#just a small half human half guardian raised among the Actual huge ocean guardians looking after him

[peskyvinot]

I've been thinking about mod Mleems commentary under this hc recently, and smyh was bugging me. not in the sense of me disliking it in any way, but in the (all too familiar) qutistic sense of not Getting something. so I was wandering what the "corruption" meant here. I didn't come to a conclusion BUT it opened up another stinky can of worms in me brain

xb, in my mind, is a late decendant of the ocean guardians family. ocean guardians existed Way before a Player was created. the guardian mobs existed with the ancient creatures (who built and concured and left the ships and loot behind. they weren't a Player tho). so his kind had a rich history, but he Is a hybrid. he's not fully guardian.

and he knows the ocean as a combination of what he can physically see (the buried remains of loot, the rich flora and fauna, magic seeping through some of the waters like a thin layer of electricity) and what his family and the Elders taught him about the history, even if the original meaning of Why the monuments were created are lost in history, the instincts and the gratitude are set deep within the guardians as a matter of fact.

that being said, the ocean Changed. after all, (in my vision) the coders, the mojang, exist as... well, not gods, but creatures of the greatest powers of creation. so yes, corals didn't really exist in his childhood. but whats fascinating is...so didn't the fishing loot.

xb always wondered, what was up with that? I mean the concept of magic is Deffenetely not new, but he really was surprised when the waters started to feel Different with the upcoming updates. he wanted to see the enchanted books that everyone afk-fisged for as a gift and an exploit, but something just didn't feel right. the books were not like the used up old but sturdy fishing rods you could fish up, obviously left by the same creatures who left the sunken ships behind. the books, in fact, looked brand new, without a Smear of the effect the ocean should've had on them... I mean, sure, the enchanted books are quite sturdy and protected by magic, but if they really came from the ocean floor, did the pressure Really not effect it? that's the things xb thinks about sometimes when zoned out. it isn't scary, but it's a little disturbing not Knowing smth about his ocean. but other hermits don't seem to question it, after all, The Coders add wacky stuff all the time! no need to question it. no need to question anything, the topic really worthy of discussion only when the coders realised they messed up and the loot was reduced down...

xb was excited when many hermits desided to be connected with the ocean/water bodies in season 10, only to realise that

-grian frequently curses the ocean

-gem builds the horrors

-and false ripped up the rivers to build new ones

he's, In fact, quite protective of the ocean. so much for being the guardian royalty. and now his whole world (the hermits. friens) collided with his other whole world (the ocean he was born to protect)

The ocean that was his home is... different, now. Corrupted. Eldritch creatures haunt the depths, and the whole thing seems more hostile. It worries him.

-Mod Mleem

[sdvxii-moved]

