#if sasha and milla are canon

[guacanator]

Milllaaaaaa warmup . so fun. so much joy . thought tumblr might like it

[maplemaplemaplemaplemaple]

its a sashamilla summer !

[technovillain]

i know literally everyone has said this already but like

this shit makes me SICK and ILL look how cute they are!!!!!!!

[citricacidprince]

Thinking about Psychonauts and how much I love the Aquato family once again

They mean the world to me your honor

[tuxedokit]

can we get some cmar deets for mermay?

i am. so late. happy mer-june. which is pride month, so here's some random thoughts that i cant remember if ive shared;

cmar!dion would transition during the storm. pre-storm, dion would only use he/him. after running away would be when they would even consider the thought of being trans. only about 6 months after the storm's beginning would di really think about it, but by the end of it she's transfem assuredly, using she/they/he

raz is also trans in this au. this is not relevant at all throughout it, he just is.

[2hoothoots]

(photographer voice) "okay, now let's do one where canon events play out slightly differently and everyone ends up in a significantly worse place because of it"

here's an au of an au because i have issues watched the genghis khan music video one too many times. lore dump + crops/bonus art below

Due to an unfortunate combination of chance factors, Razputin Aquato arrives at Whispering Rock one day late.

He finds the camp a ghost town. The campers are stumbling around, brainless; the counsellors, nowhere to be found. Ford doesn’t know what to make of this kid showing up out of nowhere – but he’s got promise, and with Sasha and Milla out of action, he’s their best hope. He gives Raz a crash course in what he needs to know, and sends him out across the lake.

Raz pulls through, against all odds. But he never gets the starstruck meeting with his heroes Sasha and Milla that he’d been hoping for; never gets to bond with Lili, or any of the other campers. It’s a harrowing and lonely experience for him, but one that ties a burning knot of resolve in his chest. If he works hard, he can be a Psychonaut just like he dreamed. He can save people.

When the alert comes through from Headquarters that Grand Head Zanotto has been captured, Sasha and Milla scramble the jet with Lili on board. They don’t bring Raz along – Ford’s account of his accomplishments is impressive, but without seeing him in action themselves, neither agent is convinced to bring him along on the mission. Sasha invites him to next year’s session of the camp – after all, he clearly has promise, and the Psychonauts are always interested in nurturing young minds.

Raz returns to camp next year with something to prove. He throws himself into his studies with a single-minded dedication, sparing little time to interact with any of the other campers. This time, he’ll show them. He’ll show them all.

Sasha, Milla and Lili are unable to locate Truman in the Rhombus of Ruin. It ultimately takes a week to locate the Grand Head, following an anonymous tip-off (later found to have been planted by Nick). It takes six months for the ruse to be uncovered. Ultimately, Nick is unsuccessful in finding any clues to Maligula’s whereabouts. Lucrecia will pass a few years later, surrounded by a family that has no idea who she really is. Ford never remembers the truth, and when Razputin is fourteen, he takes the secret to his grave.

Truman’s brain spends almost seven months in a box, under poor conditions with insufficient oxygen. When it’s finally returned to his body, he’s not the same man he used to be. He quietly steps down as Grand Head of the organisation, and spends years of his retirement in intensive therapy.

Lili is heartbroken. Her faith in the Psychonauts is shattered. She never returns to Whispering Rock again. Over the years, she becomes more and more withdrawn; isolated from her peers, estranged from her mother, and struggling with her relationship with a father who on bad days can’t even remember her name. The bitterness grows day by day, blooming within her chest.

She’s sixteen the first time she's forced to turn her powers against another person. Even in his current state, her father has enemies – old foes the Psychonauts can’t (or won’t) protect him from. There’s a raid on her house, late at night. It’s only by chance that she’s still awake. She breaks two of the assailants’ bodies, and when she twists her hand, the plants in her father's greenhouse writhe under her command and rip the third one to pieces. It’s the last time that house ever feels like a home to her. She cuts ties with the Psychonauts entirely, and never looks back; the next time they hear of her, it's under a completely different name.

