Fanfic / Incidence

Due to a major First-Episode Twist near the end of the first arc, it is recommended you read said arc at least before continuing.

Kris is more determined than normal; but with every advantage a vessel gains, their opposition must gain one greater than that. A more outgoing and charismatic Kris can tackle some of their problems head on, but they very quickly find that they’re not the only one with agency they lacked before. And while they can finally reach for what they truly desire, sometimes that’s in contrast to what they think they want.

With a soul that whispers prescient instructions, and friends that seem very worried about the Dark World they find themselves in, Kris can only hope that, in the end, they can make things work out in their favour.

An adaptation of Deltarune by Jungledragon, told from the perspective of Kris as they find themselves swept up in a quest to save two worlds from annihilation. The story can be found here.

Tropes present in Incidence:

General Tropes

• Adaptation Amalgamation: While primarily a Deltarune fanfic, Incidence incorporates a lot of elements from Undertale as well.
  • In an inverse of Undertale's story, where monsterkind was sealed underground by humanity, in this story it was the other way around.
  • The Knights adapt a lot of traits from the humans who fell into the Underground after Chara and before Frisk, such as the items they carry to use as focusing points for their magic.
  • The force known as LV is present in this world, but with the added effect of causing any monster that's in the presence of a human with it, no matter how little said human has, to start turning to dust. Humans with high LV have been known to wipe out scores of monsters in mere moments.
  • Karma is also present, first seen when being used by the Purple Knight. Here, someone having Karma also means that their location can be tracked by the one who inflicted it upon them.
• Adaptational Badass: The Shadow Crystal holders. They were by no means slouches in the game, but here they all had the ability to reset at one point, on top of the power they have already. Spamton in particular was able to drain the Green Knight of his power and bend the Cyber World to his own will after becoming NEO.
• Arc Number: Seven. The Yellow Knight highlights to Noelle that their plan to cause the Roaring involves seven Fountains, seven folk of clay^note humans, seven folk of Light^note Lightners, specifically monsterkind, seven folk of darkness^note Darkners, specifically "princes from the Dark" such as Lancer and Mike's Propahnnouncers and seven seals unsealed^note the act of creating an imbalance of Light Fountains so that when the Roaring occurrs, humanity will be able to escape from Downstairs.
• Arc Villain: Each arc has at least one; either one or two Darkners, and/or a human Knight.
  • The first arc has King, the tyrannical ruler of the Toy World just like in Deltarune, and the Yellow Knight, who, while only appearing near the very end of the arc, played a significant role in turning the Toy World and its inhabitants into the vengeful lot the Delta Warriors meet by the time they arrive.
  • The second arc has Queen, the ruling Darkner of the Cyber World, and the Green Knight, who, rather than engaging Kris in combat, instead chooses to challenge their ideologies and philosophy. Spamton G. Spamton takes over as the final antagonist of the arc after both Queen and the Green Knight are dealt with, as upon becoming Spamton NEO, he attempts to force Kris to give their ability to reset to him.
  • The third arc has the Purple/Violet Knight, who chases and fights Kris throughout the TV World, seeking to end Kris' adventures throughout the Dark Worlds with his own methods, rather than let Kris disrupt the Knights' plans any more. Contrasting with the previous ruling Darkners met, President Mike of the TV World makes no attempt to capture, harm or kill any of the heroes. Aside from a debate with Kris and him demanding to know what happened to the Yellow Knight in order to let the Purple Knight live, the President does very little to antagonize Kris or the other heroes.
  • The fourth arc has the Blue Knight, who has, to a point, usurped control of the Town Hall's Dark World from its ruling Darkner, Lady. Blue's primary objective is to ensure that the Roaring the Knights want still happens, regardless of the setbacks her squadron has faced.
• Arc Words: Quite a few phrases and words keep popping up throughout the story.
  • "I will help you achieve your goals." The Voice repeatedly said this to Kris in the first few chapters of the story, to assure that it truly means to assist them.
  • "Quick and clean." A phrase the Voice recites when Kris needs to end a loop.
  • "Inaction is an action", and variations thereof. This phrase is first uttered by the Green Knight when he talks about why he wants to cause the Roaring, and Kris later uses the phrase as a motivation to prevent the Knights from achieving their goals.
  • In relation to the former resetters, "freedom".
• Big Bad: The Empress, leader of the Knights, who wishes to cause the Roaring so that humanity can be freed from the place they were banished to thousands of years ago, which will also see monsters and Darkners alike being annihilated. She's also the one responsible for draining the Shadow Crystal holders of their ability to reset.
• Cipher Scything: Kris is a lot more talkative, emotive and expressive here than they are in the game.
• Darker and Edgier: Incidence contains quite the amount of swearing and violence not seen in the game it's based off of. Deltarune can get quite dark, but the fic often takes it to a whole new level.
• Decomposite Character: Instead of there being one Knight wreaking havoc throughout the Dark Worlds, there are multiple Knights, with one being encountered in every Dark World the heroes journey through. On top of the six Knights that have set up shop in Hometown, it's revealed that their numbers aren't just limited to them; there are hundreds, if not thousands of Knights stationed all over the World, with all of them serving the will of the Empress.
• Demoted to Extra: Several characters who had prominent roles in the first two chapters of Deltarune have had their roles either diminished greatly or omitted entirely; for example, Lancer only makes a small appearance in the first arc of the fic, and doesn't journey with Kris at all in the second, while he had a major supporting role in Chapters 1 and 2 of the game.
• Eldritch Location: The Dark Worlds reflect various locations throughout Hometown, with the people and items within reflecting the items found within those locations. An entrance to a Dark World will have a set of double doors leading to it - something that throws the heroes for a loop, as several locations didn't have double doors before.
  • Castle Town reflects Hometown's school's supply closet.
  • The Toy World reflects the old classroom, also within Hometown's school - this Dark World and Castle Town are directly connected via the Great Door.
  • The Cyber World reflects the library's computer lab.
  • The TV World, unlike the other Dark Worlds, reflects the Dreemurr's TV rather than a room.
  • The Town Hall's Dark World reflects Mayor Holiday's office.
  • The Flower Shop's Dark World reflects Asgore's shop.
  • The Church's Dark World reflects Hometown's church, with its entrance being located behind the podium.
• Emotional Powers: The magic spells monsters can cast are fueled by a combination of a memory, and the feelings the memory brings - for example, Noelle's healing spell is tied to her remembering a happy time, and Susie's Rude Buster is tied to her anger.
• I Want Them Alive!: The Knights have been ordered to bring Kris in alive so that they can bring about their ideal Roaring. However, as the story continues, the squadron dispatched to Hometown fractures when it becomes apparent that Kris won't aid them.
• Law of Conservation of Detail: A quirk of Kris's inventory is that they can't swap items in a space that's being observed.
• Made of Magic: Darkners are described as being "living spells".
• Original Character: Aside from Jevil and Spamton, the rest of the Shadow Crystal holders are original characters created for Incidence, with one exception: Flowey.
  • The Darkners and Dark Worlds that are traversed past the Cyber World are also original to Incidence as well, as the game had not been completed when the fic was being written.
  • The Knights themselves are this as well, of a sort; rather than there being just one Knight wreaking havoc across the Dark Worlds like in Deltarune, there are several individual Knights who are stationed in each Dark World, all of whom serve someone known as the Empress.
• Rainbow Motif: The Knights' primary motif is that of the Souls and virtues seen in Undertale, with each of the six stationed in Hometown and its Dark Worlds representing a Soul color, its corresponding virtue, and possessing the items connected to them. Notably, the Knights and their virtues are encountered in reverse to when the items were first available to be used in Undertale.
• Role Swap AU: Rather than monsterkind being sealed away ages ago, it was humanity that was banished from the surface.
• Save Point: These still exist, and Ralsei refers to them as such, but only Kris can actually see and interact with them.
• Save Scumming: When Kris dies, they go back to the last point of power they touched, with time also going back to the moment Kris touches it. Kris uses this power (referred to as loops or "simulations") as a means of gaining information they wouldn't otherwise obtain if they didn't have the power to reset.
• The Chessmaster: The Voice is, thus far, an example of one on the side of good. Their primary skill is manipulating people and circumstances into Kris's favor — even at real-time speeds.

