I'm receiving a very sudden influx of People here due to posting original content instead of just pure reblogs, so. Introduction time!
(how do you do these? no idea and I don't feel like looking up an answer)
Hello, hello! I am Ray (primary name), occasionally known as Artic. I use they/them/theirs AND star/stars/stars pronouns with small preference towards star/stars/stars!
stars to @moonlitvoidfeathers moon <3
I MAKE:
-Doodles
-Writings
-AUs
-( #in cages and feathers ; ISAT AU ; Masterpost )
-( #isat forest dwellers au ; ISAT AU ; Masterpost )
-( #weeping god au ; ISAT AU ; Blog )
-Ideas that I throw out into the wind
Fan Content "Rules" * Just Make Stuff
Did you tag me in fanart? Yes? If I don't respond within two days, and I respond to everything, please tag me again cause it got buried in my notifications.
Note: NEVER ASK ME TO WRITE A FIC. I WON'T. +1 MONTH TO THE RELEASE OF NEXT FIC EVERY TIME SOMEONE ASKS ME TO WRITE.
I REBLOG:
-In Stars and Time (Primary content at the moment)
-Sky children of the light
-Minecraft
-Hollow Knight
-Informational/Essay posts
-Misc posts that don't have a defined category
YOU CAN ALSO FIND ME ON:
-@isat-weeping-god-au , a horror(?)/fluff au I write with @shyjinks we take Siffrin from In Stars and Time and turn him into a god.
-Artic_Ray on ao3 where I write In Stars and Time and Minecraft
-In Stars and Time discord
ALSO:
All of my asks are open!! Appear from behind my walls and whisper your nonsense!! I accept ALL nonsense! Random shit, pieces of wisdom, asks about my writing, advice about anything really, about fandoms I'm in, whatever! I truly don't care!
Just know I will either answer your ask less than a day or in several months, and there is absolutely no in between. I do not apologize for this behavior.
anon in my inbox said fanfic writers who wrote about dark and taboo topics were not “real writers” because of what they wrote about.
reblog if you believe anon is wrong and writers are writers, no matter what they write about. no matter how they portray these taboo topics.
reblog if you believe art can be about topics that are controversial, taboo or outright disturbing, and artists who create controversial, taboo or outright disturbing art are as valid as artists who create art of conservative values.
just have a question about the character: what does Angel like about Beboo
Yes! Ive been waiting for this opportunity! ive spent a good time doing screenshots to answer this
All this story is seen through Beebo's eyes. He's your guy, the character you play as in videogame speaking terms, so we dont really know much about Ángels point of view
So here it is, a long rant on how that wet cat of a man has fallen in love with the detective boy
The thing about their relationship is that its always about to start, but they never actually start. They are also trapped in the timeloop relationship-wise, never being able to actually get into the actual relationship
But!! Unlike Beebo who has repeatedly fallen for this man 4 times in a row, Ángel gradually gets more and more into the guy as he knows more about him in each loop
So, starting the night, my man here doesn't know much about relationships. He's more of a kiss and leave kinda guy.
He goes expecting the hunger games irl but turns outs its just a boring museum.
Then he sees a pretty guy, and you know, habits die hard. He sees pretty, he wants to keep it for himself.
So he's like "hey, getting with a guy, that's a better use of my time.
Surely this wont end up in feelings or anything crazy haha"
He knows the guy more, and what does he find:
He's a very direct guy! Mans wants information for his investigation and hes going to get it!
One of the things Ángel says that he fails in relationships is communication
So he really likes that this guy will just straight up be like "give me my information. Also are you into men"
He likes a guy whos direct in what he wants in himself and others, and is not afraid to say it
He also likes that they have similar beliefs! Specifically in law
They both hate cops and he's a guy that can recognize flaws in the legal system, yeah! He could go take some beers with this guy!
But! To really test if this guy is friend and possible bf material he needs the Vivi approval (tm)
He passed the Vivi approval as she did not actively tried to bite him. Hooray
And here's the kicker, this guy is smart! Really smart!
He's impressed by that! Admires it, even. He's charmed by beebos autistic swag and love for puzzles. He would like to play Professor Layton with this guy.
So why not? Why not try something more with this pretty boy.
