#Moonjumper's Horizon concept

[star-cooki]

Day 19: Home

The Land of "The Horizon."

Home to The Prince of the Moon...

[moonlitcaster]

Hello AHiT fandom, it's been a million years. Please take me yoinking the Moonjumper design and doing my own thing with it. I think they're neat in concept, y'know?

A space-like entity bound to a wooden puppet vessel and confined to the horizon beyond the moon. While still outwardly larger and present outside of the doll, it is immaterial. They can only use the vessel to interact with their prison.

Sometimes it manages to puppet around other entities down on earth, but it's not very permanent. No attempts to use another puppet to free themselves has worked.

[cut-content-contest]

Moonjumper

The jist of his character is that he is the corpse of a prince, and his two rivals are the princes ghost and the princes ex. The 3 fuckers want to rule over the same area so competition. Also moonjumper I think only appears on the horizon, meaning he is the only 2d character in a 3d game which is pretty dope.

They were a cut character that was originally supposed to be pretty important, but all we got was gamefiles of vague information, a flat character model, a bit of dialogue, and some music. That hasn't stopped many different and wildly unique headcanons, designs, and stories from taking shape from the original scraps of this one axed character.

The third area/chapter in the game had a much different story in its concept stage, and even though the level was designed enough to be playable for a demo, the devs decided to simplify the story for that area from three central characters to one and a half. Originally, he was a prince that met with a terrible fate at the hands of his obsessively jealous princess, and he somehow got trapped on the horizon without any memories of his original life, instead going mad. He was going to offer information about the area to help to the protagonist, though he really wants to manipulate and control her and everyone else into being unable to leave the area. Mj's backstory was ultimately given to the new central character, Snatcher (who also existed but got a bit of a personality shift with his new spotlight), his musical theme (and somewhat his design) repurposed for the game's item dealer, and MJ himself was removed from the game. Bits of the original story are still scattered around (a spectral body outline on the wall, a face painted in the attic of an icy manor, the scrapped explorable area that still exists out of bounds in the final version of the game, a broken tower), but the character only exists in mods, fanworks, and the concept artist for the original level fleshing out his ideas in art. He has a lot of speculation about his full backstory, abilities, and role, but there's very little sources to have anything beyond theories.

okay. so. let me give you the basis of a hat in time's third (or second during the time moonjumper still existed) chapter. evil ghost guy steals the protag's soul and makes her do shit for him and along the way you can get Lore on why he's a ghost and turns out Another ghost-like entity that you encounter in the chapter killed him while they were both Alive. its more detailed than that but that is Not the point. ok. ghost guy who steals your soul. his name is snatcher. ghost guy who Killed snatcher. her name is vanessa. Where does moonjumper come in you may be asking. well. ORIGINALLY moonjumper was in snatcher's place. but! snatcher also existed in the game at the same time as moonjumper- just with a different backstory. eventually, moonjumper was scrapped, and snatcher filled that role. there are So many things involving moonjumper that got just outright removed because of this. However. there are also things that Didnt get removed that are still in the game that can be traced back to moonjumper, mostly through his design being different from snatchers- moonjumper's design is much, much more closer to the design of moonjumper/snatcher while he was still alive opposed to snatcher, who is just a purple ghost noodle. but even then, their human design and moonjumper's design still have quite a few differences. many people in the fandom/fan community of a hat in time like to try and incorporate moonjumper back into the story, and everyone's different takes are always fun to see :)

He was originally to be the remains of the prince, and was to haunt (and I believe attempt to take over) Subcon Forest. I’m pretty sure he was scrapped because a) there would have been too much going on in that one region and b) Snatcher was the spirit of the prince and in charge of the forest, so maybe they decided it was a little weird to have two characters come from the same dead guy. Also he would 100% have been a tumblr sexyman

Moonjumper is a cut character from A Hat In Time. Originally, they were going to live in Subcon Forest, and have puppetmaster motifs. He was also going to be the prince killed by Vanessa. The motifs and being killed by Vanessa were instead given to Snatcher, my little scrunkle doo.

Apparently originally there were supposed to be three characters for the Subcon Forest level, Moonjumper was supposed to be the Prince in the original story, but was later replaced with the Snatcher, who wasn't the Prince in original story. He still had NPC files on the full release of the game, but it wasn't a model, rather just 2D image with particle effects

He was a scrapped antagonist for the level of Subcon forest! Moon Jumper was scrapped due to the Snatcher being the main character for subcon forest, and not having room for subplots. Early developer commentary states that the Moon Jumper was stuck in the horizon and that his role throughout the level of Subcon forest was to get Hat Kid to join him in the horizon.

wiki link: https://ahatintime.fandom.com/wiki/Moon_Jumper video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mor-oR5ti9E showing off the NPC: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=krHXy8afF74

Yosuke romance route

persona 4 has got this friendship/romance mechanic called "social links" which is basically just 10 events that you can choose to gradually level up for each sociable character in the game where you raise your relationships with said characters, which gives you various in-game boosts. most of the women in the game are able to be romanced. however, there is cut dialogue which implies that at some point, one of the male characters was meant to be a romance option as well! yosuke hanamura, the main character's best friend, has cut dialogue for his social link rank 10 event which is voiced (VOICED!! IN ENGLISH AND JAPANESE!! WHILE PEOPLE HAVE DENIED THIS SINCE THE ENGLISH VOICE LINES HAVE HIM SAYING "I LIKE YOU," IN THE JAPANESE VOICE LINES, HE IS EXPLICITLY CONFESSING TO YOU I'M PRETTY SURE!!) that implies that there was at some point going to be an option to romance him. it's assumed that this was cut somewhere later in development due to the lines being voice acted, though i believe that the reason this was cut has not been confirmed yet (though, seeing as how persona 4 was made in the 2000s....... you can probably just guess why lol)

there were unreleased voice lines that showed what was supposed to be a gay route for Persona 4 (there ARE Japanese lines for this as well, and the way in which the "I like you" part is said is the Japanese version of confessing to someone you have a crush on) and a lot of fans do agree that the protagonist is best paired with Yosuke for character development purposes, but it was probably scrapped because of homophobia 😭

Exactly what it says. Was likely scrapped because Atlus are COWARDS who didn't wanna give us the gay romance we deserved. It would have been so cute though I'm forever pissed it was scrapped...

