#but then later on it would actually be some spooky/dark take on the game

[mascothorrorhellhole]

I can see this vision

my evil plan is to become a content farm for media that does not exist whatsoever i mean id still put effort into those animations, so it wouldn't even be a content farm .. but the intention is still there!!! it counts!! Shmeepy Deeby's Playtime Land sad backstory part 39 Do you understand me

[toulousewayne]

Batfam Shenanigans Headcannons: Pt 6

When the League first took shape it was understood they should anyone need assistance in their own personal cities that someone would respond. By this point Superman and Batman had teamed up the most so it was understood that Batman Could work with others in Gotham he just prefer to bleed out first.

The first time the league met Robin it was kinda surprising. Batman entered the Watchtower and the League noticed the traffic signal dressed boy behind him.

“Spooky, whatcha got there?” Hal raised a brow.

“A dark Roast.” He drank his coffee.

“He meant the boy Bats.” Barry clarifies.

“I’m Robin.”

“….”

“…..”

“…..”

“Can you play games with your ring Mr. Lantern?” He beamed.

“We can keep him.” Hal replied.

The first time Green Arrow and Black Canary visited the cave they were met the a excited Robin who was happy that Batman let someone visit. Batman didn’t share the excitement.

During a mission Wonder Woman, Flash, and Hawkgirl visit the cave and come across the little gremlin that is Robin.

“Hello child, where is Bruce?” Diana beamed at the child. Dick munching on a cookie points behind him to Bruce hunched over at the Batcomputer. The group walk to him and he’s covered in bandages.

“You look like crap.” Diana pokes his side.

“I fought Bane and was thrown off the rooftop. But thanks.”

“You’re welcome.”

“Is there more cookies?” Flash asks.

A few years later when Batgirl joins Bruce, she’s immediately taken in by Dinah.

“Right hook.”

“Remember your center don’t expose yourself to an opponent.” Dinah calls out to Batgirl.

“You’re a great teacher Dinah.”

“Very kind, but we still have much work to do little Bat. Are you up for it?”

“Bring it.”

It’s comical how some of the Robin will just appear out of thin air. Hal walks into his room to find Robin (Tim) studying the Lantern battery. “Lost kid?”

“No.”

“…you bats always like this?”

“Like what?”

Clark doesn’t notice a Robin clinging to his leg like a baby kola bear.

“Uncle Clark can we get—“

“Ahhhhh, oh it’s just you.”

“You didn’t know I was here?” Dick looks up at him.

“Sorry, kiddo. I’m think we should get you a bell.”

“Okie.”

“So, the bag of heads. Were they real?” Barry asks between bits of chili dog.

“…I was a little theatrical back then.” Red Hood hums.

“But they were fake, right?”

“….”

Ollie can’t go five feet with other Spoiler and Black Bat following him like shadows.

“I don’t know if I’m supposed to be honored or terrified.”

“Both.” Cass replies.

“Father says you come from Mars, I’ve been told your people were intelligent and superior race. I wish to learn about your home planet.”

“Very well.” J’onn nods at Robin.

The Question enters his room to find his last three unsolved cases, solved and a fresh cup of coffee. He knows it’s the third Robin. He would always sneak off and go over clues with him while Batman was busy with the others.

HawkGirl and Spoiler love sparring together. They both find it entertaining watching the other women push herself and learn from one another.

Bart and Konner are the least bit surprised to find Tim at the computer screen in the exact same spot. They spend the next forty minutes trying to get Tim to take a break because he hasn’t blink once since they left him to go watch Jon’s baseball game.

Damian and Jason spend every Sunday together. It’s actually funny because Damian will agree to plans with Dick or Jon and cancel last minute because he and Jason are reading the next several chapters of a novel and munching on Cinnamon rolls Jason baked that day. Alfred the cat is invited too.

Sometimes Cass likes to keep tabs on her family, she has been known to scare the Justice League by watching Batman from the shadows. She enjoys scaring Superman the most. Bruce enjoys this too.

Donna and Wally are Dick’s emergency contacts. Bruce finds this a little hurtful but doesn’t question it. Donna is also Dick’s Power of Attorney incase someone needs to handle important matters for him should he be unable to do so.

Out of all of Dick’s OG team Damian likes Garth the best.

Starfire and Babs had a rocky start to the relationship but no the two are thick as thieves. They go to little shops together and movies. And they truly do have a sisterly bond, Kori will berate stores for not including wheelchair access and providing disabled bathrooms. Barbara has had break two guys hands from trying to get fresh while Kori was clothes shopping. The two even have weekly movie nights at the Clocktower.

[mayhemhq]

Our event, Grim's Hollow Haunt, is just 11 days away, and we're excited to share all the details of what's happening that weekend! The 19th & 20th is the is the weekend that it will take place. All shows and ppvs on this day are prerecorded, regardless of if your character participates or not.

The setting takes place in a secluded cabin on the outskirts of Salem, MA. We’re bending reality a bit for this experience. The sprawling three-story cabin is isolated, surrounded by vast open land and eerie trees. Despite its remote feel, it’s just a short drive from Salem, where your characters can explore the city if they choose.

We invite you to click THIS link to read the fictional tale of Barnabas Grim and the legendary events that inspired this experience. It’s designed to feel like a local legend—stories pieced together over time through rumors and hearsay, blending elements of the supernatural with Salem’s own rich history.

With that in mind, we’ll be sharing starters the 19th and at least posting one dash game on the 20th to spark interactivity and creativity. Starters / prompts will mostly be one-liners inspired by the story and the cabin. During this trip, feel free to let creepy, unexplained things unfold—have fun with it!

Again, both important links worth checking out: here and here!

Now, to explain how the weekend will go:

We're all staying in the cabin—or at least, that’s the idea! There are plenty of rooms, and even multiple couples can share if they’d like. Remember, this isn’t just about romance; it’s about enjoying the experience together. When else will you get to do something like this? Of course, it’s perfectly fine if your character isn’t affected by the supernatural—after all, not everyone has those experiences in real life. But, at the end of the day, it’s all for fun!

Saturday during the day, feel free to explore Salem and whatnot. Do whatever you wish until nightfall.

The carnival kicks off Saturday night around 6pm CST. In canon, it will be set later to capture the feel of darkness and mystery. We encourage everyone to dress up in Halloween costumes for the event! Feel free to share your character’s look, but it’s not mandatory. For those managing multiple muses, use this time to draft posts or brainstorm outfit ideas. You can find all the carnival highlights on this page—just imagine a spooky yet thrilling carnival atmosphere. Keep in mind, this is the only October event featuring Halloween costumes, so take advantage and get inspired by the attractions listed!

Sunday night around 6pm CST, we’ll be hosting the final dinner: Grim’s Last Supper. You can find more details about it here. We encourage everyone to wear Victorian Gothic-inspired attire—think dark, rich colors, suits, dresses, and the like. Feel free to get creative, but keep in mind it’s a dressy, elegant, and formal dinner party. To keep things lively, we’ll also share a drunken Truth or Dare / AMA dash game that night for a bit of fun. One of us will link a drunken text generator if you really want to embrace the vibe!

Please, please make sure to reach out to inboxes that night and get as wild and weird as you want! Just keep in mind that it’s all for fun, and we want everyone to have a great time. Also, be considerate and avoid reblogging the game IF you will not be around to participate. Reblog to only the number of muses you can handle, too. Don’t get overwhelmed. Let’s make the most of the night!

We know there’s an NJPW PPV that weekend, but we decided to host this event a weekend earlier since the actual holiday weekends tends to be packed. Many of us have other OOC gatherings then, and some will be busy on Halloween night itself, so this felt like the best choice for an engaging and interactive event!

Quick question for everyone: would you like to have a plot twist during the final supper? Maybe something fun and unexpected, like a dare gone wrong or a creepy scenario that could (somewhat) realistically unfold? There’s always the classic power outage, but we know you all are super creative and might have other ideas! It’s not a must, but feel free to share your thoughts below so we can brainstorm together if something comes to mind.

[faceeeeee]

Geometry dash lore interpretation post

I think it's about time that I spread the lore and concepts that I modified for geometry dash because I'm really invested in the game (gameplay wise and lore wise) so here is the summary (warning: it is LONG):

The geometry dash app or game or whatever you'd like to call it is an actual facility in the middle of nowhere. If you go outside you will literally see thousands of miles of absolute darkness and the only light comes from the facility itself. Now if you enter you will find yourself in the menu where you can go to the official levels made by rubrub himself or head to the custom level section.

The darker areas signify how deep below ground the rooms are. There are also some hidden passageways that connect some places like the passageway that connects the shopkeepers shop with scratch's shop.

And I'd like to clarify that I interpret the levels as portals that the players can jump into (as well as the other characters but they aren't exactly supposed to do that...)

This is the same map but I put the in game screenshots to better understand what I mean.

Anyways now onto the characters:

(I don't have any high quality pictures of this guy, so sorry bout that.) He's the player (based off the default cube that you start off when you first boot the game). He's mostly silent and is the source of this conundrum. He represents the regular player's action: going into the levels, buying stuff from the shop and freeing those who shouldn't be freed. There are other cubes/players of course but they are usually doing what they are supposed to do and they stay out of trouble (unlike this miscreant).

We've also got the shopkeepers. The original three are the shopkeeper, Scratch and Potbor: The shopkeeper is just your regular guy just trying to make a living wage; Potbor is a special security droid that acts as surveillance but is disguised as a shopkeeper (he hasn't got a clue of what he's doing) and is rubrubs dear and precious child robot; Scratch is another robot that was thrown away and forgotten about due to his design being flawed (he is a draft design, so to speak), so he found an old abandoned shop left by another shopkeeper and is currently in hiding whilst selling whatever he can find in the trash bins.

Then there are the other new shop owners. The mechanic is the same species as the shopkeeper but due to an incident he has built and installed implants for himself and has now become a cyborg. He is also responsible for creating scratch, Potbor and the diamond shopkeeper. The diamond shopkeeper is just another regular robot shopkeeper that relies on the diamond plastered in his chest to be up and running. Without it, he is good as dead.

And as for their dynamics....

The shopkeeper and scratch are good buddies and they help each other out. And by help each other out I mean the shopkeeper is constantly panicking and saving scratch's ass from being caught.

Potbor is not aware of scratch's existence but if the two were to meet Potbor would neutralise him on the spot.

The mechanic is aware of scratch's existence (obviously) and constantly regrets not killing him when he had the chance so now he has to deal with him trying to get past his security.

And the diamond shopkeeper is...strange. He isn't the brightest tool in the shed but he makes up for it by being the mechanics bodyguard.

Enough shopkeeper stuff, let's move onto the guardians:

Glubfub or the "Key master" is the giant hulk-like beast that is in charge keeping the "demon guarding" locked up (I will bring him up later) and is the guarding of the vault of secrets.

Spooky or "the Guard" is the Tumblr sexyman and is in charge of... something. Rubrub makes him believe that he has the most important job of all and he takes it to heart. Unlike the other guardians he takes his position as a guardian very seriously (that's why he wears the suit but he doesn't really need it) and is rubrub's #1 fan.

The Gatekeeper is the oldest of the guardians and is the closest one to rubrub. Whilst everyone sees lord rubrub as this omnipotent god (which he kinda is) the Gatekeeper (or the old man as I like to call him) sees him as a coworker and is not afraid to tell things straight to his face. He also guards something (not sure what) as well as the key which unlocks one of the demon guardians locks.

And last but not least you've got rubrub himself and the demon guardian. If you know the Og geometry dash lore there's no need for an introduction. Lord Robtop or Rubrub is the boss of the facility and rarely appears within it's walls, opting to rest in his own private chambers. His mortal form is literally just a cube so he had the mechanic build him a robot body (I know he looks like Steve jobs I tell myself that every day).

