#poltergeist-the-anti has also helped me call them out

[tadpolesonalgae]

hi tabby! ty for feeding us another cbmthy! I loved how you made her *ask* for refuge at Autumn, actively seeking Eris. I just live for her taking the reigns of her life, and I can't wait to read Azriel's reaction about that  😩  and also him finding out about hers and Bas' relationship - I didn't realize he hadn't caught on that it has a sexual aspect to it. I guess at this point I just want the plot to metaphorically beat Az with a stick lolll I'm sooo excited to know what happens next!! And I dunno, I guess I still feel like the IC sort of neglects her in a way (intentional or not) that they don't others so I don't really feel bad she just yeeted. I wonder how long it'll take for them to actually notice she's gone. Call me anti-IC I s'pose... as far as smut goes, I don't mind that it only happens in service to the plot - I'm not reading it for the smut. I like there is a Pride and Prejudice vibe going on - they're not actively smooching, just the tension filled encounters, and subtle touching here and there. and now my 2 cents over vampire!rhys: I never knew I needed that. Thank you. - 🥐

‘hi tabby! ty for feeding us another cbmthy!’

You are more than welcome! Those ideas had been waiting to be put into writing for a while so I’m glad you liked it! 🧡💛

‘I just live for her taking the reigns of her life, and I can't wait to read Azriel's reaction about that  😩’

Yes!! Hopefully Eris is going to push her into motion and help her (inadvertently or not) begin to want to take control over herself :)

‘and also him finding out about hers and Bas' relationship - I didn't realize he hadn't caught on that it has a sexual aspect to it.’

I mean, some people might find it weird that he’s the Spymaster and hasn’t caught on, but he isn’t really paying much attention to reader and also is supposed to show how Az kind of sees her? The thought of her having a sexual relationship with anyone seems so unrealistic that he hasn’t even considered it—so hopefully that’ll be fun and begin to shift his understanding of what sort of person she is and might become? (Hopefully)

‘I'm sooo excited to know what happens next!!’

Ahhh!! I hope you enjoy getting to see reader and Eris interact! There are some small things I want to put in, but other than that, it’s mostly going to be a matter of different training processes and magic theory!! I’d like to put in some down-time between them too but I’m not sure about that yet, it might have to be woven into a conversation they have while she’s reading/practicing :)

‘as far as smut goes, I don't mind that it only happens in service to the plot - I'm not reading it for the smut. I like there is a Pride and Prejudice vibe going on - they're not actively smooching, just the tension filled encounters, and subtle touching here and there.’

I’ll keep in mind the possibilities for smut because I think that could be interesting to explore their dynamics in that sort of context? Either way I really doubt it’ll be anything sudden considering how overwhelmed she gets from just being near him so I can’t see them jumping straight into bed with one another unless they get really swept up on something?

I also hope people will be okay with it being a slow culmination of emotions between them eventually, so that will have to span across a multiple chapters 🧡💛

‘and now my 2 cents over vampire!rhys: I never knew I needed that. Thank you.’

I’ve been having some thoughts about both vampire Rhys and also the potential for him having his own little series (probably poltergeist themed) since I got this lovely ask, so I hope that’ll eventually come to fruition and it’ll be a fun read! :)

[mysaldate]

Curious but

What mythological creatures would you give some of the AFK Arena characters? Or what they give you the vibes of?

Ok so I know this is likely for the anti-honesty ask but I can't help but answer this genuinely because hoo boy, let's go!

Since AFK Arena has so many characters, I will list as many as I can without really going deeper into my reasoning. If you have more questions, feel free to ask! Also, I will be tossing in a lot of mythological creatures from all over but I will just say up front that I am not overly familiar with most mythologies out there and I'm also into DnD quite a lot lately so that will influence my opinion a lot.

And the ones who are canonically mythological creatures already won't count unless I have a different hc for them (except Vedan, but that's just like... a must).

Note: Pygmalion originally referred to a specific painting woman that came to life but later on, G. B. Shaw used it in a more general, metaphorical meaning of a personified piece of art.

A special case will be Cecilia. I would see Cecilia as a sort of creature associated with vengeance but not in the Erinyes or furies sense. Something more methodic, systematic. Ayakashi akashi comes to mind but that's not correct either since, from my understanding of them, they do not tend to be malicious for the most part.

The vampires range from those who view their condition as a necessary evil, through those who suffer through it, and all the way to those who enjoy their condition as is, you can probably guess who is who.

As for the dullahan, I know they are usually depicted as headless horsemen but it is less about the exact depiction for me and more just... vibes I guess? Like, the dullahan are not explicitly evil, usually, they are searching for something that was valuable to them in life or protecting a certain area. They are lost souls with a calling before anything else.

Golems were created for a specific task while pygmalion exists for its artistic value.

Valkyries are the only ones where I stuck to the specific gender originally associated with them because I mean, come on. It's valkyries, the whole point is that they're powerful amazing warrior women.

