#if you want i can also make another thing about the overworld lore that we have

[adudelol-reblogs]

undertale oc that i've never heard of before????

tell me NOW

-✨

LMAOO yeah rye :)

oh wow this got long putting this below a . read more <3

so. okay ive been an undertale fan since the game first came out right like i remember looking at the trailers for a new game releasing (2015) and so me and a friend, @scooky2 made ocs together! (Oh my gods scooky sun n rye are nine years old.)

but yes we've had them around for forever, snr (the oc group, stands for Sun aNd Rye, or Sun N Rye), are our ocs. Sun created by Scooky and Rye created by me. They've changed a lot over the past few years, but yknow, as all ocs do <3

So, rye is my beloved baby ray of sunlight . she's a trans gal (she/it/[redacted]), and lives near sun. she's adopted by a poly family, the smiths, and her social worker, stacy, is suns mom!

so thats how sun n rye met when they were. 13ish? Something like that

pretty much they've always been close friends, and sun has punched several transphobes whove been mean to rye LMAO

OH a note here: rye is pronounced like "Ray". She named herself to match Sun (Sunray, a ray of sun, etc) and i just find that so wholesome i love them your honour

Um. Pretty much when they're like,,, 19? 20? I don't exactly remember, but one day when they were walking on a trail they fell into mt ebbott into the underground

sun has a bravery? soul? I think? bravery yeah the orange one, and rye has the typical determination red soul. they kinda go through the underground like normal, until theeee undyne fight, where sun dies. rye freaks out and panics, causing her to also die BUT!

as the DT soul, she is sent to this voidlike place for a moment. in the distance, she can hear a voice talking to her, and it tells her to just believe in herself. and she comes back to her last save point!

rye loves her honorary sister, and so she leaves without sun and fights undyne. during this, rye feels like the only thing she can do here is to kill undyne to save sun so yeah . rip o7

throughout the story rye dies a bunch more times, and each time she finds herself in the void place, the voice getting louder and louder until one time she sees its some weird, melted goopy skeleton monster (gaster!)

i dont exactly remember everything said, but the point is during the first run, gaster built up his trust with rye, and when she fights asgore, gaster convinces her to reset (aren't you curious? find out what else could happen?) (you promised you would save me. how can you do that without learning more information?) (do what i tell you. don't you trust me? im showing you how to use your soul. your determination) all that kinda stuff

so rye agrees, resets and resets and resets doing dozens and dozens of different things -- genocide, killing everyone besides one specific monster, only kill this one, seeing how everything reacts. but the one thing, the one thing rye would never do was hurt sun

(don't you trust me, rye? killing sun might be the one thing that can unlock this information. trust me, she won't even remember it. she wont know it even happened)

the one thing rye would never was hurt sun, before.

sun.... it was always a quick, painless death. at least, rye hoped it was. rye still loved her sister, but... she needed to know after all, right?

eventually sans manages to convince rye that he remembers everything blah blah and that rye is being manipulated by gaster, that she doesnt have to do this

and rye, tired of the resets, tired of killing sun or hurting sun over and over and over stops. she fights against gaster, telling him to leave her alone and that she's not playing his game anymore

so, she finally gets to her pacifist route. she finally did it, but... there isn't enough human souls to break the barrier. so both rye and sun are stuck down here until frisk (who in our oc would is not a DT soul, since we have the lore that only one DT soul can exsist at once) comes down and the barrier is broken by frisk

thats the overall story done!

oh i totally forgot to mention this. but both sun n rye are humans at the start of this story. sun is part phoenix (oc monster race we have), and part giant (also oc monster race). she looks human though, and game-wise, is human with human stats in everything until around sometime in waterfall, where she falls off a cliff or something and nearly dies -- but the monster part of her soul unlocks and she transforms into her monster form (which is birdlike -- wings on her back, eyes change, feathers, etc).

rye, on the other hand, is human. but remember stacy? suns mom, rye's social worker?

stacy is part giant, and has been around since before the monsters were locked into mt ebbott. stacy had gotten away, just looking like a tall lady to most of the world, and every couple decades she has to move to get a new ID+keep up the act of being human since, after 50 years, how do you still look 20 LMAO

but yes, stacy is a monster. and she had given rye this one magical item -- that if rye was ever in serious trouble, yes, use this.

well, in the underground, rye went through several life or death serious situations, and had used the device -- it unlocks even more of the DT in her soul, transforming her into her monster form.

Rye becomes a medusa like creature, legs shifting into one long snake tail, and hair turning into a mass amount of snakes. when she was being manipulated by gaster, she learned that her human form did more damage to monsters, so she never used it often.

but once she realized she was stuck down here, she found out that the snake form felt more comfortable as long as she wasn't outside in snowdin (due to the cold). so she ends up spending most of her time in her medusa form, because well

i should say . snr are oc x canon. we made them when we were younger and idk that its cringe now cringe is dead etc etc but

but yes, oc x canon, and the canon characters? ...sans and papyrus. though sun and sans is romantic, rye and papyrus are a qpr :D

but yeah like i was saying . rye spends most of her time in her snake form because it also just makes sans feel idk like safer? that when she was being manipulated, when she was killing monsters, she did so in her human form and her snake form was her willing to be weaker yknow

anyways uh . wow this is long i just rambled

sorry if like none of this makes sense LMAO i didnt realized how long this is oh my gods

[lowkeyrobin]

can you pretty please try doing reader who is a certified yapper 🗣‼️ but also has moments where they just get tired of talking and are dead silent for like 20 minutes straight and then go straight back to yapping 😼 sorry if its super specific lmao but i do this all the time

also could i maybe be 🦋 anon??

hello!! welcome to the family 🦋 anon! and yes ofc :) sorry if I misunderstood, kinda autopiloted to mcyt so sorry if you meant this for another fandom LMAO ; struggled to think of new thoughts so sorry for small cast of people 💀🙏

MCYT ; certified yapper

includes ; tommyinnit, tubbo, ranboo, badlinu, quackity, & nihachu

warnings ; language

masterlist

TOMMYINNIT

he does the same thing

will rant about anything and everything especially if you're talking about the same thing

but if it's out of the blue like "omg look at this tik tok drama blah blah blah" he just blinks before he's like "oh shit. here we go again"

then you just stop talking after a moment and gets weirdly uneasy with the silence

"can you talk more?"

"about what??"

he just shrugs "I like when you yap away, you're nice background noise"

you dramatically scoff "Okay, asshole"

you're silent for a while and just start revving up the engine again "Holy shit here's another thing, this girl-"

TUBBO

will proudly listen to you yap on about some stupid shit or about lore to a show/movie you're fixated on

he'll ask you questions and stuff

he's used to it dw

you'll go silent for a little while like you're processing new data and he'll just be like "Okay, I think we should do xyz and..."

then you'll like come back to life and start talking again

he secretly sets a timer each time you go quiet until you start ranting again and he'll put it on his stream 💀

"damn, 19 minutes this time"

"Huh? 19 minutes for what?"

RANBOO

nods along and actually listens

dude doesn't care, they're listening to you no matter what

whether it be about serious topics or some silly internet stuff you like, he'll always listen and make sure to note it down that way he can start a conversation with you about something you like or are passionate about

"yknow what I like about the nether?"

"what?" he smiles

"how pretty and diverse it is. yeah you can say the overworld is just as if not more diverse with biomes and stuff, but they could've just left it boring red netherrack everywhere you go and stuff, it adds so much more life-"

they love how passionate about things you can be

if for a very extended period of time, they'll check up on you like "you good?"

you just nod like "I'm tired of talking L"

BADLINU

nods along with you

he doesn't see it as yapping, he sees it as a genuine conversation no matter what you're talking about

adds some stuff in when you like pause to breathe

once you go quiet he can just sit in silence with you forever

this is basically his opportunity to talk to you about like tik tok drama lmao

if you don't know about it at all, all ears open and you're focused

your dynamic 🔛🔝

QUACKITY

you're both yappers let's be honest

constantly talking over each other and play fighting for the most attention out of other people 💀💀

"SHUT THE HELL UP I'M TALKING"

"I WAS TALKING FIRST, LET ME TELL THEM ABOUT MY NEW FAVORITE MOVIE"

then you just get tired of talking and wanna strip mine or something LMFAO

he always checks to make sure he didn't upset you after every time you go silent

it's just by reflex lmao

he does listen to you when you yap about a fixation don't worry

gift inspo goes crazy

NIHACHU

loves when you talk or yap about something you like or some drama you found

she's like your safe person to talk about everything to, she loves having that kind of title for you

"and then xyz"

"Oh my God, really??"

she'll whole ass put everything down just to listen to you talk about dumb shit I swear

she encourages it, like just speak your mind dude

also uses what you talk about as gift inspiration for anything, birthday, valentines day, anytime she wants to get you stuff

half the time you forget what you just said and she recaps you

"Oh, thank you! anyways-"

[cutebutalsostabby]

iirc you said in another post that the time between ALTTP and OOT was either 80 or 400 years. i haven’t played ALTTP yet but love timelines - are those numbers in the game somewhere?

I think I came up with those specific figures myself, BUT I do have some in-game and official text basis for them! The reason for the 80 year vs 400 years (or even longer) options is that there is actually some pretty big inconsistency between a) various parts of the game itself, b) the official game booklet, and c) Nintendo's big ole retcon of the Imprisoning War. Or possibly retCONS if we count TotK.

(Idk if you wanted an info dump, but you're getting one lol. THANKS FOR THE ASK!! 💜)

SO. The intro cutscene.

We start by hearing of legends from long ago, about a Golden Power that resides in a hidden land. Many people tried to find it; none ever returned. One day, evil power began to flow forth (we later learn this was due to Ganondorf finding the Triforce), so the King told the sages (originally translated as "Wise Men") to seal the Golden Land away for good. The narrator then describes those events as occurring so long ago that they became legend. Sounds like a while, right?

But then within about an hour or two of gameplay, you meet Sahrasrahla. Sahasrala? Saharasala? YOU MEET MR SALSA. And he ends up telling you a story about the knights that fought to protect the sages and who were almost all killed at the time, leaving YOU, the protagonist, as the last known member of that bloodline. According to Mr Salsa, those events took place only three or four generations ago.

That's not long at all! I mean, the exact numbers may vary depending on whether it's 3-4 generations from Salsa-san's point of view or Link's, as well as whether we give that person a human lifespan or an elf one (ALTTP has some Western fantasy elements, but the later games suggest that Hylians are basically just humans with pointy ears), but that would be where my ~80 years figure came from.

One of the later bits of dialogue then mentions Ganondorf rediscovering the Golden Land after the knowledge of it was lost - which may explain the discrepancy between the intro cutscene and Sahasralah(?)'s own dialogue. (I'm taking screenshots from Youtube FYI - see cutscene compilation here.)

All good so far?

WELP. THEN WE HAVE THE GAME BOOKLET.

By "game booklet" I mean the little brochure thing that used to come with physical games up until someone decided they weren't necessary. Boo and bah humbug. But I digress.

The original booklet for ALTTP, which you can find online, says that the Imprisoning War took place centuries ago. It also adds a bunch of other new lore details, including Ganondorf's last name, Dragmire - which never actually appears in-game. Both of those things are however missing from the truncated lore dump you get in the Gameboy Advance release's booklet:

And then there's Nintendo's Fallen Hero retcon. Lol.

See, the original "Imprisoning War" from ALTTP went something like this:

Ganondorf found an entrance to the Sacred Realm (formerly "Golden Land") and went in. Much like the others before him, he was then stuck there forever. UNLIKE the others before him however, he then randomly stumbled across the Triforce, which offered him the power to make a wish.