We know it was programmed it. Yosuke is the only male character with dialogue flags, meaning you can fail his social link. The only other characters with these flags are the female love interests. Yosuke also has recorded, in both English and Japanese, final confession lines, something unique to max rank romance social links. This means it was likely scrapped very late in development. As the game also covers (badly) gender and sexuality, we can hypothesize that Yosuke's character arc was supposed to be overcoming internalized homophobia. Instead he just kinda stays "jokingly" homophobic and never grows past it.

The player would have been able to enter a romantic relationship with the character Yosuke Hanamura— text and voice lines for this option still exist within the game, and can be activated via modding. They even have proper translations, and the English versions of the lines are voiced as well, implying that the cut was made rather far into development. While this is a sad loss in its own right, it also has devastating implications in regards to the original state of other pieces of LGBT+ representation which may have also been scrapped and/or heavily modified to appear. For example, Kanji’s attraction to men and Naoto’s gender situation were both downplayed and/or walked back in the final version of the game, but it’s highly likely that Yukiko’s arc was originally intended to include more bisexual overtones, and arguments can be made for Rise’s arc being meant to center on the struggle to come to some sort of terms with her own sexuality and presentation in an industry that keeps such a tight hold on those aspects of its workers lives.

throughout the entirety of persona 4 (+golden), yosuke is portrayed to be the best friend of the protag, but also extremely homophobic towards another male character who was hinted at being gay (before atlus fucked that narrative up too). his social link hints at him having a crush on the protag, and he was intended to have a romantic route just like the female characters, but that was cut (not sure why). the whole game is about embracing the truth, including your hidden sides that you are ashamed to show to others, and having yosuke come to terms with his repressed homosexuality (& realizing that he has internalized homophobia) would have fit perfectly within that theme, but atlus said fuck that shit and cut that entire romance out. the cut dialogue can easily be found on youtube. the thing with this being cut out is that without the romance and coming to terms with his homosexuality, the only thing left of yosuke is being very homophobic. no one condems yosuke for what he says to the other male character, and it is never addressed beyond mere gags or jokes. it's horrible to sit through and honestly it was such a missed opportunity. it's such an issue that people have made a mod implementing a romantic route for yosuke just because of this. every day i mourn thinking of what could have been

This game explores many queer themes, but lacks any explicit queer relationships. The fact that file scrapers and modders discovered an unused voice line for one of the male characters that implies a romance option for him was cut from the final game makes queer fans feel let down, regardless of how groundbreaking the other queer plot points were at the time of release. It's speculated that it was cut because devs or localizers thought that it would be too much queer content in one game, and that it would affect sales and create too much controversy. I, however, believe that anyone who manages to get through the mandatory gay sauna dungeon would have had no stones to throw about an optional mlm romance.

The first party member in Persona 4, Yosuke Hanamura, was originally going to be a viable romantic partner once the player got far enough into his Social Link. This was removed rather late in development, as voiced lines for a scene where he and the protagonist begin dating were recorded in both Japanese and English. To this day, Persona 2: Innocent Sin remains the only Persona game where the protagonist can enter a gay relationship with another boy.

In this game you can choose to romance several people. There is cut voiced dialogue for a romance route for Yosuke, the main character's best friend, but in the final game he is not a romanceable character. Some are of the opinion that taking out the romance option for Yosuke removes the complexity from his character.

https://gamerant.com/persona-4-golden-mod-yosuke-romance/

[ahatintimepieces]

Here’s Chapter 8 for Entangled Fates! Luka gets his first taste of Mafia town and its sidewalk... He’ll be fine. As always thank you so much for reading and I hope you enjoy!

[queens-nightmare]

The pond Moonjumper watches through in the Horizon is supposed to be like a body of water that has moonlight reflected of it to match his moon theme right? If it is I believe the term for that is called a Moonwake.

Kind of. The whole horizon design is based on a deleted concept art by Shane Frost.

The whole deal of the Horizon was described as "Subcon Forest upside down" from what I could gather about the cut content at the time. So, with what the concept art shows and what I knew, I shifted it design wise to something I liked for my idea for the Horizon.

I drew this old concept artwork (I never posted here because it was that, a concept.)

Going off the internet about the meaning of "moonwake":

moon + wake Noun 1. The reflection of moonlight on a body of water. • 2006, The Atlantic, Word Fugitives "Mariners sometimes call the moving path of light leading to the moon the moonwake, because it looks like the white wash of a ship's wake."

(Source: https://www.wordsense.eu/moonwake/)

This is incredible funny to me because I came up with the moon pond only because my brain was like "moon pond pretty". That the reflection of moonlight on a body of water is actually called "moonwake" just fits so perfectly with my theme for the Horizon of it being the dream realm? Like The moon pond is a window/portal to the real world were everyone is awake.

:D Thank you for this incredible cool knowledge, anon!

(Also no, if you look up into the Horizon, there is no moon. The moon pond is magical (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧)

[funnymoron]

Today’s theme... MOONJUMPER!

