#anonymous puzzler writes

[anonymouspuzzler]

awright who let puzz play psychonauts again and start Thinking

It Never Ends! I am once again thinking about Psychonauts and specifically thinking about Loboto. Even More Specifically, I replayed the first game Yet Again recently and on hitting the scene where Loboto removes Dogen’s brain, had a moment of “huh, he’s like, way more measured and composed than I remembered,” and God Help Me that sent me on a horrible unending spiral of Revisiting and Thinking About and Theorizing On Things. And Now You Must All Read My Discoveries As Well. (placed under readmore because 1) this is gonna get long and 2) my god there will be major spoilers for Every Psychonauts Game.)

Welcome To The Thunderdome. Let’s Begin. In particular I am going to present to and discuss with you Three Distinct Things I Am Thinking About Loboto Based On In-Game Evidence That I Will Extrapolate, Present, and Argue To You All:

Cal’s childhood lobotomy did not, in fact, remove his psychic powers, only cut off his ability to consciously access and utilize them. He is still unconsciously using psychic abilities at the point that we see him in the games.

One of the most prominent impacts of the lobotomy on Cal appears to be his inability to recognize when he is doing harm, and to a certain related degree, how to interpret other peoples’ responses to him. When Raz helps recover his “moral compass”, Loboto actually becomes significantly more unstable as he struggles to process this, having likely gone most of his life without these capabilities.

Both of the above are causing some variant of Mental Projection to occur in Loboto’s mind, creating multiple conflicting archetypes/personas similar to what’s happening in Cassie’s mind.

So let’s go through each of these one by one! In excruciating detail!!

1) Cal’s childhood lobotomy did not, in fact, remove his psychic powers, only cut off his ability to consciously access and utilize them. He is still unconsciously using psychic abilities at the point that we see him in the games.

So for this one, we’re going to go through my evidence from “most textual” to “a little more speculative” in roughly that order. Obviously, none of this is explicit, but I’m doing my damndest to use things that can be fairly reasonably cited from Actual In Game rather than too deep in fanon/speculation.

The most textual example of Loboto having lingering psychic abilities despite his lobotomy is, in fact, his mental world in Psychonauts 2! This is something that’s a little more obvious on a rewatch/replay.

When you’re going through the game/level the first time, Sasha especially spends a lot of time discussing how Loboto’s mind must have been booby-trapped and messed with by his employer, because otherwise Loboto wouldn’t be able to resist the construct and otherwise give the agents the degree of run-around he’s putting them through. On a first playthrough, that makes perfect sense, especially when this plus additional evidence leads the agents to conclude Loboto’s employer was a mole within the Psychonauts itself. Obviously, a psychic from the agency messed with Loboto’s head and left all these psychic booby-traps for their coworkers!

But once you reach the end of the game and go back and look at this again, you realize, hey, wait. Loboto’s boss wasn’t a psychic at all! Quite explicitly!

Now I’m going to take a moment to argue against my own argument here, because there is evidence that Gristol would have been able to psychically fuck with Loboto despite not having psychic abilities himself.

[Image ID: A screenshot from a cutscene in Psychonauts 2, showing the receptionist at the Motherlobe levitating a ThinkerPrint Reader (a small brain-shaped disc with a blue glowing eye symbol in the middle). End ID.]

We see in-game that these little brain-disc-things - which Gristol would have had access to via Truman, since Truman has one on his person - are able to provide some limited degree of psychic power even to people who don’t otherwise have those abilities. Namely, the front desk receptionist is able to telekinetically lift one and scan Raz with it when he arrives, despite dialogue later on suggesting she isn’t a psychic herself. It’s entirely possible Gristol used that to fuck with Loboto’s head and place all those psychic booby traps.

But ho ho!! Now I’m going to counter-argue this counter-argument, to get you all back on board with my original argument!! Because despite this possibility, it’s also pretty textual that Gristol is a fuck-up who’s not very good at planning. The entirety of Psychonauts 2 is a display of him not really having any back-up plans for any possible hiccups in his original plan (as soon as Lili reveals a boyfriend he didn’t know about, his response is Fake A Coma), and of said plan being undone mostly by his own sloppy work (shipping his own body back to the base in a poorly-taped box with a key to his former residence in his pockets). The thought of this same man having the capability and foresight to set up numerous highly effetive psychic booby-traps in the brain of his hired help, just in case that hired help got captured and psychically interrogated… it doesn’t feel likely.

(Now that I write it all out, in a lot of ways it feels like Gristol just… forgot about-slash-disregarded Loboto after he did the dirty work of kidnapping Truman and swapping the brains. Like, he only appears once in Gristol’s Big Special Mind-Ride of his Brilliant Plan, at the very end, in a barely-held-together-backroom type of area, and Gristol never so much as brings him up by name. Heck, in retrospect, I wouldn’t be surprised if Gristol deciding to Play Coma was equally as prompted by Guy Who Knows Everything, Who He Completely Disregarded and Left For Dead, falling out of a luggage rack unexpectedly right in front of him and Five Guys He's Trying To Fool Into Thinking He's Normal All The Time Truman. This is all totally off the topic at hand, though.)

Anyway! So Gristol being able to do anything significant and sophisticated vis-a-vis “psychic traps in Loboto’s mindscape” is wildly unlikely. While there’s still other possible explanations - Gristol maybe having other psychics in his employ in the Delugianaries or secret police, for example - that’s purely speculative and not supported by the text in any kind of reasonably-explicit way, which is what I’m trying to focus on for the purposes of this argument. Hey, you know what is explicit in the text, though? Loboto once having psychic powers, to a degree that he was using telekinesis Very Capably as a Literal Infant. That, combined with all the above evidence (plus other circumstantial stuff we’ll get into in a second), means the most likely answer to “how is Loboto resisting the agents and the mental construct?” is “his psychic powers are still There, and acting subconsciously to protect Loboto in this situation, even though he’s no longer able to access and use those powers by conscious effort”.

Now let’s get to evidence of a “still textual, but not as compelling” flavor. For this, we’re going to go back to the original Psychonauts, and also touch on Rhombus of Ruin a bit.

As some of y’all probably remember from messing around in the original game, because there’s still some of that point-and-click inventory flavor, you can try to use the psycho-portal on characters that don’t have mental worlds, and you’ll get some flavor text explaining in some form or another why you can’t do that. This includes Crispin (you get a note from Loboto saying he’s protected “his patient” from psychic procedures, Haha Hey Man Uhhh How Did Y), Sheegor, and most pressingly for this line of argument, Loboto himself, who claims his shower cap is protecting his mind from being entered.

This Is All Well and Good until Literally The Next Day In-Universe when his mind is able to be entered. Twice, in fact. Please recall that the start of Psychonauts 2 is, at a stretch, maybe a few hours after Rhombus of Ruin. (“Haha well Puzz clearly they just retconned it so they could do a Loboto mental world–” no. That’s not Fun and it’s not Text. This overthinking-ass essay is about Engaging With The Text As It Stands.)

So what’s different about the first time Raz (et all) attempts to enter Loboto’s mind (in the original game) and the second-slash-third time (during and after Rhombus of Ruin)? Nothing that would particularly have an impact, except for one big thing: in the latter cases, Loboto is either “immediately in the presence of” or “has just barely left the immediate presence of” Like A Lot Of Psilirium. You Know. The Rock That Dampens Psychic Powers. Which leads me to believe Loboto’s psychic powers are still active, just in an unconscious way (protecting him from psychic invasion without him even realizing it) instead of in a way he has to consciously act on.

Now, why am I categorizing this as less compelling evidence than Loboto resisting the mental construct later on? Because unlike that case, there actually is a reasonable, textual alternative to the answer of “yeah Loboto’s still unconsciously psychic”. The answer is named Coach Morceau Oleander.

Unlike Gristol, Oleander has a lot going for him on the level of “could fuck with Loboto’s mind a bit to put up some psychic defenses”. For one, Oleander is a psychic, and despite everything, a highly trained and very powerful one. (Like, much as he’s kind of a goofy fuck-up, Oleander’s also implied to have been an agent for at least as long as Sasha and Milla, and he’s able to hold his own in a fight against both of them at once - it literally takes Ford flying in and de-braining him to win that confrontation.) Two, we already have textual evidence of Oleander messing with people’s brains to his own ends, in the form of both Linda (though in some ways that could loop back around to supporting Loboto Is Still Psychic, since he seems to have had some degree of a hand in that) and more prominently, poor ol’ Boyd. If he was able to do that much involuntarily with Boyd, it doesn’t seem out of the question for him to hop in and put up some psychic defenses for more voluntary subjects like Crispin and Loboto. It would also make sense for those defenses to either wear down or wear off once Loboto was in the presence of Psilirium, thus continuing to explain why Loboto’s protected in the first game but not in any of the games following.

So - taken on its own, not particularly decisive evidence. In combination with the much-stronger “resisting the mental construct” example, though, I’d say it presents a pretty strong case.

Now comes my most tenuous and speculative example. This is about as much as a stretch I’m going to let myself go with any of these - a case of “well you can extrapolate this from the text provided, I guess, even if it never says it explicitly to any kind of degree”.

Ladies, gentlemen, and those rightfully opting out. It is time to talk about Loboto’s Fucking Prosthetic.

[Image ID: A full rotation of Loboto’s “Monstroboto” character model, which shows him shirtless with the full prosthetic right arm visible. It is attached to his torso with several straps and has a single visible hinge at the elbow.]

Look at this thing. This is a fucking mannequin arm with a pepper grinder on it. How Is This Thing Able To Operate With Any Kind of Sophistication Without Telekinesis. Like, the man is gesticulating and grabbing objects and tapping his little knife fingers, how in the Hell.

There’s a lot of reasons this is tenuous evidence at best. For one, we only get this super clear view of the entire prosthetic construction inside Loboto’s mind, which means it’s extremely possible it’s abstracted, metaphorical, or an abstracted metaphor in one form or another. (I don’t interpret Loboto’s exposed brain as textual in the “real world” for this reason - we only ever see it exposed in his mental worlds, and in both cases in a scenario where him having an exposed brain under the cap serves some kind of symbolic/metaphorical purpose - but for several reasons, the prosthetic feels more grounded in reality despite this. Anyway, that’s all a tangent regardless.) There could also be hidden mechanics that allow it to move the way it does, or it could just be an abstraction of the art style (though again, I’m trying not to let out-of-story things like that be answers to these questions). But it’s really hard to imagine the Hinged Peppermill With Claws having the range of movement it does without Loboto unconsciously moving it with telekinesis.

For that matter, I feel similarly about his eye lenses - we see them moving around independently, zooming in and out without him touching them, and so on, and like… how? How?? Maybe it’s just that I’m not biomechanically minded-slash-informed, but “yeah he’s just moving them psychically without realizing” does feel like a more viable answer than any alternatives, if not one with a ton of super obvious and textual evidence behind it. Once again, though, in combination with other evidence, it does have more weight behind it.

In summary: Loboto’s able to resist psychic interference, actively fight back against trained Psychonauts in his own mind, and move his various prosthetics and augments in highly refined ways. All these things, especially taken all together, make the most sense if you assume his psychic powers are still acting subconsciously, and he’s just not able to consciously access and use them in the ways he did pre-lobotomy.

2) One of the most prominent impacts of the lobotomy on Cal appears to be his inability to recognize when he is doing harm, and to a certain related degree, how to interpret other peoples’ responses to him. When Raz helps recover his “moral compass”, Loboto actually becomes significantly more unstable as he struggles to process this, having likely gone most of his life without these capabilities.

This is going to be a little less “I cite direct evidence in support of my argument” and more “I point out specific scenes and instances of behavior, how I’m interpreting them, and why I’m interpreting that way”. Hopefully you will stick with me here.

So, as I stated waaaay back at the start of this, what set me off on this whole journey was going back through some of the original Psychonauts cutscenes, seeing Loboto in action, and going, “Woah, hey, he’s like way more measured than I remembered him being”. So let’s go into more detail on that and unpack it a bit!!

There’s a consistent and distinct pattern of behavior Loboto exhibits in his scenes in the first game: screeching, in-your-face Mad Scientist rambling, and then suddenly, these dips into like… oddly quiet, composed, weirdly Professional (if decidedly eccentric) behavior. The cutscenes with Dogen are a really good example - he has his big INSANITY OF A MANATEE THIS WILL ONLY HURT TILL YOUR BRAIN COMES FLYING OUT speech, but in-between and especially after that, he kind of quiets down and starts acting like an Actual Slightly Eccentric Dentist. (In fact, here’s the full transcript of the scene that sent me down this whole rabbit-hole, for context:

Dr. Loboto: Oh, good boy! There's that pesky brain. Here's a tissue. Now don't you feel better, my dear lad? Dogen: [Now brainless] TV..? Dr. Loboto: Of course! Right here. [Loboto picks up Dogen's brain off the floor.] And THIS bad tooth, we'll just drop it in the ol' garbage chute. Now don't chew solid foods for the next six hours!

