#their soul does belong to them. just that the player controls that soul for the duration of the game.

[thenamesapollo]

there's something about this post about the angels/anomalies/creators that peeves me a little bit. It's not outdated or bad, but the thing about 'the multiverse was its own thing then the anomalies came and imposed their will on it' that doesn't.. sound right?

like yea, overwriting the characters' wills is what they do, but the phrasing makes them sound like unwanted parasites or invaders when it's not really the case.

undertale was made for you. it's world cannot exist without you booting up the game, and it's world and people cannot change without you continuing to engage with it. and the game knows this.

you, in every sense of the word, are fate. and the game treats you as being part of itself.

I think that the multiverse did in fact exist before it was found by the anomalies, but the multiverse created it's aus for you. or at least, for someone to engage with those aus.

the multiverse has some sort of sentience, in a way. it wants it's creations to be engaged with like any artist would.

it then up to the person that finds those creations, you, to decide how you want to pick them apart.

[weirdmarioenemies]

Name: Bowling Pin

Debut: Bowling

Yeah, Bowling! It's the pin, from Bowling! Bowling is a game, so it is fair game for this blog. And the pins are Weird Enemies! The whole point of Bowling is to Defeat as many pins as possible. You are taught to HATE them! It's messed up. I will teach you to love them.

When anthropomorphizing a bowling pin, are you on Team Face On Tip or Team Face On Base? I think both have their merits. Tip is good for if you want to give it a humanoid impression, like it could walk up to you and shake your hand. Hug you. Even... kiss you?! Base, however, is more of a creature, which I imagine waddling around on a bunch of legs or tentacles emerging from the bottom. It would hobble up to you and ask you, "Gleep gwanorb?" Answer carefully, or it might aim its Space Ray Gun at you! In the base design, the tip of the pin could be an antenna, or it could be read as a long-haired creature that tied its hair up in a tall bun!

You know something messed up? There are more types of bowling pins! No one ever told me that! The classic one we all default to is the Ten-pin, but there are two others! We'll get to them. Biologically, a Ten-pin must abide to the specific standards set by the United States Bowling Congress, adopted by World Bowling. They MUST be 15 inches (380 mm) tall, 4.75 inches (121 mm) wide at their widest point, and weigh 3 pounds and 8 ounces (1.6 kg), give or take 2 ounces (.057 kg). Wow! These would be some unrealistic standards to live up to, if these were not chunks of carved and coated wood produced specifically to match up to these measurements.

The reason the different pins are pictured with different balls is that they are used in different variations of the game! Candlepin is pretty self-explanatory. It's shaped like a candle. But Duckpin? That looks like a smaller, cuter, more marketable Ten-pin. What's its deal?

My first thought was, it's called a Duckpin because it looks like a duck! It has the one red line like the ring around a male mallard's neck, and it is rather shaped like a duck as seen from the front, overall! How cute! In reality, they are called Duckpins because the way they scatter when hit reminded a duck hunter of a scattering duck flock. Always comes back to violence with poor little Bowling Pin. They have it so rough! They could really use a friend, who's always there to pick them up when they're down.

Name: Pinsetter

Debut: Bowling

Pinsetter is just the sort of friend a Bowling Pin needs! No matter how many times Pin is knocked down, Pinsetter will be there to pick it up and put it back in its deserving spot. If any mean ol' stray Bowling Balls try to land a cheap hit, Pinsetter's sweep bar will block them. Play fair, you bully ball! Pinsetter's job used to be done by human Pin Boys, but there can still be a human in the mix, making sure the machine is clean, and unjamming it if need be. I can only assume this beautiful relationship between human and machine is just like that of horse and rider.

The more I think about it, though, is Pinsetter really helping? It's just putting the pins back in harm's way every single time, facilitating their unending torment. It blocks incoming balls, but only briefly, allowing them to crash through the pins as soon as they're all reset. Why does it do this? Who does it work for? Who is sending all these balls?!

...It's Pinsetter.

Pinsetter does not only set the pins. It detects the score, encouraging players to hit as many pins as possible. It returns the balls, giving them the weapons to do so. Humans think they're playing a game, but Pinsetter is playing them all! It controls the whole operation, driven by nothing but pin bloodlust! Maybe Bowling Ball has been misunderstood, another tortured soul, an unwilling pawn in Pinsetter's twisted game!

Bowling Pins are beautiful creatures. They belong in the wild, or with trustworthy, knowledgeable caretakers. To bowlers, they are an Enemy. To me, they are a Friend.

[derww]

CW: Hallucinations (?), light suicidality (??), the chthonic deity (!)

After another sleepless night, new death, and several hours of bedrock breaking, when Leo finally sees the void, his hands are shaking so much that he can barely hold a piston. He is at his lowest point, ready to do anything for a desperate and insane attempt, and he leans over the hole in the bedrock and sees nothing and, at the same time, absolutely everything. 

Everyone sees something of their own in the abyss. And at this moment, waging a devastatingly losing war, feeling absolutely everything falling out of his hands, Leo sees salvation in it. The solution to all his problems. A way to finally kill Flame.

"It's scary," he comments to himself with a chuckle. He had to be careful with that. He can't die. Not again. And it would be so easy to make a mistake right now. Loosen control for a moment and let the exhausted body finally give up. But he still had a mission. He had a purpose.

When he looks down again, he sees the moon and stars in the void. He really wants to touch them, but he can't. Void fog swirls around him in curly clouds. He squints a little harder.

The world has been cruel to you, something says with understanding. Even his hallucinations pitied him. He laughs. He just needs to get over it. It will be easier from now on. He will cease to be a shadow of himself. 

"Oh, it wasn't cruel to me," he replies carelessly, knowing that at this height he can't be heard from spawn, "but it's definitely praying for my fall. But I don't fucking care. I am better. I will win."

The beauty of emptiness is that it is obsolete, the voice mumbles knowingly. No matter how strong the enemy is, they will be helpless. There is nothing to stop demise. 

He stops to look into the void again. This time he hallucinates bursts of color and movement in it. He blinks and sees eyes instead of myriad stars. Every one of them is staring at him. His throat is dry.

"Even the strongest fighter is afraid of the void, because they know that there is no way back," he replies, and before his eyes, he sees himself carelessly jumping into the voidhole only to realize that the pain does not stop in any way. "An immortal player can survive almost any trap, but he will not be able to survive nothingless.".

The voice laughs – not at him, but it seems to find his words fascinating. He feels an invisible touch on his palm, smeared in soot and fog.

An infinitely long night awaits you, the voice states. Let me help you a little, and you will sacrifice to me that mortal god whose death you so long for in return. 

A wave of cold hits him – and all the fatigue washes away, and his hands stop shaking, and his vision becomes clearer than ever.

"What the fuck,"  he whispers, examining himself, "what the fuck, what the fuck, what the fuck." His body is much lighter now, but at the same time it doesn't seem to belong to him completely.

Take your revenge, the voice booms, and create a feast for me. Let me taste the soul of an immortal demon. And then the next time you need my help, I'll show you the way.

He says a lot of words after, but none of them change anything. The Abyss is immortal, she was born before the universe appeared, she staged countless wars and reaped their fruits, she gave inspiration to the smartest of the smartest and had long conversations with them, she called the lost and took payment from them, and he and his words, in the big picture of things, did not play any role, because he could say anything, but he had to kill Flame, and that was where their interests converged.

Bedrock would almost give in to him, breaking like wet clay, and the further he goes on, the more he covers up. And even though he still feels her constant presence, Abyss no longer calls him because she has already said everything she wanted.

[greengamernoob]

Time for a bit of FFXIV speculation :

I realize that a bulk of FFXIV players have already completed the whole of the story arc ( probably more than one time ) so please don't hold it against this 🌱 while I think-out-loud about my feelings towards the story so far even if I'm still experiencing ARR.

( also pls no spoilers, but I appreciate encouragement and assurance my questions will get answered. Lol )

Somethings have been picking at my brain since I encountered them. One of which is when the Amal'Jaa are surprised we do not fall to tempering stating our "soul must belong to another" and then Ifrit himself says that while he can see we do not already serve a primal that the paragons warned the Primals about the godless-blessed one's aborrent existence. Does that mean that while we may or may not be tempered by a primal we are controlled/ guided by some 'other' thing outside the paragons or the 12. If we are being Guided/controlled by what we don't quite understand but is big enough or strong enough for the paragons & primals to worry about —- should we be worried about its overall motive & can it truly be benevolent and omniscient with that much power? Does it seek to follow through with its own agenda regardless of the plight of others.

The reason I say this is because of another encounter that seems to stick in my mind. A point in which Y'stola chastises Merlwyb for breaking the treaty with the Kolbolds. She basically says and has a solid point (that I had already thought of before this scene) when she tells Merlwyb that this constant war with the Kobolds was of her own doing in letting Lominsans break the treaty. The kolbolds are just defending themselves. Or course there is an a back and forth that ensues but the point being both Merlwyb and the Kobolds are doing what they believe to be right for justice sake and for the sake & safety of their people.

I extrapolated this further. What makes us, the scions, so sure that what WE are doing is right? Because a giant crystal says so? We kill gods/primals and move against another society that perhaps (outside of their military) could possibly be wanting freedom and peace like those of Eorzea do. What of the Garlemald society? They can't be all military. Its not hard to believe that there are some suffering at our hands because of what their military decided to do, not them. I guess essentially what I'm saying is, how are we so certain we are not falsely lead to believe what we do is just and right when what we do is kill gods/primals, murder tribes on sight because of who they are and pushing our agenda on them. There is point where there is a kobold says that those of their community at war with us do not represent the whole of their society. … and I hear that the crafting questline with the different tribes show us that not all of the their race want to fight. So is it hard to reason that perhaps not all Ishgardians hate dragons? That not all dragons hate the elezen. That not all Garleans follow their military and that perhaps what we perceive as right may only be a perspective of one cosmologic being with enough power to have us believe in what they want?

on top of the fact that the Ascians say ' if we knew more, that we wouldn't be fighting with them.... that we would basically understand’ ... leaves me feeling 🤯

What the hell is going on? I know mother crystal is our main guide... but tbh I'm feeling pretty sus about things and honestly the motives of Hydaelyn. I realize they are presenting her as a mothering ‘goddess’ but I’ve always been the type of kid to ask “why”

The answer of ‘just because’ … ‘because I said so’….. ‘because this is how it’s always been done’ ….. ‘because I’m the boss’…..