"I think you know that there was a character like "Moonjumper" in the game? Yes, we'll talk about him today! Of course, there is very little information about him. But if you dive very deep, you can dig up pieces of information from which you can assemble an approximate picture.  Today, the certain topic of the analysis of the Moonjumper is his personality. In fact, I've often seen that people can make him a kind character. If it's AU, then I don't see a problem, but come on. That's not what we're talking about right now. LET'S START WITH CONCEPT ARTS!

As you can see, Moonjumper is a puppeteer, which is obvious. According to the first concept art, it can be understood that it was intended that the MoonJumper could really control someone like a doll, completely controlling, including consciousness. We will come back to this later!

In the second concept art, it still fulfills its role, which can be understood by the threads from the fingers. And he seems to be having fun. I would have instilled in him the phrase I invented, "isn't it wonderful when you have so many dolls to play with? So many years of imprisonment, alone... This is my only entertainment, perhaps." And since we're talking about the fact that he controls someone, let's move on to the screenshots.

Apparently, there was something that dwellers could not tell us in the beta, because they were afraid of him. And if a Moonjumper heard something that he didn't like, he could easily get someone to say or do what he needed. And judging by the twitching of dweller, this procedure is terribly unpleasant...

You can't run. He sees and hears you everywhere.

Remember how i said “ We will come back to this later! ”? So... Most likely, the idea of mind control was removed, since it doesn't look like it's a MoonJumper talking through a Dweller. Or maybe, only partially... Or, if you are strong enough to disobey, then you can still partially control yourself. Let's move on to the old screenshot of the developers(?)!

In this screenshot, you can see the pixels of the Moonjumper and the dwellers flying in a panic. Let's compare it with a frame from the 2013 trailer.

As you can see, there are no pixels here and all the dwellers are calm. From which I can assume that the Moonjumper staged an attack on the village. But why would he do that? The Dwellers are too timid to start a riot. Unfortunately, there is no information about the reason for this. But I have options that are quite possible: This happened because of the battle for the forest, the Moonjumper got bored and he wanted to "have fun" with it, or, in my opinion, a silly option... He is finally released from the Horizon. Why do I think this is a stupid option? Knowing which acts are in the final game, it is very doubtful that there would be a task to help him escape from there. And besides us, I doubt that anyone could help him. Even if he tried to control us, there would be a boss fight. Bonus 1: In the screenshot of the developers(?) you can see new pons. But in the trailer, we can see old ones. But I don't think that's what the village was supposed to look like. It would be very strange if the residents ALWAYS panicked, and the glitches (WHICH ARE CAUSED ONLY WHEN HE IS AROUND) would not disappear. Therefore, I adhere to the theory that it was an act. Bonus 2: The dwellers have the same animation here as in the "Toilet of doom" act. But despite this, the act was still in beta. It was NOT replaced For this reason, I remembered other details, like the remark of the Snatcher from the third floor. From which I assume that maybe we had to run errands and Moonjumper. And maybe he was the one who should have sent us to the mansion, not Snatcher. If we're talking about the mansion...

Do you remember Vanessa's analysis of where that eye was? I was very surprised when I saw him here! The Snatcher does not have the ability to create eyes. And if there was, it would obviously be yellow. Then, is it Vanessa? No! If you watched (or played) the beta version of the game, then on the third floor, Vanessa was chasing us. If it was her eye, she would have found us easily. So it's HIS eye...

Moonjumper sees us everywhere. He's watching us.

Thank you so much for read this! I was very pleased to finally share this information that had been stored in my head for a long time! See you later!

[snatched-by-ahit]

Full write up below.

General Concept

The Horizon the Moonjumper resides in was caused by the giant Time Piece in Subcon being broken by Vanessa’s ice outburst. When it broke, Subcon’s time became distorted, and a bubble formed around the area. The nearby Tower - and what was left inside - got caught up in the sudden time surge and got trapped in the space between Subcon’s distortion and the rest of the world.

The people in the world cannot see the bubble, nor can they normally interact with it. They can pass through one side and through the other without noticing. Though time within Subcon doesn’t pass, so it’s one of those places where, if you get lost there and manage to survive, you exit and find that it’s been a lot longer than it felt.

The Moonjumper’s only able to be seen when he’s near the edge of the barrier by Subcon, where he appears to be on some unreachable point on the horizon, hence how it got its name.

Abilities Moonjumper has Within It - Pre Time Piece

While Moonjumper can see Subcon perfectly fine, he cannot see the rest of the world without opening a window in the outer portion of the barrier. He can see any area (aside from Subcon) and they can be opened to events in the past, present, or limited future. (He can’t see anything anywhere when Time’s End will happen, and can’t view the future even when things are returned to normal afterward. His window of opportunity for knowing the future is only during the main story events. :D -gets booed off the stage- )

His strings can pass both through the walls of the Horizon and through the windows to interact with the things within them, but he himself cannot go beyond the barriers, and nothing can be brought into the Horizon. The object disappears or he loses the connection when they reach the point they’d be hitting the barrier.

While he can interact and meddle with events through his windows, none of what he does affects the outcome of the world outside of the Horizon. Cause destruction or have everyone become allies or allow some people to gain more advantages than others, once he closes the window, anything he had a hand in changing never happened. He’s mostly used it for adding information to his knowledge base, since it’s the only way he gets to learn much to begin with, but he has dabbled in ‘what ifs’ in his many years of solitude.

A Time Piece changes the Rules a Bit

Once he has one of Hat Kid’s Time Pieces, Moonjumper can freely pass through the Horizon’s barriers. He mostly uses it to pass through the actual bubble, so he can access a world he’s only ever been able to watch from a disconnected space. Time Pieces have a passively affect the time around the people who possess them, which can enable them to get to the in-between space that is the Horizon, whether they intended to or not. The effect is limited, so it doesn’t normally allow two people to enter with one Time Piece. There may be exceptions, though, and inanimate objects can be carried through.

