#load a save from a previous reset

[hopesndreams-au]

Part 11

He helps to bring the plates to the table and then makes tea while chatting and... flirting with Toriel.

During breakfast, Toriel and Asgore discuss things beyond my comprehension. I try to ask Chara about it, but he says that it's better that I remain in the dark. Asriel, who overheard this, nods in agreement.

After breakfast, Chara takes me to his room to discuss something.

"Frisk, what did you do? I'm getting crazy deja vu, and the only explanation is one of us did a Reset. Since I don't remember ever pushing the button, that means you must've done it."

"Yeah, I did do a Reset."

"WHY!? Y’know what? No. Don’t answer that."

Chara pulls up the Load button and pushes it. He looks for the last Save from before the Reset and selects it. He then grabs my wrist and forces me to push the Accept button with him.

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

Chara shortcuts us home and takes me from Asriel.

"You go make some mac n cheese, and I'll sit on the couch with Frisk, aight?"

Asriel nods and goes to the kitchen. Chara carries me to the couch and sits down.

"I just realized that we didn't need the straitjacket this time," Asriel says as he begins making the mac n cheese.

Chara is about to respond when Papyrus calls him. Upon answering the phone, Chara drops it because of how startled he is at how loud Papyrus is.

"I'M QUICKLY APPROACHING YOUR LOCATION AND THERE IS NOTHING YOU CAN DO TO STOP ME!"

Chara picks up his phone and asks Papyrus to keep it down because I'm asleep.

Literally three minutes later, Papyrus bursts through the door.

"Nyeh Heh Heh! Sans Told Me That You Were Going Through Some Rough Times, Chara. I'm Here To Provide Comfort In Any Way You Require!"

Chara grins really big and pats the spot next to him on the couch, silently signaling to Papyrus that he wants to sit next to him.

Papyrus smiles and plops himself down on the couch next to Chara. He’s wearing his battle body again.

Chara notices and laughs despite trying not to.

“What’s the occasion, hon?”

“I Just Got Here From Warrior Training With Undyne! I Always Wear This During Warrior Training.”

“Ah. Okay. That makes sense,” Chara says as he leans his head back. After a moment, he leans forward again and says, “Wait, no you don’t. You wear a t-shirt with the words ‘Warrior Dude’ on the front, a padded jacket, and a pair of yoga pants.”

From the kitchen, Asriel says, “No, Papyrus is right.”

I wake up slowly and say, “Loading a Save from a previous Reset must’ve messed with some code.”

Asriel and Papyrus look at me in confusion, but Chara nods in realization.

When Asriel comes out with four bowls of mac n cheese, I get off the couch and help him pass the bowls to Chara and Papyrus.

Papyrus thanks Asriel for making food, Chara nods, and I stuff my face.

"Haha, glad to see you're enjoying it," he says as he sits down with his bowl.

[hellfirenacht]

This Machine...

Summary: Your birthday is coming up, and Eddie makes you a present. 

Tags: sfw, friends to lovers, slightly possessive Eddie and Reader if you squint, Eddie Munson x Reader

Word Count: 3.3k words

Master List

There were certain perks to being the school’s resident dealer. For one, Eddie had made very good friends with the old janitor that kept to himself, flying under everyone’s radar, including Higgins’. The nice perk that came with being friends with ol’ Mr. Greg was the fact that he had the keys to every single room in the school, which meant that Eddie’s lock-picking days were lowered considerably. 

These were good perks to have, especially since your birthday was coming up. Eddie had convinced the art teached at the beginning of every year to allow himself and his club to use the art room to make their Hellfire shirts. The art department had managed to get funding four years ago for a screen printing kit, convincing the board that having the ability to make shirts would create unity within the school. 

Frankly, Eddie thought that was a load of bullshit. But that didn’t mean he wasn’t going to use it to his advantage when he could. So every September, Eddie would gather his little sheepies for an afternoon of arts and crafts, creating the shirts and ruining the ones they were wearing in the mess. Eddie would always try and make a few extra, just in case there were stragglers that needed saving from the conformity of Hawkins High school. Not once did he consider the irony of having his sheep in uniform.

In most cases, the art teacher was willing to work with him and let him in without much fuss. Of course, that was when Eddie was still a student. He had now been a proud high school graduate for seven months and the shock of not being in school had him spiraling for the first month before he found himself working at the Hideout again. Work, rehearsal, work, rehearsal, a thirty minute set at the Hideout if he was lucky, work, rehearsal. 

God, he missed Hellfire. That was the only part of school that he missed; a consistent Dungeons and Dragons schedule. 

Still, it wasn’t all bad and monotonous. Turns out that if you aren’t stuck at school 8 hours a day, 5 days a week you can go other places when children are at school. And when you go to places where kids aren’t, you tend to meet adults. 

Enter you. 

You had been working at the record store on morning shift, and had been for a few months now. Although you had more often than not worked weekends, somehow you and Eddie had eluded each other in the two years of you sorting through the various artists and ringing up customers. 

It had been a Thursday when Eddie met you, a fact he only remembered because the previous night had been the day that Bev allowed him to go on two nights in a row at the Hideout, which had been unheard of for Corroded Coffin. 

“Ain’t no one barely here anyways, Eddie.” she’d said, having long since stopped calling him Junior. 

He had been flying high, and an old drunk had even left him a tip on the bar, enough to drop by the record store and pick up an album he’d been eyeing for a while. You had been standing at the boxes, resetting them and reorganizing them for the hundredth time that week. It had been so slow that day that it was all you could do to keep yourself busy. 

W.A.S.P had been playing at a near whisper quiet volume, and when Eddie asked you about it you had just smiled, shrugged, and said that the owner only allowed you to play them on Thursdays when it was dead, or Sunday morning when anyone who’d get offended by the lyrics would be at church. 

The two of you had been friends ever since. 

A half hour of idle chat about music had turned into five months of late night talks on the phone, hanging out in Eddie’s van, swapping music back and forth, visiting each other during your shifts, and a tentative bi-monthly D&D session with you, and Corroded Coffin. 

Eddie would never know how badly he messed up your sleep schedule, going on late at night with Corroded Coffin when you had a morning shift, but it was always worth it to give him a sober audience member. 

The best nights though, were the times where you’d come over and just... hang out with him. You’d come over to Wayne’s trailer after your shift, or he’d pick you up from your place, and the two of you would just sit and talk. 

You never bat an eye at how messy his room was, and he made sure there was no food left out and would at least make an effort to clean out all of the beer cans in his room. Mostly you’d just sit on his bed and watch him play guitar, or spend hours talking about everything and nothing. 

As much as you enjoyed hearing him practice the same riff on his electric guitar over and over again, you had admitted to him that you always had a soft spot for the acoustic guitar that collected a little more dust in the corner that he’d pull out on rare occasions. 

THIS MACHINE SLAYS DRAGONS

You’d voiced your fondness for the instrument several times, enjoying the combination of Woody Gunthrie’s iconic guitar adjusted for your friends’ eccentric taste. 

Five months of friendship. Five months of hanging out with no pressure, no needing to look after each other, five months of feeling like a fucking human in this damn town. 

And one month of having the most embarrassing and awkward crush on you. 

Eddie had dated before, and he’d been interested in girls and some girls had even shown some interest in him until they realized that Eddie wasn’t someone to be fixed or saved. Eddie had even had sex before, but not to the extreme lengths that he’d found had been circulating in high school. 

Seriously, who had the time to come up with half the shit that this town thought he’d allegedly done? 

You found great joy in hearing about his spin in the rumor mill. Whenever one of you heard a rumor about the Freak, you’d compare notes and laugh about how stupid it was. Of course, Eddie put little effort into actually stopping the rumors, and now that he was no longer in high school it didn’t seem to matter as much anymore. He’d still get dirty looks from people in town but he found that more often than not people would just leave him alone now. Jocks, nerds, freaks, cheerleaders; outside the halls of Hawkins High those words didn’t hold half the weight they used to. 

“So they’re saying that now you spiked the punch at homecoming?” you asked, laughing. “I must have missed that dance.”

“Yeah, so did I. I only went to homecoming once in school and that was Sophomore year.” Eddie replied, his fingers tabbing out a melody that he had been working on for a new song. “And there was no way I was able to get my hands on any alcohol that night.”

“Why would you waste perfectly good alcohol on a high school dance, anyway?” you laughed.

Eddie could listen to you laugh for hours. 

And it was because of this, that Eddie was now back at Hawkins High, while Ol’ Greg unlocked the art room on this fine weekend. It didn’t take much convincing, Ol’ Greg didn’t give a shit about Eddie’s reputation and never had, and for that Eddie had slipped the janitor an extra joint for his trouble as payment for letting him in. 

The room looked about the same as it had the last few weeks of school, aside from some new art projects. Other than that, everything was in about the same place. Eddie wasted a little time wandering around the room, looking at the different projects and taking in the scent of old clay and dried paint. Aside from the old drama room, the art room was the only other place in the school where he felt okay in this hellhole. 

It didn’t take much to get your shirt size. You always had a bad habit of leaving your sweaters in his van, so going to grab a blank hoodie in your size was the easy part. The design he was using was easy as well, and after so many years of making Hellfire Club shirts he could probably make this in his sleep. 

But he wouldn’t, because he wanted this to be perfect. So for the next few hours he carefully pulled out the equipment, found the right shade of red he wanted to use and painstakingly created the stencil, adding his own personal flair to it. The finished product was probably nicer than any Hellfire Club shirt he’d ever made. 

By the end of it, your new hoodie was done and he was sure that you’d love it so much that you’d never forget it in his van. 

With the finished product in hand he was able to lock up, thank Ol’ Greg, and make his way home. 

Now all Eddie had to do was give it to you for your birthday. The two of you had made plans to hang out that morning together at Benny’s for some birthday waffles or pancakes or french toast or whatever you wanted. He’d treat you, he’d been saving for this. 

Then he’d give you the gift, and you’d love it and then he’d suck it up and ask you out. He could do this. Jeff swore to Eddie up and down that you clearly had feelings for him. Eddie wasn’t stupid, he’d noticed your flirting and had flirted back so many times. This dance between the two of you had been going on for weeks now, but it didn’t make it any less terrifying. With any luck, the note he had tucked into the pocket would also help him out. 

You were already at your usual booth when he arrived that Sunday morning. It was supposed to be a very quiet morning, Benny’s was never busy first thing on Sunday. So when Eddie walked into the diner to meet you, his stomach dropped as he saw the rest of his band already sitting with you. 

A chorus of his friends called him over, and Eddie, dejected, slid in the booth on the opposite side of you. You were on the end of one booth, seated next to Jeff and Zack, while Eddie took the spot next to Gareth. 

Eddie wanted to be pissed at the guys for ruining his plan, but then he saw the look on your face. You were thrilled to be around everyone and were excitedly talking to Jeff about the new song that he was learning. It was your birthday, your day, and if you were having fun, that was the important part. He did make sure to put your food on his tab though, he wasn’t going to let anyone else have that satisfaction. 

As the morning went on, Eddie had completely forgotten about the hoodie currently sitting in the small bag by his leg. He was only reminded of it when Gareth got up to go pee and Eddie was forced out of the booth, as his foot kicked the bag and you noticed it. 

Your eyes immediately lit up when you noticed the red gift bag and your smile widened. 

“Eddie, is that for me?” you asked, batting your eyelashes. “Did you get me a present?”

He didn’t want to give it to you in front of everyone, that hadn’t been part of the plan. But he sucked it up and pulled the hoodie out and tossed it to you. Eddie could worry about asking you out later when the rest of his friends weren’t around. He’d never want to put that pressure on you anyway. 

“Yessss!” you grabbed it eagerly in your hands and unfolded the hoodie, noticing the design. 

This Machine Slays Dragons was splashed across the front, and on the front pocket was a small colony of bats, just like the ones on Eddie’s arm. He watched as your eyes widened, in surprise and delight, and felt a wave of relief wash over him as you eagerly put it on. 

“Holy shit, Eddie, I love it!” you said, and got out of the booth to throw your arms around him. Your lips pressed against his cheek, and for a moment Eddie felt like he was on cloud nine as he hugged you back, giving you a slight squeeze before you pulled away. 

“You always said you liked my guitar.” He said, shooting a look to his bandmates who were making kissy faces behind your back. The glare only egged them on. 

“It’s got your bats on it.” you said, looking down at the design, smoothing it out. “This is so fuckin’ cool!”

