Guys there are still three Mayumis in a trenchcoat, they're just all hyperfixated on Deltarune now and I can't stop them
Formerly known as Kozachenko (current username on some of my other accs)
She/They-18
My Newgrounds account: Goldeyelocks
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This is something I haven't seen discussed much in discussions about the weird route, but I really like how it turns the idea of "one specific party member in an RPG that you make super OP" from something strategical to something horrifying. Because if Final Fantasy 9 had a "Weird Route" surrounding Garnet (the party's White Mage) then I probably would have completed it fully without realizing it wasn't supposed to be a part of the main story...
For context, back when I played Final Fantasy 9, I really tried beefing up and leveling up Garnet (the party healer and later summoner) because she died easily and I thought "hey, having a healer be the highest level is kinda good strategical move" and this favouritism towards her was only encouraged the moment she was able to do summoning. In my playthrough of FF9, she essentially became the tactical nuke of the party. She was easily the most versatile member I had because she was capable of both healing, buffing and reviving people, debugging enemies, and dealing big fucking damage. Even during the point in the narrative where she was pretty fucking traumatized due to said summoning ability I still had her front and center doing the most work in the party. This was even diegetic in the gameplay itself, as she was no longer able to certain things and even ignored certain action inputs. All of which just came across as only an annoyance to me at the time. Yeah sure I felt bad but I also just wanted her to one shot the 500th enemy encounter already.
This could just be a me thing, but this type of scenario has happened in quite a lot of RPGs and games I've played. The moment I like a character's kit or gameplay, they become the one I rely on most to get shit done, the one who ends up being the highest level by the end of the game. Knowing how Toby Fox likes to twist the meta elements of RPGs, the Weird Route feels like a callout to me specifically.
Noelle, much like Garnet in FF9 (using her as an example because of my experience playing the game but also because I feel like there are some parallels they both have), has both incredibly dangerous magic abilities and is also capable of healing. At one point, they both become broken husks of themselves after seeing their own abilities and powers being exploited for evil by forces beyond their control. The consequences of each character's breaking points being reflective in the gameplay. But unlike FF9, Noelle doesn't get better. She doesn't have the support system Garnet had in FF9 because of the involvement of us the player. Because of how we abused her relationship to Kris for our own gain.
The Weird Route is not only disturbing with how it handles its psychological and existential horror, but also because of how it uses the player's prior experience with RPGs to disturb them.
Feeling a real kinship with Alice Margatroid as of late, so my headcannon for her now is that whenever people's old dolls that kinda get lost in their house and forgotten about end up in Gensokyo, Alice finds them (or buys them off Rinnosuke) and then does insane doll repaints in her free time, so she has a variety of ball jointed dolls, antique porcelain dolls, plush dolls, and a fuck ton of Monster High dolls she repainted and customized with custom made clothes, body modifications, and rerooted hair. Local humans thought a portion outside of her house was actually cursed and haunted because people would leave her backyard with breathing problems, but when Reimu asked her about this Alice explained that the weird chemical smell in her backyard was just a byproduct of the amount of Mr. Super Clear and pure acetone she goes through.
If the dolls are intact enough, she just leaves them as is, especially if they're from discontinued doll lines, a lot of those discontinued lines from the 2010s end up in Gensokyo actually. Alice is also a doll restoration expert, so if you ever lost a really nice monster high doll as a kid and it got beat up on its way to Gensokyo then rest assured, poor girl is likely right there as good as new on one of Alice's shelves.
The best thing you can do for someone who has somehow never seen an Undertale spoiler is get them to play it and then gaslight them fully into believing they beat the game once they kill Asgore and there is no other boss after that. Nothing. He is the true final boss. That's it.
New Deltarune AU: Breaking Runes, it's Deltarune but with the plot and setting of Breaking Bad.
Carol Holiday is a depressed and comedically underpaid Chemistry teacher in the Albuquerque suburbs of New Home. Her husband Rudy seems to have caught a little bit of a cold but thankfully it isn't much, her daughter Noelle is in community college and still lives at home (Noelle has a strained relationship with her mom), and her eldest daughter Dess has been missing for over 10 years. Rudy was college buddies with Asgore and used to be like, a fireman or something and is buddy buddy with Undyne, the head of the DEA (Asgore was fired and is still divorced). Asriel has graduated and is working as a prosecutor who's had to deal with some.... interesting opponents in the court to say the least...
