#There is no way they introduced that life giving pure and innocent child with supernatural powers just to kill her off before the story

[smhalltheurlsaretaken]

It's a very run of the mill rebel story, I think it'd work well enough as your typical Star Wars spin off, whatever. Definitely not too concerned with anything else.

rebel moon is trying VERY hard to be star wars lol. it's kinda damaging to the movie because getting into it it felt like the worldbuilding and aesthetics were gonna be somewhat original. but nah.

[astoryinred]

"Trese" and the truth in the fiction

In short: why the actual monsters in Trese don't have horns, wings, or summoning rituals

Finally the Netflix anime adaptation of the Filipino graphic novel/comics series "Trese" has dropped. It is available in several languages such as English, Filipino, Japanese, Spanish...just to name a few. It is not a perfect work, both in technical terms as well as an adaptation of the source material, but it is worth a watch. Go watch it. Please.

That being said, there is so much to unpack about the series, and I do not mean in terms of the voice-acting and the ethnicities of the persons involved, or just how crunched together the writing is. I will leave that to the critics. What I am writing here is a view as to the real life truths woven into the horror/supernatural threads of the "Trese" episodes, and why these are important. It's because for a lot of people encountering "Trese" at this point, the actual every day monsters of the tale (or at least of the first 4 episodes) are even more distant than the aswangs, tikbalangs, nunos and other supernatural beings that populate the anime.

This will go into spoilers below the cut

Episode 1: The series opens with a train stopping right near the "Guadalupe Station", and some of its passengers being attacked by aswang as they walk along the railroad tracks. During the course of investigating this and another case (that of a ghost murdered on Balete Drive), Alexandra Trese learns that other spirits using this train line have recently perished in a fire or have also been murdered by aswang in league with a politician.

The squatter/informal settler community mentioned in this episode is based on a real one. That area has gone up in flames from accidental and not so accidental fires over the past few decades. Some of the settlers have moved on, but a good many have stubbornly stuck around despite the land being eyed by a large property developer. That area is a symptom of the inequality that plagues that particular part of the metropolis, since it is only less than a mile away from some of the country's swankiest gated subdivisions. While the powers that be are (probably) not involved in selling anyone for meat, they still have a long way to go to address the woes of that community when it is not election season.

As for the other murder in the episode? There have been several cases of women associated with or married to prominent politicians who have died in mysterious circumstances, with some of these deaths ruled as suicide. In many cases, the truth has been hushed up, or simply swept under the rug.

Episode 2: While Alexandra is pursuing the trail of a tikbalang running wild in the city, she also is called to investigate a mysterious series of electrocutions in a gated village. Along the way she discovers that this is a form of human sacrifice to the bagyons manning the electricity providers of the city.

As reprehensible as the bagyons are, what is truly sickening is the seeming indifference of the people in Livewell Village. It's mentioned more in the comics (but also given a line or two of exposition here by the Nuno) that the people regularly offer an outsider, usually a skilled worker in charge of maintenance, to ensure that the bagyon will bless them. In real life there is the callousness that some people exhibit towards essential workers such as yes, repairmen and electricians who have to endure heights and storms just to ensure the "comfort" of consumers. Although the Philippines isn't a country crawling with litiginous folk and "Karens", there are enough of this sort to make essential workers' lives miserable on a daily basis.

Episode 3: This is a difficult one, both in the comics and the anime. One of Trese's cases leads her to cross paths with an actress named Nova, who is later revealed to have had her child left to die (hence making her a target for a specific type of monster). Nova's story is admittedly not easy to deal with and may be considered incredulous, but there are two important contexts to remember when watching it.

The first is that abortion is still illegal throughout the Philippines. It cannot be legally offered by any clinic or medical practitioner. There are clandestine alternatives available, but at a steep price.

That being said, most Filipinos regardless of where they stand on the abortion issue will still consider the abandonment or murder of an infant to be beyond the pale. Yet this does happen. Every month one can expect to read a story or two of babies being tossed in the trash or left in bathrooms---and those are just the stories that make it to the press. There have been exposes about mothers who have sold off their infants to "adopters" willing to pay thousands of pesos or dollars for an under the table transfer of custody. These happen because of desperation, poverty, and lack of resources to support mothers. Maternity leave is only up to 120 days here in most cases, and there are few resources to support mothers with PPD, mothers abandoned by their partners, or those with just too many mouths to feed. Questions of "bodily autonomy" are not first and foremost in the mind of many women who do the worst to their newborns; the question is food on the table for the next day or the day after. Survival is key. Not independence or empowerment.

With these in mind, it is not surprising that Nova is considered one of the most disturbing and reprehensible characters in this episode. From what we see, her choice of abandoning her child stems from vanity and pursuit of a glamorous career. We can see that this is not because she would be out on the streets if she had a child to care for, or because she was escaping something. It's just portrayed as pure selfishness.

It is interesting that Nova is introduced here almost as a juxtaposition to another mother, Ramona. Ramona, the mother of Crispin and Basilio, is an armed insurgent who engages in a ritual to avenge herself on the military men who forced her to murder her own comrades. It is also implied earlier in the season that it was not just murder involved, but that Ramona had also been a "prize" given to the soldiers who captured her. And yes in this context, it can also mean rape. The Armed Forces of the Philippines does not have a shining record when it comes to its treatment of women dissidents and prisoners. This backstory does not justify what Ramona does for the remainder of her screentime, but it does show why she has absolutely no sympathy or mercy to give to anyone outside of her two children. She is part of a cycle of killing that makes any peaceful resolution of the insurgency in the Philippines so difficult to achieve. Both sides behave abominably, and civillians do get caught in the crossfire (or explosions).

Episode 4: Much of this episode revolves around the events in and surrounding a certain police station located near a large public cemetery. We see that the police chief Captain Guerrero has his hands full with cases and keeping his subordinates in line. The cops in the precinct range from the innocent apparent newcomer Tapia to the more stereotypical "asshole" cops Reyes and company. Later it is discovered that the bodies apparently "stolen" from the graves are resurrected zombies who are being directed to attack the station for a specific reason...and it has to do with how the police run their often bloody operations.

The real life neighborhoods surrounding the cemetery have seen their share of violence and "extra judicial killings". In some houses there are still candles and placards calling for justice for family members killed in raids or accused of having been drug suspects (almost a death sentence in the Philippines 2016 onwards). Eyewitnesses and CCTV footage show members of the police force taking part in these raids and clandestine operations. The worst part? The neighborhoods surrounding that particular cemetery haven't even seen the worst of it. Other disadvantaged communities in the north of the metropolis have seen even more deaths of this sort...with some of the deaths being those of children. Google the name of Kian delos Santos as a test case. Kian's case was one of the few to have extended media coverage, and even then the resolution has been rather wanting.

It is tempting to go into the "all cops are bastards" line of thought with this episode, but I do like how Captain Guerrero is forced to interact with someone who he is trying to save in the station, since as it turns out this person has recently lost a family member to this form of senseless murder. Captain Guerrero and the audience are led to remember that these victims have names. They had families. They had lives. They are more than body counts and statistics. That scene is one of the most humanizing of the series, and shows that while not all cops are bastards, there is enough rot in the institution to make it a problem.

Episodes 5-6: I would go more into Episodes 5 and 6, but those deserve a whole new treatment into the nature of truth, compromise, and even gaslighting (even I am not sure how much of a certain character's narrative is true, and how much is just meant to confuse Alexandra with regard to what she knows of her father). The context she does face before those harrowing revelations is a very real one though: things going wrong in a penitentiary.

The penal system of the Philippines is alarmingly punitive and full of inequities. Privileged inmates like politicians do receive special treatment (including media coverage and becoming leaders of factions) while less privileged inmates languish and must struggle to survive the brutal social hiearchy in some institutions. And yes it has happened that inmates have been sent out to do "jobs" of murder and arson in the outside world, often being snuck in and out. A movie that tackles this aspect better is "OTJ (On the Job)" directed by Erik Matti. That one will keep you up at night.

The ending of Episode 6 is rather ambiguous, and it remains to be seen what Alexandra really experienced during her trials prior to becoming a detective, and what her father really did to her and her sibling. We'll have to wait for another season to get to the bottom of that. But if the anime will continue to draw from the comics themselves for stories/case files, we can count on seeing more societal demons and baddies alongside the supernatural ones. And those are the villains that Alexandra Trese cannot just readily beat; it will take a heck lot more than a babaylan na mandirigma to handle those!

[mythgirlimagines]

Monitoring your every move, ready to strike when least expected, is this week’s talent swap! Introducing Myth, the Former Ultimate Chess Player!

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BACKSTORY AND TALENT

Having an overly analytical mindset ever since she was a child, Myth solved the puzzles she was given quickly and burned through mental stimulation toys like it was nothing. It really put a dent in her parents’ wallet, and they needed to find some way to entertain her daughter before they become flat broke. One day, when Myth and her parents visited the toy store to find a new toy for her, Myth became enticed by the board games section, particularly a chessboard, which her parents managed to buy. Myth picked up on the rules of chess very quickly, and dominated both her parents and older sisters in the game. Eventually Myth signed up for chess clubs and defeated each and everyone of the other participants, and in turn, managed to reach grandmaster rank. One tournament, Myth decided to wear a chess themed dress to throw opponents off and make them underestimate her, before completely decimating them. She is still wearing the dress to this day.

