#but I think it's fun to have fictional people just be a little terrible sometimes >:3

[lieutenantselnia]

The voices of my f/os are often quite important for me and I feel with Firmus it's no different ... First of all, I genuinely adore how softspoken he talks. Even though he rises to a righ rank, he's not boasting about like some other officers have the tendency to do, but is speaking rather calm and measured, almost quiet sometimes (I literally have to turn the volume up and down all the time in some of his scenes, because I want to hear him properly but the other characters seem too loud in comparison then). He's still able to raise his voice when needed, and will do so if he has to give an urgent order that must be followed immediately, but I think it's just not in his nature to do it without reason. As someone rather quiet myself, I really love that about him.

Another thing, of course, is the accent. As a non-native speaker I'm not proficient enough to determine what specific accent he has, but I love how that rolled R slips through occasionally. Not nearly as strong or frequently as for example Grand Moff Tarkin uses it*, it's more like a pleasant surprise that pops up every now and then. I believe it's called received pronunciation (any British people here who can help me out?), and I personally just find it wonderful to listen to.

*Say what you will about the character but his accent absolutely slaps, I'd totally listen to an audiobook read by him. Generally so many of the Imperial officers have such nice voices to listen to, because they casted mostly British actors for them and due to Star Wars being already an older movie, many of them were using that kind of accent that was more common at the time than it is today. In my humble opinion they should bring that back especially for villains >:)

[buttered-milky]

How maglor gets treated in fandom is so interesting to me because like? I feel like it just…it exactly what the canon narrative wants from you? This is not articulated well let me try to do that better—

Maglor generally gets treated as the softest of the sons, and I don’t blame people for this. We see comparatively little of his Atrocities tm than we do of some others, and we also see comparatively More of his personality than some of the others. Like. Caranthir and Amburussar have maybe the same level of atrocity description in my mind, but also. Let’s be so real. They do very fucking little besides kinslay and get killed—which is something we already know about all the others. They aren’t given much extra spice to their personality. (I’m talking about in the published Silm here bc tho I know many of us have read other extra shit also a lot of us haven’t!)

We get a lot of time with Maglor and we actually get to see him be remorseful towards the end. He tries to save Elrond and Elros, fucked up as that situation is, and he tries to convince Maedhros to just surrender.

Also, he doesn’t die nearly as violently as the others.

Maglor is in this odd space of still being very much A Fëanorian and also having some interesting sense of morals and (at risk of this sounding weird, but idk how else to put it) an artist’s soul. What do see of him feels markedly less dangerous that what we see of the rest of his family.

And that’s interesting! The narrative has painted Maglor as a little less dangerous and a little more sensitive than the rest of his family, and it has painted him nicely, and we know from having read the fucking book that that is probably not fair. He has killed so many people.

He has killed so many, but he has good PR. I actually kind of love that the fandom is not immune to the PR because shit like this happens in real life. I love when we can all learn a little lesson from a fictional guy. People in real life have great PR and commit great atrocities all the time. Also people in real life make wonderful art and then are terrible people in the rest of life.

Sometimes I see people say we should treat Maglor different and maybe not as soft but I disagree. Getting this take on him is on purpose I think. The text is trying for that. Because this is a real thing—crafting yourself an image which is better than you actually are is a real thing.

Whatever if he’s some weird sensitive goth. Do you know how many weird sensitive goths turn out to be horrible fucking people? Maglor I love you just as much as the next guy but if I saw you in the goth scene irl we would be fighting. This is the guy people are talking about when they say “keep your scene clean.”

Maglor should probably be treated as harshly as his siblings but also I’m okay that he isn’t. I actually prefer it this way because it can be a good lesson in the difference between someone’s image and who they are.

Tldr; it’s actually a little funny that the fandom treats maglor the way they do and i hope it never stops. Play into his pr it’s fun. And a good life lesson

[queer-ragnelle]

hello..👋👋

as someone who wants to get into arthurian legends.. where do you think I should start? is there a precise canon to follow? oh and.. this might be a stupid question but.. how would you describe guinevere's and lancelot's relationship...? i personally really like them because of what I've heard online, but i got shamed for liking it a while ago from people who really hated guinevere and said gawain or galehaut(not sure if i spelled it right) would be better for lancelot..

Hello anon!

I have a Beginner’s Guide to Medieval Arthuriana pinned on my blog. There’s no precise canon to follow, but you’ll get the most bang for your buck reading the works of Chrétien de Troyes and the Vulgate Cycle. Much of what Chrétien developed ended up in the Vulgate, like Lancelot rescuing Guinevere from kidnapping, but there are more elements added from other stories, such as Lancelot’s upbringing in the lake which originated from Lanzelet by Ulrich von Zatzikoven. On the other hand, Yvain’s journey as Knight with the Lion doesn’t make it into the Vulgate, so that’s worth reading on its own.

Regarding the part about people shaming you: block them if you haven’t already and anyone else who does so in future. I’m terribly sorry those people were unwelcoming as you begin to read and learn about Arthurian Legend. Let that not reflect on the community as a whole—there’s many lovely people here that’ll be happy to help you along. I hope you’re able to cultivate a positive online experience to the best of your ability and start enjoying the legends with us! :^D

But back to the fun stuff—I also really like Guinevere/Lancelot! My favorite dynamic is when Arthur is included too, but Guin is my number one pick for Lancey. ;^) It’s hard to describe them in so few words but I think it’s important to establish that they’re friends. This is an oft overlooked aspect that really deserves attention. They care for each other deeply. She helps him out of his madness and he helps her out of danger. This is something Arthur couldn’t do for either of them, much as he wanted to. That’s what makes the pair special, to me.

As for shipping wars about medieval characters….kinda ridiculous! And shaming other people over it is just abhorrent. I’m sorry you had to deal with that! Personally I enjoy Arthur/Guinevere/Lancelot and Galehaut/Lancelot. I think it’s obvious I favor Gawain with his wife Ragnelle lol but Gawain/Lancelot is fine too. Gawain can have a little Lancelot. As a treat. I even enjoy “crackship” type pairings, like Bedivere/Lancelot or Kay/Lancelot or maybe a little [unrequited] Agravaine/Lancelot, and if the author or filmmaker chooses to write her in a positive light, Elaine/Lancelot as well. But that’s just it—there’s certainly no such thing as a “better” person(s) to couple with Lancelot. It’s literally fake. It’s fiction. It’s for fun! Doesn’t sound like the people you’ve encountered were having very much fun and put that on you, which was wrong.

Here I’d like to mention I run a discord server called the Arthurian Theater Server. Every weekend I stream TV shows and movies, mostly Arthurian, sometimes random fantasy. But it’s more than visual media—my friends and I share resources, character playlists, art we made, stories we wrote, we’ll liveblog retellings or newly discovered medlit translations, and discuss anything else Arthurian! We have custom made emojis for all the knights and ladies, a variety of original art stickers of the characters provided by several members, and an array of sounds bites ripped from films and TV for the soundboard to be played while streaming. Tumblr can be a little hard to navigate with the unreliable tag system, so this server is dedicated to an organized and moderated exchange of ideas and content. You’re welcome to join us!

Let me know if you have any other questions, it’s never a bother. Take care!

[strawberryraviegutz]

I really REALLY hate those kinds of stupid “hot take” posts. I think they’re just garbage to purposely farm more discourse to cause infighting, but I’ve been holding this in for so long and I need to get it out of my system so here it goes.

Alastor fans are allowed to dislike Valentino. Valentino was made to be a dislikable Villain while Alastor BY VIV’S OWN WORDS is a chaotic neutral antihero based off of Dexter with a moral code. Of course people are gonna like Alastor more than Valentino. The antihero/vigilante is a very popular beloved trope. I mean just look at Magneto and Venom.

