#this is so fucking long. please forgive me.

[bobbyfloyd]

this has been weighing heavily on my mind the last few days. i am not making this post to open another can of worms, but i do want to shed some light on something that i think is a major issue in the lewis fanbase. please forgive me for being so long winded. it’s lengthy. but i feel that it’s necessary to speak about, and i appreciate you if you read it all.

last week news surfaced that lewis is in a relationship. cool, good for him. if he and her are happy, that’s wonderful. but when the news came out i made a post in which i said “side eyeing lewis extremely hard for dating a 23 year old.” and boy, did that open the floodgates.

to be explicitly clear. his girlfriend is an adult, capable of making her own decisions. i’m not infantilizing her, nor am i claiming lewis has nefarious intentions. far from it. i merely raised a brow at the fact that she’s in her early 20s and he’s 32. if she was 25+ i wouldn’t have a single problem with it. but there is a larger issue when it comes to the way society treats women and men in age gap relationships. i have seen a lot of hateful filth directed at his girlfriend for going after older men. i have seen less criticism directed at lewis for being the older man pursuing a younger woman. there’s a major disparity there. that is my main issue. do i think lewis is predatory for this? no! absolutely not! do i think it makes him a bad person? also no. i’m merely iffy about a 23 year old and a 32 year old dating. and i made a post saying such. but when i tell you the floodgates that it opened. i couldn’t believe my eyes. and that’s why i’m making this post.

when i initially posted about it, i fully admit that i did overreact a bit. in fact i probably shouldn’t have said anything to begin with. but what’s done is done. i had a knee jerk reaction, which i apologized for (but deleted the post after things got crazy). but through this, saw a few concerning extremes. on one hand, i started getting flooded with anons who were tearing him to shreds, making horrific claims about his intentions in his relationship. i also got countless asks from people who were upset he was in a relationship to begin with because they thought they had a chance with him, and that is not the point i was making at all when i first spoke about it. from the beginning my issue was the age gap and people misconstrued my words so severely, to the point where it got kind of scary.

that’s when i got inundated with vile harassment. people telling me i was mentally ill, that i should delete my blog, i even got ones saying that i should kill myself. others said things like “lewis will never fuck you” which is such a misogynistic approach in my opinion, where you come to the conclusion that the reason a woman is criticizing a man is because she wants to have sex with him. i don’t know why sex was brought into the matter but frankly it was disturbing and i take great offense to it.

and then there were the vague posts. people who were very obviously talking about me. who misinterpreted me so severely that they believed the reason i was upset is because i thought i had a chance with him. people answering speculatory anons who were very obviously referring to me, and thus stirring the pot and inadvertently causing more anons to target me. i made a post apologizing about overreacting, and in that post i said it wasn’t healthy to be invested in his love life, because that enters into parasocial territory. the reason i said that was because of the anons i was getting who were saying really disturbing things about lewis, and because there were some who genuinely believed he was interested in them. that is why i made that point. and then i see “why are you obsessed with his love life? that’s not very anti-parasocial of you” using my words against me, and i was flabbergasted because before this, i never (to my knowledge) said anything about his love life, aside from general things. a few posts made in the heat of the moment is not obsessing over his love life. and yet, my words and intentions got so severely misconstrued.

when i originally addressed the issue and responded to some asks about it, i was heated and perhaps i didn’t explain things clearly enough. i probably said things i shouldn’t have. and i know me deleting everything made me look worse in the situation, but when i saw the horrifying response in my inbox, from both extremes, i knew i had to delete the posts because the way people were reacting was, honestly, frightening. i blocked each one when i saw them, but i want it to be known that at one point i received 50 hateful asks in a row, in the span of one minute. presumably from the same person, because of how they were worded and how they were sent back to back. FIFTY! that is so extreme and obsessive! all because i criticized lewis for dating a 23 year old.

this is not me saying “woe is me! i got hate! please feel sorry for me!” not at all. i am merely shedding light on the unhinged, disturbing way that people reacted. it really put this community in a different light for me. a place i once thought was chill and loving, now soured, because, at the drop of a hat, people will turn against whoever they disagree with and harass and threaten them. in what world is that okay? even if i really was crashing out and claiming i thought lewis should be with me, it still wouldn’t justify that level of harassment.

in the end i have come to the conclusion that this situation brings out the worst in people, on both sides. i completely understand if you don’t see any issue with the age gap, that’s your prerogative, good for you. however, my personal opinion on it will not change, no matter how many hateful asks or vague posts people make. my feelings are set in stone. and i don’t think that it’s appropriate to make the claim that people criticizing him for this situation are only doing so because they’re upset he wasn’t into them. once again, to reduce competent and valid criticism to “you’re just mad lewis won’t fuck you” is…vulgar and off-putting.

i will not speak about lewis’s love life again after this, because it has been made clear that doing so causes all rationality to go out the window and it sends people into a tizzy. not to mention, it really isn’t our business, no matter how publicized it ends up being. and if i do speak on it again you all have permission to beat me over the head. aside from that, i apologize for bringing it up again but i just have been agonizing over it for days and needed to get it off my chest. if you read to the end, i love and appreciate you. have some candy 🍬🍭

also, if you’re one of my mutuals and you went to bat for me or checked in with me when things got crazy, i love you and have gained a deeper appreciation for you all. there are still good, kind people in this community and i’m grateful for each of you.

much love.

[evnovaa]

Blame Part 2 | Chris Sturniolo

“Where were you at when I needed you?”

Genre : angst

Warnings : swearing

a/n: it’s been months but here it is (ps. new fic snippet coming later🙊)

· · ────── ꒰ঌ·✦·໒꒱ ────── · ·

Chris POV

It’s been hours since Chris has heard from Y/n, he’s panicking. That’s putting it lightly.

He’s dealing with a lot, his girlfriend is ignoring him and he kissed his ex girlfriend, well she kissed him. He’s been telling himself for hours that what happened between him and Lola has nothing to do with him. She came onto him and he was just a victim of his circumstances, he has zero fault in any of this actually.

That’s when he said fuck it and booked an Uber to his girlfriend’s apartment, he couldn’t bare to sit in this regret and guilt, he’ll be able to make things right, she will forgive him and everything will return back to normal right?

“Christopher?” The Uber driver says as he arrives outside their apartment.

