I miss Bannerfall and Vampris aw man

There's something very funny about there being Cam, Eloise, Frogue and the ghost of Nominalgravy to me. It's a silly team and they did great! I was cheering on them and honestly in terms of points they won so they're still the winners in my heart

Nom was cheering on Katie so much it was so sweet :) And the whole team going absolutely insane every time Cam scored on something Cam was COOKING it was great!!

I loved the whole thing tbh but also now I want to see AUs based off of it or something of the sort because like both the idea of Cam, Eloise, Frogue and the ghost of Nom being yoinked to do challenges against people where some look vaguely familiar, and in general the idea that there are just three people that randomly can see Nom's ghost now. And out of everybody it could've been it's two Red Kingdom members that didn't really care about the guy and Eloise. Such a vibe

New chapter of my “Instead of bf!Nom dying he gets the Creaking King stuck in his head (in lack of a better summary lol)” fic is out :)

Have a chibi Nom for your troubles. Don't worry he's just a little guy would never hurt a fly (Click on the image for better quality)

So... a little one-shot I wrote, a fix-it fic because I enjoy not letting Nom die. Basically, what if his fate had been changed by the Creaking King (leading to his eventual demise) and the Gods had to decide whether or not to restore his original fate (thus bringing him back to life)?

Anyways I've seen some people debate about whether or not v!Owen's kill count is actually 2799 2800 and I felt like saying my opinion on this

Well in fact I personally believe his actual full kill count is higher. Why? Because of two reasons.

First is his specific wording in the 2799 monologue. He said "2799 people I felled with my bare hands" which implies this is the amount of people he has personally killed with his own two hands. I doubt he would include people he killed through other means in such a specific choice of words, considering that he is very bold and proud about his kill count. So, he personally slaughtered 2799 people via going up to them and killing them. Probably a good amount of these were either children and/or asleep considering the whole murder thingy started in late evening/early night, so they were easy pickings because they couldn't defend themselves. Plus, probably nobody at first realised Owen was a vampire or knew about stakes, considering how they killed Louis, which made him have an advantage in the whole situation.

The second reason is how Oakhurst itself was described by Owen. He implied it was at least big enough to be somewhat known as a trading area, and a small town tends to have around 5000 people, so ignoring the minecraft map's size (which I doubt is fully accurate because ain't no way someone is telling me that mr. Scott Goldsmith's castle was THAT small. It was for sure way bigger. That size for a castle of an immortal vampire with a full on town and coven under his rule is absurdly tiny especially considering he was rich. Also Oakhurst was too small to house even 500 people with the mc map and it couldn't have been a well-known town with only 500 residents-) it should've been at the very least a medium sized town? I think probably between 5000 and 6000 residents, maybe a bit less residents and more merchants stopping by but yeah. It was for sure not the smallest of the town (while still being small enough that it wasn't that crazy well known to the point that the full destruction of it had more myths and absurd beliefs than actual people analysing the area and finding out how it was destroyed) but also not massive because otherwise a full wipeout even by a magical super fast and strong being would not be as easy.

So, I personally think that v!Owen only counted those he killed with his own two hands, but if we considered he torched the whole castle/community house/whatever it was with a good size of the citizens inside that were trying to hide there to be safe, his kill count is probably higher. After all, I doubt he went and counted every single carbonized corpse, soo... yeah. Also a bunch of people probably died from rash decisions caused by panic and such, like I wouldn't be surprised if some people running from the town ventured in the forest and never found their way out or tripped in a cave and died there or so many other ways to die when there's a massacre going on and you're scared and only driven by your instinct to live, so even if they aren't part of his kill count I can see how even a larger town could have fully been wiped out. They probably were such easy pickings for a vampire, and even those that tried fighting back alone couldn't do much.

Katie wakes up in the middle of the night and there's a shadowy yet translucent figure at the end of her bed just standing there and it looks like Nom but it also looks wrong. Why does it have empty eye sockets. Why is it just standing there as if it's looking at her but it has no eyes. She blinks twice and it's gone and she can't even tell if it was created by her sleepy mind or not.

4C is walking in the woods and feels watched, sees something at the corner of his eye but what even is it, why does it feel familiar but also creepy. Why can he hear the familiar footsteps of someone who is quite literally dead that's impossible. He turns around and nothing is there. Yet he would've bet all his gold that someone was following him, and that someone was his dead brother. Because nobody's footsteps are the exact same as his.

