FATFROGRUNE ~ We're Doing A Sequel! (The Lightners)
Okay so I was going to use Tumblr to look for some references but then I got to thinking and maybe I could use my soapbox for once. I don't have much for this AU but maybe if you like it I can flesh it out and make something with these guys? Never really planned for them to be a weird Deltarune AU but I dunno, we'll burn that bridge when we get there. There'll be lore under the page break.
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Sadie (Kris) - The Fat Frog of FATFROGRUNE fame. The idea is simple. Your name is SADIE LASTNAME. You are a RETRO GAME ENTHUSIAST. You and your GIRLFRIEND are going to meet your parents in your HOMETOWN. You're staying here for SEVEN DAYS. Talkative, slightly obnoxious, really observant but to a point where she describes everything she looks at sort of. It's weird and it kinda started recently like someone's watching her now but what the hell. She's not a bad person. . . She knows she isn't but people seem to not think that. THE GATEWAY OF FROG'S SPAWN.
Nami Vergil Everett (Susie) - The daughter of ■■■■■■■■, local hero of her and Sadie's hometown. She was never really the same after her mother's passing, she couldn't bare to look back. She's stuck in the present, always moving forward without direction. Has a bit of main character syndrome and feels like she has to do most of the work for her and Sadie. She doesn't blame Sadie for what happened, she knows that deep down the things they said she did couldn't have been her fault, but maybe she's just too afraid to look back to notice it. THE TRIAL IN HUMAN SKIN.
Dante Everett (Noelle) - The adopted daughter of ■■■■■■■■ and Ms. Modeus Everett. She was never really the same after her mother's passing. She got stuck in the past, stuck in the memories of all of the good times between her and her mother, always fawning over her mother's old hiking equipment and field notes even if it interferes with her Entological work. Her heart's in the right place but she's not one to let a loose end linger and keeps one hell of a grudge. She believes what they said about Sadie, even if she won't say it to her face. How could she ever find the right time to bring it up. AT FIRST, THE SISTERS. AT LAST, THE SISTERS.
Yusuke Fortune (Berdly) - The weird mathematician girl from Dante's college that she got to drive her to her hometown. She has a slight air of confidence in most things she does, maybe a but of superiority. Underestimates most things, and one of those things might be her relationship with Dante. Rookie Poker and Yugioh Player, she's getting back into playing for the fun of it. She seems a lot cooler than Sadie. Maybe even a better point of view. . . I wonder. . . [No Prophecy Found.]
Fan sprites of Sadie and Zujoe as well as my headcanon of what some part of Slumbering Yards might look like. I think if I were to go back I'd update the look of the dirt. I love the idea of the cursor soul. I had this idea that as a bellhop, Zujoe would politely ask if he can hold your very important items even though you definitely need them.
Sadie battle sprite animated.
Edit: Oh that gif got horrible compression. I’m gonna see if I can fix that. Edit 2: Oh weird it looks fine on desktop. Must just be a mobile issue?
These are just some doodles I did for the greatest Deltarune AU I've ever made. I guess I'll throw out some more info about it for y'all.
The first Chapter or whatever I'll rename Chapters to will take place in Joyce's apartment after she and Sabrina come back from a date. Yes, they are datin'. Yes, they are very cute together. Yes, they did exclusively go to Joyce's place to make out because that's what amphibians do after a long date. It was a big shock when Joyce walked into her bedroom and found a Dark World in there.
Mike-Mayhem has changed a bit in my mind. I'm trying to workshop them as a game that was ripped of its assets and had cheats and cheat codes and was basically just a husk of what it once was. This comes through in their design with Mayhem (The eyes in the cloak) being inside of Mike (The frog head) and using them as a puppet. They have fireballs as reference to the boss of the Ruins, Toriel, and their sword is called the AssetRip.
I don't know why I decided to make the battle UI fit either a phone or a DS if it was split in two. I actually like the idea of making it like a fake DS game or emulator, that vibe is really cool to me.
The Dark World is gonna have a lot of references to old retro games because Joyce likes to 100% those games for some reason. She may also believe that Ice-E.MP3 is real and is trying to convince Sabrina of it by digging through the source code. She's not really the sharpest tool in the shed.
Thats all I'm gonna say for now, hope y'all enjoyed some FatFrogRune content!
FATFROGRUNE - The Most Important Chapter 1 Darkners!
