Dusty and Obsidian
Content warning: Explores topics of death, dying, and loss.
Dusty and Obsidian are a ghost created by Zichqec, featuring an OC of Gaster and his cat Obsidian. They have a heavy focus on teaching the user to read and write Wingdings, including translation tools, a practice mode, and Wingdings minigames. Additionally, all of Dusty's dialogue can be converted to Wingdings upon request.
Not only is Dusty capable of translating in and out of Wingdings, many of his tools can be applied to any other cipher fonts the user has installed, as well.
Features
- Wingdings lessons.
- Wingdings translation.
- Wingdings practice mode.
- Wingdings minigames.
- Customizable word lists to be used in the minigames.
- Dusty can be asked some questions about himself.
- G earned from the Wingdings minigames can be used to buy items for Obsidian.
- Magic 8 ball.
- Venting options, a serious one in Dusty's menu and a silly one in Obsidian's menu. There is also a gushing option in Dusty's menu.
- Other miscellaneous actions.
- Obsidian can be picked up and held by any ghost that has the corresponding events.
- Weather functionality, including random dialogues based on the user's weather conditions.
Wingdings Tools
Lessons
Dusty features 12 written lessons in Wingdings, covering uppercase letters, lowercase letters, numbers, and common symbols. Most of these lessons are mnemonics to help the user remember which symbol goes with which letter.
The written lessons are only available in Wingdings.
Translation
Translating into Wingdings
Dusty features a simple option for translating text into Wingdings. The user is given an input box to type in, and once they are finished, he will display their text in Wingdings. The user is given the option to take a screenshot of this text.1)
Translating out of Wingdings
The user is presented with a panel of Wingdings symbols, and can click each symbol to add it to a secondary balloon that will appear. They also have options to add spaces and linebreaks. Once they are satisfied they have replicated whatever passage they are looking to translate, Dusty will convert the text into normal letters.
Wingdings chart
Dusty also provides a simple Wingdings chart, which shows each symbol next to its corresponding letter.
Practice mode
Dusty features a few different options for practice mode. Practice mode will replace random words in Dusty's dialogue (excluding narration) with the corresponding symbols in Wingdings. These can be in uppercase, lowercase, or a mixture, depending on the user's settings. There is also an easy, medium, and hard mode, which changes how many words Dusty will convert.
The user also has the option to turn on translation tooltips, which will give the user the translation of any converted word when hovered over.
Finally, when in this mode, some of Dusty's random dialogue will change to be pop quizzes, based on his Wingdings minigames.
Wingdings only mode
Dusty has the option to convert all of his text to Wingdings. If he is closed in this mode, next time he boots he will ask the user if he should continue speaking in Wingdings.
Note that this option only affects Dusty's dialogue, not Obsidian's.
Additionally, there will be an option on the main menu in plain letters to change him out of Wingdings Only mode, in case the user is unable to navigate his menus in this mode.
Minigames
All minigames have the option to toggle which cases (uppercase, lowercase, propercase, numbers, symbols) should be used. Some minigames also make use of word lists, and the user can pick which categories Dusty should choose words from.
- Translation Challenge
- The user is presented with a word in Wingdings and asked to write the translation in an input box.
- Who's That Wingding
- Dusty describes a Wingdings symbol to the user, and the user is given an input box to write the corresponding letter.
- This game is not available for other fonts.
- Match the Wingdings
- The user is presented with a panel of random Wingdings, and asked which one corresponds to a certain letter.
- This game's difficulty can be raised by changing how many Wingdings appear to pick between. This option is offered once one round has been completed.
- Hangman
- A word is drawn from the word categories, and the user must guess the word letter by letter. The word will be displayed in Wingdings as it is discovered.
User-defined word lists
Dusty also has the ability to save user defined word lists to draw from for the minigames and pop quizzes that use words. The user can create and edit as many lists as they like, and toggle any of them on or off at any time.
Other fonts
Except where noted, all of the translation tools and minigames are available in other fonts besides Wingdings, with minimal changes.
Dusty will gather a list of fonts from the user's computer for them to pick fonts out of, or they can enter the name of a font manually. When a font is picked, the user is given a preview, and the option to adjust the font size. After this, the font will be saved in Dusty's menu, and can be changed to at any time. All font-related functions will be based around the user's current chosen font, until they change to something else.
Note that some of Dusty's dialogues are always in wingdings, regardless of settings. These are story-related dialogues that cannot be altered.
Holding Obsidian
If Obsidian overlaps Dusty, Dusty will pick her up and hold her for a while. During this time, the menu cannot be accessed. However, if the user needs the menu, they can double click Dusty a few times, and Obsidian will eventually jump down.
Additionally, when Obsidian overlaps another ghost, a message will be sent silently to that ghost, inquiring if they can pick her up. If the response is affirmative, Obsidian will disappear on Dusty's side, and be “picked up” by the other ghost. Any ghost can add these events, without needing to code to be changed on Dusty's side for it to work.
If the developer of the other ghost has set up a hitbox for Obsidian, she can also be pet in this mode, and will display dialogue in her balloon, as well as incrementing your number of total Obsidian pets.
Known ghosts that can hold Obsidian
Obsidian affection
Obsidian comes with a simple affection system, where the user can make her more friendly by interacting with her and giving her gifts. She can also be pet to earn affection. Once the user has high enough affection, some of her dialogues will change slightly.
Gifts and treats may be bought using G, which are earned from playing the Wingdings games and quizzes.
If the user does not open the ghost for longer than 2 months, Obsidian's affection will go down based on how long it has been, and will need to be earned again.
Other communication features
Dusty and Obsidian have multiple shared interactions with S the Skeleton.
- Multiple random conversations, including special conversations when they first meet each other on your desktop.
- If Dusty and S overlap, they will register it as bumping into each other, and will scoot apart.
- After interacting with S, Dusty will gain a special Herbs and Spices word category, and an option in his menu to ask about S.
- S will greet them if they are already open when he boots.
- Special conversations when S is holding Obsidian.
Balloon
Dusty and Obsidian come bundled with the Void Screen balloon, which is a simple gray balloon with a tiny version for Obsidian. It also has alternative versions for Dusty that use the Wingdings font by default.
Gallery
