rejectedfables

[heartscrypt]

the web - fear of manipulation and lost control made manifest

[the-trinket-witch]

CEASELESS WATCHERS: TURN YOUR GAZE UPON THESE TWISTED FEARS!

(CW for Claustrophobia, mysophobia, scopophobia, body horror, Scotophobia, thanatophobia, autophobia, dementophobia, dysmorphophobia, megalophobia)

IT'S FINALLY DONE AHA! The art project I've had a full Year in the making is DONE! Some of these are newer (and on a different program than I started with) so some look a LOT better (or worse) than others.

Breaking things down, we have:

Lilia: The Vast Cater: The Lonely

Riddle: The Desolation Vil: The Flesh

Idia: The Eye Rook: The Hunt

Jade: The Spiral Azul: The Buried

Leona: The Corruption Malleus: The Dark

Yuu: The Stranger (Ft. @bunnwich's Yuuta, @vaporvipermedia's Kei, @simpingseafood's Sasha, @honeyuuyuu's Honey, and my own Eugenio) Floyd: The Slaughter

Jamil: The Web Ortho: The End

And because I will always be Will Wood Trash: I decided to put Will Wood Songs to each Fear based on personal associations.

[slowpokecurry]

Fellow TWST and TMA fans. Do you see my vision?

》 Hello twst fandom um. This was inspired by @heartscrypt 's web!Jamil art. Hope I'm not stepping on your toes! It activated my sleeper agent desire to make tma aus of my other special interests hehe

[consumeroflemoans]

Me I want to hear about it

*cracks knuckles* Oh boy let’s go.

Also yeah very minor spoilers for twst up to book 7 since I mention Malleus’s overblot and also Styx stuff.

Starting off

Categorizing Twst characters to fears.

Malleus is pretty obviously attributed to the Lonely. The entire reason he overblotted was over a desire not to be Lonely. Plus he's very isolated in general due to his status, magical ability, and general vibe.

Lilia I think would be an Avatar of the Slaughter. Especially during wartimes. I think in an AU he managed to sever his connection to the entity after he found Silver.

Silver I don't think would follow a particular entity. He just knows about them thanks to Lilia.

Sebek I think would also not follow an entity. Similar to Silver, he just wants to help Malleus escape the Lonely

Idia I'm debating between making an Avatar of the Lonely or the Web. I think Styx as a whole would be an organization following the Web due to their intelligence ties and the ways they can manipulate governments. Idia himself would be closer to the Lonely, sort of falling off the path of the Web after Ortho's death. He still has ties to both.

Ortho would be tied to the Web, being a part of Styx

Rook I think it's pretty obvious he would be an avatar of the Hunt.

Vil I think it would be fascinating if he was tied to the Stranger. It's all about performances and deception, though not in the same way as the Web.

Epel I think would also be tied to the Stranger. I'm really struggling to explain it properly, but he's not really his true self? I guess?

Jamil would be a fascinating avatar of the Web, even if I'm giving way too many characters to it. He's manipulative and his specialty magic allows him to control people's actions. Also he feels like he's trapped, being controlled by Kalim's family. Plus he has a fear of spiders and bugs lol

Kalim I don't think would follow any fear. He's largely unaware of them and I think he would only learn about them because of Jamil.

Azul it's pretty obvious would be a part of the web. He's always part of long term schemes and using those around him to his own benefit. Also his specialty magic traps people in contracts, placing them under his control.

Floyd would be an avatar of the Spiral. He's all about short term deception and would totally gaslight people. Also there's the thing of his mood always changing. He has more chaotic schemes and does things for his amusement more than a long term goal.

Jade would be an avatar of the Eye. He collects and uses people's secrets against them. He's very much the knowledge collector of the group. Not to mention his specialty magic requires someone to look into his eye. Also it allows him to force someone to answer a question of his truthfully.

Leona would be tied to the Desolation. He's already tied to fire at times in the game. Plus his specialty magic allows him to dissolve anything into sand.

Jack I think would be tied to the Hunt. I think it would be more likely for beastmen to be tied to the hunt due to them still having the predator/prey dynamic within their societies.

