#Yes it may definitely the laws of space time

[aggressivedaikons]

PART ONE OF MY WILLIAM MILLER AU!!! THIS TOOK SO LONG BUT IM SO PROUD!!! Most of this is the setup of how this happened, so if I find the motivation to actually continue this (more likely than not) then you’ll get some (half written) plot!!!

Part #2

If you liked this, PLEASE consider reblogging. I worked really hard on this and it would mean a lot to me if you helped this reach more people >.<

[solelifauna]

When you say the love interest might be worse, does that mean "being mean to reader" wise or "being possessive over the reader" wise?

ERMMM...both I'd say. The love interest for the Werewolf AU is Jon Kent. He's about the same age as the reader and older than Damian by one year (From the time-skip space mission that he went on that aged him). But bro, this boy is fucking nuts.

Yes, Kryptonians aren't werewolves in this universe, but Lois Lane is. And a strong one at that, coming from a military family and all that jazz. So Jon Lane Kent is literally one of the strongest beings on earth, being half-kryptonian and half-werewolf.

Now i know what youre thinking.

But wouldn't Jon also be outcasted from werewolf society/wouldn't the bats not like him cause he's a half-blood?

WRONG!!! Yes, Jon is a half-blooded werewolf, but the other half is Kryptonian, one of the strongest species in the universe. If anything, his breeding makes him a very respected figure and the Bats definitely find him worthy. He and Damian are still the best of friends.

Now Jon's relationship with (Y/n). Yikes. Funnily enough, it was (Y/n) who started crushing on Jon first. She'd see him around the manor often, and she'd watch as he interacted with the Waynes or messed around with Damian. From what she could see, he seemed nicer than her family, so maybe she could be friends with him right? Plus, he's super cute!

And of course, this doesn't end well. I mean, this is a dark au. First off, Superman doesn't quite see humans as equals. Werewolves, they have his respect, and all the other races too. Yes, Clark Kent's adoptive parents were humans, and yes he loved them, but they were weak. Fragile even. And he made sure to instill that teaching in Jon as well.

Did Jon love his grandparents? Absolutely, but that meant that Ma and Pa stayed confined to Smallville and their house. They were too weak, they needed to be protected.

Lois also helped push Werewolf culture onto him as well. Weaker werewolves and humans were subservient to the stronger, and if necessary, could be killed and eaten. Jon didn't quite get the eating part, finding it quite gross actually, until he had his first taste of flesh. And, yikes, the boy was hooked.

In his mind, humans were either things to be taken care of (like pets) or food.

What's even more scary is that he's sweet around his family and friends, but those he deems as lesser? Well, let's just hope you don't catch him in a bad mood or piss him off. Which is why when weak, pitiful, abandoned (Y/n) Wayne comes up to him, he's insulted.

Why on earth did you even think you were worthy of talking to him?

Yes, he's seen you watching them, lurking around the manor, keeping your distance. It was quite annoying actually, he could practically hear your heart leaping out of its chest every time you saw him. He knew your intentions, trying to make friends with him.

He just looked down at you, eyes pooling with something nobody could explain, whilst you smiled at him and made small talk. Or tried to make small talk.

"Damian, should I snap her neck? Or is your family still insistent on the old laws?" Jon says.

You freeze, eyes widening in fear. Ah...you've made a severe lapse in judgment.

So much for a new friend.

"You know what? How 'bout I just go?" You quip nervously before trying to run off.

It's too bad Damian grabs you by the back of your shirt, basically choking you in the process. You let out a strangled noise as your body loses balance and lurches backward. When Damian lets go, your having a mad coughing fit, trying to get as much air as you could into your lungs.

Damian only makes an annoyed sound while Jon watches, a sick type of glee in his eyes. "When the time comes friend, you may feast with us. Now (Y/n), apologize to Jon."

You do not even have to think twice about that. "I'm sorry-I'm sorry! I shouldn't have approached you, I'm sorry." And at this point, you're crying. (reader is 14 when this happens)

And god doesn't that make Jon smile. He wouldn't deny, that you were pretty (I mean, you do have half of Bruce Wayne's DNA). But as much as he'd consider coveting you, you weren't worth that honor, no, he'd much rather taste your sweet, sweet flesh. (He could practically smell it wafting off you).

But alas, he'd have to wait.

But of course, in normal yandere fashion, he goes from wanting to eat you to wanting to eat you. The obsession starts to change around (Y/n)'s 16th birthday party that the Waynes throw. It's customary that all children do some public ball or whatever, so this was yours. Jon and his family are there obviously, and you're there as well, looking as miserable and tired as usual (and still somehow being the most beautiful thing in the building). However, he sees you light up in a way he's never seen you do before when your (what he's guessing) friends show up. They're human. They're weak, like you.

Seeing you interact with them, hearing you talk normally(super-hearing, duh) without fear, watching the way you laughed...He realizes he wants. And he wants bad.

Looks like you've got a new problem now.

Anyways, this is all I got!! I don't want to spoil the story more than I already have, but yeah, say hello to "absolutely bonkers Jon Kent". Hope you enjoyed!!!

[spacelazarwolf]

Hey there! I’ve really appreciated your posts and perspective over this past month, I’m having a hard time (as so many Jews are) and your voice helps.

I’m hoping you can help me with reliable resources. A friend of mine condemned the Hamas attacks etc (as they should, to my relief) but is under the impression that Israeli govt is doing genocide to the Palestinians. I’ve no idea how to approach that to verify (or not), I don’t even know where to start looking. Do you have any suggestions?

Thank you.

thanks! this is a really tough question, but i'm going to do my best to break it down. also if anyone's thinking of clowning on this post without reading it, inb4 "omg ur denying genocide!!!!!!" bc this post is literally outlining, in detail, all the ways the israeli government is, by definition, committing genocide.

this is really long, just a heads up.

a big frustration i have with a lot of progressive or leftist spaces is the tendency to throw around words like genocide without being able to define the term or properly apply it to the situation in question. this isn't just a semantics issue. if all you're doing is repeating the buzzwords you've heard on social media, your "activism" is going to be less than useless. it is crucial that if you are going to talk about the current genocide in gaza, you must be able to define exactly what a genocide is and how it applies to what's happening in gaza.

i'm paraphrasing from this article by the united nations. the word "genocide" was coined in 1944 by raphael lemkin in his book "axis rule in occupied europe." it was developed partly in response to the shoah, but also to previous instances of what we would now define as genocide. it was recognized as a crime under international law in 1946, and codified as an independent crime in the 1948 convention on the prevention and punishment of the crime of genocide.

the definition of genocide

(from article II of the convention on the prevention and punishment of the crime of genocide):

in the present convention, genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:

a. killing members of the group; b. causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; c. deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; d. imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; e. forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.

the 10 stages of genocide

a model created by gregory stanton, the founding president of genocide watch

classification - people are divided into "them and us"

symbolization - when combined with hatred, symbols may be forced upon unwilling members of pariah groups.

discrimination - law or cultural power excludes groups from full civil rights: segregation or apartheid laws, denial of voting rights.

dehumanization - one group denies the humanity of the other group. memmbers of it are equated with animals, vermin, insects, or diseases.

organization - genocide is always organized... special army units or militias are often trained and armed...

polarization - extremists drive the groups apart... leaders are arrested and murdered... laws erode fundamental civil rights and liberties.

preparation - mass killing is planned. victims are identified and sepaarated because of their ethnic or religious identity.

persecution - expropriation, forced displacement, ghettos.

extermination - it is 'extermination' to the killers because they do not believe their victims to be fully human.

denial - the perpatrators... deny that they committed any crimes.

application to the crisis in gaza

to start with the first definition from the united nations:

a. killing members of the group - YES

the death toll in gaza has risen above 8,000 according to the associated press. as far as i know, as of writing this post, there has been no ceasefire so the death toll will continue to rise.

b. causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group - YES

over 20,000 people in gaza have been injured, and gazans - particularly children - suffer incredibly high rates of ptsd.

c. deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part - YES

the israeli blockade of gaza has had devastating consequences for gazans. they are running out of food, water, fuel, and medicine, and this is costing additional lives.

d. imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group - unclear but leaning toward YES

whether or not it is the explicit goal, the current bombardment of gaza has put the lives of 50,000+ pregnant women in gaza at risk, along with their babies. babies who need incubators are also in danger as generators begin to run out of fuel.

e. forcibly transferring children of the group to another group - as far as i am aware, NO

according to the us embassy in israel, the palestinian authority ministry of social development is the only authorized entity regarding adoption of palestinian children. this doesn't mean it isn't happening, it just means i was not able to find any credible sources.

the 10 stages of genocide

classification - YES there is a long history in israel of othering palestinians, both socially/culturally and legally. former israeli minister of interior and minister of justice ayelet shaked shared a racist quote from netanyahu's former chief of staff explicitly framing palestinians as "the enemy."

symbolization - not yet there are no overt symbols palestinians, even within israel, are required to wear to outwardly identify themselves, but there are identifying features on their ids. in fact, the opposite has been happening, with far right members of the israeli government attempting to pass legislation making it illegal to publicly display palestinian flags.

