#crush depth

[peanutbutter-pumpernickel]

I did a little quick drawing of @naffeclipse 's crush depth Sun

he has such a sweet little smile :)

[crow-with-a-pencil]

Hi @naffeclipse I'm very normal about your fic. Have some frantic midnight sketches as extra kudos along with some tag rambling :)

[peepee-magee]

Master post for all @naffeclipse book cover designs (except song fish amid the stars) since I decided after finishing the third one I was just going to do one for all of them n didn’t wanna spam post back to back.

My brain just keeps gridlocking whenever I try to think of one for song fish. Something with Circus I just know it, but what without it being cluttered idk. Will put a lil vid below the collapse of me trying n failing to come up with one, just so it’s not left out

I love all these stories! It was fun to honor all of them with this project since I know I’ve been a little artistically biased towards certain ones, but now I scurry on to other projects. Maybe take a break, drink some hot cocoa maybe. The smell of fall is in the air so who knows where I’ll wander off to.

Human design for second sleuth Jesters title: @sunnys-aesthetic

[naffeclipse]

Hey, I have a question! What’s the difference between Crush Depth and Deep Dreams between the Waves?

Crush Depth is an Iron Lung AU with blood ocean mers and a psychological survival horror fic

In Deep Dreams between the Waves is a giant mer AU with a spiritual connection and shared dreams fic

[pr0ng3ls]

H E

Get sneak attacked @naffeclipse , I toss this grainy boi at you!

Who would have guessed this dummy only took me 24 hours? Had fun experimenting with lighting details and trying to make this look as grungy as possible.

There is mold, rust, and blood everywhere. Honestly, whoever's retrieving this sub after every trip seriously needs to clean up the place. It's a mess!

This lovely lil mans is from Crush Depth! Please read with a clear mind.

Fun Closeups Under cut -u-

I'm stupidly mad at how that hand turned out, but like. At least he's got an award-winning smile!

These gauges were probably the most fun to draw lol

Also, screw it! Have this fun image of what the face looks like without all the static and snow. I had more fun than I should have drawing those lovely chompers -u- I just wanna give him a lil kiss on his forehead cause hell if I'm going near that mouth, mm-mm.

[bellusastra]

Basically chapter 8 of Crush Depth by @naffeclipse

[naffeclipse]

Really feeling the Crush Depth vibes for this one

Cryptid fish that has only been seen once and never again that may or may not exist but well never know my beloved

[thespoonisvictory]

also idc I love the citadel and all its wizard hubris I love the intersection of innovation and horror and progress and crushing others underfoot AND also clothes that magically put them on themselves and Citadel Made bouncy balls and secret societies and universities!!! and espresso and arcane discovery and and and

[sailforvalinor]

My best girl Rose Tyler who loves so fiercely and so well they could never make me hate you

[peanutbutter-pumpernickel]

He made some mermaid kisses for you

I did a little quick drawing of @naffeclipse 's crush depth Sun

he has such a sweet little smile :)

[peepee-magee]

In honor of the rage biting, feral-inducing, scream at the sky CLIFFHANGER of the latest chapter of @naffeclipse Crush Depth I decided to redraw the first drawing I ever did for this series.

RRAAAAAAAAH

Fuck you com guy, I know someone had to approve that AI message! I hope your the last alive so you have to sit with everything you’ve ever done!

On the bright side… it’s swim time bby. Go get your blood ocean monsters reader- idk what’s gonna happen next but you deserve to do whatever you want. You could become a serial killer n I’d still support ya- godless speed sweetheart

[naffeclipse]

Crush Depth

Chapter 1: You're On You're Own

FNAF Mermaid!DCA x Y/N (SFW)

You stare out the forward viewport—the window. The sub’s only window. Blood splashes against the thick glass. It is human blood. It fills an ocean on Moon FZ-87. The atmosphere is dark and barren, speckled with the ghostly light of stars that have been gone for decades. This is the last view you have of anything above the blood ocean surface. Futility sinks roots into your ribs.

Word Count: ~2,700 Warnings: See tags.

