#linked maze faries

[treasure-goblin]

I have always adored the Linked Maze fairies

But I didn't know what true happiness was till I beheld Puddles

(Puddles belongs to @/frulleboi)

[disruptivevoib]

Chonny Jash HMS Labyrinths AU Explanation & Art Dump: The Masterpost

Before we get into the thick of it. Here are the tags and links to all involved:

Purpose 1/2 Soul: @disruptivevoib (Me. Lol.)

Being 1/2 Soul: @calamarispider (Kai)

Pursuit 1/2 Heart: @agent-8449 (Agent)

Texel 1/2 Heart: @rosy-fox-art (Rosy)

Function 1/2 Mind: @jesterberries (Oswin)

Morality 1/2 Mind: @shxwrunner (Andy)

The Ever Impossible Whole: @kelpo-art (Francey)

Here's the premise, just before the cut for all your "I don't want to read this long ass post" needs:

The base concept for Labyrinths is: what if HMS' Psyche and loop was split into three phases? Each being some kind of maze? The first phase would be closest to the original Album loop, however, throughout it Heart, Mind, and Soul would split themselves into halves. Their splits would result from their own dissonance between the internal and external of themselves.

These halves would then move on to the second phase, where they must then attempt to become themselves again before being able to enter the third phase, the one which leads to the center, to the beacon, to Whole.

Elaborate, fary more in-depth explanation below the cut alongside designs and a lot of art:

The Loop, or Phases 1-3 In-depth

Phase 1 begins as the album does. Whole splits down into three, the concepts of his emotion, rationale, and self. When Mind is first shot, he splits between Morality and Function.

Morality is the "Internal Factor" of Mind, he is the conscience, what is deemed wrong and right by the standards of his assumption. He is perfectionism but in a manner which will not hurt someone else. He is where most of Mind's "emotion" goes. Though Function is entirely capable of bias, Morality is VERY prone to bias. He is belief. Function is the "External Factor" of Mind. He the pure, factual logic. The things you cannot refute. What is known, what must happen, how something works. He is immoral, he is uncaring, he is weighing his options in only what is most logical, most beneficial.

Phase 1 continues into the Pit, where Heart becomes Pursuit and Texel.

Texel is the "Prey". In concepting, Rosy named him after a type of sheep. He is the "Internal Factor" of Heart and a manifest of Heart's depression, fears. The flight to Pursuit's fight. He is still very much a wolf in sheep's clothing, being able to grasp onto others and pull them down with him as much as himself. He is the smothering and drowning part of emotion. Pursuit is the "Predator". He is the "External Factor" of Heart. He is the repression, the ignorance, the end of "Good Day". Pursuit also embodies the violence, however. The big energetic emotion opposing Texel's heavier, tired emotion. Pursuit is the Passion, the movement. Texel is stagnation. Both of them are very much capable of Heart's common self-victimization.

Finally, Soul cannot quite take this, and where Soul Eclectic would be, is his split into Being and Purpose.

Being is that personhood within Soul. The vying to be someone without needing to be Whole. He is the depression, the rage, the exhaustion, the human you're being!! There he is.. and he is very tired. Being is kind of just a guy, but he is also.. very much prone to the ideation of death as a source of escapism, especially from everyone else in the Psyche. Purpose is the tool. The need to be Whole, to fit in, to be normal, to be happy, to be safe. He is self-preservation, he is the knowledge that they have to be something more than what they are, they should be human and they cannot be as much like this. He embodies what it means to be the mask. To hide behind being a functional person.. and yet, without Being, is the least human of them all.

Phase 2 begins after this, with the middle most maze, where the six of them now must reconcile with themselves first. Most, however, regard their other half as the weaker one, or the evil one. The one that must be purged in order to continue.

And they can continue by killing them all, however, Whole won't ever be possible. The right way is to accept the truths on both sides. Their flaws and their importance.

Does that ever happen? It's hard to say. But if it does, Phase 3 happens.

The Innermost maze has a tower that is visible even from Phase 2. There, Whole sits and waits. He is a beacon of light, and a shell of someone, a black hole that projects all its light outward but has none for itself.

----

On to Designs.

Initially, as original creator of the AU, I had ideas for everyone except Mind. I knew his half/half face would be swapped, but I wasn't sure how else to differentiate the two.

As for Soul and Heart, I had concepts for both of them.

First, Purpose and Being.

