DoG, Gaia, pillars

 [3:07 AM] Kiri: a thought re: pillars
[3:15 AM] Leafia_Barrett: hm?
[3:15 AM] Leafia_Barrett: also shit I meant to mention something earlier
[3:16 AM] Leafia_Barrett: you go first
[3:20 AM] Kiri: http://puu.sh/vgw5w/95e2d9c300.txt
[3:21 AM] Kiri: goddamn character limits
[3:24 AM] Leafia_Barrett: that could lead to interesting things, but we'd need to be careful with execution
[3:25 AM] Kiri: like that's the moment that sends Sol from 'cool looking but still elementally anchored magic' to 'excuse me while I birth miniature stars to fling at you'
[3:28 AM] Kiri: also I like the idea of like, each of the pillars having some sort of special name for the chapter title
[3:29 AM] Kiri: Nebula, the Cradle of Creation
Solaris, the Embrace of Eternity
Vortex, the Tumult of Time
Stardust, the Remnants of Reverence(edited)
[3:30 AM] Kiri: with there being like a relatively clear start-to-end cycle there in terms of celestial subtext
[3:32 AM] Leafia_Barrett: that's the order we fought them in, right?
[3:32 AM] Kiri: no idea
[3:32 AM] Kiri: I know Stardust came last
[3:33 AM] Leafia_Barrett: Vortex is aliens and lightning bolts, right?
[3:33 AM] Kiri: I think Nebula was either below airship or in town so sadly we'd have to diverge from gameplay if we want them in the cool order
[3:33 AM] Kiri: Vortex is aliens, lightning and guns yes
[3:34 AM] Leafia_Barrett: Vortex was third
[3:34 AM] Kiri: Vortex was in town then
[3:34 AM] Leafia_Barrett: I want to say Solar was first? but we've fought them in basically all orders by now so
[3:34 AM] Kiri: yeah
[3:34 AM] Leafia_Barrett: it's not a big deal to swap them around
[3:34 AM] Leafia_Barrett: though can I just say
[3:35 AM] Leafia_Barrett: I like how the game just dropped the universe on our heads in that sequence
[3:35 AM] Kiri: god yeah that was fantastic
[3:35 AM] Leafia_Barrett: "SUDDENLY PILLAR"
[3:35 AM] Leafia_Barrett: "PILLAR IN TOWN"
[3:35 AM] Leafia_Barrett: "PILLAR UNDER SHIP"
[3:35 AM] Kiri: yeah, that was just the sound of everything going wrong
[3:35 AM] Kiri: I loved just
[3:35 AM] Kiri: I looked at the map
[3:35 AM] Kiri: and just said
[3:35 AM] Kiri: '... guys?'
[3:35 AM] Kiri: '... one is directly under the ship.'
[3:35 AM] Kiri: '... oh and one's in town too.'
[3:36 AM] Kiri: 'oh and one's in town too'
[3:36 AM] Leafia_Barrett: I'm pretty sure I just said "OH GOD WHAT" when the cultist died and suddenly pillar
[3:37 AM] Leafia_Barrett: now, on that note
[3:37 AM] Kiri: yeah what was your idea meanwhile
[3:37 AM] Leafia_Barrett: I know you said you were a fan of the idea that of Ragnarok/Gaia/DoG sequence happening without rest, but I'm... honestly kinda not?
[3:38 AM] Kiri: hm?
[3:39 AM] Leafia_Barrett: if there's a pause between Gaia and DoG, it gives Sol and Lilac a chance to rest and recover, and it provides a perfect timeframe for Envy to swagger in and say "sup losers, I'm in charge now"
[3:39 AM] Leafia_Barrett: while the DoG goes off and resumes fighting the Moon Lord
[3:40 AM] Leafia_Barrett: the fact that he later returns and the Moon Lord doesn't has... implications about what we're fighting
[3:40 AM] Leafia_Barrett: and I mean the DoG did just eat an entire god, that's going to push his strength up a lot and could potentially turn the tide of the battle against ML in his favor

