#it was my first time seeing different variations of the undertale cast

[pennykinz]

@capitalisticveins

You wouldn't last an hour in the asylum where they raised me

[bonetrousledbones]

question can you infodump about your Little Guys (atbb) to me because ive been following for like a year and i still dont totally understand them past papyrus au. they are really cool tho

oh my god ok so. first off atbb is the acronym for my ask blog @ask-the-bone-boys that's been on hiatus for a little over a year now. it was born in 2018 out of the annoyance of everything au-centered being sans and also a way to explore how the classic "aus get stuck in the original universe" fic trope would go if it was somebody from the "original" story leaving their universe instead. and also an excuse to make papyrus miserable to be fully honest

also also im going to preface this by saying i ship selfcest and there is some selfcest in this story ok if anybody has issue with that then uh. oopsies (i can explain the way i view it at another time if anybody;s interested but im already gonna ramble like hell here so not rn)

with that groundwork laid im gonna put this under a cut lmao dont click this

for the sake of organization- part 1: RUSS

STARTING AT THE BEGINNING so some very basic backstory for this Undertale Papyrus specifically is that he and his brother are twins, they grew up bouncing around several foster homes until they decided to run away to live in the woods on their 14th birthday, where they lived in a bigass tent for three years until Papyrus got badly injured and they had to get help from the townspeople, who uh kinda unofficially adopted them and thats how "they just showed up one day"

then more time passed and around 3 years after getting to the surface Papyrus was booted out of his universe by Mysterious Circumstances. he got a very bad introduction to the multiverse because the place he landed was my own version of horrortale, undermunch. there he meets Spooks!

i have a whole side-fic where you can read in better detail how this goes but basically monsters don't turn to dust in this world and also Spooks is a cannibal, which Papyrus doesn't know until he realizes he was fed spaghetti made out of a rabbit monster. IN addition to that, Spooks has very different magic from other aus, that being it's pretty much all concentrated into a kind of blue-magic-venom that comes out of his teeth like a snake.

Long story short Papyrus has to escape from Spooks somehow, and that's how he learns he's able to move through universes by himself. It still takes him a while to learn how to without being in a life-or-death situation, but that's ok because almost every other universe he goes to after that puts him into a life-or-death situation :>

and then FINALLY he gets spat out into a variation of Underswap, where he meets Honey. this one's a bit spoilery because i haven't finished writing this fic yet BUT its ok because this will be so so so disorganized. anyway so Papyrus is scared of Honey at first because he's been getting completely fucking obliterated by the multiverse (his leg is broken and he's wearing a chest plate he stole from a different papyrus who died in front of him) but Honey is relatively patient with him and lets him stay on his couch on the surface. This is where Papyrus gets the nickname Russ!

Russ is dealing with a broken leg when he shows up in this universe, so he stays with Honey for a little over three months while he recovers from that as well as (some of) the multiverse traumas he'd been collecting up to that point. The main things that he still can't shake are nightmares, trust/attachment issues, and EXTREME food paranoia. he refuses to eat anything he hasn't prepared himself, and even that can be a struggle. Also, because of how long he spent without getting it properly treated, his leg never fully heals.

He starts getting really really homesick the longer he stays in this universe. It builds up over his whole stay, but only starts to get Very Bad after he gets the cast off of his leg. Honey's home is extremely similar to his own home, and sometimes just seeing him and his brother interacting with each other makes Russ upset.

OH I FORGOT TO TALK ABOUT THE CODEPENDENCY ok so at some point Russ just starts completely clinging to Honey and Honey doesn't know what to do about it so he just kinda. unintentionally feeds into it and this turns into Russ sleeping in Honey's bed and blah blah blah eventually this becomes a problem for Honey because he doesn't know how to address Russ's homesickness and clinginess without hurting him somehow even though Honey is extremely stressed and actively burning out

Then Russ overhears Honey venting to Undyne and feels. crushed. And he reacts incredibly rationally! By avoiding Honey as much as possible! But it does not take him long at all to break down and the two finally have a chat about boundaries. They work out a plan together that Honey thinks will genuinely help and Russ thinks will get himself off of Honey's back. The plan is that they'll figure out how to control Russ's world-hopping ability and get him back home.

The idea is that if he's able to control when and how he leaves, he can control where he goes. Then, when he inevitably lands in his home, he'll pop back in Underswap and tell Honey how it went. Because he can control it! Of course!

