#jumpscares are difficult to avoid here

[emry-stars-art]

@kiwiaok said freaky deep sea Neil and I went overboard with my gifted/inherited Hunt Crowquill pens. Now is he secretly tiny or is he human sized

Seriously I’ll say it again. These are so cool and fun

(background colored in with ohuhu markers)

[detectivecatsuitdrew]

I finally played through Mystery of the Seven Keys! Wanted to type out my initial thoughts and whatnot, spoilers below!

I managed to avoid spoilers for this game so I was able to go in completely blind. I tried to avoid reviews as well to try to come in with no expectations. Overall, I say it’s a decent game. Not my favorite, but definitely a massive improvement over MID.

In terms of gameplay and graphics, WOW. So so much better than MID. I really liked the environment and getting to roam around. Just like with MID, I did suffer some motion sickness at first, but it went away after a little bit. And I really appreciate that they offer the two different modes.

In terms of characters, it did kind of feel like a lot and I forgot about Oskar half of the time lol but again, better executed than MID. Love Patricie and Radek. I also hope we get to see Agent Zane again.

I think the balance between puzzles vs dialogue/character interaction in comparison to other games (like MID having way too much dialogue vs puzzles and RAN having way too many puzzles vs dialogue).

Speaking of puzzles, maybe it’s just me, but I thought a few of them were fairly difficult and not super intuitive. I really enjoyed the cyber block, puppet, and the alchemy puzzles. But like the puzzle to open the book in the cafe? Again, maybe it’s just me, but that did not make sense to me at all. I really struggled with the Zlaty safe puzzle too.

(I guess the captcha when trying to open the DEGAS file is a puzzle, and it wasn’t hard albeit a bit annoying, but that jumpscare GOT ME. I jumped lol)

In terms of mini games, I like the coffee making. It’s no snack shop boss but I enjoyed it more than Johnny cakes. It reminded me a lot of the tea remedy mini game in MID.

The story/plot was decent. If LIE and CUR had a baby, it would be KEY. Little splash of SPY in there too. I did figure Elka was behind the cyber portion of it pretty much immediately, especially when she took the laptop and Nancy’s phone to “wipe.” (Like come on Nancy you know better than that!!! Geez) and then doubled down on that suspicion when it’s revealed Elka lost her mom almost essentially the same way Nancy lost hers. I did feel it was a little too obvious, but I’m glad she wasn’t the sole culprit and I’m even more glad that the culprits had concrete motives that made sense. I was worried it was going to be Patricie or something 😂

I understand why they didn’t include more phone conversations, but I kind of missed them! Though tbh I know when I replay games, I don’t really call Nancy’s phone contacts all that much, so it’s not a huge deal for me.

I thought the final confrontation was pretty on par for a Nancy Drew game, but the final conclusion is lackluster. I miss the letter summaries with the photos/cut away to images to what’s happening. I think it’s more visually interesting/concise that way, but I do appreciate that the final conversation between Adela, Zane, Marek, and Radek is more diegetic/natural.

Idk if anybody else feels this way, but what is it with Ned??? Is it Nancy trying to be a better girlfriend??? Make her more relatable, fleshed out as a character? Idk It felt out of place to me. And I find it so odd that three consecutive games are hitting heavy on tension between them. In SEA, we have their anniversary drama, in MID there’s that weird jealousy of Frank Hardy/that random girl in the background of one of his phone calls, and now we have Nancy really emphasizing with him how much she misses him and whatnot. I swear, if HeR continues to make games, I really want Ned to make an appearance!!! I was really hoping he’d be in this one, but there was no place for him honestly so understandable.

Okay I think I’m done rambling. These are just some initial thoughts and I don’t really know anyone personally who cares about ND games, so figured I’d post here.

If you made it this far, thanks for reading~!

[just-some-guy-joust]

Just Some Guy OC Tourney - Side B: Round 1

Rules:

do NOT be mean to anyone or any characters in these polls. you MUST clarify if you are joking/teasing or you will be blocked. if you are someone who entered an oc into this and you are mean to other contestants you will be disqualified

do NOT claim a character doesn't deserve to be here. yes including your own. be nice

if you are posting propaganda you have to tag us, including if your propaganda is in the reblogs. it is difficult to tell when something is or isn't propaganda. anything not tagging us will likely be missed

please don't hesitate to let me know if i messed something up!

have fun, hype each other up <3 thank you

Lilly | She/her | @pocket-ghostie

CW: Child death

Lilly is a ghost who has found other ghosts and is hanging out <3 Almost all of the plot is happening around her. Thats actually a major plot point in the story, things are happening to the people she cares about... but nothing is really happening to her. She is simply hanging out and doesn't know what to do about the plot, but it keeps going without her doing anything. I don't have much to say about her, I only have things to say about the people around her.

Promos: Toyhouse link: https://toyhou.se/21226516.lilly

~

Cobblestone Mason | He/him | @splatoonmaster69

CW: Unreality

A regular human fighter youve seen a thousand times. I promise. NEURODIVERGENCY JUMPSCARE.

~

Full images and descriptions under the cut!

Minor spoilers for the story <3 Lilly finds out that her brother accidentally murdered her and she freaks out bc that's wild. But then she forgives him and everything is fine. She finds out that her dad has turned into a monster and she does nothing about it but avoids him. Her mom starts trying to control her, and she just waits for her friends to help her because she knows they will. She is so so tired of The Plot and doesn't know what to do about it. So she just... doesn't deal with it. She is hanging out, she is simply a lovely litty girl who is going through the horrors <3 Her friends don't even know that much about her, except for her family. She doesn't even know that much about herself. She knows she likes flowers, and having fun... but she doesn't quite know what fun is to her. She kinda gets left behind by the plot in a sense, even though shes the main character. (But I still love her very very much, she is my baby and no one can hurt her <3)

[no image provided]

A "regular" "human" "fighter" NEURODIVERGENCY + "NEURODIVERGENCY" JUMPSCARE. So. By all accounts he really is just some guy i promise. In his head he is just a human fighter, boring as possible, average guy. Sure he has schizophrenia but hes not gonna let that stop him! The only issue is that he lives in a fantasy world, so his doctor really shouldve checked whether it was schizophrenia or mind reading. Yeah most of the time its the formor but if it isnt your kindof fucked And since he already hears voices, theres no way he'd understand that the new threatening voice in his head was his cool new sword that he found at a digsite. and that the little dragon following him around is his familar, not the dragonborn party members son.

As for the human part. he very well could be but im not gonna think about it too hard

anyways if you ignore all that other stuff hes basically just a regular guy for real. he has a passion for archeology and studying long dead civilizations, he likes animals, especially dragons. he collects trinkets that remind him of people he loves and wishes the voices in his head werent so mean because he knows his friends care about him and doesnt want to doubt that. Hes a regular ass guy!

[squidthesquidd]

Do you have any favourite headcanons about Nightshade?

(I feel like them being autistic is a pretty common headcanon, so I’m curious if you have any thoughts on that as well)

YEAYEYWYEYYSUSY OH MY GOD YES WE HAVE SO MANY HEADCANONS ABT THEM !!!!! get ready for a fuckn infodump (also sosoos many of these are just us projecting)

warning: i sound like an insane person

okay so YES !!! nightshade is absolutely autistic. and they are stimming constantly. they stim vocally a lot, and a lot of the time its just bird sounds, but sometimes it'll just start screaming lmao. it also likes to rock back and forth a lot!! definitely a verrrry common one.

Also if youve seen how we draw nightshade you might've noticed that we draw xem with little wings in root mode! they also flap those to stim :]

also they love slime!!! this is verry much just me projecting but i like to think xey love slime and they have a huge collection of textures <33 its favorite is bingsu!!!

and NEOPRONOUNS as you might've noticed :P. (we have a nightshade alter that uses neos so we are once again, projecting) but anyway, it was hashtag that told nightshade about neos, and they immediately got into it!! they have many and love hoarding them <3 some of xeir favorites are it/xe/that/owl/web/bot/mur

bones!!! vulture culture!!!!! they collect bones. sometimes theyll go out into the forest and search for bones for hours (it has soooo many antlers) and if web finds a dead animal, web'll take it back with them to clean it out webselves :]

They also have intrusive thoughts. yeah less fun headcanon time. they can be very vivid and very graphic, and its caused nightshade to have panic attacks a few times. i hc that bumblebee also used to have them, so bees helped xem through some of the bad ones <3

also xey have severe emetophobia. yeah i know, a bit of a weird one. if someones sick, they will be avoiding that person like the plague. whenever it watches a movie with the family, it'll always check if there are emeto scenes so it knows when to look away or leave (shout out to doesthedogdie.com i fucking love that website!!!!)

this post cus i think about it a lot

and general terran hc! i headcanon that all the terrans can eat human food :D although nightshade specifically has a difficult time eating (the tism) and xey'll only eat things like noodles or very processed food. murs a huge ramen lover 😎

MINECRAFT. you cannot look at nightshade and tell me they dont love minecraft!! xey have a survival world going where xeyre completely decked out in netherite, have a hundred redstone machines scattered all over the place, and just so many huge projects going on. mur started a multi player world and got all murs siblings to join. most chaotic world ever

and now im thinking abt owls, so. they have night vision, because of course. and it also sleeps in a nest (terrans can sleep hc jumpscare) its just a pile of a fuck ton of pillows and blankets and if you touch it xey WILL bite you

also it has a very strong prey drive. if they see anything particularly small moving around on the floor they are fucking jumping it. its like xeyre the maltos mouser lmao. no small animal that shows up in the malto home is safe

oh and as for music !!! big fan of the big neurodivergent three lmao. lemon demon, will wood, tally hall. that stuff yknow? (yes im projecting) also heres a playlist that our nightshade alter made that is 100% what we hc source nightshade to listen to !!!!

LOVES STAR TREK !!!! you CANNOT convince me they wouldn’t. big fan of the non-human bridge officers <3 Spock, Data, Saru (and also big Odo fan) webs favorite is probably next gen :] also i 100% percent believe it was Alex that introduced xem to it. i look at alex and see a star trek liker. i will not be taking criticism

oh and now heres a weird one. when nightshade was a protoform, they were always very… squinty? i dunno, its just something we noticed. like why are you squinting baby, can you not see? and then when xey got their altmode, suddenly xeir eyes were much wider! and i like to think that they did actually have bad eyesight as a protoform! and becoming an owl greatly improved it :]

also they cant see glass in their alt mode <3 hashtag has a compilation of mur crashing into windows

and about the episode "missed connection", we aren't actually told how long nightshade was helping tarantulas, and while most interpret it as just one day, i like to think it actually took about a week at least or even longer. i dont really know why i hc this, but maybe its cus i need nightshade and tarantulas to be besties or i'll die

okay thats it for now <3 i definitely have more headcanons so i might make a second post abt em later

[spocktogo]

Captain's Log Stardate Ep 2.1

Hell yes. This is it. I didnt even realise it was new season but then bones said spock was avoiding food and i k n e w. lets fucking go o m g

you can see how scared he is :( poor baby. loss of control his worst nightmare..

