It would be fine if it were a genderbend, no real issues, whether or not I would do it would boil down to the designs being something I can interpret. (My usual preference for smaller, stylized humanoids, and all that.)

I would also request that the reference for genderbend be provided, because otherwise I would have to make a design from thin air... Errr, but there's a grey area, like, if we're talking a shota that is very feminine and Basically a girl, that's like... [laughs] Well you know, it's own territory I Guess... I would draw it as is, but like 👉👌... lol... All subjective I know but just trying to give people an idea of what's chill. You walk into the room with a shota like. Pico. and I won't ask questions... lol

I see why you would offer such a thing, and I feel bad because it seems the person put a lot of effort into this project, but sadly this design sensibility is not... quite... right, to me. Too fiddly, or just doesn't connect with me, every design that is Almost appealing still feels like it needs to be smoothed out a bit more to want to interface with it... Makes me think — unfortunately what I love about pokemon and certain digimon is the simple cuteness. (._.`) I feel like a bestiary like this cannot make something as cute as... bellsprout... shuppet... salamon... Nnot consistently, like for every 20 designs there's maybe one that's Kinda Cute... The other issue is it doesn't paint a visualization of a world I want to explore.

*gently turns this away...*

Glad our playthrough was entertaining. To me, the very core of DELTARUNE (and by extension, UNDERTALE) lies within the relationship between Kris/Chara and Asriel... without them, there is no game, and I wouldn't have the interest I do in the games. So that's me just nodding along with, it makes sense to be interested in them even if the game itself isn't the most motivating to play. Hehe.

If you want a general rundown about the two... *taps lips* Ahh, where to even begin. Well for starters, I still think it's fascinating that Kris and Asriel have an age gap between them, compared to their UT counterparts. Not something that happened with other characters who were originally same aged? To me, it's as jarring as if, IDK, the game randomly created an age skew between Alphys and Undyne, because you'd have to think back to their UT selves and wonder what that says about them??

(And it would say SOMEthing, for the record; I'm not the type of person that treats the universes completely separately. I understand that UNDERTALE's narrative exists in its contained bubble and Toby doesn't want us to imagine mmhh, perhaps a sort of multiverse or timey wimey nonsense between it and DELTARUNE. However it's clear to me that DELTARUNE functions as a 'what if?' story, where we see the characters in a new context. It's still them though, as much as a mangaka can pitch an AU where the characters are going to a magical boarding school, and it's not as if the characters identities are lost in that AU, lol.)

It's always been clear to me that in UT, Chara was more mature and severe, while Asriel followed their lead helplessly. He seemed to absorb everything they said, tried to internalize their perceptions of the world, thought they were special and unlike anyone else. Making DR Azzy the older brother recontextualizes that obsessiveness into... being very attentive of younger sibling...?? Caretaking, doting...? And while I do feel like Kris certainly retains Chara's morbid predilections, it seems like they are softened with more mischief and playfulness, ala Frisk. (Disclaimer that I think Frisk is just Chara with less reservations, so Kris is similar, with less reservations due to a different upbringing.) So Kris in turn becomes this lovable rascal, to Asriel's loving onii-chan nature, and I'm like hahahah where Am I... What is this fanfic of a world---!! So interesting, I never would have conceptualized it myself... My Chara brain is small — I never could imagine us growing up past age ~8 anyhow... Injecting teen into this all is so messy. But ermm nothing so far has shocked me exactly — seems like Kris and Azzy both are ill-fitted to being a Teen. What with there being anecdotes of both Kris and Asriel being kind of,, taken for a ride,,,, by peers,, I think Asriel suffered from this more (trapped in games of spin the bottle, dragged to prom by exuberant girlz) but it seems Kris is not immune to, trying to get in with Cool Big Kids, and flopping. Ffffflop fail get nowhere...

