Anthology of the Killer - quelqu'un périt

[camwoodstock]

hey you know that thing about how thecatamites is really, really good at knowing when to change the tone & what to change it to we were talking about yesterday? yeah uh, Flesh is kinda that personified. Ray, Claude, and Max are all REALLY fun characters and it's really nice to have a full group. we're also very happy that they're treated with like, as much respect as BB herself. it's a very unique dynamic for these games, to have BB as part of an ensemble and she's just our through-line through it. we love how each of the other college classmates handle things differently, too. like, Ray thinks he's the tough guy designated protagonist, Claude is easily the one most willing to go along with things even when it doesn't make sense, and Max is just chillin'. he's just vibin'. they also ground the story a lot more, which we think both makes for a very interesting vibe... and also makes it really fun when it ALSO goes off the rails.

the Museum of Moral Art is such a funny fucking setting. when we first learned of these games via holly's stream of it, one of our friends was being utterly HOUNDED by a bunch of weird pearl-clutchers, so a lot of the jokes hit REALLY damn hard for us. we love how the game just fucking HITS you with that name, too. we love the variety of weirdass art too. the weirdo kids section with a fucking Goofus & Gallant bit, digital art with a "games as art" joke (actually a reference to "The Virtual Museum of Dead-Wifery" a game by Lilith Zone of Crypt Worlds fame!), we guess you could even argue the Morality Animal counts as an "AI Art" bit too, though this was well before AI art was even taken seriously as a concept--personally, given M.T. Lott's stated backstory, our mind almost inevitably goes to the infamous Growing Around--the less said about that, the better, it's both funnier and less depressing that way.

we love the weird interplay of the discussion of morality and animals, actually. it's so strange, but like. it really plays to a lot of the primal fears of Being A Creature, we think. you know that thing about how like, alien abductions are so scary to us, because it's basically the same fear a gorilla would have being captured and studied by a human? that fear of "what if i'm not on top, and i can't even tell the motive of the thing more powerful than i am". we LOVE gelling that with the Moral Panics of yesteryear and modern day, actually. and of course, in the climax, gelling that with the whole fear of being actively hunted and predated. it's REALLY clever, we think.

oh, speaking of morality and animals, the first encounter with the Morality Animal! we love how the weird artsy game has this weird abstract fucked up antagonist, like, even more obtuse than even The Killer himself is. (speaking of, in the second Art Zone, you might notice one of the plumes in the Stranger area looks... a lot like someone you've seen...) (it's The Killer.) we love that Ray tries (and fails horribly) at defeating it early, his ass is not the designated final girl, sorry. we also LOVE the subversion of actively forcing you to get caught in a chase, that's a fun one to pull 5 games in we think! we love that the Art Zones are like, basically every art style EXCEPT the anti-aliased digital drawings in the rest of the game. scans of marker doodles, claymation textures... it's such a good bit. and then following it up with the reveal that this had a marked effect, it turns out, as paintings featuring weird sanitized pseudo-BBs start to appear. "for a second i want to climb back into the canvas; and maybe all that stops me is a deep desire to remain annoying instead" is a line that REALLY fucking resonates. all to follow it up with "oh hey, wait, is this an actual door--well, i walked into that one." is SUCH a good bit.

the entire climax section is an absolute highlight of these games. it hits you with the joke of "uh oh. realism." before going into possibly one of the most overtly scary portions of the game as it just. REALLY leans into that aforementioned fear of being actively hunted and predated. (it's a little glossed over in raocow's playthrough as he kept missing the bubbles, WHOOPS). it's that dissonance between what is "right" and what is "preferrable" that we think REALLY makes it. all this, juxtaposed with the bit of the game suddenly using a bunch of stock photos, and of course, the finale itself, as Ray gets the jump on the Morality Animal and then beats the shit out of it while everyone cheers him on. from one of the most overt horror aspects, to probably the most over-the-top silly finales. it's SO good. it's such a good building and release of tension. and then capping it off with "oh yeah, people drew porn of this thing in-universe." thecatamites is SUCH a good fucking writer, y'alls.

we don't know if we want a herculesona, mostly since we remember philoctetes a lot more. but we also don't want a philoctetesona... hmm.

