rapidly clips through the floor with 3 million source collision sfx. Chewing on your art. /pos tastes like cherry gummy worm and angel food cake. Your Deimos is so Creature he's Large Stray Cat. the unbelievable amount of joy upon seeing your Qbert have glasses. And look like RE4 Merchant...... madness characters other than hoffnarr and jeb having glasses #myjoy #yay #yippee
Awww shucks, thank you!!! Here, a doodle, plus a bonus Deimos, courtesy of the recent Experiment 2 :3
YESS YAYYY!!!!! Girl look out that is a five-fingered hand behind you ! I've been working on this new ref for Zero's weapons, I'm really proud of how it's turning out so far :3
I don't know if this question has been asked/answered before but.......... What does Zero think of other arena players... If I remember correctly she is aware of their existence..... If not then probably ignore this ask,,,,,,,,, anon because I am scared,,,,, 🩸
It hasn't been asked before, don't worry! This one's interesting, and I actually have a slightly old image laying around that I think sorta encapsulates the 'logistics' of her relationship with the Arena Player.
Zero's "existence" in this 'version of events' sort of retroactively made a 'gap' where the Arena Player is. A version of events that has been largely erased from reality.
To say it in a slightly less obtuse way, the Maker tried and failed to achieve something, and this telling of events, this 'story' ended up fractured and warped on its foundational level somewhat. There is no Arena Player here, but there are others in every other telling of Nevada. (Nevada isn't multiversal, but this world will tell its story again and again)
...which is honestly still pretty vague... I don't want to reveal too much without doing something cool with it!
Anyway, to actually try and answer your question, Zero most often sees or even 'meets' Arena Players through dreams or situations of near-death (as you know, Arena Players are often at deaths door). Zero herself is a reality anomaly, but these meetings are given tangible stability in her Limbo - a plane just for her. These meetings are typically short, abstract or even frightening, as madness broils in the air and heavy darkness falls over a figure that gives off an eerie sense of familiarity. A primal fear. After all, it's as though death itself is visiting.
What Zero thinks is always an interesting question to me. It's like asking what Hank thinks about something, which can be very tough to answer. Zero was never meant to be "a person", and the idea of personal thoughts and feelings is something she is always 'grappling' with, so to speak. But I think she is sympathetic. In a way that something godly 'comforts' something mortal, Zero has abstract patience for all forms of Arena Player. She has no words to give but the solidarity of a cold nightly wind. She will sit and listen but seldom answer.
It's a bit difficult to eloquently explain ... a big part of Zero's story is her own form of seeing why and how life is worth living. Why would the end care for the story it is closing? Why would death care for the life that struggles tooth and nail? Especially so, for a story she has walked an infinite number of times? Witnessing the strength of spirit, of character, of dreams and hopes, these things are important to Zero. It's one part of the reason why she likes 2BDamned so much, I think.
Hopefully this answers your question somewhat! It honestly depends quite a lot; what Zero thinks is always a terribly complex thing to think about (after all, I can't imagine her ever saying "I think (x)", unless again it's with Hank or 2BD), but I like answering these kinds of questions the best. It makes me reflect on her nuances, on how I want to construct her like Hank, as they are mirrors.
And thank you :D I really like answering these! I love talking about Madness Combat and well, obviously my OCs eheh.
i have a couple thoughts about the other place specifically. we've been playing around with the idea of the other place changing itself to make the residents trapped there suffer as much as possible, something something madness to feed the machine something something industrial assembly line something something because we've been thinking about deimos and sanford as always (typical) have a little bit for hank and fuckall for doc (lmao).
sanford being trapped in very humid, tight underground passages. i feel like they'd hate that. to make it worse Submerge those passages. And make them go in Every Direction. up down left right diagonal b a select start. put them on the z axis. doc's voice echoing from somewhere, everywhere, all the time, always changing never found. deimos' absence being more prominent than his presence. and to add More Bullshit. deaths are recorded and bodies are always present. and that's how they find their way out. imagine coming face-to-face (or cross-to-cross, in this situation) with your own body. in the middle of a cave. a submerged cave. complete darkness. and the only thing you hear is water and a voice you can't find the source of.
for deimos. deimos, deimos, deimos. hoo boy. we've had Thoughts about this one for a while. i feel like deimos' hell would be traversing the skeletons of megastructures long abandoned and connected by weathered wiry vines that just barely hold their weight. to make it worse it's the absolute opposite of sanford's predicament. it's freezing fucking cold, those metal megastructure skeletons are brittle as all hell, and it's dry. Very. dry. and the air is thin and has less oxygen meaning deimos can't light a cigarette. they're thousands of feet up in the air. they also can't access the lower floors for a reason we haven't figured out yet. every noise would be amplified here too (which would likely fuck with deimos' sensory issues.)
something something madness being an allegory for living and thriving despite the world trying to literally Kill You to Death and Hell being a test of that perseverance and they get through that shit too. it's long and arduous and terrible and horrifying but by god they got through nevada they'll get through this too. anyways holy fucking Words what're Your Thoughts. who would you put in Situations in hell and what Situations would you think would force them to adapt/persevere? oc, canon madness character, whatever. put them in Situations [lighthearted]
YES oh yes yes you've come to the right place (person?) I adoooore The Other Place as a narrative device, as a place, as an idea if anything I so desperately want the series to explore MORE of it. Dedmos is the perfect example of The Other Place (I'll shorten it to TOP for the sake of brevity and so you don't have to see me write. The Other Place every other sentence) in how it functions, in what it represents, in what it achieves. It's a huge reason why I am insanely excited for Dedjeb (though I am doing my best not to spoil myself on it)!!
