#NECRONOM

[necronom-iv]

[hollow-head]

stop asking where Marcille went. she was doing magic research.

prior post

[zegalba]

H.R. Giger: Necronom IV (1976)

[benthesoldiersjeanshorts]

[monstersoffilgaia]

[wodeworm]

Xenomorph

[sm-stands-for-shit-muncher]

Died and came back from the late 60's and was one of the stand-out moments on the album

hell yeah Beatles necromancy

died and came back tired. died and came back exhausted. died and came back with manic energy. died and came back with malingering unease. died and came back twitchy. so many possibilities

[talonabraxas]

“The creature we finally ended up building is biomechanical to the extent that he has physically grown into, or maybe even out of, his seat, – he’s integrated totally into the function he performs.” — H. R. Giger

N0VA @faznova_ Alien

[rpgsandbox]

The Laundry Roleplaying Game

The award-winning RPG of cosmic horror, tech-driven magic, and occult spycraft returns! Based on ‘The Laundry Files’ by Charles Stross.

Welcome to the Laundry! You’re one of the unlucky few standing between humanity and unspeakable - often unpronounceable - supernatural, alien, and interdimensional threats.

You’re a spy. Well, you are now, at least. Previously, you were someone who learned things humanity was not meant to know. Namely, that magic is real, it exists in the higher realms of mathematics, and it has some really messed up devotees. And if you know that much, then you’re not left with much of a choice — you work for the Laundry now. 

If you’re familiar with Charles Stross’ award-winning The Laundry Files series or the first edition of the award-winning Laundry RPG, you know all this already and can skip to looking at the books, the new award-winning game system, or just go ahead and pick a pledge level already. Just remember that everything here has won awards, ok? Lots of them.

If you are new to the Laundry, you are in for a treat – read on for the primer. You should also bear in mind the awards thing.

There are things out there, in the weirder reaches of space-time, where reality is an optional extra. Horrible things, sometimes with actual tentacles. Al-Hazred glimpsed them, John Dee summoned them, HP Lovecraft wrote about them, and Alan Turing mapped the paths from our universe to theirs. It turns out that mathematics really is magic, or at least that aspects of it describe, enable and power magic. And computing power supercharges it.

The right calculation can call up entities from other, older universes, or invoke their powers. Invisibility? Easy! Binding lesser demons to your will? Trivial! Opening up the way for the Great Old Ones to come through and eat our brains? Unfortunately, much too easy.

That’s where the Laundry comes in. It’s a branch of the British secret service tasked with preventing alien gods from wiping out all life on Earth, with a policy focus on the United Kingdom. You work for the Laundry. The hours are long, the pay is bad, and the bureaucracy is stifling, but unfortunately, you know too much to really have a choice in the matter.

There are some upsides – you get to play with all sorts of magically enhanced tech, from necronom-iPhones loaded with cutting-edge occult apps to basilisk guns that [REDACTED]. Plus, you’ve got a job for life, and possibly beyond (talk to Residual Human Resources to find out more).

You may even get to save the world. Just make sure you get a receipt.

Introducing the second edition of The Laundry Roleplaying Game — an exhilarating blend of covert action, investigation, and dark cosmic horror that thrusts you into the chaotic world of underfunded government employees battling to save the world from unspeakable threats.

Your daily grind includes myriad perilous tasks, from exorcising co-workers gone awry to thwarting ambitious computer students from triggering reality-bending catastrophes. Sneak into supercomputer servers, join SAS troops on dimension-hopping missions, halt outbreaks of blood-draining brain parasites, and prepare for the inevitable apocalypse of CASE NIGHTMARE GREEN.

The C7d6 System

This second edition of The Laundry Roleplaying Game employs the acclaimed C7d6 system, renowned for its versatility, speed, and flexibility.

To perform an action, roll a number of six-sided dice equal to your Attribute score plus any Training you have in the relevant field. So if you have Mind 3 and two levels of Training in the Occult Skill, you have a dice pool of 5d6. Roll the dice, and if any of them exceed the difficulty of the Task, congratulations — you’ve succeeded!

The difficulty may vary, but fear not! You have a plethora of Talents at your disposal, each designed to bolster your chances of success and turn the tides in your favour.

Small Scale to World Devouring

The game system is fast and accessible and ideal for when things get messy, the banishment rounds are flying, and creatures from another realm threaten to devour your office. The same rules apply whether you’re hacking into a computer, sneaking into an office block, or storming a building with a bunch of grizzled SAS troops.

Those rules work just as well when faced with mind-shattering horror and for higher-powered adventures when things start to get really strange in The Annihilation Score and beyond.

Who Do You Play?