A/N: First things first, although this is an Iron Lung AU, I have taken some creative liberties to keep up the horror/atmosphere within a written medium and have included additional details to the sub as well as added events/objects within this story to make it a proper DCA AU rather than just a written account of the video game. I will also include my interpretations of the game and what I believe the lore is implying. This also includes the DCA as monstrous blood ocean mers and how they will play into the story.

Iron Lung is a video game and one I highly recommend watching a playthrough of or playing yourself. If you are unfamiliar with Iron Lung, you don't have to know of it in order to read this fic. I believe I wrote it so that anyone might enjoy it.

Please note the tags and content warning for this fic. It will be dark and heavy, including suicidal thoughts, psychological horror, reality-bending, and blood. It's an ocean of blood, I can't stress that enough. Chapter warnings will not include those tags I just listed as that will be consistent throughout the fic, but I will include chapter warnings for specific events such as drowning or injury.

Enjoy!

[pr0ng3ls]

@naffeclipse I've struck again with this lad. Snuck into a late night Magma on Discord and decided he needed a little love <333

[fricc-darn]

if BEN found out they liked someone, would they directly confess to them or communicate in a more poltergeist way?

They would avoid that person. Or at least try to.

Warning for physical abuse + strangulation

⋅•⋅⋅•⋅⊰⋅•⋅⋅•⋅⋅•⋅⋅•⋅∙∘���༓☾∘∙•⋅⋅⋅•⋅⋅⊰⋅•⋅⋅•⋅⋅•⋅⋅•⋅

You missed them.

You missed them more than anything in the world.

It was unlike you to act in such a manner. To grovel over someone who has hurt others, including you. They had been playing with your heart for so long that your feelings confused you. You wanted to be with BEN more than anything in the world. All the suffering it brought upon others was justified in your mind. After all, you are alive and in a relatively better position than the thousands of others BEN came across.

To you, the stories of those who came before mattered little. Those people chose death. A decision only they can make, regardless of external factors. A selfish and greedy decision, yet you were no better for viewing one's life with such little regard. BEN had its reasons for acting the way it did. Even if those reasons were unbeknownst to you.

They're much more than their vicious exterior. BEN can be sweet, sometimes. Sweeter, compared to the first time you met, becoming intrigued by you. It wanted to study you. A dehumanizing experience at first, it treated you like some type of pet. Yet, an easy role to fall into after the hell it put you through. The same logic still applied, always follow their rules. Everything was on their terms. In your mind, this made sense; you were the first human BEN wanted to get close to.

But this time around, you couldn't find any rhyme or reason to BEN's recent actions. It pulled a tasteless, cruel act that made you so neurotic.

BEN disappeared for two weeks.

Two full weeks.

Your days went by at an agonizingly slow pace. Not once did BEN appear. It had eyes everywhere in your home; it had to be watching to some extent. Yet, there were no new messages or unearthly activity. Disappointment left each moment more miserable than the last. There was an undeniable ache in your heart when BEN wasn't around. An ache made worse now that you were completely alone.

Have you upset them? You couldn't recall doing anything that would cause BEN to go through such lengths to ignore you. There were no arguments, no rude comments, nothing. This couldn't be the case; you had to have done something—anything. BEN wouldn't leave without a reason. You weren't as smart as them, nor did you have the best memory. There had to be a situation you were forgetting.

All you have done today is wander throughout your house. Subconsciously circling the same rooms, clutching onto a sliver of hope that BEN might be there waiting. With each shaking step, you sank deeper into your unruly thoughts. The last times you were with BEN were nothing but enjoyable, more so than usual.

Strangely, it trotted the indecisive line between refusing to spend time with you and finding any reason to be around you. Despite the pleasant quality time,

Its tone seemed off. Not all there and spacey. A tone you had noticed for months but couldn't pinpoint a cause.

Stumbling into the kitchen, a sourness hits your nostrils. The kitchen was left in a state no better than your mind. It reeked of unwashed dishes. Leftover dough and stale desserts festered with mold.

Cookies.

The two of you made cookies after ages of trying to convince BEN to make food with you. Surprising that it even took the offer. BEN always said it was senseless; it could eat but didn't need to eat. In spite of that, you so often notice them lingering when you cook, as if they want to try. You settled on making chocolate chip cookies. An easy recipe with the flavor BEN preferred the most.

