#now the real fun begins

[basileusdraws]

They were reunited last night (இ﹏இ`｡)

[duckapus]

Dead, Inside and Out

"Grah! Stupid, useless-!"

Kamek walks up to the doctor, "I take it there's a problem?"

Eggman huffs and shows him his tablet, "It's this blasted Zone. All the spectral energy is interfering with the Seed Detector. I have no idea where the next seed is."

"Of course. I suppose we'll just have to do this the old fashioned way. Bomberto! Bring us down near the center!"

As the ship descends, everyone gets ready to begin the search.

"Okay guys, from what Kamek's told us this Zone's conversion trigger is depression. Now, I know things have been pretty rough so far and none of us are feeling too great, but I'm sure that as long as we all support each other and stay focused on the plan, we'll make it though without...any...losses," 4 sees that most of the group looking at something behind him and gets a deadpan expression, "Toad's already a ghost, isn't he?"

"Yep."

Bob shrugs, "Well, at least it wasn't anyone important."

"BOB!"

"What? We were all thinking it."

4 sighs, "Anyway, since the scanner isn't working, we're going to have to find the seed ourselves. If the other Zones are any indication, it should be with whoever triggered the Wonder Flower, and it's pretty obvious who it was here."

Cubot scratches his head, "It is?"

"Well, let's see," Root makes a show of contemplating, "who do we know who's dead, depressed, and literally sucks the color out of anything she touches?"

"Ohhh...I don't get it."

Ignoring him, Meggy chimes in "Okay, but how are we going to find her? Either she's drifting around and we'll have to scour the whole Zone or she's holed up in her house, and the only guy who can actually find that place is currently a Muppet."

"Well, Floyd's house usually shows up pretty close to mine and Luigi's, so we could start there."

"Sounds good to me. Alright guys, let's move out!"

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

It takes a few minutes to get from the landing site to the Mario Bros' house, and when they do they make a rather unusual discovery.

"How does it still have its color?"

Indeed, Somehow this one building was exempt from the Wonder Effect. The group approaches cautiously, not sure what to make of this. Mario slowly, carefully opens the front door, revealing that the inside looks pretty much the same as when they left, a startling reminder that this whole ordeal only started a few days ago. There's a bit of light and sound coming from the living room, and Mario leads the way as they sneak over to peek around the corner...

And find an oddly familiar young woman with an ornate dress and sharp, curling horns slumped unceremoniously in Luigi's favorite chair, staring blankly at the TV, which currently displays only static.

(ignore the sword, that's not important 'till later)

"Floyd? Is that you?"

A disinterested hum is the only indication she even heard him.

Bob looks her over, "Well, somebody had a growth spurt. Isn't she supposed to be twelve?"

"I, ah, I think it made her the age she would've been if she was still alive."

"...Oh. Yikes."

Mario moves up in front of her, "Hey, Floyd, you hearing me kiddo?"

Her eyes, though still unfocused, shift over to him.

"Great. I'll let you get back to...whatever this is soon, but we really need your help right now." he pulls out a picture of a Wonder Seed, "have you seen something around here that looks like this?"

To most people it would just look like she's still staring, but anyone who really knows her can tell she's trying to remember, "...maybe? 's hard t' think."

"If it helps, they come in different colors, so it might not look just like this one."

"..." after a little while, she somehow slumps even more than she already had been, " 'm sorry. can't...remember."

He sighs and slumps a little himself, "that's alright. We can figure something else out."

As he turns to rejoin the rest of the group, he lingers at a hanging picture of him and Luigi, running his hand along the frame with a sad smile. Floyd...actually visibly reacts to this, sitting up and leaning forward a bit, her eyes just a little brighter.

"Luigi...he was with you guys, right? On that trip?"

"...Yeah."

"What happened?"

"...Kermit. I couldn't...he didn't jump in time."

"..." Her eyes turn sharp, returning to their usual resting glare, and she stands up and starts floating about an inch or so off the floor, "Follow me."

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

She leads them on a winding path through the forest, which looks particularly spooky when painted in shades of grey. Marcy, as usual, looks around suspiciously as they go.

