#i think its just another part of gaster

[raincandy-uu]

I 100% believe gaster could have written that valentines letter. He already sounds fond of the player. Maybe he was drunk or something

[triglycercule]

no funny little thoughts today. have this instead,,,,,, mtt fighting shshahsgahagsgaa CHOKES ok i lied maybe i DO have funny little thoughts below where the reference is :3

this is SUCH a cool composition shot i had to draw something based off it (ignoring the erm. the flashing,,,,, this game came out like 10 years ago just ignore that)

anyways triglycercule what are your thoughts??? funny you asked triglycercule allow me to illuminate :3 so ive been remembering that one ask from like 3 or 4 months ago where i answered like well i like to consider the trio to just have met one day and then decided oh hey we should like totally explore the multiverse together (my excuse to draw them in any possible situation possible (mtt at an amusement park when) (soon (probably not))) and recently i was like WAIT i could probably like totally find a way for them to meet because just saying they met (is a totally valid use of my creator powers BUT) is uncreative and vague,,,,,

so i was like damn. how COULD i get them to meet 🧐🧐🧐 so i was like ok so dust beats human. done and done. but like bros BOUND to get bored. like if he gets bored from not having the human to kill then he's gonna seek out SOME other form of entertainment. so dust is like ok how about i work on some old ancient machines i made b4 to pass the time and one of these ends up being like a universal traveler thingy. and to his own surprise he actually MANAGES to get it done???? (i totally didnt steal this idea from myself,,,,, whaaat youre saying there's another triglycercule dust that came up with a universe hopper machine??? NO (sorry mania))

and oops instead of staying in dusttale like he intended dust accidentally gets chucked into horrortale (bro just wanted the sense of accomplishment not to thrown into some random world.) and then cue like horror and him meeting and its all tense and confusing and then horror paps comes around and hes like OMG ⁉️TWO BROTHERS ‼️‼️ and then invites dust over for a nice sweet little bowl of human spaghetti. unfortunately for dust the little teleporter device is no longer connected to dusttale's core (because hes not IN dusttale) so he just kinda has to suck it up and deal with it until he can find a portable power source

dust's not trying to get KILLED out here so he asks horror (who sadly cannot push dust into blue snow because paps is very enthusiastic about his appearance) where he can find like batteries or something. and horror makes some off hand comment about like power sources and his eye being in the core and how theres like no power and oh why did dust immediately start listening once horror mentioned his eye,,,,,, dusts not gonna rip horror's eye out (he has no reason 2 if theres a perfectly good 1 @ the core!) so he tells horror what he needs the power source for and then hes like i can help you get food for your buddies if you help me help you. ok? ok

and then they sneak into the core to get the eye and oops dust didnt you learn your lesson last time!! the little teleporter thingy brings them to another world AGAIN (and now horror's PISSED because this wasn't in their little deal) and guess where is is,,,,, you already know its something new. and i guess to make things uncomplicated this is a something new where killer already killed his chara but he hasn't tried to reset the world and kill himself (and therefore attract nightmare) yet (he's getting there!)

not like they think the au is anything other than just a wasteland because there is literally like nobody around but they stumble into killer and it doesn't even take like more than a minute before a fight breaks out (i probably need to think more about what happened and why they started fighting but knowing the trio its BOUND to happen) and lowkey killer is getting his ass beat what the hell??? he has never experienced a fight where he's been on the losing end in a long ass time & mindgames arent working because they keep seeing through his shit??? (because horror and dust somehow even though they barely know each other and horror's pissed @ dust have like craaaazy synergy and coordination & killer hasnt faught them ever before + yk yk inner turmoil at seeing other versions of yourself) so he gets annoyed and pulls out the blaster to end it

dust and horror don't DIE outright (not like they would be able to tank killer's blaster) because killer decided to be like hey these guys are new and cool and interesting. i should keep them around instead of killing them off and see how much i can play around with them :3 so he just blasts them until theyre at like 0.0000000000000001 HP :3333 and then idk thats it 4 now,,,,,, i think this is silly and fun and cool and i can imagine it in my head and OH NO THE VOICES (make a comic) THEYRE GETTING LOUDER (you should draw this) NO WAIT MY MOTIVATION (coooomic would be a perfect medium for this) im sorry inner voices i cant,,,,,,,

[sunny-knight]

I COOKED A LITTLE SOMETHING FOR @forgettable-au STUFF-

Its not done obviously and I might not ever finish it, but wanted to post it here because of the song being suggested on the blog

god ever since listening to that song- I was listening to it on repeat during class (so has become my routine) THIS popped into my head and I needed to get it down

The main idea is Gaster is extremely care free and kinda melancholy. Him calling Papyrus a “carcass” is the most canon thing I can think of I love it 😭

I imagine this first bit is him fairly recently after falling into the void, he traveled way forwards in time to see what the hell this thing that replaced him was like and found himself to be amused and a ✨CATHARSIS✨ for him

Traveling a bit in time through the eye transition, we see him making the tape recording and putting it in the secret compartment cause I SWEAR THAT WAS ALL HIS DOING. this is gonna age horribly

Then him doing his whole Player business. I think the “I deserve forgetting” is the most raw line ive ever heard in my entire life, BUT THIS IS A LIGHT HEARTED AND NOT ANGSTY PMV SO IM IGNORING THAT

He finds he doesnt much care for how he feels, more what he has to do, which is GET THE PLAYER and do whatever he has planned for Deltarune-

The upsetting part is from the players point of view cause WHAT THE HELL MAN ☹️ I JUST MADE THAT

Then we get to my favorite part of him being content in things ending and him being content where he is, happy, even (PLEASEEE DONT LET THIS AGE HORRIBLY LET MY MAN BE HAPPY 😭)

Another time skip through the eye hole! Flowey and Papyrus have made their way down to the lab and wtf are these recordings, it sounds like someone rambling but its impossible to make out any of the words

then for some reason Flowey gets a weird vision and is like “AYO?? PAPYRUS???” and this is where I ran out of ideas-

Im still working on the You And Me PMV im just bad at focusing-

Forgettable AU + Undertale and Deltarune in general consume my every waking thought (this is a cry for help)

ive been cooking so much not just with this AU this- this comic is SPECIAL IDK HOW OR WHY BUT ITS SPECIAL

[deltaruminations]

i think one of the most telling examples of how we’ve been influenced to think about gaster is that if we say no to him after he asks if we want to continue after a chapter 1 game over, we’ll proceed to hear the absolute gentlest most heartbroken fucking unaccompanied piano arrangement of gaster’s motif any of us has ever heard and we’ll still be like "huh wonder why THAT’S there."

it’s because he’s sad!!! he’s fucking sad!!! this is the sound of an incorporeal man holding back metaphysical tears!!! WHY would the game have us linger here at a black screen instead of immediately going back to the menu like a normal RPG would? because it wants us to have this quiet moment in the dark with him, to finally catch him in a moment that’s raw and deeply vulnerable and unmarred by either cryptic mythologizing or his own mask of confident, neutral professionalism, just a black screen and a tender, melancholic song. and then he closes the fucking game himself.

it’s like, after narrating our ending, he just can’t think of anything else to say. he doesn’t want to tell us to go away because he probably doesn’t want us to, we’re both his last hope for success and the only person he’s been able to "connect" with in a very long time. he just sits there awkwardly with us while he quietly processes the situation, before he finally accepts that this is the world’s (and his) fate and he can’t force us to stay there with him any longer.

again im not trying to woobify him, what im saying is that we’re so used to seeking out spooky, vaguely sinister lore for an extraplanar entity that even when we finally meet him, it doesn’t occur to us that he could just be another character, one who’s VERY different from the other characters but a character nonetheless.

gaster is fundamentally cryptic and ambiguous, possibly in part because he intends to be hard to read. i think he hides himself between layers and behind clinical speech and trees because he’s uncomfortable with being seen, but he isn’t a perfect rational being, he’s just a guy, and he can’t connect with us without risking "pieces" of himself seeping through. just as undertale challenged us to hunt through it for pieces of gaster’s lore, deltarune is now going out of its way to give us insight into his character, but just as with his lore, we have to seek it out and consider it carefully in order to learn anything. like do you understand why im suddenly so obsessed with this guy!!! not to mention all the ways he parallels kris and chara and alphys and serves as a reflection of the player and. god. i love these fucking video james so much

[ticklishshenanigansau]

LaughterLand - Chapter 16: Tentacles

(story by Mod Secret, art by Mod Kitty)

They floated through the air for what must have felt like hours. Eventually the playfulness died down, and they instead enjoyed the peace and tranquility that this little detour allowed them. Though there was still an atmosphere of uncertainty surrounding them, at least for the time being they could regather their strength and breathe.

