#(while Chara would much rather look for a way back)

[zikadraws]

Out of daydreaming madness I drew Chara Dreemurr in Kingdom Hearts instead of Sora (for... reasons) bowing down to Hades when meeting him in the Arena, because it's the first god they meet (*cough*that is not their brother*cough*) and they just assumed it was a respectful thing to do.

Hades is pleasantly surprised.

Donald and Goofy, not so much.

[atlasofthestaars]

heart to heart

summary: 

“The touching of foreheads—this is an ancient greeting. that honors the heart and soul of another human.” 

you and your lover have a tender moment.

includes: Liu Kang, Kung Lao, Raiden, Johnny Cage, Kenshi, Reptile, Scorpion (Kuai Liang), Sub Zero (Bi-Han), Smoke, Shang Tsung, Mileena, Kitana, Ashrah, Havik, and Cassie Cage

note: something different ig?? just wanted to do something indulgent and wanted to dabble in drabbles. (these ended up being longer bc. pressure.) I also wanted to take this time to practice writing some sweeter stuff for the love interests of New Era + Cassie bc my friend likes her. idk if people want more I can probs do other charas too.

LIU KANG

A content sigh left your lips as you pressed your forehead forward to meet Liu Kang’s. Your eyes fluttered closed. His hands, which now no longer had their wraps, gently cupped your cheeks. His hands were always warm, and they helped keep away the chill of the night. A thumb gently rubbed small circles, a habit of his that you always found oh so endearing. You couldn’t help but to melt into his hands.

This was perfect. There was nothing more you could long for in this world. Though, you knew if you wanted anything Liu Kang would be there to fulfill your wishes. Anything was worth the smile on your face.

In the day, Liu Kang was often busy with his duties. Being the protector of Earthrealm came with many responsibilities, and the both of you knew that. Oftentimes, you would go long stretches within the day without seeing a hint of your lover. It was simply something you had to accept being Liu Kang’s lover. However, that did not mean he neglected you. Not at all.

At the end of the day, when the sun gave way to the moon and let it shine upon the world, Liu Kang returned. Night time was always the time he set aside for just the both of you. It soon became your favorite time of day just because it meant he would be there, right at your side.

“You look so perfect.” Liu Kang whispered. His voice carried reverence within it, as if you were the god who had crafted the universe with utmost care and love. You opened your eyes, and for a moment, you were left breathless. No matter how much time passed, he always looked at you as if you were the pinnacle of perfection.

Any sort of response you had was stuck in your throat. You could never tire of staring into Liu Kang’s eyes. You often asked if he had given himself the ability to hypnotize others with his gaze. He told you every time that no, he did not. But if he didn’t, why were you so entranced by them every single time you dared to look at them?

You wished you could put into words how much you loved this man. From the way he looked with his silky long hair that you loved to play and run your hands through, to the way he was so kind and loving. You often wondered and asked how you were lucky to be the partner of such a god, to which he always told you that he was the lucky one.

“I am thankful you wait for me every night.” The god murmured, his voice so full of love and genuine thankfulness. He removed his forehead, and you mourned the loss of contact before he pressed a featherlight kiss to yours. Then, he returned his forehead back to yours, and everything was as it should be. “I wish I could spend every minute by your side, my love.” 

You wished so too, but every night was just enough for you.

KUNG LAO

Your forehead bumped into Kung Lao’s a bit clumsily. There was far too much energy and excitement buzzing in both of your veins to prevent that little stumble. It didn’t matter either way to you, you were just happy to be in his arms. He was equally happy to hold you, and you could tell by the way his arms squeezed around you. 

You always felt happiest in his arms, honestly. There was nowhere else in the world you’d rather be than right here.

“Did you see that!?” Kung Lao asked, his eyes wide as they searched your face. While Kung Lao always sought out approval and compliments, there was nothing better than the ones he received from you. It just made him feel like he was on top of the world. To his delight, he saw the way you nodded accompanied with a wide happy grin on your face. The grins he got from you were perhaps the best type of approval he could ever get from you.

A laugh left your lips as he squeezed his arms tighter around you in delight. Every embrace from him felt like it was full of the love he felt for you, and you wouldn’t have it any other way. His nose nuzzled against yours, and more laughter spilt from your lips. You couldn’t help it, he knew just how to make you happy. Your face heat up from how nearly overwhelmed you were from his affection, the love nearly overflowing from your heart.

“You’re always so cute when you blush.” Kung Lao teased, a hand rising up to pinch at your cheek affectionately. His eyes glinted with mischief and glee, but most of all, love. He adored the way he could make you blush and how your heart would race. It meant that you felt exactly the same way whenever he would just look at you sometimes.

You leaned back, a wide grin on your face as you swatted away his hand in a playful manner. Rolling his eyes, he instead cupped your cheek. Before you could protest in any sort of way about his earlier comment, you were attacked with a flurry of kisses all over your face. 

“Sorry, you’re too adorable. I couldn’t resist.” Kung Lao apologized, but you both knew he would pepper your face with his kisses again and again the next chance he got. His grin was the perfect mixture of smug and gleeful. And his dimples were the perfect icing on the cake. You raised a hand up to cup his cheek and traced his dimples with his thumb.

“A fan?” Kung Lao inquired, eyebrows raising up in a teasing manner. His ego seemed to only get bigger and bigger with every adoring look you gave him, but you didn’t care. A laugh left his lips again as he pressed his forehead back to yours. It was a little too much force again, but the both of you didn’t care. All that mattered was that you were together and basking in each other’s mutual affection.

You wouldn’t trade this feeling for anything in the world.

RAIDEN

Your forehead pressed against Raiden’s gently as the two of you lay underneath a sea of stars. You two had decided to stargaze since it was such a pretty sight outside. The sky was clear and the moon was full, and yet there was nothing you wanted to look more at than the man beside you. How could you not?

Your eyes searched your lover’s face, admiring how the moonlight fell just perfectly on his face. How could a man look so amazing as the one in front of you? Perhaps you’d have to thank Liu Kang sometime for blessing you with the image of perfection. While being so in awe of the champion’s beauty, you nearly missed the comment he made.

“You look amazing.” He spoke, his voice filled with so much affection for you. He always wore his heart on his sleeve. It was a trait you adored so much, even if was sometimes a flaw of his. A soft smile appeared on his face, the very same one that made you fall a bit more in love with him every single time. You couldn’t help but grin just a bit wider at the sight. 

You should be the one telling him that, in all honesty. The proper words to express your love for him were lost though. How could someone express such adoration and love? You thought there weren’t nearly enough words in all of the realms to tell him how much you truly admired him. 

His hand moved carefully towards your face, as if moving too fast would break the peaceful atmosphere. He was always so thoughtful about such things, especially so when it had to do with you. Then finally, after far too long, it settled on your cheek where it should be.

His thumb moved slowly across your face before it landed on your lips. It rubbed across your bottom lip leisurely. His gaze drifted away from your lips as he returned his thumb to rest on your cheek once more. Now they settled on looking into yours, and you wondered to yourself just how lucky you were to have such a man by your side.

“You are more lovely of a sight than all of the stars combined.” Raiden said, his voice filled with such sincerity it made your heart skip a beat. Then again, he was sincere in all things he said. It didn’t make you swoon over him any less. “I’m so lucky.” He confessed, humble as ever. You sighed at his little comment, withdrawing from his forehead to press a soft kiss on the tip of his nose for a moment.

You watched with silent admiration as color rose to his cheeks, blossoming in a soft reddish pink. Then, it spread across his face like a watercolor painting. If only you could save this view forever. You grinned at the sight, your heart swelling with joy. You couldn’t help but kiss him again, overwhelmed by the love you felt for the man in front of you.

What a sight.

JOHNNY CAGE

Your forehead pressed against Johnny Cage’s, and it felt like you were in a movie. Maybe you’ve been watching too many of his movies lately, but you couldn’t help it. You loved supporting him and his passions. The pride he had on being on screen was nearly palpable every time you watched one of his films. 

The feeling of being in a movie wasn’t helped with the way your lover was acting.

I mean…the way he was looking at you was pretty much the perfect shot for a movie. Your cheeks warmed up, and you were certain Johnny was bound to notice. Even if he wasn’t looking at your cheeks, his hands were sure to feel how the skin beneath them heated up. Your eyebrows rose up, looking at him a bit confused.

“What? Can’t I look at you?” Johnny inquired, sending you a smile. It wasn’t quite the practiced, perfect smile he sent his fans. No, it was the smile he always sent you. It was a little less perfect, but it was a little more real…a bit more genuine. Best of all, it was just for you. Your heart couldn’t help but flutter a little at the sight. 

By the gods your lover was so pretty. And he sure knew it, but how could you blame him? Looks like that were meant to be shown off. Even still, you were thankful for the small private moments like these were you were allowed to see the parts of him no one else could. It just reminded you of how fortunate you were to be with this man.

Little did you know how much he adored you right back.

You rolled your eyes at his comment, but in a light, playful manner. No, it wasn’t as if he couldn’t look at you. It just…mystified you why he looked at you like that. Like you were the most valuable thing he had. It felt almost impossible, after he once owned Sento, which he always went on and on about how he spent three million dollars on that. And that wasn’t counting the other countless possessions he had when he was at the peak of his richness.

And yet, despite your reservations on how much you deserved to be looked at like that, the admiration in his eyes made you reconsider. Johnny was always good at convincing you, he just had a way with words. Or sometimes his charisma was enough, much like in this case. His thumb brushed your cheek with a tenderness that made your heart skip a beat. 

“Thanks for being my number one fan.” He murmured, pulling back to press a soft kiss onto your forehead. He let out a small laugh, the one that made you feel like you were on top of the world. “I hope you know I’m also your number one fan too.” The actor reminded you, his eyebrows raising to punctuate his point.

You knew that you both were each other’s biggest supporters, and that type of loyalty was priceless.

KENSHI TAKAHASHI

You made sure to place your forehead against Kenshi’s softly, trying to be gentle. You smiled at him, even though he could not see it. This was one of the rare few times Kenshi did not have Sento around, letting himself be the most vulnerable. And those times were always with you. He trusted you with his life, so this step wasn’t too farfetched.

“I wish I could see you.” Kenshi murmured his voice mournful. His hands reached up to cup your face. He knew he could always see you with Sento. But he didn’t want that. He wanted to see you with his own eyes. The swordsman wanted to see you, and your radiant smile in full color. He was grateful for what he gained after his loss, but sometimes he longed for sight just for you.

He supposed he would have to make do with what he could do instead. 

Guiding his hands, you settled them on your face and closed your eyes. It was in these rare few moments that you two had a tradition. You were used to this and almost anticipated this every time he set Sento aside and sat down with you alone. His thumbs slowly rubbed your cheeks, as if marking out his starting place. Then, he finally began to move his hands. It was slow and deliberate, taking time to memorize every detail of your skin. Every winkle, bump, and mark, he wanted to remember it all. 

First his hands moved slightly up. His fingers traced the curves and lines of your ears, refreshing his memory of how they looked by touch alone. Then, it moved higher, noting your hairline with his thumbs. His fingers brushed across your forehead, his thumbs tracing around where your foreheads connected together.

As his fingers reached your closed eyes, they lingered there. No envy coursed through Kenshi’s veins. Instead, only gratefulness swelled throughout the swordsman. He was thankful that you did not also go through the pain of losing your eyes in such a painful way. Leaning forward, he kissed your eyelids with utmost care.

“I want to protect you.” Kenshi whispered, pulling back to reconnect your foreheads. You couldn’t help but smile at his words, knowing that he meant it from the bottom of his heart. His fingers continued to make their way down, tracing your nose before they stopped once again at your lips.

His fingers mapped out the curve of your lips, especially noting the way they curled up to form your fantastic smile. He took a deep breath in, admiring just how soft your lips were underneath his fingertips. By the gods, he could never get over how nice your lips feel. A smile appeared on his own lips as he felt your smile grow.