[3:43 AM] Kiri: I'm just like...
[3:43 AM] Kiri: mapping out in my head how this should go
[3:43 AM] Kiri: a reason for DoG to eat Gaia, a time and place for if it's not 'on spot'
[3:43 AM] Kiri: a reason for him to come back
[3:43 AM] Leafia_Barrett: he's working under Calamitas, remember?
[3:44 AM] Leafia_Barrett: she probably isn't our biggest fan after we took down one of her shades and took Zl'ana's soul back
[3:44 AM] Leafia_Barrett: I mean yes that was one soul, but we're mere mortals, that couldn't have been good for her pride
[3:44 AM] Kiri: ... a working thought
[3:45 AM] Kiri: DoG fucking crashes in and swallows the Dying Reality, which is the unstable Ragnarok formed only of Slag Fury, Aquarius, and a shade of Omnicide that gets fought
[3:46 AM] Kiri: somebody, possibly most people, try to swing for him, but he can barely even get scratched
[3:46 AM] Kiri: and he leaves because seriously, who there looks like a meal to him
[3:47 AM] Kiri: he ignores Gaia who no longer 'smells' like a god because she's blown everything she's had on Celia
[3:47 AM] Kiri: who promptly gives her give-up speech and is basically put back on her leash for real this time.
[3:47 AM] Kiri: ... Then a few days later, Gaia gets eaten too.
[3:47 AM] Kiri: the Devourer somehow managed to break into the Moon Lord's pocket dimension
[3:47 AM] Kiri: and swallow Gaia whole, mortally wounding Celia in the process.
[3:48 AM] Kiri: leaving the extremely heavy implication that Dying Reality was enough to turn the fight with the Moon Lord into a losing battle.
[3:48 AM] Kiri: and that he was consumed so that the pocket dimension is no longer safe from DoG

[3:58 AM] Leafia_Barrett: the only major problem I see with this is that I don't know how much Aszarun will care for having Celia just killed off entirely [unless you didn't mean actually mortally wounded so much as just critically injured]
[3:58 AM] Kiri: critically injured yeah
[3:58 AM] Kiri: hell, 'mortally wounded' and not 'dead' largely implies survival just by way of Vyleth doesn't it? :p
[4:00 AM] Leafia_Barrett: Vylieth's healing magic draws from Celia's power to begin with, I'm not sure she can loop it back around that way
[4:00 AM] Leafia_Barrett: [actually with Celia incapacitated and weakened, our healer's going to be in a bit of trouble]

[3:49 AM] Kiri: With this sensation of extreme imbalance, Envy is left perfectly free reign to come up and be like 'sup bitches y'all mind if I crown myself new high god-king'
[3:50 AM] Kiri: Envy spends the entire fight getting progressively stronger and stronger purely on the aspect of their being as the sin of Envy that is 'I have attained that which I wanted'
[3:50 AM] Kiri: to a point where, for all intents and purposes, yes, it has risen to godhood.
[3:50 AM] Kiri: and DoG comes in again to ruin the fun.
[3:51 AM] Kiri: because hey guess what, he smells fresh god.
[3:51 AM] Kiri: and nobody's here to stop him.
[3:51 AM] Kiri: And more or less that's the moment when everyone's like 'no. We have to stop this now.'
[3:52 AM] Kiri: That's hopefully when we get the fight I envisioned a while back wherein the scale keeps escalating harder and harder
[3:53 AM] Kiri: up to and including the Moon Lord making a nearly miraculous comeback, where it turns out he hadn't been consumed entirely and he was able to regenerate himself in time to join in
[3:53 AM] Kiri: (think Cell from Dragonball Z, it was disgustingly close but he came back; you don't really kill the Moon Lord without being more thorough than a very angry and very strong worm)(edited)
[3:54 AM] Leafia_Barrett: he missed a finger somewhere
[3:54 AM] Kiri: possibly include a joke somewhere where he taps the organ in his ribcage and is like
[3:54 AM] Kiri: 'Jokes on him for going for my head first. The plus of eldritch anatomy; nobody knows where your brain is hidden.'
[3:55 AM] Leafia_Barrett: I don't think he'd be at full power [or full size] yet, so he'd spend a lot more of the fight having to dodge the worm instead of full-contact wrestle him
[3:56 AM] Leafia_Barrett: [though that may have been what cost him to begin with given how much strength the DoG had just gotten]
[3:56 AM] Kiri: He's not quite able to full-body-block him but he's going to lay on as much aggression as physically possible
[3:56 AM] Kiri: he's a bit vengeful after having gotten himself ate

