Disconnected Ask Blog

Welcome to the official ask blog for my (@funkytrashsuperstructure) Disconnected AU!

I recommend that you read the accompanying fic first, as it provides some context for the story up to this point. This blog will be "serialized", meaning that the story will continue to play out as time goes on. Updates to the fic on AO3 will also continue, though for a time I will probably be doing some things with the focus, giving some unintroduced characters some time to shine.

Asks are: Open!

The Current Story:

Looks to the Moon is living with a group of scavengers led by the chieftain Dark Spines Along Back. Artificer (known as Firemaker by the scavengers) is also there, having pushed their beef to the side after an altercation with Spines. The messengers that brought her back to life, Rivulet (aka Ruffles), Hunter (aka Spitfire), and Spearmaster have just left for Five Pebbles' can to get life-saving medicine for Spitfire and get Spearmaster's chest pearl removed.

Meanwhile, at the base of a spire in the nearby expanse, Gourmand's colony has to contend with Renegade*, a highly stubborn and dangerous god-machine of legend who harnesses electricity as a lethal weapon. She had gotten into a scrap with scouts of the colony which left a handful of slugcats and herself injured. Despite the altercation, Gourmand allows her to stay as long as she needs to in order to recover, pushing her gently to go to Looks to the Moon's domain. The two god-machines seem like they can help each other, after all...

TL;DR: Moon lives with scavengers, Renegade with slugcats temporarily

*Renegade is Sliver of Straw btw, just to be clear.

Rules:

Keep it PG-13, no NSFW

You may send asks as pretty much anyone (creatures, iterators, oc's, canon characters from an au, etc), or no character at all. However, I have the discretion to consider an ask "non-canon", having no impact on the wider story.

I also have discretion to not answer an ask for any reason, or delay answering an ask until the time is right.

If a mode of questioning/character is not specified, you may be delegated to the Anon Overseer (a strange tan overseer that supposedly belongs to Renegade)

Open Characters, Pronouns, and Preferred Question Source (all characters can receive questions from the Anon Overseer)

Looks to the Moon (She/Her): Iterators, Scavengers

Artificer (They/Them): Scavengers

Dark Spines Along Back (It/Its): Scavengers

Moon Upon Lone Shore (She/It): Scavengers

Myself, Angst Machine (They/Them): OOC lore questions >:)c

References:

(WIP)

Masterlists:

(none lol)

If Moon had a porl for every time she was the victim of a rarefaction cell implosion, she would have two porls

"I can understand the sentiment, don't get me wrong. Just please be kind to those who have yet to abandon their purpose."

*slaps roof of fic* this bad boy can fit so many languages

TL;DR (because this got long fast): Ancient is spoken and universal to all iterators. Suns and Spearmaster's language is a modified, slow hand and face signs. Scavenger language is hand signs. Slugcat language is full-body signs. The reason why the feral creatures sign rather than speak is a combination of not having articulate vocal chops and the simple fact that being quiet is advantageous in the wild.

(OOC) Ah! My bad. I don't know if I've posted the discord link here before, but here it is!

Not that the asks there are answered any more than here haha. I'll put this link into the pinned post as well.

(OOC Answer)

Disconnecting a puppet from a can is a very undesirable condition to be in. The puppet (in my headcanon) is the epicenter of control for an iterator, so its absence would be a major detriment. Not to mention that the effort required to disconnect under normal circumstances would be immense, requiring breaking taboos in order to even attempt it on your own.

Disconnection from the can would usually only be desirable if the rest of the can was in a dying or irrecoverable state. But at that point it would require either blind luck and/or the great charity of an iterator's purposed organisms in order to recover it.

Moon's disconnection is, to put it simply, a fluke. In this AU, the mechanical arm and umbilical got hit in *just* the right way to have them both sever from the can while leaving her puppet alive.

All this to say; not many iterators will attempt it. Those who will probably weren't working that hard on the Great Problem anyways. Some may dedicate resources to alternatives to full disconnection; for instance, creating avatars that they can control, or generating simulations and getting lost within their mind.