Ruggie I was debating of being affected by the corruption but ehhh I'm not sure.

Riddle would be an avatar of the Desolation. He's often tied to both fire and destructive anger. He harms others, but it's not as senseless as the Slaughter, he has a sense of righteousness behind it.

Deuce I think would be a recovering avatar of the slaughter kind of like Lilia. He grew up with ties to senseless violence and is now trying to resist the urges to harm others.

Cater would also be an avatar of the Eye but I don't think he would know it. Gossip, knowledge, the gathering of secrets, it all fuels him and he doesn't even know it. He thinks he's just a gossip girly.

Trey would be another fascinating avatar of the stranger. He seems like such a normal, average guy, except there's something oh so subtly off about him.

I don't think Ace would be tied to an entity. I think he would be kind of like Kalim, just a guy until he's dragged into knowing about the mess by some friend.

A couple bonuses:

Chenya would very obviously be tied to the spiral. The Cheshire Cat just screams casual deception and gleeful manipulation. He's a chaotic mess and I love him.

Rollo would be tied to the desolation and would despise it. He wants to completely wipe the others from existence using his cleansing fire.

How Blot Works

Blot is a result of the Corruption. It slowly corrodes a mage’s mind and magic overtime. This fact is largely unknown to the general public.

Styx’s Purpose

While Styx is largely still a blot research facility, that is also a front for other research. They serve the Web and in doing so, gather information about the other entities. The public doesn’t know about the fears and Styx intends to keep it that way. Their research on the Corruption is most well known thanks to blot, but they have even more secret facilities for each fear. Their plans are still largely unknown, but they are keeping a very close eye on Night Raven College due to the large amount of students with a tie to the fears.

Bonus:

I got excited and made a beta design for Che’Nya because he is such a Spiral girlie you have no idea

[heartscrypt]

tfw you sign your soul over to an eldritch fear deity in order to regain some semblance of control over your own life (tma au)

nobody understands how fucking crazy i am about this au. its tormenting me. also epel is here as well he's corruption he has a lot of worms in him sorry in advance

closeups + design notes + au jamil fun facts under the cut!

(tw some body horror stuff? eye stuff)

design notes

his hair jewelry has been replaced with spider silk cocoons / string. also very obviously spider themed hair gem thing

spider eyes! both in the way of he has 8 human eyes and actual spider eyes on his neck

web tattoos. they spin outwards and grow in a kind of mesmerizing hypnotic pattern when he uses his powers

his braids now form a spiderweb pattern. hes also prematurely greying a little LOLL

his belt chains form a spiderweb pattern as well

he has piercings! an erl piercing across his nose bridge and four piercings on each ear

his pants are based off the spider-tailed horned viper-- a snake whose tail has evolved to look like a spider so the birds it feeds on will mistake its tail for prey

au jamil notes

his backstory pretty much remains the same honestly

except when he's around 11, instead of getting poisoned and falling into a coma, he gets trapped in a buried-aligned artifact that he touched while cleaning one of the asim treasure rooms

nobody could find him for weeks and kalim was really tearing up the whole estate about it because he insisted that jamil would never run off or disappear without a reason

jamil escapes the buried by taking the assistance of the web (he does it in the way of "i don't know what's going on but this thing is reaching out to help me and i don't want to die so fuck it" but he's still accepting the web into his life regardless)

after two weeks they find him covered in cobwebs and dust in the treasure room and he gets scolded for making everyone worry

he doesn't even bother trying to explain to people what happened to him because he knows it's too unbelievable for them. he spins a lie and he's surprised by how natural it is to just Lie to people

jamil's powers as an avatar of the web manifest visually as him "pulling strings" out of people's eyes. like unwinding their irises like they're spools of thread. if you've seen the prev post on web!jamil you know what it looks like

if he leaves the iris-strings half unwound they become very suggestible, very easily manipulated

however if he yanks out the iris-strings fully, he can turn the other person into a complete blank slate. no thoughts head empty. basically an empty cocoon of a person. he tends not to do this because 1) it's very conspicuous and 2) it renders the victim completely useless to the web

he has to concentrate very hard to do this and he can usually pull on only one person's iris-strings at a time

