#but the spiders are just another reason for this I guess. or something to project onto

[hpmort]

There are more than two spiders in my room which I think is too many spiders? A room of mine’s size, yeah one spider is useful, and maybe 2 is good but I am concerned about population density

What do they know that i don’t

[lazypanartist]

Hobie Brown x Artistic/DIY Reader

I love him 💙

pt 1 - Pt 2 - Pt 3 - Pt 4

Warnings: maybe spoilers for ATSV, IDK. Reader's in the punk scene and from Hobie's universe. Whole lotta projection. Canon-typical injuries

Features info dumping and personal Hobie HCs I guess. It's long ASF. And just self indulgent

Please RB, likes alone don't do anything for the algorithm!

-----

DIY/punk Hobie Brown

If you're in the scene, you know the basics

Patches?

Hand-Stitched

Usually with dental floss for durability/cost efficiency

And originally painted with white-out for the same reasons

Spikes or studs?

Cheap, bulk buy, screw em on yourself

Or just make em out of cans

Hobie's fit looks like it fits the bill

Old leather or denim jacket with the sleeves cut off

FN/SM painted on the back

Shirt's kinda tattered iirc

Spiked collars are easy

Same with the wristbands

When he meets you?

Whoo boy

It was one of his shows he was putting on

New songs, new faces in the crowd

He spots you from a distance at first

Little sketchbook in hand

You stay through his whole performance

When he's chatting up the crowd afterwards, though?

You're already gone

(Bitch writes a song about the pretty thing watching from afar, bc ofc he does)

He next sees you during one of President Osborne's speeches

Standing in the front row of a gathered crowd, shaking your head at the screen

He drops down after a few minutes, hanging upside down and blocking the less-than-pleasant view

He takes a few moments between questions from others

Little explanations

A promise to do what he can

Takes just a glimpse to look you over

You have a similar touch to the rest of the crowd

Worn out boots, tattered clothes, hand-sewn and painted patches

And your sketchbook still in hand

It's a little peculiar for the crowd

But he doesn't question it

What he does question is where you've gone after he turns to look at you

He only took a second for more reassurances

But when he goes to see you again

You're gone, just like the first time you caught his eye

He realizes then

That he's intrigued

He doesn't know what it is about you

Until he keeps seeing you pop up again

Riots

Concerts

Shows

Speeches

His immaterial object of interest

He finally starts actually talking to you the third or fourth time he sees you

At another of Osborne's liefests

An ambassador on a stage, surrounded by punks

Speaking of the President's virtues

Yeah

Spider-Punk shows up pretty quickly to run him off

And gets to chatting with you

When he first approaches, you ask for his opinion on a patch idea

And turn your sketchbook to show him the page

His spider symbol backpiece

But instead of FN/SM, it simply states

"Down With President Osborne"

He takes your pen and signs as a seal of approval before swinging away

Sure, it was a short interaction

But it led to even more meaningful ones

Like, say..

Him practically dropping out of the sky into a park

You were just minding your business, sketching the scenery

When he almost fell on top of you.

Covered in injuries

He laughs when he looks up and sees that it's you

Because of course it's you

Tries to resist when you start futzing over him

If you're the parent friend like me?

Patch him up

PLEASE

Even if you can't see him back together

Just

Bandaids and gauze pads

And maybe some candy

Bc suckers help with creativity

Or it's just my neurodivergence? Idk

Just. Offer him one in case he needs to bite on something while you're putting alcohol on his injuries

When you're done he looks them over

Promptly winces when he twists his arm 🙄

But then thanks you for your help and swings off

Again

These kinds of interactions become common

He'll find you hanging around the city

Either doodling or just vibing

And drops down to talk for a bit

Or get patched up

Loves when you offer to fix his costume

Bc it looks just as nice & homemade as the rest of your/his fits

Grins under his mask when he sees a new patch or two

And starts snickering if you deny their application

He really appreciates everything you do for him

And figures he should prove it

Sure, he's saved you

But he's saved a lot of people..

He wants this to be special

Unique

And he thinks he knows how to do that..

---

Click for next part

[miguellover07]

Ughhh, may I request something,well umm do u remember those wattpad nerd story (that had to deal with nerds girl who no one really had an interest,then boom someone is interested in them and they just called them ugly ass,but the nerds always weared baggy clothes and big glasses) that was popular there, well I wanted to ask

Nerd!reader(female) x rich!popular!Miguel

Highschool/college au

Who is an new kid(miguel) come to school already become popular and all the talk of the town ,he was just incredibly annoyed by all these girl jumping onto to him like an bug going toward the sun,and the fucking guys that say there he best friends,he would just shut them up,and make fun of them,he was fed up with people telling him what happening with today's drama or shit,he just wanted to had fun,I mean just because he was rich doesn't he was lazy,that's when he wanted to find an place that quiet and clam he went to the library, that where he saw reader,(who he never saw her before,he just thought she was an new kid) nerd!reader who was wearing headphones underneath her hoodie (listening to music of course) while studying,she seem peaceful,but knowing him he would just sat down next in the same table as her,

AND THE REST IS UP TO u (Idk what to do)

Always have an wonderful day😘😘😇

Study buddy

Around 1100 words, fluff, rich!Miguel x nerdfem!reader

After finally getting rid of these annoying classmates of his, he found his way to the school library.

He was already so frustrated and grumpy by them. They don't understand that he simply doesn´t care who fucked with whom or who holds the best parties.

This year he wants to improve his grades to the impossible, so only A´s are allowed. This means no parties, no drama or any kind of burden for him.

The reason is that he wants to be worthy of his parents company.

He wants them to be proud of him and inherit it to him because he deserves it and not due to the fact that he is their eldest son.

That´s why right now he's standing in the math section and looks through the books and after a bit of searching he finds the books he needs for practacing.

Luckily the math section is mostly empty except for a group who are probably working on a project together and a girl.

Before searching for a seat, he decides to regard the girl for some minutes.

Her oversized hoodie has a big image on the back which tells him that she is a fan of the same comic as him.

He sees her removing the glasses and rubbing her already bloodshot eyes and she seems worried and frustrated.

So, he decides to sit next to her, taking out his school supplies such as notebook, calculator and some pencils.

Perhaps it would be a good idea to befriend her so that he can have a study buddy and they could help each other out.

As he sits down next to her, he notices the small spider-man earrings and he can't help but feel excited because he also likes him.

Even her earphones are designed in the colour red and blue which implies that they must be customised.

She rests her head in her hands and Miguel guesses that she is either at the brick of a breakdown or just taking a break.

"Need help?" he causally asks her as he takes her notes to see with what she is fighting.

The moment he starts speaking is exactly where her song switches to another one, so in this little second she hears him right next to her.

Startled, she jumps in her chair, putting a hand on her heart "Gosh, I didn´t see you coming..."

And Miguel can´t help but find her slow reaction adorable.

She slowly takes her headphones off and sighs while blushing intensly. The new kid talked to her? And even offers his help?

No way, this must be a prank, most people don´t even recognize her which she is extremly thankful for since she has seen how the popular kids bully the nerds or basically everbody who isn´t filthy rich or at least good looking.

But she needs help or else she will fail her math class and studying alone won't get her far.

"I don't even know what I´m doing..." she would whisper embarrassed.

Humming, he starts opening one of her books and takes a minute to read himself in this topic.

All the while she puts her glasses back on to get a better sight of him.

It´s like she is looking at a model, his skin looks so smooth and his hair is so fluffy and voluminous.

His sharp features makes him so much hotter but to stop her emberassing blushing, she tries looking at the books before her.

After understanding the topic, he leans back and starts explaining it to her, without making her feel stupid which only makes her more attracted to him.

He even put his arm behind her to lean a bit closer towards her and his other hand keeps pointing to the book while sometimes scribbling on her notes.

Nodding eagerly as she finally understood what her problem was and how it workes.

She can´t help and turn to him as she gives him a tired but happy smile since this session took over 2 hours of him just explaining and calculating together.

"Thank you so much for your help, I don´t know what I would do without you," expressing her graditute while packing her stuff "Could I perhaps repay you?"

Miguel leans back and packs his schoolbag as well "How about before we start our next time we have lunch together? I´m still new here and don´t know my way around and I don´t know if you´ve already had the chance to explore our school"

Confusion is written over her face "What do you mean?" she chuckles akwardly.

"Aren´t you new here as well?" he raises a brow and is seemingly confused now.

Chuckling she explains "No no no, I´ve been in this town since birth so I actaully do know my way around, I could be your guide if you like" she puts her hand before her giggling mouth to hide it and Miguel again can´t help but find her adorable with the whole behaviour and looks.

Everything she does just suits her.

"Oh sorry, I don´t know why I automatically assumed you were new here, but yeah I´d like to have a sweet one like you as my tour guide... ugh when I think about that one of the other could be my guide, I already get a headache"

Again she can´t help but giggle at his confession and as they two stand up, she can´t help but notice the height difference which makes her a little bit nervous again. Miguel notices it immediately which makes him smirk.

"I´m Y/N, by the way" she awkwardly introduces herself as she remebered to do it at the beginning which makes it a bit awkward again but he only leans down to hear her better and perhaps to tease her a little.

"Y/N, it´s a pretty name and it suits you perfectly... and I´m Miguel o´hara" he says with a little smirk.

🕸🕷

Hope you like this one, I somehow struggled to make him seem 'more rich' and her more 'nerdy' with the set up but I still hope you'll enjoy this one, my friend <3

[miifu666]

What are Suklha abilities would you say ?

Hellooo anon ♡♡♡

Im sorry for being a bit inactive for the past few days, im working on 4 college projects at once and im dealing the heavier parts 😭 a bit burnt out too.

Suklha's Abilities are mostly based off of a kowledge one has throughout their life, also acts more like a messenger.

Shapeshifting/Transformation. Suklha has the ability to shapeshift into something more Surreal be it a nonexistent creature with Grotesque attributes or a certain person. This also includes their tails, which they cab elongate and grow the size of they're inspired off of Kafkaesque, its only fair they have the ability to turn into something nightmarish.

Contracts, Suklha has the ability to form contracts that can control one's fate/destiny should the two party agree to it. If met with the proper condition, the contract might bend the reality of time.

