#That's for inky related stuff doe

[ask-thedevilishinkman]

so anyway, I'm opened for reqs too 👍

I had fun doing this ((myjointsareinpainbutimokay)

Got requested to draw inky flexing

I deserve a decent break now 😎

[vagabond-umlaut]

it's easy to ferry souls, not carry them

deep down in the realm of the netherworlds, there exists a rower who transports deceased souls from the land of living to the land of dead-

and occasionally lends an ear and a hand, in the event of yet another collision between their weary queen and her just as cheery suitor...

[uraume deserves a raise.]

▸gojo satoru x fem!reader; the tale of kore!gojo & hades!reader w a guest appearance by charon!uraume; uraume is a very nice parental figure to you [ooc!uraume but ehh]; the reader is honestly so sweet and hot-tempered...; the cutest doggy cerberus too is there!!!!; gojo satoru must be his own warning...; uraume does not like gojo [no parent [blood-related or not] actually wld]; fire hazards; 2k wc

▸ i've nvr read percy jackson and wtv i wrote here is based on my shaky knowledge of greek myths and stuff 😁😁 anyways, this header's from pinterest, these dividers are by @benkeibear and the characters used ain't mine. pls do not plagiarize, translate or repost this. enjoy reading! ❤️

▸ belongs to series 'wreaths of asphodel' – same universe as the work 'hey, where is the pomegranate tree?' — but you can treat this as a stand-alone fic if you wanna!

"why is kore so set on marrying me, uraume?"

it isn't the ask itself which causes the rower to nearly lose grip of their oar– but the way it is spoken: soft, solemn and faintly tense. they look away from the endless expanse of the styx before, to find you staring at your reflection in the inky waters, features unnaturally crumpled.

uraume holds back a frown. "has her majesty considered asking the god the same?"

"i have asked him," you mumble, "but i did not receive any conclusive answer in return. the imp was being too vague– must be a trait learnt from those shifty nymphs always sticking to his side."

if your faithful follower detects anything except dislike in your words, they make no mention of it. merely humming as they continue to row the boat, "and may this servant know the question her majesty asked the god?"

"two," you mumble even more clumsily now; they take a beat to grasp it, too concerned by the way you drape yourself over the edge, nearly falling into the water as you say, "i asked him two questions— one, if he loves me; two, if he wants to have children should we get married."

shock must not be uraume's first reaction to these queries, yet it is— and for a moment, it isn't you sitting there anymore.

instead, it is a little girl, no older than seven or eight years, cherubic face fixed in a look of deep concentration and fascination while the rower narrates to her stories from times millennia ago–

only for the child to morph into a young lady– no, goddess– the very next beat... slouched under a regal cloak too heavy for her shoulders, under a royal crown too large for her head... that sweet innocence of childhood nothing but traces now, having been withered by the foul, dirty politics of those damned deities high up on that mountain—

"what answers did the olympian offer her majesty?"

"he said he would love me and sire my children if that is what i want— i asked if he wished anything out of our union— he said all he wanted is to be my husband–"

something between a frustrated sigh and an exhausted scoff erupts from you, becoming an opaque fog the moment it hits the frigid air of the underworld. uraume plucks the oar out the water to come sit next to you, letting the boat be driven by magic.

"you're worried," they state, forgoing all formalities in favour of giving you some much-needed comfort. you never much cared for stations anyways, quite unlike your elder brother, the former king.

"an unfamiliar friend poses more risk than a familiar enemy, uraume," you mutter, resting your head on their shoulder, "why do you think kore wishes to marry me so much, if not out of love or the prospect of the powerful offsprings we might beget?"

"marriage is not solely for love or for procreation," the rower starts to explain, mildly amused before it grows into sympathy at your baffled expression.

ah, they muse fondly, not unlike a parent watching their child witness the world seemingly the first time ever since they learnt to walk, you who presides over something as profound as death yet knows not of the trivialities of life...

"it can also be for many other reasons like–"

the remainder of the words skitter away from uraume— cerberus is playing with gojo.

the fierce guard of the netherworlds, the three-headed hound, loyal and dutiful to a fault: hades' dearest canine companion is frolicking with the god of life in a green meadow, that most certainly was not there so close to the stygian marsh, when they last—

"gojo is laughing," your remark draws them away from their musings, only to find a changed shadow over your countenance— pensive yet not thinking at all; almost as if you too are floating in the stale air of your kingdom akin the soft flower petals...

another ring of raucous laughter pierces the silence, mingled with a delighted series of barks— cerberus is busy licking gojo's face now, the olympian reduced to a puddle of giggles as he scratches behind the dog's ears.

his happiness so clear in the stretch of his grin and the crinkle of his eyes, very much the jarring contrast to the last time—

oh. oh, oh, oh–

"escape," the word leaves uraume in a sudden moment of realisation, as quiet as a breath but loud enough for you to whip your head back to face them, confusion engraved into your scowl. "escape?? what is that supposed to mean, eh?"

the rower feels their lips lift into an infrequent smile. "the god of life wishes to marry you to escape— from his mother, or from his many suitors, or perhaps from mount olympus itself."

"wha– how– hah," you breathe out a disbelieving little huff, "that is simply ridiculous. have you even heard yourself? that is ridiculous."

used to such resistance from yourself, even more from your brother, they move to state their points, only to beaten by you as you persist to speak.

"no one in their right mind will decide to come live in the underworld, no matter how overbearing their mother or insistent their suitors are. have you seen this place? it's too, too unlike the lushness of the earth or the grandeur of the heavens he has experienced. and–" you add, a harsh laugh accompanying it. "gojo satoru is a god. a fish might leave the water— but a god never steps a voluntary foot down that horrible mountain. never."

"but the olympian never truly lived on mount olympus," uraume says once they're sure you've completed your tirade, "and you are a goddess as well. why do you speak so ill of the heavens then?"

"why?" you echo the word. they nod, hoping you take the bait they've intended for you. you do.

"why, because that place is nothing but a shining apple with a rotten core!! everything is polished marble and glittering gold there. people constantly wave at each other, lavishing smiles and praises like there is no tomorrow. everything is so warm and bright— what a bunch of lies and liars!"

familiar fire burns in your aura, the immense heat making the waters erupt into boiling— uraume uses their powers to cool the river down, lest anything disturbs you.

you're too far gone in your rage to be shaken, however, continuing:

"but it never can hide the grime and dirt accrued beneath such shine and sheen. nor the vicious minds and crooked hearts of those deities up above– what lame excuses of gods and goddesses, hah. and you might think me to prefer the light and warmth up there— you will be sorely wrong, my dear uraume!! i much prefer the genuine darkness and frigidity of my beloved kingdom to the faux comfort of the awful mount olympus—"

"is there no possibility the god of life too despises mount olympus for these same reasons, milady?"

you open your mouth and close it, then open it again to let out a very aggrieved whine– momentarily transporting uraume to your younger days. the rower merely chuckles when you punch their arm lightly.

"you're the worst, uraume," you cry, getting up and moving to sit on the other end of the boat. the rower too rises but only to resume rowing the boat by the oar.

"you never spoke this way when sukuna was the ruler— only because his baby sister is the ruler now, and you think she is very stupid—"

"as much as i respect and revere lord sukuna, he wasn't one to listen to anyone else," uraume interrupts gently, "you do, though– which is why i spent so much time telling you this. i hope you did not mind."