[heartscrypt]

looks at u . tma au…

azul eye aligned thoughts (guy who never finished tma)

A VERY GOOD THOUGHT!!! i actually never considered that but it does make sense. it fits with his whole blackmail thing and his persistence in ch4 regarding uncovering jamils plan. on the flip side he has the paranoia that people will see through him or see how he used to be.

ive always thought of him as buried aligned bc of the financial debt aspect / deep water associations that the buried has. trapped in a situation you cant escape = contract time babyyyyyyy. could also apply to his childhood spent underwater where he feels "trapped" by his octopus merform since it gets him bullied. but eye aligned azul is VERY interesting narratively like you could do a lot with eye aligned azul and Knowing and Seeing

[heartscrypt]

what is tma au?

ok ok so!!! its an au based off "the magnus archives", which is a horror podcast that is about The Magnus Institute, an organization dedicated to researching weird and spooky supernatural shit. it has a short condensed horror story in each episode, referred to as "statements", that slowly form a big overarching plot involving fear gods and monsters and stuff . this is vague as hell but i don't want to spoil much in case you plan on listening.

just know that "the web" referred to in the post you probably saw is a powerful entity based off the fear of spiders, manipulation, loss of control, and the idea that nothing you do is of your own free will. and in the tma au this is what jamil serves/is a vessel of. so he has freaky deaky spider control powers

[consumeroflemoans]

Lmao I should make an opposite Magnus Archives x Twisted Wonderland AU where I turn the whole TMA cast into depressed teenage anime boy mages

[heartscrypt]

So as a TMA fanatic and a TWST maniac, I felt the need to ask permission to draw something for your AU because it scratches all the good parts in my brain.

OF COURSE!! i do not own either tma or twst so i would love love love to see what you can make for this :3 pls tag me i would be sooo happy to see it omigosh

[the-trinket-witch]

So This is the beginning set of a series of art pieces I'm calling

"Twisted Wonderland/The Magnus Archives Brainrot"

The idea of the TWST boys being avatars of the 14 Fears has been on my mind for a while. Gonna post more, sporatically.

Reasoning for each of these three being their Fear's Avatar:

Idia/The Eye: For as much that he abhors being seen or noticed, he takes great pains to observe, learn, and experiment with others, regardless of the harm it does. The Eye is also an Entity that always looks and learns, but never acts.

Jade/The Spiral: this eel is an enigma. He only let's you know exactly what he wants you to see. Even if he can compel one to tell the truth, its hard /not/ to second-guess whether he feels need to do so himself. With such a placid smile, he could lie straight to your face and most would be none the wiser til it was too late.

Vil/The Flesh: With being in the Public Eye so often, I would assume there's quite the necessity to maintain appearances. Along with that, the desire to be something (not typecast) else is something I think fits neatly in The Flesh's Domain.

[the-trinket-witch]

TWISTED FEARS, PT 1

S.T.Y.X Log A-113

"This is Idia Shroud. Due to Some events going on this past year, I'm taking it on myself to investigate Night Raven College for any additional…weird activity. I'm transcribing the Videos recorded from devices I've placed in every dorm domain on the premise of it being an anonymous audio diary. Told the Headmaster it would be cheaper than hiring a counselor. Of course, they don't know there's video of all this, I need some through-lines and for that I need faces. Though, knowing which guys are spilling their guts into a mic is a lil interesting, kinda funny too, hehe. -ahem- Alright, to note these have been transcribed as they come in. So events may be out of order. With that let's dive on in."

Statement of Scarabia student 1-25, regarding his concern for his Vice Dorm Head. 

Statement Begins:

“I feel really bad for Jamil, I’ll say right outta the gate. He works super hard for Scarabia, I honestly don’t know what we’d do without him. Kalim, our Dorm Leader, is a great guy too! He's super resourceful-knows how to think on his toes. And I think, in any other circumstance, he's something I think our dorm needs! 