Dogen Boole never returns to Whispering Rock either. He’s thoroughly traumatized by the events at camp, and his parents refuse to send him back the following year. With nobody to help him learn to control or harness his powers, his episodes steadily become worse as he gets older. Although reluctant, his family is eventually forced to reach out to the Psychonauts to help. Compton is still a nervous recluse, and nobody else in the organisation is quite sure how to handle Dogen’s powers. He spends his teenage years in and out of psychoisolation, and is subjected to more and more intense experimentation in the name of “treatment”. Nothing works. In the end, all he has to show for it are the scars.

His helmet is the only thing he can rely on to stop him mulching the cranium of anyone in a fifty-foot radius. There’s no place for him in “normal” society. Just like Lili, he’s driven to become a villain by a combination of circumstances, trauma, and a bitter feeling of hurt and betrayal towards the Psychonauts.

Raz enters the intern program at thirteen, and quickly graduates to the rank of Junior Agent. The Psychonauts he finds waiting for him is undergoing a marked transition from the organization it used to be. Upon Ford’s passing, the only member of the old guard still around is Otto. Hollis is a Grand Head forced to prioritize efficiency in order to keep the Psychonauts afloat after numerous losses and funding cuts.

Raz enters a passionate, determined boy, remarkably talented but who struggles to connect with his peers. When he gets his promotion at eighteen, he’s the most decorated junior agent the organization has ever seen. At twenty-six, he’s in the prime of his career, honed by years of training into an efficient, meticulous, ruthless Psychonaut.

He’s the perfect agent. As far as he’s concerned, that’s all he needs to be.

under-the-cut bonus, here's some tighter crops on the art, and also a couple extra bits and pieces:

dogen's helmet seals up like a pillbug most of the time, to stop his powers from leaking out when he gets stressed. i couldn't find a way to work it into the art while still making clear that Hey It's Ya Boy, but i think it's a neat visual. the extra pic of lili was gonna be a mugshot - at first i was planning to composit her art into, like, a dossier/file, but i couldn't make it work in the end

[32bitterra]

(June 4 - June 28, 2024)

Watch out, Phoebe... Be careful.

See, I told you I would revisit that sketch.

Scrapped sketches. They were originally going to be part of some sort of joke.

Scrapped sketch.

I can count on you, Crystal and Clem.

I just wanted to draw @sasalele666's ♀️ Misha design (with a half-assed ♀️ Maloof design I came up with in 5 seconds to go with her.)

Sasha really stood there like "Not my problem" listening to Maloof cry above him in the GPC. (I know it's because he knew Raz would let him out anyway in order to get to his lab, but it's funny to think about.)

When I watched my sister play, that was the exact moment I became enthralled with them.

Baby Loboto

Scrapped sequence of drawings in which an invisible Milka would have comforted Elton. Might come back to this one.

Canon Nils and sasalele666's ♀️ Nils (I thought she was cute and I just like the design so much.)

Milla must have the patience of a saint.

I'm very picky about older camper designs, so I don't usually share mine (Crystal's is the only design I've held onto, and I got it from a DREAM lol.) I was just messing around and thought this drawing turned out well enough to share.

Crystal 🩷

[cy-fi-theansweris42]

You know, I really wonder about how what happened with Maligula affected things for the adult psychics we see throughout Psychonauts and Psychonauts 2 back when they were growing up.

Maligula "died" 20 years ago, her being this huge threat because of what happened in Grulovia was only 20 years ago in the world of the game. That'd be like talking right now about something that happened back in 2004 (which is wild in itself to think about).

So how did this affect the lives of the adults we know? What did this mean for characters like Sasha, Milla, Hollis, Truman, everyone else?

I've especially been wondering about this for Sasha and Milla (since they're always on my brain while I replay the first game). I know we don't have canon ages for them, but I think they're probably around 30 years old or so. Old enough to join the Psychonauts, develop their skills, and become the duo we see in present day for the games.

So say they're 30. That would mean that everything that happened surrounding Maligula, her wiping out so many people, her "dying", the Psychonauts organization becoming a thing, etc., that all would have happened when they were around 10, around Raz's age. Now I don't know if Milla had her abilities back then or not (personally I think she didn't discover she was psychic until later in life when she heard the children screaming telepathically during the orphanage fire) but we know that Sasha has had his abilities since he was a kid, we see it in his memory vault when he reads his dad's mind.