Welcome back to the AU, welcome if you're new. This is the first time I've had to actually make a new design for this AU because Ralsei was never developed as a character. Before the cut I quickly want to thank @redactedtimes for genuinely making a good argument for why Ralsei should be based on Zuma the 2003 Video Game. Cheer and clap. Or something. Also the Ralsei design isn't final.
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Merd (Ralsei) - The lonely prince of deepest dark, cast away from his Home and left to wander the wastes, finding himself stuck in a temporary settlement of well-adjusted Darkners. He knows part of the prophecy of the DELTA RUNE, like most other Darkners, but he doesn't quite know the story of The FATFROG RUNE yet. He seems scary at first, definitely not the best at meeting new people, but genuinely and I cannot overstate this enough his personality is a slice of bread. He was formed from Sadie's insecurities around her involvement with ■■■■■■■■'s death and feeling as if she isn't worth having as much of a voice in this which manifested into the representation of the narrators in books like Frankenstein and The Great Gatsby who weren't there for the cool things but have a really good memory of when a friend told them this story. Merd's weird. THE ELIXIR OF DEEPEST DARK.
Zujoe (Lancer) - Local bell hopping bellhop of the Slumbering Yards and heir to the Mild Manor, your first true introduction to the idea of Darkners in FATFROGRUNE! Wait. . . Wait Merd isn't a Darkner?- Anyway, Zujoe's pretty silly. Just a silly little guy. Likes to follow people who command authority, that's why he likes his dad so much!
Gliyen (King) - New Head of the Mild Manor's staff, the one ruling over the Slumbering Yards with a golden fist and currently trying to breathe new life into their haunted mansion! They're honestly just so tired of taking orders from others, they just want to have some downtime to work on their own project without Lightners needing room service or free towels or the staff telling them that they're being too ambitious, and thankfully, due to their new. . . Acquisition. . . They won't have to worry about Lightners due to their new power!
Crusaidal (Jevil) - Long ago, there lived an exorcist within the Mansion. At first they were simply one of the cleaning staff, but they grew to realize how much their world, their destiny, had changed after they found a glowing crystal hidden in one of the rooms they were cleaning. Unlike many others, she welcomed this change, but the more and more she looked at her patrons and fellow staff, the more she could see what they used to be. And so, she struck out against the staff, attempting to exorcise the past with newfound strength, partially destroying her own body in the process. They staff was able to lock her away in a separate wing of the mansion, but not without heavy casualties, leading Gliyen to become the new head of staff. Now they wander the wing, waiting for their chance to breathe their own kind of new life into the world, to finally get some fresh air. . .
Welcome if you're new, welcome back if you're not, sorry for the hiatus y'all. It took a while to get to stuff together for this AU and honestly after this I feel like there will be a lot more about FATFROGRUNE in the near future, at least I hope. In any case, I've been obsessively drawing Baal NEO, so now y'all get to see it. Hope y'all like it.
FATFROGRUNE - Something Wicked This Way Comes. . .
Welcome if you're new, welcome back if you're not. Congratulations! You've made it to the Weird Route post! In this post I'll attempt to summarize the main events and themes of FATFROGRUNE's Weird Route equivalent that you'd get from Chapter 2 under the cut. There will also be some art to show some important moments that I have drawn. Without any further ado, and with whoever's reading this will look under the cut, I hope you enjoy the show!
As with the original Chapter 2, the way to start the Weird Route is unlocked after Dante, the sort of Noelle of the game, joins the party after Sadie and the Gang are separated. The important thing to note about Sadie and Dante is that they've both been playing nice with eachother for Nami, and without her as a buffer Dante begins to treat Sadie worse and attempt to call her out for what she thinks Sadie did to ■■■■■■■. With this general hostility, I think this will lead to a lot of Sadie's major character flaws coming to light and general put her in the worst possible light she could be taken in so that when Yusuke Fortune is reintroduced the gears in your head will sort of be turning as you meet someone who's much more confident and well liked and just generally everything Sadie isn't. It's almost like the game itself wants you to envision her as the main character, where you're a talented nobody in a small town solving the mystery of your friend's mother's death with your quick wit and skill instead of the person who seemingly caused the mystery to most of the characters. That desire for Yusuke to be the main character is the fundamental drive of this route and will be one of the most important plot points to understand the fate of ■■■■■■■, in a way.
