#resident!gaster

[parniathedevil]

RT! gaster's timeline uniform xD

[spotaus]

Hello and welcome to I Doodled a bit because Boredom :) (ft. Phishbone, Pretender, and Carnival!)

[sysig]

In the fell! Handplates au what do you think gaster would do to protect the boys? If torial or asgore ever tried to hurt/take away or kill them would he finally snap and fight? I��ve always liked the idea that gaster (despite not being royal) is considerably more powerful then asgore or torial due to how versatile and complex skeleton attacks can be plus he is a boss monster who’s old af.

I would love to see fell! Asgore and torial absolutely get their asses handed to them by a protective gaster. Lol can you imagine their shock? (:

(I absolutely adoreeeee your art)

(Thank you! o/♥)

I think Fell!Gaster would still keep the boys as his secret project to start - Honestly, I really like the idea of him following the same basic beats as Classic Handplates Gaster! Constructing the lab, hole-punching his hands, bringing the boys to life and then experimenting on them in secret, now under the pretense of finding "inherent goodness in Monsters" or inducing it, bringing it forward, however he goes about doing that. So if they did find them, it'd at least be a while

But, I also really like the idea of Gaster still being hopelessly devoted to the Dreemurrs! That raising a hand against them would hurt infinitely worse than whatever they have to dish out against him, and that being why he takes their abuse - if he could only save them! If he could only show them a better way! Then they could all finally be happy, one big family! 💕

As for the boys and what Gaster would be willing to do to protect them, I think it would also be similar to what Classic does - put himself between the brothers and danger to the best of his ability. I do think it would be an interesting turn for him to have to choose between protecting them and his pacifism towards other Monsters if the Dreemurrs got ahold of them somehow - the internal conflict of finally having to face his own darkness! Even if he tried to justify it, I think that'd really be the tipping point for him :)

[whimsicalgoose]

fists tighten i need... saved!gaster befriending everyone on the surface... I need spooky old guy to learn to communicate and everyone else to realize ohhh he's silly. mb.

is this too niche. is there anybody out there. i need found family wing gaster pls pls i doesn't even have to be saved gaster it can be anything please

[thesassyspork]

Alright, so the Heisenberg x OC story I have been working on all year has officially been broken into two parts and is sitting at around 255k words right now. I still have a lot to go with that one but the first part is done and awaiting final edits. The mafiafell fic of Wing Dings Gaster x OChas taken off and I just broke 100k with that one and it's still got a way to go. The classic UT story has slowed down but is still alive I uust have to figure out what kind of a direction I wasn't to go in. I can say that I have learned so much this year when it comes to my writing and how to put a story together that I'm excited about it. I have also been growing an original story idea that I hope to publish one day. Thank you for being patient with me while I figure out my stories. ✨️🖤✨️

[meowing-at-u]

Why does Ralsei have a shape resembling a ♥︎ on his robe. what do you want, My Soul or something

[cas-spirit]

Give me more platonic affection.

Give me omega timeline residents approaching Asgores because they give the best hugs.

Give me Ink, learning about physical affection by observing people, having Blue explain the different ways people hold hands. Him tackling Top and Aster to the ground trying to figure out how hugs go.

Give me Dream who only cries when someone’s hugging him because it’s the only time he feels shielded enough to break.

Give me Nightmare and Error, who after years of working together, finally end their deals with a handshake.

Give me Blueberror who’s off button is any kind of physical affection.

Give me Core Frisk, still a child, clinging to people’s hands, holding a larger hand in both of theirs.

Givr me Nightmare falling asleep on a movie night and the rest of the gang can’t move because his tendrils lay on top of them like sleeping cats.

Give me Blue forcing his two semi-immortal friends into cuddle piles so they actually sleep for once.

Give me Fresh showing trust by letting people hold his head, so close to the eyesockets that hold his true form.

Give me Error and Geno readjusting to touch after the emptiness of their containments, telling the other that they’re there by knocking knees.

Give me Frisks in the omega timeline offering a shoulder to lean on for Charas, or anyone who asks.

Give me Underfell where the skelebros curl up around eachother to watch the other’s back, even in sleep.

Give me Outertales where handholding is common to make sure no one floats off into space.

Give me Gasters who use their many hands to give head pats to their sons/coworkers (Sans, Papyrus, and Alphys) as well as doing science work stuff.

Give me Nightmare who curls his tendrils on top of his subordinate’s heads like a strange pat on the back.

Give me Horror who will simply pick his teammates up and hold them like the wet cats they are.

Give me Cross who’s so unused to any physical affection he freezes up, and Killer using this to his advantage by grabbing his hand to distract him from the cow nearby or to get him to stop training for a bit.

Give me Nightmare laying a tendril over Dream’s shoulder to remind himself that his twin is there, and they aren’t fighting anymore.

Give me Dusts that will curl up on top of people like a cat.

Give me Inks who give surprise hugs to his friends.

Give me Errors who wrap his strings around people to give them hugs.

Give me Horror Papyrus becoming the center of hug piles in Nightmare’s gang because the boys miss their brothers a lot, and he’s the closest they’ll get with the gang’s reputation.

Give me Killer, just met Nightmare, and the baby goop clings to him while they explore the multiverse.

