#so blobby and weird...I love it

[colorsoutofearth]

Jelly drops fungus (Ascocoryne sarcoides)

Photo by Guy Edwardes

[snackugaki]

oh well didn't make it after all

my tmnt  iteration (where everyone made it past their 20s, splinter’s alive just old, venus is here, and they deserve some goddamn respite and shenanigans)

tmnt  iteration part 1 | part 2 | part 3 | part 4 | part 5 | part 6 | part 7 | part 8 | part 9 | part 10

tmnt  iteration omake 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16

lny visit 1 | 2

[infinatenoise]

I really like how TMA and TMP go in very different directions when it comes to horror.

TMA was The Eldritch Horror Show, the horror coming from not knowing why or how any of this was happening. It was weird with its horror, and it used its weirdness to create an atmosphere of horror and that was neat.

And then Protocol is horror movies. No question, straight up horror movies. Needles is like an antagonist from a shitty 50s B-Movie. Lady Mowbry is a really cool take on a slasher. It's grave robbing, haunted apps, zombies, gore, hell it has Mr. Blobby as a FnaF character. And there is some unknown cosmic horror elements too but the horror for Protocol is very bloody, shocking and very different from TMA. I mean the last episode was basically The Omen. Its so cool I love it

[theendorisit]

apropos of nothing, I made Tape-E

Who is Tape-E?

During one of the TMA livestreams (trying to remember which one), a fan question was asked ‘Is there a mascot (for the Archives or the show itself not sure)?’ One of the team suggested ‘Tape-y?’, to which everyone else responded with ‘Oh no!!’. So I thought, oh yes! So yeah, this is your fault 😘

What is Tape-E?

As Mr Bonzo is a parody of Mr Blobby, Tape-E is a parody of Clippy (these last two names rhyme).

Who is Clippy?

Clippy was a microsoft office assistant, introduced in 1997. He was a little virtual paperclip (officially called Clippit, but that name never caught on) who sat on the bottom right corner of the page, and was programmed to give advice in popup speech bubbles when certain actions were taken. For example, if you wrote out an address and ‘Dear’, Clippy would say ‘Looks like you’re writing a letter. Would you like help?’. The name Tape-E in the livestream seemed to be referring to Clippy, as there are many similarities in the behaviour of Clippy, and the actual tapes/ tape recorders in-universe:

always on by default

appears at inconvenient times

provides help you do not want

hated by (mostly) everyone

watching you with cold dead eyes

enjoyed by nostalgia and retro seekers

Why make Tape-E?

As I am of the same generation as some of the RQ peeps, I unironically loved Clippy and Mr Blobby as a child, and it gives me great joy to imagine, in the TMP universe, Sam getting a little pop up: ‘Looks like you’re trying to code a case file! Would you like some help with that?’ In our world this would be impossible - Windows NT (as the official name) was dropped in 1996, one year before Clippy was born, BUT there is voice recording on TMP’s ancient computers, so it’s not totally impossible! 😅😁

What are cassette tapes?

Just a little recap for those who didn’t grow up with tapes: Cassette Tapes contain information embedded in magnetic tape, wrapped around one spool and attached to a second spool. When played, the spools are turned by the machine and the magnetic tape is wound onto the other spool, the information read out through speakers as the magnetic tape moves through sensors. As the magnetic tape can contain different information depending on the direction of tape movement, you can flip the cassette tape over in the machine, and play the tape again, hearing another load of information. This concept is never utilised in the show, but it does mean that cassette tapes have A-sides, and B-sides (as Vinyl records do). Here, of course, this stands for Archivist-side, and Brutalpipemurder-side. On occasion, the magnetic tapes would become damaged, or bent, and could be pushed out of the cassette, causing a horrible noise, and terror to small children who were only trying to listen to their Just William tapes. When this happened, a pencil (or in my case, my little finger) could be jammed into the spiky spool ‘teeth’, to rewind the magnetic tape back into the cassette. Maybe that’s why the eyes are red? 🩸 I am very glad that the TMA tapes are magic, and record endlessly, never need flipping, and never get chewed up by the hungry machine.

Why is the name Tape-E?

Canon answer: the name stands for Tape-Eyes. Possibly Tape-Entity? Undecided.

Actual answer: Tape-y, Tapey and Tapie spellings look weird to me. I think Tape-E looks best.

Why a tape and not a tape recorder?

if you can crochet a tape recorder, you’re a genius and I love you.

What gender is Tape-E?

I might refer to Tape-E as male sometimes because that’s how people often referred to Clippy. But Tape-E is whatever gender Tape-E feels like being.

Why now?

Why not? also now is a good time because TMP episode 15 is an excellent episode

What’s going to happen to Tape-E?

I’m going to gift it to Jonny sometime, if we get more liveshows or book signings. It’s his fault this exists after all. Plus you can write whatever you like in the speech bubbles! Hopefully I can give it calmly? But maybe Tape-E will be yeeted in his general direction in a fit of ADHD-fuelled social anxiety. Only time will tell.

Tape-E is a pattern and design created entirely by myself. The inspiration and world building from whence it came, is entirely the genius of @jonnywaistcoat Jonny Sims, Rusty Quill @rqbossman and The Magnus Archives, which is a podcast distributed by Rusty Quill and licensed under a creative commons attribution, non-commercial share alike 4.0 international license.

Clippy was invented by Microsoft and Kevan Atteberry, who now illustrates children’s books.

Mr Blobby is an adorable abomination, created from a fevered mind.