So Carol hears the news from Rudy's doctor that Rudy is fucking dying, probably lung cancer, inoperable, blah blah blag. He's made his peace with the situation but now the family is racked with medical bills blah blah blah, she comes home and Undyne is there and all proud and hawty because of a drug bust aaaaannndddd yeah standard Breaking Bad Episode 1 stuff.
Now, Carol is in a bit of a rough spot here, and upon learning of how much money she could make from cooking crystal meth, so she asks Undyne if she can watch one of her meth bust operations to see the equipment and she agrees.. So Carol is watching this shit all go down when suddenly she spots a familiar face jumping right out of the window. A face she hasn't seen in a while hops out of the top window, somehow managing to escape without being seen.... a person who she hasn't seen in years since they flunked in aaalll of her chemistry classes.
Yeah it's Kris. Kris is Jessie Pinkman in this AU.
So Carol asks Kris if they wanna make Meth together, again, standard Breaking Bad episode 1 stuff, everything goes as usual.
This was initially gonna be a shitpost. In fact, this whole idea started because I wanted to make a Deltanoir shitpost but realized how anachronistic it would be and decided "fuck it, new Deltarune AU but we're combining two of my hyperfixations." I still have to flesh out so many things because I am actually thinking about how to tie in the character dynamics from Deltarune into the plot of Breaking Bad, so I'm probably going to have to make an entire lore document or some shit for the world's dumbest crossover AU.
Some other details I want to include on who's going in which roles:
Sans is Mike Ermentrout. Don't ask me about Papyrus he's too innocent to be involved in this shit. His day job is working as the background inspector for the local Fatha's Wing-Dingeria....You can probably guess based on the name alone who the Gus Fring of this AU is...
Spamton is Saul Goodman. That's it. That's the reason for this AU in the first place. I wanted to make a Deltanoir shitpost where Spamton is basically a lawyer and then have it be Sans and Papyrus cooking meth until I realized that a show from the early 2000s would probably be a very anachronistic fit for an AU in the Deltanoir universe.
Tenna is Kim Wexler. Friend is Lalo. Ramb is Nacho. Berdly is Gale.
Yes Noelle is the one to find out about the meth thing. Yes Kriselle in this AU is incredibly doomed. Yes Dess going missing was partially Kris' fault but I still have to figure out the lore of this. I am still trying to figure out how Susie fits into this whole thing, but TBH Susie not fitting into any role within a preestablished narrative is thematically fitting for her so she's the wildcard.
The core moments of Breaking Bad will be the same, but the stuff in between all of those big important moments will be very different. Yes Rudy dies believing his wife was an innocent woman (still figuring out if I want that though because I don't know what else to do with him). No I don't know what to do about the Roaring Knight, it's probably gonna be this AU's version of Todd that just ends up swooning a kid and torturing Kris personally for a while during El Camino.
Look this started off as a shitpost but I now want to seriously workshop this into an actually kinda decent story and retelling of Breaking bad, I just really wanna hear Spamton with Saul Goodman's voice because Bob Odenkirk has always been my voice headcannon for Spamton (just very VERY unhinged in his deliveries) so I don't know what to tell you. Insert Breaking Bad intro theme here.
ok so this may be the last deltarune art I post for a while because I ended up listening to the Touhou OST for the sake of nostalgia and am feeling like returning to my roots (haha no pun intended), still gonna pay attention to Deltarune and any other future chapters though. Also, major spoilers for Deltarune chapter five below, this piece itself isn't a spoiler but there are spoilers in the artist notes so be warned!
