Heart⁺¹ Attack
(we come for the) World Down Under(neath) - Printable Version

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RE: (we come for the) World Down Under(neath) - Coldsaturn - 10-10-2025

"degree of fine/delicate control"
I don't think this is a spoiler since we're already talking about this, but in his spring card he snapped his fingers and changed the color of the flower crown MC had made him. That's how precise his energy manipulation is.
Hopefully we'll get to see more of his power in the third myth. We've already received a plot twist with his latest promise card, since we didn't know his Aether core worked like that, maybe we'll learn when he even got the thing stuck in his eye. I don't believe he was "born like that" for some reason.

RE: (we come for the) World Down Under(neath) - ChicletPrime - 10-10-2025

Okay, I need you to envision this with me.

Perspective at about kneeling height, putting the tableau just a tad above eyeline.

Sylus, sprawled loosely on some sort of baroque or fusion rococo inspired chair. Should give 'throne' vibe without actually being one. He's dressed in something like a nehru or jodhpuri jacket but * heavily * brocaded. under the jacket, probably something a little clean and simple, a shirt gaping at the throat, his long legs stretched out. He looks lazy and satisfied.

On his right (viewer's left), one of the twins (lets say Kieran) is half perched, half leaning on the arm of the chair. Sylus may have his hand on his hip, hidden from view. Kieran is wearing a similar kind of jacket to Sylus' but completely clean or very little embroidery over most of it. He's wearing a real crow mask though, and I mean like a proper Venetian mask with an elaborate set of feathers around the mask framing the sharp cutting line of the beak and eyes. The feathers are layered down over his shoulders and chest in a cascade of black and iridescence, almost like a short cloak. His face covered by the mask is looking down and slightly towards the viewer.

The second twin (Luke) is sitting at Sylus' feet with his back against the chair leg, leaning into Sylus' outstretched leg with his head tilted. Same exact gear as his brother. He's playing with a knife in his hands. Kieran probably also has one but its much less obvious, hopefully only noticed if you check once you see Luke.

My favorite color scheme is everybody in whites and creams, sort of a heavenly ambiance. There may be jewelry that mimics blood spatter, like a hanging brooch or a tassel on the knife/knives done in rubies.

RE: (we come for the) World Down Under(neath) - Coldsaturn - 10-19-2025

I wish I could draw!!!
I love the white/cream + ruby blood combo, especially considering how Sylus' colors are always blacks and reds. The real Venetian mask with feathers is such a perfect setup in case of battle and explosions because the feathers can catch on fire and leave only the crow mask behind, making it much more threatening.

(we're gonna have a WU update tomorrow, with 5 more texts added - one per LI! Prepare for me screaming in spoiler)

RE: (we come for the) World Down Under(neath) - ChicletPrime - 10-19-2025

i saw! well, i READ. i scrolled through the updates and saw a bunch of nice things, including some new stuff into the Chocolate Shop which is always welcome and, count them, five new entries into World Underneath. gawd, i am slow. i will spend at least some of today at least reading WU even if I don't comment on it.

(i will comment on the good bits, who am i kidding)

RE: (we come for the) World Down Under(neath) - Coldsaturn - 10-20-2025

If it helps in any way, unless we get a new main story update, these new WU texts aren't urgent, so you can keep your preferred schedule!

