#psychonauts mental construct

[jnixz]

[Message Received]

Don't lose your head now...

[cosmicheartz]

i wish i knew what clems mental world would look like for my au since its a big part of his recovery arc but my mind is just * radio static noises *

[anonymouspuzzler]

awright who let puzz play psychonauts again and start Thinking

It Never Ends! I am once again thinking about Psychonauts and specifically thinking about Loboto. Even More Specifically, I replayed the first game Yet Again recently and on hitting the scene where Loboto removes Dogen’s brain, had a moment of ��huh, he’s like, way more measured and composed than I remembered,” and God Help Me that sent me on a horrible unending spiral of Revisiting and Thinking About and Theorizing On Things. And Now You Must All Read My Discoveries As Well. (placed under readmore because 1) this is gonna get long and 2) my god there will be major spoilers for Every Psychonauts Game.)

Welcome To The Thunderdome. Let’s Begin. In particular I am going to present to and discuss with you Three Distinct Things I Am Thinking About Loboto Based On In-Game Evidence That I Will Extrapolate, Present, and Argue To You All:

Cal’s childhood lobotomy did not, in fact, remove his psychic powers, only cut off his ability to consciously access and utilize them. He is still unconsciously using psychic abilities at the point that we see him in the games.

One of the most prominent impacts of the lobotomy on Cal appears to be his inability to recognize when he is doing harm, and to a certain related degree, how to interpret other peoples’ responses to him. When Raz helps recover his “moral compass”, Loboto actually becomes significantly more unstable as he struggles to process this, having likely gone most of his life without these capabilities.

Both of the above are causing some variant of Mental Projection to occur in Loboto’s mind, creating multiple conflicting archetypes/personas similar to what’s happening in Cassie’s mind.

So let’s go through each of these one by one! In excruciating detail!!

1) Cal’s childhood lobotomy did not, in fact, remove his psychic powers, only cut off his ability to consciously access and utilize them. He is still unconsciously using psychic abilities at the point that we see him in the games.

So for this one, we’re going to go through my evidence from “most textual” to “a little more speculative” in roughly that order. Obviously, none of this is explicit, but I’m doing my damndest to use things that can be fairly reasonably cited from Actual In Game rather than too deep in fanon/speculation.

The most textual example of Loboto having lingering psychic abilities despite his lobotomy is, in fact, his mental world in Psychonauts 2! This is something that’s a little more obvious on a rewatch/replay.

When you’re going through the game/level the first time, Sasha especially spends a lot of time discussing how Loboto’s mind must have been booby-trapped and messed with by his employer, because otherwise Loboto wouldn’t be able to resist the construct and otherwise give the agents the degree of run-around he’s putting them through. On a first playthrough, that makes perfect sense, especially when this plus additional evidence leads the agents to conclude Loboto’s employer was a mole within the Psychonauts itself. Obviously, a psychic from the agency messed with Loboto’s head and left all these psychic booby-traps for their coworkers!

But once you reach the end of the game and go back and look at this again, you realize, hey, wait. Loboto’s boss wasn’t a psychic at all! Quite explicitly!

Now I’m going to take a moment to argue against my own argument here, because there is evidence that Gristol would have been able to psychically fuck with Loboto despite not having psychic abilities himself.

[Image ID: A screenshot from a cutscene in Psychonauts 2, showing the receptionist at the Motherlobe levitating a ThinkerPrint Reader (a small brain-shaped disc with a blue glowing eye symbol in the middle). End ID.]

We see in-game that these little brain-disc-things - which Gristol would have had access to via Truman, since Truman has one on his person - are able to provide some limited degree of psychic power even to people who don’t otherwise have those abilities. Namely, the front desk receptionist is able to telekinetically lift one and scan Raz with it when he arrives, despite dialogue later on suggesting she isn’t a psychic herself. It’s entirely possible Gristol used that to fuck with Loboto’s head and place all those psychic booby traps.

But ho ho!! Now I’m going to counter-argue this counter-argument, to get you all back on board with my original argument!! Because despite this possibility, it’s also pretty textual that Gristol is a fuck-up who’s not very good at planning. The entirety of Psychonauts 2 is a display of him not really having any back-up plans for any possible hiccups in his original plan (as soon as Lili reveals a boyfriend he didn’t know about, his response is Fake A Coma), and of said plan being undone mostly by his own sloppy work (shipping his own body back to the base in a poorly-taped box with a key to his former residence in his pockets). The thought of this same man having the capability and foresight to set up numerous highly effetive psychic booby-traps in the brain of his hired help, just in case that hired help got captured and psychically interrogated… it doesn’t feel likely.

(Now that I write it all out, in a lot of ways it feels like Gristol just… forgot about-slash-disregarded Loboto after he did the dirty work of kidnapping Truman and swapping the brains. Like, he only appears once in Gristol’s Big Special Mind-Ride of his Brilliant Plan, at the very end, in a barely-held-together-backroom type of area, and Gristol never so much as brings him up by name. Heck, in retrospect, I wouldn’t be surprised if Gristol deciding to Play Coma was equally as prompted by Guy Who Knows Everything, Who He Completely Disregarded and Left For Dead, falling out of a luggage rack unexpectedly right in front of him and Five Guys He's Trying To Fool Into Thinking He's Normal All The Time Truman. This is all totally off the topic at hand, though.)

Anyway! So Gristol being able to do anything significant and sophisticated vis-a-vis “psychic traps in Loboto’s mindscape” is wildly unlikely. While there’s still other possible explanations - Gristol maybe having other psychics in his employ in the Delugianaries or secret police, for example - that’s purely speculative and not supported by the text in any kind of reasonably-explicit way, which is what I’m trying to focus on for the purposes of this argument. Hey, you know what is explicit in the text, though? Loboto once having psychic powers, to a degree that he was using telekinesis Very Capably as a Literal Infant. That, combined with all the above evidence (plus other circumstantial stuff we’ll get into in a second), means the most likely answer to “how is Loboto resisting the agents and the mental construct?” is “his psychic powers are still There, and acting subconsciously to protect Loboto in this situation, even though he’s no longer able to access and use those powers by conscious effort”.

Now let’s get to evidence of a “still textual, but not as compelling” flavor. For this, we’re going to go back to the original Psychonauts, and also touch on Rhombus of Ruin a bit.

As some of y’all probably remember from messing around in the original game, because there’s still some of that point-and-click inventory flavor, you can try to use the psycho-portal on characters that don’t have mental worlds, and you’ll get some flavor text explaining in some form or another why you can’t do that. This includes Crispin (you get a note from Loboto saying he’s protected “his patient” from psychic procedures, Haha Hey Man Uhhh How Did Y), Sheegor, and most pressingly for this line of argument, Loboto himself, who claims his shower cap is protecting his mind from being entered.

This Is All Well and Good until Literally The Next Day In-Universe when his mind is able to be entered. Twice, in fact. Please recall that the start of Psychonauts 2 is, at a stretch, maybe a few hours after Rhombus of Ruin. (“Haha well Puzz clearly they just retconned it so they could do a Loboto mental world–” no. That’s not Fun and it’s not Text. This overthinking-ass essay is about Engaging With The Text As It Stands.)

So what’s different about the first time Raz (et all) attempts to enter Loboto’s mind (in the original game) and the second-slash-third time (during and after Rhombus of Ruin)? Nothing that would particularly have an impact, except for one big thing: in the latter cases, Loboto is either “immediately in the presence of” or “has just barely left the immediate presence of” Like A Lot Of Psilirium. You Know. The Rock That Dampens Psychic Powers. Which leads me to believe Loboto’s psychic powers are still active, just in an unconscious way (protecting him from psychic invasion without him even realizing it) instead of in a way he has to consciously act on.

