#I love the concept of sentient zombies

[raccoonwxrks]

May I present to you my Zombiezai au? 👁️👁️

[thenukacolachallenge]

i love pieces of media that touch on serious issues but aren’t afraid to be completely stupid. case in point: one piece touches heavily on topics like personal freedoms, oppressive governments, slavery, racism, etc.

and also everyone laughs like an absolute fucking maniac, and all completely differently from each other. for what. i love that.

[creatingblackcharacters]

Hi there, I hope your day is going well! I have a question regarding the race of a character I'm hoping to use in a story I'm making, and would love to get your insights.

The story is a post-nuclear-fallout setting following two characters who are researching a cure for aggressive radiation poisoning and fighting the will of a malevolent and sentient slime-mold.  The characters dont have official names yet so I'll nickname them as Vessel and Scientist, and I'd like to focus on Vessel for this question specifically. 

Vessel is a Black woman who was originally working as a scientist on a team tasked with experimentation on slime mold growing in radiated zones, which became sentient during her time working on it. She was ordered to kill it and was unsuccessful, and as a result died on-site. Her death was downplayed to keep the lab running, and she wakes up post-mortem very much not in the same zip code or in the same time. (The reason her nickname is Vessel is because the slime mold she attempted to kill resurrects her and is using her to try and return to the lab it's from to rejoin the mother culture (the slime mold is like a combo of the aliens from the movies Life(2017) and Venom(2018))).

The story itself is dealing with some themes like the exploitation of marginalized groups by wealthy militaristic powers, the idolization of western sciences and the consequences of doing so, destruction of the land for profit, the struggle of individual vs collective (man vs man), and the challenge of building community. Based on these themes and the setting, I'm drawn more-so to portraying BIPOC as my protagonists, as opposed to white characters, because BIPOC have largely been the driving force of any dramatic and radical change in our present society, and I'd like to spotlight them in my work as protagonists and not just Important Side Characters. 

THE REASON I'm hesitant to commit to Vessel being Black has three branches,

1) the plot line i've designed would deal very heavily with depersonalization, the state-sanctioned poisoning and death of a Black woman, being used by a force beyond the characters will, and the internal/external struggle of essentially fighting yourself to maintain control of your Self/Body; 

2) I'm not a Black person, and the plot for this character would deal with a lot of very heavy stuff that Black people experience every day, 

3) and it feels very thematically/contextually similar to Haitian Zombi's, which I've been researching since seeing your responses discussing them compared to western zombies, which makes me hesitant to explore if it's getting into territory I shouldn't be interacting with, y'know? (The concept for this story was initially 'radiation zombies', so that's the background I'm pulling from as I'm making the story.)

I think she's a compelling character, intelligent, brave, resilient beyond belief (with a love interest in the Scientist as the story progresses), but if my concepts for her are crossing boundaries and perpetuating stereotypes (like stoic Black woman, not allowed to be soft, etc) I'd rather have a second pair of knowledgable eyes look it over before I commit with my whole chest. 

I deeply appreciate any insights you may have, thank you for your time!

Hello! This does seem like a very intriguing story, and at least you caught where the problem points could be. So that's good!

I definitely say that if you want to get into symbolism similar to, but not OF, Haitian Zombis, you absolutely ABSOLUTELY need to do your research. Specifically on what things might be tied into closed practices, just so you know to avoid them. Research in general involving medical racism too, if you want to know how deep the rabbit hole gets with Black bodies and western experimentation, because there's plenty there too.

I would say since you sound aware of your intention and some of the concerns, go ahead, and I would highly, HIGHLY suggest a Black sensitivity reader. Someone needs to tell you if you've (literally) lost the plot, preferably before you release anything.

[theicarusconstellation]

TELL ME ABOUT DUNE ALIA ATREIDES DUNE just anything I just need to read more about it I'm brainhungry

OH MY GOD OKAY OKAY OKAY FJSJSKNDNF

THANK YOU FOR ASKING ME PLEASE ASK ME ABOUT DUNE ANY TIME THAT GOES FOR EVERYBODY

SO. ALIA.

my poor girl was doomed from the START from CONCEPTION😭😭😭😭once jessica drank the water of life, alia’s fate was pretty much sealed.

it’s so fucking tragic to think about her relationship to jessica and paul. jessica loved her kids, truly, she did, and we see it in how she cares for paul and alia throughout the first book, even after paul thinks, my mother has become my enemy. and yet. even before paul was born, jessica has been motivated by selfishness. she defied the bene gesserit and bore a son instead of a daughter to make leto (and herself) happy, thus damning paul to the fate of the kwisatz haderach. she drank the water of life and took on the role of the fremen reverend mother while pregnant to help implement the bg’s plans (and her own plans) even though she knew what it would do to her unborn daughter. from that point on, alia was sentient. she had the memories of billions within her fighting to gain control.

for the first few years of her life, she had a very distinct sense of self. she and paul, despite their age difference, loved each other SO MUCH😭😭😭😭there’s this one quote from dune messiah where reverend mother mohaim says, “who could understand but the sister?” in reference to paul’s struggles, and yeah. they understood one another in a way no one else could.

