#at this point it's just a paranoia thing

[see-arcane]

Harker Horrors

The Vampyres

Something is culling the dead.

Whether they imbibe blood, leech life, or merely traded mortality away to their devil of choice, the revenants of the world are disappearing. A phenomenon that has been carving its way through the undead like a belated necrosis moving steadily through the past century and more. One which the Vampyre, a possessor of many names and collector of many lives, has been fretting over for some time.

A laughable fear, for he is one of those canny cadaverous few who made a deal for perpetual resurrection. The bitten may crumble, but the bargainer may rise from death after death. So he reminds himself. So he worries is no longer the case.

Not when the old boyar in the Carpathians was one of the first to vanish. Still, the monster from the mountains may simply be in hiding, just as the rest must be. The Vampyre himself is surely jumping at shadows. So he convinces himself for a single night…

…before a Thing known only as ‘Quinn Morse’ makes itself and its work known.

Surprise! I accidentally finished a novella during what was supposed to be a short story break. Whoops. Updates to come.

Link to Tumblr post (and Google Doc link within) is here.

If you’d like to drop some change in my virtual tip jar, my Ko-fi is here.

Assorted other Horrors are below the cut to save you from an overlong post:

Barking Harker

The climax in Transylvania takes a perilous turn. The surreal shifts in Jonathan Harker’s person are revealed as only the beginning of a far stranger metamorphosis. The promise of Mina Harker’s life becomes the crux of an unthinkable bargain. The dead travel fast, but are far from the only roaming children of the night—and far from the only threat. The past is exhumed, the present brims with monsters new and old, and the future yawns open like the swinging lid of a coffin as plans further, deeper, and far more nightmarish than Dracula’s English holiday come to light…

Link to teaser section here.

Penclosa

It’s been almost a year since Jonathan Harker made that fateful first trip to Transylvania. The monster that imprisoned him, that threatened his love, that died in a box of earth by two blades, has been gone for months. Yet Jonathan’s nightmares have never left. In fact, as the bleak anniversary nears, they have worsened. Van Helsing’s mesmerism has made no progress in freeing him from the nightly horror. But he has come from Amsterdam for a potentially fruitful visit to another professor. Prof. Wilson is playing host to a mesmerist of singular and uncanny power, Miss Helen Penclosa. On meeting the troubled young man and his wife, she is only too happy to help…

Link to teaser section here.

[theology101]

The Brotherhood of Steel don't commit Genocide

Their goal is to protect humanity - not including Ghouls - from Dangerous Technology (Laser weapons, FEV, Replication tech) and try to destroy the fruits of that danger.

But they're not the Enclave. They're not out here trying to make a Human Ethnostate.

As a rule, they've given it a go once or twice but, typically, they're not genocidal. Does the Brotherhood of Steel dislike Ghouls and Super Mutants? Absolutely. Did the West Coast chapter care that the NCR allowed both to be citizens? No, they didn't. Because they weren't a danger to Humanity as individuals.

Why haven't they wiped out Goodneighbor in Fallout 4? Or hell, why doesn't MacCready (who isn't the BOS biggest fan) bring up Underworld or any Brotherhood activity there? No, he doesn't - so its safe to assume that they weren't wiped out.

In Fallout 4, the fight is against Synths the same way it was about Super Mutants in Fallout og - the Synth is just the dangerous byproduct of the Brotherhood's actual target, the Insitute. Just like how the Brotherhood wasn't out to kill all Super Mutants, but the Super Mutants who served the master and threatened Mankind.

From Maxson's perspective (wrong as it may be), he thinks that Synths represent a danger to mankind for two reasons:

They have the ability to near perfectly infiltrate any organization with sleeper cells that can be activated at a moment

Synths might one day decide that they don't need Humans anymore, and instead of trying to run away from the Insitute they'll take over and mass produce

Both of these are nightmare scenarios for the Brotherhood. But the second the Institute is gone, so are both of those points. There will be no more infiltrating (except for DiMa's shenanigans) and the ability to make new Synths has exploded. And, actually, so too did the way to make new Super Mutants so once the current batch is gone there won't be anymore.

Arthur Maxson's work here is done. Now he'll just set up a new local chapter (he has the ego to just unilaterally make one, or he could have made contact with the West Coast and got permission) in Boston. The Brotherhood doesn't want to be the local government, so they'll let the Minutemen do that but they'd mostly just be here to vibe.

Shit, they can't even do anything about the Synths. Not even a deep brain scan will reveal if there is a Synth component, and its impractical to do mass-brain surgery. The Brotherhood pretty much has to wipe their hands and go "we did good gang"

So sorry Thaddeus, no we will not be "killing all the ghouls" because, to be completely honest, there are more important uses of the Brotherhood's time and micro-fusion cells.

[cluescorner]

Arlecchino's whole deal is unbelievable

Arlecchino: Huh I wonder what's causing my weird powers? I can't really worry about that right now tho, I've gotta become King and then kill my "Mother".

*Kills Clervie and "Mother"*

Arlecchino: Huh I wonder why I was able to defeat a Fatui Harbinger when I'm like 17 or so? I can't really worry about that right now tho, I've gotta be in jail and become a Harbinger.