It really knocked me off balance seeing it, so I made a point of going and watching the full Lili’s bracelet clairvoyance cutscene in full, to see if he behaved similarly there. And he didn’t! He’s full Mad Scientist Haha Crazy there, the entire time!! I had to think on it for a while, and I realized there was one major difference - Lili continues to be defiant and difficult in conversation the entire time, while Dogen responds pretty calmly and doesn’t start freaking out until it’s clear His Brain Will Be Removed, which is also when Loboto starts going more Mad Scientist again. (Again, below’s the full transcript of the Lili scene for context.)

Dr. Loboto: Well, I've reviewed your chart, little girl. The bad news is, we're going to have to remove your brain... strap it into an armored battle tank, and have it shoot down innocent civilians with its concentrated psychic death beam! Lili: I'm gonna kill you so much. Dr. Loboto: The good news is that your insurance is going to cover the whole thing. So! ... Hey, is it getting warm in here? Lili: No, I'm trying to set you on fire through this stupid hat! Dr. Loboto: What a delightfully mean little brain you have! Just what we want! Here, do me a favor. Tell me if this smells like... YOUR DOOM! Heh heh! Lili: I-I can't smell anything. Dr. Loboto: Curses! [Lili laughs at him] You're a stubborn little ball of phlegm, ain't ya? Well, that head cold won't protect you forever, little girl, and when it's gone you'll be sneezing a different tune. A tune in the key of... brains! HAAA HA HA!

His last big cutscene with Sheegor really hammers everything home. He’s full Mad Scientist again, he’s screaming and experimenting and Actively Threatening and Tormenting Her the entire time. Then Sheegor leaves and just, measured and nonchalant as anything: “When you're a dentist, you have to learn to have a sense of humor, you know. It helps to calm the patient down.” (It’s also worth noting a lot of the torment, at least to me, comes off as kinda “dipshit older sibling who commits to the bit of teasing Way Way Past where it’s all in good fun for the younger sibling”. Like he just keeps Going and Playfully Backing Off and then Actually Still Going. It’s so awful it loops around to being funny again. I'm so so sorry Sheegor I love you and you don't deserve this but I am laughing)

I think Loboto really, unironically, genuinely thinks this is what he’s doing in all these situations. He’s a dentist, he’s got all these difficult patients around, so he’s going to joke with them! A bit of friendly teasing and playing up his eccentric behavior to get them to calm down for the procedure! At the point where all this is happening, I think he’s genuinely incapable of comprehending-slash-accepting that he’s actually doing harm and that they’re actually, rightfully scared of him. Not in a like “oh uwu he didn’t know he did anything bad he’s just a nice guyyyy” way, but in a “his brain is literally, textually, physically damaged in such a way that he cannot comprehend this” way. As far as he can tell, he’s doing some freelance dentistry (plus or minus a few things, you know how it is when you’re doing work-for-hire type stuff, you never know what the client’s gonna ask you for) and sometimes he’s gotta joke around when he gets a patient that’s nervous or difficult. All in good fun!

Then, of course, we get Rhombus of Ruin and the mental compass. If you’ve played or watched that game, you know all this already. Raz recovers the mental compass from the vault and Loboto’s demeanor completely shifts again. He recognizes aloud, for the first time since we’ve been introduced to him, that he has done Horrible Things. (We will see him continuing to do this in his level in Psychonauts 2, but we’ll get to that.) He seems, very genuinely, saddened and horrified with himself as he says all this. Raz has very literally reintroduced Physical-Slash-Psychic Capacity To Recognize Harm to Loboto’s brain. Given what we learn about Loboto’s past here, it is very much possible that this is the first time he has had this capability since he was a very young child.

Another thing that happens is, in rapid succession, Loboto chooses to Immediately Make Reconciliatory Actions (releasing the Psychonauts, telling the fish henchmen to leave), and then also Blow The Building Up Right Now. For No Clear Reason. For Zero Benefit, In Fact, The Opposite Of Benefit, He Also Has to Frantically Escape This Now. It’s completely illogical, erratic behavior that’s in conflict with itself. And that pattern… kind of stays consistent from that point out, actually! Almost his entire appearance in 2 is him very literally arguing with himself, acting in erratic and conflicting ways - pretty much going to the Psychonauts for protection and redemption yet also actively giving them the run-around and preventing them from finding his boss; alternately trying to connect with or get pity from the agents, then being aggressive or insulting towards them, then being kind of playfully, teasingly antagonistic at worst. While Raz reintroducing his moral compass is probably objectively a good thing for Loboto in the long run, in the short-term having that level of major, major change in his damaged brain seems to have significantly destabilized his behavior and sense of identity (we’ll get into that in just a moment) in ways that make him much less predictable and more erratic compared to how he was pre-RoR.

In summary: Loboto at the time of the original Psychonauts is eccentric and dangerous, but he’s also consistent and stable in his behavior and identity, acting consistently as a freelance dentist who plays up his eccentricity, teasing or otherwise joking around in an effort to “calm down” his “patients”. It’s likely he’s physically unable to comprehend that he’s doing harm and scaring people, due to the brain damage from his childhood lobotomy. Raz reintroducing his moral compass in Rhombus of Ruin fixes this, but makes Loboto much more unstable and unpredictable as he grapples both with the harm he’s done over the years, and with trying to suddenly live with a brain function he hasn’t had for most of his life.

3) Both of the above are causing some variant of Mental Projection to occur in Loboto’s mind, creating multiple conflicting archetypes/personas similar to what’s happening in Cassie’s mind.

In connection with the above, It’s Time To Talk About the Multiple Lobotos.

[Image ID: A screenshot from Psychonauts 2, showing two Lobotos in his mental world - one in bright light sitting in a dentist chair on the right side, the other standing in the shadows on the left. End ID.]

Every time we see Loboto’s mental world, there are multiple distinct, individual, and simultaneous versions of Loboto Himself in operation. Not different and distinctly individual personalities, like Fred and Napoleon. Not separated alter-egos representing a part of oneself, like Edgar and El Odio, or Bob and Turnip-Bob. Not even fragmented personalities that appear one at a time, like the different versions of Ford. There are multiple versions of Loboto that are Just A Loboto - literally the most different they get is “one time one of them pretended to be a whaler” - operating at the same time as each other, in the same scenes as each other, interacting with each other, sometimes in direct opposition to each other. There is only one other place in the entire series where we see this happening.

[Image ID: A screenshot from Psychonauts 2, showing the “librarian” Archetype of Cassie O’Pia tearing up a book with Raz on the left side and her three other Archetypes on the right. End ID.]

THAT’S RIGHT BABY AFTER ALL THESE YEARS I FINALLY RETROACTIVELY FOUND AN EXPLANATION FOR THE CALLY O’PIA AU anyway where was I. Yeah.

The way the different versions of Cal operate in his mind and interact with each other is more similar to Cassie’s Archetypes than anything else we see in anyone else’s minds. The only major differences are “Loboto’s Archetypes aren’t flat paper illustrations” (and I think it’s remarkably easy, even reasonable, to assume that’s a Cassie-specific stylization that Raz only retains because Cassie directly teaches him and he’s thus using her Archetypes as a reference point - Cassie’s a writer; what reason would everyone else in the world have to render their Archetypes as if they were illustrations in a book?) and “Loboto doesn’t refer to or treat the other versions of himself as Archetypes” (of course he doesn’t, I don’t see any reason or scenario where he could have reasonably learned about Archetypes, in either a psychological or psychic sense - he literally does not have the knowledge or the language to do this). Honestly, interpreting the different Lobotos as different Archetypes explains a lot about how they act, what they’re doing in Loboto’s mind and why they’re in the parts of the story they are. I am going to talk about each individual version of Loboto and what I think they’re doing Archetype-wise based on the text now, because none of you can stop me.

Psychonauts 2 Loboto #1, AKA Patient Loboto: This guy, and Psychonauts 2 Loboto #2, tie in the most to the above discussion on Loboto becoming more outwardly unstable after recovering his mental compass, and so I’m going to refer back to and expand on that with the both of them. This Loboto is explicitly the one we see in the patient chair during those cutscenes in his level, the one we see speaking to Raz directly in the poster hall section, and I would argue he’s likely the version we see at the very start of the level in the office construct (or at the very least, he's the one "running" Loboto at that point, in the same way the Librarian is "running" Cassie when we first meet her). He’s the version of Loboto we see most blatantly grappling with the return of his mental compass - he regrets the things he’s done in the past, he’s seems to be vying to connect with the agents on some level, he’s genuinely upset about being tricked and about being unable to tell Raz what’s up with his boss. This puts him in direct conflict with…

Psychonauts 2 Loboto #2, AKA Doctor Loboto: This guy is also the result of Loboto’s Newfound Ability To Recognize Morals, but in the opposite direction. He’s the one who’s fully embracing the identity he’s built as an amoral mad-scientist-for-hire, figuring he’s better off just continuing the path he’s already on and disregarding the new knowledge that It’s Wrong, rather than go through all the trouble and misery and Active Risk To Self of trying to Be Redeemed. Basically, he’s the one looking at OG Psychonauts version of Loboto and going What If We Just Went Back To That Actually. Fuck Character Development. He is, obviously, the one we see as the dentist in the cutscenes in Loboto’s level, as well as pretty textually the one who grabs Raz from behind the painting in Lili’s section.

Monstroboto: Back to RoR now! This one’s pretty textual as well - this the uncontrolled, untethered, don’t-know-or-care-if-it-hurts-someone version of Loboto. (As I type this, I realize it’s worth noting, this version of Loboto is very obviously “playing” as he attacks, in the same way I observed Psychonauts 1 Loboto having a playful tone to his antagonism, as if he’s not recognizing that he’s actively hurting and terrifying people while doing so. All his attacks are either that, or actively retaliatory. I'm Simply Saying I Can Read Some Subtext.) Between that and the exposed brain, it’s pretty obvious this is representing the post-lobotomy Loboto (how he sees himself? How he thinks others see him? All that’s speculation, mine friends…) - wreaking havoc on Loboto’s ability to engage with other parts of himself and develop a fully fledged mindscape.

First Mate Loboto: This one’s a little more speculative and could mean a lot of things, but bear with me. As above, this could well be the part of Loboto that wants to distance himself from what he became after the lobotomy - whether that means ignoring it entirely and trying to go back to how things were “before”, or more likely, based on his dialogue, trying to move on and grow past it; “sail for new waters”, in his own words. It’s also possible he’s something of Loboto’s idealized self - he’s just as eccentric and dramatic as the real deal, but at least more theoretically heroic and adventurous - and/or, tying into a lot of the themes of the RoR version of Loboto’s mind, kind of a childish “what I want to be when I grow up” version of himself. (We see lots of nautical themes in Loboto’s childhood, after all, with the sea life toys and the little sailor boy outfit and all; while it’s certainly speculative, it’s not a huge leap to think little Loboto might have wanted to grow up to be like, a sailor or something of that ilk.)

Young Loboto: This one’s pretty obvious; he’s very literally the Inner Child. (You Know. Like Psychology.) Just like Li’l Oly in Oleander’s mind, this is the part of Cal who was Very Hurt when he was Very Young and has never had the means or opportunity to process it - he’s just stuck in that mental vault, buried away, playing out what he’s experienced over and over and over again as a helpless, outside observer. (I think it’s Very telling that Raz releasing the vault and, in essence, establishing a connection between Inner Child Loboto and the other parts of himself is what restores Loboto’s ability to use his moral compass.)

So, in total, we’ve got five distinct Lobotos in play through what we see: Inner Child, First Mate, Monstroboto, Patient and Doctor. And, in a case very similar to what we see of Cassie’s Archetypes, each of these versions of him are a result of a Very Specific Point in his life and a subsequent need to fulfill a Very Specific Purpose for his continued functioning and survival. The Inner Child is, well, Loboto As A Child (and less literally, the version of him that’s kind of holding on to his trauma so the rest of the versions of him don’t necessarily have to reckon with it); Monstroboto is what’s taken over post-lobotomy; First Mate is what he either Wanted or Wants to be and isn’t because of said lobotomy; and Patient and Doctor are the two options he has post-recovering his moral compass, either continuing on the path he’s already on, or abandoning it for the hard road of Trying To Be Better.

And again, much like Cassie, none of those Archetypes on their own are getting the job done on their own. Doctor and Monstroboto are extremely destructive and don’t seem much able to form meaningful relationships because of it, Patient is an erratic coward who’s constantly miserable and collapsing under the weight of What He’s Done, Inner Child is a Child, and First Mate is a cartoon character. It’s very likely that a theoretical healthier, more functional version of Loboto would have to reconcile these different Archetypes the same way we eventually see Cassie do, or at the very least get them on terms where they’re not Actively Opposing Each Other At All Times.

In summary: Loboto has multiple Archetypes active in his mind the same way Cassie does, and much like Cassie, the Archetypes being in conflict with each other plays a major role in his instability, especially post-RoR. Again like Cassie, it’s likely Loboto would have to reconcile his different archetypes - especially the ones in direct conflict, as we see in his mind in Psychonauts 2 - in some form or another to become more mentally stable.