As their cloud carriage took them farther into the jungle, Sans decided to try spending his time being productive — for once. He knew the peace wasn't going to last forever, and it was only a matter of time before something or someone would show up to consume their laughter again. It was time to get his magic up and working again.

Closing his eyes and trying to get into a meditative-like state, Sans reached into the deepest parts of his Soul. He searched and searched for even the tiniest fragment of a spark, anything that he could sustain. He didn't know how much time had passed since he had started, or how much longer he could keep straining himself. But eventually he did find something. It was so minuscule, so weak … he had to really examine it several times over to make sure it was a legit spark, and not just his mind growing desperate. But after a good amount of time had passed, he was convinced. Now the trick was to sustain it, to let it grow and fill the space around his Soul.

Monsters of the Underground have an unlimited supply of magic residing within them. When they first learn how to harness their abilities, they have to feel that powerful spark and harness its abilities to come to the tips of their fingers in order to use it. Once a spark is used to assist Monsters with whatever it is they were trying to do, the magic is immediately replenished. Any Monster can strain their powers with too much excessive use, but it's not like their sparks of power ever fade away because of that strain.

The problem that the brothers were facing was that it seemed like their magic had been all but drained out of them completely. Now to find even the smallest spark of magic took immense concentration and mental stamina. Even then, the sparks were so small and weak that it took even more mental gymnastics to force them to grow and be useful. Sans could feel beads of sweat starting to form as he strained to expand the tiny spark. It was going to take so much effort on his end that a part of him almost didn't think it would be worth it.

Even if he did manage to fill up the space in his Soul, he would be too fatigued from all that strain to fight. Not to mention the spark would only be good for one use of power. A single bone construct, one Gaster Blaster, one use of teleportation where he couldn't even control where they landed. Then it would immediately deplete again, leaving Sans powerless and too exhausted to try and sustain another spark. Still … one spell to keep in his back pocket was better than nothing. If there was any chance that it would help get them out of trouble, he'd keep going.

"It just keeps going on and on, doesn't it?"

The sound of Papyrus's voice momentarily snapped him out of his focus, but he immediately regained control and kept going.

"Hey, Sans," Papyrus spoke again, oblivious to what his brother was up to. "I just realized something … you haven't tried to nap one time since we've been here."

Sans still kept the spark going, but listened to hear where Papyrus was going with this.

"I mean, don't you think that's a little weird? The combinations of all the times we've been attacked must add up to at least a couple of hours, right? Yet … I don't feel the urge to sleep."

Really thinking about it, Sans realized that Papyrus had a point. With all of the numerous tickle attacks leaving them too exhausted to speak … why didn't he have the urge to sleep? Was it the uncertainty of this place keeping them on their toes? No, this cloud had been a fairly decent place of protection for a while now, and yet Sans hadn't even thought about napping. That was beyond abnormal for him. Pushing it out of his mind, he decided to revisit the strange occurrence later and kept his concentration on the spark.

"Sans … are you alright?" Papyrus finally noticed that his brother wasn't answering him. Sans heard his question but was unable to answer due to his focus. What he didn't realize was just how strained he really looked. The beads of sweat had become tiny streams that were falling down the side of his skull. His teeth were practically grinding, and his hands were slightly trembling.

"Sans?" Papyrus asked, sounding more concerned. This time the older skeleton blocked his voice out completely, he had almost gotten it. He could feel the spark growing and expanding, it was almost perfectly aligned with his Soul, he just had to hold on a little bit longer.

A strange rumbling noise suddenly pulled Papyrus's attention away from his brother. He peered down over the edge of the cloud. There was a long winding river, but what really caught his eye was what was laying just a few yards away.

It was an enormous black hole. It looked to be some kind of strange tunnel, but there was nothing Papyrus could see on the inside, except for pure blackness. This bizarre hole in the ground was huge! It looked like it was big enough to swallow all of Snowdin, but if the size wasn't terrifying enough, Papyrus was certain that the rumbling noise was coming from deep within the depths of that black hole.

"Sans...?" Papyrus called nervously.

He kept his voice quiet for fear of whatever was down there spotting them. But Sans couldn't hear a thing, he couldn't tear his concentration away. Not when he was so close. He had given this spark so much energy already, he wasn't sure he had much more to give. But he knew that if he gave up now, then all of his efforts would be for nothing. With every bit of his mental strength left, Sans spent his last round of energy, and at last felt the warm spark of magic consume his Soul.

He fell over onto his back, a shrill gasp escaping as he remembered how high up they were. He panted lightly as he felt the after-effects of his body's exhaustion. He couldn't help but tremble as the oxygen filled his system, literally breathing life back into his metaphoric muscles.

But what was the most important thing to him was that he had succeeded. The single spark he had pulled from the depths of his drained and tired Soul was now fully operational and ready. He could feel its warm energy swirling around within him. It was a comforting sensation, like the return of an old friend. But Sans knew that the second he chose to use it, it would fade away immediately. He had to choose his next move carefully, save it only for emergencies.

"Sans!" came Papyrus's tone of amazement. "Look, your magic!"

Papyrus must have noticed the tiny sparks that momentarily surrounded Sans's fingertips once that part of his power was restored.

"Does this mean...?" Papyrus looked at him with hopeful eyes, Sans almost didn't want to tell him the truth.

"Heh, afraid not, bro," he confessed. "I managed to get at least one spell up and ready, but that's probably it." Papyrus's face dropped with a sigh.

"I don't suppose you can use that one spell to teleport us home?" He suggested. Sans shook his head.

"With so little magic to take control of, even if we teleported I can't guarantee where we'll end up," he explained. "Best not take that chance." Papyrus nodded in agreement, although visibly disappointed.

The strange rumbling noise returned, eliciting a startled gasp from Papyrus as he suddenly remembered what they were floating above.

"What was...?" Sans started to question before Papyrus interrupted him.

"Sans!" he harshly whispered. "Come here, you have to see this!!"

He abruptly pulled Sans to look over the edge of the cloud, so he, too, could gaze upon the enormous black hole. But to his dismay, the brothers peered over the edge only to find that a thick blanket of clouds had overtaken the landscape below them. Unless they were miles closer to the ground, they weren’t about to see anything down there any time soon.

“Um … what am I looking at, Papyrus?” Sans asked, trying to squint his eyes to see past the clouds.

But before Papyrus could answer, the strange rumbling noise returned, this time accompanied by a low growling sound. The vibrations were enough to even shake the cloud carriage. The brothers gripped onto the edge tightly until the sound and the vibrations came to a halt.

“S-Sans…,” Papyrus quietly stammered. “I think something might be down there!”

Sans swallowed hard, the pressure he had put on himself to gather his magic had left him in a state of exhaustion. While he had recovered a small portion of it from deep breathing, there was no way he was ready for a fight. There was no doubt Papyrus had seen something down there before the blanket of clouds covered it up. He could tell by the way his younger brother was trembling.

“Okay…,” Sans whispered. “We just have to lay low, don’t make a sound.”

Papyrus nodded in agreement. Although anxiety was quickly starting to overtake him. Sans could also feel pangs of nervousness, he had just spent all of this energy to conjure up one spell, he hated the idea of having to use it right away. He silently wished that they had some other means to defend themselves, anything that they could use to give them some kind of an upper hand. As his hands subconsciously found their way into the pockets of his shorts, he suddenly remembered something valuable that he had won from their last group of enemies.

He pulled out the tiny bag of Tickle Dust from his pocket. He was surprised that it had some decent weight to it for being so small. No wonder the fairies were struggling to pull it away from him. He carefully opened the bag to examine what was inside. Sure enough, there was the glittering pink dust, catching light in the sun. Recalling the ticklish stress it had done to his face and nasal cavity, Sans cautiously held his breath as he checked it out.

Another thundering rumble clashed through the sky causing the cloud carriage to abruptly start shaking again. Sans nearly lunged forward, losing his balance in the process. Thankfully he caught himself just in time to land on his elbows and immediately close the bag before any of the dangerous dust could be unleashed.

Unbeknownst to him, the tiniest particle of dust managed to escape just outside of the rim of the bag. It was so small that nobody would have been able to see it unless they knew what they were looking for. The particle of sparkling powder floated weightlessly in midair for a moment before subtly coming to rest right at the bottom of Papyrus’s nasal cavity.

