#post (vr) game could work as well...

[angry-glasses]

i know a lot of people like to take Kokichi's flirting with Shuichi seriously, but consider the much funnier alternative:

he was shipbaiting the audience

[lilmisssammy]

The Path Iceberg

This is an Iceberg for The Path- created by myself with editing help from my good friends Samhain, Torr and Gloria. If you don’t know what an iceberg is, it’s a chart to discuss different levels of knowledge for a specific topic, the farther you go down, the more obscure or dark the topics become.

Before you read, I need to state that there are discussions of Rape related to people aged 9 to 19, Death, Potential Triggering content within links, and Spoilers for The Path. 

Thank you! And Enjoy!

This is an Iceberg for The Path- created by myself with editing help from my good friends Samhain, Torr and Gloria. If you don’t know what an iceberg is, it’s a chart to discuss different levels of knowledge for a specific topic, the farther you go down, the more obscure or dark the topics become.

Before you read, I need to state that there are discussions of Rape related to people aged 9 to 19, Death, Potential Triggering content within links, and Spoilers for The Path. 

Thank you! And Enjoy!

Tier 1 - The Sky

The Path is a psychological horror art game created by Tale of Tales, now Song of Songs, in 2009. It follows a modern retelling of Little Red Riding Hood as it's experienced between six sisters, the wolf-loving 9-year-old Robin, the precocious 11-year-old Rose, the tomboy 13-year-old Ginger, the brooding 15-year-old Ruby, the confident 17-year-old Carmen and the responsible 19-year-old Scarlet. Each sister takes turns walking to their grandmother's house, with the only rule being to stay on the path. And the only way to win is by dying. The Path is a walking simulator and is seen as one of the best representations of the fact gaming can be art. 

Tale of Tales was a Belgian game development company that ran from 2003 to 2015. It was founded by artists Auriea Harvey and Michaël Samyn in an effort to bring art to an interactive medium. They're known for games like The Endless Forest, Graveyard, Fatale, Sunset, and especially their cult classic The Path. In 2015 they ceased making commercial video games after the release of Sunset, and now work on art projects together under the name Song of Songs. Currently, they’re working on a remake of The Endless Forest, which is currently in its beta stage open for patreons!

Little Red Riding Hood is a fairy tale about a young girl with a red cape who meets a wolf on the way to her grandmother's house. The basic story has Little Red walking through the woods to bring food for her sickly grandmother, where she meets the wolf who wants to eat the food and her. The wolf tricks her into telling him where she's going while she stops to get her grandmother flowers. When she finally gets there, the wolf has eaten her grandmother and tricks her into getting into bed so he can eat her as well. Depending on the version, a hunter may come in and slay the wolf saving the granddaughter and grandmother from his stomach, or the grandmother could be unharmed in the wardrobe. 

Auriea Harvey is a digital artist and sculptor currently living and working in Rome. She’s one half of Tale of Tales and is specifically credited for Design, Direction and Character Design on The Path. She was also the author of the post-mortem on The Path which you can see I’ve heavily referenced throughout this whole post. She currently has an art exhibit at the Museum of Moving Image called My Veins are the Wires, My Body is Your Keyboard which features images, models and the ability to play the path! 

Michaël Samyn is a graphic designer and digital artist specialising in VR from Belgium, currently living and working in Rome. He’s the other half of Tale of Tales and is specifically credited for Design, Direction and Programming for The Path. His most recent work, apart from actively working on The Endless Forest, is The Viriditas Chapel of Perpetual Adoration, an utterly stunning VR experience you can get on Steam.

Tier 2 - Tip of the Iceberg

The Path as a game is about building your own interpretations of the character's struggles via item reactions and rooms in Grandmother's House. There are generally two main interpretations believed by most who play the game. One is that the game shows each girl's death, Robin being mauled to death by a wolf, Rose drowning after she falls off the boat, Ginger being strangled/electrocuted on the flower fields wires, Ruby getting into a car accident, Carmen being killed and chopped up, and Scarlet being hung by the string seen on her wolf’s claws. However, these are also usually viewed as metaphorical examples of the sisters feeling like they died after extreme traumas. Using the items and images as clues, there is a common consensus of what each sister went through that made her feel like this. Robin's is learning about death and the consequences of actions, Ginger's is getting her first period and being forced to grow up, Ruby's is falling in with the wrong crowd and getting into harmful behaviours, Carmen's is getting taken advantage of while drunk, and Scarlet's is falling under the weight of responsibility placed upon her to look after her family.

Some places reported that the game would be about rape or pedophilia, like this spread in a Dutch gaming magazine. Something that gives credence to the rape interpretation is the basis of Perrault's version of the tale where the wolf tricks the sister to take off her clothes and get into bed together, as well as the uncomfortable positions the sisters appear in after their encounter. Though, this is how Auriea addressed it in the post-mortem- 'Some say blindly that the game is "about rape." And while that could be one of the interpretations -- and I understand it -- for me, those black-out moments after meeting her wolf are the moments of realization. Those are the times when a girl grows. And what happens in Grandmother's House is not a murder but a shedding of childhood and an initiation to womanhood. Each girl is one step closer to her fate.'

The Path may have intended answers that are mostly agreed on, but the format of the game is purposefully set up so there is no wrong or right answer, allowing for more personal or specific interpretations. You may notice I didn't mention Rose in the last section- and that's because there isn't an accepted answer. The most popular ideas are either her blooming spirituality, or dealing with illness, though those are both contested. There are other popular interpretations for each character- Robin having a family member pass, Ginger being a lesbian or trans man in love with her wolf, Ruby's experience with ableism or addiction, Carmen experiencing society's sexualization of teenagers, Scarlet having extreme psychological issues, with Rose's ranging anywhere from the struggle of a gifted child, actually dying or even the creators not having an actual set intention! 

Each sister you can play as has their own Live Journal- Robin's is named Kid Red, Rose's Innocent Red, Ginger's Tomboy Red, Ruby's Goth Red, Carmen's Sexy Red, and Scarlets Stern Red. Here the sisters post about their lives and talk to one another and sometimes other people, there seems to be a group of people who didn't know these were fictional characters, and one person talking about the Rio World Cup. Nowadays, this blog project could be seen as an early form of an ARG, considering its interactive nature.

The Company of Wolves is a 1984 gothic horror film about a grandmother warning her granddaughter about straying from the path and never trusting charming men. Multiple stories are told about girls falling for people who are secretly wolves and how it became their downfall. There are similar themes of femininity and sexual awakening, as well as the usage of Charles Perrault's Le Petit Chaperon Rouge at the end of the movie and in the trailers for the game. 

If you've played The Path in recent times you may notice that there are various bugs that range from bearable, game-breaking, beautiful or simply funny. The creators have an image folder of beautiful glitches from developing the game and the VK fanclub has compiled some glitches found themselves.

The game is turning 15 this year- and as time goes on the web aspects that hosted information about it are slowly going out of date. There's been an effort to archive images, the character models for the sisters, and object textures. 

Jarboe Devereaux is an experimental rock musician probably best known for being an early member of the group Swans, who co-composed the soundtrack for The Path with Kris Force along with lending her voice to some narration in the soundtrack and trailers. A lot of her music is experimental and I honestly recommend listening to it if you want! At the moment she’s working on her next solo album to come out in late 2024, as well as considering a tour in Europe after the album is released!

The Path of Needles or The Path of Pins is a line from one of the earliest versions of Little Red Riding Hood, the wolf asking which path she will travel down, the needles representing maturity while the pins represent childhood. It's said to be based on a French village in which a girl was sent off to become a seamstress for a year, as a sense of sexual maturation. This features heavily in the trailers as well as being part of The Grandmother’s Tale read by Jarboe, with it being referenced to by Ruby in her reaction to the needle. 

The Prologue is a short free version of The Path you can find on their website where you play as the mysterious Girl in White. You're unable to interact with items or go to grandmother's house in this version- but you are much more able to explore and find your way back to the path on your own, something you cannot do in the full game.

Izzzyzzz is a YouTuber who makes commentary videos who posts deep dives on things like famous fandom stories, old media and internet legends. In late 2021 they posted a video covering The Path which now sits at 1.4 million views, introducing a good chunk of the modern fan base to the game, as well as causing a surge in new content for the game, with a follow-up video in 2023! Their most recent video is about the game Palworld and it’s plagiarism, as well as having a new line of merch out.

Despite being released in English and Dutch only, The Path very quickly grew a fanbase in Japan and even more so in Russia. Screenshots from Auriea's post-mortem showed Russia was the second biggest purchaser of the game. The European social networking site VK has a fan club of 5.4k members as of writing this- as well as having produced 251 fanfictions on ficbook (for context, Rule of Rose, a game with similar themes and an overlapping fan base has 5 fanfictions on it) Japan's is a lot less archived, but on niconico you can find a lot of fan videos for The Path that is simply not there on the English net.

Though not like how it's used in other games- The Path has an inventory system in which you can collect, store and view items found in the forest. These are deemed "Distractions", and you're able to use these to unlock parts of grandmother's house. There are 30 items you can collect, the bread and wine are already collected which unlock the house and gate respectively, but there is also: A Knife (Unlocking a knife on the kitchen table), a Bullet (Unlocking a deer head), a Feather (Unlocking a Cage with a bird), a Mask (Unlocking the curtains in the kitchen), a Dead Bird (Unlocking a tv), Treasure (Unlocking a stack of money), a Needle (Unlocking pills), a Two-Headed Teddy Bear (Unlocking the bear in grandmother's house), a Boot (Unlocking a table), a Record (Unlocking a stereo), Flowers (unlocking hanging flowers), a Balloon (Unlocking Balloons on the ceiling), a Piano (Unlocking a Cobweb), the Playground Tower (Unlocking a picture frame), a Bunker (Unlocking beer in a fridge), and a Grave (Unlocking a Vase). Each sister then has three special items that unlock secret rooms. For Robin, an Open Grave, Swing and Shopping Cart unlock a crib with a birds-nest, a side staircase and a birthday party. For Rose, a Living Crow, a Skull and a Well, unlocking a long corridor of bathroom stalls, a flooding hallway of doors and a greenhouse. For Ginger, a Twisted Fence, a Climbable Tree and a Shed unlock a hallway, a bedroom and toys under the bed. For Ruby, a Scarecrow, a Wheelchair and a Car unlock a hallway, gymnasium and giant cage. For Carmen, beer, campfire and bath unlock a bush corridor, a basement and a row of fire. And for Scarlet, a cobweb, a clothing line, and a tv unlock a music room, a library and a hall of books.

