#Live and Let Dive

[sonjackcarl]

[whalleyrulz]

halloween 2024

8) V/H/S BEYOND

sorry for the delay to both people who read these, i'm having a time

i love the vhs series. even when they're bad, they're fun. there's just something appealing about a series made of horror vignettes where people are genuinely trying. shade thrown at abcs of death right there

beyond's framing narrative was about aliens, and it was easily the least grungy the series has looked. and for the most part, the shorts all kept on theme, which was like, hell yeah, love it. was this one the best? absolutely not. but it was good, and it had one of the most horrifying ideas the series has gone for, so hell yeah!

ABDUCTION/ADDUCTION: this was fun. it was presented as a history channel style show about proof of aliens, and it was fun that they got some real world ufo debunkers to play their part in this. i think it was a little dry, and the payoff, while it matched the energy of some of the series, didn't quite live up to what i was hoping for. still, one of the better framing narratives they've had!

STORK: for the most part, this was what it was. using cop bodycams for the found footage was good, but it felt very videogamey in a boring (to me) way. that said, the payoff was GREAT, and i fucking cackled like a witch at that last shot as the short ended. i'd like to see this as a bigger thing, but then, if only one of the shorts in this collection should be expanded, this one ain't it

DREAM GIRL: love me some bollywood horror. paparazzi are always good horror protags, and the inclusion of a fully filmed bollywood number was cheeky, but it worked. that said, after the reveal, i found myself checking my phone like "is this still happening?" and it never really gripped me again. it was alright!

LIVE AND LET DIVE: second best of the show for sure. skydiving during an alien invasion is fucking phenomenal, and the continuous shot from the plane all the way to the ground was great. i loved this honestly; it wasn't anything more than what it was, but what it was was inventive, unique, and had some absolutely great visuals. incredible work

FUR BABIES: y'all this shit would have been on the bottom of fucking v/h/s viral. it missed the promise it set up at the start, it missed the theme, it had no point, and for what? SPOILERS: i've seen tusk? why would i want to see that but worse?

STOWAWAY: hoooooly shit. hooooooooly shit. i want to see this as a full length movie. i want to see this as a standalone. stowaway is about a woman who desperately wants to film proof of ufos. then she finds one. then i cannot stress enough, we are subjected to one of the most horrifying ideas i can think of. and because it was written by mike flanagan, you KNOW it's got that unsettling eerie sadness that he rolls around in. i don't want to spoil what this is about. i just want everyone to see this

v/h/s beyond is absolutely worth the watch for that last one alone. i mean also for live and let dive, which was great, but goddamn. stowaway. goddamn. fuck

1. late night with the devil | 2. history of the occult | 3. destroy all neighbors | 4. lisa frankenstein | 5. monolith | 6. escape the undertaker | 7. hellraiser

[stormbros]

This isn't a theory or anything, just based on vibes alone. If Bells Hells do happen to seek out other prime deities for guidance or boons, the Moonweaver would be so juicy for Dorian...

[shadowinthetreesbutcooler]

red team are FULLY going feral im so here for it, cellbit vouching for cannibalism and getting excited, baghera wanting to build a dirt shack and everyone wanting to crawl into a cave and chase people through the woods

[summertimemusician]

Linktober Shadow Day 7

Gloom Hands

This goes out to the way I cackled hysterically once seeing these things in TOTK, well done Zelda Team. They're a terrifying concept and I really feel exploring that could be fun, even if this prompt gave me a headache and a half.

Bit late today because we've been pelted by way too many storms/lightning and writing on mobile with lightning shaking your house is generally a bad idea, so I spent most of the time writing this and the Linktober prompt by hand, then transcribing it back onto mobile as soon as I could touch eletronics without the major risk of being zapped and picking a god and praying that my internet wouldn't be too funky so I could get it out on time. Short one again though because I still need to finish the Linktober prompt so it should come out later today or fully tomorrow, sorry folks.

Anyway, as always can be read as romantic or platonic, also Sage is here both because of the prompt and because the mental image of Wild Reader and Sage trauma bonding over the extremely twisted nature Gloom/the Malice have compared to just dark magic in general in LoZ was too funny to resist, if Nintendo won't talk about the many variations of Dark Magic in LOZ and how it affects any who come in contact with it then lord darn it I guess I'll just have to do it myself (or as much as I can without breaking out the companion essay to the Realm of Darkness and Realm of Light essay which I'm already having trouble digging out).

