#tsmp box

[rainy-daze1]

indecisive about some design stuff so might as well just draw all of it

[autisticlalna]

anyway uh. ruby showed off a new skin on stream today, and theres been something ive been wondering abt with her skins, and this one in particular caught my attention because the sunglasses are darker than normal.

pardon the peeling, but:

thats.. new.

cherruby's eye color has just kinda become a Thing i keep squinting at since episode 4. because the episode where we get the "timeline status: unstable" message from R.C. is the same message where the clock glitches out is the same episode where we first see a hint of blue and red under cherruby's shades in the thumbnail.

their eyes are hidden again on episode 5's thumbnail, but that's also the episode where we first see the talksprites Box made, and those have visible eye colors. and then more obviously, episodes 6 and 7's thumbnails have the eye color clearly visible.

so, uh, all of that is when and after the timeline becomes unstable.

(ep4's thumbnail is also the only time the clock is at night instead of halfway between night and day and im STILL squinting at that but im trying to wrangle my adhd ass into focusing on one thing at a time)

but now it's on the skin, and that's kinda concerning. it's not very visible (hence me having to peel him), but it's there. specifically, it's there partially.

this worries me. i dont know if its actually linked to the timeline instability or what, but its definitely something thats happening. its also notable that its happening when theyre mimicking someone by proximity again.

im trying to avoid pointing and going "AH! SAPPHIRE!" like how im trying to avoid pointing at summertime and going "AH! BLUE!", but like. our first indication of sapphire in tsmp was the eye color change. and then there's the thing with the wings and losing thereof, which was a Big Deal in tsmp. and-- okay, this is a tangent thought, but ahah hey isnt it weird that sapphire communicates in mangrove signs and cherruby's eye color change happened on the skin where he's mimicking someone from mangrove kingdom. anyway

..if this isnt sapphire, though, then whats going on? in episode 1's opening narration there was the blue-red echo effect on "time", so that association is there. there's also the cherry kingdom clocktower, which has the same inconsistent clock faces as the upside-down clocktower on tsmp (and ruby said offhandedly yesterday that time doesn't work quite right in cherry kingdom).

if this is sapphire, when is this happening? navigator(?) / VP is actively observing sbk and told truby about the other her that's "turning into a monkey for some reason" (lmao), but he also said that he's "not good with time", and i cant remember what exactly he said but he was distracted by SOMETHING when moving the twitchcon duo. so uh, we cant exactly trust him as a reference point for "these things are happening side-by-side". which brings up the concept of sbk being before tsmp, but that raises even more questions because does that mean Summertime is sapphire's brother?

but, no, the way cherruby talks about summertime puts distance between them, in sharp contrast to sapphire and her brother being close enough that his vanishing made xem break down. and cherruby mentioned that he does have a family back where he came from and was wondering if they were missing her. WHICH IS A PRETTY SIGNIFICANT THING WE HAVENT TALKED ABOUT, ACTUALLY. CAN WE TALK ABOUT THAT? PROBABLY NOT IN THIS POST BC THIS IS LONG ENOUGH ALREADY, BUT,

...hey wouldn't it be fucked up if the book cherruby has with the clock and compass is truby's journal.

[minehog]

come to the tsmp and visit our floating squid chandelier in a glass dome in a stone box. and then jump in the Pit

Yeah the twerk smp I know that place

Do you like the new chandelier

[autisticlalna]

aquagrav's side of twitch smp is a series of all time. god.

im sad that we probably wont get to see anything actually built in the pit bc i doubt theyll be doing much on the world download besides lore and jay finishing his builds, and things are probably gonna hit the fan story-wise before we see whatever tviking was planning, or if vintage + box + fiv are gonna be able to wrap things up on their ends. there was a lot built up without much room to follow through, but thats kinda just the downside of having an Intense Story on somebody else's server-- i mean, the end-of-season event is tomorrow. whatever aquagrav does as their finales is gonna be outside of tsmp itself.

idk, a thing abt mcyt for me is not just the storylines but also what people make in the world and how alive the world feels, and im a little bummed that everybody went through so much effort to build only for the season to kinda peter out-- apparently things died off for the entire server after wave 2, which feels... backwards? bc at the time we thought wave 2 was going to invigorate the server and keep it going bc season 6 was already going so well.

stuff's always gonna be unfinished when a server ends but it really does feel like things were just getting started.

still, it is a relief to know there's plans in motion, and skyblock kingdoms has been a blast. im just kinda Feeling Things rereading the transcripts.

