#Spooky Bang 2024

[katiefrog217]

My piece for the 2024 Good Omens Spooky Bang, in collaboration with the always lovely @quoththemaiden !!

Read their story HERE!!

Thank you to the Bang organizers @eviebane , Mason, Milo, and Acey! (I couldn't get all the tags to link them, but they can be found on the Spooky Bang Blog!)

I kinda got to work on this last minute, and it was quite the challenge for me perspective and color wise, but I'm really happy with how it came out!! I hope all of you enjoy this piece and the wonderful story that goes with it!!

Also, sorry for not posting in a long time, can't promise I'll post more frequently or even if it will be Good Omens related, as life is kind of in the way right now, but I'll try!

Vgen | AO3 | RedBubble | KoFi

[teenytinyapprentice]

Lady Reinhold and the Maw of the Arcanum

my contribution to the Professor Layton Big Bang 2024 for the wonderful, haunting and fascinating story by Melc @melcobelc ! Please give it a read, it's super intriguing and this was lots of fun to make 💕

Summary:

"This is what I now need to request of you, my dear daughter, and I hope that you can forgive me for it."

A letter, 13 years after her mothers death, leads Flora to the small, tranquil seaside village of Aenigmouth. Despite the overwhelmingly welcoming behaviour shown to her by the locals, the girl cannot shake the feeling that something isn’t right.

What is it that Aenigmouth seems to be hiding?

What is it the puzzles of this village seem to be guiding her towards?

What had been her mothers intention in sending her here?

[ignite-art]

Only Boo by CemeteryAngel725,

A Good Omens Spooky Bang Romcom

The second illustration I made for the Spooky Bang collab with the incredible @cemeteryangel725! One step closer to drawing my first kiss???

Check out the final pieces over on AO3 (link down below) and get ready to dive into a delightful mix of laughs and longing! 💕👻

Only Boo is Rated E, contains 9,199 words and includes two illustrations made my me

Summary:

All year, Crowley looks forward to putting on his costume and getting his scare on at Fright Nights at Dreadhaven Asylum. This year, he's got a great scene partner in Ligur, and he's looking forward to playing a fallen angel.

Then a real live angel walks into his haunt, and he's immediately smitten with the mysterious stranger. But how can he get his game on when he has to stick to the script?

Will Crowley work up the courage to make it work before Halloween? Or will the chance of a lifetime slip through his fingers?

Read more on AO3

×××

↓ close ups below ↓

[brenna]

Night Full of Feast Fires

Fandom: Good Omens | Category: M/M | Relationship: Aziraphale/Crowley | Rating: E | Chapters: 1/5 | Words: 1,893 | Author: scullphile

For Good Omens Spooky Bang - @spooky-bang-good-omens

Art by @so-so-somebody

Thank you to my betas: @kneelbeforeyourdogbabylon and @heretic1103 for being the best!

Tagging @goodomensafterdark

Summary:

Dr. Aziraphale Fell has worked at an Antarctic research station for years, and he's never seen a winter like this. Usually the danger lies outside, in the harsh winter conditions. Unsettling events and people acting strangely have him on edge. Isolated and lonely, he clings to one of his new colleagues for comfort. Can Aziraphale and Crowley protect themselves and their friends from the danger infiltrating their ranks? They only have to make it until dawn, which is several months away.

read on ao3 (complete & posts every tuesday)

(tags, cw, and excerpt below the cut)

Tags: Antarctica, Snowed In, Paranormal, Creepy, Aziraphale Loves Crowley (Good Omens), Crowley Loves Aziraphale (Good Omens), Co-workers, Spooky, Lust at First Sight, love at first fright, POV Alternating, Blood, it's not enough blood to die from

CW: some blood in future chapters

Excerpt:

The sun was about to set for the last time. The bustle of packing up and moving out waned over the course of the long day, and the population of the research station fell from 150 to 34. They were expecting some fresh blood any moment, making it 36 souls who would be isolated in the frigid temperatures of the South Pole for the long winter. The ice would build up, the storms would start, and then, even in an emergency, there would be no way out. They would be utterly alone.

Aziraphale, as the only member of the welcome committee, prepared for the arrival of the newcomers. He hadn’t entertained anyone new for quite some time. Last winter was difficult. Each time his alarm had sounded, he found it harder to get out of bed. Perhaps he needed to make a change, to put himself out there–professionally and romantically. 

Winter was not for the faint of heart. It could be harrowing or it could be boring. Aziraphale hoped the new scientists, Dr. Crowley and Dr. Moonchild, were hearty enough to handle six months of darkness. For the first few days, the sun would almost rise, coming close enough to the horizon to dip the sky in twilight, but after that the only light would be the stars and the southern lights.