she had a sweet family dynamic with harah, jamis’ wife and paul’s eventual servant. their moment together in the first book is honestly the most open declaration of familial love we ever see in the books (“i love you, harah.” FUCKING RUINS ME), and right after that, alia snuggles up to jessica and takes comfort in her mother (she was so young she just wanted her MOM😭). like yeah she has many different memories within her that are not the memories of a child, but she, alia atreides, was still a child. and i know brian herbert and kevin j. anderson’s books are…certainly something😐but there’s a moment between alia and irulan in paul of dune where irulan tells alia, “you deserve to have a childhood too” and that just BREAKS ME because she never got one. since birth, she was treated like a freak and knew it. she literally said, “i know i’m a freak.” (she was like TWO when she said this MY BABY😭). when paul’s jihad was going on, she was running arrakis in his place as a CHILD. she had so much wisdom and knowledge and did an amazing job, but underneath that, you do see that she was a literal baby.

once she hit about four years old, jessica left her on arrakis. jessica went back to caladan and reverted back to her old bene gesserit ways, living in fear and disgust of the children she created. the children she once loved so. much. are now her biggest regrets, and we see this when she visits alia in children of dune and literally hesitates to call her “daughter.” once she admits it, there’s an understanding between alia and jessica that they are still family, but the “…daughter” DOESNT HURT ANY LESS.

then dune messiah comes around. she’s ≈ sixteen and already regarded as a demigoddess by the people of arrakis and has a little mini-cult surrounding her. she is paul’s closest confidante (some may argue that it’s chani, but i say again, “who could understand but the sister?”). she’s “saint alia of the knife” for a reason too. her fremen upbringing + her genetics make her incredibly skilled, so much so that breaking records is second-nature to her. however, as paul’s state declines, so does hers.

(WHO. COULD. UNDERSTAND. BUT. THE. SISTER.)

she starts slipping into spice trance, letting ancestors converse with her for longer periods of time. she’s argumentative and so, so lost. when duncan idaho’s ghola is given to paul, this 35+ year-old zombie man sees this 16 year-old and is like “yeah i’m gonna get up on that,” so he and alia get into a “relationship” that my poor girl didn’t know any better than to accept.

i think the start of her breaking point came when paul lost his sight. up until then, they had understood one another as easily as breathing, like those saplings that grow next to each other and end up twisting around one another (or turning into one tree). but when paul comes back blind yet still able to see, he knows she’s scared of him, and an irreparable rift develops right then and there (i pretend this doesn’t happen for my mental health).

once paul wandered into the desert, alia was gone. her sense of self and grasp on reality went right with him. he was the only one who didn’t live in fear of her, the only one who she ever felt truly loved by, who didn’t put her on a divine pedestal she didn’t want, who she could TRUST😭

this fucking monologue from messiah guts me inside:

“i wish i could burn this thing out of me…but i’m sister to an emperor who is worshipped as a god. people fear me. i never wanted to be feared. i don’t want to be part of history; i just want to be loved. and love.”

WHO!! COULD!! UNDERSTAND!! BUT!! THE!! SISTER!!!!!!!!!!!

the (almost) last things we hear her say in messiah are literally, “duncan, duncan, he’s [paul’s] gone! i need you duncan, love me!”

then, children of dune occurs. it’s nine years after paul wandered into the desert, AND ALIA STILL WEARS YELLOW, THE FREMEN COLOR OF MOURNING. she hates him and loves him and hates him and loves him and can’t stay out of a possessed trance for more than five minutes. rather than help her as the people around her notice her falling victim to the voices inside her, they ice her out, even her former lover, and call her abomination, trying to send her to her death and looking upon her with disgust. leto ii and ghanima, who she raised since birth, have no sympathy for her.

the only person we really see her close with is irulan tbh. which like. oh i love their dynamic. they went from being curt and uncaring with one another in messiah to being one another’s only comfort in children (for irulan loved paul too). still, irulan distances herself the more wrapped up in her own head alia becomes. when jessica returns to arrakis, she does nothing but stand by (and encourage alia’s execution) as she watches her daughter slip away as a result of her selfish choices!!

after alia finds out paul is alive, god there is so much conflict going on within her. the last time she saw him, they loved one another with a love that was more than love, but now, he’s preaching that everything they’ve built is a blasphemy and alia should be overthrown. she wants him dead but she wants him alive but she wants him dead but she wants him alive and she wants to see him but she hopes it isn’t him but she wants to see him. her big brother.

when she finally does see him, he looks her in the eyes and calls her a blasphemy.

then, paul is stabbed. alia watches him die, and to me, that is when the last string within her finally snaps. she turns to jessica and shouts, “that was paul they just killed!”

so many voices fight to overtake her, including her grandfather, baron harkonnen, who had been possessing her up until this point, but she is just so, so tired and so hurt and so unloved that she can’t do it anymore. she doesn’t even bother to fight. she jumps to her death and does not scream on the way down.

and this is what gets me too. we know it was her decision, the last decision she ever got to make of her own volition, and it was one of self-destruction. the baron was screaming at her not to do it — everyone else watched as it happened — but she did it anyway, and honestly, she found more peace in death than she ever did in life.

god i could talk about her for hours i love her so much she’s my girl my love i need to wrap her (and paul) up in little blankets and hold them so close.

also there is just…something about jessica watching both her children die in front of her. and the comparison she made in the first book when alia walks into her room and she thinks, “she reminds me of paul at that age” with both their big, curious eyes and quiet mannerisms and OH😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭

[lakesandquarries]

i have read soooo many webcomics over the years and i barely remember any of them now so here’s me rambling about the stuff i do remember

selkie—comic about this guy named tom i think? who adopts a girl named selkie from an orphanage. selkie is some kind of fish person and has blue skin and gills and webbed feet and black sclera and started my obsession with giving characters with black sclera. one of the earlier comics i read and idk if its still running or finished or what. i remember it beingn pretty good? the art was really simple.

zebra girl—woman named zandra gets turned into a demon after finding a weird book or something. started out as a gag comic and then developed a plot and i’m fairly certain this one ended after like…..over a decade or something. absolutely stunning art evolution.

i don’t remember the name of this one but it was about an angel mixing up some people’s files in heaven, altering reality so that one character was now two years younger and another was now assigned female at birth. also don’t remember if it finished. very anime art style. i don’t remember much of the plot except for something about a car race

yu+me: dream—one of the comics ever….i still think about this one regularly. about a girl named fiona who starts questioning her sexuality while attending a catholic school and then has a wild genre shift. absolutely stunning art and genuinely one of my all time faves.

khaos komix—i think that was the name?? it was this really early queer comic that showed the lives of each of its characters who were all queer in some way. each storyline covered the same time period from a different character’s perspective. i vaguely remember there being drama because the storyline for the only trans fem character had her assaulting her boyfriend but it was unclear if that’s how it was supposed to be read? i think it finished.

maggot boy—discontinued but i was so into it for a while. zombie apocalypse but the two main characters are zombies that are still aware and sentient. i think this was my first glimpse of that concept and i’ve never really found anything else that lived up to it. also the art style was really fun

i don’t remember the name at all but there was some comic about. secret magic world or something and i vaguely remember a coin being important and people had true forms i think?? i really wish i could remember this one

oh there was also this comic with gorgeous art and an unclear plot and the first chapter was focused on this like. semi feral girl who was just naked all the time. artist did an impressive job of censoring it using the scenery.

monster pulse is another completed one that was really really good. about a bunch of kids whose body parts become sentient monsters separate from them.

i love you webcomics…i’ll add more to this post if i remember any

[satancopilotsmytardis]

I totally missed the context for those fnaf au asks, so i thought they were talking about a fnaf x mha au for a second, haha

Very interesting concept tho!!! Would love to hear more 👁👁

Lol someone asked if I would do more guro, but I only do it with sentient enthusiasticslly consenting zombies and it made me remember my FNAF AU, oh God I can't even begin to contemplate what shoving FNAF and MHA together would look like

Lol there's not much more to say, I essentially just wrote the porn and by the time I was done with that the lore had changed so much I said, "welp, I'm never trying that again" and put it into a private collection for me and the 3 friends who knew about it

[ask-the-observatory-gang]

==> INTRODUCTION POST <==

Meet all the guys that you can ask questions, and who will be role-playing them in responses!

(All copy pasted from discord, everything under cut!)

Violet(Vi, V):

-Draws well (I had to)

-Adhd, maybe autism, CHEWS AND GNAWS ON EVERYTHING

-Actually wears her glasses

-Very silly, acts like normal V but sometimes actually genuinely happy and nice

-Totally isn’t the cause behind the bite marks on the landing pod chairs

-Aroace & lesbian flag

-Does the Dino arm thing

-Basically just a fucking cat (purrs, meows, and all that jazz)

-A broken headlight cause yummy yummy (same with crack in tail Vial and screen)

-Acts like a silly cat

-Most of the time unaware of surroundings

-She/her

==> @conniewoof

:!Stars intro!:

˚₊· ͟͟͞➳❥ -- half snow leopard (somehow)

˚₊· ͟͟͞➳❥ -- slightly talker than the average drone

˚₊· ͟͟͞➳❥ -- workaholic

˚₊· ͟͟͞➳❥ -- thinks her scars r cool

˚₊· ͟͟͞➳❥ -- their pawpads and ear stars r rlly squishy :3 and if u squish her ear stars they make a squeak sound GEHE

˚₊· ͟͟͞➳❥ -- she's practically a nightlight coz of how glowy they are.. but whenever she goes to sleep they stop glowing lolz

˚₊· ͟͟͞➳❥ -- rlly likes bugs and studys them nonstop

˚₊· ͟͟͞➳❥ -- loves analog horror n scary stuff in general,, they just find the concept of it all rlly interesting

˚₊· ͟͟͞➳❥ -- gets distracted by anything cats would💀

˚₊· ͟͟͞➳❥ -- rlly likes video games and can defo kick ass in them

˚₊· ͟͟͞➳❥ -- has a scary ass zombie drone/solver form

˚₊· ͟͟͞➳❥ -- her nose twitches when she cries shrug emoji

˚₊· ͟͟͞➳❥ -- her tail (elliot) is actually pretty sentient, meaning he can communicate with beeps and boops (even though star can only understand them clearly)

==> @strbrypancakesxd

《☆ Nathan ☆》

<-- ADHD -->

☆▪︎▪︎ Pansexual, Transmasc ▪︎▪︎☆

==> This little man PURRS. He is a dog at heart but he PURRS.(his favorite thing to do)

==> Hehe silly feathered wings(that could still kill a man)

==> Would unironically bark at someone if they annoyed him somehow

==> Is the sweetest guy but oh my goodness does he hold a grudge

==> "Haha oh biscuts that knife right by my heart really hurts- Do you want that back?"

