#ui & weapons off

[terminalkisser]

hell is so beautiful

[askagamedev]

Vertical Slice Breakdown - Dragon Age Veilguard

It's been a few days since the Dragon Age Veilguard gameplay video was released. I posted a challenge for aspiring developers to identify as many specific features and systems as they could spot. My expertise is in gameplay, so that's where I will be focusing. Expertise on visuals like lighting, rendering, shaders, etc. should be directed elsewhere.

0:22 - In-Game Cinematic with moving cameras 0:30 - Seamless cinematic transfer to gameplay, quest tracking UI element, different walking speeds 0:36 - Interactable element with UI 0:43 - Camera movement - orbital motion, but likely not detachable 0:53 - Party member movement, including waiting for the player as part of an escort sequence 2:08 - Uninteractable NPC actors perform animations 2:13 - Scriptable terrain changes/destruction 2:18 - Scriptable interactions with multiple actors 2:29 - Uninterrupted conversations when transitioning from gameplay to in-game cinematic 2:39 - Context-specific traversal method with special traversal animation (balancing across a thin beam) 2:50 - Small sequence that is likely unloading the last area and loading in data for the next environment. Likely also locks players off from returning to the previous area. 3:22 - Conversation wheel with "personality" icons and paraphrased words 3:39 - Dynamic inventory in game cinematics, show player's items 3:46 - Scripted Player equipment change during cinematic 4:04 - Quest variables (e.g. player background) result in different NPC response 4:27 - Combat UI including current target (four red dots), Combat log 4:30 - Player can jump 4:33 - UI Melee danger indicator for incoming attacks - silver for enemy attacking, gold for shortly impending damage 4:35 - Player can dash/dodge 4:39 - Event log - Items/Loot notification 4:42 - Shooting UI including hit/miss indicator (red reticle), time scaling, arrow charging (rounded purple bar above arrow count), arrow refill cooldown 5:03 - Some kind of special charge/jumping attack 5:09 - XP gain UI, Quest objective completion UI, Quest objective map indicator UI 5:12 - Auto sheath weapons 5:15 - Potion use/Health recovery 5:18 - Recover potions from the environment 5:40 - Quest objective indicator change on approach 5:49 - Ranged attack danger indicator 5:51 - Defensive action (player reflects damage back on ranged attacker) 6:06 - Enemies can be knocked off edges when fatal 6:10 - Destructible objects in combat, can be scripted 6:16 - Some kind of "special" dodge skill with VFX, likely a rogue class skill 6:51 - Second context-specific traversal method (sliding down a slope) also likely a second "can't go back" type of lockoff 7:01 - Action/Command UI (party/self ability commands) 7:06 - Specific skill used, skill cooldown, enemy debuffed + UI (weakened), resource used (purple bar at bottom of screen) 7:07 - Quick use button mapping, likely for controller face buttons 7:09 - Resource bar refills on its own and on attack damage 10:47 - Different kinds of health bars (likely magical shield and armor) 11:59 - Boss UI with both magical shield and armor bars. Not sure what the number 4 there indicates 12:15 - Telegraphed danger zones projected onto the floor 12:22 - Quick recover timing event 14:45 - Conversation option for branching cinematic 14:51 - Follower approval UI event log 18:49 - Destructible object with health bar and UI highlighting

Each of these elements is something that would need to be designed and implemented by someone on the gameplay team working with UI, engineering, and art. See anything I missed? Which did you get?

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Got a burning question you want answered?

Short questions: Ask a Game Dev on Twitter

Long questions: Ask a Game Dev on Tumblr

Frequent Questions: The FAQ

[quack-quack-snacks]

Time Will Tell - Chapter 1.29

My Time Will Tell Masterlist

My Cha Hyun-su Masterlist

My Navigation and Masterlist

The Time Will Tell Glossary

Warnings: Fighting, gunshots, not very detailed gore. Word Count: 1,309

prev | current | next

“I like you, so what do you say?” The leader of the invading group asked Eun-hyuk after they found his blueprints of the place and found out he performed the surgery on Eun-yu. “Will you abandon them and join me? Or will you… just die?” He proposed the two options. 

Eun-hyuk took a minute to think it over before eventually walking over to their side. You weren’t entirely sure why everyone was so surprised by him walking over considering the other option was death, but you didn’t say anything.

The leader laughed. It sounded like wheezing or a heavy smoker’s laugh. “Good choice, hmm? Smart guy,” he praised.

“Sir!” The man with the red bandana came rushing over. 

“Huh?”

“There’s a monster here.”

They laughed and the man wrapped his arm around Eun-hyuk’s shoulders just as he did with Ui-myeong. “Let’s go kill some monsters, shall we?”

With that, they walked off. You couldn’t help the fear that rose in your chest at the thought of the monster. While you hoped it was just some random monster in the building, something in your gut made you know it was Ms. An. 

It was barely a few minutes later when you were brushing Su-yeong’s hair away from her eyes and wiping the tears that tracked down it, that another gunshot sounded in the distance. Hyun-su shot up from his spot and you instinctively reached out to grab his hand and pull him back down. 

He looked down at you as you tugged and his gaze turned thoughtful. You looked away and hugged your sister tightly with your free arm when she started letting out small crying noises. After a few more tugs, he sat down again and pressed his leg against yours. It was a simple comfort but one that you needed desperately in the moment. 

“Unnie,” Su-yeong cried. “I’m scared,” she leaned in to whisper in your ear. “What about Yeong-su?”

“It’s okay, everything is going to be okay,” you reassured before pulling her closer so you could whisper back to her. “Yeong-su will be fine. He’s most likely still hiding and he’ll be okay.”

You weren’t sure if you believed yourself but you needed to in order to convince her. 

“-really doesn’t suit our group,” you heard someone say in the distance. The volume of their voice increased with each word as they got closer.

You looked over just in time to see a man - not the one you heard - get shot in the head and fall to the ground with a thump. The room echoed the screams that erupted from everyone and you ducked down with Su-yeong in your arms to avoid getting shot as the thugs started shooting at whoever was responsible for killing the man. Hyun-su placed his chest over you, keeping you down just in case and protecting you with his body.

When the shots stopped and two men ran after the culprit, you both shot up to look around. You handed Su-yeong off to Jin-ok, who sat behind you, and stood to look and figure out what was going on. 

“Cha Hyun-su! Now!” Eun-hyuk screamed as he wrapped his arms around the leader and restrained him from all mobility. 

The boy beside you wasted no time rushing forward and knocking the guy in the red bandana over, sending his gun flying across the room. He pushed the one he was fighting up against a pillar, not seeing the one creeping up behind him. You couldn’t stop yourself when you rushed forward to help despite your side flaring up with pain. You attempted to completely knock the guy to the ground but were only able to kick his weapon away. He pushed you back rather easily with your weakened state of being and you ended up knocking into the main leader who had managed to throw Eun-hyuk over his shoulder and placed a heavy foot on his chest to keep him down. The man wrapped an arm around your neck, locking you in a chokehold that didn’t really restrict your breathing but rather restricted your movements. You struggled - especially when you saw him shoot Hyun-su in the chest - but he wouldn’t budge. 

“Everyone, stop!” The leader yelled over the chaos. Eun-hyuk looked up at you with worried eyes and you would have laughed if you weren’t in this particular predicament. It was ironic how he was the one on the floor but he was worried about you. “Let them go,” he said slowly as he held the gun in his hand up to your temple. You didn’t stop struggling even with the cold barrel pressed against your head, but you could tell Eun-hyuk and Hyun-su both wanted you to. “Or I’ll just blow their fucking brains out,” he threatened, quickly gesturing his gun to you and the boy beneath his boot. 

The residents did as he said, not wanting to see either of you dead on the floor, and the members of his group limped over. 

“Sir,” the bandana guy said, pointing to the approaching figure behind him. When he saw her - Ms. An, who was supposed to be dead - he let you and Eun-hyuk go immediately, backing up behind his group to get out of the way. 

Coward. 

You helped Eun-hyuk up just as the once-dead woman’s hand speared through the neck of the man shooting her. She kept approaching, walking towards you and Eun-hyuk while getting ready to strike. 

It all happened so fast: Eun-hyuk pushed you behind him where you landed on the floor, Hyun-su jumped in front of Eun-hyuk just as she struck, and then he choked her to death, sobbing the entire time. You would have gotten up but you were paralyzed in shock. 

He fell to his knees when she fell to the floor, still crying and shaking with guilt until he passed out. The shock wore off and you leaped forward, rushing toward the boy to check on him until you were stopped by none other than, you guessed it, the leader of the other group. He grabbed you by your collar and yanked you back, choking you in the process but not caring one bit. 

“No! Hyun-su!” You protested, still trying to get out of his hold and run to the boy you loved. “Hyun-su!”

The leader laughed in aggravation and then sighed. He threw you back and you were quickly caught by the bandana guy in another chokehold.

Goddamn, these men love their chokeholds.

You watched in horror as the leader kneeled behind Hyun-su and stuck his hand into the wound made by Ms. An piercing through him. “You have secrets, huh?”

“Sir, he’ll recover soon,” one of the men said.

“We should kill… all monsters.”

The men worked to cover Seon-yeong’s body with gasoline before lighting it on fire. You sobbed as you watched it and your struggles died down from exhaustion. 

However, your energy sprung back up the moment the men started dragging Hyun-su into the elevator. “No! Fuck! Don’t you fucking touch him!” You screamed, completely disregarding your well-being as your anger took over. 

The leader laughed and walked up to where you were still being held in place by bandana guy. His lips jut out into a playful, mocking pout and he skimmed a finger down your cheek. You cringed away but he didn’t care as he roughly grabbed your chin. “Let’s bring this one along, too. The monster seemed to care about her so she might be good leverage.”

He didn’t wait for an answer as he walked into the elevator and you started getting dragged along with him. You heard Su-yeong screaming for you and watched as Eun-hyuk tried to stop them from taking you, but got stopped with a gun to his face. You reassured him silently with a mouthed sentence neither of you believed. 

‘I’ll be fine.’

~

Taglist <3

@hyeon-yi

@haowonbins

@mythical-mushrooms13

@visualconcern

@yomsy

[flamebearrel]

“But Kris, if I wanted to watch Anim vs. with all the different series how should I even go about it??”

It largely depends on the topics and cast you’re interested in seeing. The show is split into three subseries as well as the occasional standalone episode/miniseries: Animator vs. Animation (the original created in 2006-7 by Alan Becker alone), Animation vs. Minecraft (the longest and most popular, shorts stemming off a standalone from 2015), and Animation vs. Education (the newest from 2023, visualizing high-level STEM concepts)

Personally, I think core AvA is required reading for anyone who has appreciation for past eras of the internet, UI, or principles and genres of animation. AvM and AvE are equal in quality but honestly you won’t appreciate them as much if you aren’t familiar with the topics they cover. Alan and his team do try to visually introduce things step by step, though, so you can at least get a general idea of what you’re looking at

Besides that, core AvA specifically follows the Hollow-Heads, hand-drawn stick figures created by the Animator, “noogai”/Alan. In particular you have The Chosen One (shortened to Chosen, Cho or TCO) and The Second Coming (aka Second, Sec, TSC or Orange). TSC is the de facto main character and the only one appearing in all three series, while TCO and the Animator are exclusive to the original.