As you ran your hands down the design, you heard a faint crinkle in the pocket. When you reached inside, alarm bells went off in Eddie’s head and he quickly muttered something about needing a cigarette before turning on his heel and walking straight outside to his van. 

He’d completely forgotten the note that he had slipped into the pocket. You absolutely were not supposed to open that in front of everyone. Eddie leaned against the back of his van, lightly smacking his head against the door, the barely touched cigarette in his hand. 

“Eddie...?” Your voice made him go stiff, his head still against the fan. He took one long drag of the cigarette and exhaled the smoke before standing up straight to look at you. You were holding the note in your hand with a sheepish grin on your face. 

“Hey.” He said, not sure how to proceed. He couldn’t read your smile. Was it a sad smile? Were you going to awkwardly tell him that you didn’t feel the same but you could be friends? He could live with that, but it would really sting. 

“So....” you looked at the note and read the two words printed there in his handwriting. “‘Date me’, huh? I’ve heard you come up with the wildest descriptions for things when we play D&D, but the most you could jot down was... ‘Date me’?”

It was. Eddie had racked his brain for hours on what to say to you, but he couldn’t find the words he wanted to. Everything felt either too cheesy, or too stiff, or not him, or too casual. He was really banking on the hoodie to be more of a selling point than the note. 

“I thought it’d be cuter if it had just been the two of us this morning.” Eddie admitted. “Look, I get it if you’re here to respectfully decline. We can just be friends, I swear I won’t make it weird-”

“I’ll date you.” The words were firm and steadfast. There wasn’t a single waiver in your voice as you said those three words. You took a step closer to him and shoved the note back in the hoodie pocket. “Eddie I... I want to date you. I’ve wanted to date you for about 10 minutes after we met.” 

Eddie’s head lowered slightly and his eyes widened as he stared at you. “Are you serious?”

“Well, yeah.” you said. “A cute guy walks into a record store, knows about good music, invites me to play D&D and then becomes one of my best friends? Yes, Eddie, I want to date you.” 

Eddie snuffed out the barely touched cigarette and leaned in towards you. God, he was fucking clueless sometimes.

“You know... that hoodie looks good on you.” He said, trying to sound smooth. “It’ll look better in the back of my van.” 

You stared blankly at him for a second and then burst out laughing, your head thrown back. “No, no, nevermind.” you cackled. “I changed my mind. I’m done. We’re done.” 

Had Eddie not known you as well as he did, he might have taken that as a real rejection. But he knew that laugh, he’d heard it a hundred times over the past few months. 

He reached out and grabbed your hand and pulled you closer to him, you were still smiling wide when you looked up at him. “Seriously, Eddie? I agree to date you and you pull out that line?”

“Don’t get mad at me, Sweetheart.” He said. “You’re the one constantly leaving your clothes in my van. I don’t know why you’re laughing at my perfectly innocent statement.”

“Oh fuck off, Eddie.” You laughed. “You know exactly what you said and how you meant it. And maybe I wouldn’t have had to leave my clothes in your van all the time if you had asked me out earlier.” 

“And would you care to share that logic with me?” Eddie raised an eyebrow. Had you really been leaving things in his van on purpose?

“I had to mark my territory.” you said with a smile. “Can’t let anyone in your van think that you’re seeing someone else.”

It was Eddie’s turn to laugh and you wrapped your arms around his neck. “Ah yes, the most popular freak in all of Hawkins definitely has a line out the door of people wanting to date him.” he said, his hands finding your hips. 

“You’re laughing. I’ve seen you flirting with Ms. Robin’s at The Hideout and you're laughing at me?” you tried to pout, but you were holding back your own giggles. 

“Ms. Robins is a 75 year old woman who can drink everyone under the table.” Eddie pointed out. 

“See? How am I supposed to compete with that! I had to sacrifice my jackets to make sure no one would be asking you out.” you protested. “What else could I-”

Eddie had originally planned on asking if it was okay for him to kiss you first, but he knew that if he didn’t do something now you’d keep cracking jokes and this conversation wouldn’t go anywhere. You tasted faintly like your birthday breakfast, but Eddie quickly decided that it wasn’t a bad thing. He felt the faint push of your lips back against his, and he mentally kicked himself for not doing this the first time you two hung out.

“Happy birthday.” Eddie said, as he finally pulled back. 

“Guess I got my wish, and I didn’t even have to blow out any candles.” you replied, just a little bashful at the admission.

“You aren’t allowed to leave this hoodie in my van.” Eddie said. “You can leave any other jacket or sweater in there but not this one.”

“I wasn’t planning on it.” you said, “But why this one specifically?” 

Eddie touched the pocket that had the bats that matched his tattoo. “Because how else will other people know that you’re seeing someone?” 

“Oh, you little shit!” you laughed. “Really? You think I’m weird for what I did when you basically put your logo on a hoodie that you know I’m going to wear every day?”

“Guess that makes us both freaks now.” He replied, with a satisfied grin. 

“There are worse things to be in a small town.” you decided, taking his hand. “So I guess this means you’re my boyfriend now. No take backs.” 

“Wouldn’t dream of it, Sweetheart.” Eddie crossed his heart.

You leaned in and gave him another quick kiss. “Come on. The sooner we go back in there, the sooner you all can sing ‘Happy Birthday’ to me, and the sooner that’s done, then the sooner we can leave. And if you play your cards right, Eddie, you might get lucky and see this hoodie on the floor of your van anyway.” 

“So, the line worked?” He smirked. 

“Come on, Zack is hiding a box of cupcakes.” you laced your fingers with his. “Dessert first and then second dessert.”

“And then elevensies dessert?” Eddie teased. 

“It’s my birthday and I will change my mind, I swear.” you cackled, walking back into the diner with him. 

And because he knew your laugh so well, he had a very good feeling about how he’d help celebrate your birthday when the two of you would finally be alone. 

Thank you @hellfiredarling for the hoodie! They made it for me for my birthday last year 💜

Divider by @strangergraphics

[eeriepromis]

LADS | SURVEY SUGGESTIONS

Feel free to pick and choose from these suggestions and copy & paste them into your in-game surveys. These are ideas a few girlies and I gathered, and I've restructured and condensed them into categories.

✦ GENERAL GAMEPLAY & EVENTS

Please increase permanent mini-game options to diversify gameplay beyond Kitty Cards and Claw Machine. A “My Room” or “Co-op Mode” (for mini-games or Orbit battles) would be amazing.

Add more long-term goals to Abyssal Chaos. Reset the reward track monthly so rewards can be re-earned. This would make it a consistent and reliable resource instead of a dead-end system.

Banner durations are too short. 7–10 days is not enough time to plan pulls or save. Please extend banners to 2–3 weeks like other gacha games.

Stop oversaturating multi-banners. Too many banners per month is overwhelming and discouraging for both F2P and spenders.

✦ RESOURCES & BALANCING

Add more consistent ways to earn diamonds, especially for endgame players. Increase rewards for Orbits, Abyssal Chaos, Bounty Hunts, and 5★ Memory upgrades. Plus better rewards for higher Orbit levels.

Improve drop rates for plushies (especially shiny & wanderer) and Bottle of Wishes/Crystals from Stage 9 Bounty Hunts. SSR bottles should also be obtainable on the last stage.

Allow trading in duplicate plushies (e.g. with friends) or refreshing plushie placement in Claw Machine.

Add pity system to Galaxy Explorer. The randomness makes ranking up 4★ cards frustrating.

Add more affinity-based rewards (Heartfelt Gift frequency, better poses for Rafayel and Sylus).

A way to initiate calls and video calls with the male leads.

Make Illusio permanent/bring it back with the ability to change MC's outfit too.

✦ CHARACTER & STORY CONTENT

Please give Sylus and Caleb more content to match the card counts, anecdotes, and bonds of Zayne/Xavier/Rafayel.

Release main story updates more regularly and provide a roadmap of upcoming content.

Let us decorate and use our own home as a meeting place with LIs, instead of being limited to the café.

Let us choose backgrounds like LI’s homes in the Café based on affinity.

Please include more voiced lines for the female lead. We would love to hear her voice more frequently, especially in 5-star memories and events. Also, please give us the option to mute her voice if desired.

Add bond scene choices (accept/decline date offers from LIs) and more romantic poses for underrepresented LIs.

✦ CUSTOMIZATION & UI QUALITY OF LIFE

Allow MC’s custom avatar to appear in battle, story, and mini-games. Currently the black-haired default breaks immersion.

Include a feature to turn back time inside a memory scene.

Add more customization options: curly hair, more skin tones, eye/hair color wheel, voice toggle in cutscenes.

Add wardrobe lock for outfits and accessories.

Include more outfits and poses in the chocolate shop (especially past banner content).

Increase the MC’s memory/photo showcase limit on profile beyond 6.

✦ TECHNICAL IMPROVEMENTS & ACCESSIBILITY

Game storage size is getting too large. Please optimize file size and fix long loading times and lag since 3.0.

Please address bugs more consistently. Many issues are reported after major updates and go unacknowledged.

Increase daily stamina cap (standard + Aurum Pass), or allow catch-up collection for missed Aurum rewards.

Make missed event shop items (e.g., BGM, stickers) available during reruns for newer players. Bring back the special store events that accompanied previous reruns.

Add landscape mode during kindles.

Make the pause button and photo button available in the Spring Banner memories especially. MC’s phone overlay is blocking them.

Allow claiming past daily stamina / Aurum rewards retroactively.

Adjust the lighting in animated scenes to properly represent Black characters and people of color.

Utilize crit rate for probability of DMG than RNG. (e.g. 100% crit rate should crit all the time)

We want to be able to see our MC's face clearly

PC Version of the game, because it will just keep growing and take more storage space. (Include better graphics and landscape mode for PC)

Controller Support

Settings for reducing motion sickness

Communicate how much GB free space a new update is going to require.

✦ COMMUNITY & ENGAGEMENT

Add a Golden Saucer-style area (Final Fantasy) where we can enjoy fun, live events and minigame challenges with other players.

Introduce a pseudo-open world area with major key locations where players can run around as their MC, meet LIs or friends, and play mini-games together.

Start regular Q&A or dev notes to engage with player feedback more transparently.

Let us gift premium items (Aurum Pass, Heartfelt Promise) to friends.

Add options for player-to-player interaction: co-op mini-games, voice chat links, or room visits.

The pity seems to get harder, increase the probability of soft pity.

[delta-drawsarts]

(To Save a Sister)

I don't really understand Vengeance Clover's deal, why do they still exist? Why are they separated and in Clover's subconscious? What happened with them? Did they go to hell? Why did they keep their powers?

(This isn't meant to be offensive, i'm geniunely confused)

SO, Vengeance Clover...

I wanted the idea that even though they RESET after freeing the Human Souls and leaving the Underground, there's still a tiny bit of them left. Granted they don't exist anymore, but it's like how Flowey remembers RESETS.

If you remember from Sibling Acquired, Clover keeps having the same nightmare whenever they fall asleep. This is them seeing the Vengeance Route (Previous timeline) sort of like watching it as it plays like a movie. Now, before current Clover met Kanako, her face was blurred out in the nightmares, along with other characters Clover had yet to meet.

This still takes place on the same day, so Clover jumped down in the Underground the same day they meet Kanako. In the fic, it's currently day two!

Getting back to Vengeance Clover, they still reside within Clover's Soul, but do not have any control. They are more so an observer. The reason they were able to talk with Clover here is because Flowey didn't immediately LOAD.

It's a whole thing I'll get to eventually.