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RELATIONSHIPS

Wyre Anon, Former Ultimate Freelance Artist

Having garnered fame on the internet for her realistic drawings of animal corpses and dinosaur bones, Wyre has been Myth’s friend ever since childhood. In fact, Wyre was the one who came up with the original design for Myth’s dress. Wyre regularly attends Myth’s chess tournaments as a bodyguard of sorts, with Wyre’s intimidating glare and feral personality scaring anyone who decides to toy with their little friend. While Wyre is a great friend and everything, Myth is heavily concerned with her friend’s work schedule and the toll it has on their  mental health and fortitude. 

Outfit: A black ski cap with a skull pin on the front, a black leather vest with a white dragon design on the back over a brown hoodie with bone designs on the sleeves, black fingerless gloves with skull designs, black shorts, socks, shoes, glasses and piercings from original designs.

Anon Scar, Ultimate Grave Digger

Being the daughter of a mortician and a funeral planner, Scar has been interacting with the dead ever since she was a little girl, and is currently working in the funeral home as a grave digger. Being ostracized for both her interest in the dead and her middle school persona, (aka. Death’s Messenger) Scar tried her best to shake the facade, but she can’t help but fall back on that facade. Scar seems to be fully convinced that Myth is some sort of esper, for she managed to uncover her true personality within the first couple minutes of meeting her. ”The Pawn’s Empress” is one of Death’s Messenger’s biggest foes yet.

Outfit: Original outfit but with dirt stained boots and gloves and her funeral home’s logo on the back of her jacket.

Fusion Anon, Ultimate Boy Scout

Having collected all of his scout troupe’s merit badges in record time, Fusion currently works on educating younger scouts in getting merit badges and even teaches his fellow con-mates the art of the boy scout. Ever since coming to the Kibo-Con, Fusion has established leadership amongst the younger Ultimates, a bit like a father to the group, and gives them seminars on scouting skills. Myth’s natural genius made her ace Fusion’s seminars with ease. Fusion’s happiness at showing off his knowledge and scouting skills seems to imply a less-than-stellar self-confidence/an inferiority complex.

Outfit: A green visor, a tanned cargo jacket with badges sewn in, bandages wrapped around his hands, a green sash with badges crowded on it, glasses, pants and shoes from original design.

Fusion Anon II, Ultimate Private Investigator

Despite her lackadaisical and sarcastic attitude off of the job, you would be hard-pressed to find a more capable private investigator. Fusion II claims that she went for a private investigator as her job as opposed to a detective, because she can turn down cases she deems too easy or not worth her time. But Myth eventually realized that underneath Fusion II’s memey, rebellious, and sarcastic demeanor, Fusion II is secretly very insecure about her detective skills, especially after getting an innocent man convicted once. Fusion II is currently working to uncover the mystery that is Myth. 

Outfit: A light blue fedora with a black band and a red rose, a light blue trench coat over a white shirt and a red necktie, a long blue skirt, black and white laced boots, sunglasses from original design. 

Just Anon, Ultimate Toymaker

Famous for his expertly-crafted stuffed rabbits, Janon usually spends all of his time either sleeping or insulting people. Within the first few minutes of meeting Janon, Myth has already uncovered a fear of failure, a perfectionist attitude when it comes to making toys and a soft spot for children, particularly the two Jr. Ultimates that are attending the Kibo-Con with him. Janon is sick and even more tired of Myth constantly exposing him like this. Janon is currently trying to make a voodoo doll of Myth to make her suffer, as revenge for constantly exposing him and making him seem like less of a jerk. 

Outfit: A lazily buttoned up shirt, an untied red tie, a tool belt, a face mask with a “w” mouth and blushy cheeks, pants, boots and hoodie from original design. 

Sparkle Anon, Former Ultimate Seamstress

Famous for being the scion of the ”Spectacular Threads” company, Sparkle is famous for her glittery and elaborate hand-crafted formal wear. While Wyre designed the original design of Myth’s dress, Sparkle was the girl Wyre sent the design to, to get it created, which means Myth and Sparkle go further back than one would expect. Myth knew Sparkle before they both reinvented themselves with new flamboyant personalities, and when Sparkle was just a shy magical girl and theater fanatic. Even as an adult, Myth can still see Sparkle is still the same nerd she was when Myth first met her, deep down. 

Outfit: Same outfit from her original design, but with sewing supplies attached to her clothes.

Egg Anon, Former Ultimate Ghost Hunter, and Wet Sock Anon, Former Ultimate Police Officer

Despite their two different talents, Egg and Wet Sock have many things in common, with the biggest similarity between the two being their appearance, their uniforms, and above all, their penchant for cursed comments. Even Myth‘s analytical attitude is no match for the nonsensical and violently cursed comments of the freak duo. It’s very clear that years of dealing with violent criminals and supernatural horrors would take a toll on anybody’s psyche. Even Myth doesn’t want to think about what horrors the two have witnessed within their careers that twisted their minds to such cursed degrees. 

Outfits: Gakurans, police caps, white gloves and a golden badge. Egg has a purple uniform, and Wet Sock has a black uniform, glasses from original design.

Curious Anon, Jr. Ultimate Tutor

Despite their age, Curious has college-level academic prowess and uses that knowledge to help tutor students of all ages, and can turn underachievers into overachievers with their infinite patience and flawless study strategies. It didn‘t take much time for Myth to realize one of the main flaws of Curious: their passiveness and willingness to let people walk all over and take advantage them. Myth would often organize tea parties disguised as study sessions to talk to Curious more, for they are basically an open book, despite what their vocal and facial range would suggest.  

Outfit: Hair pulled into a small ponytail, fake glasses, a green vest over a white button up shirt, tie, pants and shoes from original design.

Anon Nerd, Former Ultimate Lifeguard

Originally getting the job purely for some extra pocket money, Nerd quickly rose through the ranks and quickly became an emergency technician for beaches. Nerd’s good looks were seen as both a blessing and a curse by him, for many admirers purposefully drowned themselves, just so Nerd can give them mouth-to-mouth. This, along with poor pay in the early parts of his career, lead to his hostile attitude towards everybody, particularly people with a crush on him or people he has a crush on. Myth told Nerd the truth, and got thrown into the nearest body of water by him, and he didn’t save her. 

Outfit: A tight grey muscle shirt, red swim trunks with black stripes on each side, red flip-flops. 

Eldritch Anon, Ultimate Competitive Eater

Despite Eldritch’s small size, Eldritch has an appetite rivaled only by Fusion’s. Eldritch originally entered the competition as a poison tester, in order to prevent the participants from being sabotaged and perhaps murdered, but Eldritch managed to dominate the competitions. Eldritch has now participated in 255 eating competitions all across the country, and even outside of the country. Eldritch seems to be the first person to look past Myth’s little cutesy facade, and seems to want to avoid Myth at all costs, which makes it difficult for Myth to get a read on him. 

Outfit: A purple jersey with “Poison Tester” on the front in yellow letters, dark grey cargo shorts, white socks, black and yellow sneakers. 

Dream Anon, Ultimate Street Artist

Dream is famous for her paintings of rainbow clouds on random buildings and roads. Despite Dream’s rough life on the street, somehow she remains as bright and cheerful as her infamous murals. After being busted by the police for her vandalism, Dream got accepted by the Hope’s Peak scouts, and got to get out of jail, in exchange for food and shelter at her Hope’s Peak dorm room. You will bet that Dream would accept the offer full-heartedly. Myth totally didn’t expect someone as cheerful as Dream to have one of the roughest pre-con lives, but Myth now wants to adopt Dream.

Outfit: Wild hair, a denim jacket stained with paint over a pink shirt, black paint-stained boots, skirt and shorts from original design. 

Iris Anon, Jr. Ultimate Child Prodigy

Having one of the highest IQs for a child her age, Iris already graduated college with several degrees, mostly in science. Iris’s determined attitude and love for learning made many universities consider her for their adorable mascot. While everyone else views Iris as a clumsy and dorky optimist who never gives up when it comes to her work, Myth knows the truth behind Iris. Because of her status as a child prodigy, lots of pressure was put upon her, which only served to arouse her already existing anxiety. From that point onwards, Iris and Myth gather for weekly chess games. 

Outfit: A dark blue sweater over a white sailor uniform with a red tie and skirt, grey stockings, blue Mary Janes, glasses from original design.

Purple Anon, Ultimate Couples Dancer

Growing up in a high-class family that is known for their equally high-class masquerade balls, Purple’s skills on the ballroom dancing floor are unparalleled. Unfortunately off of the dance floor and deprived of her masquerade costume, Purple is superbly timid, regularly staying in her room, until Hope’s Peak accepted her. Purple’s vocabulary is about as elaborate and old-fashioned as her family’s masquerade balls. Luckily Myth is smart enough to understand her vocabulary. Myth is currently working on giving Purple confidence lessons, knowing that it could help her find her chosen one. 

