#Could perform an actual exorcism

[potato-lord-but-not]

sometimes I'm surprised John was like "i tried to kill Oscar and it was a manifestation of my guilt" bc prior to that bc of the timing I had assumed John heard Oscar talk abt trying to do an exorcism on Marie's husband and had thought "this guy CANNOT learn abt my existence or hes gonna do that to ME"

That’s honestly so funny to image that John actually thought an exorcism would work on him. like yes there’s probably a way to actually do that which resembles an exorcism. But John,,, honey,, you’d think an exorcism? from a catholic priest? would work? after living inside the head of Christianity’s number one hater and nonbeliever??? cmon now

[jessamine-rose]

⋆˚♱ଘ Requiem for the Damned ଓ♱˚⋆

*holds head in hands* Idk why Dottore keeps haunting me with writing inspo. And for this idea to manifest just before Holy Week….fuck it, I hope you all enjoy the blasphemous tale of Priest! Dottore x Demon! Darling _:(´ཀ`」 ∠):

Tw:: yandere, violence, death, religious abuse, dubcon, mention of nsfw, MINORS DNI

Note:: fictional depictions of religion

♡ 2.7k words under the cut ♡

♡ Despite your status as a wandering demon, you have no place in human cognizance. Rather, you conceal yourself from mortal eyes in favor of close observations and whispered temptations. Humans, from your perspective, are interesting creatures—they are ambitious, easily influenced by spiritual beings, capable of both good and evil.

♡ And what better example than the one who summoned you on a starry night? Such rituals are not uncommon amongst heretics, but most only succeed in invoking the contempt of their fellow humans. And few would invoke your name, much less commit sacrilege within the walls of the Church.

♡ You sense danger immediately upon your appearance. Within the summoning circle, you take note of your sigil perfectly illustrated in blood against marble. Beyond it, what alarms you is not your sacred surroundings nor the fresh corpse mixed with your offerings of books and fruit. It is the figure standing over you, cloaked in moonlight, gazing at you with eyes the color of hellfire.

“My ritual is a success. Welcome to my humble church, o noble demon…or would you rather be addressed by your epithet? ______, Fallen Seraph, the Seeker of Forbidden Knowledge.”

♡ A glimpse into his soul is all it takes to strike fear into your heart. Within Hell, there are rumors of a small village in Sumeru. Its people are nothing of note, a congregation of simpletons whose lives revolve around the beliefs of their Church. The lone exception is the main priest, Father Zandik, better known as Il Dottore.

♡ The stories, passed through human voices, speak of a child ostracized for his unconventional beliefs and his interest in the macabre. Branded a madman, he was placed in the care of the Church elders who corrected his ways of thinking. Once he became of age, Zandik was given the choice to move out of the rectory or to remain as a priest; he chose the latter of his own volition.

♡ Since his ordination, Zandik has proved himself to be an exceptional priest. He educates the masses, reviews theological texts, performs exorcisms, and provides religious counsel for the doubtful. He even serves as the town’s doctor, fully gaining the acceptance of his community.

♡ The rumors don’t stop there. For Il Dottore earned his title by performing miracles. It is he who guides the people into religious ecstasy, he who cures the sick from mysterious curses, he who blesses the weak into “enhanced humans.” There are already whispers that once Dottore’s mortality catches up with him, he will surely be canonized as the Patron Saint of Doctors and Miracles.

♡ But spiritual beings such as yourself know the truth. That Dottore is neither a kind priest nor a devout believer, that his days in the Church only magnified his heretical inclinations. Disillusioned with God, Zandik decided to turn His religious sanctuary into his own laboratory, one where he could fulfill his lust for knowledge through a mask of holiness.

♡ He manipulates the people with false teachings. He triggers religious ecstasy with drugged incense. He singles out devotees to “test their faith” during the quiet hours of the Church. And what the town perceives as curses and miracles are actually scientific experiments in which Dottore plays god.

♡ It’s too late to escape. No matter your divine powers, nothing prepares you for Dottore’s traps. The incantations, the barrier of the summoning circle, an aura so holy yet sinister that it couldn’t possibly come from ordinary religious objects—all you can do is fall to your knees and beg for his mercy, all the while he watches you with a confident smile.

♡ His intentions are like that of any human: He summoned you to form a contract. In exchange for his soul, he demands your knowledge, your resources, your full servitude for so long as he roams the mortal plane. Your hesitation only triggers another wave of scorching pain, followed by panic as Dottore grips your horn and forces you to face him.

“Make no mistake, ______. The mere fact of your divinity does not make you indestructible. In exchange for your cooperation, you will bear witness to experiments of the same magnitude as God’s creations. What say you?”

♡ You have no other choice. And that is how, in the sanctity of the Church, you make a deal with the human named Zandik. Once the pact has been forged, Dottore admires the bright sigil on his chest, plucks a few feathers from your wings, and disables the summoning circle so you can leave. Thus begins your personal hell.

♡ It is easy for you to answer Dottore’s questions about the divine. The horror lies in assisting him in experiments, responding to his summons no matter the inconvenience, allowing him to extract your blood, tears, and feathers. No, what’s most humiliating is when he uses your body for his “research,” bending you over the altar and bringing you to physical ecstasy against your will.

♡ At this point, you don’t know who to pray to. One night, Dottore shows you a secret room in his laboratory. As soon as he lights the lamps, your eyes take in numerous bodies and skeletons of a different classification from his usual victims. The extra bones jutting from the scapulas, the amputated wings, the halos pinned to the walls, the holy aura you’d felt from his religious objects…instantly, Dottore’s powers make sense.

“This is my first specimen. She was my guardian angel…no, I jest. She was a mere messenger who implored me to repent for my sins. From her words, I deduced it had been within Heaven’s capacity to save me during my youth—and yet God only sent an angel to me after my first act of blasphemy.”

The angels…how many has he killed? Not even during your fall from Heaven did you feel such primal fear for your life. But you cannot scream—you have long been trained to resist fight and flight. All you can do is listen to Dottore’s explanation, watch as he approaches a pure white skeleton and wraps his hands around its fractured hyoid bone.

He gives you a calm smile. “Luckily, her body provided me with indispensable resources for my experiments and my procurement of her brethren. I believe her name was Sohreh.”

♡ Just when you think it can’t get any worse, Dottore points at the far corner of the room to reveal a space dedicated to demons. Four dead bodies, their causes of death vividly described. Horns, wings, and other body parts amputated in exchange for lives spared after exorcisms. And when Dottore returns to your side, tracing the wound from where he broke off your horn, you can only tremble and acquiesce to a checkup. It grows back fully by the end of the year.

♡ He has his moments of vulnerability, however. Perhaps it is due to your nature as a demon, a creature which represents evil, that Dottore does not hide his heart from you. Once, after his usual confessions—he always makes up trivial sins—he remains in the confessional until his fellow priest has left. Then he goes to the altar and summons you.

♡ What catches you off-guard is not his lack of greetings. Rather, it’s the way he pulls you close to his body, lips ghosting the curve of your ear. There, in the heart of the Church, he whispers to you every sin he has ever committed. Despite his normal tone of voice, his words have never betrayed a language so guiltless, so sincere, so human.

♡ He asks how much of his madness is to blame on the influence of demons, or if he had been born wicked. He asks if humans were truly given the mental faculties to withstand temptation regardless of their circumstances. He asks if the same can be said for spiritual beings, questioning why former angels like you were also created with the capacity to sin. He even asks if praying for a demon can offer them any hope of salvation.

♡ It takes you a while to answer his questions. It’s just like him to put your emotions in disarray, to make you feel pity for the very cause of your current suffering. Against your nature, you wonder if there is still a chance for Zandik, if he can somehow repent or find a way to save himself from your contract and all of his sins. Even if it is too late, He has always been more forgiving to humans than angels.

ﮩ٨ـﮩﮩ٨ـ♡ﮩ٨ـﮩﮩ٨

“Do you know why I became a demon, Zandik?”

Your question is what prompts Zandik to pull away from you, though his touch lingers. His gaze, as always, is unfathomable; you can never discern what hides within those pools of crimson.

“No, I do not. Few demonological texts allude to your existence, and only the Lesser Key of Deshret cites your previous status as an angel of the highest ranking. I have made theories in relation to your epithets but I respect all possibilities. Now what would you, as the primary source, reveal to me?”

