#THATS ME!!!! (pointing at the spearmaster)

[planet4546b]

im having fun with rivulet i am SKITTERING. and such. also made it from start to moon AND then back up the wall to pebs in like 2 hours which is the fastest ive ever done it. considering my avg arc playtime is like 10-15 hours it felt incredibly smooth hard to say if thats me improving at the game or riv's moveset making it easier. but still

[arolesbianism]

Alright boys pack it up no more rain world posting new oni dlc is coming out in less than a week

[pocket-goat]

i'm not personally a fan of saints campaign from a gameplay perspective. its the only campaign i've only ever played once up until now despite liking the story and lore implications. but it hit me so hard emotionally that i was genuinely stunned and i couldn't figure out what it made me feel, let alone why i was feeling it so strongly, like i had just lost something so important to me rather than a few pixels i could see again if i just started up another campaign.

i think it's because, up until saints campaign (since i did his last of course), i had spent so much of my time trying to help moon. in every campaign save for artificers, where she's inaccessible, but even then i only found out i couldn't access moons structure when i had already trudged through all of waterfront facility with a neuron for her.

i delivered her pearl as spearmaster, revived her as hunter, reactivated her structure as rivulet, and gathered her neurons in every campaign where i had access to both her and pebbles' structure. not to mention my hours of pearl gathering, not just for completing my collection, but also because in my regular runs i enjoyed bringing her new reading material. i knew i couldn't save her, but i did everything in my little slugcat power to ease her pain.

and then i finally reach her as saint, and while i'm not forced to ascend her, thats pretty clearly the intention. and i stalled for such a long time. it felt easy ascending pebbles, it felt like a mercy to him. he wanted that for so long, right? and he was in such a state now that leaving him there to rot indefinitely felt like condemning him to an absolutely hellish existence. at least his ancients had left him functional and with the ability to contact his fellow iterators and possibly find a solution for himself. i would be leaving him with a faded music pearl and a lantern while he sat in his own rotting corpse.

but moon never WANTED to die. she actively fought to LIVE, and she was finally back to as close as she could get to her former state with the rarefraction cell! and it felt a little bit like i was undoing all of the progress of my hunter run by just killing her now. what was the point of the slag reset keys and all the neurons and the rarefraction cell? but then again, what would i be leaving her to? a world frozen over where she is cut off from everyone she has ever known, unable to reach out, her only accessible neighbour being completely unresponsive (and now dead)?

i felt better about it after she had said it was time for the time of her and her ancients to be left behind. the world had already died. her world had already died. and a new one was being born, one she need not be a part of. she seemed comfortable in the fact she would be a part of this new world only as a forgotten legacy, perhaps a mystery for future civilizations to unravel.

i have many thoughts about looks to the moon.

and i think, in my idealistic continuation of rain worlds story, after saint has ascended the sibling iterators and moved on, that their empty puppets are still treated kindly and with a quiet sort of reverence by any scavenger or slugcat who finds them. i'd like to leave them flowers.

[ressioo]

can i ask for your thoughts about sunstone as a ship and their dynamic 🥺

Sorry for taking a while, words hard

God. Sunstone. Both in regular canon and SolarFlare they're absolute cringefails to me. The latter just hide it better. Gonna be talking about canon for the most part here

Under the cut because wall of text lmao

Honestly canon sunstone is pretty tragic? Its two flawed people making every single bad decision, and eventually losing eachother as a result. By the time they actually Think and realise what they both did wrong, its much too late to apologise and make things right

I think that if the circumstances were different they'd be able to have a really good, wholesome relationship

Maybe if Pebbles was less desperate to find the triple affirmative. Maybe if the situation before Moons collapse was less tense, if Suns contacted him earlier. If Suns had thought a little harder about the consequences of sending that gold pearl, if they were a little less weak for him, less indulgent. 

I suppose that hindsight is everything. They both regret what happened between them. Especially at the end there. 

Okay now for less depressing shit lmao

Their relationship was purely mentor/mentee for a little while and slowly turned into a very close friendship. They both enjoy art, poetry and music and share many views, which they bonded over. And while Suns might not share the same love for history that he has, they're more than willing to listen. And maybe go out of their way to find out new tidbits for him if they can

They never confess, i don't think. They both develop feelings, but Pebbles is too busy to pay much attention to it and Suns just doesn't quite have the nerve to do anything except hint at it. Though this Does end in them sending him a personalised ring via Spearmaster. Which. Is basically a marriage proposal. At least by Ancient standards.

Pebbles doesn't realise this, mostly because that is a tradition practiced purely by the People. And since he's not exactly aware or paying attention to his own feelings he doesn't clock it for what it is.

He does send them back a ring though. Basically treating it like exchanging friendship bracelets or something 💀 Suns about has a heart attack. From what they know he doesn't share their feelings, and they're too much of a coward to inform him about what the gesture meant, so. They end up unofficially officially married. And then unofficially divorced once the second pearl reaches him in Spearmaster's campaign

Pebbles finally gets his shit together sometime during Arti's campaign. She brings back a pearl about marriage traditions and it suddenly clicks for him. Not really the best time to find out, honestly. What with everything going on. Not even truly Finding Out, since he can't actually ask them if thats what the whole thing meant. 