“Yeah that’s me” Chris says as he gets into the uber and tries to get as comfortable as his conscience will allow him, all he knows is that he’s fucked.

The drive is long and painful, he is dreading the look on Y/n’s face, he feels himself getting emotional as he thinks about how he just broke almost 3 years of trust, over what? A meaningless kiss?

It was totally meaningless, right, yeah totally pointless, it meant nothing to him, he just keeps finding himself thinking about how Lola looked at him

Flashback

“Chris do you still want to be with me? I can’t tell and I need to know I can’t keep sneaking around to meet you.” Lola says pleading with the boy.

End of flashback

He’s been more than happy with Y/n, Lola meant nothing, she means nothing if he’s lost his everything.

He recognizes the area and anxiety consumes him, he’s usually with Y/n on the way back to her apartment to sit in each others essence for hours on end and in love with each other, but now it’s different

He’s here because, if we are being honest, he cheated, he lied and he was ignorant and selfish.

“Uh, you can stop here thank you.” Chris says to the uber driver stopping outside the apartment building.

Chris is anxious and extremely sad, he’s disappointed in himself and how he even let his relationship with Lola get so personal, yes she was his ex, but that part of him was reserved for the love of his life.

Then it finally hit him like a ton of bricks. Is he still in love with Lola? The way she kissed him felt so natural, a little too natural. He melted into her like they became one, but it’s too shameful of a thought. Chris doesn’t entertain it.

He’s lost in thought but he’s now outside Y/n’s apartment and he hasn’t knocked yet, he hasn’t yet figured out how he’s going to fix all of this. He has to fix it. And he will.

He decides to take his phone out and text her so she knows he’s here

Chris : Baby I’m outside, please open the door.

Chris : I know I’ve been terrible today I just need to see you. Please.

Y/n POV

Y/n has been home for hours, but since she got into her apartment she’s felt hollow. Empty.

She found her way to her couch and crashed, her body was too tired from all the crying and all the screaming she had done to release some of the hurt and pain.

Her phone buzzes and she ignores it. Buzz.

A second notification came in and she decided to get up from her sleep, still gaining her awareness, she takes her phone and reads:

Chris⭐️ : Baby I’m outside, please open the door.

Chris⭐️ : I know I’ve been terrible today I just need to see you. Please.

Her heart dropping to her ass is an understatement, it dropped to the lowest part of hell that not even the devil himself resides in.

She debates herself on what shes opening herself up to, is it worth it? Does it even matter what he has to say? He lied to her and he didn’t have the balls to tell her about what he’s doing, and who he’s doing it with? Did something happen that she doesn’t know of?

Her body goes against everything she’s thinking and she approaches the door and opens it.

She sees the love of her life, he looks exhausted, drained and most of all like he is carrying a load of weight and he’s just waiting to let go of it

What has she gotten herself into by opening the door?

“Baby..” Chris says to Y/n with a sense of guilt and shame in his voice.

He moves towards her, she takes a step back looking at him as if he had the most terrifying entity behind him, but here’s the thing, he’s the terrifying entity.

“We need to talk, and I need you to be honest with me Christopher.” Y/n says as she allows him in and shuts the door closed.

“Listen to me baby I know, I’ve been a dick to you today but I just wanted to make sure you were okay, you sounded…I don’t know, just stressed out on the phone when you called.” he says this to her as if she doesn’t know he met up with Lola behind her back and lied to her face about it

“Yeah, about that, were you with Lola? And I don’t wanna hear shit out your mouth if you finna stand here and lie to my face.” She’s angry, she’s hurt and she feels the most vulnerable she has ever felt in front of him right now.

“I- I need you to hear me out first”

“hear what out Christopher!?” She says yelling to him not allowing him to continue further.

“I know you are mad but I need you to listen to me, please let me explain.”

“Lola wanted to meet up with me, it’s been a while since I last saw her and I figured it was time I saw her, she was such a big part of my life before I met you. She helped me become the man I am today, because of her I am able to be the Boyfriend I am to you today.” He says this not knowing it made shit worse and so much just clicked in Y/n’s head as he said he is the boyfriend he is today because of Lola.

“Do you love her?”

“What?” Chris’s face drops, he has no idea why she would ask that as he just explained the platonic nature of his relationship with Lola.

“Do you love the bitch or not Christopher, I am asking you a question. Either you answer it honestly or you get the fuck out of my face.”

As she says this she has tears running down her face, the anger on her face is very apparent to the man infront of her.

“I- no, Y/n? What? I love you and only you, I don’t need Lola, I need you, I need you alone.” The desperation in his voice was gutting Y/n, she wanted to hold him and tell him it’s okay she’s not mad at him, but in reality she couldn’t stand to even breathe the same air as him.

As Y/n is looking at Chris, she notices a smudge of make up on his upper lip, she became hot, angry, furious, whatever words could explain the absolute wrath that was filling her up

“You’re a fucking liar and you are full of shit, what the fuck is that on your face? Did you fuck her? Why the fuck do you have make up on your face Christopher!!!” She says yelling and she stood in his face and she got louder and louder as each word slipped out her mouth.

Chris knew he was fucked before but now it’s worse. He had no idea he had traces of Lola on him, hell, he would have hoped his dumbass brothers told him.

“Baby it’s not what you think”

“Fuck do you mean it’s not what I think?? So you did fuck her? WHAT. HAPPENED.”

“No, NO! That didn’t happen she came onto me, she was trying to get me to admit that I want her, Y/n I need you to understand that I don’t want her. I want you baby, you’re my world. She doesn’t amount to you. She never could and never will, please don’t do this” he was asking a lot from her, hoping she would understand despite her looking like she was seconds away from biting his head off.

“Get the fuck out of my apartment.”

“Baby please don’t do this.”

“Are you hard of hearing? I said get the fuck out of my apartment.”

And in that moment he knew, he was to blame.

· · ────── ꒰ঌ·✦·໒꒱ ────── · · ·

A/n: well that had a good ending…sooooo do we end it here or part 3? Lmkkkkkkkkk🙈

[i3utterflyeffect]

Could you provide a summary of the Rain World lore, or point to any good videos that do that? I’m interested in the Creatures™️ and want to know more about what you’re basing them off of

I'm so sorry anon i tried to make this short. this is all copypasted from a document. the power of autism killed me

if my frothing is too much here's a video by daszombes that probably summarizes this all

IN MY DEFENSE THO this video is also like, 20 minutes long.

im like. going into game mechanics and going into it in a similar way to how a normal player might be introduced to the game. and doing a bunch of shit abt it.

