🌌All Outsides🚀 @alloutsides - Tumblr Blog

When the Visitor arrived on Earth, many believed it was the end of everything. Flesh and soul were reshaped into forms never seen before. Structures crumbled, civilization collapsed, and humanity was swept into an altered reality—one that could never return to what was once called "normal." ... At least, that’s how it felt back then. But thousands of years later? "The Visit" is just another point in history—monumental, yes, but ancient. Life moves on. It adapts to new limbs, grows comfortable with multitudes of eyes, and brings forth generations who know no other way of being. Society is reborn from the ashes, intertwined with the new world. Some changes fade, incompatible with life. Others thrive, evolving into entirely new races, cultures, and histories. And when Mother Planet Earth can no longer hold all of them, her children reach for the stars. Join us as we explore this vibrant, ever-evolving world—thousands of years after the Post-Denial Ending of the original game—through the lives of those who now call this strange future "normal".

Hi! Welcome to the blog dedicated to my worldbuilding fan project, All Outsides, based on the 2025 RPG Look Outside by Francis Coulombe!

Most of this world’s story is told through a series of fics published on AO3. These works take many different forms, ranging from in-universe fictional scientific articles to more traditionally plot-driven narratives. The writing is often styled in the vein of speculative biology fiction—All Tomorrows being a major inspiration—though my focus leans more toward culture, history, and societal development than strictly defined science or biology.

Beyond that, the project heavily features themes of science fiction, space exploration, interplanetary and interpersonal relationships, cultural evolution, fictional religions, and many more, all set within a futuristic, post-Visitor and post-Protector world.

On this blog, I’ll be sharing writing, art, and assorted tidbits from this setting—things I’ve been working on purely for fun over the past few months. Don’t expect a strict posting or update schedule; this is a passion project, and I want to keep it enjoyable without burning myself out.

I tend to write slowly, but I love talking about this project beyond what makes it onto AO3. Feel free to send an ask—there’s a good chance you’ll get a lengthy ramble about lore that didn’t quite fit into the fics, or maybe even a WIP or two. (No, seriously—I’m very excited to talk about this world. Engagement beyond likes and reblogs genuinely boosts my motivation and helps me keep working on it, so please don’t hesitate to send messages!)

If what you’ve read so far sounds like your cup of tea, I highly encourage you to check out the official series on AO3.

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

Thank you for your interest!

May the Visitor and the Protector bless your journey to the stars.

(More technical information below the cut:)

#all outsides #all outsides (look outside)#look tomorrow #look tomorrow (all outsides)#look outside #look outside game #lis yap #lis fixes #wip outsides #spoiler outside

thegallicshrug

Hi. Thinking about denial ending.

Just imagine, in less than fifteen days the world ends, but then the immediate threat is gone and the world, though recoverable, is irreversibly changed. Not just by the fact that a significant portion of the population doesn't look human anymore, but in that there's now an ever-growing, planet-spanning mycelium who's also sapient and loves you.

What would a healed society even look like in a world like that. I imagine missing persons cases would become more rare, seeing as there's an omnipresent behemoth with eyes everywhere and a strong desire to keep everyone safe. Same for violent crimes, or people succumbing to the elements, and Sam wouldn't let someone starve when there's perfectly steal-able food that no one's eating. What are they gonna do? Lock him up?

Speaking of food, plants grow on Denial Sam's body. If the landscapes were damaged by the visitor, could people have used him as farmland? They already build houses on him, and he does take up a lot of space.

Or, what about earlier, when humanity's just getting back on its feet? Sam would be able to relay information from across the world. If you were away from home when the disaster struck and got trapped with no way of communicating with your loved ones, he could have been the earliest way of finding out what state your family and friends are in, maybe he'd even ferry messages. He can't talk anymore, but seems dextrous enough to hold a pen

plus with the variety of mutated forms people were thrust into, specialized mobility aids would be in high demand. In the early days after the apocalypse though, all you had would be the extended limb of your new protector supporting you as you move, or just straight up carrying you if you can't.

And that's not even mentioning Sam himself! He'll witness and experience more than any person has before. Every biome, every weather, every animal and every culture, simultaneously and for the rest of his days. He'll perpetually watch the sunset while at the same time never be able to experience one again. Hopefully he's a quick learner, because he'll need to communicate with people from all over the world speaking all sorts of language. He's "common as trees" now, people have Sam limbs decorating their backyards. He knows every single person personally. Knows what their laugh sounds like, their speech quirks, their favorite perfume, who's hiding a smoking problem and who's baking pancakes at 2am. He'll watch babies go from crawling to playing to graduating to their deathbeds. He'll welcome hundreds into the world at the same time as he bids farewell to the hundreds he watched grow and wither.