Arc # 1 (Chapters 1 - 11)

• Absurd Cutting Power: The Devilsknife demonstrates the ability to cut through anything that gets in the way of Kris and freedom - whereas it can slice through the bars of a cell like a hot knife through butter, it can't cut through a stone wall that isn't blocking Kris from leaving.
• Adaptational Context Change: Ralsei reveals the part of the Prophecy focused on the nature of the Roaring earlier in this adaptation - whereas in Deltarune, Ralsei only brings up the Roaring as a result of Berdly, Susie and Noelle attempting to make another Dark Fountain, in Incidence he discusses it with Kris and Noelle shortly after they get past the ambush set up for them outside the Great Door.
• Adaptational Early Appearance: The Knight makes no appearance during the first chapter of the game. Here, one of the Knights shows up near the end to put the heroes down themselves.
• Adaptational Relationship Overhaul: In Deltarune, it's implied that the Knight forced King to bend to their will, hence the throne room being in such a sorry state by the time the heroes arrive. Here, it's established that King willingly bent the knee to the Yellow Knight.
  • Kris's relationship with the Voice/Soul inside of them is different here as well - while Kris still has resentment towards the Voice in the beginning, they eventually make a form of peace with it, with Kris recognizing that they want to help them achieve their goals. It's a pretty big contrast to how Kris in Deltarune regards the Soul - where they view it as an invasive parasite and will take whatever opportunity they can get to rip it out of them.
  • The Original Starwalker refuses to Join the Lightners, as they are Pissing them off - a far cry from the game, where the Original Starwalker makes no indication that they dislike the Lightners - quite the opposite, as the Original Starwalker will become part of Kris's inventory should it get the chance to do so.
• Adapted Out: The heroes don't encounter C. Round at all throughout their journey through the Toy World.
• And I Must Scream: Muttler, the monster bound to the Yellow Knight, is not serving her willingly, but has no way of breaking free from her control.
• And Now for Someone Completely Different: The Voice gets a POV segment at the start of chapter 11, due to Kris being braindead via bullet to the head. From the perspective of the Voice, the reader sees the Yellow Knight disable Ralsei with her magic, hears her monologue to Noelle about Justice and the Roaring, the Voice ordering Noelle to kill and dispose of the Knight with Iceshock. The POV switches back to Kris after the Voice makes Noelle drag Kris to the point of power close by.
• Birthday Episode: Clover, the three-headed Darkner that the heroes face at one point, is celebrating their birthday(s?) the day Kris and Noelle fall into the Dark World. One of Clover's heads lambasts them for ruining it.
• Clingy Macguffin: Kris discovers that, despite resetting back to a point in time before they defeated Jevil, the Devilsknife they obtained from him (or rather, the Devilsknife that was Jevil) stays with them across loops. This quirk proves very helpful in streamlining Kris's attempts to escape their cell without having to kill a guard first.
• Compressed Adaptation: This arc condenses some elements of the game's first chapter, such as Seam informing Kris about Jevil, alluded to as their "old friend back in the court" during their first meeting, as well as them giving Kris the whole key to Jevil's cell. This depiction of events is a departure from the sidequest found in Deltarune's first chapter surrounding Seam and Jevil^note In the game, Jevil is only mentioned by Seam after the heroes have had their first conversation with the imprisoned Darkner, who directs them to talk to the shopkeeper. Seam only gives one third of the cell key to the heroes, with the other two pieces being hidden across the Kingdom. The heroes then have to get the key repaired before they can face Jevil, with Seam providing his backstory after Jevil has been defeated.
• Death Trap: The Toy World is littered with these, as King ordered that the puzzles scattered throughout the Kingdom be modified into death traps, in anticipation of the Lightners arriving.
• Demoted to Extra: Several characters who had major roles in Chapter 1 of the game have their presence reduced majorly - if they even appear at all.
  • Due to Alphys sending Noelle instead of Susie to fetch chalk with Kris, Susie only makes an appearance in the first chapter of the story.
  • Lancer only appears near the end of the arc, when Kris has been captured and is being interrogated/taunted by King.
  • Rouxls Kaard doesn't challenge the heroes to solve his puzzles, instead only appearing when he's flanking King.
• Door to Before: The heroes come across a Warp Door before they enter the Scarlet Forest, which they decide to destroy.
• Emotional Powers: Noelle's spells are linked to the emotions and memories that are evoked when she uses magic, such as casting her Sleep Mist drawing from her feelings of sorrow and grief.
• Escort Mission: Mr. Elegance and Mr. Society, the Darkners that lead the barricade of Ponmen by the Great Board, inform the heroes that the Knight plans to escort King's son - Lancer - to the Great Door. It's one of the final stages of the plan to kickstart the Roaring the Knights' want; as Lancer can fulfill being the "Prince from the Dark" part of the Prophecy, he was going to be used to enlighten Castle Town's Fountain.
• Eye Scream: Kris takes a nasty slice to their eye from a diamond, resulting in them losing sight in that one. It gets healed at the worst possible time; when Kris is kicked into a point of power by the Yellow Knight.
• First-Episode Twist: Not only is the Knight's appearance at the end of the arc a major departure from the first chapter of the game, but their (or rather, her) presence and actions inform the heroes about the scope of the challenge they face: instead of just one Knight to stop, there are several Knights working to cause the Roaring in order to free humanity and make monsterkind pay for sealing them away ages ago.
• For Great Justice: The Knight believes that Lightners must pay for their ancient crimes, which fuels her motivation for wanting to cause the Roaring - a motivation that she spread to the Darkners of the Toy World through manipulating King.
• Godzilla Threshold: The threat of Yellow accomplishing her mission prompts the Voice to compel Noelle to kill her with Iceshock. It's not happy it's having to pull out this plan this early, but there's no other choice.
• Harmless Freezing: Averted hard when Noelle uses Iceshock on the Yellow Knight.
  Humans are made of water, animated. Where once there had been two humans, there now remained one.
• Hit-and-Run Tactics: The Darkners in the Scarlet Forest employ guerilla tactics in an attempt to slow down the heroes.
• In-Joke: The word "bepis" sends Noelle into a fit of uncontrollable laughter, to Ralsei's confusion. Kris fills him in on the story - one day, Noelle and Kris come across a library book that Asriel left out in the open - a book called "How to Draw Dragons" which...deals with the topic of monsters intermingling, to a point. Upon discovering that Kris and Noelle were beginning to read through it, Asriel is mortified about their sibling and their friend having "glimpsed the unfathomable"^note as well as knowing that Toriel would've killed him if she discovered he had borrowed such a book, but whilst Kris had already stolen and gone through the book once before because they wanted to learn why Asriel was so cagey about it, the contents of the book were entirely new to Noelle - so when she enquires about an illustration found in the book, the only thing Asriel is able to say is "B-bepis!", presumably in an attempt to answer her question.
• It Gets Easier: Kris kills a Rudinn Guard in a loop where they decide to speak to the Jester imprisoned beneath the castle - they feel a numbness as a result of gaining LV. Luckily for them, LV doesn't stick across timelines if Kris doesn't save while they still have it in them.
• It's All My Fault: Both Kris and Noelle blame themselves for what happened to Dess, while Kris further blames themself for not standing by Noelle in the aftermath of it all.
• Know When to Fold 'Em: King willingly, albeit very reluctantly, abdicates to Ralsei, after the Knight has been dealt with.
• Magic Music: The heroes use a combination of Noelle using her Sleep Mist spell, as well as singing a lullaby, to deal with the Ponmen and their leaders in the loop Kris decides to keep.
• Manipulative Bastard: The Knight has spent some time manipulating King and the Darkners of the Toy World to believe that, should they aid her effort to start the Roaring, they will see Justice be dealt to the Lightners. What she doesn't tell them is that, should her plan succeed, they will all turn to stone as a result. To twist the knife further, she casually mentions to Ralsei that she's more than happy to sacrifice the Darkners in order to achieve her goals.
• Merging the Branches: Despite Kris not engaging with Jevil in battle, instead beating him in a "wordsy game", they obtain the Devilsknife from the jester - an item only obtainable if the player chose to defeat Jevil violently in Deltarune.
• Mistaken from Behind: Kris mistakes the Original Starwalker for a point of power.
• Offended by an Enemy's Indifference: King and Rouxls, in different loops, take offense at Kris's indifference at what King has to say to them. In the former, Kris agitates the King enough to leave due to their incessant dragging of the Spookysword along the ground, interrupting King from launching into his taunting. In the latter, Rouxls takes offense at Kris telling King to shut up whilst they're trying to understand how the Devilsknife works.
• Overly Long Scream: Kris screams their head off in one of the loops of their first interaction with King, which pisses him off enough to abort his attempt to monologue at/taunt them.
• Point of Divergence: Departing from the events of the game, Alphys instead sends Noelle, rather than Susie, to go fetch chalk with Kris. The appearance of the Knight, however, shows that the story of Incidence diverged from the game's story far, far before Alphys's decision.
• Prophecy Twist: A big twist of the Prophecy - and of the story as a whole - is that the Prophecy doesn't apply to Kris, Noelle and Ralsei - in fact, it cannot apply to Ralsei, as he is a king, by means of being Castle Town's only resident. Instead, the Prophecy is reframed by having the Knights, the monsters bound to them, and the Princes from the Dark they manage to get on board appear as the Delta Warriors appearing at the "World's Edge"^note as in, appearing at the Great Door, which separates Castle Town from the Toy World and sits on the edge of the former, to banish the "Angel's Heaven" - the world where monsterkind dominates - by enlightening Castle Town's Fountain.
• Right-Hand Attack Dog: The Yellow Knight uses the Soul of a dog monster^note despite multiple dogs appearing, Noelle mentions in Chapter 27 that the dogs were like memories of what the dog monster—Muttler—cared about most to attack and subdue Ralsei after she's put a bullet in Kris's head. It's made clear that whatever's left of the monster is not supporting Yellow voluntarily.
• Repeated for Emphasis: [[When the time comes to ensure the Knight cannot complete her mission, the Voice repeatedly urges Noelle to use Iceshock - ten times, in fact. When the time comes to hide the Knight's frozen body, the Voice repeatedly urges Noelle to "dispose" of them. When the time comes to heal Kris of their vegetative state, the Voice repeatedly urges Noelle to "save."]]
• She Who Must Not Be Seen: Upon being asked if they could meet the Knight, King mentions that the Knight made a request that Kris does not meet her. King mentions in another loop that the Knight is afraid of Kris and their abilities, to the point where she warned King of going to see them himself. Indeed, when circumstances force the Knight to make an appearance, she wastes no time in neutralizing Kris.
• Ship Tease: There's hints of a fledgling romance between Noelle and Kris sprinkled throughout this arc, as they begin to reconnect with each other after a long while.
• Sinister Scythe: Kris obtains the Devilsknife as a boon from beating Jevil at his "wordsy game".
• Situational Sword: The Devilsknife has the ability to effortlessly cut through anything that blocks Kris from having freedom, such as the bars of a cell they had been thrown into. It cannot, however, cut through anything that doesn't prevent Kris from being free, such as the walls of their cell after they've chopped through the aforementioned cell bars.
• Spanner in the Works: There are two main factors that throw a wrench in the Prophecy Ralsei had been studying for millennia - Noelle appearing with Kris instead of Susie, and the heroes encountering a mass of angry, vengeful Darkners outside the Great Door. Due to things not going the way he thought they would, he begins to spiral into an existential panic.
• The Coup: It's established that, prior to Kris and Noelle falling into the Dark World, the Toy World used to be ruled by four kings of equal status and power, until one day, a mysterious individual known as the Knight shows up, and convinces one of the kings that the Lightners have betrayed and abandoned them, which results in this King overthrowing his three co-rulers and making himself an enforcer of the Knight's will, whose promises justice for the Darkners who were left abandoned radicalize a good chunk of them in turn.
• The Unfought: Unlike the game, King is not fought at the top of Card Castle; instead, Kris, Noelle and Ralsei rush through a crowd of Darkners in order to get to the Fountain. Jevil is also not fought - instead of a "numbers game" against the heroes, he instead plays a "wordsy game" with just Kris.
• Thread of Prophecy, Severed: With Noelle falling into the Dark World with Kris instead of Susie, it appears that the prophecy Ralsei gave to them is either wrong or was misinterpreted - something that freaks him out severely. Noelle and Kris reframe the issue by suggesting that Ralsei was viewing the Prophecy incorrectly - rather than viewing it and the events it tells of as set in stone, he could view the Prophecy as something that could happen, depending on the choices that are made.
• Wham Line: The Knight appearing to deal with Kris personally at the top of Card Castle is a massive departure from the game already, but it's the description of her appearance that turns this story on its head completely:
  She was tall, with long, blonde hair, and wore an old, wide-brimmed hat that was tilted just over her eyes. The weapon - the pistol she'd just shot them with - was still raised, and the barrel glowed the same yellow as the fountain had, since the very beginning. On her face was a satisfied, relieved smile, and when put together, the whole ensemble resembled a ranger, or a sheriff. Not the kiddish, toned-down persona that had filtered to everyone they knew through TV and books, but a survivor, A competent, impossibly skilled gun-for-hire.
  But those were all just observations they made to distract themself from the fact that she was a human.
• Year Inside, Hour Outside: Averted - Kris and Noelle realize that time in the Dark World passes at the exact same rate it does in the Light World. By the time they can get to sealing the Fountain, it's gone past seven o'clock at night, far past when school has ended (and far, far past any amount of time that could be considered reasonable for them to have disappeared).

