#sleep well lil skell

[spacegate]

Gaster Blastober 2019 - Week One

Participating in Gaster Blastertober 2019 put on by @gbpack-discord. I will be doing my best to write short ficlets every week. I’ll be adding them to the side stories fic on AO3 eventually. Hope you guys enjoy! Most will be kinda fluffy cause I feel icky and need some smiles <3

Prompt: BAD HABIT

Fandom: Undertale

Warnings: None

Fluff-rating: 60%

-----

Papyrus was asleep, tucked into his race-car bed as his alarm clock slowly ticked down the early morning hours. He’d be up bright and early, like usual for him, but it was a little harder for him to fall asleep that night.

After all, it was his first night in his new house. Such things were always different, unsettling.

It wasn’t like their father didn’t want them home with him, but they weren’t tiny baby bones anymore. Both him and his brother were adults, and needed to strike out on their own and have spaces for themselves. Sans was in college, and he was undergoing outdoor training. It seemed much too big to fit that all into their cozy childhood home. It felt like the right thing to do was to attempt to stand on their own feet and do things like a proper adult.

So, their father had helped the both of them find a new place to live, which was literally two houses down from his. They wanted to be on their own, but not that far away. They had promised to visit often, which placated their father. Plus they’d see him at his bar daily, so it wasn’t like they had gone very far.  They could tell it saddened their father to see them go, but it’s the same pain that every parent must bear once their children are grown and ready to face the world.

It wasn’t a pleasant feeling, for either of them.

Papyrus heard a soft shuffle in his bedroom, the noise loud enough to him that he wearily opened his eye sockets to peer into the darkness. He had always had good low light vision and it didn’t take him long to find the source of the noise. 

He sighed.

Of course, it would be his brother.

Sans sat on the floor in his blaster shape, eye sockets forward as he stared at the door, haunches fully planted. He was as still as a statue and positioned directly in front of the door. Nothing would be able to get into the room without running into some serious teeth. Though Sans was much smaller than Papyrus’ beast form, he still packed a serious punch. The shuffling noise was Sans’ claws on the carpet as he subtly shifted to root himself firmly to the floor.

“Brother, what are you doing?” Papyrus turned down the usual volume of his voice to address his brother, doing his best not to startle him. Sans said nothing, and continued to stare at the door. He probably didn’t hear him, not when he got like...this.

“Brother.” Papyrus tried a little firmer, sitting up and pulling his rocket ship patterned covers away from himself. He reached for the lamp on the end table next to his bed and switched it on. Immediately, the room was bathed in warm light and chased away the dark shadows. The sudden change made the elder brother jump with a soft yelp. He whipped his head around, one eye socket black, and the other with a flickering blue/yellow round pupil. He stared for a moment, before he blinked and the usual soft white lights appeared in his sockets again.

Papyrus crossed his arms against his chest, fuzzy pajamas bunching up here and there. “BROTHER, WHY ARE YOU IN MY ROOM?” Now that Sans was lucid and alert, Papyrus switched back to his regular volume.

Sans thought a moment, clicking his fangs in thought.

<“i...was watching...”> His clicks and barks was just as clear as Common to the younger brother.

“YOU WERE STANDING GUARD AGAIN WHEN YOU SHOULD BE SLEEPING FOR YOUR CLASSES TOMORROW.” Papyrus voice took a hard edge to it. Sans’ condition required him to get plenty of rest, and here he was, sitting up all night staring at a door. How long has he been sitting there before the noise awoke him? Any time was too long for Papyrus’ liking.

<“couldn’t sleep.”>

“OF COURSE BROTHER, THIS IS A NEW HOUSE. IT IS STRANGE AND WILL TAKE SOME GETTING USED TO.”

Sans nodded slowly, eye sockets blinking as his body sagged a little. Tension left his bones slowly, reducing his look from a frightening creature of teeth and claws to a tired friendly critter who could use  a hug or two. <“s’ different. yeah”>

“I UNDERSTAND THAT YOU WANT TO PROTECT ME, BUT I AM NOT A LITTLE PUP ANYMORE. THERE IS NOTHING THAT THE GREAT PAPYRUS CAN’T HANDLE AND I CAN SOUNDLY DEFEAT ANY INTRUDER WHO DARES  INVADE OUR SANCTUM.” It wasn’t quite scolding, but a declaration of fact. Papyrus was an adult. An adult who was skilled at magic and was training to literally rip through rock to find trapped people. He didn’t need protection anymore. “I AM FAR PAST THE DAYS OF YOU NEEDING TO CHECK UNDER THE BED FOR HUMANS.”