Now, why am I categorizing this as less compelling evidence than Loboto resisting the mental construct later on? Because unlike that case, there actually is a reasonable, textual alternative to the answer of “yeah Loboto’s still unconsciously psychic”. The answer is named Coach Morceau Oleander.

Unlike Gristol, Oleander has a lot going for him on the level of “could fuck with Loboto’s mind a bit to put up some psychic defenses”. For one, Oleander is a psychic, and despite everything, a highly trained and very powerful one. (Like, much as he’s kind of a goofy fuck-up, Oleander’s also implied to have been an agent for at least as long as Sasha and Milla, and he’s able to hold his own in a fight against both of them at once - it literally takes Ford flying in and de-braining him to win that confrontation.) Two, we already have textual evidence of Oleander messing with people’s brains to his own ends, in the form of both Linda (though in some ways that could loop back around to supporting Loboto Is Still Psychic, since he seems to have had some degree of a hand in that) and more prominently, poor ol’ Boyd. If he was able to do that much involuntarily with Boyd, it doesn’t seem out of the question for him to hop in and put up some psychic defenses for more voluntary subjects like Crispin and Loboto. It would also make sense for those defenses to either wear down or wear off once Loboto was in the presence of Psilirium, thus continuing to explain why Loboto’s protected in the first game but not in any of the games following.

So - taken on its own, not particularly decisive evidence. In combination with the much-stronger “resisting the mental construct” example, though, I’d say it presents a pretty strong case.

Now comes my most tenuous and speculative example. This is about as much as a stretch I’m going to let myself go with any of these - a case of “well you can extrapolate this from the text provided, I guess, even if it never says it explicitly to any kind of degree”.

Ladies, gentlemen, and those rightfully opting out. It is time to talk about Loboto’s Fucking Prosthetic.

[Image ID: A full rotation of Loboto’s “Monstroboto” character model, which shows him shirtless with the full prosthetic right arm visible. It is attached to his torso with several straps and has a single visible hinge at the elbow.]

Look at this thing. This is a fucking mannequin arm with a pepper grinder on it. How Is This Thing Able To Operate With Any Kind of Sophistication Without Telekinesis. Like, the man is gesticulating and grabbing objects and tapping his little knife fingers, how in the Hell.

There’s a lot of reasons this is tenuous evidence at best. For one, we only get this super clear view of the entire prosthetic construction inside Loboto’s mind, which means it’s extremely possible it’s abstracted, metaphorical, or an abstracted metaphor in one form or another. (I don’t interpret Loboto’s exposed brain as textual in the “real world” for this reason - we only ever see it exposed in his mental worlds, and in both cases in a scenario where him having an exposed brain under the cap serves some kind of symbolic/metaphorical purpose - but for several reasons, the prosthetic feels more grounded in reality despite this. Anyway, that’s all a tangent regardless.) There could also be hidden mechanics that allow it to move the way it does, or it could just be an abstraction of the art style (though again, I’m trying not to let out-of-story things like that be answers to these questions). But it’s really hard to imagine the Hinged Peppermill With Claws having the range of movement it does without Loboto unconsciously moving it with telekinesis.

For that matter, I feel similarly about his eye lenses - we see them moving around independently, zooming in and out without him touching them, and so on, and like… how? How?? Maybe it’s just that I’m not biomechanically minded-slash-informed, but “yeah he’s just moving them psychically without realizing” does feel like a more viable answer than any alternatives, if not one with a ton of super obvious and textual evidence behind it. Once again, though, in combination with other evidence, it does have more weight behind it.

In summary: Loboto’s able to resist psychic interference, actively fight back against trained Psychonauts in his own mind, and move his various prosthetics and augments in highly refined ways. All these things, especially taken all together, make the most sense if you assume his psychic powers are still acting subconsciously, and he’s just not able to consciously access and use them in the ways he did pre-lobotomy.

2) One of the most prominent impacts of the lobotomy on Cal appears to be his inability to recognize when he is doing harm, and to a certain related degree, how to interpret other peoples’ responses to him. When Raz helps recover his “moral compass”, Loboto actually becomes significantly more unstable as he struggles to process this, having likely gone most of his life without these capabilities.

This is going to be a little less “I cite direct evidence in support of my argument” and more “I point out specific scenes and instances of behavior, how I’m interpreting them, and why I’m interpreting that way”. Hopefully you will stick with me here.

So, as I stated waaaay back at the start of this, what set me off on this whole journey was going back through some of the original Psychonauts cutscenes, seeing Loboto in action, and going, “Woah, hey, he’s like way more measured than I remembered him being”. So let’s go into more detail on that and unpack it a bit!!

There’s a consistent and distinct pattern of behavior Loboto exhibits in his scenes in the first game: screeching, in-your-face Mad Scientist rambling, and then suddenly, these dips into like… oddly quiet, composed, weirdly Professional (if decidedly eccentric) behavior. The cutscenes with Dogen are a really good example - he has his big INSANITY OF A MANATEE THIS WILL ONLY HURT TILL YOUR BRAIN COMES FLYING OUT speech, but in-between and especially after that, he kind of quiets down and starts acting like an Actual Slightly Eccentric Dentist. (In fact, here’s the full transcript of the scene that sent me down this whole rabbit-hole, for context:

Dr. Loboto: Oh, good boy! There's that pesky brain. Here's a tissue. Now don't you feel better, my dear lad? Dogen: [Now brainless] TV..? Dr. Loboto: Of course! Right here. [Loboto picks up Dogen's brain off the floor.] And THIS bad tooth, we'll just drop it in the ol' garbage chute. Now don't chew solid foods for the next six hours!

It really knocked me off balance seeing it, so I made a point of going and watching the full Lili’s bracelet clairvoyance cutscene in full, to see if he behaved similarly there. And he didn’t! He’s full Mad Scientist Haha Crazy there, the entire time!! I had to think on it for a while, and I realized there was one major difference - Lili continues to be defiant and difficult in conversation the entire time, while Dogen responds pretty calmly and doesn’t start freaking out until it’s clear His Brain Will Be Removed, which is also when Loboto starts going more Mad Scientist again. (Again, below’s the full transcript of the Lili scene for context.)

Dr. Loboto: Well, I've reviewed your chart, little girl. The bad news is, we're going to have to remove your brain... strap it into an armored battle tank, and have it shoot down innocent civilians with its concentrated psychic death beam! Lili: I'm gonna kill you so much. Dr. Loboto: The good news is that your insurance is going to cover the whole thing. So! ... Hey, is it getting warm in here? Lili: No, I'm trying to set you on fire through this stupid hat! Dr. Loboto: What a delightfully mean little brain you have! Just what we want! Here, do me a favor. Tell me if this smells like... YOUR DOOM! Heh heh! Lili: I-I can't smell anything. Dr. Loboto: Curses! [Lili laughs at him] You're a stubborn little ball of phlegm, ain't ya? Well, that head cold won't protect you forever, little girl, and when it's gone you'll be sneezing a different tune. A tune in the key of... brains! HAAA HA HA!

His last big cutscene with Sheegor really hammers everything home. He’s full Mad Scientist again, he’s screaming and experimenting and Actively Threatening and Tormenting Her the entire time. Then Sheegor leaves and just, measured and nonchalant as anything: “When you're a dentist, you have to learn to have a sense of humor, you know. It helps to calm the patient down.” (It’s also worth noting a lot of the torment, at least to me, comes off as kinda “dipshit older sibling who commits to the bit of teasing Way Way Past where it’s all in good fun for the younger sibling”. Like he just keeps Going and Playfully Backing Off and then Actually Still Going. It’s so awful it loops around to being funny again. I'm so so sorry Sheegor I love you and you don't deserve this but I am laughing)

I think Loboto really, unironically, genuinely thinks this is what he’s doing in all these situations. He’s a dentist, he’s got all these difficult patients around, so he’s going to joke with them! A bit of friendly teasing and playing up his eccentric behavior to get them to calm down for the procedure! At the point where all this is happening, I think he’s genuinely incapable of comprehending-slash-accepting that he’s actually doing harm and that they’re actually, rightfully scared of him. Not in a like “oh uwu he didn’t know he did anything bad he’s just a nice guyyyy” way, but in a “his brain is literally, textually, physically damaged in such a way that he cannot comprehend this” way. As far as he can tell, he’s doing some freelance dentistry (plus or minus a few things, you know how it is when you’re doing work-for-hire type stuff, you never know what the client’s gonna ask you for) and sometimes he’s gotta joke around when he gets a patient that’s nervous or difficult. All in good fun!