Has NEVER sat well with me. As a kid or now. With my parents, with teachers, with management or upper level bosses. I need to know the why, the motives, the implications or consequences, the benefits. I need this information because the end does not always justify the means. Especially if on a core level I disagree with it and feel there is an alternate route.

That probably says more about me then I intended but yeah… lol

... anyhow.... thank you for letting me just babble on about the beginning of this ( I'm sure to be ) wild ride we all know and love called FFXIV.

:::: Newbie rant over ::::

[seradyn]

Royal Respite and Midnight Melody!

The two I’m most excited about 🤤🤤

I’m going to start with Midnight Melody cause I wAnT tOO

This is a short one shot I thought of when I reexamined some of Astarion’s lines post Cazador. When the player asks how he feels directly following the event, he explains he feels ‘numb’. From my own experience and what I’ve learned about surviving abuse, often people can struggle coping with a world where their abuser is out of the picture, because so much of their life was consumed by them, either physically or mentally. We see this not only in Astarion, but in Karlach too, who has similar feelings after Gortash’s death, because all the rage she built up around him has nowhere to go. It’s still there, but now it’s trapped inside without an outlet, instead of being healed when her abuser went away like they think it should have.

Astarion is the same way; without Cazador, where is he supposed to direct all his energy, his hatred, his rage over what happened to him? It’s still there, even though he’s dead, and it’s not fair. I wouldn’t be surprised if he struggled with his purpose after Cazador’s death. This happens with real survivors too; their whole world revolved around their abuser for so long, once they’re gone they just feel so empty and lost.

This fic is a take on that, where reader helps reassure Astarion that he doesn’t have to know what he wants right now, and they’re more than happy to help him figure it out. He tells them he doesn’t have a heart to guide him, but that’s not true. Is it not reader’s blood that flows through his veins? Does reader’s heart not beat for him? They remind him, hold his head gently to their chest so he can listen, can hear the heartbeat that is not only theirs, but one they give freely to him, too.

Basically more tooth rotting fluff and non sexual intimacy. Baby boy just needs to be held and I’ll be damned if I don’t smother him in affection. He deserves it.

Here is snippet:

~

“It’s nothing serious, of course…” he said quietly. Another lie, but you didn’t say anything, simply cradling his hand to your chest, a precious and fragile part of him. It gave him time to work up the courage to continue.

“It’s just that…When I was under Cazador,” he hissed the name, fangs poking out over his bottom lip, “every thought I had, everything I did was for him. He dominated us, mind, body and soul, and used that dominance to make our whole world about him.”

His eyes were wild with anger, that grimace back on his face, because it was so much worse to say it out loud, to acknowledge how much of his life belonged to his old master. You squeezed his hand to encourage him to keep going. This needed to come out, lest he push you away to protect you from the rot that did naught but burrow and consume down into his being.

“Even after the nautiloid, he inhabited so much of my thoughts,” he went on, his voice slightly rasped and shaking. “Though instead of fear or obedience, it was anger and determination to kill him. Even when he lost control of me, all I could think about was him. Even with his body rotting in the dirt, I cannot get him out of my head.”

“And now that he’s gone…I can’t help but wonder…what am I supposed to do?” His eyes filled with sorrow then, displeasure with himself. “With Cazador dead…I find myself losing all sense of direction.”

Your heart broke for him, jagged pieces of it left on the floor for you to step on. You cupped Astarion’s cheek, lifting his face to look at you. His eyes were wide, glistening in the dim candlelight as they filled with pain and worse: self loathing. You didn’t need the tadpole to hear that treacherous little voice in his head, one you knew like an old friend that whispered pathetic, worthless, weak. You knew he wanted to protect you, wanted to give you the life you deserved, yet he hadn’t the faintest idea how to do that, where to even start, and it pained him.

Gently, allowing him to pull back if he so desired, you led him into your arms, wrapping them around him so you could rub at the tension in his back. He nearly collapsed into your embrace in relief, immediately wrapping his own arms around you and crushing you to him. You massaged his shoulder blades while he pressed needy, frantic kisses into your hair, afraid you might pull away and leave should he stop.

“It’s okay not to know,” you said into his chest, kissing his sternum. “We can figure it out together. I’ll always be here with you, no matter what future you decide you want.”

He let out a tense breath, burying his face in your neck. “I know,” he mumbled. “I know whatever future awaits, I want you to be a part of it.” He leaned back, just enough that he could meet your eyes, so you could see into the dark abyss where his mind lingered. “The problem is, I don’t know what I want our future to look like. What I want it to look like.”

It was then you fully realized that what Astarion had been feeling since the confrontation with Cazador was lost. So, so lost, in a world without his master to contend with. The hopelessness you heard on his tongue was a knife piercing your tender heart, a sharp pain burning through your chest as it tried to beat around it, blood gushing from the wound and radiating out across your skin. What was freedom to one who didn’t know how to live with it, didn’t know how it felt? Though his chains had been broken, the memory of them still pulled him down and suffocated him. You wished so deeply to spare Astarion this pain, for he lived so long in the shadows of the world, you wanted to shower him in the light until he was blinded.

Abruptly, he shook his head, a growl ripping past his lips as he pulled himself away from you. It should be so easy, to move on and enjoy life now that he was allowed to. His desires could be fulfilled, instead of remaining the desperate wishes of a slave who longed for escape. The world was his for the taking, his life his own once more.

So why did he still feel so broken?

“Now that I’m free, I’m supposed to be able to do whatever I want. Follow my heart, as our companions said.” He spit the words; they tasted foul in his mouth.

“How am I supposed to know what I want without a heart to guide me?”

~

I’ll send you the full version once the first draft is done. Hope you like it 💕

Royal Respite has a similar vibe, and is also pure tooth rotting fluff/non sexual intimacy. It’s a one shot in which reader gives Ardyn a massage after he delivers the peace treaty proposal to the Lucian council. Just letting reader dote on him while he talks about his day, and letting him relax before everything goes to shit, basically. Ardyn has been working to make this plan come true for literally decades. I think he deserves some rest before it fully comes to fruition.

No snippet for this one yet, since I’ve been hyper focused on some of my Astarion fics *cough* see above *cough* but hopefully it doesn’t take too long to get on paper. You’ll be the first to know when there’s a rough draft 💕

[bunji-enthusiast]

To Know About Sonic.Purgatory

I am glad this is already being received well, despite my initial lack of online presence. But here is some stuff about my AU, this is only a starter, I may revise alot of the information.

Hint hint: You can interact with storyline, HEHEHEHEH

The EXE

ECE is his name (till i find something better).

He is a lonely, deplorable dude. ECE hopes someone picks up his game to play it, in which he has the ability to pull their soul into the game. He doesn’t even wait for them to finish it, ECE is impatient. Even sometimes when he feels like it, ECE will mirror the appearance of the person playing said game, he does it to freak the hell outta them.

ECE found out about the world of Sonic purely by chance.

He doesn’t view the animals – or flickies – in Sonic’s world as actual living breathing beings, only putting that subjective idea into ‘Mobians’. Hence having no guilt for killing them, however he is apprehensive when it comes to the souls, to the characters themselves. Though, when your soul had been pulled into his game, ECE had heavily favored you and took a great liking to you.

ECE likes to chase the survivors, running into Green Ring after Green Ring. He finds it fun. 

The Survivors ( or Victims )

You were new and fresh, joining after ECE had taken over the whole of the world. You just wanted to go home and go to sleep. You eventually learn more later down the line. In a way, you as the player are the only one capable of things the other survivors/victims aren’t.

Tails is inevitably already a Souls Guardian, he has the smarts and somewhat decent speed but he didn’t have the strength to outdo ECE. He is young and was not trained for combat, only working from behind the scenes and lending a hand in most situations when he can. 

Knuckles is alive, though he took it upon himself to protect anyone that is alive and well that he comes across. He is distressed enough as it is about this situation, he managed to fight off ECE for now, but Knuckles is incredibly riled up enough – he’s riddled with paranoia. Though he manages to stay calm more often than not.

Eggman has the corpse of Tails’ in a stasis chamber, for now the body is alive at most; he is trying to find a way to bring back Tails. Though the Doctor has not been face to face with ECE just yet, he prefers to stay at a distance, he partook in a temporary truce with Knuckles (though the echidna was skeptical at first because of how Ivo had manipulated him before). Eggman is putting his time into gathering information, as much as he hates doing so. 

STOP:

Souls Guardian, what are they? They are victims of ECE, though he cannot control the more strong willed victims. Weak-minded ones become puppets, no free will whatsoever. The ones who have a stronger will can resist against it, the game is beginning to recognize ECE is not part of it. So it offers the strong-willed victims pathways to help those alive to get away, and to temporarily risk guardianship against ECE (much to his disdain). 

The world is technically more or less alive, in only something that doesn’t belong that disturbs its forever sleep. 

ECE had gone rogue against his makers and had injured them majorly, as originally he was organically designed to be something made to help the good of people. He used to be real before he had gone digital, finding it fun to interact with digital spaces.

From the moment ECE had entered Sonic’s world, the space had reacted badly. So he had manipulated the reality, fabricated it to his liking.

[dragonflame32]

Third post on the AU I'm pretty sure nobody noticed, but still exists anyway.

In this one I'd like to talk about FC (this ISN'T their canon name), and specifically code-related stuff about them. As I specified twice previously, they got their code destroyed, so what happened to all the code-needing stuff then? The answer is quite simple.

They're gone.

HP? Gone. EXP? Gone. LOVE? Gone. ATK, DEF, GOLD? Completely, absolutely gone. If you killed them (and to kill them means you have to find some way to make their spirit no more bound to this world and their determination) you wouldn't obtain anything. If you try to pull them into a Fight it won't work. They can physically harm you, but no damage will occur to your HP. They can only be harmed physically, and magic will work on them only if it can do just that (a bone sent at slow speed at them will only bonk them instead of dropping their inexistent HP). If they want to kill, they have to do it at a physical level. If they killed, it would happen what happens when you kill someone in the real world, no EXP or LOVE included.