Aziraphale prepared a tray of tea, coffee, and cake for their arrival. He’d read both of the doctors’ research and found Dr. Crowley’s especially fascinating. Moody and dream-like, his writing made it seem like he’d been there for the creation of the cosmos themselves. It had transported Aziraphale to another time and place, one where he almost felt at home.

continue on ao3

[cemeteryangel725]

Only Boo, a Good Omens Spooky Bang romcom by CemeteryAngel725

The Good Omens Spooky Bang is finally open, and I'm so excited to share this story I've been sitting on for a bit. The idea first came out of the haunted house chapter in Of Fire and Falcons, and I've been looking for an opportunity to develop it ever since. The Spooky Bang mods have been lovely, and I was so lucky to be paired with the brilliant @ignite-art, who created two beautiful illustrations for this story!

Rated E, 9,199 words

Summary:

All year, Crowley looks forward to putting on his costume and getting his scare on at Fright Nights at Dreadhaven Asylum. This year, he's got a great scene partner in Ligur, and he's looking forward to playing a fallen angel.

Then a real live angel walks into his haunt, and he's immediately smitten with the mysterious stranger. But how can he get his game on when he has to stick to the script?

Will Crowley work up the courage to make it work before Halloween? Or will the chance of a lifetime slip through his fingers?

Excerpt:

Crowley knelt on the ground behind the bars and began to whimper as the group filed into the room. “Please… please tell them I don’t belong here. I didn’t mean to fall — please…”

He lifted his face in supplication, taking in the members of the group, all of whom were wearing the powder blue polo shirts of the tech company. The lantern-jawed, broad-shouldered man at the front must have been the one they’d heard in the corridor. He had a smug air of authority and blindingly white teeth, set in the sort of punchable face that always pushed Crowley into lockers when he was in high school. There were also two women, both of them clearly lacking in any sense of fun. And the fourth person in the group — oh.

The fourth person was the most beautiful man Crowley had ever seen.

He was probably a few years older than Crowley, his hair a halo of white-blond curls, his thickset body just a little soft around the edges in all of the ways that made Crowley want to take him home and nibble him. His storm-tossed eyes flicked around the space, clearly a little overwhelmed, but even out of his element he exuded kindness out of every pore. His eyes met Crowley’s, and in that moment Crowley felt a zing of energy through his entire body, almost as if someone had slung an invisible hook through his belly button and yanked him forward. He stood and reached out his hands.

“Angel —” he croaked, because the man really did look like he should be playing a harp on a Christmas card. “Angel, please — I only ever asked questions, I’m not like them… please, I’m like you — please help me —”

Read more on AO3!

[minervas-hand]

The Conservatory Demon

Have some Halloween haunted-house Ineffables - my contribution to Spooky Bang 2024!

Azra Fell has purchased the decrepit Tadfield Manor to house his extensive antiquarian collection. Years of neglect - and tales of suspicious happenings within the house - had kept it unoccupied. But after some mysterious mishaps it becomes clear he is not the only resident of the old manor. And that entity wants him gone. Azra has poured everything he has into this house and will not be moved. Perhaps they could come to some sort of... Arrangement.

Fabulous art by @nine-of-words coming in the second chapter!

@spooky-bang-good-omens

[thenewblackcanvas]

Creatures crawl in search of blood...

Darkness falls across the land (Halloween 2022)

The Midnight hour is close at hand… (Halloween 2023)

Welcome to the spoooookiest masterlist … season 3! The landing page for all things spooky and spine-chilling 2024. Expect new drabbles and stories (and a continuation of other year’s unfinished lineup). Inbox is open for requests! Don’t forget to like or send a message to celebrate with me.

stories/one-shots:

???

???

???

???

His Call

you haven’t heard that tune since your sister died. why is it haunting you now? siren!jihoon x reader

A Demon’s Deal

the family punching bag gets offered relief but at a price demon!soulmates!seonghwa x hongjoong x reader

requests:

[alicewhimzy]

Day 04; Bang!

This shading took me so long! 🙃

😈🎃🩸

[allieebobo]

CT:OS Halloween bonus

As promised, wrote like a fiend this month and banged out almost a full chapter's worth of content for spooky season!

The update is three-quarters of chapter 7 (about 40k words including code and variants), and picks up where Sam's visit left off.

Release dates:

It will be out to ko-fi supporters on 31 Oct, and a week after to the public :)

Features:

Deal with the aftermath of your decisions over the weekend (talk to G, Tobin or Rayyan) <True horror>

Attend a language fellow/exchange student dinner-gathering as G's plus one (and the only American in the group). <the G-only scene I promised! You don't have to be dating.>

Prep Halloween costumes with your hallmates (yes, chaotic), and go trick or treating! 🎃

Attend a party after with the team ... then stay for horror movie marathon + sleepover or head back to Haynes to end the night with G.

Yep, Halloween hookups (however ill-advised ;)) are possible.

You can end this chapter very much in a committed relationship with the RO of your choice.

More details on the rest of the chapter/plans for CT:OS for 2024 below the cut.

Note: The rest of chapter 7 will include midterms, a time-skip (with some training/a match) and some fall festival shenanigans (because I love fall festivals). It should add up to a pretty chunky chapter that pretty much seals Act 1 of CT:OS (the 'settling into Cargill' part - establishing most of MC's friendships, routines, and possibly romances, forming a solid base for Act 2.)

