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it's the basaan festival for me later so i wanted to doodle about it :)

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friendship

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Translation: Get out of here before I shove this up your ass.

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HOLY FUCK

Damn I'm so happy with this art I want to print it out and hang it on my wall as a poster omg!!

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returning from the void to think about ways i can psychologically torture deimos

featuring

him trying to explain who he is to someone fresh after dissenting without actually knowing because he was trained by agencies and other clones to believe he was a certain way

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krinkels on nexus making atp units first, and then laughs about auditor saying 'piss color'. serious lore only.

transcript

"'I got a quick question, did the A.A.H.W. create A.T.P. units or was it the NEXUS Core?' See I haven't really, like, felt out that lore yet, um... like- like, um… I think, in my heart of hearts, as the patterns in my mind have tried to remind me desperately, I think NEXUS had A.T.P. and Soldats first and then the A.A.H.W. was just like 'Yo, I'll take those but like, y'know, clean 'em off a little bit cause like, I'm gonna be putting my own S-3LF energy into it.'" […] [Laughing] "Yeah, he saw those- he saw those fucking, uh, uh- uhh, Engineer, and he was like [As Auditor] "Eh, I like it, but can ya make it yella?" or maybe it had to be yellow, I don't know... "Now make them piss color."" [Laughs] "Auditor just walks into the towers like his arms on his fucking hips like, "Ah, nice units ya got here, ya make 'em in piss flavor?" And then they capitulate because Auditor can, y'know, conjure money and power, so."

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[SUGGESTIVE JOKE WARNING HELP]

i shouldnt have a platform for this exact reason

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LET'S KILL THE CLOWN

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Tangananika? or tanganana?

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messing around w a new art style !!!

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who the hell be drawing madcom in the big 25 ... Me Me me!!! 🙋

↓↓↓ song the lyrics in the bg are from!!!!

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OML I just wanted to bully Doc like I ususally do to make his pathfinding go wonky and WHAT HAVE I DONE.

CAN YOU FEEL MY INITIAL SHOCK? CAN YOU?

IDK why i thought he'll be alright, this foreshadowing with the security guy went over my head completely.

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jeb and phobos relationship interpretation/analysis

sorry if its a bit aimless its rewritten from several discord messages from the past few years

all of this provides screenshots of canon evidence to back it up

overall warning for abusive situations and heavy themes

first i want to get into the way nexus scientists as a whole were treated:

theres a few things that stand out to me here, on what scientists are expected not to do:

"-any interaction with outsiders", implying nexus scientists are either heavily monitored when they interact with people outside the nexus or theyre just not allowed to at all

-they cant have "unusual feelings of rage, hostility, depression". pretty self explanatory

the tower guards also have no problem using physical force against you in the cutscenes

if employees are fired or quit, they are killed:

phobos only refers to jeb with his first name in the professional setting rather than christoff, adding to the lack of respect phobos has for him

(as much as this often goes both ways with jeb using "phobos" when hes mad, i bring this up as a point in the piling evidence suggesting the dynamic between them is built on control, disrespect, and dehumanization. if you ask me the contexts of phobos using "jebediah" vs jeb using "phobos" are completely different in their own way, but i wanted to say that anyways to clear it up)

just from the science tower cutscene alone we see how much degrading language phobos uses towards jeb too

^= if you want to get into theory territory, theres also the flavor text for postfall jebs labcoat:

"ablating damage from harsh language" huh

another two lines that are super important to me:

1. phobos says that jeb does as he says until the day phobos releases him to the other place, essentially saying jeb is under phoboses control for life, until phobos decides to kill jeb himself.

2. phobos says he picked jeb up from the wastes of nevada and set him on his path. this line will be brought up a lot later for different reasons

this establishes the amount of control phobos really has over jeb and the other scientists, the way he treated/punished them, and what working at the nexus means; its a lifelong commitment thats meant to be your purpose, and for a lot of people it wasnt even a choice. its implied that ultimately this was the case for jeb, given that employees are killed upon termination of employment. jeb may have been passionate about his work, but he still wasnt allowed to leave. he deserved the choice, regardless if he would have taken it or not.

with this in mind i imagine that jeb himself was labeled as "defiant" given how much of a control freak he is, how he speaks up about his grievances with phoboses decisions and any idea he doesnt agree with;

thus making him much more isolated from the general society than the rest of the scientists. in my mind this is why we dont see him in nevada central during arena mode like we do crackpot and hofnarr. jeb has more restrictions placed on him since hes perceived as more likely to reveal company secrets, rally people against the nexus, etc.

so this amount of control, pressure, isolation was particularly harsher for him. which gets into my next point:

phobos played a hand in shaping "the savior"

i think phobos in some way planted the seeds for the future motives of every head scientist we see. he plays a very strong narrative force in mpn even after his death, which is what i like about him.

in jebs case its the expectation of being nexus city/nevadas savior. his intentions from the very beginning were to save the world:

jeb and the other scientists were put on a pedestal in the form of propaganda to the city

he genuinely feels above people and that its his purpose to save them because thats what he was told his entire life.

