#hence why they're in the last bin

[thistaleisabloodyone]

My nail polishes, reorganized:

Box of I Will Use You All the Time: Multichromes on one side, toppers, base coats and tops coats on the other.

Box of I Will Use You Frequently: Magnetics and more metallic leaning polishes on one side, shimmers/shimmer-adjacent on the other

Box of I Will Use You Eventually: Cremes, jellies, and glitters on one side, linear and crushed holos on the other

[godslush]

Just gonna drop a textdump here, but I'm not gonna fandom tag it for now; I just wanna get it off my chest, but I have too much on my plate to work on something more involved than one-off silly doodles or detailed one-off monster drawings.

I might draw some of the stuff here eventually, but it does seem a little far-out and overly pretentious, so the juice may not be worth the amount of squeeze needed to make something palatable. I just feel it's better here than rotting away in a doc.

"Preservers"

A completely separate ‘ending’ requiring a longer setup and new dialogue options.

The original idea for Psalm’s interactions, but too much for her, a literal self-insert, although the core idea of it is how much I want to give better closure to the Astronomers/Sybil/Edwin, etc. I'd planned a bunch of specific game mechanics and interactions based specifically around this, but for now am relegating them to the bin.

The instigator will, instead, be left mysterious, merely setting things in motion only to quietly vanish.

Basically, someone arrives from far away, noting that they were following a trend in the destruction and mutations, leading them to believe that the center of the outbreak was Montreal... and specifically THIS building, noting it being slightly less destroyed amidst what appeared to be the most drastic world-twisting nightmare environment. A figurative AND literal ‘eye of the storm’.

They deduced from talking around - especially talking to the Astronomers - that somehow the “founder” was still alive, and that their goal was to find that ‘founder’ as perhaps the Visitor was seeking out the ‘original witness’, hence why its gaze was focused right here, of all places. That perhaps the ‘original witness’ was the key to making things right and giving everybody - including the Visitor - the closure they wanted.

Over the course of the game, this character would have to be put into contact with Sybil, with a few potential roadblocks that’d stop the event, but alongside that, several other things would have to coalesce...

The requirements would be thus:

Masked Shadow needs to have gotten into Sam’s room, but be told to leave, rather than stay. Nothing super special here, but since a lot of people like to keep it around, it would lock this out.

The real Frederick would have to be saved (so Toxic killed for the key, Faceless killed for, well, his face).

--- There's been discourse on the devstreams about having one of the Freds be a roommate/recruit, but was shot down because it would skew who'd be saved, so this will play with that. Talking to Scared Fred and getting the dialogue about how being painted felt like "being ripped out" would bring up the question of if the answer isn't killing them ALL, but finding a way to put them all back together to create a more 'complete' Fred, rather than a 'final' one. --- So "Real" Frederick would become a temporary team member in his apartment only, and you'd go around trying to convince the others to all join together. Most would agree. Even Fred Who Bites (I imagine a scene where the hug is offered, but Real Fred is the one offering it, and instead of flaying him, that's how they merge together). Wiggly would have to be put down, because he wants to be the 'last one' too badly. Tumor would be the 'final boss' because seeing Fred - the one who created it and 'doomed' it to such a state of torment - would cause it to fly into a rage and become a huge, regenerating monster. --- Once they're all merged, "True" Frederick would be... a bit of a grotesque monster, himself. But he'd have removed parts of him he doesn't like (toxicity, confusion, pain, imposter syndrome/facelessness), and would say he's willing to work with this state.

Edwin would have to be kept alive. This could possibly be facilitated by a mechanic that allows for communication with Edwin from the safety of the light; perhaps the “spirit board” that is currently just vendor trash.

Jeanne would have to be saved, with all the other heads removed. Also straightforward, but if there are future updates to her storyline, this might need tweaks. But as it stands, the current idea is that she tries to manipulate the headless necks, and finds her way down to the Ground Floor, and somehow manages to merge them with the corpses of the Hand Creatures, so she’s one head controlling many giant hands rather than multiple murderous heads she can’t control.

Lyle would have to be peeked at to be revealed, but new dialogues would need to be opened up after that to not only console him, but find out what he was really up to, get him to apologize for it, and then forgive him.

When the ritual is completed and the Astronomers merge into the Exalted Four, all of these characters would arrive to ‘help’... Frederick, Jeanne, and Lyle stand back with their own ‘offerings’, and Masked Shadow shows up... it opens its cloak and its mask breaks, bathing the entire rooftop in pitch blackness... allowing Edwin to show up.

