#anyway right this is about bug fables

[hana-bobo-finch]

your honor they make me ill. they make me insane your honor. your honor,

[mantisgodsdomain]

More notes for Roach conlanging. Roach has grammatical gender, in which only Male, Female, and Object are grammatical genders, whereas Worker uses feminine grammar, Queen and King use a slight variant on feminine grammar, and Drone, and Queen-Alate use masculine grammar. This is because King is derived from Queen, due to their similar positions in a colony, and Queen-Alate is derived from Drone, as both are forms of alate.

Queen is an alteration of feminine grammar that functionally just adds a handful of extra syllables to it, and King is an offsprout of Queen that uses the same grammar with different pronouns. Queen-Alate, despite the name, is derived from Drone, as they are both for referring to different types of alate ant.

Most Roach dialects are intelligible to speakers of Snakemouth Den Cordyceps Roach, but Snakemouth Den Cordyceps Roach is not entirely intelligable to speakers of Roach dialects due to a mix of the excessively specialized vocabulary caused by the specific needs of its speakers, the fact that its speakers do not necessarily have Roach mouthparts and thus may not pronounce syllables in a similar way, and due to the fact that Inanimate Object is a full grammatical gender that does not exist in any other dialect of roach and replaces a decent chunk of terminology for things that previously had Other Words For Them.

[mantisgodsdomain]

Yeah, no, we're going to say a solid NO on this one, the fact that she's not a kid is, like... stated in dialogue within the first five minutes of the game (in the conversation that involved, we will note, she is also getting a job. where they don't hire children. she is employed at the explorer's association. she was previously employed at the honey factory.)

She's short. It is a running gag that she's short and cute and gets mistaken for a kid, but that doesn't necessarily make her a kid, and to be honest it feels very weird to call her a child when half of her personal hangups are dedicated to breaking away from being viewed as such.

We wish to note - the main source, in-game, for calling her a child, would be her sister, who uses it as an insult and means of implying her immaturity. The only person calling her a child in-game who isn't immediately corrected is her older sister, who calls her a child as means to discredit her and talk down to her, from a character who as directly stated from Vi herself is prone to insulting her and talking down about her chosen career.

Although we know why people would vote "yes", our personal opinion aligns firmly to "no, this isn't a child, this is a woman who canonically commits tax fraud and we really don't think that a discord message saying she's 17 from 2019 should be taken as gospel especially when it's being used to reinforce a point that, in-game, is specifically used to imply that she is being unreasonable because she's a "greedy, selfish child" and should not have time wasted on her".

PRELIMINARY #4

So I've been seeing mixed opinions in the notes about Vi's canon age vs how her game treats her so here we are.

[loupy-mongoose]

*Ahem*

Happy Halloween!! ^w^

Bug Fables.

It's my current favorite video game, and actually, you can thank it for Linden Roots existing~

I'll explain, but in order to do so I have to dive into spoilers for one of my absolute favorite plots for one of my absolute favorite characters, so I need to slap on a;

MASSIVE SPOILER WARNING!

In my opinion, this game is best experienced SPOILER FREE, so if you haven't played it and want to some day, I recommend skipping my info dump below. (This info can be acquired before beating the main game though. :>)

You're okay with spoilers? Yes? Okay, carry on.

So.

Those who are familiar with Leif's story will probably see how Bug Fables influenced the creation of Linden Roots.

A long while ago, I mentioned Randy being inspired by my favorite fictional character.

That's Leif.

Leif is a moth who is ancient.

And dead.

Loooooong before the game takes place (I can't find an exact timeframe; it's like a generation or two), Leif went with a team of bugs to explore a cave, but ended up dying in there. In that same cave, a group of scientists later experimented on cordyceps. Now, as soon as they became relevant to the story I was HOOKED.

I learned about cordyceps as a kid, and they scared the crap out of me. But it also was one of those morbidly fascinating things I'd look into once in a while. (Before anyone tells me, yes, I know that's what's in The Last of Us.)

If you don't know, IRL cordyceps basically turn bugs into zombies.

Anyway, the scientists were trying to find a way to create eternal life (what else is new lol), and did this through cordyceps. Which, as one could guess when dealing with zombie fungus, ended up going badly for the scientists.

One of the "failed" experimental fungi was thrown out, and found its way to the deceased Leif, and brought him back to life. It took on his memories, and Leif woke up without knowing what happened, until you dig into his story during the game. So the "Leif" we know in the game isn't truly Leif, but is the fungus living as him.

Now... I'm sure that sounds a bit familiar...

This idea of a character being dead-but-not struck a chord with me. It fascinated me to no end.

But there's more to it.

As one might expect, Leif has some tragedy surrounding him.

While playing the game, you can stumble upon his decedents.

This here is Muze. With a 'z'

This is Leif's great great however-many-greats grand-daughter, who you meet in the game's present day.

When he was alive, he had a wife.

His wife was Muse. With an 's'.

We never get to see what Muse looked like, but he says in-game that Muze is a spitting image of her. Hence why Akoya is dressed as she is in my pic. She's dressed as Muse.

Now, according to the developers, Muse was pregnant when Leif went into the cave where he died.

And he didn't know.

There are several moments in the game that show Leif's potential as a father, but one in particular stood out to me.

(Note for the images; Leif refers to himself as "We/Us".)

Oops, I forgot one. Vi finishes by shouting "I said it's not happening!"