In turn, She can shapeshift others into something too. Suklha has shapeshifted a couple of dragons into inanimate objects to teach them humbleness, she needs to have a logical reason to do this though.

She is rumored to have a venom that can destroy countless of villages, provinces even. A venom that can act as a plague, the ones who could eradicate dragons like tissue. Although this hasn't been seen done by her

Omniscience, being the creator of the cursed book. Known to change cover each time it's placed on a shelf, Suklha can give out the knowledge of the universe to anyone and anything. Besides the side effects it can bring, She has total understanding of hwo everything works. People's fates, deaths, etc. This comes at a cost in which she has to adhere certain "life rules" such as Equivalent Exchange, to be adapted in her way of living.

Bastard of Immortality, Suklha was supposed to be a symbolism the rotten side of immortality, a symbol of Rotting. She has the venom that can cause plagues, to turn a whole village into a rotting flesh. Burning the scales of even the dragons. She's the patron of a chaotic primordial god, of course She's bad news.

Immortality, Suklha can't age or die from natural causes. As long as the link between the god and Suklha is still ongoing, she's immortal by any means. She's able to regenerate her own body, but somehow guardians from the underworld found a way to scar Suklha's vessel

Astral projecting, i guess this also counts as Telepathy? Like in LMK im sure every non-human beings can do this to communicate to one another. But they call it astral projecting.

Probability, Suklha can create certain chain reaction sequence of events in order to make her goal come into fruition, this can come from the simplest of action. Since Suklha has a total Understanding of the universe's knowledge, i feel like this is more of a softskill instead of an ability but ill put it just in case.

Illusions, Knowing how magics and Yaoguais work their way around. Suklha learned some advanced spells from the spider sisters, giving vivid illusions that might be too realistic. Like a loop of walking through the forest once or twice more than you should.

Besides these, she's probably more in tune with using Artifactss. Whether its made by their own hands or someone elses. I would List Suklha's softskill too but im guessing anon is asking more about her supernatural ability.

I think Suklha prefers to utilize the powers of other beings who are either cooperating with her voluntarily or under her direct control. Influencing their powers rather than using her own directly.

[klausinamarink]

happy birthday to @penny00dreadful!

Now have the Spider-Man Eddie fic you’ve been hungry for!

thanks to @pearynice for the beta read!

Chapter 1: The Bite

The van just barely makes it inside the shop before it collapses, all four wheels popping out like a cartoon, with the heavy coat of dust exploding into the air like a mushroom cloud. A perfect summary of Eddie’s life right now.

His forehead lands directly on the center of the steering wheel. The horn goes off long enough for someone to rapidly knock on the window. Said window immediately shatters into a bazillion pieces, earning a couple swears from the person outside. Eddie says nothing. He pushes the scorching tears behind his eyeballs and whips his head up with a wide smile. “Sorry I’m late, boss,” Eddie greets nonchalantly, like he isn't crying on the inside. 

“Hey to yourself, Munson, but what the fuck happened to your van?” Olive’s eyes are as wide as a bug as they stare at the vehicle in horror. “Scratch that - how did you even drive?”

“It’s a real funny story, actually.” Eddie cracks the door open and swings his legs out. His boots hit the ground gracefully, but despite the urge to immediately fall and curl up into a ball, Eddie remains standing.

“Picture this: you see the morning traffic on the expressway so you decide to go on a shortcut. Said shortcut also turns out to be a disaster for a very different reason. Can you guess what happened?”

Olive doesn’t have a chance to open their mouth before Eddie barrels on, “I swear to god, boss, it was something from those old D&D books. It was a creature from literal Hell! It rammed right into my van and broke my windshield. I thought it was some lost deer or something, but I couldn’t leave to check because then it stood up and its face opened up!”

Eddie brings his hands to his face and rapidly motions them as jaws clamping together. It doesn’t fit the exact description of seeing a spindly thing suddenly reaching out ninety percent of its face as rows of razor-sharp teeth, but it’s close.

“Obviously, I scream and I hide back inside the van. And the next thing I know, that thing was gone and it fucked up my van even more.”

He also leaves out the details of how he hid in the back and cried like a baby, but that wasn’t anybody’s business.

Olive stares at him with utter bewilderment. They rub a hand over their face with an insufferable sigh, “Okay, I don’t believe half of what you just said-”

“It’s not a lie! That shit is probably on the news by now!”

“-but because your van is in that state, I’m giving you some mercy to fix it until the end of the week.” 

The van makes another shuddering sound. Eddie doesn’t dare to turn around yet. But whatever it is, it makes Olive grimace. 

“If you can even repair it.”

Eddie claps his hands together and bows down to the waist, almost weeping in relief. “Thank you, boss.”

Olive is already walking away, “Until Saturday!” 

They disappear into their office. Then Eddie finally drops to the ground.

He’s still shaking from the whole ordeal. But he’s more freaked out about his new transportation plan and car insurance than the flower-faced monster. 

Eddie should count himself lucky that he’s even allowed to repair his van, but it’s only Tuesday and there is no way he can make it look good as new by the weekend. His van is an older model and replacement shipments will take more than a week to arrive, even if he were to call them now. Meaning that Eddie will have to either take the van to another garage (already unlikely, too expensive) or finally give her up to the junkyard (already likely). If he has to take the second option, he will need to find buy another vehicle (fucking impossible) or endure the public transport.

The more he tries to think through, the quicker he spirals. Suddenly, Eddie cannot breathe and he’s pounding on his chest like breaking his ribs will fix it.

A cold sensation taps the back of his neck. Eddie springs up with shock, clamping a hand over the skin. Patrick is standing over him, glass water bottle in hand.

Eddie wordlessly takes the water and gulps half of it in one go. It’s too cold and gives him major brain freeze, but it helps him calm down a bit.

“Thanks, man.”  

“No problem, Munson,” Patrick helps Eddie up to his feet. He jerks his chin at the van, “You seriously going to fix that by yourself?” 

“Already am,” Eddie grunts, tying his hair up into a bun.

“I can get Ronnie for the hose to wash the dirt off.”

Eddie shakes his head, already walking off to the cleaning station, “I got it. No need to help.”

Yeah, I can fix the van like it’s new again by Saturday. Absolutely no problem. 

This is fine. 

-

Eddie is still under the van when his cell phone rings. He ignores it at first, determined to finish the exhausts. It rings again, louder than his drill. Eddie sighs and rolls out, blinking rapidly at the bright ceiling lights burning his retinas. Might as well have a quick break. 

He grabs his phone from where it sits on a nearby box and answers, tired and unkindly.

“Yeah?”

“Eddie, where the hell are you?! You should be picking us up by now!”

Eddie blanks. It takes a few seconds for him to properly absorb Jeff’s words.

“Uh-” He quickly looks around. The whole place is suddenly deserted with the garage doors now closed. Looking through the windows shows him it has gone dark outside. 

“Shit.” 

“Yeah.” He can practically hear Jeff rolling his eyes. “We’re at the gym- Gareth, put that stupid candy down, it’s just meth!” 

“W-Wait, wait, hold on-” Eddie is standing in the middle of the garage like an idiot because his brain is going millions of miles per minute and he is trying to remember what the date is. “What do you mean you’re at the gym?” 

“We’re at Frankie’s gym! Think you can break the ten minute record?” 

Eddie doesn’t answer. He’s staring blankly at the empty sockets of his van’s headlights instead of checking the time.

When Jeff speaks again, it’s in an awfully calm tone that brings Eddie flashbacks to his shitty teachers all the way back in elementary school. 

“Eddie. You’re at your apartment. Right?”

Eddie bites viciously at his thumb, right between the cuticle and skin. 

“Eddie-”

“I was… just leaving…” God, Eddie wishes he can shrink straight up into nonexistence. “You know, uh- the- the garage…”

He holds his cell phone as far as he can, just in case Jeff would scream profanities into his ear. But because he’s the best friend in the world, Jeff doesn’t do that. Instead, Eddie hears him take a long deep breath.

“Okay,” Jeff clicks his tongue, “here’s what we’re going to do. I’m gonna tell Frankie to take our shit and he’ll drive us over to the bar. You meet us there in twenty. Do not forget your guitar.”

His heart rate going up in a spike, Eddie starts biting into the skin of his fingernails. There is no way for him to make it in time without calling for a taxi and even those rides cost money. 

“Jeff, man, listen-” Eddie swallows back the beginnings of a sob, “My van is fucking busted and I literally can’t make it to the Hideout without using the subway. And that’s gonna take me an hour!”

When Jeff doesn’t say anything, Eddie starts to assume the worst. But several seconds pass with more silence, Eddie frowns and checks his phone’s screen.

Even when he rapidly taps on the screen, it remains pitch-black.

Of course his phone chooses that exact moment to die on him. And people call him the dramatic one.

Eddie runs his hands through his hair, almost uncaring about how tangled and greasy it is. Before he can consider yelling or breaking something out of frustration, Eddie starts grabbing his things, throws them into his bag, and books it out of the garage.

Usually, the cool night air would refresh him after a tiring workday surrounded by oils and smoky gears, but Eddie barely cares as he breaks into a sprint.

Twenty minutes should be enough time to catch the train to his place, grab his Sweetheart, and meet up with the guys for their bar performance, right?

He’s almost out of breath by the time he gets to the closest subway station - Creel Station is as filthy as its corporation namesake - but he’s relieved to see that it’s still open. He nearly breaks his neck from running down the stairs but Eddie doesn’t stop until he makes it to the platform.

Collapsing on the nearest bench, Eddie mentally congratulates himself while panting for air. At least he can handle waiting for a few minutes until the train arrives. 

So he waits. 

And waits.

Aaand waits.

Eddie keeps checking his watch every time he thinks the subway is coming. Ten minutes has passed. 

It could be very delayed. His surviving rational brain suggests. Eddie almost believes it.

When twenty minutes pass with no subway in sight, Eddie decides to take advantage of being the only person on the platform and just yell out to the uncaring void.

Now he’s faced with a terrible dilemma: leave and face whatever more miserable luck awaits him or somehow get to the next station.

Naturally, he chooses the wisest decision.

