#smallestgods

[skypalacearchitect]

Do you write music with the view of being politically active and delivering a message or does it just happen and the rest follows? 

[aquato-family-circus]

GOD I really like the au idea of Gristol just deciding to keep being the mailman, specifically the idea that like, just through building rapport with the other workers he realizes how much taking over and ruling grulovia would SUCK.

He already has money (evidenced by his "banishment and squalor" being a fancy casino and piles of caviar), so he doesn't have money to gain from ruling a country, and his perception of peak grulovia and power was having a cotton candy machine in his room. LEADING TO THIS CONVO:

Lori, coming by to grab some mail, seeing Gristol doodling images of him as Gzar with his cotton candy machine: Oh those are cute, I didn't know you liked cotton candy so much! Now I know what to get you for your birthday!

Gristol, annoyed: cotton candy?

Lori: No silly, that would be a cheap thing to just get you candy! I'll get you a whole cotton candy machine!

Gristol: ...

Gristol: You can just do that?

Lori: Why not? Only the best for our best mailman!

Gristol: No. I mean, um, don't you need to be, like, say, gzar of a country to have a cotton candy machine in your room?

Lori: That's oddly specific, but no I don't think so. You should live your life how you want to! Put it right by your bed and wake up to breakfast cotton candy, ya know? Grab life by the horns - or cotton candy cone!

Gristol scraps his evil plan the next day, waiting for his "surprise" birthday party in a few weeks.

Lori does, in fact, buy a cotton candy machine as a gift, and Gristol feels very smug when everyone is amazed that he already knows how to use it.

This entire ask made me lose my fucking mind thank you very much

[aquato-family-circus]

Raz is a cute lil 10 year old with *grulovian* heritage that Gristol somewhat got to know throughout the game. there are dolls of him in the gift shop in his mind - there is NO WAY he didn't get somewhat attached. Anyway more convos:

Gristol: Who ended up finding my body, by the way? Did you hire a new mailman?

Sasha: *raises his eyebrows*

Gristol: ... not that i CARE about the mail or anything, I just want to know who I can blame for any bodily damage.

Sasha: ... right. young rasputin found your body - he was meant to intern for yo- for nick johnsmith. He told us he found you while sorting the mail.

Gristol: *tearing up from getting a mailroom intern and his little grulovian intern SORTING HIS MAIL* r-right. cool

Sasha: ... did you just mentally add "adopt child heir" to your evil master plan?!

GRISTOL NO HSKFJSKFJKD

it just pops up like a fuckin phone notifcation and Sasha is just, so tired, what is fucking wrong with this guy.

Gristol's view on Raz is interesting bc like he sees the kid as a puppet for his devices. does not respect him. but can make one (1) connection with him through his own warped world view during the part of the level where you talk to gristol after his father died and theres like. a HINT. a SMIDGE. of humanity there bc he's sad and pathetic in his stupid prince suit in his ugly trashed hotel.

what a deeply lonely kind of life he leads honestly.

[aquato-family-circus]

While I love that Truman already sees Raz pretty positively, I feel like the fact that he has single-handedly resolved most of the issues in Truman's life would be the tipping point.

You beloved uncle who you had to fire for being a drunken mess? Oh, well Raz actually helped him through his trauma and convinced him to get better. And also found his alive dead husband.

Maligula? Raz not only squashed a plot to bring her back, he literally made it impossible to do so and now you have a Friendly Water Grandma :)

Your daughter resents you? Well, actually, after reflecting at camp with Raz and saving your body from the Rhombus (with Raz), and finding your brain in the ocean (...due to Raz) she has decided to be a giggly happy 10 year old again and show her appreciation.

Oh and not to Mention the plot he thwarted at camp, saving your daughter from getting her brain removed, Ford Crueller and the rest of the psychic 6 being healed of their emotional trauma and Able to Assist the psychonauts again

And Raz "Son-boy-allowed" Aquato comes over to say hi and check on his girlfriend and u imagine him in a prom tux awkwardly picking up your daughter for a date, because you KNOW he's a perfect son-in-law to be.

Also that he needs therapy

Truman goes and shakes Augustus’ hand like sir did you know your son saved the entire organization and is super cool and Augustus is like yes he’s the best and Truman’s like yes

[consistantly-changing]

[Image descriptions in order: a Reddit post on r/washingtondc by Ok_Economy_3778, titled "Decent Nightclub". The post reads "Obviously using a throwaway, but is there a club in this city that has an implicit (or explicit) "no uggos" policy that also plays halfway decent house music? No offense, but this is not the hottest city, and I need to be around other beautiful people to stave off seasonal depression. Thank you!"]