TW:

Technically graphic descriptions of decay, gore and eldritch horror, and Reader just not having a good day in general, don't recommend reading I'd you're highly squeamish.

When you’ve first met Sage, as the Chain temporarily dubbed him, you and Wild didn’t miss the way he looked so, so haunted. Emotions warring like a storm as he looked Wild over in a mix of disbelief and the weariness of a wounded fox getting ready to bite just to escape, at the Chain with such longing ache that made one’s heart break, the way the first time he met Wolfie he didn’t hesitate to throw himself atop the canine and hug him so close like he was trying to melt into the fur, and looking at you like he didn’t know wether to cry, scream or to shut down before he buried it under the mask you knew your resident Champion could use when trying so desperately to keep it together, hands shaky as he signed in a way that set your teeth on edge and felt like you had taken a dozen of ice arrows to the back, urgent, 'It’s not safe. None of you should be here. You need to leave. Now.'

Needless to say it was alarming, even as you all knew just how ferociously untamed his and Wild’s Hyrule could be, with being overrun with so, so many types of divinity through each crack, root, drop and flesh of it’s beings. From Hylia’s cold calculating care, the Three Goddesses blood, tears and breath of life, to the Malice’s howling self sustaining fury, The Lost Woods ever overgrowing freedom and even the remnants of the Fierce Deity’s hunt in Satori’s and Malaniya's savage display of cyclic eternity, it wasn’t any surprised that apart from the Traveler’s Hyrule it was the most aggressive one with the smorgasbord of energy so thick it made even you choke on it everytime you stepped foot in it. Beautiful and free in an echo of it’s once untamed state in the age of myth even before Sky.

Over time, you and the Chain learned how to adapt to it. To listen to the warnings Wild gave about the Guardians and about the remains of Malice in his monsters, of how the moon had been forever tainted with it and how, until Sheikah tech was fully repurposed it would be best to avoid the castle all together it was difficult but manageable, and even if Sage’s reaction was alarming (and he seemed even more troubled once Wild passed onto him from Sky that, while he wasn’t to come with them yet due to how things were apparently ‘fated’ to happen, there was no way you all could leave quite yet, distantly sticking by Wild and Twilight when possible and checking on everyone’s health when not doing so), you’d though it would be much the same for his own, and in parts you were right as the Chain had taken to the new environment like fishes to water even if it took some adjustments.

Though you were quickly proven wrong, and you could have laughed at your past self’s naivety.

It was meant to be a quick run to clear a black blooded monster camp, and while decently challenging, it was over quickly between the Chain getting more apt at fighting the enemy, Sage’s addition as the man fought as ruthlessly and ferociously as Wild, switching between deadly marksmanship and feral combat on a dime and the absence of the unnaturally inteligent black scales lizalfos, you’d rest and be on your way quickly. Or so you all thought.

Twilight had been the first to smell it, the bubbling of dark but distinctively twisted magic, even more so than Zant’s brand of madness. Wild the one to spot it, the rot black and blood crimson building up at the edges of camp from his vantage point but it was Sage who had tensed, eyes snapping to the faint glow the Master Sword emmited just as the sky darkned before his frantic, alarmed howl swept over the Chain, the sheer desperate, protective panic making all of your boys still, because Sage never used his voice unless he absolutely had to, “IT'S NOT OVER! MOVE!”

It was all the warning any of you got before reality twisted, straining, and then finally screaming, the heavens staining with crimson as if gutted open, the eyes of a sin against nature itself cutting through your relief and infecting your veins with terror. It shakes you to the core, freezing with indecisive flight or fight as you spotted the tide. Heart in your throat as you tried to comprehend what you saw.

“WHAT THE-“, Legend cursed, looking ashen as his grip on his fire rod tightened. Really, all of your heroes look disturbed and you can’t blame them.

“Get to high ground if you want to live! We can’t fight these things.”, snapped Sage, much more composed, but no less frenzied.

None of you hesitate to listen.

(There were some unspoken rules, when in Wild’s Hyrule the first time around. If there is something the Champion, the most reckless of all Links, wasn’t willing to fight head on or said wasn’t worth it, the best course of action was to listen, specially if the group was vulnerable.)

