#dIffeRenT from other people. demonic possesion aside'

[juniperhillpatient]

Most cherished material possesion maybe baby?

Oh gosh I have a handful 🥺

Hm… I really love the deer skull (it was part of a full skeleton, I once had most of the bones & they hung from my bedroom ceiling by fishing wire however I’ve moved since then) that I found with my Grammy back when she & I explored haunted spots together. We went to this spot in the woods in search of spiritual activity, supposedly used by cultists & demon worshippers & happened upon this perfect deer skeleton. It’s a beloved memory. (My Grammy & I are still close she’s just a bit too old to do much haunted exploration these days).

I have a handful of other interesting trinkets with fun stories behind them.

But my MOST prized I would have to say is the plastic toy spider I found while Geocaching in the famous tunnels under Bobby Mackey’s with some of my favorite people in the world. It’s bittersweet because I don’t talk to everyone in this memory these days but it’s such a remnant of a period in my life of adventuring with a beloved group of friends. He lives on a stone flame statue that was once part of a gravestone (different story) on my nightstand & aside from his fun haunted potential he just… reminds me of a time in my life that I’m very nostalgic about 🖤

Yeah. The deer skull is a close second & I have a handful of other really neat trinkets I’m fond of but I DO love the spider & that reminder of such a fun & adventurous time in my life & people I care about deeply & think of often even if life has gotten so much more complicated since that simple time.

[maratus-araneae]

🚩👯 for Al, 💭🎧 for Hannibal and Will?

Aaaa, thank you so much!!

🚩: I suppose the ship itself isn't allllll that dark, just that we're both bad guys and bad to others. Though we're also both very possesive of each other, and one would probably try to kill the other if they tried to leave. And Albert has a tendency to choke people when he gets mad, me included. Aside from that, it's actually generally sickeningly sweet for the characters involved.

👯‍♂️: As far as similarities go, we are both weapons, in a sense (hence the ship name). And again, very possesive. We're both especially smart and have a passion for science and learning, as well as having exceptional physical abilities. I think it suits us well to be so similar. We probably wouldn't like each other if we weren't. I'm a little sillier and shyer, but overall there aren't many differences.

-----

💭: Ahh, when I think about these two, it's generally a kidnapping scenario that comes to mind. I'm also especially fond of soulmate aus in this ship. Also also, I have an au where Will is a teacher at a magic school, Hannibal is his demon boyfriend, and I'm just the poor student who they think is cute (but I think they're cute too).

🎧: I'm a sucker for Take Me to Church with them lmao. I literally cannot hear the song without thinking of them. Bonus songs include No Children and Dark in Here by the Mountain Goats, but those are more for just the two of them.

Thanks again!!!

[worlds-best-sippycup]

Sometimes I think about my OCs like you should kissing 😠 why aren't you kissing 😠 and like it's because I didn't write them to kiss, I wrote them to be best friends! And it would mess up the whole story! But ughhh I want them to kissss...

[universejunction]

Midwayers, and problems of intended belief

A discord conversation (at first about fae and spirits)

Me:

I feel so far behind on learning about fae and spirits and such. When I thought The Urantia Book was more than a well-intentioned hoax it was easy to think fae and such are all just what it calls "midwayers". Now I'm... wide open to new interpretations. I know I'm not behind, I'm just where I am, but still...

A:

I would love to give you more of an idea, but I don't know a ton about the Urantia book or what you mean by midwayers.

Me:

Oof, okay. I don't expect much in the way of answers, I know I'll get what I get in time. But I will take this opportunity to share.

In the Urantia Book, it make a lot of distinction between spirit and matter, as you might expect. Mind is the means by which Spirit rules over matter, yada yada. It also has a ton of details on angels.

There's a ton of history in there too, which I'm now interpreting as metaphor at best, because it's sure as shit not factual with its racial skeletal types and what not.

Anyway... Y'know, I'm gonna give the summary and then see if I have the energy for the story, because I'm worn out.

Basically, midwayers are midway between material and spiritual (but they're not, like, pure mind), covering the gap between angels and humans. They're native to the world, but descended from super-humans. They're immortal and stick around until the "age of light and life". And there's 1111 of either all of them or that might just be the first group of them.