In spite of whatever trophies & achievements are on Azzy's shelf, I can't see him as flourishing... Being in college does not indicate being self-satisfied at all. From what we can glean, he was sensitive and a crybaby (like in UT...), well-behaved and concerned about religion and the idea of 'sin' even without others imposing that onto him. Anddd... so, well, we know Toriel is very Strict No Contact NO!! Inappropriate Behavior, so god knows, whatever pressure mommy did exude was nervewracking, difficult for Asriel to contend with. I can't imagine he did well under the slightest expectation... I worry Asriel spent his life fumbling social interactions, being too polite to fend off individuals like Bratty & Catty, trying and failing to get anyone to listen to his music, and then was carted off to college. WERE IT NOT FOR HIS BEST FRIEND IN THE WORLD, IN THE FORM OF KRIS, I worry Azzy would be forsaken by this world. We've yet to learn the details of Azzy's dynamic with Noelle and Dess in the past, but so far it feels like the majority of interactions were had as a group. And um, Dess going missing many years ago means that whatever connection was there, was lost...

Rambling, but I just wanted to assert that I fret about Asriel's well-being and don't see him as a 'golden child' or favorable etc. Rather, I think he was possibly held to a high standard and never got to act out and be as free as Kris ever did. Much like how Noelle regards Kris as the only one who knows she's weird, since it seems Noelle and Asriel have overlaps in their nature & dynamic with Kris. Much like how UT Azzy declares with great emotion that Chara was special and the only one who ever understood him, I believe it's the same with Kris in DR; the only person who Asriel could share everything with... Combined with all the sweet sentimental stories of the time spent together, it's heart-wrenching, how much these two shared... Always playing together, having collaborated in game making (art, music, design...), making snowmen, watching TV and doing little BITS at the TV, making whipcream beards, nonsense like that... Seems endless... And there's even implication that Kris has stayed up all night talking to Asriel online while he is away at college — so even when apart, they focus a lot of energy in staying together, in one another's thoughts.

*SIGHS!* Kris's sheer listlessness at the start of the game, feels like they've withered away without Asriel there with them. But knowing Asriel Dreemurr, unable to Let Go, so so very painfully attached and dependent, I can't imagine he's faring very well himself. ANGST...! MISERY!! LOVE...

... AND THEN... UMMM, ALL THAT MADNESS LEADS TO... ?? ???????? WHATEVER is being accomplished with the deranged playtimes with Ralsei in the Dark World... Hahaha, I can't fathom how multi-layered and convoluted it's become at that point. If Ralsei is perhaps a constructed persona (with dubious awareness), then it's like... ?? What if onii-chan was... someone with NO friends, NO previous experiences, waiting in a room to meet you...?? Ralsei seeming more like a 'peer' than an older individual kind of feels like an odd expression too, like perhaps it feels more accurate to how Azzy feels, following Kris's lead, loyal, helpless... Simpering, making wet eyes at you, ready to do anything and, ready to accept any kind of behavior. Whatever you want to do Kris...!! Anything.....!!!!!!!!! *whine, whine*

Likewise I think it must be fun for Kris to be, a cool mysterious protagonist. Point, direct, command, go my steed... Combine that with um, the Dark Worlds all being some sort of omage to their past playtimes, staged in places of great import to them...? I guess it feels like Kris and Asriel have made a very elaborate, bizarre, passionate celebration of their relationship in the countdown before Asriel's arrival. Who knows what the goal of such a thing is... [squints at UT for guidance] Kris is um, slowly getting sicker, which happened to Chara due to Asriel poisoning them in some wild plan which ended in them fusing into an abomination... So. Wwwwonder what we'll be doing here... with the angel... and all that....... Ahah.

💁‍♂️ I have now provided a generalized rant about those two... I think they were woefully attached, perhaps to their own detriment, but nothing could stop them, because they needed each other very badly. Needed to bake pies together and watch favorite cartoons and make music with one another and linger in a diner together. Asriel needed to have chocolates ready in his pockets like a Kris treat dispenser... he needed to um carry Kris in his arms to school to enable their slovenly lifestyle. [furious] And that's why in the present day, Kris can do things like scratch a door and howl pathetically, and Ralsei can be like oouuu Kris need walkies? [NAUSEATED, FURIOUS...] Whatever. They suck actually, don't play this game ever. It's very bad and stupid.