Then, of course, we get Rhombus of Ruin and the mental compass. If you’ve played or watched that game, you know all this already. Raz recovers the mental compass from the vault and Loboto’s demeanor completely shifts again. He recognizes aloud, for the first time since we’ve been introduced to him, that he has done Horrible Things. (We will see him continuing to do this in his level in Psychonauts 2, but we’ll get to that.) He seems, very genuinely, saddened and horrified with himself as he says all this. Raz has very literally reintroduced Physical-Slash-Psychic Capacity To Recognize Harm to Loboto’s brain. Given what we learn about Loboto’s past here, it is very much possible that this is the first time he has had this capability since he was a very young child.

Another thing that happens is, in rapid succession, Loboto chooses to Immediately Make Reconciliatory Actions (releasing the Psychonauts, telling the fish henchmen to leave), and then also Blow The Building Up Right Now. For No Clear Reason. For Zero Benefit, In Fact, The Opposite Of Benefit, He Also Has to Frantically Escape This Now. It’s completely illogical, erratic behavior that’s in conflict with itself. And that pattern… kind of stays consistent from that point out, actually! Almost his entire appearance in 2 is him very literally arguing with himself, acting in erratic and conflicting ways - pretty much going to the Psychonauts for protection and redemption yet also actively giving them the run-around and preventing them from finding his boss; alternately trying to connect with or get pity from the agents, then being aggressive or insulting towards them, then being kind of playfully, teasingly antagonistic at worst. While Raz reintroducing his moral compass is probably objectively a good thing for Loboto in the long run, in the short-term having that level of major, major change in his damaged brain seems to have significantly destabilized his behavior and sense of identity (we’ll get into that in just a moment) in ways that make him much less predictable and more erratic compared to how he was pre-RoR.

In summary: Loboto at the time of the original Psychonauts is eccentric and dangerous, but he’s also consistent and stable in his behavior and identity, acting consistently as a freelance dentist who plays up his eccentricity, teasing or otherwise joking around in an effort to “calm down” his “patients”. It’s likely he’s physically unable to comprehend that he’s doing harm and scaring people, due to the brain damage from his childhood lobotomy. Raz reintroducing his moral compass in Rhombus of Ruin fixes this, but makes Loboto much more unstable and unpredictable as he grapples both with the harm he’s done over the years, and with trying to suddenly live with a brain function he hasn’t had for most of his life.

3) Both of the above are causing some variant of Mental Projection to occur in Loboto’s mind, creating multiple conflicting archetypes/personas similar to what’s happening in Cassie’s mind.

In connection with the above, It’s Time To Talk About the Multiple Lobotos.

[Image ID: A screenshot from Psychonauts 2, showing two Lobotos in his mental world - one in bright light sitting in a dentist chair on the right side, the other standing in the shadows on the left. End ID.]

Every time we see Loboto’s mental world, there are multiple distinct, individual, and simultaneous versions of Loboto Himself in operation. Not different and distinctly individual personalities, like Fred and Napoleon. Not separated alter-egos representing a part of oneself, like Edgar and El Odio, or Bob and Turnip-Bob. Not even fragmented personalities that appear one at a time, like the different versions of Ford. There are multiple versions of Loboto that are Just A Loboto - literally the most different they get is “one time one of them pretended to be a whaler” - operating at the same time as each other, in the same scenes as each other, interacting with each other, sometimes in direct opposition to each other. There is only one other place in the entire series where we see this happening.

[Image ID: A screenshot from Psychonauts 2, showing the “librarian” Archetype of Cassie O’Pia tearing up a book with Raz on the left side and her three other Archetypes on the right. End ID.]

THAT’S RIGHT BABY AFTER ALL THESE YEARS I FINALLY RETROACTIVELY FOUND AN EXPLANATION FOR THE CALLY O’PIA AU anyway where was I. Yeah.

The way the different versions of Cal operate in his mind and interact with each other is more similar to Cassie’s Archetypes than anything else we see in anyone else’s minds. The only major differences are “Loboto’s Archetypes aren’t flat paper illustrations” (and I think it’s remarkably easy, even reasonable, to assume that’s a Cassie-specific stylization that Raz only retains because Cassie directly teaches him and he’s thus using her Archetypes as a reference point - Cassie’s a writer; what reason would everyone else in the world have to render their Archetypes as if they were illustrations in a book?) and “Loboto doesn’t refer to or treat the other versions of himself as Archetypes” (of course he doesn’t, I don’t see any reason or scenario where he could have reasonably learned about Archetypes, in either a psychological or psychic sense - he literally does not have the knowledge or the language to do this). Honestly, interpreting the different Lobotos as different Archetypes explains a lot about how they act, what they’re doing in Loboto’s mind and why they’re in the parts of the story they are. I am going to talk about each individual version of Loboto and what I think they’re doing Archetype-wise based on the text now, because none of you can stop me.

Psychonauts 2 Loboto #1, AKA Patient Loboto: This guy, and Psychonauts 2 Loboto #2, tie in the most to the above discussion on Loboto becoming more outwardly unstable after recovering his mental compass, and so I’m going to refer back to and expand on that with the both of them. This Loboto is explicitly the one we see in the patient chair during those cutscenes in his level, the one we see speaking to Raz directly in the poster hall section, and I would argue he’s likely the version we see at the very start of the level in the office construct (or at the very least, he's the one "running" Loboto at that point, in the same way the Librarian is "running" Cassie when we first meet her). He’s the version of Loboto we see most blatantly grappling with the return of his mental compass - he regrets the things he’s done in the past, he’s seems to be vying to connect with the agents on some level, he’s genuinely upset about being tricked and about being unable to tell Raz what’s up with his boss. This puts him in direct conflict with…

Psychonauts 2 Loboto #2, AKA Doctor Loboto: This guy is also the result of Loboto’s Newfound Ability To Recognize Morals, but in the opposite direction. He’s the one who’s fully embracing the identity he’s built as an amoral mad-scientist-for-hire, figuring he’s better off just continuing the path he’s already on and disregarding the new knowledge that It’s Wrong, rather than go through all the trouble and misery and Active Risk To Self of trying to Be Redeemed. Basically, he’s the one looking at OG Psychonauts version of Loboto and going What If We Just Went Back To That Actually. Fuck Character Development. He is, obviously, the one we see as the dentist in the cutscenes in Loboto’s level, as well as pretty textually the one who grabs Raz from behind the painting in Lili’s section.

Monstroboto: Back to RoR now! This one’s pretty textual as well - this the uncontrolled, untethered, don’t-know-or-care-if-it-hurts-someone version of Loboto. (As I type this, I realize it’s worth noting, this version of Loboto is very obviously “playing” as he attacks, in the same way I observed Psychonauts 1 Loboto having a playful tone to his antagonism, as if he’s not recognizing that he’s actively hurting and terrifying people while doing so. All his attacks are either that, or actively retaliatory. I'm Simply Saying I Can Read Some Subtext.) Between that and the exposed brain, it’s pretty obvious this is representing the post-lobotomy Loboto (how he sees himself? How he thinks others see him? All that’s speculation, mine friends…) - wreaking havoc on Loboto’s ability to engage with other parts of himself and develop a fully fledged mindscape.