Honey gives him one of his hoodies and a photo camera to remember him by. Russ tries to figure out what it was in the past that might have helped him jump universes, which was the desire to be just about anywhere other than where he was at that moment. So, he just, thought about going home instead!

And it worked! And he left Honey's universe! And then he realized he didn't land at his home at all! And when he tried to go back to Honey's universe, he went somewhere entirely different as well! And he never saw Honey again! Wahoo!

This is the point where he just becomes a complete mess I'm not gonna lie to you, he starts drinking even though he really really REALLY hates alcohol, he only eats enough to stay conscious, he gets into fights just for the adrenaline rush, and only stays in one universe long enough to confirm it's not his home before either leaving for the next one or collapsing somewhere and hoping he doesn't get attacked while he sleeps for two hours

then he lands in Edge's universe and this needs a part two now OOPS

[rayshippouuchiha]

To start with, I would like to tell you that I absolutely love all of your writing. It’s like you have Midas’ touch for stories, every single one you touch turns to gold and are just so wonderfully written, so moving, with such beautifully worded character dynamics that I can’t help but reread every single one of them every so often. I’m particularly fond of tLoW and tGoD, both of which I have reread at least 5 times each. I didn’t even know that I could appreciate fem!Character fics until you! Before, I saw authors turn my favorite male characters into helpless blushing damsels in distress, for a “perfect” stereotypical heterosexual couple, all but abandoning everything which made their male counterpart great, which frustrated me to no end. I had all but blacklisted that tag until I found you, and you made me fall in love. Your Toni is no weak girl; she is a Queen, with all of the sass and intelligence and love for her precious people of her cannon counterpart, and I love her to pieces. Also you have this tendency of adopting abused/neglected/underappreciated sad bois and I live for it. ALSO also, your blog is a treasure, and even though you haven’t made them formal stories your AU ideas for Naruto make my day every time (seriously, what was Kishimoto thinking with that ending??)

Secondly, I would like to apologize for gushing like this, but I saw an anon ask you about Undertale a while back and I just can’t help myself, since it is one of my favorite games of all time. You responded that you weren’t opposed to playing it, but it makes me a bit sad that the fandom might have put you off the game. Hopefully you haven’t had too much spoiled for you, because this game is an Experience, an epic adventure, and I would like to share with someone like you, whose opinion I value and admire and who I believe would really appreciate a story like this, what I love about it 😊

The difficult thing about trying to explain my love for Undertale to others is that practically the entire game is a spoiler. There is something surprising that happens literally within the first 20 minutes of gameplay, and if I try to explain anything about the main characters (who all have complex motivations, diverse personalities and lovable hidden characteristics), I would probably end up spoiling something for one of the routes, but here goes nothing!

The premise is that you are a human child that has fallen into the underground, where monsters have been sealed for generations. The slogan of the game on Steam is “the game where nobody has to die” and, true to its word, you don’t HAVE to hurt anyone. You can go through the game befriending the monsters, learning their quirks, getting them to like you enough that they don’t wish to fight any more. You can encourage them, cheer them up, date some of them, and even make their dreams come true… but then again, if you want to do the opposite thing, you can play it like a traditional RPG, and murder literally EVERYONE in every corner, LV grinding until you are as strong as can be, which drastically alters the course of the game nearly from the beginning. Your every choice in this regard Matters, and there are at least 3 main endings, with the “Neutral” routes varying depending on who and how many you killed, for a total of about 30 different endings + variations.

Aside from that, there are other surprises at every corner, quirky humor, memorable NPCs as well as main characters, an unbelievably good soundtrack that matches the mood perfectly, and more. I also really love how the game doesn’t just spell everything out for you; much of the stuff you have to find out for yourself by paying attention, talking to the NPCs, reading books, talking on your phone, inspecting objects, and putting the puzzle pieces together. This is specially true when it comes to the struggles and stories of some of the main characters.

Also, something both cool and cruel about it is that in order to understand everything about all of the main characters, to see them at their best, you would have to betray these monsters you inevitably fall in love with in the worst possible way, or watch someone else murder them for your curiosity.