[autisticlalna]

tsmp lore stream for the first time in A WHILE

INCREDIBLE animation by box abt ruby's death . and also ruby removed their wings WITH AN AXE

NAVIGATOR IS HERE

(and using bamboo signs. and Really Wants To Talk To Sapphire)

ruby didnt know viking died

nav was generally a lot more. uh. Unhinged. Something Is Wrong With Him <3

ruby called him out for being a hypocrite and lying to them about not knowing whats going on

ALSO? RUBY LEARNED HOW TO BE PRESENT WHILE SAPPHIRE IS IN CONTROL?? AND WAS THE ONE WRITING ON THE TOP LINE OF THE SIGNS??? HI RUBY WHAT THE FUCK DOES THIS MEAN

navigator imprisoned sapphire in the time loop to teach her a lesson

(but also like. he did not do it alone. he said "we" a lot. WHO'S WE?)

its been 50 years from nav's pov and millennia from sapphire's

tRuby and tViking are both from twitchcon smp. both of them. nav saved them both from the short-lived universe, but kinda. messed up. and dropped viking into the new universe way before ruby.. hence the missing arm and shift in goals/personality

nav cant manifest a body on his own and has to possess someone. BUT YOU KNOW WHAT HE CAN DO?

FUCKING DUMP SUMMERTIME (SKYBLOCK KINGDOMS VIKING) INTO THE CLOCKTOWER

AND DOMINION VIKING

FUCKING HELL

viking is alive! he died but he got better. and.. saw somebody while he was dead? but nav cut him off before he could say more abt it

there were no viking or ruby in this timeline before nav dumped the twitchcon duo and sapphire into it. thats what the clock and compass artifacts represent-- those only appear if theres no viking or ruby to do timespace stuff

RUBY FINALLY FUCKING KNOWS THEYRE SIBLINGS. AUGH

VIKING KNOWS ABOUT NAVIGATOR (sorta. sapphire talked to him about him being controlled by her brother, and he namedropped navigator at the end but that was probably a slip-up)

sapphire is the reason why navigator lost track of tViking for a while (?)

sapphire Really Wants To Know How Navigator Knows Her. which is.. worrying, because they were very much familiar with each other last time they talked

nav was overall a lot more.. had the upper hand in the conversation with sapph. kinda taunting him, telling ruby that he (and whoever he's with) are teaching sapph a lesson, at one point mentioned his eyes are supposed to look different (so the "eyes are green" is specifically a "possessing tViking" thing)

dnerds is . not entirely sure that that was Navigator! because Something Is UP With This Dude

(could also be a case of "its been a couple months and viking and ruby have changed ideas" tbh. also the explanation for the voice filter change is bc nav had a cold lmao) (UPDATE: ruby confirmed on stream that their plans havent changed! AAAAAAAAA)

still not V.P. though. gave truby a way to summon him if needed and told him to only use it if hes out of options or if he sees anything involving V.P.

BY THE WAY. SAPPHIRE DESTROYED A UNIVERSE AND DOES NOT REMEMBER. NAV NEEDS HER TO REMEMBER. IF THERE IS NO OTHER OPTION TO GET HER TO REMEMBER, NAVIGATOR IS GOING TO GET THE BOOK.

girl what the fuck

JESUS FUCKING CHRIST

[autisticlalna]

PANDORA'S BOX IS OPEN AND I AM SIMULTANEOUSLY PANDORA, THE BOX, THE EVILS, AND THE HOPE LEFT INSIDE

(i think the transcript work is getting to me. TOO LATE NOW.)

so. i mentioned the concept of multiversal bleed in my initial deranged discord rant. it's kinda just a byproduct of mcyt storytelling, really - if you're doing a bunch of stuff at once, references are gonna get made. but with multiversal stuff being an actual plot point in Viking and Ruby's TSMP lore, the fact that tViking is not the Viking that Ruby remembers but still has an attachment to them, has basic knowledge of a history with them... but at the same time doesn't really understand the idea of a time "before this", and when Ruby first asks him what he knows about her his answers are very surface-level:

