Fanfic / Noelle and Rudy play Deltarune

All spoilers for Deltarune are unmarked. You Have Been Warned! However... spoilers regarding the lore original to this AU are marked.

Noelle and Rudy play Deltarune (also known as the "HoliPlays AU") is a fanmade Alternate Continuity created by Reddit user Axquirix. It takes place sometime after the events of Chapter 2. Noelle comes to her father Rudy's hospital room to play Dragon Blazers III only to open up a mysterious game instead. Noelle and Rudy, assuming that one of Noelle's friends snuck the game in, decided to play it and soon found themselves in control of the game's Kris. Although surprised, they decided to continue playing, assuming that Kris and Berdly must have made the game and hacked it into Noelle's console while she was asleep in the library.

However, as they continue playing, Noelle begins to find similarities in the game's first chapter's adventure to the "dream" that she had. Noelle deduces that it all really happened, but decides to keep quiet about it around her dad. However, it turns out that there is much more story here than just "Noelle and Rudy play Deltarune", and that there is a reason for why they suddenly have a copy of their own world in game form. The fic is still on-going.

The fic itself can be found on: HoliPlays AU Arc 1: Noelle and Rudy play Deltarune and the original Reddit version.

This "playthrough" contains examples of:

• Alternate Continuity: What If? Noelle and Rudy somehow got their hands on a copy of Deltarune and get trapped in a dimension between space and time?
• Ambiguously Evil: Sure, the Voice did kidnap Noelle and Rudy, as well as forced them into playing Deltarune as part of an experiment, but it shows no signs of actual malice.
• An Aesop: Rudy tells Noelle that if someone like her tried to prove their toughness on their own, they would likely end up in (in-game) Susie's place, causing unnecessary harm in the process.
• Art Evolution: As of Chapter 2, the gameplay segments have a console border surrounding them. The chapter 1-2 interlude also introduced Noelle's expressive ears.
• Badass Boast: After Rudy uses Terms of Endangerment towards the Voice once it gives a Non-Answer, the Voice says Rudy "cannot threaten this form".
• Character Catchphrase: The Voice keeps talking about "gaining context". Presumably, it means giving Noelle and Rudy more knowledge about the Dark Worlds and the entire adventure.
• The Chosen Many: The Voice in the interlude between Chapter 1 and 2 says that there are "variants", referring to the other "copies" of the "game," and one happened to come into Noelle's possession.
• Conveniently Interrupted Document: The game is largely unchanged from what we've seen... except for the credits, where all of the words are replaced with WingDings. Noelle does notice that none of the words seem to match up with "Kris Dreemurr". We only see one picture of the credits, where "By Toby Fox" is written in the aformentioned font.

