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twisted-nox-sidus · 5 years ago

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Hello there, I’ve just read your headcannon of Strix trolling the Octavinelle trio. LOL. Thank you for the laughs. Since April fool’s day is coming. If you have the time, can you do a scenario where Strix trolls the other dorms with the help of her dream eaters. If you can include Malleus, it’s okay. If not, I understand. Thank you and stay safe.

Anon continued: Hi there, during my previous post, I was asking whether or not Malleus would join Strix’s trolling in trolling the other dorms since April Fools is coming. Oh! I almost forgot, can Grim and Lilia join with Strix in trolling. Thank you and have a good day or night.

Oof, doing six other dorms is a lot in one post, so I’ll keep things condensed, hence the headcanon format (sorry if you really wanted a scenario version!). I see Malleus and Lilia as types to watch for entertainment than directly take part in it. Strix left Grim out of her plans since he himself is chaotic already. It was time for her to assume the lead and let it out, at least for the day.

It’s come to my attention that I like doing headcanons of Strix and her dream eaters, so I plan on doing more headcanons/scenarios involving the pesky but cute spirits. They don’t stop here so look forward to it! Happy April Fool’s~

Heartslabyul

Heartslabyul could handle strange things more so than any other dorms. Just not anything against the crimson tyrant’s 810 rules.

“WHO PAINTED THE ROSE MAZE BLUE?!!!”

Riddle’s face fumes as red as his hair. Not a single trace of red is found! There was only blue as far as the eye can see.

Deuce, Trey, and Cater were rendered speechless by the sight. Just...wow. They’re not even dreading the culprit’s fate at Riddle’s mercy; instead they’re impressed with the feat. Such commitment!

Meanwhile Ace was resisting from bursting in a fit of laughter. That madwoman actually did it! She even casually remarked about doing such a feat but no one had paid her words seriously. Bravo! Bra-freaking-vo!

Ah, speaking of...

“You have a lot of nerve showing your face, Strix! You must be begging for your head to roll! This is defying the Queen of Hearts herself! Repaint every single rose -by yourself- until all is red!”

“Sheesh, let’s not get a rage stroke. You’re still so young...” Strix nonchalantly yawns. “I wanted to surprise you so I spent the whole night painting every rose blue. Of course, I had a helping hand with me.”

She vaguely gestured to the dream spirit hiding behind her leg. Me Me Bunny’s ears act as another pair of hands, and this cutie is quite dextrous; it also knows “bun fu”.

“Oh you surprised me all right. [Surprise] is only an understatement!”

A sigh. “You don’t get it, Riddle. Think of it this way. Blue makes the red stand out. Then the only red rose we’ll see...is you, my queen.”

She leans forward to slip a strand of Riddle’s velvet red locks between her fingers and graze her lips on them. Her half-lidded bright blue eyes gaze into his steel gray pair. Perhaps she was still under the drowsy spell to comprehend what she was doing, though a part of her was knowingly teasing.

Riddle stared wide-eyed. His cheeks flushed in a different meaning this time.

She pulls back to give space and turns the other way.

��Plus, contrary to your words, I think you actually like my surprise. It’s certainly not boring. And it’ll only be for today.”

Strix flashed a lazy grin his way.

“Happy April Fool’s~”

Savanaclaw

Strix’s dream eaters are quirky, adorable, and colorful spirits. Jack often questions their capabilities. What can little prey do to the brawny hotheads of Savanaclaw?

A lot.

One day Strix was on patrol. Jack had been keeping an eye as she works part-time as the “cleaner” of Savanaclaw. Just how much power can she draw from these familiars? It was a test for Strix to see if she can meet the standards of a respectable magician in this academy.

Meanwhile Ruggie anticipates something interesting will happen. Strix’s dream eaters are an enigmatic force to reckon with. He himself certainly doesn’t plan on confronting them since that’s not what he signed up for as vice dorm leader.

The hyena snickered his trademark laugh. What mayhem will the prefect student do?

Strix had to break up a fight for the nth time this week. Things happened, and one of the students said something that forced Strix to deal her hand.

Instead of commanding her eagle and hawk to attack, she summoned a single chubby cat/dog hybrid with stubby legs. It doesn’t look like a clever beast.

Aww, look at it roll around and paw at air for affection while its pink tongue stuck out. They’re going to die of cuteness.

Strix blankly stared ahead. “Meow Wow... Balloon.”

Said spirit stood on all four legs and stopped wagging. Every onlooker watched as it inflated in size. It continued to grow and grow until no one could see the light of day. It was then everyone thought it’d be wise to run from immediate vicinity.

However it was too late when Meow Wow deflated in puffy smoke and sparkles, drowning its victims along with the plume of clouds.

Jack and Ruggie watched from a platform above where they could see the area in action.

“Magic familiar tamers have unique strengths...” Was what Jack concluded. A hawk and eagle’s cries pierce the sky.

Ruggie rubbed the back of his head. “Let’s be real; in this world, birds are a real hassle. As long as you don’t make an enemy of them...”

Strix was already gone by the time Meow Wow inflated. Her eagle dream spirit now willingly massive in size acted as her glider and transporter. Strix’s body dangled as she clung tightly to her Eaglider’s talons until it settled her on the balcony of a dorm room. Eaglider flew to patrol elsewhere alongside Halbird, the hawk dream eater.

Sitting on a chair was Leona playing with a chess piece in his hand. A chessboard was already set up on the table, the black side facing him.

“Enjoying your job, aren’t you.”

Strix allowed a sheepish smirk. She’s not exactly proud to engage in cleaning up people’s messes, but there’s the thrill she finds in it. “To be honest, yeah. I think I might be a sadist at this point...” She mumbled under her breath and continued, “Sorry for the wait. Let’s start.”

Scarabia

“Jamil, a rainbow fish is swimming through the skies!”

“Nonsense. There are no aquatic animals in Scarabia. You probably just saw a magic carpet.”

“Then how come no one told me magic carpets can shoot lasers??”

Before Jamil can decipher whatever the hell Kalim meant by that, the sapphire blue skies turned murky. No, that wasn’t the work of clouds.

To everyone’s bewilderment, they bared witness to a school of colorful fish roaming freely through the air and above the whole dormitory aimlessly.

Lasers shoot from their mouths and make contact with the other to cause sparks to erupt in colorful fireworks. So that’s the laser part...

Kalim’s eyes sparkled. “It’s like the aquariums at Octavinelle, but airborne! *gasp* I just got a great idea for the next party!”

“For the nth time Kalim no more parties this month!”

*whistle* “Fin Fatale’s actually enjoying this. Who’d knew?”

The two boys turn to see Strix approaching them causally.

Strix grinned. “Bet you don’t see this in Scarabia often.”

Pomefiore

Pomefiore students have a tendency to look into a mirror at almost any given opportunity. They recognize every detail of their their highly bestowed beauty, lest they would fail to maintain perfection.

Imagine their surprise when a carbon copy of themselves suddenly replaces their reflection, except in a horrendous eye-burning color palette that screams “clown”

Turns out the copy really is a clown creature with a large tongue. Jestabocky simply loves to prank people at the expense of their reactions, and it took a liking to Pomefiore students.

Strix giggled in amusement, much to Vil’s chagrin. Standing next to the man was a Vil duplicate, except in that hideous orange carrot and lemon yellow palette that made his eyes want to bleed. Of course no one could ever compare to the original, especially a circus mimic at that.

Rook was examining his blood red and ice blue carbon copy. What a refreshing change of pace! “Your dream eaters never cease to amaze, little owl.” “Don’t hunt them for sport though!”

Epel was staring at his clone awkwardly. Cotton candy hair and yellow eyes are an odd combination. And would it stop grinning uncharacteristically like that? It’s freaky.

Strix looks beside her. Teal green hair, violet eyes, and an orange to yellow uniform color scheme. It’s horrendous, but that’s where the fun lies. Her dream eaters don’t know the meaning of color coordination.

Ignihyde

Strix thinks a surprise here and there in the shut-in dorm leader’s life ought to keep him on his toes. She knows how much Ortho wants him to come out his room, and so she’ll deliver just that.

Idia recieved an alert message as he was browsing the net. A window pops up displaying the security camera footage across the entire Ignihyde dorm.

To his horror, rainbows invaded the cameras everywhere he looked. In each one there was a massive bipedal colorful panda doing something to the students behind the screen. One was lifting a student to the air, another swinging and cradling, and others generally giving bear hugs to any soul -dead or living- that enter their vision.

Though the pandas are harmless and students are unharmed (some seem to enjoy it while others are bewildered in shock), Idia was quaking in his chair. If he walks out the room he’ll be crushed by the pandas’ mercy! (And by rainbows and cuteness!)

He zoomed in one of the footages. A Kooma Panda held a sign directly to the camera.

[YOU’RE NEXT]

This is nightmare fuel! Nightmares, he tells you!

Just as he spun around to hide and cower in the safety of his blankets, he had failed to notice the looming shadow over his flaming head prior to this very moment.

There was the same panda. In his bedroom. Staring right into his soul.

It smiled. (I reread this part and lowkey I realized I was writing a FNaF fanfic for a moment wut)

Idia wheezed. How did it get here?! Was it capable of teleporting?!

The shut-in had never ran for the door to the outside world with such eagerness in his life up to now. He slammed the door open and was about to hit the breeze when suddenly he recognized Strix standing right in front of him.

He practically tackled the poor girl (oof). Just when he dreads the contact with the floor, he felt something bouncy push them off. And then the same bouncing source came from behind. Now he’s squeezed between something.

The world spun in his eyes. Light-hearted laughter snapped him out of his trance. His soul actually came close to leaving him the moment Strix’s face registered in his vision. So close!

Two Kooma Pandas were hugging and nuzzling the two in a human-dream eater sandwich. Awww.

From the sidelines, Ortho watched in awe. That’s one way to bring his big bro out of the room. He eagerly joins in the hug fest with Strix and an all-too drained Idia.

Strix giggled and wrapped her arms around Idia and the panda behind him. She was clearly enjoying this. “Happy April Fools~”

Diasomnia

First things first: Strix can’t fool two all mighty and powerful faeries. Instead, she’ll entertain them like she and her dream eaters have always done. After all, boredom is their kind’s biggest enemy.

One day, Diasomnia students were walking down the halls when they notice a colorful bat creature hanging upside down from the ceiling, innocently watching people pass by.

There was one Komory Bat. The next door over there are two. The door after that door appeared three. In front of the dorm gate there may or may not be a bat perched to greet students in and out.

In the library, students are surprised when they’re greeted by the librarian aid...who was working upside down and levitating with gravity magic.

Strix casually acts as though it was natural. When she had to move away from the counter she continued walking upside down on the ceiling. If the ceiling was too high she’d float over just above people’s heads, and address when needed.

Strix likes to mess with Sebek by doing a “handstand” on his broad shoulders while talking to Silver. Sebek would shoo her off and when he does, Strix still pesters him by floating with a mocking haughtiness behind the way she rocks back and forth while grinning mischievously. The sight is hilarious, much to Sebek’s chagrin.

She can see why Lilia likes doing this. By the end of the day though, that’s enough walking on ceilings for the year.

Strix greets Malleus at eye level. “How’d you like it? Not boring, right?”

The horned fae chuckled. The glimmer of accomplishment in her stunning blue eyes amuses him the most. Like a child who proudly boasts their little achievements to appeal to their parents. It was adorable. “Certainly.”

#twisted wonderland #my post #strix noctowl #anon #headcanon asks #diasomnia #heartslabyul #savanaclaw #ignihyde #pomefiore #scarabia #dream eater spirits

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perpetuallylocked · 5 years ago

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Hi!! Can I ask you how you make your aesthetics? And how do you find the photos? Yours are so good they give me inspiration to want to try!

Hi dear anon! You’ve taken the first step in any creative endeavor, which is deciding to try! I know how you feel because I’ve been in your shoes. Here on tumblr and in our general internet world, we get to view so much beautiful content and it can feel like we’ll never measure up. I certainly feel that way sometimes and I still have a lot to learn about design and aesthetic making. I definitely have improved since I first began! You can see those early posts here.

What can we learn by comparing those posts from 2013 (!) to posts from 2020? Well, back in 2013, I didn’t care about searching for high-quality images. Literally, all of those are from a Google search. Back then, I was more focused on finding almost-exact matches of what we see in the game versus color palettes and creating the whole feel of a game. Nowadays, almost all of my images are found on Pinterest. I wholeheartedly recommend creating a separate Pinterest account for finding images. Your boards can be all aesthetic pictures, and your “feed” will become all aesthetic pictures too.