First Mate Loboto: This one’s a little more speculative and could mean a lot of things, but bear with me. As above, this could well be the part of Loboto that wants to distance himself from what he became after the lobotomy - whether that means ignoring it entirely and trying to go back to how things were “before”, or more likely, based on his dialogue, trying to move on and grow past it; “sail for new waters”, in his own words. It’s also possible he’s something of Loboto’s idealized self - he’s just as eccentric and dramatic as the real deal, but at least more theoretically heroic and adventurous - and/or, tying into a lot of the themes of the RoR version of Loboto’s mind, kind of a childish “what I want to be when I grow up” version of himself. (We see lots of nautical themes in Loboto’s childhood, after all, with the sea life toys and the little sailor boy outfit and all; while it’s certainly speculative, it’s not a huge leap to think little Loboto might have wanted to grow up to be like, a sailor or something of that ilk.)

Young Loboto: This one’s pretty obvious; he’s very literally the Inner Child. (You Know. Like Psychology.) Just like Li’l Oly in Oleander’s mind, this is the part of Cal who was Very Hurt when he was Very Young and has never had the means or opportunity to process it - he’s just stuck in that mental vault, buried away, playing out what he’s experienced over and over and over again as a helpless, outside observer. (I think it’s Very telling that Raz releasing the vault and, in essence, establishing a connection between Inner Child Loboto and the other parts of himself is what restores Loboto’s ability to use his moral compass.)

So, in total, we’ve got five distinct Lobotos in play through what we see: Inner Child, First Mate, Monstroboto, Patient and Doctor. And, in a case very similar to what we see of Cassie’s Archetypes, each of these versions of him are a result of a Very Specific Point in his life and a subsequent need to fulfill a Very Specific Purpose for his continued functioning and survival. The Inner Child is, well, Loboto As A Child (and less literally, the version of him that’s kind of holding on to his trauma so the rest of the versions of him don’t necessarily have to reckon with it); Monstroboto is what’s taken over post-lobotomy; First Mate is what he either Wanted or Wants to be and isn’t because of said lobotomy; and Patient and Doctor are the two options he has post-recovering his moral compass, either continuing on the path he’s already on, or abandoning it for the hard road of Trying To Be Better.

And again, much like Cassie, none of those Archetypes on their own are getting the job done on their own. Doctor and Monstroboto are extremely destructive and don’t seem much able to form meaningful relationships because of it, Patient is an erratic coward who’s constantly miserable and collapsing under the weight of What He’s Done, Inner Child is a Child, and First Mate is a cartoon character. It’s very likely that a theoretical healthier, more functional version of Loboto would have to reconcile these different Archetypes the same way we eventually see Cassie do, or at the very least get them on terms where they’re not Actively Opposing Each Other At All Times.

In summary: Loboto has multiple Archetypes active in his mind the same way Cassie does, and much like Cassie, the Archetypes being in conflict with each other plays a major role in his instability, especially post-RoR. Again like Cassie, it’s likely Loboto would have to reconcile his different archetypes - especially the ones in direct conflict, as we see in his mind in Psychonauts 2 - in some form or another to become more mentally stable.

SO IN CONCLUSION, I hope this Rambling Essay and Cited Evidence has convinced you all that:

Loboto is still psychic, but his powers only manifest unconsciously, and he isn’t able to use them by conscious choice as when he was a child. (Whether or not it’s possible for him to eventually re-access those powers consciously is very much a “your guess is as good as mine” situation - Loboto's the only lobotomized psychic we see in the series, and no other in-game sources on the history or results of the practice.)

Regaining his moral compass for the first time since childhood makes Loboto behave significantly more erratically and unpredictably, in no small part because–

Loboto has several mental Archetypes in direct conflict with each other, especially after regaining his moral compass.

What does all this mean? I’m gonna be honest. I don’t know. I just wanted to get all this out of my head. Now it lives in yours instead. Have fun!!

[cubezart]

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

[paragonrobits]

No offense but your idea is way too needlessly dour for the Psychonauts universe, which is thematically about hope and forgiveness and understanding if you missed that part.

I suppose that's a fair point though I do have to contend that this is the setting with several characters who have fundamental details such as 'this antagonist was raised by psychic-hating parents who literally destroyed his psychic abilities by having him lobotomized' or 'this maternal and caring teacher was tormented by feeling the dying pain of the orphans she cared for as they burned to death' and so on. It might be argued that these don't count because they are largely backstory specific, and aren't usually shown on screen, but again, tragic stuff is not terribly unusual here.

Consequently, while a complete lack of reconciliation is a bit unusual by the standards of Psychonauts, it doesn't feel specifically dissonant; if anything I'd argue it makes a point about consequences. If you don't want your children hating you and cutting you entirely out of their lives, you probably shouldn't make them miserable or spend so much of your on screen time making the audience feel tremendous empathy for how upset the character's child feels at it.

I also honestly don't think Psychonauts is specifically about those themes per se. In terms of gameplay it's deliberately a psychedlic action platformer that uses the premise of mental worlds to engage in storytelling through the use of level design, and in terms of plot it has many different feels; at times its sad, and other times its far more comedic and even outright runs on black comedy (depending on whether or not you feel it counts if the characters in question are mental constructs or metaphorical entities, but we DO see the dark comedy in stuff like the cheerleader duo in the first game and their running plotline).

It IS true that the game deals heavily with reaching out to people and trying to help them, but its not exclusively about hope, forgiveness and understanding. Plenty of times characters wind up in situations where there's no magic cure all, no happy reconciliation and just a bunch of questions left unanswered or regrets. The second game shows this neatly with Augustus admitting that while he cares for Nona, he's deeply conflicted after having lived a lie most of his conscious life. Coach Oleander never reconciled with his father and just kind of has to live with his miserable memories and no real closure on whether his dad was as brutal as his memories say (as this isn't really explored in game, but the series bible found on-line, while having details contradictory to the second game, doesn't have anything to contradict the stuff with Oleander's father) and he just died while Oleander was away, and... that's it. He's dead, end of story, that's not going to go anywhere.

And sometimes that's pretty much it. Things break so badly they never get fixed and sometimes, its a waste of time even trying, so you just move on. Psychonauts often seems to deal with a mix of dark comedy and genuine narrative about people doing the best they can with what they have to deal with. So, assuming Donatella's behavior towards Raz doesn't change much, it's simply not surprising for his resentment to build and build until finally it blows up. (Which, to be plain, I find way more realistic and in some ways, more satisfying than something that leans towards the troubling moral of 'you need to reconcile with family no matter what', especially since he has no real particular reason to do so.)

Also, while off topic, 'if you missed that part' is needlessly passive aggressive and mildly insulting. If you're trying to persuade people towards your argument, its a really bad idea to insult them or at least make it sound like that. It will generally make people resent you and dismiss your argument out of hand. I don't know if persuading me towards your point was the intent of this message, but if it was, its going to be counterproductive more often than not.

[beezonia]

lila would be so fun to explore in a Psychonauts au

like i feel because she’s so manipulative she’d definitely use her abilities to change people’s perspectives (if she had telepathy she’d use it to get info)

especially if she can create mental constructs, she’d use them to make everyone believe that she’s in the right and those who oppose her are wrong

yeah I want to write about manipulative psychic lila it’d be fun

[dailycharacteroption]

Instinctive Metaphysicist (Starfinder Archetype)

(art by dendysetiady on DeviantArt)

When Pathfinder tapped into a few disparate elements of D&D 3.5’s Psychic Handbook in order to bring psychic magic into their setting, they mostly took the names of certain classic spells and pretty much dropped the rest, eschewing the crystals and pseudoscience in favor of actual historic looks into mentalism and claims of psychic phenomena.

