#definitely Psychonauts though

[aestheticallynotdeerlightful]

Style swap- Invader Zim and Psychonauts

Cause I thought it would be fun and practice

.

(Please do not use or repost my works anywhere without explicit permission from me first thank you <3)

[eveningrainstorm]

you can take the family out of the psychics but you can't take the psychics out of the family

[maplemaplemaplemaplemaple]

there was a really loud bad sensory party at my flat tonight so i redrew a doodle i did all the way back in september of last year. drawing autism sasha cures all my woes

bonus sashas from earlier this week::

[ruby-static]

Art requests: Fred and Crispin!!! Jippiee new sketchbook! 🎉🎉

YEAHHHHH-

I like these two a normal amount. :)

[erigold13261]

consider: lizzie/dion

Personally I don't like those two together, but I can see why people might light them both in a relationship!

The two seem like opposites but not. They push people away in different ways. Dion is a dick to people while Lizzie pushes jokes too far and tries to scare people away.

It is hard for them to get close to other people in a meaningful way, and that might be why the two get close together.

They both at first try to push the other away, but because of how they are neither backs down as the one getting pushed. So they just stick together and slowly grow close over time.

Um, I don't really have much else in my head for the two. I do like the idea of Lizzie giving Dion a tattoo, either a temporary one or a permanent one that they did themself.

Also Dion and Lizzie making stories together. Like short horror stories or just creatively writing together. I can see the two of them really pushing the envelope when it comes to stories and going into some pretty dark but interesting places.

The two would LOVE to scare campers/kids that visit the mother lobe or circus when they are together.

[artmolonara]

Did more doodles at work today. Getting a final design for Psychonauts AU Waldo. He's definitely as tall as Loboto with a similar structure. His eyes would probably be like Bob Zanato's in concept, though having it also be on the lenses only would be interesting. And I was feeling like drawing Spamton today, specifically Spamton Neo.

If you like my work, consider supporting me on Ko-Fi via the link. Commissions are open!

Buy me a Ko-fi

[ponett]

Do you have a specific game developer(s) that you take inspiration from?

I mean, pretty much everything I play kinda gets absorbed into my brain as something that may or may not influence my own work. I think that's just normal as a game developer. You're always taking note of what other people have done with the medium you work in, whether it's something you like or something you would do differently

For more specific names, I guess Shigesato Itoi would have to be a big one given how foundational Mother is for me. I could say similar things about Pixel just because Cave Story is half the reason I became an indie dev. I would also definitely point to Tim Schafer. Honestly it's not even like all of his games are my favoritest games ever (though I will single out Psychonauts 2 as a favorite), but I just really vibe with how he approaches video games as an art form, and his focus on characters and comedy and story. And also he's just a designer who has tons and tons and tons of thoughts on record because 2 Player Productions has lived in the Double Fine offices for like a decade at this point, filming multiple in-depth documentaries about the studio's creative process. I didn't love Broken Age in the end, but that documentary series definitely had an impact on me.

[be-fae-do-crimes]

Intro Post

You can call me Bac (not my real name)! I use fae/faer or it/its since I'm not out to enough people irl to hear those a lot.

Not an 18+ only blog but I am an adult and it's a blog about my experiences, so if I ever post anything iffy I'll tag it #mdni.

Labels I'm vibing with currently:

Otherkin/kintypes: faekin, shapeshifterkin, mycanthrope/funguskin

Paratypes*: lives that I lived for a long time as a shapeshifter (see below)

Otherhearted/kithtypes: lives that I lived briefly as a shapeshifter that were still meaningful (see below)

Copinglink/copingkin: I'm aware that my identity is largely a coping mechanism via intense autistic special interest

Quoiluntary: my experiences are somewhere between voluntary and involuntary

Otherkinnity: This blog is mostly about my otherkin journey. I'm still early in my awakening, plus being a shapeshifter makes things confusing, so things may change.

I'm a faerie made up of mycelium who used to be able to shapeshift. My theory is that most of my memories were being held elsewhere in the mycelium, so I have limited access to them now that I'm in a disconnected human form. As I got older, I tried to stay in each form for longer periods of time and fit in with families of animals to collect information. I call these periods my "lives", even if they were only for short periods. They're categorized further by whether they're my kintypes (core to my faekin/shapeshifter/mycanthrope identity), my paratypes (lives I lived for long enough that they're inexorably connected to my kintypes), or my kithtypes (lives I lived for a short time but still identify with enough for them to make the list).

