Unstableplague - Mercury

Shout-out to my fellow weirdo makers out there that create thousands of parallel universes that their OCs simultaneously exist in, where they are, at their core, the same character, but each have subtle differences that make it difficult to fully express what is perfectly consistent across all of them.

@dreary-giraffe

This is a good question! And the answer is: I think the community made up the 'Fritz' part. Pretty sure that's what his name is in Emesis Blue (which is, incidentally, the video that reached up from my Recommended list and violently dragged me back into this fandom, hahah).

But as far as I know, the only name we know canonically is 'Ludwig,' and we're not sure if it's his first or his last name.

HOWEVER:

This sign is featured in the Man vs. Machine map 'Rottenburg.'

According to the wiki, this is a blurb from the official update that included this map:

"The second of our Two Cities finds the mercs defending the Medic's vaguely European hometown of Rottenburg — a sprawling village famous for its centuries-old traditions of 1) chasing the next in the resident lineage of mad doctors out of town with torches and pitchforks whenever they swapped out too many super-charged baboon hearts,"

Huh. Interesting.

Now, this is just conjecture, but this implies two things:

Ludwig is his first name, and his last name is Humboldt

HIS ENTIRE FAMILY LINE IS LIKE THIS

Of course, it's also possible that he was unrelated to whatever local mad scientist there was when he was a kid, but he decided 'hey, I'd like to do that too' and then grew up to eventually take over the pharmacy for himself. There are plenty of mom-and-pop type places that are operated by someone whose last name isn't actually on the sign.

So until Valve says something, we don't really know what his last name is - this is just an extremely strong hint.

For the purpose of this blog, though, his name is Dr. Ludwig Humboldt. I haven't yet decided what Misha's last name is.

Speaking of Misha... apropos of nothing, but here's a shot from the supply room in the same map.

(Hahaha floating syringe. Why is it floating? Because players aren't supposed to be able to look at this room from this angle. When viewed from above, you don't notice it's floating.)

Anyway, I saw someone else once point out that our boy Ludwig is fucking obsessed with making diagrams of Misha. He studies him like he's the perfect specimen.

What's that? You want a close up of the diagram? Of course!

"This is the ideal male body. You may not like it, but this is what peak performance looks like." -- Ludwig, probably

Anyway, as you can see, we unfortunately can't read the text when we zoom in. (EDIT: Actually, yes you can, at [this link]!) But I do have to note that it is hilarious that the ammo pouches and bandolier are part of the diagram, as if they're an essential part of his anatomy. That is also literally just an A-posed model they loaded in and slapped a skeleton on top of.

I choose to believe Ludwig made this diagram in Blender himself.

okay but dark urge and Shadowheart romance and friendship is just so sweet to me and not talked about enough

like look at those two traumatized amnesiac murder babies!! look at them recovering and becoming better than what their gods made them!! look at them!! they’re holding hands!! and defying the gods!! look at them!! good for them!!

after all these years tf2 is announcing a new 10th class and it's sans undertale

Donnie Stimming gifs!

WHAT’S THAT, PUPPET BOY?

I may be late to this, but I feel like it says a lot about how analog horror is covered at least on Youtube when Angel Hare, which is one of the most hopeful and wholesome analog "horror" series' I've seen, has videos talking about it that look like this:

Like, yeah it has dark elements, but it's not this horrifying dark show that corrupts children. Jonah wasn't manipulated into becoming a serial killer by Gabby, that's a fandom AU not what actually happens.

I may just be overreacting over something minor, but it annoys me that a genuinely fresh and kind take on the "dark children's show" trope where a guardian angel protects a child from their abusive father and comforts them through a TV show is treated almost exactly the same as Generic Spooky Face Jumpscare Tapes #57. It's all about the dark elements that accompany the story, and not the story itself.

Angel Hare actually tells a coherent and complete story about children's entertainment and escapism, which just so happens to have dark elements to it while still being a comforting series. At least acknowledge the story being told, not just the disturbing elements of it for the love of Angel Gabby.

scout: man, it smells like henweigh in here.

spy: ......

scout: *staring expectantly*

engineer: spy? doesn't it smell like henweigh in here?

spy, with the most long suffering sigh: what's a henweigh-

scout: ABOUT 10 POUNDS!

Sorry, I just love stars. There's both a spiritual and scientific approach to them. They were very important to our ancestors during their time. Did you know that the sun is a star?

Ohh don't get me started on that bright fucker up there