#void in the flesh

[madamemiz]

votv is really clever in how it makes you care about dr. kel as a protagonist despite that he barely has a tangible presence in the game

for the first few days, aside from a name in an email, you don't have much to go on. there are what appear to be fun/nerdy stickers on his suitcase and he brought emergency toilet paper and a plushy with him to his solitary job in the middle of nowhere. so he's maybe a bit practical, a little quirky, but those are just crumbs of information, and these sort of first person games tend to lean a little more on the self-insert side anyway. without much else to go on, the next handful of quiet days proceed with you easily slipping into his shoes, forgetting he exists as the protagonist. you're doing the job, you're cleaning your base, you're getting creeped out by every random noise. you live here now. the game is clever about making you care about the base too, but that's a post for another day

time passes, and little by little, you notice small details that add up. the strange and specific nightmares about work and drowning and mannequins. the roaches you can eat with no ill effects that give you a food boost to boot. the clumsy tendency to trip and fall over pretty much anything, the pickiness over food

you save up enough to get a kerfur, have the bright idea to check their camera while they're in the room with you, and there you see it in the camera; not you, but him. maybe he looks the way you imaged, maybe he looks completely different, but suddenly you're very aware that dr. kel exists

then you start to get a glimpse of how other people perceive him--croissants snuck on the drone for him by a friend who brags about her cooking, sushi snuck to you by another friend who calls him an asshole and says she misses him, both of whom are presumably his colleagues and both of whom seem worried for him. the smiling plushie of him the arirals gift if he gets on their good side, their note calling him cute attached to it along with an ominius offer of help in bad times. kerfur calling him a dumbass if he makes them do the reports twice, but also leaning down to his eye level to happily get pets

he's endearing in an odd sort of way, and people in-universe care about him. you start to care about him, which makes it all the more troubling when he makes pained sounds when he falls from too high, or starts coughing out of the blue. makes you wince when he falls off the radio tower or gets launched from the atv. makes it downright horrifying when he's caught by a wisp and torn apart limb by limb while you as the player can do nothing but watch

you find yourself wanting him to succeed, to be safe, to get out of the situation he's found himself in. or at least, i do. there isn't a ton to go on aside from some environmental storytelling and a breadcrumb trail of personality tidbits, but I personally find that trail to lead to an interesting and compelling character with enough wiggle room for further interpretation. i'm very excited to see what else we learn in future updates

[wh40kartwork]

May The 4th Be With You

by Konstantin Void

[tofupixel]

You have an OC named Snowball right? What's his Info? Just curious. :3

hello, yes i do

he is my main character for my dream game which i haven't made yet (one day ill learn programming so i can do it All on my Own)

heres some info abt him on artfight

in the game you would play as Snowball and you are just an office guy whose job it is to cleanse lost cat spirits (voidlings) in the afterlife / purgatory

its a big place with lots of biomes and here is my first mockup/idea of the flesh biome from last year

i want all the bg to be rendered but all void / interactibles / snowball would be just black and white 2 colour only

here are some older mocks for battle screen and collection

ok :)

inspirations: yume nikki, omori, OFF, earthbound, SMT ofc

i hope when this game releases in 25 years you will enjoy it. i want it to be scary and a lil funny

thanks for asking

[therighthandofvengeance]

[phoenix10km]

THERES SO MANY DYNAMICS.

Grian, a former watcher either trying to thwart their plans or helping them for some reason. Nobody knows he’s a watcher but it’s clear his power is growing the longer he’s in the games. Third through Limited he was on the same playing field as the rest, but when the portal opened in secret life? Something changed. Now he know what the watchers have planned, he’s able to help his Allies with the information.

Scott, the first to know about the watchers. And is clearly against them. Giving the watchers what they want is not an option to him; but can’t seem to consistently stop them from what they want. After his first boogey curse, she felt the dread and the fear that came with the thought of not securing that kill; not fulfilling the watchers hunger for negative emotions. That’s when he started hating whatever put them there a second time. Despite a faceless enemy he decided to purposely fail his second boogey curse defying the watchers; and when he wins because of that decision he finally gets to see his enemy. Throughout the series he tries to defy them, refusing to take Pearl on as his soulmate, trying to make an Honorable match of the final fight in limited. Refusing to die on anyone else’s terms in secret life.