He always loved your smile. Whether it be seen through Sento or felt through his own hands it warmed his heart. He would do anything to keep it, and you, safe. 

And he knew, having you there in his hands as he pressed a gentle kiss to your smile, you would do the same for him.

SYZOTH

Sleepily, you pressed your forehead against Syzoth’s own forehead. Blearily, you opened your eyes to look at the man who slept beside you. He still looked half asleep as well. You looked him over, admiring the sight of the sleepy Zatteran. It was a sight that only you had the privilege to see. A smile appeared on your face as you raised a hand up to cup his cheek, your thumb rubbed circles to slowly coax him awake. 

Looking over the shoulder of your lover, you noted the sunlight streaming in from behind the parted curtains. It hit Syzoth just perfectly, making him look like he was glowing. For a moment, you wondered if your lover was an angel instead of a Zatteran. You certainly felt blessed enough to have him to believe it. Then, you heard the familiar reptilian grumbles emanate from his chest as his forehead rubbed gently against yours, the tip of his nose brushing against yours.

Maybe he was both, you thought.

“Let’s just lie here for a bit more.” Syzoth mumbled, his voice laden with sleep. The arms around your waist were squeezing you tightly now, preventing any hope of climbing out of bed to start your day. It was as if you were a stuffed animal for him. You let out a small drowsy laugh, your fingers now pinching his cheek. As much as you adored sleepy mornings with your Zatteran lover, you knew that he had a very important job as the Empress’ emissary. Both of you had responsibilities to get to.

Syzoth simply huffed in response, not even responding with words to your attempt to wake him up. His hand reached up to grab yours. He pulled your hand off of his cheek and instead intertwined it with yours. The simple gesture made your heart melt. You could practically feel him basking in the warmth that you naturally radiated. You sighed as you opened your eyes a bit more, squeezing his hand in an attempt to pull him from dreamland.

“I promise I will get up soon.” Syzoth told you, his eyes now more open. It was almost as if he were awake the entire time, but he just was seeking an excuse to spend more time with you. Or maybe, that’s exactly what it was. You had a small idea of what the truth actually was.

You stared up into his stunning green eyes, the sight of them alone almost took your breath away. Combined with the gentle way he spoke, along with the way he looked at you, you easily believed him. Then again, you supposed you would believe anything he told you as long as he looked at you that way.

He could tell you that the sun was gone when it was high into the sky, or that the world was going to end within days and you’d believe him. How could you not when he looked at you that way? You sighed with fake reluctance as you relaxed in his embrace.

Okay, maybe you can sleep in a little longer.

KUAI LIANG

Your forehead settled against Kuai Liang and you enjoyed the warmth you felt from the contact. A smile rose to your lips. How lucky you were to be with a man who knew how to control fire. Equally warm hands reached up to cup your face in a gentle, affectionate way. A bit selfishly, you inched closer to him, seeking out his warmth. Your arms wrapped around him, trying your best to pull him as close as you could towards you. He seemed to notice, his hands pulling you just a tiny bit closer towards him as well.

Your heart fluttered at the gesture. Your lover always seemed to know exactly what you needed, even if you said nothing.

It was a cold, cold night. The chill of the night crept into your bones, and only the warmth of your lover seemed to abate it. You relaxed and closed your eyes, basking in the way he was naturally warm. It was always a comforting warmth, never the stifling kind that made you fidget. You always swore that you could fall asleep comfortably as long as Kuai Liang was there to warm you to lull you to bed. 

Sleeping was something the both of you should be doing, and yet you were instead. You were basking in the comfort of being in each other’s arms.

With the mastery of a man who has been training in discipline all of his life, he heated up his hands carefully. It was almost symbolic. The way he held you so carefully was almost like he was cradling a small flame. Kuai Liang made sure to make it hot enough that you would no longer feel the chill of the night air, but not hot enough to make you uncomfortable, not to even mention hurt you.

The last thing he would want to do is hurt you. You were his everything.

His eyes, those dark brown eyes you loved to look so deeply at, stared at your face. While he normally loved to watch you, after all you were his favorite thing to look at, he now watched you carefully to gauge your reaction. He sought out to see any signs of discomfort or pain. He had to make sure you were feeling as comfortable as possible. After all, you deserve nothing less than the best.

“Is this better, love?” Kuai Liang asked, his voice quiet amidst the silence. There were not many things the man craved. It was a thing he prided himself on, how he was considerably humble, but he couldn’t deny how he longed for your approval. Even in the small things. A breath of relief was released from his chest as he watched you slowly nod yes. “Good.”

It was only then that Kuai Liang allowed a rare smile to appear on his lips. Your eyes fluttered open, and you couldn’t help but to internally swoon over the sight. How could you not? It was so precious and rare. You stared at his smile, trying to sear the image into your mind permanently.

Maybe instead of using his powers he should have just smiled instead. It made you feel warm enough.

BI-HAN

You pressed your forehead against Bi-Han’s, his hands drawing you closer to him. It was quiet in his room, even the quiet breaths between you two seemed almost too loud for the peace. And yet you did not complain. How could you? You were having a private moment with the man everyone swore was made of ice. 

“Stay with me.” The man murmurs, his voice breaking the silence. You smiled at his demand, although it was more appropriate to call it a plea. You nodded, not wanting to break the moment of vulnerability you were bestowed. Your hands reached up to cup his face, matching the way he was holding you. He took a deep breath in, as if the next word was a heavy burden. “Please.”

His hands held you in such a specific way. It was careful and loving, but it was in such a way that felt like he was hiding you away from the world. It was not in the way that appeared that he was ashamed, not at all. If anything, Bi-Han was proud to be yours. No, the way he held you was so…private. 

It was as if he were shielding the two of you from nonexistent prying eyes. This was a moment to be shared between the two of you, not anyone else. Not even the world itself was allowed to intrude in such a special and sacred moment. Now that was the way Bi-Han held you.

He held you like a treasure he wanted to keep all to himself.

Gone from his face was the usual stern look he wore. Instead it was replaced with a slightly vulnerable softer look. His eyebrows were not furrowed, instead lifted slightly. His eyes felt warm and full of silent admiration for no one else but you. Your heart skipped a beat, and you felt all too lucky to be blessed with such a sight.

His hands, which were normally frosted over, were merely cool to the touch. It wasn’t uncomfortable, instead the gentle touch with the coolness made your heart flutter. His thumbs traced patterns on your cheeks, as if creating his own little snowflakes on your skin. The normally cold grandmaster’s drop from the eyes he seemed to get lost in a little too often towards your soft and pretty lips.

With a sharp inhale, he lifted his forehead away from yours for a moment. Unable to resist, the cyromancer placed a gentle kiss against your lips. His breath when he pulled away was cool against your lips. 

In this moment of vulnerability, he allowed a small, rare smile to grace his lips.

You swallowed, your eyes zeroing right onto the smile. How rare it was, how precious. How could you not help but gawk and admire? Despite your lover being a man who wielded ice, you found yourself melting all too easily into his gentle touches.

“Thank you for being here.” He murmured again, allowing himself to bare yet another part of his soul to you. Your thumbs traced his cheekbones and he knew the motion was answer enough. He closed his eyes, allowing himself to relax into your touch.

This was truly a moment that only you two were allowed to witness.

TOMAS VRBADA

As your forehead connected with Tomas’, you heard a sigh of exhaustion leave his lips. His arms draped around you lazily, almost having not enough energy to keep them around you. You let his weight lean onto you, almost letting the man nearly collapse on top of you. Another sigh left his lips as your hands kept his face close. It was almost as if you were keeping him up with your hands alone, at this point.

His eyes were shut, and you could see the hints of exhaustion begin to peek through his perfect face. As much as you knew he loved his new duties for the clan, you also knew he was beginning to hit his limits. Your thumb ran carefully across his face, almost like a little massage. The smallest of smiles appeared on his face at the little gesture.

“Training initiates are hard.” Tomas mumbled, and your heart nearly broke at how utterly tired he sounded. Even despite his exhaustion, you could tell the passion he had for his responsibilities. Still, it worries you no less. You hummed, an acknowledgement of his tiredness. You felt him lean a little more into your touch, allowing himself to indulge within the small moment you were sharing with him.

His arms moved around you a little less languidly, as if he found a second wind within your presence. And it was true, just being around you was enough to give him the strength to do more than he thought he could. Oftentimes when he felt like collapsing he thought of you waiting for him, and it gave him just enough energy to make it back into your arms every single day. 

With another sigh he pulled you closer, a sense of greediness in his actions. You let him, indulging him. His smile grew a bit as he nuzzled your nose against yours slowly. A laugh left your lips at the action, and Toma’s heart couldn’t help but leap at the sound. Just your laugh was enough to re-energize him. Did you know how much you meant to him?

“Thank you for waiting for me.” Tomas said, his voice dripping with all the love he held for you. He knew that sometimes you would wait long stretches of time for him to return after every day ever since he was entrusted with more responsibilities. You never complained, never whined, you just welcomed him back every day with open arms. 

He could ask for nothing more.

With a little chuckle, he squeezed you tightly. It was as if he was trying to show you how much he adored you, just how grateful he was with one giant hug. For that, you rewarded him with a small kiss, featherlight, right above his left eyebrow on his scar. It was a gesture Tomas swooned over. Even if you could not remove the scar itself, you could at least imbue better memories associated with it.

Even if he was given the weight of the world to balance on his shoulders, he would not complain as long as he had you to return to every night.

SHANG TSUNG

Your forehead pressed against Shang Tsung’s and suddenly it felt like the world didn’t matter. Your eyes closed, a sign of trust that Shang Tsung truly didn’t deserve. Your arms wrapped around his shoulders, allowing you to pull yourself close to the sorcerer. His arms, meanwhile, draped in a most elegant manner around you.

In these small moments where you closed your eyes, Shang Tsung truly let himself indulge in the beauty that was you. His eyes scanned your face, noting all the features that truly made you one of a kind. All the little things that you perceived as quirks and imperfections seemed only to create a masterpiece for him. For a man who has been condemned to a life of misery by the universe, he was fortunate that it was kind enough to let him meet you.

As your eyes fluttered open, the man had to reel himself back in. His gaze, though still soft, became just the tiniest bit more guarded. His smile which had been so genuine became just a little more precise and practiced. It wasn’t as if he didn’t show any love, far from it. But he had to remember that with the ambitions and plans he held, he had to just be a little more protective of himself. It’d be simply foolish to show just how much he adored you.

Everyday with you, however, the cracks were getting harder and harder to conceal. 

“You look simply amazing my dear.” Shang Tsung complimented, raising a careful hand to stroke your cheek. Despite his compliment, that was not how he felt. He felt more for you, and you had no idea. You were stunning, gorgeous, divine, so much more than just amazing. But even all the words he could think of to describe you was not sufficient enough. For now, just amazing would do.

Your smile, which you blessed him with, had his heart aflutter. Before meeting you, Shang Tsung had little reservations about using others for his own gain. Others were simply an end to a means for him. And yet, with you, the idea of lumping you with the others he was quite ready to dispose of made him feel uneasy.

You were much more than just another stepping stone. Oh, but if the world were to know about his weakness for you, the universe would cast their cruel eyes upon you next. Selfish as the sorcerer was in keeping the truth of how deep his feelings were for you, he also saw it as a blessing. As long as the universe did not scorn you the way it did him, it was enough for now.

Letting the mask facade of how he felt slip just a touch, he leaned in and pressed a soft kiss to your cheek. With pride and satisfaction he felt your cheeks heat up just for him. Sometimes it comforted him to know that you felt perhaps a fraction of the love he truly held for you. 

Maybe one day, just maybe, he’d finally let you know just how much power you had over him and his heart.

