#I've always been scared to experiment w my style because I've been like ''what if the people notice and they're like ''huh ???'' ''

[thevoiceofdesertbluffs]

HAPPY 5TH ANNIVERSARY KASPER RHODES!!

it's unbelievable to me. It's been over 2 years since I started listening to WtNV, let alone when I found out about him. Kasper means so much to me. Without him, I don't even think I'd be drawing humans! I was so determined to make him fanart due to the lack of it. And now here we are.

I thought It'd be fitting if I redrew one of my first full Kasper pieces, "Kaspler". This time, however, instead of just shoving him into the Onceler's clothes, I changed them up a wee, to moreso match his colour, red.

ALSO! A big thank you to my good friend @rockosaur , who helped me a lot when it came to posing, as well as providing me w some tips overall, please send her over some love!

Anyways! I hope you all enjoy! And happy birthday to Kasper!

(Capeless + original below the cut)

Capeless

Original

[savagewildnerness]

I felt the desire to respond to this, even though we're going to be creating The Longest Post To Ever Exist by me reblogging this AGAIN, haha!

This is so interesting to me! As while I also have never (& will never) read or watch anything Twilight (I also don't feel I can particularly comment on it, as I haven't read even a paragraph or seen any film), other than that, my introduction to vampires was very different to yours.

Other than children's vampires (The Count in Sesame Street & COUNT DUCKULA!!!!!) my introduction to vampires was through Anne Rice. I began reading The Vampire Chronicles when I was around 12 and they were my first 'grown-up' vampires. I didn't read or see a monster-vampire till I eventually saw and read Dracula... but I would have been over 18 by then. By which point, Anne's style of vampire was The style of vampire to me.

I know in a theoretical way and in the sense that you know any thing that is a general part of culture that the fully monster-vampire exists and predates Anne's style of vampire. But to me, Anne's style of vampire is *the* vampire as it was the first time I encountered vampires in a completely realised and more complex than a kid's cartoon way and I suppose because of that, I view all other vampires I later encountered through the lens of what Anne's vampires are. How strange. I'd never really thought about it this way, but it is how it is for me.

Apparently, I did watch a lot of horror with my Dad when I was very tiny too (he used to enjoy watching my response to scary TV and found it hilarious apparently that I was never scared) so potentially I did have some internalised vampire knowledge I just don't consciously remember. But ghosts were the supernatural beings I was personally obsessed with since I was a tiny child... until I read The Vampire Chronicles. (I used to say I could see ghosts in walls, in the bark of trees, in the glow on my violin strings. I even used to personify things in ghostly ways (I used to imagine sweet lights were fireflies when you weren't looking - some good, some evil and I'd tell all my friends about the firefly streetlights [I even made a firefly streetlight club with badges, hahahahaha], but they all just thought I was weird, haha! I ADORED creepy ghost stories, especially of malevolent ghosts wreaking revenge on those who killed them or deserved it, hehe... and I loved to think about both malevolent and benevolent ghosts.)

I suppose there's an essence in which you could compare ghosts to Anne Rice style vampires - both immortal beings, with their human feelings mainly intact, and yet an inability to fully integrate with humanity. And I guess I related. I mean, doesn't *everyone* feel like they are odd and out of place and like *the other*?

I found it so interesting to read your comparison of vampires and zombies. For me, I always hated zombies in fiction (speaking of film - I've never read about zombies) because I found the soulless aspect so unnerving. It isn't surprising when you think why I love ghosts and vampires, I suppose. To watch something with zombies gives me this weird, unsettling, sick feeling, like I just want to escape the entire story and am trapped. (Unless a very atypical zombie story!)

Obviously, Anne Rice's vampires are often monstrous in what they do. But I think (if I can remember my child and teen self) I loved how monstrous acts always reflect back into the monstrous capacity within humans too. Like, I always loved a ghost story where some moral wrongdoing from which someone might have hoped for personal gain (as an example) instead led to death and then the eternal inability to ever solve the lesson now-learned. Or as I said before when a ghosts wreaks their own revenge.

But yeah, I can enjoy a werewolf and take that concept a lot more lightly and more monster-y I suppose. And werewolves can have fascinating allegories to human experiences too. And I've watched/read other vampires too (I adore the film of What we do in the Shadows (watched a bit of the series, but didn't continue), and I've seen Buffy and The Vampire diaries... though I was never adoring of either of those...) but yeah... interesting!

