about this one.

He thinks about the past year a lot. About the Metaverse, discovering it with Ryuji by accident, that terrifyingly free moment when he ripped Arsene from his face and felt as if he could challenge the world itself, and proceeded to do exactly that. About Personas and the Velvet Room (he tries dreaming for Lavenza, but if she exists and can hear him, she makes no reply,) and the final chains breaking under his command, all the anger and hatred burning off Arsene in waves of blue flame morphed into physical form: the cold, immovable steel of Satanael. He thinks about how the unyielding heart of Satanael, a strength unto its own, had slowly melted in the face of a perfect reality. How Maruki’s lies had snared everyone but him, and that unique, awful loneliness melting the devil’s limitless island of strength into Raoul, the trickster just as capable as Arsene but acting under no name but his own. How the truth and free will, his own real self, triumphed over the benevolent lies of yet another false god.

This Palace AU revolves heavily around the theming of first, second, and third-tier Personas (mostly Joker and Goro's). Like, we all know the pattern to the Persona awakenings in P5R, right— trickster-god-true self. Raoul is the original name of Arsene Lupin in Maurice Leblanc's series (btw did you know I actually bought The Adventures of Arsene Lupin, Gentleman Thief kinda for this fic), Hereward is the historical figures whose exploits inspired the tales of Robin Hood, etc. And like.

The Palace Joker has in this fic is a prison. But unlike the Velvet Room, it's not a prison where Joker is trapped; in fact, Cognitive Joker is the ruler of the Palace, and instead the stuff being locked away is memories. It takes the kinda passive/wallflower nature Joker has in the Confidant interactions to something more extreme: because Joker has literally nothing to do in prison but be trapped in his own head thinking, he starts categorising and compartmentalising his memories of the past year, wounds and traumas that are still fresh and raw.

And the crux is that he doesn't want to face his trauma. He locks away all his memories of the interrogation, of police brutality and being arrested and being deleted by Yaldabaoth out of existence... and most importantly, Akechi.

He had once said that Akira never allowed himself to be enslaved by things like human relations or past selves, leaving his heart forever free, but now Akira’s locked in juvie with nothing but his own misery for company, he thinks that’s wrong. The Velvet Room, taking after the shape of his heart was a prison, after all, and after that he’s simply traded one prison for another. (One might say that only the flesh remains imprisoned while the mind and heart remain forever free, but solitary confinement is a unique hell precisely because its containment reaches far beyond the flesh alone.)

So to tie these two tangents together, Cognitive Joker is the ruler of the prison Palace where he locks away his most painful memories, serving as a guardian/warden. The thing is, Cognitive Joker's true form is actually just Raoul.

Raoul is Joker's 'true self', but Joker's 'true self' has morphed in solitary confinement.

(Tighten the perimeter! It roars, golden mechanical wings spouting from its back, vivid red and gold trim dotting its jacket. Lock everything up. I will deal with him. There is no mask over its face, nor does there need to be. This is his true self: the lord of a fortress, the guardkeeper of a prison— the real occupation of gentleman thief, hoarding his hard-earned treasures.)

Instead of being a heart of a phantom thief willing to stand up to reality, Raoul has come to represent the worst side of a gentleman thief: hoarding his treasures (memories) and never letting them show. Hiding his trauma, even, from himself, just to try and convince himself that he's ok.

This has most been me rambling about the workings of this fic from behind the scenes, so anon, I'll treat you to two nice long passages now: the first one is the delivery of the calling card, and the second one is when Goro confronts Cognitive Joker— because this is also a shuake fic, by the way, although no actual romance happens yet beyond homoerotically beating the manifestation of your rival's heart to death and saving his soul from despair. Goro is the one to infiltrate the Palace (thanks to some intervention by Lavenza) and learn about all of the absolutely horrifying shit happening in Joker's mind.

(Continues on from right after the snippet in this post.)

Finally, Maruki speaks, jolting Akira out of his stupor. “Kurusu-kun… to tell you the truth, I didn’t plan on visiting you at all. I thought it would be better if I kept away from all of you, after causing you guys a great deal of hurt. I still intend to stay away, but—” Maruki pushes his glasses up, the reflective sheen hiding the strange, intense quality in his eyes. He reaches for his jacket pocket, pulling out an envelope. “Someone asked me to come today— I can’t tell you who, but they asked me to deliver something.” Akira’s breath catches, and his eyes dart to the invisible looking-glass that the security guards must be looking through. He’s not been allowed any communication from outside (either that, or he hasn’t received any, but he tries not to think about that). But Maruki catches his glance and shakes his head, in that soft, disappointed way he had shaken his head back when he carried Sumire in his arms and drove her Persona berserk. “It’s been cleared,” he says, still ever so soft. His fingers fumble, but he slides it under the glass partition like an immigration officer returning his passport. “And, before you read it… I understand you may be angry with me, which is fine. The important thing is that you read it and understand what it means.” He picks up the envelope with a curious hum, eyes hovering uncertainly around Maruki’s tense figure, a nervousness that is visible to him the same way bloodhounds pick up scent. Whatever it is, the therapist expects him to be angry, and will allow him. Short of a letter from— Akira wrenches the door shut, but the fading impression of brown hair and a thrown glove lingers anyway— short of him, nothing else could possibly faze him. Akira opens the envelope. Slips the small, black-and-red card out in one move. Flips it over— wrong, he seems. Flinches, at the words written there. I have not ever written one of these, and as such, find myself at a loss. I have no theatrics to demonstrate, no declaration of war, no enmity, even. Thus, I will simply state what happens next. Akira Kurusu, you have lost yourself in a fortress of loneliness, even going so far as to suppress yourself for the sake of others. You may call it protection and name it your guard, but that doesn’t change its essential nature: a prison of your own creation. Twice, now, has your heart been a prison. No more. I will steal your distorted desires without fail. No signature. Akira drops the card. Stands up suddenly, not even registering the sharp, panicked breaths he’s taking. Distantly, the blob of maroon in front of him stands up as well, saying something he can’t hear. No. Not possible. He cannot— he is (was?) a Persona user. He simply cannot have a Palace. Raoul screeches, long and loud, in his head. It used to be a deep, bellowing comfort, drowning out the silence in his head with a hearty laugh that wrapped around him like stage curtains, enveloping him in its warmth. Now it just sounds unhinged— the scream of a bat or the lone howl of a wolf, pounding through his skull with the force of a gunshot. No! It screams, pitched lower and deeper yet strangely similar to his own voice. When he closes his eyes, it’s not Raoul there but himself, with glowing, yellow eyes. The one person we allowed in— to betray us like this, not again! Throw him out, throw them all out! “...Kurusu-kun! Please, say something! I know it’s a great shock, so please try to calm down—” Akira’s eyes snap open. The world slots back into focus, colours swimming back to their original places. Maruki stares, eyes wide with stress. He can’t think. He can’t even feel. All he was and will ever be shrinks down into this point in time, crushing him under its immense weight. “I’ve heard the calling,” he says quietly. Any louder, and his voice will break. “And I understand what it means. Please leave now, Maruki.”

And for when Goro confronts Cognitive Akira/Raoul:

“You’re not Akira,” Goro states dumbly. He’d known, of course, that Cognitive Akira was not the real one— but it had the real one’s face and mannerisms, however foreign it had been. This, though… “You’re his Persona, Raoul.” “I am thou, and thou art I,” Raoul recites, punching a hole through Goro’s tattered heart. Goro had only seen Raoul once: in the final battle against Maruki, merciless curse damage and powerful sleep magic forming a potent combination against Azathoth. He’d assumed that Raoul was a new Persona Akira had fused, a powerful addition to Yoshitsune and Attis and the likes he’d brought to the battle. Yet… If this is the form Akira’s Palace Ruler takes, it can’t be just any old Shadow he picked up from the sea of collective unconsciousness. “Are you surprised, General of the Wake?” Raoul smirks, leaning back a little. He’s floating off the ground now, lounging on the air. “A phantom thief needs a place to hoard his treasures, for the hearts he steals cannot be treated like regular old trinkets.” Hereward rears his head, sensing his name. Goro thinks back to Hereward’s namesake— an ancient nobleman and leader of a resistance movement, nicknamed “Hereward the Wake”, whose exploits may have inspired the tale of Robin Hood. Raoul recognises not Loki, who he used for the longest, nor Robin, whom he had first, but Hereward— fancifully, neither a masked hero of justice nor a god, but just a man. The name comes to him easily. Goro read Sherlock Holmes in the run-up to his public deceit as Detective Prince, and thus, he also knows of its rival. “Arsene,” he says. It makes a terrible, hilarious amount of sense: who better to lead the Phantom Thieves than the quintessential phantom thief himself? “Arsene Raoul Lupin.” “Bravo,” Raoul claps, crimson eyes twinkling with blue flame. “Praise be to my rival, who has never failed to see through me. Yes, I am the gentleman thief of old, the one who took up the mantle of Arsene Lupin, master of a thousand faces, whose actions constitute my identity sufficiently*: Monsieur Raoul.” Goro pictures the original awakening, the blood pouring from Akira’s eyes. That blue-flamed trickster behind him, bursting with energy. Arsene Lupin. “I did not wish it to come to this,” Raoul says, his hands gesturing to the red flashing alarms at the complex. “Truly, mon corbeau. The gentleman thief keeps many secrets, but conversely, it is the detective on his heels who sees them all, not any of his closest acquaintances. That is why me and I have let you in, time and time again. Yet you end up betraying our trust to the very end. Let it be said that these precautions—” Raoul waves at the prison at large, demonic eyes wide with a sad kind of triumph— “have come to fruition at last.”

