insane-control-room

[insane-control-room]

It’s practically 2014 and you guys still don’t know how to google if an article is real or not before giving it 100,000 notes

#nyoooo #unfortunate reality

[insane-control-room]

altar

Joey comes to ask for forgiveness. He says he's sorry. Henry doesn't think that's enough.

RATED: T - suggestive comments/behavior, uncomfortable situations

WARNINGS: Emotional hurt, tied hands

Length: medium (1750 words)

Ao3 link here. REMINDER: you must be signed into Ao3 to read my work on the platform due to AI scrapers targeting my work.

inspired by this drawing by @twinktor-frankenstein :) go check it out its great :D

Joey stared at the man around the corner, his heart rate accelerating as he observed him. Henry was resting in a hammock, one leg off the side so that he could rock himself as he relaxed. Joey stared, and bit his lip, slowly finding that he was losing his nerve. He was about to slip away when an eye opened, immediately fixing on him. 

A wave of panic crashed over Joey, and he made a move to disintegrate and disappear, but it was too late for him. Henry had made it to him in less than five bounds, his calloused, firm hand wrapping around Joey’s exposed forearm. 

“Joey,” he greeted, smiling, but there was something uncomfortably cold about the flash of his teeth. “What are you doing here?”

Joey stared at him once again, throat dry, hands trembling. Henry’s smile was still bland and neutral, but with a frigid emptiness laying beneath it. It made Joey quite uncomfortable, rather perturbed by the lack of emotion on his old friend’s face. He looked at him quietly, brows furrowed as they stared at one another in silence. 

Henry’s hand tightened sharply on Joey’s arm. 

“I asked you a question. I expect you to answer,” he spoke slowly, clearly, that low voice making Joey want to tremble. “What are you doing here, Joey?” 

“I… I wanted to…” Joey looked to the floor, finally breaking his gaze from the other man. He steeled himself with a breath, though still could not bring himself to look at Henry. “I wanted to ask you to forgive me, Henry.”

“Forgive you,” Henry repeated, staring at him. His smile made his soul ache painfully, yearn to escape. “You’re here to ask me to forgive you.”

“Yes.” Joey said, simple and soft. “I am.” 

He was not sure what he was expecting. A punch in the face, maybe. Being shoved away with the door closing in front of him. Maybe even a good kick between the legs. 

Joey was not expecting laughter. It was low and amused, tranquil but with some darkness lingering on the edges of the mirth. It made Joey’s lungs constrict. Henry released his arm at last, and folded his arms as he looked at Joey, raising an eyebrow. 

“Forgiveness,” he commented, “Is less-”

“For the person you’re apologizing to, and more for yourself, I know,” Joey restrained himself from snapping at him. “Stop messing with me, Stein, and take me seriously. I’m sorry for what I did, okay? For all of this. It never should have gone down like this, and I never should have dragged you down with me- what are you doing.” 

Henry sighed, raising an eyebrow as he lifted the tie he had pulled from beneath his collar. Joey, unsure of what the man was playing at, frowned. Henry put his hand out, gesturing with four fingers once for Joey to put his arms forward. 

Joey did so, and was baffled by the loop Henry tightened around his wrists. It was loose, though, but Henry’s firm hand came to Joey’s arm once again when he tried to pull away out of instinct. A vague sense of alarm rippled through him, but he was confident that Henry would not harm him, resulting in a conflicted meld of emotions. 

“Henry-”

“On your knees.” Henry calmly demanded. Joey stared at him, and watched Henry’s eyes harden. Swallowing harshly, he opened his mouth to protest, only for Henry to cut him off again. “Do you want to be forgiven or not? Show me you mean it.” 

Joey’s mouth closed slowly, and he hesitated, glancing to the floor again. It came closer as he knelt down slowly, discomfited but trying to put on a brave face (he was failing miserably at that, and they both knew it). As he moved down, the fabric of the tie tightened around his wrists, and honestly, he felt like crying, though he ignored that urge as hard as he could. 

“Okay, Joey,” Henry smiled at him again. “That was a good start. Try again.”

“Try- try what?” Joey asked, confused and upset. Henry’s smile relaxed him just a touch, encouraging. Joey wracked his empty head, shaking it in an attempt to figure out what Henry wanted from him. “You want me to apologize again?” 

Henry did not reply with words, only smiling once more. Joey took a deep breath. 

“I’d like to apologize,” he started, his voice tight. He paused, clearing his throat to loosen his words. “For everything I’ve done to harm you, and- and everyone else. But, you first. You didn’t deserv- hey!” 