I developed this mechanic based on a set of dialogue strings Toriel says in the Ruins.

If you go through the Ruins and get hurt in a fight but heal yourself (with a SAVE file or food) Toriel will still notice you're hurt physically, and she says she will try to heal you. If you go through the Ruins and you don't get hit, Toriel will comment how impressive it is that you managed to do so. This led me to conclude physical injuries exist in Undertale and they can be caused by magic as well and magic does not damage only your soul. That gave me the start jump of developing FC's ways of getting hurt.

By the way, in this AU the SAVE ability and the Reset button are an exclusive of the Player, since 1. They technically were the most determined being in the world, or at least were until this little incident (their superiority in determination is what allowed them to control FC in the first place) 2. Even if FC wanted to use them, these abilities can only be used by beings with a CODE, so they automatically go to the Player anyway 3. They are what ties the Player to this world, and if they exist the Player will always find a way back. However they can't use it since to physically press the buttons it requires a vessel that is the most determined as well, and since that role now belongs to FC it creates a situation where nobody can use the buttons.

That's pretty much all I wanted to say. As per usual, thank you for reading this post and coming to the end, feel free to leave a question in the ask box if you have doubts, if you like this AU consider subscribing to see when other posts come out and check out the real story on Quotev. Adieu, mon cheries!

[12-16lostsoul]

【UndertaleAU】Rebuild! Frisk of Origins (short story)

*Frisk (female) perspective, the character setting chapter is in the first part (click me here!)

* Stream of consciousness, disordered writing, a lot of OOC (I haven’t been inspired for a long time (fainted)

* Players in this world line have bad tastes, pay attention to selfish cp elements

Thank you to everyone who is willing to come! ! (tears)

＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿

Now... what time is it?

... What day was the first week she experienced?

——When did she crash and delete AU at the beginning of the last episode?

After so long, she can't remember clearly, she was in a void

Although these are things that can be known by looking at the code, she can check it at any time anyway, so she doesn't bother to look for it.

Probably at the beginning of a certain day, she gradually felt the power that controlled her, and occasionally there would be thoughts in her mind that did not belong to her

But, at least that power spared the monsters along the way like she did

Does that prove that at least that power is the same as her goal?

she thought optimistically

But on the way of the journey, she began to worry about the things in the world above

What do they do when they get back to the surface?

And she is regarded as a "heretic" by humans who worship magic on the surface. How can she convince other humans?

The village she lives in is very anti-technology, punching and kicking the androids she serves, let alone other places

What if the magic barrier is actually protecting them?

"Your father is a bionic!", "Your mother is a freak scientist!", "She not only researches technology, but also has a baby with bionics. You are a freak too!","Respect bionic freaks , Touch technology freaks!"

When she was still young, she kept running away listening to those words, and at the same time, the magic from the same kind of human beings kept greeting her face.

Not like that! Her father was still a human being, so what if he was a bionic person by definition! Her mother implanted her soul into the machine body for her father's sake. Her mother and her went to learn technology just to save more people!

Why do they suffer so much blank stare for doing so? And why her parents were besieged to death because of technology!

The trauma of the past is so vivid that her memory keeps going back. She doesn't want to indulge in the despair of the past, but her brain can't bear it and she repeatedly touches the pain

can she...

can she can can she can

The monsters replied to her:

"my child,"

"Humans, things won't get any worse! I, the great papyrus, assure you,"

"Hey, kid. Don't worry about that, you can convince us that you're not as bad as you think, and we're here this time, aren't we?"

...

Encouragement from everyone filled her with determination

Until she was only one step away from redeeming everyone and returning to the surface, her vision was suddenly cut off, and the darkness in front of her didn't take long before she returned to the golden flower she fell on at the beginning—the entrance of the ruins

The timeline was suddenly reset

She couldn't react for a while

Why?

Why did it suddenly reset? Is it to control her existence and feel that there is something else that needs to be done?

Until she met the monster that was out of control, and overwrote the archive that was only one step away from saving all the monsters

Could it be that everything she did along the way was a joke? Wouldn't the power that controlled her regret the result that "he" was about to complete?

She bit her lip, her pride did not allow her to cry, but she still moved forward with the tears on her face

"What's the matter, child?" After arriving in Snowdin, she met Sans just like last week. He wanted to ask Frisk what happened, so he made Frisk turn to look at him, until Sans paused when he saw her abnormality, "you……"

He didn't say it, but turned a corner and said his lines, guess the players are still staring at them outside

He felt the fluctuation of the timeline at the moment of reset, and from Frisk's reaction, it seems that the reset is indeed not Frisk's will

With the progress of one week after another, the power controlling her will dodge more and more attacks from monsters, but the number of monsters killed will also gradually increase with each week.

Going against her wishes again and again, reminding her of the scene of her parents being besieged and killed

After almost slaughtering all the monsters and repeating week, the condemnation and helplessness from her former friends in the process, and the voice call that told about the underground situation after each week got out of the enchantment, and the tone gradually became tired. , her sanity was lost at that moment, she didn't know what happened, she only knew that she was roaring at the entrance of the ruins, everything in front of her eyes gradually turned white

"Error in file.exe"

"Error in file.exe"

"role error.exe"

"Document crash.exe"

"Failed to run .exe"

...

everything is gone except herself

Frisk looks around at nothing

Why didn't she disappear?

She found that there was an unknown power that was not LOVE on her body, and the existence that controlled her disappeared, but she desperately called out the blue cyber keyboard at the first moment and decided to delete herself.

"Kill [<Frisk>]"

"Kill [<Player's Name>]"

"Delete [<Frisk>]"

"Delete [<Player's Name>]"

After waiting for a while, she still feels no pain or can't think

……No effect

What about external force?

She tried to increase her stats from the knife, and even created an unseen, self-aware monster to destroy herself, but it didn't work, so she had to delete the monster

Although it was a big project, she decided to restore AU after she regained her senses

"Failed to restore file"

"Failed to restore file"

"Failed to restore role"

"Resume run failed"

...

"Rewrite program failed"

What's more strange is that she was familiar with the code in the process of learning technology, and the source code and recovery program of this game are still intact, so why was AU deleted by her? Why can't she delete herself? And why can't she restore AU?

Because she is the initiator of the order? Because she is the last character?

She didn't want to think about it anymore, she lay down on the empty floor

She's so tired,and don't know how long it's been

and also--

She didn't know that the power that once controlled her had collected the complete "normal ending" until the deletion of the AU was in charge of the highest authority, and the last cut off took the "no forgiveness route", if she hadn't cut it under the collapse Cut off the AU, maybe the next week will take the route of massacre, and everything will be completely impossible to recover by then

Another day in the white void, she found out the code of the shuttle AU, so she began to travel through each AU, the most original version of Undertale, the cruel Underfell, Underswap and Swapfell that reversed the positioning of characters... During the process, she Knowing that her AU is called "Rebuildtale", some AU timelines are beautiful, some timelines are tragic, or crossed with joy and sorrow - but in any case, they did not find her under the cover of the code she wrote , she did not interfere with the AU

However, when she sees the happy endings of other AUs, she still can't help but wonder if her AU's happy endings are successful, will her life be as good as theirs

Also, she misses her old friends so much

Toriel, Papyrus, Sans, Undyne, Alphys, MTT, Asgore, Asriel, those friendly and cute monsters——

Keeping thinking about it, she covered her face, she finally couldn't stop trembling and crying due to her strong self-esteem

Sorry to didn't "save" you everyone

——Temporarily finished, to be repaired——

[swordofsuns]

dnd arc 2 continued continued continued

also by the way while all of this with Red is going on Max and co are having shenanegans and accidentaly murdering a gay bar with bad kareoke. this session is also where the traditional gnomish deathmetal bagpipes comes from, but all of that is barely plot relevant.

back to Red, it turns out she accidentaly made a deal with an ancient dead god of desire (like you do). he does this whole "I have been known by many names" thing so she just calls him Steve. She also only really manages to have a conversation with him by constantly threatening suicide with the logic that "Steve" probably needs her alive, so this way he has no choice but to answer her questions. All she really learns from him is that he was a god, before he was killed by the Martyr and replaced, that he is a god of desire, that he claims that his name of "the father of lies" is the greatest lie ever made, and that she accidentaly swore her soul to him when she shot Ira in that one "take the shot" dream (whoopsies). She lays down some boundries with him, on the condition that she doesnt just die, that he will only speak when spoken to, never control her body without her consent, and only take drastic action if necesary to save her life.

outside the rest of the party track down the satyr they were tasked with skinning but decide to spare his life out of compassion. he gives them one of his horns (which is a magic horn of plenty), though it goes missing after Cisero and King confront them about going against the wishes of the court

the party meet up afterwards and discuss what happened, though Red only tells the bear minimum. (basicaly you have to understand they're a found family, but like a found family of exclusively fueding siblings)

that night Red dreams and meets Steve again, in the same black pine forest as where she met Benny. He has a thousand masks around the place, but wears one he says "belonged to a Steve". they chat a bit more, but they both do still kinda hate each other, Red because he tricked her and removed her free will, and "Steve" because she isnt going along with his plans.

Steve explains the alchemists circle (image below) and the five base elements that make up the world. He used to be the embodiment of Ichor, and the Ira has ties to Gale through Perro, which is the element that loses to Ichor.

We have around a week of downtime until the last trial, so we all go and do our own things. Red works with Prometheus to fix up her marble and work on turning her Hide into a new cloak. Ira tries to fix up the broom, and in the end sacrifices Lady Penelopes broken ring to fix up the broom, so she can fly now. Manti ends up approaching Ira for help in making a potion, though she never fully explains what the potion is, she just gets awkward and mumbles and says its something for Red. Kraka and Kit do a bit of investigation into the missing people and the rumors that the Pied Piper caused them and is on his way to the Court. We still have no idea who was stealing the silver, only that they hired both the hag and the thief to help them gather it. Kit gets some training from Kings bodyguard. (oh also forgot to mention hes not very relevant for another few arcs but Kings patron is this weird deer man who has magic fruits)

okay this is getting long so ending it here but the next ask should be the end of the fae arc

You're campaign is wild, and I say this as someone who has to pull THREE DIFFERENT PEOPLE into secrets because my players kept trying to cast detect thoughts on ancient and powerful beings.

