#earthbound-in-doubt

[combeauferre]

1, 6, 8 for Fabien

1 - what’s the maximum amount of time your character can sit still with nothing to do?

probably about two seconds. every one of the bahorel kids has adhd and it helps that fabien grows up on a farm where there's Always something to do, but he's not very good at coping with nothing

6 - do they consider laws flexible, or immovable?

flexible. not as flexible as bahorel himself, but he looks up to bahorel and he's stressed their mother out no end following after him

8 - what were they told to stop/start doing most often as a child

stop running in the house, stop throwing things, start being more productive - none of them are flagged as having adhd as kids and fabien gets the brunt of the frustration of their parents in childhood

[lessnearthesun]

7, 13, 18, 23, 24!!!

Okay, to keep this from getting too long, I’m only doing characters from Gen 1. Because there are… many characters in this story. (In my defense, it does span almost 100 years and 3 generations.)

7. which ocs would feel super out of place at a formal event? which ocs are completely fine with it?

For those that are completely fine with it: Mikhaïl, Dmitri, Olga, (who are Mikhaïl’s older brother and little sister, respectively), Marie LeRoux (Camille’s great aunt), Alice, Elisabeth and Marius Bovary, and Cécile. For the first five, they’re raised into it, so obviously they feel fine there. Elisabeth’s husband Marius isn’t, but he likes feeling dapper and he’s charming. (Also, good wine and food.) Cécile isn’t born rich, but she gets used to it later in life because of the work she does.

Those not at all comfortable: Camille, Natasha, Gabriel de Geneste, (Camille’s father) Astrid, Jacque, and Daniel. Camille, Natasha, and Gabriel are both raised in ‘high society’ but none of them like being around people all the time where they’re expected to act fake/understand social cues. Now, Camille does actually understand it and is very charming, she just hates it; it makes her feel like she’s lying and gives her hang ups. Natasha also has her whole identity crisis/imposter syndrome thing going on which doesn’t make a good combo. As for the last three, they’re not raised into it and (minus Astrid) never go to a party like that, so they don’t technically know, but they wouldn’t like it. Both would find it stuffy. Astrid has gone. She got comments on her poor French and her general poverty. She got them back by spitting in the punch bowl, though.

This got long, oops. In my defense, I love rambling and this story/these characters SO MUCH.

13. which ocs make the rules? which ocs follow those rules, and which ocs break them?

Makes rules: I mean, society in general, but: Camille, at the beginning, Dmitri, and Marie. The latter two are very much ‘The Rules Are Meant To Be Followed. Nothing Is Meant To Be Broken.’

Breaks them: Camille, after she grows a backbone, her husband Lucien, Mikhaïl, Astrid, technically (albeit reluctantly) Natasha, Alice. Oh yeah, and JACQUE. Chaotic good at its finest.

18. which ocs will bend the rules as much as possible without breaking them? which do it to get what they want, and which do it just for spite?

Bend the rules: NATASHA. She hates breaking rules. She literally needs order and structure to survive, which is why her unideal/somewhat ambiguous family situation fucks with her so much. Also Olga. She’s a troublemaker but not Mikhaïl level. She just doesn’t want to get in trouble, lol, so she bends rules until they are literally about to break then she backs off.

Does what they want: Alice. Fun fact, there’s a scene early on where Alice scandalizes poor Camille by just… doing whatever the fuck she wants. Camille is literally like 😶😮 that whole scene. Astrid too because she doesn’t respect institutions.

Does it out of spite: MIKHAÏL. Most spiteful man on earth. Chaotic neutral. Just does what he wants. And if someone tells him not to do it, he’ll likely do it even if he really doesn’t want to. And if Dmitri tells him not to… oh boy.

23. which ocs have the most book intelligence? which have the least?

Most book knowledge: Camille, Natasha, Alice, Dmitri. All get very good educations but beside that, they just like learning. It’s not explicitly stated because it’s somewhat superfluous, but Camille is basically a linguistic genius. She’s fluent in French, English, Spanish, Italian, German, Russian, Greek, and Japanese. (It’s because if she never stops thinking she doesn’t have to deal with the fact that she actually has emotions but shh 🤭)

Least: Mikhaïl and Astrid. Mikhaïl because, despite the good education he is given, he just doesn’t care about book learning. He doesn’t have the attention span nor the desire. Astrid, at least at the point we’re at in the story, doesn’t. It’s not out of laziness like Mikhaïl, though. She was a poor child and orphaned at 11, so she wasn’t able to go to school. She’s very smart, though. Just not book smart. She basically taught herself to read and write as well as to speak/read and write in French. (Her first language is German.) She wants to go to school, but she very much lives day to day, meal to meal. She doesn’t show it, but it’s a big insecurity for her, especially after she becomes close with Camille and is surrounded by highly educated rich people. It makes her feel somewhat inferior.

24. which ocs have the most common sense? which have the least?

Most common sense: Astrid, Cécile, and Natasha. Astrid definitely has the most. She’s made her own way in the world her whole life, basically. She has had very few people to rely on so she had to learn quickly. Cécile and Natasha don’t have a tragic backstory for it besides them both having raging eldest daughter syndrome, lmao.