I'll start writing the rest of the chapter once I'm done with Merry Crisis, and hope to get it out by end-Dec. We'll see! :)

[metalmiez]

Return of the Living Dead

Finally, after 20+ hours of labour, I'm able to share this piece of the Spooky Bang 2024 <3 @spooky-bang-good-omens

I had the honour to work together with @fishey-me to bring her vision for her fic "Return of the living Dead" to life. Check out the fic and leave her some love. And check out the other fics as well <3

I was having so much fun designing this piece, and especially Nanny Ashteroth's outfit.

[simplydnp]

be honest with me. what are the chances of a hard launch in june

anon this question goes back years. and the thing is. we have been right once before.

you ask me this this time last year? fuck no. i might even quip that dapg would come back before dnp would hard launch. well. look at us now.

and even then, you look back on the content they started with in the revival--it honestly kind of felt exactly like where we left off, only a lot more explicitly queer (we stan). and then... trying to see without my glasses 2. and bang, spooky week happened. and that shifted the balance. we suddenly got slo-mo replays of handholds. day, after day, after day, finishing with the absolute masterpiece of halloween baking cinnamon rolls. in all honesty it was so much more than i'd've ever expected from them. truly another post-baking universe.

and it never really slowed down. suddenly we had cat prom photos, catboy butlers, catboy dan w/ phil photography credit, theyre 'wrestling' --running us full throttle into gamingmas, the first since 2017. and every day we had a new thing to freak out over: standing close. golf jokes. and then... pinof reacts. i don't know what compelled them to do it but i do have speculations. genuinely, i think they wanted to defang a lot of their history. we treated pinof 1, especially, with this... reverance. and it wasn't talked about too publicly--and dnp didnt do it either. so if they really wanted to move on, to bring down the walls, open the floodgates, define this new era: they had to throw the first stone. and they did. quite heartily too. suddenly this almost taboo part of their history--almost too intimate to be perceived--was on the table. and we were talking about it. joking about it. giving clear signals of 'we see it, it's okay.' and suddenly we existed in a post-pinof reacts world. of anything, i would've never predicted they would've done that. absolutely wild. follow that with it takes two being so chill and fond. incohearant being so blatant and heartfelt. trombone champ being unhinged and chaotic. the genuine and sweet complimenting of each other in the red carpet video. devan wedding... happilyphoreverafter... we crashed forward in time. never knowing what would be next. where is the line? how far will they go.

they teased us with japhan honeymoon and we knew 2024 would be wild. but we didn't know how much. from wdapteo 2023, to specific reminiscing about japan w/ devan, WAD happening, and phil playing a huge role in it all--from the orange carpet hosting, to 'ive been in *sex noises* with phil from the start!', to 'remote crisis manager phil lester', to dan saying he can stay during the thank you.

one of the biggest videos so far this year was the tiktok likes one. i will be forever haunted by the dog eating cheeseburger and willy wonka tiktoks--theres some things i was never meant to know. and yet. they tell us. explicitly.

every single video on amazingphil since the return of dapg has mentioned or featured dan. there's been a palpable shift in the way they interact. have you seen the way phil has been glowing in videos lately? this guy is on cloud nine all the time. it's really not hard to see why.

the energy of keep or yeet w/ dan... the absolute Lack of pretense of it all. phan twitter... watch your step baby girl...

dan and phil fucking crafts. talk about an unexpected return. legacy defining, one might even say. we're still in this tailspin of what everything means and they drop this insanely iconic video on us. from the storytelling to the production to the aesthetic--and its all capped off by explicit handholding. yes, it was part of the sacrifice. but hand in hand, the heart dan ripped from phils chest in one, and the knife that did it in the other... oh boy. we're really in it now. and then they put it on fucking merch. genius. truly no one does it like them.

and the foot has been on the accelerator since. dan and phil connections, shuffleboard & mocktails, getting deep slumber party, acknowledgement & approval of fics (yes previously given but never like this)--hell, even the sims today was wild for 'is their love language horrible banter 👀'.

you didn't ask for an essay but i gave you one. all of this to say, they've been moving the line. quite intentionally so. they intentionally revived their joint branding. they are 'dan and phil' again, and seem happier than ever about it, and i think that means something. they're saying things they never would have before--out of the closet or not.

as for june... 5 years since coming out is a big deal. so is this year being 15 years of dnp. hell, so is this year for being the first out pride month where they're explicitly a duo and regularly making content together. they're sentimental, there will be something.

my craziest idea is reacting to their coming out videos ✌️😔 --but i don't think it'll actually happen. as for more realistic, i could see pride merch. and however that goes will be significant, in my opinion. i'm excited and curious.

i don't know if they'll hard launch. it's hard to put all of the implications, complications, and speculations back into the box once it's opened. dan's talked about it before--wanting to be able to fuck up and not be publically executed, instead, being able to learn and grow and work it out. i think that's a very understandable stance to have. very grounded. we'd have to ask him if tour/dapg has changed that now. i do think he's had some sort of life epiphany--whether it's about that specifically, only he can say. but i think it's there.

even if i portray a lot of level-headedness, i wear my clown nose with pride. sometimes the only option is to go with whatever is funniest at the time. they're both jokesters, so they could commit to a bit like that. but it's also like, it can be too serious for them to want to joke about. i don't know. i think we're in this almost beautiful state right now--the we know you know of it all. there's no expectations, no demands to be met, no obligations of types of content. they're happy. we're happy. it depends on if they feel ready. if they want to. we'll be here, always.

