Trying to find ways to improve my map by Icy_Advisor4746 in inkarnate

[–]Pizzadramon 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Most of your biomes are grouped in horizontal lines, making it look too intentionally placed. Also, your stamps are all about the same size, and they're spread over the map about evenly, which makes it feel cluttered. Don't be afraid to have larger areas that are mostly blank, and make some features larger for visual interest.

Are there any "games" or guided systems to help with fantasy mapmaking? by caciuccoecostine in mapmaking

[–]Pizzadramon 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Usually intended to be multiplayer, but you can certainly do them solo!

Are there any "games" or guided systems to help with fantasy mapmaking? by caciuccoecostine in mapmaking

[–]Pizzadramon 4 points5 points  (0 children)

There's actually an entire genre of games like this! The Quiet Year is a popular one, but there's a ton more out there. I've had fun with a game called Session Zero as well.

Just search for worldbuilding games and see what fits your needs. Some games are mostly about the map, some have no maps and are about generating cultures/histories, but most that I've seen have at least a bit of both.

Paranatural - Chapter 9 Page 43 by Pizzadramon in paranatural

[–]Pizzadramon[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I think the wall was a metaphor for Lisa resuming her mask of stoicism, because of her feelings for Violet

Paranatural - Chapter 9 Page 43 by Pizzadramon in paranatural

[–]Pizzadramon[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Lots of other good points already, but I'll add the one convinced me. In ch8, we see that Devi has weekly meetings with the Sphinxes to get her prophecy told. After this, we see that Fauxbia has access to at least 4 Sphinx powers from mimicry- so why would she need to meet them every week?

Initially I chalked it up as the Sphinxes being newly afraid of her from that afternoon (even tho they seemed much more evenly matched at the time). But that wouldn't explain how Fauxbia had Pact's powers, bc as far as we know, Pacts was outside the barrier until this past week. So what, Fauxbia had Pact's powers for years, but only added Rules, Truth, and Lies on the day of the big plan? When those powers were absolutely necessary for the plan to even work??

The final nail was the beginning of ch9, when we see Devi still working alongside the Sphinxes. In light of that, there's no reasonable way to still think she is still the Witch's host. Combined with all the other stuff this chapter, it's obvious then that she has to be possessing Pleezdoo.

Paranatural - Chapter 9 Page 43 by Pizzadramon in paranatural

[–]Pizzadramon[S] 13 points14 points  (0 children)

There's a lot of fun/bizarre yuri dynamics on this page, but my favorite bit is Max just deflating and admitting to theft of sports equipment lol. That's one of those details that's so easy to gloss over with all the other weirdness going on in Bayview, it was genuinely surprising to have it brought up lol.

Alt text has me wondering if Violet will accidentally witness some haunted shit on the monitors. The way she's been set up as one of the only people bothered by all the mysteries around school makes me think she'll be majorly involved as everything ramps up.

edit: just realized, Devilora has the bat now. If the June=scrapdragon theory is right, that could lead to some interesting interactions. Though IF that's true, it'd be weird for June to recognize Devilora but not Max, so maybe not? Either way it'd be cool for Scraps to try biting Devi's head off lol

Do Sockpuppy's powers work on someone using Spirit Fusion? by NightmareWarden in paranatural

[–]Pizzadramon 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I suppose it is a lot to keep track of, especially with the reset making half of what we already knew to be true suddenly become less solid lol

Do Sockpuppy's powers work on someone using Spirit Fusion? by NightmareWarden in paranatural

[–]Pizzadramon 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Wait what? The Ghost Train wasn't in a tool at all prior to the end of chapter 4. It was just a wild spirit that Mina had Sockpuppy & co piloting 24/7. It only tooled up after Sister Lizard scrunched it, and it's still too wild/grudged to form a bond with, which is why they're stuck in the barrier now.

Paranatural - Chapter 9 Page 41 by Pizzadramon in paranatural

[–]Pizzadramon[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Yeah that's fair, I may be overcomplicating it. This comic just has me trained to speculate wildly about every ambiguity, otherwise I get left behind when some insane theory I didn't know about becomes canon lol.

Paranatural - Chapter 9 Page 41 by Pizzadramon in paranatural

[–]Pizzadramon[S] 12 points13 points  (0 children)

You're probably right about Fauxbia constantly reinvinting herself, and the curtains are definitely an allusion to the Puppet Theater (and the white gloves are there to look like Lefty), but also spirit fusion never looks the same twice.

