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splickedylit · 2 years

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Watching you revisit your Homestuck AUs recently and seeing how much you've grown has given me new life. Definitely riding that nostalgia high, and it made me remember From Under Bridges— it was one of my faves from you and another prime example of how you manage to take clown church and make it into something really unique 👀 if ever you were inspired to revisit FUB with some hastily scribbled doodles or project notes, just know I, an anonymous fan, would be sighing dreamily into the void

Aww, haha! Let's see. If anybody remembers From Under Bridges (the unfinished concept/fic where Karkat is a scout in the ongoing landwar between the human and alternian empires and gets captured by the alphas/betas and culture clash and scheming ensue) here's an enormous post of thoughts. (Possibly art to follow, we'll see).

I have inserted a readmore because I love you all and respect your dash length, and this got...quite long.

needs more recognition of the self through the other. I feel like this is an underlying theme in a lot of culture-clash fic; I think that if I wrote FUB now, rather than being some kind of well-respected noble house or something, the alphas and betas would be the KIDS of well-respected noble houses, who were all scanadalous or inappropriate enough in some way to their society to get half-exiled to a "prestigious" guard post near the border

this gives them a reason to connect with Karkat, when it comes to light that he's also been outcast, because of his own societal rules/standards. It also makes it a secret that they have him, which makes things significantly more dramatic lol.

Maybe for extra backup theme, any ancestor/guardian we meet who IS culturally accepted has managed that by repressing some part of themself, trimming themself down to fit into the place that's been made for them? Primary theme is a good old-fashioned "we're not so different and the things that are different can be Good Actually", secondary themes of how sometimes societal/cultural norms that have been held for generations are cruel actually, and need to be let go of.

Related to the culture clash angle; the cultural dynamics need sprucing up. I'm all for a lot of the stuff I included in my original concepts for the trolls, intricate jewelry and facial markings for blood color, etc--but especially if the humans are presented as a kind of pseudo-european historical pastiche, it gives everything some uncomfortable Noble Savage flavor in retrospect. Chalk another one up to "sheltered white teenager tries to do culture clash", lol.

thoughts for ameliorating that; the trolls are more technologically advanced than the humans. Via magic and weird biotech, trolls are working with devices and forces our human protagonists don't understand, but the reader would understand as like, a rudimentary phone. Humans are feeling great about developing plumbing and gas lighting, but trolls don't bother with shit like that because they can plug weird biotendrils into a psionic and light their whole city electrically. Even though in this universe they cohabitate on one landmass, from a human POV trolls truly do feel like aliens, they do shit the humans have trouble even comprehending.

The field humans ARE more advanced in is automated/mechanical inventions, especially weaponry. They fuck around with elements and rocks and chemicals and shit, they discover gunpowder. The one really magical thing they have going for them is the barrier between them and the trolls, maybe?

Actually, the barrier could easily be a spell the Sufferer somehow leaked to them, and was promised some form of amnesty, and instead got sold out and executed. That would fit nicely into the theme of societal cruelty and also give a good reason for Karkat to be able to break in and get captured.

might help to use more trappings of historical nonwhite cultures with the humans, and vice-versa with the trolls? Sprinkle in some viking-inspired braids and clothing styles, cloaks and layers. Especially for warmbloods, who would necessarily need some protection in cold temperatures (unlike seadwellers who I've always assumed were well-adapted to crushing icy deep-sea conditions). Vary up some human skintones and clothing designs.

Hell I could push anachronism further if it came down to it, especially on the angle of trolls being tech-advanced. This is my boyfriend, he's a psychic nightmare creature from the depths of darkness. He's got bones braided into his hair and elaborate gold earrings and facepaint and he DOES wear a jacket made of leather with bone spiky epaulets. Karkat has sickles and bone armor and ritual quadrant jewelry but also the ritual is Ritual Of Call Boyfriend and it's essentially a very basic cell phone.

