#i hope you continue to delta your runes

[maurothehuman]

I don't really have anything for Halloween/Deltarune's anniversary in particular but have a Pinocchio-based Spamton swap

[flonbowe]

So I was thinking about Mettaton, and something hit me

Mettaton Neo has a very angelic design. I may be stretching it, but considering what a certain other angel looks like

The resemblance is very much there. Mettaton's Ex and Neo forms look far more human than anything or anyone in the underground, including Frisk themselves during the Genocide run. Mettaton Neo is specifically a form used in a last case scenario to stop you. Now depending on how you view the Neo form, this can probably mean a few things. My two cents is that its Mettaton trying to keep himself and you fooled. Mettaton first and foremost is a showman. He's a TV star, and even if he may no longer have an audience, there's no way he's going off air lying down.

Now why would this relate to his Neo form resembling the Angel? Well he's bluffing, whether intentionally or not he is bluffing. He can't beat you, and deep down I think he knows too. The best he can do is stall for time to get as many people out and evacuated as possible, to inspire hope. Its why he stays in the underground, and its what he's good at: inspiring. So he fights you and blocks your path, in the face of a demon he uses the visage of an Angel as the last line of defense for Monster kind. Undyne has fallen, the Asgore will fall too, but Mtt cannot let the monsters hopes die too. I know this isn't in game, but this kind of idea is even further expanded with this cover of Power of Neo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uI0CxTgpA6Q

It uses a bunch of leitmotifs, and one of which is Bergentrückung, the other theme of someone who tried to bring hope to the Monsters, and the theme of who will fall after Mtt. This is also apparent with how Power of Neo is a more techno Mtt themed version of BAATH to begin with. At every point in the Mettaton Neo fight, from design to music to personality: Mettaton is stalling and pulling an intimidation act as a last ditch effort, since he doesn't know Sans is waiting in his church to play ball with Frisk. https://www.tumblr.com/dn-838/738700806141952000/how-aborted-genocide-affects-the-mettaton-neo?source=share This post goes more in detail on other aspects and Is generally just really interesting. But what I want to point out is what this means for Spamton Neo. By this logic, Spamton ALSO uses the visage of an Angel. Just for funnies, lets compare sprites too!

I know im using fan made content again but after UTY, that really isn't too bad I think, especially for a more for fun exploration like this. Speaking of fan made content, lets see where that sprite came from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BkDjXdp2Ayc&t=69s

Notice how it only uses the first part of the loop, it doesn't go on and doesn't continue Power of Neo fully. It doesn't have the full meaning of Mettaton's heroic sacrifice to help people, as instead of an Angel to save the Underground, Spamton is that Angel of Death in Undertale's prophecy (in the Snowgrave route anyway). Like Mettaton, Spamton also uses the visage of an Angel to achieve a goal, but no matter what route it is its a dark perversion of Mettaton's goals. Mettaton wanted to inspire the Underground and achieve his dreams, trying to stall and kill Frisk to either save them from Asgore, or save the survivors from You. Spamton wanted his freedom and attacks and tries to kill Kris for their soul so he can be free. He also assists in the Snowgrave route, being an accomplice to many many deaths for 15 minutes of fame. This idea is more properly conveyed in the last parts of Big Shot with the use of Power of Neo. Oh yeah this was a Mettaton analysis whoopsie Ok so I know this was a Mettaton Neo thing at the start but man I just wanted to gush and gush about Mettaton cuz man I really can't get enough of him. He's the only one of two characters in Undertale to directly have connections with the Angel prophecy when it isn't just the Delta Rune itself, he inadvertantly saved the Underground because he's what made Alphys get the Royal Scientist posi--OH WAIT YEAH THATS SOMETHING I CAN TALK ABOUT OK SO SIDE TANGENT METTATON UNINTENTIONALLY SAVED THE UNDERGROUND AND I FIND THAT REALLY REALLY COOL! Because Alphys used Mettaton as a project to show to Asgore to become the Royal Scientist, this let Alphys work on the amalgamates and also create Flowey. Without Flowey, the barrier wouldn't have broken and no one would have been freed. Yes I know this isn't all solid since Mettaton didn't somehow cause 6 random kids fall down but you get the idea. Mettaton transitioning saved the world totally I NEED MORE METTATON AUS GRHEYCGDHWUDYGHJWYDH IM GOING TO GO FERAL!!! HE'S NEEDS IT AHHHHHHH!! Ts!Underswap is honestly amazing for Mettaton. I mean Mettacrit. He doesn't get his JoJo body, but is that going to stop him? OF COURSE NOT!

HE'S METTACRIT! AIN'T NO ONE STOPPING HIS DREAMS! He's also a wonderful little gist of Mettaton's whole character, just get rid of Alphys (sadly). Someone who wants to achieve their dreams, wanting to share the love and kindness around, with of course the sassy show stealing charm he needs.

But what if that wasn't so easy

SURPRISE! UNDERFELL TOO! We got the whole holy trinity of Undertale au's, specificallyyyyy

I MAY BE READING TOO FAR INTO THIS BUT I LOVE METTATON GAMMA SO MUCHHHH Its still our same ol Mettaton, but now his dreams are falling on deaf ears. He's Spamton in nature instead of Fabulous. Everyone is violent and blood hungry, so a simple cooking show with a touch of murder won't be enough, or another beautiful rendition of Oh My Love~! Its clear (to me anyway) that Mettaton in this au is nowhere near as big a star as he is in the normal Undertale continuity. In his intro monologue he brags about the audience he brought in, and during the fight he's much more focused on what the Audience wants rather than the show HE wants. Something OUR Mettaton just wouldn't do. This is the same sexy rectangle who basically just broadcasts whatever he wants. I forgot the exact dialogue and screenshot but its just not something Undertale Mettaton really does. Underfell though? A different story. He's bound to his viewers in a bad way till Frisk comes along. He's even more bound to Alphys in this AU as her little science fair project. GOD I LOVE THIS GAME ITS WHAT I'D WANT FROM AN ACTUAL UNDERFELL GAME! Oh my god I haven't even talked about Deltarune Mettaton and Mike and how that works OK SO THIS IS ENTERING MY PERSONAL FANON BUT Y'know how Spamton and Mettaton have their parallels? Y'know how the internet has been down in Deltarune?

Chapter 3's dark world is definitely TV themed, there's no way it can't. I know Tenna is the big TV related baddie now, but Im using Mike in this take. If Spamton is the more passive parallel to Mettaton, Mike in this chapter 3 take would be the darker direct parallel. Instead of the dreamer from humble beginnings who, even if he can be vain and self centered at times, still means well deep down like Mettaton is, Mike would be the cynical producer type who's fueling problems in the industry to make it big on top. A dark Mettaton if you will. Basically like this

https://www.tumblr.com/paintedhen/703948707502145536/determinators-determinators-mettaton-has?source=share

WHICH SIDE NOTE METTATON IN DELTARUNE IS DEPRESSING IM SO SORRY FOR HIM

https://www.tumblr.com/everysongineverykey/691083816166686720?source=share

I KNOW I KEEP LINKING OTHER POSTS BUT ITS NOT MY FAULT EVERYONE IS COOKING! GRAHHH Mettaton's such a character man. He makes me think lots of things and I wish I could gather my thoughts more clearly

[strapstreams]

Stream updates

As y'all may have noticed, there haven't been any streams at all this week. I'm still recovering from being sick and my ability to do voices isn't at the level where I feel confident that I'd do a good job yet. That being said, I've made the decision that instead of streaming the iX 2 finale, I'll record it just like I did for the original iX finale and all the story parts of the iX 2 hard mode. The reasoning behind this is due to the way I want the finale to run, showing off all three endings to the game, however this does require me to beat the same boss and the same level 3 different times, and I don't feel like subjugating y'all to that.

As it stands, the next planned stream will end up being the start of Gunvolt 3. Though I do need to replay the story some to make sure that I have episodes planned out properly. I don't have an exact date picked out yet, so I can't give you all an idea of when I'll next be able to stream. With that in mind, Gunvolt 3 does allow English voice acting, so I may use it to take a break on my throat, it just depends on if I feel like listening to the English lines or if I want to stick to the Japanese lines as I have been for this series.

Additionally, I'm considering running through the Fate/Stay Night visual novel (all hentai scenes avoided of course), and if I do, I'm looking into trying to have it be a bit of a read-along with others helping me out. I'm not sure yet how I'll run it. Also for consideration is getting the P3&4 bundle and running through both of those games. I may attempt to bring others in for that as well, but again I'm not sure yet how to do so.

I will also be revisiting some more old games when I get the chance, with Pokemon Uranium and Insurgence both planned to return at some point. Delta Rune chapter 2 is also in the works as soon as I beat it on the personal runs (and see how hard the secret boss for that level is too). I need to get the latest update for Repurpose downloaded too so I can continue that game.

Finally, I want to get Undertale worked on (with all three routes) and once the games are out in April, I will be doing a full run through all the Mega Man Battle Network games (or at the very least the six that work out best story-wise) as well as go through the Zero and ZX titles, potentially the X titles as well.

There's a lot that I have planned, and I hope that you all are looking forward to this as much as I am.

Thank you for your patience with everything that has been going on, and for your support.

[my-name-is-dre]

Mettaton is a False Prophet - Pt. 2

This is a continuation post from my older theory back when Undertale was still the big thing that Mettaton was a false prophet designed by Alphys and Asgore to fulfill the Deltarune prophecy, which explains all of his eerie similarities to Flowey and Asriel. Here is Part 1 if you wanna catch up!

[UPDATED INFO FROM DELTARUNE CH. 2]

With the debut of Deltarune Chapter 2 came a fan-favorite newcomer called Spamton, and the interesting thing about his character is that it has a lot of similarities with Mettaton, especially his secret form known as ‘Spamton NEO.’ Now, the general story behind his character is that he was once a spam email puppet account who was never able to make a deal. This was his life until he was called by a mysterious person who suddenly made him wildly successful by continually aiding his career over the phone, eventually causing his friends to leave him over their envy of his newfound success. This success eventually landed him a spot in Queen’s mansion until it all came crashing down one day, and the only remnant left of him was a dead phone line tied to him that only repeated static back at anyone who tried to call it.

As everyone’s likely aware of now, there is a hidden bossfight in which you can, once specific conditions are performed, fight Spamton NEO, a version of Spamton hooked up to a suit that unabashedly resembles the same form Mettaton took on in the no mercy route of Undertale. This suit has been referred to as ‘the machine’ which is described by Swatch as the creation of an unknown Lighter, “digitally visualizing their hopes and dreams which never came to be.” This then became an incomplete dream which was locked in Queen’s basement. In battle, the fight also resembles the fights the player had with Mettaton through Undertale, with their soul turning yellow and shooting projectiles to take Spamton down. But the similarities between the fight against Mettaton Ex and Spamton NEO don’t end there, as both fights involved taking apart components of the body gradually over the course of the battle, with Mettaton having his limbs blown off and Spamton having his strings cut.

Now, this backstory is all very important as it alludes back to the body’s origin in Undertale as a creation of Alphys to make its host proficient at killing and absorbing a human soul. The description of the body is textually different but similar, in that Mettaton NEO was designed for the purposes of killing explicitly whereas Spamton NEO’s body is described by Swatch as being an agent in which one can envision their hopes and dreams through an implicit power of determination.

It’s important to note here that, career-wise, Mettaton is quite similar to Spamton in that they both had great and newfound success upon accepting a deal that gave them some meta-knowledge of the world they inhabit, with Spamton being told that the world he lives in is a game that can be exploited (as implied by his dialogue), and Mettaton was granted some of the same abilities that Flowey possesses (changing the game’s name, being able to audibly speak, and being a monster soul possessing an inanimate object). Whereas Mettaton is a story of continued success, Spamton is a story of failure, but how does this fit into the context of the theory that Mettaton was a failed attempt to fulfill the Deltarune prophecy?

That quote from Swatch on describing the purpose of the body is important to explaining this, as it eerily resembles Mettaton’s role in Undertale’s story as a machine designed to harvest a human soul and potentially fulfill the Deltarune prophecy but was unsuccessful to do so because Mettaton is a false prophet. The theme of false prophecy and failed transcendence is exemplified by Spamton’s backstory, as the power of meta-textual awareness granted to him (by Gaster presumably) resulted in short-term success that rose him to the heavens only for him to fall down hard back into being forgotten. The fall he suffers from cutting off his strings is a dual-layer metaphor for how Spamton fell from success and how Mettaton was unable to fulfill the Deltarune prophecy unlike his parallel successor Flowey.

And if it wasn’t obvious that Mettaton’s constant desire for your soul is equivalent to Spamton’s desire for [hyperlink blocked], he goes on record describing all of the control he’d have over his life if he were to harvest your [hyperlink blocked], implying that the hyperlink is code for determination. Spamton also routinely refers to “heaven” throughout his dialogue, which could imply anything transcendental, but I believe this is also another direct allusion to the Deltarune prophecy and its description of an angel: The divine vocabulary fits. Perhaps Mettaton was trying to indirectly achieve this reception from heaven through his promulgation as an icon of monsterkind wanting so desperately to have a human audience? Perhaps this constant appeal ‘heaven’ is Spamtron’s version of Mettaton’s constant appeal to a nebulous audience? If that’s the case, it implies that the audience of Mettaton has divine power, which seems to suggest that it’s composed of far more than just monsterkind. Another minor thing to note here is that Spamton also refers to “the presses” if you defeat him by depleting his health bar: “WAIT!! [$!?!] THE PRESSES!”

“KRIS, DON'T YOU WANNA BE [Part] OF MY BEAUTIFUL [Heart]?” is a very unsubtle nod to the process Chara and Asriel underwent to bypass the barrier and return to the Surface. There must be something about the abilities that the NEO suit offers that is implicitly tied to the Deltarune prophecy. Spamton’s constant use of the phrase ‘big shot’ is another multi-layered metaphor. The ‘big shot’ in question is a triple entendre, as it refers not only to Spamton’s aspirations, but also the fulfillment of the Delta Rune prophecy and also more banally refer to the yellow soul’s newfound ability to shoot a charge shot.