Give me Ink and Error pulling eachother along by the scarfs.

Give me Dancetale where duo dances end with a hug (or high five if too sweaty for a hug)

Give me Fell Papyrus holding Fell Sans’s hand out and about, using the excuse of making sure Sans doesn’t wander off when asked.

Give me post-truce spontaneous skeleton cuddle piles.

Give me Killer randomly tackling his teammates.

Give me Ink being so physically affectionate people think he’s flirting (he’s not).

Give me Papyrus calling Sans a cat while he curls up on his shoulder.

Give me Sans holding Geno’s hand carefully when things get a bit too much after his time of the Save Screen.

Give me careful fingers tracing the edges of Papyrus’s rarely-seen hands.

Give me Dust trying, and failing, to touch his Papyrus.

Give me Passive Nightmare’s ghost curling up around Dream’s shoulders like a purple boa, hugging him around the neck when things get rough.

Give me the gang curling up on Nightmare’s tendrils when he’s not paying attention.

Give me Dream learning about the different meanings behind touch after he breaks out of stone.

Give me Gaster’s who are almost too scared to embrace Sans and Papyrus incase getting out of the void was a dream, and Papyrus accidentally sending him to the floor with his enthusiastic hug.

Give me Undyines randomly carrying their Alphys around.

Give me Frisks who press their forehead onto people (Sans’s back, Papyrus’s thigh, Toriel and Asgore’s arm, Alphy’s side, Undyne hip) and lean on them.

Give me Frisks who randomly lean on people, almost falling over because Chara is a ghost and incapable of being my leaned on.

Give me Dust laying his head on Killer’s lap when Killer gets twitchy, because what’s he gonna do, move Dust?

Give me Error who’s glitching feels kinda like a massage, holding his hands to Nightmare’s back, Horror’s skull, or Geno’s wherever when they get pain.

Give me Ink who uses hand holding like a recalibration test after he goes blank.

Give me hand holding and head pats and hugs and cuddle piles.

Givemegivemegivemegivemegivemegiveme

[orbital-inclination]

Moltendreams - Error Sans Alias - Static Pronouns: he/him, they/them Personality: Petty, holds a mean grudge, Big Tsundere, Complete Shut-in, Quick Tempered and Moody, fanatic with his interests, externally aggressive when in actuality he is quite shy. An absolute troll. His favorite passtime is messing with others. Paradoxically touch starved and suffers from haphephobia. Reckless with his own well being.

This variant of Error is capable of both love and compassion, he just hides it under a grumpy exterior and several layers of denial and self-destructive dogma. Other Notes:

Reluctant to harm Papyrus directly, though Static can't articulate why, and will generally avoid encounters Papyrus in any given AU.

Had a good relationship with his dad/W.D Gaster, actually.

Relates to "pest" pets; rats, mice, snakes, spiders, beetles, he loves them all.

Would have a pet rat of his own if he wasn't afraid of it shocking itself by chewing on his wires.

His favorite kind of chocolate is mixed with a hazelnut filling.

Views Frisk as a younger sibling.

Into Parkour.

-More Info undercut! -

Abilities: Static uses wire instead of string. Wire and summoned attacks can and do hold an electric charge. His presence alone messes with electronic devices. Residents of a particular AU may get a few minutes or seconds of warning as sweaters get staticy, computer screens glitch out, and anything with a battery spontaneously dies or gets super charged. By creating a circle of alternating RED and CYAN bones, Static creates a sort of reverse faraday cage. While Static can produce electricity, he can't directly control the voltage. He can only hope to direct it. The voltage of a charge is directly influenced by his emotional state. If you touch him, you will find his clothes zappy with static. Do NOT attempt to fight him in humid or watery environments for, hopefully, obvious reasons.

About: Static originates from a pre-Pacifist timeline that was followed by a looping Genocide Route. Through repetitive iterations, and an escalating instability in the timeline, the monsters of the underground began to recall events they didn't witness and memories they shouldn't recall.

Working together, Static, at that point still Sans, and Alphys were able to pin point the root cause of their timeline's instability. They made a plan to save the underground and separate Frisk from the Anomaly but when it came time to execute their plan something went catastrophically wrong. As a result Sans was torn from reality, and caught in the space in-between. Eventually, he escaped but not unscathed. Static has vague conflicting memories of his past, and to this day, questions if any of it was real. He can't find his original AU and secretly fears it may have been the first world he destroyed. He is still looking for it.

Outcode Politics: Static views all outcodes the same way he views every iteration of the original timeline that even slightly deviates: as glitches to be terminated. Bugs in the code he needs to hammer out before it all goes to hell. Static believes that by destroying deviating timelines and AUs, he is preserving the stability of the original. He is “saving’’ it from corruption by trimming the branches back. Despite his position as the self proclaimed Destroyer, Static is not above biases and making exceptions. 

Static includes himself on his long list of glitches in the code to be terminated. Static has a different view on the Spirits of Creation that Fable/Ink does. (Spirits of Creation are the in-universe term and stand-in for the creator of an AU). He calls them eldritch parasites. Abominations that should be avoided at all costs. And absolutely should not be encouraged or interacted with. Though he won't admit it out loud, Static is terrified of them. OG Error @.LoverofPiggies/CrayonQueen) Moltendreams @.me Edit: he has been named! Edit 2: revised his profile a bit

[afterartist]

HELICALTALE MAIN CAST LINEUP!!