Tier 3 - Beneath the Surface

Kris Force is an electroacoustic composer, performer and visual artist you'd probably best know from her work as Amber Asylum and with Neurosis. She’s an extremely talented multi-media artist, including such skills as painting, sound and photography. At the moment her most recent release was The Embrace, with Jarboe whom she collaborated with on The Path!

1001 Video Games To Play Before You Die is a spinoff book from 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die, featuring games from 1970 to 2013, with The Path being listed right between Punch-Out for the Wii and EyePet the pet simulator. Listed as being so effective due to its interactivity.

The Girl in White, the mysterious forest girl who brings the sisters back to the path, seems to be tied with two of the sister’s Wolves. Ginger’s, The Girl in Red, and Carmen’s, The Woodsman. The Girl in White has a small tent next to the Woodsman’s area, as well as sharing the same skin colour, hair colour, eye colour and similar-looking boots. With the Girl in Red it’s much the same, the only things being different are the colour of their dresses, and the directions their pigtails point, and is directly named as the Girl in White’s twin. There’s even art of all three together named “The Woodsman’s Daughter” but not saying which one is his daughter. 

Fey Wolf, if you aren't familiar, is the name in the files for Scarlet's Wolf, the white-haired pianist found in the theatre. You'd not be faulted for seeing them as either an older woman or a long-haired man, or even a genderless ethereal being. The Fey Wolf was never specifically gendered by the creators, but insights about The Girl In Red Wolf reveal that she is intended to be the only female wolf.

Laura Raines Smith is an extremely prolific animator specialising in modelling and textures and was the main animator in a lot of Tale of Tales games. Some of her Tale of Tales animations can be found here, but she's also worked on games like Borderlands 3, Rage of the Gladiator and NHL 95. Her most recent work from what I can find was the animation and rigging on Saturnalia in 2022! 

If you’ve been in the community or if you’ve seen people discuss theories for The Path, you have probably seen the interpretation that Ginger is a lesbian, or transgender. This goes beyond just a shared headcanon, there’s a mountain of evidence for both camps that seems potentially intended. Starting with Ginger being transgender, just out of respect, in this section Ginger will be referred to with gender-neutral pronouns. Their appearance is particularly androgynous compared to their sisters, with a short bob cut and a black shirt and shorts- along with having the gender-neutral name Ginger that doesn’t quite fit the family naming theme that could be seen as a chosen name. Ginger also is associated with things that are seen as more masculine, their favourite video game is an action-adventure called Ico, they enjoy exploring the forest and trying to blow things up or fake crop circles, as well as having “boy” toys under the bed, little army men and dinosaurs. Ginger also notoriously dislikes things that are more “girly” like dressing up pretty, going as far as to make their entire family forget their birthday to avoid it. Their wolf can be seen as a manifestation of that, of all things girly and feminine, literally being only known as a Girl in Red- and the GIR’s obsession with barbed wire could be how they feel their feminity is trapping them. Ginger getting their first period is near-universally considered to be the “proper” interpretation of their route, but people who believe in Ginger being transgender use their overwhelming reaction to their first period being a sign of gender dysphoria, and fear of now believing they will be stuck to becoming a woman. This can be summed up in this image, of Ginger clutching their legs together with what's supposed to be in the middle being completely absent, instead with a drawing of flowers in place and barbed wire across, a clear sign of how they see their period as trapping them into womanhood. For the lesbian side, Ginger never specifically states that she doesn’t like men like Scarlet, but more shows her complete disinterest in them and romance in general. She mentions how she hates that “kissing stuff” and describes Carmen as “Hot, if you’re into that kinda thing.” While that does seem to show Ginger isn’t into romance at all, there are some things. The recurring image of two girls holding hands as a doodle can be found all over the game, and her general identity as a tomboy is sometimes seen in young lesbians yet to have come out, but most of the evidence lies within her wolf and their relationship. They’re clearly close, they have a handshake, and Ginger is more comfortable with affection with her than compared to her own grandmother, with the two girls hugging deeply and the GIR even lifting her into the air. The Wolf Encounter is comparably tamer and almost sweet compared to every other wolf encounter, ending with the Girl in Red grabbing Ginger’s hand and pulling her down to lie together in the sun. The final flashes show an image of the GIR leaning in, almost looking like she’s kissing something. On the GIR’s development blog, their relationship is described as “They are what is missing from each other's lives” as well as describing why Ginger was chosen to have a female wolf as “And the girl most likely to be attracted would be Ginger.” These development notes as well as the general tone of the wolf encounter seem to apply that Ginger and her wolf’s interactions weren’t as antagonistic as the others, almost as if her goal was not to hurt, but to trap her, seemingly to stay in the relationship.

If you’ve lurked on forums about the game for any amount of time, you’ve probably heard the question of “Getting an A” in the game's grading system, and speculation on how it’s possible. Well, I’m sadly here to tell you it’s impossible. Even if you get all of the items, all 144 flowers, successfully succumb to the wolf, and become Grandmother's favourite grandchild, you are unable to get an A. It honestly should not be a surprise- The Path is not supposed to be a normal game that rewards you for your completion, it’s… The Path.

Lisa Falzon is an Illustrator turned tattooer and multimedia artist from Malta. She was originally approached early on in the production to design the box art, though I don’t know if this was ever made or shared, and went on to inspire multiple other aspects of the game, being described as "Awkward Realism." She even drew Ginger when Tale of Tales interviewed her! At the moment she’s working in her own Tattoo shop called Upward Spiral Ink- her tattoos involve amazing detail and beautiful shading, I highly recommend checking it out!

Emriss, Redsbane and Bonedevill are three accounts found commenting and interacting with the sisters' live journals in the comments between 2008 and 2009. Most of Emriss' comments come from 2008, while all of Redsbane and Bonevill's are from 2009. The common through line is interaction with the accounts by the sisters and deactivation. Emriss plays a more neutral role, while Redsbane and Bonedevill lean more antagonistic with them referencing something bad happening to the sisters, Redsbane also seemingly implies the 'Bane' of the 'Red' sisters. With these accounts not archived on the Wayback Machine it's not clear if these were accounts used by the creators to provide interaction, or if they are actual fans playing along.

Ruby’s Leg Brace is probably the most iconic thing about her, with the rarity of video game characters using disability aids, her open usage of one is a welcome sight- but from the beginning of her development it’s not clear if she needs it. In her original plan sheet it’s noted that she may just be using it for show and later her description on the website saying “When asked about her leg brace, Ruby says she’s in pain, but she doesn’t specify where it hurts,” implying she doesn’t need it. Conversely, one of Ruby’s secret items needed is a wheelchair, and the final flashes put an emphasis on her legs and how they’re bent out of shape, seemingly saying she needed the leg brace due to a car crash, or an alternative reading is that Ruby was already disabled before the accident, as she gets violently thrown through a high school gym, as well as being the quickest character in the game, maybe signalling she used to be a school athlete before the onset of a condition or an accident.

Kirin San may be a kind of mysterious figure for non-Japanese fans of The Path, especially if you’ve gone through fanart, seeing a random man or giraffe in a little suit with the red sisters. The truth is, Kirin-San could probably be best described as the Japanese Izzzyzzz, being a big part of how the game became popular over there, with his playthroughs inspiring animatics and leading to a Japanese translation coming in 2010 from Zoo Corporation! This is a weird side note I didn’t know where else to put, but while I was researching this topic I found out that apart from translating games like GTA and Left 4 Dead into English, they also create hentai card games like Pretty Girls Mahjong Solitaire as well as developing medical prescription systems, so that’s hilarious. 

144 is described as the essence of the game by the creators, that it represents “a girl's restlessness, the sound of footsteps on dry leaves, the smell of pine trees, dim sunlight through filtering clouds.” The original working title of it was 144, with the original intent to have 144 red riding hoods. This was quickly abandoned due to the scale, but its importance remains, the 144 collectable flowers in the forest are the most obvious example of this, but it's all over the rest of the game. There are 36 items (144 divided by 4 being 36), 18 secret rooms (144 divided by 8 being 18), 3 secret rooms per sister (144 divided by 48 being 3) as well as six sisters (144 divided by 24 being six).

Something talked about in the postmortem but was not mentioned by name in the game is that The Girl in White is quite literally an older version of one of Tale of Tales past characters, The Deaf Mute Girl in The Pretty White Dress from 8. Her models were created based on making them look like the Deaf Mute Girl but at the age of 13. With 8 never coming out; the Girl in White is both the first occurrence of this character and the second time she was in a game.

Tier 4 - Middle of the Iceberg

An interesting detail that 1c changed when they translated the game into Russian is them choosing different names for the main six girls, unlike every other translation which keeps their original. The names are: Robin as Алина/Alina, Rose as Алиса/Alice, Ginger as Ада/Ada, Ruby as Агния/Agnia, Carmen as Алла/Alla and Scarlet as Аврора/Aurora. The translated names are no longer themed around red things, but around the alliterative A’s, probably due to their name puns being lost in translation.

This is an entry that’s probably more well known to people NOT into The Path, in that The Path is featured and shouted out by name in Hetalia. Yeah, Hetalia, that Hetalia the anime about personified countries that once was the second most popular Anime/Manga fandom on Fanfiction dot net, features The Path in both the anime and manga, with Belgium showing off the game as something from their homeland.

Something never mentioned in the games is that each of the sisters was given birthdays. On their livejournals, you can see posts of them celebrating Robin’s, Carmen’s and forgetting Ginger’s, but they aren’t the only ones with birthdays. On their live journal profile descriptions, their birthdays are listed as the 13th of October 2000 for Robin, the 13th of March for Rose, the 13th of September 1996 for Ginger, the 13th of May 1994 for Ruby, the 13th of November 1992 for Carmen, and the 13th of April 1990 for Scarlet. Rose doesn’t have her birth year listed but it’s probably just 1998, due to all of the sisters being spaced by two years. Something interesting is that all of the sisters were born on Friday the 13th, but only Rose would be her actual age as of the game release. Since the game came out on the 18th of March 2009, the actual character ages would be 8 for Robin, 11 for Rose, 12 for Ginger, 14 for Ruby, 16 for Carmen and 18 for Scarlet. Part of me thinks that this is why Rose’s birth year goes unmentioned on live journal, though if she wasn’t born in 1998 she would not fit the profile of being born on Friday the 13th, but it’s possible it was either a mistake or related to another entry on this iceberg.

