Archive of Our Own ^beta

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Chapters By Fandom :

Chapter 2: Hazbin Hotel, MultiVersus

Chapter 3: Redwall

Chapter 4: Mass Effect

Chapter 5: Dragon Ball

Chapter 6: Beastars

Chapter 7: Hazbin Hotel, Powerpuff Girls

Chapter 8: Marvel

Chapter 9: Mass Effect

Chapter 10: Deltarune/Undertale

Chapter 11: The Amazing Digital Circus

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Multiversus, right?

Sponsored by Warner Brothers, right?

WB owns Studio A24, who currently owns the broadcasting rights for Hazbin Hotel for when it eventually releases on HBO Max, right?

I'd love to be a WB exec in the room for the roster selection, and, just for the shits and giggles, suggest a Hazbin character--

'Which character?' you ask. 'Alastor? Angel Dust? Charlie?'--

No, no, no--a character who hasn't been properly introduced as of yet, like Baxter, Vox, or Lucifer.

Imagine the outrage it would cause for those in the fandom . . .

It'd be wrong on many levels, but, again, wouldn't it be a knee-slapper?

(I'd especially feel sorry for the voice actor who'd have to be called in at such short notice, who'd probably have no idea who they were voicing--and the outrage amongst the fans would be so bad, they probably wouldn't be able to find steady work again).

Now, you're probably thinking Viv would never allow such a thing to occur, and while that may be true, it's probably not for the reason you may think.

Exec: "Viv, we'll give you $5 million to put a Hazbin character in the game."

Viv: "Hm, well, more money would be nice. But if we get all that money, there'd be no excuse for us to post anymore clickbait update videos on youtube that're just SharkRobot commercials. Yeaaah, mmmm, soorrry, yeaahh . . . No."

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I think they queer-coded Cluny in the Redwall TV show.

What makes me say this?  The fact he wears only one earring, and that it's in his right ear, which is a well-known indicator a man is gay.  Nowhere in the original book is Cluny once described wearing an earring, so it's exclusive to the show.  

If this is the case, then imagine that was subconsciously part of his goal to claim the Abbey.  He isn't doing it just for the riches, the spoils, or the power--he wants a castle--a fortress--where he can be free to be himself in private without prying eyes to judge him.  Sad really.

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And how, pray tell, does the Destroy Ending mean that EDI and the Geth get destroyed along with the Reapers?  They really can't be repaired and turned back on?

We're not talking about fixing the Mass Relays--that's understandable since none of the races in the Milky Way actually built them.  We're talking tech that the races built themselves with their own hands.  The glowing red explosion doesn't deactivate all technology in the galaxy, just synthetic life.  And when the glowing red hits the synthetic life, particularly the Reapers, they don't blow up into a million pieces, they more or less short-circuit and fall over.  Why would it be any different for EDI or the Geth nearby?

Now, sure, EDI and the Geth may turn off and essentially factory-reset and lose their autonomy, but that doesn't mean they're gone.  They're robots--technology. 

The Geth can still be repaired and help the Quarians rebuild Rannoch, and if they're so worried about the Geth rebelling against them again, just, like, put in protocols to make sure they don't.  It's not like they can't.  Hell, they could fix the Geth, make them fix the Homeworld, and then just turn them off before they become too self-aware. 

As for EDI, it's not like she can't still inhabit Eva's body again and remain Joker's robot companion.  Robots/A.I. are very agreeable and process information very quickly and easily--they could simply tell the "new EDI" what she's done and what she's meant to the team and galaxy at large, and she can gradually settle back into a rhythm of normal interaction after observing everyone again.  They can still program her original voice into the body so that it's not some stilted generic robot voice, since the Normandy was built with her in it, so the blueprints and other techno mumbo-jumbo that are involved with the construction must still be on file somewhere.  And who's to say EDI didn't secretly back up her basic schematics somewhere where they could be retrieved?

You're not hurting a machine's feelings, because in the end they have no real feelings.  But maybe I'm just being too cynical.

