i stand by my [[cancel]] wife

Don't mind the inconsistent style with the ref on these guys, I drew them pre-Leaky Fountain AU's creation because I had a lot of fondness for the world building in Staten's continuity, despite being away from DR.

Anyhow, so these are Tybee, Savannah, and Bonaventure, the Pulp Dark World versions of Lancer, Queen, and King. Their version of the Card Kingdom is known as Red Forest City and is modeled off of Savannah, GA.

Once a prosperous city thanks to its relationship with its Lightners, it fell on hard times after Bonaventure suffered a disabling blow in play and the toys was abandoned over time. Angered by this, Bonaventure made contact with The Knight, who showed him how to harvest Dark Fountain Water from certain locations in his Dark World.

When bottled, the substance (which became known as font) could be consumed and help sustain Darkners and their World even without Lightners present, but would erode the balance between Light and Dark if farmed too often. He began running font to other Dark Worlds and opened his trade to others in need of the support, expanding the operation enough to amass great wealth, power, and influence. He staged a coup of the city, made himself mayor, and motivated his Darkners to continue their work despite the danger.

Bonaventure and Savannah's desires and attitudes regarding power ultimately caused their break-up in their continuity. Savannah redoubled her efforts in Cyber World as a socialite and climbed the social ranks until she was elected mayor, basically in an attempt to stick it to Bonaventure. She tried hard to quash fontrunning in her city but struggled, especially due to Staten and his Borough Boys' sudden spike in popularity at one point. Despite also getting in contact with the Knight and vying for domination of the Light World, she didn't realize font and The Dark Fountains were related, let alone what they could do if left unchecked.

🎶 Flower mennnnn, flower mennnnnn, drew these guys, pretty quiiiick--🎶

The actual mechanics and personalities of these Floweries and their Dark Worlds are still being worked on But I wanted to share these designs and my notes so far because I was hit with visions for each of these fuckers.

From left to right we have:

Badgeworth B. Tercup, or Retro Dark World Flowery. His Flower World is modeled after the 1960s and has a mix of Japanese/English influence as far as aesthetic/fantasy romanticism. Basically an Austin Powers type with little to no concept of sex.

Golden Gatesby, or Pulp Dark World Flowery. Everyone from his Flower World is named after places in San Francisco-- He himself is named after the Golden Gate Bridge. A loving and very fruity Jay Gatsby pastiche.

Full disclosure, these guys are partly the reason why this AU took the shape it did LMAO

For those new to my stuff, I'd been a fan of Deltarune since it came out in 2018 but Chapter 2 altered my brain chemistry and creative trajectory, largely because of Spamton. Out of the many versions/AUs I made, these guys were the ones I became the most attached to both as Spamtons and as their own characters, so I brought them back to where they came from and retooled their old lores so they can all exist together.

Each Spamton present comes from copies of spam emails in Cyber Worlds opened/shaped by different people present. They are all the same species, known as Spamsons, a brood parasite species in competition with Addisons. As Annie, Skylar, and The Fun Gang try to stop the Knight and its potential conspirators in opening more Fountains, certain visual motifs/themes/continuity became apparent across The Dark Worlds, so the various Darkners of Castletown adopted new demonyms and unique names to distinguish themselves from each other once they all started living in the same place.

Santino (he/him) is from The Retro Dark Worlds, or versions of Dark Worlds characterized by adopting the aesthetic/feel of a specific Light World decade-- In Santino's case, his Cyber World is modeled off of the '70s. He has a mannequin body and used to be an actor, abandoning the world of retail and sales early on in his life after cutting a deal with the right number over the phone and meeting the right people. Things went bad thanks to him meddling in things he struggles to remember, he goes NEO, but is spared, albeit pretty reclusive.

Staten (he/it) is from The Pulp Dark Worlds, versions of Dark Worlds with a comic book/pulp fiction/film noir kinda feel, thanks to Annie's presence. His Cyber World is modeled off of New York City, in which everyone there gets their name inspiration. Once a salesman down on his luck with a found family to keep afloat, he started running Dark Fountain Water for a mysterious benefactor over the phone and obtained fame, fortune, and influence from the work. However, he was betrayed in a lover's quarrel and thrown into his Queen's Acid River, which burned 75% of his body as he was left for dead. He also went NEO, but had to be Pacified with how vicious he was, and was ultimately spared.

So, starting off the new era, I have some folks to introduce.

The first is Annie (he/they/she). Some of you may recognize her, she's a long running character of mine. Annie is a human that works as a mechanic/electrician/handyperson in this AU's version of Hometown. Recently divorced and newly aware of the Dark World after her son, Eugène, accidentally created a Dark Fountain in his bedroom, Annie has a good reputation in town but struggles to connect with other people, after years of self-abandonment has impacted her social skills and self-esteem. She accidentally falls into Castletown while trying to fix a projector in one of Hometown's schools and begin investigating things on her own time. In the Dark World, she assumes the archetype of a rogue, at least initially.

The second is Skylar (they/she). Skylar is a morse (read: heraldic sealion/merlion... but jaguar instead) who works as an astronomer at AU Hometown's nearby observatory. They moved to Hometown within the last decade and found their footing among the locals, thanks to working with Toriel, Alphys, Gerson, and others to arrange field trips and local events related to astronomy/astronomical events. They're somewhat imposing, private, and standoffish initially with their attitude, but they're rather kind and partake in a vibrant social life. Using the tools afforded to them by the observatory, they began looking for Dark Fountains, assuming them to be urban legends. They sought out Castletown intentionally, using their usual community involvements as cover while in the same school as Annie. In the Dark World, Skylar assumes the archetype of a water mage.

Not to get deep into life stuff, but a lot has changed in the past few years. I’ve accomplished things I didn’t think I ever would, and I’ve made a lot of good connections, including with myself, but I still… Idk. Have a lot to learn and forget things I already know sometimes.

One of those things was just… Making things for myself for the love of the game. I have the tendency to take things very seriously and pile on detail to the point I get buried and lose the lede— I do it because I love it, storytelling and creating are long held special interests of mine, but also because I was afraid of how other people would think of me and what I enjoy. This has only gotten worse with how shitty things have been lately, in the wider world.

To get to the meat and potatoes of stuff here, I got back into Deltarune in a big way a couple weeks before chapter 5 dropped. My relationship with the fandom has been a little up and down, but my fondness for it never changed, and… Idk. Something was different this time. I felt like I could play again like I did when the second chapter first came out, and even before that. I started drawing for fun, real fun, again. Building beyond the wall.

So… I decided to revamp the blog to show what I was doing. Creative exercises with a game that I love very, very much. I started calling the collection of ideas The Leaky Fountain AU among friends and it stuck, hence the name of the blog now.

The idea behind The Leaky Fountain AU is that it’s Deltarune but in a monster-of-the-week format, a somewhat bigger Hometown, and with my characters and interpretations thrown in the mix. Canon characters exist, but there are multiple versions of canon Darkners and Plantners thanks to the MOTW format and the nature of the Dark Worlds. There are no duplicate Lightners, and the story as we know it is still playing out, just on a less condensed scale and with others involved in the going’s on of the world. There’s nods to the Weird Route but it’s a pacifist route story, again, for fun, love for the work, and self-expression more than anything else.

backalleybusinessman -----> leakyfountain

me watching the notes on my newest post

hey gang, long time, no see

did some screenshot redraws of o’malley from the aristocats with my boy santino semi-recently

o’malley is a big character inspo for him, along with quite a few other gentleman rogues, so it felt appropriate to slot him in here haha.

'BEHOLD. THE REALM ABOVE YOUR REALM.'

'WHAT DO YOU THINK?'