So just, imagine being a 10 year old kid and seeing all these news stories about a dangerous psychic, seeing how everyone around you where you live reacts to that, all the while knowing you're a psychic too.

I can't even describe what that could have been like for people in the Psychonauts world.

[m-musings]

Headcanons: Fallout Men + Halloween Fun

A/n: i've been waiting for october just so i can write a bunch of these lmao

Word Count:454 Warnings/ Other Notes: written with a fem!reader in mind, nothing is canon compliant here

Cooper "The Ghoul" Howard:

Originally, when you brought up the idea of a couples costume to Cooper, he wanted no part of it.

But eventually, after he thought it through for a while and after you kept begging him with puppy dog eyes, He begrudgingly agreed.

After weeks of changing your minds, planning and finally making the costumes, the day was here.

As kids of all ages began to knock on your door, they were greeted with the sight of Cooper dressed up as the Phantom of the Opera.

As he gave them a menacing grin, they all backed away in fear before you- Dressed as Christine Daae- came rushing up with a bowl of candy.

The kids all took some candy before dashing away as fast as the could. You apologized and slapped Cooper's shoulder as he let out an amused chuckle.

"Cooper Howard, you stop that!"

"What?! It's Halloween, darlin', it's s'posed to be scary!"

Knight Maximus:

A few days ago, You and Maximus had decided that he needed a break from the Brotherhood base camp, so you figured Halloween was a perfect excuse to sneak away for a night.

You didn't have much in the way of costumes, but you managed to scrounge up materials to make yourselves look like Orpheus and Eurydice.

You spent the majority of the night trick-or-treating and socializing around a small nearby town before ending up at a party being thrown in the local bar.

After the good times are over, you take a long walk back to base, just so you can spend a bit more time together.

"Thanks for coming out here with me. I really needed this..." Max says, gently grasping your hand with a sweet smile.

"It was my pleasure! I always have fun with you." You reply, squeezing his palm in thanks.

Norm Maclean:

When Halloween arrives in the vault, it's one of the few things Norm willingly participates in.

He had your outfits planned since last year so as soon as the daylight comes, he's decorating your living quarters as much as possible.

And once that's finished and Norm declares it perfect, the two of you get dressed up as Sasha Nein and Milla Vodello just before the sound of children knocking comes from your front door.

After greeting all the parents, the two of you turn to the dressed up kids who begin bouncing on their heels as they see the plastic bowl in your hands.

"Hey, ya little menaces! You ready for some candy?!" You say, giving the kids a polite grin.

"Emphasis on the some, you guys. Gotta save a bit for me and my girl!" Norm smirks as he steals a piece of chocolate from the bowl and places an arm around your hip.

[anonymouspuzzler]

focus is bad today so for some reason that means More Cally O'Pia AU Stuff!! today we go back to How Is Psychonauts 1 Different because this was rattling around in my brain for a while

the biggest change is that Sheegor and Crispin's roles-slash-physical positions are swapped, which is a deliberate choice by "Loboto", who's putting everyone in positions where they can slow down the project and/or increase the chances that the Psychonauts can bust in and shut things down if and when they catch on to what's happening. Sheegor's basically Only guarding the elevator for fear of Mr. Pokeylope's safety (note: Pokeylope is perfectly safe and chill up in the tea room with Lilli; Cal just has to put up some kind of false threat so Sheegor doesn't just up and run, cause he doesn't want Oleander replacing her with someone more competent), and when she sees Raz genuinely helping the inmates - and assembling the Loboto disguise for good measure - she's very willing to let him slip by and hopefully stop the "doctor" and Oleander.

Once Raz does start his ascent up the tower, "Loboto" actually takes the place of Sheegor in the original game, and unlike her, he's actually trying to make sure Raz makes it upstairs rather than force him to turn back - by that point Oleander's brought in the brainless Sasha and Milla, so Cal knows Raz is basically his last chance to get things shut down. Much like Sheegor, he kind of lurks around in the shadows and never makes direct contact with Raz; unlike Sheegor, "Loboto" clears rubble to create or point out paths if/when Raz gets stuck instead of One Million Rats Explode Forever. (Once Raz gets to the top, he also Gets The Hell Out of Dodge and escapes to the Rhombus of Ruin - maybe he shuttles the inmates back to the mainland and/or helps Augustus get to Thorney Towers before he does; maybe he just literally peaces out. I haven't decided. Either way, he basically exits the story at that point.)