Maryten, the only one that has some awareness of gods, and the only one brought to the brink of insanity in limited life. He knows their out there, all winners do. But they contacted him before he won; heard them before he won. They favor him, either as a play thing or they want to give him an important roll.

Scar is being pitted as a tragedy, or a villain. Never a hero. The watchers clearly like to push him to his limits. He was so.. happy in third life, fierce loyalty in grian, and they trusted each other so deeply. He didn’t know grian would change after he beat scar limp in the cactus ring. It first started with Grian tricking him and stealing one of his lives in last life. Then cheating on him in double life with big b and getting him killed. Then grian out right stabbing him in the back in limited life. The watchers were pushing scar to snap through grian; and finally in Secret life they gave him a chance to let all the hurt out, to be the villian. He took it. and in a twist, a universe where scar was never meant to win (I have my reasons to thing) grian of all people helped via a completely unrelated suicide mission to kill gem and the Scott’s, significantly weakening them. Now I’m wild life we are seeing them work through the issues, through the hurt and betrayal now that scar can see the influence of the watchers.

Jimmy, If Maryten is the watchers favorite play thing; Jimmy is their favorite toy to break. Time, and time, and time again Jimmy fell victim to a curse the watchers put on him. For him to always be the first to fall. He was supposed to always be their canary. A warning the end is near. A sign of the unavoidable disasters ahead. Feeling so hopeless until the watchers got to focused on scars villian arc; and like sand Jimmy barley slipped trough the watchers fingers. It gave him hope as Lizzie had fallen into the void, he realized there was a way out despite his demise not long after hers. Now, he’s carried that hope to wild life, praying that maybe he would not be the first; and while to watchers were upset about their slip of control in secret life, their gods, and oh boy did it boost their egos to have someone pray for their mercy, pray that they would spare his life just a bit longer. And they did, Jimmy is the first they’ve listened to; and maybe even had mercy on.

These are just my headcannons on certain relationships these characters have with the watchers. I know I didn’t mention two of the winners, mainly because I don’t see Pearl having a relationship with the watchers really, if anything maybe she sees them as cruel? I’d have to flesh it out more. As for cleo while I consider real life cannon story wise and count her as a winner, it’s tough to slot real life in. I think it’s a punishment for the players defying what the watchers wanted to happen in Secret life? But again it needs to be fleshed out more.

[madcat-world]

Null: Flesh and Blood (1 of 2) - Saad Irfan

[kacievvbbbb]

Nobora deserved to be mentored by Yuki actually. They are the same breed of person Nobara would fucking hate her (lovingly)😭. But would latch onto her like a fungus. She’s think she was so cool and then yuki would open her mouth asking her what she prefers in a woman and she’d flash back to Todo and his weirdness and be done 😭

They have a similar loud boisterous will kick your face in if you dare say they aren’t cute personality but I do think that Yuki could have really helped Nobora grow out of her almost borderline apathy towards the general public. Because I think they had the opposite problems. Yuki got lost in the big picture spent so much time trying to cure it all she stopped being able to see the individual while Nobara is so lost in the weeds all she can see is the individual and unless she cares about them she only saves them because that is a consequence of her job. Nobara for all she hates them is in some ways just as small minded as the people from her hometown.

God also they have a similar application of their curse technique Yuki kicks around her shikigami and Nobara hammers her nails. They are insane in the same way. There is actually so much she could have learned from Yuki and it breaks my heart that we didn’t really get to see Yuki or Nobara develop as characters or even really be characters in the story. Because their major fights are so bad ass and they are so insane. And god they needed more 😭.