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Android 18 is only hot because of circumstance.  Or, rather, the Dragon Ball fandom, (at least speaking from the English-speaking audience), only became obsessed with her in the context of the show's rise to international fame.

Let me explain by recreating a sequence of events:

DBZ debuts on Toonami.  The first girl you see is Bulma.  While she'll have a scene in her underwear later on at the start of the Namek Saga, (which was probably cut from airing, but correct me if I'm wrong), I feel like the older woman energy won't kick in right away for most people watching.  At this point, Bulma is still years away from her MILF resurgence, so you probably won't notice her as you watch the show.

Chi-Chi is easily ignored, as it won't take our young viewer until they've grown up to understand the cause of Chi-Chi's naggy nature, to then perhaps develop a partial affinity for her, or at least be easy on her when going back through the series.

Then we get to Namek, and everyone has that moment where they can't tell if Frieza is male or female, encountering their earliest example of androgyny, to which they either get upset for being fooled, pretend like Frieza is female until they inevitably come to terms with the truth, or just shrug it off and keep an open mind.

So, by the time 18 finally comes around, the young viewer finally, after so long, has a girl to crush on, partially because of her infectious tsundere energy, but mostly because she appears the closest to their age, (much like how people identified with Gohan so much despite some of his issues character-wise). 

18 then remains the sole object of affection until Videl shows up.  Then a choice is made: Go with Videl because she's semi-objectively the best girl in the series, or you remain with 18 out of sentimentality, and we all know how sentimentally breeds nostalgia. 

Feel free to disagree and give me your thoughts. 

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Riz: "Hello, my name is--

Paru: "Stop. Right. There."

Riz: "Huh?"

Paru: "Don't you say a damn word."

Riz: "What?"

Paru: "Zip It!"

Riz: "Really? Everyone else gets a few lines, and you want me

to stand around in the background like a moron?"

Paru: "Yes."

[Pause]

Riz, (sighing): "If I must."

Paru: "You will."

 . . .

Riz: "Hey, while I got you here, 

can I ask something?"

Paru: "I suppose."

Riz: "If I'm supposed to be an albino brown bear,

why am I not just a polar bear?"

Paru narrows her eyes at Riz. 

She snaps her fingers, and suddenly 

Legom is standing in front of Riz.

Legom promptly kicks the bear in the balls.

Legom: "Don't ask questions you aren't 

prepared to handle the answers to!" 

Legom raises her beak to the air, "hmph's" and jogs away.

Riz is left writhing on the floor.

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In a fictional space where fictional universes collide--

Him: "You thieving whore!"

Angel Dust: "Da fuck you say to me?"

Him: "How dare you steal the floof from my jacket and graft it onto yourself!"

Angel Dust: "Look, buddy, I think you gots the wrong idea."

Him: "I don't think so."

Him snaps his claws like scissors. "Come here!"

Angel Dust cries in alarm, as we see the shadows on the wall of what Him is doing to the spider.

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Angel finds his way back to the hotel, nude and hairless like a sphynx cat.

Alastor: "Angel, darling, what happened?"

Angel, sobbing, explains what happened.

Alastor: "I'll kill him!"

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Alastor and Him found each other and fought. It was a violent affair.  

It ended in a tie.

They both agreed the fighting was pointless.

Alastor used his demon magic to regrow Angel Dust's hair.  

Then, to make up for the hostilities and let bygones be bygones, the three of them took turns tag-teaming each other, in all the combinations of the three of them.

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Quick -
Other than
Being one of few chosen
To wield Mjölnir
And a certain "collaboration"
With Rocket Raccoon . . .
(You know the one)

What else has Beta Ray Bill ever done?

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Fair warning ahead of time - I may ruffle a few feathers with this.  Hopefully I can articulate my thoughts in a way that you can at least understand a little bit where I'm coming from.

Let me paint a picture for you.

Mass Effect 2 was the first Mass Effect game I played.  I've been a Playstaion stan for most of my life, and some of you may remember that Mass Effect 1 was exclusively on the Xbox 360 for quite a while, so I never got to play Mass Effect 1 until they ported it, and the first time they did that was after Mass Effect 3 had come out.    