So, a lot of media I consumed at the age 12/13 I think really informed who I am: The Vampire Chronicles - I think for me - I'd always loved reading and exploring other worlds, but I was starting to think more of my own life and points of view about existence, and being in Lestat's mind in many of these books gave me another voice with which, in a weird way to discuss my own world-view with. I often agreed with his thinking, and from there I could explore my own thoughts on way more topics. And stuff like these books and the film The Piano, which my Dad had recorded off the telly and unbeknownst to my parents, I used to watch it over and over again (I used to get up at 5am to practise violin and piano as I hated being HEARD and then from around 6:30 I rewarded myself with either listening to music or watching a film, alone, before anyone else woke up!) Anyway, yeah - basically The Vampire Chronicles and The Piano (Oh and Amadeus I watched over and over too!)... and a few other books I read around the time with purely human, but transgressive stories were my sensual awakening. Funny to reflect on, really. I was never all that interested in love. But sensuality and meaning, and existential questions and - I suppose sensual feeling was as close as I got to finding love interesting?

You could say that Anne slightly ruined monster-vampires for me. I desire the longing and the yearning and the eternal feeling that you can never belong and never know the entirety of if existence has any meaning at all... and the sensuality of the blood and of Death and of existence and being alive itself. And so when a vampire is more-beast than this, I'm like "Oh!" :( and I yearn myself for my yearning vampires, hehe!

(I was at one point going to mention witches in here too, but I figured since they're human and this is already long to just avoid witches here!)

I feel like this was incredibly waffly. Welcome to the stream-of-thought that is my mind! Now I'm curious what style of vampire everyone else perceives all vampires through the lens of!?! Or maybe some people have a multifaceted lens, informed by many different vampire-types?

Immortal, bloodthirsty creatures that feed on humans - they have sharp fangs and a hatred for sunlight and garlic.

Vampires might not be the hero you typically root for, but they have transfixed us for centuries.

The first short story about the monster written in the English language was John Polidori's The Vampyre in 1819.

More followed, with Bram Stoker's Dracula in 1897 inspiring F.W. Murnau's silent film Nosferatu in 1922. This is now being remade by Robert Eggers and is set to be released in the UK in 2025, starring Bill Skarsgård, Lily-Rose Depp and Nicholas Hoult.

But what's driving our hunger for vampire stories?

For writer and actor Mark Gatiss, his fascination with vampires started early. The co-writer of BBC drama series Sherlock and Dracula has been a "horror obsessive" for as long as he can remember.

Gatiss went on from a childhood love of scary stories to star as Dracula in an audio production, made a documentary on the monster as well as a 2020 BBC series, which sees the Count (played by Claes Bang) venture to London.

He says the opportunity to bring Stoker's iconic vampire to life felt "too good to be true".

"Like Sherlock Holmes, it's an imperishable myth and, really, if anyone gives you the chance to have a go at it - you have to do it," he explains.

Gatiss explains an image of Benedict Cumberbatch as Sherlock Holmes "silhouetted against a doorway when he comes back from the dead with his collar up" helped spark the 2020 Dracula series with Claes Bang

Rolin Jones is an executive producer and a writer on the TV adaptation of Interview with the Vampire, based on Anne Rice's collection of novels.

The series, available on BBC iPlayer, follows vampire Louis de Pointe du Lac (played by Jacob Anderson) who shares the story of his life and relationship with Lestat de Lioncourt (played by Sam Reid) with a journalist.

He explains stories about the vampires "come back over and over again" because they "get in your bones and haunt you," with many raising questions of immortality, death and love.

The modern popularity of the figures can be seen on social media with #vampire having 2.7 million posts on TikTok.

Jones adds that each day he will see more people tattooing the characters' faces on their body, explaining "this is a rabid fan base".

"They're really tense and complex characters", Jones says

'Scared me to death'

While the characteristics of fictional vampires have changed throughout history - some burn to a crisp in the sunlight, others have famously sparkly skin - they have one thing in common: immortality.

Dr Sam George - an associate professor at the University of Hertfordshire who taught students about vampires in fiction - explains that part of the reason the monster endures is because they "get us to think about the big questions that concern us, ideas about ageing" as well as "what happens beyond the grave".

She adds that "the vampire's always been linked very strongly with disease, with contagion," adding that if we look back in history we can see that our interest in the immortal monster seems to pique around times of mass disease.