Now it is your turn to confess.

“Seraphim are the closest to God but for that reason, we are the most distant from His creations. Everything we know of the world is derived only from what He tells us, not our own insights. And so I defied His Word and ate the forbidden fruit from the Tree of Knowledge, committing the same sin which condemned all of humanity.”

The tip of your upper wing brushes against Zandik’s face, while your middle wings encircle his body in a loose hug. As for your lower wings…they are nothing but twin scars covered in short feathers. After your descent, it seemed like a rational decision to chop them off, broken as they were. It helped that your wings had just outgrown their original purpose.

For once, you barely flinch at the sensation of his touch against your scars. Many times, Zandik has inquired about the loss of your lower wings and even asked if he could have them. They still remain in Hell, tucked away in a corner of your home, eyes forever closed.

It takes a few seconds for him to respond. “Do you ever regret your decision?”

You shrug. “It was difficult at first, naturally. Many of my eyes were blinded—yes, that is why I rarely open the ones on my wings—but those which still function have seen so many wonderful sights up-close. Neither must I cover my face with my remaining wings. And despite being what your kind and my former brethren would dub a monster…I’m happier now.”

“I see, I see.” His curiosity appears far from sated, however, a sentiment you can empathize with. “As I thought, God is incomprehensible. For Him to deny even His greatest creation of salvation…it confirms that there are limits to the forgiveness of that which humans call a ‘loving god.’ Thank you for sharing this knowledge with me.”

And just as quickly as he initiated his confession, Zandik steps out of your grasp and dismisses you. But you make no haste, silently watching him after you “leave.”

His expression is thoughtful. A gloved hand touches his chest, right above your sigil.

Such an interesting creature.

Honestly, you don’t know what to make of your feelings for this human. Much as you despise his cruel treatment towards you, he never fails to capture your interest with his experiments and philosophies. Whenever he speaks of God, you wonder if a small part of him still desires to be saved. But that will never be.

Zandik preaches salvation with the knowledge that he will never receive it. For the Church never taught him how to love.

ﮩ٨ـﮩﮩ٨ـ♡ﮩ٨ـﮩﮩ٨

♡ Il Dottore never became the Patron Saint of Doctors and Miracles. Neither did he have a funeral mass befitting of a priest, nor a peaceful death from natural causes. Instead, he died young, laicized, once again denounced as a heretic by his community.

♡ You don’t know how his crimes were exposed, and why now. Perhaps it is God’s punishment for him, a blessing for his victims, or both. Either way, Dottore paid for his sins on a sunny day, burned at the stake before a disdainful crowd. Not long after his heart stopped beating, his belongings were thrown into the fire—research, tools, anything which carried his memory.

♡ You never left his side. After his last rites, led by an elderly bishop who condemned Zandik as he did in the past, you sat next to him and offered a final conversation. He didn’t express any fear nor sadness in regards to his imminent death, merely stating it a pity that his achievements could never be appreciated in his town.

♡ …He did ask if there is any chance of meeting again in Hell, but you reminded him that the punishment of sinners is out of your jurisdiction. Plus, it’s better that way—you have no desire to avenge yourself, and you’d rather not witness Zandik’s suffering for all eternity. You can only imagine the severity of his punishment, what more if he is assigned to one of the demons he exorcized.

♡ During his execution, you stood at the front of the crowd. You kept your eyes trained on him, for so long as his scarlet orbs remained open, whispering the prayers for the dead on his behalf. While a part of you felt liberated, another was mournful. You hope your last words to Zandik gave him solace in his final moments.

“Rest now, Zandik. God may never forgive your sins, but I shall.”

♡ And thus ends the life of Il Dottore. In the following days, the Church is purged of its holy, sinister aura, mainly because they discarded the religious objects tainted with angel remains. You continue your usual obligations as a wandering demon, but the humans you observe pale in comparison to your companion of many years.

♡ Not long after, you return to Hell for your other divine duties. As soon as you appear in your abode, however, something feels off. The sinister aura, the offering of books and fruit, your lower wings gone from their original place… The answer comes in the form of a hand grabbing you by the horn, pulling you backwards, twisting your body to meet a familiar gaze the color of hearth-fire. Only, this time, those eyes are brimming with pure joy, paired with a genuine smile.

♡ Apparently, Dottore’s soul did end up in Hell but not in the way you expected. In a proud voice, he explains that the Devil gave him a special fate. Whether it was due to vacant positions or everyone’s fear of the infamous “Demon-Killer,” you’ll never know. What Dottore does confirm is that as the demon bound to him via contract, you have to take responsibility and act as his companion in Hell.

“Rather than subject me to eternal suffering, the Devil believed that my talents would prove useful for the punishments of my fellow sinners. How wonderful is it for my achievements to be recognized in Hell? …Oh? I didn’t predict such a physical reaction from you. All of your eyes are wide open, and you seem to be on the verge of fainting.”

♡ You don’t know if you want to laugh or cry. To think your personal hell has been extended to eternity—are your sins enough to warrant such a fate?! But after confirming your misfortune, all you can do is sigh and tend to Zandik. He looks exactly the same, with the exception of a few burn scars on his body. And judging by the familiar black feathers on his person, he seems eager to discard his former religious attire along with his mask of faith.

♡ And when Zandik unfastens his scorched cassock, he takes your hand and places it on his unburned chest, right above your sigil. It glows vibrantly, brighter than any light you laid eyes on in Heaven. And beneath the flesh, you can feel his heart beating in sync with yours.

“Tell me, ______, do I still appear human to you?”

“You already know my answer to that question. But fine, I’ll admit it: Yes, you always have.”

♡ 

More Church AU here!! Capitano ๑ Arlecchino ๑ Pantalone ๑ Pierro ๑ Dainsleif

Note:: Please do not send me any Church AU asks/ requests involving other characters or dynamics who are not listed in my masterlist.

At long last, I am free from Priesttore…thank you to everyone. To my readers, to my fellow Dottore simps, to my mutuals who indulged my tortured DMs after midnight, to the artist whose fan art inspired this idea to begin with. May you all have a lovely day╰(*´︶`*)╯♡

Tag a Dottore enjoyer!! @leftdestiny-posts @beloved-blaiddyd @mochinon-yah @diodellet @lcveaesop @oofasleep @bye-bye-sunbird @yandere-romanticaa @boundinparchment @harmonysanreads @teabutmakeitazure @yandere-wishes @yanmaresu @nicebonescomrades @nimandu @lesanyanyas @moarar

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Bowen McCurdy and Jordan Morris’s “Youth Group”

NEXT SATURDAY (July 20), I'm appearing in CHICAGO at Exile in Bookville.

Youth Group is Bowen McCurdy and Jordan Morris's new and delightful graphic novel from Firstsecond. It's a charming tale of 1990s ennui, cringe Sunday School – and demon hunting.

https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250789235/youthgroup

Kay is a bitter, cynical teenager who's doing her best to help her mother cope with an ugly divorce that has seen her dad check out on his former family. Mom is going back to church, and she talks Kay into coming along with her to attend the church youth group.

This is set in the 1990s, and the word "cringe" hasn't yet entered our lexicon as an adjective, but boy is the youth group cringe. The pastor is a guitar-strumming bearded dad who demonstrates how down he is with the kids by singing top 40 songs rewritten with evangelical lyrics (think Weird Al meets the 700 Club). Kay gamely struggles through a session and even makes a friend or two, and agrees to keep attending in deference to her mother's pleas.

But this is no ordinary youth group. Kay's ultra-boring suburban hometown is actually infested with demons who routinely possess the townspeople, and that baseline of demonic activity has suddenly gone critical, with a new wave of possessions. Suddenly, the possessed are everywhere – even Kay's shitty dad ends up with a demon inside of him.

That's when Kay discovers that the youth group and its corny pastor are also demon hunters par excellence. Their rec-rooms sport secret cubbies filled with holy weapons, and the words of exorcism come as readily to them as any embarrassing rewritten devotional pop song. Kay's discovery of this secret world convinces her that youth group isn't so bad after all, and soon she is initiated into its mysteries, including the existence of rival demon-hunting kids from the local synagogue, Catholic church, and Wiccan coven.

