#s165

[thewertsearch]

DAVESPRITE: he sees i got his sword and its busted and you can tell hes pissed […] DAVESPRITE: like hes always about to just fucking flip but still keeps it together DAVESPRITE: so he can tell me DAVESPRITE: he can repair it DAVESPRITE: and make the deringer with the forge lit DAVESPRITE: he says he can repair anything DAVESPRITE: but only one thing DAVESPRITE: and i had to choose

I guess the nature of your Choice depends on your Denizen’s specialty. Hephaestus, god of craftsmen, can fix anything, but it’s your responsibility to decide what needs fixing.

DAVESPRITE: so i said ok fix the sword JADESPRITE: as opposed to what?

Oh, Davesprite.

He could have fixed you, couldn't he? You're at death's door, and Hephaestus could have closed it, healing wounds I now fear are mortal. And you said no.

DAVESPRITE: meh DAVESPRITE: doesnt matter really DAVESPRITE: i just thought making the sword felt like the right thing

You said no, for the sake of a sword.

This poor child. He values himself so little, he's willing to choose his counterpart's Quest over his own life - reasoning, I guess, that his Quest is required to win the game, which is the only reason he’s here in the first place.

But... god damn it, Davesprite. You matter too.

DAVESPRITE: he needed lava from the forge to make it DAVESPRITE: which means echidna had to be awake […] DAVESPRITE: so jade must have done something right DAVESPRITE: to wake her up and get the forge going DAVESPRITE: dont know what she did though JADESPRITE: probably something amazing JADESPRITE: she is still working so hard to help everyone JADESPRITE: i guess i used to be that way… JADESPRITE: but ive completely forgotten how DAVESPRITE: are you sure

I don't think you have.

You may have been going through a rough spell since you died, but I, for one, have not forgotten how you died - and it was as a hero.

Deep down, behind the tears, the anxiety, and the hopelessness, you're still the girl who jumped into an exploding planet to save your brother's life.

That Jade is still alive within you, and you can find her again.

[thewertsearch]

DAVESPRITE: i was going to bring this sword to dave […] JADESPRITE: does that mean youre going to leave? DAVESPRITE: no DAVESPRITE: i was gonna say DAVESPRITE: im not in any shape for more adventuring DAVESPRITE: i figure this is probably my last stop JADESPRITE: :(

Your face is right to be frowny, Jade. Things couldn’t be much worse for the Sprites right now, and Davesprite in particular - but at the same time, where there's life, there's hope.

Jadesprite is still here. Davesprite, despite the direction his thoughts have turned, is still currently here. If you're still here, there's still time. The odds of a miracle are fairly low, in this situation - but they're not zero.

They're never zero.

DAVESPRITE: but maybe this is a way you can help JADESPRITE: you mean… JADESPRITE: that i should give him the sword? [...] DAVESPRITE: try doing your spacey thing DAVESPRITE: i mean not to sound condescending or anything but its got to be like borderline omnipotence pretty much

And sometimes, you can arrange your own miracles.

I think it's about time the Green Sun shone for us.

[thewertsearch]

AG: John, are you saying you had a nice friendly chat with this hideous, 8loodthirsty creature 8efore he killed you? EB: yes! EB: typheus may not be pretty to look at… EB: but he is not a bad guy at all!

And all of a sudden, Sburb just got a whole lot more interesting. There’s an entire layer of additional lore here, that we’ve only just begun to uncover.

Just what secrets do the Denizens hold? Hopefully Davesprite is about to clue us in.

DAVESPRITE: i busted into his palace DAVESPRITE: to finish the quest DAVESPRITE: i was expecting him to be asleep and was gonna figure out some way to wake him up DAVESPRITE: but like last time i saw him DAVESPRITE: he was already awake to greet me JADESPRITE: but i thought the denizens were supposed to be asleep? JADESPRITE: at least until you do the right things on your quest… DAVESPRITE: they are DAVESPRITE: as sprites were programmed to know things like that about the game DAVESPRITE: but i guess not everything

Apparently, there are game mechanics that even Sprites aren’t privy to.

If I had to guess, I’d say that Sprites are only told how Sburb sessions are supposed to work. The game doesn’t intend for Denizens to be encountered early, so the ramifications of doing so aren’t part of the standard Sprite knowledge base.

DAVESPRITE: it seems like if you try to go fight them too soon DAVESPRITE: you find them awake and theyre like DAVESPRITE: what the fuck are you doing here already DAVESPRITE: which is what happened last time i saw him DAVESPRITE: before i became a sprite DAVESPRITE: and i stupidly tried to fight him which was a bad idea because hes hella strong DAVESPRITE: and the whole time he was raving about shit DAVESPRITE: about a stolen sword and missing forge DAVESPRITE: but i wasnt really listening DAVESPRITE: if i had i might have understood

Denizens, however, do seem to know when Sburb has gone wrong. Maybe, in addition to being bosses, they’re also troubleshooters, charged with instructing the Players in how to fix broken sessions.

In that case, maybe there was a method to Hephaestus’s madness after all. He might simply have been trying to tell Dave what needed to be fixed, in order to revive the session.

[thewertsearch]

I love that Sprites just have this power natively. My headcanon is that when they use it, the words physically appear in the air above them.

JADESPRITE: what did you choose? DAVESPRITE: i guess i made an unwitting choice DAVESPRITE: by deciding to flee

When John was learning about The Choice in LOWAS, I wondered what it would mean to make a real choice in the deterministic world of Paradox Space, and speculated that a Denizen’s Choice might allow you to violate this determinism. After all, if the future really is set in stone, then none of your choices actually matter, even when they're underlined.

