Billford Animatic I Made To The Song 'confrontation'! ^^

Just recently played through Homicipher - it was a good game. The whole mechanic of slowly piecing together the language was really fun, and the characters are simple- but pretty cool and interesting for having dialogue hindered by a language barrier and seemingly broken speech even when largely deciphered. Mr. Gap is probably my favorite at the moment.

Though I think it says a lot about me that I immediately thought of Zack when I saw Mr. Machete- and the fact that I’m now rapidly thinking of crossover scenarios…

If they did meet- to Mr. Machete, Zack would just be a smol human, an oddly respectable one that can stab and yell funny. And Ray would just be an even smaller human. Really boring though. Shame the funny man doesn’t seem to let him stab her.

Mr Crawling would immediately make it his goal to make Ray genuinely smile/have fun as soon as he sees the dead corpse energy she exudes. But he quickly realizes that that might not be as daunting as as task he originally assumed to be as Ray is morbid as all hell, and all he needs to do is trail her for a bit before she sees something in this horrid haunted place that piques her interest and he encourages her to have fun with it. (Zack watches with a disgusted look in the corner as Ray teaches Mr. Crawling to sew dolls with her)

Of course Ray would be the one actively making an effort to understand the language - and Zack would probably reluctantly pick up a few words here and there if only from the fact that he’s forced to overhear Ray and Mr. Crawling chatting it up all the time.

Zack would hate Mr. Gap specifically with all his heart- I can feel it in my bones.

Satsuriku no Tenshi NG World: Horror House

Went ahead and did the horror house version of the site as well.

Gray is a vampire?!

There’s a mysterious haunted house that appears and reappears whenever it pleases. No one knows where it came from –

Within it are the six genuine “monsters” Gray the vampire has gathered.

They seem to have come from a far away town that no one knows about to attend the Nico Nico super convention.

And one day, they came to your city!

The Haunted House

A ghost that does not know whether or not she is alive. For some unknown reason, she’s a Japanese ghost.

A rude werewolf. Unexpectedly, a grown-ass man.

A sorrowful android bearing the burden of not knowing how it is to be loved. He has an eye obsession.

A pumpkin Jack-o’-Lantern. He has a face beneath his mask.

A monster cat who drives a motorcycle…Is she C**woman?!

A vampire who acts as the ringleader. He gives lonely monsters a place of their own.

Story

There’s a mysterious haunted house that appears and reappears whenever it pleases. No one knows where it came from –

Today as usual, the monsters worked hard to scare the humans who came visiting. After the show, a young boy approached them – “I want to become a monster.” How will the six monsters answer him?!

real unedited footage of baby saiki kusuo

Some Shin art and rambling cause THE MAN NEEDS MORE APPRECIATION. Like- he only recently got a fandom page, I think???

In my opinion, the manga could've done a lot more with him too. Seriously, his corpse furniture shtick is pretty horrifying and everything, but imagine if he was a full blown scluptor. Making absolutely disgusting statues made of twisted and mutilated bodies and cheerfully calling it art. He could have also used all sorts of materials like burnt or decayed skin, or just something like Junji Ito vibes.

Though, I don't really wanna complain all too much- so here's some headcanons!

His floor is totally art-gallery themed. Like he uses that open space where Eddie later put his graveyard to present all his art like an actual display. (he's all about that PRESENTATION) Actually, this is probably, no, definitely canon, I'm sure of it.

His floor also has like, layers. You first see his furnitures, which would be incredibly off putting on it's own, but then you go deeper into the floor... and the "art" you find gets more and more grotesque and morbid.

He just has a bunch of instant ramen stuffed in his pantry. He does consider cooking art- but he's defnitely not that proficient at it. Plus, he uses most of his time making his sculptures, and forgets to properly eat a lot. (The ramen is the only thing he eats at this point)

He has a chainsaw. Why? Because he finds it the easiest way to sever body parts for whatever twisted thing he wants to make, and also because I like to imagine a cool standoff/fight with Zack and Shin in my head- and chainsaws would be incredibly cool with that

In an au where the killers aren't in that building- he'd totally take Eddie in. Like, I imagine Eddie ran away from home and Shin just agrees to let him stay at his apartment or whatever. Eddie would help Shin come up with sculpture ideas, and vice versa with Eddie's graves. Also, Eddie now only eats instant ramen like Shin does.

The twins names are Shinjitsu and Shintaro. I'm... not sure if they're even real names, but I call them that in my head and so it's canon to me.

A more literal interpretation of Jevil's "freedom" (also some rambling)

The last post I did on Jevil- I talked about how his "freedom" could be like a sort of "inner freedom." He is trapped physically, but free from the contraints of responsibility, society, morality, etc. Now, I think that mindset is exactly the thing that led him to do whatever he did to get imprisoned, but the freedom he talks about in game might be a different thing entirely.

The thing that got me thinking about that is a video by halfbreadchaos. (I forgot the specific video but check them out- they make great stuff) They led me to notice the fact that Jevils prison is very oddly positioned, and the entire "???" floor area as a whole is really strange as well.

The room itself looks eerily similar to that first area we wake up in on chapter 1. The creepy atmosphere, the color of the floors (kinda), and the torches are literally the same as the ones found in that pre-castle town area. The entire place looks so incredibly different from the rest of the card castle. The walls and surrounding area don't even seem to be like... there. Like it's some sort of abyss. Like the entire room is out of bounds of something.

Jevil's cell/room shares a very similar vibe in that aspect as well. On the outside, the bars just seem to lead into nothing. And even on the inside, It just looks... wrong. The spinning carousel thing is so different from anything else in the game. I mean, toby said it's made out of 2D parts, but it's obviously supposed to look kinda 3D. The characters aren't even standing on the thing properly. Even behind the carousel, it's just more nothingness.