After sparing Spamton NEO, he offers some dialogue that resembles Flowey’s plea to you after defeating his Photoshop form, in which he asks why you’re showing him mercy after all of the unnecessary cruelty he did to you to prove his worldview correct. He then goes on to make a reference to Pinocchio in which he asks you to cut his strings and make him a “real boy” (an even funnier phrase given that he’s a puppet). But this is also an allusion to Mettaton, as he reveals to you throughout the game that his robot body designed for him by Alphys is a form that makes him feel more like himself because it’s implied that Mettaton is an incorporeal ghost like Napstablook. He then makes one least appeal to Heaven and says he’ll live for himself and his friends, acting as a microcosm of both Mettaton and Flowey’s character arc.

In the “weird route”, Spamton also makes remarks prior to battling him that allude to Mettaton NEO’s fight in the no mercy route: “THANKS TO YOUR [Total Jackass stunts] I HAVE [Becomed] NEO.” “TO [$!$!] ME OVER RIGHT AT THE [Good part]!? WHAT ARE YOU, A [Gameshow Host]!?” “MY ESTEEM CUSTOMER I SEE YOU ARE ATTEMPTING TO DEPLETE MY HP! I'LL ADMIT YOU'VE GOT SOME [Guts] KID! BUT IN A [1 for 1] BATTLE, NEO NEVER LOSES!!! IT'S TIME FOR A LITTLE [Bluelight Specil]. DIDN'T YOU KNOW [Neo] IS FAMOUS FOR ITS HIGH DEFENSE!? NOW... ENJ0Y THE FIR3WORKS, KID!!!” One line in particular references Asriel calling Chara’s name before Frisk lands in the bed of flowers in the Garbage Dump: “YOU MAKE ME [Sick]! MUTTERING YOUR [Lost Friends] NAMES AT THE BOTTOM OF A [Dumpster]! NO ONE'S GONNA HELP YOU!!! GET THAT THROUGH YOUR [Beautiful Head], YOU LITTLE [Worm]!”

This is an even more poignant line, as Spamton resides in Trash Zone, which is meant to resemble the Garbage Dump area of Undertale, which was a point in Waterfall where you were given a hint into the backstory of the game before landing on a bed of flowers. It’s also the area where you encounter Mad Dummy and where Alphys dates Undyne in the true pacifist route. Clearly, the symbolism of taking place in a dump is very important for connecting the worlds and stories of both of these games, given that it’s such an important spot for two major characters tied to Mettaton.

If it weren’t obvious at this point, Spamton damn near confirms that Mettaton was designed at least partially to fulfill the Deltarune prophecy but was unable to because he didn’t possess the same potential or determination that Flowey had due to his lack of relation to the original human and his focus instead turning towards an abstract human audience. The dialogue from Swatch about Spamton being the embodiment of a Lightner’s dream also implies that, keeping in line with the themes of desire in the Dark World, that Mettaton might be directly responsible for the creation of Mettaton. Perhaps this is why the NEO suit so eerily resembles the God of Hyperdeath if it’s directly tied to Mettaton’s desire to fulfill the Deltarune prophecy. If this is the case, isn’t it a bit odd that the God of Hyperdeath is also implied to be Asriel’s creation from flavor text in Kris’s room? What an interesting parallel.

[au-eldritchfell]

Reset - Load - Continue

Image Description below cut

Image Description: 

The human ventures into the darkness, but is quickly stopped by a strange discovery.

A small yellow flower, growing in the stygian black, despite the previous, sunnier chamber having no plantlife whatsoever.

The narrator informs them it is *A golden flower. Objectively the best kind.

Here, a series of dark green vines with red thorns, sprouting golden flowers, begins to appear as panel dividers.

The human feels a hand touch their shoulder, behind them. There had been no one with them in the last chamber. She did not hear anyone fall.

Realistically… the human should be totally alone.

And yet, in voice more terrifying than a child’s should be, the narrator whispers *Smells like deception.

Without a word, the human cuts through the vines crawling around the dark chamber, and glances over his shoulder back to the light. Little has changed, escaping that way would still require lots of climbing.

*No way out that way, the narrator advises.

The human takes up something akin to a fight stance with her stick. Then inch by inch, they advance, feeling eir way through the dark with a hand to the wall.

And then.

Vibration.

It is his only warning to get out of the way, before a hulking and clawed arm busts through the wall, knocking them off eir feet. Before they can recover, a swarm of vines grab him, pinning them to the floor.

*You struggle, the narrator says. *Meaningless.

The human opens eir mouth, in a scream the audience cannot hear, as the vines keep them firmly tied down.

Below them, mirroring their pose, is the image of a far younger child. Ginger hair, yellow and green sweater, brown pants. Its eyes are hidden in shadow, it hair decorated with buttercups-- similar to the bloodied ones spilling from its mouth.

*You call for help, the narrator says, as laughter overtakes the black chamber.

And then. Light.

An arrow of violet flame shoots through the room, cutting the human free and the laughter short.

The human grabs desperately for the strong, large hand that helps em up, and is practically dragged towards a heavy stone door. Their cloaked rescuer pushes it open, briefly blinding the human in the light as she thrusts an arm above her eyes.

The panel dividers become purple bricks as the human, the narrator, and their rescuer enter a stone hallway with much better lighting. Before them stands a massive figure, face hidden by a dark blue cloak, but already visible are silver pauldrons, a golden Delta Rune clasp, and the silhouette of horns. The rescuer reaches up to remove her hood, as she says “*This was not the introduction I had hoped to give, sweet child…”

The human is agape as his rescuer reveals herself. A statuesque humanoid goat woman, her claws and fanged mouth offset by her soft ears and grandmotherly glasses. Behind these glasses peer two violet eyes with sideways goat pupils.

The monster woman holds out a hand to the human again.

“*Do not be afraid. It is I, Toriel. Caretaker of these Ruins. While I am your guardian, those abominations will not touch a hair upon your head.”

End ID

[sporadicbearkingdom]

"It was a LEGEND of HOPE

It was a LEGEND of DREAMS.

It was a LEGEND of LIGHT.

It was a LEGEND of DARK.

Deltarune Reader insert with a Spade king x reader, this is my first story post on here so sorry if I do something wrong.

This is the legend of DELTA RUNE

For millenia, LIGHT and DARK have lived in balance,

Actions

Bringing peace to the WORLD.

But if this harmony were to shatter...

a terrible calamity would occur.

The sky will run black with terror

And the land will crack with fear.

Then, her heart pounding...

The EARTH will draw her final breath.

Only then, shining with hope...

Three HEROES appear at WORLDS' edge.

A HUMAN,

A MONSTER,

And a PRINCE FROM THE DARK.

Only they can seal the fountains

And banish the ANGEL'S HEAVEN.

Only then will balance be restored,

And the WORLD saved from destruction."

...but that is a story for another day, this story is not of the Delta warriors and there brave conquest to save the world...but a story of the Spade kings quest. The king of Spade has done many things in and to his kingdom, and has grown lonely in his little victory against the other kings of the land. That is where out story takes place, in the land of darkness...as the king plans of a sinister apprehension.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The king sat upon his throne, one arm holding his head up as the other sat on his crossed knee, taping his fingers impatiently. This was the third hour of sitting like this, thinking of his victory and spoils of his now overthrown kingdom. It had not been long ago he was only but one of the kings in this castle but now he stood as the sole king of darkners.

Though he took over and locked the kings away to never return he held a sorrowful feeling, not to the kings he imprisoned..but of himself. He had lost something near to him during the battle, and now he suffered the from this...but from selfishness more then sorrowful pain.

"Thyne King dost not looketh pleased" the voice spoke beside him causing him to turn twords his newly appointed right hand. The tall dark blue man beside him gave the king a look of sadness "tis it not glorious to haveith won over thy adversaries?" He spoke softly, almost fearfully to the large king. The said king huffed and looked away from him, not in the mood to speak. He was far to busy worrying of how he alone was to raise his son, a new kingdom, and fulfill a promise made long ago.

The blue man noticed this and sighed softly as he wondered how he was to help his sire. The battle they raged had left the strong king widowed and with a young prince to raise, he couldn't imagine how hard it must be to be in the mans place. The boue man tapped his foot and pushed some of his white locks out of his face as he hoped to come across anything to help.

The king looked out the Spade shaped window to his left as he sat in silence, he had to many burdens to bare at the moment, and his newly appointed right hand was doing absolutely nothing to help. He pondered crushing the man until said advisor spoke up "Sire Iths knowith of a way!" He smiled.

The king sighed, pinching the bridge of his spade nose as a headache started to form. "Rouxls if it is another idea to dig for more of those wretched feeble incets of yours, I will squeeze your neck until it pops off that pumpos head sitting on it" he growls. Rouxls looked a bit uncomfortable as the king said this, but he continued on with his idea to the king.

"Sire if thou wish...whyth not simply findeth thyself a newist maiden to place in thy heart and to raise thy kin?" His smile widened, feeling confident the king will agree with this idea. When he saw the confused look on the kings face though, his smile faltered for a moment before returning. The king turned to him "what do you mean Rouxl?" His patients running thin the longer he talked in that ridiculous manner. Rouxl laughed softly "find ye a fair maiden to raise thy son, then thyne Sire may runith thy kingdom withoutith...." he shivered for a moment "thy sons antics".

The king was quiet for a moment thinking it over. If he could run the castle without having to worry for that spoiled brat anymore, then he could properly conduct his darkener fountain. He would have to find someone fitting for this, he only took the best...and if they were not he would kill all who insulted him with there soiled looks and disgraced attempt to be made perfect.

Yes this plan would be most befitting for his kingdom and his son. He rubbed his chin in thought before starting to laugh, his loud boisterous voice shaking the castle slightly "I knew you would not let me down Rouxl, send word out immediately" he waved the man off, smiling at how he had not thought of this sooner. Rouxl bowed to the king elegantly before hurrying off to tell all the people of the kingdom.

The king smiled and chuckled to himself once the man was out of the throne room, oh yes this plan would make it easier to keep that disgrace from ruining his work for the Knight. Soon he will shift the world to a darker future and unchain his subjects from the lighteners grasps...

...and it will delicious.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

But our story starts much much earlier then this event, as a court magician searched for more wears in his shop deep within the scarlet forest many years prior...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The colors of the scarlet forest always looked brightest this time of year, if there was a time of year. Seam chuckled to himself, there was no such thing as seasons here in this realm of darkness, he didnt even know what the diffrent ones looked like in the first place, but it didnt make the joke less funny to him.

He looked to the magenta grass as he walked along the trail, it was so peaceful...a bit to peaceful. He had a feeling the peace ment something was about to happen, he just wasnt sure if it was good or bad, but he knew whatever happens will happen. He knew the world was going to end soon anyway, may as well enjoy the little gifts it gave you along the way.

He held a small basket closer to him, bringing it to carry his finds easier since he was not as healthy as he should be. He sighed and mentally cursed the one who caused the pain in his now broken body, but knew he was locked up somewhere he couldn't do anyone anymore harm.

He sighed as he continued walking, going deeper into the forest area and a bit off the path. The finds he got rewarded with when he normally went this far in was enough to have him keep searching farther off the path. He wondered if he would find anything new to add to his shop or if he would just have to pluck some dark candy off the trees once more.

He jumped as the bushes rustled beside him, making him hold onto his chest tightly where his heart would be. When nothing happened and it stopped after a moment the dark purple cat laughed to himself, he was to paranoid over nothing "it's probably a poor rabbick needing air" he told himself as he made his way to the bush.

He could normally find items left behind by other darkners after scaring them off so he was going to help to get something, or not he didnt mind either way. As he peeked inside expecting a small white rabbick he was shocked when he found a tiny human inside. He jumped back screaming when it looked up at him.

It looked terrified, and so very small, maybe even smaller then they should? He wasnt to sure since he had never seen one before. He nearly fell onto his back when it quickly scooted away, holding something black and goopy in their tiny (s/c) hands. He instantly recognized it as a dark candy. Has this thing only eaten the candy in the area!? No wonder it was so small...or maybe it was just because it was young?

He saw how scared it looked as it looked up at him but he was probably just as frightened, this thing was probably what the kings have warned him of, this thing may actually be a lightener! He hoped it was just his eye playing tricks on him but when he looked closer he noticed how oddly unidentifiable this thing was. It most definitely was a lightener.

He needed to think of something quickly! If he could get rid of it before it could cause damage then he may be able to get a reward for saving all the darkners. Plus saving his people was a good idea, then he would still get customers and business. He just had to be quick, the things the kings have told of the lighteners were awful and gruesome.

He stood up strait before looking around, he would need to find a rock or something quickly before it escaped, but when he moved quickly it made a small whimper of fear, it broke his heart. How could something this small do any damage...no he knew of a small being that ruined his life, and he knew this lightener would grow and destroy his world.

The look it gave him was pitiful, its (e/c) eyes were wide and watching his every move. It looked wounded to, he wondered if it had fell from a high place or one of the other darkners found it first and chased it to this bush. He made a disgusted face as he got a bit closer to examine it, it smelt of dirt and foriegn things he did not understand. He wondered if it was from the knotted up (h/c) locks on its head, something from the light realm, or the actual dirt. It may have even been a combination of the three...yes that seemed like the most logical one he concurred.

He sighed upset with himself, he couldn't hurt this creature, it was like him in a way, broken and alone. He crouched down slowly, not suprised when it scooted away from him deeper into the bushes. "You look very small traveler, when was the last meal you had?" He spoke gently, knowing if he spoke loudly it would flee.

He wasnt really expecting a responce, he wasnt sure if this creature was intelligent enough to even understand him. He was going to speak again to calm it like a pet but was shocked when it did answer him, its voice trembling and very weak "I-Im lost" it sounded young.

He looked around to make sure he had not heard another creature speak before looking back at it, realizing it had spoken he felt it was a start. "I see that young lightener" he paused for a moment "tell me...where are your parents?" He was fearful there was more.

