#like. blinky: the eye. pokey: the web. tinky: the spiral. nibbly: the flesh.

[keysmashing-bees]

Not sure how much these fandoms overlap, but here are some eye guys👁️

[luminescentchimera]

Hatchetfield TMA au!!!

Hi, this is only for fun! nothing wrong with people having different aus or interpretations. This is mostly just me putting the things that happen in the Hatchetfield universe under the context of the Magnus Archives universe.

Spoilers for both volumes of Nightmare Time, The Hatchetfield Trilogy, and TMA up to season fourish below cut. Please warn for spoilers for specific TMA episodes in the comments/reblogs as I'm in mid season 5 on my listen.

These are my thoughts on the LIBs, Webby, and related entities/locations.

The tag I will be using for this AU is Chimera's Hatchetfield Archives in case people want to block/follow.

( @gremlynn-x )

The Lords in Black and Webby are not the easiest to fit into the world of The Magnus Archives. I'd say they're sort of extensions of The Entities that only really affect the town of Hatchetfield and a couple other locations.

Blinky is one of the easiest, he's some sort of extension of The Eye. His whole thing is Watching. With his specific focus on watching violence, I’d say there are hints of The Slaughter and maybe The Desolation. But definitely mostly The Eye.

Tinky is also pretty easy. To me he's very clearly related to The Spiral. His main actions are driving Ted insane and trapping him inside of the Bastards Box. It also fits with his general demeanor which is typical of people and things that are connected to The Spiral. He's also connected to The Vast with his title “The Bastard of Time and Space” and his trapping Ted for eternity. 

Nibbly is related to The Flesh. With his whole ritual (not in the Magnus Archives sense) having to do with pigs and the idea of humans being seen as food that's very clearly related to The Flesh. Nibbly also has some connection to The Desolation with Linda having to cause many people to lose so much to become Honey Queen. (Linda and Zoey cause each other to get more and more invested in causing each other hurt and loss)

Pokey is slightly more complicated. An argument could be made for The Lonely, The Stranger, The Extermination, and The Web. All of these come from Pokey wanting to create a hive mind where he is in control of everything. I personally choose to focus on the aspects of him that are related to The Lonely and The Extermination. He can't stand to hear others' voices. To me this is more connected to The Lonely than it is to other fears. The Extermination part comes in with the idea that humanity will be replaced by this new group created by Pokey. The reason I feel he's less connected to The Web is because the fear doesn't come from the idea that you're being controlled, the fear comes from the idea that your humanity is being replaced. And if you look at Stranger related statements, such as Zombies, the fear is people being different, but that's not what’s scary, what’s scary is EVERYONE being different, or replaced.

Last of the Lords is Wiggly. Wiggly, to me, is most related to The Slaughter, The Desolation and The Extermination. In Black Friday is that he makes people feel like he can make people love them, causing them to turn to violence and obsession. The violence is more of a connection to The Slaughter. But the focus on what people want, which is even more prevalent in Nerdy Prudes Must Die where he says that one of them must give up that which they care about the most, is more connected to The Desolation. And what could be more violent than the end of the world. The nuclear war which he causes at the end of Black Friday is a clear link to The Extermination.

Webby is a bit different because she isn't trying to cause fear. However she's obviously connected to The Web  with her spider Motif and her trying to make Hannah alter the future of Hatchetfield through the prophecy she tells her. She also causes some distress in Lex which is more connected to The Spiral; the idea that Webby is an imaginary friend which Hannah is still attached to is something that causes Lex fear.

Tying up a couple loose ends, I'd say the Black Book is connected to The End. Many of its rituals have to do with youth, siphoning power, or becoming undead. The Black and White is a manifestation of the Vast. And the Sniggles are a form of The Stranger which serve different Lords in Black.

[icarusdiesatdawn]

Hatchetfield + Magnus Archives

I'm sure this has been explored plenty, but I've not actually seen much of it around so I want to give my own two cents to this conversation. I've been thinking about the Lords in Black and the Fears since NPMD came out, but I've never properly shared my thoughts, so here goes

Basically;

Pokey is the Corruption 🪱

Blinky the Eye 👁️

Nibbly the Flesh 🥩

These are pretty much on the nose I reckon. Tinky and Wiggly are a little more interesting to me personally, so I'm going to elaborate a bit. This ended up being a lot longer than I anticipated - apperantly Ido have many thoughts and feelings on this crossover - so I'm putting a break here.

