#Mensis got a new fit too.

[otiksimr]

I've been cooking with redesigns lately.

[synthwayve]

Hi have this absolute crackpot of an AU my delirious 4:00 AM brain came up with where Micolash fulfills the role of the Plain Doll. Doodles+rambling below the cut \o/

Imagining him saying “Ah, good hunter” has been killing me for the past 30 minutes

In all honesty I have no idea where any of this came from, I think I just wondered what it would’ve been like if Insight was the loose stat that does not progress the story, and Beasthood/Blood became the story-dependent stat. That brought up the possibility of Laurence and Gehrman communicating with Kos rather than MP, and THAT made me think “what if Laurence got whisked away like he was supposed to, instead of Gehrman taking the fall for him?”

Since the doll looks like Maria and not Laurence, I figured if Laurence were in Gehrman’s place, his doll wouldn’t resemble Gehrman. So I started wondering who else would fit the role AND. YEAH. Then I just went insane from there. In this AU, moon presence would be dead(maybe “washed up” in the field of asphodels rather than the beach?) and Yahar’gul would fulfill Yharnam’s role (since it’s the more insight-heavy area, so there’s be Old Yahar’gul and New Yahar’gul lmao). I think Kos would take an arm rather than a leg thanks to the placement of the Kos Parasite, but I still drew Laurence in a wheelchair because I imagine after a certain point he’d lose the energy/mobility to walk due to an unclean cut and eldritch shenanigans.

I like to think that while Gehrman has the know-how to create the doll and MP gave it life pygmalion style, if Laurence were in his position, he would 1. Not know how to do that and 2. Not create Micolash anyway. So I thought it’d be funny if Kos just dumps him in the dream like “hey I heard you were upset, here’s something that’ll make you more upset” because Great Ones don’t understand human feelings. Kos thinks having a curious doll that can’t be killed is a gift, but obviously Laurence would Have Issues with seeing his old academic rival who died horribly just be “Brought Back But Wrong” like that. Perhaps Lady Maria and her research patients would be a really big deal and Micolash+The School of Mensis would have been the first “faction” to die in this AU. I haven’t exactly marked out who “”swaps”” with who since there are quite a few characters who dabble in both Blood AND Insight, so their biases are hard to figure out(maybe Rom would fulfill Carylls role and you’d get to fight an ascended/beastified Caryll, The Byrgenwerth Runesmith?) idk!

This is all just silly half-asleep “hey what if”s and “oh this would be goofy to draw”s so obviously I’m just tossing ideas around. And doodles! I’m tossing doodles around too :,) okay goodnight

[fareehaandspaniards]

Oh so your baby squid hunter got a happy end too?? 🥺 Could you share more details?

Yes! To make a long story short, it's a Modern AU, but with a link to the past. I didn't think the idea through in detail, just a couple of things and the basis of it.

When I completed my playthrough of the game, the ascension of our own hunter gave me a great hope, for this is essentially the beginning of a new life for Yharnam as well, which they will now protect!

My idea was that a hunter (in my case, my Guillermo) has had his heart broken by the story of Old hunters, so as the Great One, he watches the passage of time - as Yharnam empties out completely, becomes a dead city, and then people - foreigners, settlers, and others - return there. Our new Great One simply watches the natural course of events, with only a little influence on people's fates to prevent something like previous Yharnam tragedy from happening. Eventually, most references to the Great Ones disappear from Yharnam again, knowledge of the Blood and Eyes is lost, and normal life begins again. Laurence's theory of healing Blood is preserved in passages of his manuscripts, so in part people use it in medicine, but it becomes something commonplace rather than innovative. The new generation doesn't know about insight.

And eventually, after so 400-500 years, Yharnam becomes more or less a modern city similar to our reality. (Modern world + ancient beliefs + old medicine)

In our hunter's soul there is still sorrow for the past times and for the people who died. The souls of many of them have remained untamed and have found no rest, and the New Great One decides, as it was in your post, to give them a second chance! The souls of hunters, scientists are reborn in the new reality, the only difference is that most of those who were separated by years - now exist in the same time and have a small difference in age, about 10 years or so (for example, Edgar in my interpretation was 26 when he died in a Nightmare of Mensis, Micolash was 43, and Damian was 55. In the new version, Edgar could be 18 y.o., Micolash - 24, and Damian - 29 y.o.)