RE: (we come for the) World Down Under(neath) - ChicletPrime - 10-22-2025

WU 11 Frontline Hunter
fluff about the Hunters and XavMC as seen from the outside
  • nice to see a little 'inside the chaos' in the Hunter's Assoc Dispatch Centre.
  • ooookay? we have a unknown good samaritan stepping in before the actual Hunters can arrive.
  • hah! okay, so the victims were robbers, who ended up nearly being robbed of their lives by a wandering Wanderer. well, good thing Miss Samaritan was there, on her way to get her gun checked. if i lived in Linkon, i'd carry a gun around too. oh, she was the attempted robb-ee. retired Hunter, ID 10041. so... 10,000 Hunters whenever she started? "old lady with groceries" so i would guess there's even more of them now. hang on! what is my ID number?
  • /dives back into Baby's First Screenshots. bah, internally inconsistent lore. my ID number is 003817.
  • random lore note: "Type A" Wanderer = "bestial class"
  • So... retired Hunters get to keep their duty guns? REALLY?
  • Wanderer activity is tied to a "Deepspace Tunnel anomaly" or "protocore malfunction". huh? I get if the Tunnel is displaying a pile more energy than usual, there's more Wanderer incursions but "protocore malfunction"? what does THAT mean.
  • commentary that Alpha team (that's my team!) is out in the field a lot and that they have "grueling practical assessments". aw yeah, best of the best bay-be. i'm a military seal (mine's made of snow and never melts).
  • introduction "Orson" who smuggles protocores (hi N109 reference!) who's called dispatch to.. get arrested. oh. dude goes straight to the source now and goes for the Wanderers directly. however he's grifting now with selling things that vaguely look like protocores to the... gullible, i guess. no way that rock candy ACTUALLY looks like a core. unless he sticks an LED light in it or something. "A crime syndicate involved in Protocore smuggling has marked him as a target." heheheh. i wonder who THAT is.
  • Another mention of protocores weapons (/vague flashback to the weapon in the hands of the drowned man/skeleton in one of Rafayel's segments that the researchers found)
  • nice! another confirmation that the UNICORNS team is not to be trifled with. a rescue mission needing five regular Hunters. only need two! (if those two are reckless and fear no evil).
  • hey, Dispatcher Colin has never even met any of them. i guess i've underestimated just how big the Hunter's Association actually is, as we only ever see, like, one floor depicted in the official background.
  • "One rumor claims a UNICORNS Hunter once blew up an entire subway station just to take down a Wanderer."  that was Xavier. i had nothing to do with it. mostly.
  • "Xavier! Stop eating the evidence!"  oh god. muahahahaahah! PERFECTION.
  • alright, after work and there's another Wanderer attack near the grocery store Colin's just shopped at.  this one is specifically noted to have "jagged black crystals".  man, i hope that gets explained to my satisfaction at some unknown time in the future.
  • go go gadget Colin! saving the little girls, one frantic grab and roll at a time.
  • We Have Arrived. i am noted to be clear and authoritative. i also appear to be ordering Xavier around. as i should be.
  • Xavier is a 'glowing blur'. I LOVE HIM SO MUCH. (all of my boyfriends are exceptional)
  • " The two Hunters kill the Wanderer before it can deploy its Protofield."  so its a CONSCIOUS choice on the part of the Wanderer? not  something that just happens?

okay, really enjoyed that outside perspective. even the initiated are properly in awe of what we can do.

-------------------

WU 12 Fractal Library Q&A
lore heavy / pre Death&Rebirth lore / pre God of Annihilation lore
  • just.. woah. okay.
  • this is neat. random guy pulled off the street basically because the Library needed someone to answer the phone. bet nobody else saw/sees the damn thing.
  • our narrator wants to rename it to 10-33 Library -- isn't that the Planck Length? /checks  bingo! i win. probably. its more more like 10-35 but fucking close enough.
  • the Singularity Library, awwww
  • where the fuck in Zayne, anyways? this guy has never met the Library's "owner".
  • at least our guy gets paid. ... how does this guy get paid? does somebody deposit gold ingots at his bank using the overnight slot or something? (i kid. sort of. Angru was a computer, I'm sure the Library deals in translated currencies just fine)
  • oh. Zayne hasn't arrived here yet, as Doctor Zayne. our administrator is just filling in, in this reality.
  • oh WOW. that's... brutal. a world where everyone fell prey to the virus, caused by (the search for?)"immortality" turning everyone into energy, doomed to fall with their planet. everyone dead or stripped of humanity, save one man. who took it upon himself kill anything remaining of his people and then guard their remains until absolutely nothing remained. "a prisoner of time, the embodiment of loneliness, forever the last person."  King of Dark Night?! (or even Zayne himself, in another iteration, but honestly Xavier's new myth seems a perfect fit for this)
  • "Could they have been just experimental playgrounds for some god's whim."  YES. PROBABLY.
  • "A lot of things here aren't what you'd call books, but let's call them 'books' for the sake of convenience. When you want to read them, they'll take on a form that's easy for you to understand. Books are the ideal medium."  do they... do some of the stories look like protocores in the Library?! a contained world, operating under the laws set by the creator of them, each one a variation on a theme yet each one unique?
  • are Wanderers a manifestation of alternate realities wandering around, bringing their worlds them? is the Library leaking stories?!

-------------------

WU 13 High & Low Culture
fluff about Thomas (RafMC adjacent)
  • no notes, this is just cute. poor Rafayel, just completely forgetting he's got a body that needs care and attention while he's busy painting.
  • Thomas wears "a jingling metal necklace". good to know i suppose!
  • Who's Solana, in reference to Thomas? oh, wife. wait. Thomas is married? good for him!
  • oooh, and a father to a daughter! awww


RE: (we come for the) World Down Under(neath) - Coldsaturn - 10-25-2025

- Wanderer activity is tied to a "Deepspace Tunnel anomaly" or "protocore malfunction"
IMO it's because protocores can fuck up with metaflux, which in turn will attract wonderers. And that's a nonsensical sentence I wouldn't have been able to type a few months ago.