Midwayers also get attributed cases of demonic possession (but so does mental illness), though they're not supposed to be able to do that anymore since Jesus completed his experience of life and earned his sovereignty (which was... before his public work) as basically god of local creation.

There's so much in this book and I carved it into my brain and now I don't trust it but it's still so quick to mind 😩

Innkeeper:

Woof okay I just read this

This is....so much not correct at all but also weirdly accurate

Which makes sense considering my personal theories on bleedthrough but thats another topic for another time

Me:

"Bleedthrough" sounds so very likely correct even without knowing what you mean exactly. That's pretty much my theory on how the Absolutes stuff seems so probably accurate despite everything else

A:

I'm just going to offer that whenever you hear "superhuman," in a spiritual tome, your hackles should probably raise.

Like, it sounds like this is coming from the same branch of angelic and Christian occultism that recognize the Nephilim, but uh, just be mindful that rhetoric about "ancient superhumans" is almost ALWAYS used to sell bullshit about magic indigenous people

It sounds like you're mindful of that, but, heads up

V:

The midwayer concept is ringing alarm bells between "Magic White People From Outer Space" to "Eugenics"

Innkeeper:

^

The idea of a liminal concept, something that exists in between those two states, I feel that holds water

The idea of literally everything else is uh

Worrisome at best

Me:

I'll add more in a sec but y'all right

Me (later):

To be clear, I was raised on the Urantia Book and am now moving away from it. For reasons mentioned above, among others.

It does come very close to "magic white people from outer space" and definitely is like "eugenics is a good idea but no one is qualified to direct it".

Me (replying to A):

Adding on, yes, but it's like... Fix-it fic. There's this spirit prince for the world who rebelled with Lucifer (who was like... a local administrator, not a god or angel), but when he arrived they like... called 100 natives [of Earth], cloned them with power-ups, and put people from other worlds like ours into the bodies who served as the prince's staff in the task of cultivating culture. Those staff, through essentially spiritual sex, created the first midwayers. After rebellion, the staff split and the ones who stay loyal to the prince are called nephilim and start a line of (acknowledged in the text) big ol' nasty racial supremacists. They're also called Nodites (c.f. "Land of Nod")

Later, Adam and Eve show up to "upstep" human evolution (disease resistance, humor, art... yeah, magic white people) but because the prince rebelled and shit's fucked, they're having a hard time. Eve bangs a local tribe leader to get an alliance and fucks everything up (that results in Cain. Able is Adam and Eve's next kid). So now should-be-immortal Adam and Eve only have a few hundred years to live and their (already many) kids get the choice to leave and most of them do.

A while later, their first son, Adamson, goes off to start a new cultural center, meets a woman named Rata who "claims" to be the last pure-line Nodite. [They] have a bunch of kids, every 4th of which is invisible(???), and they make those kids get together (yikes!) and that's where the secondary midwayers come from.

And it lampshades all this like "many things in the spiritual development of a world are hard to understand." Uh, yeah! History is weird, sure, but as it's fan fic, it's creepy.

A:

So, I'm saying this with all the love in my heart, but you can only portray things as fiction which are not intended to be believed.

That's not a fanfiction, that's a religious text. That is a religious text with a fully realized theology and metaphysics, complete with creation story. I think it is harmful to approach it as anything else, or as a "generic" metaphysical practice. (Relatedly, there is no such thing as "generic witchcraft," which is a main point of this history of the occult book club).

Doing a little bit more research, it's a religious text associated loosely with the Urantia Foundation and written in 1955. I'm not seeing any indication at the moment that there's a formal power structure associated with the movement, which lessens the chance for cult behavior.

What I will suggest to you is that you need to approach this work like you would any other religious text. Set aside questions of whether the text is "accurate" or "true." If you are honestly interested in the metaphysical, you should be able to separate empirical reality and history for the metaphysical. If you can't do that, take five steps back in your practice and come back once you can.

So, setting aside questions of truth, does this cosmology reflect the things you believe about the world? Does it encourage a way of thinking about people that you think is good, virtuous, honorable, etc? Can this text be used to uphold values that you hold, or do the natural extensions of this text lead to certain conclusions? Are those conclusions harmful?

