#started a lore document to keep track of things

[albobeati7]

Less of a authority question and more of a casual silly question, do you, Dogday, or whoever you’ve drawn enjoy lasagna?

Ooo! Fun question! I love lasagna, but it's not my go to Italian food! I'm more of stuffed pasta with pesto type o person!

HOWEVER! Dogday is an avid lasagna fan! As a human, he grew up reading the Garfiled comics and always loved the fact he shared a favorite food with the sassy orange fat cat (His fav character was Odie tho).

He hasn't tasted lasagna in a WHILE (for obvious reasons), but I think an opportunity to taste it again would unlock a core memory!

[felassan]

EuroGamer: 'BioWare knew the deepest secrets of Dragon Age lore 20 years ago, and locked it away in an uber-plot doc'

Original creator David Gaider on how "some of the big mysteries are being solved".

Rest of post under a cut due to length and possible spoilers.

"As I write about the secrets hidden in Dragon Age's mysterious Fade, and as I uncover some of them playing Dragon Age: The Veilguard, one question keeps rising up in my mind. How much did BioWare know about future events when first developing the series more than 20 years ago? That's a long time, and back then BioWare didn't know there would be a second game, which is why Dragon Age: Origins has an elaborate and far-reaching epilogue. Why lay so much lore-track ahead of yourself if you don't think you'll ever get there? But look more closely at Origins and there are big clues suggesting BioWare did know about future Dragon Age events. There are obvious signs in the original game, such as establishing recurring themes like Old Gods and the Blight and Archdemons. But there's also Flemeth, Morrigan's witchy mother, who's intimately linked to events in the series now - more specifically: intimately linked to Solas. Does her existence mean Solas was known about back then too? There's only one person I can think of to answer this and it's David Gaider, the original creator of Dragon Age's world and lore. We've talked before, once in a podcast and once for a piece on the magic of fantasy maps, where we discussed the creation of Dragon Age's world. And much to my surprise, when I ask him what he and the BioWare team knew back then, he says they knew it all. "By the time we released Dragon Age: Origins, we were basically sure that it was one and done, but there was, back when we made the world, an overarching plan," he says. "The way I created the world was to seed plots in various parts of the world that could be part of a game, a single game, and then there was the overall uber-plot, which I didn't know for certain that we would ever get to but I had an understanding of how it all worked together. "A lot of that was in my head until we were starting Inquisition and the writers got a little bit impatient with my memory or lack thereof, so they pinned me down and dragged the uber-plot out of me. I'd talked about it, I'd hinted at it, but never really spelled out how it all connected, so they dragged it out of me, we put it into a master lore doc, the secret lore, which we had to hide from most of the team.""

"This uber-plot document was only viewable on a need-to-know basis, he says, and only around 20 people on the team had access to it - other senior writers mostly. And even though Gaider left the Dragon Age team after Inquisition, and then eight years ago BioWare altogether, meaning he didn't work on The Veilguard at all, he believes - by looking at the events in the new game - his uber-plot lore "has more or less held up". That's impressive. What's even more impressive, or exciting, is that back then he also envisaged a potential end state for the entire Dragon Age series - a point at which it would make no sense for the series to carry on. "I always had this dream of where it would all end, the very last plot," he says, "which I won't say because who knows, we could still end up there. But the idea that this uber-plot was this sort of biggest, finite... That the final thing you could do in this world that would break it was there as a 'maybe we would get to do that one day'... There was just the idea of certain big, world-shaking things that were seeded in that arc, some of which have already come to pass, like the return of Fen'Harel." You've read that correctly: the idea to have Fen'Harel, also known as the Dread Wolf, reappear, was seeded all the way back then, way before Inquisition - the game in which he does actually reappear. But the concept for Solas, as a character who was Fen'Harel in disguise, was a newer idea. "That spawned from a conversation I had with Patrick [Weekes] and a number of other writers," Gaider says, "as an idea of 'what if you had a villain that spent an entire game where he's actually in the party and you get to know him?' Now, the god version and his larger role in the plot, yes that was known, but not that he would be presented as a character named Solas." Fen'Harel being known about means the other elven gods were known about, which means all of that stuff Solas reveals about his godly siblings - that they're not gods at all but evil elven mages he locked away behind the Veil - was known about back then too. "Oh yeah," Gaider says. "Everything that Solas tells you [at the end of Inquisition DLC, Trespasser]: it's all part of that original uber-lore - that was all in our mind." But why have so much lore if you're not certain you'll get to ever realise it? Well, to create a believable illusion. By creating an "excess" of lore, as Gaider describes it, Origins made Thedas feel like an old and believable place. A place with history, rather than a Western set that was all facade and no substance."

"BioWare also did something canny with the lore it did relay then, too: it shared it through the voices of characters living in the world, making it inherently fallible. In doing this, Dragon Age veiled its truths behind biases. The church-like organisation of the Chantry proclaims one truth, while the elves and dwarves proclaim another. Sidenote: you can experience this yourself through different racial origin stories in Dragon Age: Origins. This way, there's no one, objective, irrefutable, truth. "To get the truth, you kind of have to pick between the lines," Gaider says. So even though elven legends are coming true through the existence of Solas and The Veilguard's antagonist gods, it doesn't mean that's the one and only truth. There's truth in what the Chantry teaches and what the dwarves say, he tells me, which ignites my curiosity intensely. BioWare has also been tricksy in how it's rubbed out the lore the further back in time you go. "In general, the further the history goes back, we always would purposefully obfuscate it more and more," Gaider says - "make it more biased and more untrue no matter who was talking, just so that the absolute truth was rarely knowable. I like that idea from a world standpoint, that the player always has to wonder and bring their own beliefs to it." It leads into a founding principle of Dragon Age, which is doubt - because without it, you can't have faith, a particularly important concept in the series. It's where the whole idea of the Chantry's Maker comes from and with it, the legend about the fabled Golden City - now the Black City - at the heart of the Fade. This is the very centre of the lore web, and, I imagine, it's close to the series endpoint Gaider imagined long ago. All secrets end there. Did Gaider know what was in the Black City when he laid down Origins' lore? That's the question - and it startles me how casually he answers this. "Oh, yeah," he says. "What was in the Black City: that's the uber-plot. I knew exactly. "Was it as detailed in the first draft of the world?" he goes on. "No. I had an idea of the early history because that's where I started making the world. So the things that were true early-early: I knew exactly what the Black City was and the idea of what the elves believed, and what humans believed vis-a-vis the Chantry - that was all settled on really early. Then I expanded the world and the uber-plot bubbled out of that.""

"Gaider shows me the original cosmology design document for Dragon Age: Origins as if to prove this - or rather for the game that would become DAO. The world was known as Peldea back then. I can't share this with you because I see it via a shared screen on a video call, and because Gaider doesn't want me to, mostly because the ideas are so old they're almost unrecognisable from what's in the series now. But I can tell you it's a document that's just over a page in length, and that there's a circular diagram at the top showing the world in the middle and the spirit realm ringed around it. And on that document is reference to the Chantry's beliefs about a God located in a citadel that can be found there. Gaider says BioWare knew about Fen'Harel (the Dread Wolf) 20 years ago when it was developing Dragon Age: Origins, and that he'd one day reappear. The Fade wasn't known as the Fade back then, either, but as the Dreaming, because it's the place people go when they dream - an idea that lives on still. And if that sounds familiar to any fans of The Sandman among you, it should. "I'd say The Sandman series was probably fairly prominently in my head," says Gaider. "I liked that amorphous geography that was born from the psyche of collective humanity. I'd say yes, if I was to point at something specifically, that's probably where the very first inspiration of it took root." It's a lot to take in, but it reinforces the admiration I have for Dragon Age. Just as I have when hearing about the creation of my other favourite fantasy worlds, such as A Song of Ice and Fire, I begin to understand the magnitude - and the deliberateness - of the plotting that went on. I wonder if one day the Dragon Age series will end in the way Gaider first imagined, albeit slightly altered by the many other pairs of hands shepherding it along now. What a curious feeling it must be to know, so many years in advance, where things might go. Where that end is, I don't know, but I do know we'll take a significant step towards it in The Veilguard. After all, we're coming into contact with gods who were there at the recorded beginning of it all. "Yeah - we have access to people who can tell us the truth from first-hand experience," Gaider says, "although again, it depends on what the writers did with it. But if they continued the tradition of Dragon Age, you never know for sure if Solas is telling you everything, or what you're learning is the entire truth. "But yes, some of the big mysteries are being solved. I mean, will they one day definitively tell you about the Maker? Will we crack the big mysteries of the world and just make them answered finally? And does that ruin one of the central precepts that Dragon Age is founded upon? Maybe," he says. "Ultimately, that lore, when you make it big and you hint at it and hint at it and hint at it, it becomes a Chekhov's Gun of sorts. Eventually you got to pony up.""

[source]

[idkplzhalp]

What do you know about Caroline in full? /genq

Some background for those who don't know, Caroline from Portal 2 is my favorite character as of 6 years and at some point I started keeping a big list in which I document everything such as info during development, things from devs/voice actors, debunking theories, literally any of her appearances anywhere and other silly stuff too. I also made an image folder with any potential reference or appearance to her in the series/behind the scenes, which i started to upload to a google drive folder and i need to finish it. When I finally make the entire Caroline post & drive folder, I'd wanna post it to my Valve fact blog @thatvalvefanatic. I'm super into getting canon/official facts about things and Caroline is the funnest for me to do as she's so obscure.

So here's some facts (know I have way more but this is already long enough..) since it'll be awhile since I do the big complete analysis post (or the Caroline lore bible, as I call it) that I've been promising for like 3 years lol!!!

Her heels are red! (This is her face model, Laura Dubuk, when she was at SDCC 2012 with Bill Fletcher, Cave's face, for the Neca booth)

Caroline's name was taken from Jay Pinkerton's (the writer's) mother. Erik Wolpaw says the name also means coincidentally "free man/woman". It's also a variant of the name Charles/Charlie (which is a coincidence to Aperture Desk Job's character Charlie (who is likely more of a reference to Chell)).

She's Argentinan and Ukrainian as that is her face model Laura Dubuk's ethnicity (she's stated she's Argentinian, her family speaks Ukrainian/their last name is Ukrainian (ty to the person who gave me that info!)).

The brand of her dress is "Daniel & Rebecca", an Italian brand made in the 80s/90s. Laura got the dress specifically for Caroline from a thrift store.

Caroline is referenced by Jerry the Nanobot. If you slow his audio down and reverse it, you hear "his injury is not expected to end but she's in charge instead". Hearing is subjective here but that's what I've seen as widely accepted. Though Portal 2 has done similar before with the Ghost of Rattmann track, which was just cut up audio of Marc Laidlaw reading an entirely unrelated paragraph. Or like the Dinosaur_fizzle audios from the radios in Portal 1 that people theorized was Caroline screaming from the radio, when it wasn't that at all as that update came before Caroline was created.

Unlike popular belief, Ellen Mclain did not refuse any of Caroline's lines. People spread rumors that the deleted GLaDOS related lines made her cry and that JK Simmons refused to say his lines due to how they sounded like SA, but that's not true at all.