ANYWAY!!!!!!!! Summary of Rain World. Let's go. For context purposes I will be telling the story of Survivor and then going into lore, other stories, and Downpour. Obviously spoilers for everything Rain World and Downpour.

WARNINGS

Mentions of general death and animal death (duh)

suicide

child death (briefly)

fictional speciecide/genocide

potential existential crisis fuel

let's get started.

Your name is The Survivor. You live with a family of five. A little sibling, a baby sibling, and your two parents.

The reason the game is called Rain World is because of the heavy rains that buffet your land-- somewhat manageable from the place your home is at, but in many cases, lethal-- not only because of the flooding, but also because it rains hard enough to give you blunt force trauma that will kill you.

You escape these floods using shelters, hiding and hibernating at the end of each 'cycle'-- the time between each downpour.

During one rain, you fall down, plunging into the abyss as you are seperated from your family. Your mission is to go home.

You find yourself in a dilapidated urban sprawl-- it's something close to it, anyway. Not a city, but incredibly industrial. The world is overgrown. This little yellow thing shows up-- it's called an observer but we'll call it by the nickname Iggy for now-- and it directs you to food and then shelter during the barebones tutorial.

You'll go a few cycles, and discover some base mechanics.

KARMA: Karma is, essentially, a way to keep track of how you're doing. Every time you survive a cycle, your Karma goes up. Every time you die, it goes down. You start with 5 base symbols, each granting you one level. Karma is required to navigate the world, as each reigon requires a certain level for you to get in. We'll talk about this later: Karma is actually pretty important to the lore.

CYCLES: Mentioned previously.

DEATH: You are never truly dead in Rain World. Each time you die, you return to your last shelter, restarting the cycle-- but Rain World is special because it's not just you who knows. Creatures have a chance of coming back to life at the end of every cycle, and they will remember you. There's a system that coincides with this--

REPUTATION: Every species has its own perspective on you, and your actions will change their perception of you. Killing a lot of lizards of the same color might make them afraid of you. If you don't, and instead treat them well, they might ignore you. You are prey, so balancing reputation is important-- and I can only think of one creature that won't try to kill you if your reputation's bad. Even the fish will personally drown you.

One creature is incredibly dependent on reputation that it can make or break a run: Scavengers. If you're kind and often trade, offer pearls (they love pearls), save them from enemies, etc., they'll treat you well. Get a bad reputation, though, and you're dead within seconds. Some animals are just skittish though-- there's literally personality values determining how creatures will act. I love that so much.

I think that's all the important lore-based stuff.

After a few cycles, Iggy will direct you to where (at the time you assume) your family is, and you'll follow them through the areas, going through a large building, a garbage waste, and eventually reaching a unusual ocean lined with pipes and with a sunken building in the distance. As you get closer, you discover that Iggy was not directing you to your family, but instead asking you to go to this building.

After a lot of swimming (and running in terror as the giant leviathan worms try to crush you with their metal jaws), you'll meet HER. A blue humanoid with wires spilling out, attached to the room by a mechanical arm-- similar to the ones you might find on a train.

You cannot understand her at this time, but her name is Looks To The Moon; We'll come back later.

After assigning you a fetch quest, Iggy drags you all the way back, and I'm not entirely sure what the beginner's route is, but I'm pretty sure it's (unfortunately) Dark Level Spider Hell.

Eventually, you crawl through that pit, run away from the centipedes trying to kill you, encounter giant birds with mouths like scissors that really want to kill you that are very very fast, run from them, and eventually make your way up to the next area.

THE LEG & THE UNDERHANG

The Leg is an alarming change from the semi-natural formations of the ground. This place is industrial. It's a metal beam-column, reaching up into the endless sky. This place is infested with lizards, and a scarier enemy:

Daddy Long Legs, also known as The Rot. These are blind… Biological lumps of… something. They're black and blue, and completely blind. But they have great hearing, and the rot will find you if you're not careful. And it will consume you.

Keep the Rot in mind for later. It's important for the lore-- basically crucial.

If you can escape this hellscape and make your way to the top, you'll find yourself in a building larger than you can comprehend.

FIVE PEBBLES - SUPERSTRUCTURE

This area is simply labeled Five Pebbles. This will make sense later.

There's no gravity here, but there's lots of lights and strange things-- things that look like they'd belong inside of a creature, and little bite-sized rainbow things. These are called Neurons, and you actually need them for the fetch quest.

There's a lot of things going on, but you won't be able to admire it too long-- this place has Rot inside it too, and it's much harder to avoid when you can't control your path due to being weightless. It's pretty terrifying, but in a way, this place is kind of majestic.

You explore the sprawl of access shafts, and you begin to hear music-- the most acclaimed and chilling track in the game-- as you reach the General Systems Bus. The first time I arrived here, I was completely awestruck.

RANDOM GODS

A large room, with a single chamber isolated in the middle. Projected lights surround you, and you have to climb your way towards the top to enter the unusual room.

Inside is another robot, similar to Looks to the Moon, except he's pink, he wears a cloak, and most of all, he seems shocked at your presence, because the gravity in the room returns, and everything falls to the ground-- including you.

He talks for a moment, before seizing you with the power of Gravity™️, and lifting you up. He implants The Mark Of Communication into your brain-- a mark allowing you to understand the language he speaks.

The following dialogue occurs:

. . . ...is this reaching you? A little animal, on the floor of my chamber. I think I know what you are looking for. You're stuck in a cycle, a repeating pattern. You want a way out. Know that this does not make you special - every living thing shares that same frustration. From the microbes in the processing strata to me, who am, if you excuse me, godlike in comparison. The good news first. In a way, I am what you are searching for. Me and my kind have as our purpose to solve that very oscillating claustrophobia in the chests of you and countless others. A strange charity - you the unknowing recipient, I the reluctant gift. The noble benefactors? Gone. The bad news is that no definitive solution has been found. And every moment the equipment erodes to a new state of decay. I can't help you collectively, or individually. I can't even help myself. For you though, there is another way. The old path. Go to the west past the Farm Arrays, and then down into the earth where the land fissures, as deep as you can reach, where the ancients built their temples and danced their silly rituals. The mark I gave you will let you through. Not that it solves anyone's problem but yours.

