#can of worms time everyone

[faeriekit]

It always baffles me when people are so mad about how ao3 operates as an archive and not, like, as an algorithmically driven recommendation machine or as a moral measure of appropriate writing or as a social media site or as anything else people want it to be... It's an archive. It hosts text. That's the sole summary of its job. If you don't like it, you don't...have to use it?

If you want a stricter hosting site for fanfic, ffn exists. If you want something that has an algorithm, pick any social media site nowadays...even tumblr recommends stuff to you now. Ao3 is not going to be your arbiter of fandom discourse nor will it enforce your personal opinion on certain topics because that's a really weird thing to ask of an archive and its staff, and that's straight up not what the site is for. That's like walking into a library and asking snidely why the librarians aren't stopping you from reading the books there. If it makes you mad, there are other fanfic hosting sites that aren't archival-model-based.

[little-pondhead]

man i'm on a roll tonight

DP x DC idea:

Bruce Wayne has somehow managed to become the unofficial guardian of at least two more kids. Maybe three. He's not sure yet. Various members of the Batfamily have made new friends recently and have been having them hang out at Wayne manor for extensive periods of time. Now only if he could actually meet the rascals face-to-face, maybe he could adopt them for real.

or

Danny, Elle, and Jazz have all made friends with different Wayne kids at different times from different places. Damian met Elle at school, Danny met Tim while working at a coffee shop, and Jazz met Cass outside the local theater. All three visit the manor separately, and no one communicates that they've befriended people from the same family. Eventually, however, their hangout sessions accidentally overlap and the Waynes have to deal with the excitement of three Fentons under a single roof.

Let's just say there's a reason the three of them live separately.

[meownotgood]

what are all the characters that you’re simping for ?

thank you for asking anon.... have a moodboard of the characters that have been rotating in the microwave of my brain recently. feel free to judge as you see fit. ignore the topknot guy he lives here

[gods-favorite-autistic]

Good evening if you are spoiling the Percy Jackson series for people who haven’t read the books on purpose you’re an asshole

[orrianreaper]

" That is NOT my name and you damn well know it! "

I realised I never actually posed this, because I was going to post it with companion peice of who he's talking to. and I never finished said companion piece. So have some old art of my tempest, Lightbringer/ Pirate Captain, Merianus Blacktide!

Sometime during what would either be before or during S1, Meri's childhood friend turned flame legion convert starts harassing his friends who're actively in the legions to try and get his attention, because he's Obsessed with him. It eventually culminates in a confrontation during a ritual Ovidius Suneater is trying to conduct, Ovidius asking Meri to join him, to be His. Meri ends up tackling Ovidius into the surrounding lava (with a frost aura up to protect himself, he's not that stupid) and Ovidius ends up with a mess up arm and the ritual is wrecked. Needless to say when Ovidius eventually leaves the cult he's in and makes a deal with the Whispers, Meri is absolutely furious to hear about it and wants Ovidius kept as far away from him as possible.

[aromantic-diaries]

The absolute horror of someone being in love with me is truly a nightmare. It's only happened twice because I'm a complete weirdo in the least endearing way possible and I am not attractive at all because I put no effort into my appearance. But still it is horrific

[egberts]

girls wake up there's a new worm bike playlist in progress

alana said the new one is way more funky, I've noticed a lot of punk bands are piggy dippin in a funk/punk sound more than a pop/punk sound and honestly? I'm so obsessed.

[liobi]

Home is where squishy rabbit cheeks are

[apotelesmaa]

Also wrt that one thing about the pjsk writers putting in the scene with tsukasa and saki before the main story so people wouldn’t immediately go “oh this guy fucking sucks” during the wxs main story I think it’s really funny & sweet that like. Tsukasa does come off as self absorbed (he is) which is a trait that lends itself to also being an asshole (he is not) so the only people in the beginning of pjsk who understand that he’s actually a pretty nice and selfless dude are saki and toya who knew him before he started doing the I’m A Future Star Who Is So Fantastic thing. Because they’re also the only people he would actually be a normal person around for the longest time. & they easily see past his massive ego which is something even wxs struggled to do for a while. Love the tenmas dearly. doll event/never give up cooking truly the events of all time.