Tomorrow is important, and you don't know why

[KobaBeach]

i just know that when i finally get around to binging this lp it will be one of my lps ever #geographseal

[Grounder]

: I don't think that I can forget that we're in the dark together, but it'd be great if you forgot me, instead. Just a thought!

[camwoodstock]

we're going to say this, right now. Blood might not be our favorite--that's the next one. but it's the one that means the most to us.

first of all. we LOVE this cold open. this weirdly dark and dismal and atmospheric area, the gradual swelling of oddly cheerful music that does NOT seem to meld with the area. it stops. Something appears without a face. and that's the end of that! ...immediately into the joke of "dream of delivering a package: VIOLENT DEATH IMPENDING." also, happy year of the snake, we will have fortune in snakes! we are NOT going to Factory.

we love that this takes place in a difference location from XX City. it REALLY sells the oddly isolated feeling of this one. river town is a very, very unique place in that, while there's always Something nearby, it feels so. alienating. it's got the vibe of when you're returning from a long trip from hours away, and as you get closer and closer to where you live, everything starts to feel more and more vaguely familiar--but in this case, there's never that moment where you converge back onto a "normal" path. does that make sense? that's the best way we can think of to describe how river town feels to us.

the double whammy of seeing clarice's apartment rendered into fucking ashes, with it being kept completely ambiguous who did this or why it happened, into one of the fucking bit of a guy in a mask yanking you away and screaming "DON'T WORRY!!! I'M A MURDERER!!!". into an odd cut-away of a wind-up key. and then navigating through a maze with The Murderer, hearing him just ham it the hell up, parting ways with him moments before. He meets someone taking this more serious than him.

we LOVE tiny little map BB, by the way. and of course, raocow goes for the junk store--usually, we see people do that either first, or second to last, which both are really, really funny. the actual marketplace is good, and hey, that's a weird misshapen pseudo-BB painting from Flesh in there! and then as you plumb deeper and deeper into the back area, you eventually come across something you maybe shouldn't have. not the thing on the table, but a sound is made. And someone's making that sound. we fucking LOVE this chase by the way, which raocow of course got caught by IMMEDIATELY. if you do actually just GO, BB's textbox fills with "WAIT WAIT WAIT WAIT WAIT WAIT WAIT" and it's really good. we LOVE that you take control of her--this entry has a LOT of subversions of the usual chases it turns out, it feels very "variations on a theme"y.

the record store is usually where we see people go for first. and hey, a record by Blue D. Hans! and then, of course, The Two Nurses show up. Handy & Manny are such fucking SCOUNDRELS we love them so much. we also love that as they're rambling, you see BB's portrait terrified, with no dialogue from it. that fucking "HELLO!" sound is SO good by the way. we love that Handy & Manny seem to think that BB's bands she likes are her murders she's committed. what music do you think "Cannibal Blood Feast" makes? is it like, heavy metal? or is that more of a "More Knife Murders" thing? (incidentally, we looked it up, there's an album called Knife Murders, but not a band. there's also no "More" to it.) and then of course, capping it off with Handy & Manny just chanting "KILLYOUKILLYOUKILLYOU" and getting got by a doorslam. it's, Very different from the junk store chase, and we love it for that.

we love how the bookstore section just. IMMEDIATELY concusses you with the writings of Concerned Citizen. by the way, awesome fucking name. if you read it, BELIEVE US, WE'VE TRIED, it really is as meandering and nonsensical as it looks, and it's summarized in a SLIGHTLY more sense-make form later anyways, so don't sweat it. and then, of course, a chase sequence where YOU are the one chasing! again, we love how much this entry is willing to play with the "chase" format at this point.