The small thing started to shake more once he asked and he felt he had said something wrong, feeling almost bad for asking. "I-I dont know....I" it looked to start crying "I cant remember" they were panicked. He sighed softly, moving slightly closer, he held out his hand gently "Come, I can care for you until you remember" he had no idea what a lightener child would need, but he knew a bath and warm food would be a good start.

He watched it hesitate before gently touching his hand, seeming to pet his dark purple fur. It made him want to laugh, if it was scared then why did it feel safe enough to pet him. "So soft" he heard it whisper as he gently took its hand and stood, it wasnt to far a walk to his shop from here.

He helped the lightener up gently, they could nearly stand on there own from how weak they were. He sighed knowing the walk would take forever if he didnt carry it, so he gently scooped them up in his arms. They stiffened and held on tightly to his cloak as he began the walk back.

"So tell me lightener, if I am to keep you till your remember yourself...do you remember your name?" He asked hopeful it would calm if he spoke to it, anything to get it to loosen from his neck.

The small child slowly calmed as they realized he wouldnt do anything "m-my name?" He chuckled and nods "yes what I should be calling you" he smiled softly to it, he didnt know why but he felt almost happy having someone to talk to and care for again. He was shaken from his thoughts as it spoke up " (y/n) " it squeaked softly.

The large cat hummed as he nods " (y/n)...that sounds very good" he smiles once more unable to stop himself from doing so. He felt so joyful for once in a long time...

And the smile that grew on your face as he smiled to you warmed his Darkener heart.

[dangebaddel]

Chapter One: Sollicitus

(Asriel writes his diary)

Chara mutters in her sleep again.

Every night she has nightmares, ever since she fell here.

Trying to learn more, she keeps refusing to tell me anything.

But then one night…

Her mumbling could already be made out.

(Picture Chara's emotions. Their room in the new house. The terror on Chara's face.)

"No! I'll never do that! No! YOU'LL NOT FORCE ME!!!"

I wanted to cry every time I saw her face. Instead of a pleasant and ruddy smile, it looked at me… the frightened face of a child who can't explain anything.

She guffaws and lies to my eyes, saying she doesn't know what I'm even telling her. Nevertheless, it reveals her often flickering gleam in her eyes.

How can you not understand, Chara! I love you, and I want to protect you from everything.

Why won't you let me help you!

(Waking from her nightmare, Chara looks at Asriel, and he looks at her.)

"Chara!"

"Wh-What is it Asriel?"

"Enough! (Sob), it's nice to think every time you look at you… (sob)"

"Come on. (Hugs) Big babies don't cry, do they?"

"Chara, I just… (sob) why are you…"

"Asriel, don't. It's all right."

"You always say that!"

"Asriel!"

"WHAT!?"

"You know I don't want a partner who will think about the consequences of anything."

"You know what happens when someone tries to get in my way."

"I want… no, WE want to do this, and if you're going to be embarrassed about anything…"

- Well, then I will do it myself.

"I promised to help you with everything (sob)"

"That's good. Our cause will help the whole Underground."

"I guess it's time, don't you think?"

"Okay… tell me, what's it going to take?"

(Picture a Delta Rune symbolizing their unification)

Many years later…

(Mt. EBOTT, monsters coming to the surface)

(Note: Frisk, at the time of the first chapter, is 15 years old)

"Reunited"

Mt. Ebott that contained within it the people imprisoned, by the people of the Barrier has been destroyed.

A person named Frisk, having freed the monsters from their prison, who eventually became their ambassador, gave many new hopes and dreams.

And even Him: one who had lost all hope of his "happy ending."

Coming again to the very beginning, to the hall with the golden flowers, He was still there.

(Asriel lay sprawled, looking up at the light above, tears oozing from his eyes as golden petals enveloped his head)

Frisk had been coming back all this time to save HIM too.

Finally, it was a matter of little else.

(Asriel cried quietly to himself until Frisk disturbed him again)

"What made you come here again?"

"Do you really enjoy watching my suffering?"

*You tell Asriel that you have unfinished business and that you will need his help to complete it.

"Heh… what business can there be that doesn't matter to me anymore…"

*You show him your SOUL, which is REALLY in tune.

"Hmm… You want me to take your SOUL, like in the not-so-old and not-so-good times?"

* You show the impossible. Your SOUL is even divided in half. But it did not disappear.

(Asriel is shocked, continues to watch as one piece transforms into an empty vessel)

* You tell Asriel to put his unstable SOUL into a stable shell.

"I can't believe it… how?"

* And the reason is that it would take too much blah-blah-blah to explain.

"But wait! What about your determination?!"

* You perseverancely on telling him to shut up, spit on other people’s consequences, and finally get his - "Second Chance."

"Heh, guess you and I really are friends, huh?"

* You apologize for...

"Just put away your dialog box and let's go!"

(Petals fall off)

* You are happy and relieved that it's all behind you now…

(Before they leave, a faintly discernible silhouette appears behind them over the gradually rotting golden flowers, with a sweater in green and yellow stripes, eyes filled with red anger, and a black liquid flowing from his mouth, - in a wicked grin)

Later…

"The King's House"

Before later, and also before the war…

The Dreemurr family lived here, for many years in their dynasty, even before the war, and before it began, when all the monsters began to be evacuated to the Underground, Asgore and Toriel created a barrier that protected the family mansion.

(Scene in the cozy hall)

Toriel returned to the house, though she still couldn't forgive Asgor. But as she told Frisk:

"I need time…"

Since then, Asgore has had new hopes of reuniting with his ex-wife. But they have increased when…

(Forest)

* You tell Asriel not to worry or hesitate.

"Y'know, I can't Frisk… It's more complicated than just… turn back into a flower?"

* You say it was a very flowery excuse.

"Frisk :'("

* You're determined to keep punting him, if he doesn't follow you now.

"I'm going, don't worry about it."

(Clear excitement and strong nerves, tears oozing from his eyes)

(A royal door)

* You have knocked on the door of a royal house, of royal proportions.

"(Nervous mooing)"

* You put your arm around Asriel.

"It's okay, I just…"

"One moment, I'm almost done with the cleaning."

* A moment later, your mother goat opened the door.

"Um, Frisk, you know you can come in here without knocking, right?"

* You tell Toriel that you've always been a strange child. And you also want to introduce… (Silhouette of a vanished person), well, you're not surprised.

"What is it, my child?"

"Toriel, who's there?"

"Has Frisk honored us with her presence, Dreemurr, or do you have to touch to see?"

* You smiled at them both.

* You tell them both to follow you.

(They follow her)

"Why should we?"

"It's obviously important if you're asking us to follow you, isn't it?"

(Asriel is on the verge of hysteria - hiding behind a large tree)

This is ALL very complicated! In seconds, I was supposed to turn into a flower, and now… But… how will I look them in the eye! After all the things I've done to them, even if they don't remember… but… I...

I... I...

"(Cries)"

* You found Asriel - he only complicates things - you're trying to keep the bravery in him.

"Heh… So many feelings and I'm wasting them on tears."

(Smiles sweetly and snotty)

"Is someone crying here, Frisk?

"I think it's here."

* It's getting to your bones.

(Asriel hides behind Frisk's back)

"Frisk?"

(Both see someone crying behind Frisk's back)

"Hey, who's crying, what's wrong?"

"Is there anything we can do for you?"

* The moment of truth has arrived. Asriel came out from behind you.

* Impossible…

(They can't believe it)

The king and queen fell to the ground. Asriel completely burst into tears as he approached them.

A chorus of tears began, of joy of course. Frisk stood behind them and watched the final reunion of the Dreemurr family. Clinging so tightly to their son, the king and queen were afraid to let him go. Asriel clung to them.

* Tears flowed involuntarily from your eyes.

They turned their attention to Frisk and Toriel asked again:

"Frisk, are you sure you have somewhere to go?"

* You have heard these words before. But this time you answer that you would like to stay with them, but are afraid of being a burden to them.

"We'll (sob) become a family, won't we?"

"We wouldn't mind if you shared the burden of this life with us."

* Will you stay?

Yes or…

* You say you'll stay with them.

* It's your choice now.

"We'll take care of you, you have the King's word!"

(Asgore shed a tear)

"My dear Frisk…"

*You are embraced, you feel warmth.

(They go)

*Father and son went forward, Toriel stopped you, and she has something to say to you.

"My child, you really have done so much for us and I am so sorry that I can't pay you anything as special as this."

* You say it's enough for her to be the best goat mother ever for you.

"Heh… you remind me so much of my first human child, her name was Chara…"

(Unnoticed fear on Frisk's face to Toriel)

"...your resolve is indeed very similar. To be honest, I noticed it immediately when I saw your SOUL."

* Your heart froze. The inner demon is laughing inside of you.

* You feel your strength going away, but you mustn't ruin this day for your new family!

* You try not to feel the cold and ghostly blade running down your neck.

* Through the strength of a smile, you continue to remain resolute.

Happiness has been returned.

People began to accept monsters.

And now deep, deep in every soul, a new flame flares up.

And only one, some doubts are brewing.

[avatar-index]

Statement 11271023-GENOCIDE

Frisk is an Avatar of the Web, marked by the End.

“Our reports showed a massive anomaly in the timespace continuum. Timelines jumping left and right, stopping and starting...Until suddenly, everything ends.”- Sans the Skeleton

The Delta Rune; the symbol of a prophecy that either provides comfort or strikes dread onto the hearts of monsterkind. It tells of an angel who had seen the surface, and, upon arrival, shall purge all the Underground clean until nothing is left. Some claim that this was a promise for their freedom - motivation to keep holding on to their hopes and dreams -, while others will just see it as another doomsday red herring; another reminder that humans will continue to flourish above them and that they’ll forever be trapped in this sunken world, until the reaper reigns down on monsterkind, finishing its job.

...And you’ve decided to go with executing the later interpretation; you just had to, didn’t ya? Was it worth it? Bringing forth an entire civilization to its end, with the whole game with? Was Megalovania too good a song that you believed that the souls of those who perished around you was good enough cost?

From its name, this one in particular has you actively hunting down for the entire population of monsters there are in your area; wandering around until all was rendered barren. As you venture deeper into this route, you become more desensitized to the characters you came to love in the last routes you played through. It is after Undyne’s final battle - you thwarting the attempts of the heroine who vowed to save all life on this Earth from your venomous grasp - that you have been numbed to the continuous killings, as you venture on to the Hotlands, and, eventually, the Judgement Hall.

Your mind reduces the monsters you encounter into sprites on the screen, then to numbers, then to a set of commands, and then to nothing more than dusty punching bags left there for you to chop up. However, the fear among the surviving few is present: this is their end, and all of civilization as they knew it will fall. Their friends, family, and even the strangers they glanced eyes with on the street- nothing will be spared from the fallen child’s uncaring dagger and wicked grin.

Which leads us to....

Chara is an Avatar of the Extinction.

“Let us erase this pointless world, and move on to the next.”

Oh, golly! Someone with the power of bringing back our game with a “gone wrong” twist and already hated mankind so much they wished for their eradication even before dying is an Avatar of the Extinction! Who would have guessed?!

Pointless sarcasm aside, I was honestly pitching for them to be on the same boat as Frisk in some way, with both being aligned with the End. Then again- “move on to the next”, huh? I wonder what they meant by that. Did they predict us feeling guilty over time and desiring to return to the game even after killing everyone we ever came in contact with? Or were they actually referring to the second installment of the series, Deltarune?

Much like Frisk, their background is left ambiguous to us; we do know that they were friendly to Asriel, their adoptive family, and the rest of Monsterkind, to the extent that they were ready to lay their own life and soul for their freedom. We are also aware of their hatred towards their own kind, which was probably caused by whatever that has happened to them that affected them so much that they had decided that it was best to disappear forever by climbing Mt. Ebott; desire for the eradication of an entire species, +1 Extinction points!

Their personality, on the other hand, is given to us through the game’s monologue if you were to believe in the “Narrator!Chara theory”. In every other route but this one, they are sassy, snarky, and even tends to crack a couple of jokes and pop culture references every now and then- but you can feel a pang of guilt in their words in certain dialogues, especially when you face off against the Amalgamates.

In this route, however, as you take out every monster you laid your eyes on, you start to scar them with every attack inflicted on those who they had cherished with all their life, until, over time, you lead them to believe that this was their destiny- that they are a ‘demon’ whose task was to bring this game to its conclusion. You may argue that, through their dialogue as the narrator, that this is the route where Chara takes control, but hear me out: who was it that made the decision of going down this path? Was it not us, the anomaly, as we puppeteered with Frisk’s body and powers over life and death, just to satisfy whatever curiousity or thirst for excitement we had? What did Chara ever had to do with all this until the very end?

No, no- they just sat there and watched, staring at the eyes of the monsters they knew personally as life faded away from them as fast as their bodies did. Chara was the ultimate victim here, and that ending was them finalizing your decision- either you go through with this together with the promise of a new world to bring to its end, or they’ll have to do it themselves.

There is also their ability to restore the game... with a few alterations made- the side effects of completing the Genocide Route. Here, no matter what choice you have made if you were to go through the True Pacifist route with hopes of patching things up, the message remains clear: Chara will forever haunt you, and your crimes will be immortalized on your computer, unless you, yourself, get the determination to fix it all by going through the game’s internal files and removing the evidence of your crimes.

Irreversible changes made to the world and its systems? Another Extinction point.

[a-town-called-hometown]

for the prompts, kris exploring castle town?

If Kris asked Ralsei nicely, they know he would be more than happy to give them a tour. He's spent so long alone. It would make him overjoyed to have someone to talk to. He probably has a lot of interesting things to say about Castle Town and how it came to be. He might even answer some of their harder questions about the nature of the Dark World, even though he'd probably keep a few secrets from them. It would make him happy. More than happy.

But they don't trust that he wouldn't try to talk them into giving up their free will again.

And if he has an answer about how to stop the Player entirely, they know he won't give it to them outright.

So, with a prickle of guilt, Kris heads in alone.

It's the middle of the night. They don't know how day and night works for Darkners, but it does work, there's a good chance Ralsei's currently sleeping. Susie certainly is; she rarely, if ever, texts them this late. They're glad for it, in a guilty way. She'd be sure to notice that they're purposely avoiding Ralsei, and that's not a conversation they want to have with her, either. They don't like lying outright. It's easier to keep everything a secret and hope that things continue without blowing up.