Least common sense: Mikhaïl, Jacque, Alice. Mikhaïl, though I love him, is kind of a himbo. He’s very impulsive and just makes decisions without thinking. Very much a ‘jump now, think later’ person which leads him ignoring common sense and just chase the serotonin. Jacque is somewhat similar in that he’s impulsive, the difference is that Jacque just genuinely doesn’t give a shit. Mikhaïl cares deeply, (though he’ll deny it until he’s blue in the face) he’s just a masochist and bent on self-destruction. Alice isn’t necessarily impulsive, she’s just 1) A generally sheltered, rich girl and 2) leads with her heart. She’s like ‘this is what my heart says, and my heart has never led me astray before!’ and someone— probably Camille, let’s be real— will say ‘it most certainly has’ and point to evidence. And Alice will suddenly become deaf. Love her, though. <3

[dirksstri]

Everytime Kumatora and Duster are shipped together, an angel loses their wings 💔

[stealingsocieties]

hi again m1 fandom it’s been 3 yrs are we rocking with them

[iknaenmal]

GOT THE BEIN-FRIENDS URL

[magicallydeclined]

For the final archive of today, I have something special!

This collection started and finished in 2021, was a crossover titled "Keith Haring x Earthbound" or "KHxEB" for short!

As the title suggests, it was a my view of the earthbound series through the lens of the iconic and influential artist, Keith Haring.

I don't really feel like listing all of the titles here as they are simply numbers, but I can say the first one is without a doubt the first one I ever completed. I think it's strange in retrospect, but still holds up visually. I really couldn't get enough of this series back then, and I still can't today.

It might sound strange to say "back in the day" when this was only 2-3 years ago, but understand that I have lived many lives since then. The person I was when I was 20-21 and making these drawings was largely different than who I am now. But that is a good thing after all!

That being said, my favorite one is the third one! The Starman holds unrecognized influence in the design/gaming world. Their design, sleek, silvery, and menacing influenced many characters we see today (even if they don't know it (; hehe)

Enjoy!

[21st-century-ninja]

art reposter

So up front!! This is not intended as a call to dogpile, harass, or bully op. I just wanted to make an awareness post, because I saw people on my dash reblogging their works who didn't seem to be aware that the art was stolen. Just block and/or don’t interact with them and move on with your life, yk?

Anyway @sophia336 posted a fic called Earthbound last night (link). A cool premise where Cole merges with the earth in MotM, right? The only problem here is that they also posted artwork along with it, artwork which, by the watermark at the bottom left, seems to belong to a Mr. Essy.

Okay, I thought. So maybe they have two usernames for art, for personal use, etc. but going to their blog revealed no more art with that watermark on it.

So I searched it up in a couple of minutes and found the original artwork as, indeed, belonging to Mr. Essy over on instagram. (Link)

Okay. So the art belongs to Mr. Essy. Maybe they got permission to post it, even there was no mention of “The art isn’t mine, art belongs to Mr. Essy, etc” on the post.

But here it is again, and with a different artist.

(sophia336 link)(usagi haruka’s insta link)

Again, this took me two minutes of googling to find.

(Both of these artists appear to be non-native English speakers, which isn’t necessarily a pattern of anything, just something I noticed.)

Okay. So they’ve reposted art without credit or seemingly permission. Maybe they don’t know any better.

I found this post, though, on their blog from May of 2022 that suggests they have been made aware that this behavior is harmful.

(link)

For the third time, it took me two minutes of googling to find these artists I'd not heard of before. In the aforementioned May 2022 post, sophia336 wrote "All art isn't mine" in the description. In their ninjago posts, it seems that they never make a claim either way.

Tl;Dr: Sophia336 reposts art with their (as far as I can tell and have no reason to doubt) original fanfics. They are aware that this behavior is harmful and not what should be done.

And I get where they're coming from! Honestly I do! As a fellow fanfic writer, it can be really disheartening to see artwork getting more love than fanfic, even when the same amount of effort went into both. From what I read of their fics, they've got really great writing skill. I just wish they didn't feel the need to use stolen art to get views.

[someoneoffthestreet]

MAWS s2 thoughts before the finale:

I’ve been thinking over what we’ve seen of Krypton this season. Mostly how, even though it feels like a lot, we haven’t actually seen much at all.

Notably, most of the information we have received about Krypton is actually sourced from Brainiac, which- well. Brainiac is a certified liar, or at the very least, has a very skewed perspective of Krypton and what it was supposed to be. I do not doubt that Krypton was at one point a warmongering planet that benefited off of others’ suffering (Jor-El’s account backs this up,) but dialogue from Brainiac in 2x08 suggests that, towards the end at least, Krypton was moving away from this and pursuing a more peaceful existence.

(Speculatively, this could have angered some Kryptonians ((it’s been 20-something years and Brainiac still sounds pissed off about it)) and instigated a coup that then led to the attempted invasions against Darkseid/Apokolips and Earth, and we know how that went.)