[tickfleato]

how to make cool blobby turing patterns in photoshop

i'll preface with i learned the basic loop from skimming a tutorial on youtube, but as someone who prefers written tutorials i'm sure many would appreciate one! also, the second part of this is some of the visual effects i figured out on my own using blending modes and stuff.

i'm using photoshop CS4 on a mac so some buttons and stuff might be in different places on windows and newer photoshop versions but all the actions are the same. my canvas is 1000x1000 pixels.

UPDATES (i'm hoping these'll show up whenever you open the readmore?)

it's possible to do something similar in krita using this plugin, made by the love @arcaedex

it's also possible to do this in photopea, a free browser alternative to photoshop! the results are pretty much identical.

FIRST off you wanna get or make a black and white image of some kind. it has to be one layer. can be noise, a photo, a bunch of lines, whatever. here's mine, just some quick airbrush lines:

now find the actions tab. idk what it looks like in newer versions of photoshop but you probably won't need to dig!

hit the little page thingy to make a new pattern. once you hit 'record', it'll record everything you do. the little square 'stop' icon will end it.

now you want to do a high pass filter. you can mess around with the radius to change the size of your squiggles, but the tutorial had it set to 6. experiment!

now add the 'threshold' adjustment layer. i use the adjustments tab but i think there's also a dropdown menu somewhere. keep it at the default, 128. merge it down. (control or command + E or you can right click it like some kind of weirdo)

and finally, the gaussian blur! the radius of this affects the shape and size of your squiggles as well. i like to keep it around 4.5 but you can mess around with that too.

after that, hit 'stop' on the action you're recording, and then repeat it a bunch of times using the 'play' button, until you have something you like, like this:

WOW!! that was fun!! and only a little tedious thanks to the power of macros. anyway, here's some fun layer blending stuff i like to do. it's with a different pattern cause i made this bit first.

anyway, using a black and white gradient (or a grey base that you do black and white airbrush on), make a layer with the vivid light. this will make the blobs look thicker or thinner.

then, for cool colors, do a gradient map adjustment layer over that:

and finally, my best friend, the overlay layer. just using a gradient here bc i'm lazy, but feel free to experiment with brushes, colors, and blending modes!

NOW GO. MAKE COOL SHIT WITH THE POWER OF MATH. AND SEND IT TO ME

also these are not hard and fast rules PLEASE mess around with them to see what kind of weird shit you can make. here's a gif. as you can see i added some random airblush blobs in the middle of it, for fun.

[malacandrax]

Hi I just wanted to say I love your art sm and you actually helped me get back into drawing a ton, for a while I had this weird idea in my brain that I HAD to draw semi realism/realism otherwise every man I drew would be horribly twinkified and I'd never be able to draw the characters I liked, but I just drew my first ever man I'm happy with in a style that isn't semi realism and a lot of it was inspired by the way you don't always close your lines w lineart and don't use a ton of pen pressure sensitivity and your art comes out incredible. Those were things I always did but would try to stop doing because people told me they were stuff you "weren't supposed to do" and it just ended with me being frustrated whenever I drew and hating my art. But seeing you do it and make absolutely gorgeous stuff really gave me that confidence to just say fuck it and do it anyways and I'm starting to actually get in the flow of drawing again, so thank you :)

This is so so cool! I struggled for About Ten Years with not being able to line in a way I liked, and I’m so glad that my way of doing it is inspirational to someone else! I hope you figure it out faster than I did haha.

Style wise, it kinda just happens, I don’t think many people fit super neatly into boxes anyway, so don’t stress over it, I definitely don’t know what my style is defined as haha! I thought it was semi realism til I googled it HAHA. I copied artists like makani and coey, reapersun and loish when I was a teenager and it definitely swayed my style!

Also I relate extremely to not really vibing with how other artists do lines. For me personally I THINK its because I think in shapes and not lines, and I started out painting and working in tone. Like real life doesn’t have lines, and when you paint it’s generally just varying between soft and hard edges, using the colour and tone to do the lifting for you. It’s way harder to figure out where to put a line, or what things need a line and what doesn't, if you’re not used to thinking that way.

I definitely ink more like I paint, kind of thinking about planes and shadow or overlap more than the outline? Like I draw the top curve of the cheek, then the jowl, then the chin, it kind of feels like cutting a 3D shape out in the space…? But I think that’s why mine are often choppy haha. In traditional art I always preferred a square brush, which carries over to my preference for minimal width variation on tablet.

Saying that, I *do* sometimes work more with width, though it's still messy and choppy haha. my trick with those is that I always choose a brush that has a fairly consistent minimum width, I can draw with a fairly fixed line, but also press down a little to get the variation when I want it. (As opposed to brushes that kind of go really thin and really thick with little effort, like a brush pen, I just don't have the control...) Below are my main blobby inkers, I can pretty comfortably draw a fixed width face, but I can make it wider if I want.

Anyway I went off on a tangent, I hope you can make art in ways that feel natural to you! And I hope making art brings you joy!

Some artists I love the lines of are linnea sterte, steven sugar, momopachi, jadenvargen, artharakka, beidak-art, pien-art, wombrion! 

[r0semultiverse]

Mr. 6 made you do a good show to be released?? 👀 um....

This is already giving serious eye vibes.

A whole show dedicated to public humiliation?

The Mr. Bonzo suit started moving??? 👀 Serious stranger vibes. 🤡

"It actually became a sort of ritual"

I've seen people being like "don't cross tag" but buddy... the writing cross tags itself here I mean c'mon! 😂 Something something ritual of the stranger- okay, I'll keep listening!

Hey, what's with the music?? Hey, who is Terrance Menki???👀

"The police said there were eleven bodies in total and his wardrobe was full of all sorts of homemade costumes." BRO IS ACTUALLY MAGNUSPOD WILLIAM AFTON-

"It certainly had a profound effect on the Mr. Bonzo brand." Oh I'm sure it did, holy fucking shit. 👀

Oh, me using this image is rather ironic now.

