Editing User:Reversedragon/UTDR/pointed-tail/v2 (section)

=== Together ===

Kris, Susie, and Noelle head through the corridors to reach a single isolated room that looks like a floating box, bearing a name plate on its door identifying it as the office of "D…r Holiday", with the letters wildly run together so that it looks about two letters long.

{{b|Noelle:}} {{stage|[stunned]}} ...Deserebebmer Holiday. {{stage|[excited]}} We're here!<br/>
{{b|Susie:}}  {{stage|[smirks]}} Well I'm glad {{em|you}} could read it.<br/>
{{stage|[Kris takes a step back, hesitating just long enough to let the other two go in first.]}}

When the two girls enter the room, they find some kind of researcher figure patiently awaiting them in a swivel chair, gazing into them distantly, gazing through them. The office chair looks like one of those slightly overdone black leather ones, strangely imposing, probably comfortable. The man himself is almost less notable than the chair. He is a deer monster a lot like Noelle. All of his features are rendered in shadow, in the inverted Titanspawn palette. He has a long black leather jacket with a collar and a turtleneck of unclear color which also looks black. His hands sport dark leather fingerless gloves. He has a short, slightly unkempt beard and he looks like he doesn't sleep enough. His voice is not especially remarkable, but if this is a game {{YouTube|ZgsoDBul0Jg|his typer beep}} is warped and tin-sounding.

{{stage|[The shadowed deer man stands up, looking perfectly fateful and grand.]}}<br/>
Dess:   Well. You're finally here.<br/>
Noelle: [excited] I know! It's been forever!<br/>
Noelle: I had no idea we would ever find you. I was looking everywhere.<br/>
Noelle: But I'm so glad—<br/>
[Dess still looks serious, as if his mind is off somewhere else]<br/>
Dess:   [tired] Not you, Noelle.<br/>
Dess:   [staring through the two girls at Kris] I was talking about _them_.<br/>
[As Dess' gaze fixes onto them and pierces into them, Kris has tensed up like they do not like any of this one bit and are contemplating the best way to slowly back out of the room.]<br/>
Noelle: [surprised] Kris?<br/>
Dess:   [still speaking toward Kris, tauntingly] You may think you know who they are. But the question is... do you really?<br/>
Dess:   [looking toward Susie and Noelle] Do you know what this child did?<br/>
[Susie has taken on a bored, contrary look. Noelle is looking increasingly anxious.]<br/>
Susie:  [flipping hair over and gazing through Dess equally darkly] You know what? I don't care.<br/>
Susie:  Kris has never done anything bad I can remember.<br/>
Susie:  How about we drop this, and get out of here?<br/>
Dess:   [laughs] I like your confidence.<br/>
Dess:   But I can't let any of you go just yet.<br/>
Dess:   Kris.<br/>
[Kris looks out from behind Susie cautiously.]<br/>
Dess:   [face seeming to tower] Are you going to keep hiding it from them?<br/>
Dess:   You can't run from it forever.<br/>
Dess:   [creepy, blending into darkness] You have someone to answer to.<br/>
[There is a "lightning-strike" moment where the shadowed deer man flashes into literally just Gaster, but only for less than a second. A strange skeleton monster with a coat forged from darkness who looks related to Sans but also like he is somehow a being beyond comprehension with terrifying powers.]<br/>
[Noelle bunches up for a moment. Susie focuses on the anomaly either surprised or intrigued but mostly unmoved.<br/>
Kris, still slow and cautious, steps out from behind Susie to face the shadowed deer man. Noelle has relaxed but still looks concerned.]<br/>
Dess:   Good. You finally admit it.<br/>
Susie:  Can we cut it with the ominous bullcrap and you just tell us what Kris even did?<br/>
Noelle: [nervous] Dess.<br/>
Noelle: I know you're, uh, upset at Kris for some reason. That I don't understand...<br/>
Noelle: But we can... talk about this when we get home?<br/>
Dess:   No.<br/>
Dess:   I'm sorry, but I've been very busy down here. [holds up one palm and makes mock tugging motion at wrist] My hands are tied.<br/>
[Dess takes off his gloves and puts them in his pockets, revealing that each of his palms has a mysterious cylindrical hole passing through. His hands fall into fists at his sides.]<br/>
{{b|Dess:}}  You can leave here... when Kris finally lets out the truth.

Dess thrusts out one arm to the side, and contorts his face in pain only slightly as a sharp, angular blade of shadow materializes from the hole in his palm. The thing looks like a dagger made of a stylized thorn branch, or perhaps a letter off a black metal album cover. He rotates his wrist around, and the blade transforms into a small microphone that he takes and clips onto his coat. Then he extends the other palm out and materializes another bramble-twig-looking object without flinching, which becomes an angular shadow guitar. Taking the guitar across him and spreading both legs in a bold stance unlike anything he was doing just a bit ago, his hand strikes an emphatic note across the guitar strings and the lights go out. Not that there were any lights here to begin with, but the office setting vanishes and the three are suddenly standing in some kind of endless sprawling voidscape.

