Finally drawing this to compliment: my definitely weird aah theory/headcanon for Vagabond's origins with some basis on canon info.
Non-filtered version of the artwork under the cut, plus elaboration on my evidences for my half-headcanon half-theory version of Vagabond origins!
First, I'd say it's not completely a coincidence (IMO, of course) that Vagabond is the boss of Glass Houses; mainly because of the Killbot's (an enemy who debuts in that stage) Index entry. It mentions a conflict of Blue Falcons vs Red Hawks, though without elaborating where it takes place, only that it was the first usage of Killbots recorded. Now... Glass Houses has buildings with red and blue glass textures. Notice how Vagabond specifically enters the arena by jumping atop one of the blue-glass buildings. And how his outfit is primarily composed of shades of blue.
Said entry doesn't mention that conflict's winner either. But it's easy to guess what was that battle's outcome when we consider that the Killbots (weapons of war in the lore) are red - possibly indicating their alliance to the Red Hawks - and out of the Glass Houses buildings, the ones with biggest signs of damage are the blue ones.
Few, if not nearly all of the Blue Falcons were wiped in that conflict. But not all.
All that to say that: I believe Vagabond's an ex-Blue Falcon who survived the aftermath of the conflict (which very likely caused his muteness, if not contributed to it), and has been wandering alone, honing his swordsmanship and power, to not rely on another squadron.
And he tests the player(s) on the place that originated his current self.
To see if they can do what the Blue Falcons could not? To see if they need to rely on other people or can do things by themself? For the thrill of fighting (a) peer(s)? ...so far, he won't let 'em know.
Possible scenery lore thingy I've wondered for a bit, but decided to write down now
Warning! Block Tales Chapter 4 spoilers.
So, those two statues of the Temple of the Red Sun and a few of the hieroglyphs imply that the Firebrand worshipping was divisive at one point in its history. I forgot the exact text but, while one statue is proudly revering something, the other is in despair.
There's also the stated implication that the half of the civilization that did not support the Firebrand worshipping fled, but doesn't elaborate what happened to them once they ran away.
Then I couldn't help but think about the Ancient Tomb.
Both are tombs left behind by ancient civilizations. We progress through both by dodging traps and solving puzzles. And both have hieroglyphs depicting the possible story of the people behind them.
Though their art styles have a significant difference: the Red Sun Temple's seem more, rudimentary - or at least, simpler - while the Ancient Tomb's have a lot more detail to their figures.
Theres also how the Ancient Tomb's hieroglyphs, when we go deeper, show focus on destruction afflicting the people. Meanwhile, the Red Sun Temple's are, as lampshaded by the cast, nothing but what the Firebrand and the Ancients need to be appeased.
What if, maybe...
The people behind the Ancient Tomb were the half of the Red Sun Temple's civilization who ran away (or even their descendants), after no longer being able to handle all the death?
Silly thoughts I have about a theorical Sonic and the Swords of Time OST:
The major Block Tales cast having vocal themes in the Sonic Dreamcast era vein. Imagining them being vocal arrangements of their OG battle themes.
The quartet having a shared theme song; its lyrics being about how, while Robloxia may be a new place for them, the basic adventure setup is familiar, and this ain't their first adventure - they know how they go, and will save the day like they always do.
Silver having a remix of Dreams of an Absolution tweaked to fit the context where he debuts, Chapter 5. I particularly imagine the line "All the preachers all with their lies" being replaced with "All your teachers don't see magpies", or something of similar tone.
Maybe a overall theme song for the whole story. Perhaps, doubling as a final boss theme ala Open Your Heart/Live and Learn. Could see the chorus' iterations referencing the swords' powers.
A version of Trinity Council's battle theme potentially having some borrowed riffs from "VS Team Battle" from Sonic Heroes, given the context of their fight and the Friendship-Driven Team vs Friendship-Driven Team matchup that'll happen in the AU.
Sonic and the Swords of Time AU - Silly lil' what-if gameplay elements
aka Stuff that I kinda think often a lot about the AU, even if its not really necessary, and felt the need to throw in a post to lift off stress.
