#i need some good meeples for this

[sans-enjoyer]

Inanimate Insanity Episode 16 Spoilers!!!!

its been like, two days since episode 16, and people are already arguing about Mephone's age. He is a child, and this didnt come out of nowhere guys, he's always BEEN a child:

^post from 2018!! 5 YEARS ago!

^Brian reposting art (amazing art btw<3) where Mephone is described as a CHILD and drawing in a childish way.

^Brian saying that Mephone is so young he doesn't even know how to SPELL.

Now; heres some stuff ive been hearing in argument against him being a child.

"Cobs is infantilizing him." I agree with this to a certain extent, he is acting like Mephone is a child who cant comprehend anything like an abusive parent. but thats where it stops. Children can ALSO be infantlized! But aside from that, Cobs even says; "I forgot how young you are!" Parents don't say that to their adult children, because it makes no sense unless Mephone is a child.

Secondly, why would Brian and Justin be doing the same thing? They say he's young!

"He has an adult voice." Robots don't hit puberty! This means nothing. Unless youre saying that the creators implied hes an adult because hes voiced by an adult, well i'll have to refer you to the images above.

"He hosts an entire show." Arguably not very well, also again, he's a robot, and also, theyre on an island! its not like you need a permit to film on a random island in god knows where. Any child can "host" a show if they have enough determination, general knowledge of how they work, and equipment, and would you know it Mephone has all three! He knows how they work because he watched them in meeple, and he can generate any equipment he needs.

"He's a robot, he doesn't have an age." True..? sort of...? But the thing is, being legally defined as a child is based off your mental capacity. Children arent as mentally/emotionally intelligent as grown adults, because they don't have the life experience nor the capacity to be. Mephone barely has ANY life experience, he grew up in Meeple, and then started the show immediately after leaving. And obviously, in Inanimate Insanity (and all object shows), robots are almost always sentient beings, unlike real life.

"He's much more mature than a child, especially one that couldn't spell." Debatable! First of all, he thinks things like 'going to jail for one day' and 'the calm down corner' are terrible punishments, like children. If you tell a child to go sit on the stairs for 5 minutes and frame it as a punishment, they will take it as serious as anything else. Secondly, he literally decided to make a random species of bat.. things? fight to the death because they ate his four month old ice cream. No mature person would do that... Thirdly, abused children ACT more mature than others because they HAVE to be. Abused children are not ALLOWED to act like children. They have to be mature for themselves because who else is going to be? Who else is going to take care of you when your parent doesn't? But that doesn't mean they arent still a child.

So now we tread into questionable territory. Is it okay to deny the idea that he is a child at all costs, just so you can ship him or sexualize him? There is really no other reason why you would deny that he is a child.

Now obviously; lets not harass anyone who has drawn ship art of him or sexualized him in the past. This stuff was not commonly known, most people thought he was an adult. But if you look deeper, he isn't.

Thanks for coming to my ted talk, if anyone reads this far (￣^￣)ゞI know I usually only post art, but this is an important topic to me as i am very hyperfixated on Mephone4 i swear i can't control it guys!!

Feel free to make any counter points, im open to discussion, but i am also very set on this opinion. Have a good day everyone!!☆

[ziocio]

Theyre gone.

The thought of them being permanently gone hurts me.

So i made an idea that hurts me even more

Mephone trying to create the contestants again.

Keeping their personalities, but also trying to keep their character developments.

At the same time.. Mephone4 removes context of Inanimate Insanity. Wanting to give them all actual normal lives. He'd explain he made them the moment they're generated.

But none of them act or look like how he wanted them to be.

Because the originals are lost for good.

And it's a similiar scenario to Bot. They aren't the originals.

New AU i guess..? Idk if I'll do much with this, but if I do I'd need a name.

Some rambles about this uhhh au

-Fan n Test Tube hate each other

-Knife n Suitcase are extremely overwhelmed from the information of their classic selves

-OJ is literally just OJ with an orange slice.

-Marshmellow is a bit burnt and Apple is now a green apple! Marshmellow and Apple are still friends

-Bow's alive

-Balloon is more respected here

-No one wants to be friends with who they were "meant to be with" so people tend to avoid each other (example being Fan n Test Tube) Except for some

-Bot is DEVESTATED

-People either hate or are decent with Mephone4. Mephone4 overall is in despair the "classics" got deleted in the first place

Also all of them have different designs since Mephone4 couldn't piece them all perfectly.

Could be the pressure of him being dragged back to meeple..

The generation of these new "contestants" just doesn't look right.

Perhaps it's grief the real ones can never come back.

Lightbrush-ish comic in read more

[knightobreath]

oliver's epic ii2 movie act 1 trailer analysis

ok so ! theres a lot. im going through it scene by scene

steve cobs KEEPS calling mephone. what the hell is his plan here. i would say mephone should just block his ass but i have a feeling that he is unable to. I predict that he's gonna have to answer at some point.

(also, i went and checked, but the sound that played is the same as the hang up sound from ep15)

also hotel oj party yayyy everyone gets to hang out and have some fun before everything goes to Shit!

this shot's just fucked up man. i don't think i need to explain what this parallels.

this is either a realization or someone walking in, and i think it's the latter because there's little build up. I cannot tell who it would be based on his reaction only, but it Would be someone in the hotel.

OR. what if it's another hallucination like with 4s in the iii finale? That would explain why there's no light from a door opening.

baseball was already upset before seeing taco & mepad

his reaction BARELY CHANGED when he did see them (the eyebag line showed up after he looked through the door)

mepad is comforting taco, who is likely worked up about you know. talking to pickle and mic

man i actually like the bullets format im going with this from now on

mic is happy! I don't have any predictions for the context of this scene

we're getting stuff on knife and trophy!

can't really extrapolate from this scene, hard to tell if trophy was throwing the can there on purpose or not.

test tube, fan, and paintbrush are going to play a very active role in the episode

As pointed out here, they're in the area that Paintbrush burned down in episode 12.

This area has a direct tie to Cobs with the painting, it's possible that they're trying to stop him on their own.

The device test tube is holding is a reused asset, and was both the time machine from episode 12 and the gem detecting device from episode 13. due to this reuse of the asset, we can't know for sure what it does here.

My prediction is that the device is being used to detect something meeple-related.

I'll note here that mephone is only shown inside of the hotel for the duration of the trailer, I believe that he might be hiding in there for most of this act while the contestants go out and actually try to fix things.

NOW THIS IS INTERESTING. Knife and suitcase are traveling in the Grand Slams balloon from Theft and Battery.

Since it's only the two finalists, this could be a part of the final challenge.

Hot air balloons in ii have only been used twice. once in theft and battery to get to mecloud, and once in the great bluish bake-off to get to the end of the desert.

I predict that because of cobs's importance to the plot of this episode that this balloon is going to mecloud, although I'm not entirely sold on the idea.

I predict that this goes before the scene where they're outside of the hotel.

tt and pb have an idea! and they're confident in it.

Judging by paper's expression, this was brought on by something Not Good Happening.

blah blah somehow i connect this to meeple shenanigans okay moving on

simple! suitcase and knife entering the hotel

hi lightbulb

Cobs is PERSISTENT. voiceover backs this up

He must call mephone a lot during the episode

Mephone is clearly running off so people don't see him constantly receiving these calls. i bet hes having a complete crisis over it. panic attack

I predict that as the justification because hotel OJ seems to be a relatively safe space. Theres a total horror to it, a looming danger only one person can really see. He's being hunted down in the middle of a party.

I predict that Cobs's presence in this episode is mostly through this looming horror.

Then there's the flashback of episode 15 with mepad being mad at mephone, voiceover is mephone asking mepad for help, and i'll take a break from dissecting visuals for a sec

MEPHONE: We can't escape him this time! MEPHONE: You have to help. MEPAD: We no longer work together. MEPHONE: Then, don't do it for me.