Arc # 2 (Chapters 12 - 27)

• Acid Attack: Queen's acid makes people it touches lose their proprioception, as Kris finds out whilst fighting her. Spamton was dunked in acid after he tried and failed to kill the Green Knight, which explains why he constantly stumbles about - he can't feel his own body.
• Adaptational Context Change: Spamton NEO's wires are controlled by the Dark World itself here, compared to it being heavily implied in the game that another being was controlling his strings.
• Adaptational Relationship Overhaul: Berdly resists Queen and her regime from the outset here, in contrast to him allying with Queen for a good chunk of Deltarune's Chapter 2. He even goes as far as link up with a group of Darkners rebelling against her.
• Adapted Out: The fight with Queen's giant robot doesn't happen here, as the Green Knight disabled it while he was subjugating the Cyber World.
  Queen: "It Broke Because The Knight (He Says Hi) Countered It Entirely. He Knew Precisely The Manner With Which To Disable Its Operation: So No Cool Giga-Sized Duel Between Us Either. How Sad"
• Ascended Extra: Tasque Manager has a greater presence here compared to the game, as she's the one who watches over Noelle after the heroes are initially captured by Queen.
• Big Brother Is Watching: Queen is able to listen in on people's conversations, making it next to impossible to plot against her without her catching wind of it.
• Bungled Suicide: During the battle against Spamton NEO, Kris attempts to end the loop so they can attempt another shot at facing the salesman. Unfortunately, due to Spamton absorbing the Green Knight's magic, which includes the ability to protect anyone the magic-user cares about from all harm, Kris is unable to kill themselves to end the loop… which all of their friends see.
• The Chosen Many: Queen legally adopts every single one of her subjects, making them all able to fulfill the "prince from the dark" part of the prophecy.
• Demoted to Extra: Swatch's role is reduced to a bit part, as it's Queen and an Addison called Verd who fill Kris in on Spamton's backstory.
• Go-Karting with Bowser: Kris spends a couple simulations on conversations with the Green Knight. In a stark contrast to how the encounter with the Knight Kris met before him went, Green is nothing but pleasant and friendly towards them. He even gives Kris a couple of recipes for them to try.
• Ferris Wheel Date Moment: Kris and Noelle find themselves on a Ferris wheel, where they mutually confess their feelings for each other.
• Final Boss: Spamton NEO turns on Kris in an attempt to take their power to reset for himself, and thus serves as the final foe the heroes face before they can seal the Green Fountain.
• Headbutting Heroes: One of the many, many things Kris and Berdly butt heads over is how they think the other is navigating the situation they find themselves in - Kris thinks that Berdly attempting to lead the pack will only spell disaster for everyone, whilst Berdly is skeptical of Kris's ability to lead.
• Height Angst: Kris gets tetchy when someone brings up their short stature. The Green Knight tells them that it's quite likely that they've been experiencing malnutrition - monster food doesn't always exactly map well with the nutritional requirements of humans, and it's likely that monster scientists don't have enough data on human biology regarding things like malnutrition outside of the obvious signs.
• If You Ever Do Anything to Hurt Her...: During Kris and Noelle's visit to Rudy in the hospital, Rudy has a private and stern word with Kris about their feelings towards his daughter, but ultimately believes that Kris will do right by her.
  Rudy: "So. Let's get this out of the way. Make any wrong moves towards Noelle and you're up past Nerdly on the 'I'll kick your ass when I can move' list. Got it?
  Kris: "I, ah - Right. Yeah. What?"
• Impeded Communication: Toriel reveals to Kris and Noelle that something has taken out cellular connections, on top of the Internet being down. It's revealed later on that the Knights' took out communications around Hometown's area in order to prevent outside help from being summoned.
• Important Haircut: Kris asks Noelle to alter their hairstyle from the tangled mess on their head to something that gets the hair out of their eyes; the end result is a fishtail braid.
• I Just Want to Be Free: This has been Spamton's goal and motivation from the beginning - he's tired of having others and the world itself dictate his actions, as well as being sick and tired of being screwed over. He wants freedom so much, he's willing to do anything for it.
• Improbably Predictable: Queen mentions that the main reason as to why she began to believe that stopping the Roaring was impossible was because the Green Knight had revealed to her that he knew how to counter every single plan of hers.
  Queen: They Had A Solution For Literally All Of Them Lol
  They Literally Just Walked Right Into My Mansion And Made All Of My Preparations For World Domination Meaningless And Let Me Know Exactly How And Why They Wouldn't Work Haha Lol Lmao Haha
• Internal Reveal: Kris learns in Chapter 20 that Noelle killed the Yellow Knight after she shot them.
• Ironic Echo: [[spoiler:When Spamton NEO thinks they've successfully managed to strongarm Kris into relinquishing their power to reset to him, Kris mumbles "the fine print is always the slime", verbatim to a comment Spamton made when they began to discuss details of their deal with him.
• La Résistance: Just like in the game, the Darkners Sweet, Cap'n and Cakes are in active (if somewhat ineffectual) rebellion against Queen - though they're not looking to overthrow her, they're distraught at her giving up on stopping the end of the world. Berdly makes arrangements with them to get a lift close to Queen's Mansion when the heroes go to seal the Fountain.
• Language Barrier: Scrawl, the language that humans who are old enough to speak use when they come to the surface, is described as being completely alien to monsters, to the point where it's taken both years and international co-operation to create a functional dictionary for it. The fact that most humans who are old enough to talk and do appear on the surface aren't exactly interested in sitting down and having a peaceful chat with someone also...complicates things somewhat. When Kris is going through the Green Knight's quarters, they find a note written in Scrawl, which they pass on to Ralsei and ask if he could translate it, which he can.
• Made of Explodium: The glasses that Queen throw to the ground when she's finished drinking out of them have a tendency to make a "low-resolution explosion", which Kris struggles to get used to^note the description of said explosions being "low-resolution" is lifted from the game, where they do indeed have a low pixel count..
• Mad Libs Dialogue: Just like in Deltarune, most of Spamton's dialogue is part himself talking, part advertisements mashed into his sentences, which make a lot of what he says difficult to interpret or understand; the Voice has no trouble figuring out what Spamton's trying to say when he slides into incomprehensibility (which is often).
• Mana Drain: This happens to the Green Knight courtesy of Spamton NEO, who not only blasts him off Queen's Mansion, but also completely drained Green of his magical abilities and gained them for himself. It's eventually revealed that the NEO suit had a built-in machine that can drain people of any magical or otherwise supernatural abilities they may have.
• Merging the Branches: The last few chapters of this arc take elements from both the normal and "Weird" routes that the player can choose to take in Deltarune's second chapter - while the heroes still fight Queen directly like in the normal route, Spamton's transformation into Spamton NEO is lifted from how he accomplishes it in the Weird route. Just like in the normal route of the game, the heroes have to fight a giant robot before they can seal the Fountain, but instead of GIGA Queen, it's instead Spamton NEO, the final boss of the Weird route.
• Morning Routine: In order to get Kris to develop a habit, the Voice gives Kris a list of things they will do in the morning before they start their day. Kris is in a better headspace to take it on board, though still feels like it's a tall order.
  The Voice: You will shower. Use deodorant. Wear fresh clothes. Brush your hair. Eat breakfast. Clean your teeth. Then, this done, you will be ready to start the day.
  It seemed like a lot.
  The Voice: It will lose that skin over time.
• Mythology Gag: Chapter 24 establishes that Nubert's specific species is a My Man, in reference to the meme where people called him "my man" as a result of him appearing in Undertale's sixth anniversary livestream. Who points Nubert's species out? The Voice, of all characters.
  And then, critically, a list of the Honoured Residents. Mousemillian, Ya, Ye, Borta, Ike, Nubert...
  Voice: My Man.
  Kris: What?
  Voice: He is a My Man. That is his species.
  Kris: ...Right.
• Named by the Adaptation: Quite a few Darkners are given personal names that they didn't have in the game; for example, Tasque Manager's name is given as Tabitha, the Swatchlings watching over Kris and Berdly are known as Svaint and Swarly respectively, Kris meets a green Addison named Verde, and the Werewerewire watching Susie is called Walter — or rather, that's the name Susie gave to him on the spot.