The bigger change is with Moonjumper’s windows into the world. When he has a window pulled up, and he passes through the barrier, he can access the area he was viewing. Using this, he essentially gets to visit the past or experience alternate timelines that he sets up, but because he’s displaced from his usual time, his body is glitchy and it’s not the best experience for a longer visit.

He also gains the ability to bring things from his windows into the Horizon, but they’re just as glitchy as he gets when he’s on the other side. They can remain even after he closes the window he took them from, though will eventually disappear. People can be taken, too, though it’s not the best situation for them. 

People that are time displaced would make good temporary, disposable puppets, though, should the Moonjumper need some... After all, not like they really exist in the first place. How convenient.

[ratcandy]

EVIL MOONJUMPER HELL YEAH

I like the idea of him being evil more than him being good. It’s more fun.

I think a cool idea would be him being kinda manipulative and all knowing, able to lure in and manipulate HK maybe.

Also he could control reality and shit. Idk.

It’s just really fun to think about.

YEA!!

I'm all for the idea of Good Moonjumper, 100% - found fambly fics with them are so good and that idea is really pure and make me smile and feel all warm and fluffy. However. Fucked Up and Evil Moonjumper just!! Seems more fun, yeah! Especially with that whole string/puppet motif, that's just a gateway to fun villainy as far as I'm concerned

also the concept art of them. Portrayed all evil an spooky. Love that. I just froth at the mouth with all the possible ways you could TAKE evil Moonjumper,, The Horizon? Aforementioned string motif? If still combining them and Snatcher in some way (in the sense that they're separate entities but only technically)? Man. Prime villain material

[doodledrawsthings]

From the Horizon

(spits on hands then grabs the control rod) Someone needs to derail this angst train, and it looks like it’s going to be me!

  It observes the world quietly, serenely, as all in the Horizon do. There are many things to see, after all, for the Horizon is a place everywhere and nowhere, ever-present and utterly unreachable, visible yet never attainable by things not already there. So it watches, distant and close in a way the Solid Things cannot understand (would find upsetting if they tried to understand).

The fragment-thought gives it pause. Where had that come from? ‘Upset,’ a curious word, unnatural, alien, incomprehensible. So why does it know it…?

Ah, yes, from the Solid World. A tear had appeared in the Horizon and it had slipped through, to view the Solid World more closely. The tear is mended now, neat red stitches returning things to as they should be. It had checked when it first returned to the Horizon, so it knows for sure.

…why had it checked? It is where it should be, all is well. Perhaps it has to do with the strange things it had noticed in itself when it returned. Shapes it should not have, sounds that do not belong, phrases that jar the silver and red serenity, and that it leaves alone. Things from its time in the Solid World that have no purpose or place here. Likely they will fade to nothing in time (No no nono-).

It shakes away the edge of the wrong-concept lingering from its time in the Solid World and returns to observing the Solid Creatures. Strange things, a pair of small blobs – brown-and-blue, purple-and-peach – and a long gangle thing as much Shadow as Being. Nonsense beings, all of them, as all Solid Creatures are. It watches vaguely, far and close and many and no places. Wander they do, wander and commune with other Solid Creatures, old things, strange things, candle flames and books and red thread-

…perhaps it should stop watching. Why is it watching these? No reason. The Horizon lulls it (comforts it-) another wrong-concept, it has too many of them now, perhaps these Solid Creatures are causing them, it will find others to fol-

(NO NO NO NO NO- -ATCH- -AT KI- BO- HEL-!)

-it will continue to follow them-

-no it will not, they make the wrong-concepts strong, it will leave-

(-Y FRI- -DS!)

-yes, it will leave, it will look at other-

-it cannot. It tries, but it cannot. But it is not a Solid Creature, it is of the Horizon. There are no bonds, no bounds, it simply is, it is here, it is there, except it is not there, it is here, it is growing more and more Here, except Here is now There, and the Horizon, the Horizon is tearing right before it, the threads are screaming, this is Wrong, it is- (afraid) it is- (not like the others anymore) it is-

-dark, there is dark, there is Shadow where there is only red and silver, a Solid Creature, the Shadow-as-Being one, not here, should not be here, must get away, wrong-

“FOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL~!!!!”

Silence splits and wrong-concepts jangle and scream in it and it cannot escape the grasping claws, the yanking grasp, pulled from its place, out of the Horizon, in the Solid World again, rushing, thrusting, a shape the wrong-concepts know-

  OoOoOoOoO

  -Moonjumper comes to with a shriek. The last thing he remembers- he remembers- Her- or, no. No, worse, he remembers the Horizon, he had been back in the Horizon, he doesn’t want to be back in the Horizon-!

“Don’t think this means I’m grateful or anything!”

The familiar voice pulls him from his thoughts, lets him look up to find Snatcher inches away from his face and glaring at him, and that’s definitely a good reason to shriek again.

“Snatcher, be nice! He’s been through a very traumatic experience!”

Another familiar voice- Bow Kid, Bow Kid coming to help him sit up while Hat Kid shakes her fist at Snatcher.

“You were as worried as we were, you big pool noodle, don’t act like you don’t care!”

“I don’t,” the ghost grumps, folding his arms in an over-dramatic sulk that Moonjumper is far too familiar with, “I didn’t tell him to go fight Her, he did it on his own, and he got what he deserved, so there.”

“Uh-huh,” the purple-clad alien’s look is appropriately skeptical as she folds her arms right back at him, “And that’s why as soon as you found out about it you insisted on going all noodly again and on helping us get his body back and looking through all those super-boring books about how to get to the Horizon anyway-”

“You! Stop talking!” the ghost cuts her off, obviously flustered, turning his attention to Moonjumper, “And you start talking – if I grabbed the wrong stupid wispy Horizon thing, I wanna know now so I can go get the right one!”