In ONE SESSION

[thistlearts]

Tbh I think people throw around the word “narcissistic” too much. This term became severely bastardised by “popular internet psychology”.

If he’s narcissistic because he tends to try to make people do what he wants through persuasion, then you (the general player, not the commenter of course) are narcissistic too, because that’s what we do all the time through the game, unless you just blatantly intimidate or kill those who disagree with you or belong to the "opposing camp".

You know who’s narcissistic? Mystra. She literally grooms a young boy, (a horde of young boys according to Minsc) deceives him into believing he’s special and then straight away tells him to be a human grenade and fucking kill himself in order to get her forgiveness. She is not trying to help him, her lover and devoted worshipper, as a Goddess who is super powerful, but she just throws away her puppet and orders him to explode in order to please her vanity.

And she’s a worshipped and respected Goddess not an abomination “without a soul”.

Shar asks her worshippers to kill innocent Selunites to prove they are worthy of her and eventually offers them suffering as a reward.

Vlakith eats her own people to get more power by deceiving them into believing they get cleansed and go to gith Heaven.

Githiyanky kill their own people with pleasure and a sense of joyful righteusness so they get more powerful and have a higher position in their hierarchy. That’s their normal Tuesday.

And don’t get me started about n the Devils and Mizora and their regular way of communicating. Or Casador. They are clearly super even even in the norm of this world.

I mean, seriously, comparing to them, the Emperor still seems like a “narcissist puppeteer who only craves power”? Or does Omellum give that vibe only because he's an Ilithid? (that was a nod to those who think that despari and suicide and actually having a strong impact of his past self's personality is OOC because "Ilithids are pure evil. Period."

All psychological terms as well as moral compasses must be tuned to the context of the reality we’re talking about. And what is considered the norm in this reality.

If you’re not repeatedly hostile with the Emperor he:

Does not ever attempt to mind control you (he never does that even if you turn against him) even though he easily could perform that trick on you from the start. He’s just beside your head but ye still respects your free choice all the time.

He does not ever hurt you. (also never actually does that and will only fight you when he's a thrall to the Netherbrain)

He always protects you as long as he can do that.

He fulfills his promise saves everyone and kills the brain and just goes back to rebuilding Baldur’s gate not trying to destroy the world or make everyone his Thralls

He actually lets you go even though he’s clearly attached to you unless you’re an Ilithid yourself and you want to stay with him.

I mean he is absolutely not a saint but who is in this world? Are you as a Tav? You clearly are unable to play this game without killing, deceiving intimidating and/or manipulating others to do what you want.

Simply because Forgotten Realms is a world with high violence society. Violence in many many ways is a social norm there. As well as absolutely ducked up (to a modern western gaze) dynamics of power.

Narcissism is a strong desire to get admiration and validation from others to fill the void of inner feeling of being unworthy, and to do that, a narcissist will lie, intimidate, use people as puppets, regardless of their own desires and outcomes. Only for the sake of feeling important.

A narcissist never let’s go of their victim.

A narcissist needs their victim to give their all to them.

A narcissist would have never written “end your agony. Go and be happy somewhere else. Leave me.” to a friend who can’t accept their change.

Mystra wants Gale to explode not because it’s the only reasonable way to solve the problem and this sacrifice is inevitable. She wants him to do this to enjoy his DEVOTION. To suck up the pleasure of a talented man being ready to kill himself only for her forgiveness, that he even won’t be able to enjoy. She wants to feel how much power she has over him.

None of the Emperor’s actions are like this. They all have a very real goal. Tangible and reasonable. (Yes, even keeping Orpheus a prisoner) They are understandable and absolutely not rooted in a mere desire to feel power for the sake of power.

I will write a lot about the Emperor, bear with me - SPOILERS

Most people interpret the Emperor's choice to join the Absolute (if you continuously distrust, insult and eventually betray him) as betrayal and proof of him being evil, and only caring for his own survival. But hear me out, isn't it obvious that this is an act of despair and actually a suicide? Like he is betrayed, most likely subjected to die at the hands of Githiyanki (I mean, honestly, what are the chances that they will spare him?) and being rejected but someone he hoped to accept and help him, again in the face of the unimaginably huge and impossible fight (if he is not killed by the GIth by escaping them he has no protection from the Absolute). He escaped the Absolute TWICE. His core value that probably kept his personality alive in the Ilithid form is freedom. Being an individual is so important to him that it kept him going and resisting the hive and the Elder Brain. To him, being left alone to either die by Giths or be forcefully returned under the Absolute's control is the outcome of Tav's betrayal. To him loosing his individuality and being once more dominated by the STRONGER and more powerful Abslute now is the absolute death, in it's worse sence. He can't win. All ways lead to dying. But he's just too proud to die from the Gith. So he decides to go on his own terms. Some say "You will fight the Emperor in the end if he joins the Absolute so it proves he's evil" No, you won't fight him. There won't be a "HIM" anymore. He will be a thrall to the Absolute, obeying the Elder Brain. His personality will be either completely wiped out or totally dormant at that point. As long as he regains his individuality he doesn't harm you. But if you reject him and betray him, he will choose to go and lose his individuality (something he cherished so much) and the last tie that connected him to his long-lost humanity. At least he won't be conscious, since he won't have individual conscience again. He simply can't take it any more. Because there's a limit to someone's will to fight against a power much stronger than him, while constantly being left alone and rejected for who he is no matter the context. He gives up, yes. But is this betrayal? I don't really think so.

[under-lore]

File attribution theory

In Undertale, there are 10 numbered SAVE files, going from “file 0″ up to “file 9″.

The UNDERTALE folder on the player’s computer may contain file 0, file 9 and file 8 depending on certain conditions.

These files mutually take each other into consideration. The fact that “file 6″ exists means that there was a “file 5″ already, otherwise file 6 would have just been called file 5. File 5 implies the existence of file 4 and so on.

This means that either all of those files are canon, or none of them are.

The game makes it pretty clear that we are in the first scenario given that the Flowey X fight directly refers to those files being an in-world thing.

Another case in which we can clearly see the impact of the different files within the game has to do with Frisk.

Lets say that a neutral route is played, then, the player SAVES just before fighting Asgore. Afterwards, instead of fighting the king, the player decides to RESET. The player then decides to go through the ruins without SAVING even once, but is eventually killed by a monster.

Where does Frisk come back to after dying in this situation ?

One would expect Frisk to either go back to the flower bed at the very beginning or to LOAD back to near Asgore where the player last SAVED.

But neither of those is what happens. Frisk actually comes back to this location :

And that’s not all. Lets say that now, the player closes the game and opens it up again. Where does Frisk LOAD to then ?

This time, they do LOAD back to near Asgore.

Frisk has just LOADED to two completely different points in space and time without having SAVED in between the two. This should be impossible with Frisk having control over only a singular SAVE file.

What happened here was that two different SAVE files were actually used :

“file 0″ and “file 9″.

The first question that asks itself is a pretty straightforward one : What are those SAVE files ?

As the term “SAVE” file implies, any character who at any point inhabits a body that has enough determination to see or manifest SAVE points (and thus to use the SAVE power) has a numbered file attributed to them.

That character will be refered to as the “owner” of the file.

In the case of bodysharing however (such as when a soul is absorbed), the one that actually has control over the SAVE file is not necessarily the same person as its owner.

That person will be refered to as the “controller” of the file.

For a concrete example : Flowey is not the owner of file 3, but as he absorbed the six humans souls, he became this file’s controller and is the one using it in a neutral route.

Those files have been sorted in a specific order. One that is simple and instinctive :

Its in chronological order. The order in which the owners of the respective files first got into the underground.

By examining what exactly each files does within the gameplay, in the code, and in the files, its possible to attribute all of those files to a specific character within the game : their owner.

Let’s start by what is likely the simplest one.

File 8

File 8 can only be seen in a concrete way in one place : The UNDERTALE folder. 

However, file 8 originally isn’t present in this folder at first. This file only appears at the exact frame where Flowey absorbs the six human souls, and thus gains back the power to SAVE. One single frame before the game crashes.

File 8 is the second to last file and thus belongs to the second to last determined being to have set foot (or vines here) in the underground.

Flowey is indeed the one using this file in a neutral route.

In fact, we get to see something very interesting once we relaunch the game afterwards.

Now, it is impossible to have a LV superior to 20, which means Flowey likely edited what we see of his own stats to make the whole thing seem more creepy.

However, seeing this file clearly labeled as being that of “Flowey” and the location being set as “My World” (With “My” being refering to Flowey) makes it pretty clear that this is an edited representation of Flowey’s own file. Which he has indeed just gotten to use again after obtaining the souls and creating “His world”.

The owner of file 8 is Flowey. It is the file that he used back when he could still SAVE before Frisk’s fall.

File 9

Following the same pattern, the owner of file 9 is the last determined entity to have been in the underground chronologically and the one that came after Flowey.

This is the file that LOADS whenever Frisk dies. It is the one responsible for Frisk going back to the room below the candy bowl room in the Ruins earlier.

File 9 is also one that gets SAVED on without player input on a number of occasions, gameplay wise it acts similarly to how an autosave would.

The file first appears either when Frisk uses a SAVE point or when reaching certain particular points in the game. (There is debate on the canonicity of those autosaves, i won’t be getting into details for now but it’ll be addressed in a future post.)

The owner of this file also shares their stats with the owner of file 0. (See later)

This file is Frisk’s own file.

File 0

The owner of file 0 is the first being with high determination to have ever fallen into the underground, before the latter two file owners or the six fallen humans, who were also SAVE holders.

This file is inactive until it is used by the player. The file is initially EMPTY until we first make use of it.

It also doesn’t appear in the UNDERTALE folder until its been used to SAVE.

This means that despite belonging to someone from a long time ago, it was only just now awakened and made use of when the game began.

(Note : To say it in different words, the determination used by their own file wasn’t theirs but ours.)

Despite it not being Frisk’s own file, this file is still associated with the stats of Frisk’s body on several occasions.

The stats that show up here are clearly that of Frisk’s body. However, those stats are associated with file 0 and not file 9 when the player LOADS a SAVE manually. On that regard, the two files are pretty much interchangeable.