Fairies and sprites are more mischievous and free-spirited but not all of them are very fond of unexpected visitors so it felt right that some of them are shyer than others.

I don't think I need to explain the succubus/incubus tier, I'll just say I didn't expect not ending up with a single guy in there, that surprised me too. But just to be perfectly clear, I could definitely imagine most of my favorites in there regardless of gender.

Angels range from helpful and kind to steadfast and brave, and everything in between.

Fallen angels are either tragically robbed of their home and innocence or they are the evilest of them all, those who chose corruption despite having the light within their grasp.

Devils are methodical and systematical in their evil, they like to have things in order and won't cause random destruction on a whim.

Dragons have a deep sense of pride as well as an innate desire to gather the things they consider valuable – be it money, symbols of recognition, or sentimental objects. They are also fiercely protective of things and people they value.

Merfolk and sirens are two sides of the same coin, blessed with natural charm and attractiveness and using it to either bring joy or suffering to their surroundings.

Poltergeist is a powerful undead presence often driven by the thirst for revenge or deep regret, and they come in all flavors from depressed to vengeful.

Furies are creatures of revenge and vengeance but they can be chaotic and they often go overboard and don't ever stop.

[genderfluidlucifer]

I won’t go into too much details on the whys of why these people have been added to this blog’s dni list except in IMs or discord DM’s for now. Anti antis: Picturesbybest Slogbait yugimew Voru5 Iggycat95 Novadly Jesterpestermanifester Antis: Witheredbonnie/furryphobia Snartburger (idk if she even still goes by that url anymore) Kindestegg Poobit Saltysapphire Critically-seymour i-am-loco Stephanos-spaceopera Residentevil-4 Hypnomoneyfirehands People who act like they’re in between: Rainbowsans Uwuowoazu Starlatte27

[beholdthemem]

AU where single mom Maple moves into a new apartment with Soda after the death of her husband.

She's been living with Chug's parents up until now, and she knows they'd be happy to let her and Soda stay there for longer, but she also knows they've been dipping into more and more their retirement savings to do it, and just can't have that on her conscience. 

She's offered a job in a new city and goes, because that kind of money doesn't come around every day, and she's going to ensure Soda is well cared for no matter what.

(And she'll be damned if she has to go crawling back to beg her own parents for help to do it.)

She finds a nice apartment for much cheaper than she could have hoped for, moves them in, is preparing to restart their lives-

...and then abruptly discovers that the reason she'd gotten the place so cheap is because it's haunted by a poltergeist.

Great.

She spends the next two days trying to aggressively exorcise the thing with methods she finds on the internet. None of them work, and the ghost does not seem to appreciate her trying. She bought SO MUCH SAGE trying to get rid of it, and it retaliates by disintegrating all of it in front of her and then spraying the powdered bits of it all over EVERYTHING.

Maple's getting more and more irritated and stressed out, because this is all she NEEDS, of COURSE just as things start looking like they might get better God shits in her dinner yet again, she just wants to get on with her life and take care of her daughter, doing this solo is hard enough as it is and now on top of all her normal childcare worries she needs to worry about the supernatural threatening her kid too?!

...until she walks into Soda's room one day and sees the ghost putting on a puppet show for Soda, starring all of her stuffed animals.

Huh.

Now that she thinks about it, in all the time they've been there- the ghost may move shit around, make weird noises and generally spookify the place, but... it never actually does anything outright dangerous or harmful. 

Hell, Soda seems absolutely delighted.

Interesting.

That evening, after she puts Soda to bed, she decides to call a truce. No more exorcisms and anti ghost shit, as long is it stops messing with her stuff and waking her up in the middle of the night with scary noises. Okay, Ghost? This... satisfactory? Are we good here? 

There's no response at first, and then she feels a strange change to the air- the sort of sensation you get with static electricity, almost- and she sees writing appear on the wall in what had better only LOOK like blood:

M Y  N A M E.  I S.  L A R R Y.

"...okay. Larry. We good?"

Y E A H.

And just like that, Maple’s co-parenting with a ghost.

C A L L  D O C T O R  A T  T H R E E.

“Shoot. I’d forgotten all about that. If they put me on hold for another two hours can you curse them or something?”

I M  D E A D,  N O T  A  W I Z A R D.

“What, ghosts can’t curse people?”

N O.

“Have you ever tried?”

. . . N O. . .

----

L. A. R. R. Y.

“Okay, Soda, what does that spell?”

“L... L... Lawwy!”

: D

------

“The neighbors are threatening to call the police on us if you play your music for more than three hours again.”

M A Y B E  T H E  C O P S.  S H O U L D  A R R E S T  T H EM.  F O R  C R I M E S  A G A I N S T  T A S T E.

“LARRY-”

------

“I love her so much and I try so hard, but I don’t know what I’m doing. Some days I feel like she’d be better off with anybody else but me.”

N O T  T R U E.

“It feels true.”

N O T  T R U E.  L O V E  M A T T E R S.  Y O U ‘ R E  A  G O O D  M O M.