The images we see of Krypton show the Kryptonians with superpowers on their home planet. But we don’t? Actually know? If that’s completely true?? Because it seems strange that the show would have this, but keep the red sun weakness. Did Krypton not have a red sun in this universe?

Pushing on that, the images of that Krypton are from the Black Mercy, which Kara outright states is Brainiac’s domain. The world Clark is trapped in is based off of the one Kara shows him in 2x05, but we don’t actually know where that vision originated from. It couldn’t have come from Kara, because she was also an infant when Krypton was destroyed and would have no natural memory of it. So whose memory is that? Is it a memory at all? How do we know Brainiac didn’t tamper with it?

(Like in all likelihood it was just a throwaway line, but my brain keeps getting stuck on Clark noticing Ma and Pa’s doppelgängers in Kara’s Krypton, and I keep wondering if maybe that was a result of Clark’s subconscious infecting the simulation because it isn’t an actual, tangible memory, but Kara doesn’t seem to notice anything unusual with the memory so maybe I’m stuck on nothing.)

More on that, is how all of this interacts with what we see of Krypton from Jor-El’s memories. Admittedly he gives us very little, but the contrast is pretty stark. And maybe it’s just because the planet was mere moments from exploding, but the Krypton we see back in 1x02 is a wreck, in very stark contrast to the peaceful paradise that was Krypton’s Last Days as shown in 2x05. Even more notably, neither Lara nor Jor-El do anything superhuman in Jor-El’s account. Think about that. They are rushing to save their infant son’s life, but they aren’t using flight or super speed: they are very much earthbound.

Now to be fair, there’s another explanation. Krypton was already a spacefaring civilization before the fall, so they definitely discovered how their biology reacted to different suns. Maybe they created some kind of device that could simulate the yellow sun on Krypton (like the red solar shielding around Cadmus in s1) that “blessed” all Kryptonians with superpowers; and then this device was damaged/shut off in the time before the planet’s destruction.

Like it could be both: the above point being true and Brainiac still omitting/manipulating things about how Krypton was, maybe to better preserve his idea of what it should have been.

[bobafish]

hi @earthbound-in-doubt ! Here's your gift for the @drinkwithme-exchange for Joly, Bossuet, and R!! :DD

(I AM SO SORRY IF THIS ISNT WHAT YOU WERE EXPECTING BTW 😭😭 THIS IS MY FIRST DRINK WITH ME)

[combeauferre]

🛁 for bossuet

🛁 - a nice, warm bath

"God, I have had such a day."

Bossuet dumps his bag by the front door and beelines straight for the couch, flopping down into the seat.

Musichetta gives him a sympathetic look and then frowns.

"There's a bruise on your chin, what have you done?"

Bossuet sighs and puts his fingers to it like he's checking it's still there.

"Well there was this microwave at work and- I lifted it from the cage and it was heavy and I kind of.. accidentally launched it at my face?"

Standing, Musichetta walks over and puts her thumb on it gently.

"Have you put any ice on it?"

She doesn't wait for an answer before she walks into the kitchen, getting a bag of frozen peas and a hand towel to wrap around them.

"Well, no..." Bossuet says with a sigh. He holds up his fingers for her to see where the nail is bruised underneath. "I got my hand stuck between the cage and the microwave, too."

She puts the bag of peas to his chin and gently kisses his forehead.

"What am I going to do with you?" she asks, nothing but fondness in her voice. Bossuet gives her a crooked smile. "Any other bumps or bruises I should know about?"

Bossuet shrugs.

"Just the usual," he says, lifting an arm and a leg. "These hurt, back hurts. Nothing I'm not used to." As he puts his arm and leg down, he notices the way the sole on his shoe slaps the floor before the rest of his foot is down. "Oh."

"Foot," Musichetta says, holding back a sigh.

Bossuet obediently lifts his leg and waits for Musichetta to slowly undo the laces and pull the shoe gently from his foot, before tapping his other leg gently to swap.

When she's done, she stands and presses a kiss to his forehead.

"Text Jol for me, will you? Tell him to hurry home quick and he can join us in the bath."

Bossuet smiles softly and reaches up to take Musichetta's hand as she turns away, pulling her back gently.

"Thank you," he says quietly, kissing her hand. "I know I'm a lot."

"Hush," Musichetta says, with no force behind it. "You're a delight, I won't hear any of that."

She bends, plants a kiss on his lips, and stands back up.

"Ask Joly to pick out a nice bath bomb too?"

When Joly gets in, he's balancing two bags alongside his work tote bag, slowly slipping off his shoulder.

"I'm home," he calls gently into the empty corridor. There's no answer, so he stumbles his way into the kitchen, shedding the tote bag on the way and dropping one bag on the side. The flat is quiet while he organises the store-bought Chinese takeout into the fridge, shoving the empty bag back into the cupboard, overflowing with old reusable bags.

Left over is a small paper Lush bag with three bath bombs in it, so that whoever's had the bad day has a selection to choose from. Bossuet hadn't specified, although Joly suspects it must be him.