They never speak again, and neither gets closure about it. They both keep their rings though.

-

Now a little bit about SolarFlare specifically because they actually get together and meet in person in that! Wont be able to say too much without brain getting on my case for revealing too much though lmao. SF sunstone are Extremely exaggerated in their everything, so obviously not saying canon compliant off the string would be quite like this 🙏

They dont become a thing until they've actually met in person, though the line between being close and being Close was blurred for a bit before this point

Pebbles is the one that says something first, and they become official after that

They're like,, really abnormal about eachother. Like its genuinely obsession for them. They be jealous and posessive and codependent as hell. Both of them. Its not healthy, but they are genuinely really happy with eachother. Kinda made for eachother in that way. They're eachother's favourite people and they Will make it other people's problem

End up marrying at some point (after having an actual conversation about it this time), and its both because they wanna show love and devotion but also because they're very about it being a way to claim eachother. And that being visible to others

I love them and their weird relationship

[kelocitta]

What why??

Theres a few reasons! I do want to clarify that I do like Saint and their campaign in a bubble, and still like downpour as a whole, they're just the most 'off' in terms of overall.

This is going to be very messy, and I haven't fully yet made up my mind on a lot of things

For starters Saint themselves... Downpour is for-sure less grounded in naturalistic biology than RW vanilla- and thats fine. The base game slugcats are all relatively mundane for a reason, but that also means their overall variety is limited- so downpour mixes that up with a bit of a fantastical slant and then tries its best to re-ground it various ways (Spearmaster is genetically modified, Gourmand is just very smart and very big, Artificer is implied to have been mutated by a toxic environment, rivulet is just fast and evolved for increased flooding). The issue with Saint here is that they are, by far, the most ungrounded in any sort of reality and a bit more 'magical'- but that aspect isn't really explained past maybe a short nod in the general direction of something. This isn't exactly a flaw in itself, but it does mean we have something immensely powerful in a way that's very... contradicting to the general vibe of the world. Especially as a little animal. Something like that can work, but its hard to make work, especially in a world set up like RW is. And then the campaign itself... for starters, I think its one that naturally going to be very polarizing depending on the way you read various things about RW- the characters in it, the things it touches on, and your own personal outlook on life. I'm a nerd for evolution and 'life finds a way' type stuff, and for me Saint goes a little too far in direction I don't really vibe with. Its really hard to explain here, but I'll try. For probably the most minor thing, the environment. There's a sort of undercurrent that the frozen over tundra of world as is a 'dying' environment. The undergrowth echo does add a counter to this mindset (By pointing out there is still life and beautiful blooming in a increasingly barren world) so its not the biggest thing, but its a outlook a lot of people tend to hold to begin with, so the ways it reinforces this is a little... sour? I suppose. Deserts and tundras and areas of low life are not dead or dying environments- they are their own ecosystems. They exist and are needed. Many things can not survive them. Many things can. Worlds and ecosystems are naturally always shifting and changing, and ecosystems like deserts and arctics stand equal to rainforests and coral reefs. We see some creatures have failed to adapt and died off, but so many others have begun to carve out their niches and are changing with the world- I think a tundra is a great metaphorical 'the world is shifting away from its old self' type thing. Everything being broken down and changed once more and a lot of things aren't surviving, some are, but changed. Metaphorically that is great. But Saint is there as a big, literal kill switch on the world (Small aside that yes, kill is an inaccurate descriptor. Ascension is by nature 'something else' than dying.) Its just a little... wrong, that the implied shift in what the world is- the last stains of the Ancient's being washed away into something new and independent, is being done with the literal removal of those remains rather than the natural clockwork of the world. Even without Saint there things would die and shift, iterators would crumple into nothing, buildings would break and become dust and rust- and from all that things would still claw their way to the next day. Their offspring and offspring's offspring would grow ever more different from them, until they hardly match. Something new would be borne from the dusts of an old one forgotten. Tundras would freeze over into something else, a change in the atmosphere would trigger a shift, and ice would melt into water once more. Thats another great big thing everything is a small part of. (For some reason if this space isn't here this whole post breaks?)