On my Nancy Drew Pinterest, I try and focus on high-quality images or images that I can crop to just get the part I want. If you look through my boards, you’ll notice I save a lot of similar pictures within each game, but the colors may be slightly different, or the angle may be slightly different. There are some pretty hideous images I’ve found that may be almost exact to the game, but I haven’t saved them because I want a higher quality of image. Now, some of those images can be cropped or edited, but they still usually stick out in a bad way. Take a look at my recent VEN aesthetic - the picture of the bobby pins sticks out, and not in a good way. I recolored that picture, but the original quality of the image wasn’t great, so any edits I made to it were essentially putting a band-aid on a big gash.

Creating a cohesive color scheme is probably the most important thing I’ve focused on when making aesthetics. I try not to use more than 3 or 4 main colors in a graphic set. Your eye will be drawn to those brighter, bolder colors, so I try and make them uniform as best as I can. Take a look at my ASH set from the other day - this is probably one of my very favorite aesthetics I’ve made and it’s because of the uniform color scheme! Looking at it, there’s a lot of cream/white, light pink, and light blue, with a few pops of light brown. The general colors within each picture are cohesive. The lightness/brightness of the photos are similar too.

I do all my editing in PowerPoint - yes, PowerPoint. I don’t do anything fancy, I promise! I copy and paste my images into the program, and then use their very basic formatting tools for cropping and changing the saturation and brightness of pictures. Then, once I’ve arranged them how I want them, I copy and paste the individual images into Paint, match up the edges of the individual photos, and crop the whole aesthetic board to get rid of any excess white space on the edges. Finally, I post the boards on tumblr for viewers like you to enjoy!

I hope this helped answer your questions and I am always, always, always happy to answer any more you may have or clarify anything I said above. Please remember as you enter this creative endeavor that comparison is the thief of joy. As I said, I’m still learning and growing and you will always be learning and growing, too. If making aesthetics brings YOU joy, that’s what matters. You may not get many notes at the start, and that’s okay. If you feel happy and proud of what you’ve created, that’s the ultimate goal.

#Asks and Replies

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duamuteffe · 5 years ago

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So @rzrcrst tagged me to post five facts about myself, and then tag others. I’m going to skip the tagging others part because at this point I’ve either known you all for ten years, we’re new acquaintances but she’s already tagged you, or we’re getting to know each other in Discord :)

1) I have been writing fan fiction since I was 14, although at the time the term hadn’t been coined so far as I am aware of. I fell extremely hard for a character in what’s now known as the Old World of Darkness (previously just the World of Darkness, an RPG setting) and that plus a very difficult time in high school meant my self-insert fics were one of the major things that kept me aboveground and sane. I still have all the originals, which have changed formats several times (I originally started writing on a Tandy 1000 with no internal hard drive that required three disk changes to save- thank the gods for rtf) and man, if there’s an illustration of how writing more means you get better it’s those fics. I can see where my style came from, but lord did I not get pacing, plotting, or basic setting design :) Anyway, a couple of years after that I fell hard again for a character from a show, integrated that into the WoD, and started to get serious. I kept writing and never stopped. Now I mostly post things on Ao3 for other people (I’m Hanako_Cinnamon over there, by the way- when I started you couldn’t transition to mainstream publishing contracts if you’d done fan fiction, though now no one gives a fuck) and keep my self-indulgent stuff for myself, and interested friends. I still write it, though, and you should too. There is nothing wrong with giving yourself a fictional escape.

2) Horses are one of the reasons I’m still aboveground. I wanted them my entire life, but my family didn’t have the money for it, so I made due with magazines (Horse Illustrated and Practical Horseman and Hunter And Sporthorse FTW) and Breyers until I was 19, when I managed to get a job apprenticing myself to a family-owned eventing barn with a thirtyish year history when I got there (in 1998. So they’re hitting that fifty year mark soon, gods love them.) They ran Pony Club, taught me everything about the business of barn management, handling, riding, first-aid, teaching, training, et all from the ground up. I did chores and tacked and groomed six days a week, lived in the house with the family, rode every day, and busted my ass working the hardest I have ever worked. It was glorious. I often wish I’d stayed longer than the few years I did, but I think my then-undiagnosed depression finally managed to talk me out of it :/ But I have a set of skills I can use anywhere in the world, and a hobby/art/spiritual practice that gives me great joy and peace. And I have a mare who I love more than nearly anything. (Incidentally, you don’t have to be rich to own a horse, you just have to accept never having any money :)

3) I’m in an RPG. No, really:

This is honestly the coolest thing about me so far as I’m concerned, lol. I have a character in the tabletop RPG Trouble For Hire, which is very cool and very inexpensive, considering, and available on DriveThruRPG if you and your gaming group are in the mood to basically cooperatively make a post-Western action movie starring a lone courier with a cool car and morals he tries to keep hidden in his coat. (And if you do, tell me if Alex is involved. I am so curious as to what people are doing with my character :)

4) My ideal life would involve living in the middle of nowhere (particularly the middle of nowhere I grew up in, Forest County PA) living that solar punk life and farming, hunting, and fishing. And playing boardgames. Lots of boardgames. I like cities as a place to visit- they seem to keep all the museums, libraries, conservatories, aviaries, zoos, big cemetaries, and whatnot in them- but when it comes down to it I want to go to sleep at night knowing my neighbors are more than a mile away and the Milky Way is shining overhead. We’ll still need broadband, though. I have to keep up with what you guys are up to ^_^

5) I am very in favor of body mods, but don’t have the money to pursue the tattoos I want. Yet. Ask me about my eventual designs, though! I would like some more holes in my ears, as I’ve found through a reputable and amazing piercer that I’m not actually allergic to earrings, I just never healed right after having my lobes done at a mall kiosk with a piercing gun that causes crush damage. Go figure. I also favor distinctive outfits, when I can find what I want and also afford it. It’s a relatively new thing for me to embrace my inner clothes-horse; I struggled with my self-image for a long time (remember I mentioned high school being shitty? Yeah. Struggled with self image = thought I was hideous. Seriously.) but in the last few years, and especially getting on medication for that aforementioned depression (and anxiety) I’m starting to look in the mirror and like what I see. Not every time, not every day, and some weeks not at all. But it happens. And I wear plaid miniskirts in public, waiscoats and ties, knee-high boots with buckles and straps (sometimes all in the same outfit) and fuckin’ love it, something that would have made my younger self just *recoil* in astonishment. I regret all the time I hid in shapeless jeans and beat up t-shirts, too afraid to express myself, but I’m making up for it now. And if I can do it, anyone can. Let me know if you need a pep talk on it.

#life in the duamuteffe household

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stormofblue-blog · 5 years ago

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submit | storm of blue press

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thefredricus · 6 years ago

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New Year Surprise (☆▽☆)

I hope you’re all having a lovely New Year’s eve! I have something special for you all tonight: My very first Ripto fanfic! (<-- Link!)

This is the daruma doll that I made a promise to at the beginning of 2018. The promise was to write and publish a fanfiction before New Year’s. I originally planned to write for another fandom, but things happened, yet I decided that I didn’t want to break the promise I made to myself and burn the daruma doll.

However, I decided to split the story in two chapters. The first one was just published and ready for some reading! The second one is on its way and will be posted later this week. I’m so excited to share this with you all! <3

You can either read it below the cut, or go to AO3 and read it there!

Year of the Dinosaur

The sun scorched the cloudless azure sky. Waves were seen lapping against a non-existent shore along the horizon, as non-existent trees reflected in the mirage. But the heat was real. The sand that stung their eyes and nostrils was real. The hunger, thirst and fatigue -- they were all real. The outskirts of Skelos Badlands at solar zenith showed no mercy to the broken duo. Ripto ran a sleeve over his brow to wipe off a disgusting lump of sweat and dust. He wasn’t accustomed to the feel of a new set of scars and still open wounds that ran across his face. Not only did they ache, but they made him feel hideous, even though he hadn’t dared to look at his own reflection since that night. That fateful night… He quickly shook himself out of his stupor.

“Gulp! Is that mountains I see over there? Or is it just another hallucination, like the time you tried to drink from that oasis and ended up with a mouthful of dry sand,” Ripto spat between chapped lips.

The massive quadruped grunted guiltily under Ripto’s frame as he walked and looked away, embarrassed.

“Well, it’d better be! I mean, how far could that bonehead have gone? Crush can’t go more than five minutes without food, we’d have found him dead by now-”

Ripto’s last words echoed out in rough coughs that left the small, wounded dinosaur gasp for air. He clenched his chest with both arms and bent forward in a sickly bark. Reflexively, he reached for one of Gulp’s horns for support, but he crabbed nothing but air and fell forward, rolling off his companion’s muzzle and into the sand below. He felt panic build in his stomach, climbing up his chest, oozing in his throat like acid that ate away everything.

Is this where it was all going to end? Did he escape one hell just to get flung into another?

Ripto’s thoughts were caught short when he felt a tender touch against his forehead and a breeze of warm air that brushed his skin, leaving him with momentary comfort. Gulp hummed softly and kept nuzzling his master, ever so gently. Ripto exhaled slowly, lifting his hands to his companion's face, pressing his forehead against the gentle giant.

“At least I can count on you,” he whispered, more to himself than anyone.

Struggling to get out from the molten lava and grasp whatever debris he could find was an ordeal in itself. Feeling every part of his being burn like a thousand suns on top of that would have been too much, if he wouldn’t have been so excruciatingly headstrong -- and if he wouldn’t have had some help from a certain green dinosaur who pulled him out from the burning inferno and who stayed at his side to nurture him back to as close as what health could be, given the circumstances. After Avalar was reclaimed, with the help of a filthy dragon no less, all dinosaurs were banned to the deserts and crags of Skelos. Whatever vapor Ripto ended up in there and then, finding Crush seemed like a good idea at the time. Better to reunite the trio, he thought. Better wallow in each others’ company, he though. But right now he was not sure if he could even think at all. His head was spinning, his mouth was as arid as the endless dunes surrounding him and his delusions blended seamlessly into reality.

“Are those mountains real, Gulp?” Ripto persuaded, even though they seemed to be miles away.

He could feel the big dinosaur’s snout lifting him up. Slump, the fallen king lay across his servant’s face. The weight of his heavy head and his agonies left him incapable of sitting up. His vision blurred as he faded away.

“Gulp... Take us there.”

***

Ripto’s consciousness returned along with a throbbing headache against his temples. He wasn’t entirely sure if he was seeing double when he opened his eyes, his pupils nothing but sharp slits in the brightness. The sun stood seemingly lower on the sky now, however, and with the sinking sun a cold night would follow. The thought of him staying alive for that long gave him a little bit of comfort. Just then, Gulp stopped abruptly and nodded a gesture, Ripto nearly getting flung off in the process.

“Gah! W-what are you doing, you-”

The irate dinosaur locked eyes with his servant, who now gestured enthusiastically with eyes and eyebrows for his master to turn his head. Having no choice, unless he wanted to get shook off again, he spun his horned head around, the rest of his body still laying flat on Gulp’s snout. Ripto’s eyes grew big in surprise, as his gaze met a large cavern protruding from a vertical crag in the sandy dunes. Partly because the crag was indeed not a mirage but a real, hard mineral formation, and partly because it was coated in a much familiar scent. Ripto sniffed the air. Ungraciously he slumped off Gulp’s wide muzzle and continued sleuthing, ignoring the grains of sand that got stuck in his nostrils and mouth. It smelled stale. It smelled of dinosaur. It smelled of flesh and blood. Ripto wobbled forward.

“Crush? No more hiding, we crossed this god-forsaken desert only to-”

Stale. Crush wasn’t famous for smelling of roses, that was for sure, but… this smelled wrong. It smelled of death. And when a dinosaur of Ripto’s size scented death, it ran. But there was nowhere for him to flee.

It all happened very fast when the lava lizard attacked.

All Ripto could see was a blur of sharp teeth plunging towards him, like an extension of the gaping maw in the rock itself. He wasn’t sure if it was deeply rooted survival instinct or sheer luck that made his body move on its own, throwing itself to the side and dodging his assaulter’s deadly strike. Stuck face-down in the sand, all Ripto could hear was a bone-chilling snarl that sent shivers down his thin frame. The noise eventually died out and a minute of silence followed. Or perhaps it was less than a second. Ripto couldn’t tell. Maybe it was an hour. Just as he was about to get up and shake it off as another hallucination, a heavy foot dug itself into the back of his head, forcing him harder down into the ground. One of the predator’s curved claws clicked against Ripto’s horn, once, twice. The helpless dinosaur felt the grip tighten around him. And then--

The pressure lifted in the fraction of a second, followed by a guttural roar and a blow that shook the earth around him. Yanking his head from the ground, Ripto realized that Gulp had rammed into the lava lizard head first, making use of his body mass and sharp horns to force their attacker off balance. The lava lizard scrambled back onto its feet as quickly as it had fallen, and it wasn’t quite until now that Ripto realized how massive this creature was; a monstrous biped standing a good three meters over the ground, with rough scales draped in a deep burgundy making it look like it just climbed out from the depths of hell. From its forehead grew a twisted horn, much like Ripto’s own. To complete the nightmarish image, its long jaws housed a jumbled mess of fangs and tusks. Ripto could only imagine how much of him there would have been left had the attack succeeded. Seeing Gulp and the lava lizard at a standoff was truly like witnessing a clash of giants. Ripto couldn’t help but feeling very small and insignificant. More so than usual.