Guillermo himself also takes on the guise of a human being to observe the new lives of his charges, who take on roles in their new lives that are similar to their past! And many hobbies they have retained even after death lol

But because people are incorrigible, something strange starts to happen again, because they are all in one way or another drawn to the forbidden, the secret, and even delighted when they find references to themselves in the past (only they don't know it's themselves)

The task of our Great One, however, is to prevent a new apocalypse from happening, but to do it as a human being - affecting them spiritually and physically.

This is my seedling! And a couple ideas for this AU:

Micolash is a DnD fan, this I know absolutely, though I've never done such a thing myself xD I even had a sketch of him with glasses and braces, I think he'd be a typical “nerd” that no one would take seriously at first until his creepy weirdness and calm attitude towards dismembered bodies is revealed… yeah… ahahaha…..

In this AU, it seems to me that Edgar could be his best friend and support, and they would both be consumed by the idea of unearthing the remains of an ancient civilization near Yharnam

Ludwig has a big Saint Bernard living with him:

And Logarius has this LOL:

(I really wanted to do a headcanon post on which character would get which pet, but Ludwig and Logarius' dogs are too firmly embedded in my head xDD They fit them xDD)

This AU has titles like Duke, Earl, etc., and Annalise would have been born into a wealthy ducal family, but would have found herself in university with the rest of the characters.

Logarius is a religious fanatic and a member of a blood cult. These are just facts, but I haven't thought about them yet.

Tomb Prospectors, Old Hunters - basically most of them become students at the new university in new Yarnam! But the ones like Damian, Valtr, Ludwig, Willem, for example, are still older than the rest. And Damian is still trying to patronize Micolash and keep him from getting hooked on drugs.

Gremia is a local criminal and hooligan who asks to help Damian with his studies and learn manners from him (I made up a whole romantic story there xd)

Laurence and Rom will definitely get married in this AU

Caryll can walk! Since there was no injection of the Great Ones' blood for him, he has very poor health, but is not limited in movement. And he would most likely be the lever that would have been the one out of everyone reaching for the Great Ones again. He's an empath and would have been led by the voices straight to the Hunter-Great One

Anything else is hard to remember! Honestly, I've left this idea in the “closet”. If it's to be taken seriously, it'll have to be done later and paired with someone else.

AND I forgot to mention that everything will end fine! They all will find peace, happy life (In their special ways) and say sorry to each other.

[katyspersonal]

Hey I explored Yahar’gul the other day and I got reminded of smt and idk if we talk about it before.

But it’s about the kids. 

Well lil reminder for people. We know some of the corpses in the chairs of Yahar’gul and the nightmare of Mensis are too small to be foreigners. So euh why do you think they were kids around Mensis & Micolash?

(like the kid here sorry I can't find better pic for now)

I got severals ideas. To put it simply, I wouldn’t be surprised if Mensis took under their wings the kids of Yhahar’gul or even some orphans of Yharnam (that nobody wanted or care) or more simply the children of members from Mensis and indoctrinated the poor lads into their cult as well. (Yes I can picture Mico giving math classes to little kids now, help). 

Don't you worry, /I/ have a better picture >:3

+ The interesting detail about it is that little corpses, presumed children, do not have shackles unlike the adult ones:

Hypogean Gaol literally means 'underground jail' and well, there are jailcells, so maybe these people were literal prisoners! Not to mention the vehicles you find deeper in Yahar'gul being for transporting prisoners!

If you remember, my theory was that Choir used children (orphaned children, specifically!) because they have had a higher chance of being heard by the Great Ones, as well as perceiving them on their own because Great Ones wanted to adopt children, unable to have their own. (According to Miyazaki himself, the general idea is that the more developed species always have less children, so maybe the most developed species could not have any at all, as immortal and perfect beings!) School of Mensis might have had the similar motivation for involving children in it - they would have had a better "connection" with Great Ones, and perhaps attract Great Ones to descend better! Maybe those Amygdalas played with them and let them ride their backs all the time xDDD Lack of shackles on the children does make me think that they were willing, whether it is because Micolash can talk to children (whereas adults will recognize his "bad vibes" fsdhfsd), because they were roped from such a young age they don't know any better or both. Maybe he promised them all a new mom.

