#amazingmezmer

[shkika]

So on the topic of iterators playing video games, this:

which is a part of the set of holograms Iggy can show Moon after Rivulet powers her back up. Which based on the colors, grid, and way the tiles change, is probably Moon and Pebbles playing the iterator dominoes

(It's funny to think one of first message Moon sent to Pebbles after hundreds of cycles was essentially "Hey you wanna play games")

(I need Saint playing Dominoes with Moon now)

I'm beyond mentally ill for those two! I'm very aware of their domino shenanigans. If you pay attention to Moon's projections you can see a lot of neat stuff. Actually let's talk about that!

I think them playing together is just so.. fitting and beautiful. It's such a simple way to connect with others. Playing games is one of the easiest ways to build or rebuild friendships. Any kind of games. Something casual you can talk and share while you do. And those two have plenty to talk about.

Aside the games though..

Ramble about a bunch of her projections in Saint and Riv campaigns below! It was very fun!

Moon also remembers her various slug cat companions through the cycles.

She tells Hunter how she wishes she could remember them. And now she can. Moon can remember her savior and remember just how hard her family and peers tried to contact her, to reassure her, to show how they cared. Even this image on it's own speaks a lot. Moon couldn't have taken it, because she was offline before that key ended up in her chamber. So it was Iggy. One of the overseers she no longer has control over yet tried to help her anyway. It's sweet.

It makes it canon that Monk met her and gave her two neurons! A thoughtful and kind creature.

Pet pictures of course! Here is little demon baby.

Moon also has pictures of the local group in the distance! She never stopped trying to look after them and be a local group senior. Checking up on them in the only way she really can. I think that's sweet.

And what honestly breaks me is uh..

These. She also never stopped being Five Pebbles' administrator.. or more accurately his big sister. Checking up on how he is doing and the situation with his rot. It just makes me ache a little. It's been way too long for her to be angry anymore. She can finally talk to him and they both know it won't be for long.

Moon also has pictures of Silent Construct.

Unless I am mistaken of course. But I get the idea that she has trouble reaching him. Or she can't find him. Please correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think Moon's overseers can’t reach Five Pebbles anymore. I don't think she'd stop being his company otherwise. Silent Construct is a place that has crumbled very badly and who knows in what state overseer tunnels are.. especially with the dense scavenger populations, it must be difficult to reach him.

Of course we also have the fallen buildings of her local group in the distance. No longer standing. Their time is over.

And! Something a little more fun is that she has a projection of the Moon. Looks to the Moon alright! How silly and sweet.

Hope you like the view Moonie.

[equipment-manifest]

Yep, presumably there are comparable structures in other Iterator cities. With the Ancients' fondness for vertical architecture they may indeed all be "pillars", too.

As for your other question, I concur with the idea that neuron flies are involved in the ferrying of information across an Iterator's systems. I get the impression that the network of neurons and Inspectors is part of what allows an Iterator's sensory consciousness to expand throughout its structure. Individual neurons clearly possess the ability to interface wirelessly with each other and with Iterator puppets, so it's not hard to believe that this ability could extend to other hardware as well. Additionally, neuron flies seem to regularly exchange information with the mycelia that sprout from the walls of internal chambers of Iterator superstructures and from the bodies of the Inspectors that inhabit them.

In fact, the neuron flies and Inspectors are accompanied by these very same mycelia where they appear in the 12th Council Pillar's central laboratory and adjacent rooms. This could mean that these organisms are simply a part of the system that facilitates interaction between an Iterator and its inhabitants. However, in that case wouldn't it be better for Five Pebbles to recall them to somewhere less vulnerable to attack by the Scavengers? (I've seen them kill that inspector before.) Any inhabitants they might have served have long since departed, and there's an elevator shaft nearby that (presumably) extends into the depths of Five Pebbles' superstructure, so it's not like they're trapped. The fact that they remain implies to me that Five Pebbles still has a use for them there.