Empty handed with his magic scepter long lost, he was helpless against this adversary. So he resorted to doing the only thing he was good at.

“Gulp! Finish it off! Kill it! KILL IT!”

Gulp didn’t need any second command to motivate him further. He swung his horned head into the side of the lava lizard once more, except this time the creature came prepared for his onslaught. With nimble hands, it grasped Gulp by the jaws and bit down his neck, more to catch the quadruped off guard than to do lethal harm. Gulp roared and shook his head frantically, foam flying from the edges of his mouth.

“Behind you, BEHI--!”

Ripto’s cries were in vain, as the massive red lizard shifted and chomped down on Gulp’s back, away from his victim’s reach, and sunk his hellish teeth deep into the green dinosaur’s rind. Gulp’s roars turned into howls that shattered the dead silence of the desert. Using all of its strength, the predatory dinosaur took advantage of the moment and pushed Gulp onto his side. Gulp flailed with his clumsy legs in the air, kicking someone who was out of reach, his mouth foaming and eyes tearing. The lava lizard slowly released his bite with a shrilling wheeze, fresh blood running between tusks and fangs, dripping down on Gulp’s leafy green skin.

Ripto couldn’t look away. Being a predatory dinosaur himself, he knew what was coming next. His companion’s vulnerable underbelly was dangerously exposed for the lava lizard and it would only take moments before a chunk of flesh would be pulled from his chest. Gulp would be eaten alive and Ripto would stand there and watch. Until the lava lizard wanted dessert.

There was really nothing but one option at this point. Ripto inhaled through his nose, puffing himself up like a bird ready to fend off a much bigger rival, and let out the loudest and most fearsome war cry he could ever muster. Then he leapt forward as nimbly and fast as he could, ignoring the tough resistance of sand and grain under his feet, dashing towards Gulp, up over his fallen body and jumped -- claws out, fangs bared -- against his enemy.

When Ripto fell into the pool of lava in Winter Tundra, he remembered that the impact had hurt a bit. But the actual sinking had strangely enough not been that intensely painful as one would imagine. That said, it wasn’t by any means a pleasant experience. His whole body was assaulted with what felt like a million needles that pricked him just at the surface, never truly going under the skin but still causing him plenty of discomfort. The suffocating, however, felt oddly… nice. Relieving, in a way. It felt like a warm hug that embraced him from the inside. He didn’t panic. His mind just slowly wandered off. He didn’t think of the dragon that did this to him. Nor did he think about how small and insignificant he was. Sinking into the lava, he felt bigger, somehow. Maybe even stronger. He couldn’t remember for how long he drifted, lost in oblivion, until all those millions of needles all at once decided to

PIERCE HIS SKIN.

Ripto gasped and filled his lungs with the dusty desert air. But it felt like his lungs never filled up completely. The lava lizard had seen the small dinosaur’s attack miles away, and simply snapped at Ripto, locking him shut in his jaws. Pointed teeth chewed Ripto’s skin and that warm, familiar feeling bubbled up inside of him. But that was only for a second. The lava lizard spun around and flung Ripto effortlessly, but with great force, into the crag horn first. Ripto’s mind went black the moment his head hit the rock.

***

When Ripto woke up again, the air was quite cool. So was the cavern floor he found himself laying on. The contrast from the searing heat was relieving and the air felt much easier to breathe. Ripto’s mind begun wandering back, but his body was still paralyzed, spread out in the darkness of wherever he was. After a minute or so of doing nothing, Ripto had found himself to have let out a monotonous moan ever since he woke, which he ended with a masked cough. Self-aware, but still laying flat on his back with limbs spread out, he scanned what parts he could of his surroundings with half-closed eyes. All he could see was naked rock hidden in the faint light. He slowly turned himself over in an attempt to sit, but vertigo got him immediately and the tiny dinosaur slumped back on the ground nose first. Ow. Something stung him. He opened his eyes and gently raised his head. Some sort of sticky twig was stuck to his delicate snout. He shook his head fast, but that only made him dizzier and the little branch only seemed only to attach more.

“Argh, what the-!”

Furiously, he clawed at his own face in an attempt to free himself of the nuisance. That’s when he noticed that the twig was covered in -- what he assumed to be -- tiny thorns. More enraged than his energy levels should allow, he grabbed the twig from his face with both hands and ripped it off like an old, glued up band aid. Ripto grunted out loud and grinned in anguish, his eyes tearing up. He threw the prickly branch as long as he could muster, only to notice that it was still attached to his hand after the throw.

“Oh, come ON!”

After shaking his hand frantically up and down and back and forth, the little piece of plant finally let go and soundlessly hit the cavern floor. Ripto used his free hand to rub his eyes while cussing under his breath. Blinking back his focus, still a bit wobbly, he tried to regain his balance. It was when he scanned his new home once more that he noticed something odd at the center of the room, a faint shimmer and a very familiar fragrance. Spreading his eyes wider, slit pupils dilating, he had to stare for a good moment to make sure his senses didn’t betray him. There was a smooth depression in the rock which almost looked like it was handmade, and it seemed to be filled with clear, fresh--

“Water!”

Ripto waited no longer. Endless days of thirst with nothing to quench himself but dry, rough sand caught up with him and before he knew it, he plunged himself at the water source, stuffing his whole face into the craggy bowl, not drinking but rather devouring the water inside. He even swallowed gulps through his nose, but he didn’t care, he wasn’t going to stop until every last drop was gone. He would soon find out, however, that the container was somehow refilling itself from the bottom through a pipe-like tunnel that went through the stone, where it must have originated in a freshwater spring, like an oasis. Grabbing the rocky water bowl with both hands, he pulled his head up from the much needed drink and gasped for air, as he caught up in the moment and forgot that dinosaurs can’t breathe underwater. Then he just stood there, silently staring at the water surface, watching as the liquid slowly filled up the small basin. That was the first time in a very long time he had seen his own reflection. He couldn’t tell if the reflected image looking back at him was distorted because of the bubbling water gurgling up from within the depths of the cave. Every part of him seemed to boil, bubbles rising up from under the surface, as if they tried to break free from inside of his skin. A part of his jawline had ripped open, revealing his red gum and sharp teeth beneath. His eyes looked more like dull, scratched up glass beads than real organs. The crooked tip of his horn was missing. The point where it had broken cried brown tears of dried blood.

As the water came flowing back, so did Ripto’s senses and his body woke anew, piece by piece. With it returned the aching of his head, torso and limbs, and the painful memories that accompanied every part. He could feel a distinct stabbing in his chest and with it came the memory of almost being bitten in half by a giant monster. Ripto clenched his small chest with his hand. And noticed-- that it was sticky. Blood? No, this wasn’t it. Looking at his fingers, sniffing, then carefully licking the alien substance with the tip of his forked tongue, he figured it must be some sort of sap. Gasping, he took another look into the water mirror. The tip of his horn was also clogged with the brownish glue, different from the streaks of dried blood that ran down along it. It was almost as if it had been applied there deliberately. Ripto turned around, touching all over his small frame with quick, clawed fingers. There, another lump of sap on his right shoulder, and, oh, it was even on his back too, at the place where the lava lizard’s teeth had pierced his skin. There was even some on his kneecaps and elbows, easily noticeable through his torn attires. Dancing around the room in this curious manner, Ripto misplaced his foot on something that made a cracking noise.

“Ow! What on- YEAGH!”

He had stepped on the prickly twig that was stuck in his face just before he had found the water. Skipping up and down on one foot while swearing excessively, he tried to pull off the unrelenting plant now attached to the underside of one of his feet. While doing so, he noticed that the surface of the cavern floor wasn’t all cold stone. There were leaves. Plenty of them. A pile of it was arranged as bedding, which Ripto must have woken up on. After having forced off the prickly brush and sent it flying a good few meters, Ripto brought one of the leaves up close to his nose and sniffed it. Its scent had a distinguished familiarity to the twig and sap. Could this be-

“Catbat claw?”

Ripto raised an eyebrow. He was indeed familiar with this plant. Dinosaurs, critters and humans alike had used this brushy desert plant as a medical complement since the beginning of time. It grew sparse and only in inhabitable places, but he remember that they always kept some at home when he was a child. It was named after those pesky animals because the thorns were needle sharp and slightly curved and once they got hold of you, they wouldn’t let go. The thorns of course didn’t possess any medical properties, but the leaves did wonders as pain relievers, and the sap could be used to help stop bleeding and speed up the coagulation process. Furthermore, it covered up the smell of blood which could attract other, bigger monsters.

The handmade water basin and leaf bed, the roomy cavern, the Catbat claw -- Someone had saved Ripto and brought him here. Someone was nursing him back to health. But who? Had Crush found him? Ripto looked up. The cavern was dark, but he could still make out a rugged ceiling. Had his horn not be broken off at the top, he would have barely been able to stand straight in the innermost corner of the cavity where he woke up. Past the water bowl in the center of the room, the cave widened as well as the ceiling got higher, but it was still much to small for Crush, or Gulp for that matter, to fit. Besides, Ripto though, Crush was dumb as a doornail. He would never know about the Catbat claw, or be able to apply it as delicately with those huge hands of his. Crush was good at crushing, not nursing, or cooking, or anything at all for that matter.

“And it’s all because of him I’m in this awful mess,” Ripto whispered to himself through clenched teeth.

The thought escaped him immediately as a scraping noise could be heard from the cave’s entrance. Ripto flinched and quickly looked in the sound’s direction. The light outside was dim and cold, and whatever source illuminated the outside world just barely made it possible to distinguish the outlines of the cavern mouth. He stood still for a good few moments. Then the noise stopped. Ripto’s heart pounded fast against his tiny ribcage, and despite trying to stay unnoticable with teeth tightly pressed together, heavy breathing from his nose would betray him. But silence had laid a blanket over the cave and that perked Ripto’s curiosity. Slowly, he tiptoed towards the entrance gap of the cave. He stuck his nose out first, then carefully the rest of his face, eyes deadly focused forward, as if balancing on a tightrope over a canyon. The air against his face hit him as chilly, but not freezing. He cautiously examined his surroundings. Instead of seeing desert sand or dusty, empty plains ahead and around him like he thought he would, he saw more vertical rocks to each side. His gaze climbed down the rock’s surface. There were even more rocks, and it went on for as far as his vision could reach. The air lay completely still and the silence bounced between the high cliff walls. Was he truly up in the mountains, the very mountains he thought he had seen before while on Gulp’s back? Then he looked up. It was night. He didn’t see the moon. But he saw a vast sea of stars. Ripto had always enjoyed nighttime with the twinkling and sparkling of millions and billions little stars. But this was something else entirely. The stars here were drowning the black vastness of the universe, illuminating the sky with whites and yellows, blues and reds. He could hardly even make out any common constellations, because between every zodiac there were countless tiny specks merging into one another, making the ocean of stars more like one enormous celestial body. It was mesmerizing. He may have felt very small that night, but he also felt very alive.

#stay tuned for chapter 2!#ripto #gulp #fanfiction #fanfic #my work #Happy New Year #spyro the dragon

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written-in-light-blog1 · 7 years ago

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“LET US SPEAK OF THE TERRIBLE BEAUTY OF BECOMING OURSELVES”

Illustrating Destiny’s Books of Sorrow with community artist Francine Bridge

One of the most impressive Destiny fan-projects we’ve seen to date has been Francine Bridge’s incredible illustrated rendering of Destiny’s Books of Sorrow. Francine, otherwise known as Witnesstheabsurd, agreed to take some time to answer a few of our questions about her work, its impetus, and what the project means to her.

Written by Seth Dickinson, the Books of Sorrow tell the story of the Hive - and by extension Oryx and his siblings - and give deep, rich background to one of the game’s largest and most important conflicts. Lyric and evocative, the books offer insight into both the Hive themselves and the universe they inhabit, and remain Destiny’s most impressive and most in-depth piece of lore-building. For those who may have joined the community in Destiny 2, or never had the chance to read the original books, they can be read in their entirety here. Francine’s project shows the same impressive attention to detail, and most importantly, the same level of empathy as the works that inspired it. We’re ecstatic to be able to share this conversation with the Destiny community, and we hope you’ll take the time to admire the full project.

You can find Francine on Artstation, as well as on Twitter and Tumblr.