"In a lot of ways I’m more his prisoner now than I ever was on my show." WHAT DO YOU MEAN BY THAT? 👀

"The witness statements from three murders over the last five years that claim a person in a Mr. Bonzo costume was at the scene? Do you think there could be a copycat?" Has the fear of clowns manifested as an actual clown-guything?

"Don’t contact us again." "Us?" "Why am I still trapped dealing with all this this- Why won’t he let me go?! Why-" So Mr. Bonzo is absolutely a clown cryptid of sorts with some sort of hold over Nigel.

Oh no, Gwen's about to fuck around & find out, isn't she? 👀

Hey, is Colin still himself & is he supposed to be back?

Hmm, okay, I guess that's him (hopefully).

"Maybe don’t tell them I’ve been on their terminals. They’ll only get the wrong idea." "If Lena asks, I wasn’t here." Seems like everyone's got their own little secret investigations going on, fun! This can only go well! 🙃

One of the episodes absolutely no one shows up to work except Lena is there & is like "where the fuck did everyone go?"

"Time to get some new hires again I guess."

Let's go!! Ruin exploration gang!!

"Like, it’s Saturday night and I’m choosing to hang out in a hole with you. A wet hole. And not the good kind either."

Alice with the absolute best quotes. lmao

That sounds like something with giant wings like a bat or some sort of cloth flapping in the wind. Let's hope it's the latter!

Oh a rusty old filing cabinet! Wait tetanus- 😭

"That carved floor in the big atrium – I don’t know what’s going on with that." Ah so we're just gonna breeze past that then. 😶

These are probably the remnants of old avatar creation test areas like mentioned in the Gerry & Gertrude episode. I'm just assuming here.

A key? Big find! Let's go!

AS I WAS SAYING-

Gwen, it was nice knowing you. 🫡

"Now get out of his house."

Archivist! 👁👄👁

"symbols of ancient otherworldly power"

Wait could this be a timeline where this universe's Jane Prentiss actually did manage to invade the building & succeed? I'm thinking out loud.

21:10 that sounds like critters, insects specifically 👀

"I have memories of weird stuff I saw here, but no context. I want to know what was happening, why they chose us… why they didn’t choose me. Maybe find the bit where everything started to go wrong." I am so captivated & intrigued please recount said memories to us- I mean Alice so we can learn more. Please. 👀

EXCUSE ME, WHO THE FUCK WAS THAT?!? WHO IS "[ERROR]?"

WHY DO THEY SOUND DISTORTED AS FUCK?? ARE THEY FROM THE PRIME TIMELINE OR IS THIS A NEW THING?

ARE WE GAZING OUR EYES UPON A WRETCHED THING FROM THE MAGNUS ARCHIVES?!

edit:

Is Lucia Wright an avatar of The Flesh now (in this universe or from the original timeline somehow)? Because it sure fucking sounds like it! 👀 Well, at least that key was put to good use! 😂

Also, supposedly Mr. Bonzo is a reference to Mr. Blobby.

Gwen, I'd be quaking in my boots too. That thing is terrifying!

Late observation but this universe & story seems to focus a lot on the cryptids & I like the direction it's going in! Loving this plot of cryptid hunters, childhood avatar experiments, a strange institute where our main character has past trauma, & just all of it is so good! 💜

Amazing episode, 10/10, I was at the edge of my seat the entire time! 💜 That Bonzo scene & the sound design were absolutely horrifying, thank you! The ending too! 🔥

[quinn-fucks-shit-up]

i just binge listened to tmagp at midnight and I have THOUGHTS

1) Collin is absolutely my fav, literally so Miles O'Brian coded, or rlly any ST engineer, I just say O'Brian because of the whole cardassian/German language barrier thing

2) Alice/Gwen is already happening, I see the enemies to lovers arc and it is inevitable. wlw ftw.

3) MY DEAD GAY GOTH SON IS ALIVE

4) so it Gertrude, love that bitch, hope Agnes is also doing well

5) needles is just as hilarious as everyone said, can't wait to see more of this insecure little guy, I wonder if he does cross stitch in his free time

6) they were literally IN THE ARCHIVES, so close, yet so far. I miss you tape recorder click

7) I fucking love the vast, more vast pls pls pls

8) thank you Mr Jonny writerman Sims for making Mr Blobby somehow worse????

9) I can't wait to see where all the forms Sam's doing are going, perhaps some remnant of statement filing, maybe it's Jon sending the forms and he's getting power from the weird shit Sam's writing, it's definitely important though

10) Georgie mention??? we better get some Admiral action or istg

[bonzos-number-1-fan]

TMAGP 10 Thoughts: History Lessons

What an episode. I'd love to do a bit of preamble up front but there is a load to talk about. No one needs me to ramble before the ramble. This will be a long one so buckle in, kids.

Spoilers for episode 10 below the cut.

Another episode that jumps straight into the incident. I really enjoyed this one. Both for its novel format and also for the way it lays the foundations of what's to come. It's also nice to see an incident that is mostly mundane. There was very little in this, outside of an allusion to something more sinister, that was out of the ordinary. A fairly British dude telling a unique British story. However, I don't think there is an awful lot to say here that isn't quickly expanded upon later in the episode or that won't be best served talking about elsewhere.