He made some unspecified wish along the lines of "I want to take over the world". As a result, the Sacred Realm became the Dark World and started to leak evil magic and demons into the Light World (aka "Overworld").

The knights fought against the demons, allowing the sages to seal the entrances ro the Sacred Realm. Note it's unclear if they even knew about Ganondorf's existence at this point.

Sometime later, Ganondorf manages to partially break free, and sends his alter ego Agahnim out to break the seal on the Sacred Realm and merge the two worlds into one.

And then we have Nintendo's retcon, which introduces the whole idea of the Fallen Hero - as a means of clumsily tying ALTTP to Ocarina of Time. So instead of the above:

Ganondorf publicly swears allegiance to the King of Hyrule, only to later backstab him and take over the castle. He then follows Link into the Temple of Time and grabs hold of the Triforce while the latter goes to take a nice long nap. He only manages to claim part of the Triforce (Power), so his wish remains incomplete. The other parts go to Link (Courage) and Zelda (Wisdom).

Seven years later, Link challenges Ganondorf to an epic showdown and loses. Ganondorf claims the remaining parts of the Triforce and uses them to transform into the Demon King. The seven sages, Zelda included, then seal both Ganon and the Triforce away in the Sacred Realm.

The names of the seven sages (per OoT) eventually become the names of the towns in Zelda II. Any remaining discrepancies are handwaved away as unreliable narrators.

Interestingly, TotK's Imprisoning War is much closer to ALTTP's version than Hyrule Historia's - which makes me wonder if that whole retcon is doomed to be retconned once again. Of course, the Triforce isn't present at all within TotK, but it's also a pretty compelling reason for why seven sages with secret stones couldn't win against the one guy with a secret stone. So there’s that.

But yeah, going back to that initial question: no, there's no specific figure provided for the time between the Imprisoning War and events of ALttP. Just depends on which piece of conflicting lore you feel like using lol.

[mysaldate]

AFK Journey review by a beta tester

AFK Journey came out yesterday and I see it getting quite a lot of attention so I figured I'd at least put this out there so that people don't go into it expecting something it's not.

I have been in the testing of this game and continued to provide feedback all the way from the alpha test back in the fall of 2021 and through all the beta testing that started in April or May last year. I have also been aiding in making lore-focused streams about AFK Arena for over a year and seeing as AFK Journey is supposed to be set in the same world, this will be relevant later. I have also been contracted to make officially-backed videos about AFK journey – a deal I left for a number of reasons, not least of all the reasons I have for writing this post. Now with credentials out of the way, let's get to the actual review.

The visuals take your breath away

Let's start with something positive – this game is gorgeous. Farlight Studios have outdone themselves yet again and after the vibrant and futuristic world of Dislyte, their take on Esperia is surprisingly tame, in a good way. The colors are soft and lovely, the models look amazing, and the customization screen of the main character is awesome! The characters look great and move in a smooth fluid fashion. Ult animations, idle animations, and the overall feel of the characters as well as the skins added into the game thus far are all nice and fit into the wider world well, not to mention look wonderful and clean, a lot of effort and skill went into making them. Sadly, if we ignore the skins and ult animations, this has been the case since the alpha without any major changes.

Gameplay could be improved upon

I will be up-front about this, I don't care about gameplay all that much. However, I have to say, the game is not open-world, despite claiming to be so. If you venture off the paths, you get stuck on fences, stuck on bushes, stuck on rocks, or just prevented by an invisible wall. There is no swimming, no climbing, no gliding, or most other things we came to associate with open-world games. The vertical gameplay is a plus to be sure and you get to pick characters to follow you around without having to use them in battles which makes the exploration more fun. The overworld puzzles are creative and fun too! The real issue comes with... everything else. At the start, fights in the overworld are easy. However, they will scale up way faster than you can level and you will soon be adding an additional roadblock to the list: enemies. The combat itself is creative but requires attention as the autoplay function is usually wonky at best and outright damaging to your party at worst. AFK Journey is not living up to its AFK title either. One thing I found really annoying was the story progression not being tied to the AFK rewards. You have to grind a separate set of battles to increase the AFK rewards you receive. The AFK rewards and story also still cap each other so you won't be able to progress in one without progressing in the other.

Outside of the main story, the game offers multiple game modes. If you don't enjoy PvP, be warned that the game puts great emphasis on doing your PvP arena every day and being good at it if you want to build any good characters. The game also has a labyrinth mode which tracks your health across multiple battles and allows you to gain upgrades as you go. This mode is somewhere between AFK Arena's and Dislyte's in terms of fun. It is more varied than AFK Arena's which makes it more fun and less repetitive, however, you have a limited number of characters you can bring in which severely limits how varied your gameplay experience might be. It was also recently nerfed to the ground and now poses little to no challenge. Honor Duel is another PvP mode in which you buy upgrades and then fight randomly generated players with supposedly the same level of upgrades as you. If you can claim eight victories before three losses, you win the run. However, the factions and characters are currently so imbalanced that depending on your luck, you may not win a single battle in a run or you might breeze through all of them without any effort.

The gacha element is pretty much non-existent. If you scrounge up enough resources to pull, you likely won't get anything much. You'll be relying on hand-outs of pulls and PvP shops to build your characters. AFK Journey should not be called a gacha game. It is, at best, a game with rare gacha elements.

Co-op is a lie

While AFK Journey does have a cooperative mode, in the form of connected guild dungeons, it is not really what it advertises to be either. All your guildmates can separately whale on some enemies together and depending on how you do, you will receive rewards that are generous compared to what the rest of the game offers. You can lend your friends your characters but they'll be the ones fighting with them, not you. The most social aspect of the game is seeing other players around the map and spending your friend points to buy different animations to perform at each other. The chat function is also pretty bad, though not as terrible as it is in AFK Arena.

The guilds and friends to add also don't work cross-server. So if you have a friend on another server, you won't be able to see them or talk to them or enjoy even the limited interactions that are actually in the game.

The story is disappointing at best and nobody knows the world

You may have noticed I've been avoiding talking about the story of a story-focused game. This is where the biggest disappointment lies. Let me preface this by saying, the story didn't always use to be this way. It used to be actually really really good back in the alpha and even at the start of the beta. However, in the last three months, the game underwent five or six complete rewrites of the main story, each worse than the last. As things stand right now, there is no nuance in protagonists or villains, there is a literal diarrhea conversation (like an actual conversation, several scenes long) for no reason, most of the story could be summarized on one page and the rest is pointless bickering that makes every other character utterly unlikable. The main character is an amnesiac going by the title of "Magister Merlin" despite the fact that Merlin from Arthurian myths, whom this is clearly based on, is an existing character in the world of Esperia.

In terms of lore, AFK Journey is not even close to what it promised. It promised to be a game set in the world of AFK Arena – a world with surprisingly rich and interesting lore that has been built up over the years. Unfortunately, it is very much not that. Not only are important world events treated as nonexistent, not only does the writing erase character relationships and dynamics, but the writers couldn't have even been bothered to learn the basics of the world they're working with. Factions get swapped around randomly for no reason, and important factional politics have been flipped on their heads. An organization that is supposed to be an outcast is now the ruling class, the timeline is all over the place, and even the names of things are not only inconsistent with AFK Arena but also inconsistent with Journey's world itself. The loading screen already breaks the world by telling you magic didn't exist until the "Fall of the gods" which is supposed to have happened recently, yet the entire time you will be running around ruins of magical civilizations from ages long past.

Speaking of the gods, there are characters who straight-up don't know what a celestial is. If you know anything about Esperia's lore, you know how important religion is to its history and how jealously the gods guard their authority. The thought of someone having completely no idea of what they were is strange, to say the least. The game also invents new gods instead of using preexisting ones with the same function and even disregards events relating to the gods that changed the course of Esperian history – such as the death of Esperia's primary goddess Dura. In fact, AFK Journey doesn't even consider Dura important enough to have a model. Once again, this is the primary goddess of this world. As for the characters brought over from AFK Arena, they have been butchered beyond recognition. The warlord of an entire country who slew countless enemies is now a pacifist whose only interest lies in spicy food, a hard-working girl who, for the sake of her family, developed her skills until she was recognized by the stars and became the fulfillment of a prophecy is now an angry Mary-sue who was always perfect and didn't actually need to work for anything – and gets offended if you suggest otherwise, the list goes on.

The sound design is refreshingly good – for the most part

As a game with voices, we have to talk about those first. The voices, for the most part, are alright. None of them really stands out as particularly amazing, though I do like a few of them more than the others. I like Fay's voice quite a bit. Sadly, none of the characters from AFK Arena is voiced by the same person anymore, and in most cases, it is a massive downgrade. And that isn't talking about the worst offender of all – Valen, one of the main characters you'll have to listen to the whole time. Valen used to have a voice that fit his character – suave and kind of bold and full of life. Now he sounds like he's still going through puberty, and he's a whiny crybaby at that.

The sound design outside of the voice acting is great. Once again, this is a very strong point for the game. The music and background noises are great and even the menu sounds are not disruptive in the least. If anything, they feel natural to the world.

PC client could as well not exist at all

This is coming from second-hand knowledge as I have played AFK Journey on phone but so far the reviews I've seen appear to be as follows: Game lags when walking, freezes when trying to talk to NPCs, and is prone to crashing. Mobile devices perform better for AFK Journey than PCs do.

The mystery of translation

Back in January, the only publicly admitted localizer has been fired from the project. About a week and a half ago (around 10 days before the game's launch), the official Discord posted an application form looking for translators for the game. Apparently, the game has several translations already out at this moment, but none of them particularly good. Some are even so bad it's sort of funny. In a really... pathetic sad way. It probably doesn't help that they're still looking for translators as we speak.

In conclusion...

I wish I could recommend AFK Journey, I really do. I've been excited about this game ever since its announcement and I've been providing as much feedback as I could throughout both alpha and beta. The organization has been awful and the game suffers for it. Internal changes happened a few months back and since then, everything about the game just fell apart. Even things that were good before got ruined and now all that remains is pretty visuals and nice music with nothing else worth paying attention to. It is a major letdown when it could've been incredible. The game is nothing it was advertised as – it is not an open-world game, it is not a gacha, and it is most certainly not set in the world of AFK Arena.

I hope the people who decide to play it can still find some fun in it regardless.

[fruit-sauce]

My swag and totally normal q!BBH headcanons

I need to talk about my thoughts and headcanons about q!BBH, ESPECIALLY after the lore drops of him being like. a manifestation of c!bbh as well as the fact he “arrived” in 9600 BCE??? I need to say my thoughts- NOW. (also for the fact i wanna draw these out, some of them feel kinda specific and/or complicated)

warning, its a lot:

First and foremost, he’s the Grim Reaper. That’s just a canon fact, but! I still like to remember the name “The Saints of Games” and input that into his lore. 

Basically, he started off as angel, just like q!Philza, but (after some deals and not so good things) he turned into a demon. Design wise, he can go between looking like an angel, demon, or just a guy, but that’s mostly for funsies for me lol

As a demon, he quickly became high ranking, eventually working under the goddess of death herself as “the grim reaper.” this is where he meets phil, since now they’re technically co-workers.

He used to only care for guiding spirits and souls in the underworld, but soon discovered that something was wrong. Souls were going missing, sometimes going past him multiple times. This caused him to venture to the overworld (And cause whatever he did in 9600 BCE???)

The cause of his problems was Foolish! :D Seeing as foolish is a literal totem, I like the idea of him being some type of god/demi god that causes rebirth/keep people from dying/etc. This starts their rivalry that we still see now.

