You’ve been dying for a change in scenery, you have heard from a couple of people that there are multiple places you can go to, but what really got your attention was one place. Your friend of a friend of a friend of a doctor suggested the beautiful island city of Astoria. Lush forests and blue waters surround the grandiose skyscrapers that kiss the sky. Regardless of your circumstances, you find yourself buying your ticket, packing up what your own, and following where your heart takes you.
What could go wrong?
If you look too closely, you’ll see that the politics are corrupt, the sectors are fragmented, and everything might not be what it seems.
Looks like if you aren’t at the top of the food chain then you’re screwed. You better choose wisely where you live and work or else things might be harder for you.
DiscursoRPG, is a 15+ multi-fandom, futuristic utopian, semi-closed RP group. We’re located on Tumblr AND Discord.
[my old rp group closed, so I am now affiliated with @discursorpg! Please check out the group if you have time and are looking for a technological, futuristic dystopian story! In any case, all posts will now be set in the city of Astoria, and all previous posts are no longer my canon verse. Thank you!]
This semester, I had the pleasure of taking a class at my university called “Subversive Cultures and Performance” that allowed me to explore and create a new subversive subculture. Of course, with the opportunity to choose ANYTHING, I chose Mettaton, and centered around his “Glambots.” Below you will find an in-depth analysis of what Mettaton’s subculture would be like in today’s society. Enjoy! If you have any further questions or would like to exchange ideas, please message me!
Have you ever wished you could be a part of the world of glitz and glamour? Wearing every shade of pink on the spectrum and looking fabulous while doing it? Well that’s what the “glambot” subculture does. The name of Mettaton’s subculture, “Glambot” is a cross between the word “glamour” and “robot.” Mettaton is a robot from the game Undertale by Toby Fox. He is a robot that was built by Dr. Alphys, a monster scientist in the underground. But being glamorous isn’t the only goal of the glambot subculture. Bringing joy, happiness, and equality is a main component of their aspirations.
Mettaton is a robot performer in the Underground world of Undertale. The monsters in the Underground only have one source of entertainment, and that is Mettaton, the Underground’s #1 Idol. He works incredibly hard to perform for them and bring the Underground as much excitement and drama as possible. In one scene, a lion is seen wearing a dress that Mettaton wore in one of his in-game performances. He tells the protagonist that Mettaton recognized him, and gave him the dress. This act of kindness just starts to demonstrate what kind of personality Mettaton had.
And as it turns out, Mettaton wasn’t ALWAYS a robot. In fact, he was a ghost who had his body transferred into the body that Alphys built. As a ghost, Mettaton was “never really happy with his body.” However when Alphys granted this opportunity, he was able to be truly happy. For this reason, many transgender people rally around him and celebrate the experience described in the game, which was described much like gender dysphoria. The subculture of glambots is kind and giving, but is sure to look fabulous while doing it. They celebrate being happy in your own skin. Their political goal is to bring equality to all, and you can often see them frequenting equality rallies, dressed head to toe in bright pink heels and boas. Often, many of them dress up as Mettaton. They show their support of marginalized groups by parading as their favorite character. The glambots have protested at Congress by leaving rows and rows of hot pink heels on the steps of the Capitol Building. They held signs up that said “WE JUST WANTED A PLACE TO CHANGE INTO OUR HEELS” in solidarity with the transgender community when they had their rights to use their bathrooms of choice challenged. The photos were splashed all over the news, and the eye catching pink heels brought attention to their movement.
Not all members of the glambot community are transgender or suffer from gender dysphoria or body dysmorphia. To be a glambot, you just have to support equality, have the desire to be glamourous in each and every endeavor, and to love Mettaton unconditionally. However there is definitely a level of competition within the glambot community. There is constantly a push for bigger and better costumes. The consistent distinctiveness of glambots is their outrageous Mettaton inspired outfits. Often times you can see them wearing hot pink boots, even when not at rallies or events. They often wear sparkly eyeshadow, usually hot pink in nature. A common hairstyle is long bangs over one side, dyed black, with pink undertones. Glambots can be as subtle as wearing all baby pinks or as obnoxious as wearing a full feather boa, heels, a full face of makeup, and even a Mettaton cosplay. They aren’t afraid to make a statement, and if you see a glambot, you’ll probably know that they’re a part of the subculture.