This might sound convoluted, but in the act of kinnie sex, not really, since it's a particular headspace that I would say is like... really about being immersed in the emotional and physical expression between the two of us in that moment. It requires a very 'present' mind, in a particular way, vividly experiencing Being Amane and Being Tsukasa for the sex. I feel like a part of me becomes an attentive observer, fascinated by my own responses as they come... Avvy might have a different way of putting it, but I will say for myself, I feel like I become a camera lens that is trained on [kin], and then [kin] is trained on [Avvy's kin]. Generally those WHIMs are quite focused on what they are doing... I found that Amane was quite absorbed in whatever he was enacting on Tsukasa in that moment, as a one-on-one thing. Sometimes it felt like having sex with Nene-chan... and then other times, a Tsukasa possessing Nene-chan, but each time, experiencing the individual body with self.

Outside of this all lies a Porno Brain that simply lusts for as many experiences as possible, simultaneously, so it craves multiple bodies to enact upon / be enacted upon. Umm it feels so... [drools] Just wishing so badly to get to subject Avvy to something like, fucking her mouth WHILE penetrating, and sucking her tits. Or you know, if only I could be buried in pussy and then also getting face sat on, being teased, etc etc... This and this and this and this, these positions simultaneously... how to make her feel it All at once... onegai... [howls] It's a fantastical extreme that one turns to art for. And by that point, might as well have it escalate to other layers, if only to be fucking Avvy who is a loli and also Avvy who is a shota... I feel like the event horizon of wishing for more bodies is like, feral gangbangs, where every individual in the gangbang is like a fragment of self. Become apart of a miasma, scrabbling and clawing over an Avvy at the center, or be besieged by many Avvys, the glorious vixens and their pussies that I must fuck. Umm lol it feels so nonintellectual and separate from kin when I try and quantify it...

Not that your question was a wrong assumption or anything!! I want to reassure, it's good curiosity, I just feel amused at myself having to explain that I'm hornie so I crave Many Avvys, it's not like I particularly need Two to have specifically This OT3 sex with. It's one of those things where, if I was already able to have Multiple Avvys (pure fantasy) then it might as well already be [1000 other things]. If I could have more than one Avvy, it wouldn't be the act of Kinnie Sex [immersing self and embodying ship]... because we'd just Be the Ship, we'd just Be the Creatures, and so on and so forth.

Tangential, and not really something to elaborate on, but something particular about Pride the Arrogant, is how his body works... I feel like that's an instance of being One individual yet being able to fulfill the roles of many many bodies enacting on one, there's the little shota container and the horrible writhing shadow mass. It feels like being a deranged sex machine all compact into 'one' entity, which is also really fun to imagine. Just an instance where one doesn't actually need 'two' of self to fulfill that desire to be all over. So in a way, if one just had the right equipment, it can scratch an itch of wanting to be a sexual nightmare to lover... Hehe.

I'm also charmed by the meta that happens at times, where one can be channeling Amane, and Amane is frustrated by the limits of his own body, and how he has to juggle between Tsukasa and Nene. It can feel unfair... Childish, gluttonous emotions of wanting to subject them to completely parallel experiences simultaneously. Me and Avvy have discussed this before, but there are versions of us that would envy what We have [the unified experience]... The heart is unreasonable, it wants everything all the time always.

As of now, there's nothing about Ralsei's characterization that's in conflict with what I expect of him — that is to say, I'm not disappointed or confused by any of it, as a person imbibing a story. He doesn't feel incongruous with the rest of the story or characters being told. And I currently, very firmly see Ralsei as Asriel, so I don't feel like there's anything about him that doesn't mesh with that reality. To me, the things we cannot fully explain yet feel fully intentional; it's part of the mystery of the game, that we're steadily uncovering. We've only just hit past the half-way point 'til the end of the game. There's so much left to uncover... and I'm eager in anticipation to learn more.