As a general, not every iteration of BBH, Phil, Forever, etc. is the same, they all come from different universes and timelines, but can come together and retain the memories as they move forward. This idea came from the fact qBBH wants “a skeppy” not even his skeppy, just A skeppy. Skeppy is not a deity, so, in every universe, he has to meet bbh over and over again, there are infinite skeppys, but only 1 bbh, and bbh knows that. There is a Skeppy in the QSMP universe that’s been with bbh for years now and has some remembrance of other timelines, the “main” skeppy, if you will (mostly eggpire stuff cause i love the eggpire (something i’ll, idk, make a comic about or something one day))

On the island itself, there’s something up with it that, when they woke up on the trains, BBH, Foolish, and Phil were simply drained of their abilities and magic. They still had some, but no where near enough to leave the island or contact anyone. That being said, BBH gets his energy from souls, something he doesn’t like to do with living beings. He also just naturally takes energy from people, so he plays the bit of the grim reaper that wants people to stay hydrated and takes care of all the eggs because if everyone is happy and healthy, he doesn’t have to worry about accidentally killing them!

There are some that resist him tho: Foolish and Phil, obviously, but also Dapper, Cheyenne, and Leo! The eggs seem to take in the dna of their parents somewhat so these 3 also get that pass... Also Missa, Slime, and Rubius..

Speaking of Rubius, BBH and him I feel like HAVE to have some backstory, they’ve totally met before, both are literally angels/demons. 

Back to Foolish, as much as they poke at one another, they do trust each other a lot, when they were in that dungeon where Foolish almost died, in my head, BBH was basically pulling Foolish out of the way of the Vindicators, digging his claws into Foolish, who then used his totem body to keep BBH from dying (when BBH spent 2 totems trying to pick him up) the third totem was a normal totem tho, him saying “You’re making me eat totems” was literal, he held it in his mouth and broke thru it to use it....

that’s not how they’re supposed to be use i just think it’d look cool...

... I need to make an animatic about that...

[jupiterswasphouse]

BUG FABLES - A REVIEW

I just finished Bug Fables for the first time and got all the achievements! Here are my thoughts! (Skip to the end if you just want a quick overview of each point):

I really enjoyed this game! It's nice to have another experience that's like the first two Paper Marios because after playing TTYD for the first time last year I found myself wanting more of that style (Although I personally really love SPM and PM:TOK), but even still, I think Bug Fables does plenty to separate itself from just being TTYD again.

The party system is definitely a lot more standard, with three main party members rather than a main character with a cast of partners (Unless you count a certain secret character you may get in late game), but the battle system is very reminiscent of Paper Mario, with the ability to perform action commands and block incoming attacks, as well as using special skills. In a way it also reminds me of the Mario And Luigi games, in that some of the skills you can perform are team attacks, although, in this game, the team attacks use up a turn for all characters involved. It's very familiar, but manages to stay fresh throughout as you play through and gain new skills.

I really like how all three main characters (Vi, Kabbu, and Leif) have types of enemies they specialize in, with Vi for airborne enemies, Kabbu for enemies that need to be overturned or have their defenses lowered, and Leif for enemies that are underground or that you might want to freeze. And these skills aren't just limited to the battlefield either, as each of these abilities are utilized in unique ways to traverse the overworld as well, making it interesting to solve puzzles and find secrets in ways both intended and not.

There are also tons of medals in the game, which makes it interesting to strategize with what you may need for a particular fight. Although late into the game and in post game that strategy essentially becomes Overload Vi With Attack Medals for every fight, as Vi can really become a massive damage dealer if you play your cards right (Granted I didn't know this until Chapter 7).

In terms of difficulty, I think Bug Fables is fairly well balanced, and can easily be beaten by someone familiar with the Mario RPG style. Personally, I played the whole thing (except the boss rush and cave of trials) with the hard mode medal on, which made Chapter 7 in particular a pretty daunting jump in difficulty, especially considering I wasn't fully ranked up by the final boss due to avoiding a lot of fights earlier on.

When it comes to the story, it'd had me very intrigued to find out what was going to be revealed next, with each main character having their own secrets. Obviously, if you know anything about Bug Fables, Leif's mystery is certainly the biggest, but that doesn't stop those for Vi and Kabbu from keeping one's interest! And it's not just the main characters who are important, as the game provides a world to explore which leaves the player asking plenty questions, answering just enough of them while leaving some room for speculation. It provides an interesting representation of bugs, with aspects based in both reality and fiction, with lore books and story beats that fill in some of how we got from one to the other.

It even shares another aspect with the Paper Mario franchise in the time-tested tradition of "Oh! That's actually kind of scary!" in both what is outright shown to the player and what is implied in lore. But don't worry too much, as the writing has the light hearted charm to balance it out, with heartfelt moments and light jokes here and there. Although not having too many big gags, I would say, some certainly stick out.

Heading into spoiler territory (skip this paragraph if you'd like to avoid these spoilers) for a moment, I like that they seem to set up the classic trope of the person you're working for potentially ✨ being evil all along ✨ only to subvert that expectation. As much as I was fully prepared for it, I really wasn't looking forward to the Evil Boss twist and was very relieved when it didn't happen. You do get a sort of parallel to this idea, however, in that the Wasp King is actually a usurper, to the point of actually not being a wasp at all. I was honestly disappointed going in that you were fighting wasps, but it delightfully surprised me to find that the real wasp queen is actually quite nice and the wasps make peace with the other kingdoms in the post game. (It was also quite the fun surprise to find a friendly wasp with a name very similar to my own in the game!).

And, furthermore, the looks of the game! This part really doesn't matter to me much as it tends to be more important that the gameplay and story is good, but it's a point to bring up nonetheless,

I like the style! The 2D elements are well done and provide a pinch of extra charm to a game that's already got plenty of it. The model and texture work is also nice (if a bit bright), and gives you a fairly good idea of the world around you. It does leave some to be desired, I'll be honest, there's a pinch of crust to it, especially in the outline department, as there are places where you can very clearly see objects clipping into the outline of a different object (I feel I can take a solid guess at how it was done and, yeah, I do understand it though, other methods may have been highly resource intensive). But, I feel like it's fairly easy to be able to look past these flaws and appreciate it for what it is, and it's not like those flaws get in the way of the player's enjoyment of the more serious moments or the action of gameplay.

Finally, the game was also very stable, seemingly, as I encountered no major glitches, certainly nothing that would get in the way of a standard player's experience.

-

All in all,

Gameplay: Varied, familiar but new, not very repetitive despite the implications of the genre, and fun to explore the possibilities of

Difficulty: Manageable. Hard mode is exactly what it says on the tin, to an extent, and you may end up needing to change tactics a few times should you go that route.

Story/Lore: Intriguing and, in places, touching. A good range of emotions and discoveries that leave the player asking the right amount of questions.

Graphics: Fairly good, having a high amount of charm, leaving some things to be desired but presenting no actively experience-harming flaws.

Stability: Very good, showing no signs of full-on game breaking, only very minor occurrences of visual or audio error.

Overall: Recommended!

[themarginalthinker]

OK I'm pretty sure this has already been asked, but I haven't read far enough into the book to see if it's been explained, so I hope you don't mind the ask!

Are there specific clans of vampires in VTM? Or different breeds?

*slowly spins around so you can see the absolutely MANIACAL, UNHINGED grin on my face*

OHHHHHH BABY, HERE WE FUCKIN GOOOOOOOO

So, Vampire: The Masquerade is a ttrpg system first released in the 90s about vampires, part of a larger overworld called The World of Darkness, or just commonly called the 'WoD' - this, as well as vampires, includes werewolves, changeleings (faeries), Mages (magic people), demons, as well as other creatures, all of which have their own games under this system, but the one that I play (and the only one I'm interested in playing tbh bc the it's the oldest, most popular and best developed of the games) us Vampire: The Masquerade.

-

SO Thw World of Darkness is a grittier, slightly more grim-dark version of our reality. People are a bit less kinder, the shadows are a bit darker. And in those shadows, lurk vampires.

Now, in the official canon lore of the WoD, vampires are all descended from Caine - yes, that Caine. The Bible dude. As punishment for his transgression again God, God cursed him to shun the sun and forever walk the Earth. Being lonely, Caine sired three 'childer', three vampires, who then also sired more, who became the 13 Antedeluvians ('those who survived the flood') and THOSE 13 became the founders of the 13 Clans of Vampire.

The Masquerade: The one rule almost all vampires everywhere follow. The Masquerade is the deception of vampire existence to humankind, and maintaining it is paramount to everything you do AS a vampire. Humans must never, ever, ever know.

Each Clan has their own unique powers, and like. Vibe to them. (As they are the types of vampire you can choose to play in your games.)

When you are Embraced (turned into a vampire), you become the Clan you were Embrace by, ie, a Nosferatu will make another Nosferatu, a Gangrel a Gangrel. So yes, it IS a breed of vampire.

The Clans are as follows (to the best of my description lol):

Ventrue: The powerful lords of vampires, bluebloods, they desire power and to dominate others. They're behind CEOs and polititians, controlling a lot of the vampire political landscape. Their Thing is that they can only drink specific kinds of blood, a blood restriction, say, only the blood of blue eyed men, or something. you can choose what that restriction is with your character. (also this is Berd's least favorite, and I'll go into detail why further down)

Toreador: The Clan of the Rose, ie, the pretty ones. Toreador are the cultural influencers of the vampire world, and while not exclusive to, they ARE incredibly dug into the arts. Typically associated with fashion as they want to keep up with and make the latest trends in the world. Their powers are...literally being so fucking pretty. A siren-like ability, which goes just as much for the men, too.

Brujah: The Clan of the rebels! The Brujah are a clan of rabble-rouses who hate the system and want to see the world into a utopia of humans and vampires, but getting there is gonna be a chore. The Brujah's deal is that they're punks, and that means supernatural anger to go with it. They rage. Hard.

Malkavian: The Clan of the Moon, they get literal visions and whispers of the Beyond, information from outside of what any person can pick up on the street. They're literally a clan of mad oracles, driven to their derangement by the vampiric blood. A Malk's particular way of receiving this information can range from perceiving the reporter on tv telling them so, to getting flashes of visions from reading a newspaper.

Gangrel: A Clan where you kinda wanted to play a werewolf, but also a vampire. Gangrel lean into the beastial side of vampire lore, being able to best control and even transform into animals. I don't have a lot to say about Gangrel, they're a pretty straightforward clan as far as things go.

Nosferatu: The Clan of the Hidden. As the name implies, the curse of vampirism affects them by twisting their bodies into hideous forms they cannot undo or reverse with any kind of magic. Named so bc a lot of them end up looking like Max Schreck's Count Orloc. Most Nosferatu cannot participate in the wider world because of their looks endangering vampirekind, so they form large networks below cities, occupying old sewer and tram systems, forming 'Warrens'. Their Thing is that they possess very powerful invisibility powers, and have set up large subinternet networks, making them master spies and information farmers. The Nosferatu know everything about everything...as long a you're willing to trade a secret for a secret. (This is my favorite clan, if you can't tell :>)

Tremere: Nobody likes Tremere. Ok, that's not true, bad me. But they are...standouts in the vampire world (ask me about their lore, it's...wild). Tremere are blood mages, using Thaumaturgy (blood magic) to do dark rituals and keep their magic knowledge in the clan. They're essentially your 'casting class' in the game.

