#doc plays games

[doks-aux]

I started reading Five Nights at Freddy's: The Week Before, and as you can see, I'm being very normal about it.

I've avoided as many spoilers as possible so I can experience the lore hunting on my own for once. Never been as deep into the fandom during a book release before. The pages on the right are my notes while reading, whatever I think might be important to the worldbuilding or mysteries or just interesting minutia like how the restaurant is run. These were the notes after getting through Night 2. I've finished Night 3 by now (so please no spoilers beyond that), so there's a bit more.

The page on the left is where I'm recording my "official" playthrough. It's an "interactive novel" (because Choose Your Own Adventure is off-limits), and the way I'm reading it is by committing to one route each night and playing it to the end or until I die and have to get back to the last branching decision. And then when the night is over, I go back and read the branches I didn't take. (Except for the Bonus Item route. I've heard it's best to leave that until the very end.) The inventory is only items I pick up in the official playthrough (I probably didn't have to cross out screwdriver and paperclip after I used them, whoops), and I'm only recording Game Overs I reach organically (there are more of those now, too).

It's a lot of fun. This was a smart way to present new information and provide some different gameplay experience. I've never been able to play the video games when they actually come out, so it's nice to have a way to discover things firsthand and not have to rely on watching other people's videos. And since there are so many diverging points, there's still the question of which version of the story actually happened (if this is indeed canon to the games' timeline instead of it's own slightly-to-the-left continuity) and what information we can actually trust. Maybe it's Stockholm Syndrome talking at this point, but a straight answer wouldn't be quite as much fun.

There are some WILD implications if it's even adjacent to the games' timeline though. Like, at this point it really seems like a night guard's actual purpose is to keep the animatronics in the building than to keep anyone out. The idea that they would just up and fucking leave if they had a means to honestly never occurred to me (or at least it would have died off quickly after the earliest games), but apparently they will do exactly that. And it's largely been accepted that at least the original Fazbear four weren't malicious toward children (The Silver Eyes said as much and I think one of the games did, too), but in this story they're straight-up obliterating kids if given the chance.

Good shit. Excited to read the second half.

[docholligay]

The House in Fata Morgana: Door 2--1707

I have never reviewed a visual novel before, but iscahwynn made me a very generous offer and a long line of patience, knowing that we are trying something very new. To that end: Please don’t spoil me for the game at all! If you are reading this, I have only gotten through the part written above, and I don’t want to be corrected, even if I’m wrong, even if I’ve missed something, i don’t want to have anything confirmed or denied, and I don’t need any trigger warnings or extraneous explanation. Iscah would like my pure, naive experience of the game. Thank you!

Non-spoilery: This story was solid as a standalone horror story, though I think it took awhile to come around to whatever it was doing, and I don’t know if it needed to be as long as it was. What’s more I’m not sure it knows what conclusion it wants us to draw from the tale, and while I do personally kind of like that it leaves us with a bit of a hearty shrug about what the nature of a man is, I could see it being frustrating to some people. Weirdly, I was about to accuse it of being hamfisted and cliche halfway through, only for it to twist on me and me to go, “Oh. Carry on then.” This makes me sound like I didn’t like it but its bizarrely easier to tlak about its weak points without spoilers than its strong ones. 

Spoilers below: 

So before we even get into the whole door situation as she stands I want to talk about the fact that before we descend in to the cellar we apparently don’t have any reflection, and this is very interesting to me. Who the fuck is the Maid, is one of the great mysteries of this, and I have a handful of thoughts on that, none of which really coalesce in a way I love but it’s early days as far as the story itself goes. (Which is one of the great and frustrating things about these reviewlets) So, on that note, why don’t we have reflections and who the fuck are we? I would say it’s far too easy to say “ghosts” because if we’re ghosts I don’t understand what is pinning us here, and particularly what is not only pinning the Maid here but compelling her to serve? Are we ideas within the story itself? 