And how well is that working out for you? a little voice in the back of their mind says as they slide down a waterfall. It's not the best long-term strategy you could have come up with.

They try to ignore it. They've gotten good at that.

It feels strange to be slipping through the shadows of Castle Town in the middle of the night. The deserted streets and buildings have always felt uncanny to them, but the knowledge that it's nighttime lends the location an extra layer of spookiness. It's as if they've been dropped into one of the ghost stories they loved as a child. It both invigorates them and unsettles them. They're fully alert as they begin to explore.

Shops, houses, inns, storehouses. All are unlocked. All are empty, swept clean of any identifying marks. They're built of solid stone and wood and mortar and tile, but if anyone ever lived here, any trace of it is long gone. Kris searches every single building in the small town, looking over every single room and every plot of land. The same result greets them every time. It is a faceless town, and there is nothing to scar the perfect stillness. There aren't even any loose stones on the ground. The only sign of comes from the fountain reaching up from Ralsei's castle, arcing endlessly into the blackness above. Eventually, once their search has ended with nothing, they stand in the courtyard, staring up at it.

For a moment, they hesitate. It already feels like a breach of privacy to be in this town at all. Entering Ralsei's castle would be another level of intrusion entirely. They don't think that he would mind very much, but even still…

I'll just look at the library he mentioned, they decide. It still feels wrong, but the decision mitigates that wrongness just enough for them to keep moving. I won't look at anything else. I'll see if he has any answers about this in there, and if he doesn't, I'll just go. I'll ask him for a real tour later to make up for it later. 

Their heart pounds a heavy rhythm in their chest. They open the door as quietly as they can. There's only darkness in the room beyond. Nobody there.

Kris can't exactly be silent, with the way their feet habitually shuffle. But they can be quiet. Quiet is good enough. They don't open any of the doors, since one of them could be Ralsei's bedroom, but they do look through any entrances that are open. The walls and floor are as eerily featureless as the rest of the town was. There's the occasional tapestry bearing the Delta Rune, and each of the rooms they see have some furniture, but it's all so clean that it feels like nobody actually lives here. The more they look, the more the absence of life unsettles them. Why aren't there more people here?

Another question for the library, they think. I should have gone earlier in the night. The way things are going, I won't be back by sunrise. There's so much I need to see before I leave.

As they're resigning themself to another school day fueled by excessive coffee, their eyes catch on something. Through a nearby archway, there's a courtyard, with one entrance from each direction. Unlike everything else, it's not featureless. The fountain is there. And in the area all around the fountain's stone base, tiny blue flowers peek up from tufts of black grass. It's the first non-Ralsei life that they've seen in the town in the time they've been here.

As carefully as they can, they step onto the grass. They half-expect alarm bells to ring out, but there's nothing. As forbidding as this place feels, it seems that there's nothing to protect the fountain. They're fine.

Still, they're cautious as they approach. The fountain -- so impossibly black, as if the world's darkest shadows were made liquid -- is humming with power. The closer they get, the more they can feel it. It doesn't seem to be sentient, but there's so much magic that they can feel it buzzing in their teeth. Kris can't decode what the magic is being used for. Is it just an inert energy source, or is it a conduit powering something they can't see?

They've touched a fountain before. It probably won't hurt them. Just as their possessed soul being thrown into the other fountain opened a portal home, touching this might have an interesting effect. They can just yank their hand away quickly if anything goes wrong. They raise their hand --

"I wouldn't do that if I were you, Kris."

The hairs rise on the back of their neck. Slowly, fighting the urge to bolt, they turn around.

Ralsei's wearing the cloak they first saw them in. The hood is down, but even without shadows obscuring his face, they can't read his expression at all. "You don't have the Player to give you extra resilience. It would hurt you."

"How did you know I was here?"

"I didn't. I couldn't sleep." The barest hint of a smile crosses his mouth. They still can't read it. "Fate works in mysterious ways."

They say nothing.

"Come with me. I have cake in the kitchen. It's not exactly polite to break into your friends' places of residence in the middle of the night, but it's okay if you didn't know that."

"I needed answers."

"You won't find them here."

They don't move.

After a long moment, he exhales. A tiny, weak smile spreads across his face. "I apologize. It's late, and I've had a difficult few days, but that's no reason for me to be rude. I promise I'm not angry with you, Kris. It makes sense that you would go looking for ways to escape what you see as a horrible fate. But you don't have to be afraid. Everything is fine."

Still, they don't move. The initial fear has worn away, giving way to guilt. Despite how complex things are with Ralsei, they do still consider him a friend. They aren't sure which fact makes them feel worse: the fact that they knew breaking in was morally questionable and they did it anyway, or the fact that he forgave them so easily for it. Their stomach is hurting.

They search for something to say. The only thing that comes up is "Why have things been difficult?"

"It's not something for you to worry about, but I appreciate that you care."

"I want to know."

"No. It's a personal issue. Really, I'll be fine. Sorry for worrying you."

"Ralsei, if you're not okay--"

He holds up a hand. "With all due respect, Kris, I'm supposed to be helping you, not the other way around. You'll be happier if you don't know this. I understand why you wouldn't trust me, but let me handle this on my own. Please."

They stare at him. He stares back. The tiredness that they've been ignoring hits them all at once, blunt as a brick thrown from a freeway overpass. They hadn't thought he would be a secret-keeper like them. It's… strangely upsetting to see that trait in him.

Finally, he looks away, dropping his hand. His cheeks turn slightly pink. "It's late. I'm… neither of ourselves are really ourselves at this hour. You should go and get some rest. We'll both feel better after a few hours of sleep."

They don't argue. Their hand rises to their collarbone, tapping out a self-soothing rhythm. Slowly, they nod.

"I'll walk you to the town gates. You can get home on your own, can't you?"

"I guess," they mumble. If they get too tired on the way back, they suppose they can just fall asleep in a bush or something. It wouldn't be the first time.

"Okay." He inhales, exhales again. "I'm sorry again."

"Yeah. Me too."

They follow him. As always, his strides are purposeful where theirs are not, his motions graceful where theirs are clumsy. He doesn't say anything more during the walk to the gates. They're grateful for it. They aren't sure how to make conversation with him right now. Or ever, if they're being honest.

The gate is open, as it always is. They step out onto the field. The air is fresher here, and it injects a little life into them. Their shoulders lift from the defensive hunch they'd taken on. They can breathe a little easier. 

"Wait," Ralsei says.

They turn back.

Before they can really process it, he's hugging them. They freeze instinctively, unprepared for the sudden contact. He doesn't hug them very tightly, but they can sense desperation in it.

Part of them wants to shove him away. They don't like being touched without permission, even when the person in question is someone they care about. The other part wants to soothe him. They don't know what's going on with him, but he's clearly more upset than he's letting on. He needs a friend right now.

Kris doesn't do either of those things. They simply stand where they are, waiting for him to let go. They don't have to wait long. It's only a handful of seconds later when he steps back. "Sorry. I should have… sh-should have asked permission."

"Please do that next time."

"I know. I know. I'm just-- I'm s-sorry."

They study him, the way he pointedly does not look at them, the way his expression looks like a jigsaw puzzle put together wrong. He looks like he's about to cry. It twists their heart. 

He was right when he said they're not meant to play emotional support. They don't know what to do with this. Whatever's plaguing him, it's obviously much deeper than they know how to handle. He looks like he's on the verge of tears. Like they're the last contact he'll have for a hundred years.

Carefully, they say, "Are you sure you'll be okay alone? I can send Lancer to stay with you."

He shakes his head. His voice is thick. "J-just go. Forget about it. The next time you see me…  the n-next time you see me, I'll be better. I promise I will."

They don't want to go. But a single look at his face tells them that this is something else they can't fix. If they were more like him, better at being what someone else needs, they could figure it out. Maybe they could fix it if they were the Player, even, but they're just Kris right now.

So they turn around. They obey his wishes, much as it bothers them. It's awful, but they know they can't do anything for him without knowing his secret.

They'll apologize to him tomorrow. They'll ask him for a proper tour, and let him feed them cake. If he's still upset, they'll send Lancer his way to cheer him up. It's not much. Simple, feeble gestures, temporary bandages for him. Not enough to make up for upsetting him.

It's been a weird night. They'll chalk their persistent dread up to that fact and put it out of their mind. They don't want to look at it any longer.

[odderancyart]

Welcome Home

I presenteth to thee, a Hogwarts AU, because why the fuck not?

On AO3

No warnings

Word count: 4186

You can find the Hat’s song here

Hogwarts will always be there to welcome you home

Edge gazed out the window, placing his fingertips against the cold glass. Their father stood outside, wearing the elegant suit that unnerved Edge so much. It was a casual suit, so normal, and Dr Gaster never wore that kind of clothes unless they were going to London. Like now. He looked just like the other parents, except for the two cracks on his face and glowing red eyelights. It was odd. Far away from his usual domain, inconspicuous. Edge wasn’t sure whether he preferred this or the usual. This gives a sense of normalcy. A normalcy they’d never had, and it was a constant reminder of that they never would. There were no traces of the man who’d come home from work the same they were going to buy school supplies, blood splattered over his face.

Not his blood, of course. It never was.

Dr Gaster nodded at him as he caught his gaze, and Edge nodded back before sitting back down, tearing his eyes from the colourful platform. Platform 9 ¾. Feelings he couldn’t name coiled inside him. They were leaving home to go to a boarding school – a magical boarding school – and in all honesty, it was hard to swallow the guilt over how relieved he was over it. Their father was a good parent and had always done his best, but growing up in the middle of a gang war wasn’t easy. Particularly not when your parent was incredibly involved in it.

He ran his fingers over the carvings he’d found beneath the table between the seats. Four names. James, Sirius, Remus, Peter. And two words. Marauders Forever. Who they were, he had no idea, but they must’ve been friends. Friends going to magic school together. Edge glanced at his brother. Red lounged in the opposite, leaning against the wall with his nose in one of his physics-books. Another book laid on the table: The Wisdom of Stars: a ground course in astrology. Bullshit, of course. Astrology wasn’t a thing, everyone with a teaspoon of sense knew that. Why the fuck they taught in in a school, he didn’t know.

Oh Angel, magic school. When, on their eleventh birthday, that lady had shown up and claimed that all the weird shit happening around them was because they were wizards, Red had slammed the door in her face. But since father had insisted they hear her out, they had. He smiled faintly, pulling out the wand he’d bought two weeks ago from his backpack. Hornbeam with a dragon heartstring core, whatever that meant. Thank the Angel they had listened.

In all honesty, until now he’d been expecting to wake up and find it all to be a dream. But now, as the old train puffed and pulled away from the station, it actually felt real.

“Fuck,” he said, pulling at his leather jacket. “This is happening.” Red grunted noncommittally. The only time he had looked up since he pulled out his book was to growl at whoever tried to enter the compartment.

His biggest issue with this all, though, was that there was a school uniform. And those wizard robes were a far cry from the clothes he and his brother had always worn. Back in their town, there were basically two choices: suits or leather. And he was not comfortable surrendering his leatherjacket for that weird-ass uniform.

But it wasn’t like they lacked money. Maybe he could bribe the headmistress into letting them keep their own clothes.

He looked up as the door to their compartment slid open, revealing three older girls. The one at the front had blue skin and the reddest hair he’d ever seen. Behind her stood a lizard and a brown-haired human. Red looked up from his book, glaring at them and letting out a growl Usually, it made people retreat but the redhead only raised an eyebrow.

“First-years?” she asked. Her voice was dark and laced with amusement.

“What’s that to ya?” Red grunted. Edge could hear the defensiveness in his voice, though he doubted anyone else could.

“This is our compartment, punk. But since you’re first-years I’ll give you some slack. You didn’t know. Now get out of here.”

Stiffening in his seat, Edge glared at her. “No.”

“No?”

“No. We were here first, asshole. And we don’t take orders from anybody.” His soul pounded in his chest as he met her gaze unflinchingly. She was obviously older, and so likely knew magic already. And despite his knowledge about fighting, he couldn’t battle magic. Yet. But he’d never taken orders by anyone other than his father in his life, and he wasn’t about to start with some random teenager.

The girl guffawed. “I like your spirit, punk,” she exclaimed, seating herself next to him. Her friends stepped in after her. The human was smiling while the lizard’s eyes flickered between Edge and his brother. She held out her hand, and cautiously, he shook it. “I don’t usually talk with kids, but I’ll make an exception for you. I’m Undyne. They’re Alphys and Frisk.”

“How generous.” Edge’s voice dripped with sarcasm, even though he smiled. “I’m Edge. This is my brother Red.”

“Cool names!”

Was she sincere or mocking them? He narrowed his eyes. It was fifty/fifty. Edge quite liked his name, but many found them amusing. Particularly in combination with their edgy style and red magic. But there were no signs of mockery on her face. “Thank you,” he replied cautiously.

Undyne grinned sharply. “Any thoughts on which house you’re gonna be in, punk? Personally, I’m in the coolest of all the houses: Gryffindor!”

Edge shrugged. “No idea. I don’t know anything about them.”

“Oh, muggleborn, are you?”

In the corner of his eye, he could see Red peek up, glancing suspiciously on her. The witch lady had warned them there still were a few people who looked down upon ‘muggleborns’ even though they apparently were much fewer after the Second War – and Edge hadn’t the faintest idea what this war was.

She threw her arm over his shoulders, grinning down at him. “No worries, edgy lil’ pal. Aunt Undyne is gonna tell you everything you need to know.”

…

When the train arrived at the end stop, Edge had made a deal with himself regarding his uniform. The girls left for a while to let him and Red get changed before they afforded them the same courtesy, and now when he stepped off the train it was with the cape-like thing still stuffed into his bag and his leatherjacket over the rest of the black robes. Red had done the same. Neither of them was willing to give up either the pure aesthetics of it nor the safety the symbol on their jackets, the Delta Rune, had always granted them at home. No one at home would hurt a child wearing the Rune unless they wished for a painful death. Edge had never left their apartment without it.