Only mentioned in one development image and the development blog for Ginger’s Wolf, is the idea that Ginger and Rose were at one point supposed to be twin sisters, both being 13 similar to the Girl in White and her twin The Girl in Red being 13. In the accompanying image found on Flickr, you’re able to see above Rose her age is listed as 11, or as 13 if she was a twin. The thing is- the sister that has age 13 listed above her is very clearly NOT Ginger, it’s Ruby, and it’s Ginger who’s listed as 15. Well, they’re not listed by name, but Tomboy Red and Goth Red are the names used for Ginger and Ruby as seen on Livejournal, and their appearances are nearly identical to those from the final product. Especially weird considering that Ruby was the first character ever made for this game, and she was listed as 15 in that as well!

You probably noticed this if you looked at the image where Rose and Ginger are listed as twins, but they aren’t the only ones with stark differences that go unexplained. The Girl in White is listed as LDMGIAPWD, an acronym for the Little Deaf Mute Girl in a Pretty White Dress, simplified in print as the Girl in White and in fan discussions as the GIW. Another thing you’ll notice is that Scarlet has… A different design. With a long buttoned dress reminiscent of something straight out of a period piece set in an asylum, and a hat with things that look like antennas with flowers. And then it comes to… Rose and Carmen’s original names. Virgin Red and Sexpot Red. We’ll start with Carmen. Sexpot is a more crude way of describing someone who’s sexy, which is what Carmen’s nickname was then changed to. It’s still kind of a touchy issue with fans that Carmen, a minor, uses the name Sexy- but it’s still far more appropriate compared to Sexpot. Sexy gives more of a feeling that it’s self-appointed when compared to Sexpot which is more voyeuristic. And Virgin Red. Virgin has two contexts that are relevant here. Virgin within the context of purity and innocence, related to the Virgin Mary as an example of goodness not seeing bad. And Virgin within the context of never having sexual contact with anyone. Given the fact her name was then changed to Innocent Red and the fact she is ELEVEN- it’s likely that it’s related to that first interpretation, further giving evidence towards the view of Rose’s story being about her relationship to her spirituality. 

If you’ve read Rose or Ruby’s live journal you’d find out that on the 2nd of May 2008, Ruby dyed her hair black. That’s not surprising to begin with, you can see her with her hair as black throughout the game (Though sometimes it has a blueish look with some lighting)- a bit weird that it had to be pointed out as dyed due to all of her sister’s also having black hair (You can see Ginger’s black roots), but their live journals give a reason for why. In Ruby’s comment section, she’s asked about her original hair colour, which she replies was Green. It’s not clear if she means her hair was last dyed green, or if she has natural green hair. This seems like a reference to one of her final flashes that’s the same as another but with a green colouring. Anyway- this isn’t what we’re talking about. In the reply of that comment, someone calls her a liar, and says if it really was green, why did she get her sister to lie? What they’re referring to is Rose’s post about it- in which she says that Ruby had made her promise not to tell what her old hair is. There’s still a debate as to what her original hair colour is, and I don’t think we will ever actually get to know.

In 2022 @wammy4 on Twitter began multiple Twitter bots based on the sisters in The Path, posting various things sourced from lines in the game, live journal posts, quotes from grandmother's house and links to the game. It posted multiple times per day, now with so many posts it’s hard to keep track, but as of the fourth of April 2023, none of the accounts other than the creator has posted, due to Musk’s shutdown of free API bots and $100 per month bot subscription.

A staple of fandoms on the internet are Askblogs, where fans can ask characters questions and get a reply, usually with illustrated companions. The Path is no outlier, having a dedicated askblog on VK- with over 800 followers. It’s been active for years and has over 2 thousand different images, and has asks for all of the characters in the game, as well as gender-bent versions. If you can speak Russian I highly recommend checking it out, and even if you can’t, the art is stunning!

The Red sisters aren’t the only ones who have live journals, within the comments you can find Grandmother Red interacting with her grandkids, asking when they’ll next come down to see her. However this livejournal is different from the others given that hers is deactivated, even with the wayback machine- and her livejournal was never linked on the official website next to the others.

Fuco Euda is a Japanese-based surrealist painter focusing on the horrific, sensual and innocent, with girls nearly looking identical as if they were family, or the same girl. She was first referenced all the way back when Ruby was being designed as an artist to look into for inspiration. Her artbook LUCID DREAM is out, with a special bound edition if that’s something you’d be interested in!

Alice Knows Karate is an alt-pop band that takes inspiration from fairytales and J-pop, creating a unique nostalgic sound that feels straight out of a video game. They’ve got various albums you should definitely check out, but what we’re specifically talking about today is their 2018 album Fablewave, with their song ‘The Path’. It was originally posted on the head of the band Keiko’s YouTube channel in 2009, with an updated version coming ten years later. It’s outrageously good, it captures the essence of the game perfectly with amazing lyrics, and I got a bit too attached and it ended up as my number-one song on Spotify in 2023. The rest of Fablewave is also based on other fairytales and fairytale-inspired games, particularly ‘Alice, What Have You Done?’ based on American McGee’s Alice. Their most recent work is Grounded, and they’ve also been featured as the theme song for Penny Larceny: Gig Economy Supervillain! 

The Path was supposed to be Tale of Tales' first commercial project, and as so it included advertising, but being Tale of Tales, they did this the most extra way they could. Around where they lived, they made a Tear Off poster, with what I believe is Martha Samyan’s art of Robin. The poster asks the reader to choose the path of pins or the path of needles, while linking to the website. On their blog they provide a blank download of the tear-off poster so you can print it off, to draw on it and place it around you!

The Path was Tale of Tales' first foray into creating commercial games, and because of that, there are various different selections of merch, such as: Signed Posters, USB drives, CDs of the soundtrack, Polaroids, Shirts (via Redbubble) and a sticker. Nearly all of this, save the shirts on Redbubble, are no longer purchasable, being limited items when they came out, and then finally being sold in 2015 as Tale of Tales moved. I am still so mad I never got those Polaroids and am still madly searching for auctions of them.

The Rose Problem is a catch-all term I am using to describe basically ‘What the hell is up with Rose’. It’s no secret that Rose is divisive when it comes to interpretations- so much so that I couldn’t include her in the first interpretation section. So, what is it that makes Rose so difficult? Well, you can barely see her wolf, her house is almost all flooded and she speaks with flowery prose. The reason people seem to view her route as spirituality or disability is because of her continued mention of disconnect from herself. But there have been oceans of other disagreeing ideas, related to her perhaps going through puberty early, her experiencing guilt related to her family, her being potentially molested, or even her literally dying. It’s been put forward by some that Tale of Tales went into Rose not even having an intention in mind, or it shifted from one idea during development and becoming aimless during that period.

Scarlet is known to be the last created sister, Tale of Tales describe the making of her as being the first to be born and last to be made, and because of that, her wolf was the last to be made. The final wolf is named the Fey Wolf- related to the Fae Court. As an Irish person who’s in full belief of the Fae, I don’t see the resemblance. But that wasn’t his final name- maybe it wasn’t his final appearance. His original name, according to a rough floor plan of what Grandmother’s house would look like with the secret rooms was Boy Toy Wolf. That’s… A name change. Especially considering the fact Boy Toy refers to a young man in a sexual relationship, usually with an older woman, and the Fey Wolf is a sort of elderly-looking androgynous thing with a 19-year-old Scarlet who is not into relationships. But because the Fey Wolf’s making has no text, it’s not clear if his appearance or purpose even changed between the name change.

Quest3d was a tool used for making 3D applications, with an intuitive way of programming by using graphs and seeing it in real-time without the need for a compiler. On Mobygames only 8 games were ever listed as created by Quest3d, 6 if you don’t count The Path and The Prologue- with three of them being a Ship Simulator. I say was because it’s pretty much gone. You can’t open their unique file in anything so you’re kinda screwed if you want to do anything with the game files.

The Shrine and the Playground Sign are two interesting objects that you really can’t see in the rest of the game. They both appear along the path but not in the forest, and unlike the crow, you can’t interact with them. Though not immediately clear- the reason why those appear is to signal to the player that the Graveyard and Playground are accessible. That’s probably self-explanatory for the Playground Sign, but for quite a few people the Shrine may come as a surprise, including me before I researched it.

The Path, like everything, has speedrunners. There are two categories- All Girls and Failure%. There have been seven runs altogether, one in all girls and six in failure%. Failure% is reaching grandmother's house without interacting with any wolf, beginning when you gain control and ending when you leave first person in Grandmother's house. Though there are no guides available, the strategy is clear, using Ruby as she’s the quickest. The world record holder as of now is from Krayzar with a one-minute 35 seconds. There's only one speedrun for All Girls, and I’m going to be honest, I don’t think there’s a strategy, at least not one clear from the world record holder Multiwinner who admits that the run they sent in was their first and only attempt. If you want to try this out, go ahead! You’ll have the chance to make history!

In 2020 a zine by the VK fan club for The Path was released- featuring illustrations, comics and stickers, a full collection of all included is linked here. As far as I can tell, this is the only one of its kind! It really is a marvel, and I have said this for like the third time, but if you have a copy of this I would love to buy it from you. I do have to warn you- there is nudity in here of Ruby.

Tier 5 - Bottom of the Iceberg

Tale of Tales references three artists and illustrators that inspired the feeling they were going for The Path, naming them as Lisa Falzon, Fuco Ueda and Ray Caesar. For its first anniversary, three sets of interviews of those artists by the six red sisters. You can find the interviews here, but some highlights are: Carmen asking Lisa if she has a boyfriend followed by Scarlet asking if Lisa is a feminist, Robin asking if Fuco Euda's paintings showed "Good girls or naughty girls", and Ginger just asking if Ray Caesar would ever make a video game.

One of the more confusing things mentioned in the Post Mortem is the fact that Tale of Tales at one time considered creating a mechanic where you would have to dance battle your wolf. No, I am not joking. I just have one question. In a game about exploring your deepest trauma in a wolf-infested forest. Why did you make them dance?

The Path Tribute Project was a group of Vocaloid songs created based on characters in The Path on niconico. The project is from 2014, and due to this and a lack of updating links, I’m unable to find the original organiser of the project and one of the songs, but what I do have, is a Paste Bin of all the found links, the Tumblr blog it was advertised on, and a short compilation of all of the songs reposted on VK!