For instance, I believe that eugenics is totally and morally abhorrent, and that there is fundamentally "no such thing" as a person who could pull it off "correctly." There's no way to do eugenics "right," just like I believe there is no morally correct way to, I don't know, punch a baby.

As such, even your acknowledgment that the text accepts eugenics makes it worthy of rejection in my mind.

Maybe you are interested and capable of doing the apologetics to make this into a compassionate religious movement. I don't know. I am not interested in doing that. But I do not think you can "move away" from this text, in the same way that you cannot "move away" from the bible, only from interpretations of it.

At some point, you have to believe in a basic assumption. If there's something that "feels right," there's only so far you can push it without that basic assumption.

If you think there is a separation between mind, body, and Spirit, wonderful. I would recommend you find another text and another basic set of assumptions. For instance, one that doesn't involve angels making angel-possesed magic native people for the point of preparing the world for the "good races."

Me:

Yes, you've got it right. Except that my interpretation has moved from "I think this book is what it claims" to "I think this was (probably well-intentioned, but still) a hoax perpetrated by ex-Seventh-Day Adventists". But for whatever good intentions may've been involved, the fact that it's intended to be believed makes it very harmful. I talked about it today as a way of saying "wow, look at this crazy shit" and talking through the changes involved in my different interpretation / loss of faith.

I don't believe in midwayers anymore and don't know what to believe, I'm trying to do the work, as you say, of finding what parts are good and what's harmful, comparing with empirical stuff, etc. But, however ready I may've been to walk away from the Urantia Book, it's still a process of recognizing what ideas I have based on it and examining them in turn to see what's salvageable.

Innkeeper:

I think that's an incredibly respectful way to go about it, Toph.

When something is that formative to you as a person, it's rarely as easy as learning it's harmful and then moving on, entirely separated from the source material. There's a long process of digging up every assumption you know you have--and many you don't know you have, or don't have at all--and needing to challenge them in a newer, healthier framework. One of the most potent aspects of the danger of cults is that they're incredibly difficult to challenge that base assumption, and it can take years if not a lifetime to walk a path that steadily heads away from what was taught.

So to acknowledge something formative's deep capacity for danger and harm, and go through the long process of picking it apart piece by piece to ensure you don't retain its harmfulness as you separate from it, I think that's the best possible way to go about something.

[court-queen]

Otome characters you might like according to your OM! favourite (Lucifer, Asmo and Belphie)

I'm going to include both paid and free otome games. I'm also going to mention some games that aren’t otomes but have dating sim stuff (i.e Fire Emblem). This post is only my opinion and based on the games I've played. I hope these work as recommendations for you!

Lucifer

Hijikata Toshizo (Hakuouki): Hijikata is the first commander of the Shinsengumi, a short-tempred, but intelligent man. He is the most mature character from the main cast. Hijikata is very strict with the other commanders, who are very chaotic just like the demon brothers, and the protagonist, whom he distrusts at first. He also has a close relationship (though without any implications) with the Shinsengumi leader, similar to Diavolo. He lacks some of the kinky stuff Luci has, but leaving that aside, Hijikata might be a good route to play.

Jumin Han (Mystic Messenger): Jumin is a CEO who likes cats a bit too much. He is cold and centered on his work. The only close relationship he has is with the leader of the charity organization he belongs to, who is his best friend, and lacks any romantic experience. I would say Jumin is much less developed than Lucifer regarding to social interactions. Also, one of the characters has a strong distaste (which seems to be one-sided) for him. When you enter into his route, he is possesive, but in a slightly different way than Lucifer, more...over-protective. However, in some instances, he can have the same style of possesiveness as Lucifer. If you don’t mind he is less assertive, Jumin could be a very decent alternative.

Xander (Fire Emblem Fates: Conquest): Xander isn’t from an otome, so he  doesn’t have as much romantic stuff, but he is the most similar character to Lucifer, story and character-wise imo. Xander is the crown prince of the country of Nohr, a stoic and wise man. He is the older brother of the royal family, so he has to assume all the responsabilities, taking questionable decisions and pushing away his own feelings in order to maintain peace and protect his family. The relationship with one of his siblings, Leo, is similar to the one Lucifer has with Satan (post Satan arc). Xander has also a very complicated relationship with his father: to keep it spoiler-free, let’s just say he is what would have happened if Lucifer hadn’t rebelled against God. 