So let's get to the more interesting bit of this case. For those of you not from here, or a little too young to remember, the reason it's all so authentically British is because Mr. Bonzo is TMP's version of Mr. Blobby. A very real TV show mascot from the 90's. A lot of what was just discussed in that interview is lifted from Mr. Blobby's real history. He first appeared on a Saturday night variety show called Noel's House Party in its "Gotcha" segment. He was first introduced as a children's TV character to prank unsuspecting celebrities. He got very popular and became a mainstay of the series, became a huge icon at the time, launched a fairly massive range of merchandise, plans to create a Mr. Blobby theme park happened, and he even had a chart topping single. Blobby was a big deal and still pops up a fair amount. He didn't do any murders that we know of, and no one dressed as him to kill either. There is also this which I think everyone should watch to better prepare themselves for Mr. Bonzo, or to soothe the horrors he's already inflicted.

Colin's back! He's still weird! Not much to say here but it's nice to see him and Celia interact.

Next up were hear Alice and Sam, via Sam's phone, exploring the damp ruins of the Magnus Institute. There isn't a whole lot to say in this portion of their exploration but it's nice to see them outside of work again.

Gwen's section of this episode was really the standout IMO. Anusia is killing it and continues to kill it more and more each episode. I think Gwen is now my #2 blorbo. Colin had an early lead with a great email but is more of a background character at the moment. I am really excited to see how Gwen is going to react to this down the line. Whether the abject terror of meeting Bonzo is going dissuade her from pursuing Lena's job or further stoke that fire. I also wonder if she's going to assume what a lot of us are assuming. That the more recent Bonzo related murders are perpetrated by Bonzo, and that the envelope she gave him was his next target, which further plays into the golem references. Can't wait to hear more about what his role is in regards to the OIAR.

But no one could possibly replace Mr. Bonzo as #1 and I'm sure we can all see why this episode. Just everything about how he's being handled is perfect. A lot of history to ground him, incredibly ambiguous origins, his teeth are not soft, topped off with one of the most impactful "screen presence" of the entire TMA cast. Everything I was hoping for.

For those not a part of the ARG, and not a part of the Statement Remains discord server for it, Mr. Bonzo quickly became a massive fixture of basically everything that happened on that server. It's where my blog's name is from. Which is to say Mr. Bonzo has been a HEAVILY anticipated character and has had no small amount of hype built up around him. RQ have managed to deliver on that and then some. It's really pretty amazing he's managed to show up and not be a disappointment if you were part of that crowd, but they really pulled it off.

Bonzo Fact: Did you know that Mr. Bonzo is entirely unique in all of TMA? He's the only character to have a canonical design. He's the only character we can truly behold, and his visage is glorious and awe-inspiring. He is, quite literally, more real than any other character in the show. (Ignoring historical characters we never met)

I'm sure lots of you will have seen what Mr. Bonzo looks like but for those who haven't and have missed it on my posts, it's this.

If you checked out the links earlier, which you should have, you'll see that he's very close to Mr. Blobby. And, yes, he is kinda creepy if you're grossed out by weird mascots but he's not "Oh my god!" levels of horrifying. That's the original Mr. Bonzo, Mr. Bonzo the suit, not Mr. Bonzo the monster. This is who Gwen met.

Which really raises a rather interesting question; when did the suit stop being just a suit? Which in turn raises a more interesting one; why did the suit stop being just a suit? It's pretty clear that Mr. Bonzo really did start off as something mundane but whatever he is now very clearly isn't.

After all that excitement we return to Alice and Sam fumbling about in a ruin. Interestingly we're no longer listening through their phone, but a tape recorder. Which is actually a fairly big deal. Not because it's a TMA thing but because it's an analogue format that's not being digitised. So far that's not been something we've been able to listen through. Which means "Freddy" has some tricks up its sleeves, or "Freddy" isn't the one listening. The actual contents of this part isn't terribly important for the most part. Archivist's office, worms and trapdoors for an allusion to TMA, mystical symbols maybe, lots of books, etc. The real revelation here is "why they chose us… why they didn’t choose me". Likely confirming that the contents of CHDB (see masterdoc) was mostly the first step. Sam "failed" and wasn't chosen for whatever came next. It also likely confirms that Gerry wasn't chosen either as the two had remarkably similar test scores. Anyway, after that they call it quits and head on home.

Now, if you weren't reading the transcript's you'll have missed the introduction to a new character, [Error] played by Beth Eyre who voiced Lucia Wright from MAG 130: Meat. As Alice and Sam leave a padlock rattles on a trapdoor before a key twists and the lock pops open. The trapdoor opens and [Error] emerges. Very very little to really say here. Imprisonment below the Institute probably isn't a good sign, and they're the likely immortal overarching villain of either this season, or the show in general. But combined with strange PoV on those events, what was likely a mystical prison, and it being under the Institute that was burned down for a reason it's not good news. Unless it was burned down to free them, then who knows.

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

Incident/CAT#R#DPHW Master Sheet (I added the Magnus Institute's child psych eval. sheet to it)

Somewhat notably here CAT1RB2275 is also very close to the trailer's case number of CATIRB2275.

DPHW Theory: 2275 is actually a pretty interesting number. For clarity this refers to only the initial recording that Celia heard, not anything related to Mr. Bonzo beyond that. 2 in Death is pretty reasonable as the statement brings the subject of murders up but doesn't dwell on them much. 2 in Pain falls under the same explanation. The 7 in Helplessness tracks well too because not only was the format of the interview a bit of a gotcha, but the content dealt heavily with imprisonment. Both in context to the show's premise and the legacy's impact upon his life. It was also eerie and weird and mascot-centric which is good Weird fodder.