Last but not least, Crispin's now the guy actually working up in the lab, and serves as kind of a combination of Loboto and Sheegor in terms of the last obstacle Raz has to overcome (with Mr. Pokeylope's help, of course). Once again, "Loboto" put him in this position very deliberately - he's enough of a suck-up and flatterer that it helps keep Oleander from noticing that "Loboto" is very deliberately sabotaging things, but he's also a non-scientist with terrible cataracts, which is slowing down brain-tank production significantly. Raz basically just sneaks by him and sends him flying the same way he does Loboto in canon, and from there all's pretty much as normal with Oleander and his whole confrontation.

[Full image ID/transcript under cut!]

A black-and-white, digital ink drawing featuring Psychonauts characters from Puzz's "Cally O'Pia AU". On the top left border of the page is a text box reading "Thorney Towers / The Lab of Dr. Loboto". Along the bottom left edge are drawings of four characters all standing in fairly neutral poses, facing the viewer: Sheegor, the AU version of "Doctor Loboto" (differentiated by round glasses instead of magnifier lenses, no scars on his head, and having both natural arms wearing gloves instead of a prosthetic right arm), Crispin (holding a brain in a jar), and Oleander. In the top right corner, there is a drawing of Raz in the dilapidated portion of Thorney Towers, looking over his shoulder at a silhouetted Loboto in the far background. Each character as well as the top right drawing has a caption, indicated by an arrow pointing from the text to the drawing.

Sheegor: Guarding the elevator & watching the inmates. Lets Raz up after he proves he's there to help & assembles a disguise for Crispin.

"Doctor Loboto": Actually Cally O'Pia, keeps up the Loboto persona with everyone but Oleander. Deliberately stationed Sheegor & Crispin to maximize chances of Psychonauts shutting this down.

Crispin: Assisting in the lab, takes this very seriously. Doesn't suspect Loboto is an undercover agent.

Oleander: Same as he ever was. Functionally blackmailing "Loboto" into helping, but isn't present enough to notice his subtle sabotage.

Instead of Sheegor following Raz through the tower and trying to stop him from getting to the lab, "Loboto" follows to keep an eye on his progress and occasionally create or reveal a path.

End ID.

[honestmagpie]

A Psychonauts 2 theory I will live and die by:

Everyone -EVERYONE- in the series is an unreliable narrator. Yes even Raz. That's why the timeline is confusing and makes no sense, that's why some things seemingly conflict, that may even be why different people look vastly different -almost inhuman-. It's because we're filtering the game through Raz's perspective. That's why we see the Hand of Galocchio, after all: because Raz sees it.

This is especially exemplified in the fact that, at the Motherlobe, in the "Agents" hall, there's really only three doors for agents: Sasha, Milla, and Oleander. Because those are the only agents whose names Raz recognizes, and therefore they are the only ones that matter. I'd argue we're playing through Raz's memories of events, not the events as they happen exactly. We know for a fact that there are more active field agents, because Agent 33 is an active field agent, so she should have an office, but you can't find it in-game in the agent hallway.

It's absolutely implied that the Motherlobe is much bigger than we explore (Upper hallways are visible but inaccessible), I would go so far as to say we're only seeing the bits of it that Raz cares about because the rest is irrelevant to the story he's telling.

In conclusion, the timeline is whatever we say it is because everyone is either misremembering it or straight-up lying anyway.

(I do not count Campster profile dates as being evidence of a timeline, I thoroughly believe those exist out-of-timeline, and while they likely represent canonical information, the dates should be disregarded).

[babycharmander]

Oleander and the effects of psitanium

A popular headcanon is that a major factor in causing Oleander to snap was the high levels of psitanium at Whispering Rock. The evidence cited for this is is typically Ford’s explanation of how psitanium works: “It responds to psychic waves, focuses them, amplifies them. It can make psychics more psychic, but it can also make unstable people more unstable. Not everyone can handle that much activity in that part of their brain. It can drive them completely out of their gourd.”

