#thinking thoughts and having fun speculating!

[nostalgebraist]

I happened to be reading over this again, and felt like reblogging it.

Because the first time I saw it, I pounced on one (tbh, probably accurate) criticism of me as a writer near the end, and went off on a long semi-related rant, which...

Well, it was a pretty good rant. I still agree with everything I said in it, and I'd already been meaning to write it all out at one point or another.

But it was also missing the forest for the trees, because this review is great. Definitely in the running for "most perceptive and on-point TAoHS reaction I've seen so far."

Also, for anyone who's curious, here's some tidbits about the writing process that partially confirm / partially disconfirm one of @thewadapan's speculations:

(under a cut for major [implied] spoilers, don't click unless you've read the book)

Like, if I had to guess at the genesis of this book, based on Nostalgebraist's comments, I feel like it's taking the starting point of "story about what if the AI doomers were right" -> "through the lens of Christmas" -> "[everything else in the story]". Of course there are tons of other influences in there, but those to me feel like the two ideas with the most explanatory power.

This is not that far from what actually happened – except that it happened in the opposite order.

The very first idea I had that is recognizable (in retrospect) as an idea for TAoHS the novel was "hmm, what if I wrote some kind of story involving secular Christmas lore, like Santa Claus and stuff."

That was back in December 2023. Esther and I were watching some Christmas movie about Santa, and I suddenly had this funny, whimsical line of thought. "This whole Santa mythos feels under-explored. It might be fun to do something with it... something dark and weird, that puts the inherent weirdness of Santa himself to new ends..."

And once I'd had this idea, it was just too funny to pass up. Especially once I'd hit on the obvious follow-up idea of releasing the book itself on Christmas. Like, imagine it: "the nostalgebraist Christmas special!" Hilarious!

(And, having just spend 7 years writing my previous novel, the idea of being on a pre-defined 1-year schedule for the next one sounded very appealing.)

Then, in early 2024 – mostly, in February through early April – I came up with a lot of ideas for this new "Christmas special" project.

A bunch of the basic elements of the book arrived during this interval: Herschel, Miriam, the Original Knowledge / Original Creation, the Emendation, the Raven scene, some sort of transcendental visitation by Santa on Dec 25 (I referred to this as "the Santa event" in my notes) which the story was building up to... Herschel's friend who's into cybernetics, Miriam's long-distance relationship with her media theorist boyfriend, the "temporally ambiguous but definitely in NYC" setting...

(Incidentally, although I can't say for sure, I think that some of these ideas ultimately trace back [unconsciously?] to Chris Adrian's novel The Children's Hospital. Which is weird, because I disliked that book! But it did have this one great and memorable monologue, which I posted as a #quote when I first read it. The main character's little brother is an eccentric and mentally troubled kid with his own personally concocted messianic religion; the context of the monologue is a flashback to when he was younger and [IIRC] the two siblings had a less strained relationship. In the flashback, the two are in their bedroom late at night on Christmas Eve. The brother can't sleep because he's afraid of Santa Claus, who he describes as a powerful and godlike being.

I think this quite likely resulted in me associating "weird, dark Christmas stuff" with an older sister and a younger brother, and their deteriorating relationship, and the younger brother's homegrown religious views – and if so, it thereby exerted massive butterfly-effect leverage over the whole of TAoHS. Weird!)

Anyway: in February through early April, I had all these ideas for the "Christmas special" book. A bunch of stuff I was reading around this time ended up "in there" in some form. Salinger's Glass family stories, for example. And The Drowning Girl, which I re-read in April, and which was a major influence on multiple aspects of TAoHS.

But like... something still felt wrong about all this stuff, at the time.

It felt like I just had a collection of neat ideas, stacked unceremoniously into a pile, and now just sitting there – inert, lifeless, lacking some animating spark that could breathe vigor and meaning into them.

And then, one day in the middle of April, I happened to be thinking about AI and "AI doomers." And I had the train of thought I've referred to in earlier posts about TAoHS, the one about "what if the AI doomers were right?"

Among other things, I asked myself: how would I want to have lived my life, in the time leading up to doomsday? If doomsday had arrived, and I was looking back on that life?

And the very first thing that came to me was: well, I would want to have written about this, in fiction. It would be a shame if I had to face doomsday thinking, aw man, I even missed my chance to write one of my little stories that was about this, while I still had time to!

And the natural next thought was: well, I guess I could work it into the "Christmas special," somehow?

After all, that's going to be my next book, so I'd definitely get the topic in on time if I did things that way.

And then, as I continued to think about "AI doom," in isolation and also in connection with the "Christmas special," it was just like...

Like a switch had flipped, suddenly, and all the lights had turned on at once. (Christmas lights, natch.)

Suddenly, the story was alight, alive, breathing, purposeful, coherent. It finally made sense! Adding this AI element made all my other ideas snap right into place, as though they'd been waiting the whole time for it to arrive. The cybernetics-friend character, the overlapping of post-WWII and present-day technologies and scientific ideas, the theme of structural resemblance versus embodiment... everything, all at once!

And then, that same afternoon and evening, I sat down and wrote a detailed outline, which (in retrospect) included most of the events that ended up in the final story, down to a lot of the small details and individual scenes.

It was all just... there, in my head, suddenly.

(There were a few ultimately important things that weren't in that initial outline at all, and only arrived later. I don't feel like specifying exactly which ones, though, I've probably said enough for now ;)

The Apocalypse of Herschel Schoen

My fourth novel, The Apocalypse of Herschel Schoen, is now available in full.

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!

[lexirosewrites]

hi! coming off anon but i'm having more sabrina carpenter!steve thoughts. also to make things easier i'm just gonna call this au juno (bc duh). anyways! the thoughts!!

(the thoughts got wildly out of control so this is fairly long)

o!steve (former disney star, current pop icon) and robin (i don't have a specific preference for her designation anyways she's an actress) are Best Friends and have been for years. they first met at a charity event and weren't close for awhile but eventually they realized they fit together So Well and Had to be best friends. robin stars in as many of steve's music videos as she can swing with her agent, and steve begs his manager to allow his songs in any of her movies/shows that ask for it. when you think of best friends in hollywood you think of steve harrington and robin buckley.

a!eddie and the cc boys- o!gareth, b!freak, a!jeff- are an indie metal band, finding their footing and hitting their stride with the rise of tiktok. they're not super big, but they've opened for some other bands touring through the midwest. once all of them graduated high school they got tf out of hawkins and moved to chicago to pursue music (and day jobs to pay for rent).

ever since steve left his previous record company, hollywood records (owned by disney), who signed him at 15 years old to a five album contract (essentially shackling him for anywhere from five to potentially fifteen years) steve's been trying to put forth a more mature image and leave behind the squeaky clean disney image. in his first album with his new company he actually gets to cuss and be explicit in his songs. when he goes on tour for this album he performs nonsense which goes viral on tiktok for the location-specific outros.

gareth, chronically online king, sees the nonsense outros and gets interested in steve's music even if it isn't his typical cup of tea. gareth find's steve's music empowering- it's fun, flirty, silly, emotional, and embraces their designation as omegas. gareth becomes a certified Stan. the cc boys lowk get annoyed with how much he plays this pop garbage.