- so its a CONSCIOUS choice on the part of the Wanderer? not something that just happens?
Exactly! You'll learn more in the WU dedicated to protofields specifically.

- is the Library leaking stories?!
That would be so cool, tbh. And the entire concept of the Library is very convenient to infold because they've bought themselves an infinite number of stories they can tell. If this main timeline ever reaches a point where the writers go "we don't know where the fuck to go from here" they can just nuke the whole thing and move everyone and everything in another timeline/universe.

Also, the direct reference to GoA is in the story about that world where everyone is associated to a number and a perfect child is born in there. It's the world where MC finds Zayne at the end!

- Thomas has a whole family and I'm so happy for him <3 The wife going undercover online to hype him up <3
Also so mundane and wholesome seeing Raf and MC moving as a unit, bringing a bday gift to Thomas and then walking off to god knows where.

RE: (we come for the) World Down Under(neath) - ChicletPrime - 10-28-2025

WU 14 Elysium
Flashback to how Elysium came to be / pre Death&Rebirth lore
  • I am not a fan when the stories reference people by initial. I can't keep track of actual names, let along "Mr. P". Mr. J was messing around in Kahli, I think the Academy researchers were dealing with a Mr. R?
  • Okay, Mr P is rich (diamond studded watch) and obviously part of the N109 shenanigans.
  • oh. the watch is... stolen? from the auction at the Solon Hotel, to boot.
  • so our P-guy switches the watch for the.. frog plushie on display at the antique store? intriguing.
  • code word time! "Connoisseur's Menu"
  • /sifts through all the stuff on the menu
  • okay, "four distinct powers in the N109. They don't complement each other, they're just equally expensive." hah!
  • Ah, so Mr P is likely this "Phantom Thief Pea".
  • 2036 was the gang war 'that engulfed the N109'. so two years after the Catastrophe - when Sylus arrived?
  • "Ginevra... bar's bouncer... short orange-red hair."  is this some sort of hidden homage to Harry Potter?
  • ho ho. so Aislinn takes up with Ginevra and grows up learning to fight and run a bar. she overhears a conversation between a scarred man and Ginevra about finding "missing Evolver", "test subject" "base of operations"
  • Okay, so the scarred man is Dexter, they are trying to return children back to their parents (hello, EVER!) and 'Ginevra' has a Special Task Force ID card.
  • 7. Protocore Trading - Strawberry Disaster Special - present day again
  • the N109 gang war started over a 'protocore 'map'. which was lost in the ensuing chaos.
  • random clue? Aislinn wears a silver wildflower earring. whatever that means. memorial for the dead? Dexter never comes back.
  • so this mysterious map is a.. treasure map to a 'priceless' protocore? hidden somewhere in the N109. so, the one that we eventually get, i guess? Creatio? They can't possibly be talking about Sylus'.
  • speak of the devil. "Someone says Sylus has starting eating people."
  • wow. okay. i get that desire is a bottomless put, but if he keeps snacking between meals, he's gonna spoil his dinner.
  • yeah. the original gang war in 2036 was ended when Sylus emerged on top after months of fighting. the bar was untouched throughout the whole thing until at the end Mephisto delivers a message "The deal is done. I'll be taking the map." oh! so Ginevra had the map everyone was fighting over and she made a deal with Sylus to protect the bar (and Aislinn) in exchange for it.
  • hah! the last item on the Connoisseur's Menu can only be ordered by one specific person, a 'certain lady'. bet that's me! Sweet Evil Trap. and its side dish... Sylus himself.
  • the Elysium bar closes at 3am. heck, i would have thought it a 24/7 operation.
  • the frog plushie (sans bomb) is still on a table (thanks Mr P!)
  • confusion. "someone traded me a map for what's in this gift box... maybe I'll try the dish you created just for me next time."
  • inside the money that child Aislinn gave Ginevra to learn how to fight. so Ginevra gave up the fancy protocore map to Sylus who by infererence is this Phantom Thief Pea as well, not to protect Elysium specifically but to protect Aislinn (??). i am not sure i'm reading this right, but that's the gist I'm getting.