[pookie-mulder]

July 2024 fic roundup

Here are the highlights from this month! I really love doing these. It helps me be more engaged with what I’m reading and actually remember individual fics once I’m done with them (rather than stuffing them in the collective “fic soup” in my brain, where they’ll combine together until there’s no hope of remembering details). Anyway, I highly recommend doing some sort of fic journal! I’d love to know what you guys are reading.

🦆👧 Temporum VI by Emily_M1013

This is the third installment of a wonderful Emily AU, The Mallards series. I love how it puts its own spin on canon events, and I’m delighted every time I see an update in my inbox!

🤫🪪 Snakebitten by @onpaperfirst

My favorite thing about this fic is the way it adds to canon without rehashing what we’ve already seen in the show, building on season 5 so seamlessly. (The motel scene is 👌)

👰‍♀️🤵‍♂️yesterday’s future by @thursdayinspace

This fic answers the question I posed in this post: What if Mulder and Scully got married right after William was born? I loved it so much! The angst and the longing and the overwhelming love were just perfect.

👓😩 spectacular by @thursdayinspace

Scully has a thing for Mulder in glasses. Mulder has a think for Scully in glasses. They bang about it. (And who can blame them, really?)

🌳☕️ Suncadia by @sisterspooky1013

A banger from the great sisterspooky! It’s a casefic set in the weird post-Millennium era where they kiss sometimes but haven’t established the terms of their relationship yet. Pining and yearning abound!

🏥👰‍♀️ Something blue (and something pink) by @sunflowernyx

Mulder and Scully get married during the cancer arc. It’s sweet, angsty, adorable, and tender. I thoroughly enjoyed it!

🐶🪤 A Change of Seasons by Jo-Ann Lassiter

Still making my way through @lilydalexf’s survival fic recs! This one is a one-shot; perfect for when you want a bit of hurt/comfort without all the peril and drama.

🌨️🌲 Frozen by @dashakay

Classic, cozy, cabin-in-the-woods fic where our two favorite agents get snowed in and finally admit their feelings for each other.

🏥👻 Finding Rokovoko by prufrockslove

An instant addition to my holy grail list! This is the first fic I’ve read by this legendary author (I think?), and BOY HOWDY do I see why they’re so revered. I finished this fic in one sitting, reading late into the night (yes, I was very tired at work the next day).

I think it’s best if you go into this one mostly blind. All you need to know is that MSR are teetering on the knife’s edge between UST and RST, there’s plenty of cancer arc angst, and they go on a spooky adventure that will give you the creepy crawlies.

📝📱 Belphegor’s Prime by prufrockslove

Another absolute banger from the legend themselves. This fic is as close to perfection as humanly possible. The way everything comes together is just incredible. If you haven’t read it yet, do it now! Shirk all other responsibilities and devour this fic in one sitting!

One of my favorite things about this fic is how ruthless Mulder is. I don’t think I’ve encountered a version of him quite like this anywhere else. His intense love for his family and his innate sense of duty are intensified to the point where he skirts the boundaries of what’s morally acceptable. He’s so desperate to protect his loved ones and fix the world that he will do anything, even if he risks becoming his father(s). It felt so organic and natural for him to become that version of himself under the extreme circumstances.

Anyway, if you’re a fan of time travel, DILFs, or characters whose greatest strengths become a curse, this is the perfect fic for you!

🎪🎡 More Than a Feeling by @sisterspooky1013

A s6 casefic where M&S go undercover at a traveling carnival. I love how fleshed-out the OCs were — it really raised the stakes of the story and made you care what happened to them. Such a fun read!

🐞🩺 Inspection by @ingridgradient

Our favorite agents use tick checks as an excuse to touch each other. Need I say more? Things get hot! (Thanks for the rec, @is-on-its-way!)

P.S. If you like this one, check out let’s have a look by girlfromnowhere (thanks for finding it for me, @randomfoggytiger!)

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷��󠁳󠁿✝️ Hiraeth by prufrockslove

This is one of those fics that leaves you gobsmacked that someone wrote this for free and posted it online for anyone to enjoy. The amount of detail in this story is truly unbelievable. I don’t even normally like total AUs, but this one won me over!

Mulder and Scully’s medieval counterparts are so far removed from anything in canon, yet they still feel exactly like the characters we know and love. This fic is an absolute master class in characterization. I am now a prufrockslove stan account.

———

Special shoutout to @skelavender’s latest installment of fall into place, which isn’t out yet but I had the pleasure of beta reading. Guys, you are in for some serious shrimp emotions. It’s got everything you could ever want. I can’t wait until everyone gets to see how awesome it is!