Dess:   It's been a while since I've done this.<br/>
Dess:   It will surely be a great time for me.<br/>
Dess:   Now what about you, Kris?<br/>
Dess:   Do you want to have a bad time?

When "the lights go out", Dess is standing in a weird middle position on the encounter screen between the left and right sides, like some kind of referee. Susie and Noelle are on the left side of the encounter, and Kris is on the right side, bracing, already looking like they fear their friends will hit them. This encounter is one of the most unusually-structured compared with any in previous chapters of Deltarune, or even in the Titan world. Kris, Susie, and Noelle all have HP bars at the bottom, but these are re-framed as progress for the fight. The fight operates in cycles of Dess taking an action and the red Soul being able to take an action — somewhat like any normal encounter would. But the way the heart moves around the screen is unusual. Dess makes different hand motions and poses, and these cause various volleys of terrible shadow spikes coming out of the ground that you do not want to get hit by. But who is dodging patterns this time is a bit different. In this encounter the spikes are simply aimed at Kris, who sometimes evades them easily and sometimes gets squarely hit. The red Soul has to go where the spike is and press the "shoot" button to glow brightly and dissolve the spikes. Banishing the spikes isn't necessarily hard, but sometimes the fight will mess with you by tossing in difficult decisions. Susie will try to move over toward Kris or Dess and a spike will threaten to appear through her and you'll have to stop it. It doesn't look that bad when she gets hit, she kind of just trips on the big dumb stalagmite a bit violently, but the way the spikes come up beneath the characters just before they notice, it really messes with you in looking like it's going to utterly skewer her. Noelle will try to run out of the encounter, or sometimes try to help, and a spike will come get her. And at about the same time some spikes will menace Kris and you'll have to decide which ones are the most dangerous because you can't be everywhere. Sometimes spikes will emerge that can hit the red Soul; you can't bump directly into any of them. Rarely a spike will fly down from above and pierce into the ground. Once each of these dodge phases ends, you get a break where you can move around the menu and use items or healing moves. During the dodge phases Susie and Noelle may use healing moves on each other if one of them is down, but they will not target Kris. The stated reason for this is just that they are preoccupied with the spikes, but it also happens to mean that they will only help Kris if you tell them to. As the fight goes on, you have the power to simply stop helping Kris because it's too much trouble to you. Dess will keep nudging Susie and Noelle to turn against Kris, subtly hinting that you can join the two of them and do that too. You can either stand by Kris until Dess gets tired of this, stand by Kris until Susie and Noelle go down, or stand by Susie and Noelle until Kris goes down. With either of these three outcomes, the fight ends.

The song that plays in the background is a redone version of "Raise Up Your Bat" which is instrumental but now implied to have two different sets of lyrics depending on which side has been most consistently winning the fight. The patterns in the fight happen in time with the song, although that unfortunately doesn't make their position more predictable, and Dess will sometimes say lyrics aligned with the part where those lyrics would go.

Dess:  ♪ When your Angel's light is dying and the world is bathed in night

Dess:  ♪ When your lying face is crying on your true one sealed tight

Dess:  ♪ Come follow me into the dark -

Dess:  ♪ As the ark which shall shine you the way -

Dess:  ♪ When your lying eyes are crying on your true eyes sealed tight

Dess:  Kris, this stops when you do.

Dess:  You do know Kris would abandon you in a second.

Dess:  Look into the darkness, and you will see.

Dess:  Noelle. Whoever you've got there is too cool for Kris.<br/>
Susie: Shut it!

If you have Oll'een, you can use "Detect Trap" to put a timer next to a spike that shows exactly when it's going to reappear, although this will conflict with using healing moves. You can also IceShock or Rude-Buster the spikes without penalty although again when this conflicts with your other moves you can basically only have a couple destroyed at a time. But if you aren't focused on spells, each character has relevant Acts.

On Noelle's side, you can tell her to "Question" Kris, which tips the fight toward an "against Kris" state and stops her from running toward the other side, or you can tell her to "Extricate" Kris, which tips the fight "for Kris", and makes her target Kris with spontaneous healing but also try to run to the other side and get stopped with spikes. Susie similarly has "Punish" and "Protect", which prompt her to either uselessly chop apart the spikes given neither of them can get to the other side, or target Kris with spontaneous healing. You may or may not want to make the two of them target Kris, because they could go down if they're not focusing on themselves.

