Pikmin: Antarctic Survival/Story
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This article or section presents information pertaining to Pikmin: Antarctic Survival, a fanon game created by A Friendly Amprat. |
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- For the purposes of the plot description, it will be assumed that there is a single player character: a female Hairy Bulborb named “Polar”. Since Pikmin: Antarctic Survival is a tabletop role-playing game, the plot can play out very differently across different games, though it will generally follow these same general plot points.
Prologue
The story begins in the frigid Antarctic region, a mysterious area of PNF-404 known for its extreme cold and surrounding sheer cliffs. In the eastern lands of the Antarctic, an unassuming Hairy Bulborb is trudging through the snow, searching for food to eat and bring back to her grub-dog pack. Food in the Antarctic is scarce, so this Bulborb must always be vigilant in her hunting.
The Hairy Bulborb's hunt for food brings her through her patrol route, where she isn't having any luck finding food to eat. Her stomach rumbles, and she lets out an odd growling-whimpering sound at her inability to find a meal. Before she can dwell on it much, though, she hears what sounds like distant creatures. Food?
As she moves in to investigate, the Hairy Bulborb peers over a snow bank to see what creatures on the other side are making those strange noises. With her eyestalks poking over the hill, she is able to make out what appears to be a group of three strange-looking creatures. The Bulborb has never seen creatures that look anything like these ones, as they don't appear to be grub-dogs or Pikmin or any other creature she's familiar with. Instead, the group consists of what appears to be an overgrown and swollen red creature covered in needles, a gross-looking blue thing with yellowed eyes and two fierce teeth, and a large green and white insect which seems to be swimming around in the snow. The Hairy Bulborb considers attacking the group for food but decides that it's too dangerous as it is heavily outnumbered by these three creatures, and the spiked one especially looks threatening. Instead, the Hairy Bulborb lowers its eyes back down over the snowdrift and prepares to keep searching for food.
The sound of the Hairy Bulborb walking away, however, catches the attention of the group of three creatures. The large red one gives some sort of attack order, and it and the blue creature begin moving in to attack, as the green beetle disappears into the snow. The Hairy Bulborb realizes that she has been discovered, and prepares to make her escape. However, before she can do so, she catches the scent of the creatures and quickly realizes that there's something very wrong with them. They smell abnormal, dangerous... Some sort of bizarre abominations, for sure. The Bulborb feels personally offended by the presence of these things in her patrol territory and moves in to attack.
Charging into battle, the Hairy Bulborb makes several bite attacks at the red and blue creatures, becoming damaged as she bites down on the spiked one in the process. They fight back with unnatural ferocity, quickly managing to knock the Hairy Bulborb to the ground and harpoon her with dozens of the small but incredibly sharp spines. As the Hairy Bulborb is damaged by the spikes, she suddenly feels dizzy and dazed as her vision begins to blur. Realizing these creatures are more dangerous than she even thought, she tries to escape once again. However, as the Bulborb is fleeing, the green snow creature suddenly re-emerges, appearing between her and the attacking enemies and cutting off her escape route! The beetle shoots a huge snowball at the Hairy Bulborb, causing her to lose her balance and fall into the snow.
The Hairy Bulborb is quickly surrounded by the three creatures and attacked again, and as she is stabbed by more spikes her vision blurs even more an odd blue tint seems to creep into the edges of her sight. The Hairy Bulborb attempts to continue fighting, but is too dizzy from the effects of the spikes, as the pain of the attacks causes her hair to begin falling out. Becoming dizzier and dizzier, as the blue tint grows brighter, the Bulborb realizes that she's going to die here, devoured by these three vile, aberrant beasts. The Bulborb lets out a final roaring cry of pain as the dizziness becomes overpowering, and she collapses, everything being overtaken by the bright blue color in her vision.
Awakening
With the formerly-Hairy Bulborb rendered unconscious, the three creatures quickly cease their attack, backing away and regrouping as they keep an eye on the fallen beast.
Meanwhile, the Bulborb begins to dream in her unconsciousness... Dreams of images, of colors, of words... Things that the Bulborb never imagined before, or could even comprehend. The Bulborb's mind shifts and grows as the effects of the Awakening take root in her body. As the process continues, her memories of her past are altered and changed, as if she was always Awakened from the beginning. She begins to remember speaking to her other packmates, calling them by name as they hunted... Even though grub-dogs don't comprehend the idea of names. It's a surreal process, as if the Bulborb falls into a lucid dream, remembering and manifesting memories that never happened. Knowledge that she never learned. Names that never existed... names of people that never existed. Or, Bulborbs? Are Bulborbs people?
