#i was actually playing Undertale when I wrote this

[levitheeldritch]

Gods are dangerous.

To give something the ability to alter all that there is on a whim, is dangerous.

To have a truly just god, it must have emotion.

To have true emotion, it must make mistakes.

To make mistakes, makes it human.

And we all know it is bad to give humans power.

[easily-missable-destiny]

My handwriting is unironically almost 1 to 1 comic sans.

I wish I were making this shit up

When did I turn the essence of my self into a funny skeleton?

[slitherpunk]

games i liked in 2023 (And Other)

I like games ! You know that ?! and I played a lot 2023! and I liked a lot :). They aren't in any specific order, it's just a little highlight of games that stood out to me this year. I've attempted to write a few thoughts on each so I hope take a look. I wrote playtimes for some also but that is very subjective.

-Ones that actually came out 2023-

Lunacid https://store.steampowered.com/app/1745510/Lunacid/ I think I mentioned enjoying this in 2022 but it officially released so I can say it was one of my favorite games in 2023 :3! I like to feel around this game's walls for secrets. I like the npcs that are full of hope and whimsy despite the bleakness of its world. Chill and occasionally spooky first person dungeon crawling around moody caverns and ruins varying from underground forests to vampire castles and blood lake. (Blood lake!!!! Lake of blood!!! Big creature there.) Lots of fun weapons and spells to find, I like the one that lets you turn blood into coffins.

~20 hours

Orbo's Odyssey https://feverdreamjohnny.itch.io/orbos-odyssey If you played the massively popular demo for "Peeb Adventures" by feverdreamjohnny then you know that Johnny makes some fun and funny games and this is certainly one of them. speedy and satisfying platforming! funny dracula moments! short and sweet.

~2 hours

A Walk in the Woods https://mooncaller.itch.io/a-walk-in-the-woods Quaint little GBStudio game :) Made by some friends of mine for a jam :) It's cute I like it. There's minigames where you catch bugs and birdwatch.

~30 minutes long

Undertale Yellow https://gamejolt.com/games/UndertaleYellow/136925 I've only completed the pacifist run and checked out a neutral run so far. as the title somewhat implies, this is a prequel to Undertale where you play as the fallen human who had the yellow colored soul. This Undertale fangame has a lot of charm!!! A lot of battles really feel like they could have been in the original, with quite a bit of extra flair in some circumstances.

~10 hours

vs really cool bird https://bobacupcake.itch.io/vs-really-cool-bird you know that really cool bird that rob bobacupcake made well you can fight it in undertale and it's really fun. yeah two undertale fangames. . . wat of it …

~30 minutes

Misericorde: Volume One https://xeecee.itch.io/misericorde I wont lie the main draw for me into this was cute anime nuns I sure didn't know a whole lot else about it when I dug into it. But it's (the first part of) a VN murder mystery! And I enjoyed it a whole lot. All the characters are memorable and I really enjoy how all of them have differentiating designs. The protagonist is so failgirl. She sucks so much and I love her. I'm very intrigued by the mechanics of the game's world, it clues you in near the beginning to expect something a bit supernatural/fantastical, which gives you (and later the protagonist) a curiosity about what's real and what isn't. The music is all very impressive too, with the ost reaching past 100 tracks varying through post-rock, folk, drum & bass, and others. (Remembering when the track "Scandal" played and my friends and I took a moment to be like- okay hang on this track pwns.) Big fan of its haunting locals and how the aesthetic of the game fits them well. Also the humor is a lot of fun, and I love all the moments getting to know the different characters. Very excited to see the eventual continuation of this.

~12 hours

Absolutely Perfect Specimen https://chambersoft.itch.io/absolutely-perfect-specimen It seems like a lot of people are craving toxic horror yuri lately. Here's a recommendation. It's a VN about the android maid "Pan" and the mad scientist girl who created her. Horrifying & gut wrenching & largely about having other people define you. The art and music is haunting & poignant and matches the ever increasing feeling of dread throughout. It's yuri with the chunks. Peak robotgirl horror for those who can stomach it.

~90 minutes

Wordhopper https://kokoscript.itch.io/wordhopper Very quaint word search type puzzle game for ms dos! I think its style is very slick and that's pretty impressive to see. Chill game with nice vibes and eyecandy visuals. also it was so cool to have played this and then ended up seeing the dev's booth at Vintage Computer Festival Midwest. I was like omg woah I just played this.

~bunny

Bossgame https://lilyv.itch.io/bossgame This game is yuriful as f*ck. Delightful humor and fun character dynamics! A simple-to-understand-difficult-to-master boss rush battle system that makes you satisfied to get it right, and enticing to get just a little farther if you get it wrong. There's a lot of detail and charm to this game's menus and dialogues and win screens, I remember noticing that once you beat a boss there would be some marquee text that would pass by with some prose on it. I love how it balances its silly moments with its heartfelt moments and its high octane moments. I like the character development and revelations had throughout the plot. & I like how good the protagonists are for each other :) It's very sweet. It's hype as hell. if you want some boss rush action paired well with that sweet sweet girl's love, you *will* play this game.

~5 hours

Elly's Adventure https://bikwins.itch.io/ellys-adventure Very cute and witchy!! You are the little witch girl "Elly" on an adventure to get your toys back!! Feels like a pretty authentic gameboy type experience, it takes a lot of design cues from Kirby's adventure and the like. I am a big fan of how playful it feels.

~1 hour

Nour https://store.steampowered.com/app/1141050/Nour_Play_with_Your_Food/ This was a treat for me, but I understand that not everybody is going to get it. It's a game where you play with food(and food accessories). And that's it. It knows what it was going for. I think a lot of people were expecting something else for some reason. It's a cute little toy game and I felt satisfied with my time with it.

~food

Hi-Fi Rush https://store.steampowered.com/app/1817230/HiFi_RUSH/ Do I have to say this game is super fun? It's a big one everybody probably already knows it. This game's dopey humor made me laugh a lot and I'm not afraid to admit it.

~12 hours

WHISKEY.ST2007S https://bonicle.itch.io/whiskey-st2007nes One of the last games I played in the year because it released super last minute. Does anybody else get a rush when running a shopping cart down the parking lot? This emulates that feeling. Short game where you collect whisky stones in the whisky stone dimension because you forgot to go christmas shopping until the very last minute. it rules. It's very short you can go play it right now & get a highscore.

~5 minutes

re:curse https://devpalmer.itch.io/re-curse Discovered this one near the very end of the year also. Fun little rpg maker horror/humor game about a weird scientist lady, her butch, and an evil clown computer virus that figured out how to warp reality. I got a kick out of it. and also enjoyed digging through the game's files, which was actively encouraged by the dev, which I thought was very fun.

~90 minutes

-Didn't technically get to until 2024 but released last year-

SWOLLEN TO BURSTING UNTIL I AM DISAPPEARING ON PURPOSE https://1207.itch.io/swollen-to-bursting-until-i-am-disappearing-on-purpose People love to dunk on a lot of indie rpgs for being "quirky Earthbound inspired and about depression" or whatever. Earthbound's great. If people can nail the kind of humor and absurdity it likes to pull off while also balancing difficult topics I think that deserves a high mark. SWOLLEN TO BURSTING was fun. Bizarre and charming places to explore & distressing secrets to find. I like how it blends meander-around-the-town gameplay with Yume Nikki sort of exploration and effects. Also I'm a big fan of the music. I like how it has the lofi sound which matches the early 3d look of the game.

~6 hours

HalOPE https://starbage.itch.io/halope Another for the fans of sweet little rpg maker games that have a lot of heart. HalOPE is about an incomplete little angel wondering through worlds. Each has a theme, usually to do with an emotion or feeling, and they do well at evoking that feeling as well as its antithesis. a lot of the music is very homey and charming at moments and unnerving at others, sometimes lonely, all doing well in their corresponding chapters to further the feeling of its specified theme. There are so many delightful characters and designs in this & I found myself feeling really attached to their tiny little stories. The narrative at the core of it all hit me. If I may be vulnerable, I cried a whole lot at various moments in this game. It was really cathartic. I feel very excited for people to experience this game.

~5 hours

-Favs I finally got around to that didn't come out 2023-

An Outcry https://quinnk.itch.io/an-outcry Kind of sad it took me so long to get to this one, but glad it meant I got to play the "definitive" updated version of it. Apartment wandering RPG maker horror. Bum smokes from your neighbors and use them to save the game. I wish I could unwrap a lot more of what I like about this game than I can without spoiling too much. But if I could, I'd probably go on for too long. Let me attempt to be succinct & not giving too much away. You can tell pretty early on that An Outcry is about taking action when necessary & not turning a blind eye. What it explores about player vs protagonist agency is very fascinating to me as well, and I enjoyed learning about the inspirations for why the game's narrative works the way it does. The character Anne is such a sweetie and I love her a whole lot. This game has a very tangible feeling, this apartment complex is dirty and crumby, it smells of smoke, and there's a surrounding desperation you can feel.