WU 15 Sketches Vol.13
Backstory about Liam (Caleb's adjacent)
  • okay, so a chunk of actual land (well, an island) was so rich in magnetic ore that it 'rotated over the planet's Protofield... [which] ground the surrounding lakes into a perfect circle like an ice ring. That's also why is could float skyward when the Deepspace Tunnel's appearance altered the magnetic field and gravity vortex."
  • /stares into the sky for a bit, absorbing that
  • i just assumed that Skyhaven was built somehow, not *ascended*. but props to a general suspicion that Caleb is very linked to the Tunnel somehow if there's a 'gravity vortex' involved. apparently they are now stabilized in the air using protocore technology, courtesy of EVER (i already knew that somewhere)
  • "What about those suffering from Protcore Syndrome? They're no different from past radiation victims." ... "Do you think people can trusted? Nuclear reactions weren't originally developed for power generation."
  • "Do you truly believe our world has become a better place?"
  • these are all fantastic insights and a tough last question.
  • "Your research in protocore energy helped stabilize the floating islands... while preventing the risks of a stabilising protofield."  huh. okay, even.
  • ohhh. this is Liam's wife. well, shit, as they say. Liam barely remembers them, let alone has any feelings intact.
  • "I'm working on anew book, Colonel Caleb. You might be interested—it's called 'Heartless.'"  nice. when asked why she named her latest book with that title, 'because heartless rhymes with coreless.'

WU 16 Utopian Roamer
lore about protofields
  • this is just after the Catastrophe.
  • wow, okay. protofields really are manifesting different worlds, pulling some of *there* into *here*.
  • another mention of "gravity vortex"
  • apparently Wanderers normally escape before death through "rifts" before reappearing again, but this researcher ended up going through one along with the Wanderer, ending up in this new place. still breathable air, apparently and Evol is unaffected. this time, the Wanderer dissipated into particles when defeated instead of escaping again as normal. When it died, the rift dumped the researcher back into their original world.
  • okay, so the more powerful the Wanderer, the bigger the protofield it can deploy around it when in an alternate world (ours), which maps to its original world and thereby can escape attack and return to safety?? Air is breathable, water is drinkable, food is edible.
  • "Professor Shaylin reached the following conclusion in her subsequent research report: "Wanderers in reality escape to an alternate space when near defeat. Pursuers can follow through these rifts to eliminate them permanently. As the first discoverer, Professor Shaylin terms this alternate space "Protofield.""
  • the next data entry has the year as 203*, so i guess an unknown time has passed
  • and its messed up because Shaylin when ... back to the Catastrophe?
  • they've found a protofield that has yet to collapse even with its Wanderer defeated - a whole day so far. its a particlarly large space and has ruins in it, suggesting civilization.
  • those "killed" by Wanderers might instead just be trapped in protofields.
  • oh dear, our researcher is starting to hallucinate, having been living in this protofield for a month.
  • "All of existence dwelled within that tiny rift, like glimpsing an ocean within a single droplet of water."
  • the Library HAS to be involved with this, like some sort of traversal point? since all worlds connect to it and through it?


RE: (we come for the) World Down Under(neath) - Coldsaturn - 11-01-2025

- "/sifts through all the stuff on the menu"
"I'm waiting for you"
Sweet Evil Trap is particularly important but you've already guessed it. Becomes even more on the nose after reading Sylus' dragon myth.

- "confusion. "someone traded me a map for what's in this gift box... maybe I'll try the dish you created just for me next time."
Aislinn didn't know how Ginevra got the protocore map in the first place, and at the end Mr. P reveals that in the past he traded the map (that he had probably stolen?) for the gift box that he then returned to Aislinn. Now, the interesting part is that if that's exactly the gift box from the deal all those years back, it means that P accepted to trade the protocore map for the money Aislinn had originally tried to give Ginevra. Money that was supposed to buy her protection. So why is P so incredibly invested in Aislinn's wellbeing, almost to a fatherly degree?

- 'because heartless rhymes with coreless.'
The first time I read that I spiraled because what are all these links between hearts and protocores like they're the very same thing?

- "the Library HAS to be involved with this, like some sort of traversal point?"
That, or the library is a similar concept but blown to enormous proportions. Protofields are single places/universes, whereas the library works above all timelines and universes. But that last protofield from the text, so tiny and so absurdly big inside is a mystery we still need to solve.

RE: (we come for the) World Down Under(neath) - ChicletPrime - 11-13-2025

i'm working my way through the "last" of the WU texts and:

-- what if our mysterious sixth Love Interest is.. Mephisto? :P i mean, in one of these stories, Mephisto is moving through the AI network between Wontony and the "No. 1" consciousness, leaving deliberate traces apparently as if he wants to be noticed, which means Sylus wants him to be noticed. So what if the whole AI thing would like an actual body at some point in order to affect reality more? Only Mephisto rides along and takes over? We could have an angry bird boyfriend to round out our menagerie!