Outfit; Mid-back length hair, a mask that is black on the left and white on the right, a black sunhat, a matching black dress, black gloves, purple heels. 

This series revolves around this enigmatic chess champion exposing people for their emotional problems, while some people (read: Scar and Fusion II) try to find out the secret behind her.

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PERSONALITY

The best way to describe Chess!Myth would be a more benign version of Celestia, right down to the fashion. She is very intelligent and analytical, which is how she discovered chess in the first place. Myth gets easily bored and needs constant mental stimulation, usually by competing with chess champions or buy simply kicking back and watching people interact. People are unpredictable creatures, after all. But perhaps the most prominent trait about her would probably be her ability to read people like a book. It’s very hard to lie to her face, for she will expose your lies to YOUR face. This helps a lot in chess, but this also makes her a very empathetic and kind-hearted individual. 

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APPEARANCE

Myth wears her purple-dyed hair into twintails with a black and white scrunchie in each, and wears a black crown with red gems embedded into and on it. Myth wears an entirely black and white dress with asymmetrically-colored sleeves and dress tails. On her nails is black polish on her left hand and white polish on her right hand. 

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I hope you like this version of you, Myth! Let me know what you think! See you soon, kiddos!

-Fusion Anon

---

Two things! One, love this!!! Two, when you said “Celestia” I automatically thought of the MLP:FIM character XD I’m so used to calling Celestia Celeste, lol

[tlbodine]

A Brief History of the Slasher

Is there a more iconic face for the horror genre than the knife-wielding psychopath? Many would say no. Although the tried-and-true slasher formula is so played out as to be a cliche -- and fresh examples played straight are tough to come by in the modern age -- for many, slasher films are the heart and soul of horror movies. 

How did that happen? What do they say about us on a cultural level? And where should you start when it comes to a formal study of the topic? Let’s delve deep and find out! 

Murder and mayhem are evergreen topics of fascination for humans, and we’ve been telling stories about murderers since Cain killed Abel. But these stories didn’t become what we would formally call “slashers” until the 1970s. 

So what is a slasher? 

Slasher films are defined by a few shared characteristics: 

A high body count (multiple victims) 

Murders are shown on-screen and often from the POV of the killer 

The murders happen one by one, incorporating pursuit, struggle, and finally death

The killer may have a supernatural influence, but it will have the physical appearance of a human (and may often simply be a human)

In almost every instance, the killer is portrayed as being insane or rendered deeply troubled by a past trauma which had triggered the murderous impulse. The killer is frequently dehumanized, and the victims are usually young. 

Slashers often adhere to their own sort of moral logic, more closely resembling Medieval morality plays than perhaps any other modern genre of storytelling. By utilizing a cast of archetypes, various virtues and flaws can be represented among the victims. 

These traits are what differentiate slashers from other murder-focused horror, thriller and mystery tales. 

Consider, for example, the narrative structure of an Agatha Christie murder mystery like And Then There Were None. In this book, a group of strangers are brought under mysterious circumstances to a remote location, where they are systematically murdered as an act of vengeance. In concept, this seems like it should be a slasher -- but its execution is quite different. In the book, the murders are a backdrop; the characters (and reader) are confronted with bodies rather than scenes of overt violence. 

The First Slasher

In 1974, two films came out that gave birth to the modern slasher. 

The first, released in October, was Tobe Hooper’s Texas Chainsaw Massacre. The second, released in the USA in December of that year, was Bob Clark’s Black Christmas. 

Texas Chainsaw Massacre tells the story of a group of friends who run afoul of a family of cannibals living in a rural farmhouse. Black Christmas is about the systemic murder of sorority girls during Christmas break. And both left an indelible mark on horror history. 

It’s important to put some context on the world these films were created in: 

The recent dissolution of the Hays production code meant that movies could be more graphically violent and morally depraved than ever before

The Vietnam war was raging, and for the first time in history, televised footage of the battle was piped into living rooms on the evening news

Multiple serial killers were active in the country, and their exploits also graced the daily newspapers and nightly news to sow terror 

Richard Nixon’s presidency was marked by an as-then unprecedented level of corruption and scandal

Gender politics provided both sexual freedom and career ambitions to a generation of women, and the 1973 landmark Roe v. Wade case legalizing abortions played a massive role in both gender relations and the way we would think about life and bodily autonomy. 

The 1970s provided, in other words, a perfect storm of circumstances that collided to give birth to slashers, and neither Hooper nor Clark are shy about citing these as their inspiration. Texas Chainsaw was billed in theaters as a true story as an act of political defiance against newscasts that spread misinformation; Black Christmas is at its heart a film about abortion and a woman’s right to leave an abusive relationship. They were undeniably films of their time. 

Texas Chainsaw inspired a wave of sensationalist "ripped from the headlines" murder movies loosely based on real killers, such as Wes Craven's The Hills Have Eyes (1977), which was based on the Sawney Bean legend or Charles B. Pierce's The Town That Dreaded Sundown (1976), which was based on the Texarkana Phantom Killer.

And Black Christmas, of course, served as the thematic springboard for a little film called Halloween.

Halloween and the Final Girl 

In 1978, a little-known small-time director named John Carpenter was hired to make a movie with the working title, The Babysitter Murders. It would be about -- you guessed it -- babysitters who got murdered. The idea was later adapted to take place on Halloween, likely for commercial reasons: People like watching scary movies in October, so setting a film on Halloween night would surely help with popularity.

John Carpenter certainly did not wholly plagiarize Black Christmas with his holiday-themed slasher, but the earlier film's influence is visible all the same -- from a shared lineage of "the call is coming from inside the house" babysitter folk legend, to the perspective work on establishing shots of the house and the ambiguously bleak ending.

But compared to Black Christmas, Halloween is horror with its edges filed down so it'll be easier to swallow. Both films have predominately female casts, but the sorority girls in Black Christmas have sexual agency and outspoken opinions that are nowhere to be found in Carpenter's work. In fact, Halloween so aggressively fails the Bechdel Test that it seems to do so on purpose -- there is not a single scene with two girls where they are not talking about a boy. And while Black Christmas deals with complex topics like abortion, domestic violence, and the unreliability of the police, Halloween simplifies its formula down to the utterly basic: Michael Myers kills because he is pure evil, and that is simply what evil does.

Despite its flaws -- or perhaps because of them -- Halloween became an immediate and enormous hit. It also introduced several clever storytelling techniques that were crucial to the advancement and development of the slasher genre:

The introduction of a Final Girl, the lone survivor who holds out against the onslaught of terror. (Carpenter denies that Laurie Strode’s virginal innocence has anything to do with her survival, but “final girl as virgin” would persist as a trope for a very long time) 

A masked killer. Although we’d seen masked murders in many films before (I’ve talked in the past about the trope of the mask-wearing murderer, and the way it is both thematically and logistically useful in storytelling: https://tlbodine.tumblr.com/post/189658195609/the-masked-knife-wielding-psycho), the “look” of Michael Myers is so iconic that it inspired a need for future killers to have a similarly thoughtful design, decking them out almost like comic book superheroes. 

Franchising opportunities. Although earlier movies had spawned sequels, Halloween exploded as a franchise thanks in large part to the iconic design and the simplistic good-vs-evil storytelling formula. Future slashers would latch onto this killer-centric franchise formula for over a decade. 

Halloween became the most profitable independent film, holding the record for 16 years, which goes to show just how successful the formula truly was. 

The Golden Age of Slashers 

As the 1970s gave way to the 1980s, the advent of VHS and Betamax formats created a market for low-budget straight-to-video films. Because slashers are so cheap to make (you don't need any famous actors, can film entirely in one location, and practical effects can be as simple as a few gallons of stage blood), they were ideal candidates for the job. On the big screen, horror was enjoying an unusually high level of popularity, a proven money-maker, simultaneously commercial and subversive in a decade of opulence and social conservativism.

So onto that stage walks Sean S. Cunningham's gory slasher, Friday the 13th, where a group of teenage camp counselors are brutally murdered, frequently wile having sex. The film spawned a widely successful franchise, which swiftly began borrowing elements of Halloween -- a silent and indestructible masked killer, a signature musical score -- to become a pop culture mainstay. The 1983 Robert Hiltzik film, Sleepaway Camp, cashes in on the "death to camp counselor" plot in the same way that Fred Walton's When a Stranger Calls touched on babysitter murders in 1979.

A whole slew of less-successful films would follow, most of them lost to the history books but still living in dollar-bin DVD collections. Some, like Prom Night and My Bloody Valentine, would earn a cult following. One noteworthy cult favorite is Slumber Party Massacre, directed and written by women (Amy Holden Jones and Rita Mae Brown, respectively), which turns some slasher tropes in their head.

A glut of films, most of them instantly forgettable, led to a decline in slasher popularity -- until Wes Craven's A Nightmare on Elm Street in 1984.

Cracking Wise and Slashing Teens 

A Nightmare on Elm Street introduces Freddy Krueger, a different sort of horror villain than audiences had seen before. Krueger is a supernatural killer who stalks his victims in their dreams, bringing a fresh supernatural twist to the slasher genre. And, unlike Michael Myers and Jason Voorhees, Freddy is anything but silent. Thanks in part to the charisma of lead actor Robert Englund, the character's darkly comedic personality became utterly riveting.