~5 hours

Pigments https://punkcake.itch.io/pigments Honestly I had gotten this game in a bundle and while I was playing it I hadn't looked at the name and I just kept calling it FRUIT. On call with my friends I'd be like "hey im gonna play more FRUIT". I straight up didn't read the title screen. But it's called Pigments. You play as a fruit and you try to paint the whole floor and not get sliced by buzzsaws. Fun little arcade type game.

~fruit

Bridge, October 3rd https://lowpolis.itch.io/bridge-october-3rd Very short vignette. I like it. It's what it says it is. I'm not going to overexplain.

~like a minute

-Other Games I Want To Mention-

Pseudoregalia https://store.steampowered.com/app/2365810/Pseudoregalia/ I think a lot of people might have already known this one but I felt like it was a pretty fun 3d platformer. There were a few issues I had with it (boss fight at the beginning was frustrating, and I got lost a lot [but it looks like there's been a map patch by now, so, perhaps for some that is a fix]). I enjoyed it but sure felt weird that the only accessibility option was to give the protagonist pants. What kind of joke is that?

~5 hours

Mushroom Musume https://mortallymoonstruckgames.itch.io/mushroom-musume (Disclaimer, this game is still early access, but I saw a lot of people talking about it last year. SO I will mention here?) Haven't played much of this yet, but I have enjoyed what I played so far!! As of writing I've gone through 6 playthroughs, I feel like I've hardly scratched the surface and I've been so impressed by its depth. It's very charming, you never know what sorts of fairytale shenanigans are going to happen, and it's very cool to see how your different stats will affect things. It very much plays out like a roguelike vn. Which is not the sort of thing you may expect to make much sense but it pulls this off well. Also all the mushroom girls are very cute and I love them very much. I hope the sad goopy one who had bugs in her skin rests in peace.

~mushroom

Knuckle Sandwich https://andybrophy.itch.io/knuckle-sandwich -_- Hm. Where do I start with this one. I was pretty excited for this one since the demo and kickstarter in 2018. I felt like the demo was a hell of a hook that got me curious & horrified. As time went on, it seemed to be shaping up into something really cool. turn based combat with action commands and wario-ware-type microgames?? with a banging soundtrack?? like, count me in!! Then it released and well, the gameplay, art, music all delivered. It was very fun and engaging in those aspects. But the story… oh it just devolves into disappointing nonsensical randomness. The whole hook at the beginning seemed to be completely thrown away for the wild goose chase plot that ensues, leaving you to wonder if it was ever going to be relevant again. It felt like it had no idea what it was trying to say or do. It disappointed me that a game that has so much good in so much else about it gets brought down so much for me by this plot.

~12 hours

Rhythm Doctor https://store.steampowered.com/app/774181/Rhythm_Doctor/ (Putting this one in mentions because it is early access.) I really enjoyed the act 5 release. When I first saw this game, I kind of shrugged it off, thinking "that base mechanic doesn't seem like it will last". I thought it was basically just that one ghost shooting game from Rhythm Heaven which I Hate. Well let's just say I am now seeking penitence for my previous transgressions. It's really fun. There's a lot more to it that I didn't know when I first took a look. Also, consistently amazed by people's custom levels, I had no idea that its level editor allows people to do so much in it, I look at some levels and think "This editor seems as complex as an industry standard video editor". I'm looking forward to what they're planning next, very curious how they could possibly one-up the last update.

~rhythm

El Paso Elsewhere https://strangescaffold.itch.io/el-paso-elsewhere This was really fun & funny so far but unfortunately I had been encountering an issue with a certain level where the game would crash. I reported the issue, got a response, and there has been an update since then so I think there's a possibility that it got fixed but I have not tried yet. I would like to return to this sometime but having to relearn controls midway through is always daunting to me.

~?

-Things that looked good but didn't get around to-

Cosmic Wheel Sisterhood https://store.steampowered.com/app/1340480/The_Cosmic_Wheel_Sisterhood/ Still don't know a whole lot about this. But there are witches, and I like witches.

Casette Beasts https://store.steampowered.com/app/1321440/Cassette_Beasts/ I haven't felt thrilled about Pokémon lately. I know a lot of people seemed to really enjoy this little monster-collecting-rpg. The style is appealing to me as a die-hard gen 5 fan. I started playing it but haven't set aside the dedicated time for it yet, but I'm excited to dig in more when I do.

Little Goody Two Shoes https://store.steampowered.com/app/1812370/Little_Goody_Two_Shoes/ Started watching a friend play this, and I'm certainly curious.. Some sort of horror fairytale but also there's yuri? Yum. Enjoyed the style and animation in the nightmare segments that I saw.

Venba https://store.steampowered.com/app/1491670/Venba/ I've picked this up a while ago but still haven't gotten around to it, but I'm eager to, I've heard nothing but good things.

Goodbye Volcano High https://store.steampowered.com/app/1310330/Goodbye_Volcano_High/ I think there are gay dinosaurs in a band and it's going to be the apocalypse? I have also heard nothing but good things about this.

-Things I watched friends play-

Signalis https://store.steampowered.com/app/1262350/SIGNALIS/ This was a pretty big one. You probably already know it, right? Watched a friend play this and I missed various parts but I understood a solid bit of it. hey. robotgirls are always getting put in these fucked up situations. have you noticed this? one time i got really high and cried about it. it isn't fair

Bomb Rush Cyberfunk https://store.steampowered.com/app/1353230/Bomb_Rush_Cyberfunk/ This one was also probably big enough you don't need me to sing its praises. but it looked really neat. swag.

-Various Thoughts-

Lately I've been thinking more about design and narrative. I feel like I haven't been doing as much analysis as I should be when it comes to games. I want to dissect more what games are saying and figure out meaning. Also attempt to see how the mechanics aid in that. I feel like most of my own work is pretty abstract & random. I simply make what I like. While that's fun and all, I still want to improve in a lot of ways, especially in having more of a theme or message. Figuring out how other games accomplish this is obviously a good step toward this.

If you saw games here that interest you I highly urge you to take a look, many are pretty short, and I pretty explicitly wanted to highlight some smaller titles. If you know me you know I like to uplift small games. (Save for the occasional big game, but that's rare these days) I think it's healthy for you to play and support independently developed & published works. I don't want to ramble too much this time about why that's important, but I hope that you might have found something you may enjoy here and if not then I encourage you to find small stuff that you would like. And I would like to encourage everybody to share their findings as well! Little games need our help to be seen and talked about! They don't have the budgets the big ones do for advertising, and advertising on your own is a whole ton of work. If you like something, spread the word! I'm sure the developers would very much appreciate that.

[s0ckh3adstudios]

howdy!! for the undertale gold au, i was wondering if we could see more of dalv? (or starlo, dalv and rover!! like the family portrait)

if not thats ok :) i just wanna see more of how these sillies work in the au

TA-DA!! Finally, after days... UTG Dalv! I Am So Sorry.

Disclaimer Corn Yaoi IS canon in this AU and for those who don't like it. I am sorry HEHEKGHLF It's too late for me to go back and I thought it'd be funny to include it. Too embedded in the lore now

You find out Dalv's backstory not through recorded tapes, but through his diary! You know, how he has one in the Ruins? In turn, Chujin still records tapes.

I actually wrote Dalv's diary entries and will be leaving them under the cut so you can all get your dose of exposition, but I'll give a summary of it below the Diary Entries if you want a TLDR!

Also, I apologize if the writing isn't very good- I tried my best to keep Dalv's character and write out what happened, but I'd probably edit a couple details if I wasn't lazy LMAO

====

SUMMARY:

Dalv and Starlo own a large farming area together where they grow crops for monsters to buy. They were given an opportunity to expand the farm, and their business by association, to the Snowdin area. Starlo was unable to meet with the people in Snowdin about it, so Dalv had to go. He was a bit nervous to do so, Chujin offered to join him! As long as he got to test out his latest project; Axis, a funny little robot. Rover, Dalv and Starlo's kid, also joined them! They wanted to visit Snowdin and play with Chujin's robot. Dalv and Chujin left Axis to watch and play with Rover while they had their meeting. But this is when danger struck. During the meeting, a human came through Snowdin and attacked Rover, even taking their hat. Despite Axis already chasing after the human and Chujin giving Dalv warnings, Dalv ran after the human as well to find his kid's hat.

