#wait why don't i have a tag for this

[lunarharp]

What led to this (orufrey comic, cw an uncomfortable/creepy scene)

[blinkpen]

when your sleep paralysis demon is an artist, prone to Moods, (what are you afraid of? tell me what you're scared of)

[2hoothoots]

i was having a chuckle to myself last night about Gristol, and how his plans are basically:

Restore Ford Cruller's memory

Find Maligula

???

Profit

but then... of course they are, right? this is Gristol we're talking about. Fatherland Follies drives home again and again that he's still operating on a child's logic, a warped and reductive version of the world that he never bothered to grow out of. both of his memory vaults center on the images of his childhood, this idealized version of the past that he clings to no matter what. and that's still how he remembers Maligula, too - as this saviour figure, who rushes in to help him when he's in trouble.

[ID: Two slides from Gristol's memory vault, Glory to Grulovia! Left: Gristol clings to Maligula's back as she summons waves to sweep away his assailants. Right: Gristol and Maligula waving from a balcony as the people cheer. Gzar Theodore brandishes a dagger in the background.]

like so much else, Maligula represents a return to this idyllic childhood - to the peace and simplicity of his youth, when he was free from worries and responsibilities. in his mind, he doesn't need to make any further plans - once Maligula's back, everything will go back to normal. Maligula will make everything better.

...is what i thought, but then i remembered this line:

[Screenshot source. ID: Gristol, in Truman's body, bows on his hands and knees in front of the newly-awaked Maligula. The caption reads: "Yes, High Priestess! I am here to correct the mistakes made by my father!"]

and that's kind of interesting, right?

to be clear: this happens directly after Maligula sees Helmut-in-Gristol's-body, and recognises him. her line before this is:

"Little Gzesaravich! Have you come to pay for your father's sins?"

my first thought was that Gristol hadn't expected to still be in Truman's body by the time he managed to find Maligula, and this was him trying to placate her and buy some time until he could explain the situation. but watching the cutscene back, that's clearly not what's happening here. Gristol is answering as himself, and his response of throwing himself to his knees before her is, as far as i can tell, genuine.

so what is going on here?

in Fatherland Follies, there's this line in the ride narration that stuck out to me:

"Why didn't the Gzar help Maligula in her time of need? No one knows, but historians agree - it is Gzar Theodore's biggest failure."

other lines mention Gzar Theodore's "mistake", and it's wording Gristol himself echoes in the screencap above. evidently, he believes that his father abandoned Maligula, leaving her to her fate at the hands of the Psychonauts, and it was that mistake that lead to them being driven out of the country - that mistake which he seeks to correct. maybe he even feels like he has a debt to repay to her for his family turning their backs on her all those years ago.

the 'High Priestess' thing, though - that's kinda weird, and threw me for a loop the first time i played the game. it took me until my second playthrough to connect the dots, and remember how the room in the Lady Luctopus - Gristol's room - was full of Delugionist scribblings and symbols.

[Screenshot source. ID: left, the walls of the hidden backroom in Gristol's hotel suite, covered in scrawlings of eyeballs and Maligula's name. Right, the pinboard from the hidden backroom. On its surface are photographs and newspaper clippings connected by pieces of string.]

i mean, look at this stuff! he had a whole conspiracy board and everything!

we learn very little about the Delugionists and their beliefs as a whole during the game, but i think drawing the connection here suggests two important things. one: that Gristol was in deep with this stuff. i don't know how he linked up with them - maybe via old family connections, or just good old-fashioned digging (we know he's skilled at worming his way into peoples' good graces, after all) - but it seems likely that he's begun to internalise their ideas, maybe even warping his own memories of events. and two: the Delugionists themselves are, if you'll pardon the pun, pretty far off the deep end.