Written in Light: To get things started, tell us a bit about yourself. What you're studying, what field you work in, what you like to do for fun - give us a brief summary of who you are and what's important to you!

Francine Bridge: HI! I'm Francine, although I'm better known online as Witnesstheabsurd. I work as a freelance illustrator and concept artist in the UK - you might have seen some of my work in the game Hiveswap or at labels like Killstar. I do album covers, shirt designs, character/monster etc design work for games, comics, private clients. I'm currently in my 4th and final (I took an extra sandwich year to do a supplemental diploma in professional studies) year of my Illustration and Visual Media BA degree in London, after which I'm probably going to look for more permanent studio/contract work rather than the one-off freelance stuff I've been pursuing while I've been in school.

A couple of years ago, prior to starting the degree, I came out as a trans woman, which is probably an important detail, and it's informed a lot of my work. However, my driving impulse has always been monsters - my preoccupation with Destiny started entirely because a friend of mine showed me screencaps of Oryx after the The Taken King release and I was smitten. Pretty much all of the media I consume, the games I play, the art I create is in pursuit of ever greater or more unique creature and monster design, and they're very dear to my heart.

As far as what I do for fun - my day is 90% working at the tablet, but I find time to play some games and build "gunpla" model kits as well as paw through my artbook collection. Almost everything I do is informed by my profession, so I use my hobbies as a means to access and process more referential or inspirational visual material or techniques. I only recently started sincerely learning how to actually "paint," rather than just do some basic rendering under lineart, so that's been a major part of my work lately.

WiL: Was there anything in particular about Oryx that really drew you to him? Did Oryx come across as particularly great and/or unique to you, or is there something else that struck you with his character or design?

FB: Well, as I said, I'm transgender. In the ‘pitch’ my friend made to me about Oryx as a character, the most interesting aspect to me was that he's a transgender man (although I'm a trans woman, the experience has some shared parallels obviously).

In media, it's incredibly difficult to find trans characters not wholly defined by that aspect of their identity, or who aren't constantly wallowing in the Misery and Tragedy of being trans. I want trans characters who occupy all roles - villain, hero, supporting and main - and it's rare to find anyone who's more than a token or like, tragedy porn. Oryx super resonated with me because he was this figure who acquired power and immediately transitioned, asserting his identity in a way that couldn't be defied - Oryx's story is very much one about self-definition and the value of existence under your own terms, which are very important concepts to me.

When I decided to start work on illustrating the Books I actually reached out to Seth Dickinson, the author Bungie contracted to write them (and the Cabal Booklet/odd flavour text, by the way) to get some specific questions answered and he was kind enough to respond and was very cooperative and supportive. Among the things I asked about I wanted to know if Oryx was consciously written as transgender character or if it was just a coincidental "weird alien race" flourish. I was very happy to learn Seth had purposefully written Oryx that way, and that he was happy people took strength from it.

It's very novel to have, like, a "trans power fantasy"... a character who acquires absolute power over the self and instantly rewrites the contract between themselves and their body that so many of us spend our entire lives making adjustments to and renegotiating for some measure of peace. It was satisfying, refreshing.

Oryx is super cool to me on multiple visual levels obviously as well, being a mineral-encrusted deep space insect mummy warlord, but that element specifically sets him apart for me, and always will. It's cool to know that a trans character in Destiny can also be a hideous monster from beyond the stars.

WiL: Nice! I've wondered if Oryx was intentionally written to reflect a transgender person. I'm glad to hear a positive answer to that question, and I'm glad you found strength in it!

My next question is, why did you decide to take on this project? I mean, it's very clear that you love Oryx, so that factor is a given, but you mentioned in your original post that this was something you did for your degree. Care to elaborate on that?

FB: So, the structure of my illustration degree is such that while we’re given specific "briefs," such as topics or techniques, the final year gives us significantly more free rein. We're obligated to complete three "projects" and author a thesis over the course of the final year, but the subject matter, material, everything about those projects is our call. The outcomes are judged based solely on technical and professional development rather than adherence to a specific brief.

This left the field wide open for me to kill two birds with one stone and bring in a project I had intended to do anyhow, but hadn't had the time or space for; something that I was sincerely passionate about rather than an edict handed down by a tutor. Illustrating the Books of Sorrow was something i'd wanted to do ever since I first read them back in The Taken King, and I jumped at the chance. In addition, while i've produced and formatted artbooks before (My first published work, The Occult Supergiant Primer, can be found here ), I've been able to recoup the time invested away from client work in sales and funding. The Books are obviously material belonging to Bungie and I can't justify selling copies, digital or otherwise, of my illustrated version, so I had to find some other reason to make this investment of time and unpaid work worthwhile as well as enjoyable.

Being able to use the work produced to further my degree was the perfect "excuse.” That said, I've received so much attention from the Destiny community at large, including commissioned work from several new clients, that it would have easily been worth it regardless.

WiL: Your work definitely deserves the attention, you clearly have a strong sense of design! Would you be willing to tell us a little bit about the process you went through to make the Books of Sorrow? Do you have any early versions or storyboards that you'd like to share? Or did any of the illustrations go through any major changes from start to finish, and would you be willing/able to show us that process and talk a bit about why you made the changes you made?

FB: The greater part of the Books came together incredibly smoothly and naturally, with very little iteration required on specific pieces. The images had been stewing in my mind ever since I read the original verses a few years ago and they were more than ready to be rendered. What did require a lot of research, development and false starts were the designs for the sisters, Savathûn and Xivu Arath. Both of them have yet to appear ingame in any major capacity (although it's looking likely Savathûn is going to be a Year 2 DLC), so it was up to me to create designs for them that:

Satisfied the descriptions appended to them in the verses, as light as they were, and also matched the info Seth gave me

Satisfied my own personal expectations and interpretation

Conformed to the lore and the existing known morphology of the Hive in a way that would make them recognizable to a player with no prior familiarity with the Books

Balancing these principles lead to a lot of internal back and forth - Savathûn was easier because we had already seen her brood in D2 on Titan, so I knew to emphasize ornate crests, bonelike texture and a slightly less mineral, more biological look by comparison to Oryx's brood, the hive we exclusively encountered in D1. She was tough at first but ultimately fell into line with something satisfying for me, which actually drew a lot from the Xenomorph Queen in Aliens.

Xivu Arath was a little trickier because she had to be distinct from Oryx, who kind of already occupies the "big mineral/bone-encrusted bruiser" archetype visually, so I had to take her even further. I spent a lot of time wondering whether she would have any ornamentation like some of the bigger Knights (Alak-Hul comes to mind), given that she represents the "ultimate" Knight morph, but I eventually eschewed all decoration in favour of something reflecting her nature in the narrative: blunt, implacable, spartan. She dispenses with the ritual and hierarchical trappings the other siblings indulge in - notably she decides that all battlefields are her Court, rather than entertaining a court herself, and she tends to default to just brutally bludgeoning whatever stands in her way rather than making an appeal to the Deep or engaging in trickery. I was very satisfied with how she turned out, and the piece featuring her is easily one of my favourites.

WiL: I was going to ask which piece is your favorite! Do you have a Top 3 that you're most proud of?

Is there anything about the Books that you wish were different, or is there something you wish you had the opportunity to draw for this project but couldn't justify including it?

FB: I have a strong tendency to favour whichever the last piece I completed was, because by default I'm always proudest of my most recent work and very rapidly lose favour with pieces even like, a week old. That said, I think overall the strongest piece for me personally would be Oryx slaying Akka, alongside the final Wormfood painting and the Savathun piece, although honorable mentions go to Xivu Arath and Quria, Blade Transform.

I can't say there's anything about the Books specifically I wish was different. The part of me that's purely consuming it as a narrative wishes that they had found Taox, that there had been some confrontation there. I feel like there's a very strong "childhood vengeance" element to the Taox subplot, like when you're put down by an adult for drawing in class and you fantasize about coming back to the school years later as a wildly successful artist and making them admit they were wrong to have stopped you. A key part of that fantasy is recognizing it as a remnant of childhood, this impulse born out of a narrower perspective and inflated self-worth, and realizing you can move past that shit (Although if/when I do become a wildly successful artist there might be a few teachers I'll look up).

Ultimately, I think the arc of the books and what the story is trying to say about distortion of intent and self makes Taox disappearing a much more emotionally resonant and interesting turn. It would be neat if Taox turned up somewhere in-game, and became the focal point of a new Hive offensive. An entire species/culture with such a specific individual grudge is a fascinating concept.

With about a month and a half of time allotted for the project and 50 verses, there was a lot of stuff I had to cut despite how much it hurt - in a complete version I would have wanted a painting for every verse, but specifically I would have liked to draw Akka in full, the Dakaua War Angels, the Harmony/Gift Mast, the Qugu; basically I would have given form to the many species and cultures Seth conjures up with a few phrases and a loose description but still manages to make incredibly evocative.

WiL: Do you think you'll ever return to the project and draw those images, either as standalone pieces or as an update to the PDF you've already made?

FB: An update to the .pdf itself is unlikely. I tend to consider projects released to be complete, and usually by the time I revisit a subject I'm not obligated to work on it will have been a few years at the very least. I tend to have developed my technique and approach enough that new pieces inserted retroactively would look somewhat disjointed in terms of quality and style. The chance of releasing standalone paintings - especially of points of specific interest for me like say, Akka in his entirety, the Dakaua war angels, the Qugu, etc. - is significantly higher. Whether that happens sooner or later depends entirely on what my current workload looks like, and aside from the incredibly generous and supportive response to the project from the larger community the Books are very much a passion project and have to be weighed against, say, contract or school work going forwards.

WiL: That makes sense. What other projects do you have going on right now, if any?

FB: Just this morning I decided on the subject of my final degree project, which I'm also planning to run as my second artbook with an accompanying Kickstarter and print run - something I can actually sell as well as being material that excites me! It's entirely too early to disclose any specific details about it though.

Other than that, I continue to produce odd pieces of fanart in between a regular flow of client work both from private individuals and studios. I guess I can safely say I'll be doing more work on the second Homestuck game after contributing to the first, as well as doing some designs for a music video I was contracted for, and also finishing my thesis for the aforementioned degree.

The key thing, I think, is to keep moving - I get very anxious when I'm spinning my wheels between projects, and the temptation to linger on the threshold a while longer is incredibly strong, especially when there's always the fear your new work will fail to surpass what's come before. Reaching a personal peak like some of the paintings I did for the Books of Sorrow is a double-edged sword, and it can signify both a great accomplishment and a raising of the bar that can be daunting to follow. I'm confident that whatever you see from me next will manage it, though!

WiL: Believe me, after talking with you for a while, I'm confident your next project will meet your expectations. You are a very talented and very ambitious artist, and we can’t wait to see where your career takes you! It’s been a pleasure to talk to you, and we’re looking forward to your next Destiny passion project.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity

All images courtesy Francine Bridge

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amethystfaery-blog1 · 7 years ago

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Faery Folk Wicca

Just about every witch knows about them, but they remain to be some of the most mysterious parts of witchcraft and paganism. They faye (fay, fae, or however you may spell it) are a range of beings that, while they aren’t human, do have an effect on the lives of humans, be it benevolent, neutral, or occasionally malevolent. They take many forms, from the house brownie of Scotland to the Dryads of the Greek woods. I’ll be focusing on house and garden fae, which are the one’s I’ve had the most experience with.

Note: This is by no means a definitive list, and the fae in your realm may behave differently from those described here. Be mindful of the fae folk as they are quite powerful, and in many cases, to anger one is to anger all, so please treat them with respect. It is also important to note that fae are not to be confused with spirits, that is, the presence of a person who has died. They are entirely separate, and I may do a blog on them later.

Brownies- A personal favorite of mine, brownies are small humanoids that reside in the unused parts of a house, often closets, attics, crawl spaces, or holes in the wall. They help about the house with tidying and general upkeep, generally in exchange for small gifts of food. They are said to enjoy honey and porridge the most. They are a skittish lot, and work almost exclusively at night. If the humans of a house misuse the brownie’s work, trying to get them to do more than the brownie is willing, or if they refer to the food left for the brownie as payments, this will generally cause the brownie to leave. They were generally treated as small, absent family members, with wealthy houses even leaven a small seat for them open next to the hearth.

Hobs- Hobs are similar to brownies in that they do help with work, but they do gardening as well as housekeeping. More powerful hobs are said to make plants grow faster, and some could cure illnesses such as whooping cough. Another difference from the brownie is that they tend to move about, from one area to another, as they please. If a hob proved a nuisance, as they would occasionally, a set of new clothes as a gift could usually cause them to move on. Hobs, along with brownies, were the inspiration for J.K. Rowling’s house elves as well.

