I'm so sorry, I'm kinda drunk and dropping another idea, do with it whatever ye will.
Yknow how in the beginning of the game, Sojiro tells Ren he won't take care of him when he gets sick?
Consider: he's not used to city germs/being that closely shoved against other people on the train. He DOES start to get sick around Kamoshida's Palace, powers through it, and then is SUPER sick just after it's over.
He plans on sucking it up and hiding it, but Futaba hears his hacking coughs over her bug even when he's upstairs, followed by wheezing, maybe even a little weeping. He's constantly in and out of the bathroom, and he's starting to run out of tissues.
Futaba nervously texts Sojiro that the kid they took in sounds awful. Sojiro is gruff at first and says he's not a baby, he can take care of himself. She responds by sending him the audio and suddenly Dad Instincts kick in
y/n
obviously it's a YES, our brainrots continue because early-game ren and sojiro dynamics break my heart every time
how dare you get me so invested in this idea, this post got too long so it's going under a read more
listen listen look i love sojiro and the coffee family okay, but early-game?? sojiro could catch these hands
ren has already been though so much by the time he arrives in tokyo, to then be put into a dusty old attic like a spare part would absolutely fit in with ren's own perception of himself at that stage. it would be almost too easy for him to put his own health on the backburner kinda like he's already used to it
very used to not taking up space, 'not being a bother', and then sojiro really reinforces this message when ren first gets to leblanc- so when ren inevitably gets ill a month into his probation, it's already doomed for maladaption
tokyo would be such a breeding ground for sickness compared to the countryside, and ren just doesn't have the consitution to deal with it. the dusty attic and poor eating habits don't help matters, and then we have the stress of kamoshida and the metaverse?? ren is not having a Good Time™
at first it's something he thinks he can shrug off, and is adamant that ignoring it is the way to go. a cold, it's nothing, he can handle this alone, no need to bother anyone else with it.
inevitably, he gets worse, because that's what happens when you don't rest and let yourself recover. a tickly cough becomes a tightness in his chest, mild congestion shifts into an attack on his senses and blurriness- but maybe that's the dizziness. he's not really sleeping, either.
it's something that's becoming increasingly difficult to brush off and hide, he even relented to finally getting some medicine (nothing as strong as he needs by this point, that would eat too much into his limited funds, but some painkillers to take the edge off). once or twice he's tempted to stay off school, at morgana's insistence, or a too close call where he definitely blacked out for a minute, but then sojiro's voice will ring in his head 'i won't be the one looking after you if you get sick', 'your parents got rid of you for being a pain in the ass', and all his worst insecurities come rushing back and he's resolved to deal with it on his own
meanwhile, futaba's been making use of her hidden audio bugs- normally they're a comfort for her in the daytime, but since the new kid- ren- has been staying at the cafe (part-timer her ass, how gullible does sojiro think she is?!), she's been listening more frequently. when ren gets sick, she figures it out quickly.
time goes on, he's not getting better- he's actually getting worse- and futaba starts to wonder if she's the only one who knows
(there's something in his sharp contrasts- the quiet kid who shuffles through the cafe and takes sojiro's scolding, to the coughing kid who cries into the silence of night when he thinks there's nobody there to see it- that stabs through her numbness. it feels like a companion to her own ghost)
one night she swears the kid gets up to be sick, and there's hardly any sound heard from the attic all night. if nobody's gonna help ren, then she will (futaba used to like helping, once upon a time).
she texts sojiro the next day, when ren doesn't say anything again, and goes off to school with what she bets is a fake assurance on his face
and you're so right, sojiro dismisses her concern really easily, claims the kid can 'take care of himself' and he won't 'baby' the part-timer. insists ren needs to learn some disipline, then maybe he'll stay out of trouble
frustration wells in futaba- if she was less fixated on what was going on with ren, she'd register it's one of the first changes of mood she's had for months- and she responds with nothing but an audio clip, an attached explanation that this is just from the past few days- it's been going on for weeks, then she waits, and hears the distant sound of her compilation through one of the bugs, a hitched breath from sojiro, curse words under his breath-
for all his earlier postulating about not helping ren if he gets sick, sojiro is immeditely struck with a pang of concern- it sounded bad, and if futaba's words were anything to go by, this had been going on for a while.
the kid's at school now (at school, being as ill as that and he was still going to class-), so sojiro will talk to him when he gets back. there's a chance he goes a bit too over the top, between the variation of medicines he purchases, supplies he grabbed from home- if you accused him for over-compensating after maybe being too harsh on the kid in the beginning, you'd be right
and you just know ren would be so resistent at first to help, or even just the offer of staying off school. in his sickness-induced fugue, ren's filter-less in rattling off how he can't stay off, what will the students and teachers think, and he has work that afternoon, and a test soon, and he doesn't want to get in the way-
sojiro's heart just shatters
this kid, whose been silently carring the weight of the world and has apparently been falling to pieces for weeks now and sojiro didn't even notice?
