#cw child death mention

[thegoatsongs]

Now some Vampire Lore, which explains why Lucy mainly attacks children and is Voluptuous. Other than children being a much easier, vulnerable target for a new vampire, especially at night, and vampires being attractive to lure people to them:

One of Stoker's primary sources was Ármin Vámbéry, a Hungarian-Jewish traveler and orientalist. Van Helsing even gives him a shout-out in the book later. Stoker consulted him a lot about the legends in the Balkans and Austria-Hungary (which Transylvania was part of at the time).

Dracula is heavily based on the area's Strigoi. And partly on the Estries (who are associated with the Succubi: Beautiful, blood-thirsty female demons, with succubi thought to favor babies and young children as prey.) The Strigoi are closer to what we know as vampires due to them rising from the grave, or being created by something unholy. So Lucy turned into a child-drinking succubus.

The Strigoi and Estries both:

Gain vitality by drinking human blood

Can shapeshift

Influence people's minds

Mainly feed on infants and children

the Strigoi also target young girls, the Estries target all genders but mostly men

On the child feeding, Wilhelm Schmidt reports in 1865 the tradition "upon the birth of a child, when one tosses a stone behind oneself and exclaims "This into the mouth of the strigoi!" Note the stones found in the skulls of people suspected to have been vampires.

There are striking similarities between them and the Estries. Note the common "strix" root. Screaming is also a feature that they have, which is similar to the banshee.

More about the Count and less about Lucy: The Strigoi are associated with sorcery, which is very relevant in Dracula, as he used to be a sorcerer of Scholomance. The Strigoi influence people's minds, especially those who are ill, have sleeping issues, suffer from alcoholism, and more. This is shown by Dracula's influence on the sleepwalking Lucy and on Renfield.

[mrkida-art]

Been showing some of this on discord today, some of you may be interested so here's some of my own tolkien dwarf world building/hc notes (there is a lot so these are snippets). Beware, it's personal notes of mine so there may be grammatical errors as well as typos haha.

cw for pregnancy, and death (and child death) mentions, as well as other darker themes such as child soldiers

[antimony-medusa]

As we all engage with the Egg arc on QSMP, I know we're all having a fun time talking about how emotionally devastating it all is, but I have seen some concerning takes about this, so I want to also reiterate that it is fiction. It's not real.

You can have real emotions about fiction (talk to any D&D player whos run a long campaign about this), but it is essentially fake, it is something you can box up and put away. And if you think you can't tell the difference between a fictional roleplay and real life child death, you need to step away.

Cause like, I have been seeing people comparing egg deaths to real life tragedies, and like. Guys. That's just offensively disrespectful. I do not want Chayanne to die. I'm team "storm heaven and get all the eggs back". I want the happy dragon ending. I have also had real life children die in my life and equating a pixel egg despawning to that makes me actually mad. We can have fun with it but this is fiction and you need to be clear to yourself that it is fiction. The QSMP admins are not "responsible to give you a happy ending" because it is essentially not real, they are ethically responsible for how they treat people in the real world (the players and the admins) not for what happens in the story they are telling.

There are two aspects of this that are important. The first is the most basic. Fiction is not real. It's lies we tell ourselves recreationally. No real people were harmed. No one actually died. The egg's admins are fine and now playing league of legends on stream. You can have real emotions about fiction, but you can also take comfort in the fact that the bad thing didn't actually happen. This allows you to engage with topics that you would never want to happen in real life (horror media, for example), in an entertaining way. Fiction is a safe spot to explore really concerning topics, whether that's something you're afraid of, something that has happened to you, or something that you'd never want to see happen in real life but it scratches that brain itch. And that isn't intended to say that you have to be comfortable with every topic in fiction. Suicide themes even in fiction are too close to real life for me, so I stay away from them. You get to set your own comfort levels with what fiction you're comfortable with. And that leads into my second point. The essense of fiction is that you are opting into it. Except in vanishingly rare cases, if you are engaging with something fictional, you are giving ongoing consent to engaging with the story by continuing to watch/read/listen to it. At any point you can tap out and step away, back into real life. You have the power to control your experience and say "yes I am watching this" or "no I do not want to engage with this actually". You can take the headphones off. You are an active player in how you deal with the fictional story, and if it gets too much for you, you get to step away. You get to write fanfiction and it is just as real as the original. If someone is dying in real life, no amount of blocked terms and telling your friends not to discuss it is going to keep it from happening. It is inescapable. It happens to you, it is enacted on you, you are a passive figure and you have no control. The only thing you have a control over is how you react to it, and this is why a huge element of grief is the powerlessness.