Henry, his hand still on the end of the tie, had yanked on Joey’s arms with it, making him pitch forwards off balance. To add insult to injury, Henry’s jacket suddenly landed on his head, blocking his vision entirely as he landed harshly on his hands. He scrambled back onto his haunches as he yanked down the jacket over his face, opening his mouth to give Henry a piece of his mind- only for it to go dry immediately. 

Henry’s shirt had been partially opened, and Joey struggled to keep his eyes from dipping between the fabric and onto his chest. Henry’s hands were on the straps of his suspenders, pulling them off his shoulders deliberately, still smiling down at Joey. 

“Henry,” Joey mouthed, looking up at him with wide eyes. He fought the liquid that threatened to build up within them, blinking rapidly and it went away. Henry’s blank smile stung like wasp bites. “I’m sor-”

“Are you?” Henry asked calmly, with an icy edge as he removed his suspenders. He sighed as he snapped them between his hands, making Joey flinch at the twang. “Are you truly sorry, Joey?”

“I am,” Joey tried to keep a whine out of his tone, getting more stressed, watching the suspenders twirl around Henry’s hands. At least it was a distraction from his chest; as lined with muscle as it was. Feeling warmth trickle into his face, Joey looked away. “Really.”

“Are you, now?” Henry asked quietly, snapping the metal tipped straps once again. Joey could not meet his eye. “Joey. Look at me.”

He glanced up, and then broke his gaze again, face blazing with shame. 

“Joey.”

He repressed a shiver as the suspender strap came under his jaw, forcing him to look up at Henry once again. The metal clasps of the suspenders were strikingly cold, bringing forth the shudder Joey tried to hide. Mercifully, Henry tossed aside the suspenders upon noting the uncertain discomfort with which Joey was eyeing them, but he made no comment on it. Joey bit his lip as he watched the arch of the elastic. Slowly, he managed to look back at Henry. 

“I-” Joey swallowed down his nerves again. Joey’s eyes strained to remain on Henry’s form, focusing as hard as he could on his eyes. He mumbled his next words. “I said that I was sorry.”

“Said?” Henry laughed again. It was like ice on his arms, causing goosebumps to rise up. “You said. There’s just a small problem with that, Joey. You say a lot of things. Make a lot of promises. Talk up a pretty picture. It’s rare that you deliver on it- like you are right now.” 

Joey’s mouth was full of cotton; dry, stiff and unable to say a single word in his defense. Half lidded, Henry’s eyes came to his mouth, and then his hand did, a gentle caress on his jaw slipping up to a grip on his mouth. 

“Do you think that you’re able to get whatever you ask for?” Henry laughed, eyes crinkling with humor. Joey did not know what he found so funny. “You said you’re sorry. Do you really think you deserve forgiveness, Joey?” 

Joey kept quiet. He did not really think that way, but knew that saying anything was not going to be a good idea. There also was the fact that Henry’s strong hold on his face prevented him from saying anything coherent, anyways. Joey’s hands tightened on his own knees, digging crescents in the fabric with his nails. 

“Said,” Henry scoffed, though his voice was sunshine; and he leaned even closer, starry smile even brighter than before. “Maybe you should try begging instead.” 

Now the tears began to drip. Henry jerked his hand away from Joey as though his skin burned him. Staring down at him, his smile was gone. 

“I’m sorry,” Joey choked, sniffling as he tried to keep his roiling emotions under control. “Please, please, please forgive me. If you don’t, at least say so. I’m trying, I promise, I’m trying to make it count. Henry, please forgive me!”

“Joey-”

“I’m sorry that our studio wasn’t working out, and I’m sorry that I put more on you than you could take, and I’m sorry that I didn’t know where to stop,” Joey went on, sobbing harshly. The crushing weight of his failures felt like shackles on his wrists, tied to the heavy chains with naught but Henry’s tie. “I’m so sorry, please forgive me, please forgive me for everything I’ve done to wrong you. Please. I- I am begging you, Henry. I’ll keep begging you until you believe me. Please, please….”

“Joey….”

“I don’t know how to make it up to you,” Joey looked up at him miserably through his streaming tears. “I’m sorry that I don’t know… please, give me a chance. Please. I’ll- I’ll do anything, just say it, please-”

“Okay- okay- I-” Henry looked down at him with a torn look, smile completely gone, jarringly made uncomfortable by his own demands. After a moment of shifting where he stood, he knelt down and put his hands on Joey’s shoulders. “Maybe that was a little cruel of me. We’re both in this hell.”

