The dankest of cookies

Jay don't give the eldritch horror an identity crisis c'mon man

How did you come up with 'The Sneer' and 'The Shield'? ('The Vessel' is a bit self explanatory but pls explain that as well) im very curious of the thought process behind ir, if you remember it `U`

Ah sleeplessness, I know it well 😔 (RIP to you, hope you like coffee)

For the names, The Shield was just... obvious to me? Like, I don't think I even really thought about it, aside from going "I cannot write a fic calling Tim's alter ego 'Masky'", and like. Even before beginning to write, I saw this alter ego as a protector, something there to shield Tim from all his trauma, so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ I decided to add 'The' to its name just cos I like that sorta naming convention, and it made sense to me that it'd see itself first and foremost as its purpose, so it would refer to itself as simply The Shield. I didn't wanna call it just "Shield", then it'd feel too much like a name and less like a purpose, if that makes sense lol. Plus, it tickles me because Tim is also very protective, so it fits him, too!

For The Sneer, I wanted to match The Shield, and well. I also like to think I'm funny, and 'Sneer' is very close to 'seer', and with them keeping behind the scenes and stalking Jay, I thought I was hilarious. Also, I wanted it to start with 'S' to match The Shield << They were harder to name, I considered and rejected "The Stalker", since... that's not what they jumped out of The Ark doing, it's more of a hobby, not a purpose for them. So, what would that be? The Shield exists to protect Tim, it was created to shield him. What created The Sneer, what would drive them? Simple: anger. Hatred. The goal of murdering Alex, and making it hurt. After that, it sorta fell into place. Brian Thomas in MH is a sunny character, he cracks jokes and smiles, so I broke that smile and turned it into a sneer <3

So sorry if this makes no sense, im a genuine idiot and ive been writing a spiderman (but hes either (unknowingly) faking a voice in his head to keep him company or has like split personality disorder or something) fic so I have like no more juice in my noggin like a battery

Heres penny photo as apology

Joke's on them, the second they even hint at holding Jay down they activate his trap card, that boy is a freak and would very much like to be restrained and choked, right now not a moment to waste!

Ofc he'd never admit that, he doesn't even understand it himself yet, so he'd just be a brat and dare them to actually choke him, claiming they won't do it. Smth smth The Sneer casually remarks that there's other ways to tire him out, bad end they all just imagine it and then have to sit awkwardly to hide their boners, good end they have a very nice and sexy night and Jay sleeps for 20 hours after 😌

may have suggested this one already i truly can’t remember but sante fe by autoheart is so painfully jam to me i Can’t

and back to my typical suggestions uhhh blame it on bad luck by bayside you are so jay merrick to me

i don’t even need to sign this ask you know exactly who i am but i will do so anyway 🪐

🪐anon I was literally JUST thinking of you, have you heard the new "battle scars" song from Bayside? (or, well, like, """new""" I think it came out 2 weeks ago now or smth) ANYWAYS IT IS GIVING BRIAN and I got very excited about it!!!

(you have previously suggested Santa Fe and it is on the playlist 😌)

A: Is Jessica alive in your s3 divergence? I assume so given the language specified when The Sneer had tied up Alex in oje of the chapters I forgot which. (If the question is unable to be answered without spoilers I understand😿😿😿)

B: I have the feeling that The Sneer and Brian steal the pens Jay bites on. Please confirm my suspicion pls pls pls.

C: Can you pretty pretty pretty PLEASEEEEEEEE give me a SLIGHT like the SLIGHTEST possible inkling for Alex's fate 😿😿😿 It can just be if he dies or not or if like his sickness goes away I DUNNO IM JUST SO CURIOUS PLSSSSS

D: I definitely misunderstood at some point when you were talking about Brian/Sneer and assumed the "third(fourth-fifth-sixth)" was like talking about how fragmented Brian's brain had become because of the sickness. UAGHHHH I FEEL DUMBBB I still stand by the idea of a whole nother segment of Brain's brain being created to steal stuff, thats funny to me.

E: (This comment is being posted pre-chapter 46/part:42, incase you only get to the questions after you post the next chapter) IS BETH GONNA DIE??????? BETH NONONONONONONO BETHHH BETHHHHHHHHHHH DONT DIEEEEEE BETH IM SO SCARED BETH DOESNT DESERVE THISSSSSSSSS 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭 ALEX I LOVE YOU BUT DONT LAY A HAND ON HER NONONONONOOOO

F: When do they all make out sloppy style im so eager theres only been 3 kiss scenes in total im so sad😿😿😿😿 (maybe more im like only in chapter 15/part 14 of my reread)

G: How do you not burn out so easily? I've started to write again, mostly due to your fic and how wonderful it is! Its inspired me to start writing better ^U^ anyways, I find myself burning out prettu quickly despite my passion and want to finish my fic still being there. Do you deal with the same thing—if so, how do you manage?