Also, Caroline is NOT Chell's mother. She's too old and too white to be her mom! GLaDOS' arc towards Chell has been confirmed & implied to be queer/romance-esque. You can see some of that in my LGBTQ Valve post, though I need to update it, and I will be making a singular post just for queercoded GLaDOS since there is SO much. One of Valve' employees, Makani, confirmed Chell was not her daughter.

Cave and Caroline aren't married, confirmed by the Portal 2 guidebook. Though they were still likely good friends, based on some of Cave's cut lines, in which he trusts her to do a lot more.

Cave wanted Caroline to be taken care of and respected as CEO/GLaDOS! That part of his GLaDOS speech had been cut though. Those lines are, "Treat her just like you’d treat me." and "Just make sure she’s taken care of."

Portal RTX has a bunch of hidden codes you can find. There are some you use to change the design of the companion cube. Inputting Caroline's name changes it to the pillow cube!

According to Josh Weier, Caroline wasn't added to the game until one month before its release. Originally she wasn't a part of the story and Cave's assistant was a man named Greg. They didn't want to hire an actor for just a couple lines, so they decided to reuse Ellen Mclain, thus creating GLaDOS' human backstory. Though Greg was reused for Perpetual Testing Initiative and the Cave Johnson DotA announcer pack.

Caroline appears in the spinoff/tech-demo Aperture Desk Job, though only as her portrait. This confirms that she can be in other universes just like Greg, though we don't know what happened to her in this one. She's potentially dead, as Aperture Desk Job had Cave live long enough to be put into the machine. The machine was started and he killed some of the scientists. Also Caroline's portrait there is partially covered, covering her side.

I personally believe Caroline to be biromantic asexual! This one isn't a confirmed fact but more speculation. I think the "she's married- to science!" bit could indicate not being apart of traditional straight relationships, also knowing she was never married to Cave either. We already know GLaDOS is biromantic due to her liking Chell (and in spin-offs liking Claptrap and Batman for a time), and she could be considered ace to her cut line in co-op mode saying she found human reproduction ridiculous. Presumably the same would apply to Caroline.

The "Say goodbye, Caroline!" / "goodbye, Caroline!" Bit is a potential reference to The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show (1950) or Rowan and Martin's Laugh In (1968) as both had bits similar to that, and would make sense for Caroline and Cave to reference due to when the shows aired. Some people interpret that line as Caroline being dumb, though that's not true at all! We know she was intelligent from Cave's high praise of her, and if she was actually making a reference to a TV program then it would be even smarter and show that Caroline probably had inside jokes or references with Cave.

Want You Gone says Caroline and Chell are similar (“She was a lot like you”). If true then Chell, as officially described from the Collaborative Disposition Test, “Resolute and tenacious, you won't quit until a puzzle's solved. Your inability to give up against impossible odds makes you a bad match for cooperative test partners who give up against any odds at all, racing to the internet for answers” Could give insight into Caroline’s personality. The Collaborative Disposition Test could give even more insight into her from Cave’s description “You don't see crises - only challengitunities. you choose to scale like mountains. You're a can-do, shoot-from-the-hip, silver-tongued self-starter. You're a good match for any cooperative test partner, providing they shut up and listen.” Caroline didn’t have much dialogue and we know she did the majority of what Cave asked of her/they worked together for at least 30 years. Caroline may very well be Cave’s testing partner who will “shut up and listen”.

Caroline was in the Steam 25th anniversary artwork! Art by Claire Hummel. It is her and Cave drawn over this meme:

okay that's it for now but I did find an iceberg chart I made a few months ago about her so I'm including it even tho some things gotta be adjusted because it's not 100% correct. It's the same as this but I wanna share it anyways. Happy Caroline Portal 2 lore learning. I'll make a part 2 with more stuff later.

[cryingbluez]

Since I haven't posed in a while have this chibi doodle I did of me making a new oc. He's a HonkaiStarRail oc, but I can use his for other stuff lol.

I just don't have any art to post, so y'all can have this, I originally didn't want to post this since it's not a proper ref, but I just haven't made any other art.

anyway lore under cut ig lol. Info on his species under the cut at the bottom as well. Also I'm not the big fan of hsr, nor a lore person, any lore I mention is most likely wrong, so no need to yap at me in the comments, I know its wrong lol. I just adore the vibe of hsr/astral express.

Name: Loki Height: 6’ft Age: 27 Gender: He/They/It (Falcon’s: It/They) Faction(?): Bounty Hunter/Planet documentation Rarity: 5 star Element: Quantum Path: Destruction

Loki is an emanator of Mythus/Enigmata. Doesn’t exactly follow Mythus, but likes a lot of the ideas that they stand for.

Has a mecha that is sentient, the mecha is thousands of nanobots that act as a hive mind can replicate/destroy at will. Loki calls the Mecha/bots “Falcon”. But most people don’t know this, so call the mecha (and Loki as they think Falcon is a robot w/no pilot) “Whisper” or “Space Angel”. The Mecha can take any shape/size, half the time it takes the form of a spaceship in the shape of the ‘North top b-2 Spirit�� jet (Falcon mainly is black and white, sometimes copies Loki’s red, or his ‘flames’). Around the time Loki was born, the IPC finally turned their attention to his planet. Also around this time is when a sentient experimental bot destroyed/escaped a lab/research facility that a Genius Society member was running, also killing that member in the process of it’s escape. It destroyed all mentions of itself in its escape. Though the GSMember’s assistant survived having just left the facility moments prior, and started to try to track down the being. Falcon (the mecha wasn’t named at this time, but using its name to make writing about it easier) managed to escape and hide on the planet Loki is from.

The ICP took over the planet with the prospect of ‘saving’ it and bringing space travel to the planet, but instead started to destroy it, killing both animals and plant life going after the planet's rich resources, basically turning the whole planet into a mining operation with no regards to the Dregers that lived there. The Dregers would move around the planet, trying to avoid what the IPC were doing, but after a while they couldn’t avoid it any more.

Loki was a very shy child, often staying in his lane, he was semi afraid of the adults, due to religious trauma to do with the adults, taking solace in the adults who weren’t big on the religion.

The Dregers started to sacrifice their young in an effort to try to make their god see and help them. Loki was one of the children that got sacrificed. He had his eyes removed, and his body cut open while he was still alive, a lot of his organs were removed and his mouth was slit on both sides. Falcon quickly found him after the fact, Loki barely clinging to life. Falcon used It’s ability to self replicate/create things to recreate his (Loki’s) organs, and stitched his body back together. Falcon didn’t give Loki back his eyes yet, as due to how dark the planet was, his eyes weren’t really needed. But it did keep his eye sockets from getting infected. Falcon lived within Loki for a while, two beings who had been mistreated by the ones that were meant to protect and love them, now they acted as one.

Loki wanted revenge for what happened to him, so he tracked down his tribe, and murdered everyone with the help of Falcon, Falcon able to transform itself around Loki being able to give him weapons that are attached to his arms, etc. After the murder of his whole tribe, Loki gave it the name Falcon, though the name ‘falcon’ is a bird, on his planet the falcon is a giant floating orca like creature that is highly dangerous.

Loki continued to live on the planet avoiding the IPC, while also trying to sabotage the mining operations. As well as having Falcon start a video diary log for him, e.g. Loki wanting to try to record what was left of his planet, as well as record his thoughts/feelings. After a while Falcon finally took on the form of a mecha, that could act as a spaceship. It taking Loki away from his planet to try to find a different planet for Loki to be on. Once arriving at a new planet, Falcon finally gave Loki an eye, it being able to function, but his vision was different, better than what it was, as well as having visual noise in his vision, such as if he was to focus on someone a red line would appear which would show him where to follow to get a hit/kill in on that person. Loki had never seen light before, so often had his eye closed due to how overwhelming everything was.

Due to what had happened to him, he became a terrible child, violent and trigger-happy, though Falcon would try to reel him back in. Most people on the new planet would ostracise him, try to chase him off, or even hurt him. Loki would still make video logs, even if half the time he had his eyes closed, he would rely on Falcon to do most of the filming for him, so he could watch it back later and feel slightly less overwhelmed about the world through watching the video back.

He would continue to planet hop with Falcon, doing the same thing as what he did on the previous. Till the 4th new planet, an adventurer started to try to befriend Loki, leaving him food, talking to him from a distance, leave him books, sing to him. Loki stuck around, since he wasn’t sure what to make of this sudden kindness, and eventually let this adventurer close. The adventurer was called Vicky, and traveled around planets on her ship called B-12. She wanted to take Loki with her, to try to show him how kind people could actually be, that he didn’t have to be so violent. (Vicky followed Akivili/The trailblaze, though she had never seen the Astral Express.) Vicky was able to have Loki’s video camera for a while, leaving him a video of encouraging words and promises of a brighter future, since she knew Loki always watched the videos back, wanting to give Loki something he could look back on. Telling Loki in the video that he should “always choose love”, that it costs nothing to love like how it costs nothing to hate, but that showing love and patience can make a situation more bearable. When she finished her video she left the camera in its usual spot, along with some heavily tinted sunglasses, knowing the light is the reason Loki walks around blind. This video when watched back by Loki and Falcon made Loki finally join Vicky on her travels, to try to figure out how to be a person. They travelled planet to planet for several years, Vicky teaching him how to be kind, and helping Loki figure out how to use Falcon to the fullest.

They visited a war-torn planet (around when Loki was 15), Vicky wanting to teach Loki how to help in dire situations. Them splitting up when they got to the planet, going off to help people both sides of the war being effected, but after a day of helping people out Loki went to go find Vicky, being unable to find her, and her ship B-12 being in ruin. After a few days of trying to find Vicky and being unable to find her, Loki/Falcon flew into a rage, forgetting all the lessons Vicky had taught him about kindness. Using the form of a giant mecha, Loki/Falcon attacked both sides of the war, effectively stopping the war for both sides. The planet got evacuated due to Loki/Falcon’s rage leaving Loki/Falcon alone on the planet, eventually Loki/Falcon left. They couldn’t confirm or deny that Vicky was dead as they couldn’t find any trace of her not in the ruins of her ship or anywhere else. Falcon finally taking the shape of the ‘North top b-2 Spirit’ jet.

This whole time Loki would have still been making video logs, and wouldn’t stop. Having a relatively good documentation of his life and planets he visits. After about a year and a half of travelling around on his own, he was convinced by some bounty hunters to become one of them, saying he can document any planet he comes across on the way. Saying he could use Falcon for good and get rid of the scum in the galaxies. Loki having no real way of getting money, accepted this offer, and trained with the bounty hunters for several years before he finally went off on his own. He still kept the message of ‘always choose love’ but only gave that to the innocent people, often trying to help out anyone on any planet he visited, making good friends with both natives on the planets and travellers.

