#rick spender

[mordhiobhail]

some chapter 7 drawings

[sheepb1t]

The minis are mentally sick in the head and

(Doodle sheet of my faves, in no particular order)

[onedegreeofsoniccomics]

Paranatural: Guest Comic

Writer/Art/Letters: Eric Lide

[gayassdbz]

Richard Spender plush that looks like this when

[zoomerinaboomercostume]

Basic ideas for the age swap AU:

-Rick is a runaway kid & has a Mom Friend/bestie in the form of Cthumbra, who is the strongest non-Wight Spirit currently existing rn.

- Mayview Middle School is currently being run by the grownup versions of the Activity Club, the Journalism Club & the Jang.

-https://www.tumblr.com/richardspenderposting/719929559907221504/so-youre-saying-wed-get-janitormax-assuming?source=share

Link to who teaches what (open to suggestions).

-There is no Barrier here. More on that later.

[slavhew]

Hello!

If you're not too busy, would you mind listing some of the things you think count as death flags for Mr. Spender?

There's the obvious fact that he's the "old" mentor to group of young protagonists, but what else do you think would count?

OHH BOY ok so I'd think I'm a crackpot for this but since we're talking about Zack "Foreshadowing" Morrison. I have some thoughts

No harm in leading with the (chronologically) first thing that jumped out at me:

This one IMMEDIATELY made me antsy whenever I came back to it after my initial read, and considering Zack has referred to it on twitter in the past as one of their favorite jokes it's definitely not been forgotten about.

Second, the sheer amounts of near-misses, jokey or not, of Spender narrowly avoiding specifically lightning

Again, not much, but it's weird that it happened thrice, latter two of which had real gravitas rather than an one-off joke.

And third, Spender himself. He's repeatedly shown himself to be kind of a self sacrificing idiot, as well as prideful to a fault. Granted, it's both him and Mina trying to take on all the responsibility of saving Mayview and its inhabitants from their fate.. But Spender is exactly that right measure of doesn't-value-himself-enough (chest footprint aftercare or lack thereof), having an obscene amount of power (enables his loner act + pride) and poor judgement that has the capacity to put him at great risk. And it has!

Spender has not only shown low enough self-esteem to view himself as the de-facto scapegoat for the safety of the town, but also prideful enough to make very bad calls that end up in people, often himself, hurt (COUGH FORGE INCIDENT COUGH)

This is all conjecture, but it's definitely enough to make me worried about him :') Even if all this doesn't mean he'll necessarily die he's definitely getting (even more) seriously injured at some point. I love the guy but he's so far doing a horrible job of convincing me he wants to live bad enough to circumvent at least that

[incorrectpnatquotes]

RICK SPENDER?

[chucktaylorupset]

Wait so. If Agent Summers' spirit partner was in a tool, then understandably 13yo Rick Spender might have just never seen what Forge looked like.

And Forge is a walking talking fire-breathing suit of armor. Why would he be good enough with human faces to recognize the 26yo version of a 13yo he once knew. I'm human and I'm not even able to do that. (yes im also rlly faceblind shutup)

But I do think Forge's memory is good enough to remember *names*

some time in 2026 Johnny is going to get to school and Forge is going to break into molten sweat learning he attempted murder on one of June's beloved protoge

[pizzadramon]

Definitely True Razor Rex Theory

Decided I should post my theory somewhere less ephemeral than reddit and also maybe add some new info. Mostly doing this now for bragging rights in the unlikely event that this is all true lmao. copy/pasting most of this from the existing post bc who has time to write things twice:

There's been lots of theories about who or what the leader of the Death Cult is, so figured I'd throw my tinfoil hat in the ring.

I think that Razor Rex is Penny, but she doesn’t know it. Bear with me while I attempt to back up this ridiculous claim lol.

In Chapter 8 we’ve been introduced to the idea of mimics and seen several of them at work. Crucially, none of their powers seem to work exactly the same way.

Phantomime can copy other powers based on the strength of the user's trust in Phantomime or her host. Presumably, a strong bond of friendship or love would result in an exact copy of the power, whereas Penny “cheats” by stitching together bargain bin versions based on incidental relationships (i.e. Contract Claw).

Cherub (as The Angel) can borrow and share powers based on the original user’s faith in her. This version of mimicry requires the original user to actually give up a fraction of their power, which is fitting as a show of faith.

The Witch can use the power of anyone that fears her, and can seemingly make the power permanent by consuming the user.

Razor Rex also seems to be able to freely share her borrowed powers with her followers like Cherub, though the mechanism for the borrowing and sharing hasn’t come up yet.

