#i haven't forgotten about it i prommy

[pink-november]

Idk how long ago it was, but reading your writing on a stp swap au made me come up with a possible premise for a swap au that i don't think i've seen before. Which is:

What if death was contained in tlq's multitudes (or perhaps more aptly, fragments) instead of tsm's? Dying may be a change, but I think death could considered be a stasis. when you die, you can't really become anything Not Dead.

I wish I could build on this concept (for one, the narrator might have to be different since i feel like he had originally had a dislike for change/unpredictability though I might be misremembering) but the game's story hinges so much on its premise and roles that doing a swap requires changes and considerations that i simply don't have the confidence nor brain power for. Still, i do think my idea was interesting

First of all, I thank and commend you Anon for remembering I had a Swap AU in the works (and for reading it woah! 👏) because the last time I mentioned this is around mid-February. How time flies 😳

(halfway writing my answer, i realized i rambled far too long and had to put a read more here. but for folks who needs a TLDR, though it's a bit tricky for me to do a swap au with the premise of LQ representing death and all that entails, it is something i had considered in my original swap au from months ago and below the cut are some lore i made on how this could possibly work in this case)

What if death was contained in tlq's multitudes (or perhaps more aptly, fragments) instead of tsm's? Dying may be a change, but I think death could considered be a stasis. when you die, you can't really become anything Not Dead.

I hope you don't mind me dissecting parts of your ask but the idea of calling The Long Quiet's "multitudes" as fragments is brilliant and will therefore be called as such for the entirety of this post.

In my humble opinion, Slay the Princess likes to focus on how much of everything that happened in-game is a cycle: TLQ and SM being previously the cycle of life and death, The Construct being a narrative cycle that traps our characters in an attempt to fulfill The Narrator's wish, and The Adversary, The Moment of Clarity and The Razor (as of pre-Pristine Cut update) being prime examples of vessels that have some elements of a cycle in their routes. There might be other cases that I failed to mention here but STP, or atleast The Shifting Mound, gives a lot of emphasis of an ongoing cycle that dictates the flow of the universe itself.

The difference between dying and death is important to note then, for our hypothetical Swap AU to work, because as you said dying is a precursor to something new, a continuation to the cycle Shifty purports, while death is the extinction of what once was, a final epilogue.

I wish I could build on this concept (for one, the narrator might have to be different since i feel like he had originally had a dislike for change/unpredictability though I might be misremembering)

For clarification, The Narrator fears death, specifically based on these:

For me, what Narry is really scared of is the thought of nothing being left behind in the aftermath of whatever end the universe is facing: oblivion, the unknowable state of being. The Narrator is mortal and terribly flawed for it, so him oversimplifying oblivion=death=bad is a very human thing of him to be mistaken of. Especially when you consider how the game has The Oblivion Ending, the very thing he's trying to "destroy". And it is something that we as the player (and to an extension TLQ) can make happen, simply for choosing inaction. There is irony to this, how The Narrator had instead brought upon the thing he wishes to destroy, by none other than the hands of the being he had fashioned to be a weapon.

but the game's story hinges so much on its premise and roles that doing a swap requires changes and considerations that i simply don't have the confidence nor brain power for. Still, i do think my idea was interesting

I do agree making an actual Swap AU where both TLQ and the SM keeps their respective natures while alternating their fundamental purpose is hard because STP is ironclad in its premise and philosophy, something I absolutely love the game for. Your idea is one I had very much considered in my own Swap AU but as you can probably tell, it's a very difficult thing to convey properly without upending several key components of the game. Namely, the nature of The Construct, the roles the Voices and Vessels must play, and The Narrator himself.

I guess this is the part where I'm going to messily loredrop my AU now >v<

The Barebones of a Concept, the unofficial name to my Swap AU, has a Narrator that is dedicated to achieving immortality, an escape to the inevitability that is oblivion. His dedication soon borders on obsessiveness until he had torn the cycle of life and death to achieve his goal in subverting the ending and turning the universe into an endless march of continuous change. With no death hanging over their heads, whatever life is left in the aftermath will enjoy in the abundance and safety of an everlasting growth, of progress unhindered, and if it came to it, an ascension to becoming divinity itself, becoming a fundamental concept of reality.