like... i understand why PN2 didn't go heavy on the "mass-murderer cult worship" aspect of things, in the end, but man this is such a tantalising glimpse into the wider mythos around Maligula. Gristol is proud and haughty and thinks himself above everyone else; the fact that his first reaction seeing Maligula is to throw himself to the ground at her feet says so much about the way he's come to see her. he's not just trying to bring back Maligula, his childhood bodyguard. he's trying to bring back Maligula, the High Priestess of the deluge, the semi-mythical figure whose supporters believe even death couldn't stop. he doesn't even flinch at the way she confronts him, and maybe it's because he's bought in so completely to this deified figurehead, this idea of Maligula; more a living force of nature than a person. and it all comes back to the same place: an abdication of responsibility, not just to the person who protected him when he was little but to this avatar of floods and destruction. Maligula will make everything better.

i'd write more about my thoughts on the Delugionists but that'd be taking a hard turn into speculation, and this is already kind of long and rambling so i'd better end it here. but what an unexpected and evocative line, right? it's some of the only stuff we have to go off of regarding the Delugionists as a whole, but i think it does such a good job of hinting at the wider story - at teasing another layer to the mythos surrounding Maligula, one whose ripples we see throughout the game but which never quite breaches the surface.

[front-facing-pokemon]

[sunshinediaz]

wip wednesday ♥️

happy wednesday friends <3 i was tagged by @wikiangela, @exhuastedpigeon, and @rogerzsteven to share something so thank u all mwah

this is from eddie vs the hoa because he and buck made a pallet of blanket in the living room floor to sleep on and i think it was cute so please enjoy 🫶🏼

“I know,” Buck says, a little drowsy. And he does know—Eddie’s told him everything. There’s no secrets between them. “It’s big enough for you and Chris to grow in.”  “I think it could be a forever home.” It’s a whisper because anything louder might disrupt the moment. “Mine and my son’s and yours, too.”  Buck blinks, slow and sleepy. He’s less than five minutes from falling asleep; he worked so hard today. He deserves to rest. “Mine?” he repeats, voice pitched high like he doesn’t quite believe it.  Eddie’ll make him.  “Yours.” He reaches out, picks at a dark eyelash resting on Buck’s cheek, and holds the tip of his finger near Buck’s mouth. “Make a wish.”  Buck’s eyes cross, twin blobs of blue in the flickering light of the laptop screen, and he puckers his lips to blow a bit of cool air. The eyelash drifts off somewhere over Eddie’s shoulder, but he doesn’t care to know because the color of Buck’s eyes is the same shade of blue the sky was the night he stayed up with his abuelo.  “What’d you wish for?”  Buck chuckles. “If I tell you, it won’t come true.”  Eddie hums. “I’ll make it come true,” he swears, and he thinks Buck’s cheeks tint red, but it might just be from the light of the laptop screen. 

no pressure tagging @honestlydarkprincess, @giddyupbuck, @eowon, @eddiediaztho, @wildlife4life, @watchyourbuck, @thewolvesof1998, @alyxmastershipper, @jeeyuns, @fortheloveofbuddie, @hippolotamus, @ladydorian05, @callmenewbie, @nmcggg, and anybody else who wants to share something!

[saireye]

deltarune funny design moment

Nol and one susan

Susan. She is yawning. Nol partakes in lesbianism

Nerdly

Ralph

Krizzy glizzy and nol because she's my favorite child

[synthaphone]

im tired

the stuff happening in moderneo is indicative of a trend i've been seeing in neoclone art contribution, which is that artists who come in to work on pet colors often clash because they're coming from two majorly different viewpoints:

its for fun so don't take it too seriously and just be creative- if the site runner likes it then its good to go

its for a website that's seeking to recreate the neopets experience, so we should strive for the art we make to match the existing art in style and quality

neither of these are incorrect approaches for a volunteer collaborative project, and i think its up to the people in charge of each respective neoclone to clearly establish which of these ways they want their art team to approach the pet colors, in order to prevent conflict i'm definitely in the latter camp, and have also been called a bully on a couple different occasions for offering gentle critique. seeing very level headed and reasonable points be reacted to as though they're evil bullying makes me want to spontaneously combust. sometimes, on a collaborative project, you'll end up feeling bad when you receive critique or pushback on an idea you had. and that feeling sucks!!! but that doesn't mean that the people who gave you the critique were bullies. seeing professional artists get treated like dangerous cruel people for approaching a project like professionals makes me feel insane.