[lizardinkart]

I haven’t made an animatic in years but mmmmm….. Khepri…….she has me in a chokehold

[collectalong]

☆ WHEN YOU FALL INSIDE ☆

☆ A HOLE YOU COULDN'T SEE ☆

fall inside a, fall inside a—SOMEONE HELP ME!

( OUR CIRCUS INCLUDES: @collectalong ; @plumuses ; @jestique ; @bunviolence ; @rubberrabbitt ; @ganglymask ; @cainebites )

[miekasa]

mie im so sorry i just keep sending you stuff i swear this will be the last onw for awhile

nanami, the handsome, but moreover, respectable and good man of the town, the owner of the bakery in the capital. every mom in town is literally pushing their daughters into his presence, just hoping that he might notice them. he doesn’t, though, as his greatest love in his current life was baking and taking care of his ancestral family business.

nanami who returns from a neighboring country after a year long apprenticeship and god… he’s even more skilled but also even more handsome; broader, taller and somehow even more charismatic. the knights believe that the rigorous curriculum he endured makes him a perfect candidate for you. you are both acquainted, through the countless times you had visited his bakery to have a taste of his town-renowned pastries. they’re so full and smooth, so obviously crafted with love and care. it’s nothing surprising though, as he’s so pleasant himself, the gentle and fleeting touches between you two when you visit him in the silent and dark hours of the early morning, away from the eyes of the court, always make you unusually bashful.

you think nothing of it until a knight hands you a list of the most eligible men in the country and abroad; accomplished and noble men alike, but at the bottom of the list lies nanami’s name. you must admit, he’s quite dear to you, and he would make a fine consort.

— doc dad levi anon

Hehehe. First of all, I’m sorry you sent this in literally MONTHS ago, and I let it rot in my drafts. Finally stumbling upon it again, and I would like us to consider: it’s Satoru, your head knight and personal advisor, who pushes for Kento to be a candidate. Kento is well-loved, strong, determined, skilled, and most importantly in Satoru’s eyes, seems to care for you, and not just the throne you sit upon. 

Satoru also knows a thing or two about the elders of your cabinet, and when you give him a look when you see Kento’s name, Satoru does a terrible job of hiding his grin, “What, do you not approve?” 

You frown, “That’s not the matter, and you know it, Satoru. He doesn’t deserve to deal with the council’s disapproval if I were to pick him. He has a life of his own, one that I will not uproot for trivial reasons, nor for you to entertain yourself by upsetting the elders.”  

Satoru hums at your explanation, carefully taking the scroll from your hands and rolling it into his. He lets that smile creep back onto his lips when he eyes your furrowed brows, expertly flicking the end of the rolled paper in the middle of your forehead. 

“You ought to be greedier, my princess,” Satoru chuckles, “And have a little faith in me. I was left in charge of your list of bachelors, but those old idiots approved of every name—I didn’t even have to make a case for him—I’d say it’s a sign! He’s quite handsome, don’t you think? Other princes are boring and desperate, plus think of all the fine sweets he could teach the kitchen staff to make!” 

You should punish him for hitting you, but you can’t seem to care, only letting his words swarm your mind. So, you heed your advisor’s words, and luckily, Kento makes time for you, graciously allowing you to visit the following week, long before the bakery is to open for the day. You have to question him honestly, unable to drink the tea he’s brewed until you ask, “Did Satoru put you up to this? He can be protective and intimidating when he wants to be, but you needn’t fear if he’s threatened you. I’ll ensure you’re left alone, and I apologize on his behalf if he—” 

You pause, only because you believe this is the first time you’ve heard the baker laugh. It’s light, warm, steady, even. You know Kento to flash an earnest smile from time to time, an enamored one when he’s teaching Yuuji a new technique that he masters quickly, a gentle one when feeding the birds stale crumbs—but true, ringing laughter is new to you. 