“Why the hell not?” He grumbles to himself as he hops down on the tracks and starts walking. He’s grown up with a carjacking dad and escaped the cops for selling weed and ketamine back in high school. What’s more incriminating than a little tunnel adventure?

It’s only after entering the tunnel that Eddie realizes one thing: it’s too dark. Even with the lights aligning the ceiling, they barely reflect the metal rails. If his phone battery hadn’t run out, then he would have used the flashlight to see properly.

Eddie mutters more curses under his breath, but he’s already too far to turn around. Besides, what’s he supposed to do at this point? Buy a flashlight at the nearest convenience store?

He shuffles to one side of the wall, careful not to trip over the rails or any suspicious puddles. He keeps a hand brushing against the wall, doing his very best to ignore the gross dirt and spiderwebs. 

The first few stations he makes it through are all empty. But unlike Creel Station, the gates to the outside are closed to the public. It makes Eddie a bit claustrophobic but he tries to pretend that it doesn’t bother him. Last thing he needs is a stress-induced heart attack. 

He does wonder why Creel Station hasn’t been closed off if there was apparently no one else there. But Eddie’s starting to see some blurriness in the edges of his vision so he’s desperate to just go home. 

Also because, let’s face it, he can’t make it to the Hideout. He’s going to have to apologize and explain to Jeff and the other guys in the morning. 

But he probably won’t have enough time because now Eddie has to start waking up early and find some way to get to work.

Just as Eddie starts to curse at the world, the toe of his boot hits something. 

Then Eddie is falling forward.

Something very solid hits his face. He barely feels the sharp explosion of pain inside of his mouth before Eddie sees everything going completely black. 

-

The first thing he registers after returning to consciousness is that his nose hurts like hell. 

He’s groggy like he had too many drinks. Drinks. Right, Eddie had gone to the Hideout earlier. 

Wait, didn’t he? 

No, he hadn’t. He was supposed to be on his way there hours ago.

Eddie tries to get up but his head is full of lead and his body is like a rusty car due for a junkyard crushing. 

He tastes the pang of copper in his mouth. He runs a tongue over his teeth, hoping none of them got chipped or broken. They feel fine, but his tongue definitely hurts more at the tip. Must have bitten it. 

When Eddie finally pushes himself up, he cringes at the dirt and a piece of litter sticking to his face. Right. I went into the tunnels like a genius.

It takes a moment before he’s fully on his feet. Even then, Eddie leans against the wall to stop his head from spinning. 

He spits out some of the blood. It lands on the rail, a speckle of red reflecting too brightly on the gray metal. 

“Okay,” Eddie tells himself, “move on and get the fuck out of here.”

Once he feels stable enough and knows his ankles haven’t twisted, Eddie continues on walking. 

As he arrives at the fourth station, his feet are killing him and his eyelids are drooping. He checks his watch but what do you know, the face is cracked and he can’t hear a single tick. 

For all he knows, three days may have passed and his poor uncle is losing his mind. 

Maybe the others had already held a funeral for him. Eddie can see Jeff on the podium and giving the eulogy. Here lies our friend Eddie who died doing what he loved - succumbing to the urge to return to dark holes. Anyway, who wants his guitar?

At this point, Eddie may as well just curl up into a ball and wait for the subway to finally arrive and turn his misery into red mist.

Then there’s a resounding growl from behind.

Eddie whirls around, suddenly much more alert. He stares down at the dark end of the tunnel, expecting it to be the long-lost subway.

But nothing greets him.

All hairs on the back of his neck stand up nonetheless. The morning’s incident flashes before Eddie’s eyes. The flash of teeth in petal-shaped gums. The guttural shrieks and its casual ripping of metal. 

That was under broad daylight. Now he is in a possibly abandoned subway station late at night, very much alone with no contact for help.

But because he’s an idiot, too small and stressed for this massive world, he calls out, “Hello?” 

His mind might be playing tricks on him, a sadistic attempt to get him to fall asleep as soon as possible regardless of the filthy environment. Or maybe it’s just one of the maintenance workers. 

The growl starts again, closer this time.  

Nevermind, fuck that.

Within seconds, Eddie is climbing on the platform and dashing across the station. There’s not a single soul in sight and it accelerates his terror more. Eddie swears he can hear the growling again.

As he gets to the stairs, he prays that the gates aren’t closed and that he can make it aboveground.

When he sees the open path to the night sky, Eddie cries. 

He embraces the night air this time. But Eddie doesn’t stop, his vision blurring. He runs and runs until his legs and lungs give away at once and he collapses against a brick wall in an alleyway.

Eddie pants heavily, his lungs growing tighter with a cold dryness. As his breathing slows to normal, Eddie oh-so carefully peeks out of the alley, opting to stay hidden. 

He just sees regular people and cats on the streets. No shadow demons chasing after him. 

Eddie slides down to the ground, covering his face with his hands. He takes a moment to sob, but it gets stuck in his throat. He almost forces it out but it does make him shed some tears, so it’s a little more cathartic. 

Talk about a fucking day.

Eddie drops his hands and sucks in another breath. Before he can think about his next options to go home, Eddie feels a sudden itch on his arm. 

He scratches it, almost absentmindedly. That is until the itch starts crawling its way down his arm.

Eddie looks down in time to see a spider the size of a coin emerging from under his sleeve.

Now, Eddie is usually arachnophobic, but his reaction to tiny eight-legged demons has a delay of a few seconds. So he spends that time just staring at the spider crawling to a stop at the back of his hand. He even admires it. Unless the lighting has gotten otherworldly, the spider is glowing faintly with a tie-dye mix of red and blue. Its tiny round eyes almost seem to blink up at him.

He thinks, Huh, it looks kind of cute.

And then it bites him. 

To his credit, Eddie doesn’t even scream. 

He just does it after smacking the spider to death. 

-

read more on ao3!

[velvetvexations]

I saw a post recently deriding the take that superheroes are inherently fascist, but I think it's complicated.

They DID all come from that seed of vigilante bullshit where they all practically worshipped the cops (except early Superman who didn't spit on them but neither was he especially respectful) and warred against vague Crime as a concept, often represented by "the Underworld" conceptualized in a way that's very familiar to anyone whose seen people rant about antifa.

However, they started to inch away from that in the Bronze Age. It was a very, very gradual process, with some regressions like how post-Crisis Batman swung hard into Gotham being a nightmare of New York at it's worst in the 80s (although that came with plenty of criticism of the cops and elite), but by the time of the MCU it's notable that none of the Avengers fought crime. We could get into how it used a modified version of the Ultimates-set up (which was explicitly designed to be a little fucked, which is something I love about the first two Ultimates minis and especially the second) and that version of Hawkeye and Black Widow who are basically heroic CIA ("wOrLd SeCuRiTy CoUnCiL") assassins played totally straight that then shifts to being a billionaire's world shaping pet project, but at least in terms of vigilantism it takes until Spider-Man for someone to be like, going out at night to stop muggings like a "classic" superhero and I think his age does a lot to dial down the eyebrow you can raise at the fact that he's going up against a gang of ordinary criminals doing ordinary criminal things (just, you know, with scavenged alien tech).

Then we get Daredevil, which takes pains to portray the Kingpin as a very rich man gentrifying neighborhoods and terrorizing the underprivileged. Then season two introduces the Punisher, who I really thought would have already been absolved if you just limit his crusade to the specific mafiosos who killed his family, but despite killing a bunch of mafiosos anyway it still turns out to have been at the behest of a rogue element of the US military - I guess because they just needed a twist. It's hard to stretch out a Punisher story for too long for obvious reasons. Then in season one of the Punisher it's a PMC (including yet more rogue US military).

I didn't watch season two of the Punisher because I'd heard it was going to adapt The Slavers and got really excited, but then it turned out to not adapt The Slavers and I lost all interest. But that makes sense and fits into my thesis here, because even aside from how soul-crushingly bleak The Slavers was, THERE IS NO FUCKING WAY Netflix or Disney or ANYONE would EVER do the window scene, or at least not without changing it to a guy and that really feels like it'd drain the scene of half it's impact. But here we again see concern for optics.

Luke Cage was interesting because by starring an underprivileged Black man on the run for crimes he didn't commit, he was able to fight criminals without it being weird, and what's more they were Black criminals, reinforcing Black people are perfectly capable of being both villains and heroes in a narrative without white people one way or another. This was crucial, since racism is another common element of the problematic soup of traditional superhero narratives.

But while I haven't really been paying attention to cape stuff at all lately, other than that I don't really think there's been a lot that wasn't total sci-fi fantasy bullshit, including the following two Spider-Man movies.

Except, I guess, The Batman (2022). But that movie fucking RULED so it's fine.

[beesmygod]

BLOODBORNE LORE Q+A PART 5: BOSSES

part 1

part 2

part 3

part 4

---

THE HUNTER ASKS:

there IS a connection! where queen yharnam can be found, so can her shadows! they're HER shadows, not the shadows of the city. this is a reasonable inference given they have low poly pthumerian faces under the hoods. i brightened the shit out of this screencap to make it easy to see.

the boss version is found right before you run into her (or, really, one of her projections*) in the moonside lake and the others right before we bump into her on our way to deal with mergo.

*this is some speculation but its not without backing. the real queen yharnam can summon two ghostly clones of herself who can be distinguished from the real one because they are not pregnant. the one you meet before mergo poofs like the ones she summons during her fight if you hit her.

they do suck tho. kind of a shitty fight. if youre a confederate and you summon henryk its not even fair. something DID happen in development tho. lance macdonald, who does a lot of bloodborne datamining that whips ass, recently posted a comprehensive history of this bastard: the snake ball

despite the shadows of yharnam sucking ass and being one of the weaker boss fights, i seriously think this looks way worse and it was a good idea to cut it. if i reached the end of this notoriously grueling and miserably boring level full of literally nothing but snakes just to be served another, bigger snake i would become saint patrick irl. at least they pretended it wasnt snakes at first with the current fight lol.

i dont really get the snake infestation thing. like its there and there's the whole madras twins story or whatever. but it doesnt really seem to have any attribution to any outside force. it just seems like its some shit that happens in yharnam. sucks. maybe this is supposed to be another example of the line between man and beast blurring, like the note in byrgenwerth.