(crazy interlude bc i'm reading sabrina's wikipedia rn and somehow her and feather are linked to eric adams getting indicted???? anyways)

after like a year or so of cc hearing steve anytime gareth gets aux they are now inundated with steve's new mega viral single, espresso. and like... it's not bad but it's pop and it's repetitive and overplayed- gareth for the love of god skip this damn song! not only is steve doing Numbers with espresso but he releases a new single, please please please. the music video for please×3 features his current boyfriend and hollywood bad boy a!billy hargrove. after a little over a year of dating and the start of steve's new tour for his album, it's speculated that billy cheated on steve and they broke up.

steve has this song, juno, that's sexual and liberating and fun and gareth loves it along with the rest of the album. even though the tickets are wildly expensive thanks to steve's launch into mega stardom gareth gets the boys to go to a show for his birthday and be in the pit. he is dedicated to camping, he wants to be as close to barricade as humanly possible. even tho the other guys don't dress up in the style of the album they still camp with him for barricade, and god dammit they will enjoy this concert. live music is live music, even if it's pop and eddie will enjoy this night so help me god. cc ends up getting barricade and during the wait meet a couple fans (super unexpected considering the genres but whatever).

when it comes time for steve to perform juno he comes out onstage in a gorgeous maxi length sparkly set. eddie is already kinda in love at this point, this gorgeous omega is an amazing performer and his songs maybe just a little bit are good (don't tell gareth). with their miraculous luck getting barricade and even more insane luck, eddie gets arrested right before juno starts for being too hot. and gareth has seen the juno clips, he knows what's about to happen, but eddie hasn't. and then this gorgeous omega who just arrested him for being hot ?? is having his clothing drop into a short, sexy number and ???? eddie is so ??? and then steve dangles these fluffy handcuffs at him??? what is happening???

gareth is losing his mind, that's his best friend getting juno arrested. on the big screen. in front of everybody. in front of steve harrington. jeff and freak are also going insane bc wtf is happening at this show?? eddie is 404 error message not found and his brain is just cable tv channel with no signal static. and steve can Barely see the audience with all the stage lights but he always uses his intuition for juno arrests, and he tries to subtly sneak a peak at the big screen to check just who he's picked. and Maybe the skirt dropping is a planned gag for comedic effect, but if this random metalhead who looks so out of place at his concert asked for his number right now in front of thousands of people he'd give it out. and Maybe his subtle sneak peak to the big screen is a Little more noticeable (if you're anyone but those two lost in each other's beauty).

anyways, after all his post-show routine and duties steve Finally checks his phone. as usual, tonight's juno arrest and pose are already on tiktok and twitter and wherever else. however, unlike after a normal show, he has like fifty million missed texts from the kids and a thousand missed calls from dustin specifically. steve ignores those in favor of checking in with robin first, who sent her love and tells him he's talented and hot and he's gonna kill it onstage. and then he gets to his texts with dustin. dustin who has been freaking the fuck out because steve juno arrested eddie fucking munson. and steve is like "..... who is that?" and dustin is gobsmacked and appalled!!! eddie munson as in the lead guitarist for his and mike's current favorite indie metal band corroded coffin. and all of cc were literally on the screen!!!! gareth was filming eddie and steve and the camera!!! and jeff was filming the big screen!!!!! and steve is like "i'm glad i arrested him he was hot :)" and dustin is so ???? ew bc steve is like his brother but ALSO this could be his in to nerd out with his favorite band! steve is just like "ok man cool i gotta go to bed bc touring is Tiring".

next day, after eddie.exe has finally started running again and chronically online king gareth has had time to sloppily edit together a tiktok the official cc tiktok account gets a new post. it's a mix of gareths footage, jeff's, and footage from random internet users who posted already. and the caption just says "what the hell happened last night". all the comments are either cc fans like "??? you guys went to steve harrington??", steve fans being like "can't believe the juno arrest from last night is a musician", some random account called dustybuns who said "my brother arrested you can we meet now", and a handful of people saying "my worlds are colliding".

steve still hasn't really seen much of the fuss abt last night's show, he's been resting as much as he can on a busy tour. robin texts him like "dude last night is going viral" and he just 👍-reacts to the text. dustin is begging steve to dm cc, to dm eddie's personal acc, to dm ANYONE STEVE PLEASE!!!!! steve is resolutely ignoring this in favor of drinking soothing tea and running his dancing and blocking for the show.

okay this has ran so far away from me and idk where it's going. if anyone feels strongly i might try to continue having these Thoughts and sharing them for slick sunday. tysm for hosting lexi and tysm to everyone who seemed to enjoy my idea last week! if anyone wants to flesh this out and make a whole fic of it i definitely won't say no to that :3

i love the idea of Steve managing to fluster Eddie so badly like this🤭

[mistleaneous-chaos]

Disclaimer: Halfway through when I was writing this post initially, I took a break for a while since I didn't really know what I wanted to do with all the information in it, since I didn't understand the egg rooms in Chapters 3 & 4 Properly. Then I did understand them.

Finally got around to doing the egg room for chapter 3 after missing it and only getting the others and I am so glad I did.

I have lots of thoughts and want to sum them up here, so pardon me if I rehash information, speculate, or just sound outright unintelligible. These won’t just be limited to the Egg Rooms but will involve a good amount of stuff related to them.

There will be many things I discuss, and in the end I will be discussing a theory that I think others have had, but it's been one that's stewing in my brain and I desperately need to get it out.

I feel like out of all the egg rooms, this one and chapter 4’s really gave us a lot to think about in terms of the eggs themselves and their surroundings.

Chapter 3’s being the first ones we’ve seen with other beings is really interesting to me for a number of reasons.

In this room, Kris starts out as if they were not in the Dark World. And it makes sense because they’re not in the Dark World, they’re “Nowhere”. It’s not a place where darkness is deeper than it can be, nor is it the normal world, it is just that, Nowhere. And I think it's possible that whenever it started to become a real, tangible place when Kris visited, that's when it started to creep in, whatever it is that was outside of Nowhere, which is why Kris became their Dark World Form again, because the outside was coming in, the Dark was let inside of a place it wasn't aware of before.

It’s a place for people who are forgotten and “Copies”, such as:

the Rudinn “cards”.

Before anything serious I just love Kris’ thought process of “I suck at cards so I’ll just make my own copies!” These glimpses into their character pre-Us is always so charming to see. But anyways, the Rudinns give us some insight into certain “Rules”, such as those of copies. It’s a slight thing, but they tell us that copies have no color, and the only reason they do is because Kris gave them their color. Now this leads us to something people already probably knew about

The Goners, the characters in Undertale that had no real “place” outside of random chance. The Goners, to me, always seemed as if they were some kind of parodies of certain NPCs such as Monster Kid and The Clam Neighbor. Some of them may not exist in the world people inhabit(depending on FUN value), and some actively replace people who do exist, such as the clam neighbor. I still have no clue what they are meant for, but I do think that Gaster had a hand in their creation, considering the Goner Maker in Chapter 1 and the followers consistently mentioning him.

Everything that's been said about "Copies" takes more of a form when you also look at the pipeline of The Prophecy turning into The Lord of The Hammer turning into Dragon Blazers. Now, there's an entire discussion to be had with Dragon Blazers and Undertale (not Deltarune) and the symbolism of it being a "simplified" and "altered" version of Deltarune the way Dragon Blazers could have been of Lord of The Hammer and so on. But that's for another day. All I want to say is that I think there is a difference being drawn between copies and things that truly had passion put into them, after all:

It makes me think that maybe Gaster's Followers/The Goners could have either been copies of existing people such as Goner Kid(If they even are a copy)

Or some could have been beings that had something drained from them that caused their "color to fade", such as the Clam Girl/"Suzy's" Neighbor

Now then, this brings me to my last point:

The Forgotten Man.