(Not ll of the characters but the most important ones to the plot)

‘And now: AU Infodump

BUT BEFORE ANYTHING!!

I will be answering any questions (within reason) any of you have about the au, even if it’s about some random side character only three people have ever heard of before

I live world building and any chance to expand on this world are treasured

I’ll probably answer with fun little doodles as well lol

So ask away :D!!

Basic AU overview:

Helicaltale is NOT a classic based Timeline.

The AU is set in a world where Mt Ebott was destroyed during the war, leaving a desert crater in its place, no protection for the Monsters to retreat and nowhere to seal them underground. In response, the Human mages put a spell on Monster kind, ‘Helios’ Curse’, forcing them to be unable to touch sunlight or else they’d burn (think Vampires or Minecraft Mobs)

The main story takes place 87 years after the war ended and 29 years after friendly communications between the two races begun, with the Monsters settled in a camp like city, made of tents and canvas buildings, around the oasis that formed in the desert that was now known as Ebott crater. Humans and Monsters have achieved peace between the races, regular trading routes and communications set up between the two cities.

Now all that was left was for both Humans and Monsters to find a way to break Helios’ Curse for good.

(None of them can touch Sunlight (minus the humans) but the ones more lightly dressed (Gaster, Alphys, Asgore) all live in the city, with proper buildings not at risk of being blown over at any second so can afford to not be covered up 100% of the time)

Locations:

Ebott City-

The capital city of the country, Ebott is a massive human settlement, overshadowing old ruins left by the war. It’s currently the main base of conferences between human and monster relations.

The Oasis-

The Monster settlement, made from tents and interconnecting canvas sheets, from above it looks like a colourful cluster of a campground, large sheets stretched over the streets. From within it’s only lit by lamps and magic, the sky completely blocked out by tarps and canvas to avoid accidentally getting burned by sunlight, to those not familiar with the city it’s a labyrinth, others, its home.

(A major inspiration for the Oasis is the Kowloon walled city, for those interested in a more accurate visual of the Oasis)

The Great Fence-

While the name conveys grandeur, the fence is a simple chain link fence acting as the border around the entire Oasis, topped with barbed wire and adorned with tarps, it’s designed to protect the residents against wild animals like Coyotes and be a barrier against sandstorms more than it is to keep people out, one of the most regular jobs for the Royal guard other than being general peace keepers is to uphold the fence, often sending patrols out after heavy storms to keep everything in order.

Central Oasis-

A mix between Newhome and Waterfall, it’s the main hub of the town, the Royal family living there along with the majority of schools and recreational areas, most Water based monsters (ie: Shyren, Aaron ect ect) also live in this area, a large lake of water being the centerpiece of the city.

Lights district-

To the west side of the city is the main shopping hub, while much more open than the majority of the Oasis, many stores foregoing walls on their tents entirely, its full of stores and restaurants, the most well known being Grillby’s and Muffets joint restaurant, many visitors to the Oasis come for the night life of the lights district, the monsters that live in that area making the camp around them as flashy and attractive as possible, neon lights and dancing flames lighting up the darkness of the district, the Celebrities Mettaton and Nabstablook have also been alluded to frequent the region and perform for onlookers.

Sandbank-

The Snowden equivalent of the AU, having gotten its name due to its position at the east side of the city, being the least protected by the walls of the crater, Sandbank often gets the brunt of the sandstorms that hit the desert, leading many of the Royal Guards live in this area in case of an emergency during the storms.

Southside (the Black Market)-

Technically not its official name, the Southside of the Oasis is whispered about in the dark of night, rumours telling of an illegal market place and shady monsters working in the south, many a monster wandering in and never coming out. While most likely just old wives tales, its best you keep your distance, just in case.

(Yeah I made the Black Market an actual real marketplace because that will never not be funny to me)

Hotlands-

The north most section of the Oasis is best known as Hotlands, given the name as it’s the highest section of city but also the most shielded by the crater walls, leaving it boiling without any wind to seep out the heat’. There’s been speculation that Hotlands actually sits over an underground chamber of magma, adding to the blistering temperature.

Characters:

The Dreemurrs:

Frisk- (Any Pronouns)

Frisk is an 11 year old kid, a runaway from one of Ebott City’s Orphanages, known for its less than legal treatment of the children. Having joined Chara as the eldest helped them both escape, Frisk followed Chara into the desert, looking for shelter from CPS.

During the trek however Frisk falls sick with an illness, most common in Monsters but able to infect anyone with strong magic, called Icarus syndrome.

With Icarus syndrome being effectively Hyperthermia of the soul, any physical treatment is ineffective, needing a particular medication to have any hope of survival, leaving the crater as not just refuge but possibly their only chance of survival.

Chara- (They/Them)

Chara is 16 and the orchestrator of the escape from the Orphanage with Frisk, after having been in contact online with a kid from the Monster camp that offered assistance. During the escape Frisk fell ill, forcing Chara to locate and purchase the rare medicine. Ending up in the Monster equivalent of the black market, Chara found a monster begrudgingly willing to help, trading a magical glass eye, a prosthetic their grandfather made for both humans and monsters during the war, for a small vial of medicine. The trader warning them to keep out of the black market before dropping the two kids off safely at the center of the Oasis.