The reason this is all so interesting is because it's possible this is an entirely mundane incident that still happens to line up well with the DPHW of Mascot (Kids). What occurred in the interview didn't seem supernatural, what was described in it also seemed mundane. It's only really the last couple of lines that hint towards something supernatural occurring but notably none of that happens in this recording itself, the details of it discussed, nor are any of the people on the recording first hand witnesses to those events and retelling them. But despite all of that the mundane occurrences of the interview still heavily reflect the supernatural ratings of the section (subsection).

CAT# Theory: CAT1. [Insert your favourite screaming reaction GIF here.] I've got no clue what to make of CAT#'s at this stage. This one wasn't particularly elucidating. Gonna be a long few weeks.

There are a couple of theories floating about that I'll briefly mention because someone will do it if I don't. The Subject/Agent/Catalyst theory presumes a lot of stuff about the OIAR I don't think holds up, and assumes they're happy to throw away information which I don't think they are. See here for more. The Person/Place/Object theory overlooks that Dolls (Watching) is CAT2, and not a place, and that Agglomeration (Miscellany) is about a collection of objects despite it taking place at Hilltop. A location only important to us listeners. If you do like those theories by all means keep liking them. I'm just not convinced by them and it seems prudent to mention that I have seen them.

R# Theory: B is right in line with what I outlined last week. Bonzo-themed murders are not overtly supernatural but they are something that definitely happened. The Klaus doc also have a few incidents with the note "Mr. B", including the only known S rank. With Gwen's reaction being so strong I think it's a good indicator that S rank's follow the pattern.

Header talk: Mascot (kids) -/- murder is just another header that seems pretty weird. The section (subsection) bit is all pretty normal but that crosslink again shows that crosslinks have very little structure to them. I'm starting to wonder if they're actually relevant at all, or pre-assigned like other elements are. They're starting to seem more and more like vibes than anything.

[starsoftheeye]

TMAGP Live Reaction - Ep 13

This probably won't be a regular thing since I usually listen to the new episodes on my way home from school, but I wanted to do it today and no-one can stop me

Pre-Episode

Aw this dedication is so nice, reminds me of how I used to sign off on social media when I was younger

Pre-Statement

omg samcelia date samcelia date

they're so cute omg

"she also said that you dont know how cute you are" alice dyer youre not fooling anyone

i wanna hear what this interaction sounded like between alice and celia

"nobody, i'm mysterious" this isnt gonna come back to haunt us im sure

omg samcelia dating reveal already

JACKS HER SON OMG

"wild couple of years after i moved here" does this mean that celias way of coping with being dropped in a different universe was to just fuck... iconic

either that or jack got brought along with her and shes just covering it up. or jack has some mysterious origins that we dont know about

omg a horror protagonists with loving, alive parents wow

i was not expecting sam to be this relatable oh no

sam :(

oh no an "incident"

alice :(

i love celia just being "i know we're on a date and thats great and all but what do you think about the Horrors"

ofc you know theyre real you lived through the apocalypse

ah hello lena and gwen

ah gwen is learning about the consequences of delivering a random address to a living mr blobby knockoff

ooh are we gonna get some exposition

yes we are

these are our Fears i presume

you work in the government responsible for discarding peoples experiences and traumas gwen you werent exactly one of the good guys to begin with

guys i dont think shes gonna sort it

Statement

hold music?? hello?? do we recognise this voice?? needles??

i cannot understand what the name of this company is but i do not like them

the autoresponder sounds so cunty who are they i must know

oooh a scottish guy we love a scottish guy

"i pay your wages" sounding ass. telling the autoresponder that youre the highest investor in a gambling app isnt the flex you think it is dude

i think if a website that directly involves the handling of your money does "weird background checks" and has a "janky interface", staying is less of a feat of loyalty and more a feat of stupidity

oh this guy does nfts for sure

are you allowed to blame the warning you didnt listen to for the consequences?

oh his friends suck too

damn all jokes aside i feel bad for this dude

ohhh so is this like the dice where things can only get so good before they go terribly? or is it like a "when your life gets bad your money goes up" thing

ah its the second option

tbf if its not against the law its not against the law

this guy is the definition of "20 pounds is 20 pounds"

suddenly i dont feel as sorry for this guy

i have a sneaking suspicion that this guy did not get his money

oh nevermind

OOOOOOH NEVERMIND THAT NEVERMIND

huh

HUH

DID THEY SEND A CREATURE TO GET HIM WHAT

Post-Statement

Alice!!

Ooooh he got pished

Alice really out here dissing every kind of date I've ever been on

oh no :(

sam no :(

sam apologise please

shes right tho youre in the wrong place if you don't want weird

alice :(

this is why a polycule would fix everything

alice i love you

sam i love you but you deserved that

[thedreadvampy]

We had our team Christmas party/goodbye Ruth do today. and I need to show you what my friend at work made me for a leaving present because even for him it's a work of mad genius, I was just sitting there like WHAT. WHAT IS HAPPENING.

so you know, I get leaving gifts from my team, it's lovely, notebooks, pens, gift card, fond farewells, it's lovely, people say nice things about me

then my friend Zain says "I also got you something"

Now the thing to know about Zain is his party acumen is legendary. every year we're all resigned from the off to losing at Secret Santa because his gifts are insane. last year he made his secret santa a custom play set of one of our services in a branded box with tiny props. this year he made a custom Ken doll and box representing our colleague and it has a tiny collection bucket and a "collect them all!" sticker on the back where he'd found pictures of Barbies and Kens that looked like the rest of the Fundraising team. we'd just got done with a quiz where he made a custom video package, a Family Feud round with buzzers, and TWO Photoshop picture rounds. once. ONCE. we asked him to facilitate a team meeting and he wrote and animated a theme song. the man is insane. everything he does is so thoughtful, so labour intensive, and also so off the wall weird.

so I'm intrigued. especially since all he's holding is an envelope.

he says "I got you something. It's kind of an experience."

and hands me this letter.

