#tomorrow theory

[bogos-bint3d]

"THERE IS NO FRIEND INSIDE ME, THERE IS NO PLUEY, AND THERE IS NO DELTARUNE TOMORROW."

[the-irreverend]

*INTERNALLY AND EXTERNALLY SCREAMING*

[nyehhehhehs]

What Papyrus Deltarune has been up to

[serennes-art]

i'm with you in the dark

[pridoo]

Arm touch...whoo!! (obkk)

[dodger-chan]

Inspired by this post by @0nemorestranger Hopefully close enough to what you had in mind

Edit: now on AO3

Lost Media

Steve didn’t realize he’d been humming along to anything until the music cut off suddenly and looped around to start over. The opening riff played for about three seconds before it cut off again.

“Wait, who’s humming?” The question came from one of Steve’s younger co-workers. A part-timer working his way through college. Steve couldn’t remember his name.

“Uh, that was me. Sorry,” he tacked on the apology as an afterthought.

“You know that song?” the kid asked. He sounded like Dustin.

“It’s called Plane of Shadows. I think it’s a DnD reference,” Steve answered. “Band’s Corroded Coffin. Haven’t heard them in years.”

That wasn’t strictly true. Every once in a while, Steve would play the tape he still had. Think about that one summer he’d spent as an unpaid, unofficial roadie. Daydream about what could have happened if he’d known himself a little better back then.

Not too often. Steve wasn’t that much of a loser.

The kid came over and plopped down in Robin’s empty chair. She was out sick today, getting over the flu Steve had picked up last week.

“It is. A DnD reference, I mean,” the kid said. Steve probably needed a better thing to call him; he was probably Erica’s age. “Shit, one of my friends posted that clip to this metal bulletin board. We've been trying to identify it forever. How do you know it?”

“They’re from the same small town I am. We all went to highschool together.” Not that Steve had known their music in highschool. “I don’t think they ended up with a record deal, but they did have an EP they used to sell at concerts. I can bring it tomorrow if you want.”

*********

Steve brought the tape, along with the souvenirs he’d saved from that summer. A couple of photocopied flyers. An ad clipped from a local Bloomington paper for a concert. A wristband from a bar that had marked him as too young to drink. Also his Walkman. Steve wasn’t sure if kids still had cassette players now that CDs were everywhere.

“This is so cool,” the kid - Brian, apparently - gushed when Steve handed him the shoebox he’d brought it all in at lunch. “Is it alright if I scan these? And can I borrow this tape? I want to digitize it and share the full song with the board.”

“You can do that?” Steve really needed to learn more about computers. Just not from Dustin who couldn’t teach anything without turning into a condescending asshole.

“Yeah, just record from the Walkman like it’s a mic. I’ll burn you a copy of the whole EP. That way you won’t have to worry about wearing out your tape,” Brian offered. “I would never have guessed you were such a metal fan.”

“I’m not, really,” Steve admitted. Brian blinked at him, surprised. And, well, it wasn’t the eighties anymore, and they weren’t still living in Hawkins. “Massive crush on the lead guitarist.”

“Oh, uh, thanks for telling me.” Brian leaned over and patted Steve’s shoulder. “So you and Robin aren’t-”

“Strictly platonic.” Maybe Robin was right and they should get signs for their desks.

*********

It was nearly a month later when Brian grabbed Steve at the water cooler and dragged him over to his desk, saying “You’ve got to see this.”

This was a post on the Brian’s metal bulletin board:

Crazy to hear from a buddy that our old band is a minor Internet sensation. Thanks, all. If you guys had been around back in the day we might have managed a full album. Or maybe not. Gareth’s parents would have killed him if he dropped out and Jeff actually wanted to go to college, so maybe we still would have broken up in ‘87. Regardless, we’re all thrilled our music is bringing joy to today’s metal heads. As the primary songwriter, and with the agreement of the rest of the band, I grant permission to upload and download the entire EP. We think any money we might potentially have made on it is worth less to us than the value of preserving what could have been lost media. Just make sure to credit us if your garage band turns one of our songs into a hit. Anyway, if you guys have any questions about Corroded Coffin, or the songs, reply to this post and I’ll do my best to answer in a timely fashion. Aside to OP: Is your preppy co-worker who had all our stuff a handsome former jock with spectacular hair? Because I’d love to get back in touch with our old roadie. -EM

“Oh my god,” Robin squealed, leaning over Steve’s shoulder as he read. “Please, you have to give Eddie Steve’s email. Or get Eddie’s email to give to Steve. Or both. Both would be best. That way at least one of them will have the balls to reach out first.”

“Eddie’s already reaching out,” Steve said. “And I thought you said it was anti-femminist to use testicles as a proxy for courage.”

“Stop quoting me when I’m being right, Steven.”

“So I should get his contact info for you?” Brian asked.

Steve hesitated. Real life was not some romantic comedy where attraction was always mutual and true love overcame all obstacles in the end. But it wasn’t like he’d spend the last decade pining. Even if it was nothing more than getting a friend back, it would be good to get in touch with Eddie again.

