#bright fred

Through the combination of the original painting's titles, we can (pardon the pun) paint a picture of the person Frederic may have been before all of this, as if we take Scared's words literally, the Original lost these things when creating his auto-portraits. These were significant enough to be observed by the visitor when he saw his painting for a second time, and thus altered him physically as he went. He may have named them after the experience he had, but the aspect of himself they represent were all part of him prior.

Fear, Divine, Treachery, Confusion, Rage, Agony, Darkness, Blinding Light, and Faceless I will go into what I believe the aspects these portraits "took" from him when being created below, Fear: Scared Fred is the most prominent to me. He's built primarily from the pigment the Original had on his pallet in his sprite. That dreaded sky-blue. I do believe this ties them together fairly heavily, as fear was the first thing he felt when he saw the Visitor, and the fear of what had happened to his friend (?), Fabrice. (I'll get into why I put that question mark there later) leading me to come to the conclusion he was the first one painted. Scared Fred is also the most certain on the others not being the real deal, he also has memories of the Original's childhood to some degree. His unique ability to spread panic to your whole team is something worth mentioning as well. This, in combination with the prescription medication you find in his bathroom, leads me to believe he struggled with Anxiety to at least a semi-significant amount. It was the first instinct his mind goes to, in terms of reacting to things. Scared Fred also exhibits trust issues, and agoraphobia as well. Divine: Godhead's a bit of a strange one. He starts off the encounter by putting on a front, an act, of divinity. Making use of his appearance to try and sway Sam onto his side. Of course, if you show enough disinterest, he simply drops it. He knows he's not real, he remembers being painted pretty vividly, and simply wants to survive the civil war the apartment is engrossed in. Not to mention he believes the Original to be the most dangerous, and yet he can't bring himself to think of killing him, or the others. (I'll bring up the joint smoking w/ a different painting, I haven't forgotten about it.) I believe him to have inherited the Original Frederic's ego, and self-worth. He's confident, in spite of believing himself to be a "gatdamn freak", and fairly laid-back. Also the whole "painting yourself as a god" thing- He believes himself to be the best-looking out of the nine paintings, saying the others just looked like barf in comparison to him. His attacks are also all charm based, swaying your whole time to his side to fight you. Might imply the Original was confident himself, at least about his appearance and art. Enough to play around with acting, and knowing how to work a crowd as well. Would make sense if he were a theater kid as well, honestly.

Treachery: Just how many goddamn paintings are trying to sway you onto their side? How many of them want you to believe that they're the real deal? Toxic's cunning, almost scarily so. He creates an army of paintlings to slow you down, fun accessories to try and prey on your greed as a player, in order to get you to do his bidding, and has learned to split himself into three parts in order to have better odds against you in a fight. He's the painting with the actual plan to kill the rest of the paintings. He's conniving, and yet the venom in his words really ruins the ingredients he's prepped for a terrifying encounter. His temper gets in the way, inviting you to attack him. He doesn't retreat to get another vantage point. He just insults you. He spits insults and poison, throwing out whatever he can to hurt you and your team. I think the original, while being intelligent, let his temper get in the way sometimes. May have goaded people into fights, likely as a defense mechanism when cornered. If you lose control of a situation, some people are willing to do anything to get some shred of it back. Toxic banks on the predictability of the player in order to try and get what he wants. ...There's also the fascination with hats? Maybe he liked accessorizing. I dunno. Confusion: I think we can agree Wriggly's a fun one to talk to. Right out the gate he gives you the major indicator on picking out who the original painter was, putting a heavy emphasis on a red ring. The one you talked to to start of this had a green one- that instantly puts him in the line of suspicion. He's not nearly as good at acting, or coming up with excuses for his appearance like Godhead or Toxic. His way of speaking is almost nonsensical. He struggles to control his volume, hisses at you when attacked, and is quite expressive. (Him being in a fridge is a thing I'll reference later) I'm not sure how this funny guy has a connection to how the Original was before all of this, outside of his whimsy. Frederic does have comic books, video games, and other novelty items scattered about the house. There's a bit of playfulness there. Perhaps it was the confusion about just exactly what was on that canvas.

Rage: Despite the painting's title, Fred who Bites is... honestly a bit tragic. He can't control who he lashes out at, biting anyone who gets close- even himself. He expresses genuine remorse towards anyone caught by the teeth, and wishes he could have a normal life. He wants to get along with the others instead of fighting. If you let yourself die to him, he's devastated. ...He was painted with rage, rather than embodying it. A portrait meant to vent the disparity and decline of quality of the paintings being crafted after viewing the painting of the sky a second time. And I don't think he was painted by the Original because of that. His amorphous, shifting form is more reminiscent of the Faceless painting, and how it turned into the Face Taker. He has a lot of guilt built up, and encourages others to stay away from him. He knows he struggles to not lash out when overwhelmed, and can't control it nearly as much as he wants to. ...Makes you wonder if all of the alcohol and empty bottles around the apartment, as well as the weed, was the original trying to dampen something else. Like how the tranquilizers get Bitey to stop hurting himself and others, to his own relief. Kinda sounds like meltdowns, to me.

Agony: Tumor is a sad case. The embodiment of the pain felt during whatever transformation the Original may have been afflicted with- the agony of the paintings being created. He can't really speak, only writhing in pain. You don't find out much from this, aside from him wishing to be put down. He's surrounded by pain medication, like he tried to take it for himself, but dropped the bottles, and couldn't pick them back up again. Godhead's smoking is also a form of pain medication as well, as he's likely trying to soothe the headache each painting seems to suffer from, and perhaps calm Bites down by proxy, given the short distance between their hiding spots. Did the original suffer from a chronic pain condition? Is that why, if he were to be in on the hivemind, he's so nonplussed about the painting's continued existence? Was he just used to chronic headaches?