The Forgotten Man, The Man that was behind the tree, is something that's been in the back of my head for years now.

And I think with Chapter 4, it's at least possible to interpret what he means in the context of the Egg Rooms.

In Chapter 3, he talks about how "You"(We'll just assume it's Kris for the sake of this discussion but it could very well be the Player) forgot about him multiple times, and he discusses things such as his schedule (The last part of which I totally think foreshadows Chapter 5's egg room because of Chapter 5 having been intended to be released alongside 3 & 4)

And also, he talks about the Egg. We learn what it is he gives us the egg for.

It's so we remember him.

Which brings me to what I think he means to Kris.

Throughout Chapters 3 & 4 Toby brings to light so many things he'd been foreshadowing with Dess, her disappearance, and what it did to Kris. And that brings us to Chapter 4's Egg Room.

Therapy.

In Chapter 3, when you get the Shadow Mantle, there's an enemy in the dungeon that you don't kill. Kris kills them.

There is no added context in-game for what it is, but in the files, you can see the placeholder for it.

A black deer.

December's disappearance was something that clearly affected Kris a good deal, and it becomes more and more apparent when you think about the things that they've done for "The Knight". They work with the Knight to create the Dark Fountains, but also close them. They do everything in their power to not impede the Knight, but they still want to make Susie and Ralsei happy.

I think that Kris is beholden to something that they promised Dess long ago, maybe around the time she disappeared. I think Kris flinched when they saw the Shelter in the game because they know what's in there. I think the reason they didn't immediately throw the controller out when you got in is because they were relieved. Because they realized that whatever force made the game didn't put what was actually in the shelter in the game.

I think the reason why Kris didn't open the closet even though Susie was gone and they could throw us out, is because they were scared of what they would see in the real world.

I think that Kris killed, or at least indirectly caused Dess' death. Do I think it was intentional? No. I do not think for a second Kris ever would have purposefuly harmed her. I think Kris regrets it. I think they regret it every single second they're awake. And I think, that more than anything else, they try to Forget it.

The Forgotten Man, I think, either represents or parallels the way that Kris constantly represses everything about Dess' disappearance. I think that every time Kris remembers something, they immediately push it down. They keep forgetting...

But we just keep. pushing.

Every time we push to remember, they forget. And every time they forget, the path to reach those memories again gets more and more complex. We went from going into a random room over and over again(With the only thing to remind them of her being an enemy that throws STARS at us), to finding a random room hidden behind a stained glass window with one part of it that resembled an egg.

We just push. and push. and push. And every time we push, the dam gets leakier.

Because at first it was just an egg. Then it was still an egg. But then it was a conversation with a man they want to forget. And then it was a painting that they so desperately wanted to forget about. And next? If the clues are right? We're going to Asgore's Dark World.

And while Tenna only referenced Dess in a manner that implied her being alive? Asgore is heavily implied to have a very, very, personal stake in Dess' disappearance.

I think that the purpose of the eggs is not something tangible that'll be visible in-game or in stats. But rather, I think that they're a sign that we are on the path that leads to Kris finally having to confront whatever it is that they want so badly to forget. And I don't know if it'll have an effect on the game, but I think it'll have an effect on Kris. And whether or not they move on from it, from feeling indebted to a rotting corpse, from feeling like they owe Carol or whoever's manipulating them their service, I think that maybe, juuust maybe, it'll lead us down a path that, while not important to our progress, is important to Kris' progress as a person.

[shojogal]

Jacob Alden rant #???

ok so the general consensus within the fandom is that if Jacob existed irl he would be like this guy from Evil Dead (which I cannot blame since carnivorekitty joked about this many times and the resembles, at least physically, are very on point)

BUUUUUT

if you asked me, I personally believe he would actually be like Jacob Singer from Jacob's ladder (1990)

mostly bc I see many paralelism between these characters that I think are worth to point out

aside from the obvious principal point (name), I think that he would very much like him if he existed in the first place

why? well, I think many schemes from Jacob Singer can be found also on Jacob Alden's side (HEAVY SPOILERS IF U HAVEN'T SEEN JACOBS LADDER YET)

physical appearence: although Eric from Evil Dead is likely a perfect Jacob real life appearence from the creator's drawings, I like to think he wouldn't LITERALLY look like he looks in fiction, he would have a more fluffly alike messy hair (ofc with the same length and tone as the canon version lol as well him conserving his beard) and a tetric countenance that matches with his lonesome personality and autodestructive obssesion. Both of them have this nerdy appearence of an anxious average worker man who tries to live with what they can (Eric's face is more of a normal, carefree guy than someone who's very disturbed) although Singer's side is more caotic and horrid due to his traumatic experience during his serving in the war, Alden on the other hand he's just a very introvert person who doesn't show many interest on superficial lookings

personality: Both of them are very anxious and disturbed persons, even though Singer isn't like that because of romantic obssesion or something like that, it is very telling their personalities in some point touch each other. During the movie, Singer experiments horrible and demonic hallucinations born from his PTSD that makes him think he's at the verge of death or that he's slowly going down to hell, this thought is backed up so much with his guilt about him serving in Vietnam's war, so basically he can be described as EXTREMELY paranoid even when the movie explains the reasons behind it. I like to say that Singer and Alden are contrasting on this point since yeah, they are both described to be paranoids, but at least in Singer's case he's like that because of his traumatic experience, Alden's case is somehow the same case but his traumatic experience is nowhere near the same as a traumatic experience in the war...or at least not of what we know of him yet.

mail: fun fact, Singer works as a mailman while Alden just steals ur mail to get more near to you lmao

Sarah: Both Singer and Alden had a relationship with someone named Sarah in the past, Singer was married with a woman named Sarah whom he had 3 kids, but they divorced when one of the kids died, while Alden had a childhood best friend named Sarah Galluci who also was his first crush but got rejected and also mocked by the same person.

age: Jacob's Ladder movie was out in the 90's, while Jacob Alden is specified to be on his late 20s-early 30s, making this to speculate he was born in sometime during early or late 90's. so maybe this would be some kind of paralelism or reference between the film's creation and Jacob's birthday, and this makes me go to the last point

possible inspirations: I like to think that sinistershrike was inspired w this movie or that they watched it at least once in their life and took many aspects of it to build Jacob's lore as we know it nowadays. Going back again with Sarah's point, it's very specific to think about two characters named Jacob who had failed relationships motivated by trauma or despair with someone named Sarah, although in Jacob's Ladder this aspect is motivated because of the religious subject that the movie helds up since Jacob and Sarah are biblical names (along with their dead child Gabe/Gabriel), but this gets me to the last reason to why I believe this is motivated by inspirations.

Remember when I mentioned that sinistershrike must have seen this movie at least once in their life? I said this because they were a proclamated Silent Hill fan, this is proven by many of the archived things before they shutted down all of their platforms

as well a drawing featuring Jacob doing cosplay of James Sunderland from SH2

aaaaand, what do you find out when you dig up a bit about Silent Hill's main inspirations?