One issue with this is that it doesn’t account for Ford’s situation. Ford himself is completely shattered, but the psitanium stabilizes him. When he’s close to the giant psitanium boulder (or when he’s around a big enough chunk of psitanium, like the one he straps to his back later in the game), he’s able to function. If it were true that psitanium makes unstable psychics more unstable, Ford would be worse off.

Now you could say that maybe Ford responds well to it because he’s able to handle it, but that just brings up another problem. If psitanium was good for only some psychics and caused other psychics to lose their minds, that would make Whispering Rock a terrible place to train psychic kids. The kids would either become more skilled psychics or else lose their entire mind. If that were the case, it would make more sense for the camp to be placed elsewhere.

Given those factors, I think it’s safe to say that psitanium is good for psychics, but bad for non-psychics. This also works when we consider the history of Shaky Claim, in which most of the residents of the town slowly lost their minds, resulting in the creation of Thorney Towers. (Granted, parts of that history stump should probably be taken with a grain of salt given its timeline is kindof a mess, but I digress.)

And now for some speculative rambling!

It didn’t strike me until recently, however, that the high concentration of psitanium at Whispering Rock (which Ford explains is the highest concentration of psitanium known to man) may have been a reason why Oleander was sent to work there, as opposed to a reason why he attempted a takeover.

Even disregarding the li-po doc, Oleander is shown in canon to be aggressive and is known to attempt wild schemes, and before the first game, had also been suffering for a long while due to unresolved childhood trauma. He may have been sent to Whispering Rock not only to get him out of the way of different missions, but also so that he could be at a place with a larger concentration of psitanium to help stabilize him.

Heck, Ford could have been the one to suggest it. Something of note is that Ford was aware, to some extent, of Oleander’s trauma. Shortly after Raz arrives in Meat Circus, Ford remarks, “That’s right. Morry’s old man was a butcher!” It wouldn’t be all that difficult to put two and two together to realize that a psychic with zoolepathy having a father who was a butcher would be a recipe for trauma, though Ford might not’ve known the full extent of it.

It would then make sense for Ford, seeing how much better he himself was doing at Whispering Rock, to suggest that Oleander be sent there as well. (Of course, IIRC we don’t know who ordered Oleander to be sent to work at Whispering Rock, but Ford could have passed the idea to Sasha or Milla, who would’ve then brought it up to Truman and/or Hollis.)

Rather than the psitanium making things worse for Oleander, it could have helped stabilize him... for a time.

Unfortunately it would also put him in a place where he had very, very easy access to Thorney Towers and its residents, which would become instrumental in his eventual takeover plans.

And as the psitanium did not make Ford’s unresolved trauma go away, it also didn’t magically heal Oleander’s unresolved trauma... so all it could do was prolong his eventual breakdown.

[maplemaplemaplemaplemaple]

was having counsellor pyjama discussions with friends yesterday and i think this is accurate

[technovillain]

[cubezart]

Hi!! You totally don't know me at all, I'm a complete stranger >:) And I'd love to hear about Jim's mental world!!

HI ok so erm this is mostly just gonna be a mess of rambles and vague ideas smushed together barely in order but

(old/outdated concept sketch, but it's a good start)

for starters, the prime issue(s) to help resolve in his mental world (or this version at least) is jim's fear of burdening his friends and family, and his resistance to reaching out for help, as much as he really needs it. it doesn't get too deep into his trauma, it's just giving jim the push he needs to seek out help again

after jim's recent divorce with bettie, he's been trying to give his family "some space to process" ...which didn't take long to sink back into old self isolation habits. he's been putting his all into his job to repress and distract from everything else going on with him, and it doesn't seem like it'll work for very much longer

first area in his mind is a boring + extremely tiny office room, the other cubicles are all empty and open except for jim's, which has a big metal door attached to the entrance. you can try and talk to him or ask him things, but it won't get you much . he insists he's happier in there really !! its so nice and safe hes fine :) its ok :)