The demon guardian was originally just a guardian like the others but decided that he was done with idolising and worshipping rubrub and went rogue. Obviously rubrub wasn't having any of that so he attempted to delete him. That failed and now he is this unstoppable beast that can shape shift into anyone (with some limitations) and wants to destroy the facility and escape the void. Robtop stopped him, however, and locked him away in the basement for god knows how long...till the player arrived.

And ONE LAST THING! If you're as obsessed as me you might notice a certain pattern appearing in some of the designs

Well this symbol is a sign of one's devotion for rubrub and almost every single character that is not being hunted down has it. For example: the Gatekeeper has it tattooed in his tongue, Spooky has it in his chest, and the demon guardian has it tattooed in the back of his head but scratched it of with his claws so now he has a scar.

[twistedtummies2]

Top 15 Skeleton Characters

Happy Dia de los Muertos, everybody! Anybody who knows about the Day of the Dead knows it is really a celebration of life…and they also know that a major part of this holiday’s iconography is the imagery of skeletons and skulls. The human skeleton, in fact, is quite the ubiquitous visual: skeletons unsettle many people, on a fundamental level. Everybody has one, but if you’re actually SEEING one, that’s not a good sign: bones are the last vestiges of something long dead, and so there is always this automatic gut reaction of perturbation that comes with them. Of course, there’s also a recognition that life was present, which can, in its own odd way, be heartwarming. Skeleton characters - or even characters who are simply skulls or have skull faces - are thus a major part of many fictional worlds. They can be used to mock death, or celebrate life, or they can be used to represent fear and destruction. Regardless, they are always interesting to see, as commonplace as some may claim them to be. So, I decided, if today is a day about celebrating life through the imagery of death, it was only fitting to do something to celebrate the many characters who, effectively, do the same thing, one way or another. Now, I’m only going to be counting ACTUAL skeletal characters here, so to speak; characters like the Phantom of the Opera, Red Skull from Marvel, or Skull Face from “Metal Gear Solid V,” will not count. They evoke the imagery of a skull, but they’re really just deformed human beings, not actual collections of living bones. Also, I won’t be counting gatherings of skeletons (with one exception), such as the various skeleton-themed enemies you’ll find in video games, or the famous Harryhausen skeletons from “Jason and the Argonauts.” They aren’t really “characters” so much as “creatures,” so I don’t think they fit the bill. With that said, let’s waste no more time! Here are my Top 15 Skeleton Characters!

15. Skelly, from I Spy: Spooky Mansion.

Here’s a more obscure option to start things off. How many of you had I Spy books or played the I Spy PC games when you were younger? I know I did. This picture-puzzle series could be surprisingly challenging, and I was always fascinated by the way they organized the photos in the books, not to mention the animation in the PC titles. “Spooky Mansion” was always my favorite game and book, mostly because…well…I like Spooky Mansions! (Even did a list about them, go and take a look at that, tis the season.) Skelly was essentially our Tour Guide for the game: a mischievous but not malicious skeleton who loved to play games with people and spook them silly. She traps us inside her haunted house and challenges us to find various pieces of a puzzle in order to escape; none of this is done with evil intent, she simply wants to play! I always found Skelly a wonderful mix of creepy and sweet, almost like an Addams Family character; that’s always a great blend.

14. Skeleton King, from Super Robot Monkey Team Hyper Force GO!

Imagine Skeletor on a REALLY bad day. That would basically be this monstrosity in a nutshell. The main antagonist of this (incredibly weirdly named) superhero series, the Skeleton King was once a good-hearted scientist, who wished to help the world; it was he who created the titular Monkey Team. However, things changed when the man began to study the dark forces of the Netherworld; assured in his safety from them, he later paid the price of his hubris, as the dark spirits were released, and ending up possessing and corrupting the scientist, body and soul. He thus became the Skeleton King: a cyborganic ghoul who plots to destroy the entire universe. The King was a deliciously creepy villain, and much of his menace can be owed to his voice actor: none other than the Joker himself, Mark Hamill. Honestly, if that name alone doesn’t interest you in this character right away from the start, there’s not much more I can say that will convince you to give him a look.

13. Sir Daniel Fortesque, from MediEvil.

Sir Daniel is a tragically comic case: for ages after his death, this knight was hailed as a hero, believed to have been a mythical and powerful figure who died nobly for a righteous cause. In truth, he was a bungling coward who was killed in the very first seconds of battle, and never really did anything grand at all; somewhere along the line, the facts of his life got all twisted up. When the evil he once fought (or, at least, wanted to fight) rears its ugly head again many years later, Sir Daniel Fortesque is brought back from the grave to do battle once more...but, of course, not being a hero at all, he now has to prove himself. “MediEvil” becomes a typical quest of an unlikely hero; someone trying to live up to the reputation he garnered over time, trying to earn respect from those who know the truth. It’s a classic kind of setup, only enhanced by the unique, Tim-Burton-esque visual styling of the game…not to mention Sir Daniel’s absolutely hilarious running cycle. I guess he went to the Ministry of Silly Walks before his demise.

12. Bob, from The Dresden Files.

So far, I’ve only finished the first six books of “The Dresden Files,” but it’s already a favorite series of mine. (Also, if you’re only familiar with the TV series…that doesn’t count here, since their version of Bob is rather different.) The series details the many adventures of “consulting wizard,” Harry Dresden, and blends elements of noir-style detective mystery storytelling with doses of dark fantasy and Gothic horror. One of my favorite characters is undeniably Bob: an eccentric ghost who inhabits a skull in Harry’s home. Bob is intended to be a sort of living encyclopedia for Harry to consult when on a case; he has been around for centuries, and helped many wizards in his time, making him an extremely valuable source of information. However, Bob is also…well…freaking hilarious. He’s always got his mind in the gutter, and he’s always filled with snark and a ready-to-whip-out insult or quip, leading to some pretty funny dialogue any time he’s featured. Generally, whenever Harry consults Bob, that’s when things are about to get truly serious…but it’s hard to remember that past all the pure, glorious silliness he provides. The only reason Bob doesn’t rank higher is that he is literally JUST a skull, and on top of that, the skull probably isn’t even his own: it’s just his way of communicating with Dresden in the world of the living, sort of like a crystal ball or other conduit of knowledge. Still, I feel he counts enough.

11. Captain Bones, from Crashbox.

Made for HBO, this series was one of my favorite shows EVER when I was a kid. “Crashbox” was a show that really went outside the box with how an educational program could also be entertaining! It used various styles of animation in numerous scenarios and skits to showcase all kinds of different skills. Basic stuff like math, history, sciences, social studies, and so on were featured, but you’d also have things that challenged your critical thinking or problem solving skills, with puzzles and riddles that weren’t necessarily things you’d be taught at school, but were still important things to learn. It was all done with this irreverent tone; the series was utterly bonkers, so it was always a joy to watch even as it taught you all the skills it tried to push. Captain Bones was one of the most frequent skits in the series, and also one of my favorites. “The Incredibly Dead Captain Bones” was a skeletal ghost pirate cursed to Sail the Seven Seas for an eternity. “And I’ll tell ya,” the Captain would sigh, “I’m a Bored Stiff.” (Har Har.) To keep himself from dying of boredom (…presumably a second time…), the old pirate would use his own bones to create math and picture puzzles, which the viewer would be challenged to try and figure out before he showed them the answer. What made Captain Bones hilarious…were his insults. This guy was the KING of Insult Comedy, able to come up with all kinds of incredible, colorful phrases without ever getting dirty or lewd, given the fact this WAS made for kids. If you don’t agree…“THEN YER NOT FIT TO WALK THE DECK OF ME GHOST SHIP, ye crustacean-sucking, knock-kneed, squid-faced, plank-walking sack of soiled, sea-salted, unwashed fish buckets of barnacles for brains!”

10. Lord Ainz, from Overlord.

I haven’t seen a whole lot of “Overlord” yet, which is the primary reason Ainz only BARELY crosses the threshold into the Top 10. Trust me, if I’d seen more, he’d probably be WAY higher. “Overlord” is a classic Isekai anime series: the plot focus on a young man who ends up zapped into a video game world, which he had once been a player of. He finds that he has been transformed into the character he created: a hyper-powerful dark skeleton warlord, known as Ainz Ooal Gown (or “Lord Ainz” for short). The interesting thing about this isekai is the way Ainz is played, and how he evolves over the course of the series; as time goes on, he loses more and more of his humanity, as his personality, morality, and ethical viewpoints start to merge and become less like his own back on Earth, and more like those of the character he created. This leads to a lot of gray area in the morality of Ainz, as he seeks to conquer the world - the typical goal of many a great dark lord - but has surprisingly understandable motivations for doing so. From what I’ve seen so far, the series is quite interesting, and Ainz is an equally interesting character…but I’ve only scratched the surface of this show, so I don’t think it’s fair to give him TOO high a rank JUST yet. But still, Top 10 ain't bad, right?

9. Bonejangles, from Corpse Bride.

There’s really not a whole lot to say about this guy, I just really love him. Though a fairly small part on the whole, Bonejangles is arguably one of the most recognizable characters in the Tim Burton animated picture “Corpse Bride.” A hollow skeleton with a single eyeball, which he rolls back and forth between his sockets, this limber, jazzy fellow appears to be pretty close to the titular character, Emily - the ghost of a bride-to-be who died mysteriously. It is he who tells the story of the Corpse Bride to our protagonist, Victor Van Dort, via the song “Remains of the Day,” easily the best song in the film’s soundtrack. While his time onscreen is small, he makes an immediate impression, and Danny Elfman’s gravelly, raspy vocals only add to the clattering, rambunctious skeleton’s fun personality. In short, Bonejangles is proof that big characters can come in small packages.

8. The Horned King, from The Black Cauldron.

This movie was HATED when it came out - notoriously, “The Black Cauldron” lost to the CARE BEARS when it premiered. (I wish I was joking about that.) However, over time, the movie has garnered something of a cult following, mostly for its dark and often rather brutal atmosphere (which is still rather pale compared to the Lloyd Alexander novels the film is loosely based upon). One thing almost everybody loves about the film is the villain: the lich-like Horned King, voiced impeccably by John Hurt. A cross between the character of the same name from the first book, “The Book of Three,” and the evil Lord Arawn, the main antagonist of the series, Disney’s incarnation of the character is easily one of the most mysterious and frightening of their animated baddies. Essentially a living corpse (who has horns growing out of his head, for some reason), the Horned King is a powerful sorcerer who wishes to destroy all of mankind. (Why? Probably because he’s tired of everyone around him having noses.) To this end, he and his goblin-like assistant, Creeper, seek out Hen-Wen, a pig who somehow has gained oracular abilities, allowing her to find the hiding place of the titular Black Cauldron. The Cauldron is an ancient piece of crockery possessed by the spirit of a long-dead king, which can create an army of living dead brutes, “The Cauldron Born.” In the end, the King is thwarted by Taran, a young farm boy who has been thrust into a quest to stop him, and is sucked into the Cauldron itself. In arguably the goriest death scene in a Disney movie, the King is stripped of his soul, and his FLESH (what little he has), as his life force is sucked into the Cauldron’s hellish depths, before EXPLODING in a flash of light and dust. A fittingly gruesome end for this bony fiend.

