#creepy creature with really cool hat

[swimmingmind]

I wanted to draw something tarot-styled and also something with this fancy hat with stars

[last-starry-sky]

kinktober day 31 - scars // monsterfucking - pt. 2

part 1 - part 2 - part 3 - part 4

poly!141 x f!witch!reader

[MDNI - NSFW - MIND THE WARNINGS: 1.6k, mostly more Halloween party fluff, unwanted attention from annoying, nice guy, coworker Brandon (borrowed from charliemwrites), alcohol/drunkenness mention, vague magical elements, reader is vaguely threatened with violence/worse but nothing comes of it, kissing. no sex in this part.]

tag list (lmk if you'd like to be added!): @slut-lmao, @mishaglass, @jaguarthecat

“Grab some food and drinks, you guys!” you said swirling away as your playlist ended, filling the room with silence. “Everything is on the table in the dining room. You all know where the bathrooms are, and the fire is going out back!”

Being a hostess really did suck sometimes. All you wanted to do right now was hang out with your friends (okay mostly your four guys), but alas, the music wasn’t going to curate itself. You just hoped that everyone, especially Ghost, would acclimate to the busy, party atmosphere. 

Unfortunately, this was also when your most annoying coworker, whom you didn’t even want to invite, Brandon, decided to hover around you. 

“What music are you gonna play?” he asked as he cozied up uncomfortably close to you, a beer he did not bring swirling in his hand.

“Just putting on a playlist,” you said, stepping into the corner of the room with your tablet, trying to type and escape him at the same time, “Nothing special.”

“You should just let me pick it,” he said following you, drunk, smarmy smile spreading across his face that made your stomach curdle. “You know how much everyone loves my music at work-”

“Okay!” you said shoving the tablet into his hands as you darted away. It was a small price to pay to get him off your ass. 

You rushed away into the dining room, taking a breath and calming down before making a round to check if anything needed to be refreshed or put away as you grazed. You were happy to see all of the guys had found their way to the food. Soap was shoveling down Brandon’s almost untouched deviled egg pyramid. Shuffling them from hand to mouth in an efficient assembly line. You snorted, glad someone was finally eating them.

Ghost was standing over the punch, staring into the solo cup in his hand. Your eyes met across the table. You wanted to laugh at his pleading eyes, but instead you flounced over, grabbing a novelty pumpkin print straw out of the jar for him.

“Here,” you said pointing the silly thing in the area of his mouth. 

Once he took it in his grubby, wrapped hand, you averted your eyes and walking away to keep from giggling as he put one end in his cup and threaded the other under the gauze. 

Thankfully, you ran into Price talking to two more of your neighbors in the sitting room. They were a young couple from down the street. She was dressed as a black cat, her costume-less fiancé had her kitty ear headband on, except they were cocked drunkenly to one side of his head. Seeing his arm wrapped protectively around her shoulders made a spike of jealousy rise in your stomach. They all laughed as Price finished the end of his story, and the feeling faded.

“This real, love?” Price asked, gently palming a crystal ball decorating the top of a stack of antique books on various creepy subjects like the occult and Victorian mysticism. 

“Ah, yeah!” you replied, swallowing your bite of cheese. “Saw it in an antique shop and, you know me,” you said with a nervous laugh, “Love all this spooky stuff.”

“Magic, creatures . . .” he said looking around the room. You squirmed, sweating under your felt hat. He had seen most of your house. He knew how you decorated. It was no surprise. Why was he so curious now? “Fascinate you, do they?” he said settling his blue-eyed stare on you. 

“It’s so cool how you fixed up this old house,” the girl said dreamily, ignoring Price, as she leaned back against her guy. 

“Yeah, we all thought it was creepy until you moved in,” he said, most of his attention focused down on his half-asleep girlfriend. “Haunted or somethin’,”

You laughed nervously again. “I guess that’s why it was so cheap!” you said, trying not to stare as Price ran his hand over the stack of books, reading their titles with interest. 

Before they could continue the conversation, you heard the backdoor slam shut. You pulled away, making your excuses to check on the fire. 

You shivered as you hopped down the porch steps, wind whipping up a clatter of crunchy leaves as you passed the tool shed. You hated that thing. Even the basement, with all it's cobwebs and clunking old pipes didn’t make the hair on the back of your neck stand on end like that leaning old wooden box, tucked under a scraggly, dying tree. It was stupid, you’ve lived here for almost six months now, and you’ve hung out alone by the fire-pit near the back of your property countless times, but that thing still terrified you for some reason. 

Even after performing your janky, amateur, “blessing” ritual from your book, it still bothered you. You were new to this whole “witch thing” though. Maybe this was out of your element. Maybe you should call someone else in to handle it, which, to be honest, you definitely were not going to do. You were a big girl, you’ve handled everything life has thrown at you so far.

You’ve had successes with the small bits of magic you’ve done so far. Like the protection potion you put in the punch. That seemed to have worked . . . a bit. What you were trying to convince yourself was: you were going to handle this fucking shed problem on your own. And that was that. 

You eventually made it back to the group lingering around the dying fire. Everyone was finishing up their beers before they headed out. You reminded them to at least try to toss them in the bin to make your job easier in the morning. Again, you wished you could just sit down and enjoy these last few moments with your friends, enjoying the warmth, the dancing red and orange lights, watching the smoke whirl away high into the starry night sky. 

Wrapping your arms around yourself, you headed back. There was so much to do now that the party was winding down. You kicked at the gravel with your boots, watching as it scattered off the path into the dark grass, as you absently made a list in your head. You probably have enough containers to pack away the leftover cheese and meats, but unless everyone wants to take cookies you’re going to be left with a mountain of them. The punch you could pour out, but the extra sodas and beer-

“Hey,” a weak voice beckoned you. 

You couldn’t tell who it was, but he was partially hunched over, leaning against the tree next to the shed. He sounded like he had just been sick, so squashing your fear, you dashed over to help him. 

“Brandon?” you asked, recognizing his obnoxious mustard yellow jacket from the beginning of the party. 

You had reached out your hand to touch his shoulder, but when his head jerked up at you, a look of pure malice scrawled across his face, you recoiled back.

“Yeah,” he answered bitterly, spitting on the ground between your feet as he stood. “It’s fucking me.”

He tried to take a step toward you, but he stumbled, grabbing onto the sloughing bark of the dead tree to regain his balance. In the dark, all you could see was him lurch forward, so you dashed back. You spun out of his way so quickly, you didn’t notice the shed until it hit the middle of your back, knocking the breath from you. 

He let out an evil laugh when he heard you gasp helplessly for air. You knew he was annoying, but this was a whole different and terrifying side of him. You were stuck in place, shallow breaths in and out all you could manage as he regained his footing, dusted off his jacket, and turned toward you. He wiped his mouth across his sleeve, beady, poison filled eyes narrowed in on you.

“It’s fuck-ing Bran-don,” he said, mocking your usual tone. “Brandon who does . . . fucking everything for you at work,” he spit out with a roll of his eyes, throwing out his hands, “You know that, right? Don’t even ask for a thank you, either. And I’m nice to you! So fucking nice! Unlike all those other guys you throw yourself at.” 

He fell forward against the shed, making the dilapidated thing wobble as he landed. You gasped involuntarily and, again, you were struggling for even the slightest breath. He continued his rant, crawling along the wall toward you. Your heart hammered in your chest and all you could do was watch him. It was something out of a horror movie. 

“-made food for your stupid fucking party. Just wanted to hang out with you . . . show you . . . show you how good I could be for you. Make you finally see how nice I am. Fuckin’-”

An arm slithered around your waist, pulling you away from the shed and Brandon's outstretched hand. 

“There you are, baby,” Gaz’s smooth, familiar voice purred in your ear as he hauled you up against his chest with a kiss to your cheek. “Been looking everywhere for you,” he said looking down at you with half-lidded eyes. 

If you could have spoken, you would have called him your savior. You would have screamed and cried and actually kissed him back. You would have held onto him and never let go. As it was, all you could do was gasp out his name as he rubbed at your cheeks with his cold hands. He gave you a smile before turning his piercing gaze on the drunk man behind you. 

“Brandon,” he hissed through a smile, fangs bared, “party’s over, mate. You need to leave, or,” he said with a fire-red glint in his eye, “one of us can give you ride. Choice is yours.”

You gripped onto Gaz’s vest, shivering as you heard gravel slowly crunch under his slowly retreating footsteps. You heard him mutter under his breath as he took his time leaving, Gaz continued to stand with you, though. He leaned down, pressing his chilled face to your ear to speak directly to you.

“Still looking,” he whispered, cupping your face in his hands. “Gotta make this believable, ‘kay doll?”

[bucketsofmonsters]

Where the Light Enters - Part 2

cw: unreliable narrator, hurt/comfort, slow burn, eventual sex, enemies to lovers, past childhood sexual assault, past sex trafficking, referenced noncon, offscreen dubcon, happy ending, the tags look scary but this is mainly a story about recovery

Cole/Female Inquisitor

word count: 4k

ao3 link

Masterlist

It didn’t take long to find the spirit. As soon as she was alone he appeared once more, his wide hat creating a distinct silhouette out of the corner of her eye. 

As soon as she caught sight of him she whipped around to face him.

“You,” she hissed out, keeping her voice low just in case of prying ears. She was certain Leliana had some around. “Need to leave immediately.”

Cole seemed uninterested in responding to what she had said, instead announcing, “I tied myself to you. Cole was gone so I needed something to help me get back out. If I kill you, I get pulled away and I can’t fix the hurt.”

She stepped back cautiously. “Kill me?”

He nodded. “You hurt people. You shouldn’t be here anymore, but things don’t come through the fade often. You were the only choice.”

“So we’re stuck together?” she asked, praying that the answer would be no.

“Not physically. When you are here, I am here. If you are in the fade I will follow. If you’re nowhere then I have to go back because I have nothing to hold onto anymore.”

She threw her arms up. “So you don’t need to be here then. Just go somewhere else and do your creepy spirit thing there. Leave me out of it. I’ll promise I won’t die and you promise to leave me alone. Everyone’s happy.”

He shook his head in the most adamant way she’d ever seen him do anything. It almost felt like there were real emotions behind it. “I take away the hurt,” he said, sounding almost distressed. “You cause more hurt than not. I need you to stay but I need to help more than you hurt.”

Typical that she got the one creature from the fade that was against any harm coming to humans piggybacking onto her brain. 

“I���m not hurting anyone here,” she said in a poor attempt to defend herself. 

“You will. You always do. I can see it. You don’t know anything else.”

The way he spoke made her nervous. She could tell he was dangerous, unstable, potentially violent. 

And none of her other tricks worked on him, so she figured she could be too. 

She drew her rarely used dagger and slammed him against the wall as soon as the idea occurred to her, trying her best to avoid him reading the intention off of her and getting out of the way.

He seemed in no rush to get out from under her blade, just looking down at her, both of them now hidden underneath the brim of his hat together. 

She could see his eyes this way, revealing they were an unnervingly light shade of blue. She could see the way his hair covered them almost entirely and wondered if the fade spat him out looking so shaggy on purpose. But then, he mentioned another Cole before, maybe he’d been here longer, had stolen his name while his hair grew. 

Did he even know he could cut his hair?

It didn’t really matter, was entirely besides the point.

The flat of her blade sat against his throat, pressing against his flesh. She held him back with her other hand and felt he was inhumanly cool to the touch. 

“It’s lonely,” said the spirit, unconcerned with the new threat pressed against him. “It doesn’t like being used in the dark, never seen, stowed away.”

Her fingers tensed around the handle. 

Most of the people who’d felt the dagger’s other end hadn’t had any idea it was coming. They’d been asleep or calmed by practiced airs that only the blade would betray. 

She preferred to not let it come to this. Those uses were few and far between, massively eclipsed by soft looks and a willingness to agree.

“Just need to help more than you hurt,” he insisted. “I need to mend as you break and break and break.”

“What would you do, if I hurt more people than you helped?” That was the only question that mattered, the thing he kept leaving unsaid. 

“I’d kill you. And then things would be balanced.”

“You won’t kill me. You also will not interrupt my presence here. You can’t stop me,” she hissed. “I won’t let you.”

“Yes, I could. But I can’t. For them, not for you. You cause the hurt, guilt heaving, dizzy with worry. You leave the good ones with blame and the bad ones don’t care. The only ones who hurt are the ones who never would.”

“They all would. They all did. You don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Bull wouldn’t if he knew how it pulled at you, tugged at wounds, ripped and healed, ripped and healed. Too long scarred to feel anything anymore.”

“I need him,” she said, because she did. He’d responded best to her little ploy, had allowed himself to be endeared to her. She needed a protector and he seemed happy to do so for the precious little thing that fawned over him. 

The horrible creature nodded. “You need him. He wants you. The scales are off. It’s all in the book.”

She pushed the dagger further into him, the pressure almost nicking his skin. “You will tell no one about that book or I swear, I will gut you.”

He shook his head sadly. “You would, but you can’t. I’m too slippery for you, you’re too slow, limbs dragging in years of stillness. You’re afraid to move, afraid it gives you away. Played weak for too long and now it’s all you are.”

“Fine then,” she said, taking stock of the man in front of her, filing away the chinks in his armor to list out in her book full of nothing but flaws and weaknesses. “Tell them and I swear I will hurt them. I will use all those words in my book to tear them apart however I can and you cannot stop it all. You cannot stop as much hurt as I can cause. I think you and I both know that it is faster to break than to mend.”

He froze, the cool blade of the lonely dagger steady against his throat. 

“I won’t tell. Try not to hurt them. I’m not going anywhere.”

And then he was gone, leaving nothing but a blade held up against streaks of green hanging in midair. 

She wanted to sit on the floor. To curl up in a ball or scream or do something to stop feeling pinned. 

But she had things to do, and so she set off to find Bull. 

It wasn’t hard, he was difficult to miss. He stood in the training area, towering over everyone else who resided there. 