okay first, we want that "It's a mechanical bird thing" shirt. second, we LOVE how weird and offputting the mechanical bird museum is. the really mellow music, juxtaposed with a voice that sure sounds a Lot like it's barely-repressed ramblings, that only seem to grow in intensity as you start to come across some paintings that look... Familiar... and then from behind a coatrack, is the Concerned Citizen, validating your suspicions from earlier. and he doesn't do anything yet! he just kinda talks and doesn't seem to parse you're BB yet! and then, as BB just nonchalantly says to herself she doesn't want the shirt... She's in the window.

we love the little "calm before the storm" that is BB dejectedly storming off to the train after running out of leads, and catching Handy & Manny at open mic night, singing about how they're going to meet someone. "Nearly getting killed is bad enough without having to listen to musical numbers about it" is a very fun line for reasons. it REALLY has that alienating vibe from earlier!

You are going to the Factory. (factory) (not more than that) (hells no)

can we just say. we love this entire finale portion. so much. it's kinda hard to really elaborate on WHY without just, Repeating literally everything that happens in it verbaitim, all the bits, the climactic moment with Clarice, and of course, the interplay of horror and comedy. Concerned Citizen going truly off the deep end and more-or-less confirming he did. The thing that caused Clarice to be like this, with Handy & Manny. and fully intending to do it to BB. one moment The Killer is secretly committing arson with a little "shhhh" and BB is complaining about not even getting to see the world's largest drinky bird, the next Clarice is taking action by beheading Handy & Manny and the only reason she doesn't get Concerned Citizen is. The Killer got to him first. And wanted to try some drinking. all of this culminating in Clarice finally coming into contact with BB on her own terms, and...

Just handing her her coat back. And then shoving her out of a window to get her out of a burning building.

there's... a lot we personally feel about this sequence, and about the arc of BB and Clarice. we could go on for literal, genuine pages about it, but we think a lot of it boils down to a mix of "the feeling of awkwardly interacting with like-minded people you don't think you understand that well", and "you are more than your worst moments". a large part of this entry is kind of one big misdirect--at the start, it's set up that Clarice is your obligatory villain of the entry, like Dr. Zoo or Lamassu. she literally mercs The Murderer right at the start. but like, not only is she NOT the villain, of course, but it turns out that, well, She didn't want this in the first place. She didn't want to be this way. and so the first moment she gets, she turns on the ACTUAL antagonists of this story--that being Concerned Citizen, the weird deranged pearl-clutcher who previously antagonized her, and was about to do the exact same to BB. and at the end, Clarice is... well, not exactly "fine", she's still stuck like. This. but she evidently lives to see another day. and we think that is very, very nice.

...

y'know. part of why we originally put this on OUR royals, before it got played anyways.
there is someone we would like you to meet, one day.
you wouldn't have understood if not for this.
and maybe some day, this will make sense.

that is the significance of tonight.

[Grounder]

[WinterSweater]

Weepster's Lament:

I am the Weepster~
I lead a sympathetic life~
I am the Weepster~
My heart is breaking on account
of all the murders I commit~

Day after day, I hunt down my scene rivals~
It's so sad!! So sad! How many more people do I
have to chop apart before I get a media career?~

But can cultural ubiquity really
fill the hole within my heart...?~
I mean... maybe~
Let's give it a try~
Boo hoo hoo ~

I am the Weepster~
I am trying to do my best~
I am the Weepster~
It's so hard to be an empath in this
21st century connected society~

Won't you enjoy wallowing in my
unexpected emotional depths?~
The tears of my career aspirations..
Are they enough to drown the world?~

The year is 2XXX.~
100 years have passed.
I have successfully murdered
everybody on the planet,
and been inducted into the
Rock N Roll Museum Of Clothes.

So tell me why...
why...
Do I still cry?~

Could it be,
these final tears..
are for myself?~

Pay attention to my
sadness as I'm killing you~!!

The world is the sum of the
things which do not improve~!!