On its own, all this information probably points to Razor Rex secretly being Cherub, right? Both are borrowing and handing out powers to followers. But there’s two problems with that theory:

Cherub is stuck inside a bell in Ángel’s posession, and if she was sneaking off with another spectral to hold cult meetings he’d probably have noticed.

Razor Rex has white energy, which means a spectral with white energy would need to be channeling Cherub for their power to work. If Ángel was using cherub this way, they’d both know it (and a lot of other stuff that Ángel clearly doesn’t) so that’s out. Penny would need to know about Cherub in the first place, and also see point 1. It's possible that there’s another as-yet unseen white spectral out there who knows about Cherub and can reliably sneak in and out of the antique shop to borrow her for cult meetings, but that strains believability imo.

The other clue is the double-tailed speech bubble. We’ve seen several spirit fusions now, and neither Rick nor Ángel have had the double-tailed bubble in fused form. The only other times we’ve seen it was when Max was being puppeteered by the Black Sphinx, and when Spender was being puppeteered by Lucifer. So I think we can safely conclude that Razor Rex is the result of a spirit that’s possessing a white spectral, not a fusion. The most important thing here is this: both previous times we’ve seen this kind of overshadowing of the host, the host doesn’t know what they’ve been doing.

Based on all this information, my theory is this:

Phantomime is taking control of Penny's body without her knowledge, and using her power to stitch together a version of Cherub’s powers, borrowing and lending the abilities of the cult’s followers based on their faith in Razor Rex.

As I see it, there are currently three holes in this theory.

If they’re the same, why does Razor Rex act so differently from Phantomime?

How does Phantomime know Cherub well enough to copy their power?

Why not just have Cherub overshadow Ángel and skip the middleman?

Point 1 is easy enough to explain: Phanto’s passion is acting, so it would make sense that she’d be good enough to adopt a different persona. Just act like a weird goblin about death and Xbox and you’re good to go.

Point 2 could be explained by any number of things, but we won’t know until we get more backstory for Cherub and/or Phantomime. My DOUBLE UNHINGED TINFOIL THEORY is that Phantomime is secretly working for Cherub. Cherub clearly knows things that Ángel does not, and this could easily be explained by her having a minion on the outside—one that she trusts completely. If she fully trusts Phantomime to carry out their evil plains, then Phanto can copy Cherub’s full abilities of copying and sharing powers.

This would also explain why the PTA is always one step ahead of The Angel—if Phanto can use Penny to commune with Cherub on the downlow they could share info. All Phantomime has to do is overtake Penny for a minute while Ángel isn’t looking, wander into the backroom and touch the bell. The two spirits could have a full conversation in spirit trance in a matter of seconds and neither Penny nor Ángel would suspect a thing. If Ángel ever did notice, Phantomime could just give control back to Penny, letting her think that she wandered into the back trying to steal stuff without even being aware of it, which is perfectly in character for her.

Point 3 is probably the biggest hole in the theory, but I have some circumstantial evidence. In the previous times that the spectral was puppeteered without knowing, the spirit was either inside the spectral (Max) or in constant contact with them (Spender), giving them the opportunity to overtake them at any time. We don't know how often Ángel carries Cherub's bell around, but I doubt he has it on him when he goes to sleep, which would be necessary for Cherub to sneak around in his body at night. This is admittedly weak reasoning, but I think Phanto working for Cherub is more interesting than the simple explanation lol. ALSO: For Ángel to commune with Cherub, he first needs to use Polaris to change his energy from black to white, which means that Cherub cannot initiate contact on her own.

It's almost definitely true that Cherub has something to do with Razor Rex, in any case. Besides the same faith-based mimic powers, both have dog theming and the ability to dispel the doubts of others.

...Then again, we may have just gotten info that throws off this entire theory. The most recent page has more evidence that Polaris is somehow either being channeled directly or copied by Rex. Not only is the fake key somehow changed into a real key, she straight up says that she's able to "...MAKE IMPOSSIBLE THINGS POSSIBLE..." which uh. Well if you know another spirit besides Polaris that could do that, please let me know lol.

But confirming Polaris is involved in Rex's antics doesn't necessarily rule out Phantomime having a role, either! Phanto could have just had Penny sneak the staff out for this one meeting. Besides, how could a sleeping spirit trust Phantomime or have faith in Cherub? Still a lot of questions to answer. So until we get solid evidence one way or the other, this is where I'm planting my flag.