Goblins- a wide range of fae that are generally malevolent without being dangerously so. They are many different kinds, including boogeymen, ghouls, bugbears, and wirry-cows. They all share in the delight in frightening humans, as well as a general propensity towards vice, such as a goblin’s notorious greed. What sets them apart from other malevolent fae is that other than fear, and rarely theft of objects, they have little to no effect on the lives of humans.

Banshees- Banshee’s are different. A Banshee is a generally female fae that begins to wail as she senses that someone is dying. Originating in Ireland, far off heard shrieks were, and by some still are, seen as auguries of death. There is some dispute as to whether a banshee is a fae or spirit, I’ve put her here for now.

Changelings- Changelings are said to be fae that spirit away human children, generally infants, and replace them with a changeling child. These children are supposed to grow and develop differently from a ‘real’ child, often in unpleasant or disturbing ways. Dismissed by many people in the modern world as an ancient explanation for disabilities and mental handicaps, some people in the aforementioned communities have begun to identify with changelings, feeling that they are of a separate species, raised away from their true people. Children were believed to be vulnerable to changelings until they were baptized, or at least blessed.The existence of changelings is still a hotly debated topic among neo-pagan communities, just as they were once great fears of new families.

Hobgoblins- Aptly named, these fae contain the helpfulness of a hob, and yet also have a much wider trickster streak like a goblin. They appreciate gifts like brownies, but will leave if offered clothes like a hob. The most famous hobgoblin perhaps is Puck of A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare, who perfectly captured the balance of mischief and aid a hobgoblin tends to offer. They are often described as small, hairy men.

Domovoi- A Slavic fae that stood as protector of the house. It may live inside of the stove, under the threshold, or with livestock. It’s said to be masculine, and resemble the master of the house, but almost always having a grey beard, and sometimes small horns or tails. The Domovoi keeps guard over the house and may help with gardening, and like the brownie, takes joy in small gifts, though the Domovoi enjoys tobacco, bread, salt, and oil as well as milk, honey, and porridge. He also acts as an augur, if he’s dancing, singing, or laughing, it is said that good times are ahead, but if he wails, especially in the night, or worse, makes himself deliberately visible to a member of the family, death or misfortune is on its way.

Nymphs- Nymphs are feminine fae that are tied to a specific natural place or formation, such as a forest, mountain, grotto, sea, river, glade, or meadow. Though benevolent, many early peoples, and especially early Christians, feared their forward and often wanton sexual nature. Many of them were taken as wives or consorts of the Greek gods, and through these contacts bore immortal children and demigods, as well as cyclopes and other monsters. A nymph is tied to their formation/land, and will not leave, though they can die/ be transformed by a god to a hideous/evil form if they gain ill favor.

Dobbies- Not to be confused with the famed house elf from the Harry Potter franchise, dobbies are small creatures that inhabit stables and protect horses. Little is known about them except that they are extremely skittish and cannot bear to be seen by humans. It it believed that if a horse is well cared for, particularly if the stall is clean, a dobbie may be attracted to sleep in the clean straw. The name dobbie comes from an old English word for work horse, dobbin.

Kobold- A German house-fey that is something akin to a more mischievous brownie. If insulted, they may bring misfortune upon the house, causing broken and lost items. They have many appearances, and may appear as a dog, cat, flame, or small child, however they are almost always invisible, and should NEVER be pursued. They hate more than any other fae mentioned to be seen by humans, and have been told to drive insane or even murder those who seek to trick them into revealing themselves, capture them, or even track their footprints through flour or ashes. Please be careful!

Aitvaras- A Lithuanian creatures that take the form of a white or black rooster when inside, but become a ferocious dragon when in the open air. They are equally malevolent and benevolent, often providing grain and other goods for the house, only for the owners to find that it was stolen from a neighbor, and for the owner to get in serious trouble. They hatch from the eggs of roosters, specifically those 9-15 years old, but some believe the only way to get one is to buy one from ‘the devil’, at the price of one’s immortal soul. Once they inhabit a dwelling, they cannot leave.

Kitsune- Japanese for fox, these creatures may take many fox based forms, from a regular fox to a nine tailed one, or even a woman with fox features. They live on their own, but occasionally attach themselves to a household, in which case they may behave similarly to aitvaras, bringing ill gotten fortune to the household, since they are Yōkai, they don’t have a human sense of morality. They may offer gifts or payments which are very different things. A kitsune payment, usually offering money or other material items, is almost always paper, leaves, twigs, or stones under a spell, and is truly worthless. A gift, however, is almost exclusively intangible, and may be protection, knowledge, or long life.

That’s all I have for now, but If I find any others, I’ll be sure to post! Let me know if any of you have a house or garden spirit! Thanks, and may blessings come to you all!

#faery witch #wicca #magick #fae #grimoire #fey

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minaminokyoko · 7 years ago

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Deadpool 2: A Spoilertastic Review

One thing I've noticed over the years is that there's nothing like it when someone busts their ass to make a movie happen, defying all odds, and pours their sweat, blood, tears (and in Deadpool's case, probably other fluids we don't want to know about) into a film, and it turns out to reward them spectacularly. Deadpool was one of those movies. They fought for years to get that movie made after the disgraceful ruination of the character in X-Men Origins: Wolverine and they did him justice beyond words. It was magnificently done. It damn near beat Jesus, for fuck's sake. Actual Jesus.

And that's why I think that I don't like the sequel as much.

I've seen this happen many times: a sleeper hit or an unexpected smash hit blockbuster exceeds all expectations and then puts out a sequel. Well, unfortunately, sometimes success can ruin your party. Success, accolades, and the second highest grossing Rated R film of all time had an influence on how Deadpool 2 turned out, if you ask me. When you're not starving for it, then it means that sometimes punchlines don't land as hard, writing is not as tight, and scenes aren't as memorable. When you're already fat and happy, sometimes your motivation to make the best thing ever is just servicable at best.

I think Deadpool 2 is an enjoyable movie, but I think it didn't want it as badly as the first movie did because it was already fat, happy, and satisfied from the first film. Thus, I think they didn't try as hard to make it the best movie possible. It's still a good movie, but it can't compete with the first film by any stretch, and I'll explain why. Naturally, spoiler alert.

Overall Grade: B-/C+

Pros:

-Deadpool himself is still funny, even if the change in tone puts a damper on a lot of the enjoyment.

-Domino shines like a freaking diamond. I already like Zazie Beetz from what I saw of her in FX's show Atlanta, so I was jazzed when they announced her for the role. She still blew my expectations out of the water. I had never seen her do a physical role before, and she absolutely sold me. I'd love to see her in sequels and I sure as hell would watch a spin off of her with other female heroes should the Deadpool franchise get to borrow some X-Men in what I pray will someday be a collaborative effort between Fox and Marvel Studios. She's fantastic. She's the black girl magic the world needs to know about, and I'm so happy studios are coming around realizing black women are a massive untapped source of awesome in superhero films. For the longest time, Storm was all we had and she was weaksauce due to poor writing, but we've slowly been seeing more inclusion with the women of Black Panther and Valkyrie from Ragnarok and now Domino. Keep 'em coming, superhero movies. Black women deserve to conquer the genre and usher in other women of color alongside them.

-The X-Men pulling the door shut gag was top notch. Kudos. Even though it raises some seriously weird questions timeline-wise, I howled. That was brilliantly addressed, especially since it's so painfully obvious in the first movie that Colossus and Negasonic Teenage Warhead were all Fox's stingy ass wanted to spare for poor Mr. Pool.

-Dupinder is still fucking adorable and precious and I'm glad he got his moment of glory.

-The Juggernaut getting a second shot was absolutely fantastic. I was trying to guess who it would be and then I saw that helmet and I might as well have done a fucking T-Rex roar in my seat the theater. Juggernaut was done right. He was everything I dreamt he would be ever since that disappointing appearance in X-Men 3. Don't get me wrong--Vinnie Jones had the right attitude, but making him just regular size guy defeats the whole purpose of why he's so unstoppable and terrifying. He literally ripped Deadpool in half. That was awesome, as was his grudge match with Colossus. I loved them going toe to toe with each other. It was staged extremely well. Aside from Domino, Juggernaut vs. Colossus was by far my favorite part of the film.

-Minor point, but I loved Deadpool's reaction to Yukio. He seemed genuinely charmed by her and vice versa and it was fucking adorable.

-The second post credits scene is exactly as good as the hype made it out to be. Oh God. Deadpool shooting Barakapool several times was just...I mean, it was the cherry on top of the sundae. It was so satisfying, as was the joke about shooting himself before he could star in Green Lantern. I love that Ryan Reynolds was so self aware that he severely fucked up his career from pretty much 2011 until 2016 when he finally got Deadpool made. He knew this movie was the only way he'd ever get himself out of that ditch in his career and I think it was a worthy redemption for sure. I also am so relieved they undid Vanessa's death, because that's the second biggest con I have for this movie as you'll see below.

-The Logan reference had me in stitches. It was so wrong, but so damn funny.

-The "blink and you'll miss it" Brad Pitt cameo. Fuck, that was amazing and surprising, thank you.

-The other "blink and you'll miss it" Alan Tudyk cameo. Holy shit, does Disney really like this man. I am so happy to see Wash getting some really great roles over the years. He's doing great.

Cons:

-Stuffing Vanessa in the Fridge. Alright, so technically I shouldn't put this in here because Deadpool fixes it in the end credits, but it pisses me off that they even attempted this stupid fucking trope. I am tired of dead girlfriends and dead wives used for Mangst. Fucking. Stop. It. Women are just as valid as men as characters. Stop killing them just to make the hero turn Super Saiyan. It's possible to still motivate the male motherfuckers without killing the girl and putting them on a revenge spree or depression spiral. It's lazy writing and all of Hollywood needs to move on from this tired ass trope. Vanessa was extremely charming, funny, and likable in the first Deadpool movie and Morena Baccarin is and has always been so wonderful to enjoy on screen in her dramatic and comedic work. I am so pissed off they Fridged her to only be in five minutes of the fucking movie. They shouldn't have even bothered putting her in the damned credits because she was only there for such a short period. If she didn't have time to film the movie, fine, just find another excuse that she's not there. Morena deserved better, dammit.

-Changing the tone of the film franchise from a screwball comedy to an action "movie" with jokes in it. This is the biggest reason I didn't like this movie as much as the first Deadpool movie. The first Deadpool movie is arguably a parody of superhero films. It takes most of the tropes and pokes fun at them in a really great way, but it also still manages to be a legit, streamlined revenge love story. It strikes the exact tone we'd all been craving ever since we heard the Deadpool movie would be greenlit. So why the fuck is the sequel written like an X-Men movie, but with more jokes? I hate the serious tone. I hate Wade moping over Vanessa, I hate the whole "family" bullshit that is spoken with a straightface somehow despite being almost as unearned as that hideous one in Suicide Squad, I hate Cable moping over his dead family, and I hate the "you're not my friend" bullshit between Wade and the incredibly annoying fat kid whose name I refuse to learn because he irritated me so much. Why did they play it all straightfaced? Why was I expected to see a "real story" in a Deadpool movie? The entire reason I like this franchise and haven't seen an X-Men film (not counting Logan) in years is because the X-Men franchise has completely played itself out. It's substandard acting, substandard writing, it doesn't adapt the comics the way it should, and it's just repetitive. All the movies since First Class are the same. The prequel babies are finally going to just end the charade with Dark Phoenix and I think most of the world is relieved because they have nothing creative or new to offer any longer. Deadpool 2 reeks of that same kind of lame writing and execution. There was no reason to switch the format. I pray to God they go back to formula in X-Force or Deadpool 3. I hate this change with a passion.

-The fat kid is annoying as hell. There, I said it. Fight me if you must. He had no sense of self preservation and the movie didn't go into enough detail to make me care about him in spite of how teeth-grindingly stupid and obnoxious he was. He was written like a twelve year old boy writing fanfiction about himself and Deadpool becoming best buds and fighting crime together. No. No, stop that right now. I don't want any part of it. I get the "he's just a kid" thing but the kid is an asshole and even if he's somehow justified, he's a pain in the ass to watch from start to finish. I also think the kid needs some acting lessons, but that's not entirely his fault. I think he probably just wasn't directed all that well, so I can let that slide, but I did notice it during the film.

-I don't care about Cable. Cable and Deadpool are righteous as fuck in the comics. In this movie? No. This is why I was against Josh Brolin being cast. He has no chemistry with Ryan Reynolds. I get that Cable is the Straight Man to Deadpool's Kooky Man, but they don't gel together at all. I never sensed any bonding even though they are setting it up for franchise reasons. He's just not interesting and he plays the role as blandly as he does all his boring ass biopics and other bland roles. Brolin worked much better as Thanos than he did Cable. Thanos had weight and was threatening and even though his reasoning was utter bullshit, at least he was convicted. Brolin's Cable just felt like some stock stoic character thrown in there as the minor antagonist. I still would have much preferred Liam Neeson or Ron Perlman, and yes, I understand both of them are getting up there in years, but we've seen older actors still kick ass and be in shape, so I think they could have done it if they were offered the part. Brolin is still one of the most drab actors I've ever seen and he just doesn't pull the role off, imo.