Plenty of dream-related horrors would follow, none of which would make much of a splash. But one film franchise did latch on to a similar formula: Child's Play, directed by Tom Holland in 1988, introduced another supernatural wisecracking killer in the form of Chucky, a murderous doll possessed by the soul of as serial killer.

These major film franchises -- Halloween, Friday the 13th, A Nightmare on Elm Street, and Child’s Play -- would go on to spawn numerous sequels and become such a thoroughly pervasive part of pop culture that you can find their likeness everywhere. But despite the many imitators, there was little in the way of innovation in the genre until the mid 90s. 

Do You Like Scary Movies? 

Wes Craven toyed with the idea of self-referential horror in New Nightmare, a Freddy Krueger film that was itself a meta-analysis of Freddy Krueger films. But he would revisit the idea with far greater success in 1996 with Scream. 

Created by horror lovers, for horror lovers, Scream is designed to be the most quintessential slasher film ever created. Relying on a hip, young cast to draw in a fresh audience, Scream works by combining nostalgia, meta-analysis, humor, and buckets of blood into a single film. The opening scene is a direct homage to When a Stranger Calls, and the masked killer is a deliberate call-back to earlier films. 

Unsurprisingly, Scream was a huge hit that ushered in a brief but furious wave of slashers, like the star-studded I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997) and Urban Legend (1998), and Scream itself had several sequels and even a TV series. But the 1990s were something of a dark era for the slasher film, seeing the release of some spectacularly lackluster franchise installments. One exception to that was the fan-favorite Freddy vs Jason, which pits the two killers against one another -- a delightful premise, but one that had strayed far from the slasher roots. 

Modern Slasher Films 

The 1990s slasher reboot was short-lived and mostly forgettable, and by the 2000s filmmakers had mostly turned away from the genre entirely, except for a slew of nostalgia cash-in reboots of every popular franchise. 

The one exception was meta-analysis -- building on Scream, these films began to deconstruct the genre in a way that would combine horror, humor, and criticism. 

The Final Girls (2015), directed by Todd Strauss-Schulson, takes this sort of meta approach. The Cabin in the Woods (2012), directed by Drew Goddard but bearing the fingerprints of co-writer and producer Joss Whedon, takes it to even further excess, providing both a thorough deconstruction of horror gropes and an entirely new mythos to give it a fresh framework.

But the problem with deconstructions is that, once a few truly successful ones have been made, it becomes essentially impossible to create the original thing in earnest anymore. And so the slasher as a sub-genre has reached its bloody end. 

Where Did All The Slashers Go? 

With dozens of slashers spanning more than 40 years of film history, it’s pretty hard to create something new with the format. Which is not to say that people aren’t still making them -- they are -- but there is less room to innovate within the notoriously rigid and simplistic slasher formula. 

Culturally, we’ve moved on a lot from the 1970s as well. For one, serial killers are no longer the threat they once were. Babysitters and camp counselors are rarely teenagers, either -- in fact, teens aren’t leaving the house as much in general. And a rise in information technology, communications and surveillance has made it harder to isolate victims and commit murders over a long period of time -- our mass murders tend to happen in shooting sprees instead these days. For another, that same information technology has made us extremely jaded and hard to impress with gore. 

The 2000s delivered violence at levels utterly beyond anything in history. The rise of the so-called torture porn -- a genre that dispenses with the stalking and killing of multiple victims in favor of lingering on the painful mutilation of a small handful -- delivered gore unlike any seen in earlier slashers. Cable television series like The Walking Dead deliver graphic violence with unprecedented regularity -- you no longer need to pick up a “video nasty” to indulge in some gruesome gore. 

And, well, unfortunately, the internet has made it easier than ever to see real violence, from terrorist beheading videos to medical gore to live-streamed murders. 

Gore for gore’s sake is simply not as compelling in the 21st century, and that takes away much of the slasher’s appeal. 

Slashers have had to morph and adapt to find a foothold for survival. In the 2000s, we saw their metamorphosis in real time: From torture porn to home invasion to a cornucopia of more innovative horrors dwelling on fears both large and small. 

We’ve probably seen the last of masked knife-wielding, babysitter-killing psychos...but the horror genre is richer for it. 

[minero-tan]

11 please!! For the artist number ask!

OH, SOMEONE ACTUALLY SEND AN ASK!! THAT’S RARE, THANK YOU! 

 11. How many OCs do you have? Introduce them 

 OOF, I have 44 if I haven’t forgotten anyone lmaooo but here goes (introducing them in no particular order)

1. Booty = my first oc ever made. She came to life in 2015 when I was showing my friends the butt of an anime girl as a joke. It was all fun and jokes but for some reason despite me joking around she became the most serious and strickt oc. She’s pretty much the mom friend 

2. Up = my second oc ever made. She’s really carefree and loud. I made her in class when I listened to the song “Up” by olly murs and demi lovato. She’s the complete opposite of booty and she gets stressed out by up the most out of all 44 oc's 

3. Delta = my third oc ever made. He died as a normal dude and then got turned into an android. He’s really quiet and usually in a bad mood. Would kill people a lot more if it weren’t so bothersome 

4. Vision = He’s blind. That’s right, i’m a cruel mother who names her blind child Vision. Anyway, he’s a really kind dude who gets along with a bunch of people. The cool uncle in the group 

5. Mokka = A half cat half human boyo. In the story people who’re pure animals have both animal ears and tails while mokka only has a tail. Had cat headphones in his old design because he hated his human part thanks to his mom who neglected and hated him for not being a pure breed (she cheated on her husb. And he left her because of her cheating so she now gives mokka the fault for that), but in his newer design he grew older and accepted his human part. Grumpy guy who flirts a lot but who’s really bad at it. Also he’s real good with computers. oh AND he’s a Prince

6. Tiptoes = alright, don’t judge me for the weird names, I made her when I listened to the song “Tiptoes” by Jayme dee. She was originally a dancer, but in her new design I made a cheerleader out of her. Still, she loves all kinds of dances and she’s really fit. She’s quite cheeky and will nag on grumpy people like mokka

7. Neta = ah yes, the oc who I probably draw the most. She’s a dog who’s really into fashion lmao. She’s really quiet and collected and really popular with the guys, but at some point I made up the fact that she’s a meme dealer and I decided that I have to keep that personality trait at all costs 

8. Enno = Netas twin brother, but they’re the complete opposite. Enno doesn’t care if he gets dirty or not and he will definitely fight anyone who just looks at him weird. Tough guy, but a complete dumbass who probably can’t even count to 10. Very clingy though if he likes someone 

9. Latty = Neta’s and Enno’s wolf cousin. She’s really loud and really stupid. Wants to be like neta. Gets bullied a lot because out of all the wolfes in her pack she’s the only one who has a white streak in her black hair. But she’s quite the optimist and is practically amazed by everything she encounters 

10. Live = The goddess of Life. She’s really calm and gentle. She can revive dead beings, heal beings and it’s said that she’s the reason babies of both animals and humans are born. Really friendly, laughs a lot 

11. Chi = Live’s evil cousin. Her parents were salty that they didn’t become gods as well and that they were left off with the Knight job where they have to protect the gods and gave their hatred onto their daughter. Chi basically murdered a bunch of gods and wanted to kill her cousin as well but the other gods stopped her and locked her away. Will act like a trust worthy person to get what she wants. Mind games are her thing

12. Mocchi = A bubbly normal girl who just sees the best in everyone. Real optimist, can befriend everyone. Is there for you if you’re having a hard day 

13. Zadora = I was really inspired by a horse I knew lmao. Small shy girl who’s scared of a lot of things, especially strangers and big crowds. Kinda awkward but makes a good friend who’s always happy to spend some time with you. Loves her friends and family a lot 

14. Lium = Quiet demon dude who is really awkward. He could put people on fire with his supernatural abilities, but chooses to be nice since he just wants some friends. Gets terrorized by his look alike twin a lot, but he got used to it 

15. Laru = Lium’s evil twin. Will melt the ice cream of a little girl just for the laughs. Picks on his brother a whole lot but if someone else picks on Lium then Laru will snap their neck in half. Basically wants his brother to become evil and do bad things but he’s not quite succeeding. Good friends with Chi 

16. Frei = A fox spirit lady who actually lived in a shrine but then decided to travel. Real carefree and somewhat of a hippy. Really chill person, great to hang out with 

17. G = another android who got build for the military but then got replaced by newer models (I made him before dbh was a thing). Is a killer machine on the battlefield but will pick a rose and just give it to the nearest person when not on the battlefield. Really protective, he basically has it programmed into his brain to fight the enemy and to protect the innocent. Would be an A+ dad 

18. Majo = A small witch girl who’s pretty much an asshole. Will scream if she won’t get what she wants and will laugh at you if you’re dumb enough to give it to her. Fucks with people, not in a horrible cruel way but putting a dollar on the ground and then pulling it away whenever someone tries to pick it up is basically her go to thing 