YES, and this is a common fact within the SH fandom that almost everyone knows

not only the game's creation was inspired by the grotesque and religious hard ambiance of Jacob's Ladder film BUT ALSO JAMES SUNDERLAND SHARES INITIALS WITH JACOB SINGER

adding to the Silent Hill part and a bit unrelated with Jacob's Ladder side

fun fact, there's another character in Silent Hill that holds very hard resembles with Jacob Alden (and if u search fanarts of him u will likely end up misconfusing him with Jacob lol) his name's Walter Sullivan

so basically the pipeline would be like this

Jacob Singer>James Sunderland/Walter Sullivan>Jacob Alden

so yeah I'm like 99.9% sure that sinistershrike watched this movie motivated by their Silent Hill enthusiasm or at least grabbed many superficial aspects from both Silent Hill and this movie and put them on Jacob's character

and so, these are the reasons why I firmly believe Jacob from Jacob's Ladder is more near to be likely the irl version of Jacob Alden

thanks 4 coming to my ted talk I know it may sound very over elaborated and exaggerated, sorry for also deviating from Jacob's Ladder main point to talk abt Silent Hill and I wont blame u if u think I'm schizo or something but I like to grab myself onto this conspiranoic theory I made up myself (quitting aside all the lurking for love stuff, please watch Jacob's Ladder it's actually a very good movie and u will love it if u are a horror fan)

[madabapf]

Okay-! *cracks knuckles* I have thoughts.

Assuming at least some of the family is alive (especially the one who hates Mac's ears), I can simply imagine the reactions if Macaque lets down his glamor in either a submission type thing or a prove a point kinda thing.

One set of ears are shriveled. The black fur that now covers him isn't glamor (Maybe it just darkened with age - I think it's from him getting shadow powers, but idk). His scar covers half of his face and looks way worse than the dad's (presumably). He reeks of dead (probably less so now) and ice. What happened to their cub? Why is he less of himself, and who gave him the scar?

Anyway- I think it would be simply a really fun thing to explore. I also speculate that the one who hates Mac's ears is the older brother because he's the oldest. HE should have the super cool power of hearing past and future. He's done EVERYRHING his parents wanted. Based on stereotypical oldest (typicly a son in the olden days) having a lot of expectations thrown on them.

Send off requirement by me, myself, and I: thank you for these juicy art and concepts, nom nom nom.

mmmhh some very interesting thoughts

while i can't confirm or deny most things for spoiler reasons, i can say that macaques fur is black from his shadow powers, i think i confirmed that a long time ago so it's free real estate✨😎

glad you seem to enjoy my brainrot 😌 and thank you for sharing your thoughts! it's always interesting to hear some theories :D

[whateverloomis]

anon ghostface but in the woodsboro high bathroom… think that scene with sidney

Under the Mask 🔪

Guess who's under the mask... Part 1

A/N: Thank you for your request love <3 I set this in a collage AU for obvious reasons. It was quite fun to write. Hope you enjoy!

18+: Low-key breeding kink, unprotected sex, dubcon, fingering, leather kink, face slapping (once,) dark-ish reader (?,) AFAB reader, unedited

WC: 1.1k

It wasn't easy being on campus ever since Casey and Steve were murdered by ghostface. Mainly because instead of mourning the situation, everyone kept speculating and coming up with theories about a case that the police barely started to investigate.

It might be insensitive, but you were tired of hearing about it. You didn't care about the craze, plus you didn’t even know the victims. It was just another tragedy that was eventually going to be solved. Fade away and taken over by another murder case.

On the other hand, and to make it even worse… People are wearing ghostface masks. Playing pranks on everyone. The goddamn costume should freak you out but instead… you found it incredibly hot. Sometimes you even thought about it while fucking yourself before drifting off to sleep and wake up soaked from your ghostface dreams, taking care of your ache all over again in the morning.

It was finally the end of the month which meant a huge pool party at the frat house once the last week was over. The place was packed with drunk college students, drugs everywhere and people making out in every corner.

You were guilty yourself, having made out with the mysterious bad boy you’d been eyeing for a while. You found his best friend pretty cute too, a little on the goofy side, but you’ve no doubt he can work magic with that tongue of his that he stuck out more often than normal.

After your little makeout session, alcohol, and some pot you needed a breather so you escaped to the campus bathroom, where it was sure to be quiet and empty.

Was it a good idea for you to be wandering around so late at night, alone? No. Did you care? Not really.

When you walked in the bathroom, the mirror was surprisingly clean and you couldn’t help but check your reflection out. Your bikini top was nearly exposing your nipples and the bottoms dug deeper between your ass cheeks than they should, but damn, you look hot.

Taking your phone out, you decided to take some mirror selfies to post on your blog later, already excited to receive all kinds of compliments, and tips.

While you snapped a few pics you heard a noise inside one of the stalls.

Keeling down, you scanned under each one but didn’t see anyone, however, something felt off. There was a presence you couldn’t quite describe.

“Hello? Anyone in here?” You said softly. No answer.

Strange.

Looking down at your phone, as you looked at the pictures you noticed a set of boots in one of the stalls behind you.

Gasping, you turned around and in the blink of an eye you were pushed against the mirror. A large hand around your neck. When you looked up at the tall figure it was him.

Ghostface.

Your heart rate went up and you started to struggle against him, but there was no use. You weren’t going anywhere, but you kept trying. Pushing and kicking, but his grasp only got tighter. Stronger.

“Fuck… Please,” you managed to say.

“Please, what?” He spoke and you froze.

You’d never heard the one and only speak and in a sick, twisted way it sent a bolt of pleasure between your legs.

He squeezed your neck a bit harder and you let out a pathetic whimper.

“Oh, you like that?” Ghostface spoke again and held your waist with his free hand, sliding it down slowly before pulling the strings of your bikini. The feel of his leather gloves sent goosebumps down your legs and as fucked up as the situation is, you were too affected by the substances that were coursing through your body to care.

You’re horny for ghostface.

You were panting, needy as ever. When you felt his gloved hand reach between your legs and over your mound of hair, you let out another needy whine.

Ghostface chuckled at your reactions and little noises, enjoying the fucked up effect he has on you.

Running his fingers between your folds, he collected your slick, rubbing your clit a few times before sliding two fingers inside your cunt. Fucking you with his hand.

Loud, shameless moans escaped your mouth. You held on to his cloak and rode his fingers, rubbing your clit against the palm of his hand. The smooth leather of his glove allowed you to glide against him so good that you already felt your orgasm building up. Ghostface did too but he wasn’t going to get you off without him getting his fill first, so he removed his hand from between your legs. Your cunt squeezed around nothing and you moaned in protest.

Ghostface chuckled at your pathetic neediness and pulled you by your hair, pushing you into a stall, bending you over the toilet – lid closed –.

Your bikini bottoms were long gone, saving the man time to be able to fuck you senseless. He lifted his cloak high enough to reveal his lower half, quickly unzipping his cargo pants and releasing his thick, heavy cock. It rested on your ass crack and you gasped as you felt how big he is.

Fuck, you needed him so bad.

Sneaking a hand between your legs, you spread your pussy lips for him, exposing your pretty little hole.

Ghostface chuckled again and said, “If I had known you’re this much of a slut I would’ve fucked you sooner.” And without warning, he slid his cock all the way in your pussy, bottoming out and grunting at the feeling of you wrapped tightly around his length. The man knew he wouldn’t last long with how amazing you felt so he made the best of it.

He moved slowly at first, feeling every inch of your cunt, letting the pleasure wash over his body, but ghostface couldn’t handle it. He needed to shoot his load inside you and fill you up nice and good. Knock you up and leave you fucked out in that stall.