You guys claim to want more nuanced characters but when we try and tell you that Alastor is more nuanced BASED OFF OF EVIDENCE FROM THE CREATOR and little possible context clues in the show we get accused of “babying/woobifying him”(as if Val fans haven’t done that to Val). This isn’t a hit piece against all Val fans/simps btw. I may hate that moth, but you guys should be allowed like him without receiving hate and or death threats.

It’s not “hypocrisy” to dislike Valentino or the Vees and like Alastor for the reasons I said above and the four of them aren’t comparable. Yeah they share some traits but overall the only thing Alastor and the Vees have in common are the mistreatment of the souls they own. Like I said, Val fans shouldn’t be attacked for liking him but the thing is…if you’re gonna preach those words then do the same for Alastor fans/simps because we get attacked too.

(Again it’s not all Val stans but it sure it a lot of them. I’ve all so seen Val haters do it too.) Yall claim not to harass people over fictional characters yet will go under Alastor posts and or discussion threads and be like “Uhm actually him and Valentino are the same🤓☝️”.

“He’s worse than Val” “Why can’t we just have a good villain” “Just accept that Alastor is a villain stop babying him” when we’re just minding our own business. Not to mention people going under fanart of Angel! Alastor and being like “erm actually he’d never go to heaven🤪”.

Along with yall bullying the hell out of Alastor selfshippers/simps and using tumblr sexyman as an insult(which reaks of internalized misogyny btw because majority of Alastor simps are women + women are always the first to be made fun of when it comes to characters that Classify as tumblr sexymen being found attractive by them or any character you personally wouldn’t find attractive.)

And yall going around and keep calling Alastor ugly under posts about people gushing about him and i don’t mean lighthearted jokes either because i make fun of the back of his head sometimes too. And full blown harassment. When an Alastor fan provided evidence of Alastor being a more nuanced character which were clips from Viv’s streams, people in the comments and qrts were being extremely rude and dismissive. It got so bad that op deleted the og tweet.

Don’t go around and claim to be against cringe culture but then make fun of people for finding Alastor attractive. And for goodness sake STOP FUCKING CALLING HIM A SLAVE OWNER. And yes he owns souls but that doesn’t matter.

Alastor is canonically half black and its overall disgusting to slap the label “slave owner” onto him knowing damn well that he grew up in the Jim Crow era of America in the Deep South of Louisiana. His existence as a mixed black person back then was basically considered an abomination. With how terrible it was for black people back then, Alastor probably bore witness to a lot of messed up shit growing up and if that’s the case then it’s no wonder he’s so messed up in the head.

This type of behavior has been going on since the days where we only had the pilot and it’s only gotten worse since the show came out. As soon as I saw that scene with husk and Alastor in hell’s greatest dad I automatically knew what was coming. I’m not saying that Alastor Is a good person nor am I saying that what he did to husk was ok. But to go after/make fun of Alastor fans,purposely denying evidence of his character while in the same breath preach against bullying people over liking certain characters makes YOU the hypocrites. So much for anti-harassment. I’m tired. Bye.

[tyrantisterror]

My Personal History with My Good Friend, Satan

My first encounter with The Devil - that I can remember, at least - came when I was about three or so. My mom liked to borrow VHS tapes from libraries to show me and my siblings a lot, and one of the libraries she used was the one at our church. It was a small and obviously very religion-centric collection, but it left a notable mark on me - like, that's where I saw this weird, kinda shitty cartoon version of The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe which might be responsible for irreconcilably fucking up my taste in women? I just have this distinct memory of watching the scene where Edmund is tempted by the White Witch and thinking, "Yeah, he's making the right call." If anything I was frustrated that he hesitated - three year old me was already simping for this woman. Just imagine a child channeling Ernie Hudson in Ghostbusters and growling, "When a terrifying and beautiful woman offers you candy and a private sleigh ride, you say YES!" and that's basically me as a kid.

Where was I? Right, Satan. So, the other video from that library I remember was this cartoon retelling of Bible stories, and really I just remember the Adam and Eve part. The temptation scene had this huge, super gnarly-looking demonic red snake in it, and he was so cool and badass and I was already predisposed to like snakes anyway, so of course he was my instant favorite. But, like almost all media featuring reptiles that captured my little child heart, he turned out to be the bad guy - literally The Devil, in this case - and was punished at the end of the story. And that pissed me off.

Sometime shortly thereafter - or at least that's how I remember it, this was over thirty years ago so things might be smushed closer together than they really were by the fog of ages - some of the kids in my preschool chastised me for liking snakes. "Don't you know the devil is a snake? Snakes are evil!" I remembered the movie, and it made me angry.

Because snakes aren't evil, and as a kid I knew that because my parents taught me it. Snakes were just animals, they don't know right from wrong, and to call them evil it to judge them for what they are, not what they do. That experience taught me a very important lesson: The Devil is a tool to make people hate the innocent. And as I'd later learn, snakes were far from the only innocents people would vilify because of a demonic association.

The second time I met the devil came a few years later, when I was six or seven or so. My Grampa and Grams liked to take us up North to Mackinac City and the Upper Peninsula each summer, and I have a lot of fond memories of those trips, but there was one in particular that's relevant to this discussion. We saw a sign for a "laser light show" in the shopping district, and I got to stay up late to see it with my family. The show in question was basically a cartoon projected into the night sky adapting the song The Devil Went Down to Georgia. It was super primitive and hokey and cornball and terrible and I loved every second of it. I was enchanted, absolutely delighted with the spectacle and the silly song where the devil was less a force of evil and more a comically bumbling inept supervillain - one of my favorite archetypes, even back then. So that's the second lesson about the devil I learned: The Devil can be fun sometimes.

Now, Godzilla, one of the few reptile characters I encountered as a kid who didn't end up a villain (at least not in the first movie of his I saw, Godzilla vs. Megalon), had already set me on the path to loving monsters of all stripes and, by extension, horror fiction in general, so as I grew up I had many more encounters with the devil. But while I warmed up quickly to most monster archetypes, like vampires, zombies, werewolves, etc., I always felt dismissive of demons. It kind of coincided with me becoming disillusioned with Christianity as a whole, in fact. A story about fighting evil, Christian-style demons is ultimately an allegory for fighting evil as defined by Christianity, and Christianity's definition of what evil is, well, sucks. It's bad! They got some things right, but some things horribly wrong. The devil is the tool Christianity uses to make you hate the innocent, and I struggled to enjoy a lot of demon stories because of that. Still do with some, in fact.

There were exceptions, of course - I loved The Evil Dead series as soon as I saw it at too-early-of-an-age, but then, the demons in it aren't super Christian. They aren't repelled by holy water or crucifixes or prayer, and in fact God and Jesus barely get mentioned in the series and never come up as a potential solution. They're kind of secular as demons go, and maybe that made them easier to stomach. But overall, demons ranked pretty low in the hierarchy of monsters to me - they were too tainted by the religion that spawned them for me to enjoy.

Until college, anyway. I quietly renounced my faith during my Freshmen year, and then, as if seeking one last chance at redemption in my eyes, the devil came to me again the following year. That's when I had a class on Medieval literature, and was exposed to far older devil stories than I had ever seen before. And Medieval devils kick ass. They have so much more personality and variety than I had come to expect, and some are downright affable, even sympathetic to a degree. It was one of many moments in college when I realized there was much more to a topic I'd previously written off as boring and trite.

