#efficiency arc

[forthedancingandthethriving]

Revamping what started this whole AU..

Factory Reset In Progress

(Reminder that Factory Reset is/was a collaborative effort between me, @fandomandangstlover , @duckapus , and several anons on Engie's (fandomandangstlover) blog! Credit and huge thanks to everyone who pitched in that day to help make this AU what it is now!)

(Orignal arc post!)

This isn't that huge because I'm just making major changes. Everything else is left alone, mostly because I see no need to change it. But ideas and suggestions are always welcome!

Efficiency Arc

A reminder that this is the first arc that kicks off the AU, and this is pre-character development for nearly every character. That, and the Higher-Ups/Admins/Code World have not been introduced. This revamp, however, is being made with the new world building we have!

The beginning of this Arc is relatively the same, with SMG4 being shown as more spacey, almost like he's in a trance. A change, though, is that some scenes are shown with SMG3 experiencing similar things, being spacey, and generally having a hard time focusing. When the two are together and like this, they work together scarily well, letting everyone know something wrong.

Like the old arc, it goes from 0 to 100 incredibly fast with The Coding where both SMG4 and SMG3 are reset. A big change, though, would be showing just how different they are now. They work together absolutely flawlessly, rarely voice any complaints, and are generally very distrustful of the others.

In Please Wake Up, stuff is massively changed. SMG1 and SMG2 don't know what's wrong with 3&4 this time around, but they are able to deduce that it's almost like they've been reset. But they do tell the gang their best bet of figuring out what's went wrong is by finding either 4 or 3's Pod.

The WOTFI goes the same, except we would get to see a scene of Mario meeting with Domain (but at the moment he doesn't know his name) after finding 3's Pod. Mario explains everything (he's shitting bricks the whole time) and we don't get Domain's answer, except for his eyes narrowing.

Of course, come when everyone looks lost in the battle, Mario arrives with the bow and arrows Domain and Forum gave him to give Singularity its just deserts. It's code crumbles away, but a few stray pieces manage to hide away and sneak their way back to the Pods..

There'd be a lot of emphasis on just how scary this is for everyone because this is completely different from everything that's happened, and it's giving Mario and Meggy some serious flashbacks to the Lawsuit Arc when everyone didn't remember them.

This also gives time for SMG4 to reflect once he's been freed, and he realizes how badly he's been treating Mario, and he decides that he needs to start being a better friend before something similar happens again.

When Mario gets asked how he managed to get that bow & arrow, he says the "Mario recolor in 3's Pod gave it to me-a!" Everyone goes to investigate, Domain isn't present. Everyone's very confused, but.. decide that, presently, its not something they should worry about.

As they leave, we get a full look at Domain, who only crosses his arms with a stoic face.

New Hope Arc

The arc that changes the most. There's still tons of aftereffects from Singularity's rampage, SMG4 and SMG3 being the most harmed. Their code is still incredibly fried and damaged, and SMG1&2 are clueless on this and how long it'll take for them to recover.

There's a lot of focus on recovery in their arc, and Lil Coding doesn't get introduced as early as he did last time. It's midway through the arc that he does, and it's because 4&3's code has gotten to the point where he actually needs to step up and intervene. Everyone is understandably suspicious, but the Code Manifestation simply does the code repairs and leaves as soon as he can.

It always bothered me how quickly everyone grew to trust Lil Coding, so it takes a while longer for them to come around to him. LC takes most of the initiative, coming around and helping his SMGs code and repairing it. It takes a while, but they do slowly come around.

Singularity hiding in Lil Coding's own code stays the same, and him progressively getting weaker as it takes his own code as well. The overflow command happens just the same, with Singularity coming back.

The Burden Arc

It's actually Lil Coding this time that says they need to go to the Pods, with him saying that this is something far out of his control and permission range, and they need the Admins. Everyone is confused (save for Mario), but they head to the Pods. There, we finally get the proper introduction of two of the three Admins for SM64: Domain and Forum.

We get some lore from them, them explaining that they're the Admins of 3&4 along with what Lil Coding is. Not everything is explained, of course, but we do get what's relevant and necessary to the plot.