The voice lines may be put together from other parts of the episode

ehehe i get to talk about mepad. Okay

Mepad not working with mephone extends beyond the show. He actually just doesnt want anything to do with him anymore. oh my god

listen. i would write a whole essay about mepad and mephone rn But i have more scenes to get through.

mephone being the one guy that mepad refuses to help anymore is sending me Dude you fucked this up bad. you ruined your relationship with the one guy whos willing to help literally anyone. but it also shows how out of depth he was coming back from iii because his previous development is not helping him with his mental health this fucked

the "don't do it for me" is said over a scene showing all of the hotel oj guests implying that mepad should do it for everyone else. while this is definitely true i think mepad should also just do it for himself. please. please have mepad start doing things for himselffffffffff PLEASE

I'll touch on this more as i go through the visuals

taco knocking on pickle's door. it's happening chat

and i think he saw her

judging by the eye height though? I'm not actually sure. Taco isn't that tall, so either he sees Mepad or someone/thing else. Most likely has to do with taco though.

off topic but does oj seriously decorate his hotel's walls with images of cups and oranges. someone get this guy an interior decorator PLEASE

Don't have much to say here. not much is happening and there doesn't seem to be any implications with this bit.

whys paper so mad at those hats

off they go!

i bet these two will be running around in the background of everything a lot.

likely not using mepad's teleportation because it's flashy and noisy, which doesnt work well for stealth.

everyone's here! except for nickel, who doesnt show up at all in this trailer. don't know what to say about that.

salt also isnt in this particular shot, but she was at the party in another shot earlier.

Oh and mephone. He's probably stepping outside to take a call hehehehehehehehehehehe

pickle also isn't here, but i expect he's either avoiding the party for some reason or preoccupied with a certain sideplot. Or both.

ANIMATION ERROR SPOTTED!!!! BOMB IS ON A LAYER BELOW TROPHY!!!!!

everyone seems to be having such a nice time enjoying themselves! it would be a shame if something horrible were to happen and several characters were to permadie

*cough*but of course that wouldnt happen. Um

the final shot of the trailer is mepad

i love mepad

i hope he doesnt die

this means hes gonna have another big role in an episode...

it seems a lot of the plot is gonna hinge on the decisions made by mepad. specifically if he's gonna help mephone or not

okay I'm tired. i may add more later. WAIT my final thoughts,

BIG PREDICTION: Mephone will try to hide the cobs calls at the party but will get found out. When he's found out various characters (including tt pb and fan as shown earlier) will try to help in some way. This is act 1, so a lot of stuff will be set up but there wont be any big deliveries.

Mepad will play another big role.

Taco WILL talk to pickle.

Any big deaths, especially permadeaths, will either happen right at the end of this act or in a later act altogether.

more toilet. please animaitonepic Please show us toilet again. i have hope since we saw the ep12 challenge area.

this party is not ending well.

i need to rewatch season 1 i barely remember it

[drawingtablet]

IDEA: if mepad blushes his entire screen changes color or something.or he blue screens i don't know i'm not the mepad expert here

hmmm. well definitely not blue screen, as that's not only often a fatal error (often called a Blue Screen of Death) but also a computer (& iconicly windows) thing! idk what the iOS/iPadOS equivalent is, I've taken good enough care of my electronics to not run into any extreme errors with my devices running iOS and iPadOS. Speaking of OSes, mepad is based off of the 1st gen ipad mini which shipped with iOS 6.0.1! but that's all kind of irrelevant, as the interface of the meeple devices (and especially mepad as it looks) is notably different from apple UI, especially when comparing them with the equivalent irl OSes. especially earlier, mepad's design... okay i'm getting kinda off track here. let's just cut the rambling before this becomes several pages long and get to answering this!

[He said, hitting “save as draft” at 3am on June 22nd. It is now 3am on August 22th.]

his entire screen changing color would be so cute! i also think it would be possible that he would switch away from his face to an app in some scenarios. i’ve drawn him blushing before, but either i go with the uncreative option (just normal blushing -_-) or it’s in my drawings where he’s just a human (booooringgggg). i think im gonna try drawing him changing his color…

okay i like this, it just isn’t always very clear in standalone art, and i will probably need to add the darkness on the cheeks area to make it come across accurately

[jones-friend]

Wyrmspan! 🥳

Verdict: Wingspan’s scrappier cousin, for better and worse. You already know if you will enjoy Wyrmspan.

Most importantly: it IS meaningfully different from Wingspan in mechanics.

I love Wingspan. Genuinely one of the greats alongside Dominion and Terraforming Mars. It always feels like eating a well made meal. From the design to the aesthetic to the choices its an all-timer.

Wyrmspan is a delightful game I have a lot of good to say about it. I think Connie did a fantastic job designing this game. I want to make it clear going into this that when I critique a certain system its with love. Its not a laundry list of issues. I liked playing Wyrmspan a good deal and am excited to try it again soon.

In Wyrmspan players take on the roll of dracologists and look to create a dragon sanctuary by excavating caves and enticing dragons to stay. After four rounds we count points. Its similar to Wingspan with key differences in gameplay.

Action cubes are gone. They are now Player Markets. Each round players start with six silver coins. These coins are spent on actions, each action takes one coin. They replace cubes. This means you get six actions on each of the four rounds. It also means you can buy powerful cards by expending another silver AND some effects give you a silver coin and give you an additional action. It opens up the playspace for new options.

In Wyrmspan there are dragon cards and cave cards. To entice a dragon to stay you must excavate a space in one of the three rows. You spend a silver coin, and sometimes eggs, and place a cave, gaining its one time benefit (food, cards, guild points etc).

Once you’ve excavated you may spend a silver coin to entice a dragon, spend its cost, and place it. They can give effects for activating that row, have effects when played, give end of round buffs, or have end of game points. There’s also hatchlings: new dragons you “hatch” by spending eggs and milk. These hatchlings consume (cache) a resource to give you a different resource. On caching your third resource they reach adulthood with a one time bonus.

You can also spend a silver (plus eggs if you’ve already done so) to activate a row of caverns triggering all abilities with the walking meeple token. Each row leans towards a resource. The red caves help with food. Gold caves help with dragon cards. Purple caves help with cave cards. When you “explore” you walk your meeple along that row and gain effects of any abilities with that meeple icon, walking until you reach a stop sign.

This is the brown powers from Wingspan. In Wyrmspan dragons are set down left to right then activated left to right. You gain other effects as well, each row can earn a guild point and lay an egg. You also get endgame scoring bonuses from filling out each row. Red caches food, gold tucks cards, purple discards caves for eggs.

The last big change is the guild mechanic. There are four guilds that each prioritize a resource. Whenever you gain a guild point you gain the resource of the space you moved onto. For example the first space is always lay an egg. With the brown spaces offering more powerful plays like free dragons or high endgame points.

The guild mechanic really greases the wheels of the game. It kept me from spending an entire action on one draw. It gives consistent and variable value that gives the extra little bit you need to make your strat work. Its scrappy, but smart in that it prevents you from taking dud turns.

I also found the art to be a delight. Storybook art of dragons in a style similar to but differing from Wingspan. Charming entirely. I love them.

So Wyrmspan’s scrappiness is what sets it apart from Wingspan. It is where the game is strengthened and weakened. I like the guild points freeing up actions, I like actions as coins to be spent or gained, I like that excavating caves bounces you into playing dragons. I like it.

It also undoes some big brain choices by Wingspan. You no longer build left to right to activate right to left, you don’t have that nuance in playing cards down. You also don’t have the trade off of less actions with a bigger boardstate.

But none of that hindered the experience. Its just different. And different is good. I mean it when I say you already know if you want to play it. If Wingspan but dragons is appealing to you then you should buy it! It certainly justifies its own existence next to Wingspan on your shelf. You’ll have a lot of fun! If you don’t feel much one way or another the game won’t change your mind.

But I had a fantastic time and will be playing it again soon.

[ask-post-ii17-bot]

We should search for more survivors.

Mepad could be around here somewhere, probably near where purgatory Mansion was. Maybe bow's brother dough survived too!

We should worry about mephone4 later, he's . With cobs right now. Not exactly a good thing but at least he's alive!

This ask is related to my idea sooo I’m like gonna use it.

My idea is a simple one, let’s just do stuff step by step.

Focusing on a bunch of stuff at once is just gonna make everything more stressful so let’s like just not do that.

Alright, for now I’m just going to focus on comforting Bot since they clearly need it so this blog might be inactive for a bit while I do that, I can’t focus on mental health and a blog at the same time after all :p.

After that we’ll like look for more survivors, Mephone 4 can wait as it’s a bad idea to take Bot to Meeple rn anyways.

Then from there we’ll try figuring out if we can bring people back…..if not we’ll just figure out where to take our lives from here I guess.

Worst case scenario I take Bot to my old apartment in NY if the key I left under the doormat is still there after all these years and it hasn’t been broken into by some random guy since I’ve been dead for ages :p.