You have power over fiction. You can opt out of it. And if you can't tell the difference between a fake story and real events, a) you need to do work on that, because there is a lot of really upsetting content in fiction that is going to fuck you up, b) you need to step away from the fake story that is doing harm to you, and use that power that fiction gives you to opt out of it. Block terms. Unfollow people. Go do something in real life. Fiction is not real.

[princesslizzyfnafton]

Lizzie....

I'm sorry.

I'm sorry I hurt C.C.

I'm sorry I couldn't save you from Circus Baby.

All of this will haunt me for years to come and I hope that one day... Maybe you can forgive me for what a terrible person I was. And maybe still am....?

And maybe you could talk to C.C. for me....? Tell him that I'm sorry and that I never meant to hurt him... And that I really, truly, regret what I did that day. And everything I've done to him over the years.

If you see Mom.... If she's with you.... Wherever you are.... Tell her that I'm sorry too. I know she raised me to be better than what I am.

I'm sorry.

Love ya, Sis.

Mikey ❤

Michael, don't be daft! You couldn't save me from Baby because it was completely my fault. I've been attempting to get Cc to forgive you ever since we were reunited. Mother truly didn't do much to raise us in the first place.

I'm the one who should be sorry... I'm the reason you are a walking corpse. I will forever regret that day in the scooping room...

[fear-aesthetic-tourney]

3B

Desolation synopsis

How pain is described as searing, how scratching a scab sets your skin ablaze, rub your nerves the wrong way and it feels like fire. The blood that once warmed your face now spills out between your fingertips like boiling oil, burning like pain.

No propaganda submitted

End synopsis

The seasons change, the child grows older, trees grow new rings. Change is scary, and unpredictable, but scarier still is never changing. The seasons being a constant flow, unending summer. The child dying before it can age. The tree, cut down before it gets all its rings. Ending before it was meant to.

No propaganda submitted

[oboetemasuka]

Post that will sound so bad out of context

(spoilers for Your Turn To Die)

I confess that in 2019, I sentenced a green-haired girl to death to save a grown man who had useful skills.

That was objectively the wrong decision. I will never again let that happen to any green-haired girl.

[lanaevyssmoved]

gifing bg3 child death...................ok

[langernameohnebedeutung]

S01E08: Dead Air / S05E08: Death of a Car Salesman

[mitz-prompts]

prompt: can we make abigail trans?

can we make abigail trans?

like ftm trans or nonbinary i mean... felt like they couldn't come out or live authentically because their father needed them to be his 'little girl' and it was a matter of survival

(although... i wonder if Will would find ftm abigail less terrifying than cis girl abigail. because... the otherness of womanhood???? or something??? it's hard to get a hold on. i know that abigail's power in the show had a lot to do with being Girl. so I wonder if making abigail trans makes them less powerful in some way in the narrative. like a cub following in will and hannibal's footsteps instead of canon abigail carving her own path)

ALTERNATIVELY.... mtf abigail, because the hobbs family lost a girl baby and GJH tried to replace the girl baby with amab abigail?

though that would make things difficult to reckon with as a writer, because where does GJH's influence end and abigail's own identity begin?

i guess that works with her whole canon plotline, though. it harmonizes.

maybe we don't even need to make abigail explicitly trans---i just want abigail as a vehicle for gender non-conformity, now that she's no longer playing the role of a golden ticket because if she does, hannibal will kill her. probably.

like she has to get along and play the role that she was dealt. she has to play the role of will's and hannibal's child, because that's what hannibal wants from her. so she's still just.... under the constraining influence of another serial killer.

it'd be neat to get her out of that and help her form her own identity via the rejection of gender conformity.