• Power Gives You Wings: Averted for Spamton NEO, just like in the game - while becoming NEO does give him a pair of wings, they don't do anything - it's the wires attached to him that hold him up.
• Rat King: Whilst storming Queen's Mansion, the heroes encounter a Mausekönig, King of the Maice - created by many Maice combining as they roll. Spamton NEO deals with them using Queen's cages.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Kris (with Spamton providing encouragement in his... own unique way) delivers a scathing one to Queen in Chapter 25, picking at her defeat by the hands of the Green Knight, as well as them pointing out that, despite presenting herself as a benevolent and competent ruler, all she's proven is that she can't be trusted, given that Kris and the heroes are trying to escape from her within a day of them meeting. Queen's response to all this?
  (With a grin on her face) "Kind Of Cringe, Bro"
• Relationship-Salvaging Disaster: The Voice points out to Kris that their experience in the Dark World with Noelle, despite it being fraught with tension and the two of them seeing the other at their worst, has not only rekindled their friendship that was left estranged due to the trauma surrounding Dess's situation, but it brought them both closer and made them stronger.
• Revenge: This is Spamton's primary motivation for offering assistance to Kris, as he believes that it would provide him a chance to get back at Queen (who gave up trying to stop the end of the world and dunked him in acid when he continued to fight back), the Green Knight (who convinced Queen that resisting would be futile), and the Empress (who leads the Knights and engineered Spamton losing his power to reset).
• Road Block: Alongside Internet and cellular communications being down, the roads leading in and out of Hometown have been blocked by a landslide that occurred very recently. They're another facet of the Knights' plan to isolate Hometown from the rest of the world.
• Shower of Angst: Kris has one in Chapter 12, with them having a crisis regarding their blossoming romantic feelings towards Noelle, coupled with them wrestling with their feelings of self-hate and belief that they are ultimately incapable of change. The Voice makes it quite clear to Kris that not only is lying to themself about how they feel about Noelle completely unhelpful, but their feelings of inadequacy will not prevent it from helping Kris get what they want - and will endeavor to make Kris the best version of themself, without compromising their free will.
• Supreme Chef: Green demonstrates his cooking skills to Kris, as he cooks a few human dishes for them across loops.
• Suspiciously Specific Denial: During the transfer of the items that the Toy World Darkners reflect from the old classroom to the supply closet, Noelle freezes in fear when she peers into one of the lockers through its keyhole, but claims that she only thought that she saw something in there, and quickly denies Kris's enquiry about if it needs to be opened. The locker that Noelle was looking into was where the corpse of the Yellow Knight ended up when the Fountain was sealed, which Kris eventually does have to open in the fourth arc.
• Starfish Language: Scrawl, in both its written and spoken forms, is completely alien to any language modern monsters speak. Whilst it appears to be easily taught and learnt, it's taken monster society a lot of time and effort to get a dictionary compiled for it.
• The Unfought: Queen is never fought in her giant robot, as the Green Knight disabled it. The Knight himself is also not fought by the heroes as well; he doesn't want to fight them, and even if he did, he's not given the chance to - Spamton NEO blasts him off the roof of Queen's castle and drains him of his healing magic and invulnerability.
• Thinking Out Loud: After a particularly stressful loop^note in the previous loop, Kris engaged in a discussion with Ralsei about the prophecy and the Roaring, a frightening first encounter with Spamton, and a fight with Susie where they aired their grievances at one another, the Voice suggests that Kris talks "at" them. After some hesitation, Kris decides that a "venting loop" doesn't sound like such a bad idea. They openly monologue about their feelings regarding Susie and Berdly, their fear surrounding the Roaring and meeting Spamton, as well as talking about how things just get more complicated when they think they're about to figure something out, and being sad that they're not able to enjoy being in the Cyber World due to the stakes being so high. Kris finds that venting about what's on their mind proved beneficial - even in front of a completely baffled audience.
  Kris: You know? That actually really helped. Thanks, voice.
  The Voice: I am pleased that you are in a better state.
• Thou Shalt Not Kill: Alongside their own aversion to it, Kris requests that Spamton refrain from killing anyone during their alliance, as they feel that not only would killing be unnecessary, as their party has the ability to pacify any foe they come across, any death would be just as much on them as it would on Spamton, if they allow him to act out his revenge completely. Spamton asks for one exception to Kris's request - the Empress. They ultimately agree to Spamton's request, yet they are torn; despite her plan to wipe out two species, Kris doesn't know if they can or should be the one to decide if she dies.
  It should have been simple. She was arguably the most evil person they were aware of. And yet, they were unsure.
• Trauma Button: For Noelle, discussing the Yellow Knight, what she did, and what she had to do to stop Yellow from succeeding causes a great deal of distress for her - she nearly goes catatonic when Kris asks her about what happened in one loop. Considering that the whole situation with Yellow literally happened the day before Kris and Noelle have a conversation about it, Noelle's reluctance to talk about it is more than justified. Kris makes it very clear to her that they're sorry for having to bring it up at all, as they recognize that what she went through was truly awful - but for the sake of saving the world, they need to know what happened, so that they can get an idea on how to handle future Knights.
• Turns Red: Literally so - Spamton NEO's skin goes from chalk white to bright red when some of his wires get snapped by Berdly.
• Use Your Head: During Kris's duel against Queen, they attempt to headbutt her, but with Green's shielding magic as well as her being made of ultra-dense plastic, they do more damage to themself than to her.
• Volleying Insults: Most interactions between Kris, Susie and Berdly in this arc quickly devolve into them slinging insults at one another. Queen can't help but express her thoughts on hearing them verbally rip one another apart when she meets them the first time:
  Queen: I Was Going To Welcome You All To The City (Mine) But You All Need Therapy Way More Than That Lmao
• Wham Episode: The events of Chapter 27 shake up a lot of things - Spamton NEO betrays Kris in an attempted power grab, forcing the heroes to fight him. Kris attempts to end the loop when the fight isn't going their way, only for the Darkner to stop them by shielding them from their blade, using magic that they had drained from the Green Knight. Making matters worse, the others all saw Kris attempt to put a blade through their neck, leaving them reeling. Whilst Spamton NEO is defeated and itemized into the Dealmaker, Kris is left with having to explain why they tried to kill themselves in the middle of the fight.
• What the Hell, Hero?: In the loop where Kris presses Noelle for the circumstances surrounding the Yellow Knight disappearing, Queen calls them out for making Noelle upset.
• You Are Better Than You Think You Are: When Kris begins to fall back into self-doubt and self-loathing whilst they shower, the Voice informs them that they're not incapable of changing - they will have already taken their first steps out of self-loathing soon, regardless of whether or not they believe it. The Voice also informs them that it does not care how deep the hole of self-hatred Kris has dug for themself is; it will not stop aiding Kris in achieving their goals.
  You misunderstand, even as I put it in its simplest terms. I will help you achieve your goals. That is my only wish. My only desire. I will not call it altruism, since you would not believe me. But it is loyalty. It is dedication. That I will help you achieve your goals does mean that I care for your desire for power, your desire for meaningful choices, and your desire for happiness. It means that I care about the ends that you wish to achieve, and it means that I care that you would be satisfied with the result. But I will not let you wallow in misery. I do not care how little or how much you believe that you deserve such fulfilment. And I do not care for the pit you have dug for yourself, no matter how much time it took.
• You Can't Fight Fate: The Green Knight believes that the Roaring is inevitable, and thinks that delaying it would only cause more suffering in the long run. He managed to convince Queen of the Roaring being guaranteed, which led her to make a plan to move Lightners into the Cyber World, so they can at least have one more week of happiness before the world ends.