• The Cuckoolander Was Right: Noelle freaks out when Jevil says that they're all part of a game, but calms down when she sees the unused classroom after sealing the Card Kingdom's Fountain, realizing that Jevil may have meant that the Dark World consisted of game pieces. Then she goes right back to suspecting that he's right when she discovers that she and Rudy were sent to another dimension.
• Dissonant Serenity: While Noelle has reacted appropriately to shocking situations, Rudy looks like he couldn't have cared less, even when it's revealed that they were trapped in a void locked in space and time the entire time. Subverted when he reveals that he's actually really scared in the first part of Chapter 2.
• Everyone Has Standards: Even though Noelle likes Susie's bully-like mannerisms, she's quite horrified at points such as when she threatens to bite people's faces off and almost kills Lancer.
• Explain, Explain... Oh, Crap!: Noelle and Rudy eventually conclude that they don't ever earn any "experience points" because all of the enemies run away instead of getting knocked out or dying. Noelle then remembers using IceShock several times in her reality's Chapter 2.
• Extremely Short Timespan: The entire playthrough of the first chapter takes place in a slightly extended version of Noelle and Rudy's appearance in the Chapter 2 epilogue. Subverted when it's revealed that the room that Noelle and Rudy were in has been locked in frozen space and time.
• Genre Savvy: Both Noelle and Rudy realize the game's true nature by Chapter 2 and thus explore some alternate possibilities, such as choosing the dialogue branches that their Kris didn't choose.
• Greater-Scope Villain: There is a mysterious entity that challenges the Voice's efforts to tell a story, erased the Vessel, and forced the SOUL into Kris. Earlier on, the Voice talks about "the Shadow" — a mysterious, unseen being and one of the four entities in the "space between spaces", alongside the Voice and the Holidays. Noelle and Rudy speculate that the Shadow is the one behind it, but even the Voice itself isn't sure.
• Hospital Hottie: After fighting Virovirokuns for the first time, Noelle realises she might see Susie in a nurse outfit. She's slightly disappointed when Susie's outfit looks closer to a normal doctor's outfit.
• Insistent Terminology: The Voice constantly insists that Noelle and Rudy being part of a game is "an apt metaphor". It does agree to "treat" everything like it was a game to make things easier to explain.
• Internal Reveal: Assuming that you've experienced Deltarune's "survey program" before reading the fic (which you most likely have), this is the case when Noelle and Rudy discovers that Kris is the player character, and later on, that Kris is mostly acting against their will.
• Irony: Rudy lampshades that the Dark Fountain glows.
• It Makes Sense in Context: The Voice keeps talking about "gaining context".
• Jealous Romantic Witness: Noelle sees Game-Susie become nervous around Game-Ralsei when he reveals his true face and promises to make cake for her, knowing from talking to Topchef beforehand that Susie wants more cake, and panics when realising that Ralsei is real, has been in the Cyber World, and has a whole day's head start.
• Lampshade Hanging: Both Noelle and Rudy note that the game has a lot of code for something that was made in one day. This is because, as far as we know, Deltarune the game has existed for a very long time, to the point the Voice made several copies.
• "Let's Watch Our Show" Plot: The basic plot of this Deltarune fic is two of its characters somehow getting their hands on a copy of the game they're in.
• Living on Borrowed Time: Though we're not sure if Rudy is close to death, getting stuck in a dimension while the rest of time is frozen caused him to stop coughing.
• Medium Awareness: Played With. In The Reveal at the end of the Chapter 1 playthrough, the Voice, known to Noelle and Rudy as "the Vessel Maker", refuses to make it clear whether they're in a game or not. Noelle, however, tells it to act as if they were in a game as a "metaphor" to make explaining the situation easier, which it agrees to do.
• My God, What Have I Done?: Noelle has this reaction when she watches the pacifist ending of Chapter 1, remembering that she froze several enemies and that Berdly's arm was burnt and wondered if things could have turned out differently if they had been more peaceful in their reality.
• The Nameless: The Voice refuses to reveal its name because it's "hazardous". Not that Axquirix could've learned the name anyway. That said, it's heavily implied to be W.D. Gaster, given the WingDings font that appeared during the Chapter 1 credits, as well as the fact the Voice was "forgotten by the game", the same way Gaster was once completely Dummied Out (he can now be encountered in Undertale by pure luck) and was erased from everyone's memories.
• Noodle Incident:
  • We're not sure exactly what happened in this reality's Chapter 2, but judging by the dialogue (and confirmed in Part 14), the story takes place after a Chapter 2 neutral route where Noelle defeated several enemies with IceShock and Berdly got his hand fried. However, whether this is an aborted Weird Route or just a violent Neutral Route is yet to be seen. It is currently implied to be a Weird Route that was aborted before Spamton could sell the ThornRing, as while Noelle doesn't know what that is, she knows what a FreezeRing is after being offered it by the Pink Addison back at the Cyber City.
