#karma files spoilers

[rozetheeuwu]

"It was necessary, but, I feel awful for creating this.

How many people will it hurt? It's going to tear away at so many lives…

End of Night.

The Obliteration Spell."

[percephilous]

Uhh. Karma file spoilers lol

It's pride month,,,,,, yknow what that means??

This came to me in a dream btw

[primacuey]

More silly stuff :3

Hanging out at the mall w/ Crescent was a little funny cus I almost always chose the wrong options replying to her and all I did there was.... buy potions.....

I like her though!! She may not like Iris, but she's really sweet in her own way haha 🫶

The little indicator that pops up when you lose a friendship point with her reminded me of when I played BG3 and Astarion disapproving of everything I did😭😭😭😭

[vynnyal]

Turns out Sunlit Trail isn't quite done just yet, so after all that they just send you to a dead end 😂

[superdummymags]

[several-ravens]

jonathan sims is becoming paranoid and live for it

local man found his secret drawer open and thinks someone is reading his diary

[oocpokemonfangames]

[juiceshiru]

cw /// blood + rejuv paragon karma files spoilers !!

[spar-kie]

Do You Have The Time?

A Thorough Dissection of What Past Aevium Means For You

So I've been reading through @/jazz-kitty's rejuv playthrough (not actually tagging them bc this will contain spoilers for shit they've not gotten to but if you're reading this Jazz, keep up the good work! It's super fun to read through your playthrough :>), and I've realized we got some concrete dates (in a fashion), meaning that, we might be able to figure out when Storm 9 happens, within a couple months! As well as some other details.

Anyways even if you don't want to hear my rambling about dates, there's gonna be something I really want to share underneath the cut, I'll put some big bold header text so you know where to scroll to.

Now, it all starts here, with Melia's Mimikyu, which we are there to see caught, giving us a concrete date, October 10th, 198X.

Now you may be asking yourself, but Sparkie, the screenshot says 1984? That's because my buddy Nym, who is on the dev team, stated that to its memory, the year is calculated based off your system date. Meaning that the year will change depending on the year you play Rejuv in. However, Jazz's post that I got this from does mention in the tags how the rest of Melia's pokemon are caught from 1981-1983. I had an old save file kicking around that was near Blacksteeple, and checking "Emma's" Pokemon in that I can also say that these dates are variable based off system time. Being 198X-3 through 198X-1. For simplicity's sake we're going to be based off of System Time being the year 2024, mostly because shit like 198X-1 is hard to read. But just keep in mind that as Rejuv is set in 202X these dates have about a 10 year range they can vary by, this will come back later, take note of this.

I want to establish before we go forward, you can also see how this works for yourself rather easily, if you go into the past and catch a pokemon, the date it's caught at will be your system time, minus 40 years. This, combined with some plot elements such as Melia's birthday being after she catches this Mimikyu confirms that the past segments take place exactly 40 years before present day, with the Time Crystals not sending you back or forth to a specific time and date, but rather a set amount of time forward and back (in this case 40 years).

Anyways, this also lets us know that Storm-9 happened a little over 39 years ago as of the game's start, and at some point during the game's time span we will hit the 40 year anniversary. I always thought it was 50 years before the game's start, I don't remember if I got that from somewhere in game or it's just one of them things I got in my head, but between the wiki and a reply from Zumi on one of my tweets it's actually 40. If anyone has the same misconception I had, I hope that clears it up.

But through what we can gleam in game, we can actually tell (roughly) when Storm-9 happens! Judging by the fact we can still visit the past at the end of the .karma files, Storm-9 has not hit the past yet. It's going to happen very soon, but it's not there yet. Thankfully, we have a very concrete date on when that would be, December 25th, 2024, as the Xen Raid is just one day later. Meaning, that as of December 25th, 1984, the Aevium region is still fine. This combined with the fact that there is a note on the door of the house occupied by the A-Gang near Hyoshi City that says they'll be out until the Summer means that they are going to be at school until late May, early June, assuming it runs at similar time frames to a school in the U.S.. Meaning that, at some point, most likely in Early 1985, but possibly for about a week in Late 1984, is when Storm 9 hits. You could extrapolate more (i.e. no teachers/other students in the academy during the Interceptor's Nightmare Realm means people might've been on break, meaning it was Late 1984 and the gang was just hanging out at the academy) but as that's explicitly stated to be not entirely accurate to how that day actually was, I'm not going to do that.

HI IF YOU JUST WANT THE FUNNY INFORMATION SCROLL HERE

Anyways, now that you've heard me ramble about dates like your history teacher, we get to the fun part! That being I get to tell you about the A gang! That being we know the protag choices are 17-18 years old, and given that we know Storm 9 happened in either very Late 1984 or Early 1985, we can assume that the A-Gang were those ages during Storm-9. Meaning their birth years could range between 1966-1968, placing them firmly in Gen X, meaning they are chronologically old enough to be some of the people reading this's parents!

But that's not all, do you remember how I stated that Rejuv took place in 202X, meaning it could be any year of the 2020s? And thus, the past segments take place in any year 40 years before that, in the 1980s? If we were to say, put the year Rejuv takes place in in 2020, then that would mean the A Gang would be born in the years 1962-1964.