Micolash does have shackles himself, though, which is extra interesting because like,... did he need them? My only guess was that he had to restrict himself, expecting pain or instinctive urge to run away. Maybe he was much more scared than we think, which I doubt because the cage is suppressing such urges, so I bet on expected torment. So, again, likely that children had it easier as Great Ones favour them!

^^^ But also, not all children were involved, apparently? The crowds of petrified people in Yahar'gul do have some little boys! I have roughly three ideas:

1) These children were of other kidnapped people, so, not orphaned! Thus, not really fitting the right emotion of loneliness and yearning for a parent that resonates with the Great Ones.

2) It is possible that School of Mensis separated from the Choir, since Damian and Micolash are using Choir tools. They might have also taken many orphans from their Orphanage with them, so they were already subjected to be the "secret thinkers"! (Also imagine every other time some kid gets orphaned, Choir and Mensis having a goddamn competition to snatch them xD)

3) Micolash only really picked children that have shown the "potential". Not everyone will be perceptive of 'smart' ideas about higher plane, ascension etc; even among children some people just do not trust such things or not understand them!

Maybe it is a combination of all three, but I am leaning towards number 1! I do think that the factor of despair was important for people that School of Mensis used. So, prisoners already had their willpower broken, and orphaned children were desperate and lonely. Again - Yahar'gul definitely had a little too many people kidnapped, many are just stuck there petrified without being used in a ritual or having cages. Perhaps Yahar'gul's kidnapped basically everyone, and then Micolash was picking out those he seemed fit for "further use", or "worthy of ascension" rather than leaving them be just a cattle. But of course the other kidnapped people could not just go home, since they've seen too much now.

Not gonna lie, I feel a pit in my stomach after writing this one for some reason. Yeah, my conclusion is a combination of children (especially orphaned) having the best connection with the Great Ones and Micolash cherry-picking the 'intelligent', 'worthy' people. I suspect that not all prisoners were picked, either. I also headcanon Gehrman and Rom as having been orphans, so when it is not one thing (age) it is the other (deeply rooted loneliness since childhood). I just.. well, it is kinda disturbing, isn't it

[fantomette22]

Alright headcanons about the old hunters squad pets !

I already drew a few things about it too, so you can find it around my blog, such as Gehrman's dog, Maria's crow(s) (I will re talk about this), Dores' snake + the various horses of some people. (i will just put the newest drawings i made here)

To begin, Ludwig. He absolutely loved horses, but didn't officially had one when he was younger. Instead he got a lil shetland pony ! his placeholder name his Leonard XD

He hang a lot around the horses at Byrgenwerth a lot. Maria even let him take care of her own ! (But eventually she will ended up with 2 others horses, 2 of the lil knights I drew not to long ago...) and Gehrman and her are with them most of the time. But Ludwig might got one of those 2 as well maybe…

She had crows too (already draw it as well). Ludwig might get a crow too have some point (see the carillon crow with his rune in the research hall lol). And when she was little I imagined Russian hounds would fit well !

Speaking of Crow my oc mister first royal guard, Vledemyr basically take care of the ones at Cainhurst (I think I'm really gonna nickname him the black hound or the raven of Cainhurst XD) yes he's link with bloody crow but shhhhh

And Little future bloody crow too (Voron) ! <3

Caryll had some augurs. lots of people did. (Rom (had bugs & spiders too) & Maybe Mico, Damian? etc). Laurence have a small white horse as Vicar too XD

I hc Paarl was the dog handler of Mensis too

Someone probably had a lab rat / mouse xD

And well there's Gehrman's (Irish) hound ! Before hunters had dobermans, then Irish hounds for bigger beasts right ? I like to represents that transition. He got one of the first new hounds (some years after Maria passed away). She was a really good dog ;-; i need a name for her (also just imagining our 50y old depressed hunter with 1O pups at some points is really funny XD)

I also think he had hounds when he was little. And my friend think he had a mule!

(So the little dog is from an AU actually,the happy one when no one die and gehr & mar have a little cottage in the woods) my friend influence me for the dog xD i found it really cute) i need a name for this lil guy. (thanks Robbie for supporting me on this XD)

And the complete page !