Its sad, but theres a beauty in the way things lead into each other- erased in anyway meaningful way but their ghosts still etched imprinted into the shell of the new. Both insignificant and yet strangely important. I don't think Saint is implied to 'succeed' at all, of course. I think its very much hinted at that they'll be at whatever mission they have forever. But is also feels implied that this mission is supposed to be the intended end of the Ancients' 'era', pieces bit by bit ascended, finally removed from this cycle they can't perceive themselves as even a part of- and that even with this there will still be something new that takes their place. Their whole goal is ascension, so it makes sense ultimately. But it just feels... something is off about it, and maybe thats entirely on me. There's something I just don't like about it. A long time ago I was asked about Saint and the void worms (you can read that here, although note this was pretty early into DP's release) and I do think at least part of that is the idea that Saint pulls control from things. The worms, buried deep in the void sea, the last step to ascension... Crossing yourself out feels like a weighty choice, but one you have to seek. So a sort of mobile ascension that does it for you, these lizards and bugs that couldn't possibly comprehend what ascension is, creatures that mostly just know survival and all its ills... it feels like it skips all that weight behind that choice. The underground Ancient, stuck midway, says it was never something they really wanted anyway, seemly contended to be in the in-between. An outlier for sure, but an outlier none the less- one that makes it clear that things can comprehend the weight of ascension and what it offers and understand the world and its ills and still want to be a part of it. What does that mean of Saint, a system that brings that to you, without say? Sure most of the creatures they ascend are simple things, the others are iterators- Beings designed to seek that solution and even want it for themselves but to barred from being able to achieve it. These are all things that it should feel good to grant the blessings of ascension too, that final peace that is neither living nor dying, but I just think about that echo and the way it makes it clear that many, if given the choice, would not want to be crossed out. I like it in a bubble, removed from those things, but I don't know how I feel about it in the greater scheme of things, as a sort of end to rain world. If there is one thing I do like a lot though, its the finale- with the worm. It gives Saint's place in the world a distinct sense of wrongness, something capped at the void worms. The void worms are just... still at the center. Something ancient and unbreakable. A rule of existence Saint doesn't- can't, bypass.

[iteratorsex]

What is ur take on nsh? i dont think i fully understand his character and i dont really see many analysis of him and im kinda js collecting Harassment yaps (from the very small few that there are from what i know of)

Another side question to this is if you think NSH is mad or hates Suns after the Golden Pearl Incident. Ive seen fics where NSH either begins to hate Suns after it or just completely cuts them off or whatever.

I kinda just wanna hear ur own headcanons and thoughts on NSH, SRS and how you consider their relationship (not in a shippy way please. I love ships but thats the last thing im asking for 🙁🙁 /lh /nm sorryyy i dont know ur take on ships that might seem mean)

uhhh I don't have much to think abt NSH but I'll try

I think that NSH mostly reserves his Well Known Silliness for his friends, and otherwise seems to treat things with the right amount of seriousness.

I never really vibed with the interpretation that NSH is just this complete troll all the time who loves to fuck with everyone on purpose when I think he's just trying to stay lighthearted in the face of it all

Anyways, I don't think he's mad at Suns at all.

From the broadcasts:

SRS: I feel like I've doomed not one, but two iterators. SRS: And in the whole process I've lost a great friend, who won't even let me help him. NSH: We make mistakes, it'll be okay. You know Five Pebbles really looks up to you.

NSH: You should have sent the messenger to Moon instead of Pebbles. SRS: Do you think that would have helped anything? NSH: To be honest, no... I'm not sure that it would.

I think NSH is just as aware that there's not really anything that could've been done at this point

NSH and SRS are pretty close to me, but I think the bonding of their relationship was in Spearmaster. Before that they were probably just Normal friends. I don't mind them being shipped but they're like. "Kissing the homies goodnight" to me. They're friends who seem gay but they're not

My takes on ships are usually that the romance just tends to swamp out all other dynamics the characters have, ESPECIALLY with sunstone. But I don't think that's really an issue with these two idiots

[rwconfessions]

downpour honestly just isnt great. the slugcats feel so.. out of place, almost synthetic. obviously this doesnt apply to spearmaster considering thats their whole thing. however rain world is meant to be a game where you *dont matter*, thats what makes it so unique! youre just an unimportant animal making their way through life, happening to cross paths with larger than life deities. when you strip rain world of that, youre taking away a core mechanic of the game. simply being able to explode your way through the world or power through it at unnaturally fast speeds isnt what rain world was meant to be.

dont even get me started on saint. the religion of the ancients is heavily inspired by buddhism. adding a region that is essentially just hell feels strange to me. and back to my previous point, the whole ascension ability feels so unlike rain world.

dont get me wrong, downpour wouldve been amazing if it simply stayed as a mod! it just doesnt work as an actual dlc.

