#some of them have no idea why this world is so different its funky /lh

[cosmic-stars-system]

Cutely uses this later because ohmigosh explaining is kiiinda hard sometimes. Like some people use the explanation like Multiplayer Mario Cart, but no no nooo, those are separate people playing separate characters! /lh Like, no, we all share a body and a life. It's like sharing a game file with a sibling or just a friend, lover, partner, whatever term you wanna use! Sometimes you won't "play it" for a whole and will come back and everythings different! Even potentially "character customization" could be different. For example, if someone just randomly decides to get dressed up in pretty clothing (we present as male most of the time) and you get to "play the game" again and suddenly you look very feminine! Oup we just went on a ramble, our bad- ^^" -Lunar (they/them) and Astrophel (they/it/shine)

Here’s my metaphor for systemhood that I tell my singlet friends.

Imagine you’re playing a first person video game. You have the controller, you control your character. It’s a normal first person game. You are an alter, the character is the body. This is fronting.

Other people live with you. Sometimes, they come into the room and sit and watch while you play. They sometimes try to guide you, give you advice on what to do next. They don’t always agree, and they can argue with each other. Other times they scream at you that you’re doing everything wrong and you suck at this game. This is co-consciousness.

Imagine how distracting it would be for people around you to tell you what to do, or to scream at each other or at you, even if they have good intentions. It wouldn’t be easy to focus on your game, would it?

Then sometimes, something happens in the game that prompts you to hand off the controller to someone else so they can play and you get a break. This is (some types of) switching. This can be good.

Other times, someone rips the controller out of your hand or fights you for it. This is (other types of) switching. And sometimes, six other players hook up their controllers, but there’s only one character to play as. So all of you have your controllers, but you’re all trying to play the same character. This is cofronting.

Imagine how difficult that would be. Imagine how hard it would be to try and play a game while someone is trying to take the controller from you, or while six other people are trying to play too.

There are also times that nobody is playing, or you can’t decide who should play. What’s happening to the character in the game? What are they doing if no one is playing? This is dissociation. The character is doing nothing. They’re stuck.

This is the best metaphor I have come up with for being a system. It’s something a lot of people get because they’ve played games before.

[firaknight]

I’m going to explain my entire crossover AU (Fountain of Dreamstone AU) up to what I’ve got so faR AND NOBODY CAN STOP ME— /lh

Aight so—

This AU is basically a very selective crossover of Mario and Luigi: Dream Team and Kirby. That’s breaking it down to the bare fucking essentials.

The long version is this:

Shits going down in Dreamland. Nightmare Wizard is back (somehow) and the bitch stole the Star Rod again. All of Dreamland begins to experience frequent nightmares, including Adeleine and Ribbon. For a while, Ribbon is able to make a type of fairy dust that can stop nightmares, but she’s got an extremely limited amount of it. Before long, there’s no longer enough to share between the two. Adeleine lies and states that she’s been nightmare free for a few days (that’s a giant lie) and that Ribbon should keep using the fairy dust. Ribbon, who doesn’t realize Adeleine is very obviously lying, agrees and starts using the fairy dust on herself from then on. Adeleine starts staying up for days on end, only sleeping for short periods of time (30 mins-1 hour) to stave off total exhaustion. Whenever she does sleep, it’s incredibly light and the slightest things wake her up (it’s to make sure she doesn’t sleep deeply enough to cause a nightmare). Nobody’s able to really do anything about it either. Kirby, MK, DDD, and a bunch of the other Star Allies have mysteriously gone missing, with Kirby and DDD being the only two to know where the Fountain of Dreams is located. Without them, nobody knows where to look to put a stop to Nightmare.

At some point, Ribbon decides her and Adeleine should go on a walk. Clear their heads, take a bit to relax. Adeleine, who is clearly exhausted, agrees and they head out. During their walk they come across a strange stone buried in the depths of the woods just by their house. The stone is shaped like a pillow and it sure as hell doesn’t feel like a stone. Ribbon, jokingly, dares Adeleine to try and sleep on it to see what happens, and Adeleine, who physically can’t refuse sleep at that point, takes the dare.

(Pictured above: Art I drew of that exact scene)

Adeleine flops down onto the “stone” pillow and within moments she’s out cold. Ribbon is shocked she managed to conk out that fucking fast and realizes that maybe, just maybe, Adeleine had been lying before about “getting good sleep and not having nightmares,” but it’s too late to say anything now. All she can do is wait until Adeleine wakes up.