Why not a bit of hand holding
And then! The guy completely surprises him by going
Sadly, Ángel is an absolute videogame nerd, and he's completely charmed by this
Shared interests are important for him, and he loves games!
I tried making that a bit more obvious in the whole "whos your favorite detective/criminal" and him only answering with game characters
Do note that he says "like" and not "love". He's just starting to know this guy.
And he likes what he's starting!
If only he didn't die.
Second round
So here, he's a bit lost.
He was ready to start something, but this guy doesn't remember? Also did he just go back in time? What??
He's completely lost
And then the guy does this
Unknowingly, Oliver gives him stability. Now, he's not as lost. And! He can still try things out with this guy! Time might be fucked but he has Oliver with him again, even though he doesn't remember, he still wants to be there for him
And!! This is something Ángel really likes! Oliver is insecure about how much work he puts in a relationship, but he's actually putting a lot of work into this! He's actively pushing forward to have a future together
And Ángel likes that too! He likes that they are both putting the work into making things work, they both want to try it out!
And really, a big selling point in getting with someone is that the someone does, indeed, want to get with you too
Then he dies again
Round three!!!
Id say round three is when he officially is in too deep.
He said he tried to be in a stable relationship with a guy because he was funny
Well guess what
This guy is also funny!! Get fucked!!
But here he really gets to see Beebos more assertive side
This is the only man who has actually caught him in the middle of a heist
And he didn't even have to! He just wanted and did!
That's a challenge. This man would make things more exciting, seeing as he actually could give him a run for his money
Look at this self-assured bastard. Oh Ángel would love to run around roofs with him on his tail, trying to catch him, exciting!!
This whole round, he just has a great time! They talk about interests, joke around, bully kids, explore the house, all-around fun👍
But here's the thing that absolutely kills him: even now, where they are rivals of the sort, he still cares.
And that's the final nail in the coffin.
Even when Oliver was actively, painfully dying, he tried his best to comfort Ángel, and promised to save him.
Because even though he's the guy that keeps dying, seeing Ángel be sad is somehow worse
Round four
Here, they are detective partners, and Beebos' caring side really shows!
He wants to help Ángel, wants to comfort him, and listen to his issues
He offers to show him around town! His own grandma's chickens! Because he wants to see him happy!
He even promises he won't die this time and then actually survives! The absolute mad lad!
This kills the man.
What do you mean this smart, caring, funny, interesting, cool guy likes me? And wants to have a future with me just as much as I want to have a future with him?
It's all about the want to start something new, to have someone by your side and walk the same path
Which, yknow, can sound a little boring, but as a person who is getting deep into adulthood, yeah no this is it. This is the goal
And he cant wait to get out of this timeloop, to finally see the sun rise and welcome a new day, with him.
Bonus round
You know the moment Ángel hears about beebo fighting until the very end in the other house and against Eugene even with all the odds against him is gonna wake up something in that man. Love me a guy who refuses to go down without a fight
It's Beebo time again, this time Haunted House flavored!
I love dissecting how magic systems and worldbuilding shenanigans happen, so imagine the catnip of a story I was given when I got to figure out the Detective Beebo timeloop mechanics and some larger possible implications,,,,,,I am in shambles thank you Bwob, anyway, here are some ramblings about the first “organic” timeloop I’ve seen in media as well as what I think the deal is with the haunted houses!
The Natural Volatility of a Haunted House:
While I’m sure the biggest factor for dialogue changing between loops is to give the player more stuff to read/interact with, it is INCREDIBLY interesting just what all of it changes to!
Here’s a list of some noteworthy stuff that changes just from the first to second loops:
+ Right after the first loop, if you interact with the alcohol on the table in the main room Beebo says “I don’t think this is the best place to get trashed”, which is EXACTLY what Angel says after the shared drink in the first loop.
+Beebo suddenly has commentary on the paintings in the main room that he didn’t before, like in ‘Endless Decay’ where he thinks about the cycle of life and death (very on the mind if you just freaking died) where before he just said he wasn’t into it all that much.
+ When Angel bursts in and we get our first taste of what the timeloop has to offer, Beebo remarks that Angel “does seem familiar” thinking they maybe have “talked once or twice”.