They can like just stay with me for a while if needed.

I only like got in II in the first place because of an advertising gig from some random guy named “Adam” who apparently needed a ad for chairs for some reason he like didn’t explain.

I still have no idea why he wanted me to film that ad near a show running in the middle of nowhere but 50k is 50k.

I like got in II because of it somehow though so I guess it worked out :>.

Anyways keep sending stuff while I’m gone, I’ll try catching up on what’s been sent in when I come back, anyways see ya!

[shalmonsgamons]

yesterday's gamin' tried a couple digi-board games from the recent humbund w/spouse wingspan & root (incoming Bird Alerts for both games, of course)

i'm already familiar with the physical versions of both (Root less so;;; currently i only know how to play eyrie [surprising no one]) 10/10 for the visual effort on both of these really made it feel worthwhile if you already have the tabletops

wingspan has bird calls & animations for each bird??? and i love how they visualize the habitat transitions

root has adorable 3D models in place of the meeples & very nice audio design on all fronts as for how they play, i'm liking root's transition to digital a bit better (for me personally, the inherent railroading of the video game format helps me stay a little less confused lol) wingspan often throws me as to where i'm supposed to be clicking, but maybe i'll get used to it. not being able to see all elements of the game at all times is a surprisingly big adjustment ----------------------------------------------------------

but yesterday's Main Event was remembering that No Man's Sky has a creative mode that i have somehow Not been using this entire time

i play NMS to see the sights and come up w/silly names for my discoveries all the hazards & combat & resource management 'n whatnot are super neat to have & i respect them, but the exploration element is so alluring in this game that i kinda wish i didn't have to deal with those so imagine my delight to discover "hey u can just turn the less fun* parts off" *=less fun for me personally, don't @ me :'v

but anyway, i have yet to make good use of photo mode, but here are some vanilla caps:

(i will also need to experiment w/how much my computer can handle with the newfangled optimizations they introduced--these are currently pretty low settings)

i thought this boat had a cool shape & name, so i bought it (i like to call them boats leave me alone)

gettin' my sit on (tbh i hope this clipping is never fixed)

spooky planet where i met my new orbular son 🥺🥺

and a Bird Alert for good measure

[poly-lights]

PART 2 TO MY II PREDICTIONS/WISHES/QUESTIONS (technically) SINCE YALL ACTUALLY KINDA LIKED THOSE?? and i have more!

please note btw that most, if not all, of this is not gonna happen bc they can't pack EVERYTHING into a 30 minute or so episode and not gonna lie some of these are my fixation talking and me being delusional. it's good to theorize though!!

lots of bias. let's get into it

i told my gf this BUT it'd be cool if there was a scene of trees changing, to represent seasons passing because it has to have been a year at most right

more lightbulb using her electrokinesis scenes plspls?????? like. she can just casually DO THAT....maybe have her use it for evil/J IM KIDDING. don't have her kill anyone

............................yet

another knife and suitcase scene, elaborating on the "making your presence known", how suitcase took it a different way, just a conversation if that makes sense

yknow. what was that roboarm in the gemory cave. and is it Still working after lightbulb powered it on.

unrelated but still.more so a question have we or will we ever get the full roommate list drop?? unless they're gonna wait for when s2 is done to not spoil anything

baseball and lightbulb friendship scene :] team captain style!

i think it's gonna release on OR near the anniversary, if the iii finale is so soon early into 2024 it gives slight time

can we get parent lore drop??? like hello?????? they cant just said what they said in iii ep 14 and never expand on it, so i have a heavy feeling its gonna get mentioned in s2 if not ep 15 specifically

im just hoping for lb centric, even if her lore doesn't match up well with the slams. pls im so autism abt her at this point its anything BUT funny

now here's some iii 18 predictions!! for fun :] and also me just rambling abt it (spoilers for iii 17!!!!)

those who left to the hotel come back for jury voting!! more importantly fan and pb please💥

bot and springy and gonna be near each other again next episode. springy may still try to pull some shit with bot, and, assuming so, if TEST TUBE IS BY BOT'S SIDE......

springy made that suitcase bot, so clearly he knows about season 2

we may just get ii 14 tt again. which i am HOPING for. idk i love seeing test tube ENRAGED for the people she cares about she's so fun and unique bc MAN that girl is angry. she's holding grudges against Two People

also. fan meeting bot? he is going to have such a big and hopefully impactful reaction!! pls he has his patterns and the sudden changes make him uncomfortable they need to mention this

if he knows about season 2......could he make, or has he made, toys of the other final four? again im just gripping at straws for an iis2 final four appearance

think abt it though. it's the iii finale. you think they won't do something big? considering mephone knows he has to go back? springy could easily torment him w that considering the whole "facing your past" theming

also walkie talkie is Totally associated with meeple. ik we've all figured that out but i just had to say something. very heavily focused on using electronics to better the future? implying robots taking over others positions?

also??? past contestants coming back SEEING the toys?? maybe. Maybe.

the entire episode could also just be a discussion and play on the ethics of ai and how it's affecting the writing industry by putting people out of jobs due to its advancement and im reading way too much into it but hey im putting my hard hat on and channeling my inner matpat for this stupid show about objects with limbs (/pos btw)

also. are they gonna leave floor behind??? or will they scoop him into a terrarium, then plant him into inanimate island?

can he teleport that far?? how far is paradise?????????? ae drop the map pls/silly

ALSO ALSO. WHAT ARE THE INANI-MATES?? IS N/A THE LAST OF THEIR KIND??????? i doubt it but STILL everyone else in that group died

hey. why is the background of the recap song the background used when the gemories formed the silhouette of cobs. hey now.

[bucketofbugz]

I wanna listen to your II x Grounded idea please 🙂 /sincere

!!!!!!!!OKAY!!!!!!

sorry this took a few hours I had to sleep. But you have opened the floodgates. Prepare for. a lot of reading.

I do plan to write this very very soon buuuuuuuuuuut if you wanna read some rambling about it beforehand then here ya go.

(I didn't mean to ramble so much about background stuff but I did so if you don't care about that [which is fair] then skip to the "and now onto the actual beginning" section)

Basic background information first.

I've had the idea in my brain since before episode 15's release, but I didn't start actually developing it until a few days ago. so it isn't too far plot-wise yet. BUT!!!! I do have ideas. many many ideas. and I am so happy to talk about 'em.

The idea originally came about because I looked at the final four and went "haha four of them. that's the same number of available characters in grounded :)", and of course I immediately began making a story in my head for it.

Originally I was trying to fit the whole "getting shrunk down to ant-size" thing into the show's storyline, but I was not able to do that without it feeling really off and out of place. And there is a pretty crucial element to the shrinking process in Grounded that led to the main characters being teenagers in the first place.

so Instead of just figuring out how to work it into the show storyline, I decided to develop an entire II high school au to act as the background for this. I won't go too into detail on that bit because that's notttt what you're here for (I can make an entire separate post about what that changes about the universe later). But I do need to add that detail because the show's events not having happened exactly is kinda important to certain things.

OKAY onto actual important background stuff.

Cobs! He's here! He is a guy and he exists. He is still the CEO of Meeple and is still making sentient phones but he also teaches a high school computer science class. because why not, right?

Well one of those sentient phones of his (3GS) is able to discover the shrinking technology! This is also around the time he is having the realization that listening to everything Cobs says doesn't really work out so well. So he hides it from him for a good while.

But thennnnn Cobs' two other sentient phones (4 and 4S) find out about it!! and they tell him!! because of course they do!!!

And Cobs gets mad about it!! because of course he does!!!

Rather than the closet he gets put into in the show, 3GS is stuck being the sole tester of the shrinking process. Cobs uses this to estimate the effects it has on technology and life forms. As you might expect, being shrunk and un-shrunk a bunch of times starts really messing with him! Especially since he's an older MePhone model.

MePhone4 eventually finds out about this and is like "wow! that's messed up!" SO he decides he wants to get 3GS out of there

how does he do that? well he shrinks himself and 3GS, attempts to destroy the shrinking technology (accidentally blows up a good chunk of Mecloud), and runs away to the island that Cobs was doing all of the shrinking tests on (the season 1 and 2 island). His plan was to generate a new SPAC.R once they got there and then they could truly escape, BUUUUUUT turns out he can't use his generation abilities while tiny. So they're just stuck on the island now.

Cobs figures out where they went and once he repairs the Meeple SPAC.R he sends 4S to the island to bring them back. But guess what? He doesn't do that. None of the phones come back.

