#What Evil Lurks

[daniel-is-me]

dedicating this post to the certified lurkers

This is my favorite and best lurker you other lurkers cannot compare (some of you lurkers also interact with me more than the other lurkers do)

@paffcider @dove-sprite @domutkniecie @wanwoofwan @drbrun-w-dabliou

I see you

lurking

and I appreciate you

so

Damn

much

Me

[gyrovagi]

meredith becoming a templar and engaging in progressively more extreme violence against mages because of what happened to her sister while rina justifies working with meredith the whole time and participating in the annulment of the circle because at the end of the day she still protects bethany...

[wuntrum]

bizarre to watch a horror film that came out this year that horror people seem to generally enjoy and one of the plot points of it being "yeah, the evil presence can't get into some people's minds. but autistic people? oh man, the evil just doesn't know WHAT to do in there, once its in there its trapped! just look at the way they move their hands, isn't that weird? that means the evil is in there!"

[measured-words]

oc tag game ♡

Tagged by @saltwife, I guess I can tag umm, @thelovers-thedreamers-and-me and idk idk @crippledpastrycryptid and @fealiniel if you have ocs you'd like to gush about! And if you have ocs and I didn't tag you go for it :x

General:

Name: Lamont Vincent Allard Machel, Marquess of Stillmarch

Alias: mostly N/A but I have an ongoing AU where he has a disguised alter-ego known as guy deVille

Gender: Male

Age: 20

Spoken Language: Nerathi Common

Sexual Orientation: bi/pansexual - I'm not sure he'd understand the difference

Occupation: Commissioned officer (Lieutenant) in the Nerathi army. Technically he has a troupe of light cavlary under his command, but that didn't really work out, and he is getting transferred the diplomatic (intelligence) corps.

Favourite:

Colour: Green, because everyone says it looks good with his eyes (they are correct).

Entertainment: He likes small social gatherings and going to private clubs. Gets overwhelmed by crowds and avoids them when he can. He does enjoy things like plays and opera and other performance based entertainment, but only with a private booth. Lucky he is insanely rich.

Pastime: Riding, martial training, embroidery, reading (mostly non-fiction prose and poetry), sex. You've got to stay busy or the Thoughts will get you.

Food: The man in a fruit goblin. He stress-fasts (not on purpose) but can usually be enticed to eat if there is fresh fruit involved, especially cherries. Also, cheese. Otherwise he does not have a very adventurous palate.

Drink: Yes! he is partial to the ciders that are brewed on his estate, as well wine and brandy. Not so big on whiskeys and related things after youthful overindulgence.

Have They…

Passed University: Yes, fortunately it wasn't the sort of place where grades mattered significantly, but he attended a prestigious military academy in order to prepare him for his service. he took it a lot more seriously than many of his peers. he was not an exceptionally brilliant student, but he put in the work.

Had Sex: Yes!

Had Sex in Public: Despite the inclinations of his husband... no.

Gotten Tattoos: Not a tattoo, but he does have an extensive magical mark on his right upper thigh (a dragonmark) that people might think is one if a: they ever saw it and b: they didn't know enough about the Nerathi aristocracy to guess otherwise.

Gotten Piercings: No.

Gotten Scarred: Not on purpose. or - only emotionally? He lives in a world of magical healing and he is rich and noble, so unlikely there is anything physical that stuck.

Had a Broken Heart: Yes but it got fixed :3

Are They…

A cuddler: Yes, in private. Too formal/stuffy for PDA though.

Scared Easily: Sort of - he suffers from magically inflicted anxiety that makes him a little bit psychic. So not prone to jumpscares and such but on a deeper level, yes.

Jealous Easily: The first person he ever fell in love with was a polyamorous priest of the elven god of love and beauty, so he had to work on that. But he did, and it allowed him to let a second love into his own life to whom he is now married. He has deep seated insecurities and abandonment issues (people he cares about keep dying), but he's less concerned that his partners will leave him for someone else.

Trustworthy: Over all, yes, very, but he's also bad at talking about his problems which can lead to keeping unfortunate secrets. Also because of his work, he's not always at liberty to be forthcoming.

Family

Sibling(s): Two brothers The eldest, Arnaud Layne Allard Machel, died in a "accident" several years before. His younger brother, Frederick "Fritz" Harold Allard Scrye, is about 4 years younger, and lives with their mother.

Parents: His father (Kent Allard Machel) died when he was five in an airship accident on the way home from a diplomatic posting overseas. His mother (Margaret "Margo" Layne Allard Scrye) quickly remarried (pressured by House politics), taking her youngest child with her and leaving the older two in the care of their (terrible) uncle, Thurston Allard. Thurston resented the burden, especially as his brother's title and estates passed directly to the children.