And Edwin is carrying the lucid remains of Sybil. Something something, shared telescope theming and possibly Edwin's weird reality-altering spatial manipulation allowing him to retrieve her from her weird amnesiac purgatory state.

Edwin and Sybil, under the Visitor’s gaze, merge with the Exalted Four and create a more Cherubim-like being (Celestial Choir); entwined limbs and faces (each face having telltale-colored eyes) and more wing-like projections, and appearing to be multiple bodies embracing, while a ‘ring’ of starry telescope ‘eyes’ in the style of Edwin’s transformation encircles it (emerging from one of the eyesockets from one of the heads on the main body).

It would fight for a moment, but come to its senses, and it would be revealed that although the Exalted Four would have gone mad with their new body, six minds sharing THIS strange form somehow gets a pass because of Sybil’s whole importance to the ordeal. That it’s something of a ‘gift’ or even ‘apology’ from the Visitor. Instead of feeling like six brains tangled together to manipulate a mad body, it feels more like six individuals virtually piloting some strange alien spacecraft, with Sybil as the ‘captain’. As such, they’re able to retain their sanity.

They offer to leave and allow Sam and the others an audience with the Visitor. Since they’re all astronomers, they’ll use this new body to travel across the galaxy and see its sights for themselves. It'll be fun, knowing they will be among friends. Jasper and Sybil are especially thankful for being reunited. They promise to return whenever they can.

Once they leave, Sam approaches the Visitor with Frederick, Jeanne, and Lyle. After Sam shows the Visitor the offerings of depictions of itself, the other three step forward... and present images of humanity created before the Visitor’s arrival. Photographs, paintings, video footage (from Jeanne, since I don’t know what else she’d contribute but wanted her a part of this anyway).  Since the Visitor’s gaze doesn’t affect inanimate objects created before its arrival (except through the manipulations of those it mutated), items created in the past allow it to 'see' humanity for what it used to be, not what it turned them into.

As each 'friend' presents their offering, they flicker and warp, and for the rest of the encounter, appear as they were when they were human. So instead of Sam and three monsters addressing the Visitor, it is four 'humans'.

While the Visitor still can’t do anything to help ‘save’ what’s left of Earth, it at least promises to use these images to remember what Earth and humans once were, as an apology for what it did. Instead of “I will not forget you” it says “I will not forget your world.” By having it focus on static images it can’t change, that prevents its ‘remembrance’ from continuing to mutate the world after it leaves.

There is no “Truth/Denial” option given here; while the Visitor offers, the other three straight up stop Sam from even considering it (the requirements would be long and tedious enough to not need another last-second gotcha, really).

When it leaves, all four of them return to Earth to find out they’ve ALL been transformed into titanic fractal creatures... however, since the Visitor’s attention was split between them all, none of them become infinitely-growing masses that cover the whole planet. Not even Sam.  They all become equivalent to, if not slightly more powerful than, the Hundred Gods.

Sam goes on to use his form specifically to help people, as he would have in Perfect Ritual: Denial, albeit on a smaller scale; he still becomes known as the Protector of Earth because he can still get a lot done, and his actions stir others to more positive reconstruction. He gets around pretty well, and with enough help, can even cross the sea to help reconstruction efforts abroad. His body can grow to cover very large areas, though occasionally needs to 'die back' to its core to rest and then regrow again later.

The other three help in their own ways, but specifically collaborate amongst themselves and others to go about trying to collect and archive as much evidence as they can find of pre-Visitor Earth; they become known as the Preservers of Humanity.

Their collective efforts stir some of the Hundred Gods to become more benevolent... and those that don’t... well, let’s just say the world remains pretty exciting (in a kaiju battles sort of way).

The world doesn’t recover as quickly nor as thoroughly as Perfect Ritual: Denial, but it’s still a lot more optimistic than No Going Back.

It ends with the same words, showing Fractal Sam along with the other three Preservers, as well as his adopted family:

“You are surrounded by friends.”

“It feels good.”

He places the Shadow’s smiling Mask - still broken but loosely patched back together, freed from its own implied torment - over the empty holes where his face was.

“You are very happy.”

[cinderbuck]

Death Save Bargain Bin, Page 04

I kind of hate this page, it's really boring. (Also, where did his gun go?)

Thing is, I have all the basic layouts of the pages already, but I didn't realize until I was going to make the lines for page 04 that it was waaay too busy. I decided to split page 04 into two pages, but had so much trouble coming up with a good layout for them. I ended up shamelessly stealing the layout setup from a page in Fables (Storybook Love Part 4. I'm not sure if I'm allowed to post pages from actual comic books here).