He hated the idea of something being set in stone, e.g. destiny. He was always told he was going to become a monster, or a recluse. But he’s become a kind, outgoing confident person, who a lot of people see as a hero. He thinks a lot of things just should be left up to chance, that not everything needs to be known, a sort of ‘go with the flow’ sort of mindset. He started to hate the aeon Nous, due to their predictions and how their predictions were basically fact. Not liking how Nous basically doomed several planets/galaxy systems, e.g. the predictions about Rupert I. This hate for Nous is what got the attention of Mythus, leading to Mythus gazing upon Loki and granting him the emanator status. Loki gaining unnaturally powerful abilities, and his other eye (that Falcon still hadn’t replaced) to flare up and gain an whole different sight in that eye, everything being warped and colourful within the star eyes vision. Several different places on his body started to flare up due to the immense power he was given. Would start to use this power to give to Falcon to make it even stronger.

Extras about Loki/Falcon (no particular order):

-Falcon can’t speak out loud, can only really speak to Loki (speaking to him in his head basically). Falcon normally communicates via animalistic noises such as clicks/whistles/growls/etc, Falcon also learnt how to gesture for things, and also learnt sign language but has found majority of the time it can’t be used.

-As he travelled with Vicky, he became nicer, and a lot more confident in himself. Falcon became more like Loki as well.

-Acts sly, semi sleazy, like he knows something you don’t.

-Fairly smart, often when visiting planets he’d pick up books, or sit in on studies. Would even take random online classes. He does like to learn, but doesn’t really care to discover the unknown.

-Despite being somewhat smart, he prefers to act like an idiot, partly because it means people won’t expect much from him, or would underestimate him. He also just thinks it's more fun to act like an idiot that some smart person. He only really offers some sort of wisdom when it’s needed.

-Soft spot for cute things. Will go out of his way for something if it’s cute.

-Fairly calm person, semi hard to make him annoyed/mad.

-Thinks internet slang/trends/etc are fun, doesn’t take them seriously, is willing to blend old internet slang with new internet slang. Is also 100% willing to use new internet slang incorrectly when around kids/teens, finding it funny when they cringe about it. Will also make up random new slang words himself and convince kids/teens it’s a new word. There are a few slang words that he directly caused this way, because it caught on.

-Likes to poke fun at people, tries not to over step or take it too far, but he still struggles with picking up on social cues, so from time to time ends up accidentally upsetting people. Will try to apologize for it/make it up to them.

-His videos act as a diary, and also documents what worlds look like, he also likes to record little random moments, such as a random convo he has with someone, a random view, etc. He also uses the videos to record thoughts and feelings. If someone was to look back at all his vids, it’s basically a life story from when him and Falcon first meet, to current day.

-His phone case is artwork of a crane (black/white/red bird).

-Doesn’t really tend to visit the same planet twice, often only keeping in contact with people via text, most of the friends he actually meets up with are people who travel around too.

-Has been on the lookout for Vicky on his travels, as he is still unsure of if she somehow made it out or if she’s dead.

-Good singer, doesn’t really share that fact though.

-Fairly good with kids, may be a little bit of a chaotic influence on them though. Doesn’t want any kids to suffer the way he had.

About his species:

species ‘Dregers’

Dregers have a semi toxic relationship with religion on their planet, e.g. if something terrible is happening, they think sacrificing people to their god (that doesn’t exist) would make it stop. (think of toxic traits of any religion, and chances are most Dregers had this relationship with religion) Dregers also had different tribes that would represent the different faces of their god. And some that worshipped a completely different god from the others.

Common features of Dregers: -Can have unnatural hair colours -Marking like scales on neck a bit on the chest/shoulders, and sometimes under the mouth -Scales on arms/legs, could be solid or gradient -Tails, can be any length, almost bone like with their spikes, tails tend to be semi skinny. -Scales running down their spine, sometimes can have spikes/foldable spikes on their spine. -Sharp teeth, has two sets of them (teeth can be unnatural colours) -Possible bioluminescent markings (not all the time, ones with markings needed to watch out as animals on their home planet would be attracted to the light) -Can have unnatural eye colours, eyes can glow. Eyesight tends to be bad due to the planet the species is from. -unnatural insides colour (e.g. inside their mouths/body. Can also glow) -Dark blue blood, some of their blood can be dark purple as well. The higher the altitude they live their blood will be more purple, the lower it's blue. (If they don’t live on the planet, their blood is dark purple leaning into pink) -The whites of their eyes still stay white Features specific to Loki and why: -The ‘flames’, they appeared when he became an emanator -His dark eye whites (the white of his eyes is dark purple). It’s because of his ‘sacrifice’ as a child, his mecha replaced his eyes. He has slightly better eyesight than the average member of his species. -Dark pink-redish blood, due to his mecha being a large part of him now, and paired with the fact he no longer lives on the planet. -’Stitched’ mouth/mouth that can open up a lot more than normal mouths. From his mouth being cut due to the ‘sacrifice’ -No tail, was cut off during his 'sacrifice'.

Came from a planet where the upper atmosphere was so thick it barely let any light shine on the planet. The planet had giant fauna (animals) a sort of deep sea gigantism (without the sea). A lot of animals also had the ability to float like they were in water. The planet’s animals often looked disturbing (e.g. think of giant teeth, alien looking, bioluminescent, see through). The plant life tended to be large as well, often Dregers would use the plant life to hide their homes from the animals. There were a lot of ‘man-eating’ plants, plants that feasted on live organisms. The planet WAS very rich in resources e.g. wood/ores/ect.

The planet didn’t get many space visitors as due to the thick atmosphere most people found it very hard to land on the planet safely, and the planet was also too dangerous for the average person due to the animals, and dangerous plant life. The perpetual darkness turned a lot of people off from the planet too, as most couldn't navigate around like the Dregers could.

The IPC finally turned their attention to his planet. The ICP took over the planet with the prospect of ‘saving’ it and bringing space travel to the planet, but instead started to destroy it, killing both animals and plant life going after the planet's rich resources, basically turning the whole planet into a mining operation with no regards to the Dregers that lived there. The Dregers would move around the planet, trying to avoid what the IPC were doing, but after a while they couldn’t avoid it any more. (see the beginning of Loki's story for 'sacrifices')

[milfygerard]

hello bestie you are my resident taylor swift moot so i thought you’d be a good person to answer: i’m like 40% a swiftie and i know Some of the lore around the gaylor theories but not all. is there some kind of masterpost or blog you can link me to where i can like Gain Knowledge abt it i just really feel like wasting my time on that today

hi ok. God.

Most of the comprehensive ones are either lost to the annals of tumblr or fucking historical documents at this point

the two biggest non-tumblr starting points (though a few of them are still built on a few tumblr links) are the iconic reputation is about karlie kloss powerpoint and the abandoned-in-2019 blog kaylorevidence which are great looks at of-its-time gaylor culture opinions and in jokes as well as having a pretty comprehensive swiftgron timeline, though lots of things have changed w context and time. A big problem w post-2019 kaylor is that widely agreed upon timelines split massively between LSKs and more general gaylor fandom who just like think shes gay/bi or like her music in a lesbian fashion which makes it way harder to keep track of (though i did find this extremely long post-folkmore kaylor update from before midnights was announced) and makes it harder to divide like actual interesting or relevant stuff from babygating or person-who-knows-a-person-who-knows-taylor-wears-someting-with-flowers-on-it type of stuff. @/throwbackgaylor is a good example of having a very uneven mix of both of these things that can be hard to sort through but is probably a good resource for backsearching. If anyone knows how to find the old 2018 kaylor masterlists (of which there were a TON

I know @that-curly-haired-lesbian used to do queer readings and reinterpretations of her songs that I used to scroll thru and ashley norton did a pretty comprehensive breakdown of the taytaysbeard clusterfuck from a non gaylor perspective which as someone who was in the thick of that in high school I thought was pretty respectful and well done even if its kind of unbearable to watch and remember. If you want to see the state of LSK now ttb is still active at @/spade-riddles I believe but that person is a genuine certified weirdo and i dont really recommend it. penelope and priscilla are gay twins also is a good source of at its time gaylor culture and in-jokes (warning for being probably dated I havent watched any of these in a Long time)

if anyone else has masterposts or resources of Gaylors Past pls add on! I feel like so much is lost in social media based communities like this one and it can be hard to illustrate a time in online fandom without a broad spread of examples and stories and pre 2020 gaylor was such a specific moment in time!

[valeriianz]

For the fic writer asks:

4. Obviously you did research for BitB. I'd love you to ramble about it if you like I'm sure you've got STORIES

5. Did you outline it?

7. How'd you decide it would be Hob's pov?

25-27 I'd love to know a/some favorite lines, details, and any lore you might want to share

omg TJ what wonderful questions! thank you!! this is going to get LONG!

4: Rambling about research!

do you wanna see a screen shot of my bookmarks under my "band au" folder?

man, and that's only what could fit on the screen.

there is... SO MUCH i chose to ignore for this fic. ideas that i had to drop, lines or extra details about the other band members equipment. more logistics, what Lucienne actually does, what Mervyn has to put up with as the new touring stage manager... i realized very early on that i couldn't possibly cram all this (super cool and eye opening) information into the fic and still keep reader's interest and, most importantly, to not stray away from the fact that this is a dreamling fic. whenever i felt myself getting carried away with a side character or job or even social media numbers, gossip, outside POVs, i had to reign myself in and get back on track. there will be time for exploring everything i missed in side stories after BitB is finished. i just hope i still have the energy to write it all.

once, i was so deep into research that after publishing chapter 2, i went into work and when my chef asked what "GA" meant on my prep list, i answered with full confidence, "general admission."

(it means "get ahead.")

the worst part of this entire writing process is im still learning new shit. i havent rewatched or read a lot of what i've saved because, to be very honest, i was feeling a little burnt out. it's why we're kinda full steam dreamling now. it's why ive been glossing over a lot of technical stuff and being vague about conversations amongst the crew/not including it at all. i don't prefer ignoring my research, but at the end of the day i want to still enjoy writing this fic and finish it. even if i can't be as descriptive and detailed and nuanced as i used to be.

5: Did you outline the fic?

(also asked by @hardly-an-escape!)

i wouldn't call what i have a proper "outline," it's more like a 20k word document filled to the brim with notes that i skim at least a dozen times while i'm writing a new chapter (being in my brain is literally hell). i live multichapter life very dangerously. i copy and paste lines or sections (always scattered, never together! augh!) that are meant to go together and plop them in a new document titled "band au ch.#" and then i structure the chapter around what i want to happen.

but to answer this question in the plainest of terms: yeah. i know exactly what's going to happen up until the very end. even if its all in my head and the only concrete shit that's written down are beats/plot points. i'll figure out the rest later!

7: How'd you decide it would be Hob's POV?

i actually never even considered writing it from Dream's POV. this was my first fic in the fandom (which is so nuts to think about lol) and writing in Dream's POV sounded so scary lol. i also just thought Hob's would be easier because i have worked a few backstage shows, back in my college years. i figured eh, i can make this work. and i loved exploring how weird and mysterious musicians can be, from a normie's POV. making Hob a fan first and having him worry about developing a parasocial relationship... it was fun to explore.

25: Share your favorite line

oh god, i have so many haha.