Asriel- (He/Him)

Asriel is the firstborn son of the Dreemurrs and heir to the Royal throne, at 16 he made contact and became friends with a kid online, the other telling him of the danger they and their sibling were in at the Orphanage. Quickly offering up his home, knowing both his parents had fostered and cared for many children in the past and wouldn’t turn away two more. Upon meeting them in the Oasis he makes fast friends with both Frisk and Chara, practically adopting them as siblings on the spot.

Toriel- (She/Her)

Queen of the Oasis at 143 years old, Toriel has seen her fair share of bloodshed and peacetime, giving her the knowledge to recognise that protecting young children is the best way to ensure their future, guiding them to Mercy and pragmatic solutions instead of Fighting. One of the first things she did after Monsters had finally settled into the Oasis being starting up a school, becoming the primary teacher for a good few years before other parents eventually began to join her staff. Though, with the two new children her son had brought to her doorstep, she’s begun to realise it’s not just the children of Monster kind that need protection.

Asgore- (He/Him)

King of the Oasis and 146 years old, Asgore grew up at the front lines of the war, the heinous acts shaping him into the pacifist he is today. Currently away from the Oasis, Asgore has turned his sights on communications with the Humans, staying at the city while conferences with the city leaders on trade routes and transportation commence. He is also overseeing the Monster half of the Science team, working closely with the Royal Advisor and Scientists Gaster in developing a cure to Helios’ Curse. He remains in frequent contact with the Oasis, making the trip back every weekend to see his now growing family and make sure Toriel isn’t overwhelmed with responsibilities.

-

The Fonts:

Dr. Gaster- (He/Him)

At 140, Gaster has spent his life developing weapons for war (the Gaster Blaster being his pride and joy) and perseverance for Monster Kind, having a massive distaste for all Humans and most Monsters. The sudden change from war efforts to restoration efforts throwing his life in disarray. Jumping at the chance to use Human equipment on government funded experiments, Gaster didn’t hesitate to leave his sons Sans and Papyrus (9 and 4 at the time) back at the Oasis to move to the city and begin work. He’s had a hand in creating many inventions helping Monster kind (both helping with the medicine for Icarus Syndrome and a magic Sunscreen that can briefly minimise the effects of the sun) and the head of the Selene Project, the project to break the curse.

Sans- (He/Him)

28 and thriving, Sans has made a name for himself as both the comedic slacker of the Royal guard and the savvy businessman as one of the Black Markets best traders. Having been forced to raise both himself and Papyrus from a young age, Sans became intwined with the black market at the age of 12, after Papyrus caught Icarus Syndrome and receiving no help from Gaster off in the city, Sans was forced to find his own way of getting medication. At the age of 12 he found his way into the black market, ending up trading his right eye, and subsequently some of his shortcut abilities with an underground doctor in exchange for the medicine, to this day he hasn’t told anyone what happened to his eye. From then on he found himself going back and getting into trading as a way of making money as a side job while both he and Papyrus worked to get into the Royal guard, quickly becoming infamous in the criminal world of the Oasis, though he had a rule that no kids were to ever be found trading in the market. A rule that quickly got broken when a young human kid stumbled into his shop, begging for help, offering a magic glass eye as payment. Unable to send the kid off without help (or turn down the irony of selling the meds for an eye) he made the trade before guiding the kid and their sibling to the Oasis center.

-

(Bonus:)

After dropping the kids off, Sans makes an attempt to use the prosthetic eye, yet upon fitting it into his socket, the magic activated and bonded with his soul, causing the eye to become fused with his being, immovable. Along with the eye he’s suddenly able to see things he, by all means, should NOT be able to see, including text bubbles from the creators (similar to error sans)

He also finds, magically in his pocket, a small golden key, only figuring out its use after stumbling across a door in the middle of nowhere, upon using the key on the door he finds himself in an entirely different AU, door closing and disappearing behind him.

This is what leads him to discover the Multiverse and travel between AUs (inconveniently ending up in Nightmares Castle more times than he’d care to count)

-

Papyrus- (He/Him)

The Great Papyrus, second in command of the Royal guard at the younge age of 23 (you may applaud now)

Having grown up with just himself and Sans, Papyrus always wanted to become something great to make his brother proud, despite Sans’ insistence that he’s already proud of him. When he was 13, while Sans was out getting food, Papyrus had been targeted and hunted down by a group of bullies from the Southside of town, the group of teens taking turns in beating him up, eventually escalating to the point where one of them pulled a mirror from their pocket and used it to reflect a beam of sun directly onto his face, leaving a permanent scar,

He was saved however, when a teen he recognised from the Oasis center came charging out from one of the nearby tents, picking up handfuls of sand and hurtling it at the other kids before beating them up with her fists alone. Once over, the girl had turned, helped Papyrus up and took him to see her grandfather, the current head of the Royal Guard, a job she loudly proclaimed she was going to have one day,

Ever since then he attempted and eventually got into the Royal guard, along with Sans and the teen, Undyne.

