hiveswap mumblings

HOWDY: I notice I am getting some views on this pastebin? That's cool, idk if it's just bots doing searches or what, but if you're a real person and you're excited for Hiveswap like I am you should follow me on my Tumblr anotherwitchofbreath.tumblr.com and drop me a line, or hit me up at my Twitter @realsubtle . These are just my observations about objects in Joey's room and other parts of the Hiveswap trailer that I am making and sending to my friend over AIM.

Many girly themes. Pink lace bed, Easy-Bake oven, ballerina sculpture, Temmie(!!!) plush with a big pink bow, pink dolphin stickers, Lisa Frank stuff, etc. Not all of the details I list will be lore related because I think the thing to do is to just kind of like, absord as much info as possible for later processing.

So here are more objects that I observe and identify.

This really will be an adventure game, the little foot cursor is neat and shows you what you need to do with stuff.

That sure is a MANTHRO CHAP on that pink beanbag. A Koosh ball too.

Tons of Zoobooks wildlife posters behind the computer: panda, giraffes, tigers, dolphins. I liked that stuff as a kid too. Wonder if that thing runs Windows 95 and if Joey plays any adventure games on it.

Oh yeah that picture from the previous scene is totally Baby Joey climbing around.

Yep. Tons of Lisa Frank stickers everywhere. Love that intensely Gone Home feel I'm getting from this meticulously placed cultural ephemera.

Oh hey it's a Clarissa Explains it All poster. I liked that a lot back when it was still on, though I was very very young. Guess Joey did too. Wonder what if any special significance it has for her.

Textbooks and stationery on and around the computer desk. Seems like, whatever their home life, Joey and Jude do go to school and have more or less normal kid lives, unlike Jade, Jake, Rose, Dave, Dirk, Roxy... hey were John and Jane homeschooled or what?? Maybe it is like a steven universe scenario and they are all homeschooled who knows.

Closet kinda reminds me of a Wardrobifier but only visually, does seem to be a real wardrobe. Very pretty design, sort of fantasy-like.

Tons of glowing stars on the walls and roof. Suggestive of the celestial journey Joey is about to take. Oh gosh, check it out, there's that lovely blue-green compass thing that is Joey's logo but it is a glow in the dark thing on her roof. Perhaps a symbol of the journey she is to take, or maybe a beacon, a guiding light beckoning her to Alternia?

Little pink animal backpack. Ah, is that a red cross on there? First aid kit included? Maybe Joey was raised to always be prepared. She'll need to be. She comes off as kinda intrepid right? Her outfit is pragmatic and dare I say shows moxie.

Another ballerina figure on her headboard. It really is super girly which is interesting given that femininity doesn't really show up so much in Joey's dress. I get a strong Roxy vibe from her like maybe Roxy was always a strong presence in her life growing up, since Roxy had the super girly room also but was also totally the GAME GRL and possibly the strongest human ever to exist.

Framed pictures on the foot and head of her bed. Bed next to the window. Memories and always looking out towards something wider?

Coloring books, beanie baby looking things... rainbow sticker, doll in a blue dress. Indistinct object(s): either a couple of oblong Nerf balls or some kind of plush version of a Saturnlike planet? Ah, and there's the Tiny Toons thing you mentioned. Looks like one of those books my cousin had where you press the buttons and it makes sounds that correspond to the events depicted on each page.

Some kind of strange dead-eyed stuffed dog thing. Unsettling. A blue and white basketball.

Easy Bake oven which looks recently used. Viewfinder 3d things.

Aha! A WIZARD snowglobe! The Roxy influence becomes blatant!

The bookshelf... binders, tissues, jumbled books, ballerina figurine...

Oh? What are those? Tapdancing shoes? I don't think they're ballet flats... which contrasts interesting with all the ballerina stuff... They're also stylish and I want some.