Artist's Notes;
So I figured out how to change my phone ringtone and notification sounds and immediately wanted to theme my phone around Deltarune because I was so hyped for Chapter 5. I legit used a ruler to make sure that my ratio for this was big enough and it worked pretty well so I'm happy about that. Flowery's boss fight annoyed me so much mainly because of how clunky the mechanics are to get used to. I feel like it would have been more interesting if throughout each fight with one of the six flowers, they used their soul effects on you (i.e. Blue makes you blue, yellow makes the soul yellow, etc), where each fight introduces each mechanic, and then the Flowery fight makes you switch in between each soul mode during each attack somehow idk it'd probably be even more clunky but ooooh my god I wish we could have gotten more chances to acclimate to the orange soul's playstyle becaue I struggled SO HARD- but yeah other than that I liked the mechanics of this chapter a lot. Also I love Mew Mew, I love her fight so much, Petal Dance is my favourite track of the chapter because of those BEAUTIFUL ZUN-PETS YEAAAAAAAAAAAH- (I was literally thinking during Aqua's fight, "wow! these bullet patterns feel very Touhou-" AND THEN THE ZUN-PETS KICKED IN AND I WENT FERAL. Speaking of feral, the moment Flowery showed up I hissed like a feral cat the moment he said his name, he pisses me off so much I LOVE HIM, he's such a professional ragebaiter. I really enjoyed Chapter 5 overall, and while a lot of people aren't that big a fan of the tone of the chapter, I think it works with it being the last "fun" adventure and is also pretty good juxtaposition to... something that happens in this chapter that has genuinely made me physically ill thinking about but tickles my morbid love for existential and psychological horror so much that it makes this game feel like a large scale psychological experiment, no joke.
Anyways, onto the art. So I wanted to try doing actual lineart for once after using the chalk brush again. Despite a few stray lines here and there, I'm actually pretty happy with how this turned out. It's a different sort of style and feel compared to what I usually go for, but I enjoyed changing up my style for this one. Choosing an actual colour palette was really difficult, but once I changed up my process and added the actual foreground and background I ended up really liking it. I was inspired by the Kingdom Heart's Stained Glass art, so that influenced the composition of the piece a lot. I'll also put my sketchbook doodle for this piece in as well, because there were a few changes in terms of Kris' design along the way. I made Kris' cape cover up the entirety of their chest because I genuinely did not feel like drawing their torso and also because I liked how it looked a lot. I really like making Kris' cape big and flowy because there's just more oppurtunities for posing and compositions that way. I also just really like drawing fabric, it's so fun. I may not be 100% satisfied with the way the pose reads, though I blame that on the fact that I've been looking at this god damn piece for way too long LOL-
I REALLY REALLY wanted to incorperate the blue roses Kris is associated with into the piece, and this ended up making me think about Kris' backstory again. So, blue roses are genetically modified versions of white roses (which thinking about it now, calls to mind the whole "copies are monochrome but you coloured us in with care" thing) and this got me thinking about theories like "Kris is the vessel we made in the beginning of the game." I'm not 100% a follower of this theory, but a part of me also believes that Kris is tied to Gaster in some way. Another idea I've had is that Kris was experimented on by Gaster in the shelter, or that Gaster is PLOT TWIST! A HUMAN! And is Kris' biological father that heard about the prophecy, had a religious psychosis about it, can did scientific experiments on his own child to try and create a vessel for them in the shelter, to which Kris escaped and was taken in by the Dreemurrs. Their dynamic would probably be something like, "no matter how much you hate me, your are still my child," and a lot of Kris' childhood was Gaster focusing on making Kris a strong enough vessel for us, the player (I wanna make another post and/or art piece talking about this so I'll leave it at that). On that note, I believe that down in the shelter, something similar to the determination experiments is going on down there, and if Dess Knight is true, then those experiments are what caused her to turn into the Roaring Knight. This is also why Friend is similar to Endogeny, they're also an amalgamate, alongside the knight (who noticeably drips darkness goop when we first see it in Chapter 3). I don't have any solid evidence as I don't know all of the lore, but I just wanted to talk about some of my ideas here.
I'll admit, because there is so much going on in Deltarune's story, and so many loose threads I'm a liiiiittle concerned for how the story is going to wrap everything up. I have faith, but I'm still a little worried.
Haven't really posted any sketches in a long time, especially not in this style I used to do a lot in my early digital art days, so here are a few Kris sketches that I did. I realized in trying (and failing) at doing another piece that the way I drew Kris' side profile didn't really feel like them, so I did this little head turnaround thingy just for proportions.