THE HUNTER ASKS:

lol i love this question. i have no idea. how tf does he know its name is paarl. it sure as shit didnt tell him. "vacuous rom" at least comes from micolash but i dont know how you would know it before that. how does the hunter know its a spider. how does the hunter know ebrietas is a girl. the insane confidence to decide that mergo's wet nurse is a wet nurse is unfathomable.

i saw someone on reddit call logarius "gary" and i thought that was very disrespectful. does that help.

THE HUNTER ASKS:

i think so! not a lot of info on those guys. i appreciate their existence tho. they have a sick hat you can steal.

i guess i don't really understand how fire works in the bloodborne universe, really. laurence's burning body could be read as metaphorical but none of the fires in yharnam go out easily. old yharnam is still burning, somehow. some pthumerican enemies can cast hadoukens for no reason, for example: the pthumerian elder, those chalice dungeon enemies that look like the chapel dweller, the keeper of the old lords and their horrible dog, the shadows of yharnam............lady maria..........!

the only one i can think of that breaks this pattern are the beast possessed soul and the loran cleric who tries to kill you IRL by lighting your PS4 on fire with his AOE attack. i know i post this all the time but please watch this 30 second clip of this asshole casting nuclear winter on this poor hunter

genuinely no clue on this. fire cleanses or whatever but other than that its a mysterious force in universe that behaves oddly.

THE HUNTER ASKS:

i believe so! she's at least a cainhurst knight if her outfit is anything to go by. its such a good fight. her song on the OST is a waltz and its like they created the fight around keeping time.

---

i should cut this here. next time i can focus entirely on rom/mensis/the one reborn, etc. almost done. that post will probably be long tho.

but everyone is so wrong about what happened so you have to deal with it.

I GOT A LOT OF PROBLEMS WITH YOU PEOPLE

[murdockmeta]

The earth-65 symbiotes are such a fascinating species! Not just the synthetic ones but the hint that the more well known ones and just the contrasts between the two. Gwen’s eats whatever she does but needs things like cellulose to survive meanwhile the organic ones only feed on brain chemicals such as adrenaline and phenylalanine. Anyways ever think about how Elsa Brock and technically Matt Murdock are Venom’s parents in Earth 65?

thank you for all this interesting information, thats something I'd honestly never noticed before but i also dont really know a lot about symbiotes lol. thats really cool!!

also OKAY LISTEN LMFAO in e65 circles I only ever really hear people talk about Matt's scenes with Cindy Moon when it comes to addressing Matt's canon non-platonic interactions and I honestly think Elsa Brock is way too overlooked on this front

the relationship that we are shown in only a handful of panels is waaayyy more interesting than anything we are given about Cindy and Matt.

Matt approached Elsa, told her he was going to mentally manipulate the Manhattan DA into becoming his personal pocket square, told her he was working with spider woman, told her he was going to go after Norman Fucking Osborne to manipulate and scare the hell out of him, and then told her that he wanted to fund her symbiote project to be the pretty bow wrapping everything together

and she fucking loved it

NOT ONLY WAS SHE ON BOARD SHE WAS FUCKING EXCITED, SHE WAS ESTATIC. she heard "I want to fund your batshit project to create an organism that's extremely dangerous and unstable" and she started FOAMING AT THE MOUTH

I kinda loved Matt and Elsa's relationship and I wish we got to see more of it. They had more chemistry in a single panel together than Matt and Cindy had in the entire kiss they shared. They both love putting on a show, they're both evil (actually, i think elsa's worse than matt to a degree), and they both love controlled chaos.

another detail I enjoyed was that Matt very much lied to Elsa about his true intentions w the symbiote.

in the scene with Osborne, he lays the whole plan out to Norman and Gwen. about the symbiote and harry and everything. and that had kinda seemed to be the original idea until:

first of all, love the banter like genuinely its so fun. second, I love that we find out the reason Elsa is angry isn't because she doesn't like working with Matt due to his reputation or because she feels bad about it. in fact, I think she couldn't care less except for when it comes to how it affects her own career.

She's angry because Matt acted like he was going to keep their true intentions for the venom secret until after it had already worked only to TELL SPIDERWOMAN LITERALLY EVERYTHING.

Elsa was involved in this whole thing because not only did it benefit her research but she also like that it was evil lmfao. like she couldn't understand why Matt would reveal so much to Gwen or even why Matt would want to infect Gwen w the symbiote since Matt already had a way to easily control Gwen through using the "power-up" isotopes.

this whole scene she's basically saying "you wanted to be evil so why aren't you being evil???? we were supposed to be evil together Matt what the fuck????" And she's reasonably second guessing his intentions

what she doesn't know is that Matt was just using her to give Gwen her powers back. Matt didn't actually ever want to control Gwen. he had the hopes of maybe manipulating her into killing him but there were just enough holes in his plan that him failing feels very intentional.

here I am once again pushing my agenda that Matt wanted Gwen to win. he knew the symbiote was going to consume Gwen but he also knew it wasn't a perfect organism. far from it. once again, a win-win situation for him. either the symbiote makes gwen kill him or the symbiote is just unstable enough that gwen can mold it into something that isn't consuming her, therefore making her stronger and better than before.

but anyway. THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THIS ASK I LOVE ANY EXCUSE TO TALK ABOUT ANYTHING EARTH 65. OR ANYTHING MATT MURDOCK.

good day to you :)

edit: I just reread your ask and I'm starting to wonder if the symbiote was altered that way on purpose? (to have to consume cellulose, ect. rather than brain chemicals lol) cause both chemicals you listed promotes alertness, alters mood, and regulates body function. specifically phenylalanine is an extremely important amino acid. if the symbiote feeds on these, it takes them from the host. taking important neurotransmitters like that would inevitably cause a destabilization and deterioration of the host (ignoring the fact that the radiation would probably kill them first). Matt certainly didn't want that for Gwen, right? he wanted the symbiote to fuck w her but not like. destroy her. he wanted to keep the mood enhancing qualities while stripping away the more dangerous aspects. gwens already immune to the radiation but the venom needed to be altered to feed on something that wouldn't harm gwen. matt wanted Gwen to have a chance to fight the thing off before it completely took control. he was ACTING like he wanted it to take her over but if that was true he would've left the symbiote in its more organic form. or something closer to it.

[kylesvariouslistsandstuff]

The forecast indicates an opening well over $100m for INSIDE OUT 2, which is really no surprise to me. Animated movies, even sequels to beloved favorites, tend to be underestimated before opening. They don't make huge bucks right out of the gate like frontloaded fan-driven things like MCU movies and the like. Their business is more in the walk-ups at the theaters, and make those big totals on Saturdays and Sundays. Hence why projections can be quite low. MARIO is a good example, some analysts had that at $70-90m for its opening.

That looks to be the case with INSIDE OUT 2, a sequel to a movie that made $90m on its opening weekend unadjusted... 9 years ago. Of course it was gonna stay flat at the very least, but some projections are suggesting it could cruise past $120m.

The all-timer opening weekends for animated movies:

$191m - THE LION KING (2019)

$182m - INCREDIBLES 2 (2018)

$146m - THE SUPER MARIO BROS. MOVIE (2023)

$135m - FINDING DORY (2016)

$130m - FROZEN II (2019)

$121m - SHREK THE THIRD (2007)

$120m - TOY STORY 4 (2019)

$120m - SPIDER-MAN: ACROSS THE SPIDER-VERSE (2023)

$115m - MINIONS (2015)

$110m - TOY STORY 3 (2010)

$108m - SHREK 2 (2004)

$107m - MINIONS: THE RISE OF GRU (2022)

$104m - THE SECRET LIFE OF PETS (2016)

$103m - THE JUNGLE BOOK (2016)

So, it'll be with the big leagues either way, but I'll be curious to see how high it goes.

Of course, some of the trades are seemingly celebrating this win for all the wrong reasons... And I'm sure Disney execs will use it as some sort of justification for something regarding their original movies. Don't be surprised if another sequel gets slotted before D23 this year, or some time thereafter. But the good news is, people get to keep their jobs once more.

I think $300-400m domestic is also pretty much a lock, could even challenge $1 billion worldwide. For Disney, this is their biggest animated release since FROZEN II, nearly five years ago. In terms of animated movies in general released after March 2020, this may share the top spots with Mario and the Minions.

On the one hand, I'm happy to see Disney finally get some BIG animation box office cake after years of movies either having to release elsewhere for the safety of audiences (SOUL, LUCA, TURNING RED) or outright flopping (LIGHTYEAR, STRANGE WORLD, WISH), and they're sure to get some more with MOANA 2, and possibly MUFASA at the end of the year... But, at the same time, there's all the corporate nonsense. I keep thinking, what are they going to say if ELIO and such perform more like ELEMENTAL?: "Uhhh, uhhh? I guess trying to do this 'general appeal' thing didn't work either??"

INSIDE OUT 2, coupled with MOANA 2, ZOOTOPIA 2, TOY STORY 5, FROZEN III & IV, etc. should make back what was "lost" on the other movies. I'm not against sequels funding the originals, that's the way it has been with many studios since the 2000s, I'm just more concerned about how Disney will go about the originals being made at both studios. If INSIDE OUT 2 holds on at the box office in the coming weeks, it'll just tell me that audiences liked the new story, and that there doesn't need to be any of this needless meddling of Pixar's filmmaking processes. INSIDE OUT 2 was approached the same way ELEMENTAL, TURNING RED, etc. were - so if it has great legs after an expectedly big opening, then that just proves my point. And vindicates those so-called audience-unfriendly movies.

But yeah, I expect a big sequel drop from Pixar by the end of the year. Something that'll come out probably 2-3 years after TOY STORY 5.

SUNDAY UPDATE: Estimates have it at $155m. Could go higher when tomorrow rolls around... Big doins'.

MONDAY UPDATE: $154m. Great CinemaScore grade. This thing's smashing $400m domestic, maybe even makes a play for $500m. $1 billion worldwide locked, too?

[sabrinatvband]

Looking for Filmmaking Partner

[EDIT: Someone did contact me about this, we wrote around 40% of the story, and then they abruptly quit the project. Leaving this post up for posterity, but I'm no longer looking for a collaborator and you shouldn't expect to ever see anything related to this.]