[stoic--rose]

final fantasy II progress update #6

UUUUUUUUUUGHHHHHH. DUDE. HOLY SHIT. HOW DID THEY LET THAT DUNGEON GET MADE. FUUUUCK THE DREADNOUGHT MAN

ok now that thats out of my system, let me explain! everything inflicts every status on your entire party all the time, the ghouls that inflict blindness especially had me wanting to tear my eyes out, because i would heal everybody, and then the very next encounter they'd hit me with it again. same goes for the werepanthers and their dumbass normal attack that poisons. that shit SUCKS. and the werepanthers ALSO have a FUCK ton of hp!! not to mention, the dungeon is really far away from any town, so you gotta COMMIT to the dreadnought lifestyle. you cant just go back to heal and get more items. also, that one chest that has the Hill Gigas in it, i seriously dont know how youre supposed to beat that thing. i know all of the chests are missable in the dreadnought, but i didnt even bother to get that one.

i probably would have gotten this dungeon done this morning, but there was one thing that really got to me and i had to put it down for a while. i got to the engine room, was ready to blow the place to smithereens, and then Firion says that no, we have to save princess hilda first!! dude, i didnt even know she was HERE. i was already super beat up by the time i reached the engine room, so i just reset back to my previous save at that point. did i mention there's no load feature when you're ingame, so to reload a save you have to either die or exit to the psp xmb, then reopen the game? that's kinda dumb. i know that's a problem EXCLUSIVE to this version, but it still kinda pissed me off. hey by the way, once you save princess hilda, you literally cannot leave the dungeon. so that's fuckingggggg. Fun.

ok ill give the dreadnought some credit, i REALLY love how it looks. there's a yume 2kki area that's also called the dreadnought, and in hindsight its probably based off of this exact location. besides that though, i have nothing kind to say about this area. fuck this dumbass warship, i really hope there arent any dungeons as bad or worse than this later!! or else i Will cry!! (also i feel like this is the kind of area that only i have an issue with, i have no evidence to back this up but i just get the feeling that this area isn't that bad usually and i just dont know some trick or i just Fucking Suck at hte videogame)

[aquatark]

My previous post made me realize that not a lot of people here are aware of Endless Ocean's bowmouth guitarfish glitch fiasco, which I think is a shame because 1) it's an interesting look into this game's history, and 2) I find it really funny... long-winded explanation incoming!

So! you see this guy?

You can place him in the game's aquarium, right? I bet if you've played the game, you've done it without even thinking twice!

...Well, in the initial Japanese release of Endless Ocean (known over there as Forever Blue), you couldn't. In fact, attempting to place this little scrimbly in the aquarium crashes your game.

Now this isn't too bad, since you can just press the reset button and continue your game normally, right? well... if you happen to leave the aquarium and save the game after having opened the creature placing menu, selecting a bowmouth guitarfish, and then closing the menu without placing anything... then congrats! you can never use the aquarium again, because it autoplaces whatever you left in that menu on your next visit! :D

In case you're wondering what this looks like in action, this video taken around the game's launch showcases it well, while also using the game's MP3 playback feature to put some anime music in the background, which I think adds to the experience:

So... how does this happen? How could something like this make it into the final game?

Turns out, this is due to how Endless Ocean categorizes creatures internally. Each creature in the game falls into a category, depending on the movements and behaviors the developers wanted to give them. For example, "migrate" type creatures follow a set of coordinate points creating a route around a stage, whereas "swim" type creatures simply swim around the area in which they are placed within a certain radius. Think of a whale shark's movements versus that of a butterflyfish - they have very different AI telling them how to behave.

Now, trying to load a creature of one type as a creature of another... does not make the game happy, to put it lightly. It doesn't know how to handle the request, and so crashes to prevent further weirdness from ensuing. There is only one byte (literally the second smallest unit of digital information storage you could use) per creature responsible for telling the game what type to load the creature as, and this includes when placing creatures in the aquarium. A slip of the keyboard caused a dev to type the wrong number in this byte, making it attempt to spawn bowmouth guitarfish placed in the aquarium as "swim" type rather than their correct "migrate" type. Literally one wrong number caused the game to crash, and for ears to bleed across Japan.

Since the aquarium is unlocked so early in the game, people discovered this on day one, in their first play session... and since Endless Ocean was a launch game for the Wii in Japan, that's even worse. It's not exactly a great look for your brand new console to have a game break so bad you can't use a mechanic anymore. And Wii game crashes are not pretty. So, Nintendo put out a statement on the day of release, notifying people of the problem, how to avoid it, and saying that a recall would be put in place. A week later, they released another statement, which stated people could apply to have their games replaced with an updated version, which would be mailed to them free of charge, by either phoning in or filling out an application online. This service continued up until 2020, over ten years after release! They really didn't want any copies of the broken version around... good thing we have archives of it!

The updated version even has different box art, with an added blue bar at the bottom, showcased in this incredibly crunchy image:

I love picturing Nintendo executives freaking out after a humble diving game causes such a mess they have to print the game again, losing them a lot of money and causing the game to get a lot of negative press...

I've seen old forum threads talking about the game as if it's garbage before it even came out internationally, because this situation was pretty much the only major news coming out about it. Can't have helped sales, at least...

Anyway, the game was patched to fix this glitch, along with a few other minor tweaks, and it was this version of the game that got translated worldwide. Japanese fans love joking about the whole ordeal, and I can see why! For example, on the bowmouth guitarfish's Niconico Pedia page (for which the closest equivalent in English would be something like Know Your Meme), this is recounted comedically as "...probably the most notable moment for the bowmouth guitarfish in the history of the internet", which is probably true! There's even image macros about it!

So yeah. The bowmouth guitarfish's reputation was forever tainted, and some Nintendo execs to this day probably wince when they see one.

tl;dr - A developer for Endless Ocean typed one number wrong in the code, making the game explode if you place a bowmouth guitarfish in the aquarium. Nintendo had to recall the game, and that specific fish has lived on in infamy among Japanese fans ever since.

Next time you use the aquarium, try putting a bowmouth guitarfish in there, and be grateful you can at all!

[dreamstatesims]

how to reset residential rental lots and fix off-lot TOOL modifications

first and foremost, prepare your game. this is essential! move active households living in residential rentals to non-rental lots. save builds you have placed in tomarang to your library. edited tomarang residents you'd like to keep should also be saved to your library. you can replace these when we're done.

load into your active household's new lot and sell the residential rental property (or properties) using the business tab at the bottom right corner of the UI. repeat this step for every household that owns a residential rental property.

save as. i recommend creating a new save here (i labeled mine no rent) so you can keep your previous save intact if you need it later for whatever reason. exit the game.

in the EA app, disable the For Rent pack. select the sims 4 from your game library, click manage, then view properties. type into the advanced launch options -disablepacks:EP15 and hit save.

launch the game without EP15. you will be asked to select which save you want to load and receive a message saying you are missing a pack. load into your no rent save. the game will say you're missing data because you had a residential rental and by disabling the pack it has now reset those lots and removed bb/cas items you were using. from map view you'll see that now all previously residential rental lots have been changed to generic.

load each of those lots and switch them to residential manually to be on the safe side. you'll notice that all of the items placed off-lot using the TOOL mod have reappeared. save your game. if you're like me, you'll save as and label it accordingly in case you want to backtrack later.

you can continue playing this way without EP15 or exit. to enable For Rent, go back into your EA app game library, manage, view properties, delete -disablepacks:EP15 and save.

[riftfic]

14. Human

Who will save you now?

Warnings: strong language, referenced suicide, violence

Featured Characters: Sans, Chara/Frisk (Reader), Flowey/Asriel, Wingdings Gaster, Asgore Dreemurr

Note: If you haven't read the previous chapters recently (maybe even if you have outside the past few days), I recommend giving it another read. It's definitely not a requirement, but I added some extra details throughout the story and a few more scenes, most notably in Chapters 3 & 9, that should help the ending feel even more satisfying.

Several years later . . . here's the next chapter.

< Load | RESET | Continue >

From a single strip at the Underground’s heart, Waterfall tunneled away into a boneyard mess of caves. In one direction, the passage to Hotland sprawled in mushroom-light mazes and a boulder choke disguising Tem Village. In the other, a quiet bubble harbored a simple mouse, neck deep in plans to retrieve a wedge of crystallized cheese. Between them, from a silver door that had only been there sometimes, Sans stepped out into a flood of bioluminescence.

Though a door latched shut behind him, dark, damp stone replaced the surface he reclined against now. Its cold, unyielding texture met his fingertips, a reminder that there would be no second visit. 

He clutched the spindly metal bars of that unnaturally gray birdcage. He tucked his chin over the iron rung at its peak, hardly dousing the light of the small monster soul trapped inside. 

The task set before him was unconscionable. Even if he managed to survive . . .

“i can’t do that,” he had resisted. “i can’t kill Frisk!”

“They shouldn’t even be alive,” said Wingdings.

The words took Sans by surprise. He set his heels despite the encroaching void and a minute hand nearing his final stroke of midnight.

“oh, but ya want me to take this soul all the way back to asriel, huh?” he said. “make sure he survives? double standard, if y’ask me.”

"I didn't say it was fair,” Wingdings hardly breathed. His eyes gained urgency. “The human . . . might survive, if they're determined enough. But after you pull the lever . . .”

At that, Sans’ anger siphoned away, leaving behind a fear much broader than the fate of one human child. Their mistake had set so many events into motion. Lives had been built and destroyed, paths forged and buried. The machine could rewrite the course of everything as easily as it could leave the butterfly effect intact. They could remain here in the present or be sucked back to the day it all began. With a phenomenon this unpredictable, just about anything could happen . . . but whatever world they left behind, at least it might survive.

“if i do use their soul to run the machine,” Sans said more calmly, “what’ll happen to asriel, then? to me? to the underground? heck, what’ll happen to you?”

It was clear to Sans by the frown on Wingdings’ face that his brother had already considered this question. Despite his ingenuity, the once royal scientist only shook his head. 

“I don’t know,” he said, “but I do know what’ll happen if you don’t.”

In the present, Sans beat his fist against the rock behind him. Why did it have to be so fucking twisted? Why his Frisk? And why did he have to be the one to do it? Maybe it didn’t have to work out like this. Maybe there was more time than Dings thought. Maybe he could find another way. 

His phone buzzed rhythmically at his waist. He pulled it from his coat pocket and looked at the screen. The image of Papyrus illuminated those shadowy cavern walls below several missed call notifications. Sans took a deep, shaking breath, then another, and answered.

“pup . . .”

“SANS!” Papyrus shouted. “I’VE BEEN TRYING TO REACH YOU FOR HOURS!”

“oh.”

“I’M NEARLY TO NEW HOME. A FRIEND HAS INFORMED ME THAT THE HUMAN IS IN TERRIBLE, TERRIBLE DANGER! IS THAT TRUE?!”

Sans nearly broke down then and there. Though seeing Wingdings again had restored many of the deeper cracks in his soul, it still felt fragile, even more when considering the path ahead of him. 

“more than true,” he whispered.

A patch of silence followed. Sans dropped his cheek to rest on birdcage bars. 

“tell me it’s gonna be all right,” he murmured into the receiver.

“Sans . . . where are you?” Papyrus asked, more gently than was typical. 

“just tell me, please.”

“It’s . . .” Papyrus sighed. “It is going to be all right. Now, WHERE ARE YOU?”

Hearing the words in his brother’s voice quelled Sans’ fear, enough to return strength to his limbs. He lingered on the phone a moment longer, as if the connection truly placed him at Papyrus’ side.

“meet you there,” he said.

You followed in Asgore’s shadow, watching the folds of his cape sway and collide like cattails in the wind. His silhouette consumed yours. He could hold all of you in one hand, let alone the tiny red soul he sought to claim.

Past the end of that long hallway mirror of the Ruins, the barrier undulated with powerful magic. Its waves of golden white licked the crackled stone as if in search of escapees. It contoured Asgore’s silhouette in a crisp white line as he turned to face you. 

That all-too-familiar smile prickled the fur along his muzzle. Looking up into his apologetic eyes, you remembered his hands on your shoulders, his all-encompassing embrace that threatened to lose you in his fur. The macaroni pictures, the crayon drawings, the sweaters . . . the buttercup pie. You shuddered. 

“Human,” said the king of all monsters. His powerful voice trembled, and the earth trembled with it. “It was nice meeting you. . . . Goodbye.” 

He held his trident firmly in both hands and lowered his head . . . but a stoplight glow kept his chin from falling too far. There you stood, hands outstretched, red soul hovering above your palms. 

“I’m the last one,” you said.

Asgore stared at the heart-shaped spirit as if entranced. Its warmth illuminated your fingers with ruby firelight. It was in the crimson glint of your eyes, however, that he became lost, captured in the clutch of a ghost from years long gone.

“Do I . . . know you?” he asked, bewildered both by the situation and the question itself. 

“Please, take it,” you said. Tears fell down your face. “It’s no good for anything else.”

Asgore’s eyes widened with recognition. “Chara . . . ?”

Intense heat flared in the hallway behind you. Before Asgore could say anything more, a brilliant ball of flame had launched him into the cavern wall. Flecks of gray stone spat out among a field of clouds. 

You swung to face the spellcaster. Toriel stood framed in the doorway, her face scrunched in a scowl like a snarling lion. One smoking arm remained outstretched, clenched in a fist. 

“What a miserable creature,” she growled, “torturing such a poor, innocent youth.”

You hadn’t known what path the timeline had taken or whether your friends would convene . . . yet Toriel had arrived, exactly the same as before. Though you may have jokingly called her “mom,” the name now rang through your head with the purity of a windchime in the breeze. 