Ok, so, that's not even half of them, as you can count, but this is getting long, and these are all the 'major' clans that most people tend to play. I will be passing off this post to @berd-alert to tell you about the other smaller but JUST as interesting clans, but here is also a short overview of the world the WoD vampires exist in:

The clans all belong to larger political 'factions'. (Again, ask me more about the lore if you want a more in-depth explantion). These factions are based on ideologies of how vampires should interact with the human world

The Camarilla: what's considered 'mainstream' vampire, or 'Kindred' society. Every city will have an Elysium, where the Prince (can be a person of any gender, that's just the title) will preside over their court, being whatever vampires claim allegence with the Camarilla in that particular city, or, 'domain.' The Cam rule their worlds with very firm rules about interacting with humans, or 'kine'. You're expected to follow these rules and receive protection and order....or face severe and swift consequences should you put a toe out of line and someone hears about it.

The Anarchs: pretty much what it says on the box. The Anarchs oppose the Camarilla and their deadly rules, the only one they want to follow being 'don't break the Masquerade'. Full of the young, the boisterous, the new, hot blood eager to destroy the old system and build something new.

The Sabbat: these vampires say hang the rules all together, fuck the Masquerade, humans are prey or playthings, and vampires being stronger and immortal should rule the world. pretty much, if you want to play a vampire who loves blood and destruction, ie an evil player game (bc those are always fun heheh) this is the faction for you.

WOOF, OK, I THINK THAT'S ABOUT IT. Again, if you have specific questions, just ask me or Berd bc they're just as deep into this as I am, and knows lots of cool, intricate lore. But that's about it for right now! I highly reccomed looking up some youtube videos about this, as there is a TON of supplementary and educational videos out there for it! And also a video game, Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines, which is from 2004 and an INCREDIBLE cult-classic, to match the Lost Boys in terms of iconic vampire media.

Love you Cherry!!!

[rawliverandgoronspice]

https://www.tumblr.com/rawliverandgoronspice/718014251940315136?source=share

Ill be honest and say i think the removal of sheikah related lore was not for internal weird racist reasons and instead simply for game design reasons, why the zonai tech is so similar in concept and execution. totk is a sequel and also a redux, they needed technology for mechanics and a reason for the world to change and introducing an entirely new race of characters would be the perfect scapegoat. it feels like it ignores botw almost entirely because 1) new players 2) to be a finished version of botw more mechanics and more content. the narrative was barely a thing in this game because what mattered the most was design and gameplay above all else. i don't think caring about gameplay first particularly bad, it's a fun game they will probably revolutionize the industry once again, and that nintendo doesn't care about lore at all but it really wasn't the priory here at least that's how I felt when i play the game. i adore the overworld and the npcs but the main quest (tears) story itself is very stale. best praise i can give to it is character design and zeldas sacrifice/how they handled her and link that's literally it (vague because i don't know if you've gotten there yet, it's after the completion of the tears quest and getting the master sword). zelda lore at this point is a sandbox and us fans will do what we want with it. sorry for the ramble!

Hey, thanks for the ask!

So I sort of agree, especially on the first part. I absolutely believe that yes, sheikah were not sidelined for malicious reasons, and the ease of just having one super-powerful ultratech culture you rely on was cleaner than having the old relics hanging around. I actually think it's the cleanest choice to make (one that would have been *even cleaner* would have been to write a story and think of a world that reinvent its landmarks based on that new ideas of archeology and the past bursting back into the present, which is theme that coats the game but doesn't ever permeates it). I still think any acknowledgement that it used to exist would have enriched a world that has, ultimately, very little new things to teach us about itself (I have scoured the Depths a bunch, and it's a combat/exploration hotspot, and that's cool but also what a missed opportunity to try some proper FromSoftware-style worldbuilding down there!). I don't think this would have confused new players; if anything it could have hinted at more and gave the new players any reason to pick up Breath of the Wild? But: the world is a playground! That's cool. I think it could be a much more meaningful playground, that's all. There's a category of players who kind of need some light modicum of internal consistency to be invested in exploration, and will just get bored otherwise (I have seen a bunch of people making this exact remark, and honestly... yeah, there are areas in the game I'm not interested in exploring just because I know it's a consequenceless challenge in the end --I'm just not the kind of player that is hooked by a game loop on its own merit, I need to understand what I'm building towards or I lose interest. It's the kind of thing that wouldn't have changed anything to a regular TotK's enjoyer experience, but would have greatly enriched the experience of players like me)

Still think that making Sheikahs a subset of hylians was a very weird choice. Not an outright malicious one, but one that does build up with all of the other weird choices and make this Hyrule feel like a revisionist Hyrule; and one they simply... didn't have to make.

(I'll maybe do another post about this, but there are so many things in this game that would be very confusing to a new player either way also --but that's kind of going into another territory)

I disagree about one general point, however, and I may get offtrack here a little but I guess you gave me an excuse to rant a little about how narrative design is perceived by the general public and what has been frustrating to witness in regards to the conversation surrounding this game from my perspective.

Mainly, this notion that "they had no other choice" because they chose to prioritize gameplay. I'm going to overshare a little (again sorry) but I work in gamedev in real life; I am actually a narrative designer that did quest design and game writing on a couple of games, some of them that also qualify as AAA open worlds. I think it's completely fair to see this game from a player perspective as a series of compromises struck to privilege the aspect of the game they were the most confident with --however, it is literally my real life job to walk through situations that can be extremely similar to this one and find solutions that weave narration with fun experiences game and level designers managed to put together. It doesn't mean that story has to swallow gameplay: if anything, narrative designers always try to privilege mechanics first and treat them as narrative devices in their own right before whipping out the actual cutscenes and the constant writing (and this game was somehow under AND overwritten in my opinion, especially in English --so I don't think it even solved this aspect?). This is not at all aimed at you in particular but at the internet at large; it ends up being quite grating to see assumptions being made about what can and can't be done in non-linear narrative as like, a fact of the universe instead of it being a specific field that deserve research and investment just like any other graphical advancement or intricate interactive feature, and explain away poor design decisions by the strange notion that they had no other choice, as if Nintendo studios aren't comprised of a bunch of humans who made active and passive choices. Like, I worked on very similar issues. There are solutions to how you feed information to the player in a non-linear way. There are ways to maximize impact and depth, even when you let the player guide the story. Again: it's fine if it doesn't bug you or a lot of people --but there are flaws. It happens. It's gamedev. It's a miracle any game is made at all --and this one is its own sort of miracle. What strikes me as strange is that I never see that level of excuses made for companies that do not cultivate that same image of being an unapproachable, united workforce, that get instead torn to shreds at the slightest sideway brush --but that's another subject maybe (maybe).

Narrative design is this thing that, when it's not there, people don't realize it could be; and when it is there, people take it for granted unless it's very visibly front and center like in Edith Finch or Disco Elysium or any other number of indie games (generally it's the indies who do all the research and development and take all of the risks on that front --like seriously I worked in narrative-driven studios, known for their narrative games, where 2/3 of the game designers couldn't care less about emotional impact beyond satisfaction/frustration/boredom, and it's infinitely frustrating (heh) to have your specialization considered optional fluff when you know how far thematic cohesion can push a game when handled well ANYWAY anyway). So: I was always going to care about the way they handled narrative, because it's how I'm wired, what I research, and I also played this game in part because I was very curious on how they'd push their explorations of BotW's possibilities, which were very interesting if a little limited. Needless to say, this was a let down. And I think it's not unreasonable to have higher narrative standards than this.

I do want to autocorrect myself on a statement I put out before, however, that being the notion that not enough research was put into narrative. I think I want to push forward a new theory that sounds much more plausible to me (again based on nothing but speculation and weird déjà-vu vibes, which is perhaps why I care that much :) :) ), and that being: a lot of research was done, and then cut. It seems very plausible the narrative used to be much more ambitious than this --and then, for one reason or another, somebody panicked, or the thing got out of hand, or they couldn't get it to work exactly right, and everything was downscoped pretty late into production. Six years of development is a long time, and I don't think anyone with the standards of a Nintendo employee would have been happy with handling the storyline the way it was. It kinda feels like a rushed cobble-up of loose threads after a massive downsizing, leaving plot holes and suboptimal emotional experience. Again: just a theory, no proof at all. But I absolutely wouldn't be surprised, and it would explain a lot of things.

[covenofwives]

Eeeeeeeee ik my questions tend to be very detailed so im so glad you like them like that. I'm a world building fanatic and also make aus so i get wayyy too into all the small things hahaha

The languages!!! Omg I freaking LOVE THAT?! That's so freaking interesting and makes so much sense aaaaaa! It's so freaking cooool all the different languages unique to this au, I am specifically looking so hard at the fea language I'm geeking out over it ahfkdbksn. Are there languages in this au that are the same in our world? ie: Spanish, French Japanese, ect.?

Rn I'm slowly catching up on all the lore I've missed while being on hiatus so if I make comments or ask stuff that's already been answered sorryyyy

Each of the gods clearly have their own set of powers (in which i am still trying to catch up on and figure out what's been revealed so far ahfknsjs) so what would you say is each is their favorite? Either to show off, convenience, entertainment, ect. Question 2: are there any powers that the gods share? Or are they all unique?

(bonus question would you consider XD babygirl? I believe they are babygirl 😤)

I sent a whole novel I'm so sorry I should really spread these out more hahahaha

-emmadoodlewrites

Please don't apologise for how long these are. I truly love them!

Definitely there are other languages in the AU since we have characters like Quackity who is very open about his Spanish language. I would say that where the SMP is on the world map would be more english speaking but there are more languages out the world. It is quite hard to grasp though because so many times I've wanted to write c!George being described with his british accent but then remembering that britain wouldn't really exist on the SMP and having to scrap it. Things are still being ironed out, but absolutely there are other languages.

Don't worry about asking questions that might have been answered before or not, I don't mind answering the same questions again and again especially since I don't really have a spot to keep all of the info so it can get confusing. ^^

As for God powers, there are definitely powers shared between Gods and some unique to each one. For instants all Gods have the ability to spawn in items from their realm when they need and most of the Gods can shapeshift to alter their form, either to their "human" form, true form or taking on a new form entirely for one reason or another. While all Gods have the ability for it, it does depend on their skill for it. Some Gods might not shapeshift at all and lose the ability how to, having to relearn. And certain powers can be taught between the Gods. Take for example XD, they are the God of the End but came to the Overworld to live. While they can spawn in what they need from the End Realm, their time living in the Overworld and learning has adapted them to spawn in items from the Overworld too, and can manipulate and terraform the Overworld. These powers obviously got much better after he was blessed by HD (which I did a little comic showing) but they learned the power on their own at first and developed it because it was the environment they were in.

For FAVOURITE powers I think 4K's is definitely his lava manipulation. It can help in combat situations of keeping enemies away and blocking areas as well as him using it for his little harmless lava blob to be a stress reliever (mostly to give out tickles). HD's would definitely be his helper hands powers since it's so convenient for him to use and he can be pampered without moving, but he used to have a power of connecting with everything in the Overworld. Literally EVERYTHING. Every tree, blade of grass, mountain, cave, he could connect and see it all and it was his favourite to use to check up on the Overworld and see everything going on. However the power drained him of energy so much that it's lead to his almost narcolepsy sleep states and since cutting himself off from the Overworld he no longer uses it. XD's favourite power is probably creation/spawning. XD's a very creative soul who loves making things for show off to mortals and Gods and he uses his powers to help enhance that. One of his favourite creations is the tickle dolls which he just loves to show off to mortals and make them play games and bets to get them. Really any power that can be used to play games or make games for mortals is his favourite.