7. Arc, from Skeleton Knight in Another World.

Much like Overlord, this is another fantasy isekai anime series, in which the main character is transformed into a character they played in a video game. And, just like then, said main character is an extremely powerful skelly-dude. HOWEVER, that’s about where the similarities between this show and “Overlord” stop. In “Skeleton Knight in Another World,” Arc is not a villain who plays the hero of his own story…but instead just a hero, period. In fact, a big part of the series is that he worries about people seeing his true bone face, as he knows the sight of a giant living skeleton will probably be seen as a bad sign by many. Arc is a wonderfully fun protagonist: like many characters in this sort of scenario, he is equal parts bold and admirably strong…and sort of a total dork. The human life he left behind clashes constantly with the uber-heroic facade he tries to put on (complete with a bold and daring laugh, which is absolutely glorious), leading to a great deal of humor. While Ainz is probably the more popular character between these two, I’ve actually finished all of “Skeleton Knight” (at least with what’s available thus far), and I generally prefer Arc a little bit more, based on what I’ve seen. Therefore, he gets higher marks on the list. Also, on a side note…the theme song to this show is absolutely freaking GLORIOUS, seriously, go take a listen to it.

6. Basically the Entire Cast of “Coco.”

This is the exception to the "no groups of characters" rule I made. I know it’s cheating to include a whole bunch of skeletons, instead of just one, but I felt that, in this case, it was warranted. It’s fitting I’m posting this on the Day of the Dead, because that’s what this film is actually inspired by and based around. This Pixar movie tells the story of a young boy named Miguel, who loves music. However, due to personal tragedy, his family has banned any member from being a musician. Believing his great-grandfather to be a legendary musician, Miguel goes on a quest to rekindle the love of music in his family…and, in the process, ends up in the Land of the Dead, which is populated by a whole world of Dia de los Muertos-inspired skeletons. Ranging from friendly sorts, like the eccentric Hector, and multiple late members of Miguel’s family, to the more villainous Ernesto de la Cruz, choosing just one character to represent an entire film of colorful, whimsical bunches of bones seemed next to impossible. So, yeah, I’m just counting the entire movie here. My list, my choice. So sue me. :P

5. Ghost Rider, from Marvel.

A prominent anti-hero of the Marvel universe, the Ghost Rider has gone through many incarnations. One early interpretation, later re-named the Phantom Rider (big difference, I know), isn’t a skeleton at all, nor a supernatural entity of any kind. Instead, the first Ghost Rider was a Wild Western hero and horseman, who used his ghostly costume and magic tricks to frighten his enemies - think of a cross between the Lone Ranger and Batman. Later interpretations, however, took a different path. The most famous Ghost Rider is Johnny Blaze: a stunt daredevil who was tutored largely by his adoptive father, Crash Simpson. (Good lord, these names sound like video game characters from Nintendo…) When Crash developed an inoperable cancer, a grief-stricken Johnny made a deal with the Devil himself to try and save him. Needless to say, it didn’t go so well. Now, Blaze - and others who would share his curse - must roam the land hunting down evildoers, fighting both mortal and supernatural villainy in an endless quest to avenge the innocent. The Ghost Riders all share common visual elements: fiery skeletal bodies, leather clothes, chain-based weapons, and of course, AWESOME motorcycles to ride upon. Their power over the fires of Hell itself are their primary weapons, however, with a variety of different attacks and powers available to Blaze and his later compatriots in the war to seek out the evil and punish them for their sins...hopefully while avoiding ending up in terrible Nicolas Cage outings. No promises on that one.

4. Sans & Papyrus, from Undertale.

Oh, God, I LOVE Undertale. And more than that, perhaps, I LOOOOVE Sans and Papyrus! The Skeleton Brothers are easily my favorite characters in the game, and the most identifiable for me, in many ways. Sans is, in some ways, Undertale’s equivalent to the Doctor from “Doctor Who”: he is a comedic, laid-back, somewhat eccentric character who uses his unassuming appearance and “dopey” personality as a facade. As many a player quickly learns, Sans is far more powerful, far more DANGEROUS than he looks or seems, able to go from cracking a terrible pun to threatening you with painful death in a split second. If you get on his bad side, “you’re gonna have a bad time.” His brother, Papyrus, on the other hand, is sort of the reverse: at first glance, Papyrus seems like your typical “over-the-top villain.” His signature laugh, twisted design, and sense of self-importance all make him about as fiendish as can be...all he’s missing is a top hat or a moustache to twirl! But it quickly becomes clear that Papyrus is neither as evil, nor as clever, as he likes to seem: in reality, he’s really a rather harmless sort of bony fellow, and would much rather befriend you than murder you with his incredibly elaborate, Wile-E.-Coyote-esque death traps. (Much like with Wile E., the traps never work the way they should.) Dealing with these brothers is a BIG part of figuring out the events of Undertale, and the path your adventure will take in the game. Whether you love them as much as I do or not, I advise you to decide wisely.

3. Skeletor, from He-Man and the Masters of the Universe.

There have been several different takes on Eternia’s greatest villain over the years (my favorite will always be the original, but I do like many, if not all, of the other interpretations out there). No matter which one you look at, Skeletor is a very fun villain, and is easily one of the most iconic skull-faced scoundrels out there. A dark wizard who longs to take over Castle Grayskull, and learn all its secrets for his own evil ends, Skeletor’s evil ranges from cartoonish to truly cruel, depending on which version you look at, but there’s always a wonderful blend of both creepiness and genuine menace that accompanies him. It’s hard to not make references to this guy when looking at other bony characters, and he’s given rise to more memes than you can shake a sorcerer’s scepter at. Really, what more can I say? It’s Skeletor: by virtue of his recognition alone, he’s more than earned a spot in the Top Three.

2. The Grim Reaper.

Arguably the single most iconic skeletal figure in history, the Grim Reaper - the embodiment of death itself - could really take up an entire list of his own. (And he probably will, one day.) There are so many versions of the Reaper out there, it’s kind of amazing: when people imagine what death’s avatar looks like, it’s likely that the typical imagery of a skeletal figure, garbed in a dark cloak and carrying a scythe, is the first thing they will imagine. Sometimes the Reaper is depicted as a humorous and comical figure, such as the version found in “The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy.” On many occasions he is depicted as an evil monster, such as the version of Death found in the “Castlevania” franchise. Other times, he is something of a neutral force, as death is neither truly good nor evil when you think about it; probably my favorite example of this is the one found in Terry Pratchett’s “Discworld” universe. Bottom line, I think the fact that skeletons so often represent death, to the point where the very embodiment of the Angel of Death is depicted AS a skeleton, speaks for itself as to why this ranks so highly. Honestly, I was tempted to make this choice number one, but I decided against it for several reasons. Still, iconic as the concept of the Grim Reaper is, the character - in pretty much all his forms - has more than earned high praise here.

1. Jack Skellington, from The Nightmare Before Christmas.

“Nightmare” is one of my favorite films of all time, if not my absolute favorite. It’s not a complex movie, really, but its simplicity is part of what makes it so wonderful! Jack is, by extension, one of my favorite characters of all time: hailed as “The Pumpkin King With the Skeleton Grin,” this dapper, noble, gentlemanly bonehead is the ruler of Halloween Town, a world of ghosts, goblins, and ghouls (oh, my!) whose only job is to make Halloween as frightening as possible. But, despite his undead state, and wicked sense of humor, there is no malice in Jack’s mischief; he just sees it as a job. A job he’s apparently very, VERY good at, from the few examples the film and other spin-offs give us. Jack’s really a very good sort; charming and debonair, but also rather naive. A cockeyed optimist in his own way, and a bit of a prima donna, Jack’s over-the-top antics and spirit of adventure are what often get him into trouble; he has a problem with thinking things through. However, when things go wrong, Jack is ready for action, and quick to take responsibility, take charge, and take chances. His heart is in the right place at all times, even if his brain doesn’t always get there right away. Mixing intelligence and charisma with a childlike simplicty - much like the movie he hails from, in fact - Jack Skellington is an endearing and interesting character who deserves every bit of love he gets from myself and the world over. He’s just as iconic as the Grim Reaper, Skeletor, and others on this list, if not more so! And for all these reasons and more, I happily (albeit pointlessly) name Jack Skellington my Favorite Skeletal Character!

HONORABLE MENTIONS INCLUDE…

Captain Barbossa, from Pirates of the Caribbean. (He really only counts for the first film, which is why I didn’t include him on the main list.)

The Speaking Skull, from The Last Unicorn.

Manolo Sanchez, from The Book of Life.

Spinal, from Killer Instinct.

[thiswasinevitableid]

Faithful (Sternclay)

The last fill is the winner of the more sweet than spooky prompts: My friend/relative is too sick to go trick-or-treating, so I’m taking their kid

“Thanks so much again for bailing me out” Lillian ties her scarf around her neck before kneeling down, “Grace, you be good for your uncle okay? I’ll be back in time to tuck you in.”

“Okay” Joseph’s niece smiles and bends her head foreward so his sister can kiss it. 

“That’s my girl. And don’t eat too much candy” She stands and gives Joseph The Look, “moms rules, got it.”

“Got it. Drive safe.” He hugs her, then holds Grace’s hand as they wave her off to her car. 

His niece looks up at him with what he can only describe as the Stern Family Gaze, “what are ‘Moms Rules?”

“Your grandmother would let us eat as much Halloween candy as we wanted on Halloween itself. But only if we ate actual dinner first.”

“What are we having for dinner?”

“You mom left some chili for us.”

“Blech”

“All the candy you want, remember?”

She narrows her eyes,  “Fine. But I’m getting into my costume first. You’re helping me.”

“Of course, my little lake monster.” 

Ten minutes later, he’s staring at grotesque chicken in place of his niece. 

“You’re…an evil robot?”

“Her name is Chica and she’s possessed by a murdered child.” She says with the scorn only a seven-year-old child can muster. 

“Okay then. Come on, it’s dinner time.”

He’s bemused that his sister would let be something from a horror game but on the other hand maybe this means he’ll one day have someone to watch scary movies with. Not that he’s testing that theory tonight; Lily has baby pictures and is not afraid to use them if he accidentally traumatizes her kid. 

They set out into the streets as it gets dark, porches lighting up orange and purple and the smell of candy and singed pumpkin drifting through the air. 

This neighborhood is full of families, so they spend plenty of time waiting at the foot of steps for other kids to collect their candy. It takes all of five minutes before someone is telling Joseph what a good dad he is just for holding her hand when a flock of boisterous tweens storm past covered in fake gore. 

He smiles and corrects them; this happens to him a lot. Lily works on-call half the time, and his brother-in-law is an RN whose schedule seems to think he does not actually have a life. A perk of having left the FBI is that Joseph can set his own hours, so at least once a month he’s summoned to keep an eye on Grace. Not that he minds; it’s nice to talk with someone who still thinks he’s the coolest guy in the world. 

Grace insists on the long route for candy collection, and by the time they’re heading along the park towards home there are hardly any families on the street. 

As he’s asking her what her favorite decorations were, she freezes and tugs his arm. 

“There’s a dog in that bush.”

He follows her pointed finger, expecting a beagle or pomeranian cowering in the foliage. Not a fucking wolf. 

“Yes, it seems there is” there are no wolves in Madison, so this has to be a really big husky or a wolf-dog or something, “but let's leave him be.”

“But he’s hurt.” 

She’s right; the animal has a cut on its snout. Joseph takes a step, then another, and all the dog does is whimper. 

“It’s okay, big guy, we’re friendly. Are you lost?”  He gestures slowly for the dog to come to him, “let’s see who you belong to, then we can-” he sighs as he sees there’s no collar or tags, “we can figure something out.”

The dog licks his hand, sad brown eyes staring up at him. Its fur is gorgeous dark brown and very soft when Joseph pats its head. He can’t shake the feeling that he’s looking at a wolf that’s just not quite right in the face. 

“Is he nice?”

One floppy ear perks up at Grace’s voice, and then the dog flops onto its side, showing her its belly. She laughs and kneels to pat his head. 