She gave him a shy wave and he grinned back at her, flexing a little in a way she was sure he thought was subtle. 

She noticed it every time. It was embarrassing for him, turning her stomach a little, but she fawned over him as she sidled up at his side. 

He gave her a once over, hand shifting down to tilt her chin up. “Some nasty bruising on you. You did real good, fought hard.”

She beamed up at him, quietly pleased there were marks left behind, a physical reminder of why they shouldn’t be sending her on missions. 

It was partially unavoidable. Her accidental trip through the fade had given her the ability to shut gaps in between the world and the fade and that wasn’t exactly a replaceable position, but surely they didn’t need to send her out quite as often as they did. 

“I should’ve been there,” he added, fingers stroking lightly over the bruising. “He shouldn’t have been able to get to you so easily.”

She shrugged and fought off a spiteful comment. “You did your best. I could never begrudge you that. Besides, everything turned out okay, didn’t it?”

“Mostly. Who’s that weird kid hanging around?” he grunted. 

She turned to see Cole, perched up on one of the roofs, staring down at them. “He’s a spirit. He saved my life so we’re letting him stay.”

Bull’s brows raised immediately. “Right. And you signed off on that?”

She sighed. “Sort of. I think it’ll be okay.”

“So optimistic,” he said with a chuckle. “Now come on, you’re going to start training more.”

“What?” she asked as he thrust a bow into her hands. 

“You heard me. Next time, you need to be ready. I can’t always be there to protect you.”

She could feel Cole’s eyes on her as she began to train. 

Bull was the obvious choice of protector. Prone to forming casual attachments, easily flatterable, the biggest guy around. Even if he wasn’t a damn good fighter, he’d be a great shield. There was no one else here who could cover that much surface area. 

But now, being forced to train, she was starting to regret it. Maybe she could switch gears and convince Cullen to go on missions with her, or figure out something that would make Blackwall less weird around her. 

But no, an easy target as good as Bull wasn’t something she could pass up, even if every flirtatious touch to her side or murmur that she was doing “real good” made her stomach turn and a pit of dread start to form inside her. 

She knew where this was leading, what the price for his protection was, even if Bull didn’t know the terms of the deal. 

But she’d done this before. She could handle it. 

And so she suffered through what felt like hours of archery practice. She only hit the target twice but then, she wasn’t really trying to. 

Her attempt to get Bull to give up on her proved ineffective, but there was some entertainment to be found in seeing how badly she could miss and still get praised.

As she hit a tree that was about six feet to the left and a handful of feet back from the target, Bull muttered, “Well at least you hit something,” before giving Rosemary a soft pat on the back. “That’s enough for today. What you lack in skill you make up for in perseverance. Keep on trying, you’ll be a deadshot before you know it. Good to see you’ve got stamina at least.” He shot her a wink with his final comment. 

She wanted to throw up, but she gave him a shy smile instead, thinking of old embarrassing stories to force herself into a soft blush. 

He seemed pleased with her response, wandering over to go talk to some of his troops. They had a name, she was certain. The Champions, or something like that. 

It didn’t really matter.

She left for her quarters, content with her progress. Cole was there, perched on the end of her bed. 

“I don’t think you know what leaving me alone means,” she said, throwing her jacket at him as she pulled it off.

“I do know,” he said as the jacket missed him entirely, and he seemed unconcerned that his indifference actually made it worse. “You’re learning to fight.”

“I am,” she said, throwing her inner coat to the floor as the warmth of the fire filled room washed over her. 

“Why?”

“Bull’s making me,” she huffed as she shed more of her thick woolen layers, built for the cold. 

“You are… I didn’t know it came off,” he said. 

She shrugged off the last of her clothes and pulled on her night things. They weren’t quite as warm as her day clothes but at least they were less bulky. “What, you thought I just looked like that? Fur and all? I thought you could see in my head.”

The first thing she’d done when she’d gotten here and realized how cold it was had been to insist on acquiring a pile of furs, ones she’d since bundled up in religiously. 

His eyes were still fixed on the pile of clothes. “Not always. You didn’t know it in a way I could hear.”

So he didn’t have unfettered access to everything in her head. That was good at least.

“I see the hurt and the things that help,” he decided to clarify. “You’re mostly hurt so it’s easy to see.”

“So you what?” she couldn’t stop herself from asking. “You just go around helping people by reading their minds? That’s what you expect me to believe?”

“Just because no one ever helped you doesn’t mean no one ever helps. You don’t even give them the chance anymore.”

A knock sounded at her door and she turned to look, surprised Cole didn’t immediately disappear at the noise. He seemed content to linger.

“Yes?” she called, deciding whether she’d try and shoo Cole away before this new visitor came in.

She heard Cullen’s voice, muffled by the wood of the door, as he asked, “Are you decent?”

“Yes, you can come in.”

Cole watched as the door squeaked open slowly, Cullen slowly entering like he didn’t quite believe her when she said she was clothed. 

He froze the second he saw Cole. 

“You make him nervous,” Cole said, at full volume and with no regard for the way the words made Cullen’s eyes widen and his face flush. 

“What is he talking about?” Cullen demanded. “Why is he here?”

“He doesn’t seem to want to leave,” she said and she watched anger flash across Cullen’s face. 

Cole seemed to pick up on this, although she imagined it was from his thoughts and not any ability to read facial expressions. 

“I told you harboring a spirit was a bad idea,” Cullen hissed at her.

“The mages are safe from me,” Cole said. “I don’t want them. I won’t make you hurt them again.”

Cullen tensed immediately, ready to bolt. “I came to tell you that you’re heading to the Hinterlands tomorrow to help with more rifts,” he said through gritted teeth.

“Is that wise?” she asked, wishing Cole hadn’t put him in a bad mood before she had to try and wriggle her way out of another dangerous assignment. 

“The rifts need to be dealt with, you will handle them,” he said, and then set off immediately, obviously eager to get away from the spirit and giving her no time to argue her case. 

The door slammed shut behind him. 

“I made it worse,” Cole said softly. 

“Look at you, you’re upsetting more people than me,” she said with a scoff, finding this all very amusing right up until she remembered the threats that had been leveled at her if Cole felt their collective presence wasn’t doing good for the world.

He seemed distressed and contemplative, but at least it seemed like few of those thoughts were directed at her. The less he thought about her, the better. 

And then he turned to her, his eyes obscured by his hat. “Can I come?”

“What?”

“Cullen said you’re going to the Hinterlands. I want to see them.”

Everything in her wanted to turn him down but perhaps it was best to keep an eye on him, at least until she got a better grasp on what he was like. 

“Can you even fight?”

He nodded, pulling daggers out from some unseen place on his person. “I’m quick and they are sharp. We can both do our job. Who do you want me to fight?”

She thought hard, trying to remember if there would be any people Cole would refuse to fight against on the other side. 

It was hard. To her, everyone on the other side had committed the most egregious sin of all, trying to hurt her. She supposed Cole didn’t think like that, that he was interested in a far more complicated tangle of emotions, intentions, actions, and regrets. 

“I don’t know if they’re bad,” she said carefully. “But they’re hurting the people there.”

He nodded. “Sometimes that's enough. I will fight.”

That was a relief. At least she probably wouldn’t have to deal with him becoming a turncoat mid fight. 

He seemed to read the acceptance from her mind. “I will go. You want to put me in your book.”

And then he was gone. 

She wondered if he meant he’d go now or tomorrow. She supposed it could have been either. More likely it was both. He didn’t seem one to repeat himself when a single statement would do. 

Now alone in her room, she kneeled down, pulling up the loose floorboard and moving aside the scattered leaves, picking up her notebook. 

It was absolutely filled with information on everyone at the Inquisition. On patterns of behavior, on what made their eyes soften when they looked at her, on which enemies they swung their swords the hardest at. She carefully noted who she thought she could turn against who and which people were too close to try safely. She wrote which people she could get to through others, like the way Bull’s group, called the Chargers in her book, regarded her with softer eyes because of the way Bull had come to shield her in battle and look for her first when he returned without her. 

And she created a section for Cole.

She had little to say. He was dangerous, she knew that much for certain. He could read her mind, seemingly everyone’s. He couldn’t be that clever because she could think of a dozen ways he could keep himself tethered to this plane while still doing something to incapacitate or declaw her, and yet he’d done none of it. 

Or alternatively, perhaps worse, maybe he knew it all. Had come up with on his own or had plucked it from her. Because then, he wasn’t stopping her for a reason, some horrible plan he had for her. 

She needed something on him. It was hard. He wasn’t unemotional, but he had this undeniable practicality to him where she knew he wouldn’t hesitate to hurt himself if it balanced out his little equation of harm and help. 

She wished she’d been stuck with a demon. Vices she could handle. In fact, she handled very little else. 

Virtues were harder. Faking them was easy enough, but she hadn’t had the privilege of being allowed to be virtuous in a long time. 

She wrote everything in her journal. Cole knew where it was, but he could pluck it out of her mind regardless, what did it matter if he read it out of the book?

Could he even read? She couldn’t imagine spirits had anyone to teach them, but then again he knew how to speak. Maybe they had some inherent knowledge to them. 

She looked down at the pile of her furs and warm clothes lying on the ground. He clearly had some gaps in his information about humans.

It didn’t matter. The less he knew the better, but there was nothing she could do about the things he already knew. 

She should be careful about the things she said around him. 

She chastised herself for the thought. He could see in her head, she could not play this how she typically did. 

Another knock sounded at the door and she quickly tucked the book away before forcing out a polite, “Yes?”

Varric’s voice called out a friendly, “It’s me.”

She felt her anger melt a little and called him in. She liked Varric, against her better judgment. 

She imagined most people liked Varric. He was easy to like, easy to talk to, acted like you’d been friends for years. 

“You talk to the spirit kid yet?” he asked, and she deflated a little.

“More than I’d like.”

Varric chuckled. “He does have a lost puppy energy about him, I’m not surprised he’s following you around like one. I had a talk to him earlier about the way he was staring at people. Said it was off putting and he said he’d just make it so they couldn’t see him. Said he wanted to help. I poked him a little and he admitted he was curious too.”

She sighed. “I’m glad you talked to him. Someone had to do it, and you were probably the best one for the job. I was half convinced Cullen was going to run him through when I saw them talk.”

“We wouldn’t want that. He's off putting, but I think he means well.”

“I certainly hope so.”

“A little birdie said you’re heading out tomorrow,” he added, giving her a knowing look.

“Who, Cassandra?”

He chuckled. “Yeah, Cassandra. So are you?”

She nodded.

“Mind if I tag along?” he asked. “The kid sounded like he wanted to see some stuff, I figured it would be good to show him some of the world. We could see what he’s like out there.”

“I already told him he could tag along, but if you want to babysit you’re more than welcome.” 

“I’m happy to. Someone’s gotta do it and everybody else seems ready to slit his throat.”

She shrugged. “He’s a spirit, it’s scary, I get it.”

“Yeah, maybe. Not his fault though. And how old are you anyways? Sometimes I feel like I should be babysitting you too.”

She wasn’t sure how old she was. She’d been seventeen when she’d come here but it had been some months since then, she was fairly certain her birthday had long since passed her by. 

She hadn’t told them that, of course. It was antithetical to how she needed them to see her. She wanted to seem young, certainly, but not that young. 

She’d been saying she was twenty one for weeks and then one day Leliana asked and she’d sounded so judgmental so she’d blurted out twenty five. Blackwall thought she was twenty five too. She’d decided a twenty one year old would trigger that seemingly ever present instinct in him to feel guilty about everything if she ever needed to do a hard pivot in his direction. 

So now there was a spread of beliefs going around and she wasn’t sure what to say. She looked at Varric and said, “Twenty five,” figuring he was old enough that he’d see her as too young either way. 

“Too young for this shit,” he said, and she just nodded. She didn't think she was, not really, even at her real age. But Varric didn’t need to know that. 

“Maybe. The fade didn’t seem to think so.”

“Do you think there was a reason it was you? Religious or otherwise?”

She shook her head. “Just bad luck. Pretty standard for me.”

He laughed that low, gravelly laugh that had the women in the taverns they visited swooning. “Well, let’s see if we can turn that around for you. And hey, Rosie?”

“Yeah?” she asked, worried about his tone getting serious. Varric so rarely got serious. 

“If you need anything, just ask, okay? They expect a whole lot of you, but everyone needs help sometimes.”

“Of course,” she lied.

[d34thbyr0ck4ndr0ll]

Different types of goth

I didn’t really feel like going into detail about them all in one post, so I’ve decided to post exclusively about one type randomly through out time. When I first decided to get more into goth (sub?) culture, I didn’t know much, I was an 11 year old who had never seen a goth before, only read about them so everything was based on assumption. Now, years later, I’m back at it, only with more knowledge. Goth is pretty flexible fashion wise, there’s a goth style for everyone, I swear. Here’s some of my favourites (in order, the first four) only doing ten.

1 Trad Goth

Traditional, or trad goth is pretty much what you get if you look up ‘goth’. It’s like the Black Sabbath of goth, the one that started it all.

2 Mall Goth

This is more decorative than trad goth, as in with mall goth, it’s all about layers of chains, spikes, etc. I don’t know what else to say

3 Victorian Goth

Basically Victorian era clothing and literature, with a whole lot of black. I love it so much

4 Hippie Goth

Exactly what it sounds like: hippie and goth. It’s all hippie style clothing, shawls, skirts, Birkenstocks, flowers, etc, but with more dark greens, blues black, etc. (what happened to italics?)

5 Pastel Goth

Again, pretty self explanatory. Pastel goth mixes pastel colours with black, cute and creepy things. You’ll find a lot of Hello Kitty merch in a pastel goths home, especially the character Kuromi.

6 Romantic Goth

this is goth with a romantic vibe, think dark red silk bedsheets, four poster beds, candles, corsets, red lipstick, roses etc. it’s actually pretty cool, I can’t really explain it. I feel like it’s slightly similar to Vampire Goth

7 Vampire Goth

Playing into the vampire aspect of goth. Vampire goth, in my mind, is quite similar to Vampire Goth, because vampires are often described and depicted as romantic, lustful creatures.