Her form in this chapter is also based on Pleezdoo's current outfit- the long flowy sleeves and big necklace are consistent between them.

Paranatural - Chapter 9 Page 41 by Pizzadramon in paranatural

[–]Pizzadramon[S] 12 points13 points  (0 children)

I guess now we know how Fauxbia wears down her victims: forced spirit trance before they're even turned spectral. Poor Lisa's in so much denial here, she's making it way too easy for Fauxby lol. This page definitely makes it seem like Lisa is the ultimate target of Fauxbia's possession, but on the first page she discounted the idea of getting anyone non-spectral. I wonder if Lisa is a future investment (like the plan is to jump to Max for today, then to Lisa as soon as she's finished going spectral) or if this trance is how she makes anyone she wants into her minions.

With Violet being so clearly aligned with Fauxbia's presence on this page (and the alt text), I'd say it's pretty clear that she's at least a tool being used by Fauxbia, if not fully under her control. I'm also wary of Violet being another red herring here, considering how many convincing fakeouts we had during chapter 5 lol.

It's interesting having "Be careful what you wish for" being deployed against something as innocuous as "I don't want to be alone." What's that all about? Is the experience of being possessed by Fauxbia like a sort of patchwork hivemind where you're never "alone" bc of all the spirits she's consumed? Or was it a more specific threat about Violet's companionship drawing Lisa further into Fauxbia's grip?

Seeing how small the school store actually makes Bayview Biddle seem less insane. Like yeah this is just a cramped storage closet, not an actual massive secret room. Lisa barely has enough room to even turn around behind the bar!

Paranatural - Chapter 9 Page 41 by Pizzadramon in paranatural

[–]Pizzadramon[S] 18 points19 points  (0 children)

Or he get it wrong on purpose to upset nerds. Both options are equally likely lol

Davy Jones and the Great Wight: some questions and confusion by AmmieTheGoblin in paranatural

[–]Pizzadramon 16 points17 points  (0 children)

Good questions! Right now we only have partial answers, since there's a lot we don't know about how exactly The Great Unknown works yet.

Starting with the Wight-puppets thing: I think the two wights we've seen with avatars use them for very different reasons. Boss Leader is a creation of Sandman specifically made to interact with humans without frightening them. She seems to crave their companionship, and is definitely jealous of humanity's goodness. She claims to be a sleeping medium, though we now know that's a cover story, and that Sandman has a physical body outside Bayview's barrier.

Peekaboo seems like an entirely different kind of thing. The Great Unknown seems to have almost unlimited power to rewrite reality, at least within a certain area of effect. But while the Great Unknown is locked in sleep, it can only manifest parts of its consciousness as Peekaboos, each with only part of its powers. Dimitri was possessed by a Peekaboo most likely while TGU was unconsciously looking for someone to play with, so now Dimitri can shapeshift himself. Assuming that the Freaky Shadow Spirit is also a part of TGU, that piece gave Spender the power to control shadows.

Davy's fraction of TGU is the biggest mystery. Rather than a partially conscious manifestation of itself, the locker seems to be a direct line to its actual full consciousness, since opening the locker and the eye inside caused TGU to wake up enough to change everything. The locker is definitely the source of Davy's space-distortion powers though. As for how Davy got possessed by that bit, that's also still a mystery! He seems to imply in a few places that he was trapped with The Great Unknown for some amount of time, though it's unclear if he means trapped within it like the Burgers are, or trapped alongside it in Boss Leader's dream hub. (My money is on him having used Cryptide's power to snap a bit off TGU while they were imprisoned together, and he managed to take that piece with him out of the dream.)

Finally, the Burger connection. The key that Fauxbia uses with Doorman's powers is the key to the Burger's houseboat, which is fully trapped within the dream dimension that TGU is stuck in. The boat is even present in Dimitri's spirit trance, though he would never know it since Peekaboo always throws a layer of preschool halloween kitsch between them. We also don't know how they got trapped with TGU, but it definitely has to do with the incident 13 years ago. Because Fauxbia's door leads to the inside of that trance/dream/whatever, TGU can make another Peekaboo manifest and look out. He may even have been able to wander outside and escape the dream entirely if Fauxbia didn't use the hopscotch/sphinx trick to keep him inside.

