#i dont get it. why is this becoming more and more common like

[lordprettyflackotara]

Follow You || Chapter One || Eyeless Jack

syn:Eyeless Jack has found himself becoming more isolated over the years, distancing himself from everyone and everything. He considers himself an unforgivable monster, one that shouldn’t be a burden to anyone else. After leaving Slender’s mansion and wondering aimlessly through the woods, he stumbles upon a drunken girl in danger. After saving you, he finds himself completely infatuated with you. You’re strikingly similar to him, even attending his old college. He battles an internal debate as he falls for you, deciding whether or not to burden you by staying. While Jack fights his internal turmoil, old enemies from an all too familiar college come out to play. Will Jack be able to defeat his oldest enemy? Will he be able to overcome his self conscious fears to save you? You’d better hope so, since the cult for Chernabog is back and you seem like the perfect sacrifice.

tw: reader has common sense, mostly

a/n: not me writing a mc whose not a hopeless simp lmaoo

The sun was too mother fucking bright. 

You groaned, squinting in disgust at the suns rays beaming through the window. Your thoughts were  cloudy, your mind in a dazed state. Your vision began to settle, your heart racing as the gears in your brain began turning. You didn’t recognize your surroundings at all. With your heart thudding against your chest you sat up, alarmed as you climbed out of the bed. Panicked, you looked down at your body. Thankfully you were still fully clothed, bandages covering your sore knees. What the hell did you get yourself into? You swallowed as your bare feet hit the floor, those bandaged as well. You were surprised to realize you weren’t being physically restrained, the bed you were laying on quite neat compared to the rest of the room.

Unsurely you looked around, grabbing a nearby lamp. It looked questionable, possibly over a few decades old. You yanked the cord out of the wall, bracing yourself as you stepped towards the bedroom door. Your escape was interrupted, Jack happening to walk in at the same time. He could hear your heart racing a mile away, so naturally he came to check on you. You stared up at him in terror, your eyes darting back and forth as you stared up at the ominous black empty holes of his mask. Jack awkwardly cleared his throat, his eyebrows raising at the sight of your knuckles turning white from gripping the lamp so hard. “Hello, how are you feeling?” He asked, trying his hardest to keep his voice even. You looked absolutely bewildered and although the situation not ideal, Jack couldn’t place why. “How am I feeling? What the fuck is this? Who the fuck are you?” You hissed. 

Jack raised an eyebrow under his mask at the sight of you bouncing your weight back and forth on each foot as you stared at him defensively. You appeared to be ready to attack, although Jacks hands were shoved in his hoodie pocket. “My name is Jack. You passed out drunk in the forest last night. I brought you to my cabin to ensure you wouldn’t be devoured by local coyotes,” He answered honestly. Your face softened for a moment, your grip on the lamp loosening. Jack tilted his head to the side as he pointed at the lamp. “Would you mind putting that down? Its quite sentimental to me,” He asked. Sentimentality meant a lot to humans. In this instance it was a thorn in his side if it was broken and he needed to get another. The last thing he desired was to live off of candlelight. You slowly set down the lamp, your gaze fierce as you refused to look away from Jack. 

“Don’t you think it’s kinda creepy and off putting to live in the middle of the woods and wear that mask?” You asked bluntly.  Jack couldn’t quite understand why this was your question. You were a lot more feisty and logical sober. “Dont you find it quite unsafe to become so intoxicated you wander into forest miles away from civilization?” He quipped, matching your energy. This seemed to humble you a bit, your shoulders dropping as you crossed your arms. “You’ve never been to a Mark Wilder party I assume. Everyone gets trashed. I followed some guy into the woods, I don’t remember where he went. I think I was trying to follow him or something,” You explained. While intelligent you seemed to lack ‘street smarts’. You placed your hand on your head, rubbing your temple. Your head was relentlessly pounding, your eyes squeezing shut. Jack wondered if you felt as awkward as he did.

“Would you like tylenol? I have some down in the kitchen,” Jack offered. You rubbed your eyes, overwhelmed. “Wait so i’m not like, trapped here or anything?” You questioned. Jack turned around, anticipating you to follow him. Curiously you did so, ignoring the stinging from the wounds that rubbed against the bandages. You followed him down a dusty staircase, each wooden slab creaking under your weight. You couldn’t help but let your eyes wander around, noticing the mountains of dust that coated the paintings that covered the walls. “This is your cabin?” You asked slowly. Jack could hear the disbelief and fear lacing your words. You followed closely behind Jack as he turned into the tiny kitchen. To your dismay it looked like it hadn’t been used in ages, the stove rusted and fridge humming so loud you anticipated it to explode. “Mostly. I visit often, but never stay for long,” Jack answered honestly. His explanation may have been vague, but he couldn’t violate too many of The Operators rules. 