"hey, no," you immediately wave away their concern with a wide grin, eliciting a smaller one from the latter, "i could never..."

another peal of laughter and barks rings through the otherwise-quiet. you abruptly trail off, the same conflicting expression from before on your face yet again. though not without a spark in your eyes, uraume notes, almost as if you're slowly learning how to solve the puzzle who is repeatedly offering himself to you.

uraume keeps the silence you initiate, choosing to row the boat while you keep staring at the assortment of hues near the stygian marsh...

until you call their name and declare, an odd firmness in your smile, "well then, it is decided. i shall allow gojo to stay here for as long as the god so wishes to, escaping whatever or whoever he is escaping. and i shall protect him from the latter, should it ever come for him."

a beat. your smile falls into something graver. "would it be better if i swore by the dread water of styx, uraume?"

"uh, um," the rower finds themselves at a loss of words, the first time in seemingly forever, and they have been around since titanomachy– but before they can recover themselves enough to formulate a proper reply, a giggly voice joins in—

"well, if my rose does that, i would consider myself the most blessed amongst all mortals and immortals!"

— and the waters surrounding the boat shoot upwards in a scathing geyser-like jet and steam— the ferocious queen of the netherworlds visibly torn between remorse and terror, as they offer uraume a stiff nod and gojo a horrified look, before vanishing in a wisp of fog.

the boiling waters of the river styx calm down only after a twenty-minute-long struggle by uraume, joined at the very end by gojo.

the latter looks positively delighted, when the former collapses to the bottom of the boat, exhausted beyond belief. "hey, charon. was that a result of your queen getting flustered by me, huh?"

yes, it was. it very much was, the sentences nearly slip past the tired rower's crumbling defences... until it hits them– who they serve, and who they don't.

uraume decides to throw back a glare and a lie. "her majesty was not flustered, lord kore. she was enraged at how you invaded the privacy of her weekly boat ride, intended to make her relax."

"oh, puh-lease," the god makes a face. the rower is certain he would have been punished in the pits of tartarus for all eternity, then some more were he to pursue you this way during your brother's reign, let alone disrespect you thus.

ignorant and insolent, he continues, "in few days time, i'll be allowed into the privacy of her living quarters; what is the privacy of her boat th—"

"you're lucky you did not make such outrageous remarks in front of the queen," uraume cuts him off, none too kindly nor gently, "if you did, her majesty would have certainly burnt you along with the boat to a crisp–"

"i know," comes the defeated reply within the instant. and while gojo is still not in uraume's good graces, the latter decides to notch him a level higher, considering the god of life accepts their queen's powers.

not many do.

he strikes a pathetically pitiful figure, uraume reckons, seeing him sit then slouch on the bench. "was she serious when she said she would protect me?"

your loyal subject nods, certain and solemn. "yes, she was. the queen is never careless when it comes to making promises."

"oh, that's reassuring," gojo says quietly— only to recline even further in the very next beat– an anguished, grating wail tearing from him to the stifling silence looming near the stygian marsh. uraume wonders if it is worth it to steer the boat towards acheron... then push him into its waters of woe...

they decide against it on catching the desperation worn by the god.

for all it is, it might nothing more than a ploy. yet something tugs at their mind to pause and listen when gojo howls, "why does my rose always scurry away after tilting my world on its axis? why does your queen always torment me like this, charon?"

uraume stares pensively at their face in the sacred waters of styx for a while. then heaves a mighty sigh.

certain, this exchange between the goddess of the dead and the god of life will impact not only your and gojo's respective worlds— but the general world and everyone else in it, as well.

did you know, in the actual greek myths, persephone was never called so before her marriage to hades? she got it only after, w the name meaning "bringer of death". her initial name was kore, referring to her being a maiden & the spring goddess.

the river styx was called the "dread river of oath" by homer– in both the iliad and the odyssey [greek epic poems], swearing by its waters is the "greatest and most dread oath for the blessed gods" -> this shows how serious the reader is towards ensuring gojo's safety and freedom, and how deeply this affects gojo as well [source: wiki 😇]

also: the reader is totally ready to jump into the water to swim away when she realises gojo was listening in on her conversations- but then she remembers she can js vanish away and so she does js tht— the queen of the underworld, and of escaping, hehe

also also: the reader is slightly jealous when she is talking of the shifty nymphs always sticking to gojo's side. [uraume identifies it; you think it is js your usual dislike to such frivolous things and ppl as flowers and nymphs etc.] [hades is emo imho 😊]

▸ masterlist

[cheezeybread]

Back to our regularly scheduled Alice-asking with Anon McGee.

After playing the game for a few hours and getting through some stuff, I have some thoughts. None in particular for any sort of request [although, at the time of writing this specific part, I am unsure of if I'll tack one onto the beginning of this ask [I did not]. I am also unsure of if it will be related at all], but they're still interesting and maybe can be used for this stuff going forward [for as long as I keep requesting such self indulgent things].

1. Teeth are a currency. Not a whole lot to do with that one, but it is incredibly strange to me even still.

2. Many of the enemies are made visibly of this black, ink-like ooze. Not all of them, but a good majority of them. I feel this means overblots may cause additional layers of stress because of the implications it might cause [something to do with the fact that this inky substance was what corrupted Alice's wonderland, it sounds like it COULD be taken as a physical representation of that same kind of corruption, and the overblotter going literally insane. Could be good oneshot fuel?]

3. Alice is actually SUPER chill in the environment of the wonderland aside from when it's actively trying to kill her [although the reaction does not necessarily have to apply to the reader character we've been using as a stressball for these scenarios, I think it's pretty interesting and likely means that the initial reaction to the students of Heartslaybyul would be void should I have known prior to this that wonderland was actually pretty alright and fine for the most part]

4. Another minor detail that doesn't really mean a lot, but in the Hatter's domain, there's flamingos all over the place. While I was exploring, I saw several just sort of Around. In cages, hung up on walls, some- upon entry- were on those like.. Spitroasters or whatever they are. Many were on wheels being forced to run to give power to some machinery. They all looked pretty... Not alive, though. Also, they were strangely dodo shaped, but that's neither here nor there.

That's all I have for the moment regarding that! Feel free to take it and run however you want, I can't think of any specific request I can give relating to any of these except for the overblot one

Dang, this game sounds absolutely vicious, I love it XD

I need to take your mind and put it in a little glass jar filled with water to observe it (meant in a positive way). Maybe shake it around some to see what kinda scenarios pop out.

But the best I can come up with are some *. * ·imagines*. * · to keep your brain occupied for now

Imagine an MC who- in every single fight they get dragged into (which is an awful lot in the game lmao)- stays behind for a moment to collect some of the teeth punched out by spells and fists. The broken ones that are cracked aren't worth much, they say to their friends who ask what they're doing, but the whole teeth can buy you a lot of good things. Much to the horror of the Twisted Wonderland students, it's eventually realized that MC thinks that teeth are a currency here. They don't know why, but can only speculate that it's from the same issues from before... Riddle eventually ends up begging (or as close to begging as he can get-) for Azul to tell you about Twisted Wonderland's currency. Horrified yet intrigued by your grotesque idea of money, Azul teaches you about merfolk economics, as well as the thaumarks people use on land...of course, he's going to try and get you to explain the whole "teeth currency" thing to him, and what makes one tooth worth more than others.

The inky enemies would actually make for a KILLER oneshot, I might have to write something along the lines of it one day... Maybe Twisted Wonderland (or at least, the part that held the Queen of Hearts in it) and Alice's Wonderland are two sides of the same coin...? While they're both in different dimensions (maybe even parallel to one another!), they're both similar. The main difference was that Alice's Wonderland is isolated from the rest of the world, while "Twisted Wonderland" had different cultures and societies to expand with? The isolation caused some in Alice's Wonderland to "Overblot" (or, at least, some form of it) and become enemy bosses. So maybe Overblots are slightly different in each world, but they're still present!