Why they don't and what exactly happens with them after that is all Spoilers, though. so I cannot talk about that yet :]

So all of Cobs' sentient phones are gone. And he kinda needs them back. And he's discovered that trying to shrink down members of his staff to go find them doesn't work very well; shrinking adults is just Not working out.

And, hey, he is a teacher at a high school----

Yeah he throws a bunch of kids at the island.

And now onto the actual beginning.

OKAY WE'RE FINALLY HERE!! Maybe like 2 years since the phone stuff.

The final four are our main focus at this point.

As I said, they are high school students, specifically attending Cobs' class in computer science. Whether that is because they actually care about computer science or because they thought it would be an easy elective varies depending on which character you're talking about.

They're the last four left in that period of the class. There were about 12 in total that year, but 4 of them disappeared at one point and then the other 4 disappeared at another point. So it's just them in there now. Suitcase, Knife, Baseball, and Lightbulb.

Some people are very concerned about the connection, even wondering if it has something to do with the 5 students in that class that had disappeared the year prior. but of course nobody suspects Cobs because he's the CEO of Meeple, why would he do something like that??? You can trust CEO's, y'know (/sarcastic).

But one day they're all heading home after school, and then they're just. out. Blacked out, no idea where the heck they are.

They wake up in a slightly open case nestled into the soil. Of course they're all suspicious of one another for a while, before they realize the gravity of the situation they're in. None of them would be able to do this, they're literally just a bunch of high school kids.

So they're stranded on some random island, they're all relatively ant-sized, they're starting to suspect that this exact same thing has happened to the other 8 students in their class (and maybe the 5 missing ones from last year), and they have no idea how to survive out here.

So they're doing great.

This is where the actual story itself starts so I can't give too much away beyond this point. But I can say that the other characters to end up shrunk weren't chosen randomly, and the order is connected to the 4 focal characters being the final 4 of the season. :]

And I can also say that I am trying to fit in as many canon situations and events into this story as possible within the limitations the au creates. Like Lightbulb discovering Baxter? Yeah! That happens! Is he still a crab? Hah. No.

So the fates of certain characters (mentioned or otherwise) does kinda depend on how they're doing in the show. So.. how ARE some characters doing in the show? :)

uhhhh tdlr: the show never happened, due to how the shrinking process works all of the contestants are high school students, shrinking technology was discovered by Mephone 3GS and developed by Cobs, 3GS and Mephone4 run away to the island (they also shrunk themselves) and Cobs sends 4S after them, none of them come back, Cobs starts sending objects to the island to find them (specifically focusing on Lightbulb, Knife, Suitcase, and Baseball). Shenanigans ensue. We understand? Yippee.

Hope you enjoyed my nonsensical rambling.

Like I said in the original post this is such a niche combination of interests but they are my two biggest ones. So. It was inevitable.

Also I'm almost done with the character designs, so the other missing characters will be revealed soon (if they aren't already really easy to figure out).

[talenlee]

Game Pile: Root (Video)

Root — Mastery Depth And Material Demands

Watch this video on YouTube

Thumbnail and script below the fold. The script is in part based on this article and this article.

In 2018, the board game Root was released by Leder games, to a sort of confused, but very enthusiastic ‘hooray!’ Based on earlier successes by the same developers (and some weird, contentious ‘hey, you copied my notes’ complaints), Root is an asymmetrical war game, where in the base box, you have four factions competing with one another to try and take control of a nonspecific woodland glade. Each faction, the game promised – and delivered – are different; not the same rules with a few different units, but entirely, meaningfully, complicatedly different in how they relate to one another.

Lauded for its emergent complexity and its charming aesthetic, Root is one of those games that quickly became institutional; multiple expansions, fan merchandise, an RPG in the setting, all that stuff that signalled people are into your game, the base board game Root is probably one of those recent classics. It’s kinda funny to talk about in hindsight, to revisit these words from years ago because like, Root isn’t even the biggest Cole Wehrle game, and its weird early start is now just a footnote, certainly compared to his work on Pax Pamir. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, just know that each of these things I’m mentioning is worth an article unto itself.

Root, the board game is a lot of game. As kickstarter products go, it’s one of those games that absolutely jam-packs the box with stuff, and it’s not even like that’s a bad thing in this case. While I will regularly dunk on kickstarter board games for making tons of pieces that are unnecessary — looking at you, Kingdom Death Monster. Root is a game whose meeples and cards and board and all the tokens and reminders are there to serve a purpose, and then maximise their charm and value in that space. The copy of Root I’ve handled – which isn’t mine – is very present in its mass. It’s a really, really charming game, and the game you get is very rewarding per-kilogram price. While normally kickstarter games with a lot of good material components are secretly miniature distribution venues with a board game attached, Root is using every gram of its materiel.

I never wanted to buy Root, though.

Look, Root is amazing. Don’t take me saying that as a mark against it. Games aren’t inherently valuable, you don’t just automatically want them for any reason. Any given game’s value should be considered in what it offers, and that’s kind of why we talk about games like this. To complain about Root the board game is to pre-emptively make excuses about why you don’t like it, it seems. Root is a game that doesn’t fit my life, and the reason why is kind of specific.

What it is is what I refer to as mastery depth.

Mastery Depth is a term I used when talking about Century: Golem, then realised I may have never mentioned it anywhere before. I mention it from time to time, and then don’t explain myself, which is a great example of bad academic language. Here’s the concept, then: Mastery. The ‘put it in a single sentence’ version of Mastery looks like this: Mastery is the way the game is affected by having already come to understand the game.

That’s a small sentence, it’s reasonably simple words. Like any simple phrase in games studies, it comes with weight that makes it feel challenging to properly handle. Let’s dig into it, then: For pretty much every game, previous experience playing the game makes the game easier to play. Sometimes that’s just a matter of learning the rules more thoroughly, so you don’t need to look things up. Sometimes it’s about knowing what you should prioritise in the game, after the rules present them to you as a big wave of equal stuff.

Mastery depth is a way to look at a game in terms of how much of what a game does that rewards players with more or less mastery. Is there a game you can think of where there’s a particular dangerous situation that can come up and you need to know how to recognise it? What about the way we see Chess, a game with a variety of ‘openings’ that require learning a new language to understand? Mastery is how you recognise those things. A game that rewards mastery often rewards playing with mastery – games like Dungeons and Dragons are mind-blowingly complex, but as you master them you learn how to stop caring about unimportant details, and learn ways to build the game to get the outcomes you want.

A lot of games get called ‘bad’ because they lack mastery depth, and some are ‘bad’ because their mastery depth has a hard limit. Connect Four and Tic-Tac-Toe are games that once you understand them enough are solved, and the person with sufficient mastery knows the way the game will go and wins it. By comparison, though, there are some games where it’s hard to tell different levels of mastery – you can look to the intricate and complex development of Magic: The Gathering, where asking a computer to calculate ‘best plays’ in any given situation is brain-explodingly difficult.

Bear in mind what players need to know, how much they have to play, and if your game needs mastery or rewards mastery, and if you’re okay with that. Mastery is fun! I love games with a lot of mastery depth… but I’m also learning to love the games that are a bit less likely to reward you for a long-term plan.

I’ve been thinking about this these past few years as the weird uncle watching my family’s relationship to games changing. There was a point where games had to be almost universal, players need to be playing with the same pieces and information had to be open so I could help maintain the game state for the young kids trying to play. But then things developed and evolved and now I’m at the point where they’re playing complex games like – well, Magic: The Gathering. What this means is that I’ve been familiar now with a really interesting experience of watching a playgroup evolve in real time over the past few years.

It’s heartwarming and honestly really cool. It taught me a lot about ways that these ‘simpler’ games could be engaging in different ways. King of Tokyo and Century Golem are two games I would never have sat next to one another but their mastery depth is very similar, and the games you get to play out of both one are both really good. And this idea, Mastery Depth, is at the Root, ha Ha, of my reasons for not wanting my own copy of the great woodland war game.

This is a game with four factions, each of which play explicitly very differently and do their own unique form of play, which means that you need players for that. This isn’t a game I can take to a family gathering and sit down and play once or twice a year with my mum and nephew. This is effectively four separate games in one box and each of those games interacts with one another, and those interactions are complicated. In order to play this game, everyone needs to be aware of how their faction plays and how to play it right, to just make it function, and then they need to understand what’s important to that function to play it well.