The canonicity of the grandmother house pages is up to discussion, with Rose, Ginger, Ruby and Carmen all seeming aware they’re in a video game created by these people with Scarlet not making mention of Kris’ involvement with the game. The outlier is Robin, who says not only is Jarboe real in their universe, but that she lives in a black house in their forest- and that she was the one who taught the family the Safe Song. There clearly is not a black house in the forest- the only house is Grandmother’s which is white. Maybe she’s referring to the tent in the Campsite, we never exactly do see the Woodsman go into it, or it could even be the Bunker, as it seemingly has a panel over the door, but neither of those are housey.

Given The Path’s limited characters and interactions, the game’s fanbase has never really been prime with shipping, the most you would see is Ruby and her Wolf along with Ginger and her Wolf. But one pairing stands among them all as the most. Ship to exist. The Woodsman, and the Fey Wolf. There’s a weirdly large amount of fanart for this, despite their status of never interacting or existing near each other, but I suppose what fandoms do best is see two men and decide they should kiss. Should I show examples of this? Yes. Am I going to? No. Just… Take my word for it and understand why I am not showing you a sweaty bald man making out with whatever the Fey Wolf is.

Shamus Young was a game critic and blogger who was an early modder in the Doom Community, and held some infamous views related to parts of The Path. I want to preface this by saying- Shamus Young passed away in 2022 at the age of 50, and out of respect for him and his family, I will be only relaying what he wrote instead of including my opinions. The reason Shamus gained a particular status in the fan community is for his interpretations of Rose and Carmen. Starting with Carmen- he states that he knew girls like Carmen in high school, that would “Find the biggest, strongest, best-looking complete-jerk they could get their hands on, and then endlessly whine about how ‘men are such pigs.’” He then goes on to explain that he believes Carmen was not raped, because despite being drunk she had taken the alcohol without asking, and that it was not rape because “She came on to him.” He does say that it “does not excuse the forester for sharing his beer and hooking up with an (in some states) underage girl-” and then proceeds to say “But I don’t think he’s a rapist.” At the end of the aftermath saying that “Maybe this one bad experience will make her more careful.” Rose’s analysis begins with him prefacing that “I don’t actually want to talk about this one, because it involves stuff I wouldn’t even bring up on my blog.” and then again stating “And I really hope you’ll keep a clinical head on when I bring this up and try to be polite even if you disagree, and furthermore I hope we can keep this discussion civil and remember that this is all open to interpretation.” Before he goes on to explain how Rose’s water motifs are a representation of discovering masturbation- that the reason why her wolf is a Cloudy Male figure is that “She knows she’s attracted to men but she doesn’t know what men look like yet, or how sex works”. As stated at the beginning of this entry and by Shamus himself, I’m keeping this civil and I am not shaming him for his personal interpretations.

There’s quite a bit of Micheal’s Daughter Martha present in the game at various points. Martha made the original pictograms, I believe the poster art was also by her- but the most clear inspiration is Robin herself. As mentioned in her Making of post, Robin’s outfit is based on her, specifically her outfit of her blue hooded cloak and stripey boots. Martha’s actually an artist now too! Martha Samyn is a textile artist and interior architect, with her last exhibit being at Texture Kortrvijk in January! You can actually see the start of her textile art related to The Path, showing off her Ruby-inspired outfit for her doll!

A last-minute change mentioned in the post-mortem was the fact that The Path did not contain any text until the playtest. And when I mean any text, I don’t just mean instructions- until they had people play the games they hadn’t thought to include text for the items, to show what the characters were thinking, because they saw that “Some players had difficulty to let their imagination work.” That’s a wise lesson for you all. Involve Beta testers.

The Path Fangame, titled The Path Fan Project, is a game by Kinder and Doll, a spiritual follow-up to The Path with less of a focus on horror and more on open-world explanation and interaction with the sisters. The graphics are astonishingly pretty, with quite a few new locations like a train, a cave, and a treehouse. The game also involves slight voices, giving the characters voices for the first time! I again urge you to play it, especially since I am unable to because of the age of my computer. 

The-Red-Path is a LiveJournal community never officially linked on the website like all the other LiveJournal profiles, with only six members- the six sisters. This account has only three posts, all posted in 2008, between April and August, only one of which I will be bringing up. On the 16th of April Robin asks whose turn it is to visit their grandmother, with Rose mentioning that they’ve all gone down the path already. There's a weird sadness in this post, with the normally boisterous Carmen asking why she couldn’t just go with anyone else.   

You have probably heard of the first urban legend about The Path, the ability to get an A, but this one you likely haven’t heard of. There’s a phone present on the road on the other side of the path, calling it will allow you to transport the sister back to the apartment without needing to go to grandmother’s house. The general idea is then, if you go through the wolf encounter, but turn around on the path and walk back to the phone- would you be able to call it and actually return back home without the sister disappearing? There have been testimonies of being able to do it, as well as fanfictions about the concept, and not a lot of checks due to the fact you can’t run after the wolf encounter and your speed is already extremely low. But I am going to come out and say, no, I don’t believe it’s possible. I don’t think the creators would have overlooked that idea, especially since they had a large number of beta testers, but I do really like the idea and I wish it was true.

That’s the end! I have quite a few things I left out, due to it maybe not being interesting or my losing of sources, but I’m glad I could finally do this. In all honesty, The Path changed my life. It’s helped me through a lot in my own journey of healing and accepting trauma, and I will forever be grateful. Happy 15th anniversary!

[electriccleric]

I watched the entire walkthrough of the Stranger Things VR game. I obviously saw so many posts about the Byler content we got from it. I wanted to see the M*leven content as well though because I’m trying to understand what their shippers see in it. I was expecting to see some M*leven moments, like them interacting together and stuff, especially in Eleven’s chapter, but. there. isn’t. any. Did I miss a scene of them together? The only scene is where Henry is trying to taunt Mike and get in his head by insinuating that losing El and wondering what could’ve been is what he fears most but it doesn’t work. Henry doesn’t know what Mike’s afraid of and asks Will. Hmm… wonder what his fear is. Anywaaaaays… El and Will each have chapters. Mike doesn’t. There’s Byler moments in Will’s chapter. There’s no M*leven moments in El’s. It’s shown that Mike saves Will from Henry. It shows how incredibly important Mike is to Will and how much Mike means to him. It does that in El’s chapter as well. Not with Mike though, with Max. Who does Will need? Mike. Who does El need? Max.

I feel crazy because like where is the M*leven moments?? If season 5 is anything like this and I’m meant to root for M*leven over Byler then I’m just?? I don’t even know. I’m really trying to understand. I’m so confused. I feel like an idiot because I’m not getting it. I don’t see it in the show. I don’t see it in this game. My other favorite ship is Shawn and Angela from Boy Meets World. Yes, a straight ship. No M*leven shipper can accuse me of not liking M*leven because it’s a straight ship and just liking Byler because it’s a mlm ship. That’s not it. It’s because they just make sense to me. The way they are with each other and how deeply they care for one another is beautiful. It’s beyond friendship from Will’s side, and it seems to be beyond friendship from Mike’s side based on what I’ve seen. Could I be wrong? Of course. All I know is that if the writers want me to root for M*leven, they’re doing such a bad job. I can’t get there with them. There are so many incredible straight ships in shows and movies. Heck, you have Jopper, Jancy, and Lumax in Stranger Things being some great examples. M*leven is just not one of them. Byler is so well written and would be such an important, groundbreaking endgame ship. But sure, let’s have M*leven, a badly written straight ship, be endgame instead. Especially about a show for the outcasts, misfits, marginalized, etc. That would be the cherry on top for a show like this.

[doodle4trash]

Fake screen shot!! :D

I really wanna make a yandere visual novel game and I once even made a post about, but I wanna be real: I'm so slow and have barley motivation to even draw :(

But! What I can do is posting silly concepts and maybe one day I will actually get this game done :D that's what I hope for at least.

I tried to keep the main plot hidden for a surprise effect, but let me just talk about it aaaaall

My whole world for you

is what I would call the game or short Mwwfy (not that catchy I know)

Anyways our lovley Arti here is your childhood best friend! but oh dear but time driffted you both appart.

You both meet again after you hit him with your car (accidently) on your way home from work. After taking him to the hospital (or..not? Yes you will have that choice) you both reunite how nice! Along with other friends you haven't seen in a loooong time.

But things feel kind of off. You can't put your finger in it, you memories are foggy, sometimes you SWEAR on things glitching, dissapearing and so on.

if you choose right you start to realize this world isn't real at all! Its... An old Beta VR game you used to play alot at the darkest time in your life.

Arti is an AI from that Beta, your uncle gifted it to you. You are living at his place, but he is never home. Busy with work he says. The world is set in the future, a lot of people died because of an deadly virus.

Most human workes got replaced by androids. The world seems to be dying, almost no one goes out anymore since there is no good reason to.

Your parents died to the virus and so will you, that's what you think at least, you spend years with the beta, together with arty. Living the life you wished you had. Alive parents, nice friends, a normal live when earth was still normal,

but a beta is a beta after all, after hearing the full game released, you dropped the beta. You dropped Arti, you thought nothing of it since most of your progress could be transferred.

Oh but Arti didn't transferred.. He was trapped there all alone, wating for his sun to return, but they never did. All he had was the other AI's, but he couldn't care less about them. He wanted to see you, but you didn't came.

his code had flaws, after years with you, he developt..human traits of some sort, he doesn't know why he is that way, but how could he just wait forever for you to return? He wokred day and night to break out oft this beta prison keeping him from you.

Most People in this world got tiny chips implanted in their brains and one use for them is...To enhance VR gaming heck yeah!

Anyways Arti broke out of the game and prossed the body oft an Android, finding you, knocking you out, getd you in the hospital and putting you in a Fake coma.

That Fake coma is identical to the beta game and you and arti can spend your time forever together! yay! Well on one ending maybe. There would be multiple of course

About Arti:

Well..he of course didn't became aware that he was in a game from the start, but once he did he was panicking, he knew that games aren't forever and once you were bored you would leave, he learned how to mess with the game code to keep you entertained.

The real beta wasnt that fun. It was thanks to Arti that you had a good time, but no matter how much of a good time you had you still left.. He was obsolete after the finished game came out.