Undyne, Alphys, and Papyrus appeared after her, along with a swath of others you had met along the way. You wanted to tell them to turn back, that you did not deserve them, that if they had known the demon you truly were, they never would have wanted to be your friend. 

Your color drained. As they approached, a web of vines crawled after them along the dark ceiling and cavern floors. 

You ran to Asgore, who sat slumped amid rubble and a brand new hallway door in the shape of his back. He grumbled in discomfort. A layer of dust coated his royal robes and golden mane, which he shook like a dog. You slid to your knees beside him.

“Hurry, please!” you blubbered to the stunned monster king. You proffered your soul as if it were on fire. “There isn’t a lot of time . . . !”

Toriel snatched you back by the shoulders. 

“What has come over you, my child?” she demanded. “Do you not know what he means to do with it?” 

“Mom, I . . .” 

“Frisk.” Her eyes had begun scanning the room in fright. “Where is Sans?”

The path to the barrier gave Sans more difficulty than expected. The last time he had attempted these roads with fewer than two shortcuts, he had been a century younger and taking his time, mushroom hunting with young Papyrus. His limbs lagged behind his will. His breath rattled in his chest. Though his fingers slipped against that birdcage no one remembered, he refused to release its colorless patina bars. Everything depended on this.

He took what natural shortcuts he could—river ferries and elevators—but even then, the trip cost more time than he had bargained. At long last, he had reached the innards of Asgore’s home in the capital. He ran, huffing and puffing, down the golden tiles of the Last Hallway. 

Even as he sped past, his heart ached to remember your meeting here. The flare of sunlight on your head, the even brighter smile on your face, the secret passwords on your tongue. . . . The memory of that pure soul compared to the corrupted one he had read beside the rift overwhelmed him, and he paused. He touched a hand to the white pillar that once occluded him.

Who were you now? Frisk? Chara? Both? If Chara truly were your forgotten name, if everything he knew about the tragedy of Asgore’s children had happened to you, such terrible memories weighed down on your tiny shoulders. It did not surprise him, then, that your violence had escalated to remember those horrors. Ferocious thorns had been hiding in the soft petal corona of your soul, and neither of you had known it.

Clinging tightly to the forgotten prison in his hands, he buried his sentiments and tore through vine-swathed hallways into a dark passage. He skidded to a halt just past the silvery stone archway to the barrier, where his bones clattered with shock.

The cavern pulsed in radiant waves like the steady spin of a lighthouse beacon. Twisting, thorny roots filled the cavern like a briar patch, and their position changed with every flash of light. Among the vicious mess of chloroplast, monster figures had been tangled, their souls nearly devoured. 

The dimming pinpoints of Sans’ eyes could not peel away from your small form, crumpled on the floor before a yellow flower. Your red soul snapped among his vines, barely shimmering in a ruby remnant before splitting apart into nothing.

Sans could not stifle the horror that clawed its way out his mouth. He nearly dropped the cage. 

Flowey turned to grin at him. “Trash day already?” he asked, spinning his head in a full circle. 

Sans shook. No. This couldn’t have happened. You couldn’t have fallen to that little heathen daisy so quickly. You couldn’t have lost your determination. If only he hadn’t lingered in the hallway. If only he had kept running . . . !

You blinked at the human soul still hovering in your outstretched hands. It glowed red, though not as brightly as it once did. Still alive. Still yours to give. Not torn to bits by a nihilistic plant.

Only moments ago, you had fallen to a flower, the same flower weaving his way into this chamber of darkness and light. Toriel’s hands rested heavily on your shoulders. Papyrus chattered away, as Asgore pleaded with Toriel to give him a second chance. While they were distracted, Flowey dug his way out of the earth, grinning deviously, ready to spring all over again.

Confusion waltzed with your mind, spinning you gently. You had experienced this rush backward a thousand times before. Just a short step in reverse to let you continue after falling or if you disliked the outcome . . . but you did not have the determination to do it now. You had intended to die. You had meant for one of two creatures to take your power and be done with it. 

It hadn’t been you. 

The world shifted. Time rushed away like the tide, back into the ocean depths. Darkness bled away into golden sunlit tiles and stained glass windows. Birds chirped among a distant rustle of leaves. The air danced with prisms for a fleeting moment before the world reappeared as it had only moments before.

Sans realized suddenly that he stood in the Last Hallway all over again. A glittering pocket of magic danced like a handheld star beside him, where he had touched the pillar and remembered you. It had not been there before.

Air filled his ribcage in jagged gasps. His soul burned as it usually did when you reset time, though somewhat gentler. His hands shook around the bars of that monochrome birdcage with fear, confusion, and exhilaration. 

He had just turned back time. He could feel it. And if that were the case . . .

He ran. He sprinted faster than ever to reach you, but you lay still on the floor again. Though uncertain how, and though it hurt him, he turned back the clock a second time. Then a third. Then a fourth. Every time, the flower tore apart your soul like a horror movie on repeat, until finally, Sans arrived one split second earlier. Your soul spun a circle above you as if hanging from a string, and a ring of white pellets had only begun readying itself to deliver the killing blow.

Before Sans knew what he was doing, he was charging Flowey through a rough shortcut, foot extended to drop-kick the weed down into his roots. That cursed dandelion’s shriek had never sounded so satisfying. Sans’ dragon skulls had already manifested over his shoulders, jaws aflame—but when they blasted blue-hot magic out their mouths, Flowey had already disappeared into the earth.

A whip of green struck the ground where Sans had stood. He skipped out of the way in the nick of time, then again, and again, and again. He punched his free hand to the ground, and a wave of long, white magic bones crashed down through the air like meteorites. They speared into the cave floor with enough force to run cracks through the ceiling. Clouds of rock sprinkled down onto his shoulders. Flowey’s grip on his friends and family slackened just an inch.

Flowey surfaced again, undamaged beyond a few frayed petals. 

Sans panted, his adrenaline quickly plunging. His bones began aching again, though his raging soul burned brightly through its seams. Sweat slipped down his skull into the neck of his shirt. He didn’t know if he could withstand this much longer. He did not know if his soul could survive another time jump.

“Ha,” chirped the little flower. “Looking pretty rough, there, old pal." His eyes glinted red within the skull-like hollows of his face. "Poor, flimsy little monster souls. Why bother trying? Even Chara was no match for me, and they were a million times stronger than you’ll ever be!”

Sans knew he was right. He did not have the full resilience of a purebred human. Even you had to try several times before making it past this bitter herb. Who in their right mind would bet on him: half blind, right arm nearly useless, only one HP? Just like every moment in his life, he would find a way to fuck this up. Just like every other time before, he would be useless to help. 

His hope dwindled down, as did the fire in his soul. He could not find the strength to evade the string of bullets shooting toward him, but they were serendipitously blocked by a fence of small white bones.

“DON’T LISTEN TO HIM, SANS!” said Papyrus through clenched teeth. “YOU. CAN. WIN!”

“We are here to help you,” said Toriel. “No matter what happens.”

“Statistically it’s impossible,” said Alphys, “b-but you’ve beaten the odds before! I know you can do it!”

“Fuck you, Sans,” said Undyne. 

Everyone looked at her. She shrugged.

“Sans,” said Asgore. “Listen to me.”

Sans clung to the bars of the birdcage more tightly, eyes glued to the smirking flower afar. 

“You are not just your father’s son,” said the king of the Underground. “You have more than magic running through your veins. Remember that . . . and stay determined!”

Sans’ white pupils snapped to Asgore’s blue and brown at once. The statement had struck him somewhere deep beyond the monster white shell of his soul, and still more words passed between them unspoken. Sans then dragged his gaze across all his friends, who looked back with steadfast confidence, even Undyne.

Flowey coiled down on himself, pretending to be scared. “Urgh, no!” he whimpered. “Unbelievable! This can’t be happening! I can’t possibly withstand all of you . . . you . . . !” His face contorted into his evilest grin. “Idiots.”

His vines snapped taut around every monster, and yet another thorny coil snatched Sans from the ground as well. Through ropes of green and brown, Sans watched your red soul go down the flower’s throat, sealed behind hungry white fangs within a golden crown. Then, everything became lost in a flash of white. 

Clang.

Sans moaned. Between that blitz of light and now, he had dropped to his hands and knees. His palms felt scorched—and dreadfully empty. Ahead of him, the last withering wisp of gray silver bars dissipated into the air as if made of smoke. Seeing it clawed the magic away from his bones with every mounting breath. His eyes became hollow. 

The cage was gone—really, truly gone. Not even a step backward in time could bring it back, and with it, Asriel’s soul. Sans felt the world bottom out. Had he really failed, after everything?

A voice cackled overhead. “Finally,” it said. “I was so tired of being a flower.” 

Sans looked upward and blanched. Aside from a few drawings you had scribbled out as a child, he had never witnessed this ungodly creature of countless souls. Sans had only been consumed by him, a coal block among many to fuel his hate. Now, Asriel Dreemurr hovered overhead in all his glory, raging with deathly power in a kaleidoscope of energy. No wonder you had nightmares.

Past the wreckage of their earlier fight, your body still lay heaped on the floor among stone and dead vines, seemingly asleep. As Sans crawled close, tears threatened to form. 

He bit them back. No. He needed to hope. He needed to dream. He needed to be determined that he could call you out from the darkness, just as you had done for him a hundred times. It was his turn, now. Everyone would make it to the other side . . . including Asriel. 

“Huh?” Asriel grunted as he caught wind of Sans below. “What are you still doing here? I ate your soul, you dirty lawn bag!”

“grass not,” said Sans as he stood, dusting the dirt from his jacket with his left hand.

“Ugh.” Asriel pinched his muzzle exasperatedly. “So annoying. How many times have you died now? Thirty-five? Thirty-six?” He thrust a rocket’s flare at Sans with a wicked smile. “Thirty-seven?!”

Sans gathered your body into his arms and stepped into a last-minute shortcut, safely away from that raw magical surge. After hiding your figure inside an Asgore-shaped wall hole, he flitted through the blue light of a portal once again. He reappeared in the air, directly in Hyperdeath’s path, only inches from his head. 

“bone apétit, fucker,” he said and threw a handful of small bones at Asriel’s face. Though they caused no significant damage, they certainly got his attention.

Sans landed on all fours and scrambled. Bullets, fireballs, shooting stars, and lightning strikes raged after him. They left craters in the ground and drove deeper cracks into the ceiling overhead. Stalactites fell and shattered. Sans dodged every one of them. His body thoughtlessly followed the part of him that knew how to survive but had no time to ask permission, so begged forgiveness instead. 

As Asriel Dreemurr took a moment to lift his hands, Sans struggled to catch his breath. His hood smelled of smoldering keratin. Holes had been burned through his sleeves. His body felt slick and ashen against his jacket’s cotton interior. The bones he had tossed like a scoop of dog biscuits into Asriel’s face had been the last magic he could muster. Whatever great power the prince of the Underground gathered now, Sans doubted he could survive it.

The world darkened. Sans could no longer see Asriel or the barrier, not even his hands if he raised them. Everything had become silent except the paddle of his own breath. 

A skull three times his size suddenly materialized from the shadow. In appearance, it reminded him of those he and his siblings had mastered, though its horns and features mirrored Asriel instead. It laughed in his face—a grim, bone-chilling sound like grating rocks—but Sans stood firm. Brilliant red rage and determination surfaced among the cracks of his soul. How dare Asriel steal from Papyrus? How dare he turn Sans’ own family magic against him?

Waves of light drew into the open bowels of its snakelike gullet. Debris ran past his ankles, recalling images of a lab in shambles, a brother consumed by a beast of timeless indifference. He braced himself, ready to dive into the darkness as he did then and save the ones that mattered most.

A flash of brightness burst over him once more. This time, it ripped the soul from inside him and shattered it into pieces.

His mind floated through an abyss, bursting with the fireworks of everything at stake. He thought of Papyrus, never seeing sunrise; Toriel, never knowing the love of a new family; Alphys, never seeing the true greatness inside herself; Undyne, never free to explore the world; Asgore, failing his people. He thought of you, swallowed in the belly of the very thing you had sought to save. He thought of the entire world, destroyed by the god of hyperdeath, eaten alive by a hungry rift in time. The pieces of his soul quivered in a glow of crimson, ready to disperse. 

*But it refused.

The shards sewed back together. A burst of bright red coursed through him like a new flame that had waited a lifetime to be struck. He had to live. He needed to live. He wanted to live! The darkness faded away, and soon the pulsing light of the barrier greeted his eyes once again.