This is something we can also see whenever SAVING. The file displayed here is file 0, yet the LV, the time shown and the location set here are all that of Frisk. Not anyone else. This contrasts with Flowey’s case from earlier.

Same also applies to the in battle HP bar.

Both owners share common stats. Frisk’s stats.

Frisk is also described as being filled with determination when SAVING it, it is SAVED with Frisk’s DT and Frisk can indeed control this file. (Note : Its possible to SAVE file 9 without SAVING file 0 but not the other way around, file 0 is Frisk’s “extra” file out of the two they have).

Frisk isn’t this file’s owner, but they are however its controller. This also means that this file’s owner must share a body with Frisk.

In addition, once this file is used at least once, we get to see it labeled with a certain name :

The name that file 0 is labeled by is... Whatever name the player gave to Chara at the beginning of the game.

That file’s owner is the first fallen human.

File 1-6

Unlike the three other files that were already brought up, those files do not appear in the UNDERTALE folder. Not even during the in-game sequences where the files are explicitly stated by the game to be in use.

File 2, 3 and 6 are the ones we see Flowey actually using in the neutral route fight, however he had control over all of them in this sequence. In fact, there is unused code in which we see Flowey was intended to use file 4 too.

The fact that Flowey has gained control over files that are not his leads to a single conclusion : The owners of those files are now inhabiting Flowey’s body at the end of a neutral route.

Moreover, Flowey was created as a vessel to be able to wield the souls. In Asriel’s fight, all the souls within him, whilst they still exist individually, have become a part of “Asriel’s soul”.

This might be as reason as to why despite canonically being used during those moments, we don’t see them in the UNDERTALE folder, but we do get to see Flowey’s own file in it.

Regardless, the owners of those six files that Flowey takes control of during a neutral route and that came before him chronologically but after Chara isn’t much of a mystery, especially considering that we know that the six fallen humans could see SAVE points via some dialogues from Asgore and Toriel.

They are the owners of files 1-6.

File 7

File 7 is the outlier of the bunch. Unlike all the other files which we can all see one way or another, file 7 is completely absent from the game’s code. However, we do know that there is a file 7 owner as otherwise, file 8 would have simply been called file 7 and file 9 would have been file 8.

There is only limited information on file 7 that can be of use to deduce its owner :

- File 7′s owner is or is part of an entity that must have had enough determination to see SAVE points.

- File 7′s owner first got in the underground after the 6 fallen humans, but before Flowey.

As monsters have very little determination compared to humans, the only logical place to search for a SAVE owner at this time period would be among the amalgamates, born from multiple monsters all of which were injected with human determination by Alphys.

Out of all the amalgamates, the one with the most determination would likely be the one that has the most DT injected entities merged within it assuming Alphys was at least somewhat consistent in her dosage.

We get to see Lemon Bread having at least 12 components, its however likely there are actually far more than this which simply cannot even be fit on the screen here, which would make it a likely candidate for this position along with Snowdrake’s mother.

On top of this, Lemon Bread behaves like a hive mind (That not being the case could result in issues like those Flowey faced with the 6 souls at the end of the fight in neutral and thus prevent getting access to the SAVE) which also plays in its favor as Snowdrake’s mother does not.

And finally, there is only one file in between the humans and Flowey. This means that our candidate is considered to be a single entity file wise despite being composed of multiple people in one body. (Unlike Frisk and Chara for instance) This again makes the option of the hive mind amalgamate seem more likely.

For these reasons, if any of the amalgamates had enough determination to see SAVE points and thus be a file owner, its likely it would be lemon bread.

How does the fight against lemon bread begin again ?

It disguises itself as a SAVE point.

Lemon bread does just so happen to know what a SAVE point looks like. Which would indeed make it a SAVE file owner.

File 7 is that of lemon bread, but never actually affects the gameplay much as Lemon bread has limited lore relevance compared to the other file owners.

File attribution theory and its implications allows to answer some questions that seemed impossible to answer before or to patch a couple issues that might have seemed like plot holes beforehand. There is still far more to say about the files 0-9 that will be addressed in future posts.

Here is a summarised representation of the 10 SAVE files and some of the most important things to know about them :

[mythicaldemigoddess-of-deltarune]

Deltarune Theory: New Mayor & The Holiday Divorce

 this is just a theory, and also a Fan Headcanon...

but I think it’s possible that at some point in the chapters of Deltarune, that Rudy and his wife who is known as “Carol” by fans, since we don’t know her official name yet...

well they might end up getting a divorce, from how Rudy talks about her with Kris, when they had first met in their younger days, possibly in college.

there was possibly a spark, like a zing that Rudy felt towards Carol.

it’s possible she didn’t really like him at first, but he run her over in time and Carol ended up falling for him, but even if they both ended up getting married and forming a family by having Dess and Noelle, doesn’t mean they wont end up falling out of love at some point.

we don’t know much about what goes on at the Holiday Home, while Rudy is sick in the hospital, but we do know that Noelle is unhappy staying home alone with her Mom, and it’s possible she is being neglected by Carol in some way.

there can be different forms of neglected, maybe some types that don’t seem like neglect, even if the parent does give some form of attention.

if Rudy and Carol did get a divorce, it’s possible that Rudy if he gets fully better, will get full custody of Noelle, but if he is still sick and can’t leave the hospital...

he might trust Toriel to watch over Noelle as acting guardian.

even if Carol Holiday is the Mayor, it doesn’t mean she will stay that way forever...

if  Asgore became the Future Mayor, it could end up mirroring his counterpart of Undertale, only with some slight differences.

Queen could remind Noelle of her Mother, but she could also view Queen as being the opposite of her mother as well.

Noelle was able to stand up to Queen, something she has yet to do with her Mom but might do so in the future and could be in front of Rudy.

if Noelle stands up to her Mom in front of her Dad, and Rudy ends up hearing every detail and how bad things might really be with it just being Noelle and Carol at home, then that could give him reason to decide to divorce Carol.

the house or mansion, could be under Rudy’s name and he could of tried to get Carol to sign the paper that let’s them both co-own it, but if she never found the time, she could of been too busy and just kept putting it off.

if they do get a divorce, maybe Rudy could have Carol pack her belongings and leave, and besides trusting Toriel with Noelle until he gets fully better.

he could also trust Asgore as well, and have him move into the Holiday’s Home temporary just until Rudy gets out of the hospital.

we don’t know if this theory about Rudy and Carol will be correct, I mean some fan work made by some fans, ended up accidentally predicting the canon that shows in Chapter 2.

like Kris eating all the pie, but I think they might of went and broke into the library first, and opening a dark fountain there before going back home to eat the pie.

and also the other being that the whole darkners turning into items in the light world.     

 besides the Player being able to control Kris, there might be another entity that is controlling Kris, and who might of been controlling them for a few years before the Player comes into the picture.

and Noelle could hint at this, when she brings up the Ferris-Wheel story.

and with the whole fight with Susie, that decides her going back to being a good guy gives any hint, even when we don’t point the heart to the words that we might not wish to fight...

when those words turn yellow without the Player pointing to it, it is clearly Kris who is the one who wishes not to fight with Susie.

if the words turn red, even without the Player pointed to it, that could be the Other being that is controlling Kris.

the red soul might be the Player’s proxy-soul, but it could also be controlled by the other being that is controlling Kris and has been before the Player starts to play Deltarune.

the proxy-soul could be a fused soul that belongs to both Chara & Prince Asriel.

or it could just be Prince Asriel’s Soul turned upside down to appear like the human soul, and the red heart we see in the generator in the true lab, that powers the elevators, could very well be Chara’s Soul.

even if Flowey might not exist in Deltarune, by fans view...

but by other fans view, he still might, he just isn’t one in the same with Asriel.

I think the flower we see in a vase when we enter the Flower Shop, might really be the Flowey of the Deltarune World.

at first we could assume that one of the different color flowers upstairs, is a counterpart and reference to Flowey.

but those flowers might be a reference to the human souls that were kept in containers.

it’s possible that if that Flower in the vase were to end up in the dark world, they would look like the Flowey from Undertale.

another thing that could be possible, is that the bouquet that Toriel throws away, could end up in the Dark World and becoming a darkner or darkners.

if the flower in the vase is a counterpart of the Flowey from Undertale, then what could make the two different is how they became Flowey.

for the Flowey from Deltarune, they became able to speak and have some form of expressions, when they ended up in the dark world.

and they would of ended up becoming a Darkner, so Flowey’s counterpart from Deltarune, would be a Darkner-Flowey.

I still think that the Ralsei that appears in Chapter 2, might not be the same one that Kris and the Player befriends.

because one, in Chapter 1, Kris and Ralsei seem to be around the same height, and Ralsei’s horns and feet are smaller.

if Noelle mentions that a wizard leaves the party, it could of hinted about something that already happen, and it having to do with Ralsei.

the Ralsei that traveled with Kris in Chapter 1, could be trapped in the Card Kingdom behind the door, along with the Lancer that becomes the new king.

and the Lancer that goes to the Cyber Dark World, and the one that still wears a mustache, might be Lancer’s quadruplet brothers.