From the moment Dante joins the party, she has access to the spell Charm. Charm is a very powerful option to immediately get a lot closer to sparing an enemy with the cost of a lot of MP, with the spell itself giving like +50-75% spare. This ability to Charm others will be integral to the future steps of the route. You need to do nothing but get Dante to Charm enemies for every oncoming fight, along with some very esoteric puzzles on the side. Dante usually won't follow your orders, especially during the Yusuke fight, so you have to do absolutely nothing but make Dante use Charm in order to get her closer to using the spell on Yusuke. But why would we want to Charm Yusuke, you may ask? Well, for that, the puzzles are where you need to look. This brings us back to Baalpit.
Instead of Baalpit having a shop, Baalpit has a little area in the Trash Dump Equivalent where you can do little minigames to eventually get the key to the basement. I imagine you'd have to intentionally fail several minigames while doing the equivalent of punching in the wall code in FNAF 3 to let Dante attempt to talk to Baalpit. Dante eventually begins to open up with her disdain of Sadie and her grief of her mother's passing. If only she could spend a few more minutes with her. . . That nostalgia reminds Baal a bit of themself, and an idea begins to brew. While Sadie is distracted with the mini games, you make Dante use Charm on Baal repeatedly, and with no MP, she's basically wasting away partially by the time Baal eventually gives in and gives her the only thing he thinks could help.
A golden hand.
Whatever open the Spirit Gate over the Dark Fountain probably must have left this by or something. . . It feels like the golden artifacts you've seen the Main Bosses carrying. Baal says that they can sense a dark power emanating from the hand but has no way to harness it. Like they'd even need it for their plans. . . Dante. . . Dante goes pale. Dante stops talking. Because she knows now. On her heart, gripping tightly to her jacket, is a cold, dead hand. Not like the weapons or armor she had been given up to this point. Whether it was the figure who made the gate or Baal themself. . . She just. Shuts down. It feels so. . . Cold. . . Dante won't do anything if you fight normal enemies now. She just. . . Stands there. Stunned.
Then comes Yusuke. The girl named Fortune had been looking all over for Dante and when she finally sees her and Sadie she kind of brushes off the weird hand and laughs off the cold, dead expression. . . Much like all of her bouts of confidence it's only skin deep. Yusuke eventually attempts to fight again, and to seal your fate what you have to do is take Sadie down. Let her go down and force Dante to use a new move in the Magic Menu. One with an asterisk or circle in front of it like the rest of the spells in the list but without a name or potentially even glitching as if it's attempting to use parts of tilesets as characters. The only description it has only has one word surrounded by empty space as if it was originally part of a sentence "Debilitating."
Dante uses ■■■■■■.
. . . Nothing happens-
The screen goes pitch black with the exception of Yusuke in a white silhouette. A gold spike has been driven through her body and a spell tag hangs over her torso.
The only sound heard is the metal stabbing into Yusuke.
And then the screen goes back to normal. Yusuke is unharmed but eventually both Dante and Yusuke hit the ground. Both still breathing, but Yusuke seeming like she's sick. Her breathing is unsteady and she's eerily cold. Sadie. . . Sadie runs. You have to follow her through the alleyway and through whatever the manhole would be.
The mansion portion would be mostly the same as what it would normally be with the sole exception of the music being shifted down a key and the occasional eye or shape being seen in your peripheral vision around whatever the mansion will be. Sadie is also a lot more meek throughout all of this and Nami can sense it. She backs off a little bit, so does Merd. It feels so much quieter. You don't even fight Yventte, she doesn't have anyone else to control and accepts defeat gracefully, giving you the golden eye. Eventually you walk to the Spirit Gate before someone. . . else. . . makes an appearance.
From the moment it drags itself out of the fountain's own reflective darkness, you can tell this isn't Baal. Despite being Baal's body its face is contorted into a scowl and the mouths on its body are shut tight and its eyes are completely blank. It screams at you for defiling it, severing its peace in the world and dragging it back to reality. Why. Why must the tragedy be brought back? WHY? WHY SADIE? WHY DID YOU HAVE TO RELEASE THIS? WHY?? WHY??
WHY??
The Heir of Grief has been released. Someone died that day in that ballpit. There's a reason it was never brought back out of that storage room.
Eventually, you think you're able to defeat the Spirit inside of Baal's body, but alas. . . There were always more knives right when you thought they were out. As the grasping hands of the beast crawl forward towards Sadie and all hope seems lost, one last option appears in your menu. Calling Card. You have no other choice and select it.
One again, everything freezes. The screen once again goes dark with Baal's outline in white. A blue card slowly falls from the ceiling, fluttering down and eventually making it to the center of Baal's body. The lights flicker. The scene returns to normal. The only thing left besides Sadie is the card.