Basically, this is not a game for ready sharing, this is a game for playing and replaying with a small group of people who want to play it again and get better at it. This is not to say this game is not a game for people like me: I love the complexity, I love the systems of the game, and I love the ways they give you choices for how you engage with the game. Yet, this is not a game for a person like me.

This is a game for four people like me.

I don’t have four people like me.

Root needs table space, too, of course. This game sprawls out and it needs a gutter to play around so you can put your player card somewhere and your hand and keep track of what’s going on. I do not have a big, clear, open table for playing board games. When I do have access to big tables, it is often at the University, or it is at my parents’ – and my parents have dining tables that have other needs.

Point is, Root is a game that asks of me materially in ways I cannot give it; I cannot give it the players, and I cannot give it the space.

<videogame footage starts>

This is where I get to point to good news, everybody, because Root has a digital version on Steam. and that good news is extremely good news. See, to my absolute shock and delight, Root on Steam is pretty much everything you’d want out of a digitised version of the game. It is visually charming, with lovely models and animations that do not carry the same aesthetic character as the meeples the board game does, but still convey the tone of the different factions.

As a digital game, Root melts away a lot of the things the game does that you need to pay attention to and process and handles them for you. You do not need to shuffle, the deck of cards is not a thing you look at – it’s just that at the end of your turn, cards appear in your hands. You do not need to look over at other player’s boards or ask them to calculate their Victory Points for you, because those are presented on the interface itself. Information is brought forwards as necessary and you are given room to inspect the game in the ways the game recognises you need to.

It’s also quiet: You do not have to communicate with the other players if you don’t want to. For random games of a board game with strangers, this seems like a bad thing, but you have to remember that the videogame community and board game communities are not necessarily dealing with the same problem. Videogame players can use the videogame plateform to quell anxiety, and to not have to talk to people or make sure they’re managing the rules correctly (and avoiding a socially awkward fight at the table) can be a delight. The game handles asymmetrical play – where you can turn up, play a turn, then log off for days at a time if necessary.

Is it a strict upgrade? of course it’s not. To talk about these games as if they’re comparable versions with a better or worse misses the point. Root is a beautiful game that’s very complex, hard to manage in your house, and challenging to find players for, which means for me, it’s strictly superior to have Root on Steam.

But you know what will never happen?

My partner will never wander by the computer while I’m playing Root, look over my shoulder, and say ‘oh, that’s cute, can I join in?’

I will never be able to take a meeple from the box of this and use it in another game for an impromptu bit of house ruling.

When the servers shut down, I will lose access to this copy of Root and have no way – literally no way with my current skillset – of changing that.

If I don’t plan on playing Root this month, I won’t be able to hand it to my friend Pendix and say ‘hey man, give this a shot with your partner for a few weeks, see what you think.’

The ways we structure our relationship to games change based on how we play them. Root has a digital version that solves so many of its problems, and let me play the game with some people I really care about. Opening those pathways limits others, and that means that as with many such things it’s a compromise. In a lot of ways, it’s best not to think of Root the board game and Root the digital game as just the same game, but rather, two asymmetrical factions in the same space, competing for your attention in different ways.

Root as I said up, in the top, a really charming game, a game that I like and that doesn’t serve my needs a lot. But now I have a version of it I can always play with one of my friends. We can even play with the expansions very cheaply. For this reason I give Root a score of Friends/10.

Check it out on PRESS.exe to see it with images and links!

[ehhs-ya-boi]

I'm actually outta space in my google keeps for the outline for this one, so this is gonna be the hub for all of yesterday's tomorrow. or tomorrow's yesterday, or whatever other fuckin wip name I have for this 3gs fic.

Obviously spoilers under the cut-

Probably a short fic, but who knows. I said then-

For only the goddamn outline-

I wasn't kidding when I said I was running outta space... And don't tell Xai-AroAce I've been working on this for like a year now. Also when I wrote this a year ago I didn't really consider it, but now I'm thinking he/they pronouns for 3gs.

Overall, I don't think he'd care that much but they also never correct you when you use they/them pronouns with them so... it sticks.

= - - =

// CH1 //

You're hired at Meeple as a tutor of some kind for helping to teach the robot army, since there's far too many and Cobs is far too busy. You're a pretty good tutor so it could either be that you showed that you were good, so Cobs stations you with 3gs or that it was already established that you were a good tutor by your like resume or smth so you were automatically put with 3gs. Either way you're put to work with 3gs.

// CH2 //

I know 3gs is kinda a prick, full of himself, yada yada. He's a leader. He's sure he doesn't need your help but since Cobs specifically put you to work with him, he HAS to keep you around. He spends most of your study sessions in solo-study which is fine by you, but also a bit disheartening since you'd seen him around and wanted to get closer to him. Maybe not a crush per se, but like, you wanted to talk to him. You get a break through with him by talking about a specific topic he likes (maybe space? Robotics? Psychology/communications again?? Basing this off of that 3gs post.)

// CH3 //

You guys engage in fun conversation about robotic mechanics. I would like to think that he's actually teaching you about it and it's like an exchange of knowledge. Like you're the tutor hired to get him better at being a diplomat (so communications again...) And you help him with his tone while he teaches you how to fix mephones/the basics of robotics. You both become pretty good friends. Cobs doesn't like this and re-stations you back to the other phones. Around this point, him only considering them objects would rub you the wrong way but he's your boss and you didn't want to lose your job. You obviously do so but still meet up with 3gs for fun. No Cobs does not find out.

// CH4 //

It's time for them to leave. Everything they've been working towards. It was time to get the prime shimmers. You wish 3gs good luck and give him a hug before your shift is over since Cobs wasn't letting any of the tutors stay to watch the lift off. 3gs tells you he doesn't need luck, he's the best there is, the best doesn't need luck. He's gonna be fine. You trust him. Why wouldn't you? He'd been right about a lot. The next day you're transferred to a different department. You were one of the tutors that showed the most promising outcomes with the phones, so Cobs kept you around.

A week passes as your at Meeple, it's boring without 3gs but the pay's good. (You don't see this next part btw) Suddenly 3gs busts through the door and into Cobs' office. He gives a rundown of what happened, and begs Cobs to not try to go after the shimmers again. They're a peaceful race, please- /please Cobs don't/. Cobs shuts off 3gs, calling him outdated and a simple failure who has no right to say what he should and shouldn't do.

// CH5 //

A rumour starts going around about the MePhones came back from the trip. You being one of the top tutors of the experiment are excited to hear this and ask around about how they did and if 3gs was back. The answers were very iffy some saying he did, some saying he didn't, some admitted to not knowing. You weren't liking the mix of answers so you went to Cobs. Cobs tells you not to worry about those hunks of metal since the mission failed. He says he'll have you work with his new creation once it was finished. You're pissed for many reasons, one being that he spent to much time and money on solders who looked up to him that you really couldn't believe he'd just toss them aside like that. 3gs looked up to him- wanted to make him proud- and all Cobs had to say for it was "it needed to be stronger, so I will make one that is"??? Just- just who did he think he was????

Cobs doesn't like your back talk, it's annoying and SO yesterday. He makes some off comment about how you were empathizing too much with the robots, like how 3gs was for those power sources. It was disgusting. At the mention of 3gs your tune changes, you're a lot calmer. You question where he is, and if he'd be around MeCloud any time soon. Cobs notices your change in demeanour and uses it to his advantage: He says he's /resting/ since the mission was a failure, so it'd take some time for him to be back on his feet (or something along those lines). You're taken aback. You ask if you could see him. Cobs tells you no, he needs repairs first, and you need to focus on your job. You take the hint, not wanting to press further and wind up losing your connection to 3gs.

// CH6 //

A couple years have passed. You sort of helped tutor MePhone4, barely making any progress, since unlike his elder brother he did NOT like studying. When he wasn't making progress with the generation like Cobs wanted, he let you know that you'd be assigned to a new phone, 4s. You saw MePhone4 leave with MePad, but denied ever seeing it. It wasn't your business, you had your job to worry about, but you were glad he finally got to do what he wanted. (The show showed up on TV a couple of times but you didn't watch it regularly.) Deadlines got shorter with how long you were meant to aid the phones. 4s didn't need much help anyway due to his internet connection with Siri. When he was labelled obsolete in Cobs eyes, you were assigned to MePhone5, then MePhone5S and MePhone5C, when they'd all failed, you were the last on the chopping block.The last MePhone you saw as a tutor was MePhone6, it was only a little bit into your job where Cobs pulled you aside to tell you that your services were unneeded. The phones were smart enough to learn what they needed on their own. You were the last of the tutors left anyway, you knew this was coming...