Ruby: [sigh] Okay. Um… What else, what do you— what do you— What do you know about me. Viking: Uuuuuhhhh. Ruby: Do you know me. Viking: Uhhh. You… need therapy ‘cause of beetroots. Um… your full name is something like Rubidium Company or whatever. Or Rubidium Corporation, or Ruby… the Third Corporation, or something like that, iunno. Um— You, uh… Um… Like… drawing… and diamonds— er, gemstones.

and then, like. cc!Ruby saying "It's just so you. No matter the universe or time, after all this time, it is still you" and that snowballing into "tRuby saying that right before tViking kills her" and that being one of the dreams in Ruby's dream journal. and tViking also remembering it... maybe. he seems to remember several different outcomes of it, several different permutations on how it ends, and doesn't remember that it's Ruby.

and then when Ruby confides in him about xer sleepwalking, tViking is very casual about it. in fact, the way he responds makes it sound like not only has it happened the couple times we see it happen (the villagers, the bamboo farm) but that it's something regular for him. maybe even something he does on purpose:

Viking: Ruuuuuby. Do you think- You think- You really think, do you really think that I would sit down, and do all of this. Ruby: I mean, no. Viking: Do you think I have the patience for that? Ruby: No? Viking: Bro, I just- I— See, the secret is, you go over to a corner, kinda you go, “a’ight I’m gonna go honk shoo snork mimimimi,” and I wake up, oh my god villagers. Poof. Magic.

(source: the big fucking transcript of the ~4 hour lore VOD im working on. i'll finish it soon i promise)

but Navigator did not build that farm. he shows up to tell Ruby "hey, don't let him do this". tViking went under the radar, he's poised to cause a lot of devastation, and Navigator wants Ruby to stop him. there is no way in hell Navigator would do anything for tViking, and he straight up does not want tViking to know he exists at all. but... tViking knows that there's other hims out there, and that those other hims will just nab his body to do stuff sometimes:

Viking: Riiiight? Doesn’t matter how many versions, what times… Doesn’t matter what any of that is. A Ruby is still a Ruby. Ruby: …I guess. Viking: A Viking… is always a Viking. Ruby: [quiet] Yeah. Viking: So for me, [laughs] I may not build these things myself, but I wake up and they’re done, and I know it’s me, because me wants to help me. Vikings help Viking. That’s how it works.

but when Ruby tells Navigator that, he brushes it off:

Viking: < he assumes he is the only one > Ruby: (Sorry.) “He assumes he’s the only one.” Well, that’s not quite correct? He’s- He’s told me that he goes to sleep and then the farms are there, so… I don’t know? If that assumption is the right one to make? Y’know? Viking: < he mistakes his “dreams” for his actions >

and we haven't seen anything like this from any other Viking. the closest we've got is Skyblock!Viking recognizing Avid, but that might end up getting spun off into him specifically having personal history with Avid considering he's currently being targeted by the Old One. (there's also the vague implications that Gilded!Viking is Dominion!Viking because of him and Josh riffing on it a bit, but im gonna be honest i have no idea what to take away from that / don't know if it was intended to be anything more than "haha hey we used to be in a thing together")

so ALL OF THAT combined with Navigator casually hijacking tViking is just. making me wonder if maybe tViking is actually Built Different in some way. that he's somehow intertwined enough with the Vikingverse or whatever to act as a conduit for the others when he's in a sleepwalk state. maybe that's how he went under the radar in the first place? Navigator might've noticed other Vikings popping up in weird places, but didn't put together "it's because there's a Viking there channeling them and he's up to some shit" until he was able to slip in himself.

OH. ONE LAST IDEA. hey. hey you know how we immediately knew it was Somebody Else even before he pulled out the signs because his eyes changed. and how the eyes changing is so far our go-to sign for if a switch happened bc of Sapphire and Navigator having different eyes than Ruby and tViking. assuming Navigator's eyes are actually green and it's not a general "someone else is in control" thing for tViking, that brings up the idea of: how many times have we seen tViking and it hasn't actually been him?

or, on another route, what other changes are we going to need to look out for when Vikings that aren't Navigator "wake up"? are we going to be able to notice them at all?

i have finally come out of my shell enough in vikingcord to start dropping absolute bricks of text. what the fuck is up with tviking. how many vikings are in there. is he just a conduit for any other viking that falls asleep out there in the multiverse. what hte fuck