Children: None yet

Pets: A Complete horseboy. His horse is named Briar (at least for short, she probably has a stupid long formal name I've never bothered to make up), she's a chestnut mare, a well-bred light warhorse of some kind (I don't know the flavours of horse, and this is fantasy anyway) that he trained himself . They are very bonded, and she doubles as an emotional support horse for him.

[ashestxr]

i gotta go through my almost 500 cherik edits i have favorited on tiktok and figure out which ones to save before the ban,,

it feels like im choosing between my babies 😢💔

[ingoodjesst]

[light spoilers] "when evil lurks" (2023) was a thoroughly engaging horror movie with great direction, pacing, and lighting that complement its themes well. that said, it was also an intense and disturbing watch with a finale that frankly had my stomach churning. it's a film interested in the fear of losing control and what it reveals about its characters. though the catalyst for misfortune is a demonic presence that possesses and manipulates people, it's generally the characters' rash attempts to recapture a sense of control over their situations that cause things to spiral. their fear-striken actions are understandable in the face of a force they cannot predict the scope of or attack directly. but over and over again, we see our protagonists choose to run away or react with violence, even when they have both folk wisdom and mounting first-hand experience to advise them against such futile actions.

there's also an interesting lens of gender to view the film through, as we often see men choosing to exert violence in a desperate bid to feel powerful again against victims that - possession aside - are generally weaker than them: disabled folks, animals, women, children, etc. all this despite women pleading with them to remember how this violence will just guarantee the evil's spread. it's worth examining how the male characters feel the need to project themselves as protectors while overriding the feelings of the people around them, how their predominant emotions of fear and anger tend to preclude their ability to clearly communicate the stakes of their predicament, etc.

in a way, violence becomes synonymous with running away throughout the film. despite what their behavior would have you believe, our MCs always have options available to them (both in their personal pasts and in the present) that are less likely to lead to ruin… yet their fear always leads them to dig deeper holes. by seeking only the physical destruction of something that refuses to be destroyed, the rotten possession is never truly dealt with. it is simply put off and worsened. instead of engaging the root problem with care and deliberation, using the rules and expertise that are gradually presented to us, our MCs constantly fall victim to their insecurities, constantly fall back on maladaptive instincts that fool them into thinking that somehow their attempts at violence and domination will work this time. maybe the brief catharsis will be worth the consequences this time.

which isn't to say that the movie necessarily suggests that things could've ever been brought back under "control". but in the end, our protagonists fail every chance they have to confront their problems properly. in seeking shortcuts to regain an illusion of control, they sacrifice whatever possibility existed of reclaiming true agency.

it's also worth mentioning that it's not hard to find parallels to the ongoing covid pandemic, i.e. fighting an invisible enemy that cannot be directly eliminated, where violation of specific guidelines intended to keep you safe leads to further spread of the "possession" and therefore further tragedy. hell, even the way that government institutions (like the police in the film) absolve themselves of dealing with the problem properly, forcing citizens to fend for themselves…

the thing is, although the demon haunting our MCs manipulates their terror to its own ends, there's still a palpable sense that many of their losses could've been avoided, if only they didn't succumb to rage and dismay at their loss of control… in this way, i see parallels with the movie "the thing" too; once you let the terror into your heart, the path to destruction is paved with the resulting paranoia and panic. thus the film leaves you with a powerful sense of powerlessness, as you watch characters get progressively consumed by their fear (and uh, other more literal things), until their fates simply fulfill themselves.

[fisheito]

all us anons gathering to hear divine (rabid) fish wisdom, like a hungry pack of wolves waiting for a meal

Judging by how my loudest audience members are garukaru fans it certainly feels like I've got a congregation of wolves around me

[pickapea]

was jeffrey combs like a lucky talisman for movie directors in the 80s and 90s who wanted to make bad renditions of hp lovecraft stories? like, there's seven of them

[popeyeotaku]

THE SHADOW

[fullmoonfireball]

i keep thinking about ideas for g3 Jackson and Holt,, i haven't even caught up with the latest eps of the Monster High cartoon so idk why that's on my mind

[risingsunresistance]

went back to the wizard to get more dialogue after i saw someone mention it on the forums. didnt realize he had so much to say

"I am now almost certain this breach leads to the Past. But to which point in time...? I must ascertain the answer!"

"I can tell this is the Era of Kaeman, when he was at the zenith of his power."

"Our knowledge of that era is minimal. But such an aura... I fear that even if I manage to open the breach, venturing through it would be a grave mistake."

"I believe this breach was created by Jythar during the Calamity. However, I doubt it will permit us to journey that far back. I suspect someone is altering its destination."

"I am making progress. I can now sense a great and formidable evil lurking beyond these threads of time."