The hands screech, the tide rolling over the land with an reality splitting clamoring, a sound so filled with fury and so, so twisted it made your Hylian’s ears friends bleed and you lift a hand to your head in pain as Wild pulled you along, Sage leading the charge for the nearest cliff face as Warrior’s threw Wind over his shoulders and Twilight didn’t hesitate before doing the same to Four, the frost from Legend and bomb arrows from Time and Sky barely doing nothing to slow it’s relentless charge, merely taking from it a distorted, pitched crescendoing belt of pure rage and the overlaying of many tortured souls screaming all at once, of Hyrule rejecting this existence from the world but wounded at being unable to vanquish it, the sound it makes as it spreads and drags itself across the ground with uncanny speed with it’s many, many arms like something in between sludge and smacking, wet, rotten flesh.

Sage switches between shooting arrows to helping the other Links up the cliff and shooting at it’s eyes with the strongest bow he has,making as many arrow fusions on the spot as he dares. The others quickly taking as many ranged weapons from their sides to do the same. You help Hyrule up the clifface, while Wild swipes Cryonis over the field, climbing up himself, being hauled to Sage’s side.

You are almost there when one of the hands latch onto your ankle, and you go down with a scream, Sage all but dropping the bow in his hand in favor to latching onto your hand with snarl. And

It.

Is.

Agony.

(It burns through you like your very atoms have been set on fire,bthe hands take the opportunity to sink into you, long long unnatural fingers sinking into your flesh in a unhurried blanket of darkness, the Demon King’s will is roaring, growling with abyssal rage, if it cannot rule Hyrule, it would kill everything in it instead. Gloom sinks into your cells, raptures the membranes and makes the skin slip, frantically invading, you taste rotten flesh on the back of your throat and the scent of wither and ash choke you as it sinks into your flesh, marrow, breaks down your bones bit by bit, cracking and infecting and breaking down your very essence with the fury of a dead deity which refused die, decay on an accelerated rate all over where the hands clutched like a vice as the Links trunfo pull you out or attack it and it is painful and it’s excruciatingly wretched and make it STOPCEASEITHURTS-)

A well aimed Skyward Strike severs the connection, the pain stops and you fall into Sage, breathing hard and unevenly, grasping at him like a lifeline, clawing and counting at Wild’s arm on your other side like a wounded animal, your taste blood on your throat from the screams that were ripped from it, Hyrule falling to his knees on your side as healing magic washes over you like a shroud, trying to get you to respond.

Reality howls along with you, before all is silent.

It barely took a second.

“... Just what were those things?”, rasps Sky, horrified, a sentiment echoed through the Chain, though you can’t focus on it, trying not to choke on your own blood and to pull yourself together, Wild’s hand unconsciously settling on your pulse, shaking, and Sage’s tense tone cuts through the air as he scans the area. Still tense, tone hoarse.

“... The reason why I wanted you to leave.”

Later, much, much later, before you all leave, you learn they are called Gloom Hands.

It’s unanimously agreed that all you hold loathing for those abominations, even long after you’re forced to leave Sage.

He whispers something to Wild on the way out, hugging him close, trembling. Your Champion nods, you can’t make out the words, but you make sure to hold him as close as you can before you go, indulge him in checking for your pulse even long after you’re healed.

You hope he’ll be safe, he hopes that the next time you all see each other again, it’ll be under better circumstances.

[anotherdescentintomadness]

Wang YiBo Art Because Nothing Else Can Suffice

Wang YiBo x Tencent Allstar 2023 FANART BECAUSE I AM DED

[lezabeththetheodoraimposter]

my american citizenship dissipating the moment china pulls up to women’s synchronized diving

[saints-who-never-existed]

20 and Silna for the character ask, please

This is such a lovely one to think about, thank you! :)

-

20. Which other character is the ideal best friend for this character, the amount of screentime they share doesn't matter?

Obvious answer, perhaps, but I think both Blanky and McDonald are excellent candidates.

It's easy to forget sometimes that they were both able to communicate with Silna just as easily as Crozier and Goodsir were - better, even, in McDonald's case if memory serves me right.

They also both seem to actively give a shit about her happiness and welfare - always a good jumping-off point for a friendship. And I think they both see her very straightforwardly as the actual regular human being that she is - something I'm not sure that Crozier and Goodsir do quite so consistently, at least in the beginning.