Lives I've lived (roughly in order):

Mycelium in a mycorrhizal network - kintype

Shifting mushroom (still connected to the network, but then disconnecting myself to become more mobile) - kintype

Constantly shifting being (figuring out my shapeshifting powers) - kintype

Catnip plant (briefly, introducing myself to a pack of smilodons) - kithtype

Smilodon - paratype

Sea otter - paratype

Harbor seal - paratype

Cat-sìth (large black cat with a white spot on the chest) - paratype

Snow leopard - paratype

Eurasian magpie - paratype

Cheetah cub with something similar to wobbly cat syndrome (which also caused some more erratic shapeshifting) - kithtype

Human (stuck without shapeshifting) - current form

Lives I'm questioning:

Canada lynx

Whale

Some sort of plant that I lived a full life as

In between these lives, I would travel back to the fae realm to be my true self for a bit. I would also use this time to store the thoughts, memories, and instincts that weren't needed in the mycelium of my community. I've used the analogy of backing myself up to the cloud.

Gender and Sexuality: I don't have an exact word for my gender since it is outside of human comprehension. Whatever mushrooms have going on is what I'm supposed to be. I've (mostly) happily settled in a human form though, and so in my more human life I call myself a queer man.

DXs: Autism and OCD, physically disabled

Fandoms: TTRPGs, furry fandom, Nimona (comic and movie), Psychonauts, Steven Universe, many others but those are my biggest interests atm.

*Definition of paratype: "an identity facet that only exists in relation to a preestablished identity"

[ottoslab]

(Shakes you) otto you've GOTTA tell me more about the freelance mystery solvers I GOTTA KNOW ABOUT EM WHAT ARE THEY DOIN !!! I love your designs sm btw your SO REAL FOR THIS AHH

HEEHEE ohhh ok cracks my knuckles. Im gonna be writing this right before passing Out for the night so apologies in advance if this isn’t very comprehensible but i will GLADLY explain the funny freelance mystery solvers o7

EDIT HI This got so long im putting it under a readmore KGJFNGKJSGK.

Also! I didn’t draw anything to go with this ask because i told myself id give my hand a break, but I do actually have some recent doodles of Vern and Kitty i was doing in between the lineup so I’ll put them here for a little display ^_^ theyre not in context of anything im about to mention, just some dynamic exploration stuff that are their own whole other rambles

Ok! Readmore time! Paragraphs of nonsense! For your viewing pleasure!

So!! Vernon and Kitty are both employed by True Psychic Tales independently of each other when theyre older. Vernon is an illustrator/interviewer for the graphic novel division and Kitty works in special effects makeup for the more-recent live action film division! They don’t end up crossing paths for a while until being assigned to work together to research stuff for an up-and-coming TPT film project or smth. They become work buddies after reconnecting (though they choose to mostly ignore the fact that they knew each other as kids due to How They Were back then. They’re both very embarrassed about it for numerous reasons)

It becomes commonplace for them to help each other out with projects, and eventually through their research (fact-checking and digging through old psychonauts mission archives) they start to come across old psychonauts files of unfinished or ‘suspicious’ looking missions, ones that normally didnt get the green light to be told in graphic novel form due to the fact that they were inconclusive and, as a result, don’t make for good stories.

Kitty and Vernon end up sort of… picking up on these old missions in their spare time. It’s not psychonauts work but its also not not psychonauts work, you know? They team up to try and work out what lead to dead ends in missions and cross-referencing possibly related stories with other stories, and go out into the field to try and get answers. I picture it a lot in my brain as an episodic mystery series vis a vis scooby doo. They pick their archived mission log of the week to check out, go out, get some answers, and get a conclusion to bring back to TPT and a new graphic novel is made of the story they were able to uncover! With some more overarching plots where they get a little in over their heads here and there.

Franke’s got a bit less of a fleshed out role in all of this atm, mostly because i havent thought of him as much as the other two? My current vague-idea i have is that she and kitty had a falling out during their teen years, and Franke calls Kitty and Vernon falsely claiming to have a lead on a mystery theyve been working on, in order to try and reconnect with Kitty after she stopped talking to him. He has to come clean when whatever she leads them to actually ends up being a real psychic issue, and she has to explain that she doesn’t know what’s going on because she hadn’t actually called in about anything legit.