“It seems like it. I’d say he should come with us but I don’t have a leash. So how about this; we get you home, then I’ll come back and look for him and see if we can find his owner.”

Grace agrees, reluctantly stands, and takes Joseph’s hand. A few seconds after they’re back on the pavement, this a click-click of claws following behind. 

“Uncle Joseph, look, he likes you!”

He glances behind them with a smile, “That or he wants your candy. Either way, I guess he’s coming home with me.”

Joseph coaxes the dog into his car to wait until Lily gets home. Once his sister is back and his niece is putting away her candy, he hops in and drives back to his house. It’s on the outskirts of the city, where the woods start to encroach, and the dog sniffs the air in the direction of the treeline as he unlocks the door. 

“Now, I have a dog already. Her name is Nessie. She’s a little scared of other dogs, so she might run away or hide from you. If you chase her or bully her, you will spend the night outside. Got it?”

The dog boofs once, a low and happy sound. 

“Good enough.”

As he expected, Nessie skitters out to meet him and freezes when she sees what he’s brought home. But instead of running, she cautiously comes closer, sniffing the newcomer, who sits patiently during her inspection. Then she licks him once on the face and trots over to Joseph for attention. 

Interesting. 

“I missed you too, girl. Now let’s find our new friend somewhere to sleep.

—-----------------------------------------------------------------

In Barclay’s defense, he never meant for it to get this out of hand. 

He’d known this area had some nasty off-shoots of vampire hives, but he’d also heard that some of his friends might have found safe haven here. So he was willing to risk the trip. Turns out nasty gangs of vampires breed nasty gangs of humans (or maybe it’s the other way around), and said humans like to stab first and ask questions later. He’d avoided a knife to the gut but not the face and ran for his life, changing into a wolf once he lost them so any humans would see an injured dog, not a huge scary man. The plan was to lay low until he could sneak into the night and find a safe place to hide. 

And while the foot of Joseph’s bed is certainly safe, it’s weird to lay here in the dark with a human happily asleep and completely unaware they let a vampire into their house. 

Weirder still has been how gentle Joseph is with him. No raised voices or threats, no getting annoyed when Barclays bulk knocks things over. Just the offer of dinner (Barclay managed to let Nessie eat his share without the human noticing) and then a bath. A bath during which a very good human stripped to his boxer-briefs and undershirt in order to scrub mud and blood from Barclay’s fur. A bath after which Joseph toweled him off and put a bandaid on his nose and called him a good boy for being so well-behaved.

Barclay would have gone belly-up for him in that moment even if he was in his human form.

His plan is to escape come morning, but Joseph doesn’t leave for an office as Barclay assumed he would. Instead he spends the morning on the phone calling around and checking online to see if anyone is missing a dog. When that search turns up nothing, he bundles Barclay into the backseat of his car and drives to a vet. 

Mercifully, he just wants them to check Barclay’s cut to make sure it doesn’t need stitches. He doesn’t, and he uses the moment of eye contact with the vet to put them in enough of a thrall so they tell Joseph no other care is needed. 

Joseph stops at a burger shack on the way home, pulling into the lot to eat. Barclay’s pleading eyes earn him a fry, which is for the best; he couldn’t handle much more mortal food than that without getting sick. But it’s not his fault salt and fat still smell good to a vampire.

In the evening, Joseph walks him over on a makeshift leash to a pet store, then back towards home on a sturdy, tartan-patterned one. As they’re cutting through an alley, a figure steps from a back door and calls Joseph’s name.

Barclay knows another vampire when he sees one, and bares his teeth as the man steps closer. 

“Easy, big guy” Joseph says calmly, “Alan is a friend of mine.”

“More like your fucking servant.” The vampire smiles, “my sister got out yesterday; the fang-mark stuff you showed the cops did the trick.” He offers his hand, “You ever need to woo someone or go to a funeral or anything, your orders at my place are on the house.” 

Barclay glances up to see Gravedirt Florist printed on the backdoor. 

Joseph says he’ll keep that in mind and waves goodnight. As they walk he muses to Barclay, “You didn’t act that way towards anyone else today. I wonder…can you tell vampires from humans? Or do you just want to protect me?”

Barclay barks in what he hopes is an affirmative tone. 

“That gives me an idea. After all, a vampire ‘hunter’” he makes literal air-quotes, “can use all the protection he can get.”

They reach the door of the house. Barclay shouldn’t follow him through it, shouldn’t let himself be alone in a room with a fucking vampire hunter, sure as fuck shouldn’t agree to be his guard dog. He should use all his strength to yank the leash free and run for the hills. 

Joseph rubs his head, “We can sleep on it, right big guy? You deserve a break and to be spoiled after being lost and fending for yourself.”

Blue eyes shine, trusting and kind, as the grip on the leash loosens so he can open the door. 

Barclay cuddles up to Joseph’s thigh and follows him in. 

Just a few more days. Then he’ll go.

—-------------------------------------------------------

A week after bringing the new dog home, Joseph follows the sound of Nessie’s barking into the living room. As he expected, a vampire with a grudge is waiting for him. 

“That’s the most pathetic guard dog I’ve ever seen.”

He needs at least a few seconds to grab his tool-belt from its hook.

“Oh, Nessie is just the alarm.” A growl grows in the darkness behind as he says glibly, “Bigfoot is the muscle.”

It turns out when you have a massive, snarling dog, troublesome vampires show themselves out without fight. 

—--------------------------------------------------------------------

Barclay stands, surveying the house for the last time. For two and a half weeks he’s only left it with Joseph or on the few nights he snuck out to visit the butcher. It feels wrong to be leaving with no intention of coming back. 

Nessie prances at his feet, UFO chew toy in her mouth. Whenever Joseph is gone for the day, Barclay will turn human and play with her for hours before cuddling up on the couch to read from Joseph’s excellent collection of mystery novels. 

“Sorry, sweet girl. Not today.” He rubs her ear, “take care of him, okay? And for go-ow, for goodness sake try to get him to sleep more.”

He slips out the front door and down the street. His first stop is the butcher for some blood, then to the library to use the computer to look for somewhere to live. When he comes out, no leads to be found, he sees Joseph on the corner, asking the guys at the falafel food truck if they saw a large, brown dog come this way. 

Barclay’s not going to feel bad. He’s not going back. He’s not. 

He sees Joseph several more times throughout the evening, having some version of that same conversation. 

At three in the morning, his curiosity gets the best of him, and he sneaks back to the house. Through the window he can see the human on his laptop, refreshing what looks to be the community notices page; the one where people post lost pets. 

Joseph closes the computer and leans back, wipes his eye and casts a hopeful glance at the backdoor. 

No one’s mourned his departure that much in years. 

He takes his wolf form, scratches at the door, and waits only a few seconds before Joseph is on his knees, hugging him and making him swear to never do that again. 

He can’t promise that. But maybe he can hang around a little longer. 

—-------------------------------------------------------

“Well that could have gone better.” Joseph peels off his bloody shirt, already standing in the shower to avoid making the whole bathroom into a crime scene. 

Barclay nods, a habit he hasn’t managed to hide and is praying Joseph won’t notice. His fur is matted with blood from a truly horrendous night. He didn’t know there was such a thing as a multi-mouthed graveghoul, but it turns out there is and that it’s aggressive as fuck.

Joseph points to the tub and he climbs in, lets the human scrub him clean and run his hands over him in search of injury. Once he’s clean and dry, Joseph shoos him out so he can take a proper shower. 

Seeing him step out ten minutes later in only a towel makes Barclay hot under both the literal and figurative collars.

“I’m glad you’re okay, big guy” Joseph ruffles his fur, “we make a good team.”

They do. But lately all Barclay can think is they’d make such a better one if he could be human. If he could make breakfast for Joseph after a long night, could sit and read while the human looks over his case files, could walk holding his hand instead of on a leash and talk with him about everything. 

(Could feed from him instead of sneaking drinks from a carton)

But being honest with Joseph can’t mean anything but losing him. And Barclay’s not quite ready to lose him. Not yet. 

—-------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Here we go, some entertainment for you” Joseph sets the puzzle toy down for Bigfoot, “and some light reading for me.” He laughs at his own joke as he drops a stack of new, vampiric history books on his table.

Bigfoot wags his tail at him, then settles in to nap. Fair enough, they did have a long night of chasing down a vampire hunter who was lighting vampire businesses on fire for the hell of it. 

The first book is A Compendium of Vampirical Powers. When he hits chapter three, he turns the page to a plate showing an illustration of a vampire who has taken the form of a wolf. Assuming this is an accurate image, he’s impressed; it does look like a wolf. 

A wolf who’s not quite right in the face. 

Joseph looks at his guard dog. His guard dog who only eats when Joseph isn’t looking at him, who learns commands as if he understood english, who always seems to bark when a human would reply to Joseph thinking aloud. 

“Bigfoot?”

The dog opens its eyes and lifts its head to regard him. 

“If you…if you were a vampire, you would tell me, right?”

The dog tenses, which does nothing to soothe Joseph’s worry. 

“I wouldn’t be angry. I promise. But if I’m onto something, and you care about me even a little, please be honest with me.”

Bigfoot closes his eyes with a resigned sigh, and then there’s a large, bearded man on Joseph’s rug. 

“Um. Hi.” Strong arms wave from a ratty t-shirt, and thick, hairy legs stick out of shorts, “So, you’re right, I am a vampire. I was being chased by some of those shitty guys we dealt with last week and I panicked and turned into my wolf form to hide and then you were there and…yeah” he undoes the collar at his throat, “I’ve been living as your dog for months.”

“Ohjesus” Joseph runs a hand through his hair, “I can’t believe I was so dense, it was so obvious, oh god I have rubbed your belly so many times and you, you slept in my bed!”

“You said you wouldn’t be mad.” The vampire winces away from him. 

“Sorry. I’m just…why did you let it go for so long?”

“At first I needed somewhere to hide, then I couldn't handle running away and making you upset and I, I really, I like you, Joseph. You saw a huge, scary dog and took him home instead of calling the cops, and you were so good to me I didn’t want to leave. Even though I knew I should. I’m so sorry.” He sits up, scrunching in on himself to seem smaller, “I can go.”

“Do you have somewhere to go?”

“Not really.” The vampire says sheepishly. 

Joseph slides down to the floor so they’re face to face, “Then I’m not kicking you out. I trust you; if you were a threat to me, you would have attacked me by now.”

“Never” The force of the reply surprises them both. 

“Am I right that you don’t have a job either?”

“Uh huh.”

Joseph touches a tattooed arm, “What’s your name, big guy?”

“Barclay.”

“Here’s what I propose, Barclay: I still need extra protection. And I have the money to pay for it. So if you want, you can keep working for me and living here. Just as a roommate.”

“I’d really, really,  really like that.”

“Then it’s a deal” Joseph helps him to his feet and tries for levity, “but no more sleeping in the bed.”

“I thought it was what a dog would do! Plus it gets cold at night and Nessie hogs the spot by the heater.”

Joseph chuckles, “She really does. I’ll guess I’ll just make sure there’s lots of extra blankets in the spare bedroom.”

—----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The benefits of Barclay having told Joseph the truth are many, starting with the fact that Barclay is an excellent cook and likes making meals for Joseph even when he can’t eat them himself.  Joseph feels like a spoiled husband whenever he wakes up to breakfast already made or comes home to dinner waiting on the table. 

Barclay is also an excellent conversationalist, even though Joseph is playing catch-up when it comes to getting to know him while Barclay is familiar with all his most embarrassing habits. Then again, it’s tremendously relaxing to be around someone who’s seen him sing to ABBA or curse at the dishwasher and still wants to spend time with him. 