The general consensus on baby boomers is that they were born between 1946-1964.

The A Gang could, conceivably, be baby boomers.

Have a nice night everyone.

[fcmn]

So, I decided to talk about Downpour DLC of Rain World, because, why not?

I'll talk only about More Slugcat Expansion part of DLC, because Co-op and expeditions that were added is just great, I don't have anything to say about them.

Also I want to make clear that everything said here is purely my opinion and I don't force anyone to agree on it, and also spread hate on anyone who disagree on this opinion.

SPOILERS!!!

So, Downpour. An Expansion, that added 5 new characters to play and 5 new campaings to expirience, and yet, there's something I don't like about it. So let's talk about everything one by one.

1. Slugcats

Gourmand, Artificer, Rivulet, Spearmaster and Saint. Five new scugs, five new ways to play the game. I really like how fun they are, really, they all powerful and unique, you have to adapt for every single one of them. But this coin has two sides. Fun and power we got, cost us the idea of vanilla Rain World, the fact, that we are almost at the bottom of a food chain, we can overpower every threat, but with pure strugle and effort, not just because we have the ability to make everything go kaboom. I can't say I dislike the gameplay of new scugs, but I can't say I purely like it. The same creatures and threat that we encountered as vanilla trio, doesn't feel the same way for new squad, they can arguebly easy kill anything. I do believe, that there is a golden line between fun and philosophy of Rain World, it is probably possible to balance every scug in a way, that they will feel more natural for the eco-system, but still being fun to play. I'm not a developer, nor a game-designer, it's just my opinion as a player.

2. Story

This is something that I started to think about not so long ago. Each of the new campaings, except Saint, has a pretty similar pattern: Go to FP, listen to some dialogue, go into new region and get your score screen. Why is it always Five Pebbles? You have to visit him in order to progress the story. Which isn't true for Hunter, Monk or Survivor. I mean, as a new player, you'll visit him to get a basic understanding of what are you even suposed to do, but when you know where do you need to go, you can get to the ending without visiting Pebbles or Moon. You could say, that it makes sence for them to go to Pebbles, because they have to receive something from him. Fixing ID drone for Arti, giving Riv the ball, opening gate to outer expanse for Gourm and taking thr pearl put of Spearmaster. For SM, I'll say right now, that it is logical for him to visit Pebbles in prder to progress, he is a messenger. Probably it is the same for Riv, but I still have a filing that it could be done differently. Though I think it should be different for Arti and Gourm. As a Gourmand, it doesn't make sence for Pebbles to give him a mark of communication at all, he could just sent him out of his can and show him the direction to the Outer Expanse via the Overseers, much like Iggy does guide Monk and Survivor to Looks to the Moon and then to Five Pebbles. For Artificer, since she's next after Spearmaster, of which visit FP wasnt happy at all and he could just lock the karma gates to FP region like he did with Outer Expanse, so no one could enter his structure and distract him. Sofanthiel (ID drone), could be more useful in this scenario, he could act as an Overseer of sorts, pointing out threat, flashing images of Chief Scav and Elite Scavs as warnings and he could lead to the alternative way into Metropolis and also, I would give player a bit different route to the Chieftain Scav arena, the route that would make a visit to Atop the Tallest Tower mandatory for going forward, and the Echo there would give player a choice, proceed with the path of violence or choose a path of Ascension, which, in my opinion, does fit the "What fate a slugcat?" phrase.

Saint is just worth a whole another post to just talk about him, because he gives off mixed signals for me. But I can say, that, I love his campaing.

Overall, I do think that downpour story is good at some points, for me at least, but I also think, that it could've been done a lot better.

3. Five Pebbles.

I do like the new character of Five Pebbles, it does waves away almost everything pre-Downpour FP showed us, byt it's still a great character with good tragedy story. Five Pebbles and other Iterators being more human-like is a good thing for me. Five Pebbles being more similar to humans with his personality is something I like, because you can grow a bond with him through out the story. From SM's campaing where he is an angry teen who just pushes everyone away, all the way to the Riv's campaing, where he is more mature, regretting everything he's done in the past, not seeking forgivness upon himself. Seeing him first time in Saint's campaing and listen to him barely able to speak is... Heavy. It is a really emotional moment and I couldn't hold the tears, looking at the way he speaks and trying to listen his favorite pearl, even though it's already showing sings of decay, slowly fading out.

4. Sliver of Straw.

It's more about Challenge 70 being uncanon. I do dislike this statement and I think, it wastes a lot of interesting things to discuss because of it. All the theories about Sliver and Saint, also about Iterator's abbilities just fell into nothing. I personally love the theory about Saint being THE triple affirmative, created by Sliver herself to ascend her and probably others, but, it just happend too early, before Sliver was able to share the news about solving their great problem, and that's why she fought back, as Saint tried to ascend her. I just love this theory and I hate the fact, that it all just nothing more than a silly headcannon, because of how Challenge 70 is considered non-canon >:(

That's all I have to say about Downpour. Sorry if there was too much hate of just straight up nonsence, these are just my unfiltered thoughts on the DLC. Also I am, by no means encouraging you to spread any form of hate towards Downpour developer team or Videocult themselfs, they all did a massive job to bringing this Expansion to life and I am happy we do have it at all.

