#death deferred

[dracoqueen22]

Death Deferred- Fic Snippet

There's only one type of ghost hunter.

That's the answer Newlyn gave anytime someone questioned his legitimacy or his capability. Ghosts existed, in several different forms, this was a provable fact. Haunts. Spirits. Banshees. Lingerers. Wraiths.

There were as many different types of ghosts as there were concoctions in Newlyn's alchemy book. The dead rarely rested in peace, and they always had something to say after the fact, very loudly if no one was listening. They didn't like to be ignored. It made them angry, and angry ghosts were dangerous ghosts.

Newlyn's hope was to get to them before they got angry, but that rarely happened. People tended to ignore their hauntings until they got deadly, because again, ghosts didn't like to be ignored.

So. Was Newlyn a real ghost hunter?

If asked, he'd smile and say, "there's only one type of ghost hunter," and then he'd launch into a summary of all the methods at his disposal. As long as he knew what he was getting into, he could be effective. It was knowing what he was up against that was the trick. That and plying his trade with a wealthy, but impressionable mark. 

There's only one kind of ghost hunter, and Newlyn was the best at what he did. All you had to do was ask him.

Which was why he stood outside the Nightsworn gates, watching them swing open with nary a creak. The rich, the elite, nothing they owned made a noise of disuse. The hinges were well-oiled, the ornate metal curved and gleaming.

Newlyn adjusted his vest and stepped inside as soon as there was room for him to pass. The gates immediately shifted to close again behind him, emanating magical energy. This was no cheap enchantment. Trust the obscenely wealthy to expend unnecessary arcane resources when hiring someone would do the job just as well.

Mica Nightsworn, current matriarch of the Nightsworn family, definitely counted herself among the obscenely wealthy, though most of her coin was generational wealth. Rumor had it that her husband, the original Nightsworn, died under mysterious circumstances. Perhaps that's why Newlyn had been summoned. Had the late Nightsworn made a nuisance of himself?

Nightsworn Manor loomed in front of him, a three-story construction of wood and stone, ivy crawling up the sides, and a balcony wrapping around the east side of the building. The Nightsworn crest hung in gilded platinum above the double front-doors, which opened as Newlyn climbed the stone-carved steps with taps of his boots.

More enchantments, more excess of magic.

Newlyn sighed. Oh, to have that much coin to waste. He stepped into a foyer, lit by a massive chandelier with a thousand tiny everlights casting tiny flickers in all directions. A pair of curved staircases led up to a second floor, and he counted no less than five doors from his vantage point. Huge tapestries decorated the walls, the Nightsworn crest most prominent in the handwoven fabrics.

"You must be the hunter." The cool, cultured voice echoed throughout the foyer.

Newlyn followed the statement to an adjoining door where Lady Mica Nightsworn herself stood, draped in shades of cream and purple, her hands clasped genteel in front of her. She dripped with poise, her lips painted in mauve to match her eyes, the poke of delicately adorned tusks barely visible. She was darker than Newlyn’s tawny-brown, and the coil of her long, black hair had been arranged in a careful twist of knots and braids atop her head. 

A servant would have spent at least fifteen minutes on those braids. 

"I am." Newlyn planted his most convincing smile on his face, dipping into a polite bow that was low enough not to offend even the most arrogant of nobility. "Zhem-Newlyn Grym, at your service."

[clonerightsagenda]

I invite you to a reading of my dark academia novel. You expect a bunch of smoldering boys in button up dress shirts. I start reading. Chapter one is a transcript of a two hour faculty senate meeting. You try the doors. They're locked.

[jichanxo]

call to a witch song

[religion-is-a-mental-illness]

“I refuse to remain silent as religion rips through humanity like a virulent plague.

I know it's awfully rude to question and criticize this very ancient institution, but so what?”

-- Michael A. Sherlock

Better rude than complicit.

[ferinehuntress]

❤️‍🔥🫶 for Aylin and Isobel?

❤️‍🔥what’s their most erogenous zone? 🫶what does after care look like for them?

Aylin’s hand wrapped around Isobel, holding her close to her as her other hand gently played with Isobel’s hair. Isobel had reclined up against Aylin, her fingers gently brushing back and forth against Aylin’s thigh.

“Curiosity caught your thoughts, young Ophelia?” Aylin questioned as she flittered her wings and lowered them down to relax. “Should we indulge her curiosity, my love?” Her voice questioned as Isobel hummed and grinned. “Why not?” Isobel agreed and allowed Aylin to take the lead.