[bloxxy-slugcats-archived]

bigger Saint reference with the boi

while Saint is the vegan he is, he doesn't mind to eat stuff like eggs or cheese, and he has said if he could, he would try some kind of meat, but with how he was made, he gets very sick when he eats any kind of meat.

his relationships with everyone go like this (will update after i release my OCs)

Survivor - neutral | he doesn't really have any thoughts about him, but he is ever so slightly suspiciously of why he sees him glancing over at him from time to time suspiciously

Monk - friend | he tolerates Monk more then others, and actually enjoys his company from time to time

Hunter - neutral/dislike | while he does tolerate him, he doesn't like how violent Hunter tends to be most the time

Artificer - neutral/dislike | he does tolerate her, but he doesn't like how violent she is, and he knows there is something with her that she wont say

Gourmand - friend | he is pleased that Gourmand understands Saint's meat intolerance, and does his best to avoid that issue with meals

Rivulet - neutral | he finds it difficult to concentrate on certain things when she is around, and doesn't like when she messes with him

Spearmaster - neutral | he understands that he was made by an iterator as well, and tolerates his childish behavior

Nightcat - neutral | since she tends to keep to herself most the time, he doesn't really interact or see her her much

Enot - neutral/dislike | Saint can tell something is diffrent with Enot, something strange, and unnatural, so he tends to avoid or ignore her

______________________________________________________________

Martyr's thoughts about everyone go like this (will update after i release my OCs)

Survivor - he tends to not understand him most of the time, and is confused, and a little concerned about how he tends to react to seeing Saint sometimes, he especially gets confused when he mentions "he sees something with him", and both Saint and Martyr are worried thats implying, that he can see Martyr

Monk - while he doesn't have any direct thoughts or opinions on Monk, he tolerates Monk, knowing both Saint and Monk are friends, and with how peaceful he is

Hunter - he has higher respect for Hunter then others, knowing Hunter managed to survive having the rot before, not many do, and everyone always got turned into a long legs as far as he knows, so he is impressed Hunter survived

Artificer - while he does know Artificer was made by SRS, and Saint made by SOS, he found out a short bit ago that the same lines of DNA SRS used to make Artificer, were also mostly used to make Saint, by SOS, then making them in a way, siblings, but Martyr refuses to tell Saint this, thinking of the worst reaction

Gourmand - he finds Gourmand to be one of the healthiest of the slugcats, and so, he has respect for Gourmand, for not only being healthy, with his, girth, but to also keep a colony in check

Rivulet - he finds her a bit much, and would like it much if she slowed down for once

Spearmaster - he finds Spearmasters behavior strange, and his opinion on Spearmaster, is simply, for him to learn some more things at some point

Nightcat - he finds her strange, while he knows she is a slugcat, he also knows there is something wrong with her, something, unnatural

Enot - he does not like Enot at all, cause he knows she came from a- "do NOT speak about her and where she came from!" shut up Martyr this is her lore and my ask blog, and the peeps who viewing wanna know! "and i dont care, they can figure out where she came from themselves!" but they wont figure it out unless i tell them! "no!" ...

...

...

Enotcamefromanotherw- HEY-! "...there, that will keep him quiet for now... dont give me that look, you little gremlin"

[ask-rw-void-linked-au]

So how are everyone’s relationships going? Again sorry for such an odd question. After this i’ll try to be more normal. I’m just… really curious about a few of you.

-The Quasar

Enot: its going great

Monk: yea! And Enot's a big help when it comes to my garden, Marlye, and Lindy.

Enot: oh, i was expecting you to talk about my Impecible charisma but ok.

Monk giggles

Survivor: we are doing good also. Nightcat always brings me gifts, to the point i sometimes feel like im doing a bad job as a partner.

Watcher: just trying to be a good partner is all

Survivor: well your doing a good job

Watcher: thanks...

Hunter: me and Saint are also doing good. I often find myself venting to him when we hang out

Saint: i dont really mind. Im just glad he's talking to me about his problems

Hunter: and the extra fur is perfect for cuddling~

Saint: is cuddling all you care about with me?

Hunter: yes and you love it.

Saint: I-

Saint blushes a little

Saint: uhh.. no your right...

Rivulet: we're doing great!

Spearmaster: yea, Rivulet is a bit of a energetic handful at times, but thats why i love em.

Rivulet runs up and hugs spearmaster

Rivulet: Love ya Speary!

Spearmaster: i love you too Riv.

Artificer: do i... have to talk about this?

Gourmand: if you dont wanna you dont have to, im sure they'll understand-

Artificer: no im talking about it

Gourmand: oh.

Artificer: Me and the Scavenger Chieftain... To be honest we started as friends, and over time i grew feelings for them. So far we are doing good.

Artificer starts to blush, their tail wags gently

Artificer: We both uhh, cuddle snd take care of each other. im now referred as the queen... and uhh.. (god, this is embarrassing... how do i tell them that i find him hot without directly saying it..?)

Rivulet: hehe your blushing!

Artificer: SHUT UP!! (Gah! Screw it ill just let them figure it out)

[pyrrhuria]

currently i am 3 hours and 19 cycles into drought (shockingly low honestly. unfortunately i got hit by the homework beam) but i'm kinda considering restarting. because i just remembered that old hunter video i made & how i always wanted to make more like it...

i tried to gather footage of all my first playthroughs of the downpour scugs for this purpose back when it came out, but i had to quit halfway through spearmaster cause i ran out of storage on my old 1tb laptop. (missing that + all of saint kinda killed my drive, but maybe i'll still put together the vids for arti/gourm/riv someday? anyway, that's beside the point)

i have something like 5tb of spare storage now, so now that recording mass amounts of Rain Game footage is viable again i'm feeling tempted. might actually do it this time.