On Kris' side, you can click "Explain". Kris is very resistant to this; it almost doesn't do anything. If you have Kris "Apologize", that will do something immediately, and tip the fight "for" Kris. Kris can also "Acquiesce", which will cause them to deliberately run into the spikes. Susie and Noelle find Kris trying to destroy themself on the spikes disturbing and it will count as "for Kris" if Kris is defeated in the next couple of turns.

At the end of the fight, Dess waves his arm to make the shadow guitar poof away, takes his gloves out of his pocket and puts them back on, and claps for the winning side, then snaps his fingers one last time. Some kind of light rain comes down from above, sprinkling the three with water and apparently healing them such that they can sit up. The "lights come back on" and the landscape of spikes vanishes, Kris, Susie, and Noelle simply sitting on the floor or standing where they were.

[If Kris was defeated:]<br/>
Dess:  Well, Kris.<br/>
Dess:  I suppose your little Protector can't save you from everything.<br/>
[Kris shuffles to their feet, still looking a little worn out.]<br/>
[Noelle takes a step toward Kris, arms open, uncertainly wondering if it's time to let Kris hug her again.]<br/>
[Susie, not as cautious, treads over the space to Kris and reaches out to claim them back by the wrist.]<br/>
[As the two try to help, Kris braces and takes a step backward. As Susie reaches out to them, Kris yanks their hand out of her reach, and makes a point of standing in their own "box" confining themself to a safe distance. They look shadowed emotionally, standing in such a resigned way their existence seems to cast down onto the room like a shadow.]<br/>
[After a brief moment of sadness, Kris looks up at the other two silently. Then, they apparently say something.]<br/>
Susie:  [trying to parse] What?<br/>
Noelle: What do you mean you did this?<br/>
Dess:   Good work, Kris.<br/>
Dess:   [steps over to Kris and gently sets his hand on their shoulder] I know you don't like to say much, so I'll gladly take over the rest of this.

[If everybody got through the fight standing:]<br/>
Dess:   Well, Kris.<br/>
Dess:   It looks like you and your friends have a strong bond.<br/>
Dess:   Perhaps I misjudged you?<br/>
Dess:   Maybe there is some good in you in the end.<br/>
Dess:   I mean. I think you're a fine person and a good friend. I didn't mean that to come out so harsh.<br/>
[Dess steps over to Kris and gently sets his hand on their shoulder.]<br/>
[Kris shows a little tension for a second, but then seems to determine that this is okay and they accept it.]<br/>
Dess:   Now, I think you have something to tell them.<br/>
[Kris looks at the other two silently for a moment. Then, it looks as if they say something.]<br/>
Susie:  [trying to parse] What?<br/>
Noelle: You did what?<br/>
Noelle: What are you trying to tell us you did?<br/>
Dess:   It's just as they say.<br/>
Dess:   Maybe if I explain the rest, it will be a bit clearer.

[If Susie and Noelle were defeated:]<br/>
Dess:  Well, Kris.<br/>
Dess:  I suppose your little Protector must think pretty highly of you.<br/>
Dess:  Must feel pretty good to get out of here without any consequences, hmm?<br/>
Dess:  Remember. You'll have nobody to help you with this.<br/>
Dess:  Only the darkest alcoves of the shadows of your mind.<br/>
[Susie and Noelle stand up off the floor]<br/>
Susie: ...What? So Kris will... get their own secret hidden office? Or...?<br/>
Dess:  [good-natured] Maybe one day.<br/>
Dess:  But for now... The three of you will simply have to go home.

[For the first two outcomes, Dess begins a flashback sequence:]