Buncha stuffed animals on a shelf. Care bears. A Snork. Lmao. Snorks were even lamer than Smurfs and Smurfs are already as lame as it gets.

We pan left. Troll dolls (lol.) Jenga blocks. My Little Pony. Stuffed polar bear. A little alcove where a full moon shines through.

Scene transition. The alcove also shows Jude's little treehouse. Hungry Hungry Hippos. A nice old lamp.

A Super Nintendo Entertainment System. Clearly well used. Again, how much more Roxy can this young Nintendo fangirl get? Posters on the walls: Bubsy (lmao just like you said) Tiny Toons (same) Super Metroid (the roxy connections pile does NOT stop from keep getting taller) MLP, The Neverending Story... That Mother 2 poster really says Mother 2. How insanely rare is that to have in 1995 when "Earthbound" was just released? Did Jake get that for her on an adventure? Tetris 2. Are You Afraid Of The Dark.

A lovely little nightstand. A. Claire hugging Joey... What happened to you A. Claire... Why aren't you there anymore... Did you die? Did you abandon them? Oh, and a SECRET locked diary. What kid doesn't have a boatload of secrets to hide. Connect Four. And more things on the front door that I just cannot identify because they are cut off but I presume we can check them out when we are playing. Uh, one looks like a big hamburger sticker?

The game interface is super cool. Despite unimaginable hardships this is real and it is happening.

Outside, a beautiful dusk scene. These illustrations are SO LAVISH. A derelict fountain with a horned skull motif. A clipped hedge that resembles one of the green mouthed black monsters assaulting the house, or maybe one of those Basilisk enemies from SBURB like Jake saves John from later on LOWAS. A pile of fall leaves to jump in. A doghouse for the big cute dog that looks like a Japanese castle or something. Jude's treehouse.

Oh dude! Check it! I just got distracted and was browsing my tumblr and someone posted this redraw of Joey's battle pose! She really IS a ballet fan! http://anotherwitchofbreath.tumblr.com/post/151472181336/ananxiousraccoon-quick-redraw-of-this-pose-bc

Jude's treehouse, interior. The treehouse opens up onto the night sky, there's an oil lantern. This seems to be where he keeps watch of the world. There is a telescope and a copy of a Myst parody game in a box next to the window. Some kind of complex schema featuring a horned deer (troll related???), a SCARY WOLF HEAD (that's still one of the funniest running gags to me) with red and green eyes (cherub or Lord English related???) and a drawing of a globe for Planet Earth. Could Jude be aware of trolls and cherubs? Is this what fuels his alien obsession? Dracula poster below, at least I think that's Dracula.

A Mayan calendar picture. A bigfoot calendar with the month showing November and a date, looks like around the 11th, circled. Now, Jane's birthday is 11/11... and 2x3PRONG DAY, i.e. the day that the Condesce unleashes her plan and all the kids enter the session, happened on 11/11/11 in the B2 universe. Implications obscure if relevant at all.

A desk held up on cinderblocks. A can full of rulers, pens and stuff. Tape. Messy but pragmatic. A cage full of pigeons--carrier pigeons? Does he keep up with his fellow conspiracy enthusiasts this way? Books and plans poke through the cinderblocks. Behind them on the wall is a map with a point in Nevada circled in red.

Little markings carved at the top of the wall. Writings? Also the tree pokes through the treehouse and has a toooon of tally marks on it.

OHHH! There's a green and red lantern! Cherub colors again, just like the Hiveswap beam itself!

A trapdoor underneath an upturned rug.

Weekly World News posters and sketches of some kind of alien technology behind them. Tons of writings on a messy desk. Books, a ham radio (nice!) Cracked open geodes. Dude is always looking underneath the surface.

Some kind of... hard to tell... spiked ball and chain in the far right foreground? It's colored red and blue. Very bizarre.

Far left foreground. Carnivorous plants. Jar of dark red liquid. One of those sticky hands you get from the american gachapon things. I really think those are such a lovely shade of green btw.