As such, I never had the baggage of ME1's romance options.  While I did have access to the Genesis comic that summarized the events of the first game and allowed you to pick the major decisions, I opted for a clean slate and picked the no romance option.  This was mainly because I thought to myself: How can I roleplay a relationship with a character I never interacted with?  

Because of this, the reunion scenes with Ashley and Liara in ME2 fell flat for me since they relied so heavily on the nostalgia/context of what the player went through with them in the first game.  The scenes in-and-of-themselves, at least to me, weren't done well enough to make me care about the both of them very much, and as such my initial impressions of the two were that on one hand you had a laughably stubborn-headed person who somehow couldn't look at the big picture despite not having any reason to mistrust Shepard, and on the other hand you had a know-it-all alien chick who gave off an "ain't I so important?"/"ain't ya glad you have me?" bordering on arrogant attitude. 

Getting to know Liara in the Shadow Broker DLC and Ashley later on in ME3 softened these views for the most part, but the "damage," (for lack of a better word), had already been done, and I simply never cared for either of them, and to this day I still kinda don't.  In fact, I think Liara is a bit overrated . . . I realize in saying that I've already upset the Liara purists out there in the fandom . . . but just you wait, it's only gonna get better from here . . . 

Since I played as Male Shepard the majority of the time, (which I know will also upset many of you), my options were always Miranda, Jack, or Tali.  Not counting using calculated saves to see where each option lead - in those early days when I was engrossed in the franchise, I never saw any other option but Tali, (this applied to ME3 as well).  Miranda was too standoffish for me, and Jack was simply too . . . much.  And from a meta perspective, if you're playing a game that takes place in space, and you're given the option to date an alien girl, why would you ever choose one of the human girls? - humans are for the Real World, are they not?

There's nothing about Tali I could say that probably hasn't already been said - she's the kind of down-to-earth, quirky girl that all the nerds of the world ever wanted, and I was head-over-heels for her whenever I played the game just as much as many of the fans of the series were as well.  

So, imagine me playing the games again circa 2016 - (during the lead up to the release of that dumpster-fire known as Mass Effect: Andromeda) - not having touched the games since the Citadel DLC first came out.

I get to ME2, essentially in the same spot I was back when I first played the game, in that I didn't do any romance in ME1.  Now, since there are obvious points-of-no-return when it comes to romancing your options, and since I'm not a fan to the point that I can recite line after line from every character, and because I didn't want to just look up the cutscenes on youtube or whatever, I pursued each option to those points so I could experience all I could from the game again, as, truth be told, I value a good story over gameplay for every game I play.  Yes, I want to have fun playing, but it's the story to the given game that you're left to ponder with when all's been said and done 95% of the time.

Side note, (as I desperately keep putting off saying what I wanted to say when I started writing this), one interesting fact I found is that you can essentially have a one-night stand with Jack, and when you go to speak to her after, she won't give you a dialogue wheel and will instead repeatedly tell you to fuck off whenever you try to talk to her.  How she still survived that playthrough despite that, and despite the fact I lost her loyalty because I didn't have enough karma points to diffuse the argument between her and Miranda, (and I sided with Miranda because that's how much I don't care for Jack), I truly don't know.   As such, while I understand the implications, and while I can sympathize with her character, from then on and to this day I basically zone out whenever Jack's on screen or when I have to do her side-quests.

Anyway, I pursue Miranda's romance, but wind up telling her that we should keep things professional.  Coincidentally, Tali was at the point where she gives you the option to commit.  So, off I went to the engineering deck. 

Now, since I'd never heard what happens when you tell Tali that you want to keep things professional, and since it's a video game where you can just rerun the dialogue again and pretend like nothing happened, curiosity got the better of me, and what I heard actually left me stunned.