(there's a bunch of good bits in here but I will particularly note that "It's going" has been his perpetual refrain for months every time I ask how it's going, to the point he usually doesn't even bother saying it any more.)

ok. I am confused. what is. THE DEVICE.

he puts THE DEVICE on the table. he hands me 4 cardboard floppy discs.

THE DEVICE is a large cardboard box. You will observe that THE DEVICE has an LED on the front. You may also observe that THE DEVICE has both a button. and a set of speaker holes.

this is because upon pushing the button on THE DEVICE, it makes a jaunty startup noise and an AI voice launches into a full minute setup speech before instructing me to load the included floppy discs into THE DEVICE. during the period of silence as I feed them into the slot, THE DEVICE says things like "ow, careful!"

THE DEVICE then makes loading noises, and instructors me to open THE DEVICE to see the contents of the discs.

inside the box, there are 4 gifts, each corresponding to a floppy disc and also to a conversation we've had at some point in the last 2.5 years.

this, of course, is in reference to my infamous Blobbyland post, and indeed to the fact that Zain, who is 3 years younger than me, actually FOUND OUT ABOUT MR BLOBBY from me taking about my popular Tumblr post

Gawrsh.zip references a conversation about Goofy dying in Kingdom Hearts, the first video game I remember finishing

EIGHT MONTHS AGO Zain asked me what my top 5 films of all time were and I said easy, Mirrormask, 10 Things, Angels In America, Everything Everywhere All At Once, Fury Road, boom. He's been just HOLDING THAT INFORMATION IN HIS HEAD FOR MONTHS.

the last one is my favourite. I was like oh no what could be in this poster tube cause what's left of the floppies is NIGHTMARE.EXE.

at my Halloween party last month, to which Zain was my only work friend who made it, we watched Nightmare on Elm Street and Zain, who had recently watched some video breakdowns on it, was pointing out humorous background details. and in the sleep therapist scene, both he and Tim pointed at the screen and started shouting TRAM CATS!!! and we were all losing our shit

the thing is there's a Very Weird poster in that scene. and now. now it's in my house also.

anyway I legit almost cried this may be the most unhinged and lovely gift that anyone has ever given me. I'm going to miss working with this weirdo so much.

[fionacle]

video game

[cw for this one]

you are a nonbinary, female-presenting person in high school, Danny (she/they). a couple game days are about attending school, and things seem normal at first, but you soon start to feel like you’re being watched. one night you get kidnapped by your stalker, John. you can work on escape while he’s out, but he’ll come to talk to you each day. make sure to hide all evidence of escape before he comes back or he’ll become angry (you’ll have a set amount of “moves”). for talking to him, you’ll have a nice option and a mean option. the nice options will make him be kinder to you and even remove his anger at you for things, but pick too many and you’ll get the ‘Stockholm Syndrome’ game over. Pick too many mean ones(/leave too much evidence out) and he’ll just kill you. i also plan to have you find diary entries from him, maybe you can explore the house when you finally attempt to escape. i won’t share all the details. one thing, this game will have transphobia in it, mainly from John, who insists on deadnaming Danny (“Danielle”) and says all the typical weird stuff about like staying pretty and whatever. this is the most fleshed-out concept on this list.

book

Twelve-year-old Sara’s mother was never kind to her, she didn’t want her after all. she was just an accident as a result of one of her many one night stands. one day her mother marries a well-off man (half for love, half for money) in a new town, and they move into his house. he also has a daughter, Ruth, who he had with his late wife. Ruth and Sara quickly became inseparable, and Ruth’s friends became Sara’s friends, all of them more parental to her than her mother or step father would ever be. originally this story was going to be a creepypasta where she killed her parents, but now i’m honestly not so sure what to have as the Thing it’s about. i know i want her to have dark aspects to her that Ruth looks past in her unconditional love for her sister. one of my concepts is them running away together after Sara does something terrible, but i’m still unsure whether to have that be an au or the actual story. Sara has to deal with her crappy upbringing, asexuality, and some kind of demonized mental illness (i’m thinking bpd or something but i honestly haven’t gotten to flesh Sara out as much as i’d like since i don’t know where to take the story. in the original version all she needed to have was sad backstory and killing so i just never gave her much lmao). one idea i have is that her parents do die somehow, in a way that implicates her, but it wasn’t actually her (in that case the running away would happen). also ruth has a girlfriend named Kye :)) lots of queer stuff in that one if i end up putting Ruth’s friend group in, but even if i don’t i’ll make little side things like art and maybe a drabble someday).

comic

90% episodic, it would follow a self-insert scientist who works at sort of a petting zoo version of SCP. There’s all sorts of strange creatures there, some more safe and out in the front to be played with, and some not so safe and kept in the back. one is Zerk, a very loving leech-like thing who wouldn’t hurt a fly (he doesn’t even know that the meat he eats was once from a living thing). he excretes acid when excited so he can’t be touched, but he’s in a visible tank so people can watch him. Blobby is kind of a prideful jerk, always flaunting how due to being a cute little slime he’s a visitor-favorite. The Wailer is a creature who can scream and shriek in ways that would break your mind to hear, but he’s actually pretty chill. how do we know this? the entire staff calls him Wally, and despite protesting this name, he has never once killed or traumatized any of them. i have other assorted doodles i never fully fleshed out, one was a gaseous creature named Edward (they/them). no female ones yet lol, i’ll be sure to make some if i ever actually make this. there would also be episodes where another OC, Sydney, would come home to visit his “parent” (me), as i raised him before he went off to college. (he goes to human college despite being… whatever he is. he wears a crappy disguise and successfully blends in due to invader zim type logic). his roommate tom would also come from time to time (also non-human, more of a party animal).

feel free to ask questions about any of them (actually please do)!

