#(assuming they are in the same branch of the timeline)

[hydrasplatl1ng]

The Desert Palace: 1991 / 2024

[flecks-of-stardust]

Lunar Greetings: Chapter Four

Chapter four of a multi-chapter Rain World short story featuring Looks to the Moon.

No formal content warnings for this piece of writing.

Read this chapter on AO3.

1515.731 - PRIVATE Unparalleled Innocence, Big Sis Moon

BSM: Hello, how are you doing? UI: … hi BSM: I hope things haven’t been too stressful for you. I’m really sorry you have to deal with this so soon after being turned on. BSM: Normally I’d ask how you’re adjusting, but I think that’s not entirely a useful question right now… UI: i’m UI: i don’t really know BSM: That’s okay. It’s okay to be conflicted. When… whenever it happens, I’m always here if you want to talk about it. UI: thank you UI: i’m scared BSM: That’s okay too. It’s a lot to take in. UI: she talked to me UI: she’s not responding anymore BSM: Ah… I’m really sorry. UI: will it hurt? BSM: I don’t know. I truly hope not. UI: … who are you? BSM: I’m Looks to the Moon. I’m one of your neighbors, to your southeast. BSM: I’m the senior of our local group. I thought I would check in with you, especially given… the circumstances. UI: … thank you BSM: Of course. BSM: How are you handling being turned on so far? I’ve been told you were programmed with additional information, so perhaps you already know your way around your systems? UI: not really UI: there’s so much BSM: Anything in particular you would like help on currently? UI: um UI: is there a way to UI: um BSM: It’s okay, take your time. UI: can i split my memory confluxes? BSM: What do you mean? UI: so i can keep her memories separate BSM: … I’m not certain how to do that right now, but I can ask around for you. I’m sure it’s possible. UI: okay BSM: Has anyone else contacted you so far? UI: no BSM: Not even Seven Red Suns? UI: no… BSM: … I suppose it’s understandable. I think Chasing Wind might contact you soon, though. Wind has been anticipating you for a while. UI: oh, okay BSM: Don’t worry about it for now though, alright? Take your time, get your bearings, get accustomed to your systems. I’m here if you need any help, and Wind is more than happy to help you too. UI: okay BSM: It’s good to meet you, Innocence.

(1) Softly, the wind blows, (2) amid a peal of laughter, (3) and moonlight shining upon the river stones. (4) This boundless innocence, glistening in your eyes, (5) shines bright as you nestle into my arms. 

[inbarfink]

I think a lot about the Concept of ‘choices that matter’ in video games. Like, in terms of what it is that makes a choice ‘really matter’, what do we perceive as a choice that matters or has a consequence, how do different games with different amounts of branching or non-branching storylines play with those ideas…  Especially because Undertale is one of my favorite games of all time, and it has often been hyped as ‘a game where your choices REALLY matter’ and… honestly, I dunno if all of this hype was fully conducive to Undertale.  Because the way it handles the concept of Video Game Choices is actually a lot more interesting and complex than that simplistic descriptor makes it seem.

Because Undertale actually has a lot of choices that ‘don’t really matter’! Lots of dialogue choices and silly little decisions that on a first playthrough seem like they’re some sort of moral choice or a branching plotline but end up always leading to basically the same result regardless of what you do!

And the game doesn’t really try to hide the fact that these choices are kinda 'Fake'. I mean, on a first playthrough a player might assume there’s gonna be some Massive Consequences for picking the ‘wrong’ drink on Undyne’s date, but the game’s narrative expects for there to be multiple playthroughs and pretty much every Choice that Doesn’t Matter is peppered with that Undertale brand of wacky character-focused humor that inherently makes the moment memorable. Papyrus leading Undyne straight to you no matter what you do is basically a cross-timeline running gag.

On some level I see this as a sort of gag that serves as meta-commentary about the expectations around Choices That Matter in Video Games. As in, a lot of games have their Moral Choices happen in clearly easily marked ‘this is a Moral Choice!’ moments within the story, while the actual gameplay (and any violence the player might cause as part of said gameplay) is basically entirely divorced from any element of narrative-branching and doesn't effect the story at all. Undertale basically entirely inverts this dynamic; the most important factor for which Route you’re own is how you handle your FIGHTs, and what seems like clearly-marked and obvious Moral Choices are just goofy insubstantial minor changes in dialogue. 

But also… there is also a level where you must ask yourself ‘what does it mean when we say that these choices Don’t Matter’. I mean, it’s not like they didn't change anything about the game, the Player still made the character say that other thing, the choice probably led to an alternate piece of dialogue, probably a joke with a call-back at the end of the game… The line between a one-off joke and an actual story-changing moment can be a little blurry if you look at it too deeply.

For example, near the end of the Waterfall part of the game, the Player is given the choice to save Monster Kid even at the risk of having to face down Undyne.

Pretty much anyone who isn’t deliberately trying to be an asshole is going to rush to save them and obviously that includes the Pacifist Route Players. But you can actually leave Monster Kid to die without it 'mattering' in the sense that it wouldn't divert you from the Pacifist Route. Undyne saves them instead of you, and ends up with slightly less HP for her battle (which might Matter for Runs when you try and FIGHT her but obviously not in Pacifist Runs) and… by the end of the game, during the extremely happy True Pacifist Ending, they still clearly remember that you abandoned them and are upset by it.

So… does saving Monster Kid ‘matter’ or not? On one hand, choosing not to save them mostly just changes a few lines of dialogue but… these lines of dialogue kinda recontextualize this happy ending and the Player’s actions in general. Despite the True Pacifist Ending otherwise portraying the Player/Frisk as a kind-hearted and brave hero... they still did this undeniably cowardly (and perhaps even cruel) act to one of their friends .

Was running away and leaving Monster Kid to die a brief but significant moment of weakness that the Player regrets and has cost them what could’ve been the start of a lovely friendship? Or is that simply that being a True Pacifist was always more of a matter of pragmatism rather than ideals? Were they only acting as a Pacifist to get that promised 'Best Ending', and only Monster Kid has an inkling they are not as heroic or kind as everyone thinks they are?

And then there’s the Snowman ‘quest’.

A free healing item given early in the game, with your mission being to carry it along in your inventory for as long as you can without ever consuming it. The only reward you will ever see from it is a few lines of dialogue…

But for many, it is more than enough of an incentive to preserve the Snowman’s Piece. You can do whatever you want with the Snowman without it ‘mattering’ in terms of Ending or consequences. You could carry it through all of your adventures with care and kindness... or you could eat it while he can’t see you and then go back to him and tell him that you ‘lost’ it and then get another piece and eat that as well, you could eat it right in front of his face, horrifying him. 

And much like with Monster Kid, you can STILL get the True Pacifist Ending after doing that, all that would change is a few optional pieces of dialogue from the Snowman… 

And a total recontextualization of the Player’s behavior and the ending. The Snowman sees the Player as a cruel and heartless person who is just pretending to be good so they can be liked - the way they acted with this immobile, powerless Snowman who could do nothing for them and their reputation reveals their true self. And he says their friends will realize that too one day...

Doing a True Reset on the Pacifist Ending is, by definition, a (almost) consequence-free action and yet it changes future Pacifist Routes immeasurably. Turning the Player into a Hypocrite doing the exact same thing they were trying to stop Flowey/Asriel from doing - trapping all of their friends into a time-loop so they can play with them forever while never actually letting them to enjoy freedom on the surface, simply because they are not willing to move on or put their friends' wishes and agency above their own. Nothing in the game actually changes, not one character can even suspect that you did something like that, and yet for the Player - this choice makes the entire Meaning of the game flip on its head. 

Even the most famous and heavily-toted Big Consequence in the whole game - selling your soul to Chara after completing a Murder Route… mostly what it does is just… recontextualize the ending of the Game.

As a game, ‘Undertale’ is very much about the ways in which a Player engages with a game can radically recontextualize it. The huge chasm of difference between the Pacifist and Muder Routes is just the most literal example of it. But, in a way, even the tiny little Dialogue Options - where the lack of real choice and consequences is Obviously a Joke - matter. Because of the way they can recontextualize the Player Character’s behavior.

(Okay, maybe not this one, but hear me out…)

Do you trust Papyrus to not betray you, even after you spied on him with Undyne?

Do you have the integrity to admit you forgot something or got it wrong even when there’s no consequences for just lying about it?

Are you a hypocrite for trying to get Alphys to be truthful with Undyne only to then immediately turn around and lie to Undyne yourself?  