Well, I decided to try and start writing a lil fic about it... but while originally the idea fit more of a crackship or something more lighthearted and unserious, unfortunately I'm an angst writer soo... well at least what I've written so far within this AU is kinda angsty. So.

First chapter here though!! I did start writing it! Who knows where it's going to go. Hope it is an enjoyable read though :)

In the other POW SMPs that I've watched (Cowboy & Vampires) there was something keeping the characters within the borders of the place where they were, a literal wall keeping them trapped, making the collective goal to get rid of the wall and leave. It's true that not everyone necessarily wanted to leave/left (especially in cbsmp where a lot chose to stay in Pity, because those that stayed in Oakhurst didn't necessarily plan to stay there at least at first while in cbsmp some just were residents of Pity) but in general, getting rid of that border keeping everyone trapped was a bit of a collective goal of everyone, whether they left at the end or didn't.

But in Bannerfall there was no border or anything keeping everyone there, especially made clear by the fact that they had guests come over from time to time, but also that some characters did canonically leave for a while and then come back. Along with it allowing for things like cameos to happen, it also showed one of the characters' motives. Because when you can leave at any time, staying, especially in a place with active warfare like the kingdoms, is a conscious choice. Literally everyone the second they realised the monarchs were dead could've just left and ended it there, but they chose to stay.

4C chose to remain in Bannerfall after Nom hit him with the mace. I'm sure there were others that too could've just left if they wanted to, and maybe they wanted to even just a little bit and chose not to. Even Nom, when at towards the end said that if he survived he wanted to leave, could've just left at that moment if he wanted to; nothing stopped him from doing that, even with the Creaking King's curse he wasn't bound to the place itself. He chose to stay because he had a reasoning to stay, he had something to fight, people to protect. Every character in one way or another could've abandoned Bannerfall once and for all and didn't because of reasons different for each one of them, because they didn't really have any common goal that kept them there apart of, later on, defeating the Creaking King. This adds so much to the characters, a personal motive that is unique to everyone and motivates them not to leave until they have finished doing what they came there for, what they're working towards.

In Vampires, most characters' goal, at the end, was just to leave. Apo wanted to go back to Cherri, Scott wanted to travel the world, Abolish wanted to go back to his family and friends, and so on; the only two that stayed in Oakhurst when all was done stayed merely because they had nowhere else to go and they were familiar with the place, everyone else left, in one way or another. In Bannerfall, those that left at the end had a reasoning that made them leave, but that wasn't necessarily a permanent leaving either. Apo and Cherri went back to their actual kingdom, Scott and Mae chose to sail in Nom's honour, Graecie went back to the Grotto to heal the horses, but everyone could and some would come back later on, they had some sort of attachment to the place that was not caused by being forced to stay, but by finding a reason to stay. And for some, the reason to stay is still there, and they never left. Some even have a reason to return. At the end, those that left have people they care about that stayed, and they probably went back there from time to time. At the end, Bannerfall to them was more than the place they were in for a bit of time that caused both good and bad things. Few went back there just to mourn, most came back to visit people, to see how the kingdoms are doing, just to reminisce the months spent there, with friends and foes alike, a chapter of their life that is ended and closed but they can still look back at.

Differently from VSMP or CBSMP, the way the characters in BFSMP experience their time in the kingdoms is similar to ours, as the viewers. Because like us, they went there not knowing what was going to happen, and chose to stay until the end. And when the end came, some stayed with it, some left, either immediately or after a while, but even those that left will remember the experience, and maybe go back in the future. And I think that's beautiful.

It seems like a small thing because glasses are fairly common nowadays, but not enough people mention or notice how he's a knight that wears glasses. Someone that fights on the battlefield, actively, wearing glasses; which probably limits his ability to wear helmets, because they wouldn't fit with the glasses, thus making his head exposed to potential blows. Which means that not only he has the skill to avoid potential blows at the head, but also to keep the glasses on. I wear glasses, I know how easy it would be for them to fall off or be snatched away by someone else; and I might not know just how bad bf!Nom's eyesight is, but even when you don't have the worst of the eyesights being without glasses always puts you at a bit of a disatvantage.