Immediately, Papyrus could feel that old familiar tickling irritation starting to form within his nose. It wasn’t even close to what Sans had experienced earlier because it was such a small dose. Nevertheless, panic engulfed the younger skeleton as he felt the urge to sneeze. He tried rubbing at his face but it was too late, the particle had traveled too deeply into his nose, irritating every little space and crevice. He was going to sneeze, and there was nothing he could do about it.

“Ah…ah…ah….” Papyrus sharply inhaled, trying desperately to muffle himself.

Sans looked over, at first slightly irritated that his brother was making noise. But once he saw the distressed look on his face, he immediately recognized what was happening.

Papyrus quickly clamped his hands over his mouth after inhaling again, this time sounding more shrill. In a flash, Sans hopped onto his brother’s shoulders, forcing him to bend down so that he, too, could cover his face with his hands. But even with four hands muffling his mouth, it wasn’t guaranteed to completely silence the sneeze still building up in his nasal cavity. Papyrus’s eyes watered, he could feel it, it was coming….

“…pfft!”

Both brothers paused, the big sneeze they were expecting was no more than a squeaky raspberry. Barely audible if they hadn’t been right next to each other. If they weren’t under such an intense amount of stress for trying to be quiet, it would have been rather hilarious. They removed their hands away from Papyrus’s mouth to let out a steady sigh of relief.

Then they heard it. A tremendous roar tore through the air, violently shaking the cloud carriage as well as the skeletons who were riding it. The brothers gripped onto the cloud, holding on for dear life as the world around them trembled violently. Papyrus peered nervously over the edge of the cloud, at first seeing only white from the fog that still covered the landscape. Then it happened.

It was so fast, it appeared within the blink of an eye. Something long and black shot itself out from the blanket of white. It was a thick, gargantuan tentacle and it was headed straight for them!

Papyrus watched in horror as the massive appendage rocketed through the air, abruptly shooting past him and causing him to fall backwards onto the cloud. After landing with a soft thud, he gazed up to see the tentacle now a good mile above them. Papyrus felt Sans gripping onto his shoulders in an attempt to protect him, but it was too late. In a flash, the tip of the long black tentacle wrapped itself around both of Papyrus’s legs. Papyrus let out a blood-curdling shriek as it aggressively started pulling him downwards.

“AAAAAAAAAAAAGHHH!!!”

Papyrus could only cling to the safety of the cloud carriage for less than a second before he felt himself slip completely over the edge.

“PAP!!”

Sans would have gone flying right alongside him, but somehow the creature had managed to pull Papyrus right out of the loop that held them together. Sans dove for his brother, just barely catching his hands in the nick of time. He, too, would have slipped completely over the edge if he hadn’t dug his feet and knees deeply into the cloud. He managed to stop himself from slipping and gripped onto his brother with all of his might.

“I’ve … got you…!” he strained, trying to pull him up. “Just … hang on!”

Sans completely ignored his lack of energy from before, choosing only to focus on Papyrus, and the strength he would need to pull him loose from this strange creature. The fear of falling wasn’t even taken into account with him, all of his thoughts and emotions were focused on his brother’s safety, and that was all he needed.

“Sans!!” Papyrus screeched, trying to kick his legs free. “Sans, please!! Help me!!”

“I’m trying!!” Sans replied with a strained grunt.

He ignored the ache that was already gathering in his fingers, squeezing Papyrus even tighter and refusing to let go. Half of his body hung off the edge of the cloud. But he tried to engage his knees to pull upwards and his feet to remain stuck to the cloud, ensuring that he wouldn’t go flying.

Papyrus also hung on tight. The tentacle wrapping itself around his legs was pulling harder and harder, and although his legs were bound too tightly for him to move, it didn’t stop him from trying to kick free. His arms shook desperately as he tried to force his elbows to bend in an effort to pull himself closer to Sans. But he could gauge enough wiggle-room to make any moves to his advantage. Thankfully, Sans had managed to anchor himself down to the cloud, so the creature was not able to pull him down any further.

Another low grumble echoed through the air and shook the cloud again, Papyrus let out a frightened scream as he felt the world tremor around him. For a split second, Sans’s body inched forward. Gritting his teeth, he immediately dug further into the cloud with his feet and knees. More determined than ever to not lose his brother.

From the depths of the rumbling clouds came a soft and fast WHOOSHING noise. Papyrus looked down to see what was going on. To his horror, two more tentacles shot up from the crowding clouds and were approaching him with intense speed.

“AAAGH!! No!! No!!” he screamed in terror. “Sans!! Pull me up!! Hurry!!”

Hearing the panic in his brother’s voice strengthened his resolve as he pulled even harder. Still, Papyrus didn’t budge from his place in the sky, still caught between his brother and this new terrifying monster. Sans held his breath as he shut his eyes tightly. Sweat trickled down his neck as he continued to try and get the upper hand in this impromptu tug-of-war.

“NOOOOOO!!!”

Sans’s eyes shot open at the sound of his brother’s scream of terror. He opened his eyes, leaning over the side of the cloud, terrified of what he was going to see.

Two tentacles had emerged from the clouds and were mercilessly tickling under Papyrus’s arms. The frantic skeleton shrieked with laughter and frantically twisted his body around while still trying to hold on.

"NYAHAHAHA!!! NOHOHOHO!! NOHO PLEHEHEHEASE!!" Papyrus desperately looked up at Sans, tears already gathering in his sockets. "SAHAHAHAHANS!!! HELP MEHEEHEEHEE!!!”

Sans could already feel Papyrus's grip on his hands starting to loosen. He clenched his fingers around him tighter than ever and pulled. The creature also pulled, sensing the weakened state it had just put its victim into. The brothers practically clawed for each other. Papyrus tried to focus on the pain in his hands rather than the horrible tickling sensations. But no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't stop himself from squirming or laughing hysterically.

"STAHAHAHAHAP!!" he pleaded, fighting the urge to swat at the tickling tentacles. "GO AWAHAHAY!!! LET ME GOHOHOHO!! NYAAAGGHAHAHAHAHA!!"

Sans’s mind raced, he wasn't getting anywhere with trying to pull Papyrus up. He wasn't going to last forever with those cursed tentacles going after him. If they discovered where his sweet spot was, it would be all over. His mind reeled … should he use his one spell? He didn't want to. He tried so hard to have faith that he could manage to pull Papyrus back.

"NOHOHOHOHO!!! NAHAHAT THEHEHEHERE!!"

Sans looked down to find that one of the tentacles had moved on from under Papyrus's arms to the front of his spine. Tickling and delicately swirling around like it was a fragile piece of China.

Papyrus squealed and cried, gentle tickles around his spine always drove him much crazier than harsher tickles. Sans could see the utter terror in his brother's face, the creature was dangerously close to his sweet spot. Sans had to make a decision now!

As long as he held onto Papyrus's hands, he could teleport them both to safety. It was risky not knowing where they would end up next, but it was better than trying to fight off this dangerous creature with only a single spark of magic to his name.

Just as Sans was figuring out which spell to use, another long black tentacle rose up right before his eyes. Clearly this monster could tell that it wasn't getting anywhere with Papyrus, so Sans knew that it had to be there for him. He glared daggers at the long black tentacle, as if to challenge it. No matter what this monstrosity did to him, no matter which spot it chose to go after, he swore in that moment that he would not let go of his brother.

Sans steeled himself as the tentacle dove for his midsection. He gritted his teeth and prepared for the worst. The tentacle placed itself onto Sans's sternum, for a moment it laid there perfectly still. Sans was utterly confused, until … WHACK!!

In a moment of unpredictable strength, the appendage shoved Sans so hard that it knocked him backwards onto the cloud, nearly sending him over the edge. The sheer force caught the skeleton so off-guard that Papyrus's hands slipped straight out of his fingertips, sending him plummeting to the ground within the grip of the three gargantuan tentacles.

"SAAAAAAAAAAANS!!"

Sans scrambled to the edge of the cloud carriage, just in time to see his brother disappearing beneath the blanket of white, his frightened voice fading with the sudden distance between them.

In that moment, all feelings of hesitation and doubt vanished completely from the older skeleton. Getting to his feet, he extended his left hand. His eye shone bright with determination as he summoned a Gaster Blaster. The loss of power from his only source of magic immediately left a weak and vulnerable feeling within him, but Sans ignored it, turning to his weapon.