The text in the last shot bounces/wiggles in-game, indicating playfulness or joking.

If you're familiar with Goombario and Goombella in the Paper Mario games, this dialogue is this game's version of that. You can have the main characters give flavor text on any area and most characters in the game. (And I recommend doing it often, as it adds SOOO much to the game! ^v^)

This bit takes place in the first room after Kabbu and Vi meet Leif. And at the end of the room, an event happens to change what's said for the rest of the game. Meaning, the only time you see it is RIGHT after they meet; He was getting playful with these two bugs he'd met only moments ago.

I'm sure it can just be seen as sarcasm, but having found this dialogue after learning about Leif missing out on raising a child, I saw it as a clue that he would've been a great dad. And it shattered me. ;w;

Randy and Akoya are wish-fulfillment. They're my version of Leif and Muse. They're my way of giving Leif and Muse what I'm sad they missed out on, while also keeping some of the angst, lol. Thankfully, they've evolved into their own separate characters that I feel I can be proud of, but Leif's story and tragedy still has a deep, well-protected place in my heart.

Anyway, thanks for checking out my ramble. I accept no blame for any potential spoiler you might've seen against your will. XD

[mintaikk]

Analyzing the Circus & Biblical Design Elements in Hellaverse: Beelzebub

The Queen Bee of Gluttony herself, Queen Beelzebub!

Honestly, when I first saw her design, I was so surprised to see that she was a fox. I mean, she's the Lord of the Flies, right? Why is she a fox? Then her design grew on me, and now I can also talk about the demonology references, the biblical references, and the Divine Comedy references.

Why Beelzebub is a Fox

The first reason that she is a fox is bcuz Vivzie wanted to make a reference to her Die Young video, and to separate her from Hellhounds.

Then there's the lore reasons she's a fox!

In a lot of fables, foxes are tricksters, always cunning and using sweet talk to get what they want. And in so many of those fables, it's always to get food (looking at you, Aesop). Farmers also hated them because they come in and streal baby animals, like chicks and small baby lambs, to take away and eat. This has also made them seen as being greedy and, well, gluttonous. Beelzebub herself even mentions that Belphagor has to lock away her party drugs so Bee doesn't come in and steal them.

OH! Foxes are also tricksters, I've said that! But that also fits Bee so well! She says she's a honeybee, but bees have two sets of wings, while she only has one. And I think this is because of how flies are seen. Flies are seen as greedy, obnoxious, and really gross pests. They steal the food from others and will drink and eat anything. But honeybees are seen as hard workers who make delicious food. So, it's not that bad if she was to lean into being a Bee more than a Fly. Even if it's a little misleading, it's not harming anyone.

She also does somewhat trick the guests at her party. She starts Cotton Candy with, "I'm what you need," before switching to "I'm what you want, not what you need." She starts the song saying that gluttony is what they need, but then by the time she says it's what they want, they already believe it's what they need. It's like how the foxes in these fables always tell the truth after they've lied and got what they wanted.

Demon Aspects

She's Beelzebub! Lord of the Flies!

Before I do this, fun fact: while Beelzebub is mostly male in mythology, he was said to sometimes change his appearance to female to trick men into lusting after him (Gluttony and Lust were very tied together in The Lesser Key of Solomon). So, Bee being female isn't actually that out of the ordinary!

BUG WARNING

Anyways, biblically accurate Bee. Aren't they cute?

(He has a little jester thing on his neck. What a silly little guy)

Alright, ik it seems difficult to compare this to her ultra fem furry design, but hear me out! Bee shares the same antenna as Beelzebub, and her ears are in the same shape as his abdomen (they're also shaped like Beehives). They also both have six limbs. That's pretty much it. But there's other stuff that relates her to him!

(Ik I said flies only have one set of wings and Biblical Bee has 2 and is a fly, but that's because he's the king of the flies. He's going to be extra)

Bee herself acts more like a fly than a bee. While she can conjure up food wherever she goes, she relies on the people in her parties and in her ring to work for her. She needs the guests to have a good time so she can "get high on all of this tasty energy," and while she advertises Beelzejuice and can probably make some herself, I don't think she's the sole provider of it. Ozzie makes sex toys, but he has an entire factory and workers to help him with it. I bet Bee has the same thing, but she doesn't help out with making it as much. She'd rather sit around and indulge in it than help out in making it. Like a fly stealing the hard-earned honey made by bees, which, in this case, would be the hellhounds.

Also, yeah, that. She's the Lord of the Flies, but she's a canine. I think it's because she's queen of the Hellhounds. Beelzebub being s fly matches his subjects, but Beelzebub being a Bee here in most fan designs wouldn't fit with her being their queen, especially since she's shown to be more involved in her subjects than the rest of the sins. So, think of the Hellhounds as the flies and her as their lord.

(Not me hating the fan designs, tho. I absolutely love Bee Beelzebub)

Also, wanna know why hellhounds are in the Gluttony ring? It's because Cerberus, the OG Hellhound, is in the Gluttony Ring in Dante's Inferno.

Circus Elements

Vivziepop herself stated that each sin represents a Circus Act and that Beelzebub is an animal tamer, which is why she has so many hoops that she flies through in her mansion.

Her being an animal tamer also makes sense away from her design and house. Many animal trainers train the animals using food or something else they want. Beelzebub doesn't train the Hellhounds to do anything, but she does use food and alcohol to attract them to her parties and watch her perform.