[soundlesswind]

Mononoke: Karakasa Review

Mononoke - Phantom in the Rain

Now that it's officially out globally, I can finally offer some thoughts and reflections on the long-awaited continuation of the cult-beloved Ayakashi/Mononoke series. My main tagline for this review can be summarized thusly:

I liked it...but it could have been better.

(~ not spoiler free, read at your own discretion ~)

Karakasa: Visually, it's a bang---structurally, it's a bomb. That about sums up how I feel about the movie overall. It's vibrant, beautiful, and full of intricate patterning and details, and is in a way: both a step up and a step down from the original.

...But what do I mean by that really? Well, I think we need to first highlight what makes Karakasa and Mononoke rather different.

Ayakashi/Mononoke has a much slower pacing, with slightly more muted, and washed-aesthetic tone despite its colourful designs. It shifts from being more colourful or more sombre depending on the type of scene it wants to depict. But even at its most saturated, it never gets quite as vibrant in contrast compared to Karakasa. ...However, you could say that may be in part due to the sheer difference in animation techniques developed over the course of nearly a decade between the two (2006/2007 vs 2024).

That isn't to say Karakasa doesn't have moments of dark imagery, but that even at its darkest, it remains distinctly vibrant and high-in-contrast. You could argue for it as a conscientious choice...but personally, at its root: Mononoke is a horror-ghost story; and the gritter, muddled palettes rather add to that charm.

(2007 Mononoke - Noppera-bou, and Nue)

(2024 Karakasa)

To match its mood, Mononoke also has a much slower cadence and story tempo, despite any singular arc being overall shorter than Karakasa. That cadence adds to another difference: which is spookiness. I find Mononoke to be far spookier and more effortlessly imposing than Karakasa. There's a bit of tension and suspense in the way it's presented: both visually and vocally* (a point I'll bring up later). Mononoke is sometimes boldly laid out in seemingly disjointed flashes, but still somehow ends up cohesive and immersive with its themes and motifs; feeding you just enough information to wet your appetite as to where and just how far it wants to take you. And this is of course, done in parts over the span of 2-3 episodes.

Karakasa on the other hand, has a pacing that feels like a marathon. It seems almost lightning fast, despite the first half of the movie being entirely sociopolitical intrigue without much in the way of anything overtly youkai-esque. In fact, our Medicine Seller doesn't even step foot into the Ooku (women's court) until around 40 minutes in...which is nearly half the movie! ...But naturally, since it's a movie, it will be movie-formatted. Everything is going to run as if it were one singular episode long. --- Still, what does that mean for the pacing?

If you don't know what "tea house tales" "is.....it's basically a format of short stories told over several sessions. It's one of the ways people in the historic East used to tell stories. They'd gather around somewhere, drink tea, eat snacks and share a bit of light entertainment. In the same way the episodic nature of Mononoke is somewhat reminiscent of that. Each part feeds you a bit of information, a bit of mystery, a bit of suspense, and a bit of action. It keeps you sufficiently entertained one way or another without stringing you on far too long before any sort of climactic reveal. In this way, Mononoke feels more balanced and evened out than Karakasa. But even the format aside, I found Karakasa a lot less clear and concise with what it's trying to portray. There were parts of the movie I had to re-watch a few times or sit down and think about afterwards just to fully understand what I think it was alluding to, which wasn't an issue with Mononoke whatsoever. The plot, both visually and thematically was always clear as day for the original series, where as Karakasa sort of muddles on and off between mystery and court drama over the course of an hour and a half.

Personally...I think one of the detriments to Karakasa is the sheer size of its cast. There were simply way too many characters (27+), and some of them even have overlapping roles. There were also quite a few without clear rhyme or reason. For example, we get introduced to Tenshi, Mizoragi and the moon twins, and an assortment of other characters who don't really have much of a presence in the movie (other than to to be positional seat warmers) and are shown for a collective total of a few minutes. Karakasa IS a trilogy however, so it's possible that their roles may be elaborated in future movies, but in regards to the current film, they feel like a distraction. I guess they're going grand and all out, but the benefits of a smaller cast is that you get more intimate with each character and their already very limited screentime. It just wasn't possible for me to feel any intimacy or investment into the large cast of Karakasa---Asa and Kame included.

Comparatively; I always felt truly, fully immersed in all the story arcs of the original Ayakashi/Mononoke. I cared about the characters, or was so invested in their sorrowful tale. But I didn't particularly feel that way about Karakasa because whatever message it was trying to convey kind of got lost in-between all the court drama...which, I'm not sure some viewers may even understand or empathize with unless they already have some knowledge of what women in the imperial harem go through or how it functions. (Speaking of which, Asa practically speed ran the exposition towards the end regarding Kitagawa and her own motives.) Just to name a few: there's the rank struggles of Asa and Kame versus the leaders of the Ooku; the political positions of Fuki, Botan and the other consorts, the political household ties of Saburomaru, the grip of Mizoragi's strange cult, and the (lack of) political power that Tenshi (the emperor) holds versus the Shogunate in the Capital (---I'm not entirely sure what timeline we're in right now, but the fact that there IS a Shogunate implies a lot.)