[Also a fair warning for TMA spoilers]

Wiggly clearly got to be the Slaughter🩸 (at first I thought he might be affiliated with the Hunt, maybe they bleed into each other a little bit)

What I find most interesting though is when you put Black Friday in the context of TMA. Because it is basically just Wiggly's most devoted avatar Wilbur Cross, trying to execute a ritual for Wiggog Y’Wrath, aka the Slaughter, so he can come through to our dimension and bring about the apocalypse in his vision.

Similarly TGWDLM would be Pokotho's apocalypse (apokolypse) if the Web pushes through in a ritual. The fact that the Hatchetfield musicals all seem to be parallel universes works so well with the way the Fears work with parallel universes in TMA lore. Obviously this doesn't add up completely since Pokey's meteor backstory doesn't align with the concept of rituals in TMA, - and of course the whole point was that the rituals would all fail anyway because you need all the Fears together for it to work. But in Hatchetverse the Lords can!

Now I like to imagine what the rituals for the other Lords might look like. This is really scratching an itch in my brain

Also the Black Book is a Leitner, we all know it

Now I still haven't talked about Tinky. This is actually my favourite thing to think about because he's not as obvious to me as the others when it comes to the Fears.

I am very sure that Tinky is the Spiral🌀

The way he seems to enjoy to just fuck with Ted people's lives and trapping them in his toy box - which feels a little reminiscent of trapping people in, say, certain hallways. Fucking about with time and space to make their victims lose sanity seems about right for the Spiral.

Another part of the Spiral is deceit, the It Is Lies, and while this might seem like a stretch - I do think this is just as if not more so important to Tinky's whole deal. It's kind of the main thing he uses to play with Ted. He makes him believe he has anctually chance with Jenny again, makes him believe he's in control and knows what he's doing, when in reality it's just Tinky having a bit of fun toying with his feelings. All of this rings closely to the Web as well, but there two aren't quite off from eachother anyway, since lies and deceits are just a way of manipulation at the end of the day.

We only have Time Bastard to assess Tinky's personality, but it would be super interesting if this story would be explored in a whole play or musical, just to see the length of Tinky's manipulation tactics. Especially knowing they can take form as humans if they want to, he could - like the Distortion does - pretend to be Ted's friend to play his mind games. ...I might actually want to write this now

Okay, but the Spiral is not all T'Noy Karaxis is about. Again, just based on Ted's story, it actually becomes quite clear that Tinky is also the Lonely ☁️

Seriously, Ted's story is lonely coded through and through. Starting with the reason why Tinky picked Ted in the first place. He's at Emma and Paul's wedding, unenvited, unwanted, and probably the most lonely he's ever felt because what could make you more aware of your own loneliness than a room full of happy people who don't want you to be there. He's reminiscing about the time he had with the only person he's had a genuine strong connection to, then Tinky chimes in like "He's perfect, I can work with that"

And it's really just so sad. Ted has to go through losing Jenny again, and then ending up being comppletely and utterly removed from society. He doesn't even get to keep his sense of identity. His life. He just becomes "Homeless Guy", watching the people he once knew pass him by in the streets, seeing his little brother, his younger self - as strangers he lost all connection to. And he can't do anything about it. He is truly alone. Absolutely bonkers insane, I am eating drywall

do you get me???

Also just the Spiral / Lonely combo aesthetically clashes so hard but is actually not far removed. It really shows that the Fears bleed into eachother. From the Web to the Spiral, the Spiral and the Stranger, the Stranger and the Lonely, it kinda drives me insane I love it

Anyway, knowing that Tinky's a fan favourite for many of you, I'd love to hear your thoughts on this, so please let me know what you think!!!