____

Now, let's look at Jevils dialogue directly.

"BUT I'M FAST, FAST, CLEVER, CLEVER." "THEY LOST THE CHASE, AND LOCKED UP THEIR ENTIRE RACE." "BUILDING A PRISON AROUND THE WHOLE WORLD. NOW I'M THE ONLY FREE ONE." Ralsei: "But you're clearly the one behind bars..." "THINGS DON'T SEEM SUCH FROM HERE LIGHTNERS!"

Looking at this completely literally, this is what we can gather: The guards and/or Seam chased him around, but he was too fast and clever for them. They somehow decided to build a prison around the dark world and trapped everyone behind bars, making Jevil the only free one. This is obviously not the case. If we try to fit this interpretation into what we know about the dark world and Jevil's situation... it uh, kinda looks like he's joking about how it looks like everybody is trapped because he's looking at them through bars.

But that answer is pretty boring, isn't it? There is obviously a lot more we can read into the dialogue. Jevil is shown to speak with a certain bit of abstractness. This analysis is supposed to be a more literal interpretation, but it's clear we need to look a little more deeper than that.

____

Let's take what I brought up before the dialogue, along with some other points.

Jevil's prison is very clearly separated from the rest of the dark world. Hell, maybe even the rest of the game with how odd it is.

Jevil talks about how everybody else is trapped, and he is the only "free" one.

This freedom doesn't exactly seem to be "inner freedom," as he directly connects his prison with this "freedom" by inviting us "outside" when we use the key on the door.

They way he doesn't elaborate any further when we do enter his room, and because the characters don't seem to have like, any sudden revelations or something inside of the room, leads me to believe that it's that inherent oddness, that separation from the "normal" part of the game that Jevil is finding freedom in.

Nobody in the world of Deltarune technically has automony over their choices. Every single choice, every event, is because of the plot. All of these people are characters in a video game, able to be manipulated by higher forces on a whim. Gaster/the mysterious entity made Jevil realize this and drove him insane with the knowledge.

Now, Jevil doesn't actively dispise that fact like Spamton does. He might almost relish in it- as he did go on that "NOTHING MATTERS EVERYTHING IS A SIMULATION! UEEHEEHEE!!!" rampage that caused so much chaos.

But then he faced the consequences of his actions. His own coworker/quite possibily a good friend locked him up in this dark, creepy place far, far below where the regular prisoners are supposed to go. And it all felt quite... stupid.

"Look at all those little people, obediently following the rules of this worthless world. They don't realize, don't they? They've simply placed another peice in the great game being set up by the higher beings. They're just walking themselves closer and closer into their eventual end. It's almost as if... they're trapping themselves. Building a prison around all of them, allowing themselves to be puppeteered by the people who control the world.

Hah! I'm quite clever, aren't I? Thanks to what I've done, I've been relagated as even lesser than a side character, sitting in a little haven tucked away from the influences of the outside world... No, I'm the one looking from the outside this time. I'm the only one here who truly understands, aren't I? But it's not my job to enlighten such fools. I'll be content watching from the backseat as the chaos unfolds..."

___

I, uh... didn't mean to write a fanfic- but I'm pretty sure that's Jevil's mindset. He fully accepts this messed up world he's inside, but he defnitely wouldn't mind if he was granted a little more freedom. And somehow... that's what he got. As a secret boss, he's... basically fully separated from the main story, but his presence is still enough to make it clear he exists in the world.

He's "free" in a much more literal sense than I intially thought. After all, isn't being that pedestrian on the streets who (hopefully) doesn't get caught in the crossfire of the MC's the best freedom any story could give?

sometimes i need to remind myself that i'm writing fanfiction for free and i'm allowed to have a shitty sentence or two

sometimes it's not even enemies to lovers. sometimes you get handed the leash of a snarling, barking dog against your will and realize with dawning horror that you are now responsible for teaching it not to bite

Satsuriku no Tenshi Character Profiles

Ray, Zack, Cathy, Eddie, and Danny’s profiles are from Until Death Do Them Part (volume 1).

Gray’s profile is from Blessing in Disguise (volume 2).

Art by Negiyan.

Scans and translation by me.

New Listener's Guide to The Magnus Archives

Or, How To Stop Worrying And Learn To Love The Scares

A lot of people seem to be getting into TMA lately so I thought I’d offer some basic advice for anyone curious about it.

Useful Resources

A full list of transcripts

Content warnings 

Note: The creators have straight up stated that they’re not gonna include sexual violence or explicit pet deaths.

Character guide for keeping track of names

So what exactly is The Magnus Archives?

Fundamentally, it’s a horror anthology podcast. The central conceit is that our protagonist is an archivist and each episode he makes an audio recording of a written statement that someone has made about their encounter with the paranormal. This format means that the particular flavour of horror can vary wildly from episode to episode.

But what about The Plot?

It may not seem like it at first but there’s a lot going on. Don’t worry about it though, you don’t have to keep meticulous notes to understand things. The characters spend plenty of time trying to figure things out and you can just take that journey with them. However, if you’re into cork-boards and red string, then absolutely, this is a great podcast for that. But you’re not gonna have a worse experience if you just want to sit back and get spooked.

And Jonathan Sims?

That would be our protagonist, his voice actor, and the show’s writer. Yes, it gets confusing at times. It’s not set in stone but people often use Jon, John, Jonathan or the archivist to refer to the character while Jonny refers to the real person.

New Episodes?

Nope, it was planned to run for 5 seasons and then it ended. However, there is a prequel/sequel/”sidequel” in the form of The Magnus Protocol.

A lil Zack doodle