âAsks: CLOSED
Welcome! This is an askblog for "the Pioneer" (also known as Marbles), a slugcat OC set in a Rain World AU that takes place post-Artificer campaign. In this AU, Marbles is Artificer's blue pup that survives the scavenger attack.
For more information, please read the pinned post. I am currently working on archiving asks and all associated art here: ask-the-pioneer-archive.neocities.org
Hello and welcome to @ask-the-pioneer! This is a scripted ask blog dedicated to a slugcat OC of mine called Marbles (she/her), titled the Pioneer. She is a re-interpretation of Artificerâs blue slugpup, set in a AU where the pup survives, grows up, and receives a name. The main story begins some short time after the end of Artificerâs campaign. At that point in time Marbles is already a young adult (early 20s in human years). She parts ways with Hunter - her mentor - and ventures out to seek the knowledge contained within the pearls that she was always captivated by.
This blog is run by @kalivasquez (@kalivasquezart). Keep in mind Iâm not a native English speaker. There may be spelling errors or weirdly constructed sentences at times. This is my first ask-blog ever so idk what Iâm doing but Iâm trying my best đ
đCONTENT WARNINGđ: This blog has content rating of +18 due to potential sensitive themes: mental trauma, depictions of violence, suicidal ideation, blood and gore, or other graphic imagery that may be uncomfortable, scarring or otherwise triggering to witness. Viewer discretion is advised. Posts containing mild themes will be tagged appropriately, while posts showing heavy themes will have "mature" filter applied to them. Please be aware that all the content shared on this blog is intended for an adult audience!
More info below the cut, including blog rules. Please read it!
Blog Rules đ
Last update: 10th of October, 2024
By default you address the main character - Marbles, aka the Pioneer - in your asks. If you wish to inquire me directly (as an author of this blog), please include â[OOC]â at the beginning, or otherwise indicate that the message is directed at me and not the character.
Asks are answered in-character. Sometimes the character may react to your ask in a seemingly negative way. Please keep in mind that it is done from their point of view, and it does not imply that I (the author) personally reacted badly to your message.
I appreciate all the asks that I receive. However, I reserve the right to not answer some of them, at my discretion. It is not guaranteed that you receive a response. Still, Iâll try my best to answer as many messages as I can.
Be aware that some asks I receive may be skipped over, especially ones that are short and vague, in favour of more complex asks that help me push the plot of this AU forward. This is also relevant for asks that refer to the same subject (duplicates).
Please be tactful! Asks that are inappropriate or confusing in their intent (like spam, baits, asks containing slurs) will be deleted. Sorry!
Do not send me asks via direct messages (DMs)! I keep my DMs open in case someone needs to contact me for other reasons, like incorrect tagging or important offsite matters. If you send me a DM meant to be answered like an ask, your message will be ignored and deleted.
Please do not repost my art on to your own social media accounts. Honestly, don't. Anyone can see this blog without needing to log in or register on tumblr anyway.
More rules may be added later. Please check this section again periodically.
General Character Info âšď¸
As of now, this ask-blog has only one acting character - Marbles the slugcat, aka the Pioneer.
Name (given): Mirmyntasseth, Eight Marbles Cast in Stone
Title (given): the Pioneer
Nickname: Blue (for family), Marbles (for friends, after being named by an iterator)
Pronouns: she/her
Age: young adult (very early 20âs in human years)
Personality: energetic, curious, savvy, humorous, short-tempered, resilient, drive, a little naive and too trusting, exhibits mild case of abandoned child syndrome
Specific traits:
good at finding pearls (she loves them, goes about as crazy for them as scavs) and other trinkets,
knows martial arts, can incapacitate enemies by hitting their pressure points,
can craft explosive spears and grenades - they do less damage, but stun for longer; crafted explosives have deep orange color,
already has a mark of communication, granted by NSH,
Tools:
Marbles is often seen wearing a light colored âsling bagâ on her back, where she keeps her pearls and other items,
at a muuuuuuch later point in time, she receives a gift from a kind interator - her very own citizen ID drone; the drone can read from pearls and translate slugcat speech into other languages.