Within the Laundry, there are countless departments filled with hundreds of overworked and underpaid employees — and you’re one of them. You might be an accountant, IT support, a driver, or something weirder, like a counterpossession exorcist, a computational demonologist, or one of the really odd people who dedicate their life to research and development. 

However, that’s just your day job. As part of your Active Duty, you’ll join other operatives and head out on a wide array of exciting (and deadly) missions.

What Do You Do?

There is no ‘typical’ when it comes to Laundry missions. You could be sent to the heart of London, Wolverhampton, or Milton Keynes. You may even be sent overseas, but you’ll have to be careful not to ruffle any feathers — the Black Chamber and the Thirteenth Directorate are quick to halt clandestine Laundry operations. While they might have the same job as you, they handle things very differently, and some refuse to believe that the Cold War is over. 

The world of the Laundry is under threat of incomprehensible cosmic horrors, and it’s up to you to save it.

Kickstarter campaign ends: Wed, May 1 2024 3:00 PM BST

Website: [Cubicle 7] [facebook] [twitter] [instagram]

[bunnyloverqueen]

Okay, so I normally wouldn't do this, but I thought it would be fun for you all to pick what oneshot I post this weekend over on my AO3. These are the only ones with official titles at the moment, and they will all be posted at some point, and no, you won't be getting a description of them, you get to go based on the titles which I hope will be fun.

[lostvalkyrie]

Real Places I Have Visited That Your OCs Would Probably Like

@thatwritingho - Olive - The Mutter Museum in Philadelphia, PA, a collection of medical oddities. They have an entire wall of skulls behind glass, a fetal skeleton, and other preserved remains. It's strictly educational, no photography allowed, but I'm not sure if there are any ethical concerns about how some of the specimens were obtained. The museum itself is beautiful, all polished wood and perfectly clean glass, and it has the feel of a library. It's just you and the bones and other equally as quiet visitors.

@the-loveliest-lotus - Lucy - The Junkman's Daughter in Atlanta, GA. It's a huge store full of funky and colorful clothing and accessories and stuff. I remember them having plenty of rainbow colors, 70s style platform shoes, and coats with faux fur collars. She would probably dig putting on a fashion show for whoever went with her.

@gointothevvater - St Cecilia - The Cosmopolitan, Las Vegas, NV. This place is just beyond. Every single aspect, even stuff that should just be utilitarian, is somehow beautiful, sleek, luxe, and perfectly maintained, to say nothing of the Chandelier Bar which I think she would like. You go upstairs and sit inside of a huge chandelier, surrounded by glimmering crystals. The entire place smells like the lightest touch of expensive perfume. The kind where you couldn't say exactly what notes are in it, it just feels pricey.

@dolly-macabre - Dolly - Stella's Lounge, Grand Rapids, MI - This is a bar with a fun vintage 80s vibe. They have retro arcade games, all sorts of whiskey, and a cocktail so strong that they'll only let you order two of them in an evening. The interior is painted black with pops of color, much like the aesthetic of a raven haired rocker lady with many tattoos.

@chordsykat - Sparkles - Wherever the sea lions congregate, San Francisco, CA - Why can I imagine her unsuccessfully trying to befriend a pile of sea lions, who would bark in an alarmed fashion and leap off of the docks as she ran at them?

My OC Vilde - John K King Books - Detroit, MI - This is a used bookstore in an old factory, and they say they have a million books here. It's at least three stories from what I remember, so I believe them. Parts are anxiety-inducingly difficult to move through due to all of the stacks of books, but then you'll occasionally find an empty aisle that you can joyfully loiter in, uninterrupted. That old paper smell always reminds Vilde of home, since her mother owned a rare bookshop downstairs from their apartment. Unlike her mother's shop, however, John K King has never stocked the Finnish Book of Necronomic Spells, the Black Book of Helvetesmunn, or any other cursed grimoires.

[annikavelde]

{.792.}

.:ANATOMY:. Head: LeLutka - Ceylon Body: Ebody - Reborn Hair: VCO - Jinny Tongue: Cerberus Xing - Ziekling's Tongue Head Fins: CURELESS - Kimora Fins Scales: Aerth - Of the Ocean - Black Back Tendrils: Aii - Siren Tail - Siren Strands

.:CLOTHING:. Collar: Cerberus Xing - Necronomic Mother Collar - Mono past RARE Bra: Cerberus Xing x Contraption - Clam Yo Tits for Freya and may not fit your shape for Ebody Fishnet Top: RENIE - Kimmy Fishnet Top Corset: Val'More - Darkcean Corset *NEW* @ Collabor88 Skirt: Violent Seduction - Nemissa Skirt for Legacy and may not fit your shape for Ebody Panties: Lunar - Lala Panties

.:SCENE:. Background: Milk Motion - The Cistern

[benthesoldiersjeanshorts]

[k00323463]

Artist Research; H.R Giger

H.R Giger was a Swiss artist best known for his airbrushed, biomechanical works. Art that crosses the line between flesh and machine, blending the two for a surrealist effect.