8 Cyber Goth

You can always pick the cyber goth out of a crowd. They prefer neon colours to go against the black, and are living in a dystopian world, only doing it now. A lot of people don’t like cyber goths, but I think it’s still valid and pretty damn cool. They wear the cyberpunk goggles (which I love) and basically dress like they’re in a dystopian movie which is cool.

9 Gothabilly

A mix of goth and rockabilly music, goths within this type will listen to rockabilly. They wear stuff like silk, velvet, corsets and those cute little hats.

10 Corp Goth

I almost forgot this one. Corp goth is great if you work somewhere like an office or whatever and want to keep your dark style at work, but still look professional. It’s basically whatever people who work in corporations wear, but black and it’s so cool :)

Sorry if this sucked or didn’t help you, it’s too early for me to have much inspiration.

[small-tragedies]

(Click on pictures for better quality)

Lisa Simpson lay on the rooftop of the Simpson house, gazing up at the starry night sky. The cool breeze rustled her hair as she sighed deeply, feeling the weight of her thoughts pressing down on her. She had always found solace in the stars, but tonight, even their twinkling beauty couldn’t lift her spirits.

Suddenly, a strange, triangular figure materialized above her. Bill Cipher, with his single, glowing, and mischievous eye, floated in the air. “Well, well, well, what do we have here?” he said in a voice dripping with curiosity. “A troubled mind seeking answers in the cosmos?”

Lisa sat up, startled but not entirely surprised. She had encountered many oddities in her young life but was still weary. “Who are you?” She asked, her voice steady despite her surprise.

“I’m Bill Cipher, a muse of sorts,” he cheerfully replied, tipping his top hat. “There’s a crazy amount of ‘weird’ energy surrounding this place, and I thought I would check it out.”

Lisa gave the one-eyed little creature a flat look. “And why did you appear in front of me then?”

“I’ve been watching you for a while, kid, and I think out of all these meatsacks here, you’re the most interesting one.” He said as he gave her a wink—but since he only had one eye, it honestly just looked like he blinked as if he had something in it.

Lisa grimaced. Well, that was creepy. She was pretty sure he was trying to be flattering toward her, but she didn’t quite think he understood social cues.

“So if you’re some kind of ‘muse’ then what makes me so special?” She asked while she crossed her arms over her chest in skepticism.

A fascinated glimmer twinkled in his eye. “Ooh, skeptical, huh? I like it!” His one lone eye looked around, seemingly lost in thought. “Well, then let me tell you why I’m here~ I appear to those who are troubled, those who think outside the box.” He said while spreading his arms out before pointing at Lisa. “And you, Lisa Simpson, are quite the outside thinker.”

Lisa raised a brow, slightly concerned with him knowing her full name, but responded with a flat. “Uh-huh.” Well, that was a first, since not a lot of people commend her for her ‘outside thinking’.

Bill floated closer, his eye narrowing in a conspiratorial manner. “Kid, I don’t know if you know this, but you got a lot of inner turmoil going on. You’re at a crossroads, aren’t you? Something about college and your mother giving you a hard time?” He said sounding not unlike a mentalist—whom Lisa knew more than not—could be con artists. 

Lisa’s shoulders slumped as he hit the nail on the head. She sighed. “Yeah. I don’t really want to go to college. I feel like it’s not the right path for me, but my mom... she just doesn’t understand. She thinks it’s the only way for me to succeed.”

Bill chuckled softly. “Ah, college-schmollege, who needs it?!” He said it with a wave of his hand. He sobered up a little, becoming slightly serious. “You see, Lisa, you and I aren’t so different. Let me tell you a little story. I came from a place called Euclydia, a flat world with flat minds and flat dreams. I was different, always thinking beyond the confines of my dimension. My ideas made me an outcast, but they also made me who I am.”

Lisa listened intently, an unsure light reflecting in her eyes. “...Why… Why are you telling me all of this?”

Bill said, his voice growing more animated. “Because your outside-the-box thinking is what makes you special~ College isn’t the only path to success. You have the potential to carve your own way, like I did. Stick with me, kid, we’ll go places.” He winked, “I’ll make it worth your while~”

Lisa looked at him and commented dryly. “‘Worth my while,’ huh? Maybe I should go to college.”

Bill’s eye narrowed just a smidge. “Well, I can see you need time to think about it.” He floated down, reached into his non-existent pocket, pulled out a crisp one-dollar bill, and placed it into the palm of her hand, using his much smaller hands to close her fingers around it. “If you ever want to see me again,” Bill continued, his single eye narrowing playfully, “just hold this bill up to the light. You’ll see the color-shifting ink and some other strange symbols. It’s a little trick of mine~”

Lisa examined the bill, noticing the intricate details and a pyramid with an eye on it. She looked back up at Bill, who was already starting to fade away.

Bill tipped his hat once more. “Until then, I’ll be watching you.” He said in a chipper tone. “Always watching~ And remember, reality is an illusion, the universe is a hologram, buy crypto, bye!” With that, he vanished into the night, leaving Lisa alone with her thoughts and the twinkling stars above.

****

Notes:

(Whatever is blue and underlined is a link)

The two manips were made by my sister, @twisting-echo Thank you, sis. They look fantastic!

So... I'm not going to lie, I've secretly shipped Older!Lisa Simpson with Bill Cipher ever since I watched the Bill Cipher cameo in the Bart's in Jail! episode back on October 3rd of 2021, and in light of "The Book of Bill" and BillFord craze that's sweeping the internet, I thought that I'd share my mini-fic idea of how Bill and Lisa met based on the events of the Mother and Child Reunion episode.

The reason I ship them is because Lisa is often portrayed as an outcast in Springfield due to her outside-the-box thinking and intellectual pursuits. Her interests in science, literature, and social issues frequently set her apart from her peers and even her family. Her struggles to fit in due to her progressive views and high intelligence make her similar to Ford Pines in a lot of ways. And Bill’s attraction to Ford Pines was primarily driven by Ford’s intelligence and curiosity. Ford was a brilliant scientist and researcher, which made him an ideal partner for Bill’s plans. Bill saw Ford as someone who could help him unlock the mysteries of the universe and achieve his own goals.

🚫IF YOU DO NOT LIKE THIS SHIP, PLEASE DON'T COMMENT OR REBLOG🚫 🚫PLEASE DO NOT STEAL OR REPOST MY SISTER'S EDITS🚫

[dumptruckofanass]

tbh i really get the statement giver. as i am very much into creatures that are just mysterious and creepy and connected to luck, i would also start wearing cool mysterious outfits and a hat and just approach people

can't grow a goatee unfortunately but if i could i would

[carpetcat2]

Want yo know your fusion knights better! 😲

16. What makes their stomach turn?

21. Why do they get up in the morning?

B) What inspired you to create them?

D) Have they always had the same physical appearance, or have you had to edit how they look?

Sorry for the long wait ^_^u 16. What makes their stomach turn? They're all toughies! I'm sure most of them could handle things the average person would find creepy or crawl-y. Most of them would agree that whatever degree Parasite is awful, though.

21. Why do they get up in the morning?

Hiber: To appreciate nature <3 and to take care of basic health needs that's really important too. Snare: Sometimes he doesn't. Wheel: Spite. Psilo: For the thrill of discovery! Every new day is an opportunity to learn plenty of new things! Like "hey, did you know there were a billion spiders under your porch?" Very cool. Train bros: Well, they've got a business to run, don't they? They have to make sure the trains run on time! Lumin: There are always new stories to be collected. Tales of treasure and tales of woe, of fortune and of fate. Parasite: "Oh boy! I can't wait to make other people's lives miserable! On purpose!"

B) What inspired you to create them?

I wholeheartedly love character design exercises and this was one of my favorites.

D) Have they always had the same physical appearance, or have you had to edit how they look?

I have plenty of concept art for these guys lol. I think Hiber, Wheel, and Steam are the only ones that basically didn't change too much from their initial concepts.

Design notes -

Hiber was a lot skinnier before, but she has a lot more meat on her bones now bc I wanted her to fit more into her hibernating theme. Gotta have enough meat survive the winter.

Snare was always gonna be big and tall and imposing, but it took a lot more finangling than I first thought to finalize his design. His earlier concepts had a more armored and ragged look. One cool idea that I scrapped was that he'd have his head and hands in a pillory, but he had extra arms on his back that he could use instead. Another one was that he’d carry around a giant coffin and smack people around with it the same way Puzzle used his compass. Those were overhauled bc they leaned into Specter a bit too much, and felt incohesive with his theming. I ended up taking more design notes from BodySwap Specter since they had a bit more design overlap with Puzzle. In was a fun decision in the end bc I think that caused him to look a little like Luan too.

I think I had a pollution theme going on in Lumin’s early concepts. He was and still is based off of siphonophores so I imagined he would steer around some long train of boats absolutely filled with human garbage and human treasures, but underneath they’d be attached to some gigantic eldritch sea monster. I think his earlier concepts had mechanical arms for some reason. I think I’ve solidified him into being a vaguely eldritch creature cosplaying as a goofy pirate trope, but his design itself is still a bit of a work in progress.

Coal and Steam were supposed to be one guy, but I couldn’t decide between making the one guy a conductor or an engineer so I had to split them up. I don’t think they changed too much from their initial designs except for some tweaks, like giving Coal a belt and fixing his hat, or shaving off a few inches from Steam.

Wheel’s design is mainly based off bikers and medieval jousters. One thing that didn’t make it in was her also being a cowboy(?????). I got rid of that pretty quickly bc trying to fit too many concepts into one character would be really messy, but I mourn the fact that I couldn’t figure out how to fit in wheel spurs in her boots. Her final design didn’t stray too far from her first concept, but some stuff was reworked.

The funny thing about Psilo is that I specifically chose Plague, Spore, and Prism as his components bc they had a lot of similar design elements. That turned out to be more of a challenge rather than a convenience bc I had to actively work to make Psilo Not look like one guy over the other. He still looks too much like Plague Knight, but I will keep convincing myself he is not a Plague clone. I wanted to go for a witch-y design for him at first, and I settled on that for a while. I don’t really remember why I went in a different direction but I guess it’s bc I wanted to represent Prism and Spore more in the design. I think his final helmet was actually based on concept art of Plague Knight from the SK artbook where he had a bottom visor that made him look like he had a big toothy grin, which was really cute and convenient for incorporating Spore’s visor.

A Lot happened with Parasite. I was gonna settle on "grouchy old man" Parasite, but he was being developed to be used in a friend's DnD campaign as an enemy and said friend characterized him very differently to that idea, so I wanted to make him fittingly look unhinged. The way I draw him now vs his current "official" render is a bit different, but that mostly comes down to me getting a better idea of his proportions rather than any significant design changes. Sorry about how disorganized this concept compilation is. I'll try to organize these by character later.

[aro-luigi]

Lets-a-go! [For context, Phantom is answering these, and others will reblog with their own answers]

---

1. Phantom is my name! I have several sources but the ones I'll be referring to in this are Phantom Wantstobattle, LM!Luigi, and Paper Luigi

2. Multisourced fictive :D

3. Very connected to those three

4. A *lot*, my fav exomemory is probably leaving the hotel at the end of LM3

5. The NWTB fandom I don't interact with, so I don't have anything to say. As for the LM & Super Paper Mario fandom(s), I have mixed feelings.

6. Only SPM sourcemates and LM doubles (or other Luigis from an AU)

7. I met Mario and Luigi (from another system) once, but we didn't really talk. I also met two Natemares a while ago which was fun :]

8. Several times over on discord, it only got answered once and that's how I found one of the Natemares I talked about in the last answer.

9. My Luigi source - I'm very alike to him, I have anxiety issues and I'm very much in my siblings' shadows, I actually use him to describe my own personality sometimes. As for for Phantom - I talk like him, but other than that we aren't really similar.

10. Simple answer - yes. It makes me feel seen as myself rather than 'just some guy who thinks he's these characters'

11. LM! Luigi - I *love* the spooky aesthetic LM1 & LM3 have, and I really like the level design in LM3. I have a lot of good things to say about the LM trilogy tbh. Paper Luigi - well, other than the character development? Other than the amazing new characters? Other than the good writing? I adore Paper Mario (the first three), and I don't think anything can change my mind. Phantom - banger song, great music video, cool outfit, need I say more?

12. LM - the memories, tbh. Now, in this world/life/reality, I'm not afraid of ghosts, but whenever I remember that source, I start to panic. It's... Not fun. Paper Luigi - knowing what 'i' did as Mr. L, it makes me feel like I betrayed Mario. Phantom - the fact there isn't much canon, but considering he's a character in a music video that was made into a character by the fandom... I can't really complain about that-

13. A lot. Here are some of my favorites from each source: LM - between LM2 and LM3, Mario and I played some games together, and when I beat him in game, he tripped over the carpet trying to dramatically rage quit. Paper Luigi - the furby-like thing I had at some point, it's not canon, but it was so funny. And terrifying. Take all those funny/creepy furby stories from online and put them into a cat-like robot instead, that's basically it. Phantom - the police finding Natemare. I laughed my ass off, he was so sure he'd get away with it.

14. Yes and no ^^. I look like Phantom, and I can't change my form. So yes, I do look like my source self (Phantom), but also no, I don't look like my source self (Luigi)

15. I'm mainly a host but I'm also memory holder for dormant alters (those that have important info in their memories)

16. Probably only for Phantom. I don't think I'd be able to handle another haunted mansion or paper adventure, those are exhausting.

17. Yes, yes, and yes. For Phantom, it was a reality alike to this one but the multiverse was connected and you could freely travel between universes, so I am actually not originally from the universe I live in. For LM, afaik ghosts, boos, toads, koopas, and all those creatures don't really exist here! For Paper Luigi, I think it's pretty obvious, this world isn't 2D or made of paper.

