#her being a grumpus is obvious

[isleofbigsnax]

ok these are really barebones but I am being normal about Clumby again this evening. Do expect it to happen again.

[tales-of-snaktooth]

So, who are y'all exactly?

The main gals (and Ehsel)! A bit more information about them and a few other grumpuses that'll show up can be found on the blog's Characters page!

[i-am-thedragon]

Since the Cellystix snakification edits are taking a while, I figured I'd show off the Snakpod ones. I displayed them on Eggabell because she stays still, but unfortunately the lighting in her area isn't great lol.

The very first one I did was the Melty Snakpod, and that I think has the biggest visual change out of all of them, emphasising the chocolate more than the rainbow candy shells.

For the Grumpy Snakpod I tried to make it look more like the grumpus becomes made of a gummy substance, rather than being made of gummy grumpuses, though that's a little hard to get across without translucency. The grumpus skull headpiece was a must in any case, though.

It's not super obvious at a glance, but I chanced the Twisty Snakpod teeth to be little salt crystals. It's probably clearer on a grumpus with an overbite or underbite.

The Meaty Snakpod snakifications were originally gonna have antlers and a horned rhino beetle nose, but I felt they didn't fit much so the nose idea went to the cappucceetle and the antlers will be for the Cellystix horns.

[maxwell-grant]

If you were making up a gang of super-villains from classic Horror Movie characters (Count Dracula is an obvious 'In' being pretty much a super villain even in his original novel!), may I please ask which characters you would include and what role they would play in the gang?

First thing to establish is that Dracula is not leading the team. And obviously Dracula’s not gonna be a team player in a supporting role, so what we’re gonna do is this: Dracula is the threat that the team was assembled to fight.

Pretty much anytime you see the classic monsters gathered in any fashion, Dracula’s always the leader, and if we wanted to do that, we already have Monster Mash and Castlevania and so forth. I think assembling a Legion of Doom out of the Classic Monsters makes you particularly subject to law of diminishing returns that affect both supervillains and monsters, in that having a bunch of characters who demand to operate solo in narrative wind up greatly diminished when they're all doing the same thing together. So instead of Legion of Doom, I'm making these something more low-key like Secret Six, Thunderbolts and Suicide Squad and etc.

Here, it's all a bunch of classic monsters, but they all have a grudge with him, because everyone’s got beef with Dracula, and Dracula wants them destroyed so he may rule monsters and humans alike unopposed. Dracula is The Flash, and they are the Rogues. They bond together because it's the only way to win. Dracula is several orders of magnitude more evil than them, has countless weird magical abilities to counteract them, and he’s skilled enough in manipulation that he could conceivably trick them into doing his bidding, but he’s got no need for them past whatever unique abilities they have for momentary use, when he’s already got so much else at his disposal, including the ability to call in the universal ending to most monster stories: Call in the cops to shoot them dead.

In itself, this already gives the team a motivation to stay together regardless of what else is in the setting to give them trouble: They need to survive and beat Dracula, and they can’t call on anyone else for help. In fact, if the urge to have Dracula lead the Monster Squad again gets too strong, we could even establish that Dracula is able to create his own monsters, imperfect copies of their archetypes to serve as his enforcers, and thus, our group could have to fight off Frankensteins and mummies and werewolves and clones of themselves on their way to take him down.

Formation for this hypothetical group goes as follows:

The Leader - The Bride of Frankenstein:

Couple of reasons for why she’s leader besides favoritism being, she’s a Frankenstein and thus has to play a major role, but she doesn’t need to be a shambling brute, and if we’re gonna do a ragtag group of people fighting Count Dracula, in any form, it would be quite wrong to not have them led by a headstrong, brilliant woman. Also Elsa Lanchester plays Mary Shelley in the same movie, and Mary Shelley rules so she's qualified to rule this team-up by default.

We could establish her as having had significantly more time to mature and develop into something resembling the book Creature’s intelligence and sense of self, having picked up alchemical expertise from Pretorius’ notes to combine with her survival skills, and as a Frankenstein she could have the kind of superhuman strength and endurance that follows, allowing her to be sort of a jack-of-trades suitable for the leader position.  Imposing, stoic, capable, and being a Frankenstein, crushingly lonely in more ways than one and in dire need of guidance.

The Mentor & Magician - Imhotep (The Mummy):

Because there’s no way we can pass on having Boris Karloff on this team. If The Bride is the Mina of our anti-Dracula crew, then Imhotep is our Van Helsing. Functionally similar to Dracula in many ways, but playing on a different side (definitely not on humanity’s side though). He's a prideful, manipulative grumpus from a bygone era with his glory days long behind him, with access to a wide array of magical powers, but not quite as rotten or powerful as his ancient enemy Dracula.

Imhotep has lived a long, long, long life and an exceedingly longer afterlife, constantly raised from death to be bothered by mortals again and again, which has granted him a considerable know-how of navigating strange worlds of magic and terror and history, but remaining out of touch with modern times. The team's magic user, with his main weakness being that he’s fragile and old and rotting and dying. Imhotep’s not quite able to transverse the mortal realm as easily as his rival, and he’s held back by the countless forms of decay that have set within him, which is part of why he’s agreeable enough to work with The Bride and for the two to put this team together.

The Resources & Social Interface - Janet Smith Jekyll (Daughter of Dr Jekyll):

We can't have a classic Universal Gathering without at minimum a Talbot werewolf in the mix and Jekyll & Hyde is as Classic as classic monsters get, so we're going here with Gloria Talbott's character in Daughter of Dr Jekyll, a mysterious orphan who inherits a huge mansion and fortune that used to belong to the infamous Dr Jekyll, and who discovers that she may indeed share his two-faced affliction and proclivity for going out at night on uncontrollable murderous rampages (and yes I am very much ignoring the movie's climax to make this character, shut up)

The movie sort of treats Mr Hyde as a werewolf transformation with quite a lot of vampire in the mix, which suits our purposes just fine because now we get to have a vampire on top of a werewolf in the team. She's got a cool homebase for our team to operate from in Dr Jekyll's mansion, she's super rich which never hurts to have in a team setting, she's the only one that can fully pass for human and also the one who accumulates the biggest body count the longer she stays active, so there's always some tension with her.

She is the monster most suited for operating within modern society, high and low class alike, which makes her an invaluable operative in the battle against Dracula and his game of predatory psychological class warfare, and the one most suited for keeping the team out of trouble. However, it's up to question how much can the team trust her. Even she doesn't quite know how much she can trust herself. Her teammates may not have blood, but a girl's gotta eat and all.

The Reality-Warping Assassin - Cesare:

Cesare is, strange. He’s a sweet young man, but around him hangs the faint echo of dead, ancient eons. He’s unmatched at subterfuge, able to slip through the shadows not just unseen, but unheard in a way that shouldn’t be possible, as he makes absolutely no sound whatsoever, not even when he does things that should make noise, like trip or cry or stab people. On the rare occasions he vocalizes, it's like the words emerge in your head fully formed. Everything he interacts with turns colorless and frayed the way he is.

He’s able to tell the fortunes of most he meets, but only for their deaths, and if he's bothered by his own prophecy of Dracula ending the worlds of monster and man alike, he doesn't show it. The world around him seems to occasionally warp into strange angles and crooked architecture and thick, tangible shadows, and it’s difficult to tell if any of it is even his doing in the first place. He also has an unusually intense grudge of clowns and hamburguers

He seems to sleep most of the time off-duty, and he’s docile as a lamb even while commanded to kill, though he may resist more immoral commands. Though his eyes hang open, he only wakes up very rarely, and when he does, the monsters see the world around him blink out of existence to be replaced with a greyed out mental hospital, where they all look like doctors or regular people in straightjackets, and it only lasts for a few brief, maddening seconds before he falls asleep again.

This can be an advantage to the team as a potential safeguard from threats and space to regroup, provided they don’t lose their selves and can get Cesare to stop playing with the flowers and go back to sleep, and you can imagine it only gets harder every time, convincing him to abandon a peaceful existence to once again be a murderous slave for eternity, and maybe convincing themselves to not join him there.

Better he’s on our side than Dracula’s, The Bride and Imhotep figure. 

The Warrior-Healer & Aquatic Specialist: The Gill Man

I already said much of my piece on The Gill Man in terms of their role and personality here and obviously, they gotta be in the team. In terms of their powers & skillset, Gill Man is actually much better suited for this kind of stuff than most of the other Universal monsters. They are strong enough to move boats on their own, stealthy enough to consistently evade his human pursuers (and human civilization for countless years) and tough enough to survive and come back for two sequels. 

Another idea to me comes from using The Shape of Water and it’s take on Gill Man, who was believed to be an Amazonian river god, and throughout the movie displays magical healing powers and traits that call into question just what it is exactly. Dracula would certainly find no use for The Gill Man as anything other than muscle for his army of the undead, but for a team that does have at least a handful of living members and may even depend on human assistance, a medic is a invaluable thing to have, as is someone still living and in touch with nature.

The Scientist & Swarm Controller: Doctor Delambre (The Fly)

Picked here to represent the original version of The Fly but can also adapt traits from Seth Brundle and other takes on this idea. We need a resident mad scientist (who's really not a mad scientist, but when you look the part, y'know), a sci-fi guy to represent that other vein of classic horror, somebody who can contrast the resident magicians and alchemists, and also no self-respecting team is complete without a bug guy, so here we have Dr Delambre, who joins the team as an assistant to The Bride and has found a way to hold off the mental decay process and made substantial progress on his matter-transporter devices as well as find ways to live with his newfound biological quirks. He's even found a way to utilize insects with humanoid limbs and intelligence in daily chores and missions, although he resents the idea that he's "controlling" them, mind you.