Each night, I look up at the stars
through crying eyes~~

Uh~~

[J. J. W. Mezun]

last halloween i dressed as zz as a dumb injoke: namely that i have a ponytail & was wearing a long purple nightshirt while playing some o’ these & am a web developer, so i just had to dye my hair blue & put on glasses & a blue tie.

i love the goofy logic o’ zz’s clothing: she’s introduced being woken up @ night in the 2nd story, so she’s wearing a nightshirt, but when she goes in to a job, instead o’ changing, she just puts on a tie o’er her nightshirt.

[camwoodstock]

ears is REALLY damn good. it's so hard to pick a favorite here because, well, blood is extremely important to us, but ears is pound for pound, just, REALLY fucking good the whole way through. we love how format-bending it is, and literally no segment feels like a "dud"--everything has a purpose, everything has a really good bit or a really good fright, and despite how easy it'd be for it to veer into incomprehensibility. it is surprisingly incredibly coherent!

we adore this opening. starting this with BB being like "...I'm finally going to murder someone." and ZZ's entirely non-questioning attitude that sequence of 3 days without sufficient sleep is just how it felt to have untreated sleep apnea btw (not great!). also that's an ampersand, not a down arrow. all the way into the weird Goop Zone with the fucked up phonograph playing Blue D Hans' music! and Midnight Sex Party At Dracula's House! we assume that latter one is what caused a trip into the Wax Zone. we love the fucked up surreal Wax Zone, by the way, and how it leads into BB's first direct encounter with. The Killer.

who immediately forces her to eat a weird wax bird.

and apparently, BB is now sleep-singing about it! many such cases, unfortunately. Screaming Screaming Screaming Screaming is maybe top 1 thing to read out loud BTW. we love the namedrop of MilkCan from Parappa the Rapper. we also have to question why exactly ZZ was looking up "Rock-a-Doodle Girl Chicken Real" alongside "Cement Mixing Videos"--one or the other, fine, but both?! also the weird detective parodying a bonzibuddy ass application. and the line of asking BB to monetize her hobbies when her hobby in question is. Escaping Serial Killers. REALLY fucking good line.

This was the opener.

BB 1: we love the rare look at how XX City looks! it's uh. it's not particularly glamorous. and also, about as mazeline as the inside of the buildings in this place! we guess this is what happens when buildings just get built on top of one another. and a rather strange-looking busker! (also, raocow didn't acknowledge it, but there was a really good line about unboxing videos, which, apparently, in this world, stopped because blood kept appearing in the boxes. loot get!) funeralman is maybe one of our favorite weird side-characters, though this may be a bit of bias as our dad is a funeral director. our biggest regret is that we don't get to go down the spiral staircase, unfortunately, we just start down there. we love how. Oddly unnerving the Stars Of Tomorrow are. like, it all just kinda SWELLS into itself, as funeralman seems utterly. nonchalant about it all. and then having BB lean really, really closely into one...

won't you listen, too?

UNIDENTIFIED CORPSE: first off? we love that the border is like. The corpse himself, to represent it being about him. raocow kinda blazed over it, but we love the odd talk about a scene that just... never took off. that weird feeling of what could have been, about it all. and, of course, it parallels a LOT of the later events in this one. we think what really, really sells it is that it doesn't even sound upset. it sounds wistful. almost hopeful, in a very... twisted way.

ZZ 1: okay, first of all, we want the "FUTURE MURDER VICITM" shirt as a pajama shirt to wear around the house. we LOVE ZZ's weird attitude, how she's simultaneously really eager, and yet overwhelmingly unsure of everything ever. it feels like a coinflip of if she'll just go along with whatever, or be so utterly baffled that she will refuse a thing. SHITTY COFFEE MACHINE SPOTTED BTW. we love the weird cross between weird cult speak and... baseball terminology, with the "away team." it's very blaseballian. also, GOD, the bit about them having an overwhelmingly shitty website, like, sub-angelfire tier. we want "princess diana memorial award" on our website. going up the spiral staircase here does NOT make up for not going down that really big one, but it's fine. and the punchline of the weird boss guy, bemoaning about the "away team" and how If only they didn't transcend humanity, only for them to casually show up and be like. Hey.