And Sam's very happy like this, but how do his friends, the ones that knew him before, feel about it? His family? We know he has siblings. Imagine trying to figure out what became of your relatives after the apocalypse and discovering your bum brother/uncle is now a giant tree helping the entire planet. What kind of relationship could you have with something like that, knowing that every interaction you have with him only occupies a miniscule fraction of his attention as the rest carries out thousands of tasks for more people than you could ever hope to know? How do you maintain a relationship when your friend/brother/crush/dad is no longer a person in the same way you are? At what point does grief start to creep in?

#putting this here hehehehehe #great post op!#sam the protector

After I finished designing the Shuttertongue writing system, I excitedly showed it to a dear friend. I went into so much detail explaining how it works alongside a more common language, how it conveys tone, emotion, and intent, and why it developed the way it did. I was fully convinced I had just created something genius.

And then, my dearest, kindest, nicest, beloved friend, decided to hit me with a "Oh, so it's like Discord tone tags?"

Brother, when I tell you I couldn't stop thinking about that for the next few days...

I had to draw it.

Take this as some additional info about Reco and his dad. Yea we dropping lore through shitposts now. I have to keep y'all on your toes somehow.

#all outsides #all outsides (look outside)#look outside #look outside game #the shutterbugs (all outsides)#the shutterbugs #video archive fic #reco #kimoro

To all the dear asks waiting in my askbox!

Don't worry, I didn't overlook them and didn't forget! The university is kicking my ass currently, but I'm hoping I'll get to answer them in depth soon!

Thank you for still sending asks despite my low activity, they always make me so, so happy to see in my inbox!

Love you guys!

#forum answers #lis yap #lis fixes

Yea sure I couldddd be actually working on my All Outsides fics instead of making stupid bullshit... But coming up with fictional languages/writing systems is so fun :"D

Here's the first draft I came up with for the Shuttertongue writing system used by the Shutterbugs. You'd think it would be easy, considering that all of the symbols are just simple dots and lines, but figuring out where to place them within a word and how to represent tone, pitch, and frequency of literal mechanical sounds, ended up being quite an exercise in bullshitting.

I'm mostly happy with the result, though there's a good chance I'll revisit it in the future to make the placement feel more natural.

Because Shuttertongue is so heavily based on sound, tone, emotion, and pronunciation, which can vary from city to city, village to village, and even from individual to individual, developing it into a fully standalone language wasn't easy, AND ESPECIALLY when trying to create a writing system. How do you capture all the little nuances each click has, depending on its pitch in a text?

In the end, the Shutterbugs (and a few representatives of other races with knowledge in linguistics) responsible for the job decided to treat it more like a set of tonal markers attached to a commonly spoken language such as Frenglish. Rather than replacing the lingua franca, Shuttertongue was used for additional layers of meaning on it, such as emotional nuance, cultural context, historical references, and other subtleties that ordinary speech alone may not convey. The writing system reflects this role, with its symbols typically being attached to standard Frenglish words and letters depending on how they are spoken within a sentence.

Over time, as Frenglish became the dominant language on Caligo, Shuttertongue gradually became less prominent in everyday speech. Mechanical sounds that were once woven through nearly every word were increasingly reduced to brief additions at the ends of sentences, or even to a single simplified sound used for emphasis, mostly because producing complex mechanical sounds while simultaneously speaking with the mouth is more challenging and can become tricky.

Today, the older style in which mechanical sounds accompany almost every letter of the spoken language is generally considered a classical or literary form. It is taught in schools and universities, used extensively in academic writing, and especially valued in formal texts, where its tonal markers provide additional clarity and emotional context that would otherwise be lost. Speaking in this style during everyday conversation, however, is often seen as formal, fancy, or a bit showy. (I actually used Classical vs Spoken Arabic as inspiration for this!)

Of course, there are still those who continue to use Classical Shuttertongue in daily life, such as among older generations, individuals from scholarly or upper-class backgrounds, and residents of settlements far from Caligo's major urban centers. In some of these communities, Shuttertongue continues to be spoken much as it was during the earliest days of Caligo's colonization.