For his part, Barclay is clearly enjoying not having to hide anymore, and is just as protective of him as a man as he was as a wolf. He’s also still using the dog shampoo Joseph bought him because he likes the way it makes his hair soft. 

Joseph does miss being able to touch him, and with every passing morning the temptation to reach across the table and hold his hand as they have coffee becomes less bearable.

Tonight, Barclay is humming along to the radio as he dusts pumpkin ravioli with ricotta. As he bends to grab a plate from the dishwasher, Joseph notices an odd lump in his back pocket. If it’s what he thinks it is, it’s a very interesting situation indeed. 

He stands and slips it free just as Barclay straightens. 

“Whoa, hey there” Barclay laughs as he turns, “you that…hungry…for..oh man I can explain I promise.”

“Please do” Joseph dangles the old collar between them. 

“I kept it as a, uh, a souvenir. Of the part of being hidden I liked.”

“Keep talking.”

“I liked” Barclay looks down, “I liked being good for you. Being yours. I like belonging to you because I knew you’d take care of me and it made me so fucking happy and also it was really fucking hot to be on a leash for you which gives me all kinds of weird feelings. And being with you now is agony because it’s so close to being yours, and now I know how well we work together, but I don’t want to make you feel like you have to want me….

“So what I’m hearing is that you’d like to keep being mine under certain, um, conditions? My good boy who’s also my boyfriend?” Joseph sets the collar on the counter. 

“Please.”

“I think that can be arranged.” Joseph leans in and kisses him, the vampire whimpering until Joseph puts his arms around him and holds him close. 

“Does this mean I can sleep in the bed again?” Barclay smiles, fangs glinting promisingly in the kitchen lights. 

“Yes, big guy, it does.

[theaistired]

Blog introduction

Hello, my name is Thea (she/they), I’m acespec, arospec, and autistic. I speak German and English and I am trying to learn Italian, Swedish and Arabic (learning three different languages at once is complicated, so trying instead of actual learning). I’m a big fan of the fantasy genre and like to read, write, draw, play the piano, and occasionally play video games. I also love birds and science.

Now, this is my main blog where I post about my writing, my art and also stuff in general. I might also post about some of my own music in the future. You can find a short introduction to my WIPs under the cut.

Hope you enjoy and I'll see you around on tumblr!

Galidean: A fantasy series that was supposed to be a trilogy but has grown into a much longer series. But I guess that is what happens when you look a three different projects and think to yourself "wouldn't it be hilarious if the took place in the same setting". So, the series can be divided into three different "eras" with their own little "main plot", but there is also a plotline running through all of them mostly in the background.

A hundred years after the joined victory over the Dark Sun, the human nations gather together in celebration. Future leaders attend a journey through each other's home, during which it becomes clear that scorching raids have left their marks over all the territories. With no apparent culprit, a prince, an orphan, a lord, and a sorcerer band together to find the power that turns banishment into death. With the help of a friend and a sibling, they start chasing mysteries and legends across the world, unaware that they all take root from the wounds of the world itself.

Old Gods: A fantasy series consisting of 3 – 4 books, while I also wanted it to be horror, that part has gotten somewhat lost while developing it. Oh well.

Cyr was young when the war started, he was young when he joined it and he was not so young anymore when the enemy captured him. After four years of imprisonment, he comes to terms with his inevitable fate. Surrounded by enemies, hated by his allies, stripped of his magic and will, there is no escape for him. While the voices and visions invade both day and night, Cyr prepares for his final day. His only true solace is the new courtesan who has endless stories of hope and rebirth to tell him.

The Human in Us: An urban fantasy series, that really is just two characters and my investment in their relationship in a trench coat. All started by me looking at different supernatural YA stories and going “wonder how I would do that”.

Students, alcohol and an abandoned house should have been the set-up for a fun, maybe spooky anecdote in their future. It should not twist and turn and talk, it should not turn nightmares real, it should not make Josephine’s hallucinations even more vivid and grotesque. Yet it does, and one month later, a burning girl appears to give her an envelope containing an address and a promise of answers.

There Are Voices In the Void: A sci-fi horror story, set in the same setting as a different sci-fi project of mine, but story-wise not connected to it.

While investigating a nebula, the scientists of the crew gather samples of cosmic dust, finding an unknown organism on it. The head biologists determines it to be deceased and proceeds with further testing. The death of two of his colleagues soon afterwards is just the beginning of the nightmare.

Little Remains: A bit of crime fiction/thriller, that happened by me looking at YA mystery series and going “wonder how I would do that”.

Detective Morgan has worked on many gruesome cases in the past, most of them took place in bigger cities with an anonymous population. When a teenage girl is found dead in the fields of a small town nearby, Morgan first assumes an outsider to be the murderer of the unidentified victim. However, with the murder of a local student a few days later, even the tight-knit community quickly realises that one of them is far more familiar with the gruesome case than the rest of them. Unwilling to sit back, the student’s friends start their own investigation, while Morgan begins to struggle with old ghosts.  

[tohisprettyc00l]

hi! could i get romantic and platonic matchup for the owl house?

my pronouns are she/her

i'm demisexual panromantic

i'm enfp 7w8, leo

i'm 6'0 and have amber eyes, long gold blond curly hair and hourglass figure

i'm positive and upbeat person, i try to see the bright side in most situations

i'm friendly, energetic, confident, sarcastic, responsible, maybe a bit chaotic, cheerful and bubbly

i care about my friends and family a lot, and go out of my way to show it

i enjoy having fun and living life to the fullest

i'm very competitive and passionate person

i really like puzzles, riddles and crosswords

i love making people smile

i have morbid, dark sense of humor

sometimes i randomly say a weird obscure fact in the middle of conversation

i can play on violin, cello, piano, guitar, saxophone, harp and drums, i'm currently learning how to play on trumpet

i like poetry and sometimes i write a poem or two, also i'm writing my book

i'm ballet dancer since i was a kid and i love performing

i'm working on my own cartoon

i never quite grew out of the fantasy phase, and i'm still enamored with tales of changelings and witches

i work as illustrator for fantasy books and books for kids

i'm kinda struggling with taking rest, doing nothing, because there is always something to do, something new to learn, etc.

i'm afraid of stagnation

i overuse this kind of emojis→(⁠ㆁ⁠ω⁠ㆁ⁠)

my style is something between whimsigothic and cryptidcore

i love: collecting things, astronomy, tea, making and watching movies, forests, making jewelry, cooking, baking, d&d, horrors, animals, plants, gardening, traveling, art, history, world mythologies, learning new things, psychology, handicraft

sorry if it's too chaotic

i hope you have a fantastic day (⁠◍⁠•⁠ᴗ⁠•⁠◍⁠)

I romantically match you with: Amity Blight!

-I WAS going to say Amity seems like she would be short af. But she is only a few inches below six foot as a teen and taller as an adult so never mind I guess.

-You remind me so much of seasons 1 and 2a Luz.

-Just like her and Luz you both are that ship trope where it's like a grumpy person and a ray of sunshine.

-Her REAL family (so not Odaila) and friends are the most important thing to her. She knew what it was like to have social status as her number one priority and it wasn't great.

-Amity missed out on a lot of actually living her life so now she spends a lot of her free time living her life to the fullest. Usually to the point where she expresses stuff others wouldn't experience in ten lifetimes.

-Amity will be do all the smart game things in her free time (I.E like you said puzzles, riddles and crosswords.) She find them relaxing. (Unlike me who has a storke when I mess up in a crossword.)

-Amity will read some random fact online and go to everyone she knows and be like "Guess what I just learned!"

-Amity would love to listen to you play instruments!!! She might try to learn herself to surprise you.

-She has problems with resting/ doing nothing, but she'll be damned if she lets you also have that problem. She will force you to take breaks. You might not feel overwhelmed or burnt out yet but if you carry on like this it will happen sooner or later.

-You fear stagnation? You and her both. So she is pretty good at comforting you if you're having a particularly bad time with the fear.

-Luz loves using emoticons. So first of all she's used to it. But she also finds it very endearing.

-It may be a basic headcanon but I think Amity's favorite drink is tea.

-Amity specializes in a few foods but besides that, she can't cook or bake. But the fact that you are able to remember and make so many recipes and make them taste good? You're basically magical (And she has authority on the topic.)

-She loves spooky stuff but not horror stuff if that makes sense. Like she loves a Halloween-y vibe and a campfire story scary, but nothing gory or like jump scares. That last one is just because of the cheapness of it.

-I think Lilith rubbed off on Amity in her love of history.

-She loves learning about the psychology of things. Why do people do the things they do.

I platonically match you with: Luz Noceda

-Optimistic person and optimistic person friendship is honestly always chaotic. And that's just how Luz likes it.

-Luz loves her friends and family so much. That's like her main thing

-Luz unintentionally lives life to the fullest. Danger and new experiences gravitate toward her.

-I feel like Luz played any instrument she could in school, that's not to say she was good at it but she tried. (She got better after studying in the bard coven.) So when she finds out you play she's very excited and wants to play with you.

-She wanted to do ballet when she was younger but when she found out classes weren't just dancing and were actual y'know... Lessons she left. (I can't blame her I don't know what your classes are like but when I was in ballet the keeping your head straight thing was torture for me) But since you do the dancing part that she was interested in she loves to watch perform.

-If you let her she'll watch the hell out your cartoon. You finished a very rough sketch? She is already by your side asking to see.

-Girl literally lives in the demon realm and is also obsessed with Azura She is in too deep to get out of the fantasy "phase."

-Mildred Featherwhyle ass I think I've made it clear that she loves seeing your craft, but the fact that you write FANTSY books!? She was so excited she literally bounced up and down

-Luz is going to force you to take breaks. She's not going to force you to do nothing, she has adhd she knows that can be hard. But taking breaks is important.

-She is the queen of using silly emoticons.

-Luz was obsessed with space when she was younger and you can't convince me otherwise.

-Luz likes and runs D&D campaigns.

-Luz canonically likes art both the writing and drawing kind.

Bro, I don't know what happened but I went OFF. Um- Hope you like it!

[thewapolls]

So I'll be honest, I'm not 100% sure what's up with the series spanning boss monster, Bad News. (That is in fact its Japanese name, and not a translation: BA-DDO-NYUU-SU[バッドニュース])

It started in the original Wild Arms Ancient Arena as a big caveman with a club? His weird spooky eyes lit up beneath the darkness of an animal pelt cowl --it even appears to have little ears that sit on top its head and fans that frame its face. (It shares this model with the monsters Gigaflame and Gigafrost.)

But then starting with Wild Arms 2 he appears to be some kind of monster prowrestler, even having a tag-team partner, "Murdoch." And the returning Gigaflame and Gigafrost monsters are distinctly unrelated looking now as monstrous, almost kappa-like looking, giants/cavemen.(WA2 also introduced a Gigacloud and Gigapoison who would never be seen again.)

Then Wild Arms 3 got clever and the Bad News boss is actually just Ortega, the guy running the Gunners Heaven arena signup desk, who, after watching you kill his boss who'd just turned into a monster, decides you've impressed him... so this completely normal man takes on your party of 4 armed adventurers with his bare hands. He does also noticeably fight like a prowrestler and, at least in English, references Bad News as his "old ring name," so that's got adjacency with the WA2 design.

From there the other games all use the same model, it's a mostly normal looking guy with little oni horns, tiger stripe pro wrestling pants and boots, and a bamboo practice sword like some old fashioned Japanese gym teacher(is that even still a cliche people recognize? I had a surprisingly hard time finding examples... I feel like maybe it was already pretty outdated even when these games were coming out)...