The next page will be a little better, though a bit messy. The page after that (Page 06) I'm quite happy with.

Spoilers for the next page ahead, I suppose. Also a long rant of excuses.

I knew the bullet points that had to happen. In the previous page, the chain holding the platform Galdrus (the dwarf dressed like a princess) was standing on in place is broken, with the intention of making him fall off in this page. Then prompting the "villains" to take some measures to catch up to the party - pouring demon ichor in the engine. At the same time, the party realized they're missing a dwarf and has to turn back and get him, but not too quickly. I mean, I dubbed the comic Death Save Bargain Bin, it's not much of a spoiler that someone would have to make a death save at some point.

Original rough layout:

Original sketch, sort of. I tried to rearrange the already finished sketch to make up page 05, and apparently didn't back up the original-original setup, hence why it looks so weird. But all the pieces are here. I reused some of the panels in the page I'll post next week, but most of it got scrapped.

Previous page, Page 03:

Next page, Page 05:

[ghost-guard-13]

Quite a Disguise

Requested by @oolunafoxoo Hope this is kinda what you imagined <3

Nick Fury x Talos

Warnings: Language, Guns, Blood, Violence, Death, Smoking

Summary: Going undercover per Fury's request yet again, Talos wants nothing more than to get into his own skin once the mission is done. When Nick unexpectedly appears in the middle of the final day, Talos must play along, but can't help but mess with his friend along the way. (Takes place around the 1990's - 2000's, no real specific date) (This isn't my best work ngl but I sorta like it) (Also sorry if they're a little OOC, sometimes I have trouble with writing characters that aren't mine so- sorry :])

Talos dragged the unconscious body into a supply closet, mimicking the mans appearance as he did so.

The man's name was Novak Smithy, a member of the organization known as The Raven. They had been causing trouble on a national level, and although it was important enough to get on Nick Fury's radar, it wasn't big enough to drag S.H.I.E.L.D into its mess.

Hence why the shifter was here, taking another mans face and stealing the means to take the organization down from the inside, per his good friends request.

He harbored deeper feelings for the dangerous director of the world's largest, most secret company meant to keep the world safe, of course. He had since around 1995. But that was a problem for a later date.

Slipping Novak's I.D. and other possessions from his person, he rehearsed what information he knew about him prior.

Nick hadn't given him much time to prepare for this job, nor a specific target to shift into, so he had taken it upon himself to choose a higher ranking officer in The Ravens ranks and study him for a week or so from afar, taking the appearance of passerbys throughout the days. Finally he felt confident enough to get the ball rolling and finish this mission. He wanted to be in his own skin again.

"Just a few more days," he whispered to himself, shaking out the broad shoulders he now had.

And so, turning off the lights and entering the empty hallway - one of the only ones without a camera - He straightened his now shoulder length hair and army green jacket, breaking off the closets jaunty doorknob on his way out and dropping it into a nearby bin.

Copying the low-hipped saunter he had seen Novak take on throughout his day, he began the hard part of his job, copying the mannerisms and such from his hosts everyday life.

He just hoped it wouldn't be long.

~ Six Weeks Later ~

Talos walked beside Novak's closest friend and associate, Isaac Lloyd, the chilly breeze whispering the coming of Autumn in their ears. The Skrull shimmied further into his jacket, muttering to his 'friend' in vague codes, or simply commenting on the pedestrians of New Jersey.

He had learned more than he thought he would in the last month, most likely enough to give Nick an update, if not blow the place to the ground, and he was ready for the final day to end.

What he had seen here though...he knew he'd never forget. The morbid methods they planned for the future, the ideas he had to give in order to stay out of suspicion, the way they treated their prisoners was inhumane. He wanted to leave during the first hour within the compound, but he stuck with it, knowing no one else would suffer if he saw this to the end. At least not by their hand.

Which led to now, where he and Isaac travelled to a nearby coffee shop to pick up lunch for the members of today's shift. They visited so often that the middle aged employees paid below minimum wage had memorized their entire order.

As Isaac rattled off their orders anyways in that husky accent only smokers seemed to master - a sound Talos wasn't fond of - Talos let his eyes wander the danky diner. He saw a few sketchy regulars, and an old lady he's seen visit every other week for one reason or another. She always gets the same thing, and an extra plate of steak and chips to go, he assumes for some sentimental value of a lost one.

Besides that however, he didn't see anything new. Same flickering fairy lights, same checkered tiles and same peeling rose red walls. A sad little place really, but the food was decent.