[twixstari]

THE PARALLELS BETWEEN FIRE AND FLYING; RENEGADE KARMA FILES

I've been marinating in this entire route for like, a week now. It's driven me MAD. So I'm here to talk about it again. Spoilers below!!

Talon and Amber's deaths parallel each other so, so perfectly, especially if Florin is already been executed. I'm only going to be talking about that route, btw. So... If you don't know about it, here's a clip.

They are precise opposites of each other in their deaths.

Talon loses everything he ever had, and goes out accepting his own death.

Amber gains everything she ever wanted, and goes out fighting to the end for it.

For Talon? You see him throughout the karma files. He's been marked by karma to stop you. And things just keep going downhill.

He learns his best friend was executed. He learns his student is leaving him. He learns his mother is on her deathbed. And before he dies, his own tower is crumpling to the ground beneath him.

He loses everything. Used by a god to stop you.

He turns into a beast, and even that melts away. He's been used as nothing but a cruel toy to satiate the plot. He's lost it all.

And erasure's meant to be terrifying. Everyone forgets you. But he's lost it all anyways. So what does it matter? He has nothing left for him. It's sad, seeing him be erased by you. But he's made his peace with it.

He goes out smiling. It's pathetic, but it's his, and he's okay with it, as terrible as it is. It's his time to go.

He won't survive.

A necessary tragedy.

And onto his parallel: Amber.

You also see Amber several times throughout the route. Hanging out with her friend. Talking about her mom. They even added a scene where she goes out to dinner with you. Her sibling.

She never had that. She was alone for all her time on Terajuma. Her relationship with her mom was souring every day. She wanted friends, but pushed people away enough so that she couldn't make them.

She has that now. Venam and her investigate into you and have fun buddy moments. She's repairing things with Tesla, and she's even learned her dad is alive and around somewhere! She still has stuff to do here!

But when she gets in too deep into your ulterior motives with Venam, she's cut short entirely. She has everything she wants, and it gets ripped away from her.

But she fights for it. Her last move alive is pushing Venam aside to save her.

Because she has everything now. Friends. A place in the world.

But it's cut short. Erased by you.

Hell, her final words are even cut short.

Then she's erased. Gone. Her friends don't remember her, her mom doesn't remember her. She had so much left. She wasn't even marked for death.

An unnecessary tragedy.

Both Talon and Amber just didn't ever fit into the grand scheme of erasure. Get them out of the way now, I guess.

Talon's is inevitable. Amber's is preventable. But both get erased anyways.

Both are terrible. Complete opposites of each other. But both happen.

tl;dr??

WOW. JAN WAS THIS TALON/AMBER DEATH SCENE PARALLEL PLANNED? BC IM STILL REELING ABOUT IT. OW. OW. WHAT THE F

[rozetheeuwu]

Odd Friendships

I wanted to draw my ocs interacting with canon characters more so here I go!!!

I finished the first two for the set a little while ago but got burned out for the third one.... Anyway first set for my brokenchainverse ocs!!

[gamergirlshelby]

alright this is a theory that i've had in mind for a while but im finally gonna go into the details of it since i am once again thinking about this amazing game again.

i first want to note however that this will be going into MAJOR MAJOR spoilers for Pokemon Rejuvenation, a game that I recommend extremely highly to anyone who is into fangames so please check it out, the level of detail and quality thats been put into it still amazes me and i am very excited and patiently waiting for the next update to be ready!

i'll also be taking screenshots from Dred's videos showcasing the content, so i recommend checking out their channel.

anyways without further ado, the theory will be under the readmore.

My theory will be going into the idea that the Paragon and Renegade routes are connected, and the idea that the Interceptors from each route are working on getting the best possible ending for at least one of them.

And this idea all came to mind from this line said by the player:

Now my theory is the They that the Renegade Interceptor (will shorten to RI for brevity) is the Paragon Interceptor (will shorten to PI) and their timeline.

The RI knows that what they're doing is for not, as they will be erased, but there is still a version of the world and all their friends that gets to live on.

But the question is, how exactly are the two helping one another? By giving the other the tools that are needed to accomplish their goals. The RI had built the Red Chain, and the PI along with Melia created the Obliteration Spell or the End of Night.

And the way Melia talks about the creation of the spell mentions that it had been necessary, likely being necessary for the plan with the RI. And after re-watching the entire Renegade Karma files, there is no scene or dialogue that implies the RI had created a version of the spell to use, especially not while working with M2, who goes on to question what the heck the spell even is, deducing that it is total annihilation.

sorry for the red lines i'll retype the quote from M2 here: "You spent all of the time gathering those Red Games. And after all that time crafting the red chain you just decided to yeet it into space?"

But the thing is the chain wasn't just yeeted into space. It was delivered somewhere.

And that somewhere I think is the Paragon timeline. As similarly to the End of Night, the Red Chain is never crafted in the Paragon timeline, but it is still used to restrain Tiempa. And I have a hunch that the Lake Guardians are loosely aware of what the interceptors have done as if you go to find and catch them in the Paragon route, they hop out of the small rifts as they did in Renegade, and all have this text:

Now why would the PI steal the red gem components from the Lake Guardians? Its shown in PLA that if you pass their trials normally you would be able to get the pieces gifted to you so why would they not do that off screen? Its cause they weren't even the ones to take the red gems. It was the RI.

