#but there IS a lot of mortal danger!

[starry-bi-sky]

Blood Blossom lore for the Blood Blossom Au

Blood Blossoms -- otherwise scientifically known as rosa hemato -- are an extinct genus of flower from the rosaceae family that disappeared from the mortal plane in the late 1600s due to over-foraging from settlers during the Witch Trials. Prior to their extinction, they were already a rare breed of rose because of an evolutionary trait resulting in their main source of energy being ambient ectoplasm.

This means that blood blossoms only grow in areas where there are unusual levels of ectoplasm present. Regardless, however, only one or two bushes of blood blossoms can grow, as too many of them results in the ectoplasm being sucked out with no room of replenishing back to its original levels. This kills the blood blossoms in return. So a balance has to be met.

Blood blossoms have a mildly unsettling appearance. Their namesake, "blood blossom", comes from the blood red appearance of their petals, which start out as a vibrant red but steadily grows darker with age similar to blood drying on a page. Their stems, leaves, and thorns are, rather than green, a rich black-purple color. The center where the pistil sits is the typical yellow, however, it takes on the appearance of a yellow eye peering through the petals.

Blood blossoms emit a sweet, fragrant scent that allows them to not only attract bees, but also break down ectoplasm for consumption. See, what it does is that it discharges some of its pollen into the air, which then "latches on" to ecto. As the pollen begins to float down to the ground, the ectoplasm then sinks into the soil for the blood blossom to then draw into its roots. It gives the ectoplasm a physical body to latch onto, which it then uses to consume it.

Despite having a symbiotic relationship with ambient ectoplasm in it's natural habitat, the interactions it has with ghosts is an entirely different story. To ghosts, Blood Blossoms are terrifying, opportunistic parasitoids capable of consuming spirits whole if given the chance. Ghosts give off significantly more ectoplasm and when the blood blossoms sense that, they emit more pollen in order to consume it. Which is where the whole "blood blossoms are natural ghost shields" thing comes from.

Their sweet scents and vibrant colors made them popular upon discovery for perfumes and dyes, and when eaten taste sweet and slightly bitter, almost irony. Which is another reason for their namesake. During the Salem Witch Trials it was theorized that blood blossoms could expel the sins/demons from someone's body when consumed and prevent possession, or when surrounded by the roses, would trap the demons inside it's host body which would then be burned to banish it back to Hell along with the soul of it's host.

Which made them incredibly popular in executions, exorcisms, and Mass.

They could grow anywhere in the world so long as there was an adequate amount of ecto present.

Surprisingly enough, they do not commonly grow in or around gravesites due to a competitor flower nicknamed "rest in peace lilies" which, despite their name, are actually from the asparagaceae family and have more in common with bluebells. They're more modernly known as everlast bells. Ghosts prefer them over blood blossoms because they have a similar effect on ghosts as poppies do on the living where it sends them into a restful slumber. Hence their nickname "rest in peace lilies". The dead loove them.

In the Ghost Zone, their effects on the dead are far more potent than when they grew in the living realm due to the excessive amount of ectoplasm. They also grow much faster, so ghosts treat their appearances on islands similar to how one treats mint or kudzhu after finding it growing in their lawn: with extreme prejudice. And a lot of terror. Ghosts tend to rip them out when the flowers are not in bloom, or burn them when they are.

Their appearances in the Zone aren't much different than what they looked like in the living realm, with only a few mild changes like their thorns being sharper, their petals being more angular, and their eye-like center actually looking more like an eye. It's theorized that the Infinite Realm versions of blood blossoms gained very mild sentience, just enough that it almost feels like their eyes follow you when you pass by them, like a painting. Nobody is willing to test that theory.

To a ghost, getting caught in the hooks of a blood blossom means a slow, agonizing death akin to thousands of needle-sized mouths eating you all at once. The pollen doesn't stop until the ectoplasm is all broken down. Blood blossoms in the Ghost Zone are very much capable of eradicating a ghost entirely, core and all, with no chance of return. No passing go, no reconstruction, just complete oblivion.

Danny, prior to his poisoning, had severe allergic reactions when in physical contact with blood blossom in his human form. Rashes, blistering, hives wherever the blossom had physical contact with, inflammation, you name it. Luckily that hadn't been something he needed to worry about since they're, well, extinct.