“What are you thinking about?” starting in ch.2 and onward lmao

“It’s–” Dream laughs quietly, bitterly. “I don’t like change.” He says each word with emphasis, eyes trailing down to fixate somewhere past Hob. “And I still hold onto the things I can control, like my instruments–” his eyes swing up to regard Hob apologetically. “Or my clothes or my–” he brings a hand up and wiggles his fingers around his head. “My hair.” ch.4

"His majesty is pleased." ch.5

“You are obsessive,” he states, slow and cool and with a quiet smile cracking through his composure. “Just like me.” ch.7

“You look good.” Hob has to lean in to say so, unwilling to raise his voice amongst the roar of the fans. ch.11

“Del looks like porcelain, but she’s actually made of steel.” Desire swirls the contents of their glass before pushing their shoulders back with a deep breath. “She's tougher than all of us.” ch.11

“Everything. I want…” his fingers tighten in Hob’s hair, pulling him closer, speaking against his lips. “…Everything.” ch.14

26: Share your favorite detail

how intentionally coy Dream behaves. i love keeping him a mystery and deciding when and how much to allow his intentions to peek through has been so fun lol.

Despair is in fact covered in tattoos and piercings! i say this because i feel like sometimes i forget lmao. (but also her and Hob don't interact much so. my bad haha).

Delirium's constant explosion of color in the way she dresses <3

Hob's dedication to his job, Dream, and the people he cares about the most. i don't care if people think i'm making him too soft and good, im gonna project on that man and make him a sweet, sweet simp lmao

and ah, this doesn't matter anymore, and i kinda regret doing it but. i originally had Dream's favorite bass all black but the pickguard was white. so it actually looked like Jessamy. not gonna lie when @designtheendless drew it all black i decided i liked it better that way. and truly i do. that's when i went back to ch.1 and changed it haha. to actually see the guitar with Dream, all done up sparkling black and purple flecks... gosh it's just so him. but then i got up to the reveal that the guitar's name was Jessamy and i was like, "oh, right." lmao. no one seems to care so i'll leave it be.

27: Share a piece of lore you made up for the story

i have a lot lmao. and this post is already so long... im hoping i can get to some if not all of it in side fics in the future. but for now, here's some that's more like headcanons but:

Dream hates flying. he can full on go into panic attacks on the plane if he allows himself to get into his own head.

this was mentioned briefly in ch.4, while Dream was discussing the formation of the band, but Despair was in another band before joining Endless. she is the only character in the fic who gets to keep her English roots (lol sorry) and is the oldest in the band (30).

all of the band members ages: Dream, Desire, and Death are all 28 and Delirium is 22.

Dream can experience subdrop after going too hard during a performance.

Dream paints his own nails, it's very therapeutic.

as an exercise, i explored my own headcanons for Dream in this verse in a word doc, and one thing i will share from it that you might find interesting: If I were to ever give Dream a theological values, I would describe him as a satanist. He is a physical and pragmatic person, nonconforming, and although he is introverted, he enjoys being a part of a community (he loves his band).

also found this in my notes: How Desire and Dream got along was Death making them fight it out. Hob raises an eyebrow “like in a brawl?” He couldn't imagine Desire throwing hands. “No, in a pillow fight that escalated in hair pulling and verbal taunts.”

fic writer asks

[7upslut]

#4 emails part 2

I just wanted to share some emails sent back and forth about my fic Sense of a Foreshortened Future because I need inspiration to start writing it again. In these emails it's referred to as #4 because it was the fourth Thiam fic I ever started writing. I will do my best to remove what I think is spoilers.

Dear friend,

I hope this email finds you well. Hell, I hope it finds you at all.

As you know, I've been thinking of adding a prologue to Sense of a Foreshortened Future. I think it would benefit one of the overarching plot thread of hunters following Liam and Theo for a few of the labs.

This prologue would be short (2/3k perhaps) and would not be required reading to understand the main part of the story. It would follow one of the people who were hired by a group of Spoilera to find the lab. This lab in particular would contain a map (assumed to be the one Theo mentioned he tried to memorize) that gives general locations for labs and this person would give the map, and a few other things, to the group of hunters.

I'm planning to start planting people from that group of hunters around Liam and have him take note of them briefly. If there is already a description of the hunters and their motivations then the audience could connect what was happening before Liam (given that they read the prologue- once again I'll make it clear that it's not required reading and it should still make perfect since without the inclusion of the prologue).

Even if I don't post it or have it on the main doc I think I'll still be writing it. The chapter would help me solidify some of the people trailing the pack as well as help me keep track of their lore and motivations.

Plot point I'm planning so don't read if you don't want to know.

This group of hunters will become more and more important (even if I don't mention them every chapter) because during chapter 5 I'm planning to have Liam run into one of them and that is what makes the hunters realize that Liam and Theo would lead them to the main lab that they want (the one in Portland because on of the documents they would have been given details a tracking device the Doctors were building to search for any and all supernatural creatures) which they wouldn't have been able to find because even though they have the location they don't know how to find the entrance (much like the other labs)

At some point they would also get ahold of the journal Liam has and would use this to their advantage when they confront Liam and Theo at the Portland (this may turn into Olympia) lab.

End of potential spoilers.

Because I'm planning to write it anyway I'll add you to the doc once it's done and we'll go from there. Really I think it would just add more context and the hunters being at the Spoiler lab wouldn't be some big shocker and I wouldn't have to do this huge evil villain monologue (just a little one) from the hunters.

From underneath a kitchen counter, seven

[jungkoode]

I wonder if there's any way to know kgp! Jk's opinion abt oc🥹 how he feels abt her , his real feelings hidden away deep inside.

Also for very beneficial reasons , I want to see V fall in love but I want her to die a painstaking death so he could feel how jk felt😮‍💨 an eye for an eye.

But then again knowing v's personality it's highly unlikely he's gonna fall in love , he's a maniac at best. But still, if you ever want to or get the time I would really love to read a sequel or prequel with v's story , or maybe I'll come up with it I'm my own head cuz it's that irresistible . I'm already in love with your characters 😭

*aggressively slams coffee mug on desk*

OH MY GOD ANON YOU'RE ENABLING MY PSYCHOLOGY NERD TENDENCIES (╥﹏╥) Let me tell you about my children because THIS COMMENT. THIS RIGHT HERE. This is the kind of deep diving analysis that makes me vibrate with excitement at 3AM while my roommate begs me to please go to sleep

First off - Jeon's thoughts about Y/N? HAHAHA. Our emotionally constipated chief is mostly just annoyed that this tiny seduction division gremlin keeps popping up in his carefully ordered life. Like sir, you have an entire division to run and now you have to babysit? The AUDACITY. Not to mention the coffee incident (which... yeah, there's more to that than meets the eye, just wait for chapters 5-6). BUT. But but but. You might've caught that tiny moment where she stood up to him and didn't back down? Yeah, that... that did something. Not that he'd ever admit it, the stubborn fool. I mean, a chief doesn't usually have to deal with ensigns from other divisions having the NERVE to talk back to them, right? (￣ヘ￣)

I can't spoil much (I choose violence and chaos), but I will say: Jeon values independence like it's going out of style. Wonder why... *cough* *cough* There's some spicy lore drops coming in chapters 5-6 that might illuminate things. Let's just say his appreciation for people who can stand on their own two feet isn't... accidental ;)

Now V... Oh sweet summer child. My beautiful disaster. My unhinged creation. *cracks knuckles* OKAY SO. Everyone in this gang is traumatized to hell and back, but V? He's got layers. Like a fucked-up onion. Or a trauma lasagna. I spent WEEKS researching personality disorders and psychological profiles to write him properly (my browser history is concerning, and my FBI agent is probably worried). His feelings about what happened with Jeon are... distorted, to put it mildly. There's a reason he felt so betrayed, and it's not just about Jeon.

ACTUALLY. *whispers* I might have plans for a separate story focusing on V because BOY does this man have a story to tell. And it might be told from someone else's perspective(s). OOPS SPOILER POLICE I SAID NOTHING. But like... his psychological profile is so complex I had to make an entire separate document just to keep track of his trauma responses and triggers. I literally read entire books and research papers on various personality disorders to get him right (yes, I'm that kind of nerd, fight me (ง'̀-'́)ง).

As for V falling in love... *laughs in author who has Plans™* I will say this: nothing in this story will go the way you expect. That's a promise and a threat (｀∀´)Ψ His arch does intertwine with Y/N’s… but not in the way you’d expect. <3

P.S. The fact that you're already crafting headcanons makes my black little heart so happy! Keep them coming! Just... maybe keep some tissues handy. Just saying. And maybe a therapist on speed dial. Because honey, we're just getting started (⊙﹏⊙)

P.P.S. Your brain going "what if V fell in love and then SUFFERING" is exactly the kind of chaos I respect. You. I like you.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

[ereyies]

i love your of mice and men oc. let me tell you i was scrolling thru the omam tag after reading that book for class because GOSH that ending destroyed me. bronwyn is so cute!!! and i love the ideas you have for her character and how she’d add onto the book. is there any more of your character that u thought of?? i’d love it hear it! ur art is stunning btw!!!

artists and writers are the backbone of dead fandoms. but i dont know if you could even call this fandom dead cuz i dont think it even had a life 💀

THANK YOU SO INCREDIBLY MUCH!!

this means the entire world to me you have no idea just how touched i am that you love my oc 💖 💖!! be VERY careful going through the of mice and men tag because unfortunately there are a LOT of nsfw bots!!

as for anything else relating to Bronwyn and her character, I don't have much else written/in mind other than that I have already shared other than maybe two things (copied and pasted from a document i made just to keep track of her lore):

Candy and Bronwyn probably wouldn't be close despite Candy having worked at the ranch for years. Not because of anything bad that happened between them, however I imagine that Candy was initially the main contributor to all the gossip said about her on the ranch and later on he learned she wasn't a bad person at all and just a lonely ill child, but by that point he had both immortalised her as a legend but condemned her from ever making real connections with people again. Knowing what he started and how he unintentionally isolated her and prevented her from being easily able to make friends with people on the ranch, the guilt would probably prevent him from forming any close connections with her.

I feel like if she were actually a character within the novel, her presence within the story would be similar to Andrey Bolkonsky in the musical Natasha, Pierre, & the Great Comet of 1812 (brilliant but strange musical btw, if you're interested in musicals it's definitely worth a listen!!). She is this looming presence amongst all the characters, always being mentioned in passing during conversation, this figure that everyone is aware of yet never sees, never actually being present in person up until the very end.

Candy would probably be the reader's introduction to Bronwyn, since Candy is a known gossiper. She'd be this influence in the story but is never truly there. I'm not too sure how she'd be important if that were the case though? Perhaps she'd be a figure symbolic of a 'point of no return' for all the characters. They all have a dream that isn't totally impossible which they come very close to achieving, and could very well leave their situation, but Bronwyn never had a chance and can never truly escape, locked up just to be forgotten about. Maybe she'd be a warning of the terrible fate which Lennie would have faced if he had lived and been institutionalised.