This is when I read Dante's The Divine Comedy and Milton's Paradise Lost and Marlowe's Faust and Ben Johnson's The Devil Is An Ass. It's when I read early Gothic Horror novels like Matthew Gregory Lewis's The Monk, and dived into The Twilight Zone, which has more than a few episodes that are updates of medieval-style devil folktales in a more modern (i.e. 1960's) setting. And so many of these works presented the Devil not as a stand-in for everything Christianity hates, but as a person - a deeply flawed person, yes, but a person with actual wants and feelings and thoughts of his own, a person who was interesting and compelling - and sometimes funny, and sometimes charming, and sometimes really sad. There was, dare I say... sympathy for the devil growing in my heart.

In the last year of my undergraduate studies, I attended my college's yearly Medieval Studies Congress, where people from all over the world came to Kalamazoo just to share their research papers on medieval history and literature. One girl's thesis paper was on the subject of "rueful devils," i.e. depictions of demons in literature where they wanted to repent their sins and redeem themselves, which uniformly ended with the devils' hopes being dashed as they could not fully repent. This idea... possessed me. The idea that the devil could repent, or at least try to - that there could be hope even in the most debauched sinner. It was such a good narrative trope in my eyes - why did it die out centuries ago?

Well, because the church didn't like it, you see. If the devil can repent - if the Absolute King of Evil can choose to become a good person - then he's not very useful as a tool to make people hate the innocent anymore. The devil MUST be "pure evil" to work as intended. A rueful devil, a repentant devil, a devil that can be redeemed, forces us to be more forgiving and kind. It forces us to be better. It prevents us from hating people because an old book says so. And some people just couldn't have that, and so the trope died.

...

After I got my bachelor's degree, I entered the job market and, after applying to fifty different places or so, was finally hired as a high school english teacher about two weeks before the school year started. Said school year was the worst year of my life. Like, I've had extreme self loathing issues and suicidal ideation since, like, sixth grade, but holy shit it was NEVER as bad as it was in that nine month stretch between 2012 and 2013. There was this bridge I had to cross on the way to work each morning, and about two months in the job was so stressful that part of my morning routine was thinking, "You know, if I just swerve to the right, this can all be over and I'll never have to worry again." About halfway in I began drastically losing weight despite not changing my diet or getting more exercise and it was so traumatic that to this day whenever my weight starts to drop my initial reaction is dread rather than excitement. I impulse bought the first two Kung-Fu Panda movies and, after watching each for the first time and crying hideously, proceeded to watch them on repeat for an entire weekend while sobbing myself hoarse for reasons I couldn't comprehend at the time.

I was in Hell. And the devil met me there.

I started writing a story during that year. I didn't get very far, just a couple chapters, but it was one of the few things that gave me a sense of accomplishment. Despite all the stress and sadness and misery, I made something. It was a story about demons, and Hell, and trying to make your life better even when the world around you seems deadset on making you suffer as much as possible.

When my bosses called me into their office at the end of that year and told me that I had to quit my job so the assistant principal could take my teaching position and survive the downsizing they'd get next year, and that if I didn't quit they'd give me the lowest teacher evaluation they could and make it supremely difficult for me to get hired elsewhere... I was relieved. I'd been let out of Hell. After a handful of months left to finish out the year, I was free.

And then I went home, with nothing. No job, no desire to pursue the career for which I'd spent five years and an ungodly amount of money getting a degree to pursue, no nest egg, nothing. Nothing except a few chapters of a book.

The years that followed were hard. I did a lot of temp work, it took me a very long time to find something that worked for me. I may have left the worst year of my life, but there was still a lot of misery waiting for me. And through it all, I felt the need to accomplish... something, ANYTHING. I had to make something to prove I had a reason to exist, even if it was something that only had value to me.

With three years of work, those chapters became my first novel, No Sympathies: A Tale of Those Who Trespass Against Us. It was about the devil, and Hell, and finding salvation even when things seem inescapably bleak. It was my first novel, and now, eight years later, it's the first of five.

The devil saved my life. He saw me at my lowest, lifted me up, whispered, "It'll be ok. You have to keep going. I'll be with you, but you have to keep going," and goddammit, he kept me from swerving right.

That's when I learned the greatest truth about the devil, at least to me. The devil is a tool to make people hate the innocent, yes, this is true, but because of that, the devil can be a savior for the broken, the beaten, and the damned. You can feel like you're worthless, wretched, and doomed. But if the devil can rise from Hell, if the devil can choose to change, if people are willing to pray for the one sinner who needs it most - then there's hope for you too, isn't there?

Demons are creatures of rebellion - against God, against nature, against the powers that be, against doom and damnation itself. They were made to be a tool to hurt the innocent, but that's not what they have to be. Devils can lift us up, because no matter how far you fall, no one can say whether it's the end for you except you.

...I would like to point out that I am being figurative here. The devil does not literally exist, at least not in my view of things. He's a fictional character, nothing more. But he's a prolific fictional character, and how we portray him can say so much about us. And, to me, he is a dear friend, despite being imaginary, because the devil was there for me when I was low, and it was on his wings that I rose from doom.

...again, figuratively, not literally.

[women-of-malevolent]

I genuinely don’t mean this from a place of malice, and do think the podcast both has a history of handling its women characters poorly and would like if it were better in that aspect. But I don’t understand the specific criticism of the work having a running theme of “male characters uncritically sacrificing their daughters.” (Key word uncritically.)

The titular Bella episode directly forces Arthur to confront the idea that him and Larson are similar, that the callousness they showed to their loved ones is intentionally paralleled. I don’t think it’s something the story is unaware of, and I’d hesitate to argue that Arthur (or Daniel, later) is presented as being in the definitive right. (In this regard.)

I don’t think you have to love the prevalence of the concept in the narrative, but I do think some of your critique feels like you’re taking the worst interpretation you could from the story and arguing that because the characters themselves don’t actively stop the plot to condemn it (and honestly, they do sometimes) it means the actions are presented as wholly value neutral. Some of your analysis feels like you’re starting from a conclusion and working your way back.

I want to reiterate: I really enjoy most of your critiques, and it’s refreshing to have someone in the fandom both document female presence in the podcast and speak candidly about its flaws. I’d honestly love to know if/why you disagree, either with regards to intentionality or necessity of inclusion.

Hello! Thanks for writing in!

I'm not sure which post you're referencing where I said the daughter-sacrifice theme was uncritically portrayed? Because I don't think it is. The story portrays daughter-sacrifice as varying shades of terrible, graded according to intent. These less-than-ideal men keep hurting the women they should have protected.

My problem with the daughter-sacrifice theme is the same as my problem the rest of the show: it's exclusively about men. Daughters aren't people, they're glass sculptures for men to carry for 18 years, and what those men do with that piece of glass in that time tells you about the character of that man.

Who are Addison, Faroe, Emily, Samantha, Murdered Daughter Of A Senator, fuck even Sarah, if you take away the men who hurt them? Looking at just the text of Malevolent, none of the liveplay games lore or headcanons etc, there's little to nothing to these girls.

You're not invited to spend time inhabiting any woman's life like you are with Arthur (or John, to a significantly lesser extent). You can, and I do, but it feels like reading against the text because their lives are boring, horrible, difficult to parse, and they usually end in childbirth or femicide. It's fucking miserable!

The men are trapped in the same bleak, violent story, and a lot of them die graphically and onscreen, but most of them also get some combo of moments of triumph, personalities, voices, independence, quirks that narratively make that violence go down smoother. (Also smoother because there are so many fun and fascinating male characters)

Also, honestly, I don't enjoy how the theme is explored. It feels shallow and lame to me. I personally, as a listener, don't feel like this specific story has ~earned~ (in my personal, idiosyncratic, things-I-like-in-fiction, subjective assessment) exploring the horror of femicide when 1) there are zero normal, living female characters (Marie is very close, but no cigar); 2) all it seems to really say is basically… murder is bad (sometimes) (usually?) (sometimes, at least), and it's extra bad when men kill their dependent women?