Purpose embodies the mask, and thus became a little "Horror Movie Serial Killer" esque in vibe. After all, everything human within him has been taken and put into Being. He is neatly put together, hair slicked back. It is all curated, and it is all an effort to seem like somebody when he is nearly nobody.

Being has imperfections. His shirt is only half tucked in, his hair is not as slicked back, being able to fall more naturally. He also has the eyeliner I normally put only on Soul's left side. Far more.. guy looking!

Kai and I pretty much stuck to these designs! Following is Purpose's official colored ref, and Kai's art of Being.

The only BIg change was that Being has higher heels and also wears the noose, which is the part of Whole he very much exemplifies, as a belt.

Speaking of, the Trident belongs to Purpose here too! The trident is able to disrupt each halves special ability, as neither Soul is immortal or has high regenerative healing like Mind or Heart. The Souls are squishy. Purpose's trident is very helpful for putting his Ids in line!

Now on to Pursuit and Texel, who were originally just "Predator" and "Prey"

Originally, both Heart's had one half of Whole-Heart's wings and also had a sort of inky/shadowy manifestations of what they embodied. Prey had hands and the shadow of a slinking figure holding onto him, grasping at and pulling him down or grabbing at others. He also had the ball and chain which made him slower, made him trapped. Despite this, his clothing is comfier, wearing sweats, a hoodie and socks. His hair was longer too.

Both had the blindfold, as well.

Predator had the shadowy claws which wrapped around his lower arm like gloves and fizzled off in a billowing cloud-like way. His clothing is still comfortable but much less loose. He wears baggier pants, foot wraps, hand wraps (visible without the shadow) and a loose long-sleeves shirt. His hair is also shorter.

Agent and Rosy took these ideas and expanded upon or changed them up. Both Texel and Pursuit are very different from the original concepts. All art of Pursuit belongs to Agent, all art of Texel belongs to Rosy.

Pursuit retained his comfy but tighter clothing style, but lost the shadow hands, instead gaining an adaptivity ability. He is VERY cat coded, and he is very much the kind of cat that bites you and holds your hand so you do not move and stop giving it attention. He is a menace to society, I would not have him any other way. Lethal weapon motherfucker... scared cat..

Texel retained his shadows! But he gained hooves.. truly becoming the sheep. He also gained the ability to be entirely consumed by the shadows as self defense. Both giving into his fear and self-victimization but also projecting those horrors outward. Denial keeps you safe and hurts everyone else trying to help.

The Minds.. Like I said, I never sketched anything substantial for them, so we will go straight into Oswin and Andy's designs! Oswin drew everything for Function, Andy drew everything for Morality.

Morality is closer to a purple, which is indicative maybe, of how much he feels. As well, he has a white eye and his source is on the non void part of his face! His hair is down and more relaxed. Overall, actually, Morality's design portrays him as more casual. Morality is.. electric. He has a defensive mechanism of being electrical fencing wire and zapping anyone who touches him.

Function is the opposite, with a black eye and glowing teal pupil. His source is on the right. He wears a button up and his hair is higher, more put together and "formal". Function is capable of changing smaller parts of the maze at a time. From the wallpaper and flooring, to shifting walls around in order to escape the others or find them.

Whole had no concept design from me either, esp bc I did not initially include him in the au, however in development, he came to be! and thus... Francey drew the blackhole man himself :)

Other Drawings

Here are some more drawings of everyone! Most from Agent and Kai who went bonkers... I really REALLY love all this art. So much.

Here is Agent's art of everyone. The first one includes some titles for each of them Agent made :]

Here are also some 2/3rd or more like 2/6th Wholes Agent drew. I won't specify who is who. You can guess.

Aaand, Labyrinth Heart too :]c

Here is a drawing I did of 2/6th with Purpose and Function. He didn't get a name, I'm not cool and creative like Agent with that. Also next to it is my art of Labyrinths Soul.

Also my concept for the Six-Pronged trident.

Here is a bunch of art Kai did too. :]c

First up is everyone in Kai's style!

Next is Being in the maze :]

Also... Oswin's meme videos. Which are very important. But I can only upload one.. so have this one.

Volume Warning though!!

AND... And I think thats it! Actually.. There are a LOT more doodles but this post is long and I am terrified it won't save.

So! \o/ I am happy to answer any other questions about Labyrinths as well, I am sure the others would be too. But don't let me speak for them... Though maybe check the replies here for any notes from them. I know I've missed something.