More lights, more drama, more hard work always means more respect in the community. If you spend more money on your cosplays, you will have more cultural capital. Wearing these advanced costumes are almost like a status symbol. Most of the leaders in the community have been cosplaying Mettaton since the game’s release on September 15, 2015. Since the game’s release, many rallied around Mettaton as a beacon of hope, and to them, he was their hero. These cosplayers then realized that many of them had the same interests, and decided to expand the group to include other goals.
There are a few symbols in the glambot community that are particularly important. Of course, Mettaton is the most important symbol in their community. They worship and look up to him. He is what they aspire to be and anyone who disses him is immediately shunned and ignored. You can expect ANY glambot to have his entire character analysis memorized, front and back. If you try to diss their “god,” you will certainly receive an earful from them. They recognize that he has flaws like any other character, but they’ll definitely explain to you exactly why that is necessary to his character. This is one symbol people should definitely avoid talking poorly about.
The second symbol is glitter. Glambots love putting glitter on everything. Whether it’s their hat or in their hair, on their clothes or on their shoes. They’ll get spray glitter for their skin and even paint their nails with glitter. For glambots, glitter is a staple. Some of the most devout glambots have gone as far as to even add glitter to things like smoothies, parfaits milkshakes, and even cereal. (The shakes with glitter in them are fondly called “Starfaits,” named after an in-game item you can purchase at Mettaton’s Resort.) These fans usually have thousands of followers on Instagram, Twitter, and Tumblr. Social media presence is very important to Glambot subculture. Being able to get the Glambot message out to thousands of people is imperative to the encouraging more people to join. Even if it’s something as silly as posting a glittery smoothie, it catches the attention of people. And even if people are originally drawn in by their outrageous stunts, it might draw people in to learn about their cause.
The third symbol is hearts. This may seem obvious, but you can usually find Glambots with at least one heart somewhere on their clothing. This is to obviously symbolize love, but it is also a symbol of solidarity. If you see someone with a small pink heart pin, you can be sure that they are a safe person to talk to and help get you out of a bad situation. Glambots encourage all of their followers to wear a heart somewhere in some form or fashion. Glambot fan sites often sell pins or buttons that people can wear, even if you aren’t specifically a Glambot.
Creating music in the Glambot scene is HUGE because Mettaton is a musical performer! His in-game theme, “Death By Glamour” has been remixed so many times within the subculture. Many cross this theme over with electro-swing songs, electronica, dubstep, and even metal. It is a common idea to try to come up with the best remix of the song. However, most of the time, the subculture is seen rallying around electro-swing music, which is a mix of electronic beats and swing/jazz type music. Some of the top songs that people listen to are “Lone Digger” by Caravan Palace, “Looking like This” by Lyre le Temps, and Jamie Berry and Octavia Rose’s, “Delight.” The subculture is also fond of the Studio Killers, enjoying songs like “In Tokyo.” Lyrics of this song include:
“In a strictly guarded industrial facility
In the outskirts of the city
Where future is made of iron and plastic
I experienced something fantastic
Down in Tokyo
I made out with a robot
It felt gentle, but robust”
With lyrics like this, it’s no wonder that the Glambots rally around artists like the Studio Killers.
Being such a niche group, the group really has to create content for themselves. There are artists in the community that create MTT “fanzines” such as this one: mtt-fanzine.tumblr.com. These artists come together to create artwork of their favorite character. Fans can then purchase these fanzines and the proceeds go towards the artists and towards a fund specifically targeted to help transgender people get hormones, sex reassignment surgery, and any other help they may need. The group prides itself on helping queer people in need, while also fighting for the equality of these people. An important part of their mission is to be intersectional, focusing on how color, gender identity, socioeconomic status, and a variety of other factors can impact the experience of a person. The group has a fansite called “glambots.com” where they share fanart, fanfiction, photography, music, and art mediums of any kind on the site. The website is a place for planning rallies, events, and the main event of the year, METTACON. METTACON is a convention where glambots of all kinds rally together from all over the world. This convention takes place in Washington, DC. They celebrate Mettaton, and every cosplayer cosplays from the game Undertale, however most end up cosplaying some form of Mettaton. There are different versions, outfits, etc that people decide to dress up as. At this convention people sell art, music, and merchandise all dedicated to Mettaton.