The Bulborb's stupor lasts around an hour, as the three odd creatures that knocked her out guard the area to ensure no other creatures come to interfere. Finally, after layers and worlds of dreams have unfolded in her mind, the Hairy Bulborb awakens, her mind rewired and her eyes opened as she enters “true sentience” for the first time.
... But she's still hungry.
As the Bulborb regains consciousness, she opens her eyes and stands back up, lifting herself out of the snow. She suddenly realizes how cold she is now, as her fur was lost in the battle. She does still have some amount of cold resistance, due to the inherent layer of blubber that Hairy Bulborbs have on their bodies. No time to think about that, though, the three creatures that attacked her are standing right in front of her!
The large red creature steps forward, and as it does so the Bulborb realizes the horrible, unnatural smell that these creatures were surrounded by before is gone. Without the unnatural aura, the three creatures suddenly seem a lot less menacing than before...
The red creature opens its mouth and begins to speak.
“Welcome to ze Revolution, mon ami!”
The creature has an accent that's difficult to describe... It's incredibly strange. What's stranger is the fact that the Bulborb can understand him at all... She's never been able to understand any other creature before that aren't other grub-dogs, as far as she can remember. Isn't it... family-specific? The thought confuses her for some reason.
“What?” the Bulborb responds.
The red creature... A “Porquillion,” she somehow identifies... backs up and takes a dramatic bow, dipping his head into the snow.
“I am Tatoursin, at your service! You 'ave been brought through ze Awakening, how do you now feel?”
“Excuse me?”
The Bulborb takes a few steps back. She's still a bit dizzy from before, though it's not nearly as intense now.
“What are you talking about? And how can I understand you?”
“Ah, I suppose it can be confusing... Allow moi to explain, s'il vous plait!”
“Err... Yes, please do. Who even are you people? Why did you attack me?”
“Why, we are Awakening, we are ze Revolution! Zis is ze future of creatures, oui?”
“Uhh...”
“Ah, but first! It 'as almost slipped my mind! Ze introductions! Allow us to introduce ourselves, madam!”
Tatoursin gestures to his allies, who were standing off to the side, for them to come up closer to him. The two of them come into the conversation, the blue one – a Tusked Blowhog – slowly tromping up next to the Porquillion and the Bulborb, and the green one – an Arctic Cannon Larva – abruptly jumping up and diving back into the snow below the ground, before re-emerging with a giggle closer to the others.
“Mon name is Tatoursin, as I 'ave said! I am ze source of ze Awakening, and it is my dream that 'as brought us together here! ... And, your name ees?”
The Bulborb stands stunned in silence for a moment before responding.
“I'm... I'm Polar! Uh, hi?” There's an unusual feeling as she says this... It feels odd to be saying her name. But that's odd... She definitely remembers saying her name many times before.
“Rush.” The Tusked Blowhog grunts out as he nods in response.
“And... I'm Yuki!” chirps the Arctic Cannon Larva with a flourish, as she shoots out a cloud of snow dust. “Nice to meetcha!”
Polar gives a nervous smile, still confused and a bit concerned at the events that have just transpired.
“Très bien, très bien! Welcome to our team, Polar! Zis is wonderful!”
“Uhh, is there a reason you're talking like that? I don't, uh, understand half of what you're saying,” the confused Polar responds. Hearing this, Rush lets out another grunt, which sounds a bit like a laugh, and Yuki just giggles at Polar's question.
“Talking like honh? Is zere a problem? Your Awakening, it should allow you to understand us fully, non?”
Polar just stares.
“Oh, he ALWAYS talks like that!” Yuki interjects. “Ya get used to it after a while! Heeheehee!”
“Getting used to what??” Tatoursin blurts out, looking shocked. Rush snorts again, and it definitely sounds like a laugh this time.
“Uhhh... Your voice,” is all Polar can think to respond.
“Mon voice? Ahh, you mean from ze Awakening! You can understand moi now, after all!”
...
“Oui, of course!” continues Tatoursin. “Ze promised explanation! I shall teach you of Awakening, honh?”
(Tatoursin begins to tell Polar about the effects of the Awakening condition. He explains how she's been granted a higher level of intelligence, and that he wants her to join his group of creatures on their mission back to their base of operations, the "Diamond Settlement". Polar is initially hesitant... But Tatoursin explains that due to the effects of Awakening, she would find life difficult on her own, now that she has been Awakened. Polar now has the same unusual pheromonal properties as the three creatures, so other creatures will attack her if she encounters them, even if they wouldn't have before. Polar is shocked by this and doesn't believe it at first... Oddly, she doesn't smell the same scent as she did covering them before at all. It's like the smell has vanished from them. As Polar asks about this, Tatoursin explains that Awakened creatures cannot sense this, and it is only the wild beasts of the Antarctic that can identify this condition.)