Turns out, this entire massive superstructure IS this guy; Five Pebbles is his name, and this puppet is merely a more interaction-friendly extension of his larger form. He's also not very happy with you climbing through his structure, and kicks you out onto the surface of the structure.

Now, let's go back to Moon and get some more information. We'll go to the west later.

Moondown

Looks to The Moon greets you much more pleasantly than Five Pebbles:

Hello little creature. What are you? If I had my memories I would know… You must be very brave to have made it all the way here. But I'm sorry to say your journey here is in vain.B As you can see, I have nothing for you. Not even my memories. Or did I say that already? I see that someone has given you the gift of communication. Must have been Five Pebbles, as you don't look like you can travel very far… He's sick, you know. Being corrupted from the inside by his own experiments. Maybe they all are by now, who knows. We weren't designed to transcend and it drives us mad. It is good to have someone to talk to after all this time! The scavengers aren't exactly good listeners. They do bring me things though, occasionally…

After giving her a neuron, she will thank you.

These neurons are essentially their brains. She only has five left. She was previously a superstructure like Pebbles-- Who she calls her little brother-- but she has collapsed. Giving her these neurons can help her regain her memory.

You can also eat them! Don't do that. You will permanently kill her if you eat all of them. Also, she remembers if you've done that and won't talk to you.

Quick summary of the vanilla ending:

You go underground, find some religious stuff by an ancient culture before whatever culture created the upper world, you find a big golden ocean, you swim down, and… uh…

You get grabbed by a big worm that sends you to the ascension realm??

I don't fully know what the ending is. No one does. We call the big worm Jerry though, and he's a Void Worm.

Anyway, let's talk about the real basics. The juicy stuff:

Iterators and Ancients

Looks To The Moon and Five Pebbles are complex machines called Iterators, created by a dead race named the Ancients.

These Ancients have left the cycle by using something called Void Fluid, a corrosive material from the core of the world that cancels out your revival. This is called 'Ascension'. We'll talk about this more in a minute.

The Ancients way of life is structured around the idea of leaving the cycle of reincarnation, and they eventually succeed-- however, they decided that they should leave a gift to the 'lesser life' of this world, and allow them their own escape-- with less risk and an immediate payoff. Remember what Pebbles said?

A strange charity - you the unknowing recipient, I the reluctant gift. The noble benefactors? Gone.

Yep; The Ancients basically desired worldwide extinction, from what we can tell. And they didn't bother to create that solution themselves, instead tasking a bunch of sentient, functionally immortal beings, to throw themselves repeatedly at a proverbial wall trying to create this worldwide cleanse.

Iterators were made for this.

But let's talk some other things real quick before we dive into that mess.

KARMA AND YOU

Karma. These symbols are fun and also important.

You see, the base symbols Survivor starts with are representations of what the Ancient Monks call the 'five natural urges'. These don't change the gameplay at all, but karma is crazy important in lore.

Let's take a look at the base five.

KARMA 1: VIOLENCE

The lowest level of karma, this symbol generally represents anger, hate, and violent acts. The symbol is used in several others-- the ones for 'The Hunter' and 'The Outlaw', gotten by eating only meat for 3 cycles or committing needless bloodshed.

KARMA 2: LUST

Yeah. Lust. I've heard this can also be percieved as a desire for material objects (take that with a grain of salt), but other than that, I don't think I need to say more.

This symbol is used in the passage 'The Mother'.

KARMA 3: COMPANIONSHIP

The desire to form connections with others in general, not just friendships. Frequently found scrawled in areas with scavengers, and also used in 'The Chieftain', 'The Friend', and 'The Mother'.

KARMA 4: GLUTTONY

food… hrng….. Anyway this one is the desire to eat good food I assume????? What else is there to say, really?

It's used in The Hunter passage, as well as the Marytr (starve for several cycles intermittently), and Iggy uses it to point you to food.

KARMA 5: SELF-PRESERVATION/SURVIVAL

The urge to survive. This is why people pretty frequently talk about the ancients having a suicide culture-- not to mention that the others represent signs of depression. It's used in 'The Saint' (survive without using weapons) and 'The Nomad' (pass through 4 regions successfully) and, most notably, it's own passage: 'The Survivor', in which you survive five cycles with this amount of karma. It is the highest karma most slugcats can ascend to without Echoes-- We'll talk about Echoes in a minute.

There's one oddball karma that breaks from the formula, so I'm just going to mention that briefly:

7/7 KARMA: PEACE (O)

For some reason, this Karma is used in some other stuff, and only if it's your current highest Karma. Seen in 'The Monk' and 'The Saint' passages, it basically just means peace. That's all. This one's weird.

Let's get to arguably the most important topic:

ASCENSION AND ECHOES

oh god. where do i start. um.

Okay. So basically. Ascension is a separation from the cycle that keeps you from returning, or 'respawning'.

For ancients, this was simple-- they extract fluid from the core of the world named Void Fluid, and you just… Dive in, I guess?

There was a mass ascension at some point, leaving everything they created behind. But this is all lore for the ANCIENTS. Let's get to the slugcat method.

To ascend, you must reach true max karma (represented the symbol ⊗-- a crossed out circle) and go through the Depths and go into the Void Sea, but you can't get Max Karma yourself. There's two ways:

Visit Five Pebbles and gain the Mark Of Communication

or…

You can visit Echoes.

If someone has many vices, such as being arrogant or egotistical, or other connections to the world, they leave something described as a stain of their ego trapped between reality and ascension.

Ghosts, essentially. That's what they're called in the code as well. They will speak to you if you have the Mark, and a few will reminisce and admit they never even wanted to ascend. Whatever these beings are, they give you extra Karma, elevating you to the next level.

Now that your crash course on that is over, let's talk about the iterators, for realsies.

THE GREAT PROBLEM

Being made for a seemingly impossible task was not easy for them, especially after the ancients, well… 'dipped', I guess you would say.

No one could really get to the solution, despite having many cycles to do so, even before the Ancients left. Previously, the Ancient lived atop them in cities, so it was a very noticeable thing.