Dalv did find the human... who was very injured after seemingly having had a run-in with Axis who was oddly nowhere to be found in that moment. When Dalv encountered in the human... something shifted in him. This human hurt his child, they could have taken them away... Seeing them... He felt angry. Without thinking, for reasons he can't really explain, he attacked the human and finished them off for good. In a panic, mortified at what he suddenly did, he stole the soul. He didn't want to admit it, even if this was what monsters were meant to do to humans. The soul was declared missing and Chujin was blamed; there was concern over how much damage Axis caused and the fact that he seemingly killed the human so brutally that he also destroyed the soul which they NEEDED.

Dalv decided he was going to try and use the soul for good and try to infuse its power into his crops! He thought if monsters ate them, they'd gain enough power to last against humans AND possibly bypass the barrier. He couldn't do this alone... So he ended up coming clean to Chujin about what happened. Chujin was VERY mad but figured if he helped, he could maybe get his job back. The two worked on the project and when sprouting their first soul infused crop, a cob of corn, Dalv offered to test it.

....It made him very sick.

When Dalv fell down, he had left a message to Starlo in his diary, telling him to read it after he died. He told Starlo to return the soul and shut down the project entirely. The farms are already in danger just for supposedly having some sort of illness in the crops that Dalv seemingly ate (a lie). But Starlo...... didn't listen. He felt bad that it didn't work out for Dalv and felt bad that he felt horrible about it. He wanted to do it for him. Carry on his legacy. Cling to what left he had of Dalv and what he was working on.

....But it was never meant to be.

[magentasnail]

hello I do not know anything about Undertale but I am interested in hearing about your children! I think I am in a similar situation with Little Nightmares, haha.

OMG THANK YOU I LOVE YOU!!! i can let this information out without feeling too annoying because now i'm answering an ask so it's fine !! it's going to be so long I'm so sorry, but what are we on tumblr for if not to rumble about our interests, right? also i hope the fact you don't know undertale doesn't make this too confusing !! also spoiler warning i guess ??

general world building:

the humans have forgotten about the monsters and magic, they are only remembered in myths and legends (i made a cool thing about it)

all of the humans had a similar experience to us playing the game, they learned about the monster history, made friends and eventually kinda gave up in hope to help the monsters

right so, first human: chara!

chara is already in the game, but I think i made them the richest backstory

"chara" is a nickname, their name is actually character. they were bullied for that name and they really hate it, wishing they could get any other name (like what happens at the start of the game!)

they were named character because of an old tradition to name kids based on the first word you see in the spell book that runs in their family. however the book is encrypted, and their parents ended up on a random character they couldn't read.

they didn't get along with the other kids in school, and were trying to study their behavior so they can understand them better by taking notes of what they said and drawing their facial expressions (the way text is shown in the game!)

eventually, they came to the conclusion they don't like the other children and don't want to be like them, so they decided to learn how to push them away (by making scary faces!)

always get red eyes in photos

next: patience soul! i'll be honset i wrote these stories 6 years ago, i think everyone had names but i don't remember them anymore, so all the children will now be called their soul trait gbfdjfd

patience was a girl from chara's village, and chara's only friend! or well chara was patiance only friend. their parents were friends so when they hung out patience and chara were left to play together. patience liked chara as she was home school and didn't get to play with other kids, while chara was mostly annoyed about the whole thing and felt like patience friendship wasn't genuine, as they were forced into hanging out

she really likes cute things, like dressing cute and putting on make up! she introduced chara to make up which ended up helping chara make scary faces (such as melty face look)

she wanted to be a Dr when she grows up, hence the toy knife (meant to be like a surgery knife for children) and the bandages at the flowey fight

when chara left to the mountain, patience just waited for them to come back. they waited and waited, until asriel got to the village. only then they decide to go to the mountain. they found out chara died very shortly after getting underground, and so lost their determination and was killed easily.

they got to the underground right after asgore declared war against humanity, asogre probably hoped it will take a while for a human to arrive but one fell down and was killed really soon! this just made more sense to me for why toriel left without talking asgore out of it, and why she hates him so much. things escalated really quick

bravery soul!

youngest brother of like 5 older brothers and a single dad.

his brothers always bullied him for being soft and girlie (I also considered him being afab but im not sure !)

got the worn boxing gloves his dad used to have when he was young, they have big holes and patches

also maybe his mom died when he was born, and she was also a red head like him, which is part of the femininity stuff ?

as part of a prank, his brothers dared him to go to the mountain and come back to prove himself thinking he won't go, but he did!

didn't stay with toriel because he was in a rush to get home to prove his brothers he did it

integrity!! this is where me not being a native english speaker gets me because I'm not sure what integrity means and it ruined their backstory a bit! I used to treat it as "being true to yourself" but now I think it's more about staying true to your morals, which is a bit different oops !

amab and nonbinary! their mom used to be a ballet dancer and now is a ballet teahcer

they were the only male student, and were jealous and hurt that all the girls got to wear tutus but them, and thought it wasn't fair

they sneakily stole their mom old dusty tutu from the attic and were secretly practicing in their room, until they were caught

they felt so guilty and ashamed that they ran away from home to the mountain

toriel reminded them of their mom, and how worried she must be, so they didn't stay with her

perseverance!!

kindness' little sister!

while looking for books in the library, she stumbled upon and old and encrypted spell book (yes this is the book that was in chara's family!) after a lot of hard work she learned how to decrypt it using some context clues, and with it she learned about the monsters and magic and even a few spells!

when she tried talking about her findings nobody took her seriously, and people at her school made fun of her

even her brother was trying to be supportive but didn't really believe her, which prompted her to run away to the mountain to prove everyone the monsters are real and she's right

in the underground, she was able to use her spells! like the unused spell option in the original battle menu! she also befriended Gerson as they shared their love to history, and she gave him her notebook and glasses (as they were fogging up too much to see out of anyway) as a parting gift! (maybe she also casted a duplication spell on them, considering the infinite supply at his store?)

also she didn't stay with Toriel because she was focused on getting back home to show everyone she was right at that stage

kindness!

perseverance older brother !

honestly, he's just a cutie that likes to cook! will often make and food just for sharing with his classmates

when perseverance was sad that nobody was taking her seriously, he went to make her favorite food to cheer her up. she wasn't answering him for a bit and assumed she just locked herself in her room because she was sad, so he gave her some time until eventually he decided to come in to check on her and realized she ran away through the window

he was probably a few hours behind her on the adventure, both as he gave her time, and he checked up a few places before going to the mountain, and he was more lost and confused than her when it came to exploring (also he was wearing flip flops still, which slowed him down)

didn't stay with Toriel because he was determined to find his sister, but then he found out she sacrificed herself, and decided to join her (both for the monsters and for her sake out of guilt)

justice!! she's the only one I know their name! her name is mustard !! just like undertale yellow I was tempted to call her clover based on the "clover" shooting from her gun at the flowey fight, but actually according to the file name this is not a clover but a flower! and mustard has a yellow flower with 4 petals and it's cute !!

moved to the village near the mountain with her family only recently, and this was their first Halloween in the town! and actually her first Halloween ever, as where she used to live they didn't celebrate it

she loves cowboys ! her grandpa was an actor in old cowboy films, he passed before she was born so she only know him through these films, and thinks he was a real cowboy

the gun she has is his old gun, that she got from her dad for her costume

she saw a group of bullies picking up on a younger child and trying to steal his candy, so she jumped to protect him saying she has a gun, but that didn't go very well as that terrified the small child and made them ran away. she tried to ran after them but ended up getting lost on the mountain

didn't stay with toriel because she wanted to return to her parents who must have been worried for her

lastly we got frisk!! i didn't get much background for frisk but more like a bunch of headcanons about them

probably homeless? and honestly, might have hit their head when climbing the mountain and suffer from amnesia, so they don't know their backstory either so it's fine!

really need glasses! explaining the small eyes and the whole game being pixelated and the small screen size, they just can't see

when asriel said frisk and chara have similar fassion choices he didn't mean like the striped shirt (as all children wear striped shirts) but like the way they have an under layer, cargo shorts for more pockets (also inventory space has to do with how many pockets you have!!) and boots !

fell underground the same age chara did, so like 10? and chara spent like a year underground

went to the mountain because it was some sort of a calling? they didn't really understand why but they felt like they needed to

also this is a headfanon but I'm for frisk and chara being far relatives!

wooo we did it all humans !!! now some extra general stuff:

the red soul's trait is love!!

all the humans came back to life after the asriel fight!!! and their body were fully healed and fine! Asgore probably bandaged them as he buried them in the coffins, and when they woke up (and opened chara's coffin seeing it's empty) they left their bandages there explaining the mummy wrapping that appear

considering it's been decades since some of them fell down, they had no where to go after this, and were all adopted by toriel! which also motivated her to open the school ! this idea of all of them being roomates and living together is what sparked all of this in the first place, i just really wanted to have a blog where people ask me things as them

at the end of the flowey fight, all of their soul traits "evolved", as seen with the color change when you ask for help, completing their character arc. all of them were helping flowey as part of their flaw, but frisk calling for help helped them change. for example, just as patience was always waiting to see what will happen, she wasn't trying to stand up to flowey, but she learned to be more brave and act! bravery learned to stop complying to every dare he gets and stand for himself and so on.

and that's everything i think !! if you made it all this way you get a sticker! i hope this helped with whatever boredom you were facing !

now i can stop worrying about how their story will never be out there, as it is now! and if nobody cares that's fine !!