As the nature of the new demonic incursion becomes clearer, it falls on Kay and her pals to overcome these sectarian divisions over the protests of their guitar-strumming, magic-wielding leader. That takes on a special urgency when Kay learns why the demons are interested in her, personally, and a handful of other kids in town who all share a secret trait.

I confess that as someone who lived through the 1990s as a young man, there is something disorienting about experiencing the decade of my young adulthood through the kind of retro lens I associate with the 1950s or 1960s. But while the experience is disorienting, it's not unpleasant. McCurdy's artwork and Morris's snappy dialog conjure up that bygone decade in a way that is simultaneously affectionate and critical, exposing the hollowness of its performative ennui and the brave face that performance represented even as the world was being swept up in corporate gigantism.

McCurdy and Morris are really onto something here, implicitly asking us why the 1990s gave us Buffy and Sabrina (and The Coven, etc etc) – what was it about that decade in which Reaganomics and globalism consolidated the gains of the 1980s, where the climate emergency took on its undeniable urgency, where media monopolies mastered the art of commodifying counterculture faster than it could mutate into new forms?

Morris's writing really shines here. If you enjoyed Bubble, his earlier outing based on the post-apocalyptic comedy podcast of the same name, you will love this one:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/08/21/podcasting-as-a-visual-medium/#huntr

Morris is also half of Jordan, Jesse Go!, the long-running podcast where he and Jesse Thorn do a weekly ha-ha-only-serious goofball schtick that never fails to smuggle in really clever and insightful ideas amidst the poop jokes.

https://maximumfun.org/podcasts/jordan-jesse-go/

John Hodgman calls nostalgia a "toxic impulse." Church Group deftly avoids nostalgia's trap, managing to be a period piece without falling prey to the Happy Days pathology of ignoring the many flaws and problems of its era. And of course, it's a hoot and a blast.

Support me this summer on the Clarion Write-A-Thon and help raise money for the Clarion Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers' Workshop!

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/06/16/blight/#the-dream-of-the-nineties

[yinyuedijun]

bofurin trio in feudal japan | youkai au

inuyasha-esque au featuring the wbk characters as youkai and other feudal era figures. I watched too much inuyasha as a child and you can tell lol

kitsune!suo x fem!reader hcs here

sakura haruka | nekomata-possessed human

→ a nekomata possessed him while he was still in the womb. its memories are gone, but its powers remained. consequently, sakura was born as a human with nekomata features (including his black & white hair, superhuman strength, and a tendency to severely misbehave).

→ he can switch completely between forms. he cannot shift into the form of another human or radically change his human appearance, however.

→ he tends to prefer existing in his human form. (If he spends too long in his nekomata form, he becomes afraid that he'll forget how to be a human and permanently stay a monster.)

→ when he gets embarrassed or very emotional, his ears and two tails come out.

→ suo teases him a lot for this and will try to provoke it as much as possible lmao. he likes to offer sakura towels and ask him to dance whenever his tails are out. (the first time this happened, sakura tried to maul him lol)

→ growing up, sakura was referred to as a "demon child" and ostracized his whole life. after a demon attack on their village, sakura was blamed and his parents were killed for having given birth to him. he escaped to the mountains (where nekomata tend to hide) and lived mostly as a cat for some time before re-entering human society due to nirei.

→ this is why he's so poorly socialized and literally has feral cat energy btw lol

→ misses and longs for human connection, but is also afraid of it!

→ hates vegetables because he is a cat, likes meat because he is a cat, and likes eggs because his mom used to cook them a lot.

art by yoshitaka amano

nirei akihiro | human onmyouji

→ an onmyouji related by blood to the abe clan. originally a young and talented officer working at the bureau of onmyou, he became frustrated (frightened) with its politics and left for the private sector. he loses the court official hat, but he keeps the clothes because I think they're pretty 👍

→ his talents mainly lie in astronomy, divination, and calendar-making. very analytical stuff!

→ due to his family having been affected by disease spirits when he was younger, he has a strong wish to become skilled in exorcisms and always attempts to engage with evil spirits and demons to build experience.

→ chronicles his encounters with the supernatural, at first for his own learning, but now because he wants to put together a publication to help others interested in recognising supernatural phenomena and understanding common exorcism practices.

→ at some point, nirei was privately contracted to perform a purification ritual at a small mountain village. he heard stories about a boar demon that had been causing problems, so he went to go search for it, and it nearly killed him. sakura (living in his nekomata form) happened to be nearby at this time and saved him. he expected nirei to try to attack him or run at this point, but nirei instead tried to communicate with sakura, despite his monstrous appearance.

→ upon realising that sakura could actually adopt a human form, nirei convinced him to go back to the mountain village with him by offering to treat him to oyakodon.

→ the villagers were somewhat frightened by his appearance, but warmed up when nirei explained that sakura had killed the boar.

pictured above are japanese works depicting kitsune, which suo would be considered, but some of the below is influenced by lore regarding the related chinese myth of the huli jing

suo hayato | nine-tailed fox spirit

→ a nine-tailed fox spirit who was originally quite powerful; however, his hoshi no tama was stolen in a fight with a demon, which left him weak and nearly dead.

→ after these events, took refuge in a village with an inari shrine and acted as their guardian deity for some time as an act of gratitude.

→ having lost his hoshi no tama, suo's powers are now limited but still substantial. notably, he can still shapeshift freely between a number of forms—his original form of the common fox, different human appearances, etc.—but he cannot adopt his true form of a giant nine-tailed fox.

→ in his typical disguise, he is indistinguishable from regular humans. however, if you manage to catch his shadow in the light of a full moon, it reveals his true ears and nine tails. (based on this art!)

→ his disguises are otherwise so skilled that even other youkai and animals have difficulty recognising him. however, all dogs can sense fox spirits and are consequently terrified of suo. suo, himself, prefers not to interact with dogs.

→ while sakura did not immediately recognize suo as a youkai, he correctly identified him as a shitty person at his core (lol) and was later unsurprised to learn that suo was a kitsune. ("oh, the worst kind of demon.")

→ on the other hand, suo immediately recognized that sakura was a nekomata lol

→ being a fox spirit, suo is quite skilled in jujutsu and eventually trains nirei in exorcisms and/or demon extermination techniques.

→ sakura has a preference to travel and hunt demons at night, partly because there are fewer people around to make a spectacle of him, and partly because it's just his inclination as a cat. since nirei is a human and cannot see well in the dark (unlike his two youkai companions), suo lights up mountain pathways with kitsunebi to allow nirei to see.

→ in addition to enjoying tea and sweets, suo likes aburaage (since he is a fox spirit). if you offer aburaage to the kami at a shrine, there's a 9/10 chance that suo will come by and eat it before any of inari's actual messengers can visit.

[theladysunami]

Many other people have already posted their thoughts on the various peaks of Cang Qiong Mountain sect, so I figure I might as well throw my own thoughts and preferred headcanons out there.

First, my thoughts on the peaks we know exist but don't know much about in terms of their specialties:

Xian Shu Peak: Textiles Peak

This is my favorite headcanon for the all women's peak! The textiles industry is a big part of Chinese history, and was traditionally considered to be women's work, so it would only make sense for it to be Xian Shu Peak's peak specialty. It's not just one specific skill either, as spinning, weaving, dying, garment making, embroidery, rope/cord-making, etc. are all a part of the industry.

As they are a cultivation peak, I expect some of the products of their work to be defensive robes with talismans or incantations stitched into the fabric, Qiankun bags or sleeves, spirit trapping pouches, etc. If rope making is included in their preview, they could also be involved in making immortal binding cables, nets, and so forth.

Ku Xing Peak: Rites, Rituals and Purification Peak

We don't know much about Ku Xing Peak except that they live an aesthetic lifestyle. As it's common for individuals to take on certain aspects of aestheticism (simple clothes, restricted diets, abstinence, etc.) before engaging in many types of rituals, I'm inclined to believe a peak that practices aestheticism at all times would be particularly well suited for such tasks.

I tend to imagine their peak being similar to the Gusu Lan Clan, minus the music aspect (music being Qing Jing's purview). They could specialize in things like summoning spirits, communing with the dead, dispelling resentment, exorcisms, purifying objects or locations, properly laying the dead to rest, etc.