Hi, I'm trying to make a movie, and I'm looking for a creative partner, preferably another queer person.

[Drawing of a character from the movie I'm doing concept art for]

SKILL STUFF

I guess I should explain what I mean by "creative partner". I myself am a jack of all trades, master of none. My best skill is probably writing; I once co-wrote an erotic novel with someone. I've written many short stories. I've written a lot of non-fiction stuff, mostly film criticism.

[Note: The best stories I've posted on ROM are probably Miss Latrix and Therapy.]

I've done a bunch of filmmaking related things in the past. I once attempted to make a movie with a few friends, and it didn't go very well. I didn't even know what the 180 degree rule was at the time and so the footage didn't edit, and there were a bunch of logistical problems so we didn't get very far.

Most of what I've done, video wise, is porn. I've shot and edited my own oddly ambitious videos before. I've composited in stuff from Blender into my videos. I'm not very good at using Blender but I've dabbled in photogrammetry and I understand, to a certain degree, how to shoot footage in the best way possible for later VFX work.

I am also a musician. I've recorded a bunch of albums, which can be found on Bandcamp and Itch. I own a lot of audio gear and understand how to do live recording and ADR stuff. [Most of my music is a lot more ambient than this.]

I also am a decent artist. I know how to draw things in perspective, and putting together a storyboard / previs thing is well within my skillset.

I'm a "generalist", basically, and I'm hoping to find another generalist. Not necissarily someone who can do all of the same things as me, but someone who can do at least a handful of them. I want to be able to bounce ideas back and forth throughout the entire filmmaking process.

STUFF I LIKE (That I Hope You Like as Well)

My favorite directors are probably Brian De Palma, David Lynch, David Cronenberg, and Paul Verhoeven. I love De Palma for his filmmaking chops, but also his black comedy instincts and love of artifice / camp. Femme Fatale, Raising Cain, and Phantom of the Paradise are favorites. I love Cronenberg for his dry and acrid wit; Videodrome is such an incredible black comedy, and Crash is a total masterpiece. I like Verhoeven for how fastidious his work is, but also for his bleak satirical humor. Showgirls, RoboCop, and Starship Troopers are my favorites of his. I basically like all three of these directors for the exact same reasons. And Lynch? Obviously Lynch does camp, and he can be hilarious, but his work is just something else. Mulholland Drive and Fire Walk With Me are possibly the most empathic films ever made.

As I said before, I love camp. Elvira, Mistress of the Dark is a personal favorite. Obviously there's Showgirls, which I've already mentioned. Switchblade Sisters is not a movie I love, but I do enjoy how knowingly silly it is. Freeway is kind of like Switchblade Sisters if it was a legitimate masterpiece. Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! is essential evil bitch cinema. Other camp favorites include House of Versace, All that Heaven Allows, Romy and Michele, The Wizard of Oz, and Cry Baby.

And here's a list of random movies I love: Bound, Batman Returns, The Hunger, House, Spider-Man 2 (2004), Down With Love, Scream, Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans, The Craft, They Came Together.

The Movie I Want to Make (That You Hopefully Also Want to Make)

I have not done a lot of work on the movie I'm trying to make. I believe in working basically from scratch with another person, so that's it's a real collaboration where both partners are fully invested. The list of notes I've included below is basically all of the work I've done so far.

The movie would be something of a "Woman's Film" parody / pastiche, mixed with exploitation movie stuff. It's a mix of All That Heaven Allows, Showgirls, Freeway, Heartbreakers, and Breathless [not the French movie; the 2012 Gina Gershon film]. It's about a cougar in a loveless and strained marriage. She has a daughter who's in a girl gang / all-female rock band. They are both, to some degree, rivals.

The daughter and mother live in two different worlds: the daughter’s world of delinquency and punk shit, and the mother’s adult world of keeping up with the joneses, passive aggressive remarks, etc. Adults fear the daughter because they think she’s violent and erratic [correct]. Adults fear the mother because they think she’s a homewrecker [correct].

The mother and daughter have foils. The mother has a rival cougar, who's richer and classier. The rival cougar has a daughter who pretends to be a chaste schoolgirl, but it's obvious to everyone except her mother that she isn't.

The daughter and mother have a tough relationship, and it gets worse when a young mother and her vacuous femboy son move into their cul-de-sac [not a femboy in a conscious way; he has no idea that he's not masculine]. The cougar, the daughter, and their respective rivals all want to sleep with the femboy, who turns into the MacGuffin.

The mother manipulates her daughter and her gang into killing her husband. Lots of bitching ensues. Lots of cunt energy. Etc. None of this is set in stone, but this is the basic premise I've come up with.

The Big Problem

This film would presumably be shot in the US [I lived there most of my life], but I currently live in Portugal. If we started chatting and ended up hitting things off, we could work remotely for a while. If we got to a point where we'd finished all of the pre-production [screenplay, storyboards, previs, probably even casting], I would be able to justify flying over so that we could shoot the movie together. But I can't do anything IRL before we've essentially completed the entire movie on paper, Hitchcock style.

If you live in the UK, Canada, or continental Europe or something and you were on board until I mentioned shooting in the US, you should still contact me and we can maybe work on something else!

Contact

Message me here on tumblr if you're interested in working together. Please include some of your stuff!

[absentcaryatid]

San's New Friends

An ATEEZ fanfic by AbsentCaryatid

San makes some friends, including the reader, who help him de-stress from a busy career.

2.3K words, Content note: all tumblr using ages, gender neutral reader, cats, food, cheating is referenced, no pronouns used for the reader, no reader romance, there are characters named Spider and Ant but no actual bugs in the story

~

With a blissful grin, San cooed into the phone, “You know I miss my baby. Can I come over to your place tonight? I can make it quick.”

The other teammates eyed each other as they took a rest break mid-practice. ATEEZ did not have a dating ban, so the conversation was not surprising for that reason. Instead, the concern felt by all of them from Hongjoong to Jongho was due to the knowledge that San's partner was currently out of the country. Dancing resumed, but the mood was uneasy. When the others wearily trudged to the company vans to be chauffeured home, San broke off and headed out on his own.

When he got back to the dorm that night, San was smiling like a Cheshire cat. It did not go unnoticed by his teammates who were strewn about the living room engaged in a multitude of activities. For various reasons from a love of drama on Wooyoung's part to Yunho's concern for their good name as a group, nobody had wanted to miss San's return.

The first to speak, Yeosang commented warily, “You look happy.”

“Yes, very much so. I have a new friend.” San continued to beam as he passed through the room toward the kitchen.

Wooyoung trailed him and watched as San got himself a drink of water. Leaning against the cabinet beside the sink, Wooyoung wanted to know, “Is that all? Sounded like more on the phone earlier. Baby, was it?”

Unreadable, San drained the glass before responding. “Just friends, I promise.”

“With benefits,” Wooyoung snickered.

San laughed. “I guess you could call it that. I even feel like I am cheating sometimes.”

Hongjoong had been listening in. Risk taking sounded out of character for San, so he felt the need to caution, “Whatever you have going on, don't let it blow up in all our faces.”

The other members trickled into the kitchen to keep up with the conversation.

“All our careers are linked, and anything you do can tarnish the name of the whole team.” Seonghwa's serious tone matched the others' worried expressions.

“Whoa! I know that, and really am not doing anything dangerous.” Finally aware of the gravity of their assumption, San began to clear his name. “Here is what I have been up to. You will be okay with it, I promise.”

~

After bouncing around workplaces looking for something that felt meaningful, you had recently landed the perfect job for your skills and interest- manager of a cat cafe. It had been your idea to take on the project in an effort to increase adoptions from the shelter you worked for. With no interest in dealing with the food service part of the cafe, the current offerings were limited to several vending machines, but that did not seem to slow business down any. People generally weren't after the restaurant experience when they visited a cat cafe anyway.

The draw, of course, was the shelter cats hoping to find a permanent home. The playroom side of the cafe let prospective owners interact with cats in a far more comfortable environment than the shelter cages offered. Other people came to relax by playing, petting, or merely watching from the tables. College students living far from their own beloved pet were regulars, and you had recently seen an uptick in their numbers around the stress of finals. Seeing the community benefit from your job gave you a strong sense of pride.

You were pinning another adoption success story photo to the corkboard when a new visitor came in. He looked like a typical college age customer in casual clothes, mask, and brimmed hat pulled low on his face. The man got a can of hot coffee and also made use of the pet food vending machine to get a tube of salmon paste. He was guaranteed to be popular in the cat room with that choice.

First sitting at a table, he seemed mesmerized by the activity behind the glass wall. Some kittens zoomed after each other while the more sedate older residents zoned out with petting and massage from other customers. When you came by to remove trash from the next table over, he asked you about the two Siamese cats.

You tried to hold back talking too much, but it was difficult when he had asked about your favorites. “The bigger one with the gangly legs, we call her Spider, and her brother is Ant since he was the littlest in their litter. I'm hoping they end up in a home together, but at the same time, I am in no hurry to see them go.”

The man who listened happily to your tale of rescuing the orphans from a drainpipe soon became a regular customer very eagerly greeted by the cats due to his frequent purchases of the most expensive treats. Sometimes his visits to play were midday on the weekends, but more often it would be late on a weekday. There were also times when whole months would go by without seeing him.

It was after one of those absences that he came to the door very late begging for five minutes in the cat room just at closing time. With a gesture far more successful than expected, while still outside he took his mask off for the briefest moment to win you over with a show of dimples.

You hoped it was not visible on your face, but you immediately recognized him as Choi San from ATEEZ. All this time, you had had your suspicions when his eyes reminded you of one of your favorite artists, and then the voice too, but to know it was really him left you impressed. San had never acted like a big shot star, waiting in line for the vending machines like anybody else or making friendly conversation with the staff. His humble attitude impressed you.

The long absences coinciding with ATEEZ world tours made sense, and you were enough of a fan to know he had just gotten back to the country today. If letting San decompress with his favorite local cats was a thing you could do for him, you were eager to give this simple gift. “Take all the time you need, I'll be cleaning up and restocking for a while.”