THIS IS WHEN PART 2 HAPPENS

BB 2: we LOVE how utterly MISERABLE BB looks to be at the retro game convention. we think this is the least happy she has looked all series, a wild statement when she has been chased by how many serial killers at this point? but it's SUCH a strong fucking bit. also, BB has STILL swallowed a wax bird don't forget okay? we have never been to a con, so we don't know how accurate this entire thing is, but it really sells this vibe of like, a weirdly dismal niche marketplace well. also, fucking. Dendy mention??? with Dendygar, from CRYPT WORLDS by Lilith Zone??? we would shop at Nothing But Cube, we think. and of course. The Dapper Dawg Mask Dude. this FUCKING guy. there's one side character who HANDILY has him beat for THE top spot for "fanbase's favorite unnamed side character", but like, he is a very solid second, and with good reason, because he has maybe one of the most outlandishly absurd exchanges. we don't think we want him to strangle us, but we don't know ANY Dapper Dawg episodes... and then distracting him with the fucking Pinapple Toppin-ass ceramic decoration. SO good.

we love the weird little back area of the con zone. we've had a few times in our life where we've been at a family gathering for one reason or another, and there's just this tantalizing little area you're not SUPPOSED to go to, but it's not like it's blocked off and there's no signs there, and so we're... well, not allowed, but we aren't stopped from just, wandering our way into an area where the only signal of it having ever been used at all are whatever weird remains from previous events the building had that lingered around. on at least one occasion, we think it was our high school graduation party, we ended up in a room for display versions of these wooden ash containers for like, funerals. one day, we'd like to explore a place like that in full. oh, right, then The Weepster happens!

The Weepster is such a weird little guy. he is also the final boss of trying to read this game's dialogue out loud, so, lucky thing raocow isn't. we LOVE his weirdly peppy musical number about. Murder. and feeling bad about it. but still murdering. as far as we can tell, nobody's tried to put this to an actual song before? truly unfortunate. Also unfortunate is that, as you may recall, BB did swallow a weird wax bird. Which, evidently, does not approve of The Weepster's own musical number. we love how this was. Kind of? foreshadowed in Blood, with BB loudly bemoaning having to hear musical numbers about people trying to kill her, and now the Wax Bird is usurping The Weepster singing about killing BB, to sing about killing The Weepster. this is what happens when you eat a wax bird, don't do it!

ZZ 2: GOD. it's so good to open with a pastiche of the weird fucking corporate lineless style. and, again, ZZ has NO IDEA why they're necessary, but they definitely are! also, the off-hand remark about. buying a bunch of podcast sponsor spots. For a cult. can't be worse than BetterHelp are we RIGHT GAMERS. SORRY THIS HAS LEGALLY COUNTED AS A SONICS. SORRY HE'S HERE WITH THE SEX CUM ENERGY THAT POWERS YOUR BOATS NOW. IT WAS A SONICS ALL ALONG. SORRY. SORRY. we love the orgone bit, it's so abrupt yet it fits PERFECTLY. we love the phrasing of "expired calendars", it's such a weird line. we love how the cult of "Positive Way" has a secret "Negative Way", which apparently, looks a lot like an arcade carpet. there is something oddly poetic about the vinyl of people screaming in the last moments of their life, all attributed to "Name not recalled"... hey, is that that busker? oh. guess the Away Team is staying away. we love how ZZ's only worry is "...am i being made a permanent employee?" about this.