Lil Coding and Singularity being linked stays the same, and of course, not wanting Lil Coding to end up dying, everyone looks for a way to separate them. Domain and Forum could do this, but they don't because remember. This is before all of the chatacter development everyone has had, so they're nowhere near as attached as they are now.

Eventually, Lil Coding does his thing to go and get rid of Singularity, but this time, instead of the whole stone statue thing, he's just in an indefinite power down mode until he heals. The electricity overload he does nearly completely fries his own code, but it does end up killing Singularity.

I think this is a good starting point for Domain and Forum's actual character development and to also plant the seeds of them being the SMG Prototypes. They are both incredibly confused by how upset everyone is and why they feel like something is repeating with how everyone's acting. So they decide to help out and speed up Lil Coding's recovery. I'll say that this is the start of their actual relationship with everyone.

[rishioutpost]

Every flaw of The Bad Batch and even the entirety of The Clone Wars 2008 is made worth it by Echo going fucking insane on Tantiss. It was all leading up to that. Everything else, the good, the bad, the ugly, served to get us to that moment. Few things make me as gleeful as Echo standing on fucking business. God bless him.

[kittykatninja321]

One thing that’s annoying about pit madness as a trope in fic is when people act like Jason killing people is the result of magic induced compulsion and not a fundamental philosophical difference between him and the other bats. Jason was already saying “well maybe she had a point” about a woman who killed a serial killer rapist when he was ROBIN

[elbdot]

How long will it take till El and Guzma start showing *CANON* feelings towards eachother?

*looks at planned story arcs* Ok so we have regular bonding shenanigans, then we have a vital Guzma arc in here, an El arc planned as well, plans for Season 3, scheduling time for comics between commission work and other projects, calculating... ...ah shit we'll be here for another 7 years again, won't we

[bleue-flora]

Right so… prison break. The question I set out to answer for my scavenger hunt is: Would Techno’s prison break plan via the toilet have worked?

And the answer is interesting… for starters, despite Dream informing us that there is an elder guardian right under the cell [clip], this is not true. The elder guardian is actually right above the cell, with one further away under the middle of the entire lava chamber [more details on prison guardians].

Which actually makes their escape even easier (well they’ll still have to deal with the mining fatigue, but with how many guardians there is and their proximity that probably wasn’t going to end from killing the one guardian anyways). The most efficient way I found, is actually digging behind the cell (remember how Sam was doing that in Daedalus) and crawling. Not only is there red stone back there, and an opening, but also that direction is the shortest distance to the outside. Using this method Dream only has to break 14 blocks total (11 obsidian, 2 black stone {red}, 1 iron bars {pink}) [details on breaking time], making his (absolute minimum) total breaking time 286 hours or roughly 12 days. {the red stained glass panes note which blocks he would break}

As an aside, Foolish actually got pretty close to breaking in [far right picture] and had he gone from the back wall instead he probably would have succeeded lol XD.

If however, rivals duo instead continued the path they were on, they would actually find that the cell is essentially floating, so the water would seep under and turn some of the lava into cobblestone. (Interestingly, there is existing cobblestone already down here, a detail Sam notices after Techno escapes and finds Dream in the water hole [clip]. If I had to guess, I’d say while setting up that stream in creative they actually broke more blocks to make it more believable, but noticed how it was hollow, so plugged it up but neglected to fix the cobblestone, and instead made up some canon reasons why they hadn’t made more progress [clip] [clip])

Anyways, if they did mine down there, they could break some cobblestone {lime} and do some crawling under the cell. Using the open space down there they’d want to make as much progress towards the back wall as possible before going down under the lava and then digging straight. If they did this method, they would have to break 24 blocks (22 obsidian, 2 cobblestone {lime}) and it’d take them a total of 566 hours or roughly 23 and a half days. (It should be noted though that in this path Dream would be swimming (holding space bar) while mining so he doesn’t drown - I’m pretty sure this wouldn’t cause him to starve, but still would be annoying and realistically rather exhausting.) {diamond blocks are to show which block above would be broken, with diamond ore representing cobblestone - wanted to make sure you can see where the water is}