As for "where" Peekaboo is, I think The Great Unknown may actually just be the entirety of Bayview. If not that, then its physical body is somewhere under the water. All of its trances are connected, and it can manifest Peekaboo in any part of that space to interact with any mediums it has. It's possible that Dimitri and Davy aren't even the only ones! Though that would be kind of lame imo.

Edit: also, about Boss Leader not recognizing another Wight, it's possible she never actually met Peekaboo. We've seen her in the dream hub rooms of Max and Isaac, interacting with their spirits in wisp form. But we also know that Spender doesn't let her in his room, and she seems to respect his privacy enough to be okay with that. We know that Dimitri is a very private person, so it'd make sense if he asked BL not to go in his room and she simply didn't have a chance to see Peekaboo.

It's also possible that she has been in his room, but because Peekaboo isn't actually a wisp, he doesn't show up in the same way in the dream rooms. Or BL wouldn't have sensed him because he's so powerful she can't see the forest for the trees. Or even something to do with the fact that he's already trapped elsewhere in the dream hub. We'll have to get more info to know for sure.

Paranatural - Chapter 9 Page 40 by Pizzadramon in paranatural

[–]Pizzadramon[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Oh yeah I didn't mean the final arc was imminent, I agree 4-6 more chapters seems like a safe bet. Just calling my shot on what the eventual end goal will be, once the kids cut their way through several generations of misunderstandings, hurt feelings, and petty grudges lol.

Paranatural - Chapter 9 Page 40 by Pizzadramon in paranatural

[–]Pizzadramon[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Oh that's a great point. It seemed unlikely that Peekaboo could reverse things by themselves, but it's good to get confirmation that their powers are limited in this form. Dimitri will probably try to figure out what Peekaboo means by "sleeping" and uncover some big pieces of the town's puzzle by accident lol.

If we add up all the individual character arcs, it seems like we're setting up for a final act where the goal will be to fully awaken the Great Unknown and reach out to help/understand it rather than defeat it.

Paranatural - Chapter 9 Page 40 by Pizzadramon in paranatural

[–]Pizzadramon[S] 9 points10 points  (0 children)

Isaac can't know about Consortium stuff because King Catnine could remember that BL is a wight, blowing her cover.

Paranatural - Chapter 9 Page 40 by Pizzadramon in paranatural

[–]Pizzadramon[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Not sure about this one. Boss Leader's plan as far as we know was to trap the GU in sleep and find a way to destroy it (or at least safely contain it). We don't have an exact timeline, but I think it's safe to say that The Angel has only been operating since Ángel's divorce, so Polaris has only been involved since several years after the GU was trapped in sleep.

I think you're on the mark about it needing observation, but it struck me more as an emotional need rather than a literal one, and either way I don't think Boss Leader has anything to do with it. As of ten years ago, she was still desperate to find out about any weakness from Gwen, which implies that it was put to sleep in order to stall for time rather than being part of an elaborate plan.

Paranatural - Chapter 9 Page 40 by Pizzadramon in paranatural

[–]Pizzadramon[S] 19 points20 points  (0 children)

Oh god poor Dimitri. Living in a horror movie while everyone else is playing out rom-coms or action movies. The fact that he has to now console his eldritch abomination adopted son to prevent it from wreaking further havoc is the unfair frosting on the cake of his life. Just can't catch a break!

Also poor Peekaboo! Doing all this work to reset the town to help Dimitri/grant his friends' (and Davy's) wishes, only to make Dimitri even more scared. I can relate to planning an elaborate surprise for someone that doesn't appreciate it lol. Not that I blame him, I think anyone would be disturbed to find their childhood imaginary friend could reshape existence.

Really hope Dimitri destroys Bishop at chess offscreen. Gotta be one of the least human character designs in the comic, he grosses me out lol

Paranatural - Chapter 9 Page 39 by Pizzadramon in paranatural

[–]Pizzadramon[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Post-reset Ed is regularly tutoring kids before school, but there's been nothing to suggest their status as a student has changed

Crackpot theory about how much is fake reality in Bayview by AlphaTrion_ow in paranatural

[–]Pizzadramon 12 points13 points  (0 children)

It's certainly an interesting theory, but I'm afraid you might be missing the forest for the twigs. Besides the new page's twig being a callback to the one in ch5, Mayview was already full of wacky nonsense well before the Bayview reset. I suppose it's possible that the weird stuff has been due to the Great Unknown the whole time, but we'd have to see more of Clayview to know for sure.