Essentially, Shepard tells Tali, very plainly and with no hint of malice or depreciation, that though he would love to be with her, he feels like the risk would be too high.  As most of you know, one of the main subplots of the romance between Shepard and Tali is the question of whether or not they can even be intimate with one another, since Tali's immune system is weak like the rest of her race, and there's a very real possibility that sex with her could actually kill her.  If you want proof of how weak her people's immune system is, look no further than one of Thane's dossiers in the Shadow Broker DLC where he details a hit he made on a quarian, where he describes his method in one word: "Cough."

Now, obviously if the player commits to Tali, nothing drastic happens to her - Bioware weren't gonna have her die and bum out the player and cause mass hysteria.  But if we're going by the ME Universe's logic, it would've been more realistic for there to be a random chance that Tali could die before the Suicide Mission even started, though I guess that would've been too much for people to handle. 

All this to say, I don't believe it would be frowned upon for Shepard to not romance Tali.  Shepard not committing to a romantic relationship with Tali isn't a question of her personality or Shepard wanting to pursue someone else - it's the idea that Shepard is an honorable person who, without a doubt, would not Tali's potential death on his hands.  

Imagine my surprise, then, when Tali's response to all of that went something like, "Well if you wanna go and fall into some other woman's arms, then you go right ahead," very condescendingly and almost to the point of spite. 

Then imagine you exit the conversation, and she says, "Talk to you later," back in her usual chirpy tone.  

It was quite the tonal whiplash.

I almost want to say it's a little out-of-character, but I can understand that not everyone can be semi-cheerful all the time, and perhaps that's doing a disservice to Tali when you consider her character as a whole.  Though, I don't think it's wrong to say her response was a little unwarranted.  And as such, Tali soured on me to a degree.  

Now, you might be thinking: Well, you were practically romancing the other options, so she had every right to say what she said.  But the thing is, nowhere in any of the dialogue when you're talking with the romance options, up until the part where you commit to one or the other, is there anything said that makes it seem like it's all serious from the start.  At the start of every romance path, there's a feeling-out phase, where you make it known you're mildly interested and available.  Just plain flirtation, nothing to really get upset over.  At least, I don't think so. Though maybe that's a flaw in my thinking.   

Now, perhaps I may have misremembered some things.  Either way, how I interpreted the situation in that moment has informed me when it comes to Mass Effect's romance. 

I still like Tali - I'd never dream of giving her the cold shoulder like I do to Jack. But as it stands, when I play Mass Effect now, I romance Miranda.  I've warmed up to her over time, and while she may be a semi-plain choice, (despite her assets and her whole schtick about her being born with perfect genes), whatever that says about me now is something I can live with.

And knowing that Tali hooks up with Garrus in ME3, and that I unironically ship the both of them, it gives me all the more reason not to romance her anymore, so it all works out.  

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* Spoiler up to the end of Chapter 3 *

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As I sit here reeling from my approximately 85th loss to the Knight, the stonewall keeping me from progressing to the next chapter - which though I know I don't have to beat her we all know you really have to since the completionist in you won't let it go especially since you've already beaten the other secret bosses so why suddenly stop? - I dust off my computer and decide to vent.

Since the Deltarune/Undertale fandom is obsessed with theories, I offer this fandom two: one as more of a joke, and the other a semi-serious one that I thought about only recently.  They both sort-of link together.  

First, the joke one: Toby Fox has never beaten the secret bosses in their finished state.

Sure, he may have created them, sat down and tested and fine-tuned their bullet hell bits to make sure they all make sense - but I'm willing to bet you that if you plucked Toby out of whatever he's doing at the moment and sat him down in front of the finished product and told him, "Here, you got the whole day to defeat your creations," I guarantee you he wouldn't be able to do it, even with that wrist-brace he supposedly wears.

Before I go any further, and before any of you get defensive, I want to clarify I harbor no ill-will toward Toby.  In fact, I respect him quite a bit.  He could've easily retired (in a sense) off of Undertale's royalites, content with himself knowing he achieved something few artists achieve at a relatively young age, creating an IP that will likely outlive him in the grand scheme of things, with the awareness that unlike many other things (especially games) that get uber popular on the internet to the point they gain cult/meme status, that his creation has the rare mark of true quality - the kind of quality that's simultaneously commercial (in the sense it has mass appeal) and underground (so that it doesn't lose its status as "true art" [though that's a whole discussion in itself and really means nothing at the end of the day]).  