Let me put the rest of this under the cut because I'll ramble a bit ehehe.
It's fun because you can kinda distinguish TOP in a few different ways, depending on what kind of story you want to tell, or why they're there. For the examples you've given - which I like a lot! - I can imagine these as more like, environmental you could say? As opposed to Dedmos, which is a concentrated narrative which circulates him and him specifically (which I will touch on later), the imagery evokes a sort of "what if they were to be here for a period of time, especially alone". Especially when you start pushing deeper. I mean I think it's far too dangerous for the average grunt to be venturing into deeper layers but that's beside the point here.
I really like your attention to detail with the temperature and atmosphere here, I had never really considered the soundscape in particular before! I really like that, its a subtle alteration of reality but it makes a lot of sense, creating light and temp and air that doesn't seem possible, that goes against ones senses, to make you question where or even who you are (to a degree). Not to imply TOP has any degree of sentience, but perhaps it is simply mirroring something tangible in its fold, its infinite potential extrapolating from and crushing the very Essence of the person within it. If a story is to be woven from it, you'll get dragged kicking and screaming through it.
It's why Agents and the like don't last terribly long and are subject to decay with little environmental distinction (unless you got a lotta them in one place, I suppose), while individuals like Sanford and Deimos can withstand more, but TOP manifests what is essentially their personal Hell. I quite like the idea that Deimos dislikes these huge open floating spaces, feels exposed while he could fall off into nothingness at any moment. While for Sanford it's the claustrophobia of being unable to press on, dumped back in the place you just came from, your put-togetherness routinely tested by echoes of things you do and do not want. It also provides a fun contrast of showing San as dead when MC12 reiterates this idea that he is undying, I think that's really cool hehe
My favourite way to consider TOP is pretty similar to what you outlined at the end there, it is a means to show.. well, The Character! But in a very in-universe way, which again is why I cite Dedmos as a great example of this. You have posters like "we always thought you were a little on the small side", and scenes that draw parallels to events that happened in the past, I mean I could point to a million different elements here really.
TOP, these episodes, they are tests, they are examples of you, they are a microcosm to be witnessed. And the fun part is that this is abstract but also NOT abstract, its literal but its also NOT literal. External forces can interfere, ideas/concepts can be made manifest into literal threats, idkkk its just so fucking COOL!!!!!!!!!!! TOP is my favourite topic next to the AAHW and Arena Mode man (if we're not like. talking characters specifically of coures) its so fucking good
OH BOY whattt a question. I have two examples that leap out at me rn BUT I WILL KEEP IT SHORT I've already gone on quite a lot ehehe. I love situations!
For OC it's gotta be the obvious: it's Rory, my AAHW guy! Funnily I mentioned this already but yeah Agents don't last. Why? Cus they don't have a "real" S3LF to call their own, they are preprogrammed vessels, if anything in the eyes of 'fate' or even the Machine they're kind of more like a hivemind. Indistinguishable from their own masses. So they are consumed and paid little mind, lost to the Nowhere with nothing and no one to remember them by. So that already sets an interesting precedent for Rory, who was killed after a long series of events demonstrating his lack of worth for, well, being alive. Bad agent! He was in TOP for 3 years, and his own Hell was one shaped from trauma, lack of security, and hopelessness. I think it'd be an interesting depiction of AAHW dynamics and ideals, trying to explore an emotional core in the midst of fights, and just plain showing a guy helpless and hurt and abused - as he has always been. He died terribly over and over and over again, but TOP would not let Rory go even when his body frayed, so he is forced to question why he keeps going. Why he is still here. Why something as worthless as him is being given a second chance. And in realising this, Rory dawns on the answer: his life, his happiness, is worth fighting for! I don't imagine it would have the same triumphant turnaround as Dedmos does; it's more like a battle hard-won (as it always is with old scars like these), and all he has is himself left standing to pick up his own pieces.
If we're talking canon, personally I think there is insanely untapped potential in depicting Sheriff in TOP, ESPECIALLY if we are factoring in MPN (but I think Krinkels has said something in the past about not wanting to include outside things in the animations ... I think, I don't have a source on me). Well I mean MPN is canon so idfk, it doesn't have to be directly shown. Ultimately it depends on your view of Sheriff, why you think he bothered to claw out of TOP (on his own) (as far as I'm aware), but for me... it's gotta be a realisation at how little agency he's had in his life. How he has stood by and let things happen, how he has never taken charge, how he has spent a life running from how terrible and frightening this world is. Sheriff is practically a gold mine for showing how fascinating this world is, how justified one is to be afraid of it. It would pose a really interesting question: how would you show Sheriff fighting, if at all? How does he proceed, or escape? Because I think the fun part is if you DO... it ties in neatly with the idea of choice: that Sheriff is prepared to stand his ground, maybe because he has to... but because he, too, wants to live. He is absolutely suffocating in fear, and what he's doing is almost certainly nothing brave, fuelled perhaps solely by adrenaline. He HAS to survive, no matter what. He has to change, even just a little, to keep moving forward.
A light mention here but the landscape of TOP is one of my favourite settings to consider Zero from too, she has oodles of potential in that realm and I really REALLY wanna draw or write about it someday.