SO IN CONCLUSION, I hope this Rambling Essay and Cited Evidence has convinced you all that:

Loboto is still psychic, but his powers only manifest unconsciously, and he isn’t able to use them by conscious choice as when he was a child. (Whether or not it’s possible for him to eventually re-access those powers consciously is very much a “your guess is as good as mine” situation - Loboto's the only lobotomized psychic we see in the series, and no other in-game sources on the history or results of the practice.)

Regaining his moral compass for the first time since childhood makes Loboto behave significantly more erratically and unpredictably, in no small part because–

Loboto has several mental Archetypes in direct conflict with each other, especially after regaining his moral compass.

What does all this mean? I’m gonna be honest. I don’t know. I just wanted to get all this out of my head. Now it lives in yours instead. Have fun!!

#anonymous puzzler writes #long post #like really long. like REALLY long. i'm so sorry I hope tumblr cuts it properly for all your sakes. #psychonauts #caligosto loboto #psychonauts spoilers #psychonauts 2 spoilers #rhombus of ruin spoilers #tw medical abuse #ask if you need anything else tagged y'all ty! #god help me i just needed this all Out Of My Head. This Is How I Live Out Here

[tina-mairin-goldstein]

Hannibal Dashboard simulator!

🐕dogsandflyfishing

This my new dog. Everybody, meet Winston.

No, I did NOT steal him. He was a stray.

And here are the others:

(Except for Zoe, she does not like to have her picture taken)

#dogs

🐈‍⬛ teamsassyscience <- -> reblogged

Aw, your puppies are adorable.

137 notes

🍷are-we-not-made-in-his-image

I would like to share this interesting article I came across.

The Standard Monograph on Time of Death by Insect Activity by Professor Will Graham

_______________________Keep Reading

659 notes

😷autopsyguy

Can you guys help me end a debate between me and my colleague, @iwishididn'thaveatwin.

🐈‍⬛ teamsassyscience <- -> reblogged

Guys, I thought we settled this weeks ago...

🔍iwishididn'thaveatwin <- -> reblogged

The definition of the word 'prey' is: An animal that is hunted and killed by another for food. Deer and elk do NOT eat them, therefore they are not prey.

😷autopsyguy <- -> reblogged

Get your own post, Jimmy.

1,708 notes

🐕dogsandflyingfishing

😶‍🌫️Anonymous asked:

Hi! Sorry to bother you, but I noticed some of your posts and your url, and I was wondering if you have any advice for fly fishers? I think I've made my lures all right, but I can't catch anything.

My advice is name it after someone you cherish. If they cherish you back, then you'll catch something. It's worked for me.

17 notes

🔥Sponsored

Chordophone String Shop

Genuine catgut strings imported from Italty.

Violin and cello lessons available.

Specialists for piano and harpsichord rewiring.

_______________________Learn More

📸tattlecrime-official

It Takes One to Know One

The FBI isn't just hunting psychopaths, they're headhunting them, too, offering competitive pay and benefits in hopes of using one demented mind to catch another. Sure, we're familiar with the stereotype of the FBI profiler, swaggering onto a crime scene, fitting the pieces together like a master puzzler with his 1000-piece jigsaw. In reality, profilers should be likened to harridans reading a cup of spent tealeaves- passing off their active imagination as incisive fact.

To read the rest of the article, click the link Here.

🍷are-we-not-made-in-his-image <--> reblogged

@tattlecrime-official I believe we had a very serious discussion on this matter. I am very disappointed that you decided to ignore it. You have been naughty.

📸tattlecrime-official <--> reblogged

@are-we-not-made-in-his-image Freedom of the press and speech. If I truly couldn't write about it, I'd be sitting in jail right about now. Mind your own business.

328 notes

🐕dogsandflyingfishing

🐈‍⬛teamsassyscience asked:

Can we please see a picture of Zoe?

Fine.

47 notes

🍷are-we-not-made-in-his-image

🧀tyromancy-is-fun asked:

I noticed you recently posted a picture of Jose's in reference to a recipe and I was wondering how you liked the place. Isn't it the best?

I am aware this is an alternate account for @the-real-franklyn-froideveaux and I would like to ask you once again to please refrain from following me or interacting with me on social media. It is not appropriate. Thank you. I will be blocking your account after this.

9 notes

💀fawn-in-the-forest deactivated 9-13-2014

Me and Dad on a hunting trip.

3,769 notes

#i spent way too much time on this #dashboard simulator #feel free to add on #nbc hannibal #hannibal #will graham #hannibal lecter #abigail hobbs #beverly katz #brian zeller #jimmy price #franklyn froideveaux

[mittensmorgul]

Can i get some writing advice? I have a fic that i'm working on that i'm currently posting chapter by chapter. I've kind of hit a wall with it and am struggling to find the motivation to continue it. There's another story i'm also working on that i'm much more into and excited about. But I don't want to just leave a fic as an unfinished WIP. I'm afraid it makes me seem unreliable as a writer, flaky, etc. I'm thinking of just deleting it and explaining that it just wasn't working out. Tips?

OH GOSH. First off, I’m sorry to hear you’re hitting writing speed bumps. That’s never fun. So my sympathies.

I’m gonna start by saying I might not be the best person to ask about this, because I neither post nor read works in progress, so I don’t know what the etiquette is (or even if there is a standard etiquette) for works in progress that are... let’s be optimistic and call it “on hiatus.”

Do you feel like you might someday (like after you go and write the fic that’s actually poking at your brain instead) come back and finish the original fic? If so, it seems like maybe you could just add an author’s note to the end of the final chapter as it stands (and probably to the notes at the beginning of the fic as well) stating that you’re on Writing Hellatus for that particular story and intend to come back and finish it at some point in the future.

If you really feel like you’ve just run out of steam on it, you could similarly leave a note to that effect.

Confession: I’m the type of person who never deletes ANYTHING. I mean I’ve got posts tagged “tbd” going back to 2014... >.> I’d give myself angina if I tried to delete something I’ve written. But that’s a me problem. I don’t know if that’s a you problem. :P

Would you be happier pulling it down entirely until such time as you’re able to finish it (if that time ever comes)? Or would you miss the notes and comments people have left on it already? Because that’s one of the downsides of deleting a fic-- you also lose all those comments and kudos.

Or would you be happier leaving it up? Then again, it will just sit there in your AO3 works list staring at you like a sad puppy wondering why you stopped playing with it... or maybe that’s also just me... I have issues, what can I say?

So really, I think it’s up to you what you do, but maybe this will help you work through what you’re most comfortable and content with. :)

AND GOOD LUCK, whatever you decide to do. 

#writing is hard #heck i've never even considered this before but it is a puzzler #maybe someone who posts wip's will be able to offer you more useful advice #Anonymous

[jumpboy-rembrandt]

do you have any taz fic recs? especially taakitz or blupjeans!!

i am very sorry for how long this took!! i am an old lady who stores her bookmarks in browser, and after figuring out how to transfer them from phone to laptop, i realized i would have to carefully review all 65!! this took most of the day.

disclaimer: i tried to focus mostly on the ships you mentioned, but i got distracted by some of the really good gen fic i keep around. it’s just. it’s my favorite you guys.

apologies if you’ve already read all of these – i’m not sure what the trends of the fandom are. if all else fails, here’s a link to posts tagged both fic and blupjeans, and here’s one for fic and taakitz. i also have a fic rec tag that includes a few things i apparently never bookmarked properly!! check that out too :)

blupjeans:

watch me stumble over and over by rosesandspades713

2k // the stolen century

lup and barry get together, with taako working both sides into talking to each other

just a little change by writingismycoffee

5k // tsc

barry gets a mustache and lup hates it. mostly silly, but the reason she hates it is much worse than she first thought.

barry and lup; a collection of firsts by potatolord

10k // mainly tsc

a very sweet, very well-written compilation of important moments in lup and barry’s romance

the phoenix flame by alatarmaia4

32k // PRINCESS BRIDE AU

i’ll be honest, my shitty memory doesn’t allow me to remember the story very well, but from what i can remember it kicks major ass and julia is in it at the end. also, it’s a princess bride au. of course it’s great.

taakitz:

wouldn’t have it any other way by theplace

8k // between eleventh hour and suffering game

taako and kravitz have a nice night out, except there’s a surprise waiting back at the moonbase. kravitz meets the family, and there’s only some mild angst by way of dramatic irony.

(when i think about you) flowers grow out of my grave by piraete

30k // flower shop/mortician au

krav needs to find a new flower shop for work and accidentally meets a very cute elf who needs a date to his friends’ wedding. taako and magnus are friends with carey, killian, hurley, and sloane, plus little ango is present. very very good fic.

of all the stars and sunrises i’ve seen by untrustworthyglitch

7k // post-canon

taako never ceases to impress kravitz

the queen’s command by anonymous-moose

2k // post-canon

very short and cute. the raven queen is disappointed in her son.

twins and their boys:

the worst candlenights ever by weevilo707

40k // college au

both taakitz and blupjeans. contains: kravitz owning a literal raven, readers living vicariously through fictional characters, and the best barry ever written.

commitment issues by anonymous puzzler

6k // stolen century and post-canon

the twins aren’t used to permanence. here are two times they discuss it. includes teasing and doubt and sappiness. it’s very good.

counting days by violentsarcasm

3k // stolen century and post-canon

sort of the inverse of the previous one: both twins are romantic nerds. also discusses lup’s time in the umbrastaff.

character studies:

i have loved the stars too fondly by quilly

26k // pre-canon and tsc

an incredible character study of davenport. legitimately one of the best fics ever written. i know you’re looking for romance, but this is a work of art.

head of the flock by teacuptaako

2k // pre-canon and tsc

a character study of lup. “the universe owes lup interest. it owes her fifteen dollars, minimum.”

because that’s what love is (equivalent exchange) by teacuptaako

6k // tsc

technically blupjeans, but it’s mostly about barry’s relationship with taako. it’s wonderfully written with a unique take on taako and makes me feel things no matter how many times i reread it.

still here by bluemoodblue

9k // post-canon

taako and lup recover together

caleb cleveland and the case of the missing memories by vigs

3k // pre-crystal kingdom

kiiind of a character study? a very clever interpretation of how angus found the bureau. it is fully adopted into my headcanon. note: it is technically a wip, but i think it’s complete enough to enjoy.

family fics

evocative by blackwiresonherhead

3k // stolen century and pre-canon

lucretia misses her family. when she misses her family, she eats. a wonderful fic about lucretia’s relationship with the twins.

the academy by lesetoilesfous

18k // pre-canon (on two-sun world)

i really, really love this fic. it’s ipre-as-family (specifically the twins, magnus, and barry) and it’s really cute and sweet and they support each other and i love it

pieces set to fall by weatheredlaw

9k // post-canon

i’ll tell you up front. everyone dies in this fic. it is sad but sweet, and you will probably cry.

that being said, it really is a beautiful story about taako saying goodbye.

kindness won’t save anyone by kitahart

pre-stolen century // 5k

taako is sick and his friends are worried! a thb as family fic. angst and comfort.

the game is already lost by altschmerzes

9k // written pre-suffering game

fluff-without-plot. taako needs affection from his friends and doesn’t realize how much they love him. i think this is the top-rated fic on ao3 so you’ve probably already read it, but it was the first taz fic i read and i cherish it.

puzzle pieces by dareandwriteit

19k // written pre-stolen century

angus is beloved by so, so many people. it is nearly 20k of pure, unadulterated fluff. please enjoy.

let angus mcdonald be a child by idgahufflefuck

5k // pre-stolen century

what it says on the package! thb start mothering angus. warning for bad eating habits in the fourth chapter.

things that will not break by rqtheory

2k // pre-stolen century

magnus and taako are worried about angus’s supposed lack of parents

other

well, that’s what you get by pierianabeyance

2k // post-canon

lup just kicking the shit out of sazed. in the wise words of the author, “write the ass kicking you want to see in the world. even if you don't Ever Fucking Proofread It”.

AND OF COURSE: if you’ve been on my blog for more than a few seconds, you already know this but go here and read everything

#fic rec #again apologies for the delay!! i just have too much stuff!! #also sorry bc by the time i realized i shouldve checked my rec tag too i had already spent like six hours on this #i hope you enjoy this though! #inlv #ask

[jkottke]

These websites could change your life

I asked Kottke.org readers if they had ever seen, heard, or read something on the web that literally changed their lives.

Fourteen people said no. Sixteen said maybe. Thirty-eight people said yes. These are some of their answers. Everyone is anonymous. Some said more than others.

Four different people listed pages from Metafilter:

Ask MetaFilter

;Where's My Cut? --: On Unpaid Emotional Labor

For the person who's got everything: "I read this post, applied, and had a play made for me."

[creepy filter] Is it normal to become this distracted from seeing an attractive person in public?: This reader pointed to a comment in this thread "that describes the grinding reality of daily low-grade sexual harassment."

Five readers listed works of journalism.

The Lilly Suicides by Richard DeGrandpre.

The Overprotected Kid by Hanna Rosin "persuaded me to be a far less uptight parent."

Is This Working? on discipline and punishment in the school system.

The Blissfully Slow World of Internet Newsletters. (I hope this person now does something with newsletters.)