Lancer and his brothers, could of been all named Lancer, because his Dad was too lazy to give them different names, and at some point the King and everyone else in the Card Kingdom of Dark World, forgot that the Prince was a Quadruplet and they were all named Lancer.

the Ralsei from Chapter 2, likely had locked the door with the delta rune on it, as well as it’s light world counterpart, so Kris and Susie wouldn’t find out that the Ralsei they had befriended is trapped in that dark world with one of the Lancer Brothers.

and besides the Darkners becoming objects when going to the light world.

it’s possible that if a Monster dies and their dust is placed on a object, and it ends up in the dark world, the Monster will end up forming into what they had looked like when they were alive in the light world, but if they end up leaving the dark world, they will go into a type of stasis/sleep and will not appear as a Monster any longer in the light world, but as the object that their dust essence is bonded to.

if Rudy ends up not making it, and he has a favorite object, and if Noelle learning the Dark World is real and wasn’t a dream, ends up taking the object with her to the dark world, she might end up becoming surprised to see her Dad in the place of the object she took with her to the Dark World.                     

that is one of my fan headcanon, that if a Monster dies and their dust is placed on their favorite object and they end up in the Dark World, then the said monster will be “reborn” as a Darkner, and will get their body back but in darkner form, like how Susie, Noelle and Berdly appear in the Dark World. 

but sadly the Monster can only keep their form in the dark world, if they try to leave for the light world even for a visit, they will only turn back to the object that their dust had been placed on.

if in case the dust was placed on their favorite person, and they enter the dark world, well who knows what could happen.

but I have a guess that if the dust of a monster ends up on a human that was a close friend or adoptive sibling of the monster, then instead of appearing like how Kris does when they end up going to the dark world.

the said human will appear as the same type of monster as the one who’s dust belong to.

the dust of a monster, holding the essence of the monster, could end up permanently bonding to a object or a person, if the dust does bond to a human, maybe the monster will appear as a type of ghost, not like Blooky and their family.

but they could be the same color as their trait and act as a partner of the human that takes on a monster form when they enter the dark world.

if Monsters from Deltarune, do turn to dust as well, it might work differently from the Monsters from Undertale.

the Monsters could all have color souls, just like humans.

but the Monsters could have a white line around their heart souls, that give off a faint glow.

another thing about Monster Souls, is that they could end up going through a sickness, that could become serious if not treated right away, which is my guess.

Rudy becoming sick, could of been caused by something at home.

this is just a guess, but I think Rudy might have a allergy that only got worse over time the more contact he had with the object of his allergy.

I don’t think he is allergic to Humans, or other Monsters.

Rudy could be allergic to flowers, but this might not be true and might not be the reason why he has become sick.

but besides allergy, Rudy becoming sick might of been caused by his own wife.

if Carol always keeps her office, then she could be doing the same thing at home and Rudy might not be able to handle the intense cold like his wife.

and if Rudy from Undertale did die, it’s possible that his wife might of been the cause, maybe refusing to have the heat on indoors and even having it be both cold inside while it is cold outside.

the Rudy from Deltarune, might still have hope to end up living through it, once the doctors figure out the real reason he became sick in the first place.

and if it is true that Rudy did become sick because of the intense cold, then Carol might not even try make sure one of the rooms in their home is not as cold and might have a little heat, then this could give Noelle a reason to agree that her Dad should divorce Carol.

it might be true that Rudy becoming so sick, might of been caused by his wife always keeping things extremely cold at both home and at her place of work.

Noelle and Dess might know that their Dad isn’t able to handle the extreme cold, and make sure to be considerate.

but what the two sisters didn’t know, is how bad it would get for him when it ends up causing him harm to his body and soul, the sickness could be hurting his soul, maybe causing it to slowly freeze, the more Rudy’s soul gets ice forming on it, the more his life will be in danger.

if the Monseters of Deltarune, had practice healing magic, it might take take both a healer and a master of fire magic to help Rudy.

fusing both magics together, could both heal and melt the ice formed on Rudy’s soul.

if Grillby does have a counterpart in Deltarune, then both he and Susie might be the key to helping Rudy.

if Susie masters healing magic, then she could end up becoming powerful enough to use it in the light world and help Rudy, but only with Grillby or any monster who is able to use fire magic.

 the fire magic might need to come out as heated air or maybe a small ball of fire that Grillby could hold under the soul, while Susie works on pouring healing magic into the soul of Rudy.

if the theory turns out to be true, that Carol Holiday has been the one causing Rudy to become so sick, it might end up making Noelle upset at her Mom, which might end up giving her enough courage to stand up to her and tell her off.

I’m not sure if Rudy and the Mayor will end up divorcing in one of the future chapters, but if Mayor Carol does get redeemed and tried to be better for her family and for everyone else in the Hometown, that could be good as well.

but I think it is possible that Rudy becoming so sick that he had to stay at the hospital, might of been caused by his wife, even if both his wife, himself, their daughters and everyone else, doesn’t know that the cause of his sickness was because of the Mayor always needing intense and extreme cold.

Rudy and Carol getting a divorce, is just a theory and it could become debunked in the future once all the chapters are out.

and for all we know, Carol could end up being replaced with a new Mayor who might do a bit more better than her when she was Mayor.

and if the theory about Carol being the cause of Rudy becoming sick, is true, then maybe she will have a change of heart and try to be sensitive to both her husband and her children’s needs and feelings, and try to become a better wife and mother.

but if Carol doesn’t try to change a little for them, and doesn’t try to become a better person, then the whole divorce theory about her and Rudy could still be possible, but we still don’t know if that will happen.

please understand this is just a theory, not all fan theories or fan headcanon have to be correct, and even if some turn out to be incorrect, they can always be used in Fan AU of a series.

and maybe we will find out what happen to Dess, one she could of been in a accident that took her life, and the object that holds her essence could of fell into one of the dark worlds, or Dess could be alive and at the same college as Asriel.

Dess might of been the first to figure out what was causing her and Noelle’s Dad Rudy to become sick.

if Dess did notice that Rudy was showing signs of being sick, it could been during it’s early stages before it got to the point where Rudy had to go to the hospital and stay there.

Dess could be studying to become a doctor and try to figure out what could be causing Rudy’s sickness, even if Dess could have her own theories on the cause and one of the suspects being her and Noelle’s own Mother and her needing to have every room in their home to be freezing cold.

we might not know very much about Rudy’s wife, and fans can only guess that her name is Carol.

but it’s possible that her actions could be hurting her family, and if she doesn’t try to see that she might be hurting them, and might not try to change just a little for them, where they both get what they want, like her still having freezing cold air on her, but not in every room so Rudy can recover properly.

then it’s possible if she doesn’t try to see reason for them and how her actions might be hurting them, then it might be possible that Rudy could end up requesting for a divorce, not just for his sake but also for Noelle.

I don’t know if other fans of both Undertale and Deltarune, will come to the same theory, that Rudy and Carol might end up getting a divorce in one of the future chapters of the game, but we will have to wait and see.

same goes for waiting to see what is causing Rudy to be sick, which I think it could either because of allergies or because of his wife always keeping every room in their home extremely cold.                                                                                      

[turbomun]

I can't even believe I'm saying this, but...

I think that Kris actually is possessed by something other than the player.

To be clear, I'm not talking about the Weird/Genocide/Snowgrave route, or about anything that happens during gameplay. Pushing Noelle to proceed, her hearing a creepy voice that doesn't belong to Kris - all that shit is on you. Like in Undertale, the fact that the player controls the player character is a central mechanic of the universe.

But them ripping out their soul and opening dark fountains? That isn't really them. And given that I'm a person who absolutely hates the "blame everything on Chara possession" attitude that plagued Undertale, as you already know if you've been following me for a while, you know that I wouldn't believe this if there wasn't evidence for it.

So here's the deal.

In Chapter 1, when we saw Kris tear their soul out of their chest and stuff it into a birdcage, everyone — including myself — saw this as a way of asserting their independence from the player: they no longer want you to control them. But in Chapter 2, when we saw them do it again not once but twice, some odd details stood out to me.

The first thing is the way they move when it's happening. We see Kris walk on their own during cutscenes and such, and they never do it with their head down and their legs splayed out, shuffling along like a zombie. Maybe you could say that it's just how humans move after their soul's been ripped out...if it weren't for the fact that they start doing it in the moments before they tear out their soul. I don't feel like hunting down gifs and screenshots for this post, but if you watch them at the end of Chapter 1, there's this moment where they hold out their hand and open and close it a few times. Almost like they — or someone — is testing their control of it. Again, they never do this at any other point when they take over their own movements.

Related to this is the second point: two out of three times that this has happened, Kris has been hurled out of a dead sleep to do it. They quite literally get thrown out of bed/off the couch to shuffle around and create dark fountains. Speaking hypothetically, if you were an entity that could possess people, wouldn’t it be easiest to do it when they were sleeping? Their mind would be at its most defenseless, and they’d already lack full control of their body. That in itself isn’t direct evidence, but it’s worth noting.

What is direct evidence is the fact that Kris only ever rips out their soul after dark. And after finishing the game, if you’ve recruited enough Darkners from the Cyber World, you can talk to Seam again and they’ll say: “You don’t want to get caught when the sun goes down…”

The wording there feels very deliberate. Get caught. Like they know that something will “catch” Kris after sundown, something beyond their control. And sure enough, it does.

So Kris has been caught by someone who wants to create Dark Fountains. There’s only one person we know who wants to do that: the Knight. Worth noting is the fact that other characters refer to the Knight as “he,” not “they.” Given that pronouns are actually important in Toby Fox world, this indicates that Kris isn’t actually the Knight, just being controlled by him. (EDIT: Apparently I hallucinated this because the Knight is never referred to by any pronouns at all. I'm going to keep the he/him pronouns throughout the rest of this post, not because I think the Knight is necessarily a man, but as a quick way to differentiate them from Kris. I will refer to the Knight as they/them in all future posts.) So how come the first thing the Knight does is make Kris rip out their own soul? Because he doesn’t want you, the player, to interfere. Undertale introduced the idea that you can directly control a person via their Soul; now Deltarune is expanding on the concept, showing that you’re not the only one with this ability. The next few chapters of the game may very well involve you and the Knight struggling over your “vessel.” You want to use Kris’s power to seal the fountains; he wants to use that same power to create fountains.

I’m not one hundred percent sure who the Knight is yet, or how exactly he ended up getting control of Kris — maybe the fact that they canonically studied the occult has something to do with it. But I think I know why. Things are going to get a little more speculative than evidence-based here, so forgive me, but there are a few things to suggest that Kris isn’t the first pawn that the Knight has tried to open fountains with.

Queen mentions that only Lightners can open Dark Fountains. She learned this through the Knight, but what if the Knight learned it through trial and error? What if he tried to use Darkners to do his bidding first, but his attempts backfired?

This is where our trash friends Jevil and Spamton enter the picture. We know that long before we ever met them, they both encountered a mysterious person who caused them to begin seeing the nature of their reality, and that this knowledge drove them insane (albeit in different ways). There’s no hard evidence yet that the mysterious person was indeed the Knight, but if it was, maybe he thought that Jevil and Spamton could be used to open fountains for him, but whatever he did wound up breaking them. I could be completely wrong about this — even if the mysterious person was the Knight, he could have had a totally different reason for driving them both insane — but based on the information we currently have, I think it’s a possibility. It wouldn’t be just Jevil and Spamton who were his “test subjects,” either; Seam alludes to there being more Dark Crystal carriers, and thus more secret bosses.