But…for context, I'm on the Magift team. No big secret that…we didn't make finals. I'm disappointed in myself, and I think a lotta the guys are. But then, Scarabia kinda, collectively, fell last in our finals scores. I tried, so hard, to keep my scores up, and I even had some tutoring from both Azul AND Jamil. I dunno how our Vice Dorm Head does it: does all the duties that come with that title, do awesome in basketball, tutors just about anybody who asks, and…takes care of our Dorm Leader. 

It's kind of an open secret that Kalim got in a bit after Jamil. He's been trying to quell rumors that he got in by his family bribing the school.  I hadn't heard of it before he said something, he just asked me one day if I heard of the rumor and not to spread it. But now that he mentions it, I've been hearing it more and more. I don't even think Kalim even knows. I…can't say I haven't told anybody.

Sorry, back to the whole finals thing. We didn't do real hot. Aaaand that kinda stuff falls into the Dorm Leader's lap. He's supposed to lead us and we all dropped the ball. Kinda should have seen this coming. Kalim is such a party animal. If it isn't birthdays, it's a win for any of the sports teams, or someone doing well on a test. I can sometimes see Jamil running around getting all this stuff done for it and I just feel… bad about it. I've offered to help a lotta the time and he seems so relieved whenever someone comes to offer. And he seems to trust me enough to tell me…things. 

He's telling me Kalim has been losing sleep lately over all this. And it's making him irritable. I can tell-he's been getting weirdly snappy at people, lately. When he gets that way, he starts talking about cracking down on getting our scores and skill up. Jamil says he's supposedly talking about having a kind of 'Winter Break Boot-Camp'. He seems kinda resigned to it already.  I'm not looking forward to it, but he asked me while we were making lunch, the other day if I'd be willing to stay over break. If just for support. And…I wanted to. I just couldn't say no. 

I kept wanting to talk myself out of it-go back and tell Jamil I can't. I want to see my folks this holiday, but everytime I think about saying no, it feels like I'm getting yanked by my brainstem back to 'yes'. My eyes burned all night, thinking about it. I'll give it a shot,  but I ain't happy about it.. I know if Kalim keeps his weird attitude shift up, I don't even know if I really want him as my dorm leader next semester."

Statement ends.

Addendum: corroborating interviews with Ortho have turned up…nothing. I had him ask about anything weird happening over the break, and all he gets is that there was some extra practice and studying going on, but nobody says they remember anything outside of that. Must have been that boring. That or their brains have all collectively fried in that Scarabia heat. 

[the-trinket-witch]

Twisted Fears AU Statement 3: In A World of My Own

Statement of: Student 5 of Class 3-B, Cater Diamond and some woes regarding the next school break.

Statement Begins

“This thing on? Kay, guess so. I…don’t know what the Seven’s the matter with me. Everybody’s getting hyped for next break and I just…ain’t. 

Okay, so, my folks make us move around…a lot. Us, being my sisters and me. Moving day is always something that sits in the back of my mind. I’ve actually got pretty damn good at packing, at this point. It hasn’t helped me make a lotta friends-any friends- to be honest. I almost can’t remember what any of my old friends looked like. But I remember this old game I used to play. I don’t know if I can do it anymore or if I remember exactly how, but it goes like this:

When my sis’s would be super annoying and making me redo stuff they wanted me to make ‘cute’ or something, I’d usually tuck up in my room. ‘Cause of how many boxes we had, I usually kept some stuff in a box on the inevitability it’d be packed up again. But I found I could take the stuff outta the box and tuck away in it. It was…quiet, real quiet. Nice actually. But it must have been my imagination, or I took a nap or something, but I opened the box to get out and…it was still quiet. I thought my sisters were trying to screw with me-pop out and scare me or something. but…Nothing. I looked all over the house and nobody was there. No cars in any of the driveways, nobody in the house, nowhere. And honestly? I liked it. I had, even if it was just a dream, the whole place to myself. I got to finally, finally have some space for me. I got to have the day just for me. I don’t remember all I did that day, but I figured, cause it was a dream, to just hop back in the box and go back to sleep. 