He nearly turned back to boredly stare into the tip jar when a shadow in the back seat caught his eye. The seat that always seemed to be empty.

First looking out of the corner of his eye, he made out a silhouette he couldn't help but call familiar, the warm and dark colors adorning its limbs pulling him in.

Stretching back and turning his head, he locked eyes - or eye - with none other than Director Fury of S.H.I.E.L.D.

Shit.

Why was he here? How was he here? When was he-

Shit.

That seemed to be the main word going through his head at the moment.

But the strangest thing? Nick didn't use any secret signal or mouth a word, never even kept eye contact for more than that second. He looked away so fast that Talos wasn't sure if it had happened at all.

But Talos couldn't not stare.

The dim lights shining on his dark hickory skin, the eye patch he wore blending with the shadows, the intense calculation that rested within his deep iris watching his cup of coffee with personal offence, the natural turn of his lip set in his skin.

He must be here for more than a cup of coffee though.

When the one-eyed man glanced his way again, he quickly looked away, thankful for the tan skin that overpowered the blush creeping up his neck.

Wait a second-

That's right, he didn't know he was him.

Nick didn't know who he had taken the face of, but there was no chance he hadn't been keeping tabs on the group since his arrival either, so while he didn't know who he was...

He knew Novak.

Shit.

~ Five minutes Later ~

Issac had went out back for a smoke, leaving Talos on a bar stool staring at his coffee, keenly aware of the director watching him discreetly like the spy he was.

The Skrull wanted nothing more than to sit and chat with his human friend, inform him of the horrid things he saw and give him Intel on other organizations The Raven was working with. And he would on any normal day.

But many things were at stake here.

For one, Issac could come back at any second. His smoke breaks were inconsistent, so he wasn't able to tell when he'd be returning.

Then there's the fact that Nick could choose not to believe him. He could think he, Talos, had been captured.

He was sure that with enough time, he could be convinced, but what time he had was unsure and running out...

He could give a hint, a few actually seeing as Isaac wasn't the sharpest tool in the shed and he loved to brag.....

Talos decided, finally, to bring a bit of light into his currently sorrowful situation.

Sure enough, Issac appeared minutes later, tapping Talos' shoulder, nodding his head back to the door he had just entered. Having no other choice, he nudged his chin up in confirmation. But just before he closed the door, he glanced at Nick suspiciously and quickly looked away.

That outta get his attention.

As the man beside him dug out another cigarette, he stuffed his hands into his pockets, watching his breath swirl with the rising smoke beside him.

"What's new, man?" He asked, the human slang falling naturally from his lips.

"The boss called, started talking about our next delivery."

Delivery, of course, meant one of two things. Drugs, and prisoners. Experiments, more like.

Humming in that deep voice he had adopted, Talos waved away the offered joint, leaning his head against the brick wall behind him, faintly hearing the door open. So soft that Issac surely wouldn't notice.

"What does she want us to do?" He questioned, keeping his indifferent tone. No one in the compound was bothered by their work, so neither must he.

"Oh the usual, break 'em in and all that." The brunette shrugged, letting the cigarette rest between his teeth. Talos needed to reveal a bit more than that if Nick wasn't going to do anything himself.

"What if we tried something different this time? Y'know, fuck 'em in the head instead of with guns and shit." He muttered.

Issac gave him a strange look.

"You've never had a problem with it before."

This was going south very fast.

"I just mean, y'know we could test out some other methods, see how it affects the experiments."

"Do you know how much trouble we'd be in if the tests went wrong? You really wanna risk that?"

"Well of course not, I just thought-" Talos struggled to fix this conversation.

"You've been asking so many questions lately, man. I thought you were just going through something, y'know all that shit with your wife, but now it's getting weird." He studied him with a scrutinizing stare. "You aren't...doubting anything right?"

Even as he asked, he dropped his joint, letting it burn out in the snow as he reached not-so-subtly for the pistol he had attached to his hip. Talos gulped, cursing Nick sending him on a mission alone.

"Nah man, I'm just tired is all, don't worry about it." He raised his shoulders, eyeing his hand warily. Issac narrowed his eyes, his hangover from the night before still apparent.

There was a moment of silence, no one moved, no one spoke, and Talos didn't dare breath, the two just watched each other, pupils shifting.

The moment ended when Issac pulled his gun, only to find himself disarmed a second later, his hand now broken and his 'friend' trapping him in a chokehold. Talos finally let out a breath, the precipitation clouding around his enemies head.