“Isobel knew almost instantly my most sensitive zones around my body. Naturally, my wings are extreme zones, and all she has to do is touch them and I’ll melt within her fine fingertips. Along the base of my wings is also my back, nails tracing along feather and flesh; it absolutely breaks every inch of resolve. My darling knows how to make me bend a knee,” Aylin smirked as she leaned over and kissed her shoulder. “And the strength of my shoulders is also a sensitive region. Most of my muscular strength lines within my back and shoulders, which makes them as sensitive as spider webbing,” Aylin leaned over and pressed her lips up against Isobel’s neck as Isobel softly moaned.

“My neck is very sensitive, though I only allow Aylin to touch it. After my history with the sharrans, I will never let another soul near it except the love of my life,” Isobel said as she leaned back and reached her hand back to brush up against Aylin’s hair. “My ears are sensitive, because of my elvhen heritage. Nibbles or nips will make them quiver and I easily melt into such touches. And then the last one is my wrist. I learned of that when Aylin kissed my inner wrist for the first time, and every inch of me shivered with delight. I never knew such a touch would lead me to easily melt for my lover.” Isobel turned, so she was leaning up against Aylin now, her legs draped over the side of the set as the two made themselves more comfortable.

“As for aftercare.” Isobel took the lead on this one. “Aylin is such a service. She takes care of me in every way. And I quite enjoy putting her on her knees,” Isobel smirked as she looked over to her darling, who had a smile on her lips. The two kissed sweetly as Isobel moved her arm around the back of her neck. “But no matter what we do, with all that Aylin does for me, I always make sure to pamper my Aasimar. I give her massages. We will take a bath or a shower, but most of all we will always cuddle up together and talk afterward. We never go to bed without knowing the other is satisfied and what the other liked or didn’t like. We tend to sleep in the nude. The comfort of skin to skin just brings us peace that we desperately need after so long of being apart.” Isobel leaned her head up against Aylin’s shoulder and Aylin brushed her hand up against her hair.

“There is nothing I would not do for my darling Isobel. I will give her the world, provide every comfort and joy. As much as our love delves into pleasure of the flesh, we too take comforts of the mind. Isobel will want for nothing, and I desire nothing more than to have her close in my arms, and to hear her moans reach the skies,”

[thedreadvampy]

1 week left for Charlie to do the funniest thing he'll do in his life

[autumnfangirler]

caine and chen as acceptance through faith vs caine and ortega as acceptance through obedience

[wolfeyedwitch]

I do not need another crossover. I do NOT need another crossover. I do not NEED another crossover. I do not need ANOTHER crossover...

Aaand its already got plot bunnies moving into my head. The fuzzy bastards never pay rent, either.

Feel free to ask me about my crossover ideas with an audience of one because the thing im crossing over with fandoms is my own OC and their lore.

[scum-belina]

So apparently I can't go out in public without having an immediate suicidal meltdown. That's cool.

[datastate]

not to sound unwell, but i dearly miss sara chidouin

[marisatomay]

jordan peele made a movie that said this industry and the media surrounding it chews people up to a pulp and spits them out and then wonders why they’re dead or crazy and then has the audacity to make content from their deaths and their insanity and the only way you can survive is if you keep your head down because if you just so happen to slip up if you look up look around when you know you shouldn’t the industry the media everything is going to eat you alive and I totally believe that the powers that be who do the chewing and the spitting and the exploitative death content did not like that at all

i’m a bit bummed and how little recognition NOPE has received this awards season i will say it

[cuntylittlesalmon]

🫡

[snarltoothed]

woman with cptsd shower routine be like i love this music, i’m dancing and washing my body in warm water, i’m at the peak of human joy… oh, that lyric kinda cut deep. :/. sobbing silently on all fours to the point of physical pain. the suffering is in every fibre of my being. why didn’t i die three years ago

[ferinehuntress]

◈　 ⇢  @estarion　 ⋯　 meme I'm to lazy to look up XD ♡ 　　⸻　forgot to edit this and already deleted the ask >< but soemthing about astarion being near defeated and Aylin comes into to aid the battle.

She had made a vow, and although it was not as binding as her own oath, she would not break such a promise that she had made to the companions she considered friends. Surrounded by ghouls, goblins, knolls, and undead and cultist at every point; they forgot one vital tool.

Never let your guard down.

Reaching Ketheric would be an all out battle; but Aylin knew his strategic and plans. She had fought by his side multiple times over, and she knew how the mind of the man worked. Perhaps some things have changed, but tactics in war always had similar strategies to be relied on. Except he didn’t know that she had escaped, which gave them the upper hand. She had been dealing with the assailants outside the walls of Moonrise Towers, blazing down with moonfire and a silver sword and unrelenting vengeance. They had destroyed her town! Her HOME! They wished to bring death and destruction to the rest of the world. Aylin had nothing but pure undiluted anger and nothing would quench it until she was face to face with her betrayal.