Nobunaga Oda (Ikemen Sengoku): A charismatic and intelligent warlord who is trying to unify Japan.  Very bold with the MC. He basically wants to own her, winning Go matches and claiming a part of her body with each victory. It sounds somewhat fucked up at first, but tbf it wasn’t as bad as it could have been. Nobunaga isn’t as strict as Lucifer, but when the moment comes he can be very serious. 

I haven’t played it, but...I’ve been told that Victor from My Love’s Queen Choice, Jumin and Lucifer form the holy trinity of sugar daddies in mobile otomes. Chikage Kazama from Hakuouki isn't that similar to Luci, but he has some points his fans could enjoy a lot (he is one of my favourite LIs)

Asmodeus

None of these recommendations are as kinky as Asmo, sorry I don't play many +18 otomes. I still hope you like them Dx

Karma and Rumpel (Cinderella Phenomenon): I think both might work for someone who likes Asmo. First, Rumpel is quite a flirt. He has a curse that provokes him amnesia, but that doesn't stop him from trying to charm beautiful women. Then we have Karma, who has a curse that makes women fall in love with him, so he usually dresses as one to not attract them. He isn't that much of a flirt, but he is quite narcissistic. Put both in the same room, what could go wrong? Both characters end up having a decent depth and growth, so if you are one of those people who wants Asmo to be more than his quirks, you are probably going to enjoy them a lot.

Zen (Mystic Messenger): At first a narcissistic actor, then the most supportive and sweet character from all Mystic Messenger (and also the most stable). I would say he subverts the archetype of the flirt/narcissist in otomes. He has a past and context explaining why is he like that, and his route makes a twist with the rival in love with him. If you want a different focus of the archetype Zen is a really good option for you.

Ikki (Amnesia):  Ikki has a special charm that attracts women. This charm will cause the protagonist in Amnesia to get into lots of problems with people who are totally in love with him. He isn’t narcissistic nor a flirt, but if you are interested in a story about how might be dating Asmo with the consequences of his powers in other people, Ikki's route could interest you.

Yuri (Nameless): Yuri has also a charm that makes people being attracted to him. However, it isn't as exaggerated as Ikki or Asmo especially because all the main characters in Nameless attract a lot of people. He is a flirt and narcissist, practically at the same level as Asmo (I had a lot of fun with his moments). Imo, he is the most intelligent person in the game, and reads quite well the other characters. In his route we will learn more about his behavior, and he will be forced to grow and leave behind his attitude.

Sylvain from Fire Emblem Three Houses and Jiyeon from Dandelion  might also be good recommendations, it’s just that they are a bit more...controversial.

Belphie

These characters are very spoilery, I'll try my best to explain why you might like them.

Unknown (Mystic Messenger): A twin, just like Belphie. Both have violent episodes, even trying to hurt the protagonist. They direct their hate to certain characters, whom they consider responsibles of their miserable situation. At heart, they are really kind and sensitive, but have changed because of their circunstances. I would say Unknown's route doesn't portray him as well as the rest of the game, but regardless you might enjoy it if you like Belphie.

“Nameless” (Nameless): Okay, this one quite spoilery, I'll try to explain it without saying much. Belphie's situation? Imagine it but worse, with nobody knowing where you are and not being able to try anything to escape. Then combine his hate for humans and his love for Lilith, and you'll have the complicated feelings this character has towards the protagonist of Nameless. For me, he is literally Belphie, just much more dramatic and dark...

Monshiro (Psychedelica of the Black Butterfly): if the character before is a darker Belphie, this is a lighter Belphie. All the characters in Psychedelica are trapped in a mansion with monsters inside. This mysterious man appears to help the protagonist to fight them at certain times. Even if the rest of characters are very suspicious of him, he seems to be kind and calm, to the point he doesn't appear to know much about the situation the main characrers are involved in. When we continue advancing through the story, we will learn his real identity, and the sad truth about him. There is also another important similarity with Belph, but, spoilers.