Joey looked at him with the saddest, wettest eyes Henry had ever seen. Henry quickly spoke to try to get rid of them. 

“I can’t forgive you,” he said quietly. Joey’s gaze broke away again, and his tears restarted. Henry lifted his head despite the fact his tears burned his hands. “Not yet, okay? If I see you really mean it-”

It was Henry’s turn to be cut off, Joey’s bound arms coming down over his shoulders in an awkward, but tight, hug. 

Henry slowly hugged him back as he cried. 

“It’s okay, Joey,” Henry soothed, though they both knew it was not okay. “You’ll make it. I believe I can forgive you, one day.”

Joey almost believed him. 

#begging for forgiveness #control art #batim #bendy and the ink machine #joey drew #henry stein #control writes #gift fic #inspired #batdr #bendy and the dark revival #bendy #batdr henry #batdr joey #joey x henry #creatorship #complicated relationships #whump #hurt/comfort #emotional hurt #possibly unrequited love #createdship #batim fanfic #aleph paradox

[insane-control-room]

sent from above

Sammy stares at the man on the floor. Was he a false savior? Or an angel?

Notes:

inspired by the end of the batim chapter 1 fan remake :) i would link it if i could but alas...... (looks at JDS LLC)

RATED: G WARNINGS: Religious fanaticism, Paranoia Length: short (500 words) Ao3 link here. REMINDER: you must be signed into Ao3 to read my work on the platform due to AI scrapers targeting my work.

Sammy stared down at the man who had invaded their peaceful realm. 

He was soaken with ink, laden with the liquor of the Lord, and his expression, though it was hard for a moment as he turned to face the prophet, was now soft, lined with benevolent concern. 

Sammy’s hand tightened on the pipe. 

Who was this? His immediate thought was this was a false god, some imposter who had thought that he could take the place of his Lord. His arm rose to bring the pipe down again, but something- something stopped him. 

A realization. 

This could be a gift. What was that angel always yammering about? That she was an angel, sent onto them from above? No, she was not. Sammy had seen her rise from the inky puddles, she was a blasphemous fraud. Oh- oh, the realization. The revelation.

This… this was the man that Sammy had been prophesying of all along. He was wrong, in his interpretation of the Lord’s word. His Lord never meant that He would redeem him himself, and while the notion stung, this man was proof that they were not abandoned. 

He would set them free- he was sent from above. Sammy had seen the rays of sunshine above him, burning his dark and holy skin with its purifying rays. 

Sammy knelt down to this angel, prodding with the pipe carefully. His teeth, wet and soft, gnashed against one another as he tried to comprehend the human form before him. 

It was… perfect. 

Sammy inhaled once, allowing himself to relax and smile. 

But maybe- 

The thought struck

Maybe too perfect. 

Sammy flinched back, as though burned. But of course! This was nothing but a ruse, a lie, a deception! This man could not be the savior from the Lord; it was not what Sammy was promised. Or was he? 

Sammy’s head spun. He could hardly decide what he believed anymore. Was his faith so shaky?

Resolving himself, he dragged the man- angel- falsehood- into the center of the pentagram. He took the axe, ran his slick fingers along the edge of the metal. Sharp. Clean. Beautiful. 

He set it aside. It was not his tool. 

Quietly, he heard the Voice of the Lord echo through the pipes, whispering; Not yet.

A rush of electricity ran through Sammy’s body, his fingers trembling with delight, his lungs aching to sing with praise for his Lord. At last, a message! A message, for him, after silence for so long! And one that proved to him that he would be an instrument in the coming of the end, in the coming of their Freedom. The axe was not his, not yet. It would be his. He would be at the side of this angel, and together they would forge the new world. 

His heart light, Sammy assured himself that he would watch this sheep carefully, and he would be his shepard, to guide him unto the path of their Lord. 

He would set them free. 

Amen. 

#sammy lawrence #henry stein #batim #batim chapter 1 #bendy and the ink machine #sammy centric #thought narrative #confusion #paranoia #religious fanaticism #control art #control writes #aleph paradox

[insane-control-room]

Some things are meant to be remembered; for the right reasons.

i've posted this review on steam, but i think that i want to say it here, too.

Here is my review of the 'promotional' material (according to steam) Secrets of the Machine

What I liked: the art appeared to be a true return to form; the style had its original charm with updated lighting techniques and slightly better optimization than previous games in the Bendy series. The audio design was also nice, with good ambiance and nice composition.