  • Noelle remarks that the Devilsknife looks like the weapon Susie wielded, meaning that the party defeated Jevil violently. Here, however, Noelle defeats Jevil peacefully.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business:
  • King is such a Hate Sink that Noelle and Rudy break their "no violence" rule to kick his ass. That said, while Rudy is eager from the beginning, Noelle has to be convinced when no ACT methods work on King. In the Chapter 2 playthrough, Noelle shows that she had developed a huge grudge against King, causing Rudy to remark that she's acting like her mother.
  • Rudy is already a Blood Knight willing to kick ass both in canon and here, but even by his standards, he's very aggressive towards Queen. Given that she literally kidnapped his daughter, he can't be blamed for this.
• Pacifist Run: Noelle and Rudy decide to take this route. It's confirmed that their reality's party didn't take the pacifist route and violently defeated some enemies in Chapter 2. Noelle only hopes that they at least went pacifist in Chapter 1. It's heavily implied that the heroes didn't.
• People Puppets: Noelle freaks out when she is told that when that Kris' actions are controlled by a player (a metaphorical one, according to the voice), and Kris was only "themselves" when they ripped their SOUL out. As an experiment, Noelle was gifted the game so that she could observe the outcomes of the events of the routes that she chooses.
• The Reveal: Noelle and Rudy had been trapped in the hospital room by an empty void, the rest of the world is frozen in time, and the two, especially Noelle, have the ability to "make changes".
• Secret-Keeper: Noelle has to pretend that she doesn't know what "Spare" does, as well as the fact that the game is similar to her "dream" to Rudy. She finally tells him about it when it's revealed that they were stuck in an empty void while the rest of the world is frozen in time ever since Noelle began playing. She slowly comes clean to Rudy on what happened in her reality as they continue playing.
• Ship Tease: It's become a Running Gag since Part 15 for Noelle and Rudy to assume the game is teasing Ralsei/Susie. It's first shown when Ralsei reveals his true face and promises to make cake, which makes Susie a bit nervous in response. Noelle, who has started planning to make cake for Susie herself after talking to Topchef, and has just realised Ralsei has a head start due to befriending Susie a whole day before her, is not very happy. And then both her and Rudy think it might also tease Susie/Asriel due to Ralsei and Asriel looking similar. That said, this is probably a Mistaken for Romance case given what experience we have.
• Shout-Out: In Chapter 2 Part 8, Noelle briefly makes a comment about how "it's rare you can stab someone to make them better.", a reference to another Deltarune webcomic posted to Reddit, Kris Performs Surgery.
• Show Within a Show: Deltarune characters Noelle and Rudy play Deltarune, which has uncanny similarities to their own reality. Noelle questions at one point if they live in a game, but then brushes it off. She becomes more convinced later on, but decides that she's taking it surprisingly well. The Reveal suggests an important reason for getting a copy of their world.
• Spotting the Thread: Noelle notices that Jigsaw Joe makes a distinction between "Boss" and "Kris".
• Stepford Smiler: Rudy eventually reveals his Dissonant Serenity about being kidnapped by an Eldritch Abomination away from Hometown is an act, and he is actually scared.
• That Was Not a Dream: Playing the game convinces Noelle that what happened with the library actually happened, but she decides not to tell her dad about it.
• Time Stands Still: After the end of Chapter 1, it's revealed that Noelle and Rudy were trapped in the room by an empty void while the rest of the world is frozen ever since they started playing. The voice promises to free them as soon as they complete Chapter 2.
• Wham Episode: The interlude between Chapter 1 and 2. It's revealed that Noelle and Rudy are trapped in a void where Time Stands Still, and the Voice is forcing them to keep playing. Alongside this, Rudy finally learns all of Chapter 1 really happened.
• Wham Line: After the Wham Shot shown below, Noelle hears the voice from the beginning of the game...
• Wham Shot:
  • An In-Universe example. Neither Noelle or Rudy expected the game to feature Kris as the player character. While Rudy decides to take it as Kris made the game and wanted Noelle to play it, Noelle does her best to avoid invading Kris' privacy. Later, it happens again when Noelle sees Kris wearing their clothes from her "dream".
  • We get a wham shot when it's revealed that Noelle and Rudy have been trapped in an empty void separated from the rest of their world, which stands still.
  • Another In-Universe one occurs on Rudy's end when Noelle reveals that Kris sent her an order... which she demonstrates here by making her game counterpart cast IceShock on Virovirokun.