happy april 30th

I need scissors! 61! Kawanishi-Noseguchi, Kinunobebashi, Takiyama, Uguisunomori, Tsuzumigataki, Tada, Hirano, Ichinotorii, Uneno, Yamashita, Sasabe, Kofudai, Tokiwadai, Myoukenguchi. I noticed this a while back, but you have far too many Game Overs. Sorry to be blunt, but you really stink at this game. Honestly, though, you have played the game for a long time. Don't you have anything else to do with your time? I hear it's amazing when the famous purple stuffed worm in flap-jaw space with the tuning fork does a raw blink on Hara-Kiri Rock. Actually, I am in really bad shape financially. I pay money to my ex-wife as part of our divorce settlement, among other bills... I just had no choice but to make you pay for lunch the other day. I'm really sorry. Raiden, something happened to me last Thursday when I was driving home. I had a couple of miles to go -- I looked up and saw a glowing orange object in the sky, to the east! It was moving very irregularly... Suddenly, there was intense light all around me -- and when I came to, I was home. What do you think happened to me...? You wouldn't be trying to give yourself a bogus score using some ingenious trick would you? That's just about as low as anyone could possibly stoop! I can't believe you sometimes... You seem to get a real thrill out of slaughtering the enemy. Are you frustrated about something? I was a North American Fall Webworm in my past life. Those were the good old days... What were you in your former life? La-Li-Lu-Le-Lo! La-Li-Lu-Le-Lo! La-Li-Lu-Le-Lo! Raiden, are you receiving? We're (1) still here. Only (2) GW....To begin with -- we're not what you'd call -- human. Over the past two hundred years -- A kind of consciousness formed layer by layer in the crucible of the White House. It's not unlike the way life started in the oceans four billion years ago. The White House was our primordial soup, a base of evolution - We are formless. We are the very discipline and morality that Americans invoke so often. How can anyone hope to eliminate us? As long as this nation exists, so will we. Jack, don't be silly. Don't you know that our plans have your interests -- not ours -- in mind? Jack, listen carefully like a good boy! The mapping of the human genome was completed early this century. As a result, the evolutionary log of the human race lay open to us. We started with genetic engineering, and in the end, we succeeded in digitizing life itself. But there are things not covered by genetic information. Human memories, ideas. Culture. History. Genes don't contain any record of human history. Is it something that should not be passed on? Should that information be left at the mercy of nature?We've always kept records of our lives. Through words, pictures, symbols... from tablets to books... But not all the information was inherited by later generations. A small percentage of the whole was selected and processed, then passed on. Not unlike genes, really. That's what history is, Jack. But in the current, digitized world, trivial information is accumulating every second, preserved in all its triteness. Never fading, always accessible. Rumors about petty issues, misinterpretations, slander... All this junk data preserved in an unfiltered state, growing at an alarming rate. It will only slow down social progress, reduce the rate of evolution. Raiden, you seem to think that our plan is one of censorship. You're being silly! What we propose to do is not to control content, but to create context. The digital society furthers human flaws and selectively rewards development of convenient half-truths. Just look at the strange juxtapositions of morality around you. Billions spent on new weapons in order to humanely murder other humans. Rights of criminals are given more respect than the privacy of their victims. Although there are people suffering in poverty, huge donations are made to protect endangered species. Everyone grows up being told the same thing. Be nice to other people. But beat out the competition! You're special." "Believe in yourself and you will succeed." But it's obvious from the start that only a few can succeed... You exercise your right to "freedom" and this is the result. All rhetoric to avoid conflict and protect each other from hurt. The untested truths spun by different interests continue to churn and accumulate in the sandbox of political correctness and value systems. Everyone withdraws into their own small gated community, afraid of a larger forum. They stay inside their little ponds, leaking whatever "truth" suits them into the growing cesspool of society at large. The different cardinal truths neither clash nor mesh. No one is invalidated, but nobody is right. Not even natural selection can take place here. The world is being engulfed in "truth." And this is the way the world ends. Not with a bang, but a whimper. We're trying to stop that from happening. It's our responsibility as rulers. Just as in genetics, unnecessary information and memory must be filtered out to stimulate the evolution of the species. Absolutely. Who else could wade through the sea of garbage you people produce, retrieve valuable truths and even interpret their meaning for later generations? That's what it means to create context. But is that even your own idea? Or something Snake told you? That's the proof of your incompetence, right there. You lack the qualifications to exercise free will. Does something like a "self" exist inside of you? That which you call "self" serves as nothing more than a mask to cover your own being. In this era of ready-made 'truths', "self" is just something used to preserve those positive emotions that you occasionally feel... ...Another possibility is that "self" is a concept you conveniently borrowed under the logic that it would endow you with some sense of strength...Is it? Would you prefer that someone else tell you? Alright then. Explain it to him. Jack, you're simply the best! And you got there all by yourself! Oh, what happened? Do you feel lost? Why not try a bit of soul-searching?Don't think you'll find anything, though... Ironic that although "self" is something that you yourself fashioned, every time something goes wrong, you turn around and place the blame on something else. It's not my fault. It's not your fault. In denial, you simply resort to looking for another, more convenient "truth" in order to make yourself feel better....leaving behind in an instant the so-called "truth" you once embraced. Should someone like that be able to decide what is "truth"?Should someone like you even have the right to decide? You've done nothing but abuse your freedom. You don't deserve to be free! We're not the ones smothering the world. You are. The individual is supposed to be weak. But far from powerless -- a single person has the potential to ruin the world. And the age of digitized communication has given even more power to the individual. Too much power for an immature species. Building a legacy involves figuring out what is wanted, and what needs to be done for that goal. All this, you used to struggle with. Now, we think for you. We are your guardians after all. -- You want to control human thought? Human behavior? Of course. Anything can be quantified nowadays. That's what this exercise was designed to prove. You fell in love with me just as you were meant to, after all. Isn't that right, Jack? Ocelot was not told the whole truth, to say the least. We rule an entire nation -- of what interest would a single soldier, no matter how able, be to us? The S3 Plan does not stand for Solid Snake Simulation. What it does stand for is Selection for Societal Sanity... The S3 is a system for controlling human will and consciousness. S3 is not you, a soldier trained in the image of Solid Snake. It is -- a method, a protocol, that created a circumstance that made you what you are. So you see, we're the S3. Not you. What you experienced was the final test of its effectiveness. You heard what President Johnson said. "The Arsenal's 'GW' system is the key to their supremacy." The objective of this exercise was to establish such a method. We used Shadow Moses as a paradigm for the exercise. I wonder if you would have preferred a fantasy setting? We chose that backdrop because of its extreme circumstances. It was an optimal test for S3's crisis management capacity. If the model could trigger, control and solve this, it would be ready for any contingency. And now, we have our proof. Raiden, there are also reasons behind your selection. Solidus raised plenty of other child soldiers. Do you know why we chose you over them? It was because you were the only one who refused to acknowledge the past. All the others remember what they were, and pay for it daily. But you turn your back on everything you don't like. You do whatever you like, see only the things you like, and for yourself alone. Yes -- Rose can attest to that. You refused to see me for what I was. I lied to you, but I wanted to be caught. You pretended to be understanding, to be a gentleman... You never made a conscious attempt to reach out to me... The only time you did was when I gave you no choice but to do so... What? "Trying not to hurt me?" Dear, the one you were trying not to hurt was yourself! Avoiding the truth under the guise of "kindness" is all that you did! It occurred to you to do nothing but look out for yourself. Even if you claim that it was for my sake, that feeling was nowhere to be seen. In the end, everything was for your sake... I was never part of the picture. Ha, ha, ha...exactly right. So you see, you're a perfect representative of the masses we need to protect. This is why we chose you. You accepted the fiction we've provided, obeyed our orders and did everything you were told to. The exercise is a resounding success. "Didn't I tell you that GW was still incomplete? But not anymore, thanks to you." Your persona, experiences, triumphs and defeats are nothing but byproducts. The real objective was ensuring that we could generate and manipulate them. It's taken a lot of time and money, but it was well worth it considering the results. I think that's enough talk. It's time for the final exercise. Raiden, take Solidus down. Oh really? Aren't you forgetting something? "If you die, my child dies. " The termination of vital signals from your nanomachines means the death of Olga's child. Not to mention the death of Rose. She's wired the same way. "Of course I do, Jack! You have to beLIEve me!" It will be a fight to the death. Solidus, at least, wants you dead. We will collect the necessary data from this last fight, then we'll consider the exercise closed. So, Jack the Ripper! Will it be Solidus, the Patriots' creation? Or you -- Solidus' creation? Our beloved monsters -- enjoy yourselves. Jack, do you remember what day it is?