Warning; llooonnggg Rain World rant incoming! (With Spoilers!!!!)
So Rain World, right? I've been playing it for a while now; I'm in fact very close to completing my first Saint run, with each of the other (excluding the Watcher) already finished and lots of expeditions under my belt!
What I want to talk about right though pertains to my very first playthrough, because even after all this time I still think about and it still impacts me.
When I first encountered Looks to the Moon, I was equal parts elated (having battled my way through 50+ deaths and feeling so relieved to finally get where Iggy was telling me to go) and some other strange feeling I wasn't prepared for. There was a sense of wonder and melancholy to the moment. This feeling of intense interest, mixed with terrible sorrow. That feeling that... something more should be here. I want to know what it was, yet I get the feeling finding out will devastate me.
Now, as I sat beside her wondering what I should do, I took notice of the little glowing things floating around her head. Out of curiosity, I jumped up and grabbed one, at which point she became very distressed. I jumped a little and ran a few steps back: she reached after me, though she couldn't stand to pursue me. Now I of course immediately apologized and let it go, at which point things calmed right back down.
From there I left and continued following Iggy, and honestly didn't think too much about the encounter. Then I reached Five Pebbles.
I remember entering the first room where you start floating, and after my initial surprise wore off and I began exploring, I suddenly had the thought "this is what it's like to be inside a working Iterator? This is what they're supposed to be like??"
My mind instantly went back to that moment, of me standing there holding that little glowing thing as Looks to the Moon cried, reaching for me but unable to do anything. If I had wanted to, I could have walked off with it. I could have (as I later discovered) eaten it. And she wouldn't have been able to do anything to stop me.
I thought about that quite a lot when I reached General Systems Bus, where the intake of sound and sight and spectacle was overwhelming, where I felt like I was intruding upon a place I was never meant to be or understand. I felt it as I stood before Five Pebbles himself, feeling small and helpless as he effortlessly lifted me up and bestowed the mark.
I honestly don't know quite how to describe my feeling, cowering before Five Pebbles and thinking of Moon, a being who was once equally as wondrous and terrifying, who was now as powerless before me as I was before the being currently lecturing me about romping around his systems.
It's a feeling that's stuck with me through all this time, and it's one of the reasons that no matter how much this game makes me want to hurl my computer at the nearest wall... it'll always be one of my favorites, and something I consider truly special.