18. Easy, Luigi hat.

19. Yes, I have a Luigi hat, Luigi figurine, Mr. L pin, and a Luigi controller for my Nintendo Switch. I don't have any Phantom merch, sadly.

20. All the time.. mostly what I do for my LM source is play LM3 or LM2HD, because I have the games, but it doesn't feel the same. For my other sources, I can't do much. I don't have any Paper Mario games, and there isn't anything I can do for Phantom. It gets tough sometimes, but my headmates help comfort me and help me through it.

21. For Phantom it's pretty obvious, Phantom by Natewantstobattle. For LM & Paper Luigi, I actually have the same song, which is Control by Halsey.

22. Writing, mostly. In all of my sources I did writing in some way. Whether it was a diary, or a story about different universes, it was always writing.

23. For the longest time I would've answered no to that for both my Luigi sources, because of the amount of trauma there is. But now, I really do like interacting with source-related media, it comforts me a lot ^^

24. Yes, for all of them ^^ I drew Luigi three times, and I write fanfics of all my sources' media all the time

25. It's odd, but I'm alright with it. You kinda learn to accept it when your whole system has Luigis sprinkled everywhere- (I'm not kidding, our brain really likes the guy)

26. This was fun ^^ I forgot how much I like sharing my experiences, I should do this more!! Can't wait for the others (/sys) to do this too :3

Introject Ask Game!

We've seen a lot of these, but never one directed specifically at introjects (fictives, factives, fcktives, etc), so we decided to make one!

1. What's your name and source?

2. What type of introject are you? (Fictive, factive, etc.)

3. How connected do you feel to your source?

4. Do you have any exomemories? What's your favourite one?

5. What do you think of your source's fandom?

6. Do you have any sourcemates in your system?

7. Have you ever met any sourcemates outside your system?

8. Have you ever posted/sent a sourcecall anywhere? Did it help you find sourcemates?

9. What do you think are your biggest differences from/similarities to your source?

10. Do you like being compared to your source?

11. What's your favourite thing about your source?

12. What's your least favourite thing about your source?

13. Any funny exomemories?

14. Does your appearance differ from your source's appearance?

15. What other role, if any, do you have in the system?

16. If you could go back to the life you had in your exomemories/source, would you?

17. Does this universe differ at all from the one in your exomemories/source?

18. What's your favourite clothing item/accessory that the system owns?

19. Do you have any merch of your source?

20. Do you ever get homesick? If yes, what do you do to deal with it?

21. What songs remind you of your source?

22. What activities/things remind you of your source?

23. Do you like engaging with your source/content about it?

24. Have you ever created content related to your source? (Art, fanfiction, etc.)

25. How do you feel about doubles?

26. Talk about anything you want, relevant to rhe rest of the questions or not!

⚠️ This post is inclusive of all system origins ⚠️

[feralocsnkids]

After a fun birthday celebration with her friends, Misaki got an invitation for a specific event. While she was unsure about going to the center for everything spooky and scary for the Halloween season, she was encouraged to go by the others, especially Kokoro, so... why not? Besides, she was actually curious about what exactly the events were. It did seem like fun, and what better way to help people smile than to have fun with them? So with a deep breath, she went to Halloween Town.

Upon getting to the town, she was changed yet again. Her hair turned pink, and her arms got... furry? Huh. Her "fur" was the same shade of pink as her hair, and most noticeable were the bear ears and newfound claws that she had. In all, she looked like a very pink were-bear. She wasn't fully sure how she felt about turning into what was basically Michelle, but... it's Halloween, so everything was on the table. Either way, she definitely seemed at least a little ready for whatever happened here.

"Well... At least it's only for the month? Besides, it's just a little bit more pink than I'm used to." No one tell her what happens to were-creatures during the full moon.

However, she's not the only one here for the festivities either. There's also one specific girl from the hoenn region who honestly seemed to be really excited! Eliza did love going in costumes after all! Not to mention, she actually did love all manner of things spooky, creepy, you name it! It... also helped that it was a time that she could also show her ears instead of hiding them under a hat or a bandana. When she had gotten the invitation, she was so excited! A place dedicated to Halloween and there were gonna be games and the such there? Sign her up!

Once she got to Halloween Town, surrounded by ghosts, ghouls, and things just made to scare or spook someone, she felt... different. Her body was more stiff than she was used to, and when she looked to see what the matter was, she noticed that she had stitches all across her body! With the weird skintone and how everything was stitched together, it was almost like she was made up of different body parts that were just stitched together! Of course she found it incredibly cool, if a little bit weird to get used to while walking. Either way she was pumped for Halloween, and she loved the new spooky makeover!

"This month is gonna be great! And this looks so weird... I love it!" Ever the fount of optimism it seems.

[umbralundertaker]

Rate their swag (and how much you like them): Bec Noir, Spades Slick, Jack English(?)

Bec Noir - i understand why, but im so upset that they removed his jester hat bro ��� his character's silhouette was better as jackspers noirlecrow, which isnt as important with other characters, but jack is Literally a silhouette so its very important for him. Anyways hes the best because i love his wings and the many ways the doggy head can be rendered, from silly to simple to sleek to creepy

and i super love when hes 100% a shadow creature hes so badass 😫😫

Jack English - Really underutilized in... pretty much everything. I love Jack and I really love Caliborn, and even though JE is neither of these things its close enough. I like how no thoughts chaotic evil he is; he has so much energy and power and blistering ANGER that it looks like his spindly limbs will give out at any moment due to how much he's straining them. I love the firey energy that surrounds him, he is always rendered in such a hype way that tells you Hey plot is about to happen now! Start paying attention!

Spades Slick - His noir mobster aesthetic is sooooooo good that it triggered my hyperfixation on the 1920s era, but i like jack englishes bright rainbow colors even more. Also the stitches on his scar and the white eyepatch is cool, but i guess its hard to make it look right? Because in most art it just makes his design look cluttered. His cyborg look with the huge cane is really cool though

[grahoriasfancave]

Just finished Chapter 1 of The Quarry, here's my thoughts on the characters so far

Prologue

Laura: the reckless one who goes "let's go into the creepy abandoned house, don't be a wimp" and then gets killed, methinks. But I don't think she's dead yet?? Max: the malewife to Laura's gaslight gatekeep girlboss. Feels like the kinda guy to unashamedly watch sappy movies while crying and eating tubs of chocolate ice cream when sad. He's the Hannah Washington of the game. Cop Dude: creeeepyyyy. Either the motel's a trap or he knew exactly what was going on when Laura "tricked" him.

Chapter 1

Jacob: himbo with fratboy energy, has definitely won a game of gay chicken despite being straight. He needs to learn that no means no, but in a big-dog-that-thinks-he's-still-a-puppy kind of way. Kaitlyn: QUEEN. Takes no shit, will still be the designated driver of the group and provide emotional support on a bad day. Not mom material, but would make one heckuva cool aunt. Dylan: the token ADHD-coded snarker. Smells fruity, and I'm not talking about his little sister's shampoo that he uses bc he refuses to admit he packed it by mistake. Lowkey craves validation and uses humour to both acquire it and play it off as a joke. Nick: awkward softboi. Probably gonna fulfil the Final Girl/Main Character trope. I can see him fending off beasties with a hatchet or crowbar or something. But will he get the girl? (absolutely not) Abigail: sweetheart who needs protecting. A closeted lesbian who panicked and told Emma she had a crush on Nick when pressed, because he was the first guy that came to mind. She carries around one of those travel hand sanitizers that smells like cookies. Emma: sassy wine aunt vibes. Took both ballet and martial arts from an early age and half wants some creep to catcall her so she can kick his butt. Feels like she could go from bestie to poisoned dagger at the drop of a hat, but in a "I will roast you to your face and it will hurt" way, not a backstabbing way. Ryan: everyone thinks he's a brooding loner, but it's really the autism. 100% had to grow up too fast and is habitually the responsible one. His love language is quality time. Mr. Hackett: needs to CHILL. Explain your involvement with the local creature attacks a little please, sir. Other than that, the dadliest of dads.

[inventors-fair]

Tightrope Walkers - Balancing Act Commentary

It’s that time again, folks! Here for your perusal and amusal are all the cards you’ve submitted this week, with my thoughts and musings attached. As always, feel free to give me a shout if you have any questions, comments, discussion points, bad puns, anything. Here we go!

Lightning Compressor by @dimestoretajic​

art prompt - an Izzet goblin with an impressive electric hat is throwing the switch on a large glass tank with a nightmarish face resembling the M10 art for Ball Lightning pressed to the glass inside it

Ball Lightning tribal support crops up in the fair every so often, and this is a pretty cool take on it. No fancy, flashy buffs or ways to mitigate the downside, just making a bunch of Ball Lightning tokens. Like... a bunch. I do like this card, but as a general rule of thumb, a repeatable effect should cost more than the same effect as a one-off. This costs the exact same as Ball Lightning, lets you make multiple per turn, and doesn’t cost you any cards to do so. It should either be more expensive, or maybe have an additional cost associated with it like discarding X cards. Alternatively, you could make the tokens smaller, though I know that loses some of the connection to the flavor. The flavor text is not bad, but it does feel like it runs on a little and the punchline deserves a bit more attention. Still a very solid card though!

Repeated Repetition by @little-red-rabbit

At first, I thought this card fell into the same trap as the previous one- of having a really good rate. Then I realized, this doesn’t actually do anything unless you spend UURR, which means it’s actually sitting at a fairly poor rate. The golden spot would be somewhere in between, I think? The effect is super cool, and I’m surprised we haven’t seen something like this yet. The choice to hit just instants and not sorceries is interesting, and I think some players might be confused by that. It’s a very clever base idea, but the lesson to be learned is that designs should be double, triple, and even quadruple-checked for all those tiny fiddly bits- things like adding “instant spell”, and checking over the flavor text for typos and grammatical errors. I do like where your head's at, though!

Jabberwock by @evscfa1

Eugh, you’ve successfully dredged up memories of my grade 10 drama class, which is... blech. Hated that poem. But the card! The card is cool! Based on the fairy-tale creature inspiration and the “Syr” in the quote, this is likely meant to be set on Eldraine, which... neat. I honestly could see us getting a Jabberwock-inspired card when we return to Eldraine. In terms of a design contest though, I did mention that french vanilla creatures may not be the best submissions for this week. Beyond that, I’m not sure I understand why you chose the keywords you did? Obvious one for each color, but deathtouch on a big creature seems strange- and you could easily convey the creepy evil flavor with menace instead, which would make this thing even more of a powerhouse. Finally, I don’t fully understand what the flavor text is trying to get at- implying that there’s multiple of these things, but there’s only one on the card? If it had some sort of self-replicating or self-recurring ability, I could definitely make more sense of the flavor text.

Crop Failure by @piccadilly-blue

Gonna get this out of the way- flavor text? Simple. Strong. Punchy. Informs the world around it. Everything I’m looking for this week. It’s cool as hell! The ETB is solid, and it hits you too so it’s not really too brutal, it just sets everyone back a turn. The static hate ability is... a little weak? I totally understand the flavor you were going for here, and I think it’s awesome, but I think that flavor would have absolutely held up if you broadened it to, say “players can’t create noncreature tokens”? Or “players can’t gain life”? Cause you’re not just denying them food, you’re denying them resources, and I think this is an instance where you can sacrifice just a bit of the obvious flavor for some better mechanical impact.

Tal Inquisitor by @wolkemesser

Okay, so we’re looking at devotion that isn’t on Theros, but still tied to the concept of gods and prayer. The worldbuilding you’ve done in the flavor text is fantastic, and I love the questions it raises about this world, but it’s very exposition-y. I think it could have been cut down, or maybe made into a quote? If someone is saying it, then you could adjust the text to be a bit more active, and draw the reader in more. Heck, you could make the inquisitor himself be saying it! The card itself seems... pretty strong for a one-mana uncommon? I dunno, maybe I’m just a little skittish. At base, it’s a 1/2, but it has the potential to get a lot bigger, so I dunno. Probably woulda made it two, maybe three mana, just to be safe. 

Sudden Realization by @yd12k

Art: A young man is standing over a scrying pool, shocked backwards by the vision within it. Within the pool there is an upside-down image of a girl with similar hair sitting in a forest clearing.

You shared a lot of backstory alongside the submission to flesh out this fanwalker character, and it was awesome! We always need more trans characters in magic, and Nifah seems pretty cool. The card on its own is fairly good. As it stands, you’re essentially spending one mana to draw a card, and another to make your next spell uninteractable, since the X is you “paying” for the creature. I do suppose it lets you color fix as well. The other minor issue is that you need to define X before you get to draw the card, which would lead to some feelsbad moments of being only one or two mana shy of dropping the creature you just drew. It’s still a cool card, and I like the flavor text, but maybe there’s a different way to scale it? Also, congrats on making a hybrid card with no bends or breaks- that’s no small feat.

Aelius, Sunchase Heartstoker by @reaperfromtheabyss

Art Direction: An older Therosian resembling the impetuous sunchaser is helping a younger man put on a pair of wings. The background is an open sky filled with a warm golden sun

Okay, so until I read the art direction, I didn’t realize this was meant to be Daedalus, and that’s a very cool concept. Daedalus was known for not exactly... respecting the gods, so having his Magic version basically be trying to dethrone Heliod in favor of this other (real???) sun god? Very cool. I did read the name as “Heartstroker” at first, but that’s more a me problem. Flavor text is A+, and I like the abilities- stoking the fire in other creatures and encouraging them to attack. Based on the flavor text of Wings of Hubris, it does seem like we already have a 1:1 Daedalus, but that’s also a pretty minor complaint. All in all, very solid card, and was very close to making it into the runners-up.