"Loves?" he calls, walking out the kitchen.

"In here," comes Musichetta's muffled reply from the bathroom. He hears the sound of running water now and smiles, stripping off his jacket and scarf and hanging them on the door.

Steam escapes as he opens the door to the bathroom, and inside are Musichetta and Bossuet, wine glasses in hand, nude, watching the water fill.

"Jol," Bossuet breathes, smiling softly up at him. Joly spots the same bruise Musichetta had pointed out, and leans to press a kiss over it.

"Here, I thought you'd like to choose," he says, settling into Bossuet's lap and handing over the paper bag.

Bossuet presses a kiss to Joly's temple and opens it, peering inside and pulling each bath bomb out one by one, inspecting them slowly.

Among them is Bossuet's favourite, black and horrendously glittery. Joly hates it for the way it leaves trails of glitter around the flat for weeks after, and it's reserved for bad day baths.

Bossuet holds it up so he and Musichetta can see.

"Will you be mad if I pick this one?" he asks, pouting as best he can, until Joly laughs and shoves at his face gently.

"This once, I'll allow it," he replies, kissing Bossuet's cheek.

"Would you like to do the honours, love?" Musichetta asks as she turns off the faucet and tests the water temperature.

Bossuet presses three quick kisses to Joly's temple, cheek and neck.

"I'll have to evict you, my dear," he says, patting Joly's clothed ass, the only one still clothed. He gets to work fixing that as Bossuet moves across the room, dropping the bath bomb into the water and watching, transfixed, as it works its magic.

Musichetta watches hungrily as Joly methodically undoes the buttons on his shirt, only allowing him a few moments before she gets up and bats his fingers out the way to do it for him. Bossuet settles down on the side of the bath to watch as Joly fumbles and Musichetta, who has always held the power to fluster each of them without getting flustered herself, kisses down his neck.

When Joly is finally rid of his shirt, Musichetta leaves him with one final nip on his neck to undo his trousers and let them drop. She gently climbs into the bath, taking the time to adjust to the temperature - almost scalding, just how her boys like it.

When she's settled, she holds out her arms, and Joly crowds Bossuet against the tub until he caves, presses a kiss to the corner of his mouth, and climbs in to settle on Musichetta's lap.

Finally, Joly climbs in to sit opposite the two of them, legs tangling with Bossuet's and fingers finding Musichetta's easily.

Slowly, Joly coaxes Bossuet to lie down, legs coming to fit round Joly's waist as he dips his back into the water, sighing as it warmth seeps into his muscles.

It doesn't take long for Musichetta to squeeze Joly's hand and let go, shuffling back a little so she can reach Bossuet's shoulders. She massages slow and firm, working out the knots in Bossuet's shoulders. Joly holds back a comment about his terrible posture, instead reaching forward to rub circles into Bossuet's thigh with his thumb.

They continue this cycle, massaging everywhere they can reach, until Bossuet is practically asleep in Musichetta's arms. Glitter covers his body from the shoulders down, and Joly can't take his eyes off him. He shares a fond look with Musichetta, who pats Bossuet's stomach gently.

"Come on love, water's getting cold."

Bossuet grumbles a complaint, shifting lower till his knees bend and he's submerged up to his chin. Joly smiles scritch-scratching along his knee for a second before it turns to gentle tickled along his thigh, making Bossuet squirm.

"Chetta's right, up we get now," he says fondly. "Doctor's orders."

He keeps tickling until Bossuet can't take it any more, and squirms away sharply, laughing open mouthed, jolting more than he anticipated and getting a mouthful of glittery bathwater.

Spitting it out, Bossuet coughs and pulls a face.

"Okay, okay, I'm done." Joly is still first to get out, concerning himself with pouring Bossuet a glass of water to wash out his mouth with and feeling for the softest towel to offer him. He holds it open as Bossuet steps out the bath, wrapping it around his shoulders and rubbing his back dry.

Musichetta climbs out the bath last, pulling the plug and not bothering at first with a towel. She's well aware of the way her body is covered in black glitter and Bossuet and Joly's eyes are looking fairly disrespectfully at her body, and she allows herself a second to be admired before she reaches for her own towel.

The three of them stand together, drying each other off for a while, until none of them are shivering, and make their way back to their bedroom to find cozy pyjamas.

"You know," Bossuet says, stretching his arms above his head, "I could really go for a Chinese right now."

Joly smiles softly, pleasant warmth settling in his stomach. Even after all these years, it still makes him feel giddy to know he got the subtle tells right, he made the right call, he made one of their days without needing to be asked.

He plants a kiss on Bossuet's clothed shoulder.

"It's funny you should say that."

[lessnearthesun]

🍉🍓🍟🍾🍪🍰 for the main characters of your novel!

The main characters… Okay, so I’m going to split this into the main characters for parts one and part two. Part one main characters: Camille de Geneste and Natasha and Mikhaïl Vasiliev. Part two main characters: Camille’s two kids, Sophie and Michel, and Natasha and Mikhaïl’s sister, Olga. This will almost assuredly be long because I’m me.