[factual-fantasy]

25 asks again :0000 🎄🎄🎄

Never??? What part of my content ever suggested that I would ever draw anything like that??

The snowy forests they tend to camp in are actually the forests attached to Snowdin :0 They tend to end up there a lot <XD No ones found them out there before so they've deemed Snowdin forests a safe camping spot..

I'm not sure what you mean by a cliffhanger. My Octonauts stuff wasn't following a timeline or anything. I was just goofing around and drawing what ever I felt like.

If you're talking about the crab comic? I abandoned that comic on a cliff hanger because I didn't like how I wrote the comic and I didn't feel like re-writing it. :/ The Captain ends up totally fine in the end so its ok-

(Also thank you! :} )

Thank you! Merry Christmas to you too!! :DDDD 💖🎄💖

It kind'a depends.. what really exhausts him is making multiple mirrors back to back that all lead to different places. And how long he holds them open is also a factor..

Maybe a good guestimate is.. about 5? Maybe if he makes 5 mirrors in less than 3 days that would be enough to completely wipe him out. Maybe even knock him unconscious..

But its okay, the group usually is good at avoiding that scenario. Usually they jump into an AU and stay there for a few days before jumping into a new one. That way Jevil has time to rest and recover.

@couchwow

:DD Thank you! We wish the same to you as well! :}} 🎄💖🔥

Oh yeah, very protective I imagine XD He wouldn't put him down or let him out of his sight for even a second.

@ocinstituterep

I'd like to think he kept it and hung it on his bedroom wall yeah. But Knowing Peso and how much of a sweetheart he is.. I can totally see him giving it to Pinto for a keepsake/to show it off to his friends :}

Only when they're using their magic in someway yeah. :0 The more magic they're using/the more they're straining, the more visible their pupil becomes.

And it can extend to their emotions. The more mentally unstable/emotional/afraid the cat is.. the more cracked and deformed their pupil can become..

@bunny-coffee

Shellington got some angry cousins frfr XDDD

(Post in question)

Ehh.. not exactly.. that situation with that Papyrus ended up getting really dangerous, and really scary, really fast.. They end up fleeing that AU and leave that Papyrus behind.. :(

@fallingbones (post in question)

WWAAAHHAGDG THANK YOU SO MUCH!!! THAT MEANS A LOT TO MEEEEE!!😭😭💖💖💖😭

That's because I was gonna draw a comic revealing her new name but I never got around to it.. 💔

(Still keeping it a secret in case I change my mind lol-)

ACTUALLY! I had an idea that if Jevil rushes a mirror, he just has less control over it and will have no idea where the mirror will end up. And one time Jevil hastily made a mirror and when they jumped though.. they all got dumped into a river 😬 which is very bad for nearly everyone involved-

Seam's chains got caught on a branch and he got stuck while everyone else got swept down stream. He was able to just barely get his chains free and drag himself onto land.

Grillby doesn't die or anything, but boy is it incredibly painful. Thankfully he's able to scramble out of the water rather quickly and collapse on land..

Spamton has a phobia of water so by the time him and Jevil are able to get out he's breaking down from a panic attack :'(

Goner kid cant really swim but she was very lucky and was able to grab onto some branches and scramble out of the water.

Asgore wasn't really in any danger but he did struggle to get out of the water. He was eventually able to latch onto a branch as well and pull himself out.

The group recollected and probably camped out in the nearby forest for a few days to mentally and physically recover from that ordeal-

Upon Googling it, it appears to be a fangame about the yellow soul..? I also saw "Undertale yellow controversy" uh oh- I'm not sure what I think about it <XD

Although I've never played/seen a playthrough of Resident Evil.. this sounds right up my ally! XD

Also thank you! Merry Christmas and a happy new year to you as well! :DD 🎄🎉

XD Yes! I also have these two but they're not as cool/polished/original to me as the other 7 are-

@octonauts16

Ultimately my thoughts are, "It wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be/could have been. 6 outa 10, would watch again and recommend to my friends 🎤🐻👍"

And as for a sequel? I'm not sure if they'll make one.. if they do, I kind'a hope it'll be about the second game and they'll up the horror a bit more this time 👀

@cupofmaplesyrup

waaa thank you!! :DD

I'm not sure.. I imagined Bibi likes the stuff I make, simply because I made it. I'm not sure what the rest of them would think.. :0

Although the 20k comic was a biggie. They all thought that project was cool XD

@beryl-shade

I did! It seemed fitting for him. Also it helps visually distinguish him from Glamrock Freddy :00

XD She has that effect on people

When the when When?

@love-is-the-multiverse

That's just how I draw skeletons that don't look really creepy :( 💔

[gastersreturn]

YOU HAVE FOUND HIM

READ IT ON : ComicFury - DeviantArt

┏━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┓

GASTER'S RETURN MASTERPOST

┗━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┛

PROLOGUE

1/2/3/4/5/6/7/8/9/10/11/12/13/14/15/16/17/18/19/20/21/22/23/24/25/26/27/28

CHAPTER 1

1/5- 6/10

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

.

.

.

GASTER'S RETURN - FAQ

What is the plot ?

Everything is in the title, it's a story about Gaster returning from wherever he was after his accident that broke him between time and space. This story is set after the Pacifist ending, months after monsters have been freed from the Underground

What are the main themes of this story ?

The main purpose of this story is to answer all your questions

It will also talk about mental health, how to move on, friendship etc (Pretty much a lot of themes that are also found in the original game actually)

Is it an AU (Alternative Universe ?) ? And how close it is from Undertale ?

Yep, it is. I want to keep it as close of the canon as possible, to make the characters and universe as authentic as possible in order to really tell a story based on the game. But it won't be exactly the same as the canon.

Several details change in this story and this is why I call it a "AU", the main ones being :

Gaster : My interpretation of Gaster resemble a lot the general interpretation of the fandom about him, but not completely. It will be fun to play with what you know, or what you think you know about him :)

Sans and Papyrus's origins : In the original game, I strongly think that Sans and Papyrus don't come from Undertale, but from Deltarune (I won't elaborate more on that subject, you can make your own researches on this theory if you're interested), however it's not the case in this AU. Sans and Papyrus really come from the Undertale universe. It will change their characters, especially Sans, but I'll do my best to show them accurately (at least more accurately than the general fandom's representation of them)

Frisk : Frisk's personality have been imagined and adapted to this story. I wanted Frisk to be like a fusion of their actual personality in the game (because, yes, they have one even if it's really subtle) and the one of the player. So, you get it, the player in itself isn't really a thing in this universe

How did you get the idea of making this AU ?

At the very beginning, I just started to make some random drawings of Gaster, and some KingDings (AsgorexGaster) sketches, then other Gaster related things, and a story began to form into my mind. I decided that I wanted to make something out of it.

So does that mean there will there be KingDings in this AU ?

Well, not really. the main focus of this story won't be romance. At this point of their lives, neither of them are ready for a relationship (if I want it to be healthy). I have thought about making a KingDings mini serie after the main one to develop their relationship, but I don't know if I really will, I didn't even wrote anything for it yet.

When will the next pages come out ?

I try to make approximatively 5 pages every two weeks (I have another Undertale so I'm working on one and the other every week)

How long is this going to take to complete the story ?

Long as hell, I have written a prologue and 3 chapters to finish the story, wish me luck

Am I allowed to make a dub of the comic ?

I honestly don't know if anyone would ever want to make one, but if you do, sure you can ! (as long that you credit me of course)

You are also allowed to make fanarts, or any fanwork based on this AU, again I'm not sure if anyone would, but just in case x)

Am I allowed to repost this AU somewhere else ? Or to make a translation ?

Mmmh….I would allow it, but I want to be informed of it before you do. DM me to ask me, and if you see someone else than me reposting it somewhere, please tell me ^^

The only places I post this AU in here and on ComicFury, anywhere else isn't me

I have other questions !!!

Then you can ask them ! I will answers the ones who are interesting/doesn't require me to spoil my own story

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

WILL YOU KEEP SEARCHING ?