[boanddonatetoblacktranspeople]

Rough Outline List of People(ish) inside the Paranatural ‘Masquerade’:

Richard Spender’s father, mayor of Mayview, snack for Davy Jones

Richard Spender, Mayview middle school teacher, Consortium member

Penny Spender, Spender’s sister, apprentice to Mr. Garcia, secret swiper of Dr. Zarei’s lantern

Maxwell Puckett, protag, spectral, son of June Puckett, has a spirit that may be the lost piece of an ancient powerful fractured spirit in Mr. Spender, also possessed

June Puckett, Max’s mother, former Consortium Agent

Dr. Zarei, old friend of Spender, previous member of Consortium

Mr. Garcia, partner to Spender, werewolf, apprentice of Cody’s mom

Mrs. Jones, former Cousinhood member, Cody’s mom, Davy Jones’ wife, werewolf

Davy Jones, vampire overlord, father to Cody, resident business mogul, owner of Mayview Academy, President of Razor Rex’s cult, PTA (Phantom Threat Authority), doctor of local hospital, and police chief

PJ (P__ Jones?)- Ghost, friend of Max, theorized old son of Davy

‘Lefty’, ghost hand, theorized left hand of Davy Jones, severed by his own sword???

Cody Jones, half-vampire, son of Davy Jones

Isabel Guerra, spectral, Paranatural Activity Club member, daughter of Angel Guerra, granddaughter to Master Guerra

Master Guerra, ghost, mentor spectral-teacher of own ‘faction’

Angel Guerra, father of Isabel, mentor to Penny Spender, has own spirit ‘faction’

Valeria Day, Consortium agent, former apprentice of June Puckett

Agent Walker, Consortium Agent

Boss Leader, actually a still-intelligent Wight

Ms. Rose Baxter, Phantom Threat Authority member

Ed Burger, spectral, child of the Burger parents who disappeared into a dream realm (??), Paranatural Activity Club member

The Doctors Burgers

Isaac, spectral, Paranatural Activity Club member

Coach Oop, Phantom Threat Authority member

Dimitri, former Paranatural Activity Club member, possessed

Fauxbia , the Fear Witch, Vice Principal of Mayview Middle School

Gage, local vampire thralled under Davy Jones

Paige, local vampire thralled under Davy Jones

Youth Culture, local vampire thralled under Davy Jones

Police department members under Davy Jones’ thrall (chief of police as well)

Ritz Price-Lee, local rich academy student, vampire-thralled by Gage and crew

Sophie Sibyl, local mystic shop owner, double agent in Phantom Threat Authority

Isabel’s grandfather’s dojo

Agent Savage, Consortium double-crosser for allyship with the Phantom Threat Authority (for money), member of band Max and R.J. saw

Agent Scabs

Agent Popova

Agent Pasha

Agent Stix

Agent Stucks

Other Consortium members

Lisa(???), friend of Isabel, secret school ‘bar’ owner and information barterer - Definitely has powers and inside knowledge but we dont know WHO she’s connected to here

Amy Chen, Isabel’s mother, daughter of Master Guerra

Captain Hattie Henchman, mother of Stephen, part of Davy's police force, and acts as security at the Phantom Threat Authority meetings

People on Edge of the Masquerade:

Alex, about to be possessed by an alien-looking spirit OR actual alien(???)

Johnny Jhonny, possessed by Forge, see below

Ollie Oop, resident bully and friend of Johnny, son of cult member Coach Oop, saw the Paranatural Activity Club members flying in Ghost Train

Stephen Henchman, Johnny's bully friend, son of police officer Captain Henchman, part of Davy's police force, also saw the Activity Club float

People Outside the Masquerade (???):

Mr. & Mrs. Starchman (??)

Violet, friend of Lisa and Cody

Peter Puckett (??), Max’s dad

Zoey Puckett, Max’s sister

Isaac’s anime-looking parents????

R.J., resident bully and friend of Johnny

Suzy, Journalism Club lead, friend of Dimitri, has confused crush on Isabel

Collin, Suzy’s friend

Jeff, despite being piloted by artificial spirit Hijack, friend of Cody

Shred Eagle (???)

Damian & Sam, younger siblings of Agent Day

Principal Pleezedoo

Student Council (?)

DJ Mothman

Professor Bigfoot (?)

Lavish Price-Lee, ex-wife of DJ Mothman

Nicole Spender (??)

yes, rick. indeed. fucking. why?