[my-lunaberg]

I got sick and didnt feel like watching dsmp so I just watched a bunch of random movies I found on my german piracy site of choice for almost a week but now Im better and Im about to watch Eryns origin story and idk man, I just felt like sharing my thoughts about that guy so far

First of all, Im so curious about this concept of any dsmp character having an origin story bc its like. their origin story is that they showed up. thats it. Like yeah, a lot of people very obviously have histories going back to before they showed up on the smp but theyre never really elaborated upon. Niki and Wilbur would kill for eachother with no hesitation, no explaination needed, stuff like that

Also, Im curious about some of the demon lore we'll potentially get bc like, demons arent a thing in minecraft the way slimes or endermen are but Eryn said he is one and also actually confirmed that BBH is one as well (I think he did anyway, I know its been popular fanon for a while but I dont remember it being brought up in canon before he said it), so Im curious how theyre gonna be integrated. My prediction is that theyre basically just gonna be like, the nether-equivalent of humans. Like, in the overworld the humans (or player characters ig) are the only sapient creatures and in the nether its demons.

But thats general lore stuff, now I wanna talk about my guy Eryn !!!! :D

I like him so much and idek why. Hes just a fun guy a fun lil guy I love him :D

I guess the best way to describe it would be like, Im very charmed by him. I love that hes like, this edgy-lookin ninja guy who likes to cause trouble, hes really the chaotic teenage boy this server has been missing ever since every other teenage boy has either been horrifically traumatized or is Purpled. I also like that, despite him being this chaotic teen boy who does what he wants, he seems to very sincerely admire Eret and listens to them for some reason ?? I say 'for some reason' because Eret has kinda been old news for a long time, like the fact that theyre a king doesnt mean anything because actual governments just kinda stopped mattering to everyone except for Wilbur and Quackity, but that honestly just makes it more charming. Eryn and Erets entire dynamic is just so good idk why, but its so comfy and chill in a way where you can tell theyre still just aquaintances but its still so nice yknow. This kinda ties into my previous point as well, I really like how he put a shit ton of effort into getting good knight armor and honestly really wants to be a knight while also demonstrating that hes willing and able to like, steal shit from the prison

Another thing that I find really interesting is his complete and utter lack of connection or interaction with Dream. Like, he arrived after Dream had long been in prison and while he left an undeniable impact on literally everything in the server, no one really. talked about it? Eryn seemingly had to go out of his way to get any kind of information because when Dream was still locked up everyone was all like "welp, the big badscary villain man is gone, and we're all safe so we dont have to worry about him anymore and we'd rather not talk or think about him lest we spoil everyones good mood" and then when he escaped they were all like "oh no, we're already feeling so anxious and bad bc we dont know where he is so we'd rather not talk about him lest we make everyone feel even worse when everything is already so terrible". His mindset is that Dream hasnt harmed him personally and hes never really interacted with him so he doesnt really have an opinion on him, which is very interesting as well. On one hand, it seems a bit naive to think that way when literally everyone keeps telling him how horrible that guy is, but also, while none of the conflicts on the dream smp have ever been caused by mob mentality, they have certainly been exercabated by it, so i guess its better to have less of it

I do have mixed feelings about that though. I feel like I'd need to see Eryn interact with Dream in order to really form an opinion on that and I feel like they might actually do that. Like, Eryn is Tommys friend and I think if Dream somehow found out that he doesnt have any negative feelings towards him on the basis of "he hasnt harmed me personally", he would definitely try to exploit that and I think that could be really interesting. If that doesnt happen in canon I might write an AU about it, probably not straight up villain!Eryn but maybe leaning more towards chaotic neutral idk

[the-cooler-vigilante]

Minecraft needs a "Major" update

So I've been playing Minecraft for years. It's one of the greatest video games of all time in my book. But recently, I've been burnt out on doing anything in the block game, whether it be creative OR survival. It's just that I know the grind, and whenever I start a game, I get bored of doing the same thing over and over for materials and such. It's just a product of playing the game over the years. And I'm not saying what the current stuff Mojang is doing is bad, I just feel like we need more. Yes, I get that working on making new content for the game is hard, but I've got an Idea or two that could make things pretty interesting for both newbies and veterans. Tale mode: So, we've gotten some pretty good stories that use Minecraft's world as a Springboard, so why not add that into the game? Tale mode would add new "story" NPC's that would give the player randomly generated quests and/or lore for the world they're in, with a overarching "storyline" NPC companion that would stick with you throughout the game. I think it'd add some sense of accomplishment for the game, and you could do any of the quests at any time, so you wouldn't have to worry about loss of freedom. Different Overworld types: The Overworld is a pretty interesting place, with all sorts of nooks and crannies to explore, but for us veterans, we've seen it all, and all the new stuff that's been added just adds a small section for us to explore. So, to spice things up, let's add/bring back different types of Overworld generation. For what I have in mind, there would be two types of variation; mild and extreme.

Mild variations wouldn't affect the gameplay much, so you would have things like Isle Land: where the player can find many floating chunks of land, Caver's Delight: a world where there are many overhangs and cavern's to explore, and Mountain Madness: Where large mountains dominate the world, surrounded by either a large ocean, or a sea of sand or gravel. Extreme variations would greatly affect how you play the game, so you would have generations like Drought and Good Luck, where the oceans are either almost gone, or replaced with Lava. Caverns of Chaos, which essentially turn the world into a block of swiss cheese. But I've got some ideas of my own.

Administrated: The sky of the world has been covered by a thick layer of bedrock, plunging the world into a chaotic dark. There'd be holes in the bedrock, allowing for light to get through, but no way to get to the top without building your way out. Anarchy: The center of the world is covered in layers of cobblestone and obsidian, you will have to navigate your way out and survive off the harsh wilderness. But you would be able to find more materials on your way out.

Further Lands: The World would be surrounded by generated Farlands, which would offer a unique challenge to player survival and exploration.

Another option I came up with is just a Spice of Life update: Change a few things, like animal behaviors, if you punch one cow, they all panic. Maybe some wolves you encounter won't want to be tamed. Maybe some monsters will pick fights with each other for no reason. I think that giving the mobs some variety in AI behaviors would definitely spice things up a little. You could also change some blocks a little bit, make fragile things like glass and ice break when hit with an arrow! Add some visual effects to blocks like diamond ore, or gold blocks, make them shine a little in the light! Add some alternatives, lead for iron, silver for gold, you can do all the same things with them, they just look different! There's no limit to the things one could do.

But hey, maybe they've got some plans for some of this stuff, idk. If anybody else's got any ideas I'd love to hear em'.

[adobe-outdesign]

Some Thoughts on How Pokemon Legends’ Gameplay Could Be Expanded Upon

PLA has the basics down, so I was thinking about what they could add in the future to improve and expand upon the concept. Keep in mind that I’m not a game dev, but I did try to focus on things that seemed plausible to add. I’m also focusing on new stuff, not QOL improvements/graphical improvements/ect.

Variations and Customization

Pokemon having size variations is great way to encourage people to catch more than one of the same Pokemon, as there’s now a way to differentiate two individuals of the same species (outside of shinies, which are rare, and gender differences, which not all Pokemon have). However, I think we could take it further:

Add pattern differences: Basically, all Pokemon could come in three different pattern variations, which are just textures that don’t affect the models. So for Ponyta, you could have the original (plain) pattern, but also have Ponyta that are dappled or pinto patterned.

Add additional shiny colors: Considering IRL animals have multiple color mutations (albinism, melanism, ect.), each Pokemon could get an extra shiny (so for example, you could catch a green shiny Espeon and a black one). Same rates as usual, but with a second “dice roll” that determines which shiny you get.

My reason for this is that a lot of shinies suck or look near-identical to the original. By adding another shiny, the originals would be preserved, but they’d have a chance to redo all the bad ones. This would encourage shiny hunting and more exploration within the game.

Because there’s not as much battling in this game, you don’t have as many opportunities to form a strong bond with your team. Therefore, there should be more options to interact with your party when you send them out.

In particular, you should be able to feed and pet them. Feeding is already in the game anyway, and petting would just be a matter of adding an animation.

Playing would also be a good option; maybe you could collect toy items from the overworld and throw them out to the Pokemon to interact (so for example, you can play fetch with your Growlithe).

Following would also be great, albeit slightly harder to implement.

I feel like there should be some Pokemon customization options in addition to character customization.

Include a grooming option that allows you to add hats, bandanas, bows, and other small clothing items to your Pokemon.

An option to recolor your Pokeballs with different “paints” you can buy. So you could have a regular Pokeball with regular Pokeball mechanics that’s yellow, blue, has a pattern on top, ect.

More ride options: I feel like there should be a much larger pool of ride Pokemon to choose from, with the only requirement being size. Thus you could run out and then fly on that Gyarados you just caught if you want, rather than being restricted to only a handful of ‘mons.

Research Tasks

There is little to no reason to perfect the ‘dex (as in get every species to rank 10), because the only reward is improved shiny odds. Some ways to fix it:

Each task you complete should give you another ‘dex entry. This would be motivation for the lore motivated, and it would make sense that the player learns more about the Pokemon as they research them.

For example, when you catch two sexually dimorphic Pokemon, you would get a description noting the differences and speculating what caused the dimorphism to develop.

After getting a species up to rank 10, you could receive an item exclusive to that species that has a useful effect. Because there’s only one in the game, you’d have more reason to reach rank 10 in order to get the item.

Each Pokemon could be given some natural habits out in the wild, and you could complete a ‘dex entry just for observing them. So for example, see X Pokemon collect pecha berries, see X Pokemon meditate, see X Pokemon groom themselves, ect. This would encourage exploration but make entries less annoying to complete, because not every task would require an action to complete.

Battling

Despite the game having organic catching mechanics, you’re regulated to throwing Pokeballs the old menu-style way during a battle.This could be changed so that you could throw a Pokeball whenever you like during battle, perhaps with a higher catch rate if you throw it while the opponent is being attacked.

You should be able to send out multiple Pokemon at a time relative to how many opponents you’re facing. So if four wild Pokemon attack, you can send out that many from your party at once.

This might be tricky due to terrain, but it would be neat if the Pokemon were actually animated to dodge an attack rather than just getting a message saying it missed, considering the attacks have hitboxes now.

Eggs/Breeding

I hear a lot of people say they want breeding mechanics, but this overlooks that breeding is almost exclusively menu-based and would have nothing to do with the gameplay loop. So instead, consider:

The professor explains that Pokemon with eggs will hide far away from humans. However, sometimes they will reject eggs, and will abandon them out in the wild to die.

Because of this, you can occasionally stumble upon a wild Pokemon egg, much like you would an item.

I’d do what the anime does and give each egg a unique pattern, and scale relative to the (average) size of the parent, thus allowing the player to potentially ID the kind of Pokemon that will hatch.

Upon picking up the egg, it can be given to a Pokemon in your party that’s part of its egg group. This counts as incubating it. Like usual, it will hatch based on steps, but also in-universe time (so resting speeds up the hatch speed).

There could also be a Chansey or something to incubate any extra eggs that you don’t have compatible foster parents with back at camp.

Any eggs you find that you don’t have a foster parent for while out in the field would be stored in the inventory as an item.

These eggs allow you to find first-stage baby Pokemon that you can’t normally find out in the wild, along with some forms that might be egg-exclusive. Eggs also have egg moves and different IVs and stats than regular Pokemon.

A player can influence what eggs appear by luring two Pokemon of opposite genders in the same egg group over to each other with food without catching them. If the player leaves and returns later, there’s a small chance of finding an abandoned egg in the same spot.

Random Events

There could be a possibility of encountering random events in the wild.