Yes they’re probably judging some neighbors really hard or smt with their newly adopted son

[bellringermal]

Micorom Fanfic (+MicolashXFauxsefka because things are hella complicated :P)

Takes place some months before the Mensis ritual. 

Translated from Italian & written last year. Enjoy ;]

Suddenly she was too close, but it was also too late.

He felt the woman’s lips pressing on the corner of his, her hands pulling him by the collar. A sigh, a laugh. “Relax. Yharnam is in your hands now.” As if that rotten town mattered something to him. He did not do it for power, to sit behind Laurence’s marble desk and look down at everyone else from the high balconies of Upper Cathedral Ward. He wanted not the idolatry of an ignorant crowd, the world itself was a relic of what it used to be, Yharnam was in ruins, a city no king nor vicar could be proud of anymore, especially not someone who like him could see what waited patiently on the other side.

Through the thin but impenetrable veil of material reality, the realm of the nightmare shaked wildly, calling his name through the trembling lips of young Caryll. Whatever the future had in store for him and the whole Mensis was not in the streets of Yharnam, it was not among the regressed citizens that haunted the alleys like a pack of rabid dogs. They were the devoluted deviation of the human race, those who will be left behind to kill and be killed like the animals they became. He and his followers were those who will go ahead, jump on top of the evolutionary chain and ascend. Mother Kos had shown him the way long ago, but her gift was wasted. It would not happened again, not now that a new infant was so close at hand… not now that the ritual was about to begin. Iosefka, or at least the woman who called herself so, nipped his jaw, still chuckling “Where is that little head of yours? Oh, what I would not give to see the world as you see it… the very thought makes me shudder. You’ll share your knowledge with me, won’t you not, Master Micolash?” “When the time comes.” He snapped, still stiff despite the blandishments of the false doctor who was now sitting on his lap and working hard to unbutton the scholar’s shirt and bowtie. “I’m sure it will be worth the wait. My colleagues… They did not have the slightest idea of the implication of their findings. They knew about Kos and about the effects of the brain fluid for so long and yet they never dared to… We are not like them. We are not afraid, Mensis fears nothing and no one.” “We? I never said you were one of us.” Hissed Micolash. “Not even if I’ll be a good girl? You know, if I want, I can be very, very good…” their lips met again and Micolash had to muster all his willpower to not respond at the intrusion of her tongue. Once he had youth, but now not even that could mitigate the disgust he felt for that pathetic shell of flesh and blood that was his body. Little more than a prison barely able to contain his thoughts and altogether unfit to put into practice their great complexity. One defective instrument, always there to remind him that despite all his knowledge and efforsts he was still just a human being, subject to hunger, pain and the weaknesses of the flesh. He hated feeling so unconfortable in his own skin, constricted in a earthly existence that didn’t fit the ambitions of his mind and unable to put to rest those beastly and low instincts that defined mankind. He hated the way his body reacted to the touch of that slut, how his hands clutched to her hips with desperate need and that he could not do anything to prevent it. When was the last time he had been with a woman? He couldn’t remember. He felt the grip of Iosefka’s hands on his shoulders, the touch of her smooth skin against his neck, but his mind was somewhere else. His wide-open eyes didn’t even see the woman clad in white above him. He felt like shattered, a few pieces of his psyche were driven into reality as splinters in the fingertips of a clumsy boy, others hurled at the star-filled firmament. He never had felt so disconnected as then. It was painful.

It was wrong, everything… All wrong.

Mother Kos… please … please, deliver me from this agony…

I was born a mortal… unclean, inferior, but have I not proven myself worthy of you? Deliver me from the idiocy and meanness of humanity, erase those desires that keep us away from greatness …

Kos… Mother mine!

I deny my own race, I’ll give up everything … everything…!

Suddenly, the pain ceased. It was a miracle, a truce or perhaps that double agent of the Choir had finally stuck a dagger in his heart? It did not matter, the silence was a pleasant company, the weightlessness a relief.

Then came a warmth, a familiar feeling that brought him back by twenty years, to the school that for so long had been his home, the voices in the hallways, the nights of intense and desperate study.

Her skin and hair felt so soft and warm as their foreheads pressed against each other as if to unite their minds into one. They had big dreams and expectations even then, oh yes, perhaps even bigger because of the fervor of youth. Their voices were lost in the gloom of the library accompanied by the rustle of pages, their fingers intertwined as they breathed in each other’s mouth. Carnality and intellect made complimentary, rather than polar opposites.

