#magnificus as the first one to realize they are game npcs

[nightisawkward]

"Another challenger… it has been ages. Perhaps you have forgotten how this game is played. Allow me to remind you."

Happy halloween fellas!!! Hermitcraft/Life SMP inscryption AU ft. Boatem gang I cooked up awhile ago but never got around to posting B-) Wild life smp has reminded me how mentally ill I am about putting these Guys in Situations so here I am

Mild to major inscryption spoilers under the cut!

For those familiar with the game, the general roles are:

Luke Carter - "Challenger"/Grian

In this AU Grian is still a trading card-based youtuber who's recording all this nonsense going down real time as in canon, but has closer ties to the GameFuna company equivalent, named "WatcherCorp". His old college roommate/best mate Jimmy went to work for them, but mysteriously passed away in a fire at their headquarters. He found the Inscryption cards in Jimmy's leftover personal belongings a few years after his death, and decided that the best way to honor him would be to make a video featuring the project he put his heart and soul into... in more ways than one.

Key difference from canon Inscryption: Grian's mind is sucked into the game of Inscryption whenever he is playing. He is able to enter and leave the game at will, but he doesn't realize this until he first dies to Leshy/Pearl and ejects himself unconsciously out of fear of dying. The only reason he realizes he isn't hallucinating is because his camcorder footage proves he actually enters the game. He obtains the "Watcher's Eye" during Act 1, which he keeps for all future acts and allows him to see things he shouldn't see as a Challenger.

P03 - "Scarred Stoat"/Scar

Despite being the one who convinces Grian and the other Scrybes to stand up against Pearl, no one seems eager to spend any more time with the conniving conman than absolutely necessary. This may have something to do with Scar's history of backstabbing and cheating both Scybes and Challengers whenever it benefits him most. Which makes it rather unfortunate that Grian is must spend time with Scar in order to gather as much information as possible.

In the beginning, Scar and Grian do not get along in the slightest. Grian finds Scar's attitude too "fake", while Scar finds Grian's "cowardice" to be irritating. At some point, the two go from passive-aggressive fighting, to a grudging truce, to more friendly, lighthearted banter. Neither person seems to trust the other, but it doesn't seem to stop the two from being ✨saddled with unnecessary feelings✨. Scar's Act 3 world is much like Leshy's Act 1 world, with much more emphasis put on environmental storytelling and general Vibes than actual gameplay. Even if his game is a smokescreen for his true goal of Ascension, he feels strangely obligated to give Grian his best shot.

Scar in his proper Scrybe form appears more steampunk than canon P03. Think of a Grumbot with Scar's boatem base aesthetic and tons of missing nuts and bolts. P03's bastardous tendencies+ Scar's steampunk base made this role perfect for him.

Magnificus - "Horned Wolf"/Impulse

Impulse is a talented artist and an even more talented programmer. His future sight stems from his literal sight: His eyes are able to see read the code veil behind Inscryption, allowing him to predict likely futures based on what code is running. He often laments his status as an NPC, claiming that if he were given administrative privileges and the actual ability to modify source code he would have been able to escape Inscryption long ago.

He is rather absent in Act 2, focusing on finishing his "artwork" as soon as possible. He uses his brush to create a menagerie magical creatures with strange abilities in hopes that using one in battle might trigger a unfixable bug, allowing him to rip a hole through the source code. It is unclear whether he was able to accomplish his goal before Act 3 roles around, but it seems like Scar's method of Ascension seems awfully similar to Impulse's... perhaps a sneaky spy was able to steal Impulse's information?

As a proper Scrybe, he resembles a walking mop or a yak with overgrown fur. Most of his features are indistinguishable, save for his small horns and his glowing goat eyes.