He handed you a bottle of tylenol as well as a bottle of water. Both of which he had stolen from a nearby gas station before the sun came up. Jack had studied alcohol and its affects to the human body. While he couldn’t become intoxicated as easily, he was forced to study it due to Masky’s temporarily alcoholism. He had stolen saltine crackers (just a sleeve, not the whole box), a bottle of water, and tylenol. The cabin was just lucky enough to have faint electricity, he knew anything a fragile human girl would need would not be readily available. Hesitantly you took the bottle, satisfied to see it had been unopened. You popped two of the pain killers like candy, chugging the bottle of water. You leaned against the rusted dishwasher, opening the sleeve of crackers. “So, aren’t you going to ask me my name or anything?” You asked. You weren’t buying the whole savior act. You weren’t aware Jack wasn’t attempting to sell you any sort of act. Underneath his mask he was feeling extremely awkward, unsure how to interact with you.

With each passing second he could hear your heart beat, the blood flowing through your veins. It became hard for him to focus, the demon thrilled you decided to begin a civil conversation. “I don’t need to. Your backpack provided that for me,” Jack explained. He reached over the counter, grabbing your backpack from a dusty bar stool. Dust particles floated carelessly in the air as he held it up. Your name had been stitched onto the front pocket, courtesy of your mother. You felt heat flush to your cheeks, mumbling a thanks as you took it from him. Popping a cracker into your mouth you grabbed his wrist, stopping him from concealing his hand. Jack froze under your warm touch, your eyes curiously examining his skin. “Argryia,” He stated dryly. He silently hoped you wouldn’t recall your own theory.  Your eyes seemed to flicker at the word, a sense of recognition igniting them. “That’s absurdly unlucky. Do you know how rare that is?” You asked curiously. It was as if your interest had peeked, Jack analyzing you as you studied the color of his hand. 

“All too well unfortunately,” Jack responded. He watched you stroke your thumb over the harshness of his skin, before pulling away. “Well if it makes you feel any better I understand the whole cabin in the woods mask thing now,” You sighed, resuming your attention back to the bottle of water. Jack was mesmerized as he watched you gulp down the bottle as if you were dying of thirst. “If I may ask, how do you know what argryia is?” He asked you. It was irresponsible for him to engage in anything beyond a mild conversation with you. Slender would be far from happy if he found out. You swallowed the cracker you were nibbling on, wiping your mouth with the back of your hand. “I’m a med student at Harvard. I’m gonna be a doctor some day,” You explained, taking another sip of your water. Jacks interest was peaked. You were attending the same university he did ages ago for an identical major. “Speaking of medicine, how did you bandage me up so well? If I didn’t know any better i’d think you were a doctor yourself,” You said. Jack couldn’t help but feel his heart skip a beat at your flattery. 

“Medicine is my pride and joy. I’ve studied it for years,” He answered. While he was answering honestly he was beating around the bush. While you seemed harmless, he knew humans were prone to gossip. Sharing stories with one another formed stronger bonds. He had no doubt this would be one you would be sharing. “Well Dr.Jack, as fun as this has been I think it’s time for me to bounce,” You say, shoving your backpack over your shoulders. Jack anxiously followed behind you as you turned towards the front door. “Do you know how to get back?” He asked unsurely. Maybe he was hovering too heavily, but he felt an odd urge to look after you. The sun may have provided some form of a safety net, but Jack knew what creatures lurked in these woods. One wrong turn and you could cross the threshold into Slender’s forest, where The Rake would have a field day with you. You dug into your backpack, taking out a cracked iphone. It was on a smooth five percent, multiple missed calls and text on your lockscreen. “I have GPS, i’ll be fine,” You assured him. 

You stepped onto the porch, the wood rotting from age. You looked over your shoulder at the demon, his eye sockets wide. “Thank you for everything Jack, i’ll see you later!” You said cheerfully, biting into another cracker before stepping down onto the forest floor. Jack tried not to hover too much, truly. He was sure you were uneasy from being in a cabin with a stranger. Even if his intentions were pure, he knew what monsters lurked in the shadows that loved to prey on a pretty face like yours. So Jack said nothing, waving goodbye as you traveled into the forest alone. Jack would’ve loved for that to have been the end of it. He would’ve thought that he would never see you again, allowing you to be on your way. That’s how it should’ve gone. 