Yeonho (Nameless): Like you can guess from the other character, Nameless is darker than other otomes. Yeonho is a sweet boy, very dependant on the protagonist. He is shy, and doesn't like to socialize with people, even if he is quite popular in his class. When you enter into his route, he becomes a little bit obssesive, and some of his endings are terrifying. If you are a masochist like me enjoy being alert with a sweet character that could break in any moment, Yeonho's route is for you.

I would want to recommend another character from Nameless, who I think has some points that could remind of Belphie, but given that this is not apparent at first, I'll let you discover by yourselves if you play the game.

I wouldn't consider them that similar, but Ukyo from Amnesia is quite the Belphie experience. If I had to pick an only route among otome games I would pick this one. Totally recommended. Kei Okazaki from Collar x Malice has also some quirks Belphie fans might enjoy.

[mentalhealthuniverse]

Do you even know what depression feels like? Vomiting your meals, pulling your hair out, self harming, making impulsive moves, grabbing your head and scream so loud that no one can hear you, Do you know what its like for someone to be in bed all day hopen for someone to come and ask you if your okay? If you need something? You dont wanna be in this world anymore, you want to dissapear, you fear your life is in danger or your family is in danger or friends. You have demons talking to you in your head and you cant shut them up because your being possesed? When you walk with someone outside you feel like shit inside but have to fake a smile and say Good Morning to people you see pass by while you walk having these dark thoughts. Everynight, you cry and cry and take your medication and your still feel like shit? You thiTnking why am i here for? No one cares. All they do is ignore you becau se they say you have nothing in you. Going to doctor to doctor, therapy to therapy tring to have a conversation with a stranger who knows your past? You have to lie about everything constanly because you dont want to hurt anyone aside from you? Putting your headphones on with volume max, with anykind of depressive song and your just crying and asking yourself how the fuck am i gonna survive, when you have a family that is broken. When all you want is to stay with the ones you love but they think your seeking attention or wasting their time or BEING NEGATIVE AND BEING A MANIPULATIVE BITCH? Do you think its fair for someone to be feeling so sad and so sensible that you cant even talk to anyone because you fear that you will be treated like shit or that your just worthless. Well thats how this Blog will start, I woke up with this fear, what am i leaving when im done here? I wish life was easy but it isnt, not for me, not you, not them, no one. Depression is a Mental Disorder that is is a common and serious medical illness that negatively affects how you feel, the way you think and how you act. It is treateable. You can beat this disorder. For anyone who has the same problem I did cause at this point Depression can kiss my ass. Im done with it. My name is Adriana and Im starting this blog because first i like to listen to music while i write and this seems pretty legit so, the story goes Clike this, Im 27 years old, almost 28 on October. I love writting, poetry, stories, songs, ect. And since i dont have a journal because i dont like writting in journals im more of a blog online, its much more less complicated. Ive also been podcasting but i need to work on that by the way, I want to help people with Depression, Anxiety, Bullying, and other different types of disorders, nope, im no psychologist but based on my experience with such disorder i know how many people are batteling with this even with the pandemic we are living in which is pretty fucked up because its like the world is not the same anymore, 2020 and 2021 really hit me hard. Im a mother of two dogs, Linus and Max. They are pretty much my life, they are there for me and they are my therapy dogs. Hint, talking to your dog can save time to talking to someone who doesnt wanna listen to your traumas. Im working on this blog and im listening to Linkin Park which is one of my favorite rock bands. Chester, the band vocalist commited suicide July 20 2017 due to his depression and drug issues. I can relate to him alot, I dont do drugs, never will. Mac Miller is another artist I love to hear, He had a overdose from drugs and suffered depression, Lil Peep too and so many other artists, and not only artists but also alot of people from around the world. I really need a podcast ASAP. So, this so called depression disorder is hitting in eveyone due to several problems, as well as the COVID 19, lots of family members are dying and my prayers go out to those that have died of COVID 19, and not only that, I really wanna help people, I want people to know that you can get over this disorder and so much more, your truly a star who deserves to shine in this universe. well that was cliche but its the

truth.