when asked why he's locked in, he'll insist it's for his own safety, saying some vague stuff while the clairvoyance hints become even more obvious. when you use clairvoyance on him, his POV shows the cubicle door and everywhere around it surrounded by nightmares clawing and staring at him from the other side. (something something these are all just his own perception of things and he's really not in danger)

afterwards, his dialogue tree gets pretty short and limited, leaving raz to explore !! there's a few doors you can interact with, one being just a simple archetype-required door with a little collectible or somethin. the other is an old n dusty storage closet filled with memory vaults piling up to the ceiling. you can't really interact with any of those individually, (maybe some raz line along the lines of "i can't punch through all those :( ") but there's one or two real ones that just seem to have completely mundane and normal memories inside. weird! cuz with cpstd n trauma memory loss/repression, it can repress a lot more than what's necessary

there's one last door to try, leading out into the next phase ! raz says goodbye to jim, and jim happily waves back as the door shuts n locks behind raz, and the hallway distorts and extends, distancing raz away too :( sorta like the effect in the pn2 office construct !! im taking a lot of inspo from that world tbh heehe except for the obvious yknow. dental stuff

the next phase is kind of a messy stub for now, still sorting n planning out everything in my head lol but it's called Jim's Judgement

it centers more around jim's trauma and Issues TM and a lot of it is more vague concepts than any real gameplay ideas for the more dark story elements bc i don't want raz to have to see that and like to think after raz gets him a head start, he gets into actual professional Psychonauts therapy (and for my own silly oc/canon interaction fun, its sasha and milla assigned to help him. perhaps. maybe. they almost assigned oleander but he yelled too much and scared him away /hj) ANYWAY!!

all that being said i honestly have 0 ideas how to tone shit down for raz and im still trying to plan out the smaller in-game per se variation on it so i will simply. wait to talk about it. there's a lot of cool symbolism and motifs i prommy i swear </3 but the main "boss fight" final moment thing surrounds his whole paranoia of being a horrible person who others only tolerate + he constantly has to "make up for it" by putting everything and everyone Before him. i really wanna end it back in the small office space with jim having the key on his desk this whole time, making it literally In His Hands to get himself out. he just needed the support! he's definitely scared and slow, but he opens the door and steps out of his cubicle. the room grows a little bit. its a start

i was gonna ramble more about the darker version of the second phase but this post is already gettin Long and kinda incoherent i think so ermm. ill split it off into a second post probably if anyones interested in hearing more . i hope this all made sense lol i have too many thoughts about him to keep together honestly

[doodle17]

heres a few future au! asks 1. What is Elka up to in the future au exactly? ( sorta related to that one doodle you did of Raz ) Is she still with Nils or did they split and if they split was it dramatic and explosive? 2. Which campers do you think do the Intern program and what mentors did you assign them 3. How did Clem and D'art meet? and iirc if your backstory of D'art not having a brain is still canon does Clem know about it? ( also tbh how does the D'art not having a brain thing work regarding your au? )

Elka is definitely a tricky case, both in the story and also with ME trying to figure it out lol.

What I can best explain rn is that she's somewhat of an antagonist?? The way she's able to get away with it is because of her father and family who are big names in the psychonauts, and she's also got Maloof and Mikhail to do her dirty work and clean up her tracks. The only person who's able to see through her bullshit is Raz himself (who, unfortunately, is unable to expose her because she is fast when it comes to clearing up evidence.)

And they overall just don't clash well together. Raz can't stand her passive aggressiveness and she despises his snarky attitude.

Franke and Kitty get into the intern program, and Franke gets paired up with Helmut while Kitty gets Bob. Quentin and Phoebe are there too! Phoebe gets assigned to Cassie and Quentin is with Otto. D'art, Clem and Crystal get the OG trio, Sasha, Coach and Milla.

D'art and Clem meet in the intern program! They already knew eachother back at camp. Or, they knew the other existed at least. It wasn't until the program that feelings began to develop (Clem falling first HARD)

Clem does end up finding out about D'art not having a brain eventually. I plan on explaining how D'art lives without a brain in my Psychonauts 3 fic! Which will be done.... Eventually!!