BEN explained professional baking techniques to you with such gentleness that they hardly made any snide remarks. Purely focused on the task at hand. Its soft hands rested on top of yours, helping you knead the dough. Cold hands that have killed felt so alive and warm. How badly you wanted those hands to embrace you and keep you close. To cling to your body like you are a need instead of a want. Yet BEN quickly moved away, as if the closeness of that maneuver held no significance.

You were stuck in a cycle between selfishness and reasonability. You have received no affection for what felt like forever, ever since your loved ones have been out of your life. However, to want attention from someone who is so touch-averse was a self-centered desire. In no way were you entitled to know why BEN acts like that; knowing would just make life a hell of a lot easier.

The overwhelming smell in the kitchen got increasingly nauseating. The air became stale, and you felt weak. You quickly turned on your heels, checking the living room. Your legs continued to jitter, refusing yourself the chance to sit on the couch for even a moment. You tried to rationalize your strange attraction.

A part of you knew there was no reason to be upset. BEN was awful. A terrifying piece of technology with a cruel disposition that fed off of suffering. You've been stuck with them like the old ball and chain. How would one even manage a relationship with someone who will never be satisfied?

Your half-lidded eyes scanned the room in an attempt to find something else to think about. Another useless effort. Just another messy room to wallow in. Stray pillows and blankets were on the floor by the window nook. A place where BEN simply observed whatever went on outside. Even inhuman entities loved the mundane. From frolicking animals to changing weather, it never got tired of watching it all. They're very cat-like.

Not too long ago, you two laid together in that cozy nook. BEN was always more talkative whenever they were comfortable. While it divulged its train of thought, its serene words calmed you like a lullaby. Remembering that BEN had other interests besides malice was surreal. Trivial sweet bits of information were a privilege that only you were granted. You were grateful; BEN hardly spoke about itself.

So you listened attentively. Pondering what existence was like for BEN. Since the day you met, you've pieced together bits of its circumstances. None of which sounded pleasant. It was made up of many people and had ties to a cult. Which gave you more questions than answers. What you knew for is that BEN is bitter and troubled. Excruciatingly aware of everything that has happened and what could happen.

It knew too much about you, down to the uncomfortable details that those closest to you didn't know. It is not like BEN is a stranger, but its attention to detail still didn't feel like enough. Shamefully, you wished for more. For BEN to speak of you with as much reverence as their religion. You would never be equal to their god, their precious Luna. You held as much importance as a passerby in their long lives. In desperate times, you hesitated praying to the same god just for a chance with them.

This pacing, all this thinking, and the uncertainty drained the little energy you had left. The aura in the living room is as dreadful as the kitchen. You were tired, fed up with whatever game this is. Giving up on needing your feelings validated, a nap sounded better to achieve some peace of mind. 

Heading for the stairs, you reassured yourself that none of this mattered. What you felt was a passing fling. That BEN was off pulling some crazy stunt or, more likely, had gotten bored with you. Intensifying thumping up the stairs, emotions overriding common sense. Storming to your room, the door creaked, slowly opening on its own. Stepping in with glossy eyes, a heavy groan left you. There was no relief from this ache, even in the most sacred part of your home.

The bedsheets draped onto the floor, and random water bottles littered the room. If you weren't wandering, you were here, rotting away. You could hardly see anything if it weren't for the golden afternoon sunlight peeking into the dark room. Stepping over the trash, you head over to bed. Thinking back to when BEN left without a word. The moment was a blur. A show played on the television, serving as mere background noise rather than providing anything of substance. You two sat on the floor, face to face.

From BEN's hands, it seemed... nervous? There laid a glint of hesitation in its eyes. You swore you imagined it. BEN being nervous was too unlikely, impossible even. Your face rested on the palm of its hand, letting its fingers tenderly caress your cheek. So close, the space between was diminishing, inching closer and closer.

So close.

Just like that BEN pulled away and left.

Your head pounded from remembering too much at once. You feel a chill, the hairs on your skin raised. A cool breath tickled the back of your neck, a faint snicker. "This place is a pigsty." BEN spoke in a deceiving, lighthearted tone. Its hushed voice sent a shiver down your spine, stoking the flames in your heart. You quickly turned around, greeting it with a smile and bright eyes. Swiftly you approached BEN with your arms outstretched. 

