[start Of Recording]

[start of recording]

Grian: Hello, Pearl! You've already read messa- oh i get it, okay. I finally got that Tango game! Well, you know, the game that we all were waiting for!

Grian: Okay, I'm pretty sure this is still a demo, but- what? No, no, he just asked me to play it and find all the mistakes while he was away on business. This is fine. The game is just launching, I’ll turn on the translation for you now.

[The sound of the translation starting, ZITS logo plays]

[on title screen, bgm: menu🎵]

Grian: so! Damn, I love this whole design- Zedaph did a great job with it, but I don't know how Tango dealt with it after. . . Ugh, whatever, okay. Yes, we should start.

[selects an empty file and enters “Grian” as a name. character menu opens]

Grian: oh, there are already three characters! What do we have here? A birdie, a doggie and a zombie — strange choice, I agree. And- no, Pearl, I won't play for the dog! I'm in charge and I choose the bird! I'm- Pearl, deal with it!

Grian: Anyway, what do we have here? “The birdie that wants to have a party, and in order to do this, must gather all the guests who have scattered around the place.” Oh my god, this really sounds like Pokemon- ok, let's get started.

—————

[on a black screen, a dialogue box appears]

Developer: Hello! I am Zed. If you see this message, it means this game is still not quite ready and you are helping us fix the bugs. If you find any bugs, please contact Tango or Zedaph. Thank you very much!

Developer: And remember, we are watching over you. . . Through disks in your set-top boxes. . .

Developer: ha, just kidding. Have a good game!

—————

[start of recording]

Pearl: Why are you recording all this down?

Grian: What do you mean “why”?! I had to show this to Tango somehow!

Pearl: oh, okay- so, what's the matter?

Grian: give me a second, I'll run it- in short, maybe I'm just delusional, but like, if not, then I don't understand what's going on at all.

Pearl: You sound really nervous for some game.

Grian: Pearl- THIS MAY NOT BE JUST A GAME!

Pearl: whoa, whoa, Grian, breathe! Explain to me what's wrong.

[in: Citadel, bgm: blue fire ballade🎵]

[Grian sighs]

Grian:. . . In brief- oh, I'm definitely just crazy. The lack of sleep didn't do me any good.

Pearl: Mr. Grian Xelqua! What did we talk about lack of sleep?!

Grian: yes, yes, I remember, just- later, Pearl.

Pearl: Fiiine.

Grian: anyway, you and I stopped when I got lost, right? In brief, I tried to find at least some way so that in the end i wouldn’t wander around all this time and you wouldn’t get bored, and, well, I found the first guest.

Pearl: oh, and who is it?

Grian: let me just show you.

[The character moves through the maze, eventually coming to an NPC: this is a small imp with lightning around him]

Pearl: o- he looks like Impulse! What's the big deal? This is a game of Tango and Zedaph, of course the first will be Impulse.

Grian: well, yes, but!

[Grian interacts with Imp]

Birdie: Hello! I want to invite you to a party!

Imp: party? Oh, you're always welcome! But, for this I will have to ask you something. I need three black potsherds- you know what they are. Only after that I will go with you!

Birdie: oh, good!

Pearl:. . . Hah.

Grian: Do you feel it too?!

Pearl: well, listen, this is Impulse, he always liked to create chaos. And withers.

Grian: yes, but. . . I just- I just think it's weird. That his character is asking this of me.

Pearl: . . . Of you like-

Grian: of me like a character in the game. Of the bird's.

Pearl: a- OH NOW THIS MAKES SO MUCH MORE SENSE!!

Grian: NOW DO YOU UNDERSTAND HOW DAMN SCARED I WAS????

Oh, look at the time!

It is time to remember about rifle! symmetreebarks

Ren is someone who is stuck in a system. Got a shitty job with a big (but still shitty) payment, got to do something to kill the environment, promised to quit and never did it. He knows that he is doing something wrong, he really knows, but — what can he do? Where can he go with that place in his portfolio? The only place left for him is Hermitcraft, but even then — he needs to live. He needs to do something, or he will drop dead.

False is someone who was a big deal in a system before she understood that it doesn't make any sense. She was a soldier, one of millions, and she had one pray: its gonna be better this way. But it never was. And even after she did thousands of crimes, she still had some strength to stop. To say "I can't do this anymore". She mourns her sister every day of her life, carring her in chest like a second heart.