..the hunter video took me like 3 months to make so thats not a promise i'll be quick to fulfill, but. (i give you a big hopeful thumbs-up and smile)

[malwarechips]

not a headcanon but um. Favourite and least favourite campaigns and why

oh i will absolutely ramble abt this . /silly

my two favourite campaigns are probably spearmaster with saint at such a close second that its basically a tie . for spearmaster i just love their mechanics soooo much theres smthn so satisfying about seeing the food pips go up immediately after hitting an enemy. i also like the safety of always having spears on me. and the story !!!! i love seeing how the world looked before moon collapsed. i love getting to see her before she collapsed too !!!! also pebbles fucking throwing you is funny to me . he tends to just like rub me against the ceiling for a while trying to get me through the pipe .

as for saint, i just absolutely adore the environmental storytelling of it all. its so interesting to see how the ecosystem was affected now that the rain has been replaced with blizzards. i LOVE that orange lizards are so common . like, 1) theyre fun to avoid 2) i think its so interesting how one lizard species started THRIVING when the environment changed. i image that due to their more social nature theyre able to huddle up if it gets too cold . also saints movement is incredibly fun and ascending things is funny.

and for my least favourite, id say arti. i love her as a character, but her campaign was REALLY stressful to me. to the point where it genuinely made me anxious around rain world for a while and i still cant do so much as even think about possibly playing her. the constant deaths and having to do stuff over again and again really just stressed me out a lot. i love the idea of her campaign, but imo scavengers weren't designed to be fought. they were designed to be a "stay on their good side or youre gonna have a terrible time" sort of thing. or at least thats what they feel like to me. arti goes against all of that without really being QUITE strong enough to imo. the fact that she dies in one spear really shouldnt happen, she should be able to take at least two or three hits imo. i know some people really loved the difficulty of the campaign but.. as much as i love rain world sometimes it takes the extreme difficulty too far and stops being fun for me

[hammythehanner]

ok i was bored so heres my slugcat tierlist judged entirely by gameplay/the campaign. not many people are prolly gonna read any of this but i love rambling anyways💥💥full downpour spoilers ahead!

RAHHHH I LOVE RIV AND SAINT THE MOVEMENT IS ONE OF MY FAV THINGS ABT THE GAMEPLAY RIGHT NEXT TO KILLING EVERYTHING THAT CROSSES MY PATH (except scavs but i will get to that later) riv is the first dp slug i played on the day the dlc came out and i finished it the same day and bro my expectations were blown out of the water holy FUCK. i wanted to explore rotting pebbles soooo bad and i actually got to do that!!! it was hard of course but i had fun!!!! i liked having to look at rooms and having to carefully calculate how i would get through them. it made pebbles funner to explore bc i wasnt stuck in 0g baby jail all the time. submerged superstructure was cool as hell too but i kept getting super lost in it while trying to find rhe right way to go… exploring after the campaign though was rlly fun!

basically riv is the most slug ever but oh man. does saint come close. it was BRUTAL getting out of sky islands and farm arrays (i didnt have a lantern, i didnt know it would warm u up) but once i did and i acquired a lantern it was fun! finessing predators with your epic tongue swinging skills. but at the same time man i have NEVER gotten a more overwhelming sense of dread from playing a video game before. especially at the part where i went to go to the wall and it just. wasnt there. i had to just pause and stare at the screen because What. and then when i went to shaded citadel, only to realize it wasnt. uh. shaded anymore. and connecting the lore dots in my head right before getting to the husk. gahdam. finding pebbles made me want to cry and throw up so hard (but i didnt. yet) and yeah. that ending. ehat the fukc. shit went crazy. didnt cry tho until i was watching a saint playthrough on youtube and like. bro wasnt even at the end of the game or doing anything in particular but MAN i just started sobbing for like an hour when i thought abt the ending again. i dont rlly even know why in particular the saint ending just Does that to a mf i guess. also shoutout to that one echo that says “I put my faith into the hands of random gods. Now I must endure it to the end” rawest line ever. goes so hard

SPEARMASTER WAS REALLY AWESOME TOO i lovvedddd being the predator and kill die kill kill slurp up everything i see with straw spear. i love how each of the slugcats makes u think like the slug ur playing, and spearmaster does that so well. i love that it makes u think like a ruthless predator, and i love playin on my save file every now and then to see how many kills i can get in a cycle. also exploring moon before she collapses was just as incredible as discovering five pebbles for the first time AIAGSJSGSJ i love her version of random gods so much it goes so crazy. also the bisexual lighting is cool. i hope the miros birds in her underhang explode tho i love being one shot before i can react at all

hunter. i love and hate the cycle limit. on one hand its super unique and changes up how u play the game alot. u gotta plan for stuff and be able to improvise sometimes. but also its really stressful LMAO. right before dp came out i did a hunter run so that i could unlock riv as soon as possible. and like bro wtf shit gave me heart palpitations. i wasnt even close to failing either i deadass ascended with like 9 cycles left idfk why i was shittif myself so hard at certain points. also why can slugpups spawn in their campaign bro thats mean.