In conclusion, my subculture could probably never be a real thing. Although it’s a good cause, there just aren’t enough people who love Mettaton to realistically be able to create a movement this large. I think there is definitely a space for a group of cosplayers that would love to use their work to help others, but I don’t think that there are enough Mettaton fans in particular that would be able to rally around him to create a social movement. Undertale has been out for almost 2 years now, and the fandom has severely slowed down on content. While it hasn’t completely died out, there just aren’t as many people who are interested as there were before. My subculture has an important place in my heart, as I absolutely love Mettaton and would love to be a part of a subculture of like minded individuals like myself. Wearing cosplay, supporting a good cause, making good music, and loving Mettaton all sound like an amazing thing to be a part of. For now I’m content with being a part of other subcultures that have the different aspects that I described in the glambot subculture. Through glitz, glamour, kindness, and awareness, the glambot subculture would make an amazing impact on the world, and look fabulous while doing it.
When Mettaton came to him, it was a dream come true. Obviously he would have to see him because of his rising popularity. But just seeing his idol, it was magical. Len’s heart skipped and raced and bounced all over, his words weren’t smooth at all and his hands were shaking. The boy was the definition of “Star Struck”.
“I’m t-trying!” He struggled out, eyes narrowed and breathing unsteady. He raised his arms and glared at the reflection of himself in the mirror, angles were off, foot wasn’t high enough.
Metta promised him time together and this was it, he was training him for the day so to speak. The young idol immedietly smirked and ranted on about dancing coming, “Almost naturally!” However this wasn’t coming as natural as he would normally have liked.
‘Just what kind of fucking dance–’ Len cursed up a storm in his mind, arching his back and kicking his leg out. His form was shaky, not strong and poised like the older idol.
Why isn’t he able to catch on so quickly with this routine? He sneered at his reflection and calculated the timing correctly, was it the angles of his leg? His arms? He knew the dance, he knew the song. But his form, it wasn’t perfect, it wasn’t exact.
Mettaton watched the younger boy struggle, laughing as he rolled his hips to the tune, the moves coming to him easier than he remembered. This dance had taken him a while to learn too, but he definitely wasn’t going to go easy on Len. He always held the most promising idols to a higher standard, and if Len wanted to rise to greatness as he did, he was going to have to push.
“Try a bit harder and we can take a break!” he laughed, twirling and clapping in time with the music. He kept his eyes on the mirror, but he was watching Len fumble with the dance, struggling to keep up with the timing of the fast paced song. It was a remix of his most popular song of all time, Death by Glamour.
“Come on, you want to get those numbers up don’t you?”
Mettaton twirled, sticking out his leg and arching his back as he gave Len a big smile. His eyes readjusted as he focused on the mirror, keeping his form as he gyrated to the music. He had promised the younger idol that he’d spend some time with him and show him the ropes, though it wasn’t really fair that he started off with teaching him one of his most difficult dance routines.
He liked Len Kagamine, he really did. The kid had good drive, a good desire to win, and a really charming personality. He had just one glaring character flaw.
The kid was cocky as hell, and Mettaton could tell that it was going to be the means to his destruction.
“Alright Len, come on! Keep up! You want to hit S someday don’t you?” he breathed, dancing alongside the other to the music.
He knew the routine was hard, but he had to bring the younger idol down to earth. He was getting overly confident, and it was starting to show. And Mettaton knew that a hard training session with the roster’s #1 idol was just what the blond needed to sober up.
They had talked a few times about meeting up in the hospital, but none of them ever really did anything. When Takumi finally got his wheelchair, he wanted to surprise Mettaton with a visit.
Before he could get across the room to the door, Mettaton walked in.
“Oh! I was just about to go to you!” he said, slowly wheeling up to him. “I got my chair!”
“Look at you!” he smiled, his eyes lighting up as his eyes scanned over Takumi’s new chair. It was better than seeing him stuck in bed, unable to move or do anything for himself. This was going to give him a lot more freedom, and they’d be able to do more things together with him in the chair.
“Wanna go for a walk? It’ll be good therapy to get used to my new arm.”
She wasn’t laughing along. It was genuine advice coming from her. She took in a deep breath, letting it out loudly. “Mettaton. I’m not joking.” Her tone was serious. She hated being the bearer of bad news at times, but she had to do her job.
