my name is will (he/they), I’m an adult, and I’m an amateur runner. this is a sideblog.
this account does not engage in MCSR discourse including calculator bans and related strats. DNI if you attack anyone over their stance on calculator validity.
this account supports dreamwastaken and any potential return to the speedrunning community. DNI if you still discourse, including vagueposting, over his previous controversy.
i don’t know what dolorem is I just know it gets me a lot of couriway icarus art
tagging system: I tag art, fic, characters/content creators, general/no character, screenshots, and general Minecraft. All tags excluding characters/content creators can be found under this post for navigation.
my personal tag for talking (not art/fic/etc) is #sabotage speaks
In anticipation of Valentine's Day and also because I don't trust myself to post them exactly on time, here are some mcsr valentines!! Part 1 of 2 because of the 10 pics max limit, I'll be reblogging with the rest :D
Credits to fnbc discord and my sister for most of these lines <33
okay so like, render distance manipulation is so big brained in actual runs and i'm no expert but i feel like there's still profit to be gained from that bc like people just use it for monuments and fortresses but i feel like there's gotta be more.
Bc in fortresses it helps with stray blaze spawns (and also wither skellies but people don't use it for that as much) and also I think it depends on the biome the fortress is in? which is awesome.
And then with monuments it lowers the chance of elder guardians rendering in and thus the chances of you getting donged which is also just very big brained.
And then I'm not even talking about the two funniest ways to use render distance, which is 1) literally unrendering ghasts when they're bothering you and 2) shulker yeet/shulker space program, whatever you want to call it when you use a fishingrod to just yoink a shulker all the way from an end city to the portal that takes you back to the main island.
And like, this is literally just describing the minecraft mechanics, the actual strats? So we haven't even reached the fun part of getting to figure out how to fit that into a fic yet.
Bc render distance in itself isn't really something we experience in reality, let alone manipulation it on purpose.
So you start with render distance, which is like, awareness of the world? which, in the context of minecraft world being the player's own creation, to a point, also means the existance of the world in that current moment.
And I can imagine it being jarring to like, first experience it, the loading in of the world to a certain distance, and even more so if the player starts shifting the render distance.
(hey you guys know that thing where the speedrunner shifts render distance so quickly that the entire world just disappears and all you see is other entities, other souls?)
I imagine it being related to like, the connection to the universe? The regular player barely notices, or at least barely thinks about render distance. You'll change it to what your pc can handle, but not much else. A player more sensitive to the universe, more aware of the render, might notice lag more? Might need to take a moment when they load into a world, aware of the ground rising up beneath their feet to form the world around them. Might seem to have motion sickness or just plain clumsy to others.
Speedrunners, however, with how in tune they are with the game, with the universe, can use this sensitivity to their advantage, can start shifting the borders to fit their needs, whether that's rendering mobs in or out. It takes skill to be aware of the ocean monument in the distance and then reach out into the universe and force it to stop existing, at least until you get closer. It, well, it takes a certain type of person to see a ghast and ignore it so hard it stops existing.
So what does it feel like? What does it feel like to send your soul out into the world, become aware of so much around you, only to pull it back in until you can barely see the next tree over. Does it hurt? Is it uncomfortable? Or does it become the most natural thing in the world, up until you log onto a server and suddenly you're confronted with a different person's awareness, a different person's boundaries. (the owner of the world controls the maximum render distance, after all)
please do not edit/repost/upload anywhere. reblogs appreciated. 1500 words.
It’s all stories, of course, make believe meant to scare children away from straying too far from home. It has to be, it’s simply too absurd to be true. Skies of neither sun nor stars, only miles and miles of darkness in every direction over a suspended island; beings twice as tall as a man that spoke in unfamiliar grating languages, friendly enough lest one dared look them in the eye; ships that sailed through the air rather than the seas; a great dragon that breathed not fire but magic, so thick it would burn your eyes, threaten to choke you, set the ground alight under your feet. It’s far, far too impossible to be true.
Some claim to have seen it, though. They’re the ones that tell the stories- stories that are so unbelievable they can’t be real, but told by those you wouldn’t dare disbelieve. There’s something about them that makes you trust them, but it’s not a feeling anyone can ever explain. The storytellers themselves deny any claim of being anything more than perfectly normal, and when they say it, you believe them, but when you remember them later, you know they were anything but. Some people call them world-hoppers. Some, simply Runners. But the inhabitants of every world they visit calls them heroes. No one knows for sure until they’re gone, until the end is freed, until balance is restored, until the Runner moves on to the next world, and then the next, and the next. They see things no one else could ever imagine.
Still, though, it’s not impossible to surprise a Runner. Illumina knows this very, very well. He’s well aware of his own limits, of his place in the Universe, he knows better than to believe he’s seen everything, experienced everything, even if sometimes, things that once were startling and new become routine. Times change, methods change, new friends and foes alike come and go, but the chase remains the same. Enter a world. Gather supplies. Find the End. Defeat the Dragon. Step through the portal, listen to whatever the Universe has to tell you, and continue to the next world. Routine, all of it, but the portal, the Universe, never fails to catch him by surprise, despite being well aware of what’s coming.