EDIT: as some have pointed out, Pokey much better fits the corruption than the web, you are RIGHT I am an idiot

[themightymoose]

YEEEEEEEESSS!! (Trigger warning for Existential Horror and also potentially any other TW in existence aside from Sexual Violence and Pet Death (not animal death tho) since that's kinda TMA's whole Thing)

Ok, so the premise of TMA is that Fear is a real, tangible thing that exists just outside of reality, and seeps in as manifestations such as monsters, artifacts, or just wierd shit happening. It operates on a sort of dream/nightmare logic, which means that it has its own internal logic that doesn't neccesarily line up with reality. It doesn't really spread or feed on fear, it literally is Fear. The culmination of all the dread and horror that all humans (and animals) experience. The abstract made literal.

It's typically divided into 15 categories, but they are a bit of an oversimplification. They can overlap and bleed into one another, while also contradicting and working against each other ("Like colors, if colors hated me" -Jonathan Sims). So it's more accurate to describe Fear as an amorphous thing with various different aspects.

Anyway, at the end of season 4 of TMA, the Fears are summoned into reality and twost the world into a horrifying nightmare-scape. At the end of season 5 and the series as a whole, the Fears either almost or do succeed in escaping that reality to spread to others.

So the AU is the Fears consuming the world of TMA (pretty much canon) and escaping into the Black and White, where they meet the Lords in Black. The Fears are far less sentient than them, more forces of nature than actively malicious or sadistic. The only Fear that is self-aware (as far as I remember) is the Web (in a nutshell, the fear of manipulation - also spiders. One of its other titles is The Hidden Machination and it basically masterminded their escape).

I don't think Wiggly would like them much. Actually no, he might love them. They can turn reality into a literal nightmare, and they can't really be described as intelligent, so they would be wonderful to torment the residents of Hatchetfield with.

Pokey would hate them just bc he hates everyone (aside from his blorbo, Paul). He might vibe with the Web tho, both have themes of theatres and puppetry. Also maybe the Stranger, since at its core its the fear of a lack or even loss of identity (officially its the fear of the uncanny), and is related to things like masks, wax statues, and circuses.

Tinky would LOVE the Spiral (fear of deciet and insanity, also known as the Twisting Deceit and It Is Not What It Is). The Spiral is the fear that your own mind is lying to you, and often manifests as a bright yellow door that doesn't exist, leading to a twisting labyrinth made up of impossible architecture where nothing making sense (the "space" is actually the inside of the Twisting Deciet, and thus doesn't exist either). People preyed upon by the Spiral often find that they can't remember basic things like how many doors a room is supposed to have, their senses are all mixed up (smelling color, feeling sound, etc), and the yellow door follows them (any and every door could be a trick).

Blinky is def vibing with the Eye. To illustrate my point, one of the Eye's alternate titles is: The Great Eye That Watches All Who Linger In Terror And Gorges Itself On The Suffering Of Those Under Its Unrelenting Stuporous Gaze. If that ain't Blinky to a T, I dunno what is. (It's also the fear of being Watched, being Known by something that shouldn't, of having all your secrets unwillingly torn out of you and displayed for all the world to see. The title is poetic and a little pretentious, but also very literal).

Nibbly is the hardest. Maybe the Flesh. The Flesh is basically body horror, the fear that you are just meat, no more special than an animal bred for slaughter and consumption. It is related to cannibalism and dehumanization. Given how Nibbly manifests at the end of Honey Queen (won't spoil but holy shit) it seems the best parallel.

I've also thought about how the human characters could interact with the Fears, this is just the premise, I can keep going if you want :)

HOLY SHIT HOLYYYYY SHITTT OH MY GOD OH MY GOD YESSSSS

To add context about why I was using all caps despite knowing almost nothing about TMA: I fucking love when fear is used in a piece of media

Allow me to explain

You know those "face you fears" episodes that would happen in children shows? Yeah this is where it all started for me

Idk it's just something about someone forcefully confronting their darkest fear (especially if it's with a group of people oh lord-) kind of the same of being forced to relive their most traumatic/painful memories

Yes I know it sounds odd but it's sooooo good and I eat that shit up every time. And thinking about the hurt/comfort aspects where maybe someone has to pull people out of their worst nightmares??? Mmmmmm love that

[mmalaria]

I gave them each 3 since there’s 15 fears (including the extinction) for the 5 of them