But with his wife under trial for his botched suicide ruled a murder, and his inability to show up in society and testify in her favor, and all of his former military contacts having cut off all ties with him, he's desperately trying to find a way to reverse the process of his transformation for good to save her and is willing to do whatever it takes. Doctor Delambre even winds up being sort of the team's wild card, because his technology is very potent and just as capable of breaking reality under the wrong hands as Cesare's weirdness, but he is not a "monster" by birth or choice and is merely a guy in a rush to try and revert his condition, and if Dracula comes along with a better promise to save his wife and life, perhaps...

And last but certainly not least,

The Transportation & Muscle - The Rhedosaurus (The Beast from 20.000 Fathoms)

We might have to shrink them down a bit but we absolutely can’t NOT have a giant monster dinosaur on the team, but neither Godzilla nor Kong would have much business palling around with these monsters. The Rhedosaurus, on the other hand, is a perfect fit, seeing as he’s Godzilla’s inspiration and the movie he’s in is credited as being the revival of the giant monster genre as well as the first to introduce the atomic bomb to the mix. The Rhedosaurus here would be sort of composited from the movie version as well as the original story by Ray Bradbury and obviously composited from Godzilla variants and the Toho kaijus who owe their existence to it, a vicious and violent creature defending itself and one that's deeply lonely and desperate and strangely noble as the last of it’s kind, one that has nothing else to help protect it but these strange not-humans it’s formed an unlikely bond with. It has a particularly strong bond with The Gill Man, the only one who’s able to communicate with and steer it properly.

The Rhedosaurus is a global danger on a bigger and more direct scale than the other monsters, not just as a giant powerful dinosaur, but also a creature whose death could unleash a plague powerful enough to wipe out mankind, something the characters wouldn’t discover until late into the story (something Dracula, and maybe even Imhotep, would certainly want to exploit for personal gain). Maybe this radiation seeps over and forces the team to move their location around to stay undetected, maybe it's instrumental to powering whatever plans Dr Delambre and The Bride are cooking up in their lab, maybe it's affecting the environment or reality itself in strange unforeseen ways the way certain Godzilla works like KOTM and Singular Point have done.

It can be the key to saving the world or destroying it in equal measure, and so the fate of the Rhedosaurus is the fate of the future, and it falls up to the team to protect it as much as it will protect them.

So yeah, maybe I took this from a super-villain team and made it something a lot more League of Extraordinary Gentlemen in setup, but this team I imagine is grouped together less by a desire to save the world or serve a higher cause, than a simple matter of survival against a mutual enemy and the world that''s turned against them. They want drastically different things and employ drastically different methods and they each constitute powerful threats, and together, they are as likely to destroy themselves first if not the world with them. But survival is a matter they all have a stake on. Alone, they don’t stand a chance. Together, they may just have a chance and live, if only to finally rest in peace.

[tinyangrynerd]

I'm wondering, do snorpy and floofty keep their intelligence? since cromdo keeps his stealing tendencies and triffany keeps her love of fossils. And this is assuming they become complete animals.(I'm sorry if this had already been answered or is obvious, I just saw this au and thought it was amazing.) regardless I love this au and your art <3

hmm, not really but they aren't completely mindless.

Snakmonsters keep some level of cognitive thinking and comprehension due to still having access to a grumpus brain. It allows them to do things such as basic problem solving or the ability to recognize others or objects. But that's about the extent of their limitations. They are still little more than feral animals. And the Fizzlebean siblings are no exception to that. Their knowledge in science and engineering doesn't provide them any benefit in their goals as snakmonsters, and is mostly tossed aside under the influence of the bugsnax. So despite their smarts, they don't really have any more complex thoughts than the others. Buuut, they do still have traits/habits of themselves that carry over.

Snorpy is one of the few, if only, to retain some knowledge on how to manipulate tools and things. He rarely finds use for this, but it's there if he does. He's also trickier to trap than the others, as he's the only one who can actually recognize traps when they're just out in the open. Being so familiar with them after building them himself, that familiarity is one of the things that carries over. Not that he'd be able to properly use then in any capacity. But he'd certainly know to avoid any set traps he sees.

Floofty is.. Well, Floofty is mostly just a recluse in this form. More so than any of the others (aside maybe Wambus). They stay holed up in the cave systems of the Frosted Peak, where they rarely venture out from. They may do parameter checks around the mountain from time to time, especially if they suspect another grumpus nearby, which they ARE very slow and methodical in their searches. Almost studying every detail of their environment, to the point where they can remember and tell changes to it. But otherwise they are not the most actively aggressive monster (towards other snax and snakmonsters, at least)... Unless you enter their caves. Then they become incredibly hostile.

//Also, thank you so much!!!!!~ ;3; 💙

[shwoo]

Grumpus Headcanons (1/3)

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3

I finished my big list of headcanons about the Bugsnax characters and their pre-game relationships, and it turned out super long! So instead of using a readmore like normal people, I'm going to post it in three parts over three days.

These aren't, like, analytical headcanons; they're mostly just me making stuff up that I think is plausible. I meant to do this a year ago, and even already expanded a little in a fanfic on the headcanon about Chandlo being a small kid (here). But I got it done eventually! The idea is one headcanon for one character or relationship.

Character Headcanons (Eggabell Batternugget - Gramble Gigglefunny)

Eggabell Batternugget I think she actively studied Bugsnax with Floofty, as well as volunteering as a test subject, but I also think that has some backing in the game, so it's not the headcanon I'm talking about here. The headcanon is what she was studying: the nutritional value of Bugsnax. This is how she's able to be so confident that they're a perfectly balanced source of nutrition in her DLC interview. She also tried to figure out what exactly made them feel so good to eat. Being an endocrinologist, she guessed that it was some hormone, and made some progress in figuring out whether that was true, but then the earthquake happened.

Clumby Clumbernut She wasn't interested in joining the Snackolytes, and said no once Jamfoot was done talking about recruitment bonuses, though she knew he was telling her, not asking. But she was the last survivor of her expedition, and Jamfoot told her that she probably wouldn't last long all alone. Based on what she'd seen so far, Clumby agreed, so she joined up with the intention of going back on it once they were back on the mainland. But the Snakolytes were a lot bigger and more influential than she'd thought. They're also the reason she's continuing to do a job she hates.

Cromdo Face Hiding his singing is a habit left over from childhood, when he'd get in trouble if he did something fun when there was still work to be done. He also didn't have a lot of privacy, making it hard to find a time and place to sing that didn't annoy anyone. When he got married later, his singing also annoyed his husband. The idea that crime was the best shortcut to living comfortably was his own, though.

Filbo Fiddlepie I've made up my mind. He grew up with Lizbert; he's Grumpus American-Australian. His family moved to… I'm going to say Grumpus Sydney when his dad was a preteen, and his dad returned to New Grump City after finishing year twelve, then moved back to a smaller town when Filbo was a toddler. Filbo speaks American English to please his family, particularly his dad. Also he definitely did not get his pen licence in primary school. I've seen his handwriting in-game. I came up with a lot of extra stuff about Filbo's dad, for a story that's still in editing, but I'd sum up his attitude as "I love my cringe fail son".

Floofty Fizzlebean They've always been interested in biology and experimentation, but their parents impressed the importance of consent on them early. As a result, they've been experimenting on themself since before they were in their teens. They accidentally poisoned themself when they were sixteen. Snorpy found them, and they spent a week in the hospital. Also, their hair used to be a more vivid purple, for reasons unrelated to ageing.

Snorpy Fizzlebean First, psychotic Snorpy. That's an obvious one. But not all the stuff he believes is a delusion. I don't know enough about psychosis to go into detail, but he is aware of it, and so is Chandlo, and they have strategies. Less so for the conspiracy stuff, since Snorpy is unwilling to talk to Chandlo about that. And being on Snaktooth definitely made things worse. But, he really is being monitored by the "Grumpinati" (actually the Snakolytes), even if he's wrong about some of the details. They were involved in the artificial limbs project, as well as some other things that Snorpy noticed but blamed on the Grumpinati. They could disappear him, but he's off the mark about so much, and they think nobody would believe him anyway, so they don't bother.

Chandlo Funkbun If he didn't work out all the time, he'd be skinny as well as short. His body doesn't build muscle mass easily. He got beaten up a lot as a kid, because his school had a bullying problem, and he kept trying to intervene, while also being tiny. He started strength training as soon as he could, and got stronger pretty fast, but he stayed skinny until after puberty.

Gramble Gigglefunny He grew up in a very rural area, and concluded that if he wanted to find a family, he needed to be around more people. So he moved to New Grump City, and waited for a family to come to him. Instead, he learned the ways you can also be lonely in a big city. His preference for animals over people didn't help. Lizbert's expedition was his third attempt at finding a new family, as he thought he might get along better with the kind of people who'd go on this kind of expedition than with the people in his home town.

[sybil-scribble]

Bugsnax HC time everyone!

So Ya'll got my art yesterday, now you get very self indulgent Hcs about each character, with a very specific theme. Affection and Comfort, specifically how each of the Grumps do it and how good they are with it. This was based on a post I saw of someone going over how they'd cuddle every Grumpus and I though it was so fucking cute I wanted to share my own thoughts! - Going in order of when you meet them

Filbo

Very much open to affection, You can hug him at random and he barely is surprised, just smiling and calling you out very gently with just "Hi Buddy! Good to see ya!" He's very okay with it.

Very much gives affection to anyone if you tell him. He always asks before he hugs someone or touches them, doesn't wanna make anyone feel uncomfortable.