There’s very few constants in his life despite his routine. Terrain, weather, dimensions and structures and Luck itself all falling in around him with random chance. Even the sun isn’t constant, disappearing once he starts opening portals- the nether has no sun, nor does the End. Gravity, though, is something that never changes. There’s no chance there, no variables, no RNG. Gravity keeps his feet on the ground no matter what that ground is made of, returns him to solid land when he’s flung into the air by the beat of the dragon’s wings, pulls him downward through lava as he struggles through it with the sharp smell of fire resistance lingering on his skin. His feet stay planted on the obsidian of the portal into the nether. He jumps through the end portal frame, and falls through the swirling stars straight down onto end stone. Constant, trustworthy, ever-present, until it isn’t. The second portal in the End, the one at the base of the fountain that opens readily for him without the dragon’s magic sealing it shut, isn’t like the one he used to enter the realm. That was simply a door between dimensions, allowing him to pass from the overworld to the end. This portal opens into the Universe itself.
He knows what’s coming. He’s done this a hundred, a thousand, a million times before. The sound of shattering magic fills the air, the remanants of the dragon’s power scattering into the void, and he puts out the remaining fires around him while he waits for enough of that magic to return to the world to open the portal for him. And it does open, exactly as expected, with a familiar hum, and he takes a breath before stepping of the edge into the sea of stars.
It takes a moment. It always does. Gravity pulls him down into the portal, and then down a moment longer, and then it simply… doesn’t. It never gets any more familiar, if he hasn’t gotten used to it yet he’s sure he never will- the feeling of falling without moving, of weightlessness warring in his mind with the heaviness in his limbs. He keeps his eyes closed, knowing from experience how disorienting it would be to open them- it’s not as though he’ll be able to see anything, it’ll only lead to portal sickness once he gets out, gets home, and that’s embarrassing. He doesn’t need to see. He keeps his hands curled into fists, focusing only on the way his fingers press into his palms, nothing else. To do otherwise is simply more sensory input his mind is incapable of processing- of falling and floating, stillness and moving air and the Universe’s embrace all at the same time. He caught his breath from the fight with the dragon before he entered, and he keeps his breathing shallow now, paying more attention to the rise and fall of his chest than the act of breathing. Too deep, and it feels like his lungs are filled with the same nothingness that surrounds him, and that specific automatic response- he’s not sure if it’s more drowning or suffocating- is hard to control. His senses don’t matter here. They weren’t made for this. And yet the Universe grants it to him anyway. It carries him safely between worlds, it tells him he’s done well, it tells him of other worlds and things beyond his comprehension even still, and it tells him that he is loved.
His senses don’t matter here, he can’t trust them, but there is an undeniable warmth in being so close to the Universe itself. It wraps around him, curls up into his chest, settles between his ribs and spreads outwards. It’s a comfortable warmth, somehow, though he’s sure if it were truly heat it would be unbearable, searing the Universe’s words into his skin, but it doesn’t, merely whispers them, from across the length of galaxies and from right beside him and from inside his own head, and he listens. He listens, as the void around him slowly shifts into something more familiar, but still he keeps his eyes closed. He listens as his senses begin to realign with what he expects, as the Universe surrounds him, fills him, inside of him and under his skin, and gravity returns slowly to remind him of which way is up. The Universe slowly releases him, having carried him safely through the endless void, but it never fully leaves- he can feel it, fragments of the Universe itself, reminding him he isn’t alone. He’s never alone. And those fragments grow with every trip through that portal at the base of the fountain, so much so that sometimes he thinks he can feel the Universe even outside of this void, but it isn’t a bad thing. It’s neither good or bad, it simply is, and he chooses to let it remind him of the good. Of companionship, of love, even when he’s alone.
Finally, it tells him to wake up, and everything snaps sharply back into place. His feet find the ground and he stumbles forward a step, regaining his balance and opening his eyes to squint against the brightness of the setting sun. He can’t help but feel just the slightest bit jealous of his friends with wings to catch them when the Universe releases them, their reappearances are always so much more graceful than his own. The remnants of the Universe inside him echo with the same energy as the sunset, the same pace as his footsteps, as he finds his way down a well-worn path towards the sound of voices, ready to enjoy his own world, long since saved, alongside those he loves most. There will be other worlds, there’s always more to save, but tonight is a celebration, a victory, a few seconds of time shaved off a challenge that never ends, competing with himself and each other and the Universe itself. They refuse to stop, but so does everything else, the world and the Universe keeping pace alongside them no matter what- but at the end of it all, there’s always home, always somewhere to return to, and a gravitational pull bringing him back no matter how far he goes.
I am on indefinite dsmp lockdown as long as these daily streams continue I’m sorry to anyone that wanted me to write more universe things all I care about right now is c!dream