One of the things they brought up was mindscapes, metaphorical psychic landscapes that translate the inner workings of a living mind into a form that the mortal mind can understand, and more importantly, can be described in exciting ways for the players.

Now, while the binary mindscapes associated with psychic duels had pretty clearly laid out rules for how they work, the more in-depth personal mindscapes are rather… rules-lite, shall we say? On the one hand this is good because it means that the GM has leeway to do whatever here. On the other, it’s extremely frustrating since the mindscape chapter did a poor job of inspiring what you MIGHT do with such things. Healing someone’s mind by fighting painful memories or outside influence, extracting information with a literal mind-heist, or damaging a mental construct representing some psychic power in an enemy are all fine and dandy ideas. It’s a pity that the game doesn’t really give you an upper limit on what you can actually do to a person with a single casting of mindscape door.

In essence, exactly what you can do with mindscapes is left wholly in the GM’s hands, making someone’s mind into basically a weird sort of dungeon where you often have to get in and find a way out of someone’s mind, especially if they know you’re digging around. This also means that your GM is going to be in a lot of pain if you cast that spell a lot on people that are not who you’re meant to dive into in the story.

So with that in mind, I had hoped that the Starfinder delve into mindscapes would be a bit more detailed, but instead I was disappointed still, partially because of today’s subject.

Now with that preamble out of the way, I present our subject, the Instinctive Metaphysicist!

As the name suggests, this archetype refers to a person who, due to exposure to them, knows their way around mindscapes in ways that many others do not. They may not even be particularly potent psychics, but they have a knack for navigating and utilizing mindscapes in their work, though some of the more powerful can manifest constructs of their imagination into reality.

Despite my dislike of how some abilities of this archetype are handled, this archetype has a sort of… ancient mystic vibe to it which I do appreciate, like some wizened elder who was never formally trained but has a deeply insightful understanding of the mind from decades of practice.

It’s also notable that this archetype is heavily associated with (but not exclusive to) uplifted bears due to their psychic abilities and yearning for a cultural identity, which has given rise to the “Endless Forest”, which is either a collective mindscape of their people, or perhaps a recurring framing device for personal mind palaces that they create, depending on how you look at it.

When taking a longer rest, these psychonauts can retreat into themselves to recover much faster than others, and even use this reclusion to fight off mental effects, though they become insensate while their thoughts are deep within their own heads.

The more powerful among them can flex their minds to bring forth objects or illusions from their minds into reality for a short while, ranging from small physical objects to complex illusions and later even full illusionary environments.

Finally, they can also attempt to pull a foe into a binary mindscape to duel them, allowing them to fight directly with the foe in the landscape of the mind. However, the rules for this are much less robust than Pathfinder’s psychic duels, and is confusingly worded.

While the rest of the archetype is fine, the fact that the final ability is basically instigate psychic duel, a 1st level spell in Pathfinder, is annoying to me, especially since this is the only officially printed way for characters to do so in Starfinder without conversion or homebrewing. Beyond that, however, the archetype is simple enough, and being able to create illusionary terrain or temporary objects can be useful in the right situations. As such, you can mostly build your character as normal with these abilities to supplement it. I can see both spellcasters with a psychic bent taking it, as well as those of a less mystical persuasion having a knack for mindscapes.

Even without having any abilities that directly affect mindscapes, this archetype does make for an intriguing ability set. One has to imagine that these characters often contemplate what the nature of reality and imagination are. Some may seek to understand the cosmos more, while others may dream of being the masters of their own mental reality.

What began as an exercise in meditation and autohypnosis has warped into something stranger as ascetic guru Palani’s “Rock by the Sea” has evolved into a collective mindscape of his many fans and followers. Completely out of his depth, the charlatan seeks to develop this into a cult, but in truth, he is not the real cause of this psychic construct, and he certainly isn’t its master.

Kogress of the 40th battalion will never pick up a doshko again, not after the horrors he witnessed. The old vesk would love nothing more than to move on from those times, but those horrors will not let him be, or rather, his subconcious mind will not, projecting the memories of that battlefield into a hellscape that surrounds him whenever he grows stressed.

The xararians, a human-like species ruled by a mageocracy that fears religion and technology as threats to their absolute power, have long held the wider galaxy in grim contempt as they try to keep their people isolated. However, a new threat to the regime grows from within, as more and more people are touched by what could be called a contagious dream, one that offers freedom and equality.

[aquato-family-circus]

Know you said you wouldn't post about the Psychonauts concept art book, but was wondering what content there is on Otto in there? I know as a Brit with the shipping costs on the book it's going to be a long time before im potentially able to afford- and genuinely curious as from your image of the contents page, I can see the Psychic 7 section is quite a few good pages. (Ok for response in dis if you don't want to post public, apologies if this is a ramble)

We get some really nice concept art for Otto & his Lab! + his inventions, scrapped and retained, and ofc seeing how the other mental constructs of him were drawn too

BC he didn't get a mental world we unfortunately dont get like, a cool multiple page section abt how they explored him mentally but that's ok I think v_v it's still pretty cool what we did get

I'm still reading thru the book at my own pace, so I haven't even gotten to the part about the gulch, maybe I'll report back in DMs if I find anything particularly interesting in regards to Otto ^_^

[psi-spectacular]

KoD AU ask: how do they free him? how do they free him? Please tell me how my boy becomes okay. unless this is a spoiler. In which case, how does the kidnapping play out?

No, no, I'm uh... not going to actually make a fic about this. I might, but probably not. likely ill try to do some animatics but who knows.

But basically, William knows the psychonauts are closing in on him so he preemptively activates Raz's "ascension" (tries to make him into a new maligula) by triggering his lizard brain. It kinda works but hes just angry, adrenaline filled, and extremely scared and attacking everyone. Boss fight, Lili and Oleander knock him out (Oleander was sent in to try and find Raz, Lili snuck onto his truck and used what happened in PN1 to get this as a favor)

Basically because they both have their own bonds with him (Lili being able to break down raz's psychological construct by being around him and some leftovers from oleander and his mind fusion) so its easier to get through the hole left in his brain's mental defenses, and they go into his mind.

I havent fully worked out what his mind looks like, but its basically a slightly shoddy but solid construct thats like if you mashed a giant circus and moscow in the 1800s together. They have to go in and disconnect the device from the inside lungfishopolis style because thats the fastest way to do it without hurting him.

He's left with some scars, both on his head where the device was removed and on his psyche, but generally he winds up being okay with some therapy.

For how he gets kidnapped... im open to suggestions 0-0' im not sure what exactly happens yet sadly. I came up with this idea like a week ago! i need to let the ideas microwave a bit

[kk-cats]

Thank god my psychonauts moots are seperate from my dc moots like loboto being part of the inspiration for my character's backstory?? My character's mental construct in charge of keeping things neat an orderly looking like sasha nein?? I would be LAUGHED OUT

IRONICALLY CORUS STARTED OFF AS A PSYCHONAUTS OC.. I NEED TO REDRAW THEM IN THE PSYCHONAUTS UNIVERSE ACTUALLY

[jenniferstolzer]

Psychonauts - The Hornblower Incident - Chapter 33

Mental Construction

Raz and Milla work together to set a mental scene. In the process, Raz gets a lesson on mental constructs and insight on how they're going to work on Hornblower if Milla can manage it.