Welcome Everyone :)

[islandofmuses]

headcanons: 5, 6, 16 (all)

5 - Guilty pleasures : For Luka I would say cleaning, just cleaning everything, especially when he’s nervous about something.  For Elly , silly 90s pop song, very, very loud to dance to.  For Andy, old movies and junk food, also drinking, a lot asdfghjkl  For Zeke cocktails, and old love songs  For Lilah all things make up, I imagine she randomly comes up to her friends and offers to do their make up out of the blue.  And for Julain He loved to come up with potions, like make his own by mixing different things and such, he may have almost exploded his lab a couple of times, though...  6. Their vices (physical or emotional) do I even to say what Luka’s is? or at least was until Dawn, Women and sex, that’s yeah xD  Elly’s drinking when she’s upset she drinks, it’s not exactly a vice as much as her--usual way to deal with pain  Andy is Drinking and getting into random bar fights because yeah  Zeke I would say cocktails again because he just loves that too much  Lilah likes ice cream a little too much, she couldn’t live without it Julian, I’m not really sure, I think Julian is a tea guy, he drinks when he’s upset so...he’s beer drinking it a lot!    16 Dark secrets/’skeletons in the closet’ Luka hide his wolf side from everyone, that was his secret for a while. The other one is that when Annabeth got possesed by a demon, Luka didn’t know how to help, they were fighting and she gained crontrol for a while, she begged him to kill her, she didn’t want to live with the things the demon did in her body and so...he did what was asked, that’s why he run from his old life, he couldn’t face his other firends after that.Op.  Elly When Elly was still lerning about her powers, she got upset to the point she almost, accidently killed someone, she was always a hot headed and when she got pushed to the edge emotionally, her powers came out and the person she was having an argument with almost died  Andy He never told his parents he didn’t want to be a hunter, he wanted to be cop, but he was forced into this life and now he feels like there’s no way out, once you’re in, that’s it, he never tell anyone this, but he feels pretty much stuck. And the reason he’s lonely is also that he fears someone he cares about gets hurt because of that he does.  Zeke  When Zeke was lving in the streets, he saw a man dying, this man was also homeless, Zeke could have helped him, his magic could have saved the man, but he was so broken himself, he didn’t bother to care, that’s why he tries extra hard now to help everyone, he regrets this a lot.  Lilah help scam people for a whole, pretending to be a witch, the reason she did so was because he was angry that she never got any of the magic powers her family as, and she still feels hopeless a lot.  Julian tried to bring his wife back to life,even knwoing this was dark magic not to be messed with, he was hurting too much to care, of course, he doesn’t know much aside from the healing side of his powers and he almost died in the process, he still has a wound on his right arm it’s covered by his sleeves and a bandage but it’s a wound that will never heal.

[luidilovins]

Listen I hate this take on the uncanny valley so fucking much because many subpsecies of homonids lived in the same areas but some of them got along well enough to coexist and neandertals had enough desirable genetic traits to the point where human women (see here for a blanket on female vs male choosiness) would often pass up incel homosepian for the chad neandertal.

Genetics aside, various hominid species didn't start visually looking all that different until 50,000 years ago, while under the skin changes began as early as 89,000 years ago (ie the development of the Y chromosome but I might be oversimplifying at this point) Point being, even our non-human cousins didn't. look. that. different. from. us. Especially comparing the diversifying of humans themselves crossing trans continental as it was. And even then neandertals still had advantagious traits for living in the Eurasian hemisphere.

Also I digress, regardless of it being intentional, and with few perserved records from that chapter in our species' history, I don't like the implication that the uncanny valley effect stems from humans being inherently racist (for lack of a word for hatred of non-human intelligences). I know that sounds off the wall but prejudice and sense of superiority by birthright is vastly different than othering by means of the sucess of social groups and the need to compete for territory or resources. Racism is entirely a Eurpean fabrication and it's been proven time and time again to be a cultural outlier and purposfully designed to further the agenda of corroded theocratical religious divinity (here, here, here) and the financial benifits of the exploitation of colonism that otherwise has not been replicated by other cultures to the same degree. (this is the only example off the top of my head but I'm know there's more.)