“See? You do care!”

“Shut up, kiddo!”

“…you’re a ghost again.” Moonjumper blinks and- no, that wasn’t why- “You’re not supposed to be a ghost anymore, I went to fight… Her so you could stay human- why are you- I thought you wanted to-?” he had gotten himself sent back to the Horizon, almost stuck there again forever, for nothing-?

Snatcher huffs and folds in on himself, mumbling something he can’t quite hear.

“I- I’m sorry, what was that?”

“WE COULDN’T GET YOU BACK IF I HAD!” Snatcher bellows, glaring, “There, happy? Being human again made me go all mushy and do stupid things like thinking I’d miss you if you were gone or something, it’s disgusting, and the space brats were worried about you and it affected me, yuck!” he sticks out his tongue, then dives into a shadow with a last call of, “And that’s my old body you’re using, so you better take better care of yourself in the future or else!”

Moonjumper blinks at where the ghost had been, then down at where Bow’s still supporting him and Hat Kid is rocking on her heels, grinning, “He… helped you get me back?”

“He instigated it,” Bow informs him.

“He’s just too big a soon-dey-reh to admit it,” Hat Kid adds, hopping over to give him a hug, “Welcome home, Moonjumper!”

“Welcome home!” Bow Kid joins in the hug as well.

…they’d come for him. He’d done something incredibly stupid, then started- started forgetting them and himself and everything he’d learned and loved since he first found the Prince’s body all those years ago and- and he just-

With a lump in his throat, tears in his eyes, and an almost overwhelming sense of relief, he hugs the kids back. “Thank-you.”

[roposhipin]

since i did a concept on snatcher origins™ that one time... had a thought abt Moonjumper in which i just went “wonder why snatcher’s an ass” and ended up with “what if he chucked the mixed emotions of rage, despair and guilt upon having died and single-handedly  kill off a whole kingdom over a misunderstanding just so he could give himself a fresh start, a clean slate, for his new life as ‘The Snatcher’ with no more worries....... and what if those emotions proceeded to glitch out in ‘The Horizon’....slowly beginning to form an unknown being altogether....cue in ‘The Moonjumper’. All those emotions jumping through the skies and returning back to the ground once more as an entirely new thing.” or like.......mj being an embodiment of the woe and suffering of all that died in subcon rather than just Snatcher or smth...that’s why he’s blue right? kadhjskjashdkjfhds ...Just a ramble idea of sorts hahahhh :’’D

[another-au-in-time]

aight so the basis of my au is quite literally: What if Snatcher was trapped in the manor instead of Vanessa?? the SECOND i had that thought, i sketched up a few Snatcher concepts; i considered like, if im going to swap their positions, i may as well swap their appearances too! which led me to Leggy Snatcher

more au info under the cut! 

i wanted my Snatcher to be distinct from other humanoid Snatchers while retaining his cartoony charm, and for Vanessa, i wanted her to keep her distinctive five fingers, red eyes/aura, and hair. I also wanted her ghostly form to be different from Snatcher’s, so I translated the tattered hem of her dress into a shredded tail. theyre both unique but still easily identifiable and that was my main goal

and since Snatcher has legs in this au, i went ahead and gave Moonjumper (who is essentially the Prince’s other half) legs as well, because if one of them has one feature, so should the other to some degree. the official concept art of Moonjumper has a sort of ragged tail, similar to how Snatcher has a tail, so in the au, Snatcher has legs and Moonjumper does too

ive decided to call this au the Lost Prince AU because Snatcher never escaped the manor. i know in canon hes still technically a lost prince, but this au emphasizes on the fact that Snatcher has been missing for centuries and nobody knows what happened to him except Vanessa, who haunts the now frozen Subcon Forest. so hes very much lost. Snatcher isnt found until Hat Kid discovers the manor after fleeing from Vanessa and getting lost in Subcon

after his traumatic death, Snatcher doesnt really remember who he is and never questions why he cant leave the manor, as Vanessa has manipulated him into thinking shes protecting him. Moonjumper had tried to stop her, but Vanessa was much more powerful at the time and locked him away in the horizon. thusly, the moon always shines directly over the manor because Moonjumper cant escape either and cant really warn Snatcher to leave

i wanna say more but i feel like i’ll be giving away too much too soon~ i’d like to explain more in the form of comics or perhaps even a fanfic! anyway, if you have read all this thanks for taking a peek!! this au is still super in development lol and i havent played ahit myself just yet so if ive overlooked or got something wrong i apologize :’D if u have questions feel free to ask!

[glottia-arts]

Miscellaneous A Hat in Time OC’s / Story Drawings

Pic 1 and 2 - I’ve mentioned them several times, whether by name or title, but here they are finally: Aura’s Ancestor, one of the first wielders of time magic and the creator of the Time Pieces, the Aramontresae.

The colors for her clothing were indecisive at the time, that’s why with the purple or black clothing for the two drawings, but I decided to keep both colors canonical. The black would be for their training up until they were chosen to succeed the previous C.E.O. of Time. They never did become that, but were seen as a Time Lord and had done much for the planet in creating the hourglasses.

Pic 3 - Another thing I’ve mentioned, the Zenithdial. This is probably not the final design for its true form, but I figured I’d share. 

Pic 4 - Actually an idea from Konan720! I changed it from me to Adult Hat Kid being the one petting Neo though.

Pic 5 - An idea given to me by an irl bff: A bee Rough Patch. According to the folder name, I named this Rough Patch, Comble. Good job me, at least it wasn’t Buck Bumble. I really wouldn’t put it past myself to do that.