BB 3: okay, first, we LOVE how weird this opening is. all these really detailed textures stick out very well. and then, of course, the bit of "There's a NEW wave???", to set up maybe one of the funniest bits in this game. The Weepster is just clothes now. sad! raocow also missed it, but if you walked over to those eyes in the shadow, that's the boss guy from ZZ's side of things, where he bemoans that the "Age of Aquarius" isn't this century, and then gets excited that he's on the away team. BB, of course, is like "what's his deal?" because she never met him. we love that after the old boss guy died, ZZ just. Wore his face as a mask, and is liquidating the company immediately, except for One Last Job involving some Blue D. Hans guy... raocow glossed over the pop-up, but it is SUCH a sad day for Funeral Fans BTW. we always think of that line whenever something mildly unfortunate happens to our dad. we meet that client in the weird observatory, which ALSO has some weird textures, and... it turns out it was that busker. or rather. it was Blue D. Hans.

we LOVE Blue D. Hans, which is weird, because if you asked us to name our favorite antagonist of these games, he probably wouldn't come to mind first. but he has SUCH a presence to him. his weird mannerisms of speech, how bleak it all is relative to how calm he seems to be at any given moment, the fact he apparently has been to australia and just doesn't fucking realize that's a normal country, it's so great. "every building is the same, every person is the same, every sentence means the same thing, and they wonder why i started killing people" is a RAW fucking line by the way... followed up by BB just getting a bag over her head and IMMEDIATELY falling asleep.

The fucking climax of this entire episode is SO fucking good. we love how it starts more-or-less in media res, with ZZ apparently having since been roped into this as well, with the two of them having been tied up and forced to play in Blue D. Hans' shitty little band. And The Killer is just There. He's playing the saxophone. Why? He felt like it.

We genuinely don't think it's ever been explained why he's here.

and of course, a GIANT TIDAL WAVE OF BLOOD, WHICH IS CALLED THE NEW WAVE. GOD. FUCKING. QUADRUPLE S TIER BIT. all this juxtaposed with BB entering the Wax Zone, with a weird fucked up funhouse version of her own face, as we come to meet the Wax Bird... who is just kinda spinning around.

and you throw a shoe at it and it dies.

we love how that's apparently all it takes for Blue D. Hans' plans to just kinda, fall apart on the spot as the New Wave collapses in on itself and destroys the venue he set up. maybe that happening upset his saxophonist, who knows. the scene crumbles to bits (much like what happened to the Unidentified Corpse!), and the only real consequences are "The Future Murder Victim T-Shirt is destroyed" and "a random Beach Boys revival". we WISH we had the version of this song that plays at the end, by the way. this game employs the Yume Nikki technique of "speeding up/slowing down songs to give them a new vibe" and it REALLY works here.

this videogame rules we think.

[KobaBeach]

dendygar my beloved...

i promise ill watch this lp and play this game eventually im sorry

[Grounder]

serac would love ofthekillerland

cha-cha real smooth

[Donut]

This is a highly delayed reaction, but I just read that this game was eventually sold for money and that just astounds me because of how many times it explicitly breaks copyright. That they've gotten away with it is as much of a miracle as how unscathed BB still is eight games in.

[camwoodstock]

heart has such a unique vibe to it. it is very notably shorter than ears, but it never feels that way? if it makes sense? something about heart just kinda. encourages you to sit with it, we feel.

we love how... strange, the dream resort feels. we've never been in a hotel alone before; we have ALWAYS spent it cramped in with other relatives, and always in fairly active hotels. but we assume this is how it must feel, staying alone in a not-that-busy hotel. we've never had to take particularly substantial surveys, but this is how basically any survey feels like. you can kinda just mark ANYTHING on the surveys and it's really funny. also IN WHAT WORLD does BB seem like a carpet warehouse person smh??? we LOVE the bit of the dial-a-boy. yes, that is a full reference to Dream Phone. we are in the Seafoam BB timeline Sorry. we have never had hotel food beyond like, breakfast and a barcade that was there; everything there was way, way too dense. you could barely get a bite in.

if there was any given bit in these games we would say is VERY dream logic-y, we feel like the backstory is it. it always kinda struck us as sudden, but like. raocow's description of "dream logic" honestly makes it make a lot of sense??? in that, it kinda. Isn't. meant to make sense. it's just A reason why BB is in the dream hotel, even if it doesn't really come up again aside from one incredibly good line at the end.