Imagine an MC who (after having a few breakdowns at first regarding Heartslabyul) eventually calms down...to the point where everyone gets extremely worried about them. Riddle accidentally says "Off with your head!" to an unruly student within their earshot, but MC is so chill that they look...almost zoned out, their eyes glazed over. Like they're in a completely different world. As the overblots go on throughout their stay in Twisted Wonderland, MC's calm demeanor only gets worse. They don't seem to react hardly at all to- well, anything. It's like they've just accepted where they are and the danger they're in.

Mmm short and squat dodo-like flamingos. I like to think that our poor MC, after first seeing the flamingos in Heartslabyul, didn't actually see them, but saw their not-quite-alive bodies wandering around, some being roasted over a fire, others lurking ominously behind bushes, some in cages. All some form of injured or deadish. It would most definitely take a while until MC could see the creatures as they truly were (that is, alive and well, and most definitely not so creepy), but until then, they take it in stride. No one even knows how MC sees the flamingos until they offhandedly mention it one day, and Cater's just like "....no?? Why would we be roasting flamingos???"

[loud-kid2]

@peaches2217 @silly-inky more head canon stuff

Before Cecilia killed Bowser's parents the Dark Kingdom and the Mushroom Kingdom had pretty decent relations and an alliance, but that all crumbled once they died. The conflict between kingdoms was caused by a difference in opinion on what should have been done regarding Cecilia's attack

Bowser's mother and father wanted help dealing with Cecilia's siege of their kingdom but Peach's parents didn't help for two reasons, one, they didn't want to draw Cecilia's wrath to their kingdom and people and two, they thought Bowser's parents brought it upon themselves for getting in the mad queen's way.

The two sets of rulers had much different approaches to dealing with Cecilia and her never ending want for more power. Bowser's parents were more likely to object to her ideas, for a while they never told her no, only saying that they don't agree with what she's doing. Peach's parents didn't voice their opinions only going along with what Cecilia wanted, they just stayed out of her way.

Bowser was raised being told that Peach's parents were in the wrong for not helping while Peach was raised being told Bowser's parents were wrong to get in the way of a mad woman. This clash of thoughts lead to the loss of the alliance the two kingdoms once had, I'll get into it later but the alliance between the Mushroom Kingdom and Dark Kingdom does eventually get reinstated.

HC for what happened to Peach's parents is that her mother died in childbirth and her father just disappeared one day, it was suspected the revolutionaries that overthrew Cecilia had something to do with it due to the lack of trying to stop Cecilia's reign of terror, but they were never able to confirm anything

[inkdemonapologist]

Yknow if were talking about rarepairs/crackships….how about Sammy/Grant? Listen hear me out- i think I started shipping them a few years ago back during the og fandom days, but since my interest in bendy has been reignited, so has my interest in this ship lol. And im ngl, have you ever noticed how similar Grant’s office is to Sammy’s Sanctuary? They both play that same whispering effect when you enter them, they both have an ink pipe in them, they both have a bendy item in them (sammys bendy plushie and grants bendy clock), both have writing on the wall…

Even just beyond that, its implied they died the same way too, from drinking ink? And how they both seem to put the blame on others for joeys mistreatment (sammys whole “useless sheep” bit in that newspaper and grants “STOP THE WASTERS!!” bit on his office walls). and even though theres like, BARELY ANY GRANT CONTENT IN CANON, he does have a minor connection to the ink demon, as one of the flashbacks in chapter 1 is of the ink demon on level S near his office, and although this probably doesnt mean anything, the fact that the first time we see sammys cult is when we open the door to the archives via a handle we had to get from grants office specifically….👀

Plus just the miscellaneous stuff like grants va being a musician, one whose song was specially placed in sammys office- idk, *marge voice* I just think they’re neat! :)

THATS AN INTERESTING ONE… I’ve seen it around a fair bit lately but it feels recent??

Before I dive in, I do wanna address the ink-drinking – I’m a little biased, since I tend to headcanon the ink-drinking as unique to Sammy, but I feel like Grant also drinking ink is not something that’s implied so much as a headcanon that got popular? We can pretty easily accept that Grant transformed at SOME point, and the shared whispers imply that they were both under some inky influence, but that doesn’t tell us that ink-drinking was to blame. The note in BatDR about Grant looking ill could certainly be used for an ink-drinking headcanon, too, but as far as Evidence I think all it tells us for sure is that Grant was Very Stressed. [also trying to merge BatDR Grant and BatIM Grant into one entity seems messier the longer I think about it but I CANT GET DISTRACTED BY THAT NOW, THATS FOR ANOTHER POST]

ANYWAY, all the little things about this one having a valve in that one’s office and this one being voiced by a guy who did a song that’s in the other one’s office are neat but ultimately I feel like that stuff isn’t want sells a ship, for me – the biggest thing is a compelling dynamic between the characters.

There’s so much between these two that complicates them –

-- good money and hiring his own people were Sammy’s two big asks when he took the Music Director job, so he could easily be a source of financial strain and seen as one of the “wasters” Grant is so frustrated with, and it’s also not hard to imagine Sammy blaming Grant as one of the useless sheep who can’t do his job right once paychecks start coming in late. Add to that Grant being described as having no creativity at all in the Employee’s Handbook, and trying to imagine what he would relate to in Sammy “my special interest is music” Lawrence. Though I don’t know, that one could be fun. Does Grant like music despite not “getting” it? Can Sammy and Grant relate to each other through the intersection of music and math? Or does Grant just conceptualise music as a kind of math, which Joey thinks is boring but Sammy knows is not far off, and Sammy with his partially jazz background is INTRIGUING to Grant because what he’s making sounds good but isn’t following the rules…? IDK, Grant and Sammy learning to understand each other through understanding each other’s work is a neat thought.

On the surface they’re both frustrated men who want things to be under control and are frustrated with Joey’s spontaneity, but while Grant is having a meltdown over WHAT WILL JOEY SAY?, Sammy is screaming about pleasing a god rather than a man and certain that he’s found the one who will Set Them Free. Grant’s characterisation could be taken in a lot of directions, but it’s not hard to imagine him as the phobic to Sammy’s counterphobic.

Which is INTERESTING, because you get a dynamic that seems to work, as Sammy gives the impression of a leader who can offer certainty and something to depend on – and you CAN depend on him – but he’s actually a follower at heart who desperately needs someone to answer to, someone to believe in, and I don’t know if Grant can be that someone. Sammy and Grant BOTH want to be the one behind the scenes with someone else in the spotlight. On the other hand… we know Grant’s massaging numbers and fudging things and illegally hiding assets. It wouldn’t be hard to characterise him with a bit of ruthlessness as well, someone who’s not afraid to break the rules when he feels he has to; while Sammy seems frustrated, overstimulated, and perpetually at odds with a system he doesn’t fit in, Grant is willing to learn the system well enough to bend the rules to his advantage and know how to get away with it.

If you go with this take, you get a pair that could be dangerously effective but also dangerously fragile. I don’t think they would challenge or change each other so much as just reinforce each other’s ruthless caution – as long as they’re in cahoots, they’d be loyal to each other and value no principle above each others’ well-being. But the instant either of them mistrusts the other, they’d combust.

[all-the-pacs]

#2 - Pac-Man (1980)

If you put a conch shell up to your ear, you'll hear Pac-Man! Much less popular is putting your finger in your ear and scratching it to hear the sea.

Welcome to the 1980s, and for that matter, welcome to the genesis of Pac-Man himself! Yep, it only took us... 3 posts, but we're actually playing the original Pac-Man. No preamble, no Galaxian, no nothin'.

