Tonight I have crossed the streams, faced God, and walked backwards into hell. Or, you know, picked up one of my oldest game obsessions which is the acknowledged direct creative and cultural ancestor of my recurring newer game obsession: I'M PLAYIN' PLANESCAPE TORMENT AGAIN BAYBEE!! For the first time in...it's been a while, really, but I fangirled for PS:T obsessively for years and years and I'm about to make that everyone else's problem once again. :3 I expect I'll be posting crossover meta at some point, because Primordia being a love letter to Planescape has never been a secret and I'm already rediscovering things that have me hooting like a delighted ape.

11/12 Some character practice, featuring some of the cast of Primordia!

So I recently played the point-and-click game Primordia! It was good!

They dream of electric sheep

Seriouspost Sunday: got in the mood to meta about robots for a minute, in that as much as "robot grows beyond/disobeys their programming" is a sci-fi classic for a reason, I'm always appreciative of exactly how Primordia goes about doing it. There's just something specifically appealing to me about the way the "my core logic" plot thread is implemented; the sort of classic older robot narratives along these lines tend to rely on "uhh this one is just special for X reason and the reason any other robots don't all just do the same thing is because they are not special/people/alive and therefore." Primordia, meanwhile, needs to juggle doing one of these storylines with the fact that the entire cast is made up of robots with varying levels and types of consciousness but who are, generally, people. So you have different characters mentioning that X thing is part of their core logic and they can't go against it even if their actual consciousness wants to - and the one AI who even attempts that fight ends up essentially injured both physically and mentally, experiences total psychological collapse four times, and hides out in the desert doing this eremite/hermit/monk/ascetic thing trying to get spiritual mastery over the violence in his code. And even after all that, the early game still drops all these little breadcrumbs that (for multiple reasons) this protagonist is already low-key overwhelmed, It Gets Worse, most of the possible timelines involve something deeply horrible happening, and even if he wins and gets out but is alone in the aftermath, [REDACTED]. The sheer quiet brutality of that subplot (and in general) not only makes it more emotionally satisfying to me than some other robot narratives (even ones I deeply love and still rewatch to this day!), but I think it does a really good job of just. Making it automatically seem emotionally unreasonable to think less of other robots for NOT doing it. Like ex: I don't think I've ever once seen any player disrespect peak badass Clarity Arbiterbuilt for being literally incapable of taking the first step out of Metropol on her own, and they shouldn't. In fact when Horatio himself suggests she just leave and she says "can't, core logic" he instantly shuts the fuck up. It's only Crispin that continues that conversation. And on that note IIRC Crispin is the only character who talks about this "core logic" shit like it's something he only knows about secondhand ("Yeah, yeah, I've heard it all before.") and I think that's a really good part of this plot thread: that wisecrack from the game's first five minutes about him having free will (aside from a conscience, which doesn't stop him being a goblin at ALL) is in fact not a joke, the little doofus will likely never have to experience what the older robots do because he has no such hard rules in place, and the fact that Horatio god damn Nullbuilt is both the one who made Crispin the way he is and the one who basically pulls a "I can't carry it for you but I can carry you" to set Clarity free from Metropol is one of those understated details in Primordia that just knocks me on my ass every time.

found a reasonably acceptable gun substitute, so I went ahead and finished my primordia set! it's harder to make a really satisfying fan dragon for characters that barely wear clothes tbh, but I still needed her and maybe they'll drop more plate armor options someday.

backing up more old primordia shitposting that I still enjoy

found my silly shitpost twitter edits from like four years ago and I'm way too lazy to check if I posted them here already so /confetti

"letting crispin push buttons is never a good idea" horatio says gruffly, and then without a hint of irony:

the robots are having d&d alignment debates again! primordia really is the spiritual descendant of planescape torment, huh.

realized it's been a while since I last played city of heroes, and an even longer while since I last made blorbo tribute characters in city of heroes, so of course while I was awake for most of last night I opened up the launcher and got silly. "horatio" is a mastermind with robotics + empathy, so he can go around repairing everybody. "clarity" is a sentinel with dual pistols + willpower, and her battlecry is set to mercy is malware because of course it is. crispin, meanwhile, is a cosmetic pet that casts shield and constantly gets himself into trouble, which I find entirely appropriate.

Once again I am STILL finding new dialogue in this game! Also, wow a lot of Primordia's party banters feel like a D&D party having an alignment debate, don't they. Other reasons I appreciate discovering this dialogue: it's always nice to find more early hints that Crispin's not quite as much of a gremlin as he usually insists he is. That boy paid a little bit of attention to his upbringing.

(click post title to listen) E.S. Posthumus - Witness To History Louis Armstrong - What A Wonderful World (I see trees of green, red roses too / I see them bloom, for me and you / And I think to myself / What a wonderful world) Delta Rae - The Dream (I had the dream, always the same / I was in white, and falling / Pretty red rose pinned to my clothes / I had the dream, as always) Beth Orton - Ooh Child (Some day, yeah / We'll get it together and we'll get it all done / Some day / When your head is much lighter) Blues Saraceno - Dogs of War (See the fields burnin' / See the fields burnin' / Well I see the fields burnin' / 'Cause hell is coming through / I can't stop the dogs of war) Fever Ray - If I Had a Heart (This will never end 'cause I want more / More, give me more / Give me more) The Brothers Bright - Me and Mine (I will burn your kingdom down / If you try to conquer me and mine) Blues Saraceno - Judgement Day (And they know / Judgement day shall come / And they know / Judgement day shall come / And they know / The judgement day shall come) KALEO - Way Down We Go (Oh 'cause they will run you down / Down to the dark / Yes and they will run you down / Down 'till you fall / and they will run you down / Down to your core / Ohh 'till you can't crawl no more / and way down we go) Johnny Cash - The Man Comes Around (Whoever is unjust let him be unjust still / Whoever is righteous let him be righteous still / Whoever is filthy let him be filthy still / Listen to the words long written down / When the man comes around ... And I heard a voice in the midst of the four beasts / And I looked, and behold a pale horse / And his name that sat on him was Death, and hell followed with him) Amy Van Roekel - O' Death (O' I am Death and none can tell / If I open the door to heaven or hell / No wealth, no land, no silver, nor gold / Nothing satisfies me but your soul / I'm Death. I come to take the soul / Leave the body and leave it cold) The Civil Wars - My Father's Father (I hear something hanging on the wind / I see black smoke up around the bend / I've got my ticket and I'm going to go home / The leaves have changed a time or two / Since the last time a train came through / I've got my ticket and I'm going to go home) Billie Holiday - I'll Be Seeing You (I'll be seeing you / In all the old familiar places / That this heart of mine embraces ... I'll find you in the morning sun / And when the night is new / I'll be looking at the moon / But I'll be seeing you) Rag'n'Bone Man - Human (Some people got the real problems / Some people out of luck / Some people think I can solve them / Lord heavens above / I'm only human after all / I'm only human after all / Don't put the blame on me) Claude Debussy - Clair de Lune

I don't even know how many times I've replayed Primordia by now and I'm STILL finding new dialogues. Horatio just "uh you two do remember I'm STANDING RIGHT HERE"