Bank Shot by @hiygamer

Rebound being a literal rebound shot is hilarious, and I love how this works with the combat-trick heavy environment of battlebond. “Cast from a hand” feels super weird to read, but I’m not sure what the alternative is. A player’s hand? Maybe? Yeah, I don’t really have much to say about this other than it’s very solid. For three mana, you more or less get to “copy” two of your other spells over three turns. I’m not sure if this is exciting enough to be a rare, but I’m also not sure if it’s too strong for uncommon. This card occupies a very interesting liminal space, and I would like to see how it plays. The flavor text is okay. The first sentence as a setup is great, but the delivery of the second is a bit dull. Instead of “so much more”, maybe inference how skilled players use it for not-intended purposes? “So much more” kind of implies that they... protect the players as well as the audience? I dunno, something’s just not quite jamming with me, but the bones are good.

Plow the Earth by @i-am-the-one-who-wololoes

The invocation of these flavor text is POWERFUL. I can feel a character crying this out as they’re surrounded by whipping winds, and plants explode out of the ground around them. It’s very appropriately epic. The inverse of Zendikar’s Roil for sure makes for some interesting play- obviously the tokens are bigger and the enchantment is cheaper, but it’s a lot harder to put lands in grave than it is to just play them. This still plays very nicely with fetch lands, or any of those many green cards that let you sac lands for various benefits. This is very much a solid design, and was one of the toughest ones to cut from the running. I would love to see this one get printed, because I have several decks I would put it in. 

Visshox’ Gaze by @ghoulcaclulator64

I’ll admit, I thought a Visshox was a creature until the flavor text corrected me on that. The menacing glare being interpreted as forcing someone to reveal their hand is inspired, and I love how it captures that intimidation aspect. Menace tribal is interesting for sure, and the two different modes have an interesting tension between them. Even if you do control a creature with menace, there still are situations where you want them to discard lands. As for the flavor text, I’m not sure what it is, but it reads a bit awkward to me- “years since I just barely escaped” seems a bit too... straightforward, I guess? I’m not sure what I’m trying to say here, I just think that this character, whoever they are, needs more of a defined voice. As it is, it feels a bit like exposition with quotes slapped onto it.

Maniacal Scheme by @deg99

You know, as specific as this flavor text is, I was almost certain someone would do exactly this- after all, a villain monologue is pretty much exactly what I was asking for this week. The card is reminiscent of the Benalish Commander cycle, and it has a really solid amount of diversity to it. You can either slam it down after an alpha strike to be a straight boardwipe, or use it to keep your opponents’ boards locked down for a while. So far, we’ve only seen this effect in white, which is interesting. I’m not sure if that means black doesn’t get it, or they just haven’t done it yet, but anyways. My other issue is that the base cost might be a bit too cheap- this has a lot of versatility, and 5 mana for what is likely a mostly-unconditional boardwipe (since you’re the only player who will have all their stuff untapped when you play this), might be a bit too strong. Then again, maybe not. It’s the kinda thing that would show up in playtesting.

Grind of Eons by @real-aspen-hours

Art direction: location, desert: both the moon and sun in the sky, both day and night to show the rapid passage of time, day on the left, night on the right, with stars stretched out into lines like on a long period exposure photo on the night side. In the foreground, a monument to a figure is turning to sand and blowing away on the wind. The figures identity is obscured by age, and the aging becomes more pronounced the further right in the drawing.

Mood: the rapid passage of time

That is some FANTASTIC art direction. I can clearly picture it in my mind, and it looks amazing. The card itself is one of the fairly typical “big expensive boardwipes with upside”, the upside in this case being a strange mill variant. I’m not sure what situations this card will be in where exiling ten cards from libraries becomes relevant, but it does a lot to help support the flavor, so it’s not a bad choice. Also, I like how the flavor text, while strongly invoking decay, also subtly references rebirth- as one kingdom was built on the dust of the previous one, so too will a new one come from this one. I like that! A small glimmer of hope! One issue- there is nothing wrong with submitting cards in a text-based format- we totally understand that not everyone has easy access to a card creator- but please make sure you have all the card information clear and visible. Your submission didn’t have a rarity, which does make it difficult to judge- I have different opinions on this based on whether it’s a rare or mythic. Please double check submissions for the little details!

Resonant Echo by @izzet-always-r-versus-u

Y’know what’s funny? I made this exact card about a year back- like exactly. Mine was called Resounding Echo. I love it when that happens- shows that Magic players really are all the same, in the end. It’s a very fun card, though it can get pretty crazy. Spells without targets tend to be more big, flashy, and expensive, and doubling all of them can get real scary, real fast. I’m not totally sure how I feel about the flavor text? I do like Zaffai, and this seems very fitting as a Prismari card, but “Echoes” and “Harmonies” are two different things to me, so I don’t get what this card is meant to represent flavorfully. I think some more specificity here would help a lot, maybe referring to exactly what the students are doing to produce this echo? Still a very cool card tho!

Suffocating Smog by @misterstingyjack

Definitely a topical card, given the events of the current and future sets. In fact, I could see this exact thing getting printed in The Brothers’ War, maybe with some different flavor text. Anyways, this has the potential to be a super nasty asymmetrical boardwipe, especially given how easy it is to make a bunch of artifact tokens and whatnot. I think it might still be fine at 4 mana? I dunno, it’s treading dangerous waters for sure. Let’s talk about that flavor text. I love the imagery you’ve got going on there, and “it is their subtler horrors that breaks a world” is GOLDEN. This really feels like someone speaking, so I think it definitely deserves quotes and maybe an attribution. Also, the starting bit could afford to be tightened up a bit. Very solid card all around.

Triskaidekavore by @gollumni

So it... eats bad luck? I think I love this guy, he’s so adorable. I have no idea what eating bad luck would entail, but I support him. It is a little funny that it’s bad-luck-themed, but you can only easily play it if you’re having good luck (ie drawing lots of cards). It is a big, splashy mythic, which is what I love to see. I think maybe it could get a keyword as a treat? Also, I may be blind but I only count six 13s? Is there supposed to be 7? Or 13? Regardless, fun little card, solid flavor text, A+ all around.

Curse of Yargle’s Spawn by @squeezyboi

Okay, so taking this flavor text in conjunction with Yargle, Glutton of Urborg... Dominaria’s about to have a real problem with overgrown wildlife, huh? I like the flavor text a lot, but I don’t get the “always satisfied” bit. Why would it be satisfied if it’s constantly eating? The trademark of big gluttonous monsters is that they’re never satisfied. The card itself is another matter. Giving a massive power buff like that is awesome, and feels very yargle-y, but even in exchange for a big body, black doesn’t get to wipe a creature’s abilities like that. That’s a pretty strictly blue-and-white thing to do, even if you’d mostly be putting this on your own creatures. Still a neat card with devastating implications for Urborg’s ecology.

Forlorned Lover by @beandrea99

Spoooooky. I like how this spirit would work in limited- drop it and start swinging to try and keep your opponent’s big threat down, or to make room for your other attackers. But you need to have other answers on hand for any potential flying blockers, or this gets eaten. It’s solid, simple, and I think would play really well. I’m not totally sold on 1UU as opposed to 2U, but that might be a matter of preference.The flavor text is decent, though the ending feels like it’s trying a bit too hard to up the creep factor, and it ends up just sounding cheesy. I think subverting the expectations there and using different language could really help that bit along.

Spectrum Purge by @hypexion

Very hard not to compare to Vanishing Verse on this one. Obviously there are some small differences here and there (destroy vs exile, sorcery vs instant), but I’m just not sure this would be much fun to play unless it was in a very multicolor-heavy limited environment. Not to say that’s impossible- after all, we just had New Capenna. But in that instance, it becomes likely the best removal in the format, and would be highly prized. I’m not sure there’s a middle ground for this card- or if there is, I’m just not seeing it. The flavor text is good, if a bit dry. I really like what it’s going for, but I don’t fully understand what it’s going for- is this like a “anything different from me must die” kind of vibe? And what does “finding purity in death” mean? It sounds nice, for sure, but I don’t quite grok it.

Four-Point Urstag by @horsecrash

Like some of the other submissions this week, this card does fall into a trap that I tried to warn against- near-vanilla creatures don’t really show off the submitter’s design skills, unless it’s something wildly out-of-the-box creative. This is fine, it’s a good card that would probably have been great support for Ikoria limited, but it’s not something I can judge very easily, since there’s not much to it. That being said, the one thing I can comment on is the flavor text- it’s pretty solid. I do like the idea of “green character who hates nature”. Even though it would be tricky to pull off, I think it could certainly be done. Besides, any sane person would look at Ikoria and immediately planeswalk the other way. I’m not sure I agree with Ikoria’s people being “tree-huggers”, since most of them seem very murderous towards local flora and fauna? But maybe that’s one of those differences between the cards and the lore, so who knows. I like the flavor text a lot, I just wish it was on a more interesting card.

That’s that for this week, folks! Reminder that the week after next (when I’m back in rotation), I will be running a contest from our lovely folks over in our #contest-suggestions channel in Discord! If you have an idea you want to not-so-subtly suggest, throw it in that channel in the next few weeks!

Au revoir, 

~judge @naban-dean-of-irritation​

[lokislastlove]

Come One, Come All (dark!Loki x reader)

Summary: A girls night out to the fair takes an insidious turn.

Warnings: Noncon/Rape, knife play, oral (m&f), smut, bondage, kidnapping.

This is a dark fic! 18+ ONLY! Explicit Adult content. Please READ THE WARNINGS! Do not continue if these matters upset you!

Authors Note: I wrote another one! No idea where this came from, but it was fun to write. Still working on improving my smut, huge thanks to @darkficsyouneveraskedfor for some tips and editing the shit out of it. 😘 also I know there is a creepy clown in the pic but I feel like I have to say there aren’t any clowns in the fic. I hate clowns.

Chapter 1:

It was the kind of summer night you dream about, warm enough to keep you comfortable in your shorts and peasant top, but with a light breeze that keeps you cool enough to fight the flush of alcohol in your veins. You look forward to these moments when you are able to go out with your girlfriends and let loose, forgetting about all life’s responsibilities, if just for a single night.

“Come on!” Ash calls over her shoulder, her hand tight around your wrist pulling you impatiently.

“Aww but that looks so good” you groan as you press your face longingly against the glass barrier of the hand dipped corn dog cart.

The sweet scent of the frying corn dough wafts tantalizingly through the air making your mouth water. You friends laugh at your theatrics, having just helped you scarf down a large sugary funnel cake and a platter of nachos, the evidence of which still stains the corner of your mouth. Really, it was their fault for getting you tipsy before taking you to the county fair, everything just smelled heavenly and if you could you would try one of everything.

“Just a slushee?!” You beg as Jen steps behind you and pushes you out of the food court, giggling the entire time.

“Come on, fight the drunchies! You promised you would try that new funhouse,” Jen whines, looping her arm through yours, Ash doing the same on the other side.

“Oh yeah,” you grumble.

“Oh stop it” Ash scolds playfully. “Everyone at work keeps talking about it - it’s like a mini escape room! And I’ve always wanted to do one, please.” She rants excitedly before giving you her best puppy dog eyes.

“Ugh that’s cheating. No one can resist those big brown eyes” you pout, but yield as easily as they knew you would.

“I know” Ash smirks, tossing back her long silky black hair over her slender shoulder.

“This is gonna be so much fun, I promise” Jen bumps your hip, giving you a wide encouraging smile.

You manage a strained grin as you let them lead you through the crowd. It’s not that you don’t like funhouses or the idea of doing an escape room, having always loved solving riddles and doing puzzles. It’s just you don’t like clowns, and every funhouse in your experience has at least one.

“Oh damn there’s a line!” Jen moans as you all stop in front of a large structure covered in flashing lights, the ominous ‘Tricksters Trap’ bathing your face in a violent red glow.

Garish contrasting colors somehow both attract your eye and make it hard to look at. Your pupils dilate with the lines of fluorescent bulbs burning into your retinas. The stereotypical circus music blares through the cheap speakers, reminding you of one of those old Jack in the box toys. And of course, without fail, was the obligatory clown statue hanging over the entrance, like some creepy sentinel there to guide you to your inevitable demise.

“Ugh fucking clowns” you grimace as you pass by the entrance, heading toward the end of the line.

“Yeah they definitely nailed the creep factor,” Jen agrees, her eyes shining with nervous excitement.

“I know isn’t it great?!” Ash squeals.

You stand there taking in the horrific detailing painted on the side of the metal structure. You are thankful when Ash explains there is a time limit, only ten minutes to complete the puzzle or else they kick you out and you have to try again. If you figure out the puzzle you get to leave through the mirror maze and you earn the coveted “I tricked the Trickster” sticker.

“Gotta get that sticker, or else that bitch Katie at work will never let me forget that she got one and I didn’t” Ash complains, causing you and Jen to share a look and snicker.

“Hey! Don’t laugh, this is serious! We gotta be smart and figure this out, failure is not an option” she urges dramatically before collapsing into drunken giggles with you and Jen.

“You ladies seem eager to prove yourselves,” slithers a low voice.

Startled you gasp and spin around quickly. The three of you look up at the tall lean figure standing behind you. He wears a perfectly tailored black ensemble, that matches the color of his slicked back hair. His eyes practically glow green against his alabaster complexion. His sharp cheekbones and angular jaw make your breath hitch, causing his thin lips to curve into a sinister smirk. He is stunning.

“Um, yeah. Well this place has the whole town buzzin’. Seems like everyone is talking about it” Jen is the first to speak.

“Ah I see. Wouldn’t want to miss your chance to take a stab at it” the mysterious man surmised, eyes focused on you.

“We got this shit. Right guys?” Ash assures him as she playfully smacks you and Jen.

“Well, I guess we’ll find out. Good luck,” he challenges with a raise of a brow.

You stare after him as he saunters away without another word. His hips and shoulders sway smoothly, his soft footsteps giving him a dangerous almost feline vibe, like he could rival even the most deadly of predators. As he turns to round the corner of the ride he takes one last look over his shoulder at you. Your eyes lock for only a fraction of a second but it’s enough to send a chill down your spine.

“That was weird, right?” You mutter, eyes still transfixed where he disappeared.