☆ Mainly based off of the "Player hates Pomegranate" theory/collective headcanon and deltarune, but some healing items would have different levels of effectiveness depending on who they were used.
⋆｡°✩ Though that'd result in a... pretty bad "gameplay-story integration" resulted nerf for one of the fruits: Lemon. It'd likely work the same as it canonically does to Tails, maybe with less effective healing and more stun, but Sonic and Amy would outright take damage from it instead of being healed. For Knuckles, maybe it'd work the same, but also likely lemons would outright not work on him.
⋆｡°✩ Their favorites would be their respective best healing items. There's no chilli dogs or mint candies in canon Block Tales yet but, maybe in the AU, they'd be around.
☆ Like I said on one of the first posts of this AU, aside from some of the gadgets like Dynamite, the Launcher, and mayhaps Adventure-style upgrades, none of them would share BT!Player's exact moveset. They'd most likely use their canon abilities, though still fitting to Block Tales' mechanics. The ones below would be their "starting" weapon cards:
⋆｡°✩ Sonic: Spin Attack. Starts as a Spin Dash, ends with a Homing Attack. Would work with timing, like Ball.
⋆｡°✩ Tails: Tail Slap. Winds up a little before hitting the opponent with his tails. Would work with a bar, like Sword.
⋆｡°✩ Knuckles: Punch. Does a triple combo that can end on a uppercut. Would work with timing, like Ball.
⋆｡°✩ Amy: Piko-Piko Hammer. Slams down her hammer on the opponent. Would work with a bar, like Sword.
☆ They all could get other weapon cards too (mainly to help on the long range coverage), but Tails' would be the only plot mandated one.
☆ The "mostly not same abilities" deal would also work with overworld traversal. Mainly because (arguably) all of them have more manners to stay airborne compared to BT!Player, and half of the quartet can swim. (This might have consequences on the fic itself)
☆ Animation flavors (as in, in case they couldn't get customized ones): Blueberry for Sonic (no-brainer, as its literally based on his animations from classic era, Advance, and Adventure), Rose for Amy (also no-brainer, fits both her attitude and name), Coal for Knuckles (I was considering Orange but, eventually felt Coal's winning animation was the most fitting for him), and either Mint (for the matching attitude) or Chocolate (for the floating) for Tails.
☆ In case they could get customized ones, I'd imagine they have normal stances for most battles, but "serious" stances for the dramatic moments (read: mainly the chapters' final battles, though Green and Purple would warrant that reaction too). Sorta like the Serious Mode from UNDERTALE.
☆ Detail I completely invented for theorical gameplay but could not stop thinking about: depending on who uses a Call card, they and the summoned ally would have different dialogue. I also imagine the quartet using their Sonic Advance 3 animations (when they attack with Cheese) when using the Call cards and/or enemy-affecting items. (might follow this post up with a reblog featuring the quotes)
aka Arty's likely-disjointed rambles about her Embodiment OC's feelings toward stuff in Block Tales' Chapter 5.
Under spoilers, for the rambles ahead discuss Chapter 5 spoilers.
I overall enjoyed the Chapter a lot! And I couldn't help but want to write down the immediate train of thought I got into after me and my friend finished it together:
Hope's feelings throughout this Chapter.
To start it, I imagine Hope has been driving the Player forward with the quest on its own after Ch. 3, which got them to run on almost nothing but willpower, for better or ill. Ch. 4 didn't give it many sources of hope to thrive on and I imagine it didn't have a fun time through it...
But Ch. 5 did.
It genuinely was happy to be empowered by and, in return, power up Player's hopes throughout the chapter.
The hope of successfully helping Cassie realize her own worth. The hope of proving themself to the Trinity council. The hope of saving the Trinity.
It all didn't truly take Hope's mind away of the fact its fellow Embodiments were recovering for the sake of a risky gamble to help the Player understand their own emotions and how it was running Player's will almost on its own, but it certainly fueled what it represents. It gave Hope a reason to believe Player was going to ace their increasingly-likely inevitable second Dream World visit with flying colors.
...and then, Arg'il revealed he knew something was wrong with Player. Said the right words to get them to act on a violent instinct.
The one possibility that Hope was dreading.
