Can I request an infodump about Staged?
(fantasy!verse) oh boy. staged. staged, staged, staged. why are you so goddamn hard to write about. i love him. oh boy. i've been writing this all day. long post under the cut:
a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma. except all of these are covered up in some excellent masking skills and a face that can switch expressions on a dime. he doesn't lie, but boy howdy does he never tell the truth. well. he'll tell you truths about yourself, if you go looking for them.
I think he actually remembers time loops with pretty good clarity. slightly less quality than a normal memory. this is a 'perception ability' sort of thing.
like Ink, his AU stalled out half-created, with Staged the only one with a full Soul. he doesn't really remember much from before the world was fully created, but someone stumbled into the half-finished world and accidentally let out a burst of positive energy into it, before leaving. and after that... like a miracle, the world started to fill itself in, and everyone became... real.
(... however, the creator lost interest after finishing the setting- so someone/thing else decides to play in this dollhouse)
as a result, he was jarred slightly out of place from his AU, which is why he's able to perceive a lot of meta stuff.
he never fell into the same depression as canon sans- maybe it's a lingering feeling of 'at least we exist and we are living' even if this is a bad story, even if we die... maybe its a lingering bit of extra positivity.
on the surface, now that they've broken free from the story that they were living, he's actually really amazed to think of all the possible stories out there he's never seen before.
he has. perhaps. forgotten that not everyone likes to discuss their (traumatic) life story in terms of narrative and symbolism and character development. (this isn't a time loop thing this is a 'got my PhD in diegetical metaphysics and the critical analysis does not turn off')
Relationships:
uhh dont have much to say about Papyrus (Thespian?). they're very close. thespian knows more than he usually lets on about time stuff, but staged is probably keeping his walls up. thespian does what he can, which is RATHER A LOT AND VERY EFFECTIVE, REALLY,
understaged!frisk (poppet, if interacting with other worlds. yes, they chose it themself for the 'puppet' pun. chara might have helped them pick it out. the first time they told staged he probably started crying laughing like kid are you okay (is anyone? kid you're 10 you're not old enough for those jokes))
anyway poppet is like his kid (they're like. 10?). if he half-raised papyrus, he has been sort of three-quarters raising them. in any case they're his family and he cares a lot about them. they've been through a lot together.
poppet has said that he's their star..... which has several implications in understaged a lot of them around protagonism/celebrity, but maybe more like 'a guiding light'? anyway that's why they asked him if they can put a star on his cheekbone too when they did their first arts-n-crafts body art session on the surface. and now it's a Thing.
he is friends with understaged!mettaton (Artiste? probably prefers to be called Mettaton). i'm imagining them being very catty with each other but also having a lot of fun. the ghosts in understaged don't quite remember time loops, but they do have extrasensory perception that lets them pick up on how the 'world's story' is going. anyway mettaton is probably one of the strongest monsters in this Underground (since its all show business baby), and they interact quite a bit since staged is popping in and out of the lab actively trying to save the world.
life in the time loops got really kind of boring, eventually. he appreciates the kids of Snowdin + their school/theatre a lot because they'd actually come up with new ideas + stories if given the slightest prompting (were they all good? no. but they were creative).
he's very attached to the people of his AU! he's seen them through a lot of situations good and bad. he's only willing to accept flowey if he's guaranteed to be safe though. he might even make a friend with a human (if Papyrus makes friends with them first)...
other people? other worlds?? uh. he'll get back to you on that.
Clothing Notes:
he wears that coat All. The. Time. even on the surface. even though it doesn't blend in to the surface at all, even when it's summer, rain or shine its the coat. no he will not take criticism. (he will take it off when very comfortable or if he wants to flirt :P)
Thespian gifted him his cyan gloves as part of an extended encouragement plan for his sudden intense interest in writing (this was when flowey started his loops, and staged started having a lot of notes to make...) and staged has decided This Is His Favourite Colour Now.
he's been wearing just his judge uniform/vestments for, a long time now (even in regular time, actually!!) and the moment he gets a chance hes switching shirts. he tries to go around shirtless but is very quickly disabused from that notion by his brother.
he goes through a couple old shirts of his own, probably a crop top borrowed from thespian, etc. before he finds his leotard. he promptly refuses to ever change out of it.