“Eh, just another creepy dude. If I had a nickel for every weirdo who tries to chat me up…” Jen jokes.

“You’d have like a whole 50 cents,” sasses Ash.

You are finally broken from your daze when Ash is pushed into you. You laugh and try to brush off the lingering effect of the handsome stranger, shifting your focus back to your friends. The line goes by quicker than expected, with only one group out of the three ahead of you making it out with stickers. The losing groups return to the line from a back door, bickering about where they went wrong.

Finally it is your turn. Ash claps her hands excitedly, dancing up the metal stairs to the costumed man at the entrance. His red and white stripped suit is expertly torn and painted with fake blood to make him look as intimidating as possible. With a tip of his top hat he welcomes the three of you and begins to explain the rules in his well practiced accent.

“Come one come all to the Tricksters Trap, if you’re feeling lost, just go find the map.” He sings with flair and a perfectly timed bow, directing you to the inauspicious black door.

Taking a deep breath you follow your squealing friends into the darkened hallway. Pausing to look back as the door creaks shut, cutting off the jovial sounds of laughter and chatter with a sudden slam. You flinch at the loud noise and turn back to the dim hallway. The short corridor is lined with wall to wall green velvet curtains barely visible with the green rope lights running along the ceiling.

“Guys?” You whisper when you don’t see them next to you, causing your heart rate to quicken

You call for them again, this time louder, your feet unwilling to move from the spot. It has only been thirty seconds and you are already about to call it quits. Get a grip. You take a hesitant step forward.

“You guys?!” You call shakily.

“Hey! Come on we found the map!” Jen pokes her head from around the corner at the end of the hall.

She disappears just as quickly, waving her arm for you to follow. You breathe a sigh of relief and rush after her. You enter a large room filled with all sorts of random objects. It’s as if it is designed to overload your senses. The green from the hall carried on into the room, more velvet green curtains hung on the walls that were not obstructed by shelves of books or other oddities. You saw everything from perfectly aligned glass jars filled with alien looking creatures, grandfather clocks, to treasure chests overflowing with grizzled toys.

Jen and Ash are hunched over a table with a map spread out smoothly. It was easy enough to see it was a map of the room and hallway, with what appeared to be three small rooms hidden along the wall behind the heavy green drapery. You go over and pull back a curtain and find a locked door, the other two also hiding a locked door.

“Ok so it looks like we gotta find a way to open these doors” you offer, your anxiety calming a bit as you focus on the mystery at hand.

“Hey look there is some sort of code over here by the lock on the door.” Ash hollers excitedly.

You each pick a door code and frantically search the room. It doesn’t take long for you to figure out you need to use the books on the large shelf along one wall. The first number tells you the book the second refers to a specific page. You find a slip of paper in the book with a riddle written in a blood red ink.

“I make two people out of one” You read aloud.

“You can hold me in one hand, but I’m used to fill the room” Ash reads hers, her face twisting in concentration.

You both look to Jen, “I have two hands, but I can’t clap.”

“Damn no wonder so many people failed, definitely wish I wasn’t drunk right now” Ash laughs.

“No no we can do this, it’s probably items in the room so let’s just focus. We’ll do one at a time.” You assert, pacing the room and trying to take in all the random objects.

“Two hands…” you mutter as you stop in front of a large grandfather clock. “Clocks have hands!” You yell excitedly and open the narrow door.

The heavy pendulums swing inside and you see a shining silver glint off the rounded golden end. You pull off the small silver key, stuck on by a tiny magnet, and jump in excitement.

“Holy crap! You’re a genius!” Jen exclaims running over to take the key and try it in the door.

The key slides in smoothly and the door opens with a gratifying click.

“Woo! Keep going, you are on a roll!” Ash claps as she cheers you on.

“Ok, ok” you giggle before taking a deep breath. “Two people out of one… maybe a camera? Or wait…” you realize as you stare at Ash currently checking her makeup in an antique mirror hung between two curtains.

“Ash! Try pulling on that mirror!” You yell pointing frantically at the mirror in front of her.

Her brows knit together briefly before understanding, grabbing the frame and tugging gently until it swings open, revealing a key hung on the wall.

“Yes!” You all shriek together.

Suddenly, the lights flicker and a loud maniacal cackle reverberates through the surround sound speaker, turning your elation into yelps of surprise.

“Two minutes left” a familiar polished voice echoes forebodingly throughout the room.

“Shit, that scared the crap out of me” Jen laughs clutching at her chest.

The warning gives you pause, managing to shift the spirit of the whole room. Ash giggles nervously as she watches the lights of the room transition from their previous dim yellow light to a menacing red hue. The mood lighting in addition to the increasing volume of the horror soundtrack playing over the speaker helps to put you back into your initial anxious state.

“Seriously? Is this fucking necessary?” You curse, shaking your head.

“Ok let’s get the last one guys! We can still do this!” Jen yells through the cacophony of sound effects.

“Yeah what can we fit in our hand but somehow also fills the room?” Ash reiterated the final riddle.

“These red lights make it so much harder to see” Jen complains bitterly as she rummages through the items inside a large chest.

“Lights… Jen that’s it! A lightbulb!” A smile breaks out on your face as you figure out the final clue.

“Look up there!” Ash points to a solitary darkened light bulb screwed into the ceiling.

“I got it.” Jen jumps onto the table and reaches up, unscrewing it quickly. “There is a key inside!” She shouts.

She unscrews the bottom of the fake lightbulb and received the key before handing it to Ash. Each of you run over to the corresponding doors and turn the key, squealing in delight when they all slide open.

“Is that it?” Jen asks looking into the cramped dark space behind the door.

It was little more than a closet. Barely enough room for each of you to stand in. You were at a loss. You could have sworn that would be the end.

“Guys there is a lever here on the back wall of mine, how about yours?” Ash’s muffled voice calls from inside her closet.

“Oh yeah mine too!” Jen replies.

“Do you think we have to pull them at the same time? ‘Cus mine did nothing when I tried it” Ash says poking her head out to look at you.

“Thirty seconds!” That haunting voice booms again as a tick clock sounds through the speakers, counting down your final moments.

“Ok let’s try it together!” You nod at both of them, before stepping into the tight dark space.

“THREE! TWO! ONE!” You shout, mirroring your friends calls, pulling down your lever with a snap.

There is a moment of silence as the lights of the room behind you suddenly go dark, the music and sound effects cutting off instantly.

“Did we get it?!” You yell.

You don’t get the chance to hear your friends response as the wood door slams behind you, locking you into the small space.

Tags: @darkficsyouneveraskedfor @caffiend-queen

[monstersandmaw]

Sleep paralysis demon/nightmare x reader (nsfw)

Edit which I’m including in all my works after plagiarism and theft has taken place: I do not give my consent for my works to be used, copied, published, or posted anywhere. They are copyrighted and belong to me.

This was begun on a Twitch writing stream, with lots of input from the chat, and while I did say I would post it straight to Tumblr, I ended up adding another 3k words to it, and a tiny bit of plot, so I figured I'd put it up on Patreon first. Since Patreon supporters voted so highly for a ‘nightmare’ on the 'next monsters' poll (thank you!), I thought it should go up there first too.

Our reader has been experiencing anxiety and insomnia lately, and this draws something to us... There's a bit at the start that's got creepy vibes to it, but the creature means us no harm. Because of the sleep paralysis element, I'm going to say watch out for non-con vibes, but nothing really happens without our consent first time round. Just putting it here in case that's a major issue for anyone.

Ft. dapper mothman landlord Reggie, and gnoll best friend too.

“You’re living where now?” Francis practically barked into his whisky as you sat together after work. The gnoll’s enormous, dish-like ears flicked forwards, dark and fuzzy and full of concern. “Seriously, you do know how shitty that part of town is, right?”

“It’s not that bad,” you growled, taking a sip of your own drink and leaning back into the soft leather back of the chair. You stifled a yawn and blinked, the exhaustion of a week’s worth of broken sleep catching up to you in one brutal rush.

Francis flicked an ear and levelled you with a flat look, dark eyes serious for once. “You’re kidding…?”

“Ok, fine, it’s not amazing, but it’s really not the worst bit of town. Anyway, it’s all I can afford right now until I find a new job.” That seemed to shut him up on the subject, at least for now. He couldn't argue with your dwindling bank balance after all.

“When’s your first interview?” he asked, raising the whisky to his lips and sipping it with surprising elegance for someone with such big hands and such a powerful jaw.

Taking a deep breath, you forced the nerves down and muttered, “Monday. I’m not prepared, but at least it’s something.” You tried not to think about the inbox full of rejection letters which, in a mere two sentences and with surgical succinctness, told you that they were not hiring, nor looking to hire, nor to take on any new staff just at the moment. Thank you for your interest.

It wasn’t interest; it was sheer bloody desperation.

“You’re not going to be at all prepared if you get mugged to death on your way home tonight,” Francis grumbled.

“It’ll be fine.”

He looked at you again and took another final drink of his whisky, long tongue lapping out the remaining dregs before he set it down with a clonk on the circle-stained table. “Please text me when you get there?”

With a solemn promise to do just that, you stood and he followed you outside into the cool evening. A scuffle of dry leaves drew your attention to your right, and the fleeting shadow of a cat projected huge along a brick wall made the hairs on the back of your neck stand up. Francis’ concern had got you jumping at the smallest things, and as you separated from him with a warm hug and the reiterated promise that you’d be fine, you gritted your teeth and told yourself in no uncertain terms not to flinch at the slightest sound.

To be honest, the neighbourhood honestly wasn’t that bad. There had been a few break-ins, and the police had conducted a drug raid a few streets over last month, but other than that, it was mostly just… tired. Perhaps it would be the subject of the city council’s next ‘rejuvenation’ scheme, and some commerce and life could finally be injected back into this wallowing, languishing, crumbling part of town. Still, the mothman who had let you rent one of the apartments in his old, converted town house had been very pleasant when you’d met to discuss rent, and that had gone a long way towards heartening you. Without his offer, you might not have had anywhere at all.

You tried to keep that fact in mind as you passed by the closed grocery store, the lights inside low, the neon sign flickering and drawing moths to it like supplicants to a shrine. For a moment, you caught the rapid drumbeat of footsteps behind you and tensed. In under a minute, they disappeared down a side street, and you let out a shaky breath. “Get a grip,” you breathed, reaching into one pocket for your keys all the same.

After fifteen minutes of striding at a quicker pace than was cardiovascularly comfortable, the old, slightly shabby, turn-of-the-last-century building loomed out of the gathering night. At the pedestal-base of the antique, cast-iron street lamp, a narrow pool of golden light shimmered and flickered intermittently, illuminating cracks in the pavement that seemed larger and more treacherous than they had in full daylight. Your imagination conjured black, coiling shadows creeping up from those dark cracks in the earth like smoke on a stage set, and as you paused a moment beneath it to sort your keys out, a breath of wind stippled goosebumps across the nape of your neck.

Glancing once over your shoulder, half expecting to discover someone standing silently at your back, you found nothing at all out of place, swallowed, and scuttled up the uneven garden path to the main door of the converted apartments.

No sooner had you put the key in the lock than the door rattled and swung open from the other side. Reeling away in surprise, you stumbled half a pace backwards and gasped as your eyes registered nothing but blackness inside the hallway beyond. From within the swath of darkness, two points of crimson glowed, then tilted slightly to the side, and you would have shrieked, had the entity inside not murmured your name at that exact instant in his deep baritone.

“Reginald!” you practically whimpered in relief, body going slack as you encouraged your heart rate back to normal with steadying breaths, and then huffed an embarrassed laugh. “You scared me… sorry. I’m just super jumpy this evening.”

“No, no,” the mothman purred, stepping delicately out onto the path and holding the door open for you with his lower right arm. His black fur rippled and shimmered in the soft night breezes and he buzzed his wings once. The fur around his nose was beginning to turn silver, and on his hands and around his antennae too. “I apologise. I felt you coming and I should have announced myself. How are you settling in?”

“Fine,” you croaked, equilibrium mostly recovered. The cool night wafted across your clammy skin and calmed your racing heart while you stood there making polite conversation with him until you yawned conspicuously.  

“Thank you for indulging an old moth, but I shan’t keep you up any longer. You look as though you could use some sleep,” he said, inclining his head in an old-fashioned bow, antennae dipping too and making you think of a gentleman dipping his hat at you. As you headed inside, fumbling on the wall for the light switch, you heard the distant buzz of his wings, and closed the door with a soft click as Reginald took off into the night.

The decor of the main areas of the building left a bit to be desired, with the odd peeling corner and scuff on the antique dado rail, but it was clean, which had set it well apart in the list of other apartments you'd scouted in the last month or so, and as you traipsed up the stairs to your first floor flat, the boards creaked raucously beneath your feet. No one was sneaking in or out of here without making a huge racket, and that thought provided a little comfort.

The interview on Monday loomed in your mind, ticking your resting heart rate up higher than normal, but after you went through the motions before bed with a strange sense of detachment, you let the weariness building behind the anxiety creep over your limbs and draw your eyelids down. Reginald hadn’t been wrong when he’d remarked on your appearance; it had been a while since you’d slept really well. So, it was with a familiar sense of dread that you let your mind slide away into unconsciousness, praying that the nightmares that had plagued your sleeping mind would stay away that night.

With a jolt, your eyes flew open to find the room dark, the street lamp outside extinguished, and a familiar sense of crushing dread weighing on your chest. Lying there, motionless, you breathed slowly, trying to figure out what had woken you so suddenly. Nothing stirred, and as you strained your ears, you caught no whisper of autumn leaves in the reaching branches of the walnut tree outside.

No sooner had you closed your eyes again, hoping to slide back into dreamless sleep, something touched your hair with a spider-light touch and you tried to scream and flail. Finding yourself utterly unable to move, you could only lie there as adrenaline flooded your whole body, your throat went dry, your tongue stuck to the roof of your mouth, and the sensation returned, stronger now.

