#shazzbaa

[lookinlikeaking]

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WE'RE STREAMING AGAIN!!!! COME CHECK OUT OUR NEW MINECRAFT WORLD and like our new mic set up which is hopefully good and our new fish and stuff YEAH!!!! I TOTALLY REMEMBER HOW TO MAKE POSTS LIKE THESE!!!

[blueberrybamf]

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY

To my fav oc couple Jess (blue demon) and Turell (both halfelf and demon forms)

Art by @pookadoodle and @shazzbaa + @lookinlikeaking respectively

Thank you guys again ❤️

[haunted-hijinxer]

Hi hello I’m obviously one of ur players but it just occurred to me I could use the power of askbox to be like HEY UH WHAT ARE THE LURKERS THOUGHTS ON EACH OF THE CTHULHU BOYS,

Haha, thank you for this delightful ask - happy to oblige! 

(For context this is in regards to our BatIM CoC game, where some of the JDS crew somehow befriended a shape-shifting eldritch horror called the Lurker of the Star Pools that ended up looking like Bendy, and brought him back to the studio! The Lurker has become the studio’s resident Bendy, and has some… weird perspectives on some things.)

His thoughts about them in general kind of boil down to: These are the people who took a monster who was very casual about the possibility of all of them ending up dead or insane and yet somehow went ”Hey Lurker, you kinda seem like you don’t really love this situation you’re in, instead of trying to use you as a compelled servant or a bargaining chip in our supernatural struggles, would you like to come back with us and keep your memories for once and have a home where people don’t order you around and also hey, here, have a part of our...souls maybe??? While we’re at it? Yeah, You can have that too!” 

His memory from before they showed up might not be the best, but he’s pretty sure that’s not the sort of offer just anyone would make. Suffice it to say that while he has come to learn lots of people are interesting and neat, the original three are especially significant to him. Bendy the cartoon may not take anything seriously, and the Lurker would generally agree... but there’s definitely one thing that’s not a joke to him: living up to their baffling show of trust, and removing anything that threatens them.   

As for specific boys, I tried a couple times to answer succinctly and thoroughly failed, so, uh, have a bunch more musings on what this weird cartoon monster NPC thinks under the cut! 

Henry:

He thinks of Henry as the one he trusts the most, both his word and his judgement. If two people are urgently telling the Lurker to do two different things at once and one of those people is Henry, he’ll generally listen to Henry. Henry was the one who had control over him the longest of the group, but also the one who consistently chose not to take advantage of that position...it made an impression. I think Henry is the one who gives the Lurker the strongest sense that there is something like ‘right and wrong’ worth aspiring to vs. ‘most efficient’ or ‘most beneficial’.

The Lurker is also the most concerned with protecting Henry, both because the idea of Henry not being around bothers him a lot, and because he’s worried Henry is so busy caring about others he sometimes forgets to care for himself. If there’s one thing the Lurker doesn’t thoroughly trust Henry on, it’s Henry’s ability to judge how much he can endure. So while he’s protective of all the boys, he can get especially protective of Henry. 

The Lurker is most comfortable asking Henry for information on things he doesn’t understand about society and people. He trusts Henry to give the truth as best he knows it, and has found Henry most reliably can explain things in ways he will understand. At one point talking to Maf - Henry’s player - about this, Maf pointed out that since CoC Henry is autistic but coped by learning how to mimic the behavior of others early on, Henry has actually put a lot of thought into why people do the things they do and why some things are considered ‘normal’, which could make him especially qualified to try and explain societal constructs to someone else who doesn’t intuitively understand. 

The Lurker isn’t exactly a great artist, but he does enjoy drawing, and drawing with Henry especially. He just likes being around when Henry is doing what he loves, and Henry's nice about giving tips. 

He respects Henry greatly, and when he’s around Henry, he wants to be better.

Joey:

I think the Lurker sees a kindred spirit in Joey. Joey may not be the best for explaining the rest of the world in a way he gets? But the Lurker DOES feel like he gets Joey himself. They seem to share a lot of the same drives and insecurities, and even though neither of them tends to talk about anything vulnerable if they can help it, I wonder if they recognize the similarities in one another. Though they handle it differently they’re both worried about not knowing where they stand, if they’re ‘good’ enough, and are afraid of losing or hurting those they care for and not being able to stop it. The thought of being out of control terrifies them both to the point they are generally more comfortable actively refusing to acknowledge the possibility. 