Arc # 3 (Chapters 28 - 43)

• Alone with the Psycho: Kris spends some one-on-one time with no less than two people who are batshit crazy to some degree: the Purple Knight, who is more than happy to kill every and any monster he sees, and Primrose, the resetter from the TV World who has spent decades trapped in a loop.
• And I Must Scream: Primrose has been trapped in a loop for the past thirty years, and has been left more than a bit unstable from the ordeal.
• Arc Words: "Play to my/our outs."
• Bag of Spilling: Kris loses access to most of their weapons and equipment that they've obtained in this arc, as they were forced to leave their bag at the church when the Purple Knight kidnapped them. Outside of the Devilsknife and the Dealmaker, which "stick" to Kris across Dark Worlds and timelines, the only other item they have is the Spookysword, as the pencil that reflects it in the Light World was still in Kris's pocket.
• Big Damn Heroes: Ralsei appears in the TV Dark World to save Kris from the static ocean they've fallen into. Whilst Kris is grateful for the rescue, it does prompt a conversation between the two in regards to how Ralsei is able to show up between Dark Worlds, amongst other mysterious aspects of his being.
• Bizarre Alien Locomotion: While on land, Loma moves about via oscillating her scales closest to the ground. Kris thinks the way Loma moves is rather terrifying to witness.
• Category Traitor: The Stagehands Kris and Ralsei meet view Loma as a traitor - when the Purple Knight was about to wire her, she revealed where others were hiding out of desperation to avoid being marked by him.
• Cooperation Gambit: Green tells the heroes that if they let him return to his allies, he'll be able to continue to convince his fellow Knights to keep on with the subtle approach. The heroes are reluctant to let him go, but Green informs them that if they keep him imprisoned, his colleagues will switch to their backup plan - that is, slaughtering everyone in Hometown, so they have no choice but to let him walk. Green's plan doesn't pan out - the Purple Knight decides to take matters into his own hands, and attempts to directly stop Kris from sealing more Fountains by kidnapping them at the church, forcing them to go with him under the threat of Hometown being dusted.
• Cyanide Pill: Purple has a magical one in the form of the Karma he's inflicted himself with - when Kris has him at their mercy and attempts to get information out of him, he responds to questions he can't answer, won't answer, or doesn't know the answer to by making his head implode, forcing Kris to drop the timeline.
• Deadline News: The first Propahnnouncers the heroes encounter are constantly gibbering about how terrible everything is - it's one of the last things Mike said to them before he locked up.
• Despair Event Horizon: Mike losing Angator drives him into a very dark place, to the point where he forms a plan to force the Empress to reset via killing Purple, as he believes that the Empress losing him would sully a perfect outcome for her.
• Disney Villain Death: In the loop where Kris goes to talk to Primrose, the Voice ensures that the Purple Knight doesn't interrupt their conversation by having him get pushed off a ledge, causing him to plunge into the static ocean at terminal velocity.
• Divine Conflict: Purple mentions that there was a series of holy wars between humans and monsters in the past, which fuels his anger and hostility towards them.
• Enemy Mine: Kris and the Purple Knight end up in a stalemate when the latter is captured, with the way to the fountain blocked and a giant wave of static starts closing in on them on top of that. Kris convinces Purple to give them and Ralsei a lift to the Fountain so each of them have a shot at achieving what they want.
• First Kiss: Kris and Noelle snog a little bit before they return to the Light World and get the locations of the remaining Dark Worlds.
• Grimy Water: The static the TV World causes pain and damage to humans who fall in it - when the Purple Knight rises out from it, his face is described as looking like it's been sandblasted.
• Hazardous Water: Coupled with Grimy Water above, the static ocean obscures whoever's in it from those on its surface.
• Hostage Situation: The Purple Knight holds the entirety of Hometown as hostage in the church, making it clear to Kris that if they don't comply with him, they all get dusted.
• Human Sacrifice: It's revealed in Chapter 34 that monsterkind used to practice human sacrifice during their religious gatherings to the Angel. Father Alvin dances around directly bringing up human sacrifice, but Kris's thoughts on the matter fill in the gaps before the Voice forces them to change track:
  Father Alvin: "Sacrifice was a way of bringing groups together. It was an individual gifting their crop to the table, and sharing it amongst all present. Just as the Angel shares their light with us, or as monsters may eventually share themselves amongst their closest companions. And it is through the gifts of the Angel that we may sacrifice as we choose on this day, instead of in line with the unfortunate past. This was the very first display of the Angel of Boundlessness, in fact."
  It was bullshit. No matter how you warped it, it wasn't a move away from human sacrifice. It was an attempt to keep it in the culture even after humans had been brought down below replacement rate, that was direct written testimony in the Wills, not a corruption or a mistranslation, they'd checked-
  The Voice: Now is not the time.
• Goggles Do Something Unusual: It's within the TV World that the Dealmaker sees some use, as Kris can see the connections between people when they wear the glasses, which proves useful for figuring out how close the Purple Knight is to them when they're trying to escape.
• Gosh Dang It to Heck!: When the heroes give it some thought, they realize that Darkners don't swear^note well, most Darkners, anyway - Spamton had a pretty foul mouth that was mostly filtered out by his verbal tic, and Mike outright calls Purple an arsehole. For Primrose, any attempt to swear results in her losing control of herself - which Kris bears the brunt of.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: In his haste to stop Kris with his own hands and methods, Purple ends up setting off a chain of events that eventually lead to his defeat and permanent death. His brutal and uncompromising personality, the atrocities he inflicted on the Darkners and threat he posed to Hometown were all contributing factors, but the one that got the ball rolling? His inability to keep his mouth shut - had he not succumbed to his compulsion to give a lecture to Kris in the middle of kidnapping them, the chances of his success would likely have increased exponentially.
• I Just Want to Be Free: Ralsei theorizes that this is the Knights' motivation for wanting to kickstart the Roaring, or rather, a Roaring that they engineer; whereas a "natural" Roaring —one that's caused by there being too many Dark Fountains— would result in the Dark World being turned to stone and the Light World laid to waste by the Titans, a Roaring caused by there being too many Light Fountains would result in the same thing, but also providing humanity an opportunity to escape Downstairs en masse; after waiting for the Titans to wipe out monsters and Darkners alike, humanity would travel through the "hole between worlds" created by the Roaring and live on the surface.
• Jerkass Realization: Berdly comes to realize that his bullying of Kris was a major contributing factor towards the horrible state they were in by the time the story begun. When he listens to Kris talk about how part of them still feels like they don't deserve to live or be happy, he walks out of the room, having come to a 'repugnant conclusion'.
• Just Before the End: By the time Kris falls into the TV World, it's on the brink of what's left of it being demolished by the massive Radio Wave sweeping through.
• Kaiju: Angator, one of President Mike's most trusted Darkners, took the form of one that resembled the "legally-not-humans" that were common staples of cosmic horror and monster movies Kris grew up watching. Purple murdered him during his rampage through the TV World, an act which, alongside seeing his world wrecked and his other close friend be driven insane and locked into a deathloop, drives Mike headlong into despair.
• Loose Lips: Purple isn't a diplomat like Green, and a poor speaker on top of that - in the heat of frustration and anger, he ends up revealing plenty of information to Kris. He can and does put a clamp on himself, however - when in a situation where he's at Kris's mercy and they want to ask him questions, he does a far better job of keeping information to himself.
• Lying to Protect Your Feelings: During the post-Cyber World meeting, Kris decides not to inform their friends that they have the power to loop time via the points of power, thinking that telling them would ultimately have more cons than pros, such as the effect on morale it would have. Kris instead angles why they tried to end themselves during their fight with Spamton NEO from their genuine thoughts of feeling like a burden, and not wanting to have made things worse for their friends by letting Spamton NEO take their Soul and wreak havoc in the Light World.
• Mad Libs Dialogue: Loma, the serpentine Darkner Kris and Ralsei meet after their initial bout with the Purple Knight, talks via mashing voice clips from various forms of media. Unlike Spamton before her, she's typically far easier to understand.
• Magical Profanity Filter: It's implied that Primrose cannot utter profanity lest she loses control of herself; she injures Kris due to her almost uttering what was going to be a swear, which set off the filter.
• Motive Rant: Both Mike and the Purple Knight engage in this - Purple doing so multiple times. If there's one thing they have in common, it their tendency to give grand monologues to explain to people why they do the things they do.
• No One Gets Left Behind: In a loop where Kris and Ralsei are able to subdue the Purple Knight, but one where Loma dies, Kris considers keeping the timeline, as they're growing exhausted of looping the fight over and over, but Kris remembering Green's words about inaction being an action make them start over again in order to keep a timeline where Loma lives.
  Kris: Fuck you, Green Knight.