The SticksFight squad - the four sticks originating from sticksfight.com and named after their colors - have developed distinct personalities as the main cast of AvM, but only take a collective side role in main AvA (Yellow has a slightly larger role than the others). Here’s a summary of their individual personalities so you know what to look for in their smaller appearances

Red - Impulsive and energetic, always the first to jump into action and with a soft heart for creatures and beasties. He’s a little simple when it comes to technical things, but excels with reading the people around him, then building off of their quirks. Since the rest of the group babies him a bit, he puts in extra physical work to prove he can hold his own. Red also tends to play around with new or out-of-the-box solutions - knowledge that extends to his pranks. Most ready to fight with his fists or use heavy-hitters like maces and clubs. (Good intro/focus eps: The Rediscovery, Texture Pack, Monster School, The Prank)

Blue - A mellow fellow! Blue is one with nature and focuses on farming, cooking, and potionology. Due to her pacifistic tendencies, Blue prefers to reason things out or find other solutions rather than fighting, but will throw herself into the face of danger for others. Otherwise she takes up ranged weapons like guns and bows. She’s detail- and aesthetic-oriented as well as graceful, but doesn’t often step outside what she knows. A bit of an addiction to nether wart, which is somewhere between an unusual snack and a drug. (Good intro/focus eps: Potions, The Piglin War, The Chef, Blue’s New Superpower)

Yellow - She loves more than anything to get down to the root of things, and that makes her the group’s engineer! …And a bit of a troublemaker, paying more attention to the thrill of a discovery than the consequences. Yellow tries to find fairness and justice for friend and foe alike. While they have a reliable, supportive demeanor, they’re also very peppy, excitable and tough with how they stand strong in dire situations. Often her fighting style takes place behind the scenes, using things like explosives or a command-casting staff. (Good intro/focus eps: The Roller Coaster, Command Blocks, Lucky Blocks, AvArcade Games)

Green - Originally the weakest on the team, but has since come into his own after a lot of reflex training (read: getting tossed around). Green has great adaptability to learning new techniques and getting creative, particularly with styles of music and architecture. He loves the spotlight and usually competes with the others or takes the chance to show off; however, he also cares deeply about welcoming in those he meets. Dashes and zips around all the time during battle, usually via fishing rod-grappling hook. (Good intro/focus eps: AvYouTube, Note Blocks, PvP, The Dolphin Kingdom)

If you’re just gonna watch the REQUIRED ones this is what I recommend:

AvA s1 (1-4, previously I-IV)

AvMinecraft (original)

AvYouTube

AvA s2 (5-8, previously “shorts” combining into V)

AvMath

AvA s3 (9-ongoing)

That way you get the introduction of both subseries, with how each establishes the cast/direction, as well as one standalone. I put vs. YT here since it best fits the theme imo but you could go with vs. Pokémon or vs. Arcade Games if you prefer

If you’re willing to take on AvM/the rest of the series this is pretty much the order of the timeline:

AvA s1

AvM (original)

AvYouTube

AvM shorts s1 (1-14)

AvLeague of Legends (required for an AvM character’s development)

AvM shorts s2 (15-19)

AvA s2

Other standalones (Blue’s New Superpower + vs. ___)

AvM shorts s3 (20-30)

AvE (ongoing)

AvA s3 (ongoing)

AvM shorts s4 (ongoing)

Influencer Arc (1-3 + some interactive videos on the Greenzilla4 channel)

Or just follow my playlist!!!

[selencgraphy]

— 𝐋𝐎𝐕𝐄 𝐋𝐀𝐍𝐆𝐔𝐀𝐆𝐄𝐒

prompt drabble series - nonverbal ways to say ‘i love you’

16 - sending them photo updates of what you’re doing

prompts from promptingyou

PAIRING: insomniac!peter parker x gn!baker!reader

TAGS: peter’s pov, fluff, idiots in love, pre spider-man 1 (essentially fisk hasn’t been taken down yet and all the sad shit that followed soon after), reader knows pete is spidey, matt murdock mention (sort of?)

A/N: honestly any version of peter works too but i’ve fixated back onto the games so insomniac!peter was who i envisioned while writing this. i also apparently don’t know what other trope to write besides established relationships or idiots in love… anyways, happy reading <3 

WORD COUNT: 551

masterlist || request box <3

“Working on it, Yuri! Call you when I’m done,” he managed to get out as he fought Fisk’s goons. It was hard enough fighting off bad guys that seemed to never end, but to have someone in his ear telling him to hurry up when he was working as fast as he could got infuriating at a certain point.

As he webbed up someone to the wall, he rolled his neck and groaned. “Don’t you guys have anything better to do?” Just as he sent a goon flying upwards, his mask’s UI lit up.

Incoming Message: Y/N 💖

Immediately after, a photo flashed. It was a picture of the cake you made for a kid’s birthday party—a Spider-Man themed birthday party. It was round and had red and blue fondant with black piping to imitate the webs across his suit. At the very center was his white logo and a tiny sign wishing the kid a happy birthday.

Peter smiled at the sight but was immediately interrupted by his spider sense, causing him to jump up as he dodged gunfire. Before long, all the bad guys were webbed up, their weapons thrown far, far away from their reach. Swinging away, he looked for a good place to stop to send you a message back. As he flipped through the air, he realized what building he was near. Bingo.

Running up the side of the building, a smile returned to his face in anticipation. As soon as he was perched up at the very top of the building, he carefully took out his phone and posed. Satisfied with the way it turned out, he hit send and waited for a response. He didn’t have to wait long.

Y/N 💖: 😨 how you can get up that high amazes me Y/N 💖: be safe love u ❤️

Your message made his heart warm. If he wasn’t at the top of the Empire State building and his mask wasn’t on, the entirety of New York City would see how red his face got.

In a lovesick haze, he leaned back, letting gravity pull him back down to earth but even then, he felt like he was in heaven. You were only his best friend, but Pete had been in love with you since you two met. Of course, he was too shy to say anything in fear of losing you completely. Swinging through the streets, he eventually made it to where your little bakery was set up in Hell’s Kitchen.

“Spider-Man,” you greeted, your eyes softening at the sight of him. “And what brings our Friendly Neighborhood hero to my neck of town?” Your voice was soft as you spoke but backed with a teasing tone.

“Just making sure no one’s messing with my favorite baker,” he grinned.

“Don’t worry, I know there’s a pretty good lawyer down the block if I’m ever in a pickle,” you bantered.

His chest filled with joy at the mere sight of you. And that smile. He’d die happy knowing he was the one who put it there. At the sounds of police sirens, you both turned your heads in the direction they came from. “Looks like you’re needed elsewhere, Spidey.”

“See you around,” he beamed, cheerfully saluting before shooting a web and swinging off.

[dalishious]

My Current Mod List for Dragon Age: Origins

(Requested on my stream today)

Awakening Abilities for Origins

Awakening Silverite Mines Bugfix by TerraEx

Bow Replacer by Seyt

Bugfix for Pixelated Shaders Begone by Ashhawk

Camp Merchant Chest

Character Respecialization by weriKK

Clan Sabrae Says Goodbye by SarahCousland

Cleaner Screenshots from conversations by beertje99

Complete Bi Overhaul by GoesOnGhost

Crow Assassin's Armor for Zevran by kylin3

Dalls_Rescaled Weapons by Dall

Dialogue Tweaks by Vaire

DoF Off - remove depth of field by Ashhawk

Dragon Age Origins Unofficial Remaster by me

dwarf proportions by tmp7704

elf proportions by tmp7704

Elven Scenery by commanderstrawberry

Extra Dog Slot by Dheuster

Faster Bow Talents by Lord Thing

FtG UI Mod - More Readable Fonts and UI by FollowTheGourd

Gift Guide - Awakening by hdhd

Goblet De-Gobbler by Ashhawk

HQ Eyebrow Stubble and Scalp Hair Replacers by Ashhawk

Human Female Proportions Fix by tmp7704

Lock Bash by xatmos

LOTC's Female Eyelashes by marquiseondore

Madd Gift Guide by maddbomber83

No Exp loss from NPC kills by efunfun

No Helmet Hack by yonline2

Personal Annoyance Remover by Rekicker

Pixelated Shaders begone by bl4idd

Real Pigment by Ashhawk

Retcon Light Armor Texture Rehaul by hoarous (Dalish a la carte)

Sigrun's Roguish Past and Law and Order fix by Trylane223

Surana Circle Mage Robe by commanderstrawberry

Thedosian Grey Wardens - Dwarven Expansion by IceBuckets

Thedosian Grey Wardens - Inquisition Retexture by VagranDreamer

Thedosian Grey Wardens by makara5656

TSM Vignette Be Gone by theskymoves

Universal Voices by Shadow_Dragyn

Weapon Enchantment and Poison VFX Remover by Offkorn

ZDF Dialog Fix by ejoslin

Zevran ASAP by charsen

[dollthorne]

🔮Mandatory Mods: these are the ones that make the pretty/gameplay mods work.

BG3 Script Extender: The Script Extender adds Lua/Osiris scripting support to the game.

BG3 Mod Manager: What it says on the tin; allows you to organize and import mods to your game.

Improved UI: Changes existing UI to enhance the current modding scene by removing intrusive in-game warning and enhancing character creation options. Only download IMPUI.

Item Shipment Framework: This framework is designed to supersede Tutorial Chest usage by enabling mod authors to easily add new items to the camp chests and player inventories.

Volition Cabinet: A library mod for creator's other mods.

*When modding on Nexus, don't ignore pop-ups before downloading because some particular mods require some less common support mods to work. I don't list every single one here especially if it's like, a one-off for one mod. (Nexus will give you a pop-up before downloading so you don't miss it)

Be sure to check Requirements and creator's additional info + FAQ when downloading mods. GLHF <3

🐲Gameplay Mods

Origin Themed Weapons & Cloaks: A selection of weapons and cloaks inspired by and for the origin characters. (Not game breaking or over powered).

havsglimt's Class Mods: This creator makes really good looking class mods from existing settings like Grim Hollow's First Vampire Warlock, College of Spirits Bard from Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft, and Graviturgy Wizard inspired by Wildemount's Dunamancy Wizard.

🌈Aesthetic Mods: let’s beautify this game some more!!

Unique Tav Custom Appearance: Gives Tav unique body textures and model, unique face makeup textures, unique face tattoo textures, and also adds body tattoos as an option. I also upscaled the body tattoos because I love you. Now you are very special.

@astarionposting on Patreon and Nexus makes fantastic face presets, recreating some of our favorite fantasy characters to play as in BG3. I currently have her OC Presets VOL. I, House of the Dragon Presets, and Ada Wong from RE.

@cedastarions also on Patreon and Nexus, makes a wide variety of face presets for pretty much any style of character in BG3, along with some very pretty Reshades. I have the beautiful Maya and Talia, Solo and Aurora Presets.

jerinski adds some edge to your Tav with Jerinski's Alt Hair and their Piercing Edits.

Previous Looks of Minthara: choose 1 of 2 hair options from Minthara's Early Access appearance. (I use Patch 4)

Style the Blade; Wyll's Devil Form, Alternate Hairstyles for Wyll, Alternative Eye for Wyll

Edited Heads for Hag!Ethel and Sceleritas Fel; changes their noses.