-

Gersons:

Undyne- (She/Her)

29, Captain of the Royal Guard, Wife of the best woman around, living the high life! Having been raised by her grandfather Gerson for longer than she could remember, she’s always looked up to the Royal Guard, no matter how her Grandfather told her it wasn’t all glory. She’d been sneaking out and training with one of the Royal Guards for 8 years by the time she was 19, stumbling across a fight, six of her classmates beating down on a young skeleton. She’d jumped to defense before she’d even registered it, helping the kid up and getting him patched up where eventually the kids brother, Sans, one of Alphys’ friends found them and thanked her profusely.

The three became fast friends, practically siblings, both of them there at her and Alphys’ wedding and her promotion to Captain of the Royal guard.

Alphys- (She/They)

27 and already one of the best Scientists in the whole country. Alphys’ having grown up in Hotlands would have never dared to dream she’d be working with a whole team of like minded scientists, especially not in the human city, though not being able to see her Wife as often was a dampener. Dr. Gaster was also a bit, overzealous, with the project, it was only a matter of time before the madman created some temporal superflux that blew up half the block, even if she wouldn’t be anywhere near as prestigious without his guidance, despite Sans’ reservations for letting them near him.

(I will be adding more to this AU btw, it’s in my top 3 faves lmao)

Bonus:

Animation I’ve done for Helical Sans to explain how his AU hopping works

[duochromium]

collection of mildly funny chen related visuals that aren’t funny or detailed enough for an entire oneshot

ran buys chen a nintendo switch and within a month she’s already traded it off to tsukasa in exchange for whatever the gensokyo equivalent of a snickers bar is. yukari is absolutely fuming that there is now outside world technology somewhere circulating in gensokyo

chen is standing next to ran somewhere outside. ran turns a little too fast and her 500lb tails smash into chen at the speed of a baseball bat sending the bakeneko flying off into the sunset

chen randomly wants to try playing soccer so yukari forces several people in gensokyo to enroll their younger family/subordinates into a gensokyo soccer league so chen has teammates. all of the young’uns except koishi and chen hate it

ran, in a completely calm tone: “yukari please help chen is on fire”

chen being the catgirl she is kills Nazrin and leaves her corpse on the yakumo residence front doorstep. the only punishment she receives is being grounded for a week. yukari experiences months and months of stress due to byakuren now literally wanting the entire yakumo family dead

chen spends 3 hours explaining the skibidi toilet lore to ran and every single second of it ran grows less opposed to the idea of taking chen to the vet and getting her put down

the reason chen doesn’t have the yakumo family name is because yukari just doesn’t like her

chen and rin and mike have a gang where like half of their gimmick is just hating cirno’s gang. this beef is entirely one sided and cirno’s gang doesn’t even know chen’s exists

ran and yukari entrust ran to reimu as a babysitter while they go out and do something. the first thing chen asks when they return is “WHAT DOES FUCK MEAN” (heard from reimu)

chen screaming and crying as ran tries to bathe her

chen screaming and crying because yukari bought cucumbers

that aforementioned gang with the other two touhou cats get their paws on catnip and spend like 3 days having the most insane trip of their lives. yukari is convinced chen is dead

and to conclude, an out of context discord message i sent to w.d. gaster

[parniathedevil]

Finally I Made Resident!Gaster and Resident!Mariel XD

she is Gaster's wife

When they were children, they were very close friends, and Mariel had no one but Gaster, and Gaster had lost his father in the war between humans.

After a few years, they got married and had a child, and Sans was born with the love of two monsters, but after 10 years, when Papyrus was born, Mariel fell ill, and Gaster tried to save her, but she died after 2 or 3 years. And Gaster also gets depressed and pierces his palm and rarely see his sons :')

[rubyroboticalt]

QBLR QUARTERLY part 2!

That's right, this report needed two whole posts. Onto the news!

Who let wizards on the server? Zpca's laboratory is discovered in far-off salt flats. Ruby terraforms a black sand beach and takes possibly the worst screenshots of it ever. My liege, you have advanced darkness on. Cheez returns home after a long while away.

And now, a reading from r/malelivingspaces. Orange acacia walls. Shroomlight peeking from above the ceiling and on the lower wall. Orange sandstone ceiling. Meaty red floor. Large desk on the right wall. Single acacia chair at the desk. Unidentifiable orange metal in the wall. This has been a reading from r/malelivingspaces.

Brie reaches a milestone of over 500 deaths, only 1/4 of which are the result of player kills. Dollie participates in a magic ritual with friends! Hivi crafts every single attainable plushie thrice. Ladel has some family bonding time.

Glitch finishes their gardens. Splat and their family convert an airship into a spaceship with airlocking and amenities! On the last two days of play, the Void Worm is unbanned. Residents jump at the opportunity to kill such an elegant beast. Berry organizes a room full of all the flowers in the game.

The mysterious salmon receives some hugs and love from Appie and the bog. Sweetpea tries and fails to go to heaven. Gummy shares the longest playtime of the server, totaling over 45 and a half days. Moo finishes a chapel for their religion.

Inc finishes a tower with which to escape impending apocalypse. Apple finishes the portalfolks garden and invites guests to leave a note in the guestbook. Popcorn celebrates a birthday in the last day of server time.