You know what's older than racism?

You know what's more flesh crawling than neandertals?

fucking rabies

You know what LOOKS like a human but doesn't ACT human ENOUGH? Do you know what might bite you and get you sick or turn you into something that also moves about in a non human way? Brain parasites that give you painful headaches and intensifies agression and confusion.

Say you're a monkey and one member of your troop gets bitten by something. Later he starts twitching and swaying about. He keeps stumbling out of trees but barely feels anything when he hits the ground. He won't eat sleep or drink. He makes guttural noises that keep alerting predators and he's in obvious writhing agony. Suddenly he's not your friend anymore. He doesn't recognize you and he attempts to bite and claw at anything that moves.

Up until preventitive oral medications and vaccines were developed in the 1970s there was NOTHING stopping rabies and it still prevails today and kills hundreds of thousands of people in third world countries with limited medical resources a year. There's no cure for rabies once youve got it and the only reliable diagnostic is a brain autopsy.

Rabies. TB. Leoprosy. Syphilis. Meningitis. Toxoplasmosis. Anthrax. Mercury Poisoning. Prion disease. These are all bad and in different varying degrees can cause limps, sores, agression, confusion or dazed trances, ambled pacing, convulsions or uncharacteristic behavior in humans.

Basically everything that people are terrified of when it comes to zombies. Vampires bite. Werewolves rip people apart. Demonic possesion? Easy. Changlings take the place of your loved ones.

Also I don't think that it's a conicidence that the things we find uncomfortable with the uncanny valley also just happen to line up with predatory behavior, smiling too wide or staring you down, blinking too slowly or moving towards you with a slow steady speed. It's just a danger signal to keep other monkeys in a troop from getting bitten by an infected monkey. Simple as that.

After all what's scarier? A dead body, or moving body that will MAKE you dead?

I'm not going to be a hypocrite by pointing out racism being excused as a stemmed human behavior without claiming that the deep seated primal fear of disease doesn't make a good excuse for ableism as well. I mean we use othering to discern friend from foe, and then at some point decided that was a good enough excuse for racism. Theres legitimate proof that ancient homonids could and would be hospitible to the disabled out of compassion. The point of having these initial fears is to guage saftey measures first, but once someone or something is proven to be harmless that normally should be the end of it. I mean if an adult wild silverback gorrilla can look at a spycam and decide it's chill after a moment of inspection then there's really no excuse for any of us.

Healthy othering =/= newly invented racism.

healthy fear of infectious diseases =/= excuse to hate disabled people.

But yeah rabies is more likely the reason for the uncanny valley effect thanks for coming to my goddamn ted talk.

[wonderfulworldofmichaelford]

Michael After Midnight - Jason Goes To Hell: The Final Friday

Out of all of the films, this one may be the most absolute batshit of them all, and yes, I’m taking the next film into consideration. Jason Goes To Hell is just an absolutely ludicrous film that strays so incredibly far from everything people love about the series, and fills itself with awkward scenes and ridiculous plot elements it would most likely be awful if it weren’t so absurdly entertaining.

So, story: Jason, somehow back in one piece after his ill-fated vacation in New York, is chasing a pretty young lady to stab her to death… except not, it’s a trap by the military, and they blow him right the fuck up. This is the first five minutes of the film, mind you. Jason is then shipped off to the morgue, and while the bits and pieces of him are on the table, the doctor operating gets a bit hungry and eats Jason’s heart, which allows Jason to possess his body with this never-before-seen power. As it turns out, Jason is apparently a tiny demon that transfers itself from body to body by basically French kissing people. Now he’s out in a new body to kill and to return to his original body by possessing one of his few living relatives. I don’t think I need to tell you how this ends for him, considering the title.

So, as you can tell… this movie is fucking insane. The fact Jason is fucking obliterated in the first few minutes and we get to watch a man chomp on Jason’s heart and get possessed just completely tosses everything we know about Jason out the window from the get go. How the fuck did Jason get these powers? There has never been any indication that Jason has any sort of demonic powers beyond his habit of resurrecting from the dead. While the whole demonic worm thing is kinda absurd, a future crossover comic does in fact give a solid explanation for Jason’s more magical abilities, so in hindsight the demon thing isn’t… entirely outside the realm of sanity. It’s still stupid and crazy, but all things considered… well, it’s still dumb. But there’s at least something of an explanation.