Standard disclaimer that it ain't over 'til it's over, what we got is not great so far but it ain't over

Thank you again and I'd be so happy to continue this conversation if you want!

[fairy-toxin]

I only consider myself a very casual fan of mouthwashing because I don’t think the gameplay is very fun and I find it very triggering to where I’d never watch or play it again, but I just need to speak my piece on something.

IF I SEE ANOTHER FUCKING PERSON CALL CURLY AN ABUSER/ENABLER/ACCOMPLICE/WHATEVER THE HELL

ONE MORE FUCKING TIME

I AM GOING TO JUMP OUT A GODDAMN WINDOW.

I’m gonna give y’all a cute little mental exercise mkay? I’m a rape victim. My abuser was my stepgrandpa, an old ass man. He repeatedly assaulted me over the course of roughly a decade, from when I was in elementary to high school. When it started, I didn’t even know what sex was, and I assumed it was just a normal thing that he was doing. It felt good.

Then I got older and learned more about sex, consensual and not. I constantly made excuses to myself, that it was okay because of whatever. I didn’t want to accept that someone I’d had a bond with for so long was an abuser.

Then he assaulted my mom. She was a terrible person for various other reasons and I am no-contact with her, but no one, not a soul, deserves to be raped.

It still haunts me, that I could’ve told someone and stopped that from happening. I could’ve gotten off my soapbox and gotten something done. But I also had to deal with the fear that reporting him would cause more trouble, that they’d just dismiss the case, and my abuser would violently turn against me.

It isn’t just black and white. Am I an abuser? An accomplice? Am I, in a sense, worse than him?

Those are all things I’ve heard about Curly.

If anything, I’m worse than him! I was in a position to do something. He couldn’t do jack shit!

Imagine being in a tiny space coffin. Imagine having to deal with the fact that your best friend, without warning, is a sexual abuser. You have to deal with the fact that Anya may be lying or misunderstanding something, because that sadly happens sometimes. He did the right thing by attempting to talk to Jimmy first thing to find out what was going on, because that’s just what you do in that sitch! You get more information. You can’t just act rashly.

Because what if you do? You just lost your pilot, and now no one knows how to get home safely. You need to keep the peace long enough to go back and get things sorted. You need to do it as soon as possible as well, before Anya gives birth, ideally, even though that might not be possible. He was under an ASTRONOMICAL amount of pressure. Someone in a scenario like that can’t just snap his fingers and fix everything. Just because you don’t run a rapist over with a pickup truck doesn’t mean you’re also to blame. That’s victim blaming. That’s what the abusers want. For everyone else to take responsibility. For distractions, for chaos, for denial.

And don’t get me FUCKING started on the “his disability was divine punishment” bullshit. Actually get the fuck out with that. It isn’t punishment, it’s a physically visible culmination of all the mental torment that Jambalaya put him through before.

A lot of you have never had friends or family outed as abusers and it shows. Those people get under your skin. They learn your every nuance, all the little details of how you work, and then make it impossible for you to make not only the right decision, but any decision at all other than helplessly watch as they fuck everything up.

Am I an abuser? Am I an accomplice?

It’s never “just fiction”. If you think this way about a simulated character, what will you say about your friend who’s in a similar position? What will you do when your own friend is outed as a predator?

[vampyrebellion]

hi i saw your other ask and now i feel nosy…..

- do u have any ideas on just like Alecdora transitioning and in your other post you said that his parents weren’t overly accepting but the Golden Dawn offered a environment away from that so i’m curious :D

- can u talk about toxic yaoi william and alecdora if you have any thoughts… their dynamic is infinitely intriguing…

-OK LAST ONE a bit specific but like how do u think he sleeps…. i keep imaging him curled up like a little kitty but im curious for ur take..

I am so glad you asked because I do actually have a lot for that! Haha (:

Firstly I do draw him both pre-transition/top surgery quite a lot honestly since I find a lot of comfort in drawing him with similar traits to me as a transmasc myself ^_^ but I also very much enjoy dabbling with his post-op scars and stuff as well! In general I like to have a timeline for things so usually if I draw him pre or post op it just depends on where in the timeline I think the drawing is taking place 👍🏻 a lot of the time I draw him binding with wraps and things like that since I think he would but if not it’s usually because I’m drawing him in a more relaxed environment where he can have some space to decompress (binding is taxing from personal experience) I don’t see him starting to really start goals towards transitioning till he has joined the Golden Dawn where he has a better/safer environment to do that in and can come out to people at his own pace when/if he feels comfortable to. (Personally think William would be the first to know just because he is the captain and he isn’t exactly straight so he gets it I think) ^_^

Secondly!! I did play around with the idea since I kind of like to stay in a sort of period accurate headcanon but it’s fantasy so it doesn’t really matter too much to me lol but because of that I thought it would be cool to have like a magic top surgery operation haha it’s kind of what makes the most sense to me if it was like some sort of altering or transformation magic to substitute for a medical operation (to be honest I love black clover but sometimes the magic doesn’t make sense to me so I’m just making shit up) and I kind of made a design that resembled the symbols that he had when everyone was possessed by the elves in the elf reincarnation arc but I’m not completely satisfied with the design so I’ll more and likely change it later so for now he just has regular looking top scars like in my usual drawings

Thirdly! I am honestly as obsessed with William and Alecdora’s relationship as he is with William lol there’s something about someone wanting to devote their entire being to someone like that that makes me insane!! When Alecdora dropped that line where he was saying William looked like a deity to him I knew it was over for me and I fixated so terribly bad on them. Obviously their relationship wouldn’t be the most healthy thing and I don’t condone this kind of behavior irl but it’s sooo fun to think about in fiction. I guess their dynamic reminds me a lot of like a knight who is unwaveringly dedicated to serving their ruler, y’know? And Alecdora is endlessly devoted to William. I really like the one-sided aspect of their relationship because I’m a giant sucker for characters who yearn and yearn hard for someone without ever fully having had their feelings reciprocated back but still being very devoted to them regardless. But I also very much enjoy the scenario where William is reciprocative to Alecdora’s feelings and I think in that situation it could be a lot easier for them to figure out how to set healthy relationship boundaries with one another since there is more chances for communication that way ^_^ 👍🏻 so yeah!! Big fan of both yearning one sided Alecdora and full fledged relationship William/Alecdora.

Lastly! I honestly think when he’s by himself he just kind of sleeps curled up like you said or hugging a pillow or something but when he’s with William I think he likes to hug him while he sleeps 👍🏻 honestly if he lived in a time period like 2025 I know his ass would have a body pillow and weighted blanket he needs that kind of grounding.

Anyway!! Thank you for the asks! I had a lot of fun and sorry it took so long to respond I wanted to draw some examples to go with my answers but anyway I hope you enjoy and have a pleasant day! ^_^ p.s. if anybody ever has any requests feel free to drop them in my asks,, I WILL draw them trust

[badomenslullaby]

as a newbie to BO what exactly’s going on…?

Hello friend! Welcome to the fandom!

Unfortunately, the Bad Omens fan fiction community is experiencing some major drama at the moment. There was a blog, which I have personally talked to a couple of times, that had a lapse in judgment and didn't put trigger warnings on their work. Unfortunately, their story had themes of sexual assault (SA) in it, and since it wasn't adequately tagged, those who have gone through the unfortunate experience of SA (I have as well, so I understand entirely how triggering it is to read about) were met with that surprise in the story. I didn't personally read the story as I have been busy with college, so I haven't been on for a couple of weeks, so I don't have first-hand knowledge of what was written.