Don't report sexual harassment (in most cases) by Penelope Trunk.

Five listed personal essays or advice.

Ten Things I Have Learned by Milton Glaser [PDF]

Mindfulness in Plain English by Ven. Henepola Gunaratana.

Encountering the Gifted Self Again, For the First Time "made me realise that I'm not just a weirdo, but all of my "quirks" actually fit together under a label, and that has made me understand myself about 10000x better."

Pixel Poppers: Awesome By Proxy: Addicted to Fake Achievement: "an essay on performance orientation vs. mastery orientation, as applied to videogame genres."

DEAR SUGAR, The Rumpus Advice Column #77: The Truth That Lives There.

Five listed videos or video series.

"Almost any woodworking video by Matthias Wandel."

Vsauce.

The School of Life

The power of vulnerability by Bren Brown.

Kid President's Letter To A Person On Their First Day Here:

And ten listed entire websites.

"Josh Davis's www.dreamless.org message board, now defunct."

"Violet Blue's writing, which lead to me realizing sex is a much deeper and more interesting topic than mainstream news coverage would have me believe."

"The website MathPuzzle. It was the first time a website caught my attention and I corresponded with the owner/webmaster, and it opened me up to the online and offline community of puzzlers around the world. Working as a puzzle author got me through college and helped me establish a name for myself."

Bullet Journal.

YearCompass.

"Jeph Jacques's Questionable Content, particularly how he dealt with suicide, depression, and the concept of people from different backgrounds so elegantly. I like to think it increased (and continues to increase) my empathy in the world."

National Novel Writing Month

"Radiolab made me want to be a journalist."

l'Université du Québec à Chicoutimi: "In 2005 I was trying to get information on how to study abroad for a year. Everything I read was on the Internet, and I then spent 9 months between 2006 and 2007 in Chicoutimi, Quebec."

Pixel Envy. "Not pandering. Started reading Kottke, DF, and Metafilter, and realized that I could try doing the same thing. I've had a modicum of success since, and met a bunch of really cool people as a result."

Now pick up your instruments, and go start a band.

[beimanorthrun-blog]

Online dating 365

Top 10 Best Online Dating Sites Rankings 2019 Libido Wikipedia Pl Dating Culture In The Philippines Essay internet consultant By November 9, 0 Book essay sample argumentative automobile history essay template term paper websites example format.  To offer you this service free of charge, we may use site links the generate commissions for us when we refer you to the seller's website.  How to Use Online Dating Sites Safely: 8 Steps with Pictures By Posted in Speed essay nottingham reviews On Nov 10, About charity essay art gallery science is a blessing short essay essay on knowledge management bloggers creative writing us university nottingham.  Online christian dating loves to you can find latino singles to their companions 365.  Whenever you become so terrible of exchanging figures it may be wise to call that individual for around per week even before you meet that individual.  A further 43 percent used online for friendly contact and only 24 percent of respondents stated that that they used online apps and services explicitly for sexual encounters.  Online Dating365 has a poor description which rather negatively influences the efficiency of search engines index and hence worsens positions of the domain.

Top 10 Best Online Dating Sites Rankings 2019 Lack of Open Graph description can be counter-productive for their social media presence, as such a description allows converting a website homepage or other pages into good-looking, rich and well-structured posts, when it is being shared on Facebook and other social media.  And in this spirit we say, simply but sincerely Because of the uncertainty of the whole situation, the desire to be acceptable to the other sedvice, and the possibility of rejection, can be very stressful for all parties involved.  Online dating also has a dark side, especially in the world of hookups.  We collected the majority of metadata history records for Onlinedating365.  Millions of people have now invested their time and money into online dating, which has become a mainstream solution for singles around the world.

Singles 365 Review (com-k2.ru) We found that all of those requests were addressed to 365localdating.  The prime reason that online dating has soared though, is quite simply because they just work so very well.  You are highly likely to find the best dating website, on our site.  Pof dating - providing free - internet dating - the top gay dating 365.  Sometimes this occurs but fortunately there are various tips you can study to make certain you do not get inside a sticky situation.  The very best picture would most likely function as the newest picture.

365 Local Dating (com-k2.ru) No cost hcinese any kind, including messaging.  Beats365 free online dating business.  Don't forget to final mumford and unique sultry appearance.  All the genuine sites provide members with important tools for security and guidelines to ensure that members, and member information, remains safe.  In the world of online , women seek a partner of their age or older who has a high-paying job or has money.  What I also found great: having the choice between the E-Book and the video course in which everything written in the E-Book was described in more detail again.

Online dating Online dating is similar to real life, and it takes time to discover who you are interested in, and whether they share your feelings, before checking whether a connection will work.  Regarding that, I need to say that this isn´t naturally, so I´d like to pay a great compliment here! It might be a good and safe idea to speak to that individual a couple of days before exchanging figures.  History of Internet Dating Services Shagar Free Dutch site helping men and women to find online love.  We always make every possible attempt to ensure that our information is detailed, accurate, and current.  Our goal is to create a comfortable and long-lasting foundation for the constant flow of new ideas.  When one connection does not work for you, then simply keep trying.  Plus, when the University of Chicago surveyed nearly 20,000 people between 2005 and 2012, researchers concluded that than those who met their spouses through more traditional avenues offline.

365 Days of Online Dating I managed to get to know a woman and to arrange a date with the help of guides via Lovoo and Tinder.  A further reason, is that modern dating online, has become so efficient, to the point that dating algorithms have now even been patented, and additional features such as the mobile app for dating sites, has become commonplace.  Top 10 Best Online Dating Sites Rankings 2019 Dating online has become so popular that many thousands of people find their true love on internet dating sites.  If you have finally setup your bank account you can test to market yourself now.  Welcome to the MeetSingles365 portal.  If you are searching for a serious relationship, you need to be honest when you complete your questionnaire, to ensure that you receive only the best matches that are possible for you.  Southwest wn 365 brain puzzlers.

Top 10 Best Online Dating Sites Rankings 2019 Its no name was TrueBeginnings.  So it may come as no surprise that sociological scientists see a trend of heterosexual couples meeting online and quickly popping the question.  Rather take the time to find out more about some other members before making a decision.  Express gratitude to your friends xhinese family members a heartfelt thank you for all the contributions that they have made for you through these ecards.  A visual novel and sim game that features gay.

365 Days of Online Dating Try to look for a location where there are numerous people.  This is a fact that is one of the best features of dating online.  TopOffers is unique because what we value most in our partners is their genuine and personable qualities.  As time goes by and more happy couples decide to tie the knot, we can probably expect further increases in the percentage of married couples who met by swiping right.  If you are new to online dating, this site is a great way to get started in the online dating world.  Unlike many other sites, Singles 365 provides the option to receive notifications of new messages, icebreakers and other alerts straight to your mobile phone.  For a few weeks I perused the Nerve online personals from a voyeuristic distance.

Singles 365 Review (com-k2.ru) Enjoy chat rooms, message boards, photo galleries, instant messaging, anonymous private mailboxes, and a lot more.  Write essay australia dog dog help for english essay zno.  Three years later we had a baby together.  You have to use social el, no matter what idea you are in.  Dodge ram ford have websites providers single moms not dating websites new: men's gallery: send your o365 experience, departures,.

#Online #dating

[anonymouspuzzler]

finished one of my finals so i decided to celebrate by sketching up some concepts for cal's mind in the Cally O'Pia au!! putting image IDs/descriptions and general elaborating on my Vision(TM) under da cut cause i can tell even before typing it's gonna get long (PSYCHONAUTS 2 & RHOMBUS OF RUIN SPOILERS IN THERE BTW YOU ARE WARNED)

Welcome. Let Me Describe You My Vision. my goal with this was essentially "how do I hit the major plot beats that are necessary for Psychonauts 2's plot to Happen while still incorporating Cal's very different backstory in this AU"; some of this involves functionally combining RoR's and Psychonauts 2's versions of Loboto's mental world. maybe someday I'll go into how I envision RoR changing in this au but whatever right now we're on The Opening of Psychonauts 2 As Played Out In This Verse

first things first Sasha's Psychic Projection has to be completely different given 1) Cally already works for the Psychonauts 2) he knows the other agents very well already and 3) he is a Known Psychic rather than a random feral dentist Morry picked up off the streets. so rather than the "Psychonauts office where Loboto gets employee of the year and has to get his vacation form signed off on" construction, Sasha instead constructs a scenario where Cally is still under his "Dr. Loboto" guise, has captured the other agents, and has to deliver Raz to his boss. unfortunately for Sasha, Cally catches on pretty much right away, plays along for all of five minutes, then drops everyone in a little box to keep them contained while he makes sure all the info on his boss is under mental lock and key. Unlike the ones you see above, Raz's box is kind of plain and nondescript because, unlike all the other agents he's known for years, all Cally knows about Raz is "psychic kid who keeps getting himself in some shit".

because this is, you know, The First Level of the Imaginary Game, this still has to be constructed as a tutorial, too, which you will see as I get into each of these little boxes. Raz's box teaches you to use your standard psi-punches, because it is Hastily and Weakly Put Together, so Raz can literally bust his way out and scamper around looking for the others. Cally, in turn, keeps trying to re-trap Raz as he investigates the next boxes, but with the help of the other agents Raz keeps finding ways to break out and proceed further (though the others remain stuck).

The first one Raz finds is Oleander's, which you can see in the top left of the first pic - the primary theming is Loboto's Lab from the first game and drawing on their time working together there, but the walls are also covered in pictures of Oleander and/or the two of them together, that have all been defaced or scribbled over in some form (since at the time of the game they're very much on the Off side of their On-Off relationship). To get out of the box Oleander re-teaches Raz telekinesis, which allows him to open up the hatch on the upper right of the wall, and then gives Raz a boost out - Coach, of course, isn't able to reach it himself before Cally slams the door behind Raz. You also may notice a hidden room behind one of the pictures - you can only get in there by returning later in the game when you have pyrokinesis, and once you do, you'll find a memory vault about his and Morry's relationship (which i've had concepted out for like a year and WILL draw eventually) and a bunch of photos that haven't been defaced (representing how Cally still has much stronger feelings for Oleander than he's admitted to, and is still carrying a torch even through the surface level of their breakup).

Next comes Sasha (top right picture in the first image), whose room is kind of a combo of his and Otto's labs, with a bunch of the props drawn from both locations - books, papers, inventions, computers, The Lamp, you know how it be. The floor also has a big glass swirl that gives you a peek at Otto's brain storage, which has a bunch of brains tumble by as you're in there (plus the occasional Faberge egg, for Foreshadowing - for even more of that, there's also the brain case on top of Sasha's exam table in the corner). The escape here escalates to a two-step process - Sasha re-teaches Raz psi-blast, the two of you combine forces to pry the door open with TK, and then the chattering teeth start spilling in and Raz has to fight his way out with psi-blast.

Third comes Milla - I swapped her with Lilli compared to the "canon" order first because I misremembered, but then I stuck with it because I felt like it worked better thematically. Anyway, Milla's room (seen bottom left) is a combo of her meditation chamber and Cassie's house back in the gulch, with pillows and tapestries and books everywhere, honeycomb wallpaper, and of course, Bees? Bees! They Have Chosen The Bees. You might notice the big scary beehive from the Forgetful Forest in the middle of the room; the escape here involves Milla re-teaching Raz levitation, the two of them pulling out the beehive with TK, using psi-blast to fend off the subsequent BEES, and then Raz drops in the hole and uses levitation to hover his way to safety. (At this point Cally is like KID C'MON and outright intercepts and dementistrates Milla rather than just keep her trapped.)

Last but hardly least is Lilli; she's in a combo of Truman's office and what she tells Raz looks a lot like her house/apartment - Cally's functionally kind of an uncle to her in this verse, so he's been particularly thoughtful in crafting a comfortable, familiar mind-prison for her. (The Extremely Subtle Foreshadowing also continues here, with envelopes and a hacksaw on the desk, the brain case on the shelf, and of course The Fuckoff Huge Crown Chandelier hanging above the desk.) The other wall has a bunch of family photos of Lilli and Truman, and one big pic of young Cally and Truman in the Gulch; Lilli re-teaches Raz pyro so he can burn that, and Enormous Mental Cally takes this as an opportunity to grab Raz much like in the original game.

Now we're at the point of the second image, and where things particularly divert from the original version of the level in my mind! Big Ol Cally drops Raz in a combat arena and he has to deal with a few waves of Censors and Doubts and Regrets - I haven't decided if this is the first time you encounter true Combat or if you have mini-waves throughout the level like in the "canon" version, but if it is your first combat I like the idea of Lilli being your "mission control" explaining the new enemies an dhow to beat them. Either way, Raz fights a couple waves while trying to convince Cally to give them information, he refuses, and when it looks like Raz is in a real tight spot he manages to dive off the arena deeper into Cally's subconscious.