[carlyraejepsans]

You said in the Ralsei post that his flirting with Kris is supposed to make us uncomfortable or at least question his relationship to Asriel. I agree that Toby could possibly "go there", but do you think it's intentional on Ralsei's part? I genuinely don't think he knows he looks like Kris's brother. If someone makes Kris get into a relationship with someone who looks like their brother, I think it'll be the players fault for knowing he looks like Asriel and forcing it anyway rather than Ralsei himself actually knowingly being into incest. (feel free to answer this without posting the ask if it's worded badly)

all things considered i don't think he does. i think what's happening in deltarune is that ralsei, as a darkner, was created to play on our fondness and love for the asriel we knew in undertale. at the same time, if you're in any way familiar with classic rpgs, you'll realize that ralsei's role in the story is a direct callback to the "healer of the cast, bearer of the prophecy and love interest for the protagonist" trope (a role that was always given to female characters, tying into his gnc quoi), so being framed romantically by the story is... kind of a given here. however, those two core aspects of his, well, self, are basically incompatible. at least when it comes to his desire to be liked by kris, because being pushed into romantic situations you perceive as incestuous is, understandably, going to freak a guy out.

as you probably know, i recently had the chance to play earthbound, and paula reminded me of ralsei so much. ralsei deconstructs the rpg girl trope in general, but knowing how big of a mother 2 fan toby is, i feel like she was a pretty clear inspiration in the way he wrote ralsei. and something that happens again and again and again throughout the course of earthbound as soon as paula joins the team, is that people constantly make comments about her and ness being together. now, paula/ness is canon by the end of the game and has been confirmed as such by the creators, but earthbound as a game heavily features the topic of fatedness; and unlike deltarune, chosen ones and prophecies and dreams of future friends are never questioned by its plot, they are the plot. so, since a big part of deltarune's gimmick consists in questioning the trope of rpg fate, i wonder if ralsei's crush on kris might be revealed to be something predetermined too, going forward. after all, he spent a long time waiting for the heroes of prophecy to arrive so he could become their friend and help them on their quest. if that same "fate" determined that he was supposed to be kris' love interest, then knowing ralsei he probably accepted that fact and acted accordingly. which would mean getting into whether those feelings are actually genuine or if they're born out of duty and his submission to What Is Right And What Should Be.

the main reason i don't think he's aware, though, is that that incompatibility between those two aspects of himself that prevent him from fulfilling (part of) his purpose is a storyline that heavily reminds me of spamton's. ralsei is the most "purposepilled" character in the entire game. he is ADAMANT about reinforcing 1) his own lack of agency 2) that of all other darkners 3) the darkners' purpose towards the lighters as not only inescapable, but good, 4) the status quo of the light world/dark worlds dynamic as it stands. fulfilling his purpose is a BIG deal to him, and the story is obviously going to have an arc challenging it and sending the poor boy into an existential crisis. and him realizing during the events of the game that his literal appearence alone makes kris uncomfortable and prevents him from being the good rpg love interest character he was created to be, well... it just feels like a good way to further that arc.

[eliotquillon]

Your Cameron timeloop fic sounds so cool! I don’t write timeloop usually bc it stresses me out to write but I love it as a reader and a concept. What kind of gave you the itch to write it - like what are you finding super fun about it?

OKAY SO time loop stories are kind of my white whale; always wanted to write one, have about 6 different drafts for different fandoms dating back as far as 2017/18, and never really managed to pull it off (apart from a one-shot i wrote 3 years ago, and that was less ‘time loop’ and more ‘reincarnation’—the loop wasn’t an enclosed time period). time loops are so interesting to me because they’re a physical manifestation of what is (usually) an internal conflict of some kind; the loop is a metaphor and a way for characters to work their shit out, but it’s also real, and brings its own set of problems. in groundhog day, phil’s loop forces him to confront his own cynicism and become a better person; in russian doll, nadia and alan’s loop forces them to process their own trauma (with the addition of them dying at the end of every loop); in undertale (i would argue that its save/reload ‘memory’ and the fact that you have to play it at least twice for the true pacifist ending qualifies it partly as a time loop story), the loop forces the underground to reckon with its desire for freedom and what they’re actually willing to do to get it. it’s an external obstacle that forces internal processing, and that is FUN but also scary as hell to write. my gut instinct whenever i consume a new character-driven piece of media is always to daydream ‘well what if there was a time loop?’, because for me it is THE ultimate blender to stick people in and see what comes out.

why i chose cameron (and the events of hunting specifically) is a bit more complicated. first things first: i love cameron. i love WRITING cameron, because time and time again in the show there’s a clash between what she believes abstractly and what she actually finds herself capable of following through on, and that’s a fun internal/external conflict. can you see where i’m going with this. and cameron is having…a TIME in early s2. the premiere of s2 literally has her going through the stages of grief in order, and that foreshadows the next few episodes pretty well for her. she’s not happy, and stuck in a rut, and everyone can see it—the other fellows, house, wilson, even the TB doctor. and it’s not like she’s going to just pack up and leave—she’s worked hard to get where she is! she’s fought so hard to be taken seriously! it’s got to mean something! and i think she’s been feeling that way a while (for example, why does a person like cameron apply for a job under house in the first place? he’s the best there is, but they have very different beliefs and attitudes towards patients, and when she finally leaves the fellowship she turns around and ends up doing something completely unrelated—i think it’s because she’s looking for meaning even back then). hunting is such a great episode because it brings to a head what’s been bubbling under the surface for a while now: secretly, a part of cameron does want to change. she suddenly has the perfect excuse to throw caution to the wind and do something different. and it’s tragic because of course it turns out that the patient is lying to her, that he’s just as unhappy as she is even with all the partying and casual sex, and ultimately cameron comes away from that episode with a better understanding of herself but…she’s still unhappy, you know? she’s determined to act like it didn’t happen and move forward. and the great thing about a time loop is that it forces you to confront things. the only way out is through. that’s why the loop is set the day after she does the meth, and not the day before: if cameron were stuck in a loop of that day, the first thing she’d realistically do is. Not do the meth. and not call chase. and since the main point of this fic is to force her to confront the aftermath of that, it has to be the day after. she can’t change the past, but she can (and will!) change how she deals with it.

i’m also interested in hunting because of cameron and chase’s conversation in lockdown, when she tells him that she slept with him on meth because she was starting to already have feelings for him and it scared her and she pushed it away. because like. this is entirely characteristic of cameron. i 100% believe this is what happened. there is also zero fucking evidence from the writing that this is what happened. there are occasional callbacks to cameron’s HIV scare later in s2, and the fact that she’s slept with chase before gets brought up in s3 during the fwb era, but between hunting and insensitive cameron and chase basically act like none of it ever happened and most of the s2 drama is between cameron and foreman instead. so this is kind of a fix-it, as well: i’m bringing those feelings to the surface and making chameron happen earlier because this time there is no running away. the fallout of this is gonna vary—@all-pacas wrote up a very good meta recently about how chase’s provoking of the patient’s brother into suing him in the mistake very likely happened a day or two after he slept with cameron, and therefore that might not happen if him and cameron actually TALK ABOUT THINGS and he doesn’t hoard up more guilt and frustration—but there will be a happy-ish ending. i say ish because ultimately this isn’t really a ‘shipfic’ and therefore things will be a bit messier than they are in, say, groundhog day, but the fic will end with them together and things will be better than they were at the beginning.

anyway this fic is so crazy fun to write for a lot of reasons, but what has really taken me by surprise is how much i’m enjoying writing FOREMAN into this fic. cameron is spiralling (time loop) and chase is concerned and house is intrigued and meanwhile foreman is just stood in the corner going ‘guys 🤨 anyone gonna fill me in 🤨’. one of my fave parts of the first chapter is the section where cameron starts drawing a clock to see if she has encephalitis and then is like ‘wait the clock will look normal to me anyway. What if i email it to foreman. Nevermind he’s going to think i’m insane’ lmaoo. foreman and cameron were actually decent friends in s1 (never forget him shovel talking house and saying he considers her a friend) until articlegate, and in s3 it’s revealed he knows she has a brother (and chase didn’t!), so i’m putting foreman/cameron friendship BACK ON THE MENU. he will probably still steal her article anyway but she wouldnt be as mad about it. not that this fic is going to cover articlegate but yknow

anyway thank you for letting me be very self indulgent and yell about this fic LOL

[andreabandrea]

migospel and negative man

this is going to be a bit of a disorganized post, but i was rereading my old "chara did not abuse asriel" post, and I thought of something interesting. none of this is 'new' information or a new theory-- it only supports a point in an essay I wrote years ago. but the ramble will talk about a cool enemy in mother 3, so.

in my original post about Chara, in the section where I made the point that Chara "laughing off" Asgore's poisoning was likely unhappy/nervous laughter as opposed to taking actual joy in his pain, I bring up a theory created by passivechara on tumblr.