+ We get to talk to Coli a little bit in this loop and Beebo immediately thinks “…Why do I feel uneasy?” and while he chalks it up to the class difference, the player knows that it’s likely because he just got dang murdered.
+ When Vivi gets back into the hallway with the switch for the electricity, her new commentary on the windowless room is that it’s “eerie and dreadful” as opposed to how she actually claimed to like the aesthetic the first time around.
+and finally,
the all constant post-loop ghost pain. I’m very normal about this one I prommy.
It’s all of this little stuff that shows even more in depth how volatile the Haunted House is! During Beebo’s deduction in loop 5, he figures it’s because of Ángel “glitching” the loop by being outside when the loop starts at 8pm, but inside the house when someone dies and forces a reset. Ángel keeps his memories and other party goer’s subconscious memories involving him in any capacity start to bleed through to them. Of course, we learn later that touching Vivi’s photobook can return people their memories in their entirety, giving the whole debacle another huge loophole (haha, get it?) for our cast! We also get some indicators, mostly from how loop 4 ends and ending 5’s dialogue, that intense emotions allow fragments of memories to remain in the victim’s minds, such as how Mari and Nina confessing their love for each other made them think to try to find each other in the next loop, or in ending 5 when we see that those who died from Coli have new fears that seemingly sprung up out of nowhere. These are all indicative of what I’ll call an organic timeloop from here out, because from what we learn later about the biology of the house, it’s pretty accurate. The organic timeloop's existence is actually the entire reason this is about to go off the rails about the existence of haunted houses! Speaking of, hey why are the walls breathing?
Biology of the House:
At the end of loop 4, we finally get to the anatomy of the House of Vera as told to us through Nadia, Beebo’s traumatic flashback, and the piecing together of information during loop 5 from Ángel and Beebo together before we mess with the endings. Nadia talks to us about how a house can live, can breathe through its ventilation, can eat those who wander into its doors, can fall ill and can age and can get hungry, has bones and muscle and skin as scaffolding and walls and paint. Once eaten by a house, you can become part of it, and we see this happen in a few different ways throughout the game. With the case of “purpose”, we have Dr. Diaz writing about his senses melding with the house from when he was alive or in endings 9/10 when Beebo gives the House of Vera a new purpose and experiences the same thing. With the case of people being “eaten” by the houses, we see this in Beebo’s flashback to getting trapped in the gallery and we see it now with getting trapped in the House’s organic timeloop. Nadia compares those who reside in a haunted house as “Its cells”, extremely reminiscent of how mitochondria work, having once been their own single celled organism and were eaten by another single celled organism a long time ago, but for symbiotic need the two entities combined and now suddenly you have multicellular life (thank you Lynn Margulis <3). This idea is further strengthened by ending 10 titled “Endosymbiotic Theory” which is the theory that simple prokaryotic cells evolved into more complex eukaryotic cells (essentially the same situation). Nadia goes on to make the comparison to how DNA can tell an organism what to do/be, and that people can give that to a haunted house too, can provide it with a “purpose” with enough emotion. In endings 9/10, we learn that the emotion the haunted houses feed on is grief.
This grief is applied to a “heart”, an object within the house that structures the purpose and maintains whatever supernatural ability it has. The House of Vera had two hearts before, first a shield mantle on the wall to ensure it wouldn’t be destroyed or damaged, then the grandfather clock in the hall to ensure that everything within the house would reset once the clock struck 8pm. If the heart is destroyed then the house can no longer read its purpose properly, but interestingly it doesn’t quite die. If you get endings 9/10 then Beebo can give the house a third heart to bring back Ángel and keep him safe, happy, and alive. A haunted house can get another heart and come back with a new purpose. If we want to think about it in organic terms, it’s most likely akin to a heart transplant. We don’t know if there is a time limit between when a heart is destroyed and when the haunted house dies for good since we don’t get to see that explored much in game, but if we assume that there is a time limit given the organic nature of haunted houses, then this fits perfectly with how we already know them to function! A haunted house could survive for a little while without a purpose but would eventually officially “die” if left without that purpose, that heart, for too long.