Pretty good all around, will give you a big hug if he sees your feeling bad, get you things, talk to you, he does his best.

If he's feeling bad, he is gonna hide the hell out of it. Even if its obvious he's not feeling good he will do everything to try and seem his normal self...but one hug at that point and he's not letting go.

My lovely boy, I would just give him such a big hug, cover him in a blanket and just, squish him, he deserves cuddles and hugs all the time!

Wambus

Doesn't care much for affection like that, if you hug him, he'll let ya the first time before telling you downright he doesn't do hugs.

Although he's a man of action instead of words, he also doesn't really give any affection out to anyone, save for Triffany. He may give a lighthearted punch to the shoulder, but that's about it.

There is the exception if he knows someone is hurting like that. Wambus is horrible with comforting words, so best he can offer is a kind of side hug/arm over your shoulder and letting you go through your feelings. If its a really bad time, he will pull you in more, he's not one for comforting, but if you need it, he'll do his best.

Wambus gets pretty snappy when he's not feeling good, it's not by choice, it's how he was raised, anger kinda springs up on him. He's quick to apologize when he realizes it, sometimes.

Sir, you're the ultimate Dad friend.

Beffica

Beff isn't against hugs, but she doesn't like to give them herself, She'd call you Squeeb if you do, but she'll never tell you not to hug her.

Doesn't give out affection, just accepts it

If you're hurt or sad, she'll make an exception to hug you. She's not as good with people as she thinks, and at best will try and just tell you why you shouldn't be sad at the moment, what good is happening and all that.

If Beff isn't in a good mood, she doesn't leave her home, and will lock the door.

Triffany

She accepts hugs, knows people like hugs and doesn't mind it so long as you tell her first.

Only gives affection to her husband normally, unless atention is needed. Is a big hugger normally.

If someone is hurt she is pushed into Mom friend mode. She'll give you a hug and try to help the situation, however best she can. That is if she notices...if she's doing her studying or preoccupied in general she may overlook you for a bit until something happens to get her attention. She'd tell you stories of her work to give you something to focus on and calm down with.

If Triffany isn't feeling good she'll just spend her day closer to Wambus, other than that she's just a tad lower energy.

Cromdo

I don't have much on Cromdo, he'd likely joke about having to charge you if you hug him too much.

Doesn't really give hugs, will at the very least give you some encouraging words if he can.

Is actually kinda good at comforting people, mostly giving you someone to vent to and clear your head.

Cromdo usually stays quiet when he's not feeling his 100%.

Wiggle

Is perfectly fine with hugs, either giving them or receiving them. Somedays she may just say she isn't feeling like being touched and that will be it until she says she's okay again.

If your hurt, she'll sit by you and try to see what's wrong, if she can, she'll sing for you to try and help out.

If Wiggle isn't feeling good, you'll tell, she isn't singing for one, and if she is, she's not happy with what she's singing about.

Gramble

He won't tell you know, but he doesn't know how to accept it really.

Doesn't hug normally, doesn't want to touch people unless necessary.

he knows how it feels to feel that bad and doesn't want people to feel bad too. Depending on how close you are he'll likely end up coming close to give you a hug, if that doesn't work, he'll put his hat on you to get your attention.

If he's feeling bad, he'd like to be alone so he can get over his sadness, maybe stay with his little ones to calm down. I you try to comfort him, he genuinely may start crying.

If he's sleepwalking, don't hug him, he will latch on and then suddenly you have to sleep in the Barn with him.

My lovely, I wanna give him so much love and hugs, like Filbo but he's small, I can carry him.

Snorpy

Tell him first, he will scream and likely slap you without thinking otherwise, his nerves get him too paranoid for surprises.

Will give a hug if you ask him, but it's quick.

Very bad at comforting people, he couldn't tell he was in a relationship for years you think he can pick up and deal with emotions?

If he feels bad, he goes to Chandlo, that's all

Chandlo

He accepts hugs! But be careful he gives very tight hugs, could hurt if he wasn't so good with his strength.

If your feeling bad, he'll hug ya and hang out to talk, maybe see if you wanna go work out with him, get you moving and focused to see if that helps.

If Chandlo is down, he stays with Snorpy.

Floofty

will bite, like actually, he'll hurt you, don't hug him. If you're close, he may allow things like you pass out on him, but nothing further.

does not comfort you, he's trying to learn about Grumpus interactions, but he's not qualified for comforting yet.

hard to tell when he's down or not, let him be and things are fine.

Shelda

Will ask you not to, but won't mind if you must

She's actually happy to give hugs, but keeps her professionalism as "Shelda" so she won't.

Comforting from her comes in words, helping you talk your problems out and figure out how to help.

If she feels bad, depending she may drop the Shelda act and just sleep out the day.

Eggabell

Accepts hugs and will give them if wanted, she's friendly like that before and after Liz's disappearance...mostly

if your down, she tries to help, for one she makes sure your not sick or injured, then will sit with you and hang out.

If she's feeling bad she'll read and ask to eb alone, but will accept a hug.

Lizbert

hugs you first, big hugger, very physical and happy.

if you manage to surprise her with a hug she picks you up and laughs.

tries her best when people are down, gives a really good motivational speech and then will chill out with everyone.

if she's down, she needs Eggabell, that's the best you can do to help.

IN conclusion......

I wrote all of this for Filbo, Wambus, and Gramble specifically, and didn't wanna leave out the others. In reality i wanted to focus on the fact that I wanna hug and cuddle Filbo and Gramble and just, Wambus is very good pick two and...

this is cringe but I am cringe and I am free I will simp for the muppets thank you very much.

[mihpareswrites]

Hi! Could I request Beffica with a trans S/O (she/they pronouns) who confesses to her? I haven’t beaten Bugsnax yet so no spoilers please-

Warning, like one swear word

This was kinda short, but I hope you like it!

---

To anyone else it was frustratingly obvious. Beffica was not that hard to read, and though you were off catching snax most of the time it was obvious you spent the majority of your free time hanging out with her. Nobody would complain though, being around you meant she stopped breaking into people's houses to snoop. She rarely even bothered Filbo anymore.

Except for the past few days...

"Listen, you're over-thinking this Beff, she's gonna love this." The pink grumpus in question was pacing around her hut, occationally stopping and staring at the photos on her bed. Filbo had no clue why she came to him for help, but now he was stuck.

"No, you don't get it, it has to be perfect! Maybe if I put this one first, this one of her at the party, and then- no that's stupid. Ugh come on squeeb, help me out!"

Beffica was putting together a photo album. It was kind of adorable to see her so passionately working to make it look perfect, make the pictures have a nice flow and story. On the back cover was a note asking you out.

" Well uh, if you want my input.. I'd go with chronological order. Ya know, from when you first met them." Beffica thought a moment and sighed.

"I should have thought of that..."

Both grumpuses looked up when a soft knock came from the side of the hut.

"Hey Beffica, do you have a second?" You asked, walking in. You had a large bouquet in your arms, and were smiling warmly.

"Hehe, guess I wasn't the only one getting some help. Wambus and Tiffany practically shoved this into my hands. Told me to go and ask you out already." Beffica blushed and fiddled with her locket.

"Ha, yeah, crazy..."

"So... Beffica Winklesnoot. I want to tell you that I really like you, and ask if you'd like to go out with me?" She took the flowers aside and pulled you in for a hug.

"Yes. I'd like that a lot."

As Filbo left to give you two some privacy, he noticed a certain popstar up at Cromdomart.

"Pay up darling, I told you they'd be the one to confess."

"Ah shut your yap you dang smartass."

[flooftyfizzlebeans]

Wambus or Triffany for headcanons?

Gonna do both!

Triffany

Sexuality Headcanon: I think Triffany has spent enough time studying non-western concepts of gender and sexuality to realize that she really doesn't need to put a label on what she loves, gender plays no part in what she's attracted to physically or romantically.

Gender Headcanon: Vaguely a woman. Like she's fine being perceived like a woman but that's just the tip of the iceberg. idk enough about grumpus culture to say anything more about this.

A ship I have with said character: I ship the canon ship of course, but I'm Gonna use Wambus's slot to talk about triffloofbus. Here I'll talk about Wiggleblog. .... actually I don't have a WHOLE lot to say other than hotted women and that one fic with wiggle/gramble/wambus/triffany and a Floofty grumpinati b-plot sold me on this. When it comes to ships it only takes one fic for me to start thinking about it.

A BROTP I have with said character: Listen I've said "liz" for like. most of these but ONCE AGAIN. LIZ. Ladies be falling in holes and going by she/it pronouns.

A NOTP I have with said character: Finally. FINALLY A CHARACTER WITH A NOTP FOR ME. Don't ship her with Shelda i guess. Triffany has too many gramma issues to get with a grandma aged lady.

A random headcanon: Autistic :o}

General Opinion over said character: When people pick between the two married women Floofty is friends with for them to have a crush on they more often pick Triffany. I have a massive crush on both. Triffany my beloved.

Wambus

Sexuality Headcanon: Married Triff before he got the chance to really think about that but is probably Bi. He doesn't particularly care about labels either but doesn't actively reject them.

Gender Headcanon: Loosely a man.

A ship I have with said character: *Cracks knuckles* Floofty Triffany Wambus Polycule for life. Wambus is pretty much Floofty's opposite. W F and T all thrive in different environments, too. But do I think Floofty would dig in the dirt to study the detris eating creatures beneath the soil nourishing wambus's garden? Absolutely. Would they enjoy being manhandled by the biggest grumpus in the expedition afterward when they knock over a plant that'll need a trellis to grow properly now? Yes. Do they get the metaphor there? NOPE. These two are dumb around women and even dumber in the other's element. A chance to learn. A chance to teach. A chance to worship Triffany like she deserves.