Goro flinches. He thinks about putting a bullet through Akira’s brain. The splatter, even though it had never been real. About reporting to Shido with glee that the Phantom Thieves were well on their way to falling into his trap, then going to Leblanc and playing chess with Akira, talking about Hegel and antithesis over rapidly-cooling cups of coffee. The deceit of Robin Hood and the truth of Loki. He has betrayed Akira. And while he’s been valiantly avoiding thinking about the boy ever since he woke up, the Palace— it has forced him to grapple with it. He cannot say he regrets his betrayal, nor can he say he enjoyed it, or felt it was necessary. Those things mattered to the Goro of the past, but not to him now, because— because— Because he lives with his sins every day. Wears them on his sleeve, because everyone else must know the true him before deciding whether to engage or not. He will not bend to their standards of social grace— you will live as yourself, sins and all, forever, Hereward says. It is not atonement nor punishment. It is your path to walk. This is still a realm of distorted desires, Goro reminds himself. He cannot start believing in the distorted rhetoric of the Palace Ruler. “It is still a prison,” Goro says calmly, perhaps the calmest he’s ever been since waking up in the god-forsaken place. “You think you are protecting yourself from the horrors of the world, from betrayal, from pain. But you are only locking it away so that you do not have to deal with it. You are not primarily protecting yourself from others— though I should think some part of that is true. No, you are trying to protect you from yourself.” Thinks of Maruki’s text. Done. Akira was defensive and cynical. Shocked by the calling card. Speaking as someone who’s been in contact with many traumatised teens over the past years… trying very hard to compartmentalise his pain, too. Raoul recoils, eye-like slits narrowing into a sliver of crimson. But Goro has already found the truth, written in video tapes of the “interrogation” and the partition falling on the engine room. This Persona might be Akira’s true self, not the invincible anonymity of Arsene Lupin, phantom thief, but it has distorted itself into a man chained to the prison of his heart, locking away pain and tragedy to fool himself into strength. Simply another mask, but not one aimed outwards. A mask placed over his soul in the hopes of fooling himself. “I know how this goes,” Goro says cockily, refusing to draw out the philosophical tangent, drawing his sabre. Raoul raises an eyebrow, or what passes for one on his face, and magic curls under his metallic talons. “You won’t go down without a fight.” “Indeed, detective.” Raoul sighs, languid and calm— like Akira, right before an ambush. “A thief cannot avoid confrontation forever. It is time, then, to use martial prowess to settle what trickery cannot.” Goro grins. This— this is familiar ground. This is adrenaline running through his veins, Loki’s enthusiastic bloodlust rippling into existence; the mask materialising over his features, the desire to rip, tear, kill. This is the same feeling their duel had evoked all that time ago, turned up to eleven. Truly, a no-holds-barred fight against the distorted ruler of Akira’s heart? The part of him that misses combat revels in this. (The part of him that played chess with Akira in Leblanc mourns it— not the battle, exactly, but the loss of what made him Akira.) Novel battles call for new tactics. Pressing a hand against his mask, Goro’s first command is not Loki, but— “Hereward! REBELLION BLADE!”

*whose actions constitute my identity sufficiently is specifically taken from Maurice Leblanc's tales on Arsene Lupin, where Lupin says:

"Why should I have a definite, fixed appearance? Why not avoid the dangers attendant upon a personality that is always the same? My actions constitute my identity sufficiently. [...] It is all the better if people are never able to say with certainty, 'There goes Arsene Lupin.' The great thing is that they should say, without fear of being mistaken, 'That action was performed by Arsene Lupin.' "

By the way, to any other writers of Joker Palace AUs out there using themes of masquerade/masks/theatre, with Joker represented as a person who has lost his identity by being a social butterfly and putting on 'masks' for other people: rock on!!!! That's literally exactly what the theme around Arsene Lupin is!!! He literally says "I myself have forgotten what I am really like; I no longer recognise myself in a glass" in the tales!!

Anyway. Yeah.

Here's your food, anon! Hope you enjoy. I plan on publishing this fic for Whumptober (if I finish it in time, haha), so keep an eye out for it then!

PS. if you want to read about the Third Sem Palace AU you'll have to give me some inspo, cause I'm a lil stuck >.>

[noobettes-little-box]

yay a green flavored block tales review yippee

Chapter twooo!!!

again summary and review under the cut thing

oh yeah btw if you intend on playing this game and haven't already but still want the review just scroll all the way to the bottom please this chapter is a lot better going in mostly blind! i can't skip over most of the spoilers in this chapter in the Summary, because that would leave out important plot details!

(idk why you haven't played it yet it's free roblox and block tales both and it runs on phones, laptops, ps4, ps5, several types of xbox, there's really no reason to not play)

Summary

technically chapter 2 hasn't started yet but uh

don't care

right after chaper 1 terry appears and tells you about fast travel and that shedletsky wants to see you. yea shedletsky isn't dead after being beaten up by children (the children didn't actually do it)

upon entering the room where shedletsky is you find he's in a wheel chair and he asks if you found the ice dagger

he then tells you how to use it and stuff

he then says to go to plains town and stuff to visit the mayor of turitopulis and get the venom shank, and there should be a plane in the bizville airport

the plane turns out to be Terry's and he accuses you or burglary, but still flies you out anyways, which starts the chapter fully

shortly after landing you meet kyoko

best character in the game i love her

she asks if you're willing to adventure with her

either response ends the same with you continuing anyways

continuing on you find an ant hill, which you are required to shrink to enter

the ants ask you to stay shrunk for the entire time you're there, and you can't unshrink while there even if you try hard you just can't and so you're shrunk and small in battle and stuff

going through yo eventually find a rock and help the rock look at the ceiling so you can leave the ant hill

going further you're going to find turitopulis, where the venom shank guardian lives

upon arriving you meet kyoko again, and then the mayor starts getting kidnapped but i didn't take a screenshot of that

here we meet the most popular character in blocktales so far, a teenager with a crowbar. truly the best of character design. (sarcasm)

anyways he's kidnapping the mayor!!! the guy shedletsky told us to visit!!! because the voices in his head told him too!!! oh no!!!!!

one illegal jeep ride and possible account of vehicular manslaughter later, you arrive in the rugged rain forest!

walking a bit further we see griefer yelling at thaniyel for something, but he talked about the voices that the king talked about so he's probably just having an episode.

anyways he summons bombable rocks

upon destroying them a komodo dragon attacks!!! oh no!!!!!

after defeating her we realize she's a polite lady with manners and this was all just a big misunderstanding!

to apologize, she gives us some sick new jordans yooooo!!!!!

we then meet terry and his brother jerry!!!

or as i like to call him

the skcrunkly

the scringily dingily

the bouncy boyo

the squishy

little man

i love jerry if you can't tell

jerry explains how to use rocket boots and we go on our way! how fun!

a little later and- oh god the teenager is back ew i hate teens (i am a teen)

he reveals thaniyel is his dad, and that he's still having his little episode how fun

oh yeah also his name is brad

we fight him now and absolutely kick his asss!!!!!

but we can't go follow him after he runs because there's dense vegetation in the way!!!

so we press on until we find

we find a more powerful sword! yay!!

then this guy steals it because uh

so remember that "...possible account of vehicular manslaughter later..." this is him that's why he hates you

anyways you follow him and knock him out of a tree and he starts fighting you because "JEEP HURTED. NOW ME HURT YOU"

one crypted hunt later

you got the sword but for real now and can go back to chasing griefer and his dad!

you follow them to the sacred hollow, a tree, that has been hollowed out and has a bunch of silly wood people living inside!!!

you also get this cool view of the tree when you first get here

scaling the tree you get to griefer's crib!!! yay!!!!!!

after committing breaking and entering, it turns out he is still having the episode and after forcing his dad to pull a weapon out of a rock, is now letting the intrusive thoughts tell him to kill you. that's rude >:(

after beating him up he decides whatever he's doing isn't worth it and so he stabs himself with the venomshank and becomes a plant, something his dad doesn't like, for obvious reasons.

anyways

one dose of weed killer later and he's defeated.

thaniyel says that he was warned about builderman by shedletsky, but didn't know this would happen. he says brad is still alive, and that this is reversible and thanks us for helping him. he wishes we could stay, but he, probably obviously, wants some alone time. he tells us to take the venomshank as far away from them as possible, so we do and..

before the review i just wanna say the sad music being interrupted with the victory "DOO-DOOOOO!!!!" upon grabbing the sword is very very funny honestly like the tone shift from "oh god i just watched my son nearly die" to "YAY I GOT THE MAGIC SWORD HOORAYY!!!!!!! :)" is so funny to me i couldn't stop laughing my first play through.

ok

REVIEW

chapter 2 has a lot more going on than chapter one, and that is to its benefit. at first it might seem a little slow with the ant hill and plains town, but once you get to turitopulis it gets good and starts moving fast. none of the blockades feel like they're there just to be there like spiky kill bot or the knight blockade. when people say block tales is amazing this is probably the chapter that is mostly gonna make you agree.

it gets 9/10 i'm not rating the rest of these i just don't know what more to say

i might have less to say about chapter 3 we'll see.

[thetombedspirit]

Dark Parables, the Hidden Object Games: Rant about the Stained Portrait

So, random fact about me; I like Hidden Object games, and my absolute favourite as a kid was the franchise Dark Parable, where you play as a detective going to different location, and meeting classic fairy tale characters with unique twists thrown into the universe.

Like, for example: Little Red Riding Hood? A badass sisterhood of monster hunters! Snow White? Became the Snow Queen after her son fell into an enchanted coma! Frog Prince? Trapped in a cycle of immortality and death while everyone he touches turns into frogs!

They were a fun series of games for me, and I recently got into playing them again, especially when I heard they weren't being made in recent years.

So I bought and played them all the way to the last one: the Portrait of the Stained Princess.

And I have to say, for the last game of the franchise to this day... what a let down.

SPOILERS if anyone wants to play the games for themselves, you have been warned.

Not gonna lie, it started off strong, but then, halfway through the middle it starts getting fuzzy, then the ending comes around and it's like they lost the script last minute and just threw something together.

To clarify; the princess makes friends with a prince of a dark kingdom whose cursed to not walk in sunlight, or something. They make a promise to find the Water of Life together. When they are forced to separate, the prince gives the princess his guardian animal (which has his heart, btw) a little duckling "The Ugly Duckling" and leaves. Apparently, prolonged time away from his heart will cause him to turn cold. Remember that, cause the games NEVER brings this little factoid up again.

And I guess the princess just forgot where they random duckling came from, because she just forgets all about him for no apparent reason. He eventually returns to ask for her hand in marriage, but because the king, her father, doesn't want her to marry a prince from a kingdom that's said to worship DEATH and all that, he attempts to trick the prince with a stained portrait of the princess, putting it off as her actual likeness.

Of course, the prince is not deterred as he fell in love with her kindness, not her beauty and returns disguised as a blind fiddler. The princess arrives, but still doesn't recognise him, again for no apparent reason! Naturally, because honestly, the guy gave his literal heart away and this chick doesn't remember her only childhood friend, and also because the king lied to him, he cursed the princess into the portrait, to become as stained and ugly as her broken promise.

Over the years, a family of knights are selected to take the princess place every blood moon so that she can find the Water of Life. One knight eventually betrayed his oath and tried to burn the portrait to spare his family, but was caught and condemned for it. Follow me here, because this matters for some reason!