But it didn’t.

As stealthy as he could he followed you, from a safe distance of course. You appeared to be studying your phone, the sun rays blocking out whatever was on your screen. Jack opted to use the trees above as leverage, jumping from each branch with ease. The crunching of the previously fallen leaf’s would be a dead giveaway, traveling by tall trees much safer as to not be caught. From what Jack could tell you were blissfully oblivious as you traveled, carelessly heading north. Jack sighed as he watched you. Did humans have no sense of awareness at all? Although he didn’t expect you to catch him following you, he did expect you to look around every once in a while. Instead your attention was glued to your phone, as a majority of humans were. He knew most of them spent their time focused on their cellar device but he couldn’t help but question how any humans had made it this far if this was the base level of survival skills. He silently trailed behind you, attempting to not stay on one tree branch for too long. If he did the leafs were bound to fall, exposing him.

Jack wasn’t proud of himself for following you. If anything your hesitance to trust him was proven correct based on his behavior. Although the demon inside of him was purring with satisfaction of stalking, Jack fought his primal urges internally. He knew his intentions were pure, even if the demon lurking in the depths of his being craved something more sinister. Jack was pleasantly surprised to find that you had found your way back to civilization, the Harvard campus attached to these woods. He was slightly impressed that a human of your stature had traveled miles without complaint or sign of slowing down. He managed a small smile as he watched you join the hoards of students, disappearing in the waves of students traveling every which direction. The sounds of voices, heartbeats, and pumping blood began to feel overwhelming, causing the demon to turn away. 

Slender wouldn’t be happy, he knew that. But he felt a sense of ease for the first time in a long time. He had spent his time doing something good. Something morally good. Something impactful. Meaningful even. He walked back the rest of the way, a certain weight slightly lifted off of his shoulders as he strolled. He could feel his stomach growl, the demon cracking his neck at the sound. For once his hunger wasn’t the priority, but an afterthought. He gleamed with a sense of pride as he made it back to the cabin, making sure he had locked it. Slender had multiple run down cabins littered throughout the nearby forest, just in case a creep or proxy was injured. It was meant to look run down and abandoned, so no nosy humans would investigate. Jack’s footsteps echoed throughout the hollow cabin as he checked the back door, a surprise gasp escaping his lips. He had nearly tripped over your heels, his eye sockets widening.

Shit.

Well, if Slender was pissed now he knew this would send him into a fit of rage. Jack didn’t know much about fashion but your shoes looked expensive, even if he didn’t recognize the name brand. He was going to return them to you, putting his and all the creeps' risk of exposure on the line. He couldn’t describe the feeling, but he had an odd sense of relief wash over him knowing he would see you again.

[bearofohu]

something i dont see talked a lot about in layton fandom is that hershels a hoarder. there are multiple mentions made in in blurbs, dialogue and even cutscenes that bring up how how much of a cluttered labyrinth of papers, books & items laytons office is

we dont see his flat much but i remember a dialogue blurb somewhere from luke somewhere in the og trilogy that mentions its even worse than his office (which is a little telling bc his flat looked fine in the cutscene from when claire was still alive). it’s also said that luke is the reason his office and flat look even slightly presentable. technically a combined effort from luke & rosa—but come the og trilogy it’s basically just luke

there could be a multitude reasons why he has this problem. personally i doubt level-5 intended it to be anything more than a character quirk of a genius, as messy spaces is a trope of that archetype. but the thing is, it’s not just messy, it’s very notably cluttered. its described as difficult to navigate through when its not cleaned up. it’s described as a labyrinth at one point. its easy to just chalk it up to a harmless quirk, but its also reasonable imo to take a more introspective route and interpret it as a byproduct of grief

in real life theres often more than one thing contributing to hoarding behaviors developing in adults but the loss of a loved one is often a big trigger of what causes the problem to become notable. grief is one word for a vast spectrum of emotions but becoming more adverse by the thought of discarding or losing things is a common psychological way to cope against the anxiety grief can cause, which can very easily add up. and it should be noted that laytons immense emotional attachment to the tophat would put him in a position where hoarding urges unfortunately thrive—emotional attachments to objects

on the bright side however—hoarding is very much something a person can work on. it’s not easy, nothing like this ever is, but it can be worked on. and personally i think what did it for hershel was realizing that after luke had moved, letting his spaces look the way they were previously would basically be saying that it didnt matter to him how much fussing luke did so his space could be nicer—and it very much did matter to him. so over time and with emotional support from rosa & flora he works and works on it

come new world of steam and hes not perfect—but hes a lot better, better enough that he can recognize when things are getting bad on his own and correct it. and now when luke drops by his rental place in steam bison and has nothing to clean hes caught between pride and pacing around restlessly bc hershel just auto completed his main quest objective