So he did.

His thrusts got quicker, grasp on your hips nearly bruising as he pulled you against his cock and used you like a toy for his pleasure only.

Ghostface grew bigger inside you the closer he got and the stretch made him feel better inside you than before. Another orgasm built quicker in your core and at that moment both of you were chasing for release.

“Fuck, please!” You moaned and he slapped your cheek in warning, “Shut the fuck up.”

“Mmph!” You whined as he reached between your legs and rubbed your clit in slow circles.

Without warning, ghostface came inside you, fucking himself all the way inside your cunt and making sure he filled you up with his seed nice and good before pulling out.

Satisfied, he released you and stormed out of the stall, leaving you without a release,

fucked out,

and knocked up.

[stagefoureddiediaz]

Oh I am have a fabulous time spiralling out in my specualtion!

I’ve started on the 53 of bucks range lanenow!!

It’s Herbie the vw love bugs number, and he is always involved in spy type plots and getting justice and ultimately bringing his current driver to their true love!!!

But it’s also the number of beads on a standard Dominican Hail Mary rosary - the concept that a saint can intercede and provide assistance - can come to the aid of man! And considering Eddie’s having scenes in a church and buck is very much associated with Christianity - and in particular Jesus (see the meta linked in my pinned post for more on that!) - and a Hail Mary is connected with the emergency services and the military - we’ve seen it mentioned in 911 several times! and then there is the fact that Mary is jesus’s mother - and we might well be getting Buck reckoning with parental issues!!

[linkedin-offficial]

me when i get the opportunity to think about speculative biology and non-existent game mechanics in media i like

⠀

[faislittlewhiteraven]

Been having some ISaT tech level and timeline (as in 'when backstory things happened') thoughts and want to ramble a bit:

Tech

ISaT's setting is based on your classic sword and sorcery fantasy JRPG so its easy to assume that tech wise everything is 'fantasy medieval' and call it a day but consider:

Body Craft is at bare minimum is magic sex changing surgery (earliest known equivent in our world dating to 1930) that any old person can learn to do safely on themselves in only a few months, and more likely has many many broader applications like regular old surgery, the 'combat healing' Mira and Sif use, etc.

Cameras and photos are rare enough that Odile comments on it (namely she's happy the group get a photo in the House due to them being 'so rare') yet are also common enough that everyone in the party knows about them and doesn't question the existence of a camera beyond being surprised that the mirror was one. (In our world cameras date back to the 19th century, with the earliest manufacturing of them being in 1839). 

Printing presses and ways to make plenty of paper to feed those presses given absolutely everyone in this game can read, expects everyone else to know how to, and both mass produced book series and newspapers are a thing. (Note: Printing presses have existed since waaaay back but it's the mass paper manufacturing that makes newspapers and The Cursing of Chateu Castle possible that really has my eyebrows raised here, especially since neither Siffrin or Odile find either odd in any way, indicating such things are common everywhere, and while newspapers have been around since 1604 in our world, mass produced fantasy books didn't really take off until the start of the 20th century).

Food production and storage: despite being in the middle of a national disaster that almost certainly cut off trade networks and access to most suppliers for literal months now, Bonnie, a small child, is able to easily get their hands on fresh Pineapple, curry ingredients (for samosa), potatoes, plantains etc with no issues or anyone commenting on this being unusual or lucky. Oh and the only character who even brings up the concept of potential starvation is the Fishing One, and only in a sort of 'we're not at risk now but sooner or later...' kinda way due to noticing that the fish they fish up for fun are disappearing and likely being frozen. So yeah, that heavily implies Vaugarde has very good food storage tech/Craft (possibly better than ours), and likely also good food production and harvesting tech/skills also.

The Island's incredible knowledge of the stars: while the oldest known orrery in our world is dated from around 205 to 87 BC (ancient Greek, earth centric model), the fact Sif -who would've learnt this as a child/teen- is so very certain that stars are big balls of fire made up of gas is interesting as that's something our world couldn't prove the theory of until around the 1900s (note: it'd been theorized a LONG time but Sif talks like its complete facts to them . Additionally the earliest existing record of a telescope in our world dates to a 1608 patent and we see one of those in game.

Post posting EDIT: A wonderful user qds-place pointed out that Mirabelle has anti-anxiety medication in her room. This is in both ISaT and SAaP and though we're not sure what form the medication takes (pills? Valium? Megitech esc Craft boosters???) the fact they specifically have 'anti anxiety' medication at all (as opposed to idk dragging Mira off and drugging her through the gills) is kind of impressive and if it IS modern anti anxiety pills those could be as recent in creation as the 1950s! So um. Some high levels of tech implied in chemistry there <3

So... yeah. All this, plus the fact that the highest tech implied area, The Island, literally specialised in the study/Craft of turning wishes into reality (for a long enough time period that Wish Craft is culturally so ingrained in the King and Sif that they do it without thinking and it seems intertwined with their nation's religion) has been completely erased from memory to the point anything heavily associated with them has been forgotten, and also we only ever see Dormont aka a little village well away from the cities, it's not hard to conclude that you can basically justify giving the ISaT world any level of tech you want, so long as you lock any of the truly 'setting breaking' stuff like planes and rockets behind The Island's forgetting curse (I would've said trains too but thinking about it trains were invented in 1802 so it's honestly easy to imagine that they totally exist in the ISaT setting/Vaugarde but aren't ever on screen because rail is way too dangerous to consider using while the Curse is active and potentially time freezing things on the tracks).

Side note: We know absolutely nothing about Vaugarde's transport system but as a fan of fantasy RPGs it is honestly a travesty I have yet to see a fic that has flying dragons/wyverns or other fantasy mounts in setting. Like, ok yes, the party would probably have wanted to use those but maybe they don't like the Curse and fled? Maybe the King's Curse targeted them first? Maybe all their handlers dropped the heroes off in Dormont and said 'Well Saviors it's been fun, but well me and Scales here are off to Poteria until things wrap up so best of luck to you' before buggering off?

This isn't really a serious complaint just. Me reminding myself/potentially other fanwork writers out there that there's a lot about the setting we just don't know about and limiting all travel to walking, horse drawn carriage and boat is not actually required. (Also please mix up travelling to the Island. Boats are a wonderful classic and have great thematic vibes for Sif's original leaving of the Island but like. Imagine the sheer in-universe wtf of the memories of The Island suddenly coming back and people on the north coast suddenly realising there's a massive bridge, subway or underwater tunnel leading there that everyone just forgot about - potentially filled with all kinds of Sadnesses that need taking down. Or Warp Panels in a House of Change, idk XD).

Timeline

Canon notes first:

Bonnie is a preteen (8 to 12), Mira and Isa are in their early to mid 20s (with Isa slightly older), Sif is late 20s to 30, and Odile is 40+ Nille is stated to be around 18 to 20.

Siffrin ran away from home when they were a teenager (13 to 17? 18?) and this is heavily implied to be when the Island was Forgotten.

Bonnie (in ISaT specifically*) says that Nille told them that when it happened all the adults were talking about it, hence why they think The Island is close to their village. *In Start Again a Prologue, Bonnie says that they themself remember the adults talking about the Island disappearing, which er. Is a bit impossible given they likely weren't even born yet when that happened but that can be explained away by AU differences, InsertDisc5 still finalising details between SAaP and ISaT, and/or OG Siffrin having been in the loops so long they weren't actually listening when Bonnie was talking and just 'scripted' in their head something 'close enough' to what Bonnie was saying to get the idea (note: mentioned that idea before in my post here on the differences between the House and King in Start Again vs In Stars and Time for anyone curious so er please feel free to give that a read if you haven't already).