This is as far as I know because I have a friend on here who is close to that blog and told me a little bit about it. Different people have different information regarding how the blog reacted, but ultimately, even Twitter was talking about it and was very upset. The blog has been deleted, and now other blogs are getting targeted and harassed because their stories are dark romances. Unfortunately, many people don't understand the appeal of dark romances.

Many people are upset/irritated that my friend didn't speak about it until she was asked and then tried to say she is a terrible person who should disappear. She is a great, kind person. Not everyone needs to make a big statement because no matter what her statement is, she will be attacked. Just because you would have done something differently does not mean it is the correct way.

Here is my advice to you as a new fan: Please have fun with everything. Don't get too invested in how crazy this fandom can be sometimes. Please remember that anytime you feel overwhelmed, take a break from the internet! A majority of this fandom has created parasocial relationships with the band and tends to take things too far when they are angry at us Tumblr girls who create fanfiction. We know we don't know the boys personally, and we only see the side of them that they want us to see. We use the characteristics of who they present themselves as to the public and make fictional stories to provide us with enjoyment in our day-to-day lives. There is nothing wrong with that, and it is okay to enjoy it. It isn't hurting them because we aren't actively trying to get their attention to show them our stories. I have talked it through with my therapist, and she thinks it's a great and healthy outlet for creativity.

Here is my take for those on here who are anonymously being rude: Sending death threats, attacking people, and harassing them until they don't feel comfortable in a safe space they've created is absolutely unacceptable, and you need to grow up. This is Tumblr, not real life. You only feel safe saying things behind a screen and not showing your username because you are cowards. You have the right to feel how you feel. Your feelings are valid, but your actions are not. If you see a fanfiction blog and you don’t like fanfiction, block them. If there’s just a blog that rubs you the wrong way, block them. Let's be real; there is a very popular blog on here that I happen not to vibe with because I don't like their vibes, so I don't interact with them or read their stories. They don't know about me or how I feel, and that is okay because that is my problem, not theirs.

At the end of the day, most of us are grown-ass adults in our 20s, and some are in our early 30s. There is no reason for us to revert back to teenage girls and start a bullying train. We are all too grown for that.

I hope this helped shed some light and I hope you have a good day/night! Don't be shy to stop by again, I am a safe place and love it when people send messages :)

[fawcetttweets]

Oh is the accidental ship Dr. Sivana and Mr. Mind? I mean, they are extremely quick to jump to each other's defences?

What can I say, I’m a sucker for queer-Ifying fictional old men. Stanford Pines and Fiddleford Mcgucket, Stanley and The Narrarator, Prismo and Scarab (yes they count, shush). I just can’t stop it! I’m sure if there were more old ladies In the media I watch, I’d ship them too. Or if there were any other genders in any media ever.

I don’t even enjoy shipping, I just see them and my brain takes their love for each other as an objective fact. I get no joy from it, that’s simply how it be. Maybe I’ll even add Black Adam in and make it a terrible little polycule! Who knows!

No but seriously, I don’t really ship people often, sometimes my brain just makes connections without my consent and I decided to roll with it this time haha. I don’t ship the actual characters, I just think it’d be a fun little dynamic to have them be super defensive over each other during their team ups but never interact at all outside of them. I doubt they’ll even date, just have intense protective feelings about the other that they don’t really understand or care to look into. They’re too busy doing evil to care about anything else!

[xiaomusmash14]

Demon Slayer MLP Poll

Okay, so I wasn’t planning on bringing this up on here, but after seeing what @whily3starly has done with turning the entire Kamaboko Squad into My Little Pony characters, I got a confession to make: I’m thinking about making a new blog dedicated to turning Demon Slayer characters into MLP ones.

It’s probably not much of a secret to y’all that I am a huge MLP fan (if evidenced by the lack of human OCs in my corner), and if I had the capacity to make loads of posts about it, I could go on and on. For almost a score, I grew up being into ponies, practically nonstop. It only grew larger when I discovered My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, and it pretty much stuck with me afterwards. Even as I went into various other fandoms, MLP had always been there in some way, shape, or form, so it’s hard to not be attached to. For the longest time, it had been the hyper fixation that stuck with me throughout it all.

Hell, I’ll admit it: Fire Emblem Fates, the game in the series people are familiar with and DON’T seem to like (and with good reason, I won’t deny them that), is ironically one of those things I mixed with MLP and did more characters on than any other piece of fiction. Heck, I turned almost half of the Nohrians into MLP characters and a few Hoshidans as well, all for the sake of doing a paper animatic when I was 14 or 15 (I never finished it, but it had a bunch of papers be used). I cannot just drop it and be like “I can live without it” for more than 5 seconds (and if I do, it’s not fun), so there’s an idea of just how strong that hold is.

Then came Demon Slayer.

I think you guys know where this is going.

Never had anything even remotely come close to holding its grip on me until that came along, which is saying a lot for how much knowledge I have outside of that medium. At the beginning of 2023, I decided to work on turning Demon Slayer characters into My Little Pony ones, which I made into a huge personal project (which is on hiatus for the time being due to *ahem* a bunch of bullshit happening earlier). Long story short, I haven’t shown much of it yet, but I do have a lot of Demon Slayer MLP artwork in my photo gallery that I want to post.

I don’t just wanna post it randomly on here, though. There’s so much of it that I want to share, from the lore to the background, behind the scenes, etc, the works! I’ve sort of slowed down on Demon Slayer MLP after a number of events happening (including someone deciding to make a bad decision to make a terrible joke, and not the kind where it’s just a bad punchline, I mean the offensive kind where it disrespects multiple people), but I have plenty of content to at least make some posts going into the AU.

I’m hoping to kickstart it sometime next year in 2025, but I’m planning a separate blog where it’s solely focused on my Demon Slayer MLP AU. Once I have that figured out, I’ll have it catch up to where I have it currently and go from there. I’ll do a series of polls and allow everyone to vote on who gets to be revealed first, and whoever gets the most votes will move on. As it stands, I have about 40 characters done (and counting), so it should be plenty enough for now to work with.

I’ll shortly post a few polls determining which characters to show first. If anyone wants to vote, it’ll be in my Demon Slayer MLP blog, and it’ll be up for three days; hopefully all of them come through and don’t just abruptly end each other.

The top 3 characters from the polls after the week is done will move on to the second round, where the top 4 will move on to the final round. Whoever wins that final round will be the first character officially announced to start off the series in 2025.

I’ll put the link for all the polls in my next post so everyone can click on it if they wish to join. Alternatively, if you guys directly find the polls themselves, you can just vote from there! Stay tuned, everyone!

[boombambaby]

respond to the following prompts out of character, then tag others you'd like to get to know a little bit better.

roleplayer name: Cas!

roleplayer pronouns: she/her -- though I usually go by character's name/gender or don't really care tbh.

muse name(s): Kuzco!

preferred communication: I'm pretty open everywhere. I'm off Weds/Thurs, and I work from 6am - 2pm EST. At work I have access to Tumblr so I can be reached in DM's, and on Discord on breaks. after work I'm usually here for DM's or on Discord all evening until about 10pm EST (though I should try to get to bed earlier tbh). I'm admittedly terrible at communicating, though. You can reply to me, and I'll open it up and read it and be doing something else, and think 'i'll get to it in a few minutes!' and then completely forget that it exists. On that same note, i'm also always worried I'm bothering someone, so I rarely reach out first for messages unless I have a specific question or something. I love to chat though, or discuss our characters or ideas or. . ANYTHING, honestly. I just sometimes need a nudge.

experience: I've been writing/roleplaying since 2005! Started with Myspace and AIM roleplay, moved from there to LiveJournal for a hot minute and then Facebook, Twitter, and eventually Roleplayer.me. Always said I'd NEVER join Tumblr, bc it seemed so confusing, but. Here we are!

