Freshly-baked doods

[ID : a fanart of the fun gang from Deltarune, against a black background. They are falling (similar to the animation that plays when entering a Dark World), and at the bottom, yellow-pinkish smoke and pink petals are billowing around them.

In the middle, Kris is drawn mid-jump, sword in hand, and the wind blowing past them reveals one of their eyes.

On the right, Ralsei's position is more tense, knees drawn to his chest as if bracing for something - the impact, or the upcoming events of the Prophecy. He is frowning.

On the left, Susis has her axe in one hand and is moving to take hold of a white feather - the white pen of hope - with the other. Her expression is not visible.

I liked it a lot...

[ID : three rough pencil fanarts of Project Hail Mary.

First image is a simple doodle of Eva Stratt and Ryland Grace, where Stratt is nervously looking up at a very simplified music sheet of the main theme of the film (the melody from 'Humanity', 'Top secret clearance', 'Life is reason' and 'Time Go Fishing', among others), labelled 'Dies Irae (uh-oh)'. Beside her, Grace is smiling happily, with a thought bubble next to his head reading 'Wow those astronauts are so brave. Couldn't be me'. An arrow points at him with the comment 'Unaware'.

Second image is a stick figure of Rocky the Eridian, seen from the top, where his vents are rendered as 5 simple slits, as he's sometimes drawn. Above him, there's a speech bubble reading 'What Grace look at, question?'. Next to him, Grace looks at him with an amused expression, with his glasses off and dangling from his ears, thinking 'Sand dollar...' due to Rocky's vague resemblance with one. There's a comment in the margin pointing to Rocky and saying 'I like when ppl draw him like that (I have yet to read the book)'.

Hiii, thanks for the ask!

The Interloper

Ok, I'm probably not going to be very original but. The Sun Station. Head in hands.

What ifst you've been expecting to find a way to stop the Sun from exploding from the moment you learnt about the supernova, because thats how it works in video games, right? You encounter a problem™ and it's your job as the protagonist to fix the problem™ and earn that sweet sweet delicious happy ending?

Then you learn Outer Wilds isn't that kind of story. It's not a game where you can save everyone - it's a game where the world is dying, has been dying for a long time, and all you can do is learning to let go.

(Something something, even the universe has a limited lifespan, and how you literally access the ending by unplugging the machine that keeps it alive - but do the timeloops even really count as living?) (Something something, end-of-life care overtreatment metaphors...)

(I also love love love that you're mislead to think it's the Nomai's fault too, but nope. There's no real antagonist in Outer Wilds except the unrelenting (completely natural) force of entropy.)

The Eye

I like to think the Hatchling's presence at the end does matter (and the probe appearing in the next universe + the new alien species showing up if we met Solanum and the Prisoner does seem to imply it does).

(I don't think any of the other travelers are probably actually there, though... But who knows, with quantum shennanigans involved?)

Like, my understanding of how the Eye works is that basically, it starts emitting its signal as the universe starts to decay (thousands of years before the actual end, I guess, to have the spare time for space-faring civilizations to develop and find it), and once it's found the observer can help shape the new universe - maybe it's not even necessary for a new universe to be made that someone observes the Eye, but Outer Wilds, thematically, is as much about death as it is about transmission (especially generational - the fact that the finding of the Eye itself was a species-wide intergenerational journey...), so by managing to make the final trip you're basically leaving a legacy that will guide the future generations (the aliens of the new universe)'s first steps into the new world. Ouuuu.

(I think about 14.3 billion years and Echoes of the Eye a. a normal amount.)

(Related quotes I also think about a normal amount : "Our curiosity goes with you on your journey. You walk in the steps of those that came before you, and your path guides those who will follow later." / "The past is the past, now, but that's... You know, that's okay! It's never really gone completely. The future is built on the past, even if we don't get to see it.")

[ID: Outer Wilds fanart labelled "An attempt at an Owlk space suit design, starting with the helmet".

Left is a lineless bust portrait of an owlk, likely the prisoner considering the broken antler. Next to the portrait is an arrow pointing to their face with the text "mouth is around here".

Right is the same portrait at slightly lower opacity with a helmet sketched onto it. A comment above reads "The most tricky part is minding the antlers...". It vaguely resembles a diving helmet crossed with a welding mask. There's a protusion at the top with a comment reading "Lamp?", and it is decorated with the same formlines pattern that is characteristic of Owlks' designs in-game - notably, the lamp part is surrounded by a white eye-like shape, and the wearer's face is framed by red teeth-like shapes. The helmet seems to be made of painted wood and metal.

To the left of the helmet-wearing Owlk is another sketch, colorless this time, showing the back of the headgear from both sides. There's a sliding pannel - the visor - mounted onto the helmet via rail-like indents in the wood, with a handle on the right end of the pannel (for the wearer to grab and move it).

To the right of the portrait, there's another, showing this time the helmet with the visor closed. Next to it, there's a comment reading "visor 'pannel' slides to close" with an arrow showing the movement

Beneath it, another sketch showing the back of the headpiece, this time without the visor and with visible decorations, labelled "formlines pattern on the back too?".

Under the drawings, the picture's space is taken by various images, labelled "Refs". They are, from left to right :

Two pictures of vintage welding masks, an antique photo camera and another object called a "magic lantern" (which is an early type of projector) - both working with a sort of sliding pannel mechanism, an actual tin lantern with its door slightly ajar, a photo of Emilio Herrera's pressurized suit designed for stratospheric flight in 1935, three designs of diving helmets for shallow water by Miller & Dunn's (ranging from 1915 to 1937), and finally Ian Jacobson's concept art for the in-game dream projector totems. End ID.]

[ID: a fanart of Augite, a hatchling OC from Outer Wilds. They're a short Hearthian with long floppy ears and a small, stubby tail. They're wearing a khaki jumpsuit (with lighter patches sewn onto the fabric, hearthian-style) under a short, flowy purple dress, and around their neck is a dark red scarf. They also have large oval glasses (to account for the four eyes).

Have some little Nomai on a field trip to see some of Timber Hearth's local wildlife ::3

[ID: A piece of fanart for Outer Wilds. It is mostly blue shades with gold accents. The limited color palette and lineless artstyle is supposed to evoke the style of various National Parks' promotional posters.

The scene shows an underground lake, where a group of six Nomai are observing some proto-Hearthians. Two of the fish are looking over at the group curiously, and one is even approaching to greet the newcomers.

The Nomai group is comprised of a class of schoolchildren on a field trip, and one adult - Cycad - giving them a tour.

One of the children can be seen happily adressing a classmate, with Cycad making a shushing motion at them - presumably to avoid scaring away the fish - with a fond expression. The other kids are looking at the lake's inhabitants more quietly - one is smiling, and a group of two, where a younger child is clinging to their older peer, are watching the fish together.

Barely making it in time for Day 5 of the Campfire Fest at @outerwilds-events !!

Prompt : Fishing.

Day 3 of the Campfire Fest at @outerwilds-events! Yippee!

The prompt was Artifact! (... Get it? Because it's an artifact of the previous universe?)

For Day 2 of the Campfire Fest at @outerwilds-events !

Prompt : Slide Reel

Here's my entry for Day 1 of the Campfire Fest at @outerwilds-events!

The prompt was Rafting.