The activity on the platform was frantic as students flooded out of the train. At least their stuff was still on the train: Frisk had said to leave it. Though the thought made him slightly nervous, he had listened. Except his backpack – he had the black leather bag slung over one of his shoulders. He wasn’t leaving his most precious belongings for some stranger to take.

Undyne grinned sharply at him as someone yelled from behind the crowd, “First-years over here! First-years!”

“Go over there, punk. I’ll be waiting after the Sorting ceremony. Can’t wait to have ya in my house.” Gryffindor, as earlier mentioned. Frisk was a Hufflepuff – “The only cool one in that bunch,” Undyne had said and then received hard poke that made her grin – and Alphys a Ravenclaw. According to Undyne, it went, Gryffindor – the cool house for the brave and daring ones, Hufflepuff – “They say they’re hard-working, but they don’t seem to do much, sorry Frisk but it’s true,” Ravenclaw – for the weird nerds, and Slytherin – the stuck-up kids. Edge had a feeling she was biased.

Nonetheless, he really hoped he’d go to Gryffindor like her. He’d only known her for a couple hours, but he really wanted to make her proud. It kind of worried him, that he already liked her so much. After all, he didn’t know her.

But Red grabbed his wrist before he could continue pondering and pulled him toward the crowd of their peers that had gathered around a man in a huge green witch hat with flowers in the hatband. He beamed at them. “Welcome to Hogwarts, children. I am the groundskeeper, Asgore Swapp – call me Asgore – and I am going to bring you to the castle. Come with me, please.”

Edge regarded the other new students as he and Red did as asked, following the crowd away from the platform. Surprisingly, there were quite a few skeletons in the group. Of course, they weren’t an uncommon species, but he still had never seen that many in the same place. The group was otherwise very mixed between monsters and humans.

“-older brother is starting second grade!” one of the skeletons said, and Edge listened intently, trying to gather what kind of people he would be attending school with. Hopefully, they weren’t like his old classmates. Especially since he would have to live with them. “He says the Sorting is super cool, though not as cool as me, of course!”

“-I’ve got no idea what house I’m going to be in-”

“-can’t wait! I’ve been looking forward to this all my life-”

“-I miss my baby sister already. What if she forgets me-”

As they stepped away from the lights of the platform, Red gasped. When he turned around, he found his brother staring up at the sky, eyelights glittering. Edge followed his gaze, and his eyes widened. Stars. Thousands of them, or millions. Twinkling up there, bright and gorgeous. His mouth fell open. He’d never seen anything like it.

“Holy shit,” Red whispered, awe shining on his face. Edge smiled. The view was beautiful, but he’d never heard his brother so enchanted before. It was nice.

Then a lake appeared in front of them, the stars glittering on its calm, dark surface, and Asgore started directing them into small boats with a single light in the front. And on the other side of the lake, a castle towered. Edge’s soul skipped a beat in his chest. Wow. It was enormous, lights shining in every window and tower, and the full moon was rising behind it.

He wasn’t certain how he ended up in a boat sitting next to Red, but somehow, he did. Two other students sat in the same boat: a skeleton who was even taller than him who beamed at them, and a human with blonde hair. The skeleton held out his hand, offering it to Red. He didn’t even seem to notice, too entranced by the stars. Shrugging, the skeleton gave it to Edge instead, who shook it.

“Hi!” he said, smiling widely. “I’m Papyrus Gaster! Who are you?”

“Edge Griffin.” He hesitated before giving the other a smile in return, regarding him. This skeleton looked very different from every skeleton he’d ever met. Softer. His teeth were even and his shapes round. How strange. “Nice to meet you.”

“You too! Any thoughts on which house you’re going to be in? My brother is in Ravenclaw, because he’s a huge nerd for the stars, and he says I’m probably a Hufflepuff because I’m so nice. Dad agrees.” The words were thrown at him so fast Edge almost couldn’t comprehend them at first.

He blinked. “No, I haven’t. I didn’t even know what the houses meant before I got them explained on the train.”

“Oh!” Papyrus leaned forward, grinning widely. “Well, Gryffindor is for the courageous and chivalrous, Hufflepuff is for the fair and loyal, Ravenclaw is for creative and passionate people, and Slytherin is for the shrewd and ambitious! Personally, I think I’d fit right into any of them!”

Edge couldn’t help but return his grin. “I’m sure. Well, Ravenclaw doesn’t really fit me then. I don’t claim to be particularly creative or passionate.” Except when it comes to fighting, maybe. His Krav Maga-teacher said he was quite creative. He didn’t tell the other that though. Didn’t know him anywhere near well enough to reveal that he was a trained fighter – he’d started classes at six.

“Well you’ll surely be placed in the house that’s perfect for you! Say have you ever played Quidditch?”

Obviously, he had not. But as he listened to Papyrus explain while regarding the castle, which grew bigger and bigger, he couldn’t help but smile. He had a good feeling about this.

…

The entrance hall of the castle was enormous. The ceiling was so high the crystal chandeliers almost looked tiny, and the staircase at its end was in marble, Edge could see that. On its lower steps, a yellow wyvern lady in a huge brown hat waited, smiling at them. “Welcome to Hogwarts,” she said as they all crowded in front of her. “I am Professor Dunbar, the deputy headmistress of this school. I will bring you to the Great Hall for the Sorting ceremony. Come with me.”

The walk through the castle never seemed to end. Papyrus was still by his side, chatting about various subjects, and Edge did listen but there was so much to look at.

“I remember my first time coming here,” Papyrus said, startling him. The other was grinning at him, something knowing in his eyes. “I was nine, and dad was doing a guest lecture in Potions, and since he couldn’t find anyone to look after me and my brother we got to come too. It’s amazing, isn’t it?”

Edge only nodded. It really was.

Abruptly, the group stopped. His soul jumped up in his throat as he stopped, almost running straight into the student in front of him. Professor Dunbar gestured toward the huge door in front of them. In the back of his mind, Edge wondered if everything wizardly would be that enormous. Was he destined to feel small, despite his unusual height for his age, during the next seven years?

“On the other side of this door, we’ll find the Great Hall. This is where the Sorting ceremony will take place. There are four houses in this school: Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin. They will function as your family during the schoolyear, so do your best to get off with a good start. Now, let’s proceed.”

The doors opened, revealing yet another hall with supremely high ceiling. Candles floated mid-air, and even Red gawked at that. Four long tables filled with students were in there, two on each side of the pathway in the middle, and at a platform yet another table stood. Adults sat there – likely the teachers. In front of the table, there was a single stool with a huge, frayed hat on and-

“Red,” he whispered, blinking rapidly. “Is the hat singing?”

“One thousand years ago this story starts

There were four sorcerers with strong and wise hearts,” the hat sang.

“Fucking hell it is.” Shock was painted on Red’s face as they made their way along the path, up to the platform.

Papyrus giggled. “Yeah, that’s not that cool. Wait until you see what we’re doing in class!”

“Bold Gryffindor from wild moor

Fair Ravenclaw from glen

Sweet Hufflepuff from valley broad

Shrewd Slytherin from fen.

They had a dream to teach all that they knew

Witches and wizards came far and it grew

‘Til a castle stood tall by the shore of a lake

And a thousand years later, the magic remains.”

Once more, they all stopped, gathering into a crowd. Professor Dunbar stepped up by the stool, holding up the hat and a parchment. “When I call your name, you will come up here and the Sorting Hat will sort you into your houses.” Many of the students nodded. “Julia Clarke.”

The blonde kid who had been in the boat with them climbed the platform, sitting down on the chair. She hadn’t said a word during the entire trip. The Hat didn’t even have time to sit down completely on her head before it yelled, “RAVENCLAW!”

Edge twitches, staring at the Hat. His mouth fell open, and Papyrus giggled again. An applause broke out at one of the tables, and she walked over to them, sitting down.

“Papyrus Gaster.”

He squealed in excitement before half-running up to the stool, sitting down. The Hat’s face, because it had a face, turned contemplative. A few moments passed. A drop of wax fell from one of the candles, down on the small staircase before the platform. “SLYTHERIN!”

Papyrus’ mouth formed an O before he shrugged, beaming as he bounced over to the applauding table on the far left of the hall. He waved at his new housemates.

“Edge Griffin.”

He swallowed before straightening his back, marching up on the platform. He put a cocky grin onto his face, sweeping his gaze over the audience as he sat down. As he did, he swept a hand over the well-worn leather of his jacket, feeling his soul calm somewhat. The deputy headmistress eyed it but didn’t comment as she put the Hat down on his head.

“Oh, interesting.”

Edge twitched, breath hitching. What the hell?

“Language.” The voice sounded amused, and Edge’s eyes widened unnoticeably as he realized it must be the Hat. It was talking to him. Inside his head.

“Indeed I am.” It chuckled. “Now where to put you? You’re right that you’re not a Ravenclaw. The other three houses, though… you could fit into all of them. You’re as valiant and courageous as a true Gryffindor, but…” It hesitated. “No, maybe not. You’re either a Slytherin or a Hufflepuff. You’re cunning and ambitious, no denying that. Resourceful as well. But those aren’t your defining traits, no. Despite the hardships you’ve lived through already, the horrors you’ve seen, you’re kind at soul. Loyal almost to a fault. Hard-working and dedicated, for sure. And fair as well as patient, yes. Yes, I think I know where you belong, young warrior.”

“HUFFLEPUFF!”

The table where everyone wore sunshine-yellow and black ties broke out in loud applauses, cheering as he slid off the stool and made his way over to them. He glanced toward the red table, anxiety coiling in his stomach as he searched for a certain redhead. Undyne looked surprised as she met his gaze but gave him the thumbs up and something loosened inside him as he slid into a seat next to a teenager. He smiled at him, offering his hand. A goat-monster with white fluffy fur. Edge took it.

“Hello, I’m Asriel Dreemurr, one of the prefects.” His voice and smile were gentle. “We’re so happy to have you here and if you ever need help, don’t hesitate to ask.”

“Thank you.” Edge nodded. Just then, his brother’s name was called, and he twisted around to get a good look. Red sauntered up to the stool, hands shoved into his jacket pockets.

The Hat didn’t stay on his head for more than a second before it shouted, “SLYTHERIN!”

Grinning, Red went over to the Slytherin-table, sitting down next to Papyrus. Papyrus beamed at him.

Edge bit down on his tongue, balling the hand he had in his lap into a fist. His stomach squeezed. Oh Angel. Not being in the same house as his twin would be difficult. They’d never been away from each other for any longer while before.

The Sorting continued, and they were joined by more students, among others two more skeletons. One who, almost whispering, revealed his name as Slim Serif, and another who smiled lazily and said, “Rus Shacklebolt, as you heard. Yes, I’m related to Kingsley Shacklebolt, he’s my second cousin.” Edge immediately disliked him. He slouched worse than Red and anyone who introduced themselves that way was bound to be insufferable.

Once everyone was sorted, the headmistress, Professor Greengrass, told them, “Welcome to another year at Hogwarts School for Witchcraft and Wizardry. And an extra welcome to our new students. I am certain you will feel at home in no time at all. I will waste no more time – bon appetite everyone!”

He stayed quiet most of the dinner, listening to the others and trying to gather what sort of company he’d ended up in. Everyone seemed to nice – well, except from Rus that is – and it was freaking him out a little. How the fuck did anyone dare to be so openly friendly, didn’t they know that was dangerous? Then again, so had Undyne. Neither Slim nor Rus spoke a lot either, though when Rus did speak, it was with a confidence that seemed almost exaggerated. It grated on Edge’s nerves, to say the least.

Frisk waved at him from down the table, smiling brightly.

Supper was delicious, he had to say that. He’d always eaten very well, seeing how his father was one of the more influential people at home, but never anything like this. There were roasted beef and chicken, and roasted potatoes and boiled potatoes and lamb and bacon and more food than Edge even knew the name off. And all of it was marvellous – except the roasted turnips. He’d always hated turnip.

Eventually, the dinner had to end, though. Asriel was showing them to the common room as they passed by a group of Gryffindors, among them Undyne. She grinned at him, and that anxiety returned as he freed himself from the group.

“Hufflepuff, eh, punk?” she said, eyeing him up and down. “Wouldn’t have pegged you like one.”

“Yes,” he replied. “So it seems.” Discomfort crept up his spine as he watched her, searching for a hint of disapproval. She seemed to think Hufflepuffs were kind or boring, even if she was friends with Frisk. Maybe she would think he was boring too now?

She guffawed, slapping his back. “Well I guess that bunch of duffers needs someone to spice things up a little! Seems that’s your job now. You’ll do great.”

Relief flooded him, though he hid it behind a smirk. “Of course. I always do.”

Snorting, she nodded. “Keep that attitude, punk.” She nodded toward the group who had stayed a distance away. “Don’t keep them waiting, or they might get tired of it. No one but the Puffs know how the hell to get into your common room, so you better not let that happen. It’s Hogwarts’ most well-guarded secret.” She tilted her head. “But maybe you’ll let me know, eh?”

“Hardly,” he snorted. If it was a secret, he wouldn’t reveal it. But he nodded, grinning as he made his way back to them. He wouldn’t admit it, but he was very happy she still seemed to be his friend. He didn’t have a lot of those – or any, if he was honest. Alliances, yes, but not friends. Asriel smiled at him as they made their way down, down in the castle, until they reached what Edge must assume to be the lowest level possible over the basement itself.

Asriel waved them closer as they gathered around a pile of barrels. He looked around to ensure no one else was there before he placed his hand over one of the barrels – the second from the floor, middle of the second row. “To open Hufflepuff basement,” he murmured, voice hushed so Edge had to lean forward to hear properly, “tap the rhythm of Helga Hufflepuff on this barrel. If you forget which barrel it is, just wait for someone else to come. If you do it on the wrong one, you’ll get doused in vinegar, and that’s not fun.”

Edge couldn’t help but get the impression he was speaking from experience.

He demonstrated, and a secret passageway was revealed, much to the delight of multiple students. Even Edge watched in intrigue as they entered it. The passageway was sloping and earthy, and at its end, a warm light appeared.