WHOAG jumpscare of new theme. which reminds me i need to send a picture to my bro. ok done

yess ahahaha yesss [sickos.png]

*cock

no really hes in so much stress. and jim is really packin the big doe eyes... but of course he will not say it. but already like 2mins in the k/s levels in this episode are insanely off the charts so im starting to get why this ep kicked it all off and not one of the earlier ones.

yeah adding to that i cant quite put my finger on it. something about the filming.. lots of face closeups and halfbody shots makes it all feel extremely personal and filled with some tension. the backing music also carries spocks tension well. obv i know whats going on but i didnt expect to be this enraptured by it, its really well done. teddy sturgeon you wouldve loved ao3

when you really want to touch your captain and additionally are in pon farr so its twice as difficult as usual not to so you clasp your hands behind your back (so does he because he is human and it is always that difficult for him)

and also theres a bed with red drapes between you not to be suggestive.

spock looking quite so-so at the idea of either taking a wife or dying. jim immediately sprinting out of his room to "command the ship" (crying fit in the broom closet)

face of a man who has put his ship and his career before a dozen wonderful women and has also just said 'hes my friend. isnt that worth a career?' to bones. face of a man who knows he just put it all out in the open

HELLO what. 'this fever causes an insanity which you will no doubt find distasteful' kirk:

bones:

(jim looks devastated here, actually)

bones constantly has the face of someone watching their closeted gay friend enter into yet another heterosexual relationship. a face i recognise well.

it just occurred to me. NO ONE is happy. not spock not jim not bones not chapel not uhura nobody is even remotely joyful at the idea of spocks marriage. it looks like hes going to jail or to a gladiator arena (which he is but they dont know that yet) (but as the viewer we already dont expect this to go well)

I like how the vulcan custom is to be wrapped in stiff ass tinfoil and make horrible jangling noise with a gazillion bells. i would also need a very solid logical mindset to not go completely apeshit. new headcanon plak tau just translates to sensory overload

tiddy time. spock really said lemme at them. it is literally his second combat move. wow.

sorry what the hell. hes disheveled. hes HEAVING. billy shat big naturals absolutely all on display who greenlit this??!?!?

the combat scene wasnt even all that. but spock saying "having is not so pleasing a thing after all as wanting"?

me when i have big ears and no lines in this episode

me when im about to surprise my boyfriend with being alive (epic prank) (he smiled so big)

aaand then. come on spock lets go mind the store*

* iowa slang for [censored for the protection of our good christian values]

my god this was amazingly cute. i rescind all my earlier comments i get why this REALLY kindled the flame of slash shipping. oh my what an episode.

[wisteriaiswriting]

Tf2 matchups :0000000000

(hopefully they’re still open I can’t quite tell so if they are obvs you can ignore this!!!)

Cool nouns: any/all!!

Zodiac: Aries sun, Leo moon, libra rising

MBTI: intj-a

How I describe myself: huge nerd, collector of stupid shit, I am both the golden retriever boyfriend and goth girlfriend in one genderless human shaped mass. Girl kisser and dilf enjoyer

Hobbies: web design, cooking, video games, reading,

How other people describe me (/pos):

- “The fact that of all of us (in reference to the polycule) you don’t have an autisim diagnosis is more of a jumpscare than you being ginger”

- “You could tell me the sky is hot pink and if you said it with the same conviction you say most things I’d trust you completely on it.”

Character flaws? Idk how to phrase this without it reading as self deprecating- issues I know I have that would inevitably be relevant to knowing me.

- I lack both empathy and sympathy almost completely, which makes me absolutely horrid at comforting people unless they want practical, logic driven solutions.

- I have a bad habit of seeing my solutions as the only viable solution, even if it’s been proven to be wrong/ineffective

- I can be incredibly arrogant (bordering on elitist) about the topics I am passionate about

- I form strong opinions of people quickly, and they are extremely difficult to shake (a bad first impression with me usually ends in a distain so strong I inconvenience myself to avoid said person, and it’s just as hard to convince me someone I like has done something wrong without extremely concrete proof, and even then I’m inclined to forgive them.)

Love language: gifts!! Usually art, or trinkets and cooking.

Miscellaneous and potentially unnecessary facts about me:

- I really like terraria

- My bed is more categorically akin to a nest

- My cats name is Fortnite Battlepass

- One of the name ideas for him was Dollarama

- I own a student grade microscope, and use it often

- My favourite passtime is drawing pathetic men happy and in love

- I have Gale (from bg3) orb scar as a tattoo

I match you with...

Soldier!

If I'm being real here, I bet he loves that you can cook, even if it's not five star meals, he’ll eat whatever it is.

You could convince him of many things very easily, so take that as you will.

He is also incredibly arrogant on topics he’s passionate about, this could end with you two violently agreeing or someone ending up in the respawn machine. (Just because you’re his partner, doesn’t mean he stand for his opinions)

Although your lack of empathy might cause some of these fights, even if it seems he wouldn’t care or understand, sometimes he needs that deeper comfort.

He can appreciate some gift giving, whenever you get him something, he’ll be quick to get you something in return.

Points:

Soldier - 8

Scout - 7

Pyro - 6

Heavy - 5

Medic - 5

Spy - 5

Engi - 4

Sniper - 4

Saxton - 4

Demo - 2

Administrator - 1

[aviculor]

My birthday hasn't exactly been the most exciting one, so I decided to watch one of the horror films I've been looking forward to the most. When Evil Lurks, a film with such great technical merits that it completely swept the last Dead Meat Horror Awards in every category it was nominated for. I've avoided seeing as much as I could, as difficult as that's been. What I know ahead of time is that it's about a demonic possession virus running rampant in a small Argentinian town and the most iconic kill is a child getting mauled by a dog. I've heard comparisons to Aterrados/Terrified, and I really enjoyed that one. I was originally saving this for October- like, possibly even Halloween itself- so here's hoping Longlegs gets its digital release before then.

The way everyone describes Uriel's...condition...it's clear this is something that's happened before and it's a known phenomenon. But by and large, whatever lore or history that's present is a mystery to be unraveled by the viewer. All we know is what we see; this man is so bloated with pus that he's bedridden, killing him will "release" something, and the "cleaner" that was sent to deal with him properly was found murdered on the way to the house.

Good lord, out of nowhere. That was basically a jumpscare. I knew it was coming, but it still got me. Just like Charlie's decapitation in Hereditary, this is terrifying to watch because it's a real thing that can and does happen. Supernatural influence notwithstanding. And you know the kicker? The only witness was another child who had to interrupt his parents arguing. Do you want to know what that reminds me of? When my family was on vacation when I was a small child and I had to get my dad's attention that my mom fell down a hill and broke her leg. It's like, no, you don't understand! This is not a 'child urgent' thing! This is a 'real urgent' thing! But yeah, killing a child is fairly taboo and that's a big reason why this is the film's signature scene. Pet Sematary 2019 turned the notion into a goofy action movie stunt to lessen the impact (pun not intended), but not here, that dog just suddenly turns on her as she's petting it and you see it shaking her around like a ragdoll and then it fucking runs off dragging her by the neck. You hate seeing it.

Wait...she's still alive? But I thought....oh. I guess we're playing by Evil Dead rules.

Should I be offended that this autistic person is borderline catatonic, constantly makes moaning noises, and poops his pants?

And there's another mutilated child, albeit a blink-and-you-miss it moment. Another gruesomely memorable scene.

Oh Pedro, you stupid hijo de puta...

Okay, yeah, I think I'm going to need to read some analyses on this one.

[sayakxmi]

[Magi reread] Night 70: Bird

Yeaah, wasn't exactly feeling very Magi lately. Or anything. Kinda hard to go back to normal uni mode from a winter break, so I was busy trying to make sense of my sleeping schedule, which, frankly, is still shit, but, hey, I'm doing my best here XD

Also, damn, I really like that new blog theme. It's so readable. For me, at least. No regrets.

But anyway, the actual chapter.

RIP Alibaba's Weapon DE burnt arms, you will be missed by ME, because I thought they were super cool.

Tbh, I don't think it evolved? I've always read it as Alibaba not mastering it fully, actually. I mean, most DE's cover the body better, and later naturally transform into Full-Body DEs. So, basically, it wasn't until that moment that he actually reached Weapon Djinn Equip.

Low blow.

Well, fuck

Very good catch, Morgiana.

Tbh, I don't think they would've died... Or at least, I don't think Sinbad would've died, cuz I think Alibaba could've cushioned him a little, but it also probably would've really sucked for him, too. Like, from that hit, his spine could've broken, probably...

Actually, damn, the fact that Alibaba's didn't break. Or, damn, shouldn't he have some head trauma? By now he probably should've. Anyway, but also I checked the previous page, and from the way he hit the wall, he sort of avoided hitting his head, but god damn, the fact that his spine is fine after this is a goddamn miracle.

You know, I really think it's pretty cool. Just, these two working together. Idk, man, I'm always weak for Sinbad and Alibaba.

It took me an embarrassing moment to realize he was being pulled by Djinn!Cassim's gravity powers...

This entire part deserved to be here. I love how aware he is that he can't do it yet, and just braces himself for a hit... that never comes.

10/10. And the fact that SAHBMAD is commanding them.

When did you get back there.

Also, love how he's so concerned for them, but Sinbad calms him down.

-claps- You go, guys

I genuinely love how desperate the situation is, and how everybody's trying, anyway.

Lowkey made me think about Honkai Impact 3rd's "Everlasting Flames" animated short. There's that quote "We're connected by this sword. It will burn up the darkness to make way for light!". Feels quite fitting.

Like, it has nothing to do with each other, obviously, but I just thought it was fun.

JUDAR FUCKING JUMPSCARE

Like, I genuinely forgot he appears here.

Also, damn, Alibaba gets no breaks, does he?

I love that Sinbad's immediately next to him.

Alibaba, being the normalest guy around: Al-Thamen: Nope, we can't have that.

Jokes aside, yeah, dude's not wrong. Alibaba might be nothing special compared to behemots like Sinbad or Kouen, but he's got an ungodly amount of willpower when push comes to shove, and is smart enought to maneuver himself in difficult situations. Tho the fact that he seems so unremarkable is also to his benefit, since people tend to underestimate him.

But Al-Thamen doesn't. It makes sense for them - they've been running the world from the shadows for hundreds of years. They know that just because somebody might not look like they can amount to much, doesn't mean they aren't capable of it. And Alibaba's given them the proof of it. He went not only against fate they'd envisioned, but also against the one Sinbad had. He is a threat-in-making.

Well, yeah, the situation really fucking sucks. I've said it before & I'm saying it again, I like how Alibaba isn't fucking fooling himself into believing he can do this... but at the same time, he doesn't give up. He has to do this, somehow. He just doesn't know how yet. And it's well in line with his characterization, just like his talk with Cassim about avoiding bloodshed. He doesn't know yet, but he will figure something out. There's too much to lose if he doesn't.

I mean, yeah, somebody had to handle this.

"That's...?"

._.

.__.

Like, bro, what do I say. This fucking sucks.

HIT ITAAAAAAHHHHHHH

I NEED A HERO~!

You know I had to.

[keepthyfaithandthylight]

I’m going to be rebranding this account, slightly.

Allow me to elaborate. I simply do not like the presentation on this account. Memes were.. not particularly what I planned on posting to this account, and I certainly am not proud of it being the majority of what is on here. So, here’s what to expect going forward.

>a heavy increase in posting of artwork! However, this does also mean I will be posting even less frequently than I already do simply because I seem to be going constantly, but I will be doing that. You will probably see more content for au’s (frev piercing au is being revived, plus another au that I don’t post much here.)

>history posts in general. This is, after all, primarily a history blog.

>that being said, while it is a history blog, I will not hesitate to use what little platform I have to speak out on certain topics. These posts I will mark with a specific tag and there will be a notice at the top of the post, so if you’d rather skip those posts they will be easily identifiable. I do not wish to jumpscare people here with difficult topics, especially those who would prefer to avoid certain discourse for the sake of their mental health. I respect that choice, and I strive to make this a safe place.

>however, if you do happen to enjoy my memes, fret not! I will continue to post them on occasion, as well as memes made by my friends.

•

•

There is also a probability that I will move some content from this account to another, but that is still up for debate so stay tuned.

[redslug]

And now onto guidelines not related to bugs(hehe) and glitches. STYLES

Neuroslug knows three styles of mine, I'll explain how to use them effectively and what they mean.

But before that, clarifications on naming conventions and why I use them like that. Painterly style is called rslp - "redslug painterly". Likewise: rsll - "redslug line", rslw - "redslug watercolor". They're tagged in such a way to avoid token confusion, if I tagged something straight up "redslug painterly" I run the risk of it trying to pull in slugs, color red and every other style that was tagged as "painterly" in the massive dataset of stable diffusion, which will naturally dilute the meaning and make calling for a particular style more difficult. It's not really necessary if you plan on training on your style, but it is the safest option in my opinion. RSLP STYLE The detailed style you see me use often lately, it has lines but everything is still shaded like a painting with smooth blends and lots of color variation. Examples of what this token will try to recreate:

Example of generations, raw and unretouched, with this style:

AI learning is a very lossy process so it can't fully grasp a style within one token, but you can work around issues like lack of detail or undesirable shading by putting in artist names. You can look for ones who's work is public domain if you're particular about not calling for styles of living artists.