Like a cold hand to its shoulder, it felt the presence of the fellow Embodiment it most loathed. Hatred laughed and taunted the "naive" Embodiment. Theres no salvaging the one they symbolize the emotions of, only a dark path ahead of them. It may as well stop trying to hope for "perceived good things" and hope for SHEER. DESTRUCTION.
Hope tried to not let the taunts sour the uplifting mood of Trinity and the Player after the Korbloxian's fall. But it still grimly looked onward, seeing only the shot it had to take to help the Player before its too late...
From: Probably one of the few CI fans who's specifically hyped for more lore
Found out the new added info in the Combat Initiation Mirahaze wiki - and I gotta say I am pretty much fascinated. 👀
The mute and IRS Overlord thing I already read, but that bit about our Glass Houses fight with him being him testing us is VERY interesting to me!
(and definitely concerning, considering Vagabond rematch is a possibility and Vagabond is already agreed to be a hard boss, so, uh oh)
The sword bit is dorky in a good way to me, but the "past circumstance" one...
As someone who has already headcanoned/theorized a possible Vagabond origin based on the barest minimum context clues the game provides, that bit might've reinforced what I thought up!
Regretevator x JoJo AU ~ PartyNoob's Bizarre Adventure: Elevator of Chaos
aka What if a JoJo Part was built around the Regretevator cast and lore? Thought up by yours truly in a whim; WILL end up very shabby because of this.
Haven't gotten any artwork for it yet, but mayhaps will later down the line. This will be mostly me writing down 'bout the main NPC gang.
Under spoilers because, I'll be for real, this IS gonna be inevitably long... + a fair warning: my general music taste DID get into the Stand naming process.
Story (or at least an idea of one):
In a fictional, weird Las Vegas-style city, a party animal DJ's world spins upside down when a trio comes to their life claiming that the leader and figure of worship of a cult and its two enforcers are hunting for them for the sake of a sinister ritual. The DJ joins them to combat the threat the Axoeye poses to the city (while managing to stay upbeat through it), while other people with "ghost friends" aid them, hinder them, or anything in between.
✨ I imagined the Regretevator being a method of transport unique to and (in)famous to the city where the story's set.
✨ Everyone (minus Jermbo, and maybe FleshCousin) is changed from Robloxians and etc to humans.
---
Stands (and ridiculously basic rundowns of their types/abilities)
(They're in order of how soon I thought up the names for.)
✨ PartyNoob's Stand - Stamp on the Ground (ItaloBrothers song): Close-Range, Natural Humanoid. Summons Twister-like dots on the ground that share colors with Poob's hat, which incapacitates the opponent via a paralysis/confusion-inducing vibration as long as Poob dances on the dots (touching them with hands and feet count, like a Twister game). If Poob dances fast/long enough, it escalates into setting the opponent on fire - though it breaks the prior paralysis/confusion. The Stand's humanoid form is less strong and more speedy compared to "protag" standards.
✨ Bive's Stand - PARANOID (Alice Gas song): Integrated, Reconnaissance. Manifests through Bive's glasses, revealing through ink-style paintings in her vision if the people around her have a hidden aspect and/or are covering up something. Tends to backfire and be misinterpreted by the User without someone else to have the visions be described to, thanks to her flawed investigation methods.
✨ NULL's Stand - Toulouse (Nicky Romero song): Autopilot/Automatic, Artificial Non-Humanoid, Reconnaissance. Takes the form of Helperbot-looking masks that can multiply and assimilate whoever has it put in their face (willingly or not), developing a hivemind that NULL can gather information with. The masks themselves have the fragility of glass, but the possessed will try to protect them.
✨ Folly's Stand - Fear of the Dark (Iron Maiden song): Close-Range, Natural Humanoid, Psychological Assault. Has a left fist that can send damaging shocks whenever it punches/claws something/someone, and a right fist whose swipes generates a poisonous, water-like substance rapidly sent in crescent beams. Secondary ability is creating a mirror out of water and tree branches that hangs in the air, which makes someone witness their greatest terror. If the target succumbs to fear, it'll break into shards that cut like glass and damage them. However, if the target doesn't and/or attacks it, the shards may still damage them, but can also affect (annd have a bigger effect on) Folly herself.