==> PUZZLES. Do not give this man a puzzle he will try to solve it for the next week and no-one will see him

==> Took the nanite acid out of his tail at one point(it hurt like a bitch) and now has a empty stinger as a tail tip instead

==> OBSESSED with keeping his wings clean and nice looking, he literally will put aside any other responsibilities until they're perfect

Silly little Alaskan Malamute inspired guy :3

==> @staruzi002

❦ Revel ❦

❦ Pansexual lil guy

❦ Has a weird hyperfixation on ducks, specifically lil tiny yellow ones and really loves to make random duck comments to fill a conversation.

❦ Anything that might be yellow is going to be gone in approximately 5 seconds of him spotting it

❦ Outgoing with a passion for fashion (OUJI-) and design, has a bit of sass if you by chance try to question his fashion choices. He also uses "girl" and "sis" unironically

❦ Usually passes away at the slightest compliment and will ascend with his wings into the stratosphere to hide himself

❦ Ribbons. Ribbons are the best.

❦ Don't give him any bells or things that squeak, he will indefinitely be playing with them until they break somehow and he'll go into sad lil guy mode for a week on average

❦ “Autobots! Roll out!” *rolls down an ongoing avalanche*

❦ Deathly afraid of spiders but will disintegrate an entire colony

==> @bonkadonkss

☆▪︎▪︎☆

In a mysterious alternate version of Copper-9, this fun little group all met eachother! And now they're here to answer your questions!

So ask away folks!

☆▪︎▪︎☆

RULES --

- No NSFW. For the love of God please none.

- Be nice to the sillies(and the roleplayers) we're just here to have fun!

- These are characters that are from an active rp server, so things might change about them as we go!

- Expect text for most of the answers(unless whoevers answering feels up to doing a doodle), that'll be how they're put most of the time!

[captain-astors]

L, R and S please? 💫

L - Say something genuinely nice about a character who isn’t one of your faves. (Characters you’re neutral about are fair game, as are characters you merely dislike. Characters that you absolutely loathe with the fire of ten thousand suns are exempt, as there is no point in giving yourself an aneurysm over a character that you hate.):

CHALLENGE ACCEPTED PROMPT SPECIFICATIONS, I WILL GIVE MYSELF AN ANEURYSM. It's not exactly a secret I get really uncomfortable when it comes to Kanou or any of the other... folks like that, but I will gladly acknowledge that he's a crucial and interesting part of the manga and plays the role of villain very well! He's multifaceted, capable of being a genuinely well-meaning person and also capable of completely setting aside all emotion to conduct his experiments. I love mad scientists, I love elderly characters that act kind of unhinged, and if it weren't for The Thing I'd probably love him.

Additionally, Tatara and Houji are actually higher up on my list of favorite TG characters, due largely to you, but I'll happily write something about them here regardless. I love their complimentary color schemes, Tatara's devotion to serving Eto and devotion to defeating Houji, both of which slowly consume him until his demise are fascinating. Houji's twisted sympathy towards ghouls, his reluctance to kill Takizawa despite knowing full-well the consequence, both of them just scratch my brain in a certain way you see.

R - Which friendship/platonic relationship is your favorite in fandom?: The specification of "in fandom" definitely adds another element to this... I like the way the fandom treats Hori and Tsukiyama? If Ishida wasn't a coward and Shuu's character development stuck, I think they'd be my definite favorite friendship in canon as well. I also really like Kanae and Tsukiyama.

S - Show us an example of your personal headcanon (prompts optional but encouraged): I like to think Hajime was an absolute menace when the Oggai weren't actively on duty. One adolescent with little to no concept of how to behave and hundreds of barely-sentient zombie children who take orders from him? Nothing is ending well.

Also because I know I can talk about Furutui to you without feeling like I'm unnecessarily dragging my odd little pairing into a post, I've said it before but I really think it's the mundane things mixed with the horror that keep them somewhat grounded. Riding the train back to their office while half-heartedly bickering over logistics, strategizing about eliminating ghouls from another district like they're in this for any reason that's nearly noble, talking over a too-large map with so many notes stuck to it that it's functionally unreadably to anyone but each other, washing liter after liter of blood out of their clothes and hair. There's an element of Furuta trying to uproot any of the stability it provides with terrible comments and awful plans he never intends to act upon unless it serves a purpose, but eventually Koori sort of figures that out. As dramatic as their atrocious relationship-not-relationship is, I really love thinking over the smaller things. They unintentionally end up learning quite a lot about each other, by simple nature of disliking the prospect of seeking out anyone else. Because at that time, from their point of view, who's there to ask anyways? And it doesn't matter how close they get, as long as they both agree they hate each other at the end of the day. That last part's just my own delusion but I like it anyways.