Some turned to other things: Art, companionship, creative projects, watching the world outside, talking with friends.

Others balanced between these things, finding something like a job and personal life balance.

And some went insane.

You see, the ancients created a 'Self-Destruction Taboo', which attempts to prevent the iterators from attempting to hurt themselves, only causing more damage as they try to work around it and find their own way out.

This wasn't common at first, but something happened that caused it to spiral out of control:

Sliver Of Straw and the Triple Affirmative.

The triple affirmative is a signal that informs all iterators that the Great Problem-- How to ascend all life-- Has been discovered. Three affirmatives:

Affirmative that a solution has been found.

Affirmative that the solution is portable.

Affirmative that a technical implementation is possible and generally applicable.

Here's the thing: The problem wasn't solved. Moon explains it best:

Do you know Sliver of Straw? She's quite legendary among us. Sliver of Straw is the only one to ever broadcast a specific signal: that the Big Problem we're all working on has been solved. The triple affirmative. […] She's also one of few that has ever been confirmed as exhaustively incapacitated, or dead. We do not die easily. Sliver of Straw sent [The Triple Affirmative] and the ensuing commotion was historically unparalleled, before or after. I still remember it. But… nothing happened - except that Sliver of Straw was apparently dead. When the dust settled we were all still there blinking at each other. Everyone had a theory. Some said that she did have a solution, but that the solution itself was somehow dangerous. These later became known as the Triangulators, who think that a solution should be inferred without being directly discovered. Some said she never had a solution, she just died. And when the systems broke down an erroneous signal was sent. One camp claimed that dying was the solution. Either way, after that these different factions developed, as well as a huge forensic effort to recreate and simulate Sliver of Straw's last moments. Some of the simulations were wrapped in a simulation wrapped in a simulation, in case something dangerous might happen. Nothing much has come from it.

Sliver of Straw also abbreviates to SOS, and their name is similar to needle in a haystack.

We're still not sure what happened: The one fan-theory that pretty much seemed canon due to a challenge level was debunked. SOS remains a mystery. I've got my own thoughts, but we're not talking about that here.

Anyway, after Sliver of Straw died, there soon became more and more self-destructing iterators, with one common method resulting in a term for it's failure: The Rot.

Remember that? Yeah. They slowly destroy an iterator, but it doesn't truly kill them. They're still alive in there, somewhere.

Let's talk about how the Rot works once we get to the point where it begins in the main storyline.

THE COLLAPSE

Looks to the Moon was constructed upon a shoreline, and there was originally no plans to create Five Pebbles.

Almost all Iterators are incredibly far apart, even in their local groups, so it would have seemed preposterous at the time of her creation.

However, her surface became inhospitable some time after her creation, and traversing the ground beneath her would have basically made any attempt at evacuation worthless.

So a solution was proposed-- Two iterators connected by a bridge. They could safely leave her to her own things, and meanwhile, the ancients could spend their remaining time NOT dying.

I'd love to talk about the politics surrounding Five Pebble's creation, but that's unnecessary and this doesn't need to get any longer.

After their creators passed on, Pebbles slowly became despondent and began talking in a private group, using the psuedonym 'Erratic Pulse' to obtain information on how he could circumvent the Self Destruction Taboo..

The local group has 3 others. Two are important, one isn't. (sorry Chasing Wind </3)

Seven Red Suns, or SRS, is our current topic.

They are someone Five Pebbles looks up to, and ended up giving him this info, which they regret.

There's also No Significant Harassment, who is mischievous and good friends with most of the group before everything falls apart.

Here's some in-game dialogue:

[LIVE BROADCAST] - PRIVATE Seven Red Suns, No Significant Harassment SRS: I can't stop dwelling over mistakes that I've made. I could just delete those memories of course, but that feels irresponsible. NSH: Oh? What kind of mistakes are we talking about here? SRS: I once gave someone some... sensitive information... the kind that could be dangerous if acted on. SRS: Yet I should have known they weren't in the right state to use that information responsibly. NSH: I take it you won't tell me the content, or to who. SRS: No, I will not, out of respect. NSH: Look, if you ever want to talk about it I can. We can share this little problem of yours. We were made to solve them after all! NSH: You're worried they're going to get themselves hurt by messing it up? SRS: They already have.

You can find the pearl containing this 'sensitive information' in other campaigns.

Here is Moon's comment on it:

This information is illegal. Someone probably tried to send it by a pearl somehow rather than risking being overheard on broadcast. It's an instruction on how to circumvent the self-destruction taboo. The problem with breaking taboos is that the barriers are encoded into every cell of our organic parts. And there are other taboos strictly regulating our ability to rewrite our own genome. Attempting to circumvent the issue using this process would be extremely risky. That's not to say that there exists any known methods that would avoid putting the user in harm's way. Those barriers are there for a reason. Where exactly did you find this pearl? I imagine you dug it up from somewhere within the surrounding facilities, in which case that wouldn't leave many options as to the recipient. That would explain a lot of things…

Pebbles used this pearl, and because of this, his water intake majorly increased, leaving Moon without any water at all: Iterators need water to function, though, as without it they can't flush out the massive amount of excess materials that is made by their operations. He didn't notice, not until Moon contacted him directly-- And he was angered by this, but not without reason.

Failing the pearl caused him to break the genome reprogramming, causing biological parts to be converted into Rot.

When Moon falls, he shuts out all the other iterators, and goes radio silent.

You're caught up on the backing lore. Now... Campaign time.

TIMELINE: SPEEDRUN EDITION

SPEARMASTER

A messenger made by Seven Red Suns who can make spears outta bone-- a little bit trypophobic but I forgive them it's not their fault. No mouth btw. those spears are how it eats. slurp

Delivered the pearl containing the Taboo bypass, but Seven Red Suns sends you back, with a message of worries regarding his physical and mental health, trying to tell him to open up and talk about his feelings. Pebbles gets mad. He kicks you out, as well as the pearl you were carrying. Did I mention that he rips it out of your chest? That pearl was embedded in you.

Anyway, you can take the pearl to Moon because she's still standing, and she encodes it with a goodbye, telling you about how she's about to collapse. You run to the communication arrays and broadcast that message for her, before returning home to Seven Red Suns.

