S N A I L S.

INKTOBER DAY #1: Favorite Magic Food Soul

【Food Fantasy】 九龍レトロ (Kowloon Retro)

Song: トーマ (Tohma) Original: sm18821036 Lyrics Translation

That makes a lot of sense, though there’s still a giant war going on, you know? I understand the populace not caring that much about it but the single largest research institute should really care… and they could totally commercialize a lot of stuff?? There are merchants who should be providing their products to people, especially because airships exist. idk maybe I’m just expecting too much LMAO

(Lotsa FF spoilers) I believe magic is (perhaps obviously) the active/in-use form of spirit energy. Naturally, whenever Food Souls use their powers and attack, they consume spirit energy, and I assume you could call their powers “magic” as well. It would fit into the common “elves are in tune with nature and are better at magic than humans” trope and of course spirits would be able to use spiritual energy better than humans as well. You could perhaps consider spirit energy as equivalent to mana in other media… tl;dr: spirit energy is the raw material and magic is the result after some sort of conversion, via magic tool, spell, Food Soul ability, or what have you.

Spirit energy for humans... is confusing. Is it like Food Souls, where spirit energy = life force? Raindrop Cake ended up killing his MA by using his MA’s “life force” to power his attacks, so either spirit energy is not the same as life force and Food Souls are able to access both through the contract link, or they are the same thing and they just aren’t able to use magic, aka convert that internal spirit energy/life force into magic... ??? ...Well, anyway...

 From what I got out of Tortoise Jelly’s backstory, I think the “magic” referred in there was talking about the ability to summon Food Souls? Humans of course have varying levels of inherent magic within them, since some are able to summon and some are not. Also, Torto mentioned about the child he was looking after having “an abundance of magic within her body” so I assume Food Souls are able to sense “magic”/spirit energy levels within individuals (Yuxiang was able to tell Peking Duck had an immense amount of spirit energy I believe). The main issue in his backstory that the child was facing was her inability to summon a Food Soul of her own despite possessing a large amount of “magic”; it doesn’t really mention any other kind of magic which a human can wield. His MA was “on the front lines” but that doesn’t mean she was fighting directly; I imagine she was simply accompanying her Food Souls and was staying on the front lines with them (maybe as a strategist/directing the combat?). But who knows? It’s not like they were specific about it.

You know, you’d think if humans were able to make amazing magic tools and have magic which is able to fight against Fallen Angels, they’d research how to do that instead of making food-based super soldiers right? C’mon Nevras Academy!! Please be more useful against the war threatening all of Tierra!! LMAO... 

Is this all canon stuff????? 8O I knew about Rice but not about much else–

Speaking of Rice, MA summons her first storyline-wise… as an empty shell. They… summon an empty shell? Hmm…… Well, besides that… besides the whole combat ability thing, what’s the difference between empty shells and Food Souls that are born for the first time? My impression is that babby Food Souls are like empty AI who absorb inputs mostly from their MAs and their personalities are essentially shaped by their experiences with their first MAs (of course with individual instinctive differences) much like human babies, except you know, fully grown and able to smash Fallen. 

My point is, are empty shells closer to severe trauma victims, or to new Food Souls? Rice starts developing her own personality, if not independent thoughts, quite quickly in my opinion, so to be honest I was just sort of assuming this more similar to her losing her memory after being reborn… Though admittedly part of that may have been from me assuming the trope of “start the game as a super high level savior of the world -> today’s time you’re the reincarnation of that hero but you don’t remember” (or similar variations).

Besides that… The conditions you gave for becoming an empty shell seem a bit odd to me, because well… looking at most of the Food Soul backstories, basically everyone suffered at least some sort of psychological shock, with notable contestants being Boston Lobster, Peking Duck, Raindrop Cake, B-52, (Pizza?) and probably more that I haven’t read yet… and obviously, the most overtly affected one is Raindrop Cake, which offers many questions. 

Why aren’t these Food Souls also empty shells? What is it about them that caused them to retain both their powers and their ego? Is there an innate difference between some Food Souls to others that allows some to resist becoming empty shells easier? Does it depend on their connections or experiences with their Master Attendants? Is it possible to have empty shells recover to an extent, past regaining personality? If you pump enough spirit energy into an empty shell, will they become a regular Food Soul again?

(raindrop cake backstory spoilers) Using Raindrop Cake as an example, clearly he suffered a severe psychological trauma, and is still deeply suffering from their effects. Was he an empty shell for the long period of time he sat alone in his Master’s house? Maybe… but you’d think then that he wouldn’t be a UR soul at least, right? Rice may be an exception, but she also lost her memory as well– Raindrop Cake clearly didn’t lose his memory, and though this is up for debate, I don’t think he lost his power either. His disability seems like it’s tied more strongly to his mental trauma rather than physical trauma after all, though that’s just my opinion. Perhaps when he suffers the second mental shock at the sight of the dying cat, he was becoming an empty shell? But does that mean you can prevent Food Souls from becoming empty shells as long as you give them some sort of hope (or teach them about love I guess)? Never during his story does the concept of empty shells even comes up though, at least to my knowledge. I feel like this is a bit of a stretch… but anyway, I hope this illustrates my admittedly vague and mysterious point LMAO

It’s okay!! I mean… this answer is SO LATE… I’m so sorry orz… Anyway! God, summoning huh… This is also very confusing!!!! Which makes me mad!!! LMAO… (Super Food Fantasy spoilers ahead?? Maybe???)