Basically, these would involve Pokemon interacting. Two Pokemon could be battling, one Pokemon could be hunting the other, two Pokemon could be showing mating behaviors, a Pokemon could evolve in front of its peers, a Pokemon could be caring for another sick Pokemon, ect ect.

Because the events are pre-scripted, they would be easy to code. Rather than having X species interact every time they spawn together, you instead just have a pre-scripted event load in alongside the Pokemon on rare occasions. Kind of like mass outbreaks, but more specific scripted interactions and on a smaller scale.

During these events, you could have rare catching opportunities. For example, maybe saving a Pokemon from a predator will cause that Pokemon to stand in front of you and allow a 100% catch rate, or you could snipe the losing Pokemon from a wild battle without having to fight it yourself. Likewise, maybe some events net you items.

Going back to what I mentioned about the ‘dex earlier, you could also have it so witnessing one of these rare events instantly gets you up to rank 10 for that species.

[the-phantom-ender]

An Exploration Into Minecraft and Language.

I’m breaking this into sections and doing this literally just because I did a bunch of early human language stuff as review and I need a way to. Make my brain stop thinking about history. But I’ll start with canon knowledge first and slowly break into less official stuff from there!

Everything’s under the cut, because this got very long.

Early Language:

Pictograms are written languages where an image represents a thing and specifically just that thing, an expansion on pictogram languages are ideogram languages, in which an image represents multiple things. Likely the most well known pictogram/ideogram language (as it evolved as the need to say more did) was Hieroglyphics. Hieroglyphs were modeled after specific things but eventually grew to have many different meanings.

What’s the reason for the history lesson, I hear you asking? There’s evidence of a pictogram/ideogram language in Minecraft, of course! Chiseled sandstone (both normal and red) have images on them that highly seem to imply that there’s language and meaning behind them! Sandstone has a creeper face (which as well as being obviously a nod to creepers, could also mean explosions, as these blocks are found in Desert Temples), and red sandstone has a depiction of the wither (it wasn’t uncommon to have drawings of god-figures in pictograms so there’s a chance that withers were a deity of sorts).

There’s also chiseled stone bricks, but that’s a much more abstract shape. Perhaps it’s meant to symbolize an eye, though, and therefore the end, as stone bricks are often found in Strongholds, but that’s much more speculative. Chiseled stone bricks themselves also naturally generate in Jungle Temples. Chiseled polished blackstone seems to have a face on it of sorts (resembling the nose of a Piglin, most notably), and chiseled nether brick resembles that of a skeleton skull.

The only two major minecraft structures that don’t seem to have chiseled variants with symbols on them are the End City (purpur) and the Ocean Monument (prismarine). Ocean Monuments aren’t easily livable spaces, so it makes sense that language wouldn’t be a major factor, though. For the End, however, perhaps the lack of a symbol block is because there was already written language.

(above is a chart with all blocks mentioned in this section, listing their names, the symbols that appear on them, where they generate, and what they may represent)

Development of Language:

Here we get into full written alphabets. There are several types of alphabet, but “true” alphabets are those with distinct characters for both consonants and vowels. The most widely used modern day true alphabet is the Latin/Roman alphabet. Minecraft items in general adhere to the language the player is playing, so for the sake of things, the language you speak doesn’t play a factor here.

As many people know, there’s actually a true alphabet present in the game! That is, of course, Standard Galactic! There’s no official words tied to it, but it is the script used in the enchanting table and various other smaller details in the game! Now one thing to note about the Galactic in the enchantment table is that if you actually take the time to sit down and translate the words present, they don’t translate exactly. Most of the time, they will be a word similar to the enchantment, but not the same. Sometimes it’s just entirely gibberish.

(above is a chart of the Standard Galactic Alphabet, with the scripts corresponding Latin letters)

What this means is that, talking about translation wise, Galactic and English (or whatever language you play in) don’t translate directly into each other. So it isn’t simply just English words but different letters. At least not exactly. Perhaps this is the language Villagers speak, as they can and do trade enchanted books and items.

What people may not know, however, is that there’s actually another script present in Minecraft! Or… at least kind of. There’s six letters of a different script present in the game. And unlike Standard Galactic, it doesn’t appear in any other sources, so we will likely never know how it works in its entirety. What we do know, though, is that there are symbols on the End Crystals! And, digging into those textures, we can translate a word out from them by messing with them a bit! That word is… Mojang. It’s probably meant to just be an easter egg used to fill space, that one.

(above is a visualization of how the symbols present on End Crystals can translate into the word Mojang)

That being said, though, lore-wise, it can have a bigger impact! Remember how I said that End Cities are lacking in a pictogram? This can serve as an explanation! Perhaps the Enderman developed with language, even as far as having wide-spread Galactic (as there are enchanted books and armor in End City structures), but upon entering the end, after many years, they broke away from the standard script. Development of a new written alphabet and even more different languages is certainly possible, it’s happened plenty in the real world. Isolation creates new advancements. So the Enderman create the language present on the crystals at some point, eventually.

Additional Concepts and Less Canon Tidbits:

Here we get into wild speculation and fun ideas that don’t really hold any weight! If you don’t want that, that’s entirely fair!

Obviously, Villagers have what is technically the most advanced society economically. They trade for goods, have various jobs and artisans, and have an item that they value costs at (emeralds). They also have the most concrete communities, having villages, obviously. Villagers also have domesticated animals! Both in the sense of farm animals and also cats.

There’s also Pillagers- which I haven’t mentioned much here. They have giant mansions which seem a lot like manors. They don’t do trade, but they’re skilled fighters and have trained war animals, as well as people who have specific combat styles. They’re plenty advanced, especially because they have potions and therefore understand medicine at least to some degree, but much more war-oriented.

Piglins are essentially wandering tribes. They don’t trade, they barter, most of their structures are in ruins and the structures they do have are very heavily guarded because they contain riches. The Piglins seem to follow animals that they use (hoglins), but are also seemingly in the process of domesticating them. They also don’t seem to have much more in the way of language than pictograms (though there is Galactic present and they do seem to understand enchanting and brewing to an extent). Piglins seem to be midway in advancement, really.

Enderman are… complicated. Because yes, they do have written language and they do have cities and communities and means of transportation, they don’t exactly… interact. They don’t trade. They’re technologically advanced beyond any other groups in the game, but they are mostly isolated. So they’ve advanced entirely alone, building off only themselves.

There are also Nether Fortresses but that’s… complicated. Those tied exclusively to these structures are Wither Skeletons and Blazes. These are very different creatures, however. There’s also the fact that Blazes spawn almost exclusively from spawners. It’s hard to tell if Wither Skeletons or Blazes are the proper inhabitants of the area, but it could be both. Wither Skeletons likely originated from traditional Skeletons adapting to the environment of the nether. They’re undead and therefore it isn’t impossible that they may have, at least in the past, known how to build structures. Eventually losing that ability as the Nether degraded them.

Nether Fortresses provide no trade but there are chests that can contain loot! And some of that loot suggests a knowledge of places outside of the Nether (horse armor, most notably). Wither Skeletons/Skeletons generally may have also descended from people fearing a god figure called the “Wither” and therefore, the blackened skeletons were made out to be part of what would summon the creature. So they were kept in the Nether to avoid something like that reaching the Overworld.

There’s also… Ocean Monuments. I have no idea with those. Elder Guardians are likely a figure that’s revered. Giant structures were built for them to appease them or something of the sort. They might be told to keep the seas at peace or something of the sort. Not an active civilization, however. A structure built to pay respect to something powerful.

There’s probably plenty of things I blanked on mentioning, but yeah! This has been fun! I don’t know why this is my definition of fun.

[we-goin-go-end-end]

Let's play a game. *poof* you are now completely in charge of the next Minecraft update, whatever you choose will be implemented into the game with the help of the Minecraft team, what can we expect for Minecraft 1.8?

damn this is a good one

it would be an end update, obviously–the issue is that though I really want varied end biomes and mobs, I don’t currently have specific ideas of what I’d want them to be (part of the interest is in the surprise, I think), so a lot of these points will be more general

general vibe: the end is an ethereal, deeply magical place. unmistakably alien, dangerous in its strangeness, but beautiful. it tempts you to stay a while, but only if you respect its quiet power

actual end soundtrack music!! like what they did for the nether–I love the way the new and old songs combined convey the dimensional vibe there really well. (I do like the concept of end music having “corrupted” overworld leitmotifs, but I also want the end to stand on its own, so to speak)

more varieties of chorus-related vegetation that give effects (i.e. levitation) when eaten

end ingredients for usage in brewing new potions!!! more brewing mechanics!!

I know I’d want there to be a chorus forest biome. closely clustered chorus trees that grow taller and branch more, otherworldly dark purple grass, particle effects like the spores you see in nether forests

another thing i love from the nether update: glowing vegetation. in the end, maybe hanging berries and vines that give off light, like an enchanted forest.

elytra enchantments 

some way to prevent enraging endermen by looking at them without wearing a pumpkin, to make it easier to spend longer periods of time in the end–maybe a helmet enchantment or wearable item of some sort?

I like  end mobs being neutral. it drives home the fact that you’re in an alien place with its own inhabitants and its own rules

flying mobs with glowing eyes. maybe relatives of phantoms. i am huge on flight being a crucial part of life in the end, along with teleportation

I’m hesitant about end ores because 1) it breaks the vibe of the end being this alien, untouchable place and 2) it feels too normal a form of resource acquisition, while the end (to me) should be a place where things work differently (so maybe a non-mineral raw material found somewhere you can craft, like netherite)

signs of past and present civilizations in the end. ruins of end cities and structures with less clear purposes–sculptures, carved end stone, ritualistic-looking platforms with books and eyes of ender

strongholds and end portal rooms that foreshadow what’s beyond, bonus points for tying into lore about how these interdimensional passages came to be

maybe interactive mobs like piglins and villagers, but they need to have some kind of twist to them, something that marks them as not of your world. i imagine them to be a bit aloof and cryptic

cave systems inside the floating end islands with their own ecosystems and mobs within

a lot more varied terrain/biome/structure generation–one of my biggest peeves with the end as it is is how there’s basically just one thing you can look for, and everything is uniform and doesn’t encourage you to explore as far as you can or take in the view

it’s time to make the end a world of its own, something more than a boss fight and a loot grab. a beautiful place to justify the long journey you took to discover it, an ethereal hidden universe. 

[hy5ter1cal]

Yourself

(THIS IS A PART 2 TO ‘WHO AM I WITHOUT YOU,’ WHICH YOU CAN READ HERE)

A/N: Hi hello guys, I finished it like I promised, not really sure if I like the ending but you know it is the way it is. I would really appreciate some feedback on this because I dont really have any idea if you like this or not :)

Summary: What would’ve happened if the others didn’t get to Tommy and Tubbo in time? 

Warnings:  Swearing, violence, major character death, manipulation, lore spoilers

Word count: 2.4k 

“Alright, now I can take you to the real discs.” Dream said as Tubbo walked towards him. “What- and why now?” His questions were ignored by Dream who simply said to follow him. 

Dream took the lead as Tubbo and Tommy slacked behind. The taller of the two carefully leaned down and whispered for the other to stay close. Tubbo nodded and looked back at Dream who was standing on the very edge of the tall mountain. The wind was howling and the only source of light was the moon and for a moment Tommy wondered if Dream would fall off, and considered giving him a nudge in the right direction. He didn’t have time to decide as Dream spoke again. “Be careful when you walk down.” As he said it, he stepped on a pressure plate neither of them had seen. The Redstone flared to life and started to move part of the ground out of the way to reveal a narrow staircase that had been carved out of the mountain wall. 