[princeseerow]

oh man, i tried to classpect the animorphs once! never really finished, but from what i remember:

rachel - knight of rage

jake - rogue of blood

tobias - breath

marco - seer of mind or seer of heart

cassie - maid of heart or maid of space

ax - possibly light? i was always least sure of him

david - void

rachel is definitely a knight, probably a knight of rage. knights are said to protect their aspect or protect with their aspect, and rachel's primary motivations throughout the entire series are to protect the people she loves. (the knights we meet in homestuck also tend to struggle with facades and their sense of self which, like, hello?) rage meanwhile, while it can be the aspect of anger, also encompasses fear and skepticism -- sometimes healthy, sometimes not. one of the most important parts of rachel's character to me, besides her protectiveness, is the times we see she's afraid. not really afraid of the yeerks or even of dying, she's afraid of herself and who she's becoming, afraid of losing her friends and family, which is what drives her protectiveness. plus, the berserker getting the rage aspect is so on the nose that it works

jake is blood for sure, but i never settled on a class for him. it feels like a fandom cliche to make the leader a blood player but like. come on. he's absolutely blood! blood concerns itself primarily with interpersonal bonds, connections, and responsibility which is A) jake's main drive for the fight (ie, saving tom) and B) the reason he was chosen as team leader to begin with. the other animorphs primarily know each other through their relationships with jake, and in turn, jake can read his teammates so well that he could near accurately predict how anyone would respond in a given situation. if i had to pick a class for him off the top of my head, he might be a rogue. theyre said to steal their aspect for the benefit of others (whatever that means tbh) but i also just think it would be so funny if the "andalite bandits" were headed by a rogue

tobias is breath easily. its also kind of on the nose when you consider that breath players get air/wind powers, but more importantly, breath is the aspect of freedom and disconnect. thats just... tobias. i dont have to explain myself. thats tobias. and also importantly, breath is the opposite aspect to blood, which for the purposes of this analysis do well to help emphasize how opposite he is to jake.

marco i can see as both a mind and a heart player. theyre opposites, but its pretty common in homestuck for characters to embody traits of their opposite aspects anyway. mind is thinking and rationality, while heart is feeling and emotion, but mind and heart both have a lot to do with identity and self. mind is to obscure the self and heart players is to embrace the self, but then, part of a character's journey is struggling with what their aspect means to them; the comic's most popular heart player has very obvious mind tendencies after all. marco is the Thinking Man of the group but he's not a robot. he's honestly pretty susceptible to letting his emotions get in the way of his decision making, particularly when it comes to his mom. he's either a mind player with very strong heart leanings or vice versa. as for him being a seer of either, seers are the class of knowledge and observation, which make them well suited for being tacticians.

cassie is hard to pin down tbh. she has the feeling empathetic nature of heart for sure, but space being the aspect of creation just feels so fitting for her in a way i can't explain. either way, i'm thinking maid -- maids are said to be particularly close to their aspect which can be both beneficial and detrimental if they don't learn how to strike balance. maids are also commonly headcanon to be a healer class and i just like the idea of cassie being a healer of heart/self or healer of space/creation

oh, aximili. he's the hardest for me to classpect which is why he's last*. my only real argument for ax as light is that light is the aspect of knowledge, among other things, and he's the closest thing the team has to an IT guy and alien expert. no idea about class.

okay yes of course i had to do david. he was an animorph too for a while!

david is void definitely. besides being appropriately edgy-sounding, my reasoning is also kind of mean, and i love being kind of mean to david. so, his actions in the series are honestly pretty light-y. because, besides being the aspect of knowledge, light is also pretty attention-seeking which imo david's role as a traitor who tries to align himself with whoever has the most power in a given situation, only to eventually attempt to weasel his way into power himself... right up until he gets bested by those he underestimated and cast into literal obscurity. light's opposite, void, IS the aspect of insignificance and obscurity. it's the aspect of "nothing." and wouldn't it just piss him off to learn he was destined for nothing?

I know you didn't get into Homestuck but on the offchance your followers have opinions what would the Animorph's classpects be?