None of these choices matter for the ending, some of them don’t even get, like, a call-back joke or anything, but… if you are engaged in this story as a narrative, if you are invested in these characters as if they were people, if you are honestly trying to be the best person you can be, if you are trying to self-reflect at the way you approach this game… even the silliest little dialogue option can suddenly be imbued with deep implications and you can make them matter. 

Undertale is one of the best demonstrations of this concept, but this is absolutely not exclusive to it. For example….

‘Ace Attorney’ is pretty much as far away as you can get from a ‘branching narrative’ within the video game sphere. It is a heavily-linear Visual Novel where 70% of the time it won’t even let you talk to random characters at anything but the exact order it expects you to and any ‘Bad Endings’ are basically just glorified Game Over Screens. (... because this is the Internet and something something piss on the poor, I should probably specify that I am talking about ‘Ace Attorney’ because I love Ace Attorney and these are neutral descriptions of the game and not complaints. There’s nothing wrong with a game being linear.) 

If there’s any Dialogue Choice in AA, it’s generally a very basic ‘right answer-wrong answer’ choice between Progress and a Penalty, or a total non-choice that just gets you to the same final result regardless. Except… Well… as we just talked about, getting to the same final result doesn’t necessarily mean a choice is ‘meaningless’, does it?

There’s actually a lot of great storytelling moments where Ace Attorney, despite its otherwise strict linearity, uses this exact sort of recontextualizing mindset I’ve talked about with Undertale to make choices with some really powerful emotional impact…. Even if technically, the ending is the same ending. It can be something as basic as ‘even if picking this Wrong Answer doesn’t get me a penalty, it still embarrassed my character and disappointed my friends/rivals and thus I feel bad for picking it’. Consequences as recontextualizing your character as more incompetent than they should’ve come across at that moment.

And then there’s moments like the iconic ending of ‘Justice for All’. That moment before Franziska bursts into the Courtroom with the case-making evidence and saves the day. The moment where it seems like Phoenix really is gonna have to pick between protecting his best friend and carrying out a rightful sentence.

The player gets to pick between the two options, but Phoenix never gets to say his choice out loud before Franziska comes running in... and yet… he, and the player, still made that choice. Even if no one ever has to experience the consequences of your choice, even if the rest of the world has no idea what Phoenix Wright would’ve chosen if the Miracle hadn’t happened, we know what we picked and that knowledge of the choice matters. Because of how we feel about this choice and what it says about our interpretation of Phoenix… and about us.

There’s also a bit of this ludonarrative device in ‘The Great Ace Attorney: Adventures’. During “The Adventures of the Runaway Room”, when you investigate the Omnibus for the second time and start finding things that… don’t quite fit together. When you’re finally starting to make progress with proving McGilded’s innocence, while also maybe starting to notice that something is… wrong with these pieces of evidence. 

The unchanging linear narrative of the game is that Ryunosuke does eventually realizes McGilded's trickery, puts truth ahead of victory in court and yet, despite his effort and good intentions - the case still ends with a false Not Guilty verdict. And yet, the Player has the choice to... tweak the details.

There are several points where Ryunosuke can object, where he can call out the inconsistencies even though they help his case, where he can support Van Zieks in his accusations of tempered evidence... or he can not. Not necessarily intentionally misleading the Court as much as subconsciously trying to ignore the inconsistencies in the name of trusting his client.

And yet… in the end it doesn’t matter. Maybe Susato calls out the inconsistency instead of him, maybe Van Zieks does, maybe it remains uncontested but... no matter what you do, the case will end with a Not Guilty verdict (I mean, I guess you can deliberately fail the game but that will not progress the plot), McGilded doesn’t seem like he held a grudge (in the few minutes he had left to live), and a few cases later - Ryunosuke would always be punished for his part at this false verdict.

So it doesn’t really matter what Ryunosuke did back then? Does it matter if he did his best and called out every single inconsistencies or if he kinda half-assed it until he (and the Player) had to? He’s still going to suffer the same consequences down the line. And yet….

And yet, I think there’s something so powerful about giving us that option. About knowing that Ryunosuke, and we, did try and do something about McGilded's dirty tricks- even if it didn’t work. Or alternative, knowing that there was more that Ryunosuke and us could’ve done even if it was not nearly enough. Even if in the eyes of the game and the British Justice system there is no difference, the fact that we know what did and what we could’ve done can radically change the way the player feels about all of the later scenes concerning the truth about McGilded’s trial. It can radically change the way the player interpret Ryunosuke’s feelings about it as well.

Because even though the game itself keeps playing along with the same script regardless, that trial had irrevocable consequences for the Player.

[rafayelsbelovedbride]

Lemurians and the Sea God

As the new branch revealed that Rafayel borrowed the Sea God's powers rather than being the Sea God himself, I want to discuss why the Lemurians needed this power in the first place.

So let's start by summarizing what we know so far, and what these things can imply.

First, Rafayel accepted the Sea God's powers with a price.

Rafayel accepted the Sea God's powers from the tome which had an aether core embedded in it. This implies unlike what was mentioned in the Forgotten Sea, Rafayel is not a god but a vessel for the Sea God's powers. And, he has to pay a price and obey the Sea God's will (the prophecies of tome of the Sea God) for using these powers.

I wonder why there was an aether core fragment in the tome. Did Rafayel receive the power through this aether core? And, was Rafayel drawn to that because he also possesses fragments in his heart, just like MC? Is that why he is the vessel? Can this also explain the strength of their bond that can bring Rafayel back when he was possessed by these powers? Can MC differentiate the frequency of Rafayel's heart and the Sea God's heart when she resonates? Does that mean there is a little difference between all the aether core fragments?

Rafayel and the Sea God are different entities as Rafayel can lose his control to the Sea God.

I think there is a reason why Rafeyel described the tome of the Sea God as the island's cornerstone that bore the weight of Lemuria's past and future. I think the original Sea God (maybe the first Sea God) was the core of the planet. The same core that was described to be empty and had long been exhausted in the Shooting Stars myth, which probably belongs to a timeline after Rafayel's and the last Sea God's death.

I think the Lemurians used the Sea God's power as a supply for the earth's core the same way the king of Philos wanted to use the aether core of MC.

Maybe many years ago, this whole thing started with Lemurians asking for a god's help when they faced with the fact that the earth's core was dying. And, the god accepted their prayers and made a vessel so that it could come down to earth and use its powers to keep the planet alive a little while longer.

This power is described as a great "flame" that has burned in Whalefall City's temple for thousands of years. And without it, the Lemurians are said to transform into hideous beasts. (wanderers?)

Also, I wonder if the vessels were created by the god from an aether core fragment. And to be able to inherit the Sea God's powers, their aether core needed to have a certain level of strength that could carry the Sea God, otherwise, the vessel would shatter when it was filled with its powers. And that's what the prophecy refers to. The vessels must increase their strength before they can fully inherit the Sea God's powers.

Rafayel was born in flames and he needs his most devoted follower's heart to gain strength. Also, when MC first met him, Rafayel said "You awakened me."

In Rafayel's case, he has to do it by getting MC's heart. I think the prophecy is a little misleading here. I think MC does not have to give her heart because she is the most devoted follower. Instead, I think she has to do that because the vessel needs the aether core's energy, that MC already possesses, to carry the Sea God's power. Prophecy refers to MC like that because that's just something that describes who MC is. There could have been no other devoted follower of the Sea God.

In addition to that, he then gave his own heart to MC, increasing the power of MC's aether core when he's supposed to do the opposite. And that's why, when they look at the tome in Sea of Golden Sand, the prophecy changes to "to take back what he's lost the God of the Sea must kill his beloved".

Also, I find it interesting that Rafayel said you awakened me when they first met. As Rafayel was said to be trapped in a place with very strong currents just like the blue hole where the tome of the Sea God resides, I think we can assume that this is the place where MC first found him. So, I wonder if Rafayel was awakened because he felt the power from MC's heart, the same heart that he needs to enhance his strength to become the Sea God in the future. I also wonder if MC found Rafayel that day because she was also drawn to his aether core by her heart.

Rafayel rewrote the tome of the Sea God and choose to burn away.

But Rafayel has never taken MC's heart. So he never fully inherited the Sea God's power to keep the flame alight and the earth's core stable. Instead, he rewrote the tome and gave away his life to keep the core intact for a while longer. And that is why he is the last Sea God. And when the energy he gave to the earth's core was exhausted at some point, the heart of Philos remained empty after him.

The heart of Philos is empty and hungry for energy. This energy can be supplied by ordinary human life or by the MC's aether core.