Dess:   When the two of us were younger, we met over in the next city.  [panel of Kris slinking around city and younger pre-transition Dess stepping out from bushes]<br/>
Dess:   Your friend had spawned from the depths of destiny.  [symbolic scene of Kris mysteriously spawning out of some sort of dark wave crest rising from the earth with two halves of character creation screen falling to either side]<br/>
Dess:   But it didn't matter. I'd have done anything to protect them.  [panel of Dess vaguely showing Kris around Holiday house]<br/>
Dess:   I asked nothing from Kris.  [panel of Dess showing Kris how to play the too-big guitar]<br/>
Dess:   Except for just one thing.<br/>
Dess:   "Don't forget"   [panel of Dess demonstrating the "Don't forget..." phrase on the piano]<br/>
Dess:   But time went on.  [panel of wind blowing across empty suburban road and tree rustling]<br/>
Dess:   After...  [panel of Kris and Noelle cowering in fear of something in Holiday house]<br/>
Dess:   _You know_...  [panel of big yawning pit extending across the edge of Hometown with serpentine cracks zigzagging out of it, as if the simple image of that horrifying pit explains everything that happened]<br/>
Dess:   Kris never remembered... anything.  [panel of Kris listlessly doodling at a desk, showing a suspicious covering-things-up tree in the background]<br/>
Dess:   Well, that's not true.  [black screen, at least for this color palette]<br/>
Dess:   But they did start doing this thing of leaving everything painful behind them.  [panel of Kris being moody by themself in the foreground and leaving Noelle confused in the background]<br/>
Dess:   Time will save me. Going through the motions will save me.  [panel of Dark-World Kris skipping through a church hall with Ralsei]<br/>
Dess:   But that's some dangerous thinking.  [black screen]<br/>
Dess:   The deeper in you go, the darker it gets.  [panel of Dess wandering around bottom levels of Titan fountain as young man, about the same age he disappeared]<br/>
Dess:   You can be the hero, but what will you have left?  [panel of Dess pouring over stacks of notebooks in his office with some kind of CCTV monitor behind him showing Asgore's flower field Dark World only starting to burn]<br/>
Dess:   Standing at the end of time, a heap of forgotten memories.  [abstract panel of gray-silhouetted Dess standing on the end of a Titan fountain path jutting into nothingness, with black squares swirling through the background]<br/>
Dess:   Forget everything, and you might just forget yourself.  [abstract panel of Kris in Light World stylized similar to previous frame of Dess]<br/>

[The visualization sequence ends.]<br/>
Dess:   But, stay close to those friends of yours, and I'm sure everything will turn out okay.

(If this is a game, then this particular visualization sequence is kind of all you get explicitly detailing the Chara-to-Kris process of Kris becoming a normal human, or the day of Dess' disappearance. Dess quite literally "explains" the last leg of the story of how he ended up down here by assuming Kris, Susie, and Noelle already know what he's talking about and not explaining it at all. This "troll" exposition is a very carefully-placed ploy to make the Shadow Crystal and egg sidequests actually feel significant and make you comb through the game to solve the very beginning of the story as a puzzle — in particular, an actual puzzle within the game. You will see the payoff to all this in Chapter 7.)

Noelle: So... what did Kris even do?<br/>
Dess:   I suppose that's for Kris to know. [lightning-flashes into Gaster]<br/>
Gaster: KRIS. YOU ALONE CAN STOP THIS.<br/>
Dess:   [back to normal] *Ahem*. Kris. Noelle.<br/>
Dess:   I hate to say goodbye.<br/>
Dess:   But I have a lot to do.<br/>
Dess:   If you two just leave me here to complete my plan, the only thing you will have to worry about is the Angel's Heaven.<br/>
Dess:   Head on home.<br/>
Dess:   And, although I gave Kris a hard time about it... you can forget about me.<br/>
Noelle: [distressed] ......No!<br/>
Dess:   [compassionate] Ellie. I'm the only one who can save this world.<br/>
Dess:   I'd love to explain, but... your world doesn't have much time left.<br/>
Dess:   I know you've found your roles within the prophecy. You have to head up there and complete what's been started.<br/>
Noelle: And then...?<br/>
Dess:   Stay focused on what you have to do. If you don't complete it...<br/>
[Dess just looks at Noelle with a distant sadness buried below the surface in a long, hard way that is much scarier than saying what would happen]<br/>
[Noelle looks a bit depressed, but knows there's not much she can do, and the three leave the office and head out through the bridge.]

[If Susie and Noelle were defeated, the visualization sequence doesn't happen, and the scene ends like this:]

Susie:  ...What? So Kris will... get their own secret hidden office?<br/>
Dess:   [good-natured] Maybe one day.<br/>
Dess:   But for now... The three of you will simply have to go home.<br/>
Dess:   I still have a lot to do down here.<br/>
Dess:   I've seen too much, and learned too much. This is where I belong.<br/>
Dess:   If the three of you just leave me to complete my plan, the only thing you will have to worry about is the Angel's Heaven.<br/>
[Noelle looks sad, but knows there is nothing she can do.]<br/>
Dess:   Ellie, I'm the only one who can save this world.<br/>
Dess:   It's better this way.<br/>
Dess:   Head back to the outside, banish the darkness, and be happy.<br/>
[As much as Noelle looks down the three leave the office and head out through the bridge.]

{{stage|[After the three leave, in either case:]}}<br/>
{{b|Susie:}}  What is wrong with him??<br/>
{{b|Susie:}}  None of that made any sense.<br/>
{{b|Noelle:}}  I... don't know.<br/>
{{b|Noelle:}}  Maybe something down here could be a clue?<br/>
{{b|Noelle:}}  This whole place seems to be made of memories.

After the three leave the secret floating office room, if they try to go back, the room will have disappeared, and will not be accessible again. It would seem that Dess is still hidden deep inside here somewhere, but he does not want to be disturbed.