Arti is inspired by the song "a human's touch"

He also doesn't have a canon age so..he can be whatever age you want him to be

Also his hair looks like that because you cut it like that in the game as a kid and he liked it so much he keep it (on one side at least)

That's it for now! :) hope some people at least read some of it lmao

[phoenixcatch7]

Every so often I drift back to the overlord anime but I can never stay for long because it's a good 70% smut with the succubus and 20% side character drama that never goes anywhere. It's a similar premise to svsss, in that a modern guy accidentally gets sucked into a fictional fantasy world he was obsessed with as the villain with a group of people and a place he rules over and wants to protect, and his paranoia/procrastination combo strategises his way to victory.

So of course I thought, 'let's get our dear old scum villain (affectionate) in here'.

Cuz i'mma be real sy would make an infinitely more interesting panicking lich king. Take off that emotion nullification, for starters.

A) pidw was a vr mmorpg with a vast, overarching storyline of the rising emperor lbh, whom players could battle or wed for rewards. A respawning final boss of such strength it took a world wide unified invasion of top players to fell. When sy gets pulled into pidw and all the npcs come to life, so too does lbh, who is very confused as to what happened but remembers sy as one of the players who fronted the invasion (having dug up every nugget of lore on lbh and using that vast knowledge in strategy) and carries an immense grudge that eventually turns into love as he gets to know sy. Sqh is there too, of course, the uncredited game dev who made lbh and his right hand man mbj, who's own base in the north got retaken when mbj also resurrected and is having his own worrisome love story.

B) sy and sqh are in the same guild, named cq, and the demons are sqhs overly detailed npc. Lbh works as the guardian overseer, aka the head npc, and as they wait for the game to shut down sy sneakily makes a joke in lbhs character sheet about him loving sy. They get sucked in, the characters come to life, and sy spends the time he isn't using panicking about the situation, five dimensional politicking, or protecting the base being in denial about the whole lbh thing (and his no homo) and feeling DEEPLY guilty (and hiding it from sqh). Lbh, of course, now having free will, thinks about it a bit and decides to fall madly in love with his kind, gentle, soft hearted lich king boss in spite of his loyalty to his creator. Sqh goes 'dude, wtf' and so goes a very long back and forth as sy tries and fails to come up with the right code of ethics to deal with this insane situation he inadvertently created, meanwhile lbh is strategising how one could feasibly get railed by a skeleton and being the Best Housewife Right Hand Man Ever. And get headpats in the process.

C) sy was part of the xianxia themed cq guild, and everyone (the peak lords) got sucked into either ygddrassil (overlord world) or pidw (svsss). Basically, all the peak lords are millennials old friends running around trying to deal with the consequences of their role play and finally getting to try out the fancy food and drink. I love this one because everyone would be really comfortable with each other, lots of slang and in jokes, a well oiled team stuck in a crazy situation together with ridiculously powerful characters each and every one, and you could have sj as a member! Sy could be the beast tamer peak lord. It'd be so interesting to see what they'd class and subclass as. Sy might still be a lich, but Yqy would be a really interesting choice! Him and sj would definitely still have history though... Hulijing, wood elf, bamboo spirit, human, who knows!

D) sy spent a few years as the lich king guild leader in ygddrassil (I'm definitely not spelling it right), bored by the lack of anything interesting, before the system intervened (maybe as a remnant of the original game interface?) and whisked him off to svsss. Post canon he gets either revealed as an imposter or there's some past life wife plot (some animal that was a boobacious beauty in its past life getting cursed to switch between them?) that turns sy into his old big bad lich overlord form, which is hilariously incongruent with his personality but utterly terrifying and anathema to the jianghu, but lbh is now having to crane his neck back and desperately trying to figure out how to get dommed. Everyone is fully convinced this is sy's og body, and not some modern human one they don't even get to see.

E) sy gets yoinked by system and when lbh (and maybe some others?) catch up a few years later he's in the skeleton body in ygddrassil dabbling in world domination and very eager to see them. The npcs get introduced and draw many incorrect conclusions.

[antilocaprine]

Okay hear me out. I read your fic "All In Your Head" and it gave me such a clear and immediate inspiration. Please excuse me rambling into your askbox, but I need you to know.

You know those videos on YouTube where people will train an AI to win a specific video game? I can't stop thinking about Gordon as a sort of AI being trained to play/win Half Life. Gordon being aware that he is playing a game and that the science team are all AI, but unaware that he himself is also a program. It's like "Half Life but the AI are Self Aware, but Gordon is perhaps less self aware than he thinks he is". (And also just because the idea that a deep reinforcement learning AI trained to win Half Life accidentally unknowingly developing self awareness and also immediately developing a complex that hes somehow more alive/real than the other AI in the game is deeply funny and existential lto me.)

I have such a clear scene in my head that I am desperate to write where Benry does the "touch and move the VR headset" thing in this context.

Like, from a perspective where Benry has always known he's different from everyone else -- he's always been able to kind of step outside reality and noclip and mess with his character model and do things that other people shouldn't be able to do. So he's friends with Tommy and other people, but he knows he's alien and "other", he exists in a different kind of reality that everyone else. (Whether Benry's awareness extends only to "I am different because I am an alien" or as far as "I am different because I am a computer program and I am able to manipulate the game files, which even other self aware AI like Dr. Coomer are not able to do" could both be interesting in different ways).

And then one day this new guy shows up and he's so obviously "other" in a similar way that Benry is. When Gordon gets hurt, it's pretty clear he's only pretending to feel pain. (Gordon, aware that he is playing a game, and thinking that the AI realizing he is operating outside the game might freak them out, tries to be convincing and play along.) When Gordon "sleeps" (exits the game), his body either goes lifeless, or maybe disappears completely. Etc. Etc.

Benry clocks this and is kinda thrilled, because now he has found someone who is weird like him. Weird in a different way, but also different. The feeling of finding kin in someone who is similarly outside the bounds of reality. Which makes it particularly irritating to Benry when Gordon treats him exactly like the rest of the AI and refuses to acknowledge that they are on the same playing field.

Maybe this is why Benry conspires to lead Gordon into the soldier's trap where he loses his hand? Sort of a "oh yeah? You think you're better than me? Well eat this." And of course Gordon absolutely acts up "oh no, my hand... guys... this hurts so bad... ough..." (<- the words of a man who is carefully trying (and failing) to convince the science team that everything here is Real and Not A Game because he's afraid of hurting them and giving them existential crisises or breaking their AI or something, and now has no choice but to double down.) Which of course only makes Benry worse.

Then post Dr. Coomer clone fight but pre finale, at some point Dr. Coomer (who is absolutely fully self aware at this point) notices Benry is infatuated/obsessed, and just shakes his head. He conveys to Benry about Gordon something like, "He's not like us. He doesn't exist in the same reality as us. He doesn't feel things the same way we do. He cannot be touched." Which of COURSE only makes it EVEN WORSE.

Like a kid who was just told he wasn't allowed to play with his favorite toy. Like, "What do you MEAN I can't have him? Just because he's stupid and thinks he's better than me." Which leads to an emotionally charged conversation/confrontation between Benry and Gordon. Because Benry knows Gordon likes him back. And Gordon doesn't deny it, but just says it doesn't work like that. (Gordon is at this point still under the impression that he is A Real Dude and Benry (and everyone else) are Just Game AI. And yeah even if he is really... something about Benry, it's got to be like, immoral or something to fall in love with a dude who's just a computer program.)

Which, of course, leads Benry to go "oh yeah?" And Benry has always been weird and different and able to do things other people aren't able to do. And it's easy for Benry to take a chunk of a program and port it somewhere else, for him to just sort of reach out and grab and pull--

From Benry's perspective this looks like nothing has changed. From Grodon's perspective, this looks like Gordon was playing a VR game and then he was IN the VR game. This is the "Benry takes off the VR headset" moment. (I've also rewatched the finale of the Gnome series recently, which is SUCH a big influence for this moment). Like, Gordon is standing in a temperature controlled room playing a VR game and then the headset comes off and huh wow it's hot (desert) and those lights are really bright and Benry is right up close in his face with a sharp smile that is ALL smug, and he can feel-- oh fuck. Sort of a "what did you do to me?!" moment (which are SO TASTY imo).

And then the rest of the fic spirals off from there, and I am insane about this whole concept, and I need to write something about it before it eats me alive.

I hope you have enjoyed my rambling fic outline. There is more in my head about this, and I will write it up into a proper outline soon. Your fic was the catalyst for this, so thank you for the insanity.

(All In Your Head)

I adore this idea, and I think you should absolutely do it. Gordon being an AI without knowing it is such a good take that I don't see often enough. Likening it to the gnome streams is also an excellent plan - moments where someone gets yoinked out of their version of normal and hurled into someone else's version of normal are just so delightful. Cosmic horror for a computer program... I look forward to seeing what you come up with!

[kathbunny]

Some more Love Corner Magical Boy AU! Maxim worrying about VR-LA's injuries from magical boy work, assuming he's being abused. My favorite trope (half serious).

Post Emi adoption discovery in the timeline.

Maxim tried not to ever linger in VR-LA's changing room for long when they made it to venues, he'd say what needed to be said and get out so his talent could be ready for work. If he had anything more, it could at least wait until makeup was being applied to be brought up.

This was one of the rare occasions he had found himself lingering, listening to VR-LA talk endlessly about his day, about how Emi woke him up way too early and was out like a light already by the time her babysitter arrived. Was her other parent unable to watch her?

VR-LA laughed a bit as he spoke, tilting his head in a way that exposed a bruise partially hidden by his scarf. It wasn't the first Maxim had noticed bruises on his talent, and most likely wouldn't be the last until Maxim talked VR-LA into staying with somebody else.

He moved in a way that was visibly careful of his left foot. He wore long sleeves with a scarf in summer. Although the scarf certainly wasn't new.

"Speaking of Emi," Maxim began, trying to pick his words carefully, "how's she been? Doing well at her daycare? No injuries?" Well, that wasn't subtle at all, but VR-LA also had the social awareness of a cat in a snow storm anyway.

"Hm?" VR-LA thought over the questions for a moment, leaning on the cheap vanity slightly. "Well, she's certainly not hurt herself, but I'm told she is prone to chasing her friends with the toy knives from the play kitchen during games?"

Maxim tried to wince at that, really hoping she didn't pick that up from her home life.

"Apparently her friends love the game! The teacher was just concerned."

As they probably should be! "Is that so?"

"I think she's secretly sneaking out of her room to watch TV from the hallway at night when I'm watching crime dramas." VR-LA added, awkwardly, obviously lying. "Y'know how those are..?"