Then we come in. A man, secretly a descendant of the knight, sets out to find the portrait and help the princess and neglects to tell us this when he proceeds to PUSH US OFF A CLIFF! After that, we're suddenly working together, even though he PUSHED US OFF A CLIFF and proceed to the islet that contains the Water of Life... that is then never brought up or even used as the Dark Prince shows up and is still pissed that the Princess doesn't remember him and just decided to swallow the world into darkness. A fight scene happens, prince gets stabbed, and then I guess??? the princess remembers him now, because she kisses and embraces him as he's dying??? and then the game just ends. Curse lifted, danger averted, what a wonderful day!

It... it was just a bizarre ending. Like, with all the talk of a broken promise and the princess just randomly forgetting, I thought the knight or at least the king was gonna have some hand in that, especially with the graffiti, "The King's Lie Ruined Us!" like, I was expecting a parable to tell me that the king wiped the girl's memory because he wanted to erase the Dark Prince entirely. I was expecting the Dark Prince to be a misunderstood good guy that seems evil but then helps us, especially when the Swan Knight PUSHED US OFF THE CLIFF and put the other guy in the portrait.

And with all the talk of swans and the whole Ugly Duckling bit, I thought this game would have some ties to the Swan Lake Kingdom, but I don't think it was even brought up as a clue or a Easter egg.

And then there was the Bonus Game, because of course I got the collector's edition, and it was just so random! Like, suddenly there's an impostor, and I think it was meant to be Julian from the Jack and the Sky Kingdom game, because the impostor was carrying a rose around. Anyway, the impostor impersonates the princess, for some reason, tricks the knight into cursing himself into a portrait, for some reason, and then kidnaps the princess and ties her up on the islet, FOR SOME REASON!!! and then THAT bonus game just.... ENDS! NO FOLLOW UP WHATSOEVER!!!

Sorry if this rant to getting tiresome, but this games meant a lot to me and the fact that it ends like this was so confusing and disappointing. It just... ends. Not with a dramatic bang, but with a cold whimper.

It makes me hope that if Dark Parables ever comes back, that knock us out the ball park.

Anyway, I just wanted to rant. Thank you guys!

[jq37]

Twice Upon a Time - Neverafter Ep 8

The Lines Between

Hey y’all, welcome back to Dimension 20 where I picked a hell of a season to get back into the game. It seems we can’t go a single episode without something wild happening and this episode is no exception as we fully lean into the meta aspect of this premise in earnest for the first time.

Our heroes are pulled through the door Scher opened for them into a weird new realm (represented by a brand new map) that seems to be made of books and pages, much like the IRL set for the show. Brennan says that Muffet and Itsy Bitsy (along with Crow who we’ll get to in a sec) are with them but they’re not mentioned for the rest of the episode.

Scher and Tim recognize each other and Scher says that the guardian, once returned to them, was able to help get them out of the cave and to this realm. The bigger question on everyone’s mind is what the hell is up with Pinnochio’s mom. Pinocchio doesn’t really have an answer as the reveal was shocking to him too, and he’s really bummed that his mom is a nightmare abomination. 

He also realizes that the crow that his mom uses to spy on him and can go invisible is gone. Troubling. 

Sinbad the daring sailor introduces himself to the crew and, for no earthly reason, Puss lies and says he’s a sailor too, forcing Pinnochio to go along with the side lie and his ship is called The PInocchio and that he’s made from wood of the ship. 

Puss asks where they are and Scher is at a loss but, luckily, Aesop shows up. He comes through the same door they came through from a field with animals. Three accompany him–a lion, a mouse, and a mule.

The lion and the mouse are from the classic tale called, well, The Lion and the Mouse. The Mule seems like it should be from The Ass and the Mule but on a Nat 20 check, Puss realizes the Mule is avoiding his gaze. It’s not just a random mule. It’s Alphonse (the second son’s mule from the fairy fight)! 

Puss immediately is like, “Hey buddy, what the fuck???” But Alphonse gets him to play cool until they can get some time to talk alone. 

Anyway, Aesop says they are now in a place that is beyond their stories and, in some ways, realer than their stories. He discovered this place some time ago. While they’re here, they don't have to eat or drink and some of the denizens of the place might be helpful. 

The group immediately realizes that it seems like Aesop’s land has been spared the ravages that they’ve had (and Scher has too) and Aesop says his realm–the land of Birds and Bees–is more resilient than theirs. They were able to repel the time of Shadow somehow. Maybe partially because their stories are so simple and less susceptible to corruption. 

(Btw, at this point, enough time has passed that the Crow is beyond finding, and when Pinnochio does�� a last check, he just sees an oily feather. Bad!)

In the space where they are, there are different landings which are associated with different realms. They ask Aesop if their realm is the worst and he doesn’t want to have to deliver bad news, but it is by a wide margin. It’s so bad that it’s bleeding into other realms–like the painting of Elody Scher said she saw in her realm. 

At this point, Alphonse and Puss peel away (with an excuse that they’re “scouting ahead”) so they can talk privately. They go through double doors to a library and Puss realizes that this is a room with stories from his realm. He spots the Frog Prince right away. 

When Puss once again asks Alphonse what the hell he’s doing here, the mule says that during the right he just started running and didn’t stop. He ended up in a weird forest where he felt a shadow fall over from far away him and something like light spilling from a crack in a door (hmm, stepmom vibes). He panicked and kept running and somehow ended up in the land of Birds and Bees. It was nice there. No Times of Shadow and it seemed like good things happen to good people and bad things happened to bad people. He planned to just chill there until Puss showed up and recognized him. And he doesn’t want to be involved in all this new nonsense. Things are BAD. Aesop told him that the Never After is absorbing other realms. The Lullabye Lands for instance. It wasn't a part of the Never After before. 

On a 22 Investigation, Puss sees a key on a table that seems to be to the room, and yoinks it. He also sees a copy of Cinderella and yoinks that as well. When the pair hear footsteps, Puss hides and Alphonse speeds away. The footsteps turn out to be two librarians (Key and Legend, though Puss doesn’t know that) and they seem concerned that the door is open and that the key is missing. They’re like, “Guess we have to use the master key again” and they lock the door. With Puss inside. 

Back with the rest of the group, the pair of librarians crosses paths with them as well. They’re some of the helpful denizens Aesop mentioned and invite the group to the Tower of Tales with them (and mention that their fellow librarians Glossary and Index will also be helpful). Interestingly, the librarians refer to the PCs as characters and then people, pointing to the weird meta existence they lead, half in one world, half in another. 

When the PCs get to the tower, they see that the place where they are is a citadel amidst an endless Aurora Borealis. From the Aurora, they can hear people talking and are told that what they’re looking at is the Auroratory (which Emily immediately realizes is a pun on Aurora+Oratory, much to Brenna’s delighted shock). These are stories that are being told orally.

Red hears the voice of her grandma telling her story and jumps into the sky to get closer. Luckily (miraculously) that works, and she’s able to swim into the sky. Key and Legend assure the group that it’s perfectly safe. They say that the Auroratory is much older than the citadel but the oral stories can come and go while stories bound by ink stay.

They take the remainder of the group within the Tower of Tales (they were on the ramparts before) and they see stairs leading up to a door with a symbol of an inkwell and quill. Tim asks about it and is told (with suspicious nervousness and intensity) that that’s the Cannonade which is the source of the ink and locked for the protection of EVERYONE. Tim and Scher try to surreptitiously break away to check it out but as soon as they take one step up the stairs, their books start to glow and Tim hears faint fiddle music. 

Key hurriedly stops them but then on a 1 and 3 to Ger’s 15, are distracted by his demonstration of sword forms, giving Scher a chance to cast Invisibility Circle on herself and Tim so they can snoop.

Meanwhile, Puss is still locked in the library with their stories. He opens up Cinderella’s book and skips to the end where he finds that not only are the pages blank, but the last pages are ripped out. At the front there are words that start with “Once Upon a Time” but they end shortly after, when Cindy’s dad dies. 

Brennan tells Puss to roll initiative suddenly as Crow suddenly appears and attacks, going for the book at the stepmother’s instruction. The crow has golden doors in its eyes, and Puss can hear the stepmother whispering commands but this is a cat v bird fight. Puss easily stabs out the crow’s eyes and it poofs dead in green smoke and turns to black parchment. As this happens, Puss wonders if the pages ripped from the book stayed here or disappeared into nothingness. Then, he unlocks the door and runs. Brennan asks if he does anything else. He says no. Let’s put a pin in this. 

Back with Red, things are all nice and peaceful in the Auroratory. She’s hearing countless versions of her story and she realizes that it’s not her grandma speaking but many people’s grandmas. The version she’s hearing is the version you’re probably familiar with. The one where the woodsman shows up and saves everyone and kills the wolf. Red likes this story a lot better and just kinda tries to sink into it.

Wisdom Save–5.

She’s suddenly filled with a deep sense of shame as she sinks and she sees these red streaks coming off of her body. Immediately, she thinks she’s corrupting the nice version of her story and, as she thinks that, she hears someone start telling her story, ending with the wolf eating her, the end. Red doesn’t even mind that story. In that story, she’s a sweet little victim that people would love and pity. Not a monster. 

Brennan gives her a chance in this moment to try and seek help from within or from without. Red doesn’t feel good about what’s within her so she yells for help. “Timothy!”

So we cut back to Tim and Scher (the group is so split up. What happened to straying together? lol). As they get closer and closer to the door, their books glow brighter and brighter. When Tim opens the door, he realizes it’s their ink that’s glowing. He wants to check out the keyhole to see if anyone goes into this locked room and rolls the obligatory once per season Na1 20 that reduces Brennan to zero HP. 

On a Nat 20, Tim sees that there are scratches in the keyhole–people do come in and out of here. There’s also a little glitter–maybe fairy dust? But that’s not the most important thing. He can actually look into the keyhole and what he sees is a vast shrine with a pedestal at the center. And on it is a big glass inkwell with ink spiraling out of it. Brennan gives Tim the option to look deeper into the ink and it’s Ally so of COURSE Tim looks deeper into the ink. 

WIsdom and Charisma save–just what you want to hear on a Nat 20.

Tim makes the Cha save but not the Wis one. 

As he stares into the ink, he thinks about the process when he writes. How easily the rhymes flow from his pen. How they feel so right and perfect right away. How amazing and incredible it is to feel like he’s doing what he’s supposed to be doing. The ink fills his vision. He can’t even see the keyhole anymore. 

But then, he realizes that he feels a bit flat. And that he’s trembling. And he feels this deep and thundering emptiness, like his whole existence is frivolous. He feels like people are watching him. REAL people, unlike him. Which is terrifying because they are powerful–more so that he can imagine–and they can do whatever they want to him. THEY’RE real and he? Well, he’s nothing more than ink on paper.