“Sure,” Steve answered. “Why not?”

[raccoonsonice]

The end of an era fast approaches.

[flyingsnake0]

Tenna fans hear me out

[marketableplushieenthusiast]

Posting my prediction now, pre-Deltarune Ch3&4, not even as a heavily evidenced theory, just a sudden realization based off vibes while analyzing the new Sweepstakes web pages:

I think the Weird Route will end in a softlock.

Deltarune is a love letter to RPGs and every quirk of storytelling AND mechanical play that makes them what they are. Toby has always loved meta games before he made his own, and the Sweepstakes are RIDDLED with references to glitches, mods, softlocks and more.

What if there is "Only one ending...?" In the sense that there is only one final boss you can defeat and one way to make the credits roll by following the intended narrative on a normal route? (Of course the smaller choices you make along the way still matter as long as the characters matter to you, but the overall result will be the same.)

Maybe the Weird Route will not be an "ending", in the sense that the credits haven't rolled, the "final boss" isn't defeated, and you can still boot up your save just fine - but you cannot progress.

Whether that is because Noelle becomes some kind of angelic, unbeatable guardian of a frozen "Angel's Heaven", a Dark World just to her liking that you can never seal due to her power surpassing your own (in an Undertale style consequence of leading her down the Weird Route in the first place)...

Or because of something even more insane? The Twisted Sword can only be crafted with the Thorn Ring, but gives Trance DOWN when equipped to Kris, which would imply less control. The only thing Noelle seems sure of in the Hospital after a Weird Route is that something is wrong with her friend, and she is going to figure out what. Seam once wielded a seam ripper, for when "you're too far along to simply pull the threads [of a story?] back out". And who KNOWS what Ralsei or Susie will do on an extended Weird Route. Maybe the Weird Route will involve Kris shaking us off and breaking free, leaving us with no way to play.

Or maybe it will be neither of these and some third option, but regardless! I think the ultimate irony of the Weird Route would be if it doesn't properly end.

The player, in trying so hard to contort the narrative and game into a different ending, does nothing but break it. Congratulations! You changed your fate! You found a different path and made your choices "matter"! And now you have nothing. No closure, no accomplishment, only a save forever stuck until you wipe and start over. (And do it right this time!)

That's my suspicion. Anyway, wish me luck getting the Shadow Mantle, because I'm gonna be playing 3&4 blind first, and I am TERRIBLE at missing stuff, so...

[tio-trile]

6 Days Until Jurassic World: Chaos Theory premiere!

No text version:

[momosweetpeach]

YAY THE VIDEO IS OUT!!!

I did all five interrogation animatics!!!

Please give it a watch, everyone worked very hard and I think it turned out really special!

[paintedcrows]

My Deltarune / Undertale conspiracy theory is that Chara fell into the Underground on December 25th, 201X.

End of 201X? Doesn't refer to the decade, it refers to the end (i.e. last month) of an unspecified year in the 2010s. The emphasis on Christmas and Winter with Dess and the Holidays? It's all going to connect babyyyyy

[brixbraxium]

Something weird in DELTARUNE that I've always found strange... SOUL Modes in deltarune work differently than they did in UNDERTALE. In UNDERTALE, the enemy would cast the SOUL mode onto you, and it would persist until the end of the fight, or until the monster turned it off.

However, in DELTARUNE, this is not the case.

The SOUL is Red in the menus! And, I don't think this is a weird mistake. The SOUL animation at the start and end of the turn is also red!

What I believe the implication is, is that it's not that Spamton turned our SOUL Yellow on accident or something- The SOUL is, consistently, exiting Kris' body, changing into the yellow SOUL mode to dodge the attack, and then un-changing back into the red SOUL to return to Kris. I think the idea is that the SOUL Modes in deltarune are more, like, instinctual responses the SOUL taps into. The SOUL exits the body to dodge, instinctively can tell that it can't dodge this attack, and so changes forms to better combat the opponent. A very interesting implication. Could even have thematic importance..? (...Maybe these powers are powers only the player can cause to surface, thus letting the player protect Kris from a danger they otherwise wouldn't be able to avoid? I wonder how they might feel about that, only surviving because of our presence...)

[tvuniverse]

9-1-1 -> 6x10-11 // 8x15 (potential) coma dream

[razorslash87]

let me die in peace.

[egophiliac]

Do you think this is the Finale of book 7? qwq

at this point I'm not going to believe it's actually over until we get the Diasomnia dorm reruns! those will be the portent I cling to in these times of uncertain anime character drama. 😰

honestly I'd been pretty convinced that 13 would be the end -- or that there might be, like, an epilogue chapter or something, but this would at least be the end of the main plot of 7. but now it looks like the Armor of Dawn Silver card is actually going to be for the second half next week, so...now I'm right back in "WHAT IS HAPPENING" camp! like, I can see a couple of possibilities of how that might still work out, but...well. I guess we'll find out tonight. :')