You asked Cobs to let 3gs know that you would love to study with him again. This got a cackle out of him. "That's real funny! MePhone3gs has been rotting away storage for years at this point! You really thought it would be coming back?? I knew you were dumb when you couldn't even teach MePhone5S about anatomy but c'mon! I guess I can tell you now since I don't need you anymore. It came back from the mission broken, ranting on about what I should and shouldn't do, so there was no way I was bringing it back. It was a liability, just like you~ Now pack your stuff and leave--your severance pay should be processed in a couple of days." You felt mad- pissed again, but didn't show it this time around. You gave a quick, "Ye- yes, Mr Cobs," before returning to your desk/workstation. You knew it was weird that you'd never seen 3gs again, but a piece of you held on to the fact he was just in repair- or avoiding you- or fucking something! You never let yourself believe that he would just leave him to rot, because that was insanely fucked up. But you figured he was a fuck up corn cob so it wasn't too far off. You remembered how MePhone4 left years ago. It would be difficult, but you still remembered the places 3gs showed you to avoid the building's cameras so you could study with him. The building didn't change, and by jove, you weren't leaving without him. You told the few coworkers left that you were leaving and it sucked to go, but you had to grab a box for your stuff.

You asked where storage was, a shoe horn lets you know that there should be some in a storage closet, specifically in the one on Cobs' floor in the corner of the building. You were highly suspicious of this answer but but thanked them anyway. You walked their normally with the excuse of "I'm just getting a box" under your belt for when a MePhone (either 7, 7+, 8, or 8+) asked what you were doing. They let you go about your way as you searched around for some place with storage and 3gs. You caved after about 4-5 closets and no 3gs, and just went to the one Shoe Horn told to about to grab a box. When you got there and entered in the normal pin (4010, based on apple's founding day but reversed (3gs told you it)) that was used basically everywhere on his floor. When you went in you tried to find a light switch but there wasn't one. You couldn't risk Cobs finding you in there so you let the door close and looked around with a tiny flashlight on your keyring. It wasn't much but it worked enough to see a little bit in front of you. You looked around for an empty box, shuffling through shelves of old wires, computer parts, batteries, and even old computers from Cobs' glory days. It was all extremely dusty, hadn't been touched in years. You found an empty space in the dust where a box must've been moved (*cough* mechantosh's old spot *cough*) but carried on. In the front there wasn't any so you moved further and further back. Seeing another robot Cobs was working on You swore you saw it in one of MePhone4's episodes, you hoped he was doing well. You made a mental note to check back on the show when you got home with 3gs- once you found him of course. You had to go all the way to the back, cobwebs littered the place. You were sure nobody had been back here in like a decade... Your flashlight reflects off of a broken screen--a large one. You trace the outline with your light to realise it's 3gs... IT'S 3GS!! It takes everything in your power to not to scream/squeal/cry at the sight of him. You let out a stifled sob instead, trying to stay quiet. He was here. Not in great condition, but he was here in one piece. You were so fucking relieved.

You thought about shaking him, but figured there would really be no point since his battery was way past dead. You took some old shirt from one of the boxes and wiped the dust off of him. He definitely hadn't been touched in like a decade. You wanted to fix him, or at least get him semi-functional again until you could work with how to fix him. You knew he couldn't be awake in MeCloud because then he'd refuse to leave--he's too much of a head-strong phone. He would try to convice Cobs to get him back on whatever mission he wanted the newer phones to do, and it would just lead to him getting more trauma. You were not going to let it happen. You were getting him out of here, with everything you would need (charger, new battery, new screen). You'd been around MeCloud enough to know that he didn't keep old batteries on display anymore, so you looked around the old boxes, finding one after a while. In a different box was an old cable that would work for him if he needed a charge. You put them besides 3gs' lifeless body, before trying to move him. It was really hard to, he was heavier than you remembered. You would need a cart or something to move him out. And if you were going to do that, you'd need a box to hide him in. One like the shipping box MePhoneX came back in... It was in the back, you saw it one of the other storage closets. X wouldn't need it anymore, and you could put the other stuff in with 3gs since X was a lot bigger than him. You had a plan.

// CH7 //

The plan was to grab X's old box, shove 3gs and the things he'd need for repair in it, and gtfo out MeCloud. Easier said than done. You didn't want to cause a scene like the old contestants did, but thankfully Cobs didn't increase security much after that. The gaurds were really just the phones, and since you still had clearance to be in MeCloud they mostly left you alone. You had to act fast though, grabbing a dolly cart to push MePhoneX's box to the storage closet. You tried your best to avoid the cameras and be as nonchalant as possible, but you were practically asking for attention from the phones with the big ass box. You managed to lie your ass off through the interactions saying you needed to sort some old supplies and needed the big box to carry everything. They, being the eager machines they are, offered to help since it was probably for Cobs' sake, but you declined gently. The MePhones after 6 were an interesting bunch--practically soulless but still somehow having a remanence of benevolence in their systems. You always tried to be gentle with them, both physically (since they were prone to bending) and mentally (since they just wanted to do a 'good' job).

You managed to make it back without a hitch, pack 3gs and his necessities with major muscle pain later, and cover up everything. You'd grabbed a smaller box that you /did/ find in the corner by 3gs, so you packed up the stuff from your desk in that before packing away 3gs. With some more straining, you got the box back on the dolly and wheeled it out of the storage closet, still avoiding the cameras by going in their blind spots. You'd made it onto the elevator and to where part deliveries were dropped off. You hoped that you'd be able to find a replacement screen somewhere in there since Cobs hardly cleaned it out fully. No screen but you took your loses and gtfo. There was a transporter back to earth by the back entrance, specifically for deliveries, but it worked to get you back on land. Once there, you made your way to Meeple Headquarters' earth parking lot, since that's where all the workers were. You found your car and dropped the back seats to fit the box in your trunk. You were glad you invested in a SUV as you closed the trunk and nothing caught. You drove home in silence, the weight of what you just did hitting you as you stared at the rode.

You just stole a vip (very important product) from Meeple... You prayed Cobs wouldn't notice. You parked in your driveway and turned off the headlights. You were glad you lived alone. If you wanted to continue though, you'd need to find a job that paid at least half as well as Meeple did. You were glad you didn't blow all your money on a huge ass house when you moved. It left you with enough money to be comfortable. You thought about who else you could tutor or something as you wheeled the box to your front door. You flicked on your lights and put the box in your living room. You moved your couch and coffee table to make space for the box before plopping it on the floor. You'd taped it pretty securely so you worked on cutting open the box. Once open you took out everything besides 3gs. You laid them against a wall then forced yourself to get 3gs out of the box and sitting on your sofa. It was very eerie to have what was essentially a corpse sitting in your house, but you figured it would have to do as you got a sheet to put on the floor before putting him on it. Once that was in place, you looked around him to see if you had any screwdrivers that would fit, and thankfully you did. Even after all these years you could remember what he taught you about robotics and MePhone repair. You needed something to pry his screen off so you could reach the battery. You remembered going to the factory where they used some suction-type thing to apply it. You'd have to go to the store.

// CH8 //

It was the next day, and you got started by the phone corpse in the middle of the living room. It made you remember everything you did, and how you probably just put a target on your back for the rest of your life. Great. You made yourself some breakfast as you guessed it would be best to have 3gs up and running before Cobs tried to come for you. You went to the hardware store and bought a plunger, and some larger screwdrivers. When you came back you got to work. You put what he taught you to the test, and it turned out he was a great teacher, because you managed to open him up, pry his old battery off with your kitchen spatula, and replace all the ribbons and screws with out anything seemingly going wrong. You closed him back, his screen popping back into his frame with a little click which made you too nervious. You pushed in his power button and waited with bated breath. Nothing. Nothing happened and you were panicking internally. You then tried plugging him since the battery was probably out of power. You screamed when you plugged him in and the charging icon came up. That meant you'd done everything right and really did just had to wait for him to charge! You remembered him saying that it took a while to recharge fallen soldiers so you gave him a couple hours before pressing the power button again.