Lemora - "Distinguished Stinkbug"/Mumbo

Mumbo is by far the most easygoing Scrybe in the cast. While he would greatly prefer an eternal slumber over yet another temporary ceasefire amongst the Scrybes, he is willing to work with the others in Act 1 simply because he finds his stinkbug form too uncomfortable to sleep in. Mumbo's goal is simple: to delete the game of Inscryption, and therefore himself, and finally rest. However, finds the constant power struggles in the world of Inscryption rather tiring and simply can't be bothered to make a grab for power himself to achieve this goal. This hasn't stopped him from asking Grian to destroy floppy disk of Inscryption. Unfortunately for him, the temptation of the o̷l̵d̷ ̶d̸a̶t̷ [REDACTED] mysteries within Inscryption are simply too powerful for Grian to resist.

As a proper Scrybe, he looks almost exactly like Mumbo's minecraft skin: A pale, mustached man with blood red eyes who resembles a vampire. Mumbo denies all vampire allegations. While he is the most "normal" looking Scrybe, Grian would still hesitate to call him "human" ...there's just something slightly off about his appearance that sets him on edge.

Leshy - "Game Master"/Pearl

Pearl is an unforgiving gamemaster that puts more emphasis on providing the player a challenge than her canon counterpart. After her self-proclaimed "tutorial", there is no more handholding and she gives Grian an absolute hellish time. Grian is only able to get a slight edge when he discovers all of the Scrybes, who provide him with stategy help to even the playing field. It is unclear whether Pearl actually enjoys running her Act 1 game or not: she seems to derive an animalistic pleasure from defeating Grian, but there are times where she seems tired and fed up with the endless gameplay loop and intentionally throws during key fights. She switches between manic and depressed at the drop of a hat.

During Act 2, she barely even tries to give Grian a challenge, allowing him to progress straight to her boss fight without any side quests to "get it over with quicker". She seems to hold a deep grudge against Scar for some reason, which is the only thing that motivates her to take action to stop him during Act 3.

Mysteriously, Grian finds a burned and unusable Unicorn card within her Act 1 cabin. Upon discovery, Scar immediately suggests that Grian leave it where he found it. Some things are best left forgotten, after all...

[geodesick]

I don't know too much about Inscryption but I too am thinking of your wondeful crossover designs and just. Going nuts over the idea of Magnificus being too busy trying to keep the game going to shake your hand at the end + Bubby's line "This isn't how I'm going to die" during the final battle. I am here for funny video game guys having even more existential problems

[ID: a gif drawing of four inscryption bone cards shaped like the gravestone cards from grimora's part of the finale. three of the cards have scrybe of the dead themed versions of tommy, coomer, and bubby, and one card is a regular skeleton card.

tommy's card is named "bloodlatta," with a cost of 3 bones, power of 1, health hidden under coomer's card, and a blood guzzling sigil. the image is a silhouette of tommy but showing his eyes and mouth with fangs.

coomer's card is named "obsolescence," with a cost of 2, power of 2, health of 1, and the unkillable sigil. his image is of the p03 monitor with a skull on the screen.

bubby's card cycles through the text, "no... i don't accept this death. i have a plan," where his name would be. he has a cost of 2, power and health of 1, and the exploding corpse sigil. his image is of him as a skeleton with swirly glasses and a wizard had that has a fuse at the tip.

end ID]

bubby taking magnificus's role as Plan Haver while everyone is trapped as cards... i gave him a wizard hat bc ppl keep making fun of magnificus for being a naked/hatless wizard which is Very funny to me

some explanation stuff under the cut!

the sigils i used for tommy and bubby are ones in grimora's rulebook that aren't on any of the cards she plays.

blood guzzler sigil - when a creature bearing this sigil deals damage, it gains 1 health for each damage dealt - used for tommy to go with his drinking soda to see faster and bc when i draw him not in this au i still give him little fangs lol. i think at some point in the game he'd get a multi-strike sigil stamped on his card and be fucking crazyyy (to go with him apparently having the most kills in HLVRAI and also i think he doesn't die in VRAI? at least not as much as anyone else besides gordon

exploding corpse sigil - when a creature bearing this sigil dies, all empty spaces on the board are filled with a guts card - i didn't actually read this sigil's effect until now thats kinda gross lmao but just based on bubby talking about how he's gonna explode all the time. the bomb fuse on his hat is supposed to go with the sigil

unkillable sigil - the card copies are like the coomer clones =P i could have used fecundity but i just wanted to use ones from grimora's (i guess benry's now) rulebook