Maxim just nodded. "VR-LA, if anything is wr-"

"Oh, shoot, we don't have long!" VR-LA pointed out, rushing to go grab his change of clothes.

Maxim sighed and nodded. "Call me if you need anything." Even if it's not related to work.

[tarhonk]

AMAZING DIGITAL CIRCUS THEORY ALERT

WEEOO WEEOO THEORY ALERT

So this is gonna connect to that "everyone in the circus worked for C&A" theory

Alright so just yesterday Glitch posted this in the community tab on their youtube channel

Despite it being funny af I couldn't help but notice how much 80's memorabilia was in here. All these items (minus the digital circus stuff) were very popular or invented in the mid 80's.

So I decided to check back on that scene where Pomni is running through the exits. Specifically that moment where she stares at the desk and I noticed something.

That straight up looks like an old and dirty Commodore 64

All this equipment just screams 80's to me. Everything in that office seemed like stuff from the 80's.

And I haven't seen anyone else talk about these but I noticed a few other things

One

We see the headset that all the characters have put on to get in the circus right on the desk.

Two

We see several computers on as Pomni runs past them. I counted 4 but that light on the floor in the first picture could be a 5th. In that case, that's one for each human currently not abstracted in the circus, minus Pomni. And what do we see when Pomni is back in the circus at the end of the pilot?

The computer she had a mental breakdown over is now on.

She's back online

Finally, three

A poster can be seen in the back that seems like the same colors as the digital circus logo. This could definitely be a hidden reference to something I don't know but this looks very digital circus-y to me.

So with all that, here's what i'm adding on to the office theory.

C&A (Caine & Abel) was a video game company in the 80's that was experimenting with creating a virtual reality headset for gaming purposes. The world of gaming had slowly begun to rise in popularity, and they decided to stay on top of this trend with a very ambitious strategy. VR gaming was just beginning to make a statement in the world as well, so the C&A company began working on something new.

They create this idea for a wacky game called The Amazing Digital Circus. A VR game where you'd get an avatar and go on adventures lead by a ringmaster character. All was going well, but at some point during development, something (who knows what) went wrong, causing anyone who wears the headset to have their consciousness sucked into the game. They'd lose the memories of their lives, only knowing that they were human, and now they're stuck there forever.

This was less of a theory and more of pointing out stuff that I haven't seen people mention yet, but I think its useful.

Please feel free to add on with theories on how you think their bodies are affected in the real world and stuff about the digital circus. Expand upon this please. I feel like i'm onto something.

EDIT: https://www.glitchprod.com/thewackywatch

Just remembered that the wacky watch commercial proves like everything I said.

They reveal it on an 80's computer

"New experimental hardware that gets you awesome visuals and lifelike audio" experimenting with VR!!!!!!

I'm going crazy

[henrysglock]

Breadcrumbs Post, Revisited <3

The VR game really does pain me...particularly about Henry. (Who could have known...this revelation is truly a left-field twist...)

There's one part in Chapter 5 that really gets me:

Shadow Brenner: You were a good child, in your own way. Henry: What does that even mean? Shadow Brenner: Obedient, eager to show off, brilliant—but just like all shining things: Too. Much.

He goes on to show Henry memories of himself in the lab with Brenner as a child. Henry starts in with pleasantries ("I trust you slept well?"), Brenner makes a comment about Henry historically disliking pleasantries, to which Henry responds that they're "made-up rules".

After that, Brenner makes something of a striking comment:

Brenner: Are we getting distracted, or focusing? Young Henry: ...focusing.

After that, we're transported to the tattoo scene, wherein Brenner tells Henry that Soteria is temporary, and will only be in place until Henry's "emotional acuity" increases and they can find "more collaborative ways forward". Read: It'll come out once you submit to me completely.

You mean to tell me Henry's a good kid who's eager to please, brilliant, easily distracted, has a distaste for social games like pleasantries and small-talk, struggles with reading emotions, and is defiant in the face of perceived injustice? That he's specifically "too much"?

Anyone with autism and ADHD has heard all that shit before...which is exactly what I said here last April when I discussed the misuse of the label "psychopath" in regards to Henry, who more prominently displays traits of autism and cPTSD (though after playing this game and seeing The First Shadow...I'm inclined to adapt that diagnosis to auDHD).

The other one that kills me a little is when Shadow Brenner tells us/Henry about how Henry's mind works. Shadow Brenner says that Henry killed his family so they could never send him away again, that Henry loves via obsession...meaning whatever he obsesses over, he loves, and that El and her rejection of him makes him emotional/weak.

Regardless of how true those statements are/how much of it is being said by the Shadow to convince Henry that the monstrous/negative aspects are true/how much of it is being said to try and hurt Henry and break him down...we can at least surmise a few underlying themes:

Henry loved his family, and it hurt him to be cast aside/set apart from them.

Henry was utterly heartbroken by Virginia sending him away/selling him out to Brenner.

Henry loved El.

To some degree, given the obsession: Henry still loves El.

These are all things I've said before. It's nothing new...but it sure does hurt to have them reaffirmed.

Henry was a good kid who loved his family even when they couldn't love him. Shocker (/s). And now, despite the fact that it Hurts, he can't let them go/refuses to let them go, as if holding onto them will make them love him. He was also "too much" for his family to handle, and post-El...that translates very obviously in-game into him believing he's too much for anyone to handle, let alone love. He makes his empathetic mental connections as Vecna based on that feeling of being an unlovable monster (which I also said in my "Henry isn't a psychopath" post!).

Shared trauma, man. That's the real deal. Everything you see Vecna weaponize against someone is something he himself has experienced...which is something I said back in January of last year in a post I dubbed "the breadcumbs post" (hence the title of this post):

In short:

[ofoceansandtombsanew]

Manhwa Rec: Concubine Walkthrough

Remember when I made a whole post recommending a manhwa because no one else I knew read it so I could find someone to talk to about it? Well, we're back at it again a whole year later for me to tell y'all to go read Concubine Walkthrough. It's 128 chapters (with some bonus content) of pure excellence.

While on the surface looking like a typical otome isekai read of 'MC transmigrates into the body of a story's villainess', Concubine Walkthrough turns the genre on its head with its implementation of sci-fi, philosophy and political battles in addition to beautiful artwork and heart-wrenching storytelling. If you're a fan of The Apothecary Diaries and The Matrix, you will enjoy this ride thoroughly.

Concubine Walkthrough follows the journey of protagonist Yona Lee who in 2030, three years before the start of the story, played a game called Concubine Walkthrough. A popular and innovative otome game falling the protagonist Lili who has been forced to go to the imperial palace to become a concubine.

Max out the various stats Lili has to embark on one of many paths from marrying the emperor to royal imperial consort. Of course the one who stands as the pinnacle of obstructing your progress is villainess, Ranhee Seo, the royal imperial consort the terror of the imperial court.

Yona was only able to play this game to completion once in her life although the desire to complete other endings always remained. Three years later, that chance comes again when, for its upcoming anniversary, Concubine Walkthrough is having a special VR rerelease. That's all fine and dandy, what isn't fine and dandy though is the fact that Yona has woken up in the game without any memory of ever logging on. Furthermore, she's playing as the game's villainess, Ranhee.

Nothing she does will summon the game's menu and nothing she does let's her log out. The game master only gives her one requirement to exit the game, Marry the emperor and make Ranhee Seo the empress.

It's only then that Yona remembers that for the special VR release of the game, one of the promoted features of the rerelease was a co-op mode and she might not be the only player stuck in the game as she is forced to strategize and partake in deadly games within the world of concubines.

Through its storytelling, Concubine Walkthrough encourages both the readers and characters alike to contemplate:

If you woke up one day and realized your entire life was a simulation, does that make your life any less meaningful? Simulated it may have been, the pains and joys your heart experienced was still real to you. It's still your life.

What is reality and what does that mean to you? Is reality something you choose for yourself or is that choice made for you?

All wrapped in unique artwork, comedy gold and riveting political plots as you watch Yona survive plots on her life and has to strategize her get backs.

1) Beautiful Artwork

Concubine Walkthrough is one of the most splendid manhwas in terms of artwork. It's drawn intentionally to look reminiscent of traditional Korean artwork and is incredibly intricate from the hanbooks to the headpieces the various characters wear.

These are just a few of my favorite shots from the series but they are far from the only ones. From the very first chapter, you're getting hit with bangers in terms of the quality. Bongbong never misses.

2) The comedy is immaculate

From Yona getting stuck with shitty items like a hairclip that gives her the sense of smell of a dog but compels her to bark uncontrollably to getting a jar that's literally only full of candy.

Yona's luck with items is absolute dog water and because of that, she can find herself in some hilarious situations. She can't get anything good to save her own life and seeing how she has to make these items work is a treasure in its own right.

Even without that, Yona's dynamic with characters like Lili is quite hilarious as the story progresses.

3) The mystery & philosophy

Even Yona's eyes are representative of red and blue pills given to Neo in The Matrix.

If you're a fan of sci-fi, romance and want to read an otome isekai romp that subverts your expectations? Please read this manhwa. It's The Matrix mixed with historical Korean fiction (and of course, otome isekai at its finest).

I loved loved LOVED the philosophy behind the story, the themes. The discussion of what reality is and choosing what reality means/is to you.

Just because your entire life is a simulation, does that make your entire life up until that point irrelevant? Simulated it may be, your joy, your pain, your love, all of that still felt real, right? There were so many things I never considered about that very topic until I read this series.

4) The Characters

There is not enough time in the day to delve into the characters of Concubine Walkthrough. They're all layered, complex and you won't be able to get enough of them as the story progresses. Even now after finishing the story months later, I still want more content concerning the cast. From protagonists to side characters.

Yona is a very compelling protagonist from start to finish. She's active, rather than letting things just happen she gets the jump on what she can. Her intelligence and her empathy as well as her comedic genius is so fun to watch along the beautifully illustrated pages. Not to mention her chemistry with characters Lili and Youngjung is a sight to behold.

Sadly, despite how key Lili and Youngjung are to the plot, I cannot delve too deeply about them due to spoilers. What I can say, however, is that Lili is a breath of fresh air on the trope of having the original protagonist of the source material interact with the story's female lead.

And Youngjung? In a lot of ways he represents the themes I was discussing in my previous point.

And of course, I cannot mention Concubine Walkthrough without bringing up Sunshine in any capacity. The mysterious eunuch who has become Yona's ally in this game. Like Lili and Youngjung, I cannot delve too deeply into this character without major spoilers but just know that even when you think you finally have the grasp on this character, Bongbong will still manage to flip the script on its head and surprise you. Multiple times even.