A BROTP I have with said character: Gramble Wambus friendship is too obvious with canon so I want Wambus to take back the "we are not friends" comment he made to Filbo.

A NOTP I have with said character: Eh. once again im not passionate about disliking stuff. Grambus is a ship i'm not willing to put in the effort to make it work but when people do its really great. usually involves giving gramble more agency than is habitual of this fandom.

A random headcanon: He may not know how to read as many languages as Triffany does, but the languages (yes plural) he does know are much more practical and he actually gets regular use out of them. Grumpus Spanish being the most common of his when he's back on the mainland.

General Opinion over said character: In love with him. meeting him right after Filbo and then followed up by beffica hooked me on the game. His realness lulled me into a false sense of security about the entire plot of the game, and really started me on the track to loving everyone in snaxburg. Also he's hot.

[thegalleonsnest]

DUNGEONS & GRUMPUSES

You bet I just drew the Bugsnax crew playing D&D! This was something I sketched out a few weeks ago but finally got around to it! Haven’t done a large piece like this in awhile, especially with so many characters! I tried drawing each Grumpus with different pieces of cosplay that tell you how committed they are to the game. These are just random little headcanons for how I think about them playing D&D.

I’ve got a whole list written out for each Grump’s class they picked and why, so keep reading if you wanna know who’s who!

Starting from the front left to the back, you got:

Filbo; Sorcerer: He’s trying his best while working with a slightly below averaged charisma modifier. He doesn’t play often, so he’s gets confused about what he can do and how to properly build characters, but he’s learning.

Wambus; Paladin: He pretty new to it, so decided to go with the simplest one that was all about being good. Mainly followed Floofty & Snorpy’s instructions on how to make a good starting character. Triffany; Wizard: She’s just as new to playing as Wambus, but hopped on board super hard after learning that you could be a necromancer. Loves getting into character. Gramble; Druid: After raising his barn full of Snax, felt natural to play as a class close to nature itself. He had friends who were into playing D&D, but rarely participated and just watched. Mainly acting as support rather than being front and center. Wiggle; Bard: It’s pretty self explanatory lol. She spends more time playing music & setting the tone during sessions, but surprisingly, she’s super into role playing. Cromdo; Warlock: When something stinks of opportunity, why not take advantage of it? Even if it means making deals with various demons/gods/whatever is willing to make a blood pact with him for some easy riches? Used to play back when he was way younger, but life became a bigger factor.

Beffica; Rogue: Gotta get that perf dirt without getting caught, you know? Might take advantage of the party, who knows? Barely had any interest in playing, but why not use this opportunity to learn some things about your local residence?

Shelda; Monk: She’s more of a pacifist, spreading the word of Mother Naturae, and still spouting metaphors and riddles. She has no idea how to play, but she’s surprisingly effective at confusing any NPC for whatever reason. Eggabell; Cleric: Resident doctor is your resident healer of the party. And managing a party of 12 in a campaign is stressful as heck. Might crack under pressure deciding who to heal. She’s always liked fantasy stuff, so of course she still had some props for cosplay should could use. Elizabert; Barbarian: Adventurous and reckless by nature, so it was an obvious choice for her. Usually the one to start attacking without asking too many questions. Used to play a lot of D&D back in high school, so she can get pretty into it. Barrowed some of Eggabell’s old cosplay material for a sweet ’tume (If you get that reference, you’re a legend) Snorpy; Artificer: Veteran D&D player; grew up playing with Floofty. You gotta have your engineer on the team to think outside the box (and correct you on the rules constantly and make sure your dice rolls are correct). He likes dressing up for the part to really get into it. It’s the few times he is actually calm and having fun. Chandlo; Fighter: Plays with Snorpy from time to time. As long as you have the highest constitution & strength modifier, you can take the hits and throw them back at them pretty hard. His Wisdom is pretty high for a Fighter as well. Teams up hard with Liz & Wambus to protect the group

Floofty; The DM: Veteran as well, and yes, they would totally be the one to run a D&D campaign as way to run “hypothetical” experiments/test that would otherwise be rejected if performed in real life. I would also think just because of their personality, they would rarely ever be a player because of the number of disagreements that would come up during normal play with other people, unless it’s with a good group that knows each other.

[gallusgalluss]

MmmmmmFloofty?

Sexuality Headcanon: Lesbian

Gender Headcanon: Canonically nonbinary :]

A ship I have with said character: Beffloofty lol (i know there’s like a hundred million billion floofty ships, but i have 1 brain so i only focus on 1 of them)

A BROTP I have with said character: Uhhh maybe Shelda or Triffany, they seem to like the two of them a lot. Oh and Gramble too, they probably like having night chats (seeing how Floofty just stands outside in the middle of the night and Gramble sleepwalks)

A NOTP I have with said character: This is obvious but if u ship them with Snorpy im going to beat the shit out of you.

Besides that I don’t rlly hate any Floofty ships i guess?? I feel kinda ehhhh about Floofty x Eggabell because I’ve seen way too many ppl just portray it as just “Egg cheats on her wife with this big scary creepy scientist and Lizbert is all mean n jealous n angry at them” and that’s just… really gross for MULTIPLE reasons.

But if it’s a polyam ship between Floof, Egg, n Liz where they don’t hate one another than that’s alright

A random headcanon: Despite being super into dark n scary stuff, Floofty absolutely HATES the presence of actual real life blood. Like in movies n stuff they’re fine with it cause they could easily tell when fake grumpus blood is being used, but actually seeing n smelling real blood instantly makes them feel sick. Like right after cutting their leg off they probably passed out for an hour or two.

General Opinion over said character: Floofty’s an all time favorite grump. I loved them starting the game and I still love them a whole year after. They’re super fun and i CANNOT wait to see more of them in the dlc

[spade-snax]

Alright! Here goes my Bugsnax Grumpus last name headcanon!

(This ended up being way longer than I thought it would've been, oh god-)

I think we all can agree that the headcanon where a Grumpus child has their parent's combined last names as their own last name is a very common headcanon people share. It's a good one! Even I like it a lot. And when applied to OCs or fankids it makes for some hilarious names.

It'd make sense in-canon and I feel like it gives the Grumpus world more depth as their own little tradition. (Honestly give me ANY culture/tradition headcanon for Grumpuses PLEASE THOSE ARE MY FAVORITEEEE I even had one for teeth a while ago that I may share publicly one day!!)

But I've been thinking about this, especially because of Cromdo and my own OCs - Neddy and Rason Honeyfidget. With Rason being Neddy's dad, if we only used this headcanon then Neddy shouldn't have this last name... Well, there's a lore reason why he doesnt and that is that his mother has died while he was still an egg, a while before hatching. Rason made him take on "Honeyfidget" only.

But that's just the backstory that got me thinking at the name traditions as a whole, so I'll try to avoid OC talk any further to make this friendlier for others who do not know about my OCs and are just interested in reading this headcanon.

Another headcanon I want to mention as I apply it to my own is the headcanon that Triffany changed her last name to Bronica's last name as a way to honor her. You can definitely change your name to anything you want in the Grumpus world, but changing your last name to a relative's like your grandparent's last name is possibly quite common!

And now I want to bring up Cromdo and the fact he is divorced. It has been confirmed that Cromdo is divorced and that his name may reflect that. (Though originally it was answered in the AMA that "Cromdo Face" just sounded funny at first and that it is possible that he did loose a half of his last name this way!)

Also I want to say that he wasn't abusive to the child mentioned! I remember there was a small confusion and drama about that. And I believe one of the devs on the YH discord mentioned that the 1# tie was a reference to Octodad. I do not remember if that confirmed that he is a father or if this answer by Sage was possibly wrong. He cannot see the child because he lost custody of them and lost in court. I do not have screenshot evidence of this. On a side-note I believe this could be one of the reasons he grew to be so money hungry. He didn't have enough money back then to keep his child. Again I want to say it could be ONE of the reasons and not the exact reason why he is this way.

This is more so of an ramble about my headcanon and what I want to say rather than some comprehensive thing, I am so sorry dfwergeg it's just how I write and explain things and I gotta mention it ALL (Great addition to "Guzma, your ADHD is showing")

Anyways, back on track with my HC.

But in this/my headcanon - Cromdo is divorced, he has had a child, and lost a part of his last name because of the divorce. I do not know how human marriage last name and stuff works properly so uh, see this as just speculation about a fictional species' culture rather than a carbon copy of our own. Which it clearly isn't LOL

I personally think that you can do multiple things with your last name when you get married! (And how it can affect the child's last name!)

Let's use Chandlo and Snorpy as examples, because I think they make great last name combinations. (And Snorplo is HELLA !!/pos)

- You can change your last name to your partner's last name, like we do commonly. (At least, with all the cultures I'm aware of and how marriage works for us.) Examples: Snorpy Funkbun, Chandlo Fizzlebean

(This one isn't very common to do!)

- You can change one half of your last name to a half from your partner's last name. Examples: Snorpy/Chandlo Funkbun/Fizzlebun

(Not as common either, but it still happens. It is actually more common than the first example. This was the case for Cromdo. I'll get back to this later. Grumps usually reserve this for their childen, which is the most common way of naming your children!)

- You keep your last name after marriage! Example: Snorpy Fizzlebean. Chandlo Funkbun. Canon examples would be Wambus and Triffany as well!

(Most common one to do as many wear their last names with pride or for other reasons - such as Trifanny when she changed her last name to Bronica's last name in this headcanon.)

Before we get to the kids again, I'm gonna go back to Cromdo and what can happen during divorce.

