#castle evermore

[cultpastorkevin]

Cult Tips for AFTG writers

notes from the resident ex-cult pastor

If you’re in the cult, there is nothing bizarre abt what’s happening and in fact the normal stuff that happens outside of it is what’s bizarre to you. Target? Weird. McDonald’s? Even weirder. I can like guarantee Jean and Kevin never had McDonald’s until they left the Nest.

When you leave, you’re gonna be paranoid as fuck. All the time. Ngl at least for weeks but sometimes for years. Nightmares and insomnia 24/7. Hallucinations too lmao Riko is in every corner of empty rooms and you can hear his voice echo in the confines of the lockers.

I see a lot of Jean wanting to go back to the Nest, but not a lot of Kevin wanting to go back. He definitely struggled, 100%. In fact when he was in the pits of agony from his broken hand, was when he probably wanted to go back the most. Cult is home, cult is safe. Four walls you’ve always known and while it’s a cage at least it’s dependable. They hurt you but by god it always works out and the reward of pushing through this tragic incident is greater than the terror it caused in the first place. It’s a gift, actually. A gift from Riko. He saved Kevin. Cults save you. Cults make you wanna return to them like damn homing pigeons bruh. Give me more shattered hand Kevin screaming at Wymack to let him go back home and having a breakdown when he’s denied fics thanks

Piggybacking off the last one: cults are saviors; you’re nothing without them and they make sure you truly believe that; that everything that is done to you is for you and you’re blessed for it to be happening. You’re lucky even, to be allowed in it. Everything is as it’s supposed to be and order must never be challenged, because it works, and you’re the Edgar Allan Ravens, and this is the most honorable place you could be. All the pain you go through is you earning the right to be saved and to prove your worth every day on court. Only the worthy are honored.

You justify everything that happened and you will start fights and get angry with people who try to correct you and tell you it was wrong what went on.

On the other hand, you blame yourself for everything ever that happened there whether you were at fault or not. Hurting others, hurting yourself, gaslighting the fuck out of yourself over things maybe you could’ve prevented and over things you never could’ve stopped. The guilt is crippling and it eats you alive and haunts you.

There’s a lot of shame too. I see more guilt written than shame but shame is a huge portion of emotions that cult survivors have. Shits embarassing dude like “god how did I end up thinking this wack ass shit was normal” 😐 Shame comes later in the healing process usually, it’s after you have come to terms with shit that’s happened and you understand it. Looking back, you go “Jesus fucking Christ that was a red flag what the hell. Should’ve left then, or then, or then, or then” and then you’re just plain fuckin embarrassed.

Please look up how hive minds and brainwashing are created and work; also Stockholm Syndrome; understanding these would be incredibly helpful tbfh.

Diets are big; everyone eats the same thing; food is used as a reward and a punishment.

Hype hype hype. They whip up a frenzy of one singular emotion and use that to push you into a blind hysteria because you’re more suspectible to their influence when you’re out of your mind.

Drugs. Depends on the cult. But yeah these little bitches can be a huge factor for shit and can help with the brainwashing and hysteria and stockholm. Sometimes you don’t even know you’re being drugged or poisoned until you leave.

OH I ALMOST FORGOT. Dehumanization and then being treated like a person again can be traumatic as fuck yall!! Holy shit! Sometimes it feels worse than being dehumanized!

EDIT AGAIN: you don’t know what mental illness is !! Cults don’t fucking tell you these things lmao. if you show symptoms it’s your fault. Kevin being depressed his mom died was gonna get blamed on him and he was never going to be told grief is normal and it’s okay to be insanely sad. Jean also never got told his anger was correct or his trauma responses to being raped were realistic! They just got blamed for any reactions ever that weren’t neurotypical !! that is all; do with that what you will.

Idk if I think of anything else I’ll write another one but that’s all for now; I haven’t slept much lmao 🫡

[exyandcigarettesmoke]

“Jean knew the heart of it was Riko’s complicated father complex.”

Glad we’re discussing Riko’s intricate and endless daddy issues finally.

[tara-fantastico]

What is Evermore refering to exactly? Because the school is named Edgar Allan and the Ravens living quarters are refered to as "the Nest". But Jean's mantra is that he is a Raven and that he belongs at Evermore. Is it their court? Thinking about it that actually seems most likely, I think it's also referred to as Castle Evermore sometimes.

[bisexualchaosdemon]

Do you think Jean took one last look at the sky as he lead Neil into Evermore?