“Thanks, Larry.”

[aconboyindependent2021]

‘Now and Then’ - current state of play

My film is a re-imagining of the site of Brighton General Hospital next to my home. Until around 70 years ago, a workhouse operated on the site (for details, see: Gardner, J, (2012) A History of the Brighton Workhouses). Aspects of the austere workhouse are still evident on the site today. I began to think about the stories of the residents of the workhouse – what did they have to endure? With this in mind, I bought the above book by a local author about the history of workhouses in Brighton.

I have always been fascinated by the idea that traumatic events in a particular location can be recorded and replayed at a later time in history and that this might be a basis for ghosts and hauntings – for example, in the blockbuster, Poltergeist, and the BBC drama from the 1970’s The Stone Tapes (Sasdy, 1972). This is one of the key concepts behind the film.

After a lot of thought, I settled on the story of the workhouse being told by a single woman, Agatha, whose infant child was taken from her illegally and sold to a rich couple living in Brighton. This is a variation on the common Victorian  practice of unmarried women being compelled to give their children to a foundling home.

The film starts with Aggie telling her story in largely neutral terms and comparing the workhouse and the site’s positive use today as a hospital, but it climaxes with Aggie screaming with the loss of her child, and we see that she is a tormented spectre.The film ends with her anguish fading into a sign on the present site, promoting a nursery for infant children.

The film will be around 5-6 minutes long and will consist of edited original footage taken on the site in the present day. The film will be treated with video effects to alter the pacing, colour and atmosphere of the original footage. I have asked for a drama-trained friend to narrate the film as Aggie and will be using original and library sound effects and music motifs, or possibly drones to punctuate the soundtrack.

Now and Then – influences from other artists

1. Brian Percival - About a Girl

Female voice-over revealing a terrifying truth about motherhood at the end of the film. This film gives a cold dead feeling inside from the casual yet downcast demeanor as the leading character talks about her dysfunctional life and especially the ending, where the girl is revealed to have secretly miscarried a baby and we see her dump it into the canal (“I’ve become good at hiding things”). Both my film and About A Girl attempt to humanise the female main character outside of their tragedies.

2. Tobe Hooper - director of Poltergeist Paranormal activity centred around past events and the presence of aggrieved spirits. This was a film that made an impact on me from its non-stop tension, even before the presence of the supernatural becomes apparent. Tobe Hooper, ever since creating The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974) has achieved many awards, and after this film, it is easy to see why. It also has a similar plot to my initial idea for my film - where a great wrong done in the past creates a ‘haunting’ by aggrieved spirit(s)..

3. Peter Sasdy – Director of The Stone Tape (1972)

The original idea from the film was stones “recording” traumatic events from the past. While the current draft has drifted away from this concept, it still lives on with how Agatha remembers everything about the past as if she died yesterday, despite the superficial veneer of the current day hospital. However, Agatha is a real soul though in my film.

4. David Lynch - Eraserhead, The Elephant Man His black and white films – particularly The Elephant Man In the latter, view of Victorian England shot in black and white featuring cruelty and time-specific sounds, sights and atmospheres. The film always seems to have a sense of foreboding, even when the scene is uneventful, and with a deeply engaging soundtrack. Eraserhead will always always be an influence due to its deliberate disturbing monochrome style, investigation of altered perception and the anxieties of parenthood.

5. James Gardener- Author of: A Complete History Of Brighton Workhouses A detailed and easy-to-understand book centred around the original workhouse in my area. It includes the Brighton General Hospital Site. It helped give a real-life grounding to my supernatural tale.

6. Richard Boden - director of the Blackadder series 4 finale, Goodbyeee The series as a whole has very little to do with my film, but this is a powerful episode whose fade-out ending and closing-sound inspired the cross-dissolve effects and soundscape in my film - coincidentally both are centered with the cruelty of the past and atmospheric sound. Present and past merge at this point. One of the most popular scenes in TV drama/comedy and understandably so too.

7. Piotr Obal – various films and still images Obal is an independent artist who works with art, music and still photography. Occasionally, he teaches youths how to work at the computer like me (!) when he was helping out with an arts award I was studying for. Below is one of his images that has been an influence on me and the film. I love his Photoshop collages and the wonderful images he posts from his native Poland.

                                                        Work by Piotr Obal

8. Nalini Malani- for her immersive installations, ‘disgraced’ women under partiarchy, history and mythology, miscarriages of justice. I found out about Malini when I was writing my essay on her work in the  Diversity module: what started off as just finding out about an artist for the sake of my writing became a long-lasting admiration and inspiration from an artist who not only knows where she is coming from (from her upbringing hugely affected by India and Pakistan’s partition) but willingly sticks her neck out for those oppressed by society and history, and confidently shows her creations to the world. A particularly relevant aspect of her work is her use of the supernatural and mythology stories and myths to highlight aspects of women’s oppression throughout history.