The Council Pillar is apparently in part a laboratory, and as a political building it likely possesses an extensive archive as well. Given Five Pebbles' ongoing research and interest in his creators' history, it's possible that the equipment and records stored there are still of some value to him. Without the Ancients around to act as intermediaries, perhaps it's only by extending his own messengers into this area that Five Pebbles can access these resources. In that case, the neuron flies and Inspectors in this area might not have been there at all in the Ancients' time, instead being dispatched later purely for Five Pebbles' benefit.

That all being said, I should say for the record that I don't think relaying information is all that neurons do. Moon speaks of "reformatting" one of Five Pebbles' neurons before integrating it into herself, and before doing so she is able to read parts of his emotional state off of it, which they possess some capacity for nonvolatile memory storage. And if Rivulet eats one of his neurons Five Pebbles remarks that "every neuron lost is a piece of me lost as well", which suggests that whatever internal state they carry is not so ephemeral as to not be missed. I've written at greater length about what I think neurons might store here, if you're interested. In particular I don't think the power source idea is quite right—in my view Moon is not so much dependent on her neurons post-collapse as she is little but her neurons post-collapse. (An idea which is further supported by the, ah, phrasing, of some of these lines.)

What's up with 12th Council Pillar, the House of Braids?

Just wanted to share something interesting I noticed in Metropolis while looking at the room names on the interactive map! I doubt I'm not the first person to discover or take interest in this, but nonetheless now that I'm into the worldbuilding for this game, both canon and headcanon, I hope to at least encourage a discussion about what the rooms I found could possibly be for!

*Oh and by the way, spoilers for Artificer campaign, just in case.

Alright, so I was originally looking for how to get to a specific room for an Artificer expedition, but decided to browse around on the map just to refresh my memory on the region overall. Right off the bat I think it's interesting how this region's rooms are denoted mostly with lexical names rather than the more common "Capital letter + 2-digit number" formula. But scrolling to the right is where my interest really got piqued when I saw this name for the room right before that long corridor on the way to the 12th Council Pillar, the House of Braids, labeled "LC_templegate":

And the next room after that, "LC_templeentrance" confirmed my realization that this was a temple of sorts:

Now don't get me wrong, Rain World has always had a fair amount of religious associations, and even just the name "12th Council Pillar, the House of Braids" gave me the impression from the first time traversing it that it was once some high-esteemed, holy location of sorts. But I guess that never really sank in and captured my greater interest until now.

Part of that's because earlier I was focused more on just completing the campaigns from a basic playthrough perspective, not yet as big on uncovering every little lore detail, and another reason I didn't really take it in was that, at the time of my first Artificer playthrough, I wasn't as big on headcanon worldbuilding and trying to uncover/imagine Ancient culture and society outside of very general ideas. But now I think about it, another major part of this lack of realization was because of how the main rooms of this subregion that stuck out in my mind were the low-gravity iterator-esque zones. Many of which are explicitly labeled with "LAB", like this one, and they even have the same neurons, inspectors, and/or those gravity-distorting spheres:

I mean, that cube at the bottom even very strongly resembles an iterator puppet chamber!

But then the questions become: what are these rooms for, why are they so similar to the interior of the iterator they sit atop, and why put them in what seems like it was supposed to be a temple? And by extent, is this something unique to Five Pebbles, or do other iterators have similar temple-labs somewhere in their cities?

I guess the reason these parts stuck out to me more than the actual temple association was because 1.) we don't see this low-gravity mechanic and these features anywhere else in the game besides inside the iterators, so it already gets points for uniqueness, and 2.) they're such a great contrast to everything else within Metropolis; even the "temple" rooms still look very similar to the rest of the region in their general aesthetic.

Seriously, what's up with all this "lab" stuff? It's not that I haven't seen these things before at this point, but why are they here, in a temple, of all places?

However, I do really like this idea so far, as I believe it speaks to a theme of Rain World I really enjoy: the seamless blend of science and spirituality. I enjoy seeing fictional worlds where "magical" things are not only objectively real, but have a scientific in-universe explanation, and/or are employed to create magical technology, yet in a way where these two ideas can exist in harmony rather than seeming like opposites. And the Ancients seem to have been very big on that, not only having a very strong cultural sense of spirituality but also being very technologically advanced, and incorporating those spiritual ideas and even elements of the world into their tech (ex: mass rarefaction tech derived from Void Fluid, an objectively real and "magical" substance with direct connections to their religious beliefs).