Now, you may be thinking, “Michael, you can’t actually be using a crossover comic from way after this movie’s release as evidence to iron out plotholes! That’s bullshit!” Well my obnoxious strawman, that’s where I call you an IGNORANT FOOL and point out that this movie actually sets up the crossover! The comic in question, Freddy vs. Jason vs. Ash, is obviously a sequel to the crossover film Freddy vs. Jason which is set up in this film’s signature scene: at the very end of the film, a lingering shot of Jason’s mask in the dust is shown, only for his mask to be pulled under ground by Freddy Krueger’s hand. You may wonder how this explains anything, but Freddy is not the only cameo in the film! Aside from the jungle gym from Hitchcock’s The Birds appearing on the Voorhees’ property and the crate that contains the monster of the titular segment from Creepshow, the most striking cameo is the Necronomicon Ex-Mortis that is just left lying out in Jason’s house. The scene is strange and out of nowhere in the context of the film, but it does have payoff in the comic sequel, which also reveals how Jason keeps coming back; turns out mommy dearest read to Jason from the demonic pages. 

Now, you may think I’ve gone pretty off topic here, but this was mostly an excuse to talk about the cameos. They’re pretty interesting and really get you thinking about the strange, expansive horror movie universe these films appear to take place in. Freddy, Jason, and Ash are obviously connected, but Ash also crossed over with Herbert West of Re-Animator fame and fought Lovecraftian beasts, meaning Cthulhu and his pals exist in this universe. The Necronomicon is in the possesion of a waitch in Pumpkinhead II, meaning those films are canon to this universe, and the presence of the crate potentially means that these take place in the Stephen King multiverse. And let’s not forget the crossover Jason had with Leatherface! The possibilities here are limitless!

Oh, wait, I think I had a film to discuss. So, are there any positives aside from a few cameos that cause me to go off on a wild tangent? Well, the kills are pretty violent and gruesome here; Jason impales a couple having sex, caves in a woman’s face, and we get to see what happens to the previous body when Jason hops to a new one (it ain’t pretty, let me tell you). Of course, for most of the film we’re stuck watching all of these kills in the body of someone else; Jason doesn’t show up in his normal body until the big final showdown, and we all know how good the LAST time Jason wasn’t himself went over. At least here they aren’t pulling an obnoxious bait-and-switch, so I let it slide a bit more.

The characters are pretty decent, but by the series’ standards no one is particularly standout or memorable, and a a lot of potential is wasted in regards to them. For instance, Jason is surfing bodies; why don’t we have him talk for the first time? The only time he says anything is to pull the old “It’s not me, shoot the other guy” trick, which hardly is the  look inside our favorite undead killer’s mind we all want. Then there’s Diana, Jason’s half-sister who may know his origins (meaning we could have been clued in to why the Necronomicon was lying around the Voorhees’ household a decade or so before the comics explained it). Guess what happens with her? She dies, and pretty early in the film too. She’s basically just there to be present for the finale, in which Jason crawls into her body so he can resurrect. And by ��crawls in,” I do in fact mean that Jason enters through the southernmost entrance. Did I mention this is his half-sister? This is the sort of thing I’d expect from Leatherface, not Jason.

Still, much like the previous film, this one does have a lot of cheesiness and unintentional hilarity that makes it something of a guilty pleasure or a so bad it’s good entry in the franchise. It’s a horrendous example of a franchise trying to do something new and different, and it’s all the more entertaining for it. It’s dumb, it’s ridiculous, and it’s downright nonsensical, but it’s pretty enjoyable in its own right if you go in with your brain checked out at the door. And hey, if nothing else, the crossover implications lead to some great fanfic fuel!

Now, as narm charmy as this entry is, this is pretty much rock bottom for the series. After this, there’s no way to go but up, right? Well, in the case of Friday the 13th, the next entry went for a literal interpretation and shot right up into the stars...