Current reference sheet:
For more in-dept info and drawings/references of the character, please visit Marbles' ToyHouse page.
AU Timeline âąď¸
the story of Pioneer takes place some years after the end of Artificer's campaign, and begins at the same time as Hunter's campaign in-game
this AU assumes the following timeline for slugcat campaigns: Spearmaster -> Artificer -> Hunter -> Gourmand -> Survivor -> Monk -> Rivulet -> Saint,
Artificer/Hunter/Gourmand campaigns happen close together, with Hunter/Gourmand overlapping slightly; all three scugs are roughly the same age, with Arti being the oldest (early 40s), and Hunter the youngest (39),
Saint and Monk are still slugpups by the time the story of Pioneer beings,
Spearmaster is unlikely to be present in this AU as it is assumed that over 432 cycles have passed, meaning they are no longer alive,
Rivulet is unlikely to be present in this AU as here their campaign is assumed to have taken place *much *later in the future,
Saint is thought to be stuck in a time loop, and *may *appear in this AU.
AU Setting đ
Pioneerâs Backstory (before the events described in this ask blog):
Marbles/Blue (the Pioneer) was born in the Garbage Wastes area, raised by a single mother (Artificer); the other parent remains unknown,
she had a sibling (who was also the runt of the litter) - a brother named Bryn, the green slugpup; the two were fraternal twins,
she got separated from the rest of her family in a scav toll incident,
was not killed, but abducted instead by the scavenger toll tribe, brought into their local shelter just before the rain started,
initially assumed to have been taken in as a fodder in case of predator attack,
in the end she has earned her keep when she learned how to make grenades and explosive spears, turning herself into a valuable asset for the tribe,
was treated fairly well, but never truly incorporated into the local scavenger community,
had stayed with the tribe for many cycles, learning how to fight and survive, but also how to look for valuables (mainly pearls) and haggle with other tribes,
could probably have run away, but she held on to hope that mom would come back for her,
whenever she got âlostâ, the tribe would look for her to bring her back,
after one of her short solo expeditions, she came back to the camp only to find out the entire scav tribe has been wiped out,
ran away and been wandering aimlessly for a while, eventualy stumbling upon Hunter who adopted her, took back to NSH's superstructure, and underwent training alongside him (under NSHâs supervision),
promised to accompany Hunter during his important mission, but had to suddenly part ways due to unfortunate circumstances (just before the beginning of Hunterâs campaign).
Post Tagging đˇď¸
I use the following tags:
#rain world, #rain world oc, #rain world au - default tags added to all answered asks (unless OOC),
#rain world spoilers - is included in posts that may spoil RW lore, for example: when answers hint to the conclusion of Artificerâs campaign,
#rw - rain world-specific characters that are present in a post, such as: â#rw hunterâ or ârw five pebblesâ; i will try to use the full name(s) intead of abbreviations,
#au lore - posts that contain important worldbuilding information for my AU,
#ooc- out of character posts, or anything else that doesnât fall under ârain worldâ umbrella,
(more tags will be added to this section once I actually start posting stuff)
I also tag sensitive content with appropriate tags like #tw [trigger], if shown.
Text Key đŹ
Most dialogue takes form of narrated drawings, where Marbles speaks in her own voice. The speeches are a part of the drawings themselves.
However, if a post contains additional text, the following key is used:
Narration
The road was long and arduous, and she was glad to have finally found a shelter.
Thoughts
This place is full of scavengers, I should be able to trade those pearls for some food.
âSpeakingâ
âHow come you have not seen a vulture before? Climb up to Sky Islands, they are everywhere!â
//OOC
// more art coming soon woohoo!
Credits đ
image in the blog's header belongs to Pawel Czerwinski on Unsplash
YoĹasabi script (slugcat language, original conlang) in the top banner by @opashoo
all the other drawings posted on this blog were made by me, unless stated otherwise
At first I thought Too Sweet (by Hozier) was a love song, but when I really listened to it, I realized it was about two people whose approaches to the world are too radically different. Artificer has been through and back a hell of her own making, and after years, Marbles is left trying to rehabilitate her. Artificer doesn't have much in the way of patience or self-worth. By comparison, her daughter is just⌠too sweet.