Not a high energy chapter, but probably the closest we'll get to Basic Braining or Sasha or Milla's levels in P1. I'm approaching this fanfic as half movie half game sequel. What would I like to see and maybe play out. I think Mental Construct would be a lot of fun to learn to do... like Psyconauts Minecraft. Or maybe Fortnite? Psychonauts should be in Fortnite

[jnixz]

He has got a model career in Horror Books and Science Classes

[doctor-loboto]

I choose to believe that the posters and paintings in the office construct were how Gristol’s mental block manifested because Loboto is really into wall art as a dentist and in future Psychonauts media we get to see his unhinged decor choices complete with inspirational kitten posters and some kind of wine mom placque (BRUSH, FLOSS, RINSE, LOVE)

[anonymouspuzzler]

finished one of my finals so i decided to celebrate by sketching up some concepts for cal's mind in the Cally O'Pia au!! putting image IDs/descriptions and general elaborating on my Vision(TM) under da cut cause i can tell even before typing it's gonna get long (PSYCHONAUTS 2 & RHOMBUS OF RUIN SPOILERS IN THERE BTW YOU ARE WARNED)

Welcome. Let Me Describe You My Vision. my goal with this was essentially "how do I hit the major plot beats that are necessary for Psychonauts 2's plot to Happen while still incorporating Cal's very different backstory in this AU"; some of this involves functionally combining RoR's and Psychonauts 2's versions of Loboto's mental world. maybe someday I'll go into how I envision RoR changing in this au but whatever right now we're on The Opening of Psychonauts 2 As Played Out In This Verse

first things first Sasha's Psychic Projection has to be completely different given 1) Cally already works for the Psychonauts 2) he knows the other agents very well already and 3) he is a Known Psychic rather than a random feral dentist Morry picked up off the streets. so rather than the "Psychonauts office where Loboto gets employee of the year and has to get his vacation form signed off on" construction, Sasha instead constructs a scenario where Cally is still under his "Dr. Loboto" guise, has captured the other agents, and has to deliver Raz to his boss. unfortunately for Sasha, Cally catches on pretty much right away, plays along for all of five minutes, then drops everyone in a little box to keep them contained while he makes sure all the info on his boss is under mental lock and key. Unlike the ones you see above, Raz's box is kind of plain and nondescript because, unlike all the other agents he's known for years, all Cally knows about Raz is "psychic kid who keeps getting himself in some shit".

because this is, you know, The First Level of the Imaginary Game, this still has to be constructed as a tutorial, too, which you will see as I get into each of these little boxes. Raz's box teaches you to use your standard psi-punches, because it is Hastily and Weakly Put Together, so Raz can literally bust his way out and scamper around looking for the others. Cally, in turn, keeps trying to re-trap Raz as he investigates the next boxes, but with the help of the other agents Raz keeps finding ways to break out and proceed further (though the others remain stuck).

The first one Raz finds is Oleander's, which you can see in the top left of the first pic - the primary theming is Loboto's Lab from the first game and drawing on their time working together there, but the walls are also covered in pictures of Oleander and/or the two of them together, that have all been defaced or scribbled over in some form (since at the time of the game they're very much on the Off side of their On-Off relationship). To get out of the box Oleander re-teaches Raz telekinesis, which allows him to open up the hatch on the upper right of the wall, and then gives Raz a boost out - Coach, of course, isn't able to reach it himself before Cally slams the door behind Raz. You also may notice a hidden room behind one of the pictures - you can only get in there by returning later in the game when you have pyrokinesis, and once you do, you'll find a memory vault about his and Morry's relationship (which i've had concepted out for like a year and WILL draw eventually) and a bunch of photos that haven't been defaced (representing how Cally still has much stronger feelings for Oleander than he's admitted to, and is still carrying a torch even through the surface level of their breakup).

Next comes Sasha (top right picture in the first image), whose room is kind of a combo of his and Otto's labs, with a bunch of the props drawn from both locations - books, papers, inventions, computers, The Lamp, you know how it be. The floor also has a big glass swirl that gives you a peek at Otto's brain storage, which has a bunch of brains tumble by as you're in there (plus the occasional Faberge egg, for Foreshadowing - for even more of that, there's also the brain case on top of Sasha's exam table in the corner). The escape here escalates to a two-step process - Sasha re-teaches Raz psi-blast, the two of you combine forces to pry the door open with TK, and then the chattering teeth start spilling in and Raz has to fight his way out with psi-blast.

Third comes Milla - I swapped her with Lilli compared to the "canon" order first because I misremembered, but then I stuck with it because I felt like it worked better thematically. Anyway, Milla's room (seen bottom left) is a combo of her meditation chamber and Cassie's house back in the gulch, with pillows and tapestries and books everywhere, honeycomb wallpaper, and of course, Bees? Bees! They Have Chosen The Bees. You might notice the big scary beehive from the Forgetful Forest in the middle of the room; the escape here involves Milla re-teaching Raz levitation, the two of them pulling out the beehive with TK, using psi-blast to fend off the subsequent BEES, and then Raz drops in the hole and uses levitation to hover his way to safety. (At this point Cally is like KID C'MON and outright intercepts and dementistrates Milla rather than just keep her trapped.)

Last but hardly least is Lilli; she's in a combo of Truman's office and what she tells Raz looks a lot like her house/apartment - Cally's functionally kind of an uncle to her in this verse, so he's been particularly thoughtful in crafting a comfortable, familiar mind-prison for her. (The Extremely Subtle Foreshadowing also continues here, with envelopes and a hacksaw on the desk, the brain case on the shelf, and of course The Fuckoff Huge Crown Chandelier hanging above the desk.) The other wall has a bunch of family photos of Lilli and Truman, and one big pic of young Cally and Truman in the Gulch; Lilli re-teaches Raz pyro so he can burn that, and Enormous Mental Cally takes this as an opportunity to grab Raz much like in the original game.

Now we're at the point of the second image, and where things particularly divert from the original version of the level in my mind! Big Ol Cally drops Raz in a combat arena and he has to deal with a few waves of Censors and Doubts and Regrets - I haven't decided if this is the first time you encounter true Combat or if you have mini-waves throughout the level like in the "canon" version, but if it is your first combat I like the idea of Lilli being your "mission control" explaining the new enemies an dhow to beat them. Either way, Raz fights a couple waves while trying to convince Cally to give them information, he refuses, and when it looks like Raz is in a real tight spot he manages to dive off the arena deeper into Cally's subconscious.

This is where we start incorporating RoR stuff! Raz drops all the way to the little dollhouse representation of Cal's childhood home, goes in, sees a little Cassie-style paper projection of young Cal and overhears his parents having their Oh What Can We Possibly Do We Can't Handle This Child Anymore conversation. Paper Cal hides in a wardrobe, Raz follows, and this portals into this endless-seeming hospital hallway where dialog plays between li'l Cal and the doctors, revealing to Raz that they were going to lobotomize him for being psychic. (I think maybe you find your first accessible memory vault either here or in the path I talk about in a second; that one goes into how Cal got taken in by the psychic 7 and i also have that one concepted out please god give me time and energy to draw these soon). After this plays there's a cutscene where representations of the psychic 7 tear apart the hallway, and Raz falls into this paper representation of the Gulch. He follows a little path past some simple setpieces of things you'll see later in the game, talks to himself a bit like Wow This Is Just Like True Psychic Tales So Cool That Agent O'Pia Grew Up Here :)

Now this path leads past a little paper version of Lucy's hut (which Raz doesn't recognize for sure, which bugs him), and the path around THAT leads to a big winding path through a parted waterway (which Raz is Very Much Not Happy About, reestablishing the water curse - maybe there's a little cutscene where he sees the hand of Galochio much like in the first game at the beach). Raz nervously walks through, and dialogue plays between Cally and Mysterious Figures revealing Cal got caught undercover and was threatened into assisting with the Kidnap Truman plot (or rather, they threatened Cassie and Lillie and Oleander, which ended up being Much more effective than threatening his own life). At the end of the path Raz finds the base from RoR, and it's in there that he sees "Loboto" talking to the Shadowy Figure similar to canon and 1) learns whoever hired Loboto was a mole, and 2) sees the vision of Maligula when the figure reiterates his threat to Cal-slash-Cal's family. Vision-Maligula destroys the village, Raz snaps back to the real world, and There's Our Game!

if you've read this far you're a hero beyond compare here's the image descriptions for you

[Image 1 ID: Digital sketches of four boxlike rooms. The top left room is labeled "OLEANDER" and incorporates elements from Loboto's Lab in Psychonauts, including the jagged glass window, Mr. Pokeylope's terrarium, and a prototype brain tank sticking out of the floor. There are miscellaneous papers on the floor, and a brain tank blueprint on the wall. Various framed photos of Oleander are also on the wall, most of which have been scribbled over or otherwise defaced. There is a hatch high on one wall, and a secret room with a memory vault behind a pyro-able picture.