Cheats for this style: Adding "Bob Eggleton" to the very end of the prompt where it has little weight will add a bit of texture to the image, which results in a blend that is pretty close to the target style I showed earlier. Works great for dark scenes, but can make bright scenes muddy. Here's what it results in.

As you can see, it added detail but ate all linework. there are several ways around it still. You can lower the prompt weight like this by Bob Eggleton >>>turn into this>>> (by Bob Eggleton)- This might not be true, check syntax rules in documentation of whatever UI you chose to use. Anyway, result of that manipulation

The head turn jumpscared me, not gonna lie. A little closer to what I wanted but I want the side angle and the prominent lines still. Yet another trick, and this one looks spooky:

("").swap(", by Bob Eggleton", t_start=0.5, t_end=0.9) What does this monstrosity of a formula do? Let's go step by step. ("").swap(", by Bob Eggleton", t_start=0.5, t_end=0.9) This is what is in the prompt originally, for the first steps this prompt will look like "a painting of an anthropomorphic moth woman sitting on a hill in a flower field, morning sky, sunny, happy, rslp style, intricate detail" to the model the ("") signifies empty space at the end of the prompt. And that empty space will be swapped for this: ("").swap(", by Bob Eggleton", t_start=0.5, t_end=0.9)

After the swap the prompt that gets to the AI will look like this "a painting of an anthropomorphic moth woman sitting on a hill in a flower field, morning sky, sunny, happy, rslp style, intricate detail, by Bob Eggleton" This is still not all, we also specify when the swap happens and when it swaps back to what was there originally. It's what this part does ("").swap(", by Bob Eggleton", t_start=0.5, t_end=0.9)

If it's not immediately obvious, the length of the generation starts with 0 and ends with 1, regardless of how many steps you use. On each step the AI denoises and tweaks an image it's creating and you can ram whatever you want in between these steps because technically they're separate images with their own prompts. I typically run 28 steps, but you do you.

t_start=0.5 signifies that halfway through generation process, on step 14 the prompt will change to include "by Bob Eggleton"

t_end=0.9 makes the prompt swap back to not mentioning him at all on step 25 and finish the image using only rslp as a style signifier. The resultt is this:

Bingo. Lines still there in shadows, detail is moderate, highlight overtakes lines on the rim light, like I would do if I was drawing this by hand. Be warned, this exact syntax won't work everywhere, what I used is specific to InvokeAI, read the documentation on the UI you're using before attempting something similar. RSLL STYLE My flat style with less complex shadows and more focus on line work. By default it can sometimes become too flat, so use cheats generously. Examples of what this token will try to recreate:

Example of generations with this style:

Cheats for this style: If you want it flatter, tack "anime screencap" or something of this sort on to the end. Similar results can be achieved by even using names of famous animations. Since they're at the very end they won't make anything from that IP actually pop up but will change shading.

If you want to go the more detail and hardcore line work route, John Bauer is a great artist to call for. And all his art has entered public domain a while ago too.

You can use all the methods listed for previous style here as well, also do search for more styles if you really want to experiment. This is a great place to look, both to use as prompts and even just to discover new artists you may have never found otherwise. RSLW STYLE What it said on the tin, it tries to imitate my traditional watercolor style. By itself it's not very convincing, but you can steer it to what you want with the right method.

Examples of what this token will try to recreate:

Example of generations with this style:

Cheats for this style: It's probably the weakest of my style tokens, so you should almost always use "watercolor" at the end to bring back the paper grain and layered feel. There's a caveat though. "watercolor" is an insanely strong token even when you put it at the end, to the point where it will change everything dramatically.

I mean, yeah, that's watercolor, but it's not my typical watercolor. I paint dark with it, not sheer. And rarely leave paper white anywhere. So, if you want to go for my style do the creepy formula thing, to only call for watercolor somewhere in the middle of the generation.

There, close enough. Insertion of tokens is a very powerful thing in general, not only for this style, as it lets you preserve composition and only change specific details. This style also responds really well to John Bauer btw.

General prompt composition As closing words I'll provide my typical structure to get you started.

90% of the time I start with "a painting of" because all my colored works are described that way. If you go with just "anthropomorphic moth woman" it'll unearth a huge part of Neuroslug's training which isn't exactly the prettiest – sketches. There are a ton of them used to help it learn the concept of anthro bugs but without a pretty style accompanying it. Here's a generation with these sketches showing their little black&white heads.

It's... okay, I guess, I just personally don't like it when these pop up. They desaturate the hell out of everything too.

Main body of the prompt goes as follows:

anthropomorphic (species here) (gender here) wearing (clothing here) in/on/at (location here), (mood tokens here), rslp/rsll/rslw style, intricate detail, (additional style tokens)

Feel free to change it however you want, this form is just the most consistent for me so far.

This concludes my text wall on styles. Expect more instructions on poses, body types and other stuff sometime tomorrow. Am sleepy.

NEUROSLUG IS OUT OF CONTAINMENT

You can grab it here It's a little dumb but it's trying it's best so treat it well. yes I did just use hand drawn art to announce an AI model, don't apply human logic to me, I'm a slug Brief list of features: imitation of three different coloring styles of mine, knows anthro butterflies, moths, beetles and flies, can create about 8 different body types on both male and female characters if you ask hard enough.

Guidelines on it's application and fun details will be attached in a reblog. Have fun with my spawn.

[monstersdownthepath]

Monster Spotlight: Psychic Stalker

CR 7

Neutral Evil Medium Undead

Occult Bestiary, pg. 45 (also Bestiary 6, pg. 216)

Violent and envious undead created when a psychic spellcaster dies a hideous and violent death, Psychic Stalkers are a step above Shadows and Will-o-the-Wisps on the “invisible, incorporeal, bastardous monster that’s incredibly difficult to harm” ladder. The Formless ability of a Stalker makes it invisible, incorporeal, and impossible to detect or reveal through any means or spell; no Invisibility Purge, no See Invisibility, no Glitterdust or Faerie Fire, not even the old flour trick will work here! You’ve all the frustrations of fighting an enemy that cannot be seen or hit with nonmagical weapons in a single monster here! What more could you ask for?

There is SOME mercy in this design, though: it lacks the titanic AC and magic immunity of the Will-o-wisp (though it has twice as much HP to make up for it), and lacks the ability to cause depopulation events like a Shadow can. Also, it’s a high-enough level threat that the party is starting to get some AoE spells, and since it’s not immune to magic, the party caster can just blast its general area, and the party Cleric can weaken it with pulsed Channel Energy if needed. ... you know, if you know it’s there. A Psychic Stalker can jumpscare an otherwise prepared and alert party because it basically doesn’t exist until it gets right on top of the party and attacks, and its first attack may as well be undodgable thanks to being an incorporeal touch attack... which, depending on who it hits, may just end them instantly.

See, while Shadows attack Str and Willywisps attack HP, Psychic Stalkers attack Charisma, the most dumped stat in the entire game. There is no saving throw to avoid a Stalker’s consumption of a victim’s ego; if it hits with an incorporeal touch attack (which it has a +10 to), that’s an automatic 1d6 Cha damage. If you dumped Cha to 6 or 8 and the Stalker gets lucky, you may be out of the fight before initiative is even rolled. Luckily, the death caused by their Charisma damage isn’t instant, because a creature at 0 Charisma can survive by making DC 20 Will saves... but, unluckily, this is because Stalkers want their victims alive. Specifically, they want their victims at half their normal Cha, something--again--they may be able to do with a single attack.

Any creature who’s lost half their Cha score can be targeted by the Stalker’s Fleeting Possession, a dangerous and draining form of inhabitation that can be resisted with a DC 20 Will save (which renders the creature immune to further attempts for 24 hours). A creature that fails falls under the Stalker’s control, where it then immediately begins to deluge its senses with whatever stimulus it can. Drinking potions, eating rations, slamming its hands in a door, screaming and shouting and singing, the Stalker does whatever it can in the short time it has before its host’s mind is torn apart and the host is killed, because the Stalker continues to uncontrollably deal 1d6 Cha damage to the possessed victim every round, which can and will eventually kill them.

In an interesting twist, the Stalker becomes vulnerable when it’s just about to possess someone. Anyone suffering even a single point of Cha damage from the creature’s touch attack is able to see exactly where it is, viewing it as an abstract cloud of psychic energy with the image of a skull inside it. While this negates the advantage granted by its invisibility, it’s still incorporeal and thus immune to nonmagic weapons. While you’re bound to have at least one or two by the time you’re expected to fight one of these, there’s a chance you won’t depending on your DM, so seeing it doesn’t really mean much for a victim that doesn’t have a direct way to damage or deflect it before it flies into their body and uses it to savage the rest of the party.

Though the Stalker is willing to waste time sating its mad lusts for sensation, attacking it while it’s in possession of a host body is a good way to make it lash out with all its new skills and muscle. After all, who’s more likely to have dumped Charisma and gotten possessed in the first place: the Sorcerer, or the Fighter? Again and again I say that the most dangerous monster a party can face is itself, and this one comes with the caveat that not ending the Possession effect in 2 or 3 rounds spells death for the victim even if you manage to slap them with Hold Person to keep them from attacking everyone. And then the Psychic Stalker just moves on to the next nearest creature to begin the cycle all over again.

Except now it has help, because any creature it slays with its possession becomes an echohusk that’s bound to obey its every mental command. So I suppose you could say I lied when I said it can’t cause a depopulation event, because it’s very possible that the party could encounter the stumbling remains of a former town that trundles towards them and have a confusing but worrying moment wondering why the zombies are preferring nonlethal damage and restraints... and then the grappled Rogue suddenly loses half their Charisma to a foe no one else can see. Really, the fact that it’s utterly invisible except to the creature it’s attacking may just make the party think some form of illusion is at play instead of a creature, especially if there’s zombies keeping the rest of the party from thinking clearly.

You can read more about them here.

[ldreamofgenie]

My Man

Summary: Fifteen years after you gave away your heart to him, the boy you fell in love with ends up in Arkham Asylum. You decide to pay him a visit…

Warnings: manipulation, loosely based off the song My Man from Funny Girl (theatre kid jumpscare), weird spacing bc I copy and pasted this from my notes app

“Edward Nashton, you will be the man I marry one day…”

Fifteen years ago, you promised Edward the most sacred thing anyone could sign over to another: your heart.

That promise would be the last thing you said to Edward. Your sweet Eddie would never hear from you again, not even a visit or a call or a text.

Now here you were, fifteen years after that promise, standing in a muggy puddle under the moribund rust that mockingly read: Arkham Asylum.

You were shivering—whether that was from the frigid air or overwhelming fear was unclear.

You were hardly able to give the security attendant your ID, your hand trembling throughout the entire exchange. You slipped him a twenty when you saw that look of recognition cross his face to stop him from calling the paps before he got the idea. If your parents found out about this, you’d be cut off for life.

Fifteen years ago, you were adopted by a wealthy writer and her socialite wife who had recently moved to Gotham from Miami. After a couple of visits to the orphanage, they fell in love with you and wanted to adopt. You and Edward were fourteen then, and the both of you swore you would never be adopted at this point. Your Cinderella Story came true, while his everlasting nightmare continued.

Your parents didn’t allow you to visit the orphanage to see him. They wanted to protect you from the harassment of the press, as it would be a bad look for them as new mothers. So you sent letters. Letters with riddles, love notes, and your favorite fairytales. You poured your soul into each letter, but they were thrown away by the orphanage on arrival, never to meet Edward’s arms…

Your leg bounced incessantly onto the ground. Every bounce would create a new scrape against the chipping paint on the floor. The guard gave you a dirty look, making you stop and look down in embarrassment. You notice your sock was still wet from that dirty moat. You wondered if it was still possible to get trench foot nowadays. To be honest, you would rather take the trench foot than to be wading in this vexatious reality.