But the tear he made is far jagged than STP!Narry's own cut, resulting in The Construct he prepared to collapse into itself, trapping him inside, never to experience the results of his hard work. TBC!Quiet takes the brunt of this abrupt tear for the worse, becoming lesser than its counterpart, unable to act and be aware of itself. TBC!Shifty, on the other hand, explodes in a flurry of sheer transformation and growth, preventing the total collapse of The Construct but also turning it into a living, breathing dome. She knows far too much and is too much, so her newly formed consciousness melds and forgets herself, while her oceans drown the Construct with her influence.

TBC!Narry is persistent though, convinced that to escape his cage, the other god must slay its counterpart and become the new order of the universe he envisions. Death cannot meaningfully touch the Ebb and Flow and so he must somehow guide this nascent god into locating the remains of Oblivion and erasing it for good. By that, I mean locating its fragments scattered all through The Construct and slaying them.

Shifty's vessels would then take on a new form for this AU, and rather than there being chaptered routes and loops, there would instead be "Incarnations" to perform the role of the Slayer and one converging timeline to gather all the Fragments to awaken their higher selves.

[meerschweinchen-archive]

hole recs: Being a Skull, Georges Didi-Huberman

Noted!

[varilien]

IT'S A LOVE STOOORYYY BABY JUST SAAAAAY YES

(now available at my shop!)

[martritzvonmercie]

if i just like. wrote some short little fics about shinji and hamuko being happy and doing silly cute little things together in a not-necessarily-ship-but-you-can-view-it-as-ship-if-you-want way. would that be cringe

[superkirbylover]

i prommy i haven't forgotten about marlette. things have been so hectic for so long i haven't really been able to sit and work on a long project for a while

[thekidsfromyestergay]

Oh also I prommy I still love mcr more than anything I haven't forgotten about them I just got really scared of posting

[clowntrolls]

Maybe today I'll actually make this guy lmao

had an idea for a troll that I can't stop thinking about so y'all have to put up with me again

[stabbyfoxandrew]

guys I super prommy I haven't forgotten about wipw

I've had a shit time writing this week but I will get to you I promise

[gullclan]

Hi! I haven't forgotten about Gullclan, I prommy!! Chances are I'll be back soon – it was Rough for a little while there but we're back in business maybe 🦐

[scribbling-dragon]

i haven't forgotten about the mer scott fic i said i'd write. i prommy. but i am also considering waiting until the next eps drop (mainly because i want to write martyn, and want to see how their interactions play out a little more)

[dazzlerazz]

I love jth I haven't forgotten about her I prommy <3333333 I just can't draw argonians all that well 😭😭😭

[secondsonaym]

If Aym and Baal knew that Narinder is in danger would they stop everything to go and help him or would they be more worried about killing Star?

That seems like something that'll get touched upon when they're finally relevant again--Sorry they appeared for one scene and then bounced, oops OTL I prommy I haven't forgotten them

[madeimpact]

@ro4dtodawn || I haven't forgotten about this I prommy

❝ Riku — ? ❞

A delighted greeting quickly trailed off into an uncertain question as Sora realized that something was definitely off. It was nice to be greeted so readily by a friend — of course it was! But this veered away from the territory of "especially good mood" right into the uncanny valley.

It didn't really help that Sora could feel some sort of magical energy about him. He couldn't pinpoint exactly what it was, but he'd at least gotten good enough at identifying magical signatures that he could tell one was certainly in the air right now.

❝ Someone's in a good mood...! ❞ Still, for now, he would try to take it in stride. Maybe it really was just an exceptionally good day for Riku today! ❝ Um — why not both? A day adventuring...at the beach! We could see if anything cool's washed up on the shore. ❞

[annwrites]

Love your benjen fanfic ❤️

Ahh! Somebody from AO3!! I prommy I haven't forgotten about or abandoned it. The next chapter is so close to being done it's not funny, I just can't get the last portion right, so I've kinda ignored it. 😅

I need to just bite the bullet & write the last bit so I can move onto the next chap & finish the fic, since I have it fully plotted. Thank you for the kind words!

[selfshipping-haven]

i still haven't forgotten about those asks I prommy

[dukefishron]

Reasons for lack of posting; I got hooked on a new OC world and have been hyperfixating on that. I haven't forgotten about Terraria I prommy