A last minute artfight attack I did in one 12 hour sitting in the last 24 hours of Art Fight. For my friend @kalivasquez who runs @ask-the-pioneer and who ruthlessly attacked me with an entire animation last year.
Fully finished bust of @kalivasquezart's Artificer design, with mask, drone, and everything. Just in time for the end of May.
The bust itself isn't my proudest work, but all assembled, I rather like how it looks. Fun to put all of the pieces together, and it's been a while since I made anything with one of those removeable masks.
The base sculpture is made purely out of earthenware, and the mask and drone are made mostly out of epoxy putty, with incidentals like wire, bamboo, and metal beads. Painted with acrylics.
Had to include a reference to her two pups in there somewhere, of course. Strung pearls felt appropriate.
Here's full post about the mask itself. And here she is without it:
This one was a good challenge. I wasn't sure about my job with the face at first when I sculpted it, but I got to like it more when doing the painting. Looks better this way. Helps that the all-white eyes stand out so much. (That's what we call good design right there.)
I probably would have done a full upper-body sculpt of this one if I'd had the time, down to the waist, maybe. I did this one sometime in March, though, I think, so my life was mostly School at that point. Ah well; this is good too.
Stay tuned, though, as I'm not stopping anytime soon! More like this is sure to come. I still have almost a month before any serious obligations begin, so there's no telling what will happen in that time. (Aside from that sculpture of Goumang from Nine Sols which I'm going to be doing up like this. That's a given.)
Hey there slugchat, I would like you all to marvel at another banger sculpture that @oakishly has made - this time of anthro Artificer as she appears in Metropolis (soon to be dethroned). My mind is blown for the second time. There is something magical in knowing that your art has inspired another person to do creative work of their own. One of the best feelings in the world, honestly. I hope that sharing the amazing scultures of @oakishly will inspire you all, too! Please follow him for more đ
Her child is alive. Her child⌠is alive. Artiâs mind shatters, but something inside of her heals in an instant. A will to live, rekindled, stronger than before. But, at the same timeâŚ
Artificer looks up, still holding her child as if her life depended on it. The scavengers have gathered around the two of them. Hundreds? Thousands? They are all watching.
Arti tenses up, and Marbles notices.
Marbles: (quietly) âWe need⌠we need to runâ
Artificer: âNoâ
Artificer: âOn my mark, hide under the throne structure. Do not come out until toldâ
Marbles: âW-why? I donât want to fightâ
Artificer: âYou wonât. Iâll do itâ
Arti gently lets go of Marbles, and focuses her gaze on the swarm of scavengers.
Artificer: âIâm not letting them touch you⌠Iâm not letting them harm you ever againâ
Artificer: (leans in, whispering) âMake bombs and spears for me while I dispatch themâ
Marbles stares at her mom in disbelief. Fighting all those scavengers is a death sentence.
Marbles: âNo, please⌠why kill them? Thereâs so many, letâs just runâ
Arti stands up, her mouth fuming with rage. She breathes in sharply and lets out a deep growl.
Artificer: âTheyâll regret they ever reincarnated as scavengersâ
Her tail crackles with fire powder â she lifts it, ready to strike.
Artificer: âGet readyâ
Marbles: (in a shaky voice) âMom, noâŚâ
Arti slams her tail against the ground, triggering a smoke screen explosion.
Artificer: (at Marbles) âGO!!!â
There is smoke everywhere, and with it â chaos. One and Three are startled, but everything happens so fast, the scavengers have no time to react. Suddenly, an explosive spear appears out of the dust cloud. It lodges itself in Oneâs head, ignites, and explodes violently. Three, who stood right next to them, is dazed by the blast and thrown to the ground.
While the red elite tries to come to senses, a salvo of spears is thrown their way. Three tries to dodge them, but they canât keep up in their injured state. One of the sharpened rebars finally strikes them, piercing their side. Three screams out, collapses, and passes out from pain soon after.
Two biggest threats have been neutralized.
Thus begins Artificerâs rampage.