And in my opinion is the dialogue from the failed world segments, but I will be taking special note of what Karma says during the Renegade section.

I will be dissecting the whole dialogue which I have linked to in Dred's video which I will be linking to the timestamp here (if it didn't work the conversation starts at 37:48 and goes on to around 39:03)

"But to be confined through the laws of space and time... This is not possible. I will break these rules. We will move forward." This quote at the end I think is the smoking gun. Karma in an attempt to start again and create the perfect base for the true happy ending had caused there to be a connection between time and space, allowing for the two interceptors to connect. I think that this rewind might have been the initial timeline before Paragon Melia took the place of M2 in the Failed World, and after the rewind happened M2 had been moved to the Renegade timeline, allowing for Paragon Melia to more easily take her place, come up with a plan with the host for the Interceptor, and create the happy ending.

Now I speculate that Karma and the supposed World Shatterer will likely play as a final sort of threat to the story after the Xen Raid and how the Rejuv Team handles that will definitely be something I'm looking forward too.

If anyone has any possible supplementary information or ideas I'd love to hear them and I'd be happy to hear about anyone's other theories about what could be going on in the story. Anyways thank you for reading this long long theory post and again I'd love to hear thoughts on it!

[cresvalkyrie]

'Liberator' is an interesting trainer class for Hauyne. What's the reason for it?

Okay, so to answer that question, you'll need to know some Chroniclerverse lore history. I'm talking like super ancient history, all the way back in the Old World Era.

Spoilers from .karma files' Paragon and Renegade routes under the cut!

So in the Chroniclerverse, after humanity won the war against Arceus, Pokemon and its loyal followers the Sidhe (aka aura wielders if you've been following @/tired-needs-sleep's Sara content), the world starts to crumble away in the absence of their god.

However, the humans soon learned that the Sidhe have been attempting to resurrect their god, Arceus, using the golden arch it left behind upon its death via a series of sacrificial hosts. But it's not the resurrection of Arceus they're interested in, they're interested in the godlike powers the host of the golden arch was bestowed in. They did not want Arceus to return, they want to replace it with a god of their own making, one that could sustain the world in its place.

With that, humanity launched a second attack upon the surviving Sidhe, seizing the golden arch for their own selfish gains. They would call this artifact "Archetype" after refining it, and experimented it on willing volunteers in an attempt to find/manufacture their perfect God.

One of these volunteers is Electra, who would later become the Renegade Interceptor of the Chroniclerverse. Unlike the others, Electra showed far more promise as the Archetype's host, gaining traits of Dialga's abilities and was even able to manifest the Archetype's full power albeit for short periods of time. However, she inevitably contracted Genesis Syndrome and died a slow painful death, so she was marked off as a failure (although her soul was harvested and kept away for a different program).

Then came Reset Zero that ended the Old World, and Electra was awakened for the first time in eons to take Aevia's place as the Interceptor. Due to her being dormant for so long, her memories became fractured, so her journey across Aevium is also a journey for her to regain her memories, find out what happened to her old home and if she could return to it.

Of course, Electra would eventually learn that all traces of her old life was wiped away, which drove her past the brink of despair and made her obsessed with restoring the Old World so that she could return to her old life. To that end, she sent the world onto a destructive path, hoping to destroy it in order to make room for the restoration of the Old. While she was successful... somewhat, her destroying the world also ended up wiping herself from existence, so all her struggles ended up being for nothing in the end.

But not all traces of her was wiped away; remnants of her, the manifestation of her bitterness, resentment and grief lingered still, and it remained inside the CORE, infecting it like a virus. That 'virus' was what corrupted the CORE and by extension Karma, causing it to loop endlessly and trapping everyone in a never-ending cycle of death and suffering even after a world has flourished and "Bloomed". There's more to the cycles than just the virus infecting and corrupting it, but it's one of the main reasons since the loops are partially to reconstruct the data that got corrupted as a result of Electra's actions.

This is where Hauyne comes in. Due to her origins, she's gained awareness of the cycles very early on, realising that this was not supposed to happen and that there's something that's causing this unnatural timeloops. So her mission as the Interceptor went from "saving the world" to "liberating the worlds from its endless cycle of death", even if it meant declaring war against Karma itself and removing it as well as its influence from the worlds entirely. Hence, "Liberator".

[owlhead650]

hiiii… i know i already did a request but i can’t help but ask for some nevstasia… your writing is sooooo tasty and it would make us so very happy if we got some nevstasia writing from u :3

Hi Meteors.

I know you asked for Nevstasia shipping content but no matter how much I thought about it I just couldn't picture it. I couldn't think of a good romantic scene to write between the two. Instead I wrote a short story focusing mainly on Ren and Nastasia with a quick scene including Neved. I hope you enjoy the story.

Happy Birthday Meteors.

