#sillytime sam

[haunted-hijinxer]

DID,,, DID I POST THIS CoC PROPHET YET??

I may have had a slow day at work awhile back and this nice sparkly glitter just sitting there aaaaaand...

[mwolf0epsilon]

Hey @inkdemonapologist and @inkyvendingmachine look at the beautiful nightmare product of a conversation I had with @whatyouwantedmetosee regarding Sillytime Sam.

The goats are talking!!! (and one of them isn’t particularly happy)

[haunted-hijinxer]

Another round of text posts for season 2 of our Call of Cthulhu BatIM game! There,,, were actually too many to fit in one post this time SO UH I will be adding an addendum post soon! Most of the pictures are under the cut along with links to all the originals, but I had to put this one up top :3 Basically the whole campaign in a nutshell there, right??

Arts by @inkdemonapologist, @inkyvendingmachine, @whatyouwantedmetosee, @inkcryptid, and also @mwolf0epsilon and @british-hero !!

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[haunted-hijinxer]

Part two of text posts for Season 2 of our Call of Cthulhu BatIM game, more pics and links to the originals below the cut!

Art for this batch by @inkdemonapologist and @inkyvendingmachine

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[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.)

[haunted-hijinxer]

BatIM CoC AO3 Update: Me, Myself and the Lurker

Featuring: What actually happened that time Sammy didn't like how everyone else had got to talk to his insane alter-ego the Prophet except for him, and decided to take matters into his own hands. Sammy locks himself in a glorified closet to drink Ink on purpose this time. The Lurker has doubts. The Prophet manages to behave the whole night...almost.

This one is a three-parter, so here's the first chapter!

[BatIM Call of Cthulhu Masterpost]

Sammy: InkDemonApologist

The Lurker: Hauted-Hijinxer

Me, Myself and the Lurker

Okay… Okay.

Sammy breathed. He did not need a third round of prowling the building to make sure no one was here. Things hadn’t really ramped back up yet, most everyone had gone home at a normal time, and the building seemed pretty empty.

And anyway, if everything worked, it wouldn’t matter. He’d just be in this room, the larger storage room he’d found that locked from the outside, just him and a stack of paper and a tape recorder and a candle and an alarm clock and…

He checked his pocket again. And a stolen bottle of Ink.

Everything he’d brought with him was set out on the boxes he intended to use as a makeshift desk for the evening, with the carefully written message, in large letters, at the top:

“DON’T DRINK IT ALL AT ONCE. I WANT TO TALK TO YOU. STAY HERE AND LEAVE SOME AND WE CAN GO BACK AND FORTH.

WHAT DO YOU WANT?”

He swallowed hard and huffed and paced the little room, wrenching his focus off the memory of the taste of Ink to try to think of anything else he might need before he locked himself in. The cravings sure hadn’t faded yet, but that meant this was a good time to do this, right? When he wasn’t undoing months of resisting… this was his decision. Not the Prophet’s. It was his.

[haunted-hijinxer]

AO3 BatIM CoC Update

We've added a few more writing/RP chapters from the CoC Bendy Game to AO3! They are not always posted in chronological order, but they all have links at the top to the Bendy CoC Masterpost to show where they fit in with the actual game sessions.

Featuring:

Prophet Sammy getting a turn at this weird dream nonsense and having a run-in with his counterpart, Doc Moonlight

A whole weird dream roundup for Jack, which his reporter friend Peter keeps getting mixed up in

Sammy and Joey trying to navigate Sammy's sudden influx of disturbing memories from his time as the Prophet. A music break is considered. Bendy is also there!

Links and blurbs under the cut:

Do Prophets Dream of Yellow Sheep

Sammy dreams of finally bringing his god to the world. Of standing at the edge of the pools watching the gloriously incomprehensible shape rising up from the depths…

Finally, finally, he would be swept up, to the place he had always truly belonged. His service would be recognized, his loyalty rewarded, and he would cast off this wretched shell to exist forevermore as a part of his savior…

of his... king…

It's with an unpleasant jolt that the Prophet realizes that the sallow misty lake isn't the pools - that this place, that those colors, that this god is wrong... AGAIN.

(Includes a bonus art from Shazz that hadn't found its way onto Tumblr yet!)

Jack's Dreams in New Orleans

Jack dreams of chasing Sammy out into the street, calling out to him and trying to grab him before he can be hit by a car or slip out of sight. But it's like he's invisible, inaudible, intangible. Sammy's arm slips right through Jack's fingers and he hurries off, ranting about-

"That yellow sign," Peter mutters. It's Peter now, sneaking through a dark building Jack can't make out the details of, mumbling. "Charlie was right... I gotta warn off Jack, this is beyond some weird glowing paint, this is some kind of... blood ritual nonsense..."

Jack calls out to try and get Peter's attention, worried. Peter shouldn't be involved in all of this.

Peter turns towards Jack when he calls out... and looks right through him.

Sammy Remembers More Than He Bargained For

“You… remember something?”

Sammy stared straight ahead, mumbling frantically under his breath, eyes glassy and distant, hands half cradling his head and pawing weakly at his face.

At Joey’s voice he did not look up, or shift in any way that indicated he might’ve heard him, but the mumbling got a little louder, breathing quick, words coming too fast. “I saw the lake, I saw the shifting city and the change in the sky, I saw the counterfeit ritual and the arm of the False King reach out from the depths—”

“Sammy, Sammy, stop,” Joey quickly interjected.

[BatIM Call of Cthulhu Masterpost]

Sammy: InkDemonApologist

Jack: WhatYouWantedMeToSee

Joey: InkyVendingMachine

NPCs: Hauted-Hijinxer

[haunted-hijinxer]

The concept of SillyTime Sam taken to its Very Serious and inevitable conclusion....