H: Jaybird nickname return when its so cute (and a little attractive, not gonna lie)

I: what are your pronouns? I tried looking on your page (and maybe im just an idiot) but I cant find any statements of your preferred pronouns😿😿😿

J (haha j like jay, get it? Sorry I'll shut up): Is there going to be a scene of The Vessel and The Sneer/Shield meeting face to face sometime in the future (near or distant)? I'm so so interested in how they'd reacted, especially because the both of them react like startled cats with their fur puffed at even the mention of The Vessel.

K: (Kinda a play on the last question/ramble) Do the Shield/Sneer have the same static radiowave tyoe bond with The Vessel as well, or is it Just between those two? Is the bond how they 'know' that 'the obscure third' is dangerous? (And HOW Do they perceive The Vessel as dangerous? Are they scary like the Operator? Do they like give this threatening vibe to Sneer and Shield? Is it because they're normally located within the Ark—where the both of them have struggled in helplessly?)

L: I love how weird all of the characters are, and in their own ways too! Where do you come up with the quirks you give them all? Do they like come to you in a dream or are they based off people you know and how they act (or even your own mannerism)

M: More of Jay being assertive and stubborn and a little bitch pretty pretty please I want him to, despite being injured, ignore everything in search of clues. Aughhhh I love Jayyyy I love stubborn annoying Jay please feed me with content about defiant Jay and it being a turn on for the 4 of them pls pls pls plssssssss 😿😿😿😿🫰

N: I remember you mentioning, in your post with the poll about how to continue updating, that you also wanted to write some one-off fics. 1, where might I be able to find those if you have posted some/plan to post them. 2, just a relative number, how many chapters do you plan for SH,ES to have? 50 60 70 80 ect ect (im asking 2 specifically because 'post once a week without a lot of shit posts' had won the poll)

O: I saw someone else mention how you don't write Masky(/Shield) and Tim in a typical 'alter' way, and how they enjoyed that and i FULLY agree!! It's such an interesting take, especially give how im plural as well (not sure if its DID or OSDD, my therapist assured me that like if nothing BAD truly came out of it then it was probably fine to be left for now, as the others in my head help for the most part) I just think its so fucking cool how you decided to write Masky and Hoody with your specific twist on it that I wont be able to find anywhere else. (Ive even caught myself misnaming Masky and Hoody as their SH,ES counterparts when im just consuming regular content of Marble Hornets. THIS IS A COMPLIMENT!! IM EMPHASIZING HOW MUCH OF AN IMPACT THIS HAS HAD ON ME!!!! `U`)

Your work is genuinely a big inspiration of mine, thank you so much and I hope you are as happy with the content you put out as we are consuming it!!!

So sorry again about the long ass ask 😿😿 heres 2 photos of my cat (Nora ♀️) loafing as an apology!! (^•.•^)

OHOHOHO WHAT A TREAT, WHAT A DELIGHTFULLY LONG ASK JUST FOR ME, HELL YEAH

pls never apologize this is legit such a treat so thank you! <3 (gonna just put in a readmore, lmao I'm boutta YAP)

At least three times from my memory, Alex will say something about the current victim he's with where he'll sorta almost refer to them like they're animals (specifically dogs I think but most is vague enough to be used for any animal). For example;

He uses Seth's dog as a proxy for Sarah, and basically calls her a "dumb bitch that can't behave" (Jesus Chirst, the disrespect 😤)

Says that the Sneer is "like a rabid animal that needs to be put down"

And when faced with Jay (after he lost a fight with a hole puncher) he tells himself and Jay that "it'd be a mercy to put you out of your misery" and that it's "for your own good"

One could even argue that he almost treats Amy's murder like euthanization.

It's like he's justifying/distancing himself from his actions by thinking of his victims like animals instead of people.

Or I'm reading waaaaaaaaaaay to much into it. But I think it's interesting either way

Oh absolutely Alex is trying his best to distance himself from what he's doing. He's jumping through every damn loop to justify his actions to himself, because in his mind he has nothing but a complete and unwavering certainty that he needs to do this, but that doesn't mean it's easy.