And the fact he's using his newfound comfort to instead attempt to create a high-concept piece of art to not only test himself as an artist but to perhaps put something into the world that tops even Undertale is commendable.  

But I'd be lying if I said I didn't find it a bit humorous that Deltarune is taking so long to complete.  I understand a lot of it probably comes from the need for secrecy, and because of that I could also understand there being a slight awkwardness when working with a team when you were so used to doing everything on your own . . . but if I did know Toby personally I'd almost want to say to him, 'Dude, if you're so paranoid about the team leaking info, then make them sign a strict NDA or something.'  I'd also tell him 'Dude, you've got all the time and resources at your disposal - what the hell are you doing with your time?' 

Getting back to where I began, I'll tell you what he's certainly not doing with his time - optimizing Deltarune for consoles.  Oh sure, let's say Toby actually has beaten those bosses in their finished state - if he has, he certainly didn't do it with a controller, Mr. P.C. Master Race over here. 

Now for the serious one:

For as great as Toby's idea of holding the player accountable for their actions is, besides the suspension of disbelief, insofar as the player going along with the idea that they're a terrible person for daring to explore all that a game has to offer - in reality the "horror" can only take you so far.  In other words, fourth-wall breaks can be effective, but no matter what is said, a fictional character can never break out of their world and go after you.  As much as Flowey, Chara, Gaster, sans, etcetera will talk down/threaten you, it never truly works because, in reality, they're just sprites and code, and nothing is going to change that.

However, (and this is where the actual theory comes into play), there's only one way that the game can actually get back at you . . . and it's through wasting your time with unfair bullshit.  And the amount of revenge that a game can exert on the player will only last as long as the player continues to fail.  

I came to this conclusion while fighting the secret bosses, with how grueling they can be.  Yes, with enough persistence - dare I say, determination - you can overcome these battles.  But if you're someone like me who isn't a P.C. cheater who can save scum or give themselves the best load-out for the battles, or hell, even hack the game so you don't even take damage, it can all get very tedious and annoying.

For instance, allow me to tell you the story of me and Deltarune this past month and a half.  

I've had the Chapter 1 and 2 demo downloaded on my PS4/PS5 since Chapter 2 was released.  I'd played through most of Chapter 1, but then Life was happening so I lost interest.  Since I wasn't keeping track of the game's development, I was taken by surprise when I found out Chapter 3 and 4 dropped together.  I see that the game is on the PSN for $25 - I was like okay at first, but when I learned that Toby said it would be a one-time purchase and that future chapters would be added to the game with updates, I felt that was very reasonable.  The saves from the demo would also carry over, so I was happy.

But remember when I said I'd played through most of Chapter 1?  When I booted up the game, I was right outside Jevil's cell.  Meaning, that after not being acquainted with the game for a few years, my re-introduction had to happen in a secret boss battle.  After 3 days of madness, I beat Jevil and moved on to Chapter 2.

I'd watched a playthrough of Chapter 2 around when it came out, but I'd never actually played through it myself.  I played it at my own pace and had a fun time.  I even made a separate save right where you can start the Weird Route in case I wanted to go back and do that, (though I don't really plan on doing it because the route is predicated on you killing Berdly, and I don't want to do that - because simply being mildly annoying is not/shouldn't be enough to make you want to kill someone).  I fought Neo-Spamton, and oddly enough he didn't give me much trouble - it only took me a day to beat him.  

Then I was off to Chapter 3, having had no idea what was going to happen.  Suffice to say, I had fun with this chapter as well.  Though, I won't lie - I was looking up some guides on how to get to the secret boss and where the egg was located, while still managing to not spoil anything too bad for myself.  The Shadow fight was by far the most annoying of the secret bosses, mostly because it breaks the mold and has you do the fight like you're in an old-school Zelda game.  But I persevered and won. 