I woke up and my sisters were calling for me. They said I was gone all day, but I told them I was just taking a nap. They looked real confused but bought it. I couldn’t help think about it for the next few days. So…I tried it again. And once again I had the whole house, somehow, to myself. It kinda became the one place I could just get away from it all. 

But then we had to move again. I marked the box so I wouldn’t lose it, and in no time we were back on the road. I can’t say I miss anybody; again I don’t remember them. I remember that first week, though, getting all unpacked that just that feeling that everyone I tried being friends with would always just disappear. I hated it. It got pretty bad, and I would usually spend most of my time in that lil world of just me. I just wished I had somebody-anybody-I could have stick around for more than a couple years. It about made me wanna rip myself in two, at least having two of me would be better than nobody. And it somehow…happened. Another thing I don’t remember exactly, but just a surge of, what I found out later was, magic and I suddenly could see…myself? Staring back at me. It was the first kinda magic I’d ever done. You could say we really hit it off; two peas in a pod. We bounced off each other and suddenly my own lil world wasn’t so lonely anymore. Eventually we got to being able to split into 4-makes playing 4-square a lot easier. 

I told my parents about my magic and they were so excited. My sisters even congratulated. But it always seems like, with me, the best things never last. With three other Caters available, my sisters thought to ramp up all the games and demands and stuff they kept dragging me around to do with them. It didn’t help that even having my splits in that lil world of mine kinda wore its novelty out, too. There’s something oddly lonely about having multiples of just you to hang out with. They do what you wanna do, and only come up with stuff you would think of. 

When you grow up, those lil nooks and crannies you used to be able to fit in, ya can’t anymore. That was it with that box. But, we’d just moved again, and this time we got to stay til I took off for Night Raven College. By then I more or less grew out of that box. I ended up finding some of the friends I made back in primary when I first got a Magicam, and it was sorta nice to see how they were all getting on. And we all started following each other, which kinda got me into photography. People loved seeing the stuff I posted, not just my old pals. More and more people started following, leaving comments and likes on everything. I’d never had that many eyes on me. 

Part of me said that I finally did it: I finally have friends. I knew better than that. None of them knew me. They knew somebody who has my name and face and posts stuff I do. But it’s not me. I think I’m about as alone as ever, and I have a whole dorm of guys living around me. The worst part about all this…some of them, make me want to try again at this whole ‘friendship’ thing. There’s also that part of me that just wants to push everybody away, cause I don’t wanna get hurt again. Doesn’t help I’m already in my 3rd year. Next year I gotta get an internship and am basically gonna be off-campus all year. I’m not gonna get to see anybody all year except for like, special events. Maybe that Leona-Guy’s got something going with that whole ‘getting held back’ thing. Dude’s freaking 20 and still a 3rd year. -sigh- Whatev’.”

“Hey, Cater, You testing out that ‘anonymous audio diary’ thing Crowley put in?”

“Oh, Hey Trey, dude. Wassup?”

“Nothin’, I’m getting some stuff prepped for Riddle. Here in a sec I’m gonna try showing him how to make ramen. You wanna be taste tester?”

“Legit? I’m in. As long as I can get everybody in a pic before digging in!”

Statement Ends

Addendum: 

Yikes. Well it’s certainly interesting to hear when he got it Unique Magic, that box is definitely interesting to hear about. Gonna assume it was just a kid’s imagination, but not gonna lie, getting a whole world just like this without anybody sounds kinda like a dream.

[the-trinket-witch]

Part 2 of my Twisted Wonderland/The Magnus Archives Art Project.

(Part 1)

The Dark/Malleus: Fear of the Dark/what lies in the dark. Fear of The Unknown.

The End: Fear of Death. (Note: I wanna call this one 'Thanatos Gear')

The Hunt: Fear of being hunted or consumed as Prey. Fear of being eaten. (Human fear of losing one's spot on top of the food chain)

[the-trinket-witch]

Part 3 of my TWST/Magnus Archives Crossover Project!!

The Buried: Fears of being buried (either in earth, water, or overwhelming circumstances), claustrophobia.

The Web: The Fear of being manipulated, spiders, that one's will is not their own.

The Stranger: Fear of The Uncanny Valley, that something seems human, but not quite.