The work went fast as you smiled to yourself. You left San alone, knowing he was there for the cats and some likely much needed relaxation. When it finally came time to move the residents to their cages he offered to assist, and you readily agreed to give him more time with them. It didn't hurt that you enjoyed watching the interactions either.

“Here you go baby, tuck down for the night.” After he put Ant away in his labeled enclosure, San made conversation with you too. “Thank you so much for this time. I have a job that can be stressful and don't get to see my own cat while I live so far from my parents. Tonight really helped.”

You nodded. “You must miss the comfort of Byeol terribly. I wouldn't want the hectic life of an idol for the world.”

San stopped petting Spider who was now snuggled in his arms, purring away. “You recognize me? You didn't freak out.”

Shrugging, and hoping the smile under your own mask reached your eyes, you explained, “I figured you wanted some normalcy. Cats probably make a nice break from effusive fans so I respected that.”

“Thank you. I love being here because the cats like me for who I am as a person rather than my looks or fame.”

When you laughed at him, San took it in good humor. “You win them over with salmon paste! You're gentle with them sure, so they feel safe to be around you, but we both know how well they respond to the customers who spoil them.”

From that night onward, you always got a special head nod in greeting when San showed up. It was clear from the behavior of the staff under your direction that his identity was kept close to your chest. Understanding San would lose the ability to relax at the cat cafe once his visits became public knowledge, you made sure to protect this secret. The two of you were always friendly, but you also made sure to limit your interaction, giving San space to be just like any other cat admirer.

It was right after another concert tour when San returned at closing time with a catnip gift for his favorite nearby cats. When you mentioned Spider and Ant were adopted while he was away, his shoulders slumped. “I hoped to see them again, they really did a lot for me when I missed my Byeol, even if it did feel like cheating on her sometimes to be giving affection to another cat.”

Luckily, you were able to soften the blow with some good news. “Well, if you want, I can take the present home to them, or you are welcome to visit and give it to them yourself. I live nearby.” Suddenly you were hit by how that sounded. “It really is an offer for you and the cats, I'm not looking for anything more from you.”

San laughed, “No worries, being undesired for once makes a nice change. I'm really pleased you gave in and adopted them yourself like you were always threatening to do.”

From then on San would come to play with Ant and Spider from time to time, watching them grow up and calling himself their uncle. He even video called from a tour once because his parents weren't answering to let him chat with Byeol and he really needed some cat time. It soon became clear you were also friends in your own right, the cats alone were not the only draw.

You could tell San felt comfortable after seeing you weren't begging to meet the other members of your favorite group, and could enjoy his company as just a person. He even teased you about it once when he brought snacks for an evening of dramas. Protesting you did like him for far more than being a provider of gourmet smoked salmon, San enjoyed the listing of traits you rattled off as to why his friendship was so valuable to you. None of those reasons had anything to do with his fame or looks, other than the happiness his smile brought you.

Shifting his cat time and friendship visits to the privacy of your home worked well because given enough time, even with the mask, it was a sure thing San was eventually going to be recognized by someone at the cat cafe. Once that happened, with the secret now out and mobs lingering for the chance of spotting a much-admired star, San gave up going to the cafe now that he had an in with you for cat access. Since his association with the shelter run cafe was already publicly discussed online, San approached KQ Entertainment with an idea to help the remaining unadopted cats he had gotten so much benefit from. Since the business was a non-profit, his employers agreed and you greatly looked forward to the project.

The day came and the cafe had a sign out notifying customers it was temporarily closed. Two sedans and plenty of equipment trucks arrived for a video shoot. You held it together far better than your giddy employees as ATEEZ filmed in the cat room. Jongho cheerfully complained but had a soft smile as a cat snoozed across his outstretched legs. Others seemed more at ease, such as Hongjoong who strutted around regally with an orange fur collar licking at his earrings.

In another corner, Yunho and San were splayed out on the floor letting cats walk on them while Yeosang taught a small gray cat to high-five. Seonghwa laughed as the kitten in his arms playfully batted at his bangs. Also true to character, Wooyoung was making recipes mixing together treats from the cat food vending machine to an appreciative audience. And then there was Mingi. The microphone on his shirt picked up quiet words of affirmation to the fat cat named Princess lovingly cradled in his lap, reveling in affectionate forehead scritches and Mingi's soothing voice.

Watching through the glass dividing the animal room from the cafe tables, you were in awe to see how easily San and the others slipped into model mode for the photography session afterward, even with the added difficulty of interacting while holding a cat. The resulting shots designed to showcase each available animal resulted in a complete emptying of the shelter you worked for. The pictures were passed around online, and in no time at all, even the previously hard to place cats had homes with dedicated fans.

The photo of Princess and Mingi in tiny matching tiaras generated the most interest. She was quickly spoken for, however. One of the managers on site that day came back soon after to make her his own to the delight of his family. Thereafter, Princess was occasionally seen around the KQ building on request, but for San she was no substitute for his beloved Byeol, or friends Spider and Ant. Regular visits to those local cats continued, as did his time with you.

San's romantic partners came and went, but your steady presence in his life as a person outside his idol work remained a cherished friendship. When the day came for him to settle down in a permanent relationship, you planned to be there cheering him on. And, should the happy couple wish to add a cat to their household, you would be ready with plenty of suggested feline companions in mind.

~

Masterlist of stories with no romance

General Masterlist

[beta-adjacent]

Cursed Z-o-m-b-i-e-s x Spiderman AU or Cursed Descendants x Spiderman AU

………..Ok, fuck it, I’m giving this my best shot

Zombies:

The zombie outbreak was actually more like… an arachnid outbreak maybe??? Zombies and spiders though. “Zombies made by a spider disease~”, whatever ok you get the idea. And the genetics passed on have an Insane variety of powers. Zed just happens to be one who gets web with extremely strong tensile strength. I just. Spider-Zed. SPIDER-ZED C’MON MAN WE CAN’T NOT USE THAT SOMEHOW— this one for me Has to be set in a grimier Seabrooke, like it’s Zombies mixed into Spiderman

This is kind of like the Spider-Man mixed into Zombies. All of the events of Zombies basically occurs the same, except somewhere we get an arc where Someone (don’t know who yet) gets bitten by a radioactive (or moon crystal infected whatever, you get the idea-ish) spider. I’d also heavily agree within this category the existence of just. Spider people. Arachne are just another type of monster and that includes Peter and Gwen and Noir and whoever else from Spiderverses we want. I mostly want that so Addison is bitten by a regular spider and has her usual crisis, hahaha

Descendants:

The Isle has stopped relying on magic in the 20 years away from it. Does Disney have evil scientists????? Does Professor Callahan from Big Hero 6 or the villain in Meet the Robinson’s count? Is Meet the Robisons Disney??????? Ok who cares you get the idea, maybe the kids just learn the power of science. Point is we pull a Garfield!!!! That is, the webbing is synthetic. It’s something all the Isle kids have? This would almost be a war movie by the end I’m realizing, where the Isle has incidentally created this army of radioactive children…

I want Carlos to be the star in this variant for some reason. Carlos the one with the bite, and it happens in lieu of the events of D1. Maybe Carlos does the web as a side project (Garfield-esque), like he originally makes it so he can grab things from his mom’s insanely weird little mansion faster. He’s already been super sensitive when sensing she’s been near, but he always thought it was just trauma stuff. When he gets to Auradon, he starts using it in secret to zip around the city to learn more about it and it’s really helpful. With his tech, Carlos feels useful for once, like he’s not always running away. To the Core 4, he’s the scouter with ~mysterious ways~ of collecting intel. Ben notices him zipping around first but doesn’t tell anyone, but Evie quickly catches second. She uses it as an excuse to sew Carlos his own Spidey suit!!! Soon though, with Auradon’s advanced labs, Carlos can make wayyy stronger tech. And from there I can’t decide if he just makes stuff for the Core 4 or if Mal & Jay steal it (to abuse it for petty crimes and/or schemes to stalk Ben), or really just where to go generally

I guess there’s always the thought too that someone other than Carlos gets these powers, but they’d have a far less tech-y approach. Mal and Jay would absolutely use it from the get-go whereas Evie would hide it because “gross” spider glands make me ugly. I’m even considering Ben now. He’d sneak off into the night with his powers to do some rebellious-ish things, anything to escape the pressure of kinghood so young. I’d kind of love it if Mal began finding/admiring these weirdly unique spray paintings in town and they’re Ben’s

If you have any ideas anyone, PLEASE let me know, I am DYING to see what the hell we can do with this insane prompt because there’s potential!!!

[000life-is-meaningless000]

Fated To Be Fucked, Doomed To Be Damned ! ! !

if a lion pounds is on an animal or any other predator kills an animal or any other arthropod any kind of insect or spider kills another they don't apparently go to hell in human theology, even though people have seen animals in hell ? - ( Suffering )

Warning : Extremely Long !

I Never Understood, Any Of This Shit !

&

But, in the natural rules allegedly, . . . . . ALLEGEDLY !

if an animal kills another animal and they enjoy it and there's blood all over their face and they're ripping it apart and having a good time

the animal does not get diagnosed with a fucking mental illness 😡 the animal is not diagnosed as immoral 😡/😤 and apparently the animal does not get sent to Hell by some god or goddess even from another fucking universe !

BUT IF A PERSON DOES THAT, ( or any of that ) STRAIGHT THE FUCKING HELL ! ! ?

it's only fair, I Guess !

. . . . . . .

if a human steals from another human they go to hell of a human is pride for all they go to hell if you do anything dark you go to hell, and what really gets to me is when you hear about angels and deities actual Divine beings of the universe and has very Superior very serious Ultra serious I can't find a word more intense than with serious and special souls in the universe Divine beings who have unbelievable amount of responsibilities in existence and even they end up in FUCKING HELL ¡ ! ! ! ! ! ! !

it really is a unbelievably insane thing that hell was real and it is, we're all going to hell that's my analysis that we're all going to hell it's not a matter of if, I swear to God it's not a matter of if it literally is a matter of when !

there is no if !

we are all destined we are all doomed and completely and absolutely fated to scream and eternal suffering in the in the realm of absolute damnation we are all doomed to go there all angels will end up there all deities eventually will end up there All Souls all Spirits all aliens there isn't a single fucking animal in existence that will not end up there !

if a dog ends up killing a fucking cat and a cat end up trying to fight a dog that the dog will be Smited by the god Zeus and sent right to hell and then the cat will be ripped apart and sent to hell how dare they act Wild !