[halfusek]

is batdr canon to abomination?

oh hell no

sdfghjfgbfdhj

honestly nothing aside from batim is canon to abomination (so none of the other games and none of the books) because i based abomination on my super hyperfixated analysis of the batim game

i did include some things from other things - like i included the characters of buddy and dot - but their stories in abomination are very different and more like cameos rather than proper includement

abomination wouldn't be abomination if it included other materials aside from batim - because it relies a lot on how vague batim was

other games and books (whether they're canon in general or not) were less vague and tried to be more definitive and finite - and the story and the world they ended up to paint just turned out to be different than what i've imagined with batim and created abomination to be

so, no, the way batdr is, i cannot make it canon to abomination, even if i wanted to (which i don't), there's too many logical and thematical contradictions

but maaaaaayyybeeee i'll think about how i could use elements of batdr for a continuation of abomination. maybe. big maybe fdgjknfd

because there are some cool concepts that i could definitely make work or use in a different context

but then there's some that are very troubling - for example, uh. audrey. audrey's existence. dnfgfksd

basically abomination does have "family" and "parenthood" as a theme but it's very different than what batdr did. in abomination joey is bendy's father (the squish one, the inky blobby one and also the toon one, to me both joey and henry are his parents)

however the way it works is that joey is a terrible father, he does love bendy as his son/creation and he maybe even loves him a lot but that doesn't change how awful he is. obviously. and bendy loves him as his father but recognizes his awfulness and with time oposses him more and more (the abomination version of bendy is generally very naive and doesn't know much about the world, he had a lot to learn and still does). and it's not like joey doesn't recognize how awful he is. he does. he did not really ask to be a dad, he didn't expect that to be the outcome of the things he's been trying to do. he tried to be one but let's agree he wasn't the best at it. SO YEAH they have a VERY complex father/son dynamic

so if. he was to just. go out of his way and make a random daughter??? it would be really weird and unfitting and go against EVERYTHING that i established in abomination so far gfdnkgjnfkd

(and i'm not gonna lie. not the biggest fan of that narrative decision from the bendy devs either but oh well fdnjkdgf it's their story)

but it would feel weird to try to "include parts of batdr but without audrey specifically" so i might think about her in all this more, but she just might end up being someone else and not be related to joey in any way. i'll see

so yeah TLDR

batdr is not canon to abomination but i might do something in the future that expands on abomination's story and includes elements of batdr but they most likely will be very recontextualized

[berrrydameyve]

Morales twins: about artstyles (comig from an artist) (updated)

okay, artstyle headcanons (moslty for 42 beacuse we almost know how our beloved spidey draws like)

OH AND SPOILER ALERT!!!!

1. while 10610 uses blobby, soft lines, 42 Uses sharp and thick lines for his lineart.

2. Again as we know 1610 loves using vibrant but not so vibrant colors, ıt's more like lively and comic-like, 42 prefers more neon colors when he wants something to pop up other rthan that, his coloring is more like old comics from the 80's to 2000's while spidey's also comic like coloring is more like the comics that were published after late 2010's.

3. As I mentioned earlier that 42 uses neon colors to make the main subject of his illusturations pop out, 1610 makes his main subject catch the eye also with color yes, but mostly shading and lighting.

4. So it's 42 using sharp lines and neon colors that ı think match with his personality in his drawings, 1610 prefers lively, warmer colors to go with the flow of his drawings.

5. 42 hates watercolor. But 1610 has no problem with watercolor.

6. many of 1610's sketchbooks have marker bleeds on them (r.i.p but he uses them still because nothing goes to waste).

7. 42 doesn't draw as much as 1610 since his dad died.

8. 1610 has problems with digital art, the glass surface of the tablet is way too slippery and weird-feeling for him.

and when they collab it's the craziest shit ever

[furiarossa]

Hey hi :3 ghost worldbuilding enthusiast here, I would love to hear what you have on the ways ghost interact with different types of light and sound waves, if you have any ideas about that of course, feel free to ignore my weird curiosity ;D

Hey, hi! You asked a complicated question. We love complicated questions! In order to answer to this, we had to figure out how ectoplasm works. And to figure that out, we had to understand what is actually ectoplasm.

It was a nice trip in physics (and sci-fi), that helped us defining better the nature of ectocreatures.

So, today, we'll dive into the world of sound and light (with the help of our blobby ghostie, Ex Novo!).

Interactions with sound

Uncoded ectoplasm

Uncoded ectoplasm tends not to react to sound waves in any way.

The sound wave does not transport matter, because the molecules remain where they are; instead it transports energy, that is the ability to set molecules in motion, making them vibrate up and down.

However, ectoplasm has an internal strength generally greater than that of sound waves: with highly mobile electrons, detached from their nuclei, whizzing at high speed and with very high motility within the material, ectoplasm is unpenetrable from "low" vibrations! The sound waves will therefore pass through the ectoplasm, if it has a low ionization, or will slide around it, if the ionization is high.

Uncoded ectoplasm, while not interacting with the sound waves around it, can actually make sounds! When hit with enough force (for example with a laser), the ectoplasm moves rapidly from regions of high density to more stagnant areas, those of lower density. The ectoplasm, which thickens in the transition zone between the regions of low and high density, generates a series of pressure pulses, i.e. sound waves.