the Hard Mode only monster Migospel "loves to laugh" when around other monsters, but becomes sad and talks about hiding their pain when alone. Migospel literally mimes Chara in this way. (the name 'migospel' likely drives from 'mime' and 'gospel', so the 'gospel' part may refer to 'truth'-- aka, Migospel miming the truth about Chara).

if we believe in the narrator Chara theory, then a monster reacting to Chara isn't even unprecedented-- napstablook responds directly to the narrator's comment about their lack of humor.

now, I would need to build this up more in a 'proper' analysis post, but since I'm just rambling on my blog, let's just accept that toby fox was majorly influenced by earthbound and the mother series as a whole. papyrus's starman costume, naming the player, flowey's "cry out into the darkness" line, and more.

bear with me, but I'm going to talk about the mother series and link this back to undertale.

so in mother 3, there's a one-time only enemy you encounter called 'Negative Man'.

negative man is a joke enemy of sorts. he can do a very weak attack, but otherwise, he just says a sad line and wastes his turn. although his stats are miniscule- making him the weakest monster in the game- his HP is enormous, making his fight a bit of a chore.

people sometimes speculate why negative man is in the game. the concept of a drawn-out and irritating battle with no real challenge is definitely a mother series joke, and some people believe he's just there to add another enemy to your checklist of monsters to find and defeat if you want to 100% the game.

I think, though, that there's another purpose to Negative Man. And here we're going to get into Mother 3 spoilers so, uh. if you haven't played a game that's nearly 20 years old, then play it now and come back to this later.

...

okay? moving on.

so anyway, the interesting thing about negative man is that the music that plays when you're fighting him is 'Strong One', the same boss track that's used when you fight the Masked Man. this could just be a joke-- Negative Man is not 'strong' in any way, and the intentional complete lack of rhythm in 'Strong One' makes performing timed attacks to the beat very difficult, dragging the boss battle on more.

however, think about what's happening in the fight. you and your party are beating this creature to death who's crying and miserable, who has no will to fight, who isn't attacking (or can barely hurt you when he tries to attack), and so on. why are you doing it? because you have to. maybe negative man is just in your way, maybe you just want to fight him to 100% the game. regardless, this monster isn't fun to fight. the only reason you would intentionally fight him is because you have to.

you're probably thinking of sans's boss fight, where despite being the "weakest monster in the game" with only 1 attack and 1 defense, he has an extremely difficult and prolonged boss battle. i think that negative man could have potentially influenced toby in this way, too! but this isn't about mr. undertale himself.

now, there's another notable fight in mother 3 like this-- but the roles are reversed.

in the final battle of the game against the Masked Man (with whom the 'Strong One' theme is associated), lucas's party can't be used. lucas has just learned a devastating truth about the Masked Man's identity, and it's rendered him completely unable to fight. Lucas is likely miserable in this scene, and all he can do is pass turns while the Masked Man attacks him relentlessly-- not because he enjoys it, but because- due to his reprogramming- he has to. does that sound familiar?

all this to say-- the Negative Man enemy is a reflective of Lucas, and shows insight into his emotional state. the unwillingness to attack due to a sense of misery and the 'strong one' track associated with the masked man being used support this theory.

it's notable that Negative Man is, again, an enemy you can only encounter once. Negative Man isn't a prominent part of Mother 3.

this is to say-- what does this have to do with Undertale?

if we can accept the theory that the Negative Man, as a random rare enemy, could be a parallel to Lucas and reveal something about his emotional state (his misery in having to fight his own brother, the Masked Man), and if we accept that the Mother series was very influential over Toby Fox-- then it becomes even easier than before to accept the theory that Migospel is reflective of Chara and their emotions.

Migospel is only encountered in the unfinished 'hard mode' of undertale, again-- but Negative Man is only encountered once in mother 3. thus, even though Migospel doesn't have as much 'canonicity' as any other monster in the game, I think that there can be relevance to their inclusion.

this is to say-- as passivechara suggested (checks date) 7 years ago, I really do think that Migospel is more evidence that Chara isn't an evil sadistic monster when you consider the influence that the mother series had on toby.

[timeofjuly]

Twenty Questions for Fic Writers

Thank you so much for the tag @floofanflurr <3 I am always happy to yap about my fics! I'll pop this below the cut 'cause it's kinda long.

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

Eight under the timeofjuly account, and a few others scattered around other usernames and the anonymous collection.

2. What’s your total AO3 word count? 124,470 words, which is kinda crazy to look back on since I only started in August of last year.

3. What fandoms do you write for?

Just Undertale at the moment, but I've written for a few other fandoms in the past.

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

Resisting the Current

Trick or Heat

Wishbone

Parallel Circuits

And Four Papyri in a Pear Tree

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

Yes! Always, though it sometimes takes me a little to get around to it. My favourite thing about writing fanfic is the sense of community that you build, so I love getting to chat about the fic in the comments. I always have a million and one thoughts that didn't make it to the page that I'm desperate to share. I also like to say thank you when people go out of their way to comment, because I really appreciate it. As a reader, I know I get super excited when an author replies to my comments.

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

I'm going to go with a few of the RtC 'verse oneshots for this. I think Resolutions from Parallel Circuits ends on a pretty angsty note, particularly compared to the seemingly upbeat start. From Silver String, there will be no answer is pretty bleak and so is on my way home. I'm quite proud of how they both end, actually - I think they're my two strongest endings in the lot.

7. What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

Any of the smut, probably? They're all set in happy established relationships and end on a cutesy note.

8. Do you get hate on fics?

Not for a very long time, no! I remember, many many years ago, posting my very first fic on fanfic.net lol and getting a very nasty review about how the reader didn't know the main pairing in the fic was m/m (slash back then, what a blast from the past) even though it was very clearly indicated in the summary and the AN at the start. It goes to show people have been bad at curating their own reading experiences by minding the tags and summaries since forever.

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

Yep! Mostly established relationship stuff under this username so far.

10. Do you write crossovers? What’s the craziest one you’ve written?

I'm not super into cross-universe crossovers, but, same as @floofanflurr, I really like playing around with cross fic crossovers. I'm (slowly) writing a crack dialogue-only oneshot where the reader inserts of Wishbone and RtC are stuck together in a broken elevator lol. It's been a fun challenge! It's very very hard to put two characters who are normally referred to in the second person in the same scene, lemme tell you, which is why I ended up choosing to go dialogue only.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

I don't think so.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

I have not, but I'd be open to it!

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

Nothing that I've posted! @marty-parties and I have been messing around with an underfell papyrus/reader fic, though! I also used to rp all the time, which I'd count as cowriting. I miss it very much, even though I used to get super easily overwhelmed by it.

14. What’s your all time favourite ship?

This is such a tough question. I'll pretty much read anything if I vibe with the ship dynamics (pining and unrequited love my beloved, I will read you anywhere no matter the ship or fandom), but I went through my bookmarks to actually get the stats on this. I used to be super into the mcu (I completely lost interest after endgame) so tony/steve and tony/steve/bucky were the most common ships. I have no clue what my favourite ship would be now, though.

15. What’s a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

Never say never, but I really want to write this horrortale isekai fic I've had bouncing around in my brain. I've fully plotted it out and it's set to only be five chapters, but I'm really struggling to actually write the thing. I have started it, though, so we'll see.

16. What are your writing strengths?

Characterisation, I think. And even though I mostly gravitate towards writing angsty stuff, I think humour and comedic timing is a strength of mine too.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

Physical description and settings, 100%. I don't really picture anything in my head when I write, which means all that physical description doesn't make its way onto the page, and when it does, I'm just going off vibes. Particularly with setting - I have zero idea what the locations in any of my fics look like lol. Like, the house in RtC? No clue. Zero.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic?

Really cool! I love it when people do this and I get to translate it, it's like a nice surprise.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

Harry Potter, I think? It's all scrubbed from the internet now though.

20. Favourite fic you’ve written?

Wishbone. I am so attached to the Second Mage and Sans and Rus, you have no idea. Particularly Flint, I just adore them. Don't get me wrong, I love the electrician and Quinn and all of my ocs, but I have a special place in my heart for reader inserts who are nasty and hurting and lash out and aren't always the kind, considerate, emotionally stable person in the relationship, forever supporting others. I read something years ago that said to consider how your character is inclined to react to things, both good and bad, and how for lots of people, it's not in our nature to instinctively respond to things with kindness and openness. In fiction, we often expect our POV characters to deal with situations with emotional maturity that we ourselves, along with the majority of irl people, don't have. I think this rings true even more for reader inserts. It's fun to flip this on its head in Wishbone - what if instead of acting with an uncommon kindness, you do the opposite? You get to be flawed. You get to have the murky motives. You get to hurt and in turn you hurt others, and that hurting has real consequences on you and the people around you. This is also a great way to create angst lol - in the non-fell version of Wishbone, where everyone is generally just less of an asshole and therefore makes kinder choices, a lot of the events in the fic just wouldn't happen.