The horns, general build and bodyhair, posture with the shinai(instead of a club or tetsubo), and the tiger print pants(rather than loin cloth) all point toward a spin on classic japanese Oni, which are sort of adjacent to the original caveman look. (Although if anything the original Gigaflame and Gigafrost would've passed as a red oni+Blue Oni duo, yet none of their designs seem to embrace that.)

Although the Tiger stripes on wrestling gear can't help but be at least a tiny bit evocative of Tiger Mask, which kinda goes back to the original having the wildcat pelt?

F in particular has two of them in a red pants and green pants variant, possibly as a throwback to WA2's Bad News and Murdoch?

Oh wait duh... Bad News Brown/Bad News Allen, real name Allen Coage, was an actual pro wrestler in Japan during the 70s-80s who broke into the American scene in the late 80s. So I doubt this isn't referencing him at least a little bit.

Also weirdly enough the final designs for Gigaflame and Gigafrost later in the series do seem to loop back around to looking like prowrestlers also, at least as far as the shorts and the belts go.

[jcmarchi]

The Casting of Frank Stone Preview - How Filmmaking Works In The Casting Of Frank Stone - Game Informer

New Post has been published on https://thedigitalinsider.com/the-casting-of-frank-stone-preview-how-filmmaking-works-in-the-casting-of-frank-stone-game-informer/

The Casting of Frank Stone Preview - How Filmmaking Works In The Casting Of Frank Stone - Game Informer

The Casting of Frank Stone is Game Informer’s cover story this month, and we learned some exclusive details about the upcoming horror game during our trip to Behaviour Interactive’s studio in Montreal. Speaking to Supermassive creative director Steve Goss, he clued us in on the game’s most central and unique mechanic: the Super 8mm camera. 

Set within the Dead by Daylight universe, the game story unfolds in the summer of 1980 in the unassuming small town of Cedar Hills. It follows a group of teenagers who set out to film a horror movie at an abandoned steel mill that has ties to a murderer named Frank Stone. At its core, The Casting of Frank Stone is a Supermassive game through and through. It’s a cinematic choice-driven horror game that sees players making decisions and executing split-second button prompts that can decide whether a character lives or dies. If you’ve enjoyed the studio’s previous works like Until Dawn or The Dark Pictures Anthology, you have a good idea of what to expect. But the experience features some intriguing new mechanics, such as the camera. 

The teens buy the 8mm camera from a store called the Curiosity Shop after dropping and breaking their original Super 8. However, it later becomes apparent that this is no ordinary camera, a fact players will experience first-hand. Given how vital movie-making is to the narrative, Goss says it would have been “absurd” not to lean into the idea of letting players actively participate in filmmaking. “You actually do filming,” he stresses. “You do film. And then it becomes ‘you film’ to ‘you have to film.’”

Goss is cagey about providing too many gameplay details about the camera, and we didn’t get to see it in action during our visit. However, he does reveal that players can freely take it out and film everything around them, which unfolds in first-person view. It’s a fully functioning camera; you have to wind it to record and reload it with more film. The camera is also imbued with some kind of magical energy and will be useful for survival. For example, one section of the game features an invisible enemy that can only be spotted using the camera’s viewfinder, which causes the camera to crackle with energy. The camera’s capabilities evolve throughout the adventure; Goss even teases it may not be the only camera players use. 

The camera is necessary for story and gameplay sequences and serves as the core intersection between the teens. Although the camera brings them together, it also becomes a point of tension. “If you’ve ever been engaged in a kind of a group creative exercise, people do try and vie for the leadership of the group,” Goss teases.

It’s tough not to draw parallels to the 2011 supernatural thriller movie Super 8, and that’s partially by design. The film was cited as one of the reference points for The Casting of Frank Stone more than once during our discussions. Both the game and the movie center on youths creating their own movie before spooky occurrences flip things on their head, which Goss says highlights Super 8’s producer Steven Spielberg’s penchant for creating stories about people making things, often forms of art. He hopes the theme of characters wanting to be the makers of things comes through in The Casting of Frank Stone. 

“When I was a kid […] I bothered my parents until they bought me a camera and then made terrible things that were just absolutely worthless,” Goss says. “But it was the nearest I could get to being creatively kind of significant, I suppose. That’s the thread here: a bunch of kids, probably [in] not the most forward-thinking place in the universe, probably not the most economically exciting place to be, certainly it doesn’t have any kind of cool stuff to do, so they’re making up for themselves. So that’s why this is at the heart of that story.”

The Casting of Frank Stone launches on September 3 for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC. Be sure to visit our cover story hub for more exclusive stories and videos by clicking the banner below. 

[foggypainterstudentfmp]

Starting Point #1: Fools Gold

The fools gold theme is the reality behind an image/story or object.

There are many uses of this in media like games, films and TV shows.

For example, Games like Robocop Rouge City as you have the OCP and the Police Force and the OCP are saying they are good guys and helping to defend the city but realistically they are lying and putting people out of jobs and putting out dangerous machinery and dealing with criminals. It is then RoboCops job to put a stop to OCP and their ways but you have to gain their support first as you were built and supported by the OCP.

In bully this is a good example of showing the reality behind a person. As in Bully you join the school and befriend a phsyco named Garry and he will betray you later on in the game and he will cause you lots of issues with the different groups of people around the school and then you eventually realise it is Garry who is your 'friend' that has betrayed you.

This is also done in film for example you have Star Wars Revenge of the Sith where Anakin thinks he is doing right by helping Emperor Palpatine and joining the dark side as he can then learn a power to save his wife who he forsees is going to die in child labour. Although in reality it is him turning to the dark side that causes her to die in child birth if he was still a Jedi she would have been fine and he would have been granted the rank of master he was longing for.

Some links from fools gold on the mindmap were:

Leprachaun which I have done as a whole seperate theme as it matches too many other themes for me to just link it to this one

Trickery/Halloween

Medieval

Trickery is an interesting point to link to fools gold as the actual fools gold itself is in reality worth nothing it is just a rock called pyrite which looks like gold making people when it was first found made people think it was worth something. Also this could link to Halloween as trick or treating if you don't get given sweets from people you trick them when in reality they don't actually deserve it as they are not required to do so as not everyone does Halloween.

This a subtheme I found interesting that came from when I was researching the theme of Fools Gold and ended up on the Halloween theme. This can also link to the theme of illusion too as they don't exist.

This topic links to the real world as Halloween is a day on the 31st October where people dress up as spooky characters and try to scare other people or get sweets. Most people go trick or treating where if you don't give them sweets you get tricked. This is how it links to fools gold as in reality not everyone celebrates Halloween and in reality it sounds nice but it has been transformed into some horrible celebration which causes chaos for example people getting their house covered in toilet paper or egged. It has turned into a celebration of greed and begging. Halloween originates from being a day where you celebrate all who you have lost like what Spain have which is called Day of the Dead but the western world has linked halloween to be more linked to the ideas of supernatural like ghosts, zombies etcetra.

The medieval period is a sub theme that I got to on my mind map by thinking of fools gold and how old it is and then thinking of what a fool is. By defenition a fool is a jester who has to entertain the king. The medieval period is really quite an interseting and expansive topic to be on as you could explore the the knights, weapons, battles. The knights were the protectors of the king and the men who went into battle for the king either to defend his land or to take land for him. I could make a game linked to this and my inspiration can be castle crashers cross wormz. The weapons in medieval times were intereresting as they were all bladed. For example there is a sword, dagger, arrows. I could use these in a brawler game which would make it quite fun as it is all close contact as there are not many of close contact brawlers now.

[witchhatgnat]

Check out my work!

Since I'm new to Tumblr I thought it would be cool to throw some links to my work out there. For those who don't know, I'm a student author and game developer and I've been active online for about two years now. I don't have links to my fiction quite ready yet but I do have links to the games I've worked on! So here are those along with a little pitch.

First up is The Pieces: I worked on this one last summer and it was my first time as the lead designer for a project! It's a short narrative game about a recently divorced person taking items from their old apartment. The game focuses on some really amazing music from the sound team and encourages players to build a song reflective of the character's emotional state. I think it's a unique narrative piece with some of my strongest writing.

Next I want to talk about what is by far my most popular game, Hearts of Hallow's Eve: Do you like ghosts and ghouls? Mothmen and vampires? Well this is the game for you. It's a Halloween themed dating-sim with a little twist. You're at a party where everyone's costume is a little too convincing. You can pick from four fiendish friends to talk to, including Mothman, Chadimir the Vampire, Franky the Cultist, and Echo the Ghost. This one is just really cute. The artists did an absolutely amazing job and I'm so happy that I got to write for Mothman. It's silly, it's sweet, and it's totally worth a look.

Next up is Field Hospital: Valkyrie, which I made with the same team as The Pieces. This time around we were making a game for GMTK Jam, and so there's a lot more mechanical crunch here. You play as the commanding officer of a M*A*S*H-style hospital in a sci-fi war. You're tasked with doing triage, managing your medical staff, and making sure that enough soldiers live each day. The main game play thrust involves dice rolls to see whether or not your staff can save the soldier they've been assigned to. Everyone also has a morale meter that's affected by whether or not they saved their patient the previous day. It's an extremely difficult game (not by design lol), but thematically I think it works really well. I'm proud of the writing I did for this, including some vague world building and random-generator lists I had to come up with. There's also more amazing music and sound design in this one.

The last one I want to talk about is Getting Ahead, which is my earliest game. It's a Twine text adventure where you play as a shade waiting in line in Purgatory. Except, you're not going to actually wait in line are you? Of course not. You begin cutting in front of people and meeting some really interesting characters. But as you do, something feels... wrong. I think this one is really funny and a little spooky, but mostly funny. It has some absolutely amazing music (including a Bloodborne style opening theme). It's also the only game that I've been the "programmer" for, and getting music to work in Twine was not fun! Years later and I'm still really proud of this one.

That's all I'll link to for now. But I have worked on two other dating-sims, which you can find on my Itch page at witchhatnatalie.itch.io. Feel free to ask questions about these projects or share your thoughts! I hope people enjoy them and I can't wait to get back to making games.

[the-haunted-office]

Under normal circumstances, Doom would read the whole running away routine as a game, would laugh, and give chase. She would knock things over and cackle and generally be as spooky as she could possibly be. Given the fact that she's just set this building on fire and there happens to be a living person inside of it, however, the fact that said living person is now running away from her is just tedious. She may be a deliberate pain in the ass to stave off the boredom of being dead and not having much else to do with her eternal afterlife, but she's not a monster... at least, that's what she'd say.

Sighing, she goes after him, although she doesn't know how to make that appear less threatening given she herself can appear threatening simply by existing, and it doesn't help that there's smoke and ash and flickering firelight everywhere, lending to the awful image she must be projecting.

She calls after him, "Really? Really? You're gonna run away? Into the house that's on fire? Sir- or Madam, or whatever you prefer to go by, I am trying to help you, so maybe don't be running aw- ohhhhh, okay, ha, of course you've got a knife and of course you wanna stab me with it. It's always a knife." She huffs, annoyed, and would certainly be rolling her eyes at him if she still had them.

She takes a moment to tug on the hem of her vest, which is black with silver pinstripes on it. The rest of her outfit goes with it, completed with a fancy jacket and pants with silver pinstripes, a dark gray shirt, and a black tie. Her black boots are the only thing that don't match - those and her personal otherworldly appearance.

"Look, man, let me lay this out for you. Not in any particular order for you, but hear me out, okay? First of all, I set your house on fire. Very sorry for that. Actually, I'm not really, I was just pissed off and did it in a fit of rage, but I didn't realize you were in here, and I'd actually rather you not burn to death on account of me. Second," she says, ticking off fingers as she goes, "I'm already dead, so, figure that shit out if you wanna try stabbing me. I mean, if it'll make you feel any better, I'll just stand here and let you do it. I might groan and complain about it a little, but I promise you I won't bleed or die. And third........ Actually, that was it. Just those two things. So! Anyway. Fancy getting out of here? Or would you rather I just go put the flames out and then you can just go back to bed or whatever it was you were doing before. Sorry about your house, by the way, I'll like, clean it up with bleach or something."