When they stepped into the common room, multiple students were already there, lounging in the many light-yellow couches. The walls were made of dark yellow bricks, though honey-coloured wood made up a meter-high lath from the wooden floor of the same colour. A fire crackled in a fireplace on the opposite side of the circular room, and a portrait of a brown-haired woman in a yellow dress hung above it. She toasted them with the golden goblet she was holding, and Edge didn’t even twitch this time. It wasn’t the weirdest thing he’d seen today. Why the hell not have living paintings too?

“That’s our founder, Helga Hufflepuff,” Asriel let them know. “She’s amazing if you want help with homework or just talk with someone who isn’t a student or teacher.”

Plants filled the shelves and hung from the ceiling, and light washed in from the circular windows just beneath it. In all honesty, it was beautiful.

As Asriel let them know where the dormitories were, Edge couldn’t help but smile at the sunny room.

He thought he’d like it here.

[longlostretribution]

LOST ASGORE, King of LONG LOST HOPE’S timeline.

A KING BORN OF TRAGEDY AND LOSS.

A king, not battle worn, but magic weary, dragged down into hell and faced with oblivion. A king who fought valiantly to save his timeline from THE BEAST WITH RED EYES, the fabled one prophesied to bring destruction to INNUMEROUS TIMELINES. The BEAST who marked him with a scar he still bears to this day, one he will never forget.

His powers were not meant for boiling blood nor inflicting wounds. He was a healer, one who knew how to use such good for the evils of war and feared not in doing so, but resented the choices ultimately made in his times of need. Healing mouths and noses shut, prompting heart attacks with specialized herbs, knowing the body of monster and man so wholly that he could use it to his whim - it made him the ruler he was.

And what a ruler!

He and Toriel ruled together, not with an iron fist, but an iron spine. A backbone forged with the strengths of monsterkind and their own HOPES, and DREAMS. They lived on the surface with humans for as long as they could remember, survived many wars waged against them, even pacified their way through treaties that kept their people alive - though that was mostly Toriel’s doing, since he still was not very good with words and dealt with a stutter from birth. He was known as the QUIET PROPHET KING, and she the GENTLE SAVIOR QUEEN. They were flexible and understanding to most, but would not bow, bend, nor break to the whims of those who sought their destruction and to use their people’s kindness for evil.

Asgore himself bore a gift unlike any of his kind. He bore the gift of SPIRITUALITY that manifested in LIGHT PURPLE magic that allowed him clairvoyance and insight into the realities behind people and dreams he encountered. The magic manifested in his right eye, along with the ORANGE magic of BRAVERY in his left eye (though it was never as strong as his purple magic). With this purple hue, he could see into worlds and dreams alike. He could see the future and the past, although it typically revolved around how to SAVE the world and all the goodness within it, never the bad. He even predicted his and Toriel’s old age, all at the hands of their beloved son Asriel, whom later became their beloved prince.

And so they lived, HAPPILY EVER AFTER, in a world where humans and monsterkind remained at peace.

                              Until the king had a dream.

It was unlike most of his dreams. Filled to the brim with HATE and MALICE, this dream plunged him deep within a scorched battlefield, left to wander the remains of what he knew must have been his entire world. Nothing but ruins, bloody corpses and dusty swords, and a single weeping willow with two gravestones beneath it. ONE FOR TORIEL, AND ONE FOR ASRIEL.

From behind the stones, a creature rose from the shadows. Not monster, but not quite human. A demon? A BEAST IN SHINING SILK with a bloody, dusty knife in hand. The grin he bore could’ve shattered Asgore’s very SOUL. 

“A prophet is only as good as his prophesies!” That is what THE BEAST told him that fateful day they first met. There stood before him a False Prophet, wrapped in glittering gold, stark purple, sterling silver, giving him a ghost of a warning of his arrival. The bastardized version of the DELTA RUNE they wore only spurned the king, anger and resentment boiling in his chest. When he drew his trident, the creature only LAUGHED, eyes flashing a demonic RED before speaking once more:

“TELL ME, O FALSE PROPHET,” the ghost said, “REASON WITH ME, AND BE STILL. 

                                          “DO YOU REALLY THINK                                                   YOU CAN STOP

                                     THE UNIVERSE’S WILL?”

He gestured around him. to the land burned to ash, blackened by flame and magic alike. Corpses of humans and dust of monsters lie scattered among the flame. Some sort of fate urged the king to turn to his left, only to see a mirror of himself staring back. The mirror looked unlike any horrifying vision he’d seen prior: ONE EYE GONE. HALF OF HIS FACE REMOVED. ONE EAR MISSING. BODY MELTED AND WITHERED.

                                  It was like staring into DEATH ITSELF.

“EVERYONE MUST DIE EVENTUALLY, O KING. “AND YOU? HAVE LIVED A GOOD LIFE. “BUT IT WILL END. IT MUST END. “SO WHY NOT LET ME DO THE ENDING INSTEAD OF THE CRUEL UNIVERSE?” 

The demon continued his tirade, circling the monster as if he was some sort of prey. Asgore could not peel his eyes from the vision of himself, even as the mirror reflection of the BEAST sauntered up behind his hulking form, knife in tow. It was there he saw it:, a twisted, demented SOUL devouring the timeline behind them as the creature continued to speak.

“DO NOT FEAR. “I WILL MAKE IT “AS PAINLESS “AS YOU WANT IT TO BE.”

The king awoke with LAUGHTER in his head and dread bowing down his aching body. This was the first vision he’d ever had that filled him with such emotion. The first foretelling of terror that even he couldn’t stomach. Surely not even Toriel, his companion in life, could help him stop this end? The creature was right: EVERYTHING MUST END. Even he, and even the universe. 

But why in such an ugly and devastating way?

Sorrow wracked his body for weeks as he kept the turmoil to himself, unable to even conceive how to tell another. Soon enough he found himself unable to function properly. DECAYED, WITHERED, WITHDRAWN. If Toriel hadn’t pulled him from his somber mood one night with a ferocious and fiery shout, he might have completely turned to dust from his thoughts alone. His confession afterwards came flooding over tears and apologies, begging for forgiveness for keeping her from his thoughts, for being unable to tell her Armageddon was finally upon them. Finally, the end was nigh, and he was forced to be the one to tell them all they were going TO DIE.

Toriel did not know how to respond. But she did know they had to ACT, and do so swiftly. Rumors of the BEAST had already begun their descent; a new Prophet who begun spreading his visions of death and destruction had begun whispering around the castle. Chaos struck humanity first, tearing them down wall by wall. Toriel knew their days were numbered the moment Asgore confirmed the Prophet’s coming.

But the two formulated a plan. 

RESETs were somewhat foreign to them, having no fallen child nor human puppet to teach them its cruelty, but together their INTENT was strong enough to overpower whatever force the universe used to keep it from them. Their strengths combined led to them ultimately RESETing the timeline again, and then again, and yet again, trying time after time after time to ether pacify the BEAST or keep him from coming to their city. When their attempts failed, Toriel urged the King to speak out to the people, to gain their HOPEs and their DREAMs in order to SAVE their home. He was hesitant, but once he began, his prophesies took wing and began bolstering the people’s courage. He began to make up visions of them winning and succeeding if they teamed together. He gave false HOPE to gain real hope attempting to gain the help of their people to offset the balance of the BEAST’s prophesy and speak their own false one into truth. They did what they could. Even their finest guardsmen joined in, and soon after the HOPE from their people filled them with enough DETERMINATION to SAVE over one of the BEAST’s files.

YET THEIR PLAN, THOUGH NOBLE...

HAD FAILED.

Years of RESETs after the first prophesy given by the BEAST, Asgore saw his vision realized for the final time. A bloody, dusty battlefield, a universe broken by fire and magic. His own body bruised and aching, begging to finish melting to join his beloved wife and son in their nearby graves. The BEAST had many SAVE files, many that overwrote his own. He could not fight him, not even with the HOPE of the world, of all man and monsterkind... if he could not defeat them... that meant, that truly...

                  IN THE END... THERE WAS NOTHING HE COULD DO                                          BUT ACCEPT THEIR FATE.

“It’s a SHAME, Prophet,” the demon before him twirled the strange dagger-like weapon in his hand, “I almost enjoyed that endearing voice of yours, bellowing out to your people, haughty with false words of shallow encouragement. Ah, well...

                 “FAREWELL, O KING OF THE DAMNED!”

A light shone beyond the horizon, blinding the King for a moment. He was unsure what to do, what to say. There was nothing TO say, really. He had lost, and the False Prophet had won. He had been caught in his lies, and despite the goodness that flowed within them, he was now paying heavy-handedly for them.

Everyone had paid for them.

Did that make him the false one?

Clawed hand reaching towards the light on the horizon, the BEAST with his knife poised and ready, the king made one last wish:

I did as you said. I told them all the truth.  Please, whoever may hear... Reunite me with the ones lost. Give me back my family and let me find peace.

A memory filled his vision as he clasped his paw over the light. He was standing on the once-green field with his son, listening to the breeze blow through the willow tree while they picked flowers and sought out herbs for the King’s newest recipe. 

Do you think the universe will ever end, Papa?

Mmm? What makes you ask?

Well... sometimes I get these feelings. Like things are gonna end soon, but I’m not afraid of them. Not anymore.

Why’s that, little one?

Well, they don’t scare me because there’s a Light there. I can see the Light, and it comforts me. Tells me Momma’s gonna be there on the other side to greet me. It says, all things must come to an end... but endings don’t have to be sad.

Oh my... quite a heavy topic for you to be dreamin’ about, don’t you think?

I dunno, is it? I always thought of things ending as sad or even scary, but this one doesn’t scare me too much. You’re there too! But you’re on the other side of the Light. I can still see you through the willow trees, but you’re hurt...

Hurt?

Yeah, like something really got you. It looks like you’re about to give up, but you can’t give up, okay? No matter what happens, we’re here cheering for you!

Asgore opened his good eye, a stream of tears leaking from both his good and bad eye. In the distance, beyond the BEAST, he can see the willow tree. It’s just in front of the Light, swaying in the breeze, completely unharmed by the desecration and fire surrounding it. He could hear his son’s voice almost as clearly as he could see the Light.

Find those who are Lost, and you’ll be set free! That’s what the universe is saying to me to say to you. And we’ll also be here! So you can never give up, okay, dad?

Okay, little one. I’ll stay strong.

“Just for you.”

The beast’s voice swelled in his one good ear, dragging him back to reality a split second before he struck:

                  “FAREWELL, O KING OF THE DAMNED!”

Without thinking, the lost king rolled out of the way and plunged his trident straight through the BEAST’s belly, causing him to stammer and stagger back. A SOUL flung out of his body, marred and mangled with what could only be other SOULs of the damned. It screamed in agony, but he didn’t seem to bother mimicking it. All the BEAST could do was stare at the vibrant red trident in his torso, aghast at the thought of being injured by such a weapon.

Disgusting, Asgore thought.  “Such a pitiful creature laid waste by an old washed up prophet king like me. For shame.”

The world beneath him began to hiss and rumble. The SOUL, now exposed, flared with power - a power that began to DEVOUR THE TIMELINE WHOLE. Greedily, as if it were some kind of starved creature. The floor beneath Asgore shattered, sending him falling through the floor of the universe. The creature that stood above him in the decaying world watched him fall with an expressionless face, prying the trident from his VESSEL like it was nothing. The SOUL near him him didn’t even thrum in pain as he did, eyes filled with violent RAGE at the sole escapee of the timeline he was now DEVOURING WHOLE with that cursed SOUL of his.

It is in this moment Asgore realized what he had done.

                            HE HAD SURVIVED AGAINST ALL ODDS.                HE HAD BROUGHT HIS OWN PROPHESY TO FRUITION.

                       THAT IS WHEN KING ASGORE DIED                                    AND THE LOST PROPHET                                                   WAS BORN.

                                                              ---

Lost Asgore now lives a life of solitude in the LONG LOST HOPE timeline, the oldest of the monsters there and the second one to have fallen into the timeline back before it was fully formed. Though rejuvenated from his suffering in some sense, he will never overcome the night terrors that still plague him, nor will he ever escape the claws of Fate that dig into his skull, prophesying visions of things untold and horrors yet to be wrought. The universe has taken him as a VOICE PIECE for its will, forcing him to command the rest of its ragtag bunch and keep them in line much like a king would do.

It is he who gives the rest of the LONG LOST RETRIBUTION cast their missions, whether it is for Undyne to act as HEROINE to one timeline, or Karma to go JUDGE and EXECUTE a Player’s SOUL. The universe speaks through him, and they through he. He is beloved by all, but his life as a Prophet is lonely and cold without the ones he loves by his side.

In his old age, he has resigned himself to a loveless life, instead finding himself content with the family he’s been gifted via the LLR cast, especially Damsel (Karmic Undyne), Karma (Karmic Sans), and Lost Toriel. He and Lost Toriel are not and never were lovers. They are simply friends, ones who understand the other’s plight and have worked at raising Toriel’s son Asriel as best as they can.

He still practices his healing magic, trains himself how to FIGHT if need be, and studies herbal medicine here and there, growing a fantastical and massive garden all across his home (and in other places in both main timelines). The king refuses to grow yellow flowers in honor of Asriel’s freedom and in hopes of preventing the Game from further tormenting the young prince whenever a Player’s game takes hold of the timeline.

[xninaspace]

“Your  Choices Don’t Matter Here”

*SPOILERS!*

The big underlying theme of Delta Rune.

And why’s that? Well, there’s a lot of proof why this seems to be the message of the first Chapter. 

First off, you create your own being. You design its body, give it favorites, a personality, SOUL traits, a name- all to be useless. To be “discarded” because “no one can choose who they are in this world.” Seems like it didn’t matter what I said in that survey, huh? If my character was predetermined. 

When talking to Susie, she seems to cut you off a lot in the beginning as she says to not bother answering her. “If you haven’t gotten it by now, your choices don’t matter.” Oh yeah, I hope we do Susie. 

Also, doesn’t there seem to be a lot of obstacles to your Pacifist actions? When Susie joins your team for the first time, she will kill the first enemy she sees in battle, unless you warn all the enemies. Then she just stands there missing all the hits. At first, it seems like she has no use in the fight. How is that helpful to your motives? 