19. Shepper = A Sheep boy who’s the biggest pushover, only because he’s so awkward and kind. Will listen to your worries but it’s easy to make him get and do stuff for you only because he can’t say No. Will cuddle you and sing you a lullaby if you’re having trouble sleeping. Gets pushed around by Majo 24/7 but he sees it more as baby sitting since Majo is younger than him 

20. Twen = my 20th oc! Get it? Twenty? Hhhhhhhhh,,,,, anyways, he’s a boy with a lot of energy and a passion for football/soccer. Like, he REALLY loves that sport, he will fight anyone who says that It’s bad. Basically your typical white boy. Still a nice dude, he’s a good sport 

21. Rhett = tall dragon boyo. Really shy but also really gentle. Works as a servant and enjoys it. Will breathe fire if he’s getting really flustered. Scared that he will hurt someone with his tail or just with his big size in general. “You want to shake my hand? Let me bow instead since I don’t want to hurt you"    

22. Morgen = a girl who I’ll have to redesign soon because OOF. I made her after listening to "Morgen Stern” by Rammstein. Basically, she’s really ugly and wishes to the stars that she becomes beautiful like all the other girls. Has her face covered up by bandages which I’ll probably change into a mask lmao. Really sad girl, scared to look people into their eyes. She also gets bullied a lot, and she cuts herself. Morgen hates herself and wishes she would be someone else

23. Rema = there are a few similarities between him and Morgen. Rema’s whole body is covered in scars thanks to his mom who hurt him a lot when he was little. She pretty much destroyed his whole face and then called him ugly. After being called ugly for a bunch of years he grew up to believe that he’s ugly. He came into an orphanage after his mom left him on the streets in the middle of nowhere, so in the orphanage he found a mask which he wears since then. Calls himself ugly and believes that other people think that he’s ugly as well but pretty much no one really cares. Real scared to take off his mask. He’s kinda awkward but makes a good buddy. Will tell you that you’re beautiful 24/7 

24. Kairi = a now zombie girl. She worked in a circus but got killed there by some of her co workers, killed everyone in the circus and basically took over the role as the circus director. Now the circus is closed but the few stupid people who visit the long abandoned circus die there by the ghosts of the people who Kairi killed. She’s Chaotic evil, has a lot of fun when killing. Also mourns over her life when she was still alive 

25. Cchia = ayyy, remember Mokka? This is his half sister. The beloved daughter who can do everything better. Mokka can’t really stand her that much even though Cchia is super supportive and nice towards him. She always got all the praise by their mom because she’s a full cat and was made by both the king and the queen and not by the queen and some normal human dude who the queen had a nice night with, so mokka kinda dislikes her, but she was the only one who stood up for him when he needed it, so he also feels kinda bad for disliking her. She was the one who gave him his cat headphones to make him feel more part of the family. She’s basically amazing at everything but she knows jack shit about technology

26. Melior = Pretty much Aph Poland but as a bunny. 

27. Kureiji = He’s a lot like Up but with a shot temper. One second he laughs and the next second he will destroy a whole house if something happened that made him angry. He’s one of the older oc’s but he’s basically a child. Also, really strong like oof, where does he get all his strength from when he’s just a mortal dude 

28. Joycake = I was listening to a song and it sounded like the girl who was singing said “joycake” and I went “wow, that’s a nice name!!!” So yeah. A really energetic and popular girl. Does dumb jokes and is kinda paranoid. Is a model actually. Does not know what personal space is until she needs it herself. Will fight people for 2 cents, also gets breakdowns quite easily 

29. Mirai = Joy’s twin sister (so many twins in this family). Again the complete opposite of her sister as with every twin what I literally just now noticed. Really serious and doesn’t understand a lot of fun. Hates her sister, like, if someone would throw a rock at joy then mirai would probably just keep walking. A hipster, listens to jazz on a rainy day while sitting on her laptop at starbucks. Wears oversized jackets and has messy braided hair like literally always 

30. Blini = ANOTHER android. She’s like 10 cm tall. Has to get charged with her tail like charger which comes out of her back/butt. Turns red if empty, yellow if half full and green if completely full. Gets angry at everyone, except for little kids. Has to get carried 24/7. Will put a virus on your computer if she hates you 

31. Destiny = the goddess of,,, Destiny. She decides what happens to people and how things turn out. Has a deep history with live. She’s really quiet and can be really serious if she has to be, but deep down she’s just a awkward lady who doesn’t know how to make friends. Takes her job real seriously 

32. Faith = Trans woman! Loves life and is just a really gentle person. Another mom friend but in a kind way, unlike booty who will yell at everyone because she’s worried. Will crochet you a blanket if you’re cold 

33. Mattis = awkward dad friend who’s in love with Faith. Has never fought anyone but will act intimidating if he has to. Has good advice to give. Real quiet, doesn’t talk much but he’s a great listener 

 34. Péja = so many androids! I swear that I made them all before dbh was out! A android specifically made for taking care of the household and little kids. Quite a cheeky android who jokes around a lot. Can easily beat the asses of 5 guys at once and will do so. Gives horrible advice, she really doesn’t know what she’s talking about 

35. Bennett = another fox spirit. He doesn’t work at a shrine like Frei does, but works for a specific royal family. Basically, the queen was about to get hanged so she ran into the woods with her baby because she knew that a spirit lived there and asked him to take care of her child. He’s pretty much a nanny now. A real gentle man who respects nature and every creature on it. Bad at fighting but good at hiding. Great with kids 

36. Temmie = A ghost lady who died as a kid but still aged as a ghost??? Idk what I was thinking there. She lived in a house with her parents who were alcoholics and who beat her more than once a day. She chose to not speak anymore since whenever she opened her mouth her parents already told her to shut up. At some point she tried to run away from home but got hit by a truck and died. Now she’s a friendly ghost who’s just kinda hanging around

37: Totengräber = Their name basically means “dead digger”, which is a grave digger. They are some kind of supernatural being who usually lives on graveyards. They dig out the coffins in order to take the souls out of the deceased bodies and to feast on them which gives them their supernatural powers. They’re quite the trickster but all in all very friendly and usually they befriend the local grave keeper. Can become both genders or neither if they wish so. They can also turn into a beast 

38: Błysk = a old ass dragon man, who acts like a snob and a ladies man. Has tattoos all over his body and is not scared to show em off by walking around completely naked. A real dumbass who doesn’t know much. A “collector” dragon, if he sees something pretty then he will keep it. He’s not awkward or shy but he’s been living alone for so long that he kinda forgot how to have a proper conversation with other people 

39. Damien = A dude who kills all of his girlfriend’s. He falls in love, after a while he gets the feeling that she doesn’t love him anymore and kills her. Usually he scrapes off the meat from the bones and eats it but sometimes he also just buries the corpses in the woods to which he lives close to. He’s been searching for his one true love since forever and once he finds her he is not going to ever let her go again. Will probably tie her down in his basement. Real horny. Really good at making friends and great at acting like he’s just a normal dude but pretty much has two sides which got used to working with each other. Cannot be trusted, he’s real good at lying and making things up to his favour 

40. Ghost man who I don’t have a name for yet = he lives in the snowy mountains together with a bunch of little creatures which contain the souls of little kids who ended up dying on that mountain. Real dad, loves all his children. Really chill and sleepy 24/7 but he doesn’t sleep since he’s already dead. Means no harm, he’s just there to take care of the little one's 

41. Zombie girl #2 who I don’t have a name for yet = Do you know the movie “Warm bodies”? I didn’t take inspiration from that movie, but it’s pretty much this girl who’s the only zombie who can even remotely think and act like a normal person. She was on a trip with her camping school club since she loves nature and all, so when they arrived she decided it was the perfect time to hang herself since she had bad depression and tried to kill herself a few times before. But while she was on her way to find a good hanging spot the other campers got eaten by a few of the first zombies. She hang herself and died but like two minutes later she opened her eyes and just went “Why does god hate me”, since the zombies ate a part of her and so “revived” her lmao. She’s smiling 24/7 even while she’s trying to find a new way of killing herself. Numb inside but still friendly. Has no intention of eating people 

42. Yvette = a ghost boy who’s soul wandered off onto an island where it then possessed the life size puppet which was made by “the doctor”. Originally the doctor was hoping that a female soul enters the body since he wanted to have sex with it but once he noticed that a child soul entered the body he threw it out. Yvette sees the doctor as his dad now. He’s a friendly little fella who cannot remember his past, so now he lives on an island with either crazy or dead people. Seeing a half dead person who got sewed onto the body of a cow is something completely normal for him. Thinks that if humans loose all of their limbs that they’re not going to die since everyone on the island is already not a living human being anymore. Sees the right hand (who’s called Espen) of the doctor as his brother. Gets pushed around by Espen a lot. He’s a child,he just needs some love

43. Voks = one of Yvettes friends. She’s made out of bones, rotten flesh and wax. “The professor” who also lives on that island made her. She’s really supportive, curious and happy, but she has to keep the power of her soul quite high so that the wax that is all around her body stays soft and flexible. If it gets too hot then all the wax will melt off, only leaving the rotten corpse from some kid behind. If it gets too cold then she won’t be able to move. Could kill a bunch of people on one spot 

