parker

i do art

[parker-art]

[flickering-nightfall]

Made these immediately after finishing the first ending, but I wanted to wait until more people caught up to that point before I posted it. Haha

It's a good thing I waited - at this point there's been a lot of people saying the shadows in the shop aren't the best indicator of height. Even within the region itself, giant ancients (or tiny everything else) doesn't make sense - the shelves and masks in the shop, the path to the void baths, etc. A friend (and others like skybristle) suggested that the scaling could be so off because Spinning Top (the echo's) memories of being a child skewed the perspective somehow.

I wasn't sure, because AU doesn't change for Watcher after Spinning Top has passed on, but given the rot can't spread to Ancient Urban (or Terrace or Daemon), it's possible that place really is not as physical as it seems? In any case, that would keep things open-ended without taking away from the powerful impression of the scene.

The scale was extremely cool, but if taken literally, I feel like it kind of detracts from the grandiosity of other regions. The wall to these ancients would be a rock climbing route... And the average region a stroll around the block... (at least if we take the space we see slugcat traverse literally, anyways)... waist-height subterranean cargo trains, haha, um...

Still - iterator puppets being literal hand (or finger. they're so small) puppets is a pretty novel concept. This size ancient could crush a scavenger or a lizard underfoot without really thinking about it. Vultures are turkey-sized and Rain Deer are spindly rabbits. Sky Whales aren't even as long as those ancients are tall.

Here's a height estimate to make sense within the shop:

Watcher (and Spinning Top) sized up to match the toy art:

This is how big I've been headcanoning them. (To be clear, I'm not pushing this size as "correct" - it's just what I've been working with.) They can actually fit in the subterranean train carts this way:

I think this is the tallest they can get to reasonably fit through the void bath path. (With my headcanon size as well)

Echo comparisons for fun. Not all echoes are the same size, but Spinning Top is smaller than the rest. (And also none of these make sense with any the proposed sizes if they're taken literally, lol)

And a few more I snagged while I was working on second ending stuff (Stormy Coast, Torrential Railways, Shattered Terrace):

Yeah you get the point.

I was really excited and emotional when I first realized what was going on, standing under the light of that manhole. I had joked about Watcher going back in time to meet ancients, back when I was guessing what the campaign could be about, but I didn't think it would actually happen. And I really like a lot of the new stuff for them, in terms of background pieces and mentions from Spinning Top.

Cool reveal - now I've got brain worms! I'm thinking about them more and more...

[parker-art]

I love your art btw. I will say, as for places like 'the shop' and 'ascension room', those places werent made for adults. Its all child sized because its the creche! Theres bookshelves with childrens media literature (pearls) and small vases. And child sized masks. presumably all made by/for children to play with. The ascension bath is connected to the creche, so it makes me think that it was rather a path for children to ascend. You can even see child sized coffins in the BG of the rooms. presumably where the 'acids' and 'proteins' go post ascension 😢

[parker-art]

animal

[toreodere-deactivated20260204]

So guess who wound up doodling the funny spider freak, I did!

I'll admit this was a bit rough, ended up not realising I'd stayed up till 2AM scribbling Aranea, h.

[parker-art]

friends until the end

[artgletic]

case study of the self-identified god

[artgletic]

hiiii im op and i just have to say like. the reason your friend sent my comic is actually the exact opposite of what i was trying to convey in it LMAOOO. I sort of talk about it in my original tags, but i want to go deeper into my thoughts on iterators and iterator godhood more since i have quite a lot to say on the matter. forgive me for taking your tags as a springboard 💚.

monologue + doodle under the cut

one of the things i really wanted to drive home in the comic was how iterators are in no way godlike, no matter what they might think. they might be have the knowledge to wave away an entire language into your mind or modify organisms to morphologically unrecognizable degrees which on paper seems like a godlike power, but its only as godlike as we are compared to other organisms. We are capable of construction and creation to unfathomable degrees in the eyes of other animals, but i dont think anyone would reasonably say we are all divine. There are other animals better at different stuff than us-- ants can communicate with one another soundlessly, cheetahs can easily outpace us, elephants can easily overpower us. etc. We are not an all-encompassing divinity, we are highly specialized at what we do. Iterators are incredible minds that allow incredible abilities that were relied upon by their creators, but they're helpless outside of this specialization (see 5 pebbles unable to stop something as mindless and simple as the rot. all it does is consume, and no amount of understanding will stop its spread). it reminds me of a lesson common in modern ecology: there is no such thing as a more 'advanced' organism, only specialized ones. It basically means to reject the notion that any organism is better than another in an absolute sense, as if there is somehow a 'perfect' organism evolution works towards. Things can be better they others in a relative sense (ie. competition), but there is no One True Best Creature-- something that is the best in one niche would crumble in another.

As well, iterators are not only not above instinct (as i showed in the comic), but also in being a part of the ecosystem in general. All of them are going to die off and essentially go extinct specifically because of the loss of their symbionts (the ancients), just like we would if our gut microbiome decided to peace out. Personally, i view iterators as giant symbiotic ecosystems themselves, made up of a million different microbes with specialized purposes designed to keep the environment (the iterator themselves) in homeostasis. it's literally in the area name: 5Pebbles is not a character, but an entire location that has food and predators and prey for the slugcat just as any other area, its just that every part of that area is a part of a larger collaborative organism.