I like the concept that was presented to be of being a dead Rough Patch that was essentially hollowed out and made into a beehive where bee’s now live, but I don’t quite love bee’s enough to continue this. I feel like if I got rid of the hive concept while still keeping the honeycomb look, it might take away from the Rough Patch some. So he’ll be staying in my folder forever probably.

Pic 6 - Hey look, something not Subcon related- “But there’s a Rough Patch-” She was born in Alpine, so it doesn’t count (maybe)

Little drawing of Relume with Flauricity and Cramatic tending to a plant.

Pic 7 - Hey, more mentioned content. This time, for Subcon Dweller’s most hated people, the Hunters!

The left design is canon while the right... well, I don’t know. It looks weird to me now (it has been several months since I’ve looked at these designs). These would be the typical uniforms wore amongst the group while they’re on duty and after the Dwellers.

Pic 8 - One of these drawings isn’t like the others- How bad does my traditional show?

Not a w.i.p., but I thought I’d share Snatcher’s humanoid form I drew a few months back. My brain seems to want to draw him as a human late at night and then I’m forced to do it traditionally.

He’s basically wearing a long cloak with a collar that’s similar to the ‘fluff’ he has around his head as a ghost. I was going to give him short hair so it’d be similar to why his fluff is the form it is, but I think if he could have the option to not have short hair like he did because of Vanessa, he would. So with that loss for similar shape, I knew I wanted him to have a funny cloak type thing, so made the top part of it in the shape of his fluff.

Pic 9 - I never thought I’d do it, but I decided to make Moonjumper his own entity in my story, he is no longer under the guise of the Badge Seller. Rest in peace to the joke as always referring to the Badge Seller as Moonjumper. Thankfully, that’s something I broke a long time ago.

So since Moonjumper is no longer the Badge Seller and both are their own being, Moonjumper gets a different personality and I decided to go a little further and give him a slightly different look. He’s still a powerful being, but now reprises the typical thing for most Moonjumper’s everywhere of being stuck in the horizon. He can come to the mortal plane though, typically whenever he wants, but there is a time limit with it. Though this can stack, so since he doesn’t come to the world that often or get into magically induced fights, he has a pretty good time limit on staying.

He’s still aware that he exists in an alternate reality different to the one he was originally from, but he doesn’t recall much of his existence in that one. He knew he was a Prince and that he disliked Vanessa and Snatcher, but nothing more.

I don’t have his entire character down currently as I’m still trying to iron out some details, but know that he might be nice, but he still has a wicked side. Who knows what spirit he could take that out on.

[cut-content-contest]

Moonjumper

The jist of his character is that he is the corpse of a prince, and his two rivals are the princes ghost and the princes ex. The 3 fuckers want to rule over the same area so competition. Also moonjumper I think only appears on the horizon, meaning he is the only 2d character in a 3d game which is pretty dope.

They were a cut character that was originally supposed to be pretty important, but all we got was gamefiles of vague information, a flat character model, a bit of dialogue, and some music. That hasn't stopped many different and wildly unique headcanons, designs, and stories from taking shape from the original scraps of this one axed character.

The third area/chapter in the game had a much different story in its concept stage, and even though the level was designed enough to be playable for a demo, the devs decided to simplify the story for that area from three central characters to one and a half. Originally, he was a prince that met with a terrible fate at the hands of his obsessively jealous princess, and he somehow got trapped on the horizon without any memories of his original life, instead going mad. He was going to offer information about the area to help to the protagonist, though he really wants to manipulate and control her and everyone else into being unable to leave the area. Mj's backstory was ultimately given to the new central character, Snatcher (who also existed but got a bit of a personality shift with his new spotlight), his musical theme (and somewhat his design) repurposed for the game's item dealer, and MJ himself was removed from the game. Bits of the original story are still scattered around (a spectral body outline on the wall, a face painted in the attic of an icy manor, the scrapped explorable area that still exists out of bounds in the final version of the game, a broken tower), but the character only exists in mods, fanworks, and the concept artist for the original level fleshing out his ideas in art. He has a lot of speculation about his full backstory, abilities, and role, but there's very little sources to have anything beyond theories.

okay. so. let me give you the basis of a hat in time's third (or second during the time moonjumper still existed) chapter. evil ghost guy steals the protag's soul and makes her do shit for him and along the way you can get Lore on why he's a ghost and turns out Another ghost-like entity that you encounter in the chapter killed him while they were both Alive. its more detailed than that but that is Not the point. ok. ghost guy who steals your soul. his name is snatcher. ghost guy who Killed snatcher. her name is vanessa. Where does moonjumper come in you may be asking. well. ORIGINALLY moonjumper was in snatcher's place. but! snatcher also existed in the game at the same time as moonjumper- just with a different backstory. eventually, moonjumper was scrapped, and snatcher filled that role. there are So many things involving moonjumper that got just outright removed because of this. However. there are also things that Didnt get removed that are still in the game that can be traced back to moonjumper, mostly through his design being different from snatchers- moonjumper's design is much, much more closer to the design of moonjumper/snatcher while he was still alive opposed to snatcher, who is just a purple ghost noodle. but even then, their human design and moonjumper's design still have quite a few differences. many people in the fandom/fan community of a hat in time like to try and incorporate moonjumper back into the story, and everyone's different takes are always fun to see :)

He was originally to be the remains of the prince, and was to haunt (and I believe attempt to take over) Subcon Forest. I’m pretty sure he was scrapped because a) there would have been too much going on in that one region and b) Snatcher was the spirit of the prince and in charge of the forest, so maybe they decided it was a little weird to have two characters come from the same dead guy. Also he would 100% have been a tumblr sexyman

Moonjumper is a cut character from A Hat In Time. Originally, they were going to live in Subcon Forest, and have puppetmaster motifs. He was also going to be the prince killed by Vanessa. The motifs and being killed by Vanessa were instead given to Snatcher, my little scrunkle doo.