A guard comes in on the other side of the plexiglass. You look up, expecting someone unrecognizable from the boy you last met fifteen years ago. But the reality is so much worse. They bring him in with shackles around his hands, feet, even his neck.

The sight of him makes your lip begin to curl up involuntarily. The stinging of your eyes from incoming tears forces your head to hide in your hands. It’s agony. Nothing but pure agony to see him like this.

What hurt the most is that he looked the same. His mousy hair was still unable to be brushed down and his smile, abliet sinister, still reminded you of a smiley fry. You could not fathom that your sweet Eddie could have ever turned into this tempestuous monster. The very thought made your throat clinch and it became increasingly difficult to breathe.

“What’s the matter my dear Y/N?” his soft voice caresses your ears once again despite the muffle from the plexiglass between you.

The lump in your throat was too big to speak. You shake your head in your hands, praying that you’ll wake up from this nightmare. You’ll be fourteen again and back in his arms; counting stars on the roof of the orphanage, reading books to each other, him telling you riddles and you telling him fairytales. No murder, no Riddler, no fame, not even wealth; him back in your arms is all the peace wish for.

“Hello Edward,” you managed to choke out in between your heaving breaths.

“Aww, not even an ‘Eddie’ for your dear old friend? I know you’ve been avoiding me for fifteen years, but I think I deserve a little more than formality here.” He was jovial. It pissed you off. How can someone be jovial in a place like this after causing so much destruction in other peoples lives. His solipsism was unfathomable.

“Edward I came here to…” you didn’t know why you were here actually. You thought it was to just talk to him, but who in their right mind would want to speak to this asshole. You wanted to see him again, but why?

“You came here to apologize for never visiting me or contacting me after you began to live your high life and leaving me in the dust…Go ahead let’s hear it.”

“That’s not true Edward. Don’t you dare say that. I wrote to you every day that I could—“ you tried to explain but he cut you off.

“Oh stop it with the lies Y/N! That’s all you wealthy types do all day, lie lie lie.”

“I am not a liar and I’m not one of those—“

“Oh but you are! Just like the rest of them—“

“Edward I am not them! I wrote to you, letters upon letters upon letters. I poured my heart into each of them. My parents forbid me from—“

“Forbid you! Oh Y/N I knew you lived in a fantasy world, but this is sick! You are an adult, your parents can’t forbid you from anything!”

“Don’t talk about being an adult with me Edward. You are mad at the world, so you decide to kill people?! That’s more than childish, it’s fucking stupid! My parents support me financially, you don’t understand how—“

“No, YOU DONT UNDERSTAND! You got your Cinderella story Y/N and you left me behind to die! I watched you in the press, going to school with Bruce Wayne and the Kane’s and the Elliot’s. You became friends and cohorts those no good yuppies that made our lives in the orphanage a living hell! You abandoning me was a choice. Your parents may have forbid, but you didn’t want to be seen in the press with the poor orphan boy anyway!”

You sat in shock at his vehemence. You wanted to be angry at him, but he was right. Everything he said was correct and you were deeply ashamed in yourself. His soft eyes bore daggers into your soul.

After what feels like an eternity of silence, he says “Take off the sunglasses Y/N.”

You shook your head violently. “Edward you know I can’t do that.”

“Why not? Because people will talk. The press will know that Gotham’s sweetheart has come to visit the terrorist. Take the sunglasses off Y/N.” He says it with force, but you’ve known him for so long. You know that familiar look of sadness on his face; when his eyebrows slant down and his left eye twitches. He’s trying not to cry.

“Please Y/N,” tears begin streaming down his face and his once bellowing voice barely a squeak, “just take the sunglasses off. I need to see your eyes. I’ve missed you so much I just—“

You shush him softly and press your hand against the glass. He presses his hand in the same place. Just like when you were kids, pressing your palms against the orphanage window. It always provided him solace when the nights got frigid and hypothermia seemed like a sweet escape from the pain. He would feel the heat of your palm against the glass and everything would be okay once again.

You took the sunglasses off. That familiar smile returned to his face. This time, it wasn’t sinister or evil: it was warm and filled with love.

You sat there and stared longingly into each others eyes. It was like counting stars on the roof again. Each iris had the same amount of lines as when you last met, but they held so much exhaustion. So much pain inside. You wanted to help him because god knows Arkham isn’t doing anything to assuage his anguish.

“Am I still the man you want to marry one day?” He broke the comfortable silence with a deadweight…

You broke down. You remember the night you made that promise to him; you had just learned you were going to be adopted by the fairytale family of your dreams. It was the night you had to leave Edward behind. So you gave him the best gift you could think of: your heart.

“I—I don’t know Eddie…”

“No Cinderella story is complete without it’s prince. Let me be your prince. Please Y/N, will you marry me?” He pressed his left hand to the glass.

Fifteen years of emptiness. In these fifteen minutes you’ve spent in this horrid place, that emptiness had been filled by his warm presence. You experienced more emotions in these fifteen minutes that you had these past fifteen years. It was enthralling. No amount of wealth could ever make up for an eternity with your Eddie. You wanted to experience this Saturnalia for as long as possible.

You pressed your left hand in the same spot.

“Yes Eddie, I will marry you.”

“So help me get out of here darling.”

“Yes Eddie, I will.”

[fruggo]

the boys x tough f!reader (part 2)

requested by : @dranonymous

i love this idea and i hope you all enjoy part two! :D here’s part 1 with the original request.

warnings: swearing, canon-typical violence, dwight is really cute, danny is an asshole, jake is that cute “stoic man who is actually caring and thoughtful” trope because i say so

𝐃𝐖𝐈𝐆𝐇𝐓 𝐅𝐀𝐈𝐑𝐅𝐈𝐄𝐋𝐃

you are so cool. like ,,,,,so cool

dwight admires you so much. you just got here and yet you are breaking pyramid head’s ankles—dodging his trail of torment left and right, the killer just can’t touch you.

and how did you feel about everything? terrified, honestly, but nobody would ever be able to tell because you didn’t let it get to you. it was like you had already been here before, because the second you learned how to do something, you had it down no problem. fixing generators came naturally, and you could also run the killer for the whole trial if you had to. teammates could easily rely on you to do whatever needed to be done.

that was what made you and dwight such a powerful duo. from the moment you met, you knew you felt comfortable around this guy. he was sweet, maybe a little timid sometimes, but he knew how to step up and be a leader for everyone despite his fears.

you both knew what to do, and you fit together like a glove. your minds worked in very similar ways, which made communicating that much easier and efficient; the second a decision needed to be made, dwight was on top of it, encouraging the teammates and helping them get on their feet. you were already ahead of them, so dwight would just nod to you, knowing you could do your job well.

of course, there were times when dwight’s anxiety got the better of him, and you had to be the one encouraging him.

dwight hated the hag. despised her. he could not stand her jumpscares when a trap was triggered, he would swear he was about to have a heart attack. he couldn’t admit this at first, but you figured it out when feng min was hooked and dwight stuck to the generator, nervously glancing over his shoulder every few seconds. he always went for the saves, so something was obviously wrong.

“dwight? why don’t you go save her?” you asked, eyeing him from your side of the generator.

he didn’t respond, looking over his shoulder again.

you decided to rescue min, but when you got back, you were going to chew dwight out until he gave you a straight answer.

you crawled up to the hook to avoid triggering a trap and gently lowered min to the ground. the two of you inched away carefully until you were far enough away to patch her wound.

“dwight, get off your ass and answer me,” you demanded (affectionately) once you were back at the generator, which was nearly finished. “what’s wrong?”

his eyes conveyed nervousness in every sense of the word; they darted all around, searching for any incoming danger. this was your first time seeing him like this, so you were confused. was he alright?

“it’s just…the hag,” he started, still fiddling with the wires. “her traps, i can’t…”

oh. was he anxious about the traps?

“i just can’t deal with them,” he finally said with difficulty. that was understandable; when they caught you off guard it definitely made you leap out of your skin.

“dwight, listen,” you said. “you’ve dealt with every other killer in this realm, haven’t you? you’ve bested the nurse, the huntress, micky myers, and even the spirit, who’s a bitch. i know hag’s traps are fucking terrifying, but you’re dwight! you are a leader, and you are good at being a leader. you can get out of here, i promise. and besides, with me here, you have nothing to worry about. i’ll kick that witch’s ass, got it?”

your very inspirational speech got him to smile. you were right, anyways—you could definitely kick the hag’s ass. what could go wrong?

nothing, actually. genuinely nothing went wrong. you took chase for the rest of the trial so that dwight didn’t have to worry about a thing, and everybody escaped with no problem. he didn’t understand how you were so good at evading capture—but perhaps you would tell him about your past eventually. you hadn’t yet decided.

back at the campfire, you and dwight comfortably sat side-by-side, patiently waiting until your next trials.

“thanks,” he said.

“for what?”

“for that very motivational speech you gave me,” he laughed.

you wiped imaginary dust off of your shoulder, giving him a confident smile. “i got your back. and man, that hag lady really is a bitch, huh? i can see why you hate her.”

that comment unintentionally caused one of dwight’s long, angry rants about his least favorite killer, and all you could do was watch him and listen with a soft grin on your lips. you’d never seen him angry before—it was adorable. made you wonder if you should just piss him off for fun sometimes.

𝐉𝐀𝐊𝐄 𝐏𝐀𝐑𝐊

this guy has hella respect for you

you’re independent and easy to teach, and that’s everything he could ask for.

now and then, the other survivors basically gave newbies to jake to teach them everything about the realm—they considered him the expert on all things survival. you were one of those newbies he was forced to take care of.

jake normally hated teaching new survivors more than anything, because it was never his choice and they were all so difficult. but you were different. you were responsible, reliable, and smart, and it made his job so much easier. as time went on, he grew to be quite fond of you.

word eventually got out that the new girl had managed to charm jake out of his “hermit ways,” but he insisted that it was not true (he also disagreed about the “hermit ways” part). it was never spoken of between the two of you, but it definitely floated around in the air waiting to be addressed.

it really couldn’t be ignored any longer. anytime you were seen anywhere within 24 feet of each other, the other survivors would give you looks and wiggle their eyebrows or shoot you a thumbs up—all of which were unwanted. it created a weird tension between you and jake that wasn’t there before, and you really didn’t like it.

you missed when you were first starting out, and jake had just realized how competent you are. those days were fun—he respected you a lot; you could see it in his face when he looked at you. you always knew when he was pleased and when you did stuff right, because he would have the tiniest, most subtle grin on his face, but you could see it, and it made you feel accomplished.

you knew he still respected you, but you had basically jumped the learning curve of the realm and quickly adapted to every killer, every challenge, and every task. how you did it, nobody could ever know. but you were almost sad, because there was kind of no reason for you and jake to spend a lot of time together anymore. if you did, then everybody would freak out for the wrong reasons, and it would ruin your friendship.

so what if you had a few small feelings for him? no one gave a shit—you knew jake probably wouldn’t give a shit. to him, you were just another annoying survivor he was forced to teach. besides, you didn’t have time for that kind of thing.

man, were you wrong, though. he really, really wanted to be around you, but you already knew everything, so he didn’t know what to do to spend time with you. his way of initial bonding was sharing knowledge, but that had already been done, so…what now?

then came the one trial that changed everything.

it was normal at first. the killer, blight, was doing well, so you had to step up your game. one generator was completed and he had 4 hooks on three different people—you were the only one not hooked yet.

he was after you, and you were expertly dodging every rush and swing he threw your way. unfortunately, you accidentally ran to the generator that jake was working on, and things got a little complicated.

when the blight rushed at the wall, then at you, jake ran towards you while you ran towards him—you were both looking over your shoulders—and alas, bonk. you crashed into each other.

oh, no!! how terrible!! looks like jake fell on top of you :/ what an unfortunate situation to be in /s /s /s /s /s

wowwww near proximity ! you’d never been so close before and it was awkward but nice (?)

then you remembered there was a crazy drug addict or whatever over there and he was chasing you, and the moment was ruined. jake quickly rose and pulled you up with him, and you went in opposite directions, both nervous and wide-eyed now.

lol

after that, the trial went quite south. everybody was sacrificed. perhaps the loss could be partly attributed to you and jake avoiding each other like the plague. but who knows, right?

back at the campfire, you began feeling overwhelmed by all the weird stuff happening lately, so you excused yourself to the edge of the woods to have some quiet time to yourself. a few minutes later, jake came to check on you bc he is a fucking gentleman and yes i will die for the “stoic man who is actually caring and thoughtful” trope. fuck you

it’s slightly awkward at first, but then you start talking like normal and things feel a lot better. a little bit of the tension eases away, but not completely. what the fuck do you do with feelings like this?????

you simply composed yourself as best you could. it would have to do.

now that you felt a little more normal (lie), you trekked back to the campfire to wait for your next trials side-by-side. there was no one you felt more comfortable with or more respected by than jake. he appreciated you for your competency, and that was one of the best things you could ask for.

and to your surprise, jake actually took your hand and laced your fingers with his own. and it felt nice. never in your existence would you have thought he would be okay with displaying public affection, but you smiled up at him and gave his hand a light squeeze.

maybe the entity gave him drugs.

or he just liked you that much. either one would make sense.