-The bait and switch with the X-Force team. This is a minor note for me, as I don't have a background with these characters so it's more for people who know these characters elsewhere and were expecting an awesome team up movie but that's not what they got. Are the gruesome deaths kind of funny? Yeah, sure, but it's kind of rude to advertise them that way and they're not in the movie. I just frown on it. It's not a dealbreaker. It was just disappointing in the same way that the Mandarin in Iron Man 3 was disappointing. I expected more and I got a farce instead.

-I don't know if it's for legal reasons, but it drives me crazy that we still didn't get a Wolverine cameo from Hugh Jackman. I mean, we finally got Deadpool--the real one--and I just want him and Ryan to share the screen again because even though Origins was trash, they were magical together.

-Deadpool's last "death" went on way too long. I was checking my watch. They really should have pulled the trigger on that gag. It was exhausting and not very funny to begin with.

-Negasonic Teenage Warhead getting reduced to an extra pissed me off. She was so great in the first movie and she doesn't get to do anything here and it irks the hell out of me.

-Aside from The Juggernaut vs. Colossus, the fight scenes weren't nearly as creative, cinematic, or memorable as the first film. I've already forgotten everything except the JvC fight and the convoy rescue scene. That's a bummer for me.

-The movie just isn't as funny as the first film. It's not the same kind of tight writing with excellent punchlines and ridiculous phrases that made me remember them. It's been a few days and I don't recall any insults or lines that stuck with me. I'll likely be seeing it again for Memorial Day weekend, but I still don't expect I'll remember much from it.

-Nitpick: God, I still want to push T.J. Miller off a bridge. He is not funny and never has been.

-Nitpick: WHY HAS NO ONE MADE A FIREFLY JOKE ABOUT MORENA BACCARIN AFTER TWO FUCKING DEADPOOL MOVIES?! COME ON. DEADPOOL IS ALL ABOUT NERD REFERENCES. GODDAMMIT MENTION FIREFLY YOU FUCKS. (But to be fair, this could also be because Fox is the reason we only got one season and so maybe they were forbidden from doing it. Still. That pisses me the hell off. Especially since Ryan Reynolds and Nathan Fillion (1) have both played the Green Lantern and (2) were on a sitcom with each other for years. Inexcusable.)

I'm sorry it sounds like I'm shitting on the movie. Really, it's enjoyable. I just think that maybe the first movie set the bar so high I can't help but feel frustrated by the sequel not trying as hard. Based on the online reactions, I'm on my own so...take that as you will, friends. Kyo out.

#Deadpool #Deadpool 2 #Wade Wilson #Cable and Deadpool #movie review #film review #Ryan Reynolds #Morena Baccarin #Josh Brolin #Zazie Beetz #spoiler alert #spoilers

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civilcoconstruction · 4 years ago

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A Budget Bathroom Remodel in Atlanta Goes Clean & Luxe

Hoping to spend just $5K on their Atlanta bathroom remodel, these homeowners leaned on their Black-owned contracting firm for help

“After” photos by Jaksnap Photography. Stylist: TFStyle Homes, LLC

Written in partnership with the Sweeten homeowner

Before: Deciding to remodel an uncomfortable bathroom Atlanta

We initially looked for a move-in-ready home, but hadn’t found many within our budget in our desired Atlanta suburb of Clarkston. The bathrooms in our new split-level house—built in 1982—would need to be remodeled eventually; we’d tackle those jobs as we could afford them. Three years later and with a toddler in our midst, we were ready. The master bathroom would be our first big project.

We had many problems with the original en-suite bathroom. Mainly, it was hideous. I disliked the wall color, the warped laminate vanity, and the stick-on floor tiles. Not only was the pattern terrible, but the tiles were coming unglued. The worst offender was the plastic-insert shower. It was small and claustrophobic, and no amount of scrubbing would remove its mold and mildew stains. Even just-cleaned, the bathroom felt dirty. I couldn’t stand showering in there.

The search for a compatible contractor

I’d already gotten a few estimates, but we were looking to work with a Black-owned contracting firm, and hadn’t found one with availability. The fact is, not many contractors want to take on one tiny room, not to mention on a minuscule budget. Then I stumbled on a Sweeten blog post featuring Black-owned firms. I posted my project on Sweeten and found the general contractor I wanted to work with. I felt really good about her, and she was willing to squeeze us into her schedule.

Sweeten matches home renovators with vetted general contractors, offering advice, support, and up to $50,000 in renovation financial protection— for free.

After: Finding solutions on a shoestring budget

As first-time renovators, our biggest question was, “What is this supposed to cost?” We had a limited budget and no idea what was reasonable. Our budget was $5,000, but quickly realized how many corners we’d have to cut. We couldn’t afford to change the floorplan, so we agreed on the goal of transforming the bathroom into a pleasant, relaxing space. I decided to save money by designing the bathroom myself, and doing it around an existing light fixture.

A crash course in bathroom design

I started Pinteresting and vision-boarding. We considered replacing the shower insert for thrift’s sake, but the contractor said it would just get gross again. I had no idea what went into building and tiling a shower. I found out it costs a lot more to install small subway tile than it does to lay a larger tile. In addition, I learned that a shower floor’s drainage slope requires mosaic tile, and the ones that come in sheets save the most labor-wise.

With so many types of tile out there, we were glad to have the options narrowed for us. We chose large-format ceramic tile for the shower walls and sheets of hexagonal mosaic tile for the shower floor—in marble, as I wanted just one aspect to be luxurious. Even with the thoughtful choices, the materials and labor proved costly. We gave up replastering the walls, removing the stippling from the ceiling, and installing a recessed light in the shower, all to keep costs down. We even kept the existing toilet, since it was fine.

Coaching and economy

There were moments when I felt like, “We just can’t afford to do this the right way,” but our Sweeten contractor helped us identify projects we could do ourselves (caulking holes and repairing molding). We chose cheaper floor tile for the room. An inexpensive vanity helped, and I found the mirror at a discount home store for around $30. This allowed us to save and use quality materials where they mattered.

Our Sweeten contractor provided great input and direction—including talking me out of some bad tile choices and kindly suggesting bright, simple colors and patterns. She never took over the vision. She was organized and communicative, and we appreciated her helping us stay (almost) within our revised budget, even after plumbing issues popped up.

The final budget—and excellent outcome

All told, we more than doubled the original budget (thanks to our family for the generous gift!) coming in just at the starting minimum cost for a bathroom. This included labor, materials, random plumbing parts, and a zillion trips to Home Depot for the paint and other stuff I did on my own.

The final result is the spa bathroom of my dreams. It’s so serene! My first bathroom with a glass shower door and a natural stone floor, both of which feel truly luxe. It’s so lovely to walk in there now. Everything is well-installed and of good quality. It’s exactly what we hoped for.

Thank you for sharing your dream bathroom remodel in Atlanta with us!

Materials Guide

BATHROOM RESOURCES: Alpine Frost Rigid Core Luxury Vinyl Plank (LVT) floor tile; Pearl Veincut polished ceramic shower wall tile; Blue Forest hexagon polished marble mosaic shower floor tile: Floor & Decor. PROFLO chrome towel racks: Target. Spectra-Versa 4-function complete shower system: American Standard. Glass shower doors: The Shower Door Guy. Behr Ultra paint in Brisk Blue; Behr Premium paint in Distant Star; Home Decorators Collection Sedgewood 30 1/2″ bath vanity in Dove Gray with solid surface vanity top in Arctic and white Sink: Home Depot. Ladera 4″ centerset faucet in polished chrome: Pfister. Mirror: HomeGoods. Toilet and lighting: Existing.

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Be prepared for these hidden costs in Atlanta and roll with a smoother renovation journey.

Sweeten handpicks the best general contractors to match each project’s location, budget, scope, and style. Follow the blog, Sweeten Stories, for renovation ideas and inspiration and when you’re ready to renovate, start your renovation with Sweeten.

Source link

from CIVICLO Construction & Interior https://civilco.construction/a-budget-bathroom-remodel-in-atlanta-goes-clean-luxe/

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mujeeburrehman · 4 years ago

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A Budget Bathroom Remodel in Atlanta Goes Clean & Luxe

Hoping to spend just $5K on their Atlanta bathroom remodel, these homeowners leaned on their Black-owned contracting firm for help

“After” photos by Jaksnap Photography. Stylist: TFStyle Homes, LLC

Written in partnership with the Sweeten homeowner

Before: Deciding to remodel an uncomfortable bathroom Atlanta

The search for a compatible contractor

Sweeten matches home renovators with vetted general contractors, offering advice, support, and up to $50,000 in renovation financial protection— for free.

After: Finding solutions on a shoestring budget

A crash course in bathroom design

Coaching and economy

The final budget—and excellent outcome

Thank you for sharing your dream bathroom remodel in Atlanta with us!

Materials Guide

—

Be prepared for these hidden costs in Atlanta and roll with a smoother renovation journey.

Source link

source https://civilco.construction/a-budget-bathroom-remodel-in-atlanta-goes-clean-luxe/ from Civilco Construction & Interior https://civilcoconstruction.blogspot.com/2021/03/a-budget-bathroom-remodel-in-atlanta.html

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segadores-y-soldados · 8 years ago

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Death Becomes You

“And now was acknowledged the presence of the Red Death. He had come like a thief in the night. And one by one dropped the revellers in the blood-bedewed halls of their revel, and died each in the despairing posture of his fall. And the life of the ebony clock went out with that of the last of the gay. And the flames of the tripods expired. And Darkness and Decay and the Red Death held illimitable dominion over all.” - Edgar Allan Poe, The Masque of the Red Death

I. AM. HYPED. YA’LL.

OH MAN, THIS IS GONNA BE A BIG ONE - you’ve probably seen me screaming a bunch of disconnected thoughts all day, but I’M READY, I’m ready to put a bunch of the pieces together.

http://segadores-y-soldados.tumblr.com/post/163184670305/yall-keep-saying-that-reaper-is-wearing-a-phantom

If you haven’t seen it, I’d encourage you to give the animated version a try:

https://reader.madefire.com/work/OVERWTACH-DOOMFISTMASQUERADE/read/10

I’m gonna stick with the same formatting as last time, but to reiterate:

http://segadores-y-soldados.tumblr.com/post/162693778075/talon-clawing-to-the-top

A lot of my ideas are connected to this. I’d recommend reading it because I’m not gonna go over every point again but:

[Main Hypothesis]: the “global conflict” that Doomfist’s faction within Talon has been trying to spread is the Second Omnic Crisis. - [EFFECTIVELY CONFIRMED]

[Subset Hypothesis]: the group within Talon that is trying to prevent this is none other than Sombra and Reaper. - [STRONGLY IMPLIED]

[Masquerade Hypothesis]: the comic “Masquerade” is a reference to “The Masque of the Red Death” by Edgar Allan Poe.

Let’s tango.

The Red Death

To start with, we should probably establish that Reaper’s outfit IS the Red Death.

Reaper’s masquerade outfit seems to be a direct reference to more classic interpretations of the “Renaissance-extravagant costume” that Erik “The Phantom of the Opera” wears when he attends the Opera’s masquerade ball.

It’s not like this is particularly unusual for “Reaper” - after all he has canonically dressed as the Headless Horseman in the past, and has a non-canon “Raven” skin.

The Red Death in The Phantom of the Opera is a reference to the original “character” by the same name in Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Masque of the Red Death.” You can read the full text here:

http://xroads.virginia.edu/~hyper/poe/masque.html

So no matter how you dice it - whether Reaper is referencing Erik in Phantom, or Poe’s “character” in Masque - the end “reference” is the same: The Red Death.

The Red Death is described as a type of plague that comes to claim lives:

THE "Red Death" had long devastated the country. No pestilence had ever been so fatal, or so hideous. Blood was its Avatar and its seal --the redness and the horror of blood. There were sharp pains, and sudden dizziness, and then profuse bleeding at the pores, with dissolution. The scarlet stains upon the body and especially upon the face of the victim, were the pest ban which shut him out from the aid and from the sympathy of his fellow-men. And the whole seizure, progress and termination of the disease, were the incidents of half an hour.

In the short story, the Red Death eventually comes to Prince Prospero’s masquerade ball, disguised as

“The figure was tall and gaunt, and shrouded from head to foot in the habiliments of the grave. The mask which concealed the visage was made so nearly to resemble the countenance of a stiffened corpse that the closest scrutiny must have had difficulty in detecting the cheat. And yet all this might have been endured, if not approved, by the mad revellers around. But the mummer had gone so far as to assume the type of the Red Death. His vesture was dabbled in blood --and his broad brow, with all the features of the face, was besprinkled with the scarlet horror.”