✨ DrRETRO's Stand - Doktorspiele (Alex C & Yass song): Close-Range, Artificial Humanoid. Releases eyebeams from its sunglasses depending on what DrRETRO needs: green heals and seals up wounds, while purple dismantles a target with a plasma/shock-like effect and steadily increasing speed. Slow but strong and tanky in physical combat.
✨ Kasper/Infected's Stand - Speed of Light (Iron Maiden song): Close-Range, Artificial Non-Humanoid. Can switch between two forms: a long skateboard and Power Glove-style gauntlets - both have checkered, magenta-and-black colors, have a focus on speed, and inflict part of the strange illness the Stand gives to Infected on the target if they hit them. It can't take both forms at this once; Infected has to manually morph the Stand's forms (breaks the skateboard in half to make the gauntlets, self fist bumps the gauntlets to make the skateboard).
✨ Melanie's Stand - Worth +Gold (Gold by Britt Nicole): Close-Range, Artificial Humanoid. If Melanie succeeds in encouraging someone, the target's willpower is reinvigorated, which translates to a power boosts that lasts around 1-5 minutes. Has a secondary ability called "Walking on the Moon", which allows Melanie and three other people she selects to make one really high jump; it has a long cooldown.
✨ Lampert's Stand - Fireflies (Owl City song): Long-Range, Natural Non-Humanoid, Multi-Unit/Colony. Manifests as 1000 forget-me-nots with eyes and firefly qualities that, together, do a cloud formation. They can cry yellow, glowing teardrops that induce sleepiness, but otherwise don't have much attacking power by themselves. They also work as improv lanterns.
✨ Pest's Stand - POLTERGEIST (Corpse Husband & OmenXIII song): Long-Range, Artificial Humanoid. Can "diagnose" any mechanical apparatus' condition (wheter its functional or not, which pieces are broken, etc), and the things with highest monetary value on its range (both a certain amount of money and a single item work), with both being highlighted by a smoky, black aura. Can fly with two pairs of beetle wings, and transform one of the wing pairs into a duo of wrenches for combat and actual mechanic duties (the flight is partially hampered as a drawback). Targets hit by the wrenches feel a rust effect in their wounds until Pest undoes the effect.
✨ Prototype's Stand - Caravan Palace (band): Integrated, Reconnaissance. Gives Prototype a robotic aspect to his limbs (mainly metal joints on the knees and elbows with neon lights), allowing him to use sharp claws (they replace his fingers), and extend his limbs up to 2.5 meters. Their eyes and mind also gain the ability to decipher any language, including morse and cypher codes.
✨ Split's Stand - Golden Days (Panic! at the Disco song): Close-Range, Natural Non-Humanoid. Allows Split to summon bananas that morph into ways to defend herself, depending on the pun/joke she says while wielding one and holding it up like a phone (ex: she says "see ya later, alligator" and the banana turns into an alligator). Once a banana takes a form, it can't be changed. Has the resistance of an ordinary banana until it transforms; then, it takes the resistance of whatever form it takes.
✨ Mozelle's Stand - Pray for the Wicked (Panic! at the Disco album): Long-Range, Natural Non-Humanoid. Manifests as a strange, bird-esque creature that pecks fruits and sweet-flavored treats (Mozelle mainly uses the ability on strawberries). They can either become so nutritious/flavorful that they gain healing capacities, or rotten and capable of bodily harm when consumed, depending on User intent.
✨ FleshCousin's Stand - Stuff Is Way (They Might Be Giants song): Range Irrelevant, Artificial Humanoid. The base form is a strange, melting clay-esque humanoid, but it can shift its form to mimic a target's Stand along with one of its powers. However, the mimicked power is inferior to the real Stand's power, along with the shifted form having duller colors.
✨ Mannequin_Mark's Stand - Set Fire to the Rain (Adele song): Close-Range, Integrated, Artificial Humanoid. Allows Mark to mold wood into anything he pleases, along with empowering it. The wood turns back to its original state (wheter its a tree or previously-chopped wood) when the Stand's power de-manifests, though it retains the damage it obtained while transformed. Mark tends to use it in offensive, punch-based, and/or cutting-style manners.