“I was neither threatened, nor coerced, by Gojo,” Kento clarifies, reaching for a wooden jar of honey to his left, “He proposed the prospect to me a little over a year ago, and I informed him that I would be willing, so long as I had your mutual approval.” 

“A year ago?” 

Kento nods in confirmation, sweetening your tea to your liking before closing the jar, “He told me it would likely not come to this, but that your elders have been planning to arrange a contest for your hand, should you not choose a suitor within their preferred time frame.”

You nod slowly, grimacing slightly at the reminder—you know it’s only thanks to Satoru’s pestering, and quite frankly, frightening reputation, that they have not had you to take a husband by force. Still, it doesn’t explain why Satoru would be informing Kento of such sensitive information long before an official call for eligible bachelors. 

“He is the one who arranged my apprenticeship, and who provided for Yuuji in my absence, but I accepted both of my own volition. Just as I have accepted the honor to court you, if you’ll have me,” Kento finishes stirring your tea before placing it carefully in front of you. When he looks up, he can see the steam of the hot water dancing in front of your face, swaying slightly when he speaks, “And I am prepared to fight for you hand, and your freedom, if it comes to it.”

[comraderoscoes]

honestly the amount of pundits and entire media organisations that are trying to gaslight us into believing this season’s title race will be remotely exciting is embarrassing

[that-was-anticlimactic]

friendly reminder that cole is canonically one of the most socially awkward characters in ninjago <3

[mirror-ralsei]

THEORY: The Colorful Core

Someone once made a very sharp insight about the CORE. It's been years and I still can't find it, but I distinctly remember a YouTube commenter pointing out these colored tube sprites in the CORE. They said they were specifically the same colors as printer ink: cyan, magenta, and yellow.

Ignorant, I looked it up.

And, um.

Yeah we can start to guess why these were thrown in with the "darknesstotems," huh.

For anyone else that wasn't aware, CMYK color model acquires the color black ("K" or "Key") by subtracting light using pigments. The pigments in question? CMY - cyan, magenta, and yellow.

This might have some implications for Deltarune.

PART 1: Photon Readings Negative

As we all know, the creator of the CORE and our "SURVEY_PROGRAM" is none other than Gaster himself. (Unless there's anyone else out there using typer value 666.)

Gaster is heavily tied to the concept of "darkness" through his infamous Entry 17 experiment.

And between the "darknesstotem" sprites in the CORE, the mercenaries emerging from the shadows, and these apparent CMYK references, we might infer that the CORE has something to do with that too.

Specifically, the "PHOTON READINGS NEGATIVE" description seems... more or less the exact function of a subtractive model like CMYK. (As far as i can figure. Not an expert, here.) This seems to further support the idea that the CMYK model may either literally or metaphorically serve some role in the "darkness" concept that was teased in Undertale, and a focal point of Deltarune.

So what does this mean? Well, as it is depicted in Deltarune so far, "darkness" seems to symbolically represent "fiction," and more diagetically, it's the source of the Dark Worlds and all Darkners within it. That seems to be the black color's meaning more or less solved for. What's unclear is how this darkness, or "K," will be produced.

(One could say... how could we "Gen" this "Key"? A "KEYGEN," in other words?)

okay that's just a quick tangent but hey spamton very much does cycle through rainbow colors okay it's not totally unrelated--

In any case. We have K solved for, so the remaining elements that would "combine" to create it are CMY. While there's not any known themes or plot elements across UTDR that would relate to the colors cyan, yellow, and magenta, there certainly are some characters...

PART 2: The CMY Trio

Did those colors look familiar?

That's right: Kris, Susie, and Noelle each have the respective CMY colors attached to them!

While Kris does have blue skin, Susie pink skin, and Noelle yellow hair, it's their HP bars that are the biggest tells.

No matter how you colorpick it, that's a cyan-magenta-yellow.

And wouldn't you know it, these three characters happen to be the ones mentioned by Gaster, pursuer of darkness, to be "VERY, VERY WONDERFUL."

But aren't we forgetting someone?