But let’s build our cast of characters here.

The Successor: The Prince Who Was Promised

“Akande Ogundimu was born into a well-regarded Nigerian family, heir to its prosthetic-technology company. A highly intelligent and charismatic figure, Ogundimu helped to expand his family's business and position it for the future…” - Doomfist’s biography

“When you come at the king, you better not miss.” - Doomfist, paraphrasing Omar from The Wire

“We really wanted to give [Doomfist] colors that made him feel very powerful like red, gold - and really adorn him with that regal presence.” - Doomfist Hero Preview video

Something that’s important to keep in mind is that Doomfist was originally meant to be a “named legacy” - while aspects of this have remained in the finalized version, some parts have been cut. Important to Doomfist’s backstory is the fact that he “defeated” his predecessor - Akinjide Adeyemi.

“Akinjide is a Yoruba given name that means ‘the strong one has returned,’ and Adeyemi is a Yoruba surname that means ‘worthy of the crown.’”

The current Doomfist, Akande Ogundimu, quite literally sees himself as “the heir,” to Adeyemi’s legacy, his family’s corporation, and to Talon itself. He has returned from prison to “reclaim his rightful place” in the council, and begin to truly enact his new war. You don’t need to look much further beyond than beyond the fact that his title is “The Successor,” but if there were any doubts about it, the above quotes show that this belief has been strongly incorporated into his backstory, his voicelines, and even his design.

However, what’s extremely important to note is that Akande’s “reign” is built entirely on his family’s wealth, his fighting abilities, his tactical mind, and “the prosperity of peace.”

[Implication]: The Ogundimu family’s business - prosthetics - profited after the Crisis due to the sheer amount of veterans and amputees in the world. Akande himself does not see cybernetics as a weakness, but as a strength that was born entirely from conflict.

As I brought up in the “Talon: Clawing to the Top” essay, war has the ability to drive technological changes through sheer necessity - you have to improve your technology to keep up with your enemy. And when your enemy is literally armies of killer robots, well, you have to step up your game pretty fast.

“The world changed after the Crisis - it is overdue for a new test.” - Doomfist

Akande genuinely believes that war is the machine that drives human improvements through a sort of “boom and bust” cycle - your technology “booms” (literally) during war, and begins to stagnate (“bust”) during periods of peace.

Here’s the kicker:

He’s not exactly wrong.

It’s well established by things like World War II pulling the United States out of the Great Depression, or the military-industrial complex that war as a facilitator for “human improvements” does happen. And the Overwatch fictional future has not exactly proven Akande wrong - “archaic” technology like gasoline and oil was replaced with...whatever powers hover cars and fusion cells, Omnic technology is flourishing in places like Numbani, and there’s money to be made in developing brand new battle mechs.

Now, I know - in “Masquerade,” Akande actually states outright that “Profit is not our concern. You [Vialli] know better. We aren’t criminals, satisfied by wealth and power. We know better.” In fact, the driving conflict between Akande and Vialli in the comic is the dispute over the “purpose” of Talon - if Talon is merely a way for the members of the council to pad their pockets with high-profit crime, or if Talon is going to be a vehicle for something “higher,” something a little more meaningful, the progress of human strength and technology.

My point here isn’t that Akande sees his “wealth” or “reign” in strictly monetary terms, but rather that he sees “strength,” “honor,” and “conflict” as his dominions.

But he is still a prince born of prosperity, not war.

Akande is thinking tactically, but interestingly his concerns aren’t with the world at large but with his “internal kingdom” of Talon. It is extremely telling that his first thoughts are to “secure funds” for his war - meaning turning to the implied-wealthy “loanshark” Maximilien. He’s not interested in destroying his “true enemies” at the moment (the Recalled Overwatch agents or Soldier: 76 and Ana), but he’s interesting in “staking his claim” on Talon again. And that means finding other wealthy allies within Talon.

Literally the first thing Akande does is grab a suit, get some fancy dresses for Widowmaker and Sombra, and step into what appears to be the most opulent casino in Monaco.

[Implications]: Akande is not some sort of folk-hero, a la Lúcio, D.Va, Mei, or even Sombra. Akande is not particularly humble about his aesthetics, his wealth, or his mindset. While Akande may genuinely believe that “conflict drives human strength,” his methods are actually spectacularly the opposite - an immediate jump to securing the alliances of those with wealth.

“The tastes of the duke were peculiar. He had a fine eye for colors and effects. He disregarded the decora of mere fashion. His plans were bold and fiery, and his conceptions glowed with barbaric lustre. There are some who would have thought him mad. His followers felt that he was not. It was necessary to hear and see and touch him to be sure that he was not.”

In “The Masque of the Red Death,” Poe describes “Prince Prospero” (literally “The Prosperous Prince”) as being a sort of indomitable regality. He’s not merely a foolish noble trying to “flee” death - the Prince genuinely believes that he is doing the right thing.

“But the Prince Prospero was happy and dauntless and sagacious. When his dominions were half depopulated, he summoned to his presence a thousand hale and light-hearted friends from among the knights and dames of his court, and with these retired to the deep seclusion of one of his castellated abbeys. This was an extensive and magnificent structure, the creation of the prince's own eccentric yet august taste. A strong and lofty wall girdled it in. This wall had gates of iron. The courtiers, having entered, brought furnaces and massy hammers and welded the bolts. They resolved to leave means neither of ingress or egress to the sudden impulses of despair or of frenzy from within. The abbey was amply provisioned. With such precautions the courtiers might bid defiance to contagion. The external world could take care of itself. In the meantime it was folly to grieve, or to think. The prince had provided all the appliances of pleasure. There were buffoons (Sombra dresses as a Jester), there were improvisatori, there were ballet-dancers (Widowmaker is a ballet dancer), there were musicians (one of Reaper’s skins is Mariachi guitarist), there was Beauty, there was wine. All these and security were within. Without was the ‘Red Death.’”

To the Prince and his followers, he’s making a bold, but brilliant move - he’s securing their futures as the plague of the Red Death takes lives around them. He’s ready for the “coming war” with the pestilence.

Poe does not directly “diss” on the Prince. If anything, Poe spends a good deal of time trying to build how beautiful and bizarre the Prince’s world is. It is a world or revelry, wealth, intrigue, glamor, lights and brilliance. Nothing ever completely stops the Prince and his guests from their masquerade, not even the ticking of the clock (the “march of time”) itself. In the “Masquerade” comic, we are treated to a version of Talon that mirrors this, one which is glamorous, gilded, beautiful, and dazzling - the team plays “dress up” not once but twice.

Which brings me to my next point:

A Masked Figure Arrives

In the previous essay, I outlined a few things about Gabriel Reyes/Reaper. I’m going to repeat them and check off what we now know, or what we can analyze further:

[Confirmed]: At the time of Infiltration, Reaper was aware of Sombra’s intentions to prevent Katya Volskaya’s death and blackmail her.

There is a ton of stuff here to unpack, but hopefully I can do this some justice:

Confirmed - Reaper was aware of Sombra’s interest in blackmailing Katya Volskaya, and basically let her “fail” their infiltration mission explicitly to keep Katya alive.

Confirmed - Reaper was not actually the one who approved the mission, but instead received the orders from Vialli, a Talon council member. However, Reaper was aware of Vialli’s interests in seeing Katya Volskaya die and deliberately let Sombra undermine them.

Implied - Reaper is aware that Doomfist wanted to keep Katya alive. In my last essay, I argued that killing Katya would cause the war to “explode.” I see now that was incorrect - instead of looking at the “short term ways to expand the war,” Doomfist is looking at the “long run”: he’s interested in forcing Russia to “dig in” and fight. And since we know that an Omnic faction supports Katya’s efforts (Maximilien, perhaps?), it furthers Doomfist’s ideology that war improves human technology.

Implied - Reaper “snitches” on Sombra. I say it that way because I do genuinely believe that Reaper and Sombra are working together. Remember - their in-game interactions are canon, according to Michael Chu.

And the most important one:

[Implications]: Reaper was not actually a Talon leader at the time of Infiltration. Arguably, he is not even a Talon leader right now, as of the above panels.

Before you jump on me, please let me explain the process for this analysis.

As of the very first and second page of the comic, Reaper is little more than a “lackey” who is positioning himself as a “follower” of Doomfist. Doomfist does not acknowledge Reaper as “a fellow leader” but instead immediately begins demanding “status updates” on missions and objectives.

Seemingly at odds with his own personality, Reaper complies.

The first clue that Reaper is still “just a lackey” is actually in the exchange:

Reaper: We were supposed to kill Katya Volskaya. We failed.

Doomfist: Whose idea was it, anyways?

Reaper: Vialli. Some were getting frustrated with how intractable she’s proven to be.

Critically important and actually surprisingly subtle is the fact that Reaper does not actually know who Vialli is.

And just in case it wasn’t clear:

https://twitter.com/westofhouse/status/887827892121423872

If you want to double-check.

And it’s not merely that Reaper “doesn’t manage to see him,” but that when he asks about who the man was, Doomfist’s response is that Reaper does not need to know.

Doomfist is treating Reaper as a lackey/henchman/follower even as Reaper is literally about to follow him to the Talon Council table.

I wouldn’t say that Doomfist has blind faith in Reaper - quite the contrary, he seems to hold Reaper at arm’s length, and he basically doesn’t let Sombra get near him. He doesn’t trust either of them. He does trust Widowmaker, and quite literally lets her walk beside him in Monaco.

But anyways, the important part is that Reaper never actually saw Vialli face-to-face.

If Reaper had been on the Talon Council previously, then he would have know who Vialli was.

And yes, that is because we are explicitly shown that every “person” at Talon’s literal business meeting of evil is straight up not covering their faces or concealing their identities.

...Well, all of them except one of course.

[Implications/Hypothesis]: Even if Doomfist knows that Reaper is Gabriel Reyes, he is unaware of the fact that Gabriel actively contributed to the Overwatch mission to stop Null Sector and contain their Uprising.

You probably saw me yelling about this issue this morning but:

Doomfist: That was a missed opportunity, but who would have thought Overwatch would get involved?

Gee, Akande -

Maybe the man standing right next to you.

And before anyone throws that “Gabriel is playing the double-crossing card” stuff around here, the entire interaction here makes it very clear that Gabriel is trying to pull the whole “plausible deniability” card instead. Jack and Ana show that they’re aware that it was actually Gabriel who “sent McCree to London” to “[investigate] the situation on the ground.” More importantly, it is through McCree that the three commanders finally get visual confirmations of just how bad and intense Null Sector’s anti-aerial defenses are.

Remember -

The first part of the Uprising mission in-game is shutting down the defenses.

And remember -

The second part of Uprising was specifically led by Commander Reyes.

http://segadores-y-soldados.tumblr.com/post/160297656765/aku-no-homu-here-are-all-of-reyes-voicelines

I’ve seen it suggested that Doomfist may be sarcastic here but the reading of it...doesn’t really seem so. Doomfist seems genuinely unaware that Reaper - Gabriel Reyes - was involved in the Uprising mission at all. If anything, Doomfist was banking on the fact that Overwatch would not get involved with Null Sector, and that Null Sector’s “flames of revolution” would spread to other Omnics.

“Omnics will not be kept down forever. The ashes of the Crisis still smolder.” - Doomfist on King’s Row.

And, oh yeah -

[Confirmed]: the “global conflict” that Doomfist’s faction within Talon has been trying to spread is the Second Omnic Crisis.

The evidence is in the above quote, the way he reacts to the “failure” of Null Sector, the way that Maximilien describe the current state of the world:

“War between Omnics and humans seems all but inevitable...thanks in no small part to your friend [Widowmaker] here.” (Also, Maxilimilien being French may be a reference to Maximilien Robespierre, who uh, wasn’t exactly a great guy).

Everything Akande is doing is building the orchestration of the Second Omnic Crisis.

So, it seems very, very at odds that Akande would let “Gabriel Reyes, the man who helped Overwatch prevent the Uprising from spreading,” join Talon unless he was not aware of Gabriel’s involvement.

In my last essay, I argued that Reaper and Sombra were trying to work their way into the upper echelon of Talon to either orchestrate a coup, or destroy the organization from the inside out.

However, I would also posit this:

[Hypothesis]: Reaper and Sombra may know the names of the Talon leaders, but they don’t actually know who they are, and how they all fit together.

In light of the fact that Reaper recognizes Vialli by name and intention, but not by his actual face, it suddenly makes a ton of practical sense that he needs to infiltrate the Talon Council just to actually see everyone.