And that's how I connect Lemuria and Philos. I think in the beginning, Lemurians were the ones being fed into the planet's core and turn into wanderers until they found a way to inherit the Sea God's powers and use the aether core for the same purpose. But then Rafayel broke this deal with the Sea God and left the earth's core empty again until the core started to feed on people of Philos. To prevent this, the king of Philos decided to use MC and her aether core again.

So, in the end, even though Rafayel sacrificed his life to take MC's place, his sacrifice was not enough to keep her safe. And this is a very sad story.

[liahaslosthermind]

𝑫𝒊𝒔𝒕𝒂𝒏𝒄𝒆 𝑴𝒂𝒌𝒆𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝑯𝒆𝒂𝒓𝒕 𝑮𝒓𝒐𝒘 𝑪𝒐𝒍𝒅𝒆𝒓

Rhysand x OC Prequel Chapter to Betrayal (Prequels can be read in any order or as a standalone) Summary: Adelaide and Rhysand don’t like being apart for long, but a High Lord must be dutiful. (Takes place before the series' Timeline) A/N: I know, I know. You all want to see Rhysand get his ass beat, but this is not that.

“My dear Adelaide” her lover’s voice sung out from his office as she walked past, too enthralled in her book to notice he was in there. 

She quickly spun around, running back to his office. The lovers had been separated for only 3 days and despite around 300 years spent together, the days had gone by slowly. 

The two quickly met each other in the middle of the room, kissing feverishly as if they had been apart 50 years. 

As Rhysand pulled back, Adelaide chased his mouth, not yet content with the amount of kisses she had gotten. The High Lord quickly pecked her lips in apology while laughing at her eagerness.

“Slow down, my dear. We have all the time in the world.” He smiled down on her, taking in the beautiful face he had spent so much of his long existence undeniably enthralled and all consuming-ly in love with. Red hair not quite reaching her waist, not in the usual braids she put them in when she didn’t want to fight the curls she swore ‘had a mind of their own and decided they were at war with her’. The deep red of her hair accentuated by the gold accessories she wore in it, matching the ones that adorned the horns that came out of her head like twisted tree branches.  

The horns confused him at first. He had assumed that she hailed from Autumn because of the red of her hair, but the branches decorating her head hadn’t made sense with that theory, at least not fully. Her ears had much more of a point to them, a far cry from the rounded ears of the Illyrians, even farther than the High Fae did, as he did. So she couldn't have been High Fae.

Adelaide couldn’t give up much information on her front. She was a foundling, discovered on the border of Day and Night. The High Lord of Night at the time, Rhysand’s father, wanted nothing to do with the babe found, convinced that the red headed child must have been some ploy from Beron. Thankfully, the High Lord of Day took her in. At first, it had been her hair that drew him in, not far from the color his Lady of Autumn had. Her skin tone closer in resemblance to his than his love's. When he looked at her, he saw a timeline in which they got their deserved life together. Adelaide had no biological connection to either of them, but Helion loved her all the same. “It doesn’t feel that way, you always have something else to do.” She pouted. It would have been sweet, how much she had missed him, but the way her hands trailed down Rhysand’s chest, stopping at the sound of his grown when she pushed her fingers inside the waistband of his pants, Rhys knew she was anything but sweet right now.. 

“My dear,” Rhysand groaned as she continued to tease him, stepping out of his embrace. Don’t start something you know you can’t finish, he spoke into her mind. 

With no warning, she ran off down the hall, to their bedroom. She knew she couldn’t outrun him, but that made it all the more exciting. 

She had awoken the next day to the smell of her favorite tea being placed next to her bedside. She smiled at her lover, drowning in bliss that came from having him near. 

She then took in his outfit.

He was fully dressed in the clothes he wore when he needed to seem courtly and powerful. He had been called away, again. Sensing her despair, Rhysand leaned down on the bed, his kiss trailing from her lips, to her jaw, to her throat. 

But she pushed him away.

“You can’t seduce me into forgetting that you are leaving me again, Rhysand!”

“I am doing no such thing, just trying to make up for the fact I am leaving again. And I am not leaving you, my dear, I'd never leave you. Shoot me dead, should the day ever arise.” He laughed. She did too. What a preposterous idea, him leaving her. 

“Will you promise to hurry back, of sound mind and body?” 

“Always, my dear Adelaide, always of sound mind and body for you.” 

She hadn’t asked when he would be back, she learned not to over the years because these things never went on the original schedule. 

But she hadn’t thought it would be 50 excruciating years until she saw him again.  

[vampire-wizard-solidarity]

@your-local-ruebit-hole-detective ok i’m sorry but. i will answer your question.

age of calamity advertises itself as a prequel but in reality it’s a fix-it au with slight differences and writing that’s pretty bad but i have grown to appreciate it for how insane it goes sometimes.

the actual plot is that as a child zelda used to have a little egg-like guardian robot that she was forced to leave behind as she grew up due to her father’s pressure etc, and when the calamity happened this little robot saw it and traveled back in time with the goal to prevent this and protect zelda, creating a branching off timeline. there’s also an extra villain who is this prophet (???? this games writing isn’t good enough for me to tell you what his deal is exactly) who worships ganon and for most of the game works with the yiga to bring him back, except he’s more insane than them and works directly with malice and also sucks at his job because when he finally gets to ganon he unceremoniously dies and everybody’s like “yeah we have no idea what this guys deal was”.

the one significant change that doesnt have to do anything with time travel shenanigans is the fact that link doesn’t find the master sword as a child, but instead gets appointed zelda’s bodyguard for his genuine skill and then finds the master sword during one of the in game missions. despite this, revali still hates him, and often times when justifying this revali cites reasons that are literal complete opposites of how his grudge was characterised in botw, cementing revali’s characterisation as just a cunt for no reason. it’s great.

the significant time travel related change is that when all the champions go into their divine beasts and fight the blights a portal opens and the new champions (teba, sidon, riju, yunobo) get teleported in and help defeat the blights. zelda also doesn’t get her power by protecting link from a bunch of guardians, the scene still hits the same beats of link fighting things off so zelda can run away except in this game how it happens is that the insane prophet shows up and literally summons all the blights against link which makes the scene ten times more insane.

throughout the game the yiga show up regularly, often times with master kohga himself showing up and being the overall goofy guy he is, except he also has a hunk of a body guard who’s name i genuinely can’t recall. multiple times in the game kohga gets defeated and said hunk of a body guard throws him over his shoulder says “it’s not over yet” and walks off carrying kohga like a sac of potatoes.

in the original game, when shit starts hitting the fan the yiga stop showing up as enemies and at some point in the story kohga shows up without said hunk of a body guard, says “the prophet is insane and the calamity actually isn’t a good thing as we’ve discovered”, highly implies that the reason for his change of heart is because said prophet killed his hunk of a body guard (who literally. doesn’t show up again for the rest of the game mind you. he legit died), and is like “yeah the yiga will help you. after this whole thing is over we’ll go back to being bitches to you but rn let’s just kill this ganon guy and then walk our separate ways”. the fact that the calamity being a bad thing throws the yiga’s whole ideology and purpose into question is never addressed.

the dlc makes the death scene explicit, also making it a parallel to zelink by, again, making the bodyguard fight all the fucking blights so that kohga can escape. the scene literally opens with the body guard limping as they try to escape. it’s so much a parallel to zelink it’s insane. im afraid do not know what the hell they were cooking.

some other choice moments from this game that go insanely hard for no reason:

1. the first portion of the game is dedicated to zelda recruiting all the champions, and when it comes to recruiting revali he for some reason assumes it’s an attack, and sends all the rito soldiers to fight the intruders off. the rito do not question fighting some random hylians one of whom is literally zelda. the mission ends with a boss fight of link vs revali, which only ends without them killing each other because zelda runs in and goes “stop???? the fuck ????”

2. the entire game has cute bonding moments with the botw champions meeting their idols and getting to spend time with them. that is, except for sidon, who spends the game saving his older sister in a parallel universe which he has to leave by the end of the game, meaning every scene involving him has him on the brink of eleven hundred simultaneous mental breakdowns. the dlc adds a scene where the little sidon who is native to said parallel universe gets to interact with botw sidon, and botw sidon tells him that he’s going to grow up big and strong and will protect his sister, and the entire time he tries really hard to not acknowledge the fact that they are the same person, and that mipha is his sister too, presumably because nobody wanted to animate sidon ugly crying. in that scene you can literally see his soul die in his eyes it’s great

3. the dlc features tulin, god knows why. i don’t know how he got there or what he’s doing. he’s just there.

4. you can make noble pursuits in the game and drink them before missions for a buff. pre-gaming defeating the calamity is a thing, i cannot stress how much it is a thing in this game.