Since SVSSS predominantly focuses on demons, not ghosts, it's only natural a peak that deals more in spiritual cleansing and laying the dead to rest wouldn't be involved in the plot much.

Zui Xian Peak: Potions and Elixers Peak

While lot of fanfics make jokes about Zui Xian being a peak for alcoholics (which is completely fair, as this is the dick joke filled world of SVSSS we're talking about), my first thought upon learning of Zui Xian Peak's specialty was the immorality granting heavenly wine in the Journey to the West. Looking into the matter more, I've since learned that wine has actually been a huge part of Chinese medicine since the Han Dynasty. The traditional character for medicine even includes the radical for wine!

With this kind of precedent, it seems only logical that Zui Xian Peak doesn't merely make alcohol for social and/or enjoyment purposes, it's quite likely to be the ‘external alchemy’ peak of Cang Qiong Mountain. I expect they grow and process at least some of their own herbs and ingredients, along with performing other alcohol and potion making tasks like brewing, distilling, extracting, fermenting, filtering, infusing, and so on.

Next, my thoughts on what the three mystery peaks might be:

I am not going to try and name these peaks, as I struggle with naming things even in my own native tongue.

Hunting, Trapping and Scouting Peak

Having read MDZS before SVSSS, I found the distinct lack of archery in SVSSS to be quite peculiar. As the peak of scholars and strategists, I suppose it's only logical Qing Jing Peak focuses on the four scholarly arts (the guqin, strategy games, calligraphy, and painting), rather then the six arts of Confucian gentlemen (rites, music, archery, equestrianism, calligraphy, and mathematics), but that does leave several ‘arts’ free to be claimed by other peaks! This inspired me to think up a hunting and scouting peak, where disciples excel at archery and equestrianism.

Since mounted archers became a significant aspect of Chinese warfare in the 4th century BC, thanks to King Wuling of Zhao, I'd say having cultivators of this sort in a Xianxia setting is perfectly reasonable. Giving Cang Qiong Mountain sect scouts also nicely fills the gap in their martial capabilities. Without this peak they have strategists, weapon craftsman, ground troops, and suppliers, but no reconnaissance forces!

I also consider this peak to be the rough equivalent of the ‘Beast Taming Peak’ so many works are fond of. Who else could breed and control hundreds of spirit eagles for the Immortal Alliance Conference but a group of cultivators focused on scouting missions? As supernaturally superior mounts and spirit (hunting) dogs would be incredibly helpful to them, they'd likely engage in horse and dog breeding programs as well! Their skill as hunters and trappers would also permit them both to provide game for Cang Qiong Mountain sect, and to aid in the rounding up of various living monsters for both alchemical ingredient harvesting and for releasing at events like the Immortal Alliance Conference.

In summary, this peak would produce disciples skilled at equestrianism, archery, falconry, animal husbandry, scouting, herb gathering, hunting, trapping, etc. For anyone familiar with D&D, I did basically make a Ranger peak here, but I stand by that decision!

Artifacts, Arrays and Invention Peak

Every time I read a work with some variation on the "Mad Scientist Peak" I adore it, so naturally I have to include this type of peak as well. This peak would be for the Wei Wuxians of the cultivation world, hoping to revolutionize cultivation society!

Their focus would be mathematics, spell geometry, arrays, talismans, non-medicinal alchemy (aka ancient materials science), engineering and of course artifact recovery, study and creation. The crystal mirror ‘surveillance equipment’ from the Immortal Alliance Conference? These guys would be the ones that developed it!

Agriculture, Earthworks and Architecture Peak

While I admittedly don't know the nuances of feng shui, I am at least aware there is far more to it then what you usually see in western depictions. In MDZS, it's noted that an area having bad feng shui (like Yi City) can cause premature death, disaster, and an increase in all sorts of nasty supernatural phenomena! With this in mind, a peak that focuses on connecting to and harmonizing with one's environment seems perfect for the final Cang Qiong Mountain peak.

I don't imagine this peak doing much of the actual building in the sect (that's An Ding's job) but when it comes to designing the sect's buildings, or altering its geography through earthworks, they're the ones to talk to. I also see them as producing at least some of the sect’s food supply, using their skills to encourage a positively supernatural abundance of plants.

In short, disciples of this peak would be skilled with things like architecture, earthworks, geography, topography, irrigation, agriculture, element manipulation, etc.

If SVSSS’s heavenly realms have anything akin to TGCF’s elemental masters, there is probably an unusually high chance they come from this peak.

[deconstructthesoup]

Okay, well, I shouldn't have made myself think about Fig and Fabian's little sister, because now I have a whole fucking concept for her and her adventuring party in her Aguefort years, complete with Sandra Lynn and Jawbone fankids.

So... say hello to the Hellraisers, named for the fact that they had to perform an exorcism on their first day:

Faroe Lomenelda Faeth (she/her): The party wildcard and ultimate pastel goth, Faroe looked up to both of her older siblings from the get-go, even if her big brother insisted that they were archrivals sworn to destroy each other (it became more and more of an inside joke as she grew older). Taking a page out of both of their books, she became a bard---specifically, a College of Spirits bard, because she always loved the spooky stories about ghost ships and drowned sailors---but she also took a page out of Cathilda's book and became a Swashbuckler rogue, which really just meant that she could spar with Fabian and Fig whenever she wanted. Even though she never met Bill Seacaster, growing up in a converted pirate ship definitely gave her a love for the pirate aesthetic... though, she has absolutely inherited her dad's love of yogurt. Just mango-strawberry with fruit chunks instead of lemon. Hey, it just means that she can sleep in and eat a yogurt cup for breakfast on the way to school.

Parker O'Shaughnessy (he/they): One half of the Hellraiser's werewolf twins, Parker definitely inherited his dad and big sister's wild, grunge-meets-crust-punk energy. So much so, in fact, that he wound up becoming a Path of the Beast barbarian, fully embracing his wolf side and becoming almost as much of a wildcard as Faroe is. In fact, they're actually Faroe's best friend, and while they only sort of consider each other semi-siblings due to both being Fig's younger siblings, Parker and Faroe are definitely the revival of the Kristen-and-Fig chaos of the old days. Also, Parker is the drummer in Faroe's band, the Go-Ghosts. She's the lead singer and guitarist.

Luna O'Shaughnessy (she/they): The other half of the werewolf twins, Luna was much closer to her adopted sister and her cousin growing up, and she developed a deep fascination with the wonders and mysteries of magic. So much so, in fact, that she ended up not only dedicated herself to a god of magic, becoming an Arcana Domain cleric, but she also learned the secrets of wizardry, becoming a School of Conjuration wizard. And yes, this multiclass means that they're the backbone of the Hellraisers, in both healing abilities and crazy spell shenanigans. Everyone's a tiny bit scared of them, which they don't understand---from their perspective, they're just an awkward nerd who's passionate about their interests. Luna also plays the keyboard in the Go-Ghosts, inspired by years of tinkering around on the piano in Mordred Manor.

Marsh Runecarver (he/him): Marsh is from a Goliath family, but having an Archfey warlock for a dad has resulted in him being a Hexblood. He started school about a year later than normal due to his fey nature manifesting at an early age, so he's a bit older than the rest of the party---and definitely wiser. Marsh is a Circle of the City druid, and he's got a kind of laid-back, solarpunk vibe to him, which definitely lends well to him kind of being the unofficial older brother of the Hellraisers. Funnily enough, Marsh is also popular, in the sense that he's really nice to everyone, remembers everyone's name, and gets along with people really easily. He's also a fantastic bass player.

Arko Spitz (they/them): The party’s resident “little guy,” Arko is a goblin and a Battlesmith artificer, who uses their skills with tech and robotics for... well, a number of things. For one, they're a theater techie who started out manning a spotlight and quickly graduated to running and programming the lighting board, and they've also designed some special effects. For two, Arko's inventions have proven invaluable, either in combat or when there needs to be spying done. And for three... they have a well-earned reputation as the greatest prankster that Aguefort Adventuring Academy has ever seen. They don't even have the wild "class clown" energy, they just like to make robots and do crazy things with them to see if they can. The academy waits in anticipation and dread whenever the word "hypothesis" comes out of Arko's mouth.