“So- do we go down first?” Tubbo looked at Dream who gave him a curt nod. Tubbo let out a breathy okay as a confirmation that he had understood and gestured for Tommy to follow him. Tommy carefully made his way down as to not fall off, he could hear how Dream had followed close behind them.

The previous silence was broken by Dream who now seemed much closer. “You two think you can just show up and fight me to try and take back your discs.” They were quickly reaching the end of the staircase. “As if I don’t have a plan. You think that I’m a fool but that’s not how it works, Dream chuckled as they all reached the end. They were back on the ground again, no moonlight reaching them with the mountain towering above.

Dream brought out a torch and lit it, “you know, I’ve always been one step ahead of you guys-” Tommy huffed, he just couldn’t keep quiet anymore. “You’re just pure fucking evil man-” 

“You know, Tubbo thought I was his friend, Tommy.” Dream took off his mask, showing off his smirk as he walked closer to Tommy, torch in hand. “What an idiot, right? You also thought I was your friend,” Dream’s dark eyes met Tommy’s before he continued, “I made sure no one showed up to your stupid party so your only friend would be me.”

Tommy was quickly looking over the beach decorations one last time, covering a creeper hole and setting up parasols. He was buzzing with excitement, he might get to see Tubbo today. Tommy looked at his clock and noticed how the guests should arrive in about five minutes. He decided to have one last look around to see if there was anything else to fix up.

When he found nothing to fix he decided to wait. 

And he waited,

and waited,

and when nobody came he decided to check his nether portal to see if anything had gone wrong. When he found nobody outside the nether he went in. After the sickening teleportation to the nether, he looked around. Everything looked normal. The bridge was still there, no ghast explosions preventing someone from entering. “Why- No one’s here..” He whispered to himself. Tommy decided to look around and followed the bridge back to the main portal which led to the Greater SMP. Nothing. He found no one. 

He begrudgingly made his way back to his portal, hoping that maybe they had taken another route or perhaps a detour. 

Tommy returned to the overworld and only found one person. Dream. He was sitting in one of the beach chairs, drinking one of the drinks Tommy had prepared. 

“Hello!” Dream greeted Tommy with a smile, no mask in sight. “Hi..” Tommy mumbled as he slowly walked towards him. “Where’s everyone else? I thought this was a party?” Dream asked, sounding innocent. “Uh- well, I don’t know..” Tommy sighed as he sat down next to Dream who turned to look at him, sympathy in his eyes. “Well, I was running a little late so I was surprised when no one was he-” 

Tommy suddenly stood up. A sinking feeling reaching him. He was wearing armor that he wasn’t supposed to have. He immediately took it off and gave it to Dream, ready for him to blow it up or burn it. “I’m sorry- I forgot.” Tommy stuttered and hoped Dream wouldn’t be mad. Dream raised his eyebrows in surprise, “no, no Tommy it’s fine.” He turned to look at Dream, “really?” He smiled kindly once more. “Of course, Tommy. This is a party after all.”

“Uh- well where is everyone?” Tommy asked as he made his way to the beach chair next to the one Dream sat in. “I don’t know,” Dream responded, dragging out the ‘I.’ “Wilbur sent out the invites, didn’t he?” Tommy continued to ask Dream questions, thinking of a way that something could’ve happened with the invites. But when Dream answered, letting him know that he had personally made sure that everyone knew, Tommy was speechless.

“So where is everyone then!?” Tommy could feel anger building. A slow-burning in the pit of his stomach. He wanted to break something, hurt someone. 

“Maybe they just don’t want to see you.”

“What- You did that-?” Tommy breathed, desperately trying to look anywhere but at Dream who was right next to him. He wheezed out a laugh, “yeah, and you trusted me like an idiot! The person who had been against you in every war until that point. But you were just so desperate for a friend, that even I was enough.” Tommy swallowed as he realized Dream was right, he shouldn’t have trusted him. It was so obvious now. 

“So yeah, I’ve been one step ahead of you since the beginning.” Dream declared one final time, making it clear that he was right. “And- Tubbo. The reason I have the disc is because I blew up the community house and framed Tommy.”

“You blew up-” Tubbo whispered. “-and you were dumb enough to give me the disc.” Dream mocked as he turned around towards the mountain wall.

“L’manburg is gone, I have the discs and you two at my mercy-” Dream grins maniacally as he placed the torch next to him. “Do you have any armor left?” Tommy whispered to Tubbo who replied with a frightened ‘no.’

“-Now, follow me.” Dream exclaimed as a hole in the wall emerged, leading them into a mostly empty room. The walls were covered in torches that prevented any hostile mob from entering, and on the ground, built-in Blackstone and Obsidian was a platform. “Is this a trap-” Tubbo whispered to Tommy who turned to Dream. “How do we know we’re not just going to die here?” He asked, followed by Dream chuckling. “You know I could just kill you right here, I suggest you do as I say.” 

Tubbo quickly followed Dream’s directions and stepped onto the platform. “Hey- man why the fuck are you doing as he says!?” Tommy shouted angrily as he turned to look at his friend. “I mean- we’re pretty much dead either way.” Tubbo exhaled, anyone with a brain could tell he was scared, incredibly so. 

Tommy eventually decided to step onto the platform with Tubbo. Dream swiftly followed and flipped a lever, making the platform descend. “Whoa-” Tubbo stumbled forward and grabbed onto Tommy as not to fall. “What the fuck is happening-” Tommy mumbled as the platform continued to go down and shake.

“Listen, Tommy,” Dream started, “ever since you came here you’ve been a headache. You’ve brought war, terrorism-” What Tommy figured was an elevator finally reached a giant room. The walls were built from Blackstone and small Redstone lights covered the walls. The air inside the room was almost musty, this room must’ve been built a good while ago.

Opposite of the elevator they were currently riding Tommy noticed a big nether portal and- their discs. Their discs were there. “-you’ve made everything bad! But- the cause of all the war, of everything, is attachment.” Dream looked at Tommy. “Right? Your attachment to the discs, your attachment to Henry, to pets and friends. To land and countries. To items” 

The elevator finally stopped and Tommy made a move to step off but was stopped by Dream. “That- that’s the one good thing that you’ve done. The one good thing you’ve done is bringing attachment,” Dream walked off the elevator and into the room. 

“So, it took me a long time to realize how important attachment was. But when I did I became more powerful, and I realized how important you were.” Dream continued to walk, “Tubbo, Tommy, come look.” He permitted them to step off the elevator and they did. “Come- come see your discs,” Dream said as he led them to the big podiums where they were. “They’re right here.”

Tommy cautiously made his way to Dream with Tubbo following close behind. “There’s an ender chest there..” Tommy pointed out cautiously. “Yeah, Dream began, “you could take the disc if you wanted to but it doesn’t matter. I mean- I wouldn’t do it if I were you because then Tubbo will die-” Tommy’s mouth opened in shock, what was happening? 

Dream led them to the other disc which waited on the other podium. “They’re just laying there…” Tubbo pointed out, sadness in his voice. 

“You know ever since attachment became important, I cut my attachments.” Dream said. “ I blew up my house, I lost my friends.” Dream started to corner Tommy against the cold wall. “I lost my items, my crossbow, my- you know- everything that was important to me. I cut everything off because I realized attachments give people power over each other.” 

Tommy tried to find anything to say, but couldn’t. “I mean- the reason you’re here right now is because I have these dumb little discs.” Tommy looked to Tubbo and then back at Dream, “how- how did that not hurt you?” He managed to ask. “Because I lost everything to gain everything.” Tommy scoffed and pushed Dream away from him. “You didn’t gain shit you’re a sick bastard!” he shouted, Tubbo soon joining him. “Yeah, you don’t seem to have a lot right now.” Tubbo scoffed as Dream started to raise his voice. 

“If I can control the things people are attached to, I can control the server again!” He shouted and made a move to point at the other two, “because this isn’t Tommy SMP or Tubbo SMP it’s Dream SMP, right!?” 

Dream started to walk towards the duo, making them back up into the middle of the room. “I’ve constructed.. a prison. It’s inescapable. You can’t get out.” Dream locked eyes with Tommy. “There are hundreds of thousands of stacks of Obsidian, there are elder guardians, there are guards.” Tommy gulped, “What… how..?” 

Dream smiled and turned to Tubbo, “You know, Tubbo’s a pawn. He’s a follower and I’ve used him as much as I can-” Tommy butted in again. “Tubbo’s not a follower! He was the last president of L’manburg- he’s not a fucking follower!” 

“And where is L’manburg now?” Dream snarkily replied as he continued. “I’ve already gone over this, Tubbo’s a follower-” Yet again Tommy objected. “Stop! Tubbo’s not a fucking follower! You need him as much as you need me!” Tommy shouted in Dream’s face. He scoffed, “I don’t need Tubbo at all.” Tommy pushed Dream away, “Yeah you do because without Tubbo, what am I?” Tommy hollered angrily. “Dickhead,” he added at the end. 

Dream sighed, “Tommy, you want to be a hero. You want to be the hero of the SMP. Do you know what a hero needs?” Dream asked, “An origin story. You have Tubbo.” 

Tommy was stunned, he had always read a lot with Techno as a child, and he knew what Dream meant. The person that matters most to the hero always-

“No! Absolutely fucking not!” Tommy retorted as he shoved Tubbo behind him. “No, no you- I won’t let you.” Dream smiled once more and grabbed Tommy. “Look, I want to give you a chance to say goodbye.”

Tommy tried to squirm out of his grasp, “No! We’ll get out of here like we always do, it always works out in the end, right Tubbo?” Tommy looked at Tubbo who remained silent. “You’ll get out of here Tommy, but Tubbo won’t.” 

“You know…” Tubbo finally spoke up, looking into Tommy’s eyes. “It’s fine.” 

“No.. no, no Tubbo don’t!” Tommy shouted, still trying to break free. 

“It’s about time I guess,” Tubbo sighed and looked at the ground once more. “No! No, don’t just accept it Tubbo!” Tommy hollered as tears started to gather in his eyes. 

“Goodbye, Tommy,” Tubbo whispered as he walked towards them. Dream finally pushed Tommy away and brought out his axe. “No! No Tubbo don’t!” Tommy sobbed as he stood up and started sprinting towards them. 

Before Tommy even saw it he heard the sickening sound of metal slicing skin, then came the blood. There was so much of it, coating the axe and dripping onto the floor. Tubbo soon lost his balance and fell, and Tommy was there-

“No- no Tommy, you have to jump!” Tubbo laughed as they stood on the tall structure. Tommy gulped, water bucket in hand. He was about to say something when Tubbo decided to push him off. Tommy’s scream rang out over the SMP as he fell, and right before he fell, he placed the water that would save him from the fall. Tommy shouted in triumph as he survived, but then he saw Tubbo jump. Tommy knew he didn’t have a water bucket but knew what to do when he heard Tubbo yell: “Catch me!” 

-to catch him once again. Tommy gently held him as he tried to compress the wound, as if that would help now. “Tubbo, please don’t die.. not now!” Tommy sobbed as he searched Tubbo’s face for anything other than signs of pain. Tubbo’s breathing was labored as he reached his hand to lay atop of Tommy’s. “Tubbo.. please. I can’t say goodbye.. not now!” Tommy cried as Tubbo tried to move his hand. “It- it will be okay.” he tried to reassure Tommy, he always hated to see him cry. “But.. Who- who am I without you?” Tommy stuttered as their eyes met one last time. “Yourself.”Tubbo said as the message rang out in chat.