I will float this to the followers. People who know Animorphs and Homestuck - thoughts?

[www-pinkhearse]

It’s becoming more and more worrisome to me that “gay men love women more then straight men” is becoming more and more real like I know there’s more nuance of course there is always but I’ll see gay men make videos with their gal pals like “I’m so lucky I’m not straight because I would never be able to choose between these amazing angels” meanwhile straight men will call women’s peach fuzz a “beard” and complain that their wives aren’t Skateboard thin AFTER GIVING FUCKING BIRTH

[guesst]

sometimes i think about sullivan and how his n iruma’s relationship progresses and what made him choose iruma. i mean it was probably something to do with delkira that made him pick iruma up but i also think about that comment he makes early on in the series, that the others in the 3 greats have grandkids and he doesnt and how hed love to have a grandkid. and how he sends iruma to babyls partly because thats what a proper caretaker is meant to do. and how at the beginning maybe hes playacting and thinking yes this is the boy i have brought over for unspecified reasons, My Grandson, and i am the Grandfather (yay!) but its only later on that The Grandson becomes Iruma Suzuki first and then Sullivan’s Grandson second. and then i get happy about it

[themyscirah]

Reading shit comics kind of sucks but at least I get the satisfaction of proving my own point w this

[vampyroteuthid]

cannot fucking wait to get this new covid vaccine shoot me tf up ‼️‼️

[seokjinite]

its just . harder and harder for my man to hide it

[nailtagyuri]

when i was 12 this was the coolest most mindblowing shit ever i was genuinely so obsessed with it I'd read it very day like the bible. I would die for a version of this with the post 3D world content over my country

[anothermouse]

I find it weird how ppl will say for reasons that systems are fake is that multiple alters talk similar or have similar interests. Have u ever met siblings. They talk similar and have similar interests because they've spent years together ya dork, as systems start to get along more they're gonna start sharing more interests and speech patterns just like you with people you spend a lot of time with lol. Also they all share a life, they have to be able to act like each other to get by and seem "normal."

[sampilled]

dress i ordered for my uncles wedding didnt fit, might kill myself

[mrfoox]

.... I feel bad bc my friend is sad ) :

[avallands-basement]

look i love making sae be the one who's so in love and showering hajun with so much love and affection but it's much more fun to think that HE fell harder than her

[wizard-mp4]

I was not looking for a reason to never see a marvel movie ever again. I already avoid them like the plague. Haven't seen most of them tbh, but I get filled in because tumblr movie Fandom is like that. But yeah I don't think I want to ever see a marvel movie ever again.

[windupaidoneus]

now some people may not like to hear it but even the worst people who exist are still people & there is no human being who has More right than others to decide whether others deserve to live or die (does not mean i personally condemn murder in self defense or anything of the sort or killing fascists or whatever i'm just saying as a baseline This Is How it Is) & this is why the death penalty is not a good thing no matter how good & trustworthy the people in any government might be. people on average also deserve the chance to learn to do better. & no, someone who's been forcefed propaganda their entire life will not let go of that deeply entrenched mindset so easily, it's not particularly unrealistic & it absolutely sucks to deal with but in the context of tangibly working toward world peace it's also not an issue to try & help such people both in material ways & in helping them learn better rather than cut them down or abandon them to a grim fate. all this to say that's why i don't think garlemald is written badly, as unpleasant as the experience might be. walks off the stage

[chitinleg]

do you ever make a drawing that frustrates you so badly that even before you finish it you're like "that's it! no more art for the rest of the day! i need to recover from this truly mindnumbing defeat before i start asking myself berating questions like 'why didn't you go into plumbing so your curséd hands could at least bring something of use into the world'"

totally and entirely unrelatedly: here's the pastel drawing of garak that preceded the acrylic gouache painting

its. well its not good at all, and since i'm no longer in Art Hell Brain mindset, this is no longer painful to admit but instead really really funny

(some of my dear + beloved friends have even been so kind as to tell me he has a kind of "charming in his own harrowed way" or that he looks like a humble ego death demon, or that he's like garak if he had a disco elysium portrait intro. hehehe)

and i do love this drawing now, and he genuinely makes me laugh!! but i cannot stress enough that at the time of creation this fucking gaze had a comically ridiculous vice grip on my ego and sense of self

anyway here the pieces are, beside each other, as they exist on the paper, for the full effect of the extremely silly ego killing failure art vs the artist's intended image, created once i rallied myself and tried a different method of approach

rocks and shoals