No pressure tag to @covfefeships and anyone else who'd like to do this!

[ohandcounting]

I'm watching Chuggaaconroy's LP of Earthbound again, and It's making me think about things related to Undertale/Deltarune. I'll never think that d.ogg is actually a reference to any motif. It's just a short menacing loop. But I can't help but wonder if Toby was going for it to feel like the empty soundstone at all? I always thought it was spooky, at least. Less menacing but you get my point I hope.

I've also been thinking about the 7th Your Sanctuary(end of ep50, start of ep51), and how it directly disconnects us from Ness being a player surrogate. How cool that moment must of felt for Toby to make that the Big Reveal of His Game. He wrote the entire game barely hinting at it at all by playing on our preconceived notions, but the few hints that are there stick out like a sore thumb once you know. Also thinking about how nothing is original. How even things predictable, can be made beautiful by the journey there. Like in Mother 3, [OMEGA SPOILERS BTW] it's revealed that Claus, your brother, is The Nefarious Masked Man. You'll often see the "I'm actually your Father!/Relative!/Etc!" Literally used as a joke in cartoons because of how commonly it's used, but I've also never heard anyone deride Mother 3 for that reveal. I wonder how many people will be unhappy with Deltarune if it plays out in a predictable way, directly calling back to whatever Toby's favorite parts of Mother 3 would be for the big reveal? Or is the love big enough for the dedicated fan base to only ever love it? Does any of that even matter, when the journey is going to be great anyways?

[the-s1lly-corner]

okay here we go (I added in images to characters you might not know)

Mild crushes:

Brassius (left) and Hassel (right)

Larry

Lord Milori (still kinda like him)

Sir Pentious and Lucifer

Used to take over my life:

Grillby

Gaster

Brett Hand

Lukas

Mordecai Heller

Kinger

Adam (most recent)

ALREADY HAS ME DEAD DJJSKX:

Clopin

I used to like him before back in January, but after listening to the soundtrack of this movie again, I frickin fell in LOVE

The obsession got so bad that I’m now researching Romani history and culture, watching those “the making of (movie name)” videos, interviews (which there are SO FEW OF) of the VAs or Alan Menken, the composer of the soundtrack

I want to know everything when I like a character lol

I actually have more, but it already feels weirdly personal to confess some of them so thank god that this is the silly corner :]

SCARED TO SEND IN BUT HERE WE GO

Mo need to fear this is a no judgement zone! Also I lost my right to judge people when I wrote mpreg a few weeks ago/lh

Rubs hands

The first two!! Obligatory "I've never gotten too deep into pokemon and the only game I've played start to finish is shield, and I'm like. Partway through brilliant diamond" soooooo! I know nothing about the personalities of these two so we're going off of looks!! And I say!

Valid!

Brassius gives off either old and exhausted punk or old exhausted gay artist but those two can overlap!

Hassel Looks yummy I love me a good longhaired blonde man AND he looks a little on the older side? YUMMY!!! He looks like he'd either he a grade A douchebag rich guy or a total sweetheart

Larry! Hey I know you I saw your dick on Twitter!!!/ref mo but real talk I can get the appeal! I already know that's hes a tired working man but that's about all I know!! Hes valid, I'd give him a big ol kith

Milori looks interesting! I don't know wheres hes from so once more we rely off of looks! He looks vaguely like a broken man . I can fix him. Valid!!!

Pentious is valid but I'm biased because I also had a crush on the character!! Pathetic men are just so silly!! Probably also has my favorite design of the entire show!!

Lucifer is also valid I can see the vision!! Caring but mentally I'll man who distances himself for one reason or another despite deeply wanting a connection my BELOVED

Grillby also had a choke hold on me when I was into undertale!! I'm so sad that there werent many grillby x reader fics out there- if I was still balls deep into undertale and deltarune like I used to be I'd 100% give writing the characters a shot but unfortunately I doubt I ever will <\3 unrelated theres a surprising amount of buff bara art of him

Gaster!! I can also get behind!! Mysterious creature that hardly has any lore iirc, fandom either portrayed him as a mad evil scientist or a loving father to sans and papyrus, at least with my experience with the fandom.. valid!!

I never watched inside job but I've heard good things about it! Brett looks like a sweetie, so I can understand the appeal! He looks so silly.. just a guy.. valid

Lukas!! It's been so long since I've heard someone talk about MCSM! Obligatory I dont remember much of Lukas, just that he was kind of an ass in the beginning I think.. but I can see the appeal! I was more of a ivor girlie

Surprisingly I have not seen lackadaisy yet! Surprising I know, since I'm huge fans of other indie animations on youtube!! Going off looks I can see the appeal, he gives old grumpy grandpa vibes but I could be totally off! I like his eyebrows :3

Kinger is another valid but again I might be biased because hes my baby girl- cant wait to see more of him in future episodes especially since hes hardly had any screen time so far <\3 he seems so sweet :(

Adam!! I can see the appeal again but his personality isnt really for me <\3 hes valid though!!

AND CLOPIN! It's been so so so long since I've seen the movies but omfg I remember I loved him a lot! Yummy design as well as a nice personality I wish we got more of him <\3 VALID VALID VALID

[iztopher]

i made a "talking about things i do not like" tag and then pretty much never used it, but i woke up today annoyed about undertale again so i guess i'm finally cracking it out

there's all the little things that made undertale a negative experience for me personally - the save system, the combat system being everything i hate about social interactions as an autistic person (guess what this person wants from this interaction and how to give it to them or else be punished!), the fact that it's a bullet hell game -

and all the ways people's reception of it made me bitter when i didn't end up liking it - why are these characters applauded as compelling and meaningful when i got made fun of for loving characters with just as much (read: little) depth?, why did everyone say this is an RPG when it's a bullet hell game?, why do i feel like i'm not allowed to dislike it? -

but fundamentally. the thing that makes me think about it three years later and grit my teeth in frustration is that toby fox and i are both game designers and we have completely different perspectives on game design. and his grinds my gears and from anyone other than a game designer who pours so much of his time and energy into games pings my "does not respect games as an art form" alert!

hear me out. i think people hold video game players to an unfair moral standard compared to interacting with other types of art. people think of people's decisions in video games as more reflective of their real life beliefs and actions than they do other types of media. and i don't mean this to say that video games shouldn't be held accountable for their portrayal of marginalized people and serious topics - but i mean i think people can be more inclined to judge someone for playing call of duty than watching captain america or top gun, even if they're all similar types of US military propaganda.

to me, making a choice in a video game is the same thing as opening a book. i'm not actually the one making the choice - the game developer(s), who spent time creating the writing, code, graphics, etc. for the choice, did. they included this option for a reason. let's find out why!

but people have a habit of judging people for opening that book to read it for themselves and decide how they feel. i saw this with dragon age and i'm seeing it with baldur's gate. i saw it with how people talked about twelve minutes. it is the central conceit of undertale: if someone makes a choice in a video game, it has to be because they want it to happen, or they think it doesn't really matter. it can't be because they're curious what the game developer has to say about it.

from my perspective on video games, toby fox wants you to play no mercy route. he wrote it! he spent all that time writing and programming it, designing extremely challenging battles, creating subtle branches for different versions of increasingly violent neutral routes. he clearly has something to say about it.

that something, of course, then turns out to be punishing you for listening to him and telling you you were wrong and cruel for being curious what he had to say.

the clearest, least-inflammatory comparison i can think of is saw vi, a movie where the jigsaw killer puts an insurance executive in a gauntlet of traps meant to illustrate how evil he is for denying people coverage. i watched that movie specifically because i was curious what it had to say about pre-obamacare united states health insurance. undertale's approach to no mercy route feels like if at the end of that movie the director walked in front of the camera and called me a murderous asshole for watching it.

my partner is always talking about how art is a conversation. it's about communication between the creator and the audience. in that metaphor, undertale is going to a lecture and then being scoffed at for asking questions. it's not my idea of a good conversation, a good story, or a good game.

as a tldr: this backlogged review always makes me laugh

[creativeinfinite13]

Why Chara Undertale is a Muse of Time

From the dawn of 2009, it has been the Homestuck's duty to assign characters from different media a title from their RPG-inspired typology system. Although it is full of holes, has little cannon info, and can be interpreted in so many ways it is honestly pointless to argue about which character is which Classpect, it is my duty as not only a Homestuck, but as a Tumblr blogger to assert that my interpretation is right and that everyone else is wrong.