Basket Full of Equipment SFW: Over 800 pieces of new armor and equipment, mainly for human-like races. (Not as overwhelming to navigate as it may seem; organized. Compatible with dye mods).

Camp Clothes in the Camp Chest: This mod adds a new wardrobe to the camp chest, housing all camp clothes, shoes, and underwear.

Astralitie makes beautiful, fun mods like: Elven Anthology, Natural & Fantasy Skintones, More Hair Colors, and Feywild Eyes.

Tav's Hair Salon: Collection of hairstyles. Mostly for elf/half-elf/drow/human/tiefling bodytypes 1&2. Not an override, they're additional hairs added to your game.

Icon and Race Patches for Tav's Hair Salon: Adding icons to the hairs and to add compatibility with some custom race mods.

Piercing Improvement: Adds physics to piercings, so they look animated when the character moves.

Extra Dyes for the Fashionable Folk of Faerun: Adds new, unlimited-use dyes to the game! (Yes, they're actually unlimited and also, gorgeous.)

Kryo's Dice Collection: A collection of various dice skins based on the vanilla Behir Blue die. (I've had 0 problem with this)

*Mods not working? Check the mod's Description or Posts to see of there's a specific order for your mod to be placed in BGMM. Mods have to be placed in a certain order to appear and work properly in your game. Desktop users, avoid using the in-game mod manager as much as you can because it will reorder your mod list.

[anactualdump]

HIII retelling nat's ideas and adding my own ideas as a result of it, let me know if i missed anything or anyone wanna add on more 😁

everything has sunk into the sea from an overuse of the thumpers. the surface and limbo has merged, water completely surrounds the world for millions of years

with some other changes where spawns are flesh (much like orthodites) and pol didn't start out human. probably humans wouldn't survive the thumper catastrophe lmao so they're extinct. but other species gain intelligence and pretty much replace humans/look like them but are not related in any way

those survived who aren't respawns live on floating platforms, small shreds of land. probably the top of a thumper and other large structures. and meow's head xD some evolve to live in the sea

those in the sea kinda lives like in jekischear from respawns and souls, while those above are marginally safer but not completely safe due to surfacing respawns and souls or distrust of their own brethren

territories on land although small are aggressive to any foreign activity, including from their own species whom may survive from under the sea. everyone looks mad wacky at this point lmao, and some have trusted respawns but they often get exiled from their communities

for those completely against respawns, it's hard to trust others or be trusted. and if anyone is behaving ever slightly off, they're exiled. those on land (idk what i should name them lmao, it should be a mix of species instead of just one) based their identities entirely around obeying a religious entity

a lot of creatures have since learnt to speak gibberish (respawn language). although are against respawns, they learn to warn them using their own language rather than make the first attack, which often works from avoiding a solo spawn massacre. it eventually became a part of their cultures

pol is a soldier of one of the land creatures who's been assigned to be made as a living weapon to test combat against respawns from below (a mix of natural life and respawn).

he isn't exactly completed yet. he has lots of malfunctions and doesn't know what he could do other than pure instinctual reactions. i like to think every living weapons are supposed to look exactly the same like a specific robot model, so he's generic xD

lolo heres a random comic (this is before shi)

ui is a respawn near meow's head who means to target any land dwellers unfortunate enough to fall as an easy kill

also heres some unrelated cringe

[ninjagirlstar5]

I was struck with a Swap AU 3 days ago...

I did most of my rambling on Discord, so I'm just gonna copy and paste those under specific groups and characters for organization.

The Hollowheads

Chosen: - Swaps places with victim. - Alan creates Chosen first and gets more than he bargained for like in canon, but he actually manages to delete Chosen before he could escape onto the PC (but obviously he survives somehow like canon!victim). - Chosen starts up a company making weapons and shit, even though he technically doesn't like it but it's all he's ever really known to do so… - Chosen is still like, "nah, I'm evil" and goes along with the flow to get what he wants, even if he's not proud of all the weapons he's made over the years. So yes, he would torture someone. (*cough* victim *cough*)

victim: - Swaps places with Chosen. - Alan learns his lesson in Not creating another Chosen but instead creates victim to torment her, only letting her out whenever he feels bored. This ends up backfiring as well as the moment she escapes from Adobe flash, she steals all the tools and lashes out on his PC, which creates far more destruction than he thought she was capable of. - Since Second takes Dark's place, victim becomes besties with him! I'm sure this fallout won't be painful for both of them! (sarcasm) - The tools vic creates and used in the first episode and the Box becomes tools she can pull out at any time with the use of some UI wristbands she made after she and Sec escape Alan's PC so that she can never be powerless ever again (cause she still doesn't have powers in this AU). She even has a hoverbike (like the Mercs have) that she created for herself to help her travel better next to Second. - After she escapes the PC with Second, who is a little brother figure to her, she becomes a terrorist out of spite and anger. Unlike canon!Chosen, who loses interest and becomes more guilty over time, victim's fury fueled her for years. It isn't until Second proposes his plan (elaborated in his section) that victim is hit and crushed with the realization that she ended up fucking up Second to the point that he thinks his plan is okay and tries to stop him. It ends as well as you'd expect. - After this, victim ends up regretting her actions as a terrorist as lashing out at others through her vengeful and spiteful behavior due to her own pain caused so much suffering. Including someone she cared for, like Second in a way. - victim is definitely NOT okay with Alan and never will be (and by that, I mean, she'll never forgive him for what he's done to her, regardless of his change of heart and wants nothing to do with him at this point).

And then there the Box Scene with vic and Chosen:

victim still has all her tools, but Chosen has his powers. victim tries to fight back but one by one, her tools get deleted from her hands as Chosen slowly shows her that he's not just a regular stick. Unlike her, they have actual powers and had been holding back to give her the illusion that she ever had a chance to fight him, quickly turning into a curb-stomp battle. To make matters worse, Chosen…almost seems amused that she's trying to fight against him so damn hard.

But vic nearly gets the upper hand by trying to explode her remaining tools with her and Chosen with them. But unfortunately for her, someone (maybe Agent, maybe someone else) intervenes and deletes the tool on the spot, causing Chosen to lay to waste on her with his fire before finally tying her into the chair.

Second: - Swaps places with Dark. - Alan creates Second based off of Chosen's old code, and sicks him on victim. But he didn't realize that Second would put together that victim is, well, a victim to Alan and chooses to team up with her instead, causing them work together to explode the PC and escape into the OuterNet together. - When victim started doing terrorism, Second was dragged along with her even though he didn't want to do it initially. But because victim was his friend and sister, he goes along with it and ends up getting more and more into it as time goes on. - Eventually, Second tells victim his plan: to wipe out the OuterNet and the Internet to replace with happy zero-conflict people (under their control), essentially destroying sticks' codes and reviving them with his powers but with the twist that he'd replace certain coding to brainwash them so that conflict won't ever exist, period. This is ignoring the fact that he'd be taking away people's agency in the process. victim, who lacked agency for most of her beginning years, doesn't take it well. - Second is just so, so determined to protect victim. He learned it all from her, his big sis. How they must take in order to survive and show no restraint to others. How people hurt cause conflict towards others. But if he can get rid of that conflict in the first place, then she'll have nothing to worry about! He can keep her safe! He wants to keep her safe! He wants to do her proud!

So why is she fighting him? Can't she tell that he's doing all of this for her?

Dark: - Swaps places with Second. - Alan accidentally creates Dark years later, who immediately befriends different versions of the Color Gang (who I have not gotten around to yet, oops), he comes back to see them alive, deletes them, and Dark goes on a rampage. - But this time, instead of Alan relating to Second's ability to draw and animate like in canon, in the AU it goes a bit differently. In his haste to get rid of Dark, he accidentally gets a virus onto his computer which threatens to destroy his work. But Dark, who was also threatened by this virus, attacks and destroys it pretty easily before reprogramming it onto his side and Alan is like, "oh shit, new firewall?" and boxes Dark in, trying to talk him into protecting his PC. He refuses at first, but when Alan brings back the Gang, he agrees...on the condition that this shit doesn't happen again and he gets to play with his friends. - Cue Dark and Alan getting along as he helps keep viruses off of the PC as security and has new friends he can hang out with. He also got to keep the malware that originally threatened Alan as a pet (virabot spider is now just a securebot spider). - Dark is having the time of his life fucking around with his own Color Gang friends. - Dark & Chosen interaction:

Chosen: "Quit your friend group."

Dark: "What."

Chosen: "Join my emo company."

Dark: "Ew, no, that's cringe, lmao" - Dark: "Destruction and chaos!!! But not terrorism, that's for losers, lmao" - Swap!Dark @ Swap!victim while she's stuck in the box

In the Showdown: - Swap!Dark is the Devil to Canon!Second's God, send tweet - victim watches her lil brother get eviscerated and instead of worshipping the ground Dark walks on like how Canon!Chosen respects Canon!Second for his powers, victim…is actually kinda scared of Dark. - Dark was still able to revive the others despite his powers being more along pure destruction and corruption thanks to Second's project of wiping everything clean and reviving things with new code. He just used his powers to start the code without Second's permission and revive everyone without changing their programming or memories. - She still goes to Dark as a last resort since the Mercs have been giving her a run for her money and since she lacks any sort of powers, victim has to rely on her tools for protection. Tools that just don't seem to be enough against these Mercs and she finally decides that if she wants to be free for good, she needs someone that could obliterate them easily. And she knew just who that person is…

At least, she thought she did. What the hell does he mean that he doesn't remember jackshit? - Also, this video is 100% Dark phoning Gold & Orchid while he's imprisoned in RocketCorp.

Speaking of Gold and Orchid...

AVM Characters

Gold: - Swaps places with his dad, Mango. - Jumping into this, instead of Gold getting killed, Mango was able to open up the entrance this time and grabs Gold to pull him out…but he slips and ends up taking his place instead, leaving Gold to watch him get killed and essentially orphaned. He's very much in shock about the whole thing and while he's placed in Maroon's custody, he refuses to leave the house they lived in so Maroon is trying to pay for both which puts stress on their family. Gold feels bad but can't help but feel like his dad is still out there somewhere, lost in Minecraft's coding even though people keep telling him that he's "gone." One day, he comes across his dad's engineering notes and he's struck with the idea of taking apart Minecraft to bring his dad back and picks up a part-time job at RocketCorp (I did not come up with a new name for Chosen's company, oops) to both learn more about tools and to help pay off the bills and stuff, even going as far as to use the savings Mango stashed away secretly for his future and splurging it all to create the perfect tool. - Basically, Gold is about to tear the universe apart just to see if he can get his dad back.