"Give it a rest, sis. I'm pretty sure nothing around here cares enough to attack us."

"There's nothing wrong with staying vigilant. If nothing else it keeps me in practice. You could stand to be more cautious yourself, you know. I've heard about what you're like when you gamble."

"Hey, I'm getting better."

As the two of them are bickering, the group arrives at Floyd's house, which looks pretty much the same as it always does. She phases through the gate and opens it for everyone else, then brings them to the front door.

"Okay, I'm pretty sure I left the Seed in my bedroom. You guys wait in the parlor while I grab it."

She's gone for a few moments, then comes back with a red Wonder Seed in hand and tosses it to 4, "here ya go."

"Thanks." he turns to the group, "Alright, that's three down and four to go! And with only one loss so fa-"

"Two."

"What?"

She points at Bob, "You lost two."

"Oh, goddamnit!"

"Huh, I didn't even notice." he checks himself out in a nearby mirror, "Hey, sweet! I look like some kinda Grim Reaper!"

"Yes, and it only cost you your legs and your freedom."

"Shut up Mar."

"Um," Tari raises her hand like this is school, "How are you still acting like yourself?"

"Eh, I've been living with bouts of depression for centuries. This artificial numbness isn't even the worst I've felt this decade."

(...Not sure how to end this so yeah, they head back to the ship and have to leave Bob behind, but he'll be fine and will probably be able to help Floyd with her brain fog issue. Next up is the mushroom forest Zone.)

(also older Floyd comes from this picrew, because she's one of those characters I've never been able to draw properly myself despite being my own goddamn oc)

[soyalexnajera]

I'm honored to tell you that Eda's Requiem is Tumblr's favorite episode of season 2A by less than 9 votes (could even be 1 vote difference holy f)

2nd. Knock Knock Knockin on Hooty's Door

3rd. Hunting Palismen

4th. Eclipse Lake

Hollow mind is tumblr's favorite episode of season 2B (probably fav episode of the whole show)

2nd. King's Tide

3rd. Them's The Breaks, Kid

4th Any Sport in a Storm with a 1% difference with Reaching Out (Luz's dad :c) and a 2% with Labyrinth Runners

[warlordfelwinter]

into the unknooownnnn

officially past what i ever got to in early access

[catebees]

Second tarot card for Eelis! This one is inspired by the rogue Inquisitor cards

first card-second card-third card

[ricky-mortis]

A portrait of Sir John Herschel because I‘m normal about Pulp Musicals

[b4kuch1n]

IT ARRIVED IT ARRIVED IT ARRIVED

DESPITE EVERYTHING DESPITE MY CHRONICALLY CURSED INTERNATIONAL MAIL PROBLEM I AM STILL THE ZONE RPG

[gothsuguru]

we always get perv!suguru well how about perv!reader… bit sleazy, always sporting a smirk, has a natural air of sensuality/mystique who’s also a major masochist… suguru is stammering & blushing & calls reader a “pervert” & reader is just like… “yeah i am.” cue the huge sleazy grin & lowlidded eyes… suguru straddling reader & just saying certain things in genuine shock like, “god i can’t believe this turns you on?!” “you’re such a freak.” “wait… you like being choked like this?” & all the while reader is giggling & reiterating his points back to him “yeah this turns me on… mhmm.” “i know, i’m such a freak aren’t i sugu, just horrendous huh?” “seems you like choking me just as much… heh.” god… i need to write this there’s just something abt this dynamic that’s sooooooooo 😵‍💫 DELICIOUS TO ME………………. WHEW

[realian]

the Hulurama episodes suck so bad holy shit.

[youreaclownnow]

Refilling my bougie bitch meters with this asshole

[derpinette]

SPERG YOUR HEART OUT

[redux-iterum]

Is there anything you can tell us about Arc 2 & 3 that isn't spoiler territory? I'm excited to see where they go with how much canon divergence is happening in CotQH but I know most of that we'll have to wait for.