The top right room is labeled "SASHA" and resembles a combination of Sasha and Otto's labs, with a large bookshelf making up one wall covered in books, papers and gadgets, floating shelves on the other wall, as well as a desk with office chair, computer monitor and Tiffany lamp. Sasha's examination table is in a far corner, with Truman's brain case on top of it. The floor has a glass swirl revealing brains being transported similar to Otto's brain storage. There is a partially open sliding door on one wall where chattering teeth toys are spilling in.

The bottom left room is labeled "MILLA" and resembles a combination of Milla's meditation chamber and Cassie's home in the Gulch. The walls have a honeycomb pattern wallpaper and string lights, with an eye tapestry hanging on one wall. There are round lantern lights hanging from the ceiling, with bees flying overhead. The floor is a round conversation pit covered in pillows, throw rugs and books; in the center is a massive oozing beehive similar to the one in the Forgetful Forest.

The final, bottom right room is labeled "LILLI" and resembles Truman's office. There is a desk covered in envelopes and a hacksaw, with a desk chair behind it and two 60's style chairs in front. There are two shelves along the wall behind the desk, containing the brain case among other things, and the wall prominently displays the Psychonauts logo. A chandelier resembling the Maliks' crown is hanging from the ceiling above the desk. There is a couch and several plants against the opposite wall, and many family photos of Truman and Lilli on the wall perpendicular, with the largest (pyro-able) one being a picture of young Cally and Truman. End ID.]

[Image 2 ID: Digital sketches of three scenes in Cally's mental world. The first shows Raz (represented by the simple head-and-legs silhouette used in Peter Chan's concepts) diving off a disc-like combat arena (on which are several Censors, Doubts and Regrets) towards the dollhouse representing Cal's childhood home, which is floating in space. The second shows Raz in one of the dollhouse rooms with a paper-projection version of young Cal, with an arrow leading into a wardrobe, which portals into a long hospital hallway with a "NEUROLOGY" sign on the wall, eventually trailing off into nothing. The third shows Raz walking past Lucy's old hut in the Gulch, along a winding path through parted water, and ultimately to the Rhombus of Ruin base. End ID.]

[tinyinvadr]

Very excited about this next chapter since it serves as the introduction for an OC created by my bestie @marsbars2112! Had a lot of fun writing her!

Psychoborrower 2

Chapter 2

“Not her… Not her…”

Dr. Loboto was still muttering to himself after we all left his mind. I had no idea who that woman was, but I could understand his fear. She looked incredibly powerful.

Raz told everyone what we saw, and Sasha identified her as Maligula.

Her name carried a lot of weight in the PSI community. She was a master of hydrokinesis, and commanded a flood that destroyed the country of Grulovia, killing thousands of people. She was evil, ruthless, and the one responsible for shattering Ford Cruller’s mind all those years ago.

But she was also long gone.

Sasha told us that he suspected the mastermind was a Deluginary. They’re a group that supports the actions of Maligula, to the extent that they have attempted to bring her back from the dead.

This is, of course, impossible, but her supporters are so delusional that they often take drastic actions to try and achieve their ultimate goal. In this case, it was kidnapping Truman Zanotto.

That fact raised another concern. With the amount of security the Psychonauts had, it was hard to believe that Loboto was able to break into HQ and kidnap Truman on his own. Which meant he likely had help from the inside.

Soon, we arrived at the Motherlobe, and I could say with confidence, even just seeing the outside of the main building, it was 1000x cooler than the fake construct version. When I pictured a cool, psychic spy HQ, THIS was the kinda place I was thinking of!

When we landed, we were met by Agent Hollis Forsythe. She was Truman’s second-in-command, and would take charge during times when he was absent.

“Agent Forsythe, why was our call dismissed when we hailed the Motherlobe?” Sasha asked.

“What are you talking about? I never got a call from you.”

Milla went on to explain what we just discussed in the jet. Hollis had her doubts, but the moment she saw Truman unconscious, she was willing to hear us out.

We all went inside, and everyone split up to contribute to the investigation. That was when Hollis noticed Raz. And by extension, me.

“Who are you?”

“I’m Raz, and this is Flint! We’re the newest members of the Psychonauts!”

“And… who told you that?”

“Ford Cruller. He gave us these badges after we saved Whispering Rock. It was pretty awesome.”

She sighed. “I’m sorry, but Ford Cruller doesn’t have the authority to commission Psychonauts. Not in his current mental state. But if Sasha and Milla were so insistent on bringing you both here, I suppose I can enroll you in the intern program.”

I glared at her. “Um, did you miss the part where we saved everyone at camp, Sasha and Milla included? AND we just got back from rescuing Grand Head Zanotto! I think we’re more than qualified.”

“No, you’re kids. And you’re lucky I’m even offering an internship to you. Usually you have to be at least 15 to be allowed into the program. I’d suggest you change that tone before I change my mind.”

At that, I kept my mouth shut.

“Flint, I’ll handle your orientation protocols, seeing as you’re the first borrower in the program, so extra paperwork will have to be taken into account. I’d also like you to come with me to my office before we assign you a mentor. There’s someone I’d like you to meet who I think will help you adjust.”

She offered her hand to me, and I climbed on, letting her place me on her shoulder. She started to walk towards the transport tube, and Raz followed her.

“Great! Let’s go!”

“Hold it, Raz. I said I’d be handling Flint’s orientation. You can handle your own. Meet me in my office as soon as you’re finished.”

Raz sighed, and we waved to each other as Hollis brought me upstairs. We soon arrived at the main hub area of the Motherlobe, and it truly was a sight to behold. Floating platforms that could only be reached via levitation, disembodied brains rolling around in little brain hamster balls, there was even a bowling alley!

When we got to Hollis’ office, I was met with a sight I hadn’t expected. There was another borrower in the room, around my age. She was sitting on the desk, and she waved at Hollis.

“Hi, Mom!”

…Huh?

“Hi, sweetie. This is Flint, the newest member of the intern program. I thought you two should meet, since you’ve been here a while and can help him adjust to life here at the Motherlobe.”

I had… a lot of questions. Hollis said I was the first borrower in the internship program, but clearly there was another borrower kid living in the building. And she called her “Mom”?

“Wow, that’s so cool! I thought I was the only one! Hi, I’m Lauren, but you can call me Lori!”

“Uh… Hi. Are you also in the internship program?”

“Nope! I just live here! Though I AM a psychic!”

Her response only left me more confused. If she was psychic, why wasn’t she training?

“So… What do you do here, exactly?”

“Lots of things! I explore, pick flowers, make friends-”

“No, I mean like… psychic stuff.”

She hopped up on her Thought Bubble and rolled a few laps around the desk. Then she lifted a paperclip with her Telekinesis and bent into a heart shape.

“Pretty cool, right?”

I was dumbfounded. Surely she had to do SOMETHING, otherwise she wouldn’t have a place at HQ.

“But… what do you DO here?”

Hollis raised a hand, motioning for me to stop talking.

“Let’s move on from that topic, Flint. It’s time to assign you a mentor. Now… considering you already know each other well, how would you feel about being paired with Agent Nein?”

My eyes lit up. Even though I had been training with Sasha for a while, getting to actually work alongside him in the Motherlobe was huge for me.

“Yes, of course, that sounds great! When do I start?”