[scumbag-the-hedgehog]

@secr3trings asked: The least Shard could do is try to give them something after .. all of this. The bot hands Scourge one of the flowers he picked. “ Okay , listen. I don’t exactly know if you’re a flower type of person. But I have WAY too many flowers on me. ” I wonder why. “ I just seriously have to give ‘em away. You can do whatever you want with it , I won’t judge or anythin’. It’s your choice. I just felt like people needed a positive reminder , I guess you could call it , after all this drama and killin’. ”

Every other time he could enjoy the games without consequences following him out. He was even trying to do his best to help, the kid was crying herself to sleep being in the game, it was all he could... whatever. He's not bringing it up. He's not exactly in the mood for this...

...but he's not really in the mood to fight either. Whatever insults or provocations he might have for the machine, he keeps to himself. Instead the usurper wordlessly accepts the flower from the badnik. Scourge just looks over the Metal Sonic with a sour expression. As displeased as he appears, he's holding the gifted flower with the utmost delicacy.

[children-of-subcon]

absbwaususuchhjhhhhhh if there is sowmthing about usau you really want to and can share this is your ask telling you to talk about it. go be free running.among the grass etc etc

SKHDJDNDMDHF hmmm well…. How about we talk about Timmy, just for you :)

I believe I mentioned before that he was the last person to ever be executed, but not why? Well, he was actually in prison for a long time, even before Mel. Slowly, the cries and yells of the other prisoners faded away…but he was still there. There weren’t even guards keeping watch anymore. It was just him and empty, endless stone walls.

At some point, a fully corrupted Mu happened to wander back through the prison, always searching for those bad guys who escaped her grasp. She found Timmy, who was both relieved and horrified to see her. Naturally, she took him to be executed like the rest, but with her now knife-like hands it was a little…difficult. She maaay have ended up making a little hole in his head, whoops!

But anyways, this is why TM’s so terrified of being forgotten…again. And also why he’s the only one willing to forgive Mu right now, even despite everything she’s done. Whatever it takes for her not to forget him.

It’s why he became a travelling merchant in the first place! Make an impression on as many people as possible, no matter how brief, and you won’t be forgotten, right? But maybe, just maybe…he’ll find just a few people to make a lot of really good, permanent memories with :)

[mywingsareonwheels]

Excellent thing: gaining access to the Audible audio adaptation of A Christmas Carol because they’ve given me yet another free trial and that’s included with membership.

Even better thing: THAT CAST. I mean. Derek Jacobi as Dickens, Kenneth Cranham as Scrooge, my beloved Roger Allam as Jacob Marley, MIRIAM FRICKING MARGOLYES as the Ghost of Christmas Present, and Brendan Coyle and Tim McInnerny and Jamie Glover and Jenna Coleman and Joshua James and Emily Bruni and and and and.

Entirely predictable thing that is making me facepalm at myself: look. In my defense, I listened to it using my headphones. And then Roger as Jacob had these... angry/frustrated/caring/distressed growls. So really it isn’t my fault IN THE LEAST that I found that inappropriately sexy and now have even more Jacob Marley feelings than usual. ;-)

(Which really was already a lot. Jacob’s past hoping for himself and he gets that second chance for Scrooge (and we never know what he had to do to get it but it can’t have been easy) and it’s so incredibly selfless especially coming from someone who was not selfless at all in life and I just have to hope that knowing that he’s succeeded in making something better despite everything gives him comfort and aaaaaah.)

Also entirely predictable: Jamie Glover is one of the best voice actors I know of anyway (not nearly enough people know his work) and then he’s Bob Cratchit and you get to That Bit and I may just have sobbed through the whole thing. I always cry at that bit, to be fair, but not like that. Aaaaah.

Assuming I still have access to the thing after I cancel my membership (because I do prefer not to give Amazon money when I can help it), I’ll listen to it again at Christmas. <3 Extremely well-done, very good adaptation all round. The script is very good and is very interesting in its choice of which bits to adapt (always fascinating what people go for); the acting is absolutely the best I’ve seen or heard in any adaptation of the story. In particular I think Kenneth Cranham is even better than either Patrick Stewart or Michael Caine as Scrooge and I do not say that lightly as they were both amazing.

[princesslizzyfnafton]

I don’t know what to do, where to go. Everyone has changed for the better and no one sees it except me! I usually run and hide somewhere whenever I feel as though everyone is upset, but I don’t know where I would even run to! Survival instincts, I suppose. 