If that's true, then perhaps Hephaestus could have helped Future Dave repair his timeline - but instead, he fled, and the Horrorterrors helped him replace it.

JADESPRITE: what happened when you saw him this time? DAVESPRITE: like i said he was awake again DAVESPRITE: but this time i wasnt in any condition to fight DAVESPRITE: so i didnt DAVESPRITE: and thats what i didnt get DAVESPRITE: hes this terrible angry monstrous guy but theres no need to fight him

It sounds like it’s always possible to conquer your Denizen without resorting to combat. This flies in the face of what John's Consorts told him, as they insisted that Typheus must be slain.

There is a little wiggle room there, I guess. It's certainly possible to slay a monster without actually fighting it - for example, by mounting some sort of surprise attack, and catching it unawares. I doubt that's what Davesprite actually means, though.

Besides, an argument could be made that you can't catch a Denizen unawares. It sure didn't work for John.

DAVESPRITE: so he looked me up and down all hard DAVESPRITE: saw the broken sword DAVESPRITE: and like before gave me the choice […] JADESPRITE: so it was the same choice? DAVESPRITE: no

DAVESPRITE: it was different DAVESPRITE: i think it must be always different DAVESPRITE: depending on the circumstances DAVESPRITE: i dont know what the choice is when you face him the way youre supposed to

Or if it’s even necessary. It sounds like the trolls completely ignored the Choice mechanic, but they were still able to win their game...

...for a given value of 'winning', I suppose.

Maybe you do need to make some Choices to win your game, then. Hephaestus seems to have been trying to help Future Dave, so maybe some of the trolls could have used their Choices to neutralize the threat of Perfect Jack before it was able to manifest.

[thewertsearch]

JADESPRITE: whats happening? DAVESPRITE: reckoning […] DAVESPRITE: the battlefield will probably be wiped out soon JADESPRITE: can we do something to stop it? DAVESPRITE: would there be a point

And I thought Aradia was defeatist.

This is incredibly sad to read. I remember how hyped I was when Davesprite first joined the team - I thought we'd gained a fifth Player, and that Dave had found a brother he could actually bond with.

In the end, though, Future Dave proved too traumatized to really bond with his co-Players. He drifted around LOHAC for a while, and then just floated about the Medium in what was probably a depressive fugue state.

Given time, he might be able to heal from what his timeline did to him - but right now, I'm getting increasingly worried that he doesn't have that time.

JADESPRITE: i felt like i was drawn to come here when i wasnt sure where to go DAVESPRITE: yeah me too

I really don’t like the implications of that.

Is this how the game garbage-collects used Sprites, then? Once the Reckoning is coming to an end, are they simply summoned to the Battlefield, to go down with their session?

Very cool, Sburb! What a generous reward your Sprites earn, for dutifully serving their Players to the end!

JADESPRITE: the meteors JADESPRITE: and all the fire… JADESPRITE: it reminds me of when i died JADESPRITE: and i was trying to wake john up JADESPRITE: i was scared then too JADESPRITE: but i didnt let the fear stop me from trying to save him DAVESPRITE: what would you want to do DAVESPRITE: if you werent scared

Jadesprite's a true-blue god, and I still don't think we've scratched the surface of what First Guardians can really do. As soon as she stops being afraid, everyone else should be a little afraid of her.

[thewertsearch]

AG: This denizen does not look asleep to me. […] EB: he was wide awake when i found him. i practically crapped my pants!

When you think about it, why would he be asleep?

This Typheus has no reason to wait for John’s challenge, because he’s fully aware that this John will never challenge him. Therefore, he decided to skip the theatrics, and cut to the chase.

EB: what was your denizen like? AG: Her name was Cetus. AG: She was this awful sea monster. Her lair was deep underground amidst a 8unch of shipwrecks. She was quite vicious and territorial. I knew I had to kill her quickly to release the hoard, 8efore she had the chance to do anything tricky. […] EB: did she talk to you? AG: Oh, of course. She was 8a88ling in riddles through most of the fight. I wasn't paying much attention though. I mean, what creature DOESN'T speak in 8oring riddles in this game? EB: so, is that what you all did? EB: kill your denizens as fast as possible, without listening to them? AG: Yeah, pretty much. We were all pretty good players, remem8er? EB: yes, so i've heard.

Well, you were certainly good at the combat aspect of the game - so good, in fact, that you didn't need to engage with any of its other mechanics. The trolls, due to their upbringing, only saw Sgrub as something to defeat, and never took the time to listen to what it had to say.

Denizens are clearly incredible fonts of knowledge, as they're some of the only NPCs gifted with the knowledge of Paradox Space’s wider picture. For all we know, the Denizens could have been trying to warn the Alternians about Jack, or even threats as yet unseen.

Just how much did the trolls miss, by ignoring their counsel?

AG: Ok, I can't exactly speak for everyone. There was a lot going on, and I don't know how some people went a8out 8eating their denizens. AG: For instance, I'm not sure how our hero of 8reath did it. May8e the monster just released the hoard for him out of pity????????

Tavros didn't seem to have a particularly enlightened or nuanced view of Sburb’s mysteries, so I doubt he chatted much with his Denizen.

That said, I do see Vriska’s point. If we assume that all the trolls did defeat their Denizens – which is probably a requirement to beat the game – then how did Tavros pull it off? He’s not exactly a gifted fighter, and I highly doubt a Denizen qualifies as an ‘animal’ to control. I know Bec does, but I believe that's because he still has the mind of a dog. The Denizens are clearly sentient.

I guess there’s no reason all Denizen 'fights' need to be resolved through single combat. Perhaps Tavros completed his quest by playing a kickass game of Fiduspawn.

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