preferred roleplay type: I'm a fan of all kinds. I LOVE banter or crack roleplay. It's my all time favorite, and I think it's the best tool for personality building a character you can have. Thinking on your feet in character can be a BLAST and it's just. So fun. Some of the best interactions come from that or prompts. I'm also a fan of sentence multi-para though I have a tendency (if you couldn't tell) to ramble and turn it into a novella pretty easily.

pet peeves & dealbreakers: I honestly don't have any dealbreakers. I've been doing this so long I've learned to roll with the punches, mostly. I'd have to really think about pet peeves, but I don't think I have any. I've had bad situations in the past, I'm sure everyone has. I don't like overly possessive writing partners. If we ship and we're single ship, that's fine. But don't try to dictate who I can and can't speak to or write with. It honestly takes a lot to upset me. Don't include me in drama, don't count me as a number and never interact or straight up ignore me, don't leave me hanging forever (I'm very lenient with replies, I will NEVER pressure you, but if it's been months I might start to question what's going on.) and we'll be cool. EDIT TO ADD; THOUGHT OF A PET PEEVE. RL issues and politics! I understand that the world is a WILD place right now, and there are controversial topics and that everyone has an opinion. That's all fine and good; BUT I ROLEPLAY SPECIFICALLY TO GET AWAY FROM REAL LIFE AND STRESS, and the very LAST thing I want to see on my timeline is a post endorsing a presidential candidate, or posts showing a war zone, or any of the other trending topics right now. Roleplay is a fictional world we create with other writers. It's not that I don't care about those issues, I just don't think they have any place here. and the black outs and things that roleplayers do for 'support' and all that, I just. I don't get it. I don't want to see it. Same with the asks to support x family from x war torn country. Just. please. Don't.

best time to write: Probably in the morning while I'm at work, other than that I can be pretty sporadic. I love to relax and banter and do goofy stuff at night. But honestly, I'm always up for something!

are you like your muse? Ahhhhh, I'm gonna go ahead and say no lol. I can be quick, teasing and sarcastic when I get to know someone, and I'm pretty extroverted like Kuzco with a lot of things; but the cocky arrogance, all about me, flaunting his wealth and tossing people out of windows bit? Total and complete opposite of who I am. Writing him is definitely a TON of fun, and a very welcome relief from the stresses of real life, and I love writing for him so, so much.

tagged by: @wintersovereign

tagging: @smartylina @musemelodies @emeraldofparis @gunslinginnhogtyin @hellsmayflower @keepmovinjunior @lcafman

[wetcatspellcaster]

Writer Interview Game

thank you so much for tagging me @eraserspiral !!!!

When did you start writing?

I wrote a lot of 'original fiction' as a teen, including a couple of TERRIBLE novels, that were essentially just a grab bag of all the books i was reading at the time. School (and in hindsight, grief) stopped this around 16-18, and then a very high pressure degree at a high profile university seemingly killed off my love of writing entirely.

I got back into writing at 26... weirdly?? just before the panini?? (january 2020, did past-me feel something in the water and know i'd need to hold onto any crumb of serotonin for dear life??) I had just finished my PhD applications, and after sinking so many hours and so many words into the most joy sucking series of forms I've ever encountered, I decided I wanted to write something fun for a change!

Are there different themes or genres you enjoy reading than what you write?

I don't write smut. I read a LOT of smut.

But in terms of themes, I tend to write in worlds/fantasy settings where we can all pretend that capitalism doesn't exist, or that if it does exist, the protagonist is winning at it. I really like speculative fiction (sf and fantasy) that tackles capitalistic themes/poverty well - this has been on my mind recently bc of an arc in a D&D game I've been playing, where my wonderful DM has essentially gone 'capitalism bad' but then let us do something about it <3

Is there a writer you want to emulate or get compared to often?

I find it hard to know what my writing 'is like'... not bc it's wildly unique or anything, but just bc I don't think I can see my own influences that clearly (if anyone wants to drop me some comparisons in the askbox, go for it, I'm curious!)

But in terms of writers I want to emulate, at the chatty/colloquial end it's T Kingfisher and Sarah Rees Brennan, who have a good handle on when to hit emotionally or on high fantasy register, and then when to have really grounded/human moments that make their characters incredibly relatable (and often very funny). At the high fantasy end, it's Shannon Chakraborty, Ann Leckie, Nghi Vo, Silvia Moreno Garcia. They write haunting and engaging narratives!

And, of course, I'm always trying to muster an ounce of whatever the fuck Howl/Sophie had going on.

Can you tell me a bit about your writing space?

I use my desk for work/thesis and want to exclusively keep it that way, so my writing space is actually just on the corner of the sofa in my living room, with my legs crossed, a blanket, and a cup of tea. No music, pure autistic silence (but also bc my laptop speaker is broken). Scotland gets dark for a long time in the winter, so it's usually pretty cosy vibes. It's probably not good for me, as I get a LOT of leg cramp.

What’s your most effective way to muster up a muse?

Honestly, not to be tsundere about it... but maybe ignore the muse a little? If you've burned out or you're trying to brute force a scene, all you're doing is guilting yourself into being productive. With fic writing, especially, you should be doing it to have fun, not bc you feel like you have to. So if the words aren't coming, do other things for a bit. Go on a day trip, hang out with friends, do chores or read something. In my experience, my brain doesn't stay quiet for long, and ideas for my current project will come to me when i'm not trying to squeeze them out of myself like toothpaste.

Sometimes the well runs dry! Rather than feel terrible about it, be kind to yourself, and wait for rain x

Are there any recurring themes in your writing? Do they surprise you?

Hahahahaha, let's not talk about how I keep placing people into the worst versions of themselves and then have them improve and earn love anyway, regardless of if they deserve it. Or how I'm interested in characters who feel a wealth of emotion they hide from everyone behind a mask of either performed indifference, wilful charm, or simply bc they can't articulate it in the socially correct way. Or women who think 'if I cannot be beautiful or loveable, I will be competent', and the men who-

Anyway, introvert x extrovert pairings, amirite? Everything else is shown to me in a vision (my therapist reaches a dead end in my session as I insist nothing is wrong, asks me about my fanfic, and then delivers me a laundry list of the stuff I'm currently coping with. Lowest point: being told im IDing through the fucking DARKLING, on one project. That man is a war criminal, and I dont look like Ben Barnes).

What is your reason for writing?

In the beginning, I think it was pure comfort. I'd just come out of a period of extreme depression, and wanted to hallucinate some characters in love.

But recently, and going forward, I think it is a genuine exercise in proficiency. I thought my writing was so terrible that I said 'I couldn't write', for so fucking long. I now genuinely think this is something I'm good at, and that is something it has taken me so very long to believe, and even longer to say. I am a very self-deprecating person. I have so few things I feel good at, or that I think bring something worthwhile to the table. As academia delivers me blow after blow and the world leaves me feeling worthless, I am going to cling to this until my hands bleed.

Is there any specific comment or type of comment you find particularly motivating?

focusing on the 'motivation' part of this question... I think the comments that happen to land on the one specific thing that matters to me, those are the ones that hit hardest. It happens rarer than you'd think. part of the joy of fanfiction comments is the wealth of different reader interpretations, with people seeing things in your own work that you've never noticed. All interpretations are amazing, especially the ones that show you a blindspot you never considered. But when a reader hits the nail fucking on the head (gets a 'gold star in reading comprehension'), that's the most motivating, and makes me want to open my document and write the next chapter. Because I know then that at least one person out there 'gets it', and is fully on board with the story I want to tell.

But that is a very selfish, specific feeling. All comments are motivation, and all reader interpretations have value!

How do you want to be thought about by your readers?