discrimination - YES there is, again, a long history of discrimination against palestinians within and by the state of israel. it is difficult for palestinians from the west bank or gaza to gain status in israel, israeli work permits are used as a form of control, and often forcibly separate palestinian families.

dehumanization - YES former israeli deputy minister of defense eli ben dahan said of palestinians, "to me they are like animals, they aren't human."

organization - YES israel is currently carrying out an organized and brutal attack on gaza.

polarization - YES from extremist groups like hamas, to the corruption in the likud party in israel, there are very clear signs of extreme polarization. israel's siege against gaza has caused polarization across the entire globe.

preparation - YES gazans in particular are unable to leave gaza without a permit, and now with the blockade from both israel and egypt they are essentially trapped.

persecution - YES gaza in particular could absolutely be likened to a ghetto. as stated above, (in "usual" circumstances) they are unable to leave without a permit, and since hamas took control it is nearly impossible to get an israeli work permit.

extermination - GETTING THERE if the siege continues and gazans are unable to get out of gaza, there will be catastrophic casualties.

denial - YES i often hear that "israel has a right to defend itself" but i cannot possibly find a way to frame the current siege as "self defense."

so in conclusion, israel is - by multiple definitions - committing genocide against gazans. and it's very important to be able to identify specifics, especially if you are planning on having discussions about it. and i've said it in the past, but if you are not directly affected by what's happening - palestinians in particular, but israeli citizens and jews and muslims in the diaspora are also getting hit hard - it is IMPERATIVE that you are able to talk about this with a level head. escalating tensions and pushing away potential allies is only going to make things worse. find common ground, form connections, and then have a productive discussion.

[eamour]

repetition creates belief.

if you have been consuming manifestation related content for a certain amount of time, this principle shouldn’t be that unknown to you. in both communities, law of assumption and law of attraction this concept has been taught. but why is it so important? it is really that much of significance?

definition.

to repeat means to redo or replicate. with regards to manifesting, it refers to repeating a specific sort of statement which we call "affirmations". therefore, the phrase "repetition creates belief" indicates the repetition of affirmations.

purpose.

repetition is a form of controlled and conscious thinking. it's a way of introducing yourself as well as identifying with your affirmations. with repetition, you regularly remove old beliefs that no longer satisfy you and replace them with beliefs that do serve and also benefit you. ultimately, it's a practice that's supposed to assist you in entering and remaining in the state of the wish fulfilled, persistently thinking in your favour and constantly constituting a new, desired version of yourself while changing old self-conceptions.

thought ➜ act of repetition ➜ belief

although repetition is supposed to help changing self, it’s not the repetition act itself that does. it’s YOU. repetition is only there to guide your thoughts. however, it’s up to you if you accept your new thoughts or not.

logic.

the reason why repetition helps you change and create beliefs in the first place is because through repetition, you form a feeling of naturalness. you build a feeling that becomes habitual, a feeling you can confidently return to, a feeling that's slowly starting to feel friendly and familiar, a feeling you learn to recognise and relate to.

furthermore, repetition leaves no room for opposing thoughts as you direct and dictate which thoughts you want to place your attention and awareness upon. it takes up all the space that was once dedicated and devoted to insecurity, confusion and uncertainty. it naturally defeats feelings of fear and fright while also refuting former beliefs. in addition, you become indifferent to the attainability or achievability of your desires as you cease to classify and categorise them into "realistic" and "unrealistic", "possible" and "impossible" or "logical" and "illogical"

forms.

generally, there are two ways of repetition. repeating (or affirming) from abundance and repeating from absence. in the first case, you declare from a state of acceptance and confirmation. in the second one, you declare from a state of denial and rejection. one is done aware or consciously, the other is done unaware and unconsciously (also "vainly" or from "lack").

the reason why i believe that stating something in vain is inconvenient is because it’s an empty expression, and not embodiment. manifestation is done in consciousness since consciousness is the only reality and consciousness creates reality. there is no underlying sense of identity. no identification. no change of self. and the only thing that can change reality is self. only through a change of self, you can change the world around you.

examples.

repeating one time · "hm, i don’t really know about that…"

repeating ten times · "oh, i'm suspecting i may be right."

repeating hundred times · "yes, i am absolutely correct!"

what felt really impossible and illogical to you at first will start to feel more natural and normal until you have finally accepted it to be entirely true. that’s when it becomes a definite part of your identity and who you claim to be.

with love, ella.

[astercontrol]

There's so much arguing over which things are and aren't "forgivable" and under what circumstances you should try to "forgive" someone else or yourself

and I think none of the people arguing can even agree on what "forgiveness" means

which is understandable, because in different areas of society the word tends to be used very differently

for instance in both law and religion, to forgive someone tends to mean "recognize that they did the thing, but treat them as if they didn't"

in law-- like forgiving a loan or pardoning a crime-- it means the person no longer has to complete any repayment they owe for it. Repaying the loan, serving a prison sentence. It removes what someone owed, while not denying that they did owe it

in religion-- at least in Christianity in my own experience-- God's forgiveness is treated kinda the same. like, you may deserve to go to hell, but if you ask God for forgiveness then God will remove that punishment and send you to heaven anyway just as if you'd never committed a sin, because God is merciful.

so when we talk about forgiveness between two regular people, we get a lot of people acting like it means that same thing. Admit that the person did a bad thing, but treat them the same as if they didn't. Remove all expectations for them to make repayment for what they did. Allow them back into all the spaces and relationships that you would ordinarily have cut them out of for their sin.

And between regular people, that's not a type of "forgiveness" that's usually workable.

If someone else treated you badly, you may come to peace with it enough in your own mind that you stop feeling anger all the time. You may even reach a sort of acceptance where you understand why and how they got to the point of doing what they did

But you may also recognize that they are still a person who might do that thing again, and you do not feel safe remaining in contact with them. Or maybe you're even sure they have changed enough that that would never happen-- but you still don't feel like they can be in your life, because what they did changed your relationship with them to the point that it could never be a really good relationship anymore.

Is that forgiveness?

Some of us would say yes. But others would say that no, forgiveness necessarily requires letting the person do... whatever they'd be doing if the bad behavior had never happened in the first place.

Which is a thing you might be able to do if you were a god, or a legal system.

But it does not work so well between regular people.

Same with forgiving yourself. If you admit you did something bad, what does forgiveness mean for that? I don't know. Today I saw what seemed to be an argument between two people whose definitions of it were exact opposites.

One seemed to be using it to mean "accept that you are someone who can change and improve, and put in the work to do that-- instead of just deciding that you are irredeemable and should just die or never interact with people ever again."

And the other seemed to be using it to mean "stop thinking about the fact that you did something bad; stop ever feeling bad about it; stop trying to do better or prevent that bad behavior from occurring again, stop making any effort to put in the work to be a better person."

And that person was mad at the first person for apparently suggesting that this was the sort of "forgiveness" people should give themselves.

I don't know.

One side effect of my interest in language is that I'm always very aware of how words don't have inherent meanings, they just have the meanings that people use them for, and those can be very very different. And so I tend to notice, if people are arguing over something because they have different understandings of what a word means-- often before the people in the argument notice it themselves.

And part of me feels as if this should be a fairly easy way to resolve the argument, if I were to step in and point it out. But in practice, this ... really never works.

[dissecnalyst]

DNI:

Anyone younger than 16 years old (this is a 16+ blog, come back when you're older)

anyone whose alignment is lawful/neutral good (you guys are kind of annoying no offense ☠️), with exceptions maybe

TERFs

queerphobes; homophobes, transphobes, aphobes, etc.

bigots

ableists

any discourse/arguments

pedophiles

zoophiles

religion pushers

MAP/NOMAP

fully/mostly NSFW/sexual content blogs (with those pictures, videos and everything)

anti-endos

If you are/support any of these ↑, get tf out right now, or block me

(this is a safe space guys trust 💯)

☄✧☄✧☄✧☄✧☄✧☄✧☄✧☄✧

Anyways, welcome to my (maybe kinda boring tbh) blog;

neurodivergent creatures ∞

AO3 users (readers and writers, betas included)

artists 🔥🔥

queers 🏳‍🌈

nerds ☝️

losers

kids

old people

music enjoyers ♪♪

insomniacs ☕︎

(wo)/men of culture 🗿

systems/plurals (of all kinds/origins)

therians, alterhumans/alterbeings, otherkin ⎇ ⎇

chaotic gremlins 🗣️🗣️🔥🔥

abominations

misanthropists 🗣️🗣️🔥🔥

menaces to society 🗣️🗣️‼️‼️

traumatized and mentally ill bitches 🔥🔥

entities incomprehensible to mere mortals 🔥🔥‼️‼️

regular human beings

⚝✮⟡⋆♪∞ 𓃠 𓃠 𓃠 𓃠 𓆝 𓆟 𓆞 ∞♪⋆⟡✮⚝

Some shit about me (if you wanna know lol)—

∞ ☄∞ ☄∞ ☄∞ ☄∞ ☄∞ ☄∞ ☄

Currently writing a fanfic... (It's probably (definitely) gonna take years to publish ☠️)

Want my Spotify? Ask. 👍

I have an ebm/techno playlist lol 🗣️🔥

Fandoms:

— My main one is easily BNHA lol. I have not read the manga or watched the whole anime, I just get most of the lore from fanfics and other people's online posts lmaoo.