GOURMAND. oh gourmand. this is the one i thought i was gonna hate but ended up really enjoying. the tuckered out mechanic isnt usually that big a deal. also bro is a straight up killing machine wtf 3 spear damage????? i didnt use the crafting mechanic much but it was pretty cool when i remembered it existed in a sticky situation and it saved me. also their endgame region….. oh my god that shit is BEAUTIFUL. i could just stare at some of the rooms for hours. and that big tree with a view of pebbles and the communications array? gorgeous. the food quest was fun and the ending is super cute.

survivor was my first experience with the game! i took multiple long breaks because of how frustrated i got at points, i even had to restart my first playthrough cuz i got stuck in filtration without max karma, but i just. kept coming back. the game just kept sucking me back in. i had the biggest ragequit ever at the jump to the wall in chimney canopy (didnt know about throwboosting so i died like 84538363 times. not just to the jump of course you know how chimney is) but i was back literally the next day. i could Not quit. not too much else to say abt them other than that ive replayed survivor like 4 times since it was all i could really do before downpour came out LOL. theyre the standard campaign so it goes in tha middle tier.

arti and monk were originally swapped but i judged arti too harshly i think. i loved the double jump so much, but when i played it i had scav kill squad leniency off and i had no idea how to parry. (also that one long trek between those two shelters in the upper section of metropolis (on the way to house of braids) can fuck right off to hell. ik i could have taken a diff route but ouygh my gowd) artis story is so cool and the ending art is SO badass i love it but scav combat sucks so bad. also i dont like killing them anyways theyre silly and i always get chieftain in my playthroughs :(

monk isnt actually even bad really. its just “ez baby mode”, which is fine! i think monk serves their purpose very well but honestly its not for me, esp after downpour. im a sweaty gamer guys i admit it im so so sorry plz forgive me💔💔💔🥀 i love monks cutscenes tho theyre very cute. a simple but effective story👍👍👍👍awesom

wow ok i wrote way more than i meant to erm. hi. im 🙂🙂normal.🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂

[eversplode]

hello rain world tumblr. in my rain world fic, Taking the High Road, i accidentally created a conlang for scavengers. whoopsie.

that is not what im here to discuss, however. see, as a story about a slugcat and a scavenger traveling together, it was inevitable that the slugcat would start trying to learn 'scavengese.'

so i decided "scavs are basically humans so they can make all the sounds humans can, but scugs are like. cats. so they probably cant make all the sounds. how do i do that."

after about 20 seconds of consideration, i decided to try pronouncing my scavengese words without using my tongue, and just writing the sound that i made. it was quick, it was easy, and hey, it definitely wouldn't come up much (lie).

an innocent comment on my fic asking "hey how do you decide what scugs can and cant say" has sent my into a shower thought-fueled speculative biology session to retroactively justify my decisions. so, i'm gonna put that here, because someone will probably find it as interesting as me. anyway.

(tl;dr, click here for some speculative biology on how slugcat language works)

so, let us start with the basis for scug language, which is two facts: one, scugs are, at their core, moist cats which have evolved to the point of developing culture and language, and two, they go "wawawa." why do they go wawawa? because the entire community agreed on it and also I Said So. so how do we build a language around this?

so as we all know, cat language isn't language as we understand it. cats don't use words, they use stuff like purring and hissing and non-verbal cues. so, if cats suddenly constructed their own society like it was a Thing To Do, their language would probably involve those same things. so basically, natural slugcat language involves mostly non-verbal cues and sounds that humans cant make.

so now we come to the second part: why does rivulet go "wawawa" when they "talk" with moon?

well, my theory is that scugs have very immobile tongues and no teeth. bear with me here.

slugs, yknow, the base of slugcats other than cats, dont have tongues. they have a thing called a radula, which as far as i can tell, is basically a tonguelike thing covered in very small teeth. now, correct me if im wrong, but you probably wouldnt want a spiky meat sack flailing around your mouth, like we do with tongues.

also, look at scugs diet. theyre herbivores and insectivores, most of them being unable to eat meat (i imagine centipede flesh is quite soft once you get past the exoskeleton). the only scugs that can eat meat are hunter, artificer, gourmand, and spearmaster. three of these are genetically modified, hunter being specifically created to be a powerful warrior, spearmaster being... spearmaster, and artificer being the only scug with claws and also being able to Spontaneously Explode For Mobility.

gourmand is a special case, being yknow, a gourmand. they can eat meat from lizards and such, however it gives only half the pips of other meat eaters. this says to me that their system isnt built to handle meat, and they can only eat specific parts of these creatures. this is probably true of all slugcats, its just that gourmand has experience is what parts can and cant be eaten, them being the gourmand.