During divorce you can simply change your name back if you changed it, or keep the last name you took from your partner. Many simply change their last names back to what they were originally. Some, if they went by the half/half method, take away the half from their ex-partner only. This leaves some Grumpuses with one worded last names, such as Cromdo.

I think he changed a half of his last name during marriage. After the divorce, he didn't want to "wear" his partner's name anymore and changed his name to Cromdo Face only as Face was a part of his last name he was given at birth. This is most often the default for Grumpuses who have been divorced and took only half of their partner's last name.

If Cromdo - (or any Grumpus with a one-word last name! There's certainly rare cases of Grumpuses who have one word that didn't go through divorce. Possibly Grumpuses with bad attachment to one of their parents - so they change or remove that half of the last name they got from said parent. If their last name was a combination.) - were to re-marry he could take one half of his new partner's last name, or not change his name at all.

I want to get onto how naming a child would work with this situation, so I will talk about ways of naming children before I get back to this! And by naming I of course mean the last names only, lol.

(One rule is that, unless you change your name later in real life for any reason, it's gonna have to be one of these otherwise! Your Grump parent cannot make you up a new last name. It is just a part of the tradition they have. Though re-naming isn't looked upon in any way by the majority of Grumpuses as there are many reasons to do so!! Unless you're a jerk or you value your last name TOO much.) (Also when I say "you" I don't mean YOU as the reader literally. I mean a hypothetical Grumpus child!! It's just how I like wording things.

(...I've been writing for almost an hour, brain scrampled eg)

- Your last name is the combined name of your parent's last names. Examples: Fizzlebun, Funkbean

(VERY COMMON! Most Grumpuses will do this when first naming their child!)

- Your keep one of your parent's last name! Fizzlebean or Funkbun.

(This all works if you have multiple parents btw! Can make for SUPER crazy long and funny last names. This *all* applies to marriage, too! I hope it is easily applicable. I do not want to go in depth on that. Feel free to hit me an ask about this if you want me to explain it more in depth!! I wouldn't want to exclude polyamorous relationships ^^ )

(Also yes, last names that are just the same word repeated twice/multiple times are possible too. Fizzlefizzle, Funkfunk... How fun are these to say? Gives me Grumpus OC name ideas already.)

But yes! Back to Cromdo! Or any Grumpus in the same situation, but as I've stater earlier, Cromdo is just an example here. If he were to re-marry and NOT change his name, there's two posibilities:

His new partner has a full last name.

In this situation, if they have a child they can keep the full last name from Cromdo's partner. Or they can have one word from his partner + Face. For reasons stated below the child cannot have "Face" as their only last name.

His new partner has a one-worded, short last name like he does.

In this situation, if they have a child they have to name it a combination of their last name's. No exception. Having a short last name is a sign of something happening in your life, and it is traditionally not put onto a child, unless they are adopted with no last name. That still counts as something that happened in their life, as their birth parents possibly just gave them away with no care in the world.

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

At this point I am almost completely off track, so please do ask me questions as I am not sure where I completely left off - Or rather if there is something I forgot that I wanted to mention.

By the way, for combining last names and such, you can also mis-match! Doesn't even have to be combinations. This applies to everything, even for (Full last name + one-word last names) where it makes sense the most. Examples: Beanfizzle, Bunfunk, Bunbean, Bunfizzle, Beanbun, Beanfunk. I'm personally a big fan of Bunfunk and Beanbun :P)

And this applies to siblings, too! It isn't uncommon for parents naming their children mis-matched last name combinations if they have multiple ones. (This ties into my headcanon for Filbo's many siblings and that he isn't a single child. He's in a big household and has at least 2 siblings. ONE OF WHICH I want to make into an OC! This requires me to make the parents, too, but I am not so bothered about that :P)

I'm out for now, all my brain power has left me a few paragraphs ago and I've got to go eat lunch

But again I encourage people to ask me questions (If anyone was brave enough to read through this!!)

And if I got anything wrong, do let me know! I am not all-knowing and I could've missed some VERY OBVIOUS mistakes.

And sorry if the writing is wonky at times! Sometimes it is done on purpose but sometimes the fact I only pretend I know how to write + the fact English is my second language IS SHOWING

(Also I sometimes just write how I think, without much thought put into the sentence if I don't proof read, so HSDFWERGRGT)

[snaxpo]

fuck it bugsnax/s4m au notes

alternate title: i’m at that point in liking something where i have to combine it with everything else i’ve liked previously and today i’m making that everyone else’s problem. 

- base premise is a lil different! instead of being a journalist who was invited personally to the island by the expedition leader, you (or FK if you consider them a separate character from the player) are tasked with investigating the habitat, a budding commune on snaktooth island that may or may not be devolving into a cult. there’s just one teeny tiny problem - the commune’s leader and also your main suspect, boris habit, has been missing for weeks by the time you arrive. 

- now it’s a matter of gaining the inhabitants’ trust/getting them to come back to the habitat while hunting and subduing the bugsnax, who seem increasingly eager to launch themselves at inhabitants at quite literally dangerous speeds, in a battle of wits to keep your newfound companions fed while documenting the strange creatures. and of course, the question of just what happened to boris habit still lingers in the air. think like... talentless nana where the protag pretends to be all cute and unassuming (complete with flower motifs!) but really they’re there on Super Secret Spy Business. but of course there’s less murder. 

- oddly the bugsnax seem to have only become more aggressive after his disappearance. i’m sure it’s nothing. 

- yes everyone is still a grumpus

- there isn’t really an interview “mechanic” so much as it is a Lot of cozying up to everybody in pursuit of whatever information you can find on habit/potential group rituals/events that led to his disappearance; you get it by bits and pieces rather than a single structured interview. there is of course a lot more interactions between characters than there is in s4m’s base game bc thats like 60% of the appeal of bugsnax and i would be a fool not to think of it.

- time for ideas for specific characters! kamal is the vice-mayor of the habitat and has been habit’s right-hand grump for as long as any of the inhabitants can remember, despite their relationship becoming increasingly strained ever since their arrival on the island, and especially before habit’s disappearance. i imagine you still find him passed out but instead of collapsing from starvation he’s like "please.... toothpaste... a breath mint.... some pepto bismol. i’ve been able to taste my own breath for weeks." has been trying to divide his time between looking after the habitat and looking for habit himself (and also his best friend wallus) but the dispersal of the habitat has left him a tad Demoralized, to say the least.

- i feel like trencil would play a wambus-adjacent role in the sense that he's the one taking care of the sauce plants and also one of the first townspeople you meet. you convince to come back with you not necessarily bc he'd be able to continue farming in town but bc he would probably have an easier time looking for his daughter if he got some sleep first (but only if you look for her in his stead)

- gillis is like. a wannabe chandlo. makes you capture a bunch of snax that he Says he's gonna use to get stronger but eventually you find out he's been releasing them or keeping them in like lil makeshift pet houses bc he always takes one look at their big googly eyes and turns to mush. but EVERYONE'S eating them so naturally if they find out he's not they're gonna think he's some kinda wuss so he just pretends. 

- dallas keeps asking for sweet n colorful bugsnax to give to mirphy to impress her (sweetieflies, instabugs, etc etc.) but by some streak of bad luck they always end up being her least favorite. he tries to see if Maybe he can use them to make some new bugsnak-exclusive pigments, but like in canon they always end up turning into mush before he can get very far. mirphy meanwhile is far more interested in preserving them for a potential display, but similar to dallas, she never gets very far.

- i imagine the kid habiticians are like. a roving band of semi-feral children bc if anyone's gonna keep them in town it's definitely not kamal.

- i wanna do something with wallus SO BAD like you find him somewhere up in frosted peak but i have no idea what he would even DO its fucking killing me

- those are all the ideas i have For Now; s4m has more characters than bugsnax so there’s a lot to be done w/ them lmao. if i think of any more i’ll probably put it in another post or if anybody wants to spitball with me.......  👀

- and now we get to The Big Guns: habit.

- he was fun to work on w/ this au mostly bc despite being the rough equivalent of lizbert he’s a way different type of flawed leader than her; where liz is responsible to the point of martyring herself without a second thought and not thinking to delegate any tasks to the other snaxburg residents, which is what ultimately causes them to fall apart once she disappears, habit's deal is that he wants the position and appearance of an authority figure because it'll keep him safe, but he kind of sucks at taking responsibility for anything he does wrong because he’s spent most of his life acting according to what other people (namely his family) expect of him and being met with a negative reception no matter what, so he doesn’t really believe he has power over anything, including his own actions, despite being such a control freak for most of his own game. so his arc would need something that’s kind of antithetical to what liz had, wouldn’t it?

- so what i got so far is that au habit was tryin to covertly start a bugsnax cult bc he sees being asborbed by the snax as a sort of ascension and was eventually planning to have everyone be absorbed; it’s important to note however that bc information on bugsnax is so obscure he doesn’t actually 100% know how absorption works so tl;dr: habit became the bugsnax monarch willingly and then 5 seconds later he was like "oh no wait this fucking sucks. what have i done. shit. fuck."

- unable to cope with the realization that he was once again forced to act in accordance to someone (or in this case something) else's desires, he shuts down emotionally, becoming an empty husk of a grumpus while the bugsnax above run rampant thanks to the extra fuel and absolutely no restrictions until the Big Climax when habit is finally moved to take back control of the snax and by proxy Take Some Fucking Responsibility for knowingly luring people to cthulhu island. however this does leave the obvious question of if he was such an empty shell for most of the game why didn’t they just. eat him.