[ranskeysrdm24]

art dump

the rabbit is my new main oc lmaoo

[huginsmemory]

Even with TBOB and thisisnotawebsite.com there's... Still so much we don't know about Bill. Like ok yeah he's given a tragic background, we know a bit more about his henchmaniacs, but we really don't know a lot. Like, what happened directly after he accidentally destroyed his dimension? It isn't said. Sure time baby KNOWS about Bill's destruction of his dimension, but it seems like he didn't show up after Bill's dimension was destroyed to apprehend him because he only knows about Bill after Bill tries to make a deal with him, causing Bill's wanted poster. And how did Bill become basically the overlord of the nightmare realm, and gather all his henchmaniacs? Like there's a good period where we just don't know. And it's implied he's shocked and horrified (likely even dissociates, since he does that) after he destroys his dimension. But his characterization doesn't seem by that point to be one that immediately goes into a self-destructive, violent god-becoming maniacal spiral of self hatred; it's more one to be overwhelmed with grief and spend a good long time in the midst of his grief, then necessarily he's about to DO anything. And generally speaking trope wise, there's steps missing; typically in this sort of scenario, the usual progression is this:

characterized as monster due to being different in some way

tries to prove their not

ends up hurting someone anyways

gets further villainized, and antagonized by others

Acceptance of being a monster, and goes okay? You wanted a monster? I'll be a monster.

Now this fits Bill's early life, up to number 4, but we don't know what happens immediately after. It's possible he just went into his spiral immediately after, but it feels wrong, because it is missing the part of someone further villainizing him beyond himself which causes him to lash out due to the expectation (and internalized) idea that he would cause harm. I'd assume maybe some kind of interdimensional authority showed up and accused him of purposely trying to kill his dimension, which triggered his "okay, then I'll be a monster", or even a situation where his 'monstrosity' through the badge of killing his dimension is garners him respect. Considering that his henchmaniacs are chosen out of monstrosity and violence as a badge of honor, it feels very much like this would make sense, except none of them really know about Bill's dimension. He doesn't brag about the violence of it; he only calls it a liberation, contrary to the idea that Bill ever used it to gain clout. Instead, it's more likely that an interdimensional authority showed up and accused Bill, except from circumstances, it doesn't seem like it was Time Baby, so not sure who it would be... but at the same time, that expectation is often required for the character to truly embrace their 'monstrosity' and become truly violent. Or perhaps it was delayed after the destruction of his dimension, later when he begins to run with his henchmaniacs and disregards the law, but that also doesn't feel satisfactory for character development. Or perhaps I'm just overthinking this trope...

Also, how did he have his powers? Some is clearly stuff he's always had; pyrokinesis from that one rhyme, the ability to see into 3d, and he was somehow able to destroy his dimension by whatever he did to let Euclydians see the stars (telekinesis?), but beyond that? Was he always all-seeing? How did he become a 'dream demon'? Are his deals actually binding or does he lie? Are these things that he acquired later, because Euclydians seem to be written about as if they usually don't have any of these abilities, nor the abilities Bill is known to have when young, nor did Bill seem to be able to be all seeing when he was younger. Plus, how was Bill able to survive the destruction of his dimension, if he's technically made of the same stuff as everyone else, who all seems to have a physical form? Why then does he seems to be characterized as a being made of pure energy and thought; is that just in Earth's dimension, or does he have a physical form within the nightmare realm? There's multiple things that are contradictory about his body (mouth-eye, yet talked about removing his exoskeleton to feed--not sure exactly when this was mentioned--plus his mouth located under his bricks and bowtie in his exoskeleton in journal 3). But he seems so thrilled by his physical form though on earth, and we know that physical forms exist within the Nightmare realm as Ford was in it... yet it seems like hes characterized to have no physical form, so did he perhaps lose his physical form when his dimension died? Did he technically die with them too, but with his powers was able to survive essentially as a ghost like he tells Dipper you become without a body?

[12am-motivation]

episode 13!! THEY'RE ALL STARTING TO COME TOGETHER

if i weren't occupied with other stuff i would've taken the time to go through the past chapters again one by one to collect all the scattered hints ;;;

though slowly but surely, all the clues about the clash and the current situation between houses are finally being connected and some theories and questions are now progressively being answered

i'm gonna try to participate in this ep's discussions as well o7

(more rambles below)

[maryymaruu]

I discovered a book about Jugendstil (I don't know how to translate it from German to English) in the library, and despite already adoring this style of art for ages, only THEN it hit me with an inspiration- sparked by a single thought.

"I want to draw TS like this..."

Hear me out-

This art movement is so full of beauty and romance and joy and mysticism and whimsical and swirly details and grace... what if- what if Jugendstil is what dominated the city on top of Three Signals?