Martyn is someone who wasn't in a system from the start. He was always there, but he never wanted to do something "legal", lol, it's not fun! His word is his law, and maybe that's why he ends up in a hostage much worse than a usual prison. He didn't need to learn how to shoot, but he learned how to actually move on from killing a friend, from doing a sin to live another day. He thinks he doesn't have a choice. But he never tried to actually stop.

I am so normal. I am. I am so. Normal.

So you don't talk about it.

In a lot of ways, it's a little dumb. It's not like it didn't happen. It's not like you've really forgotten. Memory potions wear off, wear thin; if you've learned anything, you've learned that. You can stare at pictures and say 'that's odd' or 'I don't remember that' or 'I don't talk about her' all you want, but it's not like it didn't happen, it did, it did, and everyone saw it.

But no one else knew what it meant.

So you don't talk about it.

Because you haven't heard from her again, is the thing. (Whichever her it is doesn't really matter, now does it; whichever her you are doesn't either.) The Rift is closed, and the way there is empty, and Joel builds statues you don't talk about, either, because if you talked about the statues you'd have to talk about there, and if you talked about there you'd have to explain how you know, and if you explain how you know you'd have to explain why you don't, and anyway. You haven't heard from her. Not one word. Not one little bit.

(It keeps you up at night, though. Memory potions wear thin, sure, but the mind's even better at forgetting what it doesn't want to know. Some days, you're on opposite sides of the glass. It's not like you don't know, you think, and you turn over in bed, and you look at your reflection, and the thing is--would you know the difference?)

You ask around. You aren't the only one who hasn't heard anything; some Hermits are good at family, but Grian just looks sick when you ask him about it, so it's not strange. It's not strange to throw yourself into rivers and avoid Tango's base. The blimp is nice; it's pretty. You never want to step in an airship again, though, and you aren't building one yourself, and when was the last time you talked to Joe. (It's a good question. Memory potions are at least supposed to wear off.)

You're going to run vaults with Iskall again soon. He asks if Create's still alright. Apparently, you've been looking at it funny. You don't know why you would be.

(You wouldn't be able to tell the difference.)

You don't talk about it, anyway.

No one asks. You think maybe they assume you've heard. You think maybe they assume you haven't. You ask Xisuma about it, and he gets a strange look on his face, and he says he'd rather not talk about it. His fingers twitch like he's shocked. You nod once. It makes sense, really. It's not like it matters anymore, for anyone involved. It's not like the word 'sister' means much, for anyone involved.

(It's not like you remember what side of the glass you're supposed to be on.)

Beef shows you a card he calls your alter ego.

"What an odd thing to make," you say. "What an odd thing to call it."

He asks you to elaborate, and you don't. After all, you don't talk about it.

RECOMMENDED VODS TO UNDERSTAND C!TUBBO

if you need a refresher on your characterization or just havent looked much at his pov, heres some vods (a little outdated, but holds up well enough imo)

MANBERG ERA

the election day. really nice for tubbo characterization, because it kind of starts all of it. especially the yes-man shit. also the “hope for the best, plan for the worst” line first gets dropped here, and that’s a major feature of tubbo’s character.

wilbur’s “are we the bad guys” speech stream. this vod is not used often enough for tubbo characterization. understandably so, because it’s wilbur centric, but it’s very very good for manberg era tubbo and show him behaving as a competent spy. like he straight up gaslights president schlatt can we talk about that- 

the festival. of course. i especially recommend paying attention to before the festival because it’s got tubbo doing his spy moves which i always like.

nov 16th specifically stuff before the battles start is nice for tubbo and quackity dynamic. i really care a lot about the step left vs step right conversation.

NLM ERA

summarizes what tubbo wants out of his rule, which i really like. gives you those president tubbo vibes.

really really nice NLM characterization. his rules help characterize what he finds important very succinctly

the first and the second exile vods from his pov. i know youve already seen it from tommys pov but i implore you to check out the second one at least. he and quackity have a repeat of the step left vs step right talk that makes me feel A Lot.

nice for those mid-exile vibes and also dream tubbo interaction

butcher army and tubbo finding out tommy is “dead”.

Doomsday. just. tubbos silence basically the entire time as he dies over and over and throws himself in front of fireworks… this one Hurts.

