Chapter Text
And… Voila!
It’s finished… My first mod ever.
Heh, I'm already smiling like an idiot and I haven't even tried it. Honestly it was easier than I thought, the modding engine helped a lot, I just had to put my story into it.
Well, not that there's a lot of a story to begin with, it's a Vessel vs The Roaring Knight mod, a more complete fight with multiple endings, I even added a prelude as to how this came to be.
I just hope that all those all-nighters don’t affect me on my job… I take a look at the clock… 12:37 AM.
Huh, It’s not as late as I thought… Eh, why not? I think I’ve earned some play time, I have to check if it’s all well and balanced anyways.
I start running Deltarune with the new files and shift in my seat in anticipation, soon a new window opens in fullscreen, with nothing but a black screen.
…
Man, this is taking a while, did I do something wrong?
As I finish my thought, my screen starts flashing different colors and lines of code in rapid succession. Wow, I didn't think I would’ve screwed up this much… A tinge of disappointment and embarrassment begins to form in my being, I'm that terrible at coding huh.
Suddenly, a shift on my monitor startles me. It’s now displaying the Vessel creation background and its eerie ambiance.
I don’t remember adding this?
FASCINATING
TRULY FASCINATING
What is this? I’ve never heard or seen something like this.
YOUR INPUT TO THIS WORLD
IS MOST UNEXPECTED
BUT IT IS A WELCOME SURPRISE NONETHELESS
My eyes are wide open now, did… Did the game detect the mod? Toby Fox you genius. I'm surprised this isn’t talked about as much as other things, or maybe I'm not in touch with the fandom as much as I thought. I focus back on the screen as more text begins to appear.
UNFORTUNATELY
A KEY COMPONENT IS MISSING
A MORE DIRECT APPROACH
IS NECESSARY
FOR THIS
YOU MUST CREATE
AN AVATAR
A grin makes its way to my face, an expression of excitement is plastered on my features. It's always a treat to find new content by myself, especially when it involves something I created. God, I need to write a love letter to that annoying dog as soon as I can.
The Vessel creation sequence starts to play, I take little time in creating the body, the fifth head type with a jacket and some random legs (They mostly look the same anyways).
Moving onto shaping its mind, the first question being its favorite food. The answers are what I’d expect except the ‘pain’ option, which has always caused me curiosity to what it exactly entails, but I always picked it because it sounds badass, even if it's a little bit edgy.
The next question caught me off guard, not because of what it asks, but because of the answers. ‘What is your favorite blood type?’ What surprised me was that there were real blood types to pick from, positive and negative. I let out an awed sigh, amazed at the new options, It was fascinating, even though it was mostly trivial. I picked O negative, the universal donor and one of the greatest metal bands of all time.
The next question made me even more dumbfounded. ‘What color does it like the most?’ But instead of multiple written answers a color wheel appeared, it was somewhat simple but it let me pick more colors in different tones. I ended up picking a beautiful royal purple, it was always one of my favorite colors, so why not imprint some of my own tastes in my vess- I mean, avatar.
Actually… What did it mean with avatar? I'm not exactly sure of the definition but it's definitely different from a vessel.
Am I gonna be able to control this “avatar” with total freedom...?
Eh, I'm overthinking it, I’ll see in a minute anyways.
‘Please give it a gift’ was the next question, well it's more of a request, the answers this time were the same leaving me somewhat disappointed, but I picked a voice nonetheless. I wouldn't want to block myself out of ACTing or something.
‘How do you feel about your creation? (Please answer truthfully)’ was the next thing to answer, but the usual options didn’t appear on the screen, instead a blank space that looked like text was supposed to be written on showed up. I tried pressing on my keyboard and I was correct, the letters I pressed showed on the space.
Woah… This is… amazing. I never thought I’d get to have this much of an influence in the game.
I pondered about the question for a while, how do I feel about this avatar?
It’s weird, I don’t exactly feel negative towards my creation, on the contrary actually, its an intense feeling of appraise, but to call it love would be inaccurate since it doesn’t feel as personal, to call it appreciation feels insufficient, there's a missing adjective to reach what I truly feel.
I turn and rack my brain for an answer, searching in the depths of my vocabulary for what feels like an eternity, the somber but ethereal ambiance filling the oppressive silence of my pitch black room. I take a deep breath and look at my hands, the screen projecting a small fraction of light unto them.
Pride
I’m proud of this, of my creation, of my mod.
The first thing I have ever offered to this world…
All my life, I’ve only drifted through this world in menial tasks to keep living day by day, not much of an option as an orphan. My parents unfortunately died when I was a child, I was too young to remember them, but I didn’t turn out bad so I assume they did a good enough job. With no close relatives I was put into an orphanage, the ladies that took care of me were nice, helped me set direction on my life. Finishing high school was my first goal which was achieved with perfect mediocrity, just enough to get into college and get a career and hopefully a better future.
But honestly, I didn’t find the use in any of that, so I didn’t do it. I still think it was a mistake, but at the time I didn’t find any inspiration to actually pursue a career, seeing as a high school diploma already opened the doors to a lot of employment opportunities and it wasn’t like I had a lot of motivation to make a name for myself at that time, which was strange; All of my classmates talked about their dreams and goals with such fervor, but that never got to me despite my efforts.
I tried carpentry, gardening, music, writing, painting, even knitting, but to no avail, I began losing interest in finding a passion.