And now, the jank.

The game handles reasonably well; but it is clearly slapdashed together and is missing important components. There is no starting menu. There are no loading screens; and it is very jarring. There are no options in the game menu - you cannot minimize the game, you cannot brighten the game, you cannot make the game run any better on your computer, and it is incredibly laggy. If you have a potato laptop? Nah, get out. No game for you. There are no subtitles that you can enable, and voices are very muffled. Additionally, the game is very dark, and as mentioned, you cannot adjust that in the settings of the game, nor in steam settings. You have to do so from your computer.

Controls are extremely janky, as you cannot run, you cannot jump, and there is no indication for interaction with any objects. There are no control settings for remapping, and you cannot even see which keys do what.

Puzzles are boring and confusing; with no guidance. There were no hints, no rhyme or reason. There was more puzzle in the BATIM chapter 1 demo release. This thing is very confusing, especially when you cannot see anything at all. You will spend a long time walking back and forth between two rooms, wondering how you can progress, because you've done everything you could: you smashed cutouts; you hit targets; you opened and closed hands; you found posters for future games, but nothing that could move forward the one you were playing at the time. If you look at the community page, you will see that most people simply spent their time clicking on the soup can dispenser to see how many cans they could get.

If you have epilepsy, nah get out. Oh? I didn't mention the flashing lights? Well the developers did not either. Not only did they not mention the flashing lights, not in the game nor in steam, but they included TWO car crashes without warning - one audio based, and another that was directed at players. This is not only rude, but it is dangerous. Warnings exist so that people can make educated choices whether or not to interact with content that may be sensitive to them. Warn people appropriately. This 'game' did not take any measure to protect its players. There are many instances of sudden loud noises, flashing lights, and jarring location switches (not to mention the car crashes).

The story was lacking, and has nothing to do with the puzzles that a player is faced with. It feels like three disjointed tracks, and none of them align, all of them crashing together in a discordant, unsatisfying, confusing mess. It brought in more new characters that had nothing to do with the original story nor interested players, and had content that went against previously established material. It was (as you can tell, from a writer's perspective) a bad story.

It was less of a demo, less of a playable trailer, more like a tech demo with a few morsels for fans to pick apart and wish there was more of, wish there was more effort put into, wish there was more love and care for them, the players who arguably were the foundation of this game. There were teasers for games that, honestly, lacked the soul that the very first game had, and here's a point to prove it: there was an easter egg that if you clicked something 414 times (very funny.) it would rise in the air and then fall down without further ado. In the game files, the name for that sound effect? Sting. Yeah. It did. Games are a collaborative work; between the creators and the players. Blatant disregard and flippancy towards half of the collaboration is not acceptable behavior. This is a development team that mocks those who once loved them most, those who poured over their coding and carefully crafted world to marvel at what they had made, and coaxed in others with the rich promise of a delightful story that anyone could engage with on any level. The spite the creators have shown for the individuals who, essentially, had given rise to their stature in the first place, is painful.

Finally, by the time that I got a chance to sit down and actually play the game- I personally could not. The developers, by constantly updating a clearly unfinished game, had made their final update - that of a wood board blocking the actual place where gameplay takes place. You cannot go to any of the places shown in the screenshots, because the game is locked on the opening area. I've seen many people complaining of it; hoping that they can play the game.

Now, in the fashion we've seen common of JDS, they have rescinded their terrible design choice - but without notifying players that it is now possible to play the game; without telling players that this was purposeful; without telling players anything aside from a big old screw you. It is entirely possible that the only reason they put the game back into a playable state was the torrent of negative reviews that spawned after their. interesting. choice. regardless, those who care about their playerbase would have informed those who complained that it was a temporary gesture for storytelling reasons. They, however, did not, and there are a multitude of reviews marking the game as unplayable.

No matter what, the bottom line is this: This is not okay.

I'm not sure how much more eloquently I can put the fact that I'm heartbroken. This game, unlike any other, shows how much scorn that a developer can have for their own fans and playerbase. I am glad that there are people who enjoyed it, but I wonder - what did you really like about it?

Is it the memories?

#control critique #secrets of the machine #bendy #batim #bendy secrets of the machine #bendy and the ink machine #bsotm #bsotm review #game review

[insane-control-room]

Oh the new bendy game, if only you weren’t confusing for the sake of being confusing and made us do something other than bashing our heads against the wall for half an hour

#ya #good points #both important notes #task manager kill this game #as someone who has been one of the longest #most involved fans through writing #this is a kick in the teeth

[insane-control-room]

not heard is my laughs/cries of confusion and torment as my crewmates @halfusek @insane-control-room @boxeption @ichaisme turned into spiders.

