#overcastsays

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Fun Fact: certain frogs gain their coloration from the bugs they eat. I wonder if this principle applies to other things

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So the general fandom consensus around the “end” of the ultrakill is that, if anyone dies, Gabriel will be one of them. If it isn’t a hypothetical happy ending it’s either V1 kills Gabriel, Gabriel dies via losing his divine light, they both take each other out in one violent, satisfying ending etc etc. but now I’m thinking. Ending where Gabriel kills YOU. Plot line where Gabriel’s “perfect hatred” is just that. Perfect. In an act of pure desperation he leaves behind his “just” ways and pithy taunts and goes completely feral. The second battle, a scramble to win back his divine light., but he begins to slip. Rage. Anger. This is all new to him. He is no better than you. A machination of his creator meant to enforce order, through whatever means necessary. His divine duty is just your programming in a coat of gold paint. He will fight and claw and bleed the same as you and this time he will not relinquish so easily. Bested not once but twice, he loses it. Instead of clarity he is met only with rage. Hatred, stronger than before. Even if there is no light to return to, no glory to be had, no life to live he has you. You’re just two caged animals trapped in the same burning building. War without reason. He’ll kill you. He has to. It’s all that matters. He will kill you.

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So it’s established that the only part of the mindflayer that’s actually robot is the black mechanical part, and that the real body is just for show, right? If the mindflayer exists only as the “head” part and is effectively puppeting a vessel, what if a mindflayer could control OTHER vessels. Maybe in order to survive in the harsh environment hell it has to puppet a more resilient and mobile body (after all, a head can’t do much on its own). Maybe when a mindflayer self-destructs, it only gets rid of the puppet body, leaving a chance or survival for the main head to find another host. Without a vessel to control, I imagine it’ll headcrab style latch itself onto another creature (husk, machine, or otherwise) and take over its body.

Husks would be relatively easy to take over due to their low mental fortitude, but as organic creatures they die fast and are pretty weak. The mindflayer would probably end up siphoning all of the blood out of it before they could fully incorporate themselves. Demons would be far more resilient, but would be more difficult to take over because they’d put up more of a fight (physical or mental). They’d be more difficult to pilot because they operate on hell magic. Perhaps the Mindflayers are so adept with hell magic because they had to learn how it worked to effectively control a demon host.

Other machines, however, would function a bit differently. The Mindflayers usually can’t fully override the original machine’s programming because that would destroy important drivers that are required to keep the machine functional. On the flip side, leaving the machine’s mind fully intact would result in almost immediately removal of the mindflayer from the host. Even a streetcleaner or a drone wouldn’t take kindly to having their body commandeered and probably has some sort of antivirus. Instead, the Mindflayers take on the role of a sort of symbiote; whether it be parasitic or mutualistic is up to them. Perhaps they provide support, extra processing power, or another pair of eyes to give them a leg up in combat. Perhaps they stay like this mutually until they can find or create a new body. Maybe they stay like this forever. Maybe they spend time becoming acquainted with the code of their host, plotting the best way to instate a full takeover without completely shutting them down. Maybe they have a Venom type situation. Maybe a large enough machine could have more than one mindflayer symbiote.

This also gives a much funner reading to the mindflayer’s chosen bodies. Not only are they made to fit the Mindflayer’s personal ideal and make them happy, but they’re probably an engineering marvel. It has to have an intact circulatory system to support blood flow, a “skeleton” so it can support the weight of its internals , and likely some sort of vessel for casting hell magic. Mindflayer’s aren’t just artists, but very intelligent inventors. Certainly makes sense why they would get so uppity about their bodies getting ruined, it probably takes a LOT of resources to build one. The Mindflayers might not be scrapheads nominally per se, but they probably spend a lot of time scavenging for parts to build these. Of course, they have to be more picky than Swordsmachines. Making a body that good requires quality equipment. Maybe the scrapheads think Mindflayers are stuck up. Maybe they think they’re the pinnacle of self invention, on par with THE Swordsmachine. Maybe some mindflayers are their own de facto sect scrapheads. Do they give each other advice like swordsmachines do? I love Mindflayers so much can you tell.

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I just watched all of nyan Neko sugar girls and I think it’s a satirical masterpiece in it’s own bizarre way

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checking on my different isopods is so funny because i'll look at the dairy cows and it's "oh boy! there's all the lads! At least 30 of those guys just chilling around! Lift up this cuttlebone and- BY JOVE ! ANOTHER 30! The colony fares well." And then i'll look at my pak chong isopods and its "theres.. at least three (3) ☝️ maybe a fourth."

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The worldbuilding/fantasy biology nerd in me is so interesting in the implications of how Spawning works in Phighting lore. Like these little guys just pop into the world, fully able to walk and think and understand their peers while ALSO having the innate ability to use a gear. Like imagine a new 10 year old with 0 knowledge on the world except how to shoot a pistol.

As of now, the lore states that new demons start out with the intelligence of a 10 year old, but I doubt they would have any prior social knowledge other than being able to understand language and maybe some basic survival instincts (like I'm talking 5 minutes after poofing into existence). And a large majority of the gears are weapons, so these kids with 0 concept of morality just get plopped into the world with a loaded rifle and the full physical ability to haywire with it. It makes me think of how baby snakes are considered more dangerous than adults because they don't know how to control their venom yet. Baby geardemons would be terrifying. Like no wonder they get shipped off to the factions right away, they'd just start fighting each other for no reason other that "ooo what's this shiny new item I have?". Not even out of malice, they just see a cool thing they can do and immediately test it out on the nearest guy (unfortunately the cool thing is a Rocket Launcher). This got me wondering about how phighter society would be laid out and also how it makes sense that their world is so violent.

Then this got me thinking. Blackrock as a military state. New little guys just spawning into the world with full knowledge of how to load and fire a cannon and 0 concept of ethical use... The big faction war... Chat the lore has been Cooking and ho boy.

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The Death Of God’s Will is a masterpiece that 100% sets the stage for the 6-2 Gabriel fight but when I was first listening to the soundtrack without having finished the game I somehow came to the conclusion that Altars of Apostasy was Gabe’s battle theme and when he hit there would be that pause of him realize bg he *might* actually be having fun fighting this robot and THEN it reprises Castle Vein for his Phase 2 and sometimes I like to go back to that fantasy world. For just a moment.

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Shout out to all of the artists that had to learn how to draw armor and mecha when Ultrakill took hold of your heart and soul.