BEN took a step back. It looked down at you then looked elsewhere. Its grin twitched. They've never left you alone for such an extended period. BEN was fairly impressed with how the effects of isolation took a toll on you. It expected you to break in at least two days, not several. You always find ways to surprise them.

Unfortunately, the circumstances of this surprise were hardly fun anymore. This couldn't have been because of pity, absolutely not. Your eyes were beet red and puffy; you looked unwell. Acting in the same manner as a neglected zoo animal. "I see you missed me. Clingy, now are we?" BEN spoke sardonically, masking its true tone of voice with ease.

You stare at them blankly. Clingy? That comment shouldn't have irked you as much as it did. Emotions that you tried to keep under wraps bubbled to the surface. The response wasn't enough to sully any of your excitement about seeing BEN again. Only severing as a painful reminder that you meant nothing to BEN. "I'm not clingy." You grit your teeth; clenching your jaw worsens the throbbing headache.

"You expect me to feel nothing after you disappeared for two weeks without saying a word?" Your voice croaked, like the old wooden floorboards of your home. As hard as you tried, some bitterness seeped out. It couldn't even look at you in the eyes. That small gleam of hope for clarity slowly fizzled out. You've done nothing to cross them, and you still felt like you were stuck in an endless cycle of punishment.

BEN laughed before going completely quiet. You are full of surprises today! Going from obedient to snippy in those few days. Though it could only tolerate squeaky fussing for so long. If you could speak about anything else, their annoyance would subside. "I never said that." It took a glance around your disheveled room. Refusing to look you in the eye for long. "You should focus on more pressing matters. The trash and poor attitude won't fix itself." BEN whispered, kicking a crushed-up water bottle in your direction.

That arrogant smile you grew to love made your blood boil. A wave of heat rose in your face as involuntary tears pricked at your eyes. Balling up your hands into a fist, digging your nails into your palm. "Then stop fucking acting like nothing happened." You shouted, stomping your foot on the floor.

Frustrated, tired. You weren't as strong as you made yourself out to be. Easily falling into a pit of despair. Realizing without BEN, nobody was there for you. Friends and family gone, your dreams abandoned, every connection you had to any other person severed. If you had to be alone with someone, it had to be BEN.

"We don't owe you an explanation." BEN stated, hanging on to a thin, cordial veil. A familiar disdain ate at them. If this feeling wasn't pity, then it was not empathy; at least that's what BEN wanted to believe. Refusing to accept that your ear grating breakdown was affecting them. A breakdown caused by it leaving over something so silly, it wasn't worth admitting. Opting to dance around the fact, hoping you'll grow tired.

Patience was their virtue, a quality they have learned throughout the years. There was no point in acting violently to get you to stop. Force is primitive and too ineffective for their liking.

A loud groaning left you as your hands rubbed your face, moving up and harshly running your fingers through your hair. You weren't crazy or unreasonable and were tired of being treated as such. "I don't understand why you have to be so difficult about how you feel." Sniffling your tears, you mumbled. "Do you always lead on your victims like this?"

BEN crocks its head to the side, its smile faltering faster than the setting sun. Eyes finally locked onto you, expression still and emotionless. They've been called much worse degrading things that never phased them. However, none of those words came from your mouth. BEN didn't know why it was still trying to give you some leniency.

You didn't know your luck—how good you have it. The audacity to play the victim. You didn't know how they felt; you couldn't understand. All this yelling, shouting, and crying stirred a great discomfort in BEN. "Choose your words carefully." 

Your back straightens on its own accord. Trembling like a baby foal, unsure if it was due to the lowering temperature or fear. Wiping your tears, you spoke up. "You got bored with me; that's why you left. You don't care. I could kill myself, and you wouldn't bat an eye! It's what you want, right, BEN?" Your lips quivered, spitting your words out, acrid and firm. Oddly, being rude to BEN felt cathartic, giving them a taste of their toxicity.

"You're right. I don't care."