Because one of the interesting frameworks about this story is the nature of evil and specifically of savagery, and we see so many times that the house itself--though not the Maid--is telling Yukimasa that he is a beast, that he’s always been a beast, that he loves to kill, even when he is trying to escape from that fate, from that future. It’s not the Maid. The Maid serves the HOUSE, and so what is the house? Is the house the narrative itself, and is that why it attracted the violence to Yukimasa, and why he never could have shaken it? Is that why the house itself hungers for this sort of tragedy? The tragedy of Mell and Nellie and the White Haired Girl*? What is it about this place that drives PAIN? Because remember, in the first story Nellie found out about the incest from an accidental (sort of) ripping of a painting. I laughed about the convenience at the time, not unkindly, but what if it wasn’t convenience? Or rather, what if the convenience was the hand of the house, and this “writer” (I know I know I’m obsessed with the role of writers in their own stories) wants this house to be tragic, so it is? No matter what. 

But interestingly, the story goes to pains, as sopon as we’re feeling so sad for Yukimasa for being treated racistly by the big, mean, Spanish villagers, and that’s why he became cruel and mean, the story shakes its head and not only tells us, “nuh uh. Isn’t so.” but shows us. That he was not only tempted that way, but he was a killer long before he ever set foot on Valencian shores.** When this whole thing was playing out I was like, “Lol Valencia is right across from Algiers and while Tensions Are High it was only like 100 years ago that the Moors were living among you, I’m not sure beating a Japanese man for looking ood is all that likely in a port city” and then the story tells you that he was emaciated and all that, but more specifically they DID see this quality of beastliness in him, and he DID murder a lot of people, and that we are absolutely not doing an over-simplified version of this story. 

By the by, I am sure you could write a fucking DISSERTATION on the choice of having the protagonist and villain, all in one, be a third-generation European-Japanese man, who is obsessed with the idea of Japan as motherland, to the point of wielding a katana and going on about honor and the samurai class-- and coupled with this insane violence of his it puts me to mind of the way bushido was used by the government and military in pre-WW2 in similar ways as Aryan ideals to unify and create this notion of longstanding cultural value that’s not quite BULLSHIT, I don’t think I’d be comfortable saying that, but it’s not quite on the level either--and he is the beast, and he was always the beast, and he’s misleading Pauiline about having ever seen Japan, but he says it calls to him, he says it’s his heart, but it’s a place he’s never seen and frankly probably doesn’t even fucking belong anymore. I do not have the words to put around that, but I KNOW it’s something and I’m not sure I’ve ever wanted a writer to tell me everything about something but I do RIGHT NOW. (If you did not write Fata Morgana, please don’t attempt to explain this to me until I finish in November) 

Anyway, let’s get to the beauty and the beast aspect of all this. So, the Whtie Haired Girl shows up, is blind, apparently, an in fairness I do think sight prbnlems are more common in albinism, so, congrats I guess writers. I don’t know how much I love a “Love a man good” narrative, and I think I’m oversimplifying it a little bit to call it that, but I don’t think I’m oversimp0lifying why we’re supposed to back her play by a lot. She really doesn’t have a character? She lives to serve Yukimasa in the same way she lived to serve Mell, and is that another part of this too? That this house, this Maid, and this Girl, are all here to serve the Master and his larger story? I mean, it could absolutely be international, what’s going on here, but I’m just not sure. I love the incredibly boggling moment where she tries to convince him he’s not a beast with her literal pussy. I am not making a joke here, friends. 

The whole thing with Pauline is fascinating, because there could be so many things that make her appear a beast to him as well, but I THINK she is added in to tell us that Yukimasa couldn’t be saved by something as simple as love itself, that the White Haired Girl maybe is, in her own way, a witch, for the power she can command over others, much as she did Mell. Maybe she actually IS the villain here, that would be interesting, maybe all of this is about fucking with men and ruining their lives in twisted ways, and you know what I think that would actually fit into the whole Morgan Le Fay thing and I rather like it. We’ll see where it goes. 

And of course, we start at the very bottom of our nature, and we end there, because the house craves that, it wants the ruin to return. The damp and the blood. 

Wow! This is way more than 1000 words, sorry, I have gotten carried away with this whole fuckin thing. I really enjoy this VN so far, and I gotta say, I wasn’t even entirely aware there were VNs like this? A few more quick thoughts: 

“What appear to be many plants are all connected in the soil”--we’re talking about inhabitants of the house, it’ll come back around, I can smell it. 