*Is in jail for a while and becomes a Harbinger*

Arlecchino: Huh I wonder why I am-

Pierro: Hey what's up hello, anyways you're descended from the Crimson Moon Dynasty of Khaenri'ah. I'm sure that this is a lot for you to take in so-

Arlecchino: Ok.

Pierro: ...You're just cool with that?

Arlecchino: IDK maybe? I can't really worry about that at the moment, I'm a father now. This orphanage full of children I love (who also are child soldiers and are not allowed to leave or else I'll execute them except maybe now I'm just gonna wipe their memories IDK I'm morally complex) isn't gonna run itself.

*Runs the orphanage/spy recruitment initiative*

Me, the fucking player: WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU ARE KHAENRI'AN? WHY WASN'T THIS BROUGHT UP IN YOUR FUCKING QUEST?? OR ANYTHING ELSE????

Arlecchino, talking to me through my phone: I honestly don't know why you care, I'm too busy to give a shit. Anyways, I'm gonna go fight fate itself I guess. I'm sure that I don't share any thematic parallels with any other Khaenri'an characters (particularly as it relates to acting and family angst) and that I haven't made the idea of 'curses' on Khaenri'ans and what they entail even more complicated than they already were. See ya.

[lifenconcepts]

hiiiiiii friendly reminder to not go knocking on strangers doors and running away :)) or just doing that at all :) some of us have sheer paranoia that can render us stressed for time long after the action is done :) because you don’t experience consequences doesn’t mean you’re free to go around doing this like a fucking asshole. :). I know most people who’d listen to this don’t go around doing it but I hope that at least one person reconsiders doing this just to look cool in front of their friends. You don’t seem awesome, you just make it clear your an uncaring asshole and nobody will come to you. I hope karma does its thing. :)

[holland-vosijk-antari]

I've been thinking about how white london probably has different kinds of physical affection to red and grey, I can't imagine hugging being common among people who are casual friends like it is in a lot of places here (I'm talking from the pov of someone from an area not too far away from real london so i get that this isnt the case everywhere lol) hugging requires a certain trust that the person you are hugging is doing anything nefarious with their hands - like stabbing you in the back for instance... so i like to think that in white london where trust is about as thin on the ground as magic, hugging is a massive declaration of trust in which you may as well tell the other you love them.

on an additional note it makes me wonder about what affections would be commonplace, would a kiss on the cheek be a more common greeting to someone you care for? would people give a short bow as a greeting towards an acquaintance? (both things very common in many places in this world too so not exactly strange?) or are people simply all-or-nothing with their affections, giving all their affection to one or two people who have their absolute trust and not showing any at all otherwise?

when it comes to greeting a stranger i was taught in my martial arts classes to introduce myself with both hands visible and to shake hands with both of my hands as a sign of respect within the culture so i wonder if that kind of action would be common in makt - dont hide your hands when trying to gain someones trust or they will think you are hiding something...

[sweetest-honeybee]

was cleaning my fridge when I randomly thought "a clean home is a happy home" and now I'm thinkin how infuriated Home would be if he gets dirty or to add even more fuel to the already blazing fire, how much of a clean freak Grey Au!Wally would be to keep Home happy

Ohh! A clean home is definitely a happy home! I’m seeing this more like Home being such a clean freak haha!

[perfectly-clear-from-here]

if life was perfect there would be a tranquility base hotel + casino film. send post.

[seaweedstarshine]

RIP Krakoa 🌹 I can’t lie I’ve been kinda behind since midway through Fall of X I’m gonna catch up before my first SDCC this summer but I hear Vulcan didn’t see much action anyway. Anyway my hand slipped and I found myself looking into the eyes of my canonically psychotic son the best Summers brother who’s never done anything wrong in his entire life, (he’s done lotsa wrong things but I love him more for it)

[thebigqueer]

literally having the worst day ever and i cant ever be happy (has only experienced minor inconveniences today but they keep adding up)

[ectonurites]

SUPER DARK TIMES (2017) DIR KEVIN PHILLIPS

[mwagneto]

unfortunately for everyone involved im hitting the exact right combination of summer melancholy + extreme mental illness spiral + late july/august + insomnia that makes me rewatch shadowhunters. sorry in advance

[minwilder]

show tempe gang crossover with the morris islanders would actually have been the best episode of bones ever. btw

[kittykatninja321]

Speaking as a personal autonomy enjoyer I hate the way the fanon conception of “lazerus pit rage” not only treats Jason’s actions as not his own but also his feelings as not his own. To me personally even if there was no evil green Jacuzzi and no Talia, the question of “why is that clown not a funny ass corpse” would still come up and there’d still be some hard feelings about Tim. Just probably with less killing and maiming

[littleseasalt]

this is just a quick comment I wanna make, but forever didn't suddenly woke up one day and decided he wanted to dig a hole around his base- the hole around the base had been planned for a while, it's in the concept art richas made of the base and when he showed his base to philza he mentioned he would dig out around the base. so what I'm saying is that when you talk about this action of his you shouldn't bring up the hole itself that much, but much rather the timing and how he acted about digging the hole!

[emometalhead]

I've been having like low level paranoia since yesterday evening, and now I just can't shake the feeling that something drastically awful has happened.

[brittlebutch]

fragment of a partially written “what if Evan went through with the magic-exorcism and had his memory of Gowpenny erased?” fic -- specifically a scene in which Jammer/K/Sam track him down to some middle-of-nowhere rest stop in order to meet him again