Rom … yes … yes, his Rom!

He would have listened to her for a thousand years, his back against the roof tiles and his star-lit eyes pointed to the skies. “Animis coelestis erant, corporis umbra iacet … ‘our minds were made for heaven, even if the body was lying on the ground’ … Sic itur ad astra…” He chuckled. He loved the way she frowned when a translation didn’t make sense to her.  “Then we go to the stars.” “Simul cum tibi?”  “I’m sure that that line is not in the manual … But yes, ‘with you’, my dear. Semper.” “Semper.”  (Author note: Always) The echo of that word dragged him down. He gasped like a drowned man, until his hands found the carved armrests of the chair. He caught his breath, barely aware of the voice of Iosefka and her gloved hands on his shoulders. …had he fallen asleep? Was that a vision? A memory..? “Are you… crying?” Micolash jumped up, pushing away the young woman in chuch attire “Hey, what’s got into you?!” “Go away.” He growled, hunched over the desk cluttered with papers, fists clenched against the table, his whole figure was shaking.  “Wha-” “I SAID GET OUT!” He roared, throwing the entire contents of a display of vials of blood and mercury on the floor while sheets of parchment and scribbled notes fluttered around like frightened birds. Iosefka needed not to be told twice and she closed the door behind her with a thud. But even so, it was impossible to ignore the sounds of breaking glass coming from inside. Micolash took his face in his blooded hands, his chest rose and fell frantically, tears running down his cheeks so abundant to made him blind.

Where Iosefka had touched him with her hands and tongue now burned as if he had been disfigured with acid. Micolash wanted to tear his skin away, clawing his own flesh to the bones, anything to erase those red markings on his neck. That wench! That Choir slut dared…! Dared to…!

Rom’s kisses came back to him, her big brown eyes, the words they spoke to each other in a soft voice as the night came to an end and the pale moon in the sky started to fade. Sunlight glimmered on the surface of the lake… that very lake that had become her prison, her entire world.

Rom, my little, stupid Rom! Even after all this time you’re still there, are you not? Hands that are no longer hands, lips that are no longer lips, but you’re still you! In that limbo out of time and away from everything, with just your children to keep you company… our …

The man stumbled and let himself slipping against the wall as the glass shards from the mirror he smashed into pieces with his bare hands get caught in the rim of his thick black cape.

…Our children.

I do not know if those… things…. really are what I fear them to be But I’ve always suspected it. Somehow, I always knew… Because I can still feel the shapes of your body against mine since that last night we spent together so… so long ago. I remember your touch as clear as that of Iosefka… how can you be more real than her, how can your memory be more vivid than the reality in which I wander and grow madder every day? Why, Rom?! Why did you do that?! Stupid, stupid!

He raised his eyes which had turned red from crying and meet his own reflection in the cracked mirror. The fragmented image that returned his gaze was that of a broken man of over fifty years, his hair graying, his lips tight and pale, his gaze as empty and lifeless as that of a puppet. A sob rose in his throat and transformed gradually into a crazy, high pitched laugh interrupted occasionally by choking breaths. “Oh Rom, my dearest friend! What a pair we are…! If you could see me now… would you laugh at me? Would you pity me? Me, a mortal man who’s growing older and weaker and you, a Goddess in your own right?”

[katyspersonal]

Recently I had a dream about like, 11 Mensis Scholars I never seen before wandering about. They all got seven bars tall cages too! They also brought altar trying to push ritual to bring 'their Lord' back. Seemed like they wanted to be School of Mensis again, albeit... maybe not as trustworthy to Micolash as they used to be?

There also was some other scholar that was hiding and obscuring his identity in fear... Damian that was scared Micolash would be mad at him for having betrayed him - yet still appearing! XD

So 11 scholars + Damian + Micolash himself that's 13. A very fitting number for such a deranged, unholy, dark cult. Not to be a cheater but I want to use this dream loredrop as a new headcanon. That there were total of 12 people who joined Micolash when he left the Choir, Damian included.

They also all were unapologetically middle aged + old stoic cis dudes that felt like boomers despite transhumanist agenda of School of Mensis. I like this too. Actually weren't close followers of Lucifer all males?