Fun fact!
If the basic rules of reality get bent TOO far, the house explodes!
Or if you attempt to insert a new Body the size of a double decker bus into the place, the house explodes!
Or if you accidentally convert ALL new Sun-Johns into Sunny ZZ-Bronies, a LOT of houses ALL OVER the place explodes!
Although that last issue was quickly rolled back, John at least learned some important stuff about not spawning two rows of MASSIVE creatures next to each other with an incorrectly marked Sun cost for the Homeowner.
Because when they TRIED to plant a 50 Sun sunflower, they GOT a stupidly expensive Sunny ZZ-Brony instead.
Which, due to being called forth with a negative Sun balance, proceeded to drain ALL SUN in the area to try and fix the issue.
Killing all the plant spells.
Killing all the zombies.
Draining ambient Sun down to the point where it became WORSE than the nighttime yards.
…That was an oopsie, make no mistake. But those were problems of the past!
NOW we have the problems of today!
Like all the exploding houses!
Fortunately the zombies themselves were having a blast (literally), so the Realm was mildly frustrated at the ongoing issues but unconcerned over the process in general.
So onwards! Let's try restricting new Sunny ZZ-Brony spawns unless enough Sun is available for construction!
[[Pop!]] [[CRUNCH!]] Fuzzzzzzle….
…And uh, ALSO restrict it to spawn when there is enough room… Or only be born if it is strong enough to push everything else out of the way before it self-destructs due to being trapped.
ALso also! Let's just… Reduce the explosive yield of the 'self destruct' option, shall we?
Because falling apart should NOT be the same as setting off a massive bomb, thank you very much! Not unintentionally at the very least!
So um, scale this bit WAY down, because collecting extra Sun is nice but not evaporating five city blocks on death is just being polite… And make sure the home rebuilds itself again… And the other ones around this destination zone…
Eugh, this is going to take a few minutes.
Right, this should make future experiments less annoying! And less explody! And less time consuming!
…The freed up Sun usage would also let John scale up future Sunny ZZ-Bronies to even larger sizes.
Hmm…
Nah, it is already so large that roads are basically suggestions rather than a requirement.
Any larger and we might as well make my Body the home and take this whole zombie invasion on the road!
Hell yeah! Wait, could I attach a theme song to this template!? Let's see here…
[[Get your zamboni runnin'... Head out on the highway! Looking for adventure… In whatever comes our way. Yeah, darlin' gonna make it happen! Take the world in a love embrace… Fire all of your plants at once and… Explode into space!]]
Woo yeah! This was going to be awesome! Let's spawn one of these bad boys!
[[Pop!]] [[D̥̬̺i̦d͉̮̹̯͎͖͍d͚͍̤̳̞̫̳̤ͅl̝͉y̻͔̠̦-̯̰͎̯͇d̳̟̠͍̖͔i̭̩̖d̥̲̮̻ḍl͍̱͍ͅy̜̱ ̮̜͔̖̺D̤e̺̰e͖ḛ̭̞̠͉̪̗e̱͎̫̻̞͔̹e̼̹͕e͈!͓͙̙̮͈̲̥]] [[EXPLOSIONS!?]] Fuzzzzzzle….
Uh.
What?
John began reviewing the VERY loud and confusing data… Huh.
Note to self: That subroutine wasn't the 'theme song' protocol or some sort of speaker setup.
It was the 'spawn sub-zombies' protocol. Used by the disco zombie and others to call forth their undead brethren to the field of delicious battle.
Only instead of John submitting a zombie template to be summoned, he had inserted the heart of Rock and Roll.
….He was going to do it again!
[[Pop!]] [[D̥̬̺i̦d͉̮̹̯͎͖͍d͚͍̤̳̞̫̳̤ͅl̝͉y̻͔̠̦-̯̰͎̯͇d̳̟̠͍̖͔i̭̩̖d̥̲̮̻ḍl͍̱͍ͅy̜̱ ̮̜͔̖̺D̤e̺̰e͖ḛ̭̞̠͉̪̗e̱͎̫̻̞͔̹e̼̹͕e͈!͓͙̙̮͈̲̥]] [[NANI!?]] Fuzzzzzzle….