"Find him," Sans ordered sternly.

The Blaster gave a small chirp before zooming towards the ground with warp speed. It took no time for it to reach the tentacle that was dragging his brother down to the ground. The Blaster opened its massive jaw and clamped down hard on the creature's tentacle, eliciting another loud roaring sound that shook the earth and the sky together. Sans clenched his left fist, sensing that his weapon of choice had successfully found its target. With a strained growl, he lifted his fist high up over his head. The Blaster, in response, started pulling the tentacle back up towards the cloud carriage with Papyrus in tow.

At first, it was just that simple as the creature seemed to be unaware of what was happening. But once it had finally realized that the fight for its prey was continuing, it didn't take long for it to start pulling again. Sans and the Blaster faltered for only a moment, but quickly regained control and resumed the tug-of-war.

Sans could feel his arm being forced downwards, but he let out a feral-sounding growl as he forced his hand back up towards the sky. He could feel it starting to work. He could sense that the Blaster was successfully winning over the monstrous appendage and was steadily bringing his brother back to him. He opened his glowing eye to notice the Blaster starting to peek through the blanket of clouds.

A frightened squeak suddenly caught in his throat. He froze with his eyes wide open. Something was invading under the back of his shirt.

The two tentacles that had previously attacked Papyrus dove under the back of his shirt and started wriggling against the sides of his ribcage. Sans grunted loudly, fighting every urge he had to buckle and release Papyrus. The crook of his elbow bent downwards, causing the Blaster to momentarily be dragged down, but Sans managed to regain control. Using his right hand, he gripped onto his left elbow and forced it back into an upwards position. The Blaster, too, regained its strength and continued pulling Papyrus back up towards his brother.

Sans fought as hard as he could to keep his laughter in check. Now more than ever, he refused to give in to this creature that was trying to take his brother away. The tickling tentacles wriggled and traced along and between his ribs, even twisting along to tickle the front of his spine. Sans replaced his laughter with growling screams and strained grunts and groaning sounds. He grinded his teeth and glared with every ounce of detestation he had for this place, but still, he kept his arm locked in place.

The tentacles grew desperate. They both abandoned his ribs and spine and dove straight for Sans’s underarms.

“HAH…!” Sans let a frantic squeal of laughter catch in his throat. His underarms were HORRIBLY sensitive, and he knew it. There was no hope of holding back laughter now. So he let it come bursting out of him, but in spite of it all, he kept his left hand raised, still refusing to let go.

“AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!” he practically wailed with hysterical laughter intermixed with his angered growling. He dropped to his knees, but that was the only part of him that he allowed to buckle.

He kept his right hand attached to his left arm as a support system, still holding it upright. It was still working, he could feel that the Blaster had not yet given up. Inch by inch it was steadily forcing the tentacle to bring his brother back. He looked down and could see them starting to emerge from the blanket of clouds.

“SANS!!” Papyrus cried, waving his arms towards him. “KEEP GOING, BROTHER!! YOU CAN DO IT!!”

Papyrus’s encouragement gave Sans all the strength he needed. His body desperately craved relief. In that moment he would have given anything to collapse onto the ground just to hopelessly defend his tickle spots from any more exploitation. But the very sight of his brother depending on him triggered a kind of determination within his Soul that overpowered even that of his needs for alleviation.

Suddenly, the tentacles stopped. Within a few moments, they abruptly slithered out from Sans’s shirt and disappeared below him. Sans inhaled a frantic breath of air, nearly gagging on it as he regained his sanity. Despite the overwhelming relief that consumed his body, his mind reeled. Had they given up? Did they realize that they weren’t going to break him that easy? They didn’t go for very long, or even try to find other spots on him. It didn’t make any sense.

But Sans didn’t have time to figure it out, he got back to his feet and continued to lift Papyrus back up to where he had been. He looked down to see just how much further he had to go … when he saw a sight that made his Soul run cold.

The tentacles hadn’t gone away completely, they had floated back down towards Papyrus … specifically they were circling the Blaster. Sans figured that if the creature wasn’t going to get him to let go, then the next best thing was the strange being that was digging its teeth into its tentacle.

Sans immediately began to tremble, this was bad. His Blasters were a manifestation of his Soul, anything that affected them would in turn affect him. If those tentacles were about to do what he was thinking they were going to do, that would mean his Soul would be next on the chopping block. He shook violently as the tentacles surrounded the Blaster, nearly letting go of Papyrus in the process. Could a Soul even be ticklish? He was too horrified to know.

The tentacles started tickling both sides of the Blaster.

It was all over in what felt like slow motion. Sans’s Soul was about as ticklish as the rest of him. What was worse was it wasn’t just the area where his Soul was located that felt ticklish. The tickling sensation had spread to every single inch of his body. From the tip of his skull to the ends of his toes, it was like being electrocuted, but everything tickled and tickled and TICKLED!

Sans momentarily blacked out within his own mind. Completely losing control, he lost his grip on Papyrus and fell backwards, laughter pounding out of him intermixing with screams of horror and silent squeals. It was the picture of unadulterated agony!

It didn’t last long, in fact it may have been over within the span of thirty seconds. When Sans finally came to, every inch of his being was practically on fire with tingling. His only source of relief came from a sudden cool breeze that had gathered around him. He inhaled and exhaled so fast he was sure he was about to have a Soul Attack. Blinking tears from his eyes, he noticed through his blurry vision that the cloud carriage had somehow manifested itself directly above him and was gradually getting farther and farther away.

That’s when he realized … he was falling!

A breeze didn’t just come out of nowhere to soothe him, it was the effects of him free-falling through the air. He felt the urge to scream, but found his throat to be worn out and scratchy due to his screaming fit from the Soul-tickling. He frantically looked down, expecting to see the ground getting closer. But instead, all that consumed him was black.

Just as quickly as he had begun to fall, he had been stopped. He opened his eyes, realizing that he could no longer move his arms or legs. He was in the clutches of another black tentacle. He let out a painful gasp as he felt himself being dragged downwards by the massive beast. He instinctively tried to clench his left hand to try and get the Blaster to come to his aid. But nothing happened, he looked up to find that the Blaster had completely vanished, and the last of his magic had gone with it.

There was nothing that could save them now. Sans felt an overwhelming feeling of helplessness as he and his brother were dragged down to the enormous tunnel below.

[lynxgriffin]

How can Paper Trail end, when Kris didn't even enter the seventh Dark World? The justification you gave for ending it there is that "what happens next is... not for the player to know". But the SOUL wasn't destroyed, only severed, so what's stopping them from continuing to observe? You didn't need to give a justification at all. (ask continued)

(continuation) Isn't the timing of the SOUL gaining control of Kris awfully convenient? Why does Gaster think he knows when the story will end? After all, its actual ending was premature, from his point of view. Why didn't you give a transcript for Lemon Ralsei's prophecy? And how did he get those scars? One more Paper Trail ask: do the soul traits of each prince have any relation to the content of their diary entry? Because if they do, I can't spot it. I lied, heres another PT ask: is there any real reason why the princes can travel between dark worlds and combine, or is it just some bullshit power they get from being connected to Kris?

Geez okay so that's a whole lot of PT and DOFP critical asks. I'm just going to do all of those at once because I don't want to spread that out over six asks. Maybe uh...next time try and consolidate those?

The whole idea is that the player can't observe the world of Deltarune without that connection to Kris. If that connection is severed, then so is the ability to observe and interact with that world.

Gaster thinks that he understands the player well enough to believe that they will not let go of Kris until they know what happens. The player choosing to let go of Kris without knowing what happens is unexpected for him, so yes, from his point of view, it is premature.

If you mean when Gaster got his scars, he just got them over the course of his work. He's clearly not working safely!

I can't remember, but I think I did give a transcript? If not, people were able to work out what Lairse's legend was, anyway.

The soul traits for the princes relate to the feelings/behavior that Asriel expresses through the diary entries, and specifically link up to how the souls move. For example, for Eslira, his worries over what Kris is doing -> Eslira's fear of a human lightner -> he tends to isolate himself and stay in one place -> teal soul is "don't move, and you won't get hurt."

And all of the princes can do that by the end when enough connections have been established between them, and because they're special compared to how other Darkners work. It probably would not have worked early on in the adventure, even if they did know how to do it.

DOFP ask - Why does Greatest Dog's save file date back to just before they joined the guard? At the time, GD wouldn't have DT, so my assumption is that the save file updates on its own, but you need DT in order to LOAD. But why is that the last time it updated? What does Greater Dog mean when they the first subject's "face was different"? Did they have a blaster... GRAFTED onto their face? Why?