SNOWCHESTER

founding Snowchester! this one does a lot to my head, especially because he holds blue in his offhand the entire time.

nukes and a paranoid boy smile

this one is really nice. foolish and tubbo interactions are incredibly solid and the tour around the server makes me :). also the way tubbo talks about all his old tunnels and all the memories is absolutely wonderful at characterizing his mindset.

and then obviously the outpost conflict because the formal conversation between quackity and him is just stellar.

"I want to understand."

Tango has a crack in pink glasses — he looks tired, skewed. Martyn looks at him with a curious look, twice, he thinks — who cares what he wants to understand. Martyn doesn't understand much either. He arches an eyebrow in an interrogative gesture, leaning on a shovel, like on a cane.

“He said he was cursed,” Tango clarifies, and okay, he should have expected it, "I don’t understand. I want to understand."

Martyn blinks, returning to the shovel, which he drives deeper into the clay black earth. He asks, playing disinterest: "What makes you think that I know?"

Tango nervously moves his shoulders and sits on the threshold of their dog house. What a pest, and you won't get away with it — Martyn is not ready for this conversation, he generally did not undertake to explain anything for Jimmy.

He wonders, if Jimmy himself understands something in this?

"Weren't you friends with him? Like, even before the games?" Tango takes off his glasses, gnawing Martyn’s back with such a look that he feels it almost physically, "He told me about Evo. I think you should know something."

Martyn reluctantly stops and turns around, humbles Tango with his eyes again: in his Heart Foundations uniform he seems smaller than in his usual huge vest, and his fire only shyly cracks, obviously expecting any attack from Martyn. Here he is, damn him: he stretches himself on the palm, open and sincere, with one single question that doesn't let him sleep at night — Martyn knows, because he himself once had such a question. It can be seen that he despaired, that he does not know who to ask already, since he went into badlands to fall at the feet of the now lonely red. Curse Jimmy again for his talkativeness.

Okay, he has to leave a shovel.

Martyn pinches the bridge of his nose.

"Welp, listen."

He turns him into the house and sits him at the threshold, sitting opposite on the edge of the bed: a bright gesture that he is not going to do anything with Tango, giving an advantage in the form of a retreat. Now the conversation is serious, the conversation is not in games, but over them — Martyn dreamed of at least someone talking to him like that once, someone he knew, and not a thousand-eyed shit that looked like a demon of sleep paralysis. After all, Tango doesn't even understand how valuable such a gesture is, how much Martyn will now give him in one dialogue. He bites his lips, trying not to look back on the box: “You know Jimmy is a canary, don’t you?”

Tango bows his head, as if not quite realizing what the question is for, but nods in the affirmative: "He spoke about it."

“Of course,” Martyn confirms, “he spoke about it. This is his curse - the curse of the canary."

Tango does not understand, obviously, and he needs to gather his strength again, he needs to remember again what he once understood — when was it? Has awareness come with victory?

“The miners take the canaries with them because they constantly sing. Birds are much more susceptible to gas and pressure, and therefore, when they fall silent, it means it's time to leave."

Tango's face darkens. "What does this mean?"

Martyn wants to spit. That's what it means, why don't you understand?

“Jimmy is a canary,” he says as calmly as he can, “He dies first. He will always die first."

“Not this time,” is the obvious fact. Martyn nods, "Not this time. But it's not that important."

Silence. Tango tears a crack in the lens with nails, thinking about something, while Martyn tries to figure out how to explain it more clearly, how to embrace this topic a little more than "Jimmy does not see his own nose further, and therefore collects everything along the way cones."

“This is a warning,” he finally exhales, “his death means that the stage of the peace is ending, that everything is now too dangerous, and. . . Well, it's time to stop preparing for war and it's worth starting to fight. After his death, it becomes much more dangerous. Therefore, it doesn't matter if he died first or second: his function is not in the number, but in the alarm."

Tango looks up at him — pity oozes from his red eyes, and although its not towards Martyn, he feels anger gurgling inside. He has his own opinion about all this, even if it's none of his business.

“It’s cruel,” Tango says quietly, and in these words — love, endless and boundless, embracing with fire, a love that Martyn could neither know nor understand. He looks away. He closes his eyes.

“Yes,” he agrees, “But it’s merciful."

На Хермиткрафте открылось первое отделение МФЦ! Желающие уже могут подать заявку на "Пермит" в соответствующем разделе Госуслуг.