...Anyway, you can see why there are too many distractions in this movie for me to fully feel immersed in whatever it's trying to tell. It's supposed to be a movie of women's suffering (under the weight of men and the social sphere I suppose), but most of the time it felt more like I was just simply suffering watching women cat fight each other until they quickly got picked off by the Karakasa mononoke.

Speaking of the titular "Karakasa", though... it certainly was an interesting choice of youkai. I wonder if it was because traditionally, karakasa aren't violent youkai, they're merely scary tricksters; and it wasn't as if Kitagawa was really out for revenge (though she did pick off a few people).....actually, now that I've written it out that way, Kitagawa's motives are a little unclear. Or maybe it didn't matter anymore as karakasa grew to the point it became uncontrollable. Either way, I think if they had refocused the movie on Kitagawa and actually visually show the parallels between her, her "friend" and Asa/Kame...instead of giving us a verbal speedrun exposition dump towards the end...I might have felt a little more sympathy (...or just simply anything worth feeling towards the story). But alas.

It certainly didn't help that I was a little unsatisfied with some of the voice cast. For the most part, I was okay with the side cast (particularly the males, since the females hardly had lines); but felt it was a waste that Tsuda Kenjiro (Mizoragi) also hardly had any lines (...though I have a feeling he'll play a bigger role in the next movie). He was actually even one of my 3 ideal choices for Kusuriuri's recast (next to Ishida Akira and Toriumi Kousuke). I've said it before and I'll say it again, I love Kamiya Hiroshi, he is one of my favourites...but I think his role as Kusuriuri was a bit lackluster since his vocal range is medium-high and therefore does not go deep or husky enough to carry the same spook factor that Sakurai Takahiro's voice has. Karakasa also lacks the unique staccato often used in the original Mononoke which gave it an overall interesting sound and pace. I loved the odd vocal nuances and pauses in the previous work and was very sad that it's more or less nonexistent in Karakasa.

My second complaint would be with Asa and Kame's cast, which I felt might've benefited more from actresses with more interesting inflections. Kurosawa Tomoyo is an okay actress. She gets the job done but generally does better on long-running series since she takes a long time to fully have a grip on her role. Honestly, she was on auto-pilot and was quite boring throughout Karakasa. Aoi Yuuki on the other hand has a lot of vocal range, but generally suffers from inconsistency and just sounding like nails on a chalkboard. (I won't even mince it; my housemate walked in on me watching Karakasa on the telly and literally flinched at her voice because it severely hurt her eardrums---my condolences).

Generally speaking, I do prefer older seiyuus, they just have qualities I enjoy more, but I do also think the movie would've benefitted more from either a liveaction casting or a Showa casting. Most of the characters (in both Mononoke and Karakasa) kind of...oddly use modern speech instead of feudal Japanese (minus Utayama), and given that the Ooku IS a court drama, doesn't use court language or any regional dialects whatsoever (granted I'm not even sure if this is Kyoto, Edo, or wherever). Awashima and Mugitani do use formal language, but only Utayama uses slightly older diction. With the exception of a few notable names, most of the cast for Karakasa are from a generation of newer/younger voice actors, whereas Mononoke consists of an older one. You probably won't care unless you're a seiyuu buff, but there is actually a clear vocal distinction between those of different acting generations. For example: Sakurai, Kamiya, Ishida, Tsuda, Ogata, Hayashibara, etc...all have particular qualities to their voice that give it a layer of interest (ie. whispiness, huskiness, nasalness, etc). I don't know if it's caused by the difference in learned language or some other factor, but newer generations of voice actors tend to have more clear-toned voices with more modern inflections. Kurosawa and Aoi both have notably modern inflections when they act. You could say it's a battle of old versus new if we're going by story theme...but in which case, the rest of the cast could've been of an older generation to portray that. (But well, I'm glad they chose an older actress for Utayama, at least). The few exceptions to this are a small handful of modern actresses that are so astoundingly skilled they break that barrier. I kind of wished they had casted Hanazawa for Kame instead but she's already Kitagawa...but in which case, toss Sawashiro Miyuki in that role, I think she would've been a bit spookier. Hanazawa as Kame might've made her more endearing to me, but maybe they were going for the double-double: irritable voice and character combo, since Kame wasn't particularly written to be likeable. --- Kame does somewhat feel like a second generation Kayo (MAO), but I think MAO was still more serviceable to my ears. Anyway. I don't think I should hold up this review post any longer with my derailed rant on voice acting. It is what it is, and at the very least: we found out some lore bombshell that there are possibly at most 64 medicine sellers, and that Sakurai (Ri) Kusuriuri and Kamiya (Kon) Kusuriuri are different characters altogether (---a lot of fans rejoiced about that), making the possibility of two or more existing at one time. Wouldn't that be exciting to see?