Greatest Dog mentions this in the story: this was the day he was supposed to get his special armor, and he wanted to remember this day forever. Even if he has no direct control over his save file, that's still something that would stick as "important! save here!"

You see in a flashback that the monster is wearing a mask akin to the machinery that looks like a Gaster blaster. This gives the idea that the mask/machinery altered their face, although this wasn't intentional on Gaster's part.

[sketchingstars03]

aghfdsfd sry about the infodumping but i havr to get tgis out of my head hc that ink has a kind of a fixation on naming?? him naming his brush ,the doodlesphere and giving people nicknames kinda?? something something about his abandoned AU not havign a name... something about his last words being not watnting to b forgotten. wanting to be someone.. somethin about names n identity sjhjgf also uhm i just learned that it's actually like. confirmed that he's the one who put all those buckets in the doodlesphere. and also ink doesn't consider himself a Sans bc of his lack of a universe. uh mirror room. apparently its implied that the reason he doesnt liek that room is bc. Ink couldnt tell that they're the original or just one of the many reflections/imposters. since he's the only Ink who doesnt have a soul and doesnt remember jack shit ab his past.(kinda outdated but makes sense. that room was made official around that time where the fact that ink not having a soul is considered vry niche info iirc? somewhere around early 2017)

no Anon you’re onto something with the naming thing.

I think it’s fascinating that Ink, should this be true (which it seems very plausible to me), extends this need to be someone, to have an identity, to others. In a similar way to how they might subconsciously extend that feeling of no universe deserving to be left behind, in that both stem from themself, yet he can’t help but fulfil that desire through other people. Really shines a light on the side of Ink that “isn’t completely selfish”, to put it in words I remember from one post by Comyet.

I always had a feeling, like a headcanon, that Ink would feel separated from his Sans identity, or, well it would probably be more like a role or title to him, rather than a name or someone he is. They left “Sans” behind with _____tale (something he doesn’t even remember). Though, it’s interesting that he still carries over some sans-like traits, like puns/pranks (though more frequent and intense pranks than a regular Sans would pull), and the creation of their own personal Gaster Blaster companion and forming bones out of ink. And there was the sans-like sweater in their old design (something I like to think they still hold on to, even if he doesn’t wear it anymore)

I should check Comyet’s blog to see that lmao guess it probably wasn’t purely just a hc after all.

THE PART ABOUT THE MIRROR ROOM IS FASCINATING THOUGH! Now that you mention it I think I remember a post like that, again looks like I need another trip through the Inkechos tag 😅. But still!! I wonder how Ink would feel about the mirror room now, if his dislike was based around how all the other “hims” had souls and he didn’t, now that that’s changed and it’s actually the Inks with souls who are the outliers (shout out to FTFO!Ink). Would they take joy in the fact that they’re not alone? Or would it still feel, weird and uncomfortable somehow? Perhaps serving as another reminder of his emptiness deep down, and so they still avoid it even though the circumstances in the fandom have changed. I know that whenever I RP my version of Ink meeting other variants, he’s always very interested to see new versions of himself, so maybe it would just be like that! Who knows! Well, Comyet does, but I’m not her 😅.

Either way thank you so much for this thought-provoking ask, Anon! I’m always happy to discuss my favourite chaotic-neutral-artist-skeleton guy like this!

[howlsofbloodhounds]

Oh oh! uhh do you have any songs you haven't mentioned yet (or haven't in awhile) that you associate with color or killer (or both)? :3

Oh I have a bit so hang with me here.

1. Color and Killer, with enemy fire. I shift on if I think this fits Stage 1 & Color, or oddly enough, Stage 3 and Color.

2. Wicked Game is definitely them (“what a wicked thing to do, to let me dream of you.” “What a wicked game to play, to make me feel this way.” “What a wicked thing to say, you never felt this way.” “This world will break your heart, nobody’s falling in love.” “The world was on fire, and no one could save me but you.” “Its strange what desire will make foolish people do.” “I never dreamed that id meet somebody like you, and I never dreamed that id lose somebody like you.” This is definitely Color and Stage 2.

And another is War of Hearts and andromeda and Take on the World (Color’s POV)

This Night has Opened my Eyes for all off Killer Stages & all just variously finding themselves wishing for what they with Chara at their lowest points in life, if only because they don’t know who they are if they aren’t in pain or if they aren’t theirs.

Please please let me get what I want but I think it’s actually stage 2. He rarely wants anything as much as he wants color.

Change but it’s Chara’s POV and watching Sans become something else. Decode is Chara & ST1 so much. Numb is very Chara & ST2 leading up to his betrayal and 25 to life. That one could also work with Killer and Nightmare.

Thank you for hating me and Hope It Haunts You fits Stage 2 with Chara/the player (& nightmare in a way) in my opinion. What Could Have Been is definitely Stage 2 with the Player. Brutus is Stage 2 & Chara. Breaking the Habit for st2. Going Under for Stage 1.

Don’t You Dare Forget The Sun makes me think of Killer in a way, although I’m still figuring out how.

Hurts Like Hell but its color because the poor man has likely lost killer many times and hardly anyone is going to understand or empathize because of who killer is. Look After You but its color & killer with eachother.

How to Save a Life and Leave the Light On is definitely Color.

You Found Me is definitely st1, but like, id imagine he’s talking to someone from his past. Papyrus, or in my opinion, Gaster—with the, “where were you?” parts. Color is the “her” who is mentioned to be lost.

Somewhere Only We Know is definitely Color and Killer. And Die For You but especially Color with Killer in the beginning, but then it becomes Killer.

I Found makes me think of them.

Paralyzed is Stage 1 or Sans when things were really getting bad. I’ll Be Good makes me think of stage 1.

Two makes me think of Color. Francis Forever after losing Killer once again.

This is getting long and a lot of these are based on scenarios I can picture happening so I will try to end it with one more, ah..one that definitely leans more into a queer and a bit suggestive undertone with Rule #34 because that is definitely Stage 2 being a little freak to Color. I need to stop myself here or I’ll keep going

( @toffeebrew ).

[catboysansundertale]

utdr big bounce theory

was thinking about some of sans's fight dialogue and, hopefully I'm making sense here, but...

until suddenly everything ends...? what could he mean by that, hm?

if we expand on the idea that sans and papyrus in undertale are originally from deltarune, perhaps this could could also be related

if you know what the big bounce is, you might have guessed where I'm going with this. (if you don't know what the big bounce is, it's the kind of outdated hypothesis that the big bang was a result of a universe before ours collapsing and/or our universe collapsing at the end of its life before going through another big bang)

maybe deltarune (or one of its weird routes, which I believe is more likely) will end with the universe collapsing, then 'bouncing' back into the universe undertale is in? likely with some last wednesday-ism, with everyone being placed in their respective spaces in the new timeline

these lines also sparked my interest. seeing what comes next? consuming timelines over and over until... what? if it was just another reset, isn't that what he wants here? what is he trying to prevent? maybe another collapse in this universe is possible too, at least from his point of view, and that's what he's trying to stop

"Our reports" could be referring to either before or after the bounce event, I'm not sure which but I do think it's more interesting to be referring to before. this way the title anomoly addresses the player specifically and not frisk, the other humans, or flowey, which I think is very fitting to deltarune and undertale's themes

I think it'll be a weird route specifically because of the way he talks about/to the anomoly

he's telling you that you're the type of person who'll keep resetting over and over to see and consume every possibility. the kind of person who would do weird routes just to see what happens and get every little bit of detail you can. not that I think he personally knows about weird routes or what happens in other timelines, just why I personally think this would be the ending of a weird route

I also think it's interesting that goner girl and by extension possibly goner kid have a connection to sans, too, because of goner kid's dialogue

I'll admit that this could be a reference to gaster shattering or even fun values, but I do think it's interesting from a big bounce perspective. people being completely lost from a bounce event is SUPER interesting, and maybe that's the only reason I'd like to believe that part, but I do think it makes sense and another reason for sans to try and prevent it

feel free to let me know if I've missed anything that supports or goes against this theory! I love to learn more about undertale/deltarune (and honestly there's some stuff I've forgotten over the years since I first played either)

[velvetwyrme]

Hello! Loved your fanfic recommends part 3 ;)

i know you’re probably busy and tired from putting that list together (and such a large quantity oh my god :o) but do you ahve ANTI- harems? I think you included some in you list but i missed it or something.. if your not to busy can you pls recommend some?