Furthermore, the fact that the table is mostly empty at the end of the chapter implies that rivals are starting to fall, or not everyone is present (which is why he doesn’t immediately Death Blossom them).

The Reyes’ Send Their Regards

I wrote in my post earlier today, and as I hope I demonstrated earlier in this essay, the leaders of Talon don’t actually understand conflict. They want it for profit and for advances in human technology and strengths, but they seemingly remain untouched by the conflict currently happening in the world around them.

Doomfist, and at least Maximilien, see conflict as a game to play, a challenge to overcome, another obstacle in moving humanity (and Omnics) forward. They treat Katya Volskaya, Null Sector, Mondatta, and Overwatch as merely stepping stones to their ultimate goals. They discuss these topics while literally gambling, or literally indulging in a masquerade. They organize their “new business ventures for war” in a boardroom - a really sinister-looking boardroom, but a boardroom all the same.

They don’t actually feel sympathy for the players in their game, and while they may understand motives, goals, and emotional ties on an intellectual level, they don’t particularly care about them or for them. Everything about them is “coldly professional” - Doomfist even shakes Vialli’s hand before literally throwing him off a bridge.

And this is in direct contrast with an entirely different meeting from years ago:

This latter image is of three military commanders trying to make sense of a situation of “extremist” violence, and one of the commanders (Gabriel) even makes an effort to understand and arguably empathize with “the extremists.”

It is telling that many of the lines in the “Masquerade” comic parallel lines said by Gabriel, or implied to have been said by him - but a lot of them are “recontextualized” to be slightly more sinister.

Compared to:

And this one:

Followed by:

As they prepare for war, the leaders of Talon engage in excessive displays of wealth and power, despite claiming that they “don’t actually care for them.” They lock themselves in fancy boardrooms and orchestrate conflict without actually understanding it. They say lines that have parallels to Reaper’s, but lack “the humor” behind them (or at least behind the conversational contexts).

In “The Masque of the Red Death,” Poe writes about The Prince’s reaction to “the Red Death masked figure” appearing at his fancy party:

In an assembly of phantasms such as I have painted, it may well be supposed that no ordinary appearance could have excited such sensation. In truth the masquerade license of the night was nearly unlimited; but the figure in question had out-Heroded Herod, and gone beyond the bounds of even the prince's indefinite decorum. There are chords in the hearts of the most reckless which cannot be touched without emotion. Even with the utterly lost, to whom life and death are equally jests, there are matters of which no jest can be made. The whole company, indeed, seemed now deeply to feel that in the costume and bearing of the stranger neither wit nor propriety existed. [...]

When the eyes of Prince Prospero fell upon this spectral image (which with a slow and solemn movement, as if more fully to sustain its role, stalked to and fro among the waltzers) he was seen to be convulsed, in the first moment with a strong shudder either of terror or distaste; but, in the next, his brow reddened with rage.

"Who dares?" he demanded hoarsely of the courtiers who stood near him --"who dares insult us with this blasphemous mockery? Seize him and unmask him --that we may know whom we have to hang at sunrise, from the battlements!"

The basic “lesson” of “The Masque of the Red Death” is that “death comes for us all,” but a more implied, more “revolutionary” tone is that the Red Death comes to devastate those who think they can hide from death through wealth and fortresses, who think they can mock retribution and play masked games at their whims. And while Poe never explicitly states how the Red Death actually gets in, he implies that Death comes for the Prince and his friends “in their final hours,” and stems directly from their hubris.

“He bore aloft a drawn dagger, and had approached, in rapid impetuosity, to within three or four feet of the retreating figure, when the latter, having attained the extremity of the velvet apartment, turned suddenly and confronted his pursuer. There was a sharp cry --and the dagger dropped gleaming upon the sable carpet, upon which, instantly afterwards, fell prostrate in death the Prince Prospero. Then, summoning the wild courage of despair, a throng of the revellers at once threw themselves into the black apartment, and, seizing the mummer, whose tall figure stood erect and motionless within the shadow of the ebony clock, gasped in unutterable horror at finding the grave-cerements and corpse-like mask which they handled with so violent a rudeness, untenanted by any tangible form.

And now was acknowledged the presence of the Red Death. He had come like a thief in the night. And one by one dropped the revellers in the blood-bedewed halls of their revel, and died each in the despairing posture of his fall. And the life of the ebony clock went out with that of the last of the gay. And the flames of the tripods expired. And Darkness and Decay and the Red Death held illimitable dominion over all.”

The Prince tries to directly fight the Red Death, but the Red Death claims him as easily “as it got in.”

Blizzard doesn’t even try to hide the fact that Akande is meant to be “royalty” here - he’s wearing a long, decadent purple cape, with purple being a frequent symbol of regality. He walks confidently past statues of old lords and kings.

And he is the one who invites the Red Death inside.

This could very well be the first time Reaper has ever joined the council.

But it doesn’t matter how long it took him - after all, the Red Death in Poe’s story took several months to “get inside,” and even then, it took several hours until the clock struck midnight to “truly arrive.”

But it got in.

Death is patient. (He had come like a thief in the night.)

Death is calm. (With deliberate and stately step)

Death is calculating. (And the flames of the tripods expired.)

Death is powerful. (The Red Death held illimitable dominion over all.)

And in the end

Death is the only one still wearing his mask.

Masquerade: a false show or pretense; the wearing of disguise; a masked ball

Death leaves no one behind.

Not even those who think themselves above him.

Death hides himself among the masqueraders -

And bides his time.

#reaper #gabriel reyes #masquerade #doomfist #team talon #akande ogundimu #widowmaker #amelie lacroix #sombra #my essays #my writing #it's here #i lost my shit this morning lol

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ellenlucasonlinedatingblog · 4 years ago

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The Fascinating Link Between Alien Abduction Reports and Sadomasochistic Fantasies

A surprisingly large number of people report having had paranormal experiences. For example, in a 2013 HuffPost/YouGov poll of 1,000 American adults, 32% of respondents answered yes to the question: “Have you ever had any experiences that you would consider to be ‘paranormal,’ that is, experiences which cannot be explained by current scientific understanding?”

A paranormal experience could, of course, include a number of different things. For some, this might include saying they’ve seen a ghost; for others, it might include saying they’ve witnessed a UFO, or perhaps having been abducted by aliens.

As someone trained in the scientific method, I’m admittedly quite skeptical of paranormal reports like this. My mind is trained to go to alternative explanations—explanations rooted in science that could potentially explain them.

In this post, we’ll focus on such explanations for those who report having been abducted by aliens specifically because, as you’ll see later on, there’s an interesting connection between alien abduction claims and sadomasochistic fantasies (and, after all, this is the Sex and Psychology blog!).

In a fascinating 1996 paper published in the journal Psychological Inquiry, social psychologists Leonard Newman and Roy Baumeister explored some of the possible scientific explanations behind reports of UFO abductions [1].

One is that this might be part of the false memory phenomenon. Psychologists have long known that human memory is fallible, but many people fail to realize just how easy it is for false memories to be implanted. For example, in the 1980s, people were in a panic about ritualistic child abuse taking place in Satanic cults.

“Many people fail to realize just how easy it is for false memories to be implanted.”

There was a fear that widespread abuse was taking place and that people were repressing these memories because they were so traumatic, which prompted some psychotherapists to help bring them back as a means of relieving unexplained distress. As psychologist David Ley writes:

“In this era, therapists promoted a nationwide quest to root out evidence of children being sexually abused by hidden Satanic cults. The memories of those experiences were suppressed by psychological mechanisms, but through a blend of hypnosis and careful questioning, therapists could bring those memories flooding back…Families were disrupted, lives destroyed. Though it seems hard to believe, across the country, numerous people went to jail for decades, convicted for hideous crimes where the sole evidence was these recovered memories of long-forgotten abuse. But groundbreaking research by Elizabeth Loftus demonstrated that the very techniques used by therapists to ‘recover’ memories also worked extremely well to implant false memories and to create realistic, recalled experiences of things that never happened.”

As Newman and Baumeister discuss in their article, many people who report UFO abductions recalled or “recovered” their experiences during hypnotic states, which are precisely the circumstances under which many false memories have been shown to be implanted. It’s easy to see how this could happen if, say, the person performing hypnosis has a strong belief in UFOs and is working with a highly suggestible client who is motivated for answers behind their feelings of psychological distress.

Related to this, another possibility is the fact that some people just seem to have a more difficult time distinguishing dreams from reality. For example, consider people with the sleep disorder narcolepsy, a condition in which people suddenly fall asleep at undesired times, such as in the middle of a conversation or during a social activity.

“Some people just seem to have a more difficult time distinguishing dreams from reality.”

They move very abruptly between states of sleep and consciousness, and it’s thought that this might lead to more dream-reality confusion. In fact, in one study of narcoleptic patients, 83% reported having confused dreams with reality before [2]. For example, as noted in this study:

“One man, after dreaming that a young girl had drowned in a nearby lake, asked his wife to turn on the local news in full expectation that the event would be covered. Another patient experienced sexual dreams of being unfaithful to her husband. She believed this had actually happened and felt guilty about it until she chanced to meet the ‘lover’ from her dreams and realized they had not seen each other in years, and had not been romantically involved. Several patients dreamed that their parents, children, or pets had died, believing that this was true (one patient even made a phone call about funeral arrangements) until shocked with evidence to the contrary, when the presumed deceased suddenly reappeared.”

Narcoleptics aren’t the only ones who sometimes confuse dreams with reality, of course. In this same study, researchers recruited a control group of healthy, age-matched individuals, of whom 15% reported having had experiences of not being able to separate dreams from reality (or “dream delusions,” as the researchers termed this). Thus, while narcoleptics experience this at highly elevated rates, people without sleep disorders sometimes have this experience, too.

This study didn’t specifically address alien or UFO abductions, but dream-reality confusion could provide another plausible means through which some people might come to believe they have had a paranormal experience.

There’s at least one other possible explanation—and this is where we get to sex. As Newman and Baumeister argue, sexual masochists are a subgroup of people who might be especially susceptible to believing they have been abducted by UFOs.

Why is that? Because, in their view, escape from self-awareness is one of the defining elements of masochistic activities, such as being bound, humiliated, or subjected to pain. In their words, “masochism is a particularly effective means to deconstruct meaning and escape the self. It temporarily undermines key aspects of the self.” It is “an escape from everyday life and the ongoing pressures of modern selfhood.”

“Sexual masochists are a subgroup of people who might be especially susceptible to believing they have been abducted by UFOs.”

What masochists fantasize about and desire sexually holds a lot of parallels to the activities that abductees describe. As Newman and Baumeister argue: “The main features of masochism—both actual activities and fantasies—are pain, loss of control, and humiliation. All three of these themes dominate UFO abduction accounts.”

For example, when you look at the scenarios that abductees describe, pain is often one of the main features—people frequently say they were subjected to unpleasant and painful activities aboard UFOs. They also often report being restrained—tied or pinned down—in a way that makes them lose their sense of control. They say they are frequently subjected to humiliating sexual acts, too, such as being led around by the genitals or having unwanted devices inserted in their rectums.

Incidentally, my own research on sexual fantasies is consistent with this: I surveyed more than 4,000 Americans about their sexual fantasies for my book Tell Me What You Want, and among the many things I asked about were fantasies involving aliens. Alien fantasies were correlated with having more fantasies in general about receiving pain, being humiliated, and being tied up.

Newman and Baumeister go on to claim that: “Abductees overall seem to fit the profile of people who would be expected to be drawn to fantasies of escaping the self. These people would thus be especially likely to construct a classic UFO abduction narrative when hypnotized.”

Thus, they are not suggesting that masochists in general tend to believe they have been abducted by UFOs or aliens; rather, their claim is really that this is a subgroup of persons who might be especially prone to false memories or dream-reality confusion involving UFO abduction. The motivation to escape the self that underlies many masochistic desires may predispose masochists to construct such scenarios and, under the right circumstances (e.g., recovered memories during hypnosis), they might even come to believe them as true.

Want to learn more about Sex and Psychology ? Click here for previous articles or follow the blog on Facebook (facebook.com/psychologyofsex), Twitter (@JustinLehmiller), or Reddit (reddit.com/r/psychologyofsex) to receive updates. You can also follow Dr. Lehmiller on YouTube and Instagram.

[1] Newman, L. S., & Baumeister, R. F. (1996). Toward an explanation of the UFO abduction phenomenon: Hypnotic elaboration, extraterrestrial sadomasochism, and spurious memories. Psychological Inquiry, 7(2), 99-126.

[2] Wamsley, E., Donjacour, C. E., Scammell, T. E., Lammers, G. J., & Stickgold, R. (2014). Delusional confusion of dreaming and reality in narcolepsy. Sleep, 37(2), 419-422.

Image Source: 123RF/imogi