I have yet to come up with an explanation for what these iterator-esque lab rooms are (and on that note why they so strongly resemble iterator interiors, to the point they even contain their neurons and inspectors, which are supposed to directly aid in their functions). But as of now, just going mostly of basic gut instincts, my current theories are: A.) they exist in the temple so that whatever scientific endeavors carried out within were blessed with a sense of "holiness" in a similar manner to the holy ash Pebbles talks about, and B.) whatever tasks they were used for was one entrusted to the clergy class of this city, probably because the tasks were seen as something very important and connected to the Ancients' spiritual beliefs.

However, as I said I'm hoping to invite discussion with this post. Figuring out the Ancients' design philosophies and intentions for their creations has been a passion of mine when it comes to my headcanons, so I really do want to see if I can find a more concrete, or at least reasonable answer as to what the overall purpose of the 12th Council Pillar, the House of Braids was. Therefore if anyone has any extra details or theories as to what it was, I'd love to hear them!

And if you made it to the end, thanks for listening to my little spur-of-the-moment ramble!

[05-77]

team snakemouth mobile thanks to @amazingmezmer for helping me pick the accessories for team snakemouth

[mudkirby]

put 5 songs you listen to, post it, then send this ask to 10 of your favorite followers <3 ( • ̀ω•́ )

Songs? Sure. I don't really listen to band music or Spotify hits but I do like:

1. You cannot eat money (AURORA)

2. Hey Ya (like, the Slugcat one)

3. Happy (clap along if you know what happiness means to you blah blah blah)

4. Randy scouse git (Monkees)

5. That one rain world map, Poltergeist. Absolute eye candy and good music.

10 favorite followers? Bruh. I don't have too many.

@angstmachine-rw @druidshollow @amazingmezmer @kelnexia @zigmatism @kitterjitters @dafnier @justascuggy @trashiiplant @rithiathemoth

[threestarsaboveclouds]

Considering the current holiday for us, one where it's believed people who can pass on can interact with the real world. Do you know of any celebrations of your creators related to souls or spirits in a similar way?

Though not strictly related to spirits per se, my creators did have a number of traditions related to the remembrance of those who have departed the Carnal Plane.

In the southeastern sector of my facility grounds lie the Memory Crypts. The Crypts are some of the oldest structures located within my facility limits, and they were established around the same time as the nearby Void Fluid mines.

My creators would store their memories in the Crypts, as a way of spiritually releasing their ties to the Carnal Plane. This act of preservation was one of the last acts individuals who wished to Ascend would perform, before traveling to the Void Sea.

Despite my creators' unorthodox beliefs, this tradition was one that still held a great deal of religious significance to them. It was particularly important to the city's scholars, who deeply valued the pursuit of knowledge, but also recognized that it was something that needed to be let go of in order to truly achieve Ascension. Their memories were a gift to those who would follow after them.

Outside of Remembrance ceremonies, admittance to the Crypts was reserved for only the most esteemed members of the city's Houses, and the area saw very little foot traffic. The lack of disturbances caused by visitors also made the Crypt grounds an ideal location for some of my radio telescopes, so they were added soon after my construction. Though, their proximity to the Crypts was a rather contentious topic during some House proceedings...

I digress. The existence of spirits or disembodied souls is largely regarded as superstition, or a cautionary tale to those who might attempt to Ascend before they were sufficiently spiritually enlightened. There were rumors that one might hear the whispers of those caught between the Planes while wandering the corridors of the Memory Crypts... though I find such tales hard to believe.

[amerricanartwork]

Every time I see your art I want to crunch it like hard candy/pos

Thank you! I put lots of effort into making appealing art! In fact I often don't accept anything less!