• Noodle Incident: Purple mentions an event called "Whiskeynight" to Kris during one of their early meetings in the TV World - given that he lists it as a "vile act" monsters did to humans in the past, it can be inferred that whatever occurred was not pleasant for humanity.
• Not in Front of the Kid: King and Queen are aghast to hear Susie openly drop tier-two swear words in front of their son.
• Old Magic: Karma is noted by Purple to be an "ancient concept" that's not found in modern human culture for "obvious reasons" - but he's an enjoyer of the classics.
• Reading the Stage Directions Out Loud: Primrose, the Shadow Crystal holder of the TV World, has her dialogue formatted like it's from a script:
  PRIMROSE:
  (smiling dreamily)
  “I’ve lived so many short lives, sweets. Pop! And suddenly, back into that lil’ star, right over...
• Related in the Adaptation: Whereas there's ambiguity surrounding the exact nature of the relationship King and Queen have in the game, here Queen casually mentions that her and King are married, and that Lancer is her adopted/surrogate son. When the heroes express their bafflement over this coincidence, Queen further mentions that she and King kept in touch "Via Coded Messages Transferred Across The Printer Ink".
• Sadistic Choice: Mike engineers a situation where, if Kris wants to keep the Purple Knight alive, they would need to supply Mike proof that Purple's death wouldn't accomplish Mike's goal of forcing the Empress to reset. Kris does have information that would stay the President's hand - the knowledge of the Yellow Knight's death. Unfortunately, revealing this would also reveal Noelle's hand in her demise, as well as forcing her to relive the trauma of the situation. After a lot of internal debate and consideration, Kris is able to maneuver this conversation with Mike to the conclusion that Yellow died via unknown circumstances - perhaps a rogue Darkner of King's did her in. Kris isn't happy that Noelle had to be placed in this situation, and it's implied that Mike sees right through the fabrication anyway - Noelle's body language throughout this conversation give away that she definitely knows more than what she's letting on. For the sake of keeping Kris happy, however, Mike accepts their explanation, and thus keeps Purple alive for him to go back Downstairs.
• Save Scumming: Kris liberally employs this tactic when fighting Purple and/or attempting to get information out of him. They've got little choice - Purple pulls no punches when he fights, and the Karma he's inflicted on Kris allows him to end them very quickly.
• Ship Tease: The Voice informs Kris that it's not unlikely that Toriel has plans to pursue a relationship with Sans, something that Kris isn't too enthused about - they still hold some faint hope that their parents will one day reconcile.
• Sound-Effect Bleep: The Darkners of the TV World - except for Mike and Primrose - produce an absolutely earsplitting one in place of swearing.
• Spell Book: The notebook Purple keeps on him acts as a focus for his magic. When Kris obtains it, they discover that it's filled with drawings of things and animals from the Light World - as well as it being written in Scrawl.
• Stress Vomit: Kris does this twice; after they've negotiated a truce with the Green Knight, and after Ralsei pulls them out of the static ocean.
• Studiopolis: The Set, the primary building of the TV World and the location of the Purple Fountain, looks like a cross between a movie studio and a gameshow set.
• Sympathy for the Hero: Purple displays a few moments of pity towards Kris, as he thinks they've been brainwashed due to growing up with, around and by monsterkind.
• Tap on the Head: Kris and Mike drop a TV on the Purple Knight's head in order to keep him unconscious when the Lightners return to the Light World, as Ralsei's pacification magic won't be travelling with them. It takes multiple attempts to get it right without waking him up or killing him.
• Television Portal: The Dreemurr's TV has an opening on its back resembling double doors, and is what one of the Fountains in Hometown takes its shape from. Kris and the Purple Knight plunge into the Dark World via the opening on the backside of the TV.
• Tempting Fate: Kris stocks up on plenty of equipment for their next Dark World trip, assures Ralsei that everything's going to be fine...and then a Knight makes themselves known not long after, which snowballs into Kris having to leave behind most of the equipment they acquired for the next Dark World in order to get the Knight away from the townspeople.
  Kris: "Everything is going to be fine."
  Ralsei: "That's exactly what you would say before everything went wrong..."
• The Chase: A good chunk of the arc consists of the Purple Knight chasing Kris and their allies throughout the Dark World. He's aided by his magic, which can track a person's location.
• The Friend Nobody Likes: Cecil, one of the Stagehands Kris and Ralsei encounter, is unpopular amongst his fellow Darkners due to his fervent adoration for Kris. While Darkners are seemingly hardwired to serve Lightners, Cecil takes his love for Kris quite a few steps further than most.
  The Voice: You should not associate with Cecil.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Kris tears into Purple near the end of the arc, unleashing all the pent-up anger at him for putting them and their loved ones through all of the horrible things he did. It doesn't sway Purple, but Kris is far past caring.
  Kris: You know what, Purple? Fuck you. Fuck you and your self-righteous bullshit, Purple. Fuck you for your childish rhetoric, and all the hypocritical shit you said. Fuck you for trying to convince me that the people I loved deserved to die, just because they had the gall to exist. Just because they had the gall to raise children better than you. You've taught before, Purple. I can see it in the way you act. You act like you're teaching me something obvious every time you say anything, because clearly, if you managed to learn it, it must have been simple. How many kids did you teach to kill, Purple? It must have been simple, if you learned how to do it. Here's a lesson from us, Purple: how to act, so that you don't deserve the spit on your face. Go back to the Empress, Purple. Tell her that the only thing a lack of mercy shows is weakness.
• The Reveal: It's revealed in this arc where the Knights are coming from; a place called Downstairs, an 'inhospitable, sunless waste' where humanity was banished to thousands of years ago^note Four thousand, nine hundred and nine years specifically, according to Purple. Whilst there was hints throughout previous chapters regarding where exactly humans were coming from, it's through Purple that Kris learns about the name of the location.
• Thou Shalt Not Kill: Purple really pushes Kris's desire to keep their hands clean to the limit - on top of the threat of LV at risk of being gained by Kris, between Purple threatening Kris and their loved ones with murder, the destruction and suffering he caused throughout the TV World, his desire to commit genocide, and him being a complete and utter arsehole, it's suggested to Kris that it would be easier to just let him die, and that if anyone deserves it, it's him. Heck, Kris themself mulls over the idea of letting Purple die, but ultimately decides to stick to their morals. Unfortunately, Noelle has another plan to make sure the Knight isn't a threat, nor becomes one ever again...
• Tightrope Walking: Purple is able to balance on the wires he's able to create with his magic to an impossible degree.
• Trapped in TV Land: Kris finds themself in a Dark World that is reflected by their TV. As such, the landscape and Darkners of it reflect items, concepts and production techniques associated with movies and TV shows.
• Treachery Is a Special Kind of Evil: Kris and Ralsei learn from the Stagehands they meet that Loma informed Purple of where some of their fellow Darkners were hiding in order to save herself from being inflicted with his magic, and shun her as a traitor. Whilst Formun recognizes that her collaboration with the Knight was done under duress and out of fear for her life, and that he makes clear that he doesn't think Loma's a bad person, he warns Kris and Ralsei that Loma can't be trusted.
• Uncanny Valley: Primrose's shapeshifting elicits this effect - she never makes herself look exactly like the people she's shapeshifting into.
• Unseen No More: Multiple Lightners who have either already appeared in the game or have yet to make an appearance within it are properly introduced in this arc, such as Asgore, Sans, and Mayor Holiday.
• Voluntary Shapeshifting: Primrose demonstrates the ability to shapeshift to Kris, taking on past looks of their parents, Dess and even themself. The Show-ons possessed the ability to shapeshift as well.
• Walking Wasteland: Even when he's lightly drumming his fingertips against the door, Green still makes Noelle, Susie and Berdly slowly but surely turn to dust due to his high LV.
• The Whole World Is Watching: The Darkners of the TV World have a look into the Light World through the window in the sky, which the TV screen reflects - this means that that the Darkners know about Kris quite well^note Kris has a moment where they remember doing a number of shameful things in front of the TV, but the Voice redirects their thoughts. This window looking into the Light World means that Kris consistently gets updates on what Noelle, Susie and Berdly are doing whilst they and Ralsei travel to the Fountain. However, the window only went one way, as Formun and Loma discover - Kris had no idea of the work the Darkners were doing in a bid to cheer them up during their period of depression, but assures them that their work isn't in vain.
• You Are in Command Now: Formun, formerly the Boss of the Stagehands, was elevated to Director after the previous one, Angator, was killed by the Purple Knight. Formun is quite self-deprecating about his taking on the role - he outright says that he doesn't think he's a good Director, but his fellow Stagehands are very quick to tell him that he is.
• You Will Not Evade Me: Part of the Purple Knight's magic enables him to track the locations of anyone and everyone he's "tagged" - he did this to scores upon scores of Darkners, as well as Kris whilst they were falling into the Dark World with him.
• Your Head A-Splode: Purple inflicted Karma upon himself as a means to still have control over his life in the event he gets captured - and his preferred method for taking his own life is via making his head implode, as Kris witnesses many times across loops where they try to get information out of him.