“Tim!” Scher cries, snapping him out of his dark reverie. 

She’s horrified because he’s literally turned to just ink and parchment. She casts Dispel Magic on him and on another miraculous Nat 20 is able to bring him back. She touches him and turns briefly partially to paper herself, but says that she doesn’t care what is going on, they’re both just real enough. They both turn back to normal in time for Tim to hear Red calling out for him. 

Everyone else has rolled up to the Auroratory at Red’s cry and Puss jumps in to save her–rowing Pinnochio’s body like a boat. They grab the very shaken Red but Brennan makes them do Wis saves as well. Puss fails his and starts to hear versions of his story. But before he starts sinking, he hears a voice say, “Once upon a time, there was a wolf.” A beautiful wolf made of light shows up and pushes him to safety before burning to death violently. 

(Note: Both Puss and Pinnochio had the same red trails coming off them as Red.)

When they all meet back up with the larger party–all back together finally–Pinnochio admits to Sinbad that he’s not actually made from a ship and Puss isn’t a sailor, revealing that Ger’s new sword Veritas is actually a sentient, singing sword. And he just loves singing about how good it is to tell the truth–instantly earning the ire of both Pinnochio and Red who has finally met an authority figure she doesn’t like. 

I also want to point out that the moment the sword things, Siobhan does a little Snow White-esque trill back at it which is so funny. 

Anyway, Roz is much more delighted with the sword than the others. When she holds it, there’s this weird static ripple and a part of the library vanished (something the librarians say happens a lot–”cutbacks” they call them) and she tries to pass the sword to someone else, but when she gets the strong sense that her true prince is supposed to have the sword, she scoops it back up and is fully back on the True Love train. (Of course, she has this revelation on a Nat 1 so…you know…)

Back on land, Red says that her story in the Auroratory is correct and she needs to see her story book so she can change it. The librarians say it’s not good for characters to see their stories and they’re being sorta weird and cagey about the request. At the same time, Scher is talking to Aesop about what happened and he seems conflicted in a Lawful Good sort of way (since they were disobeying when they split off). 

Key and Legend start explaining that the corruption started in the Never After and has been affecting most strongly the realms nearest to it. Story realms go through phrases. Key nervously says the phrase, “Ink is permanent…Asterisk,” and Tim clocks a sense of dread and epiness in them like what he felt before at the inkwell. He tells them that they’re real like Scher said to him and, before anyone can parse that, Aesop comes over and snitches them out. Or rather, he says honesty is the best policy and kinda makes Tim admit what they did and what he experienced. 

Key and Legend say he shouldn’t have gone up there but gives the group info anyway. There’s a lot of debate about where they–the characters–come from. From the ink or the Auroratory or what, but the ink versions? They come from Them. The people that Tim saw in the ink. The ones they don’t dare name if they don’t have to. In fact, Brennan, in character, writes down what they’re called so they don’t have to say it: The Authors. 

The librarians are kinda freaked so they move the group away from the Cannonade before they keep talking. They jump back to Tim’s statement about being real. Yes, they’re real but some things are realer. It’s kind of hard to comprehend without losing your sense of self. 

The Authors made The Lines Between. They’re incredible and incredibly powerful and, most importantly, they do not care (well, there’s different school of thought about that but they don’t get into that). Tim wonders if bad things happen to good people just because it makes a good story and the librarians say this is what they should talk to Glossary about.

Sidenote: This is kinda tripping me up because like, Tim tells stories, right? Maybe the ones in his book are just him channeling other stories but some of what he does is legitimately tell stories (unless we’re going to learn that that’s not possible–but I doubt it because these guys lie all the time and lies are storytelling of a sort lol. They have the capacity to make things up is my point). Anyway, when Tim makes up a story from his brain, is he not doing the same thing? Does he not write what will make the best story, even if it means the characters go through hardship? Is it like Authors and characters all the way down? Do you see what I’m saying? Can they really be angry at the Authors when they’re doing the same thing?

Also, is this season gonna end with the PCs fighting their real life players???

But I digress. 

The librarians continue explaining. The power of the ink can be accessed by proxy which is what magic is in their worlds. Ways to move the story in the direction that the Cannonade wants.  Some beings in their world have this access naturally (like fairies and witches I assume). 

While ink is permanent, there have apparently been some revisions over the years, though there’s no record (idk how they know that with no record–maybe word of mouth?) Legend once again says that the realms always go through good and bad times but the Gander (repping bad times) has been ascendant for too long and they don’t know why. And the bad vibes are leaking. The rip caused by the cutback earlier glimmers.

Oh, and one more thing. Key thinks there’s something loose in the library. On a Nat 20, Tim thinks that the vibes are that of the movie Alien–trapped in a location with a Thing that’s waiting to pick people off. 

The group agrees to split up to help make sure there’s nothing bad lurking but, before they do, a few quick exchanges:

Pinnochio admits that he’s not on his “Twice Upon a Time” (Index’s turn of phrase) like everyone else. That his Stepmom ripped away the Pinnochio from this story and dropped him in. Tim recognizes what he describes as similar to what happened to him when he was turned to paper.

They decide they’ll find Glossary to speak to after this. 

Red asks Aesop about if he knows any wolf stories and he tells the story of the Boy Who Cried Wolf in such an aggro way that Tim is like bruh, chill. 

With that, they split off, our heroes going alone without Key or Legend who are occupied by the others. They go back to the library where Puss was and remember when I told you to put a pin in him not doing anything before he left?

Yeah, the door is open. He didn’t lock it. 

I’m sure that won’t be a problem. (I’m lying.)

Puss gives Ger the Frog Prince book and he also pulls out the Cindy book. Pinochio recognizes the picture of a man on the cover as the man in the picture he stole and gave back to his mom. And now that he thinks about it, the picture seems like it was ripped out of this very book. 

There’s a click.

They turn. 

The door behind them has turned to the Stepmother’s door. She’s here. She’s angry. And she’s getting bigger. 

Roll for initiative baby! Can’t wait to see what horrific battle figurine Rick Perry is gonna curse us with next ep! See you then! 

[ravenouscultleader780]

COTL AU(A Tale of Two Lambs/MLP Base Edit)

Hello Cultists! Here's a Small but Pretty Big Reveal Post i made just now to continue my Cult of The Lamb AU(as MLPBaseEdits) with This one being a pretty important fanart/story piece with Two Characters/Lamb OCs i made next to Lamberina & my Narilamb children whom are Lambert & Lamberina's Parents..

So To finally show on this blog for the 2nd time round(first time being my old FT of The Narilamb Family Tree) btw.

Anyways here is the finished fanart below with a whole storyline bio below it to explain how they met, got married and had their 2 baby calfs and sadly both died(being assinated by the bishops genocide of the lambs kind) and with Lambert & his Big Sis Lamberina(new name being Angelique Woolsteed legally changed in the Cult of Misfits(Angel's own cult with her BF being one of the Ex Witnesses of Anura being Zepar)

Here it is in all of it's MS Paint Glory! and yes i did the Background of The Forest of Old Faith myself on Paint(Feel free to like on how i did, feel i did a good job as a bg maker which i'm not used to but am getting the hang of it and liking it better) Anyways here is the full story bio below for Joseph(The Purple Male Lamb) and MaryAnn(The Grey Female Lamb whom has Freckles like Lambert & Dirty Blond Hair which Lamberina/Angelique currently has as her Dyed Mane)

"Once upon a Time in lands of the old faith there lived two lamb lovers named Joesph & MaryAnn Steelwool whom were already happily married as a young couple with them being possibly the last lambs alive during the lamb genocide ordered by the bishops.

Joseph and Mary both were horrified at the sight of their home of DarkWood(Originally Lambert's Birthplace) being destroyed in ruins with many huts burned by torches to the many families of lambs being killed and massacred in horrendous & tragic ways with Joseph and his wife escaping tremendously until.. the most hated bishop being Shamura asking his minions to kill the two lambs with mary leaving their twin babies Lambert & Angelique as orphans left on Ratau's doorstep as their new guardian with their parents being killed and taken into silk cradle by shamura & his sibs to be kept as prizes to their completed massacre.

so now 1000 yrs later in present day Lambert & his Older Sister both have thrived in their own cults with Lambert still missing their deceased parents and honoring them in memory with Angelique doing the same.

and that's the whole story of their Parents and their tragic deaths.. and i bet your noticing a pattern with Shamura here and his "Wrath Tendencies of Killing Species with Both Lambert's own Kind and his Currently Beloved Wife Samantha Bloodsucker's own kind being extinct aswell. so the next chapter for them both Avenging their Species by Reproducing New Life for them both with Samantha agreeing to help her Husband's sadness and grief while Lady D's Species of Axolotls and M3gan's Species of Nightwolves are still existing(but their own Biological Families have been deceased for years)

and that's all i'll post for now with Lambert's Parents which this Fanart is the Last Time i'll draw them and will continue to draw the Backstories of The 6 Spouses(Sammi, Lady D, M3gan, Lucos, Ruri, Toots & Giselle) aka The Spouse Squad very soon with Samantha's being a Whole Webcomic for her and her rival Shamura(being a Betrayed Father Figure type storyline) to the rest being different genres with different topics on how and why they ended up despising the 4 bishops in order : for Sammi (it's a Cozy but Dark Domestic Abuse Storyline) for Lady Dimmi(it's a Noir but Mysterious Love Story) for M3gan(it's a Thriller/Horror Sstoryline) for Lucos(It's a Humorous but Unlikeable Storyline) for Ruri(It's a Fantasy Storyline) for Toots(it's a Musical Storyline) and finally for Giselle(It's a Fairytale Self Discovery Storyline) so as you see all 6 spouses related to marrying Lambert(minus Narinder, The Bishops since it's explainable already in-game aka Our Choices) will include their own Genre like a Movie, Book, Series or even Video Game as their Backstory(ies)

Just wanted to update my blog since on DA i'm taking a break for now until maybe Nov-Dec since i won't be so busy during the holiday seasons or maybe i will who knows.. also about The Spouse Squad Webcomics and when they'll be coming well it'll be pretty soon since Samantha's is First!(hence her being the oldest spouse in game for me!) and since i found a bunch of nice bases to use which the very first part will be released on Oct 4th to be exact!

Hope you all liked this post, have a good weekend bye!