Until I finally found it; The only thing that sparked a passion within myself was combat, the thrill of fighting was something so addicting, I was so happy that I had finally found my calling, something of my own to show to the world, to show my skill to people like me. I craved to be in the spotlight of the fighting world, to be toe to toe with the best of the best, to be triumphant and to make a name for myself, a name that I could be proud of. So I worked hard, and I trained even harder; I trained my technique to be as precise as a string going through a sewing needle, my strength to be great but not unmeasured, my battle IQ to take me through my opponents in the most efficient manner. But alas, every dream has its end, and mine ended with an ACL injury.
It was a good fight, I was dominating with my boxing but in just a second my opponent had me in a leg lock, my pride got the better of me and I refused to tap, earning me a terrible prize. My shinbone got torn apart from my femur, destroying my knee. Eventually I got better, thankfully the fighting organization covered the medical expenses but I was left with a limp. My days of fighting were over because of a stupid mistake, and my inspiration to be something more in this world was gone with the wind.
I expected to fall into despair, to cry my heart out and to want to end it all, but surprisingly, I just came back to that same feeling of boredom, that emptiness that didn’t hurt but was ever so present and that never gave me a reason to offer something of value.
After that, I resigned myself to a life of mediocrity, living day to day with an inglorious routine, working a lousy job at a burger joint… I'm only 19 years old and I already wasted my life...
Heh, I should play Undertale again.
What a masterpiece, the only thing that took the boredom out of my life was that game, it made me feel present once again, it was a breath of life among my vacant existence… And the community behind it made it even better. The art, the fangames, the fanfics, it was such a great thing. I spent most of my life exploring the fandom everyday just to see what new things the people created.
But eventually people moved on, less content was being created until it was a rare sight to see something of quality. A shame it had to end.
And then Deltarune was announced, and all those feelings came back stronger than ever.
But this time, I decided to contribute to the community, to try and be part of something bigger.
And that was with this mod I had made, my first step into this world.
And I'm proud of it.
I write the word Prideful onto the blank space and press enter.
‘You acknowledge the certainty of pain and seizure’ I select yes without a second thought.
Wait a minute, certainty? Did I read that correctly??? That wasn’t there before, was it????? I’ve played this game a lot of times and I’ve never seen that… Or maybe the all-nighters are actually doing something to my brain.
THANK YOU FOR YOUR TIME
THERE IS ONLY ONE STEP LEFT
FOR THE CONNECTION TO THIS WORLD
TO BE COMPLETED
YOUR SOUL
MUST BE TRANSFERED
The words on screen take me away from my former train of thought, my soul huh? Hehe, I love how meta this is.
BUT YOU MUST RECOGNIZE
THE COMPLETE ABANDONMENT
OF YOUR TRUE WORLD
DO YOU ACCEPT THIS CONDITIONS?
YES NO
I pick the ‘YES’ option and go to press the enter key, only to stop at the last second, my index finger mere millimeters away from it when a sudden pit in my stomach starts to form.
My breathing hitches, and I have to make myself let go of a breath I hadn’t realized I was holding, all the while I start to slightly shake.
This feels… As if I just treaded on something much more bigger than I realize, a primal fear worming its way into my mind is blaring alarms to back off from whatever this is, that there truly will be no turning back.
But… turn back to what?
A grubby job at a forgotten burger place?
A perpetual limp that reminds me of my worst mistake?
Meaningless interactions with grey blobs posing as people?
A life without being able to live my one and true dream?
I really have nothing to hold in this world but the ground at my feet.
So why in the hell would I try to keep holding?
I gather all of my courage to push past those instincts of fear and let BRAVERY take control, pushing the enter key and finally selecting the ‘YES’ option for good.
I stare wide eyed as the options slowly fade away
UNDERSTOOD
YOUR SOUL WILL BEGIN TRANSFER
NOW
I brace for whatever is going to happen while my heart is beating like crazy over a sudden surge of adrenaline, the words finally fade away with the music and ambiance, leaving once again a black screen in front of me.
It stays like this for one… Two… Three seconds… Ten seconds… Fifteen seconds… Twenty seconds…?
Oh man, I must look like an idiot.
I let out a heavy sigh… I really need to find another hobby, this cannot be healthy for me.
I take a look at a digital clock beside my bed… 3:44 AM!?
Ok that's enough all-nighters for a LONG time.
I reach for the power button on my PC-
AAAAAAUUUGHHHH-
A jolt of relentless pain courses through me the instant I make contact with my PC, making me sit with my back stuck on my chair; It feels as if my nerve endings are being plucked from my body, making me seize up in the process.
My eyes begin to water as the pain suddenly transports to the center of my chest making my heart feel like it's filled with lava, orange light protruding from it.
Tinnitus makes presence all around me when I feel a sudden tug at my center.
It feels like my veins and arteries are being pulled out along my heart.
I cry for help, or at least that's what I think I did, I can’t hear anything anymore.
My eyes are completely shut from the pain.
And just like that, the pain was gone in an instant; I opened my eyes out of instinct.
The last thing I saw was a golden orange heart shaped object with strings of the same color standing out from it.
Slowly, white hands extended out from my monitor, there was a hole in each of the palms.
It can’t be…
The Doctor’s hands cup my SOUL with care and slowly reverts back its hands unto the monitor.
The black screen remained once again, emanating a small light into my surroundings.
Until it turned off, and all went black.
And I felt nothing.