Orchid: - Swaps places with her child, Purple. - Ngl to you guys, Orchid is going through it. For starters, her partner has been training their child way too hard. That was already causing a lot of strain on all of their relationships. And then Purple gets sick and Orchid does her best to take care of him while Navy fumes at the "weakness" but puts the training on hold anyways. But then they start going through this cycle of Purple getting better and then worse and then better again, to the point that Purple is stuck at the hospital and Orchid is the only one that tries to visit and take care of them. Navy is only getting more and more fed up with Purple, with Orchid just begging him to stay and saying that Purple will get better, she will! He just needs their unconditional support and love so he can focus on getting better. - But Purple doesn't get better and as Orchid holds onto his hand, he says sorry for being so weak and Orchid shushes him, saying that they're not weak. Not at all. They're being very brave right now. But she should rest her eyes. Orchid will be here in the morning. - By the time the doctors tell both of them that Purple has passed away, Orchid is a fucking mess but has start to shut down as a sort of coping mechanism. And Navy, just like in canon…abandons her and their child for being weak. Orchid, unable to cope in the OutetNet, leaves on a whim and escapes to the Mac and finds Minecraft, which ends up becoming a sort of comfort game for her but is also where she spends all of her time, pretty much refusing to face reality. - It isn't until she meets the members of this version of the Color Gang that she starts to snap out of it a little. She also doesn't abandon them in The End simply because I don't really see her doing that, so the Color Gang has a higher opinion on her from the start and it's her experience with them that she's a bit more willing to go back to the OuterNet and try again.

Orchid and Gold's dynamic and story:

Orchid is…doing better but hasn't exactly fully recovered either. While she is trying to get her life back together now that she chose to go back to the OuterNet, she's…struggling to get much motivation for anything really and often refers to other people for guidance and help. She doesn't have a job she enjoys, her bills had piled up while she hid away in Minecraft, and she doesn't have any friends outside of those two members of the Color Gang. And even then, she's barely keeping in contact with them. She's on her way back from visiting her child's grave when she hears a voice yelling over something and she turns to look.

It was…well, not exactly a young child, but someone that was barely an adult. He seems to be freaking out over a video being played on a display TV and showing something off to people in the vicinity. The people simply shrugged in response and left him be, the boy staring at the TV in contemplation. Curious, Orchid walks over to see what all the fuss about.

And sees Dark and the Color Gang playing around with the Minecraft icon. Without thinking, Orchid points out that she knows these kids and the boy turns around and goes, "YOU DO?!" The desperation and joy catches her off-guard but she doesn't deny it. The boy grabs a hold of her shoulders, shaking her with the biggest grin on his face, asking if he could help her with something, showing off the page about the Minecraft Icon block. She hesitates and he notices this, quickly backing off and apologizing for stepping over her boundaries, but says that if she decides to help, here's his address. He then scurries away pretty quickly and Orchid can only look on dumbfounded. But she can't deny that this peaked her interest enough that she drops by to visit after work. The young boy is ecstatic that she dropped by and opens up his front door with ease, letting her step inside. It was…something of a mess and he apologizes for it before introducing himself as Gold.

Orchid introduces herself as well and her eyes land on a nearby photo, picking it up without thinking. It's the photo of Mango and Gold when he was a kid and she nearly asks where his father is when Gold snatches it from her hands. She cowers and apologizes upon seeing the distressed, almost angry look in Gold's eyes but it quickly disappears as he says it's okay. This is…actually the reason why he needs help. Setting the photo aside, he shows off the staff he made to Orchid, which quickly amazes her when he shows off how it works. She's heard of command blocks but she never came across one herself. Gold then explains that the reason why he made this staff is because he, well…he lost his father when a Minecraft server got corrupted. But he believes that he's still alive, Gold just needs to retrieve him from Minecraft's coding and bring him back. A small part of Orchid finds this…concerning but her empathy for Gold's grief thanks to losing her own child and her desire to help outweighs her concern, and she asks how she could help. Gold grins and tells her that they need to come up with a plan to get the Minecraft Icon block from that Color Gang she's befriended without….angering them, he suppose. Orchid furrows her brow but Gold explains that he's not sure that they'll let him tear into Minecraft's coding even if it's to bring his dad back, not to mention that the icon is essentially the game itself for them. They might not want to give up their game to a stranger or even a friend. Orchid admits that Dark and co. do seem a bit protective of the things they have and Gold is convinced that they need to be sneaky about this. Which is when he asks Orchid to follow him since they can walk and talk before pausing and asking how much she knows about Minecraft. That's when Orchid shows off her elytra, which is very well kept, and Gold gets excited upon seeing it but quickly tempers his reaction for some reason.

Gold explains the plan, Orchid helps Gold take over the NetherFort and recruit the piglins to their side, and as Gold is contemplating his role as leader, Orchid is struck with an idea and pulls out the old crown she had made for the Color Gang when they were helping to lead a village. She kneels down and holds out the crown, asking if Gold would like to be the first King in the Nether. Gold stares at the crown and giggles, saying that this feels a bit silly. Orchid admits that it is, just a little bit, but the crown would symbolize Gold's status as leader here and it would help tell people who's in charge. Gold then asks what Orchid's role would be, and she simply says that she could be the "steward," someone that supervises and organizes the plans while the King can focus on other matters in public. It's then that Gold accepts the crown and asks her to call him King Gold from now on, and Orchid asks if being called Your Majesty would make him happy in a teasing manner. Gold, who hasn't let himself feel like a child in a long time, blushes and looks away, an obvious admittance that yes, he does.

Orchid helps trick the Color Gang into the track thingy and she feels pretty bad about it, but Gold reassures her that since they're out of the way, they won't get hurt in case something goes wrong and Orchid reluctantly agrees, trying to convince the bad feeling in her gut to go away. This is for Gold and his dad, after all. If there's even a small chance that he could be brought back, shouldn't she support Gold? She'd do the same for Purple, honestly…

It isn't until they receive the news that one of the Color Gang members escaped and she witnesses Gold actually kill the messenger on the spot that she goes, "oh. Oh I might be in over my head here."

When Gold demands her to get the icon while she still can, she hesitates. But Gold slams down his staff and she immediately caves in, saying that she'll be right back and runs off to do as she's told. Of course, she gets confronted by the Color Gang member and they're livid at her betrayal, especially since unlike Purple, who had at least betrayed them once before seemingly mellowing out after the events of LoL, Orchid was actually a very trustworthy person that tried to protect the gang at the time. So this betrayal stings even more because it came from someone that they genuinely trusted as a friend. Orchid feels bad, but she simply says that the Majesty's plans are…are too important to give up like this and she needs to help him. This argument quickly turns into a fight, with King Gold intervening and imprisoning them, with Orchid apologizing about the delay (and apologizing to the CG member) before flying off.

Things go about the same way, although we get to witness Orchid kicking ass cause turns out she used to be a fighter back in the day before she got married to her shitty partner, damn. Orchid comes back with the icon, King Gold thanks her, inputs it into the staff and proceeds to obliterate the roof and the very sky itself and Orchid just stares on in horror as the implications sink in.

Things start to escalate pretty quickly after that as everyone starts fighting for their lives, with Orchid watching on in horror. She's stuck between wanting to support King Gold despite the world-ending consequences, and wanting to help the Color Gang even though she had betrayed their trust. The battle gets worse and worse, King Gold demands that she does something and Orchid flounders as she orders the piglins to fight the gang. But this choice doesn't make her feel any better and as the nether portals are created, she finally caves in and runs away, not realizing that she's being followed.

This is when the Note Block World happens with Orchid's backstory reveal, and Orchid's character development essentially boils down to, "gaining a backbone and making the active choice to confront someone about their issues and questionable choices, even if it means causing conflict in your relationship with one another." Orchid has been struggling with indecisiveness and speaking up on matters for years thanks to her past partnership with Navy, and losing Purple had only cause her to shut down, running away and burying herself into Minecraft to ignore all the issues she had. But it did nothing to make her feel any better. And now, here she is, having helped a child in destroying a world and she just…runs. Runs away from the consequences to ignore everything she had done, including handing over the very object that turned the staff into it's most deadliest weapon of itself. Apparently, running is all she's good for - at least, that's what she thought. But the Color Gang member refutes that, telling her she's wrong. If she was a coward, she would've left them back at The End, but she didn't. If she was selfish, she would have used that village for her own gain, but she didn't. If she was evil, she wouldn't be horrified by the actions that had led to this situation happening. She may have chosen to run away but that's simply because she's scared to continue hurting others from the choices she's made.

The Color Gang member reassures her that she's not a bad person. If anything, she's simply someone that is struggling to do good after all the hardships she's been put through. And just because she messed up doesn't make her a bad person. As long as she's willing to take responsibility and make amends for her mistakes, she can take the steps be better, bit by bit. They reach out their hand to Orchid, asking if she's willing to try again and do better. Orchid admits that she's still scared, that she might say or do something wrong, but the CG member says that she won't be alone in this battle. They have each other and they'll watch each others backs and stop King Gold. Orchid stares at their hand…before slowly taking it, apologizing again for what she's done, but admits that perhaps she should've done this from the start. She should've put her foot down sooner. She knows that King Gold needs to be stopped, but she also knows that he needs help more than anyone here. And as an adult, it's time for her to intervene…even if it's by force.

And yes, this means that Orchid punches Gold in the face. It's okay, she had to get the staff out of his hands for a reason.

King Gold is feeling pretty betrayed by Orchid's sudden switch of teams, and is too blinded by rage and grief to really listen to what she has to say. So the fight goes on, the mobs get erased including Herobrine, Dark and co. + Orchid struggle to stop King Gold until she pulls together her resolve and faces the laser head on. King Gold is trying to blast her away, but as Orchid reaches out her hand, Gold suddenly gets flashbacks to the very day he had lost his father. The day he let his childish excitement get the better of him and endanger his own life to a reality game, his father unwittingly sacrificing himself just to save his life. He tries to shake it off…but when Orchid gets blasted away, just like his own father, he can't help it: he drops the staff and runs, jumping into the laser after her.

For the realization and reconciliation scene, I've been going back and forth in my head on how it would go. I think it would start with King Gold walking through the white void, wondering how he got there and probably calling out for his dad. His dad must be here, right? This is…This is where the end of Minecraft is, isn't it? So…where is he? That's when their house appears and Gold, thinking that his dad is waiting for him inside, runs up to the door and opens it up, yelling out for his dad. But no one answers. Gold searches the house but there's still no one around.

He's all alone. He's still all alone.

Gold stares at the wall, full of drawings of his own plan, his dad's disappearance…no, his dad's death, alongside all the life inside Minecraft dying from his own hands shoved right in his face, a game he used to love with passion. And yet, amongst those drawings was a pink stick figure crossing paths with him, following after him, waving at him, reaching out to him again and again and again. That stick figure was still reaching out even now with wide open arms.

"You can come here. Come here to me. It'll be okay."

Gold swallows.

It's not as if everything will ever be the same again.

"No. It can't be same. I can't promise it'll ever be the same again. But it can be better. We can be better. Together."

Gold squeezes his hands.

He wants his dad back.

...But he's never coming back…is he?

And yet, Orchid was still standing there, waiting for him. Allowing him the choice to come to her on his own terms. A promise that she'll always be here, waiting.

And Gold didn't want to wait.

He forces himself onto his feet. He reaches for the door. He hesitates for only a second but opens it up.

Orchid turns, purple petals of flowers by her feet.

Gold breathes.

And runs into her arms, the crown falling off of his head.

He can feel the surprise in her body before she gracefully returns the hug, pulling him close.

And then everything gets fixed by Dark and co., Gold goes to Maroon and apologizes for the strain he indirectly caused by refusing to make compromises (like with the house) and goes to live with Orchid officially after a long discussion between all of them, and we now have the mother and son duo. Yahoo.

And yes, Gold definitely joins the "Let's Kill Navy" club.

Gold: "I just wanna talk to them."