— Then next it's TCF (trash of the count's family). Ngl I think this was my first fandom lol. (I haven't read the novel since before the central plains arc though (in part 2). It's been a long time since I've read it.)

And due to me being in this fandom, I obviously got exposed to ORV and Holy Trinity memes and media which means I know some shit (spoilers) at least lmao.

— I read some marvel fics too? Idk it's from the movies not the comics. I'm not really that into the lore anyway.

(⌐■_■) (ᓀ ᓀ) (•_•) ? (￢_￢) (눈_눈) (༎ຶ‿༎ຶ)

I also take userbox requests:

— if they're of the more obscure gender micro labels [e.g. genderfloy], sexualities [e.g. uranic, neptunic], xenopronouns, etc.

— I also take requests about BNHA headcanons [e.g. "this user headcanons Hatsume Mei as autistic" (I definitely also hc Hatsume (and many others) as ND lol, just trying to decide whether autism, ADHD, or both is better lmao)], favourite characters, your fanfic(s) writing status (whether it be non-existent or halfway done), BNHA OCs, etc.

Maximum number of requests per ask: four (4)

Feel free to be as specific as you want— from the images (yes I accept a maximum of five images per userbox, I'll find a way to cram them all in lmao), patterns and background, colours, to the exact font. I'll try my best to fulfill your request lol.

Keep in mind to be patient because I have a life outside of this. I may take minutes, hours, days, weeks, or maybe even months to complete your request, but it'll definitely be done eventually. 👍

✎𓁹✎𓁹✎𓁹✎𓁹✎𓁹✎𓁹✎

My tags:

#[kal] _______

#[kal] posts → all my posts (excluding reblogs of others) will be tagged with this

#[kal] userboxes → for userboxes I make

#[kal] rambles → basically just me rambling lmaoo 💀

#[kal] random shit → basically what it says

#[kal] art shit → for any art I do lol

#[kal] ☠️ → idrk how to say this but,,, emotions idk. a 'holy shit'/'wtf' sentiment ig? or whatever that warrants that kind of feeling bcuz I'm shit at wording shit. also an equivalent of a crying emoji (anyway just know that there's many meanings when I use certain emojis so ☠️)

#lmaooo → I use this a lot apparently, so this has become a tag for me I guess 💀

–Kal

[demonfox38]

Completed - Vampire Survivors (Base + Ode to Castlevania DLC)

This game makes my brain scream at me.

Like, okay. I'm an average office worker. If I'm not in a meeting, I've got something from YouTube running in the background. Music playlists, video essays, whatever. So, in agreement, in disagreement, whatever—the terms "hauntology" and "dopamine addiction" are consistently in my short-term memory thanks to the video essay portions. The rot of culture by failure to let new ideas bloom, clinging to nostalgia and old symbols. Taxing and abusing neurotransmitters in search of instant happiness. Fun, happy things to ponder while I try to burn these hours of my life away.

Do I think either are threats? Well, unchecked nostalgia, definitely—especially when it's faux 1950s Americana influencing law to restrict the rights of others. Dopamine addiction is a bit more of a mixed bag. Like, you've got to create habits of maintenance, absolutely. Cooking, cleaning, exercise, grooming, so on. But, if you're clever, you can figure out how to use your reward system to help support these habits. Starving it or trying to obliterate it won't help, especially if it causes rebound issues. It's just…ya know. Gaining an appreciation for slower processes over instant gratification and deriving lessons from the struggles of life over bodily abuse and obliteration.

I bring these topics up because I got both "Vampire Survivors" and its "Ode to Castlevania" DLC for the cost of a goddamn cheeseburger. This pixel-exploding throwback of a game lasted me for over 100 hours. Drug dealers and fast-food restaurants would wither and die at such a nexus of cost and effectivity.

Some killjoy could do real numbers discussing hauntology and dopamine addition as the subjects apply to this game.

Should I have gotten into "Vampire Survivors" sooner? Possibly? The communal vibes I absorbed on it were nothing but praise. I don't know if I would have felt brave about trying a Rogue-like prior to playing "Baroque," but I do enjoy a good ol' fashioned bullet hell / shooter, from time to time. It might be lame that it literally took the announcement of a "Castlevania" DLC for me to give this game a try, but hey. This DLC did better about pulling me in than "Dead by Daylight" or "Dead Cells" did under similar circumstances.

What's "Vampire Survivors" about? When I figure that out, I'll get back to you. Most of the narrative I'm picking up is derived from a mix of stage names, enemy bestiary entries, and the surnames of the characters I unlock. Generally speaking, it's about Belpaese and Ladonna kin coming together to endure waves of monsters until the cold, clammy fingers of death come for them. And then, finding a way to break past their power. The powers behind them. The limitations of space and time. Research gone horribly wrong, time and time again. Creepy things hidden at the bottom of towers. Fallen civilizations. Corrupted religious sects. Milk-based magic. Ya know. Wholesome stuff!

In another world—with another particular video game company and their infamously litigious team of lawyers—"Vampire Survivors" may not have made it past its first year. It's not hard to see what game series may have inspired the creation of its lead whip-wielding fighter of the undead. Arca Ladonna may be even more egregious in the video game celebrity look-alike competition. (Don't even get me started on those Blue Venus creatures!) But, the aesthetic inspiration certainly doesn't stop at Konami properties! "Bayonetta", "Batman", "Okami", "Sonic the Hedgehog", "Mortal Kombat"—there's gonna be at least one situation you'll have where you end up snorting with laughter with how close to the copyright line this game rides.

Also, "Vampire Survivors" is the most Italian video game I've ever played. Like, yes, tee-hee on "La Borra" and "Testa di Mano" enemies. Nothing is as fucking authentically Italian as naming a character after Cristina D'Avena. Like, goddamn. How do you top that? Make a stage based on the set design for Dario Argento's "Suspiria" and "Inferno" films? Have playable knockoffs of "Lupin the Third" characters? How about an entire race of sentient ducks running parallel to human society? Call their main hero Duckabolik or something. Goddamn.

Although, there were those ducks in space…

So, I put an RPG's worth of hours into the game without getting much in the way of plot. Obviously, something else is keeping me around. How about that core gameplay loop? It starts simple enough. Move your dude up, down, left, and/or right as needed. Hit enemies with attacks. Pick up gems. Level up. Repeat until you die or you hit 30:00, at which point the game sends a Reaper after you to finish you off for good. Run the game again, continue grinding up weapons, unlock more people and levels, etcetera. So goes this song in a round.

You determine your own progress with this game through the Achievements screen. Look at what items remain, make your next goal, and finish off what you can in your next game. Progress will remove some tasks from this list, but it may add others as more opportunities unfold. Empty out your Achievements? Well, guess what? You'll get an extra round of tasks in a brand-new Secrets screen as well! Clearing that may not get you bonus trophies in Steam, but it may get you some additional levels and characters, too. Ditto the Adventures mode too, while you are at it!

Actually, the Adventures mode is pretty strange, if you don't have other DLC for this game. It's really only two stories? Weird. Seems underutilized. Kind of strange that Konami didn't pitch something for this mode, too…

If you're looking for a general overview of tasks to complete, this may help:

Get through the first five game maps, performing well enough to unlock their Hyper Mode options.

Trigger and kill the special boss in Moongolow.

Pick up the Yellow Sign and use that to start killing Reapers.

Kill the special boss that now spawns in Capella Magna.

Gather all base relics (including defeating the damned Sketamari.)

Harass the final boss for two more relics.

Fight the final boss.

It helps to experiment with different weapons and passive items. Leveling up different weapons unlock different characters, so that makes it an easy sell. Using the correct combination of passive items with weapons may also augment the weapon, giving it different (usually better) properties. Getting proficient with different characters may also unlock Arcana cards, which can grant your character with random bonuses while in a battle. Long story short—don't go stale, and neither will the game.

Also, "Castlevania" fans: go look at the names for those Arcana cards. Come back when you've face-palmed.

Most of the game's complexity comes from making your randomly-assigned resources count. The enemies are simplistic, just ambling towards you. The pressure comes more from managing distance from them and your own powers as the enemy's strength grows over time. (Honestly, the biggest difficulty spike may just come from not getting a Garlic weapon, of all things.) Sketamari is the most complicated creature I had to deal with, and that was more building a viable weapon stack in a short amount of time and preventing any interlopers from building it up than anything else. Everything else is…well. Dodge the shit and don't get touched. Video Game Rules 101.