Going ahead and making the call that the Church of Mirth in this AU also uses righa forachtae, my conlang from Poor Unfortunate Shoals. Because I make the rules, is why. The church itself probably wears less gold, since my theory in Shoals was that the seadwellers not being around meant the clowns had all the gold they wanted to fuck around with--but the general vibes are probably quite similar, just with more bones in the jewelry instead. Very maximalist body decoration and body mods. Piercings and tattoos encouraged, more aggressive religious self-mutilation thought highly of especially during worship/in a bacchanalian frenzy.

A possible accepted/unacceptable parallel, hm--the Grand Highblood is still in power because he killed the Sufferer, despite Pale Temptations. Later the GHB and the empress fuck with Tavros and Gamzee flips out and confronts his ancestor about it, publicly letting his quadrants come before his duty, which gets him thrown out. It does fit the pattern. HM.

Chewing over the thought of a translation spell that doesn't do any psychic translation or anything, it just forces the person's mouth to speak whatever they want to say in your language instead. Would make a good comparison to the first attempt to get to know each other with a drastic power imbalance as captor/captive. Especially if troll and human languages have some noises that the other group can't make, and it gets increasingly tiring and painful to be magically forced to speak the other person's language for extended periods of time. hmmm.

Oo, oo, late-game concept because I like the Midnight Crew as angry mentor figures and I've been struggling to figure out who the head of the human empire would be if not SS: human kingdom split into derse and prospit courts? Black and white kings+queens each ruling a half but with uneasy peace between the two sides in the face of the troll empire's encroaching border?

oh shit wait okay, I was contemplating the alphas and betas each having their own estranged guard posts but instead; Derse and Prospit split. One house run by Slick and Deuce with John+Jade+Jane+Jake and Karkat, and one house run by Droog and Boxcars with the Strilondes and....a guest of their own? :oUc HMM.

Each of them is trying not to let the troll information they find out get across to the other house because there's a friendly (or not-so-friendly if you ask Derse) rivalry between the two. Narrative tension as we the reader jump back and forth and each group is learning radically different things about their prisoners and also troll society, and the impending moment where they have to come together and Reveal their Tactical Advantage to the other side.

Goddammit I kind of want to go back to the fic just for that part, that would be delicious. Dammit.

It seems like the lesson for the humans to learn from the trolls (mostly indirectly) is "people should interrogate their society, because when you're in the 99% of a society you're discouraged from realizing that the people sitting on your shoulders are just there because they've convinced everybody they should be" and the lesson in response is "advancement doesn't have to be cruel, improvement doesn't have to be exploitative; people will function because of fear but they'll thrive because of freedom and cooperation".

TBH it feels like this storyline culminates in two simultaneous revolutions/coups and I have no IDEA how to write that lmao. It does sound very fun though. The disgraced offspring of the society's power, influential, or infamous people all show up at once but oh damn they've allied with each other, shit. Oh no once they stopped accepting our cultural praxis as law we stopped having authority over them oh shit.

#From Under Bridges #It's been six billion years since I talked about or thought about that fic lmao #talking about it has made me want to write on it again which is both a fun mood and also very inconvenient lol #I hope somebody out there remembers this fic enough to enjoy this lengthy ramble thanks anon

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jestlingnest · 3 years

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you should totally tell me all abt psychonauts since i still havent gotten into it im v busy but spill 👀

Well, spoilers ahead! But I would really, really recommend watching a lets play or all cutscene compilation of the games, one of the most fun parts is piecing together the story when you don't know everything. And maybe if you happen to be in my discord server, I can get another server playthrough to happen depending on if anyone who can stream it wants to play.

So spoilers under the cut.

I don't even know where to start!!!! This game has so, so much. The first and the second! I just finished watching Snapcube play through Bob's Bottles. Happy(?) to report that I still tear up. It's such a good level!!!

Like I know that everyone loves this level, but it's for a good reason! There's so many layers! The bottles not only match the whole island theme (and it's an island because of how alone Bob is) but also it's because he's an alcoholic but ALSO it's because he bottles up his feelings and memories.