Fascinated by the Maid’s hiding the ‘truth’ of Yukimasa from us, so she, too, has a role in how the stories are told, or maybe that’s part of the house’s control over her, I’m not actually sure. 

“A beast wants a tether” what a fucking great idea, that freedom is not all its cracked up to be, and that unchecked freedom is death in a sense? I dunno, interesting for certain. 

Yukimasa looks a little like Keanu Reeves 

*I’m going to assume for the moment though please no one tell me anything inany direction that we are the White Haired Girl and the reason her name is so frequently blocked out is that we aren’t supposed to learn our name yet. I do not love this paired with the “She is blameless, in this or any time” and frankly I don’t love that even if we AREN’T the poor widdle white haired girl, but it’s na interesting conceit given that she seems to not be reborn, necessarily, but always…there? Is she herself bound to tragedy? 

**Because though Rose Manor was in England, Weeping Manor is in Spain. So the manor can move. I don’t have a thought on that right at the moment, but I did not google “Where can you grow oranges in Europe and when was Spain unified” for nothing.

[horsemeatluvr23]

watching docm77 vs the other hermits is like being in a daycare and all the kids are learning their abc's except for one child in the corner who just reinvented the atomic bomb

[clockworkreapers]

the idea of sburb happening Aleph Null and then it goes up the chain of command to be like: "Um so... one of our inner empire planet colonies has just been destroyed in a matter of hours and we have no explanation as to why"

"What."

[retroautomaton]

🥊

[vvitchella]

secretly a manic pixie dream girl but you'll never know because I don't leave the house

[yubriamakesart]

I opened Doc's newest video to watch while I draw, but as soon as the guitar in the new intro song hit this was all I could see.

[emberglowfox]

gave gods most edible animal simulator a try again

[natjennie]

this has to be the d20 season with the greatest number of diagetic, physical forms and files the intrepid heroes had to fill out for sure right.

[heyyesimtrash-whatofit]

Marty McFly VS The Doc-pocalypse or smth like that idk

I put way too much effort into what was supposed to be a stupid doodle so uh. Have this Tumblr. I really don’t have a better explanation for this other than I got two more Doc Pop! Figures today, which leaves me with a growing army of 3 Docs and one singular Marty, and I keep laughing every time I look at them in my display case so here we have Marty dealing with multiple Docs from different times that have all somehow ended up in the garage in 1986. Four dimensional thinking has never been his strong suit, and trying to figure this out is not helping. He’s got two hours of sleep, a bajillion positive encouraging post-it notes from the Doc of the present telling him to sleep, hot chocolate, and four very enthusiastic Emmetts crowding the lab. Send help. And caffeine. And maybe Clara cause he’s not so sure he can keep them from blowing something up for much longer.

Picture of the inspiration under the cut :)

Behold, my growing Doc army and my one single Marty McFly left to deal with them

At least Marty has his tunes. That might help him stay a little sane

[jennsterjay]

Miles 1610B arranging a Miles Morales multiversal meet and greet and Comic, Cartoon, Spider-verse, and Video Game Miles are already laughing and theorizing and high fiving each other

Then they lose their minds when Prowler Miles finally shows up through a portal. Miles G Morales (Prowler) looks even more surprised because they're all wearing a Spider-Man costume

The other Miles' scramble to talk to him with a bunch of 'this suit is sick! how did you make it!!??' 'Yooo send me the coding for your mask' 'Black airforce vibe' 'Ayo you're The Prowler!!??'

And Miles G is looking at them and running a statistical probability in his head and then he's like "Nah cuz why are all of you Spider-Man???"

[kazachokolate]

Delightful as a slavic witch and the 7D as her chort helpers (I was inspired by Black Book, but this is not a crossover)

[docholligay]

House in Fata Morgana: Door 6.75

I have never reviewed a visual novel before, but iscahwynn made me a very generous offer and a long line of patience, knowing that we are trying something very new. To that end: Please don’t spoil me for the game at all! If you are reading this, I have only gotten through the part written above, and I don’t want to be corrected, even if I’m wrong, even if I’ve missed something, i don’t want to have anything confirmed or denied, and I don’t need any trigger warnings or extraneous explanation. Iscah would like my pure, naive experience of the game. Thank you!