That being said, I feel like there's enough information presently available in DELTARUNE and UNDERTALE both to conclude this, if one is attentive and invested enough. I've been confident that Ralsei is Asriel since Chapter 1, and nothing has caused my stance to waiver since then. To me, it's not a matter of 'whether or not Ralsei is Asriel' but more of a matter of 'Why is Asriel presenting himself this way? What is his goal?' And more recently, I've started to wonder, 'What magic is at play here?' Initially, I was certain that Asriel was roleplaying as Ralsei, Prince of the Dark this entire time, but as Chapter 3+4 introduces entities like The Roaring Knight and Gerson, I'm less sure about the... mmh, composition...? Of Ralsei. Whether or not he is some sort of altered state or artificial creation is yet to be seen, for me. Kris very much seems to be tampering with their own level of awareness/memories (the separation of SOUL and SELF...?) As Ralsei reports, the Dark World can can create darkners 'patterned after the memory of a loved one', so it's possible Ralsei is some sort of simulacrum of Asriel, but I'm not sure if that's a red herring. I'm still suspicious that it could be a performance from a fully cognizant Asriel, and that he would like us all to interact with the persona as a separate identity with its own history... (well, sort of... It all depends on how much Asriel and Kris are conspiring together.)

I find it interesting you think of their lives as very different... They're not in perfect parallel, but DELTARUNE feels more like an AU to me, where the same 'emotional beats' and 'themes' are carried through, even if there are various things that do not perfectly mirror. For example, the Dreemurrs are not royalty in this world, Toriel does not have an isolated life as caretaker of the ruins, and Asgore is not spearheading a war against humanity. I suppose there's a lot less 'extreme' tragedy present, since their children are living, they're merely divorced, etc. but it doesn't feel wholly out of place to see Toriel as a choir leader & elementary school teacher, while Asgore runs his flower shop, right...? It's apparent that they're still bound to have relationship issues, and have the inclinations that they did in UNDERTALE, with Toriel seeming stern in ways, unable to forgive Asgore for something he did, and Asgore clinging to the past pathetically.

The Asriel we see rending the universe apart at the end of UNDERTALE has been through many things — and I think it's important to note that you can only even process this at the very end of the game. You even have to experience a neutral ending first, before you even know that Flowey is Asriel, and WHY that even happened to his body...! Imagine if UNDERTALE were divided in chapters, and you had yet to see the True Lab, read Alphys's logs, watch the tapes about the plan, and more! The only thing you'd have known about Asriel specifically, was the tale that the monsters relay to you when you go through New Home. A tale that we later learn isn't even wholly accurate, as the monsters couldn't have known that Chara's death and SOUL absorption was planned.

There's no reason to assume there aren't vast depths yet to uncover about Asriel in DELTARUNE. Though... I'll also advocate for Ralsei briefly, since his 'backstory' IS supposed to be sad? He's a Lonely Prince; while the Dark Worlds we encounter are whimsical and the inhabitants are as well, it's not as if Ralsei has been best friends with everyone his whole life. He's been alone, in his castle, waiting for years, with no one to talk to, nothing to do but wait to service the heroes and fulfill the Prophecy. Currently, Ralsei is undergoing a questioning of identity, because of how empty his life has been... In reality, I think his constant gratitude and erm, insisted lowliness is pitiable. Whether we're interacting with Ralsei as an authentic being, or whether he's a performance from Asriel that encapsulates things he feels about himself, it's quite sad... He really does state that Darkners only exist for the fulfillment of Lightners, and he believes that he will one day be obsolete. He doesn't see a purpose in having any of his own hobbies, desires, belongings... Quite a sad, empty life proposed for our little Ralsei. We know Asriel in UNDERTALE felt alone without Chara, numb and hollow as a flower, unable to feel for anyone anymore, enough to attempt to take his own life. Asriel is a very dependent individual, who couldn't find purpose without his best friend there with him. If you observe Ralsei's behavior, he constantly turns to Kris for approval over the slightest thing. Even as he's wondering if he should be himself, have his own opinions, he's asking Kris repeatedly if that's OK for him. (Really, he can't even celebrate Kris having everyone's controllers un-scrambled in Ch3, without meekly saying, '...right, Kris...?') All seems cohesive to me-!!