Sans sagged a little more until he was outright lying on the floor like a puddle. <“i know bro. i’m sorry...i just...you know...”>

“WITHOUT OUR FATHER YOU FEEL LIKE YOU MUST ASSUME HOUSE PROTECTOR STATUS, YES I KNOW. FATHER HAS TAUGHT BOTH OF US WELL, IT IS TIME YOU SHARED THAT BURDEN. IT IS MY HOUSE AS MUCH AS IT IS YOURS. YOU ARE SLIPPING BACK INTO BAD HABITS, BROTHER.”

Sans was quiet. He couldn’t deny anything being said to him.

Papyrus scooted over in his bed, making a space and patting it with a hand.

“YOU ARE LUCKY THAT I, THE AMAZING PAPYRUS, DO NOT NEED AS MUCH SLEEP AS YOU, AND THUS CAN ASSUME GUARD DUTIES IN YOUR STEAD. YOU SHALL CUDDLE HERE AND BE SAFE UNDER MY CONSTANT UNINTERRUPTED VIGILANCE. YOU WILL SLEEP AND BE RESTED. ”

Sans chuckled softly, and slowly stood. <”can’t argue with the great papyrus, can I?”>

“NO YOU CANNOT! NOW GET UP HERE BEFORE I PICK YOU UP AND MOVE YOU MYSELF.”

Sans climbed up into the bed with a huff. Of course he was wearing the same clothes he wore that day and not pajamas. No matter. As soon as the elder skeleton had his paws steady he was immediately shoved against the now much-larger Papyrus. Papyrus’ beast form was long and wiry, completely different from the short and stocky form of his brother. The best part, though, was that they fit together into a comfortable cuddle pile. It was the same way they slept as children up until they were old enough for separate beds. Even then, during bad nightmares and bouts of anxiety, nothing calmed them down faster than a cuddle. Even the vague upsetting dreams Papyrus had from time to time about steel and snippets of white were dashed away in such piles. Sometimes their father joined, but nowadays they were much too big and would smoosh their poor father.

It didn’t take long for both beasts to settle into the bed, Papyrus pulling the covers over them both with his teeth. Sans sighed, pancaking out as he truly relaxed. Papyrus gave him a soft comforting nuzzle.

<“thanks bro.”>

<“OF COURSE, AS IF YOU NEED TO WORRY ABOUT SAFETY. REMEMBER WHAT FATHER SAID?”>

<“to howl if in trouble and he’d come reduce anything messin’ with us to ash.”>

<“NOT ONLY WILL THEY FACE THE WRATH OF OUR FATHER, BUT EVERYONE IN SNOWDIN. YOU ARE SAFE, BROTHER. NOBODY IS FOOLISH ENOUGH TO HURT US. EVEN IF IT TAKES OUR WHOLE LIVES, I, THE FOREVER UNFORGETTABLE PAPYRUS, WILL REMEMBER TO REMIND YOU OF SUCH THINGS.”>

Papyrus knew what Sans was afraid of. He knew ever since he was old enough to be sat down and be told why his brother acted the way he does sometimes. Sans rarely talked about their lives before their adoption, but he knew what it was. After all, he had the Undernet and it didn’t take long to find archived newspaper articles about it. His brother sacrificed a lot to protect him.

He understood, which was why he did his best for his big brother. It was time for Sans to be protected.

Sans nuzzled in close and yawned as he got comfortable.

<“you’re the best bro around.”>

“THAT'S RIGHT, NOW SLEEP.”

It wasn’t hard to fall asleep after that, nor the nights after.

[killscreencinema]

Xenoblade Chronicles X (Wii U)

Xenoblade Chronicles X, released by Monolith Soft “X”-clusively for the Wii U in 2015, takes place on an alien planet named Mira, where the last remnants of humanity have crash landed after Earth was decimated by a mysterious alien force known as the Ganglion.  The human survivors live on in the form of “mimeosomes”, which are enhanced cyberorganic duplicates, which are being controlled remotely by their real bodies while in stasis in a massive vault known as the Lifehold.

You play as a freshly revived from stasis new recruit in an organization known as BLADE, whose mission statement, besides gathering resources and fending off hostile creatures for the residents of the fledgling city of New Los Angeles, is to find the Lifehold, which was lost during the crash landing, before it runs out of power, killing the rest of humankind in the process.  The only problems is that BLADE is in a race to find the Lifehold against their old pals, the Ganglion, who are committed to finishing the extermination they started.