9. Chris Butler- director of ParaNorman A key influence, supposedly aimed at children, I used the same of the spectre in this moving animation, and I was influenced by its themes about the cruelties of humanity and how we “moved on”. The spectre is a ghost of a falsely accused of being a ‘witch’ who wreaks her revenge on those who persecuted her.

It was also a strong influence that is more powerful at its climax and twist. In-depth look at how prejudice destroys lives that are never regained - even  death provides no relief. Butler is a part of Studio Laika, creating animated films that go beyond the norm.

10. Jacqueline Wilson - the writer of the Hetty Feather trilogy and other such Victorian novels such as Clover Moon.

A part of Jacqueline’s writings is her commentary about how unjust the past could be compared to today: even though her protagonists speak in ways that were customary to Victorians, she keeps them relatable the same way she keeps her modern-day protagonists relatable. The writing style of her books inspired certain characteristics of Agatha’s narration, because it was easy to understand yet engaging.

11. David Lean  - Director of Great Expectations (1946) This film, based on the Dickens book,  also brought to mind the cruel period of the Victorian era, and the acting and emotions continued that spirit and my inspiration around my project. I love that it is black and white as well as dialog-centred - I particularly like the formal style of speech - even to express negative emotions- for example:

“Let me point out the topic that in London it is not the custom to put the knife in the mouth for fear of accidents. It's scarcely worth mentioning, Only it's as well to do as others do”.

Miss Havisham, an almost ghostly older woman, in a similar way to Agatha cannot move beyond the terrible wrong done to her - she was left at the alter and devoted her life to training her adopted daughter, Estella, to get revenge on men.I use s similar obsessive, sing-minded hatred to motivate Agatha.

12. Sunset Boulevard (1950)

This film involve a man becoming the object of affection of a former silent movie star, Norma Desmond who overtake his life little by little until she kills him. Norma suffered with the times when silent movies went out of fashion and she is unable to move on, alone in her great house: people told Norma that she had no value and it had an impact on her psyche. She loses all sanity when arrested for killing Joe Gillis as she believes she is back in show business. The film also explores facades; Norma may live a glamorous if not lonely life, but her mental state torments her, like Aggie has with hers as she wanders around the hospital site driven ‘mad’ with grief and anger.  

13. R D Laing: ‘anti-psychiatrist’

'Here was someone explaining madness, showing how the fragmentation of the person was an intelligible response to an intolerable pressure”

Quote from: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/aug/25/rd-laing-aaron-esterson-mental-illness

 In discussing the concept of my film with a member of my family, I was directed to the psychiatrist/anti-psychiatrist, RD Laing. In the 1960’s and early 1970’s Laing wrote about how a person’s so-called ‘mad’ behaviour was in fact intelligible when their entire situation and experience was taken into account. He and other writers (like David Cooper) talked about the concept of the ‘double-bind’ where a person’s opportunity to make a decision to resolve the way they were being treated was blocked – perhaps by a member of their family saying that it was not in their personality to be assertive or angry.

This reminded me very much of Agatha; she tries to express her outrage at the great wrong done to her, but she is judged as unworthy and undeserving, so the wrong is seen as justified and her punishment for being the ‘low-life’ who would have a child and have to live in a workhouse. It is circular – she is treated badly because she deserves to be treated badly and so this means that her hatred and insanity brings the great wrong up herself.

Laing is largely forgotten today, but his ideas resonate with certain ideas in feminism and anti-racism. ‘Gaslighting’ is everywhere, both back then and now.

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9NnBonXPLJM

[stop-pressing-e]

Word Prompt #8

Suggested by @aseriouscomedian​

Time

“Another case close!” Bones climbed down the stairs into their shared office, skeletal arms shot up in happiness. “Thanks to you and I as always!” Ace can only grunt as he leaned against the chair and propped his feet up on the table. “Yeah, sixth one within a week. Christ I thought we were a slow business but-” He rose his arms up in a surprised gesture while making a face that says ‘I can’t believe it that actually happened.’ He said nothing afterwards.

It’s been two months now that the ghost detective have teamed up with the skeleton investigator after closing the case of his death and deciding not to move onto the afterlife. Together they helped wondering souls to move on from their unfinished business in the underworld or ‘Limbo’ as they like to call it.

She can only offer her partner a brief chuckle, sitting in her chair behind the dark mahogany desk. “Our names are quite becoming a thing to be talk about.” Bony fingers tapped against the arm of her chair. “I mean, it’s because of Marietta. That woman really have the time while escorting souls to their respective worlds or to her world.”

Arms crossed against his chest. “Now what?” They don’t have any more plans or any new cases to help a Wanderer, he’s calling them that now as it sound better than ‘Lost Souls’, to move on. Both stayed in silence to think, though neither doesn’t want to admit they have nothing, in their current position without making a move.

Bones slammed a hand on the table, starling Ace who phased through the chair and fell butt-flat on the ground with the chair legs in his stomach.