[Another Reddit post, titled "I Can't Believe It". The post reads "I come to DC for a couple weeks of education, culture, and fun. The museums and food are fantastic. But the city is so miserable and grim, everyone is so exhausting to look at, so I try my chances at a club. Nobody is dressed hot, and everyone has uneven lips and fat shoulders that broaden their face and long torsos and dry elbows with nary a clue that they look like that. The fact that I saw Chelsea boots on a woman, a woman who I presume is college-educated and aware it is the year 2022, a woman who was wearing stone washed boot cut high rise jeans as well, like some sort of time traveler with her notes mixed up, made me so profoundly distressed that I had to go back to my hotel and rest. Additionally, I have never been in a club where people are so grimly determined to look like they're having fun. Where is the sprezzatura? Must you all look so pained?]

["So, on the next weekend I try to find a club for beautiful people that also played good house music. I was feeling depressed, and that always makes me feel better. I get both in abundance in my city, and DC is large, wealthy, and educated. It cannot be that difficult. I have no friends here, none of my college friends even are the type to live in such a place, and now I understand why. As such, Instagram is useless in finding answers for that, and too many of you butterfaced freaks are on Twitter. So, I turn to Reddit. Surely there's hot people, maybe even hot men, that use this site once in a while and can give me a good answer, but no. I get rude and ungrateful ugly people mouthing me off! And the ones that did give me legitimate advice were hounded for doing so. Is this how a city of what I thought were the well- educated, well-mannered class of the United States treats its visitors?"]

[A mobile screenshot of the status of the Reddit account u/Ok_Economy_3778, proving that phalloids owns the account.]

[A screen of a banner at the top of the account's home page, which says "Your account has been permanently suspended from Reddit. Click here for more info."]

[A comment by smallestgods which says "phalloids replied on his blog that he referred to his dad like that because his dad is racist and elitist because his skin is whiter than other central american people. phalloids is not condemning any people besides his father. peace and love ✌️☮️".]

Obsessed with the DC tourist asking for clubs with a “no ugly people allowed” policy that plays house

Is this person NYC or LA? Place your bets

[aquato-family-circus]

thinking about tim schafer's raw power that basically ran a game studio on chewing gum and toothpicks, loving his creation so much that he kept trying to make it for YEARS. yes, there are supporters and dedicated fans, but psychonauts 1 is still mostly a "cult classic". The people who love Psychonauts made Psychonauts 2, and didn't just *make* a sequel, but a sequel which was updated for the times (i.e. the accessibility settings, the user warning and link to mental health site, the story being *slightly* less kooky to give space to heavier ideas.)

Idk where but I think there is an interview with Tim Schafer where he essentially says that this game is for the players of the first one who grew up with and since the game, which I totally felt while playing. For Raz it's been a few days, but the player is back, is older, and maybe there are ways they DON'T fit into the world anymore, without some childlike wonder.

Maybe you're like Cassie now; tending to something from your past without making the steps to move forward

Maybe you're like Compton now; Anxious about the judgement of your peers, even those that you love

Maybe you're like Otto; you are adjusting okay to your adult or older life, but you've lost touch with those you used to hold dear, and still have some lingering regret

Maybe you're Bob; coping poorly with the weight of life, or trauma, or loss. Feeling alone on an island, or pushing people away

Maybe you're Helmut; you've lost some sense of identity, or felt lost yourself, or become overwhelmed with life in the present

Maybe you're Ford; You hurt so deeply you completely shattered your sense of self, and have hard time recognizing or being proud of the you that is left

Or, maybe, you're Lucy, and life has hurt you so terribly that you decided to Hurt Back.

The game feels like it got older with me, and every moment made me Feel So Intensely because while the story is mostly about trauma and how Bad Action is not the same as Bad Person, it really feels like a story, to me, about growing up, and aging out of the world you were used to.

For me, since I was a little kid when I played the first game, it felt like the game was saying "hey, you know all of the stress and fear you get from growing into an adult? How you can't be as close to the people you care for anymore? How things you knew as fact suddenly Aren't? It sucks, but it doesn't have to. We can still find joy, and whimsy, and love in all the dark places of ourselves and others. Life is different now that we're older, but we can adapt, too. We can find the people that lift us up, grow from our hurt instead of revel in it, and, just maybe, at the end we will Learn to Swim"

brb im gonna cry

While I didn't quite grow up with Psychonauts in the sense that I never managed to beat the game - it has always been with me in one way or another. I think I watched my brother play it, then it was one of the first LP's I ever watched on youtube (pour one out to the guy's channel I don't think theyre findable anymore this was like. Late 2000s/Early 2010s).

So for me playing the sequel felt like. Getting to know an acquaintance I've known my whole life after seeing each other and learning we both ended up growing up into the weird artsy person. And becoming friends!! and learning it's a small world and people are more complicated than you think. And finding out in some way you'd been drawn to each other for some kind of reason that makes sense in the end.