ARTIFICER

"God Forbid Women Do Anything", Genocidal Revenge edition. Artificer had two babies. Scavengers saw one take one of their precious Porls. Baby is dead. Artificer runs but the other baby gets dragged to hell by leeches and drowns.

Anyway, Artificer returns on a genocidal rampage, locked at Karma One: Violence. You use scavenger corpses to get through Karma gates. The only thing that can sate your hunger is blood and flesh. You are continuously aimbotted by Scavengers but you keep coming back to kill more and more.

You're also explosive, did I mention that? I don't think I mentioned that. She explodes. She's very angry. She can launch herself through the air and maul people.

You can get to Karma 10 through echoes, but you're still denied by the void. It's unclear if she becomes an Echo or not.

You also have another ending! If you go to Five Pebbles, he'll say 'hey, that drone you have is a citizenship drone for my city, scavengers are ripping the city apart, I see that you hate them, and if you kill their chieftain we both benefit'!

If you choose to go that route you can tear through the scavengers, have a boss fight, and get a cool mask. Who cares about being empty inside since you can no longer go on a genocidal murder spree and being forever chained to the mortal realm by your anger and bloodshed when you have a cool mask?

Moon is also dead, she's not there.

Blood and violence. Rip and tear.

Slugcat pup was killed so let their corpses rain from the heavens, etc.

HUNTER

You are rot, rot is you!

Actually, you're a messenger slugcat made by No Significant Harrassment. For some reason this guy ended up giving you the rot for reasons still unclear to us. Unintentionally? Intentionally? Who knows. Your cycle count goes down instead of up.

You have limited cycles to speedrun to Moon and MAYBE ascend if you're lucky.

Go through Pebbles? He gives you extra cycles and wishes you the best of luck. Kind of depressing that you're both condemned to the same fate.

Get to Moon; Deliver a pearl that's a message of well wishes and cares from NSH. More importantly, deliver a slag reset key and restart her. She gets her neurons back. She's alive! And unable to help you.

Now? Run.

Your biological time bomb is ticking, and when you get into negatives, it shows. Not only does it turn permadeath, but you begin to experience collapsing into seizure-like spasms randomly, a growing hunger, and according to the wiki HALLUCINATIONS?

Ascend and you get a happy ending, but if you die you're gonna get a horrific surprise in the next campaign!

Fun fact: original hard mode campaign. Hunter is more skilled than the other vanilla slugs, but their world is harder too.

GOURMAND

Food. That's it. Just food. It's either going to be the easiest slugcat or the hardest one.

You eat your list of foods, maybe visit the iterators, and fuck off back home. You don't even have to complete the list. You can just Fucking Leave.

If you do complete the list tho you get slugpups. I like em. Cute slugs.

you can also CRAFT NUKES btw. did i mention that? Gourmand has crafting mechanics and also can craft nukes if you do it right. Not joking

You can also regurgitate an entire living squid. How? Gourmand.

Also by the way Hunter may or may not have popcorned into a mindless mass of rot if you failed to ascend them. Oopsie.

SURVIVOR

See introduction.

MONK

Survivor but babey mode (affectionate)

Remember Survivor's little siblings? Monk is one of them. They're a vanilla bannana boy and my favorite little guy.

You basically choose a route and if you've already completed it with Survivor there's a happy sibling reunion. Oh, there's two routes now, by the way. Once you complete Gourmand you can go home to the Outer Expanse. No one's there but you're both chilling.

RIVULET

WELCOME TO HELL.

This is probably the one that gave Downpour its title. The rain happens every three minutes, maybe less if you get unlucky. The rain shelters are failing and the world's succumbing to Rot.

Go throw yourself into Moon, and you'll discover Monk has given her two neurons and a dress; thank you Monk :]

You also have the mark of communication from someone (who knows who) and you have a pearl for an iterator system that Moon doesn't have called the lymphatic system. Apparently the rain's bad because Pebbles isn't doing well, but how bad can it be?

…hey, why is the citadel covered in Rot? That's weird and annoying.

Was there always this much in the overhang? It's kind of obnoxious.

Finally, you're at Pebbles, so let's-

Oh.

OH.

THAT'S JUST… THE ROT.

THAT'S WHAT IT'S CALLED NOW. OKAY. FUCK.

Pebbles is so sick he can't even maintain zero gravity, it's going on and off.

Dive into the water of the newly discovered path and RUN.

When you get to him, he asks you to disconnect his only life support-- a Rarefraction Cell-- and deliver it to Moon. A final apology. Leave him to listen to his music pearl in peace, it's the only thing he has left.

Take that cell, run to Moon. She knows exactly where it came from. She doesn't know where her core is anymore, though.

Time for the Submerged Superstructure.

Most of Moon's remains are underwater, now infested with kelp, water lizards, and scavengers. But you can swim down, down, down into the creaking metal, the shrieking waters. Let it swallow you whole.

Eventually, you will reach her Heart. Place the Rarefraction Cell inside, and you're washed away.

You are washed to the top, and descend down to find her where you left her-- but renewed with new life.

She'll contact Pebbles one last time. Happy ending, right?

Not yet.

SAINT

THE TRUE TRIPLE AFFIRMATIVE

Saint may seem peaceful at first-- Fragile and unable to throw spears, fluffy to fight the cold seeping into the world-- but they are arguably the scariest one out there!

The world is ending: Iterators have gone silent, and the world's being blanketed in snow. You're up above it all-- so your first instinct is to go east. To Pebbles.

But he's gone.

Descend, and you'll only find a heap of scrap metal: The Silent Construct. His remains.

You're collecting Echoes.

On the way, you talk to Moon. She tells you about the state of the world. How it's dying. That she might be the only one left.

The world is passing into a new era: one that doesn't need them.

At maximum Karma, Saint becomes something unique.

You gain the ability to ascend anything.

You can go back.

You probably are going to ascend Moon. Only a mercy, right?

Return to the silent superstructure, and find that Pebbles remains. He's still holding that pearl. The music is scratchy. Distorted.

How long has he been here?

However long it was, it was enough to pick off all his neurons. And despite this, he's not even granted the mercy of an ending; he can barely even think or speak. It's cold out here, and you can't imagine it'd be kind to leave him here alone. He has to go, too.

And with that, you descend to the depths.