[spoonyruncible]

I'm not gatekeeping, I just have some gates and I've sort of vaguely known they're there, I haven't kept them and the hinges are so rusty i doubt they'd close if I tried. But, like, for ages all that came through those gates were stray geese and a dog I think belongs to a neighbor but might just belong to himself and of course there's the hunching afflicted wrathbeast. That's just having a garden. Things grow there and random folks stumble in sometimes, mispronounce the names of my favorite varietals, say stunningly inaccurate things about them, and wander bemusedly back out.

As a surprise to probably no one I was a deeply lonely child. No one really got me or what my deal was, so when I found something I loved it was mine and mine alone to treasure. As I got older I found other people who liked 'my' things. Some of those people were horrible! But there was a kinship and it was okay to be a bit horrible so long as we could be odd together. Gardens are resilient things, they tolerate mistakes and abuse. It's absolutely wonderful to share, to dance to the same music, that imperfection becomes part of the joy of it, becomes a unique thing unto itself.

So imagine my shock when there is a garden party that rapidly becomes a festival. No one has ever really been here before, it's been me and the geese and that one dog and a few other weirdos. Suddenly my things, things people beat me for loving, are things everyone loves. All at once the landscape is unrecognizable and if I acknowledge that then I'm being a hipster. I don't mind the festival, it's nice, now it's much easier to get things I need without having to put on my trekking gear and hike out to the one obscure location that has The Supplies. It's not bad, it's just weird. It feels like there is something wrong with me instead of something wrong about liking what I like.

I'm not really talking about one specific thing here, there have been a lot of these moments where what used to be unusual or even shameful is now the big thing. And it's good, it's can be great sometimes even with the unforeseen bizarre bad parts. But there is this selfish little part of me that wants to cling to my unloved love, to put a raggedy LP on a barely working record player and lay on the wooden floor of my childhood home staring at a painting of a ship in a storm that is right beside a picture of a young man in a cap and a too large jacket and listen to sea shanties belted out by people not very good at singing while I drift and drift and drift away on the sound and the whitecaps to a place where there is only this. I love the new versions like a drowning man loves air, I am happy that people have found this beautiful thing and can enjoy it, but there is a tinge to it I don't like. A prick of pain every time I see this joy over my joy, over my joy that I was punished for, humiliated for, shamed for. I'm glad people can love these things without suffering but it makes my suffering seem so fucking stupid.

There is a certain temptation, a bitter agony, that makes me want to hiss like an abused cat and cling jealous to my silly little toys. It's not that I want them all for myself, it's that I can't let go of that little kid with a bruisy eye sulking because no one wants to play with him. It's the whisper of, "We can be friends but only in secret. I don't want people to know I'm like you." It's the enthusiasm that rapidly becomes muted because the whole world is demanding to know why you can't just be normal for once. But that same temptation to lash out is the one that makes me reach out my hand instead, especially to people who are like, "Wow! I've never been to a garden before. I'm gonna screw this up. How do I not screw it up?" because now they're that bruisy eyed kid no one wants to play with. I can't protect the person I used to be by becoming the exact thing that hurt me. Gotta keep the gate open, gotta get used to new things even if it takes noise cancelling headphones and an entirely rational amount of backsliding, gotta wake up every day and keep trying even though the world keeps throwing curveballs that no sane person could anticipate. It's all okay. We're in this together and we're all gonna be okay,

[tankgotstuckinthecircusgate]

eddie not having a partner and carlo getting married late bc "my homoerotic friendship is more important to me than regular sex"

[anza-redstar]

The rest of The Living Shadow doesn't really live up to its deranged opening sequence, but it has its points. For instance, Harry Vincent saying "Hey, that mysterious cloaked figure who prevented my suicide and to whom I swore my troth, is he, like, a good guy? Bad guy? Do we know anything about what that dude is actually trying to do?", receiving exactly zero answer, and just kinda going with it:

Working for a mysterious stranger whose motives are obscure, whose face you have never seen, and who has already sent you without explanation undercover into the 1920s-pulp-fiction black-market of Mysterious Chinese People doing Illicit Mysterious Chinese Business where you nearly got killed by a guillotine deathtrap: actually pretty relaxing! Basically this is a paid vacation.

Harry Vincent: if he's going to be the kept man of a mysterious cloaked figure still not proved to not be a criminal mastermind, he's not going to be irresponsible about it.

[charlottepandalurker]

is this anything. trapped in coheed world

[the-acid-pear]

I honestly wonder if this was just my interpretation because my ability to see things in movies that aren't true or if I simply picked up on it and most others didn't because I am a special little boy but I'm pretty sure Pedro from When Evil Lurks is like, a mental patient.

I mean it's certain he has a lot going on from his impulsiveness to his mental breakdown and his mentioned suicide attempt, but I'm sure there's mention of him being gone for a few years too. Also, the cop's insult, that to me just felt like a slur.

Like I see a lot of people be like "omg Pedro is so stupid" but I never got that because from the start, to me, it was very well stablished this guy just wasn't fucking okay, y'know.