While aesthetically simple, the game is a glory when it comes to CPU resource management. Lesser machines could not handle the glut of objects and particles being rendered on screen, particularly in later parts of a level. I suppose a creature doesn't need more than three frames of animation when a hundred or so of them are being rendered on screen at once. It's amazing this game is as stable as it is, for all of what it is doing. I've had it chug once, sure. Even had it lock up my computer, one time (although one of my poodles was a contributor to that mess.) But, man. Whatever is going on with managing the location, health, and appearance of all on-screen objects is nothing short of technomancy.

The music is also pretty solid, too. Loops well; doesn't get distracting. Honestly, it sometimes gets crushed by the sound effects, but you can adjust the audio and music tracks to balance it out. I appreciate the soundtrack not being above having a joke or too, as well. (Remember: this is an exceedingly Italian game.)

With this game, you need to pace yourself. If you get every run perfect, you'll be spending somewhere between 15-30 minutes in intense play. (Assume you'll be more on the longer end than shorter.) The circular motions you'll be making can be taxing on your thumbs. Make sure to get up, stretch, and rest your eyes and hands every hour. Your body will appreciate it.

Also, seriously. Take the game's flashing warning to heart. You can adjust some settings to ease up on what is being rendered, but the game is designed to burn like a comet. There's gonna be tons of debris shearing off it, and you do not want that scalding your eyeballs.

For those of you hopping in via House Dracula, the DLC "Ode to Castlevania" provides an additional map, as well as…well, the marketing says 40+ weapons and 20+ new characters, but let me tell you. That plus sign is hiding a lot. Like, 90+ pieces of music, 25 bosses, and several dozen new enemies. Damn.

Much like the base game, you're not gonna get much more in the way of plot. It's mostly pushing as far as you can in a single go, punishing bosses as you gather the strength to tackle them and unlocking your Belmont, Belnades, or buddy of choice. However, there is a fun little treat at the map's end regarding the English opening cutscene of "Castlevania: Symphony of the Night" and Death being a goddamn nightmare. Like, damn, dude. I know the breakup of a bromance that lasted a millennium was rough on you, but this is not the best way to react.

Because of the map's ungodly size and number of tasks to tackle, you'd be better off making good headway into the main game before tackling this. At the very least, it will help you to get that time limit lifted with an Endless mode unlock. (You can also eventually invert the castle, if you're into that.)

The loop here is more like:

Unlock Belmonts (generally, in order of timeline, with a few exceptions.)

Use Belmonts to unlock ally characters, beat bosses, and unlock parts of the map.

Push forward until you finally get Richter.

Use Richter to fight Death.

Max out your new wave of characters.

Fight new bosses.

Find the Pile of Secrets and Wood Carving Score.

Continue until all secrets are exhausted.

That should hold you out…Oh, I don't know. A good 50 hours or more?

I can't get over how deep this DLC digs into "Castlevania" characters and songs. Finally, in 2024—after getting booted from two other games!—we have a playable Hammer. And a playable Mina Hakuba. LMAO. I know people didn't have her on their bingo card, but damn. There are all kinds of playable characters here that I never expected to see, whether in terms of capabilities, story fates, or just coming out of the wrong division of Konami Computer Entertainment. I don't know who wanted a playable Vincent, but uh…there you go. Congrats to you.

I mean, what? Am I supposed to be a shithead and ask for the merchant from "Harmony of Dissonance" or someone from Wygol Village? Fucking 80 goddamn characters, and two are the final Sorrow cast members that I was missing. And fucking Quincy Morris of all goddamn people, now that the copyright for Stoker's "Dracula" has gone to hell. Screw it. I'm take the W and leaving on this one.

With the way Quincy looks in this game, doesn't he look a bit like the North American cover of "Castlevania Bloodlines"? It's making me question some things about that box art…

The DLC takes a fair amount of flexibility when it comes to cast powers. Like, you're not gonna get soul or power absorption with Shanoa or Soma, but you are going to get unique boosts for each cast member. Every Belmont gets a unique way to use their whip, so that's neat! A great way to prevent stagnation, for sure. And, hey. Don't like the default weapon your character starts with? You can switch that out eventually, too. Just gotta prove your competence. Meet some achievements. Do the "Vampire Survivors" grind.

Most of the "Castlevania" remixes are pretty solid as well. Just take a YouTube playlist already. Enjoy. (I was particularly tickled by "Wood Carving Partita" and "The Sinking Old Sanctuary," for what that is worth.)

Now, the songs aren't exactly paired with the characters you may expect. Like, Christopher Belmont gets "Beginning", which then throws "Trevor" into "Aquarius", throwing Sypha and Yoko off, and so on. If you get the Magic Banger relic, it's no big deal to correct. It's just funny how preconceptions can make cool music otherwise seem off.

There was one major part that actively pissed me off with this DLC, and it was unlocking Camilla. The flavor text on her unlock secret implies that a Belmont needs to kill her off (either Leon, Simon, or Sonia, whomever you consider the "first" Belmont to be.) The actual method of unlocking her is hitting her with a Nightmare spell. Like…okay? I'm hoping that'll be patched out later, but man. Wasting hours on that only to find out I was being misled was annoying.

I can't say the sweat needed to unlock Brauner was worth it as well. He isn't as immediately frustrating, but he takes way more time than seems necessary. Just go toss the Blood Astronomia and some compatible weapons on Dracula, get him up to the gallery, level him to a stable point, and park him for a couple of hours.

As shit tier as 2024 has been personally, I can't help but be comforted with the "Castlevania" game releases this year. The "Dominus Collection", the "Dead by Daylight" DLC, and the cherry on top, this. I shouldn't have needed such an incentive to play "Vampire Survivors," but I was more than happy to go hog-wild on this game and its DLC. God bless the development team for this game. They may have developed the digital version of a stimulant drug that makes my hands and brain scream, but I can only hope the best for them.

Good people put their fan translators in their credits, man. And poncle's staff…them's good people, that's what.

The base "Vampire Survivors" is currently available for $4.99 USD on Steam, although that price tends to frequently dip down a dollar for seasonal sales. "Ode to Castlevania" tacks on another $3.99 USD. There are additional levels of DLC and expansions past that point, if you want more. I'm not certain if you'll find more vampires to survive, necessarily, but at least you've got, like, actual vampires to survive now. Which, apparently, is a whole ass meme I didn't know about before!

What's the official count on that now, anyway? You don't fight Dracula, so I don't think you can count him. But, there's Walter, Joachim, Carmilla, Orlox, a Jiang Chi, Stella & Loretta…actually, do you count them? I mean, I know the Sanctuary spell works on them, so I'd say yes, but…Or, wait. Shit. Does "Vampire Survivors" mean the vampires you survive, or the vampires that are also surviving alongside you? Maybe I didn't think this through…

Man, counting vampires shouldn't be as hard as surviving them. Ah ah ah!

[fancyfeathers]

(Again for some reason this only showed up in my email, thank god for email I guess @zainiscompletelydone333 )

The Games We Play of Dust and Ash (Yandere Moriarty the Patriot Masterlist)

Okay this is so cute 🥰

But I’m going to lead with the second idea here for a reason

I definitely think William would educate his darling when he had enough free time to do so, but since he is a mathematics professor that would be much of the curriculum. Then Louis probably would help her improve her reading and writing skills because she probably does know how to read a little bit because of programs at the ballet and names in the dressing room to sort out their belongings. I’m just imagining the two of them when Liam is busy and Louis is free, then just sitting in the library or drawing room next to each other reading more advanced literature before Louis goes and breaks down what’s happening after each page and what certain words mean. This would probably go until Louis went to go make dinner and she would go up to her little studio William had made for her…

Now Albert’s darling may be a bit lonely, she was the first one there and honestly to spend the day with only Louis, and maybe sometimes on rare occasions Sebastian, James, and Fred when they aren’t busy, it gets lonely after a long time. The empty feeling of the halls of the house, the locked doors like the offices of her own husband and her brother in law which she only ever sees the men of the house enter. She doesn’t know the things Albert has done and he would like to keep it that way.

She could go out by herself after all she is a married woman so she wouldn’t need a chaperone-

No no, Albert wouldn’t like that, he would worry about her.

So often times she takes to exploring the house, finding ways to get into rooms that maybe perhaps she shouldn’t be in, besides William’s and Albert’s offices of course, but more like the attic, the cellar, the storage rooms, and even might sneak out to the garden or maybe the stables to see the horses out there. She would soon find every little thing she could about the house itself that she could.

But soon the boredom just had no end.

Then when looking over the rooms for the hundredth time, she peaks into one of them, it had been closed off for a while but when she turns the door handle it’s unlocked, and it’s appears to be a dance studio, like the one she learned how to ballroom dance in when she young. There is a piano in the corner, a small box that holds papers of sheet music next to it and honestly she can’t help herself. She sits down at the piano and takes out one of songs, it’s Ludwig van Beethoven's Sonata No. 23, known as the Appassionata, also one of the songs she used to play with her own sister before she got married and came to live with Albert and then their parents died-

Best not to think about that right now

She dusts off the unused keys and begins to play and the music echoes throughout the house, reaching the ears of Louis who just smiles and William’s darling who is all alone…

The door creaks open and Albert’s darling jumps up, nearly knocking the piano bench over and startling them both.