Ha! This was awesome!
Reality would like John to finish developing the Sunny ZZ-Brony template so further corrections may occur to resolve the ongoing issue of John's current living status.
Oh come on! Just a few more exploding musical Concepts… Please? Oh, let me try this one out…
[[Pop!]] [[M̼̬̘̣m͙̹ ͚̮w̭h͚̣̲͍̳͙̮a̻̠t̞̪̳c̳̭̪h͙͕͖̟̥ạ͉̯̝̼̥̜̤ ̩s̥̘̣a͈̠y͕̭?̼͖͔̲̪̤]] [[Oh NO!]] Fuzzzzzzle….
Wait, what? That explosion didn't sound quite right… And who was The Lonely Island anyway?
Reality insists that John finishes developing…
In a minute, I just need to find how to get audio loops to… Oh, right, the plants! We hum and stuff all the time, it must be coded into our spell templates! One sec, let me pull those up…
…Reality is concerned that unit Sunny ZZ-Brony will require further mutation to adapt to performing musical numbers despite his limited range of movement.
Huh? Oh, well that's a good point… Although musical numbers performed in synchronized vehicles is a thing, it would be REALLY expensive Sun-wise to get enough Sunny ZZ-Bronies together to perform something on a larger scale… Meh, that can be a future issue. Theme songs first!
John happily ignored the growing concern that Reality had over the non-addressed conflict that continued to fester due to no active Homeowner being available to 'claim' this house, as he was FAR too busy making sure his future Sunny ZZ-Bronies could cruze with proper tunes.
It was important to hit the road in style! Hell yeah!
~~~Pocket System~~~
Jessica stared at her mug.
This was one of the better aspects of Borg enhanced super science/holographic emitter based/magic enhanced/whatever the hell these simulations were after John got done with it…
This place was more Real than it should be.
Case in point?
Her coffee.
It had the taste. Smell. The perfect temperature. The effects of caffeine.
And even if she left the Pocket right now, she'd still feel like she had consumed this mug of wonderfulness.
Bother her Body and Mind would act as if they had sipped this ambrosia, and the nutrients and such would be provided as if consumed.
As for the effect on the Soul… Well, again: The holographic emitters from the Duel Monster's Realm were basically designed AROUND the Soul from the start! That angle was perfectly covered, thank you very much. Just ask any of her agents.
So she felt awake.
And aware.
And fully unprepared for this situation. "So while I was sleeping…"
Temptation was grinning her ass off, as she considered 'guilt', 'shame', and 'seriousness' to be something that happened to other people. "John broke all the rules of reality, became a cyborg undead plant vehicle before going on an insane rampage, before eventually somehow convincing reality to hire him to act as an advisor to existence directly."
Grace looked like she was going to cry. "I thought I had everything in hand, but everything escalated so quickly… And then I was scared to wake you up… And… And…"
Oh dear. "Come here, sweetheart."
She pulled the angel into a sniffling hug. "Shh, shh… It's alright. We all know the Frog Emperor tends to go a little off the rails even with all of us working together to keep him focused… And he's fine, and we're fine, and reality seems to be either tolerating or partially adopting my little bro, so nothing's wrong. Alright?"
The white woman just murmured apologies while her sister stood by awkwardly.
Temptation huffed! "Well, I say things didn't go wrong… They went great!" She pointed at the video streams. "He's distracting all the Sun-Johns with this current whatever-is-happening, so they've all calmed down. Reality is no longer at risk of punting us all away from this Realm… I'm getting all SORTS of interesting data from John as he plays about in that confusing purgatory state of existence…"
She crossed her arms. "Even the squished zombies from the earlier rampage seem happy about all the odd things happening over here! I mean, sure we might be THIS close to connecting this odd zombie afterlife to our [[Home]] network, which might do some really confusing things to our vampires over in Doe Park and stuff, but Grace and I am pretty sure we've prevented the risk of contamination spreading between Realms and stuff and…"
Jessica held her other arm out. "Would you like a hug too?"