But in the end, the Knight found out that Darkners couldn’t achieve what he needed them to achieve. This would also imply that he’s a Darkner, or that there’s some other reason why he can’t open fountains on his own; either way, he turned to Kris, and now he can take control of them. Just like we can.

But seriously, guys, Kris isn’t possessed by Chara in the Snowgrave route, so take some goddamn responsibility for your actions. That is all.

[slasherbaby]

How You Love Me [read on ao3 or under the cut]

You’re not a doll for him to dress and decorate, or a body for him to cut into and dissect. No, you’re not like the rest. You’re his beloved. His pretty thing, his lover. His favorite. You were his, completely and fully, with every inch of your body and soul. At least what was left of your soul, it all belonged to him.

Pairing: Asa Emory x gender neutral reader

Warnings: mentions of domestic violence, noncon, violence, self-harm, brainwashing/stockholm syndrome, this is super dark please heed the warnings

Length: 2456 words

Rating: Explicit

When he comes into your room, you don’t have to be quiet. If you’re awake, you walk up to him. You greet him. He pulls you in and purrs when you put your hands against his chest. It does things to you, things you can’t explain or reason with. Things that you never felt before him.

Sure, there were other men. You know there were other men, even if you can’t remember their faces. If it wasn’t for the vanity in your room, you probably wouldn’t be able to remember your own face either.

You used to think that you weren’t anything special. That your face was just another face, blending into the crowd but never inspiring poetry or lust or sculpture. You were no muse, you were just a person.

He changed your mind about that. Now you know that you’re special. You’re his, after all. And he doesn’t keep the mediocre.

You’re not a doll for him to dress and decorate, or a body for him to cut into and dissect. No, you’re not like the rest. You’re his beloved. His pretty thing, his lover. His favorite. You were his, completely and fully, with every inch of your body and soul. At least what was left of your soul, it all belonged to him.

In return for your obedience, he takes care of you. He brings you food and water, keeps you safe and comfortable in your room. You have a large bed with clean pillows, sheets, and comforters. You have a vanity table and a bookshelf, stocked with various products, jewelry, and books he’s brought you. You have a dresser with clothes in it, and on top of that dresser, a record player. You even have your own bathroom connecting to your room, with a claw foot bathtub that you’re allowed to use freely.

Sometimes he brings you jewelry, fine clothes, shoes far too expensive for you to ever have been able to afford before him. He likes to dress you in them, have you spin around for him, showing off. Sometimes he just likes to hold you, one of his hands holding the rich fabric that drapes around your waist while the other stays at your mouth, two of his fingers pressing down on your tongue and threatening to breach your throat.

Kindness, you think, is sometimes worse than punishment. It leaves you lonely when he goes, and it makes you rip the hair from your head when he doesn’t visit your rooms. You scratched your face bloody waiting for him, and he made you wait for a week. Food and water arrived while you were sleeping, so after the third day, you stopped sleeping. The food and water stopped arriving. It went on like this for another couple of days, but you lost track of how long it really was.

You must have passed out, because when you came to, he was there. Standing above you. You could tell that he was disappointed, but you couldn’t find it in you to care. He was there, and you weren’t alone. You threw yourself at him, clinging onto his legs like a sobbing child, wetting his pant leg with your tears. He curled his gloved hand into your hair, stroking it softly as you wept. That one touch was worth all the pain he inflicted afterwards.

He liked your face, it was his to use and love. And you mangled it. He punished you ruthlessly, unrelenting. You smiled through your screams, grateful for the touch.

He rubbed lotion onto your skin after he finished. Cleaned up the blood. Disinfected your wounds and put you to bed, swaddling you up in blankets. He even stayed as you fell asleep, watching you with wide, unblinking eyes as you drifted off.

A week later, he brought you a friend. They looked to be a few years older than you, but they were similar as well. You could have been siblings. It was a kindness, you told yourself. He didn’t want you to be lonely when he wasn’t there. And you were never one to deny kindness, even if you didn’t want a friend. All you wanted was him.

They were dirty and hungry, terrified and covered in blood. So you took them by the hand and led them to your bathroom. Sat them in the tub and washed away the blood and grime and dried tears. You helped them brush their teeth and gently removed the gore from their hair.

You dressed them in silk pajamas and sat them on the bed, crawling up next to them and sitting with your legs crossed. You told them that you were his lover, and despite the coils of green that wrapped tight around your heart, you told them that they might be as well. Why else would he have brought them here, to stay with you?

But they only laughed. Not a joyful laugh, but a mocking one. They laughed until they were hysterical, tears spilling from their bloodshot eyes. They told you he couldn’t love, that what he did to you, it wasn’t love. A creature like him didn’t have the organs to care- a creature like him didn’t have a heart. He, they said, didn’t have a heart. He only had the parts to hurt and use and take. The things he did to you, they weren’t love. It was power. It was control. It was wrong. But it wasn’t love.

You disagreed, frantic in your own right, your stomach churning as your voice got higher and higher, shaking your head and demanding that he did love you, he loved you more than anyone had ever loved before! He cared for you! You jumped from the bed and threw out your hands, displaying your room in all its splendor. You told them that he loved you so much that he kept you protected and safe, giving you all you could ever want. You threw open your dresser and showed off your beautiful dresses and suits and shawls, the jewelry and furs and shoes, all the luxuries he’s bathed you in. What was this, you demanded, if not love?

They were quiet for a while, as you stared at your dresser and panted, close to hyperventilating. Your mind spun, eyebrows stitched together in the middle and eyes full of tears. When they spoke next, their voice was softer than it had been before, and they were standing right beside you.

They asked you what he made you do to earn such pretty things. They asked you if he hurt you. You wanted to scoff. Did they not know who they were talking about? Of course he hurt you, but only when you deserved it, just like the rest of his collection.

They asked you if he hurt you in ways he didn’t hurt the others. If he hurt you in the bed he gave you. They asked you how long you’d been a captive.

You hardly made it to the bathroom before throwing up.

You’d never asked anything of him before, but next time he came to you, you asked him if he would give them another room. You didn’t want to share him, and if he wanted to have someone else, it wouldn’t be in the same room he loved you in. They didn’t understand. They wouldn’t love him like you loved him.

Maybe deep down, you knew what would happen to them if you denied his gift. Or maybe it was a test. Maybe he would have killed them either way. Or maybe he wanted to bind you to him in a way that was more permanent than love. Maybe he wanted to bind you in blood.

Sometimes when you close your eyes, you can still hear their screams.

The next time he came to see you, you were asleep. He didn’t wake you up, you woke on your own accord. The first thing your eyes saw was him, standing right by the door. You couldn’t tell if he just arrived, or if he was just about to leave.

The thought of having slept through one of his visits was too much for you to handle, and you burst into tears.

You wanted to ask him why he brought that person to your rooms. You wanted to ask if you weren’t good enough anymore, if he needed someone else to fill the spaces you couldn’t satisfy. You wanted him to hold you, to comfort you, to kiss you and fuck you and show you how much he wanted you. You wanted him to prove to you that no one could ever compare, that you were the only one he loved. The only one he could ever love.

But he didn’t. He didn’t say a word, or move an inch. He only watched as you got off the bed, landing on your hands and knees, and crawled towards him.

“Love,” you babbled to him as he stared down at you, “isn’t anybody’s fault.” Love was a gift. And you loved him. You sounded like you were begging as you told him, your hands clasped around the ankle of his boot.

You loved him, you loved him, you loved him, you loved him.

You begged and sobbed and pleaded, but the only words that would come out were devotions of your heart to his.

He stroked your hair and you wept even harder. Eventually you fell asleep, your head pressed against his calf. He took you to bed and tucked you in, but the motion woke you up. You began to hyperventilate again, reaching out for him with desperation, but before a word could slip from your lips, he was joining you in bed. Holding you against him, inhaling the scent of your clean skin and tears.

In the morning, you woke up in his arms. You could have died right there, and you briefly thought that you did. Heaven, it seemed, was when you were with him. Heaven was him, in all his glory. And you wanted nothing more than to worship.

You don’t know if he slept, his eyes were always open and watching. But he was purring, his hands idly stroking your skin as you laid together. He was hard, you could feel it pressing against you.

Yes, you thought as you ground your hips back into his. Yes, yes yes.

You were already naked, so it was easy to reach behind and unzip his trousers, pushing them down a bit to give you what you wanted.

Let me show you how much I love you, you thought as you spread yourself and guided him inside.

You were only just starting to get wet, so the stretch was painful but bearable. If anything, you wanted the pain. He never fucked you hard when you weren’t loose and wet for him and he never forced himself onto you if you weren’t ready to take his cock. He never tore you or made you bleed, at least not between your legs.

“I love you,” you tell him as he takes hold of your hips, pulling you back until he’s fully sheathed inside of you. His length is far more than impressive, the head of his cock finding a home right against your cervix, and he’s thick enough to make your teeth chatter.

He shushes you when you try to move, wanting friction for the growing heat in your belly. You stay still like a good pet, even when your forehead breaks out in beads of sweat and your sex throbs, neglected and desperate for relief. You clench and flutter around him as you get closer, despite him not moving an inch, and he stays rock hard inside of you.

When you feel his tongue lap at the back of your neck, you come so hard you see stars, your hips forced to stay completely still as he purrs and grunts behind you.

He keeps you like this for hours, never once fucking you like you so desperately want, just feeling your skin and body, smelling your hair and licking your skin. You beg for him to take you with tears in your eyes, begging that he uses you, begging for the chance to be good for him. But he only purrs louder.

Eventually you fall asleep, and when you wake up, he’s on top of you. There’s no mask to hide his features as he looks down at you, his mouth parted into an open grin and he fucks you good and hard. You’re so wet that every push and pull squelches, making your cheeks heat up in seconds. He groans and leans down when he sees the blush, licking stripes up the side of your face.

He forces your lips open with his fingers and leans down, licking the inside of your mouth like a starving man, his eyes always open as he watches your every reaction. It’s enough to make you come again, arching your back as you stare into the black abyss of his pupils, and take everything he has to give you.