RUBICON

The Void Sea doesn't have anything for you. In fact, you will only discover yourself in a hellish world where it seems to be flipped upside down, and the remains of the old civilizations that are probably familiar by now are succumbing to the void.

You're burned if you touch the void fluid. You must fly to avoid it.

So you go. You ascend many things that are either trying to kill you or keeping you locked out of other paths.

And finally, at the end, you go up, and ascend.

You swim up. The slugcat tree is here, but it's not what you're looking for.

You drop by a chamber-- one containing the two ascended iterators.

They're free, and finally together. Once you ascend, you can see the future and the past in a cycle.

They look at you, and it's not a circle. It's an endless spiral into entropy. Your future goes on forever.

But you keep ascending.

It's not long before the Void Worm finds you. It offers you ascension, a reprieve.

And you kill it.

You're trapped in the cycle forever. An echo, ever recurring.

And it continues on.

🎉CONGRATS!

you are now a rain world expert. consider yourself lore'd. feel free to look at the critters and beasts on the Miraheze Wiki. (thank you miraheze this is so much better than fandom wikis. we love you)

[maddyscrsideblog]

Having Kiki and Vax thoughts again this time about the more abstract idea of the champion of the goddess of death being in love with an almost immortal woman, the only way they can be reunited is by waiting a thousand years until her death and he will show up time and again to make sure she gets to live those thousand years, there is a woman that the embodiment of death is in love with and he ensures her immortality

[dreamlogic]

aye can i get a fuckin uuuhhhh

break. on my burger

[popppyfur]

...Im having thoughts and i need a 2nd opinion.

How long ago do we reckon trolls were caught/eaten/found by bergens? (relative to the great escape for simplicity)

lemme walk you through my thoughts...

we dont know how the tunnels got there, did the trolls dig them? or something else? or were they always there?

When did Peppy decide to use the tunnels? when were they discovered?

How many trolls did the bergens eat. surely at first they must have bean eating HEAPS of trolls daily before realised that they would run out. how long was it until then?

It had to have been long enough that they would have then decided to make trollstice (help cant spell) a yearly tradtion. could it at first have been monthly?

We dont know how many pop trolls there were at first. have their number gone down? by how much? since more being eaten means less babies.

How many queens/kings were at the troll tree? Just peppy? his parents? But that raises the question of wether or not any of the escaped trolls remember a time before the bergens.

-- A brand new, different anon.

GOD you reminded me of when i eventually realized how massively fucked the pop trolls were pre 1st movie. i remember trying to read everything i could that talked about it and staying up til 4 am to do it because holy hell they were being eaten on a yearly basis. IM HOLDING UR HAND AND SHAKING IT REALLY HARD. and im gonna answer this as jumbled as i can bc. its me. the professional yapper.

on that note ! all under read more to spare everyones dashboards

also, i havent really gone through actual specific numbers, my brains just settled on some vague decision that the pop trolls dont pass the hundreds, or five hundreds. that is to say, poppy would probably still try to know everyone by name just bc she would lol. so i hope you guys can just make up imaginary numbers of years too !!

we dont know how the tunnels got there, did the trolls dig them? or something else? or were they always there? When did Peppy decide to use the tunnels? when were they discovered?

ive always kinda assumed that the pop trolls dug it themselves! they knew about it long enough that they bothered to leave behind decoys of themselves after all. im assuming its a part of a long, long long list of attempts to escape, and they finished digging just a bit before the last trollstice. peppy wasnt gonna risk losing any more, especially since poppy herself was gonna be given to gristle

How many trolls did the bergens eat. surely at first they must have bean eating HEAPS of trolls daily before realised that they would run out. how long was it until then? It had to have been long enough that they would have then decided to make trollstice (help cant spell) a yearly tradtion. could it at first have been monthly? We dont know how many pop trolls there were at first. have their number gone down? by how much? since more being eaten means less babies.

i lost the damn reddit post so im gonna make my own screenshot instead LOL

from left to right, classical, techno, pop, funk, country, and the red blob under them; rock with a mix of other trolls

so like. THIS FUCKING DEVASTATED MEEEEEEEEEEEE. assuming theres more classical trolls just off screen, the visible sheer difference in numbers from the pop trolls in comparison to the other tribes (FUNK IS AN OUTLIER HUMOR ME) just. genuinely left me a bit speechless.

and if you go back to the first movie and remember that the entirety of their village fit in branch's bunker not to mention the DAMN POT? it just. really puts itself into perspective. bc that stage was still relatively big, but the pot. the fucking pot. the entirety of pop village

ALL of them. in THERE? isnt that crazy? we can say that some escaped, sure. but just the fact that they couldve gotten wiped out just like that is so. messed up to me man ToT

i dont remember which fic i read it from anymore, but there was a line going how the pops initially outnumbered the other tribes and thats how they were ever able to threaten actually overtaking everyone. and like. YEAH SURE. fuck me up even more like that why dont ya!!!!!

so suffice to say, pop troll population not doing so hot! and all your thoughts is just one domino falling after another. you piece together the pieces and ultimately just ending up with one undeniable answer. they got eaten. simple as that.

How many queens/kings were at the troll tree? Just peppy? his parents? But that raises the question of wether or not any of the escaped trolls remember a time before the bergens.

and ur first question, putting them together for one last godawfully long ramble :]

How long ago do we reckon trolls were caught/eaten/found by bergens? (relative to the great escape for simplicity)

the fact that world tour makes it a point to say that only peppy ever knew of the other tribes makes me lean more onto the assumption that its been... a while? but also like. no one's ever mentioned viva? no one remembers the princess who was old enough to fight bergens and mention that to poppy??? whos to say these guys arent just repressing everything as they always do????????? [ITS HARD TO ARGUE SPECULATIONS HERE BC they had to make plot for the movies to make sense!!! its why it feels so mean to me to just blame everything on peppy LMAO. even if that is the easiest way to make sense of it. I WANT NUANCE DAMMIT]

so for the sake of it. i like to think that theyve been under the bergens' capture long enough that everyone outside of the royal family forgot about the time that they were even free from the bergens. long enough that the royal family could rewrite the scrapbooks to make it seem like it wasnt their fault. that it never was. whether to spare themselves the blame, selfish deniability, or just. give up the hope that there was a single minuscule possibility to have help from the outside.

i said before that i headcanonned peppy holding resentment for them in the belief that no one could ever bother to just check. and thats part of the reason why he doesnt even want to attempt getting to know them, since it probably felt like no one EVER cared except for themselves.

again. im sorry that i dont have a specific number for you though ToT the most i can say is that: its long enough that they forgot.