Then towards the end of the game, after the fight with the King, he offers you Mercy. At least, sorta. When given the chance, when someone offered him true MERCY and healed him, he immediately betrays them by lowering the team's health with his sweeping attack. Then he threatens to kill both Kris and Susie. It seems we’ve met our one match, someone so evil, they won’t accept to be spared. In the end, it wasn’t us who stopped him, it was Lancer and his mob. Anti-climatic I guess lol. 

Lastly, there’s no true genocide route. You can try all you want, but the enemies you reduced to 0 HP are just gonna come back. The game is gonna throw everything at you to discourage you from FIGHTing. Good luck trying to kill the Checkers Boss. Good luck trying to kill the King. No. One. Dies. There’s only one outcome. Doesn’t matter what path you try to choose.

Oh yeah, don’t forget about that machine you created for your Dark Fun Gang. You may have spent a few minutes designing its build, giving it your favorite colors, finding the best point combinations. But of course, your “creation” is destroyed because it “sucked.” What an excuse lol. 

That’s the end of my discussion. I honestly don’t know how compelling this theme is to ya’ll, but I honestly think it’s a theme that will haunt us throughout the game. It pretty much means that the player is not in control or fate is predetermined (Gaster is in control). 

No matter what you choose to do, it’s not worth anything. 

So just continue to play the game as it goes with your character. There’s no changing the Hand of Fate.

[sage-nebula]

DELTARUNE

So I’ve finished one (1) playthrough of Deltarune, and as a result I figured I’d go ahead and write up my thoughts. Note that I’m actually writing this at 11:53pm on Wednesday, October 31st; I’ve just queued it to post now. This is because I’m both respectful of Toby’s wishes to wait 24 hours, but also because I want to write up my thoughts before I forget them. (And it’s already been a few hours, so I REALLY hope I don’t forget anything . . .

So! Deltarune spoilers below the cut! You’ve been warned!

First, just to get this out of the way: I firmly believe this to be an alternate universe to Undertale, rather than a prequel or a sequel. Specifically, I believe it’s an alternate universe where the monsters were never sealed underground to begin with. I have a few reasons for this line of thought:

Asriel is still alive, and seems to have grown up healthily and happily. This is the biggest reason why I believe Deltarune can’t be a prequel or a sequel to Undertale. If it were a prequel that took place before the monsters were sealed, Asriel wouldn’t have been born yet. If it was a sequel, he’d be stuck underground as Flowey. While there is a version of Asriel underground(?), we know that Toriel and Asgore’s Asriel is off at university (. . . supposedly). He grew up happy and healthy, meaning that he never died and was turned into a flower. This could only happen in an alternate universe / timeline.

If this was an alternate history where they were still sealed but Asriel grew up underground, Undyne and Alphys would know each other (and be in love), but they don’t. If you talk to Undyne about Alphys, she makes it clear that she and Alphys have never met, asking who Alphys is and then assuming that she’s committed some sort of crime. While this is setting up for a Meet Cute™ between them, it more importantly tells us that nothing that happened in Undertale happened in this universe, which is why they don’t know each other. Along those lines . . .

Sans and Papyrus have only just moved in, and have only just met the other characters. Specifically, Sans has only just met Toriel and Alphys within the past day or so (if he is telling the truth), and Papyrus has apparently never met anyone (we don’t even get to have Kris meet him :’( a tragedy). If the events of Undertale had happened, they would all already be acquainted. Since they’re not, we can assume that this is not a sequel. Moreover, it also can’t be a prequel because we know that Sans and Papyrus “just appeared one day” in Snowdin; they didn’t settle there with the other monsters, meaning that this can’t be a situation where Sans and Papyrus went with the others to be sealed underground. They came later. So, not a sequel, and not a prequel.

Snowy’s mother, Shyren’s sister, and the leader of the dog pack are all just dead, rather than amalgamates. In Undertale, monsters who had “fallen down” (i.e. were dying) were taken to Alphys, who experimented on them with Determination. This resulted in them becoming amalgamates; they survived, but melted together and became deformed. But in Deltarune, if you visit the graveyard to the southwest of town, you discover graves for these monsters (and Gerson, RIP). It appears that while they were taken to Alphys for Determination experiments in the Undertale universe, they simply died in the Deltarune one, presumably because there was no Royal Scientist to take them to this time around (given that, instead of becoming the Royal Scientist, Alphys became a teacher here instead). 

Toriel and Asgore are divorced. This cannot be a prequel, because while Toriel and Asgore did separate prior to Undertale, they separated after the banishment in Undertale’s canon. However, it also cannot be a sequel, because Asriel is alive and well. Therefore, for the two of them to still be divorced and Asriel to be alive, this has to be an alternate universe. What drove them apart this time one can only wonder, but this does tell us one thing: it wasn’t just the death of their child(ren) and their reactions thereof that drove Toriel and Asgore apart. Their marriage was never meant to last.

There are probably more things that point to this being an alternate universe rather than a prequel or a sequel, but those are the things that come to mind immediately. While I might not be exactly right about what specifically makes this an alternate universe (that it’s a world where the monsters were never banished, but instead continued to live on the surface), I still think that’s the case, and will continue to think so until proven otherwise. And honestly, I think this is the best thing Toby could have done. A prequel would have ended sadly no matter what Toby did, because the monsters would have ended up sealed underground and we’d likely have to witness the deaths of two children thanks to buttercup poisoning and awful humans. That’s a pretty downer note to end a game on, but Toby would have to if he wanted to make this a prequel. At the same time, while I’m sure there’s story potential in a sequel because I can’t imagine humanity will take the sudden freedom of monsters very well (it’s implied in Undertale’s prologue that it’s been long enough that most humans have forgotten monsters even exist, so to suddenly see a bunch of monsters running around would no doubt freak them out), a game that’s nothing but politics and peace treaties created by a child wouldn’t be very much fun to play. But an alternate universe gives Toby tons of creative freedom to make a new story, even if some of the characters are familiar because they’re alternate universe versions of themselves. This was a really brilliant move on his part (though that shouldn’t be surprising, because this is Toby Fox we’re talking about). 

Anyway, enough about that. On to other thoughts!

I still think the mysterious being that talks to us in the beginning is Gaster. It has to be Gaster. First of all, we’ve always had reason to think of Gaster as a potentially dangerous person; that he was lost to his experiment and shattered across time and space aside---that he was a brilliant scientist, and the Royal Scientist before Alphys aside---the Riverperson tells us to “beware the man who speaks in hands.” That’s not specifically about Gaster, but I seem to remember something in the game’s code that suggests it’s probably a reference to him. The Riverperson told us to beware Gaster, and we should have listened, but our curiosity got the better of us. Curiosity killed the cat? No. Curiosity killed the humans. That said, we don’t have proof that it was Gaster yet, but I . . . I still believe . . . (Plus, the original pallet for our vessel was the Gaster Follower pallet, wasn’t it? HMMM . . .)

That said, the being that possesses Kris at the end is very obviously Chara. The red eyes, the smile, the knife . . . all of those things point to Chara. And it’s not that much of a surprise, in a way, because the shirt that Kris wears has the same colors as Chara’s shirt (and their hair is the same, et cetera), but I also have to wonder why. Why did this happen? I’m assuming it happened when Kris noticed their SOUL behaving strangely at the end, while standing in front of the fountain, but I don’t get why. I’m wondering if maybe I made something wrong, if I made a wrong decision, if I made this happen somehow despite that I didn’t kill any monsters (Susie did, once, but not by my will), and I never did a genocide run in Undertale at all, much less on this computer where I don’t even have the game downloaded . . . except . . .

Thinking about it, I don’t think this is something I (or anyone else) did wrong---I think that we were all headed toward this ending, provided all endings lead back to the town and Toriel’s house in the end. And the reason why I think this is that we were told twice that our choices don’t matter. We were told this by Susie when she stopped Kris from answering at the start, but we were also told this by the mysterious being at the very start of the game when he discarded the options we made previously. The only one who seemed to counter the idea that our choices don’t matter is Ralsei, but while I haven’t done multiple playthroughs to confirm, I think that might only impact what happens during the showdown with the king. If you’re kind to all the monsters, they come and save you, and if you’re not, they . . . don’t? I’m not sure, I’ve only done one playthrough. But it might be that your choices only have impact in the dark kingdom; in the surface world, your choices don’t. So while you can effect how your last moments in the dark kingdom turn out, you can’t affect the ultimate ending where Chara takes over Kris’ body and rips out their soul to stuff it in the birdcage.  I still want to know why that happened, though, even if it wasn’t through any fault of mine.

On that note, the anagrams. “Delta Rune” is an anagram of “Undertale” and we been knew about that for years now. Ralsei is an anagram of Asriel, and my friend SB pointed this out to me because I didn’t notice it at first (and she was RIGHT ON THE MONEY HOLY SHIT). But Kris . . . it looks like an anagram of “Frisk”, but it’s missing the F, and while “Frisk” does have more consonants than it’s easy to make an anagram from, I don’t think Toby simply tossed the F off without thought. I think he did it because while “Kris” can be an anagram of “Frisk” without the “f,” it’s also an anagram of “Risk”, meaning danger. There’s a risk of danger with Kris, and we encounter that danger at the very end, when Chara takes over. But why? Why did Chara take over? I need answers, Toby! 

Speaking of answers that I need, I need to know what’s going on with Asriel. Asriel was supposedly off at university, yet he’s also very clearly Ralsei. Yet although she appears shocked, Susie doesn’t call him out on this, and you’d think she’d know given that she knows Kris’ mother, and therefore she has to be at least familiar with the sight of Asriel. Moreover, there’s no indication that Kris reacts at all, which is particularly strange since, although Kris is mute, Susie could have noticed Kris’ surprise. But there is none---there isn’t any reaction at all. So what’s going on there? Why is Asriel in the dark kingdom if he’s also off at university? What---what is going on?? 

Back on the Chara topic for a moment: I checked the mirror both at the start of the game and at the end. The flavor text was “it’s just you” both times. Nothing changed. So why did Chara take over Kris?? 

I love Susie. Really, all the characters ended up endearing (I would die for Ralsei / Asriel), but I loved Susie’s development. Toby does such a wonderful job of creating characters, and he really knocked it out of the park with Susie. I really love how it wasn’t spelled out that the reason she behaves so aggressively is because she’s lonely and no one wants to befriend her, so she pushes them away so she can act like it doesn’t hurt her, but rather shown with how she reacted to befriending Lancer, and how she felt when he wanted to be like her, and how hurt she was by his seeming betrayal. That we even got to see her development by her eyes becoming visible in the end was icing on the cake. Susie was a brilliant character, and I loved every bit of her development. Even in a game as short as this one, she really shined. ♥

Burgerpants continues to be an absolute fucking delight, and I love that he was apparently best friends with Asriel before Asriel went off to college. If there isn’t tons of fanart of the driving around town “picking up chicks” I’m going to be sorely disappointed.

Both of Lancer’s dads suck ass and I’m so glad that one is in permanent time out and the other is going to shape up his behavior (albeit for the wrong reasons, but we’ll take what we can get.

The gameplay is FANTASTIC. I love, love, love that it’s still recognizably Undertale, but that Toby has also made enough changes to it that it feels like a new experience. Because you know, that’s a problem with some game series: Either the gameplay is too samey and it feels boring, or it’s so radically different that fans of the original can’t enjoy it. But I feel that Toby struck the perfect balance with Deltarune, and I really love it. 

The music is fantastic as well. I love the remixes of certain songs (THE UNDERTALE LEITMOTIF IN THE SAVE SCREEN MUSIC, HHHHHH), but the original songs are also great. From the battle theme, which is a bop, to that end credits music . . . is that Temmie singing? If so, her voice is BEAUTIFUL. And if not, whoever the singer is has a beautiful voice. I need to watch the credits again, both to hear the lyrics again (there’s something really soul chilling about the song ending on something akin to “I’m here with you” after seeing Chara take over Kris, gotta say), but also to pay actual attention to the credits this time, and just to hear the music again.

ALL OF THE CAMEOS HAD ME SO HHHHHHH IN THE BEST WAY!!! And the things that we learned about them! Actual, English language confirmation that Sans is the older brother! In-game confirmation that “Azzy” is in fact Asriel’s canonical nickname! SEEING MONSTER KID HAVING GROWN UP TO BE MONSTER TEEN!! All these things are so freaking great. But also, where is Napstablook? Because that was clearly Mettaton in the ghost house. If that’s Mettaton . . . where is Napstablook? Where are they, Toby?? 

I made this and everyone was wrong about it, it’s beautiful:

There’s so much more I feel like I should say, but my mind is still buzzing and jumping all over the place. All I have to say is this: When I learned it was a demo, I expected it to take me thirty minutes, tops. But even allowing for the fact that I had to take a thirty minute break and also pause periodically to do work things, Deltarune took me my entire eight hour shift at work. Toby was right to call this “chapter one” at the end; even if it’s not completely polished yet, it already feels like a full (albeit short and with a cliffhanger) game. That Toby blessed us with this for free when there are plenty of indie developers that would have charged at least five bucks for this just goes to show how generous and kind he is to his fans. I mean, to be fair, the man has made a boatload of money off Undertale, to the point where he probably doesn’t have to make another game if he doesn’t want to (which might also be why this is so goddamn good; he didn’t make it because he needs the money, he made it because he wants to make it), so it’s not like he necessarily needs us to pony up the cash. I won’t be surprised if there’s not a Kickstarter for Deltarune (but maybe there still will be, idk). But he still could have charged, and we still would have paid, but he didn’t and so we didn’t have to. He did that because he genuinely wants us to play this game, and he really appreciates us as his fans. I mean, I’ve never spoken to him, so maybe I’m reading way too much into his actions, but this, combined with the fact that he’s never shamed or acted embarrassed of the fandom, leads me to believe that Toby Fox truly respects, cares about, and appreciates his fanbase, and that makes me even happier to support him as a creator.