[wickedsrest-rp]

ShatterSpace

NEIGHBORHOOD: Netherville

Rage rooms are all the rage these days, and when owner Madelyn Connors saw that Wicked’s Rest was without one, she did what any self-respecting businesswoman would do: she legally changed her name to Maddie Mayhem, bought a cheap “storefront” in Netherville, gathered a bunch of trash from the junkyard, and opened her doors to anyone looking to smash out some anger. Sure, some of the junk she came away with might be cursed, but that’s the fun of it! The fact that the rage room is more of a rage cave does little to deter customers who need a little release. If anything, the echoing of destruction throughout the cavern encourages more business, as it makes ShatterSpace more unique than other rage rooms. Maddie has learned to capitalize on this as well, adding it to her advertising. 

MORE INFO:

Some of the items in Maddie’s possession are undoubtedly cursed or haunted, though even Maddie herself is unsure on the specifics. Smashing that old radio in the corner might be fine, but grabbing the microwave beside it might find you walking home with the ghost of its last owner attached to you, or cursed to burn every burrito you make from here on out. It’s a gamble. 

Some of ShatterSpace’s “neighbors” aren’t too happy about the business moving in. Those who live in Netherville — especially those who have lived in Netherville since before it was uncovered — might be unhappy with the noise. There have been a few attempts to sabotage ShatterSpace’s business, but it seems to be running strong, anyway.

There are some theories that Maddie may have brokered some kind of demonic deal in order to keep her business from failing. If you buy the ultra-deluxe super spender package, she might tell you about it… but every customer gets a different story.

The cashier, whose nametag reads “Rick Rager,” is a fury. If he notices a customer seems to have a particularly large amount of pent-up rage, he might approach them for a talk. Careful what you share with him – Rick Rager is a hungry guy, and he won’t mind making a meal of your enemies no matter how small your frustration against them may be. 

Do you like screaming? You can scream here, too. It’ll echo throughout all of Netherville, but that shouldn’t be too obtrusive… unless, of course, you’re a banshee or something. 

Someone has taken the time to leave “reviews” of different rages and destruction. There is an unofficial leader board. 

If you're a little wary of the danger of smashing things to bits yourself but still want to watch someone else wreck it up, you can purchase tickets to a sort of "performance art" exhibition, where 1-3 performers will be presented with a themed room that they'll destroy as much as they possibly can, even taking suggestions from the audience on how to best bust up their set. Safe fun for the whole family!

EXPLORE NETHERVILLE

[zoomerinaboomercostume]

Paranatural Age Swap AU but Rick gets adopted by the Shadow

Our story begins with a small boy named Richard Spender, who runs away from home & was picked up by a kindly Spirit by the name of Cthumbra. They make their way to Mayview middle school, where they meet a friendly janitor by the name of Maxwell Puckett.

Wait, what?

Featuring a slightly feral protagonist, his OP (at least for regular Spirits) friend/Mom, & a group of Spectral teachers with secrets, this isn’t your ordinary Age Swap AU.

(Credit to @richardspenderposting for giving me the idea of making this masterpost).

https://www.tumblr.com/zoomerinaboomercostume/719965145534775296/basic-ideas-for-the-age-swap-au-rick-is-a?source=share

Basic ideas (how do you make this smaller?).

[lime-parfait]

Paranatural Parents: A Quick Analysis (Spoilers)

Please blacklist #long post for this because a “read more” will be unavailable if this blog were to be deleted in the future and it won’t be accessible.

Also no beta on this analysis

Anyways, been awhile since reading Paranatural seriously (ever since the story’s style changed to a text format it was harder to focus and read it). Anyways, there’s something that ‘clicked’ for me when reading some the recent pages. And it was simply that Paranatural is full of incompetent adults (no brainer). But specifically, it was full of incompetent PARENTS. Especially the ones who are involved in the whole world of spirits.

Okay, okay. Think about it. Isabel’s attitudes towards her family. The way that her grandfather finds ways to constantly point out her flaws and teaches her to use spirits as weapons. Isabel’s father, who we recently learned about, DOES want to care about his daughter, still chooses to be involved in the realm of spirits because he believes that Cherub’s words will help to make balance in the world. And yet, Isabel still doesn’t want to be around her father (based off the attitudes she has and it took a lot of strength for her to even ask her mom to drop her off). Isabel has something important to tell her father, but she reacts negatively when he doesn’t take her seriously. In a nutshell, Isabel has 2 guardian figures in her life who do not listen to her. Her grandfather wants her to be a disciplined warrior at the age of 12, while her father doesn’t seem to do his part in making communication between them easier.