Oh my lord, audience, do you remember the call to keep a lookout for Spamton after the court case special? It's a good thing we did -- he tries crashing Popcorn's birthday party! And who is there to stop him but WD Gaster himself! I don't believe it!

In the last hours before the end, residents make final arrangements to escape to other worlds. Chunks begin to be consumed, as the Dark Magician harnesses the magic power and energy put into this world for one final clearing of things.

And with that, I'd like to thank Grace, Levlies, Crow, Lim, and Qrth for being an all-star admin team keeping the server running smoothly. Thanks to Ven, Vern, Angel, Cand, Elli, Jay, Mack, Neon, Niko, Percy, and Val for being a super-attentive super-supportive mod team making sure bugs got fixed and lost items were returned. Thank you to Mira, Danny, Jace, Inc, Roy, Glitch, Solaria, Appie, and Cassi for being an amazing bog commune. Thanks to all the other players I haven't mentioned for making the server such a beautiful, lively place. And thanks to you, humble viewer, for coming on this journey with me.

link to part 1

[ticklishshenanigansau]

LaughterLand - Chapter 16: Tentacles

(story by Mod Secret, art by Mod Kitty)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"Sans...?" Papyrus called nervously.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“…pfft!”

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

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

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

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

“AAAAAAAAAAAAGHHH!!!”

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

“PAP!!”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“NOOOOOO!!!”

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

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

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

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

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

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

"NOHOHOHOHO!!! NAHAHAT THEHEHEHERE!!"

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

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

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

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

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

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

"SAAAAAAAAAAANS!!"

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

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

"Find him," Sans ordered sternly.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The tentacles started tickling both sides of the Blaster.

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

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

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

That’s when he realized … he was falling!

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

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

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

[parallax25]

Protagonism and the Nature of Fiction

A Deltarune Theory Essay

NOTE: THIS IS NOT FINISHED.

Before I start, I'd like to say that I originally intended to make this a video essay, but I don't have a microphone and there really isn't any good free editing software. So what else would I do but make an overly long Tumblr post that no one's going to see? Mostly this post just serves as a way for me to archive my thoughts on the matter of some of Deltarune and Undertale's biggest mysteries, but on the off chance that someone does see this post, I'd like to at least make it intelligible for someone else. When I say this is a long post, I mean this is a LONG post. I don't know if there's a character limit on Tumblr posts, but if there is I'll probably exceed it. With that said, read on.

:: I: The Nature of Fiction ::

One of the biggest things Undertale's known for is its frequent fourth-wall breaks. One of the biggest things Deltarune's known for is its clear implication of a diagetic player. Both of these games toy with subverting conventional video game expectations (especially within the context of RPGs) as well as deconstructing and critiquing tropes that are, at this point, ingrained into conventional game design. This aspect is great for both games, because it lends a very compelling meta narrative to them and allows for some rad worldbuilding opportunities. Making SAVEing and LOADing diagetic, for example, reminds the player that what they do has consequences within the world and is not just a part of the menu. So, the natural conclusion for most people playing these games is that these aspects must be fourth-wall breaks; that the game and the fictional world are one and the same. Examples of this notion in Undertale include things like "Flowey knows he's in a game," or "Sans knows what LV and EXP are that thus realizes he's in a game" or something like that. In Deltarune it's "Gaster took over Toby's Twitter account," "Ralsei knows he's in a game, that's why he mentions controls and knows there's a predetermined narrative," "Gaster's talking directly to the player," "Spamton and Jevil also know that the world is a game," etcetera etcetera.

But really, the idea that Undertale and Deltarune make fourth wall breaks at all just isn't true, and it's what I'd like to disprove here.

Sure, SAVEing and LOADing may be 'diagetic' in a way, but it has an analogue within the fictional world of Undertale. In Undertale it's just magical time travel that occurs whenever the being with the most determination in the universe dies or decides to 'LOAD' their 'SAVE'. It's not diagetic in the way most people think it is. Meta textually it's more literal, sure, but not within the fictional world. Flowey doesn't know he's in a video game. I doubt if he knows what a video game is. I think that he's come to see the world as a metaphorical game, or that he's aware that the fictional universe of Undertale is being manipulated by higher entities. It's also important to realize, however, that fourth wall breaks are, by the nature of fiction, impossible to do without completely breaking a fictional world and all semblance of immersion for the audience. You see, a game, a book, a movie, and a piece of art (to an extent) all serve the same purpose: to abstractly represent by means of gameplay, textual narrative, abstraction, or sequential narrative devices, a fictional world that resides in the collective unconscious of its audience. A fictional world does not really exist anywhere except within the minds of the people who engage with it. Characters represent fictional people and are wholly separate from them. It's the difference between a stage play depicting a real life event and the people involved, and the event and people themseleves. The game Undertale is wholly separate from its fictional world. In the game, when you enter a different room on the map, the previous one is no longer loaded. It's objects and processes within the GameMaker engine cease to be considered. Its collision physics are no longer accounted for. Does this mean that, within the fictional world, everything outside of Frisk's range of vision ceases to exist? No. Obviously not. If you were to perform a fourth wall break, then what you are doing is merging the fictional world and the game. Anything that happens in the game, is one hundred percent literal within the fictional world it represents. Anything that doesn't happen within the game literally never happened within the fictional world. History is erased. Canonically, people are made up horrifying almagamations of pixelated 2 dimensional sprites, half second long .ogg files, and lines of dialogue. It's a veritable ontological nightmare, as every person in existence is replaced with slightly different versions of themselves saying different things every couple of seconds. Everything that does not exist in the playable area does not exist in the fictional world, if you admit that the fictional world and the game world are synonymous.