[ihrt-me]

hi the bio already says everything i guess but uhh yeah i’m levi & technically ive been on the tumblr for a while but life happened FSJFHS. anyway

here’s my pronouns page if u wanna (i still need to update it LOL but ummm im lazy) i love the word faggot btw

i loooove horror stuff in general but old survival games are my spinterest 🫶🏼 so ur gonna see those often on here lol. i also sadly like a bunch of gacha games like hsr or guardian tales bc u cant always win ig

taglist (or smth like that) under the cut vvv

#levi shut up <- talking tag

#levi’s hoard <- just me reblogging terms that fit me etc etc

#fav posts of all times <- self explanatory

& i’ll try to tag cws as #cw: thing but im not very good at it :( sorry!!

#bfposting <- im annoying & gay abt him & theres no way hes gonna see this so i can make it everyone’s problem >:3

[floralovebot]

obsessed with doing a guardian tales x winx club crossover and i'm so tempted to spend way too much time making official style art for them someone stop me please

[mogai-reblog]

i love that (/gen) that unlike other games where certain clothes/costumes are locked to one gender, guardian Tales actually doesn't do that. I chose the male knight and rn i have him in the Rose Knight costume. He rocks the dress btw

[fellwhite]

Btw Guardian tales has Patches from soulsborne saga

He does the iconic betrayal and everything, spared him this time for nostalgia but ya bet i would've killed him in a souls game

[sevicia]

Are we all just talking about our interest now. Ok well guardian tales is this pixel game with cuuuute characters and graphics but also some side quests from the story which makes me cry btw include saving children from an old man who cooks and feeds them to people who are hungry bc of the invaders Oh yeah the invaders are aliens who came to ummmm indpvade AND the story in the orbital lift which is another game mode it has like 5+ game modes well the story in the orbital lift hints that the invaders are actually humans who mutated because of a bacteria OR we the player and the characters who arent inaveder s are the people who carry the bacteria called labose and in wordl 13 which is the fucking BEST world imo you run thru a demon city which is all modern and stuff and youcan kill people to rob them but it increases your criminal rank like in gta or something and you have to have to run from cops and stuff…..also the new world world 14 came out recently and its about demonshire which is a vampire & demon city with Issues and theres a hero named priscilla ALSO the whole thing is that youre activating the champions swords to fend off the inavders but thats like the basic rpg premise in reality theres time travel and human experiments and stuff AND at one point in worllllld 7 or 9 idr you have to prove someones innocence in a jury like in an ace attorney game i think. Play it.

[starlightshore]

Is there any evidence that Chara is an abuse victim? It's a very popular headcanon and I want to understand why

hrm. ok let me preface this with a couple of things: one, i actually answered this same question a couple weeks ago (week ago? time means nothing to me) on AFR but i got triggered by continuous use of the topic and people wouldn’t stop talking after i asked multiple times for us to stop. (no bad blood to anyone involved) this is only relevant because its the same question, and I want to make it clear I am fine with talking about this topic, and I will say if or when it’s stressing me out. I am not against talking about dark themes, and at the moment I am calm and fine.

I want everyone to know that this is a triggering topic and i specifically am susceptible to this and it’s surrounding themes, so please try to read the room I’m creating on this topic and give me the proper space.

i say that all ahead of time because I do not want to get triggered or talk about child abuse/death/suicide at length. this ask is fine. maybe a couple more if it’s brief and not asking me to do further research.

secondly, I want to talk about UT canon real quick. UT, for the most part, relies on text to spell out it’s history and world. characters don’t walk on screen and say: I’m Chara Dreemurr. I was born on September 15th 2003. I’m nonbinary and use they/them.” like no, characters live in the moment and yes their past define them, but they got bigger things to worry about and talk about current things. maybe they’ll refer to past things, but never bluntly.

--putting under read more. discussion of child abuse, self harm, and other ingame dark topics. This is mainly a character analysis

So, either you infer from what’s available or you search the wiki/playthrough/text dumps. The very act of playing no mercy route has lore in itself, if you account for player theory and other factors I’m not getting into here. Anyway, Undertale is a very Deep and loaded game with lots of world building built into every nook and cranny. (just spend 5 minutes on semi-frequent undertale facts if you’re curious to this rabbit hole)

Anyway point being, Chara is the narrator. this is fact. “it’s me, Chara.” They outright say it. I hate when people call it theory when it’s more explicit than most things in game.

anyway, the main flavor text i want to point to is this:

* "Faded Ribbon" - Armor DF 3 * If you're cuter, monsters  won't hit you as hard. 

So here’s a couple things I want to talk about first. Yes, monsters fight and that is normal.

* But they will never know  the joy of expressing  themselves through magic.* They'll never get a bullet-   pattern birthday card... 

It’s 10000% likely that Chara dealt with monster fights when alive. And that most likely lead to culture shock and confusion, but with Toriel (lmao, she outright scares off a froggit from Frisk) by their side and being a royal, I highly doubt they were in any danger in that household.

point being, yes, monsters could of hurt them, I would think this mindset is more directed to humanity, rather than monsterkind. You can read it more bluntly that it’s about monsters after all, t does specify monsters here. My counter point is that is to foreshadow how monsters are weaker beings who are more in-tuned with their magic-based bodies and are susceptible to intent, and likewise their magic reflects their own intent.

So yeah, I think it reflects to Chara’s general history and mindset to wanting to appear more tolerable to avoid pain, be it physical abuse or fear of being human. Chara, who calls themself a demon and hated humanity passionately, would be fully aware they are human. When welcomed to a very loving monster family, they didn’t want to ruin the prophetic angelic image they placed on them. They knew with their own imperfect behavior, that they were doomed to fail them.

This can be inferred from how both Toriel and Asgore wear the deltarune (Toriel’s robes, Asgore’s armor makes the wings and their homes in both games have the symbol). Gerson talks about how either the Deltarune Angel (someone who has seen the surface and returned) would either free them or destroy them all. Chara, who the underground believed to be that Angel, was put on this huge pedestal that clearly both parent’s believed in.

We know Toriel represents Integrity,

* someone who sincerely  likes bad jokes...* has an integrity  you can't say  "no" to. 

(along with being refereed to in the blue color of text)

and by both (points in DR’s direction) and this line from her when allowing Frisk to go past the ruins:

My expectations... My loneliness... My fear...For you, my child... I will put them aside.

Toriel says expectations first. It’s clearly a huge part of her motivation. I absolutely see how this pressure not only was put on Chara, but Asriel as well. This isn’t a hate letter to Toriel btw, but rather an examination of her parenting that led to the main tragedy of the game. It’s a cautionary tale. Toriel was not prepared for adopting a suicidal preteen.

speaking of which! back to the whole point of this post.

* I know why (Chara) climbed the mountain.

*(Chara) hated humanity.* Why they did, they  never talked about  it.* But they felt very strongly about  that.

 Now I want to say that Chara hating humanity enough to run away to kill themself doesn’t strictly mean they were abused, but wow! Chara is seriously mentally ill (and frankly, yes, children can be are suicidal) and I don’t think that level of suffering happens for no reason.

* The ends of the tools have  been filed down to  make them safer.* Seems like gardening tools.

* Where are the knives.

The gardening tools in Toriel’s home are dulled and there are no knives in the kitchen. These are actions one takes when their child self harms, this isn’t precautions based in them being literal infants. Chara I imagine was closer to 10/12 age range than Baby. (what baby knows what a tsundere is?)

All these paint a picture of a child who self harms, who violently hates humanity and wanted to kill their (likely) abusers. I’ve also seen someone suggest the fact that FIGHT is your first option in the game in itself reflects how Chara’s first instinct is to Fight first. Both Frisk and Chara are heavily influenced by the player’s actions (both literal and in a parental/guardian like influence) and we see this thru Chara’s outlook changes depending on LV, as well how Frisk feels about violence. (dogfood bag being half full/empty, punching mad dummy in the dump)

Using the themes of the game and backstory/context, we can see how Chara has been taught violence as a viable option. I’d link that more to their pre-underground as Monsterkind as a society preaches mercy and uses bullets not as a murderous tool, but as self expression.

Again, I don’t want to say that just because a child is mentally ill and self harms, doesn’t mean they were abused but I don’t think it’s out of line as a reasoning for it. Yes, sometimes you’re just born with such mental illness, but I choose to interpret the faded ribbon dialogue + their own desire to fight/kill as something taught by example. It fits the themes. It’s more realistic to see Chara as someone who’s been hurt and has learned to hurt in return. (AND that does not mean abuse victims are therefore doomed to become abusers! chara is a child first and thru the pacifist route they’re just as merciful as Frisk! It’s a character arc)

and just to be absolutely clear because I KNOW how tumblr handles nuance sometimes, I am speaking as a former abused and suicidal child. Making that clear that when I say this is how I read the text, it’s not just me speculating on the game’s content but on a real life knowledge of how this shit works. Chara very, very much reads an abused and depressed child who just wanted to fulfill the prophecy for the sake of their family’s freedom.

With almost killing Asgore on accident, Chara realizes that they are an evil human and the only way to free their people is to die violently. (don’t look up buttercup poisoning side effects, it’s bad.) Chara didn’t need to die to escape. They could of killed any of the dreemurrs, but they chose to die horrifically. It’s common for those who are suicidal that they’ll want to die before people see them in a negative light.

also couldn’t really fit this earlier but hell, this is long anyway so I might as well say this here. I think we can also infer Chara’s hatred for humanity grew with learning the history of monsterkind. The books harshly say human souls are different and it’s possible they may not even naturally have compassion and love, or at least, are not required to have it. Humans sealed monsters underground and commited actual genocide against them. (and i don’t use that word lightly. the no mercy route isn’t a genocide, please don’t use that term for that. esp don’t lighten such a heavy and real-word term to a frickin video game route oh my god)

We have this repeating theme of society’s influence on children and how cycles of pain continue. What is “in this world, it’s kill-or-be-killed“ but a statement on society? I’ve discussed before that I think it’s very likely Chara said those words to Asriel as they were being murdered, and how the very system that put Chara into this path was human society that both failed Chara and monsterkind all those years ago. The game’s message is that you must not kill, and you must not be killed in return. That there is a third option, and that even in dire circumstances if you use 7 virtues and are determined enough, you can avoid war and make peace. This isn’t to say self defense is bad, Undyne the Undyning is framed as a hero, and cruel/corrupt rulers should be disposed of (king spade)

this got a little off topic but I thought it was fun to write about. The game’s main theme is built around that phrase, it’s Asriel’s character arc of him learning thru Frisk/Chara/Player that in this world, despite everything, you don’t have to kill or be killed.