like okay, if its not a professional project and the more 'anything goes' atmosphere is whats wanted, then fine!! but you have to make that clear- and even IF that's the goal, i think its unreasonable and immature of any participating artist to demand zero critical feedback on the designs that they're submitting to the website for everyone to be able to adopt. also, if the project isn't going to be approached like its professional work, you can't expect consistent professional quality artwork, because you cannot get that from an environment that doesn't allow for critique or style direction

[goldkirk]

as I'm going back over my past history and items and journals and years, I come across all sorts of things, like the pencil I saved from that so-precious memory from second grade, and a pair of flip flops I've been missing for two years, and (tw for murder/crime/killings) the modern-high-school-AU-kidnapped-by-a-serial-killer story I wrote in late high school jdfsjdfsjkjlksfd

[lunarharp]

based on valentine's day art shirahama drew once hehe

[moe-broey]

THE PROTOTYPE MOE............... 👁️👁️

[metaligatr]

I've been playing arknights and regrettably, i love one (1) horrible horse man

[front-facing-pokemon]

[steakout-05]

oh my poor sick little man..... he has a bad fever :(

i've always had a soft spot for sickfics and i like seeing strong characters get taken care of by the ones who love them most :) craig is making him chicken noodle soup in the kitchen, barry's favourite meal to have whenever he's not feeling well.

bonus: earlier version with ripped sleeves

i liked the thought of him being all snug in the only piece of clothing he hasn't ripped so i drew the sleeves of his jammies because it was cuter :)

[fafrogke]

*coughs and dies* (some drawings below)

I like to think in an AU where they can be themselves with each other (i say au bc i don't know how tf to get them together even tho i made Eli for Ren crying emoji)

a friend told me to draw them as plushies idk how to draw plushies what are these things

[triangle-strategy-notes]

Benedict concept art! Translation notes under the cut, text versions of the captions in the alt text.

I ended up having some mix-ups with the words "Benedict" and "Utility" because Benedict's name and the word that was eventually translated as "Utility" are really similar. "Utility" is ベネフィット, and the characters are pronounced phonetically as "Be ne fu ~i tto" (i.e. a direct Japanese spelling of the English word "benefit"). Benedict is ベネディクト, and the characters are phonetically pronounced as "Be ne de ~i ku to". There's a solid chance I made some mistakes throughout the pages on which word I was supposed to use, but they're both referring to Benedict either way.

On a related note, there was one place (the note about the gun being able to fold) where I made "utility" lowercase. Japanese doesn't have capital letters, so that was just sort of a guess at what version of the word they meant.

"The neck muscles are hidden" was one that I couldn't make sense of. I'm sure there was something about neck/muscles, but the sentence (as far as I can tell) is something like "Hudan muscles of the neck," so I'm not really sure what it's supposed to say in its entirety. I'm going with the idea that Hudan was a slightly-off phonetic spelling of "hidden," but I might be completely wrong.

The word for "squeaky clean" was lit. defined as an onomatopoeia for scrubbing (ゴシゴシ or "gon gon"). I couldn't think of a good English equivalent that sounded nice within the sentence, so I went with "squeaky clean" instead, since I think that was essentially the meaning they were going for.

"Looks like father..." might have had some nuance that I didn't manage to get down. The word for father was probably something more like "the father of this household" but it wasn't super clear. The overall meaning I took away from it was, "Serenoa looks like the Wolffort family father," but that wasn't really the wording they used, so I decided to just leave it vague.

There's some text in the tiny little box at the bottom of the expressions page that I wrote as "From the setting." The actual text seemed to be shorthand for something, and I wasn't exactly sure what the intention was. It might have meant "this is a style that fits within the setting [of Norzelia]," or it might have meant something more like, "this was from the original setting up of Benedict's character." There's also just a chance it meant something entirely different--I feel pretty unsure about this one.