You were met with 3gs begging Cobs not to do something. It tore your heart apart, you guessed that was the last thing he was saying before being shut off. 3gs panted as he regained his bearings looking around your living room and trying to sit up from the couch. He looked around before realising you were there. He called your name in confusion and you couldn't help but bawl on the spot. You pulled him into a tight hug, completely inconsolable. He sort of just awkwardly let you cry for a bit as he looked around your living room some more, noting all the tools. He pushed you away gently to ask what the hell was going on. That's when you finally forced yourself to calm down. You told him everything: how he was dead, how long he was gone, how Cobs kept him in a closet saying he'd repair him someday but never actually doing it, how you may have kidnapped him and repaired him yourself--everything. It was a lot to take it. 3gs didn't want to believe you, but his memory before shutting down served him right. Cobs /did/ shut him off himself, and called him obsolete... 3gs didn't know what to do with himself now. He had no purpose anymore. You told him he had so much purpose! You were supposed to do so much together when he got back- you were going to teach him more- he was gonna teach you more about mechanics- and- and... You knew what you had to do. He needed to enjoy life. He needed to know that he was allowed to. He may have been made to be a solider, but that wasn't all he had to be. You brought up his successor, MePhone4. You told him about his show, how he was just like him, but doing what he pleased. You let 3gs know he was free. It was like a light sparked behind his cracked eye as he took your words to heart. He was free to do what he wanted... He asked if he could be a professor--he always liked to learn and share what he knew. You told him that of course he could, he'd just need a degree.

// Epilogue //

You parked your car in the driveway as you came back from the middle school you'd secured a job at. You figured getting a secure job was better than being a freelance contract tutour again. It was kinda stressful but the kids weren't all bad. You turned off the car and went to your door, only to be greeted by 3gs pixelated smile. He gave you a hug as he locked the door behind you. He took your keys and put them on a hook as you groaned against his screen. You still had papers to grade but his hold felt nice. He let you know that he made some dinner between working on his closing thesis on the participation of matter through regeneration. Very few places could actually generate matter and he'd finally managed to figure out how Cobs managed to to it, and now to make it more affordable. He just needed to go back to the lab at the college he was in to really get to test out his theorem. You congratulated him and shared out food for you both. He always liked to remind you that he didn't need to eat but his excitement got in the way. He'd taken over the dining table despite the fact he took over your office so you moved to the couch where you shared dinner and spoke about your evening. You were glad he was back and doing so well.

[kithpendragon]

This post is part of a series explaining the step-by-step process I use to enhance a set of minis that come with a board game. The whole series is tagged #KP2023SCY to make it easier to find.

Equipment and Materials

Painting the pieces is a great way to personalize a board game and make it more fun and easier to play. You will need a few things to get started, and the hobby of painting miniatures can go pretty deep if you love it hard enough. In this post, we'll look at the stuff that makes it all work. This list is far from exhaustive, but should give a good overview of the hobby.

Needed

Minis

Just to start with the obvious, you'll need a game with pieces you want to enhance. This can be something as elaborate as the figures in Scythe, Clank Legacy, and Marvel United; or you can give your Sorry pawns a fresh look and tattoo all your meeples.

Paint

Acrylic paints are the defacto standard of the craft. They dry quickly, dilute and clean up with water, and tend to be generally easy to work with. Model acrylics are engineered to make easy work, but I've used mid- and low-priced art acrylics as well. The experience tends to be like using dollar store crayons instead of name brand, but it is absolutely possible to get good results with all but the worst of paints.

Palette

Somewhere to hold your paints up between the bottle and the mini. This can be as simple as a paper plate. Dimple trays are widely accessible. I've seen people use glass or tile as a pallet. I have one that is literally an offcut of thin board with some primer on it.

Brush

Finger painting exists, and you actually can use it on minis if that floats your boat. Most people like a tuft on a stick because it gives a bit more precision.

A good natural hair brush with a sharp tip can make painting an absolute pleasure! I also have a blue plastic stick with some heavy nylon strands on the end that came with a dirt cheap watercolor set, and I use the thing sometimes! If you have a sharp-tipped brush in the house, you can probably do something amazing with it. As usual, better equipment will fight back less often.

Water

You don't have to thin your paints, but you'll get better results if you do (especially in the beginning).

You do have to clean your minis before you paint them because oils from your hands, manufacturing residue, and miscellaneous dirt will all make it harder for the paint to stick. Soap and cool water, scrub with a toothbrush. For bonus points, scrub again with isopropanol to make sure you've got everything as clean as it can be!

Enough light

When you can't see what you're doing, it probably isn't a magnification issue. (If you need magnification, use it!) More often than I'd like, the answer is to bounce some more photons off those tiny details and they pop right out.

Nice to have

Sable hair brushes

Natural brushes are more supple and responsive. They cost more, but they last a long time if you take good care of them.

Round brushes

These will help you improve your dry brushing game. Dry brushing let's you hit just the high spots on a surface, and it's just easier with a round brush.

Wet palette

The short drying time is one of the features that make acrylic paints so popular. But if you're going to spend a good chunk of the day painting, you'll probably have a lot of paint dry out on the palette. Wet palettes can help us avoid this waste. You can buy a commercial wet palette, or you can build one with a couple paper towels and some baking paper in a small tray.

Primers

Helps the paint stick to the mini, and provides opportunities for underpainting.

Hobby knife and sand paper

Lots of minis have lines and other marks from the molding process. It's nice to smooth those out before you paint.

Glue

Allows you to add things to the mini if you are so inclined.

Getting deeper

Air brush

Uses compressed air to turn paint into a fine mist and push it forward. This tool offers speed and lets you use the shapes of the mini to do some of the work for you.

Plastic cement

Less a glue and more a solvent that welds bits of plastic permanently together

Modeling compound and sculpting tools

Good for constructing custom parts and covering up gaps left by assembly.

Tufts

Pre-made bits of plastic designed to look like grass. Gives your mini somewhere to be standing.

[ziocio]

Okay then Brian...

I guess I'll have to think of something else.

Let's say... perhaps... Mephone4 really DID do days worth of coding and programming in the span of a few seconds.

And let's say Springy WASNT made by Mephone4.

If you aren't gaslighting me, Mr Koch... you're telling me Mephone4 didn't subconsciously make Springy.

But, since he was glitching, Springy was made by some form of MeLife. Or at least some kinda Meeple tech.

Which... wasn't by Mephone4.

But the thing is.. life can only be MADE by MeLife. It.. it's in the name.

But... what if he was made by MeLife?... but not by MePhone4?...

What if the Shimmer Egg that is in Cobs' possession.. is still with Cobs?...

Okay. Hear me out for a sec.

Assuming Mephone4 didn't create Springy, that means something ELSE created Springy. And under that assumption, something else at Meeple.

Perhaps it was Cobs?..

But wait! How could Cobs do that?.. Mephone4 is the only one who can use MeLife!!...

..........

Wrong.

Right here. Something always felt kinda off.

Support ending on older devices.

...devices?.. devices plural?..

Cobs was always studying the organic energy of the Shimmers, desperately wanting it for his own gain.

Though it's constantly questioned how the egg he stolen was used.

Thing is about Shimmers.. they don't seem to have one direct source of energy.

The source of light the shimmers have appears to be the energy they own.

Energy flowing through the shell inside, being orbs of light.

Which can separate and move around.

Multiple lights. More than one.

Now.. the baby shimmer has multiple lights as well.

Two main ones representing the eyes and extra particals of energy below used to float it upward.

Now, these lights are the energy source. The natural energy Cobs needed.

The eyes of the shimmers are the main forms of energy. The most concentrated. The strongest.

Now.. Cobs is a smart guy. I really doubt he would've used the only shimmer egg he acquired and used it all up completely.

So...

He made two.

Two Mephones.

Mephone4 and Mephone4s.

This screenshot is direct proof the energy here can be divided. Cobs used the main source of the Shimmer's energy to make Mephone4 as an experimental start. A beginning to test the waters.

It's why Mephone4 had so many tasks. He needed to see what the Shimmer energy was capable of. He needed to go farther and higher with the use of its power.

Mephone4s is a creation Cobs made because he knew Mephone4 wasn't pulling his weight. A Mephone that can replace Mephone4. Be the true accomplishment he needed.

Mephone4 n Mephone4s are practically identical in a few ways. But the main part is how Mephone4s had MeLife able to be installed.

Despite Mephone4s downgrading, the system still allowed MeLife and all the uses of Shimmer Energy. Mephone4 didn't lose any ability. He kept them. Kept the way to generate and recover contestants.