44. Rakel = a deer slasher lady who lives in the norwegian woods. She leaves the woods only to get some sheep which she will take with her and devour. She’s real scared of adults, so if one goes into her forest then she will feel threatened and impale them with her pointy legs and also eat them afterwards. If a human child goes into the forest then she will either take it back to the border of the woods or take it with her to her barn where she will try to take care of the child herself which sadly usually ends up in the child’s death. Rakel always tries her best to keep them alive, but sometimes a little baby just can’t live off of a sheep cadaver. If someone goes deep into the forest then they will never find out again. Even if they put out a trail of some sort, it will just circle them right back to the middle of the forest. Rakel is the only one who knows how to leave the forest without getting lost. She really just wants to be left alone 

[multificsyay]

It was Faint

Fandom: Supernatural

Pairing: platonic!Sam x singer!reader x platonic!Dean

Word Count: 1662

Warning: A LITTLE angsty, BUT ALL THE FLUFF AFTER I SWEAR

A/N: I'm sorry I've been gone for a long time. I'm in the philippines and wifi here is expensive especially because we moved 3 times the past year, we can't properly install wifi because we never stay at the same house. Data is too expensive for me too so I need to limit everything I do with it so I'm really sorry. I've been writing on my phone too because my laptop broke but I didn't stop writing. I swear. So yeah, enjoy this fluffy goodness cause I noticed I haven't written fluff yet lol

The secret started last month.

It was a really messy and gross hunt, you and the brothers were in dying need of a shower. You were never really comfortable taking showers in a rundown hotel after being covered in blood and "other liquids" so you begged Dean to take the long ride to the bunker (after promising him that you'd clean baby spotless when you get there) because you were in dying need of taking a long, hot shower. When you got there you were practically racing towards your bedroom without even glancing behind you, where Sam and Dean were sharing a knowing glance and said "Girls," in unison. Dean's eyes lingered towards your direction just a second longer than his brother.

You never liked hunting. It was fun at times, yes. You get to kill the son's of bitches who makes the world a less desirable place to live in. Most of the time, it's guilt for the lives you didn't get to save. Could you have done it differently? Was there something you missed? Was that all you could've done? You can almost feel the anger coursing through your veins. When a particular case leaves you not being able to talk to anyone for days and you just spend those times drinking everything away with cheap beer and be around even cheaper excuses for human beings at random bars.

You never liked any of it. That's why you tried to give it up. Just when you thought you finally got the infamous "apple pie" life, everything went down the freaking void in a spiral. You got a job as a lounge singer, something you've always wanted to do when you were just a little girl when your father introduced you to his vinyls and cassette tapes. Met a fine lad who's more than happy to give you the world. Told you he loved you every chance he got. Loved you even after he knew about your previous life. And when he was bleeding in your arms that cursed night, told you that it wasn't your fault and told you that he loved you for the last time. You shook your head at the thought, realizing you were mindlessly stroking the place where your band once was and looked the the direction of the bedside table where it was now. You entered the bathroom with a sigh.

Dean was in the library with Sam, researching for another case Sam found on the way back. He cursed when he remembered your promise to clean the impala and how easily you tricked him. He told Sam that you were taking too long and went straight towards your room in a haste, the lore book he was reading still in his hands. Sam didn't get to say anything before his brother was out of sight.

It was faint but he heard it. "Beautiful" would be an understatement, to be honest. You were singing. He couldn't believe it. He knows about your past, about your old job, about your late fiance, about the revenge an old vampire whose mate you killed for a case. You told the story to Sam and Dean when you first met them. They got curious about the lounge singer thing but they knew it was a touchy subject so they never pushed. They never heard the story ever again after that.

He knew you'd kick the shit out of him when you catch him listening outside your door but he couldn't help it. You were singing maybe an acoustic version of Bohemian Rhapsody and he just couldn't stop listening. At that moment he wondered when and why you started doing it, regretting the moments he missed before he knew about it.

He heard you hum quietly in the car before. Sam was long asleep. Your head was leaning against the window and was humming a song he wasn't familiar with. Dean would steal glances through the rearview mirror trying to decipher what song it was and look away before you catch him staring.

You'd look at Dean at the driver's seat to see if he heard you (because that's the last thing you want) and when you see him focused on the road, you'd be relieved. It was just so beautiful that night, the sky was full of stars and you thought it was perfect for a little song your father used to sing to you when you couldn't sleep as a child. The hunt went well and you saved more lives than you thought. No demons. No angels. Just the old school monster hunt you guys used to do. You and the brothers safely in the impala just makes you feel at peace even when you know about the monsters that go bump in the night. Humming Somewhere Over The Rainbow is just perfect for you. A little secret you keep from Sam and Dean.

Dean would sit outside your door with his lore book and he'd listen while reading. He'd join you at some of his favorite lines and tried to keep quiet since his gravelly voice was echoing in the halllway but he sang with you. He'd close his eyes and feel at peace while listening. After that, if he knows the song he heard you sing, he'd end up humming it throughout the next day. Sam would tease him about it, give him weird looks and ask him why he was singing that song. You would look at him with a strange face and when you do, he'd stop humming it. You know, to avoid making you and Sam suspicious. A little secret he keeps from you and Sam.

Every time you'd come home from a hunt, he'd patiently wait for you to go to your room to take your long showers. Dean thinks he's being discreet when he tells Sam that he'll be in his room if he needs anything but really he'd just sit outside your door. Eyes closed as he listened to the girl with the voice he loved, singing almost all his favorite songs with perfection. Sometimes he swore someone was singing along in the hallway with him and look around but he'd end up shrugging it off, thinking that it was just you singing the song an octave lower and because it also blends with both your voices. He'd bring all sorts of things with him to keep him company while listening. Sometimes it was the lore books he needed to read before starting another case, sometimes it was his guns that he needed cleaning, other times it was nothing, just him, your voice, and the weird voice he'd hear in the hallway which he always forgets to investigate. That was his favorite nights.

The routine changed one night, though. After 2 songs, he decided to carry on and go to the kitchen to cook dinner for the three of you when he heard you singing again. He tensed at the first line, he knows this song all too well. Hey Jude. He sat back down, this time he kept quiet and just listened. He closed his eyes for a few seconds and before he knew it he was asleep. His hand slipped and bumped slightly on you door.

You were drying your hair when you heard it, it was faint but you heard it. You thought Sam was knocking, maybe asking for help researching or your opinion on a particular being. Dean, calling you for dinner or for help cleaning baby. You opened the door and you saw him. Dean was leaning against the wall with his arms crossed, his feet touching the wall in front of him and you just knew. He was listening to you sing. You didn't know how long he was there or how long he was doing it. It made you think about the times you heard him hum the song you were previously singing in your room. You were about to wake him up and ask him what the hell he was doing there when something caught your peripheral vision. You saw Sam rounding the corner, offering you a gentle smile. You asked for help with Dean and Sam told you to go to sleep, that he'll take care of him.

Sam knows though. He first heard you sing the same night Dean had. He heard you hum before in the car when he was pretending to be asleep. He could hear you humming a song he heard before. It was faint but he heard it. There weren't any words but he now had an idea what your singing voice sounded like and it was mesmerizing. Before he knew it he was dozing off again.

Sam saw the way Dean seemed to be at peace when he first heard you singing and he felt it too. He saw the way Dean sat outside your room, reading the book he carried out the library. The way Dean would join you in some of the lines he liked. Then when he thinks his voice got too loud at a particular part, he'd look around for anyone who might've heard him. Sam would cover his mouth to muffle his laughther and walk away. Some nights, Sam would let his brother enjoy the little things, leave him in the hallway to let him listen to you in peace, some nights he'd join the both of you and sing along for a short while, some nights he'd sit in that corner of the hallway with a book like Dean and listen. He'd listen to the two people he loved share a moment of peace, love, and pure innocence. A little secret he keeps from the both of you.

[thenerdyunhealthybrit]

Tagged by the wonderful @dream-beyond-the-fantasy​

If you could change (or rather fix) the background and/or paternity of any five characters, who would they be?

This is tough, currently Griffin because he is sort of just floating around with no real ties - I would had made him Anna’s somehow, or introduce some siblings or extended family for him.

What five storylines would you rewrite?  And how?

The Everyday Heroes storyline, that storyline was awful and OOC for Sam, how previously lived a life of crime and who was dating a mob enforcer at the time. Being on TV and in the public eye made no sense for her. It was just a way to break down JaSam more for Liason. Like even when it looked to be building up to something, with the mark turning out the be abusive - it was all done wrong because if I remember correctly, he only got abusive when it was revealed that Sam was conning him. As bad as it sounds, he had a legit, arguably provoked reason. It’s still bad, but it didn’t make Sam sympathetic and the abuse was very brushed over in favour of Jason’s storyline and breaking them up. I was have changed it so her “husband” has abused her once married, but before it was revealed she was conning him. If they insisted on delving into Sam’s past as a con artist.

Three most annoying retcons in General Hospital history?

