#stray bones

Name: Stray Bones (?)

Debut: Minecraft: Wii U Edition

This is such an exciting post! I am incredibly excited to be talking about what may very well be... THE weirdest Mario enemy ever! Let’s jump right in right here right now!

You’ve definitely noticed by now that there is a whole bunch of Minecraft in this post. Back in our Tarantox post, we mentioned the Super Mario Mash-Up Pack, a wonderful addition to Minecraft on Nintendo consoles, which reskins absolutely EVERYTHING into characters and items from the Mario universe!

For the most part, as core-style Mario stuff tends to be, the references here are very mainstream and easy to recognize. Of course, Skeletons are redesigned as Dry Bones here! Wither Skeletons, logically, are Dark Bones (a stronger variant from Paper Mario). 

What we’re looking at here, though, is neither of these things! Here we have Strays, a somewhat recent addition to Minecraft: skeletons that roam frozen landscapes, and whose arrows inflict slowness on their target. The Dry Bones shown at the beginning of the post is the Mario reskin of a Stray (hence the unofficial, yet quite nice, name we’re using, Stray Bones). But... what is it?!

The Mario Wiki suggests that Stray Bones is based on the blue variant of Dry Bones from the Mario Baseball games. Let’s take a look...

Hmm... I do not think so! The gloves and shoes are what changes color here, but Stray Bones has totally different bone and eye color, and we can’t even see its gloves or shoes.

And that’s not even mentioning the diamond on its chest! You may recognize that as a Super Gem, the collectibles from Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker. Why is it on Stray Bones’s chest?

...I have no idea! Maybe it somehow gains power from it, and that’s why its eyes are the same color? Super Gems are, fittingly, a reskin of Minecraft’s diamonds. Does Stray Bones have some association with diamonds in general, then? Again, I have no idea! If you expected me to suddenly have an idea in this short period of time, you are simply silly!

"What the fuck?"

"Oh, you're home late." The elderly bot seemed entirely unfazed as she wandered over to remove said body part. Her lights stitched a bit at his displeased look. "What?"

Logically it was probably just something someone didn't need anymore. Waiting to be swapped to someone else. Logically, it was also super fucking creepy.

"Do you HAVE to have.. those things.. out all the time?"

"Relax." She idly dusted the screen with her fingertips. "You're fine with it attached to someone."

"Yeah, because it's a FACE. Those belong on PEOPLE! Or, or in a box!" Where he doesnt have to think about it. Well, not the face-- the faces appearance wasnt the problem. The problem was the fact he'd definitely seen it before and knew she'd have it on someone new in a matter of days. Most people got parts second hand, true, but they also had someone see to sanded off stickers or filed off etchings. It was always altered somehow so you didnt have to think about the last guy that had your parts. Blazer shook off the mental image of his own detailing ending up on some rando. "Not in my bed!"

She considered this while shuffling over to place the head on a counter.

"It really shouldn't bother you so much, you know." Bones turned at his scoff and crossed her arms. A raised pixel brow. "But you're right. The sofa isnt a great storage space."

"Is that it?"

"Ugh, fine." She threw up her hands. "I'm sorry. The patient wouldn't sit still in the chair so I had to work on a more comfortable surface--"

"You popped his head on my couch?"

He suddenly was deeply okay with not recharging as normal. Not that his body let him actually get off the couch, however. She rolled her lights.

"It got the job done!" She waved off the frustrated static he was giving off. "I put a blanket down! Its clean."

She’s been ship of Theseus-ing herself for hundreds of years to outlast the rust and the decay. Upgraded her own systems on a wing and a prayer a few times. Went under the screwdriver after training up another surgeon to keep her wires and chips fresh. Just because she wants to keep going to keep an eye on things.

I feel she and Doc had many convos--before the quarantine-- about if she was technically the same bot. Usually as she was fixing some plate he’d let rust out when he wasn’t paying attention.

She initially took Blazer in because he was in her office for a blown audio processor from all the noise in the factory. When asked how he blew already heavy duty equipment, and being stared at while she started laying out tools to fix it, he eventually revealed he’d been sleeping in the factory. His job didn’t pay enough for a Residence apartment and the place he’d BEEN staying was in the slums, which was obviously not an option anymore. In an effort to not have to replace his hearing every few months she just offered her couch. He gives her part of his paycheck as rent, though she mostly just hands it back and asks him to pay in parts-- aka “go pick me up some sheet metal from the factory”. Which was fine until he lost his job and now just kinda slums it for parts and money when she asks. Thus how he met Clem in this--making connections to make money.

She personally left Neco shortly after the whole sentience thing, wanting to see the rest of the city. She’s naturally rather positive toward Clem--partially because she’d see her in passing in the slums and she considers Doc a friend--and the Outsiders in general.