POST ANSWER ASK RAMBLEEEE

heres a fic that made me ugly cry about this! i think it gives really good answers to your questions!!!!!!! and though it doesnt completely fit with whats 'canon' (when has anything ever) its such a horrifying and deliciously good outlook on how the bergens affected the pop trolls as a whole! cant recommend it enough!! please leave the author kudos and love especially if this is your type of jam!!!

more than anything. the realization of how hard the pop trolls' lives mustve even been prior to the first movie made me have so much fucking love for them even more?? T_T even if it is unhealthy to an outside perspective, they tried to stay positive, and they got through all those yearly eatings thanks to it, no wonder they try to stay within that mindset even after everything. sometimes i wonder if they felt like its all they had

[getvalentined]

Just so everyone understands why I'm losing my goddamn mind over finally getting a clean copy of Veld's character portrait from which to sample colors, I wanna show you a comparison.

Here's the palette I was using, sampled from scans and screenshots and a copy of his character portrait originally sourced sometime before 2007:

Top half is all skintones, while the bottom half is three shades used for hair and three shades used for eyes.

...And here's the new one, sampled from that shockingly clean copy of his character portrait sourced in 2019:

I'm getting over it (I like the updated palette, I really do) but I still kinda want to jump into the sun.

[carbonateds-oda]

im actually gonna need chuuya nakahara to die immediately. why is there like ten different figures of him but not a single one of kyouka or kunikida

[mifhortunach]

.

[gravelsong]

This thumbnail keeps popping up in my recommended and it one-shots me every time I see it

[snakerdoodlle]

It’s nearly 2 AM and I’m literally crying over Cal and Maven rn

The way Cal defended Maven and stood by him until the very end, being the only person who still loved him despite everything. Cal hanging on to any kind of hope for his brother that he could, searching desperately for someone that could possibly help him. Cal putting off the inevitable for as long as possible, never wanting to give Maven a death sentence but being forced to by the court/Scarlet Guard with so much regret behind it. Cal knowing that it’s not Maven’s fault. Cal blaming himself for years and years for never seeing what was happening to his baby brother, and for never shielding him from his mother. Cal going to Maven’s body first when finding him and Mare. Cal burying Maven on Tuck with the hopes that maybe at last, the broken, lost boy he knew could finally have peace. He promises he’ll always keep Maven with him, he’ll never let him go, never let him be forgotten in his memories. He gave Maven a proper headstone, he made sure his brother could have what little honor he was able to offer. It also basically served as Cal’s final message. Cal will always love Maven, he will always regret what happened, he will always wish he could’ve changed things, he will always have guilt weighing on his shoulders, even if it eases with time. Cal will never abandon Maven like so many others.

And then the way Maven spared Cal the final blow, letting Cal believe he was truly gone despite it being a lie. He hurt Cal just to save him the much worse pain it’d have caused him if he knew the truth. Cal would’ve done anything to try and save Maven if only he’d known, and Maven was aware and didn’t want Cal to go through that. They both knew nothing would’ve come of it, but none of that mattered to Cal ever. He would’ve been willing to do anything.

I am so unbelievably emotional over these two brothers good god

[kosmologue]

I am, rather unfortunately, a reddit refugee. I understand my shortcomings, and am working hard to make penance.

[decaffedthoughts]

how ab skz x moots as romance tropes?

OOOOH of course, a good one from the resident big brain

chan x @snow-pegasus roommates and drunken confession it is what it is. chan rarely drinks, preferring to watch over his friends and make sure they don't die in a bush. but tonight he did because snow has just been too much recently. taking care of him, physically affectionate, and their hangouts have felt like dates for some reason. he gets drunk as shit, comes home and confesses to snow, thinking it's someone else or whatever. happily ever after yippee

minho x @simpracha fighting turned confession. listen i gotta. it would be some simple thing, honestly more banter than a fight. but it turns into "your smile is annoyingly pretty" and "i like when you sing along to your stupid music in the shower". if anyone else is around they're like is this concerning or wholesome, do i need to intervene, help

changbin x @bunnypig18 doing this one last, can i say idiots to lovers a third time? i think hanahaki would destroy them fr. like quentin would get hanahaki and immediately changbin is concerned like ??? omg who is it, tell me so i can make them confess to you rn. and dear quentin is like :((( i can't. eventually it progresses enough and changbin crying gets it out of them. wee woo happy ending ofc ofc

hyunjin x @ferrethyun . idiots to lovers. it would be so painful to watch, i can see it now. and it would extra bad cause these long limbed clumsy lil ones would be causing all sorts of injuries and damage if they were ever in the same place

jisung x @my-favorite-bangchan someone tell me why i wanna say idiots to lovers again FBGJFK

felix x @brownieracha come on i HAVE to put these two together. too cute!! best friends to lovers, all the way. just adorably pining over each other and always doing things for each other. everyone looking in wants to be annoyed but it's really too cute for them to be mad for long

seungmin x @hobi-is-golden secretly dating. but not on purpose. they just don't end up doing a lot of pda cause they both see all their friends being little bastards about it and decide not to deal with it!

jeongin x @wonkiewolfie grumpy x sunshine. ik i paired everyone else with their biases, sorry honey. but i think this would be cute regardless! both a little more lowkey, but where jeongin is lowkey in the way that he insults his friends, wren is lowkey in the way that he just. vibes. happy to be here vibes

[vogelmeister]

it has been 4 years and i'll never be over the art sub putting gesso on my year 12 art major and tearing the photo i had stuck down even though i said it wasnt dry and it would tear the image.

[spaceratprodigy]

the tiny metronome in my brain aggressively ticking back and forth between wanting to make cap and max fluff or cap and max angst

[s1llybug]

trying to process and heal from the trauma that a certain someone caused me and trying to talk myself through it (while being plural and mentally unstable) is currently going somewhere along these lines

(warning: some pretty triggering and very personal discussions from me in the tags however feel free to just relate to the funny pitture)