(Now that I think about it, these kinds of concepts could be really cool to toy around with in a game like The Stanley Parable.)

You see what I'm getting at? Fourth wall breaks are impossible. Everything that seems like a fourth wall break in Undertale and Deltarune has to have an analogue in the fictional world that the games represent. The player is not diagetic within Deltarune, you're just controlling an eldritch, timeline-traversing entity that can take control of people's SOULs and annihilate timelines. I mean, sure it comes to the same thing, but it doesn't mean that YOU are diagetic to Deltarune. Jevil doesn't think that the world is literally a video game, he just knows that the universe is being manipulated by entities outside of it and that the fate of the universe is predetermined (literally by Toby Fox, meta textually a theme of freedom and destiny, and within the fictional world by a godly entity). Gaster didn't fucking take over Toby Fox's Twitter account, Toby just used his Twitter account as a way to implement a narrative device for the release of Deltarune. Gaster still canonically said that stuff, I think, but this just mean's he's contacting the interdimensional cosmic horror entity and speaking to them. Any meta fuckery has to happen on a metatextual or gameplay level in order for the fictional world to maintain its integrity. When Ralsei and those Froggits in the Ruins mention keyboard controls, it's just for player convenience. In universe it would make no sense to be like:

"Hey Kris, did you know that you can walk faster with [X]? I hope that's helpful . . . "

"Ralsei what the fuck are you talking about?"

I don't think Ralsei even knows what a keyboard is. And, yes, I know he's talking to the player here.

(Side note: Ralsei's general tendency to say stuff about controls, to be the only one to mention SAVE points, to have the notion that there's a predetermined narrative to follow, and something else I'll get to later, is, I think, a vague metaphorical allusion to the fact that he knows a lot about the nature of the Deltarune universe and is aware that something's controlling Kris.)

Yeah. So generally any kind of fourth wall break that's there for player convenience or humor I would just declare isn't canon. Like ... as in the characters literally never said it. 4th wall breaks by characters are wildly inconsistent anyways; Mettaton mentions an "on-screen keyboard" in Undertale during his fight, but uh ... that seems like it would have some pretty serious implications if he actually said that and understood what he was saying, and yet it's never mentioned again.

When someone engages with a fictional world and immerses themselves within it, they experience the narrative within the context of the fictional world. They see everything through the lens of someone that exists within that world. One does not consider the medium of the fiction anymore, they just consider the fiction being presented to them. A person playing God of War doesn't consider the fact that they're playing a video game, they just see the world through the lens of Kratos. It's analogous to a person getting closer to a screen until it fills their range of vision. It occupies their entire mind; they cease to consider anything outside of that ... they are simply engaging with the fiction as though it was real. When the fiction acknowledges the medium that it's in, or makes some reference to it, or clearly relies on it, the person engaging with it mentally takes a step back from this metaphorical screen and from there on considers the medium that the fiction resides in as an integral component of it. For most people this is what happened with Undertale. Undertale's meta-narrative is deeply intertwined with its conventional narrative, but the two never intersect. At no point are you, the player, actually literally implicated within the world of Undertale. Most characters defer to your actions to Frisk, while some like Sans don't actually speak to Frisk but instead what they perceive as just some otherworldly entity. Flowey calls you "Chara." Chara ... doesn't really make it clear what's going on with them. The relationship between Frisk, Chara, and the player is extremely ambiguous and isn't really the point of this thesis but suffice it to say, Undertale doesn't make any 4th wall breaks outside of a cheeky meta-textual level. My point is, the acknowledgement of a medium by a piece of fiction that resides within it destroys the integrity and internal logic of that fiction. The idea of a video game character realizing that they're in a video game is entirely, fundamentally paradoxical. That means you just kind of ... destroy the unseen, unspoken barrier between fiction and medium. Like ... there are no people that could "realize" anything! If they've broken out of the bounds of that fictional world, then the fiction itself acknowledges that these people never existed, that they literally cannot realize they're in a video game because there is no one that could realize anything. A fictional character cannot "deviate" from the narrative, because, by definition, the author of that fiction would have had to plan that bit of the story out. It is fundamentally paradoxical. It is the textbook definition of a paradox. Why, why, why, does everyone get the idea that a character could do this? It's absurd, and I hope you see my point because the nature of fiction is kind of a difficult concept to articulate in words.