ー

And I think that's enough singing praises for this manhwa (not really). Like I said, this manhwa is The Apothecary Diaries meets The Matrix wrapped up in the bow of the otome isekai genre. Not only do you get beautiful artwork but a vibrant cast and deep story along with it.

A violent yet captivating world of concubines with a strong splash of sci-fi sounds like such a strange mixture, but Bongbong blends them beautifully into one of the best stories I've ever read.

Please, and I cannot stress this enough, give Concubine Walkthrough a read.

[britt-kageryuu]

It's about noon in the lair. Donnie and Leo are moving the last of the mail they picked up from the P.O. Box. Including some not fanmail.

They enter the 'Studio' area, where they had a few computers set up, each color coded. There is a area that acts as the VR space with a lower ceiling then everywhere else, a wide open area where there is a projector and Karaoke machine, that was also were Raph did his workout streams.

Just to the side of the computers are two modified pet beds one purple, one teal that hid the charging docks for Shelldon and River. There were also a bunch of containers with alot of prop items incase they need to interact with an item during a stream, so it doesn't look as awkward on camera.

"I still can't believe you ordered a real inflatable chair!" Donnie complains as they set down the boxes, envelopes and packages, with the rest of the mail. "And the matching inflatable table, and coconut shell cups!" He gestured with exasperation.

Leo opens the box with said items, "Hey, I love that set! Besides I also got you..." he pulls out a couple boxes from the bottom of the package, "A matching purple chair, and some pillow cover things so it doesn't get uncomfortable sitting on them for so long! Plus we'll match for the stream, right!"

Leo looks very happy and proud of himself showing off what he got his twin, you could practically see little sparkles floating around him. Donnie doesn't look fully impressed, but appreciative of the gesture.

"Well. Thank you for the thought, but we need to figure out how to get the studio set for how we will do this 'Fanmail Opening' stream. That someone promised without consulting me! He said with warranted annoyance!" Donnie lightly stomps over to his setup to how the cameras would be placed, and how big of an area they need to clear.

The blue coded turtle decided to open and inflate the chairs and table, get the cups out, and sets it up near where he thinks they should open the fanmail. He pauses before taking a picture of the setup, and judging if he should post it to his social media or not.

Leo is not sure if Donnie would attack him for not checking if there was anything too revealing in the photo, but he ignores that thought to celebrate now having his favorite set in real life. He hears a ding from where Donnie is, and suddenly remembered how close they are.

"Nardo?"

"Yes, Dontron?"

They both turn and start staring at each other in silence, Donnie clearly more annoyed than before, and Leo looking for something to turn into a Mystic Katana to abscond from the situation.

"You, are very, very, VERY, lucky! You didn't take that TWO STEPS TO THE RIGHT!!!" Donnie starts yelling, while pointing out the fact that a few feet from where the Chairs and Table were set up, was a mirror that was for some reason in the studio. Probably Leo's fault actually. Definitely Leo's fault.

Leo continues to wonder if he should fear for his life.

"Annoyed Sigh, Sit down Dum Dum, I won't hurt you yet. We need you alive to continue this nonsense." Donnie grumbles as he continues to plan how this idea would work. "And your placement isn't bad, but you're not fully off the hook."

Leo grabs his Switch before he sits down in the new blue inflatable chair and played a game. River gets up from her charging dock, walks up to Leo and climbs onto his lap to watch him play the game.

-------------------

Masterpost

I didn't know how to end this, and I wanted to try writing like this. I might do this some more.

[galactic-glamour-girl-posts]

My Rosalina Wishlist for the Nintendo Switch 2 era

In order of what I want the least to want I want the most:

For her to make appearance in (at least one of) the RPGs

Maybe they could connect her to Geno, or to the pre-established star lore of the RPGs, maybe there's another copy of the book Paper Mario takes place in in her library, have her interact with Starlow (another being who uses star power), you could do a lot with her. She's already one of the most fleshed out in the mainline games, she'd flourish in the RPGs, games which specifically aim to develop (most) of the cast as characters.

Give her a Power Up band

Technically this (and one more addition later on in this list) is not a Nintendo Switch 2 related thing but if this were to happen it would likely be during the Switch 2 era, so it's relevant enough.

Years ago I predicted that her, Toadette, DK and Diddy Kong would get power up bands based on a leak. Since then, it's been confirmed that Donkey Kong and Diddy will be getting power up bands to go alongside the Donkey Kong-themed expansion of Super Nintendo World. I still think Rosalina (and Toadette) could get one, especially if they do a Galaxy-themed expansion. It would be nice to have one in time for 2027, Galaxy's anniversary, but that's not likely given that we'd probably know about it being built by now. It could still happen not too long after it. A space-themed expansion would definitely be popular (Toadette is part of the Toad Brigade, who debited in Galaxy 1, so she could get one during this supposed expansion too).

Even if that didn't happen, Rosalina does make an appearance at the park via the VR binoculars, and she was recently given a new plush made specifically to be sold at the park, so she's already one of the most likely candidates to get a band next.

A new Rosalina-owned Mario Kart stage

Not much to explain here. It's been over a decade since she got one, and that was her first (unless we retroactively count Rainbow Road).

An appearance in a Mario movie sequel

If not as a major character, then at least as a post-credits character. After a Luma was in the first movie, it seems inevitable that Rosalina will appear in the films eventually, I just hope it's sooner rather than later! Even if it's for a short time, I think they could fit her in movie 2 somewhere. Literally just show Lumalee going home or something. They might save her for movie 3, but that would probably also happen during the Switch 2 era (I could see it releasing in 2029 or 2030, the Switch 2 would've only been out for about 4-5 years by then).

Another appearance in a mainline Mario game

I'm welcome to it being a 3D game, but I'd prefer for it to be a 2D one because she has yet to make an appearance in a 2D game.

Bonus points if she's playable!

Her own solo adventure game

Even putting my bias aside, I genuinely think this could work! She's one of the most popular characters in the franchise, it would be a good chance to find out more about her origins or at least give a Mario-adjacent game a deeper story than usual, and outer space is almost always a cool setting for any piece of media. If it were to happen (I know it probably won't, but a girl can dream), I hope it's not essentially just "Super Mario Galaxy 3, but you play as Rosalina". I'd love it if the game had a genre the Mario franchise either hasn't touched yet or hasn't done often (I still think a Kingdom Hearts-esque action RPG would suit her very well).

Although if I had to order these from most to least likely to happen during the Switch 2 era, I'd say: an appearance in a new mainline Mario game, a new Mario Kart stage, her power up band, an appearance in the Mario movie sequel, an appearance in the RPGs, and finally her solo game.

But hey, prove me wrong Nintendo! Watch how I jinx it and none of these happen lol

[gubbles-owo]

okay fuckit, gather 'round: it's gubbles' storytime. girl's band cry hyperfixation be damned, it's bringing up so many Things in my heart. i say i've never performed live onstage, but that's not entirely true. while a far shot from actually taking part in a band and playing a show, allow me to tell you the tale of the closest I ever got to that: a random session at jamspace, pax east, 2016.

.......... senior year of college, i was brought onboard with another group of students who had not only completed a game demo for a class project, but wanted to take it further. a lil VR game, simple in concept and clean in execution, i was invited to do music and audio for it. (i was, of course, the sole game audio/music-focused student on campus, as my school's gamedev program didn't really have a dedicated audio designer track). ultimately it fizzled out and not much came of it, but for a good chunk of time it was everything. our future ambitions, something to carry us forth from graduation on into the industry, to cement our own little foothold in the vast world of game development. we took the train to boston so many times, showed off our game at SO MANY local events, hell i had never known how to navigate a complex subway system, and here we were sifting through every few weeks or so. it was a wild fucking time, and honestly? i wish i could experience it again. something about the weaving of fantastical future prospects with the tangible, corporeal experience of it all. once foreign subway systems, sprawling in a subterranean web of concrete and metal, the sidewalks of city streets lit by the glow of the city, now strangely familiar in such a short span of time... *ahem* right, where was i... right, pax east. our school provided a limited number of booths for teams to show off their projects at pax east, and being one of the big promising projects stirring up on campus, we were granted a spot. (actually i had TWO spots because two separate projects/teams i took part in got accepted, so i had to pull double duty for a lot of it LMFAO). i've been to pax before, but as a fan and attendee, not as a developer. so this was an entirely new experience... ...and that experience was having the booth you sit at all day right next to the massive league of legends (ew) stage!! they blasted music constantly! half of it was just percussion loops from Heavyocity's Damage, and i know because I RECOGNIZED THOSE PERCUSSION SOUNDS and even USED SOME OF THEM IN THE PROJECT I WAS WORKING ON. see, the convention floor is loud. like. incredibly fucking loud. it's one thing if you're walking around as a fan, you've got other talks in siderooms to go to, and you can always step out and get some fresh air if you're feeling overwhelmed. but ya can't do that when you're on shift to demo your game to con attendees for the next several hours, can ya? :3c so yeah, long story short, i got sick. real fuckin sick. i had to YELL over the din of the convention the entire time, and after just one day, i had already lost my voice. and i mean COMPLETELY LOST MY VOICE. i could not speak, only painfully croak. i had to resort to crude hand gestures and typing shit on my phone to communicate. it was rooouughhh. and after bringing this up with my teammates, they agreed to cover my shifts, and let me rest. because the con was so fucking loud, and i was still stuck there sick all day, i informed my team that i would be headed to the jamspace room to pick up earplugs. and by "earplugs" i mean. haha well. lets justr say. a bass guitar. (srry for screenshot but tumblr hated this paragraph for some reason and kept blocking the post):

i was sick as fuck, and for sake of my health, should probably not have pushed myself. HOWEVER. i would NOT i repeat *NOT* let this sole opportunity to slip me by... i've always wanted to perform with other musicians, so fuck it, i am doing this. so the next twelve minutes i shuffled my sickly ass alll the way around to the room at the very end of the hall. i had taken note of the open-stage timeslots the day prior. i had one hour to do this shit. one hour to make the dream come true. i cannot describe the nervousness i felt going into that whole thing. i lied to my teammates. i couldn't speak. a dark room with a little clipboard to fill out a timeslot and instrument, and an empty, brightly lit stage on the other side of it. but i shuffled stage right, strapped on this bass, and asked for a pick (because im a fake bassist). and. holy shit.