TLDR; Chara is implied to hate humanity so strongly they were willing to die horrifically to free monsterkind and fulfill the angel’s prophecy. the game depicts them as a very mentally ill child and with the addition of the faded ribbon text + desire to FIGHT, Chara likely learned this mindset before falling underground. looking at the themes of the game and chara’s backstory, we can infer and take a guess at who they were and what the game is trying to say. Undertale is a good game and has a good moral. That’s my TedTalk

[hahaedgyman]

Dreamtale: Mirrored Fates

(Note: While this is a Dreamswap-Esc AU, I didn't call it Dreamswap since two AUs with a name like that already exist.)

(Other note: The Spirit of The Tree here is Male, Because Swap. I just thought that'd be a nice touch.)

This is essentially an AU I made based on Dreamswap and SwapDream respectively.

Essentially, it started the same as Dreamtale. However, Dream saw the bullying. He saw his brother constantly being abused, and tried to stop them. Little changed, and he saw how manipulative and dark the people were acting. How apathetic they were to suffering, and after a long time, he began to become apathetic himself. He developed Sociopathy.

Now, don't be hasty. He isn't just immediately a villain. He was still friends with Nightmare, and eventually, Nightmare was able to convince the bullies to stop, and even befriended them. (Insert Deltarune Sans Joke here.) However, one day, the wise old man told a prophecy. Of a final battle of The forces of good and evil. Whilst he rarely told of the future, everything he told ended up being true. Minor or Major.

Sage as he was, he often avoided being vague. He however, created a prophecy. A Hero would rise up, and defeat Darkness once and for all. What form would Darkness take? He was rather unclear. Darkness represented evil, and then he said of the hero that he was a humble man, and not only any man or monster, but an emotional guardian. Now, this reached Dream's ears. Given The Man's often Accuracy when it came to prophecies, Dream of course was rather full of himself. Of course it would be him! Nightmare was Negativity, Evil, and Darkness. Dream would rise up and stop him, and what a fantastic tale it would be!

Dream thought of course, any alternative was impossible. While the evil may not be his brother, he knew he was obviously the hero of the prophecy. He began to get annoyed. Nightmare began to be warmed up to by the people of the village, after they had accepted him. Dream found this unfounded, and declared it openly. Of course, due to his vanity, the villagers grew annoyed, and began throwing objects and insults at him. Dream, enraged, walked over to the tree of feelings, grabbing a negativity apple.

(Btw here, The Apples don't change when touched. They just hurt, kind of like Dream's positivity arrows hurt Nightmare, rather than just being negativity'd.)

Then Dream ate it, declaring that he was an incorruptible spirit. The people of the villagers backed up in fear, afraid of what would happen. Dream however, began to feel pain and suffering. Dream refused defeat, and noticing their fear, staggered up. "See? I am not corrupt!" He declared. The villagers backed up once more, as Dream sat there, waiting for admiration. His face turned to grimace. "Fine, I shall show again then!" He said, as he ate another negativity apple, and another, and another. He became to weak, as he tried to reach for the last negativity apple, only to fall frail, as his body began to melt and dust from all this negative energy. Nightmare, in fear of his brother's death, quickly grabbed a positive apple, giving it to Dream. Dream ate it, and it gave him his strength back. But more than before.

Dream had a taste of power, and he wanted more. He took more positivity apples, consuming them. As he ate more and more, he grew more powerful. Until the tree was almost entirely barren. There was only one negativity apple left. Nightmare staggered back. Dream lifted his arms up, as wings sprouted from his back. He had fused The Positive and Negative Energy; bending it to his will. He turned to the people. The Disgusting peasants, who didn't bow to him. He raised his arms. The Sun glew brighter, as Nightmare tried to stand in its way, shield them with shadow, but he was only but a boy, fighting against The Sun itself. It began to melt the people, melting their very skin and bones, giving them a slow and painful death. Nightmare couldn't help any of them, and could barely help himself as he began to melt. He stumbled towards the tree, begging his father for his strength. He fumbled around, grabbing The Negativity apple. He heard the voice of his father. "Eat it, I have imbued the last of my power into it. It will save you, my son." The voice said. Nightmare listened, his teeth sinking into the apple, as he ate it, it imbued him with its power, as his aura pushed Dream back, as Dream was caught off guard. The Sun turned back to normal. Those who had been hiding behind areas of shade, or somehow evading the sun, turned. It was back to a normal day, but it turned to rain, as Dream and Nightmare circled each other. Dream gloated about the fact he saw as Obvious. Nightmare only held 1/1000th of the power he did. But he underestimated it. In truth, that was the voice of their father. He had imbued his power into the apple. It was much more powerful than any other. But dream still had the advantage. Not only was it day, where he was most powerful. But he still did have many more. Sure it was one strong apple, but it doesn't do much against the unlimited power dream had. Nightmare knew his brother was no more, corrupted by his own inhibition. Nightmare summoned an aggressive weapon, unlike his brother of the original Dreamtale.

A Rapier's handle appeared in his hand.

The two entered a battle for the ages, but it was looking bad. Dream was to powerful, especially with the sun. Nightmare stood no chance, and was barely able to fight back. Eventually, as all hope seemed lost, The Sun exited the horizon, and the full moon rose.

Imbued with its power, Nightmare fought back, and disarmed Dream from The Claymore he wielded. Nightmare slashed Dream across the chest, wounding him. Then, with one last blast of power, he slammed his wounded brother into the tree. Sealing him in there. The energy was rebalanced. Nightmare took up the mantle of his Fallen Brother. He was now The Guardian of both Energies.

But... this would not be eternal.

500 years later, as The Sun rose, a yellow crack formed in the tree, as Dream tore his way out. Angrier than ever. Sadly, Nightmare was resting on the tree, startled to see his brother crawling out, fine, and very very angry.

Due to it being Dawn, Nightmare knew that he stood no chance. He remembered their battle 500 years ago. While he himself didn't want to run, he knew what he had to do. He had to protect Negativity. He fled, evacuating those of the village, which was now a city. It was to no avail. Dream began taking their souls, and puppeteering them. He claimed the souls, and the beings, humans and monsters alike, became soulless husks. Serving Dream's Every whim. Dream felt no remorse, as he destroyed everything. Humans and Monsters were cruel entities. Why should he give them MERCY? They were just weak power sources to him, nothing more. After all, Dream would give them a utopia. The least they could do was assist him in creating this utopia. Nightmare fled from the city, fearfully. The spirit of his father gave him advice, and Nightmare escaped to a different AU, as Dream conquered his home.

Basically,

Dream's a Megalomaniacal Sociopath who believes that he is the being from the prophecy. Every "Minor" thing he does is simply excusable to him. A necessary sacrifice. Due to his Sociopathic State, he doesn't think with morality. Kind of like Flowey from The Original Game.

Now, if you're wondering about AUs, well, that'll take more time to write down. But similar to Dreamswap, The Characters in each AU are different.

The only character that's mostly the same to Dreamswap is Blue. (I call him Underswap Sans mostly, since, I have something of a thing against the name "Blueberry," but if you need a nickname, I just call him Crossbones. Or just call him blue still, lolol.)

Ink is still swapped with Cross

Nightmare and Dream are still swapped

Error and Blue are still Swapped.

however, there are additional swaps.

Underswap Papyrus Swaps with Fatal_Error. (Kind of. Fatal doesn't exist in the story, but US Papyrus is kind of like Fatal.)

Underswap Chara is now CORE Frisk. (Core existed, but they were restored by Papyrus. Long story.)

There are a few other AUs Involved.

Horrortale

Killertale

Dusttale

Underfell

Othertale

Reapertale (Briefly Mentioned)

Aftertale

Alphatale (Doesn't do much, yet.)

Peacetale (Not really, but Infected Sans exists here. So technically Peacetale does as well.)

[dreamtalemf]

The Start of The AU

(Note: An Identical Post to this exists. I just reposted it here so that you didn’t have to scroll through my account’s posts to know how the AU started.)

(Note 2: While this is a Dreamswap-Esc AU, I didn't call it Dreamswap since two AUs with a name like that already exist.)

(Note 3: The Spirit of The Tree here is Male, Because Swap. I just thought that'd be a nice touch.)

This is essentially an AU I made based on Dreamswap and SwapDream respectively.

Essentially, it started the same as Dreamtale. However, Dream saw the bullying. He saw his brother constantly being abused, and tried to stop them. Little changed, and he saw how manipulative and dark the people were acting. How apathetic they were to suffering, and after a long time, he began to become apathetic himself. He developed Sociopathy.

Now, don't be hasty. He isn't just immediately a villain. He was still friends with Nightmare, and eventually, Nightmare was able to convince the bullies to stop, and even befriended them. (Insert Deltarune Sans Joke here.) However, one day, the wise old man told a prophecy. Of a final battle of The forces of good and evil. Whilst he rarely told of the future, everything he told ended up being true. Minor or Major.

Sage as he was, he often avoided being vague. He however, created a prophecy. A Hero would rise up, and defeat Darkness once and for all. What form would Darkness take? He was rather unclear. Darkness represented evil, and then he said of the hero that he was a humble man, and not only any man or monster, but an emotional guardian. Now, this reached Dream's ears. Given The Man's often Accuracy when it came to prophecies, Dream of course was rather full of himself. Of course it would be him! Nightmare was Negativity, Evil, and Darkness. Dream would rise up and stop him, and what a fantastic tale it would be!

Dream thought of course, any alternative was impossible. While the evil may not be his brother, he knew he was obviously the hero of the prophecy. He began to get annoyed. Nightmare began to be warmed up to by the people of the village, after they had accepted him. Dream found this unfounded, and declared it openly. Of course, due to his vanity, the villagers grew annoyed, and began throwing objects and insults at him. Dream, enraged, walked over to the tree of feelings, grabbing a negativity apple.

(Btw here, The Apples don't change when touched. They just hurt, kind of like Dream's positivity arrows hurt Nightmare, rather than just being negativity'd.)

Then Dream ate it, declaring that he was an incorruptible spirit. The people of the villagers backed up in fear, afraid of what would happen. Dream however, began to feel pain and suffering. Dream refused defeat, and noticing their fear, staggered up. "See? I am not corrupt!" He declared. The villagers backed up once more, as Dream sat there, waiting for admiration. His face turned to grimace. "Fine, I shall show again then!" He said, as he ate another negativity apple, and another, and another. He became to weak, as he tried to reach for the last negativity apple, only to fall frail, as his body began to melt and dust from all this negative energy. Nightmare, in fear of his brother's death, quickly grabbed a positive apple, giving it to Dream. Dream ate it, and it gave him his strength back. But more than before.