“I-I am sorry… this is your space isn’t it? I should go-“

“No, it’s fine… could you keep playing?”

After a moment she nods and sits back down at the bench and pays the spot next to her for the other to sit down. The song is carried throughout the house once again and both of them are just absorbed in the music, forgetting about everything else for a moment.

Then everything falls silent as she finishes playing and the song ends and her hands slip from the piano to her lap.

“You know Albert and I actually met at the ballet, you used to work there right?”

“Oh… yes I did but- nevermind. Actually would it be okay if I asked you something?”

“Of course, I guess we are technically sisters in law and-“

“Do you know how your parents died?”

She stops for a second, she doesn’t actually know how, Albert just told her after she had woken up one morning that they had passed away in the night…

It was odd really, both of them dying on the same night, she had never thought about it before. She did not exactly have loving parents by any stretch of imagination but they were still her parents and she was sad when they passed but more worried about her younger sister who is now off living with a family friend, a widowed noble woman and a friend of the queen.

“I… I don’t actually know… but why does that matter-“

“Your husband is not the man you think he is, neither is mine or Louis for that matter, you need to be careful-“

Her whispered tone is cut off my a knock at the door, both of them look up to see the faces of their husbands, just returning from work. Albert is the first to walk over, pressing a kiss to his wife’s forehead as she tries to hide the almost terrified look on her face. William watches as his own darling stands up, to leave the other couple alone to go off with her own husband. William wraps a hand around her waist as they walk off to the library to do the last of her lessons for the day before dinner.

“Louis told us that she was playing the piano right before we got home, seems like you two are getting along.”

“I think so… or I hope so at least…”

After all it’s better to have a friend than only your psychopathic husband for company.

[onbearfeet]

Bloodstone Manor Location Masterpost

Okay, since the next bit of Monster Mash is gonna have to happen at/near Bloodstone Manor and Ted needs to go for a walk in the woods nearby, where do we think it is? The US and UK are the leading candidates in the fandom, but I need to pick a spot so my characters can get the fuck out of Ohio. My money is on the US, but I'm open to counterpoints.

Things to bear in mind:

1. Ulysses had a British accent. Elsa's accent is posh British. Verussa had an American accent, with some Broadway Mid-Atlantic that could suggest fancy New England OR just putting on airs. It's entirely possible one of the couple moved to be with the other, but that doesn’t settle which side of the ocean it happened on. Elsa's accent could be from a UK childhood OR a UK boarding school OR a choice to emulate her mother and annoy Verussa.

2. The house is old--or at least full of old stuff--but there's something of a history of Europeans bringing their weird-ass shit across the Atlantic and building absolutely batshit mansions in the US. Probably because there's more open space for it here.

3. The establishing shot of the rotunda shows it in hilly or mountainous terrain, with what looks like pine forest around it, and it sits on a parcel that is either big enough or far enough from neighbors that no one expects any outside response to roars, screams, explosions, etc. Either there's no one around to hear it or people REALLY mind their own business.

4. Of the hunters who make it to the funeral, one has a Scottish accent, two have American or Canadian accents, and one has what sounds like a South Korean accent (although apparently the actor was born in Argentina and moved to the US in the 90s, and I'm going off the many Korean-American voices I've heard at work, so "Korean-American" might be a better descriptor). Those are the people with connections to Ulysses and the time, resources, and motivation to show up to wherever this is. That suggests the location is most accessible to these people and not others. (Yes, I know, I've left out Jack's accent, but he was going to travel to wherever Ted was anyway; he had enough motivation that distance alone wasn't going to stop him.) North America has the numbers here; it's more likely that one Scot got on an international flight than that two North Americans did.

5. The guards are wearing "tacticool" BDUs and carrying some kind of zappy sticks or stun batons. The lack of guns is interesting and may indicate a location with stricter gun laws than the US ... or just that Verussa didn't want to accidentally kill her captive and that a lot of monsters are bulletproof anyway. The guards look and move a hell of a lot like an American tactical team and sound vaguely American when they're screaming. Would Verussa import guards, or hire local muscle? My money is on the latter.

6. Ulysses was old as balls. In the comics, he was positively ancient, and the opening narration implies he was old enough to be wearing pre-20th-century clothes in a flashback. He's definitely old enough to have gotten his hands on a nice piece of property in the UK, but also rich enough to have just bought a mountain in the US. He was also around for the last century-plus of history, and that may have affected his choice of headquarters. If the original Bloodstone Manor got bombed out during World War 2, for example, he might have moved to a less bomb-filled location.

7. Corpse Muppet! Verussa found somebody willing to turn her husband's remains into a Cryptkeeper animatronic. I have no idea whether that's a thing in the UK, but there are definitely enough weirdo taxidermists, puppeteers, and general pieces of work here that someone would take Verussa's money to do it. There are even subcultures here that traditionally sit the corpse up at the table for the wake, so it might not even be that weird to the right professional.

8. Flaming Tuba Guy is available for the funeral. Real Flaming Tuba Guy is American and takes his flaming tuba to Burning Man. I have no idea whether the UK is also a likely place to find a dude with a flaming tuba, but I have difficulty imagining a smooth process for getting a combination brass instrument/flamethrower through customs. I don't think there's a lot of international Flaming Tuba action unless private jets get involved. Wherever Flaming Tuba is from, I'm betting that's the jurisdiction where Bloodstone Manor is.

9. Jack makes it to Bloodstone Manor. Now, I've talked before about his being highly motivated and distance not being an obstacle for him, but if we assume he didn't use a magic portal or something (big if, I know), he had to go by land, sea, or air, and that takes time, no matter how motivated he is. Jack is centuries old, has a history of involvement with violence, and speaks with a Mexican accent. Wherever the Manor is, a dude matching that description was able to get there in time without setting off a ton of international alerts. The fact that Jack is as old as he is AND unknown to the hunters despite being a werewolf suggests that he prefers to keep a low profile, and by now he's practiced at it. He wouldn't want to leave a paper trail, especially when he's on a rescue mission that he knows will likely involve killing people. (I know he doesn't WANT to kill anybody, but the odds of him and Ted getting out of there with a zero body count were always slim. And he brought a bomb in his pocket.) Between his money and his accent, Jack would have an easier time moving around undetected in North America; he could reach a North American Manor by car rather than having to smuggle himself on a boat, charter a private plane (with a flight plan!), or go through customs at Heathrow or wherever. Not that he wouldn't risk getting on SHIELD's radar to save Ted, but if the hunt happened soon after Ted's capture, Jack would be more likely to physically reach the Manor in time if it were in North America.

10. Ted! Ted is at the funeral, obviously. In the comics, Ted canonically lives in the Everglades and honestly that's the best place for him. Verussa would have to have Ted transported from Florida to wherever the Manor is. All the logistical problems of moving Jack across an ocean are magnified in moving TED across an ocean. Again, it's much easier to move him within North America, which I'd consider a point in favor of a North American Manor. If the Manor were in the UK, wouldn't Verussa have gone for a victim based closer to home?

11. Sushi. "Let's do sushi; I owe you that." Apparently Jack and Ted have a history with sushi. I have absolutely no idea how common sushi restaurants are in the UK, but on the west coast of North America, you can pretty much throw a stick and hit one. (I know this because I moved last fall, and one of my first priorities in the new place was Find The Good Local Restaurants. Google was like OH, YOU WANT SUSHI?! HERE ARE TWENTY PLACES. Seriously, it's almost as common as pizza, at least in California.) I assume the boys aren't heading into a major urban center for food after their escape, so wherever Bloodstone Manor is, Jack thinks he can find a rural, exurban, or suburban sushi restaurant within a couple hours' travel (close enough that he can go, pick up their order, and make it back to Ted before raw fish goes funky). Sushi restaurants, at least in the western US, tend to be run by East Asian immigrants--part of the larger culture of immigrants starting restaurants within the first or second generation of arriving here. For stupid racist reasons, most East Asian immigration to the US took place after 1965, so there are a lot of sushi restaurants here that were established in or after the 1980s. Sushi restaurants also tend to be more common in coastal regions here, presumably because REALLY fresh ocean fish get more expensive and harder to acquire farther inland. Jack proposing sushi, if he and Ted are sitting on a log in the US, suggests they're somewhere near a coast, in a region with a sizable post-1965 East Asian immigrant population. (BTW, the reason I keep saying "East Asian" instead of "Japanese" is because a LOT of these restaurants in my area are run by Korean families, more rarely Chinese or Vietnamese ones. I've been in exactly one sushi restaurant here that was run by a Japanese family, and it was 40 years old.) Of course, I don't know shit about the takeout culture of the UK; maybe Yorkshire is full of sushi restaurants or something.

Conclusions.