𝐃𝐀𝐍𝐍𝐘 𝐉𝐎𝐇𝐍𝐒𝐎𝐍

danny hated you. he really did.

you were so unbothered, so calm, so good at knowing what to do. it really pissed him off.

you got so much attention from the other survivors for your skill and that really pissed him off too. it’s not like you cared or wanted it or anything, but how dare they even touch you when you so clearly belonged to danny?

…who knows wtf that even means. so anyways-

when you realized how much time danny spent chasing you in trials when he should have been patrolling generators, you began to get suspicious. especially when he would take you to the hatch and then close it in your face, watching you die to the entity. he obviously had some kind of beef with you.

you were determined to find out what he had against you, so you began to tease him a bit in chases. your favorite and most frequent phrase was something like, "can't catch me? lil baby man? lil baby? lil baby man gonna cry?" you were really testing your luck with that one, and that's why you loved it.

once, you told him his fly was down, and he actually fell for it, making you nearly keel over in laughter. you got moried without even being hooked after that.

despite the horrors that frequented this place, you were never in a crisis about it. you simply learned what had to be done, and then you did it, much to the chagrin of danny. you had skipped the big "useless baby survivor" phase, and that one was his favorite :( he loved trials with new survivors because it was so easy and fun!

but alas, from the beginning, you were always on top of things, always slamming pallets onto his head or saving teammates with a flashlight.

oh, don't even get him started on your flashlight usage. you were the absolute worst to go against--every pallet stun, boom: danny's eyes fucking burned out. every time he picks up a survivor, boom: danny's eyes fucking burned out. you were a bitch with that item.

he finally began to get so fed up with your behavior that he decided you must be taught a lesson. somehow, countless mori and tunneling and camping incidents had not even managed to bother you. you literally did not care. but he had something different in mind this time.

the realm was haddonfield, of course. all of the killers despised this map, and for good reason--you ran danny around the entire neighborhood for three generators. did he have to chase you? no. but he needed to for himself.

he finally caught you in a dead zone, rejoicing to himself as you fell to the ground in defeat. "wow, that was a good chase," you mumbled under your breath, feeling accomplished. one of your best against danny, probably.

you were expecting him to pick you up, but instead he snatched the flashlight from your grasp and chucked it as far away as he could. and before you could protest, he pulled you up to stand again and yanked you towards himself, gripping your wrists so tightly you swore it left bruises.

"what's wrong...lil baby man?" you said with a pout, trying not to laugh. "is baby man angry?"

you were slightly scared if you were being honest, but you couldn't let him know that.

danny sighed. you really didn't know when to stop, did you?

"bitch," he spat, voice dangerously quiet. "cut that shit out."

"what shit?"

he squeezed your arms tighter, provoking an "okay, okay, i get it!" from you.

"do you?"

"sure. what's the worst you could possibly do to me anyways?" after those words left your mouth, you got a weird feeling that the killer was smiling behind his mask.

"listen, uhh, danny, is it?" you said, putting as much nonchalance into your voice as you could. "i just wanna know why you hate me so much. remember that time you closed the hatch in my face? the fuck was that for?"

he frowned at the use of his name but responded regardless, "you're a little bitch, and you deserved that."

you gasped dramatically, feigning offense. "ouch. that one hurt."

"i can make you hurt a lot more," he said darkly. you probably should have been scared, but you just really couldn't take him seriously.

so you laughed. it shouldn't have been funny, but it just was and now you couldn't stop. "you're just--you--i can't--" you wheezed, shaking from the laughter. "i'm sorry, it's really not funny."

danny didn't understand you. anybody else would have been sobbing if he so much as touched them, and here you were acting like it was a joke.

what could he do if you truly were not afraid of him?

perhaps it was time to let it go.

while his guard was down, suddenly you reached above his head and plucked his mask off, revealing his face and continuing your bouts of laughter at his shocked expression.

you threw the mask in the same direction as the flashlight, composing yourself and putting your hands on your hips. "you look pretty nice," you said, nodding.

wow. what the hell was danny supposed to do with you? perhaps the only completely unbothered, completely unserious survivor? he knew you were smart, and you knew what you were doing. he didn't even want to kill you anymore, you were just that fascinating.

that trial ended in you standing at the exit gate, your finger and your thumb in the shape of an L on your forehead. danny couldn’t care less at this point--he was done with your shit. but somehow he still liked you, and this definitely would not be the last time you saw him without his mask.

[illwilledomen]

If I ever made an SCP themed mod, here’s how I’d do some of my favourites.

Mob one, SCP 1529

It’s mob name (like on spawn eggs and the likes) would be The Mountain King, and it would be a boss. (Or atleast a mini boss)

It would spawn in a new biome variant of frozen peaks which would be classified as its exceptionally highest points. It’s chance of spawning is doubled if it is a thunderstorm/blizzard.

Just like in lore, if you stare at it, it’ll pull an opposite-enderman on you and force you to keep looking. When you first meet eye contact, a pop up will appear similar to an elder guardians mining fatigue jumpscare, but of its goggle visor which would be illuminated with an orange glow.

It will inflict you with Hypothermia (like from powdered snow), Nausea, Slowness and Saturation. The Mountain King will slowly approach you and inflict damage in short intervals, maybe doing something similar to an Iceologer and crushing you with ice? Idk. It wouldn’t kill you too quickly as it is a sadist.

It will be a difficult boss to defeat, due to its paralyzing effects and considerably high health (probably slightly less than the wither, I don’t want it to be too high)

It’s weaknesses are weapons enchanted with flame & fire aspect, or smite, as I imagine it to be classified as an undead mob. It will gain a health boost if it is on powdered snow or blue ice, and will stand back if you hold a flint and steel, giving you some time to prevent it from attacking you again.

As a fun Easter egg, it would give an Iceologer (and vice versa) from any compatible mod which adds one a brief regen effect if two are attacking you at the same time. 2 evil ice buddies!

When killed, the Mountain King will, rather humorously, drop a cup of cocoa, as well as his viser. The viser can be used as a weapon, paralysing enemies when worn. The cocoa will give you the saturation effect for five minutes.

Mob 2, SCP 096.

It’s mob name would be Shy Guy (example: /summon Shy Guy). A retextured Enderman (textured with the shy guy features, obviously) with a few model changes and made slightly shorter.

It’s health would be somewhere around the Wardens, making it an absolute beast of a mob. It would also have extremely strong attacks, most likely able to do a good chunk of damage even if one is in enchanted netherite gear. Like the Warden, due to its strength, your best course of action is to try to avoid it entirely.

Shy will rarely spawn in snowy or frozen peaks and will wander around or sit and weep when not in a rage state. To trigger Shy, a humanoid entity/mob such as a player, villager, illager or witch must look at it in the manner which would trigger an Enderman if a player had. When triggered, Shy will do his usual screaming and moaning thing, and attack it’s targeted entity. If a player, such as yourself, have triggered Shy, you will receive an effect called Haunting Stare. Depending on how long or how many times you’ve looked at it, the effect will increase.

Haunting Stare is basically bad omen: screaming crying naked dude edition - instead of a raid being triggered by entering a village, the effect will trigger an event called a Pursuit, which means if you have swiftly left the area you observed Shy (by elytra, minecart, teleportation or other means), Shy will spawn in roughly a 30 block distance from near where you are, and pursue you.

The only way to end a Pursuit without killing yourself/being killed, or killing Shy (very difficult), is by somehow transporting/summoning either the old man (106) or the mountain king (1529) which, while they will not directly attack Shy (instead staring at him), Shy will cease the Pursuit and attempt to flee from either entities (destroying any blocks obstructing its way, excluding obsidian, netherite or bedrock) as it is incredibly frightened of them.

That Easter egg is based off of the theory that the Shy Guy was created from one of the Mountain King’s victims, and from the SCP 106 and SCP 096 cross testing story, where 106 basically beat the shit out of him in 57 different ways within his pocket dimension.

When you kill the Shy, you will get an item called a lost man’s tear. This can be crafted into a potion of reassurance, which stops you from triggering shy guys or endermen, or you can make a banner pattern called ‘Shriek’ which will cause any humanoid entity looking at the banner to get the Haunting Stare effect - a great way to torment your unsuspecting friends!

Iron golems will be hostile to the Shy regardless of whether it has been enraged by a villager, as well as Ravagers.

Finally, the last SCP humanoid hostile mob is the Old man (SCP 106) or as I like to call him, Grandpappy Larry.

Larry can be found in a new structure called a Dilapidated House. This house will be constructed with a few new block variants, called Corroded Stone, Decayed Wood, Decayed Logs and Corroded Iron blocks, doors and bars, as well as a new block similar in nature to glow lichen and vines, called Mucus. When walking on any of the corroded/decayed blocks, you will be slowed and given weakness. If you walk or brush up against Mucus, you will be given a withering effect for 2 seconds. A good way to stop this is to sneak when walking.

Particularly since if you take damage without sneaking, you may accidentally Larry to spawn, or at least up the chances, since your pain makes him hungry. To properly summon Larry, you will need to craft a Corrosive Knife, with one stick, one bar of iron and one bar of corroded iron (made from 1 iron ingot and a piece of mucus) in a diagonal configuration. You will need to transport a villager - if you bring an adult, it may not work, but if you bring a baby villager, it has a 100% success rate - and hit the poor individual with the corrosive knife.

A portal will open to Larry’s pocket dimension underneath the villager (stand back!), and he’ll come out and drag them down in a unique animation. Larry will re-emerge after he’s taken the villager, and a boss bar will appear. No matter what you do, you can only get Larry down to half health outside his dimension - To finish the fight, you must let him abduct you in the second phase. This happens if he does a special attack called a grab, where he yanks you down into the sludge.

You will be transported to a new dimension called the Labyrinth (it sounds way cooler than just ‘Pocket Dimension’, okay?) which is a giant maze constructed from Corroded iron, corroded stone and decayed wood. You will also receive withering for 5 seconds upon entry (you gotta really gear up for this, that sludge is nasty). Larry will pursue you periodically, and you may encounter a new mob called the Corroded Villager, a variant of a zombie villager. It won’t attack you but rather benefit you as it will distract Larry - with a downside, as approaching it will alert him of your location.

There are multiple loot chests in the labyrinth jn it’s various rooms (which are as diverse as woodland mansion rooms) - your objective is to find an item called a Rusty Compass. This compass will locate the closest opening into the real world, but be careful, because nobody hides from Larry…

Larry has a strength and speed boost in his labyrinth which makes him even more of a threat. You also cannot sleep in his dimension, expect that to go as well as it would in the nether or the end, with the added threat of Larry tracking you down from the carnage.