in fact, the other agent is apparently a "mob character" according to the bonus rooms, so they don't even get a name, we don't think. we nominate "QQ".

we're 99% sure one of the statues in the Cowboy Zone is a reference to Leg Horse from Space Funeral, another thecatamites joint. raocow is a confirmed Cowboy Centrist. we would be SO SCARED if a cowboy burst through our front door BTW NEVER LET THIS HAPPEN TO US. we LOVE the oddly obtuse bit of there being no "no" option on the "how much emotional attachment do you have to cowboys?" question, that perfectly encapsulates the feeling of having a rigged poll. the fucking C-Suite having one dialogue/portrait name mismatch is REALLY funny to us.

THE EXPERIENCE ROOM is such a funny bit, we LOVE it. we love how increasingly obtuse every item is, and how incomprehensible all of them are--with the standout exception of ONE of them, all of them are basically entirely unrelated to BB's ordeal, too. we once again want a t-shirt from this game. Also, why exactly is BB singing about a fat rat in the bathroom. we also love the weirdly obtuse bit of CC, HH, II, and JJ; who basically only exist for a rather subtle payoff in Pumpkin Summer; a bit anachronistic to point it out here, but we didn't notice it at first given how strong THAT bit is, but it is genuinely creepy how they get introduced... and just, unceremoniously turned into weird puppets for that.

we love how weird the first run-in with the Spook is. no real acknowledgement of who or what he even is, he just. Appears. Unprompted. to whisk you away to an entirely different bedroom. they only really elaborate a TINY bit after the fact, and even after that, when he shows up again, it's largely unexplained beyond what his "dream" means.

PART CUTOFF BUT IT'S A LITTLE NEBULOUS GIVEN WE VAGUELY MENTIONED PART 2 IN THE FIRST HALF OH WELL

what Marcie's World reminds us of depends entirely on how rude we feel like being/who we think has slighted us more at the time but GOD if it isn't relatable. we'll say BFDIA for now. also, we wish we were allowed to see the Princess Diana Commemorative Beanie Baby. we love that apparently, the Dream Resort just. Anticipates people leaving by running along its rooftops? given the nature of this place/The Spook/Marcie's plans as a whole, though, maybe we shouldn't be so surprised. it is SO funny how anticlimactic The Spook's attack is. we guess that's what happens when you are, quite literally, basically just a living plastic bag. we love the sheer vitrol BB shouts, "I AM NOT TOUCHING THE FUCKING DIAL-A-BOY!!"

Marcie is a fan-favorite antagonist, and while she's not on our top list, she's very compelling. in contrast to Clarice, who was a zine creator that got basically coaxed into an antagonistic role, Marcie went there fully on purpose.

Pumpkin Summer is maybe the top "WHAT THE FUCK" bit in this entire game. we saw that for the first time and just actually got up to get a drink. the weird association of Hallmark romance specials and. Unity asset store stock assets. it feels so weird, yet we also perfectly understand how the connection came into being??? the "other actors", when they aren't the corpses of CC, HH, II, and JJ, are just straight up stock photos billboarded, it's such a strong bit. we think it may or may not be a reference to cowboy mode from Crypt Worlds. Remember Greg from High School BTW? we like that the "pumpkins" are weird gory heads, by the way. again, weird connection, but it's a fun one, we love how thecatamites links these weird concepts. Also, please remember Greg from High School. that poem also links to what the Wax Bird said in the middle of The Weepster's musical number, by the way! it's really interesting! also, Greg from High School, please remember and look for Greg. From High School.

It's Greg from High School. He's Greg from High School. It's not The Spook, totally. (okay yeah it is but we think Greg From High School is such a good bit, how EVERYONE insists that's his name with "From High School" included, INCLUDING MARCIE.) you missed it, but if you do actually get got by Greg from High School, there's a really funny bit. we love the little rapid fire of various other possible villains for The Spook to try and take the form of, too. and the weird TV realm, leading in to the Investor zone, is also pretty fun. also, another instance of Esperanto! we love Marcie basically trying to FORCE BB to commit to an answer, in an oddly intense moment, and the one she comes up with is.