"When the first fictional vampire appeared in 1819, there was a strong link with tuberculosis," she says.

"Nosferatu is made to actually look like plague rats," Dr George explains

She adds that F.W. Murnau's silent film Nosferatu in 1922, centring on a character famous for the plagued rats he brought in his wake, came shortly after the Spanish influenza pandemic.

The academic adds that this is "really important to why vampires are so popular and on trend now, when you think of Nosferatu and its link to the plague, post Covid we're very interested in the vampire as contagion."

Executive producer Jones adds that a key point of interest for him lies in working out why vampires want to keep living. "You take mortality out of any drama, and it's quite interesting," he says.

Jones adds that Ms Rice herself wrote the novel after losing her daughter and that this sense of "grief and mourning" is "exceptionally articulated" in the book.

'They seduce you'

"There's this allure to them," Jones says of vampires - like Assad Zaman, who plays the vampire Armand and Jacob Anderson, who plays Louis de Pointe du Lac

While vampires may let us play out our fears about mortality and death, Jones adds that there is something else that draws us to the fanged figures.

"They're the sexiest, the most sensual of monsters," he says. "They seduce you."

Jones adds that when he first picked up the novel Interview with the Vampire, "it seemed to me what I was reading was this really repressed and really messy love story."

Dr George agrees, explaining "vampires have gotten younger and better looking over the years" and notes the difference between Nosferatu and Twilight's Edward Cullen (played by Robert Pattinson).

The academic adds there has been "a shift" in the way people read vampire fiction, explaining there has been a lot of interest in the topic of sexuality and vampires, like the "queer family" presented in Ms Rice's novel. 

The combination of love and immortality, Dr George says, is also seen in Francis Ford Coppola's 1992 film Bram Stoker's Dracula, which ran with the tagline "love never dies".

For Dr George, the "sense that the vampire can address a number of questions all at once," from death to love is the reason it stays with us today.

This article made me curious (I haven't put combination of some/all as an option as 100% would vote for it, as of course it isn't just one thing... so I ask the *most* significant thing for you)...

Edit to add that this is very difficult even for me to answer and I created the poll. Now, I'd say existential questions would be my top answer, but when I first read the books, it was the exploration of the outsider/difference I think for me, so perhaps that's the truest answer?

[antifainternational]

Im vocal about supporting antifa and now im afraid a local altright/fascist group has my contact info (email, phone, address, pictures) because they've been using my email to sign me up for alt right mailing lists and one of em send some of my holiday pictures in a string of gore-y photos in a political group chat (hes banned now) .. is there something i can do? Im really scared even though i know thats exactly what they want :/

Oh, we feel for you.  A lot of us have been in your shoes in the past.  So we reached out to some experts for advice for you; here’s what they had to say, followed by some of our own advice: “Well first of all, what a fucking nightmare. This sounds really hard and terrifying. It seems to me that yes, they already have this persons info so my recommendation would be to start wiping their info from public places and use a service like DeleteMe, if they have the option. It is a paid service. At this point the fash are already engaged in a harassment campaign so it’s likely the worst is already happening but you can’t be too careful. If they have the capacity to get a new email, I would suggest it. As well as a phone number. If they can’t get a new number or don’t want to, they can avoid answering calls they don’t recognize the numbers for. I would say that they can continue to be open about their support for antifa but be mindful of what might happen. I’m happy to help w emotional support or practical support in terms of changing contact info, getting linked up with deleteme, etc” “If you want to keep their current email address, set up a spam filter to reject the alt-right stuff, and mark it as "Spam" when it comes in. They should also set two-factor authentication on every social media account they have. If they want to remove their data from the internet, so that this doesn't happen again, have them either buy a DeleteMe package, or else follow the steps in this free 30-page guide to remove their data from every peoplesearch engine.  In my experience, if you put in about a half hour a night, you can have it done in a month or so. From what I've seen in past harassment campaigns, they don't tend to last very long. The far-right is great at conducting kind of 24-48 hour blitzkrieg campaigns, but they don't have a lot of staying power. After two days, it's usually over unless their name pops up in the news again.” In addition, we’d recommend reading this article from Crash Override, which covers how to protect yourself if you’ve been doxxed.  That probably covers you digitally, but let’s talk IRL as well, Anon.  If they have your address, you should consider moving if it’s possible.  If you are staying put, you should beef up your private security.  Install floodlights outside and better-quality locks.  Consider a home security system and/or cameras.  If you’re tight with your neighbours, let them know you’re being harassed and encourage them to call you, the police (if you’re comfortable with that), or both if they spot anyone/anything suspicious going on around your place.  Set up a code w/ friend where you can call them or text them a single word & they’ll drop everything and come running.  Maybe have some friends stay over with you for a few days; maybe even sleep in shifts so someone’s always up & keeping an eye out for stuff.  If you are in a place where you’re allowed to own a firearm, consider it; if you decide to get one, get trained up on its use. You might want to let your school or workplace know what’s up as well so they can be on the alert.  Try to not stick to your regular routines - change up where you shop, the routes you travel, the times you’re out in public, etc. to make it as difficult as possible to surveil you. If you haven’t taken any self-defence or martial arts before, consider committing to it for a year or two.  Everyone is going to tell you a different style is best for self-defence (we’re partial to kali/escrima for close-combat weapons fighting/disarming + muay thai for striking + Brazilian jiu jitsu for takedowns, grappling, and groundwork ourselves).   This is probably all very overwhelming for you.  Please take a moment to take some deep breaths, know that people have your back (even people you haven’t met yet like us!), and that in most of these cases, the threat blows over after a few days when the nazis lose interest/move on to their next harassment target.  You can get through this, Anon, and you will be safer & stronger having gotten through it!