And the Sensorium... oh I still have wonderful memories of playing that for the first time. My friend Reven and I were staying up super late to play Psychonauts 2, and the only things I knew about it was the brain in a jar level, so as soon as I heard about getting Nick a brain, I was on my way to Otto's lab asap. I didn't even get the gadgets from Otto, I was too distracted! I missed a lot of dialogue. But anyway, when I went into that level, I really did have no idea who it was. I was just wandering around with my little buddy Psi King, taking in all the beautiful sights. Eventually I was convinced that this brain belonged to "that guy with the beard from the psychic 7" because of all the figments of him. And that he seemed to match the aesthetic the place had going on.

So I was very surprised when Psi King started to sing and then turned into Helmut. I grabbed my friend's arm and went "it's the viking guy!!! it's the viking guy!!". I didn't expect to like that character, but as soon as I saw him it was favorite character at first sight. I fell in love instantly. His design is so good. It was like. 4 am. When we got to his memories, it took me so, so long to figure out that the senses were his friends. Even when Dr. Touch directly got called Otto. It did click when he was talking about Bob though. To quote Reven, "the only reason they didn't kiss was because he's a fucking ear". We went to bed around 6 am and I could not stop thinking about Helmut Fullbear.

I can't think about Helmut and Bob for too long without getting sad, or angry. Both of their lives were ruined because Ford was like "whoopsie!! I fucked up and forgot!". I don't forgive him for what he did, but he is still my friend. Bob and Helmut lost so much time together. Twenty years... (or thirty years. I know they say 20 but it makes a lot more sense if it was 30 years). And when Helmut gets back? Bob is old, and he's been drinking for years. How much time does he have left? Ten years? Twenty years? And with Helmut, did the hyperice stop him from aging? Maybe, but would it still be like he had aged normally? Like he still looks the same, but physically he's in his 60s. Is it better to lose twenty years of your life and die "early", or is it better to still have those years but you're living them without your husband? These two make me sad. And it didn't have to happen if Ford had just not forgotten. Or labeled the jar. Or Otto investigated this random brain he found more. If Ford had just TOLD PEOPLE. Ok now I'm angry at Ford again haha. He fucked up. Didn't even say "I'm sorry." I mean at least he knows he fucked up and he regrets it and he tells Raz this, but come on. At least say I'm sorry.

Now I'm just going off on hypothetical scenarios, but if Ford apologizes to Bob, Bob would get angry and yell at him. But that doesn't make anything better. It doesn't even make Bob feel better. Having someone to direct his anger at should have helped, right? Part of him wanted Ford to argue back, to stop standing there quietly, but that was selfish of him to think. There was nothing left to be done. Ford knew he had done something wrong. He knew it was his fault. And he had apologized. Yelling at him wouldn't change anything.

I was gonna talk about all of Psychonauts but I ended up just talking about Bob and Helmut again. Whoops! I really, really like them. I wish I could replay the Sensorium right now. Ok but to talk about something other than those two!!! My top five favorite characters are Helmut, Bob, Cassie, Lizzie, and Mirtala. Yes, I know Mirtala does like. nothing. I don't care. I think she's neat. I also think Cassie is neat. She still wants things to go back to how they were before. I mean, who doesn't? But that won't happen. However, that isn't going to stop her from trying to trying to spend time with her friends again!

I've found myself talking about Helmut again. He is my friend. I mean, he does call Raz his friend as the Mote of Light, which I think is nice. And now, Raz is kind of like a nephew to him! Also I love the idea of him mentoring Frazie when she becomes an intern. I think that's really good.

I don't know how to end things so um. Ending! Yeah. Now I kinda want to write something about Psychonauts. I have ideas, I just don't really know where to start. Maybe one day...

#speaking of my discord server if anyone wants to join ask off anon or dm me #this took a very long time to write #psychonauts 2 spoilers #psn posting

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