Pebbles says he struggles to accept being a bug. And if he realized it went even deeper-- that he was not a bug, but the product of many, many bugs, that something as stupid and simple as a bug could work together to create something as complex and divine as him, well... I think this is as far from divinity as you can get.

This is sort of an extension of spamlets-blog's tag on hubris being a human emotion (SO TRUE BESTIE), BUT When you can think to such a complex degree (whether human or iterator, though i get iterators are capable of much more insane feats of processinglol), its easy to call yourself a god. especially when the only other creatures near you are wild animals. People irl do it all the time, though not to such an extreme. think of any time someone gets upset when you mention that humans are animals too-- its like an insult to them to be lumped in with the mangy animals and wild beasts. but regardless of what you think or how high you hold yourself or what your purpose is, we all play a part in our ecosystems. this is a humbling thing, but certainly not a bad one.

as an entomologist, trust me when i say the world really opens up when you learn to appreciate even the most minute parts of the environment (even in manmade enviroments!) your whole world becomes a lot more colourful when youre able to view these things as tiny pieces all supporting the world as we know it as opposed to just a nuisance. pebbles is still in very very deep into his self-identified godhood, and insists that everything distracting him from his divine purpose is a nuisance, even if it would make him happy to forget his purpose for a minute and just indulge himself. Best example i have of this is in arti's route, where you can see hes so into reading pearls that have anthropological value and will not shut up about them and has to constantly remind himself that the pearls are a distraction and arti is a nuisance etc etc etc. his self-imposed divinity literally saps his happiness away, and his stubbornness in revering the holy act of dying will steal away any joys his life could have. ironically, by following their base instincts, every other organism understands this far better than he does. and if knowledge is truly what we measure divinity as, everyone except for pebbles is a god.

...

[thefaiao]

Cursed beast. Born to die in a World full of Fuck. Yet he smiles.

[patchofhares]

been playing rain world recently. finished the monk campaign last night and let me tell you. this world does rain a lot

[patchofhares]

[stanngeddon-deactivated20250717]

alright, listen up folks, this is important!

if you have the ability to reblog my art, you have the ability to reblog my commissions.

'i just don't wanna clutter my blog' then don't reblog my fucking art. just like it. if you're gonna be like that, just don't even use this site properly

'i don't want to beg anyone to commission you' you DON'T HAVE TO. they can just reblog it as well.

whatever other complaint you have, i'm sure it matters somewhat, but JESUS FUCKING CHRIST, if you can REBLOG MY ART, you can reblog someone's DESPERATION FOR MONEY because they cannot EAT half of the time!

i don't wanna call you guys out on this, honestly, i wanna be nice about it, but i am genuinely so sick of nobody sharing it around! you don't HAVE to buy it. i'm serious, none of you do! but i would REALLY RESPECT if you guys had the courtesy to just. press that damn reblog button.

i've been pretty mad about this lately, and even if it's rude, it's pretty damn important since it's the only way i can currently make money.

okay? you hear me? thank you.

[stanngeddon-deactivated20250717]

that being said, here’s some stuff in case you’d like to donate. don’t gotta, i just think it would be good to have on hand

ko-fi - energydomes

cashapp - $energydomes

thanks for actually listening this time

[stanngeddon-deactivated20250717]

alright, listen up folks, this is important!

if you have the ability to reblog my art, you have the ability to reblog my commissions.

'i just don't wanna clutter my blog' then don't reblog my fucking art. just like it. if you're gonna be like that, just don't even use this site properly

'i don't want to beg anyone to commission you' you DON'T HAVE TO. they can just reblog it as well.

whatever other complaint you have, i'm sure it matters somewhat, but JESUS FUCKING CHRIST, if you can REBLOG MY ART, you can reblog someone's DESPERATION FOR MONEY because they cannot EAT half of the time!

i don't wanna call you guys out on this, honestly, i wanna be nice about it, but i am genuinely so sick of nobody sharing it around! you don't HAVE to buy it. i'm serious, none of you do! but i would REALLY RESPECT if you guys had the courtesy to just. press that damn reblog button.

i've been pretty mad about this lately, and even if it's rude, it's pretty damn important since it's the only way i can currently make money.

okay? you hear me? thank you.

[stanngeddon-deactivated20250717]

that being said, here’s some stuff in case you’d like to donate. don’t gotta, i just think it would be good to have on hand

ko-fi - energydomes

cashapp - $energydomes

thanks for actually listening this time

[parker-art]

art test i did for class

[patchofhares]

[parker-art]

wow…..

[parker-art]

My cool friend at school got me an awesome little pin

thanks cipher!

[ciphybara]

Ur welcome i have great taste in pins :3

[parker-art]

My cool friend at school got me an awesome little pin

thanks cipher!

[toreodere-deactivated20260204]

Ouughohooo I had to draw my favourite guy Fred Wilmore.

Why? becuase I felt like it, h.

[patchofhares]

re-sprite of tahbbi from crossmound. she grewth up