- the answer i eventually landed on was that his self-preservation instincts were still kicking on a subconscious level and during the aforementioned climax he eventually realizes that he does not in fact want to die, he just doesn’t want to keep living the way he is now (as part of an ancient hivemind beyond his understanding) or the way he was before (you know.)

- also fun fact: i was thinking about what his monarch body would be based off of bc the snakdragon, while cool as shit, didn’t feel right for him, and then i remembered that blooming onions exist. i imagine he’s in the middle acting as the flower’s “stigma”

- as for endings i’m thinking like. in the neutral ending kamal joins habit but its left ambiguous whether or not they'll ever be able to leave the island or if this is even a permanent solution (call that the paw in unloveable paw ending). in the good ending you bust habit outta his queen body after fending off enough bugsnax together and it’s super gross bc the undersnax as a whole is super gross but hey at least everyone’s leaving alive. i don’t know what a bad ending entails except most if not all of the cast is dead and habit is left alone on the island surrounded by reminders of his spectacular failure.

- hell i can even think of a sequel hook for the good ending like in canon bugsnax; some time after the ending/credits you ask habit just Where did he get the information on bugsnax that led to him being like “you could make a religion out of this” and the screen fades to black before you hear his answer. there.

- its almost midnight.

[poliel]

Surprise Egg 4/13: Congrats

Filbo had just gotten the fire going in the pit for the evening when he glanced up to see Buddy wondering into town. Always happy to see them, he straightened to smile at them as they approached.

“Hey Buddy, how’s it going?”

“Filbo!” Their eyes sparkled with excitement, a wonderful sight after how exhausted they’d been lately. “You’ll neverguess what just happened.”

“You found out where Liz is?” Filbo almost didn’t dare hope for such a thing but if anyone could find her it was Buddy so… maybe.

“Oh uh… no, not yet. I will soon though, I promise.” Yeah, definitely too much to hope for. “But I did find something very cool. Or more like it found me. I’ll show you.” They walked over and sat down on the log bench by the fire.

Filbo sat next to them, close enough that he could see their camera’s screen as they lifted it from where it hung around their neck. It booted back up in seconds, allowing them to navigate to their recently taken photos.

“What is that?” Just a photo of it made Filbo’s fur prickle with unease. It was some kind of bugsnax? But grumpus shaped. And it might’ve just been the angle the photo was taken from but it looked big too.

Buddy flipped back through more, including ones that showed it did indeed have large googly looking eyes like bugsnax. “I’ve decided to call it Snaxsquatch because it’s like Grumpsquatch but a bugsnax. I also got a recording of what it sounds like. Wanna hear?”

Not really but Buddy was clearly very excited about this for some reason and it was nice seeing them happy so… “I guess.”

With a far too excited grin, they switched their camera back off and pulled out their tape recorder. After rewinding it a bit, the pressed play.

“Hello. Can you understand me?” There was a brief pause filled with the sound of Buddy’s camera snapping a few photos before their recorded voice continued. “I’m a journalist and I’m here to do a story on bugsnax. If you can understand me, I’d like a…”

A wet growl interrupted them, making Filbo flinch. Knowing something that could growl like that was on the island somewhere was the opposite of a cool find. And… and that thing had been right near Buddy, close enough that they’d talked to it. Did their bravery know no bounds?

Apparently so as their recorded voice continued without hesitation and full of even more excitement. “Growling works. How about a long growl for ‘no’ and short a one for ‘yes’?”

A short growl answered Buddy followed by an unidentifiable sound. Which was were Buddy stopped the recording. “That’s where it sank into the ground. And when I looked there wasn’t any trace of it, not even a hole for it to have sunk into. So I have no idea where it went or is now. But cool, right? I’m sure it’s the thing Beffica and Gramble saw that night when the spooky message appeared on the town sign, meaning it wasn’t aliens after all.”

“Uh… I don’t know about cool but it’s certainly scary. How much of a threat to Snaxburg do you think it might be?”

“Not at all. It’s friendly.” For how scary it looked and sounded, their nonchalant confidence was surprising even for them.

“How do you know?”

They slipped their recorder back into their back pack’s side pocket as they answered. “I was that close to it because it was dragging me back to town after I passed out in the Sizzling Sands. It even pulled down Shelda’s lean-to to transport me on.”

“Whoa, what? You passed out! Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I’m fine. I just…” They trailed off as a look of dawning realization came over their face. “Huh? I’m not sure how I forgot about that but uh…” They looked around for a couple seconds before turning back to look at him again. “I gotta talk to you in private.” All excitement was gone from their voice now, replaced by a chilling seriousness.

“About what?” What could be more important than the fact they’d apparently passed out in the middle of a hot desert and had to be dragged back by a monster? And why didn’t they seem to care?

“Just… something, okay? Now let’s…” They cut off as they stood up, teetering for a moment before he shot up to steady them. They leaned on him slightly as they lifted a paw to press to their forehead. It only lasted a few seconds but it was long enough to almost give Filbo a heart attack.

“Oof, that was… ugh,” they said as they pushed off him to stand under their own weight again. Before Filbo could ask him if they were okay though…

“Whoa Bestie, you okay?” Beffica said as she wondered into the campfire circle.

“Yeah. Don’t worry about me.” They lifted a paw in a weak dismissive gesture towards her.

“You should probably go lie down.” Unsure of what else he could do, Filbo stood ready to steady them again if they needed it. Oh, if only Eggabell were here.

It hadn’t been a commotion really but Cromdo had stepped closer too, looking maybe kind of worried. At that moment, Chandlo wondered in with a “What’s going on? Why’s everyone here look so worried?”

Buddy frowned at him before speaking. “I need to talk to Filbo about something.” They took Filbo’s paw and started leading him back towards the hut the two of them now shared.

As soon as they were in the hut with the door closed, Buddy pulled off their back pack and lowered it to the floor with a grateful sounding sigh. They then unzipped it and took out their camera’s case, placing that on the table before carefully pulling their camera off over their head and into it. They put that back safely in their pack before zipping it up once more. It was a familiar routine of theirs, one that Filbo had seen many times since Buddy had moved in but they did it with much more exaggerated care this time as if they were so exhausted, they could barely move.

“You okay?” Filbo asked as they finally turned to look at him. They’d been acting clearly unwell for a while now but this was different and worse. … If only Eggabell were here, she’d know how to fix it.

They looked at him in silent thought, one paw on the table as they leaned slightly onto it. After several seconds of this they pushed off and walked over to him still standing by the door and… hugged him. They pressed into him with a slight, exhausted sounding purr. “I missed you.”

He hugged them back of course, though he couldn’t quite muster up a purr himself right now. “Uh… I missed you too but… you weren’t gone that long.” They even still been here this morning when Filbo woke up, something that was honestly pretty rare with how busy they were.

“I know. But something happened and… it made me miss you.” That was strange but… okay.

Unsure what to say to that, Filbo just held them for however long they wanted to be held for. Which wasn’t long as they soon gave him one more tight squeeze before pulling back.

They stepped all the way back before speaking. “I finally found out why I’ve been so unwell lately. It’s kind of obvious now that I really think about it.”

“What is it?” And how seriouswas it?

“Um…” They looked away, lifting a paw to nervously rub the back of their neck. “You remember a few months ago when I was in heat and you helped me. And then you asked if I had any contraceptives and I didn’t but told you it would probably be fine anyway because having a hard time conceiving runs in my family? Well turns out it wasn’t fine after all. Whoops.”

“Wait! You mean you’re…” He cut off, unable to say it quite yet because how could they actually be carrying his egg? Yeah sure, it made sense given the whole heat thing and but still. That wasn’t at all news he was prepared for or had ever given any thought to possibly one day receiving or having to give to someone else. Kids were fine and all but never once had the thought occurred to him that he might someday have one of his own.

“I was pregnant but then uh… I laid the egg which is how I found out about it. I passed out afterwards. And that’s when the Snaxsquatch brought me back here.” They reached into their pouch where they’d taken to carrying Sprout. What they pulled out though was undoubtedly a grumpus egg. The faded splotches of colour on it were burnt orange and light blue, confirming its parentage. They tried to hand to Filbo.

He flinched, pulling his paws in close to this chest. “Why are you giving it to me?” Given his track record he should be the last one handling something as important and delicate as an egg.

“Just… because. I need sleep. You can tell the others about it while I take a nap. Or I guess you could keep it a secret for now if you want to. But regardless, we’ll talk about what we’re going to do about it after I get some rest, okay? So just take it for now.” They pushed it towards him again.

He wanted to refuse but… they were clearly beyond exhausted and utterly unwell. The fact that they’d just given birth to the egg not long ago certainly explained why. They’d done it all alone out in the middle of the hot desert too, how awful and scary must that have been? And yet they didn’t complain, they never did about anything. So… trying not to grimace too hard, he accepted it from their paws.

“Thanks.” Then, without further word, they turned and walked over to the bed and collapsed face first onto it. Probably not even five seconds later they were snoring softly.

Never the most dexterous of grumpuses, Filbo’s paws were even more clumsy than usual due to being like strawberries. So very carefully, before he could drop the egg or some potential disaster could befall him and it, he put it into his own pouch. Unlike some he preferred not to carry things in there but… it was meant for carrying eggs and the grumplings that hatched out of them so this was how it should be. … Still felt weird though.

Shaking it off, he went over to the bed to check on Buddy. … Yep, they were out like a light and they certainly deserved and needed the rest. So… with a deep breath he turned and left the hut.

As he walked back towards the campfire, he tried not think about tripping and crushing the egg in his pouch. Would that even crush it though? Eggs were supposed to be pretty sturdy, right? But how sturdy? This was his first time seeing one up close in real life so he had no idea. … And it was his! Oh gosh, he wasn’t ready for this. How was he supposed to…

“Filbo!”