[lloydfrontera]

i'm also obsessed with lloyd still thinking about javier's looks even when he's five seconds away from dying. he's so upset he's gonna die for javier's handsome ass. he's literally like "you better live a good long life after this you bastard. and i hope you lose your hair and get stinky feet" cause he thinks it's unfair javier will not only get to live but also continue on being unnaturally pretty.

he really said

[cienie-isengardu]

Mortal Kombat 1 Behind the Scenes AU: Ketchup & Mustard, p. 1

Author's note: If there was one person to call Sektor and Cyrax the "Ketchup and Mustard", of course it would be Johnny! And of course I needed to bring the joke to my AU XD I'm a bit here inspired by MK9/previous timeline(s) in regard to Cyrax not being a fan of Johnny Cage (or his movies). She may or may not smack Cage for his stupid remark... Bi-Han for sure is not paid enough for dealing with this nonsense XD

[Earlier posts, from #1 to #52] [Shao learns about Paid Leave (p. 2)] [Johnny’s complaint] [The problems with Smoke’s powers] [Dark Sub-Zero] [Say ‘cheese’!] [Haunted mansion] [Sektor & Cyrax - Scenography (4)] [Shang Tsung’s commentary] [Just one more take! + bonus] [Bi-Han, NO! - Cat on film set] [Bi-Han, NO! - Purrfected] [Bi-Han, Sektor & Cyrax - Scenography (5)] [Bi-Han, NO! - Madam Bo’s “help” during filming scene] [Dark Sub-Zero, p.2] [Saibot's hug] [I SAID I’M SORRY!] [Shang Tsung and Kuai Liang for once agreeing on something] [Reassurance]

[charlotte-family-apologist]

may I have some of your Suchin head canons please? 🥹

Of course!

She’s not insecure. Like at all. Nervous? Anxiety-ridden? Embarrassed? Absolutely, but insecure? Never. She’s confident in her abilities and likes how she looks.

Refuses to wear shorts or any skirt above the knee. Pants and long skirts all the way. Doesn’t really have a reason, just doesn’t like them.

Loves a good tank top though.

Clothing stealer 100%. She didn’t own many casual clothes so most of them were taken from Kenshi’s closet.

Her Japanese wasn’t that good when she and Kenshi met, conversational at best.

Her ass cannot dance 😭 she will trip over her own feet and fall onto the floor. Her battle skill does not help, in fact it makes her lack of dancing ability even more embarrassing.

Rip Suchin you would’ve loved arguing with people online.

Takes cold, short showers.

Genuinely never saw herself being a mother. The only reason she kept Takeda is because she didn’t realize she was pregnant until late into the pregnancy. Though if anything bad were to happen to him it’d be a blood bath.

The type of person to talk to kids the way she talks to adults but with some self-censorship. This is why Takeda freaked out a lot of the Shirai Ryu when he first joined, he was talking like an incredibly blunt, awkward, paranoid adult.

More on that- while she censored herself a bit if asked she wouldn’t sugar coat it. (“Where do babies come from?” “Sex.” Sorta thing)

Refused to answer any questions about Kenshi or her past. Takeda quickly learned not to ask.

[syn4k]

actually yeah, fae tr, especially during s2. think about it.

operate on strange rules and dynamics that are incomprehensible to all but themselves

adjacent to the arcane and unnatural from the very start. they approach a natural terror and fucking play around in it

incredibly aggressive for no apparent reason. violence for violence may be the law of beasts but they have shark tooth grins and laugh at things that terrify others so who's to say that any of them are human?

very tightly knit group. they have their banter and their little dogfights and they spill blood and pull the rug from under each others' feet but one almost gets the sense while watching that this is just how they show affection

attempts to enter that group are never really fully successful. sure, they have friends and allies, but even those are kind of on the outskirts of. whatever dynamic they have going on.

unless you're Andor, that is.

some in Dagrun whisper that the fact they accepted him so readily as one of their own is a blessing. most of the town see it as a curse.

lastly, and most importantly, they are inextricably bound to each other. every last one of them. if you fuck with one of them, all of them hit back in vengeance, and the vengeance of the sky people is not something that you want to provoke. because after all,

they say the zombie singlehandedly killed a god he used to be championed by and absorbed all of its power

they say the mercenary has eyes that are a little bit too sharp behind his glasses, a tongue that's a little too rough for a champion of mianite. his actions never quite line up with his words

they say the thaumaturge runs towards things that would destroy her instead of away like she should, embraces them fully, and emerges stronger and more fucked up for it every time

they say the wizard holds enough power in his little finger to turn entire cities inside out without so much as lifting it

and they say when the captain goes quiet, you should run.