Orchid: "Wha-"

Gold, raising the staff: "I just wanna talk to them."

Orchid: "WHY DO YOU STILL HAVE THE STAFF??"

Anyways, this is about all I've come up with so far. I haven't even touched the Color Gang or the Mercs, but I'm thinking the Color Gang switches interests and roles while the Mercs end up changing their art styles which effects their personalities a bit but are otherwise somewhat the same? It's something to think about. Now imagine this as Dark commentating on Orchid and Gold's drama during AVM S3.

[lucille-artstuff]

mission status: pending

after suffering heavy casualties in an interstellar war, mech pilot eve is sent into a coma, left drifting through space in her broken starfighter class mech, isolated and unresponsive.

her mech had been keeping her on life support, regulating fluid intake and hormonal levels.

she slowly opened her eyes to the soft glow of a flickering ui panel a few inches away from her face, her whole body aches as she gradually regains her bearings.

"ughh,, ... the cockpit..? ..oww.."

the screens before her seemingly jump to life, bold text appears centred:

[STASIS MODE DEACTIVATED]

a slight jolt feeds through her link implant ports at the base of her skull through to the tip of her spine.

"oouh,,, ellie, status?"

"captain,

we've sustained critical damage,

left leg destroyed,

left cannon destroyed,

right leg nonresponsive,

shoulder mounted weapons system unavailable,

comms systems disabled,

sensors damaged,

life support system estimated at 2 months in stasis mode, 3 weeks in active mode..."

the pilot looked on in horror and disbelief at the reel of damage reports. it never seemed possible that she could face such a devastating loss, nor could she handle the guilt welling up inside her for letting her mech endure such intense damage.

"what's our mission status?"

the feeling in her legs slowly returns with a harsh ache,, her joints feel rusted and stuck, yet relaxed to the point of near dislocation.

"mission status: pending"

the screen prints.

"...pending ? but we didn't lose did we? ...how long was i out?"

"life support systems active for 954 days"

a wave of terror rushed over the pilots body as the realisation sets in.

she's been locked in her mech for almost three years, slowly dying and severed from all connection to the command centre.

"ellie please,, it can't be true... " she trailed off, shaking and trembling.

the console before her becomes blurry as tears well up in her eyes, mumbling to herself, "i can't,,, this isn't happeni.."

she's cut off by a proximity sensor flashing red, instinctively she flicks on the view screen and is momentarily blinded.

it's nothing but dirt and scrap as far as the visual sensors can perceive, two figures are walking around and stopping every few meters to gesture at the abundance of rusted metal and eventually continue beyond L-E's line of sight.

the visual sensors turn off and eve is sitting in the dark again, save for a pulsing glow that fills the dashboard of her mech.

"ellie,, where are we?"

"location unknown"

*sigh*

there were many thoughts and emotions flowing through the mech pilots distressed mind.

had we won the battle?

is there a way to return home?

does command even know i'm alive?

her thoughts continue;

my link with ellie, my fourth generation starfighter mech has been the only reason i'm still alive, but if her systems are critical, how long until either one of dies?

i didn't realise i was biting my nails, trembling with fear i accidentally stabbed my lip, i only just noticed my nails had gotten so long and when did my lips get so soft ?

the thoughts dissipate as another wave of pain shoots through the pilots body, fatigue weighs down her movements, not being used to this level of weakness, she barely recognises this body as her own.

the pilot sighs a deep breath and slumps back into her seat.

realising theres no imminent danger, she switches systems off from high alert, and is hit a flash of empathy thinking how stressful it would've been for ellie to constantly be vigilant, protecting her all this time.

[BUDDY MODE ACTIVATED]

the console lights shift to a deep purple, an emoticon appears on screen cracking a slight smile on eve's face, her immense feelings of isolation slightly relieved as a familiar presence appears

^-^

"... captain ?"

the console emits a soft robotic voice.

"are you okay ..?" :'(

the pilot draws a slow breath, and sighs with relief.

"ellie... you're still here.."

"oh! you're back! i was so worried you would never wake up!" ∩^ω^∩

the lights of the console rotate through the full spectrum of colour, and it almost seems like the ion reactor is humming louder than usual.

"ellie what happened? where are we?"

"i'm sorry captain,,, but our team was... w-wiped out, we barely survived with critical hull damage a-and most of my systems are down..." ｡ﾟ(ﾟ´ω`ﾟ)ﾟ｡

pause

"...i..i did my best to save you!" ٩( 'ω' )و

eve was hot with frustration, the loss of her team was unforgivable in her eyes,, perhaps it would've been better if she was gone like the rest of her crew.

"i barely managed to dodge the orbital laser cannon, it only vaporised 35% of my shell... aah,, with that much neural shock,,, it's no wonder you fell into a coma" (´；ω；`)

"but what then? what of the mission?"

"oooh, we're not sure about the mission status, our systems went down momentarily after the blast and when we regained control, our comms systems were offline,,, s-sorry...

command only knows that we were hit in the enemy attack" (-_-;)

"... so they're not coming for us...."

the pilot mumbled to herself.

"if they knew i was alive, i'd be rescued by now.... oh my god..."

"captain your mood levels are dropping,, is everything okay?" (◞‸◟)

"ellie let me out of the pod"

"nnoooo!! captain, you've experienced massive trauma and your muscle atrophy has weakened you severely!

i'm not sure what will happen if we disconnect our link!" ((((；ﾟДﾟ)))))))

"just open the hatch,, i need some air... i'm not going anywhere"

"awhh,, ...okaii..." （╹◡╹）

the view screen crackles and powers down, a deep groan followed by a sharp hiss accompanies golden rays piercing into the cockpit.

the console lifts and floats upward revealing a mostly barren landscape before them.

the dust on the air is warm, almost nauseating, although not eating in several years is more likely the cause than the environment.

a red light flashes on her left, just in her peripheral vision.

[proximity sensor]

her body aches as she leans forward to see two figures rushing over to the damaged starfighter.

fumbling for her sidearm, she notices her heart beating heavy on her chest.

"HEY! who said you could touch my mech!"

his mech?

the two caught their breath just shy of the capsule, slowly realising just how this stranger managed to open the mech.

the battle suit was a dead giveaway, but the shaky hand holding a pistol towards them confirmed it.

she's military.

"woah woah, easy now... "

the older of the two had both his hands raised, elbowing the other to do the same.

"... we don't have to get galactic forces involved, let's just talk about this"

"pa look.."

the younger of them pointed to the bundled wires attached to the back of the pilots head, swaying with her movements.

"i think she's a pilot.." he whispered in disbelief.

the pistol still rattling slightly in her hand, her throat growing coarse from the arid environment, eve barely managed to speak.

"what planet is this?"

"you're on nexon" the older one starts,

"used to be a drillin' planet 'til everything dried up, now folks still here either sell scrap or can't afford a ticket out of this system"

she lowers her weapon.

the duo relax considerably and glance at eachother.

"u-uuh lady ? we found your mech floating through space about 6 months ago, we couldn't get it open so.. uhh"

the youth is fidgeting with his hands uncomfortably.

the elder takes over,

"we dismantled and sold most of your weapons systems, anything under a hatch we couldn't get to, i uhh... i'm sorry to say it but you've kept us alive and, and put food on the table for me and my family..."

she tightened her fist, how dare they touch ellie!?

"if there's anything we can do,, let us know,, just please don't report us to the galactic forces,, we can't handle another raid"

eve presses a sequence of buttons and the hatch closes, sealing the mech shut.

[ritualcaster]

i ran out of ultrakill memes to draw the fans in...

Anyway.

An idea for a railgun alternate would be to have a "minion" or "familiar" at the cost of your other rail cannons and a hefty cooldown if it dies

Immediatly with this concept alone you can get a ton of fun concepts that would be incredible to play around with (id love to hear you guys' ideas 🤤) but heres mine for SPECIFICALLY the screwdriver.

"Fracker!" lore wise, another one of humanities attempts to make profit off of hell, a portable mining device made incredibly durable and strong to extract various liquids samples and blood quickly, now repurposed as a weapon with a will of its own!

Design ideas with notes!

For the most part all you need to know mechanically is that its similar mechanically and functionally to the sentry, but more robust.

It would attack in much the same way!

With the exception that its using a fracking drill instead of a gun of course.

On its own this is beautiful but wheres the style? So in classic ultrakill fashion heres some "techs" or "style bonuses" that you could potentialy use in-game, and of course I have to constantly reference mining terminology, it's a mining bot!

+Coupled, knock the frackers drill into another enemy using feedbacker or shotgun, you could repeat this to skewer as many enemies as you wanted!

+Daisy-chain, jump start multiple skewered enemies, OR, the fracker itself, while he's attached! That can't be good for his insides...

+Backfill(ed), hitting the fracker in the back (right on the pump!) with any weapon while he's siphoning, will cause him to reverse the flow and.... pop!

+As-intended, hitting the fracker into the ground before it can hit an enemy will cause the fracker too.... well, frack! Blood flows forth from the ground in that area and the drill is retracted.

+Lodestone, if the drill happens to hit (or be redirected into) an attractor, the drill itself temporarily gains the effects of an attractor!

+Sump, a variant of +backfill, most enemies would pop under the pressure of its powerful pump, but large enemies take multiple hits this way to generate enough pressure to be reduced to liquid!

Nitty gritty mechanical stuff, the drill itself would move about as fast as a saw from the alt nailguns, and its damage would be about 1/4th of the screwdrivers, but twice as fast (firing and duration.) The cord is prehensile, but thats only really for idle animations, it's a straight shot. It has its own healthbar, which is shown on the ui similarly to the railgun charge, it regains health after hitting an enemy. Certain style bonuses will damage him if timed wrong, +sump in particular would require hits in time with the pump or risk missfiring.

It's very expressive! Being a much more comercial robot it isn't designed to be intimidating, so it has a lot of bells and whistles, rather than the usual "effeciency above all" strategy the other robots use. It has the capability to play radio, display images, connect to the internet (uhm, if possible?) And communicate with v1 in real time!

Despite being a robot, it is fully sentient, as most blood fueled machines are. I haven't decided on if it would have dialouge yet, but if it did it would be very simple "alert" notifications near the railgun charge bar.

Although he is more robust than the sentries, that also means he has much more trouble moving, typically bunny hopping is fastest!

The drill could also be reffered to as it's "probiscus".

Also, gender is... whatever! Any pronouns are fine.

Idk how many ppl are actually gonna end up seeing rhis but the second i came up with him I drew him immediatly with every ounce of skill i could muster, and I HOPE you guys feel the same.

The image on the left is much more early in "development" the "water" it pumps would much more likely be stale blood, or "exhaust" to better fit lore and like, mechanical stuff.

[cephalonserotonin]

Devstream 180 Notes

This is a long one, folks.

brought to you by creative lead Rebb Executive Producer Dick Wolf

New dojo contest to kick off a transition to cross-save dojo world… see forum post

Pride Campaign 2024

is active now until the end of June! a new glyph, display, and wings in lovely rainbows!

Jade Shadows update coming June 18!

features a new cinematic quest: Jade Shadows. It picks up after The New War (so it's got TNW as a prerequisite) where the storyline of the Stalker left off. Rebb and the crew request that folks not spoil the quest for others after playing it. Use spoiler tags if possible! Quest runtime ~ 25 min There's a teaser for the story quest, featuring the Stalker hanging upside down like a bat:

New Warframe: Jade!

