#Daily Afflictions

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

(Art: Painting by Peter Wever)

* * * *

Compassion hurts. When you feel connected to everything, you also feel responsible for everything. And you cannot turn away. Your destiny is bound with the destinies of others. You must either learn to carry the Universe or be crushed by it. You must grow strong enough to love the world, yet empty enough to sit down at the same table with its worst horrors. 

~Andrew Boyd :: (Book: Daily Afflictions)

[Philo Thoughts]

[mendokayalways]

Unexpected feelings received from my lady jane. When Jane tells Guildford that there's no cure to Ethianism and there shouldn't be because there's nothing wrong with him and she wants everyone else in England to see that and has the power to "heal England" but Guildford responds with "Fuck England. Heal me!" As someone who struggles with chronic pain and internalized ableism, that really got me. Like there's stuff happening to me that takes me away from the life that I would ideally like to live and there's nothing I can do to change it but the desperation and grief and rage is so fucking real...I just didn't expect those feelings from a fantasy regency tudor rom com.

[marypsue]

You know what I think is my favourite thing about Dracula Daily having been such a hit on tumblr? (Other than everybody finally learning that what I've been saying all along about Lucy and Mina and Jonathan all being done dirty by adaptations is true and all falling in love with the characters, that is.) It's getting to see all the posts by people with different experiences or expertise or even just perspectives, and seeing what they take away from (and bring to) the novel. I have learned things about paprika, goitre, seafaring, the geography of Whitby, what an aqueduct actually looks like, Romanian folk dress, Victorian etiquette lessons, and the history of psychology that I would never have thought to look up but that have enriched my experience and understanding of this story in ways I didn't even realise it could be enriched.

[wigglesdtuff]

Stay super cool out there!

[xbcrafted-daily]

some things never change

[8bitmanna]

Verse of the Day

🧡Mark 5:34🧡

[see-arcane]

Mina, I know that you're not in nearly as dire straits as Jonathan was at the start of his Dracula Attackula period, but you are showing either a heroic or a worrisome amount of Reinforced Optimism (c) for a supposed gothic horror enjoyer.

If you were reading your own character in a book and you got to the closing line, "...though I do not expect any trouble to-night." I know you'd be groaning in place as you chided the paper protagonist for setting herself up for another blow from the Horrors.

And like, I get it. I get that you're scraping below the bottom of the barrel for literally any bright spot in this Hot Girl Summer that's rapidly turning into Lukewarm Grim Summer that isn't the desperately cheery daytrips as you try to scrape off all the death in the air and Jonathan's increasingly frightening absence. I get it!

But Mina. This is your journal, not a dinner guest you have to sugar coat and power-press yourself into palatability for. Allow yourself to worry like a person, here if nowhere else, and not strangle yourself down into an interviewee for Best Unpaid Sleepwalker Minder.

It's a nitpicky thing, I know, but it's also so much more easy to worry about after hearing the words out loud with the podcast. That immediate turn around from witnessing the worst case scenario with Lucy in the night to 'All's well! :)' mode by the next evening. As though there's no showing weakness except in the aftermath of panic, even to her own private diary. It makes me so worried for the writer.

[desperate-he-they]

I’m such a slut for pain which also means that I have accidentally injured myself quite often whilst masturbating. I’ve already had blood dripping everywhere multiple times… which is why I actually really dislike to do it. My self control tends to vanish once I introduce pain but pain is great. I need someone who controls the pain I feel… manages it. Another person also has so many more options to afflict pain on me than I do.

[immediatebreakfast]

"I trust her feeling ill may not be from that unlucky prick of the safety-pin. I looked at her throat just now as she lay asleep, and the tiny wounds seem not to have healed."

Mmmmmmmm, I wonder what was the state of tetanus diagnosis in victorian england at this time. Because, at the eyes of a doctor who would only see this with a rational mind like Mina, it could be a possible explanation

[quadsuki]

on the surface i’m calm and placid as an idyllic pond in the springtime, but under that i’m screaming crying throwing up SHAKING like a toy poodle because i’ve been trying desperately to steal gerard way’s gender since i was 13 years old

[karmaphone]

when someone answers your question on what daily amnesia is like

[staticghoul]

i could be evil…rotted…yet i contain myself!!! because this is the fucking reading comprehension website and i choose not to argue with troglodytes when i can just scroll away!!

[zephyrchama]

Tail Bone (Obey Me! brothers and MC)

"My tail bone hurts," you complained. You never expected demons to be well-mannered beings, able to behave themselves in a silent classroom for hours on end. Nor that sitting for so long could be so painful. You let out an exasperated sigh and began to tenderly massage your lower back as soon as the lecture on nocturnal beasts was over.

"Your what?" Leviathan had been booting up a mobile game behind you, eager to claim his daily bonus. While the loading screen played out, he looked up at you in confusion.

Standing to stretch, you nodded towards the hand swirling around your waistband. "Right here, my tail bone. I'm gonna ask Diavolo if he can get softer chairs for the classrooms. You're not in any pain?"

In front of you, Beelzebub nodded. "My stomach hurts. I'm so hungry, I can hardly think straight." He began rooting around in his bag for an emergency candy bar or five.