He sinks his teeth down into your neck when he comes, cock spurting ropes deep inside you, so much that it feels like your belly’s been pumped full of him. He only stays inside you for a moment before pulling out. Before you can whimper at the loss, he grabs you by your hair and forces you to turn onto your stomach, the side of your face pressed into the pillows.

His fingers find your entrance, wet from your slick as well as his come, and he uses both of his index and middle fingers to stretch you open in a sudden, terrible movement that leaves you screaming into the pillow.

It’s not so much the pain that hurts, but the vulnerability that comes with it. You feel too open, too wide, too exposed even though it’s just the two of you in the room. With a sudden rush of clarity, you realize that if he wanted to, he could rip you apart.

But he doesn’t. He only keeps you open long enough to stuff his softening cock back into your hole, before removing his fingers and bringing his hands to press against your lower spine until you’re prone on the bed.

He lies on top of you, purring and rocking his hips, occasionally biting down against your soft skin, leaving bloody marks that he laps at afterwards.

When he starts to get hard again, you grin. Your eyes are wide open, staring at the pretty vanity table next to your dresser, as he slowly pulls out and pushes back in. Yes, you think. This is how you love me.

[loquaciousquark]

Talks Machina Highlights - Critical Role C2E116-119 (Dec. 15, 2020)

Hi! I missed the first three minutes or so and opened the stream to Brian giving an absolutely incoherent ...ad? for some jewel game? Six thousand jewels just for logging in? Some app in the app store and he’s literally been talking about this now for six minutes and I don’t know what he’s talking about. He finally wraps up, Laura brings the show to a close, and we’re all a little worse than we were before.

Ashley tries to get us back on track and Henry bays over her. Brian tries to ask the first question and breaks off into feigned sobs halfway through. This is chaos incarnate.

Tonight’s guests: Laura Bailey & Ashley Johnson.

How’s Yasha feeling right now about Molly? She and Jester both are desperately curious about whether there’s a spark of Molly left in Lucien that can be brought back. It’s not the same as when Yasha was controlled by Obann; this seems more like just the way this is now. They’d settle for even finding the good in him, like they did with Essek. Brian jokes that they can monitor his mental state if Matt’s Irish accent starts to slip a little bit.

Jester is a little wary about scrying on Lucien now since he’s able to see her back.  She’s interested to try again now that Fjord’s given her the necklace.

Ashley has to run and grab a replacement set of headphones from Brian after hers get “crunchy.” It’s pretty cute seeing them run around and smooch on another screen. Brian teases that he doesn’t have any more questions for Jester since Caduceus has been doing all the healing lately. Laura tells us indignantly that she had Heal prepared for Caduceus in that last big fight, but Fjord got to Cad first. Brian explains how this is the same as all the good jokes he always lines up for Talks but never tells. Ashley’s crunchiness continues and we go briefly to a technical difficulties screen while Brian hops up to fix it.

Dani pips in to get this show back on track. Save us, Dani!

Ashley hadn’t thought about the aspect of Lucien controlling his friends’ minds, but finds it really creepy. It’s a cool game dynamic, and it’s a little different because they’re there willingly, but it’s really weird.

Jester thinks that “the tarot cards know all. She wants to buy into it real hard.” If it doesn’t make sense now, it will later. Laura has an Idiot’s Guide to Tarot Reading.

They’re super interested in why Aeor is like it is. Were they more advanced than us? Did they evolve along a different line? Ashley loves sci-fi and is all about this, especially since she wasn’t there for Happy Fun Ball time & hasn’t been able to get caught up on some of the things she missed in between, so she’s using this as an erstwhile replacement. She can already tell there are some things from this campaign that will bother her the way the unopened box did from C1. She and Laura both seethe at the camera about having to leave the spider behind.

Cosplay of the Week! Harland3r on instagram with a gorgeous winged Pike with a shield & mace. It’s an incredible photo and the wings look great.

Travis distracts Laura by dancing like a Trex offscreen. That seems right for this episode.

Jester’s encouragement of Yasha pursuing Beau was important in a lot of ways, not least because Ashley considered herself as uninterested in D&D romance as Travis & was a little unsure of activating a romance among her friends. However, it felt really natural within the game and it was really helpful to have Jester’s in-game encouragement. Yasha’s grown a lot and is in a much more positive place and is ready to find out what’s possible. Laura: “Jester from the get-go has seen Yasha as this wonderful soul from the beginning, and has seen how sad Yasha’s been through everything, and to see the difference that she exhibits when talking about Beau is drastic and wonderful. Jester’s joy in life is helping others find joy.”

Ashley points out it’s also so fun to “yes-and” with Laura because you’re like a little kid being dragged along by the hand - you don’t know where it’s going, but you know it’s going to be fun along the way.

Ashley does have a sense of “thank goodness Marisha isn’t jumping right into this” so she can coax herself into it, but when she tried to figure out the poem she had a lot of drafts that didn’t survive. She intentionally crafted the letter to give Beau an out if she didn’t feel the same way. There’s a lot going on with Lucien right now and there’s constantly a running thought in the back of her head about “maybe Beau is not into this.” Even the last couple episodes with Jester & Fjord have had Ashley finally understand shipping.

Brian brings us to the moment “almost as romantic as the pre-season finale of the Bachelorette.” Jester was “goo” afterwards. Early on in the campaign, Jester was very forward with her flirtations with Fjord & he shut her down. And then he kissed her underwater and immediately went and slept with Avantika, and Jester automatically shut herself down, because she thought she was misunderstanding & would only be hurt by those emotions. She deliberately focused on just being there with her friends, making everyone healthy and happy. These last few episodes where Fjord was flirting back felt like “my teenage heart again, my first kiss, the boy I like actually likes me back!” and she was able to open back up.

Yasha definitely has some instrument plans for those bones. She doesn’t know if she’s going to add to her harp or create a new one.

Ashley and Laura cheer about Travis stepping out his comfort zone. Laura thinks it was really good that he was doing it with her, his real-life wife, to see if he likes that sort of stuff in his D&D campaign. “It was just so sweet. It was just so sweet.” Brian says he’s actually a really romantic dude & Dani is so glad he asked before the kiss. Brian: “It’s going to be so sad when he breaks your heart and goes back to the corpse of Avantika.” Laura: “It’s fine, Jester will be long dead by then anyway.”

Jester does believe the four-year time trade was worth it, but that the city leaves “a mark on your brain,” especially as in-depth as she saw it. “Jester’s always been reticent to talk about her age because she’s aware she’s perceived in a juvenile way by a lot of people, and she’s insecure about that. She grew up by herself without a lot of social interactions and is experienced in a lot of ways now and naive in others; she’s very aware of human emotion around her, but chooses to see it in a certain way.” Losing the time makes her wonder if she needs to grow up & become an adult about certain things now. Laura: “I think actually she’s closer to Fjord’s age now. Actually, I’m not sure about his age. I don’t know how old he is - I’ve never even asked Travis!” Brian: “I think he’s definitely fifteen.” Laura: “Travis, how old is Fjord?” Travis, off-screen: “Sixty-five,” but he’s had the Mask of Many Faces up this whole time. Later, he adds that he’s in his early 30s.

Ashley has really enjoyed digging into Yasha’s more humorous side lately. It’s how she gets comfortable as a player, making it fun and light in a way that this year needs. “It’s also really funny to think that Yasha doesn’t know how Message works.”

Brian congratulates Laura & Ashley both on their game awards nominations. Brian vamps trying to get himself in as the presenter, but incidentally refers to Laura as his sister in the conversation and it’s super cute. “I would like to be the one to give the award to either my fiancee, or my sister!”

Fanart of the Week: @ethanmaldridge with an illustrated page from the Katzenprinz book. It’s just beautiful.

Jester’s polymorph gambit was terrifying, but the stakes got even higher when everyone else got stunned. She does lament choosing a bunny at the start. “Frickin’ Fjord’s armor!”

Yasha loves being polymorphed lately. She thinks it’s kinda funny, especially given her rigid upbringing with such defined roles.

Laura feels like Jester and Vex are weirdly two halves of herself. Brian: “You see the very bargainy, I’m gonna use my wit & smarts to negotiate situations. But at the same time, you’re very open to what people are thinking & feeling and navigating that. What you end up putting out (though it comes across as innocent and naive) is something pure because she truly believes it.” Laura thinks Yasha and Pike are the same way for Ashley, though Ashley feels a little closer to Yasha right now. Sometimes you just feel really exposed. Laura compares how much idealism she put into Jester to her character from Fruits Basket.

Since Yasha didn’t belong to either side in the war, she’s not hugely concerned by the fallout; she more wants to make sure her found family are okay and safe. Jester is the same way, Laura tells us. Jester doesn’t have any greater vision of the Empire & Dynasty interacting; she cares about the people, and it hasn’t been until the vision with the city that she kind of woke up and realized they have to really stop this now. It feels bigger than the Dynasty/Empire. Ashley: “It seems more of a thing for Beau and Caleb to care about.”

Really, up to now Jester was mostly concerned about getting Molly back, but now the stakes seem much higher. “We have to do this. We have to complete this, to beat them, to keep them from doing this.” Yasha is just going with the flow for now. There’s a lot coming at them and they are ready to find out what’s next.

And that’s that for tonight! Brian thanks the crew especially for working incredibly hard on switching everything to home-based streaming. He then gets stuck halfway spinning around in his chair and the last thing we hear is him idly wondering “What’s Fjord taste like?” which seems pretty on brand for tonight’s show. Is it Thursday yet?

[krispdreemurr]

I've been thinking more and more about this but maybe, just maybe, while we are controlling Kris' soul, the soul actually belongs to them and we're just connected to it somehow? My reasoning for this is that Kris shambles like a zombie without the soul and there's no way they did that their *whole* life since we only recently started controlling them. The other reason I think this is during both scenes where the players attention is drawn to Susie, Ralsie continues to talk to Kris off screen, but the soul is still in Kris' body. We as the player are unaware of what the conversation was about because we were distracted at the moment which implies while we control Kris *through* the soul we are not literally the soul

there is the fact the SOUL does come along to the susie segments - more notably in vs lancer, but it's still there for the choice screens so you can tell her to Eat Moss (and she can ignore you entirely)

but yeah it is interesting