This whole game and experience has just felt very special to me. I feel, seen?? I feel like the story looked at me and says hey you also have your own world inside you and that's facinating and beautiful! There's people like you who go thru heartache and it doesnt "make them stronger" but they get through it and have ppl who love them.

that's just, really cool... much 2 think about

[aquato-family-circus]

ok so i headcanon that there is more motherlobe than we see, and there are more floors etc. but i AM thinking about how a lot of it still seems to be made for psychics, like the "elevator" in a lot of places is just. a hole. or the platforms in the quarry that a regular joe would have to jump to get to the front gate, or take a fucking rowboat. two of the mailroom chutes would require a ladder, and a ladder you climb holding the packages by HAND

what im saying is if gristol wasn't already plotting against the psychonauts he would've started to anyway after working there a week

I’d hope the non-psychic staff have at least some fuckin way to get into the damn place but god it’s so fucking funny to imagine they’ve gotta like get ladders and shit out to do shit

Gristol, having to basketball slam dunk any mail that has to go to the upper chutes: I Fucking Hate It Here I Hope That Was Fragile And It Breaks

[aquato-family-circus]

FUCK I JUST REALIZED SOMETHING SAD.

In the mailroom, when Helmut is posing as nick, the thinkerprint reader identifies him "Helmut Fullbear, Diceased".

When Raz gains Zanotto's thinkerprint access, it identifies him as Zonotto, so the identity is not *necessarily* tied to the brain, it's tied to what the system has that person's brain registered as.

What I'm getting at is someone who knew Helmut's brain well enough to have the system log it gave him senior staff access to the psychonauts.

Bob made sure his dead husband's brain was recognized as an Important Psychonaut, even if he would never see what they became.

Helmut’s legacy in the Psychonauts is so sad. I really like the little headcanon ive seen around that Helmut and Bob had a really strong psychic link to each other and so I could definitely see Bob being able to use the remains of that to record Helmut in the system. It hurts to remember but he doesn’t want ppl to forget about him.

And speaking of his legacy. You ever think about how before Bob got fired he probably came into work and saw that big mural with all his friends in the atrium. The one with him and Helmut together. You ever think he tried to avoid it. Or inversely just spent time staring at it. You ever get real sad,,

[toesucker]

@smallestgods

Aye you have a point, perhaps I... immersed myself too much in the cinematic experience... but Mr Fisk is still way too big for my taste. All the other spider-characters and creatures looked the way they should but Mr Fisk was no creature, he was just some guy. and look at this:

This is so fucked up^^^

Modern children’s movies have a problem with nightmarish size differences between characters. For example:

Torterras in Pikachu were too huge, beyond believability. Stresseful... like a natural disaster.

Mr. Fisk in Into the Spider-verse was WAY too big. Absolutely monstrous even for a cartoon villain. Was deeply unnerving.

Zootopia animal size differences shook me too my core... the rabbit was too small and I was worried at all times that she would be accidentally obliterated by the larger animals stepping on her.

Perhaps this is an irrational fear of mine but I believe this Could use some looking into. let me know....

[aquato-family-circus]

once everything calms down and raz debriefs the other agents on what happened end of game, besides getting that boy some Food and Sleep and Therapy, i think this interaction would happen:

Milla: Sasha, no.

Sasha: Young Rasputin recently lost faith in his psychic hero, Milla, it stands to reason-

Milla: He needs rest! Not a grown man trying to prove he's the coolest agent!

Sasha: ... I am simply stating that that position in his life is now empty.

...and I'm very "cool"

Milla: *sighs* Of course you are, darling

He wants to be Raz’s fav so badly look young Razputin he is so “with it”

[aquato-family-circus]

it was what made me SO shocked by the twist. everything was perfectly set up as a funny gag but actually had such a logical reason

What really tricked me the most was how comical i found the name "nick johnsmith". I thought, "ha ha, how funny to give the non-psychic, boring mailman npc a name that is essentially normal mcnormalman. what a funny little goof"

And after the twist i was like Tim Schafer you SON of a Bitch! The name was ridiculous because Gristol is out of touch yet needed to fit in, mashing together the most generic name for his disguise possible! How dare you make a perfect reason!

this is also ignoring how the game makes us normalized to his body/endeared through using helmut, which for sure removed suspicion too

The character animation difference between the two especially is really stellar. You can truly tell when it's helmut vs gristol just by how they animate his eyes and body.

Another fav misdirect of mine is Hollis saying "well, our top suspect is nick" to the immediate rejection from Sasha Milla AND Raz. like god. its right there.