I also want to compare Beelzebub's design to stereotypical Animal Tamer costumes.

Beelzebub's fluffy shoulders remind me of the cuffs on stereotypical tamer costumes, snd the open chest and shorts is present in a lot of them as well. The crown present in her design is a reference to her being the Queen of Gluttony, but it could also be how tamers are now the "kings/queens" over the animals they tame, especially lions, since most she known for taming lions and lions are seen as the Kings of the Jungle.

Also, while most sins are animals, Beelzebub resembles an animal the most because of her specific act.

Thanks for reading this far! I'm tired!

[marshmallowloves]

replaying Bug Fables kinda reminded me that I have some little guys about it??? like it's been so long since I've drawn/written these three in their original context that I almost straight up forgot I made them for this game/universe specifically…and I really miss it!!! 😭 I think they're all pretty perfect for each other honestly. found family trope my beloved kdsjfhg

When I first wrote them, I didn't have any sort of complicated backstory for them and honestly I…kinda liked that?? 😂 like they're just a couple a gals who do things together and it's just nice dfkjg. They do still have their own little dynamics and motives that I think make them compliment each other really well, but I really like the idea that nobody really knows how they ended up together and became friends. Each of them was alone and wayward in their own way and just sort of…found each other at some point and ended up needing each other, which is why they call themselves Team Serendipity - though they're not even an actual exploration team, they're just kinda like this image dfkjhg

I know I've written about their backgrounds and stuff before (…at least I think I have kjfhg) but I'd like to write them again anyway :o It's been a while since I posted about these three anyway so it's kinda like a little refresher I guess kjdfg

Sylvie is a silverfish who used to live with her single mother, who loved her very dearly to the point of coddling and sheltering her. Her mother struggled financially to care for the both of them, and resorted to offering shady services in order to make ends meet. Sylvie saw many questionable strangers stay in their home for various periods of time, and her mother would often be drained and physically hurt by the time those bugs left. Sylvie soon came to view herself as a burden, blaming herself for making her mother go to such dangerous lengths just to care for her, and decided to move out as soon as she was old enough, believing that it would make things easier for her mother financially.

She ended up being right, and her mother very quickly became able to support herself through much safer work, but all it did was prove to Sylvie that others were better off without her. She became very introverted and a little emotionally detached, finding it hard to trust others and form new relationships, and mostly stayed holed up in her new home - an overturned book whose pages she ate away at until it became a house-shaped place for her to live - until she met Folia and Lilith.

Her two new friends - Folia especially - help her to be more independent, as her sheltered upbringing kept her from learning how to care for herself. They also encourage her to be as kind to herself as she is to others, and to understand that it's not an inconvenience for others to offer help.

+++++

Folia is a walking leaf who once had herself a traditional family - she, her spouse, and their two children made their cozy home in the branches of a tall, thin tree for several years. One day, an earthquake suddenly struck, violently swaying the branches of their home until they broke from the tree. Folia and her spouse tried desperately to save their children first, but before long the whole tree snapped and toppled over. Folia was the only one to survive the fall, and was not only burdened with the task of finding and burying her family, but also with finding somewhere else to live, as many other places nearby were destroyed in the quake.

Folia traveled for several moons throughout much of Bugaria, spending many of her nights at inns or in the homes of kind and sympathetic strangers, and doing various odd jobs to feed herself when she needed to. It wasn't until she met Sylvie and Lilith that she finally found somewhere to settle down and make a new home.

Not long after they become friends, Folia comes to adore Sylvie and Lilith almost like daughters. She knows she can never bring her own family back, but her new friends give her a chance to make up for losing those she feels she could have protected.

+++++

Lilith is an angel insect - bugs that are typically born without eyes or wings, but will produce new offspring with these features to help find a new home for the colony in times of hardship. Lilith was only born just as her colony was beginning to prepare for relocation, so she has no eyes, and although she does have wings, they are very weak and barely suitable for flying. As such, her colony deemed her unfit to help lead them to a new location and she was even shunned by a handful of her fellow bugs. Lilith took this personally and became quite a troublemaker in retaliation, picking fights with others and even stealing things in an attempt to prove her strength and ability, but it changed nothing. When her colony finally moved, they purposefully left her behind for her unruly behavior, and Lilith was forced to find her own way to a new home.

As she traveled, she kept herself afloat with prize money she earned from various fighting competitions, not all of which were…entirely legal. Despite her strength and conviction, she still came across many bugs that pitied her for her lack of eyes. Not wanting to be seen as weak by even more than her own colony, she started wearing a bandana across her face and played it off as part of her training, an intentional handicap meant to hone her other senses. It impressed plenty of bugs, as she'd hoped, including Sylvie and Folia, with whom she became fast friends.

Lilith's two new companions help build her confidence, encouraging her to see her worth not only in her fighting capabilities but in herself as a bug, no matter what others say. This is especially true after they learn her secret, and Sylvie and Folia continue to show Lilith that the way she was born has no impact on her value as their friend.

[tangleslime2]

The Way I Think Bug Fables Crystals Work

I am going to preface this by saying that I am not a programmer, nor a technician, nor a geologist. I have done 0 research on those subjects. This is entirely made up and might not make much sense.

Anyway.