Okay so I absolutely did not make it to the next door, which is frustrating for me from a scheduling standpoint, but makes sense narratively, I should have trusted that the door situation was streamlined and that’s on me. 

So, let’s first get aside all of the notes about Morgana’s life. It much the way it frustrated me with Giselle, it frustrates me that none of Morgana’s problems can be a result of her own actions, or feelings, or whatever. I feel really fucking bad for her, but in the sort of way you do a kicked dog, not a human being you feel empathy with. She acts like a fucking saint, it is very difficult to think of that sort of person as being a fully realized human. BUT, I do love that we meet with Mell and Yukimasa and Jacopo, though of course owing to the shortness of the story but, they’re all very mustache-twirling and not nearly as interesting and layered as I found their stories within their own doors. But I think that’s fair. 

Couple standout things here for me: I am not so sure that she doesn’t have some sort of power, but I also think the argument she doesn’t is completely legitimate, and I love that! I love not really knowing, certainly not every person who ever had a torturous life and horrible death gerts to wreak fucking havoc, i’m just saying. But I love that it could just be sheer faith, in both love and hate. 

The way that she cuts herself, and people love her and praise her for it, and so she comes to cherish her hurts and cuts. Loved this as an example of the ways that, in how we online socially reward sadness and brokenness with attention, contribute to this idea of cherishing our hurts. This isn’t me saying that we should never share anything that sucks online, but I think all of us are pretty aware of how responses to a creative, or happy post can be versus a post about something bad can be, and I think that can be reinforcing, and you start to see those as immutable parts of you. Anyway, send hatemail, it’s fine. 

BUT WHAT WE’RE REALLY HERE FOR. Okay so I called Michel being Michelle but I have to confess, “Michel is a trans man” (Kinda????????? I guess???????? I don’t fucking know, he says his body is male now and that was not strictly speaking possible in 1099, so unless there was magic involved or he’s being metaphorical or something here, I have no idea what’s going on) is NOT where I expected the game to go and I am sucking my TEETH with nervousness about how they’ll handle this. All of my reticence for Michel and Michelle being the same person comes out of my fear that they will handle the gender thing so so so badly, and I still absolutely feel that way. 

I am pleased, I guess, in a narrative sense, that they have Giselle respond in a reasonable and common way for a woman of her time, and honestly, all the times she’s lived in. I expected full on “Bodies don’t matter to me <3” which does annoy me in “historical” fiction. Of course it happened, but it was not all that commonplace, and it’s just something that grates me. So even if she comes around, and I suspect she will, I’m glad we got to avoid magical cool girl from 1099 Giselle. She had a reaction that feels bad and is historically plausible as shit. We love that! Gives her room to move and makes everything feel less fake. 

Also, did Michel seriously think he was never going to have to confront this KID, COME ON. For someone who has built up a shield of never trusting anyone around yourself you sure are trusting that Giselle is going to this thing that she could not reasonably have seen coming REAL FUCKIN WELL. It’s such a part of the contradiction of Michel. He’s closed off, he’s vulnerable. He’s cruel, he’s tender. He’s intelligent, he’s A FUCKING MORON. I love him! I am going to punch him in the fucking face! 

ONTO DOOR 7 FOR REAL I GUESS

[grave-things]

hank at therapy, drawn by krinks himself (his ass is NOT listening)

[doctorburgers]

happy sword of convallaria global release! shoutout to the. swords

no text + original meme

[sarioh]

Did you see that etho explained in Cleo's latest video that the reason he's scared of her is because she stole scar's llama in 3rd life. He's such a nerd

YES i saw it it explains so much but also so so little. of all the awful things that happened in 3rd life the MOST EVIL, TWISTED, DERANGED THING OF ALL is stealing a llama. THIS is the single source of his parasocial fear of zombiecleo. whyis he such a fucking loser LOL