🍉: Does your OC have a particular piece of jewellery that they always wear or refuse to part with?

Camille: She isn’t really the jewelry type, but she does wear a little silver watch on her wrist. (Symbolism, anyone?) She also has her wedding ring, but she hardly wears that. Mikhaïl does give her a necklace, but she doesn’t wear it, just keeps it in her jewelry box. I don’t know if it counts as a spoiler because the prologue tells it, but after she dies, it passes on to her kids.

Natasha: Also not the jewelry type. She doesn’t wear any jewelry, though. It just… really isn’t something that occurs to her unlike Camille, who doesn’t want to bring more attention to herself. Natasha only wears jewelry at parties, but even then, just minimal pearls.

Mikhaïl: Well, it’s the early-mid 1900s, so obviously it wouldn’t be socially acceptable for him to wear so-called ‘feminine’ jewelry, so he only wears the gold cufflinks that his father gave to him. Fun but sad fact: these pass to his brother Dmitri, who he has a difficult relationship with, and Dmitri gives them to his son.

Sophie Austen née Howard: She likes really minimal jewelry, like pearls and simple chains. She does actually put a lot of thought into her appearance, but she finds jewelry gaudy, so she doesn’t wear it. She doesn’t wear Camille’s necklace that passed to her because if you look up ‘mommy issues’ in the Dictionary, a picture of Sophie will show up. Sophie also has her little brother, Michel’s dog tags which she’ll deny being attached to, but she always keeps them near her if not on her until the day she dies.

Michel Howard: Michel has Camille’s locket that he wears around his neck with photos of those he loves. There are three photos: the one (1) he has of him, his sister, and his parents taken in 1942— when he was six and Sophie was ten; one of his adoptive parents, Elisabeth and Marius Bovary; and eventually one of Michel’s lover, James. While in the army, he has dog-tags, but I don’t really think that counts.

Olga Vasilyeva: This girl loves jewelry. Her jewelry box alone would put Tiffany’s to shame. She wears a lot of jewelry, but nothing she refuses to part with, per-say or that she wears a lot. She has a golden bracelet that she’s had since she was a girl and that has her name engraved in Latin letters and Cyrillic, but she doesn’t wear it more than anything else. She does definitely cherish it, though.

(I knew this would get long. Sorry gang for writing an essay again. </3)

🍓: Does your OC have any particular scents they like? Or hate?

Camille: She likes nature/floral scents. Fire/smoke, (*coughs* symbolism *coughs*) lilies, grass, stuff like that. I feel like she really hates sweet scents like vanilla. They make her nauseous.

Natasha: She’s the opposite of Camille— foils, anyone? She likes warm, sweet scents like vanilla. If she were alive today, Bath and Body Works during autumn/winter would be heaven for her.

Mikhaïl: He’ll say he likes the smell of smoke and alcohol, but despite being a chronic smoker and alcoholic, he hates those smells because they remind him of what a screw up he is. He just can’t stop. In reality, he likes comforting scents like lavender.

Sophie: Sophie also likes the essential oil type scents like rosemary and lavender. Sophie does actually live until 90, so 2022, and as an old lady, she 1000% has a defuser and is subscribed to those essential oil monthly packages.

Michel: He likes citrus and warm scents like vanilla. His favorite scent is definitely fresh cookies because he was an extremely shy child— if he was a kid today, he’d have been diagnosed with social anxiety— and baking was a solitary activity he could do alone and that helped his anxiety.

Olga: She likes those rich, strong perfume scents. Like gardenias or Chanel number 5. Olga likes the finer things in life, what can she say?

🍟: What does your OC admit to be their guilty pleasure? What actually is their guilty pleasure?

Camille: Camille would deny having any guilty pleasures because she has the idea that life is basically meant to be suffering. (She has many issues.) Her friends joke that she’s so austere that she’s like a nun. But she does love to read and study languages, and while there are practical reasons for doing so, it also brings her joy and always leaves her feeling a bit ashamed because she knows she’s enjoying it.

Natasha: Sleeping in late. She says it and it’s true. Natasha hates to lie. She likes to be productive and feels a bit like she has to, but when hen she gets to, she sleeps in. Also, book buying sprees.

Mikhaïl: Again, he’ll say alcohol, sex, and smoking, but those are all things that actually make him very miserable. In reality, romance novels. Mikhaïl wants more than anything to feel genuine love and love someone like that. He almost had it with Camille, but he’s a coward and Camille ‘chose’ ‘familial duty’ so it doesn’t happen. That really messes with Mikhaïl— especially because of how deeply he love(s)d her— and makes him retreat even further from deep connection. He loves romance because, for a moment, he feels like he has a chance of being happy. He adores Jane Austen, but he’d never tell a soul. He’d die first, seriously.