1) SamTrick. I’m sorry, I’m only going to say this now because I’ve been complaining about it for months and have appointed myself as leader of the SamTrick defence squad. But currently I hate how SamTrick is completely retconned by the writers, Robin only ever brings up Sabrina. And I hate how it’s being retconned to prop Dream up, she left Patrick because she thought Jason was alive and Drew was “Jason” - they got together in hopes of developing feelings because Sam thought Drew was “Jason” and “Jason” thought Sam was his wife and he owed it to her to try.

2) Another one is Jason’s commitment to the mob, currently they are acting like Jason’s number 1 priority is CarSon. When before 2012, he was able to separate Mob life to his private life with Sam.

3) Anything where CarSon do bad shit, then act all sanctimonious to other people, - like recently with the Nelle/Carly stuff or how Ava is being kept from Avery when Sonny isn’t even a good option, has killed people (and gets Jason’s to do it) and most of the time Avery is hidden in the corner or is with Michael and Kiki.

Favorite incarnations of characters who have been played by multiple actors?

Tyler Christopher, which is easy since Tyler is Nikolas.

Natalia Livingston, I never really saw Amber Tamblyn as Emily so that’s easy.

Steve Burton as Jason Morgan, and this is nothing against Billy, I just think he looks to soft to be believable as a tough, mob enforcer. Whereas, Steve kind of has a natural, rugged, rough around the edges look for him. Maybe it’s because of all those years of Billy in The Young and the Restless made it tough.

With Carly its tough, I feel like with Tamara’s Carly, the CarSon dynamic felt more like a mob relationship, whereas with Laura’s CarSon feels more on equal dynamic, but Laura’s Carly makes Carly seem more possessive and obsessive and needy over people at time. But I liked how independent she became, whereas I didn’t really get that with Tamara’s Carly - but I preferred Tamara’s relationship with Michael compared to Laura’s Carly.

Billy Warlock for AJ Quartermaine - this is nothing against Sean Kanan, because I never saw his initial stint, but I felt in his second stint there was a big unexplained discourse with the sudden change - kind of like what they are doing with Franco (but less worse) but also I felt like they weren’t giving Sean the right material for AJ and it’s an injust that he never knew about Jason and that he’s supposedly ok with Sonny killing him.

Five character deaths that destroyed you?

Emily, I don’t see what it did, expect butcher the Quartermaines and for shock value during the Sweeps.

AJ, but not for the same reason as Emily, this was more about the injustice done to his character.

Lila McCall - that’s down to Kelly and Steve’s performance, I did not expect to legitimately cry.

Danny McCall - He was so innocent and pure and at the time, the last of Sam’s family. He didn’t deserve to die - I would have liked to have had to full time character that is disabled or mentally challenged and have the relationship between the career and the person - without having to send them away or it defining them.

Georgie Jones - though I understand the actress quit due to lack of storylines, I think it’s a shame that writers didn't give her the material she deserves, especially since I think at the time, that age group was kind of small anyway.

If you could bring back any characters, which ones would they be?  And why?

Danny McCall, for reasons above.

Lila McCall - I flip back on this, this is a huge what if scenario. I’d like to have seen Jason and Sam raise her together. Though Sonny would ruin it, probably randomly decides he’s her dad every 5 years.

Emily Quartermaine - because it’s Emily Quartermaine.

AJ and Alan Quartermaine, for vintage Quartermaine goodness, plus Drew deserves this.

Lorenzo Alcazar - Which is probably an unpopular one, but I liked him and Ted King, had legit reasons to quit since the writers made him all about Sonny, but Sonny didn’t actually do anything to him, it was other people like Alexis etc.

Patrick Drake - SamTrick deserves to be remembered, he will always be an iconic GH Doc, move out the way Griffin. Plus I’d like to see SamTrick continue to be platonic best friends after they split. Sam needs her own friends, outside of Jason’s Carly, Spinelli, even though they befriended him at the same time was more about Jason, the writers forget about Saxie half the time. Plus Noah with Danny or Noah with Scout would be cute.

What storylines would you like to see General Hospital tackle?

Surrogacy, again - but not like what they did with Maxie/Lulu/Dante. 

A couple having a child born with Down Syndrome or some disability - and have it not be fixed by some miracle cure.

I lowkey want a Cult storyline. Australian soaps like Home and Away love a Cult storyline (It’s hippie style not Scientology style).

Any community style storylines - but not have Sonny and Jason come out looking as heroes. Not villains either but it use to be quite bad that they were legit like Superheroes.

Just more storylines that break the mould of a US Soap. 

If you watched any other ABC soaps (All My Children, One Life to Live, Port Charles, Ryan’s Hope, Loving, The City and I’m including SoapNet’s General Hospital: Night Shift), which characters (living at the time of the soap’s demise) would you bring to GH for a visit/story since they share the same universe?

I haven’t watched any of the old ABC Soaps, but I know my fair share about it and seen bits and bobs.

From One Life To Live, I think I’d bring Starr and Cole with Hope, but none of that storyline when they arrived. I think it was a mess what was done with the characters that hoped over to GH from OLTL and there was no true resolution to it. Maybe Jess with her split personalities to spice things up. Have her be predominantly know to GH residents by one of her alternate personalities.

From All My Children, I kind of dug Zendall from their clips, and I think their ending was a mess because only one returned to the Online Soap, but I would at least bring Kendall over to GH to kind of explain more on their split and have a life away if necessarily, without feeling out of place. I’d bring Babe back from the dead and bring her and JR over to rival CarSon in a way (in styles of relationship, not mob life).

I don’t see how Port Charles characters can properly be brought over considering how much the show veered off into the Supernatural. I lowkey would have liked to see Livvie and Caleb more, but not in GH.

I’m going to tag @gemleilou. I don’t think you have done this?

[heebiejbies]

Can I request #17 of your Drabble Game with Kyungsoo please? I haven't really seen any Supernatural stories with him and when I seen #17, I kinda cried...

I FEEL THOUGH. Seriously, as a sucker for supernatural AUs, the lack of AUs for him make me really sad. This number is my favorite out of the entire list, just saying ;)

Note: I wrote this in a different POV than the others, it seemed better to me written this way.

17.) After an incredibly scarring supernatural experience that still had a happy ending from when you were little, you decide to share your true story on the subreddit, “Let’s Not Meet.” Many people read your post and comment on how terrifying it must have been, how disgusting the monster was who put you through such an ordeal at such a young age, etc. However, there was one comment that chilled you to the bone. It said, “I can’t wait to see you again.”

Characters: Kyungsoo

Warnings: Mentions of burns, assault of a child, etc. 

Word Count: 930

A friend of mine had introduced me to this Subreddit called “Let’s Not Meet”, a section of Reddit where users basically share their true stories about things they experienced (or things someone they knew experienced) that were practically out of a nightmare. I used it for the purpose of sharing my experience with an “imaginary friend” I had as a child—Kyungsoo.

I will spare you the gory details, but to make a long story short Kyungsoo was not an ordinary imaginary friend. No, he was very much a real being whom I interacted with for years. His existence in my life caused a strain on my relationship with others in my life, namely my parents. At first, they did what every parent does with imaginary friends—they allowed it and didn’t think much of it. Then, when I started distancing myself from the other kids and only spending time with Kyungsoo, they grew angry.

Kyungsoo started affecting the physical world around me. In one instance, I vividly remember him pulling on the hair of a classmate of mine. Of course, everyone blamed me for these instances even if no one saw me do them first hand. He continued visiting me and being my friend until I turned 8, then I started ignoring him. My parents had convinced me that he wasn’t real, that he was a figment of my imagination and I was too old to still have an imaginary friend. This, of course, upset Kyungsoo deeply. He mainly threw temper tantrums, but it turned into a physical attack on me when I turned 10.

To this day, I still have the scars of handprints that were burned into my arms that night. I still have the scars from where his hands wrapped around my throat and choked me. I can still feel the excruciating pain and smell the scent of my flesh being burned. I had never seen such pure hate in his eyes before that night. In the years that I knew him, he always looked angelic. He had never said or even looked at me in a malicious way. I can still remember the horrific way he transformed from my best friend into a monster.

After the incident, my parents thought it would be best to pull me out of school. After all, how do you explain how your child received third-degree burns from an imaginary friend? A full-scale investigation into my home life was done in response to the attack, the police were so sure that my parents had something to do with it. Burns to that extent don’t simply appear by themselves, someone or something has to cause them. It incriminated them even further when they couldn’t give an explanation as to what happened. They knew what happened, they had seen the figure holding me by my throat. If it weren’t for them, I know Kyungsoo would have hurt me more. Something about being seen by my parents made him flee, and I have yet to see him since then.

I logged onto my computer to check the new comments on my story.

I’m so sorry that this tragedy happened to you :(

No one that young should have to go through such an experience at such a young age.

At least you came out stronger because of that situation ^^

That so called friend of yours is pure evil. What kind of repulsive monster hurts a child like that?

The comments were the usual, run of the mill comments you found on stories such as mine. However, one comment, in particular, sent chills deep into my body.

I can’t wait to see you again. - D.O. KS.