anyway my point here is, slugcats cant eat hard foods. think about what they eat. blue fruit is a bug chrysalis and therefore full of goo, bubble fruit seem to be made of some kind of gel, popcorn is popcorn, slime mold is slime, ect. ect. in the case of gooieducks, scugs have to rip off the hard casing in order to eat them. scugs are made to eat soft foods and liquids. so, they probably dont have teeth. or, if they do, they are affixed to their tongue, and previously discussed.

so why am i discussing scug diets in this post about scug language? well you see, dear reader, if scugs dont have lips, how do they hold their food in their mouth? their lips. and what is the main part of your mouth you use to go "wawawa?" thats right, your lips. scug lips are probably the most easy to use mouthpart they have

so, imagine youre ruffles. moon has been talking to you in her weird ancients language to you, which seems to consist entirely of mouth sounds (no throat sounds or non-verbal cues at all! how strange!) you love moon very much and want to make her happy, so you try to mimick her language. you arent used to using your mouth to speak very much, so what do you do? you just start making a sound and flapping your lips. and what sound does that make?

"wawawa."

and THAT, dear friends, is why scugs go wawawa.

[shkika]

Having trouble with thinking of something to ask hrmm

What part of the rw lore do you find most interesting? Like..what are your thoughts on it? any twists you've thought up or any detail/s you just wanna rant abt?

The rainworld lore is painfully a lot and painfully little at the same time, like why are the pearls focused on garbage worms and what is noise milking oh my goddd

moon isnt lore on her own but her pearl readings are a massive source of it. so if i had to say my favorite thing would be iterators and the relationship they had with their colonies. the fact they can vary and the fact iterators have different opinions of their parents!! (one iterator talked abt havjng to sit through dark political times awkwardly like 🧍🤷 at some points. thats funny)

ahem I looove it a lot!! for example the way moon worded her existence is sad. the way she speaks about them is sad. like in short “ancients must not try very hard so we do that for them. at least i did” <- smth along the lines

she sounds bitter she dislikes them with a hidden passion even when she has 5 braincells left. Not to mention she calls them parasites with bad takes (sheesh). something people dont really ?? recognize enough or at all imo is that moon almost retired (ancients moving away from her city) and she was happy about it. Until it didnt work out and some stayed and she was pissed again.

now pebbles speaks with softness (as much as he has it in him) he liked them! he liked their art! their music! he liked witnessing their stupid arguments even when they were in his name (he found the citadel he shaded funny for being so angry)

he found a lot of things they did stupid but he also was impressed in other aspects! he liked them a lot to the point the last item that he keeps for comfort and keeps him together as a whole is a hymn of theirs. even when abandoned, he finds comfort in the company they used to bring him!!! how sad!!

Another part of the lore. Hm cycles.

I have no idea how they work. Youd believe at first that when you die. You get reborn. Pain!!! never escaping!!

But that cant be the case it has sooo many plotholes if thats the case.

1 artificers kids died! straight up GONE. theyre dead!! thats why shes so insane you cant tell me theyre just lost somewhere and also pups cant ascend (me when i reach spiritual enlightenment at 10). theyre straight up gone.

2. imagine u defeat the scav kind and he comes back an hour later.. nah. thjngs DIE

3 why did the ancients go crazy over killing themselves then idk!

4 suns was basically crying about how they dont know what theyll do if spearmaster dies. yeah no respawning then.

So then the cycle is being reborn into smth new. great. how does karma play in this. how do you raise it. time? do you have your old memories after u go into a new cycle?? i dont know!! no scug has ever been plagued with dreams of being smth else before. !!! how do you confirm its a thing!! idk!! how do you know you are in a samsara! i wish we got ancients talking about it. in pearls or smth.

i havent ascended with saint yet. (reached karma 10 and bonked the siblings) but i doubt they answer all of my questions

random kiki rw lore fact- did you know that the rot area - (riv gameplay) there is a room in it thats just called terror!!! it upsets me greatly. the place is so different because the rot literally eats his walls. it fucks me up sometimes even if it seems obvious

[snailfen]

(regarding the five pebbles and seven red suns ship) i feel like when it comes to the iterators either interpretation could be valid?? like some people interpret them as friends, some interpret them as family

like, lttm says "one of [pebble's] friends" when talking about suns, and then suns themselves says (paraphrasing a bit) "as a long time friend" on the pearl they send to him

in regards to the ancients calling themselves the iterators parents, i always felt like it was akin to the way some religious people say that everyone is a children of [insert god here] or something, like a metaphor

sorry for the anon jumpscare i'm a bit nervous, the last thing i want is to be called a pr/shitter- i just personally have always interpreted them as friends

no no youre good cus im not looking to cause shit myself! im just confused. if anything i was nervous to ask anything cus ive heard some people in the rw discord are quick to dispute this whenever its brought up about shipping the two and as someone whos been around fandom for a long time thats a preeeetty bad sign.

also same here abt seeing suns and pebs as just friends, its just that now that ive returned to rw a few years later and looked into the lore pearls again that i think its implied that iterators would see eachother as somewhat related perhaps?