Idk if this seems weird or a disingenuous answer but... as a person?? Writing a story for fun? Pieces was a very cool and special experience, but it was very unexpected. I wasn't and never considered myself to be a 'big name fan'. I never want to enter any kind of popularity contest, and I never want to be beholden to people who are reading a story I am writing for fun. Very funny to have a story blow up when you have weird feelings about attention lmfao. Like don't get me wrong, absolutely amazing to ride such a huge tide of support, but this was meant to be my silly introvert hobby :')

I also hope they think my writing is good!! obviously!! i know it can't be everything everyone wants all the time, but you know!! i think it's neat!! I hope y'all think it's neat!! plz and thank!!!

What do you feel is your greatest strength as a writer?

lmao eraserspiral's reply to this question was a fucking mood. (just deleted it in my template to make space).

I guess... I know how to flesh out a character, and a character voice. I think I can establish a character's personality, their strengths and their flaws, and have them consistently become the vehicle for both progression and some very real, understandable mistakes. I think chapters from different perspectives feel distinct, and that when development in either direction (bad or good) happens, it feels earned.

idk man, this is a hard one to answer when depressed :')

How do you feel about your own writing?

At the end of the day, it's a lifeline. Sometimes I keep very much to myself and I protect it fiercely, because it's one of the only things that kept me going at certain points in the last few years. At my lowest, I've often wondered for what, if anything, I'll be remembered for or what I'll leave behind... and now I actually have things! 12 whole stories, where once there was nothing! Sure, it's fanfic! But some people's favourite fanfic. None of it is perfect, but it all matters to me, and we're now at the point (4 years in) where I am starting to slowly realise how it has changed me as a person, and will continue to change me going forward.

I want to start on some original ideas once my thesis is over, vivaed and done, but I don't currently see my writing as anything something I can make into a career, bc I need to keep the joy in it as the joy literally keeps me alive :')

tagging: @imscissorbladez, @pricemarshfield, @blarfshnorgull, @violacae, @dededrabbles, @brabblesblog - no pressure, just trying to share this tag game to more groups/social circles! :) x

[wukodork]

Tagless OC Tag Game

Hehe. I don't have a TON of screenshots but I do have a couple. I still have another one of these to do for Adelaide, but damn this took so long to type we only doing Kieran right now.

General

Name: Kieran Tabris

Alias(es): Thorne or Rook depding on the timeline

Gender: Male Age: 25, with a few years added between Origns and Awakening

Place of Birth: Ferelden

Spoken Languages: Trade and Antivan. Knows about as much Elvhen as I do German, which is to say he can pronounce the words very well but only knows what a smattering actually mean because his family used them all the time.

Sexual Orientation: Gay

Occupation: The Second Person to Get Kicked Out of the Grey Wardens Ever.

Favorites

Color: Does enjoy jewel tones although he wouldn't wear any.

Entertainment: Did you know you can learn a ton of very interesting things by just listening to people around you?

Past Time: Hey, wanna fight? No really, do you know any fight clubs around? Is SO EXCITED by the Hall of Valor. Honestly gambling in general. It makes everything so much more interesting.

Food: Literally anything Lucanis makes (sorry Bellara). Everything tastes so good and smells amazing and he's used to shit like hardtack and mulligan stew.

Drink: See above.

Books: Non fiction mostly. Stories are fine and enjoyable, but knowing more things is always good.

Have they...

Passed University: Didn't have access to a formal education past his early teens, has approximate knowledge of many things. Probably could if he wanted to, but would have a hard time.

Had sex: Yeah, lots of casual sex in the wardens.

Had sex, in public: Also yes, not a lot of privacy in the wardens.

Gotten tattoos: Yup! Most notably wings on his arms. It's more of a reference to two of his four parents than a griffin thing tho.

Gotten piercings: Not the fun kind! (He has been stabbed.) He's very concerned about a piercing getting torn out during a fight. Like, unreasonably so.

Gotten scarred: Yup. Has a terrible habit of running headfirst into danger because he's certain he's the most likely to survive it. So far he's right. So far.

Had a broken heart: Yes. Frenquently. :3

Been in love: Not for a long while, but he absolutely fell hard for everyone he was interested as a teenager. Y'know, pre-game. Absolutely head over heels for Lucanis.

Are they…

A cuddler: Yes. Makes him feel safe and loved. So he doesn't do it often.

Scared easily: Nope! His meter for what's actually frightening is a little skewed by being raised by the Hero of Ferelden and an ex-Crow.

Jealous easily: Not exactly? He's got a lot of self-loathing so he's more likely to go that route. Will keep it to himself though.

Trustworthy: It's Complicated (tm). He is, but he's also capable of being ruthless, he just prefers not to be.

Family

Siblings: One! Adelaide de Riva, they haven't seen each other for about a decade though. They're the same age and she has Urthemiel's soul instead of him.

Parents: Biological parents are King Alistair Therin and Morrigan. Morrigan didn't think she could handle raising a baby by herself so she gave him to Warden Tabris and Zevran. Kieran actively dislikes Alsitair and is fine with everyone else (although still awkward with Morrigan sometimes)

Children: Would love kids if he wasn't a warden. He had to watch his mom deal with the Calling and he wouldn't wish that on any kid.

Pets: When he was a kid the Tabris family still had a mabari. He hasn't had one since though.

[notsocheezy]

Brain Curd #341

Brain Curds are lightly edited daily writing - usually flash fiction and sometimes terrible on purpose.

The following episode of The Frank Program concerns serious topics, including SA. Though Brain Curds don’t typically include content warnings, this one does. Do not tread lightly.

Daryl arrived at the studio to find Big Mike in the host’s seat.

“Hey,” he asked. “What are you doing in my chair?”

Mike crossed his arms. “I’m hosting the show today.”

“The hell you are!” Daryl slammed his palms on the table. “I’ve been digging around in the gutter to find the worst dirt on Tangent you could imagine. I’m seeing this through.”

“No. You’re not.” Mike sighed. “I am.”

“What do you mean?”

“I’m going to take him down.”

Daryl scoffed. “This is ridiculous.”

“Kid, you’ve got your whole life ahead of you. And you know deep down that nothing you’ve found is gonna be enough to take away even a shred of this asshole’s power. You can’t afford to make this kind of enemy.”

“And you can?”

“No.” Mike took a deep breath. “But it’s pretty much over for me, anyway. I might as well do something good to make up for being such a huge piece of shit all my life.”

“Mike…”

“Don’t try to talk me out of it. You don’t know the things I’ve done, the people I’ve hurt. If I can save one vulnerable woman from that creep… just one…” He shook his head. “Hand me your notes.”

Daryl hesitated. But after a short moment, he pulled a folder out from his backpack and placed it in Mike’s outstretched hand.

“Whatever you do, make sure this episode goes out. I don’t care what Frank says, or what Chuck says, you upload it. Even if you have to leak it, you get it out there.”

Daryl nodded. “Of course.”

Mike pointed to the corner of the room. “I dusted off your old spot for you.”

~

“Hey, everybody!” Mike clapped. “Welcome back to The Frank Program! I don’t even need to introduce you to today’s guest - you all know him! The man, the myth, the legend, Chuck Tangent!”

“Thank you, thank you.” Chuck looked up at the ceiling. “That’s a lovely skylight you have there, is that new?”

“No, it’s been here since you ‘installed’ it.”

He rubbed his chin. “Oh, I get it. Funny.”

“How’s Hailey 2.0?”

“Ever since she failed to be elected President, I’ve been tweaking her programming. Unfortunately, nobody knows how her algorithm works, so -”

“The capital of Iceland is Greenland,” Hailey said through a small speaker on the desk.

Mike raised an eyebrow. “I don’t think that’s right.”

