#As The Rain Comes Down

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karmic totem
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Hosted by @shadow bluff

foggy swan
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Easy, right?

shadow bluff
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It sure was lol

shadow bluff
karmic totem
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As The Rain Comes Down

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(apologies, had a typo)

shadow bluff
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Help I made an entire Modern Anthro AU for this just as an excuse to write texts between the characters

shadow bluff
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Also gonna start using this thread to discuss my other fic, This Thing That I've Become, just because this won't be super active until Watcher comes out

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Currently, I'm trying to figure out a personality for Sliver of Straw, as she's going to show up in the story

foggy swan
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Sliver’s fun because she is almost completely an OC as far as writing her goes

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Since she has no canon personality traits at all

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I would start with deciding what happened to her, then you can imagine her personality from there by thinking about how she would have reacted to the whole thing

shadow bluff
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Pre-Death, I'm imagining her as a very mature person, kind of a no nonsense type, very intelligent and holds research and what she can see with her own eyes above all else, with a sweet side but for the most part she's more like a strict teacher

foggy swan
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I tend to think of her as serious too, I think it adds a little more intrigue to the whole ‘drops 3a and vanishes’ thing

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Why did this by the book chara just… do that?

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Sliver in general is very interesting

shadow bluff
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Within this story's timeline, when an iterator dies, because they can't Ascend or become an Echo, they become a new creature, essentially like a glitch in the system. When Sliver woke up in a new body in an unfamiliar place, it's very shocking, but she wasn't as affected as the others. More like a "well, I guess this is happening now, no sense is freaking out about it" and she set out to find a way to return to her own body, still in a sense iterating despite no longer being a supercomputer

foggy swan
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Oooo interesting

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Did she get scug’d?

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I’ve seen a bunch of Iterators-get-scugged stories lately but none starring sliver

shadow bluff
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She did! I wanted to try my own take on iterators-get-scugged

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Moon, Pebbles, Suns, and Sliver are the affected characters

foggy swan
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I love that idea a lot

shadow bluff
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I'm gonna post a bit I've written real quick, just because I'm proud of it

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When Moon booted back up, she immediately knew something was wrong.

First of all, it didn’t feel like powering on. It wasn’t a feeling of parts of her structure sparking to life until Moon could suddenly see the world around her. It was slow, sluggish, and felt almost like she was floating through space.

Second, she was in some way alive. Trapped in a cramped metal room with no light to speak of, yes, but alive nonetheless despite drowning in Void. She should be dead. She should be gone, not even a thought floating in the Void Sea. She should be nothing.

Third, it occurred to her that she couldn’t feel the rest of her own structure.

Ever since her superstructure collapsed what felt like eons ago, Moon couldn’t quite reach the rest of herself. Neurons fired and nothing responded, wires crossed and sparked, a creature gnawed on exposed machinery and sent pain through her entire structure, and she couldn’t change any of it. But no matter how distant it was, it was there.

Now? She had nothing. She was alone.

Was this death? Had the Void Fluid truly destroyed her? Would this be her existence from now on? A cold, dark box with no escape? It was like some sort of cruel joke. A biomechanical creature created to be locked in a box, now locked in an even more restrictive box. Somehow, the world had found a worse fate for her than the collapse.

Finally, once the panic wore down, she realized one last thing.

She could feel something. It wasn’t her structure, or her neurons, or her electricity. No, it was something new. A gentle rise and fall as well as an ache that climbed up her puppet. Finally, she chanced a look down to see what was left of her.

What she was expecting was half a puppet at most, the rest of it dissolved into nothingness. What she wasn’t expecting was a strange round body with flesh and fur instead of metal, adorned with extravagant fins.

Looks to the Moon, somehow, some way, had become a Slugcat.

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Admittedly, Moon might have overreacted a bit.

She closed her eyes, then opened them again. Then she did it again. And again. And again, again, again. But no matter how many times she did it, she was still staring at the same Slugcat body.

That's when the panic set in. She let out a scream, running from one wall of the room to another, scraping and clawing at them to be let out. Her words turned incoherent as they spilled out of her mouth, begging the world to realize its mistake, pleading to go back.