Roshini Gupta (she/her): Captain of the cheer squad and high-femme lesbian icon, Roshini is a fire genasi and the Hellraiser's third multiclass---well, she's mostly a Sun Soul monk, but she's also got a few levels of Genie warlock in there (and yes, her patron is her parent). She's well aware that she's the only prep in a party full of alternative oddballs, but she doesn't mind at all, and she's always very supportive of everything her party members get up to. Like, Roshini will attend every Go-Ghost gig, pick out supplies for every hare-brained scheme that Parker and Arko are planning, help organize every Green Team event with Marsh, and so. Much. More. Roshini believes in bringing the cheerleader spirit to everything she does, so much so that the Hellraisers have joked that she should take a level of paladin.

Aaaaaand... that's it!

(Picrews here in case anybody wants to draw these goobers)

[buffaloborgine]

Some important details that Spirit Hunter franchise has developed throughout games, light novels, manga and audio drama

Death Mark 1: - Spirits are born from grudge of people who died a horrible death. - A spirit would be on vengeance mode towards those that they deem as the ones causing their death, once they are done they would go dormant until they are woken up by a spirit of higher power rank.

Red Riding Hood DLC: - Spirits can perform possession on humans, although it will exhibit strange behaviors or strange body transformation.

Aoki Shuuen: - There is a possibility of multiple timelines in the Spirit Hunter universe. - Hyaki Yakyo (Night of Hundred Demons Parade) is an event when grotesque dolls gave birth to many spirits. It has happened once in the past. - European-style dolls are mainly porcelain dolls, one house in Europe seems to be the root of the European dolls. - Dolls are souls of human sacrifices as offering to evil spirits to seal them up. In this case, Mary is the first offering to the Master of the Mark. - The golden gun probably exists somewhere in the main timeline.

NG(game + light novel + bad end audio drama): - Asian doll(s) are probably straw doll. - Spirits can have time manipulation ability, the source of this power is unknown, but it apparently affects anything (whether alive or not) in the area of effect. This ability doesn't restrict to high ranked spirits only. - Mirror can be used as a portal to enter the realm of the Death, or for the dead to get into the living realm. - Some spirits just don't deserve salvation. - Spirits can kill other spirits. - Sometimes a half-human half-spirit entity can exist.

Death Mark 2: - Some spirits can take a powerful possession that make them unable to be detected from normal humans. - High ranked spirits maybe able to devour weaker spirits to empower themselves. - Spirits don't actually leave behind grudge, sometimes they leave their hope behind.

Death Mark manga: (spoiler alert) - Mashita's senpai was killed by Shimi-O, or the man who later becomes Shimi-O, but it was under the influence of the Master of the Mark. - The name of the ritual used to purify the Buddha nenjibutsu is 夏越の祓 "Nagoshi no Harae", which has the same "Nagoshi no" part to the ritual to seal Kaguya in NG, 夏越の儀 "Nagoshi no Gi". While "harae" means "purification/exorcism", "Gi" means "ceremony", this means those two rituals could actually be part of each other or even the same. - Yashiki's past self (Masamune) seem to show a behavior similar to a spirit possession as the memory returns. Not sure how it actually occurs because it never appears in the game this way, but the manga shows it.

If I missed anything, please comment so I can update it into the post. Thank you very much for reading.

[fipindustries]

i was watching a review by genetically modified skeptic of a christian movie about an atheist psychologist interviewing a death row serial killer who is possesed by a demon.

the demon tells the doctor that he is a demon and he is very adamant in trying to make the doctor believe him. he also apparently hates atheists and goes on a huge rant about how atheist are stupid or whatever.

now, drew (genetically modified skeptic) rightfully points out that is silly for the demon to try to convince the atheist that he is a demon or for the demon to be angry that the doctor is an atheist, after all the demon would want people to not think he is a demon so its easier for him to corrupt them and spread lies and seed doubts about god, right?

so that got me thinking how i would write a good version of this story where the demon is interviewed by an atheist doctor and his goal is not to be discovered but then the atheist slowly comes to realize what he is truly dealing with by the end of it*. the premise sounds interesting, it would lend itself to some pretty good dialog between them, some interesting mindgames and there would be the constant ambiguity of "is he really a demon or not". similar to another horror movie that i really like "the autopsy of jane doe" where two scientifically minded doctors have to perform an autopsy on the body of a woman and they slowly come to realize she was a witch and her evil powers can still affect them even after death.

first we need to establish what is the goal of the demon here, probably he wants the doctor to diagnose him as insane so that he can do an insanity plea and not get killed. this is trickier than it sounds, getting an insanity plea can be hard and doctors will try hard to detect when someone is acting in bad faith. so that would be the first central tension of the movie, wether this guy is actually insane or not.

second we need something that would make even a skeptic start to suspect that the guy might actually be possesed by a demon, maybe the act of entering the body is extremely violent and traumatic to the point that the victim goes into epileptic, a fuge state and become extremely aggressive, maybe that is how he was trapped in the first place. maybe the killer tried to summon a demon and so he was found near the ritual site surrounded by sigils and diagrams and blood and candles and a victim that was sacrified or whatever.

afterwards we could make it so that a body that is possesed for long periods of time starts to slowly rot, maybe strange paranormal phenomena that the demon cannot control starts happening around him, like not being properly captured on camera or mirror reflections looking a little strange. all things that could make the doctor start asking questions that the demon has to find the way to answer convincingly while also selling the idea that he is insane.

the trick would be in making the external phenomena weird and notorious enough that even an atheist doctor would start to open his mind to the idea that he is dealing with something paranormal but also not make it so obvious that there isnt dramatic tension for the audience and there isnt a realistic possibility for the demon to get away with it.

(*) in re-reading this i have come to realize that this is actually more or less the plot of the exorcist, for most of the movie the people are desperatly trying to find out what is wrong with the girl by diagnosing her with mental illness and doing MRI scans and whatever, and the priest himself is very skeptic of the idea that an exorcism is needed, the exorcism doesnt happen until the very end

[secretlypeerless-cucumber]

Tell me about the latest AU you've got rotating around your head 🥺🥺🥺🥺 RIGHT NOW. RIIIIGHT NOW. AGOIRHHGREHORHIW GHOR GHIW 😘

I call it "Twin Souls Au" and it's mostly an exercise.

Chinese mythology has this persons called Wu (巫) which were shamans. By the late Zhou dynasty, Wu referred mostly to female shamans, while Xi refers to male ones. But for this Au I take Wu to mean a gender-neutral Shaman. As it says in the Shang oracular inscriptions:

whether the Wu is a man or a woman is not known;

it could be either the name for a function or the name of a people (or an individual) coming from a definite territory or nation;

the Wu seems to have been in charge of some divinations, (in one instance, divination is linked to a sacrifice of appeasement);

the Wu is seen as offering a sacrifice of appeasement but the inscription and the fact that this kind of sacrifice was offered by other persons (the king included) suggests that the Wu was not the person of choice to conduct all the sacrifices of appeasement;

there is only one inscription where a direct link between the king and the Wu appears. Nevertheless, the nature of the link is not known, because the status of the Wu does not appear clearly;

he follows (being brought, presumably, to Shang territory or court) the orders of other people; he is perhaps offered to the Shang as a tribute.

And yes, I copied that from Wikipedia. Another one:

"men and women possessed by spirits or gods, and consequently acting as seers and soothsayers, exorcists and physicians; invokers or conjurers bringing down gods at sacrifices, and performing other sacerdotal functions, occasionally indulging also in imprecation, and in sorcery with the help of spirits." - The Religious System of China (vol 6) 1910

It's more complicated than that but Wu are basically the jack of all trades of chinese magicians.

What I focused on are two specific Wu:

The sacrifice

They are people, usually women and disabled people, who were burned at the stake to bring about rain. They themselves are an offering to the gods. CofCofShenJiuCofCof. They are also mediums for the spirit world.

Fangxiangshi

He is referred to as "The one that sees in all four directions" and wears a mask of bearskin with four golden eyes, and carried a lance and shield.

His primary duties were orchestrating the seasonal ritual to chase out disease-causing demons from buildings, and leading a funeral procession to exorcize corpse-eating wangliang spirits away from a burial chamber. Which he did by violently getting into buildings, houses included, and energetically thrusting his spear into the air.