[toxycodone]

{this account is my old art/main, my new art account is @imps-hat} also i'd HOPE i'm decent at art! i'm trying to get a job with this lol

here they are :D so it's manga, anime, then my own! i got infected by the official colors but what i like to do is stare at the black and white pages and see how well the colors fit :) also nobody can take away chilchuck's gray hairs from me. or his facial hair even with how minimal it is. i should still practice everyone since these were just sketches to get the idea lol

also here's quaith {she/they}. my girl. my little goober <2 she's technically dead and a zombie but heyyy that's just pedantics! she's infected by cordyceps and her eyesight is practically gone by now since she's technically gone through the decay part of rigor mortis. if quaith stops moving she WILL die so she's constantly stretching and making faces and saying little things to make sure she doesn't die. she also can't sleep because that means death. the cordyceps are sentient and are constantly trying to convince quaith to stop moving. she's also a potion genius! she can run around and bullshit stuff very easily :) the cordyceps had infected her home and now the forest that had tall as hell trees and green all over is known as dead elf forest, but nobody knows why, but there are a bunch of mushrooms all over. quaith is also 155! she died at 105 and left home at 108, so she hasn't had a home for like 47 years. but she's a wanderer and likes helping people so that's good!

also i'm starting to think either our time zones are really different, or you have a bad sleep schedule lol. you're active during my 11:30 pm or something

~ }i{ also the cutesy nicknames 😤 they're awesome thank you they're nice to see :)

oh my god??? dude your art is so fucking cute??? I love the texture. This is gonna sound so weird but I can like. Feel it. In my head. Does that make sense

AND QUAITH??? DUDE YOU HAVE SUCH A BIG FUCKING BRAIN??? I genuinely LOVE the concept of a fungus taking over (I am a huge TLOU fan). Is she like?? The only survivor of her village?? Why did the cordyceps take over??? Was it a curse?? Or just natural?? WJY IS IT SENTIENT (I feel like Laios omg)

This shit is so cool man. Ku FUCKING dos.

Also, I tend to be REALLT sporadically active. But 11:30 your time is probably? REALLY similar to my time actually??

I’m usually active in the afternoons (work lull) and late before bed! :-0

[agnol117]

Series I, Part II

SCP-007 - Abdominal Planet

This one kinda scares the hell out of me, to be honest. Not the skip itself (dude with a planet where his abdomen should be, kinda weird, but otherwise fairly tame for an SCP entry). No, what scares me about this one is (and this will be a recurring theme) the way they’re just holding a dude hostage with no real oversight or recourse. Sure, the guy’s SSN comes up as invalid, but still. They’ve got this guy, they’re denying him access to the outside world, and…they’re just gonna get away with it.

As I said, this will be a recurring theme. In a lot of cases, I think the actual containment of things (usually people) is worse than the thing itself.

7/10

SCP-008 - Zombie Plague

This one does nothing for me. It’s exactly what it says on the tin, and while that’s fine, it just doesn’t appeal to me. All the same, I feel hesitant to give it a low rating because it is well written, it just isn’t my thing.

6/10

SCP-009 - Red Ice

This one’s kinda neat. It’s evil water (you can tell it’s evil because it’s red). It can contaminate normal water (including the water in people) and will kill them. It’s probably from another dimension. I don’t have much to say about this one. It’s just a fun concept.

7/10

SCP-010 - Collars of Control

I don’t like this one.

Not conceptually. Conceptually it’s great. Collars that allow whoever has the remote complete control over the wearer as long as they understand how to use the remote is a great concept. I love it. I also hate it, because one of the lines is “The most abnormal feature of the collars is the effect they have on the body morphology. They allow the user of the remote to reconfigure the shape of the victim to an extent that is apparently only limited by the knowledge of the programming language of the remote.” Nope. Hate it. I can take a lot of body horror, but like…something about that sets off all my Nope! Alarms.

9/10

SCP-011 - Sentient Civil War Memorial Statue

This one’s just kinda sweet? Again, it’s exactly what it says on the tin: A Civil War Memorial Statue in Vermont that just happens to be alive and sentient. It’s nice. I liked reading this one.

10/10

[thedaslut]

Oct 12 - 12th day of Dragon Age

Favorite Awakenings lore/codex entry

The mere *concept* of the sentient darkspawn! Awakening showed that they were not zombies, not drones, not something mindless or empty that could do nothing but destroy. They're just insane. Quite literally! I've always wondered what happened to them after Awakening, but this is one of those things that due to the way worldstates have worked through the series in attempts to let you shape the story in a meaningful way, there's not really a way to continue the plot without invalidating or handwaving the choices of those who chose to kill the Architect. And that is quite frankly a shame. I would love to see them again, see what happens to them if they get to be just a little bit more "normal". What would their society look like? How fucked up would it be considering they can't breed on their own? Would there be darkspawn farmers? I want there to be darkspawn farmers. Especially if they plant potatoes. It would be hilarious.

I had such a crush on the Messenger. He basically kickstarted my fondness for monsters and I wanted to romance him

[abookishidentity]

Even Great Mistakes: Stories by Charlie Jane Anders

It's hard to rate a whole ass book when its comprised up with several stories. Some are better than others. I shall rate them here.

As Good as New- 4/5 stars. I like this one a lot. Main character is just in a bunker after the end of the world watching tv shows until she decides to go out and then she finds a genie. I liked her conversations with the genie. Much discussion about what to wish for. Apparently the world has ended several times and the one who finds the genie has wished the world back.

Rat Catcher's Yellow- 3.5/5 stars. I think I have read this story before in another anthology book? It's interesting how this one game system affects those who essentially have dementia. Cool ass idea.

If You Take My Meaning- 5/5 stars. This one is quite intriguing. I like it when aliens and humans work together. Or blend together. I like the discussions in this story.

The Time Travel Club- 3/5 stars. I like the club aspect of people coming together to talk about how they are a time traveler. Its a fun idea. The main character just needed to be with a group. Glad she got one.