Between the geography, the accents, the material culture, and the logistics, I think the balance of probability suggests that Bloodstone Manor is in North America, most likely the United States. There are multiple hilly or mountainous regions with pine forests near coasts, close enough to centers of East Asian immigration that the boys can reliably get their sushi.

So with all that in mind ...

[tinukis]

i may seem to lean in more towards romanticism of zolu but imma be real here

theyre a whole secret third thing to me like— idk how to explain it it other than their love and bond transcends what romance and platonic. yes i will draw them smooching and have hearts flying all around them but it is not exactly romantic/platonic... (i mean honestly i dont mind how ppl interpret zolu whether its my art or in general)

bc i saw this one comic that just... perfectly described zolu and the strawhats to me? it was about law catching zolu and then discussing with the other strawhats about it and they explained that luffy does in fact love everyone equally and the same. for luffy, romantic nor platonic is Not a thing to him. (this is how i view luffy's aroaceness !! love isnt a category for him. love isnt something he could just pick and choose or whatever. love is just... loving someone. love is for the people very dear to him.) and in the comic, the strawhats say that zoro's the one and only guy who could keep up with luffy's energy and antics. so they dont mind the things they do together in privacy or in front of them. they know how much luffy loves them ALL EQUALLY and they all love him back

on topic of zolu and aroace... i've been around spaces and talked to a few zolu shippers (qpr shipping count) and noticed how many of us are at least on the aro/ace spectrum. there's just Something about zolu's special relationship that attracts us, and if you ship them and are aro/ace, im certain you'd agree. (even if you arent, we can mutually agree that they are a third thing, right?) like, theres something so... aroace about their relationship. they can be seen as romantic and they can be seen as platonic, but what can be absolutely certain is that their relationship is definitely queer. bc it's not something you can easily describe or that their relationship is The Norm. theyre insane for each other. luffy's the sun. zoro's the moon. luffy's a good. zoro's the king of hell. they complete each other. they absolutely need each other.

my memory is horrible and i cant say the words properly but basically: zolu's love and relationships transcends romance and platonically. yes you can see it as either, but as an aroace, i Feel it is way beyond that.

and again, will repeat it a million times over (mind you, it's not canon. it's a widely accepted HEADCANON. if you think luffy's sexuality is something else, thats cool): i believe that luffy's aroaceness is way beyond "not interested in attraction/xyz/whatever" like yeah, he doesn't think about it because it doesnt matter much to him. he doesnt apply whats romantic or platonic to HIS relationships. he can recognize romantic, sexual, platonic things. it's just not his thing to really think hard about (he doesnt think much in the first place (affectionage)) he feels love for the people he cares about and if they feel loved by him, however he approaches the love (and if they accept that kind of form) thats all that matters to him. he doesnt label/categorize love because it makes no sense to Him to prioritize someone over the other just bc he loves that someone a different way. he loves everyone equally and treats them as equals.

and when it comes to Any luffy ships, calling his significant other "partner" is what fits best. theyre not just best friends, theyre partners.

this is a mess of a rant but this is just how i feel abt zolu, luffy, his ship pairs, and his aroace hc :]

[ipegchangbin]

You can't make people not read your blog or interact with it 🤷. Don't tell me you haven't read or interacted with nswf material while being under 18.

hi!

with good faith, im going to respond because its a conversation that needs to be had.

look, i cant stop you. realistically speaking, us authors cant always micromanage our blogs to keep minors away from our content or to verify if any of the ages on your bios are legit. its not like we can put a full stop to any of you from seeing our works. whether you yourself are a minor or not (you could be the one account i blocked or not), the fact of the matter is that you understand that i am posting adult-only content on a public platform. youre right to some extent — its inevitable to pass by.

but its entirely within your control to either check it or block it.

i wont go as far to encourage over-the-counter content policing especially since i am posting publicly out of my will — plus, who wants that? legally though, there are established real-life consequences that hurt both the adults and the minors in these situations once brought under the eyes of the law. a minor interacting and engaging at all with any sexually explicit content and conduct is illegal. not only can the adult author be charged, but the minor will also face rightful punishment for engaging especially if they initiated the interaction. yes, even if either of us are anonymous, this type of behavior can definitely be reported to authorities. it has legal ramifications regardless of where youre from in the world — on top of being generally immoral.

if youre considered mature for your age, props to you! but i hope you understand that with maturity also comes the realization that you shouldnt be here, and youve been warned many times before by me and many other adults. with maturity also comes responsibility, so i hope that you may be responsible enough to understand and respect our boundaries as well.

i know that im not your parent and i only have little authority: though with righteousness and the authority that i do have, i will still exercise what i can so that i may create a safe space for adults that want to stick around. this isnt just about you; sure, this is for your safety, but this is also for the safety of an environment of responsible adults who want to enjoy nsfw content with utmost respect and comfort.

thanks and good riddance. ^_^

[kookygranger]

WIP Docs Game

I had to google it to figure it out lol. Thank you @somnambulic-thing, you absolutely may! ✨

This was the first Eddie fic that I wrote way back when the boy first barreled into our lives (It was just for @storiesbyrhi to read). It was supposed to be a series featuring Henderson!reader, in which you volunteer to take (an alive) Eddie post-S4 as far away from Hawkins as possible while everything gets sorted out.

You barely know Eddie, but you've promised Dustin you'll look after him and you do so on a road trip that gets more intimate with each passing border. Each chapter was going to be based on a song from your road trip soundtrack.

You can just have the whole first draft if you want 🤷🏻‍♀️ I don't have plans to finish it though, I really lost steam immediately after the first chapter.

CHAPTER 1: THE KILLING MOON

“Are you sure?”

You threw your bag into the back of the beat-up compact car starting to get a little irritated by Eddie’s persistence. Looking over the roof of the car however, your irritation dissipated as you clocked the worried look in his dark brown eyes. This was a lot to ask of someone who’d only really known him for a couple of weeks. It would’ve been a lot to ask of someone he’d known his whole life.

“It would be a bit awkward going back now after saying a heartfelt goodbye to everyone, Munson.”

Eddie looked down, hands in his pockets, kicking the dirt around him.

“I promised Dustin I’d keep you safe, Eddie.” You stretched your arms across the roof of the car. “Besides, I’d rather be going on a road trip than going up against an evil Wizard in the underworld…or whatever.”

“I don’t think being on the run from the law counts as a road trip.” Eddie rested his elbows on the car opposite you, leaning his head on his closed fist.

“We’re not running Eddie.” He winced at that. “We’re just not letting those small-minded hicks win.” Eddie perked up, smirking. “Plus, I’ve got a shit tonne of snacks and some killer tapes to soundtrack our little cross-country trek. Now that to me, Eddie Munson,” you opened the door to the driver’s seat, “sounds like the start of an epic road trip.”

He liked how you’d always say his name when talking to him. Not in the same distain or hushed judgmental tone he was used to. Sometimes irritated, or worried, but mostly softly. It never failed to make his stomach flip.

You both settled into the car, buckling seat belts, Eddie’s leg bouncing like crazy as you adjusted the rear-view mirror.

“You think your brother’s jealous he doesn’t get to come?” Eddie chuckled trying to distract himself from fidgeting too much.

You looked over at him with a smile, one hand on the steering wheel as you turned the keys in the ignition. “I think he’d be kicking himself if he didn’t get to show off that big brain of his with a brilliant plan to save the world.” Eddie nodded, smiling. “Also, you’ve never been trapped in a small space with Dustin for an extended period of time. Trust me…it’s better this way.” He cackled at that as you pulled out of the trailer park.

This was it. No turning back now. You were officially on the run with a fugitive. Terrifying yes, but it was to keep Eddie safe…for Dustin, of course.

Eddie began rummaging through the tapes you’d brought. Curiosity written across his face, smiling to himself when he recognised names that surprised him, like The Ramones, Iggy Pop or The Smiths (actually that one he totally would’ve guessed).

You stared straight at the road, hands tight around the wheel. Trying to ignore the little voice in your head that was asking if you’d be doing the same thing for Steve.

“Echo & the Bunnymen?”

You looked over at Eddie, his eyebrow raised in confusion.

“What does that even mean?”

“Put it on and you’ll find out” you smiled.

***

You never really had a plan in place. You knew you needed to get as far away from Hawkins as possible, and that staying in one place for too long probably wasn’t a good idea. Going further South definitely wasn’t an option, even with Eddie in relatively plain clothes. He wouldn’t stand a chance with that hair.

You thought Chicago could be cool and Eddie agreed, so North-West you went.

For the first hour neither of you spoke much. You focussed on the road while Eddie picked out music, both of you too nervous to carry the conversation. As Eddie moved to put on another of your tapes, you spoke up.

“You can put on your own music you know.” You hadn’t exactly seen what Eddie had packed in his getaway bag, but you were sure he didn’t leave his beloved metal behind.

“I don’t think you’ll like my stuff,” Eddie shook his head.

“Maybe not. But I’ve never really tried listening to metal, and it’s only fair if we take in turns,” you shrugged.

