Fanfic / Saetwo's Story

Saetwo's Story is a novelization of Logical Journey of the Zoombinis written by That One Little Guy. Like the Excuse Plot of the game, the story begins when the villainous Bloats travel to peaceful Zoombini Isle and take it over, forcing the native Zoombinis to make a break for a new land.The main characters are Saetwo, an impulsive, propeller-clad Zoombini, Echae, her roller skating best friend, and Xekrai, the overbearing but troubled son of Zoombini Isle's mayor. They have to put up with each other, the nonsense of the new land, and disturbing secrets they discover along the way.

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This Fan Fic contains examples of:

• Adaptation Distillation: Only the highest difficulty levels of each puzzle^note with the sole exception of Hotel Dimensia, which is shown in its third stage (several rooms are boarded up due to damage) rather than its final stage (which would be a grid of 125 open rooms), as it fit better with the plot. are represented in the story rather than all four; otherwise, it would get repetitive.
• Adaptation Expansion: The fic fleshes out the loose lore and characters of the game a bit.
• Agony of the Feet: Uloobu had his propellers snapped off by the Fleens. He got them replaced in the Epilogue, but it was still horrific for everyone involved at the time.
• Audience Surrogate: As there's no mouse cursor in-universe, Saetwo and her propeller or, during one situation where she's not present, Bruno, take care of functions that would normally require the player clicking on things out of the Zoombinis' reach, such as the buttons on Arno's pizza machine and Hotel Dimensia's top rooms.
• Bad Boss: Romelau. Midway through the story, it's revealed that even his own underlings are sick of him, but they're too scared of him to do anything about it. After his defeat, they all go off and do their own thing.
• Beware the Nice Ones: Echae is normally the nicest Zoombini in the cast, but he's the one who gives Tyscene a furious "The Reason You Suck" Speech.
• Big Bad: Romelau is the leader of the Bloats responsible for the enslavement of the Zoombinis and wants the fleeing ones hunted down.
• Big Ego, Hidden Depths: Xekrai; the arrogant, pushy, and angry son of the mayor who knows he has big shoes to fill. And his hatred towards Saetwo in particular is completely justified.
• Butt-Monkey: Uloobu, for the first part of the story.
• Casual Danger Dialogue: During the chaos of the Final Battle, Uloobu and Tyscene still find the time to flirt with each other and set up a date for afterwards, with Xekrai shouting at them to focus.
• The Cavalry: During the Final Battle, the Zoombinis are joined by Bruno, Ulla, and Captain Cajun, the friends they made over their journey, show up to help them out.
• The Chew Toy: Tyscene, for the first part of the story.
• Cool Shades: Xekrai, along with, presumably, about 20% of the Zoombini race.
• Cutting the Knot:
  • The Zoombinis tried to do this by going around the Mountains of Despair instead of through them like in the game. Their hand was forced, however...
  • After Saetwo's apparent death, the Zoombinis had Bruno fly them across Bubblewonder Abyss himself, nobody in the mood to finish the puzzle.
• Dirty Coward: Mayor Iadwi, who feigned ignorance about the Bloats instead of helping the Zoombinis prepare in order to save himself.
• Disney Death: Saetwo, after her Heroic Sacrifice. That she survived her fall was pure luck; a ledge jutted out and caught her. So she was still very badly hurt, but alive.
• Disney Villain Death: Romelau met the same apparent fate as Saetwo, falling into Bubblewonder Abyss; the Zoombinis never saw him again, and the Fleens are too scattered and broken to be a threat anymore, but it's heavily implied that he's still alive.
• Distracting Disambiguation: After Saetwo and Echae are caught onboard the Bloats' ship:
  Echae: RUN! I mean, FLY! ...SKATE! WHATEVER!
• Everyone Can See It: Uloobu states as much about Saetwo and Echae.
• Evil Counterpart: As in the original game, each Fleen is tied to a specific Zoombini. And, of course, being the Big Bad, Romelau is matched up with Saetwo herself.
• Exact Words: The Fleens said they would let go of Uloobu if the Zoombinis surrendered. They let go of him, alright... right over Bubblewonder Abyss.
• Face–Heel Turn: Xekrai. It doesn't last.
• Face Your Fears: During Echae's second attempt at the Pizza trolls puzzle, he's pretty clearly still shaken up from Arno sending him flying the first time, not helped by the fact that he wasn't there to hear Xekrai figure out the trick to solving it. He ends up fainting after getting it right at the last minute.
• Faking the Dead: When the Bloats' plot is revealed, Mayor Iadwi is stabbed and seemingly killed. Turns out it was only a ploy, and he acted as a spy for the Bloats, blending in with the other Zoombinis and alerting the Bloats to their plans. It was he who revealed the Zoombinis' escape plan to the Bloats, which led to the death of Saetwo's mom.
• Final Battle: The Battle of Bubblewonder Abyss.
• Flanderization: The Fleens. In the game's backstory, they were just lazy, destructive troublemakers. In the story, they're downright evil and hellbent on revenge for their exile, having convinced the Bloats to invade Zoombini Isle in the first place.
• Heroic Sacrifice:
  • During the escape from Zoombini Isle, Saetwo's mother shoves her out of the way of a boulder thrown by the Bloats, and is crushed instead.
  • A Call-Back to this occurs during the Final Battle, as Saetwo herself pulls the same move to save Echae, though instead of being crushed she's instead knocked into the Abyss (and takes Romelau with her). Subverted this time, however, as the person in question survives.
• Hypocritical Humor: At one point Tyscene insults Uloobu by calling him "One-eye". The fact that she has only one eye herself (as does her father and roughly 20% of the Zoombini population) is "beside the point entirely."
• I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: In pretty much the same breath that he admits he has a crush on her, Uloobu tells Saetwo that Echae cares about her more than anyone else and encourages her to patch things up with him.