The ghost then holds out both arms disarmingly, to show she has no weapons and that she's giving him a clean shot at her. "Go on, then. Have at it. Might wanna hurry before you start to die from smoke inhalation."

If Piter does stab her, he'll find that there is some solid substance there. The knife will pierce into her somewhat like it would with normal, living flesh. However there will be no blood, nothing other than the knife going in, and coming back out. Doomsday will barely react, depending on where she's been stabbed. A stab to the arm or leg elicits hardly any reaction. A stab to the torso or stomach will earn a grimace and some irritation, but ultimately she'll just start laughing. A stab to the neck or face and she will pull away and curse, but seconds later will be perfectly fine and will just shrug at him. In any scenario, there will be no visible, lasting damage. All will be healed like she was never stabbed to begin with.

What the fuck are the people of this planet eating that makes their eyes glow yellow like that? Piter stands out enough, himself, with a spice addict's total blue eyes. This place is remote enough that he'll catch some of the locals staring. If he had ever read about a weird yellow eyes thing anywhere in the galaxy, he's sure he would have marked its similarities to his own situation and remembered it.

He isn't quite all the way to believing that Doomsday is a ghost, but it's not lost on him that she has a certain air of impossibility about her. A way of being in the world that real people aren't. She looks like a hologram around the edges.

New, revised question: what the fuck else are people studying in this lab, and why is it escaping?

In any case, he does not at all read help or salvation into Doomsday's rush towards him. He startles and moves quickly to the side, down a dark row of cubicles. He couldn't say how he got the rest of the way into his coat in that time (he was too committed at that point to simply drop it), but luck was probably a big part of it. Once he's both out of range and free of the middle stage of putting on coat, he's free to reach for the knife he has hidden in his boot. Doomsday has likely caught up with him by now, but he's ready... more ready than he was.

"Who likes bleeding to death and getting cooked?" he snaps, brandishing the knife. His poor, scarred soul is often left wandering and keeping itself occupied while he dons the correct series of masks for the company of the people who pay him, a morose passenger to daily drudgery. Now, it's perfectly aligned with everything he's putting down, quivering with readiness to cause harm.

[metroidprimepics]

More scrapped content and stuff you would struggle to see in normal gameplay.

Again, there are dead bodies in this one.

Prime

I would desperately like to take a nice aesthetic pic of this room, specifically because of the cool spooky fog. (Connects Tallon Overworld to elevator to Root Cave, which in turn connects to Magmoor.)

However, freelooking past the HUD causes... issues. It turns out that said fog was implemented in a manner I can best describe as “deranged”. It only fills the precise rectangle that you can see through the HUD.

Literally no other room in the game is like this. I can only assume this was an early one made when they were still figuring things out and it was just left like this. After all, you would. never notice normally... I can probably find a way around this, so if it turns up in the queue someday don’t be surprised. But it is weird.

When not menacing you, Magmoors chill underneath the lava vertically like this. It’s... kinda silly-looking.

Echoes

One of the dead Marines (Echoes would not let me scan, but she’s M. Angseth) has a black visor, instead of the usual blue. There is also a swarm of flies around her face.

On top of just being unusual, the flat black looks bad, so I thought there might be something weird going on underneath. Sure enough...

...clipping past the black as best I can, there’s a very low-res dead face texture underneath.

Given how shoddy it is, I’m guessing the face was hastily blacked out to make the game a little less dark, as even at this resolution the effect is somewhat... grim. Especially with the flies. (As mentioned, other ordinary Marine corpses have nothing beneath their opaque blue visors.)

Correction: All the marines have this texture??? Seems I didn’t have the best grasp of freelook controls last time I checked. It’s just really subtle. You can just barely see it through the visor, even.

They did manage to sneak one dead guy into Corruption though. More on that later.

Generally speaking in these games, if something is out of reach then it isn’t actually solid. But this ring around the Hall of Honored Dead - which, to my knowledge, ought to be inaccessible - is perfectly standable. Maybe it was meant to be used for something? Edit: It probably retains collision from being a part of the floor. Still, kind of neat.

In Torvus Bog’s Great Bridge room, the water and some of the modeled environment (e.g. that trunk on the left) extend out of bounds. On the side facing the entrance to Torvus, the edge of the room’s box has been marked with fuchsia, probably for inscrutable 3D dev reasons. is fuchsia, because the texturemap’s empty spaces are in standard “nothing is supposed to be here” fuchsia.

Also, while we’re out of bounds and looking at the back of a door- door frames may be hexagonal, but the actual door is round. (Or as round as you can get with the Gamecube’s polygon count.)

The Light World version of the Temple Access corridor just beyond has two paths - a lower Morph Ball tunnel and an upper walkway. (And an energy tank in between, if you’re into that kind of thing.)

The Dark World version, meanwhile, only has the lower tunnel. (Ignore the damage indicators, I have invulnerability on.)

...Or, does it? :)

There are three ignitable safe-zone lights at the top, some modeling, and the animated spinny thing from the light world version of the door.

You know, this frame. The dark world version is spinny and everything.

These suggest that, at some point, the upper walkable path was meant to be usable in the Dark World as well. Seems to have been scrapped, though. I mean, there wouldn’t be a point to it, except leaving after defeating the Chykkas and grabbing the energy from the Dark Temple.

Also, the safe zones at either end of the regular tunnel are emanating from hidden staffs.

Corruption

As it turns out, there is one prendered thing in this game, which is the ending cutscenes. This is not what 4x Resolution looks like. I can’t imagine that isn’t also the case for the Gamecube games. (Edit: Some of it is prerendered, a lot of it isn’t. This is the most prerendered you get, discounting . Um. You know. The other... metroid... game.)

The credits, however, are not prerendered, so I can freelook in those too. For some fucking reason. Huge shoutout to everyone in these credits (except Yoshio Sakamoto)!

This one is marginally more graphic than usual so I’ll put it in a link, but as mentioned, Retro did manage to include one uncensored human corpse on the Valhalla.

This is worse than the one in Echoes, but he’s tucked into a corner in a mid-game area, so I imagine those responsible for keeping the game T for Teen didn’t notice. In fact, probably nobody noticed, except weirdo corpse-examiners like me. It’s not even that remarkable, except when you remember that Metroid is (allegedly) a flagship Nintendo franchise.

There’s some text on these screens in the Olympus. Anything interesting?

“Ship frigate 1” on the left and “dgfdfg dfgbbfd” etc on the right. Nice... lore.

Um... Maybe something like...

[bunch of words] people especially you because i know it’s not every.... is dfhdfbsd good for you everyday it’s good for you [absolutely cannot read] bring you [something] TP everyday it’s good for you [something]

Mmm. Tasty lore. Really meaningful.

This one I had to flip since it’s backwards ingame, but it is the only screen that has real text, which consequently makes it much easier to read. It looks like a safety notice.

Exercise extreme caution when firing your guns inside ship, armour piercing rounds may penetrate hull’s [something something something] causing massive damage. Glass of observation decks is protected with emergency shutter incase of sudden decompression a [something] will fall from the ceiling and to you.

It’s not super professionally-written, but if anything that’s more realistic. (The Commonwealth spelling “armour” is weird from an American dev though.)

Almost certainly none of this was ever meant to be read, though.

There’s not much interesting going on in the readouts on the bridge, but I would like to point out at the very bottom of one of the screens, it reads,

“ONLINE OTHERBRAIN ACCESS READING 100″, There is an unused logbook scan which says some people call Aurora Unit 242 “Other Brain”, so it might be referring to her? Or maybe the fighter onscreen has its own mini-AU. Stop putting brains in things for no reason... Please...

Speaking of horrible meatships, I just wanted to give a nicer view of the Space Pirate ship that rams into the Olympus during the attack in the prologue, because it’s really something to behold.

...It’s come to my attention that the planet labeled as “Pirate Homeworld” in this game has an actual name, Urtraghus. So from now on I’ll be using that.

In the transit stations, I happened to fly through a cloud of the little bugs around the lamps, and realized...

...that they aren’t just little motes of light. They have models??? And textures???

Given how tiny these are, and how high they fly, it is really unlikely you would be able to see any of this during actual gameplay. 15 years later, they are revealed... Let’s zoom in.

Cute! The face resembles that of the Pirates from this planet. Could be larva, or just a related species. (Edit: the ingame filename is Pirate Wasp Mother, and the artist lists them as larvae in her portfolio. So Who Knows!)

There isn’t really any figurative art on Urtraghus. Which technically makes sense, since it’s not temples and suchlike but military installations, but I was kind of experiencing statuary withdrawals and kept looking anyway, and well... This structure looming over the big courtyard looks like a very stylized head...? Maybe. There’s a couple similar structures around the planet, maybe this is as figurative as they get.

Also, this is a long shot, but if anyone has a MPT (or even regular Corruption) save in which you’ve acquired Grapple Voltage but haven’t destroyed the seed yet, I would appreciate it, as it’s proving difficult to emulate some of the necessary motion controls. If not I’ll go through and handle this planet on the Wii myself.

Thank you to bearborg for corrections and said save file :D

[tinyinvadr]

Y’all, I finally have g/t OCs! I had the hardest time coming up with characters, but I finally got something that works! I might try and draw them later. I’m not a great artist, but I at least wanna have one picture of them!

Anyway, this is a story about a troubled kid who’s desperate for some form of escapism from their everyday life, and they end up in another world where everything’s giant and befriend a tired college student. Found family, fluff, and hurt/comfort ensues!

Ch. 2 Ch. 3

Robyn and Jack

Chapter 1

There were stories about what lurked in the woods behind the school. Monsters, spirits, crazed axe murderers, your typical playground rumors. No one knew for sure what was really back there, because supposedly, any kid who’s ever gone past the fence has never returned.

My teacher used to tell us horror stories all the time about kids who went missing in the woods. I had my doubts, considering she had a tendency to go on long, ranting tangents about how everything fun is bad. But, unlike her stances on junk food and violent, age inappropriate video games, all the kids pretty much agreed with her that going off into the woods is dangerous and not worth the risk.

Except for me, of course.

When you’re the kid everyone hates, taking your chances with an unknown demonic creature is absolutely worth it if it means you can get out of being picked on by your entire class during recess.

My plan was simple. All I had to do was get the door to the fence open, and then, I’d make my escape.

The moment I was dismissed from the cafeteria, I darted out the door. I was never the athletic type, but I can be surprisingly fast with the right amount of motivation.

Soon enough, I was on the edge of the soccer field, running short on breath but refusing to give in until I successfully escaped.

The rusty metal latch on the fence’s door felt cold and raw against my soft hands. I pulled as hard as I could, attempting to build up strength by pushing myself off the fence with my leg, but it was no use.

“Teacher!!! Robyn’s trying to open the gate!!!”

And just as I feared, I’d been spotted. Thinking quickly, I grabbed a nearby soccer ball and threw it over the fence before the gym teacher got there. I really didn’t want to resort to this, but the time had come to channel my little kid powers.

I burst into tears before the teacher could say a word. She looked unamused, but I had to stick to my guns.

“MY BALL WENT OVER THE FENCE!!!” I cried.

“Alright, alright, shhh! I’ll go get it for you. But you should know you’re not allowed to go back there.”

I only had one shot, and I had to time it just right. I stood there, waiting impatiently for her to open the gate. It felt like time was moving in slow motion, and then, finally, my moment arrived.