Crystals are weird. They store information nearly indefinitely, and the storage space per amount of crystal is ridiculous. Another, though less efficient, function of crystals is energy storage. Most crystals contain at least a little energy. If you put the right information into the crystal and "program" it correctly, you can even get it to convert energy into different types!

(that's how a lot of mages work - they got affected by crystals and can now convert their own energy into magic.)

Blue crystals are standard - they can store information and such. Yellow crystals are full of energy and leaking it out into the world. Red crystals, like many others have theorized, are damaged and can't store information anymore, but they can still store energy! (Dead Lander Omega charges the one in Giant's Lair itself.) I have an idea for green crystals that are completely full of information, but due to the completely broken storage capacity of crystals, it doesn't come up much.

While crystals can be used to make computers, there's a problem in that crystals just store information. They don't really like that information being changed. You need a lot of energy for that, compared to the little bit in blue crystals, so crystal computer systems need a source of energy. Sometimes this is a yellow crystal, but it's more frequently a "typical" source like burning fuel or hydroelectric.

Putting energy into the crystals solves that problem, but creates a new one. You have to put hard limits on how quickly the energy goes into the crystals, or else they'll get full and start leaking that energy into the surrounding area. Crystals start leaking energy at about two-thirds full, so yellow crystals only leak a little bit, but with the way crystal computers are set up, there's a danger of getting a completely full crystal, which will often cause the problems inherent in something releasing large amounts of energy with no direction and has a not-insignificant chance of exploding. Crystal computers, especially larger systems, have parts that limit the flow of energy to keep the Leakage at reasonable levels. This also limits how fast the computer can run processes, but what can you do.

All in all, crystal computers are a lot smaller than our own (which is good since the ones using them are bugs), but also slower and more dangerous. If humans still existed in Bug Fables, it's unlikely they'd make the switch, except maybe for things that had to consider weight like drones.

[no-gram]

I CAUGHT UP!!!! (For Tsuguha)

Okay- thank you 74n5n for doing the Galactic Railroad Analysis. I wouldn't have caught that immediately. I also haven't read the story HOWEVER my Friend actually did an analysis on it (the film version specifically) for a different thing so I do have some vague knowledge of it. Thank you friend! So- 74n5n already talked about this but The Night of the Galactic Railroad centers around the idea of sacrifice. Campanella, Giovanna's friend, jumps off the boat in an act of self-sacrifice and dies in the process.

The fable of the Scorpion is that the Scorpion preys on various insects and bugs to sustain itself but when it was its time to be eaten by the Weasel and sustain it it runs away and falls into a well. Mourning how its life has only being taking and taking from others without actually adding anything it hopes that one day it could be reborn as a beacon of virtue so that it may serve others and then its body bursts into flames.

You opened the window with a mighty movement and took a pinch of clean sand from the bottle hanging around your neck and spread it on your palm. "All this sand is crystal. There's a little fire burning inside." And you threw it out the window. It was too beautiful. Each one was like a fire of life.

If only I had been able to give my body to you without hesitation. Please, God. Please look into my heart. Please don't give up your life so vainly, but use my body next time for the sake of everyone's happiness.

I think my read is pretty similar to 74n5n? It's interesting that Her Victim is positioning themself as someone who is guiding people to happiness and serving others like the Scorpion while Tsuguha is also mourning how she hasn't sacrificed for anyone.

"I'll be all right. I'll be waiting for you where there is true happiness." I don't know what happiness is. How can I find you? "If you are really close, if you are on the right path, up and down the mountain passes, you are not far from true happiness."

It's Possible I think that her victim sacrificed themself for Her and that's where the distress is coming from, since she says that people wouldn't consider her a murderer and this is her voiceline:

I wish that guy had died！！！！！ Damn! Damn ！！！！！ …I, I'm the one that did this…

Additionally, Tsuguha's system of Morality is pretty rigid. She's very clear with what she considers "good" and "bad" and sorts herself into the Bad. She really Values politeness and not disturbing others. She doesn't know what to say to Ai because Ai is "her superior and seems rather introspective and bothered by that:

Tsuguha: ……Yes. I really don't like to be rude to my superiors. So I'm trying to figure out in my head what to speak and I'm trying desperately to capture what the Administrator said. I only said I understand earlier, but I'm doing my best to cut conversation cards in my head.

Tsuguha: I'm glad to hear that. I'll try to prepare a script next time so that I can tell more about myself. Huh, even so. It would have been nice to be more, well, rebellious.

I like fun, but I don't like noisy. I don't like people who bother others.

She's also just...really observant and also Judgemental which I find funny:

You're a nicer person than I thought! Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't mean I thought you were a terrible person...

Laugh at the administrator's violent joke. Also, you might want to decide what you're going to say before you say it. She may not be a very good talker. She seems to be better at listening.

Tsuguha: …I think you will learn a lot from now on. So you will be fine. I don't think you need to worry.

Tsuguha: I think so myself. First of all, I think you adapt too much. A normal child would probably scream and cry if brought to a place like this and interrogated. But that doesn't make it any less painful, even if the conversation with the Administrator is tasteless. It's rather helpful.

Anyway...Yeah!

wow yeah!!!!!!!!!!

[wtfgaylittlezooid]

hey I just wanted to say I love ur art. I think one of my fav things you do is when you draw the sticks as humans you give the hollow heads pop ups. that’s so clever hello?? anyway I love your designs

also I forgot ur user so I just searched up animation vs bug fables to find you LOL. that’s your defining feature

AGEHWGHHH TYYY!! Even if I rarely draw them now, I am so so proud of those designs they’re probably some of my favorite I’ve ever made right next to my Tales from the Gas Station ones.