-anon💜🪐

Hello again! Glad you liked em!!! I AM busy but I also need a break so... List Time it is!

There are definitely some anti-harem fics in my previous lists, but here's those plus a few more! My notes are less detailed because I'm Tired lol.

You all know the drill by now; Finished/Oneshot, Ongoing/Unfinished, Discontinued/Hiatus...

No ship tags because oftentimes its Complicated, and/or I don't remember the specifics jskfhkjd,,, it's been a while since I've read some of these.

Also, I'm not including warnings for this one because anti-harems are often prone to being on the darker side and/or containing NSFW content or discussions of, so I'll let y'all use your best judgement here.

Make sure to read the tags and most importantly enjoy yourself!

=========================

There are a couple I know I've added to my third list (The Understudy (F) and The Eye of a Judge (O)) which are both by the same author and as mentioned in my previous notes, The Understudy is THE anti-harem fic; the one that started it all! So those are both obvious additions to me.

Other than that there's also...

There's Still Magic - Finished

I like this one! Follows the structure of a typical anti-harem, and it does it well!!! Just read and enjoy the drama :]

One Step At A Time - Ongoing/Unfinished

This is one of those anti-harems where the reader just kinda... ends up with their own harem in the end ajkdhfjkshdf but still! I enjoyed the drama in this one, also I love Marianna 🥺 She's cool...

do you live with abusive skeletons? stick to the original timeline and fuck their dad! - Finished

Gaster/Reader anti harem. You pull a power move and fuck their dad!!! There's also a revised version, but I haven't read that one yet sdjhskdf but it's there if you want to read it too!!

A Skull-pture of true happiness - Ongoing/Unfinished

Anti-harem except the reader has met Edge before and accidentally left him with a Surprise ;))... (it's a baby. They knocked him up jkhfjkd) This one has soo much drama...

This Life is Mine - Indefinite Hiatus

What if you had the typical anti-harem experience then a reset happens... except you remember all that happened, and are determined to not repeat your mistakes.

artist’s depiction - Ongoing/Unfinished

Similar concept as previous, except the reader DIED. I really enjoy Reset/Save-adjacent shenanigans, and both of these fics are very fun because of that!

Consequences - Ongoing/Unfinished

The reader ALSO fucking dies in this one, but this time they come back as a ghost along with Classic Pap :] The GF in this is... she's fascinating, is what I'll say. I've recc'ed this and the next fic before (in my second rec list!) but I'm adding both here for ease of access LMAO.

Resisting the Current - Ongoing/Unfinished

RTC lives in the back of my head permanently!!! It's an anti-harem except the GF is ALSO into you (and is also your ex!!!!). I love Quinn sooooooo much <33

We're Not Gonna Take It - Oneshot

As the title implies, the reader decides they aren't going to take the anti-harem treatment, and gets the fuck outta dodge. They bump into another set of skeletons though :]

Bound to love - Ongoing/Unfinished

This is actually an AU based on the author's other fic (the first in the series) but that one isn't an anti-harem and this one is lol.

I find the concept really interesting- the reader has met Coffee in previous timelines, where Coffee appears to them and them alone, only for the world to be reset every time. It's neat and dramatic in a way typical to anti-harems.

Also, the author also has another anti-harem fic, with a focus on Swapfell Sans ^-^!!

=========================

Much much shorter list lolol. I'm sure there are others that I've read, but these are the ones I have on hand atm ;P!!

FIC REC MASTERLIST

[mirror-ralsei]

initial sleep-deprived thoughts on the february newsletter:

- some memes referenced: doobie ralsei, eric andre, everyteenagers, warthunder leaks, cdi mario

- weirdly enough the sans “your mom” valentine creating a recursion of moms is really reminiscent of the joke book physics book recursion lol. probably doesn’t mean anything but jic

- i doubt the amv character is alphys. she already has valentines with her undertale version sprite depicted, and her deltarune counterpart is more focused on superheroes than anime.

- furthermore, upcoming characters such as elnina and lanino and arguably the strange letter character were teased. so i personally think this is a new anime-themed character, probably from chapter 3 with its focus on TV

- wait i just realized this would match up with the anime case in the garbage dump too

- as for the strange letter. my gut reaction was like many of us GASTER CONFIRM??!!?11 but turns out i just misremembered “SHOW YOURSELF! DELTARUNE!” as “SHOW YOURSELF! DELTA RUNE!” so scratch that

- the most compelling evidence against it being gaster is definitely the japanese version not matching his katakana quirk. using contractions and no line breaks in the english version too

- if it is a different character other than gaster it’s at the very least an intentional red herring making us believe it’s gaster... like the gaster reading seems completely intended.

- if they aren’t gaster or a version of gaster then they’re probably a character strongly connected to him, considering the illegible writing and the disappearance and redaction of the letter

- speaking of which, i haven’t seen anyone bring up [REDACTED] yet, who also talks in wingdings (assuming gaster is mysteryman and not [redacted]). probably not them but could be relevant

- as wandydoodles pointed out it could also be the “YOU’RE EARLY!” character

- “squint your heart” is an interesting concept. not sure we’ll find out what it’s referring to for a good while though. unless it’s just the soul

- “THE TIME IS GOING AROUND.” interesting phrasing. seems reminiscent of “the world revolving” or “take a ride around town” somehow but who knows the significance

- “EVERY DAY IS A DAY OF LOVE, IF ONLY YOU BELIEVE IT SO. DO YOU BELIEVE IT SO?” this also could be vaguely important. like belief determines things into existence?

- i don’t have much to say about the “there was someone i wanted to help” “i seem to have forgotten who” part bc like with the roaring knight this is just setting up a plot thread with virtually no context whatsoever at the moment. it’ll form the basis of investigations going forward but there’s nothing really we can determine with the information right now imo. like with the existence of the bunker and such, it’s just asking a question.

- the only context we have is “don’t forget” as a main theme of the series in the music title, sans’ lab, or occasional references to the phrase like spamton, but that really doesn’t tell us much of anything yet - this is just one more instance of that.

- the only part that helps us determine anything about the speaker is maybe “YES, IT’S QUITE IRONIC, BUT I SEEM TO HAVE FORGOTTEN” which could imply the identity of the speaker is someone who is good at remembering, or whose job it is to remember or catalog things.

- “WAS IT MYSELF? NO... WELL, PERHAPS.” another interesting bit of dialogue that we really don’t have context for yet. though if this is some other piece of gaster this would be evidence towards it i guess

- “YOU ARE VERY ODD, RESPONDING OUT LOUD TO A LETTER.” uhhh this character seems to have the ability to hear our responses... and it’s odd considering the letter would already be written, possibly implying further timeline weirdness

- i’d also just quickly like to point out that it’s possible, if not likely, that this letter is addressed to someone other than us the readers. i doubt it but we do have some of the other valentines like ralsei or elnina/lanino as precedent that this could be written to another person

- “HAPPY NEW YEAR! OR, WAS IT THE OLD YEAR.” “NOW, PUT ON YOUR COAT AND WASH YOUR FACE! OR, PUT ON YOUR FACE AND WASH YOUR COAT.” this reminds me of the river person dialogue and the egg man dialogue and again, the whole cat state egg stuff in general

- according to reddit im not the only one getting unused string vibes off the “put on your face” line lol

- “NOT NECESSARILY IN THAT ORDER. OR, IN ANY ORDER AT ALL.” chaos confirmed??? (joking haha jk unless...?? but probably joking)

- “GOOD BY!” clearly means something and isn’t a typo given there are no typos in the rest of the letter... but i have no idea what. a pun maybe?

- the tense shift from present - “It’s a strange letter” “It’s more or less” “if you squint” “you feel you could understand it” - to past - “There was a sound” “the letter was gone” - is interesting and seems to support the cat state egg things yet again (“there is a man here” “there was not a man here”)

ETA:

- actually... “Well, there is a man here.” “Well, there was not a man here.” “WELL, HAPPY NEW YEAR!” “WELL, IN ANY CASE,”

- overall i wonder if this character is associated with the past: an old timey letter, new or old year, the time going around, the character maybe having a good memory, the parent-y demand to wash up and put on a coat, and the shift from present to past tense?