Eddie bit his bottom lip, “Trust me sweetheart, if life were fair you wouldn’t be facing endless highways sat next to the town freak.” Eddies hands moved in the air theatrically as he talked, his rings catching the light and your attention from the corner of your eye. “You deserve pick of the tunes…you deserve much more.” Eddie mumbled the last bit, but you still caught it.

You sighed, “Fine. Then I pick the Dio album.”

Eddie smirked, “The Dio album?”

“Yeah,” you waved vaguely over at Eddie, “you know the one on the back of your jacket, which by the way Steve was totally reluctant to give back to you. I’m pretty sure his mum still picks out most of his clothes.”

Eddie snickered, “Well I’ve got all three, but this one’s my favourite.” He held up a tape decorated in a detailed scene of a demon like creature set against a sky not unlike that of Hawkins’ currently.

“Well pop her in.”

“Are you sure?”

“Teach me the way of the metal head, Munson.” you deadpanned. “We’ve come this far you may as well ruin me.”

Eddie’s mouth turned up in disbelief, staring at you for far too long before fumbling with the cassette and sliding it into the dashboard.

You were glad the light was starting to fade, hopefully the redness burning your cheeks wasn’t that noticeable. What the fuck was that? Ruin you?!!

You told Eddie you wanted him to explain every song and what it meant to him, so he did. Bouncing in his seat as his hands whipped around wildly. “Ooh ooh listen to this part, it’s so fucking good,” as he drummed on the dashboard. “Wait for iiit” hands shredding an imaginary guitar when the solo peaked. You laughed and nodded along, encouraging the theatrics, the initial awkward silence now long forgotten as you drove past forests thick with pine trees.

Darkness loomed, threatening to seep into the small car with thoughts of what you were both leaving behind and possibly even worse, what might be chasing you. But the laughter and music kept it from reaching its way in. To the outside world, you were just two friends on route to an unknown destination, car full of snacks and good music. For now, anyway.

[drinkthemlock]

under the cut is an “amor e medo” essay on álvares rant because it pisses me off but tldr: oh! years of untreated mental illness and looming inevitable death by consumption (on top of going through the ordeal of living in 19th century Brazil) took a toll on a young man’s abilities to relate to people? extremely shocking.

most ridiculous thing about that homophobic essay written about álvares saying that his writing was effeminate and “unvirile” and he was afraid of women and sex because he was “raised amongst skirts” is the fact that he absolutely was not raised amongst skirts. he deeply respected his mom and loved his sister greatly yes but he also went to all boys’ boarding schools, university, students’ lodgings, etc. basically navigating all-male spaces his entire life (despite the fact that spaces in Brazil at that time were not as gender segregated as we may think, esp. in Rio). like there’s literally zero evidence (that I know of) that he even had any female friends besides his sibling. also, to pathologize even the few relationships he had with the women he was related to is not only lame but feels really sexist at its core? like god forbid this sixteen year old boy be friends with his sister and trust his mother! he must secretly want to fuck them! and maybe, just maybe they played such a constant role in his writing because he… loved them? his elevation of his kinswomen with the purpose of tearing other women down and his possessiveness towards them is not necessarily evidence of oedipal inclinations, but of being misogynistic. which he definitely was. “oh, but there’s brother-sister incest in noite na taverna!” for god’s sake……. noite na taverna is the fucked-up-people-doing-fucked-up-things novel. the incest itself is not even romanticized! it’s rape! the sister kills her rapist later!

most of his writing is indeed about longing and love and unconsummated relationships but that’s because he’s a romantic poet. his style is unique in its execution, not in its themes. and not to play armchair therapist to a long dead teenager (but since the author of the essay already did), his personal letters reveal a difficulty in his relationships with people, full stop. women especially, yes, but just people in general as well. there are letters of his to Luís during his stay in São Paulo that are exactly about how he was unable to feel any closeness, how cold and unfeeling people thought he was and how that made him feel even more alone in the world. azevedo from rosaura (a book by one of álvares’ São Paulo friends that includes him and other law students as characters) is so bitter and cruel you would think that the author hated álvares. how can someone who loved his friends more than nearly everything in the world (he literally says as much in the “my dearest” letter to Luís, which I’ve translated here if you’d like to read it) feel such an all-consuming loneliness? because he’s depressed! here’s the crux of it: his poems are all about those things i’ve mentioned earlier because 1. he’s a romantic poet following the style of the time and 2. because he was The Saddest Boy in The Whole Wide World. that’s literally it.

[daystarsearcher]

Thanks for the tag @envexenveritas. Saved it for the weekend when I had a bit more time and brainspace:

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

88

2. What's your total AO3 word count?

481,422 (Damn, if I wrote this much on my original fic, I could have a second novel done by now)

3. What fandoms do you write for?

Currently, Doctor Who/Big Finish and Holby. In the past I've written for Star Trek: the Next Generation and Star Trek: Deep Space, and I went through an intense Law and Order: Criminal Intent period in college.

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

The World Has No Place In Our Bed: Doctor Who, Kate/Osgood. You all love a fake marriage fic!

So Then This Happened: Doctor Who, Kate/Osgood PWP. There are things I'd change about the writing in this, but I guess you all like it!

Empty Spaces: Star Trek: the Next Generation, I looked at the whole Lal situation and decided to make it worse. People love being sad about Data, and who am I not to oblige?

Ghosts in the Machine: Doctor Who, TARDIS POV. One of my earliest fics and I still love writing her POV.

I Know My Sister Like I Know My Own Mind: Doctor Who, Kate/Osgood with Bonnie as the wingman. This was a fun one to write that I still have a soft spot for but kind of surprised to see it crack the top 5!

I do think it's very interesting how this differs when compared to comments. There's definitely a bias toward fluff for kudos (even the sad Data story ends on a hopeful note), while I get more comments on angst. (And I tend to get the BEST and most detailed comments on my absolutely unhinged stuff.)

5. Do you respond to comments?

Yes! But I try to give it at least a week before I respond. If I respond to one right away, then I'll feel guilty for not responding to others right away, and then it starts to feel like a responsibility rather than a fun interchange of ideas and gratitude, and I don't want it to feel like that! Anyway, that's more info than you needed about my OCD but that is why I take awhile to respond. I do adore comments and often reread them when I am feeling down.

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

Hmmm, I have been trending towards endings with a tinge of hope, so even though Two Birds in A Cage may be my darkest fic overall, I don't think it wins this. In my Osgood Must Suffer verse, Nor Yet Favor to Women of Skill ends in a really dark place with Osgood totally brainwashed, yet the sequel It's True the Girl They Speak of Died sees her reaching for recovery. Similarly, in the Modern U.N.I.T Infernoverse, The Pieces That Get Sacrificed ends on a dark note, but Chess sees the promise of working towards a better self.

I think we have to reach back to some of my earlier, more edgelordy work, like Snuggle for LO:CI, which is just an autopsy of the two main characters, or Goodbye to Ugly Words and Yesterday and Everyone You Knew and Were, which sees Odo losing every bit of his hard-fought individuality and identity. Oh, or Vermin in the Lower Zoo, my AU of an evil First Doctor, that's a pretty dark ending.

Oh, wait, no Plaything, my AU of Pyramids of Sutekh where I slowly strip away everything the Fourth Doctor loves. Oh wait, no, final answer: Careful the Wish You Make: Wishes Are Children, in which I do the same thing to Sarah Jane, but worse.

7. What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

Hmm, what makes an ending happier, the overall level of happiness or the contrast to the sadness or pain earlier in the story? I think this question is going for the former, so I'll say either Come to Me Softly, Come to Me Sweetly or The Completely True and Canon Story of Oswin Oswald Seduced Jo Grant, or Jo Seduced Her, or Something.

(Or if you want *waggles eyebrows* happy endings, maybe Respectful Discourse on Power Dynamics in the Workplace?)

8. Do you get hate on fics?

Not really! I feel like I've maybe got one or two mean comments on a fic on FF.Net over the years, but nothing memorable. Edit: oh, I remember! One person got sooooo mad at my characterization of Goren and Eames in Give and Take. Sorry, buddy, people are going to have different opinions about characters than you and write porn about it!

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

Fuck yes I write smut. It's one of the great joys of my life. I write predominantly F/F these days, though I've written quite a bit of of F/M, and a sprinkling of threesomes. I've made liberal use of the BDSM tag, and I like things that play with power dynamics and trust.

10. Do you write crossovers? What’s the craziest one you’ve written?

A few! One of my first fics was a cracky crossover, The Good Ship [Name of Ship]. I also did a LO:CI/X-Files crossover so Eames and Scully could have sex. It's not my favorite genre, but I'll do it for humor and/or smut.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not to my knowledge!

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Not that I'm aware of, but it would be a great honor!

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

Not really, but The Good Ship [Name of Ship] was written with the input of my best friend from high school, and she (with her fanfic author name) and some of her favorite characters do star in it. This is an important developmental stage for teen fic authors and I refuse to be embarrassed about it.