Dream had a taste of power, and he wanted more. He took more positivity apples, consuming them. As he ate more and more, he grew more powerful. Until the tree was almost entirely barren. There was only one negativity apple left. Nightmare staggered back. Dream lifted his arms up, as wings sprouted from his back. He had fused The Positive and Negative Energy; bending it to his will. He turned to the people. The Disgusting peasants, who didn't bow to him. He raised his arms. The Sun glew brighter, as Nightmare tried to stand in its way, shield them with shadow, but he was only but a boy, fighting against The Sun itself. It began to melt the people, melting their very skin and bones, giving them a slow and painful death. Nightmare couldn't help any of them, and could barely help himself as he began to melt. He stumbled towards the tree, begging his father for his strength. He fumbled around, grabbing The Negativity apple. He heard the voice of his father. "Eat it, I have imbued the last of my power into it. It will save you, my son." The voice said. Nightmare listened, his teeth sinking into the apple, as he ate it, it imbued him with its power, as his aura pushed Dream back, as Dream was caught off guard. The Sun turned back to normal. Those who had been hiding behind areas of shade, or somehow evading the sun, turned. It was back to a normal day, but it turned to rain, as Dream and Nightmare circled each other. Dream gloated about the fact he saw as Obvious. Nightmare only held 1/1000th of the power he did. But he underestimated it. In truth, that was the voice of their father. He had imbued his power into the apple. It was much more powerful than any other. But dream still had the advantage. Not only was it day, where he was most powerful. But he still did have many more. Sure it was one strong apple, but it doesn't do much against the unlimited power dream had. Nightmare knew his brother was no more, corrupted by his own inhibition. Nightmare summoned an aggressive weapon, unlike his brother of the original Dreamtale.

A Rapier's handle appeared in his hand.

The two entered a battle for the ages, but it was looking bad. Dream was to powerful, especially with the sun. Nightmare stood no chance, and was barely able to fight back. Eventually, as all hope seemed lost, The Sun exited the horizon, and the full moon rose.

Imbued with its power, Nightmare fought back, and disarmed Dream from The Claymore he wielded. Nightmare slashed Dream across the chest, wounding him. Then, with one last blast of power, he slammed his wounded brother into the tree. Sealing him in there. The energy was rebalanced. Nightmare took up the mantle of his Fallen Brother. He was now The Guardian of both Energies.

But... this would not be eternal.

500 years later, as The Sun rose, a yellow crack formed in the tree, as Dream tore his way out. Angrier than ever. Sadly, Nightmare was resting on the tree, startled to see his brother crawling out, fine, and very very angry.

Due to it being Dawn, Nightmare knew that he stood no chance. He remembered their battle 500 years ago. While he himself didn't want to run, he knew what he had to do. He had to protect Negativity. He fled, evacuating those of the village, which was now a city. It was to no avail. Dream began taking their souls, and puppeteering them. He claimed the souls, and the beings, humans and monsters alike, became soulless husks. Serving Dream's Every whim. Dream felt no remorse, as he destroyed everything. Humans and Monsters were cruel entities. Why should he give them MERCY? They were just weak power sources to him, nothing more. After all, Dream would give them a utopia. The least they could do was assist him in creating this utopia. Nightmare fled from the city, fearfully. The spirit of his father gave him advice, and Nightmare escaped to a different AU, as Dream conquered his home.

Basically,

Dream's a Megalomaniacal Sociopath who believes that he is the being from the prophecy. Every "Minor" thing he does is simply excusable to him. A necessary sacrifice. Due to his Sociopathic State, he doesn't think with morality. Kind of like Flowey from The Original Game.

Now, if you're wondering about AUs, well, that'll take more time to write down. But similar to Dreamswap, The Characters in each AU are different.

The only character that's mostly the same to Dreamswap is Blue. (I call him Underswap Sans mostly, since, I have something of a thing against the name "Blueberry," but if you need a nickname, I just call him Crossbones. Or just call him blue still, lolol.)

Ink is still swapped with Cross

Nightmare and Dream are still swapped

Error and Blue are still Swapped.

however, there are additional swaps.

Underswap Papyrus Swaps with Fatal_Error. (Kind of. Fatal doesn't exist in the story, but US Papyrus is kind of like Fatal.)

Underswap Chara is now CORE Frisk. (Core existed, but they were restored by Papyrus. Long story.)

There are a few other AUs Involved.

Horrortale

Killertale

Dusttale

Underfell

Othertale

Reapertale (Briefly Mentioned)

Aftertale

Alphatale (Doesn't do much, yet.)

Peacetale (Not really, but Infected Sans exists here. So technically Peacetale does as well.)

[iamoncewas]

The Master of Masters

The Re:Mind trailer convinced me that there IS an alternate scenario after Riku's sacrifice that went differently than the one we saw. Props to Sleeping Realm for calling that one right on the friggin dot, btw. Bravo. (Update: Nomura said the scenes from the trailer are in fact part of the main story)

I believe it'll end with Riku's true death, and that ties in with my Master of Masters theory.

The Master watches Master Xehanort with the Gazing Eye at the tip of No Name. Of all the keyblades that hold Gazing Eyes, Vanitas's Void Gear is the only one that contains two located in the shaft.

If one eye sees, the Master would still need the other eye to see what it was seeing. Even though he implies that it's literally his eye when he gives No Name to Luxu, it's not really, it's just one of the eyes from his keyblade.

Also on that topic, there is a shot of Sora in the KH3 intro I find super duper weird.

The pupil in Soras left eye is a slit for a moment, like the Gazing Eye. It's just an illusion as a result of reflected light in his eye, but you can bet its intentional.

The Master's study is also full of gears, which seems like it might be too obvious but hey, there it is.

The Unversed symbol is similar to that of the Dream Eaters, and I think ties into my belief that Riku made Sora's heart. He saw it, and it then "became real", so therefore Vanitas's heart contains Sora's darkness and Riku's darkness also. Which is why it's divided in three. The Master created the Chirithy. Sora and Riku created Spirits in DDD. Riku became a Dream Eater himself through his sheer desire to protect Sora.

Interesting side note: Unversed - not experienced, skilled in, or knowledgeable about.

The only Keyblade Sora has ever been able to wield that holds a Gazing Eye is End of Pain. Both he and Riku can wield it in DDD.

You can bet your butthole End of Pain represents Vanitas. All he wants, his sole driving purpose, is to end his existence of pain. This keyblade is a clue to Vanitas's redemption, and it lies with Sora and Riku. But Sora has to accept Vanitas for what he is. Darkness. It's shown in the Keyblade Graveyard that Sora doesnt understand this yet, since he tries to convince Vanitas to stand with the light. And while Ventus accepts Vanitas's choice, Sora does not. This is something Riku understands though, he figured it out in DDD before he fought Ansem (the personification of Riku's heart's darkness, just as Vanitas is the personification of Sora's): "I know the way. Consume the darkness, return it to light." This is the purpose Sora was born for, to take the darkness within himself, and accept it into his compassionate heart. This is how he will stop darkness from consuming the worlds, and is really the only way, for darkness will always exist in the hearts of people. Riku is now immune to darkness from accepting Ansem's darkness as a part of his heart, and it's his destiny to be Sora's guardian. This is the origin of his instinctive desire to protect Sora, that has been with him since he was a child, his desire "to protect what matters." He made Sora after all. And if Kairi's precious heart of pure light is safe within Sora's heart in the ending like I think it is, Riku is protecting her also. How strange it would just work out that way.

It's not like Vanitas died here. His replica body was destroyed, yes. But his heart, I assume, went back to the darkness. And if Sora was dragged down to the darkest abyss, like YMX warned him, and that's where he is in the secret ending, Vanitas will be there, right beside him.

In Kairi's grandmothers story, its stated that one day, a door to the innermost darkness will open, and the true light will return. Mickey tells Sora in his first dive to the heart that he is the one that will open the door. As he gets closer to Riku, he gets closer to Vanitas, but this is how it must be, its Sora's destiny to reunite with him. This is what the last passage of Destati is referring to.

Eh? What? You do not want it!?

Still it belongs to you

What you have lost

Will become one!

The story also states the the return of the true light will connect all the worlds once again.

When Ansem the Wise talks to Riku about the many hearts connected to Sora's in DDD, he says:

"They can be saved." But only if Sora follows his heart.

I think Anti Black Coat was a Nightmare of Vanitas before his face changed, and could even have been the Master himself, pushing Riku to become stronger. The Armored Ventus Nightmare was Ventus's keyblade armor possessed not just by any darkness, but by Vanitas.

So after Riku's true death, Sora's grief and rage allow darkness to enter his heart, and he and Vanitas become one. Sora becomes the being he was meant to be, his heart finally complete, having regained its darkness that had entered Vanitas before Sora was born. The light in his heart however, dies with Riku, since it was his light. This is the origin of Rage Form, and the meaning behind the segment of the final battle when Xehanort steals Sora's light, forcing him into Rage Form, and he must attack him to regain it.

Uniting with Sora does not end Vanitas's pain, because he can feel Sora's immense pain from losing Riku. His heart is still pure darkness. Sora-Vanitas realizes he screwed up royally, and hatches a crazy elaborate plan to fix it. He travels back in time to the Age of Fairy Tales. He's able to do so because a past version of himself exists there: Ventus. He then sets his plan in motion and vanishes, I think, to the Realm of Darkness, for a century (or however long the timeframe is between Union X and when Xehanort was given No Name). When the Master told his apprentices he would "vanish" from the world, it's the same thing that happened to Sora at the end of KH3. He just vanished.

I assume this is where the Coda becomes relevant, jumping through the timeline through dreams and darkness, sleep and death, like how the Coda tells one to skip ahead to the ending of a piece of music, and can be very complex. The time travel rules of KH state that once you arrive in the past, you have to wait for time to pass naturally, so this shouldn't be possible. Time doesn't seem to work the same way in dreams however, and it definitely doesn't work the same way in the Realm of Darkness. Scala Ad Caelum is also most likely a huge part of this, since Xehanort said it was the nexus of all worlds, a place where all of his selves through time could be one. It's name translates to Stairway to Heaven, and Sora's name means not only 'sky', but also 'heaven'. Differing from Ventus, which means 'wind'.

"There is one sky, one destiny."

"They say all the worlds are connected by one great big sky."

He writes the Book of Prophecies based on what he already experienced in his past, but tells Luxu it was because he succeeded in his role. He does this to give Luxu confidence in himself for a seemingly impossible task, and apparently it worked. Luxu passing the No Name to Xehanort was still vital however, because it allows the Master to see what he wasnt previously aware of. He can now see Xehanort's moves, and make counter moves. Like a game of chess. "The game's not over until it's over."