“Ever since the scandals have broken out, your numbers have a fallen. Not enough to rip you out of your top spot, but enough where you need to take a step back and look at a large picture. We are asking you to take time off to delay that album. Releasing it now will go one of two ways. It sells well only because of this scandal, or it sells terribly. While I am not doubting your talents, putting it out there right now is risky. Therefore, we’ve made a decision to have it delayed on your behalf.”
God, the silence only made this worse. She set her chocolate on her lap. “You still have to get used to your new arm. If we release your CD, you will have too much work and not enough time to heal. Though it is entirely my fault for your prosthetic being destroyed, we ask that you cooperate with us on this.”
Mettaton’s heart plummeted. Of course his numbers dropped.
He should’ve expected this. He should’ve known.
“...how far have my numbers fallen? Is it going to be...recoverable? After I get out of this damn prison....” he clenched his fist metallic fingers, grating against each other as he increased the pressure. He was angry at himself.
“Taking a break is the last thing I need right now...I need to be working to get my numbers back up...but I guess I don’t have much of a choice...do I?” he didn’t even try to hide the disappointment crawling from the pit of his stomach. He felt sick, like his world was crumbling around him. His fame, his fans, his status as an idol was all he had.
And one mistake was sending that all spiraling into the ground.
There he was, settled at the end of his seat and ready to witness the show, and the next moment it seemed he was being pulled into the show.
Mettaton had entered the stage, and Lucio’s smile grew slightly larger as he lifted a brow. They hadn’t been lying when they spoke of how… sparkly the other was. Mettaton had style, there was no doubt to that. Every moment appeared flippant and yet planned, and as Lucio joined the crowd in their applause the star drank it up.
It was a perk to sit to close so that he could see the details of the Idol and he looked forward to watching - but the star could see his own face clearly enough too.
As Lucio was recognized, at once he decided to play along. Blinking away the sudden light in his face, he gracefully stood and lifted a hand to greet the applause for the “surprise guest” and directly addressed Mettaton up on the stage.
“Woo, I don’t know if I can live up to an introduction like that! I thought I’d pay your little show a visit and see what all the fuss was about and maybe spice things up a bit.”
Placing his hands upon his hips, he gave a cheeky wink before continuing on playfully. “Gotta say Metta, I can already see why your ratings are so high, you are rocking that outfit.”
“Oh daaaarling! You flatter me!” he giggled, his earring swinging back and forth as he tilted his head back to laugh. His outfit tonight was like his outfits most other nights. Tight, glimmering black leggings, a glittery pink suit jacket, and his signature hot pink boots that rang out across the stage with every stride.
Once he walked over to Lucio, he wrapped his arm around the other’s shoulders and gave him a sweet smile and a wink.
“I wasn’t expecting to see a superstar like you in Aelton! Why has the young legend graced our presence today?~”
Green-grey optics focused on the can of soda which had rolled away from it’s owner, and he bent down to pick it up. What was left of it, at least, as apparently the contents had spilled onto the floor and formed a puddle which would only become sticky the more it was allowed to dry. “I’ll make sure to let the nurse know about it.” Nagito commented, a little chirp to his tone.
He knew that Mettaton was a skeptic in regards to fortune and misfortune. However Komaeda’s record was undeniably present. Hell, the idol had even witnessed the luckster’s accidents himself from time to time. Most would assume it was simply carelessness on the white-haired male’s behalf. But he knew better.
"When doesn’t it, though? I was very disappointed I couldn’t come to it.” There was a convention scheduled for him that week, so it’d been impossible to wiggle out of that commitment. “Even with what happened, you shouldn’t blame yourself over something you had no control over. You had no way of knowing, after all!”
Mettaton shrugged, not really wanting Nagito to say what everyone else had said before. They all just kept telling him it wasn’t his fault. When really, he could help but feel responsible for everything that happened. There could’ve been more preventive measures put in place but...he was careless.
And that was why he kept blaming himself.
“I’m trying my best to not feel responsible for everyone who was hurt...but it’s hard.” he tried to give a smile to the other, despite the fact that he was still in a lot of pain. The nerve endings where his prosthetic arm used to be were still incredibly sensitive. He glanced at it and glanced back to his white haired friend.
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