The gym teacher unlatched the door and stepped through, and as soon as she was out of my way, I snuck right behind her back and ran for it.

I had the biggest smile on my face as I ran into the depths of the woods, feeling the dead leaves and twigs crack beneath my feet. This was freedom. This was adventure! This was… a stupid idea…

In all honesty, I didn’t expect to get past the fence, so I didn’t really plan for what exactly I’d be DOING once I escaped. My best course of action would be to hide out until school is over, then head back and catch the bus home, but that would get boring pretty quickly, so I decided to explore a little to pass the time.

There wasn’t much out there. Just birds, squirrels, and lots of trees. It was actually kind of peaceful, nothing scary about it.

The trees seemed to go on forever, and when I turned around, I couldn’t see the school anymore, even though I hadn’t been walking for that long.

Feeling creeped out, I started to head back, but I saw something out of the corner of my eye that I didn’t notice before, as if it just appeared all of a sudden.

It was a big, dark, spooky cave. I knew I should’ve steered clear of it, but I couldn’t help but check it out.

I guess there’s a part of me that wanted to journey past the fence for a reason other than ditching school and avoiding my bullies. I was… kinda, sorta, maybe hoping to fall into some crazy fantasy. I mean, come on, I’m a misunderstood outcast who’s forever young at heart, where’s my magical adventure?

So… I peeked inside the cave. And walked in a little. Okay, a lot. I didn’t think it would go that far back. But the further I walked, the less it felt like a cave, and the more it felt like a tunnel, because a light started to shine through the other end.

I kept going, picking up speed. This was it, this was my adventure! I ran and ran and ran and…

I faceplanted the moment I got to the other side.

When I pushed myself off the ground, I realized that I was somewhere strange. The grass was tall and thick, rising just above my head. If I were only a little taller, I could’ve seen what was beyond the grass, but I’ve always been short for my age. Yeah, it’s the worst.

I pushed my way through, trying to see if there was anything other than overgrown grass, when suddenly, I bumped into a large black wall.

The wall was strange. It was a hard solid, but soft to the touch, like a fabric. Curiously, I walked around the wall, only to realize that it was a giant backpack.

I figured it was a sculpture of some sort, like at that art museum my parents took me to that one time. But it was just like a real backpack, only bigger. I really didn’t get why someone would feel the need to make one so huge, but it was cool to see.

Of course, I had to test it out to see if the zippers worked. I grabbed onto the zipper of the front pocket and pulled. It was surprisingly easy. I usually have trouble with normal-sized zippers ‘cause the fabric’s always getting caught in them.

Then, of course, I had to check and see if there was anything inside of it. It was a bit of a struggle to climb into the pocket considering I was an 8 year-old with no muscles whatsoever, but I managed, somehow. Sadly, there wasn’t anything in the front pocket. I was about to climb back out, but then, it happened…

Something was suddenly dropped inside the pocket, and then it was zipped shut. Before I could even think about trying to escape, the entire world shifted, and I slammed into the hard object that was just placed inside.

This backpack was moving. Something was moving it. Or… someone. And whatever it was had to be big.

A wave of dread came over me. This wasn’t fun anymore, I was better off back at school.

Unfortunately, zippers can’t be undone from the inside, so I’d have to find another way out. I felt my way around the dark enclosed space, and pressed a button on the large object that was in there with me.

It suddenly lit up, and I quickly shut my eyes from the intense, blinding light. I opened them again to a squint in an attempt to see what exactly was in front of me, and it appeared to be a gigantic cell phone.

The shaky motion of the backpack finally came to a stop, only to be replaced with the feeling of a running motor. I was in a vehicle.

I kept trying to convince myself that this was some sort of amusement park ride, but I knew better. This was my fantasy adventure, though it wasn’t what I was expecting, and at that point, I really didn’t want it anymore.

Just a few minutes later, the motor stopped, and I was back to the shaky motion again. I was starting to feel carsick (or, backpacksick, I guess) but I still couldn’t find any way out.

Finally, the motion stopped. But of course, I couldn’t get even a minute to rest, because the zipper started to pull open. Ready or not, I was about to meet the owner of the backpack.

A massive hand appeared in the pocket, grasping for the phone, but it got me instead.

I was pulled out, and immediately met with the face of a giant. All I could do was scream.

“What the-?! What are you-? Why are you-? HUH???”

I kept incoherently screaming and squirming, trying desperately to get away, but it was no use.

“Okay, okay, stop screaming. I’m way too tired for this right now.”

“I… I-I’m sorry! Please don’t kill me!”

“Kid, just calm down. I don’t know what your deal is, but I’m not gonna hurt you, okay?”

I tried to steady my breathing and focus on the giant’s face. He didn’t look angry. Maybe a little annoyed, but he mostly just looked like a tired college student. Not really anything like the man-eating monsters from the stories.

“Can you put me down?” I asked, on the verge of crying for real.

“Okay, but don’t run off. I just wanna ask you a few questions so I can send you back where you came from.”

I nodded, willing to go along with whatever he had to say as long as it would get me home quickly and I could avoid irritating him further.

He carefully placed me on the floor, but even at a kneeling position, he towered over me. I think he noticed I was shuddering, so he got down on his belly, getting as close to my level as possible.

“Okay, so… human, right?” He asked, casually snapping his fingers and pointing at me. The motion kind of startled me, but I kept my cool, since I could tell he was trying his best not to scare me.

“Uh… yeah, that’s right. Giant?”

“Yep, yep. We don’t really call ourselves that, though. It’s kind of a derogatory term, but I’m not gonna hold it against you ‘cause you’re just a kid and you probably didn’t know that. We’re actually called bigfolk. Anyway, how’d you get here?”

I was about to tell him I ran away from school, but I was worried he was gonna pull a typical adult and lecture me about it, so I just gave him the short version.

“Well, I found this cave in the woods, and when I walked through it, I came out the other side, and then I found your backpack. I-I didn’t know it belonged to anyone, I thought it was just a big sculpture or something. I had no idea you even existed. I thought gi… er, bigfolk, only existed in fairytales.”

He gave a slight scoff. “Typical humans, trying to cover up history.” He muttered to himself. “Anyway, let’s head back to the park so you can go back through that cave.”

He held out his hand, waiting for me to climb on. I hesitated, still kind of unsure about trusting someone so much bigger than me, but I figured if he wanted to do something horrible he’d have done it already.

After I was safely seated in the center of his palm, he slowly got up, and placed me in his shirt pocket. It was a lot more comfortable than the backpack, and I could actually see out of it.

“Stay hidden while we’re outside. I don’t want anyone freaking out.”

With that, I ducked into the pocket and curled up in a little ball. It was nice, it felt like I could probably take a nap in there. Maybe ending up in this world wasn’t such a bad thing after all.

Soon enough, we were back at the park. “Okay, so, where’s the cave?” He asked. I popped my head out to look around, but strangely, I didn’t see the cave anywhere.

“I… I don’t see it. Are you sure we’re in the right spot?”

“Yeah, we were both just here ten minutes ago. Are you sure this is where the cave was? I’ve been coming to this park since I was a kid, and there’s never been a cave here to my knowledge.”

It had to have been in the park. Any further and I wouldn’t have even made it to his backpack.

“It just disappeared. But, h-how am I supposed to get home? I don’t even know how the cave brought me here in the first place, it doesn’t make any sense!”

“Hey, chill, remember? I’m sure it’s around here somewhere. You’re gonna have to keep looking on your own now, though. I have a lot of homework to catch up on, and my shift starts in a couple hours, so I don’t really have time to help. But if we ever run into each other again, let me know how it went, okay?”

He started to reach for me, but I shoved his hand away.

“What?! You can’t just leave me here! I’m a kid lost in a world I know nothing about where I could easily be killed at any moment! Do you have any idea how terrifying this is? Oh wait, you don’t, you’ve never been small before.”

He chuckled. “Wow, okay, had no idea you were this sassy. But I guess you do have a point. How about this? You can stay with me for today, then tomorrow, we’ll come back here to look for the cave again.”

I really wasn’t sure about staying with some random bigfolk I just met, but since the alternative was him leaving me at the park to fend for myself, I really didn’t have a choice.

“Y-Yeah, that would probably be best.”

I ducked back into the pocket and got comfortable again as we headed back.

“Oh, by the way, my name’s Jack.”

Jack. The giant is named Jack. I know I shouldn’t have laughed, but I couldn’t help it.

“What’s so funny?”

“Nothing, nothing. Anyway, I’m Robyn.”

“Heh. Nice to meet you, Robyn.”

[passanima]

rewrite of “gnome alone”

original story is about a young girl, chloe, who has to move places a lot due to her mom’s job. because of that she never really has time to  make friends and tries really hard to fit in which makes it into a “better be yourself” narrative... expect it wasn’t done well. 

i’m changing that to her no longer trying to fit in or make friends at the start of the movie. she’s a goth in this version (seems like a pointless detail but her style has a role in the story) who pretends she just likes to keep to herself instead of her lack of friends being something pitiful. so while she loves the goth fashion and everything dark, she also use it as an “armor” of sort to keep people away.

her mom tries to be supportive and since she knows those frequent moves and lack of stability in her kid’s life is painful for her, she compensate by treating her like she’s grown and mature. let her do as she wants (buy the clothes she wants, dyes her hair the colors she wants) and trust her home alone. the only problem with that is chloe is left alone too often and while she pretends to be ok with that... well, she’s lonely! won’t let people find out about that tho

SO they move into this old spooky looking house and chloe loves it, up to the ripped wallpaper. one thing looks bad to her: the gnomes. for some reason garden gnomes are left everywhere in the house. weird. while cleaning the place she put them outside for people to take with them. but later they’re mysteriously back into the house.

then she meets liam, a neighbor her own age who came to greet them. one of the biggest problems of the movie is that characters are flat unrelatable caricatures instead of actual people so you don’t get attached and don’t really care when something happen to them. liam is a creepy nerd stereotype done in a way that felt mean.

instead he’ll still be nerdy, and akward, but in a realistic way. he will also be the opposite to chloe: a boy who really wants to be understood and accepted for who he is, and keeps trying to make friends no matter how often he gets rejected. at the beginning of the movie he’ll seems too cheerful and persistant and sorta unpleasant for that reason, until his character arc hits.

so, he welcomes chloe in the neighborhood, and she barely respond, as it’s her thing, but liam doesn’t let that stop him from being friendly. SHE is the one to make a haunted house joke this time around, hoping he’ll leave her alone if scared. alas, as previously stated, he’s the persistant kind. she just ends up closing the door on him. then goes back upstairs to find out what’s up with the moving gnomes, who had, yet again, changed positions.

no more “what’s up with these weird santas” cause 1/ not funny and 2/ you can’t sell to me this teen doesn’t know what a gnome is.

anyway, chloe tries again to throw the gnomes out cause she doesn’t like their vibes (too colorful and kitch) but they, of course, keep coming back. chloe doesn’t try to tell her mom this because she realize it sounds crazy and doesn’t want her mom to loose the image of the mature teen she has of her daughter.

on another day that she’s home alone (after having been to school, not made any friends, liam trying to talk to her and her ignoring him completely) she hears noises around the house. and yes, old houses often make noises, but she’s starting to believe the place really might be haunted, so looks around.

finally she catches two gnomes talking to each other, who force themselves back to stillness when they realize they’ve been spotted. chloe is starting to have fun with this mystery on her hand when the ring bells. would you look at this! it’s liam.

he propose they hang out at his house and play a game or something. his grandma even made cake! chloe says no of course. when liam ask what she’s doing, she just says it cash “trying to catch gnomes alive”. liam is silent for a moment and chloe expect him to find her crazy and leave for good, but he smiles and ask if she needs help instead.

(will finish later)