deltarune (spoilers), snowgrave, dark kink, mh (mild)
Current mood: haunted by Noelle Holiday's plot line in Deltarune: Chapter 2.
I'm not even an Undertale fan, but the just-revealed "Snowgrave" genocide route hits home pretty hard.
Spoilers: basically the painfully kind and meek reindeer character is manipulated into becoming a murderous, psychologically abused, tranced-out ice mage by your PC and a series of cursed rings.
It's so closely kink-adjacent for me. The idea of a hypnotized, empowered minion as a conduit for someone's will is HOT. But god, not in that form and not poor Noelle.
So much of my hypnosis/mind control kink comes from a deep, deep separation anxiety I had when I was a preteen. I'd have nightmare after nightmare about various Forces possessing my friends and family and making them emotionally unavailable.
But honestly? Like so many of my nightmares, they were kinda fun-scary. And like with so many scary ideas, they got transmuted into kink. And there's still that edge of horror to them.
And seeing Noelle suffer-- especially 'cause my oldest and dearest headfriend is ALSO a Neutral Good pokey hoofer named Noelle-- is gumming up my emotional works today in a fascinatingly complicated way. I can't look away from it.
re: deltarune (spoilers), snowgrave, dark kink, mh (mild)
The twist of this Nabokov story gives me similar fascinated-squick vibes: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Vane_Sisters
deltarune (spoilers), snowgrave, dark kink, mh (mild)
@zebratron2084 I've nothing deep or insightful to offer, unfortunately, but I will say that I resonate with you *powerfully* here.
I can't stop thinking about it, either. Particularly poor Noelle.
That whole chapter had a hell of a lot of MC and cyber/drone stuff in it, and it gave me a lot of feelings.
Brains are weird.
re: deltarune (spoilers), snowgrave, dark kink, mh (mild)
@Phorm Currently my brain is trying to wrangle a fixfic scenario to route around the damage: before Kris can get anywhere near the Thorn Ring, someone dressed like an elf sells him the Wreath Ring-- which turns her into the Christmas goddess she always wanted to be. It still trances her, but all she can do is give her "enemies" mugs of steaming cocoa, build snowmen, and rain tinsel down on people. Kris becomes a Lvl 2 Loving Hypnodom and Miss Holiday is very confused but just can't stop smiling.
re: deltarune (spoilers), snowgrave, dark kink, mh (mild)
@zebratron2084 I love everything about this, and I support and encourage the notion deeply.
Let her be a happy arbiter of hot cocoa and tinsel 💜 Let the uncertainty and pain be silenced with purpose that is kind and warm.
re: deltarune (spoilers), snowgrave, dark kink, mh (mild)
[SUSIE:] Hey. HEY. You okay there stupid?
[NOELLE:] (half-asleep) Huh, wuzzat? Yeah, m'okay... Kritdzs maymee cas' Eggnog (Self) x 3 s'all. Yanno, yer bootiful. Haffy Crimmizz. *shoulder-slumps amid a poof of red and green glittermotes that leave Susie with a little Santa cap* @_@
re: deltarune (spoilers), snowgrave, dark kink, mh (mild)
@zebratron2084 whoaaa I had no idea. just did a deep dive and wow that is goddamn clever. I finished ch2 the day after it came out and really enjoyed it – pacifist naturally, but I didn’t think that made a big difference this time around, because I’d heard that 1) there is no genocide route in this one and 2) the ending is always the same.
toby has also been very clear that this *isn’t* undertale but its own thing with its own feel, which it clearly is. there’s less pathos and more humor in a normal playthrough. there’s little consequence for not sparing enemies (they just run away when their hp is low), but if you do spare them, they make the final boss fight easier. overall it’s been feeling like the tone is lighter and the stakes are lower. (1/2)
re: deltarune (spoilers), snowgrave, dark kink, mh (mild)
@zebratron2084 (2/2)
well, 1) and 2) are *technically* true. noelle is “only” made to kill one person directly (some others are left to die) and the final scenes of the chapter ARE the same. but WOW do you get there differently. and wow does that one death hit different than most of the indiscriminate killing in undertale.
re: deltarune (spoilers), snowgrave, dark kink, mh (mild)
(Cynical thought: I need to figure out a way to stick these emotions in a bottle and uncork them when it's time to write Chapter Two of Parallax. I already had a hoofer who needed some top-flight traumatizing for plot reasons. :| And Kirt and Noa's story is gonna come distressingly close to the same themes as Noelle@Deltarune's as they get drawn into Mixolyne psi politics...)