So it seems like contracts can be made in two ways. One: through summoning, which instantly creates a contract automatically between the Master Attendant and the summoned Food Soul. Two: through (presumably) mutual agreement between a contract-less (hence referred to as “free”) Food Soul and a Master Attendant.

In the case of the first method of contracting a Food Soul, there seems to be a further subdivision between summoning a Food Soul who was a free Food Soul from elsewhere on Tierra, and summoning a Food Soul for the first time, causing it to be the first contract the Food Soul experiences and also the method of Food Souls to be created (?) in the first place. The latter type of contract (with the Food Soul’s first MA) shall henceforth be referred to as the “prime” contract.

Now, considering how humans have actually created Food Souls approximately 500 years ago, and considering the fact that you can’t actually control which specific Food Soul is summoned the prime contract “creating” the Food Soul itself is suspect; I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s just a whole warehouse/lab somewhere storing lots of babby Food Souls for the summoning. In that case, the prime contract simply summons the previously inactive Food Soul whereupon they experience for the first time.

But, let’s presume that this isn’t the case and the prime contract causes the formation of a new Food Soul. If that’s so, then the crystals (and later soul embers) have a plausible purpose: provide spirit energy for the formation of the Food Soul. Spirit energy after all is both a Food Soul’s power source and also their life force; once they run out of spiritual energy, they “die”/disappear. Since they disappear when the spirit energy runs out, then it wouldn’t be strange to think that they are formed by something similar to a concentration of spirit energy, which the crystals or soul embers provide. For summons other than prime contracts, the crystals and spirit embers either bolster the Food Soul’s energy levels similar to a sacrifice or offering, or they provide the energy for the transference of the Food Soul from one place to another.

If it’s the case that the way to summon Food Souls is by cooking a food and then using that to summon like some backstories imply, perhaps the addition of a dish to the summoning is what determines whether the contract is a transferring type or a prime contract. This would perhaps explain the difference in the explanations/implications on how some food souls are “born” vs being lab-made weapons simply transferred to a summoner… though it doesn’t explain how this works lmao I have no answers for that 

Now as for the contract itself! It’s…. very confusing how much hold contracts have over the Food Soul, but I believe it has a lot to do with the Food Soul’s mentality. Foie Gras never really respected or thought of her initial MA as a “master”-like figure, as evidenced by her just calling him “guy” and thinking he’s a weak man. And Boston is…. you know. LMAO… However, if you consider Gingerbread, at least in my impression she seemed to think of her MA as someone who “no one could defy or refuse”. She certainly has her own thoughts and ego very separate to what her MA wants, but perhaps she considered him as an existence which she couldn’t break away from or go against, and it is that mentality that chained her actions to his words. Maybe?? 

Oh boy! LOL yeah feel free to send in more questions! It’ll make it more likely for at least a couple answers to come out faster for you all anyway if you split them into separate asks

Disclaimer first of all, I’m only around level 42 so I don’t know all of the story content that’s been released so far… and also this is a bit more of a rant about how the guild is really REALLY FISHY LMFAO… To be honest I’ve always kind of been suspicious of the Chef’s Guild…. I know it’s like… an anime mobile game story so it’s condensed and Anime Logic Don’t Question It™ but like… IDK… Olivia just kinda shows up!! And is like u should summon a Food Soul and join the chef’s guild!! :) …..basically drafting you into the army

I mean it’s supposed to be similar to an Adventurer’s Guild I believe? But if you think about it, then you’re basically a mercenary playing at being a chef? They’re giving you an illusion of being a chef and restaurant owner but basically you gotta summon your own workers to run the restaurant for you while you go out on subjugation commissions LMFAO… The time between story event arcs must be like at least weeks but honestly… how much do you actually cook in relation to how much u gotta put yourself and your Food Souls in mortal danger??? You just up and leave your restaurant unattended to go on a vacation to Nevras and Sakurajima! I know this is a world in which chefs have the most war potential and therefore they’re placed at a higher standard of societal responsibility but honestly!!! Why would they make the military fighting against the EXTINCTION OF HUMANITY structured like a RAGTAG MERCENARY GUILD??? Why doesn’t each country just systematically train an army of soldier chefs?! In fact, isn’t the existence of these guilds kind of a big internal threat? Wouldn’t you, as the leader of a nation, want something to counteract the power of the guild? It’s not like anyone in the guild is pledging themselves to the country or anything, even IF the guild was under the ruling government! What’s stopping the Guilds from seizing power?! Monarchs have been changed at the hands of lone wandering Food Souls before!