Moving on to the music. In contrast to the trailers, the soundtrack in the movie sometimes feel like background white noise. It almost seems like a trend with newer anime, but nowadays, I hardly hear the tracks compared to older shows. Well, in Karakasa in particular, the movie is moving at such a jilted pace: most of the sounds you will hear is either dialogue or the occasional clinks and clangs. They don't really blast OSTs like they used to (...unlike Hollywood movies where I hear too much BGM). --- But following the odd quirks of Ayakashi: some of the vocal themes for Karakasa still are that weird mash of modern and traditional sounds with the occasional rapping. Particularly during the fight scene, there were some hardcore bass rap on cue. I'm not sure if I like or dislike it, but it is different. My favourite track is the Okami-esque flute theme used during the Birth Celebration Ceremony towards the end. But whether it's Mononoke or Karakasa, what stands out in both is not the score, but the sound effects which have always been the distinctive noise of the series.

The teased title for the next installment is "Ashes of Rage". I wonder what that could mean? We're left on a bunch of cliffhangers, such as why did Kusuriuri smile while looking at the clouds, what's the deal with the seal in the well, and what was Mizoragi doing in the cellar pouring water over what looked like an enclosed basin? Moreover, why on earth did they lore drop so much on the background of the medicine sellers...not in the movie but during the side interviews! The fact that they have a home base, or that the Shingi (alters) are different people... So do you mean to tell me, I still can dream of an Ishida Akira Kusuriuri!? There are at most 8 trigram Taima swords, and 2 of which are Sakurai and Kamiya's. Does that mean there's still room for another 6 Kusuriuris? That's so fruity!

If you made it this far, thank you for reading. I also I hope you watched the movie before perusing this given that it's so spoiler heavy. While it does seem like I had a lot of complaints, make no mistake: the movie was gorgeous. It was made with painstaking visual efforts and intricate architecture. Every stroke and splash is a work of art, making it one of the most visually interesting movie in a long time.

While it doesn't replace the old Mononoke in my heart, the Karakasa trilogy is a nice addition; something different and its own thing. A lot more action and a lot more abstract if you dig that sort of presentation.

Given that the trilogy isn't over, I have no doubt the rest of it will continue on with Kamiya's (Kon) Kusuriuri...but I do hope the series continues to keep receiving love so I can eventually have a whole Sentai Kamen rider group of Kusuriuris.

Until next time...~!

[ignite-art]

Only Boo by CemeteryAngel725,

A Good Omens Spooky Bang Romcom to Get You in the Halloween Spirit

I’m thrilled to finally share the project I've been working on in collaboration with the amazing CemeteryAngel725 for the Spooky Bang! 🖤✨ Angel has been a great writer to be paired with and I feel honored to have worked with her and see this story come to life bit by bit. Shout out to the amazing mods who made this Spooky Bang run smoothly, it has been an amazing first bang experience!

Check out the final piece over on AO3 (link below) and get ready to dive into a delightful mix of laughs and longing! 💕👻

Only Boo is Rated E, contains 9,199 words and includes two illustrations made my me

Summary:

All year, Crowley looks forward to putting on his costume and getting his scare on at Fright Nights at Dreadhaven Asylum. This year, he's got a great scene partner in Ligur, and he's looking forward to playing a fallen angel.

Then a real live angel walks into his haunt, and he's immediately smitten with the mysterious stranger. But how can he get his game on when he has to stick to the script?

Will Crowley work up the courage to make it work before Halloween? Or will the chance of a lifetime slip through his fingers? Read more on AO3 ×××

↓ close ups below ↓

[brenna]

Omg, you're so sweet. Big ups to you for your gorgeous art! I was delighted every time I got treated to a peek at a draft or update. This one is so soft and warm that I lose my mind every time I see it. 🩵🩵🩵

Night Full of Feast Fires - Complete!

Fandom: Good Omens | Category: M/M | Relationship: Aziraphale/Crowley | Rating: E | Chapters: 6/6 | Words: 15,029 | Author: scullphile

For Good Omens Spooky Bang - @spooky-bang-good-omens

Art by @so-so-somebody

Thank you to my betas: @kneelbeforeyourdogbabylon and @heretic1103 for being the best!

Tagging @goodomensafterdark

Chapter 5 Summary: As Adam moved to join his friends at the door, several figures emerged from the shadows.

Overall Summary: Dr. Aziraphale Fell has worked at an Antarctic research station for years, and he's never seen a winter like this. Usually the danger lies outside, in the harsh winter conditions. Unsettling events and people acting strangely have him on edge. Isolated and lonely, he clings to one of his new colleagues for comfort. Can Aziraphale and Crowley protect themselves and their friends from the danger infiltrating their ranks? They only have to make it until dawn, which is several months away.

continue at chapter 5 | start at the beginning

[dancinglikebutterflywings]

Spooky Season | Halloween Event 2024

Not Your Monster | Wooyoung

🧡 Pairing: Were-cat!Jung Wooyoung x GF!Reader

🖤 Requested by: @staytiny2000

🧡 Prompt: 19 - "Find your own monster! This one's mine."