[aquato-family-circus]

hello i read ur post abt gristols propaganda and i would like to add: a lot of service workers are invisible to people. the way Hollis says "You'll LOVE Nick!" etc. sounds like the platitudes ppl use when they know that you SHOULD respect and care about someone, but don't really care/think about it. he kept to himself in the mailroom, made nice when required, but people left him alone and it's easy to forget he's there, after all who would visit the mailroom if nick just sorts the package into the correct tube anyway? They didn't even know he was gone for at least 3 days (maybe longer, idk when truman kidnapping occured exactly) and even then only lori comments on it while looking for a package, and she doesn't even seem concerned.

Gristol could easily manipulate the motherlobe after becoming the mail guy there because 1. he is effectively invisible as long as he does a competent enough job 2. he has access to everyone's MAIL are you KIDDING me? the power of that, which is likely how he learned about the rhombus, brain switching, etc. 3. not only is he inconspicuous as a mailman, he also is POWERLESS. Having no psychic powers when you want to be unassuming and spy? Who is going to suspect Nick, i mean, what could he POSSIBLY do to elite psychics? essentially using their bias/superiority against them

also we know in the games that loboto was pretty messed up in the head, so i could see him being more susceptible to hypnosis/brainwashing. We know Oleander planted a trigger in Boyd too, so i feel like Gristol just did it from the outside in instead of going in the brain. I.e. "Put the egg in the basket, the other egg in the box" not only instructions, but a visualization technique to get Loboto to swap the brains WITHOUT THINKING. How is he going to spill secrets he can't remember/doesn't know?

i also like the idea of gristol using maligula to scare loboto by taking advantage of his mental state - i dont think itd be hard to convince loboto that maligula was alive and under gristols control with enough bluffing.

this got v long but anyway. love to think abt this

(the post for other people’s reference)

MAN, Gristol’s invisibility as the non-psychic mailman in this huge psychic facility is a really interesting observation to add! Postal Service is a pretty unthanked job but an important one and honestly the fact he could use that to his strategic advantage? Makes so much sense!! And he’s senior staff too, so he’s probably been quietly collecting intel about the workings of this place for at least several years. He might only be able to read package addresses if he at all respects the integrity of not reading mail, but considering his shitty attitude toward folks beneath him I could imagine he risked it a few times. Anything else he might be able to gleam from office gossip, having to physically go deliver mail if it’s not for The Tubes, and apparently there’s a line in the game about rotten caviar in the air ducts so he’s not below more direct spying tactics either.

All this doesn’t stop him from not knowing terms like thinker-print, but then again he’s so laser focused on getting his stupidly dangerous plan to work that he must’ve been trying to keep tabs on what’s important and what isn’t - psychic tech he can’t use going in the unimportant pile.

[aquato-family-circus]

My guess is that the way you're intended to use mental connection is within your own mind, hence Hollis using it when she's brainstorming. Just because you can't keep more than 7 thoughts in your head at once, you keep a few thoughts around to link and connect.

For instance, I feel like if Hollis used it while searching for the mole, she'd have a "suspicion" bubble and try it against different people in the motherlobe - sort of like memory recall.

Like, for socks and sandals, you dont actually seem to make her /like/ them when u associate it with something good, it just says they "remind her of her favorite professor", her actual opinion on the topic itself doesn't seem to change. It seems more like it just jogs a thought process that you have already had once, even if off-hand.

I also think that you CAN use it to change someone's mind in a crisis or with their express permission. I assume that wpuld count when Truman fixed Dr. Potts, or other instances when bad connections are putting people at risk.

You know what, I think you might be right on target. This ask reminded me of this shot of Hollis when she & the other agents piece the Mole mystery together. So between this & her quiet place you've got plenty of evidence to suggest mental connection as intended is some kind of organizational tool.

[aquato-family-circus]

tbh it'd be MORE humiliating if they pay him. like. they go through it ethically and his choices are mailroom or prison due to almost murder and impersonation of the head of the psychonauts, not to even MENTION the maligula stuff.

He chooses mailroom because Who Chooses Prison and gets a like, simple but acceptable apartment, ankle monitor, etc.

Lori works with him but is somewhat acting as his parole officer so he can't just Not Do the mail and sit there. She is however a kind boss and lets him have lots of breaks for chilling and gossip, but that almost makes it worse too

the worst humiliation to befall a Malik... no special treatment whatsoever

[aquato-family-circus]

The reason there are seven pillows evenlynspaced out in the heptadome is because Otto actually glues them all down. they literally cannot be moved close to each other. this is the punishment he bestows as 7th wheeling

Otto is so tired,,

[aquato-family-circus]

The reason Booles explode things with their minds is that they are too small and cannot contain all of the psychic energy in their tiny bodies. Sam is slightly taller and therefore is less likely to explode things as her psychic energy has more space

this is a fact trust me i am a scientist

They’re like how chihuahuas tremble bc they are too small and angry