MILEENA

Your forehead pressed against Mileena’s, and you wished it was enough to drive the whispers away. In the privacy of your shared chambers, it was quiet. It was a nice reprieve from the stress of the throne and the doubters of your lover that you so loathed. Your hands reached up to cup her pretty face that you adored, looking into her eyes.

A smile was on her face. It was a weary one. You knew while Mileena strove to be the best Empress she could be, and took great pride in it, she often was tired by the end of the day because of it. Even if it was not physically, the mental toll of being on top of such a throne was tough work. You did not envy the burden she shouldered, but there were times you wished you could share the burden of it just so she can rest a little bit better.

You knew you could not, so you did whatever else you could instead.

You moved your forehead away to press a few kisses to her forehead, wishing so desperately that it would abate the worries of doubt that were planted in her head. If not that, you hoped that your kisses at least passed along some of your own energy so she could power through. You wondered, for a moment, if it was possible to do that. Your thumbs traced her cheekbones, and you wondered silently to yourself how you were so lucky to become her lover. You nearly missed the adoring gleam in her eyes, and it was a look that made your breath catch.

“I’ll prove those doubters wrong, don’t worry.” Your empress promised, her voice fueled with the determination of a woman who has been scorned. You smiled, knowing she had been able to read you and your thoughts like a book. To be so in sync with your lover was a blessing you were ever thankful for. As an acknowledgement of her words, you gave her another kiss, this time pressing it upon the scar that went through her eyebrow.

You never doubted Mileena’s prowess. She had so much drive, how could you not? And yet, if you could, you would do anything to silence the doubters. How dare they question her rule, how could they not see  the wonderful woman who was born to rule? You often told yourself, to calm yourself down, that they were merely jealous of your lover. 

“There is nothing more I need than you to be by my side, dearest.” Mileena told you, her fingers tracing your cheek. Your heart skipped a beat, and you knew in that moment that if you could, you would stay by her side to always cheer her on. She didn’t even need to ask you.

You grabbed her hands, intertwining them with yours. You squeezed them tightly, trying to pour all the encouragement that you could not find enough words for in that one action. She returned the squeeze, a content sigh leaving her lips as her smile grew. 

Maybe you couldn’t help with every trouble she had, but you could at least make her smile…and maybe that was just enough.

KITANA

You pressed your forehead against Kitana’s brow, and finally you felt your worries dissipate. It was hard to be the lover of a Supreme Commander. Every day you feared for your lover’s life. It was not as if you doubted her prowess on the battlefield. It was far from that, you thought she was the best fit for Supreme Commander after all. Even if she was the best fit, you sometimes selfishly wished that someone else would take her place so she could stay safe.

You have never confessed this selfish little secret to her.

It was just that…war was cruel. You’ve heard and known the horrors of war and how death doesn’t discriminate. Sometimes accidents happen, or a death can come out of nowhere. You feared that one day it might take the best thing you have in your life. 

But now you didn’t need to worry, because now she was back and in your arms. You let out a sigh as you pressed your forehead a little more towards her. Meanwhile, your fingers traced the injuries she had suffered from the skirmishes she had gone through. You noted how the bandages from the medics were fresh. Your heart squeezed at the sight of them. If only civil war was not looming over Outworld, then she would not have to sacrifice herself out there on the battlefield. 

“It’s okay, I’m safe.” Kitana whispered, dragging you out of your worrying mind. Her fingers traced your cheek, and she looked at you with a gentle gaze. You marveled at her ability to whisk away your worries. Looking into her eyes alone calmed you down and made you feel like everything was alright. You wished you could do the same for her. Her other hand intertwined with yours, squeezing it gently. You noted how her hands were still remarkably soft for a woman who goes to war. A soft smile appeared on her face, and you could not help the way that your heart raced.

Words caught in your throat, and you found yourself unable to express the utter amount of love you felt for the princess. How could you express these overwhelming feelings that threatened to consume you? You figured it was impossible to ever express just how much she meant to you with words alone. Instead, you moved to press a few kisses on her injuries. If only you had the ability to heal her wounds just like that. Did she know you would do that for her? A light laugh left Kitana’s lips at your actions, and you swooned over the sound.

“I appreciate you.” She said, her voice light with the remnants of the laughter she had blessed upon you. Her hand squeezed yours again to punctuate her point. You smiled at her, wanting to ingrain the sight of her being happy and by your side forever into your mind. Your thumb rubbed small circles on her hand.

Maybe she had to go to war, it was a harsh reality you’ve accepted, but as long as she returned to be in your arms…that would be enough.

ASHRAH

Your forehead pressed against Ashrah’s, and the music in the background made the moment feel just perfect. A wide smile appeared on your face as you guided your lover through a slow dance. You watched with joy as your lover’s eyes were wide with admiration as you led her through the dance. You wondered for a moment if she knew how much you adored her in return. Surely she didn’t, how could she? The both of you swayed back and forth, enjoying the intimate moment.

“There was nothing like this back in the Netherrealm.” Ashrah marveled, a smile that made your heart melt on her lips. It was the very same smile she would give you every time you showed her the joys of Earthrealm. You could never tire of the sight, and you knew you’d do anything to see it over and over again.

That was exactly why you introduced her to the idea of slow dancing. You knew she would have probably never experienced anything like this. And you were right. You were honored to be her first ever dance partner. The twinkle in her eye showed that she was just as happy to have you guiding her through this dance.

Together with the memories you formed together, you knew she was creating more and more of a home within this realm. You hoped that you were included in her idea of home.

A laugh left your lips as you pulled her close, craving more contact. Despite her dexterity in combat, she was not used to dancing. Chuckles left the both of you as you stumbled a bit, tripping over each other’s feet. Luckily, she did not fall. Instead, you held her tightly. You gripped her hip tightly, making sure she was steady.

“Forgive me, I wasn’t expecting that.” Ashrah apologized after her laughter died down. You found you could only grin and shake your head at her apology. You two were out here to create memories and have fun, not to dance perfectly for anyone else. She could step on your toes every few seconds and you could care less. Her laughter alone made up for any mistakes she made. “Thank you for showing me these Earthrealm customs.”

Anytime, you thought. Honestly, you would do anything for her. It was hard to believe she was a demon with a heart as pure as her’s. You didn’t care though. Her past as a demon was often a source of confusion and concern for others, but never for you. All that mattered was who she was now, and she was simply fantastic.

“I think I quite like dancing.” Ashrah commented, pressing a light kiss upon your cheek. Your heart skipped a beat as you stared at her with eyes full of adoration. How could you not swoon over her? You returned the favor, pressing a few light kisses all over her face. You couldn’t help it. Another melodic laugh left her lips.

Yeah, you think you like dancing too.

HAVIK

Your forehead bumped against Havik’s and you enjoyed the moment of serenity that was brought with it. You watched as your lover’s eyes closed, a rare moment in which he allowed himself to relax. You couldn’t help but to feel honored by the small gesture. He was always fighting, striving to fight for what his ideals were, but around you the man felt no need.

You eyed his scars, the ones he had gotten as a slave. Carefully, you reached out to brush your fingers against his scars. The care you put into the touch was not necessary, you knew Havik was strong and a simple brush against them would not break the man. Yet it felt it was necessary, These were reminders of his harsh past, a memory of why he was out there, fighting.

Honestly, all of him was a canvas. You knew very well that your lover was capable of healing his wounds ever since he met Quan Chi. Had he wanted, you knew he could repair the wounds he had gained through all of his life. But he didn’t. His body was his story. Every bump, bruise, cut that left a mark became like a stroke of paint. You couldn’t help but adore how he kept his imperfections. Not many would.

“Most don’t realize why I keep those around.” Havik grunted. There was a sense of frustration in his tone, no one else but you understood the vision he saw for the future, let alone understood the way he thought. You knew though. Even if he were to forget everything about you, he knew he would recognize your understanding from the reverence you carried when you traced the past injuries he wore like a badge. Only others who understood his ideals for the future would do the same.

You also knew that he thought it looked more fearsome. A burnt and scarred man was much more striking than a normal man. Your fingers trailed up his body, mapping out the locations of his injuries with your touch. Then, you let your fingers rest on his jawline right below where his flesh turned into exposed gums and teeth.

“You understand me.” Your lover said, his voice filled with the same amount of admiration for you as it did when he spoke of his vision for Seidou. You couldn’t help the way your heart skipped a beat as you realized that fact. You bumped your forehead gently against his again. Seeing as he had no lips to kiss, the two of you had settled on forehead bumping instead.

You felt Havik raise a hand, his touch gentle as it gripped your chin. He wasn’t known for gentle touches or gestures, but you were the exception. Softly, he bumped his forehead against yours again. Then, he rubbed it back and forth affectionately. You were, perhaps, the only person in the world he would allow himself to be this quaint with.

It was all for you, the one who he considered to be a true partner.

CASSIE CAGE

Your forehead settled against Cassie’s, and suddenly you were disinterested in the movie in the background. Instead, you were far too preoccupied with the sight of your lover and how radiant she looked with the colors of the television shining against her skin. How was it that every type of color seemed to compliment her perfectly?

“I thought we were supposed to be watching a movie.” Cassie teased, her eyebrows raising as she sent you a playful grin. She was a hypocrite though, as her attention was more on you rather than the movie she had picked out. Her arm was slung around your shoulders and you were cuddled close together on the couch.

Today was one of her rare days off. Ever since she got promoted, she’s been busier than ever. And yet, there were moments you two managed to find and relax together. Tonight was supposed to be movie night, you let her pick anything she wanted…as long as it wasn’t one of her dad’s films. She rolled her eyes at your little stipulation, but agreed. Your lover saw enough of her dad at work.

Even with your little agreement, you found yourself entranced with Cassie more. I mean, how could you not be? Her smile just seemed to be more eye-catching than anything Hollywood could produce. You were so entranced by her, in fact, that you didn’t notice the hand that snuck up to pinch your cheek. You jolted in surprise, letting out a small laugh.

“Thought I lost you there!” Your lover giggled, her hand now cupping your cheek instead. Her thumb gently rubbed over the part she had pinched, as if to soothe it. She let out a small sigh as she moved to nuzzle your cheek before giving it an affectionate smooch. “You know, Grandma Carlton has been dying to meet you.” She confessed, her voice going a touch sentimental.

Your heart pounded in your chest, and you felt excitement course through your veins. Has Cassie been telling good things about you to her grandmother? Upon seeing your giddy expression, she squeezed your shoulder with the hand that laid upon it. 

“Hey, have I ever told you how much I adore you?” Cassie asked, and you felt like you were falling all over again. Cassie must have taken acting lessons at one point, because she knew exactly how to make you swoon as if she were the lead in a movie. Her eyes glimmered with affection as she pressed another kiss to your cheek. 

A laugh that revitalized your soul came from your lover as you returned the favor and gave her a soft kiss back. In the midst of her laughter, you vaguely heard her mention how you were both definitely missing out on the plot. You didn’t care though, you were too busy admiring the real beauty in front of you.

Who needed movies? All you needed was Cassie, and you had a feeling she didn’t mind missing out too just for you.

[under-lore]

First impressions on the new Asriel letter

So...

It seems we finally have some new Chara content in 2024 !

At the end of the latest newsletter, Toby shared one more letter with us, which contained some very interesting things.

Let's try and dissect it a bit.

First, to start with the obvious, this is a letter written by Asriel about Chara. We can see this from such as things as :

Using the term "best friend"

But also because 9 is already a number associated with Chara.

Of course, it is present with them rather strongly during the genocide route. Such as during its ending, but also through things like the statistics given to some items associated with them in the route.

The same can also be said for Narrator Chara too. Such as how new special dialogue appears from the narrator if one were to attempt to talk to Asgore precisely 9 times.

The idea that it would be their favorite number thus comes fairly naturally.

Next, the few following lines rationalise this association, all the while phrasing it in a way that reminds of their speech at the end of the genocide route.