He flinched and looked up at Beffica. She was still standing by the campfire with an air of having been waiting for him to return. Chandlo was with her and Cromdo had perked up from his stand again.

“What’s wrong with Buddy?” she continued. … She was concerned, it was written in her face and in her tone.

“Come on dawg, out with it,” Chandlo said before the silence could stretch for long. “What’s wrong with them? They going to be okay?”

“Oh uh… they’re sleeping. I think they’re going to be okay… well as okay as they can be… maybe. I don’t know.” Ugh, he was doing an awful job at putting anyone at ease but he was worried about Buddy and the egg that had quite literally seemed to have come out of nowhere and… it made it hard to think. He took a couple deep breaths and put on not a smile but a hopefully less freaked out expression because panicking about it wasn’t going to make it better. “The reason they’re so exhausted is because they uh… gave birth to an egg earlier today.”

That was met with surprised silence for several seconds before Chandlo broke it. “You mean they’ve been carrying an egg this whole time? Why didn’t you guys tell anyone?”

“We didn’t know.”

Beffica scoffed. “I thought at least one of you would have some kind of birth control and be smart enough to use it.”

“Well… we didn’t have any and it was kind of… urgent and they’d thought it’d be fine. And we’ve been careful sincethen.” Getting pregnant outside of heat was rare but not impossible so they’d done their best to avoid risking it as much as they could whenever they made love but apparently it hadn’t mattered anyway. “So we had no idea.”

She sighed and shook her head. “Well, let’s see the egg then I guess. Since I assume you have it now, right? Because what else would you be carrying in your pouch?”

Filbo wasn’t sure he wanted to take it out for fear of dropping it but… With a sigh, he reached into his pouch and pulled it out. Beffica snapped a photo of it as Chandlo stepped closer to look at it too.

“It’s a bit small and the colours are faded,” Cromdo said, making Filbo jump a little. He’d approached unnoticed and now stood on the other side of the log bench so he could get a good view of the egg. “That means it was born sooner than it should’ve been. Which with the way Buddy’s been running around, doesn’t surprise me. I’d say get it checked out by a doctor but we don’t got one anymore. So instead, just make sure to keep it as warm as possible. Like if you’re gonna have it outside of your pouch for more than five minutes put it in heated cradle, assuming you can find a way to make one that’s safe. Otherwise make sure someone’s carrying it around all the time, okay? And don’t let Buddy take it up the mountain or whatever.”

“What do you know about taking care of an egg?” Beffica asked pretty much exactly what Filbo was thinking but with far more scorn than was necessary.

“I just know, okay? It ain’t none of your business.” He turned back to look at Filbo again. “And don’t shake the egg neither or drop or anything else rough, got it?”

Under his stern gaze, Filbo carefully put the egg back into his pouch. “Got it. Thanks for the advice.” He’d take any from anyone who was willing to give it.

“You could maybe ask Floofty to examine it,” Chandlo said. “They’re real smart and know a lot about biology stuff even though they’re not a doctor. So they might be able to tell you if it’s okay or not.”

“All right.” It certainly couldn’t hurt.

The three of the followed as he started for the research tent. He’d really rather not ask Floofty for any kind of favor but… they were the only one here who might be able to examine the egg with any degree of accuracy. If only Eggabell were here. … Yeah, ifonly, and if only wishing for her return could actually bring her back to town. Wouldn’t that be nice?

Shaking off the bitterness of that thought as he stepped into Floofty’s part of the research tent, Filbo put on his best attempt at a pleasant expression. “Hey Floofty.”

Still leaning over the table and whatever they were working on they didn’t even turn their head to look at him as they answered. “Greetings.” Indifference was better than disdain but… still uncomfortable.

“We need your help with something,” Beffica cut in as she strode over and put a paw on Floofty’s desk, rattling it a little.

They looked up at her with an annoyed sigh. “What is it?”

“An egg,” Chandlo said. “It’s looking a bit unwell so I thought we could bring it to you and you could look it over, make sure it’s okay and stuff.”

“Ooh, an egg you say?” Triffany was suddenly in on the conversation too as she stepped over into this part of the tent. “Whose is it?”

“Buddy’s and Filbo’s,” Cromdo replied. “Apparently Buddy’s been pregnant this whole time and didn’t know. Unsurprisinglywith the way they’ve been running around it was born early so we need someone to check and see if the grumpling’s still alive inside it or not.”

Triffany grimaced. “Oh dear, yeah with the way they’ve been running around and stuff… I do hope they’re okay. Both Buddy and the grumpling.”

“Well, Buddy’s getting some much-needed rest right now,” Filbo said as he pulled the egg out again. “So Floofty do you think you could…” He held the egg towards them.

“I suppose with the use of Eggabell’s equipment I should at least be able to determine if the grumpling’s alive inside or not. Exactly how healthy it is, I’m not sure I’ll be able to tell, but something’s better than nothing.” They took from him. “Now someone go get me Eggabell’s medical bag.”

“I’ll do it,” Filbo volunteered, immediately turning to run over to Liz and Eggabell’s hut. He needed the distraction and to be moving and since he was keeping the place clean for their eventual return, he knew exactly where the medical bag was.

~

Standing around while Floofty examined the egg with Eggabell’s limited equipment was nerve-wracking. Was Filbo actually going to have to figure out how to be parent or was this was one big scary false alarm. … Part of him hoped for the latter. … He flinched internally. How could he even think that? Grumplings dying unhatched was always tragic and not something that should be hoped for. So no he didn’t hope that that had happened but… but… he wasn’t ready to be a parent!

Despite his inner turmoil he kept his expression as positive as he could. The one thing he was good at other than messing up was maintaining a positive energy. Like a good leader should. … Except for the fact that no one here respected him as a leader. Which he couldn’t blame them for given everything. But his chances to ever gain that respect from them or anyone else were severally hampered by the fact that he now had an egg and eventually a grumpling to take care unless… He wasn’t hoping for that though.

How did one even care for a grumpling after it hatched? They were mostly just carried around in their parents’ pouches, right? Until they were… whatever age where that wasn’t a thing anymore. What age even was that? And what happened then?

“Congratulations Filbo,” Floofty said as they picked up the egg and turned away from their desk to approach him. “Despite Buddy’s negligence for their own wellbeing, the egg and grumpling inside seem mostly fine as far as I can determine, certainly alive if nothing else. Which admittedly I’m not a doctor nor a proper expert on fetal development but I am fairly confident in my assessment nonetheless.”

As they handed him the egg, he put on a smile. “Thanks.” He slipped it into his pouch.

“You’re welcome. Now take Eggabell’s stuff back to her cabin and shoo, I have work to get back to.” They turned their back and went back to their desk.

Filbo quickly grabbed the medical bag and was out of there.

“Congrats,” Beffica said as she fell in step with him. She even sounded kind of sincere for once.

“Uh… thanks.”

“Yes, congrats,” Triffany added. “I’m sure you and Buddy will be great parents. I almost can’t wait to have a little one running the place. I’m going to go tell Wamby.” And she was off.

“Yeah, congrats dawg,” Chandlo came up on his other side. “What you going to name them?”

Oh no, they were going to have to come up with a name too? How? “Uh… I don’t know. I’m sure Buddy will think of something, I’m really bad with names.”

~

Before much more than even an hour had passed since he’d even got the news himself, everyone in town had approached Filbo to congratulate him on the egg. Gramble also offered to watch the egg and/or the grumpling if he and Buddy ever needed or wanted a break for a bit. Filbo was tempted to hand him the egg to watch right then and there but… just thanked him with a smile instead. If any of them even suspected how much he was freaking out below the surface, they didn’t say anything.

But when Buddy woke up and they talked about it some more, surely everything would be okay, right? Buddy would know how to handle the situation and thus they’d ease Filbo’s fears and… stuff. So everything was going to be fine.

[creativeskullcreations]

Buddy’s Problem part 1

Everyone's escaped from Snaktooth, but what happened directly after? And how did Buddy Copperbottom, now ex journalist, help Filbo become mayor? Find out in this short, three-part fic, from the author that brought you Outside!

Hey everybody, I know I'm supposed to on a writing hiatus right now but I felt inspired! Also not sure when the next part's gonna come out, but I'll have it up as soon as it's done, don't worry!

Buddy led Filbo up the stairs, the other Grumpus sticking close as the journalist fished the key out of his bag. He unlocked the door and let it swing open. He felt like maybe he should say something, like "Welcome to my home!". But he was tired, and honestly couldn't care less about it. Instead he stepped aside to let the light blue one in, and then closed and locked the door behind him.

"Make yourself at home." He muttered in lieu of anything else, and made his way to the kitchen. He hoped that maybe something had survived his month long excursion. Anything that wasn't ketchup or chocolate sauce. He opened the fridge, and then immediately shut it at the smell. 'That's gonna need cleaned out soon. Ew.' He went for the pantry instead, and chose a can of Chef Beenopi ravioli. He dumped it into a large bowl and stuck it in the microwave, listening to Filbo looking around his living room/office.

"Wow, you've done a lot of articles. No wonder Liz invited you." Ah, he was looking at the Wall of Paper, where Buddy had put up every article he'd ever gotten published. There weren't really a lot, and most of them had been pulled for being stupid or wrong. But, he had gotten them published in the first place, so onto the wall they went.

"Yep." Buddy replied as the microwave beeped. He pulled the hot bowl out and poured about half into another one. He then grabbed out a couple of forks and shoved a pile of stuff out of the two chairs set at the table. He then sat down himself to eat. "There's food in here if you want it. Real food."