This short story is around 3165 words long and includes my oc Asopo acting as the interceptor. When Asopo gets mentioned the characters are referring to the player character. This story includes a novelised version of an actual scene from .Karma files so beware of spoilers. Without further ado, here is the story I wrote for my lovely friend The Meteorites. @pokefangamebrainrot & @pokemonsillysys

Pokemon Rejuvenation - Nastasia .Karma Files

Nestasia was writing her report for unauthorised mission number seventeen. For reasons best known to herself and Madame X, she was able to get away with this borderline insubordination as long as she wrote these reports afterwards which totally didn’t omit any information. She checked the word count. ‘1083’ words. She estimated that it would take Madame X about 16 minutes and 40 seconds for her to finish reading it.

She re-read the report to ensure there weren’t any mistakes. The title of her report read “Mission Approved Post Completion No. 25” Now that would have been a fatal mistake. Madame X only knew about 17, she had to keep it that way.

“Hey, Nastasa?”

She looked up from her laptop to the person standing next to her. “Yes, Ren?”

“I just wanted to ask if you could help me get back into my body for a little bit.” That is not the question she was expecting.

“What? Why? What would be the point in doing that?”

“Well you see me and my friends are going to do this hang out together and I guess I just want to… be there? For real? I also just miss the way my body felt. I touch myself and I feel metal, I think my pokemon all miss it too.”

“I get where you’re coming from but… I just think that’s an unnecessary risk. You know why.” Ren’s real body was currently in a life support pod hidden somewhere known only to herself, Ren and Madame X. At least Madame X believed she knew where it was. When she demanded that Nastasia show it to her she was led to a life support pod in which the body of a black haired teenager was laying down unconscious. This was a ditto acting as Ren’s body double, she couldn’t keep her promise to Ren if Madame X knew where the real one was.

“I know it’s a risk but… things are going to get more serious soon, we both know it will. It’ll happen when… y’know.” Nastasia did know. She had been the one to explain to Ren that the dome over Grand Dream City wasn’t actually just for simulating preferable weather in the city. It was to make sure no one could evacuate when that thing was unleashed upon them.

“So you think you won’t get a chance like this again? You want a break from that robot body when you can still get it?”

“That’s basically it, yeah.”

“Fine. But we need to be careful about this. I’ll speak with you again in forty minutes.”

Nastasia sorted out the rest of her evening’s paperwork and went with Ren to that location. Sending Ren’s mind back to his organic body was a delicate process, one that could result in permanent brain damage if performed incorrectly. Nastasia was known to do things correctly.

Ren’s mouth felt dry, he could feel the softness of the cushion beneath him and hear an air conditioning fan. He inhaled through his nose, he could breathe again, he needed to breathe again. 

Ren sat up and saw that Nastasia was sitting on a couch a few feet away. A Ninetales with soft yellow fur and a thick bundle of tails laid on the couch with her. He wanted to touch it.

“Hey Stasia.” Despite having just woken up, Ren actually felt really tired. He was going to go to sleep as soon as he made it to Sashila.

“Hello Ren. How does it feel to be flesh and blood again?” She pocketed her phone.

“It feels… good actually. I think I took it for granted. Can I pet Ninetails?”

“Hold out your hand. Ask it.” Ren did just that. He bent over and offered his clenched fist to it. He felt gentle licks on his fingers and started petting its head. The fur was soft, and warm. So warm, like a bed with an electric blanket. It was like touching his Arcanine.

“Thanks Stasia, I’ll enjoy this.”

“That’s alright. Now we need to discreetly make our way back to HQ and keep this a secret.”

Ren felt the wind playing with his hair. It was cold but refreshing. He scratched his cheek and under his chin, he had the occasional itch which never bothered Robo Ren, but touching his own face felt so good. Now that he knew what it was like to be without that feeling he realised how good it felt.

He went indoors. He walked down the stairs. The heating inside was pleasant, he never appreciated how the indoor temperature was just right. He went towards the group bedroom. Between the hallway and the bedroom there was another room. It seems to have been turned into a sitting room thanks to the new Rotom TV and the couch. Erin was looking through some notebook and probably about to walk out of the room. Venam was looking at the TV.

“Hm? Oh, hi Ren.”

“Hey Erin, just wanted to ask, when are we all doing that hang out in GDC?”

“Oh, that. Yeah I don’t know. I forgot about it until now. I’m not convinced everyone is able for something like that right now. It seems like a bad time.” Erin sounded frustrated.

“Wait really? I know Asopo and Melia have been a bit off lately but wouldn’t a group activity be a way we could help everyone? We’ll need to be a proper team for the Xen Raid.”

“Yeah, I don’t know. Maybe if at least Venam would say a word. Could you speak with her?” Ren looked back at Venam and the TV. A video of Espurr eating ice cream was playing. He sat down next to her. “Hey Venam.” He looked at her face. Venam’s blank stare was reminiscent of Espurr's own expression. She looked empty inside. “Are you alright?” She didn’t respond. He waved a hand in front of her face. “Are you catatonic or what?”

“O-oh yeah. Hey Ren.” She looked at him and shifted about on her seat.

“Hi Venam. What’s up?”

“I’m… looking at cats I guess.”

“I can see that.” He glanced at the TV again. A Skitty was chasing its own tail. “So what’s wrong?” 

“I… I’m just sad, I guess. And tired.”

“What are you sad about?”

“...Things didn’t end well between me and Melia.” Venam looked away from him. Ren was shocked. 