Now, the development of the original Pac-Man is something so, so many people have talked at length about and may as well have made their thesis. Stuff like how originally the four ghosts were all the same color, or maybe the maze being different, or other such details.

Now, that's way out of our jurisdiction as we're here to play the finished games and talk about them at length--however iconic they may be. So, our apologies in advance as this post sounds a lot like stuff you've most likely already heard thousands of times. But if we skipped this game on the principle of "we've already played it many, many times", it wouldn't feel right, y'know?

...So anyways we would like to remark that, yes, the flyer we showcased is to be trusted, and we are playing the Midway version today. Why not the Japanese original? Well, there's one good reason that's tangentially related to what we discussed above:

Yep, over in Japan, he started out as Puck Man, not Pac-Man. In fact, that's not the only character name difference, as the ghost gang were also called by completely different names in this version as well. Later on, however, as Pac-Man exploded in popularity worldwide, eventually Puck Man also turned into Pac-Man over in Japan as well. It's probably for the best, too, because remove just a little connecting line in that P, and you get a very different experience.

The starting screen for Pac-Man is about as basic as you get. 10 points for normal pellets. 50 points for the blinking Power Pellets (not pictured, as they were mid-blink). 4 characters in addition to Pac-Man, with their personalities (their "character", if you may) and nicknames displayed.

Blinky: The "shadow" of the group. He tries his best to be Pac-Man's shadow by simply targetting wherever he is, plain and simple. He likes the top right corner.

Pinky: The "speedy" one of the group. Always one step ahead, she's... well, aiming for a little bit ahead of where Pac-Man currently is. She likes the top left corner.

Inky: The "bashful" part of the group. As you can probably imagine, he doesn't care much for targetting Pac-Man alone, usually paying attention to where Blinky is and where Pac-Man is directly headed towards and making his move if Blinky's also in hot pursuit. Multi-faceted, that Inky. He likes the bottom right corner.

Clyde: The "pokey" member of the group. He doesn't really try to go for Pac-Man directly, more than he does try to play goalie for his own little portion of the maze, only dipping away from it to try and take a quick swing. He likes the bottom left corner.

You might notice I'm going into their behaviors in addition to their characters, and... Well, that's for a good reason. While Galaxian was content to have enemies act more-or-less the same way beyond two of them employing a buddy system and having slightly differing flight patterns, Pac-Man's true revolution was that it was the start of what we now know as AI in terms of gaming.

Before now, it was almost unheard of for enemies in a game to be able to look at the immediate state of the game, and react accordingly and consistently, with most early attempts at this being very rudimentary, or involving some form of turn-based. This was the first big game where enemies would respond to your inputs in real time, and man do we take that for granted nowadays.

Anyways, that start screen is similarly incredibly simple. Just one extra life like in Galaxian, but at least in this case, the scoring is a lot more dynamic than it is in Galaxian--so, y'know, it's actually possible to get it! (We jest, we jest. But we do honestly feel like in comparison to Galaxian's requirements for an extra life being way too high, Pac-Man's is a bit too low. Literally all it took was one run where we focused more on actually playing the game than grabbing screenshots for this project for us to get it trivially.)

We're gonna be real with you--from this point on, a lot of our observations are probably gonna be real banal sounding, because we've basically gone over a lot of the more complex stuff (albeit skimming over it, admittedly.) But on the extreme off-chance you aren't aware, yes, the gameplay of Pac-Man involves you being put in the center of a symmetrical maze with two tunnels to the left and right. You're able to go through those tunnels in order to circle back around to the other side of the maze. Across the maze are a bunch of little pellets/dots, as well as four Power Pellets/Energizer Pellets/Flashing Power Bait/Gaaaaah okay let's talk a little bit about this in a bit, but all you need to know is you need to eat all the dots in the maze to win the level. If the ghosts make contact, you die, and you lose a life.

Now, this is something we will make a pointed mention of now. At the start of Pac-Man, you start by moving left by default. Left! Keep this in mind for later. It will be very, very important. ...Not for this game, though, we'll only really start to care about starting by moving left later. Much later, depending on how things go.

Oh, and while we're here--if you eat a certain quantity of pellets, a Bonus Fruit will spawn in the center, right below the Ghost pen. Eat it for extra points--the higher the round, you'll be seeing different bonus fruits, and they'll be worth more and more points, up to 5000! Yep, much like most other Arcade games of the era, it's a simple "get the highest score" deal, with no finite "end" defined by the game itself. (If you're raising an eyebrow, don't worry, we'll get back to you.)

And of course, we couldn't talk about this game without talking about the Power Pellets/other names. Of course, with four enemies that all behave differently in hot pursuit, you need a little something to combat them to keep it fair. You can always outmaneuver them, but alternatively you can grab one of the four Power Pellets in the maze. By grabbing them, the ghosts will not only turn around immediately, but turn blue and try to avoid Pac-Man for a limited time. If you actually touch a ghost in this state, Pac-Man will gobble them up, leaving just their eyeballs to wander back to the ghost pen, where they will reappear as normal. This is already a great tactic for survival, but there's also a risk-reward element; the more ghosts you eat, the more points you get. 200 for the first, 400 for the second, 800 for the third, and 1600 for the fourth! Note this stacks upon itself, so if you manage to eat all 4 ghosts in one Power Pellet, you're looking at 3000 points right there.

...Oh, right. Real quick, let me get back to you on the whole "Power Pellet" naming confusion thing. See, early on, Arcade games weren't exactly powerful to display full-on information about the games just yet. Usually that'd be saved for being on the actual cabinet itself, on the sides of the screens. As a result, basically anything not in the actual game data itself was heavily, heavily susceptible to inconsistent names. The pellets didn't have a name in-game, so in the future they'd get all sorts of names, officially and unofficially. Let's just agree to call the small ones pellets and the large ones Power Pellets for the time being, okay?

Also, here's a detail some people don't know--the ghosts aren't just, all-the-time in pursuit according to their AI. On some occasions, usually at the very start of a round, they'll instead beeline for their respective corners. From there, they'll alternate between chasing after Pac-Man and playing goalie for their respective corners of the maze. This is part of what makes the ghosts seem so "erratic" in this game, as one moment they will directly target you, and the next moment they will disregard everything and instead head right for their respective patrol points.

You might be asking what happens if you eat all the pellets, and usually, it's pretty underwhelming. The maze blinks between blue and white, and then the maze resets anew, marking your progress by showing the Bonus Fruit of the current level on the rightmost spot.

Of course, something happens if you beat enough levels, unlike in Galaxian...

The Intermissions! If you clear certain rounds, the game will play these little skit cutscenes featuring Pac-Man and Blinky, set to a repeating jingle. After this, the game starts another round as you'd expect it to. The first intermission is fairly standard, with nothing much to say on it.

The second intermission, however... Is perhaps a little confusing. Maybe another one will clear things up?

Oh! While we're over here, we might as well bring this up. The first few bonus fruit are indeed fruit--Cherries, Strawberries, Oranges, Apples, then Melons--but then after those, the bonus fruit get a little more... esoteric. For example, after melons are the Flagship from Galaxian! What do you suppose that tastes like, anyways? Not pictures is that after this is a Bell, and then after that is a Key. As in, like, a standard key for a padlock! After the key, there's no change in both visuals and point values, it's just keys for days. This is also exactly why we even bothered talking about Galaxian, by the way.

As for that last intermission...

...Well then! Talk about a good ol' case of early installment weirdness, huh?