Finally, we have a few more minor implications.

Asriel & Chara with flowers together may call back to this image :

But it was also a very old concept, that could be found way sooner in Toby's concept arts for the game.

While Chara's "creepy faces" are openly mentioned in-game.

The friend is also refered to as "they", which may be noteworthy.

As for laughs...

The letter ends with

...But alright, what can we learn from it ?

Quite a few things, actually.

First, obviously, Chara's favorite number being 9 feels more like confirming some trivia or association that had been noticed by fans a long time ago than actual true new information.

But it isn't the only noteworthy thing in this letter.

Here are some lines that i had cut earlier on :

The last few lines feel somewhat unprompted from that initial context. But they may have secondary meanings.

First, they may be used to indirectly refer to a type of numbness brought upon by killing mentioned by Sans in his neutral judgments.

However, while that hint may have been intentional on Toby's part, it surely wasn't the main thing that the "in-world" Asriel who wrote this letter was trying to suggest.

The main "in-world" intended meaning of this section was far more likely refering to this :

While Chara did not ever tell Asriel exactly what happened in their past, Asriel seems to believe that the humans they had known did not make a good impression on Chara. Suggesting that they may have been abused or even have come to the mountain to disappear because of them. Regardless, this was all something that had worried Asriel regarding his best friend.

Of course, in the original game, those things remained mostly implicit or speculative. Asriel did not know these things for certain. And neither did we.

But bringing it back up today after so many years certainly feels like a very interesting choice on Toby's part...

Of course, this is all still from Asriel's point of view, which is limited. But metatextually, this is saying more than it looks.

Asriel associating Chara's favorite number the idea that with it, "Nothing can hurt you anymore" is a much more direct way of saying that he believes Chara was hurt by humans in their past than we'd seen before.

Again. This content comes from Undertale's 9th anniversary. It was pretty much Toby's one special occasion to show us content about Chara again. Which he actually did with this letter.

He only disposed of a limited number of characters or lines to either tell us something new about them, or give more precision/information about something which he believed was important for us to see.

From the metatextual context of asking "What was Toby trying to do by showing us this letter ?", him choosing to give more detail on Asriel's belief that Chara may have been abused of all things would serve no other purpose than to volontarily insist on pushing forward his line of reasoning to the fandom.

This suggests that Toby is very likely trying to tell us that Asriel is at least largely correct, and thus that the idea of Chara having been hurt in some form by the humans in their village is now significantly more likely.

Indeed, this had been an issue in some parts of the fandom. While that interpretation had been largely popular amongst most of it for a long time, there had been some voices calling out to the lack of clean proper evidence pointing to that which weren't somewhat speculative. So this seems a lot like Toby attempting to point us in the right direction. Seems like the simplest answer may be the right one, Occam's razor strikes again.

A new questions also now asks itself : Is this meant to suggest that this was Chara's motivation for power ?

Having power, so you are no longer weak ?

Not being weak, so you can no longer be hurt ?

A way of feeling "in control" ?

There were already some implication of Chara disliking to show weakness to others in the past. This would be coherent with those.

In such case, the genocide route may be a macabre recontextualisation of this original motive on Chara's part.

It might also be made relevant in the context of Chara's plan, though that deserves its own future post.

Besides, Asriel saying this highlights how much he cares about Chara. Which is always nice to see.

As a side note :

Between the demo and the final version of the game, the flavor text for the faded ribbon was changed from a regular one to one which raised a few eyebrows :

While some people had tried to use this line as evidence of Chara having been abused, many other voices had (fairly rightfully) pointed out that this piece of "evidence" was quite fragile, due to things like other interpretations of it being just as plausible, the fact that it specifies " 'monsters' won't hit you as hard" which wouldn't fit Chara all that much, or simply the lack of other similar implications elsewhere in the game.

Now that we do have such implications, this argument, whilst still a bit of a long shot, is at least not quite as far fetched as it used to be anymore. The item is a thing which gives you DEF (increases your numbers), and prevents you from being hurt.

We are not quite done yet, though :

These lines feel like they also have meaning.

Once again, there is an indirect reference to the genocide route, with 99 being the maximum value for things like HP, or the next required EXP to gain LOVE. When you have them, you cannot get any more. It is the absolute.

However, there seems to be another strange connection to make here.

What is the opposite of a so called "good memory" ?

The bad memory is an item obtained from the memory head amalgamate.

It feels noteworthy as it, along with the "Last dream", are the two items in the game who's effects are theorised to have something to do with NarraChara in the way they are presented/work. (Suggesting that the memory/dream may come at least partially from Chara.)

For a reminder, the bad memory is a item that actually decreases HP by 1. Unless it is eaten on the brink of death, in which cases it restores all HP instead. Bringing it to the "highest number".

On top of that, this item also had a strange specificity to it :

It is impossible to drop it.

With this additional context, one may draw parallels between the Bad memory item's effects and what Asriel is saying, only in a reversed way, and applied to Chara.

In the same manner as previously. The previously existing theories trying to tie the bad memory to Chara now find themselves being rendered more plausible. In fact, given that these lines directly follow the previous ones, you may even associate them to make the argument that the memories could be of Chara's past on the surface hypothetically. Though that would likely be stretching it.

Also :

39 left.

Pretty impressive, the way every last line in this letter can be read as a genocide route reference one way or another.

And... the code of the page describe the contents of the page as "Here's a letter".

This is also the wording used in the lines with which Toby introduces us the letter.

This wording of this feels very significant considering who the letter is talking about...

So i suppose that makes for even more NarraChara fuel to have Toby writing down such things.

For one last thought, those couple lines.

If one were to follow a certain interpretation of things such as "Mr Dad Guy", the "future of humans and monsters", and Chara's relationship with the concept of "efficiency" & "usefullness", then they might be readable as an allegory for pre-death Chara's view on their role within monsterkind & one of their motivations regarding their plan. (along with their hate of humanity).

And this odd insistance on the term "happy" throughought the message..Is there a chance it could be refering to those secret lines, stored within the game's code in the echo flower room number #9999 ?

Some of the things mentioned in this post are somewhat stretchy admittedly. I am not yet certain of which ones of these would i actually argue for and which are only a product of first impression brainstorming.

Nevertheless. There are many many new ideas to explore regarding Chara now.

Thanks, Toby !

[iztea]

Would you ever be willing to draw atsushi, akutagawa, or other characters? They would look so ethereal in your art style imo

Also what are your thoughts on the recent chapter?

i have drawn Aku like. twice a while back which is a shame cause he's one of my faves and i like both him and atsushi and many other charas 😭 my Dazai exclusivity is purely accidental. He has me in a chokehold and brother, I've never been much of a fighter.

I've shared my thoughts on the recent chap on twt (more or less) so i'll paraphrase from there but overall i think it was very hype! i usually complain about the plot because the arc feels like suuuuch a drag atp but I've always considered bsd to be a very character-driven show rather than plot-driven (like AoT to give an example) so I've come to embrace the wackiness of the plot although it does tackle some very interesting elements this time like spacetime (more on that later).

Character-wise, it was very curious to see Fyodors reaction to like., the human spirit and just how genuinely disgusted and repulsed he was by Atsushi's selflessness; it really makes you wonder what exactly happened that shaped him into such a spiteful man (perhaps his liver was diseased aha ok no sorry). And then he dropped that line about Dazai not being fit to be his other half??? Which really raises a lot of questions, first of all being if Dazai was even aware of this soulmate fantasy of his? Did he ever ask ?😭 (he'd still refuse but still). Maybe if he stopped trying to kill him then he'd get the message. And not to make everything about skk ( their relationship is an integral part of the show IT'S NOT MY FAULT nor do i mean this in a shippy way‐at all) but....I'll just paste what i said on twt because im too lazy to rephrase it

and the MY GOAT AKU came to save the day although i dont think it's really him atm the fit goes crazyyyyyyyy harddddddddddddddd we love you harukawa !!! <33

i also . okay since they brought irl physics into this then so will I so hear me out:

-the AmeNoFuku thing exists in the the 4-dimentional spacetime so that means the principles of General Relativity still apply.

-What distorts spacetime? Gravity.

-Who can offensively manipulate gravity and cause great destruction and havoc? That's right! Chuuya in his corrupted form SO, unless the AmeNoFuku-triple-McCombo bitch opperates in the context of Special Relativity (because he did mention his body being in the Minkowski space where gravity is effectively neglected--but come on why would he that's such a cop out) then that means that 2+2 = Chuuya is fully capable of defeating that thing and saving the day if he weren't in France!!! thanks for coming to my TedTalk

[foxglovegames]

Trouble Comes Twice - the Postmortem

We celebrated Trouble Comes Twice's anniversary around a month ago! We'd hoped to post this postmortem back then as well, but it's taken us a moment to find the right words haha.

Anyway, we hope that this postmortem can give our players and other visual novel devs some insight into what the development process looked like for us. It's also a great way for us to look back at what went well and what went less well.

We'll be taking about the ideation phase, our (lack of) marketing for the Kickstarter, and also sharing (what we can) on our earnings from the game!

Coming up with Trouble Comes Twice

The original tone of Trouble Comes Twice was a lot more comedic and packed to the brim with anime tropes we enjoy. Most didn't make it into the final game, but some stayed and evolved e.g. all of the love interests are based on popular visual novel archetypes - the childhood friend, the tomboy, the shy girl, and the bad boy. 

Some, like Cameron and Zoe, changed a lot from their concept while Adrian and Stephanie stayed quite loyal to our original ideas of them. Cameron's character actually underwent the most changes after the initial reception to the demo, where a lot of people felt like he was too much of an ass haha. (Fortunately, he became a fan favorite when we dropped the new demo!)

The premise with the bet was something we invented to create some drama and establish a common plot thread throughout each route. Honestly, looking back, we would probably have approached the bet differently if we wrote it today and a lot of our pre-planning was... clumsy, at best. Still, it was a labor of love and I'll never forget the fun and excitement we had everyday balling ideas for the characters and coming up with their designs.

As Melli and I are just writers with limited coding experience, we worked with a past game jam friend to code the GUI and set up the base for the game (though the actual scripting was done by us and Melli put everything together in the end). Our biggest expenses pre- and post-demo was the character art and CGs, meanwhile we relied on free music and BG packs to save money.

Why a bisexual romcom?

So, this was sort of a no-brainer to us. We had decided right from the start that both twins could date both the male and female love interests, and (at the time) we feel that a lot of similar games had playersexual MCs rather than established bisexual/pansexual MCs. While playersexual charas are also awesome, we wanted to write a romcom where the main cast are always queer regardless of who you end up romancing. 

At the same time, bi/pan people don't all approach romantic relationships the same way e.g. Cameron is confident and has experience dating people of all genders, while Adrian's demi and Jace still struggles a bit with his attraction towards men. We know that some of our players felt like that made certain routes less romantic than others and we hear you on that feedback and have 100% taken it into consideration for our future romance games. But anyway, that was our thought process behind Trouble Comes Twice's romance dynamics!

Preparing for Kickstarter & the actual Campaign

Our Kickstarter launched at the start of August and let me tell you, we were nowhere near as prepared as we should have been. 😭 We hadn't set up a Steam page yet, we were trailer-less, and we only had a couple of hundred followers across our socials at best. I feel that there's a lot more successful Kickstarter projects to refer to and even a lot of marketing guides and advice now, but mostly it's on us for not researching more. 

The Kickstarter campaign did surprisingly well despite the lack of promotion and only having a rough alpha demo - we were even able to double our goal! - but we  wouldn't recommend what we did for other devs.

You should invest time into making a good demo, spend time building an interested audience before launching your campaign, and research so you've got some kind of marketing plan. We were lucky with word-of-mouth and that other visual novel devs with larger followings helped share our game, but we should have made more effort reaching out to bloggers, streamers, and game sites. Some crowdfunding successes may seem like they came out of nowhere and were just pure luck, but there's usually a lot of grinding behind-the-scenes that you don't notice.