The black woman shuffled… And then came in to join the group, hugging Jessica and her sister tightly. "I'm just doing this because you are both sexy women and because of sibling wincest, not because of any sort of mushy feeling stuff, alright? This is STRICTLY perverted wish fulfillment, like… Like a transactional hug."
Jessica hugged them both tightly. "Shh, shh… It's alright. John's okay, you both have done wonderfully these last few days, we are safe, the new security modules are operating as expected or even better… You both did VERY good, and I am extremely proud of you both. And I know John has never stopped thinking the WORLD of you two, and believes you both can do anything you put your mind towards."
She ignored any theoretical crying, although she did glance at her unfinished mug of delicious coffee…
But it would be trivial to refill in a moment or two.
For now, she needed to settle these two down and let them know that everything would be alright.
~~~Pocket System~~~
John blinked… Hey, what if we reversed things?
Reality didn't understand.
John grinned even larger, not that he properly existed at the moment. What if, instead of the Homeowner defending his house from invading zombie hoards… What if my home becomes a plant AND zombie fortress that wants to eat EVERYONE!?
He brought up the home template and began working on a copy.
Yeah, instead of trying to wedge my new existence into the ongoing patterns out there, let's make this a multiplayer raid event! All the homes around my fortress will be able to plant defenses and stuff, and then HIRE zombies using Sun to launch assaults towards a single foe: ME!
More and more thoughts began to fly as John began expanding the concepts…
As the fortress master, I'd be making plant/zombie/vehicle abominations and act as a global threat to everyone in the area… Or at least, a local threat if nothing else.
Reality considered that as John showed more and more data.
It would also allow a single location that can afford to spawn a Sunny ZZ-Brony to become the focus of DOZENS nearby homes, and introduce all sorts of fascinating new options!
Maybe housing clusters could join teams against John?
Allow them to trade resources like a market between them, via Crazy Dave?
Sacrifice damage output or Sun gathering to either build up reserve resources or hire more powerful zombie assault teams!?
This would both settle all these background automated processes AND offer an entirely new form of entertainment to the undead masses, without even requiring a lot of effort redesigning existing templates!
Reality looked at the proposal… But didn't reject it immediately.
Hell yes, John had a chance here!
As for the things I could send out to attack everyone, we can use many of these mostly stable 'brute force' mutation attempts we discovered while designing my new Sunny ZZ-Brony Body! No extra work needed, no need to heavily alter the home template and risk damaging any of the existing routines or procedures… Come on, this is a great idea!
Reality WAS a little tempted…
Oh go on, don't be a wimp! Where's the big bad force of existence that chucked me into a mutation cycle with a corpse and a vehicle? Remember when you tried to make me have tires for eyes and stuff? This is WAY less of an issue than THOSE problems, right? Right?
…Reality hesitantly agrees to proposal 32b281330 predocument alpha subset iii. For a trial duration, under heavy observation, without global rollout for a MINIMUM of three months review first!
Hell yeah! You won't regret this, existence! You just wait and I'll have all SORTS of hungry mechanical undead plants ready to munch on stuff! I bet it will take DOZENS of teams to fully knock me down, it's going to be so awesome!
Reality is rapidly reconsidering agreeing to proposal 32b281330 predocument alpha subset iii!
Reality has concerns!
Meh, it will all work out fine… Trust me!
Reality wishes to have more information about the defining restrictions for this proposed event template for prototype 'Raid Fortress' under proposal 32b28…
Too late! I've already started implementing stuff and… Oh. Oops… Uh, ignore that? It wasn't important and I'm fixing it now anyway!
Realty has even MORE concerns!