Pinprick sharp claws - like a cat’s but much, much larger - raked through your hair, softly stroking your scalp, and you felt a silent scream tear itself from your chest. Something was there in the dark with you and you couldn’t move a muscle.

A shadow in the blackness of the room, a darker blur than the rest of the inky room, shifted along your bed from behind you in a coiling tendril, unfurling across the sheets and over your body like the root of a plant or the limb of an octopus, and your blood began to hammer in your ears. All you could do was lie there and gasp for breath.

Claws, long and glistening and dripping with darkness, scraped almost gently down your temple and as the entity moved into your limited field of vision, you felt another soundless yell rip itself from you. An involuntary trembling began in your limbs as a dark, black, skull-like face loomed over you, a wide maw stretching open to reveal rows of needle-sharp teeth.

You were going to die. If this was a nightmare, you’d probably be found a few days later, dead of a heart attack, and if it were real… gods above - the thought of being mugged was abruptly shunted to the bottom of your list of things to fear in this neighbourhood. The last thing you’d said to Francis was ‘I’ll be fine.’

The creature opened its mouth wider and wider as if trying to draw out your soul from your body, teeth glistening, breath completely silent, leaning in close to your face. It looked veiled, somehow, as if a wet, gauzy material had been draped over a skeletal form, which then stuck to the emaciated body beneath. With a jolt, you realised it looked like a shrouded corpse, wrapped in black fabric. The ragged shreds of material that floated eerily, slowly, as if the creature were underwater and the wisps were nothing more than kelp, and the tips constantly dissolved into fine smoke that curled lazily around the figure.

Was this Death itself?

Please… you begged silently. Please… I don’t want to die.

To your surprise, the creature tilted its terrifying head to one side in a motion that reminded you of a cat; as though it was curious.

Oh please don’t be something that toys with your prey first…

Fractionally, the entity drew back a fraction, though its four-inch long, sickle-claws remained at the side of your face. As you stared at it, wide eyed and sweating with fear, you got the fleeting impression of an emaciated torso and two equally skeletal arms beneath the floating veil.

In a moment of oddly detached clarity, you wondered if it could understand you.

It nodded.

The fuck?

That grin stretched wider. It had teeth like an angler fish, and the moment you thought that, all you could imagine was it lunging for you out of the darkness like a sprung trap, teeth sinking in, blood pouring, ending in nothing but pain and fear…

The creature nudged its clawed hand against your lips, and for a horrible moment you thought it was going to slice open the skin of your mouth, but instead, like anaesthetic wearing off, your lips began to tingle. You could move them again. Swallowing, you rasped, “Can… you understand me?”

Again, the entity nodded and retreated a little further from the bed. Like an aura of shifting mist around it, the darkness of the room rippled and moved, and you realised it really was floating beside your bed, one hand tethered to the headboard, the other near your shoulder.

“Can you speak?”

The creature paused, going still, and the air in the room thrummed with a sudden tension. Your lungs squeezed and your ribs creaked under the pressure of it.

Eventually the strain on the atmosphere snapped, and a rasping, polyphonous voice from somewhere to your right hissed, “Yes.”

Stunned, you could only lie there as it remained beside you, suspended and shifting like waterweed in a lazy current.

“What do you want?” you managed to croak. You still couldn’t move anything else but your eyes and your mouth. “Are you going to hurt me?”

Again, the air seemed to vibrate, and a chill ran through you.

“Is that you?” you asked. “Are you doing that?”

This time it took longer for the creature to make a sound, but it nodded slowly first. Its claws returned to your body and you gasped as the muscles unlocked and you found you were able to move again. Scrabbling to sit up, you blinked, and the creature twitched, lurching backwards away from you like a skittish horse.

“You can’t be… You’re afraid of me?” you blurted, almost laughing. It didn’t seem like it wanted to hurt you or scare you any more, but the surreal vision beside your bed was enough to keep your heart pounding. “Are you Death?”

Its wide maw stretched open again, revealing its mouthful of deadly teeth, and you balked, fear leaping into your throat again as you clutched the sheets around you like a child. Those claws could slice a sheet - or a body - to ribbons, and yet you clung to them.

It reached out slowly for your ankle, latching its long fingers around the joint, and you choked out a whimpering yell. Knowing you were alone in the house, with Reginald out on his nightly business and the only other apartment in the building still unoccupied, your fear crescendoed to a peak and your words failed you.

With what appeared to be a gargantuan effort, the entity paused, then inhaled, and then chorused, “Not. Death. You… fear… me…”

No shit, you thought. “What do you want?”

“Fear… is… all I… know… Without it… I am… nothing.”

Was that sadness that tinged its many voices? Was there more than just one entity within those constantly-twisting shadows?

“Just… me,” the creature murmured, half-turning away and releasing its solid grip around your leg.

The emotion in those two words made something crack inside you. “You’re lonely…” you breathed, and the creature began to tremble, glitching like a badly aligned SCART connection.

In that instant, your fear drained out of you to be replaced by a wave of compassion, and the tension left your muscles. Whatever this was, it was alone as well.

The creature’s form continued to flicker, and as you blinked in confusion, the misty veil covering them seemed to boil off, leaving nothing but the emaciated, charred-looking skeletal figure beneath, strangely vulnerable for just a heartbeat before it seemed to evaporate away altogether.

The stillness in the room left your mind reeling as you sat there. Had you dreamed the whole thing?

Scrambling, your fingers found the light switch beside the bed, and you squinted and scowled as harsh, yellow light flooded the room at the click of a button. Nothing was out of place beyond, and no hint of creeping shadows drew your eye.

“Are you still there?” you whispered, but after waiting for what felt like hours, you got no answer.

If you returned to sleep at all that night, it would be a miracle, but still you tried. Lying in the dark a good while later, and curled on your side with your eyes screwed shut, you couldn’t help straining your hearing for the slightest hiss of claws on fabric, but nothing came, and eventually, you must have drifted off into an exhausted sleep. Remarkably, no nightmares plagued you that night, and when you woke the next morning, you felt oddly peaceful and well rested for a change.  

You stretched and yawned, and only remembered about the strange experience from the night before when the soft weave of the cotton sheet snagged across your ankle and a sharp prickle made you frown.

Upon investigation, you discovered a long, thin scratch in your skin, as if a cat had nicked you with its claws in passing.

You froze.

It had not been a dream after all.

For the next two nights, nothing unusual happened, unless you counted the fact that you actually slept well for the first time in weeks. You found it almost physically impossible to make it past midnight, whereas before you’d frequently seen midnight tick by and vanish into the past as you lay there with prickling eyes and an exhausted, restless body, anxiety tingling along your nerves, counting the minutes as time ticked closer to dawn.

Astonishingly, as you faced the interviewer on Monday morning, you felt alert and almost chipper.

The naga smiled and held out a hand to you as she wrapped the interview up. “Thank you so much for your time,” she said. “You’ll hear back from us tomorrow, most likely, but let me say now that I was extremely impressed.”

Your brows rose and she laughed kindly at your evident surprise. “Thank you,” you croaked, and left politely before you ruined anything.

That night, you lay back alone on your bed after celebrating with Francis again, spread-eagled and stared at the ceiling. The old-fashioned plaster moulding made it look like you were underwater, especially if the huge tree outside swayed in the wind and cast shifting, kaleidoscope patterns on it. A cold draft prickled over you and you shivered. “Is that you?” you asked almost hopefully, wondering if the nightmare creature was back.

Nothing.

With a huge sigh, you looked around without moving, nervous in case you spooked it. “Listen, if you’re the one that’s given me such amazing sleep lately, then… well… thank you. I think I might have got the job…”

A movement in the darkest corner of the room caught your attention, but when your gaze landed on it, all was as it should be.

“Seriously, if you’re there, please… let me know.”

Again, you experienced that strange pulling sensation, like some kind of energy was being drawn from the room, and as you sat up, your bedside lamp flickered. In front of the darker form of your dressing gown on the back of the door, something had begun manifesting into a tall, slender figure. Shrouded as before in shadow, the creature glided forwards, every bit like a nightmare, and your heart thudded.

“Afraid…” came a chanting, polyphonic voice, “And yet not…? How?”

“Have you seen yourself lately?” you hissed. “You’re kind of intimidating. What are you?”

“Nightmare…” it hissed.

You blinked. “You’re a literal nightmare?”

Its claws glinted in the half-light of your small bedside lamp as it just hung there, swaying softly like a corpse on a gallows. “Yes.”

“What are you doing here? Does Reginald know you live here?”

It turned away and you saw a ribcage jutting out like a mummy’s fragile body, though every inch of them was a soft, matte black, pock marked like volcanic stone.

It shook its head. “I found you…” it croaked in its struggling, faltering voice. “Your fear… drew me… to you.”

“You vanished when I stopped being afraid,” you said and again, the creature nodded.

“I was using your fear to… manifest. Without it… I could not stay.”

“But you’re not using my fear now, are you?” you were excited, your heart was pattering out a wild rhythm, but you weren’t afraid.

It shook its head.

“How?”

Turning towards you, it brought up one lethally clawed hand and let a tendril of wisping black smoke play through its dead-looking hand. The fingers were longer than a human’s, and tipped in those sickle claws. “You sleep… better now,” it said, as if that explained everything.

Sitting there on the bed, you frowned. “Yeah, the nightmares have gone and — wait, are you… are you feeding on other nightmares?”

Slowly, the creature nodded. “I fought one that night, for you…” it rumbled. “I won. Now… they fear me.”

“And me? Do I have to fear you?”

The nightmare shook its shrouded head, the fabric wafting slowly as it billowed around the skeletal body beneath.

“So why are you here? Why me?”

“May I… come closer?” it asked.

“So long as you’re not going to hurt me,” you said in a reedy, weak voice. “A bit closer is fine…”

Hovering, the nightmare seemed uncertain, but then made up its mind and loomed a fraction nearer. This close, the glow from your lamp gilded the empty sockets of its skull and showed the stretching maw, and while you might not have been terrified any longer, it certainly made you wary.

“Will not hurt you…” the creature snarled. “I swear it.”

“Ok, fine, but you can’t blame me for being a bit… you know… I’ve never met anything like you before, and you are technically in my apartment…”

“Should I leave?”

Probably, but you found you didn’t want that just yet. “No, not yet. Can you answer some more of my questions?”

It shrugged. “I will try. Remaining here is tiring though. I don’t have much time left.”

“Where do you go?”

“There are many realms beside yours… Nightmares exist… in the cracks between, belonging nowhere, lingering only a while…”

“Sounds lonely,” you muttered.

“It is. That is why I stayed. You… You spoke to me, even when you were afraid. I have never had that before.”

The mist moved like snakes between its fingers and you watched, half mesmerised. “Your claws… are they why I couldn’t move?”

It nodded. “Sleep paralysis causes… much fear. I’m sorry I had to… frighten you to show myself.”

You snorted and pulled your legs close to sit cross legged on the bed, staring at the hovering nightmare in your room. It was so surreal, you wondered if you’d hit your head on the way home. “You tried to reassure me at the same time as scaring me shitless didn’t you?”

It flashed its claws again and swung a close to you. “Soft,” it purred, now mere inches from your face.

This close up, you found yourself frightened again. The horror of its empty black eyes, its gaping maw full of black, pointed teeth, the coiling shadows around it, its skeletal hands with tipped with onyx scythes… and yet, they smelled like the very best of winter nights; slightly smoky with a coldness that, as you inhaled, stung the back of your throat.

“Afraid, and yet not,” it repeated.

“Can I touch you?”

The nightmare clearly had not been expecting that, but nodded. Trembling, you brought your fingertip to its cheek. The skin was cool and hard like leather, but a fine mist floated around them, and you realised that the shroud wasn’t cloth at all, but intangible and made simply of smoke and shadow. The creature shuddered and you pressed your whole palm to their face as they leaned into your touch.

A moment later, they began to flicker and let out a broken moan. “I cannot stay.”

“Come back?” you whispered.

The mouth that held the promise of death, with all those teeth, suddenly smiled and they nodded. After that, they vanished.

Another week went by, but as you faced the fears of starting a new job, and the nearer that your starting date drew, the better you slept.

“It’s you again, isn’t it?” you asked the empty, black room on the night before you started work. “Come on, come out. You’ve been trying to manifest all week. I can feel it.”

Rippling out of the darkness, the nightmare swayed towards your bed and hung in the space beside it, drifting.

“Thank you,” you smiled and stood up. The nightmare didn’t move as you walked towards it, and this time when you reached for it, the creature did anticipate it, wafting closer, apparently keen for the contact. “I actually missed you, you know?” you said as the creature’s whole body quivered.

It brought its hand up to your face in a mirror of your gesture and brushed the curved back of its claws against your cheek. It tingled but you were still able to talk.

“You can touch me,” you whispered, drawing it back towards your bed by taking its skeletal fingers in yours.

Having its permission, the nightmare raked those claws through your hair with a tenderness that left you breathless. “Let me take the fear from you…” it murmured.

Examining your feelings, you discovered a small knot of anxiety about tomorrow, and smiled. “Leave me a little bit, ok? Trust me, a bit of nerves helps.”

Nodding, it leaned close and inhaled.

Standing there beside the bed, your body ignited with what could only be described as a deep and yearning lust, and you gasped, knees going weak. The nightmare caught you as you swayed, head spinning, and laid you easily down on the bed, despite the fact that it hardly looked strong enough to withstand a slight draft.

“What…?” you gasped, core burning.

The creature looked at a loss as it hung in the space beside your bed.

“I’m assuming this has never happened to you before?” you snorted, feeling a little recovered. “How lonely do I have to be to get turned on by a literal nightmare?”

A chuffing laugh made you look back at them.

“You find that funny too?” you asked and they nodded. “Well, if I’m honest… now that I know you’re not going to hurt me, I think you’re kind of beautiful.”

A soft, broken, crooning sound escaped them and they floated nearer, hovering over your bed and extending a hand to stroke talon-tips down your cheek again. “You are beautiful,” it murmured in all its numerous, whispering voices.