He blamed Sarah as he was killing her. He tries so hard to talk himself into killing Jay, and he fails to carry through so many times. Like, my guy had every chance under the sun to do a murder, but instead he just gaslit Jay and dragged him on shitty hikes through Rosswood. He couldn't just kill him unprovoked, he needed an excuse, some reason to "punish" Jay (blaming the hiker for following him, aka thinking it was Jay disobeying and thus deserving death) or to show him mercy (seeing Jay in pain and telling himself he's sparring him by killing him).

Hope your job gets better, i know you also mention ur job and how its a bitch a lot in the chapter summaries sometimes 😿😿😿

BEEEEEEEEEEETH! BETH BETH BETH, WE LOVE TO SEE OUR DUMBASS QUEEN!

I love her, thank you so so much! <3 <3 <3 Sorry to hear about racist coworkers, that sounds absolutely exhausting, I hope they get fired so you can get some peace, OR that you find a another job with nice coworkers and better pay!

Also agfsgdgfdafsg I didn't think anyone paid much attention to my job rambles, I don't wanna come off as ungrateful, the job itself is practically my dream job! (you're so so close to activating my trap card and making me infodump about my work, promise I'm not trying to be cagey or sound mysterious I've just learned not to talk unless asked specifically cos it's nerdy lol)

It's just that the work environment is insanely toxic and at this point I'm pretty sure I'm being actively bullied by the coordinator of the lab and my nearest boss, they are both piling way too much work on my shoulders yet also preventing me from doing the work properly. Also placing the responsibility of a specific part of the lab squarely on my shoulders without giving me any acknowledgements for picking it up, on the contrary actively gatekeeping me from being allowed to take part of the decision making regarding these analyses :)))

The boys are all compared to stay dogs at some point so I had this thought of bram as three stray dogs huddle together while Alex is hunting and trying to shoot them (trying to capture them to take them to a vet and get shots), and the hospital as a vets office (would this make The Operator a veterinarian? 🤔)

Feed me your thoughts they nourish me!

Stray dog SHES au -puts my fingertips together-

The Vessel would be the veterinarian! They legit wanna help, sadly they smell like every scared animal ever cos no animal loves going to the vet, so all three strays are scared of them 😔

The hospital is a kill shelter run by The Operator, who claims it's nonprofit but who for sure pockets all the donations and just euthanizes the animals, then says they got adopted. The Vessel is onto its bullshit, but lack evidence to take the whole thing down, tho they're working on it.

so. i’m part time at my job. so i have no benefits and i asked for part time when i was hired and was given it. that being said! he. just from monday to now (sunday evening august 3rd) i worked ~35 hours. a work week for our schedule specifically is tuesday to tuesday. tuesday to tuesday is ~40 hours of work (could be more could be a little less. but i’m guessing based on how closing has been the past several months it’ll be around 40 total hours)

once again. I AM PART TIME!! it’s okay though cuz i’m leaving in two weeks for college (i am however going to beg them to take me back in winter and next summer cuz uh. no one wants to hire people. apparently) 11 dollars an hour btw :3

also we are down to only one dustpan the other one broke. also our vacuum sucks. not in the good way i mean it’s terrible. also! i’m working a closing shift tuesday and a 9-5 on wednesday. my manager was like hey is an 8-4 gonna be too much for you? girlie clearly it doesn’t matter if i say yes or not 😭

bright side: i give people so much shit for free (we are encouraged to do so kind of (aka if someone says they’re having a bad day give em a cookie) but i abuse the FUCK out of that. oh you want a coffee? cool i don’t feel like firing up the register have a coffee for free. win win situation)

you’re welcome for this rant you absolutely did not ask for!! also i hope your vacation is/was good im so sorry you got a migraine, migraines during a vacation are actually evil

-🪐

A full time job is 37 hours, how the fuck are they giving you that much when you're signed on as part time??? Shouldn't there be some max limit?

Eww having to go back, like... at this point you might as well go full time and get those benefits if you can, it honestly sounds like you're doing the same amount of hours anyways :// (a manager who doesn't listen, wow, what a shocker /s)

FUCK YEAH, FIGHT CAPITALISM, STEAL FROM COOPERATIONS THAT CAN AFFORD THE LOSS! (absolutely Beth does the same, stolen, yoink and thank u)

Did they purposely make themselves have his grandma's eyes or is that just how Jay perceives them?

Does The Vessel control how people perceive them or is it like a filter (idk how to explain it but like back with the eye example, their eyes were akin—if not the exact same—to his Meemaw's. If someone else looked at The Vessel, would they also see Jay's grandma's eyes or would they see something else?)