This is where we start incorporating RoR stuff! Raz drops all the way to the little dollhouse representation of Cal's childhood home, goes in, sees a little Cassie-style paper projection of young Cal and overhears his parents having their Oh What Can We Possibly Do We Can't Handle This Child Anymore conversation. Paper Cal hides in a wardrobe, Raz follows, and this portals into this endless-seeming hospital hallway where dialog plays between li'l Cal and the doctors, revealing to Raz that they were going to lobotomize him for being psychic. (I think maybe you find your first accessible memory vault either here or in the path I talk about in a second; that one goes into how Cal got taken in by the psychic 7 and i also have that one concepted out please god give me time and energy to draw these soon). After this plays there's a cutscene where representations of the psychic 7 tear apart the hallway, and Raz falls into this paper representation of the Gulch. He follows a little path past some simple setpieces of things you'll see later in the game, talks to himself a bit like Wow This Is Just Like True Psychic Tales So Cool That Agent O'Pia Grew Up Here :)

Now this path leads past a little paper version of Lucy's hut (which Raz doesn't recognize for sure, which bugs him), and the path around THAT leads to a big winding path through a parted waterway (which Raz is Very Much Not Happy About, reestablishing the water curse - maybe there's a little cutscene where he sees the hand of Galochio much like in the first game at the beach). Raz nervously walks through, and dialogue plays between Cally and Mysterious Figures revealing Cal got caught undercover and was threatened into assisting with the Kidnap Truman plot (or rather, they threatened Cassie and Lillie and Oleander, which ended up being Much more effective than threatening his own life). At the end of the path Raz finds the base from RoR, and it's in there that he sees "Loboto" talking to the Shadowy Figure similar to canon and 1) learns whoever hired Loboto was a mole, and 2) sees the vision of Maligula when the figure reiterates his threat to Cal-slash-Cal's family. Vision-Maligula destroys the village, Raz snaps back to the real world, and There's Our Game!

if you've read this far you're a hero beyond compare here's the image descriptions for you

[Image 1 ID: Digital sketches of four boxlike rooms. The top left room is labeled "OLEANDER" and incorporates elements from Loboto's Lab in Psychonauts, including the jagged glass window, Mr. Pokeylope's terrarium, and a prototype brain tank sticking out of the floor. There are miscellaneous papers on the floor, and a brain tank blueprint on the wall. Various framed photos of Oleander are also on the wall, most of which have been scribbled over or otherwise defaced. There is a hatch high on one wall, and a secret room with a memory vault behind a pyro-able picture.

The top right room is labeled "SASHA" and resembles a combination of Sasha and Otto's labs, with a large bookshelf making up one wall covered in books, papers and gadgets, floating shelves on the other wall, as well as a desk with office chair, computer monitor and Tiffany lamp. Sasha's examination table is in a far corner, with Truman's brain case on top of it. The floor has a glass swirl revealing brains being transported similar to Otto's brain storage. There is a partially open sliding door on one wall where chattering teeth toys are spilling in.

The bottom left room is labeled "MILLA" and resembles a combination of Milla's meditation chamber and Cassie's home in the Gulch. The walls have a honeycomb pattern wallpaper and string lights, with an eye tapestry hanging on one wall. There are round lantern lights hanging from the ceiling, with bees flying overhead. The floor is a round conversation pit covered in pillows, throw rugs and books; in the center is a massive oozing beehive similar to the one in the Forgetful Forest.

The final, bottom right room is labeled "LILLI" and resembles Truman's office. There is a desk covered in envelopes and a hacksaw, with a desk chair behind it and two 60's style chairs in front. There are two shelves along the wall behind the desk, containing the brain case among other things, and the wall prominently displays the Psychonauts logo. A chandelier resembling the Maliks' crown is hanging from the ceiling above the desk. There is a couch and several plants against the opposite wall, and many family photos of Truman and Lilli on the wall perpendicular, with the largest (pyro-able) one being a picture of young Cally and Truman. End ID.]

[Image 2 ID: Digital sketches of three scenes in Cally's mental world. The first shows Raz (represented by the simple head-and-legs silhouette used in Peter Chan's concepts) diving off a disc-like combat arena (on which are several Censors, Doubts and Regrets) towards the dollhouse representing Cal's childhood home, which is floating in space. The second shows Raz in one of the dollhouse rooms with a paper-projection version of young Cal, with an arrow leading into a wardrobe, which portals into a long hospital hallway with a "NEUROLOGY" sign on the wall, eventually trailing off into nothing. The third shows Raz walking past Lucy's old hut in the Gulch, along a winding path through parted water, and ultimately to the Rhombus of Ruin base. End ID.]

#anonymous puzzler art #anonymous puzzler writes #(there's a lot of words in there it counts) #psychonauts 2 spoilers #rhombus of ruin spoilers #psychonauts #psychonauts 2 #if y'all aren't familiar with the au A) there's posts recently in my psychonauts tag B) Inbox Is Open lmao #long post /

[anonymouspuzzler]

god help me i'm Writing

i did a little prose one-shot with Buck and Davey just to test out how it felt, and my buddies talked me into puttin 'er up, so now You All Must Read It Too. art at the bottom too if you make it through!

content warnings for: "Buck is basically about to have a panic attack the whole time" and "brief, not especially graphic description of that time Davey lost an arm", "maybe some secondhand embarrassment because Buck can't pick up a hint if his life depends on it", and "Like Exactly One Sex Joke". Okay Enjoy Or Don't

A bit of a crash after a job was standard. You know, the adrenaline wearing off, replaced by aches and exhaustion. The contrast of going from a dramatic heist or a bombastic fight, to mundanely washing up and scraping together dinner and such. The early stirrings of inevitable cabin fever, lying low for however long it took for things to blow over and the heroes to move on to newer, shinier threats. That ever-present, anxious itch at the back of his skull - the one certain that one day, his luck would run out, and he’d be tracked back here by someone who knew he wasn’t quite unkillable - growing just a bit louder in the aftermath of drawing so much attention to himself. Yeah, all that was normal; something he’d come to expect.

He was not currently experiencing that. No, the cold crawl in his gut as he looked around the empty hideout was decidedly not the usual post-job, I’m-gonna-be-cooped-up-a-while anxiety. This was new, and he knew exactly the cause.

Davey still hadn’t come downstairs.

No-- no, Dynamo. Dynamo hadn’t come downstairs. He kept letting himself slip like this, into that casual, dangerous familiarity. He absolutely could not keep doing that. He’d already gotten too close, crossed the unspoken boundary that kept them both safe in their line of work. It was exactly what’d gotten him into this mess in the first place.

For a few beautiful moments right after the heist, running on pure adrenaline and the high of victory, it had been like none of those concerns existed. Just him and Davey-- Dynamo; him and Dynamo-- and a giant, freshly-swiped stash of unstable compounds in the backseat. A job neither of them could have pulled off alone, and that had gone off with nary a hitch together. The strung-out, victorious cackles from them both, grinning wide, hands gripping each other’s shoulders, heaving breaths passed between each other so closely, he could still feel it in his lungs if he concentrated on the memory.

(So close to each other, that he could’ve lurched forward and kissed him like it was nothing. It took all his willpower not to do so, and that was one of many, many things here that terrified him; that his willpower could be so easily tested by what should have been the easiest, most obvious boundary.)

Of course, that moment couldn’t have lasted. Of course. It couldn’t have just from the baseline, but especially not when they had to deal with handing over the material to Practis. (Practis, stupid fuckin’ Practis, if he hadn’t owed them the favor he would never have gone to deal with ‘em.)

Davey-- Dynamo wasn’t stupid. Quite the opposite. All it’d taken was one well-placed question from Practis while Buck had been busy unloading the goods, and all the dots connected from there.

“O-positive?”

“...excuse me?”

“Your blood type. It’s O-positive. Am I right?”

He’d cut in before they could talk any further, of course, hustling Davey-- Dynamo into the car and bidding Practis a curt farewell, but it was too late. Dynamo was silent as they drove off, tightly-drawn lips betraying that he was deep in thought, even with his eyes hidden behind his goggles.

Buck’s mouth had been dry. Barely able to glance at him out of the corner of his eyes, heart pounding as he wondered whether he ought to make small talk just to distract from the elephant in the room.

He didn’t get a chance. Davey spoke up first.

“You went to them for help when I lost my arm.”

It wasn’t a question. Buck couldn’t tell if the tone was meant to be just observational, or perhaps accusatory. “...maybe,” he answered regardless, cringing the second it was out of his mouth. Repulsed by his own noncommittal cowardice.

Davey would have been entirely within his rights to cuss Buck out for the breach of trust; for hiding that from him all this time, leaving him in Practis’ debt without even realizing. He stared down at his lap instead, silent for a long moment. “...this job was the payment for that,” he added, another not-question. Nothing for Buck to answer; to clarify. “You had to do all this because of me.”

“Not because of you,” he retorted, only mostly lying. “It’s, just… you know. And, you ended up helping me get this stuff for ‘em in the end. So, like. You’ve more than returned the favor, if that’s what you’re worried about.”

“It’s not, actually.”

“Oh.” Shit. His grip tightened on the steering wheel; his eyes honed in on a suddenly-very-interesting stretch of empty road on the horizon. Great job convincing the guy he owed you a favor, Buck. (Why do you care? Why care what he thinks? Why do you need his approval so badly?)

“...why the hell’d you go through with it, Buck?”

Shit. The million-dollar question. The one he kept circling around himself, trying desperately not to confront the obvious answer. (His name, his real name on his lips, again casting aside the safety of Dynamo and Bulkhead.) He glanced at him out of the corner of his eye, seeing his gaze averted, gloved hand just barely tracing the edge where his newly-minted battle prosthetic attached to the stump of his right arm.

He needed an answer. (Deserved one.)

“...well, you would’ve done the same for me.”

The truth of it lingered in the space between his words, and he was terrified Davey would catch on. Because yes, Davey would have done the same for him, but because, Buck suspected, he would do the same for anyone - far, far too kind; too adverse to death for someone in his line of work. But Buck - Buck would not do the same for anyone. For Dynamo-- for Davey, only for Davey-- he would. He would, he had, he would again.

(Because Davey was whip-smart and funny and kind and beautiful and he was all those things to him, of all people. And god help him, he was a sad, grouchy, lonely old man and apparently someone treating him like a regular-ass person, like someone to chat and banter and plot with, was all it took for him to start falling head over fuckin’ heels.)

The rest of the drive back was silent, and in some deep, horrible, cold part of Buck’s gut, he was certain Davey had heard the words between his words.

And now here they were. They’d pulled the car into the hideout, Davey had mumbled out something about doing a bit of cleanup in the workshop before turning in, Buck had nodded and mumbled something about washing up so the shower’d be free when he came downstairs, and now here he was discovering Davey still hadn’t come down. (Avoiding him. Had to be, right? He wouldn’t blame him. Hell, maybe he’d grabbed his stuff while Buck was in the bathroom and ran out for good.)

He managed about five minutes of awkwardly milling about the hideout, valiantly trying to convince himself he’d flip channels on the TV or get out something for dinner, before finally succumbing to morbid curiosity and slipping upstairs to see if Davey was still working in the shop. (Making up excuses, trying not to acknowledge the inevitable. Maybe he was just engrossed in some task or another. Maybe he needed help with cleaning up and hadn’t thought to bug him about it. Maybe he sat down for a minute and fell asleep in the backseat of the car. Anything that wasn’t “running off without a word because Buck got way too close to him for people in their line of work”.)

He wasn’t there when Buck got upstairs, and for a moment his heart sank into his stomach, but then he noticed the golden sunset-light filtering in around the corner - the garage door was open. Davey was just in the entryway, just out of sight, Buck rationalized. (He left the door open when he ran off, the more realistic part of him countered. All contradictions in his head right now, both desperately trying to protect his fragile heart and steeling himself for the inevitable reality of the heartbreak.)

He rounded the corner.

Davey was there.

He was there (he was there, he really didn’t run off), back to him, not yet noticing Buck had walked in. Watching the sunset, it looked like, orange-and-gold light spilling across his sharp shoulders and thick curls. He’d removed most of his work gear - the massive prosthetic, the helmet, the goggles, the gloves - leaving him slim and exposed compared to the imposing figure he cut on the job. (Exposed both metaphorically - though Buck knew better, anyone else would see him like this and think he was fairly vulnerable to attack without all his gadgets and armor - and literally, overalls hanging loosely by a single strap in a way that made Buck fight not to ogle.)

It was a quieter, softer moment than Buck expected to find. For a moment, he wondered if he ought to slip quietly back where he came, leaving Davey to his private contemplation. But, at the same time, he had already trespassed, and it felt wrong to keep that fact to himself, too - reluctant, he cleared his throat, trying to hit that careful, contradictory midpoint of gentle yet forceful; enough to alert to his presence without making it seem as if he was demanding Davey’s attention.

(Dynamo. Dynamo. Dynamo. He was slipping, he kept slipping, and it was getting more and more dangerous every time. Harder and harder to pull back.)

Davey-- Dynamo turned, sharp, eyes wide, hair bouncing in its ponytail with the force. (God, he was beautiful. Objectively. Purely objectively. Big eyes, thick lashes, the way he worried at his thin lips with his gap-teeth.) At a loss of what else to do, Buck forced a grin and waved; Dynamo responded in turn. (Warmth in his eyes, but tightness in his smile. The heavy, anxious feeling from the drive returned to Buck’s gut in earnest.)