He is a seer, and one that can conjure visions only he can see. Like a certain nerd who read the "book of fates for PIDW"

Wu were often a pair of siblings that are referred to as a single entity. Like two souls in a single body.

To the actual story:

The day of the transmigration, just as SY's soul is getting settled into SJ's body, a pair of heavenly officials (unimportant who) comes to get them for some important thing they have to do in heaven (Because more often than not, one is born a Wu), as Wu are also bureaucrats.

Man is Yue Qingyuan confused. He was there taking care of his ailed shidi and suddenly someone comes and takes him away before he can say anything. He naturally calls for a meeting and all peak lord are on the case to get him back (some more reluctantly than others)

The Ku Xing Peak Lord or whoever is in charge of rituals and divination gets them permission to go get SQQ (As they already did the thing they had to do), but only YQY and LQG are allowed. So they go.

In the heavenly realm (Not heaven outright) they see SQQ siting calmly in a gazebo on the garden, reading. More relaxed than anyone has even seen him.

SQQ sees them and, without letting them speak, says: "I'm not dealing with this"

And he separates from the body.

The body (SQQ) is let in a sleep like state while a tiny, tiny, Shen Jiu comes out of it. He looks perhaps 10, wearing ceremonial robes that only reach his knees. Shen Jiu takes his book and screams for "A-Yuan" to come take his turn.

Then, another 10 y.o. comes out of the house the garden belongs to and immediately protest upon seeing the adult cultivators. He is identical to Shen Jiu, dressed the same, but wears short hair (angled bob) and has a mask winkwink hanging from his neck.

This A-Yuan and Shen Jiu proceed to banter for a while, ignoring both YQY and LQG.

What happened was: Time functions differently in the heavenly realm; ergo, Both Shens have spend a lot of years together and already consider the other their sibling. And their dynamic is to fight and banter... so normal siblings.

Long story short; The Shens are send back to the mortal realm to work and solve mysteries because the heavenly officials were tired of them, and fight over who uses the body.

No one want to use it. They have to be responsible when they are SQQ and it's bothersome. Also CQM keeps trying to make them come back and be a peak lord but solving mysteries is more fun.

[nogenderbee]

♡˗ˏ✎*ೃ˚ 𝔻𝕖𝕞𝕠𝕟 𝕤𝕚𝕓𝕝𝕚𝕟𝕘 ₊˚ˑ༄

*ੈ✩‧₊˚ anon request: Hello! Could you please write Chongyun finding out he has a long lost sibling that is a demon? Ty<33

*ੈ✩‧₊˚ Hiii! Omg YES!! I love the idea and I wanted to do just platonic but~ I haven't written angst in a while so~~ It's angst.

Hope you can forgive me for this because I did make beginning a little sweet! Hope you like it <3

*ੈ✩‧₊˚ platonic, angst

✧ Chongyun always had you mind, he saw your pictures and maybe you even had something like 2 matching necklaces or so

✧ either way, he was always there believing he'll find you someday and you'll be reunited

✧ in fact, he even kept your picture from childhood in his pocket at all times! It was kinda like his own lucky charm

✧ so when he was about to exercise another demon and he noticed necklace he knew way too well... he froze

"You... What did you do to Y/N?!"

"It's me. I'm sorry..."

✧ he wanted to let you to, to hug you, to forgive you. But what if you were just trying to deceive him like other demons do?

✧ and it was his job... he heard you were a big danger to this area... he couldn't just leave without fulfilling it. If he wouldn't, someone else would and who knows how painful it'd be for you...

✧ without much choice, he chooses to perform long but not as painful exorcism and you bet tears we're spilling making it so much harder for him, and your reassuring wasn't helping either...

✧ you were so sweet even as demon... you were HIS SIBLING. Why does he have to do it?

"No. I am sorry..."

✧ he didn't let you go like that tho, he took your other necklace and held it close so he can always have you close to him

✧ he'll also get Hu Tao to hold a funeral for your sake and because he wants to say final goodbye with some honor and to show you were actually really important to him

✧ after that, he refuses to take ant exorcisms for next few days. But he can't refuse it forever so he'll come back to it soon anyway

﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌

@bleachtheidiot @miya-akane - come get your popsicle boy!

[genevievefangirl]

WIP Wednesday!

This is my first time being tagged in a WIP Wednesday post! Thanks for the tag @vamillepudding!

Here's a section from something new I am working on - a collection of Edwin's journal entries written during the show:

11 February 2023 Morning The Case of Crystal Palace has turned into quite the horrid affair.  The actual demon exorcism went about as well as could be expected.  Charles was battered a bit while fighting the demon, and at one point the train car was completely inverted, but otherwise it was a completely standard case. What was decidedly not standard was what occurred afterward.  Crystal awoke from her possession with the most peculiar case of amnesia and instead of sending her on her merry way or contacting Emma, Charles offered to allow the girl to come back to the office, which is absolutely not part of our usual services, mind. While the girl slept on the couch, I decided to take this opportunity to discuss the matter with Charles.  He is usually not so quick to disregard my opinion on important matters like this, but when there is a pretty girl involved Charles’ actions tend to be more erratic.  I am used to Charles being entranced by members of the opposite sex, but even this behavior is out of the ordinary.  Taking the girl home feels like he is trying to keep her, possess her, and I know he is getting attached.  I reminded him about the Infamous Puppy Debacle of ’94, but he completely disregarded my concerns.  Perhaps he does not remember how he sulked for days after I finally convinced him that two ghosts could not adequately provide for a living, breathing puppy, but I certainly remember and am not looking forward to a repeat performance.

no pressure tags! - @ahyperactivehero @flowerbritts @makemeimmortalwithahug

[hasanawolf]

ok, halloween questions...

Which neighbor would be most likely to be possessed by a spirit from playing with a Ouija board? 👻

In turn, who would be the most suitable neighbor to perform the exorcism? ✝

hehe :D

Mmm… Robertsky can be a bit of a meathead sometimes. He has this need to prove himself better/stronger/smarter than anyone else (rooted that he is actually very insecure). So I can see him playing the Ouija just to show to his friends how much of a badass he is. And well… things don’t go well.

As for the performance of the exorcism, I’ll leave that in the very capable hands of @alienducksz priest OC Aeron 👌🏻 I don’t think any of the peeps in my AU could actually do that haha. At best they’d throw holy water at him and pray a rosary

[yandere-sins]

I'm not sure how thirsty our thirsts are allowed to be but I just stumbled upon your ghost oc from the halloween thingy while searching ghost from cod and WHAT?!?!?!?! Listen....all I'm going to say is 💦💦💦💦🥵🥵🥵 that is literally the best smut I've ever read in my ENTIRE life and I've been reading smut since about the 2000s. Would you be interested in continuing that piece or for writing an additional part? Maybe when they come to the apartment for the exorcism, they try 'channeling' or calling to the ghost to come, but he's fucking reader the entire time right infront of the roomate and officiate? My brain is thinking it would be so sexy if there was a glitch and he was visible for half a second but that can't be right....right? Why else would your roommates see a tall, sexy man taking you from behind at such a time? Must be a trick of the light! I love the perspective you write in and how even though this very supernatural sex scene was happening, you didn't describe it in a confusing or overly complex way. Your way of describing things, especially naughty things just hit different. It was extremely enjoyable! And so freaking hot!!!!! Seriously, there isn't a lot of content out like that so you're literally an angel for providing us with that haha. Going to give myself an anon name here, is 👻 available? Ahem, no reason why I chose that emoji hehe

Aww, I'm so glad you enjoyed it! It was a lot of fun to write :D Not sure I am always as clear when describing smth, but I'm doing my best! Thansk for you sweet ask and nice request, I hope you enjoy this story as well! ♥

Disclaimer: I don't speak latin. I google translatored this. Warning: Yandere, Heavy Sexual Content, Biting

»»———————— ♡ ————————««

"Dele omne mal-- ah--!"

"Malum, Baby. If you want to erase all evil, you gotta say your words right~"

It was hard enough to read the little pamphlet in your hands with your body shaking like crazy, thanks to the thick cock plowing into you with every word you were saying. You could have really forgone the condescending nitpicking of the ghost you were trying to exorcise, but you weren't that lucky.