Ohhh man, I am so excited for arcs two and three. Let's see... for the second arc, I'll say that half of the original journey cast has been swapped out (the OGs are still around, but they're not major players). For arc three, among other changes, the lake's layout has been remixed pretty hard. There'll also be three more characters added to the protagonist cast aside from the sibling trio.

[wikitpowers]

I saw your post about graduating university!! Congratulations I can’t imagine how hard it must have been 😭😭 even senior school right now is so tuff, my hats off to you! If you felt comfortable sharing, I was wondering what your major is :D (if u don’t wanna it’s okay as well 😌)

THANK U SO MUCH, THAT MEANS A LOT TO ME<3

i just got my degree in philosophy (she’s an intellectual, folks) and i’m just chuffed uni is over bc my god! the amount of stress i had was wild :’)

[coquelicoq]

been paying more attention to my r sounds in french lately and while i do default to the voiced uvular fricative /ʁ/ most of the time, in intervocalic contexts i'm doing what i'm pretty sure is a voiced uvular approximant /ʁ̞/ maybe half the time? i wasn't sure if it was a tap/flap or an approximant, but it does sound a lot like the audio clip for the approximant, and apparently the approximant is often an allophone for the fricative, while the tap/flap is an allophone for the trill (which makes sense since a tap/flap is basically an abbreviated trill), and i don't really do uvular trills in speech.

the fricative has always been difficult for me and at this point i doubt it will get much easier than it is now. it makes sense that as i learned to speak faster i would end up producing the approximant in at least some contexts, and i suppose that it makes sense that the main context in which that happens is intervocalic, since approximants are kind of like if you took a fricative halfway to being a vowel.

the reason i've been thinking about this lately is i've been listening to a lot of stromae and his r sounds keep jumping out at me. i mentioned in some tags the other day his r sounds in bonne journée (skip to 1:24):

Si l'bonheur [tap/flap?] des autres [elided] te rend [trill] malheureux [trill] C'est qu't'es un rageux [tap/flap?] Si l'malheur [trill?] des autres [elided] te rend [trill] heureux [approximant??] C'est qu't'es un rageux [tap/flap?]

that sound in heureux in the third line is really interesting because he pronounces that exact word (within the word malheureux) two lines before, but there he's clearly trilling the r, and here he is not, and it doesn't sound like a tap or flap to me either! it sounds like an approximant!

he does do the uvular fricative as well...specifically in consonant clusters (also in variation with trills) (skip to 1:37):

Tu profites [fricative] jamais vraiment [trill?] de ce moment présent [fricative] En fait t'es juste dépressif [fricative]

elsewhere in the song he seems to trill a lot of consonant cluster rs, so i think it may also be a function of syllables/second - in these two lines he's going really fast, and possibly fricatives are faster to pronounce than trills? they certainly are for me, but i'm not sure if that's because i'm not a native speaker or because of some fundamental property of trilling.

between a vowel and a consonant he's sometimes doing a trill and sometimes something else, i think an approximant but it might be a fricative. hell, maybe it's a tap/flap. (rs in this context are fairly difficult for me to distinguish with any accuracy if they're not trills or really emphasized fricatives, so fuck if i know.)

ultimately i think he (at least in song) trills every r possible and resorts to (not consciously, obviously) one of the other options when necessary. i am nowhere near that proficient at uvular trills and can pretty much only do them on extended notes (because they take extra time for me to pronounce) and on higher pitches for some reason. i'd love to learn the uvular tap/flap, and it's probably the fastest of all the options (citation needed but it feels right lol), so maybe a year from now, when my speaking speed has increased another incremental amount, i'll notice that i've started spontaneously producing those as well. i live in hope.

[syn4k]

tucker: i gave you three extra diamonds for completing it

tom: yeah, that huge inconvenience

tucker: oh come on, it wasn't that big of an inconvenience ya shit!

tom: no, but i know what is gonna be an inconvenience- if every single person who joins this server doesn't know how to do push to talk!

jordan, a full five seconds later, disgruntled: sorry, man

[fandom-space-princess]

if there's a better feeling than "finally got a doctor to take me seriously and got a real diagnosis for The Problem" I've never heard of it. I'm just so goddamn happy 😭