Stellar Punctuation

The characters we meet in deltarune are, for the most part, very similar to their undertale counterparts.

Alphys is a nervous nerd who has to fill up the shoes of the one who came before her. Asgore wants nothing than to get his family back. Undyne is an intense, over-the-top keeper of the law. Sans is Sans.

But deltarune's Toriel seems strangely laid back compared to her undertale counterpart.

It makes sense of course. Frisk is a child and Kris is a teenager, and Undertale's Toriel's fear is the result of losing every single child she's ever had so the thought of deltarune's Toriel not acting the same way is understandable.

But what if she's more scared than we think?

Toriel seems to be a laid back mother, but we know that she hasn't always been this way.

Asriel seemed to be pretty sensitive as a child.

You know who else is a pretty sensitive kid?

Yes, crying and being scared isn't exactly the same, but both are noted to be more sensitive than their peers.

Also, both seem to be the town's darlings and both were probably under a lot of pressure as a result.

You know who else probably grew up with a lot of pressure?

Our very own Lost Girl.

Now, the fandom believes that Dess and Carol's relationship wasn't the best. It was never confirmed but with Carol's controlling tendencies and Dess's rebellious personality it's a reasonable assumption.

And December has shown interest in going somewhere else.

Since she's presumed missing (it wasn't outright stated but between Noelle's search for her, the lack of grave for her in hometown and the whole 'find her' thing it's another safe assumption).

What if the town believes that she ran away?

So picture this. You are Toriel, your husband and you used to be best friends with another couple since college days.

Your kids played together, they grew up alongside each other.

You love children, always have, that's why you became a teacher. And you were close to your friends' kids as if they were your own.

You were strict with your eldest, didn't want him to go out late or with the wrong crowd, you wanted him to succeed in school, basic parent stuff, right?

Or so you thought.

Your best friend claimed to want the same but she was always a little too strict in your opinion.

You heard them fight, your friend and her eldest daughter. The daughter came over often after that, or hanged out with your kids somewhere else.

You didn't say much to your friend about it, even if you got a little worried at times. It wasn't your place, and disagreements between children and their parents are normal, and you know your friend, she just wants what's best for her kids, like you.

And then one day the eldest child goes away and never comes back.

No one can find her.

Everything falls apart after that.

Your husband loses his job and sanity, your marriage falls apart, you and your friends aren't very close anymore. Your eldest son hasn't stopped crying for months and when he finally smiles again, you know it's an empty smile, just to reassure everyone. Your youngest child gets depressed.

You see your best friend's cool demeanor turning cold and then icy. You see your other best friend falling ill.

You want to fall apart too but you can't, because your kids deserve at least one functioning parent.

You see Noelle acting a lot like Asriel did at the time, as your former friend turns more and more controlling.

You wonder if Asriel considered running away too. You wonder if he's happier at college, without an overbearing mother to limit him and expect too much of him.

You only have one child at home now and they've not been doing well.

And oh, of course you're worried, you're worried so much.

But look how much "worrying" has got you and your friends so far?

Anxious children, guilt-ridden children, children who ran away and never came back.....

What if by trying to ensure they'll be safe and succeed, you'll drive them away from you?

And your youngest, you know they're depressed. You put them in art therapy for a while.

And you know, that for them making it to school on time is an achievement.

There were years where even getting out of bed was an achievement.

What if putting pressure on them will break them? What if it'll make them withdraw even further from you?

You want to talk to them about everything but you don't know how to do it without making them feel cornered.

So you wait for them to come to you first. You'll always make time for them when they want to talk to you. You try to create bonding time between you two.

But you never pressure. You can't.

You were worried sick about them, two days ago, but then you found out that they actually made a FRIEND and everything else didn't matter anymore.

You haven't seen them hang out with anyone for Angel knows how long.

And they told you about it.

The next day they hang out with her again (even if they don't pick up your calls again during some time) and even bring her over!!!

You know that they've been even more down this week, not being able to talk to their brother because there's no internet, but they seem to finally be getting better. The hands off method is working.

The next day, both kids go with you to church, you overhear them planning to visit Noelle to do homework later (Susie's such a good influence!!).

On your way back to church, crazy rain starts pouring and you take cover next to the new grocery store and bump into that nice skeleton you met a few days ago.

You strike up a conversation and decide that choir practice can happen another time, you should probably get back home. How nice of him to offer to talk you back. How nice of him to reassure you when you try to call your child to tell them that you won't be at choir and they don't pick up again. Yeah, he's right, they're probably so caught up with their friend again they didn't notice you were calling. It's the weekend, they're teenagers and they have each other, they're fine. They're fine. You're fine.

Then you yourself get so caught up with your new friend you let yourself stop worrying for a change.

The house doesn't feel so lonely anymore, with Mr. Sans. The TV's gone but you hardly feel its absence when you take out a gramophone and a bottle of wine (how long has it been since you last drank? You don't party wild like you used to in your college days...).