Okay, it's worth mentioning that originally, Namco and Bally Midway very insistently referred to the Ghost gang as "Monsters". Not Ghosts. Presumably, this was to cover the truth all along that the ghosts... Weren't ghosts at all! Instead, they had these weird slug designs.

However, uh, very few people actually called them monsters. People were content to just call them ghosts because, well, it moves like a ghost, it looks like a ghost, it makes a weird little "wheww-wheww" like a ghost might, they were ghosts! It seems like this concept of them secretly being these weird slug-like creatures was scrapped very early on, as we think the idea that they are very specifically ghosts crops up as early as the mid-80s--and when they did that, Namco never looked back. They didn't quite give up on the name "Monsters" so soon, and as we'll see in a bit, this didn't stop them from allowing some strange non-ghostly depictions of these guys very early on, but this angle definitely didn't last very long. Quite funny, seeing as this is basically as close to a "plot twist" the game has to offer!

Now, some of you who are aware of glitches in video games might've heard us mention the game goes on forever and hold contention with that. And to be truthful--there is, indeed, a glitch that prevents the game from lasting forever. But we've made the executive decision to discuss that at a later date. There's two reasons for that:

There's something much, much later down the road that expressly relies on knowing about this glitch anyways.

This post is going on long enough, and we think discussion of that belongs in its own post, so it can have the gravitas it deserves.

So, for the time being, we wait on it. Sorry!

...Besides, next time, we've got something much sillier. Believe it or not, this is the only 1980 game they released. Really! It took a moment for Pac-Man to really simmer and take off, and so join us next time for the start of 1981. And, uh... Not to spoil anything, but you know how we said we only brought up Galaxian because of this game? Weeeell... We might've lied a little bit...

Oh yeah. Those familiar with bootlegs might have just had a siren go off in their brain, and we're goin' there. We're already invoking our "notable bootlegs are fine" stipulation. Whether you're familiar or not, however, we'll be seein' you around!

[midnightfire830]

Can we hear more about your au about Cuphead being a prince asking Bendy to help him see the world a little bit? Please. :)

Of course! How about I tell you some about the more minor characters in my AU? If there are characters from IM or mentioned in my AU you’d like to hear specifically I’d be happy to answer!

IM Characters

The circus crew works for the Dish family as entertainers. Each person doing a different type of comedy. Mickey is very involved with music. He mostly sings and plays instruments for the royal family. He also helps to coordinate bands and performances for special events, festivals, balls and dinner parties. Donald and Goofy do a lot of slap-schtick/physical humor and jokes. Sometimes do little skits of them fighting or royally messing up tasks. Kinda like clowns or what they’d normally do in the old cartoons. Donald is always angry AF and goofy is just… well… goofy. Ozwald is the jack of all trades, he does kind of a little bit of everything. He does a lot of magic tricks and sleight of hand with the help of his talent. He’s especially good with more daring/dangerous tricks like stuff to do with throwing knives. He sings a little too with Mickey and helps him out when he needs to. He also makes a lot of sarcastic and witty jokes. Cuphead and Ozwald get along pretty well with their snarky personalities. The bunny kids also help out with the circus’ crews performances. Some play instruments while others help handle props and things. Oh! And Finley and Sammy are also part of the entertainers. They do skits and help Mickey with music sometimes. But they mostly do acting.

Granny Gopher from Inky Mystery is the castle’s head cook. She has a crew of cooks that do a lot of work but she helps to manage them and plan meals. She’s pretty much Cup and Mug’s unofficial grandmother. When Cup is sick Granny is always willing to help take care of him. She’ll sneak him desserts when he’s not allowed to eat sweets. She also is one of the only people who really respects Cuphead as the next king. Granny and Cuphead are good friends. She teaches him to sew, knit, cook, and he reads to her. She’s probably one of my favorite parts about this AU.

King Dice is the advisor to the King and Queen, and he is an absolute JERK. Not only has he been poisoning Cuphead since he was around 13, he has also spent that span of time wearing down on Cuphead’s self esteem and self worth. He specifically treats Cuphead like crap. Pretty much emotionally manipulating and sabotaging him into making him fail and further doubt himself. Granny is one of the only people who stands up to Dice and tries to stop him from manipulating Cuphead.

Holly is a witch who works with rune magic and potions. She lives outside of a village whose members fear her as a ‘horrible evil witch’. Where in actuality the villagers just spread rumors and fear her for having magic.

Our OCs

Yes we put our OCs in this. They’re mostly minor characters dw.

Nexx is a minotaur, technically. They’re based off of Scottish Highland cows (the ones with the long fur). Though they’re more like a centaur, having almost the full body of a highland. They can more or less shift between this- so they can go from centaur like, to minotaur like (the two legs), and full human. Nexx lives in the country side in a cottage with their son, Gabriel. Both of them usually stay at the cottage, and Nexx rarely goes into the nearby towns. They have most of the things they need at home. Nexx uses special flowers to help with sickness and injuries, usually making them into teas or other things. Nexx is mostly friendly towards people who stop by, and they’re happy to help. OC belongs to @dearnexx

@richiedicky is also in this. They are a foreigner that joined the Circus crew as a jester of sorts.

My OC Nix is part of a band of traveling merchants. He works with things like fireworks, fire spells, and pretty much anything fire related. He also helps out with any animals the merchants are selling, especially with birds.

I hope that wasn’t too boring for you? Thanks so much for the ask! I’m glad ur interested in my Royalty AU! You have no idea how happy that makes me!!!!!!

[snowiwyvern]

its the next guy!!! woaaaaa!!

introducing soot! the hero of trains (st)

he so :)

he/they usually just working, and on occasion tinkering with stuff with inky (st zelda). he tends to be a bit reserved, but once you get him talking a lot of what he says are train facts relating to the situation. fun fact, they have an impeccable sense of time due to their job

their name, soot comes from them usually having soot smudged across their face. even when he tries his best to clean himself up, he still somehow has soot on him

^for a little context, soot thinks buck is the coolest, but often is rude to him in an effort to be cool (hes working on it ok)

design stuff yay <3 hes got steel toe boots put metal decor on the outside cuz design, workplace safety! (ik irl you dont wear steel toed boots near train tracks cuz electricity, but the spirit tracks dont use electricity so yeah) he tries keep his hair short, and he can tuck it into his cap when it does get in the way.

[nerdycolorcupcake]

Me: *does not want to engage in BATIM stuff due to traumatic experiences related with it's fandom in 2017*

Bendy And the Secrets of The Machine: Hey, one of my top tier secrets is that Bendy likes to party with Alice, Sammy and some inky folks~

Me:

BATSOTM: and they use led sticks-

Me: Okay fine you won

[authoralexharvey]

hi Alex!!! i am back from camping so have a very late but very happy wbw <3

is there nature magic in the world of ASMLP+co?? does the miasma mess with plants and animals (is that where inhuman monsters come from?)?? does it affect water/water environments??

i hope you have a lovely day!!

- @magic-is-something-we-create

PAX MY FRIEND HELLO! I got this question during my last day of work and was so excited to answer it's been all I can think about. I know it's not Wednesday, but fuck it.

Firstly, in terms of nature magic... kind of? I think there's a lot of folk magic and folk tradition and things we would consider to be more traditional "witchcraft". It was also a lot more prominent pre-Ascension, as non-Luricae had to forge contracts with the Gods directly or with Luricae in order to access magic, and thus would have to have more "noble" reasons for such. I almost want to say everyone has very, very mild ability to influence the world around them, which leads to folk magic practices and ritual.