A painfully forced, wide-toothed grin spread across BEN's face. "You thought you were an exception? That I'd fall head over heels for you?" BEN took a step closer, stepping on top of the mess that rested on top of your floor. "If you want to die so badly, then do so. I'll gladly help." Its empty gaze, unfaltering, staring into your soul.

You, a deer staring at oncoming headlights. The satisfaction of your insult was rapidly wearing off. You had to move. You needed to move. Staggering backward, losing more balance with each footstep from the junk on the floor. "Y...You treat me like an exception. Why is it such a crime that I love you?" No longer did you speak with defiance, a mere squeak in response to its robotic voice. 

BEN glared. Love. What a burden. Love is a crippling malady, one that erodes all sense in the mind. All-consuming and maddening. They had no need for such a waste of time; spare the tooth-rotting spiel about love. How cruel of you to lecture them about love, as if they were some simple machine. Every thought had BEN stomping its way to you, your back to the wall. "You're not in love with me. You're an idiot with an attachment disorder. I did you a favor by leaving. Shame you're too stupid to see that." 

Its words dug into you. Tearing your heart into shreds, pushing more tears out of your eyes. You wanted to puke, crawl to the floor, and pitifully beg for forgiveness. A fear similar to your first encounter with BEN. Paralyzing eye contact, feeling worse each moment you looked into its flickering eyes. "If you don't care, then why did you come back? You almost kissed me last time! Just admit you have a soft spot for-"

You went down with a thud head first.

BEN loomed on top of you, gripping your throat with its hands. Erratically, you squirmed. Kicking and writhing on the floor. Desperately clawing at BEN's arms, a feeble attempt at having it stop.

"Shut up! Shut up!" BEN shouted—no screeched at you, over and over, each time hitting your head against the floor, tightening its hold on your neck.

The pressure building up in your head was far worse than any headache or migraine. You gasped, trying to breathe or say something, which resulted in a gurgle. All of your fighting wasted energy. BEN shouted its head off. You shake your head, pressing your nails deeper into its arm.

"I hate you. I hate the way you make me feel. I don't understand." BEN pressed its fingers against your soft flesh. There was no point in any of this. Victim, companion, friend, whatever label you fell under, the outcome would have been the same.

This could not be love. Love hurts and makes you irrational, like something is eating you from the inside. They had no interest in it, no desire, until your devotion to them. Always wearing your heart on your sleeve and overly selfless to your detriment. You made them feel good. The attention and closeness are everything they craved. 

You croak as more air escapes you. Your body involuntarily thrashes before your hands drop to the floor.

"You want something from me I cannot give." They would have to change to do that, and changing is an act of defeat. Another defeat over something they couldn't help. "We can't love you. Not in the way you deserve." Who on earth would willingly love an AI, Frankenstein's monster? Someone who has almost caused your death so many times. This occasion seemed more merciful than the last.

Your face slowly turns into a shade of deep purple, and your lips, blue. You feared your eyes would pop out of the socket.

"We wish we could."

That wasn't true. Whatever deluded conclusion they came up with was not true. You wanted BEN as is. Whatever definition of love they had, you wanted to experience that with them. You got what you wanted. This was the most direct BEN has ever been, and you wanted to bask in it. You'd listen to them talk till the end. Yet their voices seemed so distant; everything did. The sounds of a broken computer felt like little soft hums with ringing. Lightheaded, everything seemed slower, like minutes passed.

It couldn't have been that long, right? It stopped banging your head. The light in the room seemed to dim. Pins and needles worked up your body, your cracked lips mouthing its name. It's perfectly shaped hair, a mess covering parts of its face. BEN's eyes looked...damp? Crazed but damp. Like it was on the brink of tears but couldn't cry.

You didn't fight back. You couldn't, nor did you want to. Yes, you were scared, but you felt relaxed. A strange high, repeating yourself to at least know you were awake. You didn't want to die, but if it proved what you meant, BEN, you'd let them kill you. 

You would let BEN hurt you.

Again and again.

Until they feel better.

[chimaerakitten]

I’ve been thinking today about off ramps in long running stories, especially book series.

By that I mean like, places where a person could stop reading and have a satisfying ending even if they’re not yet at the actual ending. (Someone tell me if there’s an established Tvtropes name for this I’m missing.)