I actually had to think about Kris' other eye for once... the one I always cover up with their hair... you don't wanna see the bald edit, it's kinda cursed... anyway, I fucking love facial crests or whatever you call this sort of style, so I did that, kinda makes them look a wee bit like a bird but I don't fucking care uhhhh Kerdly shippers this is your chance!?!!?! Kerdly isn't my main OTP but I'm a multishipper so use this accidental design element as you will???? If Kris were to be any bird they'd probably be a corvid of some kind idk, maybe that's just because I did the edgy hair thing where one of the eyes is covered. If you know more about birds than me and wanna throw in your two cents lemme know, I had a friend obsessed with centipedes tell me what Centipede I would be Scolopendra alcyona, all I know about them is that they're blue and cool looking so-
FNAF fangame concept. It's similar to Pizzeria Simulator and the nights are normal, but you actually get to work the day shifts yourself and it's basically a Papa Louie's game. So during the night you're fighting for you life against animatronics that wanna murder you, and during the day your customers are gonna wanna murder you because you happened to place the pepperoni on a slightly bad angle and you loose points on your toppings score despite it looking PERFECTLY FUCKING FINE (I've been on a Papa's Freezeria grind lately if you can't tell).
Bonus features, you're basically trying to keep the animatronics from not only getting to you, but also fucking up the facilities. If an animatronic were to get in the kitchen, you'd have to spend time during your shift fixing all the equipment and making sure Chica didn't eat half of the ingredients again, so you gotta order more but that ends up making a lot of noise because your office computer is so shit it sounds like its on its dying breaths every time you so much as open a webpage, the webpage in question being old school Internet Explorer because fuck you in particular.
If Undertale or Deltarune were to somehow get a movie (despite their plots not fitting the medium), if animation is inexplicably off the table, the only way for a live action adaptation to work would be to have everyone but the humans be puppets, old school Jim Henson style. Practical effects is the only way a live action Undertale or Deltarune would even work, and the only CGI used should be for characters like the Roaring Knight to make them feel extremely uncanny and like they don't belong in the world (ok thinking about it now that might actually look goofy as fuck, maybe stop motion instead?)
Exceptions are Sans and Papyrus because they'd be done best via stop motion.
The only humans in normal costumes allowed are the ones playing Frisk, Chara and Kris. Every single monster and/or darkner is a puppet of some kind.
ok so turns out changing the colour palette and composition was the key to actually making me wanna finish this piece YIPEEEEE
Artist's Notes;
IDK why but I tend to really struggle with using bright fuchsias and hot pinks in art. Maybe it's just because I tend to gravitate towards certain colour pallets or I just don't like using super bright cold colours. I had this issue with the last piece of Deltarune fanart I made where I just didn't like how the pink of Kris' cape stood out, and my one gripe about that piece is how monochrome it looks. I think improving on my colour range (like, the kinds of colours I use, IDK I just made the term up) is gonna be my next thing to work on because I do wanna try branching out to colours and pallets I normally don't use.
I was also listening to Penumbra Phantasm a lot while working on this piece, and while a lot of people thought it would be the final boss theme, idk I always saw it as being Kris' theme weirdly enough. Maybe because the original version of it is played on the piano or I just really like Kris and think they deserve a cool-ass theme lol. I do think they'd take after their father and include the game over leitmotif in "Faint Courage" because I think it really fits them. I was even humming it at certain points while listening to Penumbra Phantasm and it actually works really well in the key of the piece. If I were to ever compose a musical piece for like, a battle theme for Kris, I'd probably throw in a leitmotif or two from Heartache to represent their connection to Toriel, using Penumbra Phantasm as a base, and then using the Faint Courage leitmotif as well. The main instrument would probably be a piano because I think their love for playing the piano should be reflected in any potential boss theme they get.
You'll also notice some changes in how I designed Kris' armor. Like many aspects of my art style, the way I interpreted Kris' in-game armor was inspired by Yoshitaka Amano's work on the Final Fantasy series. My headcannon is that Dragon Blazers is the Deltarune equivalent to Final Fantasy, and the aura that Amano's works give off just feels like the kind of aura Kris wants to exude. Like, they'd fucking love the fact that their armor looks like it came straight off of some Dragon Blazer's box art, so they have every right to aura farm.
I like how the blockyness of their cape ended up contrasting with how intricate their armor turned out, and I also loved rendering their hair. One thing that I've started doing when doing the lighting is having it almost reflect off of the armor to emphasize how shiny it is.
