Alright so. You know that comic thing? Planning on it since OVER 100 PEOPLE VOTED!!!
However. I got one of those 3 AM ideas. A Spamton centric Deltarune AU that I think has an interesting concept.
Now before I give the pitch, I’m gonna be honest. I changed a lot. I didn’t INTEND to make Spamton less greedy, but it ended up happening as a biproduct of changing his origins. Anyhow, due to circumstances, Spamton is less of a bitch. Most canon events still happen, but for different reasons and by different means.
What if Spamton was literally the embodiment of email, rather than just spam mail specifically?
Also, I extended that so he used to be the embodiment of ARPANET before all that.
Some notable differences:
- Spamton is old. He doesn’t act old, and he doesn’t look old, but he was literally created in 1969.
- He doesn’t start out with a wide range of emotions, slowly getting more emotionally complex and more sentient as time goes on.
- For most of his life, especially in the beginning, he doesn’t really have any goals. He’s only following instructions. For a long time, he isn’t ambitious whatsoever.
- He’s still emotionally awkward, but in different ways. Instead of constantly putting up a front, concealing his emotions, and keeping secrets, he’s just… awkward. It takes him a really long time to adjust and learn to talk to people, so a lot of the time he’ll take things too literally, or won’t laugh at jokes, or just not understand social cues in general.
- no conflict arises until he meets Tenna. In fact, he only starts getting phone calls AFTER he meets Tenna. He never needed much help to be successful, given the massive success of email. He never felt like he needed it. Spamton is after something else in this AU, and arguably, I’d say it’s even more tragic. But you don’t get to know what it is yet.
- The Addisons are actually nice. Like, they’re genuinely good friends/family. Their relationship to Spamton is different and more positive than in canon.
- Tenna is mostly unchanged, but due to how different Spamton is, their dynamic is still different.
- Lastly, you’ll sometimes hear me refer to this Spamton as Arplo. In my AU, he’s given the name Spamton by the Addisons as a nickname. Before then, he doesn’t really have a name, but I like to call him Arplo for reasons I’ll explain in a later post.
I plan to post some mini comics and doodles of this AU every now and then. Some will be just Spamton/Arplo, some will be him and the Addisons, some will be Spamtenna comics, and others will be whatever whacky shenanigans I decide to put to paper (or screen.) this will include a downhill spiral as well. There’s a good mix of angst and fluff in this AU.
This AU will handle some very heavy topics. I will put specific trigger warnings in specific posts, but I’ll also put trigger warnings you shoild expect from the series right here.
Existentialism - This AU deals what defines something as sentient. It tackles feelings of insecurity regarding sentience, being real, how one came to be, etc. There’s one one reoccurring debate will show up a lot: If our feelings are nothing more than chemical signals in our brains triggered by external stimuli, then how real and authentic are those feelings compared to how computer programs and ai react to external stimuli with their own signals? What makes our feelings real, and those artificial? If this upsets you to think about, then you probably won’t like this AU!
Mentions and possibly depictions of suicide - With the story I have planned for this AU, it would be very hard to leave out mentions of suicide and still convey the feelings that I want to. The canon ending of this AU does not have a character actually commit suicide, but with the story I have planned, there will likely be an attempt. Luckily, if you don’t want to read or see that part of the story, I will have a warning on any parts of the AU that contain suicidal themes. I will also post an alternative version of these posts that summarizes the events without going into detail or showing them.
Self loathing and hatred - This AU also touches feelings of self hatred. This is not appearance related or related to the characters physical form though, so it will not go into territory like body dysmorphia. Most of this self hatred is directed and the mind rather than the body.
There may be other more specific trigger warnings later, but I’ll include those in the individual parts.
I already have a reference sheet for a small part of the AU, so I’ll probably post about it soon when I feel like I have enough art stockpiled.
I don’t entirely know what to call this AU, but for now I’ll put work in progress names in the tags.