CC is so terrified of Mike and I understand why, but I just WISH he’d give him another chance. After all, it was an accident. MIke was just as upset as I was, if not more. I remember he came down into the bunker on the anniversary. He was sobbing. I had never seen him that upset. He didn’t even let me see him like that after the accident. I suppose he didn’t realize that I was down there and could see him through the glass, but I could. 

Both my brothers hate my father. I don’t understand why. It could be because he did horrid things, but he did that for us, didn’t he? I believe him. But then again, I do remember the nights I fell asleep, tears on my cheeks on the floor outside of his office. He said it was work calls and that’s why I couldn’t be there, but maybe he did laugh a bit too much for a work call. But when I got lost, he risked getting arrested to make sure I got home safe. He can’t be evil through and through. I have to believe that some part of him is proud of me. It may be deep inside him, but he still loves me, right? I have all these doubts about who to trust and for once, maybe I’m a bit glad I never got to grow up. After all, emotions are tiring. 

I still love each and every member of my family, but I feel a constant dread and confusion since we’ve reunited. I can’t help but wonder if it was a good thing. All it has seemed to spawn is more fighting. I thought we could be happy, now that we were reunited. I thought I wouldn’t hate my birthday as much this year. I thought that I could share it with my Father and BOTH of my brothers. I suppose maybe that was too much to ask. I suppose I hoped for too much. Something bad always happens around me. I didn’t want it to happen again. I thought I could fix it this time, but instead I seem to have made it worse. It’s like there’s a curse, something horribly bad, inside me. I was right the first time. I AM broken. I CAN’T be fixed. I should have just stayed in the basement, in the scooping room like a good little girl. I thought I was retaining what was good, but maybe it was left behind that fateful night. And now- now it is destroyed and can never be recovered. Maybe the family was better fragmented. Maybe I should leave before I muck things up more.

[some-teeth-in-a-trench-coat]

You know what makes a good family car? Safety features. So you don't kill your family.

[kitabasis]

OC-Tober

Day 2: New OC

Kjell (his full name is Ketill, but he rarely goes by that)

I don’t really have time to explain everything about this setting’s lore, but basically he was a homeless kid in an Amsterdam-ish Copenhagen-ish city who got taken in by a criminal organization, along with a bunch of other kids. The kids that showed the most promise got experimented on to try to make artificial mages. The kids who survived (and didn’t turn into monsters—that’s a thing that can happen I’m just not elaborating on everything because my god I have a lot of lore) and became artificial mages (of which only four did) got a bunch of physical and mental symptoms from that.

Also they got used as living weapons so they got even more issues from that.

Kjell is incredibly loyal to the organization because they saved him when he was at his weakest, so in turn he feels like he owes them everything, and also doesn’t want to ever be weak again.

The main parts of his experimentation side effects, compounded by his methods of coping with trauma, are: being changeable (especially to mimic others); passive; and having his ability to feel emotions and even physical sensations, as well as his sense of self, eroded over time. It also reduces his body temperature, which means he always has to wear layers, because even though he won’t feel the pain much, he can still get frostbite.

Oh, also his hair looks perpetually wet-type-limp and shimmers like oil slick.

Despite having little sense of self and frankly not considering himself human in anything other than most of his body, he does want to still feel things and not completely lose himself. As a result—and again, as a coping mechanism for his fucking terrible childhood—he is incredibly obsessed with adrenaline rushes, and thus is incredibly bloodthirsty and battle-horny in an attempt to feel alive.

One of the few, solid sense of self things he’s really held onto is that he’s an incredibly loyal person. Combined with the fact that he can barely perceive his own conscience at this point, he tends to delegate all his decisions to superiors and those he trusts, because, again, he can barely feel anything. 

He’s also just extremely affable and friendly and chill, even to people he’s been assigned to kill. Some of it is—say it with me—a coping mechanism for trauma, but also he’s just like, a really friendly dude, and he doesn’t have anything against most of the people he kills, and he’s having a fun time fighting, so why would he be rude?

He’s one of those super traumatized, super mentally ill people who’s incredibly open about all their issues and really nonplussed about describing horrible things that happened to them.

He tends to act flirtatious and horny as a bit but in actually he has basically no sex drive or libido because he can BARELY FEEL STAB WOUNDS LET ALONE HORNY