You don't even notice when it's way past sunset.

When the kids are back you're trying to regain your composure. You offer Susie to stay over again, and...there are still pancakes at the fridge if they're hungry.... Angel, your head is fuzzy....

Everyone loves Noelle. She's sugar and spice and everything nice. She's the mayor's daughter,a choir girl, she's a cross country team member, she's a straight A student, she's a not-so-straight girl, she's Berdly's study-buddy and has "snake sundays" with Catti and Jockington.

Everyone loves Noelle.

But no one knows Noelle.

No one, except Kris. Which is probably why she keeps longing for them even after years of being apart, despite her having other friends.

This is why she dreams about the new girl in class no one likes, and imagines that deep down there's more to her if only someone gave her a real chance.

Noelle is surronded by people, people who really care about her, but she still feels alone.

Noelle is a good kid. She's soft and innocent and fragile and she NEEDS to be protected. Everyone thinks so.

The world is dangerous, the dark world is dangerous, how could poor, helpless, innocent Noelle handle it?

And she seemed to have internalized it too. Noelle is a good kid. Noelle is innocent and fragile. Because no one will ever let her be anything else.

The picture of Noelle people have in their minds is so suffocating for her she started to dissassosiate from her own identity.

Everything has to be baby-proofed for Noelle. She shouldn't read out loud in class and she shouldn't be around Susie and she shouldn't know about the dark world because come on, it's Noelle we're talking about! Of course she can't handle herself.

And of course we shouldn't ask her before deciding for her.

But if we do ask her...what does she want?

Noelle doesn't want her world to be baby proofed. She is going out of her way to explore glitches and secrets and the dark corners of her video games. She watches horror movies and misses exploring near the graveyard after dark. She wants the class's bully to push her around.

She wants the catharsis of feeling scared and hurt in a safe enviorment, and get comforted afterwards.

She feels safer with Kris who does things like pretend to rip their heart out, and Susie who treathens to eat peoples' faces than with her mother who made their house into an Impregnable fortress and cancel school when it's raining.

And when you think about it, this sentiment of "protecting Noelle" is a little ridiculous when you realize that this girl has been through more terror and heartbreak than many other people her age.

Yeah she's rich and popular and has her own nice room with a computer and a large flat TV, but her older sister in an event where it's implied to have been traumatic for her and her father is sick. And in her mother's wish to protect her, she made her nice room into a golden cage.

Noelle isn't ignorant to the harshness of life, she knows it intimately, and pretending like she's a sweet innocent angel who'd break under any kind of duress is frankly insulting, and makes her underestimate her own abilities and doubt her own judgment.

Not only that, it's also a part of what leads to her getting actually hurt in the weird route.

The sad part about abuse, is that it always comes from people we're supposed to trust. Noelle wasn't wrong about trusting Kris, Kris would never hurt her. But we would, and right now, we're wearing their face.

Kris had to have known we'd come to possess them, they prepared a cage ahead of time. Carol, Noelle's own mother, certainly acts like someone who's aware of our existance as well. We're crucial to whatever they're planning, odds are that they're the ones who brought us here.

But Noelle doesn't know.

So she's left to wonder why is Kris acting so strange, and she ignores her instincts when they scream at her that she's in danger, and she lets them lead her through the dark because it's KRIS, and... she's just a Noelle. She couldn't handle this strange place herself, she's weak and scared and fragile. It's best if she lets other people take charge.

Then, Susie tells her she's dreaming and Kris backs up the lie, they reassure her and comfort her and do everything to keep her blissfully ignotant of the horrors she's been through and committed,

So when we come back for more, she's taken off guard again.

If Kris or Carol had told her about the soul, or Susie told her about the dark world, or literally anyone else had taught her to trust her own instincts and provided her someone she could talk to once she realized something was wrong with Kris, we couldn't have taken advantage of her.

Before chapter three, the weird route was considered to be just the evil route of deltarune, something we can do as the players of this game if we're determined enough. And since we knew that chapter three likely wouldn't have Noelle in it, the predictions were that we could recreate it with Toriel, use our evil magic powers to get her to kill people.

But it's not that. We as the player of this game have some powers no one else does, but a lot of them were GIVEN to us. We know that Ralsei could have solved every puzzle on his own, but he lets us do them ourselves. Before Susie agreed to it, she wouldn't take our commends in battle, and she still would refuse to do certain things if she doesn't want to.

We can talk because we have Kris to relay our words and we can act because we have them to follow our instructions. To be our vessel. And even they can choose how to interpet our commends and often use loopholes to gain agency.

Even our save files are seem to be ran by Gaster.

Our power over this world isn't natural and it isn't law, it's given to us and we're reminded every single chapter that it can get taken away, too.

And our power over Noelle specifically is a result of her trust in Kris and lack of trust in herself.

training (real + effective)