On the flip-side the Lurker relates to Joey’s pragmatism and his enthusiasm. They both know how to enjoy the moment with no shame. And neither of them is the best at looking before they leap, which has led to them collaborating on a lot of sometimes questionable magical experiments with the Star Pools Ink now flowing through the studio. They work well together, and both understand the impulse to maybe take a few… risks to protect what is important to them. He’s very fond of Joey’s intense belief that everyone can choose their own course, control the path of their destiny. He knows from experience it’s not always true...but he wants it to be. He wants Joey to be able to keep on believing it.

Joey is probably the Lurker’s first stop if shenanigans or new exciting ideas are afoot, and in some ways he’s most comfortable with Joey. Talking about his history usually alarms people or makes them uncomfortable, whereas Joey is generally matter-of-fact about what he doesn’t like and just interested in the rest. If the Lurker just wants to focus on something and have easy company and maybe some thoughtless chit-chat without worrying about shocking or alarming someone, he’ll often swing by Joey’s office.

Sammy:

Sammy is a weird case, because despite the respect and affinity the Lurker has for Henry and Joey, Sammy was in many was the first thing he had to a friend…except that for most of it, Sammy was his ‘crazy’ SillyTime prophet self. They were peers, two guardians of the Star Pools working towards the same goal.

From the Lurker’s point of view, Prophet Sammy was someone who actually chatted with him, considered him favorably, and wasn’t afraid. Even after some loops put them in opposition and ended very badly for Sammy, he was afraid of the danger, but didn’t hold it against the Lurker himself. He wanted to help the Lurker, not even on the basis that it was somehow morally correct, but because he actually seemed to like him. Of course when the party came along and regular Sammy ended up with an insanity that also made him want to please the Lurker, it felt a lot like having the same friend but now with some memory problems. 

This meant that it was Sammy’s opinion the Lurker wanted when he realized the party was actually trying to upend the Masked Messenger’s plans. They’d been in this together thus far… if Sammy thought giving their purpose up in favor of an uncertain future might be worthwhile...maybe the Lurker ought to consider it too. I think he also really took to heart Sammy’s somewhat confused assertion that he preferred not knowing what was coming. Maybe there was something to be said for the future being unwritten…I don’t think the Lurker had ever properly considered the concept of actual freedom or making any choice that actually mattered before. If Joey helps him believe free will is attainable, Sammy led him to believe it was alright to want it. 

Then there’s the whole period where Sammy’s devotion insanity was wearing off, wherein Bendy realized Sammy, much like himself, didn’t properly have control over the things he did to help Bendy, which was….I think kind of horrifying?? Bendy might have...overcompensated, not wanting to do the same thing to his friend that had been done to him, but.. I think he was also seriously worried that as Sammy got control of himself it would turn out their friendship had only been a byproduct of that forced devotion too. He didn’t tell anyone, but he was deeply relieved when that turned out not to be the case.

As bizarre as it sounds when taken in terms of Sammy Lawrence, I think he’s still the one the Lurker is most likely to admit actual doubts or tough questions to. Both because he genuinely values Sammy's opinion while not feeling expected to follow it, and also because he still has the lingering feeling that Sammy ‘gets it’. 

Jack:

Jack he doesn’t know as well so far, and hasn’t had any deep hugely formative experiences with, but…..in some ways, that’s also...nice? 

Jack is someone he’s met since choosing an identity for himself, who met him first that way, and who has been generally compassionate and easy to get along with. I suspect Jack might be unusual in how much he treats Bendy like a living being, it seems like it would be very easy for most of the bewildered employees in the studio to treat him like...some kind of bizarre gimmick of the studio, or at best an actor doing some sort of incredibly long form promotion. I think he likes Jack’s quirky style and is delighted by his complete lack of shame with dropping one-liners. There’s also the bonus that Jack hides away and creeps around in the sewers which Bendy just finds interesting, and Jack has also been teaching him music! He originally asked Jack mostly because he didn’t feel he should ask Sammy back when the devotion insanity was still resolving, but now he values their get-togethers for their own sake. 

(Also if you think the Lurker wouldn’t 100% conspire with Jack on jokes or bits to spring on the rest of the studio, let me assure you he would be in on that in an inky heartbeat. I like to think whenever they meet up for a lesson or just a chat, their interactions are liberally peppered with them ad-libbing jokes back and forth, and that the Lurker might just be in the running for liking Jack’s jokes as much as Jack does.)

[wally-franks-stan]

hypothetically, what would SRU Joey think of MOTW Joey? Thinking especially of MOTW Joey's occasional temptations towards POWER and SRU Joey knowing just how bad a well-meaning man can get when he has that kind of power...

