#appreciate that /nsrs

[fridgrave2-0]

toxic exes but one is a giant hot bug-mutant 😳

(the fact that these two never interacted on screen in any way is a crime WE WERE ROBBED)

[doodlingbot]

Some stuff I did for a swap au that my friend vaguely offhandedly mentioned as a what if but then I latched onto fairly hard immediately and started doing stuff for it. The basic concept thrown my way was simply a swap between Neon J and Tatiana.

Whoops there's so much to think about now.

bonus:

[ssstarlighttt]

if you want to bring rock back to vinyl city you have to defeat my seven evil nsr artists

[secretarysong]

sorry to go on about nsr verse biology AGAIN (i am also regurgitating this from my twitter) but like i keep wondering about the rarity of tapered limbs in comparison to flared limbs. eve has tapered limbs so we KNOW it's possible ... though she's. like. the ONLY (non-robotic) person we see in the entirety of ingame Vinyl City with the trait. Not even the NPCS have it. genetic mutation? starts twiddling my nose hairs.... (i guess even if neon j is a cyborg, his new body [and subsequently 1010] had to be based off of Something, right ?)

[instantartific]

I was finally able to get past that pesky bug that wasn't allowing me to defeat Tatiana and I am now having so many emotions about her since I've seen the entire battle.

The fact that her entire argument this whole time isn't as simple as May trying to frame it as "rock is better than EDM," it's simply that EDM is the most reliable output she has personally seen and there is some grounding to what she claims that lies within the artists who produce both kinds of music themselves.

You know all those stories about young, passionate rockstars! They don't care what they do, they live in the moment and live life on the edge and do anything to chase a little bit more of that fire that keeps them going and keeps them playing. Tatiana knows this well enough because she was one herself with the Goolings and she is the remnant of one herself now.

From what I understand, the Goolings fell apart because of differences in priorities. The others were rockstars, they cared about what they felt and what mattered to them, personally, above all. Not the priorities of the people. And because of their love, their passion, their drive, they were able to output so much power for the city, but didn't know how to run it in a way that wasn't controlled by their feelings. Tatiana saw this and Tatiana knew what needed to be done and she did what she had to do to properly use the role they were given and the Goolings fell apart.

Tatiana knows rock is only so powerful because of the artists who make it but those artists are terribly unreliable and she knows this all too well. Why else would her guitar be powering that clock in her office, as Zuke puts it?

EDM is safer. It's rigid. It's far more flexible and allows a wider range of artists to help her city prosper. And, well. There may be more frequent blackouts now but at least she can rely on artists who know what's best.

On top of that, there's something about how she believes in this so strongly, so so fiercely that she'll allow herself to use bits and pieces of that same old passion that she tried long and hard to bury deep within her chest, if only to use it to snuff out the flames of another little star that's gotten a little too bright. That it starts with her using it intentionally in balls of fire to throw them off and grows more, and more, and more the angrier she grows.

And there's something about the fact that even though she has time on her side and assumingly warps the fabric of reality to be able to hold you still right where she wants you and make you crumble beneath her, that same ability is what you use to defeat her. Time is on her side, yes, but only when it's stopped. Only when she can use it to protect her and protect what she strives so hard to uphold. But once you start to take her back? Remind her of who she once was? She's the one who begins to crumble.

And there's something about the fact that all she wants is order so that she can do good by her city and bring the city what it needs, and yet.

And yet she cannot control everything.

And yet she cannot control herself, as the flames of a fire long spent lick their way along cracks in her hardened shell—she's quite literally hardened herself to step into a role she personally feels she must fulfill—and burst out in a brilliant show of light; screaming that it's still here deep within her, it's always been here the same way those memories always will be, and she uses it as it demands to be used.

And yet, at the end of it all, she still realizes she was wrong.

And maybe as she sees those embers in the eyes of a stupid, stupid child much like herself at one point in time, that that passion can be used for something more... beneficial this time around.

If the fire is cultivated just right.

[psychicthepsychic-daily]

bro thinks he’s ali zafar 😂

[goldentrashpanda101]

She's just a cinnamon roll too.

[hiya-im-mary]

HEYYYY NSR FANS!!! HELLO HI!!!!!

Sooooo…I’m working on some theory stuff on NSR’s lore!! Spesifically on something that happened in it’s history…The Kewan War!!

I’m doing my research on what it could’ve possibly been about. Searching why it was even called that and such!! I’m learning quite a bit honestly!!!!! IT’S WONDERFUL!!!!!!!

Though while I am doing my research…I also would like some help from fellow No Straight Roads fans who could be more knowledgable on the lore than I am!! I’d love any help I can get!! I WELCOME RESEARCH AND SPECULATION!!!!! :D

So come on down and help me out if you wanna!! Let’s get WORLDBUILDING!!!!!! :D

(I also left some Kliffnotes [Pun Intended] in the tags for more info!!)

[sparklemotiongalaxy]

Adding on to the NSR appreciation train!

The backgrounds and art of this game are gorgeous.

I think this is enough to get ppl hooked

And this is only the first act!