The post-Kickstarter era, at least for us, was the harder bit. We now had 353 loyal backers who had expectations based on promises we had made and we had to make sure we met those expectations while also staying true to our wants as the devs. It was a learning process for sure, but we're fairly proud that we always did our best to keep our backers in the loop. It's frustrating to write an update explaining that the game has been delayed again, but backers are more open to being understanding than you think as long as you communicate!

A tip we'd give to new devs considering Kickstarter: Don't overestimate what you can do, but overestimate what you need. There's always hidden costs, unexpected taxes/fees, and other unknown obstacles that might eat up your budget. In our case, we made enough to make the game as planned, but had to change CG artists around halfway through development which meant our original budget didn't cut it anymore. Fortunately, we had earned a decent amount from our Patreon and pre-orders that we were able to use to complete the CGs, but that isn't always going to be an option for everyone and that also meant we were unable to use that money ourselves. (We didn't take any money from the original Kickstarter campaign, so whatever was earned through patreon and pre-sales was our only "salary" at the time.) 

Writing the game

Writing is, for obvious reasons, one of the most important parts of a visual novel. Melli wrote Jace's routes and I wrote Hazel's routes, which removed some pressure off our shoulders compared to trying to write over 300,000 words all on our own. 

It's fun working with another writer, but there are also some unique issues and considerations that come up when you're writing a game with two protagonists split between two writers. Especially because at the time, there weren't many visual novels with a similar set up to refer to.

The main things we learned, were:

Consistency. We wanted each couple to have their own dynamic, but the characterization needs to remain consistent between routes. You don't want Adrian in Jace's route to feel like a totally different character in Hazel's route. Additionally, we had to be careful that the tone and writing style of the protagonists' POVs still felt like you were playing the same game. Some routes can be more comedic than others, but we've got a problem if Hazel's routes are all (unintentionally) more serious/angsty in tone than Jace's or vice versa.

Watch out for your word count! Longer does not always equal better and writing eight routes, we had to put some restrictions in place. Even when writing on your own, it can be tough to guess how long your story should be, and it was important to us that the routes were roughly the same length so that none felt more "canon" than the other. However, with two writers who have different writing styles and ways of planning, it was tricky to compare our outlines and we struggled at times when it came to matching each other's word counts. Moving forward, we're probably going to be more lenient when it comes to word counts - some routes have to be longer than others, it doesn't mean that route is automatically more "important". We're also doing more regular meetings and frequent check-ins to make sure we're on the same page. In the future, we hope that should save us a lot of trouble when it comes to pacing! 🙈

Balancing your own wants with the wants of your players. In theory, these overlap most of the time. But making a commercial game (that people had already "bought" through the Kickstarter), there is some pressure when it comes to meeting certain expectations. We can't always just write what we want and assume everyone else is going to love it, but we also don't want to neglect what we personally like. We had a survey for the beta where we were able to get regular feedback and a lot of helpful advice. We definitely want to continue with surveys in the future - they are a great way to gather opinions from different players and figure out what works versus what doesn't! 

We took on too many tasks outside writing that distracted us. This bit is sort of inevitable for indie devs like us. 😅 Working with a limited budget and limited resources, you just end up having to wear a lot of hats! We think we did quite well sharing these duties though, and moving forward (thanks to you guys) we can afford more hands on deck to help us out. 

Marketing

The bane of every indie game dev's existence... although secretly, I kind of enjoy marketing but don't tell anyone that!

Having learned a thing or two from promoting the Kickstarter, we spent more time researching games marketing but in the end, trial and error was the best teacher.

As we got closer to the release date, we were posting almost daily on social media and grew our Twitter to over eight thousand followers. We didn't have any viral posts, but we saw a consistent growing interest in our game and it was such a motivation boost to see comments from potential players being excited for the game. We know a lot of devs have said that Twitter didn't help their game much but according to our stats, a decent number of our players found us through the platform. 

We saw less success here on Tumblr. Perhaps we haven't cracked the code here yet or maybe we're just comparing our numbers from Twitter unfairly! We're not hung up about it though, we love it here because it feels easier to connect with our followers and other devs there, and it's nice because we're able to write longer posts like this one! 💓

Aside from posting on social media, we reached out to several streamers and some bloggers prior to release to send them free game keys. 

We also commissioned some art from other artists to share, as we obviously couldn't reveal ALL our CGs before the release lol and visual posts tend to do a lot better in our experience. It was so much fun to see the characters in other art styles and we hope we can afford to commission guest art pieces a lot more frequently in the future!

In hindsight, we definitely regret not releasing a trailer sooner! We underestimated how much interest a good trailer could garner and delayed setting up our Steam page because of it. Steam was the platform where we sold the most copies and most of our buyers found the game through Steam itself.

Also, posting your trailer on youtube adds another site where you're promoting your game so there's really no reason not to get that trailer done as soon as you can. 

Final Notes

After the initial stress, we were pretty happy with our release! Although there were some things we would go back and change if we could,  that's just the nature of these kind of things. For the most part, we're proud of what we achieved and happy that we have learnt so much from Trouble Comes Twice that we can take into consideration for future projects.

We can't share exact numbers, but we wanted to open up a bit about our earnings for the game to help other aspiring devs: As of writing this, Trouble Comes Twice has earned close to 85,000 euros. This counts our profits from 2020 to now (the Kickstarter, Patreon, pre-sales, and actual sales). Removing fees, taxes, the salaries of our talented artists and other freelancers, as well as the money invested into our next game, our personal pockets did not see anything close to those numbers. But we're super proud of how much our little game has made and so grateful that it's allowed us more creative freedom with our next title! 

So, what's next?

You might have heard but for the past year, we've slowly been working on the demo and upcoming announcement for our next visual novel:

A 17+ supernatural neon-noir romance game about monsters, love, and other horrors. 

Play as vampire detective Circe (female protagonist) or hellhound cop Dante (male protagonist) and delve into the mysteries of North Haven, where demons, vampires, and supernaturals hide in plain sight among humans.

The game features six routes, with three romance options available to each protagonist. Dante only has male romances and Circe has both male and female romances. 

The game tackles a darker, more angsty tone compared to Trouble Comes Twice. Still, we hope that those who decide to check it out will enjoy it! We plan to announce the game this coming Autumn. Follow our Twitter (we're still not calling it X sorry) or Tumblr to stay up to date.

[silly-comics]

I got a question or more, sorry if they is dumb it probably is, anyway

Anything New About The Comic That You Got Done Yet? Not Rushing

And that last ask got me wondering sorry if this is the dumbest question, but why do you ship killer x cross and Horror x dust? If you don't mind me asking

I have no problem with the ships they just seem off to me but that's my opinion so I just wanted to know why or your opinion on why you ship them?

Sorry if it's dumb I just wanna know

Back to the question this is the last one

What ships do you find gross or disturbing? I just want your look on things

Ik this is long I'm sorry-

I’m not gonna lie, I’ve been going through one of my depressive episodes and I typically fall out of drawing for months when those happen. So I haven’t really made any progress on the comic, which is what I know yall don’t wanna hear. School should be starting back up again sometime soon though and I’ll be forced to draw so I’ll probs get back into then.

For your second question:

I ship Killer X Cross because I think their dynamic would be interesting and a bit goofy. Killer being the bastard he is goes well with Cross who would balance him out and perhaps make less bad choices. On the other hand, Killer could teach Cross how to loosen up a bit and live a little. They can also both relate on the “I was once sharing a body with Chara” thing lol. Plus, I think Cross could maybe have the same end effect that Color would have on Killer in that if they were to realize that maybe being under Nightmares power isn’t so healthy, Cross could help steer Killer towards the path of freedom?

Horror x Dust is a little more tricky to explain. I feel it came more from a place of necessity rather than genuine love for each other? They got together to stabilize each other while under Nightmare, it was a way to cope. It’s a bit toxic with Horror’s constant paranoia/distrustfulness/anger issues and Dust’s apathy/indifference and the tendency to dissociate as well as major move swings. I like to think there’s a time where they eventually work this stuff out and can actually be together, I don’t think it’s realistic. At least without another outsiders help, like shipping Horror with Farm and Dust with Fell. If it was more of a poly, the other two could help stabilize Horror and Dust I feel.

I love angst and stuff but at the same time it makes my heart ache so much 😭 so these aren’t like the only pairings I like with the group. I like the idea of it being a poly of all of them, including Nightmare, with varying levels of closeness.

For the ships I find gross/disturbing: I feel like the obvious ones do not need to be named, so just the proship ones. I’m not usually the type to go on a rant about proshipping and stuff, so I’ll leave it at that.

If you’re asking what type of ships I personally dislike though, that answer is also a little boring as I don’t really mind what other people think as long as it’s not weird. Like, I’ll occasionally see something like Nightmare X Fresh and the most I’ll do is question where that idea came from. Good art is good art so you’ll get a like from me no matter the subject (besides the obvious boundaries).

Also, guys, you gotta stop apologizing cause I love ranting and answering your questions 🥺 you guys have been very kind

[shimmershy]

Hi there!

A little while back, I sent an ask about the meaning behind that one drawing where Chara and Asriel are among a bunch of flowers, and Chara looks miserable while Asriel looks disappointed in them.

Firstly, I just wanted to say that I absolutely LOVED your little explanation about the meaning behind that drawing, and it's for that reason that it's one of my favourite drawings you have made.

However, I also wanted to send this ask is because there are some things in your explanation that, if it's okay with you, I'd like to learn/understand more about.

(Sorry to bother you like this and for asking for all these explanations. I'm autistic, so trying to understand what's being said can be a little bit more challenging for me)

1. "I was going to draw Asriel with a more complicated expression, like closer to concern or sadness rather than anger, but I think I ended up leaning more into the idea of like."

Ngl, a VERY SMALL part of me wishes you did that. I'm sorry, it's just that me no like seeing goat boy mad at chara. It makes me feel sad (even if the anger is a little bit warranted).

=(

2. "The image of him being affected by how Chara feels about themself. Like, he must be so angry, he must hate them because of what they did and because they're such a horrible person, from their perspective etc. If he were there in front of them he'd have nothing nice to say etc."

This is the line I would love to understand a little better. When you say "he must be so angry" are you talking about what Chara is thinking, hence the reasons they feel so distraught in the drawing? Just curious. Also, I'd like to learn what you mean by "the image of him being affected by how Chara feels about themselves." You see, when When I see Asriel in the drawing, I interpret him as feeling a mixture of disappointment and sadness rather than just anger. But that's just my own personal take on it.

3. "(But also he probably did feel some anger towards them, whether he let himself feel it or not, so it's not necessarily an inaccurate representation of him.)"

Totally! When I read the line "Chara wasn't the greatest person" I've always interpreted that he was more saddened than angry regarding Chara's actions and their consequences. But I do think he would feel disappointment and resentment. But I don't think it would last very long, seeing how, in Flowey's last speech to Chara, he tells them there's nothing to worry about, implying that he still wants the best for Chara even if they were far from the best person. Not to mention the newsletter confirmed Chara's intentions were good even if their actions were anything but.

4."Whereas in the background, he's kind of contrasting that idea."

I take it you're referring to Flowey in the drawing saying, "What made you wake up"?

By the way, thank you so much for your earlier response to my questions about that particular piece!

I can't wait to see what other art you have to offer in the future!!!!! I know they're gonna be great! Best of wishes to you!

Hi! It's not a bother, don't worry! To be honest I am Not the best at explaining things so I apologize for that. But I DO like talking about things so I don't mind answering questions.

Here's the art I'm talking about by the way.