Another fun thing is that haunted houses lure people in, we’ve seen it with both houses! Now, the art gallery was far more subtle but flashback-Beebo does think about how he “needs to get in already” and is so curious, like a sudden wash of curiosity. Not of needing to find the missing cat he’s being paid to look for, El Wiwi isn’t mentioned at all once he’s at the door, it’s this curiosity instead. For the House of Vera, it’s unsettling how much Beebo’s inner dialogue is about how warm it is inside and how cold it is outside and that he “needs to get inside”, either if you interact with the door to the house or the lamppost outside, he is insistent on going through that door. Both dialogue prompts are laced with this “need”, and the biggest question is why? Well, I’ve got two ideas. My first inclination is that a haunted house might behave like a fruiting plant does, luring a creature to come and eat a sweet fruit for the purpose of spreading its seeds and making more of itself. The other option is acting more like an angler fish would, luring in prey with a bright light or something else prey wants so that the organism can feed itself. I provide these two options because they imply different things, that haunted houses could be either utilitarian or predatory, trying to survive for natural selection purposes or trying to survive out of an active hunger. The first option is much less terrifying than the second, but both are pretty grounded when looking at haunted house behavior. (we'll figure out which one I think it is soon)
For the utilitarian argument, we’ve got some dialogue to work with. Though, we need to take Coli’s arguments with a grain of salt because his pride has overshadowed a lot of the house’s actual mechanics, like how he isn’t actually aware of the memory loophole or what happens in other edge case conditions with people dying on the property. It’s mostly his assumption, but he has been experimenting with this haunted house, so maybe he has some knowledge that the investigations didn’t reveal from firsthand experience.
There are some interesting things that feed a bit into the predator idea though. If the artist from the gallery wanted people to “never want to leave after seeing how amazing their art could be”, then the house could’ve gone about any manner of ways of persuasion to get people to stay and maintain the means of fulfilling its purpose. If everyone dies, then no one gets to see the art, and it feels a little counterintuitive and suboptimal for the organism to just trap them until they die in around four days due to lack of water. For the House of Vera, why does the house claim the inhabitants’ memories when they die instead of leaving them with the knowledge to defend themselves in the future? Wouldn’t that seem like a far more utilitarian and logical thing for the house, with the purpose of giving people another chance to live through lethal events, to accomplish? Well, it would be if all the haunted houses need to do is fulfill their purpose like a script, and not like a life cycle. If it were predatory instead, and it needed to take something from those it ate to maintain itself, then it stops looking like a flowering plant and starts looking more like a venus fly trap, more like a real threat.
Speaking of threatening, I’ve gotta talk about the eyes. Now, the eye imagery could just be for spook points which is already an amazing thing and the effect lands incredibly well, but this gaze feels a bit more important than that. It’s the connection to the divine that intrigues me the most, because we don’t actually know why the hell haunted houses are a thing, the game doesn’t go into it and leaves it vague for the audience to explore. And while the argument could be made that they are some creations born from eldritch means, that’s not what I think is happening. What I think is that this feeling of “divinity” is just an energy so tense, heavy, and powerful that it feels like being hunted by something far stronger than you that you cannot hope to escape unscathed. The connection to the divine is just how the people involved interpret it and it’s not necessarily an accurate reflection of what is really happening. Someone isolated and deeply afraid could look into the eyes of a tiger and think it divine if only for the sheer force of emotion they are feeling in that moment. Also, I think Oliver only makes the “divine” comment because that’s how the doctor described it and he’s grasping for any logic he can in this moment. We never get to see the birth of a haunted house, only the continued existence of two, but we established earlier that a heart is given to a house in moments of intense grief, which may imply that every house is inert in some way and just needs to be woken up somehow. It’s what Coli believes is happening considering the lengths he went to with his factory in order to manufacture a haunted house and considering the research he put in prior to the game’s events, his plan in theory could be feasible. It’s more of a Frankenstein’s monster idea rather than some divine birthing situation, but Coli wouldn’t have gone to such lengths in his factory if he had reason to believe that he could’ve instead prayed to a deity to bring a house to life, he went full mad scientist speedrunner instead because that had to have been what his research had shown him could work. He’s a prideful idiot, but if he’s been using Nadia as his personal diary for his findings for her entire 17 years of life, he’s got at least 17 years of knowledge in this topic to fall back on, and there’s some merit to that.