He gaped at his shaking hands, eye sockets wide with confusion and amazement and, more than anything, determination. His soul felt aflame with a ruby-red blaze that forged the bleeding cracks of every pain, every hardship, and every sorrow into an armor stronger than the thickest alloy.

Asriel’s final form hovered ahead of him. Giant wings had sprouted from his back, flaring with blues, reds, greens, and purples. His teeth bared in needle points to rival Undyne’s, seething with fury and frustration. 

“YOU . . . GARBAGE BIN SKELETAL FREAK!” he screamed. “WHY? WHY CAN’T YOU DIE?!”

Sans realized very suddenly he couldn’t move. Asriel’s true power had run rampant through the air, cocooning him in a chrysalis of magic he could not escape. He struggled with no result. With no way to resist, Asriel’s attacks barreled into him again, and again, and again. Every time his brightly burning soul rebuilt itself, a little was lost along the way. 

“I can feel it,” Asriel growled with relish. “Every time you die, your grip on this world slips away. Every time you die, your friends forget you a little more. Your life will end here, in a world where no one remembers you.”

Sans thought of Windings, lost in a hell of the same description. He recalled how determined his brother had been to hold that same world together in one piece, forgotten or not. Sans could not fail him again, not here, not now, not after how hard Dings had tried, not when all his hopes were so invested in his success. His brother’s words rang through Sans' head, the last he would speak before the ghost of a gray door had separated them.

“I want you to know,” Wingdings had said, “I believe in you more than I believe in anyone else.”

“heh, yer jus’ tuggin’ my tibia . . .”

“For Tesla’s sake, Sans,” Dings snipped. “Can you just, for a second, let me spoon-feed your imperceptibly minuscule single-cell petri dish of a trait you call your self-esteem?” He took a deep breath and steadied. “I know it might seem like you’re my only option,” he said, “but you’re the best option I could have ever hoped for. My big brother. The one who sticks it out through thick and thin. The one I could always rely on to come through for me. You can do this. You can save everyone. I know you can. So, please . . . 

“. . . don’t give up.”

Sans closed his eyes and reached his heart out to Asriel’s amalgamation of souls. His friends and family were there somewhere. He could save them. They believed in him. Dings believed in him. His determination to save everyone bled through the confines of Asriel’s magic, and deep inside that monstrosity, something began to stir.

Darkness closed in and images of his friends materialized, though their faces could not be seen behind swimming, fragmented blurs of pitch. Toriel, Papyrus, Asgore, Alphys, and Undyne stood like statues in a ring around him. Under their breaths, they mumbled their deepest wounds aloud: loss, rejection, loneliness, guilt, and captivity. 

Sans stared up at his little brother’s towering silhouette, shaken to see him so reduced. 

“hey, puppy . . .” he began. He inched nearer. “‘member me?”

Papyrus did not acknowledge him beyond summoning a few bones, which promptly flew in his direction. They were nothing compared to what Asriel had been punting his way. Sans stood perfectly still to allow a large blue femur to pass harmlessly through his forehead, then teleported behind him. He wrapped his arms around his waist until his face lay cradled in the lower curve of his spine, as if it were fashioned to hold his head.

“is that any way to treat your big bro?” he asked quietly. He searched his head for his worst possible joke and turned to the remaining souls. “uh . . . w-whatcha all starin’ at?”  He whipped out a finger gun as nonchalantly as possible. “never metacarpal of skeletons before?”

A long, silent moment passed. Then, Papyrus groaned. So did Undyne. Toriel giggled alongside Alphys with a snort. Asgore only sighed. 

Sans beamed, then dodged what he saw as a well-deserved barrage of attacks from all five of his monster friends.

“hey, undies,” he said to Undyne past the quick flash of a blue spear. “i liked the tuna your piano. think you can teach me some scales?”

A similar response. Another wave of dangerous magic. 

“knock, knock,” Sans said to Toriel. A hand of fire tried and failed to snatch him off the ground. He brushed off the heat. “i’ll take that as a ‘who’s there’. it’s yer local sentry, sans gaster!”

Toriel mumbled incoherently, but her last words sounded clear: “. . . Sans Gaster who?”

“yeesh,” Sans said, tugging at the neck of his shirt. “and i thought we were friends!”

Toriel laughed, then, revealing her face in a glorious burst of joy. Papyrus groaned more loudly than ever into existence. 

“THAT’S ENOUGH BOONDOGGLING, SANS!” he shouted.

“i think you mean bone-doggling.”

“I DO NOT!” Papyrus stomped his foot.

With that, the rest of his friends returned to themselves, holding their stomachs or their heads in laughter. Sans wiped a joyful tear from his eye. By then, Papyrus had swept him off his feet into the tightest hug he could muster, which might have broken a rib were they more than specters. The remaining crew piled in: Toriel, Alphys, Asgore, even Undyne. In that one gesture, Sans’ soul swelled with hopes and dreams and burned brighter than ever.

“You’re d-d-doing great!”

“We’ve got your back, punk.”

“We believe in you.”

“heh . . . i’m rootin’ for me too, i guess,” Sans agreed bashfully.

“THAT’S THE SPIRIT,” Papyrus said, then lifted his eyes over Sans’ shoulder. “ONLY ONE MORE TO GO.”

As he said it, their images dissipated. Sans turned to follow Papyrus’ gaze. Another figure stepped from the shadow, eyes burning red through a shifting black cloud. A blood-red knife glinted in your hand. Your ruby soul quivered in the pit of your chest, a beacon through the dark. 

“kiddo,” Sans breathed.

You shambled forward and blindly slashed for his neck. He side-stepped the sloppy cut. Your blade lodged into the unseen ground, so deeply it took a few tries to pry it out. Like a marionette, you lolled about to face him.

“It’s all my fault,” you murmured. “All my fault.”

“that ain’t true,” said Sans. He grimaced and ducked another swing. “you’re a good kid. you’ve always been a good kid.”

“I'm sorry,” you mumbled.

“why?” he asked. “you saved us. you saved me. you gave up your resets for it!”

Your razor-edged swipes and stabs began to falter. “My fault . . .”

“the only thing you’re at fault for is trying too bleedin’ hard.”

Though shaking, you continued to jab and swing your dagger with reckless abandon, and he continued to evade its path with infuriating precision. Whipping air and shuffling feet echoed through the dark as if you fought in an empty chapel.

“c’mon, bud!” Sans panted. Sweat had begun to gather on his forehead. “it’s me, sans!”

“Sans?” you replied in a fog. “Sans is dead. I killed him. It’s my fault.”

“i’m not dead. i’m right here.” 

He came close, a breath away. Your knife grazed his cheekbone, revealing a stripe of red that trickled down into his shirt collar. As your arm passed his shoulder, he caught you around the chest and held on tight. He buried his face into your neck. 

“i’m right here.”

At this, you froze. You held your knife shakily over his head, prepared to strike down into his back—but you didn’t. Though the black, jagged strokes of paint shifting about your head did not cease, the red of your eyes had dimmed. 

“frisk. chara.” 

He cradled your hiding face between his hands and looked into your eyes a long, long time. You could feel him reaching through your soul, judging you, reading you from cover to cover like an unlocked diary.

“it’s not your fault.”

As the words sank in, tears sprinkled down from that stormcloud between you, raining over your shoes and his. That dreadful, bloody knife clattered to the ground, and soon you followed. You sat seiza at his feet and clung to his coat, your face no longer shrouded. You sobbed into his t-shirt, broken, yet overjoyed to see him alive. 

He hesitated, then slipped his fingers down into the deep brown thatches of your hair.

“You’re really here,” you said, looking up into his face. 

Sans crouched down to your level and shrugged. “think so.”

“Am I dead?”

“uh.” He scratched the back of his skull and winced. “ya ain’t in yer body, that much is for sure. hopin’ you might join me on the way back, though . . . if you’d do me the honor.”

You hugged him again, even more tightly than before. Conflicted by memories old and new, shame hooked onto your soul with claws sharper than the dagger at his feet. His hand in your hair was all that kept you solid.

“I’m sorry.” Your tears fell faster as you considered the road leading you here. “I made you fall into the rift . . .”

“that one’s on me,” Sans said. “i knew what i might find down there.”

Your face sombered. “Did you find . . . him?”

Newfound brightness ignited his eyesockets. “he’s . . . alive,” he said quietly. He could scarcely believe the words. “trapped between time and space. it’s just like i thought.”

You were never more relieved to be proven wrong. Still, questions encircled your head like stars. Where was his brother, now? If Sans had gone to that place, how had he returned? How had he survived the rift, and Flowey no less? Was he the one turning back the clock? That should have been impossible. 

As you extended a hand to smear the streak of red you had carved into his face, a terrifying thought occurred to you. 

“Determination,” you breathed. “Sans, you didn’t—!”

“no,” he said.

“Monsters don’t bleed,” you said firmly in an attempt to call out his bullshit.

“not full-blooded monsters, no,” he agreed.

Several moments passed in which you digested these words, and what they implied. 

His smile slowly fell into a grimace, a mix of regret and weary sadness. He sat down in the darkness across you. Here, the two of you were truly alone. He breathed in, breathed out. 

“skeletons are kinda hard to come by,” he began hesitantly, “if ya hadn’t noticed. we’re only born under certain circumstances . . . with . . . certain parents.”

He lifted his head to the darkness above as if he might see the sky. A piece of him drifted away into nostalgia on Noctis wings. Bittersweet was the only word you could surface for his expression now.

“hardly look nothing like dad,” he began with a half-hearted shrug. “he was like . . . a dragon made of blue stars, a constellation in a nebula. huge, bigger than asgore. gast clan always was, compared to the dreems. i see him in my magic, though, sometimes. his face in my blasters, even if just the skull.”

You couldn’t find words. Surely he didn’t mean what you thought.

“don’ hardly look like mom, neither,” he said with a partial smile, “but we got her bones. we got her structure. i got some of her determination.”

“You’re half human.”

“i’m all me, thanks,” Sans snipped. Talking about it seemed to crawl over his bones like a spider bake sale. 

“Why didn’t you tell me?” you asked, genuinely hurt.

He paused and picked at the healing cut on his cheek. He rubbed the red fluid pensively between his thumb and forefingers. “everyone down here knows what it means to be a skeleton,” he said quietly. “i thought you knew too, at first. we all did. a lot of folks thought it was why you shacked up with us instead of tori.”

Your shoulders relaxed.

“by the time i realized it . . . honestly, i didn’t know how to tell ya, kid. it's a sensitive subject.” He drew his coat around himself more tightly. “we’re the only ones left, y’know; me and puppy-dog. and dings. when the war started, humans went for families like ours first. papyrus was a bean, dings was just the right age for it to hit him later, and i . . . i remember everything, as always.” 

Your guilt ascended all over again. 

“we were just kids," he went on, "but nothin’ scared those purist humans more than a fuckin’ mule.”

“i’m sorry,” you said.

“don’t be,” he murmured. “not your fault.”

“But it is,” you insisted. Your tears began rising again. "I’m human. I’m responsible. After everything humans have done—after everything I’ve done—I don’t deserve any of you. I don’t deserve to be here. You shouldn’t have saved me . . .”

Sans gently wiped your face with his sleeve. “lemme finish, kid,” he said quietly. He heaved a long, drawn-out sigh, as if releasing a toxin trapped inside his ribcage. “i got a reason to hate humans, sure. they drove us down here. they blocked us in. hell, even monsters gave us a hard time for that half of us. papyrus was so bent on catching a human just to prove what side he was on. thought people might like him more.”

You felt sick.

“but,” Sans said, forcing you to meet his eyes, “my human parent sacrificed everything to save us. she stayed behind so we could get away. so many of us are alive because of her. you wanna tell me that was wrong? you wanna tell me she was responsible for everything that happened to us, just for being human?”

Your tears continued to fall. 

“you can’t help where ya came from,” said Sans, “but you can choose where ya go. and boy have you gone to some good places.” 

“Like the dump,” you quipped with a faint smile.

“heh, yeah,” he said. “like the dump.” He hung an arm over your shoulder. “so maybe you’ve made some big mistakes . . . but your heart was never in the wrong place. you want to make up for it. you want to be good. that’s what really matters, right?”

You sniffled and nodded. You had said the same to Alphys. Were you really beneath your own advice?

He gathered you into his arms again. After a long time kneeling there, faces in shoulders, he helped you back to your feet. 

“gonna need you to step in from here on out,” said Sans. “the chances hyperdoofus listens to me are about a million to negative one.” He smirked. “think you can handle it?” 