#all outsides #all outsides (look outside)#the shutterbugs (all outsides)#the shutterbugs #shuttertongue (all outsides)

Another in-universe Artisan meme\social media post. They are just so fun to mess with jhdjfgjhgd

Some things never change, even thousands of years later :D

#all outsides #all outsides (look outside)#look outside #look outside game #the artisans #the artisans (all outsides)#paintlings (the artisans)

Niceee we got to 250 likes!

This blog might not get much engagement, but it still means so much that there are actual folks who are ready to stick around despite how slow I am when it comes to art and writing. I truly appreciate you guys taking interest in my silly au ;"D

#lis yap

for some reason, the all outsides tag automatically becomes a search.

Hi, sorry, could you elaborate? I didn't really understand what you mean :"

#forum answers #lis yap #lis fixes

Accidental baby switcharoo

Happens to the best of us! Not so easy keeping an eye on multiple scrumbly little troublemakers, and for one of the parents, this is not the first time something like that has happened, so there's nothing to be embarrassed about! Hopefully, they can convince the other one that there is no need to be so mortified. All is well if it ends well, after all!

As much as I love drawing Shutterbugs and esp the Shutterbabies, my hands were itching to draw some other races. So what can be better than a Shutterbug with Shutterbabies? A Shutterbug with Shutterbabies talking to a Ratfolk with Ratbabies! There is no such thing as too many babies! MORE MORE MORE-

#all outsides #all outsides (look outside)#look outside #look outside game #the shutterbugs #the shutterbugs (all outsides)#shutterbabies (the shutterbugs)#the ratfolk #the ratfolk (all outsides)#ratbabies (the ratfolk)

A friend of mine gave me the idea of drawing the shutterbabies and their caretaker like the Jacanas bird and that idea wouldn't leave my mind.

Why are they so leg 😭❤

#lyle might be a chopped chud but at least he spawned a race with absolutely adorable babies #a small redemption for his crimes #look outside #all outsides #all outsides (look outside)#look outside game #the shutterbugs #the shutterbugs (all outsides)#shutterbabies (the shutterbugs)

I'm nowhere NEAR even starting to write about the Artisans, but a friend and I were discussing the type of in-universe memes\posts the Artisans would have, and I couldn't help but draw it

(For context, the "clan's Foundfather" referred to here is Godhead and Toxic Freds)

#all outsides #all outsides (look outside)#look outside #look outside game #the artisans #the artisans (all outsides)#godhead fred #toxic fred #godhead look outside #toxic look outside #godhead fred look outside #toxic fred look outside #the freds look outside #frederic look outside

Lyle gets vagueposted about thousands of years later

#lyle should never stop catching strays from everyone ever #all outsides #all outsides (look outside)#the shutterbugs (all outsides)#the shutterbugs #video archive fic #wip outsides #keph #fira #myki #lomi

Hey, remember that post with the All Outsides Mortonlingo mockup where I said I made a whole alphabet just for the joke?

Yeah. I wasn’t kidding.

Behold: the All Outsides lingua franca, Frenglish (yes, French + English. Truly the worst timeline, because the main language is literally a fusion of English and French.) (Absolutely horrible for me, because I do not know a lick of French.) (Everything I’ve learned about this language since joining this fandom has been entirely against my will.)

Designing the alphabet wasn’t easy, but it was fun. I tried for an “uncanny valley” effect: at first glance, it looks familiar. You almost recognize the symbols… but when you look closer, the shapes are wrong.

I also wanted the font to feel very computery and a bit unnatural—both to enhance that uncanny effect and because the story takes place thousands of years in the future. By then, handwriting is rare, and most writing is typed on machines. So the letters are built from clean geometric lines and dots—forms that are easy for computers to read and replicate.

At the same time, there’s a humanist side to the design. The alphabet is simplified into geometric shapes to make it accessible to races who might have a vastly different hand anatomy (if they even have those), therefore might struggle with cursive or more intricate forms.

To stay consistent, I set a few design rules:

All vowels are closed shapes with a dot inside. The only exception is Y, which does not have a dot, since it’s only sometimes a vowel.

Letters that make similar sounds have similar shapes. That way, even if someone misspells a word, both computers and readers could reasonably infer the intended letter.

Letters that can represent multiple sounds have a line running through them, again, to make it easier for computers and readers from across the galaxy understand it better.

I hope I managed to capture that futuristic, uncanny feel with these :3

#all outsides #all outsides (look outside)#lis fixes

Remembered this throaway line from the fic and the visual just didn't leave me.