“Oh crap, what happened? Where’s Melia now?” Ren looked at the entrance to the bedroom, as if he might see Melia walking into or out of it.

“S-she just… dumped me.” Venam took off her leather jacket and just placed it behind her so that she’d be sitting on it. She was wearing a white t-shirt underneath.

“Dumped you…? Why? What went wrong?” He felt distraught, he always thought Melia was the sort to let someone down gently.

“I-I don’t know. I asked her out on a date to GDC, but for some reason she insisted on bringing Asopo along. He sort of just sat there silently the whole time, even more silent than usual. Then she got this goth makeover which I thought was really pretty, and then when we went home. I… I tried to offer her a kiss before we went to sleep but she just… she jumped back and acted all shocked, like she just acted as if we never dated in the first place. She just said that if we were in a thing then it’s over all of a sudden. I have no idea what I did wrong.” Venam rubbed her damp eyes and sniffled. Then she got up. “Thanks for listening to that crap. Good night Ren.”

“Oh… alright. Goodnight Venam.” He noticed that she forgot to pick up her leather jacket, she just left it sitting there. Who cares? She’ll see it in the morning.

Ren was going to get ready for his own sleep, but then he saw an envelope on his pillow. The outside read: ‘To Ren <3’ and it was written in pink glitter ink. What the fuck?

Dearest Renny Wen Ren,

Ren, meet me at The Back Alley. I’ve loved you for so long and it’s time to talk about it. O///O

Love Melia~ UWU

Ren… felt furious. What the fuck? What the actual fuck? This was humiliating. Melia just threw Venam away like her feelings mean nothing, only to send this bullshit to him? He once felt a bit of an attraction to her, it’s true. But really it wasn’t anything he was ever going to act on. By now he was over it, but Melia must’ve noticed. What is she doing? Why has she been so aloof and antisocial lately? And now that he thought about it, when was the last time he spoke with Asopo? Everything about this situation feels wrong, he had to do something.

Ren was going to go to the back alley, but he wasn’t going to talk to Melia about whatever dumb romance this is meant to be, oh no. He was going to confront her and make her explain herself. He threw the envelope away but crumpled the letter into a ball to put in his pocket. He was leaving right away.

Nastasia was finishing her dinner by Neved’s bar in the Xen Admin lobby. It was quiet, just herself and Neved. He was wiping a glass as she swallowed the last of her food. “So how’s Franchesca?” She asked, wanting to break the silence.

“She’ll live, or at least at this rate she should.” That wasn’t a very happy question, now that she thought about it.

“What about you?” He asked. By now he had put away the glass and sat on a chair on his side of the bar.

“...I would like a Martini.”

“Of course, anything for you.” Such a dramatic way of wording it, but she thought it was sweet. *Deoxxxxxx…*

Her Deoxys flew into the room and reached towards her face with its helix arm. It tapped her forehead and showed her a vision.

Ren. Blood stained. Desperate. He’s running from someone, a blonde girl teleporting around and mocking him. The occasional manic laugh is heard, she’s hunting him but taking the time to play with her food. A white haired boy runs after them both. He seems to be trying to prevent Ren’s death, but his expression is emotionless. He shows no signs of genuine concern, his every action is methodical and without passion.

Nastasia stands up. “Sorry Neved, that martini will need to wait. I must leave immediately.” She turns around and bolts for her lab. Her armour is there, she’ll need it if she is to make it on time. She’ll mobilise Robo Ren as well. That machine can fight and move even without Ren’s mind in it, just not as independently.

“Asopo…” Ren was cornered. He wasn’t sure what Asopo was even trying to do, but his robot body had shown up and attacked him for some reason while he and Melia just sort of watched them fight. The robot lost. Then Melia fired an arrow at it.

“And pop goes the weasel. We appreciate your cooperation! Now for our dear Raven… your wings shall be clipped.” Ren was half way through turning around when he heard another arrow fire. Everything went dark. He felt cold, numb again. He wondered if Melia had actually finished him off. 

A sudden flash of light assaulted his eyes. He heard applause, there were stage lamps above him and it looked like he was in some sort of game show? What? 

“...Oh come on.” On his right he saw some floating platform lower itself next to him. Melia was in a whole different outfit with twintails, a popstar dress and a microphone.

“Welcome one and all to the second* episode of M5’s GuiltyOrNah! The game show where we decide if our contestant is…”

The audience finished for her. “GUILTY! OR! NAH!” He had to listen to even more cheering. Where was the audience? He couldn’t see them. Was this hell? He could still feel the blood running down his body.

“Today’s contestant is Mr Renster! And lemme tell ya, this one is really personal! You wouldn’t even believe. Let’s look at the voter’s centre and see who we got for tonight!” Ren looked towards the voters. He saw… more Melia. All three of them were Melia. There were four Melias in the room with him… he felt dizzy, he felt scared and sad. 

“Without further ado, it’s time to get to the voting! Ren is being charged with… Betrayal! Being a fake friend in another world! Not fighting back when you’re attacked, like, seriously?! You know what to do folks! Cast in your votes!”