Apparently originally there were supposed to be three characters for the Subcon Forest level, Moonjumper was supposed to be the Prince in the original story, but was later replaced with the Snatcher, who wasn't the Prince in original story. He still had NPC files on the full release of the game, but it wasn't a model, rather just 2D image with particle effects

He was a scrapped antagonist for the level of Subcon forest! Moon Jumper was scrapped due to the Snatcher being the main character for subcon forest, and not having room for subplots. Early developer commentary states that the Moon Jumper was stuck in the horizon and that his role throughout the level of Subcon forest was to get Hat Kid to join him in the horizon.

wiki link: https://ahatintime.fandom.com/wiki/Moon_Jumper what we know and some theories: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mor-oR5ti9E showing off the NPC: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=krHXy8afF74

Timmy

when a hat in time was in development, it had a kickstarter with stretch goals. one of these stretch goals was co-op multiplayer. we did get co-op eventually- but the character used alongside the protag wasnt always the same. the protag and main character of a hat in time is hat kid! in co-op, the second player plays as bow kid. but, originally, the second player character was going to be a boy named timmy. not much is known about him as im pretty sure he never really had much put into him before he was cut. what we do know is he is a bit older than hat kid (maybe he had an older brother dynamic with her?), and had physic powers. whether or not he would be able to Use those powers in gameplay is unknown. he's been modded back into the game by multiple people all with different interpretations of him.

[ahatintimepieces]

what are your favorite ahit aus? you can answer for as many as you'd like idm-

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhh so many and im scared ima forget one hmmmm also hope it’s okay i tag everyone im terribly sorry to trouble you incredible people but ur aus are cherished in my heart forever and always

Okay in no particular order and under a readmore because I realize this is going to get long because I refuse to not ramble about why I love them I can’t just make a list like a normal person so HERE WE GOOOOO

- @doodledrawsthings both “Oh The Humanity!” and “““““Coffeeshop au”“““ mean so much to me and I love Snatcher being thrust into a situation where he’s forced to grapple with his past self and then I can’t get enough of Luka and those good old baleful polymorph tropes anD WHAT A DAD THO. Truly a soft au that I am soft for.

- @toxic-lavender gijinka/Dadtcher au and Stitched au and Vamp prince au are all so delightful. Vamp prince has so much thought and attention to detail in the curse and world, and then Stitched au hits me in the gut with feels aND THE GIJINKA/DADTCHER AU I really enjoy seeing more modern takes with these characters and there’s something about Snatcher (cursed and magical as a result) trying to take care of Hat and hold a job while needing to eat souls that is just so engaging narrative-wise.

- @fedoraspooky weresnoodle au. I love it. Very much. Lukas is a sweet bean and Hattie is so clever and strong and I have a weakness for any were-creature story in which the were-creature is constantly anxious about their monstrous form hurting or hindering others and strive to keep everyone else save by secluding themselves only to realize that no matter what at their core, they are good BECAUSE they constantly choose to be kind and that carries over no matter their form. I just <33333333

- @berryfartsart What To Expect When You’re On the Run (single dad Snatcher au) I’ve mentioned it before for EXCELLENT Dadtcher content and cannot recommend it enough for how it seamlessly blends A Hat in Time with a modern twist. The world building is clever and delightful AND Snatcher is incredible as a poor dad trying to take care of Hattie and I love it.

- @doodleimprovement victorian au and Beware the Frozen Heart (frozen au). The Victorian au has SUCH amazing worldbuilding and the magic of the forest and having to give something to it is such a cool idea and i am a humble Jane Austen loving girl at heart so you KNOW im gonna love it. And then Beware the Frozen Heart IS TOO SWEET and the Dadtcher is strong and delightful and I love it dearly. (Also one of the earlier ones I read and thus extra special <3)

- @levshany A Glitch in Time au iS GORGEOUS and incredible and I love Beta kid and Moonjumper and love Levshany’s take on the Horizon and how lovely it looks and getting to see how the beta content is used is incredible and it’s lovely. The art and story are captivating and I can’t say lovely enough when talking about this comic.

- @xxfaylinnxx Time Traveling Hat Kid au is absolutely a delight and warms my heart. The Prince is a sweetheart as an adopted dad and Hat is wonderful and determined and there’s so much hope in this one and I cannot stress enough how warm the story and it’s characters are. And THE ART!!!!!!! is so faithful to the core of A Hat in Time that I instantly smile the moment I see it.

- @cheesytrishy The Owl House au and the Hobo Snatcher au (The link is to probably one of my favorite animations) are really delightful. The Owl House works SO well and how her art and concepts capture the fun of the owl house is just splendid and the Hobo Snatcher au is more fantastic Dad content I LOVE this concept so much.

OKAY IM VERY TIRED SO IMA STOP THERE. There are of course many lovely aus and these artists and more have other incredible stories/ocs/content but I think these cover the aus that really... helped me this year. Not to be cheesy but I mean it when I say I cherish these aus. They got me through some really rough moments and still help me to smile when I’m feeling low. So, thank you! To you lovely creators. AND thank you Anon, for asking!

[staryarn]

AHIT DRABBLES FOR MY FLOWER AU

---+---

These flowers. They always came back. Even after going through the pain of cutting them off they still continued to persist. Moonjumper sighed looking at his flower ridden body. Soon enough it would become a full moon, an exit out of the horizon. To simply put it he would be able to explore the outside world considering how lonely the horizon was. And even then he may be able to find out how to get rid of the flowers. Or worst case scenario find that everyone else has them too. Whenever these dreaded weeds sprouted out of his skin his heart felt like a mess. It's like all of his strings suddenly wrapped around him, making it much harder to breath. Oh! It seems like its time for him to make an exit.