5. there are two separate animated cutscenes where link eats rocks on screen. only one of them involves the gorons, the other is a scene where link is being discussed and as the characters talk about how great he is in battle the camera pans to him eating rocks, seemingly on a dare from the other soldiers, who all surround him and are immensely excited by the fact that he is actually eating rocks.

6. the dlc features a scene where zelda gets to cook. link is horrified the entire time. she does not belong in the kitchen. she belongs anywhere outside the kitchen. the dlc also gives her the master cycle as a weapon. she commits vehicular manslaughter

7. the king gets a redemption arc, where he apologises to zelda only after she unlocks her power. the reason he realized he was wrong was because a sheikah relic that he confiscated from zelda turned out to be an ancient shield and it saved his life from a guardian blast. his apology is literal dog shit and right after it the game forces you to play as him for a mission. it almost made me rage quit.

8. thunder blight has an attack where it just swings its hair at you

9. when you finally fight calamity ganon he doesn’t have the form of the spider ganon from botw or even the boar, he is instead a buff guy made out of malice. literally just the shape of a buff non descript guy made out of malice. his boss fight is endless and the entire time you’re just beating the shit out of a non descript buff guy shape with a stick.

10. there’s a cute little side mission called something like “girls beauty contest” (in reality they all beat the shit out of each other for the title), where you’re only allowed to select female characters. that is, female characters AND gorons. think of that what you will

[rentumblsstuff]

Random Hatchetfield Headcanons

The first time Alice Woodward ever smoked weed was when (after much inner turmoil) she asked Deb to shotgun it with her.

Max has two snaggletoothed incisors which is why people swear to god he has fangs.

Deb also has a snaggletooth which is what inspired the vampire part of Alice’s vampiric sapphic play. Alice also thinks it’s ironic she made a vampire character when Deb is a vegan.

Ruth as a Sophmore hit on Senior Alice a lot. Alice thought it was funny and she and Deb ��adopted” her. Max and Steph also put the PANIC in bi panic for Ruth.

Max would find it weirdly hot that Grace wears bathing suits under her clothes because of the idea that he gets to see what her body looks like before even she does.

The hospital is downtown, so Becky Barnes definitely got infected in TGWDLM. Despite never wanting to do it again, Becky climbs the tree as someone calls the HFPD to save Kathy’s cat because she’s still infinitely compassionate even under Pokey’s control. Plus, Pokey knows she wants to get over the trauma associated with climbing trees, so he makes her do it to give her a big number about finally overcoming her past. She accidentally flings the cat as soon as the song starts, which is why in Show Me Your Hands, the cat dies so quickly even though it JUST got called in.

Peter infected Steph who infected Deb who infected Alice in TGWDLM. Pete and Steph would have been Sophomores and Deb and Alice were Seniors, but I always imagine Steph and Deb knowing eachother because MRFC said Steph is in the Smoke Club on Twitter at some point. Assuming Steph’s been a little punk for a while, she’s been in the smoke club since at least Sophomore year, and probably a new inductee the same year as TGWDLM (2018).

Alice and one of her parents (maybe Bill) were also raised in purity culture because we know the Woodwards and the Chastitys go to the same church. The Woodwards probably take it with a grain of salt though (Alice has expressed dislike over Grace’s prudishness)- either that or one of her parents (probably her mom) wasn’t originally from said church and also raised Alice with “this is what you’re learning here, but here’s also what I learned at my church at your age.” Bill was likely the one raised in purity culture because he does NOT LIKE DEB and thinks that if she HAS TO date a girl, she should date someone like Grace Chastity, implying she’s an exemplary teen girl. Ms. Woodward lets Deb sleep over and probably knows she smokes and likes her anyways; three points for Alice’s mom not being the puritanical one.

Ted reads romance novels. He’s a former geek turned sleazeball- you know he reads the smuttiest novels ever and calls them “his research”. He refuses to read any book with the friends to lovers trope because it’s too upsetting to think about. (Side note Time Bastard gave us a definite date that timelines don’t branch/reset before depending on whichever theory you believe because the homeless man is in every timeline, meaning that Jenny’s death is fixed in time and never changes: October 7th 2004, so the timelines change anywhere between October 8th 2004 and 2018.)

In whatever timeline Emma finally gets to have her weed farm, she meets Paul when he tells her he was prescribed that marajamij for his anxiety and he was too scared to try Xanax. She thinks he’s kind of cute for a wet cat of a corporate slave. “Fuck the patriarchy? Yes please.” (Side note Paul seems so uptight and unfuckable like bro gotta be blank down there like a Ken doll and has no discernible kinks from what I remember while Emma is laid back and chill asf and like… normal in comparison so yeah sure Paulkins canonically fucks but does Emma enjoy it?? Like dude even Pete’s more fuckable than him come on.)

Pete and Steph don’t kiss when they admit their feelings for eachother even though one of them would die before ever getting to kiss each other because they both think it’ll only make it that much harder to go through with sacrificing the other. One of the reasons Pete also chooses to be the one to take the bullet because he doesn’t think he even COULD pull the trigger on her. Like it’d be physically impossible for him, in his mind.

TGWDLM was originally meant to be an allegory for the institution brainwashing us. Show Me Your Hands and America’s Great Again: examples of people in power working for and fulfilling the evil wishes of some almighty, otherworldly, inhuman THING (be it aliens, be it those in power). It’s clearly meant to satirize the way that power corrupts and tries to convince you its way is better. Even Hidgens, THE FUCKING TEACHER, tries to teach his student that it will be better for everyone to join in that corruption and give in to the hive mind. This reminds me of how the school system in America tries to paint our history as something glamorous; manifest destiny instead of genocide of the indigenous populations. The people in power convincing those under them that the deaths of countless lives is a good thing and it will pave the way to a better future. Cool motive, still murder. Which is why Emma “Fuck the Patriarchy” Perkins is the last one to be infected. She was incapable of being brainwashed , and even when she was the last one left, she saw that the people watching didn’t care, and the all-consuming threat of corrupted power closes in on her until the very last moment.

The Lords in Black were going to try to convince whoever sacrificed their most treasured something to do more work for them, but Grace required very little convincing. Like Wiggly spoke into her mind like “Gracy-Wace! You forgot my booky-wook! Look in it, see any thing you like? Wanna kill all the pervy-wervys?” And she’s like “holy cow I can kill all the pervy-wervys with this book?” Pete would have needed the most convincing because he’s just lost the only girl who will ever love him (in his mind) and so he’d think these things took away his one chance at true love and NEVER want to deal with them again. Even if they offered him a way to get her back, he’s too smart to know that won’t come without an even bigger price AND too paranoid to think she won’t come back wrong like Max did.

If the Green-Foster family ever did get to move to California and Lex got to be an actress, her interview attitude would be a lot like Reneé Rapp and if she ever got asked about why she’ll openly shit talk people in an interview, she’s like “I used to work retail I learned pretty fast that nothing gets done if you keep your mouth shut.”

[shadow-fell]

On Moonrise Towers, the Thorm Family, and the Shadow Curse

Once another compilation so that I don't need to go constantly digging for things. A general timeline of events:

Reithwin town founded by the Thorm family

Moonrise Towers constructed

Melodia Thorm dies

Isobel Thorm dies

Ketheric turns to Shar

Gauntlet of Shar constructed/rebuilt; Reithwin turns to Sharran worship

Nightsong is captured by Ketheric and Balthazar

Flaming Fist sends Art Cullagh to investigate Ketheric

Harpers, Druids, and Flaming Fist team up to fight Ketheric

Mason who built Moonrise Towers + the Gauntlet of Shar makes a deal with Raphael; Yurgir kills all the Sharrans in the Gauntlet/Grymforge save one

Ketheric is killed, Shadow Curse released

Survivors of the battle flee

Ketheric resurrects, turns to Myrkul

Gortash and the Dark Urge bring Ketheric in on the Absolute plan

Ketheric resurrects Isobel (maybe before ^ but probably after)

Isobel flees to the Last Light Inn

Now, expanding on the details, sources, and adding some firmer dates? that's all going below the cut.

Construction of Moonrise Towers

The first, and as far as I know only reference to Moonrise Towers outside of BG3 is in the Code of the Harpers, where it is described as the base of the Crescent Coat, officer of the High Heralds (a group spinning out of the Harpers, referenced by Halsin in game), in 1368.

So, we know when it must be established by - but how much earlier can we go? Pretty far given that the Thorms are elven/half-elven.