So he learned how to be a knight while also dealing with the fact that he has a disability (because by all technicality needing glasses is a disability since without them you quite literally can't see) that hinders his eyesight, something quite useful when you're trying to dodge people coming at your throat, along with the whole thing with his parents basically leaving and all the social pressure for that.

How hard was it for him to become a knight, I wonder? Was he ever bullied, or dismissed, merely because he needs something that could totally be destroyed in a battle leaving him at a disatvantage when it comes to his sight?

It's basically a VSMP x BFSMP fic set after the finale of Bannerfall with Nom getting yeeted into Oakhurst for the sillies, and I'm somewhat stuck at the start of it. Basically Nom gets yeeted at around ep. 2-3 of Vampris? So before the big vampires reveal but already when people started getting used to each other and some started to be sus of others. Anyway. The point is, he's gonna get found in our dear Dead Woods (hey there's a freaking pale oak forest here and I'm taking full advantage of that) and in my first idea, he gets found by Pearl and Abolish; the issue is, I always try to be somewhat canon-adjacent with my fics, and these two BARELY INTERACT IN THE FIRST TWO/THREE EPISODES. I went and watched Pearl's pov for fanfic purposes as I had never watched it before and the only time these two interact enough for me to pull it off of canon of em going in the dead woods together is a moment in ep. 3 where Pearl is working on the second floor of her house and Abolish is at the town beacon tower, and a bit after their chat Pearl heads in the dead woods for wood, but 1. That feels a little far time-wise, everyone else is at the castle fighting the vamps and 2. That would mean Abolish misses the Owen speech in town and I can't have that.

So my issue is, do I change something in like ep. 2 to have them go together (Pearl heads off alone so often maybe I can pull it off somehow) or do I replace Pearl with like, Legundo, someone Abolish is often with? (No I won't try to replace Abolish with Cleo, Drift or Sausage [three people I've seen Pearl travel in the forest alone with] because I have no clue how to write them for the first two, and for Sausage if you watched Bannerfall you know why I won't pick him as Nom's first impression of Oakhurst- so yeah my best bet would be replacing Pearl unfortunately)

Taking Bannerfall as an example:

If you watched Apo or Cherri's pov, you saw the growth of two people that were already close, both as themselves and in their relationship, realising who they actually want to be, what they wish to achieve, what they want to be for and with each other.

If you watched Scott's pov, you see how someone inexperienced and scared who has to leave everything he ever knew can learn how to find his place somewhere he didn't wish to go to, to find a home amongst people that accept him regardless of how good he is because they like him as who he actually is.

If you watched Mae's pov, you see how someone who has grown hidden in the shadows can learn to shine, to be seen, to be someone and be known and loved, even when it would be easier to stay hidden, to not be noticed. That sometimes being noticed means being truly seen, and that people can leave, but a part of them will always be with you.

If you watched Nom's pov, like I did, you see how a person who tries so hard to do the right thing, to be a protector, to help keeps on failing, on hurting those he loves, despite his best attempts. And how even though he was loved, even though he will be mourned and remembered, he met his demise never learning how to actually fix things like he always wanted to do.

If you watched Sausage's pov, you see how you can want to do good things even when you know you won't be able to live to see their result, but at the same time, good motives doesn't mean good deeds to reach that point, and sometimes you only realise your mistake when it's too late to do anything to fix it.

Those are just some of the povs, every single one has a different view, meaning and message, which I think is beautiful.

One thing I really like though is how regardless of the pov, every character has their own growth, be with themselves or with others, and that is genuinely beautiful. You see the characters as people because you can see how each one of them experiences things, and everyone is the protagonist in their own story. You see different experiences and even just the finale basing on whose pov you're watching you get a completely different end. From my perspective, it was a sad finale, an end to the story of someone who clearly had more to live for. But for others, maybe the finale was happy, maybe it was the character growth that put the cherry on top of that cake, maybe it was the one happy thing that the character needed the most.

Well if I remember correctly there's a fungus that affects ants that studies have proven to not affect the ant's head/brain, but to instead just control its limbs through sheer power, basically making the ant trapped in its head while the fungus does whatever. Like it literally just affects the limbs. The head's untouched. I would assume that the ant if it were a person probably could speak, show emotions etc., but it can't control its limbs at all.