“Ah! I just remembered, I haven’t introduced you to my friend.” If Bones had her facade on she would be smiling at him. “Since we have nothing, why not go for tea with them!” Ace looked at his partner strangely with furrowed brows. “Tea...? Bones, we’re dead.” Having a new partner means getting to know them and figure out what can they do when working together in order to co-operate. As of right now, he’s still trying to learn about Bones from her personality to her professionalism. Especially when it ties to her powers as a necrobotonist, a word combination of forming necromancy and botany together, which is still a strange name to be called like that.

“They're not.” She chuckled and summoned a skeleton with their body held together with roses and thorns. “I want you to deliver a message to Clockwork and tell them that we’re coming to see them for tea in ten minutes.” The skeleton bowed their head and disappeared into the floor within seconds leaving scattered rose petals in their place. “Enough time for us to get them a gift.” “What kind of gift?” He asked her, phasing through the chair and hovering off the floor by a few inches. “Especially in ten minutes.”

Ace still couldn’t believe that when she meant a gift, she meant going through trash and find anything useless or broken as a gift for Clockwork. Now they stood outside their door with Ace holding a broken antique clock and Bones straightening her outfit and fixing her hair on her skull. “Shouldn’t you wear your facade?” “Why? It’s not Halloween.” “Bones, no-I mean-” The door opened by itself, welcoming them in. The skeleton straightened herself and entered in. The ghost sighed heavily and followed her in. He felt his body getting heavy and then felt his feet touching the ground, almost causing him to tripped over his own feet, and almost dropped the gift.

“Careful there, sonny.” A Brooklyn accent said to him. “This place has an anti-ghost sigil here. Prevents any ghost, poltergeist, you know, from possession, teleporting, those kinds of things. Oh including levitating and flying, so you’ll be walking normally.”

“Could have warned me there, Bones.” Ace grunted, pausing his steps to see himself stepped into a room with the walls covered in clocks of various appearances, shapes, and eras. Clockwork pieces decorated the room to gives the sense of steampunk vibe. Pieces transformed into figures and sculptures he can’t believe with his own eye. There sitting on a red comfy velvet couch was a man with androgynous features, glassy blue eyes, blonde hair, and dressed in a suit from the Victorian era. They were smiling at him with amusement. “Ah but she was two minutes too late to have warned you before you entered in. And also you were 50 seconds before 11 minutes late when you meant 10 minutes.”

“Detective Ace, this is Clockwork, our informant and collector of time.” Bones introduced Ace to them. They laughed softly where Ace swore he was hearing ticking from them. “Please, Tick works as well. It can be a mouthful to say it all the time.” They eyed the clock in Ace’s hands. “Oh Bones you shouldn’t have.” “Please Tick.” Bones bowed her head. “A gift from us to you.” Gesturing a gloved hand signalling Ace to come closer and hand over the clock to Tick. Tick smiled to see the surprise on Ace’s face when he touched their fingers. It was not everyday he could touch people or objects unless he concentrate really hard. He was still learning how to use his powers. He looked at Tick’s hand and then their face closely.

“You’re not real...”

“No kidding Sherlock.” They stood up and carried the clock to another room, returning with a tray of teapot and a teacup for one person. “Of course my soul is, but bound to this body I call a shell.” “A shell that can’t age or changed from time.” Bones added, sitting down and gesturing Ace to sit as well. “Tick here is bound with time. They are neither part of the living or the dead, as you and I are part of the world of the dead for example. They can blend in with the living and work like a living but works for the dead.” “Bones told you I’m your informant,” they poured black liquid into their teacup. It doesn’t look like liquid and especially how dark it looks. “True and because I work for the dead, I also have to work for the living to blend in as she mentioned just now. Only,” they paused a moment to drink their tea, “they pay the price with their time.”

It confused the ghost that he rose a brow from his destroyed eye. “I don’t get it.”

They smiled at him. “The dead has no time to pay me as they’re dead. The living has time used as payment as they’re alive.” Ace looked at Bones who looked at him, waiting for his answer. Why do they meant the living have to pay them while the dead can’t as-

“They’re paying with their life.” Ace answered. Tick rose a cup to toast for his right answer. “Correct. Minutes, hours, days, depends how long they have spent their time to come to me for information drained away the time and how long they have in their life. It certainly does give the Reapers something to be glad about while the Angels,” they shrugged, “they don’t like it. I may work for the dead but I’m not liked by those for ‘meddling’ with the living. It’s a job a time-keeper must do.”

Ace groaned and tossed his head back. “Is something wrong with him?” “Give him time to process, Tick.” Bones assured them. “It can be time-consuming to take it all in.”

“Bones! What did I say about the puns?” He yelled and she chuckled.

[peperoprincess]

Is the key to saving Jack from Anti saving Dr. Schneeplestein?