Odile mentions remembering 'when it happened' as well and has been 'travelling for years'.

The King 'appeared out of nowhere' sometime in his adulthood, and lived in the city of Corbeaux for a few years before he became the King.

The King became the King as was freezing people in time long enough before his attack on the House of Dormont that everyone inside knew he was coming, there were a wall's worth of newspaper articles about him, and everyone was expecting Euphrasie to defeat him.

Mirabelle's quest began 'almost a year ago' and Sif lost their eye 'recently'.

Thoughts on the above:

Calculating when The Island was forgotten:

Sif being mid 20s to 30 and having run away from home as a teen means that The Island has to have been forgotten somewhere between 9 to 17 years ago with nine only possible if he ran away at age 17 and is only age 26 now, and seventeen being the far opposite if he ran at age 13 and is currently 30.

To narrow down the timeline: Given Sif ran away from home because he 'didn't want to eat his veggies' and 'just wanted to scare [his] parents a little bit' it's probably safe to assume Siffrin was likely on the younger end of the teen spectrum (teens run off all the time sure but with loving parents and over veggies? That screams 'kid who has not yet learned that freaking out the parents will get their ass grounded and/or yelled at a LOT and is therefore best saved for doing fun forbidden stuff that ideally the parents will never find out about' XD) Additionally given Siffrin can't remember his age/birthday etc but Isabeau outright says near the beginning of the game "But you're older than most of the people here?" meaning Sif must be visibly older than Isa or Mira, so he's probably closer to 30 than not.

Those alone would imply the Island likely disappeared closer to the '17 years ago' side of things BUT Nille (tops 20 years old) told Bonnie that "[the Island's disappearance] was all the adults would talk about for ages" and kids usually can't remember anything prior to 4 years of age so with that in mind...

I'd say The Island most likely disappeared between 13 to 16 years ago.

Nille stuff:

This is more a general mention but. Nille is tops 20 years old. Bonnie is between 8 and 12 and doesn't remember their parents at all.

This means Nille ran away with Bonnie and gained emancipation and custody of Bonnie (if Vaugarde has formalised that kind of legal stuff) while she was at most 12 years old herself and could have in theory been as young as 6..!

Regardless, it's very likely the original home situation was that bad, Nille deserves a ton of credit for raising Bonnie as well as she has and I'd say it's very VERY likely she had a lot of help from villagers in Bambosche and/or the local House of Change in doing so. ...But also Bonnie is very adamantly 'my sister and village' and not 'my sister and [specific names who live with us]' so there's clearly by the time Bonnie was 4 or so they were living in their own place so... Yeah. Lotta drive for independence there too it seems (so the party might have more trouble adopting Nille into their group post ISaT than Bonnie might expect).

King stuff:

Already an adult 13 to 16 years ago so at bare minimum 33. Given his vibe probably much older though.

Newspapers get printed pretty quick though for there to be so much speculation and research done into his background so quick, either Vaugarde has some form of fast messaging system (something like a Chappe telegraph on top of the Houses of Change? Odile I think does mention that they'll have a message sent to let Nille know they'll be returning Bonnie...) or the King was freezing stuff for IDK around a month or two before reaching Dormont? Alas can't find out how long it takes to walk across all of France out very easily (I'm sure the numbers are out there but my brain is pudding rn) but if we had those numbers we could probably make some guesstimates based off the rough sketched map of Vaugarde InsertDisk5 did... Which I would link but apparently the tumblr post I had it linked on has been deleted???? 'wails at this very unhappy development'

Mira's journey and Sif's eye:

We really don't know a lot but almost a year ago gives us somewhere around 9 to 11 months to spread the journey out along and after eye removal surgery the patient can out and about as soon as 2 to 6 weeks after, maybe sooner with magic healing (though full recovery/growing used to the changed spacial awareness -which Sif clearly does not have- probably can't be sped up and takes around 3 to 6 months) so um. I'd guestimate Sif's eye injury is really recent; like two months ago tops recent. ...Which sorta explains a lot of why Bonnie is not dealing with it right now and also why the others might be trying to avoid bringing it up (since Sif clearly loves avoiding the issue but they haven't yet realised that maybe they really should bring it up even if it annoys them anyway?)

Odile with some Ka Bue speculation:

When it comes to The Island, how did Odile, presumably living in Ka Bue at the time, remember 'when it happened'? Was the Island well known enough even on the other side of the world that it's disappearance made waves? Or was Odile herself or someone she's close to paying attention to the region? (Like maybe her dad or a friend is/was into politics or trade, keeping up with overseas news and got concerned it could happen to Ka Bue? I'd say 'I remember when it happened' line implies it was more immediate knowledge than being informed by a messenger much later though...)

As for Odile's 'years of travel' I have to wonder, what's left behind for her in Ka Bue? She brings up going back there quite a bit, might just miss home and possibly her father if he's still alive, but given it took her years to get here for something so personal rather than idk 'materially rewarding' I think Odile might have some kinda family estate or something back in Ka Bue... Something she wasn't worried about potentially losing while far away, but solid enough to want to return to, beyond her father who she'd definitely want to see again if he's still around. (...But given how open she is to chilling about Vaugarde a few more months with the others, I really don't think he is alive, since well, given their respective ages and travel between Vaugarde and Ka Bue apparently taking years, there'd definitely an uncomfortably high chance of him passing away while she's gone and that seems like the thing that'd stress Odile out so... Yeah. Probably got an estate in Ka Bue she'd like to take the Family to visit/possibly sell off if she decides she'd like to live with them in Vaugarde so... Just my off the cuff headcanoning here and hoping that gives others ideas or something).

---

Anyway that's all the ramble I've got in me so... yeah! Hope this was interesting and useful for those needing a bit of a 'possible tech'/timeline calcs breakdown for the Island + a few more vague things and um. Probably will post a long winding ramble about my attempt at a ISaT Selkie AU fic I've been working on next <3 (Not to be confused with looped-140-and-counting's already existing and quite wonderful Selkie Siffrin AU which already has a completed oneshot fic, a snippet of sequel, two snippets of prequel/Sif flashbacking and I believe a comic too, all of which I highly recommend <3)

[garblegarden]

Underneath the suit, Human Guy is more of an abstract concept. I mean, yes, he is a real guy under there, but he doesn't like to acknowledge that too much. He's got plenty of other stuff going on to make up for that though, like wires replacing his organs and blood on his hands and a certain pinkish infection that claimed his legs and eye that may or may not come back to finish the job.

[loopyarts]

Shouma Ginzaki, I have so many thoughts on this little guy. That I wish to ramble about him for a bit. Mostly about things that I find interesting such as his character design but also my thoughts on him so far.

For context I am going off from just the demo alone, so I don’t have the full picture of what he will be like in the full game.

First off, the red marking on the characters foreheads seem to have some inspiration in both a red dot called a bindi and traditional Japanese kabuki theatre make up. A bindi has ties to Buddhism and is linked to the Ajna Chakra which is also known as the "third eye" or "inner wisdom". And if you’re an anime fan you might have seen at very least one character with a red dot in their character design. So there might be some pop culture aspects to the inspiration as well. Which is why some of the characters have such dot markings in their battle ready designs.