and jeb was given significant pressure to be perfect and not to make any mistakes

"do whatever it takes, jebediah"

i like to think that outlook stuck with him

jeb had this idea that his purpose is to save the world instilled into him for years. not only that, but he found out that it was all for nothing. being the person he is, of course he would want to take matters into his own hands. be the savior he was always meant to be. trying to claim hes broken free of the past, when subconsciously hes shaping his identity around it. whether he likes it or not, his time at the nexus clearly carried into his present worldview. he still holds onto the belief that his purpose is to save nevada.

and with all the pressure he had, he has this aversion to accepting criticism or accepting that he failed. you can hear this directly in his death voicelines. if he fails, he has no purpose anymore. to this day jeb is averse to criticism and deflects it. when doc tells him project nexus is still alive, he refuses to believe his efforts were for nothing and he snaps at them.

jeb also takes after phobos in his mannerisms and speech patterns. even uses of specific phrases like calling the main three "gentlemen" and using the same animations.

hell, jeb even has the binary sword, which he took from phobos, as his main weapon. he literally uses something belonging to phobos to enact his self-proclaimed purpose. that in itself symbolizes how deeply intertwined jebs newfound purpose is with what phobos expected of him. you just cant separate the two. jeb now embodies someone he swore to destroy.

and with the way jeb uses hofnarr and sheriff to further his goals, whether theyre good-intentioned or not, it can be seen as a trauma cycle. once jeb spirals into this savior mindset, other people are just gears in his plan to save nevada. jeb very often reflects the actions and mannerisms of phobos, and with the context that jeb was under phoboses control for most of his upbringing, it becomes clear that phobos was the one who imprinted on him. it obviously doesnt mean jeb isnt responsible for his own actions, he most certainly is. but its fun to shed light on where this all could have stemmed from.

overall to me jebs a pretty interesting example of how unhealed trauma and abuse can shape you into a bitter, terrible person if left to fester (definitely not always the case, of course v_v;;). jeb doesnt want to heal and refuses to look inward and see his flaws because of his bad experiences with making mistakes, so he only gets worse as the series progresses. its cool to explore what that does to someone and theres a lot of potential on the dynamic between jeb and phobos that i really love. i hope you like my post too, its been years in the making ^_^

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headcanon alert ring ring ring.

hank not understanding what it means to be human not only applies to friendships and meaningful connection, but also basic self care.

in the environment of nevada care like that is a luxury unless you have direct access to showers or even just a spare bottle of water and some soap.

thinking about how hank's hair would probably have already been grown out because they don't care, but after nevada went ass up those locks kept growing and tangling into itself with constantly being put up during missions, caking up with months of dirt, sweat, blood and other various debris.. how overtime, the irritation of not washing in combination of undx/overlooked autism makes anything hair related sensory hell. they can only bear tying it up in their bandana and bandages and not bother for days on end.

imagining 2b eventually having enough of it and to make hank at least a little more comfortable decides to cut it off. how hank would be white knuckled gripping the table or chair they're sitting on, barely just breathing through the sounds of scissors slicing through mats. they hate it. 2b can't make it pretty but he can at least get it to a vaguely healthier and more manageable state, leaving clumps of uneven edges as far away from hank's scalp as possible so they aren't more stressed than they already are.

extra treat being deimos and sanford walking on them, so aghast to realize hank even had hair to behind with, and seeing them just sitting there like

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to add onto this, fractale. the image i constantly think about....

compilation

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literally. even after they have known each other for so long, whenever hank is attached there will still be moments where they may handle the "smaller" issues themself. 2b would be taking inventory and find missing gauze or needles and thread and later find it stashed away in hank's hoard pile. he has to wait until the next check up to confront if it was something they kept on a down low and it makes their after mission checkups more thorough than everyone else's. with bigger injuries 2b always gets to it first before they can scamper off into the void but they do stick around and allow treatment

it's literally almost like a dog tolerating the vet

that's the most friendly trust they know how to put into someone from months and years of knowing 2b and having that routine in place and nobody else can meet that level but those two

another mindless ramble during work but brain is also stuck on this rp my partner and i did of 2bhank first working together. basic summary plus my additional thoughts, warning because like medical stuff and i guess incidental sh?? idk i'll edit later when fractale can give me braincells:

2b pressing hank to trust him with medical attention, but hank sees him more useful for brains in understanding the operations of the agency and utilizing his dissenter ass to take it down, but beyond that they're so set in how they handle themself being stuff only they can do. they've given themself first aid, they revived themself before without the help of 2b, and that brings so many of hank's issues to light...

such as them literally undoing work 2b has done like intentionally tearing sutures and redoing it themself because their supplies and skills have worked fine. it's an act of defiance and display of they can hold their own. they don't need 2b beyond how they initially believed and found each other.

it's such a rocky start to their relationship until the first time 2b revives hank and they start to come around. i could go on forever aaaaa talk to me about hank being stubborn and the messes it gets them in