“Hey,” Dynamo started, tone light. (Yet forced; Buck knew how he spoke well enough at this point to tell - and god, god, what a sign of the danger he’d put them both in, knowing him well enough to recognize that subtle tell.) “Sorry, I didn’t realize that, uh, y’know-- time-- I-I’m just watching the sunset.”

“Cool,” Buck replied, feeling somehow even more socially inept than normal. “Cool. I can, uh--” He gestured behind him, back to the door; trying desperately to communicate he’d leave Dynamo to his privacy if need be. (To reflect, to escape, whatever. Maybe both. Maybe reflecting on how much he clearly needed to get the hell outta there.)

“No!” His voice cracked with the suddenness of the exclamation, sending Buck’s brows skyward - that he’d never heard before. Davey-- Dynamo seemed embarrassed by the outburst on his part, clearing his throat and rubbing the back of his neck, gaze averted. “I mean-- nah, you don’t have to, you can, uh--” And he trailed off, gesturing dumbly to the empty space beside him, an unspoken invitation.

An invitation Buck, by all accounts, should have refused without hesitation.

…he didn’t, of course. Fuck, of course he didn’t. No, instead he shuffled awkwardly up to the empty space beside him, hands in his pockets, balled tight into fists. (He had the good sense to at least leave a polite gap between them, of course. Room for the Holy Spirit, he quipped to himself, trying desperately to lighten the mood in his own mind. He conjured an image of a cartoonish high school dance chaperone, screeching and shoving balloons between dancers’ bodies to force the distance. The thought only cheered him a minute before detouring into grim memories of his own high school dances, spent watching awkwardly from the sidelines, mooning over handsome young men who barely even knew his name. Multiple decades on and he still wasn’t too different from that pathetic kid. Fuck.)

Get back on track. Hands in his pockets, staring out at the (actually quite beautiful, damn) sunset, Dynamo beside him at a polite distance, doing the same. A variation on their side-by-side silence in the car before, but now with barriers removed - their expression-obscuring goggles, Buck’s imposing jacket, Dynamo’s massive prosthetic. Two men off the clock, without their armor, without defenses. (And he hated it, he hated how easy it was, how those walls just came down around Davey without him even thinking about it. This was rule fucking one of the villain lifestyle, not putting yourself in positions where you’re vulnerable around others. You never knew who might be just desperate enough to sell you out.)

(...Even if he was increasingly certain, in some part of his anxious mind, that Davey would never dream of doing so.)

“...You wouldn’t happen to have any cigarettes, would you?” Dynamo suddenly asked, finally breaking the silence. The question came so out of left field Buck couldn’t help but turn his head to stare, finding Dynamo’s gaze locked on the scenery ahead, left hand fidgeting subtly with the outer lining of his pocket.

It took a second for Buck to even process the actual, y’know, words of the question. “...no, I don’t,” he finally replied. (Even if he wanted to smoke, frankly - which he didn’t - his chronic asthma decidedly wouldn’t appreciate it, and asthma attacks were one of those little things his super-durability didn’t prevent. It chilled him how he had to actively stop himself from freely sharing that sensitive, this-could-actually-kill-me information with Davey.) “...you smoke?”

“No, I quit years ago.” A quick, practiced reply. Automatic, in many ways.

“...then why did you--”

“I don’t know.” A quick, barked laugh, no humor behind it. “Just get the craving when I’m nervous, I guess.”

The easy honesty of his words stuck in Buck’s throat, choking down any response he might have been planning. (Too honest, too honest. Was he like this with everyone? Or… did he dare imagine this kind of trust was only for him?) He should have dropped it, he needed to drop it for both their sakes, but unfortunately, his brain was still reeling and he instead responded with a quiet, “You’re nervous?”

A pause. Too far. Davey’s-- Dynamo’s expression was tight. “Maybe,” he replied, quiet. Honest. Too, too honest, fuck.

Buck’s gut twisted and flipped, instinct of shut this down shut this down you’re in danger fighting heartily with a desperate, primal need to return the openness he’d been shown. “...is it… am I…?”

“No. Yes? No.” A heavy exhale, Davey’s hand coming up to scratch at his face, fingers nearly catching at the edge of his now-healed scar. “It’s not you. Exactly. It’s not your fault. Fuck.”

The silence settled back in for a long moment. Buck’s heart was pounding in his chest far too hard for him to dare try and say a word. Davey, for his part, continued to look out into the distance, shoulders tense, hand having come to rest with two fingers on his chin. (Now that he’d asked about it, Buck looked at the gesture and could practically see Davey holding an imaginary cigarette between his fingers. Must have been a long-held habit before he quit, the muscle-memory burned in subconsciously.)

Finally, Davey-- Dynamo broke the silence again with a heavy, shaky sigh. Something in his expression Buck couldn’t quite read. “Listen. I-- I think I gotta say some stuff. I don’t know exactly what I’m gonna say. But I think I gotta talk it out anyway. So if you could, like-- I dunno. Just listen until I feel like I’m done, I guess? That cool?”

His heart was beating so hard, it felt like he was going to throw it up. This was bad. This was bad. He needed to stop this, put up the safe and comfortable barriers between them again. Before it was too late.

Instead, he choked out, “go for it,” because he was an idiot.

The way Davey’s posture instantly relaxed sent him spiraling - forgetting his self-flagellation in the gut response of I did that I made him feel less nervous, followed immediately by a vicious reversal, because that’s all it takes huh you’re so lonely and pathetic that all it takes is a guy kind of half-grinning at you for you to fall all over yourself - until Davey starting to speak snapped him back to the moment.

“I’ve just… been thinking about today,” he began. “And like-- more than that. But, today specifically. The heist and all. It was just… it went well. I mean, you know. You were there! You saw how well we worked together. And it… look, I’m just gonna say it. That was the most fun I’ve had doin’ one of these jobs, like, ever. And maybe I’m reading into it, but… it maybe kinda seemed like you were enjoying it, too?

“It all just… it got me thinking. About that, and livin’ here while I healed up - which, by the way, also has been the most fun I’ve had since I, y’know, started being Dynamo - and just, everything to do with all that, and I… well… you’re not gonna like this.” He chuckled as he said it, mirthless, raising a cigarette-less hand to his mouth seemingly without realizing. “But I… I think. There might be something to… us keeping up with this. Like, working together. Full time. Full-on villain partnership. And I know that’s like-- we’re not supposed to do that. Safety-wise and all. How risky it is for us both. But I-- god, this is gonna sound stupid. But I… trust you. I do.

“I mean--” He gestured emphatically to the stump of his right arm, the haphazard stitchwork Buck had done with shaking hands, kneeling over him on the garage floor all those weeks ago. “If you really wanted me out of the picture, I feel like you had plenty of opportunity and kinda fumbled the bag with it, you know? And I-- I dunno. I hope I’ve made it clear I don’t wanna do nothin’ to hurt you, either. Or that I… can make that clear, you know? Do whatever you need to believe it. But the point is, I-- I like workin’ with you. I think we do good work together. I think we could keep doin’ good work together. And I… want to. Do that.” A heavy breath, a sharp exhale, rolling his shoulders like there’d been a physical heft to what he’d been saying. “Hoo!! God, really wish I had that cigarette right now. But, uh, yeah, that. I think that’s all. For now. Maybe. Yeah. Uh, yeah. Your turn, then. Thoughts, feedback, whatever. Go for it.”

His eyes were bright, his face split into a grin, but Buck -- he-- maybe he was reading into it too much. Maybe. But he could feel the anxiety rolling off Davey as he spoke, a mirror of his own. The words between words. Asking, practically begging for his approval the same way Buck kept longing for his.

His throat felt dry. He couldn’t speak, even if he wanted to, thoughts rolling frantic and aimless in his mind like marbles in a glass spiral. Words turning themselves over and over as his heart pounded and his stomach did enough backflips that it probably oughta qualify for the next Olympics.

We do good work together.

I trust you.

I want to.

Thoughts rolling themselves around in his mind. The dangerous pull, on the precipice of something he knew he couldn’t come back from. Exposed and armor-less here in the setting sun, nothing but the Holy Spirit and this question between them.

It was getting harder and harder to pull back to the boundary.

He had to. He knew he had to.

(Why?)

(He just had to.)

(...but why?)

Inhale. Exhale. Staring out into the sunset, filling the conversation with golden light. A warmth to counteract the anxious chill spreading from his gut as his mind worked itself into overdrive. He felt like he could choke on his own tongue, heavy with words he didn’t know how to speak. (Was afraid to speak.)

“...everything you’re saying is true,” he finally choked out. Almost without realizing it. It felt like he was watching someone else say it, just a little bit beside him.

Davey responded with a subtle, automatic grin and visible brightness in his eyes. It felt like it was putting his heart in a fucking vice. “Yeah?”

“I’m not finished,” he added quickly. Davey went still, went quiet in response. Automatically giving him the same space to ramble that Buck had given him. (Too much, too much, you’re in danger, what are you even going to say here, pull it back pull it back pull it back.) “Everything… everything you’re saying. Including that we’re not supposed to do this. And that it’s risky. Hell, risky doesn’t even begin to cover it; like--”

He felt sick. Panic welling up in his gut from all too many directions. (Shut it down, shut it down, before he notices, before he figures you out, you’re supposed to be the Invincible Fucking Bulkhead here--) “You. You do understand who I am, right? I’m Buck Armstrong. My family--” Bile in his throat, breathing tight; even to Davey, he couldn’t bring himself to reflect on his life before Bulkhead. Bring it back. Different approach. “No matter what I do - whether I’m stealing classified materials or a carton of eggs from the corner store, there’s gonna be a massive target on my back ‘cause of-- where I come from. And if you start associating with me full-time? Publicly? That target’s gonna be on your back too. And you--” His voice was breaking. Swallow it down, swallow it down, don’t let him notice. “...You can’t bounce back from it like I can.”

(There had been so much blood. There had been so much blood. There had been so much blood and it had been his fault, Davey jumped in because he’d already figured out Buck was weak, that he wasn’t as unkillable as he tried to make everyone believe, and he’d known and he jumped in the way and saved his life and look what he’d gotten for his trouble bloody and shaking and heaving in the dirt there had been so much so much he could see the bone he didn’t know what to do he just couldn’t let him die there for him he couldn’t he couldn’t he couldn’t not like that not for him not for him)

“...I mean. Yeah?”

The sheer casual-ness of Davey’s response snapped Buck out of what probably would’ve been a full-blown meltdown otherwise. He snapped his gaze over; Davey was staring back with the kind of mild dumbfoundedness one might get saying hey little-known fact, did you know water is wet. “Buck, I know who you are,” he continued, still utterly blasé about it. “This isn’t my first day in town, ya know. I’ve known about The Invincible Bulkhead since way before you and I started crossing paths.” (He winked at that, and Buck felt his panic coming from a completely different avenue now. God fucking damn it why’d he have to be hot.) “Point is, I’m not, like… stupid. I know your life is dangerous. I’m not saying all this, like, ignorant of that. I just…”

Now he hesitated, averting his gaze, moving to scratch the back of his neck again. Buck’s heart pounded in his throat. “I. I guess what I’m saying is that, it’d be worth it. For me. Like, ‘benefits outweigh the risks’ kind of situation. I mean, honestly, I’m gonna be living on the edge no matter what in this line of work, might as well have fun with it. So, uh. Guess what I’m saying is. If the only opposition you have to the idea is that I’m gonna be putting myself at risk without realizing it, you can toss that right on out. I know what I’m doing. You’re-- this is. Worth that risk.”

(The stumble of you’re felt dangerously deliberate. All at once he screamed in terror at it and clutched it close like a token.)

…was that his only opposition? If-- if Davey really was going into this knowing all the risks, wanted to go through with it anyway-- well, he was a grown-ass man, you know? And a smart one at that. (Smarter than Buck, it felt like, in more ways than one. He was constantly finding new ways to be impressed by this guy.) Did he… was there anything else, besides the whole well THEY say we’re not supposed to do shit like this, no I don’t know who THEY are either, which… all told, held increasingly little weight to him as the conversation went on. Was there anything, anything at all, that could convince him to stop this?

…

…oh, god, there was one thing.

There was one.

His whole body felt cold. His heart pounded so hard and so fast that it looped back around to being intangible to him, too quick to notice. Oh, god. Oh god. The one thing. The one thing that could take this sudden dream come true and throw it right back in the trash where it ought to be.

It wouldn’t be fair. It wouldn’t be fair to Davey, to not put it out there, to not say it. To invite him into this partnership and have him inevitably figure it out down the line, be ambushed by it. It wouldn’t be fair to him. It wouldn’t be fair.

He had to say it.

He would give anything not to say it.

But oh, god, it wouldn’t be fair.

(Davey, stupid beautiful Davey, lit at all his most gorgeous angles by the golden light of the setting sun, watching him out of the corner of his eye, surely waiting for an answer. Davey, who he wanted so selfishly to keep here with him.)