---
Artificer and Marbles communicate in Yongasabi, a fan-made conlang for the slugcats of Rain World, created by @opashoo. Because of this, the scavengers around them canât understand what the two are saying to each other.
This update is an improved version of an older comic that I posted on March 2024.
Finished sculpture of @kalivasquezart 's Rain World OC The Pioneer:
It's about 25cm/9.5in tall, a little smaller than most of my other sculptures. All in earthenware clay except for some epoxy putty for the wrappings, drone, and other details. Painted (hastily) with acrylics.
I sculpted this one in June over the course of about two or three weeks, which is Really fast for me, and so it was scrappy from the start- only so much you can bring yourself to scrape and sand and generally refine a sculpture before you get tired of it. I've made my peace with this one, though. It was fun to make the little ID drone if nothing else.
(Wire? What are you talking about? There is no wire.)
I had some fun with the freehand work on this one. The pattern around the shirt is from one of the artist's other works, and the writing on the back spells out "Eight Marbles Cast in Stone" (which is this character's given Ancient-style name) in Yongasabi, a slugcat conlang developed by @opashoo.
That's pretty much it for this one. Must say it is nice to get something done pretty quickly even if it's not up to my standards. But as I was telling a friend while working on this, my perfectionism is just a bit too tired out from caring too much about other things, so that's that. We'll see what else I come up with to make over my break.
First of all: I'm screaming internally /pos and I would kill to have this on my shelf, IT'S SO FRIGGIN' COOL
Thank you for giving Marbs her color, I wasn't sure if you'd paint her as you said this is one of your quicker projects, done on the side between bigger sculptures. I was already incredibly impressed by the level of detail on Calllynx's OCs (those detachable masks roooock), so to see Marbles get the same treatment got me jumping excitedly in my seat, haha. You claim it was hastily made, but it looks incredible!!! Like... I can see each individual tooth on the zippers! The shirt pattern, and the writing on the bag - perfectly clean. This is nuts /vpos
I never dreamt that someone would sculpt my OC, less so such a detailed piece, this honestly made my month. Thank you soooo much!
And to anyone reading this - go and follow @oakishly right now đŤľ
There is a brief, tense moment of silence. Arti jumps down from the throne structure with a loud thud, then rushes towards the âguestâ who, supposedly, has a scent just like her.
Marbles feels intimidated and she turns away briefly, unable to stand Artiâs sharp scent, which is filled with nose-burning cherrybomb-like powder. In turn, Artificer gives her a sniff back⌠and finds that there is something very familiar about it. She canât put a finger on it, though.
Artificer: (in a stern voice) âYou. Where you fromâ
Marbles: (quietly) âUm⌠outer wall⌠but born hereâ
Arti straightens up her posture, then points directly at Marbles.
Artificer: âYou smell familiarâ
Marbles: (a little unsure) âYou smell⌠like cherrybomb?â
Now that Marbles can smell the scent clearly, something clicks in her mind. Suddenly, she remembers.
Marbles: âCherrybomb powder and bloodtrunkâŚâ
The scent brings back memories. Her mother used to craft makeshift grenades with cherrybomb fruit, but they had a hint of bloodtrunk in them because of how often she used its gel insides to treat light burns. This aroma combination is unmistakable, and the realization sets in.
Marbles: (in a shaky voice, eyes welling up) ââŚmom?â
The word echoes in Artiâs mind like a scream tearing through the deafening silence.
This strange slugcat fawning in front of her? She remembers her scent now.
Arti takes the Chieftain mask off her head, and throws it to the ground. The scavengers who gathered around look confused. Their infamous ârulerâ was never seen in such broken state before.
The realization is too much for Artificer, and her mind shatters into a million pieces.
Artificer: (in a raspy voice) âChildâŚâ
Artificer: (screaming her lungs out) âMY CHILD!!â
The sudden shouting scares Marbles, who curls up and shakes in fear.
This is nothing close to what One had planned. These two slugcats should be fighting to the death by now. One frowns, feeling that something is terribly off. Three looks back at them, not sure what to do.
Arti reaches out to Marbles. She slowly wraps her arms around her child, and pulls her close into her chest. Marbs recognizes her momâs scent again, and calms down, then hugs her tightly.