Yeah, I also don't like seeing him angry with Chara, and I think I would have preferred the way the art turned out better if his expression had been different? There's like this uncomfortable tension in it, I guess, which makes me not like looking at it very much. But at the same time, that's kind of what I was going for when I was drawing it, it was more of an expression of a feeling.

Yep! I'm talking about what Chara's thinking. As for what I meant with that line, they feel guilty and hate themself for everything that happened and they're kinda projecting it onto him, whether or not it's actually how he feels. I guess it doesn't have to be only anger then, just a mixture of generally upset/conflicting feelings.

I agree. Whatever anger he felt probably didn't last very long, and any that was left over would probably be directed more at the situation itself rather than at Chara specifically.

Mhm! It's kind of like. Foreground: This tension between them that's dividing them, reflecting some actual feelings but also influenced by Chara's guilt and uncomfortable opinion on themself. Background: A reminder that whatever care they had for each other isn't entirely gone despite that. Something like that. Words are hard.

And it's no problem! Like I said, I just like talking about things, especially when it's about my art because sometimes I do have stuff to say about it. I just don't really think about it until prompted. Thank you so much!

[rebagels-deluxe]

Going to upload some of my Deltarune thoughts before the new chapters come tomorrow. Just some jumbled notes and questions copied straight from my notes app. Just here for me to look back on later.

Deltarune Thoughts

Started writing 5-18-25

Chapter 3 and 4 coming on June 4/5!

Crowns - several shown

RK uses yellow crown to control C Round

Susie’s room - yellow crowns above door, above bed, and above lamp. Not identical to RK’s crown

On Noelle’s cart - white crown. Only cart that doesn’t have a face, just ice

Hathies have a white crown with a heart

Spade King has white crown

Queen’s chair has one at the top

What do these symbolize? Appearance of royalty, but actually being influenced by the knight?

What happens when Kris falls asleep? We don’t know what happens after chapter 1, how long the soul was outside. The next day, they sleep “all of class”. Susie says they look like a corpse.

In ch1, you can go back to bed to skip ahead to the dark world.

Can we not control them if they’re asleep?

Did they actually sleep all class? Or did they get up and do something while we couldn’t see, then go back to their desk? That’s the only way I could see them making the library fountain. Timing still seems weird though.

Frisk and Chara = Kris and Vessel?

From oblivion theory doc

What happens during the “Susie” segments? People speculate on what Ralsei and Kris are secretly talking about. The soul can still go to her. Kris maybe sees what Susie is doing? Is Susie listening to our dialogue choices? Or does it just happen to line up. Maybe Kris and Ralsei are observing how Susie does without them. In Snowgrave, Ralsei seems upset that he couldn’t observe Susie, not that he and Kris didn’t get alone time. I used to wonder if Ralsei was actually instructing Kris to open the next fountain during these segments. But that can’t be, because Kris still does it after snowgrave without that alone time.

Ralsei seems to expect more fountains. Says castle town will grow as you add more darkners. A new fountain is fine as long as it’s closed later. The roaring is a dark world within a dark world specifically?

Are dark worlds only accessible when the soul is there? Example, if a random person walked into the library, would they have entered the dark world? Or would it be normal without having Kris nearby. Which could mean that Noelle were studying/sleeping as normal regardless of when that fountain opened, only seeing the dark world once Kris got closer. Or when Kris woke up after class and we had control again?

Susie is very important. In Undertale, Clam Girl says that “Suzy” may be the reason we came there in the first place. But we never get to meet her there. In Deltarune, Susie was new to town at some point, must be pretty recent since she’s not familiar with Asriel, who I don’t think has been in college for long yet. Susie either has a bad home life or doesn’t even have a home or family. Is Deltarune Susie actually from Undertale? Probably not. Some people think she was raised with humans.

Why do the Dreemurrs use pet shampoo? That’s clearly a human made item. Wonder how much manufacturing the monsters do here.

How does the closet dark world work? In ch1, you go thru the mysterious area first, then down to Castle Town. Ralsei and Lancer say you have to seal the fountain in Card Kingdom in order to go home. Then in ch2, you can enter the closet dark world and leave at will. And are placed instantly in town rather than where you start in ch1. Is it because the door was closed on them in ch1, while in ch2 Kris presumably leaves the closet doors open while entering and leaving?

Ralsei seems to have been created specifically for his purpose. Rouls Kaard is similar in how he always wants to serve an evil ruler. All the darkners have “purpose”, but those two seem more about the story itself rather than being a playing card or other object. Was Rouls Kaard also specifically designed/altered, rather than just a regular playing card?

Kris and Alvin seem most likely to be the knight.

Kris’s house is a lot bigger than the other rooms that became dark worlds. Seems to include the living room and kitchen, but will the bathroom or bedroom be included too? Feel like each room could be its own dark world. Someone said the three possible items in Asriel’s drawer in the three save files are like fun values. What if these are the secret boss, so the exact secret boss depends on which save file you’re on? Probably not. Would be cool if they were different NPCs for each file though. Since Kris opened the front door, would the dark world actually expand outside? Or are doorframes a boundary even if open. Did they leave the bathroom window open? Can’t remember.

Wonder what we’ll bring to Mettaton for entertainment. He would appreciate the TV. But then we wouldn’t take it back to Castle Town. Other light world items are the eggs and the chocolate candy. Does the candy do anything in the dark world? Feel like anything we’d bring Mettaton would be a darkner that would be missing from our castle town.

Maybe we’ll bring him one of Alphys’s comic books? In Undertale, they met at human fan club. Maybe we’ll set up their Deltarune friendship, similar to delivering Undyne’s chocolate to Alphys.

Don't think we'll see Asriel or Papyrus until later in the game. Maybe we can briefly call one of them on the phone before we see them in person? Papyrus and Flowey's friendship was important in Undertale, so I hope they become friends here.

Wonder if Kris making the ch3 fountain was pre planned, or if just the sleepover was pre planned. There is the choice to offer Susie the computer at their house instead of the computer lab.

[kimbapisnotsushi]

Hi, can I ask your top 5 favorite characters from Haikyuu? Why you love them? And, what are your top 7 favorite moments from the series? Which top 3 fav games are your favorite (between which team)?

Also, why do you love Haikyuu? What made that series special to you?

Yes, I'm so excited after watching the movie. Haikyuu really is one of the best anime/manga series ever....

(Love your headcanon Haikyuu, thanks for sharing them)

aww thanks so much!! i am so so sorry this has taken me a while to get to, but i'm happy to answer!!

to get the last one out of the way first: i've probably mentioned this, like, a million times already, but haikyuu has so much great symbolism and imagery and characters that just make it really fun to dive into and think about!! they all come together to make a beautifully constructed story, which can be very difficult to do when the genre is realistic fiction/sports. and i like that the overall messages and themes are very hopeful and uplifting at the end of the day—it's about connection, it's about dreams, it's about trying again and again. it's about getting back up!!! it's about trusting in the people around you, and being able to trust yourself. it's something i really appreciate and keep close to heart. i love haikyuu for lots of reasons, but this covers the basics of it pretty well!!

now, as for the rest of what you've asked . . .

top 5 characters:

okay i'm going to cheat a little and say that kageyama and hinata are obivously tied for first. i can't help it!! they're the main charas and they do it so so well. the growth that they go through is one of my favorite things about them, as are the relationships they have with each other and the people around them. they're sort of a package deal, really, so i don't think you can blame me for that

in second place i would have to say oikawa!! beautifully flawed and beautifully human and such a great antagonist overall. i think he's the closest we've ever seen to a character almost making a mistake that they would have regretted (ie hitting kageyama), and even despite all that it's not like he truly hates kageyama or wants him to stop marching on his own path. he's also just really funny and pathetic i love him

YAKU!!!! YAKU MORISUKE MY BELOVED. i like him because i find him very relatable and i love what he does for nekoma!!!! he's so badass!!!!!!! everyone loves him everyone thinks he's so cool AND i love his whole thing with shibayama and lev. he's kind and caring but hides it under like five layers of being a bitch bastard if you're someone who annoys him i love him so much oh my god

and on that note kenma!! thinking about who he used to be, who he helped kuroo become . . . the fact that he finds volleyball fun and admits it . . . the fact that he loves it despite how exhausting it is . . . how he loves his friends and team . . . kenma's story was so wonderfully done and i adore it with every bit of my soul. he cares soooooo much!!!!! i adore that about him!!!!

hngngnsdhfsjyuef last one this is so hard . . . but i think i'm going to have to say hoshiumi! the way he wants to prove how he has nothing to prove and wants to leave no room for doubt . . . right off the bat he recognized hinata for what he was worth because they were the same!!! and the way he said he'd wait for hinata!!!!!! i could probably go into so much about how hoshiumi was probably the first to look at hinata and see a true and proper rival because there was no way he couldn't when he knew what it was like!!

top 7 moments:

oooooh boy. okay first off is the first boom jump during the nekoma match, when kageyama calls for an open!!!! i love this for obvious reasons but UGH the fact that it symbolizes kageyama's trust in hinata and is a testament to how far they've both grown . . . how kageyama decided to make it a set for hinata rather than giving up on him . . . how hinata was able to fly to reach it . . . it is soooooo good oh my god

hmm second i would have to say are definitely the parallelism panels (real match vs practice) during the nekoma match!!! the idea that karaneko playing against each other is so familiar and so fun that it feelsl ike home and feels like any other day is so precious to me. truly one of the best moments that show how haikyuu is about connection and love and passion.

"someone even better will come and find you" are you SHITTING me. everything we learned about kageyama and his grandfather broke my heart but that scene especially, followed by hinata's "i'm here!" easily makes into top seven for me oh my god. i get so many emotions thinking about it and it was just so incredibly well done.

when hinata yells "I'M HOME" during the jackals v adlers match!!! and everyone yells 'WELCOME BACK" and kageyama says "took you long enough" GAH i want to cry. baby is home and he's back amd he's here and they're together again!!!!! i just hngngngn UGH

when oikawa shows up at olympics with argentina!!! and he calls it a family reunion!!!! i wanted to cry!!!! i guess it does depend on the translations you've seen but i MUCH prefer it when he calls it that because that really solidifies what haikyuu means!!! and it shows how he's never forgotten where he came from!!!

kenma's "this is painful. this is tiring. i don't want it to end" with the panel of him GETTING BACK UP AND RUNNING TOWARDS THE MATCH??? that meant EVERYTHING to me oh my god.

ughhhhh last moment . . . this is so hard . . . i'm going to cheat and say hinata's collapse during kamomedai because of everything that happens after it!!! takeda on his knees talking to him, kenma's "i came to cheer up a friend", kageyama's "but i wanted to go further with this team" . . . it gave us so many good things and i think is also such a pivotal moment in the story!!! i don't think most people were really truly expecting it (although people have def picked up on its foreshadowing before) and it makes you think that really anything can happen during a match i'm adding a bonus to this: that moment during the all-stars match when oikawa asks ushijima what he thinks of oikawa's "petty pride" now, and ushijima tells him "i think it's fantastic". LIKE HOLY FUCK WE HAVE COME FULL CIRCLE!!!!!!!!

top 3 matches:

okay this probably goes without saying but karaneko at nationals!!! that was everything to me!!! that was what we were all waiting for!!!! i know there are those who don't like it because of how it ended but imo it's very fitting for someone like kenma and it really does, once again, give off the sense that anything can happen in a match and can make you win or lose—it's what furudate's been trying to tell us this whole time, even if some read it as a cop-out.

inarizaki match definitely. it was really really good not just for introducing inarizaki and their stories but also the fact that we realize hinata doesn't have to be chained!!!! there are people capable of keeping up with him and there are people who WANT to keep up with him at his level!!!! atsumu was the first determined to do so!!!!!!! (which i could talk about more but like. that's a story for another time)

AGH last one was so hard . . . it was a toss-up between karasuno v seijoh (spring high playoffs), karasuno v shiratorizawa, or jackals v adlers and i'm going to have to say jackals v adlers!! i love the other two but the fact that we got a match fthat shows how far everyone's come and how they're still connected and passionate and full of hopes and dreams is my favorite thing ever. we got some GREAT stories within that match and we got to see so many characters return!!! what more could you ask for, really?? i will say tho that i'm giving honorary mention to nekoma v nohebi i've got such a soft spot for that match LMAO

but that's it!!! thanks for the ask i had fun answering all these. if anyone's ever curious to know more about anything i've mentioned feel free to swing by, and thanks for reading!!