So the process of figuring out Kris' armor started in my sketchbook. I found a bunch of references of how Amano designs armor and tried to sort of capture the vibe they gave off while drawing Kris' armor (also Noelle as a bonus, I'll be honest I'm still trying to figure out how to draw her in my style as well). I also wanted to give them some silver hoop earrings because that just feels like something Kris would wear all the time.
In some of my initial drafts for Kris' armor I gave them long sleeves but found that the short sleeved look just worked better for Kris (also is more accurate to their in-game sprite) and also fit the vibe I was going for (I'll put some of those initial sketches in here too). The one I did in colour was like, one of the first drawings of Kris' dark world form I did. You can also tell these are old because of how wack the anatomy is (also bonus Ralsei, Frisk, and Friend). In these older sketches I gave their cape this collar that I stylized by making it a triangle, and even tried giving Kris some chainmail but I was never 100% happy with them. You can also see where I started trying to take some inspo from Early final fantasy designs with Kris' armor. I'm also really really bad with markers so please pardon the shitty colouring. Weirdly enough I have an easier time with Kris' in-game palette traditionally than digitally idk. Originally I was going to give them a heart-shaped chest plate but I'll be honest I couldn't make it work digitally. Also, I do not CARE if the long ass cape is impractical, it's fucking cool as shit and it lets me have fun with Kris' silhouette when drawing them so SHHHHH-
Sharing this WIP of Kris because I swear I had a (mental) concept for this piece where there's cool magic shit coming from inside the cape but I don't know what to fucking do now and I designed a whole ass sword just for this because I wanted to give them a sword but it isn't fitting anywhere and I'm just struggling rn AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
More Zanmu/Byakuren ship ideas I have been thinking about ever since I made the Yokai Jesus and Yokai Judas post because I can't get them out of my head. I know some of these backstory interpretations may sound a bit out there but please HEAR ME OUT-
(Long long post ahead so I'll just put a little keep reading thingy here)
I like the idea of them paralleling Reimu and Marisa when they knew each other in the past. I know this may be a bit unorthodox of an interpretation for Byakuren, but maybe like Marisa things didn't initially come easy to her when she first started practicing Buddhism. However, much like Marisa she worked hard to get better at Yokai extermination and the spiritual aspects of Buddhism.
On the contrary, Zanmu was a natural. She was probably considered the pride of whatever monastery she was trained at and was their most skilled monk. She had a talent for exterminations, urging restless souls to let go of their ties to the mortal realm, that their efforts to achieve their goals in life now mean nothing. She would have a calming presence for those around her. Heck, if you didn't know the fates of either of them you'd assume Zanmu would end up with Byakuren's status after she was unsealed.
The two of them would probably cross paths on their own respective pilgrimages maybe, or one of them visits the other's temple, but I like to imagine that since that meeting they'd probably enjoy talking about their differing views on Buddhism and even if they may disagree with each other they both enjoy having a meaningful conversation. They'd also work together on Youkai exterminations or investigating incidents a la Reimu and Marisa, but they would have probably made a good team. They would balance each other out as Byakuren's emotional openness would stand in opposition to Zanmu's strict reasoning (she was like that even as a human). I also want to add that Zanmu was Byakuren's gay awakening and Byakuren had a big fat crush on Zanmu for the longest time (unbenownst to Zanmu). Zanmu was fond of Byakuren but for reasons she didn't entirely know the meaning of. She was never really good with her own emotions, let alone the emotions of others, and just assumed that her fondness and protectiveness of Byakuren probably just came out of reciprocity for the emotional breathing room Byakuren gave her. The world had hardened Zanmu, but Byakuren was a respit from that in a way. Byakuren helped soften up Zanmu a bit, and Zanmu helped Byakuren learn to hold on to reason and logic even in a stressful situation (and Myouren was pretty much the third wheel). They lived their lives just like this together for the rest of their day and it could have stayed that way...
But then Myouren dies. Byakuren was devastated and soon, began fearing death and desperately trying to learn to prevent it. Byakuren slowly began spiraling trying everything her religion allowed and Zanmu could only watch as the one person she cared about the most in her life slowly drive herself into this mental hell-hole with no escape. Zanmu would probably start to worry about her, afraid that she may get a little too desperate and start meddling in things she shouldn't. Soon, the two grow apart and continue their lives on their own.