The mother and daughter are finally reunited.
---
Artificer and Marbles communicate in Yongasabi, a fan-made conlang for the slugcats of Rain World, created by @opashoo. Because of this, the scavengers around them canât understand what the two slugcats are saying.
This update is an improved version of an older comic that I posted on March 2024.
kagi gol. nansa? otayo gaw giga midal yopaywa, non giga chunwa sanga, gaw giga chunwa...
(just like this, see? first the left strand over the middle, then the right across that, then the left...)
a late birthday gift for the wonderful @kalivasquez!
After delivering the green neuron fly to Moon, Hunter retreats to a nearby shelter. He collapses immediately, too weak to move from the rot taking over his body. In his feverish state he has a dream of descending into the heart of the void sea... but it is not a peaceful one. What should feel like respite turns into a nightmare, endlessly falling, slipping away from oneself. Perhaps this is the end? An unsatisfying, abrupt end. Hunter falls into a coma.
Hey slugchat, just a quick PSA to let you all know that Marbles enamel pin is real. I wanted to reveal this news a bit later, after I research how best to handle international shipping, but I got too excited.
I have fulfilled one of my long time dreams, words can't describe how hyped I am â¨
@ask-the-pioneer Marbles eats a karma flower and experiences... an overlapping of dissimilar cycles. An unexpected development, to be certain. A little fancomic exploring a possibility, where Marbles meets Undergrowth Artificer.
Pages 1 & 2 of The Pioneer and the Arsonist
Related to An Overlapping of Cycles
Hey slugchat, I need you all to see this amazing comic that my friend @opashoo shared recently. I absolutely love it when people draw my characters interacting with theirs, and it's lore friendly too! There's going to be at least one scene in Pioneer AU that shows a character (Hunter) talk to their other "selves" through a karma flower induced dream. Perhaps Marbles could experience something similar, as shown in the comic above?
Marbles is being escorted towards the Metropolis. As she climbs up the iteratorâs wall, an ingenious idea strikes her mind. Maybe she could escape her captors by setting off a big smoke bomb? That would give her enough time to jump away from those heavily armed scavengers. Risky, but worth a try. She trips on purpose and lands atop some rocks in a way that looks like an accident. As she tries to get up, her way is suddenly blocked by Four, who places their electric spear right in front of the slugcatâs face.
Four: "Spit that out"
Marbles looks up at them with her big eyes. Alas, she can't weasel herself out of this situation with her innate cuteness. At least she tried...
Marbles: (spits the rock out) "Haha... clumsy me!"
Four: "Good joke... now move"
Shit. They are too damn smart, Marbles thinks to herself. The scavenger thumps their spear against the ground, urging her to get up and get going. She does so, reluctantly.
The walk is quite long, and the new prisoner attracts the attention of passerby scavengers. It is not often that the Chieftainâs own guards bring in âvisitorsâ, less so a slugcat. More and more scavs poke out their heads to see what is going on.
Just as Marbles is about to step into the dome, the Chieftainâs throne room, she is stopped by One.
One: (in a stern voice) âYou will see the Chieftain. Do not talkâ
Marbles sighs, grimace on her face. She should have listened to her gut feeling and ran as soon as she saw those elite scavs. Itâs too late now.
Suddenly, a strange scent catches her attention. It does not belong to a scavenger, far from it. Itâs got a slight, sharp tint that reminds Marbles of cherrybombs. She looks up, fixating on the throne structure in the middle of the dome hall. A scraggly creature sits on top, wearing a painted raindeer mask. This is where the scent is coming from.  A⌠slugcat? The Chieftain is a slugcat? Marbles is confused.
One: âChief, we bring a trespasserâ
Arti is turned away, busy making grenades and stashing them under her throne. She doesnât bother to face the elites.
Artificer: (in a monotone voice) âAnd? What of itâ
One: âIt was caught supplying weapons to border tribesâ
Artificer: âNot care. Chase it awayâ
Three stands up, interrupting Oneâs words.
Three: (loudly) âMaâam, she has your scentâ
There is a stir.
Artificerâs ear flickers⌠and she finally turns around.