🖤 Warnings: guns, murder, werecat, werewolves, intruders, blood, poorly written gore.

🧡 Word Count: 791

🖤 Taglist: Open. Send an ask or fill out the Tag List Form. Please note that the halloween event taglist is included in the general taglist.

Spooky Season 2024 Masterlist | Main Masterlist

Y/N wakes to a loud scuffle coming from her living room. She looks to beside her and finds her boyfriend is no longer in the bed with her. A wave of panic washes over her and with her heart racing, she quickly jumps out of bed, her bare feet hitting the cold floor as she snatches her gun from the bedside table, and rushes out of the bedroom. 

As she nears the living room, she can see shadows moving in the dim light, their voices low and tense. Scanning the room, she spots a third person pinning her boyfriend to the ground, a gun aimed at his head while he growls and hisses in defiance. Wooyoung’s sharp, white claws are embedded in the assailant's arm, but the man seems completely unfazed. 

Y/N stealthily entering the room until she levels her gun at the one restraining Wooyoung. “I suggest you let him go,” she declares, making her presence known as she clicks off the safety of her weapon. “Or I’ll put a pretty little silver bullet through your skull, mutt.” 

The room falls silent, the tension thick enough to cut with a knife. The leader’s smirk falters as he glances over his shoulder in surprise. They clearly didn’t expect her to be there. Wooyoung takes this moment of distraction, his muscles coil like a spring, his cat like reflexes taking over as he prepares to fight back.  

“Who the hell are you?” the leader questions, reaching for his own gun. 

Y/N shoots off a round, the bullet grazing the intruder's hand.  

The leader yelps in pain, instinctively dropping his weapon as he clutches his injured hand. Blood seeps through his fingers, and his eyes widen in shock, realizing that he underestimated the woman standing before him. 

“Damn it!” he curses, his bravado crumbling. “You think you can just play hero? You have no idea who you’re dealing with!” 

“You idiots are the ones who broke into my home and attacked my boyfriend. Now,” she hissed, preparing another shot. "Find your own monster! This one's mine." 

“So, you know what he is?” the leader asks. 

“Just like I know he’s a werewolf,” she says turning the gun on to the man that had been minutes away from killing her boyfriend.  

Before anything more is said, Wooyoung then unleashes his claws, swiftly taking out the throats of all three of the intruders, leaving the two humans to collapse as they bleed out on the floor. He then takes the gun from Y/N, putting a bullet through the werewolf’s head and heart, making sure he was dead. 

“Y/N-noona, Wooyoung-Hyung,” Jongho’s voice calls from behind the door, his fists pounding heavily against the wooden panels, urgency in his voice. “What’s going on in there? 

Y/N stands frozen for a moment, her heart pounding in her chest as she processes what just happened. Wooyoung, now back to his human features, steps closer to her, his soft hand reaching for her cheek. “Y/N,” he says, his voice soft. “Are you okay?” 

She nods, her eyes meeting his. They’ve faced danger together before, and while Wooyoung had trained her for such moments, she had never seen her boyfriend kill someone, let alone three at once. 

Wooyoung’s gaze softened, and for a moment, the weight of the world seemed to lift. But the urgency in Jongho’s voice and the consistent banging on the door broke through the moment, reminding them of the gravity of their situation. 

“I’m going to let Jongho in, okay?” he tells her. “He’ll help me clean this up. You go grab our bags and start packing.” 

When she nods, her presses a soft kiss to her lips and urges her towards their bedroom. She grabs their duffle bags from the bottle of the wardrobe and hurries around the room collecting their clothes, essential items and other belongings that are a little too sentimental leave behind.  

The bags heavy with their belongings, she struggles to carry them into the living room. “What if more people come?” she asks, dropping the bags to the floor and grabbing more stuff that she doesn’t want to leave behind. 

“That’s why we’re leaving,” Wooyoung tells her, picking up the bags as if they way nothing. “Hongjoong and Seonghwa are on their way to help Jongho. They'll take care of everything we've left behind and put it in storage.” 

As she goes to ask something else, an alarm sounds in the distance. “Go, now!” Jongho yells at them, pushing them towards the door. 

“What about you?” Y/N asks him. 

“I’ll be fine, just go,” the younger man assures her. 

With that, Wooyoung pulls Y/N from the apartment and leads her through the back of the building to the car waiting for them. 

©️ 2024 dancinglikebutterflywings - do not copy/modify/repost anywhere. reblog instead

@staytiny2000 - @treehouse-mouse - @kpopmenace143 - @alexxavicry - @jedi-dreea

@rainydayteacups - @green-agent - @tinyelfperson - @yeonjunnie – @hollxe1

@deltamoon666 - @skz1-4-3 - @everythingboutkpop - @oddracha - @http-gyu

@pinkpunkdynamite - @keshivibes - @bookswillfindyouaway - @katsukis1wife - @jjoongstar -

@arki-sha - @forever-atiny - @do-you-remember-summer-127 - @catzachvsvt - @ateez-atiny380

@lixisoul99 - @skittyneos