It wasn't until the jagged metallic edges of the walls had left her paws bleeding and her unfamiliar squeaking voice had grown hoarse that she finally quieted down. She curled up helplessly, staring at her own paws. Before she could stop herself, before she even knew how to stop herself, she began sobbing.

Moon had never cried before. Some cycles, when she was so utterly alone and she was far too aware of how little of herself she could feel, she'd let out a pained whirring noise.

But this? This was crying, she knew. Her throat hurt, her chest ached, and her entire face was wet with tears. She curled into a tighter ball, letting out a sorrowful wailing. And now, her head hurt too. Her newfound creature instincts kicked in, leaving her gasping desperately for air.

Eventually, she grew quiet, still shaking and sniffling but quiet. She stayed curled up on the floor of that dark room for hours, now lost in her own thoughts.

She was alone. So very alone. And for some reason, there was a pain that gripped her stomach she didn't know how to quell. She didn't know where she was or how she'd ever escape, she didn't know why she was here. And on top of all that, she was trapped in a body that wasn't her own.

foggy swan
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Daaaamn

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Love what you’ve got so far

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Nicely written!

shadow bluff
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Thank you so much!!

foggy swan
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I’ll definitely be checking out any fic you post c:

waxen thistle
hollow hollow
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Ohh, really like the premise here. Lovely introspective sections

waxen thistle
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yay putting moon into situations

foggy swan
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These are two separate fics yeah?

shadow bluff
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I really like focusing on internal feelings and monologues in stuff

shadow bluff
foggy swan
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Moon getting scug’d and sliver getting scug’d

hollow hollow
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Also regarding slivers in such a situation. The shift will force her to focus on what is happening to her and analyze that instead of wasting time thinking back to the specifics of the triple affirmative. As that is the big mystery ... that will likely never get solved in canon ... it is a good way to avoid it,

shadow bluff
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Moon and Sliver are in the same fic

foggy swan
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True! There’s no need to cover the 3a if you write around it

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But also… 3a is so fun to write your own take on :3c

shadow bluff
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I'm probably gonna try and avoid covering it too much, just to keep that mystery

hollow hollow
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I sooner or later have to at least drop a theory on it if I actually wanna write out Gales' story. Because investigating what happened might be an adequate desire for an iterator who learned to walk around.

shadow bluff
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She swears herself to secrecy, realizing how dangerous the knowledge of it could be, so even when asked she doesn't tell what the 3a was

shadow bluff
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Looks to the Moon had never seen the sun before. She was so painfully aware of that now that she was here. The wind bristled against her blue fur, and the clouds above moved across the sky. The sun glimmered in the distance, a bright hot light she couldn't look directly at.

Surrounding the platform she stood on was miles and miles of deep blue-green water. In the distance, she could see strange, long fish leaping out of the sea, followed by a massive creature’s metal jaws snapping behind it. She was sure she could hear it from here, sending a shiver down her spine. Beauty surrounded her, but so did danger.

This was once her facility. She knew that just by looking around. But none of it remained, now broken down and oh so lonely. She couldn't help the grief caught in her throat, letting out a sorrowful whine. She had lost so much. She had lost everything.

And despite the fear, despite the realization of how much had changed over the cycles, she couldn't help the new realization. She felt no pain. She wasn't stuck in that chamber.

She was free.

foggy swan
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ohh, is this far in the future? so far moon's structure had broken down? or is she just noticing the decayed remains of waterfront facility?

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'none of it remains' seems to imply its gone :0

shadow bluff
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It's in Rivulet's timeframe, so it's fully Shoreline. It's not quite NONE of it remains, but there's no longer any recognizable structures

foggy swan
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ah gotcha

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I might have her describe it as decayed beyond recognition in that case maybe

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but I'm loving what youv'e got so far c:

shadow bluff
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Chapter 1 has been completed!

As she curled up, she let her mind wander. Ruffles was somewhere out there, alone and carrying neurons she couldn't even use anymore. That was if it hadn't been caught by any creatures… She shut that thought out as quickly as it came. Ruffles was safe. It had to be. She couldn't lose her only company. Her only friend.