With a frequency close to one trillion Hertz, the sound that is generated reaches the highest possible frequency for this type of material, approximately 6 million times higher than what can be heard by mammals. It is therefore impossible for a human being to hear the sound produced naturally by non-codified ectoplasm, since it only produces sounds with a frequency higher than 20,000 hertz, i.e. ultrasound, a category of sounds not perceptible to the human ear.

Coded ectoplasm

Spirits can communicate despite being composed of ectoplasm, simply by using electrical micro-discharges coming directly from their core: this is because plasma is mainly composed of ions that have their own mass and density. Since the density of the plasma is different from that of the cold air surrounding the discharge, by managing to modulate the power of the discharge, it is possible to move the boundary front between cold air and plasma.

By virtue of the difference in density, the movement of the air-plasma boundary causes a movement of the air itself and, consequently, the pressure waves responsible for the diffusion of sound originate.

In addition to being able to produce sounds, spirits can also interact with them, for example with the simple act of perceiving sound (hearing). This is because the core is able, by modifying the density of a specific area (such as the eardrums), to create structures capable of vibrating when hit by a sound wave.

Interactions with light

Uncoded ectoplasm

The brightness of the non-coded ectoplasm is a good indicator of the time that has passed since its detachment from a living entity: the thin layer of phosphorus that covers it naturally tends to wear out if not renewed by the biological processes of the coded ectoplasm.

Uncoded ectoplasm also tends to have, over time, lower densities, which allow light to pass through transparently. Due to the internal excitation of the particles, the non-codified ectoplasm will still tend to emit some light, although it does not have the typical phosphorescent light: the "younger" one will have a more intense brightness, similar to that of a light bulb, while the "older" one, which has lost its viscosity, will appear noticeably duller and more transparent.

Coded ectoplasm

The coded ectoplasm is always covered with a thin layer of phosphorus, an element involved in the vital functions of all known life forms. Just like in humans, phosphorus accounts for approximately 1% of the body's weight.

Due to its very high reactivity, phosphorus is the ideal substance for covering a body with ectoplasm, supporting it to interact with the outside world, and it is precisely because of this thin layer, which is continuously hit by the plasma ions (as happens in a plasma television), that ectoplasm bodies are always surrounded by a luminous halo.

This phenomenon is called phosphorescence.

Invisibility

Spirits incarnated in an ectoplasmic body are capable of making their presence invisible to both humans and ghosts, and even to photoscanning devices (such as cameras); this occurs thanks to the controlled production of plasmons.

The plasmon is a quantum of plasma oscillations, that is, a quasiparticle resulting from the quantization of plasma oscillations, halfway between magnetic waves and particles. In particular, ectoplasmic entities exploit surface plasmons, i.e. plasmons localized near the surface of a solid, normally used (by humans) for the production of metamaterials.

Surface plasmons allow light to flow around an object, making it perfectly invisible.

Incarnated spirits also have the ability to make other people and objects invisible as long as they are in physical contact with them, extending their plasmon field.

Trivia

A luminous ectoplasm, in otpoelectronics, is also called a "phosphor", because they work like regular phosphors, by emitting light through their phosphorus coating properties!

Being covered in white phosphorus, the outer layer of the ectoplasmic bodies is poisonous to humans. Don't eat ghosts, kids!

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

And that's roughly what we think about how ghosts interact with light and sound! We hope it was enough, but... if you have any other question, maybe more specific... we would gladly, with joy, answer it!

And of course this applies to all of you! Help us build our lore with your questions!

All the ghost worldbuilding posts!

The "Ask us about ghost worldbuilding" post

Our ask is open!

[vaimetanyx]

Ah nectar, the drink of the Gods

Also known as potion of burn your fingers because you're bad at using lighters and refuse to turn your ceiling fan off

(Full process under the cut)

[Skull pauldron] [Belt] [Greaves] [Toga + sash] [Wig + Laurels] [Armbands] [Flaming feet] [Satyr Sack] [Stygius v1] [Stygius v2] [Nectar]

I really love being able to give out in-character items while in cosplay, and I figured nectar, as a semi-common friendship leveling item, would be perfect. Originally I was going to try sculpting them out of sculpy or something and then I realised I would be unsatisfied with the end result so I bought bought 50 tiny glass bottles off aliexpress

To get the golden-orange filling I experimented with a few things - while the one I was happiest with was a clear PVA glue mixed with watercolour paint pigment for colour and gold pearlescent pigment for shine, it wouldn't set, and I didn't want to deal with a liquid considering I have a long history of just bashing the shit out of things if I'm not very careful, and I don't want to spend my whole con day taking special care of tiny glass bottles. So, I ended up using resin! Coloured the same way as the glue, this was my first time using resin and while I would have liked less bubbles it turned out well

To get the weird blobby looking cork the ends were dipped in wax by my sister, who mixed a few colours together and let the bottles dry upside down to get the right shape

I used two types of ribbon for my two lots of bottles (nearly 100 bottles have been made up to this point), but both were a purple satin. After trying the bow in a way that would let it sit in the right direction and burning the ends with a lighter to seal them and prevent them from fraying, I used clear PVA glue to stiffen the ribbon and secure it. While drying I used a bit of blutack to get the ends to dry straight down rather than to the sides

Then, because small trinkets are nice but can be difficult to carry around all day at a con, I attached some string which is just purple embroidery thread I had lying around. Unfortunately I did too much of a good job tying the ribbon tightly for some of them since I had to use wire and pliers to actually get it under the ribbon to tie it on

But all the finicky work is worth it, they're very cute when complete

(Psst - if you're an Australian con-goer (specifically Supanova) keep an eye out for me on the floor - I give these out to the hades fans I meet!)