And lastly, I just think they would vibe in terms of their interests. Blanky appreciates the ice and the landscape, and understands how to survive in it pretty well, at least for an old white man so there's very much common ground there. And, of course, we see that Silna has some knowledge of healing in the last episode when she cares for Crozier's injuries so I think she and McDonald might enjoy learning from each other.

-

Another less obvious answer that I've been ruminating on in the back of my mind and growing increasingly intrigued by while writing the previous section, is actually Tozer?

Definitely a weird one but I think there's perhaps some interesting commonality there - they both care deeply for their own people and try to do what's necessary to protect them, they're both pretty pragmatic and practical in matters of survival in general, and they're both quick to anger and call out bullshit when they see it.

I dunno, I think maybe I just remembered the incredibly fleeting glance they share as Tozer's creeping up on poor Morfin in E07 and extrapolated wildly? Nevertheless, I stand by it!

[resolutepath]

Okay this light cone has me almost 100% convinced on the theories that I posted here and here around Misha being a locked away / dream version / reborn personality of Mikhail. Mostly because I'm convinced that the man depicted is Mikhail and the similarities are stark. I'll be interested to read the text that goes alongside as I haven't gone a-hunting for it. But this does explain why Misha avoids most of the Astral Express crew, appearing only before The Trailblazer. Because as the newest member of the crew they have no chance of pouring through the databanks or discovering the meetings that have happened before. They are safe.

Also Mikhail, if this is him, gives me Ayato vibes, in the sense of smiling, polite exterior hiding a calculating and measured mind. I would not put it past him to have locked a fragment of himself in the dreamscape to reappear at a later date. I'm also convinced, though it's up to Gallagher muns if they want to take it onboard, that Gallagher knows, Gallagher was part of the plan, that he is the one charged with protecting the fragment of Mikhail and guiding him through the dreamscape avoiding those who might perceive him and know who he is.

[completeoveranalysis]

[2]

Coming out the gate swinging with Fai theorising that perhaps the time loop keeping these people away from the festival could even be a good thing, depending on the festival. 

INTERESTING. Love the dark implications. Big fan of the off screen horror that would imply being in a time loop forever would be PREFERABLE. 

And of course this comes from Fai, the survivor of so many tragedies that naturally it’s him that considers this. If you wanted you could even draw a parallel to Fai in the pit, trapped outside of time with no escape while his entire kingdom was slaughtered off screen. How interesting that, with that context, being in the pit is almost preferable to what would have happened if he hadn’t been. 

[ssruis]

Aside from the noble platypus I also feel like rui would really enjoy these animals:

Mola mola/Sunfish

Anteater

Echidna

Kiwi

Kākāpō

Axolotl

Horseshoe crab

Gibbon

[ramenwithbroccoli]

Can my oc and your oc be friends..... I think shark would really like to hear about stories and literature ^^

YESSS LETS GOOOOOO THEYRE FRIENDSSS

Giewont would love to talk to someone about this stuff. also i think they could kind of bond over being dangerous to people even if they don't really want to... and going to the local library for shark week even if they don't let them in anymore (Giewont cut up too many books). LITERATURE AFTERNOON TEA PARTY 💥💥💥💥

[imaginary-wanderer]

How to become a polyglot the easy way:

look for queer representation in media

find a foreign tv show with a promising bromance

enter a fandom where 99% of the people are from another country

learn the language to engage with the fandom and the original content

Bonus: don't use the owl app.

[bugsizedbird]

it just. hit me. i didnt have a childhood just trauma

stares at hands

[toytulini]

I think making sweeping generalizations of specific traits being considered "ugly" is not great the same way i think its rude and unnecessary to call others ugly, i also think its worthwhile to acknowledge that certain traits ARE considered "Ugly" due to societal beauty standards, that doesn't make them ACTUALLY ugly, bc beauty is subjective anyway, and can be found Anywhere, and even someone who seems to tick every single box of societal beauty Ideals will almost certainly have at least one trait or feature about their appearance that they are insecure about or feel is "ugly", bc even within the constraints of conventional attractiveness theres subjectivity

also this fish was so fucking Ugly and i adored it so much. i miss him.

he was also gorgeous.

[safaridays]

the first step to anarchism is looking at infighting within safe spaces for already marginalized peoples and going “well I actually don’t give a fuck”