I saw that Salt Route AU thing, and I gotta say you guys aren’t going nearly far enough with it.
Like, yeah, as a dream the creator had, I can see why it would be haunting and striking, but if you were to actually do a Weird Route with Spamton in Noelle’s role, Spamton wouldn’t be just a meek submissive who just went along naively with whatever Kris (you) wanted.
Like, imagine a Salt Route with Spamton’s canon personality.
Spamton is, at first, thrilled that Kris is helping him, just like he is in-game. He goes along gleefully with you because he has an ally—or maybe even a friend—for the first time in God knows how long.
Even the eliminating his fellow Darkeners in the name of “getting stronger” would give him a thrill. Don’t forget, this is the same guy who sells you the Thorn Ring in the canon Weird Route. What makes you think he’d object to murder?
And these are the very same Darkeners that rejected him, so he could even view it as a twisted form of retribution. Take the moment where he kills the Addison, for instance. Why wouldn’t he be positively giddy at being given the go-ahead by Kris, to finally be strong enough to hurt the people who hurt him? He would be elated.
Somewhere along the way, he realizes just how tight a grip you (Kris) has on him. That he isn’t he one making these calls to [kill or be killed], he isn’t the one calling the shots, it’s you deciding everything and controlling him. And he realizes he’s been made into a puppet all over again, except it’s not the Voice on the phone pulling the strings, it’s Kris (you), the kid standing right next to him, the kid he thought (in some twisted way) was his friend.
That’s what drives him to despair. Not the killing but the fact that you’re the one making him do it. And when he tries to resist you (like Noelle does in the Weird Route) and realizes he has no choice but to obey, that’s when he regrets the horrible things he’s done. In the most twisted case of reverse psychology ever, he now desperately longs to take back the things you told him to do, and even feels sickened at his earlier glee. Because when he crashes down from the emotional high of that sweet, sweet [Revenge Sauce], he realizes that not even his own emotions are safe from your influences. Even what he feels is determined by you.
And when he realizes the Lightener he thought was giving him his freedom has essentially enslaved him, that’s when he just breaks. And at some point, his demeanor changes from railing against you to worshipping you, praying to you like he did to the machine in the basement. He goes full-circle, and you become his new voice, his new heaven.
Essentially, in this route, he replaces his old god, the Voice on the phone, with a new one, the Voice in his ear.
And this time, no one’s ever hanging up.
I have written a fan fic based on this post. Links are below:
Archive of Our Own link is here.
FanFiction.net link is here.
stormborns
jbbartram-illu
baratheonpilled
vaporwave
areudirty
yousharknotpass
blakekathryn