14. What’s your all time favourite ship?

Impossible to choose. But have this handy summation:

Picard/Crusher, Odo/Kira, The Doctor/Sarah Jane, Bernie Wolfe/Serena Campbell: these ships changed me as a person and filled my heart to overflowing with yearning, making me believe in love across time and space and alternate universes

Kate Stewart/Osgood: I want the older authoritative one to top the shy nerdy one. A lot.

15. What’s a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

I am fully committed to eventually finishing every WIP. That said, it has been over a decade since I updated Loyalty's Price and that one has some intense worldbuilding that I would have to recall or rebuild from scratch, so uh, don't hold your breath for any updates soon.

16. What are your writing strengths?

I feel good about my ability to replicate character voice and to situate emotions in the body as physical sensations.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

My god, the amount of times characters speak hesitantly, as if their words are testing a fragile sheet of ice, or touch each other carefully, as if the other is wet paper that might tear, or a dozen other metaphors that my brain has just decided to go to constantly. You absolutely see this with published authors all the time so I don't feel bad about it, though, just amused at my dramatic-ass self.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic?

Not something that's come up a lot for me, but I would treat it the same as using another language in original work--seek out a real human to proofread, offer something in exchange for their time.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

My first fic was a Star Trek: Nemesis fix-it fic written in a spiral notebook in high school.

20. Favourite fic you’ve written?

This changes all the time depending on what mood I'm in, but right now I quite like Chess.

Tagging @ktlsyrtis and @bonnissance if you're up for it!

[aeoki]

SHINSEKAI - Empire of Fantasy: Chapter 6

Location: SHINSEKAI Control Room Characters: Shuu, Sora, Natsume & Tsumugi

TL Note:

This refers to the third of Clarke’s three laws but Natsume omits the latter part of the adage (“...technology is indistinguishable from magic.”).

The full idiom Tsumugi means to say is “You can learn, without realising it, from what is around you.”

< Reality. The “SHINSEKAI” Control Room, somewhere in the Tohoku region. >

Tsumugi: Alright. Good, “SSVRS” appears to be working smoothly.

Sora: HaHa~♪ The power of science is amazing!

Natsume: YeAH, it’s the very definition of the adage “any sufficiently advanced technology[1] and whatnot”.

We were the providers of the groundwork for the VR technoloGY but we left its development to a company at the top of the industRY…

To be honest, even I don’t know how “SSVRS” worKS.

Tsumugi: It’s best to not let the people inside “SHINSEKAI” – the players – know that. It would only make them anxious if they found out.

Natsume: Of courSE. Still, even the people living in this reality only have a vague idea as to how it worKS.

What lies at the end of the universe, the depths of the ocean or at the core of the EarTH? We can make inferences but no one has been able to confirm what they really are up close with the five sensES ♪

All they’ve done is place a few dots down and connected that space with their imagination in an attempt to understand iT.

Tsumugi: It’s an ability unique to the human brain. But even so, filling in the spaces between those dots in whichever way suits them best is exactly why it’s easy for humans to get caught up in conspiracies.

Natsume: I’m sure that’s how “fine” made use of the human psyche and gained hegemony during the wAR. They spread a fantasy story where everything worked out for them and made everyone believe it was reAL.

Between the two dots that were labelled “We are unhappy” and “There are outstanding idols called the Five Oddballs who exiST”...

They filled in the space between those two dots with “We’re at a disadvantage because of thEM”.

That didn’t exist at all, in realiTY.

Tsumugi: Well, it wasn’t a complete lie, you know? Humans aren’t that foolish so they wouldn’t believe nonsense like that.

But it was true that all sorts of work landed naturally in the lap of the talented “Five Oddballs” and the academy also labelled and acknowledged them as superior idols.

It may have just been the result of a competition based on pure skill, but we made everyone believe that it was with ill intentions and unfairness.

We, the good-natured people, were being made to drink muddy water all because someone was plotting something sinister…

People won’t doubt something anymore if they’ve already connected the dots and believed it. If you’ve already come to a conclusion in your head, it’s quite difficult for you to acknowledge that it’s wrong if someone said it was.

All that’s left is to gather evidence that will support that conclusion, even though it’s nothing short of a delusion, and a conspiracy theorist is born just like that.

The only thing I’ve chanted is “There, there”...♪

Natsume: That truly is the absolute worST. Where did all of you learn how to control the human psyche like thAT, Senpai?

Tsumugi: It seems Eichi-kun learnt kingcraft, management studies and philosophy normally at home. My parents are, you know… so one can learn without realising it[2] or so it goes.

Natsume: Ahh, you’ve experienced being deceived by a family member before, so you had the chance to observe that up close, didn’t yOU, Senpai?

Tsumugi: Yes. I think I learnt it by thinking back on it afterwards and realising… Oh, this is how fraud works.

I’ve always been slow on the uptake~

Sora: …………

Tsumugi: Oh, we ended up talking between ourselves again. Such a bad habit.

Natsume: It was a revolting topic as weLL. Sorry about that, Sora, you must have been borED.

Sora: No, Sora’s fine! It was decided that “SS” would be centred around you this time, right, Master~?

That’s why Sora will help out and not get in Master’s way~♪

Natsume: You’re not in the way at aaaaLL! Why would you say thatttTT!?

Sora: Mmph!? Master~ Sora won’t be able to breathe if Master~ hugs Sora so tightly~ It feels like Sora is in outer space!

Tsumugi: Ahaha. Natsume-kun has been a bit crazy when it comes to Sora-kun lately.

Natsume: Am I not allowed to do thAT!? Love drives people craZY!

Sora: Mmph… *Twitches from lack of oxygen*

Tsumugi: *Nonchalantly helps Sora out* Most of our idol activities recently were centred around Sora-kun, though.

I wonder if going back to where we started would be the right phrase to describe it.

Natsume: YeAH, the way you phrase things is awful as alwaYS. That’s why people misunderstand yOU.

← Previous Chapter ᠂ ⚘ ˚⊹˚ ⚘ ᠂  Next Chapter →

[granulesofsand]

Hi, thank you for taking the time to read my question. This relates to your most recent post about institutional abuse - I will try to be as vague as possible, and you do not have to answer this or read this if you're not up for it.

TW: institutional abuse, organized abuse mention

At the end of the post, you said "institutional abuse is organized abuse." Is this a point you're willing to clarify? I mean this in the best faith possible - I underwent institutional abuse, and am seeking clarity on my experiences. It's perfectly ok if you're not up for answering this, and I don't expect you to be able to tell me what was abusive about my experience - hence, keeping it vague. Thank you for your time.

Sure! This is about abuse, and it is heavy. It’s okay if you can’t or don’t want to read through it. You can come back or leave it entirely, and we will understand however you proceed.

(We’re staying up for an event, forgive the lack of coherency)

While one perpetrator can prey upon a victim in an institution, institutional abuse implies the structure and dynamics forming the institution are inherently involved in the abuse. Even if an incident has only one active abuser, there are others who become perpetrators by allowing the abuse (explicitly or implicitly).

The details of the incident may not have the apparent extent of RAMCOA, but it is still organized abuse by definition. It’s up to the survivors whether to pursue the connection, and smaller communities can form within a larger umbrella.

Perpetrators can involve themselves by ignoring obvious signs of abuse (including if they aren’t trained, because it is a structural problem when laypeople are unaware and a dynamic one when authorities are unaware), making rules that permit abuse (even if they don’t understand exactly what they’re permitting, because that is both structural and dynamic), or by creating difficulty in obtaining evidence or pursuing justice (yes, police and office workers and security teams and other staff and the general culture of the institution and its enforcers, because external and internal affairs include people, dynamics, structures).

In an overt case of OA, a trafficking ring may include a child or several, their links to the ring, and their customers. Caregivers, torturers, and handlers are common features, as are connections in law enforcement, healthcare, or law.

In a covert case, a school may include a student or several, the initial contacts, and those who allow it to continue. Caregivers may have the same negligence if unrelated, those higher in year or position may become torturers, and the orchestrater may similarly be the initial perpetrator. Connections include law enforcement, security, and policy-makers.

It’s entirely possible for what was rampant bullying and an incident of SA to evolve into a trafficking ring or gangs. Use of ABA can quickly begin to include Torture-Based Mind Control. Those things, all RAMCOA, may already be in play and influencing the institution.

A smaller scale or lack of blaring tells doesn’t mean there is no OA. For the abusive instance to become institutional, it already has some level of organization. The definitions of each type of RAMCOA are simple, and there are survivors who fall somewhere along those lines without considering their trauma to have the trademark cruel and creativity.

We appreciate having the gradient known as it keeps us from facing the disbelief and fear that pervades the topic. There are people who understand us who have not seen our flavor of Horrors, and it’s good to have the variety.

It should be up to the survivors which aspects of their experience fit into the community as it is and whether they want to forge a space that does include those pieces. No community should remain stagnant for too long anyway, it leads to the same conditions unhealthy groups start with.

I’m not saying you’re well suited to every conversation, but I’ve yet to meet anyone/many who is. You can decide how to identify and where to speak up, and you are the best judge of your experience.