You took his hand and squeezed. 

“Only if you stand there with me,” you said.

His heart swelled in his chest. “i can do that."

Holding onto one another tightly, you stepped out from the darkness into a rainbow of light.

Notes:

And thus we have arrived at my third and final head-cannon: skeletons are what happen when a monster loves a human. I think my nervousness about dropping that bomb contributed to the delay in a latent sense, haha. Sorry for that again.

The idea of skeleton monsters always puzzled me, because in most folklore and fantasy contexts they have a direct tie to humans. Undead, more specifically. But in the context of the Undertale universe, undead didn't sit right with me. Skeleton monsters that conveniently mimic human anatomy didn't either. Then I had this thought. It explained several things for me: the blood from Sans' cut in the no mercy run, the reason he's so powerful, that "fourth wall" breaking tendency he and Papyrus both share... I massaged things some for the narrative here, but yeah.

I had been building to this a little bit as a possible reveal, then considered sidestepping it, but then as I really hammered out my ending it became an essential fact. I added more scenes and details in earlier chapters to get a little more traction on it, hence why I recommended rereading. :) Either way, I hope you find it at least interesting.

Thank you again to everyone who held on until now. Only three chapters left!

Next Up! Chapter 15: Determination.

< Load | RESET | Continue >

[cosmos-dot-semicolon]

I am very curious about how your wrong playstyle/different interpretation of Slay the Princess

TLDR: I played a significant chunk of the StP's individual routes before I discovered how to get its actual 'ending', because I was unaware you were supposed to save your progress between playthroughs! This has made me think a lot about how some of the game's parts don't quite fit together very neatly.

For context, I first experienced Slay the Princess via the demo (highly recommend: better for the dev than you pirating stuff, enjoying it, and then never paying them). This never goes beyond the start of the second chapter, and hence you have to return to the menu whenever you 'finish' any route. And because they're short snippets of the full story, you don't need to save or load.

So I was under the impression this was how you were supposed to play the main game too. When I finished a route, I just quit to go to sleep. Sometimes I would play two routes consecutively, but I never saved. Whenever I encountered the character between worlds talking about how she would reassemble after you played enough routes, or the mirror sometimes changing, I would just go like 'huh. That's neat. It's taking a while for that to progress. Wonder what big surprise they have for us there?'

It took me nearly 3 weeks and partially spoiling the game for myself for me to realise that there was not in fact a master plan the devs had, and that I was just completely oblivious to genre conventions. The question you could ask among the lines of 'why can't I go back and replay the same route' tipped me off that I was doing something wrong. Because I had done that several times.

This has informed how I view the whole game, because when I finally got to the 'full' endings, I wasn't that impressed. Part of it was that I was expecting something cooler for all my time spent in the game, which I understand isn't completely fair on the creators. But what is more fair is how it's made me notice that the 'overarching' narrative threads of StP are the weakest parts of the game. At least next to the actual 'in-between' stories.

StP's overarching story has a philosophical question of whether you should stop things from changing to save the world, but its individual plotlines are far more personal than that. In the cabin in the woods, you can get your psyche and will shattered by a creature out of a horror movie, join consciousnesses with your partner only to be torn apart by your previous memories of your conflicts, and be paralysed and dying slowly alongside someone you backstabbed and despise. But because the sheer combinatorial complexity of everything you can do in this game, you never really delve into the connections between those choices, and what it might say about your thoughts on the larger question at hand.

My most recent experience with this was a playthrough containing Happily Ever After, which still let me pick the ending where you reset everything to how it was in the past. It would've been interesting to see how the game responded to someone who decided to free the princess after torturing her with the same domestic life over and over and over again, but ultimately decided reset the game and make her forget everything just to replay it. How would that change if she had done the same to me as the Moment of Clarity? But because the only run the ending has comments on is your first, all I got for that was a comment that the Princess tried to kill me the first time I met her that game.

Honestly, that ending was still pretty impactful, just because it managed to make me think about whether I should've tried to back out there given my past run. But I don't think that was intentional at all, and most other playthroughs I've done don't have an ending nearly that thematically coherent. You can pretty much choose any ending you want regardless of how you've played.

The whole sequence with each individual Princess coming back to meet you during the finale is also emblematic of this -- you just kinda shoot through one after another of their questions with a single word reply. They're secondary to the spectacle of the Construct breaking and the Shifting Mound arising.

And even if you like the Shifting Mound and the Narrator and the Voices, they're also still weakened by this. They're not allowed to have too much unique dialogue because any route they're on might be the first time you experience them, so they can get really repetitive even if you like them. The Shifting Mound has a lot to say, but she's very distant from what you've experienced in the world, and you never really get a look into how your full ascended partner has learnt about the world outside of the comments of the individual princesses. They literally mind-wipe the Narrator between each run (though I will give marks for the fact you can comment on him regretting his actions in Happily Ever After, whereupon he coldly disregards it!)

I don't know if I'd suggest they actually try change the game because of this. I ultimately still loved it. And it's gotten me to think this much.

Plus, it'd be a hell of a lot of programming and words to account for all the possibilities; there are people who enjoy the large-scale philosophising; and most of the game's moving parts are good individually. We need to have art projects in the world that aim big, but maybe don't hit every target (assuming they don't accidentally say something horrible in the process). It stirs up the imagination, and I think I empathise with people who try to see every part of their dream project through.

I suppose that I just think Slay the Princess would've had a bigger impact on me had they narrowed their focus down a little more, specifically onto the personal experiences you have with the Princess. It is a love story, after all.

[khunyuki]

This is NOT A Game!

🅟︎🅡︎🅞︎🅛︎🅞︎🅖︎🅤︎🅔︎: 🄳🄴🄰🅃🄷 🄸🅂 🄰🄻🅂🄾 🄰🄽 🄰🄲🄷🄸🄴🅅🄴🄼🄴🄽🅃

Synopsis: You bought that viral VR game that features your favorite anime, Kimetsu no Yaiba! (★＞U＜★) However, an error occured while you were playing which lead to you being stuck inside the game for reasons you don't know Σ(ﾟдﾟ；)ｴｯ What's worse is that the system takes great joy in killing you the whole time! ｡ﾟ( ﾟஇωஇﾟ)ﾟ｡

Pairing/s: Kimetsu no Yaiba x reader

Note/s: This was supposed to be for next week after finishing my other story but tumblr decided it wanted to post it now😭

Genre/s: Mystery, Thriller, Action, Tragedy, Game

Warning/s: Death, Blood

Masterlist:

MAIN QUEST#1: Find a shelter![URGENT]

Description: You are currently in the middle of a blizzard. In the freezing cold, please try to find a shelter as soon as possible!

Rewards: Shelter, Food, Medicine, 1000 coins! All stats increase by 10

Failure: Death

\(^_^)/ \(^_^)/ \(^_^)/ \(^_^)/ \(^_^)/ \(^_^)/

You were mindlessly walking forward, with nothing in sight but endless snow.

With every step, you could feel your soaked body getting colder and colder until you no longer have the ability to walk nor stand.

Lying on the snow with your consciousness starting to fade. The cold winter envelopes your body and soul, then you closed your eyes.

You have unlocked an achievement!

BAD ENDING#1: Frozen Meat

First Achievement Unlocked! Title Received!

< Poor Unfortunate Soul >

\(^_^)/ \(^_^)/ Ⓛ︎Ⓞ︎Ⓐ︎Ⓓ︎Ⓘ︎Ⓝ︎Ⓖ︎ \(^_^)/ \(^_^)/

You were loaded back to your previous save point, which is the place you initially gained awareness: in the middle of a fuckin' blizzard.

You have had no memories of your death as loading meant resetting even your memories.

You once again roamed with no destination, having a bad feeling in moving forward, you decided to go left.

Within your first few steps, an excruciating pain could be felt on your leg. Your flesh was pierced by multiple teeth searing inside, breaking even your bones. Your scream was drowned out by the strong winds, with no option to seek help. Your energy was drained as fast as your leg fell off.

Falling into the snow, you used the last bit of energy you have left and looked down to see a pool of red soaking the pure white and then disappearing. Gone like your remaining life.

BAD ENDING#2: Go Catch A Bear

\(^_^)/ \(^_^)/ Ⓛ︎Ⓞ︎Ⓐ︎Ⓓ︎Ⓘ︎Ⓝ︎Ⓖ︎ \(^_^)/ \(^_^)/

You walked to your right this time and was met with hungry, ravenous wolves.

You have unlocked an achievement!

BAD ENDING#3: The Wolves Are Hungry

\(^_^)/ \(^_^)/ Ⓛ︎Ⓞ︎Ⓐ︎Ⓓ︎Ⓘ︎Ⓝ︎Ⓖ︎ \(^_^)/ \(^_^)/

You walked south, as straight as possible, blindsighted. Your last step being the air, thus falling down the cliffside.

You have unlocked an achievement!

BAD ENDING#4: Humpty Dumpty Had A Great Fall

\(^_^)/ \(^_^)/ Ⓛ︎Ⓞ︎Ⓐ︎Ⓓ︎Ⓘ︎Ⓝ︎Ⓖ︎ \(^_^)/ \(^_^)/

You repeated your previous actions numerous times.

Straight, back, right, left, right, straight, left, back.

Over and over again.

You felt sick. You were standing at your save point, the place you found yourself in, an unfamiliar surrounding. You were supposed to move to survive with that quest hanging over your head.

But why is it that you couldn't make as to single step?

Your body shaking not from the cold but from fear of something else. There's that bugging feeling of something going terribly wrong once you move, it froze you on the spot.

Were you going to die here? In this place you know absolutely nothing about? You blame your legs for not moving at all, some useless body part it is.

You just stood there and waited. Waited. Waited for help you weren't sure would come.

"Somebody! Anybody! Please help me..."

You called out for the last time before your body and voice gave out. As you were laying down on the ground awaiting your impending doom, you could barely make out a silhouette forming.

Were your ears playing tricks on you or is that Gurenge playing in the background?

You don't know if you're hallucinating or anything. Maybe it's the one where you life flashes before you on the moment of your death? Was Gurenge the song you decided you'll play at your funeral? What a silly thought...

It was that stupid song, that stupid anime, that got you into this mess in the first place.

Still, you try to reach out with your last remaining strength.

\(^_^)/ \(^_^)/ Ⓢ︎Ⓐ︎Ⓥ︎Ⓘ︎Ⓝ︎Ⓖ︎ \(^_^)/ \(^_^)/

"Excuse me?! Miss! I'll save you so please don't give up just yet!"

% % Ⓞ︎Ⓥ︎Ⓔ︎Ⓡ︎Ⓦ︎Ⓡ︎Ⓘ︎Ⓣ︎Ⓘ︎Ⓝ︎Ⓖ︎ Ⓓ︎Ⓐ︎Ⓣ︎Ⓐ︎ % %

"Okaa-san! Nezuko! Help me! I found this person in the middle of the blizzard!"

\(^_^)/ % Ⓓ︎Ⓐ︎Ⓣ︎Ⓐ︎ Ⓢ︎Ⓐ︎Ⓥ︎Ⓔ︎Ⓓ︎ % \(^_^)/

MAIN QUEST#1 CLEARED!

Achievements Unlocked:

BAD ENDING#1: Frozen Meat - 500 coins

Poor Unfortunate Soul - Learn a new language

BAD ENDING#2: Go Catch A Bear - 500 coins

BAD ENDING#3: The Wolves Are Hungry - 500 coins

BAD ENDING#4: Humpty Dumpty Had A Great Fall - 500 coins

Total Rewards Received:

All stats increase by 10, Shelter, Food, Medicine, +3000 coins, ++Learn a new language

[sol-consort]

I AM BEGGING *PLEASE* CONSIDER SELF-AWARE GARRUS😭😭😭

Also, like—- can we talk abt the billion credit appearing out of thin air in the self-aware Shepard fic?? What next? Custom textures? Classes???? So. much. potential.

Okay my creativity is failing me. We don't play as him, so how would self-aware Garrus work? Do enlighten me anon, I'm actually very curious

tell you I had to dig through online searches to find the credit limit in ME2, apparently it's the same as ME1's 9,999,999 credits cap.

But there is one imperative little detail...

(skip if you don't want to get spoiled for the story's mysteries)

The player didn't save the game before exiting. Therefore, the whole events and conclusions of that chapter were rendered null. The next time the player opens the game, the day resets as they load a previous savefile.

Which is actually kinda good because Shepard spilling the beans to Miranda basically spelt doom for that route.