-

Queen Vanessa simply wandered her halls, hoping that the child would have come back to find more of her little time pieces. Hoping that if she got her hand on one of them that she could go to the past and have her prince back. But as soon as she thought anything of the sort blood red flowers would sprout on her skin. Disgusting and filthy. She wanted to be pure for her prince as she was so desperately waiting for him to come back. She knew he was out here and is hoping that on day he'll come back and save her. She only punished him because he broke her heart catching him spending time with her . But as soon as she brought up that memory she had a coughing fit. Spitting up a horrible black inky substance that covered all of the flower petals. Yet they simply froze immediately as they touched the floor. Seems as if her "condition" was worsening. But she knew that was all because her prince abandoned her.

-

Snatcher groaned, flicking of any petals that have landed on him. Since when did he become some sort of flower patch. It was quite annoying, considering that dreaded hat kid leaped onto him thinking he was a flower patch. He ripped them off hastily as if to make the pain minimal. He shouldn't feel pain since he's dead but every time it hurts. And he's confused. But he has a reputation to hold up so he keeps quiet. Though it's pretty useless since hat brat and his minions can see right through him. Even in a more, how would you say it, 'human looking' form the flowers consistently bloomed. And even worse was the the ink that randomly spilled out if them. Or maybe the thorns that (attempted to) strangle and choke him were worse. Of course he never lost breath since the concept of subconscious human functions left him. A nice quiet for being dead. But hey at least he wasn't some corpse like that wimp moonjumper. And at least he could have legs if he wanted to.

+

Lynh sighed. It seems as if their out of medicine yet again and on top of it memories were coming back. Memories of a horrible past rising out of the sea, whispering and grasping out at their fragile shell of a body. Their emotions being broadcasted to the world and in return everyone and anyone's heart open like a book. They hated this and yet the flowers spread. The ink spread. How sickening. Once told that they would be the perfect being, capable of easily manipulating others via eating their emotions. And yet they despised it. What sort of invasion of personal privacy was that. At this point their condition only worsened. It seems as if these flowers were popping up everywhere. Any sort of blood that was coughed up turned black as ink. This could not continue. With a heavy heart they stood up, hoping to search for the others infected with this mad ridden disease. It was the world eater's fault. Using Lynh, an emotion eater, as a pawn a simple vessel for a puppet to spread this "disease". To be puppeteered without any sort of "free" will. How humiliating.

+

Mustache girl didnt get it. As much as she yanked at these long vibes and flowers they wouldn't come off (plus it hurt to do so). Yet she wasn't the only one who had this. Hat, Bow, some of the mafia, the mafia boss, and everyone else were starting to experience this. Of course she stayed headstrong and acted as if it was nothing but deep inside she was scared. She didn't know what was going on and she was lost and confuses. And she hated it with all her heart.

-

These flowers were new, same with the ink. Bow admired the beauty of the flowers even though they were quite bothersome. She tried to look on the bright aide but everything seemed dim and dull. It's as if the color was sucked out of anyone who managed to get this disease. And it slowly was getting to her too. But she wished to be naive and hope that it would go away. She knows that it's far from the truth but she doesn't want the fog to lift.

-

Hat kid was at a loss (| || || |_). All these otherworldly techniques and alien remidies weren't working. Thought all her travels she never experienced a disease so persistent as this. She could try and use a time piece to reverse this but creating some sort of time paradox may be more dangerous and the riank wasn't a good one. Seems like she'll have to do some detective work to find who's behind this.

[baskervilleshound]

Can I get a summary of what the whole roleplay is about? I’m very curious as to how it started and the concept in general

Oh my golly goodness. Well, when it comes to origins, it’s a heck of a long story! Thanks for the ask, @bumblywumblytumbly !

You see, @pekoeboo has been my friend for close to 8 years now, and we’ve been roleplaying just as long! Basically, whenever Audrey or I find a new character we hyper fixate on, we somehow smash them into our giant story. We’ve literally been roleplaying in the same ‘story’ for years, switching off characters and fitting them in over the years as our tastes change!

So right now, Audrey and I are working on a new RP universe called the nocturne AU. She is currently revisiting a childhood favorite character of hers, Jimmy Neutron, and I am totally into the Ahit universe! Specifically Snatcher and Moonjumper. Though in this particular story, I will be using Moonjumper. Audrey will be posting more on the origins of Jimmy for the Nocturne AU in a post very soon! But what I can tell you, is how Moonjumper is involved.

So basically, what happens, is Jimmy is taken from the human world to a mystical world by my OC, Melvin (who is a shadow monster). But anyways, while in this new world, Melvin sort of becomes Jimmy’s adoptive father. Jimmy eventually becomes a brother to Melvin’s daughter, Florence. How Moon gets involved, is Florence accidentally finds the horizon, and Moon kidnaps her and pulls her into it, having gone insane from his loneliness. Eventually, Melvin and Jimmy work together to get Florence out, and in turn pull Moonjumper out as well!

After being taken out of the horizon, Moonjumper is alive again, and feels horrible for what he had done. However, luckily, Florence forgives him rather quickly, and they become fast friends. Moonie stays in Melvin’s house as he tries to find his way in the world. It has been a long time since he’s been alive. So basically, I suppose this RP is about Moonjumper being trapped in the horizon, being pulled out, and slowly befriending Melvin, Florence, and Jimmy. Audrey and I really love writing angst and stuff, so of course we almost get MJ killed in one of our first ideas for the Nocturne RP. If you would like more details on that particular scenario- how how Moon nearly died and had to survive out in this horrible place they got stuck in, I would be more than happy to explain.

Sorry this was so long! Hopefully it makes a lick of sense!! ;;u;;