ANYWAYS moving past all of that; i have only made very few drawings of Bronwyn since my last post talking about her (admittedly due to extreme art block). But I’ve mostly been brainstorming about Curley and Bronwyn, the similarities and differences between them, mostly differences. Here is some of my recent art:

I always love experimenting and playing around with my style, trying out new brushes, techniques and colours <33 The last isn’t exactly my favourite mostly because i was just getting a feel for how to draw Curley and had little to no references for the pose and so it looks a little stiff. But!! I made many notes for my ideas while I was doing the sketch:

Thank you once more for your ask!! It means the world to me <33 I was so embarrassed when I first made her and feared being called ‘cringe’ or that people wouldn’t like her or something else along those lines, but the reception so far has been nothing but positive and encouraging!! I definitely plan to make more art and potentially even write some short fanfics including her in the future!!

oh one final thing, i also made a spotify playlist for her!! https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0qrBhwqopc6KrC7RouFxOZ?si=GPudTv12S92QwBBXqxw0Bg&pi=khdpmOzjTfeQP

Thank you once more for being so kind <33 I hope you have the most wonderful day/evening/night!!

[eraserspiral]

sooo intrigued by (all of this, but) fallflashbacks !!! what’s going on there !! 🤍

it's a document (essentially a series of disconnected scenes) I started when I realised I had a) no interest in writing a full lythra game retelling but b) lots of "lore" between lythra and astarion to keep track of.

for example, the act 1/early act 2 gale misunderstanding (under the cut because it's long):

“What do you want?”

Astarion suddenly felt awkward. His plan, such as it was, was almost exactly as he had intimated it to Shadowheart: offer Lythra a shoulder to cry on, soothe her with gentle platitudes, maybe even a hug, then she would demonstrate her gratitude by allowing him a quick nibble.

(And if the gnawing sensation in the pit of his stomach that had nothing to do with hunger and everything to do with seeing her go off with Gale was also sated, well.)

But the Lythra in front of him showed no sign of tears or sorrow. No, she seemed… irritated. He briefly considered making a hasty retreat, but he’d come this far, and his throat burned at the delicious scent of her in such a confined space.

“I came to check on you, make sure you’re all right. When I saw you leave with Gale’s…” he waved a hand, “Assistant, I didn’t expect you back until the morning.”

A muscle flickered in her jaw, “Well, things didn’t exactly go to plan.”

“Oh?” Despite his hunger, some part of Astarion was genuinely curious. And definitely not relieved.

Lythra gave Astarion a long, calculating look, as though evaluating how much to divulge. Then she sighed, “It’s my fault, I led him on.”

“I very much doubt that,” Astarion smirked, “Gale wouldn’t know flirtation if it jumped up and bit him—”

She cut across him, "No, I mean, I led him on. Deliberately.”

Now, that was an interesting development. Astarion sat down at the end of her bedroll.

“I don’t know why I did it,” she continued, exasperated. “I wasn’t interested but I knew he liked me and I was lonely and he was… nice. I—I liked the attention.”

“If it’s any consolation, we’ve all been there, darling.” He was surprised by the bitter sincerity that lay behind his words.

Lythra didn’t seem convinced, “Oh? And did they confess their love for you, thinking it was their last night alive?”

“Sometimes,” he admitted, momentarily adrift in the past, thinking of the passionate confessions he’d inspired strangers to whisper longingly in his ear before he led them to their deaths. Then what she’d just said sank in, “Wait. Gale told you—”

“His exact words were: ‘I’m in love with you’,” said Lythra flatly.

“Oh. Oh dear.”

Her lips were pressed into a thin line, “I tried to let him down gently, but… I hurt him. Badly. He doesn't deserve that.”

Astarion hummed in disagreement, “Maybe not, but—”

“No,” Lythra frowned, “He’s a good man and it was cruel. I’ve been cruel, again. All I know how to do is hurt people. Fuck. What is wrong with me?”

The mood within the tent had shifted and Astarion knew this was his chance. There were so many lines lying tantalisingly in easy reach. Ripe, low-hanging fruit, just waiting for him to pluck them:

The line between pain and pleasure is finer than most people realise. How about we explore it further, together?

Well, I’m not a good man. Maybe we can put your talents to better use...

It sounds like you need to be punished.

And the classic — Let me make you feel better.

Something gave him pause, though.

“You’re a vicious little thing, yes, but we can’t all be heroes,” he said simply.

“Is that supposed to make me feel better?”

“No. If it’s comfort you’re after, I am not the right man. Although —just to check— when you say that you hurt him—”

She glared at him by way of reply, her crimson eyes glittering in the low light.

“What do you want, Astarion?”

[i3utterflyeffect]

Could you provide a summary of the Rain World lore, or point to any good videos that do that? I’m interested in the Creatures™️ and want to know more about what you’re basing them off of

I'm so sorry anon i tried to make this short. this is all copypasted from a document. the power of autism killed me

if my frothing is too much here's a video by daszombes that probably summarizes this all

IN MY DEFENSE THO this video is also like, 20 minutes long.

im like. going into game mechanics and going into it in a similar way to how a normal player might be introduced to the game. and doing a bunch of shit abt it.

ANYWAY!!!!!!!! Summary of Rain World. Let's go. For context purposes I will be telling the story of Survivor and then going into lore, other stories, and Downpour. Obviously spoilers for everything Rain World and Downpour.

WARNINGS

Mentions of general death and animal death (duh)

suicide

child death (briefly)

fictional speciecide/genocide

potential existential crisis fuel

let's get started.

Your name is The Survivor. You live with a family of five. A little sibling, a baby sibling, and your two parents.

The reason the game is called Rain World is because of the heavy rains that buffet your land-- somewhat manageable from the place your home is at, but in many cases, lethal-- not only because of the flooding, but also because it rains hard enough to give you blunt force trauma that will kill you.

You escape these floods using shelters, hiding and hibernating at the end of each 'cycle'-- the time between each downpour.

During one rain, you fall down, plunging into the abyss as you are seperated from your family. Your mission is to go home.

You find yourself in a dilapidated urban sprawl-- it's something close to it, anyway. Not a city, but incredibly industrial. The world is overgrown. This little yellow thing shows up-- it's called an observer but we'll call it by the nickname Iggy for now-- and it directs you to food and then shelter during the barebones tutorial.

You'll go a few cycles, and discover some base mechanics.

KARMA: Karma is, essentially, a way to keep track of how you're doing. Every time you survive a cycle, your Karma goes up. Every time you die, it goes down. You start with 5 base symbols, each granting you one level. Karma is required to navigate the world, as each reigon requires a certain level for you to get in. We'll talk about this later: Karma is actually pretty important to the lore.

CYCLES: Mentioned previously.

DEATH: You are never truly dead in Rain World. Each time you die, you return to your last shelter, restarting the cycle-- but Rain World is special because it's not just you who knows. Creatures have a chance of coming back to life at the end of every cycle, and they will remember you. There's a system that coincides with this--

REPUTATION: Every species has its own perspective on you, and your actions will change their perception of you. Killing a lot of lizards of the same color might make them afraid of you. If you don't, and instead treat them well, they might ignore you. You are prey, so balancing reputation is important-- and I can only think of one creature that won't try to kill you if your reputation's bad. Even the fish will personally drown you.

One creature is incredibly dependent on reputation that it can make or break a run: Scavengers. If you're kind and often trade, offer pearls (they love pearls), save them from enemies, etc., they'll treat you well. Get a bad reputation, though, and you're dead within seconds. Some animals are just skittish though-- there's literally personality values determining how creatures will act. I love that so much.

I think that's all the important lore-based stuff.

After a few cycles, Iggy will direct you to where (at the time you assume) your family is, and you'll follow them through the areas, going through a large building, a garbage waste, and eventually reaching a unusual ocean lined with pipes and with a sunken building in the distance. As you get closer, you discover that Iggy was not directing you to your family, but instead asking you to go to this building.

After a lot of swimming (and running in terror as the giant leviathan worms try to crush you with their metal jaws), you'll meet HER. A blue humanoid with wires spilling out, attached to the room by a mechanical arm-- similar to the ones you might find on a train.

You cannot understand her at this time, but her name is Looks To The Moon; We'll come back later.

After assigning you a fetch quest, Iggy drags you all the way back, and I'm not entirely sure what the beginner's route is, but I'm pretty sure it's (unfortunately) Dark Level Spider Hell.

Eventually, you crawl through that pit, run away from the centipedes trying to kill you, encounter giant birds with mouths like scissors that really want to kill you that are very very fast, run from them, and eventually make your way up to the next area.

THE LEG & THE UNDERHANG

The Leg is an alarming change from the semi-natural formations of the ground. This place is industrial. It's a metal beam-column, reaching up into the endless sky. This place is infested with lizards, and a scarier enemy:

Daddy Long Legs, also known as The Rot. These are blind… Biological lumps of… something. They're black and blue, and completely blind. But they have great hearing, and the rot will find you if you're not careful. And it will consume you.

Keep the Rot in mind for later. It's important for the lore-- basically crucial.

If you can escape this hellscape and make your way to the top, you'll find yourself in a building larger than you can comprehend.

FIVE PEBBLES - SUPERSTRUCTURE

This area is simply labeled Five Pebbles. This will make sense later.

There's no gravity here, but there's lots of lights and strange things-- things that look like they'd belong inside of a creature, and little bite-sized rainbow things. These are called Neurons, and you actually need them for the fetch quest.

There's a lot of things going on, but you won't be able to admire it too long-- this place has Rot inside it too, and it's much harder to avoid when you can't control your path due to being weightless. It's pretty terrifying, but in a way, this place is kind of majestic.

You explore the sprawl of access shafts, and you begin to hear music-- the most acclaimed and chilling track in the game-- as you reach the General Systems Bus. The first time I arrived here, I was completely awestruck.

RANDOM GODS

A large room, with a single chamber isolated in the middle. Projected lights surround you, and you have to climb your way towards the top to enter the unusual room.

Inside is another robot, similar to Looks to the Moon, except he's pink, he wears a cloak, and most of all, he seems shocked at your presence, because the gravity in the room returns, and everything falls to the ground-- including you.

He talks for a moment, before seizing you with the power of Gravity™️, and lifting you up. He implants The Mark Of Communication into your brain-- a mark allowing you to understand the language he speaks.

The following dialogue occurs:

. . . ...is this reaching you? A little animal, on the floor of my chamber. I think I know what you are looking for. You're stuck in a cycle, a repeating pattern. You want a way out. Know that this does not make you special - every living thing shares that same frustration. From the microbes in the processing strata to me, who am, if you excuse me, godlike in comparison. The good news first. In a way, I am what you are searching for. Me and my kind have as our purpose to solve that very oscillating claustrophobia in the chests of you and countless others. A strange charity - you the unknowing recipient, I the reluctant gift. The noble benefactors? Gone. The bad news is that no definitive solution has been found. And every moment the equipment erodes to a new state of decay. I can't help you collectively, or individually. I can't even help myself. For you though, there is another way. The old path. Go to the west past the Farm Arrays, and then down into the earth where the land fissures, as deep as you can reach, where the ancients built their temples and danced their silly rituals. The mark I gave you will let you through. Not that it solves anyone's problem but yours.

Turns out, this entire massive superstructure IS this guy; Five Pebbles is his name, and this puppet is merely a more interaction-friendly extension of his larger form. He's also not very happy with you climbing through his structure, and kicks you out onto the surface of the structure.

Now, let's go back to Moon and get some more information. We'll go to the west later.