[spotaus]

Coda and Ichor! (Catacombtale Style!)

These two don't have a *ton* of interaction in the Main story, but since Ichor and Balance are the only two characters I've fully designed, Coda gets stuck next to him, haha!

BONUS art jumpscare:

These two actually exist in another project I'm working on too called Codex, which is basically just removing the UT aspects of Catacombtale and doing a lot more worldbuilding and character design!

Coda is older in Codex and is marked by an old God (which should get him jailed or killed, as it means for everyone else) but he hides it for years and years before he finally flees the complex he's living in to go confront the gods and stop their destructive path. Meanwhile Ichor is much the same, only he's much more ready and willing to help Coda without much prompting. Here he's also sort of a Koi Fish! (His brother is a Betta Fish)

[pwurrz]

i can’t believe me, a yakumo fan, enjoyer, lover, etc, being upset that yakumo’s experienced nothing but misery in nearly every event he’s been in for the past two years was so shocking and confusing to some people that they felt the need to tell me about confusing and shocking it is, and how weird i am. i know i’m not the only one who feels this way, so it’s undoubtedly not just me inspiring such confusion, but i didn’t know my.. ahem, emotional post i made at 6am would garner such a reaction.

like is it really that wacky that i want my favourite character to be happy?? is it truly that hard to comprehend my and other people’s desire to see him finally experience some positive change for once??? i don’t think it is!!! i think it’s quite normal to be upset that a character who’s been treated like a punching bag over the course of his entire life seemingly has to keep suffering to learn his lesson and have character development!!

and i know he’s able to experience character growth without experiencing trauma, because during idol fest he learned that he’s allowed to experience love and admiration from other people and that he doesn’t have to worry about being a burden to his friends!! that was chill, no one was dying or on the verge of death, and yet he still gained self confidence!! is it too much to ask for something like that again???

but idk. maybe i am a sensitive weirdo. maybe i do care too much about this in a way that’s frankly silly to other people..

[blujayonthewing]

SUPREMELY frustrating that we found something actually really cool and intriguing and plot relevant in tonight's session but I'm still so constantly preoccupied with whether the DM is going to 100% kill us with sheer poor game design that I barely have enough brainspace left over to even enjoy it

[yusufstits]

thinking about nile having nightmares and not being able to sleep post london and then being very tired during the day and taking naps on whoever's around

[audioexorcisms]

Something might go horribly wrong so please keep me in your thoughts

[byanyan]

ㅤhave some fledgling verse info that i've been meaning to get into forever but am somehow only getting to now!! i've (finally) done some further reading on vtm lore, looked into merits and flaws, and played around a bit with character sheets, so i feel more confident in getting into how being thin-blooded affects byan and how the curse differs for them compared to a fully-fledged vampire. ...even though i'm still playing fast and loose with the rules and maintaining some creative freedom with it since i'm not creating them for the purpose of running a campaign, and given the fact that being thin-blooded affects everyone differently.

they have about the same resilience to damage as a fully-fledged vampire, but heal more slowly

they are also as prone to frenzy as your average kindred is, if not slightly more so given their temperamental disposition and less than stable mental health

they are slightly more resilient in regard to sunlight, but not nearly enough so to risk actually stepping out into it. they are, however, able to stay awake after the sun rises and even retain a lot of the difficulties in sleeping which they had in life

their heart hasn't ceased beating entirely, but it beats very slowly and weakly. it's actually more unnerving to them when everything is quiet and it's the only thing they can hear than if it didn't beat at all, they think. something about it just feels wrong

they can eat food, but it's incredibly difficult and takes a lot of effort. too much effort to be worth the little sustenance it provides in most cases, outside of maybe some very specific and unlikely emergency situations

similarly, they can indulge in alcohol and drugs, but the effect is weak and requires amounts that would be dangerous to a human for them to actually feel drunk or high. as with food, it requires a lot of effort to keep their body from rejecting it

they can get sick. not easily, but it can happen, and medicine doesn't do a damn thing

they look a little more alive than a fully-fledged vampire, but they're still a bit paler, a bit thinner, and overall look a bit more sickly than they ever did in life

when feeding, they aren't able to lick the wound fully closed. they've tried. they've spent a couple minutes trying before, to no avail

they aren't completely incapable of forming blood bonds and embracing new thin-bloods, but it's very hit or miss — sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. not that they've ever actually tested it because they do fully believe that they're incapable

they aren't able to create ghouls, however

they are faster, stronger, and have better reflexes than a human, but not nearly to the same extent as a full vampire. they got a buff, just not a very strong one

this is less relevant to how the curse affects them, but it's a note i want to make all the same: they're still trying to get a grasp on blood resonances and how to use the disciplines they can temporarily gain from different types. they're also actively seeking a way to learn thin-blood alchemy and/or someone to teach them, but have been unsuccessful thus far