So as a general rule of thumb, it's imperative that a fictional world and the medium it's being represented must be divorced from each other. Not that the medium can't be conveyed or acknowledged through storytelling or meta-textual elements, but the narrative, and, by extension, the characters and world must not rely on the medium. Games like DDLC break this. There's no other medium that game could possibly be represented in. It's a great game, and I love what it does and how it screws with the player, but what it means is that the fictional world and the game are one and the same, which could be problematic if you want serious storytelling and you want your audience to care what happens in the fictional world. I mean, I don't think it matters that much, in terms of how an audience will perceive it, but it certainly breaks serious immersion. My point is, it must be possible to convey the story of Deltarune in other mediums. Well, okay, the fact that Deltarune has a protagonist that we control is a crucial element to the story, but my point still stands. I guess if it was in another medium we would just follow Kris as they are suddenly possessed by Lovecraftian horror beyond their comprehension, but that wouldn't be nearly as effective or compelling storytelling. And while Undertale being represented in the medium of a retro-looking RPG is also part of the storytelling, it could definitely still be told through, like, a TV show or movie or something. It's just that Undertale's subversion of tropes and subtle jabs at the RPG genre in general make the narrative even more compelling, and lend it a really artful humor.

:: II: Narratives ::

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:: III: Protagonism ::

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[kamari333]

O great UTMV lore expert, would you mind explaining the differences between the korean farmtale and the meme farmtale? I find it hard to understand what aspects belong to which AU and would greatly appreciate the help

Oh! 0/////0 Well, I do like being helpful! I do not specialize in Farmtale lore, nor have I gotten around to compiling my thesis on it. I do not have any proper citations on hand, nor can I definitively say what came first.

but I can give you some basics!

Because I dont have any backdates to offer at this time, I'll tell you about "Farmtale" in the order I became aware of it.

That starts with the Japanese Translation.

During the earlier fandom, when the game was being translated, it came out that Sans used the pronoun "oira". (I do not know if this was a fan-spread rumor, a beta concept, or if it made it into the final game -- all I can be sure of is that "sans uses oira" got traction)

In Japanese, to my understanding, "Oira" is a pronoun that has a lot of rustic connotation. To my understanding, it is used (at least in popular culture) by the japanese equivalent of "country folk", being part of a sort of "country accent". (There is a specific demographic/region it is popularly associated with, but I cannot be confident in naming it at this time: i dont want to give you wrong information)

So when it came out that "sans uses oira", a LOT of memes and fanwork came out of Sans in a straw hat, in various kinds of farming clothes.

This started in the eastern side of the fandom and then found its way to the western side of the fandom, where the aesthetic shifted towards the more american-localized "southern rustic".

To start, this kind of AU was aesthetic in nature, and didnt have a concrete singular creator or agreed upon lore. That being said, it was very common at least at one time for the story to be "Post Pacifist", where the skelebros just became farmers after coming to the surface.

That is the "memetic" "Farmtale" and "Oira Sans". It is an aesthetic AU based around the loose idea of the skelebros settling into a rustic lifestyle, with no real solid design other than Sans wearing a straw hat.

This is very different from GuinongTale.

GuinongTale (known as "farmtale" in the english speaking fandom) is a Korean-made AU. It is a surface-AU (meaning the monsters were never underground to begin with). The story takes place in a rural korean farming town, where the main undertale cast reside (including, but not necessarily limited to, Sans, Papyrus, and Undyne).

The characters all have distinct redesigns, as well as Korean-Localized Names.

Sans is called Saejun. On top of the seemingly universal straw hat iconography, he wears flower-print pants and rubber-palmed farming gloves. His gaster blaster is just a cow's head. Instead of bones, he summons little farming tools (a specific kind used often on korean farms, which has a specific name i cannot recall). He also has one-strap sandals instead of slippers.

Papyrus is called Pilsu. He wears a floral-print neck-scarf and overalls with one patch on the left leg. He has been depicted carrying a rake.

Undyne (her korean name is unknown to me, but i know she has one because they all do) has been depicted with a sweater hanging off her shoulders and dog tags around her neck.

The themes of GuinongTale, to my knowledge, center around Nature vs Modernization. I have been told that the "pacifist" route is where the farming community is preserved through Frisk's actions, and the "genocide" route is where the community is driven off their land by the encroaching urbanism/gentrification. However, I have to clarify that I dont at this time understand Korean, so this is secondary information rather than direct knowledge I have gleaned from the source material.

TL;DR:

In the english-speaking fandom, content tagged as Farmtale is usually a rustic-aesthetic post-pacifist AU which is believed to have been inspired by memes from the japanese Oira Sans era. Western creators will often bring their own flair or spin to the worldbuilding, making it a highly variable AU.

However, the Korean Farmtale GuinongTale (which in the english side of fandom is ALSO tagged "Farmtale") also exists separate from that, with a distinct aesthetic and lore all its own, which has its own unique charm deserving of distinction.

Like I said before, Farmtale isnt quite my area of expertise. I unfortunately dont have much concrete data or backdates. I do hope this little bit of info is helpful! (and if i got anything wrong, i am always excited to learn new fun facts)

[gastertalkpoints]

Heeeey

As per usual my activity has dipped off (you can blame capitalism for that)-

But I wanted to let everyone know there are still big projects ahead. For those who have been following a while, the posting structure on the blog is a little loose, mainly centered around all of you guys wonderful/terrifying asks.

And I'm planning on keeping up with all of them! But we are also getting very close to starting the official first few chapters of a more defined comic structure.

The first few chapters will be about all the shenanigans and some undisclosed extra troubles within the pocket void all the gasters reside in.

So sorry for the wait and tge long post, but I was excited to share with you all the next few stages of where these stories are going. Always keep in mind-

You have more control in their story then you think