I normally don’t go into so much detail about a video game story, but goddamn if this one didn’t capture my imagination like no other video game in awhile, especially a J-RPG, with all of their tired tropes.  In fact, while I greatly enjoyed the first game, Xenoblade Chronicles, I found the story to be disappointingly banal, especially from a studio like Monolith, who are known for complex plots since the days of ye olde PlayStation with Xenogears (when the creative team was working under Squaresoft).  I love the idea of humans rebuilding civilization, with their main hub of New Los Angeles having the familiar California architecture juxtaposed against a strange, alien landscape.  I love the idea of these people being trapped in cyber-organic bodies, which if killed, would merely trap their consciousness back in their real bodies in stasis.  What a mind trip it would be for someone close to you to die, but if you’re able to find where their real body is tucked away, you might have a chance to bring them back for realsies!  To the game’s credit, it deeply explores both the negative and positive psychological implications of such an existence, albeit in a melodramatic fashion one comes to expect from most anime (which J-RPGs are basically offshoots of).  The characters are all well-rounded, with Elma, your commanding officer and all around badass bitch, being my favorite.  I even love what Elma says whenever she levels up:

“Strength comes from experience.  That’s true on any planet.”

Meanwhile, whenever my character leveled up she’d exclaim “MY GROWTH SPURT!!!”  Which is... weird.  I guess it’s better than your 13-year-old teammate, Lin, yelling that. 

You’re well-advised to spend most of your time with Elma and Lin, getting them nice and strong.  You can also choose fourth party member from a variety of characters you meet along the way.  The longer you spend time with your team completing missions, the more your affinity grows with them.  One you reach a certain affinity level, it opens a personal side-quest with each respective character, which are worth doing not only to further dive into the story, but for the “fortune and glory, kid, fortune and glory”, as Indiana Jones would say.

While I can’t say enough things about the story, the gameplay is just as solid and immersive.  It plays basically just like its spiritual predecessor, for it should be noted at this point that gameplay is the only thing is has in common with the first game as it does not continue the story.  It’s almost like how Mega Man X *kinda* continues the story of the original Mega Man series, but with a darker, more sci-fi tone.  Xenoblade Chronicles 1 and 2 are pure fantasy (with a lil bit of sci-fi), while Xenoblade Chronicles X is sci-fi fantasy all the way.  It’s pretty much the J-RPG version of Mass Effect, but without all the sex.

The battle system is in real-time, with your various special moves set up in slots.  You can unleash them at will, or wait for your comrades to request a specific move, which is optimal as it is one of very few ways to heal your party.  Plus, those special attacks have to recharge, so you don’t want to be stuck with no specials while your party’s HP is in the red, and one of them is begging for a heal.  Aw~kward!  I do like how streamlined it feels as opposed to the kind of turn-based fighting I’m used to in J-RPGs, although it’s always stressful not being able to control the three other party members beyond issuing generic squad orders like “Concentrate your fire” or “assemble with me” or “GET THE FUCK OUT OF HERE” before running from danger like King Arthur and his knights running from that bunny in Monty Python and the Holy Grail.

You’ll be using that order a lot by the way as, similarly to the first game, low level enemies cohabit alongside extremely high level enemies all over the world maps.  While most of the time the super strong monsters will ignore your existence, unless you pick a fight or bump into them, others might not have such a chill disposition and will prefer to trample you instead.  Running into an area populated by high-level enemies can feel a lot like when you accidentally wander into a dangerous neighborhood.  There’s nothing like looking for a rare item in a cave only to realize it’s full of enemies twice your level, so you carefully back away like the Homer Simpson meme:

You might think I’m complaining, but I actually really enjoyed this in both games, as it really makes it feel like a truly open world and having to tread softly or risk sudden annihilation from a level 80 tyrant you didn’t know was there makes it feel more like an adventure.  That being said... it can also be incredibly infuriating when you’re flying around in your mech suit, which are called “Skells” in this game, and you innocently bump into a powerful bad guy only for him to promptly blow up your Skells, leaving you with a salvage cost in the MILLIONS.  Yep, that’s when you normally “save scum” by loading up a previous save, but damned if they didn’t make it a pain in the ass what with the obscene loading times and all the fucking menu screens you have to press A through.  While it’s true that players who are savvy about planting mining beacons in the most optimal way to earn money will have more credits than they know how to spend, you will trash your Skells a lot, and that shit adds up, especially when you’re trying to save for more powerful Skells or expensive equipment.