( and free )

and then eventually Zeus will be end up the hill himself as Cronus and other deity that rain in Olympus of divine thrown all of them ended up in Hell quite literally every Divine being ever set on the Divine throne of Olympus some way some half of some fucking reason ended up in hell ?

it is absolutely appalling yet astounding how much shit ends up in hell it is over . . . FUCKING . . . . . Whelming !

to see so much shit quite literally end up in hell

YOU'RE GOING TO HELL, I'M GOING TO HELL !

YAHWEH FROM HEAVEN IS GOING TO HELL, people say they see celebrities in Hell people say they see a lot of people they know in hell I've actually in my God damn life when I was just like mine and my own business so people I knew it was it was it was cast to me as a dream but dreams don't exist your astral projecting

I've seen almost everyone in my life that that died end up showing me that they're being sent to hell

AND NO, I'M NOT A FUCKING CHRISTIAN OR A CATHOLIC !

you're going to hell I'm going to hell God's going to hell Jesus is going to hell and almost so many people in the Asian country has said they seen Buddha in hell !

I'm losing my fucking mind, it is just it it seems like hell is the universe for all of us, if we're all going to hell then why do any of us fear the punishment ?

When we're all Fated ?

Wen Something so special and so great and so Grand and so white and light and pure and positive like Lucifer was sent to Hell Lucifer was was probably the nicest smartest seraphim to ever exist he was top quality and that's an understatement !

HE'S IN HELL ! ! ! ! ! !

😡 - YOU'RE FUCKED I'M FUCKED NONE OF US SHOULD CARE WE END UP IN HELL JUST KNOW IT'S GOING TO HAPPEN AT THIS POINT HELL WAS LIKE DEATH ONE DAY YOU'RE GOING TO DIE AND ONE DAY YOU'RE SOLD AGAINST HIM TO HELL IT'S FUCKING GUARANTEED ! ! ! ! !

- - -

I just want to go over the world Part, Again, I want to go one more time !

the god Cronus the gods Saturn who was the god of time for an extremely long time no pun intended

even that mother fucker even that much

even that fucking deity even him, even him even fucking him ended up and fucking hell so many deities in Egypt ended up in hell so many deities in Babylon ended up in a fucking hell even the even God himself has given an arterial name so he truly is the creator of the universe known as the demiurge

AND THAT'S WHY I SAY HOW LONG IS IT GOING TO BE UNTIL THE FUCKING MONAD THE TRUE BEING OF ALL EXISTENCE AND THE FUCKING AEONS AND SOPHIA END UP IN HELL, from the Pleroma !

YOU'RE GOING TO HELL I'M GOING TO HELL YOUR BELOVED FUCKING PETS GOING TO HELL I'M NOT TRYING TO BE MEAN !

Forgive Me, if I look like a troller an asshole on the internet I'm sorry - 🙏🏻

I definitely can't shake the image of looking like a crazy person, but, you know what fuck it !

ALL YOUR BELOVED PETS ARE GOING TO HELL ALL YOUR FRIENDS ARE GOING TO HELL ALL THE DEITIES, YOU WORSHIP APPARENTLY ARE GOING TO HELL CUZ OF ALL THE HISTORY I'VE READ ABOUT OTHER DEITIES AND JUST THE PAST AND SHIT AND JUST HISTORY ! ! ! ! ! ! !

animals really enjoy killing and stuff and I'm pretty sure the aliens all throughout the Universe don't know about Christianity ( for the pagan religion, various deities to say you come damnation and they themselves some way somehow ended up in fucking hell ? ) - ( I mean Tartarus ) so they're going the hell eventually but even if they're not we all know that Jesus is still going to go to hell we know that being in heaven does not save you from hell

LOOK AT LUCIFER THE MANY OF THEIR ANGELS

it's only a matter of time before All Souls in heaven end up in hell and it's even said in the Christian religion lots of times that just because you're in heaven doesn't mean you can't be sent on down !

but if you're in hell you can't be forgiven so that means that once you're in hell that's shit's, Permanent !

&

there's a lot of aliens out there that are really enjoying murdering killing causing genocide stealing raping God Only knows whether crazy fucked up dark things are doing torturing with their paranormal alien abilities

which means that eventually all life in the universe all intelligent life all animal life in the universe all that's going to end up in hell and I'm not even trying to be a smart-ass I wonder if bacteria ends up in hell

I'M NOT TRYING TO BE A SMART-ASS !

. . . . . . .

so this ends up in hell that ends up in hell you end up in hell I end up in Hell got struck his shoulders and says oh fucking well then he trips from Heaven he ends up in hell all the Angels end up in Hell everybody in the Divine family ends up and fucking hell all animals end up in hell all lions end up in hell all arthropods end up in hell all aliens end up in hell all deities in the Divine family end up in hell everyone that walks this world Yahweh actually said multiple times and I've experienced him say he's going to throw everybody in the hell

I'm not fucking around I swear to God that shit

Yahweh said multiple fucking times that he's going to throw everybody in Hell All humans in the hell he's damning everyone he actually said that shit long before I was on this planet that was an actual conversation I had with him I actually fucking experienced that !

so if you looked at the history of things of deity so a lot of other deities in hell and that's fucking Part that they can never get out of it but the the Titans all Titans are in hell and Titans are all deities so they get thrown into hell also called the underworld and other times as well so everyone ends up in fucking hell no one can avoid it no one no mortal no animal no alien no Spirit No Angel no demon no reason no excuse no Divine permission no fucking thing and it is you from hell they're probably going to end up in fucking hell

THIS IS FUCKING MADNESS ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !

[justmybookthots]

I did read a fair bit in April, but for some reason my brain wasn't in the mood to talk about it in my reading journal. Well, now I'm forcing it so it has no choice. I'll just compromise and make my reviews brief. And yes — a lot of thrillers in this month because I didn't want to read anything that had romance in it for a while due to a writing project that was very romance-heavy. I WILL say that reading six thrillers back-to-back has shot my nerves to pieces so 😂

Dead of Winter: I remember reading another book then downloading Dead of Winter and just opening it for a peek. WHAT I DIDN'T EXPECT was that the action had already started in Chapter 1 and next thing I knew, I was reading it like a mad man and I could not stop. I need to say that I guessed the plot twist one-third through the book and some of the logistics behind it but surprisingly, it did not ruin the story for me. It was actually one of the few thrillers I read that made me feel claustrophobic and scared. Long after I was done, I kept thinking about it, feeling a) sad for some of the characters' suffering and b) scared/disturbed. I always thought gore didn't matter to me in written form but this book proved me wrong. Overall a really good book.

Never Coming Home: I enjoyed this one a lot, too. I was also a little disturbed and rattled by this book. More than that, I was sad because some of these people were genuinely all-right people in my books (ha ha, bad pun). But they met a terrible ending, anyway. I kinda had to suspend my disbelief about the killer getting away with this shit but I gotta say: I always enjoy the 'And Then There Were None' premise. 

Everyone is Watching: This thriller actually wasn't scary, and while I'd definitely have complained had I read this first, it ended up serving as a palate cleanser after I read two really disturbing books. This was also my first time reading a book where certain characters DID THE RIGHT THING and weren't completely morally reprehensible, and I was shocked. I don't see likeable/rootable characters in thrillers often. Overall, despite lacking some of the tension and fear I'd normally have liked, it was circumstantially welcome for me and kept me engaged throughout. I would have liked if a certain subplot/thread had been wrapped up though — it had just been left there to dangle.

Ward D: Freida McFadden is often hit or miss for me in regards to story resolution, but this was a HIT!! Again, I guessed the plot twist like one-third the way in (I don't know if I'm being smarter or I've just read too many thrillers), but the journey was so thrilling and I couldn't stop reading. That's her gift, isn't it? Somehow she's perfected the formula to make her books unputdownable. I was cheering for Spider-Dan at the end, haha. I really liked this one!

That's Not My Name: Okay, so this book made me uncomfortable. The idea of a girl waking up and living with a strange man who claims to be her father was so… icky. Can you imagine?? Sharing a secluded cabin with a man you don't even know but you have to take his word that he's your dad? Thank God the man never did anything sexual because I would have vomited right then and there. Also, the ending actually made me tear up because it was really sad. I did skim in parts but other than that a pretty solid book? I don't like this as much as the aforementioned thrillers I read, though.

Everyone Here Is Lying: This was my first time reading a book with this writing style. It feels… well, not bad, just different — almost like I'm reading a report of everyone's POVs in the suburbs. It feels kinda impersonal, the way things are written? I can't put a finger on it. I don't think it's necessarily something I disliked. It was actually very engaging UNTIL the mystery reveal came in and I was like: huh??? This is so anticlimactic. This is the reveal? The culprit was like, barely mentioned up until that point. It's what made me dock a star. Other than that, the journey was pretty entertaining and I love domestic thrillers.

Wrath of the Talons: Okay. So. The first half of this book? I have to say it's kinda garbage. It's extremely repetitive with Lina going around, killing some Blackbloods, then gathering allies with just a few nice words and some baubles/valuables as bribes. I don't think she did it in any way that was significant or impressive, and I don't think she's sly as the other characters keep praising her to be – she's honestly just dumb if you ask me, lmao. I kept comparing her to Jude Duarte and being like: this is a Walmart knockoff. That said, the second half with the Prophecy came in and I was really hooked by that, and how Rui was trying to handle it. I also just really like seeing him in pain because of it. 🙂 In any case, the ENDING is what made a solid three-star book into four stars for me. Or at least a high three stars. That was delicious and I won't spoil it but I loved how it came full circle with the man whose wife Lina killed. I was originally pretty annoyed with how she thought it was okay to deceive that man into an alliance after what she did, but the culmination of that plot point was splendid. I'm really curious about the next book, which is coming out later this year, I think? It's a lot faster than I expected given we waited so long for this book, so I have a feeling this is just a placeholder date, but we'll see!!!