Another thing worth noting is that the colour red in Japanese culture is a pretty prominent and versatile colour with multiple layers of symbolism. Such as being associated with protection, joy, and strength, but also with passion, power, and even danger etc.

Finally, with Shouma and Mako they both have two dots markings above their forehead. It kinda look similar to geisha dot eyebrows or Hikimayu (引眉). It’s probably just a coincidence but I thought it was worth noting.

Shouma number is nine but interestingly enough it is written in upper capital Chinese Hanzi instead of Japanese Kanji. which is probably on purpose because in Japan the number nine is considered an unlucky number because the pronunciation (苦) (ku) is similar to (苦) (suffering). The association with hardship, pain and ties to bad luck/misfortune overall contributes to the negative reputation behind this number. Similar to how the number 4 similarly avoided in Japanese culture.

While in Chinese the number nine has the opposite reputation with it being associated with good luck/good fortune and can also mean long lasting and represents the maximum level of martial happiness and longevity. I just think that is a nice subtle detail in his uniform and weapon design overall with his number being nine and all. 

This probably means nothing but nine or more correctly eight phases of the moon can spiritually is often associated with cycles of growth, release, and renewal. Also the number Nine is symbolically represented by change and having a very empathic and compassionate soul. In numerology the number nine is usually linked to things such as completion, idealism, and a strong desire to help others. Which mostly fits Shouma personality in terms of his ideals and morals.

Also his star/zodiac sign Pisces is often associated with compassion, empathy, creativity, imagination and strong intuition but also a deep connection to the sub conscious. But also the weaknesses of the sign is being indecisive, sensitive, prone to escapism and their own inner turmoil. And melancholy behaviours feelings of sorrow and poignance; where they would rather go through and meditate on deep emotions such as despair/sadness rather than have no feelings at all.

Overall, the zodiac sign Pisces is very emotional driven sign and I don’t think it is a coincidence that Shouma as a character is written to be very driven by his strong emotional feelings and thoughts.

Anyway, this line of dialogue stuck out to me while playing the game demo. There seems to be a bit of a moon theme going on here? Or at the very least I think that the moon might be an important plot beat for this game story.

Which also lead to me noticing Shouma’s mecha also has some moon imagery on its design via the shoulders pads. Another interesting thing is that the chest of the mecha is designed with a Shiba Inu face notable a black one.

Shouma’s dog is probably not a literal black shiba ha ha. Although, his weapon having the chest be of the head of a black dog reminded me a bit of the Chinese mythology of the black dog called Tiangou/the heavenly dog. Which in the myth Tiangou either eats the moon or sun causing an eclipse but the moon is more notable one. Which could have inspired some design aspects to Shouma weapon perhaps.

Real quick, I will say that I haven’t looked too deeply or check to see if other characters have a subtle moon theme to their designs. Also, if you look closely on images of the other characters weapons they also have an although I will say a more subtle animal theme going on in their weapon designs as well.

Now onto his character design. First off, his backpack resembles a Kame/turtle shell get it because he’s hiding in his shell and need to slowly come out of it. Man, you gotta love the creativity Rui Komatsuzaki puts into his character designs overall.

Shouma’s boots also have a bit of a turtle-like pattern and with them being green, it looks like he has little turtle feet. His boots also partly resemble wellies, which are commonly associated with children at least in fiction giving him a childlike feel to his design. Plus they’re also outdoor boots and are usually quite popular with dog walkers as well.

Finally, his cap in terms of shape resembles either a frog, bear or hamster which adds even more to the animal theme to his overall character design.

I’m honestly curious with how Shouma’s dog, which is most likely a Shiba Inu and Sirei are connected somehow and it’s also interesting how he’s the only one that didn’t technically fight. Like there has to be a reason for it right? I also think Shouma is more important than he gives himself credit for, although I may wrong who knows. 

I don’t know if others have noticed this but Shouma to me seems to be a very peacemaker type of character. He doesn’t like conflict and always puts others comfort and needs first before himself a far good amount of the time. Plus, the way he talks about his dog in optional dialogue. Makes him appear to have a selfless and kind hearted soul underneath all the self esteem/self deprecation issues of course. 

I also think Shouma appears to be pretty good at reading the room and how others might be feeling. On the rare occasion he chimes in, he has some pretty possible ideas and theories on what might be happening in the current situation. But given how many times he’s gets shot down or told he’s stupid for thinking or saying anything at all.

Which probably breaks his confidence to where he feels he shouldn’t have said anything at all. Which is why he’s just accepts it and doesn’t push against it. Because he truly believes he can never be right on something but also insists on being a peacemaker making him unable to truly take on conflict.

Overall, from what I’ve seen so far, Shouma seems to be a very gentle soul. Who is way too harsh on himself but I do have faith that he will develop as a person as the story progresses. It probably won’t be perfect and I don’t expect his self esteem problems to just magically go away, that takes time. Honestly, Shouma so far is very relatable to me as someone who has gone through similar hardships as a teen.

Shouma has so much potential to be such a lovely and compelling written character overall and I look forward to see what the writers have in store for him in the full game. (He’s so autistic coded to me but that could just be me projecting a little onto him ha ha…)

Lastly, gameplay wise Shouma has the potential to be pretty op as a unit depending on how his abilities and moveset functions in the gameplay mechanics. 

He is a counter defender and his ability shut-in gives 1+ attack with every emery that hits him. Which could have potential to be stacked if his ability can get even stronger. Reflecting back attacks is his key, so Shouma ideally will probably excel being throw at enemies head first and focus on crowd control. 

Shouma will probably work best with the more frail units. Leading the enemies onto him while doing chip damage and letting heavy hitting units dish out the big hits. He’s also will probably have good synergy with the healer/support units as well but overall. I think he will probably be one of the better units in the game due to his ability to do crowd control in a game, where crowd control is key. Also depending upon on how his ability works he could also be quite a decent boss slayer as well. 

Anyway, that concludes my little slightly mentally ill ramble on him. OvO’)

[dandp]

What are we even gonna do when if they hard launch and get a dog within the next few months what new hills will need to be developed for us to become residents on

[fiepige]

My concept for Venom!Hobie

Okay here goes

DISCLAIMER: I CANNOT DRAW

I've made another post where I mentioned it as well but I'll reiterate it here:

I don't think Hobie would ever canonically accept a symbiote due to his history with them and how they're used in his universe.

Now with that out of the way let's speculate!

This is my concept sketch for Venom!Hobie

Before I go into details about the design and the possible way he would work in universe:

I wanna give the world's BIGGEST shoutout to @levionok for being the coolest person ever and actually make some AMAZING drawings of Venom!Hobie:

(Like how cool is this!?!?!!! I love these so much!! aaaaahhhhhhhhh<3 <3<3)

Okay so, first I wanna talk about his design and then I wanna speculate about the most "realistic" ways I think Venom!Hobie could come into existence/what his personality would be like.

Design:

I wanted the symbiote to exaggerate some of Hobie's physical features so I kinda went with the idea of Venom!Hobie being even lankier and spikier than regular Hobie/Spider-Punk (since the symbiotes seem to take more after the actual suit when it comes to their design I based most of their looks around how Hobie looks as Spider-Punk)

Since Hobie is already tall I of course imagine Venom!Hobie as being even taller/lankier.