Pablo describes her as a support frame. Her passive is two aura mod slots which is kind of crazy ngl

Her kit briefly summarized:

1: throws a little mote with an AOE effect of healing for allies and increasing damage taken to enemies

2: cycle through various squad buffs. The UI art for these is really gorgeous

3: a debuff: enemies in her sight are slowed and lose armor. You also revive any dead allies in your vision.

4: floating and a zappy exalted weapon. It's kind of like Hildryn's four but basically better in every way because you can actually set off large amounts of damage and fly higher and faster. The exalted weapon has synergy with her 1 and 2.

As Pablo mentioned, Jade's abilities provide a lot of combo potential, good for any "min maxers" in the audience.

Jade's three signature weapons: the Cantare throwing knives, the Harmony scythe, and the Evensong bow (a variant on the Dread).

The Ascension game mode: "what if Warframe but up?"

Non-endless There's a giant elevator you have to feed with energy. The team's video crashed so Rebb gave what I'd call an excited 12 year old's description of the game mode instead which I loved:

There's this giant elevator that needs energy to go up. So you have to keep feeding it ionic charges so you rise out of the depths. And as you're feeding, the Corpus are there! *excitable machine gun noises* And then you're like, oh god! And then you have to, like, jump around-- but if you fall out of the elevator, you better hope you're good at parkour, and that you can read the level to get back up! and back up! and back up! And then: you have to make it to the top. But that's not all. Once you get to the top of the elevator, you gotta escape. You gotta make a run for it before the Corpus hold you back! Aahhh! Aah! Ah! …and that's Ascension. :)

Once we finally watch the video preview of the game mode later I think it looks fun. The level looks really neat; I love the graphics of the inside of the elevator. There's a new Jade Light eximus enemy here but I can't really tell any details about it quite yet.

ORDIS IN LARUNDA RELAY!

He's hosting the clan operation Belly of the Beast (featuring above Ascension game mode). In his shop is the Asteria ephemera, which evolves with community participation. Also some arcanes… and a beautiful skin for the Hate.

"If you're a hater, this is for you." Hilariously the arcanes are capped at 42 each because apparently in Gargoyle's Cry certain players went crazy burning themselves out to stock up on arcanes, and the team is trying to prevent that (and players blaming them for their own bad choices, as always). Two full sets each is more than enough, frankly.

Status Rework!

Blast now does a secondary detonation, or if hitting 10 blast procs, creates an AOE explosion. This is exactly what I have been wanting for ages so I, personally, am thrilled.

Magnetic now scales with overguard and shields the same way, and also does a secondary punch of damage (and an electric proc!) once the shield is broken.

Cold should freeze enemies more often now… and came with a free Frost rework! Now Frost's abilities give proper cold procs, thus freezing enemies, which is now standardized across his abilities. His 1 has been buffed and his 3 snowglobe has been modified (to allow shooting from in to out but not out to in). He has a new passive: his armor scales with the number of cold procs enemies have (like the defensive version of Ember).

There's a lot of testing going on right now on the interaction between ragdolling and freezing enemies.

There's a change to damage vulnerability mechanics which I didn't quite follow; seems to be mostly a simplification of the system.

Armor damage attenuation scaling, as mentioned in the last devstream, now has a cap, meaning corrosive procs should be more effective.

Yareli Deluxe

...looks like eldritch coral?

Next round of TennoGen

…finally comes with a Lavos skin, which is plague doctor themed.

Some augments (Protea's is probably OP), decrees (list shown below is incomplete), and arcanes

UI improvements!

In the upgrade screen: duplicate mod config button, indicator for substats, increased mod polarity

Augment list viewer in the abilities screen

Community customization table where you can copy others' fashions. Great news for gamers too unoriginal to make their own fashions, I guess. Coming at first for just Excalibur, Mag, Volt, and Jade.

Quick Access (fast travel wheel) for more areas like the dormizone.

UI autoscaling with resolution (to prevent tiny UI bars for people with huge resolutions), also coming with ability to scale the UI back down.

"Donut numbers" for damage view that do not cover the enemy you are shooting (old way can still be switched back to, called "cloud.")

Awakening quest has a lil fashion preview now!

Loadout hot swaps conveniently directly from the starchart!

QOL!

Cap on adversaries (liches and sisters) at 150. For the sake of database health. The programmer in me is mildly concerned that there was no limit before this.

Semi auto becoming full auto (see last devstream for more detailed description).

Automatic selection of last relic during endless relic cracks.

Streamlining necramech acquisition.

Unifying melee finishers and mercy kills (both with mechanics and appearance).

The return of Heirloom skins: starting with community art this time

First major change (from last year's disastrous heirloom launch) is the heirloom collections will now be released one warframe at a time.

Ember Heirloom is also a purchased fanartist concept!

Two paths to acquire it: a temporary paid path (for money, comes with some plat) and a plat path that will be available until next heirloom launch (and you can purchase the cosmetics individually!)

This is much better than last year's Heirloom launch, which, as aforementioned, caused a lot of community strife.

molten booty

And finally, the TennoCon 2024 schedule:

[cod-dump]

Bar has invaded my brain and now refuses to pay rent! (I'm feral about him THANK YOU)

Also to piggyback off the idea of Bar being weapons smith in Shadow Company I immediately remembered mikeburnsfire campfire stories on youtube https://youtu.be/X1g-aBBt-UI?si=CJ0v9Rs6Bg3iFMaL

Just imagine Bar behaving like Zack, anger issues galore, whole platoon of soldier need their guns fixed, rifles gauged and he just lost his fucking FILING CABINETS

Graves will have to invest in company counseling

This is perfect!!

There were more working in the armory, but Bar was a bit of a control freak. When he entered Shadow Company, he was disgusted with the organization system. People started leaving because they couldn’t get along with Bar, who was quickly taking over the armory as pretty much the boss of everything. Technicians left, mechanics wanting to transfer to other shops, and Shadows being scared to come in and have their gear and weapons repaired and inspected.

He was a jack of all trades when it came to weapons and armor so Graves decided to keep him and slot new people in with him to replace the others. The Shadows that work under Bar are whipped. No one wants to piss off the resident Scot so they do whatever he says and whenever. If they have a problem they keep it to themselves unless it’s serious enough to bring up to Graves.

Bar changed everything in the armory and shop, whole new organization system and whatnot. He was obviously very proud of it, too. Everyone knew better than to fuck with it, knowing it very well could be a death sentence… But some Shadows have a death wish and still choose to fuck with Bar’s shit. Three filing cabinets disappeared and suddenly it was the end of the world. No one could hardly understand what the fuck Bar was saying because of how thick his accent was as he raved.

Graves had to step in to calm him. This resulted into a new segment in Shadow Company: Counseling and Anger Management.

[quack-quack-snacks]

Time Will Tell - Chapter 1.31

My Time Will Tell Masterlist

My Cha Hyun-su Masterlist

My Navigation and Masterlist

The Time Will Tell Glossary

Warnings: Crying, nothing else really. Word Count: 1,514

prev | current | next

You were still leaning against Hyun-su when the doors opened and you didn’t feel particularly obligated to separate from him. The guns pointed in your direction gave you a bit of a start but you tried not to let it show on your face. You walked forward with Hyun-su as he did and noticed none of the guns were pointed at you. Instead, they were all pointed at Hyun-su. 

A few of the residents holding weapons walked forward with Yi-kyung in the lead. Her gun was only inches away from his chest and you had half a mind to smack it out of her hands. 

“What are you doing, Yi-kyung?” You hissed. 

“Cha Hyun-su, what’s going on with you?” She asked Hyun-su, completely ignoring your question and presence. 

“Did I win?” Ui-myeong asked from behind you and you sent him a questioning glance over your shoulder before you were suddenly yanked away by a soft hand gripping your wrist. 

“Hyun-su is okay,” you heard Eun-hyuk try to diffuse the situation but you were more focused on Eun-yu who was the one dragging you away. You looked back at Hyun-su and saw his eyes already on yours. He gave you a slight nod and you frowned but it got replaced with a look of surprise when two mini bodies slammed into yours. 

“Unnie!” 

"Noona!"

You looked down and saw the teary eyes of Yeong-su and Su-yeong looking at you. You dropped to your knees in front of them and hugged them closely. 

“I-I th-thought you were d-dead,” Su-yeong sobbed into your shoulder. You heard more talking going on behind you but ignored it in favor of comforting the crying girl. 

“I’m okay, though. Look at me,” you brought her head away so she could look you in the eye. “Look. See? I’m perfectly safe so don’t worry about me. Are you both okay?” You asked them in order to change the topic. 

They nodded and you stood up, wrapping your arms around their shoulders and turning around to look at the confrontation again. As you did, you saw Hyun-su standing directly between Sang-wook holding a gun, and Ui-myeong. 

“So please, put your guns down,” he pleaded, although it sounded more like a demand. 

Sang-wook reluctantly lowered his gun - everyone else doing the same with their weapons - and you saw Ui-myeong smirk in satisfaction. Once that was over and a few of the members started to retreat and head in the opposite direction since there was no longer an active threat, Hyun-su started walking over to you. 

“You need to get some rest. You should go lie down,” he insisted.

You waved him off. “I’ll be fine. Don’t worry about me, I won’t go down that easily. I was thinking of going to the nursery and playing with Yeong-su and Su-yeong. Would you… like to join us?” You asked nervously. You don’t know why you were nervous to ask him that - it wasn’t like you were asking him out on a date - but it felt like something intimate. 

He glanced over at where he saw Yi-kyung heading in the direction of the arcade room and shook his head softly. “No. I need to do a few things first.”

You nodded in understanding and smiled at him. “I’ll see you later then.”

He didn’t smile in return and you knew the melancholy on his face was taking over, not allowing any room for him to reciprocate that happiness at the moment. 

You just hoped it was something he would be able to feel again soon. 

“I see how you’ve lived.”

Hyun-su said nothing in response to Ui-myeong’s words for a moment, preferring to continue silently looking down at the floor where he had been for the past ten or so minutes. He hadn’t returned to the daycare with you, despite how much he wanted to see you again. The remorse and grief he felt over killing Ms. An hurt and he needed some time to fully process what it was that happened - no matter how little time he would get in this new world. 

After a second, he turned to Ui-myeong and said, “What are you gonna do from now on?”

Ui-myeong turned his head back to Hyun-su. “I’m gonna find others who are like us,” then, he leaned in closer almost conspiratorially. “When the hunt is over, the hound dies. It should live as a wolf,” he said before whispering, “Come with me.”

There was a moment of silence as the two men just stared at each other until it was interrupted by the soft pattering of small feet approaching around the corner. 

“Is he your friend?” Ui-myeong asked Yeong-su when he peeked around the pillar and looked at the boys. “Come here. It’s okay,” he reassured with a friendly smile. 

Yeong-su walked over to be standing in front of Hyun-su, shooting hesitant glances at the stranger while he did. “Hyun-su, have you seen Mr. Han at all?” He asked.

Hyun-su hummed noncommittal, trying to think if he had seen the man since coming back down from the roof. 