#did I come up with an entire new alphabet for Frenglish the lingua franca of all outsides just to make this? yup!#who needs a green owl to harass you to learn new words #when you can have a green cricket doing that #all outsides #all outsides (look outside)#look outside #look outside morton #the shutterbugs (all outsides)#video archive fic

Imagine being so chopped you still get slandered (by your own descendants, no less!) thousands of years after your death.

Good.

That's what he deserves. Keeps him humble.

Lyle slander is a cosmic need for the balance of the universe; it's always morally correct to do so.

Wanted to draw a quick comic illustrating one of my favorite scenes in this entire fic. Honestly, writing this specific moment was the highlight of All Outsides' writing until now. Will anything ever top this? We'll have to wait and see.

#all outsides #all outsides (look outside)#look outside #look outside game #video archive fic #look outside lyle #lyle #lyle the shutterbug #look outside sam #sam the protector #the protector (all outsides)#protector's roots (all outsides)#keph #reco #leazze #kimoro

✨Let's try keeping pace with mama✨

Another small illustration for this part in the fic:

The little guy is trying his absolute best to keep up, his tiny legs working overtime next to his parent’s long strides. He might be a bit too young for that just yet, but he’s not giving up. He’s determined to prove that he’s a big boy who doesn’t need to be carried. And with his siblings cheering him on, he’s even more motivated to succeed! (Though perhaps their encouragement has less to do with wanting to support their sibling and more to do with enjoying the extra space they get on the abdomen while he’s on the ground.) It’s not the mother’s first time raising hatchlings. She knows that trying to reason with a determined babybug is a losing battle. So instead, she simply slows her pace, keeping one of her many eyes on him as he toddles along, letting him figure it out on his own.

Honestly, the idea of Shutterbugs carrying their young on their abdomens or backs because Shutterbabies are simply too small to keep pace with adults is one of my favorite ideas I’ve come up with for them.

#all outsides #all outsides (look outside)#look outside #look outside game #the shutterbugs #the shutterbugs (all outsides)#shutterbabies (the shutterbugs)

I am feeling so so so normal about all outsides... guh.......

I know there's way more information about Shutterbugs (oops, wrote shitterbugs) than the other races from the Saints of 33.... but my mind cannot help itself but imagine who MORE can be developed... and since Audrey was recently found to be apart of the Sages of 33, how does multiplication occur???

Okay that is just making me giggle fron the thought of Rectangular babies falling on others' feet or even on eachother, I cannot take that seriously

But ogh..... the development and culture of the Shutterbugs, the choice of outfits.... ouughh...... .... and the importance of photographing , its incredible...

DW friend, you are not the only one who constantly has to check that they didn't write "shitterbugs" on accident 😅 its happening so much that I'm considering turning it into some sort of an in-universe thing. "Shitterbug" just sounds like the type of insult someone will write towards their opponent in a heated internet argument in the context of All Outsides lmao

AND YES! While Shutterbugs are currently the most developed, it is only, and ONLY because I still haven't made my way to the other races. I have the Ratfolk entries locked and loaded, and I'm just waiting to finish Video Archive to finally switch to the other races. Naturally, as I start posting the other fics I'll also start posting the art I made for the other races. Currently, the plan of writing and posting is: Shutterbugs -> Ratfolk (Rat kid and the rest of the turned rats, including Colonel Squeakums) -> Dentiths (Joel) -> Neo humans (non turned humans, aka Sophie, Dan, Papineau, Ernest) -> Astrophanim (the astronomers + Sybil) -> Grinners (Leigh) -> Hellixians (Hellen) -> The Pirates (Xaria and Monty) -> Object Heads (Audrey and cursed like her that were fused with objects) -> The Scavangers (Morton) -> Phillipe's race whose name is still pending -> and from there we will see whichever makes me want to write about them first, but I do have plans for Artisans (the Freds), Handymen (Mutt), Armymen (the folks from the crushed bus), and many other races. As you can see, I have big plans. Let's just hope my hyperfix will carry me, and I'll be able to lock in.

As for Audrey's legacy... well, you will have to wait and see ;) But yes, the idea of a bunch of little rectangles running around IS hilarious, thank you for the mental image.

I'm very glad you are enjoying the way I write the SHutterbugs' culture! It's so, so fun trying to figure out how their unique biology influences their culture! I mean, if you literally had a camera built into you from birth, I think photo taking would become a pretty major part of your identity. Multiply it by an entire race anddd you get Caligo! :3

#forum answers #lis fixes #<- since I'm basically laying down the plan for my upcoming work #all outsides #all outsides (look outside)#the shutterbugs (all outsides)#the shutterbugs

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