One day, Zanmu and Byakuren run into each other again and Byakuren seems... better. She looks pretty much how Zanmu remembered her since her brother died and has actually found success as a monk. When they finally reunite Byakuren tells Zanmu that she did it. She found the key to immortality. The two of them are finally able to talk to each other again, though when Zanmu asks about human villagers whispering to each other as Byakuren passes by she just dismisses them. Zanmu, being the way that she is, soon realized after doing her own investigation that there are rumors of Byakuren helping the Youkai. Suddenly the fears she had all those years ago come right back into her mind, and one day, she asks her about it.
Now imagine how Zanmu felt when Byakuren, with absolute joy and relief, came to tell her about how she finally found a way to escape death, and it was through Youkai. Something that went against the very foundations of their religion. Those rumors of a demon disguised as a monk, those rumours about Byakuren... were true this entire time.
Imagine being Byakuren, finally finding a way to save herself and the person she loves from death, trusting them enough to tell them. Hell she even confessed her feelings that day, feeling like she could trust Zanmu with the knowledge of feelings that their society would ultimately frown upon.
And then that person becomes the one responsible for you being sealed away for an eternity.
She had to do it. If the people find out about any of this who knows what would happen to her. The sudden confession, the lack of time's wear and tear on her face, all of it made sense now. She exposed Byakuren for everything, her feelings, the reason for her immortality, her sin, everything. But as Zanmu sealed Byakuren away, gazing one last time into her eyes...she felt sick to her stomach. Sick with guilt. Something in her gut told her that she made a horrible decision way too late.
And as Byakuren gazed on last time into Zanmu's eyes, she saw everything. The regret, the sorrow, and most of all the fear. In that moment, Byakuren felt pity for her. Had humanity been just a little more forgiving, Zanmu wouldn't have done this. Had she truly opened her heart and give a chance to all of the Youkai she helped, she would have understood why she did what she did. But the fear she taught Byakuren to see through had blinded her, and she sealed her to the depths of Makai for the rest of time.
Zanmu was never the same after this. For days and days upon end she grappled with the guilt that hollowed her very soul. She had done something good, right? And on one of those days, a cruel realization hit her. What she felt when she was around Byakuren was love this whole time. She threw away the one person who would have been open enough and caring enough to accept her feelings all because she was too stupid to realize that she felt the exact same way for her this entire time and for what? She saw the same monks who had helped her in the sealing ritual pursue the exact same forbidden desires, relish in greed and gluttony yet somehow Byakuren was the guiltiest of them all? Byakuren, the woman who extended the kindness of the Buddha to those society had abandoned, who cared for people no matter if they were human or Youkai, and the one who pulled Zanmu out of her isolation. Her strict following of her religions teachings had all been for nothing, humanity was still cruel and she had just commited the same crimes the world that hardened her had done against her. And it was through this revelation she realized,
She finally did it. She has achieved true enlightenment.
It's at this point that Zanmu starts acting more like how her omake.txt describes and also like how her historical inspirations acted. She slept around with other women to try and fill the void where Byakuren was meant to be. She let herself indulge in the same corruption as the one true practitioner of their religion's teachings was no long gone. During the Sengoku era she once again was forced to witness humanities cruelty and began "saving" spirits and Youkai in her own way and you probably know the rest.
I basically just wrote the skeleton notes for a long ass fanfiction and I haven't even gotten to the part where they reunite in Gensokyo. I initially wanted to do the boring thing and have Byakuren be all forgiving because "oh you were just as much a victim as I was" but I think it would be a lot more interesting for there to be some tension between them. Byakuren still cares about Zanmu despite everything that happened between them and has long since moved past what she did (because she understands why Zanmu did what she did and has come to terms with that) but now Zanmu is pulling even more shit and has indirectly put Nazrin into danger during Touhou 19's incident and she is not about to let Zanmu put the people she cares about in danger. A part of her also just wants to see what the fuck happened during those hundreds of years to see someone who was so close to practically becoming a Bodhisattva becoming the lord of Oni and Hell itself. On the other hand, Zanmu is absolutely elated to try and drag her down with her, to see if this kind, pure soul has it in her to be as sinful as herself. To prove that the one person who she saw as pure and virtuous isn't just another soulless bastard like every other monk she knew in her life, that there is still some hope for this world.