[writtenicarus]

tw - mentions of SA, r4pe and torture.

so i saw a post that mentioned this topic but didn't expand upon so i am, let's talk about the nest, and the fact neil gets more sympathy for being there for two/three(the times fucked me up too) weeks even though kevin and jean were there for years. exhibit a) people treat kevin so horribly in this fandom and do not take in the fact he was not a pussy, didn't give up andrew selfishly when it came to his trauma he was literally just expressing fear of his abuser. exhibit b) a lot of people don't realise that alcohol is a coping mechanism, not his entire personality. and a lot of people in this fandom yell about how the other characters aren't just their trauma but don't acknowledge kevin.

another issue i see is with jean. now let me address something first i know some people in the fandom believe that neil went through some form of sexual trauma with riko considering the fact he was held down and what we know about jean's experience. im talking about SA by the way not r4pe. because as we see with kevin, riko could not harm in a way that the public would notice without an explanation. i do see a lot of this in raven! neil fics or even fics where neil confronts his trauma of the nest.

i don't necessarily think this happened, but i can see the implications so let's keep that in mind that yes jean did hold him down but jean's trauma was awful. he was r4ped by multiple men, he was waterboarded, forced to break his own fingers etc. for years. disgusting, easily the worst things in the books in my opinion.

and yet people hate jean for holding neil down? he did not have a choice, and with all that trauma i completely understand why he complied.

it just does not make sense to me.

now let's go back to the whole neil vs them situation. obviously neil's trauma isn't any better/worse than them, no trauma should be considered worse than each other. however, coming from the fandom and the foxes themselves. i just don't think, at all, kevin's trauma is spoke about.

like, that's awful. and most of the foxes take the piss out of him for it and honestly infuriates me. i totally see why the foxes and the fandom are closer to neil and so obviously they are able to sympathise with his trauma more than kevin and jean but the nest is the most prominent event i can think of and trauma that they all share.

i just think sometimes this fandom needs a little reminder.

[starlonging]

Okay, true but I feel like that's because Neil got away with the most visible damage from there. Plus there was that whole thing about Neil and Jean being 'property' while Kevin didn't quite fit into that category plus him being such a public figure that no lasting damage could be done to him (also maybe that fucked up brother but not quite dynamic Riko seemed enamored with). Moreover, Neil was always fighting back; Kevin was not. All the damage that Neil has has physical, visibly seen evidence but the years Kevin spent at Evermore left him with nothing but that one scar on his hand. All the mind fuckery he came out from that place with is dismissed because as usual, we don't believe what we don't see. As long as you fit some definition of "normal" people always think you have a perfect life and it bothers me a little that even the foxes who I think should know better give into this.

Neil gets more sympathy for being at Evermore for Christmas than Kevin does for being there for 12 years

[sprnklersplashes]

It's hilarious when people are like "taylor swift's songs are engineered to be as generically relatable as possible" because then you actually listen to the songs in question and she's just like

"I am a SELF-DESTRUCTIVE MONSTER who ruins everything I touch, I MANIPULATED everyone into liking me, my potential has been WASTED due to circumstances of MY OWN CREATION, I go back to an EMPTY HOUSE because everyone in my life has moved on, I am a BLEEDING OPEN WOUND, all my kindness is really just NARCISSISM IN DISGUISE, I will BREAK MYSELF FOR YOUR ENTERTAINMENT, I STARVED MYSELF in order to be saved by an idealised romance, I can go ANYWHERE except for THE PLACE I CALLED HOME, I will SPIRAL UNCONTROLLABLY if left to my own devices, I AM THE INSTRUMENT OF MY OWN DESTRUCTION, THIS WAS INEVITABLE"

[andichoseyou]

Eras Tour surprise songs parallels

7/28/23—Santa Clara, California: right where you left me / Castles Crumbling

[emry-stars-art]

I don’t know if you know this but I love a good royal au just as much if not more than a mer au… so when someone mentioned it at the beginning of May and i went for the thematic mermay instead I vowed I would come come back to the subject. Sketch dump time

Enter young king Aaron and prince Andrew, who recently were assigned new personal guards but Andrew is starting to realize every other word out of Abram’s mouth is only a half-truth if not an outright lie… what could he possibly have to hide

[sowlmates]

It's just infinitely amusing to me that in the end, Kevin, Jean and Neil end up with a hot exy pro player bf/gf while Riko ends up six feet under. The perfect court will be out there living their best life except for Riko. He could have chosen to not be an abusive asshole at any point in his life but he didn't and all it got him was an early grave (and no hot exy pro player partner.)

[rhaegalsblog]

castles crumbling

[exyandcigarettesmoke]

Renee(Right person)Walker.

Jean(Wrong time)Moreau.

[chalamet-hl]

✨

[bisexualchaosdemon]

I think @otdiaftg timeline on twitter rn is a prefect visual illustration of how maddening being in the Nest would be

[crazy-fangirl2524]

And what if I say castle crumbling by Taylor Swift is a riko Moriyama song??