[voiceshearingyouloud]

Nothing like chilling on the couch, opening google on my phone so I can watch youtube only to find my last opened tab was ‘when to go to the ER for suicidality’ 😭

I’m somehow totally fine now but earlier today I was going for a walk and started thinking about all the crap that’s happened to me and how trapped I feel with my parents recently. I got the worst suicidality I’ve had in years, actually probably the most severe acute moment of suicidality I’ve ever experienced. I was gonna call an ambulance right then because I didn’t trust myself to walk back out of the ravine without doing something but thankfully it passed quickly and I feel normal now.

I should maybe tell my partner though, but I hate to worry them because their ex was very suicidal and put it on my partner in a really horrible way so the last thing I want to do is make them feel like they have to keep me alive. Idk, I should ask them what they want me to do I think. It’ll be a horrible conversation but I think it’s necessary if things continue this way, a worse conversation would be ‘hey, I’m at the ER right now’ or G-d forbid the call from someone other than me.

[nonuggetshere]

So they didn't become void, they were "born" that way

In FaaF there are different species and kinds of higher beings (still a MASSIVE work in progress tbh, trying to figure out how these cunts work, but for now I'm thinking they're extremely rare species with far greater abilities and lifespans than a normal bug's that have a chance to ascend to true godhood (but even if they don't ascend that doesn't stop mortals from worshipping them as they're already very god-like from a normal bug's perspective)), "pale beings" being one of these kinds/mutations.

Well, there was also a different kind once, "void beings", but they all went extinct a very long time ago by the beginning of the story. Shade Lord was one, and last, of them and it lost its life in a fight with Radiance - the same fight that drove her to make her permanent residence in the dream realm out of her new-found fear of death (which backfired spectacularly ngl). Its body was buried in the Abyss, where it broke apart and decayed, or decayed as much as a non-living thing can, before it was unearthed many ages later by the pale wyrm.

Not much is known about them since they've been gone for so long, and the vessels are the only void beings remaining, but since they're not "pure" void beings it'd be foolish of anyone to assume that the ancient extinct species behaved the same way as these ones do. But they were generally greatly feared thanks to the void's freaky, dangerous properties, which partly lead to their extinction as some of the other higher beings purposefully attacked and killed them whenever they stumbled across one out of fear. Now the only thing remaining of them are the rare void sources, where their former bodies still refuse to fully die.

Shade Lord does get accidentally resurrected in the story bc of all the tomfoolery happening with its body before almost immediately getting killed again by Ghost who inherits its title and reign. Don't ask me how that works, haven't figured that out yet. Magic god shit or something idk LMAO

[nursc-a2]

christine actually thinks she’ll live forever.

[wiseabsol]

Okay, feeling a little better after reading through the transcript. It's ambiguous still if Carpenter survived, but when I was listening, I thought the shot had hit and pushed her into the water. It still might have hit, but she dived into the river willingly to escape (the river that has definitely played favorites with her), so maybe she did have the strength to get away? And she wasn't hearing any CM whispers when it went down, so that's a potential tic in the "I lived, bitch" category?

Edit: Her body also didn't come up. I guess TM could have dragged her down for a nicely aged meat stick snack, but also bodies float so. I'm going to keep saying she was hiding down there intentionally.

[imaginefear]

i just remembered a plot concept i'd thought about earlier--

an adventure where we see the extent of how dangerous alice's intrusive thoughts and negative mentality can be. It's already a dangerous/spooky kinda place but her brain keeps supplying more and more monsters and dangers and turns it into like, a full blown horror movie. the worst part is that it's somewhere with kids in it like an orphanage. She's increasingly panicked and can't control it or get herself to think like, positively or in a way that'd be productive and instead tries to solve it by planning to hurl herself off the roof which would save everyone and also give her some relief from it all. naturally this plan doesn't go through since someone convinces her not to and helps talk her down and into a way of undoing all the damage her powers are doing. a few side characters 100% died.