PART 3: Not Easy Being Green

Ralsei is already a character with a lot going on, and i'm not going to get into that here. Needless to say, though, there's much about him that's slightly different from Kris and Susie, and sometimes even Noelle. The green-associated Ralsei not having as definitive a place in the CMYK model is just one more space he's an odd one out in.

The counterargument here would be that Ralsei himself is meant to represent "K." That's certainly possible. He is the (or a?) prince of darkness, and is associated with black roughly as much as green. So i'm not going to discount that as much as say: if Ralsei is meant to represent darkness in such a significant way that Gaster was summoning him up in Undertale, I almost think we'll have more questions than answers. So to keep things simple for now, i'm going to assume that Ralsei's associated color is, like the others, in his HP bar.

Under that assumption, i think there's a couple places Ralsei could fit.

It's possible he could still squeeze into CMYK, being the secondary-color intersection between cyan Kris and yellow Noelle.

But since Ralsei is so different from the others, it might stand to wonder if he's not part of another model entirely. Namely...

PART 4: The RGB Trio...?

...RGB. An additive model that acquires a given color by combining colors of light. The more colors that are added, the closer it gets to white.

In other words, more or less the inverse of the CMYK model.

The existence of the RGB model may mean that Ralsei does have a place in a trio - just maybe not the one we're led to believe.

If this theory holds true, and if this model also has an associated three characters, then there are two other members of Ralsei's trio that are unaccounted for: a red character and a blue character.

Now, i'm not the kind of theorist to run through every individual candidate with a... in this case somewhat literal color swatch. Especially when it's quite possible we haven't met these other two characters yet.

But for those who want to, i would just note that red and blue are the associated colors - Noelle isn't yellow, after all, and Light World Kris doesn't have a trace of cyan. We're lucky that all four of the main cast have HP bars that are definitively certain colors. So just keep that in mind if combing through the cast.

PART 5: Mixing It All Together

Now that we've established a possible CMY trio of Kris/Susie/Noelle and explored the idea of a RGB trio of two unknown characters and Ralsei, what might it all mean?

Well, we know that CMYK is used to produce black, or in Deltarune terms, something pertaining to "darkness," while RGB is used to make (any color up to) white, and could be used to achieve something "light" related.

So it would be a simple assumption that the CMY trio has something to do with darkness or the Dark Worlds, while the RGB trio has something to do with light or the Light World.

This is interesting because Kris, Noelle, and Susie are all Lightners, while Ralsei - and perhaps his other two comrades? - are Darkners. This flips the easy correlation of Lightners with the Light World and Darkners with the Dark Worlds on its head.

But haven't we seen this before? As far as we've seen, it's only possible for a Lightner to create a Dark Fountain. Could Darkners have some special kind of interaction with the Light World in the same way?

Moreover, do the trio of Kris, Noelle, and Susie have some sort of darkness-related power or knowledge available only to them? What makes the three of them so special? Even Gaster comments on it, though he may be biased toward the subject of his research, and even that, if true, is valuable information.

If we can't figure out what exactly is special about the CMY trio yet, i'm not going to hazard guesses about a purported RGB trio which we don't even know exists. But I would assume based on their inspirations that it would be basically the inverse of whatever the CMY three have going on.

Finally, there's one last property of these models that seems noteworthy. While CMYK and RGB seem like inversions of each other, a crucial difference is that CMYK is used for print media, while RGB is used for screens. There's nothing relevant about that I can think of at the time being, but it's something worth keeping in mind for future speculation on the topic.

CONCLUSION

So, there we are! While this is "theory" is more on the broad and speculative side, I hope that these ideas are useful going forward. We know very little about the role of the CORE, but a possible link between it and darkness and three of the main cast is valuable information. And perhaps we can learn some more about Ralsei and an unknown red and blue character at some point, too.

Thanks for reading!

Click here for Part 2

ETA: Oh Kenju in the artbook just outright confirms the CMYK tubes apparently.

Well done, Youtube commenter.

[kangaracha]

vibe check