#understaged

[maladelusio]

Fantasy!verse: Staged (remastered slightly and with a new outfit!) 

There’s no Ink or Error in Fantasy!verse, so what happened to the people who could have been..? 

not an outcode, Staged lives in a complete and complicated au called Understaged which eventually manages to make its way into a permanent happy ending on the surface.

you’d think he’d get sick of stories but he’s always interested in hearing new ones. he’d LOVE to see different universes!

his au probably has a Supremely complicated backstory questioning the meaning of telling stories but for our purposes lets Ignore All That

General notes about Understaged: ‘stories’ work as sort of ritual engaged magic in their world. taking on different 'roles’ can change you and your abilities. wearing particular ‘costumes’ or performing particular norms for a role will enhance the abilities associated with it.

in a check you can always see people’s CHOSEN stories/roles such as 'Papyrus [Royal Guard Aspiree]’ but depending on the situation you might be able to pull up more private or Enforced roles like [Judge] or even something secret or bad they believe about themselves. or even… a metanarrative role, like [final boss] or [protagonist]

A number of people are aware of timeline issues as a form of ‘genre awareness’ and magical sense of ‘what story is playing out’. Staged has never given up quite the way canon Sans does; he has more support, and maybe an extra dose of positivity from an ‘event’ during the creation of his AU…

he keeps turning up in roles like 'the hedge in front of your neighbors house’. even if there wasn’t a role like that in the script. everyone acts, but he likes being able to act out of the spotlight. once you’re on stage, your options get limited.

he’s actually happiest helping with the set design crew. a demon with a paintbrush

staged says he’s writing a play but really its just a collection of notes disguised as puns about timeline shenanigans and what he can perceive of the 'world narrative’ on a magical level. And also a lot of random other jokes. he’s not actually that much of a creative writer himself, but he does like to analyze

kind of low empathy for people he doesn’t know personally (read: hasn’t trauma bonded with over an impossibly long period of ‘time’ :P)

Couldn’t have made him without @candy-cryptid’s help and ideas!

Staged is not meant to represent a canonical backstory/AU for Ink (Ink is canonically from ___tale) and has lived through an actual au story rather than being stuck unfinished and then tearing his soul out. However, a significant amount of inspiration was taken from Ink (who belongs to myebi/comyet)

[maladelusio]

Understaged Mettaton (Artiste if necessary, but he prefers Mettaton)

a true triple threat performer in a world of artists, he can do it all! Despite his diva exterior, he's still kind of.. insecure.

he and Alphys designed a humanoid body first, but couldn't decide on a face for the longest time- and by then, they'd already publicized the helmet head (there is no copyright infringement underground, sorry d*ft p*nk)

he likes the face a lot but what about his BRAND.. 

(what if everyone hates it...) 

instead he just keeps asking alphys for new pairs of legs. sir you dont need 15 pairs of legs yes yes i see them theyre great but

this is his idol outfit, the wings detach for alt. fashion.

[maladelusio]

welcome to snowdin.

...

curtain call?

truly an innocent bush you can trust. Staged’s final boss energy is off the charts because he’s kinda been in 100% mode for the past like. what feels like years

justice is blind? in a serious fight, Staged turns off his own eyelights and uses his blasters + Judge perception abilities to get a 'gods eye view' of the battle

more staged

[maladelusio]

oc doodles dumped together

Terminal... sad... he sleeps on the couch bc he can’t stand waking up in a bedroom (again) and being terrified he’s in loops (again). +chaos liar Staged + chaos cat CatMYK

[maladelusio]

Hi it's me again, I have a few more questions in regard to fantasy!verse. 1) Due to Artiste!Mettaton being self aware in the loops like Stage, did he change up his strategies/actions towards Poppet!Frisk depending on their actions that loop? 2) When and how did the twins get separated from each other in the past? 3) How does Blackout determine when an AU should be destroyed and does he sometimes gets into arguments/fights with Fantasy over their fate?

hey again!

1. Artiste doesnt get crystal clear memories from other loops, more of like... a cliffs notes of what happened (from his pov).

So regarding like, FIGHTs, he'd probably stay relatively similar since theres not that much time in a loop to rehaul his whole style. He might have a Special Attack, perhaps..?

But yes, he definitely also changes up his actions and I bet he does different broadcasts (canon Mettaton comes up with cooking, newscasting, theatre and just fight/dancing without much prep so I think artiste can work with the loop time) ... at the same time, he's also been in flowey's loops too so he probably feels a little bit stuck in a rut- but Poppet would be a new inspiration, in a way! (the feelings they inspire are. bad. initially)

2. The twins' backstory is a little wibbly wobbly but so far @candy-cryptid and I were thinking that they'd eventually stop in a Dancetale (2 dads acquired!), then accidentally portal to a Swapfell (2 more dads acquired!), and then from there Blackout would try to figure out how to portal and then get himself stuck in the Anti-Void.