Franke does end up being a good help despite technically being the reason they got into deep shit in the first place, and Vernon’s probably the one who asks her to stick around (Kitty isn’t against it, but definitely isn’t really all too welcoming about it either.) They definitely have a whole thing where they all get closer and Kitty and Franke get to mend fences (a character arc along the lines of franke realizing he was kind of a hardass who wanted to make up without actually accepting any faults, and some other super impressive character arcs along the way im sure.) And all three of them continue to go on mystery deep-dives and uncover unfinished psychonauts missions!! Wahoo yahoo!!

Mystery incorporated asses! They’re fun, i enjoy them a lot! Hopefully this is some good tidbits of detail for u thank u for asking about them :]

[skyedice]

👁 ✦ MASTERPOST ✦ 👁

「 👁 Introduction bit 👁 」

Name's Skye! Ur local shapeshifter alien freak. Will definitely not bite ur ankles. No. Why would you think that? ◉‿◉ I usually go by SkyeDice on most (not all) social media! She/they pref., but you can use anything. Also feel free to DM and just talk abt whatever if you want to! Trust me I'm more scared of you than you're of me.

Cryptid/alien/monster lover < 3

A translator by profession (graduated July 2024), however I didn't get too lucky with the uni, so, like... main languages I know well are English and Russian, also a bit of German. Planning to learn more languages. WELL YOU COULD ASK ME ABT WEIRD RU MEMES I GUESS? My main hobbys are drawing and gaming, but I'm a tad depressive so I draw very, uhm, periodically. And a lot depends on my mood. Also I usually draw OCs and stuff but I could listen to fanart requests, possibly. Also I do swear a lot so keep that in mind if you don't wanna see that!

* one of many of my truesona's forms, author: me 「 👁 Tags 👁 」 [ IN PROGRESS OF TAGGING OLD POSTS ] [ hasn't started yet lol ]

✦ #skyedice art - posts containing my art/sketches ✦ #skyedice oc - posts abt OCs/art with OCs ✦ #skyedice sp - ShitPosting / talking I'd shorten skyedice to sd but those tags are taken for other purposes on the site and I don't wanna clash with those.

「 👁 Fandoms 👁 」

Main ones I'm most interested in talking about! In no particular order. Feel free to ask abt anything else though! I'm in many fandoms, technically! < 3 Down for OC roleplays, mostly IZ ones but ye. Just DM, I don't bite

✦ Portal game series ✦ Psychonauts ✦ IZ ( Invader Zim ) ✦ Minecraft ✦ DoaI ( Dreams of an Insomniac ) ✦ NSR ( No Straight Roads ) ✦ A lot of horror and indie horror media (games, ARGs, analogue horror series, you name it!) Honorable mention: ✦ aHiT ( A Hat in Time) ✦ Starbound ✦ Starcraft ✦ Transformers (Prime, Animated, some others) ✦ LoL (League of Legends. It's lore, mostly! Also any side projects and Arcane. Anything but the game itself, please no /flashbacks/)

* my invader zim irkensona, author: me

[diamondpython00]

I was watching videos on Psychonauts 2, specifically on the imagery and meaning behind Hollis’ mind, when I had an interesting realization: a lot of the characters in both Psychonauts games have family-related problems.

Oleander’s initial levels (the brain tumbler experiment and basic braining) don’t have much beyond initial foreshadowing for plot reasons, but meat circus is such a colossal mess of daddy issues that i think it makes up for it

Sasha’s main problems are the death of his mother and the memories of her he collected from his dad’s mind that freaked him out (nooo little german boy don’t use your psychic abilities to read your father’s mind)

Milla’s trauma has to do with her relationship to the children at her orphanage and her failure to protect them, something that while she has moved past, definitely still hurts her. She’s still working as a caretaker of some kind though, and it’s clear that she’s not eager to repeat that mistake.

Gloria was pretty seriously messed up by her mother’s emotional neglect and high expectations, her treatment at the boarding school, and her deadbeat dad. This trauma is only compounded with her mother’s suicide, which starts her downward spiral.

Fred’s problems have to do with his family legacy, literally being constantly berated in his mind by the image of his ancestor. To Fred, he’s failed at being a Bonaparte, and his ancestor has come back from the dead to express his displeasure.

Lili and Raz both have fairly complicated relationships with their fathers - Raz views Augustus as constantly pushing him in acrobatics and outright denying him his interests, while Lili has had to grow up a little too fast thanks to how busy her father is, and expresses some of that frustration with a tough front.