Also JDHDKSJKSSJ YEAH THAT SOUNDS ABOUT RIGHT,,,,

[bug-oc]

Bug Fables OC Tournament Round 4

Marigold (she/her) from @mantisgodsdomain

Marigold is a hawk moth and a witch, initially made for a short fic in which Mothiva has an extremely bad day involving a certain amount of Leif's Request Spoilers, loss of limb, and loss of almost all processes generally associated with being alive (she's fine, it's just a minor setback). Located in the Ant Kingdom's Outskirts, she is a curious, cheerful, and scientific bug, experimenting to the utmost of her field - magic involving transmutation of the flesh.

The field she lacks in, of course, is morals.

Transmuting a bug properly needs test subjects - bugs to run through new formulas, test variations, see what happens with a new form of triggering a transformation into something else. What more convenient place to get those than by cornering a random bystander and seeing what happens once they've taken it for you?

Many bugs, of course, are not particularly happy about suddenly being transformed into, say, a shambling mass of flesh. Marigold isn't the most gifted, as far as self-defence goes, and combat brews are a bit of a waste of time - why fight your wayward experiments when you can get someone else to do it for you? Looking soft and innocent means that a potential bystander will be far more likely to believe her when she says that a beast attacked her, and depending on the form, any victim may simply lack the means to protest.

Up against one tiny, unarmed moth, it's clear who the aggressor must have been - and if you build a good enough reputation with the neighbors, even bugs who can still talk will find former friends and family siding against them. After a certain point, it's obvious they're not who they claim to be - it's all social engineering, anyways.

Of course, any research needs funding - the criminal elements of Bugaria especially have plenty of use for making a bug vanish without generating a body, and Marigold's brews are permanent, if the client doesn't specify otherwise. For a bit of pay, you can vanish nearly anyone you want - without that pesky guilt that comes from actually killing them! All at the small, small cost of funding a local business.

Marigold herself would not personally consider any of her actions to be immoral in any way, which is how you know she's a good candidate in any public-opinion-based polls. She is exactly the bug you want in order to eliminate any pesky competitors - and, of course, exactly the sort of trustworthy and morally upright bug that any community needs.

Corduroy (they/vi) and Xipy (they/it) from @wabbitears

I actually got a two in one deal right here. Corduroy is a orchard mason bee from out yonder that stumbled into snakemouth den, caught some spores, and yeah poor guy got cordyceps bad. Now they are reduced to a rabid feral mess of fungus. But they got a friend!

Xipy is just some wild centipede (based on Scolopendra viridis) Its not even awakened or anything they just vibin. But it just so happens to stumble across this weird bee wandering around. Instead of eating vir or something. Xipy basically decided ‘im hanging out with you now’ and Corduroy is just !!!!!!!! So they got a centipede friend now, yippee!!!!! They even ride it often! So if you see a big fucking florida blue centipede with a raving mad blue bee on the back thats just them being silly.

Oh and Corduroy also has a pet rubber ducky isopod. I lied. Theres three of them.

[zaptap]

ttyd gc updates from last night

got the money money badge, got coins. i heard going after the hyper goombas by twilight town is a good place to do that so that's what i've been doing. seemed to me based on how many coins i was getting from them that it wouldn't be worth it to invest in a second money money badge, since it would take more overall battles to get the extra 700 coins for that and then the subsequent coins even with it tripling (instead of doubling) the drops i'd get afterward

so i've started working my hp down. i need like 200 or 300 more to get into danger mario and buy 8 power rushes (i felt like the 9 i bought in the remake was a little excessive since i had other badges that increased my attack too). that's pretty good considering i needed over 1000 when i started out. i can probably get down to 5hp now and buy some power rushes, which should be enough to one-turn pretty much any battle outside the pit (particularly those hyper goombas. i could be multibouncing them)

also tried hunting amazy dayzees for a bit so i could get more bp but it took forever just to find one compared to the remake (AND i lose coins from running in this version... i figured out that if i fight one close to the edge of the area i only end up losing one each time but still). that could've just been bad luck though, i couldn't find any info on their appearance rates in either version of the game (in the remake it felt like 10% though, based on the fact that i was seeing them about as often as i'd typically see pokemon with that rarity). anyway i could have chet rippo take away some of my fp to get more bp too i guess

and i also finished finding the remaining star pieces. i got to the point where i'd checked everywhere with ms mowz and i was missing ONE... so i had to go over the list and verify that i actually checked each place where it could've been. and then eventually i found the last one in a tree in boggly woods

the only other time consuming thing is doing all those recipes. i've been trying to do some as i go (cooking and selling stuff on hand helps with inventory management AND getting coins), and it definitely helps that i've just done all of them in the remake (though this time i can't cheat and skip the ones you can pick up from npcs and inns since only the remake adds those to the recipe list)

feel like i could be done within a week (if not even tonight or tomorrow... but if i don't get it done right away then eggstra work is going to take over all my free time this weekend between irl work and that'd push it off a few days). then after 17ish years my ttyd gamecube file will finally be complete

and then my plan afterwards is to go back to bug fables and finally finish that game (it's been what... 4 years since it came out on switch?)