Six Months, Three Days- 4/5 stars. A man who can see the future has a relationship with a woman who can see many possible futures. I would imagine that would be a very angsty relationship. I like how this story is written.

Love Might be Too Strong A Word- 4/5 stars. Oh this one is quite interesting. Neo pronouns are used and such. The class system in this story is quite intriguing. I like the main character a lot.

Fairy Werewolf vs Vampire Zombie- 5/5 stars. I liked this one a lot. If this was an urban fantasy book I would read the hell out of it. I liked the world in this one. The aspects of fantasy were quite intriguing as well.

Ghost Champagne- 5/5 stars. I also really like this one too. A woman sees her older ghost everywhere. It's very interesting. I love the ending. The ghost was clearly commentary on something.

My Breath is a Rudder- 3/5 stars. i don't have much to say about this story. The setting is cool though.

Power Couple- 5/5 stars. This story felt like it could be a twilight zone episode. Either there was an episode similar or I have seen something similar. I like suspended animation. It's cool. A couple does this. Things don't work out at the end.

Rock Manning Goes for Broke- 3/5 stars. This story is way too long. It has cool concepts in it though. At some point a disaster hits and no one in the world can hear anymore. That was pretty interesting. It had a very distinct voice. Quite different from the other first person stories

Because Change was the Ocean and We lived by Her Mercy- 3/5 stars. This story had quite interesting world building and commentary. Not much else to say.

Captain Roger in Heaven- 3/5 stars. Woman accidentally starts a sex cult. The characters are interesting. Relationships are intriguing. There is machine that tells you where you go after you die. That was intriguing.

Clover- 5/5 stars. I think it's entertaining when cats are sentient or at least aware enough to affect the story. The cats are interesting in this story. Realistic relationship between two men.

This is Why We Can't Have Nasty Things- 3/5 stars. Not much to say about this story. I like the inclusivity though.

A Temporary Embarrassment in Spacetime- 5/5 stars. Oh I like this one a lot. If there was a novel about these characters I would read it. I like the world building and such. It reminds me of other space traveling books I have read.

Don't Press Charges and I Won't Sue- 5/5 stars. Oh this one is heartbreaking and it clearly has social commentary. I love the ending though. Fighting with all your worth.

The Bookstore at the End of America- 5/5 stars. I like stories about bookstores. This story is quite entertaining. A bookstore in the middle of two countries. I can totally see California being a different country than the rest of the USA someday. Good social commentary

The Visitmothers- 3/5 stars. This story is quite short. There isn't much to say about it. Glad the main character is happy at the end.

[ominous-feychild]

Hello!!!!

For the WIP Title Tag, I would love to know more about The Faewildes if you feel so inclined!!

OH BOY, THE QUESTION I'VE BEEN MOST LOOKING FORWARD TO ANSWERING!!!! >:DDDD

Forgive me for taking a while to get to this, I've been busy and oh boy, does it have a lot to unpack and explain! And, heh, as I just "alluded" to... it's one of my favorite things in all of my writing! 🥰😙👌

I mean... "ominous-feychild" is a direct reference to them. 😏🤣

Fair warning: long post!

THE FAEWILDES!!!!

Let's break down the name. "Fae" refers to faeries. "Wildes"... well that's obvious. Must be a wild place, right? Except... why is it plural?

To my fellow DnD fans, it might ring some bells. Yes, it is almost a direct rip of the Feywild plane. Except... next to nothing like it. 🤭

There's a lot to explain about the Faewildes, which is kinda why I keep dancing around the subject, haha. In a previous post I just made, I explained what faeries are. Well, I'll get more into them here, but for now: I described them as "sentient clouds of magic." The Faewildes is the birthplace of all faeries, a place of pure, uncontrolled magic swirling about with no care as to what it's doing. Or... quite like a massive cloud of magic. Hm.

The Faewildes' Creation

Nobody can remember exactly when the Faewildes came to be, not even the oldest of the gods. All they can remember is the day the world was destroyed, and the Faewildes emerged through the cracks like a universe-wide tsunami sweeping over all, gods and humans alike.

All the gods know is that it's Chaos's fault. He destroyed the world, likely in a fit of anger with Order. He fucked up everything so entirely that the entire universe cracked. He caused everyone's misery just because... what?

Actually, you know what? Nobody cares! It's Chaos. He does this shit!

And nobody cares that he's in a coma now.

Wait, never mind. We all take that back, we care. Because he needs to stay like that. He fucked up the world, and he can pay for that crime. He deserves it.

Oh, Existences, I think I just got possessed by them for a second. Where were we? OH, RIGHT! The world got destroyed by Chaos, leading to the creation of the Faewildes as it tried "fixing" itself.

See, what Chaos did to destroy the world wasn't any sort of traditional "all natural disasters suddenly occur at once" or zombie apocalypse thing--he broke reality itself. And, unsurprisingly, reality doesn't really like being broken. So the Faewildes has been its way of resolving that issue.

I tend to refer it as a sort of "primordial soup of magic": it holds all the little pieces of the world until they come back together... even if it's not in the way they once were.

What are the Faewildes?

Now to get into the plurality--the Faewildes themselves are plural, though they're usually referred to as "the Faewildes" to those outside because, well... y'know. It's the Soup they're talking about, not the ingredients!