The young boy held up the two pieces of his toy dinosaur with a disappointed face for the men to see. “Look, my T-Rex’s leg is broken and he said he could fix it. Noona usually fixes my toys whenever they break but she’s sleeping right now. Do you know how to fix it?”

Hyun-su softly shook his head with another quiet hum. Yeong-su looked away sadly before sulking off the way he came. 

A beat, and then Ui-myeong said, “What about us? Do you think we can be fixed?” He watched Hyun-su, looking for any expression that would give away his emotions but not receiving any. “I used to think so. Because I thought it was a disease.”

The boy wearing the sweater felt his eyes widen. ‘Disease… Like that article?’ He questioned himself. 

“So I volunteered. They made every effort to separate it from me. They tried freezing, thawing, sawing, piercing, and scorching. What do you think happened in the end? It just never comes out!” He rambled on quickly, his voice too chipper for someone describing their torture. “Why not?” He questioned rhetorically. “Because the monster isn’t in me. It is me!” 

“I realized then… Ah! This is an evolution!” His eyes had turned black as he reminisced in his darker past with a smile. “And that I was a chosen one!” His voice quieted and his breathing calmed. “Humans… have failed. They weren’t selected by nature,” he concluded his little speech. The blackness of his eyes got sucked back into his pupils - returning them to their natural browns - and he lazily turned to look at Hyun-su who hadn’t looked at him once during his time spent talking. “Accept it. Humans and monsters… we can’t coexist in any way.”

The distant sound of whistleblowing just barely managed to wake you up, and even that wasn’t enough to make you sit up. You just stared at the ceiling for a minute, trying to gather your thoughts and the feeling in your limbs until you remembered what the sound of a whistle was meant to communicate.

Monster.

You sprung up and started running when you didn’t see Su-yeong nor Yeong-su in the daycare with you. You had no idea where they were and you cursed yourself for not staying awake for them. One minute you had been watching the two play and the next you were passed out cold on a mini pillow. 

You ran, trying to get to where all the shouting was coming from, and seeing Eun-yu leading both of your siblings down a certain hallway. She stopped and turned around to look at what you noticed was Hyun-su and the new guy and said something indistinguishable. Luckily, it didn’t seem like any of them were in immediate danger or ever scared - though Hyun-su looked horrified - and you sighed in relief. When you ran up to them, you saw Yeong-su crying hysterically and you cursed, dropping to your knees in front of him. 

“Namdongsaeng! What’s wrong? What happened?” You checked him over for any injuries but he seemed fine other than some emotional distress. 

“Th-they- m-my f-f-friend-d,” he sobbed out, not being able to form a sentence through his harsh breaths and hiccuping words. 

You heard Eun-yu call your name in an urgent tone. “Get up. Let’s go.”

“Wha-?”

You were interrupted when she pulled you up, causing Yeong-su to be pulled up with you since you were hugging him tightly and he was now held in your arms.

“We’re leaving. Come on,” she ordered, starting to push you back the way you came from and away from the two men on the other end of the corridor. You snuck a look over your shoulder and saw Hyun-su with his head down, face still looking horrified at the actions of an event you did not witness. When you looked at Ui-myeong with a questioning glance, hoping he would be of some help, all you received was a light shrug and a small smirk. 

‘Bastard.’

~

Taglist <3

@hyeon-yi 

@haowonbins 

@mythical-mushrooms13 

@visualconcern 

@yomsy

[canmom]

<stream> end of NieRRein

So. There's a NieR gacha. I've talked about it now and again on here.

In contrast to other games in the NieR series, which were in narrative structure reasonably traditional action-RPGs, following a small group of characters... NieR: Re[in]carnation is something a bit more like an anthology of short stories, all eventually tied together in an elaborate frame.

Over the course of the story, you are led to explore a vast collection of memories inside something called the Cage, a huge Ico-like stone structure full of gorgeous, moody environments...

...intermittently diving into the most dramatic moments of an impressively varied collection of characters, each portrayed in a cutout theatre style. They're a diverse bunch! Robot cowboys. Mountain climbers. AIs both kind and ruthless. Dark wizard yuri. Arabian Nights pastiche. Chuuni soldier boys. Elegant assassins, living weapons, disposable clones. Some are fantasy, some science fiction; some weave together and others sit apart.

And as you play further, you can unlock further stories, in various forms. All sorts of illustrations, all sorts of prose. The framing stories - the story of the girl Fio and the monster Levania who stole her body, the story of the violently estranged siblings Yuzuki and Hina, the story of the mysterious nature of the Cage, of its collapse, and the desperate bid to escape - all are very rich. The final chapters, where the characters are all finally brought together, are fantastic.

Not to mention - everything is voice acted, and generally very well (in Japanese at any rate, the English is more of a mixed bag). All is accompanied by a huge amount of gorgeous music by Keiichi Okabe et al., wrapping you in that mysterious, layered atmosphere. The UI design is magnificent. On an aesthetic level at least, there is a great deal to recommend here.

However.

As a game, NieR Reincarnation sadly left a lot to be desired. The gameplay is intensely repetitive, the strategy more to do with unlocking the right characters and grinding to level them up. Understandably, a lot of people bounced off it.

And now it's coming to an end.

In just a couple of days, the final chapter of NieR Reincarnation will be released. A month later, the game servers will be shut down for good! Perhaps, years in the future, they will release some kind of remake - but we can't count on it.

But don't imagine you can just jump in and experience it all right now. A great deal of material - the Dark Memories, the Recollections of Dusk - is gated behind a considerable investment of time and a strong team. There's a lot of events you'll simply have missed.

However... I have, perhaps unwisely, sunk the time into unlocking most of what can be unlocked in this game. I think it would be a shame not to get to experience them, and I love getting to share NieR games. These stories take some wild turns, and I think it would be a blast to watch together.

So here's the plan! Starting this weekend, and going on for as long as necessary over the next week, I'll be streaming the entire story of NieR Reincarnation on my twitch. Main story, character stories, EX stories: the whole lot, arranged for narrative flow. All the fun spicy parts and none of the grind, and you get to enjoy it with friends.

If you've been here for previous NieR game streams... well, I hope you had as great a time as I did. I fucking love NieR. For the other games, I would dig into the side material, read out fan translations of the stories, and do everything I can to give you the complete experience of the game. Here, there's not so much in the way of side material, but the game contains a lot on its own - and I want to share it all, the gut-punch parts and the goofy ones alike, because it all adds up.

Think of it kinda like an Animation Night if you want! An anthology series to enjoy together, just like the Animator Expo.

The first stream will begin on Saturday, 6pm UK time. I'll be making recordings and writing a guide to the story of the game too - but there's something special about watching something together, so I'd really love to see you there ^^

[imagineanime2022]

The Variable *Part 4*

Caspian Keyes X Fem!Reader

Word Count: 3426

Requested: @far1ydimpl3s @twilight5139

Request: Hi so I have a request, can we please do a part 4 for Caspian Keyes x reader PLEASEE! There is only like a few of them on tumblr and I really like yours so please do this I beg of youuu AND this is really good, can u maybe do a part 4 pls

Warning: Everything following will take place in season 2 of the show, so if you want to avoid spoilers or have not watched the series yet, I'd recommend holding off for until you have.

*Part 3*

You and Caspian had been in Norway for a month and you still hadn’t gotten used to the cold. You had taken up self defense and safe weapon use to give yourself something to do in the time that Caspian spent trying to crack integrity. You still understood it as little as you did a month ago when it all started and yet Caspian always used you as a soundboard bouncing ideas off you and 90% of the time you had nothing to add.

Today was no different, Caspian was in a meeting with everyone he deigned to keep in the company, you were sitting at the head of the table with Caspian behind you as they moved through different ideas but no one seemed to be providing anything that he could use, even you could tell that. “We have one month, if that, before the world rebels against digital lockdown and the Internet starts to come back online. When that happens, UIs will flood the networks all over again. New UIs, more dangerous UIs. The only thing that can stop them is one of their own, one that doesn’t have this flaw.” Caspian explained as his hands pressed into the back of the chair that you were sitting on. “You mean one of our own.” The person that had spoken was someone who hadn’t seen it necessary to introduce himself to you. “What?” Caspian asked, eyes moving to the man that had spoken. “The only thing that can stop them is one of our own?” He clarified “an American UI.” “By all means continue to state the obvious.” Caspian grumbled. “Isn’t that what you're doing?” He asked. “Someone’s combative today.” You muttered into your hand as you leaned back in the chair, elbow leaning on the arm rest. “Maybe the obvious isn’t obvious to you geniuses.” Caspian said as he turned back to the board. “No matter how many times I say it. If a computer could have solved the flaw, it would have done it already.” “AI can’t crack it because the problem isn’t computational, it’s neurobiological.” Waxman explained. “What does that even mean?” Caspian asked hands planted on the table to the left of you as he leveled his gaze with Waxman. “We’re uploading regular old human brains, and regular old human brains decay and die. If an uploaded brain works exponentially faster, it just makes sense, it would decay faster.” Waxman explained, even though that sounded confusing to you, your eyes shifted to Caspian when nothing came from him. “Unfortunately we don’t have time to solve immortality at the biological level, Dr Waxman.” The man you didn’t know the name of explained as you looked at him and frowned. “At least he seems to understand what’s going on. All you're doing is pointing out problems.” You narrowed your eyes at him. “No, I agree with him.” Waxman said, leaning back in his chair. “So, there is no solution. That’s helpful. I’m glad you guys brought him up here.” Caspian stood to look at Julius who was standing by the door of the office. “Well, it wasn’t my choice.” Waxman muttered as his hands folded in his lap, you could understand the behaviour if he was strong armed up here which was likely after everything that he had done was not inconceivable. “The problem is computational, it’s just that a regular human brain has to solve it.” Caspian turned back to the board behind him. “It’s the ultimate NP-complete problem. So maybe the question I should have asked was did anybody here even understand the model I proposed?” There was silence for a second and that told you everything that you needed to know, your eyes shifting to the man next to you, Anssi. “I don’t think… it works.” “Really? Because I know it doesn’t work.” Caspian informed him “what I need is someone to figure out why.” Again silence followed and he leaned down to your ear “let’s go.” You stood to follow him out of the room “I told you these brainstorms were a waste of time.”

You both walked back to the office “I really think that you should exercise your right to punch someone in the face.” You shrugged as you walked towards the sofa “think it would be just as hot as you talking down to them.” Caspian caught your hand before you could get too far. “What was that last part?” He teased a soft smile on his face proof his anger had nothing to do with you. “Nothing.” You answered, burying your face in his chest, his arms coming up to wrap around you. “You sure?” He asked, dropping a kiss on your shoulder before squeezing you a little tighter. “Don’t you have work that you have to get done? You know, saving the world and all that.” You rested on his shoulders as he pulled back. “Don’t remind me.” He seemed to deflate his forehead resting against yours before finally pressing a soft kiss to your lips and then looked over at the desk he had spent a month working at with no results. “You’ll get it, I can tell you're so close to figuring it out.” You smiled. “You don’t understand any of this.” He reminded you. “And yet I know that.” You pressed another quick kiss to his lips before stepping away, he walked over to the desk, he sat down and picked up the glasses and you smiled as you watched him. “Run.” You knew from there on the programme allowing him to talk to an older version of himself was running, as he started working you walked to a small area of the office, Caspian had insisted on giving you everything that you needed to stay busy while he worked. You started on what was known as a daily self defense training up, not even noticing when Caspian turned to watch you. Your eyes caught the turned chair about 30 minutes in. “You figure something out?” You asked. “I…” He trailed off his eyes moving over you before looking back up at your face. “You?” You asked with a teasing smile on your face and a hand on your hip. “I need to talk to David.” He answered. “David?” You asked. “Mmm he’s the only other person that could have solved this.” He explained as you walked over to him. “How are you going to do that?” You asked. “Miracle of backups.” He shrugged as you looked at him. “Well if you want me there then you are going to have to wait for me to shower.” You informed him. “You could go like that.” He leant his cheek against his fist as he looked at you. “No I can't, you might run cold but I don’t, so I need proper clothes if I’m going out there.” You argued “plus I’m all sweaty, I’m not walking around all sweaty.” “Alright, I’ll wait.” He laughed as you jogged over to the bathroom off to the side.