Course these are what I found to be the most efficient ways, they could of course chose a different direction or break different blocks, increasing their escape time. Additionally, these methods only work as long as Dream is left alone long enough and(or) knows when to crawl back out when they come to not draw suspicion. So to give Dream some credit, Techno is a necessity for this to work at all and he couldn’t have done it before(or after) without risking major problems…

[taryn40k]

March is ready for his exile! :D Just gotta stop by Terra first. And bring the Confessor along! :D (And a couple of his Astartes as well-) New drip in big part thanks to Lazy! :D He did a LOT of the work, I just swooped in at the end and touched up a few things! (Thank you friend! :D)

[crinj-central]

The way I wanna punch optwt powerscalers through the screen should be studied

[duckapus]

When Leto finally finds out about Jusenkyo and decides to make use of it she quickly comes to the conclusion that going there to restock every time she ran out (not to mention keeping which water came from which spring sorted) would be impractical at best, so she decides to just replicate the properties of cursed spring water with her considerable mastery of water-related programming.

Unfortunately, something seems to have been lost in translation between Bullshit Slapstick Anime Magic and Code, so her curses aren't as effective. She still can curse someone, but unless she puts her full focus on it the curse is temporary, only good for one or two transformations before wearing off. And it doesn't work at all on anyone who already has a Jusenkyo curse, which she learns the hard way when she tries and fails to turn Ranma into a monkey. She ends up having to give Kuno (who showed up and annoyed everyone as is typical of him) the curse of the Spring of Drowned Platypus. Yes it's specifically a Phineas and Ferb style platypus because funny

(doing that has effects she won't realize for some time. remember how non-game media has a harder time coming to life and deviations from the script tend to make things unstable? The presence and interference of Leto and her allies hasn't been too disruptive up until now both because the server is in a post-series state and because a bunch of ridiculous new adversaries showing up to Cause Problems on Purpose Specifically for Ranma is pretty on-point for the series' formula. On the other hand, introducing a new Jusenkyo curse to the main cast -and particularly applying it to one of the very few people to not even know about Jusenkyo (even though by all logic he really should by now, but the Kuno family doesn't subscribe to logic much)- is a pretty massive shake-up of the status quo. one that, unbeknownst to anyone currently involved, leaves a few cracks in the world's foundation...)

[nomsfaultau]

New chapter of Fault!

[wahbegan]

Something something Batman is a billionaire fascist discourse ignores the fact that Batman has his roots in the hardboiled detective story, which thematically was written at a time when trust in the police was at a catastrophic low and as such mainly deals with private detectives kinda extralegally cracking cases that the cops are either not solving or actively obstructing and his conflict with the police has remained a fairly consistent point in most of his stories outside the Golden Age of Comics, Commissioner Gordon is the exception not the rule something something

[omarwolaeth]

Duel Runners run on energy generated by their (assumedly expensive) Momentum Cores, so their power supply is as infinite as how much you can move it. Can't say the same about real life though.

(Text written from linked post's images)

[quackity1999]

♕ Yeah, no yeah of course. Why would I judge you for that? After all this is your place, your space, darling...

[ She moved slowly, carefully stepping just inside. It took her a moment to look around; honestly... it was rather nice in here. She could see why Quackity had chosen this place. She didn't move further into their nest, but she did look towards where the other was; lifting her hand in greeting ]

Hi Quackity...

@the-regretful-ruler

[ quackity distantly realises he should at least try to be somewhat more welcoming— and springs off the bed to shuffle halfway down the stairs he'd chipped at enough to make functional. ]

this is— weird. like, not in a bad way, i just. y'know. haven't had anyone in here for a while. a few months. HAH. i'm still in my fucking pajamas!

anyway.

you . . said you, uh. brought some things?

