#about the backrooms

[frankcastled]

thinking about the time i got so sucked into the backrooms lore

[critterbitter]

A trip down memory lane! Though the tower seems to have changed…

Celestial tower! Built during the direct aftermath of the Founding Unovan Civil War, it remains a cultural landmark in memory of those lost in the fire and storm.

Time has dulled the scars left behind by the twin dragons. Today, the tower is primarily used as a mausoleum (the preferred method of burial are urns) and, well, a tourism site. Legend says if you climb to the top of the tower and ring the bell, you can lay your ghosts to rest. But mostly? You can ring a GIANT bell.

Course, you gotta GET to that bell first.

Masterpost for more pokemon shenanigans here!

[teethkid67]

PAYDAY

aka a valentine for the lovely @itsnotmystic / @corvids-calling - fanart for stars fic of the same name, which you can read here !!! i really enjoyed this concept and wanted to do some art for it :3 hope you like it because i REALLY loved your work & i hope this shows that !!! HAPPY VALENTINES DAY !!!!

this is also a loose love-letter to the wonderful @arginnit 's crazy background-drawing-ability and style/skill at portraying environments . wadds your stuff is insane and i love it

happy @mcyt-valentines exchange !!!!

[luthanraels-bignaturals]

I don’t think I’ve seen anyone else talking about how karmic Fitzjames’ fate was.

From the perspective of the artic, it’s a revenge story. His wounds- the wounds he always bragged about, which he got from helping imperialize and plunder, wounds he got from people trying to protect their homes- literally reopening themselves???? This place wants us dead??? “Our ghosts have strong hands and long memories” type beat????

[laurrelise]

the umbrella academy and everything is the exact same exact number five accidentally jumps forward in time into the backrooms

[gruvu]

Once again it's up to me to have saved the little moment with Arthur. We were this close man. Course the plot had to come.

[fraudulent-cheese]

where are they 👶

Boy i tell you, when i saw that one of the prompts for gwourtney week was backrooms, i had to make edits for that prompt! There's a little bit of a story to these? It's gwen and courtney making it through the first 5 levels of the backrooms!

@gwourtneyweek2024

[zylphiacrowley]

Approaching the Zero Hour

<previous - next>

[strandedtoodeep]

no intelligent thoughts only thinking about what will happened if Logan and Wade were stuck in the backrooms?

Idk why but this obsesses me???? Both because it would be so fucking funny AND absolutely terrifying at the same time but also can you imagine Logan being so lost and confused, Wade who knows everything about the backroom because ofc he does (why, how, nobody knows) and leading the way on top of explaining EVERY BIT of the lore to Logan?

sorry i needed to talk about this and expel it from my system i swear

[royalarchivist]

Seapeekay: I give- I gave my pickaxe to Aldo, he hit me in the fcking head and sent me to Purgatory 2, what the sht is this?! What is this!!! 😫

Mike: [Laughs] Ok guys– we need to leave this place, but where?

Gabepeixe: Let's go, let's go!

Mike: Guys, have you ever heard about the legend of the naked Slenderman?

Seapeekay: [WHEEZES]

[an-albino-pinetree]

Some lil doodles of @/garbageslug‘s (on Bluesky) Backrooms AU Jax! :] 💜

Mall Level!Jax 🙌🏻

[silverjirachi]

So many adaptations of things like the backrooms and the poolrooms get it wrong. it’s not that there’s a monster in there. it’s that the monster is the rooms themselves.

To me the horror of things like the poolrooms is because something should be there, and isn’t. This is actually what liminality is at its core. From a theoretical perspective, it is a space between two places. It is not a place where people go and remain. Motels. Train stations. Rest stops. Stairwells. Office buildings. Community pools. All places people are, but don’t stay.

Putting a monster in the poolrooms always feels so cheap because there are a million other horror experiences where a thing is chasing you or lurking somewhere. Avoiding a monster in the poolrooms is the same as avoiding a monster in a forest or a pizza restaurant or a house or a hospital or or or or etc. it’s a coat of paint at that point. It undermines the very unique liminal aspects of these locations by not engaging with its core components of time, space, solitude, and even identity that do not exist elsewhere. It just makes it Avoid The Monster Game number fourteen thousand and three.

When really, there is a horror of a place that is ever-expansive. A horror of a beast that is a location, a place that you cannot escape from, where you cannot die, and the only living thing is you.

[niriaveil]

you know, i know there's some grumbling regarding how the drifter tends to have their very personal conversations in the KIM messenger rather than face to face with the Hex (talking about the Zariman Incident, talking about Duviri) and not to mention the whole animating, voicing, and playing out the scene in a development standpoint.

But. but. but.

Do you know how much easier it is to have a serious conversation about trauma when there's a screen between you and the person you're talking to? How even when you're baring your heart open to the other person, at least you can do it. How many times have you choked up, unable to speak the words that you know you can articulate but there's so many emotions just caught up in your chest and your throat and tangling up everything you say? How many times do you start to talk about your own trauma before you just break down into tears, crying and unable to talk about it?

I think the KIM messenger talks make sense for the Drifter (for mine in particular, at least) because they can talk about Duviri. We all know the Drifter downplays what happened to them, laces their words with sarcasm and laughs it off, but it still happened; the intensity of how it weighs on them is known only to them, and even though they could talk to the Operator, Ordis, or Lotus - why? Why bother? ("You're the me that got rescued from this shit. I'm the you that did not. Not sure which of us got it worse.") There's bigger things to worry about, more battles to get ready for, and honestly... who would care. The kid got their shit together, they've got a parental figure in Lotus, a caretaker in Ordis, and the Drifter...

Well. They're the Drifter for a reason.

So, the Hex are curious. They want to know. Why is the Drifter called the Drifter, what happened in Duviri, what happened on the Zariman. And the Drifter, so lonely and so sad, and so very envious of the counterpart that got to escape, to get to have a family, to get to be loved and wanted and adored - and the Drifter, so used to being forgotten and abandoned, sits down at their keyboard and says, "Well. You know the top level story."

It's easier to talk about Duviri when you know that if, at any point, you can't do it anymore, you can log off. Shut it down. A power plug on that trauma buried down so deep in your brain you tried forgetting about it - and how'd that go, kiddo? - and the other person can say, "Hey. I see this is hurting you, we don't have to talk about it."

Putting the ball in the Drifter's court. Giving them control over how they approach what happened to them. Giving them control over how much they want to share. Giving them some fucking agency and control over something in their life that is profoundly theirs. But the Hex - as the ranks goes up and the chemistry gets higher - won't let the Drifter hide in their pain, they'll push and pull and say, "Hey, I care about you. Let me help. Please, let me help. Please trust me enough to let me try to help and care for you."

So... yeah. I just think Drifter talking about their problems through the KIM messenger is pretty good and a good idea for delving into their character, because we've seen how they downplay their trauma when you talk to them face to face.

[puppetmaster13u]

Once More, I am rotating Backrooms Batfam Au

And Gotham being a level. And Bruce being a shadowy abomination of an entity that takes in lost children. And wanderers sometimes finding the drawings one of the kids might've drawn at some point

[ahollowgrave]

Febhyurary 2025 | Day 4: Touch [feat. Dar of @darcar!]

... she smells of citrus and flowers and warm spice.

Dar being so kind and taking a look at Viatrix's scarring. Out of the goodness of her heart. No other reason. Some extra shots:

[okcoolthanks]

Ogh man I love morally strange characters like characters that act so selfishly and don’t change and theyre scared to or just don’t want to and they stay selfish for whatever reasons but are still shown as PEOPLE and shit idk IDK idk