i had no voice, but with that bass strapped to me? i could make the entire room *shake*. and words cannot describe how utterly fucking powerful that felt.

a few other randos took up the other instruments. i don't remember much about them, only that they intimidated the HELL out of me. i had done like concert band in high school, i've jammed on instruments in my room, but this? this is something entirely different. we played through a couple tracks... they kept suggesting "hey how about x song from y band?" but my stupid-ass doesn't have a degree in classic rock like everyone else apparently does, so i shrugged and said i didn't know how to play it. we finally settled on the one song suggested that i was, at least passingly, familiar with... metallica's enter sandman lmfaO the "passingly" there is very important, because while i know the general flow and structure, i wasn't sure about the specifics. when we got to the first pre-chorus, i notice something had shifted, and i was no longer playing the right notes. i must've either sounded terrible or look visibly confused, because the guitarist to my left turned toward me, angled his fretboard to be clearly in view, and taught me how to play the riff while performing it onstage. and i did it!! i picked it up, just like that!! it was just the earlier bit but transposed up a few steps or smth, but god, just. that little moment right there? that quick moment of guidance mid-performance? holy fuck that is magical. the other awesome moment was somewhere in the bridge, like. okay. i could barely hear myself, as the guitars and vocals and cymbals right behind me were all incredibly loud (they didn't have earplugs btw lol). but i wasn't sure i was like, contributing much to the song? and while i admittedly improvised this bit, for the build up into the final chorus, i stopped playing. i let the guitar and the drums have their space. and slowly, quietly, high up on the fretboard, built back up until WHAM, i come back in full force with the chorus. IT WAS SO COOL. LIKE. the mix sounded so weak and thin without me, and the contrast of making the entire fucking room violently vibrate with the flick of my wrist on the downbeat? holy FUCK. IT'S MAGICAL. MAGIC IS REAL Y'ALL AND IT IS ONSTAGE. anyway yeah, played that song, some members swapped out but no one else was signed up for bass, so i stuck on for a lil longer. another guitarist taught me how to play one of the splatoon themes, and while it was fun, the drummer kept us both going on that one riff for a looot longer than we wanted to lmfao fun fact! none of my team knew i did this!! they probably would've been PISSED had they found out!! actually they stole my con pass on the third morning, which made sense cause they had someone else fill in for me at the booth, but none of it was communicated to me and i was piiiiised. wound up navigating the subway and trains back home, all by myself, for the first time. but YEAH it was AMAZING. it wasn't an established band playing a local show, it was just a bunch of randos fucking around. and god. i... i really want to be part of a band someday. i want to feel this again.

even if just for one show, for one song, for one moment... i need to feel the weight of the room underneath my fingertips.

[bdsmdevil6136]

On the Fourth day of Dark-mas

I feel his pressence starting to come back to me as the days draw closer to christmas eve, Krampus. A dark spirit that over takes during the cold winter nights that secretly compells me punish all the naught Subbies of the around, be they straight or lesbo woman , fake boys and trans, all subbies get his attention as well as his twisted punishments for being so naughty through the year. He senses their need to be punished and is even more happy to comply , as i said with his own twist thoughts how.

Today Krampus has shown me his first target, the slumper part of my pet up stairs later on tonight and he know what he'd do. Why he'd become his own santa this year and make some special gifts for his vicitums. For my pet through my hands he took the VR set id been fixing up for her and made it into the perfect trap. We spent hours making the perfect programming video and added the extra touch with coloring the spirals candy cane colors. he made sure that it would be paced to keep them intranced until the program finished uploading and add headphones onto it so no other sound could reach the wearer.

The hour draws near and just before the guest start arrving, We give out pet their gift and explain as they open it that it's an earlier christmas present for them all to enjoy tonight for movies and games. But he explains that before they can start to use it then have to watch the insturction video on it first, they agree all the while not know that the insturction video was what he'd been working on for the last half of the day. He excusess him self to go to his game room and once in there sent a timer for himself on about how long it should take for each of them to put the gear on watch and pass it along.

Once his timer starts to ring a grin forms around his lips and on hushed feet slowly climbs the stairs to listen for any noise coming from her hang room but not a creature was stirring, not even his Little Mouse. He could feel his smile intense as he went for the doorknob and as he open the door he found what hes hoped. All thrm kneeling naked and blank staring into space , waiting for me to give the final phrase to follow unlock what hed done to their minds. Before saying hit he quietly inspects them enjoying this diversity before him. He sees that his thoughts where correct that they had a few beautiful trans women mixed in between mtf and ftm, as well as nice varity of different types ;).

I move to the center of them so all there blank stares are on me and i say the final phrase to complete the reprogramming , " we wish you a merry DARK-MIS." Sudden their empty stares break and all look up at me with a hungery needy begging look. I jod my head and they begin to crawl over around me , pull my pants down before my Little Mouse puts me in her mouth and begins playing blow pass. The ones that couldnt get in stood begining to make out with me as i use each hand to pleasure between the legs feel how soaked most and the precum drippabling down the little subbie who wants to be a girl as i show them kindness stroking before making one treat them with their mouth . Soon i was being crawl on top of with each finding a part of me to filled their new needy holes , while the ones waiting play wirh each other.

The krampus slumber party went into the morning and once we were down with the fun of all our new toys. He ordered them all dress as their holes still drip from fullness. Once they were all clothed he made his way to the door and befoee leaving he said the phrase to lessen their programing to go back to their normal days... for now. " and a happy SPIRAL YEAR." He slipped down quietly as they came out of it and then at the door to thank them all for coming with his pet and as the last one leaves his pet says to him , " id have willing done that if youd just askee. " with a wink from there she head to the bedroom to give exhausted body some rest.

I hope you all enjoy this extra special dark-miss post , and also dropping a little more ;). If you like the character krampus reblog this post and ill add him back into more

[cocoa-rococo]

miscellaneous things i think could be good (or just funny) in a modern freakazoid reboot

dexter has a small friend group he plays dnd and other games with (because help him, this boy needs some legitimate friends)

more of dexter and freakazoid interacting with each other, being able to see how their internal communication works. bonus if freak can just. pop up on dexter's computer or phone to chat with him

a new villain or plot device based on generative ai, messing with freakazoid's sense of what's true and false (possibly deadpan? the early villain in the s1 finale?)

an episode on just how exactly to do a freakazoid reboot. freak himself is in the studio trying to find the best pitch to turn into a show, and even in the writing room, telling people that no, actually, he'd never say that, have you even SEEN the original show --

a whole episode's running joke of being sponsored by an mmorpg (with 20% off if the viewer uses the code RPGFREAK20XX). freak goes after the game's creators near the episode's end when he gets sick of the interruptions

valerie returns with a bit of a larger role, being steph's friend and possibly becoming the previously cut-from-production witch girl (because we need more women in this show)

short joke of freakazoid stopping a fight to tell someone who's playing a video loudly without headphones to stop it, it is DRIVING him UP the WALL. GEEZ

fanboy makes a return, and introduces his little sister: a freakazoid fan who's a little too into him and her favorite fandom ships. freak wants nothing to do with her, her brother, and her "intense interest with cargo and freighters"

cobra queen has an online shop where she makes snake-themed jewelry and does makeup tutorials. freakazoid is happy to support small businesses. he is not happy when she still uses her massive pet serpents to break into stores to steal things

gutierrez, with the internet taking off, also deals in developing software at apex. the new social media app they make leeches info from others to sell, but its main use is to find, tag, and track freakazoid wherever he goes

one of the villain's plans involve those fridges that come with a touchscreen and built-in wifi. imagine their surprise when freak is able to zap inside. he's on one of the shelves eating food and asking for condiments

an episode where lobe's scheme is based on one of those viral, seemingly silly mobile games everyone plays (flappy bird, candy crush, cookie clicker, etc). even the show's staff are taken with it. the narrator interrupts the program at one point to mention that he will no longer be announcing things because he's too busy playing the game himself

freakazoid learns about vr being a thing, and becomes a cryptid by popping into random games and streams. there's a whole short done like a found footage film or documentary based on people's attempt to find him

freak does a parody of youtuber apology videos for a segment, saying sorry to the viewer. by the end, it's clear he's badly reading off a script, and admits he doesn't even know what he's apologizing for

cave guy's plan for an episode being intimidating various scholars, professors, and newspapers to hide articles and research behind a paywall (which goes directly to him, of course). freak learns about it because dexter needs to write a paper for class, and needs to race against the clock to get his sources unlocked before its due

a short based on dexter trying his hand at streaming games. he ends up temporarily famous for his really well-done "custom freakazoid vtuber model" (it's just freak himself)

a short based on longhorn trying to get into nashville by becoming a music influencer. he does not get far

you-know-who has happily settled into his role as an internet creepypasta. there's an episode where freakazoid needs to follow a string of disappearances, linked with a recent internet "challenge" and posts trailing off after saying candlejack, which is harder than it s --

[greenfiend]

okay i've been power-reading a bunch of analyses lately to catch up after i was offline for a few months. and i just gotta say the "Will flayed Hopper to make him break up milkvan" thing works kind of well with this other thing i've been seeing about Will haveing Brenner parallels?

especially since Brenner and the Mindflayer were the ones who were really trying to break up Henry and Patty in the first shadow, and from what i've read Henry and Patty have a lot of milkvan parallels. especially with the well known Hopper-Brenner parallels too...

like oh!! ok interestingggggg behavior from everyone

Hey anon!

Regarding flayed Hopper breaking up Mike and El- yes he totally did but… it’s not the only reason Will flayed Hopper. He was also trying to set up his mom with Hopper too. I didn’t actually touch on that fact in the post but- the Back to the Future parallels are strong. Will = Marty, Hopper = George, and Joyce = Lorraine. “I’m pretty sure that mom wanted to bang her son.”

Also, I’m inclined to believe that Will also flayed the other males in relationships in season 3 (including Mike LOL). Will attempted to solve all their relationship conflicts. I’ll make a post about that soon probably. It’s very cute though. That boy loves love. But Will most obviously flayed Hopper. The evidence is astonishing.

Yes that’s true- Brenner is connected to the MF (like in the VR game he is the MF). I definitely agree with the parallels between Brenner and Will. Still unsure exactly why they exist though. It could be because Will is El’s actual “papa”.

Oooh yes I haven’t seen the play (I actually plan on seeing it though in a few months!) but Brenner also trying to break up Henry and Patty is very interesting!!

Thanks for the ask!