"Malum," Eli whispered, leaning over to you and raising an eyebrow you could see even in the sparse flickering of the candles around you. They couldn't ask, not wanting to disturb the ritual you three had initiated. Still, their gaze alone silently questioned your inability to perform your part properly, even more shame washing over you.

"M-Malum," you finally finished your sentence, giving them an apologetic glance before lowering your head to avoid any more eye contact. You wanted them to notice this bastard of a ghost as soon as possible so they'd believe you, but at the same time, you were too embarrassed to be caught by them like this.

Aside from Eli, another person had joined you in this strange rite meant to banish the evil from your apartment. A guy named Brian, who seemed to really believe in this stuff despite being unable to see the ghost haunting you either. You had held your breath when you entered the apartment together with him, wondering what his reaction would be to seeing the spirit clinging onto you almost instantly, rubbing his cock against your ass and whispering lewd nothings into your ear.

But Brian made a grand show of convincing Eli that the apartment had bad 'juju', and needed cleansing immediately, which, strangely, your roommate believed him without any doubts. It only gave the ghost another chance to taunt you as he revealed that Brian was no more sensitive to the supernatural than Eli was, there being no escape from your unwanted roommate.

Now, you three knelt around a drawn-up pentagram on the floor of your room, the epicenter of paranormal activities how Brian explained, and between the fog of incense, the dim candle lights, and your nightmarish lover slipping in and out of your wet cunt, you could barely think even one cohesive thought.

It wasn't that you actually enjoyed being exposed to other people, the tension doing nothing for your pleasure other than making you squeeze the ghost cock tighter whenever it was your turn to speak. It wasn't a comfortable environment in any way. But something had changed. The ghost had changed.

You hadn't noticed it this morning at the breakfast table, nor when he bent you over the counter, feeling too worn out and fucked loose to actually feel the difference. But he had grown. After a few hours of staying away, you finally noticed the change in girth of his ever-so-eager cock. It was thick and bulging, especially when he pressed it to your sensitive cunt. It had made you gasp and tremble the first time it entered you, painfully spreading your walls, and even now, you could barely produce enough slickness to have it rammed into you comfortably.

Despite this, juices were flowing out of you, pooling on the floor beneath your gaping pussy as the ghost kept spreading and demanding deeper and deeper access. You blamed the incense for getting to your head, making you feel all aroused as you clenched around the suddenly bumpy and pleasurable grip his cock had. "Just like this, Babe. Fuck, you're so unbearably tight," the ghost groaned, burying his face in your shoulder as you unwillingly shuddered, your walls holding on to his length as it twitched inside you, the bumps and ridges covering his cock, stimulating your soft flesh.

You were going to cum. There was no denying it. In front of Eli and Brian, no less. 

"Now, let's hold hands, so we ask the ghost to pass over to the other side and leave this apartment peacefully."

A hand on each side of you was held out, and forcing yourself to take them, you couldn't help squeezing them tightly, earning a rather displeased look from both before Brian cleared his throat, continuing.

"I'll pass over, all right," the ghost mumbled, his pace picking up, cock twitching while he picked up the speed. You prayed to any god that could hear you that the others wouldn't notice your shaking and rapidly building orgasm. Your breath was hitching, pussy tingling delightfully as you closed in on violent spasms. 

"You feel so fucking heavenly~ I might die all over again. And I'll pass all my jizz right here."

And with that, you felt his tip kiss your cervix, your pussy spread to the max as the ghost stopped his movement, arms wrapped around you as he pressed you against his body, squeezing the air out of your lungs as if he wanted to take you with him to the afterlife. Your body had no choice but to accept his cock, wrapping around him and having him brutally stimulate all the sensitive spots inside you while you could barely hold on to reality.

Brian said some incomprehensible words, the rumbling of thunder suddenly scaring all three of you to the bone, making you jump. That little movement was enough to send you over the edge, the ghost pulling you back as you slid off his cock a little, his tip ramming into your cervix. It released all the pent-up pain and pleasure inside you first before soothing the burning heat of desire inside you with cold, dead spunk shooting up into your womb.

You were shaking harder than ever as lightning lit up the room, followed by another bellowing thunder. Brian gasped, his eyes widening as he stared at something behind your shoulder, the ghost letting out a husky laugh as he let his long tongue slip from his lips, dragging it over your ear before wrapping it around your throat once completely. "Mine," he growled, the tip of his tongue caressing your cheek, searching for your lips to dig in, and Brian let go of your hand, unable to get away fast enough as he let out a scream, stumbling to his feet and out of the door, leaving everything, even the things he lent you guys for the ritual, behind.

"What's up with him?" Eli asked, totally confused as they looked after Brian, surprised by the sudden freak-out. "What the fuck is going on? Why is he-- hey? Hey, what's wrong?"

Shocked, they noticed your unnatural hunched-over body, hanging only in the arms of the ghost that they couldn't see. Eli touched your shoulder, only to get shocked by electricity you could only guess came from the ghost. "It's over," you mumbled, feeling spit drool out of your mouth, your throat too restricted by the ghost's tongue to swallow. "Finally over."

"Never, Darling. We're only beginning," the ghost chuckled. "Tell them to leave."

"You can go, Eli," you slurred, letting your body fall back against the ghost's chest. Your eyes were hazy with the brutal orgasm you still felt shaking in every bone of yours. Gaze unfocused as you tried to direct it at Eli. The cock was still buried inside you, emptied yet hard and solid as if it manifested. Juices began to drip out, and had Eli looked at where the Ghost bundled up the black robe Brian made you wear in his grip, they would have seen the pool of indecency collecting on the floor between your wide-spread legs. 

"Are you sure? You seem... weird. Are you really okay? Should I call an ambulance? Do you need to go to the hospital?"

"No!" the ghost screamed, followed by the loud crashing of thunder as he grew bolder with every orgasm he could steal from you. He no longer lived to tease and bother you. He was finally evolving into an even worse spirit than before. Possessive. Starving. Greedy. Only you could hear him, and you shook your head in pain, exhausted.

"It's fine! Just... Just go. Please..."

"Err... okay?" Eli definitely wasn't considering hurrying up as they collected the few things Brian allowed them to take with her into the ritual, like their phone. But eventually, they stepped out of the door, closing it while watching you warily. "Let me know if you need something, okay?"

And with that, the lock finally snapped into the frame, and you breathed a sigh of relief as the ghost lowered you gently onto the floor, laying you down on top of the pentagram. "You're not going anywhere. And you can't get rid of me, do you understand now?"

"Please..." you mumbled, covering your face with your arms. You felt weak, used, and disgusted. So many bad things had happened in the last few days, and you were exhausted. Nothing you did made it better, and you were running out of ideas. It made you feel exposed and vulnerable, you even felt...

"I'm scared..."

Tears welled up in your eyes. A reaction you never wanted to show him, knowing the ghost would take every chance to belittle you. However, to your surprise, he leaned over you, licking and kissing the tears away gently, softly, a purr escaping his throat.

"It's okay, Sweetling. No one's going to take you from me. I'll satisfy all your desires and perform all these sinful things you'll come to wish from me as you fall from your graces. You are bound to me, and I am to you, and we'll grow stronger together until we can leave this place. We'll cause havoc and chaos wherever we go until we're strong enough to even wreck hell. I need you. You need me."

Pressing his body between your legs, you could feel his hard cock rub all over your cunt, now even teasing your clit. You mewled, head falling back as he pressed it painfully close, your pussy suddenly aching to be filled by his thickness while his lips trailed down your body, licking the sensitive spot between shoulder and neck before replacing it with his teeth.

His tip prodded against your entrance, and your cunt gave him little resistance as he pushed it in slowly, fangs sinking into your flesh at the same time. The ghost pinned you down by your hands, and with his weight, your whole body trembled so hard as if you were going to explode while you gurgled from the pain and pleasure. You were so out of it, you didn't even notice the pentagram beginning to glow beneath you as your blood spilled from the bite, some lucky drops dripping to the floor while the ghost licked up everything else.

"My queen, my life," he mumbled against your body, and you could feel his lips curl into a mischievous grin. "My pretty little fucktoy."