I forgot to take my phone to work with me last night, and business was absolutely dead. My boss left at 5:30 and I was alone until closing at 9:30 by myself, so for upwards of three hours I spent time ruminating on the whole Anti ordeal and thinking about some of the theories I’d seen. Personally, although I have my own theories and thoughts about what other people are posting, I never really took the time to sit down and actually think through what we already know on my own. But given that I had about four hours last night to do exactly that, and that I’ve been going back and watching old videos featuring the egos, I figured I’d present you guys with my thoughts!! Heads up that this post is going to be a VERY long one, I ended up writing a university-worthy five page essay on what I think is going on behind the scenes, so please stick with it until the end!! I think you might find it interesting if you’re a lore detective like me haha

And who knows, maybe @therealjacksepticeye could share his own thoughts on some of this stuff!

I WOULD ALSO LIKE TO POINT OUT: This theory hinges on the speculation that the good doctor didn’t die at the end of the August 3rd video. I strongly believe he wasn’t killed: there wasn’t any evidence of his dying at the end, and the footage just cuts out. There isn’t any struggle, no signs that there’s anything wrong with Schneeplestein other than losing his patient. So I operate under the assumption that he is still alive.

This whole brainstorm session of mine started with one question: what IS Anti? Some people seem to think he might be a demon, others a sort of computer virus. Considering the fact that, so the story goes, the more you talk about him the stronger he gets, I’d long considered him a sort of ghost/entity. There’s a sort of poltergeist or spirit that functions much the same way, and although the name escapes me, I’d associated him with that sort of thing. But then someone in the tag brought up the RGB lighting, and Anti himself seemed to think that was “clever” (link). I’d been scribbling notes into my sketchbook while writing all these thoughts down, which is what I’m typing up right now into something more cohesive. In my notes, though, I’d written things like “is Anti a separate entity with Jack’s face? Probably not,” or “a (computer) virus? Infection?” I left these thoughts to stew and moved on. Whatever you choose to believe Anti is, the important part is that he is able to do two things, or interact with the other egos (and Jack) in two stages: corruption/control, and possession. Of the two, corrupting or controlling another ego would take the lesser amount of effort. If he acts like a type of virus, for example, corrupting another ego allows him to influence them. However, they still remain in control of their own bodies for the most part. I would like to think that his sort of behaviour manifests in the way the screen glitches when Anti isn’t visible, or when one of the other egos says or does something slightly out of character, reminiscent of Anti (for example, in Dream Daddy when Brian mentions “anti-jokes” and Jack looks at the camera, and deadpan emphasizes Anti, or the recent set of Instagram photos in which Dr. Schneeplestein is featured with a bleeding eye). The second of the two takes significantly more manpower from Anti: possession. Once another ego is corrupted and can be influenced, Anti then shares a link with that ego. Over time, he is able to push his way into the other ego and take control (like we see happen in the August 3rd BIO INC REDEMPTION video, when Dr. Schneeplestein starts to wrap the cord around his own neck, etc. Anti begins taking possession of the Doctor at around 7:45, and becomes increasingly in control. In this case, he was able to fight Anti off temporarily, but in the end Anti pushed through successfully. And of course, the main and most important instance of this type of possession is the SAY GOODBYE video in which Anti makes Jack slit his own throat (and “kills” him).

Now that these main points are established, I’d like to jump a little to another point: Dr. Schneeplestein seems to be a very important lynchpin this time around. Up until this point in time, I never really took Dr. Schneeplestein seriously. Throughout the episodes of Surgeon Simulator, he’s careless and acts unlike any doctor I’ve ever encountered before in my life. His poor patients can’t possibly have ever survived a single one of his operations. Everything is sure to go awry when Schneeplestein enters the room. But then I thought to myself, what if Schneeplestein is, in actuality, much smarter than I’ve given him credit for? What if his interactions with Peter are just plain horsing around? Perhaps we’ve never really seen him take something seriously, which I believe is supported by the way he spoke about his friends in the BIO INC REDEMPTION video. He seemed genuinely distressed to see “Jack’s” systems failing. Seemed pretty serious to me. Now, let’s take for fact, just for the sake of argument, that Schneeplestein is truly a great doctor when it counts. He mentions saving Jack, and gets so incredibly distressed when the systems all start failing: “I will not have you die… not again! I will not lose you. I almost lost you once before” (6:46). We see that he truly cares about Jack and is trying everything in his power to help him, even though clearly we know that this isn’t the real Jack, Schneeplestein gets increasingly agitated and anxious (“Tell me what to do, my friend!” (7:00)). Once Anti starts to take control, it gets increasingly harder and harder for Schneeplestein to fight Anti off, and he goes on to make multiple references to Anti through medications such as antidepressants and anticoagulants as Jack’s systems begin to fail one after another (“Antidepressants… Anti-Anti… we have to get him out of there.” (8:04) and “Yes. ANTI-coagulants.” (8:24))

So, we know that Schneeplestein has saved Jack once before, presumably when Anti slit his throat in the SAY GOODBYE video. I’d like to call to attention the phrasing that Schneeplestein uses. It’s very interesting to note that he says not again, as if implying that Jack died at that time. I’ll address this again in a moment, but there is certainly some ambiguity here. Did Jack really die, or was Schneeplestein over exaggerating? What are the implications if this is true, that Jack was dead and brought back to life? Does he simply mean that Jack flat-lined on the table and that Schneeplestein was able to bring him back? Perhaps the ambiguity is designed to keep us guessing, but based on what I’ve gathered, I’d be more inclined to believe that Jack didn’t actually die after the encounter with Anti, but that he was close to death when Schneeplestein saved him (again, supported by the second half of that quote: “I almost lost you once before!” - Almost).