✨ Wallter's Stand - Rolling in the Deep (Adele song): Close-Range, Integrated, Artificial Humanoid. Works similarly to "Set Fire to the Rain", but with concrete instead of wood. Wallter tends to use it in defensive, protective, and/or bludgeon-style manners.
✨ Gnarpy's Stand - Space Space Shooter (Disko Warp and Kick & Punch song): Close-Range, Integrated. Gives catlike qualities to Gnarpy, and matching reflexes. Main attack method is through a secondary pair of arms, each whose hands can shoot yellow laser bullets from their fingertips that bounce off of surfaces and afflicts the targets with melting plasma. Only two of the lasers can be active at the time, and the shots dissipate after they bounce around 10 times.
✨ Scag's Stand - Click Bait (S3RL & Gl!tch song): Artificial Non-Humanoid, Materialized/Bound, Reconnaissance. Can control and empower any electronic and/or robot that Scag pleases; all she needs to do is make a "click" motion toward those and one of her robotic claw arms will shoot toward it to possess it. Secondary ability is "Ha! I Got You!", which allows them to create a floppy out of any information within the electronic/robot.
✨ Jermbo's Stand - Cat Dealers (band): Close-Range, Integrated, Psychological Assault. Allows Jermbo to spew many slowflakes; the thinner ones are used as spinning discs (thrown by the Stand or blown at rapid speeds by cold winds), while thicker ones induce hallucinations on those that feel compelled to touch them. As a lure, the thicker snowflakes smell like the target's favorite ice cream.
✨ MR's Stand - The Phoenix (Fall Out Boy song): Close-Range, Artificial Humanoid. Wields two wooden torches whose flames can be molded into any shape by MR, mainly growing into the blades of big greatswords for battle purposes. The torches' heat can be increased and aimed to threaten heatstroke on specific targets. The greatswords work like actual swords, with the side effect of literal blood boil until the target's blood stream vanishes away.
✨ Spud/Frank Smith's Stand - Impossible Year (Panic! at the Disco song): Close-Range, Natural Non-Humanoid. Builds up Spud's negative feelings (primarily anger) and uses them to power up a increasingly tall, fast, and strong swirl of wind and water, shot through black-and-grey fern plants that bloom on the sides of Spud's head. Damages Spud if executed for too long, and depowers if he's not upset anymore.
✨ Reddy/James Beef's Stand - It’s Been So Long (The Living Tombstone song): Phenomenon, Range Irrelevant, Materialized/Bound. After death, the User possesses a object related to their bond with a loved one. No matter how heavily damaged the chosen object is, the User's will keeps it alive - only totally destroying it, or the User fulfilling the goal that keeps him on the living world will end it.
✨ Pilby's Stand - Look Ma, I Made It (Panic! at the Disco song): Long-Range, Natural Non-Humanoid, Sentient. Takes the form of a embittered, sarcastic anthro caterpillar with showman outfit that provides stylized clown equipment to Pilby. The catch is that, if they try to use it (wheter for unironic entertainment or for self-defense), it'll backfire on them, but also cause a Jinx-style burst of bad luck toward anyone nearby their range. The effect can't tell between friend or foe, but the Stand warns Pilby of the consequences, allowing them to warn their allies of what'll happen ahead of time.
✨ STAT/Alicia Marise's Stand - Vanilla Twilight (Owl City song): Close-Range, Integrated, Sentient. Grants STAT cosmic-style armor and shooting star-style constructs she has learned to use as projectiles, improvised shields, and moving through the air by holding onto them. However, she can only keep 5 active at a time. The Stand's humanoid form is more earnest yet serious compared to STAT's abrasive persona, yet seeks its User's healing and closure from her losses.
✨ Unpleasant's Stand - Everybody Do the Flop (LilDeuceDeuce song): Close-Range, Artificial Non-Humanoid, Psychological Assault. Manifests as a paintbrush full of paint with a trio of obnoxious colors. Anyone smacked once with the paint will be seen in a negative light by others, and being smacked with more paint increases a target's gravity point, forcing them to stay facefirst on the ground. The paint can be removed, but it feels like the substance the target hates touching the most to complicate the task.