So, if the house is a predatory entity, then luring people into its walls must do something helpful for its continued existence, and it clearly needs to eat. This is shown by seeing how ruined the art gallery was in the flashback since considering how decently far from civilization it was, there likely wouldn’t be too many people wandering around close enough to even realize it was there. The gallery looks abandoned and trashed, almost emaciated, but not dead. The House of Vera is in great condition though, and it could be because of how popular the house is despite the surrounding village’s low population. This house is a notorious landmark, essentially having been the main hospital for the area for around a century while Dr. Diaz was still around, so the house would have plenty of people to “eat” to keep itself going. But they’re not eating the people really I don’t think, the houses not only need grief to manifest properly, but they also need it to continue to exist. The reason the art gallery doesn’t use any other method of keeping people inside its walls is because while the “purpose” of a house tells it how to be (like DNA), that doesn’t feed it. The house puts the people who go inside under extreme amounts of stress, exhaustion, and hopelessness as dictated by its purpose in order to increase the amount of grief those people feel in order to feed itself on that. The House of Vera doesn’t let anybody keep their memories in order to outsmart any dangers they might be subject to because as long as they keep dying for the first time within its walls, and never get used to the idea of dying, then it can keep feeding on the most intense version of their grief as possible.
The haunted houses are predators, not plants. They may not be able to feel, but they behave in ways dictated solely by the purpose their heart has, and that purpose gives them the means to feed on other people’s grief as long as they are within its walls, as long as the cells continue to produce what it needs to continue living.
So, to recap: While there is evidence for haunted houses to be either more plant-like or predator-like, I’m firm in my belief that it leans more predatory considering that the houses need to eat to survive somehow, they get their “food” by luring people inside using some freaky house magic inclination, and that they get their nutrients from the grief of people that get trapped inside. The people act as its cells and those cells provide sustenance akin to how mitochondria work, the heart and “purpose” tell the house how to behave like how DNA would. The organic timeloop is so volatile because not only are the people exceptionally random variables in this house’s system, but the house is also a complicated living predator that goes to great lengths to maintain itself. The fact that the organic timeloop exists at all is irrefutable proof that the haunted house is what’s alive here. The birth of these predators is extremely up for interpretation, but I believe that Coli must’ve had some reasonable (kinda) idea of how to birth a haunted house through essentially waking up a normal house with intense human grief. Any connections made to “the divine” are just made to truly represent how oppressive the force of the haunted house feels rather than actually being linked to any godly entity.
Aaaaaand that’s the end of my speculation! The haunted houses are fascinating and once I got thinking about why the timeloop even exists if it’s so organic and error-prone, then I got so far in the weeds about the haunted houses themselves that I ended up with like, 3k words of speculation by the end that I needed to make sense of haha. I’d love to hear other people’s thoughts about the houses and I’m excited to see if the currently in-progress train comic that’s being worked on ends up having any commentary on that. If it does and my ideas become definitively incorrect then,,,,,,I will just have to deal with that when it comes.
My BOYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY my boy Estell <3 my beloved Estell <333 it's great having friends on artfight chat. artfight in general is great. Look at this shit. The blue fire from the lantern. the wisp. the swirls on the jacket. antler jewelry my beloved. I love everything about him.
which does remind me. How many of you knew that I have an artfight? cause I have an artfight. go check it out!
i want 2 say this isnt just about aro characters. im aro i love aro characters i love ace characters but this also is about allo characters. its normal and healthy and fine for alloromantic people to not be in romantic relationships and i wish media reflected that
There are many people who don’t share this sentiment, but I have an appreciation for when a fanfic is so separated from canon that it could’ve easily been its own original novel, and yet the author was only ever going to put that much energy into it if their favourite characters got to be there
the bad thing about having unhealthy habits due to mental illness, is when you DO do something healthy style you can't brag about about it because then people will then know you've been doing it yucky style all along. Like you can't brag you changed your sheets or brushed your teeth because then ppl will be like oh did you not brush your teeth regularly before? Thats yucky disgusting! So you just gotta keep it to yourself. And be proud alone, I suppose.