I suddenly felt like a child again. It felt as if someone had my lungs in their hands, squeezing with all of their might. The scars on my body grew hot, the pain from that night filled my body again. I didn’t mention anything but Kyungsoo in that post, no one should know about his surname. The only one who could know that would be Kyungsoo himself.

“Did you miss me?” That voice. I know whose voice that is. I remember it all too well.

I looked up from my laptop to see him at the foot of my bed. He looked like he did all those years ago, in his human form anyway. He had the same innocent eyes, the same perfect heart-shaped lips, he looked exactly like how I remembered my friend. He put his knees on my bed, then crawled to me. He took the laptop from my lap and put it aside so he could look at me fully.

“You’ve grown into such a beautiful woman.” When his eyes locked onto the scars on my body, he hummed in satisfaction, “Did I do that?”

“K-Kyung-”

“Shhh!” He put his finger to my lips, “Don’t speak, let me enjoy you for a moment.” He pulled me to the middle of my bed so he could sit behind me. He ghosted his fingers over the scars on my throat, his breathing grew heavier and heavier. “Look at the marks I left on you, they’re so perfect.”

He ran his fingers through my hair and moved his face closer to mine. I knew his face was right beside mine, I could see it out of the corner of my eye. The metallic taste of blood filled my mouth from the grip my teeth had on my tongue. I closed my eyes and let my tears rapidly slide down my cheeks.

“You can’t get rid of me this time, (Y/N). I’m here to stay.”

I’ve already decided that I’m going to make this into a full-length scenario. I have way too many ideas for this to fit here. So, stay tuned for that! 

Thanks for requesting~

Drabble game: Closed

[nellie-elizabeth]

Supernatural: Lily Sunder Has Some Regrets (12x10)

A gift of an episode. Honestly. Such a gift. I don't have anything else to say in this intro... let's just get started.

Cons:

I will say, though, this episode did nothing to assuage my fears about the disjointed nature of this season. The going concerns at the beginning of the season were: Mary Winchester is back from the dead, and the British Men of Letters are simultaneously crazy and pretty boring from the viewer's perspective. Now, what with Billie being killed, the new thing we have to worry about is the "cosmic consequences" that will come from cheating their way out of a deal with Death. Not only does this sound like the typical big-scale-end-of-the-world stuff that Supernatural should be steering clear of right now, it also splits our focus. I'm not saying I loved the British MOL plot thread, but the longer they go without making some real progress on that, the more pointless it seems.

This episode featured flashbacks to the early twentieth century. These scenes did their job in terms of giving us exposition, but if you're going to flash back, show Cas in a female vessel, and get everybody dressed up in period clothing, it would be nice if the flashbacks added something really special. There was really no point to showing all of this stuff instead of just having our guest characters give an expository monologue. I wanted to explore all the possibilities. These angels have never been to earth before, so what does that mean for them? Do any of these characters have moral misgivings about killing the Nephilim? I guess what I'm saying is, the flashbacks were not utilized very well. There seemed to be no point to going through all that effort.

Pros:

But I'm nitpicking. I'll give a very concise plot summary: a woman named Lily is out for revenge against the angels who killed her daughter, a Nephilim. Cas teams up with angels he used to work with. We then learn that Lily's daughter was actually human, and that Ishim, one of Cas' old colleagues, knew this and killed her anyway. Lily teams up with the guys to kill Ishim, and leaves uncertain if her need for revenge is full quashed.

First off, I really loved the woman playing Lily Sunder. She was a total bad-ass, and managed to make that eye patch look properly threatening. Her dilemma was really rich, too. See, she's been keeping herself alive and healthy for over 100 years using Enochian magic, the magic of angels. However, every time she does this, it means she gives up part of her soul. Eventually, she'll feel nothing. Everything she's doing, she does to get revenge for losing her daughter. But in order to keep doing it, she's losing the very identity that makes her grieve her daughter in the first place. This is a fascinating dynamic. I really hope we see Lily again. She was far too cool of a character to waste on a one-off.

Learning more about angels is always interesting to me. The angel through-plot on this show has had a lot of missteps, but whenever the focus is put on them and it does work, it really works. This was such an example. There's a clear divide between our angel characters, here: Cas, who "fell in love with humanity," is perceived as weak by Ishim, who rejects humans as being no better than apes. Of course, Ishim is the one who became obsessed with Lily, and killed her child because of it.

The mythology of Nephilim, while discussed before, is still quite interesting to me. Obviously this helps remind us what a Nephilim is, for the very practical reason that there's a woman out there right now carrying around Lucifer's child. But it also cuts to the core of a very real moral dilemma. Cas believed - and in fact still seems to believe - that killing Nephilim is not wrong, because they are too powerful to be contained. He's not ashamed of playing his part in killing Lily's daughter, even if he knows it's tragic. When Cas finds out that this little girl, May, was human, he is deeply apologetic, but he still says that he "didn't know he was killing an innocent." Despite Lily's grief and drive for revenge, Cas still stands by the fact that killing Nephilim is right. It's an interesting direction to go. Sam and Dean can't quite get on board with that line of thinking. Somewhere out there is a mother and her unborn child. How can that be pure evil?

The best thing about this episode was the interplay between Sam, Dean, and Cas. There's so much to talk about here, I'm worried I'm going to miss some of this deliciousness in writing it all down.

It's an all too common problem in this show to introduce a big plot element (i.e. Billie being killed and the threat of "cosmic consequences") and then just let it lie fallow for too long. Reminders of the A-plot are shoved awkwardly in at the beginning of C-plot episodes in shoddy exposition. Instead, this episode does something really brilliant. Cas killing Billie is a bit plot point in this episode. Dean is furious at Cas for making such a risky decision, and Cas is angry at Dean for being mad at him for saving his life. Sam is trying to play peacekeeper.

What's so brilliant is that this resentment carries over into the actual plot of the episode, as we have a conflict of philosophies going on between Cas and Ishim. When Ishim taunts Cas for being friends with the Winchesters, he can point to the specific fact that Sam and Dean question his decisions, and belittle him by not believing he knows what's best. This is a simplistic way of looking at it, but Ishim is not entirely wrong. For all that Cas is an ancient and powerful being, the Winchester still tend to treat him as an incompetent but well-meaning ally some of the time. It all comes to a head when Dean and Sam sit down with Cas at the end of the episode and reassure him that they think he's strong. Dean isn't angry about Billie - he's worried. And Cas stays firm, too. He's not sorry for what he did.

In fact, just a general shout-out to Cas for this episode. He was definitely the MVP. The biggest laugh in the whole hour is when Dean, Sam, and Cas are all in the impala, heading to find out what happened to Cas' angel friend who called for help. Sam tries to break the awkward silence, while Dean and Cas just sit in stony silence. Dean makes a comment about Benjamin, Cas' friend, seeming like a level-headed guy who wouldn't make off-the-cuff risky decisions, and Cas responds that what he likes about Benjamin is that while he's sarcastic, he's also appreciative. Dean says "what's that supposed to mean?!" and Sam has to jump in to prevent escalation.

It was oddly refreshing to see these two angry with each other, because it felt like the way a family would really behave. Cas is staying in the bunker, by the way... we definitely got confirmation about that, and it's oh so glorious. Nobody is shunning anybody, nobody is betraying anybody... we've just got two family members in the middle of a nasty argument. The best thing is, as the story of the week unfolds, we don't lose this tension between Dean and Cas, but we also see that they're a good team. They check in on each other, they defend each other, even in the midst of their own arguments. That felt like something a family would do.

I liked seeing Cas interact with other angels, because it immediately made Sam and Dean the outsiders, which is all too rare. Cas basically orders Sam and Dean to play by his rules, and while they don't exactly adhere to that order, they seem to understand they're operating on Cas' turf, here.

I'm sure everybody's talking about the Destiel angle with this one, and while I didn't see it here as much as I have in other spots... yeah. It's still totally a thing. Especially when Ishim talks about cutting out Cas' weakness, and immediately goes to hurt Dean. And then Dean, who could have banished Ishim using an angel sigil, doesn't go through with it when Ishim threatens that a severely weakened Cas might be killed if he's banished right now. Quite a bit of casual touching in this episode as well, which I always appreciate.

I think my favorite subtle little moment was between Sam and Lily. Dean, albeit a bit unwillingly, has left Sam alone with Lily, to find Cas and Ishim and get to the bottom of Lily's story. Lily tells Sam that Ishim will kill Dean once he knows Dean suspects him of killing a human child. She tells Sam that she's willing to wait for that to happen, because she knows Sam will help her get her revenge once his brother is dead. Just the look in Sam's eyes is enough to impart so much: deep fear about losing his brother, and a bone-deep certainty that Lily is telling the truth. If anybody touches Dean, Sam will rip them apart. It pays off when Sam and Lily show up to help Dean and Cas take down Ishim. Dean says "I thought you were supposed to keep her out of this," and Sam just responds "Changed my mind."

I guess I'll stop there. I was thoroughly impressed. This episode managed to stand on its own, and also teach us a lot about these characters. The A-plot of this season of Supernatural has been something of an incoherent mess, but on an individual episode level? I'm pretty happy!

9.5/10