Okay — I'm done wrapping up. I won't be mentioning the Mediator reread right now. All in all, this was a productive reading month for me (shockingly) despite all the fanfic writing I did this month and I'm pretty content about it. I'll see where the next month takes me… 

- 1 May 2024

[mysmashplaythroughs]

99 Problems but F-Zero ain't one of them

I see Tumblr's joined the group of websites that felt the need to make their layout even more irritating with no actual gain. Well anyway, yeah another 'off-topic' post rather than something substantial. Admittedly, this has probably been my least productive year yet when it comes to my Smash Bros Playthroughs (Ironic that rereading my post at the end of last year I said I might actually be able to finish everything up to the Spirits etc on my list yet I've not even finished Tales of Symphonia yet...) I've beaten 3 games on my list and two of them I was barely able to justify being on the list as they were new releases (Pokemon Scarlet for the Pokeball item because it's the first main series game where you actually can manually throw a Pokeball to make a Pokemon appear and Fire Emblem Engage because of stage related reasons (there's no spoiler tag it seems on here so I'll hold off specifying). Beyond these though, I've been playing just new releases really including Tears of the Kingdom (the third on my list but I'll hold off why), Xenoblade Chronicles 3 Future Redeemed (which was fantastic) and I finally was able after all these years to play Spider-man on my new Steamdeck which took up a large chunk of my game playing this year (didn't finish Miles game yet though.) There are two other games I've mainly played, (besides every so often doing a few Mario Maker 2 courses which is part of a big project I've been working on for that) the first of which is finally relating to the dumb title I've used above. F-Zero 99 isn't what F-Zero fans wanted but it's still been great to play imo and I've been playing it far more than I thought I would. Hopefully this will be a sign of some possible attention for the series as a whole as it seems to have attracted quite a few casual players as well as F-Zero fans.

I thought I'd managed after what I mentioned last time to get every game I wanted to on the eShop before it closed on 3DS and Wii U, and I did manage that for my Smash list, but I was missing a game I'd always meant to pick up but never got around to... and I realised far too late that meant the only option now was trying to track down an overpriced copy on Ebay or something. I did however manage to win a copy in an auction (I wouldn't like to admit how much, just that it was below at least the prices for every other copy I saw on there) of Project X Zone 2. Because of this I've been playing that a lot recently, I've made it a fair way in, there's more characters than I expected that I at least knew the name or look of but it's definitely got a lot of ones I had to ask my friends who play a lot more obscure games about. With that said, since Phoenix Wright didn't get into Smash it is fun at least having him in something like it and I have been enjoying it. I've mentioned before I believe sometimes just liking crossovers even if they're things I've never heard of, I guess because in a sense it allows me as a newcomer to see it from the eyes of the other characters who've never met before and so I learn what they learn. Either way, that's been mostly taking up my playtime atm, which try as I might I haven't currently found a way of justifying to be on my list (granted, honestly adding it might be reaching too much even for me.) All of this however, has led to a problem that means I might have to change plans fast...

Nintendo's announced that the Wii U and 3DS will be losing their online almost entirely next year, with only redownloads of software you own, updates to software and Pokemon Bank I believe to still remain after next April (and Bank is stated to end sometime after...) This announcement made me realise I had to heavily look at my list and see if there's something that will make impossible. I worried about Federation Force and Triforce Heroes but those do seem to be at least playable in single player (definitely not ideal but not completely unusable) however, it's the other thing that has me concerned, Pokemon Bank closing. Due to this, I've realised I have to do what I originally planned to do after finishing the items on my list, which is to capture every single Pokemon that's appeared in Smash Bros in any form (Pokeball, stage background, Trophies, Spirits) but in it's home region. I was then planning on transferring them all to Pokemon Ultra Moon and using that game to get screenshots of them (with their region exclusive photo backgrounds in the game). Due to this therefore, I plan to start very soon playing through the final two Pokemon games I had on my list, Emerald and Crystal. Admittedly, Emerald isn't one I plan on actually using to capture Pokemon specifically, it's far far easier for me to use ORAS to do so, but for my actual playthrough of the game's plot etc, I plan on playing the original Emerald on GBA. Crystal is one I've been looking forward to for a while as it's my favourite Pokemon game ever and on my list of top 10 games of all time (the majority of which are on my Smash list) I do also have Sword and Shield on my Smash Bros list as well as Legends Arceus and Let's Go, however since they're on Switch I'm going to hold off on those till I was originally going to play them. Also because it's almost impossible beyond hacking or using complicated means from what I've seen to get certain Pokemon, I will settle for simply having ones like Celebi or Mew rather than specifically getting them from their regions, basically as you can probably guess I just mean I'll get what I can.

So yeah, that's where I'm at basically, I'll probably update my list after posting this as I've added a fair few things (Daisy for example is going to have Super Mario Bros Wonder become her actual game now seeing as it fits her in Smash a lot more than Super Mario Party did on my initial list) so yeah. I guess if I have an aim for this by the end of the year, I highly doubt I'll beat all the games I have on my list for Mii Costumes (from Tales of Symphonia to DOOM 2016) but I do plan on going back to a few I've skipped over either because I couldn't play them at the time or didn't want to burn out too much on one series (numerous Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts games I've skipped over for now regarding costumes or stage elements for example) so at the very least I'd like to end this year with that looking a little bit more respectable. Typing this out has made me decide to finally stop holding back on this and get a move on with it, so I'm hoping perhaps by the end of the year I might finally write those last two Melee character posts and have good news on my progress after that. Either way, I guess in honour of Charles Martinet, I'll try and stick to the mantra of 'Here we go!' (Yes, feel free to unfollow me after that)

[shoot-the-eye]

I have so so many dreams (they're my special interest so I write them all down. I'm at over 800 now), and many of them have some form of whump. Good and bad. Good because they make good stories; bad 'cause they suck to experience.

I prefer being the whumpee or caretaker because I don't like the idea of being the one hurting other people without justified cause (like fighting for my life).

(Rambling, details, and an actual dream under the cut)

If I have to hurt someone else for no reason it's usually because of mind control or I simply go to third person and watch as my character hurts the other person. Then it's back to first person and I have to deal with the consequences of "my" actions.

I've endured a lot in my dreams. Kidnapping, mind control, long falls, (never any broken bones though; I haven't broken any bones irl so I guess my subconscious doesn't know how to mimic it), stabbings, poisoning, burns, acidic melting, dehumanization, public ridicule, complete and total loss of hope, watching others suffer due to my actions, zombie bites, venomous snake bites, too many fucking spiders, rape, being hunted for sport, being hated by anyone and everyone for things outside my control, sickness, muteness, blindness, amnesia (a lot of amnesia actually, it's very common for some reason), losing everyone I love due to the passage of time, things being under my skin that Should Not be under my skin, extended isolation, drowning, asphyxiation…the list goes on.

This may not count as whump unless you're going for emotional, but my very worst nightmares are when bad things happen to my cat.

I'm sorry for all the rambling. I should probably actually describe a dream. Here's one of my scariest ones to date. Usually I'm not scared once I wake up, but this one had me genuinely terrified even after I was awake.

---

Basically the dream started as a school dream, but I was a teacher instead of a student. It was my first day as a teacher and another teacher told me to be careful, because it looked like I had a ghost in my class. I looked over the class, and saw a kid that had a mask-like face, but had very obviously died by drowning. He was still dripping wet.

The dream skipped to after class. The ghost was still there, sitting in his seat, but everyone else but me was gone. It was really, really creepy. Then suddenly he was in front of me. I tried to give him a choice between necklace prizes, hoping that giving him a gift would keep me safe, I guess. He took one, chanted, "Hard, school was hard," and clawed my eyes out anyway. It stole the breath from my lungs, and I died.

I was suddenly in the body of someone else, a student this time, and ran into the ghost. The same thing happened. "Hard, school was hard," he chanted, and killed me. One thing that was consistent besides the chanting and the method of death was the beads from the necklace in his hands.

This happened a few more times until I was a teacher again. People shouted at me to run, but all the other teachers and students I had been who had died had already tried that. Even going intangible through walls (something I can just Do in dreams) was useless because he was a ghost who could do the same thing.

So even though I still tried to run, the next time he said school was hard, I did something new: I agreed with him. Agreeing with him made him hesitate, and I saw my chance and fled the school. But I wasn't out of trouble yet.

Even though I had escaped the school, I had not escaped the drowned boy. He was still right behind me. Every time he repeated his mantra, I verbally agreed with him, buying myself a little more time.

I learned through him projecting his memories that his mom used to take him to the nearby lake after school. Through his memories, I could see how much his mother meant to him, and how much he meant to her.

I found myself running to that same lake.

Eventually, the boy and I were standing side-by-side at the lake's shore. Even as the situation died down from its earlier state of frenzy, the boy repeated his mantra, and I repeated my agreements.

I realized that I knew how this was going to end.

For some reason, telling this boy that his mother loved him became more important than staving off my inevitable death.

The next time the boy repeated his mantra, instead of agreeing with him, I told him that his mother loved him.

In a story, this would have surely stopped the boy from killing me in a moment of poetic catharsis. But this was a nightmare, not a story. As I had declined to agree with his mantra, the boy pushed my face beneath the lake's surface, and I drowned.

I finally woke up—or at least, I thought I did. I woke up in my mom's house, in my room from before I moved out. I was heaving for breath, but when I rolled off my bed to get up to find my mom, a familiar bunch of beads fell out of my lap.

The boy appeared in front of me. I tried to wake up for real, but couldn't (something that has never happened before or since; I can ALWAYS wake myself up when I'm having nightmares) until, once again, he chanted, "Hard, school was hard," and killed me.

I don't think I have ever felt such dread and horror as I did when I saw those beads.

Finally, I woke up for real. It was hard to determine whether I was really awake, after the fake-out in the last section of the dream. So even after waking up, I was still terrified.

Dying over and over really doesn't bother me usually, as that's how most of my time loop dreams work, but the fact there there was no escaping this kid was terrifying. Not being able to escape is one of my biggest fears.

The whump in this scenario, aside from the brutal violence, was the knowledge that no matter what I did, I would not be able to escape.

hello!! i’m kinda curious, so question for y’all whump community!!

ABSOLUTELY take this as an invitation to share your whump dreams if you have any and are comfortable sharing!! comments, reblogs, and asks are all good!!