Our best boundary is that we know Balduran visited Moonrise Towers before becoming an Illithid. His initial departure from Baldur's Gate and shipwreck happened around 1050 DR, at 300 years before BG1/2, so he has to come to Moonrise Towers sometime after that. FR Wiki states this is ~1150 or later, but I don't know where they're getting that from? I think that's a reasonable timeframe, though.

We know the same architect built Moonrise as the Gauntlet of Shar (from talking to him in the House of Hope), but there's no record of what race he was (only meeting him as a skeleton), and if an elf could easily still be working a few centuries after the construction.

Ketheric is a half-elf for sure, though, but he is an old one. How old exactly is hard to say. 3rd edition gave "old" at 93, with a maximum age of 130-190, while 5e just says "often exceeding 180 years". If we take that he looks the way he did in ~1370 as his death, that places his birth at a minimum of ~1170, but probably later, and the construction of Moonrise Towers ~1200 at the earliest, which is maybe a bit long for Balduran but not unreasonably so.

The other thing of note is that Moonrise Towers has a 'sister' in the Sunrise Spire, a Lathanderian Monastery destroyed in 1177 during a territorial war. Combined with the (undated) fall of Rosymorn Monastery, there is perhaps something interesting about the regional shift from Lathander to Selune, and the construction happening after the destruction further supports a date around ~1200.

Personally, I'd want to push things earlier rather than later - it wouldn't be difficult to say that Ketheric is more elven than human, pushing his age a bit further out, so somewhere between 1180-1200 fits the sweet spot. But really, all we have for sure is "before 1368"

Melodia and the Thorm Family

Melodia Thorm is a human worshipper of Selune, who married Ketheric Thorm and converted him to her worship. They had a daughter, Isobel, who was young when Melodia died (or, at least, Melodia still called her their little girl).

Ketheric is a half-elf; every other member of the Thorm family is an elf - Malus, Gerringothe, and Thisobald all have the longer ears (although the hood makes this less clear on Thisobald).

Malus refers to (presumably) Ketheric as his nephew, making him the only certain branch of the family tree. Gerringothe, we have no idea where she fits in, although as a full elf, we can assume no one is Ketheric's siblings, only parents/aunts/uncles/cousins/more distant relatives.

Thisobald...is complicated. He calls Ketheric father, however, the phrasing is ambiguous (capitalized in a religious sense) in addition to the lack of reference to him in accounts of Melodia/Isobel, and the fact he appears to be fully elven. The two possibilities is that Thisobald and Isobel are half-siblings, with Thisobald's other parent being a full elf, and this being the source of disconnect between him and Ketheric, or that Father is not literal and he is related to Ketheric another way.

We know that Malus Thorm was alive in 986, where he recorded battle casualties from a Dark Justiciar/Selunite/Druid conflict. Given that only the Dark Justiciars are named, it seems likely he was a Sharran at that time. If we take the date as legitimate and not referring to the 1370s conflict, then at least Malus worshipped Shar before Reithwin turned to Selunite worship.

Gauntlet of Shar

Around 800 years before Ketheric Thorm's turn, Grymforge was a city of Shar worshippers. He attempted to revitalize it - creating or rebuilding the Gauntlet of Shar in the process.

And, yes, these two are connected - you can see the entrance to the Gauntlet from one of the points in the lava and through the hall where Nere is trapped. There is a further section not accessible seen from where the Mimic fight is, mainly what appear to be another set of docks.

While we're told the Mason constructed the Gauntlet, given that Shadowheart has heard legends of it, the more likely option seems to be it was rebuilt, since it's quite a large place to construct in only a handful of years. Especially if Malus was a Sharran in 986, it would explain the presence of Shar worshippers before Ketheric's turn.

So, we have the initial Dark Justiciar trials around 600 DR, followed by a decline (with the Gauntlet perhaps lasting past the fall of the city, hidden under Reithwin) enough to establish a myth that can then be built on in the 1370s.

Death of Isobel

How Isobel died is an unresolved plot point, revolving around cut content, so it's hard to call anything "canonical" but the two potential paths are as follows:

In the earliest version, she was killed by Halsin, during a meeting between her (and other Reithwin locals) and the druids, before Shar's influence (and the song of the Nightsong, potentially) drove them mad, and Halsin stabbed Isobel with Sorrow, leaving it cursed). This sparked the conflict between Ketheric and the Druid-Harper alliance.

In a later version, Balthazar killed her, framing Aylin for the deed, which led to Ketheric capturing her and trapping her in the Gauntlet of Shar. Isobel was tethered to Ketheric, and needed to be separated before he was killed

Either way, Isobel has no memory of her death upon being resurrected a century later. It happened probably ~1370, triggering the conflict. While it may have happened earlier (with Ketheric keeping his Shar worship hidden) probably not earlier than 1368.

Conflict with the Harpers

Alright, so this is where we get back into figuring out hard dates. Generally, this happened a century ago - so ~1392, but any time something is that round I always assume it's off.

Again, we know things are business as usual around 1368 because of the Heralds; this means that while Ketheric may have turned to Shar, it wasn't public. However, we do have some dates related to the conflict.

The Harpers try and fail to surrender in a letter by Khelben Arunsun - he's expelled from the Harpers in 1371, founding a splinter group, and dies in 1374. That makes 1369-1370 the most likely timing.

However, the records from Moonhaven and from the Emerald Grove push it to being a later date. Uktar 1371 is the date that the Apothecary and Apprentice arrive from Thay, the start of the Apprentice's journal, which ends with the Dark Justiciars killing him. Toth's logbook is the Apothecary's account, and has a raid in late Uktar and in Nightal; this may be the same year, but more likely later. We know there was at least one failed raid on Moonhaven before it fell completely.

Uktar 1371 we also get the Logbook from the Emerald Grove - they're dealing with far more minor problems and presumably aren't yet at war with the Dark Justiciars, which further supports the idea that the raids on Moonhaven happen in 1372 or 1373.

To account for Khelben's presence, we could assume the failed surrender is from an initial conflict in 1369-1370, that ended with the Harpers retreating, but more likely, the threat Ketheric Thorm posed was enough that the Harpers and Moonstars (Khelben's splinter group) were in alliance - after all, it wasn't a clean split and there was still a great deal of overlap, and he's still the Blackstaff.

The details of the conflict are largely uncertain. We know the Dark Justiciars destroyed Moonhaven, and presumably some other villages, and that the shadow curse claimed the region around Moonrise Towers and Reithwin.

However, we do know how it ended. The Mason made a deal with Raphael to destroy the Dark Justiciar army, which brought Yurgir to the Gauntlet, where he killed all but one (hiding as a swarm of rats). While we only see Yurgir's impact in Grymforge and the Gauntlet, presumably Raphael helped with defeating the entire army.

How Ketheric died and came to be buried in the mausoleum is unclear, but in the final moments of the battle, he cursed the lands around Moonrise Towers with the Shadow Curse, killing many of the Harpers and Druid, and lasting for well over a century, until he came to be resurrected in the name of Myrkul.

My Proposed Timeline

You've read the evidence above. This is therefore a mix of canon, reasonably makes sense in canon, and completely made up headcanon

1492 - Balthazar resurrects Isobel; she flees to the Last Light Inn

???? - Balthazar resurrects Ketheric, he becomes Myrkul's chosen

1373 - Yurgir kills Dark Justiciar Army; Ketheric dies and the Shadow Curse falls

1372 - Dark Justiciars spread out and attack local villages, destroying Moonhaven. The Emerald Grove, Harpers, Moonstars, and Flaming Fist ally together

1370 - The Nightsong is captured, used as the final test for the new Dark Justiciar army Ketheric builds

1369 - Isobel killed by [Halsin/Balthazar/???]. Ketheric completes turn to Shar, forces Reithwin to convert, has the mason begin reconstructing Grymforge

1350 - Melodia dies. Ketheric's faith begins to waver.

1340 - Isobel born

1325 - Melodia and Ketheric marry

1300 - Melodia born.

1200s - Moonrise Towers constructed; Reithwin slowly builds up prominence as a trade stop amon

1170s - Ketheric Thorm born.

1150s-1250s - young Halsin grows up in the lands around Reithwin, where he befriends Thaniel.

980s - Dark Justiciar/Druid/Harper conflict, Malus Thorm attending. Sharrans in the region go further into hiding; Reithwin is known as a Selunite enclave.

600s - Grymforge is a thriving Sharran city. Dark Justiciar trials are held within the Gauntlet of Shar.

[lara-cairncross]

Hi!! I have two questions about your rottmnt fairy au, and I don’t really know if these have been answered yet or if you even have the answer to the second one, (which is totally fine btw! ＾＾). The questions may be a bit dumb but still. Curiosity got the best of me.