(Polar realizes that, to her shock and horror, her own pack family won't even be able to recognize her anymore, and would attack her if she ran into them again! Tatoursin reassures her that it's fine, her pack can be Awakened just as she was, and then they should be alright. But, for the moment, they really need to be heading back to the Settlement, as it's already past noon and there's still a lot of work that needs to be done. Polar is reluctant about this whole idea but realizes with dread that she doesn't really have anywhere else to go now, on account of the whole “Awakening” thing. She decides to follow them back, unsure what else to do.)
(As they begin the journey west back to this "Diamond Settlement", Polar is limping and still injured from the intense fight that led to her Awakening. Realizing this, the group stops, and Tatoursin has Rush provide a “Scrummy Bone”, a rare bone that has marrow with healing properties, and give it to Polar. Rush is reluctant to give up the Scrummy Bone, as they're rare and it's the last one he has on-trunk, but Tatoursin reminds him that they have more back at the Settlement, and that Polar is in critical condition. As Rush gives up the bone, Polar eats it, and the majority of her injuries miraculously disappear instantaneously! Now in better condition, the team travels back toward the Diamond Settlement, and Polar finds some raw material on the trip back, which they drag back the rest of the way with them, as Tatoursin says it's a valuable resource.)
Settlement
(However, when the group arrives at the Settlement, they are greeted by a massive glittering white beetle bearing terrible news! She tells Tatoursin that while he was out with his team, a huge group of creatures from the north launched a group invasion on the Settlement, and they crushed and destroyed the buildings that were under construction and carried off most of their resources! Tatoursin is shocked by this information, as creatures don't usually act like this, and normally creatures only invade the Settlement at night! Something like this has never happened before! Meanwhile, Rush is more angry than shocked, as he grunts at the Cannon Beetle that it's HER job to protect the Settlement to keep things JUST LIKE THIS from happening. The Arctic Cannon Beetle, whose name is Crystal, is offended and retorts that there was no way she could have done something against so many creatures, especially the larger arachnorbs in the horde.)
(As Tatoursin surveys the damages, he finds that it's very bad indeed... The Settlement is left with only a bit of silk, a single blanket, and some Raw Material. Meanwhile, Mamuselah, a Mamuta and the Settlement's primary surveyor and builder, arrives on the scene and informs everyone that “at least he was able to protect his garden this time.”)
(Once the initial shock of the damages has worn off, Tatoursin and the others show Polar around (what's left of) the Settlement, and introduce her to the members of the Diamond Settlement. Now with Polar as part of the group, there are seven creatures residing there: Polar, Tatoursin, Rush, and Yuki make up the group of the returning search party. There's also Crystal, who is the guardian of the Diamond Settlement and also Yuki's mother; there's Mamuselah, who is in charge of managing resources, building, organizing, and gardening around the Settlement; and finally Aranea, the quiet and busy Arachnode who is in charge of creating thread and weaving it into blankets and clothing to provide protection from the cold to the Settlement's residents.)
(With introductions concluded, the group of creatures spends the rest of the day filling Polar in with all the relevant information she needs to know about life at the Diamond Settlement. During this somewhat lengthy tutorial, they go over a variety of topics, including:)
- Tyrants, the most powerful creatures of the Antarctic;
- The different explorable regions of the Antarctic, and the creatures and items that can be found in each one;
- The dangers of night-time in the Antarctic;
- A strict warning to stay far away from caves;
- The means of dealing with hostile enemy creatures, covering both combat and Pacification;
- The different types of jobs and skills that are needed around the Diamond Settlement;
- Resources and buildings (and the dangers of creatures invading to steal resources, which is only supposed to happen at night).
(Once this introductory information has been presented, Polar realizes it's become night, as all of this tutorial time took the entire rest of the day. Without any sort of buildings to sleep in safe from the cold, all of the creatures of the Settlement end up needing to sleep in a big pile, huddled together for warmth with the single remaining thin blanket draped over them. Well, except for Aranea, who prefers sleeping in her web, and Crystal and Yuki, who are freezing to the touch and don't mind the cold at all anyway.)
(The next day, Day 2 of the story, is a tutorial day in which only the Chilly Valley can be explored. After this day, the game completely opens up and the nine Antarctic areas can be explored in whatever order and priority the players wish, with the majority of the game from Day 3 onward being completely open-world.)
(As the different areas can be explored in any order (and the many bosses fought or avoided as the players please) the only real way to mark progression throughout the game is the construction status of the Diamond Settlement. The Settlement starts small and unassuming, but once certain criteria are reached, the Settlement can be expanded from a mere “Campsite” into a true settlement, which marks the end of the first “chapter” of the game.)
Pikmin: Antarctic Survival is a game divided into several “chapters” marking major turning points in the story, but not much information about chapters after the first has been revealed.