In its method of exploration, the labyrinth is similar to an ancient city (be stealthy, avoid the sludge, steal stuff). You can also, like with ‘5’ in ancient cities, find a new music disc called 106, which is mostly unintelligible except for the faint tune of ‘It’s a Long Way to Tipperary’ and weird sizzling. You can also find high rates of Disc 11 and 13 in loot chests, as well as very rare instances of wither skulls.

An Easter egg is that if a dilapidated house has generated inside a village, and a raid is occurring, Larry will detect any nearby villager that is in panic mode and hunt them. While he attacks Illagers as well, if the raid is won, he has a celebration animation.

[aliaslua]

Ok about those "living with bodyguard turtles" hc, how would the boys react if the human they're protecting (now their best friend, mind you) had feelings for them? Like the human doesnt tell them but it's kind of obvious, theyre pretty bad at hiding it?

omg this is my first request

I received this ask at the exact moment that I submitted my last assignment, so I'd just officially started my college break ... The perfect way to start my rest *chef's kiss*. Thank you so much for the suggestion! <3 I was craving some angst. I hope you enjoy! it’s also kinda long LOL I was trully excited

you can read the first part here

Leonardo

It happened one day while he was helping you in training. The whole family was already used to your presence, you and Leo trained together every day and he loved it. He thought it was really cool to keep up with your performance and he was so proud of your increasing dedication and persistence, even on the days when the training was hard.

On that specific day he had decided to give you a break, since the training the day before had been heavy. Everything seemed absolutely normal until the moment when he needed to help you with a yoga posture and although you barely started the exercises, he realized that your heart was beating fast, very fast. Strange, he thought, but when he looked at your face and realized that you blushed, he also became overly aware of his own hands on your waist and how close your faces were. Suddenly, you broke contact with his eyes and walked away abruptly. "I'm not feeling well" you said "Maybe tomorrow."

Leonardo stood in the training room with a huge question mark in his face. Were you… nervous? During training? Why? You had been training together for months and it wasn't the first time that you needed support for a posture and…

The next few days are like a nightmare. Suddenly you decide that you prefer to train alone. Then you make up an absurd excuse for not watching the movie on wednesday. You don't talk to him, you don't train together, it's almost like you disappeared from his life. It's too much. One day during breakfast he asks you a direct question, but you simply decline the invitation while still avoiding looking at him. A horrible silence is in the air when you leave the kitchen without even finishing your breakfast.

"What did I do?" Leo asks, clearly hurt. His brothers look at him in disbelief. "Are you kidding?" Donnie asks. "What?" That's all the oldest brother can answer. "She's into you, moron." Raph responds, clearly irritated.

The realization runs through him like an electric current. Is that why you are avoiding him? What it means "you are into him"? Like… Are you in love? You? No way. You were his pupil! The first student he had, more like a life partner, a housemate. He never thought that someone like you could ... Him? It's too much for him. He needed to sit down.

"It looks like your intuition isn't that good huh, your stallion!" Mikey jokes.

The next are sleepless nights. Suddenly everything makes sense. How you smiled when he brushed your hair off your face, how you asked him to stay by your side when you couldn't sleep, how you insisted that the training should be longer, he always had interpreted all that as a sign of friendship, but now he felt completely naive. And to think that you could feel like that for someone like him ... It changed everything. What did that mean? He missed you. Missed you a lot. Seeing you so distant made him suffer in a way that only seemed logical now that he realized that perhaps his own feelings were the same. His head is spinning. Perhaps…. Maybe you could...

No. Absolutely not. The mission was clear. He had a single duty, to protect you. And he was going to complete the mission even if you spent the rest of your time together without looking at him again, no matter how much it hurt. Nothing was going to stop him from keeping you safe, not even his own feelings.

Raphael

It happened that morning while he was working out. You had just read “Emma” and it was the last book by Jane Austen that was missing for you to complete the bibliography. You sighed at the romantic ending but he hit the punching bag with an overly aggressive stance.

"We have to stop reading that shit." He said, suddenly. "Why?" You asked, surprised "I thought you liked it." "I like it. It's just ... it's kind of depressing for me." "What do you mean?" He stopped punching. Still with his back to you, you could see him adjusting his hand-bands. "Ah, come on, Shorty ... You know that none of this will ever happen to me." He threw a punch that made you jump "It hurts ... to know what it could be." "What do you mean, it's never gonna happen to you?" You asked honestly. He could hear in your voice that you were incredulous. "Cut the crap, Y / N." He turned, annoyed. "Look at me!" "I AM looking." you said, standing up "All I see is a caring, kind, gentle man and the day you fall in love with someone I know that you will be the most loving and dedicated partner and that person will be the luckiest in the world." You closed your mouth as if you had just said cursed words. Across the room, Raphael was stiff and speechless. Suddenly, the Lair' alarm went off. He went to join the brothers in silence, an emergency demanded his attention.

That night, Raph didn't come back home. He spent the night sitting on the edge of a building looking out over the city, mesmerized by your words.

It may be hard to believe, but Raphael is always very aware of his own emotions. That's why he is always so angry, that's why he cannot contain the urge to fight. He feels everything deeply. You didn't have to say anything else. It was as clear as day for him. He knew that was an unplanned declaration of love, he knew you were trying to hide it and you couldn't, and he knew it was too late now. He also knew he felt the same way. And he knew you could never be what his heart desired.

In his deepest fantasies, Raph would return home, lift you up around the waist and swear eternal love, just like in the books. And he would be yours, from then on and forever and you would never be alone, afraid or sad again. He would spend the rest of his life doing everything to make you the happiest person in the world.

But he also knew that it would never be possible with a man like him. He, who couldn't give you a decent home, the wedding you deserved, couldn't give you a family... - Fuck - He couldn't even meet your family. You would be forever unhappy, stuck with a monstrous and impetuous man and for that reason, he needed to work out the kindest way to reject your affection, knowing that it would be the most difficult thing he would have to do in life.

Donatello

Donnie wasn't prone to false modesty. He knew without a doubt that he had a deductive ability beyond average and he knew that he had enough knowledge to always reach the most likely conclusions. Why, then, could he not get it out of his head that you felt something for him that wasn't limited to a mere friendship?

He was working in the lab and couldn't stop thinking about all the obvious signs. Once again he redid the list of symptoms in his head: You had stopped reading alone in your private room they had built for you and now whenever you could, read by his side while he worked on the computer. Okay, nothing suspicious, a friendly, normal, expected gesture. But then there was that day when he stopped typing for a second and when he looked at you, you were staring at him. Clearly! He even saw it when you turned your face back to your book, in a pathetic attempt to pretend you weren't completely absorbed in watching him. That was strange. Okay, okay. Just one more event, it didn't indicate anything. So there was that night when everyone was watching a horror movie and you hugged his arm after a jumpscare, you guys stared at each other for a few seconds and he thought he saw you... blushing? Not to mention that now during your weekly debate sessions you seemed very giggly, very self-conscious, maybe even shy ... You had started to avoid direct eye contact with him and he realized with disbelief when your body language indicated attraction. Yes, yes ... He had ignored it the first few times but the way you smiled, the way you tilted your neck, how you approached him... Was he going crazy ???

Two hypotheses floated in his mind. The firs: he was going crazy, hallucinating and that was why he was seeing things and all the obvious signs that you were… interested in him were just the crazy dream of an unbalanced man. Or ... Well, or you really had developed a real and palpable romantic desire and you were so caught up in that urge that you couldn't hide it.

He narrowed his eyes again. No, no. Certainly not. You? No way. It didn't make sense from an instinctive and evolutionary point of view (why would you have that urge? You weren't even of the same species) and from a subjective, spiritual point of view, well ... Why would you like someone like him? You were beautiful, intelligent, clearly had an exceptional capacity for conversation and aside from that brief moment in your life, when you would finally have your freedom back, surely you would have no difficulty in finding a partner being such a wonderful, kind person, loving and…

He was no longer paying any attention to the viral sample he had placed under the microscope. He felt his own heart sink. If you really liked him then ... So does that mean ... That he had a chance? That he no longer needed to hide his intentions, his desires? That he could finally confess and that you would say ...

Someone knocked on the door. It was you. Sleepy and in pajamas, you still looked wonderful. "Donnie, can I sleep here?" "Of course, dear."

You smiled slightly, your eyes still half closed with sleep. He saw you lying on the couch, you fell asleep right away. He continued to look at you, so peaceful and impassive... He came to the only possible conclusion: It could never happen. You deserve affection, security, stability. A peaceful life with someone who cared for you, not someone who constantly put you at risk ... Someone who wasn't like him. Donatello looked away from your face, thinking it might lessen the pain. He knew that, in that case, the most rational option was to pretend that he had never deducted anything.

Michelangelo

"So... What are you going to do?" Leonardo asked, breaking the uncomfortable silence that had been established between the brothers. On the other side of the lair, you were sleeping.

"I do not know!" Mikey almost screamed before he remembered that you couldn't wake up, no way "That's why I'm asking!"

“Well… she clearly likes you. We all agree." Donnie concluded. "Yes" Leonardo shook his head. "Yeah ..." Raphael was staring at the brothers. "... And if you break her heart we'll all beat you up."

They all laughed, except Mikey. That was precisely the problem.

"It's not funny ..." The youngest of the brothers said, sitting on the kitchen table chair. Everyone understood that this was a serious situation when Michelangelo rested his head in his hands and again plunged into meditative silence.

He would never forget the day you sat with him on the couch and asked him to ...Chill a little. Never. Not because he was hurt, no ... You had been kind and caring and he had been very happy to know that you felt comfortable opening up to him that way. And if there was one thing he didn't want to be, it was overwhelming. So he did what you asked, he stopped flirting, stopped talking nonstop, stopped with intrusive questions ... And everything seemed perfect!

You were the best friend he could have. You laughed at his jokes, went out with him to tag abandoned cars, you ate pizza on the roof, played pranks on your brothers. Everything was great! You were everything to him and he knew that he felt much more than brotherly love for you. He always knew. But he had made a promise, he had promised that he would no longer crush you with his feelings ...

But things started to escalate. You started sharing intimate secrets, sharing dreams. During movie nights you laid on his shoulder and every day you cooked something new and brought it to him while he was playing video games. One day - that damn day - Raphael teased you and said “My my, what a beautiful couple” and Michelangelo almost had a heart attack when instead of emphatically replying that you weren't a couple or anything like that you just… Smiled and looked away. WHAT? WHAT KIND OF REACTION IS THAT? Mikey still remembered the unbearable heat he felt on his face that day when you just SMILED when you heard someone suggest you were his.

Since then, he only thought about one thing: "How can I reject her?"

The sadness in everyone's eyes was clear.

"Maybe you guys deserve a chance, Mikey." Leo suggested.

"But how?? Tell me, Leonardo, for God's sake, how am I going to make that woman happy? Huh! I have NOTHING to give. Nothing to add, to offer! I… I am literally a sewer monster… It will be a matter of time before she regrets, and how would I move on afterwards? ... "

"Mikey… ” Raphael started to speak, but was interrupted by his brother:

“You know what… You are right. It's time to grow up. This is a stupid dream. And it will never come true… ”

A gentle reminder that English is not my first language so if you see any grotesque grammatical errors, please let me know! <3 Thank you for reading

[mentalhealthandgames]

‘OMORI’ analysis:

OMORI’ is an Indie psychological horror RPG that was released December 2020, 6 years after its Kickstarter became fully funded in 2014. It was developed by OMOCAT, LLC and published by OMOCAT, LLC and Playism. It is a long game, the average play time of the main story is calculated to be 21 hours and 9 minutes by ‘HowLongToBeat’ (HowLongToBeat, 2021), a website which polls players with different play styles to calculate the average lengths of games. It personally took me 49 hours to complete. This is to say that, as a long and complex story based game, Omori’s plot will be difficult to summarise in a neat and short format but I will try.

The game has two main routes and multiple endings. I played the normal route and got the good ending so that will be the story I summarise, which also seems to be the one most players also got during their first playthrough. 