"Sorry mate, but we can't have that now can we?" And he snapped his neck with a jerk, catching the body already in his arms.

Dragging the 160lb man around the corner and to the dumpster, he hid him from plain sight. Rummaging for his I.D and all other identifications, he shoved them in his pocket and tossed some trash bags over his body, wiping his hands of death on his jeans.

The adrenaline completely rid his memory of Nick following them, or the danger he posed to his host's identity.

He was reminded, however, when the barrel of the same gun he had kicked away was pressed to his temple.

"Hands up. I don't take murder lightly." Nick spoke.

"Oh we both know we do what's necessary when needed." Talos said as he did what he was told, smirking at the fact he knew something Nick Fury didn't. He wondered if he should keep his disguise much longer.

"Is something funny?" Nick asked rhetorically.

"Not at all, Fury." He shrugged, glancing to the side and seeing Nick narrow his eyes with a scowl.

Suddenly the biting metal was removed from his skull, but his relief was short lived as a blinding pain erupted from his calf, causing him to fall to his knees.

"Shit!" He cried, grasping the wound and watching the man now above him. "What the Hell Fury?!" He could feel the skin around the wound burn and shift - as well as the blood seeping into the snow - his green skin revealing itself to the shocked Nick Fury.

"Talos?" He exclaimed, kneeling down beside him after dropping the gun.

"Who else, you lunatic?!" Talos huffed, tearing a piece of his shirt to better compress his wound.

"How was I supposed to know?" He muttered back, placing a hand on his back and the other on his leg, assessing the damage as he helped Talos tie the strip of fabric.

"You're the damn spy here! You read into everything,"

"Well clearly you've been getting better."

Hissing as pressure was applied, Talos grasped the director's arm, sighing as he sat in the shadows. Fury sat with him, thinking of a way to get out of here inconspicuously. It'd be a bit difficult, but he may be able to manage.

"Can you stand?" Fury asked quietly, aware that someone could walk by any second. Talos let out a hard breath and nodded, using the wall to help him while Fury held his other arm. Taking a moment to shift into one of the men he and Issac had passed by earlier, he made sure the man's coat swept over his leg to hide the oozing blood.

Limping to the end of the alley, Talos watched him look down either side of the street before deeming it safe enough to come out. Helping him walk to the car, it took everything for Talos to walk like a half-normal human. Albeit a possibly drunk one.

He was sitting in the front seat of Nick's Impala SS, observing his friend drive from out of the corner of his eye.

"So," he edged, a question for information. However it was parried with,

"So..."

Alright, he'd just have to start then.

"There's a shipment coming in soon, within the week most likely. Drugs and prisoners they'll be experimenting on. I could get you the passcodes, maybe go in myself." Talos informed him, watching the road as they drove.

"Are you sure you'll be up for that? You just got shot for fucks sake." Fury quizzed.

"You shot me. And I'm well aware." He gave him a side-glance. Nick grumbled in response.

"Well that was quite the disguise, Talos." He managed to murmur.

"Wasn't that the point?" He shot back. "Anyways, I'll give you more of what I've learned, I have a few data sticks in my pocket...er, somewhere." Talos looked down at his current disguise, shrugging it off. "Back to the diner, what were you doing there?"

"We'd been tipped off that something may be going down, and due to surveillance I need Novak, you, would be at the diner today. I was planning on calling in your mission today anyways. If at least for just a check up."

Talos accepted the answer, any fight soon leaving him. Resting his left hand on the console and resting his eyes, he peered down when a weight was placed over his skin. Covering his knuckles was the hand of the man beside them, a light touch, but a reassurance all the same. His heart beat just that much faster, but he took the chance. Before Nick could even consider pulling away, he turned his hand, trapping his fingers between his own.

A surprised noise came from the director's throat, but Talos just smiled, closing his eyes with his temple on the windows glass.

And together they drove home.

~ Bonus ~

Cleaning the wound and nursing it properly, Nick then carried the now half-conscious man to his room he often stayed in when working with S.H.I.E.L.D.

Laying the Skrull down and pulling the covers to his chin, Talos shifted on the mattress, sighing once he got comfortable.

The fearsome Nick Fury couldn't help but smile at him, his markings, his ears, and he could just imagine his beautiful black eyes glittering under the light.

Unable to resist himself any longer, he kneeled down and pressed his lips softly against his forehead, quickly feeling heat rush up his skin at the realization of what he'd done.

Quietly wishing his...friend goodnight, he left the small apartment and locked the door behind him.

Maybe friend wasn't the right word anymore...