(a part of it reminds him too much of the other kid he's got at home, the countless ways he's already failed futaba, and now ren too? he feels useless)
sojiro focuses on what he can do, and that's making the kid rest. work will understand, school can wait, ren isn't an inconvenience, he guides the kid to bed, calls takemi immediately (who rushes over, despite the fact she's technically closed at this hour, and refuses to take any payment),
even still, there's this stilted awkwardness between them when the quiet pushes on too long- they hardly know each other, afterall. sojiro is still figuring out the 'caring for kids' thing, and ren isn't familiar with any kind of parental affection, so some of sojiro's care veers a bit too close to clinical or mechanic, and ren still struggles to communicate what kind of help he needs, but it's enough for now.
for now, sojiro is there. he's trying, and at least ren's getting some colour back on his skin.
for now, ren's willing to take a few days off and have some medicine, but he's over-apologetic and definitely tries to make up for his sickness once he's healed.
it's gonna take them both a while yet, but luckily there's always their guardian hacker, ready and able to call them out when needed (and maybe some day she'll be able to keep an eye on ren and sojiro in person)
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If there is magic in the light world, I will eat my hat
And here's why:
We've already seen a world with magic, so every difference between worlds is important:
toriel's stove
the books on magic in the librarby- note that in deltarune it's a book of magic *tricks* that require *floating hands*
this also comes with a more profound understanding of the soul than we have in deltarune...
2. The Direct Evidence
Note that Susie and Noelle here are listing the ways in which the dark world is DIFFERENT than the light world, also following on that last line...
sorry I got something in my eye
note again, that magic is referenced in terms of tricks- sleight of hand- only further emphasized by the name "jongle" a portmanteau of the words "juggle" and... something else (this carries over in JP)
now this one is slightly more esoteric, but bear with me-
the mere fact of a bathroom and the lack of healing the hot chocolate provides means that the food, quite simply, is not magic like it is in UT- it is decidedly mundane
LAST AND VERY IMPORTANT POINT:
DETERMINATION =/= MAGIC
THE ABILITY TO SAVE AND LOAD IS NOT, BY LORE, MAGIC
THE ABILITY TO CREATE DARK FOUNTAINS IS NOT, BY LORE, MAGIC
3. The Counterarguments
This first one is easy to move past, and a fairly weak argument overall, but it involves, in particular, catti:
pretty suspect right? until you consider the surrounding dialogue
She's an edgy goth teen- this is in reference to her family being loud.
again pretty convincing right? not really no:
"studying the occult" from a goth teen is about as reliable as it sounds- and on the same level as the party tricks from earlier.
the second counterpoint is something along the lines of "but what about noelle and snowgrave"
to which the obvious answer is: we already know one line of spells from the "Dragon Blazers" games, it isnt much of a stretch for snowgrave be the metaphorical firaga to flare of final fantasy
Another relatively tame explanation could be that our monster allies simply *know* spells upon entering the Dark World (Susie with Rude Buster, Berdly with his Tornado) and snowgrave is either something she acquired through the route (Like susie with ultimate heal) and REALLY doesn't want to use, or a spell she simply actually doesn't know.
The other two counterpoints however, are harder to dismiss, and they have specifically to do with monster biology
Monster Funerals, technically speaking
While not directly stated in game, its a fairly reasonable assumption to make that the reason monsters turn to dust when they die is their lack of physical matter. Where this becomes relevant is through Father Alvin's infamous line about "this hammer" which implies that the burial tradition (and thus the physicality) remains constant between the two games. This would imply that, in-spite of the food and bathrooms, monsters are still made mostly of magic (further obscured by the lack of confirmation on monster blood we have)
2. Blookster
Let's assume for a second that monsters are physical. That they are confirmed to have blood and dont turn into dust and all that comes with it. Then what about Ghosts?
hmm.
(many images stolen from @nochocolate )
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