Loboto. (i don’t think i really need to say more. yikes doesn’t even begin to cover it)

Although Hollis’ family is notably absent from her mind, some dialogue from her and her mind’s NPCs implies a very fraught relationship with her parents. She acknowledges to Raz that “family is horrible”, and the maternity ward patients in her mind all express very bad reasons to have kids, ranging from using children as a proxy to having kids because your partner wants them. Couple that with the absence of her parents from her entire mind, and... well, it doesn’t paint a pretty picture.

Compton’s issues aren’t exactly related to his family, but they ARE hereditary. All three Booles in both games have both a connection with animals and some blastokinesis, although most of the issues seem to have skipped Sam. Dogen especially is very similar to Compton - both are socially anxious, get overwhelmed by their telepathy, and accidentally blow up heads when they get overwhelmed. It’s not hard to imagine that Compton’s parenting or influence may have had something to do with Dogen’s issues.

Ford doesn’t exactly have family issues, but boy howdy did he sure cause some.

The seed (heh) of Bob’s alcoholism seems to be related to his aunt’s alcoholism and death. His aunt dealt with her problems by drinking them away in her greenhouse, and now that Bob has gone through very similar loss, he uses the same coping mechanism - drown your issues under a lot of alcohol.

Gristol’s main problem is his overwhelming sense of entitlement, but his father plays a very significant role in his worldview. From Gristol’s perspective, his father ruined the inheritance Gristol was owed, and failed both Maligula and the country with his rule. Gristol believes he is entitled to rule of Grulovia thanks to his father, but also deeply resents him for his failures and is driven by the need to set right what he thought his father did wrong.

Nona, or Lucrecia Mux, had most of her issues brought on by the accidental killing of her sister and the false familial relationship she was deluded into believing was real her whole life. Although Maligula is the manifestation of her problems, Maligula very clearly would not exist if it weren’t for Marona’s death.

And these are just the people who’s minds we explore in some sense or another. There is the exception of Boyd, Edgar, and Helmut, but I’ll address that a bit later. None of the campers or the interns mention much about their family, but we can also infer from the way Loboto was treated that psychics are not exactly looked upon favorably. While certainly not all of the campers or interns have bad relationships with their parents, it is interesting that there is no mention that I can remember of a good parental relationship anywhere in either game. It’s either a bad relationship or it goes unmentioned (like Edgar, Boyd, and Helmut). While I can’t say definitively what this theme of complicated or bad familial relationships is intended to mean, there are a couple theories I have. It could be that Psychonauts is trying to tell us that mental illness is often a result of environment - children raised in non-loving environments rarely escape unscathed, and dealing with those issues often involves confronting that familial relationship. It could be that leaving your family trauma unresolved is very unhealthy: the only families we see recover from these issues, the Aquatos and the Zanottos, do so through honest communication. It could be that blood family does not obligate love, and that chosen families (like the psychic six or nona and augustus) are better because they actively choose to love each other. It could even be something completely unrelated that I haven’t thought of. But what I am pretty sure of is that Psychonauts 1 and 2 are definitely trying to tell us something with the family theme. What do you guys think? Is there something to this?

[aestheticallynotdeerlightful]

THIS JUST IN: WORLDS SNAZZIEST 10 YEAR OLD

.

Please do not use or repost my works anywhere without explicit permission from me first, thank you <3)

[idontwanttospoiltheparty]

Re: your post about JohnandPaul. If you do wish to share them, I'd love to know your headcanons about John and Paul's feelings for each other. ( I do get your discomfort about sharing though and yeah, I also miss the long discussions and metas from back when Get Back came out. It feels like, except you and some others, most of my favorite blogs have moved on from the fandom)

I've been sitting on this ask for several days now.

First of all I hear you, re:blogs moving on. It's understandable, but it's also sad when my brain does not want to give this stuff up any time soon lol.

In my post I talked about having specific headcanons about their feelings for each other, but the truth is, it's more like I imagine hundreds of very specific somewhat plausible scenarios, while not actually fully buying into any of them.

I always struggle with how sure people are of some definite timeline of McLennon because I just don't see how it's in any way clear: the most compelling evidence that at least John had Those Feelings™ for Paul is stuff he said after the fact (compiled with the stronger case for John being attracted to men in general) – so, if I choose to interpret his words in that way, I'm still not very close to knowing when he developed this attraction. Let alone concluding anything substantial about Paul's feelings.