Also, when he wrote the final passage, when he said that the light would expire, he was literally talking about Riku. "All for one and one for all."

By the time the Epilogue happens, when Luxu is talking with the Foretellers, he definitely knows that Sora is their Master as a teenager. And he's seen the results of Sora and Riku's bond for himself. They changed the future through their love for each other, which should be impossible. You cannot change events that have already happened. But they did. He's figured out his Master's mysterious intentions. When they are revived after Riku's sacrifice Xigbar even says "Gotta make sure you're not blundering your way toward a second failure." He's not talking about the failure we had just witnessed. It's disguised as a taunt, but it's really a playful jab directed at Sora, his silly, beloved Master.

So it's hilarious that Sora tells Xigbar he's not worthy to wield a keyblade, when Sora himself was the one who bequeathed him.

This is what Xigbar was talking about in Olympus in 2.9. "Accept the power you're given. Find the hearts joined to yours.""At the end you'll finally realize what destiny has in store for you. In fact, your reward might be right around the corner" he's referring to Vanitas, who holds the missing piece of Sora's heart, and Riku (his reward), and their destiny to protect the worlds, side by side. Together, not even death stops them anymore now that Sora has "awakened" to the truth. Their hearts are fundamentally connected and they are the KH equivalent of "Soul Mates". This is the origin of and meaning behind the combined keyblade (I believe the CK's name is Dearly Beloved, since I think this entire series has been about Sora and Riku from the get go, and dearly beloved really just means "very important person", just how Riku referred to Sora in 2.9 in the original dialogue.)

The Master's favourite phrase, "May your heart be your guiding key", comes from Sora hearing Yen Sid say it, and he adopted it as his motto, his Ninja Way lol.

When Ventus finally sees Sora's face and realizes he's Vanitas's twin, he says "I get it. You were my second chance." Ventus also gave Sora a second chance, a chance to fix his mistake by allowing him to go back in time that far in the first place. And Sora will end up being Vanitas's second chance as well.

The traitor mentioned in the Lost Page is the Master himself. Xemnas tells Sora in DDD "As your flesh bears the sigil, so your name shall be known as that... of a recusant." He oddly says Soras FLESH bears the sigil, even though it's merely emblazoned on his shirt. Gula deduced in Back Cover that whomever strays from their role must be the traitor. Sora is the traitor. He strayed from his role, because he failed to protect Riku like Aqua told him to. "You make sure to stay with him, and keep him safe. That's your job Sora."

He let the light die.

Originally, Sora lost Riku. After Kairi is "killed", Sora asks "Why her!? WHY!?" Because it HAD to be her. It's the only way Riku, and therefore everyone else, including Kairi, could live.

This is the meaning of the name Re:Mind. Sora remembering how important Riku is to him, and to everyone else through Sora's many connections. (Update: Nomura said in the interview the meanings are reminder, reconfirmation, and heart’s regeneration)

The Black Box contains the Master's heart, Sora's completed heart, but its light has been killed. In one of the Secret Reports, Ienzo writes that the hearts within Sora's are each contained within their own "boxes", and this is mentioned intentionally.

He intends to give the Black Box to Riku, so his light can heal his heart. He's been waiting for countless years to save Riku's life, and literally give him his heart. This is the end of pain.

So romantic I'm gonna die.

You are the key that connects -- everything --

[h4wt-s4uc3]

hi, me again: you ever play video games, Josh? pick your top three titles! i like your beanie btw

"I've been playing alot actually, I'd say my current top are Sonic Mania, A Plague Tale and The Last Guardian"

[tumblunni]

SO! IT is time for Dr Snap headcanons!

* He is autistic like me, because I find a lot of his portrayal very relateable as an autistic person. He's clearly hyperfocusing about monsters, and he gets so super passionate and infodumps about them! And he's very socially awkward and perceived as "weird and childish" by others for being so passionate about his interests and not being good at making the correct facial expressions and stuff. In the Japanese version there's actually even more of that, in English he speaks in a standard formal grandpa style but in Japanese he speaks in oddly stilted childish language and uses the unfitting pronoun "boku" that's usually only used for young kids in fiction. There's also a scene of him literally saying he gets social anxiety in crowds, which was left out in the English translation for some reason. I was surprised to hear about that from my Japanese friends, it makes him even more relateable! And of course, his whole plot is basically the fantasy version of "his only friends are animals because other humans exclude him", which is another relateable mood.

* Also I want the Darkonium Orb as a stim toy, lol! I know it's an evil artifact but a floating ball seems like it'd be super fun to swish around in circles. And I wonder if it's like a crystal or if it's like a squishy stress ball...? I'm getting distracted, lol!

* Since all we know about his backstory is that he had no friends even as a child, I headcanon that he suffered badly from bullying and isolation in his youth that permenantly impacted his ability to trust anyone but monsters. I had the idea that maybe he was also mistreated by his parental guardians for being autistic, and he often used to hear "if you misbehave, the monsters will get you!" It actually backfired and started his love of monsters! He used to dream that the monsters that take away bad kids would take him away from his suffering...

* Oh, and related to this: it's my headcanon that he was raised in an orphanage since a very young age and doesn't know anything about who his parents were. He was just found clutching his baby sister crying and shivering in an abandoned wagon in the woods, full of dead bodies that were assumed to be his family or at least whoever was taking care of him at the time. For a long time it was thought that monsters had killed the family, so that's why the cautionary tale of "monsters coming to get you" was used to discipline him at the orphanage, and why it hit so hard. But when he grew up and became a famous and successful scientist he was able to finance an investigation into his own past and discovered the culprit was actually human bandits. He still could never find out the names of his parents though, but knowing that monsters hadn't been the cause of his tragedy helped him get over his fear of them and eventually learn to love and trust them more than anyone else

* Oh yeah it's also my headcanon that despite how obsessed he is nowadays with the cuteness of monsters, he was actually very frightened of them all the way up until his 20s! The "you're a bad child for these neuroatypical symptoms you can't control, and monsters are gonna get you just like they got your family" thing actually did affect him a lot as a child. He saw it as kind of a guilty or sinful feeling that sometimes he would wish they would just take him already because even the horror of monsters can't be as bad as the horror of people, yknow? But he was still too scared of them to ever really interact with them at all, and believed whatever he was told about them cos he had no other frame of reference. He also felt rather aimless in life because he hadn't discovered this thing he would love so much, yknow? He flittered through loads of different hobbies getting temporarily obsessed but never finding anything that stuck with him. Bit of a jack of all trades!

* oh btw I headcanon his first name is Jack, lol! To fit with the playing card theming of the game. Also his younger sister is named Jacqueline and she became known as Jack Of Hearts as a famous adventurer~!

* Oh also I headcanon that he has a sister, lol. Should have mentioned that earlier! The game never tells you anything about the player's mother except that she died, so I headcanoned maybe she was Dr Snap's sister and he's your uncle literally just because I like Dr snap a lot and I want him to adopt the player and take him away from his shitty dad. Like man you know you're a shitty dad when the main villain of the damn game has more scenes of positive parental interaction with your son! (ANOTHER REASON WHY DR SNAP TURNING BAD AND DYING WAS SO SAD)

* His sister was very similar to the protagonist as a child, a punky outgoing stubborn badass who wouldnt listen to rules and wouldn't take any shit from anyone! Even though she was his younger sister, she would always be the one protecting her shy older brother from bullies! She was his dearest only friend in such a tough life...

* Sadly, she was considered "more adoptable" since she was neurotypical. Young Snap blamed himself that he was holding her back from finding a new family, because she always refused anyone who didn't want to take her brother too. He thought it would be better if at least one of them escaped the orphanage, so he eventually convinced her to leave him and go with a nice family. And then he didn't see her again for decades, and he didn't have a single other friend...

* The instigating incident that caused him to first become a monster research was because of this. He didn't have a good life after losing his sister, he eventually just aged out of the foster system without ever being adopted, and had trouble living independently and finding a job with his limited skills of Just Hyperfocusing On Random Stuff And Not Being Able To Talk Good. Nobody really valued him enough, he was just considered strange and all his attempts to research various things (I think before monsters he liked butterflies a lot) were considered creepy and useless because he was so lower class and could never afford to get a proper scientific education to actually do anything with his skills. So he ended up flitting about between jobs that he would keep failing cos of his lack of social skills, having no time to do the hobbies he cared about and being told he could never make a job out of them. And having no family or friends and living in terrible conditions. He didn't have any hope left in life...

* So one day he ended up making a sad decision to end it all, after being fired from yet another job and just not having the strength to keep trying when it seemed like this would be every day of the rest of his life. He went out into the woods to take some sleeping pills and pass away where he wouldn't be bothering anyone. But by a stroke of fate he ended up bumping into a monster!

* Because he'd already made his peace with dying, he didn't have any fear if it killed him here. But instead this titanic beast simply stumbled to the ground and desperately clutched at a pile of broken eggs. It had already been fatally wounded by a hunter, and only wanted to try and protect its children from the same fate. Dr Snap remembered his child self clutching his baby sister to protect her from the bandits, and he was so moved that he tried to save the poor creature! But his limited skills learning science only from books meant he wasn't much use. And all he even knew was how regular animals work, which could end up only hurting a monster! Plus he was in the middle of nowhere with no supplies!! He tried his best but he was completely out of his depth, and all he could do in the end was hold the poor thing and stroke its head as it passed away. And as the tears streamed down his face, they landed on the one still living egg that the monster was protecting. It hatched into twins who would be his first of many monster partners!

* So he rushed home carrying these lil newborns and desperately took care of them. He began researching monsters in order to look after them properly, and found that he was totally sfascinated by them and also it was the one thing he was truly talented at that he'd always wanted to find! Having a family to take care of was what he really needed to find a reason to live again, and he was also able to finally make a career out of his monster research and find enough success to live more comfortably. He even ended up inventing the monster scout ring and founding an entire company all about mosnter battle tournements! And this led to him finding his sister again, because she heard news of this and recognised him. They reunited as adults and rebuilt a happy relationship, and she was overjoyed to hug her new lil monster nieces and nephews!

* So yeah he has a lot of reasons to love monsters a lot and see them as the embodiment of goodness that deserves everything in the whole world. And after his sister passed away he was left alone with his monsters again, terrified of losing more family, and slipping deeper into the madness of those forbidden legends that could give his monsters eternal happiness...

* also I think he likes tea, it would be nice to have a fancy tea party with him and his monsters

* also he is a good man who didn't deserve to die