Cody, his father was also involved in the Consortium. That man is a business man now and all he does is try to take property away from people. Back in the long (Jim the Brain)chapter, Cody is super hostile towards his father, who’s about to kill a spirit (because that’s what his father did back in the Consortium; stab spirits). Cody becomes cold and harsh, saying that the spirit was HIS to kill. Like, Cody took a deadly turn and it makes for a theory that his father taught him to be a cold-blooded killer towards spirits. But in the evidence, it’s vague why Cody feels this way towards spirits (we only got Davy saying that even though he wants to protect those he loves, Davy pulls out the ‘dad will take care of it’ card). Cody yells at him after that, forcing him to leave the school (due to vampire rules). It ‘s clear that Cody doesn’t his father to be on his turf  and that he can hold his ground at school (remember, he’s school president). But Davy and Cody have a family tension the involves in protecting what they care about from the ‘evil spirits.’ However, Davy probably failed really bad as a parent if Cody gave him death glares and yelled at him.

EDIT: another thing to consider is that Davy sees his son as a reflection of him (literally) and gets really pissed when Max counters his statement by saying that Cody isnt his mirror. clearly Davy cannot see his son as a son, but some sort of copycat that needs to follow in his footsteps.

Rick Spender (as an adult) is literally the worst at being a reliable person for the Spirit Activity Club, theres records of the way he failed to be there for most of the members. Failing to reassure and listen to Isabel and purposefully keeps isaac in the dark that sparked these two to fight each other because they were both hurting

Ed’s parents who were clearly part of the Consortium and they eventually met their doom WHEN Ed was BARELY 3 YEARS OLD. Ed’s parents weren’t there long enough to actually raise him and see him grow up. Like, they decided that it was okay to pass their kid off to a new guardian in the most nightmare fueled moments before they disappeared. They didn’t try to leave him have a happy memory, but planned to just erase themsleves from his memories??

There’s plenty of other parents who also failed to be decent parents in the story (they weren’t part of Consortium, but they existed and basically don’t look after their kids. Penny and her parents’ treatment towards her and the way they favored her brother. Where the hell is Isaac’s parents). But it seems that a lot of the adults who are deeply involved in the spirit’s world, often tend to overlook their own children. Most of them claim to want to protect their kids from it, only pushing them away and the kid feeling neglected. But in the end, working in the Consortium makes these parents see their own children as an after thought because they’re buried in this this work, only dragging their kids in the mess.

And let’s look at Max Puckett. His mother was part of the Spectrals and possibly in the Consortium. She must have seen this sort of cycle. All of these parents who had spectral kids and planned out their futures to live that sort of life. Isabel’s family planning for her to be a warrior. Ed’s parents accepting their doomsday fate as workers of the Consortium. Max’s mom looked at all of this and didn’t want that. She would not repeat this mistake as other parents of the Consortium. And you know what? She married Peter Puckett, a man who wasn’t a spectral, or a vampire, or a wealthy man. But here’s the thing that Peter Puckett had that every other parent lacked; emotionally availability and unconditional love and care.

Like, Dad Puckett didn’t give up on his kids when his wife died. He picked himself up and did everything to raise them. He accepts that Max is Max, a moody preteen. He gets into the same interest as he does (Insolent Children music) and get involved in his life. Yes, he seems like a manchild at first glance because of his happy attitude and not being that smart. But he can be serious about serious topics when needed. He takes both of his kid to a kids’ arcade in order to let them have fun and be able to ask if Max was being bullied in school. He doesn’t make it a joke either, Peter Puckett is direct and wants to make sure that Max wasn’t being bullied in school. Hell, Dad Puckett took Max to the hospital for a broken arm and everything and you see that his face was full of concern for Max’s well-being. He literally makes time just for his kids no matter what it is. Going to a concert? Yes. Going to the hospital and rushing to get there? Peter will not hesitate. Like, Dad Puckett found the strength to continuing being there for his kids after his wife died. He moved to a new town to begin a new life, he takes their physical and emotional health seriously, he is involved in their interests and he listens to his kids, he doesn’t put pressure on his kids’ futures, all he wants is for them to be happy and safe. No matter what bad happens, Dad Puckett will always make himself emotionally available for his kids.

EDIT: another thing that was interesting during a re-read was that Peter said that Max took after his mom in personality and humor, and honestly that checks out based on what we know about her. This contrasts to Davy treating his son as a mirror, but in reality, Cody is nothing like him. Basically saying that Mr. Puckett understands his son better than Davy assumes what Cody is.

Meanwhile, all of the parents of the Consortium are fighting against a doomsday and not actually thinking about what their kids need most is to be there for them.

To Mom Puckett: you chose the best husband who was more prepared to care about his children

[incorrectpnatquotes]

Rick Spender: Your daughter was in a fight today. Amy Chen: That's terrible, I am SO sorr- Grandpa Guerra: *from the other room* DID SHE WIN?!