[kirbyepicyarn134]

i was gonna share this nearly 6 hour video about paper mario villains

but right from the get go i already knew the guy talking in the video isn’t a fan of the modern games, considering he put rubber band rather high for simply having a more distinct design than the other los members

and i’m sure my friends (who i met because of pmtok) are very tired of hearing people frowning upon the los for being living objects

idk man… like even with bug fables and the ttyd remake, it still feels like paper mario discussions are just not that fun to hear because it all just ends up being the same complaints anyway

[jim-the-trash-king]

Right, I’ve got a few WIPs and instead of writing them I’m going to vaguely mention them here

If anyone is curious for the details I’m more than happy to continue but no one cares so anyway

Oakwood Occult: Gravity Falls but worse with my ideas thrown in the mix, following a traumatized highschooler, her best friend who’s a crazy conspiracy theorist, and their mutual friend who just kinda knows about the supernatural. We’d follow them as they explore their small town, and more importantly, the unnatural things that lurk in it.

Eternal Machine: a sci-fi story set in a asteroid belt floating around a magical black hole, follow our hero’s, 3-4 magical and mentally I’ll robots as they explore the similarly robot and magic filled Belt and try to stop the blackhole from killing everyone because of cultists

Spireborn: set in Warhammer 40k, we follow a group of former criminals turned Mechanicus sanctioned hit squads as they fight everything the Hiveworld has to offer

Insectus: inspired by bug fables, we travel the world of Insectus, though this one is my least thought out

New World, Second Chance: birthed from my annoyance at Iseki as a genre and an idea from Terrible Writing Advice, we follow the last human alive, a brilliant scientist, as he ducks in and out of a fantasy word, navigating a new world and trying to live a life as a human again

Got a few more than this but I really don’t have much to say on them, but I’m happy with these ones so far

[kylesvariouslistsandstuff]

The things I wanted to see in CARS...

I'm one of the few weirdos out there who actually digs, no... Not just digs, **loves** CARS.

Time to turn in my "animation fan" card, huh?

Yes that's right, the 2006 Pixar film that was largely conceived and mapped out by the incredibly talented Jorgen Klubien, but highjacked by a very overzealous John Lasseter, who pretty much wrote Jorgen's contributions to the movie out of the official production history. Anyways- Yeah, whoever actually made that movie, I love it.

And it's honestly very refreshing to see a generation who grew up watching that movie regarding it as "top tier Pixar" or "cinema". I was there from the start, I knew back then that it was pretty cool. CARS came out when I was 13 years old, and that young animation enthusiast back then loved it every bit as much as previous Pixar darlings like the TOY STORY movies, FINDING NEMO, and THE INCREDIBLES... While everyone else around them jeered that it was their first misstep, or it just was not as good as their previous movies. That it was just a DOC HOLLYWOOD rip-off. (A movie that no one would've ever thought of, until Pixar made something... See also, HERMAN'S HEAD being dredged up from the past when INSIDE OUT was being released.) Even THE SIMPSONS made a joke about CARS being regarded as a Pixar black sheep. Oh, and the endless discussion, "How does that world work??? It makes no sense???" (Please don't show these people 1940s and 1950s talking vehicle cartoons, lol.)

The previous whipping post/designated "weak link" was A BUG'S LIFE. No surprise, a relatively "simpler" fable that wasn't interested in reinventing the wheel... (And that too has been reclaimed, particularly for its not-so-subtle parallels.) Interestingly, CARS was conceived in the mid-1990s, and in another timeline it would've been the third Pixar movie *after* A BUG'S LIFE. I feel both movies had a lot in common, so this linking just confirms that for me.

Anyways, yeah... I knew it all along, but it's cool to see younger folk have held onto it since seeing it as kids and hold it up in high regard. The kids are alright, they know don't they? Just like they did with animated financial flops of the 2000s such as THE EMPEROR'S NEW GROOVE, and critical duds like ATLANTIS: THE LOST EMPIRE. But that's what happens when adults go into an animated feature expecting something that specifically caters to their tastes, eh?

So, yeah, CARS of course spawned a massive franchise - and remained a thorn in the side of AH-dult animation fans and anal-retentive types who insist that Pixar only put out one specific kind of movie. CARS' success in 2006 lead to two theatrical sequels, two spin-offs produced by Disney's defunct animation studio Disneytoon (who handled direct-to-video movies and such), a ton of short films, and even a Disney+ series that came out last year.

However, I find it rather unusual that two of my favorite things pertaining to automobiles were *never* in these movies...

A) One of my all-time favorite cars...

Dodge Vipers.

The Viper was in production from 1991 to 2010, a short hiatus occurred, then it returned in 2013... But then the Viper ceased to be in 2017. It's seemingly a relic now, a car contained to the 1990s... But I'll always love the Viper, no two ways about that. Video games I had and played religiously starting in 1998 had a Dodge Viper option, and I fell in love with that car right off the bat.

And yet, not a single CARS movie, show, short, etc.... Had a Dodge Viper in it... Why you do me dirty like that, Pixar? I know that the series could only have so many kinds of real-life licensed vehicles in it, but the Viper was still a thing when the first movie came out and when the second movie was in production... And the third movie, for that matter...

Why no Vipers?

Ah well, Lightning McQueen kind of looks like a late '90s/early '00s Dodge Viper GTS Coupe anyways. The curvy front, the back spoiler, I kinda think so. No?