But like. All-out druid stuff?... Also kind of. There are shifters, for example, like my crow person Ronne, and mermaids like Jayashekar. Luricae can also use their powers to influence nature, and this resurfaces with Casters (especially of the Evocation persuasion) but it's oft not regarded that way?

"Does the Miasma mess with plants and animals?" it absolutely fuckin does and that's why this ask made me so excited. But don't take my word for it. Here's Doctor Chloe Duval from the prologue of ASMLP:

I submitted Dominique’s sample to Professor Kontos and found the… whatever it was had been covered in miasma, not blood. This struck me as odd, though, given every miasma sample I’ve recovered from Idune looks the same. It’s viscous and black and inky. These new samples seemed more like a halfway stage, something between miasma and blood. Does this mean blood can turn miasmic? Can blood be so easily corrupted?

And then, later on,

In a sick twist of fate, Laurent’s injuries have allowed me another look at the fluid we recovered from the deer corpse last week. It appears this same fluid surging through Laurent’s system now is what we sampled and recovered before. It’s behaving in similar fashion, animated and reaching. I have no doubts now as to what caused it. There are monsters stalking these woods. Are they related to the miasma we’ve studied in Idune?

And, lastly,

It’s difficult to quantify their makeup, but it’s reminiscent of slime mold. Only… more sentient. I set traps and fed a couple of the sites what small vermin I managed to catch. They consumed the offerings. Or perhaps, like the stick I lost, the animals drowned in their depths and are fermenting somewhere below.

All this to say, the miasma is sentient enough to wreck havoc on the world around it. And, depending on who you ask, it's a living force. It consumes things--potentially, given how scant the research on it is. I don't have anything wrote for this, but Idune in TWEfA is even worse-off, having been entirely engulfed in Miasma and of creatures warped by it.

"Does it effect water/water bodies" the answer here in my heart is also yes... but less so. Especially with Idune's placement to nearby water sources, including one which leads directly to the ocean... how could it not cause harm to the water as well? But there's less life in the water for it to cling to and be able to cause substantial damage with, know what I mean?

[raydianbluesandhues]

have a good night :] feel free 2 answer this when u wake up but anything abut zip? i see him as like the sameish age as bif to clarify hes just. short, like prof

I feel awake enough to make a post about this before work

--

about age: they're all adults. Blob, Zip, and Bif are all pretty close in age but Bif is def the oldest out of the three. Arty's the youngest and Professor is in his 40s somewhere

Zip is basically in the middle somewhere but yeah he's older than Blob but slightly younger than Bif. maybe a 1-2 year difference

clarifying further: Blob, Zip, and Bif are in their 20s, Arty is entering her 20s (so she's 18-19) and again Professor is in his 40s

Zip is very very hyper, he just. doesn't sit down. the skates don't really help

I would imagine that regarding sports, he's sort of like a jack of all trades. he can do almost any sport like track, basketball, baseball, you name it, he can probably do it

I think it's mentioned somewhere that he did have a sports team of some sort, but of course, with the war happening I'm pretty sure they don't meet up as much

Zip seeks thrill, so of course he's into more extreme sports like bungee jumping or skydiving. it's not what you'd expect from a little guy like him but trust me he's done a LOT

mainly comes from him being so small, and he thinks it's funny when people ask him what he does for a living and he goes "I jump from cliffs"

he likes to see the looks on their faces

I think his being in the war and basically being a scout for the color underground definitely drained him a bit, or at least slowed him down

like real talk: he probably saw a lot of shit. a lot of it was in downtown/blanctown and I think it stuck with him a bit. being stuck in a giant hamster wheel was also not very fun for him + he was still in his skates so that's WORSE

he definitely hangs out with Bif because they share an interest in sports. they work out together and give each other tips and tbh I think Bif is an inspiration to him

and I don't mean that in a romantic sense either, they're good friends and Bif is just. a very good role model

he and Blob are also good friends and I see their relationship to be like a sibling-type thing. Blob's the younger brother and Zip often finds himself telling Blob not to do something or trying to get him out of trouble

zip can be unhinged and absolutely energetic but he's not stupid and he's not that gullible, anything relating to the inkies he'll def partake in but pranks and stuff are a hard maybe.

he's challenged Pinky to a race before and you can imagine how that went. he lost. no, he's not sour about it

he probably has a tiny interest in electronics and wires and has probably tinkered around a bit with the professor. he's a good influence. part of the reason why Z-jumps exist but he also kinda realized that Blob needed a better way of getting around since he's kinda. slow

+ pistons as well. honestly, he should work with the professor a bit more. he's kind of a lil genius

[bubblyaquarium]

answering these! -circus

❤ Is anyone in-system in a relationship? What kind(s)? - the only one i can think of is jay and jett, they're dating

🌹 Does your system have any inhuman members? If so, what species are they? - we have a handful! breeze is a dryad, buttercream is a deity, oz and pigtails are dolls, percy is a forst spirit, and zee is a virtual zombie.

🐾 Is your system mostly human or inhuman members? Somewhere in between? - mostly human

🧡 How does your system handle memories? Does everyone share, or is it split across members? (Feel free to be as vague or specific as you want, or skip this question.) - we share for the most part, i know the trauma holders tend to have some that are 'locked' as we call it

⭐ Do you have a headspace / inner world? What does it look like? - i wish:/

💛 How long have you known about your system / plurality? - technically like 3-4 years

🌻 How did you discover your system / plurality? (Feel free to be as vague or specific as you want, or skip this question.) - skipping for personal reasons

🌙 How does your system handle dreams? Do you share dreams, or are they specific to one member? Do any members show up in dreams? - we don't remember most of them and the ones we do we're often corci (he's the most similar to the core) but we've had dreams on occasion where jay and eleanor have been the one in the dream!

💚 Do you have any funny stories about another system member(s) or about being a system? - bad memory moment idk

🍀 Do any system members practice a religion or belief system? What about spirituality? - most of us are agnostic, but we have a few who are religious. chloe, yoyo, and molly are christian, and then angel, lark, inky, gray, and breeze are spiritual in some way.

❄ Do you have a favorite memory related to your system? (i.e. something that happened in headspace or something that another member did.) - can't remember things rn

💙 Does your system have any introjects? Do they typically come from the same source / origin, or is it more varied? - we've got quite a few! most of then are from nct lmao, but there are a couple from jjba and idv. we tend to have multiple introjects from the same source.

🧵 How does your system handle the body's / vessel's appearance? Does everyone dress the same, or is there a broad range of styles? - a lot of the frequent fronters associate with the body, but eleanor and pigtails really struggle with our short hair. we all tend to dress the same mainly because we don't have the chance since we work all the time, but if we could a lot of us would dress differently!

💜 What's your favorite part of being plural / in a system? - it's cool seeing how our brain works as long as you ignore all the shitty stuff

🌺 Do any members consider other system members to be family? In other words, does your system have any internal families (such as siblings, caretakers, parents, etc.) ? - none of us are technically related, but johnny considers all of us to be his little siblings

🌸 Does your system have any inside jokes? - i can't remember things but probably

🎀 Does your system share everything in the outer world / meatspace? Does anyone have any objects / items that are solely theirs? - we share most things. we have some things that belong to specific headmates like for example stuffed animals (delilah), plants (gray/inky), tarot decks (lark), dolls (angel), pins (circus), plus a bunch of our clothes belong specifically to chaos, inky, and gray, but nothing is off limits for everyone else.

🤎 Do system members typically agree on things or is there a broad range of opinions? - we all tend to agree on things, at least important things

🖤 How does your system make important collective decisions? Does one person call the shots, or is it a group effort? - it's basically just whoever is front choses, we do take our collective values into consideration, so like chaos wants to smoke but since we as a whole don't he doesn't, and inky wants to have a buzz cut but knows no one else does to they don't.