Nothing is said as the Spirit Gate evaporates and the Fountain closes. No one talks as you run off back to your old home. No one talks as you just. Lie in there. It wasn't going to be a surprise for them anymore that you made it into town. You can't bare it anymore. You can't even bare your mother anymore but it's better than looking into the eyes of Dante's sister. Eventually, the night gets cold. Sadie makes one last phone call to Nami and tells her she should come over before she closes the windows of that old trailer house and stabs the ground with everything she's got. The screen returns to darkness and the chapter finally ends. . .
Okay so that was a lot. Uhh. Sorry if this is a little disorganized and bad, all I've really been thinking about is the later aspects of the route so the steps to get there are a little less thought out. Hope you enjoyed this little spooky tale and I hope you look forward to the less organized future of FATFROGRUNE(?) !
So, welcome if you're new, welcome back if you're not, the funny thing about FATFROGRUNE was that the art I've shown as of now is the stuff I've slowly amassed over a while and now I have no art or ideas for now unless you want spoilers. Fortunately, there's a solution for AUs like this! A QnA for the AU!
Go ahead and ask your questions about the AU, heck I'll even try to answer in character if you want (I guess specify using. . . Uhh. . . Let's go with "For [Character],") and I'll try my best to spin a response. Expect at max 3 answers a day because I don't want to exhaust myself or my potential supply of questions.
I'll answer a general question under the cut.
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ANONYMOUS asked... "What are the locations of each chapter's Dark World?"
Chapter 1: Hotel Room
Chapter 2: Convention Center (Anime Convention/Yu-gi-oh Tournament)
Chapter 3: Sadie's Parent's Trailer Home
Chapter 4: Memorial for ■■■■■■■■■ in The Church.
I wanted to have a consistent theme of impermanence with the Dark Worlds. Hotel rooms are used for trips, convention centers are used for a lot of things but those things usually don't last a while, Sadie's house is a Trailer Home, and the Memorial was actually supposed to be taken down but no one really wanted to do it because of her significance. I'm honestly not quite sure why I'm choosing to do this besides the fact that I like consistent themeing but we'll burn that bridge when we get there I suppose! Hope that helped!
Welcome if you're new, welcome back if you're not. Today I realized I haven't been drawing much and I think I could use an obligatory text post or two. And maybe some asks. This is your call to action, give me asks. This is probably gonna be about the main conflict of FATFROGRUNE so be prepared for that under the cut. Hope you enjoy the show!
Generally the main conflict of FATFROGRUNE to me revolves around the relationship between Sadie and Nami and their own mental struggles. Both of them have a lot of self-worth issues and they sort of got together because of how much they were able to relate to one another. After ■■■■■■ died, Sadie had a lot grapple with. With her friends thinking that she had something to do with it and her mentor - the only one she could really confide in - not coming back, she started to see herself as unreliable. Like she's better off dead for how much trouble she ropes other people into. Eventually she just decided to up and leave, going off to college and planning to never come back until she got to know Nami a bit more. Nami was the only one from her past who accepted that she was trying to reinvent herself and move on from all of that pain, and she accepted it with open arms. She never really felt that way before. . . As she started to open up more, she let more of herself show, like her tendency to narrate her life at times and generally just be a little silly gal. It's hard to tell but Nami senses that something's up with her just from how much more she talks to herself. . . I wonder why that is.
Nami, on the other hand, want to be the main character of her story. Throughout her life she's always felt unremarkable, she wasn't nearly as spoiled as her younger sister, the rest of her family were all famous and went off to do better things, her mom had a legacy that proceeded her, whatever it was that she did. . . What does Nami have? A name? After ■■■■■■'s death, she snapped fully. She couldn't bare to look back even for a second, she's the one who needed to forget more than anyone. She needed to take care of her family now that mom wasn't around. . . She started smoking a bit afterwards. Taking down her photos. Stopped talking to Dante like she used to. Ran off to college. She didn't know what she'd do but god just being in that house, it was too much. That's when she met Sadie, and Sadie thought she was the coolest person ever. . . And she finally felt like she didn't have to run, to keep pacing away from life and actually start living it. But, as always with Nami, she was the one who wanted to face her problems head on, even though she was wildly unprepared for it.
Both of them have issues with their perspective. Sadie doesn't think she's worth discussion and Nami wants her story to be told more than anything. Together they're not the best fit ever but they're together, and just maybe it'll work out. Just maybe.
So yeah that's their main problems with very little spoilers. Uhh. Hope that was fun.