#spiderifies cutely in your ship #friends #lethal company

[insane-control-room]

oopsie

so the stream was a flop (ill need to solve that problem in the future but that was very weird cuz these settings worked with batdr before and i doubt batdr was easier to stream performance wise) but yall didnt miss out on anything cuz uh

basically in 15 minutes i was done with the part of the. "game". that was. actually kind of looking like one. you know i didn't expect any polish to this, it was free and all. that was the part with gaskette, it was. fine. i did not find it interesting but at least it wasnt what the rest of the game was

but you know what, i get it. finally i get it

they, or maybe just mike, but its released under their company so i will say they,

they hate theorists

they hate dataminers

alright, point taken, i guess

just push away the fans who were the most interested in playing your games, cuz that's smart

it's sad really but oh well have it your way

#so true bestie :)

[insane-control-room]

To understand what's going on here, know these things:

OpenAI is the company that makes ChatGPT

A spider is a kind of bot that autonomously crawls the web and sucks up web pages

robots.txt is a standard text file that most web sites use to inform spiders whether or not they have permission to crawl the site; basically a No Trespassing sign for robots

OpenAI's spider is ignoring robots.txt (very rude!)

the web.sp.am site is a research honeypot created to trap ill-behaved spiders, consisting of billions of nonsense garbage pages that look like real content to a dumb robot

OpenAI is training its newest ChatGPT model using this incredibly lame content, having consumed over 3 million pages and counting...

It's absurd and horrifying at the same time.

#oh i recently learned about honeypots #(in cybersec) #this is fascinating #so glad i already despised so called ai #school resource

[insane-control-room]

WARNINGS: abusive relationship; blood; death; horror elements.

talk so pretty

#atabulus ramirez #dr atabulus #alessandra ramirez #control art #control draws #johan ramirez #animatic #animation #oc art #complicated relationships #oc content #storytime #teeth #5sos #five seconds of summer #tbp #the big picture #control animatic #Youtube #tw abusive relationship #tw blood #tw death #tw horror

[insane-control-room]

animatic coming out today :)

#its been a while #hoping to get back into the swing of things

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#YAY #epic art #rayman

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I don't know what to say, I guess I just don't want to let my Tumblr die...

#this is great #mother 3

[insane-control-room]

this lion made me scream cry and have several small heart attacks

#friend art event sketch #sketch #doodle #lion #mouse art #control art #control draws #i needed to make her beautiful #she is going to a party

[insane-control-room]

Hello again Bendy fans!

Wanna join an animatic collab?

Missed our previous collabatimatic? Well, there’s good news for you today!

Come join us in creating an animatic for Generation X & Billy Idol's memifiable song "Dancing with Myself" to celebrate... Um... Joeyverse :)!

Organized by @insane-control-room (who also drew the cute lil animation above!) and yours truly <3

The animatic will be a bouncy Joey centric project. Each artist will be assigned at least 3 frames for one panel. Slots are flexible, and roll call ends April 21st. The final deadline will be July 9th, with check-ins every two weeks or so! Editing skills are welcome :)

View the outlines, roadmap, and more on the Discord server here:

A more detailed roadmap looks like this: April 2: Begin Role Call April 21: End Roll call May 4: Finalize Verse Claims. All Joey References Submitted May 18: Submit Sketch June 1: Submit Progress (1/3) (the three-to-five frames of your panel should be lineworked) June 14: Submit Progress (2/3) (the three-to-five frames of your panel should be colored) June 31: Submit Progress (3/3) (final draft) July 9: All Panels Submitted, editing begins July 25: Preview/Final Edits July 30/August 1: Showtime!

Imagine Dragons’ “Sharks” is on the roster for a future animatic, so if you want to join, Sharks will require that you have worked on at least one animatic with our team previously due to an ambitious workload.

#bendy and the ink machine #collabatimatics #bendy and the dark revival #batim #batdr #bendy fandom #ya #:3

[insane-control-room]

richard on the solemn tempest

oh fuck this is a really good hill i gotta die on this

#astral spiff #astralspiff

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I’ve been seeing a lot of anti-Nazi ones, which is great, but I felt like we needed one to show our support for the Jewish community.  

#i want everyone to take a moment #and actually scroll through some replies #just replies #<3

[insane-control-room]

Some of my favorite Hassidic Purim pictures

#chag purim sameach