“Yeah. Yeah, it’s a little off.” Chuck cleared his throat. “At this point, I think we’re better off changing reality to match with the things she says rather than the other way around.”

Hailey added another fun fact. “The largest country in Africa is Europe.”

“Uh…” Mike tilted his head. “Does she just say fun facts about geography?”

“She thinks she does, yes.” Chuck patted the speaker like it was her head. “Unfortunately, a server crashed and we lost her old personality, so we’re kinda stuck with it now.”

Daryl looked at Mike with silent intensity. He could feel the kid staring at him.

“So, Chuck…” Mike gulped. “I hear you know another recent guest of ours: Alaska James.”

“Hmph,” Chuck grunted. “You could say that. She’s been a real pain in my neck, recently. I take it she talked to you about VidBo?”

“Only briefly.”

“Well, you can forget whatever she told you. She’s biased against me. I’ll fill you in on the real story. See, I purchased this fledgeling video streamer that no one had heard of and already I’ve turned it around. Everyone is there.”

“Not The Frank Program,” Daryl smirked.

Chuck turned around to look. “Not yet.”

“So,” Mike asked. “She’s a pain in your neck, how?”

“She’s leading all sorts of harassment campaigns against me and Hailey. Claiming discrimination. I’m a firm believer in free speech, but this is too much. Her sort of content just isn’t right for my platform - she and others like her have got to go.”

“How’s she harassing you?”

“Endless complaints. It’s impossible to wade through them all and get to the real problems affecting my users - which, by the way, we are working on. Some videos were auto-removed for expressing opinions, which may not have been the priority of the previous owners, but I think that’s important to fix.”

“Is porn not free speech?”

“No. Free speech is whatever dirty thing that comes out of your mouth, not the dirty things you put in it… among other holes.” He shuddered. “It’s just not appropriate.”

“Speaking of not appropriate, Chuck, I need to ask you about some of her other allegations.”

Tangent scowled. “What else did she tell you?”

“For one thing, she says you didn’t always act as the puritan paragon you present as today.”

Daryl smiled. Mike was using his words verbatim.

Mike continued. “I looked into it. Her story lines up. You and her both attended the 2014 Adult Entertainment Awards.”

“Maybe I did.” Chuck shrugged. “It was a long time ago.”

“It sure was. Miss James was just getting her start in the industry at the time. She was nineteen. According to her, she met you there. You were about forty at the time, were you not?”

“In 2014… I would have been forty or forty-one, yes. Depending on when in the year that was.”

“You were over twice her age. When you told her you could help her with her career, she trusted you. After all, you were a big fish. Even back then, you were one of the hundred most wealthy people in the world. You had more connections than anyone else at that awards show.”

“I suppose I did.”

“So what did you ask for in exchange, Chuck?”

Tangent was silent. He glared at Mike with eyes glazed over.

“I’d like to hear it from you.”

His eyes twitched.

“Alright. According to Alaska James, you invited her up to your suite on the top floor of the hotel. We’ve got eyewitness testimony to confirm this. You were married at the time, weren’t you, Chuck?”

Tangent gritted his teeth.

“So how is it that an upstanding married entrepreneur like yourself thought it was okay to get her drunk and have your way with her?”

“I did no such thing.”

“So what did you do in that hotel room together, Chuck?”

“Call me Mr. Tangent.” He straightened up in his chair. “Is it a crime to have company in a hotel room, Mike? We played board games. I’m horrified you’d think this low of me. Frank will surely be disappointed that you fell for the oldest trick in the book - a woman lying about a man’s impropriety to bring him down to her level. She’s a dirty porn star with a bone to pick. You’re a fool to trust her.”

“Maybe you’ve got a point.” Mike pulled the folder out from under the desk and dropped it on the surface with a thud. “But I don’t think you can explain the seventeen other women who have also stepped forward.”

Tangent growled. “You are making the biggest mistake of your life.”

Mike smiled. “No, I’m not. I already did. This folder is full of your mistakes, Chuck. If you can call them that. And believe me, what you did to Alaska James was sickening, but it’s nothing in comparison to -”

Chaos, total chaos erupted in an instant, all at once. There were so many sounds: door slamming open, gunshot, splatter, Mike went silent, thud, screaming. Daryl realized the screams were coming from his own mouth. Wilfred Buffman stood in the doorway with a smoking pistol, flecks of blood on his cheek. Chuck Tangent held his hands up in the air.

Mike had a bullet wound right through his head.

To be continued tomorrow. Follow to find out what happens next.

[homenecromancer]

Nosferatu is a film for adults and I am aware of that.

It’s a good thing that Nosferatu came out when it did, but I do sort of wish I could see how I would’ve reacted to it when I was between the ages of about 14 and 18. The general vibe is one that would’ve absolutely appealed to me:

Imagine that you are the saddest girl in the world, but also the most special. You have made terrible choices in your short life, which you cannot bear to confess to anyone. No one really understands you for most of the story, including your closest friends, who refuse to listen to your desperate pleas, or recognize the true depth of your suffering. Then a non-threatening older mentor figure offers you compassion, listens to you, and tells you that you are the single most important person in this story. In a final act of bravery, you choose to sacrifice yourself, and it is only as you die a tragic death that everyone truly appreciates the gravity of what you’ve done to save the city.

Being a teenager means feeling big emotions and not quite knowing what to do with them. Horror fiction offers a space to safely explore new feelings or thoughts about life in a heightened, metaphorical way. “Maybe everyone would finally appreciate me if I were DEAD” is so normal of a teenage thought to have that Mark Twain uses it in Tom Sawyer. Same goes for “no one really understands what I am going through, but I wish someone nice would tell me that they get it, and that my feelings are valid”.

I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention something else about Nosferatu that I think a lot of people on Tumblr could appreciate: look, sometimes you want to read or watch a story where the heroine finds herself irresistibly attracted to / ensnared by someone or something who is objectively terrible in every way. It’s just in Nosferatu, that person is a literal monster. (This is a heightened version of a real-life dynamic that applies to far more than romantic relationships: “I can’t stop going back to this thing that is hurting me” applies to addiction as well.)

So let’s talk about Van Helsing (2004) for a minute.

I saw Van Helsing when I was just a little too young for it — I was 11 when it came out — and though it’s much less adult in content (it’s rated PG-13 in my region), it hits some of the same emotional notes that Nosferatu does. Let me think:

A beautiful woman finds herself in the clutches of a monstrous man, who she finds both scary and kind of hot. There’s an emphasis put on the age difference between the two of them — she’s a normal human, and he’s super old. She is the ultimate key to destroying him, and finally manages to ensure that this happens, but herself dies tragically in the process.

Of course, there’s a lot that’s different about the two movies — Nosferatu is all about the woman/monster dynamic, but there’s really only one memorable scene in that vein in Van Helsing. (And that vampire ball where Anna dances with Dracula is still pretty striking, I gotta say.) And Van Helsing is entertaining on a pulp level, but Nosferatu is actually a good movie.

Van Helsing is all surface. Some of that surface is quite fun, or hits evocative emotional notes, but it’s not exactly a deep movie. A lot of what makes Nosferatu good is happening under the surface, and it probably would’ve missed me as a teenager, for the most part. (Orlok is not the only man in the cast who refuses to listen to Ellen, nor is he the only man who abuses her “for her own good” or because she “wanted it”.) But those broad emotional notes I sketched out at the start of this post definitely would’ve worked for me. They are story elements that still appeal to me today, and Nosferatu uses them in a skillful, adroit way — I haven’t been so strongly affected by a movie in a long time. It’s not for everybody, but for some of us, it’s great.

edit: “Hey, what about Thomas!” I hear you cry. OK I made another post about that.