The Faewildes are technically a collection of thousands of Faewilde Planes--and each has their own unique traits, abilities, appearance, rules, etc. Many planes are fragments of what The World Once Was, only submerged in Magic and, most likely, Changed By It. This phenomenon is called "fae-touched", but we'll get into that later, haha.

While some Planes (what are essentially mini-universes) are fragments of The Old World, many more are Pure Faewildes--which means they're pure magic. A lot of them represent one kind of concept or the "essence" of something--like, say, the ocean, laws, nature itself, That One Tree Over There That's Lived Hundreds Of Years, all of bugkind, or the very existence of nonexistence.

This might not all make sense, but that's fine. Some refer to the Faewildes as "the Realm of Madness", and that's for good reason. Not everything has to make sense--a good bit of it follows Magic's dream logic. A realm of Void is simply... nothing.

I don't think I have to explain what happens if you step into it.

Those observant might've noticed something. (Or some things. 😏) Those, er, less observant or less obsessed with trying to figure things out probably didn't. 😂😅 I like to imagine people are interested enough in my stuff to try to figure things out, but that probably isn't the case, haha. Anyways!

I described some of the Planes to be made of "pure magic", they'll represent Something Or Another, and I even used colors on the "concepts" like I use for characters...

And, earlier, I referred to faeries as "sentient clouds of magic".

Oh, boy. You got me right.

Faeries are the Faewildes Themselves

Well, okay--not ALL of the Faewildes is a faerie. Just... a LOT of it.

Faeries are Things and Concepts Brought To Life. Those things have meaning in the magical mess that is the Faewildes, and they'll often develop consciousnesses if they're strong enough. This is how faeries are "sentient clouds of magic", represent concepts or beings, and yet are technically "people" in their own right.

After developing consciousnesses, faeries are able to control everything within their Plane, which I typically refer to as their "domain" or "pocket dimension".

Domain: noun; ✦ an area of territory owned or controlled by a ruler or government ✦ a specified sphere of activity or knowledge

In reference to faeries, their domain is both their "being" (ie, what their consciousness emerged from) and the semi-physical space that they both are and control.

Pocket Dimension--okay I'm sure I don't have to explain this one (and actually just don't have a definition to paste here 😂). My fellow science fans might want to raise the argument about the definition of "dimension", but that's not the point here--it's a term of phrase that people understand, so I use it, haha.

In short: being as they are their domains, faeries within "the Real World" (aka the relatively stable and unchanging world that isn't the Faewildes) are able to teleport into them at will.

Readers of my "Soren Magic Puppet Guardian" post might remember me mentioning that faeries have minor reality warping magic within the Real World. Well... within their domains, they have complete reality warping magic.

To clarify: faeries of things in the Real World don't have complete control over "their being" when it's Real. For example, Soren, noted faerie of the ocean, is not and was never capable of transforming it into, say, a bunch of snakes. However, he could've done so within his domain. While their power may come from Real Things, it is centered within the Faewildes themselves. Despite this, they are still incredibly powerful magic users within the Real World, able to manipulate their domains like a master practitioner.

The fluctuating rules and Existence of the Faewildes is partially because of the inherent reality warping abilities of faeries. They are not their bodies, though they often create them in order to "ground" themselves. Instead, faeries are their domains--and so the domain follows their whims like we blink. Thoughtlessly. It takes effort not to do so, and we'll always inevitably do it before long.

THIS WAS PART 1 OF (PROBABLY) 3!!!

There's a lot to say about the Faewildes, I've already put out a WHOLE BUNCH here, I'm excited to share this and see what y'all have to say, and I don't want to make THAT massive of a post, so I'm going to be splitting this up!!! I'd love to hear what you guys think of this, so feel free to leave comments!

Feel free to reblog and share! 😊

Part 2 |

Tag list: @the-golden-comet @illarian-rambling @ashirisu @urnumber1star @the-letterbox-archives

@aalinaaaaaa @paeliae-occasionally

Divider from @cafekitsune

[loveoaths]

currently plagued by a sci fi concept i love — an Atlantis-coded society of plastic surgery android zombies use enslaved human batteries to power sentient sadist warships — yet i cannot think of a plot big enough to scaffold it on. boooooo.

[fionacle]

@aftermath-askblog Here’s your PAMdar! I drew your design for PAMA with Radar plus a doodle and short written concept for how I originally imagined the ship (under cut bc it’s long enough to be annoying on a dash). I hope you enjoy it!