The game starts with a short cutscene and then text appears on screen stating: “welcome to White Space. You have been living here for as long as you can remember.” The game then properly starts, revealing the main character in a large white space with a room in the centre. The room contains a laptop, a sketchbook and tissues. Around the room are a cat, a black lightbulb and a white door. If the player goes to the door it says: “a white door casts a faint shadow. What would you like to do?” The only choice is to do nothing. The sketchbook is filled with sinister drawings in red, white and black. The cat says “meow (waiting for something to happen?)”. The laptop allows you to either stare at the screen, look at the journal or log off. The journal (titled ‘Omori’s journal’) is filled with entries for days that are all listed as: “day ???” rather than with a date and each entry either consists of: “today, I spent time in White Space. Everything was okay” or “today I visited my friends. Everything was okay.” The tissue box is stated as “for wiping your sorrows away”. There is a sound and shake and then a text box appears telling the player “something fell nearby”. The player can then find a “shiny knife” by wandering around white space. After discovering the knife, if the player approaches the door they are now given the option to open it.

Once the door is opened it takes the player to Neighbor’s Room, a bright colourful room in sharp contrast to White Space. Neighbor’s Room is a part of a large area called Headspace which is only accessible through the white door in White Space. Most of the game takes place in Headspace, although not all of it, so assume the areas I discuss are in Headspace unless I tell you they are otherwise (White Space is not a part of Headspace). In Neighbor’s Room three of Omori’s friends are playing cards. They are Aubrey, Kel and Kel’s brother Hero. They are happy to see Omori, and after some bickering between Kel and Aubrey, decide to visit their friends Mari and Basil who have invited them for a picnic at the Playground. Saying yes to the invitation causes the friends to join the party and follow Omori. They leave Neighbor’s Room through a tree stump. There are four areas branching from the tree stump. One is blocked off by spiderwebs which Omori refuses to pass because he is scared of spiders, one is blocked of by the sea which Omori refuses to go into because he is scared of drowning and one is blocked off by a ladder which Omori refuses to climb because he is scared of heights. The only other option is to go to the Playground where they meet Basil and Mari who are waiting on a picnic blanket with Mari’s basket and some food. Mari’s picnic blanket, her basket and the food pop up throughout the game with the basket as a save point, the food as a way to replenish health or juice (which is basically mana, it powers skills and can be drained during fights) and the picnic blanket often allowing Omori and friends to have a picnic and take a break from whichever adventure they are on. During their friendly reunion and discussion, Basil shows them his photo album which is filled with pictures documenting their friendship. They then decide to visit Basil’s house except for Mari who opts to stay behind.

Before going to Basil’s house Omori and friends play hide and seek with other characters in the Playground where Omori finds everyone except Basil. Basil has been kidnapped by a character named Boss who is a childish character upset at being banned from the playground by the others who had deemed him too violent. After a fun short battle with Boss they then make their way to Basil’s house. I mentioned the fight with Boss as although it has no relevance to the plot it seemed to set the tone of exploring ‘Headspace’ for me. Colourful fun battles with Omori’s friends against characters who ultimately weren’t bad people. It felt hopeful and exciting even though I knew it couldn’t be the full story because Omori is a psychological horror game. Although I knew something would probably go wrong at some point, it still lulled me into a false sense of security. When Omori and his friends arrive at Basil’s house, Kel and Aubrey have another fight before they go inside which leads to them knocking over Basil and the photos falling out of his photo album. They go inside for Omori to put the photos back in place. After that seems done a photo falls out of the album and Basil picks it up. Basil seems not to recognise the photo, looking scared. A twisting shadow appears beneath him and then he says “n-no.. that can’t be… Mari” his eyes turning red. Then there is a flash of a greyscale photo and Omori is back in White Space, except this time the white door is missing. There is some new dialogue with Mewo the cat and a new drawing in the journal of a strange shape with one eye. However, without the door, the player is stuck, until they open the pocket menu. The pocket menu is where the player can access the party’s inventory, their skills and charms and the options menu. Previously there was a space only listed as ??? but at that moment it is replaced by red text saying “Stab”. Clicking on Stab it gives you the option to stab a member of the party, which, in White Space only consists of Omori himself. The player has no other way of progressing the game and has to click that option, which makes Omori to stab himself. This sudden dark turn shocked me. Although I had expected the game to turn dark eventually I didn’t think it would happen so early on and it felt wrong to have him stab himself.

After Omori has stabbed himself there is another short cutscene and then the player is shown a boy sleeping in his room and asked to choose his name. His default name is Sunny, so that is how I will refer to him. He looks almost exactly like Omori except he is in colour. He is the real version of Omori who lives in the real world and it turns out that Headspace and White Space are all in his head, a world he escapes to avoid a traumatic event in his past. Although they are the same person I will continue to refer to them as Omori and Sunny to separate when Sunny is in Headspace (or White Space) as Omori and when he is in the real world as Sunny. It turns out that in the real world Sunny is home alone as his mother is in the city, preparing their new home for them to move into in three days. It is also revealed that Omori’s friends in Headspace all exist in the real world as well. In the real world you can explore the top level of the house where Sunny’s bedroom is located, but if the player tries to go downstairs to the rest of the house Sunny will shake his head and not allow it. The only choice is to go back to bed where Sunny goes to sleep but then wakes up again hungry. A red light shines through the window making the area more sinister. This time trying to go down the stairs is allowed but the stairs seem to be infinitely long and some hands climb up the sides while others surround him and one photorealistic one chases him. When it catches up, the player is taken to a fight with a monstrous creature referred to as Something. The fight seems hopeless, Sunny’s attacks doing nothing to Something until a mysterious voice speaks to Sunny saying: “take a deep breath… don’t be afraid. It’s not as scary as you think.” The textbox then states: “you steady yourself… and remember how to Calm Down. Calm Down is then available as a skill (fights are won by using attacks and skills). Using the Calm Down skill shows an animation of Sunny breathing in and out and ends the fight, depositing Sunny at the bottom of the stairs. The player can then explore the rest of the house, two areas Sunny still refusing to go to, a room and an area outside, presumably the garden. The player can then take Sunny to the kitchen to pick up the Steak Knife and heat up and eat a steak. Then Sunny seems sick, the rooms wobbling as he walks around. After he goes to the upstairs bathroom and throws up, the rooms stop wobbling. Then there is a knock at the door and when Sunny approaches the door it shows Mari on the other side, still in the bright purple colours of Headspace. She tells Sunny she forgot her keys and asks him to open the door. If the player chooses to open the door there is a quick jumpscare of a ghost. If the player visits the bathroom to look in the mirror they will see the ghost behind Sunny. There is nothing else to do but to make Sunny go to bed and go to sleep. This time when he wakes up there is another cutscene saying “welcome to White Space. You have been living here for as long as you can remember” and Sunny is once again Omori, back in White Space. This time the white door is back but will not open and the Stab option is once again not available. Going to the laptop will open the Hangman menu which shows a list of computer keyboard keys along with vague descriptions of where to find them (they are all somewhere in Headspace). Out of all 26 keys there are 12 keys that are necessary to collected to unlock later parts of the game. It is impossible to collect all 26 in the normal route of the game. To be able to open the door the player has to find the map to Headspace in White Space, then it will allow the door to open when interacted with, once again taking Omori to Neighbor’s Room. Aubrey, Kel and Hero are relieved to see Omori and reveal that Basil is missing. Around this time Mari is also revealed to be Omori’s (and therefore also Sunny’s) sister. The main objective is to find Basil and this drives most of the story that takes part in Headspace. This involves a lot of exploring different areas of Headspace including an area accessed via the ladder that Sunny had previously been too afraid to use. Omori is encouraged by his friends to go up the ladder as they believe it may lead to Basil and this is clearly linked to Sunny defeating the Something on the stairs in the real world. This area is called Otherworld. After going on quests in the hopes that they will lead to Basil and fighting in a battle against the first proper boss, Space Boyfriend, some bloody footsteps will lead to a shadowy figure of Basil. Following shadow Basil takes Omori to a dark sinister space with some hints about Sunny’s dark past and his reason for creating and escaping to Headspace. He is chased by the version of Something the player will see the most, a version already depicted in Omori’s sketchbook in White Space, a strange shape with one eye. When caught by Something Omori wakes up once again in White Space where he once again has to stab himself to wake up in the Real World. This is the End of the Prologue and the start of the first chapter: Three Days Left. Each chapter counts down the days until Sunny is supposed to move out.

Every time Omori turns up at White Space and the white door is not present, the player has to make him stab himself in order to wake up as Sunny in the real world. That is the only way to access the real world. During each real world segments there is a battle with a different creature called Something related to each of Sunny’s fears. First heights, then spiders and finally drowning. Defeating these creatures in the real world always gives Sunny a new skill (these are: Calm Down, then Focus, then Persist) and allows Omori to later overcome, after his friends offer him support, the related fear in Headspace, allowing him to explore new areas that were previously blocked off (Otherworld, then Pyrefly Forest and finally Last Resort and Underwater Highway are only accessible by Omori and Mari swimming across the beach). I found this very interesting as it showed that Omori’s fears were limiting him and that he was able to overcome them, both for his friend (Basil) and with the support of his other friends (Aubrey, Kel and Hero). It implies that you should reach for help or support if you can and it reminded me a lot of my own anxiety which has limited me a lot in my past by making me scared to go to social events for example. Friendship is an important theme throughout Omori (in fact it is an important theme in all three games I chose to assess).

The first chapter opens in the real world with someone claiming to be Kel knocks on the door and the player has to choose whether to open it or not. This choice determines which route of the game the player goes down. The normal route starts when the player chooses to open the door. It is revealed to actually be Kel and not a jumpscare like Mari was and he wants to spend time with Sunny before he moves out. When Sunny explores the town with Kel he finds out that Aubrey has changed a lot, having dyed her hair pink and become the leader of what appears to be a group of bullies who often bully Basil, who is even more timid and scared than the version of him the player saw in Headspace (before he disappeared of course). Sunny and Kel rescue Basil by fighting against Aubrey who Sunny wins against by slashing her with his Steak Knife. Kel is shocked that Omori used a knife against Aubrey and takes it from him. This part made me realise how real the real world is meant to be and how Sunny had become incredibly detached from it by spending all his time in Headspace as Omori and becoming used to having to fight creatures and bosses with his Shiny Knife. Kel and Sunny then decide to retrieve Basil’s photo album which he says Aubrey stole from him. They find her in a church where she reveals to the player that Mari died four years prior, which is presumably the traumatic event that caused Sunny to retreat into Headspace, and is the reason the friend group drifted apart. Kel and Sunny then fight Aubrey again, drawing attention to Aubrey from the other churchgoers who criticise her, causing her to flee. Kel and Sunny then spot her throwing the photo album into the trash and take it to bring back to Basil. This photo album contains different pictures to the one in Headspace but is still filled with pictures showing their friendship, although all pictures containing Mari are missing, presumably taken by Aubrey. When they take the photo album back to Basil, who lives with his caretaker Polly they are invited to have dinner with them. Over dinner Kel mentions that Sunny is moving away and Basil runs to the bathroom. Following him to the bathroom shows him also seeing Something, which he says is behind Sunny. He clearly is also traumatised, his trauma most likely linked to Sunny’s trauma. Basil seems genuinely scared to be left alone but the only option for Sunny is to leave him alone. Then when Sunny goes home he faces the spider Something and goes to bed waking up in White Space.

I will not go into detail into the areas of Headspace that the party explore while looking for Basil as that would take a long time and doesn’t need to be discussed to explain the plot. The reason I went into so much detail for the Prologue is that it sets up the game. Most of the story in Headspace involves the friends looking for Basil, discovering new areas, skills, items and Bosses and always ending in Omori seeing bloody footprints leading to shadow Basil which usually leads to White Space, Omori stabbing himself and waking in the real world.

In the second chapter, Sunny starts off in the real world again. To briefly summarise, he and Kel find Basil being bullied by Aubrey and her current friends ending up with Aubrey accidentally pushing Basil into the water. Sunny has to face his fear of drowning to save Basil and faces up against another Something. Sunny and Basil are then saved by Hero who has returned from college for a short visit. They go to Kel and Hero’s house and look through the photo album and then Kel and Hero ask their parents if they can go to Sunny’s house for a sleepover. In the house Hero goes to the piano room – the room Sunny previously refused to enter. Sunny and Kel then join him there where the player finds out Mari used to play piano, and that her death was a suicide. The player knows from the photo album by now that Sunny also used to play the violin and that he and Mari were meant to play a concert together before she died. Kel, Hero and Sunny then set up a fort in Sunny’s room.