“Touch me,” you breathed.

“It will paralyse you,” they snarled, leaning backwards. “I can only… control it for so long.”

“But you won’t hurt me, and it’ll wear off, right?”

They nodded.

“Then touch me… please… I… I want your touch,” and you did. In a way you’d never felt with anyone else, human or otherwise, you needed them.

Rearing closer to you, the creature hung in the air above you like a cloud. It raked its claws down your body, but instead of shearing your clothes open, they simply evaporated, reappearing on the floor nearby in a tangled, crumpled heap.

“Neat trick,” you muttered before gasping as their hands landed on your bare torso, spreading their fingers wide and inhaling again. “Magic?”

“In dreams, anything is possible. We are not bound by your laws.”

“Of course not, but you’re —” you cut off sharply as they opened their mouth and a long, black tongue slithered free and coiled around your hardening nipple. You lurched and your back arched before falling back onto the bed. A tingling spread rapidly all down your right side as their hands gripped you more strongly now.

Working steadily first down one side and then the other, the nightmare scraped its teeth over you in a hundred scratching lines that made you want to yelp and buck, but their paralysis had begun to sweep over you. Every almost-bite it chased with its soothing, teasing, paralysing tongue and fingertips until you could do nothing but tremble and twitch beneath its touch.

A voice hissed, “I will know if you want me to stop,” and you let the last of your fears slide away, giving into the intense pleasure that their mouth offered on your body.

Finally, breath heaving, you felt your release crashing towards you. Never before had you been utterly immobile like this. You wanted to thrash and buck, to squirm and writhe - the pleasure was so intense and visceral that you needed to scream, but the nightmare held you in its grasp and wrung your release from you with relentless focus. Before you could recover fully, it demanded a second orgasm hot on the heels of the first and you thought you might shear apart with the force of it.

Gasping for breath, you begged silently to be allowed to move again, and as it sat back, that long, clever tongue lapping up the last of your release, it touched you once again and your body went slack.

“Oh my god,” you panted. “I’ve never come like that…”

“Your… energy,” they whispered, touching their fingers and thumb together as if their skin was tingling too. Something cool and dark slid over your leg and you looked down to find black liquid dripping from their robes, all over your legs from where they were hovering above you.

You had to laugh. “Don’t tell me you’re switching careers to an incubus now?”

The nightmare looked at you. “It’s just you,” they said. “I want only you.”

“If you’re going to make me come like that, I think we could come to an arrangement…”

The creature grinned, showing all its deadly teeth, and you lay back and stared at the ceiling for a long time, drained and tired but deeply satisfied. You didn’t even notice yourself sliding into a blissful sleep.

When you woke with your alarm the next morning, there was no trace of the creature, but on the back of the door as you were preparing to leave, you found the words ‘good luck’ scraped into the surface of the wood.

“You’d better come back and fix that tonight,” you grumbled with a smile on your face as you spotted it. Even as you stared at it, the wood melted back into the shape it had always been before, and in its place, a simple, line-drawn heart appeared.

You snorted. “See you later,” you said as you grabbed your coat and headed out. “And… well… thank you.”

___

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[that-one-poison-trainer]

Alright

Reasons why you should celebrate Pokemoon night

1 it has humble origins: originating from an old practice in Johto, Pokemoon Night os one of many celebrations that has its roots in myths and legends. The story goes that before Johto and Kanto were separate regions, a creature named the Nightmare Bringer (which sounds fucking badass) would torment this village every full moon, being bad dreams and such. One night some girl discovered that Pokemon were immune to the Nightmare Bringer and told her village about it. They all decided to try and disguise themselves as pokemon, going as far as not talking, in order to trick The Nightmare Bringer. And of course it fucking worked! So every year on that day the village would dress up as pokemon and stay up all night , they even kept on doing this long after The Nightmare Briner stopped showing up. As time went on the tradition spread and now it's a global event

2. The Costumes: the objectively best part of Pokemoon night. You get to pretend to be a pokemon right down to going non-verbal (which is great for me because sometimes I don't wanna talk). Some people get REALLY creative with their costumes, a highlight of mine was when I dressed up as Sonic the Shaymin as a kid. And this year I will be dressing up as a Shiinotic and will be going FULL OUT with my costume. I'm talking Ball Gown, giant hat, and I'm practicing my creepy Shiinotic sounds.

3. Parties: Pokemoon night is known for its fantastic parties. I for one will be helping put at the Verbank Gym's little party, we're setting up this haunted house and it's gonna be amazing. A lot of different cultures have their own ways of celebrating, I heard Kanto has these huge block parties, and Kalosian parties look super ascetically pleasing. A main staple of these parties are the games, you can basically play whatever at these parties. One time I went to this one party where they were playing Mario Party and it was the best game of Mario Party I've ever played. 4. The food: OH MY GOOD THE FOOD IS INCREDIBLE! candies and sweats and cookies and cakes and GOD DAM CANDY CORN OH MY GOD

... I think I'm getting carried away

please consider taking part in the festivities because it would be cool of you did and it would be cool if I got an IOU from Spooks

hey @i-am-1ngo and @i-am-3mm3t

Spooks said that if I convince you two to celebrate pokemoon night I can get an IOU from them

[gaijinhunter]

Monster Hunter Rise: 2nd Trailer and news blowout

Hey guys this is Gaijinhunter. I am uploading this as a text post since I caught a cold and have been unable to edit a video.

There was a huge second wave of news for Monster Hunter Rise with the reveal of the 2nd trailer the other day during the Game Awards 2020 show. Keep in mind the actual full length trailer is much longer and better than the shorter edit they showed during the show so makes sure you watch it. It showcased a second map, 2 new monsters, several returning monsters, and more. They also updated their official website with a ton of information so instead of doing a trailer reaction or breakdown, I am going to give you all the info they shared but split up by category, trying to focus only on the new stuff.

New Map

Director Ichinose hinted in an interview that one of the new maps would be nostalgic and boy he wasn't kidding. The Flooded Forest from Third Generation has been massively remade and is back in MH rise. Of course given this game’s focus is verticality, there is no underwater combat sections but they really nailed it from what I can see. One of the most iconic parts of the forest was the ruins in the backgrounds, and now you can scale up it using the wirebug. How cool is that. 

With the new map we also got the reveal of 2 new monsters.

First up is the mermaid wyvern, the Somnacanth. This marks the much hyped return of the leviathan class of monsters which were missing in world and iceborne. This Monster looks so wild. It has a special breath that will put you to sleep, is super aggressive, and has this crazy taiko drum like chest in which it will grab oysters and other things and bust them against it to break them open and buff itself. The Japanese name is quite a mouthful and is called Isonemikuni. This is the monster that Ichinose teased with his cute drawing on twitter.

Next up is the tengu beast, Bishaten. This monster is really unique, it looks like a mix of a monkey, bat, and bird. It has a huge and powerful tail it uses for massive mobility and it will chuck various fruits at you as well. One of the most iconic fruits it throws are persimmons, which are very Japanese and if you haven’t had them before, they are kind of an acquired taste. It’s Japanese name is Bishutendo. 

For returning monsters we have a few. First is our favorite sponge, the Royal Ludroth. This is a fan favorite and a great early to mid game monster. It has one of the best move sets in my opinion, very telegraphed but it can still catch you off guard even if you are super used to it. Strategically figuring gout where to stand in order to cut off its tail or break the sponge has always been really fun and intersting so I’m delighted to see this monster return, also look at that texture of the sponge!

Then we got the return of the Great Wroggi, the anti-poison skill tutorial monster. This thing really messed me up back in MH3G until I spent the time to get the materials to craft anti-posion decorations and even then, like the Great Izuchi, it fights really well with its sidekick small wroggis and I cant wait to see the improved cooperative AI that they are making for the Great Izuchi applied to this monster as well. It’s armor also spots a really cool Crocodile Dundee hat and look in the trailer and you can see the palico armor as well. So cool.

Finally, we got a small scene that appears to show a snow map and a group of baggi getting hit by a Khezu lightening shot. Does this mean the Great Baggi will return? Not sure. But that scream 100% is a Khezu, and I cannot wait to see how it looks with higher resolution texturing, I bet it will be creepy as heck. So while not technically confirmed, I’d say it’s safe to say Khezu is returning in some form. The balance of all these monsters is so great, I love the selection so far.

As far as other returning monsters that might return, I think we all expect nargacuga and zinogre. These are flagship monsters from games directed by Ichinose and he even tweeted his palamute and palico both named after these two monsters. Especially given the Japanese aesthetic, I think it’s pretty much guaranteed they are returning. Then I think mizutsune is also highly likely given its Japanese design, the fox theme, the kimono armor. Plus the model for it doesn't look that far off from the new Somnacanth. Anyway I have super hyped.

Interaction with animals and endemic life

One of the huge features of Monster Hunter Rise is the focus on wild life and animals to buff your hunter or be used as tools during a hunt.

There are 4 major types of Endemic Life: Temp Buffer, Permabuffer, Hunting Helper, and environmental.

For Permabuffer, we got a new render of the Spiribirds, which will buff your hunter if you move near one, and the effects depend on the color of the pollen it is carrying. Green increases your max Health, Orange increases your defense, red increases your attack power, and yellow increases your max stamina. There is even a special rainbow colored one, which I assume will buff all 4.

Via their website, Capcom announced a new item called the Petalace, a bracelet made of a plant called a Sending Sprig that each hunter has equipped. This is what collects the pollen from the birds and buffs your hunter. There is a variety of Petalaces in the game and some may increase the amount in which an attack boost is applied from a single Spiribird, raise the max value that health can be boosted, and more. Here in the screen shot we can see the caps for each and the amount gained for each buff. Just a quick note but this is not going to be replacing charms as we know that they are giving away a talisman for pre-order.

For Temp Buffer creatures, they revealed the name of the Clothfly, a butterfly that will temporarily increase your defense once you interact with it and cause it to generate a cloud of dust. In previous videos we have seen Peepers that reduce stamina usage, birds that raise your base stats, and a dragonfly that boosts your affinity and I had calculated it out to being applied for 90 seconds but we’ll have to wait for hte final game to see if that depends on the effect or if they change it, but it sounds about right.

For Hunting Helper creatures, we got an adorable new render of the Stinkmink. You can carry up to 5 Hunting Helpers and use them like items. The Stinkmink can be used to cover yourself in a special pheromone that will attract large monsters to you, even allowing you to lure one monster toward another to cause a turf war. I personally can think of other applications like luring a monster toward a trap and stuff like that.

And for environmental endemic life, they didn't show it in the trailer but there are also wildlife that can be used like environmental traps. For example, use raw meat and the giganha fish will go crazy, damaging anything nearby be it a hunter or monster. I can’t wait to see someone hunt a Great Wroggi using only raw meat. I love that we finally will have more use for this item.

NPCs

In the new trailer we got to hear several of the NPC villagers talking and on the website they go into a lot more details. They have quite the star-studded cast in Japanese and the English voice actors are also very interesting picks. This really marks the first time in Monster Hunter that the main cast of villagers will all be called by name and speak, which I think adds a lot of personality to the game.

First we have Fugen the village elder of Kamura and skilled long sword user. 

Then we have Hinoa the Quest Maiden, a cheerful and optimistic girl who serves as the quest giver in the village while her twin sister runs the gathering hub. While not announced in any other language, the French and Italian language sites for the game list her sister’s name as Minoto. Hinoa’s name is Hinoe in Japnaese and for the rest of the cast their names are identical between the two languages.

One thing I am excited for is that they said that one of the ways they will help communicate the uniqueness of Kamura is through songs and they shared a sample of one of them in the full trailer. This one is sung by Izumi Kato. If you remember back in Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate they featured songs by the wyverian Diva, and I am so happy they decided to do songs again, they add so much richness to the world and are just lovely to listen to.

Next up is Yomogi, our village chef. In this game you will eat meals at her Tea Shop, where her speciality is the Bunny Dango she makes along with the help of some palicoes. I love that we’ve seen her in past videos with a heavy bowgun, so the idea that all the villagers are active participants in the story is great. 

Then we have Hamon the blacksmith. He used to hunt alongside Fugen back in the day but now creates weapons for the hunters of the village. His grandson also appears in the game and is a kind-hearted youth that loves your hunting companions.

Next is Kagero the merchant. Despite his mysterious appearance he is actually very warm and kind. If there is a sale going on, not only can you buy most items for half off, but you can also participate in a lottery where you spin a wheel and it dispenses a colored ball. Get a rare color ball to win a rare prize. You can do it once per sale, but you can also scan an amiibo to spin two more times, but only once per day per amiibo you own.

Finally we have Komitsu the sweet-tooth, she sells candy apples in town. What these do is still not yet revealed.

Companions

We got an adorable render for the Cohoot, the pet owl that shows the positions of monsters on your map. You can interact with it in the town and even dress them up in fancy outfits.

Kamura Village

We got gameplay showing that the entire village is open to the 4 person multiplayer session and you can even ride around on your palamute and use your wirebug while in the village to zip around and have fun. There is still a gathering hall but the ability to see each other in the village as well as jump around and really explore it is a lovely change they are making.

Story wise we got more info about the Rampage, both a story mechanic and new quest type. For some reason the monsters will sometimes gang up and attack the village all at once and no one knows why. They call this a Rampage. There was a really bad rampage 50 years ago that nearly destroyed the village and in response the town has created a Stronghold to stop further invasions. This looks like a new quest type with multiple monsters all at once, and a slew of different artillery options at your disposal. I could see this as being a really fun type of quest to do online with other players. 

And of course the most exciting news was that there will be a demo in January with more details to come later. That is far earlier than I expected and I now have to finish up my back catalogue of games in like the next month.

And that about wraps it up. Cpacom said that they will be sharing weapon preview videos for all 14 types very soon and if they do the way they used to do it, we’ll get one new video a day for 2 weeks. I hope you enjoyed this recap of the news and please let me know down in comments what you thought about the second trailer. And until next time, happy hunting.