Now, a lot of book series will have an off ramp at the end of book 1, because many first books are written without promise of a sequel. Like sure, there might be a sequel hook, but the actual second book is still up to publisher whims in most cases. So you can read All Systems Red or The Thief or A Madness of Angels and have a perfectly satisfying ambiguous-end sci-fi story or middle grade fantasy romp or inverted murder mystery revenge quest without ever picking up book 2. This is definitely an off ramp but it’s not necessarily the interesting or revealing kind because again. Whims of the publisher.

There’s also stories that have an off ramp after every installment. Leverage is famous for this—they had a philosophy of having every season be a satisfying ending, which says a lot both about the writers and about the story they were trying to tell.

But I think the most interesting ramps are the ones where by design or by circumstance, there’s a single off-ramp somewhere in the middle. One spot where unless someone tells you there’s more, you’d never be unsatisfied with leaving halfway through.

Sometimes these will be signaled in some way, where there’s a big timeskip after the off-ramp, or the series changes names or has a spin-off, or the POV changes, or after book 3 the author publishes a short story collection before hopping back in to novels, or the series suddenly jumps from being only novellas to a chunky 120k novel. (The Raksura books, Percy Jackson/HoE, Matthew Swift/Magicals Anonymous, and Murderbot all do one or more of these)

But sometimes off ramps aren’t visible in series order or marketing. Sometimes they’re organic to where a story happens to leave off at the end of an installment.

The queen’s thief has one of these after King Of Attolia. I know this was a satisfying ending because for seven years I thought it was the end. My local library didn’t have A Conspiracy of Kings, so I thought it was a trilogy. And you really can leave it there! KoA ends with Gen back in his element and recognized as king, the main internal threat to Irene neutralized, and peace on the peninsula. The Mede aren’t yet the immediate threat they are in the back half of the series, since up through KoA they’re mainly represented by the magus’s vague warnings and Nahuseresh, whom Irene thinks circles around. There’s no real reason to assume the Mede are a threat within the scope of the series. Now I absolutely prefer getting the whole story, but KoA is a damn solid off-ramp for anyone who feels like exiting there.

And that’s one kind of off ramp where the end you get is pretty similar in tone (mostly happy) to the one you get if you go on to the rest of the series. I’ve also read books where you can off ramp successfully right at the lowest point in the series and get a tragedy out of a series that ultimately ends happy, or leave at a high point and get a happier end than the main one, or exit at an ambiguous point and continue on with ambiguity. The Giver sequels make it pretty clear what happened to Jonas and Gabe at the end of the book. but you don’t have to read them or have that question answered if you want to.

I don’t have a really solid conclusion to draw here except that I think the positioning of off ramps says a lot about authors and stories, and choosing whether or not to take an off ramp says a lot about readers.

[cantst0pw0ntstop12]

Maybe this entire paragraph won't make sense, but I just had to express my thoughts or it was gonna kill me:

Annabeth, Clarisse, Will, Conner, Travis, Katie and Pollux and maybe so many others lost so many of their siblings in the war after botl and the titan war. And even if it's not shown cuz the books are through Percy's pov, they must have been hurting so terribly. I mean think about it, Clarisse lost Silena who lost Beckendorf, Pollux lost his TWIN, which, idk if is true cuz I don't have a twin, but is like losing a part of yourself?? Maybe?? Hundreds of campers went to war and only a tiny bit came back. Not to mention the nature spirits that died. And as head counselors, Clarisse, Annabeth, Travis and Conner and, I think maybe, Katie, who may have lost their YOUNGER siblings, felt as though failed their families (cuz there is no way that the campers weren't more closer to each other than their actual families) and the campers like Will, who btw lost TWO FUCKING older brothers (Lee and Michael), Lacy, Drew, Nyssa felt maybe lost without their big brothers and sisters. I don't and will never believe that the campers thought of themselves as 'winners' of the war. They must have known they were 'survivors'. And just as they start to recover from this major loss, another camp marches at their doorstep trying to destroy them for no fucking reason. Seriously, FUCK YOU Octavian. So yeah, happiness was definitely not a common thing at camp half blood after the Titan War.