Darkness: Shadow's admittedly a bit underdeveloped. He hides in the dark storage, pointedly away from the side room the sky painting is stored in, and lunges out at you when approached. He just doesn't want to be looked at. I could possibly theorize that he was made after Bright, the darkness left behind in the wake of witnessing the Visitor. Or perhaps whoever painted him had begun to see the Shades? I'm unsure. Blinding Light: Another painting that was potentially mimicking the Visitor, like Scared. Bright is empathetic, caring, and altruistic. He suffers with the headaches the others are plagued with, but does not wish harm on them, only to heal. He has quite a bit of knowledge about that, as well. Notably checking for fractures, symptoms of illnesses, and fevers. He's also a bit naive, believing Sam to be wholly friendly, and lamenting about how he doesn't know what he did wrong if you were to attack. This painting's existence is what keeps me from going down the route of "Original Frederic was an asshole", but rather "Original was likely an unintentional asshole". Bright immediately gets chummy with you, offering up whatever he can, simply because he's just friendly like that. Combined with Godhead and Toxic, Original may have genuinely wanted friends, but struggled to keep them, with outbursts like Bitey's hampering him and warding others away. Faceless: Admittedly another one of my favorites. Described by Scared as: "I remember painting one that looked just like the real thing, but without a face." "That one scared me the most. It radiated with malevolence." You never actually confront the real Face-Taker, not how it was originally depicted. It is only after you confront him with the reality that he is not real that he begins to distort, becoming the monster you fight in order to return the Original's face. That anger and resentment he holds for the other paintings- the ones with an actual identity separate from their aspects is something I find to be incredibly compelling. All he is, is the art he spawned from. How bitter would you be, if you were created for no purpose, but were unable to attain one as you are currently? And when he steals the Original's face, all he can do is masquerade to be him. When you're incredibly good at one thing, people tend to tie that very heavily with who you are as a person, intentionally or not. Perhaps the original felt he was nothing without his art, and in creating that impression of a distant Visitor, and the subsequent decline in quality of his work, he felt himself losing who he was, becoming hollow.

Faceless also gives us some very interesting information about another individual we don't recall meeting, at least... not while they were still lucid. Fabrice. Or, as we encounter him- The Rat King. Fabrice and Frederic had at been friends at the very least, having met together for coffee when Frederic had shown him the painting that ultimately unleashed hell for the first floor in it's entirety. It's because of that painting, that so many people were turned into rats as Fabrice's failing mind led him into a vicious, infectious rampage. Now, the Rat King drops three items. The Rusty Crown that lets you talk to rats, a Giant Rat Skull (1/4 chance), and the Filthy Ring (1/32 chance).

How odd, that that is something is so specific a drop for one enemy, at an incredibly low rate. How odd, that one of the major indicators of the "True Frederic's" identity is tied to his ring. It's just about this one's opposite- gold with a red gem, rather than emerald and a tarnished silver-y copper. It's also interesting just how close it is to Faceless' ring as well. Outside of simple game mechanics, why would they paint a ring deliberately incorrect? Perhaps to signify another core part of the Original's identity. Would he tie himself so heavily to this person, that when making a portrait signifying how hollow he felt, that he'd include a nod to the friend he just caused harm?

There's also another nod for just how significant Fabrice was in starting this chain of events. A friend pointed out to me that Wriggly's hiding spot in the fridge was a bit suspect, as none of the other paintings shared a room. The trope of being "stuffed into a fridge" or "fridging" is when a loved one is hurt, killed, maimed, assaulted, or otherwise traumatized in order to motivate another character, or move their plot forward. Do I also mention how bizarrely massive the painting apartment is for one person alone? There's two bedrooms. [And they were roommates!] [Oh my god they were roommates-]

And finally, The Original Frederic. [CW for Mentions of Self-Harm, substance abuse, and suicidal idealation] The man you meet inside the closet is an echo of the person he once was. Having lost so much of himself to his paintings, it's a miracle he's as put-together as he is. Though, I've already discussed just how good he is at putting on an act. He's quite a bit more put together visibly compared to Faceless, as well. Wearing nice clothing, a gold ring with what's likely a ruby on it, clean shoes, with a coordinated color pallet. Although, his face is quite a bit more exhausted looking in comparison to his attire. Somewhat dark circles around his eyes, frazzled hair, an unkempt moustache- Though these might just be attributed to his face being ripped off and maltreated by a painting who wouldn't instinctively know human hygiene. If anything, Faceless might have a more accurate visual of what he was really like on the inside, versus the refined and practiced appearance he may have put on the exterior. Godhead's certainly good enough at seeming like something he's not, and he got that from somewhere. The paintings really didn't treat him kindly as well. Being locked in a closet with only two bottles of turpentine, perhaps in hoping he'd save them the trouble in just using them on himself? Yeesh. But after the frenzied state he'd just been in, after losing someone so close to him by just showing off his own work? I don't think he was doing alright. The scattered bottles of alcohol around the apartment, empty and full, the loaded shotgun found in the room Godhead resides in (Guy has faces on his hands, he can't exactly wield that thing), the spilled prescription medications around Tumor, the fear of the sky and agoraphobia Scared exhibits- In a way, the Original has a few parallels with the (ironically) blank canvas of a protagonist, Sam. Reclusive, having to sell his creations in order to make a living as an alternative form of employment, having some relatively nerdy interests such as collecting retro video games and vintage comics, and both now at their wits end trying to survive the hellscape that's spawned in their absence from the greater world. There's also the connection to Sybil. She mentions remembering conversing with him in the past. Were they acquaintances? Friends? Neighbors just making small talk? Admittedly I hope we can get some more insight on her past relationships to the other residents.