i didnt think about the iterators being considered like "children of (godlike figure)" but in hindsight, thats also a possibility. In the lore pearl that this is brought up they also say that five pebbles is "their gift to the world" or something like that, and that seems to fit with that theme as well...

and yeah, when it comes to all forms of art, no interpretation is truly wrong. i think the main point that bothers me aside from the possibly siblings stuff is i feel like this isnt what people should be getting out of the iterators plotline? like shipping is fun. it is for fun. im not gonna go after people for that! but i also feel like people should be taking a step back and appreciating the characters for what they are and not for what they could be. if that makes sense?

about your second point, i have something to say about that but its MAJOR downpour spoilers, specifically for the rivulet and the spearmaster campaigns so im just gonna put it under a readmore

in the rivulets campaign, when asking the rivulet to do one last thing for him, pebbles calls moon "an old friend" himself (in fact thats what the achievement for finishing rivulet is called). moon very explicitly sees pebbles as a younger brother and expresses this at the end of the campaign. and in the spearmasters campaign theres those satellite things that show iterator logs when touched, and we get to see 2 iterators (from what i assume to be a neighboring group) gossiping about pebs, one of them brings up the fact that pebs was built near moon and the other asks "Isn't she his senior enough to the point where she calls herself 'Big Sis Moon'?". Its much more explicit that moon views her group as her younger siblings but pebs still calls her an old friend of his regardless!

last of all, someone said this in the tags of my post but looking at the lore pearl convo between pebbles and suns as well as the one between suns and wind really gives suns the impression of an older sibling, at least it does to me. also, back to those satellites in the spearmasters campaign, suns says that pebbles always looked up to them and they never took that lightly. srs is someone pebbles considers close because he looks up to him!

Their dynamic is something interesting to me now bc of downpour and im all about bullshitting and reading into things a little bit more for ships, but looking at SRS and FP.... how do i describe it. i dont really feel like theres SPACE for shipping in this case? like it wouldnt be necessarily invalid but its kinda missing the Point of the spearmasters campaign i feel. infact i feel like this is the only reason people see seven red suns as male despite none of the other iterators having specified genders (unless the dlc confirmed a gender for suns, then i missed that). anyways this last paragraph is just me rambling oops

[everything-is-out-to-get-me]

hi chat were back in sky islands I ACTUALLY DIIIDDDDD PLAY RAINWORLD FOR THE PAST FEW DAYS just was too lazy to post abt it lol BUTTTT

ok so when i made that post last time i was in farm arrays righth so yk even though i dont have the pearl that 5p ripped out of my body im STILLLLL gonna go through sky islands and probably just relax and explore a bit cause thats probably more fun cause sky islands goes to the wall and then 5p so i can just get the pearl back there (pretty sure theres a popcorn plant too so for whatever reason i end up starving itll be fine) one of the main problems is. getting that pearl. to moon. and then bringing that same pearl back to sky islands HW Y WHY/.? ILL HAVE TO USE ONLY ONE SPEAR TO FEEDAUDIOAUSPO cant even use a passage to fast travel even if i wanted too cause i DONT HAVE A STOMAOHCC;AH[0AUAU anyways screenshot time here is a reindeer with the smallest horns ive ever seen in my life

heres a reindeer with the largest horns ive ever seen in my life who STILL GOT STUCK IN THE WORMGRASS

exploring this area of farm arrays is so exciting too like. I DIDNT KNOW THERE WAS MORE TO FARM ARRAYS. LIKE CRAZY HOW MANY AREAS THERE ARE IVE NEVER SEEN BEFORE WHAT DO YOU MEAN THERE WAS A SCAVENGERS TOLL HERE

killing an enemy in front of the scavengers is such a good feeling too lmao there was also this broadcast that caught my eye for a while which took me like what 20 cycles til i actually got it because how the hell are you supposed to get up here easily

and it make me go D:

I DIDNT KNOW THESE BROADCASTS WERE HAPPENING OVER SPEARMASTERS CAMPAIGN ASWELL THIS IS SO SAD oughudlshgfidsjlj now im so curious if its anything different if you go here before delivering the pearl earlier i also fell down to a lower part of this area and spent so much time trying to go mback up oh my GgGOGHGFHDSLIG AND THIS ASSHOLE GOT STUCK IN HERE SOMEHOW AND COULDNT LEAVE AND STILL MANAGED TO KILL M

i got the shelter on the higher levels at some point though and made it to sky islands

CURRENTTLYYY got the sky islands karmagate shelter sooo yaaa officially in sky islands as for thoughts ermmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmI IIIII MIGHTTTT BE STUCKKKK delivering the pearl like throughout. ALL OF THAT. doesnt sound fun. honestly theres probably a different ending (ascension) thats way easier than what im even doing but the sole reason why im not doing that is cause im too lazy to find all the echoes LMAO maybe i should actually try ascending instead that might be easier.................