<Tubbo was slain by Dream using The axe of peace>

Tommy let out a cry akin to that of a wounded animal as he buried his face in Tubbo’s chest and sobbed. He could feel Tubbo turn to dust in his arms. Every second that passed he lost more of his friend. But suddenly the silence had been broken by the swooshing noise of the nether portal.

“I’m sorry Dream, but you should’ve paid me more.”

[felidaefighter]

Fears To Ease And Flesh To Mend

Ranboo and Tubbo find out that unzombifying a piglin is a bit different from unzombifying a villager, and they start off parenthood with quite a few complications and in a little over their heads. For the sake of their child, they may need to put awkwardness aside and ask for help.

[Sick fic, canon divergence, Phil and Techno meet Michael, lots and lots of piglin lore headcanons] ~20,000 words per chapter

Chapter Two of Four

     “Hey Phil,” Ranboo said carefully as they were coming back from trading with the local villagers, who gave good deals since they were grateful they’d been cured after being zombified, “What’s the difference between curing a zombie villager and curing a zombie piglin? Aside from the obvious.” Phil looked curiously at Ranboo while they walked. “That’s an interesting question. It is a little bit different, yeah. Technically the process itself is the same but ahhh there’s always some difficulties. Usually not worth the trouble.” Ranboo pondered this for a moment. “Huh. How do you mean?”

    “Well, because of where they’re from, piglins tend to have a bit of a resistance to magic. So the rotten flesh doesn’t really heal fully or automatically the way it does for villagers. The whole process is easier in the Nether, because the lack of moisture keeps the rot slow and less likely to spread after they’re healed.” Ranboo listened intently, opening his book and scribbling notes so he could keep track. “It’s just a rare thing to see happen, is all. Adult piglins especially, they’re such a warrior-based society that waking up hurting and confused just means they’re more likely to attack the person who healed them than be grateful. Not to mention they’re still going to have infections and rot. It’s just so uncommon because you’d never try and heal a piglin that you didn’t know beforehand. It requires so much aftercare and pre-established trust, like from before they were zombified, that without it it’s just bound to lead to the piglin dying anyways.”

    “Oooh interesting, interesting. But the dosage ratio of potions and apple and stuff is the same, right?” Phil nodded. “Yeah, between piglins and villagers and the little rascals, too.” He cackled a little. “General consensus tends to be it’s better to overdose on magic than underdose, because worst case scenario for inhaling too much of the weakness potion is you feel a bit queasy, and worst case scenario for eating too much golden apple is that you get a stomachache, but if you underdose the worst case scenario is they aren’t healed at all and can never be properly healed.” 

    They were just about at their houses now, and Phil shot Ranboo a look with raised eyebrows. “You don’t know any piglins aside from Techno though right? You aren’t worried about Techno are you mate? You don’t need to be-- he’s already gone through that process. He doesn’t need to do it again.” Ranboo stopped short. This was news to him, but also, it made for an excellent cover. For now at least-- admittedly he was still a little lacking on information for how to treat the infections properly. “Wait, really? Techno was zombified?” 

    “Ah, yep.” Ranboo nearly jumped out of his skin, spooked at Techno’s voice. The piglin must’ve come out of his own house to greet them as they arrived, and overheard the last bit of conversation. “An interestin’ way to enter a conversation, but yeah, I was.” Techno shrugged. “Just for a few seconds though. Happens with any piglin that wants to be able to traverse the overworld. Phil and I planned it ahead of time, so there weren’t really a lot of sores to deal with or anything. Definitely not where most of my scars come from,” Techno said with a bragging smirk. 

    Ranboo laughed a bit. “Of course, yeah. That’s so cool though, ‘cause I didn’t know any of that. It does make sense though, I think, yes.” Ranboo was desperately trying to sound normal and not allude to anything else at all. He really hoped it was working. “Ranboo, you good mate?” Phil asked. It was, apparently, not working. He tried to stay steady and even with his voice. “Yeah, no, of course. Why wouldn’t I be?” Techno kind of squinted at him, and Ranboo nervously curled in on himself just a bit, despite being slightly taller than the piglin.

    Techno looked like he was going to say something that surely would’ve made Ranboo explode with anxiety, but instead, he just shrugged. “Alright. We won’t pry. Will we, Phil?” Techno said, looking pointedly at the man, who very much looked like he did in fact want to pry, but conceded with a bit of a grumble and a small sigh. “Let us know if you’re curious about anything else though. Techno and I have gone around the bend with this one, we know the ins and outs.” Techno elbowed Phil (knowing this was his way of trying to subtly pry), who lightly smacked him back. Ranboo, in turn, nodded at them. “Mhm! I will, thank you.”

    Ranboo pretended not to notice as the two of them exchanged a knowing glance with one another, instead giving a wave and heading off to his own house for the night. He let out a long, shaky exhale once inside. “Okay, could’ve gone better, could’ve gone worse. Should’ve kept Michael in the nether while healing him, but we did it as soon as he was safe at Snowchester in a baby-proofed room so… Overall… not... as bad as it could have been? I think we did okay, I think we did okay,” Ranboo muttered to himself, trying to calm himself down. 

    Unfortunately, he didn’t learn anything about how to heal an infection, but he supposed that was typical. He didn’t ask about infections. He asked about unzombifying piglins. He did have more resources at his house than Tubbo had, though, so he went to his basement and started rummaging around in his chests to see if he could find anything of value. A little difficult with how disorganized he tended to be, but that was okay. It gave Tubbo time to respond to him after he sent him a quick message. 

    Secretly, Ranboo wanted to involve Techno and Phil; he knew that they and Tubbo had a bit of a rough history, but the two really seemed to know what they were talking about. And Tubbo had changed and Phil and Techno had changed, and Ranboo didn’t think they would try to hurt Michael. If there was a chance they could help Michael, he was considering risking it. He’d do anything for his son. But he wouldn’t say anything unless Tubbo was okay with it; after hesitating, he sent Tubbo another message. 

<Ranboo> techno and phil might know how to help with michael’s infection <Ranboo> but i don’t know how to ask without telling them about him <Ranboo> and i won’t tell them if you’re worried <Tubbo> i don’t trust techno <Tubbo> but he is a piglin also <Tubbo> and i trust you <Ranboo> i just worry that it’ll get worse if we don’t do it right <Tubbo> it’s your call big man

    Ranboo stared anxiously at the messages, thinking of his next step. He was so focused on it that he almost didn’t hear the knock on his door from upstairs. Startled, he shouted up. “Coming! I’ll be there in a second!” Giving one last glance at the conversation, he tucked his communicator away and rushed up the ladder. He opened the door and stepped outside a bit, his house being a bit too cramped to have a decent conversation. “Phil!” He exclaimed, utterly confused. “What’s up? Everything okay?” Phil was standing at the door next to a very disgruntled Technoblade, who looked like he had tried everything in his power to stop whatever conversation was about to happen and, upon failing due to Phil’s Old Man Stubbornness, decided to tag along. 

    “So, hypothetically,” Phil started, and Techno groaned. Phil sent one of his typical jokingly exasperated glances at Techno in response, and started again. “Hypothetically, if you were curing a zombie piglin, you’d probably want someone around who’s done it before to make sure everything went okay.” Ranboo stared at him for a moment, processing. “That’s true! Hypothetically, if I’d already cured a zombie piglin, I’d also want help with it to make sure nothing went wrong.” Phil now wore a knowing smirk, triumphant in the fact that his suspicions were confirmed. Techno sighed. “See, Phil, what you’ve done now is you’ve made a lot more work for us. Ranboo could’ve got it all done on his own and probably would’ve been fine, but now we gotta go help.” Phil turned to him as he spoke.

    “Techno, you don’t have to help mate, I’ve done this on my own before--” Techno interrupted him. “Nahhhh nah nah, you can do it on your own sure, but you see I am a certified actual piglin, so you’re gonna want my help regardless. It’ll be easier with me there. I’m comin’ with you.” Ranboo just stood there, baffled, trying to gather his thoughts. They were both asking way more than he initially thought and also way less. Was this a good thing? Regardless, they had offered to help and apparently nothing could convince them not to. “Th-- Thank you…?” Ranboo said, then corrected himself, “Thank you. I uh. Hoo boy. It’s a bit of a story,” he admitted nervously.

    Phil placed a hand on Ranboo’s upper arm, given his shoulder was a bit too high up for comfort. “Let’s walk and talk, then. I’m assuming this piglin you know is elsewheres, at least.” Ranboo nodded. “Yeah. Let me just, uh--” he sent a quick message to Tubbo saying they were on their way as they started walking-- “Yeah. But first uh, we already healed him. Sort of. We cured him, but he’s not healed. He’s got some really bad infections and we’re worried that some of the issues are internal. It doesn’t seem like it, but we want to be safe.” Phil’s face shifted to a look of deep concern, and mentally started making note of what they would need, as Techno looked rather thoughtfully at Ranboo, having picked up more than just the medical details that Phil was so focused on. “‘We’’? Who’s ‘we’?” Techno asked. 

    Ranboo stiffened, and then took a deep breath. Well, here went nothing. “So you know Tubbo? --Please don’t get mad at me,” Ranboo started, and Techno held his tongue. “When I first joined and Tubbo was giving me a tour of New L’Manberg, we found a. Uh. We found a baby piglin who had been zombified.” Something seemed to click for both Techno and Phil as a look of realization passed over their faces, and Ranboo prayed that it didn’t turn to anger or aggression. They had no reason to feel that way, he tried to reassure himself, but he knew their history with Tubbo.

    “We… made him a little shelter in the Nether to protect him from ghasts and wandering off. Until we’d made a baby-proofed room for him at least in Tubbo’s house. And last night we brought him to the overworld, to Tubbo’s house, and cured him.” Ranboo waited for the backlash, and while Techno looked like he had something he wanted to say, Phil spoke first. “Keeping him in the Nether in a shelter was one of the best things you could’ve done. Most of the area around the main portal, which is what I’m assuming you used, is wasteland, so it’s really dry and that would’ve protected him as well as anything can from decaying. Techno?”

    Techno, after having been given the go-ahead, was finally free to speak his mind. “Ranboo-- Ranboo I’m not really so sure about Tubbo, I mean he is one of the big government guys that hunted me down-- are you doin’ this as like, a favor to him? What’s the relationship there?” Ah. Ranboo had been prepared to talk about Michael, but this, now this was a little awkward. Instead, he decided to first pipe up to correct Techno and defend Tubbo. “Actually, that was Quackity’s idea. He kind of talked everyone else into that. I’m pretty sure at least. I think I wrote it down. He was definitely the one who organized it though. I think he was gonna do it whether we agreed or not?” Techno was very clearly making mental notes. “Interesting,” he said. Ranboo continued in his answer. “And relationship, well uh, it’s not a favor per se, it’s more like… we adopted him? Together. We adopted him together, like, as our son? And we’re married.”

    “What?” Phil squawked. Techno just blinked at Ranboo, and chose his words carefully, trying to hide his shock. Actually, if it wasn’t so nerve-wracking, it would’ve been hilarious. “Well. I won’t say anything as to your choice in spouse, but this is definitely new information.” Phil, despite his ruffled feathers in both a physical and metaphorical sense, gathered himself and decided to push the other two to do the same. Quite literally-- he put a firm hand on Techno and Ranboo both and started urging them towards the portal. Ranboo let out a startled noise that was intermingled with a confused, small laugh. “Right, well, infection’s not gonna get better on its own, we can deal with this situation later. I will talk to you and Tubbo about this,” Phil nearly scolded, and Ranboo could only nod under Phil’s determination. Techno, of course, deferred his judgement to Phil.