So here is why Chara is so obviously a Muse of Time, it is actually atextual to suggest any other classpect.

First of all, Toby Fox is a Homestuck fan. He read the comic, he wrote a comic, and he made music for the comic. Therefore, it is not unthinkable that we can look to Chara's design, and dialogue, for clues for their classpect.

Chara was inspired by the Cherubs. The red cheeks, their Al-like speech patterns, their green shirt, their focus on absolutes, the way they were briefly a part of an entity that fought with itself, they have a sibling relationship with someone who is very much their opposite (at least at the time,) it is all very much Cherub inspired. This will be important later.

Secondly, let's look at their ideology. Aspect is the themes that follow you, which informs how you see the world. Chara is very much focused on power. They want all of it they can have. They define themselves by it, and the chase for it. They are noted to be very efficient and particular in how they pour their water, and it is not a stretch to say they keep these traits are probably a key part of their personality. Additionally, they are surrounded by death. They die, cause the death of another, and are only encountered in the route where you kill everyone. You only see them in sepia-toned flashbacks of the past otherwise, or if you believe in the NarraChara theory, narrating the present, using their words to define how we experience Undertale in the moment. Yeah, this is a Time-bound character no doubt.

Thirdly, let's talk about their role in the story. This is what defines their class, and is the tricker part of classpecting. Chara is defined by absence. The fact that their name is actually their name, not Frisk's, is the twist at one of the ends of the game. They are only vaguely alluded to by those that know them, and they don't have a voice bite. We only encounter them in a route where they are pushed so far we don't know if their personality is what we see, and it's at the end of the hardest route too. It would be easier to say Chara is a complete non-character, except...they are the reason the game happens. Their choices indirectly lead to Asgore causing the war, which directly impacts every character in the game. They impact Asriel so much that he is only saved when reminded of them. In fact, much of Asriels/Flowey's actions are defined by Chara's impact on them, and Undertale as a story would have to be completely rewritten without them. Hell, if you believe in NarraChara, they are the narrator. Imagine playing Undertale without the iconic narration! This is all a dead ringer for the Muse class. They are the indirect, most passive, almost absent character that ends up impacting absolutely everything.

Chara is a Muse of Time, baby.

(Oh, and about that cherub stuff? The only two Classpects of the Cherubs we know are the Lord of Time and the Muse of Space. The Lord has iconic red cheeks, and the Muse becomes the Narrator in half of the epilogues. Checkmate, atheists!)

If you read all of this, I just want to thank you for your time. I love this place, and I am glad to finally be here and maybe make some friends on this cursed webbed site. Just remember: I am always right, even in subjective matters. Bye!!!!!!!! <3

[ibeta]

The Horrifying Plot Bunnies

It's not that I'm not writing, it's just that writing breeds too many plot bunnies that need to be... put down into words. Some of them are notes, some of them just have a photo. Or... four words because the title will remind me what it should be.

I should probably focus this writing energy on my main stories, right? But I have the need to write them down, it's scary. And honestly, those aren't the only ones bred by the Fluffy Plot Bunny. These are the only ones I cared hard enough to share. The rest I'll hide in shame, like the two Stardust chapters that shouldn't be shown to the world.

Can this even be progress when I have no idea how to even share them? Let's see...

When I came to the Undertale fandom and wrote a story for it, I really had no clue about any of the plots! :D No idea of the common information and the deep theories that people have made, so I just posted what I wanted to read. I made Sans remember resets and made him suffer and gave him Papyrus, bright sunshine yet just as tight-lipped.

I have secret on-going plot where Papyrus and Sans have an agreement that Papyrus would be playing guide to the human, that he'd act innocent and proud so the human would be caught off-guard. That he'd be on the lookout for anyone suspicious, including Flowey. He would give Sans hints and foreshadowing to things the brothers already know, like the Lab (Labradory...?), so Sans had an idea of what the human was like.

Here's one summary dive into the Deltarune, which I have no idea about :D

Darkner Sans and Knight Papyrus: Fontcest that's not actually fontcest? It's a plot where Deltarune collapsed somehow. There's a pair of Lightner Sans and Papyrus, and Darkner Sans and Papyrus that are stuck with each other.

However, before the collapse, LPapyrus met DSans when he was pushed inside the closet by friends he'd invited to his birthday party. Poor LPap was scared of the dark, especially when the closet suddenly felt bigger and darker and scarier. He suddenly hears chuckling in the dark and immediately bursts into tears.

DSans finds the sobbing mess and tries to make light of the situation, spewing out all the jokes he knew, trying to make the small skeleton laugh. LPap calms down and DSans leads him back to the closet. LPap meets the skeleton in his closet, a lot. DSans likes to joke about that.

In another universe, LSans falls asleep in the closet while playing hide and seek with his friends. LSans wakes up to this boisterous DPap that announces he's captured him. LSans finds this amusing, so he goes along with it. DPap slowly feels guilt the longer LSans looks at him with wide, trusting eyelights. He doesn't know that LSans has slowly talked him out of capturing him - DPap leads him out, talking about friendship and they keep in touch.

LSans likes him, and likes that he doesn't even have to leave his room to meet him again. What a lazybones.

So when three adventurers in each world... try to close the link in LPap and LSans' closet, the Darkner counterparts are trying to stop them. The excuse is: they wanted to be in their friend's closet. That's it.

But somehow, after befriending and asking the adventurers to keep their link, the two groups of adventurers go back on their word and close the Dark Fountain. The universes collapsed somehow and mashed up against each other, sending DSans and DPap to Undertale's Underground and LSans and LPap to Deltarune.

LPap and LSans agree to find their 'friend' in the closet by following where the three adventurers exist in Deltarune. They find the town, and LPap cause many secret commotions while looking for DSans.

They decide to move over, even if they think the universe would collapse again. LPap takes on the mantle of The Knight, using every acting skill under his belt as he stabbed open more and more paths to a world that might hold their friends. LSans takes on the job of keeping their house in that place. They pretend to be brothers, despite the... significant height difference and dubious origins.

LSans has enough determination, but LPap wanted to do it, so "The Knight" went and conquered worlds, fooling Darkners left and right with his pretense. Maybe DSans would figure out it was him, because LPap had always dragged him off into playing pretend and The Knight was so obviously playing the villain.

LPap always calls LSans before he checks a new world, so LSans knows where to find him. LSans tells him of the strange kid and they have to play a new type of pretend again.

-

In another universe...? DSans and DPap meet each other and agreed to pretend to be brothers in this... strange world. They found hints of the old world under their house in Snowdin. Terrifying. So they... asserted themselves, telling everyone that they belonged to this place, defeating every guard that tried to take them in for questioning.

DSans and DPap play up their brotherhood, somehow meet Dr. Gaster, who plays along and pretends that they're his long-lost relatives. DSans works with him to figure out a way back to LPap, while DPap tries very hard to convince UTUndyne to allow him into the Royal Guard. Just in case they were stuck DPap wanted to establish himself in the place and DSans already had a place in the lab. DSans tells him of his research, and DPap tells him of his discoveries while roaming around as a trainee.

Cue mistakes in machines and magic. They made the CORE, but Dr. Gaster's gone. They vaguely remember him, but eh, he's gone. DSans despairs over the failure, but keep on going. He fails. A lot. This depresses him.

DPap comfort him, tells him to go with him as a sentry like he did before in the old world, tells him to find good food and bad jokes (because LSans would crave it when he was sad) and to find more people to connect with. DPap has to re-establish himself, but he's done this before and he already knew what to do.

DSans agrees. But then Flowey happens when Alphys takes over.

DSans and DPap experience time repetitions, so much that DSans becomes super depressed by his helplessness. DPap takes over - he tells DSans that they're brothers, so he needs to lean on him, too. DSans succumbs to the pleading and DPap takes on Flowey... through the power of Friendship! And a lot of pretense of being innocent.

Flowey thinks he's good at manipulating DPap, but DPap has his skeleton hands wrapped around Flowey. DSans agrees that this is a better outcome. It's funnier, in a really dark way. So, he pretends to be oblivious to the things Flowey had done. He's good at pretending not to know about a talking flower.

Still, DPap pushes him forward, unwilling to allow DSans to be even more sad for a moment. A brother was a brother, even if they weren't related at all. And... DSans looked like LSans, and DPap doesn't want to see him sad, even if he shared a face with his friend.

DSans keeps tabs on UTAlphys and DPap keeps tabs on Flowey. They play this up especially when they meet humans that could break the Barrier. DSans wants to see the above world, and DPap wants to see the sun again.

-

Yep, it's long and strange. That's why the bunny had to be written down. Because it would keep bouncing in my head until i get a bunny trap in my head. Bunny Traps are not good, so we just have to write them down.