Without spoiling too much (hopefully), I can tell you that the cast includes; a badass who is not-so-secretly completely sweet and devoted to her loved ones, many GNC and LGTBQ characters, several 4th wall breakers, otakus, pettable dogs, many fluffy bois, and most importantly 2 subtly codependent sad and lonely bois, at least one of whom you will want to protect at all costs, he is so pure (I just don’t understand how he doesn’t have ALL of the friends. The people there are BLIND). The other is exactly the kind of smart, tragic, sad trash person you would like I think, and his story has SO much potential for the kind of angsty gold you provide

Once again, sorry for ranting for so long, but hopefully you’ll maybe try out the game sometime (no pressure though). If you do, could you please tell us your thoughts? I would love to hear them. Thank you again for your time and your beautiful words 😊

[8bitsupervillain]

End of the Year 2018 (I’m a few days late)

Hello ladies and gentlemen, it's that lovely time of the year again. The holiday season is past, the year is winding down and there's a new year on the horizon. As is traditional at this time of year I feel the need to force upon you my thoughts and feelings about the best things and the worst things I personally have endured this year. Once again, I can't really bring myself to do a best film of the year because honestly I don't recall seeing a movie that really stood out as particularly good this year. Some films I only saw because it was something to get me out of the house for a few hours, and honestly the only movies I can really remember seeing in the theaters were: Solo A Star Wars Story, Slender-Man, and Avengers Infinity War. 

Anyway, my Games of the Year 2018 edition. I decided to do something a bit different with this particular list, even though I played quite a number of games this year I didn't really play many that come out this, just a lot of older stuff. You may notice some glaring omissions from the games I did play this year, some of the big titles that came out I simply didn't play. So, you fine people are going to get a double list this year. I will have a top five for games that came out pre-2018 that I played this year, and one for games that did come out this year.

Honorable mentions:

HM: Call of Duty Black Ops IIII. I was really surprised by how much I enjoyed this game. I haven't really played many shooters in the past couple of years, but I greatly enjoyed my time with Black Ops 4. The base multiplayer plays pretty decently these days, and it reminds me a lot of Counter-Strike for reasons I can't really explain. Like so many of my friends though I really liked the time I spent in Blackout, I don't really play these battle royale games, but I enjoyed the time I put into this one.

HM: Mega Man 11. This was a very fun game, and I liked it quite a lot. Some of the pixel perfect jumps the game requires of you are a fair bit irritating though. I freely admit, I may have liked this a lot more than I may have otherwise because of the fact that I played Mighty No. 9 a couple months before the games release.

HM: Elder Scrolls Legends. I played this game a lot over the year, and I'd probably still be playing it if they didn't make the game unplayable on mobile and completely uninteresting to play on PC.

HM: SoulCalibur VI. I was really looking forward to this game, and I was so happy that the game came out as good as it did. It's a delight to play, and I really want to get back into playing more of it. Geralt was an interesting addition to the game that I'm really glad made it, he's quite fun to play as, and I can't wait to try out 2B.

HM: Deltarune. I'll admit that when I started playing this I wasn't really feeling it, I thought that the game was going to be trying too hard to recapture what made Undertale good. But it's a surprisingly enjoyable game, can't wait for the rest of it to come out eventually.

HM: Faith. A retro-style horror game, done in vector graphics. I like this game, granted some aspects of the boss fight, and the events just prior to this fight are somewhat annoying.

HM: King's Field (and King's Field 2). I played these in about mid-January, shortly after playing Persona 5. It was a nice little palette cleanser because it was a change going from a big story RPG to a game with a barebones plot. I played the Sword of Moonlight version of King's Field, and I had fun with it. King's Field 2 was also fun, I could not play these games without a guide though.

Game of the Year: Pre-2018

5. Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King

I played the 3DS version of this game, and honestly I loved just about every minute of it. The storyline was actually very well done, and I liked basically every character in this game. I was a bit unsure of how the game would play on the 3DS but it ran really well, and actually holds up great in the visuals. This is going to sound silly but I really like it when games include outfits that actually change the look of your character, it's a real treat. I really wish I had actually played this one when I got a PS2 copy years ago, but at least I finally got the chance to play this one.

4. Etrian Odyssey 2 Untold: The Fafnir Knight

I'm very slowly going through my backlog of 3DS/DS games that I've built up over the past five years or so. I played through this game back in March, and honestly I keep having a desire to go back through the game again just for the fun of it. The game becomes a bit of a bastard to go through towards the end, but I found it to be a greatly rewarding experience to play through. Also unlike Untold 1, the story mode in this game isn't a complete mess! So that's nice, a shame there will probably never be an Untold 3.

3. Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild

Briefly alluded to as "a game I'd probably really like if I played more than an hour" on last year's list I found that to be the case entirely. Breath of the Wild was a really great game that I found myself loving from top to bottom. This is another game that I completed fairly early in the year that I find myself wanting to replay again because I enjoyed it that much. Even when I played other games that are entirely different from it I found myself trying to pull off some of the moves and abilities you get in Breath of the Wild. Maybe I wouldn't have found this game to be so great had I played any of the newer Zelda titles (the last one I played was Wind Waker), but I found this game to be an absolute joy to play. I admit that the announcement of it being an open-world game filled me with dread, but I was so pleased to find out my fears were entirely unfounded. It's just really remarkable how much stuff they were able to put in this game, I wonder how the Wii U version fairs in comparison?

2. The Witcher III: Wild Hunt (and the DLC)

This is quite possibly the best version of Dragon Quest V I have ever played! I don't really know why it took me so long to get to this game, but for whatever it's worth the slightly over one hundred hours I've sunk into the game was a trip entirely worth taking. A bad habit I have when playing RPGs is sometimes near the end I start wishing it would wrap up, I never had this thought while playing through the Witcher's length. Even when I played the DLC almost immediately upon completing the primary story I didn't want my time in this world to end. This was an unexpected treat, after having played the first two Witchers I didn't in my wildest dreams think the third one would be this good. I absolutely adore this game, it has some of the best writing I've seen in an RPG, the characters are great, and I really like the villains. They feel like a very real, tangible threat as opposed to a vague evil sitting just beyond the horizon. Add to that the inclusion of Gwent and you have a game that holds its value really well. It must be said that Blood and Wine has what might be one of the most affecting endings I have ever seen in ages.

1. Fire Emblem Warriors

Surely I'm out of my mind, you must be thinking. After the words I said about Breath of the Wild, and Witcher III, how could a Musou game be the best of the pre-2018 games I played this year? Particularly in a year where Hyrule Warriors got a re-release? It's simple, I didn't really play Hyrule Warriors, and I played through Fire Emblem Warriors three times. While Breath of the Wild, and Witcher III have story, waifus, and better looks and feel about them, Fire Emblem Warriors has gameplay working in its favor. The gameplay in Fire Emblem Warriors is quite possibly some of the best Musou gameplay I've seen in a long while. Sure I might have issues with the fact that this is primarily an Awakening/Fates show I'm able to get over it because of how good the game plays. I earnestly hope for a sequel, I know it's a long-shot that any of the older Fire Emblem heroes would get in, but I would love it. Also this game does the impossible and makes the cast and story beats of Fates tolerable and decent.

Games of the Year 2018

5.  Detroit: Become Human

This game should count itself lucky I didn't play anything slightly more substantive. If I had played anything better than this I don't honestly think Detroit would have gotten any more than an honorable mention. That's not to say I didn't like the game, I enjoyed it greatly in fact, I just am surprised this game managed to be one of the better games I've played this year. The story really isn't the greatest around, but it did have moments that I liked a whole lot. Like so many others I think I liked the stuff with Connor and Hank the best. If this game had focused more on the "android cop" idea I might have liked it more, but I do want to reiterate I do think this was a good game. As by the numbers as Markus's story may have been, and some really hamfisted story beats that occur toward the end of the game it was a really solid game overall. I kind of feel like the game also played its hand regarding some of the characters a bit too early, and as such it kind of fumbled the reveal when it happens. It is pretty interesting seeing some of the variations between being peaceful Markus versus violent Markus, also the endgame variations of Connor's arc are pretty intriguing. Sadly Kara kind of gets the short end of the stick when it comes to characterization. Despite the game not quite sticking the landing when it approaches the ending it was still a good game to play through.