By the way, I don’t want to understate how fucking cool it is that you get a giant mech robot to ride in halfway through the game.  I was already onboard with Xenoblade Chronicle X before that happened, so adding a giant mech robot to the mix is like discovering for the first time how freaking delicious Fritos are in chili.  Like... I love chili, but I had not idea it could be improved THIS much with Fritos!  And just as the initial buzz of getting a Skell starts to wear off, YOU GET A FLIGHT MODULE THAT ALLOWS YOU TO FLY ALL OVER THE MAP WITH IMPUNITY!  Hey, you like chili and Fritos?  Howz about a blow job too?  I mean, you’ll have to listen to an irritatingly catchy J-pop song while you’re getting the blow job, but still awesome!

 Which finally brings us to the music.  Holy shit.  The music is composed by Hiroyuki Sawano, who did the music for the anime series Attack on Titan.  There are lots of great tracks for the game... well except for both the day and night themes for NLA, which will get stuck in your head so much you’ll scream into your pillow while trying to sleep at night (meanwhile in your brain you keep hearing, “Uh, yeah, uh, yeah, oh oh oh”).  Even the worst track is forgivable if only because the main theme to game, innocously titled “Theme X”, is one of the most goddamn beautiful pieces of music I’ve heard in a game in years.  Listen and let the goosebumps wash over you:

It’s obvious I love the game, but there are negatives too.  For one, I didn’t finish the game, because HOLY HELL are the final bosses difficult.  Firstly, any hope that you have of beating them is with your Skells, so should they get wrecked somewhere along the way, there’s no way to bring them back, so you’re SOLAMWF (or “Shit out luck and mighty well fucked” as George Carlin coined).  If you saved before the fight, your heard was in the right place, but guess what?  You’re fucking trapped.  You can’t leave to buy a stronger Skell or level grind.  It’s a goddamn dead end, emphasis on the word “dead”.  Fortunately, being a seasoned RPG player, when Elma asked me not only once, but TWICE, if I was ABSOLUTELY sure I’m ready to enter the Lifehold, I got the subtext and didn’t save once inside.  However, stupidly, I did save after accepting the final mission, which effectively locks out the affinity missions, which can be much less redundant way to level grind than doing the “Basic Missions” (which consists of tasks like fetch quests and monster bounties).  I tried like hell to grind to level 50 and save up enough credits to buy a level 50 Skell (which were the minimum recommendations for evening the odds against the boss), but I still couldn’t beat him. 

So out of frustration and boredom, I rage quit the game and moved on to something that will hopefully be a lot less strenuous... Bloodborne (wah-waaaaaah).  I like Xenoblade enough that I’ll return to it and continue grinding away until I eventually beat it.

So yeah... Xenoblade Chronicles X is pretty fucking great. I would cautiously nominate it as the best RPG you’ll play on the Wii U (below Breath of the Wild of course). 

[ask-babyblasters]

“thanks guys the blanket is real nice ♥ ”

“zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz”

[solariads-special-hell]

Lazy bones.

This wan’t supposed to be like this, originally he was wearing pijamas..

Today was one of those horrible days that the only cure is to draw naked skeletons.

[spacegate]

A commission for @ichiwashername-o!!!

Undertale AU fun times :D

They wanted something to do with their fic, A Happy Little Accident, where Gaster isn’t a douche and is actually a good dad. Mixed with the Gasterblaster/Babyblaster AU means his kids Sans and Papyrus are also little pups with little sharp teefs that chew on EVERYTHING. He tries his best, bless him. Here he was reading them a story and they all fell asleep. Not that it was a boring story, it’s just the fireplace was putting out some nice heat and it was late at night and Gaster doesn’t get enough sleep. 

Some things hidden about. 1. A potato clock. 2. A hotdog squeaky toy. 3. A failed family photo. 

Ichy asked me to post up both the final piece and the flats. It’s cool cause then you can see just how much lighting and texture can really change a piece.

[bookofmario]

crosswords are hard they make me TIRED good night

[varietybread]

just let him sleep

[w28fovldyzdhjsfjdh]

Sketchbook Page Of Sans drawing 2. let him rest

[squigly-puff-blog]

Fact: I hoarded the url “whydoessanswearjorts”