Aside from UT Azzy, what we can learn about DR Azzy from dialogue/investigating the environment also threads well with Ralsei. To list a few things:

• Asriel was commonly seen as well-behaved. Ralsei is very rule-abiding and nervous about stepping out of line.
• Asriel sang in choir (well enough that Father Alvin feels that the choir is lacking without him.) Several of Ralsei's ACTs involve singing; his voice can soothe enemies to sleep, and he perfect combos his parts of Ch 3's rhythm mini games.
• Asriel used the knock-off controller, while Kris (more of a Gamer) used the proper one. Ralsei comments he's not 'supposed' to be player one, and has stated multiple times that Kris is good at games. It's likely their dynamic was one where Kris was the more serious player 1, and Asriel often let Kris take priority, deferring to their direction. (Also worth nothing that Ralsei often talks as though he's never watched movies and experienced the world, so I think it's odd he has an idea of his 'place' when playing video games, something he shouldn't have been able to do with anyone either...)
• Asriel was often doing things for Kris, suchas being willing to carry them to school in his arms, and getting hot chocolate with them after church even after the family stopped doing it. It's possible he kept pizza coupons on hand, as well as chocolate in his pocket, for their sake as well, as they're fond of ICE-E's and are a voracious eater. Paints a picture of a doting older brother that indulges Kris often... Which, is completely cohesive with the Ralsei promising to bake Kris yummy cakes (of their favorite flavors!), setting up tea parties, and in general prioritizing, complimenting, and supporting Kris.
• Asriel was concerned about 'sinning', even without external pressure from the religion. There's this sequence from an ACT with Poppup * Ralsei accidentally clicked on an ad for "lightners 4 darkners in ur area" and was mortified. * He deleted the browser shortcut on the desktop entirely... * ...but immediately felt guilty because he thought he had "deleted the entire internet". * I... I didn't mean to do it... I... I'm sorry!!! I repent!!!

• He's been shown using fire magic in an ACT done in Ch 4, very visually similar to the flames that the Dreemurrs all use in UT.

• ... AND WELL... VISUALLY... It seems that they're QUITE SIMILAR, enough that Susie could joke that Kris photoshopped Ralsei into a family photo, and Noelle (someone who grew up closely alongside Kris) could be confused by why Ralsei looks like Asriel. NOT A SMALL DETAIL TO ME... I JUST DON'T KNOW WHY THE ANAGRAM NAME AND SHARED APPEARANCE, IF ONLY TO NOT HAVE ANYTHING TO DO WITH EACH OTHER... I REALLY DON'T GET WHY THAT WOULD BE THE CASE......!!!!!!!!!!!

[unclenches my jaw.] [inhales...] So— in summary, I see lots of overlap in Ralsei and Asriel, in many layers. Narratively... personality wise...! In this current game, and in the previous one...! I'm quite certain we'll learn more about DR Asriel's suffering as the game goes on, assuming it has to do with agency, nostalgia/the inability to move on, and the issues of identity without Kris (how to live, be motivated, how to do anything without them?) I'm also certain he will be our major antagonist and villain...! The suspicious moments of Ralsei lying to us, the way he doesn't abide by rules other darkners do, his Big Dark Fountain that gets More Powerful every time we seal other fountains For Whatever Reason, the ominous door at the center of his castle with many sets of wings Kind of like the titans seem to have... Well, I have a feeling it's all going to come together. In some gut-wrenching way. ◉_◉ And we'll all be gobsmacked about it in SOME way, even with the intuition to see it coming. I'm excited and terrified, as a result. Haha.