[drcharadreemurr]

A lack of forgiveness

In the next moment, you find yourself in the ruins, in the room of the spider bake sale. You are standing at the entrance to the room and can see Frisk buying a few donuts and cider from the spiders. When she is finished and put them in their inventory, they see you in the doorway and freezes.

You can tell from her eyes that she has been crying, and almost constantly. "C-Chara...? Is that really you...?"

You don't say anything, you can barely stand to look at them. Despite what Wing had done you still held hate in your heart for them. Everything that they had done was unforgivable, and you aren't just going to forget it.

It seems they realize this, "Oh, yeah, I get it. I wouldn't want anything to do with me either. I'm surprised you're even here, I'm glad, very glad, but surprised. I understand that you wont talk to me, you don't have to, but it's nice to have you here."

You still say nothing, choosing to turn away from them entirely. You can't understand why Wing would ever think this could work out.

Frisk makes the rest of their journey to the end of the Ruins rather easily. Though they stop to greet every single monster they see, going out of their way to try and make their days better.

You don't think much of this, you can only wonder when it will end, when they will go back to their old ways.

When they reach the final fork, they don't even look in the direction of the balcony. It doesn't matter, monsters die in one hit from a betrayal kill anyway.

Frisk has their usual interactions with Toriel, choosing to talk to her a bit before going to bed. They climb into bed and lay there for a time. You are still as far from them as you can be, arms crossed and facing away from them. If you could turn invisible right now, you would.

After a time of silence, Frisk speaks. "Chara, I'm sorry."

This again, when will they learn that an apology means nothing?

"I know that saying it means nothing, but I mean it. I don't deserve your forgiveness but understand, I no longer have any desire to go down that road again. After dying to Sans hundreds of times I felt myself fading away little by little. I felt that if I continued I wouldn't be able to go back, that that would be it. It scared me, I was starting to become afraid of death again. Maybe he was somehow shaving away my LV I don't know."

Why were they saying all of this, it wasn't going to matter. You felt that they deserved to die over and over, it was cathartic for you to watch them die.

"But when you took over, everything changed."

You tense up at the mention of you taking over. You can still feel everything from that point. The wind against your skin, the sounds of battle, the knife in your hand. You grit your teeth to prevent yourself from shouting at them to shut up.

"While you were in control, all the memories of what I had done kept flashing before me. All those innocent monsters, Papyrus, Undyne, Muffet, Mettaton. I couldn't handle it, it was all too much. "

You continue to remain silent, you didn't care for their words, though you also couldn't ignore them either. You still harbor hatred for what they did, but maybe, just maybe, they are actually sorry.

Your continued silence signals to them that you don't want to talk, so they turn over to go to sleep. After a few minutes they start having a nightmare. At first you think they deserve it for what they did but when they start mentioning their parents is when you decide to step in.

You start softly singing a gentle lullaby and soon, they sleep soundly. You look over them as they do, flabbergasted that this same person not too long ago was slaughtering people for fun.

Maybe you could try to trust them again.

[under-lore]

It was strange to me that in-universe monsters who saw humans can't recognize frisk by apparence in the genocide route

Is there any explanation of that?

I get that probably is a reference about chara being soulless (since they definitely are with you in that route) and that the player is becoming a like Flowey but in-universe that's weird

Indeed, it is about Chara.

In all parts of the genocide route, there is a certain recurring theme regarding the way some monsters happen to describe Frisk. Even mentioning it as inhuman-like or failing to easily recognise them as such.

However, those instances are not so much tied to Frisk themself, but rather to the way their body is handled and behaves, which contrasts with what those monsters expect of a normal human behavior.

To be exact, the thing that makes monsters react that way is seeing Chara in control of Frisk's body in opposition to just Frisk themself (and the player, of course.) as Chara does not get so assertive in controlling Frisk in other routes.

For instance, Sans sees Chara controlling Frisk near the lamp. Papyrus sees it when Chara walks Frisk straight through the puzzles, Chara is in control when approaching Asgore, etc...

Papyrus is the one monster that actually elaborates just a little bit more in what seems to feel so wrong with the way Frisk's body is moving when Chara controls it :

He describes it as "shambling about".

As Chara was only just very recently brought back to life by Frisk's side, it actually seems quite reasonable that Chara would not be very used to controlling Frisk's body yet. As such, their movements would appear to be somewhat sluggish, likely dragging their feet or with larger heavier steps. A way to walk that, although easier to control for Chara, simply looks really odd for say, the monsters.

The game only gives vague details on what the differences are depending on who controls the body, but those are at least noticeable enough to truly stand out.

They certainly look human, but the way they act does not feel very human or very, say, very "organic". To an outside observer, it just doesn't look right compared to how Frisk trods around when in full control of their own body.

In short, they just look a little bit weird and not all that human-like in a maybe even somewhat creepy manner. This sentence sums it up pretty well.

As Sans put it, this description the game has implicitely made of it looks almost like something that's pretending to be human. Which seems to explain the strange lines in which monsters hesitate regarding Frisk's nature.

If the concept is still difficult to grasp, you could potentially compare it to the way Kris moves at the end of the Deltarune chapters. While the situation is not quite the same between the two games, the way Kris moves in those cutscenes also kinda feels wrong, shambling about in a description not so different from the one Papyrus made.

There is also another really clever side to this, the plural community, who reports experiences of bodysharing in real life, also claims that the other identities usually struggle to move the body on their own at first.

As the number of similarities between NarraChara and a plural system is already large enough by itself to suspect an intentional inspiration on Toby's part, It wouldn't be surprising for Papyrus' words here to have been a specific reference to that detail. In that case, Toby would have done his homework quite well.

Of course, there are plenty of other reasons to make those comments about Frisk's inhuman vibe be as specific as they are in the game, such as foreshadowing or potential hints at Chara's situation like you brought up. But those are out of the scope of the ask. From an in-world perspective, the main thing that causes this change appears to be tied to the times where Chara has control of the body.

[echantedtoon]

Chasriel Week Day 5

Day 5: Overworld/an AU *Deltarune AU*

OH glorious heaven. The sweet morning light beautifully bounced off the pure white clouds and the delicate rays of sunshine made the beautiful landscape shine bright with a thousand wing beats of different birds souring about to and fro. Not that he noticed. He was a little busy NOT-hiding maybe a little too far behind the tree to be casual. His curious eyes blinked and a worried expression came over him at the sight of them. Lounging on the bench, resting in sunlight. He bristled and slammed his back against the tree when she yawned and lifted her head up. To any other person, this was just random normal behavior for the goofy goat monster so no one paid attention too much, but if they did they would've noticed the sudden red spring up to his face. ..When he slowly looked back behind the tree she was sitting straight up now. Yawning and stretching out her back with so much grace. Oh sweet light, she was breathtaking. He was a fool for not thinking it-

But now came the rather hard part. When he had first noticed these little things, he was sure it was just an appreciation for another classmate like himself. He always admired other nice beings like himself, but then he started noticing other small factors during the few months. The way her eyes sparkled. How her laugh was like beautiful music. Whenever she did laugh at any small joke he told her. He had begun to receive tight warm feelings in his chest whenever he spoke to her. Stuttered even. Since when did he stutter?! He knew exactly what to do!! Ask his monster friend about it all-...That went as well as you'd think when he straight up told him that-

"You big fur brain! It's obvious you gotta crush on her."

A crush. Like romatical feelings. Whelp. What guy would he be if he didn't get involved in a few of these shennanigans..only he wasn't just the wingman this time. Instead he was the lost puppy staring at his crush from afar. So naturally he did the only thing he could? Avoid it all together until it built up and the guilt overwhelmed him to finally go and visit her again. Oh one of the single things he regretted. But now there was a clear path to her, she was reaching around behind her to pull grass pieces from her hair and didn't even notice him standing there. Perfect. All he had to do was act natural.

So when a shadow fell over her and she looked up at him. His fur fluffed up around his face and turned a pink. She smiled realizing who it was. "Oh. Hello, Asriel. Haven't seen you in a while."

He bowed and tipped his hat to her. "Greetings, Chara.~ You look absolutely lovely today!~" And he really meant it this time too.

She giggled she lit up a light pink when he kissed the back of one her hands. "W-Well you certainly know how to treat a gal."

"But of course. Which is why I couldn't help but notice that today is no ordinary day. I believe it's what's called....Valeo-tine's Day?"

She giggled more at his bad punctuation. "Well if you mean Valentine's Day, then yes. I-It's a pretty popular holiday."

This was it! His big chance. He chuckled nervously and put his hands behind his back. "W-Well, let me the first to say you shouldn't spend it all alone.~ Luckily I have the perfect solution." She rose a brow but blinked when a red heart flashed in front of her face and presented her with a box. The Monster smiled nervously and when she slowly took it immediately straightened back up. "I-I-I heard from a dear friend that people give each other candy like on Halloween..Enjoy."

She stared at it and silently opened the top off. He felt the nervous smile on his face wavering just slightly the more the silence went on..but soon a giggle escaped her throat and she looked back up to him. "I didn't take you for the chocolate type. But it's a sweet gift." Carefully placing the box onto the bench next to her and stood up. Wrapping her arms around him and he froze when her warmth enveloped him in a hug of giggles and those beautiful eyes looking up at him. "Thank you so much for the cute gift."

Of course he knew exactly what to do. A stream of his usual giggles came out of his moth and for the first time he wasn't snarky about it. His tail thumped wagged him and that she giggled at that goofy grin.

"W-Well when cupid's fly they say..."

[kitsunekris]

So recently I have remembered that deltarune exists, And I wish to talk about something specifically:

The vessel from the start of the game. Cuz it's claimed to be destroyed by whoever was giving us the prompt to make it but rather say if it does come back, what might happen while we're in the dark world with it and will it get colors? And if so, will they be of our choosing? Also, will it have all limbs intact? (Mainly a possibility because of stuff in relation to Kris since the vessel and Kris look kind of similar, It can be easy to say that one might influence the other or vice versa, but more likely Kris influencing the vessel so something like with dark or light world colors)

But real quickly. Why isn't the vessel to some extent grouped with Kris, Frisk and Chara? Like I know we haven't played as the vessel but The vessel still does show some similarities to them. Things like the striped shirt specifically, so why isn't the vessel ripped with the rest of KFC? Like I know there were probably some versions where the vessel is but most of the time we barely see the vessel get mentioned at all. The only time that I can actually think of is in the fan comic rebooting as a result of the player like Kris being shown as their own character in the comic. But then the vessel/player is more treated as just another member of the deltarune crew with little to no mention to Frisk or Chara. And the most that there might be is the vessels name as the player does say the name of their vessel, but it's glitched out so it can't be seen very well though. I'm pretty sure that the vessel was named Frisk or Chara. However, that is something that can be confirmed or denied by the creator of rebooting.

