You.

Daredevil (2003) Alternate Ending

Lady Detective Reinhold is on the case! 🎀🔎✨

Too many people thinking Ralsei is sus; not enough thinking his whole Dark World is sus!

An essay.

Deltarune Spoilers under the cut.

Each Dark World (DW for short) clearly has a history dating before the heroes get there. A history that seems to have been disrupted by the “Knight” who opened a Fountain and made the ruling leader go crazy. We know by now that all the DW citizens are inanimate objects of some kind, with the exception of Ralsei, who we’ve never seen inert (inanimate and not in a DW) before.

Darkners are also said to feel unfulfilled if they don’t aid Lighteners, which seems backed up by the behaviors of both Queen (who kidnapped Noelle to bring her happiness) and King (who grew bitter at being in an abandoned classroom). But even so, they seem incompatible with a DW that isn’t their own, turning to stone when they enter it, though it sometimes works faster on others since Rouxls was able to leave the pocket upon entry and stay animate the whole adventure until you meet him, but Lancer pretty much started becoming stone within minutes of leaving Kris’ pocket. So Darkners can’t go to other DWs both because it’s dangerous and because they’re very far apart. And in the real world they’re inert unless in a storage space (ex: Kris’ pocket).

The one exception to all this though, seems to be Ralsei. & by extension Ralsei’s kingdom. Which has its own fountain, true but is also… very empty for something that’s supposed to be a supply closet. Every other DW has been populated and themed off the area it occupies in the real world. So if Ralsei’s kingdom is in a school supply closet where’s the pencils, scissors, and glue? And why does everyone from other DWs seem compatible with it, since no one in Castle Town shows signs of turning to stone? And why was Ralsei able to get to the library so fast and stick around without getting hurt?

I think that each DW already exists, but that they’re on a level inaccessible to Lighteners and Darkeners from other DWs. Hence the title Dark Worlds. Think alternate planes in DnD, or how in Into the Spiderverse the alternate spiders keep glitching because their atoms don’t belong with that universe (or whatever the explanation was, I got distracted by Doc Oc right after it was given). Each DW is effectively “out of sync” with the real world and other DWs, and they aren’t compatible with other DWs because of that sync, but they can’t reach each other anyway so it doesn’t seem to matter.

Then… the Fountains. The Fountains seem to allow an excess of dark energy into the DW they’re created in, making a little hole that allows Lighteners and other Darkners to come through & “syncing up” that DW with the real world. However, Darkeners that come there from their own DWs won't sync & if too many Fountains are made and too much Darkness released, the DWs will probably try to overwrite each other, which would expose all the Darkners to a reality out of sync with them- turning them to stone- and leave the Lighteners in a hellscape world constantly trying to be dominated by this or that DW. All makes sense, right? Well great cause there’s a part that doesn’t and I think you know what I mean.

Ralsei. He and his kingdom aren’t affected by other DWs or Darkeners from them. Which is what allows Ralsei to help gather people from other DWs and bring them to his own. No one seems that concerned about the Fountain in his DW, either. It’s almost as if everything from Ralsei’s kingdom is some sort of Type-O/AB blood where he can go anywhere and his kingdom can receive anyone without Ralsei or Castle Town inhabitants getting hurt.

Which is good since Castle Town looks to be made solely of Darkeners from other worlds.

At the start, Ralsei is completely on his own, but seems to know both a lot about the way DWs and the Light work & is pretty confident that he’s a prince of his DW despite the apparent lack of anyone to rule. Which means that either the castle has a very extensive library for some reason or Ralsei traveled to other DWs and learned everything that he could. I think that it’s more likely there’s a big library or that the information somehow came to him because otherwise he’d have no reason to return to Castle Town given that he’s obviously impossibly lonely. If he had already used his ability to both travel to other DWs and be unhurt by them, I think he would have just stayed in the classroom or somewhere else. As it is, he’s only using this power to help Kris, Susie, and the Player recruit/rescue citizens of other DWs.

And here’s another little snag. We don’t know what happens to the DWs after the Fountains are closed. They have some sort of history before we get there and no one really tells us what happens when we leave. The only real indications that something bad happens is Ralsei telling us to recruit them and a dialogue from the Queen if you don’t recruit everyone where she asks where Nubert is. But even that seems less “they’re all dead now” and more “we’ll never see them again” which while that could mean they died from the Fountain being sealed, could also mean that they simply no longer have access to that DW. It’s out of sync with them now. There’s also something about how you have to “recruit” everyone. Not “save” or “rescue” but “recruit.” Toby Fox chooses his language very carefully, as observed in the LV → LOVE → Levels Of ViolencE pipeline. Given that this is the same person who’s last game had 2 hidden bosses and a mystery you had to hack the game to so much as see, I think he chose the word “recruit” very intentionally. What you’re recruiting them for I can’t tell- other than being citizen’s of Ralsei’s kingdom and living in a town that is eerily named after the player.

I don’t want to make any hard and fast “this is what so and such is up to and this is how this and such works” kind of calls just yet. The game is set to have 7 chapters and we’ve only seen 2 of them. It’s literally too early to tell.

And I don’t think that Ralsei is working with malicious intent. I really don’t! I think we would have seen that by now (unless he’s hiding it from the Player, who I think he’s aware of given that he both talks to Kris during cuts to Susie and is distressed when in Snowgrave you don’t cut to her). However. You can do the wrong thing for the right reasons or act on emotions in ways that aren’t healthy. I mean just in the Fox-verse alone there’s examples of that in the whole Dreemurr family, Alphys, and even Undyne to some extent.