(Being Answered OOC)

I want to begin by saying that the answer to this question... doesn't matter, really, in the grand scheme of this fic. Whether there are other celestial bodies beyond the moon and stars in Rain World will not matter here, and if it does somehow come up in the fic I'll answer this question as I go.

However, I am going to take this chance to do some speculation(TM) about what the universe of Rain World may look like.

Basically, I think that this could be interpreted in a few ways;

Rain World is a planet, like any other. Most planets have void seas.

Rain World is a planet. The void sea is unique to Rain World.

Rain World is the center of the universe. The stars and moon are just plastered in the sky, never moving.

Rain World is, in one form or another, a starting point. Ascending brings those souls worthy into a new world.

Rain World is a simulation.

I like interpretations of Rain World taking place in a sort of "flat earth" scenario. Though interpretations of Rain World being a planet (unique or not) are also cool. Don't really like simulation stuff, though, as ultimately it is meaningless (to me). If the world we lived in ended up being a simulation, I wouldn't let it impact my life so much. Like, what am I gonna do about it?

BSM: It's one thing to watch their daily lives... it's another to be a part of them. BSM: Let's see... for instance, Crack of Lightning. She has gone through her elite training and rites, yet she has found her passion to be in tailoring. BSM: I've been trying to learn from her, though the process has had some unforeseen complications. I... don't have a lot of memory storage at the moment. And though I have intermittent access to my memory arrays, writing to them is far more resource intensive than reading from them. Pearls are even worse for this... BSM: So, I have to pick and choose what information to retain, and what I will need to overwrite. BSM: But that isn't what you asked about, is it? Sorry, yes... Lightning. She's rough around the edges, but doesn't mind me watching her work. She's been teaching me how to sew, and suggesting I practice by repairing my cloak a bit. Which... I agree, though I am worried I might just make it worse. BSM: I'd... rather keep my cloak in one piece... or two pieces, considering a part has already been torn off to cover my broken eye. BSM: Then there's Artificer, or Firemaker, as the scavengers call them. I am... familiar with their story. A toll passing gone wrong, two pups lost, and the toll ultimately deciding to save Artificer's life. Whether it was an act of mercy or a punishment to prevent them from cycling back, I cannot say. The scavengers who made that decision are long dead by their hands. BSM: I cannot condone the acts of violence they enacted on the scavenger population. But I can somewhat relate to the irrationality and confusion that would come with losing someone close to you, even if I never had a relationship as close as that of a mother and their children. BSM: Regardless, they have been helping me greatly with mobility in the outside world. They've been carrying me to the arrays every few cycles so I can communicate with the others, like I am doing here. I think they prefer it to the scavenger den. I can feel the tension in their body when they're there, even as they sleep. Maybe they're concerned about my safety, or about the scavengers turning on them, or them turning on the scavengers... but... BSM: ... BSM: Moon Upon Lone Shore is not my child, but she is probably the closest I can get, given what I am. I'm her... aunt, to put it in their terms. A figure who has a significant involvement in her life. Which... I can't help but be proud of. BSM: It means a lot to me that I can have a positive, tangible impact on their lives, rather than one that is abstracted by Spines. No offense to it, of course, but I have found that I like the direct interactions I've had with... everyone, really. BSM: I especially appreciate how open most of them are. They don't hide their true feelings behind flowery language and pleasantries... not that they aren't kind. They're just more... blunt. Direct. Something which I have grown to appreciate, especially as I don't have as much energy to dedicate to decoding and interpreting their words. BSM: It's... strange, isn't it? How I have grown attached to these creatures that I have known for less than a percent of my lifetime, while... BSM: Never mind that. I shouldn't speak ill of those who have transcended. They were our parents, after all.

BSM: ... BSM: Maybe I should take a cue from the scavengers in this regard.

Looks to the SOUP!

OOC under cut