Anyway, in terms of appearance, when we might find it, there are a few possibilities:

1. The vessel is found in a dark world. As a result, it is in its dark world form, this is the most likely, however, it's more likely that the Dark world form will still be in that gray scale. It was in back when we made it, though it's possible that it will slowly get colors the chapter goes on or as the time with it goes on leading to by the end of the chapter, the player having their vessel and Kris being a completely separate character now

2. The vessel is found in the light world. Maybe behind that set of red double doors which do technically lead into at least a part of the domain of whoever gave us the prompt to create it. Let's for this case, just say it's gaster for simplistic reasons. It might be slightly going into gaster's domain and as a result we'd likely get dragged into some kind of adventure to get the vessel back and for Kris to become their own separate person, which likely means that this would happen towards the end of the chapters. It's maybe about Midway through them kind of we actually get Kris speaking beyond our will both while we are controlling them and while we aren't. However, I'm pretty sure most people who have played deltarune aren't ready for Kris to be their own character yet, To be honest I just want 'em to be happy! Also want to know why they made the chapter 3 Dark fountain like why???

3. Applies to either one of the above. However, the vessel is damaged with either a missing or glitching limb. Maybe some other parts of the body that are also missing or glitched like maybe part of the face. I originally came up with this idea as a result of remembering that the Bonnie song existed and as a result of figuring out how to rewrite. Basically any song I come across to fit with whatever my hyper fixation is at the time, I figured out how to rewrite the Bonnie song to fit for the vessel and the way I did it was when Kris was created. Part of the arm and face of the vessel was taken to be used, leaving the vessel with either a skeletal arm or needing to build a new one or something and part of a face which is just skull or that is complete scald depending on how much was taken, but I doubt Toby Fox would do that kind of thing. It's more likely that any damage done to any limbs of the vessel would likely be due to glitching

But anyway the main thing I wish to speak of, the color/ class system for the Dark world:

Basically after the player gets their vessel they get the ability to color it and choose its class, specifically in a way that is very similar to that of dungeons and dragons. However, the class can be changed at will, as long as you are at a save point We've reached an area that would allow you to make the changes (for example, a shop that would allow you to change things like armor general appearance of the vessel along with weapons)

The shop option is much more likely for the beginning, however, once you've gotten everything for a certain class, you can then select it along with other not complete classes at save points, As long as you have something for the class if you select it, anything that you have for it would be instantly equipped so something like a weapon or armor or other clothing in relation to it would be instantly equipped, however, there is also the a possibility that a save point wouldn't be necessary to switch class. In that case, there would likely be some kind of a screen in the menu to select your class, which would work basically the same way as the save point one, but you don't need to activate a save point! Also possible option to multitask once you get to certain levels or get access to certain items that could potentially allow you to mix specific armors and or weapons or abilities cross classes.

The stuff for the classes though would only be for the Dark world as that is where the classes actually show up, however, stuff in relation to them would go into your inventory through the existence of a ball of junk in your inventory, Or other specific items like ones that are equipped that might have something to do with it, such as a pencil being one of the weapons and depending on its wrapping says what weapon it corresponds to kind of like with the spooky pencil and spooky sword. However, though when you leave the Dark world to enter the light world with your vessel, you would likely be given the option to color it and give it the colors that you were thinking for it since the start. This also goes with the dark world but it's once you get the vessel along with any time you change class, that way you can do things like change the color of your armor or accessories. However, the color of everything in the light world needs to be considered reasonable for humans. So something like the color of the eyes? The color of the skin, the color of the hair. So while you can do something outrageous in color for hair, the explanation is it has to be hair dye, and the skin color must remain within reason for a human, that kind of thing. However, for the most part you can do whatever you want in terms of colors, especially for the eyes. However, by default, no matter what, the eyes are red, as in this case, the eyes would reflect the color of the soul.

[osomanga]

OBの暗黒面。 An alumnus' dark side.

その後の人生を変えてしまう愛がある Theres a love that can change your life

So, so sinister... 😱 

In Spina too, it was mentioned how Hguchi was seen running errands for the local yakuza and being delinquent...

Wait...

Nikaido???

The just-released-from prison scarred man(who is also missing his right ear)...

at first I thought he looked like Kadokura(that tired, unshaven look...) but not really. Noda's charas go individual features like the eye area or hair(mainly). And he looks between a depressed Kikuta and Tsurumi and Yuu-kun's nose.

Why does he appear thrice and what does Takuya know? Is he another alumnus who didn't make it? Plz not Kai's dad! Nor the bonbon-esque Fuji being Ogakai's half-bro! What is with the number of scars though?

Why. oh why, did Noda change Kai so much more Hasegawa+Ogata than Yuusaku....but Higuchi's the one drowning in Tsurumi's sinister spiral....

Spina Kai is split into three Dogsred charas- Asahi(the fastest in the team+prone to delinquency- the one who was about to pick a fight w/ Sekka), Rosshi(was the assist captain and a calm 3rd year) and Tsunemaru(3rd year, not yet got a final offer). But he retains his complex towards Keiichi albeit with an odd angle that makes him look like he is as brocon as Ogata(hes the one who dreamt up Yuu-kun, the real Yuusaku was long dead). And his 'aim' has changed since he goes from a 3rd year who still hadn't got into a uni in Spina to a 2nd year...and the entaglement with Higuchi and all the 'death'flags where 'death'~leaving ice hockey/team...

誘惑の甘い罠。 The sweet snare of temptation.

I think the part that sticks out is the toilet stall confrontation. Kai overall is depicted as "impatient/rash" [せっかち] putting-the-cart-before-the-horse, clinging to the past/unwilling to try something new and challenging, , something an issue with the dad, etc. Most of it is the opposite of the mentality the more Darwinian Nihei in Spina prefers and the sort that would get him benched for lack of initiative. That he'd sucuumb to temptation, give in to a shortcut, is a possibility. And bringing the pouch along, despite his naive way of thinking... But what sticks out is Kouichi- him confronting Kai after the match... Both his (now) younger bros are his weak links. Even if he couldn't use for the game that day, if he had been using for a while and went on the rink...confronting him after was a risk that is more on Kai's side...

But I guess the connection between Kai and Higuchi is far stronger narratively in Dogsred even if weaker in terms of chara history. In Spina, Kai was a third year and definitely seemed close to Higuchi which seems natural since they've a year between them and been on the same team for two years. Narratively between Kai's dad being unable to continue playing hockey due to injury, Kai's myriad issues, etc the corrupting link to Higuchi is stronger. Not to mention, I keep feeling like in Spina Noda wound up all those issues of Kai rather swiftly(in retrospect) and even gave Higuchi a clean and happy ending possibly because he knew things were ending. Because on a reread...maybe certain theory was wrong and the implication was more sinister than what most fans interpreted back then...or not.

[russetfur-1128]

What kind of flowers are Golden Flowers?

https://www.reddit.com/r/Undertale/s/VMYSnvvSXo figured that they would likely be related to daisies, and tracked it further to Coreopsis flowers, though they seemed to only look at a few species.

Someone on Tumblr awhile back figured that yellow Aster flowers look the most similar, and that Asters would actually be quite clever to tie in with certain things in-game. (I can't remember exactly, it has been a couple years since I read it, and I can't find it again.) The linked reddit post follows the same logic, as daisies and Coreopsis flowers are both part of the Aster family. But again, they didn't dig TOO much deeper than that the flowers were likely Asters.

I decided to look through as many of the 115 species of Coreopsis flowers as I could (at least until I got bored), as they do seem to be closest, and list ones that match the main traits of Golden Flowers.

The traits that I mainly looked for were:

-medium to large flower heads

-able to be consumed

-stays in clumps, but still spreads easily

-can grow in both wet and dry areas

-comes back for a long time

-grows one or few to a stem

I didn't necessarily include petal number or height as main requirements, as while the ones in patches seem to be low to the ground, Flowey seems to be quite tall, and petal number between the two are not only inconsistent, but drawing fewer petals than are actually there is a quite common way to simplify flowers. Though I did find a few species that match one or the other of these as well, and made note of that.

I found Coreopsis verticillata, which hits every one of those, and interestingly enough, their common name is Golden SHOWERS. It wouldn't be too far of a stretch to believe that Chara misheard the name. Though they are smaller than what is shown in game, and are quite bitter, so while they're not toxic and technically edible, they likely wouldn't be a prime choice for tea.

Coreopsis tinctoria, or Golden Calliopsis/Tickseed is also quite close. They are a common variety used for tea, flowers can grow up to 3 inches wide, and are known to grow in both wetlands and rocky areas. They also tend to stay in clumps rather than spread out like many other species. Though they do have red near the center, so they aren't an exact match.

Coreopsis basalis, or Goldenmane Calliopsis/Tickseed fits most things on the list, and commonly has 5 petals like in-game, though sometimes has more. But they don't grow well in wetlands, and need moist to damp soil to take seed, so they likely wouldn't be able to have popped up in either the Ruins nor Waterfall. I also can't find whether they taste good, just that they're not harmful if consumed.

Coreopsis palmata, or Birdseed/Prarie Calliopsis/Tickseed hits all except for being able to grow in wet areas. They're also on the smaller side, though I would consider them to still be medium, as their head tend to get to 2-2.5 inches wide. One thing that I wasn't necessarily looking for, but matches Golden Flowers is the fact that while they tend to stay in clumps (like the patches in the Ruins and Waterfall), they also have the ability to cover large areas while still not necessarily being aggressive. (Like Asgore's garden)

Coreopsis lanceolata, or Lanceleaf Calliopsis/Tickseed again matches everything on the list, but is still on the smaller side, only reaching 2 inches wide.

Coreopsis mutica matches almost everything, but I can't find if they're edible. They also tend to have either 5 or 6 petals. They're considered to be a rare flower.

(Also small side-note, while looking through these, I found a picture of what the seeds look like, and COMPLETELY understand the whole "The seeds just stick to you" thing. Realized that the flowers that I spend FOREVER picking the seeds off my clothes every time I do laundry and out of my pets' fur are Florida Tickseed. They stick to EVERYTHING. Skin, clothes, fur, EVERYTHING. Though the image of Asgore having to spend extensive time picking seeds off of himself every time he goes through the garden is quite funny)

Toby probably wasn't actually really referencing any particular flowers, and Golden Flowers are purely fictional, but it is neat to theorize.

If anyone else wants to continue going down the list, feel free. It's just the list under Taxonomy on Wikipedia. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coreopsis

[moirascribbles]

hai sophie!! here with questions for u 🫵

UR TS OCS LOOK AWESOME!! sofiya and leander (and ais?!) i see u. do u know who hazan would get along with :0 and who they'd both get along with worst ?!

I see u like hades. i don't actually know a lot about the games HHDJSJ but do u have a fav chara u like talking about :3 ?

anddd do u have any hobbies besides art ? or any u've wanted to pick up maybe..

for ask.revival 2024 🙂‍↕️🙂‍↕️👍

raaaaaa hello!!

hnnn i could yap about my TS kiddos so much... glad people like them 🥹

so-

1.) Sofiya gets very well along with Leander as... people have prolly seen from the all the art I have posted of those two sjsjd. They're silly bbgirls both of them.

Hazan is the one paired with Ais actually! So those two get along very well, Ais is the only on who can listen to Haz's yapping all the way through til the end 😔🙏 Haz also gets well along with Vere, he's too dense to notice his threats and just... keeps on yapping skdkdj

As for the worst one: Sofiya absolutely cannot stand Vere 😂 Those two are literally two feral mutts growling a each other constantly and she would just rather stab him than deal with him. So they keep their distance for good reasons.

Hazan I'm.... not completely sure about but I feel I might be Leander? while Haz finds him charming, he doesn't trust a single thing that he says sjsjs Also finds him little overbearing and rowdy so he just prefers to not interact with him at all skdjd

2.) RAAAAAAA I love Hades so much, such a good game and I can't wait for the second games full release 😭🙏 Thanatos is hands down my number one fave from the game, I absolutely adore him and I always get so giddy when I encounter him in-game 😔♥️ He's my bbgirl... I need him

3.) Aaaaaa hobbies.... I read and play video games a lot if that counts skdjdj I have also done horse back riding for like... 15 years but that's been on a break for now for a while because of uni and such... I'm hoping to pick up some lessons tho here and there I miss it sm 😔