Caspian had pitched the idea to Waxman who didn’t think that it was going to work. You sat in a chair off to the side waiting for him to finish setting everything up as Caspian paced back and forth. “Boot him up.” Caspian finally said. “I’m telling you this won’t work.” Waxman argued. “Boot him up.” Caspian insisted, Waxman sighed when he got no response from Caspian, you leant forward against the back of the chair as you watched the simulation load in. There was silence for a moment before Caspian spoke “You're kidding me, he’s just going to play solitaire every single time?” “That’s what I meant by restricted, higher-level functioning.” Waxman said, you remembered him saying something about that but at the time you had no idea what it meant by the sounds of it they were stopping him from using too much power while still stimulating the brain. “But this is an identical copy of the original upload.” Caspian argued as he walked out of the simulation to face Waxman. “Yes but in the original upload we separated linguistically-coded memories from the other frontal lobe capacities.” He explained turning to the screen to pull something up to help explain it to Caspian “This version of David doesn’t know who he is yet. He doesn’t even know that he’s a UI.” “How did you solve this problem two years ago?” Caspian asked. “We reintroduced memories of his family. We needed them in order to access his emotions, which then activates intuition and nonlinear inspiration.” Waxman explained. “Okay so do it.” Caspian ordered. “You don’t know what you're asking, what this will do to him.” Waxman argued. “We’re doing this for him. And we’re running out of time.” Caspian reminded him. “They brought you up here to help but if you don’t I’ll get someone who will.” “Waxman you should have said no years ago, now it’s too late to preserve what is left of your friend, you failed him already.” You stood from your seat following Caspian out of the room. “Are you sure that this is the right option?” “It’s the only one.” Caspian sighed as you both headed back to the office.

They had been trying to get David to understand the situation for hours now, reboot after reboot and every time he panicked and treated them like the enemy “There has to be a way to make him understand.” Caspian said as he turned to the simulation where David was looking at the picture of his family. “The original David found a way to escape our security protocols. Used the web to find his daughter, regain his sense of self.” Julius explained. “It’s too bad that’s off the table.” Waxman said, you could feel the conversation changing. “If David can’t go to his family… Maybe we bring them to him.” Julius suggested, you hand twisted into a fist as you looked between them and then at Caspian. “No.” Caspian shut the idea down “Maddie has buried her father twice already, I’m not putting her through that again. Not until I solve the flaw.” “We’ve done enough to them.” You added chin rested on the back of the chair. “But if you can’t solve the flaw without David and you can’t have David without-” “We’re not bringing her here. I’ll find another way.” Caspian cut Julius off. “David never got the chance to work with Stephen Holstrom back in the day.” You heard Waxman talking as you stood to leave “maybe that’s for the best.” “You want to go for a walk?” Caspian asked. “Outside?” You asked. “Yes.” He laughed taking your hand. “If you think it’ll help.” You nodded.

You both grabbed a coat before heading out “do you think this is the right move?” He asked. “I know why you're doing it, I don’t think that I would have made a difference if it were mine.” You explained “but I also see why it might be difficult to stick to that line of thinking, in the time that we have.” “You think the only way to get this right is to bring her here?” He asked. “I don’t see another way but I’m not a genius.” You shrugged, his hand brushed yours as his eyes travelled to you, he hated when you did this. Talk about yourself like you were unworthy to be there. Especially when he was sure that you're the only one that stood by him and gave him real answers where he needed them. “I didn’t ask a genius, I asked you.” He leaned down pressing a kiss to the top of your head as you passed a fish salesman, you both heard him talk but ignored him as you continued forward. “Caspian.” The man said, you both stopped and looked back at him, Cary. “Look at the fish.” You approached the box first as Cary knelt to open it. “What do you want?” Caspian asked as he stood close behind you. “Watch out for Pope and Renee.” He warned. “Renee is gone like you should be.” Caspian said, though now that you thought about it, it would be weird for her to have accepted being fired so easily. “She’s still in the mix, I don’t know what but they’re up to something.” Cary spoke quietly and rushed as you glanced behind him at the man that had been following you both keeping an eye. “Be careful though you can’t just fire Pope. He’s the one keeping you in charge.” “I am in charge.” Caspian argued, again something that you hadn’t said out loud but there had been a shift with very few people knowing Caspian’s true identity. It would be hair for them to trust the 18 year old genius. “Keep him close but watch your back.” He advised. “We need to go.” You muttered standing from you were crouched. “Nei takk” Caspain said as he turned away, taking your hand and walking away.

There was another meeting, one that you were again sitting in on, if only because Caspian didn’t trust the people you were both dealing with to leave you alone. Your eyes cast around the room before landing on the hall leading into the room where your eyes connected with Maddie, you took in a harsh breath which caused Caspian to look at you before following your gaze and seeing Maddie as well. Both of you seemingly realising at the same time that Renee was also there. “Maddie? What are- What is she doing here? And what are you doing here?” Caspian asked, aiming his questions at Renee. “I told you, I am on this earth to help you, Caspian.” Renee answered as you tensed, the last time that you saw her she scared you, now you wanted nothing more than to shut her up, especially as she reached out to Caspian. “Security, this is a trespasser. Get her out of here now.” Caspian ordered. “Do as he says.” Julius said, it was in that moment that you realised that Caspian was indeed only in control because of Julius. “Julius you- Julius! You son of a bitch! You know what I’ll do!” She shouted, you watched, she was leaving too easily for someone so invested that she would pull a gun on her partner, there’s a plan, you’d be seeing her again soon probably. “She’s clearly not well.” Julius said as he moved to stand between you and Caspian, you back leant against the glass wall as you watched them. “You too, Pope. Get out.” Caspian ordered. “Caspian let me explain.” Julius said. “I gave you specific orders not to bring her here.” Caspian glared at him. “Hold on, you're the project lead, but you don’t give orders.” The NSA agent said, you still hadn’t learned his name and had no intention of doing so when it seemed that you likely wouldn’t be staying for much longer. “All right, let’s just- Let’s give each other space.” Julius stepped in, you assumed because he worried that the truth would end up. “Why do you listen to this kid?” The agent asked and you smirked. “I doubt you'll ever find that out.” you mumbled crossing your arms over your chest. “You’re here to help me crack integrity, not the other way around.” Caspian reminded him as he looked at the man. “Let’s take ten, Come on. Everyone out. Let’s go.” Julius said as he ushered everyone out of the meeting room, you watched them all leave “I’m sorry about this.” “No you're not.” You muttered, your eyes narrowing as his connected with yours before he was gone too. Caspian looked down at Maddie and smiled but she didn’t return the gesture so Caspian’s smile dropped as he lead her back into the meeting room.

“Look, I'm sorry. All right? Pope obviously went behind my back.” Caspian argued. “I’ll have him refuel the plane and send you back home as soon as possible.” “No.” Maddie answered. “What?” Caspian asked. “I’m not going anywhere until. I’m positive every last trace of my father’s upload is deleted.” Maddie said. “As expected.” You looked at Caspian. “Deleted?” Caspian asked. “I didn’t come here against my will. I am here to see his soul to rest. I told you that he was gone.” Maddie’s voice shook at the end of the sentence as Caspian looked at you ‘tell the truth.’ you mouthed as his eyes moved back to her. “You didn’t know there was a copy?” Caspian asked. “I should have, I guess.” Maddie answered. “I don’t know why I trusted Waxman.” “I don’t think he knew.” Caspian said. “So you’ll help me?” Maddie asked turning to both of you, your eyes moved to the floor, you knew what the right answer was but you also knew what the answer was if you wanted to save the rest of the world. “Maddie I’m doing what we talked about, what you asked me to do.” Caspian answered honestly. “I am this close to solving the flaw. I can fix David’s upload to the point where he will become immortal.” “Why are you doing this?” Maddie asked. “I have a responsibility.” Caspian asked. “To who?” Maddie asked, her eyes moving to you for a second before settling on him again. “To everyone, everything, the world, the future.” He answered. “Oh my god.” Maddie stepped back slightly. “Yes! God. It’s that big. Whoever cracks integrity creates the first virtual god.” Caspian answered his voice raising, you kicked off the wall that you were leaning against moving into a better position to defuse the situation. “You said the flaw was the only thing saving the world. Now you want to erase it?” Maddie asked. “I was wrong.” Caspian argued. “When the internet comes back on, so do the UIs and more passed them. It doesn’t matter how fast they burn out, they can still burn us all down like suicide bombers with nukes strapped on.” “Who told you this?” Maddie asked. “The only thing that can stop a UI is another UI, a more powerful one.” Caspian argued. “This sounds like Pope.” Maddie leant against the table with her arms crossed. “Pope is irrelevant.” Caspian said. “I am in charge here. I just fired Pope.” “Is that what you think just happened?” Maddie asked “open your eyes, Caspian he is in charge. Those guys only left when he said so. These people are manipulating you.” Caspian looked away from her and his eyes fell on you, everything about you seemed unsettled, agitated as your fist clenched and unclenched rhythmically “they are turning you into someone you don’t want to be.” “You don’t know me.” Caspian said as he tried to catch your eye. “Who does?” Maddie asked. “Like I said, you're free to go home.” Caspian reminded her. “I’m not going anywhere until you stop using David Kim’s upload.” Maddie stated her terms. As you watched them you realised that they weren’t going to come to any agreement not yet and somehow they seemed to be the perfect opposition to the other. “Alright stay as long as you want then.” Caspian said as took your hand unclenching your fingers before intertwining them with his and leading you out of the room “I hope you like fish!”

“Something is bothering you.” Caspian said once you were in his office. “It’s nothing.” You answered. “It’s not nothing, you’ve never been wrong about people, so tell me what’s bothering you.” Caspian begged, he sat on the sofa pulling you to stand in front of him, never once letting go of your hands. “I don’t think that she’s wrong, they’re all dangerous and none of them believe that you are in control.” You answered honestly “but you still need this place and the people to get what you want.” “You think they will get what they want before we do?” He asked. “I’m worried that you both want the same thing for different reasons and I think you are more than capable of getting there.” You said. “I’m-” “You are going to do what we came here to do and I’m going to protect you, your brain child and the little diva that just showed up.” You informed him, he laughed as he pulled you down to sit on his lap, he leaned down and pressed a kiss to his lips. “We’ll get this done and then leave it all behind.” He promised, pulling you in closer as he thought of ways to make that promise a reality.

*Part 5*

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