Also… I wouldn’t be surprised if the first Guild’s creation was related to the ones that created Food Souls (BIOLOGICAL WEAPONS… SENTIENT SOLDIERS!!! THAT ANY RANDOM CITIZEN CAN POTENTIALLY SUMMON!!!!!) in the first place. I dunno if the current administration would even know if that was the case though, since the idea of Master Attendants, Food Souls, and their contractual relationship completely permeates societies in this world. It’s taken as Common Sense™ and I highly doubt many people know the truth of how Food Souls came about? Do they even question it tbh? The player doesn’t even question it that much, just accepting Olivia’s explanation for things. Not that I think she’s hiding anything in particular or knows all of the underlying stuff behind everything, though who knows! We have so little knowledge of the NPCs in this universe!! Hell, do we even know anything about Hill except he’s a hermit living in the woods and is maybe one of the extinct elves??? It frustrates me a lot!!!

Anon… you’re making me sweat LMAO you sound so passive aggressive uuu I’m a soft snail don’t squish me– Thank you for liking my designs though hehe //// To be honest the positive reception just makes me wanna make like 50 more HAHA….

French 75 was actually a little easier than my other OCs to design because I had a very clear sort of image of him before I started; I had that for Zebul as well, though since I wasn’t following a particular style (just a concept of bones and my own thirst tbh) he took a lot of revision. Don’t even get me started on Fan LMFAO… I really only had Ichi as a good reference for clothing style…

For French 57, I wanted to create a Prohibition Era drink, which meant a design inspired by the 1920′s. Masculine clothing around that time is…. boring LOL so I bedazzled him in feminine clothing instead. General themes for him was smuggling, jazz & swing, roaring 20′s, flappers, etc… I was actually originally going to do Moonshine, but… that’s more of a loose general term for disgusting homebrew (???) rather than a beverage in particular, so…. The point is, snooping around Google for inspiration and seeing what elements you can grab and put together cohesively helps a lot, if that makes sense? idk take everything I say with a grain of salt I’m,,, not a professional artist lmao

ANYWAY… look at me going off on a tangent again smh…. As of this moment, I’m not planning on writing a full backstory thing like with Fan since I’m not planning on roleplaying him (like poor Energy Drink who is sitting in the corner, backstory-less, staring as all of these shady-ass characters are filling in the Snail House), but if you’re interested I have a general outline for it? 

“Of course, baby, this is perfectly legal! Besides, does it really matter if it’s not?”

A classy, confident man who loves the finer things in life and isn’t afraid to show himself off. Perhaps that would be fine by itself, but he also has little care for the law and engages in shady activities quite often. He enjoys swing dancing, electro jazz and flirting with his Master Attendants.

Contrebasse (Normal Skill) French 75 blows cigarette smoke at the closest enemy target, reducing their Defense stat by 3 for 3 seconds.

asgfhgfUGSDIHFGDSHFGHDG– I’m glad you like Zebul enough to want some Nier verse for him HAHA– Nier: Automata spoilers ahead!!!!

You know, Zebul is a lot like… Adam in Eve’s body LMFAO…. considering his fascination with humans and his enjoyment in absorbing knowledge about them. Making him a machine lifeform also fits well with him being a Fallen Angel, aka the antagonist species of the game. B-52 is a machine in this AU too, but… it’s kinda like comparing Adam with Pascal LOL….

Of course, Zebul is probably more suited to be an extra boss than having anything to do with the “main story” as it were. He generally doesn’t get involved in all of the chaos that’s going on? Unless of course he gets interested, but he’s more likely to watch from the sidelines with popcorn than anything.

If he were to generally be an existence similar to Adam, though, then I guess he would maintain the network… But considering his values, he would absolutely find it more compelling to let machines think on their own and develop their own egos rather than simply follow the hivemind so to speak. This probably allows for more Food Souls than B-52 to take the form of machines rather than androids in the verse, though I don’t know what criteria I’d use to categorize them as one or the other.

Actually, it’d be kind of cool if each of the enhanced Fallen Angels were like… administrators of the network? They all exert influence in their own “territories” which determines the machines’ appearances and behaviors. It would also prompt more/different “kingdoms” of machines, like the Forest Kingdom and the Amusement Park. Of course, most of the machine lifeforms are controlled by Uke Mochi, who is essentially the biggest player in the Machine War on the side of the machines. The other Fallen show variances, but are ultimately also anti-android so they basically help out, at least within their own geographic territories.

The machines under Zebul’s administration however… they’re the ones showing the super aberrant behavior, like Jean-Pierre and the machines having existential crises. Not hostile until attacked; interestingly I think B-52 and the community he belongs to might have been under Zebul’s administration too before they cut themselves off the network.