He would definitely be worried. He’d love to believe that a version of himself, especially one with a past so close to his own, wouldn’t go too far, but knowing how he himself came dangerously close to perpetuating the cycle of abuse of power that was happening in the circus when it eventually fell to him… he’d be hesitant to put much faith in the restraint of another version of himself. That said, seeing how MotW Joey has a very close group of friends who seem to be helping to keep him from drifting down the wrong path would help to soothe his worry a little bit.

Beyond that I think he’d probably be pretty fascinated with him! It would be interesting to him that they have really similar backgrounds but lead such different lives. He’d also likely find it strange that a version of him seems so magically gifted, despite the fact that he himself has always had very little affinity for it, as much he wishes otherwise. I can’t really say if they’d get along or not; it would really depend on how they were introduced. I think in general they’d probably get along fine, though the fact that both of them are excellent at reading people and yet use this skill for very different things might make them a bit suspicious of each other.

He might feel a smidge of jealousy at how MotW Joey seems to get everything he wants and dreams almost effortlessly, though that feeling might change depending on how much he actually knows about him.

Overall, would think he’s a good man who just needs an eye kept on him.

[whatyouwantedmetosee]

In Requirement AU how did Wally, Allison, and Tom end up in the Cycle? were they lured back or did they never actually leave? ALSO WHY IS TOM A BORIS, JOEY DID U DO THIS, WHAT MADE U THINK THIS WAS A GOOD IDEA

These are interesting questions and I got VERY WORDY, so answers under cut!

For how they ended up in the Cycle... So, the three of them were called back by Joey and then sacrificed to the Ink - but not intentionally by Joey.

With the basic timeline of how things go down pre-Cycle, Joey originally was slowly starting to experiment with the Ink - at first for potentially good reasons, but later, the Ink got into his head and started persuading him to do more things, to try more risky things, less moral things, etc. which leads to him experimenting on sacrificing people.

While that was going down, Sammy was also having a similar thing happen - the Ink getting into his head to lure him into doing similar. As time progresses, Sammy starts sacrificing people as well, and people start disappearing from JDS.

Eventually, Joey realises that more people are disappearing than he’s causing, which starts to set off the realisation that wait, what is he doing? He manages to snap out of the Ink’s influence but he needs help trying to stop what’s happening.

Tom and Wally previously worked on the machine together, so he calls them in to try and shut down the machine to destroy it for good, before it can affect more people. Allison comes along for the ride, having seen enough weird stuff around JDS to know this is serious.

However, once they get to JDS, Sammy ambushes the group and ends up sacrificing them to the ink as well, with Joey just barely managing to get away in time. (At this point, he realises it’s too late for him to fix things, and attempts some time shenanigans to undo what happened - leading to the Cycle.)

As for why Tom is a Boris, etc. that’s partially just because of chance. As the timeline progresses and more people get sacrificed, both Joey and Sammy (and the Ink) realise that the process works better if there’s a base for the inked person to combine with, something physical to balance things out (as opposed to the lost ones, which can degrade down into searchers over time and lose their form.)

Sammy wasn’t actively trying to pick out the Correct folk to fit certain toon forms - he had no interest in making living toons for the toons. Rather, he was sacrificing people because his Lord, the Ink Demon, wanted it. (The Ink Demon’s desires matching that of the Ink itself.) The people he was sacrificing needed to be stable to fulfil the Ink’s wishes, so he just used whichever physical vessels were nearby when he sacrificed people, which just happened to be the Borises and Alices that Joey had been using for his own experiments.

Anyway, that leads to Alice!Allison and Boris!Tom. Wally, for plot reasons, is a Lost One by the time of the game loops, though I’m undecided right now if that’s because the combination didn’t stick (happened to some other NPCs too), if the combination failed later down the line, or if there just weren’t enough vessels to go around and he was the unlucky one of the three.

[mwolf0epsilon]

An Illustration for my Tattered World short story, The Old Radio that I posted on the Writing Forum. It serves as backstory for how one of EPS’s kith ended up altered in a rather drastic manner... 

Bonus silly comic under the cut!

The good news is, Norman’s still his curious and bubbly self! The bad news is, well he still tests stuff through giving them inquisitive chomps... And both Rogue and EPS now have to pay for any kaiju-sized kith related damages... 

[dyinganddice]

Faelen wishes the rat farewell, by @shazzbaa

[tatteredworld]

More amazing @Shazzbaa art of the Illuminary Gala event: Kyprian and Dynrial! Commander, maybe you should.... step away from the sparkly Elf....

Shared by Leslie on Twitter