1. A question about Donnie’s damaged wing, I would assume it’d be quite fragile due to the damage it already has, so I do wonder if it could get worse. Like how a normal fairy’s wings have the possibility of ripping. I wonder if maybe Donnie’s wing had gotten slightly worse (like- idk a small rip or chunk coming of off it) before he had made his brace?

2. How does the whole apocalyps timeline work (if you had even planned something like that in your au). Because I had noticed you saying that yokai are fairies, and humans like april are just that, human. Does that mean Casey junior is also a human? Because the only thing I imagine is just little fairy leo teaching a full on human how to fight. (-_-;)

Btw I really really like your au! I used to watch the tinkerbell films over and over again (I have probably watched every one at least ten times-) and to see my current hyper fixation be mixed with something I really liked as a kid fills me with excitement! (Sorry if the questions may be a bit confusing I’m not good at this)

hi hi hi! your questions aren't dumb at all :D as far as I'm concerned, there's no such thing as a stupid question, y'know? I love getting to answer them ^^

Yes, Donnie's wings (particularly the damaged one) are very susceptible to further damage. Part of the reason is the fact that his wings are always on the outside of his shell (due to him being a softshell), and thus, he doesn't have the ability to hide them away for protection like Leo and Mikey (and partially Raph, although Raph's shell works a little differently, with his shell spikes folding down to act as a defense). That's why Donnie's wing brace includes that gold shell over his wings! Extra protection :) You're correct about them possibly being damaged before he was able to build the brace though-- I can definitely imagine the holes/tears in his wing getting stuck on branches and being pulled if he's not careful. There's also the fact that fairy wings don't feel pain-- referenced by Raini being able to painlessly cut off her wings in order to swim underwater in the Pixie Hollow books-- so Donnie would have trouble noticing if his wing was caught on something and tearing.

I don't really have an apocalypse timeline planned out so far. I do have ideas for fitting in the Kraang (which,,, idk if i'll ever actually make it to that plot point BUT WE'LL SEE LOL), but there's likely not going to be a future arc or anything. That being said, I DO have ideas for both Casey and CJ that involve them not being humans OR fairies... :))))

I'm glad you're enjoying it!!!! This is ALSO me combining hyperfixations lol, I'm happy someone else feels the same way!!! 💜🧡

[saturncoyote]

you know, garde being trans makes me have a few questions (nothing bad of course LOL this ask feels ominous). do you headcanon there being any major gender differences in trolls? either socially or biology-wise? ive noticed you give both garde and creek facial hair, but not hibiscus, so im wondering if you think theres like. testosterone and estrogen for trolls lol. or if its more of a presentation thing and all trolls have the same biology, some just choose to present differently. since as we've seen, trolls are able to reproduce all on their own, so the need for biological sex feels like a secondary thing? if you get what i mean. more of a social thing than a strictly biology thing? (i ask this as if these arent movies made by cis people who do Not think about this like us trans folks would BUT!!! i like your headcanons better so i thought id ask if you have any for gender <3)

Honestly Garde being EXPLICITLY trans wasn't my original plan, he was going to be one of those characters who is implied to be trans by the themes of his story (different from his peers, not understood by those around him, pressured to be more like the "norm") plus the fact that he's a troll who "experiments" with his "genre", so i never really put that much thought into HOW a trans troll would work

Personally i think trolls don't have much sexual dimorphism (thank god for that, imagine if we lived in the timeline where Dreamworks decided to give every female troll giant bazongas to make sure everyone understood they're the GIRL ones, though most female trolls in the movie still suffer from the "Sonic and Amy, Mickey and Minnie" curse of wearing shirts while the boys can go shirtless, with the exception of glitter trolls of course) plus i don't think trolls would be the type to pay much mind to sex and gender (like you said, they can reproduce asexually and male trolls can produce eggs so biological sex doesn't even have to be a factor here, if anything the concept of gender to a troll could be completely different to our concept of gender)

I like the idea that there is no difference between a "male" and "female" troll so there is no need for HRT, if a troll wishes to transition physically they can do that at any time (headcanon that trolls can just grow a beard just as easily as they can grow their hair), the real question they need to figure out first is HOW they want to present themselves, especially with how crazy trolls can make their hairs i can imagine it can be quite overwhelming having to figure out what you want to do style-wise, the possibilities are endless !

Honestly with those headcanons in mind i often worry that Garde's story feels "out of place" in this universe or maybe even "forced", why would Garde be ostracised for being different when trolls themselves are so different from one another ? But then i remember the first movie and how Branch was cast aside for seeing the world differently and not having a constantly positive attitude and the second movie where their immediate reaction to seeing a different genre of music was to assume they don't know that music is meant to make you happy and i think no yeah it makes perfect sense that this guy who wants to experiment with his music genre and maybe even play songs that aren't pop-y and upbeat all the time would probably get a few angry stares from other trolls

[ihaveforgortoomany]

Bits on the suitcase residents we know or can guess so far: (Global mainly) (maybe Ill do a CN one later)

(edit: Thanks @stari-hun for clarifying a few things!)

Speculating who is in the suitcase at a given time, the regulars and etc etc.

(Excluding anecdotes because there is alot)

Vertin is the only permanent 24/7 resident of the suitcase, shes inside and carries it everywhere.

While Sonetto is almost always with Vertin, with Uluru she is not always present in the suitcase with Vertin: her original position was field investigator so likely does that or something else.

Ofc certain arcanists are members of the different branches: Laplace with Mesmer, X, Lucy, Medpoc, Ezra and Regulus; Zeno with Lilya, Matilda with the SPDM when shes not being annually kidnapped by Vertin.

Discussing other characters excluding those introduced in 2.0 onwards:

Avgust and Vila likely are in SPDM.

Field investigators like Windsong (works with Laplace, idk do they count as Laplace?) and potentially Marcus travel around.

Kakania either follows Marcus (Marcus taking on Hoffman's role) or she becomes a member of Laplace.

Isolde from voicelines seems to be 'contained' within the suitcase or at the very least is restricted in movement for obivous reasons.

Jessica and Blonney likely either are in the suitcase or at SPDM.

Spathodea and Ulu if not in the suitcase are at the Uluru Stadium.

(Now thinking about it where do characters not necessarily connected to other branches or are just in the Timekeeper's team but aren't with Vertin? Etc where do Druvis and Horrorpedia chill when not with Vertin?)

By Uluru we do confirm other characters like Bunny Bunny, the Horse etc etc are in the suitcase. (Monolitch, Oliver Fog, AlienT, A Knight, An Lee) all confirmed appearances in anecdotes.

No idea when Melania or Pickles join and how (And Diggers we don't know until the 2.1 anecdote gets fully released in global)

Eagle we do meet in Book 2 (I completely forgor that we just pick up a child there, same with Lelani).

It is definite that not all 60+ characters have become residents in the suitcase by 1.9 (as in while we do get to play as them, in the timeline they may not be in the suitcase at for example 1.8 or something). We eventually met all of them, like characters from 1.6 eventually end up in the suitcase at some point, as for characters like Pavia, Balloon Party we do not know when they join the suitcase so far.

Ill wager story wise theres probably around 10 people in the suitcase at a time, Vertin likely has to register members who go on field missions or needs approval for members belonging to certain branches to accompany her (etc Medpoc was only present with Vertin as she was deemed the safest person to travel with).

Im assuming if Vertin is just in the Foundation, the suitcase is placed in her designated office there, if she has one or a common area where ppl can come and go as they please.

Speculation: Do you think we might storywise ever see the destruction or damaging of the suitcase? And the potential to have the UI reflect this change? Possible maybe.

(Just wrote this because Limbus is taking a bit to download and probably need to wait until the update for that game comes to IOS)

[yuriosakawa]

Theory: Generator Rex technically counts as an alternative Ben 

Now, I assume everyone knows by now what the Omniverse is and how does it work. 

But for those that don’t and/or need a quick refresher, it’s practically the Ben 10 multiverse. Stemming out from the Prime timeline which is our Ben’s timeline, where certain events can cause changes to it which can create different outcomes that can be so different, that they get treated as their own unique separate dimensions. 

Now, some changes are relatively tame. We get versions like Ben 23 and Gwen 10, which aren’t that different from the main timeline. 

But at the same time, we get versions like No Watch Ben who is regarded as an unpredictable wild card by Eon (a time traveling version of Ben himself) for the simple reason that he’s never got an Omnitrix, because the Omnitrix never existed in his timeline, completely detaching him from his counterparts, whether good or bad.  

Even the multiple "bad" versions of Ben (with the exception of Albedo) can somewhat be traced back to the original Ben in one way or another. 