But it’s also too early to tell if Ralsei’s actions are wrong since, again, it’s only Chapter 2. I will agree, though, that some things aren’t adding up about him and his Dark World. I think it’s interesting, though, that another word for Supply Closet is a Storage Room. And that the one in charge of it seems focused on collecting inanimate objects and taking them to stay there…

I send myself a Letter

What do you suppose an Affini hab unit actually looks like? I've been reading HDG for years now and off the top of my head I can't recall anything that describes them all that much outside of everything being bigger. Maybe I missed a story that explores the intricacies of Affini architecture and interior design, maybe I'm deeply strange for asking these kinds of questions about background details in kinky noncon comfort erotica, but I think it's important. Surely a key aspect of domesticating a sophont is making sure they're comfortable in their new surroundings? Maybe you could assume they look like typical sci-fi living quarters, but those are always SUPER depressing (why would anyone want to live in a sterile metal cube?) Considering the importance the Affini place on making sure their florets are safe and happy, I always picture them feeling incredibly vibrant and warm, a place that's somehow more like home than anywhere you've ever been before.

*shuffles shyly into your ask box*

Hello! Your writing is so fun and juicy and I was just wondering if you'd be willing to write a Hero x Villain where Hero is trying to deny their feelings for Villain and Villain is just flirting relentlessly. Maybe Villain kidnapped Hero just to have them alone??

"You think I have feelings for you?" the hero demanded. "You kidnapped me."

"Are you telling me that the big, bad superhero can't break free of a pair of cuffs?"

"That's not the point."

"Isn't it?" The villain smiled, coming to a stop between the hero's splayed legs. "Because if you can break free, gorgeous, it means you're choosing to stay."

The hero swallowed. Cuffed to a (admittedly comfortable enough) chair, they had to tip their head up to meet the villain's gaze. They shifted, slightly. They refused to call it squirming.

The villain's smile grew to a wicked grin.

"That's not the point," the hero said again, voice cracking a little. "It's still kidnapping!"

"And of course nothing in you finds it hot that I can get the better of you. You're above such things. The way you shivered when I walked in was pure terror. Is that right?"

"I'm not scared of you! We just established I can get free of these cuffs at any time."

The villain raised an eyebrow.

The hero coloured and looked down. Their mind reeled. They didn't have feelings for the villain. They didn't. Because that would be wrong. It would be morally heinous. It would be...

"Mm." The villain trailed their finger up along the hero's heaving chest, tip tip their chin up again, and the hero's breath gave a treacherous hitch. "So why are you staying, then?"

"You might give an evil monologue and reveal all your plans. Your kind like to do that."

The villain laughed. "Oh my love. You've never met my kind. Maybe if you had, you'd know what to do with me."

"Arrest you?"

"Pin me down and tell me I've been so very naughty?"

"Yes! No - I mean no!" The hero's face was on fire. They glared at the villain.

The villain brushed a thumb over their cheek, almost soothing. Like they wanted to reassure the hero that, if they were mocking, it was not to be cruel.

The hero belatedly realised they should have recoiled from the touch a long time ago. They swallowed again, but they still couldn't quite seem to get any moisture into their mouth. They felt suddenly infinitely aware of their tongue.

No clever comebacks came to mind. Only the image of the villain pressed writhing beneath their hands, breathless and wild and grinning in that way of theirs.

"So. Here you are." The villain got back on track, though perhaps not mercifully, after another all too telling moment of silence. "And it's absolutely not because you have feelings for me. It's all..." They waved their free hand, "strategic. It's not for the fact that part of you knows..." The villain leaned down, close enough to kiss. "That kidnapped and alone with me is the only time you would ever allow yourself to truly act on what you want, instead of playing perfect. If you were brave enough to take it, that is."

"I-" The hero faltered.

Their gaze dipped to the villain's lips, cataloguing the minty puff of their breath, their closeness. They cleared their throat. Something in them ached. Longed. Yearned. Reinvented new synonyms for craning hopelessly, helplessly, for the thing that they were not allowed or able to have.

The hero shook their head.

"Okay." The villain straightened abruptly. They pulled back. Their fingers fell away, leaving the hero bereft. "Sorry for pressing. See you out there, maybe, gorgeous."

"I-what?"

"You're free to go. Far be it from me to inflict myself where I'm not wanted."

"What? No!" The protest left the hero unbidden as the villain turned away.

It was a trap. It was so obviously a trap, and yet the hero stepped in it anyway because...because...

"You are such an asshole," the hero said.

"Villain, darling."

"It doesn't change anything even if I did have feelings for you. I can't."

"Ain't no one here but us to find out about it."

"It will get messy."

"Life does that, gorgeous." Still, the villain's voice was softer than before, quieter. Less the purr, or teasing lilt. "That's what makes it life."

After a beat, the villain moved back over to them again. They slipped one finger beneath the hero's chin.

"You're tied to a chair, kidnapped by a supervillain," the villain said. "So just this once we can pretend you don't have a choice. Can I kiss you?"

The hero nodded, heart pounding in their chest.

It was a mistake, another trap of as much as any tale of honey and flies, because they immediately wanted more of the sweetness. The villain's mouth on theirs was a more perfect thing than any of the pedestals that the hero had made a home on.

When the villain pulled back, the hero broke the cuffs thoughtlessly to chase, to slip fingers into the villain's hair and drew them back in closer.

The villain's breath hitched that time.

The hero wanted more of that too. They just wanted.

"Tell me again," the hero said, as they recklessly kissed the villain deep, "that I don't know exactly what to do with you, asshole?"

The villain laughed again and it was one of the best sounds the hero had regrettably ever heard.

Somehow, when the two of them were alone, the villain was a choice that the hero kept not making after that.