BLINKY - Eye (obviously), Dark (fear of the unknown maybe?), Web (despite Webby obviously being Web, Blinky does a lot of manipulation)

TINKY - Spiral (again this one’s a bit of a given), End (he waits for Ted’s death in every timeline), Lonely (isolates Ted)

POKEY - Stranger (obvs), Corruption (blue shit and themes of love being corrupting), Desolation (this one I have a few reasons for. 1, Paul blew up the meteor and I feel like that’s a good Desolation moment; 2, the Desolation is the destruction of the things you love most. The ending of TGWDLM is literally that)

NIBBLY - Flesh (of course), Hunt (the competition of the Honey Festival, the eat or be eaten mentality), Buried (I like to consider the metaphorical implications of the Buried, like that one statement about being in *crushing* debt. Also the huge pile of dead pigs is a fun combination of Flesh and Buried to me)

WIGGLY - Slaughter (senseless rage/wrath/violence), Vast (holds court in the void or whatever, also they emphasize how eldritch horror Wiggly is the most out of all the Lords in Black), Extinction (the nukes lol)

That’s just my opinion! If you’re going based solely on designs, I think a Stranger Pokey and Extinction Wiggly would look super cool :P

I wanna make some TMA/LIB designs with the Lords in Black each representing a fear entity (or maybe two if I'm indecisive I dunno) but I'm stuck on two

Nibbly would be the Flesh, and Blinky the Eye, obviously. My first thought was that Tinky would be the Spiral, and his like maze box would instead be filled with maze-like hallways, etc. If I had to think of a second for him, I could also see the End working but. My first choice there is the Spiral.

Where it's tricky for me is Pokey and Wiggly. I originally thought about the Stranger for Pokey, but I think the corruption could also fit really well. As for Wiggly...his is tough. I feel like I could either go the Slaughter route, but after thinking about it, the Vast could work too, being the ruler of the Black and White.

Anyone have any opinions?

[crossnamara]

YES<3 thoughts about this a lot actually. there is some overlap but. gerrys color metaphor etc

wiggly- slaughter and desolation. ww3, the destruction of everything, it fits him. can also see extinction

pokey- web and corruption. manipulating everything to be solely his own, a hive speaking with one voice. (also. DEFINITELY can see extinction with

nibbly- flesh. just. flesh. i could argue for a bit of desolation too but cmonnnnnnn

tinky- SPIRAL<3 self explanatory. but also vast, he is the bastard of time and SPACE after all.

blinky- do i even have to say. eye

webby- HEAR ME OUT, not web. absolutely dark. the dark is depicted often as a fear of children, like in 172 i believe, and that fits webby so well. i feel like she is. not tryin to be malicious, like her brothers, but she is still, by her nature, terrifying

various others !!

holloway- mix of stranger and lonely. she has no name. she has no indentity, and for that she is forever alone

max- hunt. just. hunt

ted- spiralll<333 especially homeless ted

grace- her ass is sooooo eye. less of the knowledge kinda but specifically the watching and judging

wilbur- vast. so fucking vast. vastard of a man.

that is all i can think of rn but i might add more later

Enough debating over which Entity the Lords in Black would serve. If TMA characters were in the hatchetfield universe, wich LiB would claim which?

[random-reblogs-1w1]

YESSSS WE’RE ON THE SAME WAVELENGTH

These are my thoughts cause tbh I think the way the LiB manifest also bleed heavily into a lot of other fears as well:

Nibbly: Flesh, Slaughter, Hunt (bc of the whole Linda was the “hungriest” thing, seems very hunt and/or slaughter to me)

Pokey: Stranger (kinda self explanatory), Web, Extinction (cause apocalypse), Corruption (literally infecting ppl)

Blinky: Eye, Web, Slaughter, Hunt (the last three cause of literally all of Watcher World)

Tinky: Lonely (idk how to properly explain this but, like, just look at Ted by the end of Time Bastard), Spiral

Wiggly: Web (the whole controlling Becky and Tom thing), Desolation (just feels right idk), Slaughter, Hunt (Hunt for the Wiggly doll), Extinction

Not sure how much these fandoms overlap, but here are some eye guys👁️