#asterism343

i tried to read it once but personally it really wasn't for me. it looks like a normal football article called "what football will look like in the future" when you first go to it but then the page like jumpscares you and changes into the actual story. yeah

you dont have to do all of those just pick whichever you fancy

5) how would they have met. The hardest question I think . My honest answer would be I dont knowwww but I do have thoughts on this hold on lemme get my notes

I think friend watched over tv world a lot and battat caught its eye . It probably thought battat was entertaining to watch and they resonated with it in ways - battat wanted to be "mike" to both help tenna and to escape from having to be themself. They wanted to be someone important and rejected their own insignificance and flaws, just like friend needed people in need to continue existing because it's convinced it isnt a person it is just a tool (im working on a longer versionof this hc its not complete). Friend has never had relationships outside of duties before or allowed itself to feel anything ever so it doesn't realize it's growing fond of battat. It wants to interact with them so badly but doesn't know how. It starts to rearrange batts belongings and leave closed doors open and even leave vague, small clues on their corkboard and it feels so rewarded when it gets so many big reactions out of them and most of them are responses of fear and curiosity. Basically a my Touy :-) situation

so obviously battat goes searching for whatever lurks in the dark, adn friend introduces itself after luring them away from everyone. i think at first it was being constantly cryptic and threatening (but gave it up later as the 2 slowly got comfortable with eachother). battat probably convinced themself they were hallucinating at first but friend kept appearing to talk to them and would abruptly leave before they could ask questions

16)fic. unfortunately I don't write but here are some i read https://archiveofourown.org/works/68748241/chapters/178053826#workskin , the fourth chapter of this https://archiveofourown.org/works/71565931/chapters/187360716#workskin , there was more but these were the only ines i could find rn, maybe ill post about fics i read later

22)hc : friend likes to hold battat and feel their heartbeat /breathing because friend doesnt have a pulse or organs in general (battat has the qualities/results of having organs because of darkner logic, friend doesnt). friend is a bit cold to the touch so it likes latching onto batt's warmth and pretending it's its own. i love them cuddling

(unrelated just a ps i think darkners work kind of like objectified's organspace. this will probably make no sense if you don't read it already, what im trying to say is that them having eyes and mouths and stuff implies they have systems like humans but if you cut a pippins in half for example it'd be something like flexible plastic inside)

another one i think battat CRAVES tennas attention and sometimes makes friend shapeshift into tenna and pretend to be him and it messes them up both because battat knows its almost impossible for tenna to love them as themself and friend also wants to be loved by battat as itself and it gets jealous of tenna. it also sees this as a definite and insulting rejection.

23) describe them in an out of context way. i usually describe them as "the cat and the mold spore" but my favorite is this .i think about this image a lot. conspiracy theorist meets sexy eldritch horror...

i hope this doesn't sound mean. as a preface: i am an advocate for all things fandom, fun, and frivolous. the mere concept of an original character is something i find precious, and one of the coolest things ever, and it is a neutral term at worst to me. i'd never use "OC" as an insult.

my thoughts:

IMAGE_FRIEND, akin to W. D. Gaster, is a collective fandom OC meant to satisfy the inherent frustrations of a mystery that cannot or will not be solved at this time. it, and iconography associated with it, is being utilized to plug up nagging, perceived holes in a fan's conception of the grander deltarune theoryboard, regardless or even because of any evidence suggesting its involvement in said perceived holes.

i think that's not only fine, but healthy for a fandom to do. i don't know how correct anyone is about anything they have to say, but i'm avidly reading theories all the same.

and this isn't to say that i don't think the UTDR team will leave the greater mystery behind IMAGE_FRIEND totally unspoken on or without conclusion, either.

originally, i elaborated on the great amount of trust i have in the UTDR team to tell complex, comprehensive, and cohesive narratives, and how i believe IMAGE_FRIEND and elements relating to it is a part of that. and then my computer crashed without having a draft saved, so that first draft is gone now.

i don't hold much interest in IMAGE_FRIEND or what it may mean, at this point in my playthrough it's a spooky easter egg with possible connections to various other parts of the game and its metanarrative. it means something. i don't know what, though, and it doesn't feel as tangibly interesting to me as actual, existing characters in the game who have their own, to me more tantalizing, mysteries. IMAGE_FRIEND is definitely connected to Noelle and likely connected to Kris, but it's a single image with vague in-text allusions while both other characters have dozens upon dozens of them, on top of lines and lines and lines of things said by or about them.

i think IMAGE_FRIEND being mike is... stupid, and i don't think IMAGE_FRIEND is spamton's benefactor either.

because that sounds cool af but i don't want to go around saying it if no one is gonna know what i'm talking about