Cha-Cha the Tree Frog from Rainforest Cafe. (that's why rainforest cafe was in the focus testing BTW) and the follow-up of BB rhetorically asking Marcie for her desires, which The Spook takes as an actual question directed at him? REALLY good back-to-back bits, adding a bit of levity before entering The Spook's world.

this climax portion is just kind of defined by really good lines to add levity to what is otherwise, frankly, a fairly terrifying sequence of Marcie basically choosing to completely submit herself to The Algorithm even when BB tries to pull her out, which. We mean. We could explain the metaphor here but it's not even really subtext, it's just kinda text at that point when Marcie actively CALLS it The Algorithm, and the weird panopticon-ish tower it resides in. in the Spook's World, we love that, much like The Spook himself, the guys patrolling around are all basically weightless--there is no penalty for touching them, or even acknowledgement of it. and of course, right at the very end, when you've almost forgotten the explanation for why BB is here, she just casually brings up "oh by the way, you REALLY should not be doing this." it's very hard to see, but behind Marcie as she enters The Algorithm, is a weird, fleshy amalgamation made of hands, that vaguely shares her own silhouette. also, GOD, remember that period of time when books came with CD-ROMs that had a 50/50 shot of being impervious, and never working?

and the punchline at the end; BB, after all this talk of love and desires, just kinda goes home and makes good on a promise she made back in eyes; to just play goddamn video games. she's apparently an idle game/RPG enjoyer! good for her. anyways, if you must know,

we think BB is asexual/aromantic, but we personally headcanon she'd get along platonically with Clarice.

because of course we do.

serac would love ofthekillerland

cha-cha real smooth

serac is kind of The Killer coded. linked with death, and the extreme interplay of comedy and violence, black with red accents, inscrutable relations to everything around them that seem to change constantly, associated with an animal...

[KobaBeach]

the weird association of Hallmark romance specials and. Unity asset store stock assets. it feels so weird, yet we also perfectly understand how the connection came into being???

no they have the exact same energy yeah. i remember i saw one that was either hallmark or reel one (hate these bitches by the way half of their catalogue is thrillers about mentally ill killers and my mom kept watching them and triggering me to hell and back) and the copyright blurring on Times Fucking Square because of the lion king musical ad and shit made the entire thing look like a fucking mess of distorted visuals that looked like something out of a dream and im dying to find that movie again so i can laugh at its bitch ass.

i think it was about ballet or something

fuck reel one productions

serac is kind of The Killer coded. linked with death, and the extreme interplay of comedy and violence, black with red accents, inscrutable relations to everything around them that seem to change constantly, associated with an animal...

i saw a 4chan greentext of someone putting salted butter up their bum and Suffering and i think she'd do that for the pain alone. consider that

[General_Urist]

Well, that was a ride. Overall a great anthology, but I feel like this final episode mostly just dragged on as a string of surreal horrors. With thick social commentary. By midway through part 2 I was feeling "ok, I GET IT, the elite are deliberately destroying society out of toxic ideologies and a terminally warped worldview, can we finally wrap up some plot threads?". Plus, the last few episodes seem to have more long dialogue segments where raocow is entirely quiet.

Still, a fun let's play, glad I was introduced to this work.

[KobaBeach]

Well, that was a ride. Overall a great anthology, but I feel like this final episode mostly just dragged on as a string of surreal horrors. With thick social commentary. By midway through part 2 I was feeling "ok, I GET IT, the elite are deliberately destroying society out of toxic ideologies and a terminally warped worldview, can we finally wrap up some plot threads?".

wait until you play the Real Life MMO

[KobaBeach]

the police: on route
jeff: the killer

[Grounder]

exit, pursued by a bear, which is just another day for bb, really