🚀 Do any members speak another language? What about multiple languages? Does everyone speak the same language(s), or does it vary? - we only speak english as of right now

🌼 Do any members have accents or typing quirks? Are accents/quirks common in your system, or more rare? - zee is the only one with a typing quirk (or xe just can't spell). as for accents i think it's just eleanor who has a bit of a southern accent and dio who is british, but that's only internally/in headspace.

☁ How does your system handle switching? Can you switch easily, or does it take more effort? Are there a lot of switches? - our switches are (usually) easy and smooth, we sort of just blur into each other, so we don't notice right away. we typically switch 3-10 times a day, so pretty frequently imo.

🔬 Does everyone in your system typically share skills and hobbies, or does it vary between members? Does anyone have any unique or strange hobbies / skills? - we all have similar interests, though some of us have things we prefer (lark practices tarot, gray and inky like gardening, circus does cosplay, inky and chloe write, and angel sews).

🏁 How has your system changed over time, if it has? Such as a new influx of members, a change in headspace, or a new structure. (Feel free to be as vague or specific as you want, or skip this question.) - nothing has really changed? it's hard to tell as we're still discovering things tho

🔎 Is there any other trivia about your system you'd like to share? - i'll come back later and add something here if i can think of something lmao

🤍 Say something positive about another system member (or all of them, if you'd like!) - if i did everyone it would be super long, but i'll do chloe since she's near front rn! chloe is kind of like the glue of our system, outside of being the original she's also the one that keeps us from fighting lmao, she really is a great peacekeeper, which is extra cool since she chose to be the peacekeeper, it wasn't a role she came with like most of us do. she's also the most responsible and keeps our room (somewhat) clean. overall she's just great, don't know what we'd do without her

Curious System / Plural Ask Game

inclusive of all system types :] feel free to send an ask, or reblog if you want to play too!

❤ Is anyone in-system in a relationship? What kind(s)?

🌹 Does your system have any inhuman members? If so, what species are they?

🐾 Is your system mostly human or inhuman members? Somewhere in between?

🧡 How does your system handle memories? Does everyone share, or is it split across members? (Feel free to be as vague or specific as you want, or skip this question.)

⭐ Do you have a headspace / inner world? What does it look like?

💛 How long have you known about your system / plurality?

🌻 How did you discover your system / plurality? (Feel free to be as vague or specific as you want, or skip this question.)

🌙 How does your system handle dreams? Do you share dreams, or are they specific to one member? Do any members show up in dreams?

💚 Do you have any funny stories about another system member(s) or about being a system?

🍀 Do any system members practice a religion or belief system? What about spirituality?

❄ Do you have a favorite memory related to your system? (i.e. something that happened in headspace or something that another member did.)

💙 Does your system have any introjects? Do they typically come from the same source / origin, or is it more varied?

🧵 How does your system handle the body's / vessel's appearance? Does everyone dress the same, or is there a broad range of styles?

💜 What's your favorite part of being plural / in a system?

🌺 Do any members consider other system members to be family? In other words, does your system have any internal families (such as siblings, caretakers, parents, etc.) ?

🌸 Does your system have any inside jokes?

🎀 Does your system share everything in the outer world / meatspace? Does anyone have any objects / items that are solely theirs?

🤎 Do system members typically agree on things or is there a broad range of opinions?

🖤 How does your system make important collective decisions? Does one person call the shots, or is it a group effort?

🚀 Do any members speak another language? What about multiple languages? Does everyone speak the same language(s), or does it vary?

🌼 Do any members have accents or typing quirks? Are accents/quirks common in your system, or more rare?

☁ How does your system handle switching? Can you switch easily, or does it take more effort? Are there a lot of switches?

🔬 Does everyone in your system typically share skills and hobbies, or does it vary between members? Does anyone have any unique or strange hobbies / skills?

🏁 How has your system changed over time, if it has? Such as a new influx of members, a change in headspace, or a new structure. (Feel free to be as vague or specific as you want, or skip this question.)

🔎 Is there any other trivia about your system you'd like to share?

🤍 Say something positive about another system member (or all of them, if you'd like!)

[weirdgirlblogging]

this is a rewrite of a blowfly girl thing I made back in august. TW for mentions of what blowfly girl does

Blowfly Girl has received so much infamy on the internet for her copypasta. You know the story— girl meets trash bag, trash bag has maggot infested rotting meat, girl stuffs maggots inside of her most intimate parts.

It’s a tale as old as time, a copypasta to disturb people, or for people with the same paraphilia as her relating to it. I personally couldn’t get through the whole thing without feeling nauseous.

But as someone who felt sick to her stomach listening to the story, it’s weird how I relate to blowfly girl.

She appreciates the grotesque. Well, that’s an understatement. She absolutely thrives off of it, needs it in her life. She talks about being filthy and disgusting and gross, being a maggot in a world filled with butterflies.

I am the same. Though her grotesque interest comes in a more fetishistic or erotic form, mine is more muted. I’m not allowed to show how much I like gross stuff, even if not sexual. Lest I want to be mocked by people online, too.

Everyone seemed to think she was gross. Who wouldn’t find shoving maggots inside of such a sacred area to some extent gross? Posting about the pleasure in such detail, too. It’s something that people on the internet should be accustomed too, but are not always.

I have always been gross to people. Annoying, weird, too loud, too much to handle. Left alone in my own sick self hatred, like a bunch of maggots crawling inside and outside of me.

She has a desire to absolutely destroy herself. Blowfly Girl’s act of self destruction was her own, erotic, disgusting way of doing so, but she was willing to do anything to wreck herself.

I don’t think I could ever go to that extent. I have hurt myself in the past, not in any ways that were ever erotic to me, but I’m a wuss for pain and Blowfly Girl is braver than me. The people around me might know anyways.

I have tried to share my interest in Blowfly Girl to people. Some are receptive, listening to me elaborate on how interesting and sad the whole situation is. Often, though, it’s seen by others as disturbing, absolutely vile.

It scares me to think they all consider me vile for being interested in the story, even if I do not have any attractions like Blowfly Girl has had at all. To be fair, I’ve been shitty in other ways that don’t require me being similar to her to have others think I’m disgusting.

They don’t understand, though. They never really will. Like how I will never understand how it felt to be blowfly girl in that situation, no one close to me will ever understand that the vile, disgusting parts are why I relate to the story.

There was one line from My Maggot Story that stuck out to me the most. I remember it from when watching that video about Blowfly Girl’s history.

“Other girls like to have babies, but I give birth to decay and filth.”

The girls in my life and so many in this world have so much sunshine just spilling out of their mouths from their guts, stuff that people don’t mind. Deep down in their stomachs is where even more of this sweetness is stored. Happiness, bright colors, so much love that doesn’t hurt people. They don’t have to keep quiet, worried about hurting people or themselves with what threatens to come loose.

Then there are the ones like me. Filled with this black, inky tar deep down in the pit their stomachs. We’re absolutely stuffed to the brim with maggots, threatening to spill out of our mouths at any given moment. Our love sis real, but it’s not the kind anyone would have the first impression of ever wanting. So unlovable, so disgusting that nobody would ever want to even be near them.

I think that’s kind of cliche for me to say, though.

Its’s funny, in a way, to find comfort in the story of a lady doing such an act. A woman who was memed so hard by the internet and becoming such an infamous copypasta for shock value, no one taking the time to ever understand her like how it feels sometimes as if no one tries to understand me.

I hope she’s doing well.

