52 hertz
probably obvious but the formatting of this fic is as follows:
- all simple letters, second person pov: 'past' events
- excerpts: no real place in the timeline but could be viewed as past events
- everything else is usually the 'present' one after the other.
the only case where this is mixed is in the embedded image (captioned: and she sees.) because it was supposed to invoke the feeling of being stuck in a memory.
every video referenced:
- Exploring Minecraft from an Alternate Timeline
- Remember Herobrine? I went to visit him. and Herobrine is real and we killed him
- How I Defeated Greg.jar.
- So I went Ghost Hunting in Minecraft...
- some worldbuilding details:
- WARNING; The void is eating this Minecraft world.
- See here? This is where Minecraft Stops.
where the time traveller bits are from
womanbrine mostly, also the brief cameo of blockfacts (the 'photograph'' references the latter video)
what most of this fic is based around! i thought it'd be cool to have greg.jar as an infestation that terrorised a world until squiddo got rid of it the general memory loss about it's existence was partly inspired by the posts that are like 'what happens after the quest is over and the hero comes back home.'
the 'red miles' is because the trails of red that greg leaves behind, the weird christmas tree kind of structure at the end and especially the blocks randomly becoming unusable and everything gradually being covered in red reminded me of the red miles from homestuck. it also serves as a tangible reminder that the greg.jar shenanigans did happen, despite what everyone and their mother says
SKIPPER. also the. bones. i did look this up later and it's a mostly-documented kind of seed where the world structure repeats along an axis (paraphrased greatly) which is cool in itself but combined with the monochrome effect and general weirdness of that entire video? terrifying to watch the first time around.
"Void patches creep over the sky and earth[..]" inspired by I explored Minecraft's CREEPIEST glitch because the way the darkness settled so rapidly towards nightfall genuinely did spook me a bit.
okay this didn't make it into the final draft but i was initially planning on including more stuff based on Being a Dumb Tourist in the Undergarden for 8 minutes. in the end the only detail that made it in was the transcriptor's note: "(PhD in Glitches, Gnomes and Other Underworld Flora,"
How We Survived Minecraft's DEADLIEST Mod: the localised blizzard that wemmbu gets trapped in, the 'red zones' and also ash's throwaway comment about 'ascending to godhood but for real this time'.
the radio station is located in the lifesteal region of this world. where is this located? how does the signal reach so far? don't worry about it (it's kind of a living piece of land that picks itself up and moves around every so often. anyone who's not the equivalent of whitelisted can't locate it because it actively makes an effort to conceal itself.)
tangentially related: player tags are more or less equivalent to phone numbers and the primary method of keeping track of your pals
there's more shit i'm forgetting especially about the flowers and swagdoons heckling each other in the bg but maybe i'll add those in later
the "what would happen to a world with no space left to grow?” is directly quoted from this one :] also inspired the 'regurgitating itself' excerpt and parts about chunks distorting/getting displaced.
the other video that this fic centers around. however i don't think i can convey my thought process for it except in the form of exclamation marks
i don't remember the name of the visual novel anymore but a while back i remember seeing a game about how it was the end of the world, but the main characters chose to hang out together and visit places they've always wanted to go instead of worrying too much about the impending world end. that's kind of the vibes i wanted to convey here; it's partly 'post-apocalypse' and also simultaneously roadtrip shenanigans.
key note here should probably be that i've never actually been on a roadtrip. every mention of The Corn is entirely swagcore's fault (most of this fic is core's fault actually because they talked about roadtrips with me and it was like i was momentarily possessed until i spat out this fic)
there was also kind of an easter egg? a song is mentioned at the start which just loops forever on radio -- later, ash reaches over to manually switch over to the song. the link provided should lead to an edited audio track; AMARANTHINE [better an apocalypse] and [52hz] both by Crywolf.
Deep in the ground, I am breathing
Tendons extending to the molten core of the earth like roots
Your amaranthine gaze falls upon me
Time and space freeze and spontaneously bloom
(La, la, la, la)
([52hz] is just "Darling you're still alone" repeatedly.)
AMARANTHINE was cropped slightly (the outro is cut off) and then reversed, before [52hz] was layered over it (so even if you reverse the track again, at least one part of it will still be reversed). both tracks also have reverbed applied to it (i think), mostly just so i could muffle the lyrics further. it should be more or less equal to the amount of time it would take to read the rest of the fic from that point on, i thought it'd be neat to have it as part of the background for more immersion or something.
what else. NIGHT ONE/TWO is a very vague nod towards fnaf. irl squiddo does actually have a notebook called squiddo’s adventure book which is delightful. there's also the radio station, which is equal parts meant to be a connection to the 'outside' world/pan focus away from the roadtrip and also meant to show that something is off about their circumstances, even if none of the hosts are ever clear about what exactly because it's all very normal to them at this point.
"what even is the point of this fic" no clue! it's a mishmash of different things but it's mostly vibes but it's also about the sheer devastating loneliness of being the sole keeper of a memory and having nothing and no one to speak about it with. "Wanting to go home but not having a home but a home is stifling." i did want this to have enough silliness to mimic the feel of a squiddo video though
also the conflicting aesthetics of 'messed up video/fridge horror vibes' and 'gremlin creature in bright orange' is compelling to me.