Sophie: She’ll lie and say it’s something like chocolate or good food, but it’s really feel good movies as a child and as an adult, shows like ‘I Love Lucy’ and even later, Hallmark Movies. Sophie’s childhood was a wreck and even after she marries her husband whom she truly loves, she can’t shake it. She absolutely has undiagnosed PTSD and depression, but she grows up in the 30s and 40s so, you know. But those types of media bring her comfort. Sophie’s favorite movie as a teen and adult is ‘It’s a Wonderful Life.’

Michel: Hollywood and celebrity gossip. He admits it. He feels vapid doing it and Sophie— who makes it big as a writer— tells him it’s all self-absorbed bullshit, but Michel likes to read it because it’s entertaining and because it distracts him from his myriad of issues. (Howard siblings go to therapy challenge.)

Olga: Shopping sprees. She’ll admit it, but she underplays it. She loves clothes, jewelry, makeup, and the finer things in general, so that’s where she retreats to. After Natasha and Mikhaïl die, Olga has a huge shopping spree. She blows like 8,000 dollars in three days. Even when she’s healthy, she loves to shop and is a bit of spend thrift. It gives her older brother Dmitri stress ulcers.

🍾: Does your OC believe in luck? If so, do they have any charm or ritual they do before a stressful event?

Camille: Absolutely not. She thinks luck is ridiculous and how people cope with getting handed bad lots. Camille believes that we make our decisions and those are what get us in trouble, not luck. It’s her way of clinging onto her autonomy when it’s stripped from her when she’s forced to get married, have two kids she doesn’t want, etc. She made her bed and she’ll lie in it. There’s no higher power involved here.

Natasha: She flip flops, but I think she does somewhat believe in luck. Natasha’s very devout— canonically, Mikhaïl calls her more pious than the Virgin Mary— so she crosses herself and does a quick prayer before stressful events. She puts it in God’s hands.

Mikhaïl: Deep down, he thinks it’s bullshit because he has nihilistic tendencies, but he’ll say he does because he wants to absolve himself of the dumpster fire his life has turned into. Saying he’s just unlucky absolves him of guilt. So, because deep down he doesn’t believe in luck, he doesn’t do much before stressful situations. Well, he does drink but that’s not luck-related, that ‘Mikhaïl is a depressed alcoholic’ related.

Sophie: She absolutely believes in luck. It’s spoilery, so I won’t get into it, but Sophie feels like her whole life is just one tragedy after another. She loses a lot, and I mean a lot, of people over her 90 years of life. So she believes in luck because it makes her feel better. Her thought process is, ‘well, there’s nothing I could’ve done. It’s just bad luck.’ That mentality allows her to ignore and sweep her grief under the rug. As for rituals, she always knocks on wood before she leaves the house. Later in life, het third and final daughter Michelle gets into spirituality so she often cleanses her mother’s house, which deep down reassures Sophie, although to Michelle’s face, she’s like: ‘why are you doing this in my house. 😐’

Michel: He doesn’t think about luck much. As a kid, he thought he was unlucky and that there was something wrong with him, personally. As an adult, he chooses to believe he makes his own destiny and luck probably isn’t real, but he still tosses salt over his shoulder, avoids black cats, and won’t step under ladders.

Olga: She thinks luck is funny, but, personally, she doesn’t put any stock into it.

🍪: What is something that's sentimental to you OC?

Camille: The locket Astrid gives her. It means a lot to her which she’ll, of course, deny, because Camille is the most repressed woman on earth.

Natasha: This one, specific copy of War and Peace. After her mom died and she travelled to Petersburg, a nice man on the train gave her his copy and told her they’d have to discuss it when she learned to read. Natasha never meets the man again, obviously, but she remembers him. She was a scared, grieving kid with the uncle she’d never met, miles from home, and he was kind to her. So, she cherishes the book and it means more to her than any other thing she owns.

Mikhaïl: The gold cufflinks his father gave him. They had a rocky relationship, those two. Mikhaïl knew his father saw him as a screw up, which was true; Fyodor preferred Mikhaïl’s older brother, Dmitri. But Mikhaïl still loves those cufflinks. He’s arrested with them on, actually.

Sophie: Her brother’s dog tags, that’s pretty much it. Sophie isn’t super attached to anything because she feels like it’ll be taken from her. Her brother’s tags are ‘safe’ because he’s already gone from her. She can’t lose him again. Sophie has abandonment issues, can you tell?

Michel: The locket he got from his mother. It’s the only thing he has of her’s. He puts the photos of all the people he loves best in there. When he sleeps, it rests on his nightstand until morning. He wears it everywhere, even to war. It’s returned to Sophie after he dies. She keeps it locked in a box before giving it to her eldest daughter, Margaret when she turns 18.

Olga: She’s not super sentimental about things. She loves things, but she doesn’t get extraordinarily attached to them. She has a few things she loves, like the engraved bracelet, so that’s about as close as she gets to sentimentality. Things are just things to her. She’s gets very attached to people, however. She loves hard and deeply.

🍰: What's something your OC counts as unforgivable?