Since the player didn't do her loyalty quest just yet, the second Shepard left her office, Miranda was on a video call with the illusive man all like, "TOLD YOU we should've chipped their ass. Now someone else got to them first, " basically convincing him to put Shepard on a shorter leash and heavy medication.

So the only character to be affected by the chapter is the Player, and the irl reader, as a way to strengthen your connection with the Player character.

It's more of a window to an "what if" scenario rather an actual development in the plot. The end of the beginning.

Much like how the small mistake of opening a simple bag of wind swept Argo off its course just when the journey reached its end, when the ship was entering Ithaca's shores, Shepard was one revelation away from fully unmasking the "spirit's" identity as the player and making a very bold move to break the 4th wall to get the Player's attention.

But alas. You exited too soon, without saving.

And now we do the whole 20 years song and dance!

-

As for more mods being added:

Texture mods: possibly most apparent ones, a gaint glaring elephant in the room that defies reality. It will immediately alarm everyone on the ship.

As to why they don't normally get alarmed in the game, I think because they assume it was Shepard's decision/meddling? Like I've used ME retexture mods, and rarely are they extreme. Mostly, just adding new trinkets to Shepard's quarters or cleaning up the Normandy a bit, adjusting turian's faceplate textures, salarians eye textures, that sorta thing. Things if changed in real life, you wouldn't notice much or question.

Classes mods: Those are the most feasible and safest bets. Simply, the alliance came up with new manuals for certain military classes. Very easy to weave into the universe. Shepard already does the impossible, it's basically their brand, who will question them suddenly developing a new set of skills/training overnight if Shepard themselves didn't question it?

As for the romance flags in save editor, they plant false memories into the romanced character's head. The most malicious and ethically questionable. Holds the potential to paint the Player in a very sadistic and cruel image to the rest of the crew if they were ever self-aware. Or, even to a Shepard who's not in love with you.

[baenyth]

After too much stalling, I finally finished the other half of Miraculous Season 2. Here's my thoughts episode-by-episode:

Zombizou: The episode focused on Ms. Bustier. Honestly I get where she's coming from in that statement to Marinette. This is a world where people can become butt-ugly abominations because they felt upset, although I think Chloe still needs consequences for her actions as well as something like positive reinforcement. She had plenty consequences in season 1. Speaking of Chloe, That Asshole was wrong. There was clear intent for Chloedemption. Also could we at least have seen all that stuff Ms. Bustier does in previous episodes?

Syren: This was an episode the salters talked loads about, and honestly, I get where Adrien's coming from here. On a fundamental level the Ladybug and Black Cat miraculi aren't equals due to the Ladybug's magic reset button, but as one of the first Miraculous users, Adrien should've still been let in on the loop. Kid felt like he was useless, that Ladybug could save the day without his help. At the very least have Master Fu go one-on-one or have both kids show up while transformed or blindfolded. Also the water voices ticked me off, but that's relatively minor.

Frightningale: A fun character-of-the-week episode, especially since I'm fond of Clara Nightingale's constant rhymes and rhythm. She's dedicated to it and I love it. It's also good to see Chloe be an exceptional and talented dancer! It's good to see her having talents and interests that aren't just making people suffer!

Troublemaker: Another episode showing why I think Marinette and Adrien shouldn't date in any of their forms. I don't know enough about stalker shrines but I think Marinette's room is getting close enough to be one for Adrien. Though I'm pretty sure Adrien's seen worse or has been conditioned to not care, based on his reaction at the end. Still a shame that the local TV show had to live-film Marinette's room and beach her privacy in the local city-town of Paris while the real Paris has been converted to an amusement park for tourists. You got any other reasons why the population is so low? One more thing: I'm pretty sure the lack of ladybug-vision was more due to anxiety over losing one of her earrings and the difficulty of the villain more than anything else.

Anansi: I find the new heroes good, personally. They give more screentime to other characters. Also again with Adrien's insecurity about being useful. And I think this episode would've been over sooner if they noticed that Anansi was going to get herself akumatized over the stress and maybe just let her come or something. Or if they got Marinette to arm-wrestle her instead. Marinette has muscles, right?

Sandboy: A lore episode, mostly. The nightmares were funny for a second and I was a bit annoyed by the Akuma's voice, but that's small potatoes. I like how compared to season 1, where we would be given a bunch of development for Sandboy it's just explained to us afterwards while we instead get more time for lore.

Style Queen: Hawkmoth has a contender for the most evil character in the show. Audrey Bourgeois is the kind of person that would be made fun of in those Karen freakout videos. She cheats on her husband, neglects her daughter to the point of not remembering her name, fires people over the most minor inconveniences, and starts G-rated killing people over getting a seat in the second row. She needs to be cancelled, deplatformed, and Chloe needs a therapist and better role models. I really liked the split-second of Adrien looking shocked after Marinette told him he had the catwalk down, btw. Did he think his identity was outed there?

Queen Wasp: This is why teenagers shouldn't get superpowers. I get secondhand embarrassment watching them. Also Marinette What The Fuck why the Hell are you getting Chloe to bond with the Absolute Worst Person For Her

Maledictator: This is what happens when you make Chloe bond with a Chernobyl-level toxic influence, Marinette. In general this episode was funny, both intentionally and unintentionally. Everyone starts celebrating Chloe ditching Paris with her mother except Adrien because Chloe was her only friend even though she was a detriment to everyone else and suddenly Marinette feels bad because she worships Adrien. The first thing the villain of the week does is make Audrey stop being such a horrible person and later he made Chat Noir reach the limit of catboyness. It's like a Smiling Friends episode. Also it was cool to see Chloe's depths and self-loathing. Surely that won't be forgotten and Chloe will be given therapy so she can become a better person, right?

Reverser (Put here so it makes sense timeline-wise): It's Yaoi time. Except that Nathaniel is into Ladybug (who I assume he knows is Marinette) here and Marc is fine with that. Overall a good episode. Some nice humor, and Reverser's probably the best akuma design so far I love the paper stuff. Plus more info on the side characters and a spot of good humor, excellent!

Frozer: Ah, there's the Nathmarc. And explicit Julerose. And Marinette getting some idea that her fantasy of Adrien is unhealthy and shouldn't be followed. And Adrigami, albeit a bit one-sided. Quit pining over someone who doesn't love you and get with someone who does, kid. And a smidgeon of Marigami. And Adrien's bodyguard being his daddy in place of his father. And a pinch of me seeing what the salters were talking about with the girlsquad and them forcing Marinette and Adrien together. Or at least Alya and Mylene. I couldn't hear what Alix, Juleka, and Rose were saying, but they disagreed, right? At least one of them had to disagree, right?

Heroes' Day Two-Parter: Marinette you're being too hotheaded against Lila no you gotta be like Columbo. Also yet another Marinette Costanza moment. Otherwise not much to say here. It's the boss rush episode, it's the series finale, Alya managed to catch onto Nino being Carapace but still can't seem to connect the dots between Ladybug and Marinette, the Peacock Miraculous is introduced, and Natalie is on my suslist.

I might procrastinate again on the first half of season 3. The first episode deserves a post of it's own. It's the salt episode.

[cdlikesstories]

A very long UTDR Theory

I think I figured out something, or at least cleared out some subconsciously-aware-but-not-fully-established connections regarding UT&DR(, which I have a feeling some of the utdr community knows already and I'm figuring this out just now, but imma still post to clear my thoughts for a bit).

Remember how the Undertale official website says Deltarune is intended for ppl who's fully finished playing Undertale, and that Toby Fox made Undertale as an introduction game to Deltarune, and the 2 games can't be seen as mutually exclusive?

I feel like I understand these 2 statements a bit more now, what I think Toby is saying is that, 

The whole of Undertale is The TutorialTM for Deltarune.

There is another reason(besides color theory) why battle encounters are in black and white, Undertale itself is a relatively very black-and-white morals and rules kinda game.

Everything's very clean-cut, it's either right or wrong, righteous or evil, etc etc. just like what you would see in a children's book or a children's mindset.

But in Deltarune, there's no black&white battle encounters anymore, or at least not much of black and white places, because similar to a teen's mindset, it's more developed/enriched & grown up to be able to see the world in more different shades of colors, hence the colorful battle encounters.

You are also technically told you're given more freedom but reality tells you it's actually quite limited (examples: Jevil in a cage thinking he's free, Spamton bound to strings of someone else's control and getting even more trapped from resisting, Kris's whole soul-controlled-by-player situation, Susie denying the choice option twice), just the vibe one gets when exploring expanded range of choices, learning & dealing with its following consequences.

Think of Undertale as a children's story book, for children like Frisk's age, to understand basic concepts;

while Deltarune is kinda the early teen novels, for Kris's age, to understand more advanced concepts.

But then why is this important for what's happening in both games? Why does it matter?

Toby's using Undertale to teach us how to play Deltarune.

Remember how in all 3 types of routes, Flowey, Sans, & Chara(coincidentally red&yellow&blue colored) all have something important to say directly to the player, not Frisk?

 They are the 3 Messengers, or, the 3 Big Blaring, Warning Signs who carries the messages/warnings sent from Toby Fox to the Player.

And the most prominent message that all 3 convey is this: You are not above consequences in his games/fictional worlds. All actions have consequences, and you have been fairly warned, multiple times(e.g. Chara's whole appearance sequence in Geno route & the photo post-Geno Pacifist route,  Sans' judgments & phonecalls & diner meetings,  Flowey's tips about what could be done to achieve Pacifist route after Neutral runs & the talk about how Sans gave him a bad time for being cruel in previous resets not unlike a time police; in short, the signs were always there in all routes).

And the game Knows what you are in the dark.

There is also a slightly more specific message per each character: 

Flowey: You are given the freedom to make choices in this(my) world(especially the power to Save, Load, Reset &/ Maim), but beware, your actions will have consequences.

Sans: If you treat us(my characters&world) with respect, you'll have an enjoyable journey as a reward. (Also that he embodies the "Don't forget"&"I'm with you in the dark(to watch over&on you)" side of Toby & his games)

Chara: But be warned, you will be punished for unnecessary cruelty via crap gameplay experience. The Choice is yours. =)

(Granted, the 3 characters technically overlap in some of the messages but these are what is most linked themes/message to the respective characters)

 Going into Deltarune,  The game in general(or Toby, in a way), tells us "your choices doesn't matter."

This is where the "Undertale sets up the groundwork for Deltarune" part comes into play: (yes, it was also to introduce you to some of the characters first so Toby doesn't hafta info dump you on whomst-the-fuk all these characters are, but that wasn't the only reason for it)

The choice has always(mostly, actually) been yours.

Then, do those choices matter?

The answer is both Yes and No, depending on how you view the question, as it is vague in a way that it could be interpreted in more than 1 ways, which is where the thinking trap is.

If you interpret it as "our decisions & actions will not change the ending of the game", then Yes, I personally believe it doesn't change the ending.

BUT,  If you interpret it as "our decisions & actions won't affect Anything in game", then No, it does affect a lot of things(besides the final ending, is what I think). 

There is already a Pacifist vs Snowgrave route that can be caused by our choices, the game doesn't railways everyone who plays the game to go on the same route. There are even more examples, like how others respond to Kris's ooc-ing and out-of-norm actions, character relations, and so on, but I'll stop here for examples cuz it will go on and on, eitherway the point stands: 

The answer to "Does our choice matter?", in my opinion, is "No(it very likely doesn't change the final ending), but also Yes(choices affects certain parts of the game, e.g. routes, gameplay experience, etc.)"

The problem with the question the "choice doesn't matter"statement poses is that it is such a Yes and No question, that for people who have played or experienced Undertale, 

it is giving mixed signals and befuddling people, especially to the ones who aren't fully aware of the important theme(s) of the predecessor game(Undertale), or is unable to respond to the unspoken question in more than 1 perspective as seen above.

With so much seemingly conflicting and confusing information floating about, it is easy to forget that the core message, or rather the somewhat non-outright spoken rules Toby's wrtten into Undertale still applies in Deltarune,  which is likely why "Don't forget" is also such an important line that goes from Undertale all the way to Deltarune, cause Toby's reminding us to not forget about what was taught from Undertale about treating his games and beloved characters right and do the same in Deltarune. (He does seem to love his concepts aka the games he created a whole lot & put a lot of thought into it, even makes sure the players don't get away scoot-free if they intentionally harm his characters, it feels pretty much same with UU's mangaka who also loves their creations a whole lot, and doesn't let even angst for the plot progression to "harm" their characters with angst too much, done in a logical way no less)

"Don't forget, I'm with you in the dark" seem even more personal (and scary, if you weren't behaving in-game *wink*) if we see that as a message from Toby to the Players now, doesn't it? It's also seems kinda a test to see if the players have understood what was learnt in Undertale, & also be able to understand what it actually means in Deltarune. I guess UTDR has actually always been kinda like a mind game in a way.