His goop might start glitching a bit then (but it only really goes weird once he starts living in there full time), but he wouldn’t actually be stuck for long enough to become an Error or anything. However, he wouldn't be able to get out by himself- its his eventual realization of the resonation of his half-apple soul with his brother's that shows him the way out, like following a string of fate...

Fantasy + Blackout don't actually get separated from each other for long (except by choice once they're adults). That's one big difference between them and their canon counterparts- they run, but they do it together.

3. Destruction criteria... Well, just negativity isn't enough. There's obvious things like viruses/extreme corruption/hacking damage or worlds just totally falling apart, as well as worlds that never got finished (even if Fantasy tries, he can't be everywhere, and if the Creator leaves then he can't make them come back) and are slowly corroding.

He generally scans over worlds based on emotional tone but if anything catches his interest he'll observe the world for a while without interfering - he figured out how to set up viewing screens in the Anti Void.

He probably has a grudge against a lot of bitty aus because they're extremely dystopian under the surface, like snuff films.

Blackout's also not a fan of endless time loops with a lot of negativity- he'll generally try to remove the loop source first, but might just scoop the inhabitants out and dump them with Core Frisk somewhere and destroy the world instead.

He has a bit of a weak spot for someone pleading for anyone to help them when they know no help will ever come.

Negativity always exists, but a world that drives despair is disgusting to him.

When they were younger, Blackout and Fantasy used to argue a lot and SERIOUSLY about destroying AUs. But after one particularly terrible AU where Fantasy wouldn't back down, Blackout just left him there in disgust... Fantasy got very badly hurt before Blackout felt it. Blackout destroyed the world (there were probably a handful of monsters on Fantasy's side, but Blackout wouldn't have cared about that) and took Fantasy back to the Anti Void to heal. They've had a lot of conversations about why and what and how destruction can work and how Fantasy can't destroy himself trying to help when people don't want to be helped.

Now, they generally travel separately and they understand what each other are doing and trust they'll make good decisions. Blackout doesn't actually interfere/destroy worlds nearly as much as Fantasy does, and if he's ever uncertain he can always call for his brother and they can debate.

But if they both DO find the same AU and both STRONGLY feel they're right to try and save/destroy it, you know what might work? Let's fight for it. The extra time spent fighting might tip the world over one way or another/reveal more information that might change their minds. Also, since the twins are pretty equally matched, the winner is probably the one who is boosted by the AU in question- if it's more positive, Fantasy wins and has a better argument for his ability to fix things, and vice versa.

Even if one wins over the other, they'll still help their brother with things like destroying hackers/time travel misusers (Blackout) or deglitching/filling gaps/helping evacuate (Fantasy)

[maladelusio]

Understaged: lab team unite..! 

well, calling sans + mettaton a team is a little much, but anyway here’s the major resistance standing against the force that’s playing around with their world like they’re toys

... it’s underestimating them. they’re ‘actors.’

(alphys is not part of lab team because 1. she doesn’t naturally have metaknowledge so she’d have to be fully read in every loop again and 2. she really can’t take any more stress staged sans tried but once they started getting towards double digits in flowey’s loops she was collapsing)

more understaged

[maladelusio]

Hi I have been reading your fantasy!verse posts and I find it really cool. I have a few questions; 1) Does Stage know Fantasy!Dream's involvement with his AU? If not what would his reaction be if he finds out? 2) Also how does Fantasy!Dream view other AUs and their inhabitants? Does he care more about maintaining the AU narrative or does he care more about the inhabitants?

Hi! Thanks for enjoying fantasy!verse!

1. Staged doesn't really know during his own AU story, although he has some strange half-memories of 'someone' appearing and the world being 'unfinished' (basically some extra meta-knowledge about the world as a story/creation);

after meeting Fantasy properly at some point he probably listens to Fantasy explaining how he helps AUs grow and goes 'sounds great!' and goes off to go have a bit of an existential crisis because haha does THAT put some memories in context

2. Fantasy doesn't make it his responsibility to make people happy, but he definitely doesn't prioritize the AU narrative over any of the inhabitants. He's more of a hands-off helper in creating worlds by supporting Creators and their ideas (good or bad), and then exploring worlds and meeting people. He doesn't abandon people suffering right in front of him, and he'll help out if asked, but he has a bit of an outsider mindset of 'it's better if real people take care of their own problems' - if he helps, it's mostly as a regular monster, not some sort of god.

Things that he might actually interfere with are things like glitches, corruption, hacks, and incompleteness/void areas - which would generally place the inhabitants in danger (unless the inhabitants have decided to BE the danger in which case he might oppose them).

[maladelusio]

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.