- my crackpot first thought while first reading this (other than gaster) was “grandpa semi?” but that’s definitely not right lol

- they also might be associated with or affected by the timeline wonkiness going on: “HAPPY NEW YEAR! OR, WAS IT THE OLD YEAR.”, “THE TIME IS GOING AROUND,” the mixed-up order of coat and washing, the shift from present to past tense, and continuing a letter based on a response that hasn’t happened yet

- spamton love network: “the earth will stop spinning” might be a “the world revolving” reference... whatever “the world revolving” even means

- spamton love network: “where is the promise of perfection?” ???

- spamton love network: “my fears surging through me like suspicious waves” something with the ocean?

- spamton love network: once again i am operating on the assumption that the contents of the wayneradiotv spamton shows aren’t themselves canon yet have alluded to things within canon (eg. trouble dingle)

[weaselweaselw]

Deltarune: Why Gaster has a Split Personality

Holy shit... so, in case you're living under a rock, the Deltarune Winter Newsletter came out last night, and its release sent ripples throughout the entire UT/DR fandom.

Included in the Newsletter is a development update which states that Chapter 3 is pretty much complete.

The only aspect of the chapter still being worked on is the localization process from English to Japanese – the entire team is now working on Chapter 4. So that's nice - they even have an internal deadline for the actual game, so we can expect a release within the next year and a half.

However, the main selling point of this entire newsletter was the fact that it's themed around Valentine's Day. And as a result, there were a lot of Valentine's Day letters sent from the various Undertale and Deltarune characters. Here's one from Undyne:

Here's a list of all the letters. Some are short, some are more comical - but many of them reveal interesting things about these characters.

Especially one character in particular...

That's right! Even Gaster has a letter of his own! In fact, it's the rarest letter of them all that to my knowledge, only one person received, until minutes later, the letter itself was erased from Fangamer's website. However, the letter was archived in the nick of time.

Wow, so that was a lot, right? There's quite a bit to analyze here, from Gaster needing help, to him forgetting someone - and it certainly added fuel to the fire that is the deltarune theory community.

However, there's one particular debate taking place all over the internet right now, for you see... some people don't think that letter was sent by Gaster. For one, the tone of this letter doesn't match his usual scientific, detached, and robotic demeanor he's usually associated with. He appears much more down-to-earth, speaking in a much more formal way than he usually does. And for many in the fandom at the moment, that is enough ground to say this character isn't Gaster.

Despite how utterly insane and ridiculous this might sound to you, these people do bring up good points. And of course... these people also use the Japanese translation as evidence. In the Japanese version of Undertale and Deltarune, Gaster speaks in Katakana and Kanji, two rather complex and sophisticated alphabets, but in this letter, Gaster speaks in Hirigana - a more casual, laid-back, and simplistic alphabet, reflecting his demeanor.

So, what gives? Is this a different Gaster? Are there two Gasters at work here, who may or may not be at odds with one another? Is there going to be a Gaster War?

No. People seem to be forgetting something: Gaster was shattered across time and space, as revealed by Undertale.

This isn't just some figurative jargon - one of the Gaster Followers quite literally holds a piece of Gaster in his hand. I know this is often overlooked, but what do you think the psychological effects of this could be?

It would likely be an extremely traumatic experience, if I'm going to be honest - as parts of your mind and body become fragmented across the entire universe and across time itself. So: it's quite possible that Gaster simply has... a split personality.

There aren't two Gasters or anything ridiculous like that, but rather, the one Gaster we know has his mind scattered across the universe, quite literally fragmented - such that different aspects of his personality present themselves at different times. In fact, such a condition exists in the real world: it's called Dissociative Identity Disorder, and it is most often associated with trauma resulting in the compartmentalization of the mind into multiple personality states, otherwise known as alters.

These are not separate people - think of it like turning a light switch on and off, or closing a door. And this is my solution to this debate that has begun about Gaster - I like to think of it as a compromise, but Gaster having a split personality like this can really spice up the story a bit - and could even solve some of the lingering mysteries about what happened to the secret bosses, but as of now, this only exists as theory tape.

Thanks for tuning into my rant.

[letsatomicbanana]

Can I have some advice? I'm trying to write Ink as canonically as *possible. How should I go about his personality? He's a very complex character after all.

Oh boy where i go.

First off i want to say that i'm extremly glad you want to search about Ink's character to portray him as accurate as possible! Not many people do that and writing Ink can be very trick (but you get used to it after some time i swear-)

Like you said Ink is indeed a very complex character so the phrase "How should i go with his personality?" can be a very vaque question, Ink can be many things regarding certain situations and people he meets/talks too. But to answer this matter i divided in sections how he acts generaly and in some situations/individuals!

To start off

...

Ink with another characters! (strangers/new monsters and humans etc....)

If you want to write Ink meeting another person i feel this section is just for you!

Ink does NOT bring a good first impression to people he first meets. He's often described as being "a jerk on accident" and surprising people by his level of 'quikness' and 'weirdness'....

The first thing to make your characters notice about Ink is his social problems and social obliviousness that plays a HUGE part on how Ink communicates and interacts with people. Because of this matter, he's often blunt about his thoughts and visions in which Comyet herself clarifies that it is linked to or even caused by the social problems he presents.

| So if your character is ,for example, extremly tall Ink WILL point out how tall the character is, even if its clearly not appropriate to the situation in hand|

He also doesn't often presents himself to people. Ink doesn't go "Hi, my name is Ink! Nice to meet you...", but instead he says "You have a funny face! Want to be friends?" (It's probable that the character meets Ink and doesn't even know his name, since he doesn't present himself). Keep in mind he doesn't do that intentionally or slyly, it's genuinely something he accidently does. And he also tries to befriend a lot of people but he often fails to do so, because of his social issues of course!

|Also, he doesn't seems to have much of a ' social filter. Calls everyone 'Pal' even when the person clearly isn't his friend. And yes he calls bad people 'pal' too|

In short, the person is more likely to meet him by first impression and think he is an idiot of some sort (yes, his social issues are bad like that)

On the other hand, when said character meets Ink by the second time it's likely they'll start to think Ink as an 'endearing' person. That's what happened to Top!Gaster for example! He thought Ink was strange at first but learned to love Ink as time went on. Speaking about that...

It's important to learn that INK NEEDS TIME!!No one is going to instantly loves Ink!!! In order to build a relationship with him you .need .to. give. him .time!

But If your character never meets him ever again, they will think Ink is a jerk 'till ever.

....

Ink with close people! (family)

This part will be short because Ink doesnt have much close friendships with anyone in particular.But Ink can come off as completly different with strangers and with close people.

For example, Ink is canonically Top!Gaster and Zephyr!Gaster (or aster) adopted son! Like i said, they saw Ink as a weird person at first but learned to love him and respect him by the way he is! He is in short very tender with them!

You need to put in mind that Ink BARELY gets emotionaly attached to people, he's kind with them but he's not particullary attached to anyone. The only two situations where this isn't true is with his fathers (thats why their relationship is so important!)

But when he DOES get attach to them the relationship will certainly last through tick and thin.

Ink (individual)

For this part i really recommend looking through Ink's FAQ "Personality section" for more information in details! But i have a specific advice on this matter!

Ink can be anything! He's a very grey character than can do both good or bad, but It doesn't mean he's good or bad. Don't be afraid to write Ink as very flawed and complex!

I think this ask answered by Comyet in 2018 says it all.

So yeah, hope i helped with something!