Maybe I’ll be okay someday, too.

[fandombead]

@eyydhyeet aight bet 😎 FOR INKY and boy do I have a lot of stuff to say

(Credit to the kind @/Comyet for this skelly, p.s. I loved the prism collection to pieces)

I love this character, I have defended his case for a long time~ he’s so complex and gets a lot of flack for being how he is— and a lot of people’s only impression of him is from Underverse but even that Ink version is misunderstood in his actions, I think it’ll be cleared up in future episodes~ he’s chaotic, afraid of being forgotten and alone again, and his backstory is just so sad man :,) he gets depicted to be an evil scapegoat, which in my own opinion does a disservice to what he could be~ and I hope to show ppl that with my upcoming fics 😆💜

So first I do love canon aroace Ink, I feel like that’s the most true to form for him, it works very well narratively too (aside from, haha, soulless reasons). I just have head canons on “what ifs” I use for angst and cute fluff scenarios that are just fun to see him in Xd Error or Dream are who I go for with him, but I’m open to several others thanks to artists I follow who expand on the ideas (like Ink with Gin!Sans or x-Tale!Sans)~ I alternate between having him uninvolved romantically and involved depending on the story I’m telling and the interesting relationships that are relevant

Non-romantic OTP is also Errink XD they’re just chaotic and a good fit for each other’s…quirks XD their banter and rival relationship is fun to write and read~ (His friendships with Dream and Blue are my bread and butter, it hurts to see any of them against eachother in fics :,) aaa let him care about friends! the vials help him have a normal range of emotions that are his, even if they’re allotted without a soul present)

Unpopular opinion: people constantly do him dirty 😂 for every fic of him being his decent but still chaotic self, I’ve seen 6 with him kicking babies (not literally—but I wouldn’t put it past those Inks). Some ppl also hate that he’s a Sans…but don’t care to see why he is, or see his backstory~ People can have their own opinions, I just think he gets a lot of unnecessary targeting that is out of spite more than genuine interest ^^’ he’s a gremlin I am not denying that, but he’s not evil! I get having to do it if you wanna make the bad guys look better; I disagree, but we’re allowed to both do our own things! and at the end of the day it’s just fiction squabbling, not serious

Uhhh I’m not sure? I adore “canon” Ink as he is, and his story ^^ Comyet is a sweet person who just created an amazing piece— a nice counterbalance to Error for UTMV stuff and the potential for a greater story because of that! Ink is very versatile character, and a fantastic narrative tool that makes the AUs feel more connected. He’s a vessel for typing the whole thing together and something I would argue a story like the one the Undertale fandom’s Multiverse needed. The UT fandom is unique in that all it’s AUs form a greater story to a whole, with shared characters and “ocs” created being traded around and molded and accepted into the bigger narrative like one giant group rp. It was as if it was destined something like him would come along, and I’m very glad he exists for it. He walks around as almost a parallel to Flowey: a soulless being who found a way to still feel and how that effects his relationship to other people. How he decides to still act mostly good even in his chaotic neutral way, but he’s learning morality without an inborn compass for it. It’s probably one of the deeper reasons I love Ink, with all his little quirks. Aside from him being complex and fun to write and a relatable creative spirit.

[booloocrew-blog]

SharkBait- Splatoon Idol OCs

Sharky: "Al-RIGHT! Strutting our fins live from Inkopolis Studios, iiiiiit's SharkBait!"

Inky: "She's Sharky, I'm Inky, and we're ready to take a bite out of this news! Let's get to it!"

*** Inky: "...Oh no. The producers have that face again. Read the teleprompter, Sharky."

Sharky: "This just in- oh. my. gosh. The Great Zapfish has been stolen! AGAIN!!!!"

Inky: (sigh) "You know, you'd think they'd have better security on that thing. Hopefully it'll be back to our home turf before this whole town goes lights out."

*** Sharky: "Current battle stages inkcoming!"

Inky: "Let's see what they are, shall we?"

*** Inky: "Looks like we're getting new weapons today..."

Sharky: "Can't wait to test 'em out on the turf!"

Inky: "I'm sure Sheldon would love to give you pointers."

Sharky: "Hey, don't comment on my turf war skills like that..."

***

Inky: "And that's not all, Mahi-Mahi Resort is open for turf wars!"

Sharky: "Brand new stage alert! Oh my god, this is so ink-exciting!"

Inky: "I know! Watch out for the water levels when inking out there, folks, they rise and fall as much as Sharky's fin-tastic vocals!"

Sharky: (teasingly, blushing) "Quit it, Inky, not in front of the cameras…"

*** Inky: "Before we get to the stages, we have a special announcement for y'all..."

Sharky: "Oooooh! Is it Splatfest time?!? I'm waiting with baited breath!" Inky: "Why, yes, it is, Sharky. (teasingly) I see your excitement is boiling over again..."

Sharky: "(excitedly) Shell yeah it is! What's the theme? What's the theme?"

Inky: "Hang on, I'm getting to it. The theme for this Splatfest is..."

Sharky: "Drum roll please!"

*** Sharky: "Well, that's all for now."

Inky: "Until we meet again, remember-"

Both: "-Stay strong, Shark on!"

***

SharkBait is a rock/pop fusion focused duo of idols consisting of Sharky and Inky. Sharky (real name Coral, she hates being called that in public though) is an energetic, outgoing octoling while Inky (real name...Inky) is a somewhat reserved tomboy inkling. They're the subs for inkopolis news while Pearl and Marina do agent stuff, before getting long term sub news duties while Off the Hook does DLC-related stuff in Splatsville.

Their songs are as punny as they are, combining rocking guitar melodies and somewhat dark lyrics with bouncy pop beats and a energetic atmosphere. Not only did they cover Shark Bytes from Off the Hook (propelling them to fame), but they also sing songs with such titles as Baited Breath, StarFishin', Shoreline Shanty, Sea Me (Hunt You), Shark Season, Sirenity, and their most popular song sung at splatfests, Hook/Line/Singer.

[cirwedh]

Having spent a couple days dwelling on this and having heard the arguments for why they don’t matter, I… still have some questions? Mostly about how these relate to the decisions we are keeping all of which beg one question:

When is the Inquisitor getting involved with the Veilguard?

If it’s in act 2 (and we know that the Weisshaupt stuff goes down at the end of act 1), then the shit with the Wardens wouldn’t necessarily make the cut. There’s arguments to be made about Blackwall (if romanced and made a warden), but Rook wouldn’t know any of the other potential Wardens from previous games.

The Divine still matters. She just does (especially a romanced Cassandra). We got the same Pope here that they have in Italy. They got the same Divine in Antiva as they do in Orlais. Tevinter and their “whole thing” doesn’t cancel that out. And even if it’s not Divine Victoria, we deserve to know what happened to her and I personally have a score to settle with whoever took her out.

As for the Well of Sorrows, I understand, but I still think it’s messed up. I don’t have anything articulate to articulate on this, just my feelings. I didn’t have (or just don’t recall) the same-game consequences so it feels like there hasn’t been enough pay off for a drinky Inky.

None of this going to stop me from playing the game, nor do I think it will stop any series diehards (please note use of the word “series,” which is meant to indicate that I am not referring to folks who attest that Origins is the only entry of value), but I do think it’s disappointing at best.

How can the Wardens not matter?

How can the Divine not matter?

How can the Well of Sorrows not matter???

Yes, it’s up north. It’s NORTH, not another planet. They have the same Divine everywhere but Tevinter.

Yes, it’s been 8-10 years. That’s not that long actually. I’m very much still reeling from real life events only that long ago (and so is the world).