She was going to find Ruffles, and they were going to march right back to Five Pebbles. Ruffles was going to give the neurons back, Moon was going to talk to Pebbles, and he was going to tell her what happened and… return her to her Iterator body.

Maybe she was overestimating his abilities. He was sick and dying, up there alone. He didn't have even half the powers he should. And then… would she really even want to return?

She had been broken down for so long. If she went back to being an Iterator, she'd be back to fractured memories and being so terribly lonely. She'd break down in a matter of cycles. Sure, she had the Rarefaction Cell, but that couldn't keep her alive forever.

She knew it was dangerous, being a Slugcat. She'd watched many of them through her overseers before, and she had seen many die, and others get close. But seeing the world around her, seeing the sky and the ocean…

Maybe it was worth it.

She let her eyes shut, tucking her new tail against her chest like some sort of pillow. Iterators didn't sleep, but Slugcats did. What would sleep feel like, she wondered? It was time to find out.

foggy swan
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aww, first sleep. what an alien experience for an iterator to have

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are you gonna post to ao3?

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or another ff website?

shadow bluff
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I'm gonna post it to AO3 I think!

foggy swan
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nice drop the link when you do

shadow bluff
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I will!

shadow bluff
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That moment when you reference an existing piece of writing but rewrite it so heavily most people don't recognize it just for fun (I legitimately haven't found anyone that recognizes it yet)

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“Little ruffian. My Citizen,” he greeted weakly, sitting upright, “what have you brought for me? You know it's dangerous to stay here.”

The Citizen chittered and held out one of the pearls, placing it in his palm. He stared at the creature for a moment, then looked back down at the blue-green pearl's surface. He dusted what he could off of it and squinted at its surface.

“This pearl… It's an ancient poem. It's very long, nearly seven hundred lines, so I will just give a synopsis. It tells of an Ancient who set out to explore an uncharted land, but encountered bad luck throughout the journey. Along the way, they were saved by a ‘beast of hope and light' that led them out of a dangerous forest. However, the Ancient decided to trap the creature and take it, wanting to keep its good luck to themself.

“They then were trapped in a cave with the beast as the entrance collapsed, with only a sea of acid to keep them company. They began to grow hungry and thirsty, and they ate their only companion, leaving them alone. When they began to realize how alone they felt, they mourned their selfishness, which let them see a path out of the cave. They decided to leave all their mortal possessions in the cave and travel back home to show their change of heart.

“I believe the poem was meant to encourage the severance of material desires to successfully Ascend. Its use of archaic language is notable, even for the time it was written, and I can only assume it was an artistic choice.” He blinked, turning back to the Citizen. “I… suppose a lot of that didn't make much sense to you, though, did it?”

The Citizen took the pearl back, giving Pebbles an unreadable look.

foggy swan
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interest piqued

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I do not recognize it

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I love writing pebbs and arti’s interactions/relationship, they’re so fun

shadow bluff
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They really are!!

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It's inspired by Rime of the Ancient Mariner because I've been low-key obsessed with it

foggy swan
shadow bluff
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Currently rewriting the first chapter of As The Rain Comes Down because I had a way better idea (and also I got confused with the map so the rain wouldn't be a problem)

shadow bluff
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I'm now trying to figure out what abilities Scug!Sliver should have that could parallel Saint

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She seems in canon to use lasers?

foggy swan
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Hmmm

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It doesn’t parallel saint exactly, but if her whole deal involved her coming into contact with the void sea/being cycled… maybe visions?

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Unless you specifically mean powers that can be used physically/for defense

shadow bluff
shadow bluff
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I'm thinking, what if Sliver has like,,, teleportation in some way? But like, sideways teleportation so it's almost like a dodge???

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So then she has an evasive movement like Saint's tongue grapple

foggy swan
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Oooo

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Okay, idea, welcome to accept or reject my dumb thoughts: what is sliver is in a kind of state of existing in multiple realities at once, and she can kinda use that to shift around? Kinda like warping but more High Concept. She might be able to slightly change or shift other objects and things around as well. Feels like the kind of weirdness that might suit sliver… but I don’t know what your plans are for her regarding the meaning of the triple affirmative and whatnot

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(Please let me know if suggestions are not welcome I don’t want to overstep ;v;)

shadow bluff