(And no, I really don't find the two of them saying the other looked good when they met particularly compelling. Appearance plays a huge role in first impressions, regardless of attraction.)

So I guess, it's more that I have open questions I return to again and again, for which I try to construct hypothetical answers that make sense to me. Aside from that bigger timeline question, here's a few more specific ones:

From what I've gathered researching the topic, listening to psychonauts speak about their trips, the acid mindset very much romanticizes all forms of human connection (among other things). I think that's probably what was going on during those "I know."–"I know." sessions John and Paul had on LSD. With that in mind, how might that have mixed in with John trying to understand how he felt about Paul? Could it have confused him? Opened him up to the idea? "Appeased" him for a while? (and again, the answer here would depend on the timeline of feelings in the end)

I still lean towards "Paul is not meaningfully attracted to men" (or at least "Paul valued other aspects of his relationship with John much more than physical attraction") – with that in mind I do kind of ask myself what Paul thought his relationship with John was exactly. Like, I don't pretend it was a standard, run-of-the-mill friendship, so I wonder a lot what his end-goal was, how he saw both of them continuing into later stages of life. The way he talks about the breakup, equating John choosing Yoko with John leaving Paul, speaks to something somewhat true about most couples that marry – but why did he not anticipate that before? What was different? Also, for $20 don't copout with "hurr hurr cause Cyn didn't matter"

Paul's various takes on The John Question continue to puzzle me. On the one hand, it sort of seems to me like Paul would have had enough context clues at the time to get that John was attracted to men, because some of our evidence for it is evidence he would have had access to – he also indicated at least once that John was in fact kind of openly bicurious??? (note: that rant keeps me up at night. Could write a whole thesis on it and also it's so fucking funny) On the other, Paul is pretty insistent that the rumours are Not True and he's not actually the only person to shoot them down like that. (May Pang, Julia Baird, Tony Bramwell, Hunter Davies off the top of my head) It shouldn't be a stretch of the imagination that a man born in the 1940s might have trouble rearranging the image he's made of his dead best friend so drastically (or in a way that might feel drastic to him). So what is it? Is Paul obfuscating the question to protect John's reputation/because he thinks the curiosity is in poor taste or does he genuinely not buy into it? I'm not actually sure whether he's weighed in on this since Yoko's "John Was BI!!!!" reveal. Has this stance developed over the years? And if I assume Paul does know about John's sexuality: does he in fact think John had feelings for him? I do think this is a thing he would never talk about if he did so it feels like there would be no way of knowing either way. But it also makes me wonder about the barriers he might have set up in his head to avoid that very question – because the truth is that if John had Those Feelings™ for Paul and Paul never knew, that's sort of the second-worst case scenario from Paul's perspective, right after John having never liked him in the first place.

AND THEN THERE'S JOHN. Because just because Paul may not have picked up on it, doesn't mean John wasn't putting anything down. But he could also very much have been sending mixed signals from his own end, right? And again, acid mindset + mid 60s Free Love shit: in that culture, how much could John making advances be perhaps taken as Flowery Friendship? Did he justify it to himself that way? Or was John actually violently shoving all of that down? Was he truly capable of that?

It really never ends – I'm not certain of ANYTHING, but give me a proposal (ie. "In My Life is about Paul") and I'll talk myself into circles exploring the ins and outs of that hypothetical.

[dont-know-where]

ALRIGHT NELSON TETHERS HEADCANONS + STORY IDEAS LET'S GOOOO

btw the Wildcard AU is by @/genaleah and the On the Trail AU is by @/majortomiscominghome

and info on the latter AU is here

Nelson in General:

Nelson (especially in-between PA1 and PA2, but he's been having these since becoming a Puzzle Agent in the first place) has recurring nightmares about being stuck in his office while people scream just outside the door.

Most of the time he can't move. Hands stuck in the same folded position. A prayer to a god that can't hear him.

Sometimes he can move, but he can't actually do anything. The door is locked, the window can't be smashed open...no matter what he tries, he can't get out.

He's not sure which is worse.

Post-PA2, his eyes sometimes glow green when he's mad or nervous.

He knows most of the FBI Building's vent systems by heart.

His hands are...constantly cold. It's been like that since he was a kid though, so it's probably fine.