Then Omori wakes up completely alone in Neighbor’s Room in Headspace. Leaving Neighbor’s Room all the paths are blocked off by fog except for the one to the Playground. The Playground is entirely empty but if the player interacts with the mirror they can play hide and seek alone. This is a clear tonal shift as usually Headspace is very cheerful and full of life but with only Omori it becomes eerie. Then the path to the beach is accessible. At the end of the dock stands Mari. She encourages Omori to swim cross the ocean and get past his fear of drowning by promising to stay with him and saying, “steady your heartbeat… don’t be afraid. It’s not as scary as you think.” Crossing the ocean with Mari takes them across to some wooden dock paths. When they reach the end of the long wooden paths there are some curtains floating atop them. Mari turns to face Omori and says: “… Omori… it seems you have forgotten something important. Are you okay with that? I’m not too sure… you’ve seen this curtain once before. The last time we went to the lake. This is my stop though. I know I shouldn’t have come… It just gets a little lonely without everyone. It’s not my place to say anymore, but… I hope you’re still there… Sunny… I really miss you” Mari then says “goodbye, little brother.” Then Sunny enters a new area of Headspace which leads to a hotel called the Last Resort where he has to collect Kel, Aubrey and Hero who were all trapped in contracts to a boss named Mr Jawsum who they have to battle against. This is more like the previous areas of Headspace with lots of puns and colourful new characters. Then the friends travel down the Underwater Highway eventually following a recurring side character Sweetheart to an area of Headspace called The Abyss, during which they start to forget what Basil looks like. In The Abyss there are a lot of hints towards Sunny’s past and trauma. Eventually the friends end up meeting a whale called Humphrey who invites them to enter into his stomach. He is both a new area to explore and, after this exploration, a boss who threatens to actually eat them. Then, once Humphrey is defeated the friends go to find the last of the 12 keys which spells out “Welcome to Black Space” and then shows them Basils house. On the way to Basil’s house the trees and plants look dead. Entering the house there is a pit and entering the pit leads to a dark place which eventually leads to a black door which Omori opens. This introduces the player to Black Space, essentially the inverse of White Space which is surrounded by black doors.

If White Space is where Sunny locks himself away to forget all of his trauma, Black Space seems to be where he hides all of his repressed memories, fears and mental health problems. There is a key in the centre of the room. The key will open whichever of the doors the player chooses to enter first. Each room behind a black door is disturbing and broken looking, with bloody footprints leading to a key and then a red hand appearing and taking Omori back to Black Space. One Black Space room is a small room with a Butler who has the face of a cat while the cat Mewo (who the player knows by now was Mari’s cat) is strapped down to a table with knives next to her. Once Omori has entered the room, the door he used to enter disappears. When Omori interacts with the Butler he says “Mewo has been very, very bad” and then gives Omori a key. As there is no door to use the key on it seems the only choice is to approach Mewo. When Omori interacts with Mewo the text box asks: “do you want to cut open Mewo?” with the options yes and no. As there seemed to be no other option I reluctantly clicked yes, not wanting to see Mewo cut open even though I had become a bit used to the violence of the game after seeing Basil die in several of the other Black Space rooms. However, when the I clicked yes it lead to more text. “Mewo stares at you. She tilts her head out of curiosity.” And then the game asks again: “Do you want to cut open Mewo?” I clicked yes again. More text. “Mewo stares at you. Her eyes widen. She wants to go now.” And then, “do you want to cut open Mewo?” I clicked yes again, feeling more and more uncomfortable. “Mewo stares at you. She struggles to break free.” Again the choice, “do you want to cut open Mewo?” And once again I clicked yes. “Mewo stares at you. Her  eyes are filled with desperation.” I was asked again, “Do you want to cut open Mewo?” I clicked yes. “Mewo stares at you. She tries to scream, but there is no sound.” And again, “do you want to cut open Mewo?” I clicked yes again hoping it would eventually give me a different option but knowing it probably wouldn’t. “Mewo stares at you. She does not know what is happening.” Again the question, “do you want to cut open Mewo?” And finally she was dead, her red blood bright in the dark room and the text box “you cut open Mewo.” I thought finally, the red hand would appear and take Omori back to Black Space, but it didn’t. I waited a couple more seconds and then walked Omori around the small room. Nothing happened. I went to the Butler to see if he would help me leave after having committed such a terrible act but all he said was, “waiting for something to happen?” and I realised with growing dread that there had been no reason for cutting open Mewo. It had done nothing to help Omori leave the room. I opened the pocket menu and saw that the Stab option was back. I selected it and Omori stabbed himself and returned to Black Space. That was the moment for me where the game felt like an actual psychological horror. It had set out rules for Black Space. Open the door to a room, find the key for the next room and then the red hand would take Omori back to Black Space. I didn’t like the rules and the rooms unsettled me with how they took elements of the game I had grown accustomed to or invested in and then twisted them (like Watermelons hiding items, or Basil needing to be rescued) but I knew I had to follow them to progress. Except in that case, the rules weren’t the same and trying to follow them killed Mewo making me feel like a horrible person. When I watched a video titled “OMORI and Dissociative Amnesia”, part of a series of videos titled “Psych of Play” on YouTube by ‘Daryl Talks Games’ I saw the other side of that scenario. Daryl mentions how he “checked everything I could think to check to find a way not to kill this cat. Until I stumbled upon my menu and realised the Stab option was there and in that moment I was relieved. Finally something other than playing what feels like an actual nightmare I thought. And after I stabbed Omori and respawned in Black Space it sort of hit me like a truck that this game had just made killing myself seem like the best option. It seriously made me think that suicide was the easiest thing to do… given my circumstances. It took that unnatural feeling I had experienced so early in the game, and made me welcome it. Which I think paints a shockingly real picture of how suicide may seem to someone who is dealing with these astonishingly dark and sinister levels of anxiety” (Daryl Talks Games, 2021, 27:19). He had a moment where he felt that the game really revealed what it was like to be in Sunny’s shoes and made him emphasise with what Sunny’s suicidal thoughts probably felt like. And Sunny does seem to be suicidal as a result of his trauma and guilt. The bad ending leads to him killing himself by jumping off a building. This implies that part of the purpose of the game may be to show people who do not have mental health conditions what it is like to experience them. I think this would make sense since, as the disclaimer included in the game warns, ‘OMORI’ should not be played by people who are too close to the themes depicted and will find the game triggering. Much of the online community around Omori however talk about how it resonated with them or was important to them because of its mental health themes. The game has seemed to help a lot of people feel less alone with its exploration of mental health, although much of the community also emphasise that you have to be in a good state of mind when playing the game and recommend not playing it on bad days. I myself made sure I only played it on days I felt comfortable playing it and would alternate between playing the game for hours and then taking days off to decompress.

After finally escaping Black Space by killing Basil one more time (a lot of the Black Space rooms involve killing Basil by accident, but this last time seems to be on purpose) Sunny wakes up hearing music. Following the music takes the player to the piano room where Mari is sat playing the theme tune of the game. Mari talks about playing the piano and how she felt maybe she pushed Sunny to hard. She says: “We never did get to play at that last recital. Did you want to play it with me now?” Before Sunny can respond Hero bursts into the room. He tells Sunny to go back to sleep.

In the last part of the game the truth is revealed. Before their recital Sunny had thrown his violin down the stairs where it broke and had an argument with Mari, presumably over the pressure he felt to play the violin perfectly. He pushed her and she fell down the stairs and died. Basil found him and the two of them disguise her death as a suicide.

After this is revealed the player has the option to visit Basil who is convinced Sunny is possessed by Something and will start a fight between Sunny and Basil. Both Sunny and Basil will faint at the end of the fight. Sunny then finds his broken violin and is taken through memories that were shown in Basil’s photo album. After each new memory the violin will start to fix itself until it is complete. Then Sunny will appear at the recital where he is encouraged by his friends. He will put up his sheet music, start to play and then break down sobbing. Then Omori appears and the final battle is between Omori and Sunny. During this battle Omori speaks to Sunny telling him all the reasons he is a bad person and should be guilty. The phrases he used struck home and I become incredibly invested in the battle and trying to win as what he said sounded a lot like what the voices in my episodes of psychosis had told me. However Omori will ‘not succumb’ and eventually Sunny will be defeated and a game over page appears. It gave me the opportunity to continue so I took it. This time Sunny has the option to play. Choosing it will make Sunny take out his violin and he and Mari play their duet they practiced for their recital. This cutscene made me incredible emotional as it showed how much Sunny and Mari loved each other. The whole fight really showcases how Sunny felt, as Omori the representation of all his guilt and repressed memories, that his friends would be better off without him, but playing the violin gave him hope again and defeats Omori. They then hug in White Space and a white door appears. Going through it causes Sunny to wake up in the hospital with a bandage over one eye, injured in his fight against Basil. Leaving the hospital room will show shadow Basil and following him takes Sunny to Basil’s hospital room where Kel, Aubrey and Hero sit around Basil. Entering the room starts the Good Ending cutscene where Sunny decides to tell them about killing Mari, but the game cuts off before the player can see his friends reactions.

I know I have gone into a lot of depth explaining the plot and it might not have all been entirely necessary, the mental health aspects are central to the plot and discussing them felt like it would make no sense unless I described the plot first.

The game has a disclaimer both at the beginning of the game as well as on the game’s Steam page warning players that the game “contains depictions of depression, anxiety and suicide” which I think is very important and needed in the case of this game. The game is a (psychological) horror game, and horror games are quite well known in mental health gaming communities as misrepresenting mental health, mostly as portraying people with mental health conditions as violent and out of control, and mental health institutions as creepy and places to be feared and avoided. However, although the game uses Sunny’s mental health as a basis for the horror aspects it is not done in a way that belittles his struggles but rather just emphasises how difficult it is for him to cope with them. Although the cause of Sunny and Basil’s trauma is revealed to be a situation that players will most likely be unable to relate to, the way their depression and Sunny’s anxiety are portrayed still resonate with a lot of players as is evidenced in many Steam reviews. Omori and Basil are both quite sympathetic characters. They both seem to have depression but it is expressed in different ways – Omori completely withdrew into an imaginary world to avoid his trauma whereas Basil tried to put on a cheery façade but was actually deeply affected.

OMOCAT, the creator of Omori seems to be quite private and has not revealed much about the process or inspiration behind Omori and has not done any interviews, unlike the creators of the other games I have discussed, so it is difficult to tell whether she did any research on mental health when making the game or whether she experiences mental health conditions herself that may have assisted in making an accurate representation of mental health. However she did state in a blog post from the time of the Kickstarter that: “OMORI started out as a very personal project. He was a character that I created to help me cope with my problems during a confusing part of my life” (OMOCAT, 2014).

One of its main themes, one which features strongly in all three games, is the importance of friendship. I think this is an important message to have, for friends to support each other. Early on in the game if you buy good advice from the wise rock in the Vast Forest it tells Omori: “pain doesn’t last forever.” This is a major theme of the game and I think it is an important one. Although the Good Ending is ambiguous as the player will not know how Sunny’s friends will react, it gives hope that Sunny is no longer trapped by his trauma and he can finally try to move forward from it, and by telling them it seems he is also freeing Basil from his guilt as well. Overall I think it was a game that told a story that, although the ending reveal made Sunny’s actual situation less relatable and the game leaned to stereotypes at times, his experience of mental health still felt very real and resonated with a lot of players.

References:

OMOCAT (2014) OMORI Kickstarter Update. Available at:

https://www.omocat-blog.com/post/85490697570/from-illustration-to-video-game-omori-kickstarter (accessed at: 23 February 2021)

https://youtu.be/rUDGlEWa4sE (accessed at: 11 April 2021)