[ polka dot pajamas, nonetheless. his wings wrap slightly over his shoulders as he inches closer— as if trying to present himself as completely fucking stable rather than an instinct-driven nutcase. ]

[littleeyesofpallas]

B(IO)M(EAT) NECTAR[BMネクタール]

[burning-breads]

uh oh! looks like kaiden coworker got written up last night. big things happening

[forthedancingandthethriving]

Fuck it, we ball.

So, after the disaster, that is this, the Abyss decides that it really can't afford to waste anymore time. It's let them have many happy weeks. It HAS to act.

It sends CPU and Lag to Computer Hell to not only let the inmates out but distract Antivirus enough so he can't stop them. Obviously, he (Antivirus) knows them enough (and has common sense) to know that this isn't them. Unfortunately, the Abyss also sent Phobos as back up, so Antivirus really doesn't have any way of stopping them.

Once those two have completed their purpose? Well, for CPU, it just violently disconnects him from its mind control, causing all of his programs and systems to do an emergency shutdown and throws him into a random server. Fun!

As for Lag, it lets Black Doom decide whatever he wants to do with Lag. And considering there is no way to get the information out of Lag, he just decides to let the Admin go. Antivirus, thankfully, nabs him just in time to get the hell out of dodge and to NWO. The Admin also had the foresight to send a message as soon as those two showed up, so everyone back in NWO is already on edge and getting ready.

Unfortunately, it does do very little against the fact that there was the scouting squad, and its the LITERAL ABYSS AND BLACK DOOM WITH ALL HIS GUYS, PLUS ALL THE INMATES.

So, that's fun for them. Thankfully, with the somewhat early warning from Antivirus, they were able to get all the people who couldn't fight out of there. Just in time, too.

As when the villains arrive?

Turns out the Abyss has figured out the ability to lock down an entire server, so no one, not even Database, can get IN or OUT.

And between all the shit that goes down? They're going to be fighting for their lives.

Plus, on top of all that...

----

Juliano can only wonder if this is what Princess Peach felt like every time she got captured by Bowser.

Except the difference being it is an Eldritch Abomination that is holding him hostage, trying to break him mentally, and also is that fucking COOKIE??

It clearly is her, but she's freshened up. Her spider legs are back, clearly repaired by the Abyss, judging by how they're pitch black. She's wearing.. different clothes, too. And Juliano has to admit, they are really nice. It's a bit like a priestess outfit, but it's also extremely practical.

He gives credit where credit is due. She looks nice. As does the other Program standing next to her, but he doesn't know that one.

Juliano, also, really wishes he hadn't been snatched in front of Forum, Domain, and Emulator, because he's quite sure they've noticed what the hell is going on with him, and now he really can't deny it.

"Ah- Creator!"

Oh, thank god, it's Abyssal.

In the cramped cage, Juliano turns his head to looked at the pink goddess. Her wings flapped as she landed on the platform, and he feels relief as their eyes meet.

Out of the corner of his eye, as she begins to discuss something, a private message box appears.

> ABYSSL: 👍/👎

> JLINO: 👍

She smiles a bit at that.

> ABYSSL: 🤕?

> JLINO: 👎

It's a little annoying that they have to speak in emojis, but at the same time, Juliano is thankful.

The box suddenly disappears, and Abyssal looks horrified as they look at the Abyss. Who had turned to look at him with a grin that spells nothing good.

It melts away, and tendrils drop down.

He even hears Cookie suck in a breath, Cluster mutter an "Oh that's too far.." and Abyssal just looks horrified as her wings flare out.

But Juliano can't hear them as he stares at what the tendrils hold, eyes pinpricks.

Are these familiar? the Abyss mocks in his head.

Juliano can't even answer. Because there's tears falling down his face, and there's a desperate aching need for him to GET THOSE AWAY FROM IT, GET THEM AWAY NOW.

But he can't.

And so he's forced to watch as the Abyss carelessly dangles the two things he wants the most, the plushed Cody and Mandy made for him, right in front of his face.

All while it cackles.

(As she watches, Abyssal sucks in a deep breath. Suddenly, beating back the Abyss just became a lot more personal.)

[grassbreads]

I'm like 6 chapters into guardian and the mc is already flirting with his love interest. Who are you and what have you done with priest