Camille: Selfishness. Camille’s views of what constitutes as selfish are definitely skewed because of all she’s been coerced into giving up. But selfishness— on an individual and societal sense— are unforgivable for her. Lucien, her husband, and her are fundamentally incompatible for this reason. Besides generally being a shady asshole, Lucien is only out for himself and Camille can’t forgive or get past that. (On the flip side, he thinks she’s naive and a perpetual martyr.)

Natasha: Lying. She’s ‘okay’ with white lies, but that’s pushing it. She doesn’t care if you’re ‘lying to avoid hurting someone,’ she believes lying is the worst thing you can do, pretty much no matter what. She’s a forgiving person, but lying? Good luck fixing that one. (Can you tell being lied to about who she was basically her whole life scrambled her brain?)

Mikhaïl: Adultery. Mikhaïl saw how it fucked up Natasha, being a product of that. In his mind, there’s no excuse for that, which is sadly ironic because Mikhaïl has affairs with married women and men. In his defense, he didn’t always know, but oftentimes he did and just added it to the ‘List of Reasons Mikhaïl Vasiliev Is a Fuck Up.’ Oh, Mikhaïl.

Sophie: Abandoning your family. She was abandoned as a child— literally by her father, her mother died, which in Sophie’s mind is A. The same thing and B. Basically her fault for getting involved in government resistance. To Sophie, that’s the biggest thing that fucked her up. In her mind, that’s the Big Moment that sealed her fate as a tragedy. There’s no excuse for her there. Be miserable but don’t leave. If anyone she loved abandoned their family, they’d be out. She doesn’t forgive and she doesn’t forget. When her eldest daughter, [REDACTED SPOILERS] Sophie finds it nearly impossible to forgive her for what her actions do to her family. And she never quite manages it.

Michel: Also abandonment. Michel’s a lot more forgiving, but even he can’t understand why someone would do that. He couldn’t imagine doing that if he had a family. He logically gets why but emotionally he never will. He hates himself for it, but deep down, in the deepest recesses of his heart in the places he won’t look, he deeply resents his parents for leaving him in their own ways. As Sophie points out— also in denial about how deeply in hurt her— they were bad parents, like pretty bad parents. Michel knows this and yet. And yet.

Olga: Murder. Olga’s siblings were murdered by a fascist government for all she’s concerned, and she’s not wrong. They were part of the French Resistance and that’s why they died. She can’t forgive murder because she knows how it feels to lose someone suddenly. Olga and Dmitri don’t know exactly how Natasha and Mikhaïl died, but they know it was brutal and that they were probably terrified. They know they were too young to go. Natasha was barely 35, Mikhaïl 34. Olga reads stories of people forgiving the murderers of their family, stuff like that, and while she respects it, she could never. In her mind, there’s nothing as awful as taking another’s life, especially someone young.

[prttyboyjude]

Have you ever felt like a digital entity stuck in an outdated but beloved game that might've never existed at all? If so, then boy do I have the playlist for you!! virtual worlds of a bygone era is inspired by the music of games like Hypnospace Outlaw and Earthbound, series like Petscop and ENA, and the futuristic yet nostalgic genres of Mallsoft and Vaporwave. It's without a doubt my favorite of my own playlists, and I add to it all the time. I promise you'll find something new :^)

[duplexide]

Just for fun I decided to draw up some concepts for a "bad end" Earthbound hack I had an idea for a while ago. This would depict a timeline where the Phase distorter failed horribly and Robo-Ness wound up stuck, broken and alone in a timeline where Giygas corruption went uncontested.

I mostly wanted to give each kid a biomechanical form similar to Pokey that depicts their different skills, Jeff using cannons, Paula using psy attacks, and Poo possessing six sword arms. Poo failed his Mu training here so his eyes, tongue, etc would be missing. Ness' body was possessed by Giygas while his soul was displaced so while you're in a weakened robot state you'd have to fight your previous self at full power.

The environments would all feature an earth overtaken by alien pollution and an overgrown Devil Machine. Many familiar creatures and allies would now be mind controlled by Giygas with the only real resistance being Dr. Andonuts and a small community of Mr. Saturns that have taken up hiding in trash cans. I doubt I'll ever have the time to actually make it but its been a lot of fun to think about.

[smallearthboundfindings]

Hi folks, I'm back! And I come bearing another theory post. Tonight's episode: Magicant in Mother 3 and why Tanetane island is a manifestation of Lucas's.

It's rather common knowledge that Magicant, both of them, are a manifestation of one's subconcious, with Smash 4 stating "[Magicant is] a magical world in Mother and EarthBound, brought to life by the memories of certain characters." and Mother Encyclopedia stating "You get the feeling you've stumbled into somebody's dream. Going inside another person's slumberland shouldn't be possible, yet this country is like the replicant (the reproduction) of a dream."

However, with the mind, comes one's fears. As Ness's Nightmare and regrets over his previous battles, Buzz Buzz, Porky, and the Flying Men (if they die) appear in Ness's Magicant, likewise, Maria's Magicant contains the Forgotten Man and similar regrets over the Flying Men. Mother Encyclopedia even makes this clear by saying this about the final stretch of the Crystal Caverns: "With strange apparitions flying all about, if there were ever such a thing as the bottom of the world, it would, without a doubt, look like this desolation of immeasurable loneliness. You can't help but think to yourself, is this really how lonely Queen Mary's sorrow is?"