Imagine my surprise when I learn there's in fact two secret bosses - and out comes the Roaring Knight.  I lose naturally, but I was under the impression that the Knight only appeared if you beat the Shadow, so I figured I'd be able to go back and try again.  But nope, Toby ripped the control away and I was drawn into the chapter's closing scene, and the Knight appears regardless.

Being the completionist that I am, I wasn't going to progress to Chapter 4 until I'd beaten the Knight.  So, in preparation, I looked up footage of the Knight's attack patterns to get a vague idea of what to expect, as I'd done previously with Jevil and Spamton, (because I don't have the time in my life to sit down and manually learn the attack patterns from scratch). 

In particular I looked up footage from known youtuber ManlyBadassHero.  I watch him play and fail the first few times, getting the Gaster messages.  But in the fights after that he'd stocked up on a particular item that really is essential to beat the knight - the revive mints, (and the revive dust).  I figured that he'd just had them saved up.  But once he beat the Knight, he revealed that he'd used someone else's save, which had optimized gear and loadouts.

And boy did I get pissed off . . .

Because this meant . . .

If I was going to have a chance of beating the Knight . . .

I needed those revive mints . . .

And when I went back to the last save in my genuine run of the game . . . 

I discovered that I had . . .

None.

Meaning that I had to go back . . .

And replay this fucking game again . . .

Just to get those items . . .

For an encounter I couldn't have foreseen . . .

And as you hopefully remember . . .

I play on console . . .

So, I couldn't be like the P.C. gamer douchebags and just give myself all the best stuff . . .

I had to do it all manually.

Thankfully, I hadn't saved over the file from where I began at the end of Chapter 1.  Lo and behold, my past self had already found all the revive mints for that chapter.  But this meant I had to beat Jevil . . . again . . . without being able to fully revive.  So, another day went by trying to beat Jevil, and when I did I moved on to Chapter 2 . . . again.

Remember that save I was going to use for the Weird Route?  Well, that file became home to the new speed-running run.  I skip through Chapter 2 as fast as I can, mindful to not forget the egg, and I beat Spamton and Queen once again.

I play Chapter 3 . . . again.  Beat that bullshit Shadow . . . again.  And as it stands at the time of writing this, I am now fully optimized to fight the Knight.

All this because I play on console, and Toby's brain doesn't work for console but for the P.C. Master Race.

All this to illustrate that the evil entities that Toby has put into the code to laugh at you get their kicks from you wasting your time like this.  And that is the one thing they can hold over you the player.

Well, Toby, you've succeeded. 

I'm determined now. 

Determined to stick it to them and show them they ain't shit, that their words are meaningless.

It may take me a while,

But when I win,

I'll have the final laugh . . .

Until, of course, I get to Chapter 4 and I learn that I missed something in the previous chapters that I really need to get the most out of the game . . .

And have to play all of the game once again . . .

Only until in 20 years' time when the game is finally done . . .

To have Toby pull the carpet out from under us all . . . 

And tell us none of those choices mattered . . .

That, in fact, all he really wanted . . .

Was for you to just play his game . . .

You, annoying, arthritic handed, dog, genius you.

Chapter Text

Jax stood outside the door to Gangle's room, denying Gangle entry to the safety of her room.

"So, did you think I didn't notice?" Jax said, cutting straight to the point.

"W-What?"

Jax got up in her face, uncomfortably close, staring daggers into her soul.  With one deft motion, he tore off her comedy mask and broke it.

"Acknowledging the fourth wall is my schtick.  If I catch you doing it again, I will go out of my way to break your comedy mask after every adventure, when Caine disappears for the day and can't fix it for you, so that you spend every night wallowing in sadness.  Am I clear?"

Gangle was too stunned to respond with words.  She just managed to nod in agreement.

"Good - see you tomorrow, ribbons."

Jax walked away, and Gangle went into her room and sobbed the whole night.