Wildcard AU + On The Trail AU:

In the event where either Jim or Guybrush goes missing or loses his brain or some secret third thing that may or may not imply death, Nelson just loops around to...flatness. Or more like a cold hostility. Point is, he'll stop at nothing, and I mean nothing, to either rescue his friend, or at least find out their fate.

The "forever weed brownie" meme happens in both AUs between Nelson and Guybrush.

Wildcard AU:

Sam & Max gave Nelson Psi-Blast Training in their mindscapes. They tried it the old fashioned way for a few minutes, but then they switched to Plan B (giving Nelson an empty gun and telling him its loaded) and that worked.

(I don't actually think the Psychonauts would let Sam & Max come within 5 miles of this guy but I like to think about it)

Eventually, Nelson's mindscape becomes a little more...nicer?Mental versions of people he knows live in the Scoggins part of it, so it definitely becomes a lot less desolate. Sure, there's always going to be parts where the woods that seem like they can devour you whole...but...

It's going to be alright.

On The Trail AU:

Nelson's immune to mind-wiping apparently? Specifically, just the Scoggins incidents. The Hiddenfolk tell secrets that the human mind cannot easily forget. But trying to does daze him a little.

This is one of the reasons the FBI kept him as Agent Superball's assistant rather than outright firing him or ignoring him again.

Speaking of which! He has memory-wiping sunglasses! He absolutely refuses to use them though.

He isn't immune to hypnosis however, but give him a piece of gum or ~10 minutes and he'll snap himself out of it, no biggie.

[poobletoods]

since it's spooky season i wanna know yalls headcanons about what the psychic seven do for halloween (or the psychonautical equivalent thereof)!!

I like to imagine in the old days they would gather around the heptadome at night and tell scary stories

cassie is obviously the most talented wordsmith of the group and can rattle off some nice reliable classics, I think she's just a really good story teller in general and they always love hearing her narrate

i think lucy could definitely give her a run for her money on the spookiness factor though, she's got some real chilling old grulovian tales that her parents and grandparents used to tell her and marona

all of otto's stories require an extensive knowledge of biochemistry and tend to lean into existentialism and transhumanism more than horror, most of the time they end up being thought-provoking instead of scary

ford's stories are concerningly believable and to this day they aren't completely sure if he actually saw a corpse in an old well when he was a kid or if he's just doing an elaborate bit

bob's stories are mostly about mysterious monsters that probably represent abstract concepts like fear and loneliness and death, they're eerie and a little depressing

compton's stories are possibly the scariest of them all, he does a really good job of taking the perspective of Scared Man In Scary Situation. nothing spookier than a story told by somebody who's shaking in his fancy little shoes

helmut's stories are theatrical and a little over the top but definitely the most fun, he's got a few that are creepy and weird up until the very end where it turns out to be  a really long-winded joke. He once spent thirty minutes on that one about the monks and the keys and they almost kicked him out of the heptadome

[bcdrawsandwrites]

Day 5: Hostage / Kidnapping / Held at gunpoint

Characters: Truman Zanotto, Caligosto Loboto

Warnings: None

Summary: It's not the first time Truman's been in a dangerous situation, but it might be the first time he's unable to get himself out of one.

---~~~---

The first thing he became aware of was a foggy headache--the kind that made one feel like they should just go back to bed, or else wake up with a strong cup of coffee. The former sounded more appealing right now, so he tried to turn over to make himself more comfortable.

Only to find that he couldn't.

He also definitely wasn't under any sort of covers, nor was he lying on a bed.

Opening his eyes with a gasp, Truman's gaze darted around, trying to determine his surroundings. Before he could even figure out where he was, he tried to reach out a telepathic message to Lili to see if she was all right. Their mental connection wasn't always perfect, however--Lili often deliberately shut it off--and he half-expected the attempt to fail.

He did not, however, expect the sudden spike of nausea and dizziness at attempting telepathy, and groaned.

"Well, now! The patient awakes!" came an unfamiliar, ashy voice from directly behind his head. "You're a bit early for that..."

Truman craned his neck back to try to get a look at his abductor. His vision was fuzzy, and annoyingly there were two very bright lights directly behind him, one red and one green. It wasn't until those lights suddenly moved to shine directly over him that he realized that they weren't just lights--they were directly attached to the face of a person. Over his eyes, specifically--or, perhaps, they were his eyes. The man had blue skin, multiple facial scars, and an impossibly wide smile filled with yellow teeth. A bright green shower cap with floral patterns adorned his head.