The shouts grew louder within the halls of Moonrise as she twisted her wings and flew downward, bursting through the front entrance. The Harpers and the ones who had freed her were dealing with more than just undead, and it was clear the advantage was on the enemy’s side. Aylin’s wings gave a powerful gust of wing and then, using gravity, she flew downward and at the last moment twisted her body and slammed her wing directly into the mage that tried to harm Astarion. Brilliant white wings flared out, applying another massive gust of wind to knock the others off balance before twisting around and dropping to her knees.

“Death will not have you, my friend,” Aylin said as she reached down to press her hand against Astarion’s shoulder. “Manus impone,” Aylin said as she reached down to press her hand against Astarion’s shoulder, and silver light cascaded from her hand, engulfing his body as she healed the wounds inflicted upon him. “I say this battle is ours to conquer, our victory is near. Fight with every fiber of vigor within you,” Aylin spoke, and then flicked her sword within her hand, providing Astarion cover as she took to the air once more, finding the archers in the rafters as her next target. She would cleanse this tower with the fire of the moon.

[applestorms]

oh, this is fascinating. out of curiosity (and also for my own reference lol) here’s almost every major character’s name in the original japanese: (ft. a little informal japanese pronunciation guide cuz i got excited whoops)

ok so… from what i remember of my admittedly quite limited memory of this subject, pronunciation in japanese is actually pretty straightforward: i.e. all 5 vowels typically sound the same (see ref below) and there aren’t really syllables but moras, or rhythmic units of about equal length. so you don’t really emphasize any one sound in japanese, kinda sorta, though this is somewhat debatable. [insert link to funny video that i can’t currently find here.] ANYWAY.

first, a japanese vowels pronunciation guide:

A: like the a in “father” or “taught” (AH) - あ

I: like the ee in “meet” (EE) - い

U: like the oo “ooze” or “food” (OO) - う

E: like the e in “pet” or “debt” (EH) - え

O: like the o in “or” (OH) - お

consonants come in lines, e.g. the K line (ka/ki/ku/ke/ko) and S line (sa/shi/su/se/so), and you can basically just add the consonant right to the vowel with a few exceptions (shi, chi, tsu, fu, etc. also n can be on its own as ん). btw, hiragana and katakana cover the exact same alphabet sound-wise, the difference is just that katakana is usually used for foreign words. so そうだ (so-u-da), as in 「そうだ。僕がキサだ。」 is different from ソーダ (sō-da), the drink.

there’s also a weird little thing where if you have a small tsu, like in the word for school がっこう (romanized as gakkou, w/ a little repeating consonant usually) you just kinda pause/repeat the sound— tbh i have no fucking idea how to explain this through words alone so just look here for an audio ref if you’re super curious. and finally “ー” just means you extend the previous vowel sound for another beat (i’ll add the little line thing on top of vowels for this, like ō).

ok now, the actual names:

Light Yagami: 夜神 月 -> ya-ga-mi ra-i-to. obviously there’s the whole 月(typically つき/tsu-ki) = “Light” thing going on here.

L Lawliet: L・ローライト -> e-ru rō-ra-i-to. really, the ロー here almost sounds like “raw” when i say it out loud, accounting for the whole lack of distinction between R/L thing. like “rohh-raito.” this is where people get the “lowlight” pronunciation i think. personally, my instinct is to go “law-lee-ett,” but i’m also a filthy american, so. also note the katakana here, for a foreign name, not to mention the “L” itself. the “raito,” though… on the nose, yes, but at leas with some basis in canon lmfao.

Misa Amane: 弥 海砂 -> a-ma-ne mi-sa. note, there are no silent letters in japanese!! so e’s at the end of a word/name should always be said aloud, like “ah-mah-neh” in this case

Ryuk:リューク-> ryū-ku. again it’s in katakana which is kinda interesting. this is pretty straightforward since we usually call him ryuk, but i did see a fan translation that called him “Luke” once— maybe cuz of the katakana? lol.

Rem: レム -> re-mu. no notes, just her <3

Near/Nate River: ニア -> ni-a, ネイト・リバー -> ne-i-to ri-bā. the “nia” part of that is pretty well known by now in english speaking communities ig, if only cuz of use of the ship names meronia/niamero lol. speaking of,

Mello/Mihael Keehl: メロ -> me-ro, ミハエル・ケール -> mi-ha-e-ru kē-ru. looking at that now, i wonder if the name “Mihael” was picked for the end “e-ru,” to mimic a certain someone…

Matt/Mail Jeevas: マット -> mat-to (small tsu thing applies here), マイル・ジーヴァス -> ma-i-ru jī-ba-su. the mail to mile thing might make more sense looking at how “a” is pronounced here, “mAH-ee-ru.”