Also I interpreted "hard candy" as rock candy initially (I guess my brain forgot that suckers and peppermints and jawbreakers and whatnot exist) so, uh... I made this little sketch based on it!

Here's some more art to crunch on!

[amerricanartwork]

I want to say I love reading your headcanons, especially your Iterator ones. Do you have a unique headcanons for Pebbles, since you haven't talked about him much?

Ohhh, I'm so glad to hear that!! I love creating and typing down these headcanons, but sometimes I worry whether anyone actually wants to read these long posts about it, so it's always so nice to hear people appreciate them!

I would love to talk more about Five Pebbles! I actually have quite a few headcanons for him specifically since I tend to ponder him a lot. In fact, of all the canon characters, when it comes to headcanons that aren't purely working out their general personality and backstory I think I currently have more outside headcanons for him than anyone else.

But nonetheless, assuming you mean "unique" as "interesting and relatively uncommon/unheard of in the fandom", here's one of mine that might seem odd or specific, but I really like it!

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

I’ve headcanoned for at least a few months now that Five Pebbles is very much an auditory learner. He’s more receptive to spoken and auditory information than just written text, and as such he tends to talk a lot, which is how he best formulates his ideas. 

Now, when I call him an auditory learner (or maybe just an audio-oriented person in general would be a better way to describe it), I also mean he generally cares a lot about how things “sound” to him. Five Pebbles pays close attention to how certain sounds “feel” in a sense, not just with regular abstract sounds, but spoken words, phrases, and ideas too. He likes it when sentences flow smoothly, convey the proper emotion or idea, and sound intellectual and well-thought-out, and dislikes when phrases sound clunky, confusing, or otherwise unprofessional and improper. In situations where he wants to appear smart and sophisticated, especially in a competitive sense, he loves flexing his extremely large vocabulary by throwing in long and obscure words and technical jargon too. To reference my last headcanon ask, this trait is another quality making him dislike NSH, who doesn’t care as much about grammar or syntax and thus tends to speak in casual ways Pebbles finds “improper”.

Usually, when he has a decent amount of uninterrupted personal time, Pebbles will spend several hours on end just talking to himself in his chamber to work out his ideas and plan any essays or speeches he’s preparing to give. He loves making sure that every sentence sounds pleasing, proper, and is grammatically correct, yet still explains his ideas thoroughly and accurately. However, despite being an introvert who values his alone time, he sometimes talks about his ideas to other iterators, especially when he wants feedback and criticism. In fact, having long discussions and debates, particularly about scientific, artistic, and philosophical matters, is perhaps one of the only things he actively enjoys doing with other people.

In this latter regard, this habit was actually one of the only reasons he occasionally, yet still actively sought out the presence of Unparalleled Innocence, someone whom I headcanon he never had much of a relationship at all with, positive or negative (at least pre-AU, that is). But nonetheless, Innocence is a very good listener and never declined an invitation to talk with him, though more often than not it turned more into him just rambling about something and her quietly listening and encouraging him to continue on (which she did for… other reasons besides her fascination with the subjects of his speeches, but I will get to those some other day…)

Another facet to this headcanon is that Pebbles has a strong appreciation for music. He finds it helps him calm down and work through his emotions very well, alongside one other habit I’ll address in a more official headcanon post. Thus, he’s got various music pearls with his favorite tunes that he’ll listen to while working or when he needs to relax. The purple one in Rivulet’s campaign is only one of many, though that was also the only one he could obtain at the time his chamber was broken into by the rot. 

His love of music has always been another little “worldly pleasure” that he took for granted, not realizing just how much he enjoyed it until after mass-ascension. And even then, he stuffed it deep inside him and kept trying to downplay its value to him all the way until his rot condition was almost at its climax. This emotional turmoil I imagine him having is a particular element of his character arc I find very interesting even in regular Downpour canon, but once again I will elaborate on it more later…

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

Anyway, there's the headcanon! Seeing as I'm planning to explain major character info in official headcanon posts, I tried to choose one that wasn't too essential for narrative comprehension, but is still unique and hopefully decently entertaining in-and-of itself. I also tried to use this to test a new format of doing more sketches for these headcanon posts, so it's not as much pure text.