He was at the edge of the cliff now. Teetering on the precipice. There was no going back if he did this.

But it wouldn’t be fair if he didn’t.

“...There’s one thing.” He felt like he was watching himself speak from a distance, words slow and heavy and cold on his tongue. He didn’t dare turn to look at Davey. Eyes trained on a suddenly-very-interesting point on the far horizon like it could get him out of this self-dug pit.

“...Yeah?”

“One thing,” he repeated. His whole body felt cold. God, Davey could probably see him sweating, even from the arm’s length away he was standing. He’d be lucky if he didn’t throw up in front of him by the end of this conversation. “If-- if we’re really going to seriously consider this. I have to tell you. It wouldn’t be fair not to tell you.”

“All right.” A long, long pause, tangibly so. Oh, god. His gut was so tight and cold it felt like he might shit blocks of ice, and then probably just keel over entirely to avoid engaging in this conversation further.. “...are… are you going to…?”

“Trying,” he choked out. Davey went quiet immediately. (Giving the space, waiting for him to be finished speaking. Fuck. Fuck, maybe he shouldn’t do this. Maybe he could just walk it back, pretend he was joking, ignore this whole conversation and just go back to the way things were this morning, before the stupid heist that had made everything go so complicated. But--) “It wouldn’t be fair. If I didn’t. Say this to you now. If I let you, like-- stay here and start working with me and uproot your whole life and didn’t tell you this and let you-- let you opt out.” (Because he would, surely he would, there was no way he would just let it go once he did.)

He went quiet again. Davey didn’t interject this time. Waiting for whatever he had to say.

(Couldn’t pull it back. He couldn’t pull it back again after this.)

His hands clenched white-knuckle at his sides. Sweat down the back of his neck. He had to say it. He had to. He had to. And then Davey would leave and he’d go back to his normal pathetic life and never see him again.

His mind, miles away as he finally forced his mouth open, idly noted that it’d probably been over twenty years since he last made himself say this out loud to another human being.

“...I’m. I’m gay.”

No response. Whether the polite space to continue or the cold silence of judgment, he couldn’t tell and he was scared to dwell too far on it. Forced himself on; no turning back now. “I’m-- gay and I. You. It’s. I-- I think you’re a v-very. Attractive man. And that’s--” he all but retched; suddenly the words were pouring out of him rapid-fire, like he just had to get them out of him no matter the cost-- “I’m not saying that cause I think you’re, like, obligated to be okay with that if you stay, I-I just know it’s not fair to have you like, living here without knowing that-- like most people wouldn’t be cool working with someone they know has a big stupid crush on them so like it’s no hard feelings I can pretend we never talked about this and you can just go and we can just wave from a distance when we run into each other during jobs and it’s fine it’s cool.”

And there it was.

Oh, god, and there it was.

The careful, safe boundary of Bulkhead and Dynamo was no more. Instead, Buck Armstrong, pathetic, lonely, middle-aged man with a big stupid gay crush, stood there sweating like a pig and watching the sunset on the horizon, waiting to hear sweet beautiful Davey turn on his heel and walk out of his life forever.

Davey laughed.

His head snapped around so fast he swore he could hear the vertebra crack. That-- much as that awful little voice in the back of his head wanted him to believe otherwise, he knew that wasn’t a mocking kind of laugh. No, no it was quick, breathy, high; the kind of laugh he’d heard from Davey as they drove away from the scene of the crime earlier; the kind you let out when you were so overjoyed and relieved that all you could do was laugh.

Davey was staring at him. Davey was smiling. Ear-to-ear, crinkling up the corners of his shining eyes, golden and glowing in the sunset light.

An entirely different kind of chill went up Buck’s spine.

“I was hoping--” Davey started, and then laughed again, drawing a hand back through his hair. “I mean-- you, you get the vibes, you know, but you don’t know if it’s just you reading into what you want to see or if it’s actually there--”

“You were hoping?” He repeated, quiet, dumb, cracking in the back of his throat. Did he hear that right? He couldn’t have, right? Or it was like, slang for something? He didn’t know slang. It was probably some kind of slang that didn’t mean anything remotely like it sounded like. That was the only thing that made sense here.

Davey barrelled on like he hadn’t even spoken. “I mean, all the banter when we ran into each other on jobs, right? And-- and I kept trying to tease it out, like, see how you reacted if I got kinda flirty, but I still wasn’t sure and what was I supposed to say, hey Buck thanks again for not letting me die alone in the dirt by the way do you like men. Like, come on--”

“What you wanted? Flirty?” Surely none of this meant what it sounded like it meant. Surely. Or maybe he was hallucinating. Maybe he finally got so panicked he died, like a rabbit does. That would make sense. That would make sense. That was the only thing that would make sense.

Davey finally stopped speaking.

Buck froze.

Davey turned. Eyes on his. Boring right into him. And then he smiled, a different kind of smile, slow and warm and half-lidded in a way that instantly turned that icy chill in Buck’s gut into something molten-hot instead. The slight part of his lips around gap teeth; the crinkle in the corner of his brown eyes; the something something something undeniable in the way he looked at him.

He took a step forward. Buck remained frozen in the headlights of his gaze.

A hand, reaching out, slow, gentle - enough to pull away from if he wanted (like he ever fucking would) - fingers grazing across his knuckles and taking his hand. A slim, calloused thumb circling against his palm in a way he could only possibly describe as intimate, fingernail catching ever-so-slightly at the skin.

He stared down at their hands like it was something utterly alien. (Which-- might as well be. When was the last time he held hands with someone? Oh my god, was he so utterly lonely and pathetic that he was reacting like this to holding hands??) Moved his gaze back, heart pounding at that warm, warm look of his, straight down into his soul. He was so close, now, obliterating the Holy Ghost between them; that imaginary chaperone must be losing their ever-loving shit right now. He was certain Davey could feel his hummingbird-pounding heartbeat this close, smell the way he’d fear-sweat so badly during this conversation he already needed a second shower. (As it stood, he could already feel the slight rise-and-fall of Davey’s chest as he breathed, smell the detritus of the car and the dried-sweat stench of earlier exertion.)

They were back in the car after the heist again. Close, so close, passing the same breath between each other, close enough that Buck could easily just lurch forward and--

It had been a very, very long time since he’d done this. His nose bumped Davey’s, mustache catching awkwardly at his lip; Davey simply hummed a laugh into his mouth and tilted his head to better the angle. Fuck. His lips were thin and chapped; his teeth dragged across Buck’s lip and bumped momentarily into his own as they drew closer. (Maybe, he thought with uncharacteristic optimism, it’d been a while for Davey, too.)

One final half-step forward, the last of the gap gone. Buck’s massive barrel-chest awkwardly slotting against Davey’s sternum, his hand squeezing as they pulled together. He drew his other hand up to rest against the back of Davey’s neck without even thinking, feeling the baby-hairs at his hairline against his fingertips. Passing the same breath between each other, slow and warm and deliberate.

They pulled away too quickly. They pulled away after a million years. Buck’s eyes fluttered open, finding Davey smiling down barely inches away, cheeks dusted red, a terrifying adoration in his eyes, framed golden at the edges by the sunset-lighting in a way Buck was already scrambling to commit to memory.

It was all too much. He was going to-- fuck, start crying, or throw up, or both, and he frankly didn’t want to ruin this moment with either. So instead, burning beet-red, he ducked his face into Davey’s shoulder because it was the only place he had to hide. Davey - sweet, perfect Davey who just let him kiss him, what the fuck, that was real, right, that was real - just laughed again, light as anything, and he felt his face come to rest on top of his head, still toying with Buck’s hand in his grip.

“Take it there’s no further arguments, then?” He giggled. Buck could practically hear the wink in his voice, and it did nothing to calm him down.

“God. God. You really are serious about all of this.”

“Christ, Buck, yeah. What’s it gonna take to convince you I mean it? I could kiss ya some more, if you want. No opposition to that.”

“Fuck, man.” He couldn’t help but wheeze out a laugh himself, relief suddenly forcing itself out of him in waves. (Holding Davey like this felt really nice. Really nice. Wonder if he’d let him keep doing this.) “Fine. Yeah. Yeah. If you’re really so sure you wanna settle for dying in this shithole with me.”

“Don’t be silly! I’ll die outside this shithole with you. We’re infinitely more likely to beef it on the job.”

“God. Fair enough.” A slow inhale, head swimming with the smell of Davey. Dear god it all kept sinking in. “I know-- w-what I said still stands, you know, you don’t-- you’re not obligated to reciprocate or--”

“You think I’m feeling obligated? Christ, Buck,” Davey laughed again in reply, squeezing his hand tight. “You really haven’t been paying attention. I’ve been trying to goad you into making out with me practically since we met.”

“You’re fucking with me.”

“No, see, that’s what I was hoping my flirting’d eventually lead to--”

“Christ alive, Davey--”

“Too much?” There wasn’t the slightest hint of repentance in his tone.

“You’re the worst.”

“You like it.”

“...I do.”

Another sweet, slow laugh; Buck felt Davey press another kiss to the top of his head and thought he might spontaneously combust. “Well, I like you too. You wanna head upstairs about it? I need a shower.”

“Mhm. Yeah. Yeah. Sure. Go ahead. Just… I need a second.”

“All good.” A long pause, a warm silence. Davey’s thumb still stroking circles into his palm. “...uh. One thing. If you mean you wanna stay down here another minute while I head up, I, uh. You gotta actually let go of me.”

He blinked. Somehow he’d gotten so wrapped up in holding Davey, he’d forgotten he was doing the holding. “Oh. Oh, uh-- right. Yeah. Right. Sorry.”

His bastard traitor of a body did not release his hold on Davey.

Lucky for him, Davey responded to the clear freeze-up with a good-natured chuckle, finally releasing Buck’s hand to trace up his arm and wrap around his shoulders, holding him in return. “Or, y’know. We could just both take a second. Go up together when you’re ready.”

“I-- th. Y. Yeah. Yeah.” His burning cheeks had spread to a slow warmth all through his body, tingling at every nerve, lit up with the long-forgotten ecstasy of human contact. He moved his own freed hand to the small of Davey’s back, settling against him, for a moment forgetting all his usual terror of vulnerability. Somehow, somehow, against all logic, against all odds, he felt safe here.

Bulkhead and Dynamo disappeared, up on the shelf with all their gadgets and armor. Buck and Davey remained, holding each other close, breathing the same breath back and forth, illuminated in the golden light of sunset.

[Image ID: A digital illustration of Puzz's OCs, Buck (a middle-aged, barrel-chested white man with balding red hair, a large nose and a bushy mustache, wearing a green turtleneck, kahki pants and brown boots) and Davey (a middle-aged, lanky black man with amputated right arm, diagonal scar across his face, large ears, large eyes with long lashes, large eyebrows and curly dark-brown hair in a ponytail, wearing overalls with one strap down and pointy brown boots). They are hugging each other tightly, with Davey's back slightly facing the camera. Buck's face is buried in Davey's chest, blushing furiously, while Davey rests his head on top of Buck's, with a slight smile visible. There is golden light painted behind them and illuminating the edges of both their figures. End ID.]

#anonymous puzzler art #anonymous puzzler writes #anonymous puzzler originals #long post / #ask to tag! content warnings in the body of the post! #Villain Coded comic

[anonymouspuzzler]

more cally o'pia stuff because it's my blog and i can do whatever i want forever. below the cut is a very rough broad written timeline of How Things Shake Out In Da AU. i hope you enjoy, very dry timeline notes

>20 years ago…

The Psychic 7 (namely Ford, Bob and Cassie) raid a hospital that is performing lobotomies on psychics. In the resulting scuffle, Cassie impulsively rescues-slash-kidnaps one of the patients, a 10-12 year old boy, Caligosto Loboto.

Ford and Otto eventually reach an arrangement with Cal’s birth parents, convincing them not to press charges and to release Cal into their custody. They’re secretly quite happy to be rid of their troublemaking psychic child and to not have to face the consequences of the botched lobotomy attempt.

Cal is raised collectively by the Psychic 7 (minus Lucrecia, who’s already left for Grulovia by the time he arrives), becoming a powerful psychic, voracious reader and writer, an amateur tinkerer, and very much a next-gen hippie weirdo. He’s particularly bonded with Cassie, who stepped into a maternal and teacher role for him early on, so she takes the role of his legal guardian on paper and he assumes her surname, becoming Caligosto “Cally” O’Pia.

20 years ago…

The Psychic 6 have their fateful battle with Maligula. Cal, by this point a teenager, remains behind to watch the Gulch and keep an eye on the then-ongoing construction of the modern Motherlobe. He ends up finding Ford, mind shattered, wandering through the woods one night. Cal is unaware of what happened to him but keeps watch over him until the rest of the Psychic 6 - minus Helmut, of course - return from Grulovia.

Helmut’s funeral is held. Cal is particularly affected, especially seeing Bob’s subsequent mourning and breakdown - Cal looked up to the two as a model relationship and they helped him realize his bisexuality, so the incident gives Cal significant hang-ups around emotional intimacy and relationships.