Watari/Quillish Wammy: ワタリ-> wa-ta-ri, キルシュ・ワイミー -> ki-ri-shu wa-i-mī. again note the katakana for both names

Kiyomi Takada: 高田 清美 -> ta-ka-da ki-yo-mi. pretty straightforward

Teru Mikami: 魅上 照 -> mi-ka-mi te-ru. again straightforward though the inclusion of “kami” is perhaps notable, if a bit on the nose lol

Soichiro Yagami: 夜神 総一郎 -> ya-ga-mi sō-i-chi-rō.

Touta Matsuda: 松田 桃太 -> ma-tsu-da tō-ta.

and some bonus…

Minoru Tanaka: 田中実 -> ta-na-ka mi-no-ru.

Beyond Birthday: ビヨンド・バースデイ-> bi-yo-n-do bā-su-de-i. the english words are clearly intended here lol

Raye Penber: レイ・ペンバー -> re-i pe-n-bā. i appreciate that his name is usually written in english as “Raye” to distinguish from the more japanese “Rei”

Shoko Maki/Naomi Misora: 間木 照子 -> ma-ki shō-ko, 南空 ナオミ -> mi-so-ra na-o-mi. never realized that she has kanji for her surname but katakana for her first name. fascinating.

Eraldo Coil: エラルド・コイル -> e-ra-ru-do ko-i-ru.

so, yeah. perhaps that explains some of the origins of the “true” pronunciations that people tend to bring up, though really you can do whatever you want to forever <33

it’s interesting to note that even in the original series (aka not the LABB murders novel), both the japanese & non-japanese names were intentionally made to be not super common/realistic, though ohba perhaps stuck to that rule a little less stringently than mr. “believe bridesmaid” or whatever the fuck

pronunciation

the one thing that upsets me about my dialect is that i automatically put emphasis on YAGami instead of yagAMi as it is intended, so i sound like a poser.

that being said, i don't consider canon pronounciation to be sacred. the way takada's english voice actor pronounces mihael keehl is absolutely sickening, and i refuse to call him anything but mi-hay-el k-ee-l.

amane is left up to the gods to decide. i will usually just stick with a-mayn, rather than ah-mah-nAY.

don't know what the fuck is going on with matt. while i do enjoy that the phonetics of his name are completely different to the pronunciation, how one gets from mail to mile is beyond me. i could say something about how mail and mihael's names sound very similar and uh. maybe that's because. uh. mattwasmadeformello. but i won't. not today anyway.

will we ever learn how to pronounce lawliet? will that ever be something we understand in our lifetimes? maybe one day in a hundred years when we are living in floating pods in space, someone will remember tumblr exists, log back on, and find this post. maybe they will have the answer after all that time. but for what it's worth, law-lee-et. i think low-light is a bit too on the nose.

[colorisbyshe]

I just came across a tweet saying that Aaron Bushnell--the man who burned himself to death while yelling Free Palestine until he couldn't anymore--will be "in the history books" and that phrase has been coming up a lot. And it chafes me every time I read it, every time I hear it.

Cause, a. no, a lot of this won't be in the American history books. American atrocities, especially those overseas but even those against American people (especially American people of color), don't go in the literal history books. Or the figurative ones. Most American atrocities are wiped from the collective memory... sometimes as soon as they happen. They go unreported (like the first person to self immolate to protest this genocide), they go erased, they go whitewashed, they go falsely recontextualized, and they get twisted into pro-America sentiment--we were right for those atrocities, we were wrong for them but we learned, we didn't learn from it but we felt bad about it and should be comforted for that soreness.

And b. is harder to verbalize but I'm gonna try. It feels... performative in the literal sense. Like we only value what is happening today out of deference for how people in the future will perceive it. We aren't doing anything to change anything NOW, to care about other people NOW, but so that one day... we'll be remembered a caring. Like this man killed himself as gesture, as a move for his legacy.

And I see this phrase--"this will be remembered in the history books"--whipped out in extremely horrific contexts. A child's dead body hanging off a wall, "oh, this will be in the history books." What does that even mean? Was her death worth the historical context? Was it necessary to embellish the horror of it all?

Would the people reading these hypothetical history books not get the wrongness of the genocide without the death of a little girl that you're using as... window dressing?

It just seems so weirdly self satisfied. Like you're eager to note you just witnessed a real moment that people will remember decades from now. When... a lot of people won't which is what is so tragic. A lot of people don't even know it's happening right now.

Because, again, it's not being reported. And when it is being reported it's not being reported honestly.

I'm not saying this well but it just feels like such a gross reaction to things we're seeing in real time.

Why does it have to matter later to matter now? Why is the hypothetical reaction of a history book reader the thing you think about?

A lot of people won't live to read those "history books" because people, right now, aren't doing anything to help them.