What if the buildings evolved into those beautiful arches and swirls and swoops instead of the typical brutalistic architecture? What if there's stained glass and giant murals and art everywhere? Every single, even smallest, thing is decorated lovingly and intricately?

It's something I can imagine being seen as strange, weird, foreign, sinful and blasphemous even, in the context of the RW world, especially if nearest cities were those of the strict, conservative type- right?

I'm eager to hear your opinions on that!!

[willowingstar]

Can the ODYSSEUS look at you with his neurodivergent eyes

[dmardsanddaisies]

🤞🏻I don't want to be TOO ambitious and say without a doubt I'll finish 3 of these 4 books, however, I know I'll finish 2, ideally, early December. This month I'm going to get weird with some more cosmic, folk and psychological horror. 🖤 What two should I start first?!

[arctic-archie]

oguhhh this game will be the death of me. Nika my girl what is wrong with you

[pickastitch]

please tell us your shinyduo thoughts abt sun moon symbolism :0

okay so it all starts in esmp s1 where pearl has such heavy sun imagery and gem literally builds a moon so that one is pretty obvious

and when we get to hc s8 they literally have matching horses with gem's being named sun and pearl's being named moon

admittedly, hc s9 is more vibes based, but eleven seem so much more sunny to me in contrast to pearl's alien themeing where a large majority of it was trapped underground. most people just associate moon with darkness, so bam gem is sun and pearl is moon

now esmp s2 and this one is tricker than the others. in my head they are both the sun which is why they practically never interact. it's like trying to connect magnets by both of their north poles

sl is an outlier to me where they break this pattern of one being the moon and one being the sun imo. some people believe that pearl is the sun and gem is a sunflower, but i like to think pearl is simultaneously the sun and the moon with gem being akin to icarus. here is a very non structured brainrot post

we finally get to hc s10, and immediately we are hit with 'morning sunshine' from gem. she wants me dead. but also, building off of that pearl went for a very peaceful farmhouse as her starter base with farming normally being associated with daylight/the sun. we have a dredge theme from gem which has a daylight cycle in it, and during the night is really when you start getting the horrors. she already has touches of that (floating fish), so following the logic of that game she has been fishing at night and thus moon

the part that gets me the most is how consistent the themeing is and just how close both of them are. most smps have pretty good evidence for gem and pearl being connected to the sun and moon with a few outliers (looking at you nlsmp)

now time for the actual theorizing, like i mentioned in the esmp s2 bit, it's almost like the sun and moon are opposite poles of a magnet. i don't believe they are soulmates, they can live without the other, but when they are in proximity, you bet that they will be inseparable

so they both have been represented by the sun and moon, and i propose that pearl is the embodiment of light, while gem is the embodiment of void. why do i think that? well, pearl's is the easiest to explain with her saint pearla stuff and how her named both have aspects of light in it. pearlescent describes the surface of an object, and both being able to see if something is pearlescent and to see the moon requires light to bounce back into your eyes

now gem as the void, hear me out. her constant connection to the end/endermen/ender dragon. also the connections of gem and traveling across worlds where the thing in-between them is void (see s9 botem ending). with the most solid piece of evidence being hc s10 where her themeing is ocean/water horrors. and the most common reason people fear the ocean is how vast and unknowing it is. like a void

this is great and all, but how does it link back up with sun and moon? they are opposites of each other and their sun and moon themeing is just one way that is expressed alongside light and void. because of how different they are, it makes them more attached to each other. something something opposites attract

[sironion]

Not Intro >:)

you shall no nothing of me as I do you, I am but a shadow in the creek to all of those who dare to take a dip. I will not harm nor will I scream, but only if you are kind to me :)

I will share nothing of myself, not a name nor pronoun. All you need to know has already been said. My powers of old come with a price, but no scam.

All you shall know is a plate of a lie, a name that means nothing that i made on the fly. If you must, call me Abyao for i will answer without fail.

though you might need to know, where I inhabit in this hellscape on home. A list I shall write so thee might delight in avoidance.

!also, if you send me donation asks I will not answer them!

@vitreous-officialy

@enceladus-totally

@trinculo-officaly

@ogle-official

@pocket-official

@1rxs-the-pulsar

@hippocampi-really

@40-eridani-stars

@herbig-haro-211

@squad-of-undead-celestials

@the-tech-priesthaj

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