[4:00 AM] Kiri: so how do you feel about this take
[4:02 AM] Leafia_Barrett: only part I'm really unsure about is the Moon Lord coming back, and I can see that going either way so I don't mind so much regardless of which way we go with that
[4:03 AM] Kiri: honestly? I kinda just want to write a scene where we physically get to see the Moon Lord going to work on a bitch instead of it all just being word-of-god implications of him being a cool dude we listen to because he's a cool dude we listen to
[4:04 AM] Kiri: like it's stopped being a fight we hear about and don't get to see how awesome it is
[4:04 AM] Kiri: (or only deal with fallout of in the case of the meteors, which is something I still want canonized for the record because that'd be good as hell)
[4:05 AM] Leafia_Barrett: maybe he shows up partway into the fight after we've figured out his weakness and punched one clean hole through him
[4:06 AM] Leafia_Barrett: and he's like "wait, you did what? well, that simplifies matters, now doesn't it?" regarding hitting all the regen organs in his body
[4:06 AM] Kiri: I do still like the idea of him being, like, a part of that
[4:06 AM] Kiri: because vortex-powered sniper rifle would be good as hell
[4:07 AM] Leafia_Barrett: one of the problems with being that big is that precision tends to suffer
[4:07 AM] Kiri: but I mean, Lilac doing that exclusively of her own power is cool in its own right, just, would likely require more explanation and context?
[4:08 AM] Leafia_Barrett: I mean, the tech level of the entire planet did just roughly double over the past month, and given her affinity for electronics, Lilac would have been all over that
[4:08 AM] Leafia_Barrett: and would have made changes to her laser sniper rifle accordingly
[4:11 AM] Kiri: while being pumped full of her soul via overclocker?
[4:12 AM] Leafia_Barrett: much as she wouldn't want to use it, desperate times etc
[4:12 AM] Leafia_Barrett: yeah
[4:19 AM] Kiri: any further grievances with the line of thought this version of DoG takes
[4:20 AM] Leafia_Barrett: not that I can think of, no
[4:21 AM] Kiri: I'm just kinda thinking in my head how I could really go about making Sol's little revelation clear and cool
[4:21 AM] Kiri: and also tie into why the pillars are what they are
[4:21 AM] Kiri: where like... 'Vortex', 'Solaris', 'Nebula', and 'Stardust' are actually technically the 'real' four elements upon which the universe is founded, on a celestial level
[4:22 AM] Kiri: which boil down to wind, fire, earth and water on a more effective planetary level a few layers of 'weaving' in
[4:23 AM] Kiri: Sol being a very fire oriented mage because fire is the closest earthly element to its celestial counterpart
[4:24 AM] Kiri: maybe we could spin Solaris to be the earth one by making everything more plainly 'molten' and have Nebula be the fire one if we really want to drive it home
[4:25 AM] Kiri: is any of what I'm saying sitting right with you
[4:26 AM] Leafia_Barrett: the Solar enemies do all seem very rocky in composure
[4:26 AM] Leafia_Barrett: rocky or crystalline
[4:26 AM] Leafia_Barrett: so it works
[4:28 AM] Leafia_Barrett: spinning Nebula as Fire may be a little trickier but we can make it work, I'm sure