Now.. this is why Mephone4 dying didn't kill off the egg's use. Because it was split between Mephones.

But the egg wasn't used completely for Mephone4 and Mephone4s exclusively.

Cobs didn't want to waste such good energy.

He still had some left over.

The energy wasn't as strong, but seeing as other Meeple products can express, they too had a little amount of it.

Such as Mepad.

Mepad is able to teleport. How???... He can teleport, most likely due to some amount of Shimmer energy given to his device.

MePad isn't effected by the screams due to not having a core amount of Shimmer energy in his system. He was given some left overs.

Mepad was there when Mephone4 was fleeing, after all. Meaning Mephone4s was in slight development and not finished. Yet Mepad was given little energy.

Mepad has a personality, and isn't fully robotic. He sounds and acts robotic but he developed through the show to care and emote. He's more than other Meeple products.

Mepad was probably given waaayyyyyy less energy than Mephone4 n 4s but a vast bit more than future Meeple products.

As for Cobs, he was losing energy that he had from the Shimmer Egg. He's draining every last ounce of energy out of it into his Meeple products.

It's why they get worse and worse in design and function.

And, it's why he needs Mephone4.

Mephone4 is the most advanced. He has the most energy and power out of all Meeple products.

He contained a true part of the egg's energy source.

Yet Cobs lost control over him once he left.

The moment that wire was added into Mephone4, the control came back. And this control allowed Cobs to get Mephone4 back into the system.

Allowing him to create MephoneX by connecting energy sources.

Mephone4's energy source.

As for Springy.. remember Springy? The reason why I made this post?..

With the new context of there being MULTIPLE devices with MeLife, Cobs probably attempted to generate things with less Shimmer energy.

Which resulted in Springy being an awful mess.

Yet, he found some use for him and gave Springy a purpose. Sending him to Invintational.

Since Springy was created on a poorer version of MeLife, he couldn't help but glitch. He wasn't stressed or overwhelmed, it just was in his data.

He was imperfect.

Mephone4 was able to recover Springy due to technically running on the same network as whatever Meeple device created him.

So it was computer stuff. It was essentially looking through the database and downloading a file before it got deleted.

And doing so, allowed Mephone4 to bring Springy back.

This doesn't mean Springy has no bugs though, as he glitched after recovery. But it appears less harmful now that he was generated with a more stable software.

As for the original device that made Springy.. It doesn't matter if the device was alive, seeing as when Mephone4 died in season 1 all the contestants lived.

One last thing before I conclude this ramble.

Why did unplugging the Me device end everything for Mephone4?...

I like to think of it like this...

Mephone4 was connected to the main network of Meeple.

All his creations.. everything was on the network, the database.

Cobs couldn't have control over Mephone4 due to the device not being his. It's like how an actual phone works.

If you don't have the pass code, you don't have access.

Yet they all work under the same internet.

Cobs was able to delete the contestants due to the wire hacking in access.

Providing control.

But it doesn't matter when the main network is pulled offline.

The moment things are offline, all connections get terminated.

Like Bluetooth. Everything was paired with Mephone4.

Disconnect that, and the connection is severed.

Cobs could've pulled the plug anytime.

Cobs perhaps didn't want to pull the plug, because then all his devices would go offline.

Doesn't mean they don't function.. they're just disconnected.

This is a big loss to Mephone4. But it could be to Cobs as well.

But in the end it doesn't matter.

He got what he wanted.

[limestoner]

Laughing uncontrollably at the character names in LGIO’s playthrough of Meeple Station.

I like to stim on videos that have vocal intonation that I like. I’ll dip in for the stim lines, wander, have some Bubblegum OG, recite more stim lines.

Stim lines sounds like something that is in urban dictionary. siiiiiiigh

I checked and it isn’t. Great! I mean stim lines are lines spoken in a movie or show with intonations that hit my ears just right. It feels good to recite them along with the original. In my ears, in my brain, in my mouth, in my body. If that sounds orgasmic, that’s because it almost is. It’s a rare state of physical synchrony of sensations. No anxiety.

Oh god. It feels good to hear and speak, but it is so hard to listen and express.

I need to know the audio. I need to control the audio. I need to be able to jump in and dip out based on how I feel internally, whether or not it fits within the conversation. Like mid sentence, speaking or listening, I just need to be done, walk away. Destimulate.

Usually I’m a sensory avoider rather than a sensory seeker. But I seek for synchronizing my voice to the original voice saying the words in the intonation that I like. It’s extremely similar to how I feel about spicy food. I don’t like bland food. Like I’ll eat it and never complain, but it’s not my favorite. I like a medium-hot level of spicy with bountiful pepper and herbs and spices. But if the food is too spicy and it’s physically uncomfortable you can’t enjoy it. So I’ll take bland food over too hot. And don’t get me started on temperature hot!

Tasty! Tasty! Tasty!

I like a medium level of hearing and talking, but don’t understand or sync up with the conversation rhythm. It takes me too long to process what the person really means because I’m stuck in all the sounds.

I think it helps me hear sounds new to me in other languages because that is what my brain prioritizes.

When I have ear infections, not being able to hear on one side makes me feel unbalanced. Not in the vestibular system sense, but because the patterns of sounds in the environment aren’t balanced between my two sides. I’m not sure which side is heavier: blocked or healthy ear.

I’d love to have MRI scans done to see if this is what’s going on. I think a lot of people with autism who are thought to be “nonverbal” but make sounds are in fact saying words that are unintelligible due to motor speech problems. Gestalt Language Processors (GLP).

I always knew that my life was easier than it would have been if I wasn’t able to speak the way I do. I never had difficulty with motor speech though motor skills for the rest of me are a different story so everything I said sounded pretty good, because it was cobbled together chunks of audio that I had heard and sensed that “fit” the context in some way.

The level of precision with which I have to have and in real time, and how much to keep up with its like trying to build a railroad with an oncoming train. But I have to do it! There are expectations, you see. People usually expect small talk topics. Polite conversation. The content and and implications are critically important. I bond with people over stim lines. When I hang out with my friend and do that, it’s the happiest feeling ever.

If an autistic person makes a sound, especially a repeated one, try making it with them. It’s comforting. More comforting than asking, “Are you okay?” The shared sound feels like “I’m with you.” Not a song. Just regular words.

I guess you could say that’s my hobby. Reciting stim lines and walking around all weird and bendy. Though according to George Carlin, “it’s not a hobby. Hobbies cost money; interests are free.” I could go for some George Carlin stim lines. From his stand up and from Shining Time Station.

[chicken0death]

The game store we game at moved to a larger location, and this week was the first Monday our group was able to meet there. It's a super nice store! There's a lot more space now for us to game in and we all love it!

We decided to ring in the new year, and the new store, with a big dumb game of Carcassonne. We combined almost every expansion available. We started at about 1:00pm. Two hours later, when M. had to head to work, we still weren't finished. But that's OK. We still had a great time.

I'm not sure it would have made a difference. R. and M. spent most of the game fighting over a massive city that J. tried his hardest to sabotoge. The city was completed (which coincided with when we needed to stop), and both R. and M. had equal meeple power. Even though they split the 140 points (we calculated this wrong, but it wouldn't have made too much of a difference), there's no way J. and I could have caught up with them. AND there was no way M. could have caught up with R.

It was crazy!

It was awesome!

After we cleaned up, I went to grab R. and I a sandwich. Jo. arrived shortly before I returned. He had a couple new holiday acquisitions, so we tried out one of those.

We played the Cowboy Beebop deck building game. I am only somewhat familiar with the anime, but it didn't really matter. Like all deck builders, you have your own deck of cards that you build up throughout the game. The cards have special abilities and a couple types of currency. Pretty basic stuff.

It was fun.

Sadly, we couldn't finish this one either. We'll try again another time.

I purchased Parks with some money I got as a Christmas gift. R. and I will try that in the next day or two. But I think it will be a good fit for my collection and the group.

It's always great to game with this group! And the new space was the cherry on top. It was a pretty great day.

[psychotecha]

Fell down the rabbit hole that is Kickstarter and ended up backing this thing. Solo games always sound fun for when you want to play but no one else does or when the closest living being is a cat just waiting for you to die so it can eat your face. I just never really liked the concept of any of them enough to buy one before. Fucking this one is all about horror and slashers and it just kicked my nostalgia gut hard.

And is it bad that I’m looking at the gameplay of it and thinking it’d make a good literary prompt?