[deltaruminations]

rambling some more about a multi-route story structure, player’s relationship to the game, weird route, etc.

one assumption i make consistently when theorizing is that, even if the prophecy is to some degree a fabrication, there is some amount of truth to the idea that a problem exists in deltarune’s world outside of the player’s or gaster’s present meddling. maybe ralsei/the prophecy calls it “the roaring,” gaster calls it “darkness falling,” maybe the player calls it a “bad ending,” but something had already gone materially wrong in the world before the whole game project or whatever started and it doomed the world’s future. i tend to assume that it’s the reason for the project in the first place — gaster wants a NEW FUTURE because he thinks the current one sucks. deltarune has “one ending” and he hates it. he wants a different one.

at this point, i think the prophecy is less an outright lie and more of a hypothesis — there is a real problem in the universe, and the prophecy is an educated guess at a solution: close the fountains, stop “the roaring.” gaster may sincerely hope that this guess is correct, but he knows there’s a good chance it’ll fail. he may even be expecting it to fail. and when it does, what’s the next logical step but to take those findings and isolate another set of variables? just closing the fountains didn’t work, so what if you collect all of the shadow crystals too? will that change anything? and what if that still doesn’t work? what if the only option left involves hurting many people? is that really so bad if the alternative is for everyone to suffer? and if that doesn’t work… if nothing works… no, something has to work. something has to work. something has to work.

and that, i think, is where the deception lies — the player is being drawn into participating in this experiment through the promise of a good ending, without being told that this outcome isn’t actually guaranteed. the goalposts keep moving, the requirements for a good ending keep changing, because gaster doesn’t actually know what those requirements are or if the outcome is even possible at all. the only way for him to know is for him to experiment, and he can’t do that without the player’s continued participation. he puts an unwitting player into a position of responsibility for these characters and uses that sense of responsibility and attachment to the world to draw the player deep, deeper, yet deeper into a mission they may not have agreed to if they’d known upfront that it might only end in failure.

with that in mind, if we say that the weird route will ultimately be a necessary mode of play in the context of the full game, i don’t think it’s meant to communicate a message that the violence of that route is inherently worthwhile to a broader Good. rather, the weird route may be a simulation of powerlessness and desperation, the player — like noelle, like kris — being impelled and/or coerced to Proceed in a situation where there are no good options, but they’re still unable to say “no” to whoever or whatever is limiting those options. sure, the player can turn off the game and never return, but doesn’t that mean darkness will fall on deltarune’s world anyway? there are only two options here: stop playing, and ensure calamity, or proceed and see if calamity might be prevented. again, this isn’t necessarily a lie on our facilitator’s part — it may be entirely true that darkness will fall without our help — but it doesn’t change the fact of the manipulation. the information that the player might be expected to do something like a weird route, if necessary, was withheld from them until the moment they were impelled to do it.

and i think it’s unlikely that the weird route, on its own, will end any better than a normal route. if we believe that the problem is, in fact, real, then it’s unlikely that simply ignoring the storyline altogether to violently destabilize the world even further will, in and of itself, fix whatever is causing it to end so badly. what it might do is wake up the characters and/or the player to the situation they’re in, and cause them to question the choices they’ve been given, as well as the choices they haven’t, and why they’re stuck with these choices at all. it might trigger confrontation of the power structure itself — perhaps gaster himself, and whatever secrets he may be keeping, and/or the Narrative as a force beyond even him.

if we take these things to be true -- that the problem is real, that the fate to be changed is truly a cruel one, and that the player's involvement is instrumental in that change -- then gaster in this case isn’t necessarily a control freak or cunning manipulator by nature or by preference. he, like the player, may be a well-meaning person in a desperate situation whose own choices are drastically limited by a material situation he can’t control. like a player, his position out-of-bounds gives him unique insight and knowledge, a unique ability to problem-solve and possibly save people, but it also renders him a ghost; he can’t impact the material world directly. he’s effectively helpless without the player's cooperation, like the player is without kris. the player justifies controlling kris because it’s the only option they’re given — and again, not acting through kris means the world will end and kris will suffer regardless. the manipulation isn’t morally right in itself, but it might at least be understandable. from his perspective, he needs to do everything he can to keep the player engaged and avoid alienating them, because there's no way for him to help otherwise. and doesn't he have a responsibility to help? he seems to think he does, at least. he’s a parallel to the audience, no more evil than we are, yet no less culpable for his actions in a desperate struggle for power against a narrative that doesn’t want to be changed.

anyway i don’t know how to conclude this. video jame

[imunderthegoddamnwater]

My Multiverse's Paperjam and Gradient, honestly Gradient had such a glow down :(

Also yes, Error and İnk does gives a fuck about their kids, they arent perfect ofcourse but they try, Also Paperjam be nice to your family, its hug time like it or not >:(

Ekon is also a part of the family but he isnt in this photo, and yes, I am aware the creator of Ekon is a proshipper, I do NOT support them, I only like the character, Also I dont ship Ekon with Nightmare just to be clear

A bit of their lore:

Paperjam isnt from the same multiverse like rest of his family, he belongs to another multiverse where his Error and İnk fight caused him to be born, he was made from the left over from their attacks, like İnk's paint and Error's strings, which is pretty much the canon part, however what not canon was that my İnk visiting other multiverses and finding Paperjam, he thinked İf he exist he probably has a purpose so he took him back to his multiverse, Error (despite finding the whole kid from another multiverse idea weird) ended up getting attached to Paperjam. Meanwhile Gradient is a whole new story, he isnt fully a child of Error and İnk, he can be count as one but he was created in a lab by Gaster, he was meant to be a "combo" Just like other combos, but it went a bit differently then it was suppose to be, he still can be count as a combo but he doesnt looks like one. Error is the one who found him when he was walking around in the anti-void, first he thought he was an au and wanted to kill him but when he figure out he was a "child" of him and İnk, he took him instead (honestly Im starting to think baby fever got them and thats why İnk and Error took Gradient at this point)

Paperjam is literal ink and paint, he's not a skeletonish creature unlike the canon one, water will damage him so he's scared of it, he is quite sarcastic and gives people cold shoulder, he doesnt believes he has a purpose or a thing he needs to do, so he is quite lazy. He has a significant other he's planing to propose soon.

Gradient...a literal pshyco, he usually is shy and refuses to talk, his voice does sound very weird, he likes making digital art and is a perfectionist, he spends hours on his creations but always deletes it because he thinks they are flawed and bad. He (unlike İnk) cant take it when he someone makes a "perfect" art, there is a high chance he'l destroy the art work and/or eliminate the creator, the jealiousy always takes the better of him. He is aroace.

I didnt writers that much for Ekon yet but he is also from a different multiverse.

[waterloggedsoliloquy]

see i take "doomed by the narrative" to mean a character who is doomed (either dead or stagnant with no hope of any trajectory) by the narrative (the nature of the work existing as a story puts unique pressure/limitations on the characters through the medium of choice, where the fact that its a story with a weaker fourth wall is a deliberate choice). Doomed by the narrative meaning the constraints of narrative/genre/medium actively prevent the character from getting out of a cul de sac, and the character pushing against this metatextual boundary is part of the conflict and futility of the exercize. but i see "doomed by the narrative" applied to characters who dont die, break free from their constraints, or go stagnant at all, let alone in metatextual fashions.

what i mean is like. truman and utena are doomed by the narrative in the sense that the narrative is an oppressive force that has put them in a lose-lose situation, no matter how much they object, and the only move left for them is to exit their respective stories. the only things left for them in the narrative are death, or playing by the rules and stagnating. so they bring the curtain down. this is also the intended functions of the truman show and of RGU, to deliberately invoke the fact that the world is a closed narrative and not let you-- the viewer-- forget it, in order to make a point, or a lot of points. The Truman Show and RGU categorically can't be interacted with an audience looking for an experience where they can be sufficiently immersed into a story that they don't need to think about it as something someone else made. (Tangentially, i feel like a lot of shallow criticisms of virtually anything could be remedied by reminding them that the works they complain about were created on purpose by real living people and did not spring fully flawed out of the void.) Thats not to say that kind of story or audience is wrong-- there are countless stories that work better without the looming reminder of fictionalization hanging over someone's head. But it's just-- ugh, you get me. onto another example.

Antigone is doomed by the narrative because the complicated poetry of her small world is of the understanding that this is a tragedy, and the hero of a tragedy must die, no matter how much they try to fight it. The laws of her world are defined entirely amd immutably by the genre it takes place in. The characters implicutly know this. The best thing she can do is die on her own terms. No matter how many times the play is put on, the end result is the same. The characters of the world of OFF are doomed by the narrative because OFF is painfully aware that it is a video game, and many of the characters know it, or at least they know there is a higher power watching it spool out. And if you are an adversary in an RPG standing between the protagonist and his progression, there is only one end for you, and its your HP reaching zero. Finishing OFF means finishing them off. The game has multiple endings but to even get to the end you gotta kill basically everyone. By then its too late. There is not a circumstance where these characters survive bc the rule of the medium does not permit it. This is the category of fridged women.

As for stagnation this is for characters that are by edict of the limits of the narrative are neither permitted to die nor improve their situation nor even leave. They have reached a point of no return. This may or may not be their fault. I think this is a pretty rare character type. Creon also from antigone goes here. Zacharie, also from OFF. Any protagonist of an abandoned webcomic lol. WD Gaster.

i just feel like if ur gonna talk abt a character who is doomed u better actually mean a character who, no matter how many times you reroll the dice, is going to be irreparably fucked. And if its at the hands of a narrative you better mean its at the hands of the narrative, and that its part of the point, an active pressure and limiter.