IM BEGGING FOR SPOILERS PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE IM SCRATCHING AT THE WALLS WITHOUT THESE UPDATES PLEASEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

Other notes: I wrote a Jam sussy fic👀 (sussy Jasky part coming soon hopefully) and I might make an AU with Tim and Skully soon!

Brooo all your vacation photos look amazing I'm a lil jealous, I hope you're having an amazing time

Heres some art for my long question`U`

Them be spoilers! I'll still reply the best I can without giving anything away tho, cos I love getting questions about my fic that lets me YAP

First 2 questions can't be answered without insane spoilers sadly, but The Vessel CAN control their appearance and body, think the whole face morphing scene from the comics, that kinda deal. It's a VERY physical change (there were no sound effects in the comics but imagine visceral tearing, the cracking of cartilage, and a viscous wet sound) So no "filter", they can't be in a room with two people and somehow make those two people perceive them in different ways, but in theory, they could change their height, their eye color, their body type and build. Whether they actually do so, and what exactly factor into those changes, I won't say :)))

(also I am so so old apparently I have no idea what it means for a fic to be sussy I'm sorry ;A; but always yay fics! )

2) god i really need to reread SHES cuz i’m doing more formatting and i’m just now noticing you did the same “it hadn’t been blank IT HAD NOT BEEN-“ type of thing with both jay and brian and i love that. i need to reread it so bad (the only reason i havent is cuz i KNOW once tim finds the pictures i’m gonna suffer again through rereading it cuz i’ll just want them to be happy </3)

-🪐

I HAD NO IDEA SLOVENIA WOULD BE SO GORGEOUS I ALREADY WANNA GO BACK AND LIVE IN ONE OF THE CAVES (it was super hot too, tho, only nice temps were down in the caves or way up on the mountains, the capital was 33°C, that is too hot excuse me)

Anyway, I would love to be a fly on the wall at the diner Tim worked at. Like, I'm just imagining the gossip between the staff, especially after all this new information that Brain's given Beth.

I wonder what kind conclusions they've all come to.

Obviously, they think Tim and Jay are dating.

And then Tim suddenly quits, and nobody hears from him for a while.

Beth tried to check up on him by going to his house (instead meets "Angry guy").

Jay suddenly comes back to the diner with another man (CHEATING???? 😡)

Turns out Jam are actually in a throuple with a guy named Brain. 😲😳

Jam thought they were being subtle about their relationship? 🤨

Brain is apparently long suffering of those two's obliviousness.

"Angry guy" is apparently someone from Jay's past (an ex??) who was at Tim's house while he wasn't for some reason.

Bram are hotel hoping instead of staying in one of their own homes?? It has to do with "Angry guy"???

Fyduduf just thinking about jam/bram from Beth and the rest of the diner staffs p.o.v is so funny to me

It is not spam if I welcome it with open arms

Absolutely the gossip is going crazy because Beth is telling everyone in order to clear Tim's name (of a perceived wrongdoing she only conjured up in her mind... she's so ride or die she doesn't even notice she's riding the wrong direction...)

LISTEN Beth is a sweetheart but she's also dumb as rocks, and I love that for her. To her, the version of events went as follows:

Cook at new job is antisocial and cannot be befriended, bummer

Cook shows weird picture? Thankfully not a dickpic

Hang on was that a fucking skinhead

Tim can actually smile????

TIM HAS A BOYFRIEND

OH TIM WAS GAY THIS WHOLE TIME, CLEARLY HE WAS KEEPING TO HIMSELF TO STAY IN THE CLOSET

IS THIS WHY THE SKINHEADS ARE AFTER HIM

Time to show Extreme Support TM for Tim and his boyfriend who are for sure being bullied by skinheads

Tim and his boyfriend are so adorable :)))

TIM IS GONE????

Tim has disappeared and everything's weird

JAY IS BACK AND HE'S CHEATING ON TIM

Fuck you Jay how dare you do this to Tim everyone were cheering on you two

Spit in Jay's coffee, see how he likes that

TIM IS IN A POLY RELATIONSHIP WITH TWO DUDES HOLY SHIT

Jay is still a nice guy, yay :))

Brian is also a nice guy, double yay :)))

Haha they thought we didn't know that's so cute

Hang on was the angry white dude Jay's ex? Is he with the skinheads what is going on

Are they in danger and how can I help?

and yes yes i’m not feverish pft. dw im sure i’ll talk about bayside again

yeahhhh. i love making more work for myself!!

-🪐

I'm VERY excited about what fonts you're gonna end up landing on using :3c