“He’s in his lab right now, so you can go meet him there. Lori, could you show Flint how to navigate the tunnel system?”

Without warning, she grabbed my hand and pulled me into a small door in the wall, perfectly scaled to our size. On the other side was an elaborately constructed series of tunnels that seemed to wind around the entire building. It didn’t look like it was constructed by borrowers. A human definitely made this.

“What is this?”

“It’s a special series of tunnels Agent Mentallis built just for me so I can get around easier. Y’know, so I don’t have to keep climbing up and down from furniture or risk walking on the floor and getting stepped on. The fastest way through is to levitate!”

We both got on our Thought Bubbles and rolled through the tunnels, Lori leading the way. I still had a lot of questions, but she seemed to move on from one thing to another in an instant.

She led me through another door, which placed us on a counter in Sasha’s lab. He was already there with another agent, who I soon determined to be the one and only Otto Mentallis.

Otto was a member of the Psychic Six, along with Ford. They were the founders of the Psychonauts, and went on all sorts of daring adventures together. I’d heard quite a bit about them during my time at camp, between overhearing thoughts and conversations, and sneaking a few peeks at True Psychic Tales.

He and Sasha were standing beside a table, where Dr. Loboto was fastened down. I knew it was necessary to continue interrogating him as he was withholding information, but I hated to see him restrained after learning what happened to him back in the Rhombus of Ruin.

Sasha, noticing our arrival, turned our attention to us.

“Ah, here already, I see. You’re right on time, Flint. I just finished speaking with Hollis about your internship. I’m looking forward to working with you. And it’s good to see you again too, Lori. I trust that you’ll help Flint adjust to life here at the Motherlobe.”

“Of course, Agent Nein! I can already tell we’re gonna be best friends!”

She wrapped me in a tight death-hug. She had to be the most affectionate person I’d ever met, and I wasn’t sure how to feel about that.

Lori left after that, and Sasha put me on his shoulder so we could get right to work on interrogating Loboto. As we walked over, I noticed Otto had a slight smirk.

“I thought you said you weren’t going to take any interns.”

“Flint and I work well together, Otto. This will be beneficial for the both of us.”

Otto shook his head, chuckling. “Always so serious. You need to learn to lighten up once in a while.”

He turned his attention to me.

“Flint, was it? I can tell you right now, you’ll be learning from the best. I should know, I was his mentor when he was just starting out. Taught him everything he knows!”

Sasha glanced away, actually looking somewhat embarrassed.

“Right, yes. Back to the subject at hand-”

Mid sentence, Raz stumbled into the room, wearing only his acrobat unitard. He looked so humiliated, and I knew right then and there that someone did something to him.

“I want names, Raz. Who did this?”

Sasha motioned for me to stop.

“Take it easy, Flint. Stay right there, Razputin, while I find you some clothes.”

He dug some of his old clothes out of the closet. They were a little baggy, but not too bad.

Otto left shortly after that, leaving the three of us in the lab. Sasha attempted to be reassuring. Emphasis on attempted.

“I’m assuming this is the work of the other interns. I wouldn’t worry about them. It’s only natural for an in-group to subject newcomers to an initiation of sorts as they adjust to their expanding circle. Though, if something like this happens again, do tell me or Hollis.”

“Yeah, and me, so I can beat ‘em up!”

He and Raz both gave me a look. They knew full well I would get obliterated in a fight against a human teenager. And I did too. But hey, empty threats on my friend’s behalf are better than nothing!

Raz left to go meet up with Hollis for orientation, and Sasha got back to work.

“What exactly are we trying to do here?”

“Loboto has some sort of mental block in place that’s preventing me from finding the identity of the mole. I’m trying to break through it, but it’s proving to be a lot stronger than I initially thought.”

I sat and watched as he continued to try different methods of breaking through, but no real progress was made.

Maybe about 20 minutes later, he suddenly stopped, as if he had a sixth sense.

“Milla found something. We have to go meet her outside the mailroom.”

I wasn’t sure what I was expecting to see when we got there, but it definitely wasn’t Raz standing over a brainless man on the floor.

The man in question was Nick Johnsmith. He worked in the mailroom, and was assigned as Raz’s mentor. But for unknown reasons, the mole stole his brain and stuffed his body in a box addressed to Truman. Not only that, he had a key on him that belonged to the Lady Luctopus Casino.

An agent was recently sent there to investigate suspected Deluginist activity, but Hollis hadn’t heard back from her in the past two days. Naturally, the next course of action was to go there.

Of course, Hollis wasn’t about to let us interns go, even though Sasha and Milla vouched for us. She stood firm on her decision that this mission was too risky for us, and told us to meet her in her classroom.

I should’ve known this would happen. She didn’t know the full extent of what we were capable of. All she saw was a bunch of kids.

I’d just have to prove to her in class that I was the real deal.

[doodle17]

New Psychonauts oc just dropped fam

I'm about to show yalls the most f*cked up guy I've ever created

"Ah, Mr. Aquato. I'm glad you could make it. I've been waiting for a chance to Break Your Mind."

SO this is Tony Bridger 😬👍 that one absolutely irredeemable scumbag OC I've vaguely talked about. I guess I should get into his morals 'n backstory and yadda yadda yadda yadda

Basically, his Father created a machine that could send brainwaves or something like that, to control people. It was his life's work. Of course this was no good, so the Psychonauts were sent in to stop him. It was Sasha Nein himself in fact, who destroyed the machine. They never caught Mr. Bridger, as he took the young Tony and they went off the grid.

After his greatest invention was destroyed, the blueprints and notes all gone, Mr. Bridger went insane. It broke him, and he fell into madness. Tony tried his best to help the broken shambles of a man he knew as his father, but the poor kid was to young to be able to do anything.

Eventually, Mr. Bridger killed himself accidentally. He had stumbled onto some train tracks, got knocked out, and then a train came and ran over his unconscious body. The only family Tony had, which was already broken, was now gone. As if the insanity was infectious, Tony's mind seemed to break as well.

Its was those Psychonauts fault! It was that Agents fault! If they hadn't intervened, he'd still have a father. He didn't care if he took over the world, burned it to the ground. The only man he had to take care of him was gone, and it was all their fault.

So Tony's next plan, was to take action on how to help himself cope. In the worst. Way. Imaginable.

Since the age 14 he's been perfecting this twisted method. He somehow manged how to astrally project someone without a Psy-portal or a Brain Tumbler, and pull them into his mind. This is where the fun stuff starts

As if he's been working on it months, he's able to dig around your subconscious, find people you love, hate, respect, it doesn't matter, and twist and deform them into monsters to torment and torture you. He can create mental constructs in a matter of seconds somehow, with puzzles and monster so insane and so vile, any person who he drags into his mind...

Goes Mad.

When he was 20, he was discovered practicing this disgusting and ominous way of torment, and was thrown into one of the biggest prisons/insane asylum for Psychics ever. That thing, around his neck, is basically a psy-lock, but more powerful, and it gives you the nastiest shock anytime you try to use your powers.

He's not very worried about his position, however. In fact, he's actually quite happy he was thrown in there. Why, you may ask? Because this means he closer to the top agents. The ones who ruined his life in the first place.

Sasha, Milla, Coach, Lili and Raz have to go and try to find a way removed Tony's Brain from his body to be sedated, without having anything bad go wrong, but of course, bad things do, in fact, go wrong.

Because how do you get revenge on the very Agent who broke the one you cared most about?

By breaking one of the people they care about most as well, of course!

Oh yeah, the angst is strong with this one *rubs hands together deviously*

Yeah, I wanna try and make a fic or somthing with this guy soon. It'll be fun! Angsty, graphic, depressing and violent fun~

Sorry for the long post btw I've just been thinking about this guy's backstory a lot. Trying to make him sound evil, but with an actual reason to be