Cut to Adeleines POV and she “wakes up” in a very strange place. It’s a void of melded together colors and she appears to be floating in midair. There’s a voice that calls her over to a strange swirly portal and, being the exhaustedly curious kid she is, she follows it, diving through the portal and ending up in a weird dreamscape that looks nearly identical to where she was before she fell asleep, except things are funky because she’s pretty sure it’s a dream. That same voice calls out again, but somewhat louder and clearer, and she follows it, eventually coming across this giant, purple, almost crystalline rock. The voice appears to be coming from it, and it looks like something is stuck inside, although the rock isn’t clear enough to see through. She attempts to ram into it and the rock cracks! Surprisingly, she’s completely unharmed (normally that act would leave her with a bruised shoulder at the least)! She rams it again, and again, and again, and the rock breaks! Whatever was stuck in there flies out, reforms into god knows what (she can’t see it because it flew up above her and she barely had any time to react to it), and before she can even begin to comprehend what happened, the portal she came through widens, creating a vacuum-like force that pulls her in without warning.

Cut back to Ribbon, who’s been timing how long Adeleine is out for (if she passed an hour without any sign of waking up, Ribbon would’ve taken matters into her own hands). She’s starting to get worried, up until she notices the “stone” Adeleine conked out on starts moving, with Adeleine showing signs of waking up. Within moments, Adeleine opens her eyes and sits up, a little frazzled. They exchange looks and Adeleine gets spooked by something appearing behind her, whipping around to find some small prince, probably a little taller than Ribbon, floating behind her. He’s got a pillow shaped head (which could be his clothes, she’s not entirely sure), looks kinda human-esc, and is very small compared to her. He gives his thanks for rescuing him and asks if Adeleine was the one to free him of his prison. Adeleine, who has no idea what just happened, answers with a meek “maybe” while she tries to process the situation.

This incredibly tiny man tells them his name is Prince Dreambert, and that he was sealed away by Antasma many years ago. He hails from a place known as Pi’illo Island, and has no idea where he is, how he got here, and why he’s here. Adeleine and Ribbon give their names, tell him he’s in Cloudy Park, part of one of the far corners of Dreamland, which is nestled on Planet Popstar. They mention that everyone’s been having nightmares recently and ask if he’s got anything to do with it. Dreambert brings up Antasma again and mentions he might be a cause, giving a detailed description of what he looks like.

(Pictured above: Antasma using the power of the Dark Stone)

Adeleine realizes that the description fits the criteria of a reoccurring figure multiple people have spotted in their nightmares and mentions it, adding in that a villain from their world, Nightmare Wizard, may have teamed up with Antasma. Dreambert realizes that this world could be in grave danger if those two aren’t stopped and asks to join up with Adeleine and Ribbon to help them find Antasma and Nightmare and put a stop to them before it’s too late. The two agree and the three of them venture out to put a stop the the baddies.

🪐Here’s some extra notes:

Combat has to happen, of course, and I wanna style the roles after M&L:DT so it’s a little more streamlined. Real world combat functions as normal, with Adeleine and Ribbon functioning like Mario and Luigi, partnering up for some attacks but able to fight on their own. Dreambert kinda hangs back and gives assistance when in dire straights. Dream World exploration and combat are wildly different. Adeleine takes the role of Mario (with similar abilities to Dreamy Luigi), venturing through the Dream World, but she’s asleep instead of jumping into a portal whilst awake. Dreambert functions like Dreamy Luigi, giving Adeleine his powers whilst in the Dream World and helping in combat. Ribbon takes on the role of Starlow during those segments, staying in the real world and interacting with Adeleine and the things around her to trigger things in the Dream World.

Giant battles would still be a thing, just triggered and handled differently. Adeleine can’t conjure up dreamy copies of herself (she has no idea how to do that), and relies heavily on Dreambert for help in combat. When an enemy too big to fight approaches, she winds up cowering in fear, going into self-preservation mode to try and keep herself alive. Her real world body yanks her beret over her eyes in fear, probably crying. Ribbon, who’s worried for her, attempts to comfort her, triggering a reaction in the Dream World. Magic swirls around Dreamy Adeleine and allows her to size up to the enemy. During this time, a small Dream portal opens and Ribbon is able to fly in to provide assistance. She functions like Mario during the giant battles, using her abilities to double up attacks, but requires time to recover from pushing herself to help. Once the fight is over, Ribbon is forced out of the Dream World while Adeleine turns back to normal and finishes whatever she was doing there. It’s unclear why a Dream portal opens when Adeleine is in severe distress, but Dreambert theorizes its a reaction triggered to get help from the outside world, possibly from someone who could enter and help, like Ribbon.

During the fight with Antasma, who can take away Dreamy Luigi in the canon game, Dreambert winds up being the one taken from Adeleine. He’s probably just held onto and Adeleine simply needs to hit Antasma hard enough to make him let go, in contrast to Antasma sealing Dreamy Luigi in a nightmare orb and forcing Mario to figure out which one Dreamy Luigi is being kept in so Mario can break it.

Idk what the other bosses would be (including the giant fights), but the final fight is Nightmare Wizard and Antasma teamed up.

Also, it looks like the other Star Allies met a similar fate to the Pi’illos, like Dreambert. How they’re going to be rescued is a mystery... ;)