> dir
>>> Directory of N:/LoreProjects/VentProjects

  <DIR> ..

  <INF> Description
>>> It's not uncommon for artists to make "vent art", as it's called, across their profiles. This isn't anything new for Kirb, nor is he an exception, but three specific titles made a larger impact in 2023 beyond the runtime vent art can have. They grew into larger art pieces and ingrained themselves into his catalogue.

# phiDOT Season 1
>>> "phiDOT" is a video series split across dozens of short videos. A majority are 30 seconds in length and consist of either a still image or looping/single animation. The characters are dubbed "Mimics" and resemble Kirb's various casts, deformed in strange ways. Characters & episodes are also grouped into "Sections", depicted by the rest of the visuals. Each Section uses a different color and distortion effect, also ending with showing Kirb in a new situation.
>>> phiDOT also names its Mimics (and itself) after historical sources, namely the Greek alphabet and Nordic astrology. There's no significance to it aside from some Mimics having the symbol in their design; it's just Kirb's fondness for playing with special symbols and mathematics. There's a chart at the bottom of the page for clarity.

>>> What's described as Season 1 would be the kickoff point. The process was devoted to not caring about a story and creating what came to mind. Some interpretation can be used, but overall phiDOT is about the presentation. As such, 8 characters are shown doing many tasks and activities, or otherwise looking at the viewer. It's split into 4 Sections and ends with Kirb talking to his own Mimic, representing his negative side attacking his positive side.

# Confined Atonement
>>> "Confined Atonement" (sometimes spelled in all capitals) came shortly after phiDOT Season 1 ended. As explained by the "two sides of the same coin" analogy, C.A. does have a story to tell, embracing Kirb's new-at-the-time [SonicKade sona] and fighting his intrusive thoughts. We, [The NegaDrive Staff], followed as supporting roles to push SonicKade in the right direction. There's 6 main episodes plus a few bonus videos, detailing the four of us exploring a small continent and giving further context respectively.
>>> As of writing, the story is not content-complete; Kirb burned out quickly due to the larger scope and lack of pre-planning. However, as we'll explain later, he came back to finish Episode 1 and will work on Episode 2 (if not also 3) soon. We were also not stuck in story limbo, able to continue our lives into the coming year with vague memories of what happened.

# SONICKADE: Genocide Run
>>> The third and final vent project was "SonicKade: Genocide Run", a darker take on a post-KNiF timeline. The story describes the self-imposed death of Kirb and his characters, being revived over 10 years later. It copies ideas from similar official and indie animation, letting Kirb & Kade traverse the internet from the inside. However, Kade seeks revenge for the death of his friends, catching up to Kirb after some time. He whisks many of Kirb's friends into the digital world and subjects them to a last-man-standing brawl. Further development leads into Kirb waking up, as his injury wasn't too fatal and only threw him into a coma.
>>> This story wouldn't see the light of day until [Funland]'s anniversary in June of 2024, and for good reason. It's more brazen than his other stories and needs to be treated carefully given the context. It's being worked into an OST and had a short animation + concept sketches made for it.

# "Continue?"
>>> In the 2nd half of the year, Kirb found solace in keeping phiDOT and C.A. in the back of his mind -- as well as started to brainstorm SKGR to pass the time. After KirBirthday 2023 came & went and 2024 arrived, plans were considered to bring phiDOT back and finish Confined Atonement. This led to Season 2 being made and Episode 1 getting released, as well as Genocide Run getting music tracks uploaded and art made to promote it.
>>> That's not all though: it was during Season 2's development that a spark went off. He decided to test bringing back [Timeline B]'s iteration of Kade, disregarding [The Reboots] in favor of fun. This caused a chain reaction; in the words of Phi, Kade isn't "allowed" to be there since a version of him already is, and while he didn't destroy anyone, he did attack with slight force. Regardless, Kade used phiDOT's outer terminal to shut down the gateway and place himself in The NegaDrive. This led into the ["NegaDrive Savior"] video, and how we started discovering the two Heroes groups can be recovered.

>>> What's more, Episode 1 of Confined Atonement released later the same year, as well as Genocide Run down the line. This led to Cloud being found and getting us one step closer to understanding how the process works.

>>> As it stands, phiDOT Season 3 has wrapped up and we are awaiting the next C.A. episode(s?) the coming month. There isn't much else to explain aside from full season/episode breakdowns, which would need their own pages. Compacting summaries to one page like this feels much easier, but we'll see if that changes.

  >>> WRITTEN BY
  >>> [ Hariet ]