Arc # 4 (Chapters 44 - )

• 0% Approval Rating: The Blue Knight tells Kris that she's well aware that the Darkners of the Dark World she's stationed in despise her. She doesn't blame them.
• Accidental Misnaming: When Ralsei reunites with the rest of the heroes when they get to the Town Hall's Dark World, he initially begins to call Berdly "Breadly" before correcting himself, mentioning that Queen's made an impact.
• Affectionate Nickname: Kris gets annoyed when the Voice tells them that the Orange Knight calling them "little-thing" is likely a term of endearment, rather than him mocking their stature.
• All for Nothing: All of Kris' attempts and efforts towards keeping the Purple/Violet Knight alive end up being for nothing, as Noelle froze him to death just before everyone returned to the Light World.
• Alone with the Psycho: Kris gets to see firsthand just how completely out there Arimetto is whilst they're taking them to the Blue Knight. The former resetter's casual disregard for non-resetters disturbs them quite a bit.
• Big Fancy Castle: The main structure of the Town Hall's Dark World is a massive palace made of wood, marble and glass, where the Lady, as well as the Aristo and Bureau, reside.
• Calling the Old Woman Out: Noelle stands up to her mother at the beginning of this arc, calling her out for not listening to what the heroes have to say. She further accuses Carol of not caring about her, and rebuffs Carol wanting to discuss that later by asking if directly bringing up Dess, which makes the mayor explode.
• The Chains of Commanding: The Blue Knight is demonstrated to greatly struggle with managing the Dark World she's stationed in. She finds the Laws overly stifling (it's all but stated that Law 6 and it's sub-Laws were her creations), and she's well aware that the Darkners have little respect and even less love for her.
• Child Soldiers: It's heavily implied that Blue is around the same age as Kris and the other Lightner heroes - the points of power and green magic being able to alter people to their peak and ideal form make it hard to say for certain, but the Knight's demeanor indicates that she's, at least, the youngest of her squadron by far.
• Citywide Evacuation: With the assistance of the Mayor and Sans, the heroes begin an evacuation of Hometown's residents to Castle Town in order to protect them from the Knights.
• Cloudcuckoolander's Minder: Mike demonstrates that he's this to Primrose during their meeting with Kris, which alleviates some of the uncertainty Kris has regarding him when the Voice points out their dynamic to them.
  Mike looked a tad uncomfortable as he sat on the unconventional seating, but they struggled to find much sympathy.
  It’s a natural response. His warped priorities led to potential harm for you, and you react to that in turn. But he should have no reason not to help you, now. He is an ally.
  They did appreciate how he gently eased Primrose to a more comfortable distance away from them.
  Acting as a minder.
  Ah. There was the sympathy.
• Complaining About Shows You Don't Watch: On their way to the Town Hall, Kris (deliberately) sparks a debate between Susie and Berdly over the quality of Godsflesh, with Berdly believing it's not only overrated, but copies from "real" speculative biopunk like Night's Garden - disregarding both the fact that Night's Garden is a video game, and the fact that said game came out fifty years after the movie. When asked when he last saw Godsflesh, Berdly answers with "Why would I want to watch it?" - a remark that truly infuriates Susie, to Kris's utter delight.
• Cordon Bleugh Chef: During some one-on-one time with each other, Kris and Noelle decide to try their hands at making a human dish, based on the notes Green left for Kris. Instead of following the recipe to the letter, they instead decide to view its instructions as suggestions, with one of the reasons being that if they do get sick from eating it, the points of power will heal them. The end result is a stew that...tastes far, far better than it looks (and fortunately doesn't melt their insides either).
• Crazy-Prepared: Whoever it was that resided in Castle Town prior to Ralsei made quite extensive preparations to stymie the Empress's plot to kickstart the Roaring, such as preventing their adversary from capitalizing on any potential resetters that could be under her control, or preventing said adversary from enlightening the Dark Fountain either herself or via a proxy, as either option would come at great risk to her.
  • The Laws of the Town Hall's Dark World do a damn good job at making sure that everything and everyone ticks along as desired by the Lady.
• Culture Clash: Kris is informed that the Dark Worlds that can be found in the church and the flower shop took their forms in a time where the world was, in Orange's words, "less tamed, less filled with boundaries" - as such, the Darkners found within still hold to the values of those times.
• Elite Mooks: Kris theorizes that the Videurloges are the equivalent to the Werewerewires found in the Cyber World, as they give off the vibe of having received extensive training in combat. Indeed, when the Blue Knight makes her first appearance, she's flanked by four of them.
• Help, I'm Stuck!: This arc begins with the heroes and the frozen corpse of the Purple Knight crammed into the shell of the Dreemurr's TV - in line with the individual Dark Worlds returning people to the place that they reflected in the Light World. The TV's internal components are pushed aside to accommodate people turning up in it, but it's still mightily uncomfortable and claustrophobic. After a few moments of panic and disorientation, Kris is able to slowly guide their friends and themself out of the TV - but Susie gets injured when she breaks out of it.
• Hopeless War: Kris and Ralsei mull over the idea that the Roaring is something that will always happen, unless steps are taken to push it back over and over again. While Ralsei wonders whether or not holding it back will be worth it, Kris states that the chance to create a better world shouldn't be given up on, no matter what - and even if they can't make the world they want, making it even just a tiny bit better beats having the world stay as it is.
  “Is it worth it to want it, though?” Ralsei asked. “Something impossible. The Roaring… the Roaring will happen, eventually. That’s what it looks like, unless… Unless you constantly fight to stop it, and succeed every time…”
  “Impossible by how we currently understand it, maybe.” They shrugged, as they began to descend down a familiar spiral staircase. “But maybe that changes, when the situation evolves.”
  Ralsei sniffed. “It might not.”
  “Maybe it doesn’t.” They acknowledged. “Maybe I’ll need to fight forever, never resting. Maybe I’ll need to pass the burden on to someone else. Maybe my depression decides to return before I can even do that.” They paused, for dramatic effect. “But difficulty shouldn’t change how desirable something is, I think.”
  The air seemed to thicken, as the dungeons approached.
  “Maybe you and I don’t get our perfect worlds. Maybe we can approach them, closer and closer, but never quite reach them. Maybe all we can do is stave off the worlds we don’t like by just a little bit.” They looked up. “But even a little bit of progress is still progress. Even the tiniest bit of getting better is something I’d like, if the alternative is letting things stay as they are.”
• Identity Amnesia: Kris and the Voice theorize that Ralsei was transformed from the writer of the books found in Castle Town, who is also assumed to be the "Castle Town Resetter". Ralsei has a major existential crisis when he's asked about this possibility.
• I Reject Your Reality: King still refuses to believe that Yellow did not have his or his kingdom's best interests in mind. He still holds onto the belief that Lightners betrayed and abandoned him and his people, even when he's told that the Darkners of the TV World had a view into the Light World, and learned that the awareness was not mutual.
• Knights and Knaves: The three Videurloges the heroes encounter in Chapter 50 present Kris with a challenge where one speaks only lies, one speaks only truth, and one says whatever they want. Kris bypasses the challenge by pointing out that they're all saying the same thing at the same time.
• Logical Weakness: When Kris is told about the Blue Knight's ability to make people follow their word if she hears them say it out loud and continue to say it, they're terrified...until they realize that Blue can't use that power on them if they don't say anything, which is what they do for a good chunk of their first meeting with her.
• Mandatory Unretirement: Due to the actions of the Purple Knight, and at the request of the heroes to help them out, Sans brings himself out of retirement and "pulls rank" on Carol, who after a bit of back-and-forth between her and Sans, appoints him as a judge-in-interim.
  Sans: legally speaking, you've all gotta do what i say now. legally speaking, i'm dumping all that on your mayor.
• No Indoor Voice: The Blurocrats that maintain the Fog Machine constantly scream at the top of their lungs, which freaks out most of the heroes when they first see them. As Arimetto is established to be The Dreaded amongst the Darkners of this Dark World, it's inferred that the reason why the Blurocrats are constantly screaming can be largely attributed to them.
• Ominous Fog: The Fog is a substance produced by the aptly-named Fog Machines, which link the thoughts of those 'engaged' in the Fog to one another. Law 9 decrees that everyone must engage with and be within the range of the Fog, unless they're unable to (such as Lightners) or have an exemption from the Lady.
• Open Secret: Arimetto reveals to Kris that, due to the Fog sharing an individual's thoughtstreams with everyone else that's engaged in the Fog, every Darkner in the Town Hall's Dark World knows about Arimetto once having the ability to reset, something that they were forced to reveal once the Blue Knight took over and Arimetto was forced to engage. They threaten Kris by telling them that if they're not around to prevent their fellow Darkners from leaking information about the ability to reset, then any number of Town Hall Darkners could and would reveal the info, intentionally or not.
• Reading Lips: The Voice displays the ability to read the lips and relay what's being said to Kris when they can't hear the speaker. It can only do this when Kris can see the speaker's lips.
• Really 700 Years Old: Kris learns that the Fountains where the Town Hall, Asgore's flower shop and the church are located are all very old Fountains - the Town Hall's one reflected about two hundred years prior to the start of the story, the church's over a thousand years ago^note just over fifteen hundred years, according to Primrose, and the flower shop's Fountain is older than all of the Light Fountains within Hometown combined^note several thousand years old, by Primrose's estimate - Flowey never gave an exact number.
• Rules Lawyer: The Darkners of the Town Hall's Dark World operate like this - this particular Dark World has an expansive list of Laws (emphasis on the capital) that its denizens must follow. The Laws are:
  Law 0: Everyone must follow the Laws of the Lady.