Ren still didn’t understand anything. He really didn’t… except, Melia mentioned betrayal. Being a fake friend… he was still insecure about that. Even though Melia had seemingly forgiven him for joining team Xen and not explaining why, even though he had the best of intentions and his friends had given him the benefit of the doubt… still. He knows how he hurt them. He would’ve preferred to be next to them, fighting team Xen more directly and alongside them. Maybe Melia was right to be angry at him, and if he hurt her in some other world then maybe dying here was the only way to make up for it? He felt so dizzy… he felt so sad.

He was aware of some Rotom TV in front of him. It cycled through some images before settling on a skull. “And there we have it!” Melia cheered. “Renster has been found guilty by the court on all charges! And you know what that means!”

Ren groaned to himself and looked at the Melia with the twintails. “Now we’re going to give you a choice! How would you like to die?” Ren felt upset again, and still afraid, but he did some thinking. There was something Melia needed to hear.

“I… I don’t know how to react to all of this. I’m confused and defeated. This is the punishment I deserve for the things I’ve done. I knew joining team Xen was a betrayal on all costs, but I did it anyway. And even after I found out that I was tricked, I stayed. The truth is… I stayed because I wanted to help Nastasia. She said she joined team Xen because she was looking for a friend. And after all this time it seems she may finally know where she is. I wanted to be there and help her, but it was at the cost of my closest friends. I’m sorry, Melia. I’m sorry.” He was ready.

Ren braced for the end.

“...What?” Melia was in disbelief, her sinister jubilance had disappeared all of a sudden. Ren looked at her again.

“If this is the punishment I deserve, then I won’t run away from it. I don’t remember what I did in another world, but the pain it’s caused is the same.”

“R-Ren…” Melia’s face reddened, she was holding back tears. Ren remembered something important. “I just ask one thing.”

“...What is it?” Melia asked.

“Tell my sister that I love her, and that I’m sorry I disappointed her too.” He remembered another thing. “Sorry, I want to ask two things of you. Please talk and make up with Venam.” Okay, that’s everything important. He was ready to disappear now.

“...No, Ren. It’s I who should be apologising. You’re nothing like the Ren I knew. You’re way different than him. In every way imaginable. I should have realised that sooner.” There was another flash of light, a gentler one. He felt the pains and injuries around his body rapidly soothe, a warmth enveloped him as he lost consciousness.

Nastasia was angry. Angry at Melia for attacking Ren and angry at herself for not being able to get there faster. Melia somehow used the archetype to create this little pocket dimension in GDC and it took Nastasia a few minutes to figure out how to break in. It took her a whole agonising fifteen minutes to get from the Xen base to GDC. She saw the alleyway Ren was cornered in. She descended and landed in front of him.

She pushed Melia back. She had been about to grab him. Nastasia followed up with a lunge and tried to beat Melia to a pulp, but her strikes were blocked by a corrupted black archetype shield.

“What the fuck?! Get off me!” Melia screamed. She retaliated and Nastasia had to jump back. Melia was about to run at her again so she pulled out her blaster. “Not another step.”

Melia sneered at her. “So threatening… you’re in the way of my friend.” Nastasia would have laughed if anything about this was funny.

“Friend? That’s not what that looked like to me. Friends don’t try to tear others apart. You’re a monster.” Nastasia was ready to start maiming Melia right here, but saving Ren took priority and Madame X needed her alive anyway.

“Sounds like you need to mind your BUSINESS.” Melia attacked, Nastasia signalled to Deoxys to use teleport. Herself and Ren vanished.

Nastasia was regretting how she agreed to put Ren back in his organic body for that time, but she really shouldn’t. It made him happy, even if it was poorly timed. Deoxys had checked Ren’s mind and body for injuries. Strangely all his injuries had been recently healed, and at the same time his memory of the past hours had been erased. Why would this have happened? Ren was getting shot by arrows and chased not long ago, did Melia have an abrupt change of heart? That would explain all the hypocritical ‘he is my friend’ talk right afterward.

Nastasia wasn’t going to let go of Ren’s body for a while now. She’d watch over it and while he was still unconscious she was going to put his mind back into a Robo Ren body. She’d teleport him back to Sashila where his allies can tend to him further. She had her own troubles to focus on next. 

Why would Melia and Asopo suddenly change like this? Their current dispositions were very different. They both changed around the same time but possibly for different reasons. She knew from Clear, Kieren and Madame X that as the interceptor Asopo had chosen destruction. If he was committed to fighting for oblivion then why would he try to save Ren? Not that Nastasia was complaining, it’s hardly as if she wanted destruction, but it’s still strange. It’s always possible that Asopo was trying to trick Clear and Kieren, but they only offered to ally with him after they were sure he would agree to it genuinely.

Not that it ultimately mattered to her. When she joined team Xen she had a goal in mind.

She’ll find her friend, even if it means the end of the world.

[tlozypaka-tina]

Rejuv v13.5 teaser observations and theories! (Before public release)

First of all, I want to put out there I was not a Beta tester so I don't know how right or wrong I am about any observation made here. I could be overthinking things! But that's half the fun in theorizing!

Second of all, I implore every single one of my followers who happen to see this post but haven't played Rejuvenation: This huge post will contain HEAVY SPOILERS for v13!! I don't want to ruin your experience of the game so please try it out once 13.5 releases!!

Anyway time to word vomit an essay:

Prelude: Abbreviations and concepts to be used later on.