I can’t wait for chapter two (or the full game), whenever it comes out. I expect it’ll be a while from now, but who knows; maybe Toby is farther along on the project than we know, and we’ll see it around Christmas time. Either way, this is the best Halloween present I could have gotten, and I’m so grateful. Toby Fox is brilliant, and I’m so happy that I decided to pick up Undertale three years ago (and that I purchased the collector’s edition for Switch despite already having it on Steam, and that I dressed as Chara for Halloween today---something which, mind you, I’d been planning for over a month, ever since the CE for Switch was announced and I preordered it, knowing I’d be getting the locket; truly, it was fate that caused Toby to release Deltarune on a day I was already cosplaying as Chara). 

I love this series, I love Toby Fox’s creations, and I knew I was right to be impatient for the day Toby would announce he was working on a new project. I knew he wouldn’t disappoint, and I’m so, so happy I was right about that. ♥

[davythings]

Thoughts on Delta Rune

Been holding on to these all day yesterday.

So great job Toby on releasing a full-ass game under the guise of a “survey”. I was giddy the more and more I found out how long it would go.

It seems like the person talking to you at the beginning is either Chara or Gaster, leaning towards the former.

So this seems to pick off after the events of Undertale like a direct sequel would, everything feels all idyllic town life and such but you notice right away some things are off. Asriel is alive and in college? You’re eyes are dark and you’re wearing Chara colors...

So you got a school life now with monsters and you and a classmate drop into a magical world, Persona much?

Your party is Kris who is an anagram of Frisk without the F? Susie who is purple mean girl Barney with the best theme music. and Ralsei who is cute and an anagram for Asriel.

You’re a fallen human again in a world that you later find out is based on a bunch of board games and toys that were left on the floor of a playroom in the school.

This entire world plays out very similarly to the events of Undertale but a bit shorter.

Nice updated combat system, hope it can continue to innovate in the direction it’s going with party members and their approaches to fighting and sparing.

Lots of gags and puns keeping with the previous game’s spirit

I really enjoyed the secret boss. CHAOS CHAOS!

I played as pacifist as I could and it seems like I got the good ending but I reloaded and tried genocide but it doesn’t seem like “my choices don’t matter” as they all just run away anyways and I can only beat bosses to the point they get tired or are literally unkillable. I guess choices not mattering is the new zeitgeist?

So after I return to the real world I talked to everyone I could in town and things seem really off because EVERYONE’s MEMORIES ARE DIFFERENT?! You’re given certain dialogue options that imply you know certain characters or their past relationships but they don’t. 

There’s also a entrance presumably leading back underground not far south from them.

All of that unsettling news comes to a head when you find out  YYYYYYYYYEP there’s Chara, and they regularly seem to literally rip out your soul and trap it in a cage to do bad stuff. I seem to recall Catti’s Dad? missing an arm...hope that isn’t related.

So my main theory is that Gaster/Sans has done something to rewrite everyone’s memories and has secluded them in an area near the underground entrance presumably away from human society? I think the effort is to contain Chara so that they don’t go on a rampage? Really interesting that it seems the true ending was a post-genocide pacifist route.

[novakld]

delta rune is about how unnecessary a sequel to undertale is. here’s a very messy and long thought dump

point one: 

the first thing you’re taught in delta rune is that your choices don’t matter. if having the character you’ve created literally thrown away and being told “fuck you, you don’t get to choose who you are” isn’t enough, this is reinforced throughout the game with smaller choices. you can’t choose your partner for the group project. you can’t explore the entire school, at least not initially. susie won’t let you answer her questions. you can’t kill monsters. the only other direction in the jail escape sequence leads to a dead end. there’s only one way this story goes, and you’re going to do that way whether you like it or not. completely eliminating the freedom of choice that the original game was praised for is meant to demonstrate how meaningless it would be to try to continue it. a direct, chronological sequel would end up invalidating every single alternative ending to the original game that doesn’t comply with the timeline. there is no single canon ending to undertale, and to define one would go against the spirit of the game.

point two:

how did you feel when you left the dark world? did you feel connected to the characters? did you feel like the friendships you made with them were meaningful and worth revisiting? in the end, it attempts to drum up some sentimentality by having yet another sequence where you go and say goodbye to friends you made along the way, but for me it fell completely flat. the dark world is a shallow, cheap copy of the underground, and while the writing and visuals still have the unique charm the original did, the setting itself feels hollow. in the first game, there was a sense of personality to the underground. the monsters were kind and caring at heart, and the only thing that made them attack you was the hope that one day they would be freed from their imprisonment. you staying alive and escaping the underground without freeing them had no impact on the world at large, and you were free to do so, but you went back to help them because you cared about them. even if we’re going to be cynical and say it’s only a video game, you still wanted to see the ending that was happiest for them. in the dark world, the thing keeping you from leaving them behind is... the looming threat of an apocalypse. of course the stakes had to be upped, if they weren’t then there would be no point to a sequel. delta rune doesn’t care about making you root for the characters, it doesn’t have to. and thus, the dark world becomes an attempt to re-create the feel and charm of undertale’s setting while fundamentally misunderstanding why it worked in the first place.

point three:

this is partially related to my first point, but delta rune is not a chronological sequel to undertale. the universe it takes place in is so inconsistent with the first game that the only logical explanation is that it takes place in an alternate universe. any of the questions a sequel could have answered are left unanswered. how will monsters fare in the overworld? why was sans so stupidly powerful? how will flowey fare in a world he can no longer control? what in the actual fuck is gaster? delta rune, by the very nature of its universe, doesn’t have any of those answers. while the fandom may crave that sort of content, it would invalidate so much of the content created to fill that void. undertale is about the relationships we forge with fiction, so discouraging speculation and other fan-generated content would go against its themes.

i can’t think of a way to end this. i’m tired. it’s 1am. but here’s an attempt to gather some of my thoughts and feelings about this game.

[for-a-flower]

Keeping the Peace

         Asriel paused to observe the humans’ movements as they cautiously circled him several feet away, still shouting.  A few tossed spears at him.  Asriel stepped out of the way, avoiding the pointed objects.  ‘Maybe . . . if I give them a chance . . . show them I don’t mean any harm . . . they’ll let me go,’ he thought.

          ‘They’re just human.  Don’t let them deceive you,’ said Chara’s voice. Asriel felt the sting of a sharp blade when it slashed across his back.  He yelled in pain.  ‘They don’t care!’ Chara shouted.

         Asriel was breathing heavily and losing his strength. He could feel a warm, wet substance on his back and he was frightened.  There was nowhere to go.  He couldn’t run.  He peered back at the humans pitifully while they lunged and retreated, striking at him again and again.  Some of the attacks were magic and others were the blades of swords and spears.  But he refused to fight back.  ‘I will not kill them, Chara!’

         ‘Why not?!’

         Asriel saw fear in their eyes as the humans attacked, likely to defend their homes and families.  ‘They’re just scared.  They don’t understand.’

         ‘All the more reason to stop them,” said Chara. A hard strike against the back of his head almost caused Asriel an immediate loss of consciousness.  His sight blurred.  He could feel Chara’s frustration growing as he continued to refuse her.  ‘At least defend yourself!  Don’t let them kill you!  Stay determined!’

         Humans still circling under the darkening sky above, Asriel peered back at them with tears in his eyes.  ‘How?’ he thought.  He shook weakly but tried to remain standing.  ‘My best friend wants to use me to wipe out her own race after she just killed herself!  Chara . . . I know you sacrificed to get us here but . . . I can’t do that.  It’s not right.’  Asriel stopped, grounding his feet among the flowers to stand in place.  He had made up his mind.

         ‘What is this?’ thought Chara.  

          Asriel opened his mouth to attempt speaking to the humans.  “I didn’t want to hurt you,” he said.

         ‘What are you doing?!  Stop!’ Chara shouted.  Despite the efforts of the prince to reason with them, frightened humans continued to strike out with their swords.  ‘You’re going to ruin everything! Asriel, listen to me!’

         Asriel shook his head, resisting Chara’s attempts to resume control.  He had taken a beating and was losing strength, but he held out a hand toward the humans and gave them a sincere frown of concern and pity.  “I just wanted to let my people free in peace,” he said with a low, kind voice.  One person backed away from him.  A few others lowered their weapons, though they kept them ready.  Others stopped chanting.

         ‘Asriel!’ called Chara.  While Asriel focused on the people before him, one human rushed at him from behind sword ready for a piercing strike.  Chara continued.  ‘I’ve given up my LIFE to free the monsters! Don’t you dare ruin all that b-’

         An overpowering pain shot through Asriel when a blade stabbed into his back.  Asriel gasped.  His eyes glanced down quickly, catching sight of the weapon’s tip sticking an inch or so from his chest.  He cried out in pain with a loud roar, startling the humans.  The man behind Asriel quickly withdrew his sword from the monster’s back and retreated in fear.  Other humans in the group backed off several yards as well.  The retreat of the group was followed by a moment of silence.  Asriel cringed and closed his eyes.  Deep red stained the Delta Rune symbol on his robe. Breathing short, painful breaths, he staggered then dropped to his knees beside Chara’s body among the Golden Flowers. Gasping for air and trembling, he lowered his head.

         ‘It’s over,’ Asriel thought.  It was too late for him to get out of this alive.  He knew that.  The humans . . . their wish to kill was strong.  They had done more than enough damage to kill him.  Asriel slowly lifted his head, peering at the humans as tears ran down his furry face.  Why hadn’t they listened?  Torch light hardly lit the dark human figures that stood in silence at the edge of Asriel’s line of sight.  He was confused.  Why didn’t they understand?

         ‘Look at us,’ Chara told him.  ‘What have you done?’  Slowly the humans backed further away, as the furry monster returned his gaze downward at the human’s body.  He put a hand over the deep wound which cut through him. Asriel sniffled then moaned in pain. ‘We’re going to die, Asriel . . . and it’s all your fault.’

         Asriel reached down to pick up the teen girl in his arms.  Holding her carefully, he forced himself to stand.  He had failed but only in a way.  Asriel brought his attention back to the humans.  For just a second, he looked at their scared faces before he gave them a slight nod of understanding.  Asriel managed a kind smile then turned and walked away with the human in his arms.  He stepped slowly down the village path as humans cautiously moved from his way and let him pass. Their eyes wide, they all watched him go in silence.  Asriel gasped in pain as his power and strength grew weak.  Throbbing and shooting pains moved through his chest.  He left the Golden Flowers behind, staggering back the way he had come in the dark, with only light of torches held in human’s hands to guide him.

          ‘No,’ Asriel thought in response to Chara.  ‘It’s okay. They let me go.  We can . . . we’ll just go back home . . . together.’

          Maybe the humans had finally understood.  Maybe they had felt sorry.  Asriel wasn't sure.  All he knew was that he had to get back.  Since he couldn't find it in himself to kill a single human or strike even once, he wanted to at least make it back to the underground . . . to his home.  Asriel groaned as he crossed the grassy field and continued back toward the shadows of the forest.

          ‘Doesn’t matter,’ said Chara’s voice.  She was clearly very deeply disappointed.  ‘Our deaths are pointless.  We’ve accomplished nothing.  You promised you’d complete the plan and you didn’t.’

          Asriel scowled as he entered the trees.  He gasped in pain before answering out loud.  “That wasn’t part of the plan!” he yelled.

          ‘No, but you could have at least tried to get out of there alive.  Whatever happens now is your fault.’

          Asriel lowered his head, nodding once.  ‘I know. I’m sorry.  I thought . . . they’d listen.’

         ‘Humans NEVER listen.  They don’t care.  And now you know that, don’t you.’

          Asriel frowned.  He found it to be an extremely painful walk through the forest, but he pushed himself on . . . on through the ferns and the dark trees.  Reality seemed to be fading from him as he carried Chara's body.  He could hardly see in the dark either.  ‘Hey.  We tried . . . right?’

          ‘How can you still be looking for a positive side? There isn’t any!  I was the only human in the underground!  You were the Dreemurr’s only biological child!’ said Chara.  Asriel almost tripped as he moved up the slope toward the barrier.  Chara continued.  ‘There’s nothing left for the monster kingdom after we’re gone!  No hopes . . . no dreams . . . Nothing!’

          Asriel’s pace slowed considerably when he reached the top of the slope and continued toward the barrier’s glowing wall.  His sight was going blurry and dark.  He could hardly keep moving and feared he wouldn’t make it back.  ‘Chara . . .’ Asriel thought.  ‘Just stop. It’s too late to change it.  I made a mistake.  No use in debating now.  I just . . . I just want to go home.’

          ‘Fine.’

          Asriel carried her body with him as he pushed through the light of the barrier.  He emerged on the other side, paused to take a couple small breaths, and kept walking . . . just a little farther.  He was in a daze and could hardly think straight.  If Chara were to speak now, he wouldn’t be able to respond.

         Asriel staggered into the throne room, stopping only a few feet in.  He frowned eyes focused on Chara’s body and the Golden Flower she still held in her hands. Asriel couldn’t take another step. He had gone so far and could not go further.  He could feel his body and awareness starting to fade.  Familiar voices came to him as hardly more than mumbling.

         “Asriel!” Toriel called.

         Asriel lifted his head to see his mom and dad running toward him.  He stood there, hardly aware.  He was scared . . . so scared.  He wanted to greet them but was unable to.  He wanted to say goodbye . . . but couldn’t.  He managed one last breath of air before everything suddenly went dark.  Asriel dropped to his knees, collapsing on the grass.

          "NO!" said Toriel.

          "Asriel!" called his father.  Before they could reach him, Asriel's body let out of flash of colored light, scattering a spread of dust across the ground.  Only Chara’s body remained, a soft spread of dust over her and the six petalled Golden Flower she held.  Toriel and Asgore dropped to their knees beside Chara's body, tears in their eyes.

         “Oh, my son, no . . . no,” Toriel muttered. She reached down take the Golden Flower from Chara’s hand, held it close to her, and lowered her head.  The motherly monster shook her head, sobbing while Asgore stare in shock.  He put an arm around his wife where they sat alone in the garden.  Both their children suddenly gone . . . the king and queen hugged each other in the deathly silence that followed.

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