Magicant is known for really showing the mental state of its owners, but this series stable is oddly not present in Mother 3.

Or is it?

It's not really clear if Magicant is a physical location in either case, but it is clear that they have some form of tangibility given how both Ninten and Ness can bring back items from Magicant to the real world. In Ness's case, it is most clearly a mental location as otherwise, he's in Fire Springs. He didn't move in any extreme way between passing out and waking up, so that one is mental, but Maria's is a little more debatable. There seems to be no tunnel between the entrance and exit caves to her Magicant, and yet, Ninten is able to enter one, pass through Magicant, and exit though the other tunnel. Perhaps her Magicant is placed over the otherwise invisible tunnel in some way or it's just some form of teleportation, but it's clear that Magicants can have some interaction to the real world. Cue the theory.

I think Tanetane Island is some manifestation of Lucas's Magicant. Now, not the regular island itself, but the state it's in under the mushrooms' effect is, in essence, Lucas's Magicant leaking out into the real world. With his mind in an altered state, he doesn't control certain cognitive abilities, and with this, it just may include his ability to confine his Magicant. Let's go over the points: does the altered Tanetane reflect on Lucas's mental state? Absolutely. It is rife with his fears and some of his team's fears. (Side note: this may be some kind of telepathy gone wrong where this might even be everyone's minds contributing a little.) On top of that, altered Tanetane is bizarrely colored as the previous two Magicants were with surreal elements, similarly to a dream. The island may be real, but it's modifications are not. This, I believe, is Lucas's (and possibly Duster or Kumatora's) Magicant. It would certainly bring things full circle.

[eegasleega-will-change-this-l8r]

you know what you know what, another thing that i've put too much thought into

this line on the earthbound wiki

hwha??? where? don't just leave it there!! show me!!!

so this sent me into a whole thing trying to figure out what this was talking about, since i love it when there's female grunts in things and i was reasonably confident that i had seen pretty much all developmental pigmask-related things there were to find

now, it's not like i need some vague unused sprite to justify myself imagining female pigmasks, since, like, there's only a couple explicitly male pigmasks too, but still, i wanted to get to the bottom of this

but try as i might, i could not freaking find anything about this anywhere else

so i started checking the history of the wiki article to see when that info was added it seems like it was first added on september 10th, 2010, by an anonymous user, in this form:

not very helpful

it received a couple tweaks to the spelling and grammar aftewards, but on october 30th, user Breakin'Benny added some more information:

okay! sick! i mean the baseless speculation is stupid, just gonna take a moment here and warn people not to use the earthbound wiki as a source, but it has an actual link to something concrete!! so let's check it out together!

okay welp that was a really disheartening bust no indication of what the video was, no images or anything

the line was trimmed down later on, first removing the video link, then the sexism part, and finally became its current form

so i decided to take a different approach i know pigmask stuff pretty well, so i figured i could try and deduce what it is they're referring to it's a sprite, of a yellow pigmask, seemingly with breasts hm

so let's see in the game, the only "yellow pigmask" is the mask boney wears in thunder tower, which doesn't really count the garbage collector pigmasks wear yellow vests that have a small line on the chest, but that's a pretty big stretch

for unused stuff specifically (i could imagine someone not remembering the vest pigmasks and confusing them for unused content, but let's give them the benefit of the doubt), we have this strange pigmask graphic

yellow, unused, and maybe someody's interpreting that line on the left as the shape of breasts, but idk there's an unused palette swap of a navy squeal, which is yellow, and perhaps someone could mistake the folds of the clothes for a chest, but i'm doubtful

and finally i thought of this picture from the 15th anniversary of the game, which features a yellow pigmask with a sort of weird-looking chest, but unfortunately the timeline doesn't match up

that's sadly where my search ended, my best guess is that they meant the weird-looking sketchy graphic, but i can't say for sure no idea if there ever was a legitimate source for that info, but they're not even trying to source it now and it really bugs me

don't use the earthbound wiki

[magicallydeclined]

"JOJO STONE OCEAN X SCOTT PILGRIM"

From 2021 - 2022, I made this small series where I'd draw characters from Jojo in this Scott Pilgrim like art style. Fun fact, outside of Earthbound, Jojo is probably my favorite thing. Part 6 is my favorite without any doubt, so naturally I wanted to draw the characters in this art style.

The last one I ever drew was the first one (2022) which differs greatly from the first Jolyne I ever drew (2021), the second one listed. I will say, my favorite one is the 8th and 9th one. 8 portrays the minor villains of Part 6, which I think had some pretty cool minor villains with unique powers. 9 is Pucci with his black clerical outfit, and I think (to this day) it's one of the best things I've ever drawn. The 4th one and 3rd one are definitely close seconds though. I love foo fighters AND hermes. Hermes best Jobro lol.

Hope y'all enjoy this weird crossover as much as I did lol