Cal becomes part of the first class of Psychonauts agent trainees after the Motherlobe’s opening, alongside Truman (who he sees as a sort of cousin-slash-honorary family member).

Between then and Psychonauts 1…

Cal graduates and becomes an official agent, though by this point he’s already started becoming disillusioned with the Psychonauts mission, due to the continued breakdown of his family in the Psychic 6. He deliberately puts on an ineffective, slacker persona to avoid being put on missions, despite being a powerful and capable psychic. By the time Cassie leaves the Motherlobe, his role is primarily head janitor and semi-official steward of the Gulch. He also writes for True Psychic Tales under a pseudonym.

As his disillusionment grows and he becomes less trusting of the other Psychonauts for help and answers, he adopts the Loboto persona to go undercover unofficially. He’s especially looking for more information on Grulovia and Maligula, since he suspects he hasn’t gotten the full story from his family or the official press.

Cal befriends Oleander after the latter becomes an agent, eventually progressing to a tumultuous on-off relationship, which becomes something of an open secret around the Motherlobe. Each of their unaddressed issues, combined with assuming the worst based on the other’s unaddressed issues, makes each successive breakup worse and sabotages their secretly-mutual hopes for a serious lasting relationship. The big breaking point occurs when Oleander is badly injured on a mission (losing his eye and gaining his facial scar), making Cal panic over the idea of losing him like Bob lost Helmut; he encourages Truman to reassign him to Whispering Rock, which Oleander finds out about and takes as a tacit rejection-slash-lack of belief in him due to his own issues.

Shortly before meeting Oleander, Cal also has an extended affair with a married woman that he breaks off when she objects to him also seeing other people on the side. He remains unaware that he fathered a child through this affair.

Just before Psychonauts 1…

Oleander’s father dies, which causes him to finally snap and start up the Brain Tanks Plot. Having learned about Cal’s moonlighting while they were dating, he blackmails “Loboto” into helping. Cal agrees so he can secretly sabotage the project from the inside and attempt to keep Oleander safe.

Around the same time, Cal also gets a lead about the Delugianaries and infiltrates them as "Loboto". He begins to learn more about Maligula’s history with the royal family and the movement to reinstate the lost prince.

Psychonauts 1…

"Loboto" interferes as best he can with the Brain Tanks Plot without revealing his true identity to the other inmates, nor making it obvious to Oleander what he’s doing. He leaves massive openings on the psychic radio communications in hopes someone at Whispering Rock will catch them, stations Sheegor and Crispin to intentionally create weak points for an intruder, leaves the kidnapped brains out in the open to be recovered, and intentionally stalls debraining Lilli (to whom he’s an honorary uncle as Cal).

When Raz finally gets to the tower, Cal secretly trails him to make sure Raz can get to the top safely and unopposed. Once he does, Cal bails to return to the Rhombus of Ruin and continue his undercover work. Unfortunately, his boss there has figured out his true identity as Cally O’Pia, and blackmails him into kidnapping Truman by threatening his family (namely Cassie, Oleander and Lilli).

Rhombus of Ruin…

“Loboto” kidnaps Truman, and much like with the brain tanks, does everything he can to sabotage the plot without getting caught. This mostly entails poorly packaging Gristol’s brainless body, failing to dispose of the brain case, and capturing the Psychonauts after they crash rather than leave them to drown. Recognizing Raz and realizing he can excuse not “knowing” to put him under high-security restrictions the same as the other agents, he deliberately leaves Raz the means to navigate the facility via clairvoyance.

Raz learns of “Loboto’s” true identity from Oleander after rescuing him, and ends up using Oleander’s PSI-Portal to enter Cal’s mind. There, he sees the projected "Loboto" persona and meets Cal himself, who plots with him how to fake capturing “Loboto” and escaping in order to rescue Truman without giving away his betrayal. He will not give Raz information on his employers, however, still fearing for the others’ safety.

The Rhombus’ self-destruct auto-engages when “Truman” is released, to Cal’s horror. However, Raz and the agents are able to escape with their “captive”, though he still refuses to talk about his employers.

Psychonauts 2…

Sasha attempts to use a psychic construct to get the information out of Cal. It goes very, very poorly. However, Raz does manage to learn more about Cal’s backstory and get a glimpse of his boss and Maligula.

Sasha continues to attempt to interrogate Cal through the first part of the story, to no avail. After the Lady Lucktopus heist, Sasha’s forced to release him, and he returns to monitoring the Forgetful Forest. He drives away the psychic bees when Raz disturbs them, and Raz can talk to him about the undercover work as “Loboto”, his upbringing with the Psychic 6, and his apparent complicated relationship with Oleander. (There’s an optional sidequest where Raz can go back and forth between Cal and Oleander uncovering and pointing out their misinterpretations of each other, eventually convincing them to talk things out post-game.)

Post-reconstructing Ford, Cal discovers the three in the Gulch and is looped in by Raz. Cal still can’t help directly out of fear of his family being targeted, but gives Raz some tips for trying to talk to Cassie and Bob, and moves to the entrance of the Gulch to keep watch and feign ignorance of Raz, Ford, and Lucy’s presence. Raz can go back to him after helping either Cassie and/or Bob, and Cal is grateful for their apparent steps towards recovery, and baffled yet amazed by Compton and “Nick’s” arrival (with a hint that he already knows what’s up with the brainless Nick).

While Raz and company are doing final preparations for the Astralathe, Cal is distracted by Augustus trying to make it through the Gulch (and experiencing distress due to his repressed familiarity with it), allowing Norma to sneak by and witness the Astralathe activating. She comes back with Truman, and Cal is forced to let them by, knowing Truman is actually Gristol. He also witnesses Lilli tailing them and, realizing everyone is at risk no matter what and he has nothing left to lose, Cal instructs Lilli to distract “Truman” as long as she can and get out of dodge with Raz if the worst happens.

Cal runs back to the Motherlobe to search for the brain case just as Sasha, Milla, Hollis and Oleander are about to leave in pursuit of the mole. Cal begs Oleander to help him and he reluctantly agrees. The two find the case hidden in the mailroom and rush out to deliver it just as Maligula’s storm is released; they end up finding and protecting Lilli during the storm, and turn up just after she reunites with Raz to help with re-braining Truman.

In the post-game, if Raz either already completed or completes the sidequest with Cal and Oleander, they will be found together in the Gulch cleaning up around the Heptadome, and will confirm they’re talking things out. Cal will thank Raz with a signed copy of True Psychic Tales, though Raz doesn’t quite make the connection between Cal and the author. Cal also reveals Truman’s punished him for the kidnapping and undercover work by putting Cal back on the active agent duty he’s worked to avoid, intending for “Loboto” to start doing officially-sanctioned undercover work to clean up the remaining Deluginaries.

#anonymous puzzler writes #technically. look for categorization on this blog purposes we count it #long post / #psychonauts spoilers #rhombus of ruin spoilers #psychonauts 2 spoilers #tw death mention #tw implied eye trauma #psychonauts #ok i think that's post. enjoy #tw lobotomy mention #tw medical abuse mention #forgot those two !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[anonymouspuzzler]

okay so I just read all the dialogue/info for the cally o'pia au and I am so hooked, that was such a perfect level concept ahhh!!! I might have missed some posts in the past but I'm a little confused on how he fits into the Psychonauts 1 timeline in terms of why he took on the Loboto identity and how being "Dr. Loboto" played into his work with Oleander! Kind of obsessed with how you rearranged the setup so well!

OHH SHUCKS... THANK YOU... i don't think i actually Have talked about the cally/loboto thing anywhere here so seems like as perfect an opportunity as any to do it now! i will attempt to explain my Vision

the general idea is that in this au, after the whole Maligula Every and transition of the Psychonauts from "hippie scientists in the woods" to "government organization", Cally starts... losing a little of the love for it, essentially. watching his family fall out of it and struggle and things clearly being kept from him, getting disillusioned with the whole affair, and eventually this escalates to him going "well if no one's gonna tell me what's up I'll just dig myself" and creating the Dr. Loboto persona for illicit undercover work. as far as the ne'er-do-wells of the world know, Dr. Loboto's pretty much as he is in canon, a kinda looney freelancer who'll build you whatever for the right price, but in actuality he does a lot of information-gathering, subtle sabotage, and the like. (shortly before the original game, he got an In with the delugianists, which of course is what leads to the events of RoR and Psychonauts 2 - that much I think I implied in the level concept haha)

in terms of Oleander and the original timeline - Oleander was pretty much the only one who knew about Cal's moonlighting (since, you know, they'd been dating off and on for A While - for as frequent and ferocious as their breakups were, they were also Extremely Close when the relationship Was going well). when he had his whole Oleander Moment leading up to the first game, he recruited-slash-lightly-blackmailed Cal into helping with the brain tank plot - Cal agreed mostly to play internal damage control and help protect Morry from himself. (I have some rough concepts for how this changes the latter part of Psychonauts 1 that I gotta put to paper - the long and short is that "Dr. Loboto" is more obviously self-sabotaging and providing Raz the means to stop the whole plan when he makes it to Thorney Towers. He and the other agents don't learn that "Loboto" is actually Cally till RoR, though, which is something I also gotta write and flesh out more lmao)

#anonymous puzzler answers #anonymous puzzler writes #technovillain #i have a lotta rough notes on cally o pia au here that i gotta flesh out... the world must know... #plus those memory vaults. one a dese days...... #psychonauts #psychonauts 2 spoilers #caligosto loboto

[anonymouspuzzler]

oh, since the Layton Renaissance is happening I wanted to repost some of my layton fics! there's major spoilers for Unwound Future and the Layton Brothers game in both of 'em, but if that's not a concern for you, I hope you read them and I hope you enjoy them. I genuinely think they're some of my best writing.

To Absent Fathers and Broken Sons <- my Layton and Alfendi fic

You Can Run <- my Bill Hawks Consequences fic

#anonymous puzzler talks #anonymous puzzler writes #professor layton #layton brothers mystery room #listen maybe it's gauche but i'm real proud of these. i hope you like them too

[anonymouspuzzler]

hey, after wafflin' over it for a lil bit i decided to post this sfm fanfic i wrote for fun a while back! ***please note it is 18+, no minors reading this, I will block if ya do***

I don't plan on making mature content a regular part of my repertoire at all, so don't worry bout that! I just liked this one well enough that I figured it was worth making public. enjoy of the guys!

#anonymous puzzler writes #not gonna use the public tags for this one just cause i don't want it spreadin around TOO much ya know LOL #anyway i thank ya in advance for respecting my boundaries n such with this one! #i try to keep my content relatively sfw and it's important to me that healthy boundaries are kept esp with young folks following me

[anonymouspuzzler]

So a few years back I actually wrote a Pokemon fic!! (PiersGordie because I Have An Agenda To Forward.) Please mind the tags on it, it's a somewhat heavy hurt/comfort type piece that discusses death & grief, drugs, parental neglect etc., but I promise it's also more comfort than hurt in that regard!

#Anonymous Puzzler writes #PiersGordie #Pokemon #pokemon sword and shield

[anonymouspuzzler]

A Very Special @heartbreakgulch x @villain-coded-comic : Bulkhead & Black-Eyes Origins

(separating this out from my other crossover comics cause I kinda wanna keep adding to it over time i got Ideas please enjoy Part One for now)

#anonymous puzzler art #strangegutz #heartbreak gulch #villain coded comic #anonymous puzzler originals #long post #tw guns #tw blood #buck isn't invulnerable in this universe so his life is even more precarious than normal god help him. and now there's Handsome Man. #also i just noticed one of the panels is fucked up while writing alt text you have to pretend you don't notice ok.

[anonymouspuzzler]

Love the art, but i'm a bit late to the party, what's the dynamic the three thieves have?

Buck is Minnie's biological uncle (though he's been no-contact with their family since before she was born, so they've only recently actually met) and Davey is his criminal-slash-romantic partner of about seven years! (Buck's very private about that though, so Minnie only knows about the criminal side of things and is like Hey Who The Fuck Is This Guy And Why Is He Here All The Time)

#anonymous puzzler answers #anonymous puzzler art #villain coded comic #anonymous puzzler originals #also you're very much not late to the party this is development art for a comic i want to write that doesnt exist yet LOL #transcript in alt if you can't read my handwriting also

[anonymouspuzzler]

man i pulled up one of my villain coded Idea Documents to double check the character ages for that other post (tip to all Writers and Writers Adjacent: write them kinda things down somewhere you WILL forgor 👍) and it's really interesting how many little aspects of Buck & Davey's characters especially have changed in ways that ultimately super change the way the story goes. obviously I don't wanna show too much of my hand too early but in particular there's a development late in the story where Current Buck and Davey basically have the Exact Inverse Responses compared to when I was first concepting it. Neat !!

#anonymous puzzler talks #anonymous puzzler originals #villain coded comic #to put it very generally/broadly buck's gone from a genuine curmudgeon to more of an Extremely Anxious Man who puts up that front #and davey's relationship to his own villainy has gotten much more complex in very interesting ways #minnie's overall arc & motivations have stayed pretty stable but i do Understand her a lot more now yknow. #tldr Writing Is Neat.