Got reminded of this thingy again. It's been a while since I posted any Touhou stuff but I think taking a break from the series has allowed me to get excited about it again, especially these two so TIME TO TALK ABOUT THEM SOME MORE- and this time I wanna think more about their hypothetical present-day relationship and interactions.
(again, this one's gonna be a long one lmao)
Zanmu meant the world to Byakuren pre-sealing, and during the time of Byakuren's imprisonment in Makai, she probably anticipated that Zanmu would become elevated to the status of a god or bodhisvatta. The people would worship her as the one who sealed away the demon disguised as a monk, and maybe things would change. She knows that Zanmu didn't seal her away out of malice, and maybe if she became some form of divinity and finally become truly enlightened, that she might one day come back for her in Makai. That her impact on her would lead Zanmu to becoming the person Byakuren always saw in her, and from there she'd be the one to maintain a temple for her. A place where both humans and Yokai can coexist, a place where her and Zanmu could just live peacefully together. Byakuren herself didn't need to become a bodhisvatta or divinity, she'd be way too humble to even consider that an option, but she'd want to be there for Zanmu. So she wouldn't feel so alone in her divinity, so Zanmu could have someone to understand her... and maybe, someone who understands her too. Zanmu was the only person that cared enough to help Byakuren through the loss of Myouren, someone she could fall back on so her responsibilities don't seem as overwhelming.
And every day spent alone and miserable in Makai, for every second of her isolation... she'd dream about that future. She'd go to sleep and spend days in this ideal world of hers, dream of the day Zanmu returns and forgives Byakuren for her sins and would sweep her off to one of her temples so they can live out the rest of their immortal lives together. And when she'd wake up? She'd still hold onto that dream. "What a beautiful story that would be," she'd wonder, "like the ending to one of those poems she'd write on those lazy afternoons..."
Even after she was unsealed, she'd keep Zanmu in her prayers. She'd pray that even if she never achieved enlightenment, that she still lead a happy life and let go of the fear that caused her to seal her away all those years ago. To see her change their world into a kinder one...
...so you can probably imagine her shock seeing how Zanmu actually turned out...
Byakuren would be horrified seeing her old friend like this, she absolutely wants to help her and understand where the fuck things went wrong,
But then Zanmu starts bringing the rest of her desciples into this...Her feelings about Byakuren would be.... well messy at best. She'd feel happy sure, but there's a part of her that's so envious of how she's ended up after all these years. Zanmu knows how to get under Byrakuren's skin. She knows every little dirty secret as if it were her own, and knows exactly what hurts her. She knows what makes her cry, what makes her angry, what brings her joy, she could play the woman like a god damn fiddle so that's exactly what she'll do because she wants to see just how much she can take before she ends up just like the rest of those self-rightous scumbags, to see if she'd be able to pull her down to her level so she doesn't have to feel so alone anymore. She'd taunt Byakuren with Myouren's death, she'd orchestrate an entire scheme just to see how far she can push and poke and prod until she breaks.
And yet,
she doesn't.
Their dynamic has changed completely since their days wandering together. Byakuren has become a master of her own emotions and is smart enough to thwart everything Zanmu throws her way, and Zanmu has become so lost in emotions she was once so good at nullifying that she can focus on nothing else but Byakuren. Zanmu wants Byakuren to hate her, but Byakuren never will.
I wanted to draw Sans in an interesting pose that wasn't just him standing there, but I was art blocked so here's a drawing of him posed like an angel in a renaissance painting I saw in a museum because why not.
Ok so uh, why do the centers of some of the amalgamates in Undertale's True Lab resemble e-ram. I feel like I'm going insane and am just seeing things please tell me I'm not the only one who noticed this HAS ANYONE ELSE POINTED THIS OUT BEFORE DOES THIE MEAN ANYTHING??!?!?!?!?
I wanted to draw Sans in an interesting pose that wasn't just him standing there, but I was art blocked so here's a drawing of him posed like an angel in a renaissance painting I saw in a museum because why not.