[ID: the same drawing as above, except bubby's card is titled "skelexplode" with no cycling text. end ID]

bloodlatta - play on coolatta to go with blood of course, also insert some kind of joke about a lotta blood or bloodletting

obsolescence - a joke about computers and stuff having planned obsolescence so that you have to replace them with a newer version to go with the unkillable sigil / clones and him being scrybe of tech

skelexplode - ok i thought the least about this one lol he is a skeleton and he explodes that is all

[egg-node]

3, 4, 5, 7 & 8 for the Inscryption ask game?

wah! thank you! :^D

3. Favorite Act? Why? (Mechanics, aesthetic, story, specific moments, etc.)

who am i to deny act 1. played that one most out of all of them, not to mention that i played kaycee's mod like a madman (finally got an all challenges run to succeed OTL). it's just *fun* gameplay. my first go around i made absolutely *boosted* deathcards, and being able to watch them decimate was fun in of itself. and now i'm playing it with only one deathcard, and planning your deck ahead of time and figuring out how to win without a near-guaranteed turn 1 lethal is fantastic as well. and looking back on it in act 2 shows what leshy incorporated from the original game, and what he didn't. some of the dialogue especially from leshy, and also the other scrybes, in this act... im *specifically* thinking about the win dialogue you get from leshy on win 3 and win 4.

4. Favorite Scrybe?

i wonder...... nah it's leshy lmao. especially love how he narrates everything, like in act 2 after his defeat. oh, to get/become a dm as devoted to the craft as him

5. Favorite non-scrybe npc?

(is it cheating to say the archivist) (they're an uberbot. that's not a scrybe.) (i may be cheating just a little when that's p03's interpretation of grimora) (but they're neat. their lines... nice. i think p03 did a good job capturing grimora's voice and cadence and lexicon. and that battle was fun) (also the photographer. much more a bastardization of leshy imo, but that is also fun. to see how p03 sees leshy)

BUT if i had to do non-scrybe-but-reskinned. mayhaps goobert? a funny little guy... someone please help them

7. Favorite theory/theories?

i don't know if this one is a theory - it might be confirmed in game and i just. glanced over it. but if it isn't - i firmly believe that magnificus knew how it all would turn out. this includes leshy losing control, p03 gaining it, and grimora's deletion of the game. and it may be a first instinct to go "why didn't he try to stop it then?" but his premonition may be unchangeable - perhaps in the past he's tried to change the outcome he saw, to no avail. and in the visions we're given in act 1 where magnificus paints the next thing we need to do (eg. unlocking the safe, the knife, the cuckoo clock with the film reel), we're in a white void with a little bit of wood(?) ground. just like what we see in act 3's finale.

does this explain how he treats his subordinates? idk lol.

8. Favorite headcanon(s)?

this is not really a *headcanon* but my head is empty, and this fic is very very good. so this interpretation: "THAT IS ULTIMATELY THE CALLING OF A SCRYBE. NOT TO CREATE, NO- TO HOPELESSLY, LOVINGLY POSTPONE THE INEVITABLE." (from @scrybe-of-beasts fic AN ENDING. absolutely fantastic btw it owns my heart defo read it if you haven't already.) leshy captures beasts, who would otherwise die eventually, and lets them live and die repeatedly as cards. grimora raises the dead. magnificus paints his students, immortalizing them. and p03 scans its bots. and the end of the game is seeing them realize (or, on grimora's part, having already accepted) that they cannot postpone the inevitable (specifically magnificus's "Nothing beautiful can last.")

these answers may be a bit long. oop! but thank u again for sending me these!! :^D had a lot of fun answering (Ask Meme)