Moondown

Looks to The Moon greets you much more pleasantly than Five Pebbles:

Hello little creature. What are you? If I had my memories I would know… You must be very brave to have made it all the way here. But I'm sorry to say your journey here is in vain.B As you can see, I have nothing for you. Not even my memories. Or did I say that already? I see that someone has given you the gift of communication. Must have been Five Pebbles, as you don't look like you can travel very far… He's sick, you know. Being corrupted from the inside by his own experiments. Maybe they all are by now, who knows. We weren't designed to transcend and it drives us mad. It is good to have someone to talk to after all this time! The scavengers aren't exactly good listeners. They do bring me things though, occasionally…

After giving her a neuron, she will thank you.

These neurons are essentially their brains. She only has five left. She was previously a superstructure like Pebbles-- Who she calls her little brother-- but she has collapsed. Giving her these neurons can help her regain her memory.

You can also eat them! Don't do that. You will permanently kill her if you eat all of them. Also, she remembers if you've done that and won't talk to you.

Quick summary of the vanilla ending:

You go underground, find some religious stuff by an ancient culture before whatever culture created the upper world, you find a big golden ocean, you swim down, and… uh…

You get grabbed by a big worm that sends you to the ascension realm??

I don't fully know what the ending is. No one does. We call the big worm Jerry though, and he's a Void Worm.

Anyway, let's talk about the real basics. The juicy stuff:

Iterators and Ancients

Looks To The Moon and Five Pebbles are complex machines called Iterators, created by a dead race named the Ancients.

These Ancients have left the cycle by using something called Void Fluid, a corrosive material from the core of the world that cancels out your revival. This is called 'Ascension'. We'll talk about this more in a minute.

The Ancients way of life is structured around the idea of leaving the cycle of reincarnation, and they eventually succeed-- however, they decided that they should leave a gift to the 'lesser life' of this world, and allow them their own escape-- with less risk and an immediate payoff. Remember what Pebbles said?

A strange charity - you the unknowing recipient, I the reluctant gift. The noble benefactors? Gone.

Yep; The Ancients basically desired worldwide extinction, from what we can tell. And they didn't bother to create that solution themselves, instead tasking a bunch of sentient, functionally immortal beings, to throw themselves repeatedly at a proverbial wall trying to create this worldwide cleanse.

Iterators were made for this.

But let's talk some other things real quick before we dive into that mess.

KARMA AND YOU

Karma. These symbols are fun and also important.

You see, the base symbols Survivor starts with are representations of what the Ancient Monks call the 'five natural urges'. These don't change the gameplay at all, but karma is crazy important in lore.

Let's take a look at the base five.

KARMA 1: VIOLENCE

The lowest level of karma, this symbol generally represents anger, hate, and violent acts. The symbol is used in several others-- the ones for 'The Hunter' and 'The Outlaw', gotten by eating only meat for 3 cycles or committing needless bloodshed.

KARMA 2: LUST

Yeah. Lust. I've heard this can also be percieved as a desire for material objects (take that with a grain of salt), but other than that, I don't think I need to say more.

This symbol is used in the passage 'The Mother'.

KARMA 3: COMPANIONSHIP

The desire to form connections with others in general, not just friendships. Frequently found scrawled in areas with scavengers, and also used in 'The Chieftain', 'The Friend', and 'The Mother'.

KARMA 4: GLUTTONY

food… hrng….. Anyway this one is the desire to eat good food I assume????? What else is there to say, really?

It's used in The Hunter passage, as well as the Marytr (starve for several cycles intermittently), and Iggy uses it to point you to food.

KARMA 5: SELF-PRESERVATION/SURVIVAL

The urge to survive. This is why people pretty frequently talk about the ancients having a suicide culture-- not to mention that the others represent signs of depression. It's used in 'The Saint' (survive without using weapons) and 'The Nomad' (pass through 4 regions successfully) and, most notably, it's own passage: 'The Survivor', in which you survive five cycles with this amount of karma. It is the highest karma most slugcats can ascend to without Echoes-- We'll talk about Echoes in a minute.

There's one oddball karma that breaks from the formula, so I'm just going to mention that briefly:

7/7 KARMA: PEACE (O)

For some reason, this Karma is used in some other stuff, and only if it's your current highest Karma. Seen in 'The Monk' and 'The Saint' passages, it basically just means peace. That's all. This one's weird.

Let's get to arguably the most important topic:

ASCENSION AND ECHOES

oh god. where do i start. um.

Okay. So basically. Ascension is a separation from the cycle that keeps you from returning, or 'respawning'.

For ancients, this was simple-- they extract fluid from the core of the world named Void Fluid, and you just… Dive in, I guess?

There was a mass ascension at some point, leaving everything they created behind. But this is all lore for the ANCIENTS. Let's get to the slugcat method.

To ascend, you must reach true max karma (represented the symbol ⊗-- a crossed out circle) and go through the Depths and go into the Void Sea, but you can't get Max Karma yourself. There's two ways:

Visit Five Pebbles and gain the Mark Of Communication

or…

You can visit Echoes.

If someone has many vices, such as being arrogant or egotistical, or other connections to the world, they leave something described as a stain of their ego trapped between reality and ascension.

Ghosts, essentially. That's what they're called in the code as well. They will speak to you if you have the Mark, and a few will reminisce and admit they never even wanted to ascend. Whatever these beings are, they give you extra Karma, elevating you to the next level.

Now that your crash course on that is over, let's talk about the iterators, for realsies.

THE GREAT PROBLEM

Being made for a seemingly impossible task was not easy for them, especially after the ancients, well… 'dipped', I guess you would say.

No one could really get to the solution, despite having many cycles to do so, even before the Ancients left. Previously, the Ancient lived atop them in cities, so it was a very noticeable thing.

Some turned to other things: Art, companionship, creative projects, watching the world outside, talking with friends.

Others balanced between these things, finding something like a job and personal life balance.

And some went insane.

You see, the ancients created a 'Self-Destruction Taboo', which attempts to prevent the iterators from attempting to hurt themselves, only causing more damage as they try to work around it and find their own way out.

This wasn't common at first, but something happened that caused it to spiral out of control:

Sliver Of Straw and the Triple Affirmative.

The triple affirmative is a signal that informs all iterators that the Great Problem-- How to ascend all life-- Has been discovered. Three affirmatives:

Affirmative that a solution has been found.

Affirmative that the solution is portable.

Affirmative that a technical implementation is possible and generally applicable.

Here's the thing: The problem wasn't solved. Moon explains it best:

Do you know Sliver of Straw? She's quite legendary among us. Sliver of Straw is the only one to ever broadcast a specific signal: that the Big Problem we're all working on has been solved. The triple affirmative. […] She's also one of few that has ever been confirmed as exhaustively incapacitated, or dead. We do not die easily. Sliver of Straw sent [The Triple Affirmative] and the ensuing commotion was historically unparalleled, before or after. I still remember it. But… nothing happened - except that Sliver of Straw was apparently dead. When the dust settled we were all still there blinking at each other. Everyone had a theory. Some said that she did have a solution, but that the solution itself was somehow dangerous. These later became known as the Triangulators, who think that a solution should be inferred without being directly discovered. Some said she never had a solution, she just died. And when the systems broke down an erroneous signal was sent. One camp claimed that dying was the solution. Either way, after that these different factions developed, as well as a huge forensic effort to recreate and simulate Sliver of Straw's last moments. Some of the simulations were wrapped in a simulation wrapped in a simulation, in case something dangerous might happen. Nothing much has come from it.

Sliver of Straw also abbreviates to SOS, and their name is similar to needle in a haystack.

We're still not sure what happened: The one fan-theory that pretty much seemed canon due to a challenge level was debunked. SOS remains a mystery. I've got my own thoughts, but we're not talking about that here.

Anyway, after Sliver of Straw died, there soon became more and more self-destructing iterators, with one common method resulting in a term for it's failure: The Rot.

Remember that? Yeah. They slowly destroy an iterator, but it doesn't truly kill them. They're still alive in there, somewhere.

Let's talk about how the Rot works once we get to the point where it begins in the main storyline.

THE COLLAPSE

Looks to the Moon was constructed upon a shoreline, and there was originally no plans to create Five Pebbles.

Almost all Iterators are incredibly far apart, even in their local groups, so it would have seemed preposterous at the time of her creation.

However, her surface became inhospitable some time after her creation, and traversing the ground beneath her would have basically made any attempt at evacuation worthless.

So a solution was proposed-- Two iterators connected by a bridge. They could safely leave her to her own things, and meanwhile, the ancients could spend their remaining time NOT dying.

I'd love to talk about the politics surrounding Five Pebble's creation, but that's unnecessary and this doesn't need to get any longer.

After their creators passed on, Pebbles slowly became despondent and began talking in a private group, using the psuedonym 'Erratic Pulse' to obtain information on how he could circumvent the Self Destruction Taboo..

The local group has 3 others. Two are important, one isn't. (sorry Chasing Wind </3)

Seven Red Suns, or SRS, is our current topic.

They are someone Five Pebbles looks up to, and ended up giving him this info, which they regret.

There's also No Significant Harassment, who is mischievous and good friends with most of the group before everything falls apart.

Here's some in-game dialogue:

[LIVE BROADCAST] - PRIVATE Seven Red Suns, No Significant Harassment SRS: I can't stop dwelling over mistakes that I've made. I could just delete those memories of course, but that feels irresponsible. NSH: Oh? What kind of mistakes are we talking about here? SRS: I once gave someone some... sensitive information... the kind that could be dangerous if acted on. SRS: Yet I should have known they weren't in the right state to use that information responsibly. NSH: I take it you won't tell me the content, or to who. SRS: No, I will not, out of respect. NSH: Look, if you ever want to talk about it I can. We can share this little problem of yours. We were made to solve them after all! NSH: You're worried they're going to get themselves hurt by messing it up? SRS: They already have.

You can find the pearl containing this 'sensitive information' in other campaigns.

Here is Moon's comment on it:

This information is illegal. Someone probably tried to send it by a pearl somehow rather than risking being overheard on broadcast. It's an instruction on how to circumvent the self-destruction taboo. The problem with breaking taboos is that the barriers are encoded into every cell of our organic parts. And there are other taboos strictly regulating our ability to rewrite our own genome. Attempting to circumvent the issue using this process would be extremely risky. That's not to say that there exists any known methods that would avoid putting the user in harm's way. Those barriers are there for a reason. Where exactly did you find this pearl? I imagine you dug it up from somewhere within the surrounding facilities, in which case that wouldn't leave many options as to the recipient. That would explain a lot of things…

Pebbles used this pearl, and because of this, his water intake majorly increased, leaving Moon without any water at all: Iterators need water to function, though, as without it they can't flush out the massive amount of excess materials that is made by their operations. He didn't notice, not until Moon contacted him directly-- And he was angered by this, but not without reason.

Failing the pearl caused him to break the genome reprogramming, causing biological parts to be converted into Rot.

When Moon falls, he shuts out all the other iterators, and goes radio silent.

You're caught up on the backing lore. Now... Campaign time.