While Truman knew he needed to be gathering any information he could possibly get out of this place, his immediate reaction was to recoil in horror. "Get away from me!"

"Pbbbt!" The man stuck his tongue out, inadvertently spitting in Truman's face. "That's no way to talk to your dentist!"

"Dentist?" He struggled to think past the fog in his head. Why did dentist sound familiar? And the silhouette of this man--he swore he'd seen it before, perhaps somewhere in the Psychonauts' files... Regardless, he shook his head, casting a look around the room. Focus, focus--he'd gotten out of worse before. He just had to gather some information. "Where am I?"

"My office!" the dentist said, stepping back and gesturing to the space around them with his prosthetic arm. "Amazing, isn't it?"

Truman blinked a few times to clear his vision, finally taking in the sight of the space around them--an observatory of some sort with a domed ceiling overhead, a large metal sphere suspended from the ceiling, and multiple people wearing hazmat suits wandering around. There was also something oddly familiar about this place, but he couldn't put a finger on it. "Strange place for an office," he remarked.

"Well, it's not like my old office, but it's a lot more spacious." The man twirled, tipping his head back as though to regard the space. He wore a long brown apron with a complicated bunch of straps in the back, and a long white coat beneath that. "Gets the job done, and has a lot of fascinating things to study out here!"

Something clicked in Truman's mind, and he leaned forward as much as his bonds allowed, not needing to feign his interest. "What sort of things do you study?"

The dentist hummed, turning his back. "Oh, some fascinating marine life, and some very fancy rocks..."

Right--psitanium or psilirium. Probably the latter, given the way it was blocking his powers and making him feel dizzy. Marine life, though... He ran through a few things in his mind, mentally going over a list of locations.

Tap-tap-tap, tap-tap-tap.

Jolting out of his thoughts, Truman found his kidnapper suddenly leaning over him again, tapping his fingers--no, claws--against the arm of his chair.

"You're awfully quiet for someone who was, hm, taken far away from his home," the dentist remarked, his smile twitching and looking just a touch angrier.

Truman gave a nervous laugh. "Ah, I'm just thinking! Someone brilliant enough to be able to kidnap the Grand Head of the Psychonauts must be a talented individual! And you look quite... familiar."

A metallic shriek made him grit his teeth as the dentist's claws seized the arm of the chair, digging into it. "Come again?"

"I know you--you've got a file a mile long in our records," Truman said. "You've worked for some pretty famous clients, too, haven't you? The Noodler was one, as I recall. I had to deal with that mess you helped create. Quite the piece of work you managed to do."

"Yes, that one was an interesting client," the man--Dr. Loboto, Truman remembered the name--said, turning away for a moment. But his eyes, which were on telescoping loupes, suddenly snapped back over to Truman. "You're not going to get anything out of me about my current client, though!" He leaned in close enough for Truman to smell the peppermint toothpaste in his breath. "Doctor-patient confidentiality."

"Ah, yes, very important!" Truman let out another forced laugh. "Good... good to see you've a strong moral code."

"Morals?" Loboto echoed, then threw his head back with a wild laugh. "I haven't seen him in a while!" Idly he picked up a pair of pliers off of a nearby tray, turning the tool in his hand. "He had six decayed teeth in his upper jaw, last I saw him! Well, not anymore..."

"That's... fascinating." Shutting his eyes, Truman tried to remember something from this man's file. He always worked with someone, but had he done any kidnapping on his own? He couldn't recall it... But who could have gotten to him? Especially with all the security measures, both in the Motherlobe and in his own home! It would've had to be someone he knew. A traitor? A mole? But who?

Oleander showed problems sometimes, and Sasha had his issues, but neither of them, surely. But... what about...

He opened his eyes to find Loboto staring directly down into his face again. "Say," he said, before Loboto could speak, "you seem like you'd get along with someone I know. Have you ever heard of a Nick J--"

Loboto's hand grasped the front of his robes, yanking him upward, and his claws were at his throat.

Both arms were shaking. Sweat trickled down the side of the dentist's neck.

Loboto spoke through gritted teeth. "I think," he said, "we're done here."

His smile twisted into the angriest grin Truman had ever seen in his life.

"Goodbye!"

He dropped Truman heavily back onto the chair, and in one swift motion, covered his nose and mouth with a cloth. Truman fought as long as he could, but the last thing he saw before descending into unconsciousness was the permanent grin of the dentist shifting into something resembling a frown.