"Oh, yeah. Thanks!" Filbo hurried into the kitchen and sat down in the other chair. Buddy couldn't stop the smirk of amusement when the other rushed and burned himself eating the ravioli. He sobered up quickly though, reminding himself that Filbo hadn't had any truly hot food for quite awhile. Months, even, depending on when the expedition had landed and they had started eating Bugsnax.

Buddy cleared his throat, letting his fork rest in the bowl. "Sorry about the mess." He finally said, feeling self conscious when Filbo looked up at him. "I don't... usually get visitors, and I certainly wasn't expecting anyone right after I got back." He cleared his throat, looking down at the dusty floor. 'I wasn't expecting anyone ever.'

"Oh that's alright." Filbo waved him off. "I'm just glad you were able to let me stay here."

"Not a problem." Buddy got up, leaving his ravioli barely eaten. "Let me go set up the, ah, guest room for ya."

He entered the backroom, and as soon as the door was closed he began to panic. There was no spare room. Sure, there was a bed and shelf in here, it had come with the apartment, but the whole room was shoved full of boxes that you couldn't get to either of them. And there was no place else to put the boxes.

"... Maybe he won't notice if I put him in my bedroom. I don't sleep in there much anyways." He grinned, clapping his paws together. "Yeah, that could totally work!"

The door behind him opened, and Filbo peeked in. "Uh, hey, Buddy, is there anything I con do to help?"

"Nope!" Buddy shoved him out of the room, and slammed the door behind them. Instantly there was a crash from inside the room, and he inhaled sharply through his nose, fake smile plastered on. "The spare room is toast!" He informed his friend cheerfully. The light blue Grumpus just looked confused. Both flinched as another, smaller crash resounded from the spare room. "... The couch is a pullout though, and a pretty comfortable one too. Not the same as a bed, but it's just until the Snax wear off, right?"

"Uh, yeah sure." Now Filbo looked worried, and Buddy feared the situation would quickly spiral out of control. So he just grinned wider, putting as much false cheer into his voice as possible.

"Great! I'll, uh, I'll go get the sheets." He hurried quickly to his room, where he kept the spare bedding. Not that he had a lot of that, but he figured he had enough for Filbo to use.

With Filbo's help(apparently he had the same kind of couch at home), he managed to unfold the thing and get the sheets on. He'd even found a spare pillow for him to use. It wasn't a lot, but it was a functional bed, and would work for the few days he needed before heading back home.

... And then it'd be back to being alone for Buddy, drinking the nights away while desperately trying to find his story of a lifetime. He wondered if that was how Lizbert had felt, before she found out about Snaktooth. He almost wished he could ask her about it.

Speaking of, once Filbo had settled, Buddy pulled out all the interview tapes he'd collected. He laid them out on his bed, then grabbed a notebook and pencil to start drafting the article. Surely, surely this would take too long.

()()()()()()

Filbo wasn't sure what to think of Buddy's apartment. It was a mess, that was for sure, but the kind of mess made by someone who didn't care about cleaning. Or who was too drunk to clean. He'd noticed the cans scattered around. Some were piled up in small pyramids, but most were just tossed in the corners. None seemed broken, thankfully, he didn't want to worry about either of them stepping on broken glass.

Still, it didn't paint a very nice picture of what Buddy's life was like. And it made him wonder what might happen when he inevitably went home once the Bugsnax wore off. He'd have to give Buddy his phone number, and the numbers of the others too, just to be safe. Then he'd have more options for entertainment besides cheap beer.

Yes, it was a good plan Filbo thought as he settled in to go to sleep.

When he woke up the next morning to Buddy in the throes of a caffeine induced panic attack, rambling about how everyone was doomed to become Bugsnax, he figured he had his work cut out for him.

First things first, calm Buddy down and get some coffee for himself. Second, find out just what Buddy was talking about. Which turned out to be that no matter what angle he went with, more Grumpuses would go to Snaktooth Island and be assimilated.

Okay. Filbo could work with that.

It didn't take long to go through Buddy's notes while the orange Grumpus was asleep on the couch and find something they could do. The volcano was almost too obvious. It was in  the midst of erupting when they left, and maybe they could exaggerate how bad it had been. Shouldn't be too hard to get in contact with the others and redo a few interviews. Buddy agreed, once he woke up again, and the two of them got started.

It took almost a week to get all the interviews done, and that was without interviewing everyone. Triffany, Floofty, and Snorpy were the ones they needed to "prove" the volcano had been a ticking time-bomb, and they were all happy to help. Wambus and Chandlo were given interviews about Liz, since they were there and to help fill out the article. Beffica appeared once she found out what they were doing, and demanded a redo of her own.

And, while they couldn't get their interviews, Filbo did call the others with Beffica's help to tell them the cover story. No Bugsnax, only a volcano. It had just been a con that Liz had done, in an attempt to get people for her settlement, before she got in over her head and fell into a chasm. Not a lot of people liked throwing her under the bus, Filbo included. But, it was that or let more people be assimilated by the Snax, and he refused to let that happen.

Put like that, even Gramble could get behind it, though he did so reluctantly. It still didn't feel right, but Filbo couldn't see another option, and neither could anyone else.

By the time the article was done, with new interview tapes and everything, the Snax Filbo had eaten had worn off and he looked just like he had before. The day he woke up looking completely normal, Buddy made the call to his boss to set a time to turn in the article.

Together they went up to Ms. Clumbernut's office, and handed off the article. She read it, praised Buddy for it, and then informed him that not only had he been fired since before he'd left for Snaktooth, but she'd done her best to get him declared dead.

"Might want to get that fixed." Was all she'd said as she left the room, taking the article with her. Buddy stared after her, with wide eyes.

"Well, that wasn't... ideal." Understatement of the century. Better change the subject. "So, I hear the elections are coming. I-I was thinking of running for Mayor." He grinned when Buddy turned back to him. "I could use a helping paw. How about it?"

For a second, Buddy hesitated. He didn't know anything about mayoral campaigns. But, then again, he had helped everyone else out, one way or another. What was one more? "Sounds good, Filbo!" He agreed with a smile, one that Filbo eagerly returned.

"Great!" He said, leading the way out of the office. "I have so many great ideas for this. I can't wait!"

Buddy couldn't wait either. He had no clue how he would be able to help, but he could figure it out later. For now, he was just happy to be useful again.

[kuphulwho]

Some More Bugsnax Daemon AU Tidbits:

- The Grumpus whose daemon Settled the latest is Beffica, and the Grumpus whose daemon Settled the earliest is Gramble. Beffica was around the age of 16 when Tricktan Settled, while Gramble was around the age of 10 when Atwud Settled.

- Wambus’ daemon, Laurami, is funny when it comes to being touched by anyone who isn’t Wambus. She’s even ambivalent at best when Triffany touches her, and has only been known to touch other daemons in fights. However, the one exception is Triffany’s daemon, Fauster, who she will gladly snuggle up to, among other things. And even though she’s only okay with Triffany touching her, there are times where she’s fully willing to touch Triffany.

- Lizbert’s daemon, Kolbee, is perfectly chill with being touched by Eggabell, and Eggabell’s daemon, Awlden, is totally cool with being touched by Lizbert. Eggabell and Lizbert even have perches for Awlden and Kolbee above their bed, directly next to each other, of course. Awlden rests on top of his perch, and Kolbee hangs upside-down on his perch. Similarly, Laurami and Fauster share a dog bed at the foot of Wambus and Triffany’s bed.

- The thing between Snorpy and Chandlo is obvious to literally everyone, even before Snorpy confesses. This largely has to do with the fact that their daemons, Jazzmin and Fairyn, were always strategically trying to be as close to each other at any given time as possible. At one point, Jazzmin even touched Chandlo prior to the confession, and Snorpy got all flustered and tried to act like it didn’t happen.

- Floofty's daemon, Embery, does not generally respond to nicknames. Floofty doesn’t even call them by any kind of nickname. However, Embery has been known to occasionally answer to “Em” or “Berry” when it comes from Snorpy or Jazzmin, albeit begrudgingly.

- The distance that Grumpuses and their daemons can be apart without it at least being uncomfortable varies between pairs. Gramble is the one whose tolerable distance from his daemon is the shortest, while Floofty and Eggabell are tied for the longest tolerable distance from their daemons. Floofty and Embery just have nerves of steel. Meanwhile, Eggabell and Awlden’s tolerable distance didn’t used to be that long. They were forced to adapt in the wilderness.

- Many falsely assume that Wiggle and Shelda have a low tolerable distance from their daemons, Rocko and Seasill. This is because Rocko is typically seen nestled in Wiggle’s feather boa, and Seasill is typically seen around Shelda’s neck, or nestled in the flower crown on her head. In reality, the only reason their daemons do this is because it’s convenient, and also comfy.

- Amusingly, Grumpuses feel more inclined to bend to Cromdo’s daemon, Marylow, than they do to Cromdo himself. Having a goose daemon is something that tends to have that effect on others, though. Beffica and Tricktan talk big around Cromdo, but one hiss from Marylow is usually enough to make them walk the other way.

- Filbo’s daemon, Gleeah, has a habit of hopping into his arms when nervous. She does it so often that it’s become reflex for Filbo to open his arms for her. He doesn’t even need to look at her to know that she’s going to jump most of the time. This reflex has saved them from some serious separation pain more than once, most notably when knocked away by that Bunger, and when tossed out of the Undersnax by Lizbert and Eggabell.

- Sometimes, people wonder if Clumby even has a daemon, although she obviously does have to have one. The reason her daemon, Henrick, is such a cryptid to many is because he loves to just chill under her hat. However, he has been known to poke his head out when things start to get juicy.