OA: Original Aevium. Before the reset (Revealed as of v13)

(to be added)

Part 1: Trailer themes and iconography.

Archetype symbol: The center of it all.

Core symbol/Interceptor: Appears at the end. The colors associated with the Core are Blue (Active) and Orange (Inactive)...which can be seen when the butterfly flies away at the midpoint. Something to keep in mind.

EDIT: The butterfly in question! Could be attributed to "Butterfly effect".

Karma (?): 1st image is the Karma indicator in game, 2nd and 3rd are trailer images with different details added and removed. 3rd one is speculation and could have different meaning.

Alright, now that I've established the most prevalent images that constantly come up in the trailer, I can start discussing the contents themselves and what the overall theme seems to be.

A big point in the trailer is the diagram depicting a pathway and connections, which all seem to be connected to an entity. The first 4 characters we saw are our core friend group: Ren, Aelita, Venam and Melia. There are 2 types of dots present in this first instance alone: A simple black dot, and a dot with extra layers. The simple ones are assigned to Aelita and Melia, while the other ones to Venam and Ren. Is this coincidental or is foreshadowing something??

I can only conclude, aided with the name of the update being .karma files, that the Main theme of this trailer is Karma and Connections. Are the consequences of our choices and actions going to finally unravel?

Part 2: Characters present, points in common.

The Theolia family (except Maria/Marianette)

Amber, Kenneth, Kreiss, Talon, Venam, Alice* and Allen* (Gym leaders)

Tesla (Elite 8)

Spacea and Tiempa + Kanon, Melia and Jenner (Stormchasers)

Hazuki is the only Protector of Aevium present of Nymieras' time.

Ren (Outlier 1 in these subgroups)

??? (Outlier 2)

Mr. Luck (Outlier 3)

Part 3: Missing faces and inconsistencies.

Ren's positioning in the trailer makes it so he is the only character in the trailer without a title on the upper right corner.

Mr. Luck. What does he have to do with all of this? All of them?

No team Xen admins...at all. Not even Madame X.

Gym leaders missing: Martin, Crawli, Valarie, Adam, Saki, Lavander, Texen, Flora/Florin, Spector, Narcissa, Souta, Ryland, Erick.

Damian and Alexandra.

Nymiera.

Elite 8 + champion missing (except Tesla).

No interceptor hosts or Ana.

Nim absent.

No signs of Nancy.

Garufa inc. is supposed to be defunct at this point in time, yet the interface we access to see all these files is from garufa inc...

Of course, the characters omitted could be simply because of space and the briefness of the teaser, but then the question would turn into: what do the characters that were included have all in common?

Part 4: Elephants in the room - Jenner, Melia and Corrupted File.

We got 3 hidden details as sneak peaks for 13.5! Seems to be 1 new character and 2 new looks for existing ones: those being Melia and Jenner who look....quite different.

Looking at all official art of Melia as of v13 (redesign of second iteration omitted but the hair is the same), it seems her new look could fit in after her 3rd iteration (going to the past arc, or the stormchasers arc, whatever we wish to call it) but before her awakening and current attire (4th pic) although the way the sidebang is positioned and her clothes are....off.

It doesn't quite feel like the Melia we know- the only time she has shown her shoulders has been in her 1st iteration, when we met her, afterwards her outfits are more conservative and white is the dominant color. This time, it's black.

Of course, this is a sneak peak of the outfit so we don't know anything else, but it's curious to see such a drastic change...also, it seems to be longer than her stormchasers fit, but shorter than her current version.

EDIT: This doesn't take in account the fact that Zumi's artstyle and way of drawing Melia's bangs may have evolved, but as an artist myself, I do find the choice veeeeeeeeery curious.

My friend Vance pointed out that she both looks a bit like Amber and that her expression resembles Melanie's VS battle sprite. Hm...

EDIT: The comparison!

Also! @spar-kie has pointed out that Melia is wearing eye-shadow in this image! That's definitely out of character for her!

As for Jenner, a recent ask answered by Zumi threw into question the possibility of this being a Past!Jenner...so is this an alternate version of him, or a change in appearance after he was trapped in Nim's pocket dimension??

As for the mystery character...I can't say anything about them because the name tag is glitchy, has an error and there is no picture to give us and inkling of who they are. Regardless, they seem to be very important this version for it to be teased this early.

Part 5: Crack theories and conclusions

The trailer is from the perspective of the Interceptor accessing the information from Zeight as it was teased at the end of V13. Would fall in line with the way the characters are shown as Data and Files. They are also the center piece that connects all these characters together and fits the theme of Karma and Connections.

Related to above...but different. The information shown is from OA, not current Aevium, which is why the trailer is Glitchy and has a corrupted file...maybe a character that shouldn't exist persists in Zeight's data despite the reset? Would also explain why Melia and Jenner look different as they may have had different fates in the OA. (Observation made by my friend Vance!!)

These are all my current observations after analyzing the trailer like a normal person!! After one day!! There are things I haven't quite touched but I'll edit this post after I get home because there is a lot of things I want to improve and I need to let this thoughts into the world before I forget and this week passes by-

Feel free to discuss in the tags, by rebloging and adding into the post or replies!!!

I'm so excited for v13.5!!!