His interest in the female body is a recurring theme in his work, often depicting a mechanical take on the reproductive process.

(Todgerbãrmaschine I 1976, Todgerbãrmaschine II 1976.)

The female form is often highly sexualized and twisted into machine like beings in his work, reflecting a common societal view of women throughout history and even the current day battle for dominance between the masculine and feminine.

(Necronom IV.)

Said best by Roy P. Awbery in his Article on Giger;

"Giger's artwork was frequently controversial and disturbing, with many of his works featuring violent and sexually explicit themes. His depictions of alien and robotic beings, often fused with human or animal forms, challenged conventional ideas of beauty and the human form."

Giger's work is erotic and macabre, often presented with sexual imagery to do with penetration and insemination. It blends feminine beauty and horror seamlessly into one.

(Erotomechanics VIII 1979)

Giger is also very well known for his creation of the monster for Scott Ripley's 1979 film "Alien".

The Xenomorph is a reproductive killing machine, reflecting a lot of Giger's previously mentioned interests. It is, in my opinion, peak monster/creature design.

(Giger's Alien)

Women's suffering has always played a massive part in the horror industry and the Alien movies are no different. The reproductive process of the Xenomorph is a direct visual metaphor for the trauma of rape,sexual assault and forced pregnancy. It's violent, bloody and horrifying to watch.

In an interview in 2002, screenwriter Dan O'Bannon tells us the sexual imagery is intentionally overt "One thing that people are all disturbed about is sex... I said, 'That's how I'm going to attack the audience; I'm going to attack them sexually. And I'm not going to go after the women in the audience, I'm going to attack the men. I am going to put in every image I can think of to make the men in the audience cross their legs."

(Man with Helmet and Facehugger 1978, Chestburster, Alien 1979)

(Necronom (Alien 3) 2005)

H.R Giger is one of my favorite artists, and is a direct inspiration for some of my work. I sourced some of my information and photos of his work from an art book called "HR Giger" by Taschen Books.

I also spent some time in the library exploring articles on his work and the metaphors relevant in the "Alien" franchise.

Here are some I found particularly interesting;

The Theory That Alien Is an Allegory for Assault, Explained

Revisiting The Alien World of H.R. Giger

How To Develop Theme: The Perversion of Sex in “Alien"

[oasis-nadrama]

"The Alien is cooked": A Theory of Franchise Renaissance

Oasis Nadrama, 23/09/2024

[Warning: Body horror, general spoilers for the Alien movies and for Prometheus]

H.R. Giger's Alien Monster IV

In 2014, early in the preproduction stages of the Prometheus sequel which would become Alien: Covenant, Ridley Scott declared "The beast is done. Cooked". He then gave in to fan and studio pressure and gave the new movie the "Alien" label, commenting "I'll give them fucking aliens!".

It may be a mistake.

What if the Alien franchise let go of of Aliens altogether?

Giger's painting Necronom IV, the ancestor to his legendary "Big Chap" creature design, better known as "the Alien", "the xenomorph", "the adult drone" or "Kane's Son"

When Alien hit the silver screen in 1979, a huge part of its impact was due to the fact Kane's Son was a never-seen-before creature (both aesthetically and conceptually), an unknown entity, and a total Eldritch abomination. It was inspired by a variety of real animal species, including parasitoid wasps, and various previous tales and flicks of space horror (Van Vog's The Voyage of the Space Beagle, Planet of Vampires and It! The Terror From Beyond Space are the most commonly indicated influences, although O'Bannon didn't have a specific source in mind when writing). But it was still a powerfully original entity, further strengthened by H.R. Giger's nightmarish and subversive creature design.

In the first movie, we don't know the limits of the Alien's life cycle. Alan Dean Foster, in the novelization, suggests that the crew of the Nostromo has no reason to hope that what we call today the "adult drone" form is the final stage, an idea I always found striking. And indeed Giger designed an unseen Alien Monster IV, which seems to be the hypothetical stage IV (and later was used by Cameron as an inspiration for the Alien Queen). There was also the suggestion by Ridley that Big Chap was about to naturally die by the end of the movie - it was oxydizing, and retired to the Narcissus for its last moments. We don't know the limits of its intelligence. O'Bannon thought the star beast was from a population which once had a developed culture, while Ridley had this unused idea for an epilogue where the Alien would use Ripley's voice to contact Earth (strangely reminiscent of a scene we would come to see in The Terminator five years later). We don't know its history, if it was a specimen, a weapon or even somehow part of the same ecosystem as the Space Jockey. we don't know its resistance. Until the all-new interquel, we didn't even know if Kane's Son survived the reactor burn or not.