Anyway, I hope you like it! And if you (or anyone else reading this, for that matter) ever want more headcanons, or can add to this one, don't be afraid to send another ask!

[mudkirby]

Happy Valentine's Day

To all [select few] my fellas [mutuals]

All in order of what was drawn

@amazingmezmer bruv tysm for existing

@druidshollow I keep reading your name as Druid Shallow 💀

@trashiiplant that guy from discord

I would do all my fellas but the backlog is a child's book in length now and school go brrr. I just realized I didn't finish GUB >:v

Also, I just learned about stuff like (silly) or (affectionate) so apologies if I insulted someone beforehand :p

[mudkirby]

[Transmission: Public / Time's Unseen Revelations]

"Salutations, this is an informative transmission on the content and status of this blog."

_____________________

Topics:

-Metroidvanias (Rainworld, Hollow Knight...)

-Transformers

-Ocs

-Gore/blood

-Comics (Burdened and Liberated Rainworld ocs)

"Or miscellaneous posts. Since this is not a blog that is tied to specific protocols, content will be somewhat inconsistent and fluctuate."

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Ask Status: Open

Available recipients: Me, Any OC

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Relevant Tags:

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Other ocs

#oc mire

Rainworld oc crap:

#uwdots

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Best Supporters :>

@zigmatism @kitterjitters @amazingmezmer

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YouTube Discord- Moron Realm and my first ask blog @sliver-of-pebbles-ask-blog

"Thank you for bothering to take the time to read this transmission."

[Connection Terminated]

[threestarsaboveclouds]

Greetings,

When we received your message we took some time to look over your research and it has some strong merit. We think others were too dismissive due to your unique methods. Though I'm of the opinion that the more unique perspectives the better.

We wanted to ask with your knowledge, how do you feel about the fact that everything is made of stars? That the steel in your structure is the result of thousands of star deaths? That the star that made some of the iron in your structure could have also created the iron in the blood of a slugcat around your structure?

Finally, we heard you were having some structure issues. If you're interested we can send over the genome for our purposed repair slugcats. Instead of the typical slime they produce a UV hardening resin. We're unsure of it's effectiveness underwater but we're sure it could be modified to work there.

Sincerely,

Clouds Over Golden Droplets

Hello, Clouds Over Golden Droplets! Thank you for taking the time to review my work. I agree that more unique perspectives are beneficial; more diversity in our iterative strategies increases our probability of solving the Great Problem. I am glad not to be alone in this sentiment.

To address your question: I believe that the recycling of the elements created in the hearts of stars is just one more example of the Cycle. Stars are born, and they die, only for their matter to be repurposed in the form of new stars and planets. This mirrors the Cycle of death and rebirth that binds all living creatures, which themselves are comprised of the matter created within dying stars.

It is quite poetic to think that the elements that make up my structure have the same source as the matter comprising the creatures that live around it. In a way, everything is linked to the Cycle, including the planet itself.

Now, about your offer…. the idea of purposing an organism to repair my structure is intriguing. A hardening resin might be able to mend some of the larger fractures more effectively than my repair microbes can. Much of my facility’s structural damage is underground, so I’m not sure if UV-hardening resin would cure properly… but perhaps there are other methods that could be used.

I’m afraid that much of the damage to my structures is more than a few purposed organisms can repair, however. I also lack the proper equipment to create complex purposed organisms; I only have the standard organic replicators necessary to sustain my own internal ecosystem. I suppose they could potentially be repurposed to create any type of creature, but in doing so I may run the risk of damaging myself…

In theory another iterator could create the organism for me and instruct it to travel to my can, but I am located in such a remote location that I am unsure if the creature would survive the journey (assuming it follows those instructions in the first place). Perhaps I am underestimating them, though… I was visited by a messenger from far away rather recently, and I was quite impressed by its resilience.

I deeply appreciate your concern and offer of help. You may send the genome along, I will store it in my archives. I may not be able to use it currently, but it could possibly be helpful in the future. Thank you.