  Law 1: Everyone must follow the commands of the Lady.
  Law 1a: Unless explicitly mitigated by another command.
  Law 1b: No-one may deliberately attempt to ignore a command.
  Law 1b.1: Or avoid hearing it in the first place.
  Law 1b.1.1: If they believe that the Lady's intention is to give them a command.
  Law 1b.1.1.1: Within the next minute.

  Law 2: No-one may act against the Lady.
  Law 2a: Acting against means doing or planning to do things with the intent of displeasing the Lady or combatting her agenda.
  Law 2a.1: Displeasing the Lady includes any predicted Lady between the current Lady and the Lady at the time of which you do or intend to do the thing, inclusive.
  Law 2a.2: Not following the Lady's commands or Laws displeases the Lady unless she states otherwise.
  Law 2b: Law 2 should only be enforced against other individuals if the enforcers have seen evidence of the acting against.
  Law 2b.1: And its sub-Laws.
  Law 2b.1.1: With the exception of Law 2b and its sub-Laws.
  Law 2c: This Law cannot be enforced against the Lady.

  Law 3: The Bureau must upkeep the Fog Machine.
  Law 3a: To the best of their abilities.
  Law 3a.1: Unless this would contradict another Law.
  Law 3b: Upkeep of the Fog Machine includes upkeep of the necessary equipment and individuals needed to upkeep the Fog Machine.
  Law 3c: Individuals need not upkeep every aspect of the Fog Machine so long as the Bureau as a whole does.

  Law 4: No-one may attempt to seal the fountain.
  Law 4a: Attempting to seal the fountain includes attempting to make it easier to seal.
  Law 4b: Attempting to seal the fountain includes attempting to help others seal it.
  Law 4c: Attempting to seal the fountain includes successfully sealing it.
  Law 4d: The sub-Laws of Law 4 can apply both individually and in any combination.
  Law 4d.1: Law 4d always applies.
  Law 4d.2: And its sub-Laws.

  Law 5: Everyone must meet with the Lady to accept her commands.
  Law 5a: When called.
  Law 5a.1: Or if they have not yet accepted commands.
  Law 5b: They may leave when the Lady explicitly invokes Law 5b and not before then.

  Law 6: The system of Laws is fucking stupid and the Lady hates it.
  Law 6a: Law 6 and its sub-Laws are not enforceable.
  Law 6a.1: Except Law 6a.
  Law 6a.2: And Law 6a.1.
  Law 6a.3: And any other sub-Law of 6a.
  Law 6b: Everyone who shows public disdain for Law 6 must show an equal or greater amount of public praise.
  Law 6b.1: And eat shit.
  Law 6b.2: And wear a cone of shame.
  Law 6b.3: And stop being such a bunch of fucking assholes, in the Lady's opinion.

  Law 7: If the Lady is considering proposing a Law, any loopholes must be pointed out if anyone spots them.
  Law 7a: A loophole is an unintended consequence of a Law.
  Law 7a.1: A loophole is also something undesirable for the Lady.
  Law 7a.2: A loophole is also something unseen by the Lady.
  Law 7b: The Lady is exempt from this Law.
  Law 7c: Once a loophole is acknowledged, it should not be pointed out again.
  Law 7c.1: Unless specifically requested by the Lady.
  Law 7d: A loophole is only considered pointed out once the Lady acknowledges that it is so.
  Law 7e: Loopholes must also be pointed out when the Lady is considering proposing a sub-Law.

  Law 8: If Laws appear to contradict at any point, Laws that are a part of that contradiction may be not followed.
  Law 8a: Prioritise Law 1, then Law 2, then following as many Laws as possible.

  Law 9: Everyone must engage with the Fog.
  Law 9a: Unless they are unable to engage with the Fog.
  Law 9b: Those outside of the range of the Fog Machine are exempt from Law 9.
  Law 9b.1: But should be moved inside at the earliest convenience.
  Law 9b.1.1: Unless Law 9a applies.
  Law 9c: Individuals with special exemption from the Lady are exempt from Law 9.

  Law 10: Individuals with special exemption from the Lady are exempt from whichever Laws they are given special exemption from.
  Law 10a: And specific sub-Laws which they are given special exemption from the Lady to.
  Law 10b: Individuals given special exemption from Laws or sub-Laws before the enactment of Law 10 are not exempt from those Laws or sub-Laws.
  Law 10b.1: Unless they are or were given special exemption from those Laws or sub-Laws after the enactment of Law 10.
  Law 10c: Special exemptions from specific Laws or sub-Laws from the Lady can be revoked, removing the special exemption from those specific Laws or sub-Laws.
  Law 10c.1: Revocations of the kind described in Law 10c can only be performed by the Lady.
• Saved by the Phlebotinum: Thanks to the power of the points, Kris is able to heal Rudy of his illness once he enters the Dark World.
• Slimeball: The aptly-named-and-appearing Sleazies are a type of Darkner found in the Town Hall's Dark World, looking like a cross between a featherless ostrich and a slimeball. Kris has to bribe them in order to get information out of them.
• Skeptic No Longer: Carol is quite skeptical of the heroes' story at first - until she sees the Dark World for herself.
  Carol: That was real.
• Tastes Better Than It Looks: The stew that Noelle and Kris end up making, based on a recipe from the Green Knight, looks mightily unappetizing - the couple give themselves a few moments of pause before they dare try it and find that, outside of needing more salt, is actually quite good.
• The Tape Knew You Would Say That: Through Primrose's description of her interactions with and methods of communicating with her "benefactor"^note or, as Primrose would call him, her "determination daddy" and "oh-so-generous power-pip pimp" make Kris realize that his messages to her were recordings. He ceased sending them out when Knights would show up in the Dark Worlds.
• Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: Tensions between Kris and Susie become quite high - Kris can't stand Susie's abrasiveness and unwillingness to co-operate, while Susie can't stand Kris keeping secrets and, from her point of view, not practicing what they preach. It takes Noelle and Ralsei making a plea to Susie to make peace with Kris, with Noelle mentioning that Susie and Kris won't have to see each other again when their quest is finished.
• The Unchosen One: After wondering what made them so special and integral to the Knights' plans, Kris comes to the conclusion that they were simply in the right place at the right time. The Voice promptly stops them from spiraling into despair by informing them that, in choosing their own purpose for themself, their purpose is worthy, rather than let someone else choose for them or lacking a will to choose their own. This choice of Kris's is further magnified by them actively choosing to try and make the world a better place.
• Volleying Insults: Kris and a Chaisetaur the heroes encounter engage in a verbal duel when they first meet.
• We Have to Get the Bullet Out!: Susie takes the brunt of returning to the Light World from the TV World - as she bursts out of the Dreemurr's TV, bits of its shell get lodged into her scales, causing her a great amount of pain. Berdly, having done a first aid course at some point in the past^note but doesn't remember most of what he learned, as the Voice picks up, works to remove the pieces.
• Withholding the Cure: Arimetto tells the heroes not to heal the Floor Plannager that they brutalized until after he's given them answers regarding how the Fog Machine works, something which disturbs the party.
• Wound That Will Not Heal: When the Green and Orange Knights come knocking on the Dreemurr's door, Kris sees that the injuries Green sustained from being drained by Spamton NEO have still not healed, implying that the Knights' don't have the means to get him healthy again. Orange doesn't show much care towards his colleague's condition, at one point giving him a hard slap on the back that appears to bring him closer to death.
• You Are Not Alone: Kris pledges to Ralsei that they'll help him make the world what he wants it to be - or, if that proves to be impossible, a world better than the one that they live in.
  Kris: You have a way you want the world to be. You have the will to want it done. All that’s left is figuring out how to use the latter to get the former. And if that’s hard, then… Well. I’ll help you get there. Wouldn’t be the first time I’ve decided that the way things are needs to take a hike, just because I don’t like it.
  • Loma reveals to Kris that she doesn't believe she can help out, given her past history. Kris tells her that they've been in the same place as her, and urge her not to go down the same path they once did.