Next, we also know that Schneeplestein saved Chase. He says as much in BIO INC REDEMPTION: “I saved Peter from the brink. I saved my very good friend Chase, Chase Brody. He went back, saw his family. Did they take him back? We may never know” (4:16). However, I don’t think this is exactly what it seems. When I first heard him say he saved Chase, I immediately thought back to the insanely morbid last few seconds of the Bro Average video, in which Chase seems to shoot himself in the head. Now, I did a little research, and according to this article (link) surviving a bullet to the brain requires a lot of conditions to be met, and even then when the patient survives, it isn’t without a significant amount of damage. According to the article, “a person’s chances of surviving such a trauma to the brain depend on the areas of the brain that are struck, the velocity of the bullet and whether the bullet exits the brain.” Looking at the video, Chase shoots himself at the side of his head, above the ear. The bullet would have passed through both halves of the brain, which would have caused more damage than if the bullet had only affected one of the hemispheres. Not to mention that if the bullet had stayed inside the head, there would again, be a lot more damage done. If he’d hit the thalamus or brainstem, which according to the article “are crucial to consciousness and basic functions such as controlling breathing and the heartbeat,” then his chances of surviving would have been extremely low. So the moral of this little study is this: there is almost no way in hell Schneeplestein could have saved Chase if he’d really shot himself in the head, unless the Doctor was there immediately after the incident and was able to provide a Level 1 Trauma Center’s equipment to deal with the injury. And Schneeplestein isn’t even a neurosurgeon!! And even if we play devil’s advocate and say that Chase did indeed get shot, and Schneeplestein DID save him, then that leads me to question the part of the BIO INC REDEMPTION video in which the good doctor says “I saved Peter from the brink. I saved my very good friend Chase, Chase Brody. He went back, saw his family. Did they take him back? We may never know” (4:16). After a brain injury and subsequent surgery such as this, I’ll be damned if Chase actually went to see his family. We’re talking MAJOR recovery time. I’d also like to point out that just before this point in the video, we see the “Drive-By,” in which Chase seems to be shooting some folks. Are we meant to assume that he shoots at Stacy because she’s divorcing him and taking his kids? Is he shooting at random passers-by? Is it even a real gun? It clearly states “Nerf Edition” below. And if it WAS meant to be a real gun, he went back to see his family so clearly it wasn’t them he shot at, and clearly is wasn’t anyone else since the boy isn’t in jail. Y’know, where he WOULD BE if we took it to be a real drive-by. In either of these cases, his family sure as hell wouldn’t let him come back to see them. Also taking into account that Chase then uses the exact same gun in the “Stacy, I love you, please don’t go” shot. So if it isn’t meant to be a real gun, like I heavily suspect it isn’t, Schneeplestein wouldn’t have any cause to operate or to “save Chase” because nothing happened. So then why does he say he saved Chase? My guess is that something happened off-camera that we didn’t see. The most plausible idea would be that, considering his divorce and his inability to see his kids, Chase fell into a bout of situational depression, which may have hit him hard enough to cause suicidal tendencies. If he mimed killing himself once, he may have actually tried to do so off-camera. If this is where Schneeplestein actually saved him, then perhaps he got Chase the help he needed. Then again, Anti could very well have tried to get to Chase as well, prompting Schneeplestein to have to save him, but we haven’t seen anything like that on screen, or had hints about anything like this dropped. We’d need more video and/or textual proof to really understand why and how Schneeplestein saved Chase. The point of the matter is that, even if Schneeplestein DIDN’T bring the two of them back to life, he’s still a major contender in Anti’s way. The good doctor certain is as his name implies, a good doctor. Just shy of resurrecting egos, he provides them with life-saving medical attention.

Next on the agenda is an interesting little something: Anti needs Dr. Schneeplestein. We saw in Anti’s captions that he was “stitched together,” following a picture posted of the doctor. Clearly Schneeplestein was a necessity, a good choice given the aforementioned detail of administering life-saving medical attention to different egos, as well as the man in charge – Jack. He seems to be the only person who can properly treat Anti. And actually, interestingly, that same photo of the doctor is the one where we see him bleeding from the eye. He’s been corrupted by Anti, influenced by him perhaps, in order for Anti to get him to stitch his neck up. This would explain why Anti hasn’t simply killed the doctor, but instead corrupted him. Also taking into account that Schneeplestein calls Jack his friend on multiple occasions in the BIO INC REDEMPTION video, we know that he would never voluntarily betray Jack. Therefore the only way for Anti to get what he wanted would be to turn Schneeplestein to his side, however briefly. One might argue that this briefness is a result of Schneeplestein’s profession. If, like I mentioned earlier, Anti acts like a disease, an illness, or a virus – computer or otherwise – Schneeplestein has the upper hand. He’s a doctor, and doctors fight viruses and infections. Although Anti eventually manages to take control, Schneeplestein isn’t easily controlled. But then, we also have to take into account that Schneeplestein says “I have never seen something attack a system like this before” (7:30), which would account for how much he has to struggle to keep Anti out (and his subsequent loss of ability to keep Anti from possessing him).