4. The Banner Saga Trilogy

This might be a bit of a cheat, but the console versions of the trilogy came out this year, so I'm counting it. It might not have the deepest strategy gameplay around, but this series is so much more than just the combat encounters. Some of the choices you're forced to make as the series advances are actually pretty difficult to deal with, but for its credit the game never really goes out of its way to chastise you for the decisions. I enjoyed the setting of these games a lot, Viking stuff is very interesting to me, and I absolutely adore the art style these games use. It reminded me a whole lot of the animated Hobbit movie that was out in the early 80s that I remember my dad having. I adore pretty much the whole cast that is in this trilogy, some of the characters fall flat, but when the cast is as large as the one in this series it's to be expected. This series also reminded me a lot of the early Fire Emblem games (specifically the ones on the GBA), in that your characters can permanently die as the story progresses. I played through this entire series over the course of a month because I was that engrossed in the world and story this series takes place in. I like how the threat in the series becomes much larger and grander as the games go on, and it never really feels entirely out of left field. The story does take a bit of a dive towards the end of the third game, but it was never really a deal breaker for me. If you like turn-based tactical combat, vaguely Norse mythology, or just a compelling story I really can't recommend this enough.

3. Yakuza 6: The Song of Life

Perhaps they should have done the Kiwami games prior to making this, since they seem to have had some issues with the engine. That said however I really enjoyed this one a whole lot. I don't really have a lot to say about the gameplay for this game, it is still some of the best combat you can experience in most modern games these days. Style switching from 0 is gone, but that's alright. Most heat moves seem to boil down to mashing the button a whole lot to make the impact greater, but none of the gameplay changes were a deal breaker for me. I don't really want to talk about the story in the game because I feel that the story is really the game's greatest aspect. The story has some major gut punch moments, it still has its more outlandish moments (it is Yakuza after all), but the story overall is a very satisfying very moving finale for Kiryu's story. I desperately want more people to play these games because the ending was perhaps one of the most emotionally satisfying things I have ever experienced with a video game.

2. Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of An Elusive Age

I adore this game. When it came out in September I played nothing but Dragon Quest XI until I completed the game. It's rare these days that something I look forward to actually lives up to my expectations, but Dragon Quest XI hit the mark and then some. I love just about every single member of the party in this game, I don't think there's a single weak link to be found in the cast. Sure the villain of the game lacks a bit of oomph despite the build-up, but I was still really digging the final villain by the time the game was approaching its end. Normally when I play an RPG by the end I start to drift away from it a bit, but I was thoroughly enjoying my time with it. I do have some complaints with the narrative towards the end, some minor complaints I have with certain characters and their characterizations near the end. The game is absolutely worth playing, it is just sheer classic role playing joy from beginning to end. Plus if you play it on PC you can mod in the orchestral soundtrack which is nice.

1. Monster Hunter: World

I sunk a lot of time into this game over the year. Two hundred and twenty-five hours to be precise (on one character at least). Granted that might be small potatoes compared to the time others have sunk into this I think that is quite a large amount. There's just something about this game that keeps calling me back to it. It might not be the most narratively rich game, but quite frankly I love this game to pieces. It's very cathartic hunting down these big behemoths. To be honest though I was kind of split between declaring this or Monster Hunter Generations Ultimate my favorite of the year. They both do something that I love so much about these games. It might be shallow to say but I probably like World more due to the graphical polish that the game possesses over Generations Ultimate. I love the inclusion of the cosmetic add-ons that are in World, it amuses me greatly to run around dressed up like Ryu from Street Fighter, or Dante from Devil May Cry, I also like the Aloy costume from Horizon: Zero Dawn. However I kind of prefer the greater amount of monsters that are available in Generations Ultimate. The sheer volume of monsters in the game is kind of ridiculous, but some of them are just tremendously fun to fight and I wish they could be in World. Generations Ultimate I kind of feel like I might be cheating by including it here, since it was an import copy for the Switch I played a lot. Honestly though, Monster Hunter World and Generations Ultimate I spent an absurd amount of time with during the year. In World's case at least I imagine I'll play a lot more during this year simply because of the inclusion of multiple crossover events that will no doubt be happening over the year. There's also the fact that Iceborne is coming out later this year, and I really can't wait to get my hands on that.

The honest truth is every single game that make up my best of list are all games that I really want to replay because I enjoyed them so much. Also just for fun here's the order the list would go in if I combined the two lists:

10. Detroit Become Human 09. Dragon Quest VIII 08. Etrian Odyssey 2 Untold 07. The Banner Saga Trilogy 06. Yakuza 6 05. Breath of the Wild 04. The Witcher 3 03. Dragon Quest XI 02. Fire Emblem Warriors 01. Monster Hunter World/Generations Ultimate

Here’s to 2019, and the very many games that are coming out that I am really looking forward to! Thank you for reading, and until next time farewell.