[dizzying-faust]

I said it on Twitter and I'll say it here,

No Straight Roads is good when you don't have people yelling in your ear about the gameplay.

[gamebunny-advance]

@galaticuwu said: "If Gigi is a spy for Nsr he probably was the reason for fights you have before the bosses. Like he told Tatiana and Nsr about Kliff getting the briefs on the artiests or told west where may and zuke were."

---

Hm... I dunno if I would give him that much credit XP.

Even though I stand by my theory that he's a spy, I don't think that automatically makes him instrumental to all of NSR's actions. I don't trust him, and I wouldn't be surprised if he becomes an antagonist in NSR 2, but I don't think he's pulling every string behind the scenes (just a couple).

To start, the approach segments appear to just be normal security measures for NSR's talents. Even without a revolution going on, I assume that the stars would have some level of security during public appearances, so I don't think they were set up specifically to thwart B2J.

Maybe he was responsible for NSR improving their bots for each subsequent boss by reporting on their methods of attack. For example, every approach except Sayu's has its own version of the "tower bot" which have slightly different abilities that make them trickier to defeat:

Yinu's - Standard

1010's - Energy Shield

Eve's - Teleportation/Invisibility

(The "tower bot" enemy, 1010 variant)

However, any info about B2J taking out their security bots could have gotten and acted on just by observing them normally. Since B2J are going through security, you'd expect there to also be security cameras in these areas (heck, one of the bot designs is basically a camera) or some other kind of monitoring on their own end.

(The drone/camera bot enemy)

But even if they didn't have direct surveillance of the situation, I think making your security forces stronger is also just a natural response to said security being destroyed over and over. It just doesn't seem reasonable to me that anything Gigi is doing would have much affect on NSR's security measures when there are much more mundane explanations to these occurrences.

But, if you wanna be generous to Gigi (and ungenerous to NSR), then maybe NSR doesn't directly monitor these security areas, and the only way they found out about how/what kept destroying their security bots/gates is due to Gigi's intel. After all, Kliff is apparently able to hack into NSR's security before the finale, as first revealed in Eve's briefing.

"...head over and I'll make sure the security system won't be a bother to you."

And Kliff must also have some way that he's monitoring the events on his end since he responds in real-time to B2J's actions in these sections and most of the boss fights as early as Sayu. So maybe he hijacked NSR's security cameras, and they can't access them anymore. So then he must have already been a security threat much earlier than is formally stated, and Gigi might have reported as such. Because despite everything he's able to do, what Kliff can't do is disable the security outright (at least remotely).

Perhaps the security was tightened since NSR anticipated this and increased their anti-hacking security in response to Gigi's intel. If that's the case, then maybe that would explain why Kliff is still able to hack into NSR's satellite. If Gigi never found out about Kliff's true plans, then he couldn't have warned NSR to buff the security on that too.

However, to claim that Gigi was necessary to any of that would be to ignore that Sayu had unhackable security before Gigi would have been able to report about Kliff's hacking ability. So, we're once again stuck with the most probable answer that these security measures were in place without Gigi's report, meaning he can't be responsible for them.

Moving to the next point, I also don't think he was involved with DK West at all…

But you can make a better case for that than the former.

Even though West was called to the city by Tatiana for the benefit of NSR, his actions and loyalties are independent. It would be easy enough for West to find where Zuke was on his own, given that B2J are becoming minor celebrities by the time he enters the story, and DK West still has some pull in the population given that he already has a sizeable posse of hype men when he comes back to the city.

But I suppose it's also just as likely that Gigi told NSR where B2J were based, and then Tatiana told West. Or that Gigi was ultimately the one that passed along the message through a calculated happenstance. In the current theory, it isn't hard to imagine that Tatiana asked MM to make sure that West finds B2J and that Gigi was the agent that made it happen.

I wasn't feeling it at first, but I'll go ahead and give this one to you.

Overall, their very nature as spies makes it easy to pin almost any event on MM or Gigi. Anything that doesn't have an explicit explanation could be explained by them working in "mysterious ways," but I also consider the fact that if the spy theory is true, neither were able to stop B2J and Kliff from nearly causing a crisis, so they can't be all that powerful or formidable. But that idea in itself lends itself to other discussion points, such as where their loyalties ultimately lie. Maybe they didn't stop it because they didn't want to. Who knows? The flexibility of the theory allows for lots of different scenarios~

[aztro-pb]

i think. if you draw someone with features they don't have (esp if you're making "unattractive features" more idealistic or whatever) i get the rights to murder you

[speyeralling-down-thy-majesty]

Too late!¡ /J

thinkin of quitting my job to become a full-time horrifying void entity

[instantartific]

on that neon j 1010 family dynamic thing post tags- I THINK I WOULD GO CRAZY IF THEY WEREN'T ALSO SOLDIERS? I don't read a ton of fic but it's important to me that like. They're family in the way that being immediately willing to die for someone makes you family. 1010 are his """"sons"""" by technicality at best, because he LITERALLY made them to some degree- He has a ""father"" style role because if they need to be taught how to navigate the world in any kind of newfound awareness (if you do this) that's his job, or because he is directly responsible for their behavior by the public-

I dunno all of these things just live in my brain all the time rent free so like. The idea of boiling them down to any kind of nuclear or normal family doesn't even register- He calls them "Troops," and I can even see him in a more casual setting saying "Boys" (it is a boyband), but that dynamic of being soldiers in the same war (literal or metaphorical) and of being a team, or perhaps a powerful unit that functions at maximum capacity at all times because they need to HAVE that kind of potency in their dynamics to perform at 110%- that's so important to me

Listen to me I am going to grab and shake you around a bit (/positive) for a minute here hang on.