Now, what does any of this have to do with Generator Rex? 

Well, since we’re never explicitly explained how the Omniverse works exactly; here’s my theory on how it can actually work…

My pitch? The more distant the dimension is from the prime Ben 10 timeline, the more different it becomes to it 

In this case, Rex’s universe is so far away from Ben’s reality that it’s a completely different and detached from every other dimension in the Omniverse; so much so that different established places and characters simply don’t exist on it anymore 

However, the general concept of a teenage superhero gifted with great power left by Ben is still in there. So, the universe found a way to “correct" itself by giving Rex the role of a fit-in for an alternative Ben. 

If this was correct, this would mean that when Ben traveled to Rex’s dimension he wasn’t actually traveling to a brand new world; he was just traveling to another branch of the Omniverse. Just one that was so far away from his own prime timeline for it to be recognizable 

In conclusion, Rex could also technically count as an alternative Ben 10 

But, hey! That’s just a theory! A Heroes United theory! Thanks for reading… 😉😉😉

[howlsofbloodhounds]

Alright, AUTISM TIME. (This message was inspire by one line of dialogue from Geno in Underverse 0.7 part 1)

So, the multiverse, right? Cool place, we're all fans of it here. But nobody can seem to agree how the HELL it's organized. So I'mma do that here.

At the top, obviously, we have - Multiverse - All the universes

Below that, we have - Universe - The umbrella for all timelines under that universe. (Think of it like a tree that holds all the other branches on it. Examples are Underswap, Undertale, Underfell, etc. Whole other universes)

Then - Timelines - Clusters of worlds where similar events occur (Think Aftertale, Dusttale, etc)

And finally - Branches - Here is where we get to the nitty gritty, the individual worlds. This is the place where people from the same timeline cluster tend to diverge, (The best example that comes to mind is the Geno, Error, and Fatal Error split. All members of the same timeline, but the exact branch their from deviated.

Universes and Timelines are created by Creators, (That's us!) And occasionally branches too (Refer to Error and Fatal Error), but in most universes, you're going to get a near infinite amount of basic branches that fall under the vanilla universe that it's from. (So 99% of worlds under the Undertale umbrella universe aren't going to be Aftertale's or Dusttale's, they're going to just be regular old Undertale worlds, because those are naturally occuring)

Under normal circumstances, you have to travel to each branch individually to wipe them out, like Error does. The exception is the Doodle Sphere, where since each piece of paper represents a universe, that's the whole umbrella universe. So take that out, and everything underneath it goes too.

Anyways, that's all, enjoy my insane ramblings!

Oh that’s so cool. I love hearing how people understand and conceptualize how it could all work. I am not a very good visualizer, so i can’t really picture this in my mind, but i think it’d be cool see a lil map of the multiverse. Maybe they’re even mass made and produced in verious multiverse aware aus and timelines.

I wonder where Dreamtale would fit on this, since i remember reading that it’s not even connected in the Undertale Multiverse..multiverse? but rather that Nim moved the Tree of Feelings into that Multiverse or something like that. I’m assuming it’d just be in the multiverse tree, or it could be off to the side somewhere. Or potentially hidden, to hide the tree of feelings.

{ @the-selfinsert }

[crowroboros]

ur the person i know who's good at understanding abstract concepts and weird timelines and shit. can you explain what's fucking going on with Echo and Arches??

Alright sure.

This Post Will Contain Spoilers for Echo and Arches

Right so first thing to establish is that with Echo, no route is more canon than the others. There isn't a "true ending". In fact, that's actually a big part needed to understand certain aspects of Echo and Arches: There isn't one single timeline, but many branching timelines covering many different possibilities.

The most apparent example of this are the various routes: Carl's Route; Leo's Route; Jenna's Route; TJ's Route; and Flynn's Route. But the Good and Bad endings that some routes have are also examples of this.

Each route in Echo corresponds to a route in Route 65 as well. Jenna in her Echo route mentions that Chase first came out to her before anyone else, but Flynn says the same in his route. Other little details—such as who Chase considers his best friend—also vary between routes but do line up with what happens between Chase and that specific character in Route 65. Specifically, whoever Chase first confides in about his sexuality and the situation he finds himself in at the beginning of Route 65 will be the same character he goes after during the prologue of Echo after the big fight that kicks off the story.

So what we have with the Echo Universe is something akin to a tree: Several "branches" splitting off from each other linking back to the "trunk". This applies to Arches as well.

We of course have the Arches VN, but Cameron and Devon both appear in the epilogue of several routes in Echo: Flynn's and TJ's where they take center stage, and Leo where they're mentioned (as a "bear and coyote") when Chase visits Leo two years after the Hysteria, but not named.

It can be assumed that Cameron and Devon make their way to Echo in the other timelines as well, but what must be noted is that Arches VN and the routes we play through in Echo are in different timelines. Details in every route contradict what happens in and before Arches VN. Things like: Cameron and Devon meeting up with Chase to give a tour of Echo; Duke being killed during the Hysteria; Brian being killed during the Hysteria, the Hysteria in TJ's route happening in 2017; Cameron and Devon visiting Echo in 2017 in Leo's Route all contradict the events of Arches VN, but a version of Arches VN still takes place in each of those timelines.

Going further, as you know there isn't any choices that the player makes during Arches that changes what happens. That's because the timeline split in Arches is written into the story. At the end of Arches when Cameron, Devon, and Brian are in the mines together, Brian has a shotgun pointed at Cameron's head. Two timelines branch off from this point: One where Brain shoots and kills Cameron, who then possesses Devon and leads to the events of the short story Vessels four years later; and the timeline we play the rest of Arches through, where Cameron (who just saw a vision of the other timeline) pushes the shotgun away mere moments before Brian can pull the trigger and narrowly misses being killed.

So all in all, the timeline looks like this:

(I apologize for how this looks. I had to do it on my phone rather than my laptop so it isn't as good looking as my Zelda timelines, which you can check out here if you're curious)

The Echo short stories that take place from January 2010 through October 2014 happen the same in each one of these timelines from what we can tell. There's no evidence to suggest that the short story Runaway in the Flynn Route Timeline is any different from the Runaway in the Leo Route Timeline for example. Same goes for Benefits.

To end things off, these timelines aren't completely separate. As briefly mentioned earlier, it is possible to peer into one timeline from another if someone has any psychic or supernatural abilities. Cameron Wilson is one such person. During the epilogue of Arches, he peers into the timeline in which he died several times, even briefly communicating with that version of Devon and Cameron (who, again, is possessing Devon). In Vessels we get the other side of this: Devon and Cameron—who are reliving their college memories in a psychic/dream plane within Devon's psyche—are confronted by Cameron from the timeline in which Cameron survives. Though this seems to only be a mental thing, as Cameron isn't physically there but his mind and consciousness is.

The Socket Man is another example of someone not bound to one specific timeline. Despite only being created in the Flynn Route Timeline, The Socket Man appears throughout the VN: He kills Duke in Leo's Route; he appears several times in Jenna's Route; he appears in Arches just to stare at Arturo; and even appears before the route split and in timelines that we never play through otherwise.

So...that's pretty much all there is to it. I hope this cleared up how Echo and Arches and the Echoverse timeline as a whole operates. Or at least, I hope you have a better understanding of it.

[rafayelsbelovedbride]

Earth to Philos - Making a timeline

The latest myths made me so confused about the timeline and when the dragons existed between Earth and the Philos, but I think I finally have an idea about what is going on. And I'm hoping I can get some feedback for all these ^^

First question: Should we even connect all LI's timelines?

Before I put everything into a single (single-ish) timeline, let's first clarify how much we can actually combine for LI's stories.

Of course, for the "By Your Side", "Falling for You", "Anectodes" and the newly released branches, the storylines are said to be separated. This makes sense, as it wouldn't be very nice to confess your undying love for all of them at the same time (It would I'm lying). But I think the only way for the LIs to be able to come to Linkon in the current timeline is if they have a past with MC.

And I think the fact that all LIs came to Linkon because of their shared past with MC was confirmed. (She just does not romance them all and remember their past with them all at the same time. So, whoever you choose, the other LIs will have to live with the fact that you will not remember them. Also, for example, when we came back to the main story after 3 branches, we have 3 Aether cores. That means even if we didn't accompany the LI, they still went there and find the Aether core alone.) Because, for the main story and the "World Underneath", there are no branches. So, I think we can safely assume, all of these stories mentioned in these parts (especially World Underneath) are happening at the same time, in the current timeline. Which means;

Zayne becomes a doctor because of MC.