This mystery is a huge part of the appeal of the movie, a titanic part of its sheer heaviness, and strangely part of the enigma remains intact even after seeing the entire series.

Big Chap, the face of the unknown

It is hard to deny that James Cameron's angle for a sequel banalizes the Alien. Love or hate AlienS, it is just a fact: we now know the Alien can be killed, and even killed by things as mundane as bullets, grenades or flamethrowers. We now know the limits of its intelligence, it is similar to a dog or a chimpanzee maybe, and only interested in killing and reproduction. We know it has a social structure. We know a gestation will always result in the same creature. We see an apparently closed life cycle, both in terms of successive transformations and reproduction. We see a complete hive, the endgame of the cycle, and the Queen reigning over it all. (I personally think Cameron's entire approach is a large mistake, which had sad consequences on the entire franchise, but I understand people who absolutely love this movie, and I think it's a matter of taste.)

Since then, the creature kept appearing. In the extended universe, it "diversified" into various castes generally playing with the same limitations, or simply trying to imagine "stronger Aliens" - the Praetorian, with all due respect, is just a Big Chap with more muscles. In the movies particularly, the classical Alien became the absolute star and the focus of the franchise.

The Alien hive: an iconic idea with diminishing returns?

By this point movies containing the original Alien (or a close approximation) are generally good DESPITE featuring the original Alien creature and close approximations, not BECAUSE it features it. (We will count the Neomorphs, Praetomorph, Newborn, Offspring and even the Deacon as "close approximations".)

Prometheus had it right all along. Despite its writing flaws, and the erratic quality of the creatures featured - we all hate Zombie Fifield, and regarding the Space Jockeys retconned as almost entirely humanoid Engineers, your mileage may vary -, the Prometheus project had its heart in the right place: it is time to look elsewhere.

But to look elsewhere does NOT mean to lose the focus. It does NOT mean the Alien movies should stop being about the main threat. It does NOT mean they should now propose corporate thrillers, fights against random and unrelated extraterrestrial lifeforms, etc.

It merely means to explore the same concepts from different angles. Do you remember what you felt when you saw the Trilobite serenely collapse upon the vainquished Engineer, and you recognized its typical posture?

Would ANYONE deny it was an incredible moment? Like, you may not like anything else in Prometheus, the themes, photography, bestiary, characters, etc, may not speak to you, but would you deny the power of this instant? When we finally see the facehugger in the Trilobite?

Don't you want more of it? Don't you want creative explorations of body horror, other disgusting biological processes - as Engineer bioweapons, as new stages of the Alien creature, as different incarnations of Plagiarus praepotens, whatever?

We could have creatures like the Vang which are created through the assemblage of multiple repurposed human beings. We could have parasites similar in process to the Half-Life headcrabs, who take control of a human body by merging with the head and then work from there. We could have creatures which eat human beings by vomiting their stomach in our mouth, starfish style. We could have anything.

Why not head towards a larger Alien universe, a sea of unknown nightmares which, while closely tied to the mythology as we know it, would make the experience alien once again?

Detail of the cover for the second book of The Vang trilogy by Christopher Rowley

[willbulmer]

H.R. Giger

H.R. Giger was an artist best known for his 'biomechanical' art, which combined aspects from humans (and sometimes other animals) and machinery. His art was always disturbing and eerie, but sometimes had strangely sexual undertones. This stemmed from his interests in the occult and the biological.

Giger was also known for his landscapes, which occasionally sparked some debates on the purpose of his art. Some saw it as an artistic interpretation what the future could hold if humanity carries on as they are, e.g. developing technology at the cost of the planet or an overpopulation crisis.

HR Giger's main forms of inspiration, were from artists Dado, Ernst Fuchs and Salvador Dalí. Below are examples of work from all three, in order.

All of the work from these three artists are very unsettling and have strange imagery inspired by religion, ancient civilisations (such as Ancient Egypt) and strange adaptations of human anatomy.

HR Giger created a piece called Necronom IV, which is what he based his idea for the alien Xenomorph on.

The Xenomorph itself was made from a variety of parts, ranging from car exhausts, condoms and even real human and animal bones. The skull in the front of the mask, is actually a real human skull that Giger modified to suit the purpose of the xenomorph.