TIMELINE: SPEEDRUN EDITION

SPEARMASTER

A messenger made by Seven Red Suns who can make spears outta bone-- a little bit trypophobic but I forgive them it's not their fault. No mouth btw. those spears are how it eats. slurp

Delivered the pearl containing the Taboo bypass, but Seven Red Suns sends you back, with a message of worries regarding his physical and mental health, trying to tell him to open up and talk about his feelings. Pebbles gets mad. He kicks you out, as well as the pearl you were carrying. Did I mention that he rips it out of your chest? That pearl was embedded in you.

Anyway, you can take the pearl to Moon because she's still standing, and she encodes it with a goodbye, telling you about how she's about to collapse. You run to the communication arrays and broadcast that message for her, before returning home to Seven Red Suns.

ARTIFICER

"God Forbid Women Do Anything", Genocidal Revenge edition. Artificer had two babies. Scavengers saw one take one of their precious Porls. Baby is dead. Artificer runs but the other baby gets dragged to hell by leeches and drowns.

Anyway, Artificer returns on a genocidal rampage, locked at Karma One: Violence. You use scavenger corpses to get through Karma gates. The only thing that can sate your hunger is blood and flesh. You are continuously aimbotted by Scavengers but you keep coming back to kill more and more.

You're also explosive, did I mention that? I don't think I mentioned that. She explodes. She's very angry. She can launch herself through the air and maul people.

You can get to Karma 10 through echoes, but you're still denied by the void. It's unclear if she becomes an Echo or not.

You also have another ending! If you go to Five Pebbles, he'll say 'hey, that drone you have is a citizenship drone for my city, scavengers are ripping the city apart, I see that you hate them, and if you kill their chieftain we both benefit'!

If you choose to go that route you can tear through the scavengers, have a boss fight, and get a cool mask. Who cares about being empty inside since you can no longer go on a genocidal murder spree and being forever chained to the mortal realm by your anger and bloodshed when you have a cool mask?

Moon is also dead, she's not there.

Blood and violence. Rip and tear.

Slugcat pup was killed so let their corpses rain from the heavens, etc.

HUNTER

You are rot, rot is you!

Actually, you're a messenger slugcat made by No Significant Harrassment. For some reason this guy ended up giving you the rot for reasons still unclear to us. Unintentionally? Intentionally? Who knows. Your cycle count goes down instead of up.

You have limited cycles to speedrun to Moon and MAYBE ascend if you're lucky.

Go through Pebbles? He gives you extra cycles and wishes you the best of luck. Kind of depressing that you're both condemned to the same fate.

Get to Moon; Deliver a pearl that's a message of well wishes and cares from NSH. More importantly, deliver a slag reset key and restart her. She gets her neurons back. She's alive! And unable to help you.

Now? Run.

Your biological time bomb is ticking, and when you get into negatives, it shows. Not only does it turn permadeath, but you begin to experience collapsing into seizure-like spasms randomly, a growing hunger, and according to the wiki HALLUCINATIONS?

Ascend and you get a happy ending, but if you die you're gonna get a horrific surprise in the next campaign!

Fun fact: original hard mode campaign. Hunter is more skilled than the other vanilla slugs, but their world is harder too.

GOURMAND

Food. That's it. Just food. It's either going to be the easiest slugcat or the hardest one.

You eat your list of foods, maybe visit the iterators, and fuck off back home. You don't even have to complete the list. You can just Fucking Leave.

If you do complete the list tho you get slugpups. I like em. Cute slugs.

you can also CRAFT NUKES btw. did i mention that? Gourmand has crafting mechanics and also can craft nukes if you do it right. Not joking

You can also regurgitate an entire living squid. How? Gourmand.

Also by the way Hunter may or may not have popcorned into a mindless mass of rot if you failed to ascend them. Oopsie.

SURVIVOR

See introduction.

MONK

Survivor but babey mode (affectionate)

Remember Survivor's little siblings? Monk is one of them. They're a vanilla bannana boy and my favorite little guy.

You basically choose a route and if you've already completed it with Survivor there's a happy sibling reunion. Oh, there's two routes now, by the way. Once you complete Gourmand you can go home to the Outer Expanse. No one's there but you're both chilling.

RIVULET

WELCOME TO HELL.

This is probably the one that gave Downpour its title. The rain happens every three minutes, maybe less if you get unlucky. The rain shelters are failing and the world's succumbing to Rot.

Go throw yourself into Moon, and you'll discover Monk has given her two neurons and a dress; thank you Monk :]

You also have the mark of communication from someone (who knows who) and you have a pearl for an iterator system that Moon doesn't have called the lymphatic system. Apparently the rain's bad because Pebbles isn't doing well, but how bad can it be?

…hey, why is the citadel covered in Rot? That's weird and annoying.

Was there always this much in the overhang? It's kind of obnoxious.

Finally, you're at Pebbles, so let's-

Oh.

OH.

THAT'S JUST… THE ROT.

THAT'S WHAT IT'S CALLED NOW. OKAY. FUCK.

Pebbles is so sick he can't even maintain zero gravity, it's going on and off.

Dive into the water of the newly discovered path and RUN.

When you get to him, he asks you to disconnect his only life support-- a Rarefraction Cell-- and deliver it to Moon. A final apology. Leave him to listen to his music pearl in peace, it's the only thing he has left.

Take that cell, run to Moon. She knows exactly where it came from. She doesn't know where her core is anymore, though.

Time for the Submerged Superstructure.

Most of Moon's remains are underwater, now infested with kelp, water lizards, and scavengers. But you can swim down, down, down into the creaking metal, the shrieking waters. Let it swallow you whole.

Eventually, you will reach her Heart. Place the Rarefraction Cell inside, and you're washed away.

You are washed to the top, and descend down to find her where you left her-- but renewed with new life.

She'll contact Pebbles one last time. Happy ending, right?

Not yet.

SAINT

THE TRUE TRIPLE AFFIRMATIVE

Saint may seem peaceful at first-- Fragile and unable to throw spears, fluffy to fight the cold seeping into the world-- but they are arguably the scariest one out there!

The world is ending: Iterators have gone silent, and the world's being blanketed in snow. You're up above it all-- so your first instinct is to go east. To Pebbles.

But he's gone.

Descend, and you'll only find a heap of scrap metal: The Silent Construct. His remains.

You're collecting Echoes.

On the way, you talk to Moon. She tells you about the state of the world. How it's dying. That she might be the only one left.

The world is passing into a new era: one that doesn't need them.

At maximum Karma, Saint becomes something unique.

You gain the ability to ascend anything.

You can go back.

You probably are going to ascend Moon. Only a mercy, right?

Return to the silent superstructure, and find that Pebbles remains. He's still holding that pearl. The music is scratchy. Distorted.

How long has he been here?

However long it was, it was enough to pick off all his neurons. And despite this, he's not even granted the mercy of an ending; he can barely even think or speak. It's cold out here, and you can't imagine it'd be kind to leave him here alone. He has to go, too.

And with that, you descend to the depths.

RUBICON

The Void Sea doesn't have anything for you. In fact, you will only discover yourself in a hellish world where it seems to be flipped upside down, and the remains of the old civilizations that are probably familiar by now are succumbing to the void.

You're burned if you touch the void fluid. You must fly to avoid it.

So you go. You ascend many things that are either trying to kill you or keeping you locked out of other paths.

And finally, at the end, you go up, and ascend.

You swim up. The slugcat tree is here, but it's not what you're looking for.

You drop by a chamber-- one containing the two ascended iterators.

They're free, and finally together. Once you ascend, you can see the future and the past in a cycle.

They look at you, and it's not a circle. It's an endless spiral into entropy. Your future goes on forever.

But you keep ascending.

It's not long before the Void Worm finds you. It offers you ascension, a reprieve.

And you kill it.

You're trapped in the cycle forever. An echo, ever recurring.

And it continues on.

🎉CONGRATS!

you are now a rain world expert. consider yourself lore'd. feel free to look at the critters and beasts on the Miraheze Wiki. (thank you miraheze this is so much better than fandom wikis. we love you)

[maythedreadwolftakeyou]

2, 11, 25, 58!

from these writer asks thank you! :)

2. Do you plan each chapter ahead or write as you go?

Depends how long the piece is. Most of the time: I just hit the ground running either right when inspiration strikes, or after the idea has marinated in my brain for a little while. After I write a handful of paragraphs (maybe 1-3k words?), I have a better idea of how long I'm actually going to take to tell the story, and start my "notes" paired document where I sketch out a general outline/sequence of events. I keep the notes document open on the right half of the screen and my actual working document on the left, shifting between them as needed. After I get to whatever feels like a comfortable stopping point for the first chapter, I check how much of the outline that's actually covered, and guesstimate chapter amount and breakdown from there. For longer works, I do put more detail/time into the outline, including random later sentences or passages as they come to me, just so I don't lose track. For things under 10-15k, I'm more comfortable just winging it and keep any outlining fairly lose.

11. Link your three favorite fics right now

Oh man. Not sure if this means to read or that i've written myself, but let's go with recent reads. Hmmm also I'm gonna do 3 Veilguard (won't mention any spoilers or even pairings but those following me who have seen my Veilguard posts can Guess lmao) and then 3 pre-Veilguard since Quark can't click the da4 ones yet. Perpetual disclaimer that I only really read things under about 15k these days, so they're all one shots or short chapter fics!

veilguard:

In Spite Of You (11.5k) by BlazingQuill

the baseless fabric of this vision (15k) by teddywesworl

At The End Of Her World (11.5k) by flowersforthemachines

and pre-veilguard:

Somewhere I have never travelled (5.5k) by debit: DA2 Orana POV (& background FenHawke), recent discussion about ye olde kink!meme days had me recollecting this one and how much i loved it, so I went to find & reread it on AO3 :)

nothing on my tongue (11k) by EllsterSmash: series of short Solavellan vignettes, lovely exploration of their relationship over time. And the (pre VG so only hypothesis/vague) ending in Ch. 23 makes me very sad which is what i look for most in a piece writing

Lost by @baejax-the-great (2.5) is coming to mind next bc i read & reblogged it again this month, bc i love me some FenHawke angst!!!! Oh how miserable to consider the long-term effects of lyrium in one's skin...

25. What fic do you wish you got more of a response on?

Hahaha as is typical my favorite fic I've ever written has the least number of views--Like Teeth Against His Heart, my DAI-era Solavellan prose-poem. Also on AO3, but formatting for poetry is hard and weird, so I like the booklet view of the tumblr upload.

It's also the piece I wrote for the Solamancy zine, which means probably more people who ordered the zine did actually read it--but I don't get to see people's reaction to physical merch/they can't just leave a comment online as easily, so it's hard to tell! But at the same time the people who have bothered to find it to comment on anyway are always SUPER kind so that's rewarding in its own way ♥︎

58. What part of the writing process do you enjoy the most? (Brainstorming, outlining, writing, editing, etc)

Oh definitely brainstorming first, followed by writing. I concede to making outlines only because my brain is too fallible to just hold it in my head the way I'd prefer/used to be able to, and my editing is more reluctant copyedits than actual true editing, with rare exceptions. I save my more rigorous planning, revision etc for original works rather than fanfic--especially since those usually involve a lot more worldbuilding/lore notes since it all comes from me vs a fandom wiki. But as I've shamefully admitted online many times, I'm one of the rare weirdos who is perfectly happy to write 5-20k words and then just... sit on them for myself forever. Rotating characters through situations in my head is the way I get to know the characters; writing it down is how I cement those thoughts & feelings. Sharing them is like... a fun extra, and sometimes what I have feels like something I can thread enough plot through to make a good story, and sometimes is just for my own whims and i don't need to give it an audience.