Bear with me as I dig up all the things I've said about this so far and this could be significantly more but I am dragging at least this up.

If they became sentient enough to question whether the things they sing about in their songs is something they've ever actually experienced, it makes sense that they'd look back at each other and question if what they have is that kind of "love." And of course, it isn't—they don't share the things they lie about in lyrics to make the fans swoon. And even if they tried, in application, it would feel... different from what they lie about even if the actions are the same. There's something missing in that that they aren't fully grasping and they assume it must be love. They don't love the Captain and they don't love each other because they don't want to seduce the Captain (it'd be violating so many things to even attempt that with someone that isn't their rank in the first place, if we bring the military aspect into this) and it feels... not the same to seduce each other. It doesn't work cleanly. They know there's something missing that they aren't grasping. Maybe they even look for this concept within each other and find there's something but it isn't quite that because all they know is pretend. ... If you asked them, they're certainly not siblings because they can't be, but they're also not lovers because they have something missing.

...

They're not siblings. But they have the concept of a brotherhood with each other and it's complicated but it's human. They became the people that they are now in relation to one another, in each other's gravity, they've been all intertwined since they began to conceive the concept of being unique.

The relationship they all have with their Captain is mutually straightforward—he commands, they obey, and he allows them room to relax and he actually tries to speak and bond with them—but with each other? Not so much.

So, sure. Let's call them... bandmates. Sailors. Soldiers. That's what their occupations are and their relationship to each other on paper, technically.

They may still have enough of the military aspect drilled into them that 'brothers in arms' feels comfortable despite the fact that they aren't at war anymore. They might shorten that to 'brothers,' in the sense they were if they were more of unit than a boyband.

At least that's a lot less difficult for them to say.

#sometimes i like it better if 1010 never call neon 'dad' because he's... he never can be their father. by definition. #he takes care of them but that's out of necessity. they work for him in a different way now but not much has changed. #they feel different for him now than they do the concept of just that man at war. #but even that is complicated.

#they can't call him j. #or neon. that's worse. #but captain is starting to feel too formal.

#where do you go from there?

#the relationship they all have with each other is so much more complicated than that. #they can't be siblings because they've never known what siblings are #and they can't be lovers because they've never known what love is outside of what they write for the fans and they don't do that.

#so. where do they go from here? #what else is there? #calling them family just feels like it isn't enough but I don't have a term for that and neither do they.

—

Continued under cut for space:

About the reason why they still call each other brothers, even if they don't remember anything of their former lives.

Because back then, even if it was programmed into them, they were brothers. They died for each other, they killed for each other, they lived for each other. They would spill blood for blood, trade life for life, if they could.

Now... they're. Different. They don't remember anything from back then, Neon made sure of that, but they still hold each other to that same regard, and it means something now that they're able to feel that bond they all have.

They're brothers now, not because they woke up together, but because they would still die for each other, still live for each other. They just don't cause harm, not anymore.

But they're able to say it to each other and mean it now.

#they arent /family/ they're BROTHERS.

#there's such a big difference in that and it drives me insane

#especially with the dynamics i write between each individual member with one another

#them actually having very close bonds with each other is so important okay

#dont let me get into zim and rin okay they are fucking tragic and i will not stop talking about it

—

Thinking about them naturally being able to form a different-but-similar bond with Neon, that he's their Captain but he also seems to fulfil other roles for them, too, so other titles also apply.

But them having complex relationships with one another is a concept that I love.

They're sailors. They protect each other. They kill for each other. They die for each other. They live for each other, even if they don't have to anymore and even if they're dispensable.

They have a hierarchy. They're all individuals outside of one another. They're all exactly the same. The only thing "unique" is a few colors and hairstyles, and that can change.

But they're also a... a boyband. Like, a BTS-esque boyband. A boyband that sings and dances and cannot stop talking about how sexy they and each other are, apparently.

—

Bonus funny thing that would also no longer be funny if you just assume they are only exactly like family and nothing else:

If they ever do QnA's, the number of questions they'd be asked that are outright laughable. Let alone some of the more questionable letters they might get. Imagine fandom antics but they can just send mail to the idols. Imagine if they're asked questions that make them have to troubleshoot through everything they are and are not allowed to say with each other and with Neon for good measure.

[utaicon]

yall better get these banners to 1mil notes for how much FUCKING TROUBLE they're giving me

[vivianquill]

You would think that with the sheer amount of comments I have left on some of my favorite ao3 authors' fics i might could get maybe ONE reply on ONE of these comments OvvO