Congrats for reaching the end of the post! Here, have a complementary meme template.

#me, @ UTDR players:

[faefarm]

Patch 1.4.0 - Patch Notes

Attention Fae Friends!

A new update has arrived! We want to make sure your experience in Azoria is as smooth as possible, so we’re sending out an update for all Fae Friends on Tuesday, October 17 at 10AM PST /  5 PM UTC. This is a hefty one, so please read more for full details on what you can expect from our newest patch. 

GAMEPLAY

Fixed issues that could cause you to spawn in a black void outside the map, or in a rock near the starter farm, when loading a save.

The game clock will now pause when using the storage shed or mailbox while in single player.

Fixed an issue where using keyboard shortcuts to open interface screens that should pause the game clock was not actually pausing.

Fixed an issue that could block holding to plant multiple items from working as intended.

Fixed an issue that could cause fertilizer to be applied immediately after planting seeds on wet soil.

Fixed the chance of generating a sapling using a Propagation Hive being much lower than intended.

Improved the behaviour of the Blamp waves in dungeons, to more gradually increase their presence as you go through floors, and to help with performance on lower-end devices.

Fixed an issue where Cannots could disappear when in combat near dungeon walls.

Fixed an issue causing some potion effects (such as Jar of Sadness or Jar of Bees) moving at unintended speeds depending on framerate.

Fixed an issue where opening the construction menu on your farm could result in the camera zooming to another farm location.

Slightly repositioned a signpost near the starter farm that could interfere with the placement of, and interaction with, items very close to it when using mouse on PC.

Honeycomb can now be found in the Prepared Ingredients section of the Almanac and Storage; it was previously missing a category.

PROGRESSION

Fixed an issue that could block quest progression if for any reason a required story cutscene did not play. Players who are in this state should now be able to progress.

Fixed an issue where you could back out of or cancel the dialogue after accepting a quest, resulting in it not actually being accepted.

Fixed an issue where delivering an item for a sprite quest could not count if you had a shipping contract that was also asking for the same item.

Fixed a rare issue where the order of your tools could get set incorrectly, blocking upgrading them.

Fixed an issue where festival quests could sometimes take more items than they requested, if you had them in your inventory.

Fixed an issue where clovers collected using the Vortex spell did not count towards the achievement.

Fixed an issue where Magic job quest 10 could not be progressed as a client in multiplayer.

Fixed an issue where accepting the quest Fae Farming Evolved did not grant you a Bounteous Fertilizer as intended.

XP earned from harvesting Sugar Cane will now go to Foraging, not Farming.

RELATIONSHIPS

Changed the behavior of relationship progress, based on player feedback:

Relationship points can still be earned by interacting with an NPC for the first time each day, by completing relationship quests, and by giving gifts, all at the same rate as before.

When you reach the points threshold for a date, you will still receive the mail inviting you on it, and you must read this mail in your mailbox in order to get the date option on the NPC.

You will no longer earn any relationship points from any source for this NPC, until you go on the date.

After the date, you can continue to progress again, up until the next date.

This will solve the case where players could get very high relationship progress with an NPC without ever going on a date.

For players who already have relationship progress, no progress is being reset or regressed with this change. However, if you already built a high relationship level with an NPC you had not dated, you may now get a number of date requests in a row.

A reminder that if (due to the previous behavior) you have a higher relationship level with an NPC than you would want, you can reset it in the Relationships screen.

Fixed an issue where an NPC could appear as your spouse without you marrying them. Following this update, only an NPC you have actually had a wedding with will show as your spouse.

Fixed an issue where quitting the game between paying for a wedding and it being held could result in the wedding not taking place and the relationship being stuck at “Fiancé”. Players who were in this stuck state will now correctly move on to the “Spouse” status with this NPC.

Added a fix-up to help with a situation where the day ending in multiplayer while in the wedding outfit selection screen could cause the wedding to not occur, and you to be stuck at “Fiancé”.

Players who were in this stuck state will now have their wedding automatically scheduled on the next available day, with the Fae outfit selected (although all three will be added to their inventory after the wedding).

Please note that the causing bug here can still occur (and will be fixed in a future update) but if you encounter it, leaving and reloading your save will now trigger the fix-up.

Fixed a crash that occurred if you reset your relationship with Pyria while in the Dating, Getting Serious, or Spouse statuses.

Fixed an issue where the view could be obscured if you initiated a date while sitting down.

Fixed an issue blocking clients in a multiplayer session from receiving date requests.

Fixed unintended symbols appearing in dialog when a wedding took place in a multiplayer session.

ANIMAL CARE

Fixed animals getting into a state where they no longer produced materials.

Fixed a number of issues that could result in breeding being canceled, and animals being returned to their coops.

Fixed an issue where sold animals could reappear in your barns after saving and loading the game.

Fixed an issue where animals from the first and second farms would appear at the most recently-placed Animal Lure, regardless of which farm it was placed at.

Removed the brush status icon from appearing in the ledger next to animals that cannot be brushed.

MULTIPLAYER

Fixed an issue that could occur where clients joining a multiplayer session did not correctly go through the join process, arriving as the default character (with no character creator) and missing key tools.

Alongside this fix, players who are detected to be in this bad state will be returned to the character creator to correctly set up their character as a new one - this will unfortunately result in lost progress for players who were able to continue despite missing key items, as we will reset their progress to get them back into a good state to play.

Fixed an issue where transferring items from the storage shed or crafting stations in multiplayer sessions could result in them being lost or overwriting an item already in your inventory.

Fixed an issue where clients playing on Switch would be disconnected after pressing the Home button on the system.

Fixed an issue where the game client could become temporarily unresponsive when accepting a multiplayer invite or choosing to Host Online in the Steam version of the game.

Fixed an issue that blocked clients of a multiplayer session receiving the "Interested in Dyes?" letter in their mailbox, stopping them from being able to claim the free dye set. Affected players should now receive this and be able to claim these dyes.

Fixed an issue where Eutats and Ember Eutats attacks did not damage clients in a multiplayer session.

Fixed an issue causing jumping/diving animations in water to not animate correctly when playing as a client in a multiplayer session.

Fixed an issue where the map tracker did not correctly point to other players if they were in a dungeon.

You will now receive a notification on the right of the screen when you receive a Phoenix Labs friend request, as well as if someone accepts one that you send.

INTERFACE:

Fixed an issue where an expired limited-time quest (such as a festival quest) could leave an unclearable notification in the Quest Log.

Improved the behaviour of the Graphics Settings screen, adding an Apply button and a countdown before automatically reverting.

Fixed an issue that could cause quest completion banners to appear as blank when appearing before a chapter completion banner.

Fixed an issue where the input prompt for removing players in the World Management screen was missing.

Fixed some unintended overlapping visual elements in the World Management screen.

Fixed an issue where the header of the Coordination Wheel's Build option was hidden.

Fixed an overlap between the "next day" panel and the scroll prompt in the End of Day screen.

The details panel panel of the Tools Progression screen can now be scrolled with mouse wheel on PC.

Removed a message that would incorrectly tell you that you can only sleep in your main house, when interacting with a bed in another house. As a reminder, you only get the coziness-based stat boosts if you sleep in the relevant house’s bed.

Fixed an issue that required pressing select/back inputs twice for them to function on PC on the first day of a new season.

Fixed an issue that could block selecting a body type in the Character Creator with mouse.

The current build version of the game will now show in the bottom of the Settings screen, to assist with bug reports and Player Support investigations.

INTERNATIONALIZATION

Fixed an issue where too many items would appear in the Pinned Quest UI at once when playing in Japanese, Korean, or Chinese.

Improved handling of line breaking when playing with system language set to Japanese.

Improved the display of numbers, as well as the date, when playing in Japanese.

Fixed the "Expired Contract" text on the End of Day screen displaying in English while playing in other languages.

Fixed some text in the Coziness menu displaying in English while playing in other languages.

Fixed emote names showing in English when in a quest objective, while playing in other languages.

Fixed an issue causing the Copyright section of the Credits to not show when playing in non-English languages.

Improved Japanese localization.

MISCELLANEOUS:

Fixed an issue that resulted in incorrect dye colours after dyeing one outfit, then switching to another.

Fixed a rendering issue that could cause some grass to show as the wrong colour.

Fixed a rendering issue that could result in some trees to show as low-quality versions during their regrowth phases.

Fixed an issue where resetting Graphics Settings to Default did not reset the Resolution option.

Fixed an issue where launching the game on one monitor and moving it to another did not allow for resolutions supported by the new monitor.

Fixed a number of typos in English and other languages.

Thank You

We wanted to give a great big Thank You all to the amazing people who submitted bug reports and are able to help us pinpoint these issues! If you spot any issues, please update us through our main support page.

You can also join us on Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, and Discord to share your experience with us in Azoria. 

We’ll see you in-game!

Sincerely,

The Fae Farm Team

[bikwin5]

Elly's Adventure 1.3: The Holiday Update

->itch download page!!!<-

Elly's Adventure has a new version! It's only been almost half a year since the last one. This might be the last update ever. This update has some bugfixes and a brand new cheat engine, letting you type in cheat codes to do fun things. One such fun thing is the all new Merry Mode, which gives a holiday-themed spin on things. Try it now, or wait three months to celebrate Christmas in July with hhgregg.

Elly also has a website now! There is not much there that isn't already on the itch page but it might be worth looking at for a few seconds.

Below are more details on the update and how to activate cheats:

A couple of months ago, a dear friend of mine streamed my game start to finish and he very much enjoyed it. Despite that, he found a number of bugs I hadn't seen while making some inane suggestions. At the mercy of his whim, I had no choice but to contract an illness and then start working on the game again weeks later.

If you download the new version, there doesn't seem to be much different at a glance. In addition to bugfixes there is now a brand new CHEAT ENGINE! Cheats can be activated on the title menu by typing the letters CHEAT on your keyboard, then typing in the corresponding cheat name, which will show up in the top right of the screen. Cheats can be up to 12 letters or numbers and are not case sensitive.

To start you off, here are some helpful cheats:

MERRY- Activates the all-new Merry Mode! This mode is purely graphics and sound replacements, and is the reason why the game is now a few megabytes larger. If you are interested in replaying the game I recommend this for a freshly jolly experience.

NATALIE2COOL- Unlocks extra mode without having to beat the game.

NOBABY- Removes twizzler baby from the game.

GODMODE- Makes the player invincible, and falling down pits no longer takes away a life.

SELECTMAP- Lets you jump to a stage from the main menu. This will overwrite your current save file.

The last two cheats in particular will prevent you from seeing the special 1CC screen, so if you are interested in doing that perfect run then avoid them at all costs. Check the readme for slightly more detailed information on cheats.

Additional changes:

Fixed a problem with stage 19 where bouncy enemies could leave a certain room

Fixed a few misplaced tile graphics

Fixed problem with switching palettes on the pause menu using a gamepad stick or d-pad

Fixed an issue with the options screen where left or right input was usable on an option when there is nothing to select

Fixed incorrect palette when adding new sprites. If you have existing save data from a previous version, your palette will probably be reset to default upon loading.

Fixed incorrect sprites when using the rocket powerup

Added ability to go back to the main menu and change palettes when paused on a bonus stage

Added Nintendo DS support

Sandwich now rotates

[morbethgames]

BUG WITH TEXT BOX'S AND SAVE FILES

Okay, so this is something I noticed while manually testing things just now, but I figured I'd put it out here just in case people run into it so that I can reference it in any future bug reports.

If you load a save file from a previous point in the game while doing the text box investigations, dashingdon will still act as if you've investigated those things in the house - presumably no matter how far back you've reloaded to. Unfortunately, I cannot fix this bug as this is more to do with dashingdon's save function than it is my game since ChoiceScript games are not meant to have a save function in the first place and so loading a "saved game" most likely doesn't reset the variables that have been turned on from the future scene you reloaded from.

So what does this mean? Well, it just means when you get back up to that point in the game again, it will take you to the dialogue that says you've already investigated the item. That's... pretty much it. If you wish to start the investigation anew, you unfortunately have to make a new save, I believe. I am very sorry for this, and I would fix it if I could. I'll brainstorm and try to come up with something!