I think that's why so much of what I actually have published on AO3/tumblr comes from prompts--there's more a push to actually post something if it comes from a request rather than my own head (though this past year I'm trying to be better at that, and actually dig out more of my personal works to post). I like the "writing challenge" aspect of a prompt, of thinking about characters/situations outside my instincts and what i can add to it that would also make it compelling to myself.

[gemmahale]

Hi Gemma! Happy Friday!

8. Do you prefer the beginning, middle, or end of a story?

65. Tell us about what you're most looking forward to writing in your current project, or a future project

71. When it comes to more complicated narratives, how do you keep track of outlines, characters, development, timeline, ect.?

-Dragonnarrative-writes

Hi @dragonnarrative-writes!!! Happy Friday!

Writer's Ask Game

8. Do you prefer the beginning, middle, or end of a story?

I love the middle. It's probably the most fun to write - there's so many options and choices and ways the story can go. I do like the starting point of stories though because you get to set up lore and checkov's guns all over (which I ADORE doing), but getting to watch some of the pieces fall into place makes it that much more exhilarating.

65. Tell us about what you're most looking forward to writing in your current project, or a future project

I'm looking forward to [redacted]. All seriousness, I'm looking forward to so many things in so many of my projects. I'm a chronic starter, but by the same measure, there's some satisfaction in getting things moving forward. I'm excited to get into some of my original stuff and start transforming what I have into something more coherent. That's probably the biggest excitement right now.

71. When it comes to more complicated narratives, how do you keep track of outlines, characters, development, timeline, ect.?

Laughing because "keeping track" of is complex. But usually, it's bullet points and spreadsheets. Especially Righteous Fury where it's so regimented by dates (my choice, RIP), I have a spreadsheet that notes major beats and when they happen. Eventually, I want to be better regimented about keeping track of lore and character development, but right now I kind of wing it with a couple of word documents lol. Ctrl+F is my friend. 😂

[duckyfruitbat]

Hello Neighbor: MORE CONTENT!

Do y'all remember Hello Neighbor? For those not in the know it was planned to be a stealth horror game where you try to get into your shady neighbor's mystery basement after hearing strange sounds coming from it. During early development while it was in early access it had a lot of potential. The main selling point was the adaptive AI of the neighbor who was not very diddly doddily doodily. It could track your favorite hiding spaces, set up traps in paths you tend to take, and in one of the earliest builds it will find a way to get to you in a locked room. Things were looking good for a while, but then the updates kept coming.

The updates were less focused on polishing the game and more on adding lore and lots of puzzles. The game also got more sanitized, it is believed that this happened to be more marketable towards kids. It was also trying to lore bait big content creators like MattPat, but this all came back to bite the developers in the ass because they got tired of how bloated the game was. MattPat publicly stated that he just didn't care anymore, and Markiplier just got plain tired of it.

Let's focus on the sanitation part first. It's no secret that these mascot horror games are in some way trying to market themselves to a younger audience, but even then they have plenty moments that remind you that it is indeed a horror game. Well with Hello Neighbor as time went on, it got less and less scary. One example that perfectly encapsulates this is the music. In the finally game, when the neighbor sees you and starts giving chase the theme is this droning bass being played in a constant manner. I mean it could work, but it's not really being used right. Back when it was in early access however, when the neighbor sees you it sounds like the conductor tossed away his baton and decided to swan dive into the orchestra pit giving the double bird. It is the musical equivalent to "JESUS FUCKING CHRIST!" It is the near perfect chase theme, and it was scrapped. In the second half of the game, there is an entire massive portion of the house that the Neighbor just never reaches, so chances of a jump scare start to dry up pretty quick, unless you slip off of the shingles of the roof during a platforming section.

Now this game was full of theory bait, it kept things very vague, and when the franchise expanded into books and TV shows, it just did not let up. Which is unfortunate considering that the first game ended in half of it being a dream sequence that concludes in an obvious metaphor for overcoming a childhood trauma. There's also something about the neighbor losing his daughter to a roller coaster accident, oh and he may have built said roller coaster.

Then there are the endless puzzles that felt like they were created by taking the worst puzzles from the old point and click adventure games and then snorting a mountain of cocaine. This is one of those games where you'll need to keep a walk through open at all times, especially if you want to complete it within the decade. There are many puzzles that don't push you in the right direction, and many more that are just so overly complicated for no reason.

On top of all that, it is very buggy. There are plenty of times when the neighbors AI will bug out and either stand still or get stuck on some furniture. Other times he'll just de-spawn entirely, this is actually so well documented that it is a common occurrence on streams. It's also incredibly easy to launch yourself across the map, and levitate.

The next game fell into the same trappings. It was revealed in an ARG event. That also introduced us to a new character like the neighbor, and probably was the neighbor, called the Guest. He seemed to be a return to what the original idea was, being this strange little cryptid bird man who would hang around the corner watching and waiting. There was a lot of potential with the Guest, he even was the antagonist in previous builds, but then he was pushed aside in the final release of the second game. The issues in the first game weren't as present, but they were still there.

Today the game isn't exactly loved, it does have an audience that's sticking around but it is mostly remembered as a cash grab for the mascot horror genre. It started with a lot of potential and had a sharp decline when it found some success as a mascot horror.

[alterchaos]

Hi everyone! I’m back with another update!

After watching the poll this past week, I am happy to officially announce that Alter Chaos will be continuing in writing as a full and complete story!

I’m honestly so excited to put my attention and effort into making sure this story is written with proper love and care. I feel like a novelist! ♡ Since I no longer have to put equal focus on the art and visuals, I plan to really take my time plotting everything out, closely revising my pieces, and sharing a wider range of stories to help build the world and central lore better. With that in mind, there are a few specific things I want to point out:

1. I would like to go back to the drawing board on most elements concerning Seven Rings and the Moonbeast Saga. I won’t be altering the central plots but I was never fully satisfied rushing through these stories given the limitations the technical/art focus placed on my imagination. Seven Rings especially needs more attention, as I originally planned to go through every boss and adventure with Sinbad and Ali Baba, but rushed it for the sake of continuing the following saga. I even want to rewrite the saga’s ending to be more in line with this structure and to be a proper build up for what follows, so only expect the original pieces to be posted after I get to that more as a bit of behind the scenes than anything.

Moonbeast, thankfully, just needs some tweaks and rewrites to the script apart from the arc that was already posted (Roses - Tears). The central plot for this saga in particular has gone through MANY changes and variations since the beginning of this series. For instance, I ditched the Chip/memory plot in favor of a more unique storyline concerning the mysteries of the world known as Gaia (I’m especially excited to reveal more details on that). I need to go back with these ideas and properly lay them out, every detail, to ensure this saga maintains structure and a more natural sense of progression.

2. Since I will be reworking these sagas, I would like to pick up all the way back at the start, following Tale of Two Brothers and work from there. I had already written the immediate next episode/chapter and plan to post that alongside a drawn one following Party Hardly. From there, I may not write a full chapter for EVERY episode of Sonic X, but most, including some brand-new tales to add to the mix.

As we work through these stories, I also plan to write smaller side chapters called Mobius Adventures. These will revolve around side games such as Sonic Rush and Sonic Riders, or even little unique stories such as Silver eating a chilidog for the first time or Chaotix detective/band shenanigans or Eve helping out in the town etc. I want these stories to flesh out Mobius as a world not too far removed from our own despite the crazy adventures. It will also help more pivotal and central plot elements hit that much harder (muehehehee♡).

3. I can’t promise a weekly schedule, so I will be posting when I feel like it from now on. One week I may be free and want to write 3 chapters and another week I may be offline. Who knows. What matters is enjoying the adventure and having fun! ♡

4. Just because this path won the poll doesn’t mean I will never draw or post things such as random pages or character art. They will just be rare. I at least plan to share what I already sketched out when I post their respective chapters and will also be finishing a certain chapter (coming soon) in comic format since I was almost done, it’s my favorite episode in the show, and the physical comedy would be lost in writing.

5. I will release a couple posts/documents in the future laying out a proper timeline for the series as well as important lore elements to help readers keep track of the world and plot at large. I’m also learning more about how Tumblr functions as a site and may be experimenting with extra blogs/sites to create pages or “tabs” to help organize everything. If any major changes are made to my blog, I will be sure to send updates to help you all locate where things have moved. My goal is to make chapters as easily accessible as possible rather than being forced to scroll through months of posts.

That’s all I have for now. Thank you all for reading and supporting this series and I will see you all in the next post! ♡

[melodyofthevoid]

17, 24, 39 for the writing asks! (you can do all or pick and choose idk)

17. Talk to me about the minutiae of your current WIP. Tell me about the lore, the history, the detail, the things that won’t make it in the text.

Sure! Right now the thing I'm working on is a Magnus Archives style statement that involves elements of my original story Fading Reflections. It was borne out of Shmunter and I's listen through of the podcast (obvi), but we started talking about how different characters might have their own statements and what that might look like. Then the idea hit me for one about a ~cursed mirror~ and it's been going since then.

It's been super fun to write, as things have been... very slow in the writing department as of late lmao. I haven't churned out 2k words in a day like that in a while. The phrasing and language just popped into my head which is just the most magical feeling.

As for things that won't make it, we had a lot of concepts for spooky things to occur, for the sister to notice her twin's reflection warping over time but I felt like that'd get repetitive after a while.

24. How much prep work do you put into your stories? What does that look like for you? Do you enjoy this part or do you just want to get on with it?

I swing wildly between detailed prep and just going off of sheer vibes. My typical happy medium is doing loose plot points and writing out what I want to hit, then working off of that outline. It helps keep me on track and works as a sort of checklist. They're often very meme-y/not serious at all which is fine because I just need to know what happens.

For my larger uh... well projects is a bit of a misnomer as it implies I'm actively working on them, we'll just call them ideas for now, I've been doing a shit ton of world building and constructing to put my stories together. Each lore document is different, the one for my Sun/Moon story is the most detailed in terms of having an outlined plot, but because that's more of a game concept planning it is very different (I have no idea what I'm doing).

I'm generally torn on planning because I adore knowing where I'm going and what I'm doing. On the one hand, planning is great because it helps when I get stuck. On the other hand, you can get stuck during planning which is extra shitty. That, and getting lost in the ~grand scope~ of a project and then doing... none of it.

Hopefully I figure out a better balance eventually.

39. What keeps you writing when you feel like giving up?

My friends, mostly. I want to get better at writing simply for myself, and I do indulge, don't get me wrong, but as I've said before I was lucky to have a massive amount of feedback right out the gate but now that I'm generally quieter with my original works it's a bit discouraging. I send my stuff to my friends and they're super supportive and it keeps me going because I know people who want to read my works.