Though due to his longer limbs he has a bigger tendency to walk crouched down on all fours (sixs technically?) as beautifully illustrated by @levionok above. (and less beautifully illustrated by me in the top right corner of my drawing lol)

Since Hobie also incorporates spikes into his looks I did the same for Venom!Hobie and added even more! He now has more rows of "mohawk" spikes, his choker spikes become longer and the same goes for the spikes from his jacket + he gets extra spikes along his back. He also gets spikes along his wrists! - He's a spikey boy!

Also all the spikes are made from symbiote "teeth" and could in theory be moved around on his body if he wanted to (though they mostly stay in place).

The "running mascara"-look (Idk what to call it lol) also carries over from Spider-Punk's mask and is once again even more pronounced in Venom!Hobie.

Now one of the more noticeable traits are the arms! I haven't figured every detail out yet, but so far the idea is that his arms split into two at the elbows but he's able to "fuse" them back into one arm if he wishes to (which he rarely does).

Also to get the idea across that it's his arm being split up I tried to add some symbiote goop between the two parts of the arms!

I kinda like the idea of him being able to change his "design" (changing his spikes and arms as he pleases) so to say, kinda referencing to him not believing in consistency and how he changes "filters" in his animation style! Though I picture him as looking like in the concept drawings above most of the time.

I'm also kinda toying with the idea of giving him barbed wire like webbing since I remember reading somewhere that Hobie apparently has used barbed wire instead of webs in the comics from time to time.

But I also headcanon Venom!Hobie as being more animalistic and more likely to just use brute force instead of webs.

He is fast when he's down on all fours (again sixs? idk lol)

Of course he also gets most of the classic Venom abilities and weaknesses (I haven't read the comics so I'm going off memory of the Venom movie which I've seen once like 5 years ago so please bear with me ^^')

The most noticable weakness being sound! I'll take a closer look at how this affects Hobie when I get to his personality/origin.

Okay that's all about his design for now, I might come back and add more stuff later if I come up with anything as this is still a new concept I'm workshopping (and inputs are greatly appreciated!)

Now we're moving on to his personality/origin as I feel like these two are very intertwined. Cause I feel like the way Venom!Hobie originates will affect his personality too! Let me explain:

So far I've come up with two possible ideas/reasons for Hobie to even bond with a symbiote in the first place and depending on which version you choose I feel like it would end up having different effects on his personality/how he handles the situation:

Scenario 1:

The symbiote is passed onto Hobie without him knowing!

Possibly from an encounter with the cops where a symbiote manages to latch onto Hobie as he kills its former host.

(Or maybe a villain manages to plant one on him somehow).

This would lead to a slow gradual "fusion" between Hobie and the symbiote as it would be very aware that Hobie is NOT exactly a fan of it and would do whatever he could to get rid of it/kill it if he found out about it.

If I recall correctly Eddie also wasn't aware of his symbiote in the beginning and only found out about it when it decided to make itself known. -(referencing the movie)

So I'd imagine a similar scenario here but instead of making itself known, the symbiote hides its presence from Hobie as much as possible while making small gradual changes to Hobie to prepare for an eventual fusion/take over.

Like slowly Hobie starts getting migraines whenever he plays his guitar or listens to loud music so he does so less and less without being even consciously aware of it.

At some point he even stops bringing his guitar with him on missions since he never uses it anyways and hey why did he even bring it in the first place? - I like to think that the symbiote is somewhat able to manipulate Hobie's thoughts over time to make him more susceptible to it.

Going to concerts also becomes a no no.

Hobie also changes his diet; the thought of going to the community garden just not appealing to him as much anymore for some reason. So he visits it less frequently until he also just completely stops going (affecting both his diet and his social life- the symbiote would want Hobie to be as isolated as possible to make him easier to manipulate).

Hobie doesn't realise it at first but he starts craving meat more and more and as time passes he also prepares his meals less and less until he basically eats meat raw. (I'm once again thinking about the movie and that lobster scene, though his symbiote would have to be a lot more sublte for him to not notice what's going on).

At this point Hobie would have to be almost completely isolated and under the influence of the symbiote for so long that it would finally feel "safe" making itself known, preying on his hunger (having been homeless Hobie has known hunger before but I imagine that the hunger that comes with a symbiote is its own unique thing and that it's rather extreme) and his declining mental health.

While a part of him would still very much hate it, Hobie would begrudgingly accept the symbiote and chaos would ensue.

And then of course the Spider-Gang would try and stop/save him cause they know that Hobie would never want this. Wether they're gonna be successful or not is up to interpretation.

Now personality vise I imagine this version of Venom!Hobie is gonna be mostly taken over by the symbiote and thus being more feral and animalistic. It most likely wouldn't talk a lot and mostly be focused on feeding (and like in the movie, its favourite food is gonna be humans. Hobie would try to make sure they only target cops but sometimes the hunger would win over reason).

I know this is pretty dark but I really can't imagine a positive scenario where Hobie would willingly accept a symbiote so this is my first "solution". (Though I also feel like his friends would intervene before he reached this point but still, I kinda like the idea of the slow corruption and the person not realising it until it's too late)

You still with me? Good, cause it's time for:

Scenario 2:

I'd wish that this one would be more positive but I guess that sadly isn't the case

In this scenario Hobie would have reached his breaking point.

He would have been through an experience so traumatic that he feels like a symbiote is his ONLY option.

(If I recall correctly he's reffered to himself as a "suicide machine" in the comics and this would really come into play here).

He'd become way more reckless and not really caring what happens to him in battle. He views this as his last resort.

Like maybe there's a new kind of symbiote that isn't weak to sound or fire and Hobie has no other way to defeat them than to get one himself.

The only positive is that Hobie would be more mentally in control as he's fully aware of the symbiote and how it can influence his mind.

He'd still have cravings for raw meat but he wouldn't have been as mentally unstable and only target cops/other symbiotes becomming kind of a double cannibal.

Once again his friends would try to stop him and he'd definitely be more resonable in this scenario than in the first one.

But he'd still push them away both to protect them and out of shame over his situation.

This time more of Hobie's personality would shine through but it still wouldn't be a very positive version of Hobie as I imagine any scenario with him having a symbiote would really have a negative impact on his mental health.

But still there's room for a happy ending if the Spider-Gang manage to get to him in time!

So yeah, both of these scenarios are kind of a bummer for Hobie (to put it mildly lol) but I honestly can't imagine a positive situation where Hobie would willingly accept a symbiote! (I'm more than happy to hear any takes you guys might have that prove me wrong though!)

Okay, I think that's everything for now!

I'd love to hear your thoughts and opinions of Venom!Hobie!

Also let me know if there's anything you want me to elaborate on! Or of you just wanna talk Hobie or Venom!Hobie in general <3

If you made it this far you are honestly a champ and deserve all the gold stars in the world. As I sadly can't give you that have a GIF of Hobie smiling to cheer you up!

Also I wanna give another huge shout out to @levionok! Both for the amazing drawings of Venom!Hobie and for giving me the courage and motivation to share my concept of him! <3<3<3

also have another Venom!Hobie cause I can't get over how cool she made them look! If you haven't already you should really check out their tumblr! They have made some AWESOME ATSV art there!!!

[sysig]

Party (group) party (celebratory)! (Patreon)

[petrichal]

Personally I want Garp to break out with Pudding and punch Blackbeard as hard as he can as a last Fuck You before he can finally keel over but maybe that's just me

[ancient-day]

Heartbreaking! Goro Akechi doesn’t love or hate sweets, but a secret third thing (pleasantly neutral)