• Ironic Echo: A line shared by both Romelau, when he has the Zoombinis cornered, and Echae, when the tides turn in their favor:
  "This chase is going to end. Right here and right now."
• Jerkass Has a Point: As unpleasant as Xekrai and Tyscene are, they do make valuable contributions to the puzzle solving at several points. In particular, it's Xekrai who figures out that the Pizza Trolls didn't share any ingredients between them, and if Saetwo had listened to him, they wouldn't have been separated from Echae.
• The Klutz: Uloobu thinks he's this, and he has his moments, but Saetwo tells him that he's really no worse than anyone else. "I can't see well even with glasses. And Echae... I've lost count of all the times he's tripped over his skates."
• Lampshade Hanging: The randomly generated nature of the game can lead to curious situations when areas are revisited.
  Echae: I can't believe it. They changed their allergies.
• Last-Minute Hookup: After their Character Development set in, making Tyscene nicer and Uloobu more assertive, well...
• Never Found the Body: As everyone points out after the fact, Romelau's body is never found after he falls into the Bubblewonder Abyss; everyone just assumes he's dead since he's never seen again afterwards.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: When Saetwo warns the crowded town hall about what she heard of the Bloats' true intentions, all she ended up doing was convincing the Bloats to start executing their plan right then and there.
• Pair the Spares: After Uloobu moves on from his unrequited crush on Saetwo and Tyscene gets rejected by Echae.
• Poor Communication Kills:
  • Should have listened to Xekrai, Sae, as Echae found out the hard way.
  • The other Zoombinis get the wrong idea when they see Echae giving his "The Reason You Suck" Speech to Tyscene while being out of earshot. Of course Saetwo heard their version first.
• Punched Across the Room: As in the original game, when Arno gets impatient enough, he uppercuts Echae into the sky, all the way back to the Allergic Cliffs.
• Railroading: The Zoombinis were planning to go around the Mountains of Despair and take a much safer path, which would have skipped the entire final portion of the game. And then the Fleens got Uloobu, dragging him straight in; they had to follow in order to rescue him.
• Real Men Wear Pink: As it is with all Zoombinis' sneakers, Xekrai sports bright pink ones. Of course he gets made fun of for it. Besides that, Bruno is pink.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Tyscene reveals to Echae that she has a crush on him, is jealous of Saetwo, and thought he would like her back since she wasn't around. The story seemed to be building up to where Echae would console and befriend her, but nope.
  Echae: Well of course I don't like you! Tyscene, there's not a single likeable thing about you! You're a selfish, overbearing, egocentric - gah!! Don't you realize how much people hate you?! How hard you make it for everybody? For crying out loud, Tyscene, you hurt Uloobu so much he had to leave the group!!
  Tyscene: And you're mad about that? You care about him?!
  Echae: Uloobu's a better Zoombini than you'll ever be! And if anything has happened - if the Fleens did anything to him, all because you made him go that way, then it'll be on your head! Honestly, you and your brother are the two most despicable Zoombinis I've ever met! There's no way I'd ever like you!
  • It was exactly what she needed to stop trying to imitate her brother and clean up her act.
• The Reveal:
  • The leader of the Bloats, Romelau, is a Fleen who directed the Bloats to Zoombini Isle for revenge. Saetwo only wrongly assumed that he was the spear-carrying Bloat.
  • Mayor Iadwi was a traitor who sacrificed Zoombini Isle to save his own hide.
• Revenge by Proxy: The whole reason that the Fleens are after the younger Zoombinis is to take revenge on their parents' generation for kicking them off of Zoombini Isle in the first place.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Two simultaneous instances in two separate locations, after the battle at Bubblewonder Abyss.
  • After Saetwo's apparent death, none of the Zoombinis were in the mood to finish the puzzle of the Abyss, so they had Bruno fly them across one by one instead.
  • After Romelau is defeated, it doesn't take long for the Bloats to get the news, and they abandon Zoombini Isle.
• She Is Not My Girlfriend: During their big argument, shortly before the "Reason You Suck" Speech mentioned above, Echae says this after Tyscene refers to Saetwo as his girlfriend.
• Those Two Guys: Iake and Weiswyo, Xekrai's cronies.
• Trickster Mentor: When questioned about the point of his seating arrangement puzzle, Captain Cajun claims to be trying to teach them logic, and that it will come in handy if they face the Fleens. Echae privately admits that it (along with the previous puzzles) does seem to be working, though he also guesses Cajun just has OCD, which he doesn't deny.
• Unfortunate Names: Just like in the game, one of the cave guardians is named Ignorameous, which all the Zoombinis find hilarious.
  Ignorameous: Why does everybody always laugh when I say that?!
• Villainous Breakdown: During the Final Battle, Romelau completely loses his mind, single-mindedly focusing on killing Saetwo. This leads to his Disney Villain Death.
• Vomit Discretion Shot: After the rough passage on the Titanic Tattooed Toads, even thinking of them made Tyscene ill.
• "Well Done, Son" Guy: Xekrai has a strong desire to follow in his father's footsteps — even after he found out his father betrayed everyone. He fell into denial and lied to himself that he would do the same thing.
• Yes-Man: Shyler the Pizza Troll is implied to be one here, following Arno and Willomena's sentiments blindly.
• You Killed My Father: Xekrai and Saetwo already had a considerable rift between them, what with the former being The Bully. And then she reveals the Bloats' plan to everyone right when the lead Bloat is talking to the mayor...