Also, he implies there was an instance where he was a threat to her safety. In the main story, we have already seen he sometimes has trouble controlling his Evol. All of these things in the main story cannot happen without Zayne being cursed by Astra. Therefore, the current timeline cannot exist without Zayne betraying his god for MC. So, I'm going to assume Zayne's myths are a part of the puzzle completing the main storyline.

Lemuria is in ruins and Rafayel is looking for MC.

Lemurians adapted to life alongside humans after "a disaster". We know that disaster very well, as the Forgotten Sea ended with the Sea God ceremony failing and Lemuria being plunged into darkness. This is also the reason why Rafayel is looking for his "lover". So, again, the current storyline cannot exist without MC and Rafayel causing Lemuria's destruction. So, I'm going to assume Rafayel's myths are also a part of the puzzle completing the main storyline.

Xavier is in the current timeline after the Traceback II mission has failed.

This is the most important part. Xavier came back to the past from Philos with Traceback II mission, and he even mentions he wants to see his and her little planet, Uluru. Jeremiah is also aware of why MC is important to Xavier, and he immediately notices when Xavier finally finds "her". Again, all of these cannot exist without what happened in Shooting Stars. So, I'm going to assume Xavier's myths are also a part of the puzzle completing the main storyline.

Then, how can we fit Sylus's new myth into this already-complicated story?

Second question: When did the Earth end and the Philos started? Where was the dragons the whole time? Why were they not mentioned in future Philos?

Let's first clarify what we are calling the Earth and what we are calling the Philos. In this case, there are two facts I want to mention.

First: Philos was made by mortal hands.

Please pay attention to the fact that Philos is not a whole planet, but a combination of fragmented landmasses (that are separate tectonic plates) held together by a core.

Second: Deepspace tunnel connects past and future. (Earth and Philos, I think...)

So, what I think happened was... At one point in Earth's future, when the Earth was completely infested with Wanderers (like in the future Zayne sees), humanity passed through the deepspace tunnel and traveled to a distant future hoping they would find something better.

They did not. They instead found out that the Earth was falling apart into pieces and the tectonic plates were being separated from each other. And, I think, we can assume that when the tectonic plates are separated, the separation would be filled by what was underneath those tectonic plates. Like, the magma or the abyss. Like this...

So, I think, for humanity, there was a time skip, which was filled with dragons and wanderers and also maybe the remaining humans living in the abyss. I think the Tarus city (or Tartarus which is supposed to be the deep abyss that is one of the earliest beings to exist) and the abyss existed from the moment the Earth was created, but it was hidden underneath the tectonic plates (which was not separated in the earlier days of Earth).

And also, underneath the sea. Just like the abyss mentioned in MC's Witch of the Abyss dream. In the Bloodnight Drift, Sylus mentions flint when he describes the smell of Tarus city. This is really interesting (I'm being delusional), because even though they did draw the Tarus city with a lava river, flint is not a volcanic stone. Flint is formed by a cold process beneath the sea floor.

So, the abyss was a part of the Earth from the beginning. It was just hidden and it was only exposed when the seas dried and the planet/planet's core started to die. And we don't really know, if the dragons lived in that abyss from the very start or if they came into existence after humanity left.

I think, maybe, the dragons are created out of shattered pieces of the planet's Aether core. That's why they are "wicked creatures that feed on human souls making humans a slave to their desires" just like how the hollow core of Philos consumes humans for energy and turns them into wanderers.

So, if I were to draw a very rough timeline for the entire story, it would be something like this.

Lemuria was plunged into darkness, and Sea God's power could not be used to its full extent because of the failed ceremony. (I think this was one of the things that kickstarted Earth's demise, as when the seas dried the abyss started to come to the surface.)

The deepspace tunnel was formed and wanderers started to appear. (Maybe, the future Philos's core's energy source was humans of the past at first.)

Earth got infested with wanderers. Humanity escaped to the future through deepspace tunnel.

After humanity's departure, the seas dried and the tectonic plates started to separate, starting the age of Abyss (and Tarus city).

The humans came to Philos from the past through the deepspace tunnel and met with dragons.

After the war, the Legion of Justitia sealed the dragon into the Abyss. (Now here, we must note that Xavier's anectodes mention that travel between the tectonic plates is hard and MC didn't even travel to a different plate. So it is possible that not the entire humanity is at war with dragons. We also even see that there are humans living in Tarus city.)

When the humans created the artificial core for Philos and brought the fragmented land pieces together, possibly parts of the Abyss was also destroyed in the process. This can be the actual reason why dragons seized to exist in the future Philos.

In the distant future of Philos, Xavier started the Traceback II mission, going back to current timeline. The mission failed and backtrackers betrayed Xavier.

Backtrackers gave the technology to Ever that would make them able to travel through deepspace tunnel in the future.

Starting a never-ending loop.

And, I'm going to stop right here for now. I don't want to make this too long and include how Lemurians and Astra fit into this as I somehow already discussed it before.

But for me, this is the only way I can understand where the abyss and dragons came from. So if you have anything to add to this, please do.

[total-drama-brainrot]

How would p! Noah act in area 52/51? Would you give him his ability to hack into anything?

I think that's Canon idk. Or would he just scare the crap out of everything (aliens included)

Well, Noah's hacking ability is canonical, even if it's only really established in his Island biography and later on in Dramarama (I believe?). Since p!Noah is meant to mimic canon Noah for the most part, I don't see why he wouldn't have the same hacking abilities.

Not that I think they'd be much good in Area 51/52, since most of the challenge itself is pretty much just a game of hide-and-seek meets "find the needle in the haystack". Of course, he could always use his technological prowess to prevent the deployment of the guards, but it wouldn't really be in character of p!Noah to deprive himself of something as exciting as being chased by armed forces.

He could always hack his way into Owen's Jokerisation chamber, but again it wouldn't really impact the competition much, since Owen's whole deal for this episode doesn't really have much sway on the plot itself

As for what he'd do during the episode?

Well, I think I'd need to establish how Greece's Pieces plays out first before stating anything concrete here, but at this point in the timeline p!Noah has been outed to the rest of his castmates as less sane than they had assumed (my means of snapping Ezekiel's arms like twigs, and menacingly playing around with a knife, among other things). They'd still be fairly hesitant to be around him, and Noah would be free to act more overtly antagonistic/crazy now that his façade is in shambles. (Perhaps too antagonistically crazy, since a lot of his instability is also just an act.)

There's not really much you could change about the episode's beginning, at least nothing substantial; p!Noah would probably find a lot of amusement in Duncan getting laser fried and Tyler electrocuting himself on the fence, but otherwise wouldn't have much reason to act out against his team. Unless he's feeling particularly daring at that moment, and decides to forego the rock tossing to instead dodge the lasers all the way to the warehouse entrance, but again this isn't a substantial change in terms of the overarching plot of the episode.

When the teams are inside of the warehouse, there's a little more room to play with character shenanigans.

Because they're looking for Alien Artifacts. Trinkets and gizmos supposedly dangerous enough to warrent a whole branch of governmental force dedicated to studying them. That's exciting - of course Noah's going to want to mess with them.

Of course, his main priority initially is getting Owen back from his time-out chamber. But that's laughably easy for him, given his hacking abilities and general technology savviness. But as soon as he's got his chubby buddy back? You know your boys are messing around with every artifact they can find, to Alejandro's ire.

Maybe he and Owen are the ones who initially encounter the floating aliens? Maybe the two of them walk into the scene of Tyler and Alejandro "dealing" with them, and Noah siezes the oppertunity to smush the alien face huggers into paste (with the added benefit of hitting both Tyler and Alejandro around the face with a metal pole, or something).

Or maybe the face huggers can smell the crazy ebbing off of him from a mile away, and fly away as fast as they can before Noah can even get to the scene.

Either way, whatever artifact Team CIRRRRH manages to get their hands on wouldn't last long enough to win them the challenge; either Tyler would follow his canonical counterparts footsteps and somehow break it, or Owen and Noah would inadvertantly sabotage their team whilst messing around with their chosen artifact.

Noah absolutely pockets a few alien-tech weapons from inside the warehouse though.

When they finally get back onto the jet, Noah scuttles off to some hidden corner of the cargo bay and begins reverse engineering the artifacts he stole borrowed from Area 51, if only just to abate his ceaseless boredom. Regretably, he's more of a software guy than a hardware guy, and he mostly ends up with a pile of useless alien scraps.

(Potential here to have him enlist Cody, who's canonically a bit of an engineer, to help him tinker with the artifacts? I think Cody would risk his luck with sometimes-crazy Noah if it meants getting away from always-crazy Sierra.)