But then it begs the question: why didn’t Anti simply kill the good doctor after having his neck stitched up? My guess is that Anti continuously needs the doctor’s support. If you look back to Anti’s appearance in BIO INC REDEMPTION, his neck is bleeding again. Why would Anti post a photo of a stitched up neck, only to then show up bleeding again? I think that Anti is in constant need of medical attention, and that Schneeplestein is the only one who can give it to him. Perhaps, no matter what he does, the neck wound keeps opening up again and again, time after time. Let’s think about it this way: why does Anti even have that neck wound to begin with? Wasn’t it Jack who slit his own throat? My theory is that any injuries he sustained while inside Jack’s body would remain with him when eventually he came back out of Jack’s body. He tells us in the BIO INC REDEMPTION video that he was in control this entire time, but I’d be willing to bet my left leg that he only said that to make himself sound more powerful than he really is. But in fact, he was not in control the whole time, and he wasn’t in Jack’s body at all. He was weak and suffering and in need of a doctor. Schneeplestein even boasts of his own medical prowess as Anti tries to possess him: “When something gets inside your body and it wants to destroy you from the inside out, there is only one way to deal with it. And that is SCHNEEPLESTEIN” (5:03). Given, he IS talking about expelling Anti from one’s system, and although that would prove to be detrimental to Anti who is trying to take Schneeplestein’s body, it is precisely his skill as a doctor that Anti is in need of.

So then, if Anti is in constant need of medical attention, and has been corrupting Schneeplestein in order to get that medical attention, would it not be detrimental to himself to kill the doctor? So then why would it be our job to save Schneeplestein, if Anti doesn’t even want to kill him? Simple. While it’s true that Anti needs the doctor’s attention to keep stitching up that neck wound of his, it is quite possible that if Jack dies, Anti can simply take over his body permanently and become strong enough to exist on his own without any medical assistance. If he can only corrupt Schneeplestein for short periods of time before the doctor starts to fight back, this means that eventually Schneeplestein will heal whatever harm Anti tries to inflict on Jack. So then, the only way to successfully make the transition from some sort of entity without a body of his own to fully taking over a host body (Jack’s) is to quickly kill the doctor so that he is unable to heal Jack again, and then to deal with Jack before time is up. In this scenario, KILLING THE DOCTOR IS THE CATALYST THAT WOULD LEAD, IN THE END, TO JACK’S (PERMANENT) DEATH.

Given the desperation to Anti’s most recent video appearance, I’d say he’s just desperate enough to go for it. When he first appeared in SAY GOODBYE, Anti was rather calm. Although aggressive with his insistence that we let this happen, he was cocky and self-assured. He was convincing and manipulative. He believed that he was in control, after what he assumed to be a successful attempt to put an end to Jack’s life. He tells us that “his body was weak,” which I could very easily be persuaded to take to mean that Jack was weak, and that with Anti now inhabiting the body, he will be strong. Inside Jack’s body, while possessing him, he forced Jack to slit his own throat (and thus retained the injury when he was pushed from Jack’s body when he was saved by Dr. Schneeplestein). In comparison, this most recent video appearance by Anti is erratic and agitated. Before, he was cocky and comfortable. He thought Jack was dead, defeated, and he was feeling triumphant. But then Schneeplestein fixed Jack and Anti wasn’t able to hold his place in Jack’s body, and was consequently expelled from the body once again. There is significantly more glitching going on, Anti paces back and forth constantly. He seems genuinely angry. He proclaims that we’ve been seeing him all along, that it’s been him in control, when frankly it’s all been a crock of shit. Anti isn’t stronger than ever, he isn’t even in control. He’s desperate, and he knows he’s being pushed aside. He knows we mock him with Glitch Bitch, and it makes him absolutely downright furious. And as a result, he makes bold claims and sweeping grandiose gestures, trying much too aggressively to convince us that he still has the upper hand, to compensate for his uncertainty, when in actuality he’s slipping from his hold more and more.

The long and the short of it is that Anti is weak. He’s getting cagey and we’ve got him on his toes. If we keep Schneeplestein alive, we keep the rest of them alive. It’s quite possible that he keep threatening the other egos, Chase and Marvin, so that the audience is continuously set ablaze. The more agitated we get, the more we talk about Anti, and the stronger he becomes again. Perhaps if we stop reacting, stop giving him the satisfaction, eventually he’ll simply become what he fears the most: nothing.