Opened lockbox with caution tape on it...

Ok now we're in the hallway. It's like you said... a lot of Papa Harley's old finery and knickknacks combined with a lot of stuff the kids have strewn about the house themselves. An old bookshelf with books tumbling out. A furby next to a taxidermied jaguar head, a My Little Pony. Old rugs askew. That completely atrocious blue burlesque lady lamp. Old vase, melted candle. Big buffalo horns and fearsome lion painting. Uneven stacks of books, My Little Ponies and a stuffed falling out of an upturned box with the red cross on it. Some neatly arranged dishware on that nice old hardwood shelf. The nearby door has scuff marks from the dog. Blue ladies and African masks next to a stuffed i.e. literally taxidermied bear with wings behind it that is wrapping its claws around an old grandfather clock. Moose horns over the hallway door.

Laundry room/basement now. Joey fights with her flashlight, hits a centipede monster ballerina style. Much indistinct debris in the background. Narwhal trophy. Some kind of like... submersible thing? Hatch door with chain? Can't parse it well... Knight next to boiler. Typheus minion trophy. Whoa what is that behind the knight? Looks like... A giant Smuppet head? Uhhh... Could be wrong but yeah...

Globe. Devil's pitchfork looking thing. Hatrack with grandpa safari hats.

Washer and dryer. A note above them... kinda indistinct... Can't tell the heading but the two items in the list are "1. Don't mix (can't read) 2. Don't mix bleach." Instructions from absent parents or instructions from siblings or something? The laundry is messy... looks like a mix of adult men and women's clothes though! Do Jake and possibly A. ever stop in? Could the house's messy state be from a short absence, perhaps a week or so? The kids-running-wild-all-alone-after-parents-abandoned-them theory still seems plausible but there's at least some sign that their caretakers might be present sometimes...

Yeah. The hallway, Greek or Roman female statue with sweater, ballerina tutu (!!!) around it, cutesy monster thing (chained up in handcuffs???) defaced horse painting with stickers and notes. The note is clearly left by Jude because it has an alien sticker on it... it says "THE LIGHTNING STORY WAS A DISTRACTION MASKING A SECRET ABDUCTION!" Birthday stickers, an elaborate birthday hat (maybe part of the original painting?) on the horse... Jude and Joey's stickers all over the walls... a bench with Pringles all over it, some kind of treasure box with gold or popcorn, Moon Shoes underneath the bench... to the far right, crushed box full of papers and ripped up fancy pillow... purple flame bike helmet...

Gold armillary sphere with arrow on a pedestal... Deer skull with some kind of hair on it? End of hallway: twin cobra snake deity things... the female Binary Land penguin... a crutch, a conquistador helmet, some kind of Greek deity relief on the back wall... maybe you can recognize it? Zeus, Poseidon?

Ah. And here we come to the thing that is SO interesting to me but i wanted to describe the rest of the hallway first. So like... Joey's door. She has ballerina poster, airbrush of her name with her color, indistinct photographs (maybe you can make them out?) but also...

LOOK AT THOSE PAPER DOLLS. WHAT ARE THEY. I keep looking at them and trying to figure out who... Two of them look like Roxy and Rose! Oh wait. No. That's not Rose. Aha. From the left: A. CLAIRE, JAKE, JOEY, JUDE, ROXY, AND THE DOG. Next to them are like, photobooth pics I think? The other pictures are too small even to be distinguished with me zooming in here.

The troll planet. We've already covered that quite thoroughly... signs of Trizza's rule, (the Hiveswap has a picture of that poster of Trizza defaced by the lowblood rebels), the class society, rustblood troll kid that's friends with the coolkid, drones in Trizza or Condesce colors abducting kids, across to the other lawnring where the Hiveswap beam is emerging from... Bus stops?

And then Joey shows up. And that's the trailer.

God I am so excited.