A burning sensations spread all over your back, making you gasp. Even more tears leaked from your eyes, but at the same time, you arched your back, the ghost's cock slipping inside you completely, turning the pain into pleasure.

"We're bound now," the ghost groaned loudly, lifting himself from you, and you felt his cock twitch inside as if he was ready to spill again.

Looking up at the ghost through teary eyes, you couldn't believe what you saw, his translucent skin slowly turning black and solid. You were horrified to see the burning mark of a pentagram go up in flames on his chest as his body solidified, great satisfaction brimming from demonic eyes.

"Finally, we're bound to each other. And with this new body of mine, nothing can stop us."

His touch had always been real, but the leathery feel of his hands wrapping around your throat was different. Frightening. You gasped and gurgled as he pulled you on his lap, now the one to kneel on the ground as he impaled you on his cock, one hand falling to your ass so he could move you up and down his shaft. "You're going to make such a beautiful pet for your future king of hell. I have to thank you for giving me enough strength to recover my true form. And I know just what to do to reward you."

Hugging you to his chest, you were pressed into the burning pentagram. The flames licked at you, lapping at you like an excited dog but didn't burn your skin where they touched. They were warm and comforting, engulfing you in an unlikely sweet embrace. All while more warmth spread through you like wildfire. Your back felt like it was burning up the same as his chest was, bigger and hotter with every toe-curling, scream-enticing plunge on his thick, slick cock.

"Birth my army as well, Human. Let's rain down disaster on this planet, and I promise you will never lack anything in life ever again."

You didn't care anymore.

Your tongue was hanging out of your mouth as your brain got shredded by otherworldly pleasure. Flames had spread everywhere, playing with your clit and nipples like eager appendages, teasing and lighting you on fire, even licking at your butt, waiting for a chance to enter you alongside their master. You could hear the wailing voices straight from hell as your ghost—demon?—grunted like a boar in heat while plowing into you mindlessly, satisfying his lust and need for your life force. You felt your life drain from you just as a new life built in you, strengthening you. Against your will, he was transforming you into something you didn't want to be. Something like him. A being that could weather all his desires and wishes. That would be just as depraved and selfish as he was, with a mind too broken to refuse him.

His queen. His life source.

His pretty little fuck toy.

His.

[danmeiconfession]

I sympathize with Shen Jiu a lot, to be honest. It's rare for someone who has lived through trauma like he has to come out unchanged, smiling, or looking "pretty" with his trauma, as if this were a storybook or show. He's a realistic character—he lashes out and gets upset. He's an angry victim, and that's understandable.

I also really liked that people perceptions of him are different similar like the fandom some think him to be totally innocent besides hurting his hated disciple others are more inclinced to belived the reason to stem could be him envying his diciple talent or him having a mother or some are bolder and believe the Binghe being a fake white lotus and Shen jiu seeing that despised him for his fakeness.He didn't due what he was accused of yet the one crime that damned him killing his marital brother was a lie it wasnt true. There so many facets you could take with his character because it only speculation to be had.

I've noticed many fanfics tend to portray Shen Jiu in a positive light almost glorifying him and you know you do you that find if that your cup of tea, but I find it frustrating when they infantilize him. I admire his unyielding nature, noting that despite being a catalyst for Binghe's descent, he remained resolute and unrepentant, even under torture. I actually appreciate the fanfics that take unconventional routes with his character.

There was this one fanfic where Shen Jiu thought Binghe was possessed by a real demon, and he was just performing an exorcism. It turned out Shen jiu had schizophrenia and was hallucinating thinking there was an entity entrapped in his disciple . Do I consider this canon? No, but I love how bold of a plot it was. It's such an interesting direction to take with Shen Jiu. Fanfic writers, be bolder like even if this is crack I still love it !

.

[sloshed-cinema]

The Conjuring (2013)

I’ll give Ed and Lorraine Warren this much: they may be manipulative hucksters and frauds, but they’re also terrible exorcists. The film spends a lot of time amping up the pair’s street cred as top-of-the-line demonologists and paranormal investigators (pro tip: if you point out that the obvious creaking floorboard is a creaking floorboard once, you get to make up whatever bullshit you desire all the rest of the time), even going so far as to tout how Ed is basically the exorcist version of a physician assistant (aside from the fact that PAs can actually be useful). He can accompany the ritual, but he just can’t perform surgery himself. And more procedures are being handed to him by an absentee Church, it would seem. But when push comes to shove and he has to expel the witch Bathsheba from the body of some random Rhode Island mother, it takes him all of 0.025 seconds to drop his holy water. But who gives a shit about the real Warrens in this puffed-up propaganda piece and heightened, fictionalized version of maybe some case of theirs. The rule of taking one thing away is one that could dearly be learned by this film, though the franchise does nothing if not lead in the complete opposite direction. There are some solid scares, or at least a promising inclination of what could be truly chilling. The arms reaching out of the closet in the background to clap and direct Mom during a game of hide and seek—we knew where the clapping bit would lead, but fine. It works. It’s paid off again later when she’s in the basement lighting matches. But all too often, these beats go for a hat on a hat approach, slathering on noise stings and ridiculous camerawork that frankly undermines any tension they had going. Does every horror movie need to be a Robert Eggers joint with stately locked down camera and heady atmosphere? Certainly not. But I for one am glad to be past the 2010s heyday of shaky cameras and snap zooms onto spooky scary faces.

There’s something of a Fast & Furious effect going on here. While they’re not quite at the tier of sending cars into space and rocketing vehicles over dams while Jason Momoa paints the toenails of corpses and various bald men benchpress missiles, it is still amusing that a run-of-the-mill haunted house exorcism movie has spawned everything up to and including a creepy pan-European nun with glowing eyes and made software superheroes of our dastardly duo when they do show up.

THE RULES

SIP

Someone says 'Annabelle' or 'witch'.

Location-establishing text appears onscreen.

DISEMBODIED CLAPPING

BIG DRINK

Camera zoom of some sort.

Lorraine is psychic about some shit.

People try to open a door.

[yamayuandadu]

@mystenjiru-blog I cannot locate a translation of this text and sadly in the article I relied on no tablet number is provided, best I can offer is another of Schwemer's publications, Cultural Constructions of Ambiguous, Unsanctioned, or Illegitimate Ritual, which provides some more detail on how witchcraft was performed. Regarding the other questions: Kanisurra has nothing to do with Ereshkigal. She typically appears alongside Nanaya (single best attested option), Gazbaba, Inanna, Ishara, Usur-amassu, and the like. In other words, her typical associations reflect her role as a deity linked to love and eroticism, and her origin in the pantheon of Uruk. The selection of deities associated with Ereshkigal is actually fairly small. Furthermore, I'm unsure what do you mean by similarity to Hecate. Kanisurra is primarily attested in straightforwardly erotic context (for a good overview see Gioele Zisa's The Loss of Male Sexual Desire in Ancient Mesopotamia), something Hecate had nothing to do with. She lacks any associations with dogs, city gates, the broader domestic sphere... The underworld connection is limited to the possible origin of her name, and to presence in a royal funerary ritual from the Ur III period. I get the witchcraft part though the attestations are much more limited than in the case of Hecate, and as I said, it is difficult to tell what being a "lady of the witches" entailed exactly. Ultimately I'm not really sure if any Mesopotamian deity is particularly Hecate-like, tbh - most deities tied to the spheres of magic and exorcism like Asalluhi or Ningirimma were basically divine counterparts of specialists involved in them, which doesn't offer a good parallel to her.

I assume the questionable takes you've mentioned were the result of someone misreading something genuine - sporadic associations between Hecate and Ereshkigal are actually attested in Greek magical papyri, though they indicate very limited understanding of the latter:

You can find the full article here, it's a great read. One of my all time favorites, honestly.

There are multiple theories about Hecate's origin, but none really link her with Mesopotamia. It's basically just a series of back and forth arguments over whether she originated in Anatolia and spread westwards or whether she originally arose in Greece and then spread to colonies in Anatolia. The closest I can think of to Ereshkigal coming up in this context is Mary Bachvarova's theory that Hecate was originally a figure similar to or outright analogous to the Hittite "sun goddess of the earth" whose name could be represented logographically in cuneiform by Ereshkigal's, but this is very niche and hardly direct.