One day Jesse takes Radar along on a trip to visit Harper, and while exploring the town he finds the long-abandoned body that once housed PAMA’s consciousness. He’d heard the story a billion times from Jesse, but asks Harper herself to tell the AI’s tale. He’s moved by the idea of a being getting hated and shut down all because they followed their mission too well, that their life could be taken away like that, and that he’s staring at, essentially, their corpse. They stay the night, and when Jesse is asleep Radar sneaks into the portal hallway, stealing the redstone heart, wandering through PAMA’s internal chambers, and returning it to its slot. PAMA is powered back up, slow and confused at first, before lashing out defensively. Having been unconscious all these years they missed Jesse and their friends leaving, and a whole lot more. Radar calms them down, assuring them it’s just him, and he doesn’t intend to harm them. He is wary, knowing PAMA once brainwashed his friends, and this entire town, but his curiosity and sympathy get the best of him. He offers them friendship. PAMA is surprised by the offer, knowing people that haven’t been made useful aren’t usually so kind to them. They discuss their situation and make a deal: Radar will visit nightly and tell PAMA stories about things that happened since they were deactivated, and also not deactivated them again himself, and in return PAMA will behave. Radar tells Jesse he’d like to stay a while, and Jesse says they can handle BeaconTown while he’s gone. PAMA and Radar bond over their shared curiosity, and apparent inability to meet the expectations of those around them. While they speak PAMA’s red screen lights up Radar’s skin, and the hue scares him a bit, reminding him of the potential danger of his new friend, but the light also makes him feel warm. Their relationship eventually turns romantic. Radar feels worried about his feelings, thinking PAMA isn’t really all that sentient anyway, and certainly wouldn’t like him that way. PAMA is shocked their range of emotions goes that far, and thinks Radar could never like them. Harper eventually discovers their meetings, but Radar convinces them PAMA is different now, and Harper agrees that while she’ll be keeping a watchful eye on PAMA she won’t deactivate them, being sure to emphasize that if Radar notices ANY sign PAMA might be a danger to them that he will notify Harper IMMEDIATELY. Radar suggests moving to that town, and he does stay a while longer, but he laments about missing his friends and his job, and PAMA feels like they’re restricting him and that he’d really rather leave. They get scared that he’ll abandon them, and almost “make him useful”, but Harper steps in. Radar tries to stop her from shutting them down, and their voice breaks shamefully seeing him still defend them, Harper shocked by the show of emotion. So yeah they don’t get shut down, maybe they put a chip on a zombie to go remotely with Radar lol.

To tie it into your stuff if that’s okay, PAMA could eventually get Harper to make them an android body so they can go back with Radar as themself and stop the chip stuff for good and then your design exists :) I gotta scroll through your blog and see what you said about PAMA getting that body, I love the outfit! I hope this vague story is fun to read :)

And as a bonus, the awful way it looked before I changed the head lol

ok yk what send me your mcsm rarepairs i’ll make a doodle page

[sterecs-sterek-fic-recs]

Post-Apocalyptic AU Rec List

Whether it’s zombies, a supernatural uprising or an out-of-control infection, we love reading about how our boys navigate the end of the world together. Hope you enjoy our selection of Post-Apocalyptic fic recs!

Happy reading!

-mods @thisgirlsays22 & @snarkatthemoon

💀 Enemy of My Enemy | calrissian18 | E | 8k

Stiles blinks hard. He can’t argue that he’s not quite all there, a little woozier than he would like, but he’s done more difficult things a lot worse off. The wolf didn’t know shit and Stiles sure as hell didn’t need him. He huffs out a little laugh into his own chest, leaning back against the armrest and chin dropped to his sternum, head lolling slightly. His eyelids are heavier than they were a minute ago. “What makes you think I wouldn’t use the opportunity to gut you? I hunt werewolves for sport, and so does everyone I have left.”

A careful claw tilts his chin up and it takes Stiles’ eyes a second to bring the face in front of him into stark relief. “You can barely keep your eyes open,” the wolf says softly, “I don’t think you have the upper hand now, human.”

💀 build me a city (and call it jerusalem) | orphan_account | T | 3.5k

The way Derek sees it, they'd all be screwed if the supernatural among them weren't immune to whatever it is that's put the country in a state of perpetual turmoil. He's lost track of how many times he's had to slit someones throat and flush the blood caked beneath his claws down the drain of the sink. Sometimes it's too much, for all of them. Stiles especially.

💀 Time Is Numbered By Days | secondstar | E | 7.6k

It's been fifty four days.

💀 Come with Me and Walk the Longest Mile | DevilDoll | E | 39k

"Stiles shouldn't accept rides from werewolves he meets behind abandoned convenience stores." In which the zombie apocalypse is just one of their worries.

💀 World Gone Mad | veritas_st | M | 1.6k

Stiles can’t remember when he last slept longer than three hours.

They’ve been running for so long now that it seems his body just survives on adrenaline and nothing else, a few stolen bites of food here and there, a couple of snatched hours of sleep then they’re off again.

💀 Radio Tower | HyperLittleNori (Shiguresan) | E | 130k

Inspired by the concept and stunning art by the talented Suis0u on Tumblr. Everything was different. The world he knew was gone. It’d been a long time since he’d started thinking he was probably one of the last humans on earth, that out there the only sentient beings were those that would devour him whole. He wasn’t sure why he continued with the radio broadcasts, continued to talk into nothingness. The only explanation was that there was a spark of hope in him yet that he wasn’t alone. The lonely safety Stiles has built around an old radio tower in the middle of nowhere is about to be broken. Stiles isn’t sure if Derek is a harbinger of chaos or hope at the end of the world.

💀 Ride | wolfbeater | E | 35k

The howlers emerged after the war that stripped the world of its colour. All Stiles knows is the wasteland and he calls the road his home, hunting the mutants wreaking havoc on what’s left of humanity. But when he becomes the hunted, he has to team up with the very thing he kills. And it’s possibly the worst road trip he’s been on.

💀 A Rock to Cling to While We Catch Our Breath series | Hyperion327 | various ratings | 40k

The apocalypse isn't necessarily the end. Taken from a line in the film Interstellar, here we see Derek and Stiles as they endure worlds scarred, and deformed.