I Think It Would Be Funny If My VotP! Rook, Casper And Sugarboo Met Sammy Bc They Are Polar Opposites

I think it would be funny if my VotP! Rook, Casper and Sugarboo met Sammy bc they are polar opposites

Sugarboo: "so what's your story?"

Sammy: "my parents were pretty abusive to me D:"

Casper: "oh man, I feel ya"

Sammy: "but then Jemma and Azren adopted me and I got a bunch of friends that will listen to me talk about different bugs! :D"

Sugarboo: "..."

Casper: "..."

Rook: "..."

Sammy: "so what about you guys? :3c"

Rook: "...I've killed dozens of people-"

Sugarboo: "same"

Casper: "ive committed tax fraud and money laundering!" (Amongst other felonies)

This was originally posted to my Ko-fi page. If you follow me there, you may have read all this already.

Respawn is actually a story I've wanted to try for a long time. Well... the story itself was always in flux, but the 'real-world video game logic' setting idea is something I've been playing with since at least early 2017. In its original form it would have been a video series recorded as a machinima, then turned into notes for a short novel I knew I'd never get around to, and now converted into an audio series! In fact, the story The Witch-Rock of Warren Hill told in chapter 2 would have been one of the first adventures of the original video series! 

Cay is the listener's guide to this world. He's a felis (basically a neko) and has the potential to fill the role of a rogue, but he's no fighter. He serves drinks at a local bar in Castlebridge; he's more an NPC than a hero. While he appreciates a quiet and simple life, he can't just leave the listener, an ever-dying User, to fend for themselves. 

The world of Respawn, called the Plane, is very much inspired by all sorts of games, incorporating interesting elements from RPGs, MMOs, tabletop RPGs and open-world games. The Plane isn't a game though, it isn't a Matrix-like simulation. It's the one and only real world, with real, living thinking people. It just so happens that the way that reality functions is familiar. For instance; in reality, conservation of energy means it can be neither created nor destroyed, only converted from one form to another. This is why perpetual motion machines are impossible. Not so on the Plane. While things generally function similarly from the perspective of most people, there are possible exploits in physics that would allow for these sorts of things; have you ever duplicated items in a game? Have you ever been nuked by Ghandi because of an integer overflow? Have you ever walked in place for twelve hours to build up enough speed to travel universes? The kinds of exploits you see in speedruns, in TAS plays and in niche scenes like 2b2t were a massive inspiration for the way the Plane of Respawn functions. 

The Plane was first formed by the Creator and maintained by the Developers, essentially acting as deities in this world. However, these people are just that, people. They have no greater access to nor capacity for knowledge or critical thinking than anyone else. A pantheon of immensely powerful but very fallible gods.

Respawn is about exploring death and immortality, concepts raised by these sorts of games but which are rarely delved into; if you can't respawn, it limits the kinds of experiences the game can provide unless it's build for permadeath. But we never see what it's like for the average inhabitant of these worlds for there to be a disparity between 'Players' and 'NPC'. In Respawn, everyone who isn't a User is an NPC, an ordinary naturally born person. But Users as the equivalent of 'Players' don't have the advantage of being from some external world where you can log out and check a player's guide. This is why I don't call the story an isekai in any sense other than thematically, there is no other world. Users are dropped into existence with no more knowledge than anyone else, destined to live and die forever.

The original version of this world only included humans as the primary sapient species, but over the years this notion changed to what we have now; humans exist, but are much more rare. Rather than the standard fantasy trope of the humans being among the weakest but most plentiful and basic of the races, I wanted to subvert that a little. Elves are fun but way overdone in grand fantasy worlds, so I began by banning elves (and dwarves, generally anything too Tolkein) from the candidate list of species; instead humans fill the niche normally given to elves. They are amongst the oldest of the races on the Plane alongside the dragons and the Fae Folk. Lacking in the various physical attributes that set apart other races, humans have greatest predisposition for magic. Not every human can cast magic, it's still an uncommon gift, and even then many who have the ability can manage only simple tasks, not every human is a mage, but this sets them apart from others like the lizard-like ediacrids for instance who possess no innate magical potential at all. The species we do have come from the kinds of non-human character people might pick in fantasy games, hence the neko-esque felis being so common in this world.

Oh, and naturally, most magic in the world, including potions and alchemy, is based on exploits of the world's underlying logic. Not even the axiomatic laws of identity, non-contradiction and excluded middle are guaranteed. 

There is so much more to say about Respawn, there will be future write-ups about this series as we get further into the story. As teased at the end of the last audio, chapter 4 will introduce our next party member, and our adventure out of Castlebridge will begin! I hope you look forward to it!

Oop, we got some

✨internal conflicts✨

The Neon Series was suggested by a few friends and I just saw someone live post their reaction to it (thought I tried my best not to read too much bc spoilers) so I'm gonna finally see what this thing is all about and post my reactions on here (pray for me)

SHE'S GONNA KILL US IF CROW DOESN'T WIN? OH HELL NAW

The Neon Series was suggested by a few friends and I just saw someone live post their reaction to it (thought I tried my best not to read too much bc spoilers) so I'm gonna finally see what this thing is all about and post my reactions on here (pray for me)

KITTY!!!!!!

The Neon Series was suggested by a few friends and I just saw someone live post their reaction to it (thought I tried my best not to read too much bc spoilers) so I'm gonna finally see what this thing is all about and post my reactions on here (pray for me)

Oh no Danny DD:

Poor girl :[

The Neon Series was suggested by a few friends and I just saw someone live post their reaction to it (thought I tried my best not to read too much bc spoilers) so I'm gonna finally see what this thing is all about and post my reactions on here (pray for me)