Mammon interjected from the side, stating "you don't have a tail," with a look of bewilderment. He was staring intensely at your rear and questioning everything he's ever known about you.

"We'd know if you did," Satan added.

"It's not an actual tail. Just... the name of the bone." Your attempt at an explanation wasn't very informative, but you didn't know how else to describe it. Your brain was fried from a long, boring lecture. You were more focused on getting the circulation in your legs working again than on explaning proper human anatomy.

Asmodeus had crept over, clearly noticed by everyone except you, and put his hands over the afflicted area. "Right about here?" he asked, voice coated in faux innocence.

You jumped forward a step in surprise, arching your back away from the sudden touch. Mammon and Leviathan, mobile game now forgotten, pounced on their younger brother. They pulled him away by the shoulders and forced his arms behind his back.

"Ahaha! Did I guess right?"

"That is a serious violation of PDA!" Leviathan half-shouted.

"Yeah, only I'm allowed to touch 'em like that! You all know I'm s'posed to be in charge of the human." Mammon thrust himself in front of Asmodeus, who was busy laughing in Leviathan's face. He opened and closed his hands in a disturbing manner, like a pervert. "Here, let me see this tail for myself."

"I don't think it's an actual tail," Satan surmised at the same time you exclaimed, "I don't have a tail!"

"Settle down," Lucifer cautioned. He approached from the front of the class with an armful of teaching materials, having been the one to lecture everybody all day. In a way, it was his fault you were in pain.

"Would somebody care to explain why you're all being so rowdy?"

"They hurt their new tail," Belphegor tried to explain in a low, drowsy voice. Having been half asleep, he only caught half of the conversation and let his imagination fill in the rest. He tried to lift his head, but the lecture had been too powerful. He rambled, "It's cool. I'm glad you have a tail now," and went right back to snoozing.

Lucifer wasn't entirely convinced of this explanation. He raised an eyebrow at you, and you recapped, "sitting for so long was kind of painful. I hurt my tail bone."

Beelzebub, with a smidge of chocolate on the corner of his face, turned around to ask the question surfacing on everyone's mind. "Do you have wing bones too? Like we do."

Though not in demon form, you could perfectly picture Beelzebub buzzing his wings while he asked. The answer was a simple "no." Followed by a moment of thinking and a hastily added, "I don't think so."

Mammon tisked. "That's unfair, don't ya think? You oughta have wing bones to match us."

Asmodeus "mhmm"-ed in agreement while Lucifer rolled his eyes.

"It's unfair that I don't have wing bones...?" You struggled to follow his logic.

"It's incredibly fair," Leviathan piped up. "Everyone knows tails are better."

"You wanna say that again to my face?" Mammon spat.

"More of you have wings, so it's more balanced to have another tail-user in the house." Satan believed this was a perfectly rational argument despite you not actually having a tail.

"But imagine how cute they'd look with little flapping wings!" Asmodeus cooed, flapping his hands to match.

"A little tail is even cuter! It can be hidden, like an Easter egg," Leviathan asserted.

The classroom became noisy once again with their bickering. Lucifer motioned for you to step aside, and you did your best to duck out from the growing argument with your head kept low. Your legs still felt stiff. Walking around the desk without bumping anything was a newfound challenge.

So Lucifer reached out a gentlemanly hand to guide you. "I need you to come with me to the Student Council Room." Though stated like a command, it sounded more like a request.

"Am I needed for a meeting?" you asked, reluctant to spend more time at school. The big soft couch at home was calling you.

He started ushering you towards the door and checked to ensure his brothers did not follow. "No. I'd like to educate myself on this tail bone you have, and perhaps even take a look at it."

[scripture-pictures]

[wigglesdtuff]

Boom boom boom, got my heartbeat bumpin'

[heian-era-housewife]

Synopsis | Valentine chocolates may just mean the end of the great Ryomen Sukuna.

Content | Fluff, sweetness, Trueform!Sukuna

Sukuna is exposed. Sukuna is vulnerable. His very essence is in jeopardy. He fears he will lose himself. 

He looks down at the small cellophane bag, crinkling it slightly as he shifts it in two of his large hands. His upper arms remain crossed, skeptically. He looks intimidating, scornful, when in reality he feels it is all he can do to keep his beating heart from escaping his chest.

He looks at you, a deep question in his eyes. His bottom set remain on the bag, entranced.

"They're chocolates!" You say, bouncing on the balls of your feet. "For Valentine's."

Returning his gaze to the small offering, he traces a thumb over one of the lopsided hearts.

"I made them!" You add earnestly. "That's why they're a little-"

Your vision goes dark as Sukuna envelopes you in his arms, chin resting heavily atop your head. You hear the pounding in his chest, feel the warmth against your cool cheek.

He doesn't know what "Valentine's" is. He doesn't care. He is dissolving in your presence. Your tiny gestures sending daily shockwaves through his very soul. He fears it may just kill him. 

But at least he'd die happy, he muses.

What an extraordinary power you have. Many have fought the King of Curses, but none have inflicted more damage-rendered him more weak. You are an affliction for which he has no cure. 

Nor does he want one.

"Perfect," he whispers, drawing you closer. "They're perfect."