So yeah... No Vipers... I'm sure Pixar will continue this franchise in some way or another. CARS ON THE ROAD debuted in September 2022, which was five years after the release of CARS 3... The only new CARS stuff that came out in those five years were... Shorts, I think? There was at least one PIXAR POPCORN short dedicated to it. And it's very possible that show gets a second season, even if one of the people instrumental in it and other CARS media - Steve Purcell - got let go from Pixar.

Thing is, CARS 3 didn't really do all that good. Lowest grossing mainline movie in the series, and one of Pixar's lowest grossing in the pre-COVID years at that. $383m isn't terrible by any means, but against a $175m production budget... And when you compare that to what CARS 1 made in 2006 *without* the aid of 3D or IMAX or any premium formats... 11 years earlier, when tickets cost less... Yeah, I think that film kind of was the end? Disneytoon would've made more vehicle movies, such as a spacecraft movie that was set for 2019 and a movie about subway trains, but Disneytoon was shut down after Lasseter was ousted from every position of his at The Walt Disney Company. It's as if he kept DT on life support in the post-Eisner era.

But then again, it's still apparently an easy moneymaker for Disney, so a fourth movie could happen. Or another Disney+ series. After all, Cars Land is a thing among other various parks stuff.

I dunno, I just wanna Viper in a CARS movie or show!

And, also, I'm a weirdo. I'll gladly take another few of those movies, especially if they pay for more originals at Pixar.

So, what else did these movies not have?

B) Beach Boys songs about cars... And other classic cars songs, at that!

Okay, so I am a massive fan of The Beach Boys... And in their early years, roughly 1961-mid 1964, they did a lot of songs about cars amidst the burgeoning "hot rod rock" scene. Classics such as '409', 'Shut Down', 'Little Deuce Coupe'...

... heck a whole LITTLE DEUCE COUPE album filled to the brim with car songs, in addition to songs like 'Don't Worry Baby', 'Little Honda', etc. etc. etc.

Anyways, I can literally smell the motor oil when I hear these songs. Once leader Brian Wilson started producing the group, he really brought a level of immersion to these songs via the harmonies and arrangement of the instruments. Like, these songs define "car song".

Outside of The Beach Boys, you have songs such as fellow surf group Jan & Dean's car tunes. Here's a banger one, 'My Mighty G.T.O.':

About half of the soundtrack of CARS 1 was vintage stuff, but not really car stuff. I mean, you did have 'Route 66' by Chuck Berry, a road song for sure, but a song like the two above. That being, I always loved the needledrop choices in that one: 'Sh-Boom', 'My Heart Would Know', the cover of 'Life Is a Highway', etc. In addition to the songs recorded specifically for it.

Because CARS 2 largely sidelined its racing stuff for a spy plot, there wasn't much car song stuff to go around. And weirdly enough, that movie has a cover of 'You Might Think' by The Cars... You would think (hah) that they'd use the original version by **The Cars**? What is with these movies?

CARS 3 thankfully circled back to this kind of musical backdrop, but it was just a few covers of road songs and some new stuff, like Dan Auerbach's 'Run That Race'. Good stuff, but... No '60s hot rod songs!

Heck, if they ever made a fourth film or another series... I'd be down with it being set in the '60s. I'd legit love for it to be a straight up 1960s racing movie, as that was a prevalent subgenre back in the day. Something like those film reels of Doc Hudson's races that we saw in CARS 3, but as a whole series or film. Complete with the grain and worn out film texture. Hire me Pixar, I'll pitch you that and direct it, and I'll stuff it with all those '50s and '60s car song needledrops!

...

This piece was largely written in jest. Who am I to tell an animation studio what to do? Lol.

[clusterpuppy]

Woohoo!! Colored art!! ᕙ( ^ ₒ^ c)

Anyways- here’s Markosia (left) and Dustin (right!) These are Orianna’s parents!!

Markosia Chant is a succubus demon lord with a face so beautifully fabled that people can’t look upon it for fear of falling under her control, being harmed, or even being killed by her sheer beauty. She’s a massive b!tch and a terrible person and all she wants is power and influence and will do anything to get it, clawing her way up to the ranks of some of the most powerful fiends in the Abyss by sheer spite alone. Markosia is most of all vain, and values physical beauty above all things, believing a creature’s worth to be defined by their aestheticism.

Dustin Conway is a human jester bard, he’s just a silly little guy! He’s good-hearted, but a bit naive, always giving people 8th chances and assuming the best in others. He loves being the center of attention to perform his silly little acts, and loves even more to bring a smile to any face. Dustin would fall down a flight of stairs if it made someone laugh when they were having a bad day. He’s charming, always smiling, and has a good way with his words.

TLDR: Orianna is their kid, Dustin’s small hometown worshipped Markosia like a deity. Dustin sought her out for funsies and Markosia instead of killing him or anything drastic, was kinda amused by him and kept him around for a second to study him like a bug. Things happened, Orianna was conceived and when Markosia got sick of her quickly as a baby and planned on just unaliving her, Dustin tried to leave with baby Orianna so that Markosia wouldn’t kill her. He sent her off on a boat before Markosia could catch up to him, she found him without Orianna and imprisoned him as her sl4v3 for the next two decades. Dustin eventually escaped and is looking for his daughter now all over the world, going thru great lengths to find his baby girl 🥺

Markosia is not too happy about this, and curses Orianna. But… that’s all a whole nother thing.