[psshaw]

question that doesn't REALLY have to do w tucker but more.... how to handle the situation. i'm trying to make sure people in the community know that dude was sharing cp w minors and shit. i've submitted reports to the appropriate places and in the meantime i've been sharing info, chatlogs, etc on my blog and trying to get word out to the people in the community (since it's a 13+ game that he's largely networking through). i want to start gradually posting more.... normal shit again-

- so i don’t drive myself batshit while waiting for investigations to move forward, but i also feel incredibly guilty at the idea of bumping this info off the top of my blog while he’s still active and running chat servers w kids younger than 13 in them. How did you balance making sure people knew about tucker with like…. not going completely nutty while it seemed nothing was happening? I’m trying very hard to make myself think about other things but it’s legit getting hard to keep meals down.

Dang dude, you’re coming straight for my soul here. I think a lot of my calmness comes from really, honestly believing in justice as an inevitable concept.

Like, it takes a long time to get the word out (and you will never reach EVERY SINGLE CORNER OF THE EARTH or even his fandom, so he will always have a shelter with somebody if he really wants it) but you are getting the word out and improving the numbers of people who are aware. Growth Mindset principles will save your liiiife. It says that struggle is constructive and that I have the power to improve my situation gradually, and the fact that I’m not there yet is of no little concern because I’m focused on affecting the future.

You just dealt a substantial blow and you need to figure out how to celebrate that a bit. Our guys are parasites who don’t believe they’re doing anything wrong and will specifically seek out sycophants who confirm this worldview. It’s likely you will have to do this more than once, so PLEASE take your victories where you can. Understand that even if it looks like nothing’s going on, getting noted for inappropriate behavior with minors isn’t something that just happens to everyone. You’ve successfully warned, at minimum, one (1) person. You’ve successfully scared, at minimum, one (1) sociopath. Get used to the feeling of impotence, but also remind yourself that you originally started at zero. And every person you tell might be spreading the word in ways you don’t see.

Also, did you ever consider making one of those separate evidence blog thingies? Or are those out of style, now. I never got into them, but I like what they mean for his google search results.

Aaaaand I hate to break it to you, but you are probably always going to be happiest when you aren’t thinking about this guy. As important as this is, it’s not your life. There will be people who don’t even want your help and need to experience his weirdness for themselves. You are not everyone’s mom, you’re just a stranger doing a lot of people a favor. Practice not feeling weird or guilty about distracting yourself, because BRO. TRUST ME. This is just a tiny, tiny aspect of your overall purpose on Earth.

I know it sounds trite, but it’s true: If you can, get the fuck off Tumblr. Even just leave it open while you clean your room or make something cool or go fucking outside, it’s so nice outside. Okay I lied it’s pretty hot. But do something with your time so that you’ll look back on it fondly instead of just remembering being stressed out.

Y’know what I did was I wrote and drew a fucking webcomic.

Also, Pepto-Bismol gets me through the stomach lurches pretty good. Remember to stay hydrated and please make yourself eat, no internet drama is worth shitty health.