But yeah!!!! Them!!!! I haven’t drawn a colored thing in so long help

I like the art of dustin the most

Hope y’all enjoy!! 💜❤️💛💙

[jaimemes]

Damn, that’s some optimization right there! Almost reminds me of the sort of teambuilding strategies used in competitive Pokemon battles, with how intricately the pieces work together and the dozens of ways this strategy can be arranged and modified. Take my understanding of competitive with a grain of salt, though, as my knowledge of it is very limited akhslsjslssk

I’ve never heard of Bug Fables until now, but if I do end up playing it or bump into someone that does, I’ll be sure to keep this in mind!

What’s Bug Fables about, anyways?

@jaimemes said:

Here’s your excuse to ramble about something! Anything! Talk about something you’re passionate about!

Spoilers for Bug Fables: the Everlasting Sapling. All chapters, including Leif's Request. Seriously, go play that game if you have the chance, it's absolute perfection, especially if you like Paper Mario.

So there's this guy, Leif, from the main cast. The Venomoth with ice powers that turns out to actually be a parasitic fungus, forcibly piloting Leif's corpse as a result of an experiment by the roaches in order to mimic the sapling's power.

Anyway, what I'm trying to get to here is they're absolutely broken (yes I'm using they/them, my headcanon is Leif is non-binary, feel free to catch these hands if you disagree). Especially if you stack all the poison medals.

I beat most of the endgame/postgame bosses, including The Everlasting King, TANGYBUG and Team Maki with nothing but poison Leif, and it was marvelous.

Here's what I did to make my game-breaking Venomoth of death:

Remember that exploiting the Bank of Bugaria makes the 100+ Berry paywalls for most of these items not as outrageous.

Before The Everlasting King:

Purchase a Heart Berry and a Bond Berry from the Berry Salesman for 100 Berries each after starting Chapter 3.

Steal a Bond Berry from the Bandit Hideout's kitchen

Complete all bounties for another Bond Berry

Claim the Heart Berry rewards for finishing the Lost Item sidequest, getting 25 points in Whack-A-Worm, making 50 discoveries (3 berries total)

Purchase a Super Pepper from the Berry Salesman for 150 Berries after starting Chapter 6.

Immediately after entering the Giant's Lair, backtrack to the Berry Salesman and buy an Iron Seed for 180 Berries.

After TEK:

Complete the Confidential sidequest, Leif being on steroids makes this much easier. Feed them the Iron Seed and Super Pepper you get as rewards.

Purchase all songs from Samira for another Heart Berry.

Finish the Loose Ends sidequest for one last Heart Berry.

Go back to the Giant's Lair to complete the A New Hope sidequest, claim the Bond Berry.

If you did everything correctly, at the maxium rank of 27, Leif should have: A minimum of 12 HP (14 after TEK) 3 ATK (4 if in front of the party, 4/5 after TEK) 1 DEF (2 after TEK)

Now, for the medals:

Before TEK:

Grab the first Poison Defender medal in Snakemouth Den (do it in your first visit, otherwise you won't be able to get it until halfway through Chapter 4)

Lose the festival's eating competition on purpose to get the Weak Stomach medal for free.

Buy 2 Poison Attacker medals from Shades in the Tavern, after starting Chapters 3 and 5 for 5 Crystal Berries each.

Buy the other Poison Defender medal from Shades for 4 Crystal Berries.

Defeat The Beast with the Hard Mode medal equipped to get the Reverse Toxin medal for free from Artis, or purchase it from the traveling caravan for 30 berries if you did it on easy mode.

Find the Eternal Venom medal in the Ice Puzzle in the Wild Swamplands.

Complete the Help me Get it Back! sidequest for the Leaf Cloak.

At the beginning of Chapter 3, buy the Status Booster medal for 3 Crystal Berries from Shades.

Beat Wave 40 of the Cave of Trials for a TP Saver medal,

Beat the Broodmother in Hard Mode for a Miracle Matter medal, or buy it for 30 berries on easy mode.

There's some other things you should do if you want the ultimate Leif, more notably:

Complete Leif's Request to unlock Ice Rain.

Buy healing items that also raise your attack, such as Spicy Fries.

Now, if you equip every medal on our precious little blue thing, the following should happen to Leif:

Will instantly get poisoned when fed.

Will get +2 attack when poisoned

Will get +2 defense when poisoned

Will get healed instead of damaged by poison

Will never heal from the poison status naturally

Will be less likely to be targeted by enemies

Will have a higher chance of freezing enemies

Their attacks will cost 1 TP less

If knocked out, will instantly revive in 2 turns

Using Ice Rain under these conditions, with Leif in the front of the party and under the effects of Spicy Fries allows you to nuke your enemies with up to 28 (32 if they're weak to ice) damage in one turn. And that's not including Turn Relay.

Now, this might not seem like a lot, but consider Bug Fables uses very small numbers for everything, similarly to Paper Mario.

Of course, this isn't everything you can do. If you level up your medal points enough, you can also try some setup strategies that require a few extra turns but can make Leif deal upwards of 60 damage with one Ice Rain, such as Strong Start + Hard Charge + Enfeeble/Deep Taunt, or even Berserker if you want to conserve your TP for healing with Vi instead of using Ice Rain nukes. But that's up to you to decide, since there's dozens of ways to mess with the Poison Leif strategy.